PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 423 



14. The elimination of these wasters and duplicates, and the dona- 

 tion of the Wallich Collection to the British Museum, has reduced the 

 cabinet to about 5125 slides, which we have now re-arranged in the 

 cabinet on a scientific classification, according to the subjects of the 

 mounts. It will in future be possible to go direct to the cabinet and 

 withdraw all the specimens dealing with any particular subject. This 

 re-arrangement has been a most laborious task, owing to the limitations 

 of cabinet space, and the number of transposals required in the sorting 

 processes before the specimens could be assembled in their proper 

 drawers. Now that the process is complete it becomes painfully 

 apparent that the cabinet resembles the Irishman's trousers, inasmuch 

 as it consists largely of gaps. A few subjects are adequately and even 

 liberally represented, others of equal, or from the microscopist's point of 

 view, of greater importance, have only the slightest representation, and 

 sometimes none at all. In a general sense it may be stated that the 

 collections illustrate the technique of the past. This is not a matter of 

 any moment so far as many groups are concerned, but in other groups, 

 especially animal and vegetable physiology, modern histological methods 

 are poorly represented, and we think it desirable that the cabinet 

 should be strengthened by a large addition of modern mounts. 



15. There were two sections of the collection which we did not feel 

 disposed to touch as they required specialist treatment. These were : — 

 (1) Microscopic writings and rulings consisting of about 110 prepara- 

 tions. (2) Diatoms consisting of about 1000 mounts. Mr. Barnard 

 was good enough to undertake the examination of the first group, and 

 reports that they are nearly all of interest and should be preserved. It 

 appears that these specimens should not be allowed to circulate without 

 the special permission of the Council, as they are mostly of historic 

 interest and not replaceable. 



The Diatom collection is of a very miscellaneous nature, and a large 

 proportion of the slides are of such poor quality that we should have 

 rejected them but for the fact that they have nearly all been examined 

 and reported on by the late Mr. Comber, whose MS. notes are in the 

 possession of the Society. Included in the collection are many slides 

 mounted in special media for resolution purposes, and it is probable that 

 the majority of these have become valueless. 



The Diatom collection has for the time being been incorporated 

 en bloc, but the Council has accepted the services of a Fellow of the 

 Society who has kindly offered to revise the collection and arrange the 

 selected slides under some scheme which will render them available to 

 Members. A further addition of named and selected species-slides 

 similar to the " Eulenstein " series recently given by Dr. Pritchard 

 should also be obtained in order to supplement the collection, which at 

 present consists largely of spread-slides. 



16. Before the cabinet can be advantageously placed at the disposal 

 of the Fellows two things appear to be necessary : — 



(1) A new cabinet, or the reconstruction of the existing cabinet on 

 more convenient lines, so as to make all slides accessible without the 

 removal of the drawers from the cabinet. 



(2) A printed catalogue of the contents. The card-index, even when 



