REVIEWS. 
29 
cognizant; the jurist has invoked its aid to solve mysteries which other¬ 
wise would baffle his utmost skill; and in the manufacturer’s laboratory its 
sway has been scarcely less potent. 
Since the commencement of the present century its value has been, 
however, more distinctly recognised; and, in consequence, the improve¬ 
ments which have taken place in it have been more numerous. The 
withering ban of the immortal Linneus, and its failure to realize the 
visionary dreams of its early votaries, long obscured its claims to the affec¬ 
tions of the naturalist. These malign influences were slowly but steadily 
removed, and it was, at length, after many a severe struggle, elevated from 
the chilling atmosphere of the toy-shop to be the handmaid of science. 
Its history, which is curious, has been ably wrought out through some 
nineteen centuries by Mr. Quekett. We do not mean to say, that the 
ancient Romans, though highly intellectual, had, among their artificers, any 
“ Microscope-maker by appointment to the Emperor,” nor any patron of 
science with similar tastes to the late Mr. Goring, Mr. Solly, or others we 
could name; but Mr. Quekett rightly conceives that the history of its 
development—its germ, if we may so speak—should be traced from the 
period when its scientific principles were first recognised; the earliest 
trace of it which now, perhaps, can be found occurs in the writings of 
Seneca, who was bom during the first year of the Christian era, and died 
A.D. 65. He writes “ that small and indistinct objects become larger and 
more indistinct in form when seen through a globe of glass filled with 
water.”* From this period until the close of the sixteenth century, the 
notices of the optical principles upon which the microscope is based are 
few and scanty. At that period, however, at Middleburgh, in Holland, 
lived two spectacle-makers, father and son, named Jansen, or Zansz, who 
appear, among a host of rivals, to have made the first microscopes, and rude, 
unwieldy instruments they were; a copper, gilt tube, about six feet in 
length, and supported on brass pillars on an ebony base; at least such was 
the appearance of one presented, in 1617, to King James the First, by 
Cornelius Drebbel, who pirated the invention of the ingenious Hollander. 
We regret that our space is not sufficiently ample to trace even the more 
marked epochs of its chequered history. We must turn to the wants of 
the working naturalist, and refer those who feel an interest in the cu¬ 
riosities of science to the pages of Mr. Quekett, where they will find ample 
opportunity of gratifying their tastes. 
In making the following general observations, we wish to be understood 
* “ Liter® quamvis minut® et obscur®, per vitream pilam aqua plenam majores clari- 
oresque cernunter.”— Nat. Qucest., lib. i., cap. 7. 
