THE MANCHESTER MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 303 
I hope, however, in our own Society, that by association with those 
who regard play as merely a wholesome diversion from real work, 
our play-fellows may at last become help-mates in the discovery of 
truth, and so add a few stones to that great temple of knowledge, 
the building of which has been committed to our care by our pre- 
decessors in the world’s history, and which we hope to bequeath to 
our posterity with greater completeness and richer adornment than 
before. This, then, is the higher aim which we ought all to possess 
in being members of a microscopical society. That some of our 
members have this aim in view is attested by the nature of the 
papers that are occasionally read at our ordinary meetings. I am 
sorry to say that such papers are not sufficiently numerous to 
warrant us in drawing the inference that we are all endeavouring 
to add to the stock of human knowledge. ‘There is other work, 
however, to be done by a microscopical society than the writing of 
papers ; so that whilst some are following the life-history of a species, 
or tracing the relations or modifications of an organ, or, perhaps, in- 
vestigating the relation between structure and function in some ill- 
understood region of the organic world, there are others with equal 
patience endeavouring to discover the best methods of preserving 
the results of such research, and so of securing for ever, free from 
change, specimens that would otherwise be required to be prepared 
afresh, whenever it was necessary to exhibit a type or demonstrate 
a discovery. This part of the work of our Society is open for 
your inspection to-night in the illustrations of permanent mounting 
contributed by the members of our Mounting Section, to which I 
cordially invite your earnest attention. There is no process too 
trivial for our mounting department to consider in its endeavour to 
instruct its members in the art of forming permanent records of 
the true and the beautiful in nature; and the excellence of the 
results attained by the careful work of some of the members is 
sufficient evidence of the successful application of their skill and 
ingenuity. I can assure those who intend to join our Society that 
its Mounting Section will soon enable them to lay up a store of 
amusement and instruction for themselves and their friends during 
the winter evenings that are approaching, and may possibly form a 
stepping-stone to the ‘higher region of scientific research and dis- 
covery. 
Some interesting processes of a popular nature will be shown to 
you to-night by some of the members of the section. Mr. Stanley 
will mount Mosses and Hepatics in glycerine jelly by the boiling 
process ; Mr. Lofthouse will extract and mount the tongue of the 
bee ; Mr. Johnson will mount Drosera rotundifolia in carbolized 
water ; Mr. Hall will show the process of cell-making ; Mr. Ward 
will illustrate the art of finishing the slide in the most attractive 
manner with a ring of cement; and other members have volun- 
teered to exhibit equally interesting processes. 
