374 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



natural condition. He had brought with him to the meeting a specimen 

 of Tuhularia and other organisms, to show the way in which they 

 were preserved, including some red coral with the polyps extended 

 permanently, in a beautiful way. The plan of doing this was practi- 

 cally a secret, and the endeavours to imitate it had as yet only met 

 with partial success here. The preparations were for sale, and could 

 be obtained by any one at an exceedingly moderate price according 

 to a published list. The establishment was being enlarged so as to 

 afford room for putting up additional tables, and he recommended 

 every one to visit it who went near that part of Italy. He proposed 

 to deposit in the Library specimens similar to those which he ex- 

 hibited, so that they could be referred to by any Fellows who might 

 be interested in the subject. 



The President thanked Mr. Beck for the interesting description 

 which he had given them as to the station, and also for the promised 

 specimens. 



Dr. Crookshank exhibited and described an elaborate and very 

 complete photo-micrographic apparatus made for him by Messrs. Swift, 

 which possessed some special advantages in the focusing arrangements, 

 and in the facility with which it could be used in a vertical as well 

 as a horizontal position. 



Mr. Crisp, in exhibiting some Microscopes and apparatus of 

 somewhat special construction, said that the Bishop of Oxford had 

 recently been extolling the study of language and literature in 

 opposition to that of science, on the ground that the one was a study 

 of mind, while the other dealt only with matter. If the Bishop were 

 asked what the instruments before them represented, he would no 

 doubt answer " matter." In fact, however, the great interest which 

 the objects before the meeting had — at any rate to him (Mr. Crisp) 

 — was from the point of view of " mind." That they were made of 

 wood or iron or brass was entirely a secondary consideration. The 

 essential point was the interesting evidence which they afforded of 

 the working of the human mind. Take, for instance, the apparatus 

 for moving a slide across the field of view. That was a problem 

 that had been solved many years ago in this country, first by the 

 simple process of two movable plates (the ordinary mechanical stage), 

 then by one plate, and more recently without any plate at all. Com- 

 pared with this simplicity, how strange had been the workings of the 

 mind that had devised Klonne and Miiller's Bacteria Finder, which he 

 exhibited. Mr. Crisp then described the following instruments and 

 apparatus, commenting upon the evidence they afforded of the 

 specialities of the various minds concerned in their production, viz. : — 



Helmholtz's Vibration Microscope, for observing the mode of 

 vibration of tuning-forks, strings, and other vibrating bodies (supra, 

 p. 305). 



Thoma's Microscope, for observing the circulation of the blood 

 in the mesentery of dogs and other small mammals (supra, p. 309). 



Keichert's Microscope, with new mechanical stage, allowing the 

 slide to move on the surface of the stage, without any intermediate 

 plate (supra, p. 807). 



