Robert Hooke Micrographia 1665

Micrographia, or Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses.

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Micrographia: Or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses by Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703) is the most influential work in the history of microscopy. Containing the discoveries which Hooke made with his newly perfected compound microscope, Micrographia was not only the first book devoted entirely to microscopic observations, but also the first to pair its descriptions with profuse and detailed illustrations. This graphic portrayal of a hitherto unknown micro world had an impact rivaling that of Galileo's Sidereus nuncius (1610) which had been the first publication to show drawings of the macro world beyond the earth through drawings of the moon made through the newly invented telescope.

Hooke began his observations with studies of non-living materials, such as woven cloth and frozen urine crystals, after which he proceeded to investigations of plant and animal life. He published the first studies of insect anatomy, giving a lucid account of the compound eye of the fly, and illustrating the microscopic details of such structures as apian wings, flies' legs and feet, and the sting of the bee. His famous and dramatic portraits of the flea and louse, a frightening eighteen inches long, are hardly less startling today than they must have been to Hooke's contemporaries. His botanical observations include the first description of the plant-like form of molds, and of the honeycomb-like structure of cork, which last he described as being composed of "cellulae," thereby coining the modern biological usage of the work "cell" to describe the basic microscopic units of tissue.

Along with these significant contributions to microscopy and microbiology, Micrographia also expounds several other more or less related scientific theories. Hooke's investigations into the nature of combustion are as important as those of Boyle, Richard Lower and John Mayow; and his theory of light, which included the first demonstration of the periodicity of the spectrum, inspired Newton to make the optical experiments that form the basis of Book 2 of the Opticks.

—J. Norman, 2006