241 



The President said they had in this paper an instance of how 

 much was sometimes to be gained by observations in even the 

 most unlikely quarters, for it might well have been supposed 

 that water of that kind after travelling so far would not be 

 likely to furnish much of any interest. 



Mr. Western said thit the subject had particularly interested 

 him because he had repeatedly found Bdelloid Rotifers living in 

 tubes which they had built for themselves. He could not 

 account for this habit because they were not breeding, and he 

 had found quite as many free swimming as tube building, but 

 no eggs or embryos. He had found tubes built by Rotifer 

 marcrurus, and also by Botifer vulgaris. 



Mr. Bryce said that it was recorded by Gosse that Furcularia 

 forficula was sometimes found living in tubes, and he thought 

 there was also a record as to Rotifer vulgaris in the " Q.M.C. 

 Journal." He rather inclined to the idea that the case was 

 more an aggregation of odd atoms than one regularly designed 

 and constructed as was seen amongst the Melicertidge, and that 

 such atoms drawn together by the action of the ciliary organs 

 were caused to adhere from contact with some sort of saliva or 

 secretion. It was very interesting to find the same thing 

 occurring in these specimens from the West Indies. 



Mr. Western could not think that the formation of these 

 tubes was merely accidental, though they might, like those of 

 CEcistes, be partly formed of extraneous matters which became 

 attached to them ; but the way in which the Rotifer retired 

 into its tube when alarmed and then came out again to feed 

 was, he thought, evidence that the tube was designedly con- 

 structed. 



Mr. Grrenfell noticed that the authors of both papers had 

 made reference to the drying up of Rotifers, but if they were 

 revived it would show that they "were not dried up — though 

 what they had seen might have come from eggs. The subject 

 had been recently dealt with in " N^atural Science," and there 

 it was shown that they could not be revived. 



Mr. Western said he had no doubt at all as to the possibility 

 of drying up Rotifers and then reviving them. He had fre- 

 quently had them dried upon paper and had revived them under 

 the microscope, and had been able to revive Rotifers after being 

 dried for two years. 



