527 



PROCEEDING^ 



OF THE 



QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



At the meeting of the Club held on March 26th, 1912, Prof. 

 Arthur Dendy, D.Sc, F.RS., President, in the chair, the 

 minutes of the preceding meeting, held on February 27th, were 

 read and confirmed. 



Messrs. B. W. Tibbie and John Metcalfe were balloted for and 

 duly elected members of the Club. 



The list of donations to the Club was read and the thanks of 

 the members voted to the donors. 



The following papers by Mr. E. M. Nelson, E.R.M.S., were 

 read by the Honorary Secretary (Mr. W. B. Stokes) : " An 

 Aplanatic Spot Lens," " An Improved Chromatic Condenser," 

 " A Suggested Improvement to the Rousselet Compressor." 



Mr. C. L. Curties exhibited an aplanatic spot lens designed by 

 Mr. E. M. Nelson as an improvement upon one shown by Mr. 

 Stephenson in 1879. It had a Numerical Aperture of 1-3, and 

 was practically free from spherical aberration. 



A very impoi-tant paper on " The Lagenae of the South-West 

 Pacific," by Mr. Henry Sidebottom, was read by Mr. A. Earland, 

 E.B.M.S., who said the Club was to be congratulated on having 

 obtained so valuable and beautifully illustrated a contribution to 

 the Journal, The collection of specimens discussed was made by 

 the late Mr. W. Blundell Thornhill, of Castle Bellingham, 

 Ireland, who, in correspondence with Mr. Earland, at first 

 proposed some 200 new species. All forms of Lagena are 

 variations of one original type resembling a soap-bubble with one 

 aperture, as in L. glohosa. The group has been a puzzle to 

 rhizopodists for the last fifty years at least, and various attempts 

 at classification have been made. Those by Williamson, Reuss, 

 Parker and Jones, and Brady were mentioned. Mr. Sidebottom 

 has adopted, with modifications, Brady's system. 



The President said the paper brings again to our notice the 

 fact that "species" are but human inventions after all, and, as 

 Lamarck long ago told us. Nature does not recognise them. One 



