14 
THE ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 
A combustion of the wax as a whole would also be desirable, were it only to 
confirm the statement that, in nearly all the varieties of wax, as well as in the 
products derived from this body, the carbon and hydrogen are in equal atomic 
proportions. 
THE ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 
BY JOSEPH INCE. 
“ Minimis partibus, per totum Naturae campum, certitudo omnis innititur; quas qui fugit 
pariter Naturam fugit.”— Linnceus. 
“ Videns, sciens.” 
“ Magna minima Dei.” 
About thirty years ago certain lovers of the Microscope used to meet at each 
other’s houses for the purpose of testing the accuracy of their several observa¬ 
tions, comparing different instruments and of otherwise promoting the science in 
which they were engaged. The great inconvenience however of no fixed place 
of residence and inadequate accommodation led to the determination to esta¬ 
blish a regularly constituted Society having a definite abode; hence a meeting 
was held at the house of Edwin j. Quekett, Wellclose Square, Sept. 3, 1839, 
“to take into consideration the propriety of forming a Society for the promo¬ 
tion of Microscopical investigation, and for the introduction and improvement 
of the microscope as a scientific instrument.” 
The general plan of the constitution and government of the Society having 
been drawn up, a public meeting was held at the Horticultural Society’s Rooms 
21 Regent Street, on Friday the 20th December, 1839, when the establishment 
of the Microscopical Society was finally determined. Professor Owen took the 
chair, Mr. N. B. Ward* was elected Treasurer, and Dr. Arthur Farre became 
Secretary. The terms of admission were an entrance fee of one guinea, and a 
yearly subscription of the same sum paid in advance. At the first Annual 
Meeting held in 1841 there were 177 members, a number which fully justified 
the creation of the Association, and there were 18 papers read, one of which 
consisted of the laborious and masterly researches u On the structure of fossil 
Sponges ” by J. S. Bowerbank ; a second “On the Development of the Vascular 
Tissue in Plants” by E. J. Quekett, and a third “ On the vascular structure of 
the allantois and Vitelline Membrane of the incubated Egg” by John Dal- 
rymple; these may be mentioned as showing the character and importance of 
the earlier communications; a library and a collection of microscopic objects 
were commenced, while the funds at the disposal of the Council procured a stand 
which had to wait in patience for its destined instrument. Not long however, 
for in the next President’s address he had to congratulate members on the pur¬ 
chase of one from Mr. Powell, another from Mr. Ross and a third from Mr. 
Smith. The immediate use of this apparatus was to place it at the disposal 
of Committees appointed by the Council to conduct particular branches of 
enquiry, following out the advice of Professor Bindley : “ In the application of 
the powers and advantages of an association of observers to gain an intimacy 
* Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, the inventor of Wardian Cases, by which many most in¬ 
teresting exotic plants have been introduced into this country, and which have enabled so 
many to cultivate ferns in their rooms with delight and instruction, died at the age of seventy- 
seven, at St. Leonards, on the 4th June, 1868. He was a botanist of considerable reputation, 
Fellow of the Royal Society, and other scientific Societies; lately Master of the Apothecaries’ 
Company, one of the examiners, and took considerable interest in the education and examina¬ 
tion of females for the medical profession. His house in Wellclose Square, and afterwards at 
Clapham Rise, was one of the scientific curiosities of London, showing how many and how 
well plants might be cultivated in a small space in or near a large city. 
