PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 69 
rhomboidal figure in any part of the field, and it was, of 
course, much better to have just enough of light, and not too much. 
It was curious, too, to see how the markings of objects changed by 
varying the degree of light in the field. 
Mr. Janez Hoae expressed a favorable opinion of the diaphragm 
eye-piece. 
The PrestpEnt said that at the last meeting he had expressed 
a hope that the recess would be productive of successful micro- 
scopical investigations, and he now hoped that the Society would 
have the benefit of its members’ labours in the session just com- 
mencing. Its officers had not been idle, and he had great pleasure 
in reporting that the result of constant application on their part 
to the object they had in view for some time past was that he now 
held in his hand the Charter of Incorporation of the Society. 
But, while congratulating the Society in this respect, he had to 
lament that the present was the most painful of their meetings 
in which he had taken part, inasmuch as in the interval to which 
he had just alluded they had lost one of their most dear and 
honoured members. Until now he had never missed the face of 
Richard Beck from their gatherings, and he could not express the 
pain and sorrow he had experienced on hearing of his illness and 
death ; and on the occasion of the funeral he had felt constrained 
to express, on the part of the members, as well as for himself, the 
sincere respect which he was sure they all felt for the memory 
of one who had laboured so earnestly for the benefit of their 
science and of their Society. Before reading the Charter he 
ought to tell the meeting that at the moment when the subject 
was first spoken of, Mr. Burr, in the most handsome way, offered 
his professional services gratuitously. He had now to read the 
Charter. (‘Trans.,’ p. 7.) 
At the conclusion of the reading of the document, of which the 
above is a copy, the original Charter, under the Great Seal of 
England, was passed round the room and examined by the 
members. 
The PREsIDENT, continuing, remarked that since the grant of 
the Charter the Council, as the Secretary had stated, had taken 
steps for securing in addition the distinctive title of a Royal Society, 
and he hoped to be able to make a satisfactory communication to 
the members as to this at their next meeting. 
Mr. Loss, referring to the debt which the Society owed to their 
President for his great exertions in respect to the Charter just 
read, said that several of the members were desirous of securing 
to the Society the advantages of Mr. Glaisher’s labours as Presi- 
dent during the ensuing year ; but it was found that Mr. Glaisher 
could not be re-elected without one of their by-laws being sus- 
pended ; he now rose, therefore, to give notice that at the next 
meeting the by-laws be suspended in order that, if the members 
should think fit, Mr. Glaisher should be re-elected. He felt quite 
sure that at the proper time the members would be unanimous in 
the expression of their opinion that hitherto they had had no Presi- 
