Microcosm

“ The coarse food necessary for you in order to keep up the crude materiality of which your physical make-up is composed, is not needed by the denizens of Mars. In the composition of your physical bodies is a representative of all the material elements in nature—iron, calcium, wood, earth, etc.—and it is easily demonstrated by microscopic inspection and chemical analysis, that in every drop of blood in the human system all these varied and numerous elements are represented. Hence man may be safely considered a microcosm, or nature in her vast domain, reflected in miniature. ”

“ Peering into the invisible little world, the infinite secrets of microcosm have yielded their fruitful and potent knowledge of bacteria and cell growth. Pain has been robbed of its terrors by anæsthesia; the heat of the sun has been brought down in the electric furnace, and the cold of inter-stellar space in the ice machine and liquid air. With telescope and spectroscope he has climbed into limitless space above, and defined the size, distance, and constitution of a star millions of miles away. ”

“ From an objective point of view the "microcosm" is represented by the human body. Makaram may be taken to represent simultaneously both the microcosm and the macrocosm, as external objects of perception. ”

“ To the novelist, if not to the poet, there is a still greater advantage in being born in a microcosm. He sees the drama of life from a point of view entirely different from that of the novelist born in the macrocosm. The human microbe, or, as Mr. John Morley might prefer to say, the human cheese-mite in the macrocosm sees every other microbe or every other cheese-mite on the flat, but in the microcosm he sees every other microbe or every other cheese-mite in the round.
p. 28Mr. Watts-Dunton’s work is saturated with memories of the Ouse. ”

“ We cannot fathom the marvellous complexity of an organic being; but on the hypothesis here advanced this complexity is much increased. Each living creature must be looked at as a microcosm—a little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven. ”

“ Hermes calls man the microcosm, because the man, or the small world, contains all that which is included in the macrocosm or great world. Thus the macrocosm has small and large animals, both terrestrial nd aquatic; man, on the other hand, has fleas and lice—these are the terrestrial animals; he has also intestinal worms—these are aquatic animals. The macrocosm has rivers, springs, and seas; man has internal organs—intestines, veins, and arteries. ”

“ MICROCOSM and MACROCOSM. The belief of the ancients that the world or cosmos was animated, or had a soul, led to the notion that the parts and members of organic beings must have their counterparts in the members of the cosmos. The natural philosophers of the 16th century—Paracelsus at their head—took up this notion anew in a somewhat modified shape, and considered the world as a human organism on the large scale, and man as a world, or cosmos, in miniature ”

“ To speak, therefore, of medicine, and to resume that we have said, ascending a little higher: the ancient opinion that man was microcosmus—an abstract or model of the world—hath been fantastically strained by Paracelsus and the alchemists, as if there were to be found in man’s body certain correspondences and parallels, which should have respect to all varieties of things, as stars, planets, minerals, which are extant in the great world. But thus much is evidently true, that of all substances which nature hath produced, man’s body is the most extremely compounded. ”

“ Microbiol′ogy, the science of micro-organisms. [Fr.,—Gr. mikros, small, bios, life.]
Microcephalous, mī-krō-sef′a-lus, adj. having a small or imperfectly formed head.—Also Microcephal′ic. [Gr. mikros, small, kephalē, the head.]
Microchronometer, mī-krō-krō-nom′e-tėr, n. an instrument for registering very small periods of time.
Micrococcus, mī-krō-kok′us, n. a microscopic organism of a round form.
Microcosm, mī′krō-kozm, n. a little universe or world: (often applied to) man, who was regarded by ancient philosophers as a model or epitome of the universe.—adjs. ”

“ Mickle, William Julius, translator of the "Lusiad" (q. v.) , born at Langholm, in Dumfriesshire, author of "There's nae Luck aboot the Hoose" (1734-1788) .
Microbe, a minute organism found in the blood of animals, especially when suffering from disease. See Bacteria.
Microcosm, name given by the Middle Age philosophers to man as representing the macrocosm or universe in miniature.
Microphone, an instrument invented in 1878 by Professor Hughes, and consisting of charcoal tempered in mercury, which intensifies and renders audible the faintest possible sound. ”

“ These systems of atoms that we call molecules have been frequently compared to the solar system, and cited as evidence that man occupies an intermediate position in creation, with a microcosmos beneath, as far removed from the order of his perceptions as is the macrocosmos above him. To one who realizes what must be the complex dynamical relations as well as the order of magnitude of these molecular systems, the diagrams of molecular structure which may be seen in any work on organic chemistry can not but appear as crude and childish as the figures of constellations on a celestial globe ”

“ We are so prone to think that if only our microscopes were a little stronger, if only we could devise more effective methods of staining or of chemical analysis or chemical synthesis, we might really find out what life is, or what matter itself is; in short, that we might be able to solve in a scientific way the old, old riddle of existence. But already we have about reached the limits of the powers of the microscope; and even if we could devise a way of seeing the ultimate structures of which protoplasm is composed, how would we be any better off? ”

“ We have, then, this certain truth,—all things visible around us are but aggregations of atoms. From particles of dust, which under the microscope could scarcely be distinguished one from the other, are all the varied forms of nature created. This grain of dust, this particle of sand, has strange properties and powers. Science has discovered some truths, but still more are hidden within this irregular molecule of matter which we now survey, than have yet been shadowed in the dreams of our philosophy. ”

“ Rarely are we disappointed, certainly not in the realm of organic form. Here everything is beautiful, and, as the heavens to the astronomer, everything is clean. Even the rudest fungi offer no exception. In them the microscope finds no exception to the law of beauty. The simplicity of structure noted in the previous article runs through nearly all, only varied a thousand times; but whether mycelial thread or spores, one or other or both conjoined, the result, as we hope by illustration here to show, is always symmetry and elegance itself. ”

“ The inorganic kingdom will afford to the microscopist a never-ending number of objects of unsurpassed beauty and interest. The phenomena of crystallisation in its varied combinations can be made 240 a useful and instructive occupation. Although ignorant of the means whereby the great majority of minerals and crystals have been formed in the vast laboratory of Nature, we can, nevertheless, imitate in a small degree Nature’s handiworks by crystallising out a large number of substances, and watch their numerous transformations in the smallest appreciable quantities, when aided by the microscope. ”

“ Science, by means of the microscope, has brought to light forms of "living things," resembling in appearance the fine dust of inorganic minerals. These low forms of life exhibit but the simplest vital processes, the same very closely resembling chemical processes, although just a shade higher in the scale. Living creatures have been found which could be dried and laid aside like dust for several years, and then revived by being immersed in water, when they would resume their vital process as if they had been awakened from a sleep. ”

“ When, for example, the contents of a cell are described as perfectly homogeneous, as absolutely structureless, because the microscope fails to distinguish any structure, then I think the microscope begins to play a mischievous part. A little consideration will make it plain to all of you that the microscope can have no voice in the real question of germ structure. Distilled water is more perfectly homogeneous than the contents of any possible organic germ. What causes the liquid to cease contracting at 39° F., and to grow bigger until it freezes? ”

“ A micro-organism, even under the highest powers of the microscope, is so minute an object, that to represent it in a drawing requires a very delicate touch, and it is only too easy to make a picture which gives an erroneous impression to those who have not seen the original. Photography enables the scientific worker to record rapid changes, and it is quite possible as the art advances we may find the film more sensitive than the human retina, and that it will bring out details in bacteria which would be otherwise unrecognised. ”

“ Who of us has not, in a partially darkened room, seen the rays of the sun, as they entered through apertures or chinks in the shutters, exhibit their track by lighting up the infinitely small corpuscles contained in the air? Such corpuscles always exist, except in the atmosphere of lofty mountains, and they constitute the dust of the air. A microscopic examination of them is a matter of curiosity. Each flock is a true museum (Fig. 1) , wherein we find grains of mineral substances associated with organic debris, and germs of living organisms, among which must be mentioned the microbes. ”

“ Men have (as is usual in new and wonderful discoveries) added a superstitious remark, that the microscope sheds a lustre on the works of nature, and dishonor on those of art, which only means that the tissue of nature is much more delicate than that of art. For the microscope is only of use for minute objects, and Democritus, perhaps, if he had seen it, would have exulted in the thought of a means being discovered for seeing his atom, which he affirmed to be entirely invisible. ”

“ Going back as far as we safely can on solid ground, we come to the nebulae from which the solar systems of the universe have evolved, and surely a solar system is as essentially different from the nebula as a man is from an amoeba. Coming to our earth when its primeval, flaming, swirling gases had been condensed into inorganic matter, the protoplasm which is organic matter, arose from it, and so something which grows from within out, comes from something which grows from without in. ”

“ It also teaches that colloidal matter, when exposed to certain conditions, presents the phenomena of life, and that it can be formed from crystalline matter, and thus that the prima materia of which these are diverse forms contains potentially all the multitudinous kinds of animal and vegetable existence. This theory moreover harmonizes well with the views here advocated, for just as crystalline matter builds itself, under suitable conditions, along certain definite lines, so analogously colloidal matter has its definite lines and directions of development. ”

“ Everything was examined, not merely with the naked eye, but with the microscopes that most of our citizens are wont to carry with them to investigate and admire any of the beauties of nature that attract their attention. Small shreds of many of the substances were taken by our chemists for analysis, to be quite sure that the elements of matter in our sister-world would be exactly the same as we had in our planet. ”

“ But the discovery and improvement of the microscope, though giving a death-blow to much that had been previously written and believed regarding spontaneous generation, brought also into view a world of life formed of individuals so minute—so close as it seemed to the ultimate particles of matter—as to suggest an easy passage from atoms to organisms. Animal and vegetable infusions exposed to the air were found clouded and crowded with creatures far beyond the reach of unaided vision, but perfectly visible to an eye strengthened by the microscope. ”

“ The living substance, e.g. of a nerve cell, appears as a watery substance crowded with a countless number of granules, which are so small that only the light dispersed around each is visible under the highest power of the microscope when illuminated [Pg viii] by a beam of light against a dark ground, just as the halo of each dust particle in the air is made visible by a beam of light crossing a dark room, and just as these dust particles are in dancing motion due to the currents of air, so are the particles in the living substance ceaselessly kept dancing by the play of inter-molecular forces. ”

“ In these allied phenomena we have effects which are evidently dependent upon several dissimilar causes. The phosphorescence of the living animal is due, without doubt, to nervous excitation: that of the living vegetable to solar luminous influence; and in the case of the mosses of caverns, &c. to the chemical agency of the sun’s rays, which appears to be capable of conduction. In the dead organic matter we have a purely chemical action developing the light, and in the inor [Pg 162] ganic bodies we have peculiar molecular constitution, by which an absorption of light appears to take place. ”

“ To summ up all therefore in a word, I have not yet found any solid colour'd body, that I have yet examin'd, perfectly opacous; but those that are least transparent are Metalline and Mineral bodies, whose particles generally, seeming either to be very small, or very much flaw'd, appear for the most part opacous, though there are very few of them that I have look'd on with a Microscope, that have not very plainly or circumstantially manifested themselves transparent. ”