66 
TJie President's Address. 
The President then delivered the following address : 
77^6 President's Address /or the year 1864. 
By C. Brooke, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. 
Gentlemen, — It is my pleasing duty to record on the 
present occasion the steady progress of our Society in its 
career of usefulness during the past year, which has, however, 
heen more conspicuous for progress in the applications of the 
microscope, than in the development of the instrument itself. 
Contemporaneously with the establishment of our Society 
in the year 1840, the paucity of British microscopical investi- 
gations was a subject of remark by Schleiden, and was by 
him attributed to a want of efficient instruments. This de- 
sideratum has, in the intervening period, been most amply 
supplied ; nevertheless it must be a subject of regret to all 
who are interested in the microscope and its applications, 
that the novelty and importance of original investigation 
has been hardly commensurate with the unrivalled excellence 
of our instrumental means. 
It appears to me to be a subject of congratulation that our 
proceedings during the past year have been enriched by 
several communications of more than usual importance. In 
the department of Minute Anatomy and Physiology three 
papers have been read by Dr. Beale : 
I. " On the Formation of the so-called Intercellular Sub- 
stance of Cartilage, and its relation to the so-called Cells, 
with observations on the process of Ossification.'-' 
II. " On the Nature of the Red Blood-corpuscle." 
III. " On the Nature and Development of the White 
Corpuscle.-" 
The views developed by Dr. Beale in these papers are of 
great physiological importance, and are so lucidly stated and 
logically argued, that their effect would be merely weakened 
by any attempt of mine to epitomize what is already (or will 
shortly be) in the hands of every member of this Society. 
Two papers have been communicated by Dr. Ciaccio, of 
Naples : 
I. On the Nerves of the Cornea." 
II. On the distribution of Nerves to the Skin of the 
Frog ; with physiological remarks on the Ganglia connected 
with the Cerebro-spinal Nerve." 
These papers evince much careful research, and elaborate 
investigation of the structures to which they relate. 
