10 THE MICROSCOPE, 
The duties of his position in the great insurance company with 
which he is connected require Dr. Lewis to spend a great deal of his 
time upon the road, traveling all over the continent, thus being 
brought into personal contact and relations with the scientific men 
of every part of the country. He is thus frequently consulted in 
medico-legal investigations other than those that he is constantly 
prosecuting for the Travelers’ Company, and has been retained as 
expert in many criminal cases involving the use of the microscope. 
In 1881 Dr. Lewis was elected an active member of the New 
York Medico-legal Society ; in 1882 he was made a permanent 
fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, and in 1883 his Alma 
Mater conferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. He 
is also a member of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, and of other national, state and local associations and 
societies too numerous to mention. 
In 1885 he was elected vice-president of the American Society 
of Microscopists, and in 1888, at Columbus, was made its president. 
He is essentially a business man—one who looks after all the 
details of whatever may be confided to his charge. He is energetic 
and industrious, and will bring into the affairs of the society the 
spirit of order and push, and the business methods which character- 
ize the management of his office in Hartford. 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOClEMiiRae 
IRON CITY MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 
HE regular meeting of this Society was held December 11th. 
After the regular routine business, Dr. Edwin T. Painter 
read a paper on the parasitic fungi found in the human ear; the 
subject being fully illustrated by slides and charts. An abstract of 
the paper is as follows: 
: “It is nearly twenty years since it was demonstrated that plants 
of a low organization, but veritably and unmistakably plants, occa- 
sionally find their way into the channel of the ear, and there cause 
irritation and inflammation, with attendant serious results. Most of 
the parasitic fungi that are found in the ear belong to the kind 
termed Aspergillus, from aspergillum, because of its resemblance to 
the brush with which the holy water is scattered in Roman Catholic 
ceremonies. Of three varieties, the Aspergillus niger is the most 
common form. In its microscopic appearance, the niger is like 
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