Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.19706

    Eel scale

    Date
    1766
    Creator
    Adam Wolfgang Winterschmidt (1733 - 1796, German) , Engraver
    After
    Martin Frobene Ledermuller (1719 - 1769, German) , Naturalist
    Object type
    Library reference
    48660
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 245mm
    width (print): 195mm
    Subject
    Biology
       > Zoology
    Biology
       > Natural history
    Physics
       > Optics
          > Microscopy
    Description
    The scale of an eel at life-size a) and viewed by microscope, under magnification e). Also, a section of skin b) and skin after having been soaked and scraped c) d), viewed by microscope.

    Inscribed above: ‘TAB. XCIII.’

    The accompanying text is headed: ‘Ecaille d'Anguille’ [‘Scale of an eel’]. The author states that: ‘Car ayant laisse un peu de peau une heure dans l'eau, l'ayant ensuite raclee avec un Canif, & puis ayant expose ce peu de Peau avec la loupe a la lumiere, je le vis couvert de Taches brunes & de petits Points’ [‘Having left a little skin for an hour in the water, then having scraped it off with a penknife, and then having exposed this little skin with the magnifying glass to the light, I saw it covered with brown spots & small dots’.]

    Plate 93 from Amusement microscopique, tant pour l'esprit que pour les yeux, contenant... estampes... d'apres nature...by Martin Frobene Ledermuller, plates volume (Adam Wolfgang Winterschmidt, Nuremburg, 1764).

    Martin Frobene [Frobenius] Ledermuller (1719-1769) German naturalist was employed in various capacities as a notary, turning to microscope studies after an illness induced temporary deafness.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Germany
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