273 



"Annnal Report of the Postal Micro-) 



. , c. • » ( the Society. 



scopical Sociecy ... ... ) '' 



" Science Gossip " ... ... ... the Publisher. 



♦' The Analyst " ... ... ... „ „ 



" The Northern Microscopist " ... ... the Editor. 



" The American Naturalist " ... ... in Exchange. 



" The American Microscopical Journal "... „ ,, 



" Dr. Braithwaite's British Moss Flora," ^ 



-r, i o r the Author. 



Part o ... ... ... ^ 



" Harris and Power's Manual of the Phy-") 



. , . 1 T u i. ., [• Mr. J. W. Groves. 



Biological Laboratory ' ... j 



" Calendar of the Incorporated Law ) 



Society" } the Society. 



" Report upon the Wild Silks of India "... B.M. India Office. 

 " Annals of Natural History '* ... ... Purchased. 



"Grevillea" ... 



Three Slides ... ... ... ... from the President. 



Two Slides of Microscopical Writing, by~ 



Peters' Machine ^ Mr. E. M. Nelson. 



The following gentlemen were balloted for and duly elected members of the 

 Club — Mr. C. W. Burt, Mr. Herbert Lankester, and Mr. John A. McKenzie. 



The President announced a donation of particular interest from the Royal 

 Microscopical Society, being a bronze copy of the Quekett Medal, and read 

 a letter from the Secretary, which accompanied the donation. 



A special vote of thanks was unanimously accorded to the Royal Micro- 

 scopical Society for their donation. 



The President announced that the first Soiree of the Hackney Micro- 

 scopical Society would take place on February 24th, at which members of 

 the Club were invited to assist. 



The President read a letter from the Secretary of the Epping Forest 

 Naturalist's Field Club inviting co-operation in a protest against the pro- 

 posed encroachment upon Epping Forest by the Great-Eastern Railway. 

 A motion to that effect was put to the meeting and unanimously carried. 



Mr. B. W. Priest read a paper " On the Natural History and Histology 

 of Sponges," the subject being well illustrated by a number of excellent 

 diagrams. 



Mr. J. G. Waller differed from Mr. Priest with regard to the so-called 

 boring sponges. His opinion upon that matter was well known, but he 

 would give it up as soon as any evidence was produced that the excavations 

 alluded to were the work of sponges. He had never met with any such 

 evidence, though he had met with assumption, and it was upon this that the 

 idea appeared to him to be based. Mr. Priest had said that, " no annelid 

 could do this boring," but it was not a question of an annelid at all, and he 

 would ask the question, could a sponge do it ? When they examined a 

 piece of hard rock, bored and excavated in the manner shown by Mr. 

 Priest's diagram, and asked that question, he was quite ready to answer 



