298 NOTICES OF THE MEETINGS [April 15, 
ment acquires a degree of acuteness beyond that of the seeing, 
which is very advantageous to them in their education. 
11. When you meet blind persons whom you intend to address, 
always make yourself known to them by mentioning your name, 
till your voice becomes familiar to them — it spares them the un- 
pleasantness of doubt and confusion. ; 
12. Be careful how you watch the blind, unobserved as you may 
think, lest by their smelling or hearing, they detect you, and in 
that case you will forfeit their good opinion. 
13. When you ask a blind person a question and he gives you an 
answer, always signify your agreement or disagreement with it, for 
if you go away in silence he is sometimes in doubt whether or not 
you are displeased. A touch of the finger on the shoulder or 
hand is to them what a smile is to the seeing. 
14. You should ask a blind person if he has seen this or that thing ? 
or if he has read this or that book instead of saying ‘‘ felt,” &c., 
which would remind him of his misfortune.* 
(W. T.] 
WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 
Friday, April 15. 
Sir Cnarzes Fretitows, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
Tuomas H. Huxtey, Esq. F.R.S. - 
On the Identity of Structure of Plants and Animals. 
Tue Lecturer commenced by referring to his endeavours last year to 
shew that the distinction between living creatures and those which 
do not live, consists in the fact, that while the latter tend to remain 
as they are, unless the operation of some external cause effect a 
change in their condition, the former have no such inertia, but pass 
spontaneously through a definite succession of states— different in 
kind and order of succession, for different species, but always iden- 
tical in the members of the same species. 
There is however another character of living bodies —- Organization ; 
which is usually supposed to be their most striking peculiarity, as 
* Some excellent matter on this subject may be found in an English trans- 
lation of Dr. Guillie’s Book on the Blind, and also in the article ‘‘ BLIND” in 
the last Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and in the Penny Cyclopedia. 
