The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-04
a MICROSCOPIC WONDER
STRONGEST LENS MADE MAGNIFIEs
OBJECTS $4,000 TIMES.
The Little Crystal Is no Larger than
n Pin Head and Represents
Four Years of Labor.
Boston Globe.

Boston Globe.
If a man were TO don a pair of micro
scopes as he does a pair Of eyeglasses,
he would suddenly find himself confronted
by an absolutely new and most amazing
world. Not merely would everything look
hundreds of times larger than it does now,
but the face of everything would be utterly
changed, and thousands, or ~perchance mil
lions. of new objects would appear of which
he had never before dreamed.
The clear sunlight would be found
streaming through myriads of huge blocks
and particles of dirt and stone, animals
of various sizes would be flying wildly
about. and such would be the forbidding
aspect of the street that was a moment
before perfectly clear, he would hesitate to
advance.
He could see the trees breathing. he
could see the ducts of the human skin
giving off their secretions-thousands of
modes and operations of daily life that
are now screened from his eyes would be-
come apparent.
Doubtless it has occurred to many a
reader on his first initiation into the
marvels of the microscope hat some day
yet more penetrating and perfect in
struments will be devised, so that it will
at last be possible to get very close to the
ny VI II bul lndL Is d uISdI1,
probably destined never to be realized. 1t
is a remarkable paradox that even now
it is possible to magnify an object so highly
that it cannot be seen. This apparent alb
surdity arises from the fact that the more
an object is magnified the smaller must be
the aperture through which the object is
viewed, SO that it happens that an object
may be magnified to an almost Incredible
degree, while at the same time there will
not be enough light admitted to perceive
the image.
1t is possible that the most powerful
microscope that ever will be built has been
built. Very few, probably, are aware that
this instrument was made and is owned
IN THIS country. 1t belongs to DR.. Ephraim
Cutter of New York and was made by
Tolles of Boston. 1t is technically known
as a 18TH and it's value to science has
been a matter Of long dispute. DIR. Cutter
himself contends that he has made many
possible to make with an instrument of
smaller power. Whatever may be the
truth of the matter, it is to be said that
his discoveries nave not as yet been gener-
ally accepted by the medical profession,
and furthermore that most microseopists
content themselves with instruments OF far
lower power. and therefore of clearer def
milton.
Not only is there no other 18th in exis-
some number a few years ago are not now
IN general use. For the most part instru-
ments technically known as '12ths'' or
lothS are now generally employed. In
spite of all this, the microscope made by
IoleS remains a wonder of the art. 1t
would take a microscope to make a. photo
graph of any interest of this microscope.
imagine, If you will, a lens no larger than
a pin head that required nearly four years
or daily labor to perfect! 1t will, in ITSELF.
produce an image $50 times that of the OBJ
Ject against which it is directed: and by
a simple m~anlpulation known to everyone
VINO is familiar with a compound micro
scope an eyepiece may be introduced which
Will magnify this image twenty times; that
Is to say, looking through such an eyepiece
with such an objective, you will see an
object magnifed 5000 times it's natural
size.
1t is difficult to think in figures like these.
1T means that if you could get a postage
stamp under such a glass Gas a matter of
this sorD you would see it magnifed to
the size of three or four city blocks. Or,
to use a microscopical Illustration, it means
that by this instrument you may make a
white corpuscle of your blood fill the whole
held of .vision-a white %corpuscle that is
small that ten or fifteen thousand
of them laid side by side would only suffice |
to measure in inch. 1t is possible by means
OF this instrument to detect foreign matter,
possibly organisms in the blood which are
70 these white ~corpuscles in size as a pin
head to a cent.
Nevertheless microscopists generally do
not believe that an instrument of such
high power gives anything like the same
or definition of an instrument of
much lower power. Thus a microscope
magnifyinS only $500 diameters has been
of such cIearness that it will show
in fine detail in proportion of 1876. 900 lines
to the inch, where it is said that an instru-
magnifying 1000 diameters will only
show a detail equal to $4,000 lines to the
users of the microscope cling to the lower
power Instruments. Even using these low |
veal is still quite wonderful enough.
When you see through a glass the huge
and cruel looking claw of a f1y's foot you
marvel that you could ever endure to have
walk across YOUR face. The 1anpat of |
A flea is a fantastic affair. There is a pair
them, with teeth like a saw, and it is
into the skin of his victim. Not
wonderful are the muscles of a fea's
f von you aud Know VERB now snd he h Is able able to Jump;
power a leap over the Washing
on monument would not be a difficult
ume of the flea is the sting of the
oee- Compared with the point of a No. u
needle. the latter looks blunt and heavy
more like the stick of carbon in an electric
light.
tiut when a microscopes. wants to really
you the infinitely tiny parasite thai
the bodies of even such small in
,eG5s aS the ne J ho oeiief fly or the flea; It is
action. to know that these nuisances are
preyed upon by parasites of far
o us. The idea helps along Emerson,s law
f compensation
Again, if you were to take a hair of
our head and make a cross section Of
he tip it would have something of the
eautiful granting of a pomegranite cut in
wo. If you looked at a highly magniied
ortion of your scalp you would think Won
.ere gazing at some steep and jagged cliff.
I would remind you of the walls of a
mountain canon.
After this, perhaps. you will hardly be
0 skeDtlcal as TO the value of the exnert
that is often introduced in the
murder trials as to microscopic exami-
atoms of the blood. Provided that The
iood be reasonably fresh, it is not at ali
uncut to determine from what kind of an
nimal it came. VI al
Then, again, blood shows very differently
nder varying conditions of health ana
lsease. IL Is regarded by some as possible
from an examination of a drop of
enouS blood that the prick of a min on
our hand Will draw. Just what will he the
estimate as to the value of this micro
coplcal examination to medicine the phy-
IcianS are as yet at wide variance.
TE9EC ATDuCar