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The New Microscopes The illuminating unit used for examining the filterable forms of disease organisms contains 14 lenses and prisms, 3 of which are in the high intensity incandescent lamp, 4 in the Risley prism, and 7 in the achromatic condenser which, incidentally, has a numerical aperture of 1.40. Between the source of light and the specimen are subtended two circular, wedge shaped, block-crystal quartz prisms for the purpose of polarizing the light passing through the specimen, polarization being the practical application of the theory that light waves vibrate in all planes perpendicular to the direction in which they are propagated. Therefore, when light comes into contact with a polarizing prism, it is divided or split into two beams, one of which is refracted to such an extent that it is reflected to the side of the prism without, of course, passing through the prism while the second ray, bent considerably less, is thus enabled to pass through the prism to illuminate the specimen. When the quartz prisms on the universal microscope, which may be rotated with vernier control through 360 degrees, are rotated in opposite directions, they serve to bend the transmitted beams of light at variable angles of incidence while, at the same time, a spectrum is projected up into the axis of the microscope, or rather a small portion of spectrum since only a part of a band of color is visible at any one time. However, it is possible to proceed in this way from one end of the spectrum to the other, going all the way from the infrared to the ultraviolet. Now, when that portion of the spectrum is reached in which both the organism and the color band vibrate in exact accord, one with the other, a definite characteristic spectrum is emitted by the organism. In the case of the filter-passing form of the Bacillus typhosus, for instance, a blue spectrum is emitted and the plane of polarization deviated plus 4.8 degrees. The predominating chemical constituents of the are next ascertained after which the quartz prisms are adjusted or set, by means of vernier control, to minus 4.8 degrees (again in the case of the filter-passing form of the Bacillus typhosus) so that the opposite angle of refraction may be obtained. A monochromatic beam of light, corresponding exactly to the frequency of the organism (for Dr. Rife has found that each disease organism responds to and has a definite and distinct wave length, a fact confirmed by British medical research workers) is then sent up through the specimen and the direct transmitted light, thus enabling the observer to view the organism stained in its true chemical color and revealing its own individual structure in a field which is brilliant with light. |
