366 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



At tlie 571st Ordinary Meeting of the Club, lield on June 13th, 

 Dr. A. B. Eendle, M.A., F.E.S., Vice-President, in the chair, 

 the minutes of the meeting held on May 9th were read and 

 confirmed. 



Mr. Douglas G. Howatt was balloted for and duly elected a 

 member of the Club. Three nominations were read for the 

 first time. 



The library would be closed during August, and be opened again 

 on the first Saturday in September. Mr. Swanton exhibited a drag 

 fitted with a safety device to prevent its loss in case of entangle- 

 ment at the bottom of a pond. The end to which the cord is 

 fastened is separate from the rest of the drag, and attached to it 

 by a thin piece of wire. If the tension is too great this wire gives 

 way, and the pull is transferred to the other end of the drag, to 

 which the cord is also fastened. This reverses the position of the 

 barbs so that there is a good chance of the drag freeing itself. 



The Chairman then called upon Mr. E. K. Maxwell to read his 

 paper, " Some Notes on Kotifers as a Leisure-time Study." Mr. 

 Maxwell said that he had been unable to find sufficient time or 

 energy under present conditions to prepare a paper that would do 

 justice to the subject he had intended — " On some Tube-dwelling 

 Rotifers" — but he had put together a few ideas that he hoped might 

 prove helpful and suggestive. The great majority of us, he said, 

 become attracted to the microscope for the sake of the pleasant 

 entertainment that it afiords, and most of us can hardly hope to 

 become more than intelligent dabblers at any of the many 

 subjects it brings before us. To become expert at any subject 

 involves considerable study and time, and, from his experience, 

 Mr. Maxwell was forced to think, the microscope would, if one got 

 drawn into the vortex of specialisation, prove to be a taskmaster 

 more than a friend. Bearing this in mind, he proposed to con- 

 sider briefly some of the points that arose in pursuing the rotifer- 

 quest by the amateur. The beginner who wants something 

 that will give him an interesting show is likely to have his 

 attention engaged by the rotifers. The commoner forms are just 

 of a convenient size for a 2/3rd in. with dark ground to give an 

 efiective show, with plenty of room in the field for supporting 

 weed to set them ofi. The lusty vigour rotifers display, quite 

 unhampered by their narrow domain, gives an impression 

 of joy of living and even of a desire to please, so that the idea 



