PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 187 



The Chairman said that the gradual raising of the pulvillus, as 

 described by Mr. Cheshire, was a tolerably widespread method amongst 

 the Acari ; in many instances it was so large in proportion to the 

 size of the creature that it would probably be quite impossible to lift 

 it off straight. 



Mr. Cheshire asked if the form of pleating was generally observed 

 in the case of the Acari ? 



The Chairman said that it was not so in all cases, but in some the 

 folding was much the same as in a closed fan, and the opening out 

 was similar to the way in which such a fan might be opened out by 

 vertical pressure. 



A Circular received from America, explaining the objects and 

 scope of the Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund, was read as follows : — 



" This fund, which has been established by Mrs. Elizabeth 

 Thompson, of Stamford, Connecticut, ' for the advancement and 

 prosecution of scientific research in its broadest sense,' now amounts 

 to ^25,000. As the income is already available, the trustees desire 

 to receive applications for appropriations in aid of scientific work. 

 This endowment is not for the benefit of any one department of 

 science, but it is the intention of the trustees to give the preference 

 to those investigations not already otherwise provided for, which have 

 for their object the advancement of human knowledge, or the benefit 

 of mankind in general, rather than to researches directed to the 

 solution of questions of merely local importance. 



Applications for assistance from this fund should be accompanied 

 by a full statement of the nature of the investigation, of the conditions 

 under which it is to be prosecuted, and of the manner in which the 

 appropriation asked for is to be expended. The applications should 

 be forwarded to the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Dr. C. S. 

 Minot, 25 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, Mass., U.S.A. The first 

 grant will probably be made early in January 1886." 



Mr. Crisp mentioned with regard to the new Aperture Table 

 Vol. V. (1885) p. 972, that the original table was based on the 

 figures 48,200 as representing half the resolving power of numerical 

 aperture 1 • 00, the exact figures being 48,205. The last figure (5) 

 being obviously unimportant, it was discarded ; but as two new 

 columns are now added, Mr. Stephenson had thought it desirable to 

 make the corresponding correction throughout the table. 



Mr. J. W. Groves exhibited some mounted sections cut by the 

 large Barret microtome, shown at the preceding meeting, and described 

 in the last number of the Journal (Vol. V., 18S5, p. 1089). The 

 sections were not as thin as it was possible to cut them, but were 

 exhibited to show how lax-ge good sections could be made with the 

 instrument. 



