176 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
since lie had made it his constant companion for something like 
twenty years ; but at the same time he had applied it in such a 
different manner, and to such different subjects from those which 
were usually brought before the Society, that he felt himself in many 
respects very imperfectly qualified to preside at their meetings. His 
great aim had always been to occupy himself with those branches of 
research which had been neglected by others, and this had necessarily 
occupied so much of his time that he feared he was very imperfectly 
acquainted with much of what had been done by other observers. 
For his own part, he was inclined to believe that the development of 
new lines of inquiry and the application of new methods would 
conduce as much or more than anything else to advance science ; but 
still, anyone devoting himself to such subjects had necessarily to 
contend against many difficulties. He might say that in no respect 
did the fact that the Fellows had chosen him for their President give 
him more satisfaction than in its proving that the Society approved 
of new methods and of new kinds of investigation, and that in con- 
sideration of that, they were willing to overlook many deficiencies and 
shortcomings in other respects. 
The minutes of the preceding meeting were read and confirmed. 
A list of donations to the Society since the last meeting was read 
by the Secretary, and the thanks of the Fellows were voted to the 
donors. 
Mr. H. J. Slack said that most of the Fellows saw a short time 
ago a curious living organism which was exhibited there by Mr. 
Badcock, and which was thought at the time might be the same as 
Bucephalus polymorphic. It was thought that it might have come 
from a fresh-water mussel. As some considerable interest attached 
to it, he thought it might be desirable to publish in connection with 
Mr. Badcock’s observations extracts from Von Baer’s paper and also 
some descriptions of similar organisms from the ‘ Annales des Sciences 
Naturelles,’ and from ‘ Comptes Rendus.’ Mr. Slack then gave a 
resume of the extracts to which he referred (and which will be found 
printed at p. 141), illustrating the subject by drawings on the board. 
In reply to an inquiry from Mr. Beck as to the size of the creature, 
Mr. Slack said that it was quite small, but still in its free-swimming 
state visible to the eye. Drawings — which will be published with 
the paper — showing the natural size and also enlargements x 20, 
were handed to Mr. Beck for inspection. 
Mr. Badcock said that for some considerable time after he had 
een observing them, he could not find out that anyone else had 
described any similar creature, until Professor Huxley suggested 
that it might possibly be the Bucephalus of Von Baer. But having 
seen Von Baer’s remarks and drawings, and having carefully compared 
them with his own observations, he thought it impossible to identify 
them as the same from the description given. The mode in which 
Von Baer proceeded to dissect them out showed them to be tough and 
not easily injured, but his own specimens were so excessively brittle 
that it was most difficult even to take them up. They had been shown 
to numbers of scientific men who had not recognized their identity, 
