Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 1G3 



doubt whatever about the amount of work that had been 

 devoted to these experiments, and as all work honestly 

 carried out led to some useful result, he hoped that this 

 would also lead to something beneficial. The experiments, 

 however, seemed somewhat disconnected, and did not give 

 one an idea of what they were leading up to, and he Avould 

 be glad if some generalisation could be obtained. 



Mr. Ralph, in reply, said that he called the haemoglobin 

 the coloured material of the red corpuscle, in order to 

 simplify the matter. He was satisfied that all the changes 

 were due to the same material. As to generalising, 

 these were his experiences in the rough. He had found 

 comparatively similar results in typhoid and scarlatina, and 

 lately in diphtheria blood. He had also experimented with 

 the blood in cases of leprosy. In all these cases, the same 

 disturbance took place in the coloured material. In such 

 cases, there was an action on the blood analogous to the 

 the violent action of nitric or any other acid, and he would 

 be very glad at any time to show these experiments to any 

 one, more especially to his professional brethren. 



The President stated that the question of the Antarctic 

 Expedition was progressing favourably. For the purpose of 

 procuring funds, a ball was being organised, and would take 

 place on the 19th inst., under the patronage of His 

 Excellency the Governor. He hoped that the members 

 would do all in their power to help forward the movement 

 in any way that met with their approval. Of course, it 

 might perhaps be said that balls were not scientific 

 proceedings, but the question was, how to get a sufficient 

 amount of money to put beside Baron Dickson's grand offer. 

 £5000 would have to be raised very shortly, if prepara- 

 tions were to be made for starting the Expedition next 

 summer, and it was highly desirable that it should not 

 be delayed later than that. He believed that a good 

 deal of sympathy and assistance would be received 

 from other colonies, but there was no shutting our eyes to 

 the fact, that the brunt of the movement — the bulk of the 

 burden — would have to be borne on Victorian shoulders. 

 He hoped Members would do all they could to help this 

 matter forward. There was an immense number of interest- 

 ing points in Biology, Meteorology, Geography, and many 

 other sciences to be determined by such an Expedition. It 

 was now a very great many years since anything like a 



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