14 



THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



By Edward Milles Nelson, F.R.M.S. 



{Delivered February 15th, 1895). 



Gentlemen, — I cannot proceed with the work of this evening 

 without alluding to the great honour you have done me in 

 again electing me your President in spite of my numerous 

 absences from this chair during the past year. I had the 

 comfort of knowing that you were in better hands than my 

 own through the kindness of Mr. Michael, and to you and him 

 I now give my best thanks. 



In brass and glass the past year has been a busy one ; it 

 might, to use a cycling phrase, almost be called a record. The 

 new inventions and improvements in brass work have been 

 neither few nor unimportant, and although we have nothing 

 further to discuss with regard to the glass portion of the 

 subject, yet in the optical theory part we have had enough new 

 matter put before us to occupy our minds for some time to 

 come. 



To proceed with the brass work from the point where we 

 left off last year, we must go back to the latter part of 1893, 

 when we find a microscope made by Leitz having a tripod 

 (claw) foot and a horse-shoe stage. This instrument is in- 

 teresting because of its divergence from the continental model, 

 and of its convergence towards the English. The grooving of 

 the substage focussing slide is peculiar, but as a special note 

 on 1 hat point has already appeared in this Journal, we may 

 pass on to Swift's four-legged microscope. 



It is, however, difficult to follow the argument respecting 

 this novelty, for past experience has shown that both the 

 microscope and the telescope perform better the firmer their 

 stands are. It has been repeatedly said, and no one has ever 

 contradicted the statement, that the same optical lenses when 

 used od B portable .-land will not perform so well as on a rigid 

 stand. With the same objective, eye-piece, and condenser the 

 delicate points which can just be caught when using a Powell's 



