Essays on the Microscope Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.

Part 56

Chapter 563,191 wordsPublic domain

The following is a new, useful, and ready method of making globules for microscopes, differing from the customary one described in page 8, and is extracted from Mr. W. Nicholson’s scientifical Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts. No. 3, June 1, 1797. p. 134.

“The usual method has been to draw out a fine thread of the soft white glass called crystal, and to convert the extremity of this into a spherule by melting it at the flame of a candle. But this glass contains lead, which is disposed to become opake by partial reduction, unless the management be very carefully attended to. I find that the hard glass used for windows seldom fails to afford excellent spherules. This glass is of a clear bright green colour when seen edgeways. A thin piece was cut from the edge of a pane of glass less than one-tenth of an inch broad. This was held perpendicularly by the upper end, and the flame of a candle was directed upon it by the blow-pipe at the distance of about an inch from the lower end. The glass became soft, and the lower piece descended by its own weight to the distance of about two feet, where it remained suspended by a thin thread of glass about one five-hundredth of an inch in diameter. A part of this thread was applied endways to the lower blue part of the flame of the candle without the use of the blow-pipe. The extremity immediately became white-hot, and formed a globule. The glass was then gradually and regularly thrust towards the flame, but never into it, until the globule was sufficiently large. A number of these were made, and being afterwards examined by viewing their focal images with a deeper magnifier, proved very bright, perfect, and round.”

* * * * *

The opake solar microscope has been made by the late Mr. Martin of larger dimensions than described in page 106. The illuminating lens, at A B, Plate V. Fig. 1, and the breadth of the mirror were about four inches and an half, instead of three inches, which gives more than double the light of the former; and, consequently, all the larger sort of opake and transparent objects, to the size of one and an half or two inches in diameter, as well as diverting objects painted on glass, like the magic lanthorn sliders, are shewn with the greatest distinctness, and has by Mr. Martin been called the MEGALASCOPE of the apparatus.

The same ingenious and learned artist applied a lattice of small squares about one-tenth of an inch, each square made of fine wire, or lines drawn strongly on glass in a circle of one inch in diameter, and placed these in the compound body of a microscope or telescope, in the focus of the glasses next to the eye. And having a copper-plate lattice of squares disposed into a circle, and to any size as may be wanted, the observer or artist may then with great facility make an exact drawing on the paper of the object observed. The same contrivance is applicable to the solar microscope. This he called the GRAPHICAL MICROSCOPE OR PERSPECTIVE.

Page 127, line 24--Any pocket telescope, the drawers of which are made to allow of a further extension than usual, may be used as a compound microscope for examining birds or insects alive, in a garden on the flowers, shrubberies, &c. from a window near to the objects. There are few pocket achromatic telescopes or perspectives, but what will define and magnify objects from about six feet to any distance from the instrument. The magnifying power is inversely as the distance of the object from the telescope, and, consequently variable in an infinite degree; on which account Mr. Martin named it the POLYDYNAMIC MICROSCOPE.

LIST OF THE PRICES

AT WHICH THE MICROSCOPES AND APPARATUS ARE MADE AND SOLD BY MESSRS. JONES, HOLBORN, LONDON.

Plate VIII. Fig. 8. A triple magnifier, tortoise-shell and silver 1 1 0

---- 7. A ditto to combine, in tortoise-shell 0 8 0

VI. 14. A small pocket microscope for insects or flowers 0 7 6

---- 1. Dr. Withering’s pocket botanical microscope 0 15 0

---- 2. Jones’s universal pocket microscope, according to the apparatus, from 1l. 6s. to 2 10 0

II. B. 1 and 2. Wilson’s screw-barrel, or single microscope, 2l. 12s. 6d. to 3 13 6

---- 3 and 4. ---- opake microscope, 2 2 0

VII. B. 3. Ellis’s aquatic microscope 2 12 6

VI. 3. Lyonet’s anatomical microscope 2 12 6

VII. A. 1, &c. Cuffs double constructed microscope and apparatus, in a case 5 15 6

IV. 3. Culpeper’s compound microscope and apparatus, in a mahogany case 4 14 6

---- 1. Jones’s improved universal ditto, and apparatus 6 6 0

---- 2. ---- best and most improved ditto, with a greater variety of apparatus, packed in a mahogany case 10 10 0

Ditto, with the additions of a set of micrometers and vegetable cuttings 12 12 0

VI. 4, 5, &c. Transparent solar microscope and apparatus in brass, in a mahogany case 5 15 6

V. 1, &c. Opake and transparent solar microscope and apparatus, with objects, &c. in ditto case 10 10 0

Ditto with additional apparatus for large objects, called a megalascope, &c. 12l. 12s. to 16 16 0

III. 1, &c. Lucernal microscope, as mounted by Adams, with apparatus, complete 20 0 0

IX. 3 and 4. Jones’s improved ditto, with or without rack-work to the stage, and other additions, from 12l. 12s. to 18 18 0

---- 6. Lanthorn microscope 6 6 0

VIII. 3. Pocket achromatic 20-inch telescope and microscope 3 13 6

IX. 1 and 2. Cutting engine for slices of vegetable objects 3 3 0

II. A. 10. Micrometers on pearl or glass, in sets, from 10s. 6d. to 2 2 0

Ivory sliders prepared for transparent objects, per dozen 0 12 0

Custance’s fine vegetable cuttings in large ivory sliders, from a set of six sliders to four dozen, per dozen 1 10 0

Bottles of salts for configurations, packed in mahogany portable cases, according to the number, from 2l. 2s. to 5 5 0

Magazines of microscopical apparatus, with collections of objects, fitted up to any extent and to order.

INDEX.

A.

Abdomen of insects, 201

Activity of minute animals, 212, note 427

Adams improves lucernal microscope, 21

---- ---- ---- described, 64

Advantages of microscopes, whence derived, 45

Æpinus, his microscopic telescope, 3, 22

Agility of jerboa, note 212--kanguroo, ibid.

Air destroys and produces animation, 173

Anatomical microscope, Lyonet’s, 122

Angle of incidence, what, 32--of refraction, ibid.

Animalcula, a variety of diseases attributed to them, note 433

---- in teeth, their existence doubted, note 432

---- in infusions, to procure, 151

---- infusoria, history of, 415

---- ---- erroneous opinion concerning them, 421--refuted, 423

---- ---- monas, 430--proteus, 436--volvox, 437--enchelis, 443--vibrio, 451--cyclidium, 479--paramæcium, 482--kolpoda, 484--gonium, 489--bursaria, 491--cercaria, 492--leucophra, 500--trichoda, 507--kerona, 530--himantopus, 533--vorticella, 536--brachionus, 563--additional, 570

Antennæ of insects described, 190--conjectures on their use, note 191, 192

---- their characters, 192

Ants, white, or termites, history of, 308

Aphides, their transformations, 260

---- ---- generation, 274

---- ---- ---- experiments on by Bonnet, 274

---- ---- ---- ---- by Richardson, 275

Apis or bee, its proboscis to dissect, 144

---- sting to dissect, ibid.

---- proboscis described, 181

---- generation of, 279

Apparatus to Cuff’s microscope, 90

---- Adams’s lucernal microscope, 77

---- Jones’s improved microscope, 96

---- most improved, 101--additional, 102

---- Culpeper’s microscope, 105

---- Martin’s opake solar, 109

Aptera, order of insects, 220--to collect, 687

Aquatic microscope by Ellis, 119

Aranea or spider, 621

Argand’s lamp described--the management of, 69

Aristotle, polypes mentioned by, note 360

Athens, cruelty punished at, note 152

Augustine (St.) polypes not unknown to him, note 359

B.

Baker, his method of viewing particles of blood, 149

Banks (Sir Jos.) his approbation of Walker’s publication on shells, 630

Barbut, his remedy for sting of gnats, note 188

---- his opinion on sense of hearing in insects, note 217

---- on the brent goose, note 347

Barker’s compound microscope, 17

Barnacle, or lepas anatifera, beard of, to prepare, 145

Bee, its proboscis to dissect, 144

---- sting, to dissect, ibid.

---- proboscis described, 181

---- generation of, 279--Schirach’s account of, 280--Debraw’s ditto, 281

---- fecundity of, 290

Beetle, its transformations, 242

---- diamond, its transcendant beauty, 204

Beetles, to procure, 680

Blatta, cockroach, mischief occasioned by them, note 683

Blea of vegetables, to prepare, 162

Blood, its circulation and particles to examine, 148

---- ---- in flounders, &c., 149

---- ---- in tails of eels, ibid.

Boat-fly, its wings, 143

Body of insects, 200

Bones, to examine, 146

Bonnet, theory of transformation of insects, 261

---- experiments on aphides, 274

---- on the interior structure of vegetables, 575

Botanical microscope by Withering, 123

---- ---- pocket and universal, 124

---- magnifiers, 125

Box, breeding, figure of, 671

Brain of insects, to prepare, 146

Brass micrometer, by Coventry, 60

Breeze-fly, its proboscis to dissect, 144

Brent-goose, curious idea of its origin, 346, note 347

Buffon, his hypothesis, 421

---- refuted by Ellis, 423

Bug, bed, described, 618--introduced after the fire of London, note 684

Butterfly net, figure of, 674

Butterflies, wings of, 144, 207

---- remarks on their substance, note 207

---- proboscis of, 186

---- and moths, to collect and preserve, 669

---- figure of the manner of setting them, 677

C.

Cabinet, instructions for forming, 693

---- how to preserve insects in, 694

---- Drury’s, short account of, 695

Cantharis, its value in medicine and commerce, note 175

Cast skin of insects, to prepare, 145

Caterpillars, habitations of, 325

Cavallo applies pearl micrometers to telescopes, 60

Change of insects to pupa state, 229--to fly or perfect state, 236

Chrysalis, see pupa

Chrysomela asparagi described, 353

Cimex striatus described, 352

---- lectularius, 618

Circulation of blood, to examine, 148

---- in eels, flounders, and gudgeons, 149

Clark, his account of British oestri, note 294

Cochineal, to prepare tincture of, 61

---- its beautiful dye, note 175

Compassion to animals formerly not regarded, note 177

Coleoptera order of insects, 219

---- to collect, 680

Configurations of salts, to prepare, 163

---- ---- to view by the microscope, 166

Conjectures on the use of antennæ, note 191, 192

---- on sense of hearing, and on sounds proceeding from insects, note 216

Construction of timber, 575

Cossus, caterpillar of, described, 334

Coventry, his glass, pearl, &c. micrometers, 60

---- ---- ---- ---- how used, ibid.

Creation, wisdom of God in the, 167

---- providence in ditto, 174--goodness, 175--the effect it ought to produce, 176

Criteria, distinguishing, of insects, 216

Cruelty to animals, reflections on, 150, note, ibid.

Cuff, his double constructed microscope described, 89--apparatus to ditto, 90--how to use, 91

Culex, its proboscis to dissect, 144

---- pipiens, its proboscis described, 187

---- its unpleasant effects, note, ibid.--farther described, 623

Culpeper’s microscope, 104

---- ---- apparatus to, 105

---- ---- to use, ibid.

Curculio imperialis, 204

Custance, list of his vegetable cuttings, 709

Cynips or gall-fly, its transformation, 260

D.

Death-head moth, the harbinger of mortality!, note 669

---- watch of Linnæus--Geoffroy--Shaw--Fabricius--Gmelin, note 688--the terror it occasions, note 689--quotations from Brown--Swift--Gay and Shakspeare, ibid.

Debraw, his account of bees, 281

De Geer, on the generation of a moth, 291

De la Hire first notices the stemmata of insects, 199

Dellebarre’s compound microscope, 16

Dermestes tesselatus, note 688

De Saussure, a writer on the interior structure of vegetables, 575

Diptera order of insects, 219

---- ---- ---- to collect, 687

Dissecting table, Lyonet’s, to use, 123

---- ---- Musschenbroeck’s, 137

---- Swammerdam’s method of, 138

---- Lyonet’s ditto, 141

---- Hooke’s observations on, 142

Divinis compound microscope, 15

Dragon-fly, eyes of, to dissect, 145

Drebell introduces the microscope into England, 2

Drone-fly, eyes of, 196

Drury, his magnificent cabinet of insects, 695

---- illustrations of natural history, 696

Du Hamel writes on the interior structure of vegetables, 575

Dutch claim the invention of the microscope, 1

E.

Earwig, its wings, 143, 205

Eels, scales of, to examine, 147

---- circulation of blood in, 148

---- paste, to procure, 152--to preserve, ibid.--described, 462

---- vinegar, 461--fresh water, 468--salt water, 469--in blighted wheat, ibid.

Ellis’s aquatic microscope, 6, 119

---- refutes Buffon, &c., 423

Eggs of insects, 286--tenthredo--hemerobius, ibid.--phalæna neustria, 287--oestrus tarandi, 288--ephemera--phryganea--libellula, ibid.--moths, 289--bees--wasps--spiders--ants, ibid.

Elytra of insects, 204

Ephemera, eyes of, 197

Exuvia of insects, to prepare, 145

Eye, nature of vision in, 28

Eyes of insects, 193--drone, 196--silkworm, ibid.--libellula, ibid.--lobster, 197--ephemera, ibid.

F.

Fat of insects, to prepare, 146

Fibres, muscular, to prepare, ibid.

Fishes, their scales to examine, 147

Flea described, 616--remarks on, note 617

Flies, to dissect eyes of, 145

Fly, Spanish, its utility, note 175

---- or perfect state of insects, 236

---- spider, see hippobosca equina

Focus, what it is, 31

Fontana, an early maker of microscopes, 3

Food of polypes, 155

---- insects, 291--gryllus migratorius, 293--oestrus bovis, 294--equi--hæmorrhoidalis--veterinus--ovis, note 294--ichneumon fly, 295, note 297

Forceps for catching insects, figure of, 675

Forficula auricularia, its wings, 143--farther described, 205

Frog, circulation of blood in, 150

G.

Gay, quotation from, note 690

Generation of aphides, 273--Bonnet’s experiments on ditto, 274--Richardson’s ditto, 275

---- bees, 279--Schirach’s account of, 280--Debraw’s, 281

Gerard, author of the Herbal, his credulity, note 347

Globules, glass, applied to the microscope, 8--manner of making them, ibid., 11--by Butterfield, 9--Di Torre, 10--Gray, 12

---- lenses described, 34

---- micrometer, Coventry’s, 60

Gnat, its proboscis to dissect, 144--described, 187--a formidable weapon, note ibid.--Barbut’s remedy for its sting, 188--preventives recommended, ibid.--mischiefs occasioned by them at Oxford, 623--formidable in the West Indies, note 189--Hooke an advocate for them--remarks on ditto, ibid.

---- farther described, 623

Gray, his water microscope, 13

Greeks not unacquainted with the single microscope, 3--spectacles known to them, ibid.

Grew, on the interior structure of vegetables, 575

Gryllus migratorius, 293--mischiefs occasioned by, note 684--many seen in England, ibid.

H.

Habitation of insects, 299

Haddock, scale of, 356

Halteres of insects, 204

Hartsoeker applies glass globules to the microscope, 8

Heads of insects, 179

Hemerobius perla, its wings described, 206

Hemiptera order of insects, 219--to collect, 683

Hewson, his method of viewing particles of blood, 149

Hieronymus, curious passage quoted from, note 178

Hill (Dr.) writes on the interior parts of vegetables, 575--on the rind, 576--vessels between rind and bark, 580--bark, 582--cellular tissue, 585--vasa propria interiora, 586--blea, ibid.--wood, 587--corona, 590--pith, 592--sap vessels, 594--vasa propria intima, 595

---- (Mr. John) his improvement on the lucernal microscope, 84

Hippobosca equina survives the loss of its head, note 151--its transformations, 261

Hogarth, his five stages of cruelty, note 152

Home, account of the particles of the blood, note 626

Hooke applied glass globules to the microscope, 8--his compound microscope, 15--observations on dissecting insects, 142--pleads in justification of gnats, note 189--computation on the eyes of silkworm, 196--on the motion of butterflies wings, 209

Hooper, quotation from, 710

Hornet, to dissect sting of, 144

Humanity towards insects recommended, note 152

Hunter’s remarks on Schirach and Debraw’s experiments, note 285

Hydræ or fresh water polypes, history of the discovery of, 357--improperly called insects, note 363--viridis--fusca--grisea, 365--their food, 373--generation, 379--re-production, 382--hydra pallens, 389--hydatula, 390--stentorea, 392--socialis, 395

Hymenoptera order of insects, 219

---- ---- ---- to collect, 686

I.

Jansens and son among the first introducers of the microscope, 2

Jerboa, its agility, note 212--kanguroo, ibid.

Jerom, curious passage from, note 178

Imperfections of microscopic glasses, 46

Improvements on lucernal microscope, 80

---- compound microscope, 92, 99

Infusions, animalcula in, to procure, 151

---- of pepper, &c., 153

Insects, Lyonet’s table to dissect, 123

---- Musschenbroeck’s ditto, 137

---- wings to dissect, 143--proboscis, 144--eyes, 145--exuvia, to prepare, 145--muscular fibres, 146--fat, ibid.--brains, ibid.--muscles, ibid.

---- their wonderful mechanism, 172

---- preferred by Swammerdam to other parts of the creation, ibid.

---- not included in divine omniscience, note 178

---- general description of, 178--definition of, 179--divisions, ibid.--head, ibid.--mouth, 180--jaws, 181--tongue and proboscis, ibid.--proboscis of a bee, 182--butterfly, 186--gnat, 187--tabanus, 188--antennæ, 190--conjectures on their use, note 191, 192--their characteristics, 193--palpi--eyes, ibid.--reticulated eyes, 195--drone--silk-worm--libellula--ephemera--experiments on the eyes, 197--monoculus polyphemus, 198--spider, 199--stemmata, ibid.

---- trunk of--thorax--scutellum--sternum, 200

---- abdomen--spiracula, 201

---- limbs--wings, 201--halterers, 204--elytra and wings under ditto, 204--wings of forficula auricularia, 205--hemerobius perla, 206--legs, 210--tail and sting, 213

---- distinguishing criteria of, 215--conjectures on their sense of hearing and the sounds proceeding from them, note 217--Barbut’s opinion, ibid.--remarks on ditto, ibid.

---- classes or orders into which they are divided, 219

---- transformation of, 220--egg to larva, 222--change to pupa, 229--preparation for change to perfect state, 234--change to ditto, 236--metamorphosis of silk-worm, 240--beetle, 242--rhinoceros beetle, 245--musca chamæleon, 248--libellula, 257--cynips, 260--aphides, ibid.--hippobosca equina, 261--Bonnet’s theory of, ibid.

---- respiration of, 265--experiments on by Lyonet, 267--Musschenbroeck, 268

---- ---- in musca pendula, 269

---- generation of--aphides, 272--Bonnet’s experiments on, 274--Richardson’s, 275--Bees, 279--Schirach’s account of, 280--Debraw’s ditto, 281--eggs of insects, 286--tenthredo, ibid.--hemerobius--phalæna neustria--oestrus tarandi--ephemera--phryganea--libellula--moths--bees--wasps--spiders --ants, ibid.

---- fecundity of, 290--Reaumur’s calculation of that of the queen bee, ibid.--Lyonet’s on the generation of a moth, 291--De Geer’s, ibid.

---- food of, 291--gryllus migratorius, 293--oestrus bovis, 294--equi--hæmorrhoidalis--veterinus--ovis, note 294--ichneumon fly, note 295, 297

---- habitations of, 299--spiders--aquatic bugs--gyrinus--podura-- libellula--ephemera--phryganea--culices--tipulæ--notonecta--nepa, 300--julus--scolopendra--oniscus, 301--formica-leo, note, 301--solitary bees, 303--ichneumon wasp, 306--termites, 308--caterpillars, 325

---- internal parts of, 334--Lyonet’s account of the caterpillar of the cossus, ibid.--muscles--spinal marrow, 339--tracheal arteries, 340--corpus crassum--oesophagus--ventricle, 342--intestines, 343

---- to collect and preserve, 665--the pursuit recommended, 666--method of procuring lepidoptera, 668--in their caterpillar state, 670--manner of breeding them, 671--figure of breeding box, ibid.--to collect them in their chrysalis state, 673--in their fly state, 674--figure of the net, ibid.--figure of forceps, 675--to manage them in their fly state, with a figure, 677--coleoptera, to collect, 680--hemiptera, 683--neuroptera, 685--hymenoptera, 686--diptera, 687--aptera, ibid.--proper time for collecting, 696--instructions to form a cabinet, 693--Drury’s collection described, 695--remarks on collecting Asiatic insects, 696

Instrument for cutting sections of wood, by Adams, 19--Cumming, ibid.--Custance, ibid.--described, 127--appendage to ditto, 128

Jones, improved lucernal microscope, 80--lanthorn microscope, 88--improved compound microscope, 92--most improved, 99--apparatus to ditto, 101--additional, 102

Italians claim the invention of the microscope, 1

Ivory micrometer by Coventry, 60

K.

Kanguroo, its agility, note 212

L.

Lamp, Argand’s, described, 69

---- ---- applied to lucernal microscope, 76

Lanthorn microscope, 88

Larva state of insects, 223

Leaves of trees and plants to examine, 147

Leeuwenhoek’s single microscope, 7

---- description of blood vessels in eels, 149

Legs of insects, 210

Lenses, different kinds of, 34--their properties, ibid.

Lepas anatifera, beard of, to prepare, 145--described, 344

Lepidoptera order of insects, 219

---- ---- to procure and preserve, 668

Leucopsis dorsigera, 347

Libellula, eyes of, to dissect, 145

---- described, 195

Lice, polypes infested with them, 156

---- plant, see aphides

Lieberkühn, single microscope used by him, 6

---- improves ditto, 20

Light, to manage for microscope, 134

Limbs of insects, 201

Linnæus, his system commended, 168

---- classification of insects, 219

Lists of microscopic objects, 608, 698

Lizard, its skin to examine, 147

Lobster, eyes of, to dissect, 145

---- insect, 348--first noticed in this country by Mr. J. Adams, 348--described by Martin--two in Mr. Marsham’s possession, ibid.--known to Aristotle--to Wolphius--Scaliger--De Geer--Fabricius--four in the editor’s possession--a living one presented to him--two found alive in Percy street--Rösel’s account of it--Seba probably mistaken, note 350

Locusts, 293--dreadful scourge, note 684

---- many seen in England in 1748, ibid.

Louse, common, described, 619

Lump-sucker described, 352

Lyonet, single microscope used by him, 6

---- anatomical microscope, 122--method of dissecting, 141--experiments on the respiration of insects, 267--generation of a moth, 290--description of the caterpillar of the cossus, 334

M.

Magnifiers, botanical, 125

Malpighi writes on the structure of vegetables, 575

Marsham on the ichneumon fly, note 297

Martin improves solar microscope, 20

---- list of his tracts on the microscope, note 21

---- applies slips of glass, &c. to microscopes, 60

---- improved opake and transparent solar microscope, 106--objects, 110