Monthly M Icroscopican 
Journal, May 1, 1869. J 
PROCEEDINaS OF SOCIETIES. 
319 
With reference to the remark of Mr. Breese about electricity, he 
(Dr. Beale) might be willing to admit that nervous force was elec- 
tricity ; but he did not think that would account for the phenomena 
of all the nervous system. The difficulty still remains as to what sets 
the electricity free. You cannot conceive of nervous action without 
conceiving nervous organism ; and, looking at the organism of the 
nerves, he thought they could not be formed by physical causes. The 
means by which the nerves had been laid down cannot be explained 
physically. 
On the question of transition, he must confess that he was of 
opinion that there is no transition from the organic to the inorganic. 
A good deal is said about S2}ontaneous growth. He believed that 
spontaneous growth was utterly inconceivable to any one who has 
watched the phenomena going on in the amoeba. 
He could conceive living forms so minute as to evade inspection 
by the highest powers of the microscope. He could not believe that 
there was such a thing as the fortuitous concourse of elements making 
living forms. 
The President said the last observation which Dr. Beale had 
made reminded him of a remark made by Dr. Milner when asked if 
he could refute Bishop Berkeley's theory of matter. He replied, " I 
cannot ansv/er it. It contradicts common sense, and there must be 
great nonsense somewhere." He thought that a similar answer had 
been given by Dr. Beale in his paper to those theories with which he 
had been dealing. 
A vote of thanks was then given to Dr. Beale for his paper. 
The President announced that the following papers would have 
to be taken as read : — " On the Proboscis of the Blow-fly," by 
W. T. Suffolk, Esq. ; and " On some New Infusoria from the Victoria 
Docks," by W. S. Kent, Esq. 
The meeting was then adjourned to the 12th of May, when a 
paper will be read by B. T. Lowne, M.R.C.S., " On the Structure and 
Functions of the Eectal Papillae of the Blow-fly." 
After the meeting, Messrs. Powell and Lealand exhibited frustiiles 
of AmpMpleura ^pellucida under their 16th-immersion lens, and with 
their new method of oblique illumination, which brought out the striae 
most distinctly. 
Donations to the Library and Cabinet, April 14, 1869 : — 
From 
Land and Water. Weekly 
Scientific Opinion. Weekly 
Society of Arts' Journal. Weekly . . 
The Student 
Editor. 
Editor. 
Society. 
Journal of the Linnean Society, No. 49 
Journal of the Quekett Club 
Popular Science Review, No. 31 
Publisher, 
Society. 
Water-colour Drawinj^ of Plumatella repens 
A Silver Side-reflector 
Three Slides of Diatoms, in situ 
Five Slides, various 
Club. 
Editor. 
Mr. Suffolk. 
Mr. Crouch. 
Colonel S. Hcnnell. 
Mr. Chas. Collins. 
