38 THE MICROSCOPE. Mar., 



The History of the Royal Microscopical Society. 



By A. D. MICHAEL, 



LONDON, ENGLAND, 



At the annual meeting of the above named society the 

 president gave an address in which he said that if any of 

 his hearers would leave tliat West-end abode of science 

 and journey eastward to Tower Hill, and thenceby Sparow 

 Corner along Royal Mint Street, he would find himself 

 in Cable Street, St. George's in the East, not a very quiet 

 or a very clean locality: turning down Shorter Street he 

 would emerge opposite a space of green, where once 

 stood the Danish church with its Royal closet reserved 

 for the use of the King of Denmark when visiting this 

 country. The space is surrounded by houses which have 

 seen better days, and amongst them, between a pickle- 

 factory and a brewery, stands a rather dilapidated erec- 

 tion which is 50, Wellclose Square ; where, in 1839, lived 

 Edwin J. Quekett, Professor of Botany at the London 

 Hospital ; and there, on September 3 of that year, se- 

 venteen gentlemen assembled "to take into considera- 

 tion the proposition of forming a society for the promo- 

 tion of microscopical investigation, and for the intro- 

 duction and improvement of the microscope as a scienti- 

 fic instrument." Among the seventeen, were N. B. 

 Ward — the inventor of the Wardian case, which is not 

 only an ornament to town houses, but was the means of 

 introducing the tea-plant into Assam and the cinchonas 

 into India — who became treasurer of the Society ; Bow- 

 erbank Lister, who has been called the creator of the 

 modern microscope ; Dr. Farre; Dr. George Jackson ; the 

 Rev. J. B. Reade;and the enterprising and scientific nur- 

 seryman, George Loddiges. Most of these subsequently 

 became presidents of the Society. A public meeting was 

 held on December 20, 1839, at the rooms of the Horti- 

 cultural Society, then at 21, Regent Street, when the 

 "Microscopical Society of London" was formally started. 



