42 THE NORTHERN MICROSCOPIST. 
The way bill, too, is often unnoticed, and Members frequently send each box 
to the name which ovce followed theirs, regardless as to whether its situation 
may be altered, or the name entirely left out; by this means, one Member 
whose name had for a long time appeared on the way bill, did not receive a 
box for six months. 
Too much care cannot possibly be given to the cement used in the preparation 
of dry mounts. Although almost any cement will hold for any length of time 
in one’s private cabinet, none but the very toughest is at all suitable for our 
travelling boxes; zinc—white, which is a favourite cement with many, being 
much too brittle. Many dry mounted slides come to grief in the post, and when 
such is the case, nothing but the glass slip, and occasionally also the cover glass 
is saved, the object, in nine cases out of ten, being lost or overlooked, so that it 
never comes to hand.” 
The business of the evening being finished about 9 o’clock, the meeting 
resolved itself into a Conversazione, at which the following objects were 
exhibited. 
The President (Mr. Washington Teasdale, F.R.M.S.) brought a very con- 
veniently arranged Portable Microscope with Lamp and other accessories 
enclosed in one case, together with the following :— 
I. Micro, rulings on glass and steel. 
2. Type slide (with key) 60 species Foraminifera, prepared by J. D. Siddall, 
Esq., including some exceptionally fine forms of Lugene, ete. 
3. Two slides, Diatoms (one selected) prepared and mounted by our venerable 
member Mr. A. Nicholson, on or about his 92nd birthday. 
4. Pearson’s Amateurs’ Microtome. 
5. Spring safety stage in ebonite. 
6. Sheets of various curvilinear tracery, compound vibration and geometric. 
7. Three sheets Photos of Micro. objects by Dr. Maddox. 
8. Scientific diagrams, etched and drawn on gelatime films. 
Dr, Brown exhibited and described some Living Eels found in ears of wheat. 
Mr. C. N. Peal exhibited under his microscope some beautifully prepared 
diatoms, notably Craspedodiscus Arafurensis from the Sea of Arafura; and 
other slides. 
Mr. Alfred H. Searle brought with him two microscopes and other apparatus, 
viz., 
1. Crouch’s Binocular Microscope with concentric rotating stage fitted with 
Swift’s popular achromatic condenser. 
2. Collins’ new Histological Microscope. 
3. Williams’ Freezing Microtome which attracted much attention, and with 
which Mr. Searle cut a number of exquisitively thin sections of Elder pith. 
This instrument was described in the Quekett Club Journal for May, 1876. 
4. A simple instrument for holding clean cover glasses. 
5. An instrument for holding glass slips whilst cleaning them, before using. 
Mr. Searle also exhibited a number of his own well prepared slides consisting 
of anatomical and other sections, Diatoms 77 situ, etc. 
Mr. H. N. Maynard exhibited under his travelling tripod microscope, Méller’s 
Diatom Typen Platte, consisting of 400 selected and arranged Diatoms— 
And Mr. Allen exhibited some of Mr. C. Vance Smith’s decolorized and 
excellently doubly-stained vegetable sections. 
The President’s address was of an unusually interesting nature; we wish 
space could be spared to print it 7 extenso, containing as it does many valuable 
remarks ; we must content ourselves however with making the following 
extracts :-— 
‘* At one time an increase of the first extremely low rate of subscription was 
desirable, and indeed necessary; but the sudden and unexpected augmentation 
made in 1878 was an admittedly unwise step, and has been receded from, as 
assuredly it cost us the loss of many good working members, and it is desirable 
