160 



VIII. — Prolegomena towards a Study of the Progress and Develoj)- 

 ment of Vision and Definition under the Microscope. — {167S- 

 1848.) 



By E. Heron-Allkn, F.L.S. P.RM.S., and Charles 

 F. EoussELET, F.E.M.S. 



(Bead February 16, 1916.) 



In one of the opening paragraphs of tlie Charter granted to this 

 Society by Her Majesty Queen \^ictoria in 18(18, it is recited that 

 " the ijreat and general interest now felt in those branches of 

 Science whereof the Microscope is an important instrument of 

 investigation has been greatly promoted and fostered by this 

 Society," and the first of the " Objects " of the Society, as stated in 

 our By-law No. 1, is " the communication, discussion, and publica- 

 tion of Observations and Discoveries relating to Improvements in 

 the Construction and mode of Application of the Microscope." 

 No apology, therefore, is needed for our endeavour to put before 

 the Society this evening a practical demonstration of the manner 

 in which as a body we have executed the Trust confided to us by 

 our Charter — a demonstration which we have little hesitation in 

 saying that we are in a better position to give than any other 

 scientific institution. We owe that position to the public spirit 

 and enthusiasm of three generations of Microscopists who have 

 gradually formed in our cabinets one of the finest collections of 

 ancient Microscopes that has ever been got together. It had been 

 our intention to preface this demonstration with a short historical 

 account of the instrument from the earliest times to the present 

 day, but it became immediately obvious to vis that a subject which 

 suffered from compression in five voluminous lectures thirty years 

 ago * could not be dealt witli in the time at our disposal at an 

 ordinary meeting of the Society in 1916. All we can do, there- 

 fore, is to refer our Fellows to the Cantor Lectures of John May all 

 already mentioned, to the papers of Dr. Charles Singer published 

 in our Transactions f and in the Proceedings of the Royal Society 

 of Medicine,! to the Catalogue of our Microscopes exhibited in 

 the British Science Section of the Franco-British Exhibition of 



* J. Mayall, Jun., "Cantor Lectures on the Microscope," Loudon, 1886. 



t C. Singer, " The Dawn of Microscopical Discovery," Journ. R. Micr. Soc, 

 1915, pp. 317-40. 



X G. Singer, " Notes on the Early History of Microscopy," Proc. R. Soc. of 

 Medicine (Sect. Hist, of Med.) vii. (1914) pp. 247-79. 



