PROCEEDINGS 



OF THK 



CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Fourth Series 



Vol. IX, No. 5, pp. 175-196, pi. 10 July 12, 1919 



CONTRIBUTION TO THE OPTICS OF THE 

 MICROSCOPE 



BY 

 C. W. WOODWORTH 



Introduction 



A subject which has received as much attention as the 

 optics of the microscope is not liable to offer much that is 

 new except to the delver into the intricacies of its details. 



That which follows is not concerned with matters of detail, 

 but instead, is based on a re-examination of some of the 

 fundamental facts from a somewhat different angle than those 

 by which they have usually been approached. This has 

 resulted in the finding of some relationships which appear to 

 have been overlooked and in the perception of the practical 

 importance of some well known relationships in the calculation 

 of lens aberrations. 



As a result of these studies a very great simplification of the 

 methods of lens calculation has been evolved, which should 

 prove useful in the design of optical instruments and in the 

 further study of the theory of aberrations by relieving the 

 investigators of these subjects of much of the tedium of the 

 elaborate computations heretofore necessary. 



July 12. 1919 





