The microfcope, nearly at the fame period, gave rife to M..
Buffon’s famous fyftem of organic molecules, and M. Needham’s
incomprehenfible ideas concerning a vegetative force
and the vitality of matter. M. Buffori has drelfed up his fyftem
with all the charms of eloquence, prefenting it to the mind in
the moft agreeable and lively colours, exerting the depths of erudition
in the moft interefting and feducing manner, to eftablifh
his hypothefis, making us almoft ready to adopt it againft the
diftates of reafon, and the evidence o f fadts. But whether this
great man was milled by the warmth o f his imagination, his
attachment to a favorite fyftem, or the ufe o f impeded! inftru-
ments, it appears but too evident, that he was not acquainted
with the obje'dis whofe nature he attempted to inveftigate ; and it
is probable, that he never faw * thofe which he fuppofed he was
defcribing, continually confounding the animalculae produced
from the putrifying decompofition' o f animal fubftances,. with the
fpermatic animalculae, although they are two kinds, o f beings,,
differing in form and nature fo that the beautiful fabric attempted
to be raifed on his hypothefis, vanilhes before the light o f
truth and well condufted experiments..
After this period, the mind, either fatisfied with the difcoveries
already made, (which will be particularly defcribed: hereafter)
or tired by it’s own exertions, fought for repofe m- other purfuits ;
fo that for feveral years this inftrument was again, m fome meafure,.
* PorroBuffonius, ut cum illuftris viri venia dicam omnino non videtur. ver-
miculos feminales vidifte, Diuturnitas enim vita: quam fms corpufculis tnbuit,,
oftendit non efle noftra animalcula (id eft, fpermatica) qmbus brevis et paucarum.
horarum vita eft. Haller Phyfiol. tom. 7..
fm.e k id afide. In 1770, Dr. Hill * publ.lhed a treatife in
which he endeavours to explain the conftruaion of timber by
the microfcope, and fliew the number, the nature, and office of
it’s feveral parts, their various arrangements and proportions in
the different kinds; and point out a way of judging, from the
ftrufture of trees, the ufes they will beft ferye m the affairs of
life; So important a fubjedt foon revived the ardor for micro-
fcopic purfuits,'which feems to have been increafmg ever fmce.
About the fame time, my father contrived an inftrument for cutting
the tranfverfe, fedtions of wood, in order that the texture
thereof might be rendered more vifible; 1 m the microfcope, an
confequently be better underftood; this inftrument was afterwards
improved by Mr. Cumming. Another , inftrument for the fame
purpofe, more certain in it’s effeHs, and more eafily managed, is
reprefented in fig. 1, plate 9; it will be defcribed m one o.
the following chapters. Dr. Hooke and Mr. Cuftance now endeavoured
to. bring back the microfcope nearer to the old lan iard
to increafe the'field by the multiplication of the eye glafles_
and to augment the light on the objeH, by condenfmg lenfes ;
and in this they happily fucceeded: Mr. Cuftance was unrivalled
in his dexterity in preparing, and accuracy m cuttmg m tran -
In 1771, my father publilhed a fourth edition o f his Micrographia,
in which he defcribed. the principal inventions then m
ufe ; particularly a contrivance of his own, for applying the iolar
microfcope to the camera obfcura, and illuminating it at nig t y
r a lamp,
* Dr. Hill on the Conftruaion of Timber.