4 J 8 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



looked one-half of the earth, and left to later times the discovery 



of countries greater and more important than any his conquering 



footsteps had ever reached. Africa has been rediscovered, and 



its immense territory now forms the subject of contention 



between great nations. The enterprise of explorers and scientists 



has been directed to investigate its unknown heart, its climate, 



the course of its mountain chains and rivers, and its limitless 



plains. To these pioneers of our ever-increasing race, the fauna 



and flora of a primitive country must be a source of exceeding 



interest. To us here at home there are still left great unknown 



worlds to explore, worlds within worlds, with their myriad forms 



of life, which the microscope reveals to our gaze. Here we see 



forms more strange and wonderful than those of fabled antiquity, 



creatures whose forms and functions upset all our preconceived 



ideas of animal existence. Poets never feigned anything so 



wonderful, so curious, so beautiful, creatures so grotesquely 



hideous, so remorselessly savage, as some of those we can bring 



within the field of our observation. But it is not alone in the 



study of minute animal life that the microscope reveals its 



marvellous power. In the examination of the structures of 



vegetable and animal life, and for a multitude of other purposes 



now indispensable, it is the great instrument of observation in 



investigating nature, for as Linnaeus truly says, " Natura 



maxima est in minima " — nature is greatest in her smallest 



works. He would now call on Mr. Alexander Tate, C.E., 



Chairman of the Microscopical Section, for the annual report 



of the Section. 



Mr. Tate, in some suitable remarks, spoke of the success that 

 had attended the formation by the Naturalists' Field Club of a 

 Section devoted to microscopical work only, and of the great 

 field of research that lay before them. He then called on 



Mr. H. M'Cleery, secretary of the Section, to read the annual 

 report, which was as follows : — " The Microscopical Committee 

 have much pleasure in submitting their first annual report, 

 especially as they have every reason to believe that the forma- 

 tion of this bection has filled what has been a want in the Club 



