432 Anniversary Meeting. [Dec. 1, 



physics and mathematics, chemistry, mineralogy, anatomy and 

 physiology, botany, and morphology have all had their share. 



It is hardly within my province to select any papers that we have 

 published as being the most worthy of mention. The mere fact that 

 they have appeared in the " Philosophical Transactions " is a sufficient 

 voucher for their value. I may, however, call attention to the report of 

 Captain Abney and Dr. Schuster, our Bakerian lecturer for the present 

 year, on the total Solar Eclipse of May 17, 1882, which is the outcome 

 of an expedition, towards which a grant of 350Z. was made from our 

 Donation Fund. Some of the results were mentioned by Mr. Spottia- 

 woode in nis Presidential Address of 1882, but the value of the 

 details with regard to the corona, and the success which attended the 

 efforts of the photographers, can only be estimated from an examina- 

 tion of the paper itself. The detailed results obtained by the photo- 

 graphers who accompanied the American expedition to Caroline 

 Island in the South Pacific in order to observe the Solar Eclipse of the 

 5th of May, 1883, have not yet been brought before the Society. 



In respect to biological studies, our record of the past year, though 

 it does not contain the announcement of any very startling results, 

 gives evidence of fruitful activity along various lines of research. 



In Botany, Mr. Gardiner has continued his observations on the 

 important subject of the continuity of protoplasm in vegetable cells, 

 which was referred to in the President's Address of last year; he has 

 also brought forward some interesting results derived from an exami- 

 nation of the changes in the gland-cells of Dionsea, which serve still 

 further to illustrate the identity of the fundamental physiological 

 processes in plants and animals. Mr. Bower has dealt with the 

 morphology of the leaf in certain plants, in a memoir both valuable in 

 itself, and noteworthy because hitherto the study of abstract vege- 

 table morphology has perhaps not obtained in this country the 

 attention which it deserves, and which has been given to it in other 

 countries, especially in Germany. 



In Physiology two important papers have been presented on the 

 difficult subject of the functions of the cerebral convolutions, one by 

 Drs. Ferrier and Yeo, and the other by Professor Schafer and Mr. 

 Horsley. Both contain observations which demand careful considera- 

 tion by all physiologists. 



The results of the study of animal forms which is happily being 

 carried on with great activity, I may say, all over the United King- 

 dom, are for various reasons principally recorded elsewhere than in 

 the pages of the " Transactions " or " Proceedings " of this Society. 

 Nevertheless, this subject has also been fairly represented at our 

 meetings. Our distinguished and unwearied Fellow, Professor W. 

 Kitchen Parker, is still continuing his elaborate and valuable researches 

 on the vertebrate skull, and during the past session the Society has 



