192 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Armstrong, F.B.M.S., Mr. Tozer, Superintendent of the Fire Brigade, 

 Mr. Thomas Brittain, Secretary of the Manchester Aquarium, and 

 Mr. Blant, of the Salford Museum. In a lower room were ranged, on 

 tables, a number of microscopes, under which were shown numerous 

 interesting objects, including specimens of the grains of various flowers ; 

 the calcareous covering of marine objects ; the anatomy of insects ; 

 the cuticle of plants ; portions of the human lung, and other objects. 

 Each table was presided over by a member of the Society, who gave 

 such information as was necessary to the spectators. After the com- 

 pany had had an opportunity of examining the interesting collection, 

 they adjourned to an upper room, where arrangements had been made 

 for a lecture, upon Pond Life, to be given by Mr. B. Home, of Oldham. 

 The chair was taken by Mr. Thomas Armstrong. In opening the pro- 

 ceedings, he said that, as President of the Society, he would venture to 

 offer a few remarks upon the subject which had brought them together. 

 It was about two hundred and fifty years since the microscope was 

 invented, and to the valuable discoveries made thereby they stood 

 indebted for a great amount of knowledge in various branches of 

 science. At first difficulties and discouragements surrounded its in- 

 troduction, but by degrees its use extended until it had attained to 

 what they then saw it. Among the earlier workers as microscopists 

 were Dr. Boyle, Mr. Hooke, Dr. Lieberkiihn, Culpepper, and Henry 

 Baker, F.B.S., who, so far back as 1743, wrote an admirable work 

 upon the subject. A great impulse had been given, during the 

 present century, to that branch of knowledge by societies ; amongst 

 which were the Boyal Microscopical Society, the Old Change Society, 

 and others, till they got down to their own little one there. There 

 were people at that time, however, who looked upon the microscope 

 as but a thing to excite wonder, and as a plaything, but he had no 

 doubt that these opinions would soon be dissipated. Speaking upon 

 the use of the microscoj)e, he said, its results must materially lead a 

 thinking mind to a consideration of organisms of all kinds, from the 

 most minute to the most immense, until it was lost in the variety and 

 magnificence of them. There remained a boundless field for inquiries 

 in that department of science, and every step they took enlarged their 

 ideas, and gave them greater capacity to understand the wonders of 

 nature. Histology, or the science of the minute structure of the 

 organs of plants and animals, might be said to be the creation of that 

 century ; some glimpses of organic structure having been, however, 

 obtained by the earlier observers, but without system, and from which 

 it would have been impossible to get a proper idea of the laws of 

 formation and development. It was only within the last forty or 

 fifty years that the microscope had been made capable of yielding 

 such a magnifying power, combined with such clearness of definition, 

 as was necessary for the investigation of that most interesting and 

 important field of research. In organized beings nature worked out 

 her most secret processes by structures far too minute to be observed 

 by the naked eye, hence the microscope was of great importance to 

 the physiologist. The medical profession were greatly indebted to 

 it. Beferring to animals and plants, he said the difference between 



