72 
The Presidenf s Address. 
that we have ever had on our books. Our rise in numbers 
has been gradual^ and nearly every year we have had to 
record an increase in our members ; so that^ as far as numbers 
go, our Society was never in a better condition. The attend- 
ance at our meetings has also been unusually good^ varying 
from sixty to eighty at each meeting. 
The members who have died during the past year are — 
Mr. Gaskoin, Professor Gregory, Mr. Richard Horsman 
Solly, and Mr. C. Norton. 
Mr. Gaskoin died very suddenly at his house in Clarges 
Street, Piccadilly, in October last. He practised the pro- 
fession of surgery, and was surgeon to their Majesties George 
the Fourth and William the Fourth. Although he contri- 
buted no papers to our scientific societies, he had a genuine 
love of science, and gave up much of his time to the interests 
of the Zoological Society, of the council of which he was 
for many years an active member. We should, I think, all 
feel indebted to men who, like Mr. Gaskoin, when they are 
not themselves able to contribute their time or talents to a 
society like our own, yet recognise its importance,^ and assist 
its objects by becoming members. Although many may not 
feel directly interested in microscopical researches, there are 
none who are not indirectly benefited by their difi'usion. 
The late Dr. William Gregory was Professor of Chemistry 
at Edinburgh, and, although so greatly distinguished m the 
department of science to which his labours were more par- 
ticularly devoted, he demands more than a passing notice 
from us, on account of his investigations with the microscope. 
Dr. Gregory was one of the great family of Gregories that 
has given to every university of Scotland one or more 
distinguished professors. James Gregory, the first professor 
in the family, was Professor of Mathematics in Edinburgh in 
1670, and was the inventor of the telescope that bears his 
name. Our deceased friend was the direct descendant of 
this great man in the fifth generation. He was the son of 
the famous James Gregory, who was the son of the yet more 
famous John Gregory, both teachers of medicine in Edin- 
burgh, and writers of medical treatises. In the devotion of 
Dr. William Gregory to the study of the microscope, we have 
the optical tendencies of the ancestor developing itself, as it 
v/ere, after three generations. 
The career of Dr. Gregory as a chemist has been recorded 
by others, and I have only here to allude to him as a 
microscopist. His love of accurate observation, which had 
been cultivated by his distinguished career as a chemist, 
found, in his latter days, a wide field for its extensive appli- 
