132 Transactions of the Royal Microscopical Society. 
one evidence, however, that I can give of my sincerity is, to under- 
take a matter which I believe the Society would be doing good 
service to microscopy if it undertook itself, but which it can hardly 
be expected to undertake if it does not believe in its necessity, and 
that is to enable English microscopists to read in their own 
language one of the best modern German treatises — one which 
(as a deceased colleague on the Council of this Society declared) is 
“ a mine whose treasures might occupy many workers in developing.” 
Whilst it does not pretend to be exhaustive, it will at least 
serve (to put it no higher) to show how extensive a field a com- 
plete knowledge of the subject embraces, and until we are able to 
improve upon it, it will, I think, worthily supply the want which 
just twenty years since was referred to in an article in the 
• Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science ’ : * — “ The period has 
not yet arrived when all those who employ the microscope 
methodically as a means of scientific investigation possess an 
intelligent comprehension of the principles on which it is con- 
structed and the nature of its powers as an optical instrument. 
There is a large region beyond mere manipulation into which few 
apparently care to enter. The writers of our introductory treatises 
leave the matter pretty much as they found it. Surely the time 
has arrived which calls for more than this ; when an optical treatise 
on the microscope, worthy of the name, is not only desired by the 
few but required for the many.” 
Wien completed, the Society will be better able to judge 
whether I have exaggerated in what I have written. I have a 
strong conviction that the conclusion will be that I have not, and I 
have a strong hope that in the result a new departure will be 
made in “ microscopy ” in England. 
* ‘‘ On the Optical Powers of the Microscope,” by P. G. Kylands, vol. vii. 
p. 27. 
