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may appear in tlie journal in which they have been published. 
But there is even a more serious objection than this. Recent 
events elsewhere have shown that connections of this kind 
are not conducive to good feeling amongst the members of the 
council of a learned society, and we should indeed be sorry to 
see dissatisfaction arise in this one, which might necessitate 
a “ Committee of Inquiry,” accompanied, as such proceedings 
usually are, by all the amenities of a scientific controversy. 
We have no desire to place any obstruction in the way of the 
council, but it is obviously our duty to mention these matters 
before the trouble has arisen. It appears to us that they have 
made more than one mistake. The charter of incorporation 
and change of names has in nowise elevated the Society or 
its members, hut has entailed an expenditure which has not 
alone necessitated an increased subscription to new members 
(a double tariff, in fact), but has so reduced the funds as to 
render it a matter of difficulty to pay the postage on the 
‘ Transactions.’ The publication of those in the old Journal 
a day longer than was necessary was another mistake ; the 
transference to a rival, a third. The Council should charge 
all members alike, publish their own ‘ Transactions,’ and limit 
their moral responsibility to the record of what passes at their 
meetings. If these hints pass unheeded now, the time will 
come when they will he remembered. — The Quarterly 
Journal of Science. 
New “White-Cloud” Lamp Shade. — I have for a long time 
experienced a want, in which, I think, most workers with 
the microscope will sympathise with me — that of a really 
good and efficient shade for the lamp. 
That the shades now commonly in use are far from fulfil- 
ling the required conditions will, I think, be readily con- 
ceded. The old conical paper shade is a very primitive 
contrivance; it does not sufficiently exclude the light, soon 
gets scorched, dirty, and misshapen, and is, besides, clumsy 
and awkward to adopt in many instances. 
The so-called “ Fiddian ” metallic chimney, although a step 
in advance of the paper shade, still has several serious defects. 
Unlike the conical shade, it shuts out too much light, throw- 
ing the table into such deep shadow that it becomes necessary 
to have another lamp in order to find one’s slides or acces- 
sories; moreover, this shadow, being deepest immediately 
around the base of the lamp, it is impossible to throw the 
light downwards on to the mirror without tilting it forwards, 
a manifest objection with a paraffin lamp, to which alone is 
the metallic chimney applicable. 
