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The Microscope

At any time of the year or hour of the day there are few pursuits more interesting, and at the same time instructive, than the study of Nature by means of the microscope.

This instrument has revolutionized science, solved many problems that had wearied the souls of older naturalists, and even in its simplest form is beyond all value to those who love Nature and the objects which they see around them. The microscope opens a new world to us. When the first telescope was directed to the heavens, and unlocked the mysteries of the skies, when it crumbled into dust all the theories of the past centuries, and told mankind that the planets were not merely instruments of fortune-telling, whose voices were intelligible to a chosen few, but orbs far vaster than our own; even then the new world of thought into which man entered was no wider than that which is displayed by the poorest lens that possesses the power of magnifying. All of us must admire the more than awful grandeur of that universe whereof we form so infinitesimal a part, wherein the stars are scattered as the sand on the sea-shore, and every star a sun, the centre of a system of orbs too distant for the eye of man to perceive. Looking at our nearest planet, and observing on her face vast mountain-chains, ravines into which the light of the sun can never penetrate, and volcanoes whose craters are so wide that they would take in the whole of London, the whole of Birmingham, and all the country between them, we can judge by analogy of the unseen wonders which must exist in the world beyond our ken.

But to him who can read Nature rightly, the microscope is a teacher as grand as its sister instrument, and the awful magnificence of Nature is as evident in a midge's wing as in the more patent glories of the sun, moon, and stars. In the following pages we hope to put the readers of this book in the way to read their microscope rightly--possibly to make it--and to show that much can be done with small means when "there's a will," and to indicate to them that objects of no small interest can be found without stirring from the room in which we sit, or even from the table on which our microscope is placed. Some of our readers may say, when they read the heading of this paper, that they should like a microscope very much, but that they have no money to buy it, and that their parents cannot afford one. This is just the feeling which we used to have when a boy, for in those days microscopes were microscopes indeed, and you had your choice between a little instrument, with a series of brass cups, having glasses in them, which magnified slightly but defined clearly, or a great composition of brass and iron, looking like a rocket-tube, with an eye-piece at one end and a glass shot at the other. It was very costly, very imposing, and magnified very highly; but it strained the eyes painfully, had no defining capacities, and made all the objects look as if they were seen through a thick fog. Practically, therefore, the former was the only instrument that was available.

A still more useful instrument, however, was that which can always be obtained for a few shillings, and which is now made wonderfully cheap and wonderfully good; we mean the double or treble pocket-lens. So we say, if you cannot afford a really good microscope, do not waste your money upon inferior and pretentious instruments, but get a sound pocket-lens. It has a thousand advantages. It is portable, and is even more useful in the fields than in the house. It defines very clearly, and needs little trouble in manipulation. We need not say how difficult is the task of getting a complicated instrument to define properly, how impossible with a bad one. The object and the glass can be held in any light,--a matter of no small consideration when examining anything new, and trying to make out its structure. It is not easily put out of order, and if treated with the most ordinary care, will last for a lifetime.

You can push it under water, and it will magnify as well as in the air; and if you are wandering on the river-side, you can lie down on the bank, dip the upper part of your head into the water, together with the glass, and watch carefully the subaquatic objects without removing them. The water will not hurt the eye in the least, though a non-swimmer may perhaps find a little difficulty in his first attempt. It makes a good burning-glass, should fire be needed, and no other means of procuring a spark be at hand. It can be used so as to show the principle of a camera obscura, and to illustrate the manner in which photographic portraits are taken. It can be made into an admirable dissecting microscope, and needs scarcely any practice in the manipulation. These are some of its advantages, and there are many others which need not be mentioned.

Even if you should be able to procure a good microscope, get a pocket-lens as well, for you will want them both, and we may say that the most practised microscopists, and those who are possessors of the most elaborate instruments, are the very men who are most certain to have a pocket-lens about them, and to use it most frequently. Practise well with the pocket-lens before you meddle with the compound microscope. You will waste no time, but will rather gain by it; for you will be learning the rudiments of a new science, and laying a solid foundation on which to build. Whenever we see a lad take out his pocket-lens in a business-like way, use it skillfully, and put it back with a mechanical facility that tells of constant practice, we know that there is a lad who has learned the chief lesson of a naturalist,--namely, the art of observing. We speak highly of the pocket-lens, because we think highly of it and owe much to it.

One or two practical remarks on the proper handling of the pocket-lens may be of use. Do not always employ the same eye in looking through the lens, but use the eyes alternately. There is always a temptation to employ the same eye, which thus receives a kind of training in vision; but it is a temptation always to be resisted. With some persons the right eye is most in favour, and with others the left; and when the favourite eye gets all the work, it too frequently suffers. Whether you look with right or the left eye, keep both eyes open.

It is a pitiful sight to see a human face all screwed up into a corner, the lids of the unused eye convulsively squeezed together, and the mouth slanting upwards, as if in sympathy with the eye. Not only does the human face become repulsively mean and portentously ugly by such action, but the sight of the eye is seriously strained, and sometimes impaired for life. At first the beginner will find a little difficulty in restricting his vision to one eye while the other remains open, just as a beginner on the pianoforte feels himself puzzled when he tries to make his right hand go one way and his left hand another; but in either case a little practice and plenty of perseverance are sure to overcome all obstacles, and in a wonderfully short time the difficulty will not only be overcome, but forgotten. We speak here with some feeling, because, while engaged on a work on the microscope, we were necessarily obliged to work much at night, and inadvertently employed the left eye more than the right; the consequence of which imprudence was that we have been obliged ever since that time to give the left eye perfect rest, as far as artificial vision goes, and, except when looking through a binocular instrument, we have not ventured to use it either to a microscope or telescope. The vision accommodates itself to circumstances with wonderful ease, and the observer learns the curious art of cutting off all communication between the unused eye and the brain; so that, although the objects around may imprint themselves upon the retina, the mind is as totally unconscious of them as if they had no existence.

If possible, always examine an object without removing it, as thereby you see it as it is, without altering any of the conditions with which it is surrounded. Should this not be practicable, take the object to be viewed in the left hand and the lens in the right. Place the wrists of the two hands together, and then you will find that one supports the other, and that the lens can be held in the proper focus without the least difficulty. After you have used the lens for some little time, you will learn to hit upon the right focus almost to a hair's breadth,--so as to lose no time, a matter of some importance when a living creature is to be examined, especially if it be in motion.

As to the selection of objects, none is necessary. Look at everything; and the uglier and more unpromising it is, let it be the closer examined. We do not merely use our aids to vision for the sake of seeing beautiful things, though the microscopist sees more beauty in a day than others will see in a year. We want to see how the world and its constituent parts are made; and though admiration will not be wanting, yet it does not, or ought not, to hold the first place. Always have a motive for looking at every object, and if you have none, try to make one. One of our friends, known by name at least to most of my readers, struck out, some years ago, a most curious train of thought while looking at an object which is seen daily by thousands of human beings, and will probably soon give the public the benefit of it. We have seen the object hundreds of times, but the ideas which it suggested did not happen to occur to us.