118 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



fallen into a great error, — an error so great as to be even called 

 ludicrous. When commenting on tlie angle of a now celebrated glass 

 I referred to it as one wbich bad been sold by Mr. ToUes to an 

 English purchaser. Mr. Stodder writes a special letter to take me 

 to task ; for it is he who sends out the glasses not Mr. ToUes. And to 

 have written in ignorance of this makes the writer, in Mr. Stodder's 

 opinion, ludicrous. 



Now that the correction has been made it may perhaps be asked 

 how is the question affected by it ? How many degrees of the 180^ 

 will it account for ? And is there any just reason for introducing into 

 the scientific part of a scientific journal a thing which is not scientific 

 or of public interest but only private and commercial ? No fault had 

 been found with the sale ; nothing was made to turn upon it ; no 

 reference was made to its terms about which nothing was known ; the 

 question concerned not the terms of the sale but the width of the 

 angle ; and the expression used is the common form always employed 

 and never misunderstood. Other opticians do not, any more than 

 Mr. Tolles, make use of their own hands or pens in sending off their 

 glasses ; but no distinction is drawn — it is always understood and 

 spoken off as coming to the same thing. An English optician's book- 

 keeper would no more think of writing to explain that it is he who 

 sends off the glasses than of writing to explain how the books are 

 kept. Such details have no interest except for the persons immediately 

 concerned ; and no other firm, English or foreign, puts them forward 

 as an element in scientific discussions. 



This perhaps was plain enough to require no answer for its own 

 sake. I have noticed it because it is a typical case ; illustrative of a 

 practice more common that it ought to be, which may be called 

 fi'ivolous objecting ; — that is to say the making of objections which do 

 not in any view of the case or on any supposition touch the question 

 in hand. Such making of objections for the sake of making them is 

 much to be deprecated. It is wearisome and can serve no purpose 

 except obstructing the progress of knowledge. 



Yours obediently, 

 ^^ S. L. Brakey, 



PEOCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Medicai/ Microscopical Society. 



Friday, June 19, 1874.— W. B. Kesteven, Esq., F.E.C.S., Vice- 

 President, in the chair. 



Osteo Sarcoma.— Mr. Needham read a paper upon this subject, 

 taking as a foundation the case of a young man who entered one 

 of the metropolitan hospitals with what appeared to be an osteo 

 sarcoma of the head of the tibia. Hard tumours, small in size, were 



