rr a . ae oI 
THE MICROSCOPE. 
The Microscope. 
The Handmaid of Research. 
By EWEN MACKINNON, B.A., B.Sc. 
To the lay mind, unacquainted with the microscope and its revela- 
tions, the beautiful objects seen through it are ever a source of wonder 
and delight. 
If shown a slide consisting of a thin transparent slice of rock, or 
a group of some 40 or 50 diatoms symmetrically arranged, or a section 
of a leaf or stem stained in two colours, say, purple and pink, or a 
slide containing many hundreds of tiny bacteria, also stained, they soon 
grow very much interested, and begin to ply:-many questions, such as, 
“ Tow are these tiny things put on the slide?” and “ How do you colour 
them?” I well remember a popular lecturer on Nature Study keeping 
a set of slides which he called his “Oh my!” set. They were sections of 
various parts of plants, such as the stem, root, leaf, flower, seed, &c., 
brilliantly stained in two colours, and showing designs like lovely lace, 
or Woyleys, or stencil work; and when seen for the first time usually 
called forth the above exclamation. Hence the name of his set. If 
their curiosity is further whetted with a slide showing the hairy leg of 
a fly, spider, or tick, with the various terminal arrangements, either 
pads or hooks; then with one of the wonderful breathing apparatus of 
insects, especially well developed in the tongue of a blowfly; followed 
by a slide of the human flea and the dog flea (both plague carriers) 
each of which has a pair of eyes; then a blind flea which has a dense 
collar on the back of its neck like a lady’s curved hair comb; they are 
usually ready to listen to some explanation of their many questions, 
viz., “ How was the microscope found out?” “What are the various 
parts?” “What is their use?” and finally end up with, “ What next 
will be discovered with it?’ I will, therefore, endeavour to give an 
answer to these questions, and show at a future time what claims the 
microscope has to the title “ Handmaid of Research.” 
To answer the questions of, What is the microscope, and what are its 
various parts and their special uses? I shall take you away from the 
present wonderful achievement of the most up-to-date instrument and 
go back hundreds of years to the middle ages. 
You probably know the story of the discovery of glass. From this 
early glass the first spectacles were made in 1285 by a Florentine 
named Amati, who kept the secret for profit, and it was only brought 
to light after his death. Roger Bacon, in his work Opus Majus, 
states that Clement IV. could show him many marvellous things, and 
amongst others the crystal lens. However, other spectacle makers 
flourished in the succeeding three or four centuries, and greatly improved 
their wares. These spectacles were used to assist ordinary sight, and 
were bi-convex glass lenses. It was this type of lens that was known 
in ancient times as the microscope. We now call it a simple lens or 
hand lens, a magnifying glass—well exemplified in a reading glass, a 
pocket magnifier, and many lens in eyeglasses and spectacles. Following 
on the invention of the simple microscope came the discovery of the 
telescope by that great man Galileo, who not only made his own tele- 
scope, but made many fine observations with it. 
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