PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
839 
His other work was at the present time great, and the claims upon his 
time were not a few, but he could only say that whatever he could do 
for the Society he would do with the utmost pleasure. 
Mr. A. D. Michael thought they ought not to allow Dr. Dallinger to 
take his seat without some hearty expression of their sense of the great 
service he was rendering to the Society. A gentleman of his eminence 
in the scientific world, and who had been President of the Society, 
could not be called upon by any one to take the Secretaryship, and it 
was only his great love of science and his desire to serve the interests 
of the Society which induced him to accept the position. His kindness 
in this matter would be a great boon and would add much to the 
great services he had already rendered to the Society. To show how 
thoroughly they felt and appreciated the great sacrifices he made for 
the benefit of the Society he moved that a special vote of thanks be 
given to Dr. Dallinger for his great kindness in accepting — at least 
for the present — the office of Secretary of the Society. 
Mr. T. H. Powell seconded the motion. 
The vote of thanks having been carried by acclamation, 
Dr. Dallinger thanked the Fellows for this renewed expression of 
their kindly feeling, and again assured them of his desire to do all 
that he could to serve the Society. 
The Secretary read a letter from Mr. W. Hutchinson, descriptive of a 
mounted preparation of cotton exhibited under the Microscope in the room. 
Dr. H. Schroeder exhibited a series of photomicrographs of J. D. 
Moller’s type-slides of diatoms. He (Dr. Schroeder) said that Herr 
Moller had in the years 1886-90 mounted the most complete collection 
of diatoms ever found. The largest slide contained over 4000 diatoms, 
arranged in such an order that the name of each one can be found by 
means of the catalogue, whilst the total number mounted in Herr 
Moller’s collection is over 25,000. Herr Moller originally intended to 
exhibit his collection, but owing to the difficulties that would be incurred 
he had abandoned this plan, and contented himself by producing the 
photographs. 
The Society voted a cordial vote of thanks to Dr. Schroeder for the 
opportunity thus afforded of inspecting the photographs. 
The Secretary read the following note from Surgeon Y. Gunson 
Thorpe, R.N., On the Colouring Power of Noctilucae : — “ In the Journ. R. 
Micr. Soe., 1889, p. 236, there is a notice of a paper by Herr K. Mobius, 
in which he doubts the statement that the red colour of the sea can be 
produced by Noctiluca miliaris. It may be interesting to know, that 
towards the end of April 1889, when in the Mediterranean Sea, and 
approaching Gibraltar, at noon, the ship in which I was, passed for 
several miles through water coloured a bright red colour. On examina- 
tion under the Microscope this appearance was found to be produced by 
myriads of Noctilucae. Not a trace of TricJiodesmium erythrseum was in 
company with the infusorian. It was noticed that the large central 
protoplasmic mass of Noctiluca had a distinct reddish tinge, but 
