II 
photographs of the dividing egg-cell of a worm—the starting- 
point of the young—and of a layer of a mixture of iron filings 
and glycerine over the unlike poles of two vertical magnets. Some 
organisms never really rise above the state of simple cells. Such 
are the Trypanosomes that cause sleeping-sickness, and the 
Organisms that produce malarial fever. The life-cycle of the 
latter was explained and illustrated, and it was shown that at 
a certain stage a new cell is formed by the fusion of two. In this 
case we have to do with the creation of a new individuality, not 
merely the multiplication of an existing one. This process is 
called fertilisation. A cell formed in this way, the “ fertilised 
egg,’ is the starting-point of every animal and every plant, such 
as we see them. This new cell divides repeatedly, and the resulting 
cells do not separate, but remain associated, and become differen- 
tiated to build up the young organism. It might be objected 
that the study of such minute structures cannot be of any practical 
use ; but the study of cell division is at the present time shedding 
a strong light on the problem of mixed heredity in the highest 
animals, and on the nature of cancer. Still, apart from any 
practical result, it was the vocation, often irresistible, of the 
scientific worker to cultivate his own little garden patch, to use 
the phrase of Voltaire’s Candide, irrespective of whether the 
results would be of practical use, and the observers who had so 
advanced the young science of cytology—barely thirty years old 
—had studied patiently from this impulse pure and disinterested. 
On Friday, February 3rd, the Annual General Meeting was 
held, under the presidency of Sir Samuel Wilks, Bt., F.R.S., the 
President. The Report of the Council was read and adopted. 
_ The President, Officers and Council were elected. 
The meeting was resolved into an ordinary meeting. 
Principal Reginald S. Clay, B.A., D.Sc., gave a lecture 
entitled ‘The Peculiarities and Paradoxes of Fluid 
Motion.”” The lecturer made a number of experiments showing the 
change of pressure of driven air accompanying change of velocity, 
and the unexpected results to those who were not conversant 
with the causes. For instance, he showed that if one blew hard 
through a funnel, in the cup of which had been placed a light 
ball, the latter instead of being blown away, as might be expected, 
remained firmly fixed against the hole from which the air was 
being sent out, and the harder one blew the more firmly it remained. 
_ It was only when one left off blowing that the ball fell out of the 
funnel. The explanation was that the pressure in the wider part 
Bsus 
