62 
KEPOETS OF MEETINGS. 
comets, including the views of the earliest and most recent 
theorizers on this subject, and the paper concluded with descrip- 
tions of some of the most remarkable comets of recent times. 
On January 4th, 1883, Dr. Markham Skerritt gave an 
account of “ Recent Investigations in connection with the Germ 
Theory.” After referring to the experiments by which Professor 
Tyndall showed that air, free from solid particles, was incapable 
of producing life in organic fluids, he gave details of the observa- 
tions of Pasteur, Koch, and others, which have established that 
peculiar organisms are constantly found in the blood of patients 
suffering from Splenic Fever, Relapsing Fever, Tubercular 
Disease, (tc., which organisms are suspected to be the means by 
which these diseases are carried from individual to individual. 
Dr. Skerritt then proceeded to an account of the experiments of 
Pasteur, in which, by a system of culture, he was able so to 
modify the nature of these organisms that they could only 
propagate disease in moderated forms. 
On February 1st, the President showed a specimen of the 
rose of Jericho, and also read a paper on Thirty Years’ Rain- 
fall at Clifton.” This paper will be found in another part of the 
present number of the Proceedings, as will also a paper by Mr. 
E. Wethered, F.C.S., on “ Sources of Water Supply,” which 
was read at the same meeting, and is of considerable local 
interest. 
On March 1st, Mr. J. G. Grenfell made a communication on 
“ Evolution in the Protozoa.” “ The object of the paper was to 
give an illustration of the interesting problems presented by the 
theory of evolution with special reference to the principle of 
utility which is implied in the doctrine of the survival of the 
fittest.” Taking the lines of the probable evolution of the 
Protozoa, as established by Saville Kent and others, Mr. 
Grenfell showed the amount of structural difference which 
exists between the various groups, and applied the principle of 
