1895 - 96 .] 
Chairman's Opening Address. 
3 
whether, with all his ability and energy, he could have brought 
the work to so successful a conclusion, had it not been for him a 
labour of love. In offering him their hearty congratulations, the 
Council are not without the hope that the manifest success which 
has attended the conduct and completion of the “Challenger” 
Expedition may weigh with H.M.’s Government, and induce them 
to accede to the proposal now being pressed upon them for a well- 
appointed Expedition to Antarctic Regions. 
I would now turn attention to some of the work accomplished by 
Fellows during the past two Sessions. In the time at my disposal, 
it is obviously impossible to notice all the papers, which, for one 
reason or another, might be considered of importance. Some 
selection must be made, and perhaps I shall be pardoned if I limit 
attention very much to those which have most interested myself. 
Dr Pole, in a notable paper, has given some account of the 
development of our knowledge of Colour-Blindness (from which he 
himself is a sufferer), beginning with the first well-authenticated 
case — that of Dalton — and coming down to the researches and 
discussions of Young, Helmholtz, Stokes, Clerk-Maxwell, and 
others. The Author analyses the relation of colour-blind sensations 
to those of normal vision, and discusses the import of certain 
variations found to exist in different colour-blind persons. Dr 
Peddie has also communicated to the Society some curious 
investigations in this interesting subject. 
Dr Whiting read a paper on the Comparative Histology and 
Physiology of the Spleen, as found in twenty-two different kinds 
of animals, embracing all the typical vertebrates — from the fish to 
man. The paper is crowded with anatomical details, which evince 
long-continued and careful research. The general conclusion 
arrived at by the Author is that the giant-cells are not phagocytes. 
After careful study of the development of the nuclei of the young 
red-blood cells, he is opposed to the view that the extended nuclei 
are absorbed by the giant-cells of the spleen. 
Dr Buchanan Young, having devised a new apparatus for 
counting Bacterial Colonies, has described and figured it in a 
communication to the Society. Dr Young is of opinion that the 
apparatus at present in use — that of Yon Esmarch — is so far faulty 
