MODERN INVENTIONS AND THEIR RESULTS. 13 



he is said to have exhibited, by the use of a 



particular glass, such extraordinary appearances 



at Oxford, as to have gained the reputation of 



dealing with the powers of darkness. By others, 



again, the claims of natives of Italy, Holland, 



and Germany, have been respectively advanced ; 



and, perhaps, all of them may now be justly 



allowed to share the honour. In the year 1621, 



a Compound Microscope was certainly used in 



England. It was a very different instrument, 



however, both as to appearance and power, 



from the present Compound Microscope ; for 



the instrument then bearing that name is said 



to have been about six feet long, and only an 



inch in diameter ; its tube was of gilt copper, 



resting on brass and ebony, and adorned with 



figures of ebony. It was, in fact, much more 



like the Telescope, than the Microscope of the 



present day. About the end of the seventeenth 



century, this instrument was constructed after 



a form scarcely less remarkable; one having 



been made at Home nearly a foot and a half 



long, as thick as a man's thigh, and having an 



eye-glass as large as the palm of a man's hand. 



Many and great changes, with corresponding 



