286 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



able eventually to pursue their studies in a satisfactory manner. 

 At Aranjuez and Madrid they obtained free access to the cholera 

 hospitals, and made nearly thirty autopsies of typical cholera cases 

 within very short periods after death. From all of these cases 

 they were able to obtain material for cultivation and thus to make 

 a large series of investigations on the different forms of micro- 

 organisms which are found in the tissues and intestinal contents of 

 cholera cases. Owing, however, to the impossibility of obtaining 

 animals for inoculation, and reagents of various kinds, they were 

 una,ble to complete their inquiry in Spain, and they were obliged to 

 leave the investigations of certain points until their return to 

 England. They have directed their attention chiefly to the relation 

 which the comma bacillus, first described by Koch, bears to the 

 cholera process, and they hope to be able to make important addi- 

 tions to our knowledge of this important subject. They are at 

 present engaged in completing their work, and in the course of a 

 few weeks they hope to be able to present their report to the Royal 

 Society. 



The Marine Biological Association, to the funds of which the 

 Royal Society made a substantial contribution last year, is making 

 good progress. A site for building has been granted by the War 

 Office, at Plymouth; plans have been prepared, and if the Treasury 

 will follow the precedent which it has so largely and beneficially 

 adopted in educational matters, of helping those who help them- 

 selves, as I am glad to say my Lords seem inclined to do, I trust that, 

 before long, the laboratory will be in working order. 



The prosecution of the borings in the Delta of the Nile, to which 

 reference has been made on previous Anniversaries, have unfortunately 

 been hindered by various obstacles. Quite recently I have been 

 favoured by Qolonel H. Maitland, R.E., with an account of the 

 borings made near Rosetta, in which a depth of 153 feet was reached 

 without apparently attaining the bottom of the fluviatile deposits ; 

 and I hope that circumstances may shortly permit the resumption of 

 the original project of carrying a line of borings across the Valley of 

 the Nile on the parallel of Tantah or thereabouts. 



In the meanwhile the Committee in charge of the investigation 

 has presented a report by Professor Judd on the results of the exami- 

 nation of the borings formerly made. I have been favoured by 

 Professor Judd with the following brief summary of these results, 

 which have been fully set forth in a paper read at the first meeting 

 of the Society after the recess. 



Although two of the recent borings in the Nile Delta have attained 

 depths of 73 and 84 feet respectively, yet neither of them has reached 

 the rocky floor of the old Nile Valley, nor, indeed, have they afforded 



