PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
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spirited discussion, in the course of which the President exhibited 
some beautiful photographs of blood-disks kindly sent him by Lieut.- 
Col. J. J. Woodward, M.D., the famous micro-photographer of the U.S. 
Army Medical Museum at Washington. 
March 19, a regular meeting was held, and largely attended; and 
George E. Fell, Esq., C.E., of Buffalo, N.Y. (a corresponding member), 
read an excellent and interesting paper on “ the Acarinfe.” 
At the next regular meeting, May 11, 1877, little but routine busi- 
ness was done, as the regular essayist, Mr. G. W. Fries, of Friendship, 
was unable to be present. An adjourned meeting was therefore held 
in the City Hall, May 22, when Mr. Fries was present, and read an 
excellent paper on “ Work for Amateur Microscopists,” in which he 
took strong ground in favour of specializing our studies, and directing 
them to some special and useful object rather than towards the acquisi- 
tion of a miscellaneous collection of pretty or curious objects which, 
however interesting, would have no special scientific value. On this 
occasion, Professor J. E. Smith was also present, and read a valuable 
and original paper having special reference to two new illuminators 
which he had devised and now presented to the public for the first 
time. They were, first, a new sub-stage illuminator, which is a modi- 
fication of the Wenham Reflex Illuminator, but which, unlike that, 
could be used for the direct illumination of objects mounted dry as 
well as those in balsam, and gave all the advantages of the thin stage 
at a very moderate expense ; and, second, a modification of the Beck 
Vertical Illuminator for use with high powers on opaque objects. 
With the latter and his now famous duplex ^th constructed for him 
by Tolies, of Boston, he exhibited for the first time in public Nobert’s 
19th band as an opaque object. 
The meeting was largely attended, being honoured by the presence 
of well-known microscopists from Buffalo and Jamestown, and of tho 
Principals of the New York State Normal Schools who were holding a 
convention in Fredonia. 
Such, then, is the record of the Society for the three brief years of 
its existence ; beginning in the humblest way, it has gradually grown 
in members and influence, and that without any special effort to make 
it popular merely for the sake of popularity. While all who have 
applied for admission have been welcomed, no one, so far as I know, 
has been solicited to join our ranks. Our expenses have purposely 
been kept light, and have been paid by the Society entirely out of its 
own funds, no aid having been solicited or accepted from any outside 
parties whatsoever, except some donations of valuable books and 
material from the Smithsonian Institution and others. We have been 
somewhat hampered for lack of funds to procure books and a permanent 
abiding place, but the latter want has been supplied by the managers 
of the Dunkirk Library, who have kindly given us the use of their 
cosy room in the City Hall building for our meetings, free of all 
expense. There have been times when I despaired of the success of 
the Society, when our lack of instruments, of a library, and of rooms 
of our own, and an apparent falling off in interest on the part of 
some of our members, disheartened me ; but when I come to look back 
over our record, when I see that a little organization like this, started 
