l"umll Miivh i??87o. ] 1^07/cd MiGroscopicol Society. 115 



of the sections of teeth which embelhsh his ' Odontography.' Of 

 three of these sections 1 made enlarged photographs in 1839, for 

 the artist's guidance, by means of the solar microscope, under 

 such an arrangement of lenses that no danger could ensue from the 

 heat-giving rays ; and presentation copies of proofs of many of the 

 plates, and also of Professor Owen's work on the Kangaroo will 

 always he valued by me as a memento of those early days. Many 

 papers also on the minute structure of fossil and recent plants owed 

 their origin to these weekly meetings, and it will suffice to add that 

 the elaborate work on Sponges, which even now is adding to the 

 honour of our good friend's honoured name, is the fruit of the good 

 seed sown thirty years ago. And happily the author is still with 

 us and at work. The crucla viridisque senedus — his good and green 

 old age — is still devoted with almost youthful ardour to his early 

 love; while his ripe ex2)erience enables him to recognize more 

 devoutly the hand of the Great Master, and to bid " God speed " 

 to the Society which specially investigates His works. The few, 

 alas ! the very few of our original members who still remain on our 

 list, will, with myself, refer with mixed feehngs to this our early 

 history, while the younger Fellows will be glad to find these few 

 historical particulars for the first time officially recorded. 



I have stated that Dr. Bowerbank is the father of the Micro- 

 scopical Society. Perhaps I may be looked upon as a godfather 

 and sponsor, inasmuch as I named the child ; and now that it has 

 arrived at maturity, it is my duty to see that in ripeness of ago 

 it may attain to perfectness of knowledge. To perform this my 

 duty efficiently, and to give some proof of my abiding interest in 

 the present and future welfare of the Society, it is my intention to 

 place in its Library my own copy of the ' Philosophical Trans- 

 actions.' In the perusal of this great work your minds will be filled 

 with thoughts of other men ; and after due meditation and study, 

 they will be also replenished with your own. The unavoidable 

 result will be a large accession of valuable papers at our meetings 

 on topics peculiarly ours. 



My first seventeen volumes of the ' Transactions,' from the com- 

 mencement in 1665 to 1694, representing as it were the Eocene 

 jperiod of microscopical investigation, are in extenso as originally 

 printed. Then follow ten volumes containing the* 'Transactions 

 abridged.' The first five volumes are by Lowthorp and Jones, 

 under the imprimatur of Sir Isaac Newton as President, The 

 remaining five are by Keid, Gray, and Martyn. In these volumes 

 the papers are disposed under general heads, and the Latin papers 

 are translated into English. This ' Abridgment ' contains the 

 ' Transactions' from the commencement to 1750. From this date 

 the publication of the ' Transactions ' was placed under the special 

 direction of the Society itself, and not left, as heretofore, in the 



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