Obituary. 701 



" I think it may be now fairly taken for granted that, as this 

 Society has from the outset promoted and pointed to the higher 

 scientific perfection of the Microscope, so now more than ever it is 

 its special function to place this in the forefront as its raison d'etre. 

 The Microscope has been long enough in the hands of amateur and 

 expert alike to establish itself as an instrument having an applica- 

 tion to every actual and conceivable department of human 

 research ; and whilst in the earlier days of this Society it was 

 possible for a zealous Fellow to have seen, and been more or less 

 familiar with, all the applications to which it had been put, it 

 is different to-day. Specialists with most diverse areas of research 

 are assiduously applying the instrument to their various subjects, 

 an< I with results that, if we would estimate aright, we must survey 

 with instructed vision the whole ground which advancing science 

 covers. 



"From this it is manifest that this Society cannot hope to 

 enfold, or at least to organically bind to itself men whose objects 

 are so diverse. 



" But these are all linked by one inseparable bond — it is the 

 Microscope ; and whilst amidst the inconceivable diversity of its 

 applications, it remains manifest that this Society has for its 

 primary object the constant progress of the instrument, whether in 

 its mechanical construction or its optical appliances ; whether the 

 improvements shall bear upon the use of high powers or low 

 powers ; whether it shall be improvement which shall apply to its 

 commercial employment, its easier professional application, or 

 its most exalted scientific use — so Ion? as this shall be the 

 undoubted aim of the Eoyal Microscopical Society, its existence 

 may well be the pride of Englishmen, and will commend itself 

 more and more to men of all countries. 



" This and this only can lift a Society of this sort out of what 

 I believe has ceased to be our danger, that of forgetting that in 

 proportion as the optical principles of the Microscope are under- 

 stood, and the theory of microscopical vision is made plain, the 

 value of the instrument over every region to which it can be 

 applied, and in all the varied hands that use it, is increased 



without definable limit." 



E. G. H. 



Papers read before the Society by Dr. Dallinger, F.R.M.S. 



Researches on the Life-history of a Cercomonad : a Lesson in Biogenesis. 



By W. H. Dallinger, F.R.M.S., and J. Drysdale, M.D. Monthly Micr. 



Journ., x. (1873) pp. 55-8. 

 Further Researches into the Life-history of the Monads. By W. EL Dallinger, 



F.R.M.S., and J. Drysdale, M.D. Read Nov. 5, 1873. Monthly Micr. 



Journ., x. (1873) pp. 245-55. 



