50 



The Microscope " In Exchange. 



Le Diatomiste " 



Annals of Natural History " ... Purchased. 



Quarterly Journal of Microscopical") 

 Science" J 



The thanks of the Club were voted to the donors. 



The Secretary said that the paper before them that evening 

 was by Dr. A. M. Edwards, their oldest honorary member. It 

 dealt with the discovery of diatoms in shales older than the 

 Lower Miocene, and since this paper was written he believed 

 Dr. Edwards had claimed to have found them in Silurian 

 strata. He could not read the whole paper as received, some 

 of the geological details being of purely local interest, but Dr. 

 Edwards had given him permission to extract as much as he 

 considered of value, and the salient points of the original paper 

 were entirely preserved. Whether or no they agreed with Dr. 

 Edwards' conclusions was a matter for them to decide when 

 they had heard his views, but, personally, he must say that 

 great caution should be exercised before judging on the 

 presence of such ubiquitous organisms as fresh-water dia- 

 tomaceae. From their small size and general distribution in 

 running water they were liable to be carried by percolation far 

 from their place of origin, yet, as Prof. Cleve had lately 

 pointed out, in some cases they might be of great value in 

 geological determinations. 



Dr. Edwards' paper was then read. 



Mr. E. T. Newton said he had not made diatoms a special 

 study, but it was a well-known fact that they had been found 

 fossil, certainly in the Chalk, and possibly in the Coal Measures, 

 but he did not think there was any record of their presence in 

 the older rocks. He agreed with Mr. Karop that there was 

 always a great probability of their getting washed in, and 

 that the very greatest care was required before it would be 

 safe to say that they really belonged to the rocks amongst 

 which they were found. Still, there was nothing impossible 

 about it. Certain old rocks in Scotland and Cornwall were 

 largely made up of Radiolarians, and some chalky-looking rock 

 from Australia seemed nearly composed of the same small 

 organisms. In thin sections their structure could be very well 

 seen. He thought the subject was one worth looking into, 



