©It 1|ittrtfadibt ©rganisms* 



By the EEV. W. H. DALLINCtER, LL.D., F.E.S. 



Abiytract of lieport of Address Delivered November Qtli^ 1888* 



THE author said his difficulty was to decide in which 

 way to treat his subject. He might summarize 

 the investigations of twenty years, and endeavour to show 

 the original motives which led to their being undertaken^ 

 and then contrast this with the new meaning which has 

 been derived from the investigations founded on recent 

 methods and instruments ; or, secondly, he might show the 

 results of a series of continuous observations on certain 

 saprophytic organisms placed under increasing^ adverse en- 

 vironments, so as to endeavour to discover their behaviour 

 in regard to the great Darwinian law. He inclined to this 

 last as the view of his work that might have the broadest 

 interest to a Society like that he was addressing ; but the 

 value of the Improvements in recent lenses led him to give 

 the priority to the results so obtained. In the case of 

 larger animals, it was well known that a change of environ- 

 ment produced changes in the structure ; but that these 

 changes were hard to follow up, owing to the few genera- 

 tions that come under the notice of the student or observer. 

 But in the case of micro-organisms the generations succeed 



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