11 
very limited means then at their disposal with those now at 
their command, as exemplified by the splendid array of 
beautiful instruments which he saw on the table before him ; 
when he recollected the paucity of information which was 
then among them, and the wonderful improvements which 
had since been effected, enabling the science of miscroscopy 
to be pursued with pleasure and delight, he was proud to be 
in conjunction with his friends to the right and to the left of 
him, to whose scientific researches we were indebted for the 
growth of knowledge, the spread of intelligence, and the 
supply of interesting subjects for microscopical research. 
Their worthy President had, that evening, ventured to caution 
the members of the Club against growing apathetic in their 
pursuit of science. He trusted that this was not likely 
to occur. He had been engaged for 40 years and more in 
microscopical observations, and he must say that he loved 
his microscope as dearly now as he ever loved it; he was 
now as much delighted with the new things he saw as he was 
in the days of his youth ; and in pursuit of his microscopical 
investigations, the ordinary cares and anxieties of the world were 
forgotten. He entered into his studies with a delight which 
he could hardly explain to his hearers, but which he hoped 
they would all experience in their turns. The learned doctor 
then narrated an interesting anecdote of one of his micro- 
scopical researches, in which he discovered, by the aid of 
Tully’s beautiful microscope the valves in the dorsal vessels 
of the Ephemera, which were distinctly visible, and he saw 
them performing their functions of pumping the blood and 
sending it through the arteries. This discovery was such a 
delight to him that he called in his scientific friends, who 
having seen it, induced him to publish the result of his exami- 
nation. He did so, but the eminent naturalist, M. Geoffroi 
de St. Hilaire, of Paris, ventured to question the authenticity 
of the account; he said it was possible to see the blood, but 
the valves were beyond even the power of the microscope to 
discover. A medical student in Paris, who knew the speaker 
well, vouched that he would not publish and send forth to the 
world anything unless he had good and undoubted authority 
for his statements. The great French naturalist was invited 
to an inspection. He (the speaker) had fortunately secured 
a beautiful specimen to show him. Mons. de St. Hilaire sat 
down to look through the instrument. He had hardly gazed 
at the object an instant when he uttered an exclamation of 
astonishment; but he never moved his eye from the microscope, 
until at length the imsect made a plunge and escaped; and 
then he threw up his arms and exclaimed ‘‘ Magnifique !”” and 
he (the speaker) was delighted that he had succeeded in re- 
