Open to 4 pages:  apparatus, p. 20, fig 9 microscope, foldout fly (plate 19).

In the 18th-century, the small worlds revealed by the microscope moved beyond the laboratory to the school, museum and family room, or wherever books might be sold. Instrument-makers like Adams designed, produced and sold capable and affordable microscopes on Fleet Street, London, along with printed catalogs and books providing instructions in how to use them.  

One plate depicts the components of a typical compound microscope, with two or more lenses. Instrument makers provided a standard assortment of accessories, including specimen slides.

Adams explains how to prepare “Animicula in Fluids” and other specimens that are “best seen when stuck upon one of the ivory slips.” Numerous plates illustrate how they appear through his instruments. Feathers of moths and butterflies are “shaped much like the feathers of birds.” Insect wings are made of the “finest bones” and “lightest membranes.”