596 
Transactions of the Society. 
XII. 
On the Development of the Continental Form of Microscope Stand. 
By J. B. Nias, M.D. 
{Read 21 st June , 1893 .) 
In spite of unfavourable criticism from many quarters, the Conti- 
nental pattern of stand is coming into general use in this country, as 
the proportion of professional workers with the Microscope increases ; 
and it is worth while to inquire into the grounds of such a preference, 
because there must exist a good reason for it ; and moreover, in pro- 
portion as we recede from the date of an invention, details about its 
origin come to possess a historic interest, and are worth putting on 
record. 
I find that this particular chapter in the history of the Microscope 
has been very briefly treated by every writer, and yet there should be 
many better able than myself to add to our knowledge on the subject, 
and only in their absence do I venture on the task. Even if I should 
not entirely succeed in it, I may render the service of directing atten- 
tion to sources of information out of the ordinary path. 
The first point of interest to note about the Continental stand is 
that it has maintained its form without substantial alteration for 
nearly fifty years — a proof, in general, that a design has been at the 
outset the creation of a practical man ; and yet this stand presents 
several features which are open to criticism, and are in fact un- 
favourably criticized if taken as representing an optician’s idea of 
what is suitable for a Microscope; so that it became necessary to 
investigate the reasons for the steady preference shown for this stand 
on the Continent, in spite of such defects; and it soon appeared 
to me that they could only be explained as limitations introduced into 
the design at the bidding of some particular worker, such restrictions 
being submitted to by the optician, so that the stand may be regarded 
as one in which certain features desirable from the purely optical 
point of view have been deliberately suppressed in order that other 
advantages may be gained. And as the partisans of this stand are 
chiefly found among the ranks of anatomists, it seemed reasonable to 
look for the original designer among them also, the result being that 
I have arrived at conclusions that appear novel and interesting, and 
worth communicating to others. 
The Parisian optician Oberhaeuser is generally named as the 
inventor of this stand, but, as I have said, it is not easy to understand 
how an optician by himself could have arrived at a model so defective 
from the optician’s point of view, and differing so widely from the 
other types of Microscope in use at the time. Let us, however, 
suppose him to have worked under directions, and the matter becomes 
easy of explanation. Accordingly, upon investigation I meet with 
