2()0 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Hull Scientific Association.* 



The inaugural address was delivered before the above association 

 on the 13th instant by the President — subject : The Work of the 

 Microscope. The speaker pointed out that the proper work of a local 

 society was local, that the flora and fauna of the locality should be its 

 first care, and hoj)ed that the members of the new association would 

 carefully examine and, as far as possible, tabulate the microscopic 

 organisms of the neighbourhood. A list of the microscopic fauna 

 and flora of each district occuj)ied by a Field Club or Natural History 

 Society would, he thought, be of great service to professional botanists 

 or zoologists engaged in the study of the distribution of animals or 

 plants in time and space ; but he hoped that members would carefully 

 remember that cataloguing was not very intellectual work, and that 

 no member would be content unless he learned something of the life 

 history of the organisms whose names and external morphology he 

 studied. Passing from this branch of his subject, the speaker glanced 

 briefly at the departments of work in which certain members of the asso- 

 ciation were engaged, and pointed out how interdependent all branches of 

 science were now seen to be. The member who studied crystallography 

 with the aid of the polariscope would soon discover that the botanist 

 and zoologist made demands upon his knowledge, because they found 

 when they used the polariscope in the investigation of organic struc- 

 tures, the same phenomena of interference and refraction with which 

 the crystallographer was so familiar. The greater part of the address 

 was occupied by a dissertation on the use of the microscope in 

 unravelling the mystery of plant life, or rather of the life history of 

 plants. The speaker began with a Torula cerevisse, and having 

 described its mode of multiplication, passed on to the development of 

 some of the lower algte, such as Palmogloea, and thence to the de- 

 velopment of cells in the young leaves of Anacharis, and concluded by 

 pointing out some direction in which niicroscoj)ic botany might do 

 great service. At the conclusion of the address, the meeting resolved 

 itself into a conversazione. 



* This is a new association, and is formed for the purpose of affording mutual 

 aid and instruction in science. The constitution of the Society is open, but at 

 present nearly all the members are devoted to microscopy. The report is furnished 

 by Mr. C. P. Gibson, M.P.S., Hon. Sec. 



