Union of Scientific Societies 35 



an advocate of vaccination and other good causes, besides being 

 a fair musician and well versed in literature. 



The next section of these Minutes illustrates the diversity of his 

 scientific interests, among them being the construction and uses 

 of microscopes, which led to his book on that subject, the first 

 edition appearing in 1856. He received a Royal Medal in 1861, 

 the degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh in 1871, the Lyell Medal of the 

 Geological Society in 1883, and was President of the British Associa- 

 tion in 1872. 



At the meeting on June 24th, during a conversation about 

 the juxtaposition of Scientific Societies, certain members 

 of the Council of the Royal Society stated that it was con- 

 sidering that subject, and had consulted the Presidents of 

 the four societies mentioned in the Minutes of March 25th 

 last. 



The subject was again discussed at the meeting on Oct. 

 2 ist, when it was stated that many eminent men of science, 

 who belonged to provincial scientific societies, considered 

 that a union of the metropolitan societies would not suffice 

 for the wants of science, so that some of the more important 

 of these provincial societies would wish to be represented 

 if juxtaposition were effected. Colonel Sabine mentioned 

 that, at the recent meeting of the British Association, this 

 project had been discussed, and many of its members had 

 expressed themselves favourable to it, and thought that 

 the matter had been too long delayed. At that meeting 

 a committee had been formed to endeavour to reorganize 

 scientific publications so as to bring them, if possible, into 

 one form. The issue of a quarterly or monthly publication, 

 to contain the more important papers from this country 

 and the Continent, was also contemplated. Dr. W. A. Miller 

 undertook to bring forward at the next meeting a definite 

 plan for establishing and editing such a periodical. 



At that meeting (Nov. 25th) it was stated that the Council 

 of the Royal Society would meet next day to consider the 

 reports of the other societies which had been consulted ; 

 also, that the Government were contemplating the erection 

 of a building at Kensington for the fine arts and indus- 

 trial purposes, in which rooms would be allotted to several 



