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Lucas in connection with an excellent school natural history 

 society at Kingston-on-Thames. 



The exhibition was a very great success, and bids fair to 

 have far-reaching effects. The official report of the Nature 

 Study Exhibition Association is looked forward to with 

 interest. 



And now, gentlemen, you will probably expect me to say 

 a few words with reference to my favourite study — photo- 

 graphy and the microscope ; and, bearing in mind the 

 number of members who are successfully taking up this 

 work and applying it to the study of natural history, a few 

 remarks thereon may not be out of place. In an annual 

 address I shall not of course attempt to give instructions as 

 to the working of this or that process, etc., but rather to 

 indicate where the advantages of photography lie in its 

 many applications to the study of entomology and natural 

 history generally. Considering the large number of field 

 naturalists, comparatively little has been done so far in 

 permanently recording by means of the camera the many 

 original and valuable observations which are continually 

 being made. To the entomologist photography should be 

 of very great use, whether for portraying the insect in its 

 different stages of growth and metamorphosis, or in com- 

 bination with the microscope in the study of the more 

 minute details of structure. The larva in its natural posi- 

 tion on the food-plant, and cases of protective resemblance, 

 aberrations, localities, etc., should be photographically 

 recorded. It is not of course always possible to photo- 

 graph an insect, for example, in its natural habitat, but the 

 practice of " posing " dead specimens, or placing live ones 

 in unnatural positions, sometimes resorted to, is one that 

 should be discountenanced. 



The old reproach of want of portability of apparatus, the 

 necessity for highly skilful manipulation and experience, and 

 lastly, cost, can no longer hold good now that most efficient, 

 portable, and inexpensive apparatus can be procured by 

 every field naturalist who desires to take up the practice of 

 photography. I am pleased, therefore, to find the number 

 of photographers in our ranks is increasing, and much 

 excellent work is being done. Messrs. Step, Lucas, and 

 others have on several occasions at our field meetings 

 brought their cameras into use, and shown us their results 

 on the screen by means of the lantern. The interest and 

 value of such demonstrations cannot be too highly esti- 

 mated. 



