An apology for the microscope : being the introductory lecture to the first course on microscopic anatomy and pathology : delivered in the theatre of the original School of Medicine during the months of February, March and April, 1851 / by Robert D. Lyons.
- Robert Dyer Lyons
- Date:
- 1851
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An apology for the microscope : being the introductory lecture to the first course on microscopic anatomy and pathology : delivered in the theatre of the original School of Medicine during the months of February, March and April, 1851 / by Robert D. Lyons. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![]f) derable quantity. By tlie aid of the microscope, however, it has been shown that by far the most abundant element in these formations are the fossil remains of much humbler beings of the vegetable world, whose genera and species we have been in many instances able to recognise, while here, too, the loricjB of many tribes of infusoria are to be met with. Thus has the microscope been proved an import- ant aid in more than one department of palaeonto- logic research ; and thus may its claims to be ranked amongst the foremost of those aids to science, by which the human mind has cleared the barriers imposed on her unaided powers, be indisputably established. What has been already achieved is but earnest of what may yet be done, when this method of investigation shall have become more generally appreciated, and more extensively em- ployed in exploring the many yet obscure por- tions of the vast field of human knowlege. While, from the advances made within late years, in bringing nearer to perfection the optical and mechanical parts of the instrument itself, we have just grounds to hope that art will'yet furnish us with microscopes superior even to those splendid triumphs of skill we now possess. The preceding observations, gentlemen, have been intended to shew the general importance of microscopic investigation, and its connexion with and relation to other departments of science. We pass to the consideration of the question, as to how far this instrument is capable of being made avail-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21475258_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
