218 



PEOCEEDINGS. 



September 26th, 1873. — Chairman, Dr. E. Braithwaite, F.L.S., 

 President. 



The minutes of the preceding meeting were read and confirmed. 

 The following donations to the Club were announced : — 



" The Monthly Microsopical Journal" from the Publisher. 



" Science Gossip" ,, 



"The Proceedings of the Royal Society," ") 



No. 146 ) " the Society. 



"The American Naturalist" for July, •) 



August, and September j in exchange. 



Four Slides of Lines Euled on Glass Mr. Wm. Webb. 



£5 for the purchase of Books for the Library ... Mr. F. Crisp. 



Votes of thanks were unanimously passed to the donors. 



Mr. William Parker was balloted for, and duly elected a Member of the Club. 



Mr. M. C. Cooke read a paper upon collecting and preserving fresh-water 



algse, which, at the request of the Committee, he had extracted from a work by 



Dr. Horatio Wood, jun., " On the Fresh Water Algse of the United States," 



recently published by the Smithsonian Institution.* 



The President, in proposing a vote of thanks to Mr. Cooke for the communi- 

 cation, reminded the Members of the Club that there was no greater field for 

 microscopical research than that aff'orded by the fresh water algee, and that few 

 would prove more interesting to a worker. He recommended Eabenhorst's as 

 being the best book on the subject. Amongst the many workers who were to 

 be found in and around London, he thought much might be done, for no richer 

 field existed in which to collect algse, than the London district. The best way, 

 he thought, would be for those who took up the subject to work in partnership 

 — say a worker and a mounter, to carry on the study together. The mounting 

 was a matter of much importance, and it was very desirable to find some means 

 by which specimens could be permanently preserved. He believed that Jenner's 

 collection was spoiled, or nearly so. 



Mr. T. C. White said he had but little experience in mounting this class of 

 objects, but he had found some keep very well, which he had put up simply in 

 the water in which be had found them. Great attention must always be paid 

 to the density of the medium employed, so that it might as nearly as possible 

 resemble that of the water in which the objects were found, because if the 

 density were increased the endochrome would become displaced and the objects 

 destroyed. He had never tried carbolized water, but thought it might be use- 

 ful, provided the specific gravity was the same as that of the original fluid. If, 



* Printed at page 192, ante. 



