38 PROCEEJJIKGS OF i-OCIETIES, 



temperature iu the forms examined would be described in a future 

 conmiunication. The paper will be founded printed at p. 7. 



The President, in proposing a vote of thanks to Mr. Dallinger and 

 Dr. Drysdale, exj)ressed his opinion that their paper formed an im- 

 j)ortant contribution to the Society's proceedings. The whole process 

 of development seemed to have been very clearly made out, and it had 

 been shown that, in addition to multiplication by fission, sometimes 

 three or four monads became connected, first forming one body, after- 

 wards dividing and subdividing until the interior became filled with 

 multii:»le bodies, that the sac then burst, and a number of oval 

 bodies were set free, which in turn develoj)ed and produced a new 

 progeny. 



The President, in reply to a question from Mr. Soj)with, stated 

 that the di-awings which accompanied the paper would be engraved and 

 printed in the next number of the Journal. 



Mr. Charles Stewart said that it might perhaps seem rather fanciful 

 to draw a parallel between the develojjment of so low an organism as 

 these monads and ourselves. Yet he thought he could trace a degree 

 of similarity in the earliest stages of development. It appeared that 

 two masses of protoplasm became fused, and then there occm-red a 

 power of amceboid motion, followed by a division of the common 

 mass within the envelope. Now, in the development of ourselves 

 almost the same thing occui'S ; two masses of protoplasm imite 

 and form a fertilized egg. As growth proceeds this becomes 

 divided, first into foiu', then eight, and so on, until the result is a 

 great number of embryo cells witliin the same envelope ; but, in this 

 case, they were all more or less dependent upon each other, and they 

 did not escape, although, for a very long time, they might exist in a 

 state of separation. There was a well-knowTi experiment which 

 would illustrate this. If some of the white blood corpuscles were 

 taken, and carefully closed up in a cell to prevent all evaporation, 

 they would keep alive for weeks, or even mouths, occasionally 

 swallowing up a red corpuscle, and behaving exactly the same as an 

 amceboid animal. 



A vote of thanks to the Eev. W. H. Dallinger and Dr. Drysdale 

 was then put to the meeting and carried unanimously. 



Mr. Charles Stewart called the attention of the meeting to a leaf 

 section exhibited under a microscope in the room, to show the cysto- 

 liths existing in some of the cells, and gave the following particulars 

 resjDecting it. The object was a vertical section of a very common 

 leaf — that of the India-rubber plant (Fitms elastica) so frequently 

 grown in pots as an ornament in rooms. The particular direction iu 

 which the section was cut was at right angles to the nerves, which 

 radiated on either side from the great central midrib of the leaf, and 

 he recommended a section cut in this dii'ection, because a very much 

 prettier object was obtained in that way than in any other, whilst, at 

 the same time, the special portions which it was desired to show were 

 equally well seen. His method of preparation was quite simple, but 

 might still be interesting to some who were present. To obtain the 

 section, he first cut a notch in a carrot, and having inserted the piece 



