281 



" The Microscopist," by Dr. Wythe ... ... From the Author. 



Two Photomicrographs ... ... ... ... „ Mr. Offord. 



Two slides, Sand, and Meteoric Dust ... ... „ Mr. Carr. 



Two slides in illustration of his paper ... ,, Mr. Priest. 



The Secretary said that the members would, no doubt, remember that 

 some time ago they had a visit from Dr. Wythe, of San Francisco, who 

 made an interesting communication on the subject of the Microscopical 

 characters of Handwriting. The doctor appeared to have been pleased 

 with his reception, and had, in remembrance of it, sent a copy of the 4th 

 edition of his work, " The Microscopist " as a present to the library. This 

 book was of interest as being the first work on General Microscopy published 

 in America. He also called attention to the slides of sand presented by 

 Mr. Carr, as showing very clearly the perforations in calcareous particles of 

 sand, which had been referred to by Mr. Waller in his paper of March, 1884. 



The thanks of the meeting were voted to the several donors. 



Mr. Dunning exhibited and described a new form of Zoophyte trough, 

 made in two or more sections, which were held together, when in use, by 

 simple cohesion, so that they could be taken apart in a few minutes for the 

 purposes of cleaning, &c, without risk of breakage. Specimens were 

 handed round for the inspection of the members. 



The thanks of the meeting were voted to Mr. Dunning for his communi- 

 cation. 



Mr. B. W. Priest read a paper on Spongilla fragilis, illustrating the 

 subject by diagrams. 



Mr. J. G. Waller thought the paper was a particularly interesting one. 

 It had always seemed to him, that they ought to possess more varieties 

 of fresh-water sponges than the two which had hitherto figured as their 

 only examples. It was, at least, very singular, that the Thames Spongillce 

 should not have been better known to such authorities as Dr. Bowerbank 

 and Mr. Carter, both of whom converted into a new species the specimen 

 found by Mr. Parfitt in the river Exe. This showed him the necessity for 

 making a protest against the formation of new species, except upon the most 

 complete evidence that they were such : because in the Spongilla) of the 

 Thames he had found every variety of spicule from that with no spines 

 at all to that completely spinous. He thought it very singular, that Dr. 

 Bowerbank, who lived in London, should not have studied the specimens 

 from the Thames in various parts ; had he done so he would not have fallen 

 into the error now noticed. Dr. Bowerbank's specimen came from Eother- 

 hithe, and was taken from the interior of a dock where the water was 

 nearly always smooth and stagnant ; the fact being that it was always 

 found, that specimens with smooth spicules came out of still water. The 

 spinous condition had been found in other parts of England, but in all cases 

 in running water. To show how fond some people were of making new 

 species he might mention, that some time ago he described a specimen dis- 

 covered at the manor of Ditchleys, near South Weald in Essex, some 

 of which he sent to Mr. Carter and to Mr. Priest. Mr. Thomas found a 



Journ. Q. M. C, Series II., No. 15. z 



