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PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS, 



Delivered at the Annual Meeting, July 24th, 1874, 

 By K. BRAITHWAITE, M.D., F.L.S., &c. 



Gentlemen, — I now rise to fulfil one of the most difficult 

 duties you have thought fit to impose upon the occupant of 

 this chair, viz., to deliver an annual address ; but before 

 endeavouring to do so, I must first tender my thanks to each 

 and all whom I have been accustomed to meet in this room, 

 for the courtesy and kindly feeling which I have always 

 experienced, and to express the wish that the success which 

 has attended your past career may still accompany your 

 future progress. 



The guidance of a Society like this, for so long a period as 

 two years, has not failed to impress me with some experience 

 in its requirements, and the knowledge of possibly some 

 slight defects in its work. 



The microscope in its present great state of perfection is 

 not an instrument for pastime or amusement only, much less 

 an apparatus for exciting wonder on certain periodic occa- 

 sions, but rather a master-key which enables the possessor to 

 pass beyond the region of familiar things, and unlock the 

 gates of a great unknown land that stretches away on every 

 side, and which numbers as its inhabitants every thing 

 created. 



