PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 425 



MEETING 



Held ox the 17th of May, 1911, at 20 Hanover Square, W. 

 H. CI. Plimmer, Esq.. F.R.S., etc., President, in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the Meeting of April 19th were read and confirmed, 



and were signed by the President. 



The following donations received since last Meeting were announced, 

 and the thanks of the Society voted to the donors : — 



From 



British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-9. Vol. I. Biology.) 



Part VI. Rhizopodes d'Eau Douce, by Eugene Penard. ISir E. H. Shackleton. 



(4to, London, 1911) ) 



.1. E. Barnard, Practical Photomicrography. (8vo, London.} j,^ ^5/; s /„ ,. 



xyiij . . .. ■ • -• .. •• •• •• •• •• • • ) 



The Micrologist. Parts II -IV. (Manchester, 1910-11), with 



two slides of subjects illustrated in Part IV., viz. Amaiba\ 1/; . j Flatters 



and Sphxrozoum pimctahim j 



Mr. Hopkinson referred to the scheme now brought forward to 

 encroach upon the space allotted in 1899 to the Natural History Museum 

 at South Kensington for the purpose of erecting a Science Museum. It 

 was. he said, proposed to pull down the building containing specimens 

 preserved in spirits, called the Spirit Room, erected at a cost of £30,000, 

 to appropriate its site for part of the Science Museum, and to rebuild it 

 in the Museum grounds on space which had been reserved for an exten- 

 sion of the zoological galleries, or, he had heard it suggested, remove it 

 to Hendon. The Museum being already much cramped for room, the 

 reduction of the area considered twelve years ago to be necessary for its 

 expansion would be highly detrimental to biological science, and a 

 MemoriaJ against the proposal had been prepared, of which he read the 

 two concluding paragraphs, suggesting its approval by the Society. 



The President said that the point was whether the Society should sign 

 the Memorial against this encroachment on the domain of the Natural 

 History Museum. He thought that such a scheme as the above- 

 mentioned would end in the probable destruction of the Natural History 

 Museum as a scientific centre, and interfere with any scheme of enlarge- 

 ment, which might come under consideration, to enable students to 

 carry on their studies there without difficulty. The relationship between 

 the Royal Microscopical Society and the Natural History Museum was a 

 close one ; as a scientific Society their need of such a Museum was great, 

 and he considered that any protest against a scheme likely to interfere 

 with that relatiouship would be justifiable. He understood that the 

 President and Honorary Secretaries of many other scientific societies 

 had signed this petition on behalf of their various societies, and he 

 desired Members of the Royal Microscopical Society to express their 



