NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 289 



convene the quorum requisite to transact her ordinary business, 

 we may well feel encouraged to persevere in thus meeting together, 

 although the paucity of our number sometimes might otherwise be 

 enough to dishearten the most earnest seeker after truth among us. 



Prominent in the list of triumphs during the past year, stands 

 of course our Exhibition of microscopes and microscopical appa- 

 ratus, given in Horticultural Hall, to the American Medical Asso- 

 ciation, on the evening of May 1th, and witnessed with warmly 

 expressed satisfaction, not only by the members of the National 

 Convention and their ladies, but also b}' hundreds of the inhabi- 

 tants of Philadelphia, whose awakening interest in the wonders 

 and beauties of microscopy, as well as their enjoyment of the 

 results attained by microscopic investigation, formed a gratifying- 

 feature of the occasion. At this exhibition one hundred and six 

 instruments, adjusted to a classified collection of objects, illus- 

 trating most of the different applications of the higher magnifying 

 powers, to researches in Medicine, Natural History, Botany, 

 Chemistry, etc., were arranged upon our tables. The display of 

 microscopes is said to have been the largest ever gathered 

 together for a similar reception in America, and it excited much 

 admiration among both visitors and citizens. There is no doubt 

 that such demonstrations of downright facts, in regard to the 

 advancement of our knowledge of nature, either with or without 

 the aid of the microscope, will lead to a more and more just 

 appreciation of the inestimable value an Academy for the study 

 of the natural sciences has to the community at large, and thus 

 contribute in some measure towards creating that much needed 

 disposition, among merchants and business men, to foster such 

 an institution, by subscribing the comparatively trivial amount 

 of pecuniary endowment necessary for its successful operation 

 and support. 



Among the more or less elaborated papers and oral communica- 

 tions, presented before the section during the past year, may be 

 enumerated Dr. Henry C. Chapman's remarks upon Embryology, 

 profusely illustrated by charts and drawings, and his comments 

 this evening upon the Polycystina, etc. ; Dr. Albert Fricke's 

 valuable contribution to the medical history of our recent Equine 

 epidemic; Dr. J. H. McQuillen's description of Salivary calculus 

 and Oral Microzoa; Dr. Isaac Norris' paper on the History and 

 value of Polarized light as applied to the microscope; Dr. J. Gr. 



