( 5 i ) 
1884.J 
NOTES.; 
At the December meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society 
the death of Mr. Hugh Powell, at the age of 85, was announced. 
The deceased has been engaged in the improvement of the 
microscope since the year 1834* and his friendly rivalry with the 
late Andrew Ross contributed greatly to a rapid succession of 
improvements in the construction of achromatic microscopes. 
In 1840 he succeeded in making a i-i6th of an inch objective, 
the first produced in this country : some years later this was 
surpassed by him in the production of the i-25th and the i-5oth, 
constructed for Dr. Beale’s researches on ultimate nerve structure. 
Mr. Powell was the first English optician to construct objectives 
on the water-immersion principle, by which a vast increase in 
light and resolving power, together with greater working distance, 
was obtained. When Prof. Abbe, of Jena, demonstrated the 
important part played by diffraction in the formation of the mi- 
croscopic images of very minute structures, and the immense 
gain in aperture resulting from the employment of dense media 
for immersion objectives in the place of water, Messrs. Powell 
and Lealand were the first in this country to adopt the new 
principle, and with such success that objectives possessing the 
highest aperture on record have been constructed by them. 
Failing health of late compelled Mr. Powell to confine his at- 
tention to computing formulas and giving directions, which were 
ably carried out by his son. Mr. Powell was one of the earliest 
Fellows of the Royal Microscopical Society (at that time the 
Microscopical Society of London), having joined it at its founda- 
tion in 1840.* The object-glasses constructed under the late 
Mr. Powell’s direction have rarely been equalled and never sur- 
passed by those of any other optician in the world. Some of 
Dr. Woodward’s most difficult photographic work has been ac- 
complished by their aid, and they have rendered good service in 
the elaborate researches of Dallinger and Drysdale on the life- 
history of monads, which gave the final blow to the theory of 
heterogenesis, and also to Mr. W. S. Kent in his investigations 
on some of the most minute forms of Infusoria. 
Certain meteorological phenomena are at present exciting much 
attention. In England the sunset skies have for many days 
displayed an unusually brilliant orange-red colour, whilst the 
moon has appeared on the south coast blue, and at London of a 
* Only five of the founders of the Royal Microscopical Society now 
survive. 
