LTNNEAN SOCIETY OF LOXDOX. 2$ 



thai I am now eudeavouriug to solve. I cannot yet say that 

 I have succeeded, but I will so far take you into uiy confidence as 

 to tell you what is my working hypothesis, I assume that we 

 have here to do with a real correlatiou, and of this kind, that the 

 substance giving the guaiaeum-i'eaction is of the nature of a 

 ' Kinase ' ; that it is closely associated witli the pi'oteases because 

 it liberates them from their zymogens ; and that it effects this 

 liberation by a process that is essentially one of oxidation. It 

 may not appear a difficult matter to put this hypothesis to the 

 proof; but it is not quite so easy as it appears, for the reason 

 that in the plant-body, where the physiological division of labour 

 is far from complete, enzymes and oxidases are secreted by the 

 same tissues and even by the same cells. Should I have the 

 privilege of again addressing you a year hence, I may perhaps be 

 able to tell you what the verdict of experiment has been, and J 

 hope that it may have been recorded in my favour. But 

 whether that be so or not, I may at least expect to be able to 

 report that substantial progress has been made in the investigation 

 of these substances which play so important a part in the meta- 

 bolism of both plants and animals. 



Dr. 31. T. Masters then moAcd : — " That the President be 

 thanked for his excellent Address, and that he be requested to 

 allow it to be printed and circulated amongst the Fellows,'"' which 

 was seconded by Mr. F. X. Williams, and carried. 



The President then addressed Dr. M. C. Cooke, and in pre- 

 senting the Linnean Medal to him, specified the services which 

 had moved the Council to make this award. 



The Presiden't said : — 



"Dr. Cooke, — The encouragement of the study of Systematic 

 Botany has always been one of the chief objects of this Society ; 

 and the list of the recipients of the Linnean Medal affords sufficient 

 proof that eminence iu this department of botanical research meets 

 with the highest recognition that it is in our power to accord. 

 But whilst I find there many distinguished Phanerogamists,— 

 Hooker, DeCandolle. Oliver, Baker, and King, and two Aloologists, 

 Bornet and Agardh — there is but one, Ferdinand Juhus Cohn, 

 who has any special claim to the title of Mycologist. It is a 

 ]nost fortunate circumstance that an opportunity should have 

 occurred to add to it a second Mycologist, seeing that the domain 

 of Mycology is more extensive than that of any other of the 

 provinces of the Vegetable Kingdom, or indeed than that of all of 

 them taken together, and in view of the increasing scientific 

 interest and economic importance of that branch of Botany. 



" Had the institution of the Linnean Medal taken place a few 

 years earlier, no doubt one of the first awards would have fallen 

 to Mycology in the person of Berkeley. But since his name does 



