n6 Annual Report of the Council. 



In the same year (1848) appeared, in Vol. I., Annals of 

 Natural History, a contribution "On the recent British 

 species of the genus Lagena" This latter paper, and 

 the previous one on Levant mud, with other papers on 

 foraminifera published in the Transactions of the Micro- 

 scopical Society, were preparing the way for his work on 

 "The British Foraminifera," which was published by 

 the Ray Society in 1858. In these investigations of the 

 structure and life-history of these organisms, perhaps 

 the most fascinating paper was that on Levant mud, 

 and it proved how, in the hands of an enthusiast like 

 Williamson, a whole Mediterranean of interest could be 

 evolved from a spoonful of silt ; the memoir, too, was 

 adequately illustrated, and although it was the source 

 whence the information of many a subsequent paper was 

 derived, it was rarely referred to. The writer of these 

 lines well remembers, when he was the honorary librarian 

 of the Society, a visit paid by an American to Manchester, 

 for the express purpose of consulting this particular paper, 

 and of copying some of the drawings which illustrate it, 

 and how the stranger was sent on his way rejoicing with 

 a copy of the volume which contained it. But what must 

 have been Williamson's own delight in his first investiga- 

 tions, when every pinch of dust revealed some previously 

 unseen beauty of form or structure ? 



The late Professor Williamson became an ordinary 

 member of the Society in 185 1, and was elected an 

 honorary member in 1893. He was President of the 

 Society during the two sessions 1884-85 and 1885-86 ; he 

 was a Vice-President during the sessions 1863-64, 1874-75, 

 and 1888-89 t° 1891-92, and he served as a member of 

 the Council during the sessions 1865-66 to 1871-72, and 

 1877-78. He was one of 10 members of the Society who, 

 on the 23rd December, 1858, applied to the Council for 

 the formation of the Microscopical and Natural History 



