20 
Mr. Johnson does not strike me as quite correct. I will grant that 
if the term is used simply for the purpose of indicating that the 
withdrawal of atmospheric air would be fatal to the creature, and 
that that only is understood by the term used, it may be taken as 
correct ; but the removal of air would be equally destructive to the 
diatoms and desmids as well as to the Protozoa, and is therefore 
something more than respiration. 
The Presipent alluded to the manner in which he had seen 
diatoms move about, avoiding obstacles in their way, but thought 
that no correct inferences could be drawn from this fact. There 
was one point, however, which Mr. Johnson had brought forward 
which was most interesting, namely, the development of many 
forms of life from monads. He remarked upon the great changes 
which took place in feetal life, and upon the fact that crabs, newts, 
and efts breathed through external branchia, as well as the foetus in 
some animals. He highly praised Mr. Johnson’s paper, and the 
excellent diagrams by which it had been illustrated, and gave him 
some practical hints by which the latter might be made permanent 
drawings available for future use. 
A cordial vote of thanks having been passed to Mr. Johnson 
for his excellent paper, 
The Preswwent then gave the following ‘‘Notzs oF OBSERvA- 
TIONS oF ANIMAL Lire IN THE Bricuton Aquarium ’’:—‘‘ When I 
was first hard at work at the Brighton Aquarium on behalf of my 
friend J. K. Lord, just before its opening, I was often in the build- 
ing nearly all night surerintending the work of the good fellows who 
so cheerfully and faithfully obeyed my orders, and carried out my 
plans in a very difficult crisis. I had thus many opportunities of 
observing the nocturnal habits of the sea-fish. In the daytime 
tanks in which I had placed dozens of fishes, might have been, 
and often were supposed to be, devoid of life. The flat fishes, for 
instance, such as the soles and plaice, and the rays and skates 
(though of another order) which bask motionless during a great 
part of the day, and so assimilate themselves in colour to the 
ground on which they lie that only careful scrutiny can detect their 
presence, swim gaily at night; and I spent many a pleasant half- 
hour in watching by the light of my bull’s-eye lantern the exquisi- 
tively graceful curves of their bending bodies and undulating fins. 
But my attention was attracted more to the dogfishes than to any 
other specimens in the tanks. At that time we had but two species 
there—the roughhound (Scylliwm catulus) and the picked dog 
(Acanthias vulgaris). Now, here were two fishes which had long 
been classed in one family—the Squalide—both called ‘‘ dogfish,” 
both belonging to the shark tribe, and very much resembling each 
