100 THE president's ADDRESS. 



am not aware that this arrangement has yet been made universally 



applicable. 



What we want is some binocular arrangement suitable for high 

 and low powers indifferently, and so arranged that the two tubes of 

 the microscope are equally inclined. In using the present arrange- 

 ment, the axis of vision of the right eye is directed straight for- 

 ward, and the axis of the left eye is of necessity inclined abnor- 

 mally inwards. The natural convergence of the axes of vision is 

 thus disturbed, and the left eye is for the time made to squint in- 

 wards to a greater or less degree. This is clearly objectionable, on 

 more grounds than one. 



So, then, it seems to me that the fuller development of the Stereo- 

 scopic Binocular is one of the great advances in connection with the 

 microscope that we have strong reason to hope may ere long be 

 accomplished. 



Another desideratum is some better means than we at pre- 

 sent possess of increasing our magnifying power without dimin- 

 ishing our field of view. 



Mr. Boss's admirable new four-inch objective and other similar 

 glasses, which work well with the deeper eyepieces, may perhaps 

 be regarded as more or less successful attempts in this direction. 

 But every microscopist knows the discomfort associated with the 

 use of the deeper eyepieces as at present constructed. May we 

 not legitimately hope that some improved arrangement may here- 

 after be devised. 



Thus, gentlemen, not being able to announce to you any strik- 

 ing improvement recently effected in our instruments, I have ven- 

 tured, with all deference, to point out one or two directions out of 

 many in which there is yet ample scope for advance. 



Thirdly. With regard to the progress of Microscopical Science 

 during the past twelvemonths. 



So far as I have been able to learn, no great discovery has been 

 made ; no new method of research, of distinguished merit, has been 

 devised ; no fresh field of wide, general interest has been opened 

 up. But discoveries, such as are sometimes said to mark epochs, 

 are not made every day nor every year. Nor, indeed, does it 

 always happen that such discoveries are of the greatest real value ; 

 although seemingly they may be, for a time, the brightest. We 

 have ample evidence that, during the past year, a large amount of 

 good honest work has been done. It is true the general tendency of 



