199 
March 27th, 1871. 
Pror. T. Eaueston, Vice-President inthe chair. Twenty- 
three persons present. 
THE CHAIRMAN,. Pror. T. EGLEsToN, exhibited three 
large crystals of Diamond, weighing about two carats each, 
loaned by Tiffany & Co., for the purpose. One showed the 
cube and tetrahexahedron with the cubical faces most 
prominent, the two others are hexoctahedral crystals. These 
were remarkable for their size and perfection of form. 
He also reported that on examination he had found the 
mineral from Thunder Bay, Lake Superior, which had been 
exhibited at former meetings of the Society, to consist, for 
the most part, of a natural alloy of Nickel and Silver, which 
is quite malleable. The cobalt present, is in the surrounding 
mass or gangue. 
Pror. C. A. SEELEY exhibited a specimen of a Fungus, 
taken from the faucet of a beer barrel, and made some re- 
marks thereon, calling in question its vegetable character, 
mainly on account of its growing in the dark. 
Pror. A. M. Epwarpbs pointed out that there were whole 
groups of vegetables which normally grew out of the 
sunshine and that parts of most plants, namely, the roots, 
grew in the dark. He also remarked that the old mode of 
distinguishing plants from animals, namely, that plants 
absorbed Carbonic acid and evolved Oxygen, whilst animals 
did exactly the opposite, that is to say, absorb Oxygen and 
evolve Carbonic acid, must be now discarded, as it has been 
found to be by no means the case universally. In fact, 
he did not see where the line between the animal and the 
vegetable was to be drawn. A man could be distinguished 
from a tree, but when we came to consider the so-called 
lower forms, no distinction could be found. Dr. Hick’s dis- 
covery of the vegetable amzeboid forms, shows that the 
commonly-accepted mode of distinguishing these two groups 
of animated nature, namely, by the supposition that animals 
took their food into their bodies to digest it, whilst vegeta- 
