PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 611 



Mr. Gunson Thorpe also called attention to a curious organism which 

 he had found upon the surface of the sea, surrounded by a mass of 

 sponge spicules and shells made into a kind of nest ; its movement was 

 rather slow, but it swam about quite freely. 



The President thought it very curious ; it appeared to be some kind 

 of marine worm, something like the Caddis. 



Prof. Bell said it was one of the most interesting marine objects he 

 had seen lately, but he had not the faintest idea what it was, neither had 

 he been able to find out anything about it from the sources of informa- 

 tion which he had consulted. Mr. Thorpe had a number of drawings, 

 and it might be worth while to insert a woodcut of this object in the 

 Journal in the hope that some one seeing it might be able to give some 

 information about it. 



The President said he had brought to the meeting a somewhat 

 rough model for the purpose of giving a true notion of what the head of 

 a Conochilm was like. Most people knew the object very well, but 

 many descriptions given — especially foreign ones — gave very misleading 

 ideas of the structure. This he thought was perhaps mainly due to the 

 use of one tube and the examination of the object by transmitted light by 

 persons who did not know what the thing was, and had therefore 

 resorted to the process of guessing what it was by focusing up and 

 down upon it. When a man described a closed surface as an open one, 

 and said there was one row of cilia when there were really two rows, it 

 was clear that the object was not understood. Unless it was properly 

 examined, it was a very difficult object to make out, and hence the 

 mistakes made. The model was passed round for examination. 



Mr. J. D. Hardy said it struck him as being somewhat different in 

 form from what his own observations led him to suppose was the case. 

 The opaque objects were for instance more upon the disc than appeared 

 in his own drawings. 



The President said he could answer for certainty that they were 

 as shown on the model on the neck and shoulders — generally they were 

 only seen through other portions. 



Mr, Hardy could quite corroborate the statement as to the difficulty 

 there was in di-awing Conocliilus. 



Mr. Crisp said he was sure the Fellows would be glad to congratulate 

 the President upon his recent election as a Fellow of the Koyal Society. 

 His qualifications as set out upon the certificate would perhaps interest 

 the Fellows present, and he therefore read them to the meeting. 



The President said that he thanked the Society very much for the 

 manner in which they had received Mr. Crisp's very kind remarks. 



The President said they were favoured that evening by the presence 

 at the meeting, as a visitor, of Mr. J. Ferrier, ex-President of the 

 Microscopical [Society of Montreal. 



Mr. Ferrier said it had given him great pleasure to be present at the 

 meeting. Their Society in Montreal was not a very large one, havino- 

 been originally formed as a club of twelve members, each of whom was 

 privileged to bring three friends to the meetings. Dr. Carmichael was 

 the President of the Society at the present time. He felt very much 



