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negatives taken from the natural objects can, in a comparatively 

 few minutes, prepare a lantern slide that vi^ill enable him, with 

 the aid of the lantern, to throw a greatly enlarged figure upon 

 the screen, giving every detail of form and marking. Even 

 so small an object as a fruiting moss may, without any aid 

 from the microscope, be so successfully photographed natural 

 size, that, when enlarged upon the screen, it will stand forth 

 as a living thing, showing the character of the leaves and 

 stem, habit of growth, forms of capsule and calyptra, even of 

 the peristome in many cases. In many societies the value 

 of the lantern in scientific demonstration is properly under- 

 stood, although a few years ago it was regarded as a toy, 

 suitable only for the amusement of children. An optical 

 lantern should now form part of the outfit of every scientific 

 society, and an officer should be appointed to look after it." 

 Since writing those words I have learnt that the Belfast 

 Naturalists' Field Club have made good use of the lantern 

 for many years, and have accumulated a large stock of 

 original slides illustrating the Biology and Geology of the 

 North of Ireland. Coming nearer home, the Haslemere 

 Microscopic and Natural History Society — of which I have 

 the honour of membership — make extensive use of the 

 lantern presented by the late Prof Tyndall. We have clever 

 artists among us who I feel sure would be delighted to help 

 in this direction by drawing slides, and members who are 

 neither artists nor photographers could, at small cost, get 

 lantern slides of special specimens made by almost any 

 photographer. 



The foremost object of our Society is "the diffusion of 

 Biological science ; " but I sometimes fear that we, in common 

 with other scientific societies and workers, are tending more 

 towards the hoarding up in our own records of the knowledge 

 we labour to gain. We have done much, I believe, by means 

 of our splendid exhibitions to interest the public in our 

 studies ; but beyond this, I fear, we are following too much 

 in the wake of those who by the adoption of a new language 

 for the recording of their discoveries tend to create a priest- 

 hood of science, whose members shall be the sole depositaries 

 of physical knowledge. I was much struck by a remark in 

 " Nature " on the probable effect of Lord Salisbury's Oxford 

 attack on the theory of evolution. After remarking that the 

 verifying evidence that has been accumulating since Darwin 

 published his "Origin of Species" is scarcely known to the 

 unscientific public, "Nature" adds: "The writings of many 

 of the staunchest adherents of evolution have been couched 



