8 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



I must allude to. Though it bears the Society's name as a portion 

 of its title, it is really a private adventure made by our Secretary, 

 who is wholly responsible for it. Such is not the case in other 

 scientific societies, their Journals are their own property, and they 

 bear the burden of the maintenance of them. In fact, this Jour- 

 nal was set on foot simply because the Secretary had in his possession 

 an immense mass of valuable matter, scattered up and down in 

 miscellaneous notes of the note-books, which books had finished 

 their circuits among the members, and he was unwilling that these 

 should be consigned to oblivion and perish ; it seemed to him that 

 these notes and their accompanying drawings were well worth 

 preserving ; it was then for this reason that he has, alone and 

 unaided, set on foot the Journal. Now it rests with ourselves 

 especially to make that Journal a success, and this may be effected 

 by each member taking one or more additional copies for their 

 friends ; recollect that as now arranged each member is entitled to 

 one gratuitous copy ; and we may forward its progress as well as 

 raise the character of the Society itself, by each member taking 

 very special pains in the notes and drawings inserted in the note- 

 books of the Society. 



Let me, before I close, point out some well-nigh untrodden 

 domains of microscopical study, and whither it would be well to 

 direct our researches. The Sections of Roots is a department 

 almost unstudied, also Sections of Ovaries and Seeds ; then, there 

 is that immense world of Marine Life, so various in both its 

 animal and vegetable structure ; the variety and strange forms of 

 Marine parasites, which the different Aquaria in England and in 

 other countries are gradually making better known. There is 

 much to be discovered in these branches of study, and our patient 

 investigation is sure to be rewarded. It was once proposed to 

 introduce living specimens into our circulation, but that was of 

 course found to be quite impracticable; however, I need not point 

 out how important it is that each of us should, so far as opportunity 

 serves, study the living specimens. I recollect how much more 

 I learned in seeing in a living specimen of one, of the Siphonos- 

 tomata, and how much I learnt by studying the action of the 

 mouth and also the intestinal movements of the creature, of which 

 I had never read a description. And this year I had a good 

 opportunity of observing the circulation in the Argulus Foliaceus. 



