ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY. ETO. 575 



D. Cremonino purpurato philosopho varia narrante scitu dignissima et 

 inter ceetera quomodo ille minimorum animantium organa motus, et 

 seusus ex perspicillo ad vnguera distinguat ; in particular! autem de 

 quodam iusecto quod utrumque babet oculum membrana crassiuscula 

 vestitura, quae tamen septe foraminibus ad instar larvas ferreee militis 

 catapbracti terebrata, viam prjebet speciebus visibilium. En tibi (so 

 says Wodderborn to Horky) nouum argumentum, quod perspicillum 

 per concentrationem radiorum multiplicet obiectu ; sed audi prius quid 

 tibi dicturus sum : in ceeteris animalibus eiusdem magnitudinis, vel 

 minoris, quorum etiam aliqua splendidiores babent oculos, gemini tantum 

 apparent cum suis superciliis aliisque partilus annexis.' 



" I bave wisbed to quote tbis passage of Wodderborn textually, so 

 that the honour of having been the first to obtain from the Dutch tele- 

 scope a compound Microscope should remain with Galileo, which ho 

 later called ' OccJiialino,' and that the glory of having reduced the 

 Kepplerian telescope to a Microscope (in 1621) should rest with Drebbel. 

 The apologists of the Tuscan philosopher, by attributing to him the 

 invention of the Microscope without specifying with what Microscope 

 they were dealing, defrauded Drebbel of a merit which really belongs 

 to him, but the defenders of Drebbel would act unjustly in depriving 

 Galileo of a discovery which incontestably was his." 



I turn now to Wodderborn's account, published in 1610 (the date of 

 the dedication to Henry Wotton, English Ambassador at Venice, is 

 October 16tb, 1610), which reads thus: — 



" I will not now attempt to explain all the perfections of this won- 

 derful occhiale, our sense alone is a safe judge of the things which 

 concern it. But what more can I say of it, than that by pointing a 

 glass to an object more than a thousand paces off, which does not even 

 seem alive, you immediately recognize it to be Socrates, son of 

 Sophronicus, who is approaching ! But time and the daily discoveries 

 of new things will teach us how admirably the glass does its work, for 

 in that alone lies all the beauty of that instrument. 



" I heard a few days back the author himself (Galileo) narrate to 

 the Most Excellent Signor Cremonius various things most desirable to 

 be known, and amongst others, in what manner he perfectly distinguishes 

 with his telescope the organs of motion and of the senses in the smaller 

 animals ; and especially in a certain insect which has each eye covered 

 by a rather thick membrane, which, however, perforated with seven 

 holes, like the visor of a warrior, allows it sight. Here hast thou a 

 new proof that the glass concentrating its rays enlarges the object ; but 

 mind what I am about to tell thee, viz. in the other animals of the same 

 size and even smaller, some of which bave nevertheless brighter eyes, 

 these appear only double with their eyebrows and the other adjacent 

 parts." 



These last words of Wodderborn's were directed to confute the 

 accusation of those who attributed to a fault in the telescope all that 

 was unknown to them before, and that was being discovered by the use 

 of it ; being unwilling to admit the mountainous surface of the moon, 

 the satellites of Jupiter, and the new stars of the Milky Way, or any 

 other new discovery made by Galileo; because, said these people, the 

 ancients, and especially Aristotle, make no mention of them. (4) 



After reading this document it is impossible to refuse Galileo the 

 credit of the invention of a compound Microscope in 1610, and the 



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