386 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. Kent adds that the names of Ehrenberg and Oscar Schmidt, 

 are usually associated with the earliest discovery of these special 

 structures ; but he has traced their discovery to Sir John Ellis, 

 whose account of them appears in the " Philosophical Transac- 

 tions." Vol. 59, 1769. 



Ellis says : — " By applying a small stalk of the Horseshoe 

 Geranium, G. Zonale Linn., fresh broken, to a drop of water in 

 which these animalcules are swimming, we shall find that they 

 become torpid, instantly contracting themselves into an oblong 

 oval shape, with their fins extended like so many bristles all round 

 their bodies." P. 81. 



Mr. Kent further describes the investigations of Professor 

 Allman on Bursaria (panophrys) leucas, which appeared in the 

 " Journal of Microscopical Science" for the year 1855, as follows : — 

 " Under external irritation, such as the drying away of the 

 surrounding water, the application of acefcic acid, or forcible com- 

 pression, they become similarly and suddenly transformed into fine, 

 long, hair-like, filaments, or setee, which projected from the whole 

 periphery." P. 82. 



It may, I think, be fairly concluded, that the effects observed by 

 Mr. Waddington in his experiments, must be attributed to the 

 action of tannic acid on the trichocysts of Paramecium Aurelia 

 and not, as he considers, to its action on the Cilia. 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. Haswell exhibited a series of anatomical and Zoological 

 preparations. 



Mr. Deane exhibited a small collection of rocks, chiefly igneous, 

 from the railway between Gunnedah and Narrabri. 



Mr. Pedley exhibited a specimen of what is called Copper 

 Grass at Cobar, and is regarded as a sure indication of that metal, 

 growing only, it is said, upon the outcrop of a lode. Mr. Haviland 

 suggested that it might be a species of Xerotes. 



