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.