PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 131 
November 20th, 1865, 
A. G. LatuaM, Esq., President of the Section, in the Chair, 
Mr. Parry read a paper on ‘‘ Collecting Foraminifera on the 
West Coast of Ireland.” He said that in June last he visited the 
coast of Connemara, for the purpose of collecting Foraminifera, 
more especially at Dogs Bay; he was accompanied by Mr. Burns, 
of Doohulla Lodge, who gave him much assistance. After he had 
procured a considerable quantity of the shell-sand in the usual 
way, he noticed some white floating material on the surface of the 
advancing tide ; he collected a quantity of it by means of a muslin 
net, and on examination found it nearly all composed of perfect 
dead shells of Foraminifera. On the second visit to the bay Mr. 
Burns discovered a pool near high-water mark, covered with the 
floating shells, and of these Mr. Parry collected a large quantity, 
portions of which he had since distributed to members of the 
Section. He cbserved that the underside of the rocks forming 
the pool were covered with Foraminifera, and he therefore con- 
cluded that these minute creatures live there, and from what he 
saw he was led to believe that Dogs Bay is a breeding-ground for 
them, and that they may also be found living in “ Burns’ Pool.” 
Mr. Dancer, F.R.A.S., read a paper “On the [lumination of 
Opaque Objects under the High Powers of the Microscope.” 
The author’s attention was drawn to a paper on this subject 
which appeared in the ‘ Scientific American,’ and was copied into 
the ‘ Mechanics’ Magazine’ of October 20th, 1865. 
Mr. H. L. Smith, of Kenyon College, had contrived a plan for 
the illumination of opaque objects, by placing a small mirror in a 
rectangular box, which could be attached to any ordinary micro- 
scope; this mirror was made adjustable immediately over the 
opening of the back of the objective ; a light was placed at the side 
of the box and reflected down through the objective on to the 
object. In this manner the object could be illuminated when the 
high powers were used. 
Mr. Hurst sugested that a discussion on this subject would be 
of interest to the members of the Microscopical Section. The 
author, not having time to make one of Mr. Smith’s apparatus, 
thought it possible to arrive at similar results by the employ- 
ment of the binocular microscope, an instrument which is now 
more common than a monocular instrument. The trial quite 
answered hisexpectations. Thesimplest method,andonewhich gave 
good results, is to remove the eye-piece from the oblique body and 
fix a reflector on the top of the body in such amanner as to throw 
the rays of light down to the Wenham’s prism, and thence 
through the object-glass on to the object. 
If a plane mirror is employed a lens of suitable focal length 
should be placed in the body, in order to get the field of view 
entirely illuminated. 
