190 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Transcendentalism, though now justly discarded as a method 

 of morphological research, entangled, not the English workers 

 only, but the great Scotch anatomist Goodsir in its meshes ; and 

 his most important paper on the morphology of the skull is a 

 hopeless mixture of observation and speculation. The true 

 foundations of vertebrate morphology were laid by a noble band 

 of workers, with one or two exceptions foreigners, aud mostly Ger- 

 mans, of whom Baer, Reichert, and Eathlie were the earliest. 

 The importance of their embryological researches was first shown 

 in this country by Professor Huxley, whose Croonian Lecture on 

 the " Theory of the Vertebrate Skull " was delivered in 1858. 

 In this he laid down, as a deduction from the works of the embryo- 

 logists, that development must be the criterion ot the truth or 

 falsity of all speculations on the morphology of the skull, the 

 study of gradations of structure being valuable only in suggest- 

 ing homologies. 



The President then proceeded to speak of his own researches. 

 His paper on the osteology of Balcsniceps rex was first of all 

 worked out gradationally, but when he became aware of Hux- 

 ley's innovations he adopted a microscopical and embryological 

 method of research. His further investigations on the develop- 

 ment of the gallinaceous birds, and others, had borne fruit in 

 Huxley's paper on the classification of birds, in the Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society, for 18 G7. Working on largely with 

 the microscope, he arrived at results, stated in his paper on the 

 fowl's skull, which form a mass of evidence in favour of evolu- 

 tion. The general result is, " that the whole group of existing 

 birds, excluding those half-ostriches the Tinamous, as well as the 

 genuine ostriches, form a mere order, as neat and compact as the 

 Lacertilia among the Eeptiles ; once a small distance above the 

 ostriches, and the life-tree forks and reforks, and very few steps 

 upwards have to be made before we arrive at the most accom- 

 plished types ; from the Dinornis to the Humming-bird there 

 are but a few and easily traced stages. Also, so far as we know 

 at present, the life-history of each individual of a high type is a 

 repetition of the evolutional progress in the ascent and modifica- 

 tion of the vertebrate forms from the beginning," 



Mr. Hogg read a report on a specimen of Mycetoma, which 

 was taken as read. 



The annual report of the Society was also read, from which it 

 appeared that the Society had been during the past year well 

 supplied with papers ; that the collections of books, instruments, 

 and objects were in good condition ; and that the financial state 

 of the Society was such as not to call for any special remark. 



Sixteen ordinary Fellows and one Honorary Pellow had been 

 elected during the year ; and the Society had lost three Pellows 

 by death. 



The following Officers and Council were then elected : — 



President— W . K. Parker, P.E.S. 



Vice-Presidenfs~*W. B. Carpenter, M.D., F.E.S.j J. E. Gray, 



