The President’s Address. 
27 
observer he took a high place, as numerous communications 
to this Society abundantly show. He was slow in forming 
conclusions, very searching in investigation, unwilling to 
take anything for granted without submitting it to careful 
verification, and very open-hearted and generous in com- 
municating to others the facts which he had ascertained, and 
the conclusions to which he had arrived. As a manufacturer, 
he brought a high degree of natural intelligence and a culti- 
vated understanding to bear upon mechanical pursuits, never 
allowing the requirements of trade to overpower his zeal in 
the cause of science, or his commercial connection with the 
microscope to interfere with his appreciation of it as an in- 
strument of research. In addition to the production of first- 
class instruments, the firm of which he was a member intro- 
duced at various times constructions devised by himself to 
meet the wants of a less rich class of students, such as the 
“Educational Microscope,” the “Universal Microscope,” 
and the “ Popular Microscope.” In 1865 Mr. Beck pub- 
lished a “ Treatise on the Construction, Proper Use, and 
Capabilities of Smith, Beck, and Beck’s Achromatic Micro- 
scope,” in which many valuable suggestions are contained. 
This work is illustrated by some of the best plates of micro- 
scopic objects that have been produced, several being from 
his own drawings. The frontispiece gives representations of 
the Podura scale as seen with powers from 80 to 1300, and 
presenting those appearances which microscopists have ac- 
cepted as tests of the true correction of their objectives, and 
of their methods of illumination. As a member of this 
Society, Richard Beck rendered constant and valuable service 
by contributing to its f Transactions ’ and taking part in its 
discussions. Great grief and pain were felt by his numerous 
friends and acquaintances when his valuable life terminated, 
at the early age of thirty-nine, on the 20th of September 
last, through a disease of the heart, first contracted when 
suffering from rheumatic fever at School, and which had been 
suddenly aggravated six months previous to his decease. 
He was buried in the graveyard attached to the Friends’ 
Meeting-house at Stoke Newington, and your President, ac- 
companied by several members of the Council, attended on 
the occasion to manifest the respect due to him for his many 
excellences of character, and for his numerous services to 
Microscopical Science. 
John Lee, LL.D, F.R.S., of Hartwell House near 
Aylesbury, who died on the 25th February last, was elected 
amember of this Society in 1841, but never took any active part 
in microscopical pursuits. His attention was chiefly devoted 
