#John Quekett

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Science Saturday

Here are a few pages and plates from A Practical Treatise on the Use of the Microscope by notable English microscopist and histologist John Quekett (1815-1861), published in London by Hippolyte Bailliere in 1848. Bailliere was a prominent science and medical publisher whose imprint has survived as a medical imprint of the Elsevier publishing group. 

A classic in its field, the book includes nine engraved and lithographed plates and 241 wood engravings. It opens with a 46-page history of the microscope that remains definitive to this day. It then describes a number of microscopes and instruments with exquisite illustrations and detailed descriptions of the rationale and function for each instrument. Part two of the treatise provides detailed instructions on the use of the microscope and ends by detailing various methods for preparing specimens for microscopic examination.

John Quekett was conservator of the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, a long-time secretary of the Microscopical Society and then its president, and he was a fellow of the Linnean Society and the Royal Society. His Practical Treatise was enormously influential among professionals and amateurs, and even Prince Albert came to him for instruction. His legacy is commemorated by the Quekett Microscopical Club, established in 1865.

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#Science Saturday #John Quekett #microscope #microscopes #microscopy #A Practical Treatise on the Use of the Microscope #histology #Hippolyte Bailliere #scientific illustration #engravings #lithographs #wood engravings

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