The Microscope

by Andrew Ross

The Compound Microscope may, as before stated, consist of only two lenses, while a simple microscope has been shown to contain sometimes three. In the triplet for the simple microscope, however, it was explained that the effect of the two first lenses was to do what might have been accomplished, though not so well, by one; and the third merely effected certain modifications in the light before it entered the eye. But in the compound microscope the two lenses have totally different functions; the first receives the rays from the object, and, bringing them to new foci, forms an image, which the second lens treats as an original object, and magnifies it just as the single microscope magnified the object itself.

Fig. 12.

The annexed figure (12) shows the course of the rays through a compound microscope of two lenses. The rays proceeding from the object A B are so acted upon by the lens C D, near it, and thence called the object glass, that they are converged to foci in A´ B´, where they form an enlarged image of the object, as would be evident if a piece of oiled paper or ground glass were placed there to receive them. They are not so intercepted, and therefore the image is not rendered visible at that place; but their further progress is similar to what it would have been had they really proceeded from an object at A´ B´. They are at length received by the eye-lens L M, which acts upon them as the simple microscope has been described to act on the light proceeding from its objects. They are bent so that they may enter the eye at E in parallel lines, or as nearly so as is requisite for distinct vision. When we say that the rays enter the eye in nearly parallel lines, we mean only those which proceed from one point of the original object. Thus the two parallel rays M E have proceeded from and are part of the cone of rays C A D, emanating from the point A of the arrow; but they do not form two pictures in the eye, because any number of parallel rays which the pupil can receive will be converged to a point by the eye, and will convey the impression of one point to the mind. In like manner the rays L E are part of the cone of rays emanating from B, and the angle L E M is that under which the eye will see the magnified image of the arrow, which is evidently many times greater than the arrow could be made to occupy in the naked eye at any distance within the limits of distinct vision. The magnifying power depends on two circumstances: first, on the ratio between the anterior distance A C or B D and the posterior focal length C B´ or D A´; and secondly, on the power of the eye-lens L M. The first ratio is the same as that between the object A B and the image A´ B´; this and the focal length or power of the eye lens are both easily obtained, and their product is the power of the compound instrument.

Since the power depends on the ratio between the anterior and posterior foci of the object-glass, it is evident that by increasing that ratio any power may be obtained, the same eye-glass being used; or having determined the first, any further power may be obtained by increasing that of the eye-glass; and thus, by a pre-arrangement of the relative proportions in which the magnifying power shall be divided between the object-glass and the eye-glass, almost any given distance (within certain limits) between the first and its object may be secured. This is one valuable peculiarity of the compound instrument; and another is the large field, or large angle of view, which may be obtained, every part of which will be nearly equally good; whereas with the best simple microscopes the field is small, and is good only in the centre. The field of the compound instrument is further increased by using two glasses at the eye-end; the first being called, from its purpose, the field-glass, and the two constituting what is called the eye-piece. This will be more particularly explained in the figure of the achromatic compound microscope presently given.

For upwards of a century the compound microscope, notwithstanding the advantages above mentioned, was a comparatively feeble and inefficient instrument, owing to the distance which the light had to traverse, and the consequent increase of the chromatic and spherical aberrations. To explain this we have drawn in Fig. 12 a second image near A´ B´, the fact being that the object-glass would not form one image, as has been supposed, but an infinite number of variously-colored and various-sized images, occupying the space between the two dotted arrows. Those nearest the object-glass would be red, and those nearest the eye-glass would be blue. The effect of this is to produce so much confusion, that the instrument was reduced to a mere toy, although these errors were diminished to the utmost possible extent by limiting the aperture of the object-glass, and thus restricting the angle of the pencil of light from each point of the object. But this involved the defects, already explained, of making the picture obscure, so that on the whole the best compound instruments were inferior to the simple microscopes of a single lens, with which, indeed, all the important observations of the last century were made.

Even after the improvement of the simple microscope by the use of doublets and triplets, the long course of the rays, and the large angular pencil required in the compound instrument, deterred the most sanguine from anticipating the period when they should be conducted through such a path free both from spherical and chromatic errors. Within twenty years of the present period, philosophers of no less eminence than M. Blot and Dr. Wollaston predicted that the compound would never rival the simple microscope, and that the idea of achromatizing its object-glass was hopeless. Nor can these opinions be wondered at when we consider how many years the achromatic telescope had existed without an attempt to apply its principles to the compound microscope. When we consider the smallness of the pencil required by the telescope, and the enormous increase of difficulty attending every enlargement of the pencil—when we consider further that these difficulties had to be contended with and removed by operations on portions of glass so small that they are themselves almost microscopic objects, we shall not be surprised that even a cautious philosopher and most able manipulator like Dr. Wollaston should prescribe limits to improvement.

Fortunately for science, and especially for the departments of animal and vegetable physiology, these predictions have been shown to be unfounded. The last fifteen years have sufficed to elevate the compound microscope from the condition we have described to that of being the most important instrument ever bestowed by art upon the investigator of nature. It now holds a very high rank among philosophical implements, while the transcendant beauties of form, color and organization, which it reveals to us in the minute works of nature, render it subservient to the most delightful and instructive pursuits. To these claims on our attention, it appears likely to add a third of still higher importance. The microscopic examination of the blood and other human organic matter will in all probability afford more satisfactory and conclusive evidence regarding the nature and seat of disease than any hitherto appealed to, and will of consequence lead to similar certainty in the choice and application of remedies.

We have thought it necessary to state thus at large the claims of the modern achromatic microscope upon the attention of the reader, as a justification of the length at which we shall give its recent history and explain its construction; and we are further induced to this course by the consideration that the subject is entirely new ground, and that there are at this time not more than two or three makers of achromatic microscopes in England.

Soon after the year 1820 a series of experiments was begun in France by M. Selligues, which were followed up by Frauenhofer at Munich, by Amici at Modena, by M. Chevalier at Paris, and by the late Mr. Tulley in London. In 1824 the last-named excellent artist, without knowing what had been done on the Continent, made the attempt to construct an achromatic object-glass for a compound microscope, and produced one of nine-tenths of an inch focal length, composed of three lenses, and transmitting a pencil of eighteen degrees. This was the first that had been made in England; and it is due to Mr. Tulley to say, that as regards accurate correction throughout the field, that glass has not been excelled by any subsequent combination of three lenses. Such an angular pencil, and such a focal length, would bear an eye-piece adapted to produce a gross magnifying power of one hundred and twenty. Mr. Tulley afterwards made a combination to be placed in front of the first mentioned, which increased the angle of the transmitted pencil to thirty-eight degrees, and bore a power of three hundred.