Page:History of botany (Sachs; Garnsey).djvu/278

 in the instrument and the appearance of the advantages which phytotomy derived from it; thus in 1824, Selligue exhibited to the Academy of Paris an excellent microscope with double lenses, several of which could be screwed on one over the other, and which could be used with ordinary daylight and a magnifying power of five hundred times; in 1827 Amici made the first achromatic and aplanatic objectives with three double lenses screwed on one over the other, the flat sides being turned to the object. And yet still in 1836 a practised phytotomist like Meyen spoke with disapproval of the instruments of his time, and gave the preference to an old English microscope by James Man, though he allowed that the newest instruments by Ploessl were a little better. In his work on phytotomy, which appeared in 1830, all the figures were magnified two hundred and twenty times, as were the very beautiful figures in his prize essay of 1836; but in his 'Neues System' (1837), he had already adopted powers that magnified to over five hundred times. How rapid the progress was in the years before and after 1830 is shown by comparing von Mohl's work on climbing plants of 1827 and its antiquated illustrations, with his publications of 1831 and 1833, where the figures have a thoroughly modern appearance.

The art also of preparing anatomical objects rose by degrees with the improvement of the microscope. It was not in a very advanced state at the beginning of the century, if we judge by the language of writers and by their figures. It was a great step in advance when the younger Moldenhawer in 1812 isolated cells by maceration and decay in water, and was thus enabled to view cells and vessels on every side and in a perfect condition, to see their real shape, and to survey the manner of their combination more exactly than had hitherto been done. But even Moldenhawer still made the mistake of submitting delicate microscopic objects to observation in a dry state, though Rudolphi and Link in 1807 had urged the advisability of keeping every part of the preparations moist, especially the