182 PROCEEDINaS OF SOCIETIES. 



an entrance-fee of one guinea and an annual subscription of the same 

 amount, and the associates pay merely the guinea subscription. 

 Country residents are admitted on payment of the above entrance-fee, 

 and 10s, 6d. annually. The first General Meeting of the Society was 

 held in the Eoyal Society's Hall, October 10th, 1873. About forty 

 gentlemen were present, the President (Mr. W. H. Archer) in the 

 chair. A rich and varied collection of microscopes and objects was 

 shown by members of the Society, during the evening. These exhibits 

 were examined with interest, the exhibitors willingly giving informa- 

 tion to all inquirers. 



The President read the following addi'ess : — We meet to-night for 

 the purjjose of inaugurating the Microscopical Society of Victoria. It 

 will of necessity consist of two classes of persons, namely, skilled 

 workers, who are called members, and students and amateurs, who are 

 called associates. The first class, it is expected, will be constantly 

 recruited from the second, and so render skilled working our funda- 

 mental characteristic. We have in Victoria microscopists who are 

 possessors of good instruments, and who know thoroughly how to use 

 them. The establishment of this Society, it is hoped, will induce most 

 of these gentlemen to co-oj)erate, sooner or later, with one another in 

 a methodical way, to the enlargement of the bounds of known truth by 

 means of the microscope. For though at intervals certain very 

 valuable special professional work has been accomplished in this city 

 and elsewhere, yet so far as published results are concerned, I believe 

 I am justified in declaring that at this moment not only Victoria, but 

 Australia generally, is, microscopically speaking, almost altogether an 

 unknown land. It is fitting that I should here allude to those Vic- 

 torians who have given the results of their microscopical labours to the 

 world. First on this honourable list I place Baron von Mueller. 

 This eminent scientific botanist, in the course of thii-ty-four years of 

 independent labour in the field of photography, with some sort or other 

 of microscopic instrument as his daily companion, has scrutinized 

 about 30,000 species of plants. In the comparison of the j)lants of 

 the Australian continent with those of other jjarts of the globe, the 

 new definition of orders, genera, and species, from hitherto unknown 

 material, necessitated frequent analytic dissections, and microscopic 

 examinations of minute organs, involving an amazing amount of 

 patient persevering application. But notwithstanding all the inde- 

 fatigable efforts of this able investigator, the simple impossibility for 

 one man to do everything, even in his own sphere, has compelled him 

 to pass by vast untrodden fields of exploration in the shape of crypto- 

 gamic botany, wherein any number of aspirants for microscopical fame 

 can therefore still find ample opportunity for winning the highest 

 renown. Next there is Professor M'Coy, who made his mark mth the 

 microscope at home by first establishing, contrary to the received 

 opinion of the time among all microscopical anatomists, that the 

 polished part of the surface of fish teeth is not enamel, but a modifica- 

 tion of dentine (ganoin). He has likewise worked at recent and 

 fossil sponges, and a little at polyzoa and foraminiferas since he came 

 here, but he cannot get time for mounting or preparing objects for 



