« PRESIDENTIAL ADDllESS. 



It was for their benefit especially that the society was formed ; it 

 is on such that the arrival of a box of our slides, with its accom- 

 panying book of notes and drawings, confers the greatest boon. 

 None but those who have experienced it can fully realise the state 

 of stagnation into which even an active mind may sink, with no 

 fellow-worker at hand ; none with whom to communicate on 

 subjects enlightening and elevating such as these. Some years 

 ago I was spending a few days with a nobleman of high culture, 

 extensive knowledge, scientific tastes, and a worker too ; perhaps 

 the most original-minded man I ever met. Our converse was 

 upon the best mode of publishing results he had obtained of great 

 novelty and value, on the development of the vegetable cell. It 

 was he who discovered the varying affinities of cell-growths for 

 colouring agents, the knowledge of which has already borne such 

 good fruit, and is destined still further to clear up many life- 

 processes which are at present obscure. As the time of our 

 parting approached he remarked, 'There isn't any one within fifty 

 miles of me who cares aught about these things, and I feel as if I 

 couldn't go on for lack of sympathy. I'm too far from London to 

 profit by the Microscopical Society there, and I must give it up, 

 though it has such a charm for me I would gladly work on.' And 

 he has 'given it up.' That valuable original thinker and worker 

 felt so disheartened by his surroundings that he fairly gave in to 

 them, and this, his first great contribution to microscopical science, 

 seems likely to be his last. How glad would he have been to have 

 joined a society like ours, and how greatly would science have 

 been the gainer in such an event." 



The nobleman here referred to was, I believe, Lord S. G. 

 Osborne, whose observations were made by allowing plants to grow 

 in a solution of carmine, and then examining the growing parts. 

 If such an observer, with all the advantages of time and leisure, and 

 real genius, is thus discouraged by want of sympathy, I think we 

 may fairly feel that we have here a real field of work, and that our 

 mission is to assist the tyro, and encourage with our sympathy 

 the isolated worker. For this our society was first established, 

 and it now becomes us to enquire. Have we fulfilled our mission ? 



A little enquiry into the geographical distribution of our 

 members, and a glance at the excellent and interesting little map, 



