311 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



MEETING 



Held on the 21st of Apeil, 1915, at 20 Hanover Square, W., 

 Mr. D. J. Scourfield, F.Z.S., etc., Vice-President, in the 

 Chair. 



The Minutes of the Meeting: of March 17th were read and con- 

 firmed, and signed bv the Chairman. 



The following Donation received since the last Meethig was 

 announced, and the best thanks of the Society were voted the donors : — 



From 

 Beale (Sir Wm. P.), An Amateur's Introduction ) , r T n * n 



to Crystallography, 1915 j Messrs. Longmans, Green c£ Co. 



Mr. E. Heron-Allen, F.L.S., F.R.M.S., etc., gave a lantern demon- 

 stration of slides illustrating some newly observed phenomena in the 

 Bionomics of the Foraminifera, which have recently been brought before 

 the Royal Society by the Author and form the subject of a paper now 

 in the press for the Philosophical Transactions. The main points 

 touched upon were : — 1. The mechanical functions of protoplasm as 

 illustrated by the locomotion of the Foraminifera and their capture and 

 ingestion of food. 2. The question of reproduction by budding as 

 distinct from the phenomenon hitherto known as plastogamy. 3. The 

 evidence afforded by many of the Foraminifera in the construction of 

 their shells of phenomena of the purpose and intelligence with which the 

 speaker claimed that the Protozoa are endowed. A new feature in the 

 life-history of Gymbalopora tabeUseformis Brady, viz. its powers as a 

 burrowing or encrypting organism, was also illustrated by slides. A 

 number of later and more highly perfected skiagraphs of Foraminifera 

 made by Mr. J. E. Barnard, F.R.M.S., were also shown. 



The Chairman, in thanking Mr. Heron-Allen for his communication, 

 said he was sure all would agree that the debt of gratitude which the 

 Society already owed to the author had been greatly increased by his 

 extremely interesting communication that evening. It was a paper 

 conveying a large number of important points, some of which, especially 

 in the concluding portion, were evidently of a somewhat controversial 

 nature. The illustrative photographs were particularly fine, those 

 taken by Mr. Barnard by means of X-rays being of quite exceptional 



