Microscope

(mi'kröz-kōp.) [FromGr. mikros, and skopeo, I examine.] (Opt.) An instrument consisting of an arrangement of lenses which enables the observer to see an object, or its true image, nearer than with the naked eye, and magnified accordingly. Microscopes are either simple or compound. By the former we look directly at the object; by the latter, at its magnified image. The increase of apparent magnitude obtained by the employment of lenses is proportional to the difference of the distance of an object from the lens and the distance at which it can be seen without such a istance. This latter distance (the distance of distinct vision of minute objects with the naked eye) varies in different persons and at different periods of life. Some authors adopt ten inches as the standard, under ordinary circumstances, and its decimal character makes it a convenient multiplier or divisor. The M. has been greatly improved of late years, and it is extensively employed by medical men in the investigation of healthy and diseased structure, and by naturalists in the examination of the minute structure of animals, vegetables, . So important are the discoveries that have been made by it, that several branches of science have been entirely changed.-Solar M. See MAGIC LANTERN, MICROPHONE. See TELEPHONE, p. 980. [s. 599]