Extracted from The
Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society,
1883
Verick's
Travelling or Pocket
Microscope. In this instrument (figs 46 and
47) portability is obtained, not only by the usual
expedients of reversing the body-tube in its sheath
and setting the stage at right angles, but also by
making the two legs of the base close together, as in
a pair of compasses. It then packs into a box 20 cm.
by 10 cm. and 5 cm. deep. The instrument was designed
by M. C. Verick, with the co-operation of Dr. L.
Malassez.
Constant Verick
advertised himself as a èlève spécial de E.
Hartnack both in the signatures he used for some of
his instruments and in his catalogs. By the mid
1870's he established his own firm where a number of
different microscope models were produced, among
which is the portable model presented herein. In
1882, the firm was succeeded by his
son-in-law
Maurice Stiassnie.
Dr. Louis Malassez (1842 -1909) was a
professor of general anatomy at the Collège
de France. He speciallized in the histology of blood
and tumors. Part of his obituary ( J. Jolly,
Bibliographie Anatomique, vol. XIX, 1909,
pp. 296-300) can be translated from the French as
follows: "Louis
Malassez has just died in Paris, the 22nd of December
1909. His name was known to all those interested in
microscopic sciences, of which he was one of the most
authorized representatives. Fascinated from an early
age with the study of biology, he made, in the
beginning of his medical studies, the acquaintance
with Ranvier and de Cornil, who recruited him into
the small laboratory which they had founded in Paris,
rue Christine. Initiated by them to histology, he
became their closest collaborator; at the same time,
in the hospital of Potain, where he was an intern,
and in the laboratory of Cl. Bernard, assiduously
attended by him, he started his work on the
enumeration of the blood globules. Called, in 1875,
by Ranvier, to the management of the laboratory of
histology of the École des hautes etudes incorporated
in the chair of general anatomy in the Collège de
France, he dedicated himself completely to scientific
research, dividing his time between his laboratory
and the Sociètè de biologie.The main treatises of
Malassez concern the histology of the blood and the
tumours".