MICEOSCOPIC DISCOVERY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



_ 



THE invention of the microscope is justly con- 

 sidered one of the most important achieve- 

 ments of human science and art, claiming at 

 least equal eminence with the discovery of the 

 telescope. The latter instrument brings us 

 into comparative intimacy with other worlds, 

 or what we infer to be such from the analogies 

 discoverable between them and our terrestrial 

 globe ; the former instrument carries us to the 

 opposite bounds of creation, and reveals the 

 atomic miracles with which we are immedi- 

 ately surrounded. The results of astronomical 

 research usually strike us with more awe than 

 those of microscopical inquiry ; yet perhaps we 

 regard the latter with deepest interest, and for 

 this reason , the telescope communicates a 

 lew particulars concerning things on which we 

 can bring but few analogies to bear, and con- 

 sequently imparts a vague and indefinite know- 

 ledge to the mind ; the microscope, on the con- 

 trary, refers us to objects wonderfully minute, 

 yet usually so analogous to larger existences, 

 that the information derived concerning them 

 is satisfactory and complete. 



To estimate duly the value of the micro- 

 scope, as a means of enlarging the boundaries 

 of human knowledge, we must refer to the 

 utter ignorance concerning some things, and 

 the gross misconceptions regarding others, that 

 prevailed prior to its introduction. Before the 

 invention of this instrument, the mite was con- 

 sidered the least of animal beings, and the ex- 

 istence of living atoms, with which compared, 

 the mite may rank as an elephant, had never 

 been conjectured. The wondrous beauty and 

 contrivance in the formations and appendages 

 of the insect tribes had never been beheld. 



The miracles of creative power, folded up in 

 every plant and blossom, had not been fully 

 displayed. Vague and indefinite opiniona 

 were held regarding the vital fluid in ani- 

 mals ; and the manner of its circulation through 

 the body was very imperfectly understood. 

 The strange fallacy of equivocal generation 

 was universally maintained, and fetid corrup- 

 tion was deemed the parent of animal and ve- 

 getable life. It would occupy much space to 

 name all the instances of ignorance and mis- 

 conception that characterized the times in 

 which the microscope was unknown : let those 

 to which we have alluded suffice to show how 

 limited was the sphere of human knowledge 

 concerning many things that daily metthe eye, 

 and how totally unconscious were the philoso- 

 phers of those ages of the wonderful creations 

 that science and art were preparing to unveil. 

 " Who," says Baker, " would have imagined 

 it possible to distinguish myriads of living 

 creatures in a single drop of water ! Or, that 

 the purple tide of life, and even the globules 

 of the blood, should be seen distinctly rolling 

 through veins and arteries smaller than the 

 finest hair? That millions of millions of ani- 

 malcules should be discovered in the semen 

 masculinum of all creatures? That not only 

 the exterior form, but even the internal struc- 

 ture of the bowels, and (he motion of the fluids 

 in a gnat or louse should be rendered objects 

 of sight? Or, that numberless species of 

 creatures should be made visible, though so 

 minute, that a million of them are less than a 

 grain of sand? These," he continues, "are 

 noble discoveries, whereon a new philosophy 

 has been raised, that enlarges the capacity of 

 the human soul, and furnishes a more just and 

 sublime idea than mankind had before, of the 

 grandeur and magnificence of nature, and the 



