PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 347 
species and genera obtained, and gives good drawings of the anatomy of 
some of the new and most remarkable forms. He also adds a useful note 
concerning the best method of preserving these soft and delicate creatures. 
The abstract of a “Monograph of the Gymnozoidal Discostomatous 
Flagellata, with a new Scheme of Classification of the Protozoa,” by 
Mr. W. Saville-Kent, was read by the Secretary. In this communication 
the writer places on record the results of his extended investigations among 
that remarkable “collar-bearing” group of the flagellate Infusoria first 
introduced to scientific notice by the late Prof. H. J. Clark of Pennsylvania, 
in 1868. By Mr. Kent's researches, the group is now made to embrace no 
less than eight well-marked genera and about forty species, in place of the 
two genera and four species first introduced by Prof. Clark. The majority 
of the members of this group are sedentary in their habits, being attached 
in a sessile manner by a pedicle to aquatic objects. Compound colonies 
are frequently produced, rivalling in luxuriance, &c., colony stalks of 
Epistylis, &c., among higher ciliate Infusoria. Some are characterized by 
inhabiting transparent Corice, after the manner of Vaginicola, and others 
rove freely through the water. All are of such minute size as to require a 
magnifying power of at least 500 diameters for their investigation, and 
possibly to this circumstance they may so long have escaped the attention 
of observers. The chief significance that attaches to the collar-bearing 
group in question is the circumstance, first recognized by Prof. J. Clark, 
that similar animalcules constitute the fundamental basis and the essential 
living units of all known Sponges. This identity of structure, confirmed 
by the investigations of Mr. Carter, has been followed up in Mr. Kent's 
memoir, and is held by him to be subversive of Prof. Haeckel’s theory as to 
the ccelenterate nature of Sponges. Mr. Kent further submits a proposition 
for a new classification of the subkingdom Protozoa, which he divides into 
four leading natural groups of equal value, the distinctive features of which 
are afforded by the characters of the oral or interruptive area. These 
Protozoan groups are termed by him, (1) Olostomata, (2) Polystomata, 
(3) Discostomata, and (4) Monostomata. 
Another paper, which may be considered as appertaining to a zoological 
moot subject, was read by Prof. Charlton Bastian, viz., ‘On the Conditions 
favouring Fermentation and the Appearances of Bacteria.” In this the 
author puts his matter in a fourfold aspect:—1. He makes known in detail 
certain experimental conditions which he has found to be highly iavourable 
to the occurrence of fermentation in boiled fluids. 2. He records fresh 
instances of the occurrence of fermentation in boiled acid fluids, which 
according to M. Pasteur invariably remain barren. 8. He brings forward 
certain crucial evidence upon the disputed interpretation of the fertility of 
boiled neutral or faintly alkaline fluids. 4. He adduces further instances 
of fermentation of fluids heated to 230° Fahr. and upwards. 
