The President's Address, 
23 
3. An educational microscope at three guineas. 
The Society's projjosition has not met with universal 
favour^ for not one of the principal London firms has entered 
into this competition. Seventeen microscopes have^ how- 
ever^ been submitted to us for examination ; of these five are 
of the first class, seven of the second,, and five of the third. 
These instruments possess very various degrees of excellence ; 
several undoubtedly have great merit ; others, on the con- 
trary^ sacrificing quality to quantity, exhibit a coarseness of 
workmanship hitherto, I believe, unparalleled in the con- 
struction of microscopes. In some the objectives consisted 
solely and entirely of combinations of French doublets ; had 
the employment of these been contemplated, I have no hesi- 
tation in saying that they would have been formally excluded 
in the terms of the Society ^s proposal. 
Two of these microscopes, in the first and second classes 
respectively, and by the same maker, are manifestly superior 
to the rest, both in workmanship and optical performance; 
such, in fact, is the quality both of the workmanship and of 
the objectives, that the Committee have entertained very 
grave doubts whether they can really be produced at the pro- 
posed prices ; they have, therefore, hesitated in recommend- 
ing the award of the medals until they shall have received 
the most ample assurance that the public will be supplied 
with instruments of a quality equal to the samples sent. 
It is superfluous to say that in offering the medals the 
Society never contemplated being made the vehicle of a costly 
advertisement. Microscopes submitted to competition at a 
price at which thej^ could not be produced would palpably 
be only a delusion and a snare — a delusion to the public in 
purporting to be a legitimate commercial transaction, and a 
snare to the maker, in the shape of a constant inducement to 
cover the loss, if not to make a profit, by rendering subse- 
quently inferior workmanship. It is sincerely hoped that the 
circumstances here alluded to may not be found ultimately 
to defeat the well-meant efforts of the Society to render a 
public service to the advancement of microscopic research. 
In conclusion, it is now my duty to resign the chair, the 
duties of which, I fear, I have but imperfectly fulfilled, in 
favour of a gentleman whose name is too well known in the 
world of science to require any eulogy from me. His re- 
searches more immediately connected with the objects of our 
Society consist principally in an elaborate investigation of 
the forms of snow-crystals, the beautiful symmetry and regu- 
larity of Avhich evinces the uniformity of the molecular forces 
by which the solidifying atoms are aggregated. 
