308 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
The President, in proposing a vote of thanks to Professor Owen 
for his paper, said that all would feel the interest it possessed, although 
as the subject was quite new it was hardly possible for any discussion 
now to take place upon it. He was sure that the Fellows would not 
only thank the Professor for his paper, but would also join him in 
saying that they were specially glad to be able to give him a personal 
welcome on account of his long connexion with the Society. 
A vote of thanks to Professor Owen for his paper was unanimously 
passed. 
Professor Owen said that it might be familiar to them all that so 
many of the fossil remains which were found in the Mesozoic strata 
— both of animals, plants, and shells — belong to a class of which the 
nearest living representatives are now found at the antipodes. Those 
beautiful specimens containing the well known teeth of Cestracion were 
well known, and there was still living in Australia a creature exhibiting 
the same kind of dentition and which was described as going along 
the reefs and picking off the Terebratulae and crushing them between 
these teeth. The evidences as to the Stonesfield slate and similar 
formations, showed that all the individuals forming the group found 
there were Marsupials, the only living representatives of which class 
are now found in Australia. He had often been disposed to say, that 
the further they had to go in the strata for their fossils the further 
afield they had to go in the world for their present representatives ; 
thus these things which had been puzzling him for so long were at 
last found to belong to a class of creatures which were only now 
represented by the horrid little lizard in Australia, Moloch horridus. 
Mr. Crisp (Secretary) read a communication by Colonel Wood- 
ward, entitled “ Further Eemarks on a ‘ Simple Device ’ for the 
Illumination of Balsam-mounted Objects for Examination with Im- 
mersion Objectives whose Balsam Angle is 90° ” (see p, 216), previously 
reminding the meeting of Colonel Woodward’s first paper on the 
subject which appeared in the ‘ M. M. J.’ of August, 1877. The 
original apparatus as there described, and the two prisms referred to 
in the further remarks, were placed on the table for examination. 
He also read extracts from a letter from Colonel Woodward, 
stating that “ he hoped to have something to say to the Society in the 
autumn about the treatment of A. pellucida in balsam by objectives of 
moderate power, but excessive angle amplified to high powers. To 
illustrate the possibilities of the method, he had sent a paper print of 
A. pellucida in balsam as shown by a Spencer duplex of rather 
more than 110° balsam angle, amplified so as to give equal powers with 
equal distances to those given by Powell and Lealand’s Jy. The 
whole frustule shown on the print was • 0038 of an inch long, so that 
the magnifying power obtained was about 2420 diameters, and he 
thought it would be said, with very little distortion and good resolution 
of the lines from end to end. The striae on tliis frustule were, as 
would be seen by counting the number to the inch and multiplying 
by the magnifying power, about 100 to the yqVf inch, so that 
