PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 3 



research suitable to them. A single word or hint may set the 

 stone rolling, may produce the " tide, which, taken at the flood, 

 leads on," if not " to fortune," at least to benefit to science in 

 general, and to the " Postal Microscopical Society " in particular. 



I desire, therefore, to bring before you this evening, as a 

 theme, perhaps, not entirely unworthy of our annual address, my 

 own particular microscopic hobby. Not that I thereby intend 

 for one moment to depreciate other lines of research, or to check, 

 hinder, or divert any of our members from that especial one which 

 they have already adopted, but only to point out to those who 

 have not as yet found out their particular groove, that there is a 

 wide and easily divided field — one so much neglected as to call 

 urgently for observers and recorders of readily ascertained facts; 

 one that can be taken up and laid down at any time ; one that 

 requires only moderate skill in the use of the instrument we all 

 possess ; and one in which, interest having been once roused, will 

 not readily be given up. I think many of you will agree with me, 

 that living creatures, as a rule, create greater interest to ordinary 

 microscopic observers, than any other objects, and for the best 

 work in the line I am about to point out, the creatures should be 

 seen and examined whilst alive. Those of you who have taken 

 interest in the slides I have circulated for some years past, will 

 know that I allude to Mites — British Mites. The first and 

 greatest reason for the study of these interesting atoms is that so 

 little is known, or at least recorded, about them in this country. 

 The only general text-book that I know of in our language is that 

 very excellent and cheap book (one of the South Kensington 

 Museum Science Handbooks), " Economic Entomology," by the 

 late Andrew Murray. This book, being a compilation, contains 

 errors, many of which will doubtless be corrected in a second edi- 

 tion. There are, however, very excellent papers scattered in the 

 various scientific periodicals, such as " The Microscopical Trans- 

 actions," " The Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society," 

 " The Linnsean Transactions," " The Journal of the Quekett 

 Microscopical Club," and "Science Gossip"; and for all further 

 information we must go abroad, and examine French, German, 

 and even Italian and Russian publications. There is, however, a 

 new manual, in English, on one of the famiHes of mites — the 



