PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 577 



very cheap, but yet thoroughly reliable. To explain what he meant 

 by cheapness he mentioned that it was proposed to offer the cheaper 

 of the two forms for 3 guineas, with two objectives (1 in. and 1/4 in.). 

 He believed it would be found that the instruments were suited 

 to all the ordinary requirements of the botanist, the student, or the 

 amateur. He had thought of reading an introductory notice of the 

 instruments which had been prepared for circulation, but instead of 

 doing this he thought it would be better to present an instrument to 

 the Society, so that those who were interested in such matters might 

 have the opportunity of seeing what could be done with it. 



The President, in thanking Mr. Beck for Lis donation, said he 

 was glad to welcome such an instrument, for he was himself constantly 

 realizing the need of a very cheap form of Microscope which was 

 capable of doing work in a reasonably good manner. A large number 

 of boys and youths were prevented from taking up microscopical 

 studies by the expense connected with them, and to be able to have a 

 Microscope of this class with two objectives at the price mentioned 

 would therefore be a great boon. 



Mr. Gnimaraens exhibited six slides of Pathogenic bacteria pre- 

 pared by Dr. A. C. Abbott, of Baltimore, U.S.A., from material supplied 

 by Dr. G. M. Sternberg, and mounted according to his directions. He 

 considered Bacillus tuberculosis in sputum stained by Frankel's 

 method, and B. antJiracis in liver of rabbit, deserved especial com- 

 mendation. There was also an interesting slide of Micrococcus of 

 swine plague (pure culture). Dr. Klein maintains the disease is 

 caused by a Bacillus, whilst Drs. Salmon and Sternberg consider the 

 form to be a Micrococcus. 



The President called particular attention to the slides, which he 

 considered were very beautifully mounted, bringing out the Bacilli in 

 a most perfect manner. 



Mr. Groves exhibited and described one of the new Cambridge 

 Rocking Section-cutters, the principle of which was somewhat new. 

 The razor was firmly fixed at one end of the bed-plate, the imbedded 

 specimen being held in a brass tube fitted upon the end of an iron 

 arm which was mounted upon trunnions after the manner of a gun. 

 There was an ingenious contrivance by means of which the arm was 

 raised clear of the blade, the section being cut as it descended, and 

 dropping directly upon the slide upon which it might be mounted. 

 The machine was capable of cutting the thinnest possible sections. 

 During a recent visit to Cambridge he had found this machine to be 

 the one in general use {supra, p. 549). 



In reply to questions, Mr. Groves stated that the machine was not 

 adapted for freezing, nor for cutting sections of hard substances, but 

 for soft tissues it worked admirably, and although the sections were 

 not cut in a straight line, they were parallel to each other, and the 

 arc described was so slight that it made no practical difference to the 

 flatness of the section. 



Ser. 2.— Vol. V. 2 P 



