A Book Nearly Destroyed by Fire
The Microscope in Theory and Practice
Notes: An English translation from the German of the first seven (of ten) chapters of the 1877 edition of Das Mikroskop.
The preface explains why this translation lacks the final three chapters: the manuscript and all but one copy of the printed edition were burned in a fire at the printers. The translation, by Frank Crisp and John Mayall Jr. had already consumed ten years, and the idea of starting all over on the last three chapters was too much. So the Royal Microscopical Society, which had arranged for the publication of this book, decided instead to reprint the book using the one surviving partial copy.
Technically, this is the second printing, but since the first printing was entirely lost (even the one surviving copy would have been disassembled to make the stereo plates for this edition), I'm calling this the first edition.
xi, 382 pages.
Edition + Condition: First edition (see above). A solid, very good copy.
Publication: London: Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co., 1887.
Item No: #307782
Price: $75