PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 19 
necessary for me to draw attention to the various valuable papers 
they contain, as they have been for some time in the hands of the 
members; but I cannot omit referring to the address of my 
talented predecessor and his masterly review of Mr. Darwin’s 
celebrated work which has caused such sensation throughout the 
scientific world, and I am persuaded that every member of the 
Club has read and re-read it with delight, and with a feeling of 
honourable pride that our “ Transactions” should record views on 
the subject, in which all of us must, I think, concur. 
It has hitherto been usual in these addresses to refer to the 
labours of those members who have been, during the year, 
actively engaged in various departments of natural science, and I 
may mention that at the meeting of the British Association, held 
at Oxford in June last, John Hogg, Hsq., F.R.S., one of our 
former Presidents, read an interesting paper ‘“ on the Distinctions 
of a Plant and an Animal,” which has since appeared in the 
“ Hdinburgh New Philosophical Journal,” vol. xii., p. 216. In this 
he suggests, as it is impossible for man to determine whether a 
certain minute organism be a plant or animal, a fourth or addi- 
tional kingdom, entitled “ Regnum Primigenum,” which should 
contain all those lower, or the primary organic creatures, the 
Protoctista—comprehending both the Protophyta and Protezoa— 
the former having more the nature of plants, and the latter the 
nature of animals; while for those formless or amorphous beings, 
whether they partake more of the animal or vegetable nature, he 
suggests the name of Amorphoctista instead of Amorphozoa, 
formerly bestowed on them by the French author, M. de Blain- 
ville. 
In Geology, Mr. J. W. Kirkby has communicated to the 
Geological Society two papers, which have appeared in their 
quarterly journal, viz.:—‘ On the Occurrence of Lingula Crednert, 
a Permian brachyopod, in the coal measures of Durham, and on 
the Claims of the Permian Rocks, to constitute a system,” and 
“ On the Permian Rocks of Yorkshire.” Mr. Thomas Athey 
has obtained from Cramlington Colliery a large and interesting 
series of remains of Fish, and probably Reptilia, similar in 
character to those discovered by Mr. Kirkby, at Ryhope. In 
