322 president's address. 



the use of the microscope and the founding of the societies most 

 instrumental in that direction, permit me for a few moments to 

 direct jour attention to the literary aids which were at the command 

 of the microscopists of 1840, that we may properly appreciate the 

 difficulties and disadvantages under which they laboured as compared 

 with ourselves. 



If we are in difficulty, we have a host of friends to consult in 

 books and treatises on the microscope — our Quekett, Carpenter, 

 Beale, and others — but of these the first edition of Quekett was 

 not published till 1848, that of Beale till 1854, that of Carpenter 

 till 1856. Chevalier's first edition, in French, appeared, it is true, 

 in 1839, and Dujardin's " Manual " in 1843 ; Goring and Pritchard's 

 " Microscopic Illustrations " dates from 1830, their" Micrographia " 

 from 1837, and "Manual" from 1839. So that really the litera- 

 ture of the subject was either contemporaneous with the establish- 

 ment of the Microscopical Society, or succeeded it. 



Fancy, if you can, the microscopists of those days with Baker's 

 treatise, the " Micrographia " of the elder Adams, the essays of 

 the younger Goring, Pritchard's " Illustrations " (then a new book), 

 and little besides ! Ehrenberg's great work on the " Infusoria " 

 only dates from 1838, and that is in German ; Pritchard's appeared 

 in 1834, and his edition of 1845 embodied the results of Ehren- 

 berg's work. There was no Microscopic Dictionary till 1856, no 

 Smith's " Diatomaceae " till 1848, no Hassan's " Freshwater Algae" 

 till 1845, no Kiitzing till 1844. Greville did not begin his marvel- 

 lous papers on the " Diatomaceee " till 1855, nor Walker- Arnott till 

 1858. Johnston's " Zoophytes " dates from 1838, and Dujardin's 

 from 1841. It matters not in what direction we turn, we arrive at 

 the same result — that from 1840, with the first Microscopical 

 Society and the first Microscopical Journal dates the era of the 

 microscope in Britain. All the microscopists before that were 

 pioneers, who cleared the way for us, and who deserve our respect 

 and esteem ; but from that date our literature, as well as our instru- 

 ments, has been steadily developed. 



That exceedingly valuable periodical the " Annals and Magazine 

 of Natural History " only commenced its first series in 1838, and 

 from that period to the present an immense amount of work due to 

 the use of the microscope has been recorded in its pages. In like 

 manner the " Annales des Sciences NatureUes" commenced its second 

 series in 1834 (the first series is scarcely devoted to microscopical 



