300 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
form the testimonial should take in addition to the address, and 
the suggestion which commended itself to the approval of the 
Council was an autotype portrait of Mr. Brittain, which should 
hang in the meeting-room. ‘The Council hoped that Mr. Brittain 
would accept it as a form of testimonial, as it conferred as much 
honour upon him as if it had assumed any other form. The 
Chairman then read the address, and handed the album to Mr. 
Brittain. 
The address is as follows :— 
THE MANCHESTER MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 
To THOMAS BRITTAIN, EsgqQ., 
DEAR SIR, 
It is with deep regret that we, the undersigned members of this 
Society, have learned that your failing health, in connection with your advancing 
years, has caused you to resign the office of Vice-President, which you have 
held since the formation of the Society, with the exception of one year, during 
which you filled the highest office; and that the same cause will probably render 
impossible your attendance at our future meetings. 
Whilst we offer you the assurance of our sympathy on this occasion, we regard 
it as a suitable opportunity for presenting a Zestimonial of our esteem for your 
personal character and our appreciation of your past services, rendered as these 
have been, not only in behalf of this Society, which has been largely benefited 
by your assistance and counsel, but also in the promotion of a general interest 
in the study of nature by means of the microscope, which has been, we believe, 
one of the dearest objects of your life during the last forty years. 
It must, we feel assured, have been a source of satisfaction to you to have 
seen this interest become more generally diffused through all classes of intelligent 
society during that period, and to know that this result is to a great extent 
owing to minds like your own, endowed with an ardent love of nature, a 
capacity to acquire considerable familiarity with some of its various phases, an 
eloquence and earnestness at all times in the advocacy of truth, and generosity 
in imparting knowledge. 
We might remind you of special services which you have rendered in promoting 
the beneficial study of nature, and especially of your favourite pursuit, crypto- 
gamic botany. We believe, however, that your influence has been extensively 
and personally felt, and that the recorded transactions of our own and kindred 
Societies afford appreciative testimony of your past usefulness. 
The unselfish and generous assistance which you have so freely given to 
microscopical students, and more particularly to the young, has greatly im- 
pressed us with your large-heartedness, and must command the esteem of all 
who know you. 
It is our sincere hope that you may live to enjoy during many more years the 
fruits of a well-spent life, in health sufficient to pursue your favourite studies ; 
that this 7estimonzal may serve to remind you that your labours have not been 
in vain, but have been appreciated by a large circle of friends and admirers; 
and that you may still be able to teach that, in the contemplation of nature, 
** the heart 
May give a useful lesson to the head, 
And learning wiser grow without his books,” 
Believing as we do that the present and future members of this Society will 
value a permanent record of the personal appearance of its eldest and one of 
its most enthusiastic leaders, we have had prepared, with your kind permission, 
