Presidential Address. 155 



has produced results which only those in command of our Camps at 

 home and abroad can estimate at their enormous value. He had 

 already formulated his scheme to provide simply expressed 

 Lectures and Demonstrations in our Camps ; Lectures on Natural 

 and Physical Science, and on the Medical and Hygienic problems 

 vvliich confront the soldier at every turn. We do not require to 

 be reminded to-day of how the Young Men's Christian Association 

 has " made good " in this War. When the History' of the War 

 comes to be written the historian will endorse every word of un- 

 stinted gratitude, admiration and praise — and they have been 

 neither few nor far between — uttered by our Commanders, from 

 successive Commanders-in-Chief down to the most harassed and 

 obscure Company Officer. I wish that time would permit me to 

 give a full abstract of Ogilvy's reports to the Y.M.C. A. on the work 

 of his Microscopical Section, and I am proud to think that from 

 this Chair it was my privilege to help him to set the ball rolling at 

 our first Meeting during the War. 



The first Fellow of the Society to respond to my announcement 

 was Dr. Eudd Leeson. who with Mr. A. M. Allison as demon- 

 strator, and J. W. Ogilvy as Chauffeur, paid a visit by motor car to 

 Frensliara Camp and delivered a lecture on "The Common Fly." 

 after a journey the disastrous incidents of which fully entitle these 

 gentlemen to honourable " mention in despatches." From this 

 beginning, neither small nor unimportant, nor, I may say, devoid of 

 personal bravery, sprang a series of lectures and demonstrations 

 which in the following season reached the number of fifty-nine. 



These demonstrations were given, not only in and near London, 

 but far afield. In January 1916 Ogilvy had sixty-five active 

 microscopists on his list, many of them having surpassed our 

 allotted span of three score years of age ; later the number was 

 increased to seventy-nine, of whom only twenty-six had less than 

 ten attendances to their credit. From October 1916 to May 1917, 

 188 exhibitions were held, and 89 lectures delivered. This last 

 Easter twenty-one of Ogilvy's Band visited the Camp on Salisbury 

 Plain and in three days gave twenty-five Exhibitions and delivered 

 five lectures. All of his Band are not Fellows of this Society — 

 we should welcome them all with honour — but I have made it my 

 business to ascertain that among his workers are twenty-three 

 Fellows of the Society, who have been responsible for 354 lectures 

 and demonstrations. 



In addition to this there have been as many or more lectures 

 and demonstrations given by Microscopists who, though not 

 Fellows of the Society, are such regular attendants at our Meet- 

 ings that we almost count them as such. 



That these demonstrations are of vital value needs no words of 

 mine to impress. Almost every branch of science has been repre- 

 sented in their scope, the most important from a military point of 



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