146 Transactions of the Society. 



terms. Judging from his remarks, I should conclude that so far 

 from having retrograded, we can show a substantial advance. Apart 

 from the valuable papers on the Optics of Microscopy, to which I shall 

 refer more in detail, we have had communications read at our 

 meetings during the past year which were both interesting and 

 important. The description of the beautiful Rotifers (Ecistes Janus 

 and Floscularia trifoUum, by Dr. C. T. Hudson; Mr. Michael's 

 description of the singular Acarus Dermaleichus heteropus, parasitic 

 on the Cormorant ; the notice of the remarkable disks of sulphide of 

 iron found in the London clay and which are pseudomorphs of the 

 silicious tests of Coscinodisci and other Diatomaceee, by Mr. W. H. 

 Shrubsole and Mr. F. Kitton ; and the description of a supposed 

 new boring Annelid, Litliognatlia worslei, by Mr. Stewart, are 

 papers which do credit to the authors. 



When we consider, moreover, the large number of observations 

 recorded during the past year by the various Societies which receive 

 communications principally worked out by means of the Micro- 

 scope, it cannot fail to be recognized that the activity and progress 

 of microscoj^y are greater now than at any former time, and that the 

 tendency is to still further increase. The most valuable part of our 

 bi-monthly Journal is the summary which it contains of this stupen- 

 dous amount of original work. The Microscope is moreover always 

 being carried into new fields. It now promises to be of great 

 assistance to the chemist, and while but a few years ago no one 

 thought of including it among the essential tools of the geologist, it is 

 extensively applied at the present time to the examination of rocks, 

 and most valuable results have been brought to light by its aid. 

 Instead then of allowing ourselves to be tempted to bemoan the 

 " stagnation of microscopy " we, as a Society devoted to its study, 

 may congratulate ourselves and the rest of the scientific world, 

 that whether as regards theory or practice — the optical and 

 mechanical or the observational part of our science — there has never 

 been a time when so much evidence could be produced of solid 

 progress as now. 



Whilst we can, I think, usefully devote a little time in each year 

 to the consideration of the results obtained in the previous one, it 

 would be difiicult within the compass of one annual address to deal 

 with both branches of microscopical work ; and therefore (the Society 

 having done me the honour to elect me to the presidential chair 

 for another year) I must reserve for a future occasion a notice of 

 the discoveries in the animal, vegetable, and mineral worlds, which 

 the Microscope has been the means of bringing to light since the 

 commencement of the present decade. The adoption of this course 

 is also supported by the fact, that the past year has been, I think, 

 specially marked out by the important points in microscopical optics, 

 ^^ hich have, for the first time, been elucidated. In no previous year, 



