PKOCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 47 



Mr. Stewart was hardly prepared to say why the corpuscles were 

 placed as above described ; they might, for instance, have been placed 

 upon the top of the ridge and nearest to the sui-face which first came 

 in contact with the objects touched. In their actual position the dis- 

 tance was greater from the surface of contact than it otherwise might 

 have been. He confessed that he could not quite as yet see why they 

 were placed in that particular position. 



Mr. Slack thought that, as a mechanical question, the top of the 

 ridge being thicker than the intermediate space, these little bodies 

 might be really in the position of greatest impression. 



Mr. Sanders asked Mr. Stewart how the ascidian was hardened. 



Mr. Stewart said that at the time of killing them he put them into 

 strong methylated spirit 80° over proof, and then afterwards put them 

 into absolute alcohol. 



Dr. Matthews said that in killing these creatures suddenly he had 

 adopted the plan of introducing the spirit through a tube put down to 

 the bottom of the vessel, and thus displacing the sea water. 



Mr. Stewart had adopted this plan sometimes in killing zoophytes, 

 adding the spirit very carefully di-op by drop ; but with the ascidians 

 he found that any plans of this sort did not answer so well as putting 

 them suddenly into strong spirit, and letting them get a good mouthful 

 of it before they knew where they were. 



Dr. Matthews said part of his plan was to cork the end of the 

 funnel, and to let the spirit go in with a rush : the difference in the 

 specific gravity of the two fluids rendered this necessary. 



The President wished the Fellows of the Society a pleasant vaca- 

 tion and many opportunities of increasing their stock of objects ; and 

 the meeting was then adjourned to October 7th. 



Donations to the Library since May 6th, 1874 : — 



From 



Nature. Weekly The Editor. 



Athenaeum. Weekly Ditto. 



Society of Arts Journal. Weekly Society. 



Sixteenth Report of the East Kent Natural History Society 



for 1873 Ditto. 



Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists' Society. New 



Series. Vol. I. Part I Ditto. 



.Journal of the Quekett Club. No. 26 Club. 



The President's Address, &c., of West Kent Natural History 



Society for 1873 Society. 



The Canadian Journal. No. SO Canadian Institution, 



Bulletin de la Socie'te' Botanique de France Society. 



The following gentlemen were elected Fellows of the Society : — 



Frederick William Hembry, Esq. 

 Dr. Arthur Jukes Johnson. 

 William James Lancaster, Esq. 

 Samuel Petty Leather, Esq. 

 Dr. William Radford. 

 Eoland Dunn Smith, Esq, 



Walter W. Reeves, 



Assist. -Seer etar y . 

 VOL. XII. E 



