apsil — sept. 1859.] of Microscopic objects. 



11 



ley of Fleet Street " On the practical application of Photography 

 to the illustration of works in Microscopy, Natural History, Ana- 

 tomy, &c, &c." Both these papers were published in the Journal 

 of Microscopical Science for 1853, accompanied by proofs, from 

 Collodion Negatives, of the Tracheae of the Silk -worm, and a por- 

 tion of the Proboscis of a Fly : being, I believe, the first Micro- 

 Photographs ever published. 



These gentlemen had all restricted themselves to the use of the 

 object glass only, which was applied to use, in various ways, with 

 an ordinary Photographic Camera. Why they discarded the eye- 

 piece I cannot say, as they are silent on that point. 



In November 1854, Mr. F. H. Wenham, a gentleman, who, as 

 an amateur optician, has done much for the improvement of the 

 Microscope, read a paper to the Society " On the production of 

 Photographs of Microscopic objects." This gentleman turned the 

 instrument into a solar Microscope, and took his pictures in a 

 dark room, which was in fact his Camera. The prepared paper 

 was placed upon a frame that could be fixed at any convenient 

 distance from the Microscope, which frame also held the paper, or 

 card-board, upon which the object was focused. lie also dispens- 

 ed with the eye-piece. 



As early as the year 1850, I had expressed (to personal friends) 

 my conviction of the practicability of delineating Microscopic 

 objects by Photography, but it was not until some time in the year 

 1853, that I, (without knowing that anything of the kind had been 

 attempted elsewhere,) began to apply our delightful art to that 

 purpose. My apparatus was very rude, the Camera having been 

 made for me by a friend whose skill in carpentry was by no means 

 equal to his desire to assist me. With this, however, and a small 

 French Microscope, and with but little knowledge of Photography, 

 I took, by the Calotype process, some negatives, which Captain 

 Tripe considered so promising that he asked me to let him send 

 them to a friend in England who took much interest in such mat- 

 ters. I at that time used both object glass and eye-piece, and on 

 resuming the practice of this branch of Photography in the early 

 part of this year, I adhered to my original plan of using the whole 

 of the Microscope, and not the object glass only, as appears, from 



