Microscopic manipulation : containing the theory and plain instructions for the use of the microscope, including ... discoveries effected by this instrument / [George Thomas Fisher].

  • Fisher, George Thomas, approximately 1822-1847.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Microscopic manipulation : containing the theory and plain instructions for the use of the microscope, including ... discoveries effected by this instrument / [George Thomas Fisher]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. ]. Of all philosophical instruments there are certainly none which are more interesting, or which present greater claims to our admiration than the Microscope.* Wherever we turn, within the precincts of our own homes—in meadow or moorland, hill or forest, by the lone seashore or amidst crumbling ruins—fresh objects of interest are constantly to be found;—plants and animals, unknown to our unaided vision, with minute organs perfectly adapted to their necessities ; with appetites as keen, enjoyments as perfect as our own. In the purest waters, as well as in thick, acid, and saline fluids, of the most indifferent climates,— in springs, rivers, lakes, and seas,—often in the internal humidity of living plants and animals,—even in great numbers in the living human body—nay, probably carried about in the aqueous vapours and dust of the whole atmosphere—there is a world of minute, living, organised beings, imperceptible to the ordinary senses of man. In the daily course of life, this immense mysterious kingdom of diminutive living beings is unnoticed and disregarded; but it appears great and astonish¬ ing beyond all expectation, to the retired observer, who views it by the aid of the microscope. In every drop of standing water, he very fre¬ quently, though not always, discovers by its aid rapidly moving bodies, from 1-96 to less than 1-2000 of a line in diameter, which are often so crowded together that the intervals between them are less than their diameter. If we assume the size of the drop of water to be one cubic line, and the intervals, though they are often smaller, to be equal to the diameter of the bodies, we may easily calculate, w ithout exaggeration, that such a drop is inhabited by, from one hundred thousand to one thousand millions of such animalculze; in fact, we must come to the conclusion, that a single drop of water, under such circumstances, con¬ tains more inhabitants than there are individuals of the human race upon our planet. If further, we reflect on the amount of life in a * From filKpOg small, and <JK07T£W to observe. It