29S 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
cation. A letter had also been received from Col. O’Hara, dealing with 
sundry points connected with photomicrography. 
Mr. E. M. Nelson exhibited and described a new design of student’s 
Microscope recently brought out by Mr. Baker, the idea of which was 
to provide a Microscope of this class fitted with some of the more im- 
portant accessories usually only supplied to instruments of an expensive 
character. The one now shown was fitted with all the ordinary move- 
ments. It had a good coarse-adjustment, a differential fine-adjustment, 
a centering substage with rackwork, and a Wright’s finder. The stage 
was of the horseshoe shape, and solid and well made, so that the 
instrument answered to the description given of it as a cheap Micro- 
scope capable of doing all ordinary microscopic work. The production 
of instruments of this class was a matter in which he had always taken 
great interest, and he had done what he could of late years to promote 
their improvement. He believed also that he was the first to put a 
coarse-adjustment to them, in place of the sliding tube which at one 
time used to be thought good enough, because the common German 
Microscopes were made in that way. The cheaper way in which the 
differential fine-adjustment was now made enabled this also to be intro- 
duced without exceeding a reasonable price. He thought Mr. Baker 
had risen to the times in bringing out this instrument, and deserved 
great credit for so doing, because English makers generally had not 
studied to meet the real requirements of students, but had been content 
to copy inferior Continental models. The consequence was that our 
schools and colleges were flooded with cheap German Microscopes, and 
people who went to study at German universities came back with the 
idea that what was in use there was the best thing of its kind for the 
purpose for which it was wanted. 
Mr. Karop said that he also had advocated for a long time this 
kind of improvement in the cheaper forms of Microscope, and was 
therefore very glad to see such a successful attempt made in this 
direction. There was one thing, however, which he thought required 
attention, and that was the draw-tube, which was not long enough for 
use with the higher power English objectives as adjusted to the ordi- 
nary English body length ; it seemed to want a supplementary draw- 
tube, like that which was shown by Mr. Nelson at a recent meeting of 
the Society. The finder would be found a very useful addition to 
what seemed likely to prove a very useful form of instrument. 
Mr. Mayall said this Microscope represented the second serious effort 
recently made to meet the want of a good, cheap student’s Microscope, 
the first having been made by Mr. Swift, and described some time since 
by Mr. Karop. In the instrument before them, it seemed to be rather 
a mistake to make it with such a low base, as there was now scarcely 
height enough to get at the substage or mirror; a little more room 
for the hands below the stage would, he thought, be advantageous. The 
possession of the centering substage would, he need hardly point out, be 
of great advantage. 
The President thought that a greater elevation of the stage would 
also he an improvement. 
Mr. Nelson quite agreed with Mr. Mayall’s suggestion as to the 
