PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, 3 



structures of any object, is not reached at one bound, and in 

 many cases the isolated student is rather hindered than helped by 

 books. He stumbles on without hints and without help. He has 

 no one to give him any of those little tips, wrinkles, or dodges, 

 which are so helpful. Books hinder by want of precision and 

 attention to detail, and to their omission of all those little hints 

 which are necessary in practice. No wonder, then, that after a 

 few early attempts he desists, and his microscope is, as I have 

 often seen it, laid upon the shelf to be almost forgotten. And 

 on this point Beale (" How to Work with the Microscope ") 

 expresses his belief that " many who possess microscopes are 

 deterred from attempting any branch of original investigation 

 solely by the great difficulty they experience in surmounting the 

 details. 



How different is the position of the beginner in our large 

 towns ! I well remember with what pleasure I perused the reports 

 of a mounting class, held at the Manchester Microscopical 

 Society's rooms, where the various stages of dissecting, mounting, 

 and displaying objects were superintended and practically 

 illustrated by experienced mounters. But, alas ! I knew of no one 

 for miles round who took the slightest interest in the subject, and 

 had I not heard of the Postal Microscopical Society, through the 

 British Medical Jourtial, which thus said of our society : — " Such 

 societies are extremely useful and agreeable institutions, and 

 are, of course, particularly convenient to those who reside 

 at a distance from great centres. They enable men to 

 exchange specimens and ideas with other well-known workers, 

 and to keep up their interest in practical histology, in a 

 way often not otherwise easily attainable " — I, too, would 

 probably have discontinued my attempts, but having joined 

 its ranks my interest in microscopical pursuits has continued to 

 this day. That this isolation is felt by the student to be an almost 

 insuperable difficulty, and not a fanciful one, is proved by an 

 instance related in the first address given by my illustrious pre- 

 decessor in this chair, Mr. Tuffen West, and the whole passage is 

 worth quoting, as many of our later members may not have seen 

 it. He says : — 



" Workers in isolated spots should have our first consideration. 



