Sept. 2, 1886] 
NATURE 
409 
Mr. Archer, of Dublin, under the name Chlamydomyxa. Mr. 
Archer obtained his specimens crawling upon, and into, the tissues 
of the bog-moss (Sphagnum) in moor-pools in Westmeath (so far as 
I recollect). He often found it in a spherical condition, encysted 
in a cellulose envelope, and more rarely expanding into a most 
curious network of fine protoplasmic threads, upon which were 
observed very numerous oblong corpuscles, which slowly tra- 
velled along the threads, thus recalling the structure of Laby- 
rinthula described by Cienkowski. 
No one has found Archer’s Chlamydomyxa, or been in a 
position to confirm independently his description, up to the 
present date. He has kindly sent to me encysted specimens of 
the Chlamydomyxa, but these would not leave their cysts and 
exhibit the characteristic network and corpuscles ; and others 
whom he has wished to oblige by a sight of this interesting 
organism haye also, I believe, failed to obtain the characteristic 
phase. 
; I have from time to time searched for Chlamydomyxa when I 
have been in a moorland region and had my microscope with 
me, but have hitherto failed to find it. It was not, therefore, 
with any great amount of confidence that I gathered some 
brownish tufts of Sphagnum from a small ditch (with slowly- 
running water) in a clearing in the pine-wood behind the tennis- 
court at Pontresina, and brought them to the hotel to search them 
for Chlamydomyxa. But I found a number of yellowish spheres 
about 1/150 inch, and less in diameter, which excited my sus- 
picions. After a brief delay these began to throw out proto- 
plasmic filaments, and soon around each was a wonderful series 
of branching stems of protoplasmic threads, reaching far away 
from the central yellow granular body and in the most varied 
directions. Along the threads minute oval corpuscles slowly 
streamed. There is no doubt that this organism belongs to 
Archer’s genus Chlamydomyxa, and probably enough is speci- 
fically distinct from that which he found in Ireland. It is ex- 
tremely abundant in the Swiss locality. 
From what I have seen of Chlamydomyxa, I am now inclined 
to admit that it is Zess closely related to Cienkowski’s Laby- 
rinthula than I had previously supposed. The moving cor- 
puscles of Cienkowski’s organism are very much larger bodies 
than are the ovoid corpuscles of Chlamydomyxa. 
Pontresina, August 23 E, Ray LANKESTER 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 
eee fifty-sixth annual meeting of the British Associa- 
tion was opened in Birmingham last night, when 
Lord Rayleigh resigned the Presidential chair to Sir 
William Dawson, Principal of McGill College, Montreal. 
Theattendance at the fourth Birmingham meeting promises 
to be much above the average, and so far as the Birmingham 
people are concerned everything has been done to secure 
success. All the new public buildings, including Mason 
College and the fine new Art Gallery, have been placed 
at the disposal of the Sections. The reception-rooms, 
reading-rooms, writing-rooms, and other general rooms, 
not omitting the smoking-room, are all that could be 
desired. All the leading clubs of the town have been 
thrown open to members ; facilities have been given for 
visiting the various manufactories in the town and 
neighbourhood; the industrial exhibition in Bingley 
Hall has been admirably arranged; while there is a 
formidable programme of social entertainments and 
excursions. Among the foreign visitors expected, one 
of the most distinguished is Prof. Haeckel. There is a 
very large representation, moreover, of colonial science. 
The Local Committee kave prepared a very excellent 
Hand-Book of Birmingham for the use of the visitors, 
the various sections of which are written by specialists. 
After a General Introduction by Mr. G. J. Johnson, 
Part 1 deals with Old Birmingham, by Mr. S. Timmins. 
The various aspects of Modern Birmingham are treated 
of by different writers. The section on Art is by four 
specialists, and the Manufacturing Industries are de- 
scribed by Mr. C. J. Woodward. Part 3 is devoted 
to Geology and Physiography, and is edited by Prof. 
C. Lapworth, who has been assisted in the various 
sections by several local geologists. Part 4, dealing with 
Zoology, is edited by Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., who 
also has had the assistance of various local specialists ; 
so with the Botany, edited by Mr. W. Mathews. The ap- 
pendix comprises a variety of curious and useful informa- 
tion, while a pocket contains a useful sketch-map of the 
Geology of the Birmingham district, by Prof. Lapworth. 
lt will thus be seen that the Hand-Book, while well 
adapted for its special purpose, is likely to be of 
permanent value. 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY SIR J. WILLIAM Dawson, C.M.G., 
M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., PRINCIPAL AND VICE- 
CHANCELLOR OF MCGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL, 
CANADA, PRESIDENT 
TWENTY-ONE years have passed away since the last meeting 
of the British Association in this great central city of EnglanJ. 
At the third Birmingham meeting—that of 1865—I had the 
pleasure of being present, and had the honour of being one of 
the Vice-Presidents of Section C. At that meeting my friend 
John Phillips, one of the founders of the Association, occupied 
the Presidential chair, and I cannot better introduce what I have 
to say this evening than by the eloquent words in which he 
then addressed you :—‘‘ Assembled for the third time in this busy 
centre of industrious England, amid the roar of engines anil 
clang of hammers, where the strongest powers of nature are 
trained to work in the fairy chains of art, how softly and nttingly 
falls upon the ear the accent of Science, the friend of that art, 
and the guide of that industry! Here where Priestley analysed 
the air, and Watt obtained the mastery over steam, it well be- 
comes the students of nature to gather round the standard which 
they carried so far into the fie'ds of knowledge. And when on 
other occasions we meet in quiet colleges and academic halls, 
how gladly welcome is the union of fresh discoveries and new 
inventions with the solid and venerable truths which are there 
treasured and taught. Long may such union last; the fair 
alliance of cultivated thought and practical skill ; for by it labour 
is dignified and science fertilised, and the condition of human 
society exalted.” These were the words of a man who, while 
earnest in the pursuit of science, was full of broad and kindly 
sympathy for his fellow-men, and of hopeful confidence in the 
future. We have but to turn to the twenty Reports of this 
Association, issued since 1865, to see the realisation of that 
union of science and art to which he so confidently looked for- 
ward, and to appreciate the stupendous results which it has 
achieved. In one department alone—that to which my prede- 
cessor in this chair so eloquently adverted in Aberdeen, the 
department of education in science—how much has been accom- 
plished since 1865. Phillips himself lived to see a great revolu- 
tion in this respect at Oxford. But no one in 1865 could have 
anticipated that immense development of local schools of science 
of which your own Mason College and your admirable technical, 
industrial, and art schools are eminent examples. Based on the 
general education given by the new system of Board-schools, 
with which the name of the late W. E. Forster will ever be 
honourably connected, and extending its influence upward to 
special training and to the highest University examinations, this 
new scientific culture is opening paths of honourable ambition to 
the men and women of England scarcely dreamed of in 1865. 
I sympathise with the earnest appeal of Sir Lyon Playfair, in 
his Aberdeen address, in favour of scientific education; but, 
visiting England at rare intervals, I am naturally more impressed 
with the progress that has been made than with the vexatious 
delays which have occurred, and am perhaps better able to 
appreciate the vast strides that have been taken in the direction 
of that complete and all-pervading culture in science which he has 
so ably advocated. 
No one could have anticipated twenty years ago that a Bir- 
mingham manufacturer, in whose youthful days there were no 
schools of science for the people, was about to endow a College, 
not only worthy of this great city, but one of its brightest orna- 
ments.! Nor could any one have foreseen the great development 
of local scientific Societies, like your Midland Institute and 
Philosophical Society, which are now flourishing in every large 
town and in many of those of less magnitude. The period of 
twenty-one years that has elapsed since the last birmingham 
meeting has also been an era of public museums and labora- 
tories for the teaching of science, from the magnificent national 
. It was in 1865 that Sir Josiah Mason was, quietly and without any 
ublic note, beginning to lay the foundation of his orphanage at Erdington 
P 
