280 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
Library Hall, and was well attended. Two of less magnitude were 
given at our rooms. These meetings not only give pleasure to our 
guests, but foster a taste for microscopical study, by giving our friends 
an opportunity to see what they could only otherwise guess at or 
remain in ignorance of. There are many people in San Francisco 
who have no idea of the power of the modern microscope ; to them 
our meetings must be instructive as well as entertaining. 
Our future receptions must be more instructive than those past, 
from the fact that our members are more generally provided with 
good instruments and objects, and have learned to display them in a 
manner more satisfactory. I believe we can in no way do so much 
for the cause of science, as by the continuance of these exhibitions. 
Finding our rooms too small for our growing Society, the question 
arose whether we should remove to another location, or enlarge the 
rooms we already occupy. The latter course was decided upon, and 
the result has been our present cosy quarters. 
In closing this report, I wish to call the attention of the Society 
to the importance of publishing our proceedings. By doing so we 
can by exchange obtain those of other societies, and thus learn what 
is being done elsewhere. If our first publication should not be all 
we could desire, we have another year before us, in which we may 
hope to improve. 
The regular meeting of the San Francisco Microscopical Society 
was held on Thursday evening last, with a good attendance of mem- 
bers. President Ashburner in the chair. Messrs. A. W. Jackson, of 
the University of California ; H. Scamman, of Downieville ; H. Molli- 
neux, Theodore H. Hittell, Charles Troyer and Dr. J. M. Willey of 
this city, present as members. 
Dr. Gustav Eisen, Professor of Zoology, University of Upsale, 
Sweden, was elected a corresponding member. 
The Secretary announced the receipt of six additional volumes of 
the 'Monthly Microscopical Journal,' completing the series, and the 
February number of the ' American Naturalist.' 
Mr. H. G. Hanks donated a copy of the ' Cincinnati Medical 
News' containing notices of meetings of microscopical societies. — - 
Cincinnati Medical News, April. 
Biological and Microscopical Section of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 
Dr. J. Gibbons Hunt made a very interesting verbal communication 
upon the subject of amplifiers for the microscope, in the course of which 
he remarked that from the time of the first observation by the aid of 
more than two convex lenses, an almost constant effort had been made 
by opticians to fit in the best intermediate glasses, and yet further 
improvement in this respect was confidently to be looked for. The 
amplifier which he had upon the table consisted of a concavo-convex 
lens, with its concave side turned towards the eye, and so placed within 
tlie body of the microscope as to stand at a considerable distance from 
