226 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
sources, as albumen, casein, diastase, &c:, and urged the neces- 
sity of considering those operations together, rather than sepa- 
rating them into those which are the results of organic growth 
and those which appear to be simply chemical actions. 
The President announced the arrangements which had been 
made for the ‘“ Exchange of slides,” and also for “ Field Excur- 
sions during the season 1867.” 
Various questions which had been deposited in the question 
box were then read and discussed. 
Ten members were elected. 
April 26th, 1867. 
Ernest Hart, Esq., President, in the Chair. 
Dr. Halifax gave a lengthened and interesting description of 
his method for obtaining sections of insects, soft vegetable tissues, 
&c. (as described in vol. vi, ‘Q.J.M.S.,’ page 170), and exhibited 
his contrivances for making cells in cement, stoneware, and 
other materials, most suitable for mounting sections of any kind 
or shape. 
Mr. Higgins read a paper on “Otolites or Ear Bones of 
Fishes,” and in drawing attention to the different medium in 
which air-breathing animals live from that inhabited by those 
living in water, he-submitted that the adaptation of their 
organisation to the conditions of their existence is nowhere 
more clearly marked than in their organs of hearing. In the 
mammalia the complexity of structure in these organs is much 
greater than in lower orders, and probably enables them to dis- 
tinguish in a greater degree the modulations of sound. In air- 
breathing animals the auditory organs may be said to consist 
mainly of the ossicula auditus and the cochlea, with an external 
ear, the use of the latter being to receive and collect the vibra- 
tions of sound. In fish an auditory organ of this description 
would be a very great inconvenience, because water conveys 
sound so much more readily than air, that the effect of a small 
sound would produce the sensation of stunning. True fish are 
therefore deprived of the external ear, except in some members of 
the Ray family and the sharks, where there is a small process 
which occupies the position of an ear. In almost all other fish 
the whole of the auditory organs are contained in the otochrones, 
which are two holes, one on either side of the head. The internal 
surfaces of the bones of the head of fish are covered with 
cartilage, and the semicircular canals, though not large, are not 
more than half the size of the holes through which they pass, and 
they are delicately suspended in the middle of them by means of 
a number of fine threads, the object of this probably being to 
lessen the shocks which loud sounds might otherwise produce. 
There are very distinct differences observed in different families 
of fish. (Instances were given of various modifications in form, 
