Wellington Philosopliical Society. 661 



Mr. Richardson thought the Government were doing something to 

 protect the public ; it would take time. Was Iamb affected with lung- 

 worm fit for consumption ? 



General Schaw pointed out that the Jews carefully inspected their 

 meat before using it for food. They were a long-lived race. 



Mr. T. W. Kirk asked if boiled milk was not more liable to infection 

 than fresh. 



Dr. Chappie, in reply, said that if milk was very bad it would decom- 

 pose very rapidly, but it was difficult to discover whether it was diseased 

 or not without a microscopic or analytic test. If it v/as bad, it would 

 present a mottled appearance, and here and there the tissue would be 

 soft ; but it was hardly likely to be sent to a house in that state. Evi- 

 dence of tuberculosis would most likely be found along the ribs in the 

 shape of tubercles of the size of a pea or grape. Otherwise it could only 

 be detected by proper examination by a veterinary surgeon. There might 

 be sufficient in a joint to make it extremely dangerous, but which could 

 not be detected by a casual examination. As to lung-worm, there was 

 no possibility of it being communicated to mankind, and there would be 

 no danger in eating lamb affected with it ; it was an external animal. It 

 had been positively demonstrated two or three months ago, by Dr. Syms 

 Woodhead, that boiling milk removed its infectious power. Well cooking 

 meat, even if affected, also minimised the danger of infection. 



2. " Contribution to a Knowledge of New Zealand 

 Sponges," by H. B. Kirk, M.A. {Transactions, p. 175.) 



Mr. G. V. Hudson asked what were the Metazoa. Were they a group 

 equivalent in value to the sub-kingdom Protozoa ? He did not remember 

 seeing the group mentioned in Nicholson's " Zoology." 



Mr. Maskell said this was a valuable paper. He hoped Mr. Kirk 

 would be able to continue such good work. The spicules referred to 

 formed a large portion of the diatomaceous earth used in commerce, 

 as found at Oamaru and other places in New Zealand. The flagellated 

 cells were, he presumed, the animals that built up the sponge. Did they 

 become free, or remain in the sponge ? 



The Chairman asked if all these sponges mentioned by Mr. Kirk 

 were now living. 



j\Ir. Kirk replied that the sponges were placed among the Metazoa on 

 account of their life-history; that a segmented ovum contained in a 

 special cavity passed through the changes that characterized the Metazoa ; 

 that the complication in the canal system arising in development from 

 the Ascon to the Sycon and Leucon types was clearly in the nature of ad- 

 vance and differentiation ; that the flagellated cells, when freed from the 

 sponge, could not use flagellum for locomotion, but depended on amcebid 

 movements, being thus easily distinguished from free monads ; and that 

 all the main types of canal system were present in sponges now living. 

 The specimens referred to in the paper could be obtained at Lyall Bay 

 and on the coast at Napier. 



3, " Notes on Spiders," by Major-General Schaw. {Trans- 

 actions, p. 107.) 



