136 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



better corrections of their spherical ami chromatic aberration. This 

 important improvement in objectives furnished what had long 

 been wanting — increased power with better definition and penetration. 

 Mr. Lister also placed in the hands of opticians a projection for an 

 Ath objective, which, until very lately, was the standard for high 

 powers, and the basis of all subsequent improvements. 



Many men, eminent in physical science, now engaged in a race 

 after greater perfection, Tully, Goring, Brewster, Brown, Herschel, &c, 

 in this country ; and on the Continent, Selligues, Chevalier, Amici, 

 Fraiinhofer, &c, eagerly set themselves to work, grinding and con- 

 structing lenses for the microscope, and workers were not long want- 

 ing who understood how to apply them. 



Sir John Herschel, writing about the improvements made in the 

 instrument, says : — " I have viewed an object, without utter indistinct- 

 ness, through a microscope by Amici, magnifying upwards of 3000 times 

 in linear measure, and had no suspicion that the object seen was even 

 approaching to resolution into its primitive molecules." In the year 

 1828, C. A. S. Schultze made many valuable observations on the 

 " primitive molecules of matter " ; but it was not until ten years later 

 (1838), that Schwann gave the world his remarkable generalization of 

 cell development. If, therefore, Bichat laid the foundation of theo- 

 retical histology, and supplied it with a backbone, it was Schwann 

 who discovered and propounded the great significance of the cell, in 

 the development of the simple and complex tissues which enter into 

 vegetable and animal bodies. This discovery led the way to great 

 advances in our microscopical knowledge. Indeed, the microscope was 

 now seen in the hands of very many men of science, and at the same 

 time small bodies of the medical profession were in the habit of meet- 

 ing together at each others houses for the regular study and dis- 

 cussion of matters connected with the instrument. It was at one of 

 these evening meetings that the happy idea was conceived of esta- 

 blishing a society for the more systematic and methodical prosecution 

 of microscopical work. Accordingly, in the year 1839, the first So- 

 ciety was formed, in this or any other country, " for the promotion 

 of microscopical investigation, and for the introduction and improve- 

 ment of the microscope as a scientific instrument." 



Professor Owen, then a rising young general practitioner, fresh 

 from St. Bartholomew's Hospital, became the first President of the 

 Society. During the first year of its existence 177 members joined 

 the little band ; a number fully large enough to justify the anticipa- 

 tions of its founders, that such a society was wanted and would prove 

 a success. May the rise and progress of the Boyal Microscopical 

 Society foreshadow the future of the bark we launch on the ocean of 

 time to-night. May the Medical Microscopical Society fulfil in every 

 way the wishes of its founders, and become a pillar of strength in the 

 promotion of " Practical Histology " among students, young and old, 

 in our profession. From the history of the Royal Microscopical 

 Society we learn that members of the medical profession were more 

 eager and zealous in the promotion of its objects than any other class of 

 men ; and that the earliest and most frequent contributors to its 



