36 president's address. 



The results of an investigation of a similar nature have just 

 been published by Mr. Yule, of Magdalen College, Oxford, who 

 has demonstrated the existence of like conditions in the fi'uit of 

 Momordica elaterium, a plant of the Cucumber family. The fruit 

 in question is gourd like, about two inches in length, and when 

 ripe separates from its peduncle, leaving a small hole through 

 which the seeds are expelled with such violence as sometimes to 

 be shot oif to a distance of fifteen feet, the fi'uit at the same time 

 undergoing a marked diminution in size. Mr. Yule found that 

 in most cases the breach of the fruit, or the end farthest from 

 the peduncle, was positive to tlie centre, so that the direction of 

 the current is precisely opposite to that of a muscle, and that a 

 very considerable negative variation took place at the moment of 

 dehiscence. 



The safe return of H.M. ship '' Challenger," after an absence 

 of three years and a half, is a subject of general congratulation. 

 This exploring vessel weighed anchor from Spithead on Decem- 

 ber 21st, 1872, and returned to Portsmouth on May 24th, 1876. 

 The object of the expedition was to determine, as fai' as pos- 

 sible, the physical and the biological conditions of the great 

 ocean basins, the Atlantic, the Southern 8ea, and the Pacific. 

 This important marine scientific investigation has reached a suc- 

 cessful termination. She has steadily traversed a track of sixty- 

 nine thousand miles, and has established three hundred and 

 sixty-two observing stations. Some hundreds of specimens have 

 been obtained, including many interesting specimens of Natu- 

 ral History, a coll(>ctiou of unexampled interest, testifj^ng to 

 the research and energj' of the staff. Perhaps the most impor- 

 tant are compnsed in a paper read before the Linnean Society, 

 entitled, " Observations on 7iew, living Crinoids and on Echino- 

 dermata,^^ groups to which the eminent director. Sir Wyville 

 Thompson, as is well known, had previously paid much attention. 



The peculiarity of the expedition was, tliat in the case of the 

 "Challenger" the cruise became secondary, and the scientific 

 objort primary, that she was in fact fitted up witli the view of 



