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V. — The President's Address. 

 By the Eev. W. H. Dallinger, LL.D., F.E.S., F.L.S., &c. 



{Annual Meeting, 8ih February, 1888.) 



Ketrospect may involve regret but can scarcely involve anxiety. 

 To one who fully appreciates the actual, and above all, the potential 

 importance of this Society, in its bearing upon the general progress 

 of scientific research in every field of physical inquiry, the responsi- 

 bilities of President will not be lightly, whilst they may certainly be 

 proudly undertaken. 



I think it may be now fairly taken for granted that, as this 

 Society has from the outset promoted and pointed to the higher 

 scientific perfection of the Microscope, so now, more than ever, it is 

 its special function to place this in the forefront as its raison d'etre. 

 The Microscope has been long enough in the hands of amateur and 

 expert alike, to establish itself as an instrument having an application 

 to every actual and conceivable department of human research ; and 

 whilst in the earlier days of this Society it was possible for a zealous 

 Fellow to have seen, and been more or less familiar with, all the appli- 

 cations to which it then had been put, it is different to-day. Special- 

 ists in the most diverse areas of research are assiduously applying 

 the instrument to their various subjects, and with results that, if we 

 would estimate aright, we must survey with instructed vision the 

 whole ground which advancing science covers. 



From this it is manifest that this Society cannot hope to enfold, 

 or at least to organically bind, to itself, men whose objects of research 

 are so diverse. 



But these are all nevertheless linked by one inseverable bond : 

 it is the Microscope ; and whilst, amidst the inconceivable diversity 

 of its applications, it remains manifest that this Society has for its 

 primary object the constant progress of the instrument, whether in 

 its mechanical construction or its optical appliances ; whether the 

 improvements shall bear upon the use of high powers or low powers ; 

 whether it shall be improvement that shall apply to its commercial 

 employment, its easier professional application, or its most exalted 

 scientific use ; — so long as this shall be the undoubted aim of the 

 Royal Microscopical Society, its existence may well be the pride of 

 Englishmen, and will commend itself more and more to men of all 

 countries. 



This, and this only, can lift a Society of this sort out of what I 

 believe has ceased to be our danger, that of forgetting that in propor- 

 tion as the optical principles of the Microscope are understood, and 

 the theory of microscopical vision is made plain, the value of the 

 instrument over every region to which it can be applied, and in all 

 the varied hands that use it, is increased without definable limit. 



