THE EARLY USE OF THE MICROSCOPE IN OHIO
By RUSSELL L. HADEN, M.D.
The compound microscope invented in 1590 made possible
the observation of a new world of minute
things. The practical
application of this instrument, however,
developed very slowly.
No field of science, for instance, has
profited more from the rev-
elations of the microscope than
medicine. Bacteria, protozoa
and many animal parasites were observed
by the early micro-
scopists, yet the microscope was not
used generally in medicine or
even for the instruction of medical
students until after a lapse
of nearly three hundred years.
While Galileo as early as 1610 observed with
a microscope
the finer structures of certain insects,
the serious early use of the
microscope in science began in 1665 with
Robert Hooke's Micro-
graphia and was continued by Marcello Malpighi, Jan Swammer-
dam, Nehemiah Grew and Anton Van
Leeuwenhoek. The class-
ical period of the microscope ended with
Leeuwenhoek's death
in 1723. Many of the workers of this
period were only random
observers. A few such as Swammerdam and
Malpighi really
advanced knowledge.
Relatively few books on the microscope were written
during
the eighteenth century, and very few
improvements were made in
the mechanics of the microscope. The
compound microscope re-
mained much as Hooke left it. Among the
more important books
were Henry Baker's The Microscope
Made Easy (1742) and Em-
ployment for the Microscope (1753), George Adams' Micro-
graphia Illustrata (1746) and Benjamin Martin's Micrographia
Nova (1742). These writers described the microscopes then in
use and certain observations made with
them, but no serious at-
tempt was made to study nature
systematically. Microscopy as
such may be said to have been in a state
of stagnation. Often the
microscope was only a plaything or an
object of amusement.
(271)
272 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Further advances in the nineteenth
century followed several
important developments. One of the most
important was the
manufacture of the achromatic lens in
1827 by Amici. Hereto-
fore chromatic aberration had interfered
greatly with the study
of the finer structures of magnified
objects. In 1838-1839 the cell
theory of Schwann and Schleiden
appeared, which revolutioned
previous ideas concerning the structure
of living tissues. This
was followed by the cellular pathology
of Virchow in 1858.
Coincident with such developments a
number of excellent works
on the microscope appeared which aroused
a new interest in the
microscope and gave a great impetus to
its application in science
and in education. Among the important
books of this period were
Sir David Brewster's Treatise on the
Microscope (1837), John
Queckett's Practical Treatise on the
Microscope (1848), Peter
Harting's Das Microscop (1848-1850),
and Jabez Hogge's Micro-
scope (1854) which went through many editions. At the same
time such books as Lionel Beale's Microscope
and Its Application
to Clinical Medicine (1854) appeared, emphasizing the application
of the microscope to definite fields.
Little is known about the early use of
the microscope in
America. Cotton Mather in 16891 in a
Thanksgiving sermon
stated: "By the assistance of
microscopes have I seen animals of
which many hundreds would not equal a
grain of sand." He
never traveled far from Boston, so
there may have been micro-
scopes there at that time. Mather again
in his Christian Philos-
oper (1721) in discussing insects says: "How minute but
how
astonishingly curious must be the
joints, the muscles, the tendons,
and the nerves necessary to perform the
motions of these mar-
velous creatures. These things concur
even in the smallest ani-
malcules and such as cannot be seen
without our microscopes."2
Mather was a Fellow of the Royal Society
of England.
Probably the first microscope known to
be in this country
was at Harvard College. Thomas Hollis to
whom Cotton Mather
dedicated his Christian Philosopher sent
from London in 1732 a
1 This sermon is in the rare book room at the Widener
Library, Harvard Univer-
sity, from which the writer obtained a
photostatic copy.
2 Cotton Mather, The Christian
Philosopher: A Collection of the Best Discoveries
in Nature with Religious Improvements
(London, 1721), 150.
OHIO MEDICAL hISTORY, 1835-58 273
Wilson simple microscope for the use of
the college.3 Hollis says:
"I hope Mr. Professor Greenwood
will make good use of each for
ye promoting useful knowledge and ye
advancement of natural
and revealed religion." Edward Bromfield of the Harvard class
of 1742 had several microscopes and made
numerous observations
with them before his early death in
1746. His work is mentioned
most enthusiastically by his pastor, the
Rev. Thomas Prince, in
writing about him after his death.4
One of the earliest records in America
concerning the pur-
chase of a microscope by a school is a
bill of sale for a solar
microscope5 bought by
Transylvania University in 1805. This
microscope and bill of sale are still preserved
at Lexington in the
Transylvania collection. There is also
an upright Cuff micro-
scope of about the same date which was
evidently purchased
about the same time. Among the books
bought for Transylva-
nia's medical library, and still there,
were Baker's Employment
for the Microscope and The Microscope Made Easy.
The earliest record the writer could
find of a microscope in
Ohio is recounted by Dr. Frederick C.
Waite in a paper concern-
ing an old microscope now belonging to
Western Reserve Uni-
versity.6 This microscope was bought in 1838 by Dr. John Dele-
mater in Geneva, New York, from Charles
A. Spencer, who only
three months before had begun to
manufacture microscopes.
Delemater moved to Willoughby, Ohio, in
1839 to teach in the
medical department of Lake Erie
University and in 1843 went to
Cleveland to found with Dr. Erastus
Cushing the school which
was to become the medical department of
Western Reserve Uni-
versity. Waite thinks that no single
teacher of his time had so
wide an influence on medical education
as Delemater with the
possible exception of Daniel Drake, yet
there is no record of his
use of the microscope. This instrument
was used in 1870 by Dr.
Isaac Himes in teaching pathology. This
microscope purchased
3 Frederick T. Lewis, "The Hollises
and Harvard," Harvard Graduate Magazine
(Cambridge), XLII (December, 1933), 107.
4 American Magazine (Boston), November 30, 1746.
5 A
copy of the hill of sale was kindly furnished the writer by Mrs. Charles F
Norton, the librarian of Transylvania College.
6 Frederick C. Waite, The Personal Tale
of a Microscope: A Whimsy Based
Throughout on Recorded Evidence,
Unpublished. Dr. Waite has kindly allowed the
writer to quote from this paper.
274 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
by Delemater for $25 was the
thirty-seventh made by Spencer.
Spencer's thirty-second microscope is
now in the United States
National Museum labeled as the oldest
known American made
microscope.
About the middle of the eighteenth
century interest in the
microscope became more evident
especially in relation to medi-
cine. It was natural that the use of the
microscope should be
confined largely to medicine at this
period, since the major part
of teaching in science was then in
medical schools. The use of
the microscope in Ohio colleges came
somewhat later. Dr. Ed-
win G. Conklin--for so long the
professor of biology at Prince-
ton--in his early history of biology7
at Ohio Wesleyan during
his student days, 1880-1885, states that
only one microscope was
available. This was a Zentmayer made in
1876. At Wittenberg
College H. R. Geiger, the professor of
natural sciences, had a
single microscope made after 1876. This
microscope is still pre-
served at the college.8 The
situation in other Ohio colleges was
much the same, so it is evident that
little application was made of
the microscope for teaching college
students before 1885.
There are a few striking examples of the
intelligent early
use of the microscope in Ohio by
non-medical men. Edward
Morley, the distinguished physicist who
became professor of
natural history and chemistry at Western
Reserve College at
Hudson, Ohio, in 1868, was a Fellow of
the Royal Microscopic
Society. One of his first scientific
papers on measurements of
Moller's Diatomaceen-Probe-Platten was
published in the Jour-
nal of the Royal Microscopic Society in 1876.9 A
second paper
concerning measurements of rulings on
glass appeared in 1877.10
Morley's microscope is now preserved in the department of
chemistry at Adelbert College. Jacob
Cox, Jr., was using a
microscope about 1870 in Cincinnati as
an amateur student of
science, later becoming a distinguished
microscopist.
The use of the microscope in medicine is
earlier, however.
7 E. G. Conklin. "Early Stages of the
Department of Biology" Ohio Wesleyan
Magazine (Delaware), IX (March, 1932), 117.
8 Personal communication from Dean C. G.
Shatzer.
9 E. W. Morley, Monthly Microscopical Journal (London), XV (1876),
223-7.
10 Ibid., XVII (1877), 137-43.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY,
1835-58 275
than in the colleges. The writer has
reviewed the transactions
of the Ohio State Medical Association,
founded in 1846, and the
early Ohio medical journals with
reference to the microscope.
In the Western Lancet and Hospital
Reporter11 for Novem-
ber, 1849, R. D. Mussey, the professor
of surgery in the Medical
College of Ohio, speaks of examining
with a microscope the con-
densation of vapors emanated from the
lungs of a patient suffer-
ing from cholera and of finding a
multitude of animalcules which
moved in all directions. He also
observed a long slender ani-
malcule in the rice water discharges. An
editorial in the same
journal for February, 1854,12 says: "The distinguished Mr.
Goadby of London, who for many years has
devoted himself to
microscopical investigation is now in
this city (Cincinnati). He
is prepared with instruments and
specimens sufficient to give full
instruction in the minute tissues of
both the vegetable and animal
kingdoms. Some of his specimens are rare
and beautiful."
In the Ohio Medical and Surgical
Journal for November,
1851,13
this sentiment is expressed: "The
medical profession is
awakening to the importance of this
subject (microscopy) and
we trust the day is not far distant when
microscopy will be taught
as a prominent department in every
medical college and the
microscope shall be considered necessary
to complete the arma-
mentarium of every physician and
surgeon." In the same journal
in 185914 in discussing microscopy the
statement is made: "This
young science is receiving a very
respectable share of attention
in our city (Columbus)."
The first reference15 to the microscope
in the Transactions
of the Ohio State Medical Association
was during the eleventh
annual meeting in Columbus in 1856 where
it is noted that Dr.
J. G. F. Holston made some interesting
remarks on the micro-
scope and its uses. Holston and two
others were appointed a
committee to report at the next meeting
of the society on the re-
lationship of the microscope to
pathology.
11 R.
D. Mussey, Western Lancet and Hospital Reporter (Cincinnati), TX (Novem-
ber, 1849), 293.
12 Editorial, Western Lancet and
Hospital Reporter (Cincinnati), XV (February,
1854), 117.
13 Ohio Medical and Surgical Journal (Columbus), IV (1851), 161.
14 Ibid., XI (1859), 65.
15 Transactions of the Ohio State
Medical Association (Columbus), 1856.
276 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Among the papers presented at the
meeting of the associa-
tion in Columbus in 1857 was one by
Holston entitled "Report
of a case in which a pumpkin seed formed
the nucleus for a
vesical calculus in the male subject;
with an appendix on micro-
scopes and microscopy." In this paper Holston discussed the
possible value of the microscope to
pathology. Mentioning
Spencer and other workers, he said
America produced the best
microscopes in the world. He recommended
for cheapness and
goodness a microscope supplied by
McAllister and Brother of
Philadelphia for $32. This was a
vertical Oberhauser micro-
scope made in Paris. Two microscopes
were exhibited, but no
statement was made about the type. At
another meeting in 1857,
Holston presented an additional report
saying he had sent 100
questionnaires to individual members of
the medical profession
of Ohio about the microscope and had
received only one reply
couched in two or three lines. At the
same meeting Dr. Gundry,
chairman of a committee on the
relationship of the microscope to
pathology, made a report which was not
published. At the meet-
ing in 1864 a committee composed of
Gundry, Holston and Mus-
sey was appointed to report on the
microscope with its applica-
tion to practical medicine. No published
report was made before
the committee was discontinued in 1868.
The committee on the
microscope was one of the many appointed
to report on widely
different subjects such as monomania,
castration, uterine catarrh,
hernia cerebri, gastric irritation and
excision of the clitoris.
During this period the microscope seemed
to be an object of
curiosity rather than a scientific tool.
Starling Loving16 in his
history of Starling Medical College
states that the school in 1848 possessed
one microscope "already
well advanced in years." He also
says: "At the opening of the
session of 1855-1856, Dr. Richard
Gundry, an English physician,
who had been induced by Professor Moore
to come to Columbus
and engage in general practice was
requested to give the students
lessons in microscopy, a department of
learning which was then
beginning to be appreciated but which
was not taught systemati-
16 The writer is indebted to Dr. B. K. Wiseman of the Ohio State Medical
School
for these references.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-58 277
cally in any school of the country and
in but few elsewhere. The
doctor's lessons excited much interest
and enthusiasm not only
among the medical students but among
many laymen interested in
scientific studies and Columbus soon
became famous for the num-
ber and excellence of instruments and
cultural aims of the gentle-
men who owned and used them."
The microscope was being similarly
introduced in other
cities and in other schools. O. W. Holmes
was using a micro-
scope for demonstration at Harvard in
1850, but microscopes
were not used by medical students there
until 1880.17 At the
University of Pennsylvania Medical
School the first use of micro-
scopes by students was in the session of
1874-1875, although
Leidy, the professor of anatomy must
have made use of the
microscope in studying trichinae in
1845.18 Victor C. Vaughan
at the University of Michigan in 1876
had only two microscopes
for his classes. In the same year he
bought six more at the
Sesquicentennial Exposition in
Philadelphia.19 The Medical Col-
lege of Ohio in the annual circular for
1871 mentioned microscopy
among other courses.20 The
Miami Medical College in Cincinnati
stated in the announcement for 1875-1876
that a large addition
had been made to the building explicitly
for the prosecution of
the study of practical chemistry,
toxicology and microscopy.
Again in 1876 the statement is made that
each student is practi-
cally trained in the use of the
microscope.20 The annual circular
of the Cleveland Medical College for
1878 in mentioning physi-
ology and histology states: "In
this branch full and practical in-
struction will be given in the use of
the microscope." Probably
a single instrument was available.
While some general interest in the
microscope developed
about 1850 in this country, it is evident
that the use of the micro-
scope was limited to a rare instrument
in the hands of a professor
who occasionally may have employed the
microscope for student
demonstrations or to an exceptional
practicing physician who for
some reason was ahead of his time and
fellow doctors in owning
17 Personal communication from Dr. S. B.
Wolbach.
18 Personal communication from Dr. E. B.
Krumbhaar.
19 Quoted from the Drs. Mayo, University
of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis, 1941.
20 The writer is indebted to Dr.
David Tucker of Cincinnati for these references.
278 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and using a microscope. Beginning about
1875 microscopes be-
gan to get into the hands of students in
the more progressive col-
leges and medical schools. They were not
generally used, however,
until about 1890. The discovery of the
tubercule bacillus in 1882
and rapid advances in bacteriology,
histology and tissue pathology
evidently stimulated the general use of
microscopes. In West-
ern Reserve University the first
microscopes for student use were
bought in 1888. Dr. George Crile told
the writer that the Wooster
Medical College from which he graduated
in 1887 had at that
time no microscope.
The increase in interest in microscopy
rapidly became general
in the eighties. Many laymen took up
microscopy as an avoca-
tion. Most cities had a microscopic
society. In Columbus there
was a microscopic section of the Tyndall
Association. Rev. T. F.
Stidham, the secretary of this
organization in Columbus, was one
of the founders of the American
Microscopic Society in 1878.
Numerous Ohio names were among the early
members of the
national society, and at the fourth
annual meeting of the American
Microscopic Society held in Columbus in
1881, several papers
were presented by Ohio members. The
eighth annual meeting
was held in Cleveland in 1885. The
Cleveland Microscopic So-
ciety entertained the visiting members
at a soiree at which the
exhibits ranged from the "Lord's
Prayer Viewed Through a
Pinhole" to eggs of the bedbug and
the bacilli of tuberculosis.
Forty-four of the 97 exhibits were by
physicians, one of whom,
Dr. John Sawyer, is still living in
Cleveland. Jacob Cox, Jr., of
Cincinnati, previously mentioned, was
elected a member of the
American Microscopic Society in 1882 and
was president in 1884.
Among the old microscopes in the
collection of the Medical
Library Association of Cleveland are
those of numerous early
Cleveland physicians. These include the
instruments of Gustav
Weber (1828-1912), Christian Sihler (1848-1920),
Henry Brain-
ard (1845-1930), and W. T. Corlett
(1854- ). Dr. Corlett
purchased his microscope in 1881. The
others mentioned were
used still earlier. It seems remarkable
to an observer today that
microscopes were so long in coming into
general use.
THE EARLY USE OF THE MICROSCOPE IN OHIO
By RUSSELL L. HADEN, M.D.
The compound microscope invented in 1590 made possible
the observation of a new world of minute
things. The practical
application of this instrument, however,
developed very slowly.
No field of science, for instance, has
profited more from the rev-
elations of the microscope than
medicine. Bacteria, protozoa
and many animal parasites were observed
by the early micro-
scopists, yet the microscope was not
used generally in medicine or
even for the instruction of medical
students until after a lapse
of nearly three hundred years.
While Galileo as early as 1610 observed with
a microscope
the finer structures of certain insects,
the serious early use of the
microscope in science began in 1665 with
Robert Hooke's Micro-
graphia and was continued by Marcello Malpighi, Jan Swammer-
dam, Nehemiah Grew and Anton Van
Leeuwenhoek. The class-
ical period of the microscope ended with
Leeuwenhoek's death
in 1723. Many of the workers of this
period were only random
observers. A few such as Swammerdam and
Malpighi really
advanced knowledge.
Relatively few books on the microscope were written
during
the eighteenth century, and very few
improvements were made in
the mechanics of the microscope. The
compound microscope re-
mained much as Hooke left it. Among the
more important books
were Henry Baker's The Microscope
Made Easy (1742) and Em-
ployment for the Microscope (1753), George Adams' Micro-
graphia Illustrata (1746) and Benjamin Martin's Micrographia
Nova (1742). These writers described the microscopes then in
use and certain observations made with
them, but no serious at-
tempt was made to study nature
systematically. Microscopy as
such may be said to have been in a state
of stagnation. Often the
microscope was only a plaything or an
object of amusement.
(271)