i88 5 .] 
Analyses of Books. gc 
Comte.” Surely one Comte has been something more than 
sufficient. 
Concerning the ability with which Mr. Robertson has handled 
his subject there can be no dispute ; but we could have wished 
him a worthier task. 
jf ounuil of the Royal Alicvoscopical Society. Containing its 
Transactions and Proceedings, and a Summary of Current 
Reseat ches relating to Zoology and Botany (principally In- 
vertebrata and Cryptogamia), Microscopy, &c. Edited by 
b rank Crisp, LL.B., 13 . A., &c. Series 2, vol. 4, 1884, pp. 
ioo8 ; Published for the Society. London and Edinburgh : 
Williams and Norgate. 
The present volume, as is the case with its predecessors, in the 
present series contrasts strongly with the two small books issued 
during the early years of the then Microscopical Society of 
London and containing a selection of papers read before it, few 
in number indeed, but by such eminent pioneers as Dr. Bower- 
bank, Dr. Carpenter, Professor Owen, Edwin and John Quekett, 
Cornelius Varley, Rev. J. B. Reade, and other well known names 
in the list of microscopists. As the Society increased, so its 
publications grew, and now, forty-four years after its foundation, 
form a goodly array, containing a perfect treasury of histological 
research. 0 
The origin of this now influential society was small like the 
early volumes of its transactions. About the year 1828, the late 
Mr. J. S. Bowerbank became the possessor of one of the then 
famous microscopes constructed by the late W. Tulley, of Isling- 
ton ; although the objective of this instrument was only a triplet 
of about nine-tenths of an inch focus, and constructed somewhat 
after the manner of the object glass of a telescope, its perfor- 
mance was far superior to any microscope at that time procur- 
able, and as not more than four or five were then in existence 
many persons resorted to Mr. Bowerbank’s house to confirm their 
observations by means of the new instrument. These visitors 
became so numerous that at last it was necessary to set apart one 
evening in the week, and Mr. Bowerbank’s Monday evenings 
were for many years noted for their interesting character and the 
number of eminent men frequenting them. As to the difficulties 
observers met with in those days, it is hard to realise them now, 
when everything is so easily procurable; glass slips had to be 
cut by the observers themselves ; thin glass covers were unknown 
for some time. The best of microscopes could probably be now 
surpassed by some costing about five pounds, and mounting in 
