130 PEUCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



It is with this object in view that next month Mr. Rousselet, Mr. 

 Earlcind and myself propose to give an Exhibition, and a joint paper 

 " On the Progress and Development of Vision and Detinition under the 

 Microscope," which will be practically illustrated by an exhibition of 

 the same microscopic object (an object which provided the earliest 

 microscopists with subjects of illustration), exhibited both by reflected 

 and transmitted light under a long series of Microscopes from the 

 Society's collection, which will be specially renovated and mounted for 

 the purpose by Mr. Lees Curties. 



In this connexion I regard it as essential that the Illustrated Cata- 

 logue and Description of the Society's Collection of Microscopes should 

 be completed without delay, and such practical assistance as I can give 

 for the accomplishment of this end will be given regardless of any 

 considerations of time, trouble, or expense. 



I propose that at the same meeting a Symposium shall be held of as 

 many Fellows as can make it their duty to attend, in order that the 

 Council may have before them the views of the Fellows upon the steps 

 to be taken to enlarge the operations of the Society.! 



The fact is abundantly manifest to those Fellows that have served 

 upon the Council of the Society that the members at large do not know 

 what is happening in the Society or what is going to happen, and there- 

 fore they do not order their arrangements so as to be able to attend the 

 meetings. I have made it my business to analyze the attendance at 

 meetings for the past two years, and the results are far from un- 

 interesting or uninstructive. The average attendance of Fellows of the 

 Society, not being members of the Council, in 1914 was 2;3 ; in 1915 

 it was 17. The average attendance of visitors in 1914 was 20, and in 

 1915 Ib'o. (In this figure must be taken the attendance of visitors 

 and their friends on the Pond Life evening, which amounted to 85 — 

 more than one-third of the total.) The average attendance of Officers 

 and the Council, who number 21, was in 1914 12-2, and in 1915 11 •2. 

 This is a condition of things which must be altered, and in my opinion 

 the only way in which an alteration can be brouglitiiabout is by the 

 construction of a Programme which will attract, not only our own 

 Fellows, but members of other leading scientific societies. Among the 

 latter there exists a wide impression that the^;Society, as ajsociety, is 

 functus officio — that its reason for existence has waned, if it has not 

 vanished— and this is an impression which only our own efforts €an 

 relieve. 



I have therefore devoted some time and J what little influence 1 

 possess in the scientific world, since receiving the invitation of the 

 Council to occupy the position which I now hold, to lay the foundations 

 of such a Programme. I have told you what is proposed for the 

 February Meeting, and I consider that that will be one of the most 

 important meetings that the Society has held for many years. In 

 March, our late President, Professor J. Arthur Thomson, will deliver 

 an address on " Original Factors in Evolution." In April, Professor 

 Benjamin Moore, F.R.S., will deliver an address on " Early Steps in the 

 Evolution of Tjife." In May, the Pond Life meeting will take place as 

 usual, but it will be more than a mere exhibition of microscopic objects 



