Xll. PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



Dr. R. Greig-Smith, Macleay Bacteriologist to the Society, 

 has continued his investigation of problems relating to soil- 

 fertility and cognate matters, during the past year. Three 

 papers, entitled " Note on the Bacteriotoxic Action of Water," 

 " Note on the Destruction of Paraffin by Bacillus prodigiosus 

 and Soil-Organisms," and " Contributions to a Knowledge of 

 Soil-Fertility. No. xii. The Action of Toluene upon the Soil- 

 Protozoa," were contributed, and have been published in last 

 year's Proceedings. In the first of these, it is demonstrated 

 that the typhoid-bacillus is diminished in numbers when intro- 

 duced into porcelain-filtered tap-water. If the water has been 

 boiled, the reduction is greater, and not more than one per cent, 

 of the bacilli survive in twenty hours at summer-temperature. 

 In the second, it is shown that toluene, a volatile disinfectant, 

 does not destroy certain typical protozoa when the moisture- 

 content of the soil is less than about one- tenth of the water- 

 holding capacity. While the destructive action of the toluene 

 appears to be direct, there is a possibility of the protozoa being 

 indirectly poisoned by the formation of sulphuretted hydrogen 

 in the soil. This results from the destruction of the sulphur- 

 oxidising bacteria by the disinfectant. And in the third, it is 

 reported that Bac. prodigiosus, like certain soil-bacteria and 

 moulds, can attack and destroy solid paraffin. 



Dr. J. M. Petrie, Linnean Macleay Fellow in Biochemistry, 

 has not had so fruitful a year as usual, in consequence of his 

 being laid aside by illness during part of it. He has continued 

 his cvanogenetic work on various plants; and has investigated 

 some difficult problems in the technique of the methods for pre- 

 paring plant-proteins, and for obtaining the latter in a condition 

 suitable for the study of precipitin-reactions, and the relation- 

 ships of plants by biochemical methods. The (completion of a 

 paper on the alkaloids of the native Duboisias waits on the acqui- 

 sition of additional material: whilst a second paper, discussing 

 the methods of stating results in ash-analyses of plants, is in 

 preparation. 



Mr. E. F. Kallmann, Linnean Macleay Fellow in Zoology, 

 contributed three papers comprising his " Revision of the Men- 



