Common Objects of the Microscope

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

The task of revising and bringing up to date a work which has been the guide, philosopher, and friend of thousands of commencing microscopists has been, in the present case, one of no small difficulty. On the one hand, there was the natural desire to interfere as little as possible with the original work; and on the other, the necessity of rendering available, to some extent at least, the enormous advance in every department which has taken place in the thirty-six years which have elapsed since the work was first offered to the public. The reviser has done his best not only to fulfil these two objects, but to keep in view the original purpose of the book.

In the popular department of pond-life especially, about fifty new illustrations have been added, mostly from the reviser’s own notebook sketches. The whole of the botanical part has been revised by one of our first English authorities, and, in short, no effort has been spared to make the work as accurate as its necessarily condensed form permits of. It is hoped, therefore, that it may be found not less useful than its predecessor by those for whom it is alone intended.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

In my two previous handbooks, the “Common Objects” of the Sea-shore and Country, I could but slightly glance at the minute beings which swarm in every locality, or at the wonderful structures which are discovered by the Microscope within or upon the creatures therein described. Since that time a general demand has arisen for an elementary handbook upon the Microscope and its practical appliance to the study of nature, and in order to supply that want this little volume has been produced.

I must warn the reader that he is not to expect a work that will figure and describe every object which may be found on the sea-shore or in the fields, but merely one by which he will be enabled to guide himself in microscopical research, and avoid the loss of time and patience which is almost invariably the lot of the novice in these interesting studies. Upwards of four hundred objects have been figured, including many representatives of the animal, vegetable, and, mineral kingdoms, and among them the reader will find types sufficient for his early guidance.

Neither must he expect that any drawings can fully render the lovely structures which are revealed by the microscope. Their form can be given faithfully enough, and their colour can be indicated; but no pen, pencil, or brush, however skilfully wielded, can reproduce the soft, glowing radiance, the delicate pearly translucency, or the flashing effulgence of living and ever-changing light with which God wills to imbue even the smallest of His creatures, whose very existence has been hidden for countless ages from the inquisitive research of man, and whose wondrous beauty astonishes and delights the eye, and fills the heart with awe and adoration.

Owing to the many claims on my time, I left the selection of the objects to Mr. Tuffen West, who employed the greater part of a year in collecting specimens for the express purpose, and whose well-known fidelity and wide experience are the best guarantees that can be offered to the public. To him I also owe many thanks for his kind revision of the proof-sheets. My thanks are also due to Messrs. G. and H. Brady, who lent many beautiful objects, and to Messrs. Baker, the well-known opticians of Holborn, who liberally placed their whole stock of slides and instruments at my disposal.

CHAPTER I

Pleasures and Uses of Microscopy—Development of the Microscope—Extemporised Apparatus.

Within the last half-century the use of the microscope, not only as an instrument of scientific research, a tool in the hands of the investigator of the finer organisation of the world of nature, nor even as an adjunct to the apparatus of the chemist or the manufacturer, but as a means of innocent and instructive recreation, has become so firmly rooted amongst us that it seems hardly necessary to advocate its claims to attention on any of these grounds.

So wonderful is the information which it affords, so indispensable is it in many, if not in all, branches of scientific research, that not only would the lover of nature be deprived of one of his most valued sources of information and enjoyment, but some sciences would be brought absolutely to a standstill if by any conceivable means the microscope were to be withdrawn from their followers.

On the other hand, from every improvement in the construction of the latter, a corresponding enlargement and enlightenment of the fields reviewed by these sciences has taken place, and the beauty and interest of the revelations made by its means has attracted an ever-increasing host of earnest and intelligent volunteers, who have rendered yeoman service to the cause of knowledge.

Moreover, so vast is the scope of the instrument, that whilst discoveries in other fields of research are few and far between, comparatively speaking, in microscopic science they are of everyday occurrence, and the number of problems calling for solution by means of the instrument in question is so vast that even the humblest worker may be of the greatest assistance.

In the following pages we propose to carry out, as far as possible with reference to the microscope, the system followed in the “Common Objects of the Seashore and of the Country,” and to treat in as simple a manner as may be of the marvellous structures which are found so profusely in our fields, woods, streams, shores, and gardens. Moreover, our observations will be restricted to an instrument of such a class as to be inexpensively purchased and easily handled, and to those pieces of supplementary apparatus which can be extemporised at small cost of money and ingenuity by the observer himself, or obtained of the opticians for a few shillings.

With the same view, the descriptions will be given in language as simple and as free from technicalities as possible, though it must be remembered that for many of the organisms and structures which we shall have to describe there are none but scientific names; and since, moreover, this little work is intended to furnish a stepping-stone between the very elements of microscopic science, and those higher developments of it which should be the aim of every worker, it would be unwise to attempt to invent commonplace appellations for the purpose of this book, and leave him to discover, when he came to consult works of reference in any particular subject, that his “simplified” knowledge had all to be unlearnt, and a new vocabulary acquired. Rather will it be our purpose to use correct terms, and explain them, as far as necessary, as we introduce them.

The commencing microscopist is strongly recommended, whilst not confining his interest entirely to one branch of research or observation, to adopt some one as his particular province.

The opportunities for discovery and original work, which are afforded by all alike, will be more readily appreciated and utilised by adopting such a plan than by a general and purposeless distribution of effort. To mention one or two. The student of the fascinating field of pond-life will find new organisms awaiting description by the hundred, and of the old ones, life-histories to make out; if he be attracted rather to the vegetable inhabitants of the same realm, the diatoms will furnish him with the opportunity of studying, and perhaps solving, the enigma of their spontaneous movement, and of watching their development. The smaller fungi, and indeed the larger ones too, will amply repay the closest and most laborious study of their habits of life and processes of development. Since the first edition of this work was published, the whole subject has been practically revolutionised, and more remains to be done than has yet been accomplished.

In short, there is scarcely an organism, even of those best known and most studied, which is so completely exhausted that persevering investigation would reveal nothing new concerning it.

There can be little doubt but that if any worker, with moderate instrumental means, but with an observant mind, were to set determinately to work at the study of the commonest weed or the most familiar insect, he, or she, would by patient labour accomplish work which would not only be of value to science, but would redound to the credit of the worker.

Something like finality appears to have been reached, at least for the present, in the development of the microscope; and whilst it is beyond the scope of this work to treat of the refined and costly apparatus which is essential to useful work in certain departments of research, the result has, on the whole, been highly favourable to the worker of moderate means and ambitions, since lenses are now accessible, at the cost of a few shillings, comparatively speaking, which could not have been purchased at all when this work first appeared. It is with such appliances that we have here to deal. The worker whose finances are restricted must be contented to extemporise for himself many pieces of apparatus, and will find pleasure and occupation in doing so. And let him remember, for his encouragement, that many such home-made appliances will fulfil their purpose quite as well as the imposing paraphernalia of glittering brass and glass which decorates the table of the wealthy amateur. It is not the man who possesses the best or most costly apparatus, but the one who best understands the use of that which he possesses, that will make the most successful microscopist. A good observer will discover, with only the aid of a pocket-magnifier, secrets of Nature which have escaped the notice of a whole army of dilettante microscopists, in spite of the advantages which, as regards instruments, the latter may enjoy.

It is for those who desire to be of the former class that this book is written, and in the course of the following pages instances will be given in which the exercise of a small amount of ingenuity and the expenditure of a few pence will be found equivalent to the purchase of costly and complicated apparatus.

An enormous amount of valuable work was done in the earliest days of microscopy, when the best apparatus available was a single lens, composed of the bead formed by fusing the drawn-out end of a rod of glass. Inserted into a plate of metal, or a piece of card, such a primitive instrument was capable of affording a large amount of information. Similar instruments are to be purchased for a few pence at the present day, and are not without their use for purposes of immediate examination of material. A very common form is a glass marble, ground flat on one side, and mounted in a tube. The material to be examined is placed upon the flat side, and is seen magnified to an extent inversely proportional to the diameter of the sphere of glass.

CHAPTER II

Elementary Principles of Optics—Simple Microscopes—Compound Microscope—Accessory Apparatus—Cover-glasses—Troughs—Condensers—Dissection—Dipping-tubes—Drawing—Measurement.

Before proceeding to deal with the microscope itself, it may be useful to give a short summary of the optical laws upon which its working depends.

To go into the minutiæ of the matter here would be out of place, but it will be found very helpful, especially in the matter of illumination, to acquire some knowledge of, and facility in applying, these elementary principles. We shall confine our remarks to convex lenses, as being the form to which all the combinations in the microscope may be ultimately reduced.

Every convex lens has one “principal” focus, and an infinite number of “conjugate” foci. The principal focus is the distance at which it brings together in one point the rays which fall upon it parallel to its axis, as shown in Fig. 1, in which A is the axis of the lens L, and the rays RR are brought together in the principal focus P. Thus a ready means of finding the focal length of any lens is to see at what distance it forms an image of the sun, or of any other distant object, upon a screen, such as a piece of smooth white cardboard. In the figure this distance will be PL. Conversely, if the source of light be at P, a parallel beam of light will be emitted from the lens.

Fig. 1.

The focal length may, however, be found in another way. When an object is placed at a distance from a lens equal to twice the principal focal length of the latter, an image of the object is formed at the same distance upon the other side of the lens, inverted in position, but of the same dimensions as the original object. The object and image then occupy the equal conjugate foci of the lens, so that by causing them to assume these relative positions, and halving the distance at which either of them is from the lens, the focal length of the latter is known.

These points will be seen on reference to Fig. 2, in which L being the lens, and P the principal focus, as before, rays from the point C are brought together at the conjugate focus C', at the same distance on the other side of L. In this case it manifestly does not matter whether the object be at one or the other of these points.

Fig. 2.

So far we have been dealing with points on the line of the axis of the lens. The facts mentioned apply equally, however, to rays entering the lens at an angle to the axis, only that in this case they diverge or converge, correspondingly, upon the other side. It is evident, from Fig. 1, that no image is formed of a point situated at the distance of the principal focus; but Fig. 3, which is really an extension of Fig. 2, shows how the rays passing along secondary axes form an inverted image of the same size as the object, when the latter is situated at twice the focal length of the lens from this last. To avoid confusion, the bounding lines only are shown, but similar lines might be drawn from each and every point of the object; and if the lines ALA', BL'B' be supposed to be balanced at L and L' respectively, they will indicate the points at which the corresponding parts of the object and image will be situated along the lines AB, B'A' respectively. Moreover, rays pass from every part of the object to every part of the lens, so that we must imagine the cones LAL', LA'L' to be filled with rays diverging on one side of the lens and converging on the other.

The image so formed is a “real” image,—that is to say, it can be thrown upon a screen.

Fig. 3.

The microscopic image, on the other hand, is a virtual image, which can be viewed by the eye but cannot be thus projected, for it is formed by an object placed nearer to the lens than the principal focal length of the latter, so that the rays diverge, instead of converging, as they leave the lens, and the eye looks, as it were, back along the path in which the rays appear to travel, and so sees an enlarged image situated in the air, farther away than the object, as shown in Fig. 4. In this case, as the diagram shows, the image is upright, not inverted.

Images of the latter class are those formed by simple microscopes, of the kind described in the previous chapter. In the compound microscope the initial image, formed by the object-glass, is further magnified by another set of lenses, forming the eye-piece, by which the diverging rays of the virtual image are brought together to a focus at the eye-point; and when viewed directly, the eye sees an imaginary image, as in a simple microscope, whilst, when the rays are allowed to fall upon a screen, they form a real image of the object, larger or smaller, as the screen is farther from or nearer to the eye-point.

Fig. 4.

These remarks must suffice for our present purpose. Those who are sufficiently interested in the subject to desire to know more of the delicate corrections to which these broad principles are subjected in practice, that objectives may give images which are clear and free from colour, to say nothing of other faults, will do well to consult some such work as Lommel’s Optics, in the International Science Series.

In following a work such as the present one, the simple microscope, in some form or other, will be found almost indispensable. It will be required for examining raw material, such as leaves or other parts of plants, for gatherings of life in fresh or salt water, for dissections. With such powers as those with which we shall have to deal, it will rarely happen that, for example, a bottle of water in which no life is visible will be worth the carrying-home; whilst, on the other hand, a few months’ practice will render it not only possible, but easy, not only to recognise the presence, but to identify the genus, and often even the species, of the forms of life present. Moreover, these low powers, affording a general view of the object, allow the relation to each other of the details revealed by the power of the compound microscope to be much more easily grasped. A rough example may suffice to illustrate this. A penny is a sufficiently evident object to the naked eye, but it will require a sharp one to follow the details in Britannia’s shield, whilst the minute scratches or the bloom upon the surface would be invisible in detail without optical aid. Conversely, however, it would be rash to conclude from an examination of a portion of the surface with the microscope alone that the portion in view was a sample of the whole surface. The more the surface is magnified, the less are the details grasped as a whole, and for this reason the observer is strongly recommended to make out all that he can of an object with a simple magnifier before resorting to the microscope.

For general purposes, the intending observer cannot do better than supply himself with a common pocket-magnifier, with one, two, or three lenses, preferably the last, as although the absolute performance is not so accurate, the very considerable range of power available by using the lenses singly, or in various combinations, is of great advantage. Such a magnifier may be obtained from Baker for about three-and-sixpence, or, with the addition of a powerful Coddington lens (Fig. 5) in the same mount, for nine shillings more. Aplanatic lenses, such as the one shown in section in Fig. 6, with a much flatter field of vision, but of one power only each, cost about fifteen shillings, and a simple stand, which adapts them for dissecting purposes, may be obtained of the same maker for half a crown, or may easily be extemporised from a cork sliding stiffly on an iron rod set in a heavy foot, the cork carrying a loop of wire terminating in a ring which carries the lens.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

So much may suffice for the simple microscope. We pass on now to the consideration of the instrument which forms the subject of the present work, an instrument which, whilst moderate in price, is yet capable of doing a large amount of useful and valuable work in the hands of a careful owner, and of affording him a vast amount of pleasure and recreation, even if these be his only objects in the purchase, though it is difficult to understand that, an insight being once attained into the revelations effected by the instrument, without a desire being excited in any intelligent mind to pursue the subject as a study as well as a delightful relaxation. The microscope described, and adopted as his text by the author of this work, is still made, and has shared to a very considerable extent in the general improvement of optical apparatus which has taken place during the last thirty years. It is to be obtained from Baker, 244 High Holborn, and is provided with most of the apparatus which will be found indispensable by the beginner, costing, with a case in which to keep it, the modest sum of three guineas.

Fig. 7.

If this instrument represent the limit of the purchaser’s power of purse, he may very well make it answer his purpose for a considerable time. The same instrument, however, with separate objectives of good quality, together with a bull’s-eye condenser (an almost indispensable adjunct), a plane mirror in addition to a concave one, and a simple but efficient form of substage condenser, may be obtained for £5, 12s. 6d., and the extra outlay will be well repaid by the advantage in working which is gained by the possession of the additional apparatus.

Fig. 8.

A still better stand, and one which is good enough for almost any class of work, is that shown in Fig. 8, which is known as the “Portable” microscope. In this instrument the body is made up of two tubes, so that the length may be varied at will, and this gives a very considerable range of magnification without changing the object-glass, a great convenience in practice; whilst the legs fold up for convenience of carriage, so that the whole instrument, with all necessary appliances, may be readily packed in a corner of a portmanteau for transport to the country or seaside.

The objectives supplied with the simplest form of microscope above referred to are combinations of three powers in one, and the power is varied by using one, two, or three of these in combination. This form of objective is very good, as far as it goes, though it is impossible to correct such a combination with the accuracy which is possible in manufacturing one of a fixed focal length.

Perhaps the best thing for the beginner to do would be to purchase the combination first, and, later on, to dispose of it and buy separate objectives of, say, one-inch, half-inch, and quarter-inch focal lengths. It may be explained here, that when a lens is spoken of as having a certain focal length, it is meant that the magnification obtained by its use is the same, at a distance of ten inches from the eye, as would be obtained by using a simple sphere of glass of the same focal length at the same distance. This, of course, is simply a matter of theory, for such lenses are never used actually.

Fig. 9.

Of accessory apparatus, we may mention first the stage forceps (Fig. 9, a). These are made to fit into a hole upon the stage, so as to be capable of being turned about in any direction, with an object in their grasp, and for some purposes, especially such as the examination of a thin object, say the edge of a leaf, they are extremely useful.

Fig. 10.

The live box, in which drops of water or portions of water-plants, or the like, may be examined, will be found of great service. By adjustment of the cap upon the cylinder, with proper attention to the thickness of the cover-glass in the cap, any required amount of pressure, from that merely sufficient to fix a restless object to an amount sufficient to crush a resistent tissue, may easily be applied, whilst the result of the operation is watched through the microscope. This proceeding is greatly facilitated if the cap of the live-box be slotted spirally, with a stud on the cylinder, so that a half-turn of the cap brings the glasses into contact. By this means the pressure may be adjusted with the greatest nicety.

In examining delicate objects, such as large infusoria, which invariably commit suicide when pressure is applied, a good plan is to restrict their movements by placing a few threads of cotton-wool, well pulled out, in the live-box with the drop of water.