259 



Burton to act as scrutineers of votes for the election of officers 

 and of five members to fill vacancies on the Committee, the 

 ballot was proceeded with. 



The Secretary then read the 27th Annual Report of the 

 Committee. 



The Treasurer read his statement of accounts and the balance 

 sheet (duly audited) for the year 1892. 



It was moved by Mr. Stocks, seconded by Mr. C. Haughton 

 Gill, and unanimously resolved, " That the Report and Balance 

 Sheet, now read, be received and adopted, and that they be 

 printed and circulated in the usual way." 



The President then read his Annual Address, which was 

 listened to with great attention and very heartily applauded. 



Prof. B. T. Lowne said he rose to move a vote of thanks 

 to their worthy President for the very interesting address 

 which they . had just heard, and also for the able manner 

 in which he had carried out the duties of President. All 

 who had been associated with him would agree that he had done 

 them a very great service in holding the office for a period of 

 four years, although it came to him as a startling fact that 

 four years had actually slipped away since the time when he 

 himself had occupied the position and yielded it up to Dr. 

 Dallinger. They would, however, not only thank him for those 

 services so ably rendered, but on that occasion would specially 

 return their thanks for the very excellent address of that 

 evening, one so highly suggestive and embracing so many topics 

 of extreme interest, even though some of them might appear to 

 be in some degree controversial. They would, no doubt, feel 

 deeply grateful for those very interesting observations which he 

 had made on the subject of the so-called artificial amoeboid 

 movements, for although he no more thought that there was 

 such a thing as artificial protoplasjn, than the President did, it 

 was yet possible that through them they might get some light 

 upon matters bearing upon such topics, though that anyone 

 could seriously suppose that there was any identity between 

 such movements and the marvellous phenomena of living pro- 

 toplasm was something to him altogether inexplicable. Then 

 the allusions in the latter portion of the paper as to nitrification 

 opened up a subject so wide and so difficult to follow and to 

 analyse that they must all feel they would like to have the 



