PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. ek 
Wasps, &c.,prepared by him, and explained his method of preparing 
them. The objects were operated upon by the ordinary cutting 
instrument, with a cylinder in the middle of the brass plate, and the 
object is raised by means of a screw rod working a small circular 
plate that rises up in the cylinder, or the well, as he should call it. 
The only alteration he made was to enlarge the instrument, so as 
to adapt it to the size of the object, it being usually furnishet 
with but a small aperture which is not sufficient to receive a 
large bee or a beetle, or even a wasp. This he endeavoured to 
accomplish by means of an additional plate, placed over the ordi- 
nary brass plate, having a larger aperture, being an adaptation of 
the well of the smaller instrument, so that the same screw may 
operate upon the plug, and raise the object, the same as in the 
smaller instrument. He might add, that he found a glass surface 
answer better with regard to the razor or cutting instrument than 
the ordinary plate. ‘The razor works very easily over the surface, 
and is less liable to injury from scratches. The object must, of 
course, be fixed, in order to be available for the cutting of the 
razor ; and this he effected by placing the object ina paper cell, and 
imbedding it in wax. (Dr. Halifax produced a specimen prepared 
in this way.) Then the plug or block, which is to be received by 
the well of the cutting instrument, will consist of a little cylinder, 
made up partly by a small cylinder of wood, and partly by a small 
cylinder of wax, and wax contents. In some cases the objects 
become almost useless, from the difficulty of removing the wax 
afterwards ; and, to avoid that, he previously immersed the object 
in stiff gum, and allowed it a very short time to harden betore 
inserting it im the wax capsule. Dr. Halifax concluded by show- 
ing several specimens, and explained fully the details of the plan 
adopted by him. 
The Prestprnt announced that the Soirée of the Society would 
be held on the 4th of April; also that the meeting to be held on 
the 9th of May would be made special, to take into consideration 
the changes in the constitution of the Society suggested by the 
Council, and, if approved, to adopt them. He also read a com- 
munication received by the Committee from the Committee of the 
Hackney Working Men’s Institute. (See p. 194.) 
ANNUAL SOIREE. 
April 4th, 1866. 
Tur Annual Soirée of the Microscopical Society was held in 
the Society’s Rooms, King’s College, London, on April 4th, and 
was attended by nearly a thousand members and visitors. The walls 
of the rooms were hung with beautiful drawings and diagrams, 
illustrating various microscopic objects and minute tissues of the 
animal and vegetable kingdom. On the tables were arranged two 
hundred microscopes, a large portion of which were first-class 
