ON CONSTRUCTING STANDS OF MICROSCOPES. 16/ 



The term compound microscope will then be applied 

 appositely to all those instruments with which we view 

 real objects instead of images of them, constructed by com- 

 bining two or more lenses together ; for the optical part of 

 what is commonly called a single microscope may be made of 

 as many as four glasses, whereas the optical part of a com- 

 pound (as it is usually termed) does not necessarily consist 

 of more than two, viz. an object and ocular glass. Thus 

 if we retain the old terms, how are we to define accu- 

 rately a magnifier composed of two double aplanatics ? 

 Are we to christen it a single quadruple, or double 

 doublet ? or a simple compound ? This will be as ludi- 

 crous as Mr. Callaghan O'Brallaghan's definition of the 

 first bit of bread he ate in England, which it seems was 

 a roasted potato, cooked in a brass saucepan. 



It is presumed, therefore, with due deference to the 

 opinions of better men, that the term engiscope is lawful 

 and orthodox, and will, probably, be adopted by posterity, 

 if not by the present generation : as to the fuss which 

 has been made about my using an i instead of a y, in the 

 conversion of the Greek upsilon (both letters having 

 the same sound, and having been used indifferently by 

 ancient English writers), I beg to state that I did so on 

 purpose, to make a tub to amuse the whale with, and to 

 draw the attention of the learned to the term. 



C. R. G. 



