148 



positive eyepiece would be best. He thought that these miniatures of the 

 Lord's Prayer would be welcomed as additions to what might be called " toy 

 slides." 



Mr. T. C. White said he thought that it was to be regretted that they had not 

 the opportunity of seeing some of these wonderful specimens of microscopical 

 writing. He had brought with him a specimen of Mr. Webb's writing, but he 

 feared, however, that it was very imperfect as a test. It seemed to him that if 

 they had a number of lines, and these were not blackened in any way, that 

 would they become so distorted by reflection and interference of light, that 

 it would seriously interfere with their definition. 



Mr. Webb having intimated here that he had specimens with him, Mr. White 

 oflfered to place his microscope at that gentleman's disposal for the purpose of 

 exhibiting them. 



The President said he was under a disadvantage, not having had the opportu- 

 nity of studying the subject, and he therefora felt utterly incapable of forming 

 an opinion on it ; he could not, however, help expressing his admiration at the 

 manner in which Mr. Webb had thus woi'ked on with such untiring ingenuity. 

 Although Mr. Ingpen thought that these slides were not of much value as tests, 

 yet from their extraordinary minuteness he could not think they were altogether 

 to be disregarded. He regretted that Mr. Webb had not told them anything as 

 to the means by which he had accomplished such surprisingly small specimens 

 of writing. 



Mr. Webb said he thought the process would have been too well known to re- 

 quire any reference — the machine was exhibited in the Exhibition, and members 

 used to go and write their names with it there. He was glad to find that Mr. 

 Ingpen had been kind enough to criticise his paper, because it was only by 

 some sort of objection that information upon many points could be obtained. 

 Mr. Ingpen alleged that the distortion was not due to the objective but to the 

 eyepiece ; he would ask that gentleman if he had ever tried to use the Huyghe- 

 nian eyepiece without the field lens? If so he would have found that the dis- 

 tortion was doubled, and it would be clear from this that the distortion was not 

 due to the eyepiece but to the object-glass itself. The fact was, really, that the 

 distortion of the object-glass was reduced and corrected by the eyepiece if it 

 was made by a good maker. As to the specimen mentioned as having beeil 

 written by Mr. Farrants in 1862, it was announced in his presence, and it was 

 then stated that if the tail of the y was left out, the breadth of the line mea- 

 sured the 365000 inch, or at the rate of 22 Bibles to the inch. He did not doubt 

 Mr. Farrants' word in the matter, but he could only say he never saw the 

 specimen ; and although both he and others had asked Mr. Farrants to show it 

 to them, they never could get a sight of it. He remembered that Mr. Farranta 

 stated on one occasion that it was only by a piece of luck that he happened to 

 have a diamond that would do it. At the Exhibition of 18G2 the only specimen 

 which was exhibited by Mr. Farrants was the 4,5000 inch, and this was shown 

 under one of Messrs. Smith and Becks' i inch objectives with a B eyepiece. As 

 to the value of these slides as tests, that remained a question for the members 

 themselves — it was only for him to suggest their usefulness in that way ; it was 

 whilst talking upon the subject to a gentleman ("present that evening) that it 

 had occurred to him that it might be useful if he gave them some of the re- 

 sults of his experience. It was only by rubbing two dry sticks together that 

 they got a spark, and so it was only by such discussions that they obtained much 

 useful information. Mr. Ingpen had mentioned Nobert's tests, and said there 



