10 



them, and intend to issue the books twice a month instead of 

 only on the ordinary meetings as at present, thus making 

 them more generally available for the use of the members. 



The Committee desire to congratulate the Club upon the 

 continued increase in the number of its members. Since the 

 last annual meeting 76 new members have been elected ; 

 and though by deaths and resignations they have to regret 

 the loss of 27 members, yet they see in the number now on 

 the books, amounting to 550, a cause for much congratula- 

 tion, inasmuch as it is an indication that the Club is supplying 

 the wants of that rapidly increasing section of the public 

 who are awakening to the interest of Microscopical research, 

 and especially of those who are comparative beginners and 

 needing that assistance it is the characteristic of this Club to 

 afford. While referring to the number of the members, your 

 Committee cannot conclude without a special reference to the 

 loss the Club, in common with all lovers of Microscopical 

 science, has sustained by the deaths of Mr. Wm. Arnold, one 

 of the oldest supporters of the Club ; of Mr. John Bockett, 

 the designer of the lamp named after him ; and of Mr. Thos. 

 Ross, whose excellent work as an optician has given him a 

 world-wide fame, and whose decease must be accompanied by 

 almost universal regret. The Committee desire to bear their 

 unanimous testimony to the warm interest always felt by 

 these gentlemen in all things concerning the welfare of the 

 Club, and the deep regret they now feel in having to record 

 their decease. 



The Committee cannot close this Annual Report without 

 expressing their thanks to Mr. Richard T. Lewis, for his 

 valuable and much appreciated assistance as their Honorary 

 Reporter, to Mr. Edward Jaques, their Honorary Librarian, 

 and to Mr. G. W. Ruffle, the Honorary Curator, also to 

 Messrs. Gay, Oxley, Reeves and Suffolk, the Excursion 



