251 



March 27th, 1874.— Dr. R. Braithwaite, F.L.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



The minutes of the preceding meeting were read and confirmed. 

 The following donations to the Club were announced : — 



" The Monthly Microscopical Journal"... ... From the Publisher. 



" Science Gossip " ,, ,, 



Paper, " On the Nature and Formation of Flint -\ 



and Allied Bodies," by M. Hawkins John- >■ the Author. 



son ^ 



"Proceedings of the Literary and Philo- > the Society. 



sophical Society of Manchester '" ... ^ 

 *' Annual Eeport of the Geologists' Association" the Association. 



" Report of the Smithsonian Institution" for ") ^^ Society 



1871 > 



"The Lens"... ... ... ... ... ... In exchange. 



The thanks of the meeting were voted to the donors. 



The following gentlemen were balloted for and duly elected members of the 

 Club :— Mr. Richard J. Beach, Mr. Frederick E. Leefe. 



The President announced that the Excursion Committee had completed their 

 arrangements, and that the list of places to be visited during the ensuing season 

 was ready. The first excursion (for April 11th), to Snaresbrook, would afibrd an. 

 opportunity of obtaining many interesting objects for exhibition at the forth- 

 coming Soiree. 



Dr. IMatthews having taken the chair pro tem., a paper was read by Dr. 

 Braithwaite, " On the Forms taken by Cells in their Finished State." This 

 paper was in continuation of the series on " Cell Growth," and it was intimated 

 by the author that he expected to complete the subject in two more papers. 



Dr. Matthews, in proposing a vote of thanks to the President for his paper, 

 observed that the subject, although appearing to be of the most abstruse kind, 

 yet laid at the root of plant histology, and Dr. Braithwaite had treated it in a 

 most exhaustive manner. 



The thanks of the meeting were unanimously voted to Dr. Braithwaite for his 

 paper. 



Mr. E. T. Newton read a paper " On Section Cutting Machines," and illus- 

 trated it by the exhibition of a large collection of them.* 

 A vote of thanks to Mr. Newton was carried unanimously. 

 Mr. R. B. Miller stated that he had been using Dr. Rutherford's machine, 

 both in its old and new forms, and he thought that the objection raised to the 

 new machine on account of its size was one which would hardly hold water, 

 because very often the machine was wanted large in the bore— indeed, for 

 anatomical purposes this was frequently essential. He did not like a glass plate, 

 because of the edge ; if the edge of the hole were bevelled the wax would be 

 liable to break away in consequence of the gap, whilst if there were no space, the 

 razor might cut on to the edge, and so spoil its own. He ventured to say that a 

 steel plate would be liable to rust, and that the rust could not be cleaned ofi" 

 without much, trouble ; but he found that a cast-iron plate was better, because 

 it could, when rusted, be easily cleaned with a little emery. Freezing was a 

 plan of Dr. Rutherford's, and was exceedingly useful where a tissue was soft and 

 too large to be cut by hand. A tumour, for instance, was a very difficult thing 



* The publication of this Paper is unavoidably postponed. 



