88 
The Presidenfs Address. 
pain and surprise to many of the members. He was a mail 
in tlie prime of life^ and carrying on a large and successfal 
business ; but in the midst of all he found time to cultivate 
a taste for microscopic research. Without contributing to 
our Transactions^ he took a great interest in our proceedings; 
and the intelligence and energy with which he cultivated the 
microscope,, as an instrument of research^ must have done 
much to recommend its use amongst a large circle of his friends 
and acquaintance. I accidentally had a proof of this some 
years ago, when visiting a village by the sea-side, in the 
county of Suffolk, where I found Mr. Furze had been staying 
for a few weeks before I had arrived. I had not long been 
there before I heard of the impression he had produced on the 
minds of the villagers by his daily demonstrations, upon 
the sea- shore, of the microscopic structure of the creatures 
with which the coast abounded. I have often thought that 
this would form the subject for a picture to a painter 
of the nineteenth century — a naturalist exhibiting the 
wonders of animal structure through a microscope to a rural 
population. By such pictures the great history of our civili- 
zation might be told. 
Mr. E. Speer, though not a contributor to our Transactions, 
was deeply impressed with the value of the microscope as an 
instrument of research; and, in the hope of alleviating human 
distress by its agency, presented, before his death, a magnifi- 
cent instrument, made by James Smith, to the Hospital for 
Consumption and Diseases of the Chest. 
I would now call your attention to the state of our library. 
Since I addressed you last year, several works have been 
purchased, and others have been presented ; so that we have 
altogether 186 complete volumes, with about 140 pamphlets 
and papers of various kinds. Although the number of books 
is not large, they present a tolerably complete epitome of the 
literature of the microscope in our own language. A cata- 
logue of those works has been prepared by the Library Com- 
mittee, and was published in the Transactions for the past 
year ; separate copies have also been printed for the use of 
the members. A glance at this catalogue reveals to us the 
curious fact that the literature of the microscope has had two 
distinct periods ; the first period may be said to commence 
with the establishment of the Royal Society, in 1660. From 
this time to the latter end of the eighteenth century, the 
^Philosophical Transactions^ abound with papers and memoirs 
devoted to the structure of the microscope and observations 
by its aid ; and it is on this account that I think it would 
be most desirable that the members of this Society 
