QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 289 



McLaren, J. Gadsden, John Martin and Arthur S. Hill were 

 balloted for and duly elected members of the Club ; five nomina- 

 tion forms for membership were read. 



A donation to the Club from the collection of the late Mr. R. T. 

 Lewis of a box of slides of Coccidae fromMr. J.M.OfTord, F.R.M.S., 

 was announced. These had been mounted by Mr. Maskell, of New 

 Zealand, who was an authority on the group. The President said 

 when he was in New Zealand Mr. Maskell was alive, and these 

 appear to be his own mountings, and are probably type slides. A 

 hearty vote of thanks was accorded to the donor. 



The President then requested Mr. D. J. Scourfield, F.Z.S., to 

 take the chair while he gave an account of " Gelatinous Sponge 

 Spicules." The address was illustrated by lantern-slides pro- 

 jected upon the screen. The President referred to the old saying 

 that " if you keep a thing for seven years you will find a use for 

 it." In the present instance he thought that the time was too 

 short, and the specimens he proposed to talk about had been kept 

 for more than three times seven years. When in Australia some 

 twenty-five years ago he had a large collection of material, and 

 had to go through it rapidly and compile a short catalogue. 

 Amongst other things, he found a sponge which contained peculiar 

 objects that looked like spicules and yet did not. They were 

 kidney- shaped, and were not bright, like ordinary spicules. He 

 was unable to identify them and laid them aside. Recently, 

 whilst working on sponges from the Indian Ocean, he came across 

 some which contained similar bodies. He had forgotten the pre- 

 vious discovery in Australia, but on looking through his notes 

 he found his original sketch. An old slide containing a rough 

 section had not been thrown away, and he was able to unearth 

 it. He took the section, which consisted almost entirely of 

 sand, unmounted it, and then investigated it by micro-chemical 

 methods. These enigmatical bodies were shown to be spicules 

 of a very unusual character. They consisted of hydrated silica, 

 although not identical in character with the usual siliceous spicules. 

 They were submitted to various tests, including immersion in 

 caustic potash and in hydrochloric acid, staining and examination 

 by means of the polariscope. It was found that they had the 

 peculiarity of swelling up when placed in water, which is a charac- 

 teristic not possessed by ordinary siliceous spicules. It was sug- 

 gested that in the living sponge they must occur as a jelly, but 



