13 
work. What a difference had been made in microscopical 
research during the last 30 years! Although many of them 
might never have belonged to a Microscopical Society, it was 
almost impossible for them not to be aware, through the 
medium of the press, of what had been done and was still 
being done in the subject of microscopical research. He 
thoroughly endorsed the remarks made by Mr. Lee at a 
recent meeting of the Croydon Farmers’ Club, where his 
health was proposed as the future President of this Club. 
Mr. Lee then said that the microscope was ‘“‘ the ploughshare 
of science, and by its means the superficial crust of igno- 
rance had, in many places, been broken up, burying, at the 
same time, the surface-grown weeds of error.’ He could 
bear practical testimony to the literal truth of those observa- 
tions from his own experience, for he had farmed his own 
glebe. Having found that the man in whose possession it 
was, grew more weeds than seeds, he thought it would be 
better if he took the cultivation of his land into his own 
hands. His microscopical, as well as chemical examination 
of the nature of the soil produced results which, in effect, 
doubled the value of the living, and enabled him to sell for 
a good sum 20 acres for the erection of an asylum, of which 
his friend, Dr. Millar, was the first physician. He, therefore, 
thought that the intelligent farmers in this neighbourhood 
might derive assistance from consulting the members of the 
Croydon Microscopical Society, in order that they might 
_ carry on, with greater financial benefits, their farming opera- 
tions. The speaker then mentioned what he described to be 
a very curious fact as illustrating the value of microscopical 
research. By collecting on an ordinary glass slide some of 
the ammonia arising in the form of vapour from a manure 
heap, he found that this valuable nutritive agent escaped in 
such large quantities that the portion which remained in the 
manure was really less than that which had evaporated. He 
mentioned the circumstance to Liebig, and told him that the 
quantity of wheat which was grown was in proportion to the 
quantity of ammonia in the manure. He told Liebig he 
would give him all the corn he grew, if Liebig would teach 
him to grow all the corn he lost. To guard against the 
escape of ammonia, he poured upon the dung-heap a large 
quantity of diluted sulphuric acid. He thought this was a 
hint which their agricultural friends would take the oppor- 
tunity of profiting by. The rev. gentleman then read an 
extract from a letter from Mr. G. Hankey, Secretary of the 
Microscopical Society of Illinois, acknowledging the kindly 
feeling which existed in England towards kindred societies 
established in distant parts of the earth, and he expressed a 
