416 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
substance such as had long been known to surround diatoms in the 
living state — mucus, gelatinous, “ sticky stuff ” would be good names to 
apply to it. Sometimes it surrounded the diatom as a sort of sheath, 
enabling it to be observed by staining ; sometimes it consolidated itself 
at one end, forming a sort of stalk ; sometimes it formed a film under 
the water, in which the diatoms were massed in large quantities ; and 
sometimes it was consolidated into a tube, inside which the diatoms 
existed and could be seen moving up and down. These conditions were 
all known, but he had not seen it noticed that it formed things like 
those which Mr. Grenfell had described. He thought, however, that it 
was very probable that what Mr. Grenfell had seen was the earliest 
stage of what they were all well acquainted with ; if so, the observation 
was a new one. But as to the nature of these things, he could offer no 
opinion at all. 
The President said the subject was somewhat a novel one, and, 
therefore, it was not likely that any one would be prepared to say much 
about it without some further investigation. It was quite out of his own 
department, but it struck him that if a diatom really made the sheath 
of mucus in such quantity as to leave a train behind it, they ought to be 
able to see by microscopic examination of the organism that something 
was breaking down in order to give place and passage to it, and, as it 
must have come from somewhere, if it was produced in such a quantity 
it ought also to be possible to see the cells which were broken down in 
order to give rise to so large a quantity. It seemed, therefore, to him 
that microscopic examination should offer a promise of some chance of 
determining whether it was mucus streaming behind, or whether it was 
something of a different nature. He hoped that Mr. Grenfell would b e 
able to make further investigations on the subject. 
The thanks of the Meeting were voted to Mr. Grenfell for his paper. 
The following Instruments, Objects, &c., were exhibited: — 
Mr. J. W. Brown: — A Home-made Microscope. 
Mr. J. G. Grenfell : — Diatoms in a network of threads, Oscillatorise 
with long trails, Pellets and network formed of indigo and 
threads by. Diatoms in 48 hours, and Diagrams illustrating his 
paper. 
Mr. C. F. Bousselet : — Epistylis jplicatilis , mounted. 
The Society : — A Stereoscopic Photomicrograph of Heliojpelta , and 
Photomicrographs of young Fat Cells from foetal Cat, presented 
by Dr. W. C. Borden. 
New Fellows: — The following were elected Ordinary Fellows: — 
Dr. Albert Abrams, Dr. Cuthbert Bowen, Mr. Edwin Charles Lacey, and 
Mr. Frederick Gwilym Treharne, 
