574 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
tlie Microscope the same now as they were a century ago? had there 
been no advances in optical powers and mechanical adaptations ? If we 
look only at the modern objective as compared with that which existed 
at the time determined by Dr. Nias as the period at which the “ Conti- 
nental stand” originated, do we perceive no need of modification? are 
the conditions for general or special microscopic investigation the same 
now as they were then ? And even supposing that they were the same 
and that we are content to treat them as the same, what shall we say in 
regard to the use of the indispensable condenser ? Had no improvement 
taken place in it ? Condensers were very generally used now, but Conti- 
nental microscopists and even the Germans had only risen to the percep- 
tion of their indispensable nature, and indeed of their necessity at all 
during the last eight or nine years, and had now accomplished what the 
English had been doing with increasing success for the last 200 years. 
It could therefore hardly be said that the evolution of that Microscope 
covered all the requirements of the modern microscopist. Supposing 
that it was absolutely sufficient for all purposes at the time it was pro- 
duced, could it be affirmed that it was also sufficient at the present time ? 
He understood that a biological student working in a laboratory with 
only limited ends to accomplish might be said to have only limited 
requirements, which might be met in an instrument of the form 
described, but on the other hand he apprehended that as regarded their 
own medical schools it would be most desirable that a student should 
first know what were the general optical principles upon which a proper 
use of his instrument depended, so that he might be able to distinguish 
between good and bad results, and next that he should have an instru- 
ment which would also serve him when he got into practice and wanted 
to do the best that could be done. He might have a severe struggle in 
life, and therefore they should give him at the outset of his career the 
best thing at the price which would enable him to do the largest amount 
of work that was really good. 
If they wanted to know where the Continental Microscope was now 
made in its best form it would no doubt be conceded that the firm of 
Zeiss held the first place, and what did they find there? What had 
Messrs. Zeiss done towards meeting what they felt to be the necessities 
of modern research ? First of all they inclined their Microscope, then 
they devised a means of rotating it, then they introduced, with great 
reluctance, a substage, then slowly — very slowly — they introduced a 
condenser, but a chromatic condenser, from which they gradually 
advanced to an achromatic one, and now they had a rivalry attempted to 
be set up between the German and the English manufacturers. He had 
no objection to competition, to which many of their advances were due, 
and it was one of his delights to get the earliest knowledge of the 
newest and best pieces of apparatus from time to time produced in this 
way, although it often meant throwing aside others which had been good 
and costly at a not very remote preceding period. Then, quite recently, 
the Germans had actually introduced a mechanical stage, so that, as 
additions to their original pattern, they now had a rack-and-pinion 
adjustment, a fine-adjustment, an inclining body, a substage, a condenser, 
and a mechanical stage, all of which were absolutely English in their 
origin. The main question concerning these matters, of course, was, 
