68 
The President's Address. 
lation with the external world are the first to be developed^ 
while of those devoted to the maintenance of vegetative life 
there is scarcely as yet a trace. The head is already repre- 
sented by three vesicular swellings corresponding with the 
great nervous centres^ and the vertebrae are marked out and 
plainly visible by transmitted light. The anterior extre- 
mities appear in the form of small fins or paddles_, while 
the lower are discernible as buds projecting from either side 
of the trunk. 
Mr. Blenkins minutely describes the appearance of the 
allantois^ and corroborates the previous observations of 
Wagner_, Miiller, Coste^ and others : he also remarks upon 
the vitelline sac^ the chorion^ and amnion_, which two latter 
integuments, unlike Dr. Farre, he finds separate, and is 
unable to find a trace of any vessels in the villi of the 
chorion. 
The two specimens, I would remark, difi'er materially in 
the point of size, although so nearly of an age ; but this is 
by no means surprising, when we recall the great variation 
in size apparent in different children at the period of birth. 
It is not too much to say, that these papers contain observa- 
tions of the highest interest, not only to the professional man, 
but to every student of nature. 
We come now to a paper by Dr. T. Spencer Cobbold, 
" On a probably New Species or Form of Actinotrocha, from 
the Frith of Forth.^^ 
The observations that were made, though few, are impor- 
tant, as they go far to demonstrate a distinct specific differ- 
ence from the Actinotrocha branchiata of Miiller, as was 
apparent from inspection of an example of the latter species 
in the possession of Dr. Carpenter. Dr. Cobbold, though at 
first inclined to regard this species as allied to some of the 
echinoderm larvae described by Miiller, subsequently hazards 
an opinion that it might be more properly classed amongst 
the Polyzoa, but states, that on communicating this opinion 
to Professor AUman, that gentleman in reply considers that 
Dr. CobbokVs first idea is the more correct. 
The concluding paper belonging to this section is one we 
had the pleasure of hearing read at our last meeting, and is 
by Mr. W. K. Parker, '^On the Miliolitid^ of the East 
Indian Seas." 
If I am not mistaken, this is only the fourth paper re- 
lating to the Foraminifera that has been laid before the 
Microscopical Society since its formation ; and I confess that 
it is a matter of very considerable surprise to me, that a class 
of bodies of so highly interesting a nature, respecting wliich 
