1890.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 87 



ments the results which have taken perhaps weeks and months 

 to ascertain. The workers and hearers are mutually benefited. 

 Whether the microscope is used as an instrument purely for 

 scientific research, or for seeing the beauties of organized struc- 

 tures, it develops and broadens the conception of the mind, aid- 

 ing one to understand and take advantage of many of the laws 

 which control matter. As stated in the admirable address of 

 our retiring President at the last meeting, the French savant, 

 Louis Pasteur, by his studies on Fermentation with the micro- 

 scope, ascertained the laws which governed it. He found that it 

 was due to the growth of definite organisms in every case, and not 

 due to spontaneous generation. Knowing the laws of the growth 

 of those organisms, he could produce fermentation, or check it 

 at his pleasure. This simple truth which remained hidden for 

 centuries is one of the grandest yet revealed by the microscope. 

 Its discovery at once led to the use of antiseptic measures in sur- 

 gery, and thousands of lives have been saved thereby. Koch 

 soon took up the principle, enlarged its application, and discov- 

 ered the bacillus of Asiatic Cholera, thus materially reducing the 

 dread of that disease. The laws of the growth of this microbe 

 are now so well known that the spread of the disease can be 

 easily checked and stamped out. 



The use of the microscope in studying the sources of contam- 

 ination in the water supplies of our large cities is hardly less im- 

 portant. In nearly every department of applied science the mi- 

 croscope forms one of the necessary instruments of research, and 

 its use is being daily extended. The use of the microscope in 

 the mechanical arts, as an instrument of precision to determine 

 definite lengths and sizes, and the ability to duplicate them in 

 quantities, is an application so important that it will soon exert 

 a reflex influence in the improvement of the microscope itself. 

 The mention of only a few of the important uses of the micro- 

 scope is alone sufficient to show its great value to mankind, and 

 that it is highly creditable to foster its use and disseminate the 

 truths gained thereby. 



In taking up the duties of the position, I invite, and feel confi- 

 dent that I shall receive, the earnest and hearty co-operation of 

 the officers and individual members in furthering the interests 

 of the Society. 



