550 General Monthly Meeting. [March 7, 



water-repellent surface, which is that which hest resists drying, is 

 outwards. The tenacity with which duckweed clings to the legs of 

 water-birds, and the position which it almost inevitably takes under 

 such circumstances, may have a good deal to do with the safe trans- 

 port of the plant to distant pools. It is not, I think, too much to say 

 that the prosperity of duckweed depends very largely upon the 

 capillary forces which come into play at the surface of water. 



We have now exhausted our time, though I have been obliged to 

 leave unnoticed many special adaptations of living things to the 

 peculiar conditions which obtain on the surface of water. Had time 

 allowed, I should have been glad to say something about the aquatic 

 animals which creep on the surface-film as on a ceiling, and about the 

 insects which run and even leap upon the surface-film without wetting 

 their minute and hairy bodies.* All small animals and plants which 

 float on water necessarily come into contact with the surface-film, 

 and have to deal with the difficulties which result from it. We have 

 seen that they generally manage in the long run to convert these 

 natural difficulties into positive advantages. 



I have to thank my colleague, Dr. Stroud, for his frequent ex- 

 planations of the physical principles upon which these adaptations 

 depend, and also for much practical and valuable help in the prepara- 

 tion of suitable experiments. [L. C. M.] 



* See ' Nature,' vol. xliv. p. 457. 



GENEKAL MONTHLY MEETING, 



Monday, March 7, 1892. 



Sib James Crichton-Bbowne, M.D. LL.D. F.R.S. Treasurer and 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The Eight Hon. Lord Brougham and Vaux, 



Eric Bruce, Esq. M.A. 



Arthur N. Butt, Esq. 



Percy C. Gilchrist, Esq. F.R.S. M. Inst. C.E. 



Frederick Hovenden, Esq. F.L.S. F.G.S. 



Herbert Edgell Hunt, Esq. 



Alphonse Normandy, Esq. 



W. K. Pidgeon, Esq. 



Mrs. W. K. Pidgeon, 



Sir Frederick Montagu Pollock, Bart. 



Alan A. Campbell Swinton, Esq. 



The Eight Hon. Lord Watson, 



Mrs. Wigan, 



Arthur W. Williams, Esq. 



were elected Members of the Eoyal Institution. 



