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, around 1840, he established his own firm. By 1847, Richard Beck, nephew of J. J. Lister, became a partner in the firm and was shortly followed by his brother, Joseph Beck, in 1852. After the retirement of Smith around 1864, the firm was known as R&J Beck.(1)
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, Paris, and Germany 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 the next 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. It earned him the title "The Father of American Physiology".(2)
Books by Robley Dunglison Books that mention Robley Dunglison
Evidence that
this microscope was the property of Robley Dunglison first
became apparent after consulting the Smith & Beck delivery
books.(3) 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 provided information that suggested that the
microscope has resided in the USA since the 19th century. In
his autobiography, 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".(4) The Dr. Carpenter
referred to in the above quote is
William Benjamin Carpenter (1813-1885), the physician
and naturalist, who is best known to historians of the
microscope from the numerous editions of his classic work The
Microscope and Its Revelations. The Dr. Forbes, also referred
to in the above quote, is the Scottish physician
Sir John Forbes, FRS (1787-1861); among his important
accomplishments was the appointment as court physician to
Prince Albert and the royal household.(5) Additionally,
Dunglison wrote in 1850, when discussing the histology of hair
follicles, "the author has had repeated opportunities for
confirming it with his own admirable microscope made by
Smith of London".(6)
It appears
Dunglison had at least some access to a microscope prior to
his purchase of this Smith microscope. In the famous
experiments carried out by William Beaumont on the physiology
of digestion,(7) Beaumont studied an employee of the American
Fur Co., Alexis St. Martin, who had a permanent gastric
fistula due to an accidental shotgun injury; Beaumont recorded
his observations in his 1834 book.(8) He wrote, with respect
to the microscopic examinations of the gastric juice, "The
following Microscopic examinations were made with Jones'
compound Microscope, in the presence of Professor Dunglison
and of Capt. H Smith, of the Army". J. H. Cassedy, in
his article about the early use of the microscope in American
medicine,(9) appears to have made the assumption that the
microscope referred to in the above quote was provided by
Professor Jones of Columbian College, but in fact, Beaumont
does not mention the source of the microscope and, on the
contrary, Dunglison states in his autobiography that he
provided the microscope and performed the examinations.(10)
Might the "Jones' compound Microscope" referred to in
the quote be what was (and still is) known as a Jones Improved
or Jones Most Improved Microscope? These were among the most
popular models of the period. This would suggest that prior to
the purchase of the James Smith microscope, Dunglison only had
access to this earlier form of a non-achromatic microscope. It
was soon after this period in America and elsewhere where the
value of the achromatic microscope for the study of the
medical sciences was just beginning to become more
apparent.(9)
Another impetus
for Dunglison to purchase a new instrument could have been the
review of the latest edition of his book Human Physiology.(11)
In an overall favorable review, Dr. John Forbes, referred to
above, wrote, "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". (12) It appears that Dunglison took this
criticism to heart since, in the same year, he sought the help
of Dr. Forbes in obtaining the Smith microscope, the cost of
which was 18 pounds.(4)
It is of
interest to note that the upper portion of the stage of this
microscope has been professionally altered from the original
brass type of stage that was usually supplied on Smith
microscopes of the period (see above). The modification
consists of the addition of a glass and brass slide carrier
identical to those first used by the optician Joseph Zentmayer
of Philadelphia (established in 1853) with his
United States Army Hospital model microscope introduced
in 1863. Since Dunglison and Zentmayer were located in the
same city and since Zentmayer was the foremost optician in the
city, it is reasonable to assume that they may have been
acquainted and thus, it is plausible 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 Lieberkuhns, one eyepiece
(of originally two), a sub-stage wheel of diaphragms, a
sub-stage 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. Apparently, this model was unknown to Nelson when
he wrote about the microscopes of James Smith in 1900.(1)
Additionally, this "small microscope" model was also
unknown to R. H. Nuttall as stated explicitly in his more
recent discussion of the James Smith microscopes.(13) While
researching the museum collections available to me, I have
been unable to locate an example exactly like this one. The
instrument, having a folding base, appears to be designed with the idea of portability
in mind, given that it and the accessories can be stored in a
compact manner within the case. The instrument is
characterized by a bar-limb construction with the fine
adjustment knob located on the side of the limb, which has two
struts supporting the tube. It is curious to find this design
from a maker who by 1840, usually favored, and was known for,
the use of the Lister limb. In fact, one can say that he was
influential in the adoption of this type of limb by other
manufacturers.
It should be
mentioned that the Smith and Beck delivery books make a
distinction within the class of "small microscopes"; some are
listed simply as "small" while others are listed as "plain
small" or "small best".(3) The Smith microscope with serial
number 141, manufactered in 1846, is also characterized in the
delivery books as a "small microscope"; it now resides in the
Billings collection and is shown in fig 400 in the
catalog.(14). This microscope has a number of features in common
with #109. In particular, #1414 has the same struts supporting
the tube and the same folding tripod base, but the location of
the fine addjustment is on the top of the limb and the body of
the microscope is supported on a double pillar, not a single
as with #109.
It is both a rare and gratifying opportunity for a collector of these old microscopes to be able to obtain an instrument that has an association with such an important individual.
References:
- E. M. Nelson, The Microscopes of Powell, Ross, and Smith. III-James Smith and His Microscopes, J. Roy. Micro. Soc., 3, 550-558 (1900).
- S. M. Tenny, The Father of American Physiology, News Physiol. Sci., 9, 43-44 {1994).
- B. Bracegirdle, Smith & Beck Delivery Books 1839-1865, Little Imp Publications.
- R.X. Samuel (Ed), The Autobiographical ANA of Robley Dunglison, M. D, Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., 53, part 8, 78 (1963).
- Agnew RAL, John Forbes FRS (1787-1861), The James Lind Library (2008).
- R. Dunglison, Human Physiology, 7th edition, Philadelphia, 127 (1850).
- I. M. Modlin, A Gastric Sexology: The Story of Three Men and Three Bottles of Gastric Juice, J. Clin. Gastroenterol., 29, 111-114 (1999).
- W. Beaumont, M. D., Surgeon in the U. S. Army, Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion, Lilly, Wait, and Company, Boston, 233 (1834).
- J. H. Cassedy, The Microscope in American Medical Science, 1840-1860, Isis, 67, 76-97 (1976)
- p. 52 in reference 4
- R. Dunglison, Human Physiology, 5th edition, Philadelphia (1844).
- J. Forbes (Ed), Br. Foreign Med. Rev., xviii, 530 (1844).
- R. H. Nuttall, James Smith, and Smith and Beck; 1839-1852, Part 1: The Microscopes, Microscopy, 36, 288-300, 317, (1989).
- The Billings Microscope Collection of the Medical Museum, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington DC, 2nd Edition, (1974), pg. 207.
