PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



EOTAL MiCBOSCOPICAL SoCIETT. 



January Srd, 1872. 



"W. Kitchen Paeker, Esq., P.R.S., President, in the chair. 



Dr. James Murie read a paper " On the Development of Pungi 

 within the Thorax of Living Birds." 



W. Carruthers, F.E.S., read a paper " On the Structure of the 

 Stems of the Arborescent LycopodiacesB of the Coal Measures." 



A discussion followed, in which Professor Tliiselton Dyer, Dr. 

 Braithwaite, and the President, took part. 



Dr. Koyston Pigott made some remarks upon the advantages 

 sometimes gained by reducing the angular aperture of object- 

 glasses. 



On the 24th January an evening meeting was held for the exhi- 

 bition of objects and apparatus of novelty or remarkable interest, 

 and for friendly conversation. The gathering, in number about 200, 

 was almost exclusively composed of Fellows, with a few visitors of 

 scientific eminence, no general invitations having been issued. 



Histological specimens were exhibited by Dr. L. S. Beale, Dr. 

 Gr. Johnson, Dr. W. J. Gray, Dr. Bruce, Mr. C. Stewart, and 

 Dr. Klein (the latter under Mr. Stephenson's new erecting bino- 

 cular microscope) ; other specimens, illustrating natural his- 

 tory, by the President (Foraminifera), Dr. Carruthers, Mr. Gray, 

 Mr. M'Intire, and many others ; and various microscopical 

 apparatus by the makers. 



February 1th, 1872. 



The President (who was in the chair) delivered the Anniver- 

 sary Address. Disclaiming the position of being an annalist to 

 bis fellow-workers, the President proceeded to give a sketch of 

 the different phases of his own labours in the development of the 

 vertebrate skeleton. He showed how, starting with the Paley or 

 fitness school, as represented by Sir Charles Bell, he came under 

 the influence of his old master — "our English Oken" — Professor 

 Owen, who might, he thought, be accused of misleading students, 

 by suggesting an easy solution of all the hard sentences of nature 

 in an archetypal idea, instead of setting them to work with scalpel 

 and lens and microscope. 



