THE 



MONTHLY MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



MARCH 1, 1876. 



I.— THE PEESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



By H. C. SoRBY, F.R.S., F.L.S., F.O.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



(^Delivered h-fore the Eoyal Microscopical Society, February 2, 1876.) 



In selecting a subject for my address, it appeared to me more 

 desirable to direct attention to some special questions more or less 

 intimately connected with branches of science which I have perhaps 

 studied more than most of those who are familiar with the general 

 applications of the microscope, rather than to pass in review the 

 many interesting communications that have been made to us during 

 the past year. These have been of that varying character which it 

 is so desirable for our Society to have. Several have treated on 

 new apparatus, and on the improvement or improved use of older 

 contrivances of different kinds, or on the methods to be employed 

 in the examination of the microscope, and in testing its perform- 

 ances. We have also had a number of excellent papers on single 

 objects of interest, both animal and vegetable, as well as others 

 treating on more general and wider biological subjects. On the 

 whole, I think we have good reason to congratulate ourselves on 

 what has been brought before us. Time would not. allow me to 

 mention and discuss the various memoirs in detail, and also to lay 

 before you a special subject which appears to me well worthy of 

 consideration, viz. the relation between the limit of the powers 

 of the microscope and the ultimate molecules of organic and in- 

 organic matter. At all events, I think that this subject may lay 

 claim to sufficient novelty ; since, so far as I have been able to 

 learn from consulting the index of the various volumes, no one 

 during the last fifteen years has treated on this question ; and until 

 within the last few years none of the requisite data were known. 

 Even now many of them are so imperfect, that nothing more can 

 be done than to make the most probable assumptions. This 

 necessarily imparts more or less of a speculative character to some 

 parts of the subject, but I hope this will be pardoned on such an 

 occasion as the present. It appears to me that in his annual 

 address, the President of a society cannot do better than endea- 

 vour to point out the bearing of what is already known on some 

 great question ; and if in doing this the necessity of more accurate 

 knowledge is made apparent, there is more hope for the future. 

 The importance of particular classes of facts may not, and very 



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