314 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY 



motions have purpose as their end. It seemed to him that we could 

 not deny that these little organisms, low and insignificant as they might 

 be, were imbued with a fraction of the same kind of intelligence as we 

 ourselves possess. It was to him extraordinary and mysterious, but he 

 was certain that Mr. Heron-Allen was right in suggesting that if we 

 wanted to get on sound lines we must entirely disabuse our minds of 

 old-fashioned ideas. To him the superstition that there was a something 

 which came into a man when he was born, and a something which w T ent 

 out of him when he died, was a survival of primitive ideas and unsup- 

 ported by science ; conciousness was a growth, an evolution, a property 

 of living protoplasm. 



One could only say with Herbert Spencer that it was " a special and 

 individual form of energy." What one meant by " energy " it was 

 impossible to say. Personally he looked upon the Microscope not as a 

 scientific toy — to him it was an agent by which one could penetrate a 

 little further into these wonderful and fundamental mysteries. 



Mr. Julius Rheinberg, F.R.M.S., read a paper on "A Simple Form 

 of Spectroscope and Micro-spectroscope." At the conclusion he was 

 asked by Mr. Barnard whether he could say how the amount of light in 

 his spectra compared with that obtained with, say, a Browning Micro- 

 spectroscope. To this he pointed out that as he was utilizing the first 

 spectrum of a diffraction grating, the light in the spectrum would be 

 something less than one-fourth of that of the incident light. But the 

 amount of light was quite sufficient ; there was no trouble in use on 

 that score. 



It was announced that the next Ordinary Meeting would take place 

 Wednesday, May 19, when the Annual Exhibition of Pond-life would 

 be held. 



The Chairman further announced that the next Meeting of the 

 Biological Section would be held on Wednesdav, May 5, when Mr. J. 

 Burton would communicate some Notes on Blue-Green Alga3. 



The following Instruments, etc., were exhibited : — 



Mr. Julius Rheinberg : — Simple Forms of Spectroscopes ; Simple Form 

 of Micro-spectroscope. 



New Fellows : — The following were elected Ordinary Fellows of 

 the Society : Arthur Baker, William Beattie, John Francis Donald Tutt, 

 M.R.C.V.S. 



