PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETV. 355 



those characteristics associated with living bodies. There was no 

 evidence that they were organized, in the sense that they had any 

 internal structure. The spherical ones were merely 'spheroidal 

 homogeneous bodies, possessing a surface-tension envelope — i.e. there 

 was an outside casing to them which showed a slightly higher refractive 

 index than did the internal contents ; and the whole liody seemed to 

 have a higher refractive index than the silica medium in which they 

 lay. The change in state liefore the growth appeared, shown in the 

 photographs, was perhaps the most interesting feature. 



Mr. Scourfield asked what Professor Moore considered the dark 

 colour of the structures seen in the photographs to be due to. It 

 occurred to him that they might possibly he due to lines of very minute 

 gas-bubbles. 



Mr. Hilton compared the chain bodies described by Professor Moore 

 with the cellulose formations of almost precisely similar appearance in 

 the capillitia of certain species of Mycetozoa. ' This was remarkable, 

 because a Plasmodium, when forming sporangia, was an albuminous 

 colloid which was likewise concentrating into a firmer or more stable 

 condition by depositing substances it had held in solution. In one 

 species of Mycetozoa the capillitium thus secreted was like beaded 

 threads, very fine, but comparatively long ; and one of the slides 

 exhibited by Professor Moore brought these slender structures very 

 forcibly to his mind. On other slides exhiljited there were wavy forms, 

 and peculiarly branching forms, but in Mycetozoa similar forms'to these 

 also were found. In the fibrous capillitia of those organisms there 

 seemed to be a very near approach to the structures produced by 

 inorganic colloids which Professor Moore had shown. These latter 

 might be regarded as inorganic counterparts of structures formed by the 

 living colloids of Mycetozoa. 



Mr. Barnard, replying to Mr. Scourfield, said that the visibility of 

 such objects was dependent on the difference of refractive index 

 between themselves and the medium. In this case an air-bubble in the 

 medium would show up easily with a wide cone illumination. But 

 some of these filaments were not to be seen with wide cone illumination ; 

 they needed a narrow cone. The photographs were made with a 

 substantially smaller cone than an air-bubble could be photographed 

 with. 



A hearty vote of thanks to Professor Benjamin Moore was carried 

 with acclamation. 



Mr. Martin Duncan, F.R.P.S., then demonstrated a very com- 

 prehensive and extensive series of photograms, stereo - photograms, 

 micro-photograms and kinematograms illustrating his "Studies in 

 Marine Biology," and described the apparatus and method he had 

 adopted in his work, the details of which will be embodied in an article, 

 illustrated by some examples of the work, to appear in the pages of the 

 Journal. 



The President, in proposing a vote of thanks to Mr. Martin Duncan, 

 which was carried by acclamation, called attention to the verv 



