The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1880-05-08

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| glass together for lenses, and by combining
these SO skillfully, besides inserting third
| glass in the middle of the tube, that the
object could be magniied without making
it less distinct. The microscope has gone
on being improved, until now it is as useful
and complete little handmade of Science
as its predecessor OF the sixteenth century
was unwieldly and unserviceable and with
| these improvements commenced that great
and brilliant era of microscopic investiga-
lions which has opened to us n new world of
such wonder and beauty, and of such con-
tinual surprises, that after exploring its
| fascinating maZes for time, guided by the
| hand of patient Science, we turn again and
| again to the magic glass through which we
are enabled to read the "open secrets y Of
Mother Nature teemng with eXistences,
curious organizations, harmonies, and forms
of beauty hitherto unsupported by us: new
regions of knowledge, wherein truth sur
passes fiction, where silence even is eloquent
| OF the Creators wisdom, and al His works
| praise Him.
| The splendid compound microscopes of
the present day, varying in price from ten
to several hundred dollars, are mounted on
heavy metallic stands, with a metal stage
or platform beneath the object glass for
objects, which are carefully adjusted on a
| glass slide and covered with a thin glass for
inspection. Beneath this Il mirror gathers
up the rays of light and concentrates them
on the work. Sometimes there are two mir
rors in different positions, besides various
nice arrangements for making the investiga-
tons easier and more accurate.
1t is said that when Captain Wilkcs's eX
ploring expedition was being fitted out in
| 1910, and it was thought necessary to have
microscope among the scientific instru-
ments of the party, application WAS made to
| various dealers in and makers of such in
StrumentS, but in vain: there WAS not one
| to be bought this side OF the water. Final
| ly, recourse was had to private individuals;
and after some search the coveted article
was procured from DIR. Paul Goddard, Of
Philadelphia, n French instrument, which
would not be thought much of i'll these days,
but was the best the country could produce
then.
At that very time there was a clever boy
living in an out of the way village up in the
State of New York, named Charles Spencer,
who was getting ready even then TO make
American microscopes equal to any i'll the
world. The little fellow at twelve years old
became so much interested in All article ON
optics in Cton'bers' Encyclopedi" that he re-
solved to make Il compound microscope for
himself, though he had never seen one, and
of course there was no one to show him how.
He really succeeded, and did not stop there,
for in his hours of leisure he went on max
ing microscopes and telescopes until his in
Struments became famous, picking up i'll the
meanwhile, every scrap of information that
came in his way by means Of the Penny
Magazine and Library Of Iscful hoowledge,
which seemingly comprised his whole stock
of periodical or scientific literature. Quek-
EFT, an English writer OF note on the micro
scope, told the world before long that AN
object glass constructed by 4 young artist
named Spencer, living in the hackswoodS,
had succeeded in showing what glasses OF
equal power made by the first English opti
clans had failed i'll defining; to such pertec-
ton had this young fellow attained thanks
only to his native ,Iuicknes>, his steady per-
severance, and his courageous deternina-
ton to succeed-qualties very often worth
more than whole years of training under
skilled masters. An American exploring
expedition fitted out in 1850 would not find
the slightest difficulty in procuring Il ship
load of iirst-class microscopes of american
manufacture, and to Spencer and his sue
cessors the credit is due.
There are four classes Of persons TO whom
the microscope is of special value as an aid
in the pursuit of their scientific studies-the
bntaniSt, the entomologSt, the chemist, and
the physician; but one need not to be any
of these to derive both pleasure and profit
from the possession and study of Il micro
scope: even the little pocket instrument ear
ried about with one can teach us great
deal, and especially show us how TO use orr
eyes to advantage, since certain it is, the
more we know, the more satisfaction we get
out of life. Facts are never barren; they
are all links in one chain of interest that
binds together the objects of nature, as chill
dren of one Divine Parent, i'll the kinshp
| which is the spiritual reading of the theory
of evolution.
We have n neighbor, a busy man, whose
every day pursuits take him as far as posi-
BILE from the study of nature; but he has
lately invested in a fifty dollar microscope,
and spends much of his afternoon leisure at
the vine-embowered east window of his par
lor, with his beautiful little instrument be
fore him, and his boxes and bottles of "speci-
mems grouped about him.
This microscope is an education to his
children and neighbors, as well Il rest
and delight to himself. The boy will no
longer stamp ont the luckless insect life in
his PATH or tear the wade-side flower to
pieces he is all on the alert to find sob
iccts - for papa. The girl is curious about
every grain of sand or salt, or tiy's wing or
drop Of water and passing friends drop i'll
with "uueer things" they want to know
something more about. 1t is amazing how
many sins ular facts Il little observation will
teach all these people, and there is nothing
like finding out fact for yourself to make
you remember it.
The first thing the owner of Z microscope
generally shows his friends lisa drop of water,
t tken by means of glass tube from Il vial
filled at some stagnant pool or pond where
ii good deal of vegetable matter is growing.
The magic lens reveals in this drop, scarce
visible to the naked eye, an ocean in minia-
ture, peopled with myriad of strange forms
-iHfusOria, the man of science calls them
because they come from the infusion of water
with vegetation.
The animalcules of our drop are colorless,
and mostly of fattened oval form they
dart rapidly hither and thithcr, e, identity as
much alive rs the great fish in the great
ocean. Hut the anilnalcule creation is as
widely varied as it is possible TO imagine,
though with marked pecuiariticS of struc-
ture. They are sometimes beautifully col
ored, and exist in the water in such puanti-
ties as to tinge it with their own hue, as in
bly, in the Greenland sea and off the coast OF
Chill Some of their forms are stranger and
more fantastic than any thing we ever
dreamed. Some resemble globes, trumpets,
stars, boats, coins others appear like fruits
or lovely flowers, necklaces, pitchers, cups,
wheels, fans; others, again, are unlike any
thing in nature art except their own eN-