138 



make, namely, that their very best thanks be presented to Dr. Matthews 

 for the very excellent paper which he had given them. The whole subject 

 was one of extreme interest to Microscopists, and it was well known that 

 the corals furnished them with some of the most lovely objects which they 

 possessed, so that hardly a cabinet could be found which did not contain 

 specimens of spicules and other portions from this interesting group. He 

 would just point out one little matter in connection with the subject — it 

 was formerly always taught that the septa of the stony corals were due 

 to the calcification of the mesenteries ; this, however, was not the case, for 

 it was found that the septa arose from an independent growth in the 

 intervals between the mesenteries. The septum in the actinozoon corals was 

 beneath the tentacles, whereas the mesentery was between them. He asked 

 the members to return their hearty thanks to Dr. Matthews. 



A vote of thanks to Dr. Matthews was carried by acclamation. 



Mr. Hardy enquired whether any cause had been found for the red 

 colour of the coral ? Also, if the cause of the stinging property of the 

 anemones and hydras was explained ; was it electrical or something of a 

 poisonous nature ? 



Dr. Matthews believed the stinging property to be the result of a purely 

 animal poison, of the nature of which they knew nothing. As to the 

 cause of the colour, he confessed himself to be utterly ignorant on the 

 subject. 



Mr. Stewart regarded the colour as being in all cases organic in its 

 nature ; in some cases it was clearly due to the colour of the fleshy part 

 covering it. As regarded the stinging power, he had often watched the 

 behaviour of prawns which came in contact with the anemones, when the 

 anemone was taking its breakfast, for instance, and the prawn had tried to 

 take it away. No inconvenience seemed to be suffered by the prawns, who, 

 probably, were able to resist the stinging property, but a fish coming into 

 contact with it exhibited great distress in consequence. 



Dr. Matthews said that Mrs. Somerville regai'ded the white varieties as 

 diseased specimens, and he believed that the dealers also said it was 

 diseased coral ; but they seemed ' to know very little about why they 

 said so. 



Mr. Frank Crisp said he for one would be very glad if Dr. Matthews would 

 carry out his idea of a series of papers, like the oue he had read that evening 

 as he could hardly imagine anything more useful to them than such papers, 

 which conveyed a great deal of instructive and useful information, though 

 perhaps they might contain little which was absolutely new; and he should 

 decidedly like to see a series of papers upon " What is Rotifer ? " " What 

 is a Sponge ? " and so forth, in preference to endeavouring to obtain nothing 

 but original papers. Another subject to which Dr. Matthews referred was 

 that of their excursions. It had often been a matter of sui'prise to him that 

 the excursions produced so little result in that room, and he thought that if 

 those who went to them would preserve what they gathered and bring it to 

 the Club on the gossip evenings, many of those members who could not go 

 to the excursions would be only too glad to have some of the specimens. 



