194 The Microscope^ 



the telescope. The solar microscope is a kind of a camera obscu- 

 ra, which, in a darkened chamber, throws the image on a wall or 

 screen. It consists of two lenses fixed opposite a hole in a board 

 or window-shutter. There is also a plain reflector placed with- 

 out, moved by a wheel and pinion, which may be so regulated as 

 to throw the sun's rays upon the outer lens. The lucernal micrO' 

 scope J invented by Mr. Adams, is also a kind of camera obscura; 

 only the light, in this latter case, proceeds from a lamp instead of 

 from the sun, which renders it convenient to be used at all times. 

 Nature shows her ^'onders in the minutest as well as in the 

 largest objects. It is our senses which are not sufficiently acute 

 to perceive the organization of very small bodies, which often es- 

 cape our observation unless we have recourse to foreign assist- 

 ance. The microscope has opened to us a new worfd of insects 

 and vegetables; it has taught us that objects, invisible to the na- 

 ked eye, exist, having figure, extension, and different parts. Eve- 

 ry grain of sand when examined by the eye appears round, but 

 with the help of a glass, we observe each grain differs from the 

 other, both in size and in figure; some of them are perfectly round, 

 others square, some conical, and the major part of an irregular 

 form. What is still more astonishing, by microscopes which mag- 

 nify objects millions of times their natural size, we can discover, 

 in the grains of sand, a new animal world; for within their cavi- 

 ties, dwell various insects. One of the most wonderful displays 

 in nature is a drop of putrid water, exhibited in a powerful valve 

 microscope, by means of which it covers a space of nine feet in 

 diameter. It is full of living creatures of the strangest shapes, and 

 as their motions are magnified, the rapidity with which they ap- 

 pear to move is perfectly astonishing. In the vegetable kingdom 

 we are presented with a thick forest of trees and plants, bearing 

 leaves, branches, flowers, and fruits; the rudiments of all which 

 beautiful objects, were once hidden beneath the mould. Little as 

 we should expect to find these in such a bed, as little should we 

 have supposed the dust upon the wings of a butterfly to be minute 

 feathers, or the bloom of a peach to be a collection of insects, had 

 not the microscope furnished us with this inteUigence. 



' How sweet to muse upon His skill display'd, 



Infinite skill! in all that he has made; 



To trace in Nature's most minute design 

 - The signature and stamp of Power Divine; 

 ' Contrivance exquisite express'd with ease. 



Where unassisted sight no beauty sees; 



The shapely limb, and lubricated joint 

 ' Within the small dimensions of a point; 



