128 Transactions of the []:-,lI;:,y ^i^^T!^. 



length. This was effected for Dr. Groring, but only after such an 

 amount of " trial and error " that the cost of labour alone, as TuUey 

 informed me himself, was not less than 90Z. on the first object- 

 glass. The record of this fact is interesting. 



The present prosperous condition of our Society not only in the 

 number of our Fellows but in their working power and its effi- 

 cient results cannot fail to be a source of satisfaction. It is also 

 gratifying to know that our influence during a period of thirty 

 years has been largely felt by other bodies of scientific men, both 

 in London and the provinces ; so that there is hardly a town of 

 importance in the length and breadth of the land without its co- 

 operative Microscopical Association. In the large centres of com- 

 mercial enterprise and industry our own labours find a parallel in 

 theirs, and our once mfant Society is now surrounded by a host of 

 kindred institutions, joining with ourselves in the minute and accu- 

 rate investigation of Nature's laws and works. But in looking at 

 the extent to which the leaven of our influence has operated, it is 

 impossible to omit a tribute of admu'ation to the " State Microsco- 

 pical Society of Illinois," for which a charter was procured at the 

 last Spring session of the legislature, and published in extmso in 

 the ' Chicago Times ' on the r2th of April last. Your President and 

 Mr. Dm'ham, as the President of the Quekett Club, were invited to 

 be present last May at the first great gathering of this new Society, 

 when an address of no ordinary interest and power was read from the 

 chair. This address commenced with a condensed account of 

 microscopy as to its antiquity and its progress in modern times, 

 and then more fully described the status of the Eoyal Microscopical 

 Society of London, and its influence upon science, literature, and 

 optical art. After alluding to the increasing number of scientific 

 journals ably edited and abundantly supported, and also to our own 

 and other ' Transactions ' admirably printed and illustrated, the 

 President observed that " the influence of such a tidal wave on the 

 interests of science must be at once apparent. Nor," says he, " did 

 the usefulness of the parent Society ( for such the London Society 

 may justly be called) end here. From its formation it has given 

 such an impetus to the optician's art as to have produced a keen but 

 friendly competition, which has resulted in a degree of perfection 

 deemed impossible a few years ago, — a competition which is, year 

 by year, producing the most marked benefits to science, and, there- 

 fore, to the world." 



The President then alluded to the past and present condition 

 of Cliicago, and to the marvellous change both m the face of the 

 country and its population, which seems to us, on this side the 

 Atlantic, more like a new creation than the following out of any 

 natural law. He writes as follows : — " The time-honoured saying 

 of good Bishop i)erkeley, ' Westward the star of empire takes its 



