256 NOTES AND MEMORANDA. ["^urn'^.^JlayTwa' 



from siich pursuits as the Club proposed to itself, called on Dr. Bower- 

 bank, F.R.S., to address the meeting. In the course of his remarks, 

 Dr. Bowerbank referred to the time, now forty years ago, when there 

 were but four achromatic microscopes in existence, one of which 

 belonged to himself. Very early in his studies he saw, by means of 

 Tully's microscope, the valves in the dorsal vessel of the Ephemera 

 pumping the blood and sending it through the arteries ; but, on pub- 

 lishing his discovery, its authenticity was questioned by no less a man 

 than Geoffrey St. Hilaire. Dr. Bowerbank, however, succeeded in sub- 

 mitting an admirable specimen of the insect to that distinguished 

 naturalist, who had hardly gazed at it five minutes through the micro- 

 scope when he exclaimed, ' Ah ! ' and continued poring over the field, 

 till at length, when the insect made a plunge and escaped, he threw 

 up his arms with a loud ' Magnifique ! ' Such delightful surprises were 

 quite within the reach of every microscopist who had access to any 

 pond in the neighboui-hood. The Eev. J. B, Eeade then followed, and 

 illustrated the advantages which the microscope might confer on every 

 cultivator of the soil. By its teachings he had been enabled to grow 

 Swedish turnips reaching 38 inches in diameter, one of which he 

 scooped out, and after inserting in the cavity a hare, a pheasant, and 

 a brace of partridges, and replacing the top, he sent the turnip to an 

 agricultural friend. By his microscopical investigation of the soil, he 

 had doubled the value of his living, which enabled him to sell for a 

 good round sum twenty acres for the erection of an asylum, of which 

 his friend Dr. Millar was the first physician. Mr. Eeade next referred 

 to the dung-heaps in farm-yards, which were intended as manure 

 during the winter ; but which on being turned over lost a great deal 

 of muriate of ammonia by evaporation — a fact which he discovered by 

 the microscope, after pouring on to a slip of glass a drop or two of 

 miiriatic acid, and applying it to the steam which was escaping from 

 the manure. Great loss is sustained through this evaporation by the 

 farmer, the qiiantity of wheat grown being in proportion to the quan- 

 tity of ammonia in the manm-e. To prevent the escape of this most 

 valuable nutrient agent, he poured uj)on his dung-heaps a large quan- 

 tity of dilute sulphuric acid. The hints which the scientific cultivator 

 of whatever class might obtain from the microscope are as remunera- 

 tive as they are manifold — a conclusion which was still further en- 

 forced by the next speaker, Mr. Glaisher, F.E.S., and particularly by 

 Mr. Frank Buckland, who described the advances made in pisciculture 

 by the microscope, insomuch that opposition oysters might be grown 

 to Mr. Ecade's turnip, capable of holding not only one pheasant, but a 

 brace of them, in addition to the other game mentioned by that gen- 

 tleman ! The arguments in favour of the Club and its objects derived 

 yet fresh illustration from the President of the Croydon Farmers' 

 Club, Mr. Fuller, who indicated the check that might be put to tlie 

 ravages of insect life by microscopic research and its teachings. AYith 

 much interesting discussion to the same effect, the Croydon Micro- 

 scopic Club closed its first and highly auspicious meeting." 



