414 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
systems half closed gave 144°, and when quite closed also 144°, equal to 
a numerical aperture of 1 -56 in monobromide of naphthaline, this being 
the highest yet obtained with a lens of that character. In looking over 
the work which Dr. Piffard had done he was himself unable to find any 
advantage over the results obtained by the use of monochromatic light. 
If they remembered that by its use a numerical aperture 1 * 40 was con- 
verted into one of 1*75, they would see what an immense advantage was 
to be obtained by employing it where a wide angle was desired. The 
Fellows of the Society would no doubt be glad to read Dr. Piffard’ s 
paper, and to test practically what results the use of monobromide gave. 
The President said those present were no doubt aware that their 
recent Conversazione had proved a great success. It was attended 
by 378 Fellows and visitors, a number largely in excess of anything 
previously recorded on any similar occasion. The calibre of the exhibits 
and the mode of showing them was also a distinct advance upon what 
had hitherto been usual. He thought their thanks were due to the 
Committee, and especially to Hr. Dadswell, to whose exertions these 
successful results were largely due. 
Mr. J. W. Brown exhibited a Microscope and its accessories, the 
history of which was of considerable personal interest. He described 
how, while a boy, his interest in the Microscope had been aroused at 
school in France, and how it had been strengthened whilst being further 
educated in Birmingham under the care of the present Cardinal Newman. 
Subsequently, on being placed in a business establishment at Brighton, 
he one day discovered a second-hand French Microscope for sale in a 
pawnbroker’s window, and his desire to become the possessor of it led 
him to pay frequent visits of inspection. Having attracted the attention 
of the pawnbroker, he was questioned as to the object of his interest, and 
having explained what it was he came to gaze at, he was allowed to make 
a closer acquaintance with the instrument, and it was agreed that he 
should be permitted to call and use it and should be its owner on 
completion of the payment by instalments of the sum asked — 25s. 
Eventually on his payments reaching 20s. it was handed over to him, 
and he began to work with it. Since that time he had made and added 
numerous accessories to it, and though as amateur work it was probably 
open to much criticism, he had been able to do a great deal of interesting 
work with it and hoped still to do more. 
The President thought that Mr. Brown was not the only one in the 
room who had made his own Microscope, but he thought all would agree 
with him that any one who had sufficient persistence and enthusiasm to 
do as Mr. Brown had done was a person of the class that they wanted in 
the ranks of science. It had been a matter of frequent remark that 
many distinguished observers had worked with very rough instruments, 
and that very excellent work had been done with those which were even 
more primitive than the one before them. What Mr. Brown had told 
them that evening was another instance of how much could be done by 
persistence under difficult circumstances. 
