1893.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 47' 



livered by the first Secretary, Dr. Romyn Hitchcock, to Mr. 

 Hyatt, who was the first President, being elected on December 

 nth, 1877, and they were now transmitted by the latter to the 

 Society. Mr. Hyatt in most interesting manner referred to the 

 enthusiasm and work of the early years of the Society, and espe- 

 cially to the efforts made in 1878, finally crowned with success 

 through the good offices of Hon. J. D. Cox, then Congressman 

 from Ohio, to induce the Government to rescind the postal regu- 

 lations excluding glass slides from the mails. 



Mr. William Wales followed this address with reminiscences: 

 of the American Microscopical Society of New York City ; of the 

 report of the committee on the examination of the vertical illu- 

 minator invented by Prof. Hamilton L. Smith ; of the persistent 

 search by Dr. Rufus King Brown for the lines of Amphipleura 

 pellucida ; and of the manufacture by himself, in 1868, of the -gV 

 objective for the Army Medical Museum, which lens lay for ten 

 years in the table draw of Surgeon-General Woodward, but which 

 finally produced the photograph which first showed the resolution, 

 of the famous diatom. 



The following Committee on Nominations of Officers was ap- 

 pointed by the chair : J, L. Zabriskie, William Wales, F. W. 

 Devoe. 



OBJECTS EXHIBITED. 



1. Fragment of brown wrapping paper bleached by carbolic 

 acid: by F. W. Leggett. 



2. Musical Rasps of the Round-winged Katydid, Aviblycorypha. 

 rotundifolia Scudder: by F. W. Devoe. 



3. Section of Lapis-lazuli: by J. D. Hyatt. 



4. Section of milky Quartz: by J. D. Hyatt. 



Mr. Leggett explained that the paper exhibited by him was 

 originally of a deep, dirty yellow color, but by the action of the 

 acid it bleached entirely white. This was followed by a discus- 

 sion on the action of carbolic acid and of peroxide of hydrogen, 

 participated in by Messrs. Ashby, Skeel, Riederer, and Zabriskie. 



Mr. Hyatt remarked that the difference between milky and 

 transparent quartz was mainly like the difference between con- 

 solidated snow and clear ice, depending upon the preponderance 

 of the inclusions of air, giving the white appearance. 



