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Mr. James Smith exhibited and described, a new shade for a microscope lamp 

 chimney, which he had designed to obviate the many disadvantages of an ordi- 

 nary paper shade. It was made of a piece of thin sheet metal, ri vetted to- 

 gether in the shape of a hollow truncated cone, and was fitted to slide upon the 

 upright rod at the back of a " Bockett ' lamp. A semi -circular piece was cut 

 out of the base of the shade in front, so as to admit of the free use of the bull's- 

 eye condenser, and the inside was coated with whitewash, which gave it a 

 smooth, reflecting surface, and could, when discoloured, be easily renewed in a 

 few minutes. 



The President proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Smith for his ingenious im- 

 provement of the " Bockett" lamp, which not only increased the light, but at 

 the same time shaded the eyes, and, he thought, would also intercept some of 

 the heat. 



Mr. T. C. White said that nearly every one must have been troubled with 

 lamp shades, and would consequently be very glad to see any improvement in 

 them ; the paper shades frequently got scorched and burnt, whilst the metallic 

 chimneys got inconveniently hot — he had himself burnt his fingers badly with a 

 Fiddian's chimney whilst attempting to shift it during the time he was adjust- 

 ing his microscope to get the proper degree of light through his camera lucida. 

 He called upon a member of the Club one day, and was shown by him a very 

 simple and effective kind of lamp shade, which, he thought, was worth men- 

 tioning. It was formed of a piece of millboard, pasted on one side and rolled 

 round a brandy bottle ; as soon as dry it was removed from the bottle, was 

 blackened outside, and was then ready for use. 



A vote of thanks to Mr. Smith for his communication was then put to the 

 meeting, and carried unanimously. 



The President said that he had been pressed to fulfil a promise made some 

 time ago — to offer a few remarks upon the subject of injecting ; the difficulty in 

 the matter, however, was that the subject was a very large one, whilst the time 

 at disposal rendered it necessary to condense very greatly ; he would, however, 

 do his best to give the members some information as to how they should pro- 

 ceed in injecting the tissues of any of the higher animals. With most persons 

 the idea probably is that an injection is made for the purpose of exhibiting the 

 vessels, and in this respect those made now were scarcely better than what were 

 made many years ago by Leeuwenhock and others ; it was, however, a mistake 

 to suppose that it is only of use to show the vessels — it had a much more im- 

 portant use than that in rendering also visible the structure of the tissue them- 

 selves, to properly understand which preparation is always necessary. It might 

 be said that the best way to examine a tissue was to see it as it existed natu- 

 rally very soon after death, but there were many structures which, if only 

 treated in this way, would be totally overlooked. The cornea of 

 the eye, for instance, is the most transparent tissue in the human 

 body, and it might be said that any structure in it must therefore 

 be seen at once ; but this would be a terrible mistake, for before you could 

 properly examine it, it must be carefully prepared in a proper manner, and in 

 preparing it you must proceed according to certain principles. In every part of 

 the cornea there are little bodies to be found, and these are disseminated at 

 every possible level throughout its structure, and cannot possibly be demon- 

 strated when the cornea is exhibited in the ordinary way ; these bodies have 

 been discovered some time, but new points still continue to be made out. There 

 are also in the cornea other things, there are nerves quite invisible when ex- 



