PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 7 



detention of boxes ; as when a member is going off for a holiday, 

 or hkely to be absent from home for some time, he should^ if be 

 can, apprise the Secretary of this a few days previously, and also the 

 previous member on his list. The Secretary not unfrequently 

 receives a note " Please send me no more boxes for two months, 

 as I start for the Continent to-morrow ! " A day's post is lost in 

 writing to the preceding member, on the part of the Secretary, 

 while that member may probably have already despatched one or 

 more boxes to the intending tourist, who thus becomes, I am sure, 

 very unwillingly, but for want of a little foresight, a box-stopper ! 



I would like to add a word about the Journal which is associ- 

 ated with our Society. I think I am right in saying that the Postal 

 Microscopical Journal has well-nigh fairly established itself before 

 the public. There are certain difficulties peculiar to it, and certain 

 disadvantages which it has had to encounter, some of which arise 

 from the fact that the ground has been more or less covered by 

 other periodicals of a similar kind, and which have had the advan- 

 tage of a prior starts and this was urged as an objection to its 

 publication by one very valued member. It was in order to meet 

 that difficulty in some degree that the scope of the Journal was 

 enlarged, and its title consequently added to, and it now bears 

 the name of " The Journal of Microscopy and Natural Science : 

 the Journal of the Postal Microscopical Society." 



I think the notes of the Postal Microscopical Society's Note- 

 books ought to form a very principal and prominent item in each 

 number of the Journal, so as to keep up and maintain its claim to 

 the latter portion of its title. But it is a much greater labour than 

 many can be aware of, to select from a mass of notes of a most 

 miscellaneous character, that which is of most value. That some 

 of our members do insert in the note-books matter which is 

 extremely useful and important, we well know ; and that there are 

 sketches and illustrations accompanying many of those notes 

 incomparable for beauty of execution, and accuracy of detail, and 

 fineness of work, we are also well aware ; all these are 

 worth preserving. I know that, in spite of the great labour 

 entailed thereby, the editor of the Journal is sincerely anxious to 

 do this. 



There is another disadvantage attaching to the Journal which 



