PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 407 



from the North Atlantic, curious structures which he called coccoliths. 

 Dr. Wallich, about the same time, had the good fortune to observe the 

 tiny coccoliths aggregated into definite structures which he called cocco- 

 spheres ; but for some time after the observations the real nature of the 

 coccospheres and rhabdospheres remained extremely doubtful. It was 

 definitely known that the coccoliths were of a calcareous nature, but 

 whether they or the coccospheres were the individual living organisms, 

 whether they should be considered as animals or plants, and what part 

 they played in the economy of nature, were all such dubious questions 

 that many people went so far as to deny altogether the organic origin of 

 these structures. 



The ' Challenger ' expedition, however, carried the matter a step 

 further by the discovery of coccospheres (and of somewhat similar 

 organisms, rhabdospheres), living free upon the surface of the water. 

 From observations made during this expedition, Sir John Murray held 

 that both the coccospheres and rhabdospheres were minute pelagic 

 calcareous algge ; doubt was, however, cast on his conclusions by the 

 failure of the Hensen Plankton expedition to find any trace of these 

 structures. The botanist of that expedition even cast doubt on their 

 very existence as organisms, and in any case would have none of them in 

 the vegetable kingdom. 



Matters were in this condition when, by the aid of the Government 

 Grant Fund, Mr. Murray, accompanied by Mr. Blackman, was able to 

 make a voyage to the "West Indies for the purpose of studying these 

 organisms, and setting at rest, once for all, the conflicting views as 

 to their nature. On this voyage the coccospheres and rhabdospheres 

 were found floating free on the surface of the Atlantic. The former 

 were obtained in an undoubted living condition, and were seen to contain 

 a single green chromatophore, thus rendering extremely probable the 

 view as to their algal nature. The coccosphere was shown to be made 

 up of a number of calcareous plates, each perforated by a minute pore 

 in the centre, and overlapping each other in a definite and regular way. 

 The skeleton was shown to enclose a tiny mass of protoplasm in 

 which the chromatophore lay imbedded, and the method of division was 

 shown to be by simple fission. The rhabdospheres seemed to be similar 

 organisms, but differed from the coccospheres in the projections borne on 

 the outer side of each plate. In the paper dealing with these observations, 

 the species of coccospheres aud rhabdospheres, including a new and 

 smaller species, were for the first time accurately described. 



The address was illustrated by lantern slides. 



The Chairman said he was reminded of the saying that the misfortunes 

 of one man were often the advantages of others. The unfortunate 

 absence of the President had in this case given them the privilege and 

 pleasure of hearing this very excellent address from Mr. Murray, and at 

 the same time they had the promised paper from the President to look 

 forward to on his recovery. 



Mr. W. H. Shrubsole said lie was glad to have had the opportunity of 

 listening to this very interesting address ; indeed, he might say that he 

 had never been more interested by anything he had heard in that room 

 than he had been by what he had heard from Mr. Murray that evening. 

 He had studied these things for some years, and should like to state that 



