254 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



which he gave a great deal of time and active assistance — and he was, 

 in fact, there at the time of his death, which took place very suddenly. 

 He was Chairman of the General Committee of that hospital, by 

 which his loss will be very much felt. He was also a very good man of 

 business and universally liked, and was frequently consulted by friends 

 who wished for his advice, and his good common sense and sincere 

 sympathy were ever ready for all. It was said of him that when asked 

 a favour (which is often rather a strain upon friendship) he would do it 

 if he could, and that in a manner which seemed as if he was the person 

 receiving the favour rather than conferring it. All would agree in 

 regretting his loss, an expression of which had been conveyed to his 

 widow by their Secretary on behalf of the Society. His death would 

 leave a gap in many places, which it would be very hard to fill. 



The Minutes of the Meeting of the 21st of February, 1906, were 

 read and confirmed, and were signed by the Chairman. 



The List of Donations (exclusive of exchanges and reprints re- 

 ceived since the last Meeting) was read, and the thanks of the Society 

 were voted to the donors, especially to Messrs. Carl Zeiss for their very 

 valuable presentation of a copy of the collected treatises of the late 

 Professor Abbe. 



From 

 Webb, W. M. and Sillem, C. Tbe British Woodlice. (8vo,\ „,, „ , ,. 7 



London, 1906) ^ ±he ruousiiers. 



Winton, A. L. and Moeller, J. The Microscopy of Vegetable) „,, p ^j-„i, p .„ 



Foods. (New York, 1906) ...... J 



Gesammelte Abhandlungen von Ernst Abbe. Zweiter Band. 1 ! ^ Ca-1 7e\«. 



(8vo, Jena, 1906) . . . . . . . .) ' 



Glilnsetti. Vol. i., fasc. 1-13. (4to, Milan, 1906) . .{ i££^£E£. 



The Chairman announced that the Council had appointed Mr. Wynne 

 E. Baxter to be the Treasurer of the Society, in succession to the late 

 Mr. Yezey. 



Mr. J. W. Gordon exhibited and described a new retro-ocular or 

 top stop, which he had devised for the purpose of obtaining dark ground 

 illumination with high powered objectives, and increasing the definition 

 of highly-resolved images in a bright field. He explained that attempts 

 to obtain dark ground illumination in the ordinary way when high 

 powers are used, do not answer because of the wide angles of the high- 

 powered objective, and the necessity, under ordinary conditions, of dark 

 field production for a condenser of wider angle. His new arrangement 

 for getting over this difficulty consisted in placing the stop in the 

 Ramsden circle of the ocular ; and if this was accurately adjusted, a 

 satisfactory dark ground could be obtained with an objective of the 

 widest possible angle. The stop was fitted in a small cell which would 

 take stops of various forms and dimensions. When a small stop — less 

 than the Ramsden circle in diameter — was applied, bright field illumi- 



