SIR ROBERT HADFIELI), BART. 7 



Amongst other Past Presidents of this important Society have 

 been Sir Richard Owen, 1840 ; Edwin Lankester, 1858 ; John Thomas 

 Quekett, 1860 ; Lord Avebury, 1907 ; Sir Edwin Ray Lankester, 

 1909; Prof. H. G. Plimmer,' 1911 ; and to-day Mr. J. E. Barnard. 



It was in November, ] 866, that Mr. Secretary Walpole notified the 

 President that Her Majesty had been graciously pleased " to command 

 that the Society shall be styled the Royal Microscopical Society." 



Singular to say, notwithstanding his early work in 1857-1863, Dr. 

 Sorby, even in his own Presidential Addresses in 1876-1877 to the Royal 

 Microscopical Society, made no reference to the use of the Microscope 

 for Metallurgical Research. Apparently, he himself had not then 

 applied his method of study, but the germ was there waiting 

 to be developed. Professor W. G. Fearnsides has pointed out 

 in his interesting account of Sorby's lifework in the first 

 Sorby Lecture delivered before the Sheffield Society of Engineers 

 and Metallurgists in 1914, " On some Structural Analogies between 

 Igneous Rocks and Metals," that it w^as in the year 1885, by the 

 use of Lenses of high resolving power and comparatively large magni- 

 fication, Sorby first saw the true composite nature of the "pearly 

 constituent " of Steel as an aggregate of parallel plates. This 

 discovery was the earliest recognition of the formation of crystals 

 from a solid solution, and may be regarded as the crowning achievement 

 of his microscopical research. He announced this discovery to the Iron 

 and Steel Institute in 1886, and in 1887 presented to the same Institu- 

 tion his historical Paper on " The Microscopical Structure of Iron and 

 Steel," which gave a full account of his methods and the results he 

 had obtained. 



A well-known American WTiter, in a biographical sketch of Sorby 

 published in " The Metallographist " for April, 1900, stated : "Whatever 

 has been accomplished since in Microscopic Metallography has been 

 done by following in his footsteps. To Dr. Sorby, and to him 

 alone, is due the pioneer's honour." 



I had at first intended to include in this Address my remarks 

 regarding the great work performed by Sorby for " The Metallo- 

 graphist."' In view, however, of the importance of the subject, and 

 that some of our younger members may not be aware of the facts, 

 I have thought it best to embody and present these in a separate 

 short communication entitled " The Great Work of Sorby." 



Optical Society. — As regards the Optical Society, which now has 

 its Headquarters at the Imperial College of Science and Technology at 

 South Kensington, this was founded in 1899, its first President being 

 Mr. W. H. E. Thornthwaite, F.R.A.S. Subsequent Presidents have 

 been Dr. R. M. Walmsley, Professor Silvanus Thompson, Dr. W. 

 Rosenhain, Sir Richard Glazebrook, Sir David Gill, and to-day Pro- 

 fessor Cheshire, C.B.E., who did such excellent work in the War. 



Photmnicrographic Society. — The Photomicrographic Society was 

 founded in 1911 by a small band of Microscopists and Photographers, 

 including Fellows of both the Royal Microscopical and Photographic 

 Societies, having for its objects, to quote from its Rules, " the study 



