470 



seemed to give promise of the possibility of getting views whicli 

 might help them better to understand the movements of many- 

 active organisms which it was otherwise difficult to follow. It 

 also seemed to him likely to be useful as an aid to drawing many 

 of these objects, as by this means the true outlines might be 

 obtained, which could afterwards be filled in by hand . 



Mr. Western read a paper entitled " Some Notes on Rotifers," 

 in the course of which he mentioned many interesting points 

 recently observed in connection with these organisms. 



Mr. Rousselet said he had nothing to add to the notes read by 

 Mr. Western, but he should like to remark upon the extraordinary 

 appearance and disappearance of some of these forms. One which 

 was described by Ehrenberg had never been found since his time 

 until quite lately, when it reappeared in various parts of Europe 

 as well as in America, the consequence being that it had been 

 redescribed under seven different names. Another Rotifer — a 

 very large one, originally described as Notops Ruber — had also 

 similarly reappeared, having been found about the same time at 

 places as wide apart as Dundee, Holstein, and also in America. 

 It was not easy to account for this, although some had supposed 

 they might have been lying dormant in the bed of some dried-up 

 lake, until circumstances favoured their distribution. With 

 regard to tlie preservation of Rotifers, he had made some further 

 progress since his last communication on the subject : his original 

 preservative fluid had been Fleming's solution in a very diluted 

 state, but as this contained osmic acid there were some objections 

 against it, and he had since used what was the same solution with- 

 out this acid. As regards the fluid for narcotizing, he now used 

 one made from the following formula, which he found answered 

 for ail kinds : 2 per cent, cocaine, 80 parts ; methylated spirits, 

 10 parts ; water, 60 paits = 100. He hoped by the beginning 

 of their next session to have concluded his experiments in this 

 direction, and to produce a paper on the subject embodying the 

 results. 



The Chairman said he was reminded of a remark by a former 

 President of the Club that its raison cVetre seemed to be to 

 discover new Rotifers, and if Mr. Western had not on this occasion 

 described any which were actually new, he had at least found some 

 which were new to Britain. He was afraid Mr. Western's expe- 

 riences as to the variety of descriptions of the same creature were not 



