43' 



THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



SOME APPLICATIONS OF MICROSCOPY TO MODERN 

 SCIENCE AND PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE. 



By Prof. E. A. Minchin, M.A., F.Z.S. 



Delivered May 7th, 1909. 

 Gentlemen, — - 



I esteem it a great honour to be privileged to address 

 you as President of a Club which has so Ion"' a record of good 

 work and earnest endeavour, the more so as I am very sensible of 

 my shortcomings as a microscopist in comparison with many of 

 those who have held this position before me, and with my 

 immediate predecessor in particular. For I must confess that, 

 being by nature and inclination a naturalist rather than a 

 physicist, I have never attained to more knowledge of the con- 

 struction and principles of the microscope than is strictly neces- 

 sary for its use. My chief interest lies, and has always lain, 

 not in the theory of the microscope, but in its application ; 

 not in the instrument itself, but in the objects that are seen 

 with it. I make this admission with regret, for there is no 

 work more useful to science than that of those talented in- 

 dividuals who labour to increase the efficiency and power of the 

 most important of all scientific instruments. My predecessor 

 in this chair, who is the author of an admirable and instructive 

 manual on the microscope, laid before you last year a con- 

 tribution to a very important branch of microscopical technique. 

 I am not able, I regret to say, to follow his example, and I 

 propose to discourse on some of the recent advances in know- 

 ledge, both scientific and practical, that have been gained by the 

 help of the microscope. But before doing so I should like to say a 

 few words about the progress of the Club during the past year. 



We have, as you know, passed through somewhat of a crisis 

 in respect to our quarters and place of meeting, which it was 

 feared we might be obliged to change, but fortunately a satis- 

 factory way out of the difiiculty has been found, entailing nothing 

 more than a change in the days of meetings. The Club con- 

 tinues to maintain the number of its members, and to show, by 

 the large attendance at its meetings and excursions, its vitality 

 and energy in carrying on its work. The number of papers 

 Journ. Q. M. C, Series II. — No. 65. 33 



