Development of the Continental Stand. By Dr. J. B. Nias. 601 
In fig. 92 is represented the stand as patented by Trecourt and 
Oberbaeuser, after a cut in Dujardin’s article (loc. cit.) and the drawings 
of the patent ; specimens of the manufacture, however, which I have 
seen correspond more closely to the design of fig. 90. Certain features 
which suggest themselves more particularly to the anatomist as indis- 
pensable, have been suppressed, such as the outer 
tube for swinging the body to one side, and the 
numerous sockets for stage forceps ; and the 
rotating diaphragm has been replaced by a tube 
moving vertically through the opening in the 
stage, hv the aid of a lever at the side, so as to 
take from above the achromatic condenser of 
Dujardin patented at the same time, or a set of 
cylindrical diaphragms, a feature to which Strauss- 
Durckheim expressly objected as necessitating 
the disturbance of the preparation on the stage. 
A rack-and-pinion coarse-adjustment has been 
added, and the milled head of the fine-adjustment 
removed to the top of the pillar. 
This instrument came into great favour, much i ^ 
aided by its cheapness, and the goodness of the 
objectives ; and was exhibited at the sitting of the Academie des 
Sciences on February 13, 1837.* 
On the occasion of Nachet exhibiting to the Academie des Sciences 
an apparatus for oblique illumination by means of a prism on June 
14, 1847, ten years later, Oberhaeuser, now in business by himself, 
announces to that body that he has modified his stand so as to admit 
of the use of the mirror for that purpose, the idea having been sug- 
gested to him from England by a Mr. Abraham, of Liverpool, and a 
patent was taken out for this improvement also, though not till two 
years later.t Fig. 93 represents this second stand, which has now 
arrived at its modern form. The sides of the drum have been cut 
away so as to leave a flat pillar, and the round foot has been modified, 
to correspond, into a horseshoe form. The mirror, borne by a swinging 
arm, is adjustable vertically by means of a clamping screw. The 
stage rotates, as before, with the body, but is now made square, and 
the diaphragms and condenser are carried by a sliding substage. A 
hinge for inclining is the only subsequent addition to this model ; 
and the smaller stands with which we are more familiar in this country 
in the hands of students, are derived from, and posterior to the 
invention of this larger one, which continues to be made by every 
Continental optician at a price of 10 1. or 1 51. 
In fig. 94 I have added, for contrast, the type of Microscope current 
* Comptus Rendus, iv. p. 250. 
f French Patents (in our Patent Office Library), series ii., vol. xvii. p. 81, dated 
July 16, 1849, for a term of 15 years. See Comptes Rendus, xxiv. p. 1052. 
