95 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



June 24th, 1841. Professor Owen, F.R.S., 8fC. President, in the Chair. 



After the usual business had been completed, the Chairman stated, 

 that the Council had given orders for three of the most perfect micro- 

 scopes that can be constructed. They had therefore requested 

 Messrs. Hugh Powell, Andrew Ross, and James Smith, each to furnish 

 a standard instrument, made according to their own peculiar views. 

 The meeting was also informed, that owing to professional duties, Dr. 

 Arthur Farre had that evening resigned the office of Secretary, which 

 he had so well filled since the establishment of the Society. A vote of 

 thanks was proposed to Dr. A. Farre by Mr. George Jackson, for his 

 assiduity and attention to the affairs of the Institution, which was 

 seconded by Mr. Edwards, and carried unanimously. 



The Secretary read an abstract of Dr. Haro's paper, read at the last 

 meeting (seep. 79), which was again brought before the Society with a 

 view to discussion. 



Mr. E. J. Quekett made some remarks, and exhibited specimens of 

 water obtained from the London Docks, which attracted his attention 

 on account of its blood-red colour; which Mr. Q. finds, on examination, 

 to be owing to the presence of a multitude of small Entomostracous 

 animals, of the genus Monoculos ; in the interior of the individuals of 

 which a bright red spot was observed. They occur in vast numbers, at 

 certain seasons only, such as in warm and very tranquil weather, and 

 usually form about one- sixth of the bulk of the water. The common 

 people call it spawn. 



Mr. Cornelius Varley stated, that he had brought for exhibition spe- 

 cimens of Nitella in fructification (both the globule and the seed.) They 

 were not quite ripe, but when they arrive at that state, he expects to 

 meet with the same moving particles which he some years since pointed 

 out in Char a. 



The meeting then resolved into the usual conversazione and exami- 

 nation of objects. 



Red and Green Snow. In the 44th No. of Taylor's " Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History," is the translation of a paper from Wieg- 

 mann's Archiv. (Heft. I. 1840), entitled, "On Red and Green Snow, 

 by the late Prof. Meyen ;" from which we learn, that M. Ch. Martius, 

 who twice accompanied the French expedition to Spitzbergen, is of 

 opinion, that the colouring matter of red snow, Protococcus nivalis, and 

 of green snow, P. viridis, " are one and the same plant, only in dif- 

 ferent stages of development." Prof. Meyen, however, considers it to 

 be still a question, whether the colours of the snow are really produced 

 by different states of the same species ; but he has no doubt but that 

 the so-called Protococci belong, not to the vegetable, but to the animal 



