THE MICROSCOPE. 3 



on Microscopes, page 2, "which they presented to Prince 

 Maurice, was in the year 1617 in the possession of Cornelius 

 Drebbel of Alkmaar, who then resided in London as mathe- 

 matician to King James I., in which place he made micro- 

 scopes, and passed them oif as being of his own invention." 

 These instruments were said to be six feet in length, and 

 consisted of a tube of gilt copper, one inch in diameter, sup- 

 ported by thin brass pillars, in the shape of dolphins, on a 

 base of ebony, which was adapted to hold the object to be 

 examined ; nothing, however, is known of their internal con- 

 struction, they were, probably, nothing more than telescopes 

 converted into compound microscopes, and there is little 

 doubt that they were similar to the one which ^pinus has 

 described in a letter addressed to the Academy of Sciences 

 of St. Petersburg. We are also told by Viviani, an Italian 

 mathematician, in his Life of Galileo, " that this great man 

 was led to the discovery of the microscope from that of the 

 telescope, and that, in 1612, he sent one to Sigismund, King 

 of Poland;" he adds, "that this philosopher worked twenty 

 years at his apparatus in order to perfect it." But, notwith- 

 standing all the above conflicting statements, the credit of 

 the invention of the compound microscope is given (in this 

 country at least) to Zacharias Jansen, in 1590. 



Leaving then the region of uncertainty, let us now direct 

 our attention to matters of a more tangible nature. With 

 the foundation of the Koyal Society, in 1660, may be said to 

 have commenced a new sera in optical science, for not only do 

 we now find new microscopes described, but the early volumes 

 of the Trajisactions literally teem with improvements in the 

 construction of these instruments, and with discoveries made 

 through their mediima. One of the first contributors appears 

 to have been the celebrated Kobert Hooke, who, as early as 

 the year 1667, published a work " on some physiological de- 

 scriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses," 

 entitled Micrographia, which may be fairly styled one of the 

 wonders of the day; it is illustrated with 38 plates, and was 

 ordered for publication November 23rd, 1664, but did not 

 appear until three years afterwards. 

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