Proceedings. v 



collection such as this would much tend to benefit the Club ; we 

 should by this means obtain a cabinet full of valuable material, 

 and form excellent references for our present and future mem- 

 bers. I merely throw this out as a suggestion, which I hope to 

 see many make use of. 



I should have been glad to have recorded some papers on the 

 use of the microscope, as it is very essential that that instrument 

 should be kept to the fore. It would much benefit our members 

 to have from time to time papers illustrating the use of the 

 microscope, not merely showing how to use the instrument 

 under the best conditions of illumination, but also to show the 

 use the instrument may be turned to for the purpose of detecting 

 the adulteration of food, fabrics, and other substances, &c. 

 There are many of my fellow-workers, no doubt, who use the 

 instrument merely as an amusement ; but I am not prepared to 

 blame them, for the very fact of the microscope revealing to 

 them something with which they were not before acquainted 

 may induce them to make further search, and finally lead them 

 to take up the study in earnest ; even if it does not do this it 

 will unquestionably reveal to them the beauty of the Almighty's 

 work, which without the instrument would be invisible. Who 

 has ever for the first time examined the peristome of a Funaria, 

 the stellate hairs of a Deutzia, or the pollen of the mallow, 

 without expressing astonishment at the marvellous beauties here 

 depicted, and to think that the object under observation is 

 merely one of our common plants is hardly to them credible ; 

 but so it is, and the more we examine them the greater will 

 be our astonishment. 



Our Fifteenth Annual Soiree was held at the PubUc Hall on 

 Wednesday, the 19th November last, when eleven clubs, societies, 

 private exhibitors, and opticians rendered valuable aid. 



The following Ust gives a statement of the clubs represented, 

 and the microscopes and other objects of interest exhibited at 

 the Soiree : — 



hi the Large Hall. — The Croydon Microscopical and Natural 

 History Club, 46 ; the Eoyal Microscopical Club, 5 ; the Quekett 

 Microscopical Club, 26 ; the South London Microscopical Club, 

 13 ; the New Cross Microscopical Club, 7 ; the Greenwich 

 Microscopical Club, 5 ; the Sydenham and Forest Hill Micro- 

 scopical Club, 4 ; the Tower Hill Microscopical Club, 4 ; the 

 Sutton Scientific Society, 4 ; the Entomological Society of 

 London, 1 ; other private exhibitors, 11. Total number of 

 instruments, 126. 



Members and Clubs exhibiting Objects in the Small Hall. — 

 88 members of the Croydon Club ; 1 member of the Eoyal 

 Microscopical Club ; 1, South London Club ; and 1, Erith and 

 Belvedere Club. 



