270 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



The paper described a collection made by two of his students, 

 mainly in the Indian Ocean, containing fourteen species, three of which 

 were new. The Antipatharians were popularly known as Black Corals, 

 and were colonies of grey arborescent growths, sometimes attaining a 

 length of 6 ft. The polyps were remotely related to sea anemones, 

 but their life-history had not been traced, no one having yet seen a 

 young one, so that their embryonic stages were unknown. The indi- 

 vidual polyps had each six tentacles — except in the case of the species 

 described by him at the last Meeting of the Society — and these were not 

 retractile. The general structure of these organisms was then further 

 explained by reference to coloured diagrams exhibited in the room. 



A portion of the paper was then read to the Meeting— in illustration 

 of which some specimens in bottles were exhibited and a number of 

 mounted examples were shown under Microscopes in the room. These, 

 the President remarked, were apparently very much alike until they 

 were carefully looked into. 



Mr. D. J. Scourfield said he was sure all present would agree that 

 their best thanks were due to Miss Summers for submitting to the 

 Society the paper which had just been read, and also to their President, 

 not only for reading it, but also for the very interesting preliminary 

 remarks on Antipatharians in general. Personally he should take a 

 much greater interest in the group than he had ever done before, and 

 he believed many other Fellows would do the same. He would like to 

 mention that Miss Summers' paper was not the first they had had by a 

 lady, and he certainly hoped it would not be the last. On the contrary 

 it was sincerely to be hoped that the Society would receive many further 

 papers from ladies in the future, 



Mr. E. M. Nelson's paper " On the Visibility of the Tertiaries of 

 Coscinodiscus aster omphalus in a Balsam Mount" was read by Dr. Hebb. 



Mi'. E. J. Spitta. in reply to the President, said that as they had no 

 illustrations before them giving the details of what Mr. Nelson had seen, 

 it was difficult to say anything on the subject. It would be interesting 

 if Mr. Nelson would photograph or draw these so that the Fellows 

 might know about what he was talking. 



Dr. Hebb mentioned that a paper "On Critical Microscopy," by 

 Mr. E. M. Nelson, had been received. The author suggested that it 

 might be taken as read, but on consideration was deferred till the next 

 Meeting. 



Mr. A. A. C. Merlin's paper " On the Measurement of the Flagellum 

 of the Cholera Bacillus " was read by Dr. Hebb. 



Mr. E. J. Spitta said it would always be a very difficult matter to say 

 what was really the diameter of these flagella, because it was never a 

 constant quantity, seeing it appeared quite different according to the 

 kind of stain with which the specimen had been treated. Not much 

 attention had been paid to the subject as it was not of the slightest 

 importance either to the Microscopist or the Bacteriologist. 



Dr. Hebb thought that the ordinary Bacteriologist did not trouble 

 himself very much about the measurement of flagella, or whether they 



