ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 591 



macliine of to-day — the toy of an entlmsiast one day, tlie necessity of 

 life to thousands the nest — it would be but a work of supererogation 

 to remind you of the giant strides made in the development of electric 

 science and practice. In our own line we can perhaps look for no 

 startling discoveries that shall revolutionize the world of daily life, 

 but there is yet room for the Microscopista tahernarius. I do not 

 mean the man who makes the instruments, for him there undoubtedly 

 is ample room, and almost every month we have to hail improvements 

 that make our work more easy. But the Microscope is a tool of 

 trade for some. We have heard that the intricate and charming 

 markings of diatoms and Foraminifera have been used by pattern 

 designers, and in some trades the Microscope is daily used. About 

 a year ago I was at the Italian National Exhibition at Milan. 

 Among the most interesting of the exhibits was the process of silk 

 producing and manufacture. At that exhibition the results were not 

 merely shown, but all the details from the beginning to the end, and 

 a row of microscopists with persistent care examined the silkworm 

 eggs, picking out and rejecting every egg that showed any symptom 

 of disease. But why go to Milan ? Has not the greatest of your 

 legislators declared that by the aid of a powerful Microscope he was 

 enabled to determine on the spot the magnificent character and 

 splendid suitability of the Stawell stone for our new halls of legis- 

 lature ? In this Society it would be of thrilling interest to hear what 

 was the powerful instrument he used — how he used it in the trying 

 circumstances of the Parliamentary picnic — what he learned — and 

 how he learned it by looking at a lump of sandstone ? But this is 

 perhaps too much to expect ; let us be content that the value of your 

 instrument has been aclmowledged in those halls of wit and wisdom. 

 I think I must place this new-caught specimen in a unique sub- 

 species of his own, and label him M. ludificatio. I hardly dare trans- 

 late this title, but its English synonym is not far off ' humbug.' 



Under M. tahernarius, as a sub-species, we will place M. detergi- 

 tata (sic), or the detective microscopist. Here we come to a class directly 

 useful to mankind. By the aid of the Microscope we discover largely 

 what it is that we eat and drink, how sometimes very widely the real 

 differs from the apparent, and how true it is that " things are not what 

 they seem " — a wide field, that has hitherto not been taken up to any ex- 

 tent by our Society. Under this species I had intended to have ranged 

 myself during the past year, and to have done something worthy of your 

 attention for this meeting : but, alas, it has been but a good resolution, 

 and gone, I fear, where many other good resolutions have gone before 

 it. This I have done : prepared a series of test starches for com- 

 parison, some eighteen or twenty slides of which I had the pleasure 

 of placing in the Society's cabinet. I have also made a preliminary 

 examination of some of our ordinary articles of food, not sufficiently 

 exact to go into detail, but enough to give to you a hint as to what 

 may be done, and to indicate a useful line of work. For example, I 

 have found arrowroot adulterated with sago, and arrowroot, tapioca, 

 and sago all showing more or less of the well-known form of potato- 

 starch. Cocoa has exhibited potato-starch, sago-starch, in one case 



