195 



A photograph of Mr. J. W. Meacher was presented for the Club Album. 



The Secretary called the special attention of the members to the valuable 

 donation from the Dinner Committee, which, although announced at the 

 last meeting, was not sufficiently noticed at the time from pressure of other 

 matters. It consisted of a series of specimens of sections of the embryo of 

 the chick, prepared by Prof. Fritz Meyer, at the Zoological Station at 

 Naples, the study being the direct outcome of a visit from Prof. Balfour. 

 They were all very early stages, and though the exact periods were not 

 given, as the specimens were numbered, no doubt the particulars could be 

 ascertained ; but the most advanced was of very much earlier age than those 

 which were generally to be got. He was sure that the Club would feel very 

 much indebted to the Dinner Committee for making them a gift of so in- 

 teresting a character. 



Mr. Michael thought there was no doubt as to their being able to get the 

 exact date of the periods of incubation ; the practice being always to have 

 every specimen numbered with reference to records made at the time. 

 Observations of this kind had been also made upon the embryo of the Goby, 

 of which a series of 35 had been prepared, and in every instance the exact 

 period had been noted. He only regretted that they should not be able to 

 get any more like them, as Dr. Meyer had ceased to mount them. 



The President read an account of some observations which he made some 

 years ago, as to the number of Foraminifera found in a given quantity of 

 chalk, confirmatory of the previous estimates by Ehrenberg. 



The President called attention to the following opinion announced by 

 Pringsheim* of the functions of the radiating protoplasmic threads from 

 the nucleus in the cells of Spirogyra, a drawing being made upon the black- 

 board. " An anatomical fact, hitherto unrecognized in the organization of 

 Spiroffyra, may here be noticed. The threads of protoplasm extending out- 

 wards from the central plasma mass in each cell do not, as was supposed, 

 end in the general protoplasmic lining of the cell wall, but each passes 

 directly or by its branches to the internal surface of a chlorophyll band, 

 and there dilates in a trumpet-like manner, and grasps, as it were, an 

 amylum-body. If, as sometimes occurs, there is no amylum body visible at 

 the point where the thread is in contact with the chlorophyll-band, the spot 

 may be considered one where such a body will subsequently appear. As 

 the amylum-bodies increase by division, the grasping protoplasmic thread 

 also divides by forking, and thns each daughter amylum-body is grasped by 

 a protoplasmic thread ; and, on the other hand, the protoplasmic threads 

 may divide in the first instance, and a new amylum-body is subsequently 

 formed in the chlorophyll-band at the extremity of the new protoplasmic 

 thread. As an outcome of this mode of increase, the adjacent amylum-bodies 

 are often connected bridgeways by threads of protoplasm ; and as longitu- 

 dinal division of the chlorophyll-bands often proceeds synchronously with 

 the multiplication of the amylum-bodies and the forking of the protoplasm 

 threads, the amylum-bodies so connected may be in different spires of the 



* "Pringsheim's Researches on Chlorophyll," p. 81. 



