Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.Adams, George
Science
Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.
Adams, George
Insects -- Early works to 1800; Microscopy -- Early works to 1800
Animalcula are in general better observed when the water is a little
evaporated, as the eye is not confused, nor the attention diverted by a
few objects. To separate one or two animalcula from the rest, place a
small drop of water on the glass near that of the infusion; make a small
neck or gutter between the two drops with a pin, which will join them
together; then the instant you perceive that an animalculum has
traversed the neck or gutter, and entered the drop, cut off the
communication between the two drops.
To procure the eels in paste, boil a little flower and water, till it
becomes of a moderate consistence; expose it to the air in an open
vessel, and beat it together from time to time, to prevent the surface
thereof from growing hard or mouldy; after a few days, especially in
summer time, it will turn sower, then if it be examined with attention,
you will find myriads of eels on the surface.
To preserve these eels all the year, you must keep the surface of the
paste moist, by putting a little water or fresh paste from time to time
to the other. Mr. Baker advises a drop or two of vinegar to be put into
the paste now and then. The continual motion of the eels, while the
surface is moist, will prevent the paste getting mouldy. Apply them to
the microscope upon a slip of flat glass, first putting on it a drop of
water, taken up by the head of a pin, for them to swim in.
To make an infusion of pepper. Bruise as much common black pepper as
will cover the bottom of an open jar, and lay it thereon about half an
inch thick; pour as much soft water in the vessel as will rise about an
inch above the pepper. The pepper and water are then to be well shaken
together; after which they must not be stirred, but be left exposed to
the air for a few days, when a thin pellicle will be formed on the
surface of the water, containing millions of animalcula.
The observer should be careful not to form a judgment of the nature, the
use, and the operations of small animalcula, from ideas which he has
acquired by considering the properties of larger animals: for, by the
assistance of glasses, we are introduced as it were into a new world,
and become acquainted not only with a few unknown animals, but with
numerous species thereof, which are so singular in their formation and
habits, that without the clearest proofs even their existence would not
be credited; and while they afford fresh instances of the Creator’s
power, they also give further proofs of the limits and weakness of the
human understanding.
DIRECTIONS FOR FINDING, FEEDING, AND PRESERVING THE POLYPES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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