PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 257 



Afterwards I brought the ith to bear upon the same object, illu- 

 mination and everything else remaining precisely as before, except 

 that the B eye-piece now became almost a necessity. On proper 

 focussing the resolution of the strife quite surpassed my expectations : 

 the definition was crisp and little short of brilliant. 



As Ml*. Hickie does not state what his Berlin ^th has done with 

 " S. gemma," comjmrison is of course impossible; but if he means 

 that it has detected the longitudinal lines of that diatom, it would be 

 a real favom" to microscopists to tell them of the feat. He is doubt- 

 less too experienced an observer to be misled by the deceits of 

 diffraction. 



I am, Sir, youi* faithful servant, 



R. Gobbet Singleton. 



PEOCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



EoYAL Microscopical Society. 



King's College, October 7, 1874. 



Charles Brooke, Esq., F.R.S., President, in the chair. 



The minutes of the preceding meeting were read and confirmed. 



A list of donations to the Society since the last meeting in June 

 was read by the Secretary, and the thanks of the Fellows were voted 

 to the donors. 



Mr. H. J. Slack called special attention to some of these donations, 

 consisting of some curious old microscopes and optical apparatus 

 presented to the Society by Dr. John Gray ; amongst which were an 

 ancient microscoj)e of unknown date, and an elaborately made instrument 

 by TuUy, for Robert Brown, also some sjjectacles, with a series of 

 lenses of different powers, which were used by the great botanist in his 

 researches. 



Mr. Hembry, introduced by Dr. Braithwaite, was presented to the 

 President and formally admitted as a Fellow of the Society. 



A paper by Mr. Alfred Sanders, entitled " Suj)plementary Remarks 

 on the Appendicularia," was read by the Secretary. The paper was 

 illustrated by drawings, and aj)pears at p. 209 in the present number 

 of the Journal. 



Mr. Slack said that a few months ago Mr. H. R. Webb of Lyttleton, 

 N.Z., one of the Fellows of their Society, sent over some samples of earth 

 containing diatoms, &c. These were placed in the hands of Mr. Kitton, 

 and that gentleman had discovered amongst them a new species of 

 Surirella, which he had described as S. contorta. A paper by Mr. 

 Kitton, descriptive of the forms found in these deposits, and also 

 amongst some di-edgings sent by Capt. Parry from Colon, Panama, was 

 then read by the Secretary, and the illustrative drawings were handed 



T 2 



