PEOCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 129 



The Oliaiiinaii then invited the new President, Mr. Edward Heron- 

 Allen, to take the Chair. 



Mr. Heron- Allen then occupied the Presidential chair, and said : — 



Mr. Vice-Peesident, Ladies and Gentlemen, — Mingled with a 

 keen sense of the honour which has been conferred upon me l»y calling 

 me to occupy a Chair which has added additional lustre to a long list of 

 names already in themselves illustrious, I should feel an almost paralys- 

 ing sense of diffidence were it not that I fully realize that I have been 

 called to fill this position under circumstances different to those under 

 which the majority of my predecessors have accepted the office which by 

 your election I now hold. I feel that I have been elected in the evening 

 of a long day of useful work. As a Society we stand at a critical point, 

 and I feel that this year, pregnant as it is with great issues, owing to the 

 prevailing conditions of life, will decide whether that evening is to end 

 in permanent night or to be the precursor of a dawn of new activities, 

 a dawn that shall usher in a day not less bright than its predecessor, a 

 day of renewed scientific effort and of useful results I think that the 

 Council as delegates of the Society have realized that at the present 

 juncture something other is wanted than the segis of a Great Name, and 

 that (borrowing example from the world of commerce), as in the case of 

 old-established family businesses which are suffering from self-com- 

 placent conservatism, they have sought to place the Society for a time 

 in the hands of a new Managing Director, who has pei'haps had ex- 

 ceptional opportunities of noting the needs of the Society. 



We must not lose sight of the fact that when this Society was founded 

 in the year 1840, the Microscope as we know it was so essentially in its 

 infancy that we may almost say that it had not been invented. As 

 Professor Herdman says in his recent " Life of Edw ard Forbes,'' whom 

 he rightly calls the Father of Oceanography, " it is curious to recall 

 nowadays that the study of histology and microscopic structure in 

 general was only introduced into medical study in 1^41, by Professor 

 Hughes Bennett, who had been a fellow-student of Forbes." From 

 that time for many years the mere possession of a Microscope may 

 almost be said to have formed a branch of science. To say that those 

 times have changed is to enunciate the baldest of truisms. The Micro- 

 scope is now an indispensable adjunct, not only to every branch of 

 science, but to most trades. But though its applications have thus been 

 widely dispersed, its essential and peculiar scientific principles remain as 

 a field of specialized scientific enquiry, and this becomes more apparent 

 every day in these times of profounder and ever-widening research. 

 The duty of this Society is to record the progress of microscopic research, 

 and that it has done so in a manner especially its own is shown in the 

 pages of our Journal. It is our first duty to encourage the development 

 of microscopic technique and appliances, and it is for this reason that 

 our Journal maintains its high reputation under the able management 

 of the Editors, and may be said to keep our Fellowship together. This 

 is a side of om' work to the furtherance and development of which 1 am 

 determined to spare no effort or time whilst I occupy this Chair. 



Feb. 16th, 1916 K 



