106 THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



matter. For example, to study the nervous system first in a single 

 insect through, all its metamorphoses, paying special attention to 

 the nerves serving special organs, antenna, secreting glands, strings, 

 ovipositors, then following the modifications into allied genera, and 

 subsequently tracing them into other orders. Such an inquiry 

 would occupy a very wide area and produce valuable results, and 

 the student feeling their fertility and interdependency, would be 

 stimulated to continue to mount and preserve his dissections, to 

 register his observations, and thus accumulate knowledge. The 

 amount of valuable information lost for want of systematic registra- 

 tion is surprising ; no man will record isolated facts without en- 

 chainement, and if he did, he could make no use of them. 



Few microscopists seem to be aware of the unreclaimed territory 

 spread out for their investigation, in the comparative anatomy of 

 special organs, whether of plants or animals. The fertilisation of 

 cryptogams has been a good deal discussed ; but how their repro- 

 ductive organs are related, and how and why they have been modi- 

 fied, very little. Every rnicroscopist knows the general character 

 of cellular tissue, but how many know the comparative character 

 of the tissue in different plants, and mode of modification ? 



Again, the phenomena of fermentation, so ably treated by Pas- 

 teur, in a chemical point of view, offer a grand field for microscopic 

 investigation. The relation of this subject to health and disease 

 will bear a vast deal more of discussion than has hitherto been ac- 

 corded to it. The mysterious relations of life to matter may receive 

 some elucidation from carefully conducted microscopic research. A 

 more noble field for the exercise of the human intellect can scarcely 

 be imagined. 



And this gives occasion to suggest some points for rendering our 

 instrumental strength more available for research, by means of col- 

 laboration — a principle of action more frequently in force abroad 

 than at home. 



There are many microscopists with means at their disposal, and 

 magnificent instruments, who have no leisure for collection, nor 

 skill in drawing and dissection ; there are young and active members 

 of the Quekett with leisure and skill, and small means. Now, let 

 us suppose a member fortunately blessed with a complete instru- 

 mental outfit, associating himself with two or three active young 

 men, one a good dissecter, a second a skilful draughtsman, and a 

 third an industrious collector, and imagine these addressing their 

 talents to the cultivation of one of the lines of research above 



