MEMORANDA. 305 



Society. Those who have used the microscope for inany 

 years in London will not have for«)otten the pleasant reunions 

 at Mr. Ward's house in Wellclose-square, when this instru- 

 ment was in its infancy, and when it required some courage 

 to confront those who maintained that at best it was a toy, 

 and its use a loss of time. T!ie soirees of March 7th and 

 April 11th might well be regarded by Mr. Ward and his 

 friends as a vindication of their early zeal, and a triumphant 

 demonstration of tlie value and importance of the instrument 

 whose first successes they had witnessed, and whose influence 

 on human knowledge has more than realized their warmest 

 anticipations. The rooms at the disposal of the Apothecaries' 

 Society were well adapted to entertain a large audience, and 

 perhaps in their history were never more gracefully employed 

 than in presenting what has been effected by an instrument 

 that has so largely contributed to the advancement of medical 

 science. On each occasion the walls of the large hall 

 were hung round with diagrams and drawings, exhibiting 

 enlarged representations of various objects observed by the 

 microscoj)e. They were arranged according as these were 

 from the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. Each 

 kingdom was again subdivided into particular groups ; and 

 beneath these diagrams, on tables, were placed microscopes, 

 by which could be examined either the objects themselves 

 which were represented, or others allied to them. On both 

 occasions nearly one hundred microscopes were exhibited. 

 All the best forms and the newest apparatus might be seen 

 at work. Mr. Shadbolt, Mr. Brooke, Mr. Furze, and Mr. 

 Wenham, were superintending their respective methods of 

 illumination. The ingenious machine of Mr. Peters', de- 

 scribed in the Transactions of the Microscopical Society, in 

 the present number of our Journal, was exhibited at the 

 second soiree for the first time ; and writing produced upon 

 glass which defied the highest powei's of the best microscopes 

 to decipher. Mr. Rainey and Professor Quekett exhibited a 

 large number of very beautifully injected specimens of animal 

 tissues. Amongst a variety of other objects Mr. Rainey 

 exhibited the curious glands in the frog's skin, described by 

 him in the present number of the Journal. Mr. Mummery, 

 of Dover, to whom science is indebted for many valuable 

 observations on marine animals, brought with him a quantity 

 of living specimens, and thus enabled a large number of 

 persons to witness, for t!ie first time, the beautiful movements 

 of the Cilio-brachiate Polyps, the currents in the Sponge, 

 and other objects. Mr. Cook, the artist, whose Fern cases 

 are. almost as celebrated as his pictures, exhibited a great 

 VOL. III. X 



