While this instrument
is unsigned by the maker, this form of
dissecting-preparation microscope was designed and
produced by the Parisian optician Constant Verick
beginning in the 1870's. The mechanisms and movements
used on this microscope are reminiscent of those that
originally appeared in the earlier
Raspail type simple microscope; in this case, the
older type has been modified with the incorporation
of wooden hand-rests and drawers for the lenses and
accessories. Production of this model, with some
refinements, was continued by Verick's successor and
son-in-law,
Maurice Stiassnie, well into the early
20th century.
The following was
extracted from The Journal of the Royal
Microscopical Society, 1880
Verick's
Dissecting Microscope.This instrument (Pg. 143) does not
differ in a sufficiently marked manner from the usual
form (though we have found it to be extremely
conveniently arranged) to require it to be noticed
here, but a special advantage to which we think
attention may be usefully drawn is the mounting of
the lenses, which are fixed in a tubular setting of
more than ordinary depth and expanded at the top to
receive the eye similar, in fact, to a watchmaker's
glass. We are not able to say whether this additional
depth would in prolonged examinations develop any
disadvantages; but so far as we have had the
opportunity of judging, it constitutes a specially
effective protection to the eye from extraneous light
beyond what is obtained in the case of the more
ordinary setting.
An identical signed
example is located at the microscopy collections at
the Science Museum, London (inventory number A56361)
dated 1870-1880. It is described in the catalog as
follows:
"
A mahogany baseboard supports two sloping wrist-rests,
providing two small drawers below. These contain a
hand forceps, two mounted needles, and a cuckoo stage
forceps. The drawer on the right is fitted for three
lenses. In between the drawers the plane mirror is
carried on a ball-joint, with the pillar behind. This
contains a triangular bar with rack applied to its
rear, worked by a pinion in a housing applied to the
top of the pillar. At the top of the bar is a
rotatable housing for the lens-arm, which is moved to
and fro by a screw. The stage bridges the
wrist-rests; it is a brass square containing a glass
disc cemented in, and with two clips. This is a neat
and functional instrument, which still works well. In
the 1885 Verick catalogue, the instrument with three
lenses (giving magnifications from 6x to 15x) cost
FF60, or FF75 with doublets.
Bought by Crisp
from the maker in the 1880s, to be number 243 in his
collection. Purchased at Stevens's auction, December
1920; price £1.5s."
A similar microscope,
with some refinements, was still sold by M.
Stiassnie, Verick's successor, in the early 20th
century. The following was extracted from the
Stiassnie 1905 catalog: