Ixiv. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



anything beyond " instinct" was entirely denied to exist in the 

 brute creation. 



Another effort has been made to prove the existence of 

 spontaneous generation, but the evidence is unsatisfactory, as is 

 also that in favour of mutation or the sudden development of 

 new species from the seed or young of existing plants or animals, 

 which has also been again lately brought forward. Much has 

 been written, especially in the newspapers, about radiobes, or 

 certain bodies developed by the action of radium on gelatin, 

 which, beginning in the form of bubbles, expand, and seem to 

 contain a nuclear structure, and after about a fortnight begin 

 to break up and disappear. It had been suggested that these 

 partook to some extent of the nature of living organisms, but the 

 suggestion has not been favourably received, and there is still no 

 evidence whatever of the development of a living organism from 

 non-living matter. 



The recent research carried out by the survey ship, " Investi- 

 gator," in the Indian Ocean has added to our knowledge of the 

 great sea depths and their inhabitants. For instance, of 75 

 deep sea holothurians collected, no less than 60 are new to 

 science, a proportion which it would be impossible to rival in 

 any group in most parts of the world at the present day. 



In regard to insects, the British Museum has received a 

 valuable bequest in the collection of beetles of the late Mr. A. 

 Fry, containing about 72,000 species. Some work has been 

 done towards mitigating the injuries caused by insects, and it is 

 interesting to note how sometimes they suddenly change their 

 usual habits, as in the case of Rhyphus fenestralis, the com- 

 mon and harmless window fly, so often looked upon as a 

 venomous gnat from a superficial resemblance, the larvae of 

 which were found in one case to be destructive to honeycomb, 

 though they usually feed on a much less attractive substance 

 (cow manure). The newspapers gave various theories as to the 

 origin of a plague of flies at Cardiff last May. They belonged 

 to the English species Dilophus febrilis, always common, but 

 then, through favourable conditions, in swarms. 



