18 
Address of the President. 
prospect of materials for their occupation. That which should 
be but a subordinate inducement to membership of the So- 
ciety, the title to receive its publications, seems now to have 
become the principal attraction ; every member, through the 
arrangement which we have been enabled to make with the 
proprietors of the 'Microscopical Journal,' having nearly 
three-fourths of his subscription returned to him in this form. 
But this arrangement may be determined at any time ; since 
it merely exists so long as it shall be found to work advan- 
tageously for both parties. If the proprietors of the Journal 
should have reason to think that the increase in the number 
of our members causes a diminution in the number of their 
subscribers, they will probably not consider its continuance to 
be for their interest ; whilst, on the other hand, if it should 
appear that the support which we give to the Journal, so far 
from promoting our welfare as a Society, has an indirect 
tendency to weaken us, that support ive might feel it desirable 
to withdraw. 
I cannot but consider that both the status of the Society as 
a scientific body, which must depend upon the goodness and 
quantity of the work it does, and the maintenance of its attrac- 
tiveness and efficiency as a centre of union to those engaged in 
microscopic research, necessitate the taking of some steps to 
supply a deficiency which has now become unfortunately but 
too apparent ; and the first and most obvious of these steps 
consists in the inquiry into its causes. Of these, I shall only 
specify what occur to myself; others will doubtless be sup- 
plied by such as have a more extended acquaintance than I 
possess with the individual members of our Society. 
In the first place, I am disposed to think that the facility of 
publication now afforded by the ' Microscopical Journal,' has 
had no inconsiderable influence in diminishing the number of 
papers sent to the Society. 
Formerly our Transactions constituted the only medium 
through which a microscopist could readily make public, 
with the requisite illustrations, such results of his inquiries as 
might scarcely possess the dignity or completeness required 
for presentation to the Royal or Linnaean Societies, But the 
Journal now opens its pages freely to all, whether Members 
of this Society or not ; its editors readily admitting every 
creditable paper, and liberally furnishing the requisite illus- 
trations. Now as our Transactions are published in a form 
so precisely similar to that of the Journal, as only to be 
distinguishable by the numbering of the pages, few authors 
would much care whether their contributions appear in 
one part of the Number or the other. And yet there is, 
