The President's Address. By L. S. Beale, F.B.S. 205 



his representatives. Cabinets, a clock, a revolving Microscope table, 

 and many valuable things too numerous to particularize, have been 

 given by generous Fellows, who have received our hearty thanks, 

 and whose excellent example is for every reason worthy of imi- 

 tation. 



Notwithstanding our increased expenditure, and the necessary 

 outlay in fitting up the new meeting-room, our excellent Treasurer 

 informs us that we are financially more prosperous than at any 

 previous time, and that he has been able to add a good sum to our 

 investments. 



Lastly, many Fellows, and especially our distinguished Secre- 

 taries, have most generously presented us with that which is of 

 inestimable value — their time — and by doing so have greatly con- 

 tributed to the progress and success of the Society. We owe a deep 

 debt of gratitude to Messrs. Frank Crisp, T. Jefiery Parker, A. W. 

 Bennett, and Professor Jeffrey Bell, and others, who have so 

 zealously devoted themselves to the arduous work of extending and 

 improving our Journal, of which in its present shape I am sure 

 every Fellow feels justly proud. The bi-monthly numbers akeady 

 have a large general circulation, and I am convinced that investi- 

 gators, teachers, and students in every department of Zoology and 

 Comparative Anatomy, all who study Cryptogamia, or devote them- 

 selves to Embryology, as well as those interested in general micro- 

 scopical investigation, will highly appreciate the excellent ' Piecord 

 of Current Eesearches ' which has been during the past year so con- 

 siderably and so advantageously enlarged. The second volume of the 

 Society's Journal, just published, contains more than one thousand 

 pages, twenty-six plates, and nearly one hundred engravings on 

 wood. There is an excellent index of forty closely printed columns, 

 for which our thanks are due to the careful editor. There is no 

 more useful or valuable labour than index-making, and in these 

 days of active scientific research we ought to do our utmost to 

 encourage this too often neglected and ill-remunerated literary 

 work. 



The real work of a scientific society is, I think, to be estimated 

 partly by the merits of its published memoirs, and partly by its 

 educational work. In every department of I\Iicroscope inquiry 

 original memoirs of great interest and value have been read at 

 our meetings and published in our Journal. Not only have we had 

 under our notice new methods of research, new Microscopes, and 

 great improvements in the structure of instruments used by micro- 

 scopical observers, but new principles for the construction of object- 

 glasses have been laid down, new media for immersion observation 

 have been pointed out, and several new forms of life have been 

 discovered, shown, and described for the first time at our meetings. 



Of iato years a change has, so to say, been wrought in the spirit 



