Repohts of Societies. 



123 



vegetable forms, but solid matter is seized and drawn into the substance 

 of tlie organism at any part of its surface, the insoluble portions being 

 pushed to the surface and thrown off in the same way. These organisms 

 consist of a single cell, and are reproduced by self -division. Attention 

 was then called to the multicellular green hydra, Hydra viridis and 

 Nitella, and to the complex mechanism of the water-flea, Daphnia pnlex. 

 In the course of his remarks the speaker called attention to three funda- 

 mental properties of living things — first, that every living thing exists 

 as a single cell or as a multiple of cells, the product by self-division of 

 the primal cell ; secondly, that every living thing grows by the absorption 

 and assimilation of external elements : and thirdly, that these processes 

 of growth, and cell-formation by assimilation, are the work . of the natural 

 force or energy which we call life, and this life is the property alone of a 

 mechanical mixture of definite chemical compounds, called protoplasm, 

 which constitutes the physical basis of life alike in plant and animal, and 

 indeed is the only living siibstance. The lecture was enriched by 

 illustrations consisting of diagrams, coloured drawings, besides which a 

 number of living organisms (described in the lecture) were exhibited 

 under the microscope. — On Thursday evening, January 18th, a paper was 

 read by Mr. J. A. Douglas, hon. secretary, on the common house-fly, in 

 which he described the life history, metamorphoses, anatomy, &c. , of 

 this and some other species of dipterous insects ; a number of preserved 

 specimens showing the insects in their various stages being exhibited in 

 illustration. A considerable amount of discussion followed the reading 

 of the paper. — J. A. D. 



Bury Natural History Society. — Monthly meeting in the Athen- 

 aeum, the president, Mr. R. H. Alcock, F.L.S., in the chair. — After some 

 business of a formal nature was transacted, specimens of the Brazilian 

 lianas were exhibited by Mr. Alcock, a variety of fossils, Trigonocarpum 

 and Sigillaria from the neighbourhood of Bury, Belemnites, E^icrinites, 

 and many others from the mountain limestone of Clitheroe by Messrs. 

 Wilson, Howarth, and Curtis ; a collection of silk moths and the various 

 stages of silk manufacture by Mr. R. Kay ; and a pair of beautiful 

 specimens of the death's head moth, Aclierontia Atropos, bred from larvae 

 taken near Blackpool, by Mr. Jackson. The secretary then read a paper 

 entitled " Primitive Man. " 



GooLE Scientific Society. — Meeting Jan. 31st. — A paper was read 

 by the Rev. W. Fowler, M. A. , of Liversedge, on ' ' Spontaneous Genera- 

 tion. " The question to which the author addressed himself was, ''How 

 is it that in putrefying animal and vegetable solutions, minute forms of 

 animal and vegetable life make their appearance ? Are they the products 

 of putrefaction, or the products of other animals and plants which have 

 gone before them 1 Are they spontaneously generated, or are they 

 developments of living germs ?" — After reviewing the well-known experi- 

 ments of Pasteur, Bastian, Tyndall, and others, and showing that if 



