PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. Ixvii. 



shew the details of the thread-like swimming muscles. In 

 the worms one can see not only the external formation and 

 markings, but the details of the interior intestine and the long 

 proboscis, which are all wonderfully preserved. After such 

 finds, one may look forward to finding even earlier forms of life 

 and improving a little on our almost absolute ignorance of its 

 first beginnings ; but these beautifully preserved low forms 

 of life are, I believe, very uncommon. To go to a higher 

 sphere, a fine skull of the horned reptile Triceratops has just 

 been added to the Natural History Museum. The skull is 

 about six feet long, but its brain has a length of only six 

 inches. It comes from Upper Cretaceous beds in Wyoming, 

 U.S.A. Remains of huge fossil Tortoises (Testudo robusta), 

 and what is believed to be a still larger species, have lately 

 been found in Malta. 



ASTRONOMY. 



The eclipse of April 17, 1912, came so near to our last 

 Annual Meeting that though I was able to mention some of 

 the circumstances and results connected with it, there were 

 naturally many others which had not yet been published. 

 Though, as I said in my last address, the extent of the eclipse 

 was not in this country sufficient to affect animals and plants 

 in general, yet at Paris, where it was much more nearly total, 

 it is stated that birds and certain plants behaved as they 

 usually do at nightfall. Observations on the total eclipse of 

 Oct. 10 last in Brazil, were unfortunately prevented by heavy 

 rain. Further observations have been made in Algeria, as 

 well as on Mount Wilson, in California, on the supposed 

 variability of the sun, which are not considered quite con- 

 clusive, but tend to assign to it an uncertain period of 5 10 

 days, with a variability of 5 to 10 per cent. To turn to the 

 moon, which has hitherto been supposed to be unchangeable 

 in its features, signs have been seen of the alteration in form 

 and size of a small hill on its surface, but this appears to 



