THE 



MONTHLY MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



MARCH 1, 1874. 



I.— THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Delivered before the Royal Microscopical Society, February Afh, 1874. 



Gentlemen, — It is not in the power of your President to follow 

 the example of his talented predecessor in this chair in laying 

 before you the valuable results of original and laborious researches 

 in an important branch of natural history, in the pursuit of which 

 the microscope is, at all events, a valuable adjunct ; and this is the 

 more to be regretted, when he remembers the very flattering manner 

 in which his name was received at the preceding nomination. 



In common with the rest of your officers and Council, a hope 

 has for some time past been entertained, and not altogether ground- 

 less, that ere this you might have been welcomed in more perma- 

 nently allotted premises amongst the other Royal Scientific Societies 

 in Burlington House. A deputation from this Society waited on 

 Mr. Layard when in office as First Commissioner of Works, &c., 

 and was very favourably received by him. He appeared to consider 

 that the services the Society might be able, when occasion requires, 

 to render to the Government in the employment of the best instru- 

 ments in existence by the most competent observers, and in the 

 information that might be given, if required, to those in the public 

 service on the use of the microscope, would be a not inadequate 

 return to the public for accommodation in Burlington House ; and 

 this opinion he has since confirmed in private correspondence. So 

 well were the views of Mr. Layard understood at the Office of 

 Works, that some time last year the Government contractor called 

 on the Assistant Secretary, and offered to furnish " our rooms in 

 Burlington House " on the same terms as those on which he supplied 

 the Government, the name of our Society having been given to him 

 at the Office of Works as one of those to whom accommodation had 

 been assigned. Mr. Layard, however, unfortunately relinquished 

 his office without leaving any official record of his views, which 

 were in consequence ignored by his successor, Mr. Ayrton, who 

 expressed to a deputation from this Society his determination not 

 to appropriate the rooms in question to any particular body, but to 

 keep them vacant for any possible scientific inquiry the Government 

 might require to conduct. Mr. Ayrton has, however, been suc- 



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