PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 4l7 



their interaction and the modifications they induce in one another, and that 

 these modifications are similar in nature to those produced by the external 

 environment, and, like the results of external influences, tend in time to become 

 ingrained in the constitution of the organs on which they act. We are only 

 at the outset of our knowledge of the subject, but the successes already gained 

 in the brief period during which investigations of this kind have been carried 

 on, and the paucity of the labourers in the field, justify our expectation of the 

 most far-reaching results if investigations on these lines are perseveringly 

 carried on. 



It is a matter of the deepest interest that we are being driven step by step 

 to a ■position which is in essential agreement with the underlying idea of that 

 theory of Pangenesis which was put forward by the founder of modern 

 biology, at the conclusion of his long and patient study of the variation of the 

 animals and plants under domestication, as the only conception which he could 

 form of the causes of variation. 



The following Papers and Reports were then received : — 



1. Exhibition of Lantern- slides illustrating the Mussel-fishery and 



the Life of Alcide d'Orbigny at Esnandes {La Rochelle). By 

 E. Heron-Allen, F.L.S. 



2. Bionomics of the Egyptian Bilharzia Worms.' By Dr. E. T. Leiper. 



3. Some Points of Bionomic Interest observed during the Visit of the 

 British Association to Australia.'^ By Dr. F. A. Dixey, F.R.S. 



4. Report on the Occupation of a Table at the Zoological Station at 

 Naples. — See Repoi'ts, p. 238. 



5. Report on the Collection of Marsu.pials. 



6. Report on Zoology Organisation. 



7. Report on the Nornenclator Animalium Generum et Sub-generum. 



8. Report on the Occupation of a Table at the Marine Laboratory, 

 Plymouth. 



9. Report on the Biological Problems incidental to the Behnullet 

 Whaling Station. 



10. Report on Biology of the Abrolhos Islands. 



11. Chemical Entojnology. By F. M. Howlett. 



' See Proc. R. Sor. Medicine, vol. ix. (1916), pp. 145-172. 

 ' See Entomologists' Monthly Magazine, January-June 1916. 



1916 E 



