2l6 PHOTOGRAPHING WITH THE MICROSCOPE [Ch. VII 



Dr. A. C. Mercer, in an article in the Proc. Amer. Micr. Soc, 1886, p. 131, 

 says that Mr. George Shadbolt made this distinction. See the Liverpool and 

 Manchester Photographic Journal (now British Journal of Photography), Aug. 

 IS, 1858, p. 203; also Sutton's Photographic Notes, Vol. Ill, 1858, pp. 205-208. 

 On p. 208 of the last, Shadbolt's word " Photo-micrography " appears. Dr. 

 Mercer puts the case very neatly as follows: " A Photo-Micrograph is a 

 macroscopic photograph of a microscopic object; a micro-photograph is a 

 microscopic photograph of a macroscopic object." See also Medical News, Jan. 

 27, 1894, p. 108. 



In a most interesting paper by A. C. Mercer on " The Indebtedness of 

 Photography to Microscopy," Photographic Times Almanac, 1887, it is shown 

 that: " To briefly recapitulate, photography is apparently somewhat indebted 

 to microscopy for the first fleeting pictures of Wedgewood and Davy [1802], 

 the first methods of producing permanent paper prints [^Reede, 1837-1839], 

 the first offering of prints for sale, the first plates engraved after photographs 

 for the purpose of book illustration [Donne & Foucault, 1845], the photo- 

 graphic use of collodion [Archer & Diamond, 1851], and finally, wholly in- 

 debted for the origin of the gelatino-bromide process, greatest achievement 

 of them all [Dr. R. L. Maddox, 1871]. See further for the history of Photo- 

 micrography, Neuhauss, also Bousfield. 



§ 339. As the difficulties of photo-micrography are so much greater 

 than of ordinary photography, the advice is ahnost universal that no 

 one should try to learn photography and photo-micrography at the 

 same time, but that one should learn the processes of photography 

 by making portraits, landscapes, copying drawings, etc., and then when 

 the principles are learned one can take up the more difficult subject 

 of photo-micrography with some hope of success. 



The advice of Sternberg is so pertinent and judicious that it is 

 reproduced: "Those who have had no experience in making photo- 

 micrographs are apt to expect too much and to underestimate the 

 technical difficulties. Objects which under the microscope give a 

 beautiful picture which we desire to reproduce by photography may 

 be entirely unsuited for the purpose. In photographing with high 

 powers it is necessary that the objects to be photographed be in a 

 single plane and not crowded together and overlying each other. 

 For this reason photographing bacteria in sections presents special 

 difficulties and satisfactory results can only be obtained when the 

 sections are extremely thin and the bacteria well stained. Even 

 with the best preparations of this kind much care must be taken in 

 selecting a field for photography. It must be remembered that the 

 expert microscopist, in examining a section with high powers, has 

 his finger on the fine adjustment screw and focuses up and down to 



