206 The Microscope. 



Like most beginnings in Wellesley College, the beginning of 

 this society can be traced to the fertile mind of Mr. Durant. It 

 was his idea that among; the educatincj influences in the college 

 outside the class room work, there should be four societies: A 

 missionary society, a musical society, a literary society and a scien- 

 tific society. 



The scientific society he thought should be a microscopical club, 

 because the microscope is used in a wider range of departments of 

 research than any other instiiiment. Botany, zoology, lithology, 

 chemistry, all must call it to their aid. Physics must lend itself to 

 its perfection, moreover a knowledge of the use of this instrument 

 he felt would be invaluable in the school room and the home. 



The Shakspeare society was started, but when he urged the 

 second year of the college the formation of a microscopical club, it 

 did not seem to most of us that the time was ripe for such a begin- 

 ning. The departments of science were scarcely organized, there 

 was not a compound microscope in the college, and not a student 

 who knew anything of its use. The idea of a society of this sort, 

 which should be largely educational, did not seem fitting. " Begin 

 a society of students and develop into a society of investigators," 

 he said, and at last his enthusiasm carried the day. A few of us 

 were converts to his idea, and in the spring of 1877 the society was 

 started with six members, and an exhibit under three microscopes at 

 the first meeting. At that early day the laboratories for advanced 

 work in' the microscopical sciences were not yet opened, and a class 

 in the manipulation of the microscope was at once started by the 

 writer, and some practice each week was made the condition of 

 membership. Mr. Diu'ant was almost invariably present at the 

 monthly meetings, and no apparatus or object which would give 

 interest to them was denied us. Indeed he would often suggest that 

 luxuries in the way of apparatus should be ordered, such as a 1-25 

 objective of Zeiss, a 1-16 of Powell and Leland, a 1-10 of Tolles^ 

 Binocular stands of Zentmayer, and Beck, and valuable slides. 



The first event in our history was a visit from the Boston 

 Society of Microscopists in 1S78. Some 30 gentlemen brought to 

 us their own microscopes and work for an exhibit, we had then but 

 six compound microscopes in the college. In 1879 we invited this 

 organization, which, by the way, we have survived, to a return 

 exhibit under fifty microscopes, consisting entirely of work done 

 here. In 1881 we gave the second large exhiljit under more than 

 ninety microscopes. 



