20 
Address of the President. 
ployed, and of the results obtained, in the two countries 
respectively, we cannot but feel some shame at the low position 
we take. Now it may be said, that there are so many more in 
Germany who can make microscopical observations a special 
object of pursuit, devoting to it a large proportion of their 
whole time, than there are in this country, that the difference 
in result is not to be wondered at. But this 1 feel satisfied is 
by no means the whole of the cause of difference ; for if those 
among us who are able to give but a few^ hours a week to 
microscopic research (which has been almost constantly my 
own case), would but apply those few hours to the prosecution 
of some definite department of study, they would come to 
feel, I am confident, a far higher interest in their pursuit, 
and would be in a far more favourable position to add some- 
thing to the common stock of knowledge, than by expending 
their time in desultory observations. And this will be espe- 
cially the case, when the student, in the selection of his 
department, consults his means and opportunities for investi- 
gating it, as well as his tastes, so as to protect himself as 
much as possible from being cramped in his inquiries by 
want of the necessary material. There is always, of course, 
a danger that the inexperienced inquirer will not duly inter- 
pret what he sees, and that he may draw wrong deduc tions 
where he observes aright ; but this danger is greatly dimi- 
nished when he confines his attention within a narrow range, 
instead of trying to comprehend the whole of the " world of 
small " within his survey ; since he will find it much easier to 
acquire that guiding knowledge which already forms part of 
the fabric of physiological science, when the required amount 
of that knowledge is limited, instead of being voluminous ; 
and his corrective experience will be much more speedily 
rendered precise and efficient, when it is constantly brought 
to bear on the same class of facts, than when it is only occa- 
sionally called into play through the too-wide range of his 
observations. I should be far, however, from recommending 
any one to limit himself entirely to a single department of 
microscopic study ; on the contrary, the highest education 
of the eye, or rather, of the perceptive mind (for it is after all 
the mind that sees, and not the eye), can only be attained by 
a widely-extended course of observation. And every young 
microscopist, in first training himself in the knowledge of 
what to observe and hoio to observe, will do well to examine 
objects of the most varied kinds, and to learn as much about 
them as his time will permit. But it is when this preli- 
minary education has been passed through, that I strongly 
iirge the limitation of the attention to particular departments 
