26 
Findon showed fossils of that period. The Cretaceous 
rocks were then mentioned, and specimens from these 
strata, obtained in parts of Kent and Yorkshire, were 
shown. The Tertiary formations then claimed Mr. 
Findon’s attention in the upward grade towards the 
present age. He observed that the fossils found in 
these beds were exceedingly perishable, and that they 
required treatment with some preservative before they 
were placed in the cabinet collection. This part of 
the paper was illustrated by shells from the Thanet 
sands, the Barton clay, the fluvio-marine beds of the 
Isle of Wight, and the Red Crag at Walton-on-the 
Naze. Mr. Findon concluded with offers of assistance 
to any intending fossil hunters. 
Friday, 17th April, 1903. Sir Samuel Wilks, 
isatias 2? Sc, in the. Chair. 
Dr. J). W. Williams, F.L.S., F.R.M.S., gavera 
lecture (illustrated with lantern slides) on ‘* Plant- 
like Animals ” (Hydroid Zoophytes), and commenced 
by drawing attention to the probable way life first 
began upon the earth as a colloid material developed 
from inorganic materials. He stated that this primi- 
tive colloid living stuff fed for some ages on the 
inorganic material out of which it was formed, and 
then some of it began to feed upon itself, and it was 
from this latter that the animal kingdom had developed. 
Reference was made to the structure and life-history 
of Ameeba, and the audience were then taken through 
Actinospherium and Volvox to the multi-cellular 
animals. Dr. Williams showed how, if an animal like 
Volvox had dimpled in at one pole, there would arise 
a double-layered sac with a primitive mouth and a 
primitive digestive cavity. An organism like that 
formed the hypothetical group called by Heckel the 
Gastreadez, and it was probably from such creatures 
that the whole of the multi-cellular animals had evolved. 
