The Aplanatic Searcher is intended to improve the penetration, amplify magnifying-power, intensify definition, and raise the objective somewhat further from its dangerous proximity to the delicate covering-glass indispensable to the observation of objects under very high powers. The inquiry into the practicability of improving the performance of microscopic object-glasses of the very finest known quality was suggesed by an accidental resolution in 1862 of the Podura markings into black beads. This led to a search for the cause of defective definition, it any existed. A variety of first-class objectives, from the 1/16 to the 1/4, failed to show the beading, although most carefully constructed by Messrs. Powell and Lealand.