628 
British Association . 
[September, 
of water friction, £30 ; Mr. W. E. Ayrton, specific inductive 
capacity of Sprengel vacuum, £20 ; Rev. Prof. Haughton, 
completion of tables of sun-heat co-efficients, £50 ; Prof. 
G. Forbes, instrument for dete( 5 tion of fire-damp in mines, 
£10 ; Mr. J. M. Thompson, inductive capacity of crystals 
and paraffines, £25. B. Chemistry : Dr. Dewar, speCtral 
analysis, £10 ; Dr. Wallace 3 development of light from coal 
gas, £10, C. Geology; Prof. Duncan, R.M., report on 
carboniferous polyzoa, £10 ; Prof. A. L. Adam, caves of 
South Ireland, £10 ; Prof. Seeley, viviparous nature of 
ichthyosaurus, £10 ; Mr. John Evans, Kent’s cavern ex- 
ploration, £50 ; Mr. John Evans, geological record, £100 ; 
Prof. W. C. Williamson, miocene flora of the basalt of 
North Ireland, £15 ; Prof. Hull, underground waters of 
Permian formations, £5. D. Biology ; Dr. Pye Smith, 
elimination of nitrogen by bodily exercise, £50 ; Mr. Lane 
Fox, general anthropological notes, £20 ; Mr. Stainton, 
record of zoological literature, £ 100 ; Dr. M. Foster, table 
at zoological station at Naples, £75 ; Dr. A. Gamgee, inves- 
tigation of the geology and zoology of Mexico, £50 ; Sir J. 
Lubbock, excavations at Port Stewart, £15. F. Statistics 
and Economical Science : Dr. Farr, anthropometry, £50. 
G. Mechanics : Mr. Bramwell, patent laws, £50. Total, 
£960. 
On the motion of Mr. Sclater, seconded by Prof. Ramsay, 
it was resolved that the Council be authorised to take such 
further aCtion, having regard to the correspondence with 
the Treasury as to the natural History collection, as they 
may deem necessary in the interests of science. 
The following is an abstract of the Inaugural Address of 
the President, Prof. G. J. Allman, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., 
&c. : — 
The President selected as his subject the most generalised 
expression of living matter, and gave an account of the results 
of the latest researches into its nature and properties. Some 
forty years ago, he said, Dujardin pointed out that the bodies of 
some of the lowest animals consist of a structureless semi-fluid, 
but contractile substance, which he named Sarcode. Mohl 
afterwards detected and studied a similar substance in the cells 
of plants, which he called Protoplasm. Schultze subsequently 
demonstrated that these two substances, the sarcode of animals 
and the protoplasm of plants, were identical. Recent research 
has not merely confirmed this conclusion of Schultze, but has 
shown that protoplasm lies at the root of all vital phenomena, 
whether animal or vegetable, constituting, as Huxley expresses 
it, the “ physical basis of life.” Wherever there is life there is 
