JOUENAL 



OF THE 



EOTAL MIOROSCOPIOAL SOCIETY. 



APEIL 1885. 



TKANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 



IV. — The President's Address. 

 By the Kev. W. H. Dallinger, LL.D., F.E.S. 



(^Annual Meeting, 11th February, 1885,) 



Plates IV.-VI. 



There is a great temptation in the position which I have the 

 honour to occupy to-night, to pass in review the more prominent 

 and striking results of the work done in the year, touching the 

 special branches of science to which the instrument, which we are 

 constantly striving to bring nearer to perfection and to use per- 

 fectly, is ancillary. 



The inducements to such a course have in fact rarely been 

 stronger. The legitimate, patient, and scientific knowledge and use 

 of the Microscope, has opened out not only unexpected areas of 

 actual and potential knowledge, but has been the means of proving, 

 at the same time, that this knowledge is most vital in its relations 

 to the higher interests of our race and our civilization. 



Nothing was more certain than that the work done in biology 

 through the agency of the Microscope up to twenty years ago, was 

 a distinct prophecy of far higher and more definite results. 



Having touched the fringe of the minutest that was visible in 

 living things, it was inevitable that a knowledge of all that was 

 accessible concerning these, should be sought, and, if possible, found. 

 The scientific certainty and value of the results would depend 

 largely (1) on improvements of a thoroughly scientific character 

 in the optical part of the instrument, and (2) on enhghtened and 

 patient manipulation of these. 



We may, without undue exaltation, congratulate ourselves that 

 by the combined ingenuity, knowledge, and skill of the Fellows of 

 this and other Societies, and of the opticians, improvements of 

 indefinitely great value have been effected in our lenses and 



Ser. 2.— Vol. V. N 



