FIRST WINTER MEETING.— OCTOBER 17th, 1906. 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY MR. SIDNEY HARVEY. 



The forty-ninth nnnualmeetin^^ was held at tho 

 Jleaney Instituti' on the 17th dotobor. The old 

 system of electing: the officers of the Society by 

 ballot was revert<'<l to, Mr. SuoU and Miss Cozens 

 wereappointodscrntineers.andtheivsnlt of tho vot- 

 inw- was as follows : — President, Mr. Sidney Harvey, 

 F.I.O.. F.C.S. ; ^'ice-presidentR. tho Verj- Rev. the 

 Dean of Canterbury, the Rev. A. J. Galpin, M.A., 

 Captain Gordon McDakin. Mr. Sibert Saunders; 

 Hon. Treasurer, M)-. W. P. Mann, B.A. ; Hon. 

 Libi-jarian, Mr. H. T. Mead : Committee, Alderman 

 Bennott-Goldney. F.S.A., Messrs. H. M. Chapman, 

 Walter Cozens.' F. M. Facer. B.A., W. H. Ham- 

 mond, W. T. Leeminj,', M.Sf., Mr. W. H. Nether- 

 clift,F.R.C.S.,Dr.U.M.Pittock,M.K.C.S.,F.R.M.S.; 

 ■ Hon. Secretary. Mr. A. Lander ; Reporting Secre- 

 tary, Mr. W. T. Leemin^j, M.Sc. ; Assistant Hon. 

 Secretaries, Mr. E. B. Hayward and Mr. C. A. 

 Gardner;local secretaries and referees as last year. 

 Mr. W. P. Mann presented tho treasurer's report, 

 which was of a most satisfactory chai-acter, and the 

 report of the committee was also presented. 



NKW MEMBEKS. 



Dr. Wills. Mr. M-.nahan. Mr. JtCs, and Mr. Ellis 

 were elected new membei's of the Society. 



THE PRESIDENTIAL .VDDRESS. 



The President sai<l that in vie^\-in(; the approach- 

 ing" jubilee of the Society, old membere, like him- 

 self, looked back and rememVieredtheolder meetings 

 of tho Society, forty-five or forty-six years ago 

 — and one was struck with tho eonti-ast. That 

 night he asked tlie question " What has become 

 of the microscope :- '' At their meetings forty, 

 and even thii"ty yeai-s ago. the mombei*s generally 

 brought microscopes, and often interesting even- 

 ings were spent in comparing notes with those 

 instiTiments. But of late years one hardly saw a 

 microscope at their monthly meeting*s,and,without 

 for a moment inferring that the microscope was 

 neglected by the members at their homes— he was 

 quite sure it was not — it called for some expLina- 

 tion. As to what that explamitionwas,he thought 

 he could give them some information. He thought 

 the Kodak was rcsponsiVde for the change. He 

 would not for a moment — it would be improper on 

 liis part — censure. orconvey anything like censure, 

 for the substitution oftheKodakfor the microscope 

 at their jneetings. He looked upon the Kodak, 

 that was to say the habit of photographing natiiral 

 objects, as one of the gi'eat<!st blessings to a 

 Natural History Society. To Ix; alilo to register 

 acciirately and relial>ly plants and a thousand 

 other things — to be able to taki' the nest of a 

 sitting bird without disturlnng the liird or robbing 

 her of her eggs, to be able to take a photograph 

 of a i"are species of bird, to sccureall they desired 

 to know of the hal'its. so to .-ipcak.and beauties of 

 that particular part of creation, without the exter- 

 mination of rare creatiu-es — was a very great l>oou 

 to them. Personally, he felt very warmly on the 

 subject, and he blessed the d;iy when tho Kodak 

 came to the front in that way and made the study 



of natural history a humane and a merciful stxidy 

 of the beautiful creatures whose habits, they as a 

 Society, were called upon to investigate. The 

 i-ange of the Kf»dak was immensely great, and he 

 thought he could speak of a still greater range. 

 If it were a proper thing to take lite in its own 

 haxmts — if it wr-re a proper thing to do that, there 

 could be no question about it that those who would 

 like to save their rare wild plants woiUd like to be 

 able to take them by tho Kodak in the places 

 where they were growing, and not even have 

 to take them up to do so. That Society had 

 greatly distinguished itself, by the fact that 

 many of the members had become most expert 

 photogniphers : they had a good name and record 

 when compared with other societies. His re- 

 marks were not to be taken as discouraging the 

 Kodak, which he hoped to see grow more and more, 

 and to be of still greater efficacy than it was at 

 the present time, but meanwhile they must not 

 forget that tlie microscope did what the camera 

 could not do. It enabled minutely infinitesimal 

 things to bcconie visible, and had a very wide 

 range indeed. He would like to see greater 

 prominence and appreciation given to the micro- 

 scope, and greater appreciation of the bodies 

 brought to light Iiy it. It was a great mistake to 

 suppose that the microscope was worn out. He 

 felt that the value of the microscope had yet to be 

 realised in this co\mtry. He looked back upon the 

 time when the old microscopes were in vogue — 

 the old-fashioned liarrel microscope, which would 

 not incline at any angle at all, but which had to 

 be looked at vertically. Their illuminat ion, focus, 

 mechanism, and lenses would be very ill adapted 

 to the work of the present day. But the exhibition 

 of 1851 brought microscopical investigators very 

 much to the front, and, without hesitation, he 

 could say that during tliat year the practice of 

 using the microscope grew rapidly, and English 

 makers far exceeded and excelled all those on tho 

 Continent. He believed that the Council medals 

 at the exhibition to which he had referred were 

 awarded to English firms. It was a curious thing 

 that when he first joined that Society there was a 

 keen enquiry as to the structure of Diatoms. 

 At that time of d;iy it was supposed that the lines 

 upon the surface of those Diatom^? were actual 

 facts. The President went on to say t hat the Rev. J, 

 B. Reade, of Bishopsbourne, aimed tj show those 

 lines (which they now knew had no existence at 

 all), and alluded to the efforts of that Society in the 

 same direction which led to their px'ociu'ing l>etter 

 and more accm-ate instniments, "\vith better illu- 

 mination and defining power. He did not, he said, 

 hesitate to say that tho efforts of the Society to 

 ascertain what these lines were, to define them, 

 and exhibit them, were, after all, very successful, 

 although, perhaps, not in the way in which they 

 expected. The old microscopes were deficient, and, 

 in order to study those Diatoms properly, one 

 wanted theverv best illumination, one wanted ac- 



