Description et usages de plusieurs nouveaux microscopes tant simples que composez, avec de nouvelles observations faites sur une multitude innombrable d'insectes & d'autres animaux de diverses espèces, qui naissent dans les liqueurs préparées & dans celles qui ne le sont point.

JOBLOT, Louis

Paris, Collombat, 1718. *** Première édition. La première partie décrit les microscopes et leur construction; elle est illustrée par 22 planches gravées hors-texte. La seconde, les observations de l'auteur sur "une multitude innombrable d'insectes" et de protozoaires, est illustrée par 12 planches hors-texte. Louis Joblot (1645-1723) est l'inventeur de nombreux microscopes et a introduit l'usage du diaphragme pour corriger les aberrations chromatiques. Ses meilleurs microscopes devaient atteindre un grossissement d’environ 400 fois, soit deux fois plus que celui de Van Leeuwenhoek. Bel exemplaire. *** In-4 de (12), 78, 96, (5) pp. et 34 planches h.-t. Veau glacé, dos à nerfs orné, tranches rouge. (Reliure de l'époque.) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *** First edition. The first part is illustrated by 22 copper plates. It describes several microscopes and their construction and introduce some improvements, including the use of stops (diaphragms) in compound microscopes to correct for chromatic aberration. The second part, illustrated by 12 copper plates, discusses Joblot's microscopical observations. Joblot's observations mainly concern Protozoa and were made between 1710 and 1716. Leeuwenhoek had observed the Protozoa previously, but Joblot's is the earlist treatise on them. He described and illustrated a large number of new types and, according to Cole, was the first to observe the contractile vacuole, while Oudemans states that he was the first picture the larva of a hydrachnid and the nymph of Unioicola ypsilophorus, a parasite of the pond mussel. "It is probable that Joblot was led to his research on microscopy by the arrival in Pairs of Huygens and Hartsoeker in the summer of 1678. In July of that year, Huygens showed microscopes that he had brought from Holland and demonstrated infusoria before the Academy of Sciences. An account of this demonstration was published in the jJournal des savans, which, two weeks later, published a description of Hartsoeker’s microscope. Probably inspired by these events, Joblot began his own research at about this time, and his 'Descriptions et usages de plusieurs nouveaux microscopes' makes particular reference to Hartsoeker' visit and to his work on Infusoria. The publication of 'Descriptions' established Joblot as the first French microscopist. " Dictionnary of Scientific Biography 7, 111. Fine copy. - - -. Item #16722

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