Development of the Continental Stand. By Dr. J. B. Nias. 599 
fessional worker. The breadth of the hand regulates the height of 
the stage and its breadth ; and the remainder of the space between 
the eyes and the table is all that is available for the length of the 
tube. Whatever opticians may say, those who have to economize 
labour will be found generally to prefer such a type of instrument ; 
and the question arises whether it is more probable that such a design 
should have originated in the mind of an optician, or in that of a user 
of the Microscope. I incline to the latter opinion, and may interpose 
the query whether any other reason can be given for fixing the tube- 
length for which Continental objectives are corrected at 150 mm. 
or thereabouts.* 
In fig. 89 the first of the two instruments described by Strauss- 
Durckheim is represented in outline. It is merely a dissecting 
Microscope of common type with the important addition that the 
stage, which is carried by a movable bracket, is made 
to rotate, and is provided at its edge with several 
sockets, of which three are shown, for what we now 
term stage forceps, by which the various parts of the 
object under dissection are drawn asunder and fixed, 
while by rotation of the stage the preparation is 
turned into convenient positions for dissection. 1 do 
not find the right of Strauss-Durckheim to be regarded 
as the inventor of this rotating type of stage anywhere 
disputed, and in the letter to Chevalier quote! the writer 
makes the explicit statement that the first Microscope of the kind was 
constructed for him by the optician Cauchoix before 1824, four years 
before the publication of his work on the Coleoptera.t 
In fig. 90, the compound Microscope is represented, and as being 
much more novel in form, it deserves a detailed examination. The 
foot is round and weighted with lead, and carries a cylinder or drum 
of brass with an aperture at one side for the admission of light to the 
mirror, which, swung between pivots of which the ends project through 
the sides of the drum, is focused vertically by a rack and pinion of 
which the milled head is seen behind. At the top of the drum is a 
slit which gives passage to the edge of a circular diaphragm, and the 
stage, like that of the simple Microscope, is round and fitted in the 
* The following are the authorities for the foregoing statements : — (a) H. Strauss- 
Durckheim, ‘Traite d’anatomie comparative,’ Paris, 1842, pp. iii. and 74-90. ( b ) A. 
Chevalier, ‘ Vie de Charles Chevalier,’ Paris, 1862, pp. 120 et seq. (c) ‘ Comptes rendus 
de l’Academie des Sciences,’ xx. pp. 574, 892. (d) Dujardin, art. Microscope in 
‘ Dictionnaire de l’industrie manufacturiere par A. Baudrimont,’ Paris, 1838. 
(e) Charles Chevalier, ‘ Notes rectificatives pour servir a l’histoire des Microscopes,’ 
Paris, 1835, pp. 10, 19, for a sight of which rare pamphlet I am indebted to the 
courtesy of Mr. Frank Crisp, F.R.M.S. (/) Patents to be seen in our Patent Office 
Library, Trecuurt and Oberhaeuser, French Patents, series i. vol. xlviii., No. 5469, 
Aug. 17, 1837 ; G. Oberhaeuser, series ii. vol. xvii. p. 81, July 16, 1849. 
t See a statement to this effect in Ch. Robin’s ‘ Traite du Microscope,’ where the 
rotating stage is expressly attributed to Strauss-Durckheim. 2nd ed., Paris, 1877,. 
p. 54. 
Fig. 89. 
