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The Microscopical Society of Victoria.

The usual monthly meeting of the Microscopical Society of Victoria was held on the 27th April. The Vice-President (Rev. J. J. Halley) occupied the chair, and there was a fair attendance of members.

Mr. G. Matthews, of Ballarat, was nominated as a country member.

The Acting Secretary acknowledged receipt of the February number of the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, and the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, vol. vi, part 4.

Mr. Bale submitted a design for a Stage-micrometer, in which a plate bearing the slide is moved across the stage against an opposing spring by a fine screw with graduated head: the eye-piece being furnished with a single cobweb, or silk fibre, the screw is turned till one extremity of the object is coincident with the cobweb, then turned further till the image of the object has completely crossed it; the number of the divisions of the screw-head which have passed an index point giving the diameter of the object. This system of micrometry does not appear to be in use in England, but in some German microscopes it is applied to one of the screws which control the stage-movements.

Mr. Allen exhibited an interesting Lichen, found in the Cape Otway forest, belonging to the genus Cladonia, and known as the Coral Lichen.

Mr. Halley described his visits to the principal Microscopical Societies of England, and gave an interesting account of the Royal Microscopical Society and the Quekett Club, also of the Leeuwen-hoek Club, of Manchester, which is limited to seven members, who meet at each other's houses in rotation.

Among the exhibits were some sections of Australian plants, double-stained very successfully by the Rev. T. Porter, also a variable low-power objective by Zeiss, shown by the same gentleman, and Synapta spicules, Trichina spiralis in human muscle, Meridion circulare, a species of Schizonema, and other diatoms, shown by Mr. Halley.