14 INVENTION OF THE MICROSCOPE. 



but no trace of it appears in the history of many 

 ages. 



Claims to its actual invention have been preferred 

 in behalf of more than one individual. In a work 

 published in 1665, the writer assigns the credit of 

 it to Jansen, the reputed contriver of the telescope. 

 Among the testimonies he adduces, is a letter from 

 William Boreel, envoy from the States of Holland, 

 who had frequently been in the shop of Jansen. 

 He had often heard that the microscope was invented 

 by that person, or by him in connexion with some 

 members of his family ; and being in England in 

 1619, he saw in the hands of his friend Cornelius 

 Drebell, an instrument six feet in length, consisting 

 of a tube of gilt copper, supported by thin brass 

 pillars in the shape of dolphins, on a base of ebony, 

 and adapted to hold any objects to be examined ; 

 which Jansen had presented to prince Maurice, and 

 Albert archduke of Austria. No account, however, 

 is given of the internal structure of this microscope. 



Fontana, a Neapolitan, formed a microscope in 

 1618, of two double convex lenses that is, each one 

 having two spherical surfaces, as represented in the 

 annexed diagram, L L and wrote an account of it in 

 a work which appeared some years afterwards. It 

 seems, therefore, that a microscope of some kind 

 was invented by Jansen, and that the honour of 

 this one in particular is due to Fontana. 

 The structure of a lens, (a name derived from the 

 Latin for a small bean,) must immediately have led 



