REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 199 



that their sUdes were not quite up to the mark ; but sending back 

 sHdes would not, in his opinion, be the nicest way of doing so. 



Mr. Washington Teasdale considered the report submitted 

 to the meeting singularly satisfactory on the whole. This had 

 been a year of very considerable progress, and the members 

 should congratulate themselves on the improved position of the 

 Society and its then satisfactory state. The circulation had not 

 been so congested as in previous years. He certainly thought it 

 a great improvement to have boxes in continual circulation. 

 More slides had been circulated among all the members than ever 

 before. It was most desirable to fill up the record-book regu- 

 larly. He did not suppose many of the members would be able 

 to fill up that book with a record of every slide, but he thought a 

 smaller book, just to note the arrival and departure of each box, 

 would be quite sufficient. He had himself kept such a record for 

 several years before those books were issued, and since he had 

 taken more interest in the affairs of the Society, he had indeed 

 overlooked entering the slides, but had continued to keep a 

 register of the receipt and despatch of the boxes. There was 

 another matter, which perhaps he ought not to say anything about, 

 as it would come on later — it was the marked progress in the 

 Journal. This is the first year of its publication, and it certainly 

 is at the present time becoming still more interesting and of 

 greater importance with each issue, and he felt quite sure that, 

 under the able management of its Editor, the indefatigable Hon. 

 Secretary, it would before long become all that its promoters 

 desired it — one of the leading and most useful microscopical 

 Journals of the day Then there was the question of stock slides. 

 There certainly were such slides, as for example the " Proboscis of 

 the Blow-Fly," "Spicules of Gorgonia," and "Saws of the Saw- Fly." 

 He suggested a sort of hidex expurgatorius should be made of 

 about two dozen of the most common sHdes. He did not think 

 they would then hear anything more of stock slides. It was 

 necessary to remember that many of their contributors were 

 inexperienced in the use of the microscope. They purchased a 

 microscope, and with it many of the stock slides, which to them 

 were highly interesting, and with a sort of liberality in their 

 ignorance they sent them round. At the same time, he held that 

 they should not object to a slide just because a similar one had 

 been circulated before. A certain object might be prepared in a 

 particular way. Another member might send round the same 

 object differently prepared to shew some special features, or the 

 same features in a better manner. Another reason was that 

 formerly only a small proportion of sHdes, certainly not more than 

 half, were circulated through every circuit, or were ever seen by all 



