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PKOCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
EOYAL MiCKOSCOPIGAL SoOIETY, 
King' College, November 3, 1875. 
H. C. Sorby, Esq., F.E.S., President, in the chair. 
The minutes of the preceding meeting were read and confirmed. 
The subjoined list of donations to the Society was read, and the 
thanks of the meeting voted to the donors. 
The President called attention to a series of photo-micrographs — 
included in the list of donations — presented by Dr. KoUins, and taken 
with a Tolles' objective. They represented a number of dental 
sections, and were handed round for the inspection of the Fellows. 
The President gave a highly interesting account of a new method 
of measuring bands in spectra, illustrating the subject by drawings 
upon the black-board. (A paper upon the subject will be found at 
p. 269.) 
A vote of thanks to the President for his communication was put 
to the meeting by Mr. Slack, and carried unanimously. 
. A paper by Dr. J. J. Woodward, of the United States Army 
Medical Department, was read by the Secretary ; it was entitled, 
" Notes on the Markings of FrustuUa Saxonica," and had reference 
to some observations in the ' Monthly Microscopical Journal,' vol. ix., 
p. 86 ; but more particularly to a paper by Mr. Hickie, published in 
the number for last July. Photographs in illustration accompanied 
the paper, the text of which will be found printed at p. 274. 
Mr. Slack said that in the July number of the Journal there was 
a figure of this diatom copied from Dr. Schumann's work. The figure, 
from ' Die Biatomeen der Hohen Tatra,' was rather broader in the centre 
than Dr. Woodward's photograph, and slightly constricted just before 
the nodules at each end. In his text he, Dr. Schumann, said, " Frus- 
tuUa Saxonica occurs in the following forms : NavicuUa crassinervia, 
Brebisson ; Navicula cuspidata, Kiitzing. [Sie tritt in folgenden 
Formen auf), " one like the first form, but which showed two strong 
marginal border stripes on each side," is thus described : " In refer- 
ence to the kind and number of the striae (Biefen), all these forms 
agree in the chief characters, so that the formula which describes the 
first suits the others. With oblique light the walls of a single cross 
stripe appear like distinct strife, and thus the number of the striie is 
apparently doubled." After some remarks about focussing, he says, 
" I agree with Grunow as to the nodules." In Pritchard, N. cus- 
pidata, Ktz., is given as identical with N. fdva, Em. 
The President, in proposing a vote of thanks to the author of the 
paper, thought the subject was one of great interest, because it was 
certainly most desirable for all to know whether things which they 
saw really existed or not, because many things which were seen 
might under certain circumstances be due to interference. He 
thought that the photographs sent in illustration fully bore out 
Dr. Woodward's remarks. He had not himself paid very great atten- 
