2 • PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



not now in any way adding to scientific knowledge ; yet, I am as 

 ready as ever to encourage a Society which fills an honoured place 

 in microscopical researches. 



On looking over the last published list of the members, I find 

 that only six of us remain who united in starting the Society, and 

 perhaps one of the reasons for which I occupy the chair to-night 

 has been your desire to confer this great honour upon one who 

 has never deserted it, and who has no inclination to do so. 



The Value 



of this Society has really never been questioned. We have had 

 our critics through the twenty-two years of its history, some wise 

 and some otherwise, but it holds the unique position of affording 

 scientific instruction and recreation in the home. The wives, 

 children, friends [and maidservants. — Ed.*], of some of our past 

 and present members, have shared many pleasurable evenings 

 through its agency in the enjoyment of microscopical pursuits. In 

 scientific societies ladies and children are usually rigidly excluded, 

 the husband and father must enjoy his scientific researches under 

 Club rule. He is either missed or dismissed from the drawing- 

 room to indulge in them. We possess the privilege of selecting 

 our days and hours of study under the fascinating, although rather 

 hackneyed term of " Home Rule." Our esteemed Honorary Sec- 

 retary, in his address to you last year, referred to the utility of the 

 Society in the inspiration it has given to its members to form local 

 societies. True, we may have lost some members by this praise- 

 worthy enterprise, but there is satisfaction in knowing that our 

 work is carried on with no desire to merely benefit ourselves. If 

 our roll of membership has been weakened, or some have not 

 been added to it through the formation of local Societies, we have 

 the compensation of a harvest of men and women who have been 

 led into scientific studies from the seeds which have been scattered 

 by our own institution. We possess the one great advantage of 



* In one of our earlier note-books a member relates his experience some- 

 what as follows : — After an evening spent in examining one of our boxes, he 

 left his microscope with the J-inch objective attached, and sundry slides on his 

 study-table, and was much annoyed in the morning to find one of the slides 

 smashed and the ^-"ich objective totally destroyed. On enquiry he learned 

 that his maidservant had been doing her microscopy before breakfast ! 



