116 Transactions of the Society. 



tion for those whose interest in the use of the Microscope is not 

 so circumscribed. I wish to insist that were it not for the con- 

 tributions made by the histologist, whether dealing with animal or 

 vegetable tissues, modern biochemistry could have had no existence, 

 and to indicate that those who are engaged in the stud) 7 of chemical 

 problems which now occupy some of the greatest minds might do 

 worse than treat with greater sympathy the methods and work of 

 the men who laid the foundation on which is built up one of the 

 greatest branches of modern science, Biological Chemistry. 



The late Sir William Roberts often gave expression to a fondly 

 cherished idea of his that art, philosophy, and even literature 

 might ebb and flow in tides, and that these might be brought to 

 perfection by individuals, or groups of individuals, but that each 

 individual must attain great heights for himself, often unaided by 

 either his predecessors or his fellows, no body of knowledge or 

 experience of past generations serving as a high ground from 

 which new generations might rise still higher. With science, and 

 where man turns to nature for his knowledge, how different are 

 the conditions. " Natural " knowledge once gained and recorded 

 is available for all time, and although but few may have the insight 

 to interpret, and may pass by blindly and ignore pointers and land- 

 marks which should guide their footsteps, these pointers and land- 

 marks abide for ever and for the use of those who can read them 

 aright. Roberts believed that the great nations of the past, with 

 their philosophy, their literature, and their art, have degenerated as 

 they have become conventional, and even with their high traditions 

 have come to be of but little account, whilst those who have based 

 their success on natural and physical science, and have trained 

 their active workers in the school of observation, and only then in 

 reasoning and argument, have taken a path that can but lead them 

 to higher things and broader knowledge. That this holds good we 

 have ample evidence in the history of the Microscope and micro- 

 sec py. Each step forward has made further advance possible ; the 

 simple lens was succeeded by the compound Microscope, lenses 

 have been corrected, the mirror, the parabolic reflector, the con- 

 denser, and all of that marvellous series of accessory illuminating- 

 apparatus, the increased magnification and definition, the opening 

 up of the angle of aperture, and the wonderful apparatus for 

 demonstrating structure and the use of monochromatic light, have 

 placed in the hands, even of the tyro, powers of investigation far 

 beyond those possessed by the most able and skilful workers of 

 half a century ago, witli the result that neither the anatomist nor 

 the physiologist with his ever-widening field of observation and 

 work can have time or energy to devote to the many histological 

 problems that call for solution by the microscopist. Embryology, 

 bacteriology, protozoology, each calls for its own devotees, but to 

 each, skill in the use of the Microscope and the interpretation of 



