ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING.* 
Proressor E. Huut, LL.D., F.R.S., IN THE CHAIR. 
The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 
The following elections were announced :— 
Memper :—Professor Lionel 8. Beale, F.R.C.P., F.R.S. 
AssociATEs :—Joseph Brown, Esq., C.B., Q.C.; John G. Cribb, Esq., 
Brisbane ; Rev. President J. A. Peters, D.D., U.S.A.; F. A. Bruton, 
Esq., M.A. 
The following paper was then read by the Author :— 
METHODS OF PROTECTION AMONG ANIMALS. 
By W. A. Kip, Esq., M.D., B.S., M.R.C.S., F.Z.S. 
ROFESSOR WEISMANN well says, “Everything is 
adapted in Animate Nature, and has been from the 
beginning.”t This statement will commend itself to any 
person who makes acquaintance with the organic world, 
as much among plants as among animals. I propose to 
consider one phase of this universal adaptedness of Nature, 
viz., the various methods of protection among the groups 
of the animal kingdom. The conditions under which the 
great animal world is found existing are so diverse that 
abundant opportunity is offered for such a study. It is 
indeed so abundant that one can but glance shortly at a few 
notable members of the different classes as we ascend the 
scale from Protozoa to Man. 
Animals occupy the water, the air, the surface of the earth, 
and even to some extent its interior. They are found in 
water at the depth of 3,000 fathoms, at the bottoms of the 
deepest oceans, and at all levels of the sea. They flourish 
in all regions of the teeming waters, warm and cold, in 
branches of trees, in the air, and on mountain tops, in 
* Monday, 6th February, 1899. 
+ Germinal Selection. 
