BioConcepts

microscopemicroscope (fr.); Mikroskop (ger.)

• An optical instrument used to view very small objects, typically consisting of an arrangement of lenses that provide a magnification of several hundred times. (OED 2012)
  category bacterium

  1624

  Et perché io fo anche menzione di questo novo ochiale di veder le cose minute, e lo chiamo microscopio

  Faber, G. [letter to F. Cesi, April 13th 1625]. Accademia dei Lincei (Rom), Carteggio 841, p. 1038 (printed in G. Galilei, Opere, ed. A. Favaro, Florence 1968, vol. XIII, 264); cf. Gabrieli, G. (1940). Voci lincee nella lingua scientifica italiana. Lingua Nostra 4, 89-91; Lüthy, C.H. (1996). Atomism, lynceus, and the fate of seventeenth-century microscopy. Early Science and Medicine 1, 1-27: 1; Freedberg, D. (2002). The Eye of the Lynx. Galileo, his Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History: 153.

  1648

  We see what strange discoveries of extream minute bodies, (as lice, wheal-worms, mites, and the like) are made by the Microscope, wherein their severall parts (which are altogether invisible to the bare eye) will distinctly appear

  Wilkins, J. (1648). Mathematicall Magick, 2 vols.: I, 115f. (ch. xvi).

  1651

  Microscope

  Highmore, N. (1651). The History of Generation. Examining the Several Opinions of Divers Authors: 70.