Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1875-06-09
The Mieroseope-wonder which IL
Discovers

garded as a mere toy to please and amus'
children and youth, and with little i
any farther practical purpose. But thi:
time has passed, and the microscope i:
now firmly established as one of the
most efficient instrumentalities in any.
thing like liberal culture. In fact, the
, flood of light which 1t throws upon ply.
steal science is probably greater than all
4 that we derive from other sources. In
the departments of botany, geology
mineralogy, chemistry, the practice OF
medicine, this instrument is now alto
gether Indispensable 1t reveals secrets
which but for its aid would remain for
ever hidden from human observation.
As a means of instruction the field of
knowledge which it opens before us
cannot be bounded or described; and
for this reason il is especially adapted to
enlarge the ideas of children and youth,
inspire thought, and develop a spirit of
inquiry. Two or three dollars will buy
a microscope sufficient for the purposes
of ordinary observation, so that it is
within the reach of all. But if the pur-
Echaser's purse and tastes incline him to
something more expensive, he can
crafty his ambition all through scale
of prices which run up TO 81 200 or
1000. We can imagine that it would
be very gratifying to possess so high 4
priced instrument as the last named,
with all of the little accessories needed
| for perfect work; but it is quite as
gratifying to know that for general and
ordinary purposes, little, simple in
trument costing from $3.50 to s25 will
answer quite as well. Only professional
microscopists or wealthy amateurs need
to indulge in the luxury of a 81 800
instrument. One of these cheap instru-
ments should find a place in every in
telligent household, where parents are
anxious that their children shall neglect
no attainable means for culture and
Improvement. With little instruction
and there are books not costing over
30 cents to 81, from which it may be OBJ
tained-boys and girls will readily learn
to work with one of the simpler forms of
this instrument. Any one can prepare
objects for this inspection, and they are
everywhere. In the summer time every
drop of stagnant ditch water teens with
life. The wing, eye, or foot of a fly is a
| subject for world of study. A human
hair assumes the proportions of a crow
bar; the horns of caterpillar become
as large as walking cane, and armed
with barbs like fish-hook; i'm fact,
there is no end TO the great variety of
objects, and they are all around us.
But our purpose at this time was more
particularly to speak of the revelations
of the microscope, some of which are
quite recent. Mr.. Nobert, of Pomerania,
has ruled series of lines on glass
which have attracted much attention
from their exquisite fineness. There
are nineteen of these bands of lines, the
cOarsest of which are separated by the
II ,00Oth part of an English inch. The
finest band has 1l2 900 separate lines to
the inch, This extreme fineness is quite
incomprehensible if we try to think
about or understand it, and vet we be-
lieve that they have been resolved by
DIR. J. j. Woodward, of the Army Medi-
cal Museum at Washington. To do this,
of course the highest magnifying power
is required, as well as great experience
and care i'm the working of the instru-
ment. Another instance seems to border
upon the marvellous. 1t is called ''Webb's
Test. 1t is simply the writing on glass
of the Lords Prayer" but il is so ex-
tremely fine and small that it is esti-
mated that the Bible, in characters of
like size, could be written eight times i'm
the space of one square inch and there
would be still room to write the Lords
Prayer 2 200 or 5000 times in the sur
plus room. How this writing is done,
and how Nobert's lines are ruled, are
secrets with the gentlemen who have
produced them, but the microscope
brings out the fact beyond dispute, and
the method of measurement is easy
enough to an expert. 1t is a well-knOwn
fact that chalk is an aggregation of mi
croscopic shells. The old cretaceous
seas were fairly alive with these little
animals-soft and gelatinous. and in
closed in beautiful shelly cases. They
were constantly dying and sinking TO
the bottom, where in time they hardened
into the substance known as chalk.
They were so extremely small that mil
lions of their shells are contained within
a piece of chalk one-half an inch square.
The microscope brings them out in such
plain view that they have been classified
in genera and species. A species of rock
is found near Richmond, Va, which is
made up of the siliceous shells of ami
malcule which lived millions of years
ago. Take cubic inch of this rock and
''there's millions i'm it" of these siliceOus
shells. They are so hard, were SO per-
fectly formed and remain so indestructi-
BILE, that white heat has no effect i'm
DESTROYING them. Under a magnifying
power BY no means the highest these
shells become very beautiful and inter-
esting objects. We occasionally read of
the s'red snow," which is found in high
northern ATTITUDES. For loug time
this redness was supposed to be due to
the presence of animalcule, but more
recent investigation proves that the col
oring matter is a minute vegetable.
Animal substances were found associated
with it, and hence for a long time it was
deemed to be animal matter; but the
microscope has settled the question. 1t
is fully proven that low animal, as well
as vegetable, organisms are constantly