80 
^hirteejith Report of 
that, although we have brought up our arrears of publication 
to the month of June last, and have paid all our debts, we have 
now a balance in hand of 32/., which the economical measures 
adopted by the Council will, I hope, increase during the next year. 
In order that the members may not be deprived of the 
opportunity of using the microscopes, examining the objects in 
our cabinet, and consulting and exchanging books, the Council 
has engaged a curator to attend at six o'clock on the evenings 
of our ordinary meetings, which, it is hoped, will be found 
more convenient than the day attendance that has been dis- 
continued. 
The necessity for the prompt publication of our Transac- 
tions has been adverted to by more than one of my prede- 
cessors, and must be sufficiently obvious to all of us ; for 
when a man has observed a new fact, or suggested an im- 
provement in the mode of observing, and has determined to 
bring tlie matter before the public, he is seldom contented 
with the notice which the mere reading of his paper may 
attract, but is anxious to see it disseminated in print, so that 
his claim, either of discovery or invention, may rest on a firm 
basis. Unless, therefore, we can offer these advantages, we 
must expect that many interesting papers which might other- 
wise have come to us will be taken elsewhere, and be sub- 
mitted to the public through some more expeditious channel. 
In accordance with these views, the Council has made an 
arrangement with two of our members, who have commenced 
a Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, for the regular 
printing of our Transactions in that periodical ; so that authors 
will not only see their papers promptly published, but will 
also enjoy the benefit of the large circulation which the Journal 
has obtained. Our members, also, in addition to a copy of the 
Transactions, will obtain all the other matter which the 
Journal contains for one shilling per number. 
On the value of this matter, as two numbers have been 
already published, it is needless for me to expatiate at any 
length. Besides interesting original communications from 
observers in our own country, by means of translations and 
extracts from foreign journals and reviews of foreign works 
it affords to the mere English reader the knowledge of what is 
being done by microscopists in all parts of the world ; and by 
thus giving a starting point to his inquiries, prevents his 
wasting his time and energy in re-discovering what has been 
already observed. 
The publication in full of our Transactions up to the end 
of June last, and the abstracts in the Journal of the papers 
read before us in October, November, and December, render 
