xlii 



PROCEEDLNGS OF THE 



itself inside out lite a stocking, having neither hands nor feet, yet making the 

 most perfect and sjTnmetrical bricks, then building its house with them, remain- 

 ing always in the same place, and drawing its food from afar by sheer force of 

 will; and it followed that a member who wished to talk on these subjects must 

 either be content for his audience to leave with wonder-stricken but hazy ideas 

 on the subject, or he must make a drawing of it. Now that was one of the 

 great difficulties, the 2^oi)s asinormn with many lecturers ; many would say : 

 " I cannot draw ; " others could draw, and yet were unable to produce suitable 

 drawings for want of knowledge of what should be done and what left undone, 

 and he therefore thought that a few words on this subject might be acceptable to 

 the members. 



First of all there was the well-known black-board and chalk ; this was a most 

 excellent means of rough and ready illustration, and Mr. Phillips drew upon the 

 board a group of insect-bitten rose-leaves, showing the action of the Micro- 

 lepidoptera on the leaves as an instance of what could be done ; but the utility of 

 the black-board was, he said, essentially confined to diagrammatic outlines, and 

 although it was possible to invest it Avith much artistic merit, yet it must be 

 remembered that the principles of light and shade were reversed, white having to 

 do duty for black as in a photographic negative. 



Another method whereby greater finish might be obtained was by the substitu- 

 tion of a sheet of grocer's blue sugar-paper for the black-board, and the white 

 which he had found best suited was a mixture of gum and whitening, to be 

 applied in the same manner as paint; the shading could be "hatched" or 

 stippled, but a very delicate effect could be obtained by a smudge of powdered 

 chalk, the blue paper making a beautiful background, and he had seen this 

 method used with great effect in the various learned societies, being especially 

 suited for the delineation of delicate hyaline tissues. 



Another method of illustrating was the water-colour drawing. Here was 

 a field where art could revel, but there was one great rock which he must point 

 out, whereon he and others had come to grief, and that was in painting a diagram 

 as an ordinary painting. Mr. Phillips then showed a large diagram pamted for 

 his first lecture with scrupulous care and finish, the objects therein delineated 

 being scarcely visible to those at the farther end of the room. It was, he said, 

 always necessary to take into consideration the size of the room and the distance 

 of the audience in making an illustration, and he thought as a rule no outline- 

 strokes should be less than a quarter of an inch in thickness ; but those who liad 

 worked with a microscope knew that every drawing, however finished, fell far 

 short of the living reality, especially in one particular, viz. light — it was like 

 trying to paint the sim. Now the nearest approach to light which one could get 

 in painting was white — pure white. He remembered a passage in a celebrated 

 lecture which said: "to do these creatures justice you would have to dip your 

 brush in light.'" 



Mr. Phillips then showed a method whereby this advice was closely followed, 

 by the employment of light, pm-e and simple, for those parts which are refulgent. 

 He raised a curtain and disclosed a screen whereon were portrayed in startling 

 reality a number of animalcules. The chief charm of this new method was, he 

 said, that like all other good things, it was extremely simple. The screen was an 

 ordinary box, 3 feet square, open at one end, having a groove along the edge in 

 which a light frame slid in and out like a lid. On this frame a sheet of brown 

 paper was pasted of sufficient thickness to intercept the light ; the objects were 

 drawn on this paper roughly, and then with a penknife cut out like pictures for 

 a scrap-book, a sheet of white paper was then laid at the back, giving white 

 objects with a bro\vn-paper background ; upon this white paper all the details of 

 colour — the cells, organs, muscles, or whatever there might be, were filled in, and 

 then came the finishing touch (the high lights) ; these were simply holes pricked 

 in the paper with a pin in continuous lines, and at a distance the individuality of 

 the holes was not seen ; in the box there should be placed one or two ordinary 

 lamps, and the thing was complete. 



Mr. George Turner exhibited a small micro -spectroscope, and 

 explained its use in spectrum analysis. 



