46 Short Papers and Notes. 
Judging by a scientific standard, the lecturer concluded that 
the esthetic tastes of the old opticians led them far astray from 
their proper path. The microscopes seemed to have been built 
to give the least possible trouble when the time came for them to 
tumble down. ‘There was a Divini, for example, which a breath 
of wind would blow over. The great difficulty of the “ancients” 
was the illumination of the object. The mirror of the modern 
microscope is one of its most important developments, and its 
adjustment one of the arts to which the early attention of the 
student is directed. The old microscopists, of course, knew 
about the laws of the reflection of light, but their microscopes 
were made without mirrors. A similar lack of practical genius 
was also displayed in focussing. The unsteady movements of an 
elegant ebony and ivory, and a tall wooden microscope of Italian 
make, were made to point the moral. 
Mr. Crisp, indeed, conclusively proved that whatever the 
“good old times” might have been in other respects, they left 
much to be desired in the condition of microscope-making. At 
the same time, the old makers deserve all credit for what they did 
with their defective tools; and they never arrived at the absurd 
degree of specialisation characteristic of the present. 
Some highly effective illustrations on the screen added to the 
appreciative enjoyment of the lecture, which was delivered extem- 
poraneously, and was in parts very humorous. Altogether there 
were 300 of Mr. Crisp’s microscopes shown in the lecture theatre, 
or library—to use Mr. Crisp’s words, ‘many of them rescued 
from attics and dustbins all over Europe.”—Dazly News. 
Short Papers and Notes. 
Butterfly Collecting on the Riviera. 
HE environs of Cannes, Nice, Mentone, San Remo, and, 
above all, Hyéres, with its pine-woods and groves of 
arbutus, and hillsides clothed with myrtle and cistus, 
furnish, even in November, and again from February 
onwards, some of the choicest entomological treasures. 
An April day at Hyéres well spent is an event to be ever remem- 
bered in the life of an enthusiastic naturalist. How often in 
after days will he recall the first sight of the flaunting orange of 
Gonopteryx Cleopatra careering over the tall Mediterraneam heath 
(Erica arborea), the timid fluttering of Luchloé Euphenoides , 
between the tree stems, the local haunt of Zhestor Badllus at the 
