Fresidential Add i ess. 165 



concentrate still farther, and to devote our pages to the record, 

 catalogue, and index, primarily, of the progress and development of 

 the instrument itself, the methods of its application to every 

 branch of science, and to the highly technical problems connected 

 with tliat progress and development, and with those methods. 



I have heard the opinion expressed at the meetings of the 

 Catalogue Sub-Committee of the Conjoint Board that our records 

 are not of themselves such as to demand a separate section in the 

 Catalogue of Scientific Literature : to take a concrete instance, 

 that the record of a new method of observation such as a develop- 

 ment in the polarization of rock-sections, or even the remarkable 

 results of Mr. J. E. Barnard's work in connexion with the exami- 

 nation of the internal structure of the Foraminifera by means of 

 the X-rays, should be included in the sections of the Catalogue 

 devoted to Mineralogy, Zoology, or Palaeontology. With this view 

 I entirely disagree, and against it I have consistently fought, and 

 am persistently fightinfr. Workers, in whatever the branch of 

 science that may be in question, wishing to know what has l^een 

 done towards the perfection of manipulative methods, must be able 

 to see at a glance M'hat has been, and what can be, done by a 

 reference to the index of our Journal. It is idle to suggest that 

 they must search the indices of every scientific journal to see 

 whether any technical process has been described which may be 

 applicable to the problem immediately before them. The proper 

 — and only — place which is clearly indicated as the storehouse of 

 the records of such facts is the Journal of the Koyal Microscopical 

 Society. I agree that a new fact in relation to rock-structure, 

 discovered by the ability and manipulative skill of a worker 

 making use of established methods, may properly be relegated to 

 the Journal of the Mineralogical Society ; but a new fact resulting 

 from the use of a new optical combination, or method of illumina- 

 tion, belongs to us, and to our journal, for the reason — if for no 

 other — that the new process may, and probably will, be applicable 

 to research in directions very far removed from the study of 

 minerals. 



Not to labour the point— which might indeed be pressed by 

 object-lessons derived from every branch of research — I return to 

 the main question, the future of our Journal. I cannot help 

 thinking that we shall best justify our continued existence as a 

 separate Scientific Society by sparing no efforts to keep track of, 

 and to record, the progress of Microscopic Technique, the develop- 

 ment and improvement of the instrument and of its accessories, 

 and the expert manipulation of the apparatus already existing, or 

 destined to be called into existence by the necessities of progressive 

 enquiry. In a word, upon the Zoological, Biological, and other 

 branches of our work will rest the foundation of that sense of 

 social good-fellowship and camaraderie which, in the main, holds 



