The researches of Professors Morris and Huxley, Mr. Carruthers, and Dr. Dawson of Canada, pointed to the fact that the great bulk of the bituminous coal consisted of sporangia and spores of plants allied to our existing club-mosses, while thin sections of coal which he would show at the Microscopical Meeting revealed the fact that the chief elements in their composition were these said spores and sporecases, the latter about 3rd of an inch in diameter, somewhat resembling bags or sacs, more or less flattened, and containing the former, irregularly-rounded bodies about th of an inch in diameter.

The processes by which coal was supposed to have been found from vegetable matter, and many other interesting points, were discussed, and the paper illustrated by specimens and fossils from different coal-fields.

A vote of thanks was given to Mr. Wonfor.

April 27th.-Microscopical Meeting. Mr. T. H. Hennah in the chair.

Mr. R. Glaisyer announced the receipt of two slides, one a section of the morel, for the cabinet, from Mr. Wonfor.

Mr. Hennah read a very interesting communication from Dr. Addison "On the Water Flea " (Daphnia pulex), containing original observations on the moulting of the carapace of the female and the birth of young Daphnia from agamic eggs, from which it would appear that the two acts are simultaneous.

Mr. Marshall Hall exhibited a new pocket-lamp by Moginie, of London, which appeared to be a very compact and portable apparatus. Mr. Wonfor exhibited a fresh specimen of the morel (Morchelia esculenta) obtained near Brighton.

The meeting then became a conversazione, when

Mr. Marshall Hall exhibited spicules of the new sponge (Pheronema Grayii), dredged up by him off the coast of Spain.

Mr. Sewell exhibited scalariform tissue of fern, sections of cocoanut wood, whalebone, &c.

Mr. Hennah, under one of Beck's new th immersion lenses, exhibited living diatoms. The performance of this lens was pronounced perfect, the definition being very precise, while the distance at which it worked was an ordinary live-box cover. The same objects were also shown with a Gundlach's th, which gave very good definition.

Mr. Wonfor exhibited sections of the morel, showing the spores in their receptacles; sections of coal fossils, by Norman, of City Road, London, in which leaves, roots, and stems of Lepidodendra, &c., were well seen; sections of coal made by Mr. Slade, and described in the January part of the Quekett Club Journal,' and kindly lent for the occasion; and a series of sections of coal and lignite made by himself, including Torbane hill, white coal of Tasmania, brown coal of Bohemia, the Bradford Belter Bed, &c., in which not only woody fibre, but also spores and sporangia, were distinctly made out; these were in illustration of his paper "On Coal," read at the last Ordinary Meeting.

In the course of the evening Mr. Wonfor illustrated the method

by which he had made and mounted thin sections of coal, which was a modification of the different published methods.

It was announced that the next Microscopical Meeting, being the Anniversary Meeting, would be a General Evening and conversazione.

It was also announced that the first Field Excursion would take place on Saturday, May 6th, to Balcombe for Tilgate Forest.

May 11th.-Ordinary Meeting. Mr. T. H. Hennah in the chair. Mr. T. M. Fowler was elected an ordinary member.

It was resolved that a letter of condolence be written to Mrs. Peek on the death of her husband, formerly a member of the Society.

Mr. Wonfor reported on the success of the Field Excursion of May 6th to Balcombe, and gave an account of some of the objects seen and obtained.

The Rev. J. H. Cross exhibited and presented for the Society's album, sketches he had made on the occasion.

Mr. J. Dennant exhibited a series of marbles from the Pyrenees, and large acorn cups of the Smyrna oak, Quercus agiolops, the Valonia of commerce.

Mr. J. Howell exhibited fossil Silurian corals, vertebra of Plesiosaurus, from the bone bed of Aust; and shells from the lias at Bristol, and the Upper Eocene, Isle of Wight.

Mr. Saunders exhibited red organ coral and other recent corals; pottery from the tombs at Bengazi and Pompeii; and sand from the Bays of Valentia, Malta, and Taranaki.

Mr. Elphick exhibited a couple of piebald mice, taken from a rick, and believed to be a cross between the common and white mice.

Mr. Wonfor exhibited a specimen of the silicious sponge Euplectella mirabilis; specimens of yellow wagtail; grey-headed ditto; and a state either intermediate between the two or in the immature plumage of the second. While the first is common, the second is uncommon, and the last very rare. These birds were kindly lent by Messrs. Pratt and Sons, and had been obtained in the neighbourhood of Brighton; also a very dark variety of the northern oak eggar moth, Bombyx callune. It was resolved that the next Field Excursion be on Saturday, June 3rd, to Barcombe for Plashett Wood.

May 25th.-Microscopical Meeting. Mr. M. Penley, Vice-President, in the chair.

Being the Anniversary Microscopical Meeting, Mr. R. Glaisyer reported that 122 slides and a Möller's diatom type slide had been added to the cabinet during the year.

Mr. Wonfor, Hon. Sec., gave a brief abstract of the 'Proceedings,' with an account of the papers read and the work done, which, he said, had exceeded their anticipations, when it was determined twelve months since to hold monthly microscopical meetings. Judging from what they had done in advancing microscopical inquiry among the members during the past year, augured well for increased exertions in the forthcoming year.

Mr. Wonfor then gave an account of a method for obtaining thin sections of soft rocks, and illustrated it by making and mounting

sections. He first cut with a saw (the one used was the common fret saw) slices of oolite, &c., ground down one surface on glass-paper of different degrees of fineness, and fastened them by the ground surface with moderately stiff heated Canada balsam to glass slides. As soon as cold the other surface was ground down to as thin a degree as required, always finishing on very fine glass-paper. The superfluous balsam was then cleared away and the powdery matter cleaned off with spirits of wine, when the slide was ready for the cabinet, or could be covered with thin cold balsam and a glass cover and left to harden. The specimens of oolite, which were used to illustrate, were part of the stone employed in making the Brighton aquarium. He had at present only worked on different oolites, Portland stone, dolomite, and nummulites from Egypt. By the same process he had made very thin sections of coal-in fact, the examples of coal shown at the last meeting were made by this process. It was at the suggestion of Mr. Marshall Hall, who asked him to try how it would act on oolitic limestone and dolomite, that he was led to attempt the process. In the case of Portland stone, he had found it advisable to rub it down roughly first on a piece of paving stone, and to finish it off on glasspaper. Some sections he had cut, ground, and finished for the cabinet in twenty minutes.

The meeting then became a conversazione, when

Mr. J. Dennant exhibited deep-sea Atlantic soundings, fossil and recent diatoms, antennæ of drinker moth, &c.

Mr. T. Cooper exhibited crystals of hematoxylin, tartrate of soda, and other salts.

Mr. R. Glaisyer exhibited sections of Eozoon Canadense, Purbeck and encrinital limestones.

Mr. Turner exhibited sections of Indian rice-paper, root of Osmunda regalis, and spores of morel.

Mr. Wonfor exhibited sections of different oolites, dolomites, Portland stone, nummulites from Ben Hassan, and crystals of salicine in silicate of soda, and crystals of silicate of soda, mounted in the same. These latter formed very beautiful polariscope objects, and, with one of Ackland's selenite stages, gave a wonderful variety of colour.

It was announced that the subject for the next Microscopical Meeting on June 22nd would be "Vegetable Hairs and Scales."

STATE MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY OF ILLINOIS.

On the evening of March 17th the State Microscopical Society of Illinois celebrated its third annual réunion by a magnificent exhibition in Farwell Hall. The main floor was crowded with a large and delightful audience, who moved in steadily-recurring streams from table to table. There were about 100 instruments on exhibition, and at least 1000 slides, though there was neither time nor opportunity to make all of them available for use.

Such has been the accomplished labour of the Microscopical Society, a labour whose greatness can be more readily appreciated when it is recollected that the Society was only organized about three years

since. At its first conversazione, held at the house of Mr. Joseph T. Ryerson, about thirty instruments were exhibited, estimated to have cost, in connection with their appurtenances, about $7000. On the date of its third conversazione, more than 100 instruments were exhibited, representing a value of $30,000. Such has been the growth of our Microscopical Society, of which it may be said that it stands the first of its kind in the United States.

While the slides were being changed on the instruments, Prof. H. Peabody performed interesting electrical experiments, and Prof. Delafontaine and Mr. Boerlin showed several beautiful Geissler tubes lit by the electrical current.

THE TUNBRIDGE WELLS MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY.*

The monthly meetings of this Society have been held regularly under the able presidency of Dr. Deakin.

The subjects for discussion have been Sections, Vegetable and Animal, the careful consideration of which has occupied the members for several meetings, and elicited much useful information.

The next meeting will take place on October 3.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Die Praxis der Naturgeschichte. Von P. L. Martin. Weimar. Voigt.

Martini und Chemnitz Systematisches Conchylien-cabinet. In Verbindg. m. Dr. Phillippi, Dr. Pfeiffer, Dr. Dunker, und Dr. E. Römer, neu. hrsg. und vervollständigt von Dr. H. Küster. Nürnberg. Bauer & Raspe.

Archiv für Mikroskopische Anatomie herausgegeben von Max Schultze. 6 Band, 4 Heft, mit 8 Taf. Bonn. Cohen & Sohn.

Untersuchungen uëber Bau und Entwicklung der Arthropoden. Von Dr. Ant. Dohrn. 2 Heft. Leipzig. Engelmann.

Ueber d. Wirkung v. Borsäure auf frische Ganglienzellen [Aus dem physiolog. Institute der Wiener Universität]. Von Ernst Fleischl. Wien. Gerolds Sohn.

Physiologish-anatomische Untersuchungen ueber den Uterus. Von Dr. Carl Friedländer. Leipzig. Simmel & Co.

Die Aehnlichkeit im Baue der ausseren weiblichen Geschlechtsorgane bie den Locustiden und Akridiern dargestellt auf Grund ihrer Entwickelungsgeschichte. Dr. L. Graben. Wien. Gerolds Sohn.

*From the Rev. Mr. Whitelock.

FIDDIAN'S MICROSCOPE ILLUMINATOR. Price £1. 11s. 6d. complete.

OPTICAL AND PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER TO THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY, ETC., ETC., ETC., 111, MINORIES, LONDON, E.

Fcap. 8vo, price 28. 6d. plain, 48. coloured.

HALF-HOURS WITH THE MICROSCOPE.

BY EDWIN LANKESTER, M.D.

Illustrated by 250 Drawings from Nature by TUFFEN WEST. New Edition, much enlarged, with full Description of the various Parts of the Instrument.

London: ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY, W.

Royal Microscopical Society.

NOTICE TO FELLOWS.

The Reading Room and Office will be closed from the

1st to the 31st of August next.

KING'S COLLEGE, 23rd June, 1871.

WALTER W. REEVES,

Assistant Secretary.