486 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
to be able to exhibit them with all the appearance of their natural forms. 
He noticed a remark to the effect that rotifers were largely the inhabi- 
tants of continents, and that there were very few upon islands; he 
should like to ask what was intended to be understood by the terms 
many and few in this respect. 
Mr. Thorpe said what he meant was that on continents there were 
so many more in variety and species than on islands. When a species 
existed on an island the individuals might be fairly numerous, but the 
number of species would be comparatively few. On the Solomon Islands 
he was only able to find two or three kinds, and one of these ( Pedalion 
fennicum) was found in a very curious position. There was no standing 
water on these islands, but in a hole made in a cocoanut-tree by the 
natives, where rain-water was collected for drinking purposes, he had 
found this rotifer. 
Prof. Bell inquired what about Japan ? Mr. Hood had reported 
having found 225 species in Ireland, and our own country was fairly 
w T ell stocked. He thought that sufficient distinction had not been made 
between an oceanic island and one which at some no very distant 
geological period had become separated from the mainland. 
Mr. Thorpe said he worked for three months in Japan, but found no 
Floscules, no Furcularias, and no Melicertans, whilst in China all these 
swarmed. His former paper gave an account of three months’ work 
only, but in that time he had collected an enormous amount of other 
material which it was quite impossible properly to deal with. 
The Chairman thought that Dr. Hudson had said in one of his 
addresses to the Society that in regard to distribution the rotifers 
seemed to follow the footsteps of man, and that those found in foreign 
countries which had been colonised were frequently of the same kind 
as those of the countries whence the immigrants originally came. He 
should be glad to know if this was so. 
Mr. Thorpe said this was most certainly a fact. In Australia he 
had found the most abundant material always in ornamental waters in 
botanical gardens and in the immediate precincts of civilisation, and the 
forms were such as left no doubt that in some way or other they had 
been introduced by the agency of man, for, as Dr. Hudson had remarked 
a foot of salt water was as great a barrier to rotifers as an ocean. 
The thanks of the Society were cordially voted to Surgeon Y. Gunson 
Thorpe for his interesting communication. 
Lt.-Col. H. G. F. Siddons, R.A., exhibited a small portable Micro- 
scope which had a stage made to turn up in the way suggested at their 
previous meeting. It was one of Messrs. Swift’s models, but had been 
modified in two respects. The two C-springs used to hold down the slide 
had been replaced by ordinary stage-clips, inserted in two holes, drilled 
in two short arms which were pivoted against the under surface of the 
stage, and secured by clamping nuts. For packing, the arms turn out 
of the way, while the arrangement admits of the use of a small trough, 
as well as a 3 by 1 in. slide. The other modification was a means 
of carrying two objectives inside the draw-tube. English objectives 
were too large for this purpose, but Nachet’s would go in nicely, the 
