102 REPORT—1874. 
end in the Malpighian layer of the epidermis. He saw in the epidermis also well- 
marked cells which gave off several processes towards the horny layer, and one long 
slender process which passed through the Malpighian layer into the cutis. He 
considers these cells to be nervous, and their peripheral processes to be the terminal 
parts of the nerves of the skin. CO. J. Eberth agrees in the main with Langerhans, 
and recognizes fine nerve-fibres passing from the nerves of the cutis into the deeper 
layer of cuticular cells, and also star-and-spindle-shaped cells in the cuticle, which 
he suggests may be nervous structures, though he has not traced them in connexion 
with nerve-fibres. 
On the surface of young fishes and Amphibia F. E. Schutze has described nerve- 
hairs arranged in the form of tufts or brushes very much as is the case in the organ 
of hearing; in this instance the brush-like endings of the nerves are probably con- 
nected with touch. 
Cohbnheim has described the corneal nerves as forming a superficial plexus under 
the anterior elastic lamina; from this perforating branches pass perpendicularly 
through the lamina, and then, under the epithelium, break up into brush-like or 
star-shaped finer branches, which form a plexus giving off fine nerves at tolerably 
regular intervals between the deep columnar cells and the more superficial sphe- 
roidal ones, and dividing at length into their finest branches, which end by some- 
what swollen extremities in the most superficial epithelial layers. Thus the exqui- 
site sensibility of the front of the eye, like that of the olfactory or gustatory mucous 
membranes, may be accounted for. ; 
When I look upon the vast amount of research which has been applied to this 
department of Biology for some years past, and think that the instrument which 
has afforded the great means for 1t was only perfected so as to be capable of use for 
such purposes about 1820, I cannot but congratulate the Section on the abundant 
fruits we are reaping. 
And when, in addition, I contemplate the amount of certainty which physical 
science has imparted to physiology by furnishing the means of examining and 
accurately measuring the rates of transmission of nerve-currents, of obtaining tra- 
cings of the respiratory movements and of the arterial pulsations, of examining the 
retina in the liying eye and the larynx of a living man almost as readily as if these 
parts were exposed in a dissection, I cannot but conclude that this nineteenth cen- 
tury has been already distinguished as a very notable one for Biology, and especially 
for Physiology. 
Considering that so much time is required for making a single careful obser- 
vation, it is very fortunate that so large an array of inquirers and so much talent 
are employed upon the subjects in which we are interested, and that once a year we 
have this admirable opportunity of listening to the results of inquiries instituted by 
the most eminent men in all parts of the world, and of hearing different views 
advocated with the greatest earnestness and yet with perfect good humour, and a 
rigorous determination to rest satisfied with nothing but the truth. 
Botany anpD Zoonoey. 
Address to the Department of Botany and Zoology. 
By Dr. Hooxrr, 0.B., D.C.L,, Pres. B.S. 
Thave chosen for the subject of my Address to you from the chair to which the 
Council of the British Association has done me the honour of calling me, the 
carnivorous habits of some of our brother organisms—plants. ' 
Various observers haye described with more or less accuracy the habits of such 
vegetable sportsmen as the Sundew, the Venus’s fly-trap, and the Pitcher-plants, but 
few have inquired into their motives; and the views of those who haye most 
Pama appreciated them haye not met with that general acceptance which they 
eserved. 
Quite recently the subject has acquired a new interest, from the researches of 
Mr. Darwin into the phenomena which accompany the placing of albuminous sub- 
