This microscope is signed on one leg of the folding tripod base, Jas. Smith, London, 109. James Smith was one of the three premier English microscope manufacturers of the Victorian era (the two others were A. Ross and H. Powell). He initially worked as foreman for W.Tully & Sons in the early 19th century where he constructed the brass work for the achromatic microscope designed by Joseph Jackson Lister in 1826. With the help of Lister, in 1839, he established his own firm. In 1847, Richard Beck, nephew of J. J. Lister, became a partner in the firm and was shortly followed by his brother Joseph Beck in 1857. After the retirement of Smith in 1865, the firm was known as R&J Beck.

Robley Dunglison
1798 - 1869
Archives of Thomas Jefferson University
Philadelphia

In researching this microscope, it became apparent that it has considerable historical interest with respect to American medicine. This microscope was the instrument used by Robley Dunglison (1798-1869), America’s first full-time professor of medicine. Dunglison was the personal physician to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe and consulted in the treatment of Andrew Jackson. Dunglison was trained at various institutions in England and Paris after which he established a practice in London. In 1825, at the invitation of Thomas Jefferson, he was invited to join the faculty as Professor of Medicine at the newly formed University of Virginia where he taught anatomy, physiology, materia medica, and medical jurisprudence. In 1833, he left that institution and spent three years at the University of Maryland. He then moved to the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and remained there for the rest of his career. He was a prolific author and dedicated teacher. His textbook on physiology, first published in 1832 and updated in many editions, was the first of its kind by an American author and earned him the title “The Father of American Physiology”.

Evidence that this microscope was the property of Robley Dunglison first became apparent after consulting the Smith & Beck Delivery Books. Reproduced above is the entry concerning the Smith microscope with serial number 109. The entry states that it is the “small microscope” model and that it was sold to “Dr. Dunglison” on Sept. 18, 1845. It remained to be established that this person was the physician Robley Dunglison. My purchase of this instrument was made from a source that indicated that the microscope has resided in the USA since the 19th century. In The Autobiographical ANA of Robley Dunglison, M. D. published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 53, part 8, 1963, Dunglison states “In the year 1844, being desirous of obtaining a good English microscope, I wrote Dr. Forbes, who entrusted the superintendence of its formation by Messr. Smith & Beck to Dr. Carpenter,- himself an excellent microscopist. I received it safely, and it gave me great satisfaction”. The Dr. Carpenter referred to in the above quote is William Benjamin Carpenter, MD (1813-1885) and the Dr. Forbes is the Scottish physician Sir John Forbes FRS (1787-1861). Additionally, Dunglison writes on p. 127 in his 1850 (7th edition) book entitled Human Physiology, in a discussion of the histology of hair follicles, “the author has had repeated opportunities for confirming it with his own admirable microscope made by Smith of London.”

It is very likely that this microscope is the first such instrument owned by Dunglison. In an overall favorable review of Dunglison's book Human Physiology 5th edition, 1844, the Dr. John Forbes referred to above wrote in the British and Foreign Medical Review, vol. xviii, 1844. p 530 "There is only one department in which we think his work deficient; and that is in regard subjects of microscopical inquiry. From various hints let fall by him we infer that be has not been in the habit of using the microscope, in the present improved form at least, and that he is consequently unable test and verify the observations in which the last few years have been so fertile. Hence we find him expressing doubt on some points which, we think, have been satisfactorily determined; and speaking confidently as to others, on which we should have felt more hesitation.". It appears that Dunglison took this criticism to heart since in the same year, he sought the help of Dr. Forbes in obtaining this microscope.

It is of interest to note that the upper portion of the stage of the microscope has been professionally modified from the original brass stage as supplied by Smith. The modification consists of the addition of a glass and brass slide carrier identical to those first supplied by Joseph Zentmayer of Philadelphia with his United States Army Hospital model microscope introduced in 1863. It is likely that Zentmayer incorporated his stage at the request of Dunglison. The modifications have been made in such a manner that the original accessories supplied by Smith can still be used with the microscope. These accessories include a 1/8 objective, a 1 1/4 - 2/3 divisible objective, two Leiberkuhns, one eyepiece (of originally two), a substage wheel of diaphragms, a substage adapter that allows an objective to be used as a focusing condenser, a stage condenser, a stage forceps, and a live box.  At about the time the stage was modified, some additional objectives (made by Spencer, Zentmayer, R&J Beck, and Hartnack) were added to the set to compliment the original lenses supplied by Smith.

Overall, the microscope has a very interesting design for a James Smith microscope. It is characterized by a bar-limb construction. Oddly, this is coming from a maker who by 1840 usually favored the use of the Lister (or Jackson) limb and who was influential in its adoption by other makers.