13. Author of Wonders of the Telescope.
The Wonders of the Microscope; or, An Explanation of the Wisdom of the Creator in Objects Comparatively Minute. New edition.
London: Darton and Clark, ca. 1842.
These extraordinary images of the flea and louse were copied from two famous
plates from Micrographia (1665) by Robert Hooke (1635-1703), a founding
member of the Royal Society of London. Hooke drew these meticulously detailed
pictures of common insects magnified under a
microscope to
demonstrate that the naked human eye could not actually see such tiny organisms
without the assistance of scientific instruments. Hooke's flea and louse
continued to appear in natural history books long after the scientific controversies
that inspired their creation had been resolved. If you would like to learn
more about this great early modern scientist, visit the
Robert
Hooke web page.
