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Mr. W. H. Heys read a communication on the structure 
of cotton. He said the twisted appearance so often alluded 
to is caused simply by the collapse of the cell-walls in 
drying, and is not an actual twisting. Captain Mitchell’s 
experiment with the ammoniacal oxide of copper was not 
conducted in the manner necessary for showing the spiral 
threads which have been observed within the outer cell- walls, 
for in his letter read at the last meeting, he speaks of having 
put cotton into the solution four months ago, examining it 
at intervals, frequently at first, and then daily for some time, 
whereas the action of this solvent is so rapid that the 
microscope requires to be prepared beforehand, as in obser- 
vations on crystallization, and it is sometimes difficult even 
then to follow the changes which take place. Mr. Heys 
exhibited the action of the solvent under the microscope, 
and also showed many drawings of cotton which had been 
similarly treated. He said that if a single fibre of the cotton 
be selected and watched it will be seen first to become 
inflated, not uniformly, but with many constrictions, giving 
it the appearance of an irregular string of beads. After a 
time the external envelope will entirely disappear, leaving 
only fragments of the spiral thread, of which the portions 
corresponding with the constrictions will be seen to have the 
form of rings. Having exhibited these appearances, he said 
he would leave the members to form their own opinion upon 
the structure of cotton, but repeated the conclusion he had 
arrived at, that it is composed of an external envelope or 
tube, within this a spiral thread, preventing its collapse, 
and a pith-like substance in the centre. 
Mr. Nevill showed mounted specimens, and handed in a 
list of 43 forms of Foraminifera, found in sand from the shore 
of Gorteen Bay, Connemara. Some of the kinds, he said, were 
not figured in Professor Williamson’s Becent Foraminifera, 
and among these he particularly mentioned a form of Miliolina, 
