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LIBRARY

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C K. OGDEN COLLECTION

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ANNALS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL
CLUB OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY

MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA • MADRAS
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILI.AN COMPANY

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO
DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.

TOROXTO

ANNALS

OF THE

PHILOSOPHICAL CLUB

OF THE

ROYAL SOCIETY

WRITTEN FROM ITS MINUTE BOOKS

BY

T. G. BONNEY, Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S.

EMKRITUS I'ROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY, UNMVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON
FELLOW OF ST, JOHN's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, HON. CANON OF MANCHESTER

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1919

LIBRARY!

UNIVEKSITY OF CAUlQSiSJUi
DAVI§ -

COPYRIGHT

GLASGOW : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO, LTD.

PREFACE

The story of the Royal Society Club has been recently told
by a member hardly less eminent for his literary gifts than
as a geologist. But though much the senior, tliis was not
the only social club in the Royal Society. A second was
founded in 1847, and continued till 1901, when the two
were united. Their aims, however, were not identical.
The older club had grown up, perhaps without any formal
beginning, as a social institution. The younger one, while
not by any means repudiating this position, had more
definite purposes. It arose from a sense of dissatisfaction,
which was felt, rather before the middle of last century, at
the condition and management of the Royal Society, by
not a few of its more energetic and eminent Fellows. They
were convinced that it was not occupying the position or
exercising the influence in the country which it ought to
be doing, and that this failure was partly due to the way
in which its Fellows were elected ; in other words, that
there was a danger lest it should be said of the Society, as
it was formerly of a very attractive College at Oxford, that
the chief qualifications for its Fellowship were for the
candidate to be * well-born, well-dressed, and moderately
learned [in science].' " The agitation for reform," to quote
Sir A. Geikie's words,^ " became so urgent that, in 1846,
the Council appointed a Committee to consider the mode
of election of Fellows. The result of the deliberations of
the Committee was seen next year in the adoption of a new
series of statutes which wrought a revolution in the pro-
cedure of the Society in regard to this matter." The

^ Annals of the Royal Society Club, page 349.

VI

Preface

election of ordinary Fellows by the general body of the
Society was fixed to take place only on the first Thursday
in June. Of this meeting ample notice was to be given, and
a list of the candidates, proposed by the Council, to be
circulated pre\iously among the Fellows. The number
of names on this list was not to exceed fifteen, and they
were to be carefully selected by the Council. This principle
of limitation and selection has lasted to the present day,
and has done much to enhance the prestige of the Society.
But as danger always exists of enthusiasm flagging and
abuses creeping back, the more zealous reformers determined
to found a dinner Club, which, instead of being almost
wholly social, like the one already in existence, should
aim at checking any retrograde tendencies in the Council
of the Royal Society, at stimulating the intellectual ac-
tivity of its members, and at strengthening the influence
of Science in Britain. To facilitate the first and second
of these purposes, the rules enacted that no strangers,
except " scientific foreigners temporarily visiting this
country," were to be present at any of the Club meetings ;
thus securing free discussion of subjects, for which publicity
might often be undesirable ; while for the third purpose,
the chairman was directed, after dinner, to invite any one
present to make a communication on some subject which
he thought interesting. An abstract of this, with any
remarks of importance which it might elicit from other
members, was to be entered in the Minute Book and read
at the next meeting. These records — the distinctive feature
in the Minutes of the Philosophical Club — are preserved in
two folio volumes, bound in red-maroon calf : the one
presented by Sir H. T. de la Beche, the other (about half -full
and ending June 13, 1901) by Sir W. R. Grove. Their
interest is great, as I hope to show, but their disconnected
nature seemed to me to make a continuous narrative almost
impossible. I have therefore decided to arrange the contents
of these Minute Books in two sections, corresponding with
the purposes mentioned above ; the first relating the
history of the Club and its members, and of their efforts

Preface vii

to increase the influence of the Royal and other Scientific
Societies in Britain, and the second section giving summaries
of the after-dinner communications.

It remains to add that, when Sir A. Geikie had completed
the Annals of the Royal Society Club, several of its members
thought that the history of the Philosophical Club should
also assume the more durable form of print, and in May,
1917, honoured me, as I happened to be the oldest survivor
of its members (for I was elected in 1883), by requesting me
to prepare its records for publication. It has been a longer
task than^ I had anticipated, and one which, though pleasant
from its varied and interesting matter, has been in some
respects rather saddening, for so many of those, whose
kindnesses I often experienced in my earlier days of
membership, have passed away from among us. But
now that I too have become a Nestor (at any rate in years)
among those who are handing on the torch of science to our
still younger generation, the study of these records cheers
me with hope for the future, because they show that, since
the foundation of the Philosophical Club, science has
advanced, with accelerated speed and increasing strength,
from a comparatively humble position in the Halls of
Learning to one, where its merits are more widely and fully
appreciated, and its powers of dissipating the mists of
ignorance and illuminating the darkness of superstition
are beginning to be acknowledged.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION I. (HISTORICAL)

Aims of the Club and history of its foundation. Biographies of
the forty-seven original members. Efforts to foster co-operation
and secure juxtaposition of the leading Scientific Societies.
Influence on the Council of the Royal Society. New members
and their biographies. Modification of rules and declining
attendance. Proposals for union with the Royal Society Club,
and steps in this direction. Ultimate amalgamation of the

two Clubs -.------ pp. i-g5

SECTION II. (DISCUSSIONS) ^

Thermometric scales. Letters of Franklin and Priestley. Tea.
cultivation. The earth's interior. Altitudes in Himalayas,
The sea-serpent. Meteorological questions. Marine fauna of
Lusitanian coast. Bismuth. Physiological investigations.
North American fishes. Development of trilobites. Arrian
and aromatic plants. Rhinoceros in the Zoological Gardens.
Errors of wet-bulb thermometers. Layard's discoveries in
Assyria. Attempts to photograph nebulae. Lunar volcanoes.
Powerful magnets. Turpentine and hght. Resinous com-
pounds and lenses. Alluvial deposits of Nile valley. Boa
constrictor and its blanket. Effects of vibration on iron.
Changes of level in Arctic regions. New form of steam engine.
Geology of Madeira. Coal on Black Sea coast. Binocular
microscopes. The Ganges Canal. Fossil plants in Greenland.
Synthesis of organic compounds. Saturn's rings. Aluminium.
Tornado in America. Gutta-percha. Improved manufacture
of steel. Veined structure and colour of glacier ice. Regelation.
Parthenogenesis. Greensand grains. Timbuctoo. Living-
stone's journeys. Italian earthquakes. Transfusion of blood.
Ossiferous caves. Erupted lavas. Improvements in making
cannon. Photographic prints. Total solar ecUpses. Palaeo-
lithic man. Moraines in the Lebanon. Deep-sea dredging.

^ Only the more important subjects and their first mention are recorded.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION I. (HISTORICAL)

Aims of the Club and history of its foundation. Biographies of
the forty-seven original members. Efforts to foster co-operation
and secure juxtaposition of the leading Scientific Societies.
Influence on the Council of the Royal Society. New members
and their biographies. Modification of rules and declining
attendance. Proposals for union with the Royal Society Club,
and steps in this direction. Ultimate amalgamation of the
two Clubs -------- pp. 1-96

SECTION II. (DISCUSSIONS) 1

Thermometric scales. Letters of FrankUn and Priestley. Tea
cultivation. The earth's interior. Altitudes in Himalayas,
The sea-serpent. Meteorological questions. Marine fauna of
Lusitanian coast. Bismuth. Physiological investigations.
North American fishes. Development of trilobites. Arrian
and aromatic plants. Rhinoceros in the Zoological Gardens.
Errors of wet-bulb thermometers. Layard's discoveries in
Assyria. Attempts to photograph nebulae. Lunar volcanoes.
Powerful magnets. Turpentine and Ught. Resinous com-
pounds and lenses. Alluvial deposits of Nile valley. Boa
constrictor and its blanket. Effects of vibration on iron.
Changes of level in Arctic regions. New form of steam engine.
Geology of Madeira. Coal on Black Sea coast. Binocular
microscopes. The Ganges Canal. Fossil plants in Greenland.
Synthesis of organic compounds. Saturn's rings. Aluminium.
Tornado in America. Gutta-percha. Improved manufacture
of steel. Veined structure and colour of glacier ice. Regelation.
Parthenogenesis. Greensand grains. Timbuctoo. Living-
stone's journeys. ItaUan earthquakes. Transfusion of blood.
Ossiferous caves. Erupted lavas. Improvements in making
cannon. Photographic prints. Total solar ecUpses. Palaeo-
lithic man. Moraines in the Lebanon. Deep-sea dredging.

* Only the more important subjects and their first mention are recorded.

Table of Contents

Australian exploration. Fly-catching plants. Black rain.
Graphite in Siberia. Welwitschia. Spectroscopy. Moraines in
Britain. Balloon ascents. Survey of Jerusalem. Lake Albert
Nyanza. Eozoon Canadense. Elgin reptiUferous sandstone.
New Zealand lizard. Thames subway. Arsenic. Travels in
the Atlas. Fog signals. Effect of strain on polarized Ught.
Deep-sea cable. The radiometer. Bursting of shells. Gigantic
tortoises. Vitality of seeds. Geology of Tangiers. Artificial
rubies. The planet Mars. Bacillus of splenic fever. Com-
posite photographs. White-ants. Edison's electric Ught.
Remarkable emerald. Solar spectroscopy. Ancient medicine
stamp. Artificial diamonds. Freshwater medusa. Clouds.
Fish in hot springs. Colour bHndness. Ice at Niagara. Solar
energy. Lightning in Bermuda. Transit of Venus. Rowlands'
grating. Eruption of Krakatoa. Anthropometric records.
Commensal fish. Colour in crystals. A plant fish- trap. Vege-
tation of Kilimanjaro. Edible bird's nests. Discovery of
Germanium. A giant hydroid. Eruption of Niau-fu. The
yeast-plant. Deep-sea fishes. Chimpanzee and pygmies.
Pearls in cocoa-nuts. Electric safety -lamps. Quartz-crystals.
Flora of the Canaries. Zero of temperature. Beryl crystal.
Compound of nickel and carbon monoxide. Fossil mammals
at Barrington. Ants and captive spiders. Stable and unstable
periodic orbits. Antitoxins. The Glossopteris flora. Liquid
air. Distant earthquake shocks. The Surinam Toad.
Photographic plates, metals and vegetable oils. The Univer-
sity of Sydney. Boring at the atoll of Funafuti. Thorium
gas-mantles. The Garial. Old volcano in island of Arran

pp. 97-257

Appendix 259-263

Jnpex 265-286

SECTION I

THE HISTORY OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL CLUB

On April 12th, 1847, twenty-seven Fellows of the Royal
Society met at Clunn's Hotel, Covent Garden, and decided
on forming a Club. For this the name of the Fortj^-seven
Club was at first suggested, but it was ultimately decided
to call it the Philosophical Club. Rules were also proposed,
discussed, and adopted, as the Minutes duly record, but
I think it needless to print them in full, because some are
quite of the usual character. The following, however, are
more or less indicative of the special purpose of the Club :

(i) The purpose of the Club is to promote as much as
possible the scientific objects of the Royal Society, to
facilitate intercourse between those Fellows who are actively
engaged in cultivating the various branches of Natural
Science and who have contributed to its progress, to increase
the attendance at the evening meetings,^ and to encourage
the contribution and discussion of papers.

(2) The Members of the Club shall be limited to forty-
seven, of whom thirty-five at least shall be resident within
ten miles of the General Post Office. With the exception
of scientific foreigners temporarily visiting this country,
no strangers are to be present at any of the Meetings.

(3) With the exception of the President of the Royal
Society for the time being, those only shall be eligible as
Members of the Club who are Fellows of the Royal Society
and authors of a paper published in the Transactions of

1 The Royal Society then met at 8.30.
P.O. A

2 Annals of the Philosophical Club

one of the Chartered Societies, estabHshed for the promoting
of Natural Science, or of some work of original research in
Natural Science. ^

(4) The Meetings of the Club shall take place once a
month, on Thursdays from October to June, both inclusive,
except the Anniversary Meeting, which shall take place on
the last Monday in April. The chair shall be taken at
half-past five o'clock precisely and quitted at one quarter
past eight, each Member presiding in turn in alphabetical
order. It shall be the duty of the Chairman to regulate
and control all ballots and discussions in the Club, to
announce to the Meeting, previously to seven o'clock, the
subject of the paper to be read at the Royal Society that
evening, and to bring forward, or to invite members of
the Club to bring forward, any correspondence or scientific
subject worthy of consideration. Members will be expected
afterwards to attend the meeting of the Royal Society,
unless unavoidably prevented. The times of Meeting
shall be notified each year by a circular from the Treasurer
and also by a note to each Member one week before every
Meeting.

The next three rules order the appointment of a Treasurer
and a Committee of six to advise on the general management
of the Club ; the former to hold office for three years, but to
be re-ehgible for election, after an interval of one year '; of
the latter, three are to retire annually by seniority, but to
be similarly re-eligible. The election to be by ballot, at
each Anniversary Meeting. Besides the ordinary duties
of Treasurer, that officer is to keep a register of all the
Meetings of the Club, to make a Minute of all resolutions
which may be adopted, and, whenever practicable, furnish
the Chairman with the title of the paper to be read at the
Royal Societ\7 on the evening of the Meeting of the Club.

The eighth rule fixes the annual subscription at twenty
shilUngs, to be paid to the Treasurer at the first Meeting

1 Unless we interpret the term Natural Science in an unusually wide
sense (which evidently was the case), this part of the rule would exclude
Fellows distinguished in ' Pure Mathematics.'

Rules of the Club 3

of the Session, and enacts that the price of the dinner is
not to exceed ten shillings.

The ninth rule prescribes that candidates for election are
to be proposed, and the grounds of their eligibility stated,
in writing by three members of the Club, not members
of the Committee ; sent to the Treasurer, read to the Club
at the next meeting and retained till the anniversary. In
case of the number of candidates exceeding that of the
vacancies, the Committee is to report to the Club the names
of those whom they consider most eligible, and these are
to be entitled to priority of ballot. In the event of no
excess, or the non-election of recommended candidates, the
order of proposal is to be that of voting, and in the event
of less than fifteen members being present at an Anniversary
Meeting, the election shall be adjourned till the next meeting,
when that number shall attend. The tenth rule enacts that
all new rules must be proposed by at least three members,
notified to the Committee in writing, and read to the Club
at not less than two meetings before the Anniversary,
when they should be considered, put to the vote, and rejected
unless four-fifths of those present (fifteen being a quorum)
were in their favour.

Of the members present, Mr. Grove was appointed
Treasurer of the Club, and Prof. E. Forbes, Prof. Graham,
Mr. Horner and Dr. Royle were appointed the Committee
of Management with the Treasurer, and were authorised
to select and invite Fellows of the Royal Society to join
the Club until the number of forty-seven was completed.
Those who accepted were to be considered original members
of the Club.

At the second meeting, held at Cuttriss' Hotel on May 6th,
the Treasurer gave the names of thirteen Fellows who had
accepted the invitation of the Committee.^ Twenty-eight
members, including some of those mentioned above, were
present at the dinner.

The attendance at the third meeting, held on June 3rd,
also at Cuttriss' Hotel, was twenty-three, and it was

1 See the list printed on next page.

4 Annals of the Philosophical Club

announced that the number of the Club was now complete,
seven other Fellows having accepted invitations to join it.

The following is a list of the forty-seven original members
of the Club, the first paragraph denoting those present at
the first dinner and an obelus those who, though not
attending that or either of the other two, must have joined
in the project before April 12th :

Mr. Ansted, Sir H. T. de la Beche, Mr. T. Bell, Mr. Bow-
man, Mr. Broderip, Mr. R. Brown, Sir P. G. Egerton, Dr.
Falconer, Prof. E. Forbes, Mr. Gassiot, Prof. Graham,
Mr. Grove, Mr. L. Horner, Mr. Lyell, Dr. W. A. Miller,
Sir R. Murchison, Mr. Owen, Mr. Partridge, Dr. Pereira,
Mr. J. Phillips, Dr. Royle, Col. Sabine, Dr. Sharpey, Mr.
Edw. Solly, Mr. Spence, Col. Sykes, Mi. Wheatstone.

(May 6th.) Adml. Beaufort, Mr. S. H. Christie, Mr.
Faraday, Mr. J. T. Graves, Sir J. Herschel, Mr. Hopkins,
Prof. McCuUagh, Mr. W. H. Miller, Mr. Newport, Mr. George
Rennie, Sir J. Richardson, Rev. A. Sedgwick, Capt. Smyth.

(June 3rd.) tMajor Cautley, tMr. Fox Talbot, Mr. Goodsir,
tMr. J. H. Green, Sir W. S. Harris, Dr. Hooker, tDr. WaUich.

The autographs of these and of other members down to
Sir J. H. Lefroy (elected in 1879) appear on the first two
pages of the first volume of Minutes, but twelve of the
names are in pencil, the book not having been actually
signed. It was customary at first for the members present
at each dinner to write their own names at the beginning of
the minutes, and the practice continued till the i8th meeting
(Feb. 22nd, 1849), after which the list was written by the
Treasurer, but it was resumed on Feb. 26th, 1880, for two
meetings only. In the second volume of the Minutes the
names are written by the Treasurer, but the autographs of
the members, at the date of the Anniversary Meeting, April
26th, 1880, with those afterwards elected, are on the first
two pages, one name being dupHcated ; three others (down
to 1891) are in pencil, after which two names only are written
in ink, and the list is evidently incomplete. The Hst printed
above has been copied with a little rearrangement from
one on page 14 of the same volume, in the handwriting of

Original Members 5

Dr. Allen Thomson, then Treasurer. It also mentions those
of them who had died or resigned membership.

That hst also gives in addition the names of the
members with the date of their election, beginning with
the original 47, who are grouped as present at the first
meeting, or announced at the second and third meetings,
together with those who had been subsequently elected
down to 1880. The dates of resignation or decease are
also entered (in most cases) .

It is hoped these short biographical sketches of the founders
of the Club, all of whom have, of course, passed away, may
interest readers. Some of them did not attain till after
1847 the positions indicated by the prefixes to their names.

Professor David Thomas Ansted, the first in alphabetical order
of the original forty-seven, was bom in London in 1814, and went
to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship. After
some years' study of geology he became a professor of that subject
at King's College, London, and from 1844 to 1847 was Assistant-
Secretary to the Geological Society, being elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society in 1844. He then became much occupied in practical
work, such as water supply, and for some years was resident at
Impington, near Cambridge, dying at Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1880.
He wrote many papers and books on geology, which met with
considerable success.

Sir Francis Beaufort, the hydrographer, was bom in 1774 at
Navan, County Meath, of which place his father, a topographer of
some distinction, was rector. In 1787 he entered the Royal Navy,
and his ship took part in Lord Howe's victory on June ist, 1794. In
1800 he was one of a boat's crew which cut out a Spanish battle-
ship from under the guns of a fort near Malaga, and received nine-
teen wounds, sixteen from musket shots and three sword cuts,
winning promotion to commander. In 1805 he surveyed the mouth
of the Rio de la Plata, andj after convoy duty on the coast of Spain,
became post-captain in 1810 and surveyed the coast of Karamania;
afterwards publishing an account of it and the adjoining part of
Asia Minor. He was badly wounded in a boat attack by Turkish
pirates, and had to return to England, where he drew with his
own hand the charts of his survey. In 1829 he was appointed
hydrographer to the navy, and among the valuable results of his
twenty-six years' tenure of office were the scale of wind-force and
the tabular system of weather registration. Promoted to rear-
admiral in 1846, he was created K.C.B. two years later, and died
on Dec. 17th, 1857.

6 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Professor Thomas Bell, well known as a zoologist, was a
surgeon's son, bom. at Poole in 1792, and brought up to his father's
profession, who early showed a love of natural history, especially
zoology. Qualifying as M.R.C.S. in 1815 (he obtained its fellowship
in 1844), he practised in London, paying, however, such attention
to zoology that he became Professor of it at King's College, wrote a
History of British Quadrupeds in 1837, followed by one on British
Reptiles and another on British Stalk-eyed Crustacea. He was
Secretary of the Royal Society from 1848 to 1853, and President of
the Linnean Society from 1853 to 1861, and was active in securing
accommodation for it at Burlington House. At the age of seventy
he retired to Gilbert White's house at Selbome, where he gathered
about him memorials of that true lover of Nature, dying on March
13th, 1880.

Sir William Bowman, the eminent ocuUst, was a banker's son,
bom at Nantwich in 181 6, who began medical study at Birmingham,
and went on to King's College, London, where he showed great
interest in physiological questions. After spending some months
in visiting foreign hospitals, he passed as M.R.C.S. in 1839, and
worked at King's College Hospital till 1856, when he became full
surgeon. But he had already specialized as an oculist, and after
1852 was the recognized head of that branch in London, his great
reputation being due to his unrivalled knowledge of the structure
of the eye, his skill as an operator, and his sympathy with his
patients. No one was so successful as he in cases of glaucoma,
cataract, and detached retina. But his additions to the knowledge
of general anatomy were also so valuable that he was called the
father of it in Britain. He became F.R.S. in 1841, and received
next year a Royal Medal, F.R.C.S. in 1844, and was created baronet
in 1884. Notwithstanding his professional labours, he found time
for pubUc and philanthropic work, retiring ultimately to Joldwynds,
Dorking, where he died on March 29th, 1892.

Mr. William John Broderip, a lover of zoology, was bom at
Bristol in 1789. After graduating at Oxford, he was called to the
Bar in 1817, and five years later appointed a police magistrate,
first at the Thames Court, then at Westminster, resigning office
in 1856. He devoted all his spare time to his favourite science,
forming a large collection of shells, now in the British Museum, and
writing the articles on zoology in the Penny Magazine, contributing
others on that subject to various periodicals, besides pubUshing
Leaves from the Note-hook of a Naturalist and an essay on the Dodo,
which contains all the information then known about it. He
died in London, Feb. 27th, 1859.

Dr. Robert Brown, a botanist, highly esteemed, was the son
of an episcopal minister, bom at Montrose in 1773. A medical
student at the University of Edinburgh, he lost no opportunity of

Original Members

working at botany, and, after passing his examinations, became
assistant-surgeon to a regiment. This ultimately brought him to
London, whence, through Sir Joseph Banks, he was appointed
naturaUst to a ship sent to survey the Australian and Tasmanian
coasts. During his four years' absence he formed a large collection
of plants, many of them new to science, and, after his return in 1805,
became librarian to the Linnean Society, and to Sir Joseph Banks,
and devoted himself to working out and publishing the results of
these and other investigations. He acquired a high reputation for
his researches in vegetable physiology, received the Copley Medal
from the Royal Society, and from Oxford the degree of D.C.L., and
died Jan. loth, 1858, loved for the beauty of his character by his
many friends.

Sir Pro by Thomas Cautley, distinguished both as an engineer
and a palaeontologist, was a Suffolk man, bom in 1802 at Stratford
St. Mary. At the age of seventeen he obtained a commission in
the Bengal Artillery, but three years later was attached to Captain
Robert Smith, then engaged in reconstructing the Doab Canal,
an old irrigation channel, coming from the foot of the Siwahk Hills.
From this work he was called away to the siege of Bhurtpore in
1827, and, after the fall of that fortress, returned to the canal, which
was opened in 1830. Next year he was placed in charge of it, and
he was for twelve years engaged in constructing an upper section —
a much more difficult task, because it crossed torrents from the hills,
and these were liable to sudden floods, which, however, he succeeded
in controlling. The Ganges Canal was a still greater work, for
here he had to deal with official opposition as well as natural obstacles.
The necessary surveys were begun in 1837, but the construction
not till 1843. Then a failure in health obliged him to take a long
furlough in Europe, which he utilized in increasing his knowledge.
During this interval he must have become a member of the Philo-
sophical Club, for he returned to India in 1848, and the canal was
opened April 8th, 1854. Sir Arthur Cotton criticised its plan, to
whom Cautley made a vigorous reply, but expert opinion seems
inclined to regard the former as more correct in theory, the latter
more defensible in practice. This work completed, Cautley returned
to England, and was created K.C.B. But while engaged on the
Doab Canal, he investigated the geology of the Siwalik Hills, aided
by Dr. Hugh Falconer (page 9), who came to Saharanpur in
1832 as superintendent of its Botanical Gardens. They made a
very large collection of fossil remains (now in the British Museum) ^
which suppUed both with materials for many papers. Cautley also
wrote a book on canals, and served on the Council of India from
1858 to 1868, dying at Sydenham, Jan. 25th, 1871.

Professor Samuel Hunter Christie, distinguished for his
mathematical and magnetic investigations, was bom in 1784, and

8 Annals of the Philosophical Club

early showed signs of exceptional ability. He went to Trinity
College, Cambridge, was second wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos
of 1805, and bracketed for the Smith's Prizes with Thomas Turton,
afterwards Bishop of Ely. Appointed a Mathematical Lecturer at
Woolwich in 1806, he introduced competitive examinations, and,
after becoming Professor in 1838, ' transformed the Academy '
before resigning office in 1854. He undertook and published impor-
tant investigations into the effect of temperature on magnetic
forces, on cases of magneto-electric conductivity, and on the direct
influence of solar rays on the magnetic needle. A report, made by
himself and the Astronomer Royal (G. B. Airy) on Magnetic Observa-
tories, led the Government to establish several such in the British
Islands. Professor Christie died at Twickenham on Jan. 24th, 1865.

Sir Henry Thomas de la Beche, not the least eminent of that
group of geologists who, in the earlier half of the nineteenth century,
were the ' makers ' of that science in England, was bom in a suburb
of London in 1796. The last of an ancient family, he lost his father
early, and passed his boyhood at Ottery St. Mary and Lyme Regis,
where the fossils attracted him to geology. Later on, he went
from a military school into the army, but gave up that profession
after the peace of 181 5, and found employment in the Geology of
Dorset. After 181 7 he spent four or five years chiefly in Switzerland
and France, studying the Alps and increasing his knowledge of
minerals and rocks. In 1819 he published his first paper, On the
Temperature and Depth of the Lake of Geneva, which was quickly
followed by one on The Secondary Formations of the Southern Coast
of England. In 1824 he visited Jamaica, where he had inherited
an estate, and, as a result, gave the first description of its rocks.
Realizing the great importance of laying down the results of a
systematic survey of British geology on the new Ordnance Map
(on the scale of an inch to a mile), he did this, at his own expense, for
the mining districts of Devon and Cornwall, and the Report on The
Geology of Cornwall, Devon, and West Somerset, published in 1839,
is a lasting monument to his powers as a geologist. His map, how-
ever, had so strongly impressed the Government that they decided
to carry on the work, granted a sum of money and a house in Craig's
Court, and appointed De la Beche, in 1835, director of the Ordnance
Geological Survey. A larger space for specimens and staff was
soon wanted, and the present building in Jermyn Street was opened
by Prince Albert in 1851, which enabled De la Beche to carry out
his idea of establishing a School of Mines. Elected F.R.S. in 1819,
he became President of the Geological Society in 1847, received its
WoUaston Medal in 1855, was made a knight in 1848, and died,
after three years of declining health, on April 13th, 1855. His
Researches in Theoretical Geology, published in 1834, and his Geological
Observer, in 1853, are among the classics of the science.

Original Members

Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, tenth baronet of that
line, was born at Oulton Park, Tarporley, Cheshire, on November
13th, 1806. From Eton he went to Christ Church, taking his degree
in 1828, and while at Oxford worked at Geology with Buckland and
Conybeare, and began to collect fossil fishes with his friend Viscount
Cole, afterwards Earl of Enniskillen. For that purpose they travelled
together in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. He was elected to
Parliament in 1830, and till his death represented, except for three
years, some constituency in Cheshire, for notwithstanding his
devotion to science he took an active interest in local and public
affairs. He became F.R.S. in 1831, and received the Wollaston
Medal of the Geological Society in 1873. He died after a short
illness on April 5th, 1881.

Dr. Hugh Falconer, eminent for his botanical and still more
for his palaeontological work in India, was bom at Forres on Feb.
29th, 1808, showed in early life much interest in languages as well
as in natural science, and took the M.A. degree at Aberdeen Uni-
versity in 1826. Then, after medical study at Edinburgh, he
became an M.D. in 1829, after which he went to Bengal as an assistant-
surgeon of the East India Company, and soon after reaching Calcutta
attracted notice by identifying some fossil bones from Ava.
Stationed next year at Meerut, he became acquainted with Dr.
Royle, of the Botanic Gardens, Saharanpur, whom he shortly after-
wards succeeded, and introduced the tea-shrub, with other valuable
plants, into that part of India. Becoming acquainted with P. T.
Cautley (page 7), he joined him in making a great collection of
fossils, largely vertebrate, from the SiwaUk Hills. Falconer's
botanical investigations in 1838 took him across the mountains
into Balkistan and on to the glaciers at the head of the Shiggur
tributary of the Indus. In 1842 he came to England, bringing with
him great collections, botanical and palaeontological, which occupied
him till his return to India in 1847, when he was placed in charge
of the Botanical Gardens at Calcutta. In 1855 he retired to resume
his palaeontological work in England, and a few years later was
one of the first to reahze the importance of the palaeolithic flint
implements discovered in the valley of the Somme. Falconer
wrote many valuable memoirs, but as he died July 31st, 1865, he
did not live long enough to finish his great store of materials. But
what he accompHshed sufficed to prove him a man of first-rate
ability, attractive disposition, and high character.

Michael Faraday, a ' particular star ' among the physicists
of this country, was bom in humble circumstances at Newington
Butts on September 22nd, 1791, and at the age of fourteen was
apprenticed to a bookbinder and stationer, with whom he remained
for eight years, and contrived to acquire so much knowledge of
science that a customer gave him tickets to four of Davy's lectures

lo Annals of the Philosophical Club

at the Royal Institution. Faraday took notes, and sent a copy
of them to the lecturer, asking his help in obtaining a less mechanical
employment. On Christmas Day, 1812, Davy engaged him as
laboratory attendant at twenty-five shilUngs a week (see section II.),
and was not long in discovering his exceptional talents, for he took
Faraday next summer as a sort of personal attendant to himself
and Lady Davy on a tour in France, Switzerland, and Italy, and
introduced him to his scientific friends. On their return Faraday
was again engaged at the Royal Institution, and began next year
to publish papers on science. In 1821 he took two important steps,
the one marrying, the other joining a small religious body called
Sandemanians. He began two years later a set of experiments
which suggested that all gases are the vapours of liquids with very-
low boihng points, and in another two years he discovered benzol
and attempted to obtain a highly refractive optical glass. In the
later part of 1831 he began his great series of discoveries in magneto-
electricity, the incessant labour on which so affected his health
that he was obHged to take a long rest on the continent. Restored
to vigour by the Alpine air, he discovered the effect of magnetic
and electrical currents on the polarization of light, and then dia-
magnetism. Further investigations suggested doubts whether the
atom itself might not be capable of disruption, the demonstration
of which is one of the most important of recent advances. Faraday's
scientific position might have brought him wealth, but he sacrificed
that to the dehght of discovery, till he died on Aug. 25th, 1867,
worthy of the eulogium, " that as water in crystallizing excludes
all foreign ingredients, however minute, so in the making of him
beauty and nobleness coalesced to the exclusion of everjrthing
vulgar and low."

Professor Edward Forbes, a first-rate naturalist, was a banker's
son, bom in 181 5 at Douglas in the Isle of Man. At the age of
sixteen he went to London as an art student, but finding Uttie
encouragement, entered at Edinburgh University as a medical
student, where, however, he soon won distinction for his practical
knowledge of natural history, his keen insight, and his power of
generalization, so that these studies gradually drew him away
from medicine. After graduating in 1839 he went to the Levant
as naturaUst on the survey-ship Beacon, where he dredged much,
especially on the coast of Asia Minor, and made archaeological
discoveries in Lycia. On returning to London in the autumn of
1842 he was elected Professor of Botany at King's College, and
two years later became Palaeontologist to the Geological Survey^
and a Fellow of the Royal Society when only thirty years old.
When the Survey moved to Jermyn Street, he became its Professor
of Applied Natural History, till in 1854 the Chair of Natural History
at Edinburgh took him from London. But his health, never strongs

Original Members 1 1

was beginning to fail, and the end came on Nov. i8th, 1854. As
a teacher and writer (his memoirs were numerous), he was clear,
stimulative, and interesting ; he was an excellent draughtsman, had
an inexhaustible fund of humour, enlivening, as one result of this,
the British Association by founding the Red Lion Club, and yet
was a most industrious worker. The old, it was said, loved him
as a son, the younger as a brother.

John Peter Gassiot, a liberal promoter of science and successful
pioneer in electricity, was bom in London, April 2nd, 1797. After
some service as a midshipman, he entered the Spanish wine trade,
married early, and settled on Clapham Common. Becoming deeply
interested in electrical investigations, he acquired the best instru-
ments that could be made, and constructed batteries of exceptional
power, which he often placed at the service of his less wealthy
acquaintances. His writings chiefly deal with electricity, and
prove among other things that the static effect of a battery increases
with its chemical action, that an electric spark meets with no extra
resistance from water under a pressure of 447 atmospheres, but
cannot pass through an exhausted vacuum tube, and they record
some important investigations of the dark bands in electric dis-
charges. He was one of the founders of the Chemical Society,
initiated the Scientific Relief Fund of the Royal Society, and was
Chairman of the Kew Observatory Committee till his death in 1877.

Professor John Goodsir, a slightly eccentric but able Professor
of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh, was a doctor's son,
bom at Anstruther, Fife, in 181 4, who began, when only twelve
years old, to study at St. Andrews. There he was attracted to
metaphysics and became a follower of Coleridge. In Nov. 1830
he was apprenticed to a surgeon-dentist in Edinburgh, and there
showed great skill in dissecting, but after passing the Scotch College
of Surgeons, in 1835, he spent the next five years in practising
with his father at Anstruther, while he made and published scientific
investigations. Returning to Edinburgh in 1850, he shared lodgings
with Edward Forbes (page 10), taking pupils in Anatomy till he
was appointed Professor of that subject in 1846. He was an
enthusiastic and suggestive teacher, indefatigable in dissecting
and in enriching his museum. In later years he suffered from an
affection of the spinal cord, and lived a recluse Hfe, without even
one servant, till his sister joined him in housekeeping. He died
March 6th, 1867, having written about thirty papers, in some of
which he sought to prove that a triangle was the ground plan of all
organic forms, and to unite crystals with Hving organisms.

Professor Thomas Graham, a chemist of note, ultimately
Master of the Mint, was a merchant-manufacturer's son, bom at
Glasgow, Dec. 20th, 1805, and educated at its University till in

1 2 Annals of the Philosophical Club

1824 he migrated to Edinburgh. Here he continued his scientific
studies for ten years, till he returned to his native city as Professor
of Chemistry at Anderson's University College. But in 1837 he
went to London as Professor of Chemistry at University College.
Here he had a distinguished career, making valuable researches on
phosphorus, hydrogen, and the passage of gases through films and
small apertures, and discovering the law of the diffusion of gases.
Among his books his Elements of Chemistry received high praise.
In 1855 he was appointed Master of the Mint, and held that office
until his death (unmarried) in Gordon Square, Sept. nth, 1869.

Professor John Thomas Graves, a distinguished mathematician,
was bom in Dublin, Dec. 4th, 1806, and educated at Trinity College,
where he showed excellence as a classic. Then incorporating at
Oxford, he took the degree of M.A., and in 1831 was called to the
Enghsh Bar, going on the Western Circuit. He was elected Professor
of Jurisprudence at University College, London, and wrote on legal
subjects, but won his chief distinction as a mathematician, for he
aided Sir W. Rowan Hamilton in his work on conjugate factors,
elaborating the newly discovered quaternions and the icosian calculus.
He died in 1870, after writing many papers on these and similar
subjects, and left his very valuable mathematical library to Univer-
sity College, London.

Sir William Snow Harris, also distinguished for electrical
researches, was a solicitor's son, bom at Plymouth, April ist, 1781,
who studied medicine and for a time was in practice at his native
place. But his growing interest in electricity led him, after his
marriage in 1824, to give up professional work, for he had already
devised a new form of lightning conductor for ships and made
improvements in the mariner's compass. His conductor, after
encountering official opposition, was adopted by the Navy in 1841,
and he received an annuity of ;£3oo. Six years later he was knighted
and obtained a grant of :^5ooo for this and other services, and was
appointed in i860 scientific adviser to the Government. Elected
into the Royal Society in 1831, he was awarded the Copley Medal
in 1835, and died at Plymouth on Jan. 22nd, 1867.

Sir John Frederick William Herschel, the great astronomer,
was a son of an equally distinguished father. Sir William Herschel.
He was born at Slough on March 7th, 1792, and went, at the age
of seventeen, to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated
in 181 3 as Senior Wrangler and First Smith's Prizeman, and obtained
a Fellowship. As an undergraduate, he was intimate with William
Whewell, George Peacock, and Charles Babbage, and made a resolu-
tion with the second and third to leave the world wiser than they
found it. This they did, for, by introducing the differential notation
and continental methods of analysis, they restored mathematical

Original Members 13

science in England. Herschel, after a trial of the Law, devoted
himself to astronomical science, first working at optical and chemical
questions, and then ' taking up star-gazing ' in his father's observatory
at Slough. He was already an F.R.S., having read his first paper
while still an undergraduate, and received the Copley Medal in
1 82 1, to be followed by a Royal Medal in 1836. The Royal Astro-
nomical Society also, in the foundation of which he co-operated^
gave him their gold medal. Meanwhile he carried on his father's
observations of double stars, pubUshing a catalogue including 380 of
them. During visits to the Continent in 1820 and the following year
he ascended the Pennine Breithom, measured barometrically the
height of Etna, and made experiments on solar radiation from
the Puy de Dome. In 1825 he applied a telescope, devised by
himself and his father, with a reflector 20 feet from the object glass,
to the study of the nebulae. His catalogue (published in 1833,
and illustrated by 800 elaborate drawings) included 2307, nearly
a quarter of them discovered by himself. In 1830, after having
been Secretary to the Royal Society, he was strongly supported
for the Presidency, but a majority of its fellows preferred Royal
birth to scientific distinction, and elected the Duke of Sussex. Next
year, however, Herschel received the K.C.H. In 1834 he boldly
transported his great telescope and other instruments to the Cape
of Good Hope, in order to study the stars of the Southern Hemi-
sphere, and established an observatory near Cape Town. Before
his return in 1838, in which year he was created a baronet, he had
largely added to his discoveries of nebulae and double stars, and
had done much for the cause of education in the colony. In England
also he took an active part in public work, holding, besides other
positions, that of Master of the Mint from 1850 to 1855. To
enumerate even his more notable memoirs, articles, and books
would be impossible, for he worked indefatigably till his death on
May nth, 1871, when he was buried in Westminster Abbey, near the
grave of Newton ; like to whom, as was justly said, " he was
eminent for knowledge, simplicity, and humility."

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, bom at Halesworth, Suffolk, on
June 30th, 1 81 7, is another instance of a son inheriting a father's
talent. After taking the degree of M.D. at Glasgow in 1839, he
at once joined Sir James Ross' Antarctic expedition as assistant-
surgeon on the Erebus, thus obtaining, during the three years'
voyage, the materials for his three volumes on the Flora of the
Antarctic, New Zealand, and Tasmania. From 1847 to 1851 he
investigated the botany of part of the Himalayas, and during a
journey in Sikkim * was taken prisoner, ill-treated, and in danger
of being murdered. During this journey he obtained materials
for valuable memoirs on the rhododendrons of Sikkim and on the

1 See Section II.

1 4 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Indian flora, and for a very interesting book, The Himalayan Journals.
He became Assistant-Director at Kew in 1855, and Director ten
years later on the death of his father Sir William. Elected F.R.S.
at the early age of thirty, he received the Royal, Copley and Darwin
Medals, and became President in 1873. But notwithstanding his
many duties, he still found time for scientific travel, for in i860
he visited Palestine, in 1871 journeyed through Morocco to the
crest of the Great Atlas, and in 1877 went to the United States.
His memory will always be inseparable from that of Charles Darwin,
whom he stimulated and aided in writing the Origin of Species,
of which book he was a stalwart champion. Vigorous and indefatig-
able. Hooker wrote many memoirs and books, among which it must
suffice to mention his Genera Plantarum and the Flora of British
India, on the completion of which he was created G.C.S.I., having
been made Knight Commander in 1877 and C.B. in 1869 ; his many
other distinctions being crowned, at the age of ninety, by the O.M.
On resigning his post at Kew he retired to The Camp, an attractive
residence near Sunningdale, but continued his botanical work
almost to the end, which came in sleep, Dec. loth, 191 1.

William Hopkins, distinguished for his mathematical knowledge
and power of teaching, was born at Kingston, Derbyshire, Feb. 2nd,
1793, and brought up as a farmer. But in that calUng, after an
experience near Bury St. Edmunds, he was not successful, and
a love of mathematics attracted him to Cambridge, where he
graduated from Peterhouse as seventh wrangler in 1827. SettUng
there as a private tutor, he met with extraordinary success, for he
could state in 1849 that nearly 200 of his pupils had been wranglers,
17 of them seniors and 44 in one of the first three places, though
he endeavoured to make them lovers of mathematics rather than
anxious for its rewards. Attracted to Geology by Sedgwick about
1833, he applied mathematical methods to its physical questions,
such as the movement of glaciers and the condition of the earth's
interior, in acknowledgment of which he received in 1850 the
WoUaston Medal from the Geological Society. A man of many
interests, of high character, and attractive nature, he died at
Cambridge, Oct. 13th, 1866.

Leonard Horner, geologist and educational reformer, was
bom in Edinburgh, Jan. 17th, 1785, and educated at its University,
where he studied chemistry, subsequently extending his scientific
knowledge, especially of mineralogy. After becoming a partner
in his father's linen factory, he went to London, where he married
and acquired many congenial friends, joining the Royal Society
in 181 3, and becoming President of the Geological Society in 1845
and i860. Though a cautious generalizer, he put forward views
about the palaeozoic strata which were subsequently confirmed
by Sedgwick and Murchison. Business recalled him to Edinburgh

Original Members 15

in 1817, where he took a leading part in Whig politics and in educa-
tional reform, especially among the working classes ; but in 1827 he
returned to London to organize the London Institution, and next
year became Warden of the newly established University of London.
But a failure of health compelled him to resign and live for a time
at Bonn. On his return he was appointed a Commissioner to
enquire into the employment of children in factories and the chief
inspector under the Factory Act, from which he retired in 1856
and died in London, March 5th, 1864. He wrote much on both
educational and geological subjects, one of the most important
of his investigations being an attempt to estimate by borings
the rate of accumulation in the Nile delta.

Sir Charles Lyell, a truly philosophic geologist, was bom
on Nov. 14th, 1797, the son of a Forfarshire laird, himself noted
as a botanist and a Dante scholar. Charles, however, was brought
up in England, whither his parents migrated, going in due course
to Oxford, where Buckland attracted him to Geology. He graduated
in 1 819 with a second class in Classics, after having travelled in
his vacations on the Continent, where he saw the effects of the
flood caused by the burst barrier of the Gietroz Glacier, and in the
western part of Scotland. He then entered at Lincoln's Inn, but was
obhged by a weakness of the eyes to desist from study, went to Rome,
and on his return worked at geology in the southern part of England,
reading his first paper to the Geological Society in February 1824.
This was followed by longer excursions — to Cornwall, the north of
Scotland and Paris, till after four years' rest his eyes improved, he
was called to the Bar, and got some business. About 1827 the
ideas began to germinate which were afterwards worked out in the
Principles of Geology, and he set off next year for a long continental
tour, with the Murchisons (page i6), through Auvergne, Southern
France, and Northern Italy. Parting from his companions, Lyell
went southward to study the volcanic district of Naples and ascend
Etna. On his return to London in February 1829, he began The
Principles, the first volume of which was published next year, while
he was making a geological tour in the Pyrenees and the volcanoes
of Catalonia. The second volume appeared in 1832, in which
year he married Miss Mary Homer, and the third in 1833. The
book was afterwards recast and divided into two. The Principles
and The Elements, published in 1840. Geological travel in Europe
had gone on steadily, but in the following summer Mr. and Mrs. Lyell
crossed the Atlantic and travelled for a year in Canada and the
United States, enlarging geological experience and getting so far as
Southem Carolina. Travels in North A merica describes their journey.
In 1845 they undertook another tour in Canada and the States,
this time reaching the Gulf of Mexico, the results of which were?
described in A Second Visit to North America. Though Lyell twice

1 6 Annals of the Philosophical Club

returned to that continent, went to Madeira and the Canary Islands,,
and continued his excursions in Europe, this was the last of his long
wanderings for the study of Nature. Honours now came more
thickly. He was thrice President of the Geological Society, was
awarded its Wollaston Medal and the Royal and Copley Medals
of the Royal Society, was President of the British Association,
received honorary degrees and foreign orders, was made a knight
in 1848, and a baronet ten years later. Intimate with Charles
Darwin, he did not immediately accept his theory of the ' Origin
of Species,' but afterwards became a convert, for which he gives
his reasons in his last great book, The Antiquity of Man, published
in 1863. So life passed in unflagging work till early in 1873 he had
the misfortune to lose Lady Lyell ; then his own health declined,
and on Feb. 22nd, 1875, he passed away, and was laid in Westminster
Abbey near the grave of Woodward, one of the pioneers of British
Geology. His thirst for knowledge, with the singular openness
and perfect fairness of his mind, impre^^sed all who knew him. Two
maxims regulated bis work, the one " Go and see " ; the other,
" Prefer reason to authority."

Dr. William Allen Miller, a distinguished chemist, was bom
at Ipswich, Dec. 17th, 181 7. Educated for the medical profession,
he passed through King's College, London, at which, after holding
a subordinate position, he was elected ^n 1845 Professor of Chemistry.
Notwithstanding his official duties and the preparation of his
important Elements of Chemistry, he spent the night hours in
investigating, with his neighbour at Tulse Hill, WilHam Huggins,
stellar spectra, in which method of analysis he had already become
expert. Besides these he aided in a report on the London Water
Supply, and in a Kew Committee to provide for uniformity in
weights and measures, invented a thermometer for deep-sea sound-
ings, and was assay er to the Mint and Bank of England. He took
the degree of M.D. in London University in 1842, and received
honorary degrees from Edinburgh, Cambridge, and Oxford. " In-
defatigable in work, cautious but clear in judgment, and sincerely
reUgious," he died of apoplexy from brain fatigue at Liverpool
on Sept. 30th, 1870, -while attending a meeting of the British
Association,

Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, a leader in geological and geo-
graphical circles in London, was bom on Feb. 19th, 1792, at Tarra-
dale in County Ross ; a descendant of an old Highland family.
He lost his father early, and obtained a commission as ensign in
1807. Going with his regiment to Portugal, he was in the battle
of Vimiero and the retreat of Comnna. On retuming to England,
it was kept at home, much to Murchison's chagrin, and after Waterloo
lie married and retired from the army. He was already slightly
interested in science, but for the next two years paid much more

Original Members ij

attention to art and antiquities, studying in Rome and other
Italian cities. On his return, for some five years, fox-hunting was
his chief occupation, and not till late in 1824 did he settle in London
and begin to work at Geology. Yet in the spring of 1826 he became
F.R.S. ! 1 He went to Yorkshire, where he saw how William Smith
worked in the field, and then took a long tour in Scotland, returning
thither with Sedgwick (page 22) next year, which had for its result
a paper on the Old Red Sandstone. In 1828 Murchison and his wife
were joined by Lyell (page 15) in a tour through Central France,
and then went to the Austrian Alps. Next year Murchison returned
to them with Sedgwick, and much valuable work was embodied
in a joint paper, and he made a third journey to them in 1830.
But next year the two friends attacked a geological ' no man's land,'
as it might be called, the region of ' greywacke,' underlying the
Old Red Sandstone, and supposed to be a barren, unfossiliferous
tract. It occupied, as then understood, a large part of Wales and
the Lake District, with most of Devon and Cornwall. The last
region was attacked by Murchison and Sedgwick in 1836, and in the
course of three years brought into order. Sedgwick explored the
Lake District, and the two made separate attacks on Wales ;
Murchison, in the summer of 1831, working from the edge of the
Old Red Sandstone westward to the more disturbed central region,
Sedgwick from the Menai Strait in a more or less southward direction.
They communicated their advances to the Geological Society, and
late in 1838 Murchison published his great work, The Silurian System.
We may pass over the subsequent controversy, which ultimately
estranged the two friends, because the main facts are now inseparable
from the history of British stratigraphy, and remark that the book
was a wonderful accompUshment for one man, even though much
aided, as Murchison was, by friends. In 1841 he made a long
journey in Russia, studying its geology and getting as far east as
the Ural Mountains and south as the Sea of Azov, the result being
another important book, Russia and the Ural Mountains, published
in 1845 after another visit to that country. Murchison continued
for some years to travel rather extensively, though within narrowing
limits, and in 1855, on the death of Sir Henry de la Beche (page 8),
succeeded him as Director-General of the Geological Survey. He
was again elected, in 1863, President of the Royal Geographical
Society, and so, always busy with official and consequent social duties,
with the revision of his books and preparation of addresses, he
continued his ever industrious Hfe, till in 1869 his helpmate Lady
Murchison was taken from him, and after a stroke of paralysis, late
in the following 3''ear, he quietly passed away on Oct. 22nd, 1871.

1 A frank remark of the President, quoted in Geikie's Life of Murchison,
vol. i. p. 129, justifies the agitation for reform in the Royal Society, of which
the Philosophical Club was one outcome.

P.C. B

1 8 Annals of the Philosophical Club

He received many honours : the Presidency of the Geological
and Geographical Societies, of the British Association, the WoUaston,
the Royal, and the Copley Medals ; valuable presents and an Order
from the Czar of Russia, honorary degrees, knighthood, and then
a baronetcy in his own country.

Sir Richard Owen, a master in vertebrate palaeontology, was
the younger son of an India merchant, bom at Lancaster on July
20th, 1 80 1. At its grammar school his chief hobby was heraldry,
but when apprenticed to a surgeon, this gave place to anatomy.
Passing through Edinburgh University and St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, he became M.R.C.S. in August, 1826. After practising
for a short time near Lincoln's Inn, he was appointed Assistant-
Conservator to the Hunterian Museum, visited Paris in 1831 to study
under Cuvier and at the Jardin des Plantes, and then, next year,
published his memoir on the Pearly Nautilus, which " placed him
at a bound in the first rank of anatomical monographers." In
1834 he became F.R.S., and next year married Miss Clift, daughter
of the Hunterian Conservator, whom he succeeded in 1842, and
was elected Professor of Comparative Anatomy at the Royal College
of Surgeons. He had now gained a position in science and in society,
was esteemed by Prince Albert, and in 1842 received a Civil List
pension. Ten years later the Queen gave him Sheen Lodge in
Richmond Park. But nothing distracted him from the documents
and specimens in the Hunterian Museum and his palaeontological
work. In 1856 he became Superintendent of the Natural History
Department in the British Museum, to the removal of which from
Bloomsbury he was favourable. (It was accomplished in 1881.)
But in this post his career was hardly so successful, though it afforded
faciUties for his scientific work. To enumerate his papers and
books would be impossible — by 1843 he had written 200 of the
former; it must suffice to mention his works on the Mylodon and
Gigantic Sloths of South America, and on the Dodo of New Zealand,
which started from a fragment of a thigh bone. He received hono-
rary degrees, the WoUaston, Royal and Copley Medals, was created
C.B. in 1873 and K.C.B. in 1884. He died at Sheen, Dec. i8th, 1892.

Professor Richard Partridge, a noted surgeon, was bom
at Ross, Jan. 19th, 1805. Beginning his medical training in Bir-
mingham, he went on to St. Bartholomew's, and became M.R.C.S.
in 1827. Afterwards he was connected with the hospitals at Charing
Cross and King's College, being elected, in 1836, Professor of Anatomy
at the latter. He was admitted into the Royal Society in 1837,
was Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy, and, though he
did not publish much, was highly valued as a teacher. He died
March 25th, 1873.

Dr. Jonathan Pereira, who won great repute for his knowledge
of pharmacy, was bom in Shoreditch on May 22nd, 1804, and at

Original Members 19

ail early age was articled to a general practitioner in the City Road.
Working hard at Chemistry and Materia Medica, he passed the
Society of Apothecaries in his nineteenth year, and was appointed
to their dispensary. Before qualifying as a surgeon in 1825, he
taught and pubUshed three useful students' manuals, and after
that began to lecture and prepare for his great work, The Elements
of Materia Medica, which was published in 1839-40. An early riser,
with an iron constitution, he could work sixteen hours a day, lecturing
and writing on Food and Diet, treating these from a scientific point
of view. Erlangen gave him the degree of M.D., he became F.R.S.
in 1838, F.R.C.P. in 1845, and died, as the result of an accident,
on Jan. 20th, 1853. ^

Propessor John Phillips, nephew and pupil of William Smith,
the founder of British Stratigraphy, was bom at Harden, Wilts.,
Dec. 25th, 1800. Brought up by his uncle, they were, as he said,
" for years never separated in act or thought " till 1824, when he
was appointed to an office at the York Museum, which during his
time was transported to its present site in the Abbey Gardens. He
quitted that city for a post on the Geological Survey, and was for some
years Professor of Geology at King's College, London. But in 1844
he left that for the same office in Dublin, from which he came to
Oxford in 1853 as Deputy for Buckland, whom he succeeded as
Professor in 1857. For over thirty years he was Assistant-secretary
to the British Association, of which he was President in 1865. He
wrote not a few valuable memoirs, received many well-deserved
honours — F.R.S. in 1834, honorary doctorates and the Wollaston
Medal of the Geological Society, and he died, in consequence of a
fall, at Oxford on April 24th, 1874.

Professor John Forbes Royle, son of a captain in the East
India service, was bom at Cawnpore in 1799, and went to Edinburgh
High School. At Addiscombe he acquired such a regard for botany
that he qualified as a surgeon and went to India, in 18 19, on the
medical department of the Company's army. There, four years
later, he was placed in charge of the Botanic Garden at Saharanpur,
where he brought together in it a fine collection of plants economically
valuable. He also examined the drugs sold in the bazaars, many
of which he identified with medicine used by the ancient Greeks,
and urged the Government to introduce the chinchona plant, which,
however, was not done till two years after his death. He published,
after returning to England, an important book on the Botany and
Natural History of the Himalayas, was elected, in 1837, F.R.S. and
Professor of Materia Medica in King's College, London, and was
placed, at the India House, in charge of the museum and corre-
spondence relating to vegetable products. An author of many
books and papers of scientific and economic value, he died at Acton
on Jan. 2nd, 1858.

20 Annals of the Philosophical Club

General Sir Edward Sabine, son of a Hertfordshire squire,
was bom at Dublin on Oct. 14th, 1788, and obtained from Woolwich
a commission in the Royal Artillery. After Gibraltar and home
service, he was taken on his way to Canada, in May 181 3, by an
American privateer. But an English frigate recaptured his vessel,
and he obtained credit during active service on the Niagara frontier.
On his return to England, he studied astronomy, terrestrial magnet-
ism and ornithology, accompanied as astronomer Sir John Ross
to Greenland, and wrote a book on its birds and the Esquimaux
of its western coast. In 1819 he went away for a year and a half
with Captain Parry on another Arctic expedition, having become
F.R.S. the previous year. His next task was to ascertain the
variations in the length of the seconds' pendulum at different places,
in order to determine the earth's figure. Then he joined Sir J.
Herschel in observing the exact difference in the longitudes of the
Greenwich and Paris observatories, followed by ascertaining the
relative lengths of the seconds' pendulum at Greenwich, London,
Paris, and Altona, and the absolute length at the first place. Recalled
to military duties in 1834, be was still able, while stationed in Ireland,
to continue scientific work, the result being the first magnetic survey
of the British Isles and the establishment of magnetic observatories
by our Government in different parts of the globe. Elected to the
Royal Society in 181 8, he received its Copley Medal, and, after
serving as Foreign Secretary and Treasurer, was President from
1 861 to 1 871. In the army he rose to the rank of General, and
was created K.C.B. in 1869. Full of years and well-earned honours,
he died at Richmond on June 26th, 1883.

Professor William Sharpey was bom on April ist, 1802, at
Arbroath in Forfar, though his father was from Kent, passed through
the University of Edinburgh, and, after further study in London
and Paris, took the M.D. degree there in 1823. Returning to
Arbroath, he was in practice for about three years and then abandoned
it for science, starting on a long journey through France to Naples,
and back by Venetia, Austria, and Prussia, halting at the chief centres
for study. Settling in London, he began to teach, and was appointed,
in 1836, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in University College,
where he attracted large classes. He was admitted to the Royal
Society in 1839, and served as its Secretary from 1853 to 1872.
Resigning his chair in 1874, he died in Torrington Square on April
nth, 1880, a man remarkable for his varied knowledge, his accurate
memory, and his sound discrimination.

Professor Edward Solly was born in London, Oct. nth,
1819, studied chemistry in BerHn, and began early to lecture in
London and to write. In 1843 he was elected into the Royal
Society, and two years later appointed Professor of Chemistry at
Addiscombe. He was also noted for his wide genealogical and

Original Members 21

literary knowledge and formed a large library, dying at Sutton,
Surrey, on April 2nd, 1886.

Professor James Spence was the son of an Edinburgh merchant,
bom in that city in 181 2, and educated at its University, and
admitted to its College of Surgeons in 1832. After two voyages
to Calcutta as surgeon to an East Indiaman, he began to practise
and lecture in Edinburgh, ultimately becoming Professor of Surgery
in 1864. He was noted as a skilful dissector and operator, with
a preference for the older methods of treatment. He died in
Edinburgh on June 6th, 1882.

Colonel William Henry Sykes, a member of an old Yorkshire
family, was bom in that county on Jan. 25th, 1790, and obtained
a commission from the East India Company. After the siege
of Bhurtpur in 1805, he had experience of active service in the
Deccan from 181 7 to 1820, and then returned home to spend four
years in continental travel. On resuming work in India, he was
employed for the next few years on its statistics and natural history,
both resulting in valuable reports. After this, in 1831, he re-
turned to England as Lieutenant-Colonel (finally retiring as a full
Colonel), and was employed in various capacities, dying in London
on June i6th, 1872. He was a zealous and scientific observer, with
wide interests, especially in zoology and mineralogy, antiquities
and statistics.

Sir Charles Wheatstone, remarkable for his scientific ability
and inventive powers, was the son of a Gloucester music-seller,
bom there in February 1802. At the age of twenty -two he began
business as a musical instrument maker in London, and obtained
valuable results from a scientific study of sound. Turning next to
light and optics, he invented the stereoscope, and showed (in 1835)
that the spectrum of the electric spark consisted of rays of different
refrangibility, and the lines thus produced would reveal the presence
of even a minute portion of any metal. Another invention was a
polarization clock; then, soon after being appointed Professor of
Experimental Physics at King's College, came inventions which
made the electric telegraph available for the public transmission of
messages, which were followed by experiments on submarine cables.
He was also a most ingenious reader of hieroglyphs and despatches
in cipher. He became F.R.S. in 1836, received honorary doctorates
from Oxford and Cambridge, was knighted in 1868, and died in Paris,
Oct. 19th, 1875.

Mr. William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the pioneers of photo-
graphy, was a man of good family, bom at Chippenham, Wilts., on
Feb. nth, 1800. From Harrow he went to Trinity, Cambridge,
won a Porson Prize, and graduated as twelfth wrangler and
second Chancellor's Medallist in 1821. After two or three ma the-

22 ^Annals of the Philosophical Club

matical papers, he was one day using a camera lucida by the Lake
of Como, when the idea occurred to him of making its pictures
permanent. Wedgwood, indeed, had already produced evanescent
' sun pictures ' on sensitized paper, so he adopted that method,
and had all but succeeded when Daguerre did this by another
process. Talbot, however, went on with his experiments, the
result of which was the so-called Talbotype, patented early in
1 841, which soon ousted the daguerrotype. Then he devised
methods for taking instantaneous pictures and for photographic
engraving. Besides his successes in mathematics and photography,
he was a good archaeologist and among the first to decipher the
cuneiform inscriptions from Nineveh. Elected into the Royal
Society in 1831, he received a Royal Medal in 1838 and the Rumford
in 1842, and died at Lacock Abbey (his birthplace), Sept. 17th, 1877.

Professor Adam Sedgwick, a geologist of real genius, was son
of a Yorkshire dalesman, bom at Dent on March 22nd, 1785. From
Sedbergh school, after study under John Dawson, a self-taught
but first-rate mathematician, he went to Trinity, Cambridge,
graduated in 1808 as fifth wrangler, was elected a Fellow in 18 10,
and appointed assistant-tutor five years afterwards. Ordained
in 1 81 6, he was elected in 181 8 Professor of Geology, though
hitherto he had not seriously worked at that subject. But he
began at once to travel for that purpose in Great Britain, and to
produce papers, becoming F.R.S. in 1830 and President of the
Geological Society in 1829. Beginning in southern and eastern
England, he then attacked the magnesian limestone and associated
red rocks of the north-east, after which he went with Murchison
(page 16) to examine the red sandstones on the western side of
Scotland. With him also, in 1829, he made a long journey through
Mid-Europe as far as Trieste, and worked at the Eastern Alps.
Important papers were the outcome of these studies, but he was
now becoming keenly interested in the problems offered by the
ancient rocks of Britain. With those of Cornwall and Devon he
had to some extent the help of Murchison ; in the Lake District
he worked single-handed, and in 1831 they attacked, though sepa-
rately, the difficulties ol Wales — ^Murchison working westward
from the Severn, Sedgwdck in a more or less south-easterly direction
from the north-western coast. Papers, read from time to time,
announced their progress, till in 1839 Murchison published his
important book, The Silurian System. Further work in Wales
convinced Sedgwick that his friend had confused two distinct
sandstones. He communicated the results to the Geological Society,
and in 1852 read a paper criticizing a map of North Wales, issued
by the Geological Survey, which placed in the Silurian almost the
whole of the Formation which he had named Cambrian. The Society,
as Sedgwick thought, did not deal fairly with that paper, which

Original Members 23

brought about another estrangement. After the later part of the
decade his papers became fewer ; for advancing age and increasing
engagements made work in the field more difficult, and though
in some ways vigorous, he was often out of health, and had more
serious illnesses and accidents than most men. " From 1813 to
his death he could never count upon robust health for even a day."
Infirmities increased more rapidly during his last fourteen years,
till hfe ebbed away in his rooms at Trinity in the early morning of
January 27th, 1873. He had received the WoUaston Medal from
the Geological Society and the Copley from the Royal, the honorary
degree of LL.D. from Cambridge, and a canonry at Norwich. To
children he was devoted, to younger students ever kind and stimu-
lating ; his wonderful memory, fund of stories, varied recollections,
and sense of humour made him the most dehghtful of companions ;
in fact his geology was not his only faculty which bore the stamp
of genius.

Professor William Hallo wes Miller, whose name is inseparable
from mineralogy, was bom at Fehndre near Llandovery on April
6th, 1 80 1.' Going to Cambridge, he got a high place in the Mathe-
matical Tripos and a Fellowship at St. John's College, and was elected,
in 1832, Professor of Mineralogy. For this science he developed a
system of Crystallography simpler and better adapted than any
previous one to mathematical calculation. When the burning of
the Houses of ParHament in 1834 destroyed the standards of length
and weight, he took a leading part in reconstructing them, and
in all his scientific work showed a great power of obtaining precise
results by simple means. Elected to the Royal Society in 1838,
he was awarded a Royal Medal, was made LL.D. by Dublin and
D.C.L. by Oxford, and received more than one foreign order. He
died at Cambridge, after a gradual failure of health, on May 20th,
1880, much esteemed for his wide and accurate knowledge and
his unselfish nature.

Mr. George Newport, who rose from a humble origin to be
a high authority as a scientific entomologist, was bom at Canterbury
on July 4th, 1803. Beginning a medical training at Sandwich,
he obtained the M.R.C.S. in 1835 and an appointment at Chichester,
but devoted all his spare time to studying insects, more especially
those of his native county, and communicated papers to the Royal
and other Societies, becoming F.R.S. in 1846 and receiving a Royal
Medal. He then settled in London, where also he practised, but
in his later days had a Civil List pension, and died on April 7th,
1854.

Mr. George Rennie, sculptor and politician, bom in Haddington-
shire in 1802, was a nephew of the distinguished engineer, John
Rennie. He studied sculpture in Rome, exhibiting his works from

24 Annals of the Philosophical Club

1828 to 1837, when he turned to poUtics in the hope of advancing
education, and was for some time member for Ipswich. Late
in 1847 he was appointed Governor of the Falkland Islands, where
his administration was successful. Returning to England in 1855,,
he died in London on March 22nd, i860.

Dr. Nathaniel Wallich was a Dane, bom on Jan. 28th, 1786,
at Copenhagen, where he took the degree of M.D., and in 1807
went as surgeon to Serampore, then belonging to his country. But
when it was transferred to England, he entered our service, and
soon became an active discoverer and collector of new plants and
a contributor to the Flora Indica. He was sent in 1820 to explore
Nepal, and pubhshed the results. In 1825 he inspected the forests
of Western Hindostan, and in the next two years those of Ava and
Lower Burma. Invalided to England in 1828, he brought with
him about 8000 specimens, and distributed the duplicates among
important herbaria. The results of his labour appeared, 1830-32,
as three handsome volumes, with figures, on Unpublished East
Indian Plants. He was elected F.R.S. in 1829, and, after another
period of service in India, returned to England in 1847, settled
in London, went on working out his specimens, and died in
Bloomsbury, April 28th, 1854.

Professor Joseph Henry Green, noted for his skill in surgical
operations, especially Uthotomy, was the son of a city merchant,,
bom at London Wall, Nov. ist, 1791. Apprenticed to an uncle,
after three years' study in Germany, he passed the College of Surgeons
at the close of 1815, and began to practise near Lincoln's Inn.
Already connected with St. Thomas' Hospital, he gave instruction
there, and in 1820 was appointed surgeon. In 1824 he became
Professor of Anatomy at the College of Surgeons and to the Royal
Academy in the following year (also that of his election as F.R.S.) .
Finally he became Professor of Surgery at King's College. But
besides this he was a student of philosophy, who had gone, even
in 1 81 7, to Berlin to attend lectures on that subject, and an
early acquaintance with S. T. Coleridge ripened into such friendship
that he was left in 1834 literary executor to the latter. In the same
year Green's father died, bequeathing him a large fortune, which
enabled him to give up private practice, though he continued to
write papers and addresses. In the later part of his hfe he Hved
at Hadley, near Bamet, where he died of gout on Dec. T3th, 1863.
He was considered to be a fine operator, an assiduous teacher, a
most painstaking student, and a thoughtful, though rather nebulous,
writer.

Professor James McCullagh was a farmer's son, bom at
Glenellie, Tyrone, in 1809, who went in 1824 to Trinity College,
DubUn, where he obtained a fellowship and was elected Professor

Original Members 25

of Natural Philosophy in 1843. He quickly proved himself not less
stimulating as a teacher than zealous as a student, devoting himself
especially to higher geometry and to electrical physics. He was
also very helpful to the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. But
overwork told upon his health, and in October, 1847, he put an end
to his life, while temporarily insane, thus being the most short-lived
of the original members of the Philosophical Club.

Sir John Richardson, the distinguished Arctic explorer, was
bom in Dumfries, where his father was a prominent citizen, on
Nov. 5th, 1787. He entered Edinburgh University as a student of
medicine, and after qualifying as M.R.C.S. was appointed in February,
1807, to be assistant-surgeon on a frigate. After being present at
the bombardment of Copenhagen, he continued on active service
till 1 815, when he retired on half -pay, and returned to Edinburgh to
study natural science and take the degree of M.D. in the following
year. But in 18 19 be was appointed surgeon and naturaHst to
Franklin's polar expedition. It wintered at Cumberland House on
the Saskatchewan River, and after travelhng 1350 miles spent the
next winter at Fort Enterprise. Then a canoe voyage down the
Coppermine River took them to the coast, when they explored parts
of Bathurst Inlet and Melville Sound. After being reduced to great
straits, the expedition, by the help of Indians, reached Fort York in
the following June, and returned to England in October, 1822, after
having travelled 5550 miles. Richardson wrote the scientific part
of the Narrative, and afterwards described the birds and mammals
collected by Parry on his second voyage, 1821-3. In 1825 he accom-
panied Franklin on his second expedition to the mouth of the Mac-
kenzie River, when he explored with a separate party 900 miles of
coast between the mouth of that and the Coppermine River. Then
he made a voyage round the Great Slave Lake, and ultimately met
Franklin at Cumberland House in June, 1827, returning to England
in the following September, after which he worked out and published
the scientific results of the expedition. In 1838 he was appointed
physician to the Haslar Royal Hospital, and two years later Super-
visor of Hospitals. But in 1848 he was chosen to conduct a
search expedition for FrankUn, and reached the estuary of the
Mackenzie River by waj?- of Cumberland House, after leaving Liver-
pool on March 25th. Early in September ice floes obliged him to
abandon his boats near Cape Kendall. After wintering by the
Great Bear Lake, he left his second, John Rae, in command, having
kept, by his wise measures, the members of his expedition in excellent
health, and reached Liverpool on Nov. 6th, 1849, publishing the
results of his journey in 1851. He retired after forty-eight years'
service in 1855 and resided generally at a house near Grasmere,,
where he accomplished much literary and scientific work and helped
his poorer neighbours with his medical knowledge, dying there oa

26 Annals of the Philosophical Club

June 5th, 1865. He was elected F.R.S. in 1825, and received a
Royal Medal in 1856, and the degree of LL.D. from Dublin in 1857.
In 1846 he was knighted and in 1850 created C.B.

Admiral William Henry Smyth was born in Westminster on
Jan. 2ist, 1788, entered the Navy and saw much service in Indian,
Chinese, and Australian waters, after which he made valuable charts
of the North Sea, French, Spanish, and Mediterranean coasts, till he
retired from active sea life as a post-captain in 1824, and devoted
himself to science, being elected F.R.S. in 1826. At an observatory
which he had established in Bedford, he carried out systematic work
on the stars, publishing the results in the Philosophical Transactions,
and made various contributions to scientific periodicals. Attaining
the rank of rear-admiral in 1853, he became full admiral in 1863,
and died at Aylesbury, to which place he had removed, on Sept. 9th,
1865.

Sir William Robert Grove, whose name is inseparable from the
history of the Philosophical Club, was the son of a Glamorganshire
landowner, bom at Swansea, July nth, 1811. He graduated from
Brazenose College, Oxford, in 1832, having already become a student
of Lincoln's Inn. Ill-health at first impeded his career at the Bar,
so he devoted himself to science and especially electricity, inventing
the particular form of battery which bears his name. In 1840 he
was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institu-
tion and elected F.R.S. In both capacities he soon manifested his
powers, producing some most important papers and working for
reform in the latter body, from which he received a Royal Medal
in 1847, having published in the previous year his great treatise,
The Correlation of Physical Forces. His health had now greatly
improved, so that he resigned his chair at the Institution and resumed
active work at the Bar, quickly acquiring a large practice, especially
in patent cases. In 1853 he took silk, and was appointed a judge and
knighted in the winter of 1871, being transferred to the Queen's
Bench, about nine years afterwards. Late in 1887 he retired and
was made a Privy Councillor, when he returned with zest to his
scientific studies. He received honorary degrees from Oxford and
Cambridge, was noted as a man of remarkable energy and originality
of mind, and died at his house in Harley Street on Aug. ist, 1896.

We now proceed to give an outline of the history of the
Philosophical Club, with short biographical notices of its
new members,^ and of its efforts to promote the interests

1 As the list of these overlaps the beginning of the present century,
many on it must be well known to all readers interested in science, so
that I have written much shorter notices of them than of the original
forty-seven.

Union of Scientific Societies zj

of science by stimulating and co-ordinating the activities
of the Royal and other societies.

At the 6th meeting (Nov. 25th, 1847), ^i"- Grove raised
the question whether a closer union between the different
scientific societies of the metropolis was not desirable, in
order to concentrate their labours, unify their publications,
and diminish rivalry. Assuming that to be the case, he
thought any measure designed to effect it must be moderate
in character ; and with that intent made the following
suggestions for the consideration of the Club, (i) That
all its members, who are also members of the Councils of
the different societies, should endeavour to get these societies
brought into a single locality. Then their libraries might
be joined (each society retaining its own property), when
they would form one of the most valuable scientific Ubraries
in Europe, and a single room, if each society selected a
different day in the week, would suffice for their meetings.
(2) That, in order to obtain an annual publication, embracing
the most important branches of science, the Council of each
of the principal societies — say, the Astronomical, the
Chemical, the Geological and the Linnean — should be at
liberty to forward each year to the Council of the Royal
Society, papers — say, not exceeding two in number — for
pubHcation in the Philosophical Transactions; the right
being reser\^ed to the several Councils of printing these papers
also in their own Transactions, and to that of the Royal
Society of accepting or rejecting them.

Sir H. T. de la Beche fully agreed with the general aim of
the first proposal, but doubted the feasibiHtj^ of the second,
though he thought that science and scientific men suffered
from want of mutual co-operation. Dr. W. A. Miller sug-
gested the pubHcation, weekly or monthly, of a Compte
Rendu of Proceedings by the different societies, and it was
generally felt that the subject required further discussion.
That was resumed at the next meeting (Dec. 23rd), when six
members of the Club were appointed a committee to con-
sider and report upon the question on Jan. 27th, 1848.

They presented a report to this effect : that the Presidents

28 Annals of the Philosophical Club

of the following societies — the Royal, the Linnean, the
Geological, the Astronomical, the Chemical, and the Geo-
graphical— be requested to form a deputation to the Govern-
ment and impress upon it the importance of bringing those
societies into juxtaposition for the above-named purpose,
and suggest at the same time the grant of the apartments
in Somerset House vacated by the Royal Academy. The
Report also recommended that two members of the Philo-
sophical Club should wait on the Presidents of the above-
named societies, represent to them the advantages of
juxtaposition, and request their co-operation in the endeavour
to obtain it. In discussing this Report, some members
considered the societies proposed to be too few, and certain
of them suggested the inclusion of bodies, such as the Royal
Society of Literature, not devoted to Physical Science,
while others, who agreed with this limitation, favoured the
inclusion of certain Minor Societies, as they might be called.
The locaUty proposed was criticized as not affording sufhcient
accommodation, and, besides this, unlikely to be granted,
because the Government already were desirous of obtaining
the whole of Somerset House for an extension of Pubhc
Offices. Hence it would be better to apply for a building
large enough to afford ample accommodation to the various
societies. In reply to these criticisms, it was urged that
any attempt to enlist too many societies at the outset was
likely to be unsuccessful, because of the variety of opinions
which would have to be consulted and the greater likehhood
of disappointing those societies which would still have
to be omitted ; there was also a risk that the Government,
in the state of finance, either at present or probably withia
a reasonable time, would be more likely to accede to a
request for moderate accommodation than to a more
ambitious scheme. That proposed, as one of the front
wings of Somerset House was already occupied by scientific
societies, only asked for half the space which would be
required if they also were included in an apphcation. That
mentioned would, at any rate, suffice for some time to
come, and it was used at present only for temporary pur-

Union of Scientific Societies 29

poses, viz. by the London University, which was already
applying for other rooms. Supposing, however, their request
were refused on those grounds, that would give them good
grounds for applying to Government for a new building,
possibly on a more comprehensive plan.

The discussion was resumed at the meeting on March 23rd,
when some of the members present urged the importance of
bringing together the libraries of scientific societies and the
advantage of preparing a list of the books in which they
were deficient.

At the first Anniversary Meeting on April 24th, all the
time was occupied by business proper to the occasion, and
a rule, of which due notice had been given, was passed,
that in the event of a member of the Club being absent
from the United Kingdom for a whole year and notifying
the fact, he could be considered a supernumerary member
and excused the payment of his subscription. On his
return he would be entitled to attend the dinners, as if he
were a member, until a vacancy occurred, when he should
be restored by the Committee to actual membership.

The two vacancies made by the death of Professor
McCuUagh and the retirement of Mr. Fox Talbot were
tilled by the election of Mr. T. Galloway and Mr. G. R.
Porter.

Mr. Thomas Galloway was bom in Lanarkshire on Feb. 26th,
1796, and early showed mathematical ability, which was fostered
by learning the continental methods of treating those subjects
from two French prisoners of war who were residing near his home.
After taking the M.A. degree at Edinburgh in 1820 he taught for
a time at Sandhurst, but became actuary to the Amicable Life
Assurance Company in 1836, and held that office till Nov. ist, 1851,
when he died of spasm of the heart at his house in Torrington
Square, London. He wrote several memoirs on astronomical and
other subjects, the most important being one on the Proper
Movement of the Solar System, for which he was awarded a Royal
Medal in 1830, having been elected a Fellow in 1829.

Mr. George Richardson Porter was a Londoner, bom in 1792.
After an unsuccessful attempt at a Business career, he devoted himself
to economics and statistics, on which he wrote many papers. After
making a valuable digest of Parliamentary Reports, he was appointed

3© Amials of the Philosophical Club

Supervisor of the Statistical Department of the Board of Trade, then
of its Railway Department, and lastly Joint Secretary of the Board.
He married a daughter of Abraham Ricardo, author of the Principles
of Political Economy and Taxation, and died at Tunbridge Wells, on
Sept. 3rd, 1852, from blood-poisoning caused by a gnat's sting.

At the meeting on May 25th, the discussion on the Report
of the Committee (see page 27) was resumed, and it was
resolved that the Presidents of the societies cultivating
different branches of Natural Knowledge should be asked
to request the Government to grant apartments to them,
or such other societies as it should think fit, as trustees for
carrying out their objects.

At the meeting on June 22nd, the members considered
what societies should send their Presidents to form the
deputation named in the above-mentioned report, a doubt
having arisen about the inclusion of the Chemical Society,
because it had not a charter. On it being explained that
this was in the way of being remedied, the Club resolved
that the societies represented should be the Royal, the
Linnean, the Geological, the Astronomical, the Chemical,
and the Royal Asiatic.

The Club preferred not to enter on the discussion of that
part of the Committee's second recommendation which
concerned the locale of the apartments, but passed on to
the third recommendation, and appointed Lt.-Col. Sabine,
Mr. Owen, and Mr. Grove to be members of a Committee to
wait on the above-named Presidents, represent to them
the advantages of the proposed juxtaposition, and request
their co-operation in bringing it about.

1849. At the meeting on April 30th, the second anniver-
sary, the four vacancies, caused by the absence from England
of Major Cautley, Dr. Falconer, Dr. Hooker, and Sir J.
Richardson, were filled by the election of Dr. H. Lloyd,.
Dr. Lyon Playfair, the Earl of Rosse, and Lord Wrottesley.

Of the four new members, Dr. Humphry Lloyd was son of a
Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy in Trinity
College, Dubhn, and was bom in that city on April i6th, 1800.
After a distinguished University career, he obtained a fellowship,
and in 1831 succeeded his father as Professor, devoting himself

Biographical Notices 31

more especially to researches in light and magnetism, and the over-
sight of the Magnetic Observatory, when founded. He became
Provost in 1867, but continued his scientific researches and took
an active part in reorganizing the disestablished Irish Church till
his death on Jan. 17th, 1881.

Dr. Lyon Playfair, son of the Chief Inspector of Hospitals in
Bengal, was bom at Chunar in that province on May 21st, 181 8,
He studied chemistry and medicine, first at St. Andrews, then at
Glasgow. After a short return to India, owing to a breakdown in
health, he worked at University College, London, where his former
teacher Graham had become Professor, and then at Giessen, where
he became Ph.D. Liebig was then engaged on applying organic
chemistry to agriculture and vegetable physiology. His views
strongly attracted Playfair, who, after returning to England, drew
attention to them, and was employed more and more by the Govern-
ment. He was appointed in 1845 Professor of Chemistry in the
Royal School of Mines, was of much service to the Great Exhibition
of 1 85 1, won the esteem of the Prince Consort, became Secretary
of Science for the Department of Science and Art, and took an
active part in organizing the Royal College of Science. He became
in 1858 Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh, but resigned the chair
in 1869, having been elected member of Parliament for that Univer-
sity and St. Andrews. From 1880 to 1883 he was Chairman and
Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, and was created K.C.B,
on resigning that position. From 1885 to 1892 he sat for South
Leeds, and was then raised to the peerage as Baron Playfair, three
years later becoming G.C.B. Elected F.R.S. in 1848, he was President
of the British Association in 1885, and died in Onslow Gardens,
London, on May 29th, 1898.

The Third Earl of Rosse was born at York on June 17th,
1800, and graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford, after obtaining
a first-class in Mathematics, and sat for King's County, Ireland,
from 1823 to 1834, when he resigned to secure more leisure for study.
At his home, Birr Castle, he began a series of experiments to perfect
reflecting telescopes, constructing everything needed on the spot
and taking workmen from the neighbourhood. In 1828 he invented
an alloy of copper and tin for the mirrors and a machine to grind and
poUsh them. His first great success was in 1839, when he made
a speculum 3 feet in diameter, but in 1842-3 he constructed another
of twice that diameter, mounted in a tube 58 feet long and 7 feet
in diameter. Both were set up, side by side, in front of Birr Castle,^
and he employed them especially in observing nebulae. Elected
into the Royal Society in 1831, he received a Royal Medal in 1851,
and was its President from 1849 to 1854. He received several
distinctions, both English and foreign, among them the K.P. In
the famine of 1846-7, he worked hard for the poor and against

3 2 Annals of the Philosophical Club

murderous societies, and it was justly said of him when he died at
Monkstown on Oct. 31st, 1867, " Estimable in all the relations of
life, he pursued, without pretension or self-seeking, the combined
careers of a philosopher, a patriot, and a philanthropist."

Sir John Wrottesley, Second Baron Wrottesley, was bom
at Wrottesley Hall, Staffordshire, on Aug. 5th, 1798, took the B.A.
degree from Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the Bar.
Having built an astronomical observatory at Blackheath, he paid
especial attention to certain small fixed stars, and published, through
the Royal Astronomical Society, a catalogue of the right ascensions
of 13 1 8, for which he received their gold medal in 1839. In 1841
he was elected F.R.S., and, on the death of his father in the same
year, transferred his observatory to Wrottesley, with the addition
of a large equatorial telescope. He was President of the Royal
Society from 1854 to 1857, and of the British Association in i860,
dying at Wrottesley on Oct. 27th, 1867.

1850. A statement by Mr. Bell, at the meeting on
Jan. 24th, that the Government had at the present time
two or three large vacant houses, which possibly might
be obtained for the use of scientific societies, raised the
question of bringing these into juxtaposition, and the
Committee appomted on June 22nd, 1848, was requested to
meet, to take such action as seemed desirable, and to
report the results to the Club.

The union of scientific societies was again discussed on
Feb. 28th, Sir H. T. de la Beche mentioning the beneficial
results of bringing together men of science at the meetings
of the British Association, and pointing out how desirable
occasional meetings of that kind would be in London. Dr.
Playfair remarked that as a large building would have
to be constructed for the Exhibition of 1851, part of it might
be of a more permanent character, and be apportioned
to scientific societies, and yet might again be used for
a general exhibition, if another were held. Sir P. Grey
Egerton suggested that scientific societies in London
should occasionally hold evening joint meetings in order
to bring about a greater amalgamation of views.

At the meeting on March 28th, Sir H. T. de la Beche, on
behalf of a Committee appointed Feb. 28th, said its mem-
bers had consulted several men of science, most of whom

Union of Scientific Societies 33

had cordially received the proposal of occasional meetings,
and were continuing their enquiries. Mr. Hopkins and Mr.
Grove thought that conversational soirees would do little
good unless they had the definite aim of advancing that
union of different societies which had been already so
frequently discussed. Sir H. T. de la Beche considered
that the main object of these meetings would be to pave
the way to a more permanent juxtaposition or consolidation
of scientific societies.

At the third Anniversary Meeting (April 29th), Dr. Royle
was elected Treasurer in place of Mr. Grove, who retired
under Rule VII., but, as ill-health obliged the former to
resign at the next anniversary (April 28th, 1851), Mr. Grove
was then re-elected.

1852. The Committee on the Juxtaposition of Societies
submitted to the Club, at its meeting on Feb. 26th, a memo-
randum which they recommended should be forwarded to
the President of the Royal Society, and of which the following
is a summary. Beginning by recapitulating the advantages
of bringing together the societies cultivating Natural
Knowledge, while retaining their independent action and
existence, it states that these would require a suite of apart-
ments to contain their several libraries, and three or four
rooms of different sizes, in which their meetings might
be held on different days in the week, an arrangement
which would combine the advantages of devotion to a special
object with those of concentration. These libraries also,
while retaining their individual distinctness, would become
virtually parts of one library of science, and be more available
for reference than when dispersed as at present. This
arrangement would also diminish the expenses of the societies.
Certain members of the Club ^ were requested to ascertain
the views of the above-named four societies on this question.

At the meeting on March 25th, Dr. Hooker reported that
he had consulted about two dozen members of the Linnean
Society, including the President, who were unanimously

1 Six for the Linnean and the Geological, four for the Chemical, and
three for the Astronomical Society.

c

34 Annals of the Philosophical Club

in favour of juxtaposition. Mr. Newport stated that he
had found, on investigating the financial question, the
saving to that society would be about £150 a year. Pro-
fessor E. Forbes had consulted many Fellows of the Geo-
logical Society, who were unanimously in favour of the
proposed juxtaposition, and did not apprehend any opposi-
tion. Dr. Allen Miller read a copy of a resolution, passed
by the Council of the Chemical Society (Dr. Daubeny being
in the chair), which stated their entire concurrence with
that adopted by the Philosophical Club, welcoming the
proposal for juxtaposition, and expressing their readiness
to join with the other chartered societies in an application
to the Government. Captain Smyth said that the Council
of the Astronomical Society had also passed a resolution
in favour of the juxtaposition of the scientific societies, as
proposed by the Philosophical Club.

At the fifth Anniversary Meeting on April 26th, the
Committee recommended that a copy of the original Htho-
graphed memorandum, prepared for the instruction of the
members of the Philosophical Club in making the above-
named enqmries, together with the results of the latter,
be forwarded to the Earl of Rosse, with the request that
he would take, in consultation with the Council of the
Royal Society, the Presidents of the afore-named societies,
and the Government, such steps as may appear to him and
them most desirable for accomplishing the object in view.

Dr. William Benjamin Carpenter was elected into the vacancy
caused by the death of Mr. Galloway. He was bom at Exeter
on Oct. 29th, 1 81 3, and went from his father's school to University
College, London, as a medical student. Moving to Edinburgh,
when qualified, he began a series of papers on physiological questions,
ending with his great work — much in advance of the time — Principles
of General and Comparative Physiology, pubUshed in 1839. In 1844
he returned to London as Professor of Physiology at the Royal
Institution, and was elected F.R.S. in the same year. After holding
two or three other educational posts, he became Registrar of the
University of London in 1856, for the development of which he
worked assiduously till he retired, and was created C.B. in 1879.
He died on Nov. 19th, 1885, " one of the last examples of an almost
universal Naturalist," besides which, he was an excellent lecturer.

Union of Scientific Societies 35

an advocate of vaccination and other good causes, besides being
a fair musician and well versed in literature.

The next section of these Minutes illustrates the diversity of his
scientific interests, among them being the construction and uses
of microscopes, which led to his book on that subject, the first
edition appearing in 1856. He received a Royal Medal in 1861,
the degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh in 1871, the Lyell Medal of the
Geological Society in 1883, and was President of the British Associa-
tion in 1872.

At the meeting on June 24th, during a conversation about
the juxtaposition of Scientific Societies, certain members
of the Council of the Royal Societj^ stated that it was con-
sidering that subject, and had consulted the Presidents of
the four societies mentioned in the Minutes of March 25th
last.

The subject was again discussed at the meeting on Oct.
2ist, when it was stated that many eminent men of science,
who belonged to provincial scientific societies, considered
that a union of the metropoHtan societies would not suf&ce
for the wants of science, so that some of the more important
of these provincial societies would wish to be represented
if juxtaposition were effected. Colonel Sabine mentioned
that, at the recent meeting of the British Association, this
project had been discussed, and many of its members had
expressed themselves favourable to it, and thought that
the matter had been too long delayed. At that meeting
a committee had been formed to endeavour to reorganize
scientific pubHcations so as to bring them, if possible, into
one form. The issue of a quarterly or monthly publication,
to contain the more important papers from this country
and the Continent, was also contemplated. Dr. W. A. Miller
undertook to bring forward at the next meeting a definite
plan for establishing and editing such a periodical.

At that meeting (Nov. 25th) it was stated that the Council
of the Royal Society would meet next day to consider the
reports of the other societies which had been consulted ;
also, that the Government were contemplating the erection
of a building at Kensington for the fine arts and indus-
trial purposes, in which rooms would be allotted to several

36 Annals of the Philosophical Club

scientific societies, should they desire it. The opinion
was strongly expressed that Kensington, from its distance
and other inconveniences, would be quite unsuitable for
the meeting of scientific societies, and the feeling was
general that, so far as the Royal Society was concerned,
to remain in its present apartments would be the wiser
plan, unless a change would result in some general benefit
to science, such as that contemplated by the juxtaposition
of societies.

1853. At the meeting on Jan. 27th, Mr. Grove suggested
the preparation, by members of different societies, of a
memorial in favour of juxtaposition, which should then
be presented to the Government. The Club requested Col.
Sabine and Mr. Grove to draw up such a memorial.

This was read at the meeting on Feb. 24th, and unani-
mously adopted. It recapitulated the reasons, already
stated, in favour of the juxtaposition of, and a central
position for, the aforesaid societies, and impressed on the
Government the fact that the present dispersion of the
societies engaged in promoting the science of the country
was prejudicial to its progress.

On March 24th, Sir H. T. de la Beche suggested convening
a pubUc meeting of the signers of the memorial in favour
of juxtaposition, Sir R, Murchison remarking that this,
if it were done, should be as soon as possible.

At the Anniversary Meeting on April 25th, Sir P. Egerton,
Col. Sabine, and Mr. Grove were appointed a committee
to draw up and issue a request to the memorialists to meet
and appoint a deputation to present to H.M. Government
the memorial in favour of juxtaposition. Dr. Hofmann
and Dr. Bence Jones were elected members of the Club.

Dr. August Wilhelm von Hofmann was bom at Giessen on
April 8th, 181 8, and after studying philosophy, was attracted to
chemistry by Liebig. After teaching that science at Bonn, he
came to London in 1845 as Professor at the Royal College of Chem-
istry, where his classes were attended by several men who soon
began to make their mark. His talents and attractive personality
made him popular. He became F.R.S. in 1851, Warden of the
Mint in 1856, and President of the Chemical Society in 1861. He

Union of Scientific Societies 37

returned to Germany in 1865 to superintend the erection of a chemical
laboratory at Berlin and organize the system of instruction in that
subject. To this great work, and to carrying on researches in organic
chemistry and on aniline dyes, the later part of his life was devoted .
His death occurred in that city on May 5th, 1892.

Dr. Henry Bence Jones was a member of a good Suffolk family,
bom in that county in 1814, who graduated as B.A. from Trinity
College, Cambridge in 1836 and M.D. in 1849. After studying
chemistry under Prof. Graham of University College, London,
he worked under Liebig at Giessen, then practised as a physician
in London, obtaining much repute in diseases of the stomach and
kidneys. Elected F.R.S. in 1846, he was Secretary of the Royal
Institution from 1861 nearly till his death, which occurred on April
2oth, 1873. He was a man keenly interested in the general advance
of science, whose genial nature won him many friends, especially
among scientific men at home and abroad.

The minutes for May 26th contain a copy of a letter from
Lord Rosse to Lord Aberdeen, read at the meeting, which
requested the latter to appoint a time for receiving a deputa-
tion of those (about 200 in number) who had signed the
memorial in favour of the juxtaposition of scientific societies.
Among them were included many of the scientific men
most eminent in their different departments, the few who
had not signed abstaining because they feared the memorial
might result in locating the scientific societies in a position
neither central nor convenient. To the reasons given in
the memorial this also might be added, that " The present,
disjointed, ill-situated, and ill- appointed scientific institu-
tions " offered nothing " to attract young men who emerge
from our Universities highly trained, and ready at once
to take a prominent part in scientific research. As it is.
University honours are the object, and the examination
over, science is seldom thought of ; it has been learnt to
be forgotten. With us, therefore, scientific men are not
numerous and science rests on a narrow basis. This state
of things is perhaps not quite creditable to the country,
and certainly it has placed us under a disadvantage in the
application of science to the development of the national
resources." Mr. Grove stated that, on the 23rd, Lord
Aberdeen had received the deputation most courteously.

38 - Annals of the Philosophical Club

and had promised to consult the Chancellor of the Exchequer
as to the means of carrying out the proposed objects.

1854. At the meeting on Jan. 25th, the Club considered
how to increase the utiHty and widen the circulation of
the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Dr. Sharpey suggested
that the different scientific societies should be invited to
send notes of their communications to the Royal Society,
which should take means to provide for their circulation.
The result, he thought, would be a sort of Comptes Rendus,
issued (say) once a fortnight. A small subscription from
Fellows of the Royal Society and others interested in science
would, he believed, make it possible to issue the improved
proceedings with regularity. Mr. Wheatstone and others
thought that, besides papers sent to the Royal Society
and intended for appearance in the Philosophical Trans-
actions, communications of a shorter character should be
more frequently made, and accounts of noteworthy scientific
facts, observed on the Continent, should occasionally be
given to the Society. Dr. Pliicker, he said, from whom he
had received a letter, saw some difficulty in a regular issue,
owing to the Long Vacation. Mr. Grove then remarked
that the difficulty, if the project were well launched, might
be overcome by keeping back some communications which
did not demand immediate issue. Dr. Carpenter suggested
that it would be highly advantageous if a list of contem-
poraneous papers, published in foreign Transactions, were
inserted in these Proceedings.

On Feb. 23rd, Dr. Sharpey stated that the Council of the
Royal Society was anxious to make improvements in the
publication of its Proceedings and thus encourage the
communication to its meetings of notices and papers not
intended for the Philosophical Transactions. Mr. Grove
considered that some changes should be made in the rules
to facilitate the publication of such papers, because pro-
duction now went on so rapidly that authors would suffer
by waiting for publication in the Transactions. Dr. Sharpey
thought that the Proceedings might offer a means for rapid
publication of the fundamental points in a discovery ; the

Proceedings of the Royal Society 39

details being reserved for the Transactions. Mr. Grove
referred to his proposition, made Nov. 25th, 1847, ^^'^ 1^^
stress on the importance of the Philosophical Transactions
containing the main papers in all branches of physical
science.

At the meeting on March 23rd, the first number of the
new form of the Royal Society's Proceedings was exhibited,
and Mr. Horner stated that the Geological Society had
determined to print in their Quarterly Journal not only a
list of lately pubhshed books and papers on their subject of
study, but also an abstract of the contents. ^

Sir R. I. Murchison suggested that the societies should
co-operate in applying to Government for the formation of
a Scientific Committee to accompany the British army to
the Black Sea.2

On April 24th (anniversary). Dr. Hooker was elected
Treasurer in place of Mr. Grove. Mr. Charles Darwin, the
Rev. Baden Powell, and Colonel Portlock were elected
members of the Club.

The first of these, Charles Robert Darwin, is such an historical
figure in the records of Natural Science that it is needless to give
more than a bare outline of his biography. Bom at Shrewsbury
on Feb. 12th, 1809, educated at its noted school and Christ's College,
Cambridge, he accompanied Captain Fitz Roy from 1831 to 1836
as naturaUst on the voyage of the Beagle to South America, publishing
the results, after his return, in the well-known Voyage. After his
marriage in 1839, permanent ill-health obUged him to live in retire-
ment at Down, where he worked out his idea of the Origin of Species,
the publication of which, in 1859, was accelerated by its having
independently occurred to A. R. Wallace. Of the controversy
excited by this book and one or two that followed, it is needless
to speak ; enough to say that its author died on April 19th, 1882,
and was buried in Westminster Abbey near the grave of Isaac
Newton.

Professor Baden Powell, who also much agitated unscientific
people, was bom at Stamford Hill on Aug. 22nd, 1796, won distinction

* This will be found (separately paged) under the title " Translations and
Notices of Geological Memoirs " in the volume (Xth) for 1854, and it was
continued as a section of the Journal till the volume for 1873,

*The Crimean War began March 28th, 1854.

40 Annals of the Philosophical Club

in Mathematics at Oxford, and was elected in 1827 Savilian Professor
in Geometry, which post he held till his death on January nth,
i860. Ordained in 1820, he wrote on theological as well as mathe-
matical subjects, and was prosecuted (without success) for a contri-
bution to Essays and Reviews.

Major-General Joseph Ellison Portlock was bom at Gosport
on September 30th, 1794, and obtained in 1813 a commission in the
Royal Engineers. After good service in the Canada war, he returned
to England in 1822, and was employed in surveying Ireland, paying
much attention to its geology and zoology. Then, after employment
in Corfu, he returned to Ireland in command of the Cork district.
In 1 85 1 he became Inspector of Studies at Woolwich, doing good
work as an educational reformer, till he retired with the rank of
Major-General in November, 1857. He was M.R.I. A. as well as
F.R.S., and died at Blackrock, near Dublin, on Feb. 14th, 1864.

A letter from Sir R. I. Murchison to Lord Raglan was
read, which stated that the Presidents of the Geological
and Linnean Societies, with Dr. Hooker, Col. Portlock, and
himself, were empowered to request H.M. Government to
attach a few competent men of science to the army under
his command, which was about to be sent to the east of
Europe or to the immediately adjacent countries. This, as
the letter pointed out, had been done by the French Govern-
ment in past times, with valuable results, and by that of the
United States, both along the Rocky Mountains and in
Southern California. The writers, however, were anxious
to ascertain Lord Raglan's views on the question before
appl3dng to the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State for
War. Lord Raglan's secretary had replied that it would
be better, in his Lordship's opinion, to wait till the destina-
tion of the army had been settled, and it had been some
little time in the field, when he hoped to be able to forward
their views on the subject.

Reverting on May 25th to the housing of scientific
societies. Lord Rosse stated that Sir W. Molesworth, to
whom he had applied, had informed him he had no doubt the
Government, though it had not officially stated its intentions
in regard to Burhngton House, intended to provide in it
for the accommodation of the scientific societies. Colonel
Sabine recommended that the three societies (RoyaU

Accommodation at Burlington House 41

Linnean, and Geological) now accommodated in Somerset
House should be prepared with a statement of the space
which they occupied, and Lord Rosse remarked that
BurUngton House would not afford sufficient room for the
scientific societies as well as for the University of London^
without building additional wings.

1855. On Jan. 25th, a proposed modification of the
bye-law about elections was referred to the Committee,
and the progress made by the Royal Society in preparing
scientific instruments for the Exhibition in Paris was
mentioned. Lord Wrottesley informed the Club that
Government had granted £500 towards the expenses, and
the services of four sappers had been requested from the
Board of Ordnance for security in packing.

At the Anniversary Meeting on April 30th, it was
resolved that new members should be elected at the first
meeting in November as well as at the Anniversary Meeting.
But as only fourteen members were then present, the
election was postponed till May loth. At that meeting
the Treasurer announced six vacancies : Sir H. T. de la
Beche, Professor Forbes, Dr. Walhch by death, Mr. Brown,
Mr. Christie, Mr. Goodsir by resignation. Sir Proby Cautley
was replaced on the Hst. Mr. Busk, Mr. Huxley, Prof.
Stokes, and Prof. Tyndall were elected, the sixth vacancy not
being filled.^

Mr. George Busk, highly distinguished in more than one branch
of science, was bom at St. Petersburg on Aug. 12th, 1807, and
showed in his schooldays a love of Natural History. He studied
medicine at St. Thomas' and St. Bartholomew's Hospitals, and
after qualifying became assistant surgeon on the Grampus, hospital
ship at Greenwich, and then full surgeon on the Dreadnought.
Retiring in 1855 he settled in London to devote his whole time
to scientific work. In this he covered a wide field, for his writings
deal with the pathology of cholera, the treatment of scurvy, the
lowest forms of life, the polyzoa (the second volume of his Report
on those collected by the Challenger being finished during his last
illness), palaeolithic implements, and the noted Moulin Quignon
jawbone (in 1863), after which he visited Gibraltar, working there
and elsewhere at the fauna of caves, besides taking an active part

1 A candidate was proposed, but not elected.

42 Annals of the Philosophical Club

in public service. He became F.R.S. in 1850, and received a Royal
Medal in 1871, as well as the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society
in 1878 and its WoUaston Medal in 1885. He died at his house in
Harley Street, August loth, 1886.

Professor the Right Honourable Thomas Henry Huxley
was son of a schoolmaster, bom at Ealing on May 4th, 1825. He
became a medical student in 1841, and soon afterwards suffered
from blood-poisoning, the result of which was chronic dyspepsia.
Matriculating at the University of London in 1842, be graduated
as M.B., with the gold medal for anatomy and physiology, in 1845.
From the end of the next year to November, 1850, he was attached
to the Rattlesnake, then surveying the sea between Australia and
the Great Barrier Reef. Here his studies of floating hydrozoa,
especially the medusae, tunicata, and perishable moUusca, enabled
him to place their classification on a sound basis. As a result he
was elected F.R.S. in 1851, and in the following year was awarded
2, Royal Medal. On obtaining, in 1854, permanent work in teaching
at the Royal School of Mines, he soon showed that his powers of
exposition equalled those of investigation, and proved to be great in
organization on its removal to South Kensington. An intimate
friend of Charles Darwin, he was a champion of the Origin of
Species, and his chastisement of Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, who
had unwisely attacked it at the Oxford Meeting of the British
Association in i860, will not readily be forgotten. With all this
work, especially on Cartesian criticism, during the ten years previous
to 1870, his ' output ' of scientific literature was surprising. So
great was his influence on the pubUc mind that he went on the School
Board for London. In 1871 he had to take a long holiday, but
became Secretary of the Royal Society, and President in i88i.
From this, however, failing health obliged him to retire in 1885 and
to give up all public work. In 1890 he removed to Eastbourne,
where he died on June 29th, 1895, and was buried at Finchley. He
received the Copley Medal in 1888 and the Darwin in 1894, besides
honorary degrees and other distinctions, among them that of a Privy
Councillor (he refused knighthood) in 1892.

Sir George Gabriel Stokes, son of the Rector of Skreen, County
Sligo, was born there on Aug. 13th, 1811. He went to Pembroke
College, Cambridge, where he was senior wrangler and first Smith's
prizeman in 1837, and obtained a Fellowship. Elected in 1849
to the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics, he won distinction
in many departments, among his notable researches being those
on the motion of fluids, including viscous, the dynamical theory of
diffraction, and the general theory of the propagation of disturbances,
the development of spectrum analysis, which, as his correspondence
proved, he had foreseen before it was actually investigated by
Bunsen and Kirchoff, the phenomena of sound, the variation in

Biographical Notes 43

gravitation ; in fact, his range on the borderland of mathematics and
physics was exceptionally wide. Elected F.R.S. in 1859, he was
one of its Secretaries from 1854 to 1885, and President from the
latter year to 1890, receiving the Rumford Medal in 1852 and the
Copley in 1893. Besides honorary degrees and other marks of
appreciation, he sat in Parliament from 1887 to 1891 as a member
for his University, was created a baronet in 1889, and was elected
to the mastership of his College a few months before his death on
Feb. ist, 1903. In addition to his wide range in science, he took
much interest in theological questions, as is shown by his Gifiord
Lectures and other writings. To celebrate his jubilee as Professor,
many eminent men of science from all civihzed countries gathered
at Cambridge.

Professor John Tyndall, a lecturer exceptionally distinguished,
was bom on August 2nd, 1820, at Leighlin Bridge, Carlow, where
his father owned a Uttle land. After working on the Ordnance
Survey and as a railway engineer, he accompanied Frankland to
Marburg, where he obtained, after only two years' study under
Bunsen, the degree of Ph.D., proceeding afterwards to Berlin. On
returning to Queenswood College in 1851, his increasing reputation
obtained him after two years the professorship of Natural Philosophy
at the Royal Institution. His investigations on slaty cleavage and
the veined structure of glaciers led him to become one of the most
energetic of Alpine cUmbers. His laboratory investigations on
radiant heat in relation to gases and on the effects of minute dust
on Hght, and incidentally on the question of spontaneous generation,
were all highly valuable. For seventeen years he was scientific
adviser to the Trinity House, and made important experiments
on fog-signaUing. His address as President of the British Association
at its Belfast meeting excited much criticism from its anti-theological
character. After giving up work at the Royal Institution he
resided at Hindhead, where he died on Dec. 4th, 1893.

The Committee, to whom a proposed alteration in the
bye-law about elections was referred on Jan. 25th, reported
that it was not prepared, at present, to recommend more
than the first clause in the proposal, namely, that the
elections in future should be held twice in a year, viz., on
the anniversary and on the first meeting in November.
This recommendation was put to the meeting and adopted.
The Committee left for further consideration the second
clause, that two-thirds of the votes should constitute election.

Col. Sabine announced that Sir R. I. Murchison (unavoid-
ably absent) had mentioned the juxtaposition of societies

44 Annals of the Philosophical Club

to Prince Albert, who had expressed himself in favour of
the idea, but said it must be remembered that Burlington
House was a site equally suitable for the Royal Academy,
and thac, as he had been informed, certain London tradesmen
objected to transferring the latter to so distant a position
as Kensington Gore. The Prince thought that the five
chartered societies would do well to press for the BurUngtoa
House site. Mr. Horner suggested that the Committee,
which had waited on Lord Aberdeen, should be called
together, and Lord Wrottesley directed attention to a paper,
stating the desiderata of these societies and urging juxta-
position, which he had laid before ParHament and should
bring before the British Association at Glasgow.

May 24th. The above-named Committee, said Lord
Wrottesley, had met, and he had spoken about juxtapositioa
to Lord Harrowby and the Duke of Argyll, but neither
they, nor Sir W. Molesworth, nor Sir C. Eastlake, had heard
anything of the report mentioned by Prince Albert. He had
asked them to inform Lord Palmerston that the desire of
the chartered societies for juxtaposition and for the Burhng-
ton House site was unabated, but, failing that, they would
be glad to be lodged in the buildings now occupied by the
Royal Academj/. The Treasurer said it was important
to watch the present opportunity, for no sites so eHgible as
Burlington House or Trafalgar Square were likely to be
available, and Mr. Solly added that the idea of transferring
the National Gallery and the Royal Academy to Kensington
Gore had been abandoned. The subject was continued
at the meetings on June 21st and October 25th, when Lord
Wrottesley announced the result of communications with
Lord Palmerston, and stated that Government had not
yet formed definite plans about Burlington House.

Mr. Grove, at the meeting on November 22nd, proposed
that at an election the Committee should lay before the
Club a complete list of the candidates, placing at the head
the names of those they recommended. His reason for the
change was that he thought the present method deterred
some distinguished men of science from becoming candidates.

Accommodation at Burlington House 45

The two vacancies in the Club were filled by replacing
Dr. Falconer on the list and electing Colonel James. Colonel
Sabine announced that the Government had placed £1000
at the disposal of the Royal Society .1

Sir Henry James, Director-General of the Ordnance Survey,
was bom near St. Agnes, Cornwall, in 1803. He passed from
Woolwich into the Royal Engineers in 1825, and in the following
year was appointed to work on the Ordnance Survey, and then
to be local superintendent, under Sir H. T. de la Beche, of the
Geological Survey of Ireland. Detached in 1846 for Admiralty
work, he returned after four years to the Ordnance Survey, of which
he became Director-General in July, 1854, reaching the rank of
Lieut. -Colonel in the following December. During his tenure of
office great changes were made ; the scales adopted for the maps
were finally settled, photography was employed in the reduction
from one scale to another, and photozincography in printing the
results. The Director also took part in connecting the British
survey with those of neighbouring countries, and arranged for the
survey of Jerusalem and the Sinai district. Elected F.R.S. in 1848,
he was knighted in i860, became Lieut. -General in 1876, resigned
office owing to failing health in August, 1875, and died on June 14th,
1877.

On Dec. 20th, Mr. Grove's proposal for a change in the
mode of election was discussed, but dropped, as it appeared
not to meet with general support.

Lord Wrottesley intimated such progress as had been
made in regard to housing the scientific societies at Burling-
ton House, and Colonel Sabine, with Dr. Lyon Playfair
(who had proffered his services), were requested to press the
matter on the Government.

1856. At the meeting on January 24th, the former
stated the result of an interview with Sir Benjamin Hall,
who had said that the Board of Trade had not received any
information of the Government's intentions about Burlington
House. The University of London had been permitted to
occupy it, but whether temporarily or permanently he did
not know. He had, however, recommended that Lord
Wrottesley, as President of the Royal Society, should

1 This is apparently the institution of the " Government Grant Fund,"
•which has been very helpful in scientific research. See Year Book of the
Royal Society.

46 Annals of the Philosophical Club

address a letter to the Treasury stating what the scientific
societies desired, which letter would be sent to the Board
of Works in the regular course of business. He had assured
Sir R. I. Murchison, to whom he had spoken, that, if their
desires could be met, he would warmly support them.
Lord Wrottesley had accordingly written a letter to the
Treasury, which, by his permission, Colonel Sabine com-
municated to the Club.i This letter, after recapitulating
the history of the movement for placing the Royal Society,,
with the four chartered societies, in a more suitable and
central position than they then held, referred to the
occupancy of Burlington House by the University of London,
by which, however, as he beheved, large accommodation
was required on only two or three distinct occasions annually,,
so that arrangements might be made to meet its needs and
those of such societies as could be located in the building.
Copies of this letter had been sent to the Duke of Argyll
and Lord Harrowby, who had given assurances of warm
support ; also to Lord Granville and Lord Stanley of
Alderley. The next step desirable. Dr. Playfair and Colonel
Sabine had thought, was to inspect the accommodation
at Burlington House, which the Board of Works had per-
mitted them to do. They found that the University of
London had occupied the whole of the central building or
mansion house. The wings, still free, are detached buildings
between 70 and 80 feet long, of a coi responding breadth
and height, the west one fitted up as a kitchen and offices,
the east one as a private residence. Supposing the occupancy
of the University of London to be continued, there would
not be accommodation for the chartered societies with the
present arrangements. But they thought that by certain
rearrangements of the central block, by converting the west
wing into a large hall, and by altering the east one, there
might be room for the University of London, and some, if
not all, of the societies. These alterations the Board of Works
considered practicable. As it appeared important to avoid
giving any offence to the University of London, Col. Sabine
1 A copy of it is inserted in the Minutes.

Accommodation at Burlington House 47

and Sir R. I. Murchison had obtained an interview with
its Vice-Chancellor, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, and discussed the
project. This he had promised to bring before the Uni-
versity, and hoped it would appoint a committee to cooperate
with Lord Wrottesley in pressing the matter on the attention
of the Government. A conversation followed, in which
hopes were expressed that Colonel Sabine and Dr. Playfair
would continue to watch the progress of the movement
for juxtaposition. The prospects were favourable, for
two- thirds of the Cabinet were pledged to support it.

On February 22nd, Dr. Sharpey informed the Club
that the officials of the University of London had been
requested to state what accommodation they desired, and
that after referring the matter to the University, had
communicated with him. He had repHed by suggesting the
conversion of the west wing of BurUngton House into a
large hall for examinations, the appropriation of the east
wing to the University, and of the central building to such
scientific societies as it would accommodate. But the
members of the Club, then present, thought it would be a
wiser course for the Royal Society not to move unless it could
obtain better quarters than it now occupied and space
sufficient to accommodate the other chartered societies
under the same roof with itself.

Dr. Hooker referred to the appointment of a Parliamentary
Committee to enquire how the Government could best
forward the interests of science, and asked whether the
above-named subject had been brought to its notice. Lord
Wrottesley repUed that the Committee, after consideration,
was not then in favour of bringing it before the House.

At the Anniversary Meeting on April 28th, two motions
for altering the mode of election into the Club, of which
Colonel Sykes and Mr. Gassiot had previously given notice,
were put to the vote, but the one was rejected and the
other failed to obtain a sufficient majority.

1857. On Feb. 5th, Mr. Bell stated that the Linnean
Society, as a body, was strongly in favour of meeting in
BurUngton House on the same evening as the Royal Society.

48 Annals of the Philosophical Club

This difficulty, as Dr. Sharpey had kindly suggested, could
be overcome by the latter society arranging that papers pre-
sented to it might be read on evenings when the former one
did not meet. He also expressed the deep sense of obligation
felt by the Council and Fellows of the Linnean Society for
the efforts made on their behalf by the Royal Society.

At the Anniversary Meeting on April 27th, Dr. W. A. Miller
was elected Treasurer in the place of Dr. J. D. Hooker,
and two alterations, of which the Committee had given
notice on Jan. 15th, were proposed and carried : (i) that
one black ball in five instead of one in three should exclude
a candidate ; and (2) that the Committee should consist
of seven members instead of four, three instead of two
retiring annually.

Mr. J. C. Adams was elected into the vacancy made by
the resignation of Mr. Green.

Professor John Couch Adams, the discoverer of Neptune, was
bom on January 5th, 181 9, at Lidcot, near Launceston. A farmer's
son, he began at an early age to study astronomy, and showed
exceptional mathematical talent. Entering St. John's College,
Cambridge, he was senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman in
1843. While still an undergraduate, he resolved on trying to
discover the cause of the perturbations in the orbit of Uranus, and
took the result of his calculations to the Greenwich Observatory
in October, 1845. The story of the official delays, which prevented
him from obtaining the full credit for his discovery of Neptune, is
too well known to need repetition. Elected Lowndean Professor
of Astronomy in 1858, he became Director of the Observatory
three years later, and spent his whole life at Cambridge, dying on
Jan. 2ist, 1892. Of him it was truly said that in few men were
the moral and intellectual qualities more evenly balanced. His
work on the secular acceleration of the moon's motion and on the
Leonid meteors was hardly less notable than his discovery of Neptune.
He was elected F.R.S. in 1849, having been awarded the Copley
Medal in the previous year, and received not a few other distinctions,
British and foreign.

On May 14th, Mr. Horner announced that the Geological
Society had applied to the Government for accommodation
at BurUngton House, and Mr. Hardwick had put forward
a plan (to which he beheved the Government was favourable)
for the erection of a building, at a cost of about £3500,

Change of Dining Place 49

which would not interfere with the present front of that
mansion.

On Nov. 19th, the Club decided to dine in future at the
* Thatched House/ because the present place of meeting
was inconveniently distant from BurHngton House ; the
landlord undertaking to provide a dinner of two courses,
with dessert, tea, coffee, and attendance, for nine shiUings a
head — ^wdne, ale, and spirits being charged according to
quantity consimied, sherry at six shilHngs and port at seven
shilHngs a bottle.

Mr. Horner stated at the meeting on Dec. 17th that
the Government had decUned for the present to accommodate
the Geological Society on the site of BurHngton House,
because the house which it now occupied was not as yet
required for pubhc purposes.

1858. The vacancy caused by the death of Dr. Royle
was filled at the Anniversary Meeting on April 26th, by the
election of Mr. Paget.

Sir James Paget, the eminent surgeon, was bom at Great Yar-
mouth on Jan. nth, 1814, and studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, during which time he discovered, while dissecting, the
minute but often fatal parasite Trichina spiralis. Becoming
M.R.C.S. in 1836 and obtaining the Fellowship in 1843, he held
various posts till he became full surgeon in 1861. Before this, he
had gained a high position in his profession, and in 1871 attended
the Princess of Wales (afterwards Queen Alexandra) when lame
from rheumatism. As a surgeon he was skilful and clear-sighted ;
as a teacher, facile and prompt ; as a speaker, eloquent ; and
as a man, universally respected and beloved. He was elected
F.R.S. in 1851, received many degrees and distinctions, among
them a baronetcy in 1871, and died in London on December
30th, 1899.

Towards the end of the year the attendance of members
had perceptibly decreased, and the Treasurer, on December
i6th, was directed to write to those who had been absent
for two years.

On November 25th, only eight were present, so the election
had to be postponed till Dec. i6th, when seventeen members
dined, and Sir B. C. Brodie was elected to fill the vacancy
made by the retirement of Mr. Spence.
p.c. D

50 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, the elder of that name, was-
bom at Winterslow, Wilts., of which his father was rector, in 1783.
He studied medicine in London, held various posts at St. George's
Hospital, and carried out important physiological investigations,
especially on vegetable poisons, being made F.R.S. in 1810, and
receiving the Copley Medal next year. In 181 9 he became Professor
of Comparative Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons, took
part in removing a scalp tumour from George IV., and attended the
king, who held him in much regard, during his last illness. He was
highly esteemed as a successful operator, with a quick eye and a
steady hand, an accurate observation and a retentive memory.
His scientific papers were important, and his work on diseases of
the joints, published in 18 18, reached a fifth edition. He died at
Broome Park, Surrey, on Oct. 21st, 1862.

1859. Dr. Carpenter informed the Club on Feb. 24th^
that Lord J. Manners, during an inspection of Burlington
House, had requested the University of London to state
what accommodation they would require in the new building
which the Government was about to erect. Dr. Carpenter
thought that the scientific societies ought to be watchful
against arrangements being made prejudicial to their
interests. Mr. Grove then gave reasons in favour of the
societies making an effort to obtain an independent building,
where they could meet without interference on the part
of the Government, but Dr. Sharpey said he could not accept
some of these reasons, though agreeing, with Sir R. L Mur-
chison. Admiral Sm5dh, and Mr. Bell, that the matter called
for the earnest attention of the members of the Club and
the societies.

At the Anniversary Meeting on April i8th, the vacancies
caused by the retirement of Mr. Ansted, Mr. Graves, and
Sir J. Herschel were filled by the election of Dr. Daubeny,
Dr. Frankland, and Dr. Lindley.

Dr. Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny was bom at Stratton,.
Gloucestershire, on Feb. nth, 1795, and went from Winchester
School to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship
which he held for the rest of his Hfe. Devoting himself to chemistry
and geology, he passed some three years under Professor Jameson
at Edinburgh, and then travelled in Auvergne and other volcanic
districts of Europe, the result of which was his valuable book^
Description of Active and Extinct Volcanoes, the first edition oi

Biographical Notes 51

which appeared in 1826 and the second (enlarged) in 1848. He
was elected Professor of Chemistry at Oxford in 1822, to which,
twelve years later, was added the Chair of Botany, and in the interval
he took the degree of M.D. and practised as a physician, so his work
covered a wide field and yet was good, for he wrote valuable papers
on the chemical side of geology and on vegetable physiology. After
his death on Dec. 13th, 1867, Professor J. Phillips remarked, " His
earnest spirit gained him great influence in the Oxford of his time.
No project of change ever found him indifferent, prejudiced, or
unprepared." He was elected into the Royal Society in 1822.

Professor Sir Edward Frankland was bom at Churchtown,
near Lancaster, on Jan. i8th, 1825. From its noted Grammar
School he went to study at the Museum of Practical Geology in
London, under Professor Lyon Playfair. After teaching chemistry
at Queenswood College, Hants., he worked in 1847 under Bunsen
at Marburg, and, after graduating as Ph.D., proceeded to Giessen
to be under Liebig. In 1850 he returned to England as Professor
of Chemistry at Putney College, going on next year to Owens College,
Manchester, where he continued his important researches in theore-
tical and apphed chemistry, so that, after being elected F.R.S. in
1853, he obtained a Royal Medal in 1857. In the summer of 1859,
when the Thames water at London became " horribly offensive," ^
he was called upon by the Board of Works to join Professor Hofmann,
whom he afterwards succeeded at the Royal College, in reporting
on the deodorization of the sewage. In August 1859 he spent
a night with Professor Tyndall on the summit of Mont Blanc, where
he made interesting experiments. In 1865 he became analyst
of the Metropolitan drinking water, after serving on the second
Commission about the Pollution of Rivers, and contributed largely
to scientific literature. He gave up his Professorship in 1885, going
to reside at his house at Reigate. He received many honours, and
was ultimately created K.C.B. in 1897. On Aug. 9th, 1899, he
died after a short illness at Golaa in Gudbrandsdalen, to which
country he had gone as usual for salmon fishing.2

Dr. John Lindley, the son of a nurseryman, was bom near
Norwich on Feb. 5th, 1799, and early showed a love for botany
and antiquities. From Norwich Grammar School he went to
Belgium as agent for a seed merchant, and began to write on

' The writer had full experience of this, for he was then a Master at
Westminster School and lodged at the lower end of Great College Street.
One night the stench was so bad that he was driven to mask it by screwing
up a lot of tobacco in a newspaper and thus fumigating his sitting room.
The water was a dark brown tint, seemingly full of a minutely granular
curd.

* His body was brought back to Reigate, where the writer, who had often
experienced his kindness, read the funeral service.

52 Annals of the Philosophical Club

botanical subjects, then came to London as assistant librarian to
Sir Joseph Banks, was befriended by W. J. Hooker, was elected
F.R.S. in 1828, and in 1857 was awarded a Royal Medal. He did
good service to the Horticultural Society's Garden at Chiswick,
of which he was superintendent, and was Professor of Botany in
University College, London, from 1829 to i860. The Government fre-
quently consulted him on questions of food cultivation, and especially
on the noted potato famine in Ireland. He wrote many botanical
papers and books, and died after a long iUness on Nov. ist, 1865.

A project, which engaged the attention of the Club for
some little time, was started by a memorandum from Mr.
Gassiot, read at the meeting on March 24th. This suggested
the establishment of a fund for assisting scientific men or
their families when in need of money. The Minutes contain
a copy of this memorandum, which, after stating fully the
purpose of the fund, recommends entrusting the administra-
tion of it to the President and Council of the Royal Society,
and investing the capital of the fund in Government securities
in their names, the receipts and disbursements appearing
in the annual financial statement of the Society. No
application for assistance is to be entertained unless it be
made by the President of the Astronomical, the Chemical,
the Geological, the Linnean, or the Royal Societies. If
granted, the accommodation must be entered on the Minutes
of the Council, which are open to the inspection of Fellows,
thus preventing misappropriation, and the expenses neces-
sarily incurred by ordinary charitable societies. It was
agreed that the Treasurers should send a circular letter to
each member of the Club asking for his opinion on this
subject.

At the next meeting (April i8th), when sixteen members
were present, letters were read from eight others. The
general opinion seemed in favour of establishing a fund, to
be supplementary to, not a substitute for, the pensions
awarded by Government to men of science, and some of
the Fellows promised contributions. A Committee, includ-
ing Mr. Gassiot, was appointed to draw up a report. This
was presented on May 26th as a draft scheme, and is entered
in the Minutes. It suggests the name Scientific Rehef

Scientific Relief Fund 53

Fund, and puts the above recommendations in more formal
terms, empowering the Council of the Royal Society to
appoint committees or make the necessary arrangements
for managing the matter.

At the meeting on November 24th, Dr. A. Farre and
Professor A. C. Ramsay were elected in the places of Professor
J. Phillips and Admiral Smyth, who had resigned. A
modification of the rule about the admission of visitors
(No. II.) was suggested by Mr. Horner. It was discussed
at the December meeting, but a resolution, brought forward
on January 26th, i860, was withdrawn by him, as it did not
appear to be favourably regarded by a majority of those
present.

Dr. Arthur Farre, son of a noted London physician, was bom
on March 6th, 1811. From Charterhouse he went to Cambridge,
where he took the degree of M.D. in 1841, becoming F.R.C.P. two
years later, and holding important positions in medical education.
He had a great reputation in obstetrical cases, and wrote valuable
papers on that and microscopical subjects, dying on December 17th,
1887. He was elected into tiie Royal Society in 1839.

Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay, son of a Glasgow manufacturing
chemist, was born in that city on Jan. 31st, 1814. Having attracted
notice by a model of the Isle of Arran, exhibited at the meeting of
the British Association in 1840, he was placed on the Geological
Survey by Sir R. I. Murchison, and was employed mainly in Wales,
but held the Professorship of Geology at University College, London,
from 1847 to 1852, when he became lecturer at the School of Mines.
On the Survey he succeeded Murchison in 1871 as Director-General,
and was knighted on retiring in 1 881 . A man of great activity, mental
and bodily, he overtaxed his strength, and died at Beaumaris after
a slow failure on Dec. 9th, 1891. He was elected F.R.S. in 1862,
President of the Geological Society in the same year, and of the
British Association in 1880, receiving a Royal Medal from the first
and a Wollaston Medal from the second. His contributions to
physical geology were numerous ; the most noteworthy being
those on certain river courses, on the denudation of South Wales,
and on the glacial origin of lake basins in the Alps and the Black
Forest

1860. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 23, Dr.
Carpenter succeeded Dr. W. A. Miller as Treasurer, but
there was no vacancy in the Club.

54 Annals of the Philosophical Club

On June 21st, Sir R. Murchison read a letter from M. de
Verneuil deprecating the division of the British Museum,
and pointing out that much space might be gained by so
re-arranging the Natural History collection as to restrict
the portion displayed to the public, but to make it more
available for their instruction. Professor Huxley remarked
that, in giving evidence to a Parhamentary Committee, he
had expressed similar views, and that subsequent careful
measurements had confirmed his statements, which at the
time were founded on general impressions.

At the meeting on Nov. 22nd, Mr. Lubbock, Mr. Prestwich,
and Professor Williamson were elected into the vacancies
made by the death of Prof. Baden Powell, and the resignations
of Mr. G. Rennie and Mr. E. Solly.

Lord Avebury, better known as Sir John Lubbock, was born
at High Down, Kent, in November, 1834, and left Eton at a rather
early age to enter the bank in which his father was a leading member,
succeeding him as fourth baronet in 1865. He was a leader among
men of business, wide in his culture, remarkable for his varied
activities, combining a grasp of principles with an unflagging care
for details. His books on Prehistoric Times and Primitive Culture
were very valuable, together with his contributions to certain
branches of entomology, and his Scenery of England and Scenery
of Switzerland must not be forgotten. His more popular little
books, the Pleasures of Life, the Use of Life, the Beauties of Nature,
were highly successful. He sat in Parliament from 1870 to 1900,
for the last ten years as representative of the University of London.
There he concentrated his energies on social and educational
questions. Bank Holidays being his popular memorial. He had
probably presided over more societies than any other man, received
not a few honorary degrees and other distinctions, and in 1900 was
created Baron Avebury (taking his title from the noted Wiltshire
circle of megaliths). Regretted by all who knew him, he died on
May 28th, 1913.

Sir Joseph Prestwich, son of a ^^me merchant, but of an old
Lancashire family, was bom at Clapham near London on March
12th, 1 81 2. At the age of eighteen, after two years in Paris to
learn French, he entered his father's office, but devoted all his
spare time to science, especially geology, soon making his mark by
two excellent papers on the Carboniferous Rocks of Coalbrook
Dale, and then devoting himself to working out the Tertiary and
Post-Tertiary deposits of southern and eastern England. He was
also among the first to investigate the evidence for early prehistoric

Change of Dining Place 55

man, and paid much attention to the question of water-supply.
In 1872 he retired from business to live near Shoreham, where,
«ix years before, he had built an attractive house, but was appointed
Professor of Geology at Oxford in June, 1874, and held that ofi&ce
till 1888. He contributed largely to the literature of geology,
dealing chiefly with stratigraphy and certain physical questions,
among which was advocating the effect of great floods. He was
President and WoUaston medallist of the Geological Society, was
elected F.R.S. in 1853, received a Royal Medal in 1865, and an
Hon. D.C.L. from Oxford, was gazetted knight in January, 1896, and
<iied on June 23rd of that year.

Professor Alexander William Williamson was bom at
Wandsworth on May ist, 1824. After his father, who was a clerk
in the India House, retired, the family spent some time abroad, and
the boy was at school in Dijon and Paris. In 1881 he went to
Heidelberg to study medicine, but was attracted to chemistry, and
in 1884 went on to Giessen to work under Liebig. Here he began
to make his mark by important discoveries in regard to bleaching
salts. Then came experiments on ozone and very valuable
researches into the composition of Prussian Blue. After work in
Paris from 1846 to 1849, he returned to London, and was appointed
in the latter year Professor, first of Practical, then of General
Chemistry at University College. After the publication of his
remarkable papers on etherification (1850-2), his contributions to
Chemical Science diminished in quantity, for his time was so fully
occupied by the direct and indirect duties of his oflSce, but as
a teacher he was eminently stimulative and suggestive, implanting
ideas which his students developed. He became F.R.S. in 1855,
received a Royal Medal in 1862, was President of the British Associa-
:^ion at Bradford in 1873, retired from work in 1887, and died at
High Pitfold, Haslemere, May 6th, 1904.

1861. On May 30th, the Club received notice that the
^ Thatched House ' would cease to be carried on as a tavern,
and at the next meeting (June 20th) it decided to dine at
the St. James' Hall, if the Treasurer could make satisfactory
arrangements.

On Nov. 28th, the vacancy caused by the resignation of
Prof. Bell was filled by the election of Mr. W. Spottiswoode.

Dr. William Spottiswoode, whose father was head of the firm of
Eyre & Spottiswoode, Queen's Printers, was bom in London, Jan.
nth, 1825. After Eton and Harrow, he went to Oxford and took
a first class in Mathematics from Balliol College in 1845, obtaining
two University scholarships in that subject. In 1846 he succeeded
his father as Queen's printer, without, however, abandoning his

56 Annals of the Philosophical Club

mathematical studies. In 1856 he made a rather long journey in
Eastern Russia, of which he pubhshed an account in tiie following
year, and in i860 visited Croatia and Hungary. His first treatise
on Mathematics, Meditationes AnalyticcB, appeared in 1847, but he
wrote many papers on contacts of curves and surfaces and the higher
branches of analytical geometry, also pubUshing in 1851 the first
elementary treatise in determinants. Twenty years after that he
imdertook experimental research in physics, at first on the polariza-
tion of Ught, then on electrical discharges in rarified gases, besides
which he had an unusual knowledge of languages, European and
Oriental. He received honorary degrees from Oxford and Cam-
bridge, Edinburgh and Dubhn, was elected F.R.S. in 1853, and
became President in 1878, but died of a fever on June 27th, 1883,
leaving the reputation not only of a brilliant mathematician and
physicist, but also of a highly accompUshed and singularly attractive
man.

1862. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 28th, no
election was made for want of a quorum, which was not
obtained till June 19th, when Mr. Sclater and Colonel Yorke
were elected into the vacancies caused by the resignations
of Sir Proby Cautley and Sir J. Herschel.

Dr. Pkilip Lutley Sclater, a member of a Hampshire county
family, was bom in November, 1829. From Winchester he went
to Corpus College, Oxford, where he obtained a First Class in mathe-
matics and a Fellowship, but already had begun to collect birds.
He was called to the Bar, and for some years went on the Northern
circuit, but after making a rather long journey in North America
in 1857 and visiting Tunis in 1859, he became in that year Secretary
to the Zoological Society, which soon felt the stimulus of his energy.
When he resigned in 1902, the number of its Fellows had risen from
about 1300 to 3000, new ofi&ces had been erected in Hanover Square,
and the animals mostly housed in new buildings. He became F.R.S.
in 1865, a Ph.D. of Bonn, and an Hon. D.Sc. of his own University,
dying on June 27th, 191 3, after writing many valuable papers on
birds and mammals. His fine collection, containing over 3000 species
of certain orders of American birds, is now in the British Museum.

Lt.-Col. Philip James Yorke, distinguished as a chemist, was
son of a Prebend of Ely and a descendant of the first Lord Hardwicke,
bom Oct. 13th, 1799. From Harrow School he obtained, about
1 81 6, a commission in the Scotch FusiUer Guards, retiring about
1852 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was President
of the Chemical Society, 1853-5, and elected F.R.S. in 1849. His
most important researches were on the solution of metallic lead by
the action of water, and he made a laborious comparison of the

Non-Attendance Discussed 57

readings of a barometer at his house at Ross (Monmouth) and of
the one at the Royal Society. He died Dec. 14th, 1874.

On Nov. 27th, the vacancy caused by the death of Sir
B. Brodie was filled by the election of Dr. Thomas Thomson.

He was bom in Glasgow, where his father was a Professor of the
University, on Dec. 4th, 181 7, and when only seventeen discovered
and described the fossil moUusca in the Clyde beds. Next he did
good work in chemistry, and then became engrossed in botany.
After taking the degree of M.D., he went to India as assistant-surgeon
in the Company's service. Here he was sent to Ghuznee, and
when it fell was taken prisoner, but bribed his captor to convey
him with others to the British army of rehef . He was thus enabled
to study the botany of the Sutlej region, after which bis duties as a
boundary commissioner between Kashmir and Tibet gave him the
opportunity of botanical work up to the crest of the Karakorams.
He spent 1850 in traveUing with Sir J. D. Hooker in the Sikkim
forests, the Khasi Hills, and the neighbouring districts. Illness
sent him to England in 1851, but he returned in 1854, being made
F.R.S. next year, to be superintendent of the Botanic Gardens at
Calcutta. In 1861 bad health obhged him to resign. He spent the
rest of his life at Kew and at Maidstone, dying April i8th, 1878.

1863. At the Anniversary Meeting, April 27th, Mr. Busk
was elected Treasinrer, and a new rule was proposed, accord-
ing to which a member of the Club ceased to belong to it,,
if wholly absent from one anniversary to the next, though
capable of being restored, after the usual formalities, at
the next anniversary. The proposed rule, of which notice
had previously been given, was discussed, but not put to
the vote.

1864. At the Anniversary Meeting, April 25th, the
vacancies caused by the resignations of Mr. Darwin, Dr.
Daubeny, and Dr. lindley, and the deaths of Mr. L. Homer
and Col. Portlock, were filled by the election of Sir B. C.
Brodie, Sir G. Everest, Prof. J. C. Maxwell, Mr. Archibald
Smith, and Mr. J. J. Sylvester.

Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, the younger, was bom in London
in 1 81 7, and went from Harrow to BalUol College, Oxford, where he
devoted himself to Natural Science, especially chemistry. His
papers on some of its more abstruse questions indicate well-devised
experiments and close reasoning. His studies of the allotropic

5 8 Annals of the Philosophical Club

forms of carbon led him to ascertain the atomic weight of graphite,
and to regard it as an independent mineral, while suggesting at the
same time a process for purifying it of economic value. He was
elected F.R.S. in 1849 and Professor of Chemistry at Oxford in
1865, was made an Hon. D.C.L. in 1872, and died in 1880.

Sir George Everest, whose name is inseparable from the survey
of India, was bom July 4th, 1790, at Gwemvale, Brecknock. After
passing through Woolwich he obtained a commission in the Bengal
Artillery in 1806, and was selected, after seven years' service in
India, to make a survey of Java. This occupied him for two years,
and he was employed after his return on engineering work until he
was appointed chief assistant to the great trigonometrical survey
of India. The state of his health made necessary a visit to England
in 1825, and while there he was elected F.R.S. (in 1827). After
returning to India he measured an arc of the meridian 21° long.
In December, 1843, he retired with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, to
publish, four years afterwards, his great work — an account of that
measurement. In 1861 he was made C.B. and knighted shortly
afterwards. He died in London on Dec. ist, 1866.

Professor James Clerk Maxwell was the son of a Scotch
laird, bom in Edinburgh on November 13th, 1831. He showed
early signs of exceptional power in mathematics, and went from
its University to Cambridge, where he graduated from Trinity
College as second wrangler and bracketed for the Smith Prize in
1854. He was made F.R.S. in 1861, and received the Rumford Medal
in i860. After holding Professorships at Aberdeen and in King's
College, London, he devoted himself from 1865 to 1871 to mathe-
matical and physical work till in the latter year he was elected to
the newly founded Chair of Experimental Ph5^ics at Cambridge.
Here he laboured, lecturing, organizing the laboratory built by the
Duke of Devonshire, and adding to his scientific writings on such
subjects as the theory of compound colours (that all these are made
by a due mixture of three primary colours), the stability of motion
in Saturn's rings, the kinetic theory of gases, Faraday's lines of
force, and the nature of electricity and magnetism. His health
failed rather rapidly in the summer of 1879, and he died in Cambridge
on November 5th, regretted as a brilliant and sympathetic teacher,
a delightful companion, blending grave with gay, and a man with
wide interests and a deep sense of reUgion.

Archibald Smith, successful at the Bar and as a mathematician,
was son of a Glasgow merchant bom at Greenhead, near that city,
on Aug. loth, 1 81 3. From its University he went to Trinity College,
Cambridge, where he was senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman
in 1836. After election to a Fellowship at his College, he went to
the Bar, and obtained an excellent practice in questions connected

Biographical Notes 59

-with real property ; but did some very important scientific work
on wave surfaces and the effect of iron in a ship on its compasses.
Elected F.R.S. in 1856, he was awarded a Royal Medal in 1865, and
received, in the previous year, an honorary LL.D. from Glasgow.
He died in London on Dec. 26th, 1872.

1865. At the Anniversary Meeting, April 24th, the
vacancies caused by the death of Dr. H. Falconer and the
resignation of Mr. W. Hopkins remained unfilled for want
of a quorum, but on May i8th, Mr. Hirst and Colonel R.
Strachey were elected.

Professor Thomas Archer Hirst, son of a woolstapler at
Heckmondwike, Yorkshire, was bom on April 22nd, 1830. Educated
as a surveyor, he went with J. Tyndall to Marburg University, where
he remained three years and took the Ph.D. degree, passing on to
Gottingen and Berlin. After work as a teacher of mathematics
in England, he was appointed in 1865 Professor at University
College, London, becoming ultimately Director of Naval Studies at
Greenwich. Weak health obhged him to resign this post in 1883,
but he lived till 1892, dying on Feb. i6th in London. He made
many important contributions to abstract geometry, was elected
F.R.S. in 1861, and received a Royal Medal in 1883.

General Sir Richard Strachey was a member of a good
Somerset family, bom at Sutton Court on July 24th, 181 7. From
Addiscombe be obtained a commission in the Bombay Engineers,
and was transferred to work under Sir P. T. Cautley on the Ganges
Canal. This was interrupted by the Sikh war, and he was present
at the battles of Aliwal and Sobraon in 1846. After returning to
canal work, he was obhged to take a long holiday in the Kumaon
Himalayas, where he explored the ranges west of Nepal and Tibet,
striking the upper waters of the Sutlej some 14,000 feet above
sea-level, and made large botanical and geological collections. In
working out these he was occupied in England from 1850 to 1855,
when he went back to India, rendering valuable services during
the Mutiny. He retired with the rank of Lieutenant-General in
1876, but was sent back from 1877 to 1879 for organization of the
railways and investigation of the causes of famine. Elected F.R.S.
in 1854, he received a Royal Medal in 1897, became C.S.I. in 1866
and G.C.S.I. in 1897. After many valuable services to science and
to his country, he died at Hampstead on Febmary i2tb, 1908.

On Nov. 23rd, the vacancy caused by Prof. Hofmann's
return to Germany was filled by the election of Dr. Rolleston.

Dr. George Rolleston was bom on July 30th, 1829, at Maltby
Hall, near Rotherham, went to Pembroke College, Oxford, and won a

6o Annals of the Philosophical Club

first class in classics. On obtaining a Fellowship he turned ta
medicine, taking the degree of M.D. in 1857. In that year he was
elected Physician to the Radcliflfe Infirmary, Oxford, and Lee's Reader
in Anatomy, obtaining in i860 the Professorship of Anatomy and
Physiology. He made a special study of the brain, about which
he took Huxley's side in the controversy with Owen, and examined
barrows, publishing a book on that subject in 1877. Active in local
questions, especially sanitation, his strenuous life told upon his
health, and after spending a winter on the Riviera, he died at Oxford
on June i6th, 1881, having earned the reputation of a man " deeply
learned in his special branch of study and well informed on all
subjects."

1866. Dr. Thomas Thomson was appointed Treasurer
at the Anniversary Meeting on April 30th, but there was
no vacancy in the Club.

On Nov. 29th, the vacancies made by the resignation
of Professor Faraday and the return of Colonel Strachey
to India were filled by the election of Professor Flower
and Mr. Simon.

Sir William Henry Flower was bom at Stratford-on-Avon,
and studied at University College, London, taking the degree of
M.B. in that University in 1851. He accompanied the British army
to the Crimea, but on his return became Demonstrator of Anatomy
at the Middlesex Hospital till 1861, when he was made Curator of
the Museum of the College of Surgeons, which he augmented by
many new specimens and illustrated by his memoirs. He became
Hunterian Professor in 1870, was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society in 1864, and received a Royal Medal in 1882. Two years
afterwards he succeeded Sir R. Owen as Director of the Natural
History Museum at South Kensington, which also developed and
prospered under his rule. He was an Hon. LL.D. of Dublin and
Edinburgh and a D.C.L. of Durham, President of the British Associa-
tion in 1889, and received a Prussian order. He was created C.B.
in 1887 and K.C.B. in 1892. In 1898 failing health compelled him
to retire, and he died on July ist, 1899. He made the Museum
serviceable to students, yet interesting to the general public, working
especially on whales, marsupials, and monotremes, and making
valuable contributions to anthropology. His numerous scientific
writings are distinguished by caution and reticence in generaUzation.

Sir John Simon was of French ancestry, bom in London. Oct.
loth, i8i6, studied medicine at its hospitals and was appointed
Professor of Surgery at King's College, where he was noted as a leader
and teacher in pathology, and was appointed medical of&cer for the
City of London. A man of wide culture, he fought the battle of

Biographical Notes 6l

sanitation in many important reports, till, in 1876, of&cial opponents
brought about his retirement, with a C.B. and a special pension.
He was elected F.R.S. in 1845, received the Buchanan Medal in 1897,
and honorary degrees from Oxford, Cambridge and DubUn, was
promoted to K.C.B. in 1887, and died after a period of failing health
at his house in Kensington on July 23rd, 1904.

1867. At the Anniversary Meeting, Mr. J. B. Buckton was
elected into the vacancy made by the death of Sir G. Everest.

He was bom at Homsey, near London, on May 24th, 181 8, the
son of a law-proctor, and was crippled in childhood by an accident.
After studying chemistry under Professor Hofmann, he made some
important researches on platinum compounds, and was elected
F.R.S. in 1857, but when he removed to Haslemere on his marriage
in 1865, he devoted himself to entomology, especially the life history
of aphides and other minute insects, besides working at astronomy
in an observatory which he had erected, where also he had a fall,
breaking his leg in two places. He died on Sept. 25th, 1905.

On Nov. 28th, the vacancies caused by the deaths of
the Earl of Rosse and Lord Wrottesley were filled by the
election of Sir W. G. Armstrong and Mr. J. Evans.

Sir William George Armstrong (afterwards Baron Armstrong),
the son of a corn-merchant of Newcastle-on-Tyne, was bom there
on Nov. 26th, 1 810. He early showed great interest in mechanism,
to which he was drawn away though trained as a solicitor. His
invention of a hydroelectric machine, followed by an hydraulic
crane, brought him into notice. He was elected F.R.S. in 1846,
and next year began the Elswick works. The Crimean War turned
his attention to artillery, and he invented the breech-loading Arm-
strong gun. When, at last, this received official approval, he
presented his patents to the nation, for which he was created knight
and C.B. In 1863 the British artillery was the finest in existence,
but officials preferred muzzle-loaders to breech-loaders, and by
the end of fifteen years the contrary had become true, for other
nations had gone on buying from Elswick. A shipbuilding company
was also started there, and in 1897 came the combination with the
Whitworths. Armstrong, created a baron in January, 1887, was a
most liberal benefactor to Newcastle and to science in general, and
died at Craighead, his country seat, on Dec. 27th, 1900.

Sir John Evans, son of the Rev. Dr. Evans, was bom at Britwell
Court, Bumham, on Nov. 17th, 1823, and in his eighteenth year entered
the paper-making business at Nash Mills, Hemel Hempstead, where
he became a partner in 1850. Few men have combined so much
practical ability with such wide interests in science and archaeology.

62 Annals of the Philosophical Club

He was successful in business, took a leading position in countjr
affairs and in scientific societies, was a collector of and authority
on coins, especially Roman gold and British, tracing the development
of the latter from the stater of Philip, joined Prestwich in investigat-
ing the palaeoUthic implements of the Somme valley, and formed
collections on which were founded first his classic work. Ancient
Stone Implements, and then that on Ancient Bronze Implements ;
in fact he was a most expert and judicious collector, not only in the
above-named lines. As a geologist he did some valuable work
on water-supply. Elected F.R.S. in 1864, he was Treasurer from
1878 to 1889, was President of the British Association in 1897, was
a D.C.L. of Oxford, LL.D. of DubUn and Toronto, and Sc.D. of
Cambridge. In 1892 he was created K.C.B., and continued vigorous
in mind till his death at Britwell, where he had built a house, on
May 31st, 1908, regretted as a man quite exceptional for his kindly
spirit, ready wit, and extensive knowledge.

At the meetings in 1868 and the Anniversary one in the
following year, there were no vacancies, but at the last
Dr. P. L. Sclater succeeded Dr. T. Thomson as Treasurer.

1869. On Nov. 25th, Professor OdHng was elected to fill
the vacancy made by the death of Mr. Graham.

Professor William Odling, Waynflete Professor of Chemistry
in the University of Oxford from 1872 to 1912, was bom in London
in 1829, and now rests from his hard labours on behalf of science
at his home in that city, where he is a Fellow of Worcester College.

1870. The vacancy caused by the resignation of Professor
J. C. Adams could not be filled at the anniversary on April
25th for want of a quorum, but on May 26th Mr. Huggins
was elected.

Sir W. Huggins, son of a London silk-mercer, was bom at Stoke
Newington on Feb. 7th, 1824, and, after a few years in business,
built an observatory at Tulse Hill, studying at first more especially
the belts of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, In 1862 he was attracted
to spectrum analysis, at which he worked with Dr. W. A. Miller,*
and discovered that some nebulae, at any rate, were luminous gas.
Elected F.R.S. in 1865, he was awarded next year a Royal Medal,
afterwards receiving the Rumford and the Copley Medals. Continu-
ing his work on nebulae, he showed his earlier inference to be justified,
and extended his investigations to comets. He also aided in making
it possible to study the prominences of the solar photosphere under
ordinary circumstances, and appUed photography to recordings

^ See page 16,

Scientific Societies and the Government 63

spectra. He received honorary degrees from Oxford, Cambridge,
Edinburgh, St. Andrews, and Dublin, with many foreign distinctions,
was President of the British Association in 189 1 and of the Royal
Society from 1900 to 1906. Created K.C.B. in 1897, he received
the O.M. in 1902. His death occurred in London on May 12th, 1910.

In a conversation on June 30th which Dr. Miller started
by an enquiry about the results of the Government Com-
mission on Scientific Aids, Mr. Grove expressed a strong
objection to Government support for anything in the shape
of Academies, quoting as an example the French Academy,
which tended to foster antiquated notions and to repress
the free expression of opinions. Sir John Lubbock called
attention to inconveniences in communicating with the
Government, which arose from too frequent changes in the
Council of the Royal Society. Professor Huxley said that
he always objected to the Royal Society giving advice to
the Government, and thought it would be better for the latter
to request the Royal Society, when its advice was needed,
to name committees of experts to consider the question.
He also expressed the opinion that the tenure of the Pre-
sidency in the Royal Society should be shorter than at
present, to which Mr. Grove rephed that the Council in
1849 had passed a minute recommending a period of four
years. Sir John Lubbock advised the formation of a
permanent Board to watch over educational movements
or questions, and Dr. Carpenter thought that Mr. Foster's
Act contemplated some such Board or Council. With regard
to its composition. Sir J. Lubbock suggested the inclusion
of members representing the Royal Society and the British
Association, and Dr. WiUiamson thought that each Uni-
versity might appoint a member, but that, in regard to
research, the Government Grant Committee was sufficient.

On Nov. 24th, Mr. Gassiot called the attention of the
Club to a paragraph in the Minutes of June 30th (which
he had not done when it was read on Oct. 27th ^ because a.
stranger was present) about Umiting the tenure of the
Presidency of the Royal Society. He considered the course

^ The day of the month has been omitted from the Minutes.

64 Annals of the Philosophical Club

taken by Messrs. Grove and Huxley to be disrespectful to
the present President of the Royal Society, and regretted
that the paragraph recording it should have been placed
on the Minutes. He also referred to a member of the Club
having made a similar statement at a Council Meeting of
the Royal Society. Professor Williamson said he had done
the latter, but on his own responsibihty and without making
any reference to what had passed at the Philosophical Club.
Mr. Grove said that he had not expressed any opinion on
the matter, but had merely mentioned that the Council of
the Royal Society had once passed a minute in favour of
a Hmitation of tenure. He had, however, no hesitation
in expressing his concurrence with Prof. Huxley, and
vindicated the course which had been followed, by showing
that it was *' one of the primary objects of the Philosophical
Club to discuss these and similar questions." The Treasurer,
in accordance with a request from Professor Huxley (who
was unavoidably absent), read a letter which the latter
had addressed to Mr. Gassiot, in reply to one announcing
the intention of bringing forward the subject. In this
letter Professor Huxley stated that, had he been present,
he should have been disposed to question Mr. Gassiot's
right to open any discussion on minutes already confirmed,
but he was nevertheless quite ready that any opinion of
his recorded on the minutes should be discussed in his
absence, so he requested the Treasurer to make an extract
from them of the passage referred to and bring it before the
Club as new matter.

The vacancy caused by the death of Dr. W. A. Miller was
filled by the election of Mr. C. W. Siemens.

Sir Carl William Siemens was bom at Lenthe, Hanover, in
1823, the second of four brothers who were closely associated in
practical scientific work. After passing through the University
of Gottingen he came to England in 1823, when at first he made
but slow progress in business. This improved with his invention
of a water-meter and a ' regenerative furnace ' especially applicable
to melting steel. Naturalized in 1859, he was elected F.R.S. in
1862. He then turned his attention to electricity, and especially
to submarine cables. He laid that from Dover to Calais in 1851,

Rules for Electing Fellows Discussed 65

-and was concerned with the direct Atlantic cable of 1874, besides
the long-distance land cable from Prussia to Teheran. Also he
was a strong supporter of the transmission of power by electricity.
He also made experiments on electric lighting, and its effect on the
growth of plants, with other things too numerous to mention. He
received honorary degrees from Oxford, Dublin, and Glasgow ;
sundry foreign orders ; was President of the British Association,
1882, and was knighted in 1883, dying on Nov. i8th of that year, ** a
bom inventor, a shrewd man of business, who made a large fortune
and was a generous giver."

1871. On Nov. 23rd, the vacancy caused by the death
of Sir R. I. Murchison was filled by replacing General
Strachey on the list, who had now returned from India.

1872. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 22nd,
Professor Flower was elected Treasurer in the place of
Dr. Sclater.

On Dec. 19th (since there was no quorum at the meeting
on Nov. 2Tst), the vacancy made by the death of Colonel
Sykes was filled by the election of Professor AUman.

Professor George James Allman was bom in Cork in 1812, and
graduated as B.A. in 1839 and as M.D. in 1847 at Trinity College,
Dublin, studying at first for the Bar, but ultimately leaving it and
medical practice for Natural Science, when he devoted himself
to marine zoology, more especially the hydrozoa and polyzoa.
Elected Professor of Botany in 1844 at DubUn, he obtained the
Professorship of Natural History at Edinburgh in 1854, and became
F.R.S. in the same year. He described the collections of medusae
and other hydrozoa made on the Challenger expedition, and continued
working energetically at science after retiring from the Professorship
in 1876. He was President of the British Association, 1879, and after
settUng at Parkstone, Dorset, died there on November 24th, 1898.

1873. On March 27th, General Strachey asked the Club
to consider the following suggested changes in the rules for
the election of Fellows into the Royal Society : (i) that
Persons of Royal birth, Peers, and Privy Councillors should
be elected under the same rules as ordinary Fellows ; (2) that
the election should be held on a single day — that for the
election of ordinary Fellows ; (3) that, Hke these, they
should be proposed by the Council, instead of by any Fellow,
as at present ; (4) that in future their qualification shall be
*' ascertained special power and disposition to forward the

p.c. E

66 Annals of the Philosophical Club

aims of the Society, derived from exceptional personal or
official advantages of position " ; (5) that the number
annually elected should be limited to that determined by
the average of the last eight or ten years — say, not more
than three. The effect of these changes would be to bring
the election of the above-named personages more nearly
under the rules governing the election of ordinary Fellows
and remove all appearance of privilege.

At the Anniversary Meeting on April 28th, Sir W. Grove
referred to General Strachey's suggestions, and said that
the subject of election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society
had been very fully discussed prior to the changes made some
years ago, when it had been decided not to make any alter-
ation in the rules governing the election of privileged persons.

The vacancies, caused by the deaths of Dr. Bence Jones,
Mr. Partridge, and Mr. Archibald Smith, were filled by the
elections of Mr. Francis Galton, Dr. Giinther, and Professor
Henry Smith.

Sir Francis Galton, son of a banker, who had married a daughter
of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin, was
bom in Birmingham on Feb. i6th, 1822, and went to Trinity College,
Cambridge. Here weak health prevented severe study, but h&
was preparing to enter the medical profession when the death of
his father in 1844 enabled him to devote himself to scientific pursuits.
After travelling in Syria and to Khartum on the Nile, then a more
difficult journey than it has since become, he landed at Walfish
Bay in 1850, and explored parts of Damara Land, hitherto unknown,
encountering serious hardships and dangers. These permanently
affected his health, but they produced two books. Tropical South
Africa (in 1853) and The Art of Travel (in 1855), each of them
deservedly popular. In meteorology he did valuable work on
anticyclones, and before 1865 began his studies on the laws of
heredity, in which he showed that quantitative as well as qualitative
measures are applicable to many personal attributes, a by-product
of which was his discovery of the permanence of finger-prints, which
has become of the highest value for the identification of individuals.
He was a strong advocate of eugenics, and wrote many important
contributions to this and other branches of science, not the least
interesting being the Memories of My Life. Elected F.R.S. in
1856, he received a Royal Medal in 1876, the Darwin in 1902, and
the Copley in 1910. Oxford made him an Hon. D.C.L. in 1894 and
Cambridge an Hon. Sc.D. in the following year. In 1909 he was

Biographical Notes 67

created a knight. A hard worker, but a good talker and most pleasant
companion, his mind remained clear to the end, though bodily
infirmities, especially deafness, increased, till he died at Haslemere
on Jan. 17th, 191 1.*

Dr. Albert Charles Lewis Gotthilf Gunther was bom on
Oct. 3rd, 1830, at Mohringen in Wiirtemberg and educated at
Tubingen and Bonn, afterwards qualifying as a physician in London
and taking the degree of M.D. at Tubingen in 1862. He devoted
himself to the study of zoology, especially fishes, and was engaged
at the British Museum from 1855, becoming Keeper of Zoology
twenty years later, from which post he retired in 1895. While
thus engaged he prepared ten volumes of the Catalogue of Colubrine
Snakes, Bairachia, and Fishes, and contributed important memoirs
on the last to the series of Challenger Reports. He became F.R.S.
in 1867, and received a Royal Medal in 1878, with other well-earned
honours, dying at Kew on Feb. ist, 191 4.

Professor Henry John Stephen Smith wai the son of an Irish
barrister, bom in Dublin on November 2nd, 1826, but brought up
in England. He won a scholarship at Balliol, Oxford, in 1844,
but spent the greater part of the next two years in study on the
Continent, returning to Oxford for the Easter Term of 1847 to win
the Ireland Scholarship, a double first, and a BalHol Fellowship,
which was afterwards exchanged for one at Corpus. First rate as
a classic, he took an even higher place as a mathematician, and
was elected in i860 to the Savilian Professorship of Geometry
and in 1861 a Fellow of the Royal Society. Active also in University
business, he was appointed Keeper of the Museum, but in 1881 his
health began to fail — the sword was wearing through the scabbard —
and he died on Feb. 9th, 1883. Huxley describes him as " One of
the ablest men I ever met," which I venture to repeat with the
addition, " and one of the most attractive." As a mathematician
Gauss had hardly any abler disciple, and his contributions to the
Theory of Numbers were specially valuable.

1874. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 27th, General
Strachey became Treasurer in place of Professor Flower,
and Dr. Debus was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the
resignation of General Sir E. Sabine.

Of Dr. Heinrich Debus, who lived and died in 191 6 at Cassel,
Germany, after his career in England, ending as Professor of
Chemistry at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, it may sufl&ce

* The Minute books of the Philosophical Club show signs, in the correction
of errors in dates and numbers, of his careful revision while he held the
office of Treasurer. A subject index at the end of the first volume (which
has been very helpful to myself) was made by him.

68 Annals of the Philosophical Club

to say that he was bom in Hesse on July 13th, 1824, educated at
Marburg University, was appointed lecturer on chemistry at Queens-
wood College, Hants., in 1851, and elected F.R.S. in 1861.

1875. On Jan. 28th, in a conversation about the number
of Fellows annually elected into the Royal Society, which
was begun by Mr. Gassiot expressing his opinion in favour
of the existing Hmitation, Sir W. Grove thought that, as
the question was now being considered by a Committee of
the Society, it would be inconvenient, until the facts were
better known, to pledge the Club to any conclusion, and
other members said that the present system had worked
well.

At the Anniversary Meeting on April 27th, notice was
given that an alteration would be proposed in Rule 4 to
change the hour of dinner to 6.30 p.m. on ordinary meetings
and 7.0 on anniversaries.

Mr. John Ball and Lord Rosse were elected into the
vacancies made by the deaths of Sir C. Lyell and Col. Yorke.

John Ball, the well-known Alpine traveller and botanist, was
the son of an Irish judge, bom in Dublin on August 20th, 181 8,
and educated at Oscott and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he
was twenty-seventh wrangler. He early showed a love for natural
science and the Alps, for at the age of seven the view of that chain
from the Jura deeply affected him. After Cambridge he spent
four years in Continental travel, not forgetting the Alps and their
glaciers, and on his return was called to the Irish Bar. During the
famine he served on the Poor-Law Commission, till he entered Parlia-
ment in 1852. The loss of his seat, after six years, set him free
to study the Alps, and compile, between 1863 and 1868, the three
volumes of his excellent Alpine Guide, But in 1871 he joined
Sir J. D. Hooker in an expedition to the Great Atlas, and in 1882
visited South America, as described in his "Notes of a Naturalist.
Elected F.R.S. in 1868, he made many contributions to botany
and geology, dying in London on Oct. 21, 1889.

The Earl of Rosse, who followed his father's steps in astrophysics^
and was perhaps even more ingenious as a scientific mechanician,
was bom at Birr Castle on November 17th, 1840, and, after passing
through Trinity College, DubUn, succeeded to the title in 1867,
when he devoted much attention to the great nebula in Orion and
the radiation of heat from the moon, but also took an important
part in general business. He became Chancellor of DubUn University
in 1885, was elected F.R.S. in 1867, received honorary degrees and

Dinner Hour Changed 69

other distinctions, and was created K.P. in 1890, but died, to the
great regret of all who knew him, at Birr Castle on Aug. 30th, 1908.

On November 25th, the vacancy caused by the death of
Sir C. Wheatstone was filled by the election of Professor Abel.

Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, so well known for his investiga-
tions of explosives, was the son of a music master of German descent,
bom at Woolwich on July 17th, 1827. One of Hofmann's original
students, he became chemist to the War Department, and was for
many years the chief official authority on explosives, for arms and
ammunition were completely transformed during his time ; his
investigations on gun-cotton, smokeless powder, cordite, the dangers
of minute dust in ' fiery ' mines, and his researches with Sir Andrew
Noble on the chemical changes on firing explosives being all highly
valuable. He was elected F.R.S. in i860, and received a Royal
Medal in 1887, with other honours, was a D.C.L. of Oxford and
LL.D. of Cambridge, President of the British Association in 1890,
was given a C.B. in 1877, knighted in 1883, created K.C.B. in 1891,
baronet in 1893, and G.C.V.O. in 1901. Besides being an excellent
musician, he was the first secretary to the Imperial Institute, and
died at Whitehall Court on Sept. 6th, 1902.

On December i6th, Mr. Ball asked for the opinion of the
members present in regard to the expediency of concluding
the anniversary dinner of the Royal Society by a soiree at
its Rooms, as had been done after taking possession of the
new apartments at BurHngton House. Dr. Sclater men-
tioned the advantage of pubhshing in the daily papers
reports of the weekly proceedings of the Royal Society and
the President's annual address (as was done by the Geo-
graphical), and Mr. Siemens said the system adopted by
some societies of printing the discussions on papers was
advantageous, because these often contained matter not
less interesting than the papers. Conversation ensued on
the subjects, but no resolutions were adopted.

1876. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 24th, Mr.
F. Galton was elected Treasurer, and a motion, of which
notice had been given, for changing the hour of dinner
from 6.0 to 6.30 on ordinary days was carried, but not that
for fixing it at 7.0 on anniversaries.

A table of yearly attendances from 1866 to 1875 (anni-
versaries), prepared by the retiring Treasurer (General

JO Annals of the Philosophical Club

Strachey), shows a maximum of 148 and a minimum of no ;
the average being 14, the largest 26, and the smallest 7.

The meeting of the British Association at Glasgow led
to discussions on October 26th and November 23rd about
the subjects brought forward there, some members thinking
that, in the Statistical section, the Anthropological sub-
section, and the Evening Lectures, the range of these should
be restricted. Mr. F. Gait on was in favoiu: of empowering
the President, instead of the Sectional Committee, to deter-
mine what papers should be read, and Dr. Hooker thought
that matters would be improved by the appointment of
a paid secretary for each committee, but the discontinuance
of the Statistical section was evidently viewed with favour,
though on the other matters the members present were not
at all unanimous.

1877. At the Anniversary Meeting, April 30th, two
vacancies were announced, due to the resignation from ill-
health of Sir H. James and the absence in America of Pro-
fessor Sylvester, but the want of a quorum postponed the
election till May 31st, when one place only was filled by the
election of Professor Burdon-Sanderson.

Sir John Scott Burdon-Sanderson, son of R. Burdon, a former
Fellow of Oriel, Oxford, who added the second name on marriage
with the only daughter of Sir James Sanderson, was born at Jesmond,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Dec. 21st, 1828. From youth he showed a
strong interest in Natural Science, studied medicine at Edinburgh
University, and there took the degree of M.D. in 1851. Afterwards
going to Paris, he worked at physiology under Claude Bernard,
and in 1853 began to practise in London, where his ability in deahng
with contagious and infectious diseases was soon recognized. Elected
F.R.S. in 1867, he gave up practice three years later, in order to
devote himself wholly to scientific research, and twelve months
afterwards succeeded first M. Foster and then Sharpey in their
chairs of Physiology at University College. In 1882 he became
Waynflete Professor of Physiology at Oxford, and in 1895 Regius
Professor of Medicine. He received a Royal Medal in 1883, and
honorary doctorates from Dublin and Edinburgh, was President
of the British Association in 1889, and created a baronet in 1899. In
1903 he resigned his professorship, and died at Oxford, Nov. 23rd, 1905,
leaving the reputation of a leader in physiology, especially in exact
-experiments, and the virtual founder of the Oxford Medical School.

Biographical Notes 71

On November 22nd, Professor W. K. Clifford and Dr.
Allen Thomson were elected to fill the above-named vacancy
and that caused by the death of Mr. Gassiot, an original
member.

William Kingdon Clifford, a thinker of great originality, was
bom at Exeter on May 4th, 1845, and at an early age showed excep-
tional aptitude for classics and literature as well as for mathematics.
Proceeding to Trinity College, Cambridge, he graduated in 1867
as second wrangler, obtaining the second Smith's Prize. Soon
after he had been elected to a fellowship, his views on politics and
religion were completely changed. In 1871 he left Cambridge to
become Professor of AppUed Mathematics at University College,
London, where he proved to be a most effective lecturer, and was
equally at his ease with the most advanced thinkers and with
children. Elected F.R.S. in 1874, pulmonary disease showed itself
in the spring of 1876, and, after more than one absence in the hope
of regaining health, he died in Madeira on March 3rd, 1879, having
marked by his suggestive books and papers an epoch in the history
of mathematics in England.

Professor Allen Thomson, a physician's son, was bom in Edin-
burgh on April 2nd, 1809, and educated at that University, where
he took the M.D. degree in 1830, and at Paris. After holding
Professorships in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, he resigned
the last in 1877, when he settled in London. Elected F.R.S. in
1848, he received an honorary LL.D. from Edinburgh and Glasgow,
and D.C.L. from Oxford, and was also President of the British
Association in 1877. He was regarded as the first of the great
biological teachers of the nineteenth century, who made a special
study of embryology, and showed a clear critical faculty, an innate
love of truth, and was eminently sound, but perhaps almost too
cautious. He died in London on March 21st, 1884.

1878. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 29th, two
vacancies made by the resignation of Professor W. H. Miller
and the death of Dr. Thomas Thomson were filled by the
election of Professor Maskel3me and Lord Rayleigh.

Mervyn Herbert Nevil Story Maskelyne, grandson of an
Astronomer Royal, was bom at Basset Down House, Wiltshire,
on September 3rd, 1823, and graduated with Mathematical Honours
from Wadham College, Oxford. After studying for the Bar, he
gave up law for science, and began lectures on mineralogy at Oxford
in 1850, of which he was made Professor in 1856. Next year he
was appointed Keeper of Minerals in the British Museum, where
he greatly augmented the collection, especially of meteorites, to

72 Annals of the Philosophical Club

the history of which, of diamonds, and of other minerals, he mad©
valuable contributions. Elected F.R.S. in 1870, he received the
Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society in 1893, and was made
an Honorary D.Sc. at Oxford in 1903. In 1879 he succeeded to
the Basset Down estate, and next year resigned his post at the
British Museum, but retained the Oxford Chair till 1895, sitting
in the House of Commons from 1880 to 1892. He died after a
prolonged illness at Basset Down on May 20th, 191 1.

John William Strutt, third Baron Rayleigh, as now Chancellor
of the University of Cambridge, needs only a brief introduction.
Bom on Nov. 12th, 1842, he was scholar and Fellow of Trinity
College, Cambridge, being senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman
in 1865. From 1879 to 1884 he was Professor of Experimental
Physics at that University and of Natural Philosophy at the Royal
Institution from 1887 to 1905. Elected F.R.S. in 1873, he was
a Secretary for eleven years, and its President from 1905 to 1908.
He has received the Copley, Royal, and Rumford Medals, several
degrees and other distinctions at home and abroad, including the
Order of Merit. Perhaps the most notable of his many important
contributions to mathematical physics is the discovery of argon in
1894, in collaboration with the late Professor Sir WiUiam Ramsay.

1879. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 28th, it was
decided to add a clause to Rule IX. to make the proposal
of a member valid for five years only, counting from January
1st of the year in which it was made, and another to Rule XII.
instructing the Treasurer to remind any member who had
not attended a meeting during a year. A new Rule (XIII.)
was adopted, which enabled a member of at least twenty
years* standing to be transferred, at his written request,
to the Hst of Honorary Supernumerary Members, and defined
their position.

As a result of this, Dr. Lloyd and Professor Sharpey were
transferred to that hst, and these vacancies, together with
one caused by the death of Professor Clifford, were filled
by the election of Professor Duncan, Sir J. H. Lefroy, and
Mr. H. N. Moseley.

Dr. Allen Thomson was elected Treasurer in the place
of Mr. Francis Galton, who presented a statement of attend-
ances in the last year of each ten from 1848-9 to 1878-9.
The totals were 150, 150, 139, and 120 ; the maximum
number in the first three periods being 22 and in the last

Biographical Notes 73

one 19. The average attendance had fallen from 16-5
to 13-5.

Professor Peter Martin Duncan, of Scotch ancestry, but
bom at Twickenham on April 20th, 1821, was educated, partly
abroad, partly at King's College, London, from which he graduated
as M.B. in 1846. While practising at Colchester he studied natural
history and archaeology, besides taking an active part in municipal
affairs. Removing to Blackheath in i860, he was appointed Pro-
fessor of Geology at King's College in 1870, and then to a similar
post at Cooper's Hill. Elected F.R.S. in 1868, he became President
of the Geological Society in 1876, and received its Wollaston Medal
in 1 881. He did a large amount of miscellaneous zoological and
geological work, especially on the corals and echinids, and when
he died at Gunnersbury on May 28th, 1891, after a prolonged painful
illness, left the reputation of a good palaeontologist, an excellent
teacher, a genial companion, and a true friend.

Sir John Henry Lefroy, son of the rector of Ashe, Hants.,
was bom on Jan. 28th, 181 7, and obtained a commission from
Woolwich in the Royal Artillery. From 1840 to 1844 he was engaged
on a magnetic survey at St. Helena, from which he was transferred
to Toronto and employed for eighteen months on similar work in
northern Canada, during which he underwent many hardships but
obtained results of great accuracy and value, together with observa-
tions of the Aurora horealis. After returning to England in 18^,
he became confidential adviser on questions of artillery to tSs
Duke of Newcastle, favouring the rifled gun, but was sent to Scutari
in the autumn of 1855 to inspect the hospitals. Later on, he
was appointed Director-General of Ordnance, resigning the post
early in 1870, when he became Major-General and received a C.B.
Next year he went to Bermuda as Governor, where he proved to
be an excellent administrator, and on retiring in 1877 was created
K.C.M.G. From 1880 to 1882 he held the same position in Tasmania,
and in the following year published the results of his magnetic work
in Canada.i He was elected F.R.S. in 1848, and wrote many valuable
papers on magnetic and kindred subjects. Late in life he retired
from London to Cornwall, where he died near Liskeard on April nth,
1890, regarded by his many friends as a man of real abihty, who
was no less gentle than firm, was a sincere Christian, and a most
attractive companion.

Professor Henry Nottidge Moseley, son of Canon Moseley,.
well known for his theory on the motion of glaciers, was bom at

1 In 1884 he revisited that country with the British Association, and the
writer remembers him pointing out from a steamer on Lake Huron a
place on the shore from which a shot had been fired at him when engaged
on his survey nearly forty years previously.

74 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Wandsworth in 1844. From Harrow he went to Exeter College,
Oxford, where he obtained a first-class in Natural Science, and
afterwards studied abroad. In 1872 he was appointed to the
scientific staff on the Challenger, where he attended to botany as
well as zoology, until the vessel returned in May, 1876, when he
was elected to a Fellowship at Exeter College, and began to work
out the results of the voyage, and wrote that attractive book,
A Naturalist on the Challenger. Elected F.R.S. in 1879, he received
a Royal Medal in 1887, more especially for his work on the archaic
arthropod Peripatus, and a visit to North America in 1877 gave him
the opportunity of studying the native races of the north-west coast.
In 1 88 1 he was elected to the Linacre Professorship of Anatomy
at Oxford, and quickly made his mark as a stimulative teacher,
but in 1887 overwork began to tell upon his health, and he died
on Nov. loth, 1 891.

On Nov. 27th, 1879, the vacancies caused by the deaths of
Professor Clerk Maxwell and Dr. T. Thomson were filled by
the election of Professor Lister and Professor M. Foster.

Lord Lister, whose work completely revolutionized surgery, was
bom a member of the Society of Friends at Upton, in Essex, on April
5th, 1827, and went from University College, London, where Sharpey
was his teacher, to work under Syme at Edinburgh. Becoming
Professor of Surgery at Glasgow, he came to the conclusion that
the main difficulty in the heaUng of a wound came from the putre-
faction of the discharges, and on the pubUcation of Pasteur's re-
searches on the generation of micro-organisms, at once applied their
principle to surgery, making use of antiseptics and preventives
at every stage in the treatment of a patient. He returned to London
in 1873 as a Professor at King's College, where his intellectual no
less than his personal qualities made him a leader, and few men
have done more for the improvement of hospitals. Elected F.R.S.
in i860, as his father had been and his brother became, he received
the Royal and the Copley Medals, and was President from 1895 to
1900. Created baron in 1897 ^^^ being made O.M. in 1902, he died
at his house in London on February loth, 191 2.

Professor Sir Michael Foster was a surgeon's son, bom at
Huntingdon on March 8th, 1836, and was brought up to his father's
profession at University College, London, where he graduated
M.B. and M.D. with distinction in 1859. Threatening pulmonary
disease drove him to Italy for a time, but with improving health
he began to practise at Huntingdon in 1861, then, on gaining reputa-
tion as a physiologist, he went back to University College to help
Professor Sharpey in practical work, whom he succeeded in 1869.
In the following year Trinity College, Cambridge, secured him for
that University, where he created a school by his invigorating

Thirty-Three Tears of Existence 75

teaching, and was elected Professor of Physiology in 1883. Becoming
F.R.S. in 1872, he was Secretary for twenty-two years, was President
of the British Association in 1899, and created K.C.B. in the same
year. He represented the University of London in Parliament from
1900 to 1906, resigned his Professorship at Cambridge in 1903, to
make botanical experiments in his garden near Great Shelford, and
died rather suddenly during a visit to London on Jan. 28th, 1907.

1880. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 26th, the
death of Dr. Sharpey, honorary supernumerary member,
was announced, and Sir W. Grove was thanked for presenting
a new Minute Book to the Club.

On Nov. 25th, Professor Roscoe was elected into the
vacancy made by the resignation of Sir W. Armstrong.

Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, a grandson of the well-known
historian, was bom in London, Jan. 27th, 1833, and took the degree
of B.A. from University College, London, and of Ph.D. at Heidelberg.
He was Professor of Chemistry at Manchester from 1857 to 1887,
where he gave great impulse to that study and carried out important
researches. Elected F.R.S. in 1863, he received a Royal Medal
in 1874 for his work on the chemical action of light and the metal
vanadium, and was President of the British Association in 1887.
He sat in Parliament for a division of Manchester from 1885 to
1895, and, after leaving that city, resided for some years in London
and then near Leatherbead, where he died on Dec. i8th, 1915. He
was created a knight in 1884 and a P.C. in 1909, besides receiving
several other distinctions for his valuable researches in chemistry
and his influence as a teacher.

As this was the 300th meeting of the Club, the Treasurer
{Dr. Allen Thomson) gave some details of the thirty-three
years of its existence. In 1847 and 1855 ten meetings
were held, in other years nine, except that in 187 1 and in
1873 the meetings in May were dropped, as was that in
June, 1872. 114 Fellows of the Royal Society had been
or then were members. Of this number 58 were dead.
Among the others ^ are 47 ordinary members, besides
2 supernumerary members and 7 who have resigned their
membership. Of the 47 original members 7 are living,
and of these 4 (Mr. Bowman, Sir P. Egerton, Sir W.
Grove, and Sir J. D. Hooker) are still members of
the Club ; the three who have resigned being Professor

1 Including Professor Roscoe just elected. ,

76 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Owen, General Sir E. Sabine, and Mr. E. Solly. In the
first third of the Club's period of existence, 18 new members
were elected, of whom 6 are actual members, i has become
a supernumerary, 3 have resigned, and 8 are dead. In
the second division of the period 27 new members were
elected, of whom 16 are actual members, i is a supernumerary,
I has resigned, and 9 have died. In the third division
the new members were 22, of whom 21 are actual members
and I (Professor CUfford) has died. Of the present members
14 are of more than twenty years' standing, and thus entitled
to become supernumerary members under Rule XIII.

After a conversation on the desirabihty of preparing,,
and perhaps printing for circulation among the members,
a short analysis of the communications, etc., made to the
Club, Mr. F. Galton was requested to examine the Minutes
and see if that were feasible.^ *

1881. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 25th, the
vacancies made by the death of Sir P. Egerton, and the
transference to supernumerary membership of Dr. Farre,
Dr. Lyon Playfair, and Professor Prestwich, were filled by
the election of Professor Dewar, Professor Newton, Captain
Noble, and Mr. Tylor.

As Sir James Dewar is actively engaged in research, it is almost
needless to recount his many well-earned honours, such as the
Rumford and the Davy Medal of the Royal Society, honorary
degrees, knighthood (in 1904), and other distinctions. He was bom
at Kincardine-on-Forth, Sept. 20th, 1842, is Professor of Experi-
mental Philosophy in Cambridge University and Professor of
Chemistry at the Royal Institution. The most remarkable of his
many discoveries are the results of approaches to the nadir of tem-
perature, in the course of which he has obtained hydrogen in a liquid
and in a solid form.

Professor Alfred Newton, so well known as an ornithologist,
was bom in Geneva on June nth, 1829, a member of a good Suffolk
family, and graduated at Cambridge from Magdalen College in
1853, at which he obtained a traveUing fellowship. Though lame
from childhood, he studied and collected birds and their eggs in

1 He announced at the next anniversary that he thought this could
not be done satisfactorily, but that he had made an index (copied into
the first volume of the Minutes) of the subjects of communications to the
Club at the meetings (296) recorded in that volume.

Biographical Notes JJ

Lapland, Spitzbergen, and other northern regions in successive
summers, besides visiting the West Indies. In 1866 he was elected
Professor of Zoology at Cambridge, where his geniality and en-
thusiasm attracted not a few undergraduates to that study. His
chief work was a Dictionary of Birds, but he wrote many valuable
papers, especially on the Dodo (from remains collected by his brother
Sir E. Newton in Mauritius) and the Great Auk, whose last haunts
he had visited and of which he had six eggs in his splendid collection
(bequeathed to the University). He was elected F.R.S. in 1870, and
awarded a Royal Medal in 1900, dying in his College rooms on
June 7th, 1907.

Sir Andrew Noble, who did so much for the improvement of
artillery, was bom in Scotland on Sept. 13th, 1831, and obtained
a commission from Woolwich, where he made a special study of the
science of gunnery. In i860 he joined the firm of Sir W. Whitworth
and Co., ultimately becoming the Chairman of the Company. Elected
F.R.S. in 1870, he was awarded a Royal Medal in 1880, and has
been the recipient of several other medals, honorary degrees, and
foreign orders. He was created C.B. in 1880, K.C.B. in 1893, and
a baronet in 1902, and, notwithstanding his many duties, wrote
much on scientific questions connected with explosives and artillery.
He died at Jesmond Dene, near Newcastle-on-T3me, on Oct. 22nd,
1915-

Sir Edward Burnet Tylor, the distinguished anthropologist,
was bom at Camberwell on October 2nd, 1832, his father, a member
of the Society of Friends, being chief of a noted firm of brassfounders
in Newgate Street, but he gave up business for anthropology at an
early age, travelled in Mexico, wrote important books on that
journey, the Early History of Mankind, Primitive Culture, and Anthro-
pology, which led to his appointment as Keeper of the University
Museum at Oxford in 1883 and its first Professor of Anthropology
in 1896. He was elected F.R.S. in 1871, received honorary degrees
from St. Andrews, Aberdeen, McGiU, and Oxford, and was knighted
in 1912. On resigning his chair in 1909 he retired to Wellington,
Somerset, where he died on Jan. 2nd, 191 7.

1882. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 24th, Sir
J. H. Lefroy was elected Treasurer in place of Dr. Allen
Thomson and Prof. F. M. Balfour a member of the Club to
fill the existing vacancy. Professor Huxley referred in
feeUng terms to the recent death of Charles Darwin, stating
that when the news reached the Royal Society the President
(Mr. Spottiswoode) immediately telegraphed to the Dean
of Westminster (Dr. Bradley), who happened to be abroad,
requesting that the interment should be in Westminster

78 A finals of the Philosophical Club

Abbey, to which the Dean most willingly consented, and
the grave was made near that of Isaac Newton. Professor
Huxley spoke of the unanimous recognition of Darwin's
noble character and of the far-reaching importance of his
scientific work by leaders of the various sections of public
opinion, among whom were several representatives of the
leading schools of orthodox theology.

Professor Francis Maitland Balfour, a younger brother
of the Rt. Honble. A. J. Balfour, was bom at Edinburgh on
November loth, 1857, and went from Harrow to Trinity College,
Cambridge. From an early age he had shown a love of Natural
Science, including geology, but, after coming under the inspiration
of Professor Michael Foster, was attracted to embryology, obtained
a high place in the Natural Science Tripos, and was elected a Fellow
of his College. He then followed up the subject, both in Cambridge
and at Dr. Dohm's laboratory in Naples, especially in regard to the
elasmobranch fishes, and published in 1880, after some important
papers, his Vertebrate Embryology, " a work full of new light from
beginning to end." Elected F.R.S. in 1878, he received a Royal
Medal in 1881. Next spring he was appointed Professor of Animal
Morphology at Cambridge, went to the Alps in July, and started from
Courmayeur on the i8th to make an attempt with his guide Johann
Petrus on the Aiguille Blanche de Peuteret (13,478 feet). On the
morning of the 23rd their bodies were found at the foot of the Aiguille.
It was " a life too short for friendship not for fame." ^

On Nov. gth, Messrs. WiUis, through an oversight, had
omitted to provide a dinner, so the Committee adjourned,
after selecting a candidate for priority of ballot, to fill the
vacancy caused by the lamented death of Professor F. M.
Balfour, and a quorum was not obtained till Jan. i8th, 1883,
when Professor Bonney was elected. He was born at
Rugeley on July 27th, 1833, the eldest son of the Rev.
Thomas Bonney, and has been entrusted with the interesting
task of compiling this volume.

1883. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 30th, Dr. A.
Geikie was elected into the vacancy caused by the death
of Professor H. J. S. Smith, to which Professor Maskelyne
afterwards made a sympathetic reference, reading to the

1 See Alpine Journal, vol. xi. pages 90, loi, 374. A cutting from a
newspaper, stating the little that was known about the disaster, is pasted
into the Minute Book.

Biographical Notes 79

Club an appreciative notice which is inserted in the
Minutes, and was known to have been penned by Lord Justice
Bowen.

Sir Archibald Geikie, to whom we are indebted for the Annals
of the Royal Society Club, is so well known and still so vigorous
as to require only a very brief mention. He was bom in Edinburgh
on Dec. 28th, 1835, and educated at that University. Entering the
Geological Survey in 1855, he held the Murchison Professorship
of Geology from 1871 to 1882, when he became Director-General
of the Geological Survey and removed to London. Elected F.R.S.
in 1865, he received a Royal Medal in 1896, with the Murchison
and WoUaston Medals of the Geological Society. Of that he has
been twice President, as well as President of the British Association
and of the Royal Society, besides receiving many honorary degrees
and other distinctions both British and foreign. He was knighted
in 1891, created K.C.B. in 1907, and received the O.M. in 1914.
It may be said truly of him that, like some of an earlier generation,
he has proved the possibiUty of serving two mistresses, science and
literature.

On Nov. 22nd, Sir F. Bramwell and Professor G. M.
Humphry were elected into the vacancies caused by the
withdrawal, from ill-health, of Sir A. Ramsay ^ and the death
of Mr. G. A. Spottiswoode, President of the Royal Society.

Sir Frederick Joseph Bramwell was a banker's son, bom in
London on March 7th, 181 8, and trained as a mechanical engineer.
At first he paid especial attention to atmospheric railways and road
locomotion, but, after beginning business on his own account in
1853, he gradually obtained a large practice in consultative work
and as a scientific witness, especially in questions of water-supply,
where his imperturbable disposition and ready wit stood him in
good stead. An active member of many societies, he became F.R.S.
in 1873, and was President of the British Association in 1888, received
honorary degrees from Montreal, Durham, Cambridge, and Oxford,
was knighted in 1881, and created a baronet in 1889. His busy
life ended in London on Nov. 30th, 1903.

Sir George Murray Humphry was a barrister's son, bom at
Sudbury, in Suffolk, on July i8th, 1820, and educated as a surgeon,
becoming a member of the College in 1841. Next year he obtained
an appointment at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, entered
that University, and took the degree of M.D. in 1859. Active
in teaching and furthering the interests of Natural Science, he was

^ Strictly speaking, he was transferred by the Club, in consequence of
the state of his health, to the list of honorary supernumerary members.

8o Annals of the Philosophical Club

appointed Professor of Human Anatomy in 1866, which he resigned
for the (unpaid) Professorship of Surgery in 1883. He was elected
F.R.S. in 1852, was knighted in 1891, and died at his house in
Cambridge on Sept. 24th, 1896.

1884. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 28th, Pro-
fessor Bonney was elected Treasurer in succession to Sir
J. H. Lefroy, who called the attention of members to the
fact that, when the attendance at the dinners was less than
twelve, the Club had to pay Messrs. WiUis for the defaulters.
This had been done in 1879-80 only for 3, but in 1882-3
for II, and in 1883-4 for 15, the result being a considerable
increase in the expenditure of the Club.

Dr. Warren de la Rue was elected into the vacancy made
by the death of Dr. Allen Thomson.

Dr. Warren de la Rue was bom in Guernsey on January 15th,
1815, educated in Paris, entered his father's business as a printer
in London at an early age, but took a keen interest in chemistry
(attending Hofmann's lectures), physics, and mechanism. Elected
F.R.S. in 1850, he turned his attention to practical astronomy,
and worked at celestial photography, making a special study of the
moon in his observatory at Canonbury. His photographs, taken
during the total ecUpse of the sun on July i8th, x86o, proved the
' red flames ' to belong to the sun, from which he proceeded to
sun-spots, but later in life reverted to chemistry and investigated
electric discharges through gases. He received a Royal Medal
in 1864, with other honours, including a D.C.L. from Oxford, ending
his busy life on April 19th, 1889.

1885. On Nov. 26th, two vacancies were announced,
one from the death of Dr. W. B. Carpenter, the other from
Professor A. W. WilUamson becoming an honorary super-
numerary member, but the want of a quorum prevented
these from being filled til] Jan. 14th, 1886, when Mr. W.
Thiselton-Dyer and Professor J. W. Judd were elected.

Sir William Tanner Thiselton-Dyer was a physician's son,
bom in Westminster on July 28th, 1843, took his degree from
Christ Church, Oxford, and is still continuing his botanical researches
at his home near Witcombe, Gloucestershire. He was appointed
Assistant-Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in 1875, and
succeeded his father-in-law. Sir J. D. Hooker, as Director in 1885,
retiring in 1905. Elected F.R.S. in 1880, he has received the
Doctor's degree from Oxford, Cambridge, and other Universities, was

Changes of Rules 8 1

created CLE. and in 1899 K.C.M.G., and has made many valuable
contributions to botany.

Professor John Wesley Judd was bom at Portsmouth on
February i8th, 1840, and educated at the Royal School of Mines.
After some service on the Geological Survey, he travelled to study
volcanic districts, British and Continental, publishing several impor-
tant papers, and was appointed Professor of Geology at the Royal
School of Mines in 1876, where he served till his retirement in 1905.
During this interval he superintended the transference of the School
from Jermyn Street to South Kensington, and organized the most
complete system of geological instruction in Britain. An excellent
chemist and petrologist, we are indebted to him not only for working
out the results of the borings in the Nile Delta, but also for
dealing with those in the coral reef of Funafuti and the petrology of
the eruptive discharges from Krakatoa, and for not a few other
books and scientific memoirs. Elected F.R.S. in 1877, he became
President of the Geological Society in 1886, received its Wollaston
Medal in 1891, the degree of LL.D. from Aberdeen, a C.B. in 1895,
and honorary membership of several societies, dying after some
months of failing health at Kew on March 3rd, 191 6.

As April 26th was Easter Monday, the anniversary^ was
kept on May 3rd, when Mr. D. E. Hughes was elected into
the vacancy made by transferring Mr. Busk to the honorary
supernumerary members. Some alterations were made
in the rules, the principal being the removal of the clause
requiring not less than thirty-five members to reside within
ten miles of the General Post Office, making twelve members
a quorum for election, and changing the Anniversary
Meeting from Monday to Thursday.

Professor David Edward Hughes was of Welsh origin, but bom
in London on May i6th, 1830, and educated in America, showing
early talent both in music and experimental science. He invented
a type-writing machine for the electric telegraph, and after returning
to London in 1877 made great improvements in the telephone and
many discoveries in electricity, especially in regard to aerial tele-
graphy. Elected F.R.S. in 1880, he received a Royal Medal in
1885, and died in London on January 22nd, 1900, " a simple,
genial, well-informed man," who, notwithstanding his generosity,
had gathered much wealth, which he left for scientific purposes and
to hospitals.

1886. On November 25th, the vacancy made by trans-
ferring Professor Sylvester to the honorary supernumerary
list was filled by the election of Dr. W. T. Blanford.

P.C. F

82 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Dr. William Thomas Blanford, distinguished in geology and
zoology, was the son of a carver and gilder, bom in London on
October 7th, 1832. After receiving part of his education on the
Continent, he passed with distinction through the Royal School
of Mines, and obtained in 1854 an appointment on the Geological
Survey of India, working at first on the Talchir Coalfield, where
he detected a boulder bed of glacial origin. The outbreak of the
Indian Mutiny seriously endangered his life, but, when it had been
quelled, he resumed his surveying work, and after two years in
Burma investigated the Deccan Traps. In 1868 he was attached
to the Abyssinian expedition, which captured Magdala, the result
being large collections and an admirable book. The Geology and
Zoology of Abyssinia. In 1872 he was attached to the Persian
Boundary Commission, and, after an arduous journey to England
by the Caspian Sea and Moscow, spent two years at home working
out his collection, the results of which were pubUshed. After
returning to India he took up the survey of Sind, and then, while
at the central ofl&ce in Calcutta, combined with MedUcott in writing
the Manual of the Geology of India. After another furlough in
England, he retired from the Survey in 1882, when he settled in
London. Elected F.R.S. in 1874, he received a Royal Medal in
1 901, and the WoUaston Medal in 1883 from the Geological Society,
of which he was President from 1888 to 1890. During a visit to
Canada in 1884 he received from Montreal the degree of LL.D.,
and was created CLE. in 1904. He devoted much time to editing
the Fauna of British India, to which he contributed the volume
on Mammals and two on Birds. In science he combined depth
of knowledge with width of view, and, as it was rightly said, " was
in word and deed a true gentleman." He died at his house on
Campden Hill on June 23rd, 1905.

1887. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 28th, Mr. John
Ball was elected Treasurer instead of Professor Bonney, and
the vacancy made by transferring Mr. Simon to the honorary
supernumerary list was filled by the election of Professor
Qifton.

As Professor Robert Bellamy Clifton is happily still Hving,
it may be enough to say that he was bom in 1836, was sixth wrangler,
second Smith's prizeman, and a Fellow of St. John's College, Cam-
bridge, was Professor of Natural Philosophy at Owens College,
Manchester, from i860 to 1865, when he became Professor of
Experimental Philosophy at Oxford, holding that ofi&ce till 1915,
and devoting most of his time to organizing a laboratory and founding
a school of Physics in that University. He was elected F.R.S.
in 1868.

Decrease in Attendance 83

1888. On Nov. ist (the meeting having been inadver-
tently fixed for that day instead of in October), Sir W.
Grove called attention to the falling off in attendances, the
number announced at the anniversary having been 97,
one less than in the previous year, and stated that, unless
there was a considerable increase, he should propose next
anniversary that the Club be discontinued. The subject
was resumed at the meeting of Nov. 22nd, when he said
that the objects for which the Club had been founded had
been mainly accomplished. The Royal Society had been
reformed, and its scientific character raised to a higher
level ; the other and older Club of its Fellows had also
changed its character, and was now chiefly composed of men
actively engaged in scientific work. As the members of
the Philosophical Club appeared to be losing interest in
its meetings, he would ask them to consider at the next
meeting whether it could be fused with the Royal Society
Club, or, if not, be dissolved.

Captain Abney and Professor G. H. Darwin were elected
to the vacancies made by the retirement of Sir J. H. Lefroy
and the transference of Prof. Huxley to the list of honorary
supernimierary members.

Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney, eldest son of Canon Abney,
was bom at Derby, July 24th, 1844, and after obtaining a commission
in the Royal Engineers, was active in educational work and made
a special study of scientific photography. He was elected F.R.S. in
1876, received a Rumford Medal in 1882, is an honorary Doctor of
Victoria, Durham, and Dublin Universities, and was created K.C.B.
in 1900.

Sir George Howard Darwin, second son of Charles R. Darwin,
was bom at Down on July 9th, 1845, was second wrangler, second
Smith's prizeman, and elected Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,
in 1868. His first important paper dealt with the effects of geological
changes on the earth's axis. Becoming F.R.S. in 1879, he received
a Royal Medal in 1884, and was elected in the previous year Plumian
Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge, publishing papers on the
precession of a viscous spheroid, the former connexion of the moon
with the earth, the effect of strains caused in the interior of the^
latter by the weight of continents, and similar subjects of like
importance and dif&culty. On his return from South Africa, where
he was President of the British Association at the meeting of 1905,

84 Annals of the Philosophical Club

he was created K.C.B. In the summer of 1912 his health began to
fail, and he died on Dec. 7th, leaving the deserved reputation of
an inspiring teacher, an accomplished man, and one remarkable
lor his " simple, sweet, and open nature."

1889. At the meeting on Nov. 21st, the death of Mr.
John Ball, the Treasurer, was announced, and Professor
Judd appointed to that office for the remainder of the
session. Three new members, Prof. W. G. Adams, Dr.
W. Crookes, and Mr. F. du Cane Godman, were elected to
the vacancies caused by the deaths of Mr. J. Ball and
Dr. Warren de la Rue, and the retirement of Professor
Moseley. Also some alterations of the rules, in view of
increasing the attendances, were discussed.

Professor William Grylls Adams, brother of Professor John
Couch Adams.i was bom on February i6th, 1836, and took his
degree as twelfth wrangler from St. John's College, Cambridge,
in 1859, of which he was elected a Fellow in 1865 and F.R.S. in
1872. Appointed in the former year Professor of Natural Philosophy
at King's College, London, he held that office till 1905, organizing
a physical laboratory and carrying out original work in electricity
and terrestrial magnetism, besides editing his brother's scientific
papers. Removing in 1906 from London to Broadstone, Dorset,
he died there on April loth, 191 5.

Sir William Crookes, though bom on June 17th, 1832, is happily
still able to carry on his researches into the ultimate constitution
of matter, the history of radium, the possibilities of electricity,
and the discovery of new elements, besides many valuable practical
apphcations of chemistry, so it may suffice to say that he was elected
F.R.S. in 1863, was President from 1913 to 1915, has received its
Royal, Copley, and Davy Medals, besides six doctorates and many
foreign honours. Knighted in 1897, he received the O.M. in 1910.

Dr. Frederick du Cane Godman, son of Mr. J. Godman of
Park Hatch, Godalming, was born in 1834, ^^^ is one of the Trustees
of the British Museum, so it will suffice to recall his valuable work
in zoology, shown more especially in his Natural History of the
Azores, his Monograph of the Petrels, and his contributions to Central
American biology. Elected F.R.S. in 1882, he is a D.C.L. of Oxford.

1890. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 24th, an
alteration was made in Rule II., the effect being that any
scientific foreigner or resident in the Colonies or India,

1 See page 46.

Meeting of the two Clubs 85

temporarily visiting this country, or any Fellow of the Royal
Society, might be the guest of a member of the Club, except
on the anniversary or any special meeting from which
strangers are excluded, but that member might not bring
the same guest more than once in a session.

As Mr. Buckton and Professor Tyndall had desired to
be transferred to the Ust of honorary supernumerary
members. Professor Victor Horsley and Dr. Hugo Miiller
were elected to the vacancies.

Sir Victor Alexander Haden Horsley, son of J. C. Horsley,
R.A., was bom in Kensington in 1857, and after medical study at
University College, became Professor of Clinical Surgery at its
Hospital, attaining a high reputation for skill as an operator and
for pathological investigations, especially with regard to the thyroid
gland. Elected F.R.S. in 1886, he was awarded a Royal Medal
in 1894, ^nd received not a few other distinctions. At the out-
break of the present war, he placed himself at the disposal of the
Government, and was sent to Mesopotamia, where he fell a victim
to the climate on July i6th, 191 6.

Dr. Hugo Muller was born in Germany in 1834, studied chem-
istry and mineralogy at Leipzig under Naumann, retaining always
his interest in the latter subject, for he did much to establish its
classification on the basis of chemical composition. After settling
in London, he obtained high repute, was elected F.R.S. in 1866,
was an honorary LL.D. of St. Andrews, and D.Sc. of Victoria. After
making many valuable contributions to chemistry and mineralogy,
he died at Camberley on May 23rd, 191 5.

At the meeting on Nov. 27th, the vacancy caused by the
transference of Dr. P. L. Sclater to the honorary super-
numerary list was filled by the election of Professor A. W.
Riicker. It was agreed to accept an invitation of the Royal
Society Club to hold a joint meeting early in the coming
year.

Principal Sir Arthur William Rucker, noted for his services
to science and to education, was bom on October 23rd, 1848, at
Clapham Park, and went to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he ob-
tained a fellowship, after being highly distinguished in mathematics
and natural science. Beginning at the Yorkshire College, Leeds, he
became in 1886 Professor of Physics at the Royal College of Science,
London, from which post he was appointed in 1901 Principal of the
University of London. Elected F.R.S. in 1884, he received a
Royal Medal in 1891, with honorary doctorates from about six

86 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Universities, for, notwithstanding his onerous official duties, he
made very valuable contributions to science, not the least being a
magnetic survey of the British Isles for 1886 and 1891, undertaken
with Sir T. E. Thorpe. But the strain told upon his health ; he
resigned office in 1908, retired to Berkshire, and died near Newbury
on Nov. 1st, 1915, regretted by all fellow-workers and friends.

1891. On March 12th, the above-named joint dinner
with the Royal Society Club was held, 43 being present,
including two guests (Professor F. Fuller and Rev. J. H.
Gumey). Of the rest, 19 were members of both Clubs ;
17 only of the Royal Society Club, and 5 only of the Philo-
sophical Club ; the chair being taken by Sir W. Thomson,
President of the Royal Society.

At the Anniversary Meeting on April 23rd, it was stated
that in the past year the average attendance had been
14 (126 at 9 dinners), an improvement on 12 in the previous
year and 10 in 1888-9. The Club decided to dine in future
at limmer's Hotel.

The vacancy caused by the retirement of Professor
P. M. Dimcan was filled by the election of Sir W. Thomson,
President of the Royal Society.

Sir William Thomson, first Baron Kelvin, is still so well
remembered that it will suf&ce to say he was born at Belfast, where
his father was a University Professor, on June 26th, 1824, was
second wrangler and first Smith's prizeman at Cambridge, a Fellow
of Peterhouse, and elected Professor of Natural Philosophy at
Glasgow in 1846. From that centre his Ufe's work was done ;
thither the representatives of Physical Science gathered from far
and wide to celebrate his jubilee as Professor in 1896. " Other
men, as it was well said, have been as great in some department of
Physical Science, no one since Newton has exerted such a masterful
influence over the whole domain." He was a rare combination of
theoretical insight with practical ability. His conceptions of the
work of energy and the nature of matter are still bearing fruit ;
the successful laying of the first Atlantic cable marks an epoch in
history, and the charm of his personality was hardly less marked
than the power of his intellect. He was awarded many distinctions
in his own and other countries. Elected F.R.S. in 1851, he received
the Royal and Copley Medals, was created knight in 1866, G.C.V.O.
in 1896, raised to the peerage in 1892, and received the Order of Merit
in 1902. Dying on Dec. 17th, 1907, his body was laid in Westminster
Abbey near the grave of Newton.

Proposed Fusion of the two Clubs 87

After discussing the relations of the two Clubs, the
Treasurer was empowered to propose to the Treasurer of
the Royal Society Club the formation of a Committee, to
which each Club should appoint five members, three belong-
ing to itself only and two members of both clubs, of which
the chairman should be Sir W. Bowman, the oldest member
of the Royal Society Club and one of the three survdvors
of the original fcrty-seven members of the Philosophical
Club. It should consider questions in regard to the two
Clubs, such as making the joint dinner annual : partial, or
complete fusion : and arranging for a dinner on every evening
when there was a meeting of the Royal Society.

On November 26th, the fusion of the two clubs was again
discussed, and, though favourably' regarded, it was felt
that the difference in regard to guests and scientific dis-
cussions might present difficulties.

The vacancy made by Professor Flower becoming an
honorary supernumerary member was filled by the election
of Mr. A. B. Kempe.

Of Sir Alfred Bray Kempe, who is Chancellor of six dioceses
and is also Treasurer to the Royal Society, to which he was elected
in 1 88 1, it will suffice to say that he was a clergyman's son, bom
in London on July 6th, 1849, who took his degree from Trinity College,
Cambridge, and was called to the Bar in 1873,

1892. The fusion of the two Clubs continued to be
discussed at the meetings, and on Feb. nth Sir W. Bowman
gave notice that he should bring forward the following
resolution at the Anniversary Meeting : *' That the Joint
Committee of the Philosophical Club and the Royal Society
Club be requested to carry out the scheme, which has been
submitted by them, for one year, and that the operation of
any rule of the Philosophical Club, which would interfere
with the carrying out of the experimental scheme, be sus-
pended during the ensuing session of 1892-3."

The Treasurer (Professor Judd) read an analysis of the
dates of meeting and changes in the membership of the Club
since its 301st meeting (Nov. 25th, 1880). There had
been nine meetings in each year, except in 1882 (October),

88 Annals of the Philosophical Club

when, through an oversight, one was not summoned, and
in the same month of 1889, because of the recent death of
Mr. John Ball, then Treasurer. Since the foundation of
the Club in April 1847, I39 Fellows of the Royal Society
had been or still were members of it, 81 of whom had died.
At present there were 47 ordinary members, 10 honorar}^
supernumerary members, and i who had resigned. Of the
47 original members, 4 were living, 3 of them. Sir W. Bowman,
Sir W. Grove, and Sir J. D. Hooker, being still on the Hst,
Sir R. Owen having resigned m 1885. In the fourth division
of the Club's existence, from 1880 to the present day, 25 new
members had been elected, 2 of whom had died. At the
present time 12 members of the Club were of more than
20 years' standing. A classified Hst of the names since the
301st meeting is appended.

At the Anniversary Meeting on April 28th, 1892, the
death of Sir W. Bowman was announced, and a vote of
sympathy with Lady Bowman and his family was passed.
The Treasurer moved the resolution of which the late
member had given notice, which was carried by a majority
greater than the requisite four-fifths of the twenty-nine
members present, with an addition moved by General
Strachey, that the rules of the Royal Society Club in regard
to admitting to the dinners persons not members of the Club
be adopted provisionally by the Philosophical Club.

Dr W. T. Blanf ord succeeded Professor Judd as Treasurer,
and the vacancies caused by the deaths of Sir W. Bowman
and Professor Hirst were filled by the election of Professor
T. E. Thorpe and Dr. D. Sharp.

Sir T. Edward Thorpe was bom near Manchester on Dec. 8th,
1845, and educated at Owens College, Bonn, and Heidelberg. From
the Professorship of Chemistry at Leeds, he was appointed to that
of the Royal College of Science in London in 1885, afterwards becom-
ing Director of the Government Laboratories, South Kensington.
Elected F.R.S. in 1876, he received a Royal Medal in 1889, was
made C.B. in 1900 and knight in 1909, is a Ph.D. and honorary
doctor of Leeds, Manchester, Dublin, and Glasgow. His contribu-
tions to chemical science are many and valuable, including a
Dictionary of Applied Chemistry.

Biographical Notes 89

Dr. David Sharp was bom in 1840, and was Curator of the
Museum of Zoology at Cambridge till 1909, of which University he
is an Hon. M.A. He was elected F.R.S. in 1890, has especially
devoted himself to the study of Coleoptera and other insects, pubUsh-
ing important books and papers on these subjects, and now Uves at
Brockenhurst, Hants.

It was announced at the meeting on Oct. 27th, 1892, that
the Royal Society Club had accepted the above-named scheme
for joint-dinners, and on Nov. 24th, 1892, the vacancies
made by the resignation ot Mr. W. Thiselton-Dyer and the
transference of Sir W. Grove to the honorary supernumerary
list could not be filled for want of a quorum. This was
done on December 15th, when only one election was made,
that of Mr. W. H. Hudleston.

Mr. Wilfrid Hudleston Hudleston was a doctor's son, bom at
York on June 2nd, 1820, who changed his surname, originally Simpson,
on succeeding to his mother's property. He began ornithology
and geology in his school days at Uppingham, graduated from St.
John's College, Cambridge, in 1850, and travelled extensively^
especially in Northern Europe, besides visiting Algeria, Greece, and
Roumania. After studying chemistry, he devoted himself more
especially to geology, writing valuable papers, particularly on the
Jurassic gastropods, of which he formed a fine collection. Later
in life he travelled in North-west India. Elected F.R.S. in 1884,
he became President of the Geological Society in 1892, received its
WoUaston Medal in 1897, and died suddenly at his country house.
West Holme, Dorset, on Jan. 29th, 1909.

1893. At the anniversary on April 27th, the vacancy
left at the November meeting was filled by the election of
Professor Vines.

Sydney Howard Vines, Professor of Botany in the University
of Oxford, was bom in London on Dec. 31st, 1849, obtained a first
class in the Natural Science Tripos from Christ's College, Cambridge,
in 1876, and is a D.Sc. of both that University and London. He
has made valuable contributions to botanical hterature, was elected
F.R.S. in 1885, and to the Oxford Professorship in 1888.

There was a vacancy at the November meeting, but it
could not be filled for want of a quorum till the anniversary
on April 19th, 1894, when Mr. Francis Darwin was elected,
and it was noted that the average attendance during the past
year had been 9, the smallest since the foundation of the Club.

90 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Sir Francis Darwin, third son of Charles R. Darwin, was born
at Down, Kent, on Aug. i6th, 1848, graduated with high honours
in Natural Science from Trinity College, Cambridge, was elected
a Fellow of Christ's College, and took the M.B. degree. Then he
co-operated with his father in scientific investigation, after whose
death he returned to Cambridge, and wrote more than one valuable
memoir on his life and work in addition to his own contributions
to science. He was elected F.R.S. in 1882, was President of the
British Association in 1908, received the medal founded in honovir
of his father in 191 2, and was knighted in 191 3.

1895. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 26th, Mr.
W. Crookes was elected Treasurer in place of Dr. Blanford,
and the vacancies made by the transference of Professor
Allman and Dr. Giinther to the list of honorary supernume-
rary members were filled by the election of Mr. Ludwig
Mond and Dr. W. J. Russell.

Dr. Ludwig Mond, a merchant's son, was bom at Cassel on
March 7th, 1839, and educated at Marburg and Heidelberg. After
having made more than one discovery of commercial value, such
as the recovery of sulphur from waste products, he started the great
alkaU works at Winnington, where he made other lucrative dis-
coveries, among them an important method for extracting nickel
from its ores. He was elected F.R.S. in 1891, was an honorary
doctor of Manchester and Oxford, besides Heidelberg and Padua,
and died Dec. nth, 1909. " He was a man of great scientific
attainments, of indomitable resource and energy, with a genius for
divining the industrial possibilities of discoveries in pure science."
His interests were in science, music, art (he formed a fine collection
of pictures, especially early Italian), and he unostentatiously devoted
no small part of his great wealth to the promotion of science. In
its annals his benefactions to the Royal Society and its Catalogue
of Scientific Papers, with the founding and endowment of the Mond
Laboratory at the Royal Institution, to mention no others, will long
keep his memory green.

Dr. William James Russell was connected with America and
France, but was son of a banker at Gloucester, bom on May 20th,
1830, He began to study chemistry in 1847 at University College,
London, then assisted Professor Frankland at Manchester. From
1883 to 1885 he worked at Heidelberg, where he took the Ph.D.
degree, and after returning to England investigated gas analysis
and cobalt, being ultimately appointed Lecturer on Chemistry at
St. Bartholomew's in 1870, which post he held till 1897. He was
elected F.R.S. in 1^72, having already begun to study absorption
spectra, and did much valuable work on impurities in London air

Biographical Notes 91

and on the effect of light on water-colours. In 1897 he published
the results of studies on the photographic effects of uranium salts,
of zinc, and of a variety of organic substances. A lover also of
flowers, of scenery, and of nature, he had a residence, from 1882,
near Chagford, but after fifteen years moved to one at Ringwood,
where he died after a short illness on Nov. 12th, 1909.

1896. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 23rd, the
average attendance during the year was stated to have
been 10-3 as compared with 11 in the previous year, and the
-vacancy made by the transfer of Sir James Paget to the
list of honorary supernumerary members was filled by
the election of Dr. Lauder Brunton.

Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton, Consulting Physician to St.
Bartholomew's Hospital, and so well known in medical and scientific
circles, was bom at Hiltonshill in Roxburghshire on March 14th,
1844, but obtained the doctorates of Medicine and of Science in the
University of London. He was also an honorary LL.D. of Edinburgh
and Aberdeen, and elected F.R.S. in 1874. His scientific writings
deal with pharmacology, therapeutics, assimilation, and the circula-
tion, and he also wrote on the relations of the Bible and Science.
He was created knight in 1900 and a baronet in 1908, dying on
September i6th, 191 6.

At the meeting on November 19th, when there was one
vacancy, though the Club had lost three of its members —
its founder Sir W. Grove, Professor Prestwich, elected in
i860, and Sir G. M. Humphry, who only was one of its
ordinary members — a quorum was not obtained till the
anniversary on April 8th, 1897, when Professor Tilden was
elected. In the interval the Club had lost Professor
Sylvester, but his death did not add to the vacancies.

As Sir William Augustus Tilden, though he has retired from
professorial work, is still vigorous, it will suffice to say that he was bom
in London on Aug. 15th, 1842, became D.Sc. of its University, and,
after being Professor of Chemistry at Mason's College, Birmingham,
was elected in 1894 to the same position in the Royal College of
Science, London, from which he retired in 1909. He has made
many valuable contributions to chemical science and its history,
is an honorary doctor of Dublin, Manchester, and Birmingham, was
elected F.R.S. in 1880, and has received the Davy Medal.

1897. At the meeting of Oct. 25th, the Chairman gave
as a toast, " Long Life and Prosperity to the Philosophical

92 Annals of the Philosophical Cluh

Club," as this was its jubilee. The sands, however, of its
separate life were in reaUty running low.

The November meeting (on the i8th) failed to attract a
quorum, and one was not obtained till January 20th, 1898,
when Professor Meldola was elected into the vacancy made
by the resignation of Mr. D. Sharp.

Professor Raphael Meldola was a member of a Jewish
family, bom in London on July 19th, 1849, and trained at the Royal
School of Mines, wbo became Professor in the Finsbury Technical
College and then of Organic Chemistry in the University of London.
He had charge of the Eclipse Expedition to the Nicobar Islands,,
made many scientific discoveries in regard to coal-tar dyes, wrote
much on these and similar chemical subjects, including photography,,
on entomology, and the Essex earthquake of 1884. Elected F.R.S.
in 1886, he was awarded the Davy Medal in 191 3, and was an honorary
doctor of St. Andrews and Oxford, and ended his busy hfe on
Nov. i6th, 1915.

1898. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 28th, Pro-
fessor W. G. Adams became Treasurer in the place of Sir
W. Crookes, and Mr. Thornycroft was elected into the
vacancy made by Sir R. Strachey becoming an honorary
supernumerary member.

Sir John Isaac Thornycroft, naval architect and engineer,
was bom at Rome in 1843, his father and mother both being sculptors.
In the important shipbuilding works which he founded at Chiswick,
he has introduced many improvements in naval architecture and
engineering, especially in obtaining high speed, and is still engaged
in adding to the efficiency of the British Navy. He was elected
F.R.S. in 1893, and knighted in 1902.

On November 17th, the transference of Mr. Francis Galton
to the honorary supernumerary members made a vacancy,
which was filled by the election of Professor J. J. Thomson,

Sir Joseph John Thomson, the recently appointed Master of Trinity
College, Cambridge, was bom near Manchester on Dec. i8th, 1856^
and graduated in 1880 from that College as second wrangler and
second Smith's prizeman. He was elected to a fellowship in the
same year, and Professor of Experimental Physics in 1884. His
success as a teacher and his researches into electricity, magnetism,
and the ultimate nature of matter, have made his name so famous
that it need only be said that he was elected F.R.S. in 1884, and
became its President in 1915, after having received the Copley,.

Biographical Notes 93

Royal, and Hughes Medals, besides several honorary doctorates
^ind distinctions, including a Nobel Prize. He was President of the
British Association in 1909, was created knight in 1908, and has
received the Order of Merit.

1899. The Treasurer reported at the Anniversary Meeting
on April 27th, that the total number of attendances, including
guests, during the past year had fallen from 106 to 98 :
and the vacancy made by the resignation of Professor
Vines was filled by the election of Professor Weldon.

Walter Frank Raphael Weldon, son of Walter Weldon, a
•chemist of note, was bom at Highgate on March 15th, i860, and,
after studying medicine at University College and King's College,
London, went to St. John's College, Cambridge, won distinction in
Natural Science, and obtained a fellowship. After research at
Naples and a visit to the Bahamas, he worked vigorously at the
Marine Biological Laboratory at Plymouth, and was elected in
1890 F.R.S. and Professor of Zoology at University College, London.
In his researches he adopted, in co-operation with his colleague
Professor Karl Pearson, the exact statistical methods of Francis
•Galton, applying these to variations in two species of shrimps,
and they may be regarded as the founders of Biometrics. His
election in 1899 to the Linacre Professorship of Comparative Anatomy
at Oxford in no way Ughtened his labours, which proved to be too
arduous for a constitution never robust, and an attack of influenza,
while on an Easter holiday, developed on his return to London into
acute pneumonia, which proved fatal on April 13th, 1906.

A quorum was not present at the November meeting
or until the anniversary on April 5th, 190c, when Dr.
Larmor, Professor Langley, and Mr. J. J. H. Teall were
elected to fill the vacancies made by the resignation of
Sir G. Darwin, and the deaths of Sir E. Frankland and
Professor D. E. Hughes.

Sir Joseph Larmor was born at Magheragall, Antrim, on July nth,
1857, and came from Queen's College, Belfast, to St. John's College,
Cambridge, where he was senior wrangler, first Smith's prizeman,
and Fellow in 1880. After some educational work in Ireland, he
returned to Cambridge, and was elected in 1903 to the Lucasian
Professorship, the chair of Newton and Stokes. He became F.R.S.
in 1892 and received a Royal Medal in 191 5. He has published many
memoirs on mathematical physics, and the title of one. Aether and
Matter, will suffice to indicate the general line of his researches.
He was created knight in 1909, and has represented his University in
Parhament since 1911.

94 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Professor John Newport Langley, bom November loth, 1852,
was a scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge, who, after obtaining
a first class in the Natural Science Tripos of 1874, was elected a
Fellow of Trinity, and succeeded Sir Michael Foster as Professor
of Physiology in 1903. Becoming F.R.S. in 1883, he was awarded
a Royal Medal in 1892, and has received several other distinctions
on account of his valuable contributions to physiology.

Sir Jethro Justinian Harris Teall was bom at Northleach,
Gloucestershire, on January 5th, 1849, graduated with distinction
in geology from St. John's College, Cambridge, at which he obtained
a fellowship, and, after publishing an important work on British
Petrography, became Petrologist to the Geological Survey, and
ultimately its Director, from which position he retired in 191 3.
Elected F.R.S. in 1890, he is a Cambridge Sc.D., besides honorary
doctorates, has been President of the Geological Society, has received
its Bigsby and WoUaston Medals, and was created knight in 1916.

1900. On October 25th, at a meeting attended by twenty-
five members, the Treasurer informed the Club that a motion
in favour of the amalgamation of the two Clubs had been
passed by the Royal Society Club on June 28th. A similar
resolution was now carried with one adverse vote, and a
committee appointed to give it effect.

1901. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 25th, the
number of members present being twenty-two, the Treasurer
reported that there had been 97 attendances at the eight
meetings in the past yeai as against 100 in the previous
one. The draft rules for the amalgamated Clubs were
read and passed after slight emendations.

These rules have been printed by Sir A. Geikie in the
Annals of the Royal Society Club,^ so it will suffice to indicate
their main differences from the originad rules of the Philo-
sophical Club, the more distinctive of which have been
already given. ^ The combined Club is to consist of sixty-six
ordinary members, all of whom must be Fellows of the Royal
Society, with the following ex officio members : the President,,
the Treasurer, the two Secretaries and the Foreign Secretary,
and the Astronomer Royal ; the President of the Royal Society
on joining the Club becomes its President. The Anniver-
saiy Meeting is to be held on the Thursday of the week in

* Pages 479-81. ' See page 2.

Closing Meeting of the Philosophical Club 95

which the Royal Society meetings close, and at this three
Treasureis are to be elected. Each member may introduce
one visitor, the President not being thus limited.

The last (486th) meeting of the Philosophical Club, at
which fourteen members were present with one guest, was
held on June 13th, 1901.

Thus ends the history of the Philosophical Club as a
separate body. For several years the attendance of its
members had conspicuously fallen off, notwithstanding
efforts to increase it by modifications of the rules. Its
Minutes also indicate that communications on matters of
scientific interest had become less frequent. But the Club
had accomplished its object. This, as its Minutes more
than once declare, was inciting the Council of the Royal
Society to more energetic action in the cause of science
and its Fellows to take a keener interest in Natural Know-
ledge. That had been done. The Royal Society has now
for years past exercised an influence, continuously widening^
and strengthening, on the progress of science ; it has become,
as all know who have had any official connection with it,
more and more the channel of communication between the
Government and the leading men in the different fields of
scientific work in our country, thus securing for the former
the best advice on questions which require special knowledge.
As this advice is privately communicated, it can be accepted
by representatives of a Government without loss of official
dignity, while the Society incurs no danger of being fettered
by red tape or exposed to the ignorant criticism of the
professional politician. The advantage to the nation of this
informal connection has been more than ever obvious
during the last four years.

The falHng off in the attendance at the dinners and in the
frequency of communications on matters of scientific interest,
which were their special feature, are both largely due to
a change of habits. People now generally reside at a greater
distance from the centre of London than in former days,
and though communication has been facilitated, struggling
for a place in an over-full motor-bus or becoming a straps

96 Annals of the Philosophical Club

holder in a crowded train is not a tempting termination to
a pleasant dinner. The meetings also of the Royal Society
are now held in the afternoon, so that at their close Fellows,
who have attended them, are more apt to go home. The
strain of hfe also, if I may trust my own experiences, has
become greater since the middle of the last century, and
the interests of those who work in the field^f science have
been to some extent narrowed, as remarked in the Preface,
by increasing speciaUzation. But the Philosophical Club,
as I trust these Annals will prove, did good service in the
furtherance of science.

SECTION II

COMMUNICATIONS TO THE PHILOSOPHICAL
CLUB

As has been already said, the members present at the
dinners of the Philosophical Club were invited by the
Chairman to make communications to the Club on any
subject of special scientific interest, and the Treasurer was
instructed to record these in the Minutes. Thus the latter
range over a wide field, and commemorate many of the
most important advances that have been made in science
during the fifty four years of the Club's separate existence.
They include such subjects as the discovery of new chemical
elements, spectrum analysis, advances in electricity, botanical
and zoological exploration, deep-sea soundings, borings
in the Nile delta and in the Funafuti atoll, the eruption of
Krakatoa, the physics and history of glaciers, the nature
of Eozoon Canadense, and the recognition of palaeolithic
implements. The variety and disconnected character of
the subjects made a continuous narrative so extremely
difficult that I decided to place the abstracts of them in
chronological order and in separate paragraphs. Obviously
this method of treatment is the less attractive, but after
rather careful consideration and some trial I have found
it the most practicable one — at any rate for myself.

The study of these Minutes has impressed upon me more
strongly than ever how marvellously great the progress
in discovery has been during the above-named period,
or, at any rate, during the last seventy years of the nineteenth

P.C. G 97

98 Annals of the Philosophical Club

century. When I was bom, the application of steam ta
locomotives had only just got beyond the experimental
stage ; ^ large areas of Africa were still blank on our maps,
while the fauna and flora of several other parts of the world
were very imperfectly known, and the annals of even the
greater nations, prior to some four and twenty centuries
ago, were largely blended with legend. Since the Club
was founded history has been carried back into a past far
more remote than was on record in our books. The monu-
ments in the Mesopotamian and adjacent regions have
been unearthed * and the languages of their builders
deciphered and interpreted ; the relics of Minoan ages have
proved the existence of a great pre-Hellenic civiUzation ;
the mists have almost vanished from the early history of
Egypt, and kings been shown to have reigned before the
once semi-mythical Menes. The appHcation of the micro-
scope to the study of rocks has done wonders for petrolog\^
Evolution, from a conjecture, has been recognized as a
process of the highest and far-reaching importance,^ and
researches in Chemical Physics have revolutionized our
conceptions of matter, ether, and energ}^ In one or other
of these great advances, the men who joined in the con-
versations at the table of the Philosophical Club took an
active part. It is much to have lived through such a
wonderful epoch !

But these records also show, if I may venture to say it,
that such great gains are not without some loss. The
men of science of that earlier time had wider interests and
more varied knowledge than is possible, as a rule, for their
successors. At the present day students of science are in
danger of being fettered by the multipHcity of details, often
comparatively unimportant, and being over-burdened by
the ' Uterature of the subject,* now a hundredfold greater

^The Liverpool and Manchester railway was opened September 15th,
1830.

2 Strictly speaking, digging had begun before the Club was founded, but
it was in the same decade.

^ The Origin of Species was published in the autumn of 1859.

Graduation of Thermometers 99

than it was in those early days. Though we can walk in
sunUght, where our grandfathers had to grope, yet its
brightness has sometimes revealed so much that we find it
difficult to 'see the wood for the trees/ Over-specialization
compels many a man to contract his outlook and to limit
his field of work, so that he suffers, often consciously and
regretfully, from an atrophy of his sympathies. Science,
in fact, to use Huxley's simile,^ is now in danger of being
smothered, like Tarpeia at the gate of the CapitoUne fortress,
by the gifts which are being heaped upon her, though
bestowed by those who truly loved her, and meant, not to
requite her faithlessness, but to reward her fidelity.

1847. At the second meeting of the Club (May 6th)
the members (including Sir J. Herschel and General Sabine),
discussed the question of the Centigrade scale for ther-
mometers. Though they did not pass any resolution, the Club
seemed favourable to the decimal system, though its intro-
duction into England was felt to be difficult in practice,
because of the numerous tables calculated on the Fahrenheit
scale, and the more frequent use of ' minus degrees ' appeared
to be a real objection to the Centigrade graduation. On
this account, it was suggested that a new graduation
with the lowest degree of natural cold as its zero would
be preferable, but that at any rate the authors of papers
would do well, when referring to temperature, to insert
both scales.

Mr. Wheatstone, at the third meeting of the Club (June
3rd), produced a * 'collection of curious letters from Frankhn,
Priestley, and others relating to the early history of the
Royal Society." One, written by the first-named to ' Mr.
John Canton of Spital Square, Bishopsgate Street,' about a
proposal to award the Copley Medal to Priestley, is copied.^

* Address on retiring from the Presidency of the Royal Societ> .

* Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). The
latter began his researches in electricity in 1746, which led to his election
as F.R.S. in 1753 and the award of the Copley Medal. Four years later,
an important political mission brought him to England, where he remained
for five years. That medal was received by J. Canton, also a distinguished
electrician, in 175 1 and 1764.

loo Annals of the Philosophical Club

It is undated, but as Franklin was in England from 1764 to
1775, and Priestley received that medal in 1772, it must
have been written either in or just before that year. It
states that the Council of the Royal Society had doubted
whether they could receive a paper in which Priestley gave
an account of experiments already published, and which had
been directly communicated to them by Canton instead of
being referred to them by the Society. They had therefore
decided to consult the Founders' will and reconsider the
matter at the next meetmg of the Council, when, if the
one permitted and the other approved, the medal would
be awarded to Dr. Priestley. Thus, as Canton writes, *' The
business ended for that time, and how it will conclude at
last seems an uncertainty, for I think some persons are
busy in an opposition to the measure. But I hope it
will end in favour of merit, in which case I think our
Friend cannot miss it."

The Club then resolved that " Mr. R. Brown, Mr. Forbes,
Dr. Royle, and Mr. Wheatstone, be requested to use
their best endeavours to procure MS. letters relating to
the Royal Society to be submitted to the Philosophical
Club."

Afterwards Dr. Royle exhibited specimens of tea which
had been grown in the Himalayas, and gave an account of
the introduction of that shrub from China, stating that he
and Dr. Falconer, the one writing in England, the other in
India, after considering such information as could be obtained
about the climate and characteristics of China, had recom-
mended Garhwal, with two other provinces,^ as most suitable
for tea cultivation, and nurseries had been estabhshed in
1843, with the sanction of the Indian government. From
these the India House had already received specimens
of both black and green tea, thus settling in a great measure
the long-disputed question whether one or two species of
the tea plant were employed in making the two different
coloured teas. " The first and as yet one of the best speci-
mens of black tea was manufactured while Dr. Falconer

^ The names are not clearly written in the Minutes.

Metrical System of Measurement i o i

(President of the Club on that evening) was superintendent
of the tea nurseries." ^

Whether EngHsh naturalists should make use of the
French system of linear measurement was discussed at the
fourth meeting (June 17th), since the * line ' now employed
by them was not small enough for all purposes, and was
regarded by some as a tenth of an inch, by others as a
twelfth. The adoption of the former value was proposed,
but it was felt that even then the inch was not the decimal
part of a foot, and neither of these corresponded with a
Continental unit. The French metrical system had this
recommendation, that it was equally favourable to large
or small measurements. A change to that received strong
support, though the difficulties it would involve were ad-
mitted, and the real question felt to be whether these were
outweighed by the advantages. It was ultimately resolved
that Mr. Owen, who had introduced the subject, should be
requested to bring it up at the forthcoming meeting of
the British Association at Oxford.

Mr. Grove mentioned on October 28th a phenomenon
which he had observed but had not found noticed in any
treatise on Optics. A small object, if held very close to
the eye, is not visible, but, if a convex lens or compound
microscope be placed on its further side, it can then be
seen magnified with a tolerably clear definition. This was
confirmed by Dr. Miller,2 who attributed the result to the
paralleHsm of the rays of light which had passed through
the lens, though he also was unable to recollect any mention
of the fact in print. Mr. Grove said he thought it might
have useful applications, such as detecting defects in lenses.

1848. Sir Snow Harris enquired at the ninth meeting of
the Club (Feb. 24th) what evidence there was of the earth

* According to the Dictionary of National Biography, Dr. Falconer
superintended the first cultivation of Indian tea in 1834, while Keeper
of the Botanic Garden at Sah^ranpur, and in that year the plant was
discovered growing wild in Upper Assam and cultivated in 1835 near
Luckimpur, to the north of the Brahmaputra.

2 Both W. A. Miller and W. H. Miller were present at the dinner,
but the latter is much more likely to have made the remark.

I02 Annals of the Philosophical Club

having once been liquid and of its interior being still in
this condition, and invited Mr. Hopkins to express his own
views. He replied that he thought the subject was not
yet ripe for discussion, but that it would be much advanced
if Sir H. de la Beche would undertake some experiments
on the results of pressure. The latter expressed himself
willing to do this, if the requisite funds were provided and
friends would co-operate.

During the fourteenth meeting (Oct. 26th) a letter, written
by Dr. Hooker from a station in the Himalayas, was read to
the Club, in which he said : ^ '* Kinchinjunga, the mountain
opposite us, is now found to be the highest in the world,
28,178 feet, as measured by the Surveyor-General, who has
just announced the result." 2 After referring to the heights
obtained for some other peaks and his admiration for
the way in which the surveyors* work had been done, the
writer continues, *' There is not a shadow of doubt that
the snow-Hne is much higher in Thibet than on the south
slope of the Himalayas. In Upper Assam (27^°) we have
permanent snow at 15,000 feet, but have about 16,000 feet
in Kimaweena, (and) 17,000 to 18,000 feet in upper valley of
Sutlej ; 36° N. it is 20,000 feet. Is not this defying latitude ?
Precipitation and evaporation are the important elements.
There is no precipitation in Thibet, precipitation and no
evaporation in Upper Assam. The south pole over again ! '*

Conversation then turned on the sea-serpent, which
according to the newspapers had been seen on Aug. 6th, 1848,
by Capt. M'Quhae of the Daedalus frigate.* Mr. Bell said
it had been thought the animal might have been a gigantic
land snake, some of which are known to exceed 30 feet
in length ; speaking for himself, he recognized the difficulty

1 The letter was probably written from Darjeeling, where Dr. Hookerarrived
on April i6th, 1848, leaving it for the Kinchinjunga district on October 27th.

' In Round Kangchenjunga (the speUing exhibits variation) D. W. Fresh-
field gives the elevation as 28,156 feet, stating that it is the third in height
of the measured mountains of the globe, yielding place to Mount Everest,
29,002 feet, and to ' K. 2,' which is 28,250 feet.

3 His letter was dated Oct. 7th, 1848. The creature was seen in the
S. Atlantic, lat. 24° 44' S. and long. 9° 20' E.

The Sea-Serpent 103

wliich was presented by the distance from land. Sir Charles
Lyell remarked that, when visiting America in 1845, he had
heard of an appearance of the sea-serpent, and Mr. Dawson/
at his request, had collected the evidence of several witnesses. ^
In the same year an unusual monster, according to a
pubHshed account, had terrified some Norwegian fishermen.
These stories accorded so well with Pontoppidan's ^ account
of the sea-serpent that it and they must refer to the same
creature as that which visited the coast of New England be-
tween the years 1815 and 1825, chasing shoals of herring and
mackerel into the harbours of New England and sometimes
coming very near to the beach. A good view was obtained
of it from the shore, its length being estimated as from
60 to 90 feet, and its appearance described. It raised
its head occasionally several feet out of the water, had a
mane, swam very rapidly, and when shot at dived and
re-appeared at a long (hstance.* He thought the same
creature had terrified the crews of fishing boats in the
Hebrides in 1808, which was afterwards cast ashore on the
Island of Stronsa (Orkneys), and the damaged skeleton
was said to have measured 60 feet. The head was sent to
Dr. Barclay in Edinburgh, but after his death it unfortunately
disappeared. The College of Surgeons possessed some of
the vertebrae, which, however, were said to belong to some
kind of shark.

1 Afterwards Sir W. Dawson.

• One group had seen a snake-like animal in August, 1845, at Merigomish
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, swimming, nearly aground, within 200 feet
of the beach, and estimated its length as 100 feet. It was slender in
proportion to its length. A similar creature had frightened fishermen in
that gulf in the course of the summer, and in October, 1844, had swum
slowly past Arisaig, near the east end of Nova Scotia. An observer, who
said he was within 40 yards of it, estimated its length as 60 feet. In
February, 1846, a snake-like animal was seen from the deck of a steamer
off the coast of Virginia. Lyell also mentions an earlier occurrence in
August, 181 7, and for several successive years. In the harbour of Glou-
cester, Mass., some observers were only 10 yards from it, and one even
fired a shot at its head ; on which it dived and rose about 100 yards away.
Its estimated length was 80 to 90 feet.

' Bom 1698, died 1764. The account was published in 1750.

* See Second Visit to the United States, ch. viii. vol. i. pages 131-157. 1849.

1 04 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Mr. Bell expressed doubts whether any shark could
correspond with the description of the sea-serpent, but
Sir C. Lyell, while admitting the difficulty, suggested a
way of overcoming it, and said that the teeth of a shark
{Carcharodon megalodon) found in the Crag of Norfolk and
Suffolk were sometimes very large. ^

The subject was resumed at the 15th meeting (Nov. 23rd),.
when Mr. Owen criticized the evidence in favour of the
existence of a sea-serpent, and particularly of that said to
have occurred in the Hebrides. The two vertebrae from
this, in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, belonged
to the Basking Shark (Selache maxima)} He showed how
readily false impressions might be produced, and quoted an
extract ^ from the private log of Lieutenant Edgar Drum-
mond, which he regarded as more trustworthy than Captain
M'Quhae's, for it was written down the same day, and the
other one reproduced from memory some two months
afterwards. Lieutenant Drummond stated that the head,
with the back fin, was the only part visible to him, the one
being long, pointed, and flattened at the top, perhaps 10
feet in length, the upper jaw projecting considerably. The
fin, visible occasionally, " was perhaps 20 feet in rear of the
head. The creature pursued a steady and undeviating
course, keeping its head horizontal with the water, and in
rather a raised position, disappearing occasionally beneath
a wave for a very brief interval. ... It was going at the
rate of perhaps from 12 to 14 miles an hour, and when
nearest was perhaps 100 yards distant. ... It was visible
to the naked eye for five minutes and with a glass for perhaps
fifteen more. The weather was dark and squally at the
time, with some sea running." Professor Owen remarked

^ They may measure 5 inches along the margin with a basal width of
4 inches. (Nicholson and Lydekker, Pales ontology, page 945.)

2 The Basking Shark of the Atlantic {Cetorhinus maximus), which
grows to over 30 feet in length, and that of the Pacific and Indian Oceans
{Rhinodon typicus), which can exceed 45 feet, have, however, small teeth.
The Hving species of Carcharodon (now named C. Rondeletii) attains to
40 feet.

' Printed in the Cornwall Gazette.

The Sea-Ser petit loj

that no serpent has a fin, either dorsal or caudal, and the
only known marine animal from 20 to 30 feet in length
which could swim at from 12 to 14 miles an hour was
Phoca prohoscidea. This, by the action of its low-set pectoral
paddles, could raise at pleasure its head and the forepart
of its body above water. He doubted the existence of a
' mane,' for the Lieutenant had not observed this. Both
the form and the colour of the part visible agreed with the
above-named seal, and nothing else but the large terminal
fin would be seen, and that only occasionally. So he
thought the supposed sea-serpent was a large species of
that seal. A letter from Sir C. Lyell was after\vards read,
stating that, since the last meeting, he had seen the vertebrae
from Stronsa, which had belonged, as Prof. Owen had said,
to Squalus maximus. Possibly, as the latter had suggested,
we might account for the length, 60 feet, by supposing
two specimens to have been washed ashore and their bones
arranged as a single skeleton. ^ But such a shark is not
likely to have frightened fishermen, nor did its aspect
agree with those seen in Norway and in the St. Lawrence
in 1845, and so often prior to that in the United States
northern seas, so he was not satisfied that the sea-serpent
of the north, though doubtless neither ophidian nor reptilian,
could have been a well-known kind of shark only 30 or
35 feet long.2

1849. At the 19th meeting (March 27th) Colonel Sykes
read a letter from Dr. Buist, of Bombay, stating that as the
meteorological observations indicated such a general uni-
formity (the barometer in 1843 standing at 29-824 inches,,
in 1844 at 29-801 inches, in 1845 at 29-815 inches, and in
1846 at 29-816 inches, the curves, daily, weekly, and hourly
being often coincident), he doubted whether, though it
would be well to continue observing, it was worth while
pubHshing anjiihing more than the anomalies of the
weather. Colonel Sabine, however, thought it would not

^ This seems a rather improbable hypothesis.

- A good recent summary of the Sea Serpent question is given by H. N,
Hutchison, Extinct Monsters, etc. (1910), page 315.

io6 Annals of the Philosophical Club

be prudent to discontinue either making or printing the
observations.

Mr. Grove afterwards asked for the reason why currents
of air, when they issue from tubes on fiat surfaces, instead
of blowing these away, rather attracted and drew them
closer. Mr. Wheatstone rephed that rather complex
explanations of this had been given, which, however,
amounted to supposing that the fugitive particles of air
produced a vacuum, and then the surrounding air kept the
surfaces together. Mr. Grove replied that he had, of late,
been incUned to take that view, by observing that when
matter was moving in any direction than that in which
gravity acted, its weight was diminished. In the above-
named experiments the surfaces would remain equally
mobile in any direction when all was tranquil, but when
the air between them was in rapid motion transverse to the
direction in which gravity acted, they would be kept by
this at a certain distance.

At the 20th (anniversary) meeting (April 30th), Mr.
Wheatstone read a letter from Dr. Hooker, who wrote from
Darjeeling to say that he had just returned from a three
months' journey among the snows of Eastern Nepal and
Sikkim, in the course of which he had reached in mid-winter
a height of from 13,000 to 14,000 feet on a mountain 28,000
feet high.i The weather had been remarkably fine, he had
brought back safe his two portable barometers, had kept
* a tolerable meteorological register with many hundred
observations,' and corresponding observations had been
made for him at Darjeeling. He had visited four snowy
passes on spurs from Kinchinjunga, and had camped for
three days on its southern face in the snow, which, however,

1 On this adventurous expedition, described in chapters ix. to xv. of
the Himalayan Journals, Dr. Hooker travelled on the western and southern
side of Kinchinjunga, encamped at elevations of 13,000 feet, and ascended
to heights, or crossed passes, from 16,000 to 17,000 feet above the sea.
The occasion mentioned seems to have been early in January, 1849, at
some cattle huts called Jongri, 13,140 feet, to the north-west of Mon
Lepcha, near the Ratbung river. Strictly speaking, it is on the southern
flank of Kabru (24,015 feet) rather than Kinchinjunga, but the two peaks
are connected by a ridge every part of which is above 22,000 feet.

Effects of Electromagnetism loy

drove him down by falling deeper and deeper. The upper
part of that mountain, above 20,000 feet, is a great outburst
of granite which '* protrudes in veins at 12,000 feet, and
above this carries up the mica-schist and gneiss in enormous
masses to 18,000 and even 20,000 feet, baked and distorted
in the most extraordinary manner."

Afterwards Mr. Forbes read a letter from Mr. McAndrew,
then examining the sea bordering the Spanish coast, in
which he stated that in the Bay of Vigo, the continuity of
the Lusitanian fauna, north and south of it, was interrupted
by an assemblage of littoral forms of the British t5^e, among
them being a number of Fusus contrarius so common in
the (Red) Crag. Mr. Forbes pointed out the bearing of this
fact on the land continuity, which he had supposed once
existed between South-west Ireland and North-west Spain. ^

Information about recent observations of scientific interest
on the Continent was invited at the 21st meeting (May 24th),
when Mr. De la Rive (guest) stated that M. Pliicker had
proved by experiment that when a mass of bismuth of any
shape was fused and then cooled between the poles of a power-
ful electromagnet, it afterwards would resume that position
in regard to those poles ; thus indicating a property of the
metal, unless (as was just possible) it contained iron, the
particles of which would produce this result by arranging
themselves along that axial Hne. He had also been informed
by M. Pliicker that the absolute weight of certain liquids
increased under the influence of magnetism without any
change of their density. Du Bois-Re5miond ^ had shown
that if any one held in each hand a metal tube communicating
with the terminals of a galvanometer this was deflected,
if one arm were held out, the other remaining bent ; but
when the converse was done, the galvanometer was deflected
in the opposite direction, the positive electricity passing
from the outstretched hand through the galvanometer to
the curved hand.

1 See Memoirs Geological Survey, vol. i. pages 336-403.

' Well known for his researches in electricity and psychology. Bom at
Berlin in 1818 ; died there in 1896.

io8 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Dr. Marcet (guest) stated that, according to M. Bernard,^
a considerable quantity of sugar existed in the liver, and
was also present in the heart, the secretion of which ceased
immediately when the pneumogastric nerve was cut. M.
Bernard had also found the pancreatic juice to have a
chemical action on fatty matters, causing their assimilation
and conversion into parts of the chyle, so that the one was
necessary for the healthy formation of the other. In rabbits
the secretion between the biliary and pancreatic ducts was
found to differ much (as described) from the chyle. These
experiments, he thought, might have an important bearing
on certain forms of disease. Mr. Bowman mentioned another
discovery of M. Bernard, that an animal after injury to its
brain passed urine loaded with sugar, and Mr. Bell said that
green food, taken from the stomach of a rat and pressed
out of a silk bag, became milky when treated with bile.

During the 22nd meeting (June 21st), Sir Phihp Egerton
read a letter from Professor Agassiz ^ announcing his dis-
covery that the heterocercal tail of a young Lepidosteus
exhibits the same form as that of Dipterus or Diplopterus
in the Old Red Sandstone. He had also obtained from
Lake Superior a new genus intermediate between the
Salmonoid and Percoid fishes, and thus illustrative of forms
occurring in the Cretaceous Period. Besides this. Tertiary
forms are met with, and he remarks, "It is one of the
extraordinary features of this continent that there are so
many types of ancient families still living here."

Sir R. Murchison then communicated a letter from M.
Barrande,^ of Prague, who wrote that he had succeeded in

1 Claude Bernard (1813-1878), the noted French physiologist, who began
to make his mark about 1841 and gave up a Professorship at the Sorbonne
in 1868 for one at the Jardin des Plantes. His first important work
was on the function of the pancreas gland, and his second on the glycogenic
function of the liver. To these researches Dr. Marcet doubtless referred.

• J. L. R. Agassiz (i 807-1 873), born at Motier, Canton Friborg, Switzer
land, and, after graduating in medicine at Munich, made his mark as a
naturalist and became a Professor at Neuchatel. From 1836 to 1844 he
devoted much time to studying the glaciers of the Alps.

^ Joachim Barrande (1799- 1884). Born at Sauges in France, he followed
Charles X. into exile, and became tutor to the Comte de Chambord. Settling
at Prague, he devoted himself to the study of the Palaeozoic fossils of

Arrian and Indian Aromatic Plants 109

tracing Sao hirsuta from its embryonic condition of a simple
disc-like body through twenty stages to a fully formed
trilobite — an important discovery, for it not only illustrated
the life-history of that crustacean, but also reduced the
number of so-called species ; for, in a recently published
work on Bohemian trilobites, M. Corda had made ten genera
and eighteen species out of a part only of these stages in
the development of Sao hirsuta.

Professor E. Forbes said that, as a lady had found on
trial, sea-water could be kept in a healthy condition for
animal life by pouring part of it backwards and forwards
through the air.

Dr. Royle then read a letter from Dr. Hooker referring
to Arrian's account of plants found by Alexander's army
in the deserts of the Gadrosi.^ These are (i) trees, abundant
and reaching a large size, which exude a gum like myrrh
— the googal balsam tree ; (2) the salt-marsh trees with
thick laurel-like leaves and fragrant white flowers ; this
suits Aegiceras magnum ; (3) one with a thorny stem and
acrid juice, Euphorbia narcifolia. These three cannot be
mistaken, and are found within twenty miles of Karrachee.^
The odoriferous herb {papSov ptl^a) is the only plant
difficult to identify, for there are two or three herbaceous
plants on the rocks in Scinde called wild nard. He thought
the * root of nard ' collected by the Phoenicians must have
been that of the reed-like grass generally named Calamus
aromaticus, found in dry hot parts of India, the distilled oil
of which is commonly called oil of spikenard. ^

Bohemia, of which he formed an unrivalled collection, described in his
Systeme Silurien de la Boheme, 22 volumes of which had been published
before his death. (See Geol. Mag. 1883, p. 528.)

1 See Arrian, History of Alexander' s Expedition, book vi. ch. xxii. He
makes the statement on the authority of Aristobulus. The army was
returning.

2 Dr. Hooker did not personally v^isit this part of North-western India,
but probably obtained the information about its flora either at the Botanic
Gardens of Calcutta or from Dr. Thomson, with whom he spent about
nine months in exploring the Khasia mountains.

3 Arrian states that they gathered good store of the roots, and that the
plants, when trodden under foot, perfumed the air.

1 1 o Annals of the Philosophical Club

At the 23rd meeting (Oct. 25th), Dr. Playfair gave a short
account of an accident in the sewers at Westminster, and
Mr. Rennie referred to the drainage system of St. Petersburg,
which he had recently examined, and gave his reasons for
preferring the plan of taking the sewage of London into
the Thames to any other method.

To an enquiry about Sir J. Franklin's expedition, Mr.
Goodsir replied that the explorer's brother doubted whether
the rumour that the Esquimaux had fallen in with its
members could be trusted, for none of them possessed a
knife of a pecuUar shape, which had been taken for giving
away, so as to be an indirect means of tracing the expedition.

A letter written from Swansea and read at the 24th
meeting of the Club (Nov. 22nd) described a remarkable
meteor of a bright red colour which was seen from near
that town on the evening o^ Nov. 2nd.

Afterwards Sir J. Richardson ^ gave some account of his
expedition in search of Sir J . Franklin, mentioning, in addition
to what had been published in the newspapers, some peculiar
hmestone hills which occur shortly after leaving the Mac-
kenzie River. About 300 miles west of the latter were clays
of an Upper Tertiary age, which ignited spontaneously.

Colonel Sykes mentioned a curious instance of variation
of rain-fall in India, for, from May to September, no less
than 338-38 inches oi rain had fallen at the Convalescent
Station at Mahabaleshwar, on the Western Ghat, while at
Paunchgunny, close by, it had been only 58 inches.

Professor Owen gave an account of the illness, and death
on Nov. 20th, of the Rhinoceros at the Zoological Gardens^
and described its anatomy. Of this comparatively Uttle had
been known, and the accounts pubUshed were all written
by Fellows of the Royal Society, and appeared in the

* Sir J. Richardson (i 787-1 865) was surgeon and naturalist to Franklin's
polar expedition in 181 9-21, and was with him in his second expedition
to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, 1825, parting from him in the following
year and exploring the coast to the Coppermine River, afterwards visiting
the Great Slave Lake. He conducted a search expedition for Franklin
in 1847, and returned to England without success on Nov. 6th, 1849. His
' Journal ' of the expedition was published in 1851. (See page 25.)

Moving Weights and Iron Bars 1 1 r

Philosophical Transactions, namely one by Dr. James^
Parsons in 1743, a second by Mr. W. Bell in 1793 on a
two-horned Rhinoceros, dissected at Bencoolen, and a third
by Mr. H. L. Thomas in 1801.1

The members present at the 25th meeting (Dec. 20th)
discussed a recent report of the Commissioners appointed
to enquire into the application of iron to railway structures.
Mr. Rennie reported that experiments, conducted by and
for them, had shown that a load traversing a bar produced
a greater deflection than if it were placed on the middle
part, and that as the velocity of the traversing weight
increased, so did the deflection ; that corresponding with
a rate of thirty miles an hour being more than double of the
amount produced by a * dead weight.' The greatest deflec-
tions also were not in the middle but towards the extremity
of the bar most remote from the point of access, a result
which had not been anticipated by the Commissioners, but
had been predicted by Professor Airy, the Astronomer Royal.

1850. At the 26th meeting (Jan. 24th), Dr. Hooker's
imprisonment in Sikkim was mentioned, and Lord Dalhousie
was said to have taken steps to secure his release.^

Sir J. Richardson gave an account of rich deposits of
native copper in the neighbourhood of Lake Superior,*

1 Phil. Trans, xlii. p. 523 ; id. 1793, part i. p. 3 ; id. 1801, p. 145.

' Dr. Hooker was then travelling with Dr. Campbell, the superintendent
of Darjiling, which was purchased about 1840 from the Rajah of Sikkim.
The story, a rather compUcated one, is told in chapters xxv. and xxvi.
of the Himalayan Journals. They were arrested on Nov. 7th, 1849, at
their camp when returning from an attempt to travel in Thibet, and were
detained till Dec. 24th. The motive was the hope of extracting from Dr.
Campbell, who was at first violently assaulted, a treaty favourable to the
ambitious designs of the Rajah's chief minister. Accidental circumstances
prolonged their captivity, which ended when the chief offender found that
Lord Dalhousie was not to be trifled with, but for a time their lives were
evidently in danger.

' The metal occurs " in ' trappean ' rocks and their associated conglome-
rates (ascribed by Whitney to the Lower Silurian Period) in Michigan on
the southern shore of Lake Superior. . . . Masses of nearly pure copper,
weighing over 400 tons, have been met with. . . . The bulk of the produce
is, however, obtained by stamping and washing rock containing from | to
4 per cent, of copper." J. A. Phillips and H. Bauerman, Elements of
Metallurgy (1887), page 399. (They are late Precambrian in age.)

1 1 2 Annals of the Philosophical Club

saying that hitherto the difficulty of separating it from the
mass had much impeded a profitable development of the
metal.

Colonel Sykes, at the 27th meeting (Feb. 28th), drew
attention to two sources of grave error in observations
with wet-bulb thermometers. These were (i) a possible
lowering of temperature by the proximity of a dry-bulb
thermometer ; (2) in calm air its own vapour, by forming an
enclosing shell, might make readings fallacious ; (3) if that
shell is removed by a current of air, the velocity of the
latter affects the temperature of the bulb ; (4) it is also
affected by radiation from surrounding objects ; (5) the
dew-point determined by Apjohn's formula, appears to
be too high with small depressions of the wet-bulb thermo-
meter, but much too low with considerable depressions.
The last matter he discussed in some detail.

A letter from Dr. Layard,i read at the 28th meeting
(March 28th), announced the discovery of some new sculptures
in Ass5nia. Attention was called to' the importance of
securing daguerrotypes of all figures too heavy to be moved,
and this led to a discussion on photographic questions.

The 29th (anniversary) meeting fell on April 29th, when
Mr. Spence referred to the exhibition of two flies at the
Zoological Society, apparently identical with a species
described by Bruce, the bite of which drove cattle mad, and
which seemed to have a resemblance to the Hornfly.^

The subject of photography was resumed, and Lord Rosse
remarked that Ronconi was reported to have daguerrotyped
some of the nebulae, but he doubted whether the Hght of a
nebula would suffice to produce a daguerrotype that would
T^e of any use, and whether an equatorial could yet be

^ Afterwards Sir A. H. Layard, G.C.B. (1817-94). He was then, viz.
from October, 1849, till some time in 1851, working at either Kayunjik
or Nebi-Yunus, having begun excavations at Nimrud in 1845 and sent
to England, in the following year, the large man-headed winged bull and
lion, which are now, with other important pieces of sculpture, obtained in
this (see 'Nineveh and its Remains) and the later expedition, preserved in
the British Museum.

' Haematobia serrata, a pest to cattle in Abyssinia.

Lunar Volcanoes 1 1 3

constructed with such an extremely accurate movement as
is now frequently required. He described practical diffi-
culties which had arisen on making drawings of nebulae,
and thought photography might be applied to them, if
sufficiently sensitive plates could be made. To an enquiry
about the measurement of 7-Virginis, Lord Rosse replied
that he had not worked at double stars with his telescope,
for the nebulae occupied the observer's whole time.

When Sir R. Murchison raised the question of lunar
volcanoes. Lord Rosse replied that he had observed several
features, corroborating the idea that the moon's surface
wholly consisted of them. These were such as, holes in the
apices of the conical mounds in the centres of the basins,
material on the plains resembUng ejected debris, streams like
consoUdated lava, in some of which light could be seen
through an arch over a fissure, and the white lines consisting
of precipitated snow-like matter. As the conditions on the
mioon — diminution of gravity, absence of wind, etc. — differed
from those on the earth, the character of the surface could
not be identical. He regarded, however, with some scepticism
the statement that an actual eruption had been observed,
though the number of craters appeared to multiply with
the improvement of telescopes, for nearly twice as many
could be seen on any part of the moon's surface with the
six-feet reflector as with the three-feet one. To a remark
that the volcanoes of the moon appeared to have been
active where its surface was in a viscous condition, Colonel
Sykes replied that he had received by the last mail an
account of the discovery of mud volcanoes at Materam
in India.

At the 30th meeting (May 23rd) Mr. Galloway made some
remarks about daguerrotyping astronomical objects, and
Mr, Grove spoke of the differences in the aspects of some
of the mountains on the moon, according as they were more
or less illuminated. After this Dr. Royle gave the results
of investigating the action of physical agents on plants.
In cotton the length and fineness of the fibre are more de-
pendent on the continuous presence of a moderate degree

P.C. H

1 1 4 Annals of the Philosophical Club

of moisture in the air than on any other cause. This, he
thought, accounts for cotton being chiefly cultivated near
the coast, or, at any rate, in districts where vapour-laden
winds are prevalent. In Egypt or in the great river valleys
of Central India, irrigation might produce the same effect.

At the 31st meeting (June — ^), Mr. Grove again referred
to the illumination of the mountains of the moon, stating
that one of them, in four days, might change in aspect
from a bright to a dark spot, after which Dr. Royle read a
letter from Dr. Jameson announcing the discovery in the
Punjab of an extension of the Salt Range to the north-east ;
another from Mr. Adam referring to a collection of Punjab
birds which he was forming, and a third from Mr. Fortune ^
stating that he had despatched to India from the coast
of China tea plants and seeds, and that upwards of 2000 of
the former had arrived in safety.

The 32nd meeting (Oct. 24) was signalized by Sir C. Lyell's
announcement that a stuffed specimen of Dinornis, hitherto
known only from skeletons, had been found among a collec-
tion of birds recently received from New South Wales.
This corresponded very nearly with the form inferred from
the bones. 3 He also stated that another mammaUan jaw
had been obtained from the Stonesfield slate.*

Colonel Sabine gave an account of Regnault's hygrometer

1 Day of month omitted in Minute.

2 Robert Fortune (i 813- 1880) visited China for the Horticultural Society
in 1842, and for the East India Company in 1848 ; also Formosa and Japan
in 1853 ; he introduced several well-known plants into England, was
active in promoting the culture of tea in India, and pubUshed accounts
of his journeys.

'There is some mistake here. The specimen in any case must have
originally come from New Zealand, for the moa has not been found in
Australia. The moa also has not been seen by any European, though it
probably has not been long extinct. Can the apteryx be the foundation of
the story ?

* It is difi&cult to identify this specimen. Owen, Fossil Mammals of
the Oolite Formations (Pala.eont. Soc. 1870), p. 12, enumerates three specimens
of Amphitherium Prevostii, one of A. Broderipii and one of Phascolotherium,
as described by him in or before 1846. A fourth, Stereognathus ooliticus,
also described by him, was noticed in 1854 (British Association). Possibly
this may be the above-mentioned specimen, though it had been found som©
years earlier.

Powerful Magnets 115

and his method and apparatus for making thermometers,
which was followed by a letter from Mr. Welch to Mr. Gassiot
describing in detail the system followed at Kew Observatory
in electrical and meteorological observations.

At the 33rd meeting (Nov. 21st) Colonel Sabine said he had
received from Dr. Wolfgang Haecker, of Nuremberg, a horse-
shoe magnet, weighing 35 grains, capable of supporting, if
certain precautions were taken, 4785 grains (135 times its
own weight). Mr. Gassiot remarked that the same maker
had sent one to him, weighing 40 grains, which had held
up a total weight of 4599 grains (115 times its own weight).

At the 34th meeting (Dec. — i) Colonel Sabine said that
a magnet, weighing 36 grains, had now been received from
Dr. Haecker, which supported 5280 grains, or 146 times
its own weight.

Mr. Grove drew attention to an effect produced on the
retina by rubbing the eye before looking through a lens,
placed at one end of a tube, when striae, crossing one
another, make their appearance. For instance, if a convex
lens of one-inch focal length be thus placed in a tube six
inches in length, and the light of a candle, placed one foot
from the other end, be viewed through a pin-hole in it,
after the eye has been slightly pressed by the finger, these
striae are visible, accompanied occasionally by black spots,
which he attributed to the derangement of small vessels
and secretions in the eye, which were thus rendered visible.

1851. On Jan. 30th, the 35th meeting, Mr. Grove
exhibited specimens from Dr. Schonbein,^ of Basle, illustrat-
ing the effects of insolated oxygen on such chemical
substances as sulphide of antimony, of arsenic, and of lead,
but which were not produced by oxygen, kept in the dark.

Professor E. Forbes read a letter from M. Puggaard, of
Copenhagen, on the geology of the Island of Moen.^ He

^ Figure omitted.

* Christ. Fried. Schonbein, bom at Wurtemberg, 1799, died at Baden
Baden i868, appointed Prof, of Chemistry at Basle 1828, who did some
important work, especially in organic chemistry.

^ Described by him. in Moens Geologic (1874).

1 1 6 Annals of the Philosophical Club

had come to the conclusion that there both the chalk and
the Pleistocene Tertiaries were affected by disturbances,
which had occurred between the deposition of the Glacial
or Pleistocene drift and the last boulder period.^

Colonel Sykes gave an account of a number of mud
craters, small and large, extending for 25 miles along the
coast of Lus, to the N.W. of Cutch and the mouth of the
Indus.2 They emit gas (the nature of it undescribed)
together with mud.

At the 36th meeting (Feb. 27th) Dr. Faraday said, in
reference to Mr. Grove's communication at the previous
meeting, that Professor Schonbein writing to him on Dec.
28th, 1850, mentioned his discovery that oil of turpentine
and essence of lemon, if exposed for some time to the joint
action of pure oxygen (or atmospheric air) and light, can
become ' most energetic oxydizing agents,' changing the
colour of indigo solutions, and turning with the utmost
faciHty the metallic sulphides into sulphates. Experiments
which he had made fully confirmed Professor Schonbein's
conclusions.

Dr. Lyon Playfair remarked that artists would give a
large price for turpentine which had been long exposed to
sunlight in half-empty bottles, because it possessed peculiar
properties in dissolving cobalt.

Mr. Gassiot described at the 37th meeting (March 27th)
an apparatus, recently obtained by the Kew Observatory,
for graduating with great accuracy thermometer and
barometer tubes, after which Sir R. Murchison spoke of a
new war-steamer on the wave principle, the outcome of
some experiments undertaken for the British Association,
and built for the King of Prussia. It was 550 tons burden,
and had engines of 160 horse-power, making, on the average,

1 See Lyell, Antiquity oj Man, ch. xvii., for a fuller account. In the
QuavU Jour. Geol. Soc. vol. Iv. (1899), pages 305-311, reasons are given
by myself and Canon E. Hill why \\e were unable to accept the above-
named explanation, or that which attributed the disturbance to the thrust
of an ice-sheet.

' See Lyell. Principles of Geology, for a fuller account (ed. 11, vol. ii.
pages 76-7).

Atmospheric Waves 1 1 7

15 f statute miles an hour. It could carry and fire efficiently,
as had been proved by experiments which he quoted,
a heavier armament than any other vessel of the same
size in the British Navy. As a sister ship had already
proved its competency in heavy weather, naval officers
had considered such vessels to fulfil all the requisites of a
good sea-boat.

At the 39th meeting (May 22nd) Professor Bond of
Harvard Observatory, and M. Metelet were present as guests.
The former spoke of the progress made in applying the
daguerrotype to astronomical purposes. Attempts made at
Boston to photograph the sun had been failures, notwith-
standing every precaution, because of the intensity of the
light, but the Cambridge telescope of 22 feet focus and 15
inches aperture had succeeded well with the moon. Records
of the double star Castor and of Jupiter with its belts and
satellites had also been obtained.

Afterwards M. Metelet described the method of tracing
atmospheric waves by comparing times of the actual and
expected barometric minima at different stations. The
atmospheric oscillations appear to proceed from the north,
and travel more readily over the sea : large tracts of land,
and particularly mountain chains, such as the Urals, pre-
senting a barrier to them. In the progress of these waves
the oscillating air appears to set up two currents, the upper
one proceeding from north to south, and the under in the
reverse direction. The lines of vegetation seem to have
some relation to these waves, but that has not yet been
accurately estabhshed. Colonel Sabine remarked that
observations in America would be most valuable, because
of the pecuHar physical character of that continent.

Professor Plantamour, a guest at the 40th meeting
(June 19th), mentioned that barometric observations made
at Geneva and at the Convent on the Great St. Bernard,^
showed that temperature produced differences, which might
amount to 120 feet, between the observed and the calculated

* He published an elaborate essay on them in i860 {Mem, de la Soc. de
Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genive, t. xv.).

1 1 8 Annals of the Philosophical Club

heights. When asked what allowances were made for
local causes, such as the presence of clouds, he repHed that
exact comparisons had not yet been made, but that observa-
tions, taken at the Convent nine times daily by competent
scientific men, promised to be of considerable value.

Mr. Grove said that he had found by experiment the ad-
vantage of resinous compounds as a substitute for flint glass to
secure achromatism in telescope lenses. The best ingredient
was a cement formed by nearly colourless resin and castor
oil, the refractive and dispersive powers of which could be
altered within certain limits, and which was sufficiently
pUant and tenacious to yield to the expansion of the glass
by temperature. Among other promising experiments,
he had very satisfactorily corrected a bad lens by using this
composition. That was done some months ago, but he
mentioned the matter, because he had read in a Catalogue
of the Exhibition ^ that a telescope there had a soHd material,
the composition of which was kept secret, instead of flint
glass. M. Plantamour said that oxide of zinc had been
substituted for oxide of lead in flint glass, and that glass
so made was less Hable to corrosion by exposure to the
atmosphere.

Mr. Horner referred to investigations in the Nile Valley,
undertaken to ascertain the rate at which alluvium had
accumulated, by ascertaining its thickness around monu-
ments, the date of which was known, and thus to connect
historical and geological time. It was intended to begin
at the ObeHsk of HeliopoHs, the age of which was known. ^

At the 41st meeting (Oct. 30th) Captain Skogman, of the
Swedish Navy, who was a guest, announced that the measure-
ment of an arc of the meridian was about to be repeated
in his country, and observations were then being taken to
ascertain whether the Baltic and the Polar seas differed
in level.

To the 42nd meeting (Nov. 27th) Mr. Bell gave an account

1 The well-known one opened May ist, 1851.

2 See Lyell, Antiquity 0/ Man, ch. iii. (especially pages 40, 41, ed. 4),
and Principles of Geology, vol. i. pages 430-434, ed. 11.

Falls of Fishes 1 1 9

of the boa constrictor at the Zoological Gardens, which
had recently swallowed a blanket, stating that instances
were on record where this snake in darting at its prey had
seized other things, and had been apparently unconscious
of its mistake.

The occasional fall of fishes during showers of rain in
India was discussed on Dec. i8th. Colonel Sykes thought
the spawn was caught up by a whirlwind, but Dr. Hooker
held that it was the fish themselves, for the whirlwinds,
during the monsoon season, are frequently very powerful.
All the members who had been in India agreed that such
falls really occurred.^

Dr. Royle, in reply to an enquiry, said that tea was now
grown on more than 2000 acres from Kumaon westwards
on the lower slopes of the Himalayas.^

Mr. Porter spoke of a cloth, the invention of Klaussen, and
made half of sheep's wool half of flax, some of which he
was then wearing.

Dr. Hooker said that a museum was then in process of
construction at Kew to be devoted to foreign products, and
the conversation turned on a project for removing the
Crystal Palace, or part of it, to Kew, and for appropriating
the surplus fund to a school of design, a thing much needed.
Colonel Sykes asked him why plants in India, though the
ground was waterless and cracked by heat, burst suddenly
into flower. Dr. Hooker thought it due to the sudden access
of heat to water lying at some distance below the surface.

1852. Dr. Playfair, at the 44th meeting (Jan. 29th),
stated that, eighty years ago. Lady Moira had proposed the
plan of making cloth, mentioned at the last meeting, ajid
was presented with a medal at Manchester, but the effort
had failed owing to the fiscal regulations of that day.

1 " Showers of fish and frogs are by no means uncommon, especially in
India." In one which occurred in 1839, the fish, all of one kind, were
about three inches long. See Ferrel, A Popular Treatise on the Winds
(1890), page 414, and pages 381 to 393, for instances of the lifting power
of tornadoes.

^ In 1908 it amoimted in India proper to over 531,000 acres, Encycl. Bnt,
(India).

1 20 Annals of the Philosophical Club

At the 48th meeting (May 27th) Dr. Marcet communicated
some recent researches by Dr. Bernard, which showed that
section of a sympathetic nerve increased animal heat
on the corresponding side. On that also where the nerve
was divided, the heat was more or less persistent, and was
less affected by alterations of external temperature. Thus,
if the general temperature was raised, that of the side, where
the nerve was whole, was raised more than on the side where
it was divided, and if the general temperature was lowered,
the lowering was greater in the former case than in the
latter to a larger extent than had happened in the first
instance. This effect, as yet, had not been explained.

He also mentioned some curious instances, observed at
New Orleans, of increase of temperature in the human body
after death. These appeared to proceed, in some cases,
from a lingering vitality in the organism after apparent
death, in others to the contrary — ^the death and putrefaction
of portions of the organism, prior to that of the individual.

He further stated that at Geneva, during this spring,.
N.E. winds had lasted consecutively for 90 days.

Dr. Du Bois-Reymond's electrophysical experiment (21st
meeting) was again mentioned. A discussion took place,
but without any confident expression of opinion, on the
question, whether the deflection of the galvanometer, on
contracting the muscles of one arm, arose from the proper
muscular action or from increased secretion in the incurved
finger or other secondary actions.

Colonel Sykes at the 49th meeting (June 24th) referred
to the importance of using balloons for meteorological
observations, now that the management of them was in
proper hands and better understood. Mr. Green, ^ he
added, who was about to give up making ascents for the
amusement of the public, was willing to aid in the advance-
ment of science. Lord Wrottesley said that the Council

^Charles Green (1785-1870) made 528 ascents between 1821 and 1852,
when he ceased to be a professional aeronaut. In the former years he
made the first ascent with carburetted hydrogen gas, and in 1836 travelled
through the air from Vauxhall to Weilburg in Nassau.

New Standard Weights and Measures 121

of the Royal Society had considered a proposal of this kind
fifteen years ago, but had been deterred from acting on it
by the serious practical difficulties which then presented
themselves.

The famiHar fact that the barometer falls before rain
and rises after it was then discussed, and the intention
expressed, which, however, was not fulfilled, of resuming
the subject at the next meeting.

Dr. Carpenter stated that the bars of the Menai Bridge,^
after having been some time in place, had been found ta
have become highly magnetic and also brittle. Mr. Grove
thought that the former effect was probably due to their
vertical position and constant agitation, in lines approxi-
mately parallel to those of terrestrial magnetism. He
did not regard the brittleness as a necessary consequence of
the magnetism, though it also was probably a result of the
continual vibratory disturbance. It had been shown by
experiment that the elasticity of metals was affected hj
electric action and magnetization.

1853. At the 58th meeting (June i8th) Dr. Miller 2^
gave some account of the standard instnunents, lately
prepared at Kew ; weights had been made from i pound
avoirdupois to o-oi of a grain. For the heavier — from 100
to 7000 grains — gun-metal, thickly electro-gilt, had been
used, and platinum for those less than 100 grains. A
standard yard had been laid down upon a flat-rolled brass
scale between gold pins. These standards had been used
in constructing, for meteorological purposes, two barometer
tubes of one inch internal diameter. He added some
details of the operation of boiHng the mercury in these
unusually large tubes.

1 The Suspension Bridge, opened in 1825, must be meant, though the^
Britannia Tubular Bridge was completed in 1850.

2 This must have been Prof. W. A. Miller, for in the course of his remarks
he mentioned Prof. W. H. Miller, of Cambridge, who was an active member
of the committee, appointed in 1843 to reconstruct the standards of weight
and ireasurement destroyed by the burning of the Houses of Parliament
in 1834. The work was completed by 1854, when the standards of weight,
length, and capacity were authorized {18 and 19 Vict. ch. 72).

122 Annals of the Philosophical Club

A letter from Sir J. Richardson, read at the 59th meeting
(Oct. 27th), stated that he had been informed by Lieut.
Cresswell that on Baring Island, ^ trunks of pines,
that must be drift-wood, occur frequently in a gravel or
mud which forms a mound of considerable size at least
200 feet above the present sea-level. All over the Arctic
Islands shells are found belonging to species still living
in the seas, thus indicating a rise of land to that extent in
times, geologically speaking, very recent.^ Lieut. Cresswell
had also mentioned that, in the same region, considerable
quantities of sihcified wood were embedded in a Umestone.^

Sir C. Lyell mentioned that Dr. Lea, of Philadelphia (who
was present as a guest), had been the first to discover a bone
of a saurian (of which a jaw had been found since he left
that city) in a rock wherein only footprints had previously
been observed. It was not yet certain whether the formation
v^as Triassic or somewhat later, but this probably was the
oldest remnant of a large reptile which, as yet, had been
discovered.^

Colonel Sabine showed the Club a bottle made of green
glass, which was egg-shaped, the neck having been broken
off. It was one of several found on the coast of Siberia
rather east of Nova Zembla, where two great currents meet.
One of them had been closed by a stopper. Both the
Russian government and our own had endeavoured, but
without success, to ascertain where these bottles were made.
They were not in use in the country where they had been
found, and none like them had been supplied to Sir J.
Franklin or other Arctic travellers.

Sir R. Murchison said that General Haug was planning
an expedition to explore the north-eastern part of AustraHa
in the hope of discovering a passage by the Victoria and
Albert Rivers to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

1 Now called Baring Land, the southern part of Banks Land, about
lat. 7i°-72".

2 For other instances see Manual joy the Arctic Expedition, 1875, pages
538-540-

' See same Manual, page 538.

* Perhaps it was that afterwards named Clepsysaurus and from the Trias.

Ether Applied to Steam Engines 123

At the 60th meeting (Nov. 24th) Colonel Sabine said that
a Norwegian at Lloyds had identified the bottle exhibited
at the last meeting as one of those used by fishermen of
his country as floats for nets.

He also gave some account of the magnetic action of the
moon, as observed at the earth's surface. This reached a
maximum when the planet was on the upper and lower
meridian and a minimum when halfway between these
positions — results bearing on the question whether the
moon was idiomagnetic or magnetic by induction.

Mr. Bowman explained how the eye adapted itself to
<iistance, showing that the images reflected from or near
the anterior part of the crystalline lens advance, when the
eye is used to view near objects, while those formed on the
posterior surface remain stationary, showing an increase
in convexity of the anterior surface of the crystalline lens
for near objects. When the eye was submitted to galvanism
the image examined by a microscope changed its position,
so as to show an increased convexity, which after a time
became permanent.

At the 6ist meeting, on Dec. 22nd, Mr. Rennie gave an
account of the steam engine of M. du Trimblet, which he
had seen on a recent visit to France. This uses ether in
addition to water, the principle being that the condensed
vapour of water, which has done its work in one cyHnder,
is used as a source of heat to vaporize ether in a second
cyUnder, and thus gives additional power by utilizing the
heat of the water, which hitherto had been wasted. He
had seen the engine appHed to propel a boat, and had
formed the opinion that it used about half the ordinary
amount of fuel. The ether wasted cost only about one
franc per hour in an engine of 45 horse- power, and
the boat had performed twelve voyages of 800 miles each.
The principal objection that occurred to him was the
danger of explosion or combustion from the vapour of
the ether.

1854. At the 63rd meeting (Feb. 23rd) Mr. Horner read
a letter from Sir C. Lyell, written from Madeira, giving an

1 24 Annals of the Philosophical Club

account of the geology of that island, with enthusiastic
praise of its scenery. ^

Sir R. Murchison announced the discovery of true coal
at Heraklea on the Asiatic coast of the Black Sea, the first
to be found in the Russian dominions.^

At the 65th meeting (April 24th) a letter was read from
Captain Spratt, who had been called away from the Aegean
to join the Black Sea fleet, giving a short account of the
coal mentioned at the last meeting. Its quaHty was excellent^
equal to the best Newcastle, and certainly it was shown by
fossils to be anything but modern (as had been asserted).
Dr. Plajrfair, who had examined specimens, said the coal, at
the edge of the field, changed to a kind of anthracite.

Professor Owen exhibited the skull of a species of Felis
which had been found at a depth of 70 feet near Buenos
Aires. It resembled a tiger, but the upper jaw had two large
canine teeth, the corresponding canines in the lower jaw
being small. So far as known, it represented an extinct
species.

Lord Rosse, at the 66th meeting (May 25th), spoke of his
experience (with Dr. Wood) in the application of photography
to astronomical purposes. This convinced him that results
of practical value would not be obtained till the collodion
could be made more sensitive. He also described an appa-
ratus for mxoving the plate, and a new process for poHshing
the surface of mirrors used in large reflecting telescopes.

Dr. Carpenter said that, as he had found, photographs,
taken in a microscope with a y\-inch objective, revealed^

^ Sir C. Lyell went to Madeira early in January, 1854, and after a stay
of about three weeks passed on to Teneriffe, Palma, and the Grand Canary.
The letter, dated January only, is printed in hije. Letters, and Journals
of Sir C. Lyell, vol. ii. pages 191-3. But on comparing with this the
manuscript copy in the Minute Book, I find several differences. Some
words in it are incorrectly written, others are left blank as illegible to the
copyist. Two or three clauses, with merely personal details, and one long
section, giving a description of the succession of rocks in the island, with
a diagram, are omitted. But probably this last was done, because, even
in 1 88 1, the account would be less interesting than it was in 1854. In the
printed copy, however, on page 192, " rents " should be " vents."

2 But Heraklea is on the northern coast of Asia Minor in the province
of Kastamuni, and thus Turkish.

Temperature and Density of Mediterranean 125

w^hen examined with a hand lens, more than could be seen
by the unaided eye. He went on to speak of the binocular
microscope, 1 saying that a defect in the original instrument
had now been overcome by Nachet, a French optician.
With the latter he had examined Polycystinae from Barbados,
using a J-inch objective, with admirable results.

According to Colonel Sykes, Mr. BonelU, superintendent
of the electric telegraph at (?) Sidmouth, had devised a plan
for replacing the card process in the Jacquard loom by a
telegraphic apparatus which, he maintained, would reduce
the cost of working that loom by two-fifths.

Oct. 26th. 68th meeting. Mr. Wheatstone described
a ' difference engine,' ^ invented by M. Schwarz, then on
view at Bermondsey, and exhibited tables calculated and
printed by it.

Mr. Rennie suggested a plan for closing the southern
channel of the Bay of Cronstadt (not more than 8 feet deep)
by sinking ships across it, which would cause it to be silted up.

At the 69th meeting (Nov. 23rd) Colonel Sykes read a letter
from the Messrs. Schlagintweit, dated ' off Alexandria,' and
giving the general results of their examination of the tem-
perature and density of the water in the Mediterranean,
which they had taken several times daily. Their observa-
tions showed that, in proceeding eastwards, the specific
gravity increased.^ A discussion followed on the methods
of bringing water from great depths, and on some recent
analyses of such water.

Sir Proby Cautley gave an account of the difficulties
-encountered in the construction of the Ganges Canal, lately

1 It was devised in 1851 by Professor J. L. Riddell, of New Orleans, and
constructed in the following year. See The Microscope and its Revelations,
by W. B. Carpenter (Ed. Dallinger, page 97).

* The elaborate calculating machine, at which C. Babbage worked from
1822 to 1842, was given up in the latter year. One which was a greater
practical success, and is still used, was produced by M. Thomas, of Colmar,
about 1850.

* The temperatures of the western part of the Mediterranean are noticed,
after more systematic soundings, in Wyville Thomson, Depths of the Sea,
ch. vii., and that of the Ocean in his Voyage of the Challenger {the Atlantic),
and in certain of the special Reports of that expedition.

126 Annals of the Philosophical Club

completed. 1 The chief were : bad building materials, bad
foundations (sand and alluvial mud), and the impetuous
torrents, due to the proximity of mountains. He described
how these — especially the second and third — had been
overcome ; the former by constructing either vertical
cyhnders of brick or blocks of the same material, perforated
with similar cyUnders, which were allowed to settle down,
till they came to rest in the sand. In this way whole piers
and abutments of bridges were constructed. The latter
difficulty — ^the large and rapid torrents — ^was overcome by
carrying them either under or over the canals.

Colonel Portlock, in reply to a question, gave some
account of the siege of Sebastopol, which, he said, presented
exceptional difficulties, because of the rocky nature of the
ground. Still, notwithstanding these, the progress by
blasting had been wonderful, and the final result was not
doubtful.2

Dr. Hooker exhibited some fine specimens of fossil leaves
of dicotyledons, apparently trees, brought by Captain
Beechey's expedition from Disco Island (Greenland). These
were pecuUarly interesting as coming from a region within
the Arctic circle, now occupied by a very different vegetation.
They occurred in a shale, overlying thick beds of coal, and
probably belonged to the Tertiary era.^

Mr. Grove informed the Club that he had seen a medal
of the new metal aluminium, considerably larger than half a
crown. Its colour was good, its outline sharp, and its

1 He had superintended that work in 1843-5 and 1848-54, being created
K.C.B. in the last-named year.

'The siege of the southern side, on which the defences had been
hurriedly prepared by General Todleben, began late in September, 1854.
After the capture of the Malakoff and Redan on September 8th, 1855, that
side of the city was evacuated by the Russians.

' Since the above date, many specimens have been collected and brought
to Europe. Heer in Flora Fossilis Arctica, 1868-73, described 137 species.
These include many kinds of trees, thirty of them conifers ; also beeches,
oaks, and magnolias. He considered them to be Miocene in age. See
A. Geikie, Text Book 0/ Geology, page 1271. A similar flora (with iignite>^
v/as found by Captain Feilden at Discovery Bay, Grinnel Land, lat. 81° 45'
N., in 1876. Heer, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. 1878, page 66.

Preserved Meat and Vegetables 127

specific gravity between 2 and 2-5.^ The metal was remark-
able for strength and lightness combined, and had been
produced by the sodium process.

1855. At the 72nd meeting (Feb. 22nd) Dr. Playfair
described a method for the preservation of vegetables
which had been invented by Verdel. They were compressed
and dried, after supersaturated steam had been blown
through them, but they recover their form and colour
after being slowly boiled.

Mr. Rennie described a method of preserving meat, raw
or cooked, by extracting from 50 to 60 per cent, of the water
and then immersing it in gelatine prepared from the bones
of the animal. Large quantities of both the vegetables
and the meat had been ordered by the Government for use
by the army in the Crimea.

Mr. Gassiot exhibited a dinner fork, covered with silicon,
which had been deposited by the galvanic process. Mr. Grove
suggested that aluminium might be used for voltaic purposes,,
since it is highly electro-positive and not attacked by nitric
acid.

Dr. Playfair mentioned that calcium had the colour of
gold, and if it had a different allotropic state might replace
that metal for electrotyping processes.

Dr. Bence Jones read extracts from a letter by Du Bois-
Reymond, dated Feb. 4th, 1855, mentioning that, in Wohler's
Laboratory,^ leucine had been prepared from inorganic
elements, together with some of the higher members of
the homologous series of fatty acids. Also that artificial
tallow was about to be made to replace the Russian.

Dr. Miller announced that alcohol had been made from
olefiant gas. Mr. Wheatstone remarked that this had been

^ Probably this was from aluminium prepared by M. Sainte-Claire Deville,
whose first researches were pubUshed in 1854. See lor the history of the
metal up to 1887, J. A. PhiUips, Elements of Metallurgy, s.v. Aluminium.
Even then the author writes, " Up to the present time aluminium has not
found the extensive application for which its properties would appear to fit
it." He states that its specific gravity varies from 2-56 after fusion to 2-67
after hammering.

=» Friedrich Wohler (i 800-1 882) began a new era in the branch of organic:
chemistry by the artificial production of urea in 1828.

128 Annals of the Philosophical Club

discovered by Faraday many years ago, and the result
had now been obtained by more than one process.

At the 73rd meeting (March 22nd) Admiral Smj^h read
a letter just received from Captain R. P. King with the news
that some remains of Leichardt's party had been found. ^

Dr. Miller mentioned a proposal to fire guns by using
Ruhmkorff's coil. The method was equally appHcable
to various submarine purposes, and no difficulty was
apprehended.

Dr. Bence Jones read a letter from Professor Du Bois-
Reymond stating that the cellulose, which Virchow asserted
to be present in the brain, had proved to be one of the
compounds of cholesterin, which presents the same reaction
as cellulose, " so this time we get off with the fright of being
<:losely alHed to the cabbage.'*

Attention was drawn at the 74th meeting (April 30th)
\o a statement made in the House of Commons that a paper
manufactory was to be established at Woolwich, because
the cartridge-cases, made by a manufacturer at Aberdeen,
in which pulp was used instead of paper to prevent the
overlapping of the latter (which interfered with the accuracy
of firing), could not be packed with sufficient closeness to
travel with safety and economy.

At the 75th meeting (May loth) Sir John Richardson
mentioned that the hostiHty of the Loucheux Indians to
the Eskimo occup5dng the country about the mouths of the
Mackenzie River was diminishing in consequence, it was
believed, of the visits of the boats and ships of the expedition
to those shores.

He also mentioned that six or seven years ago the shoulder-
bone and tooth of a mastodon had been found on a spit
by the Swan river, to the west of Lake Winnipeg, at a
height of 800 feet above the sea, in lat. 52°. The spot had
recently again been visited. In lat. 62°, to the north-west,
at an elevation of 1800 feet, a skeleton of a mammoth had

1 F. W. L. Leichardt (born in Prussia in 181 3) went to New South Wales
in 1 841, crossed the Australian continent from east to north in 1844-5 ;
started to cross it from east to west in 1848, and was never heard of again.

Pits Sunk in Nile Valley 129

l)een found some years ago in excellent preservation.
This, however, had been unfortunately lost in a lake, with
the exception of a tibia, which was now in the Haslar
Museum.

Mr. Grove, at the 76th meeting (May 24th), spoke of
some observations of Saturn's rings published in the Atti Mia
Reale Accademia del Lincei, made with a telescope of 14 feet
focal length and a 9-inch object glass, which showed the
dark portions of both the main rings to be, not shadows, but
interspaces between successively lighter rings. ^

Mr. Huxley mentioned some observations by Professor
Kolliker in regard to the action of solutions on spermatozoa
and cilia. When these were weak their movements were
stopped, but not killed, for they recommenced when the
solution was strengthened. They were stopped by water,
but renewed by the addition of sugar, gum, and neutral
salts. They were prolonged by caustic alkahes, but killed
by acids.

Colonel Sykes had received letters from the Schlagint-
weits, announcing their return to Calcutta and the safety
of their instruments.

Mr. Horner stated that seventy-two pits had been sunk
across the Nile valley, through desert sand, to a depth of
7 feet above the level of the Mediterranean. In the excava-
tion near the statue of Rameses at Memphis, pieces of brick,
tile, and pottery had been found 48 feet below the surface,
and thus 40 feet below the pedestal of the statue, which
is 78 feet above the Mediterranean, and was erected,
according to Lepsius, about 3200 years ago.^

At the 78th meeting of the Club (Oct. 25th) Prof. Faraday
was reported to have announced at the Royal Institution
that nickel, when heated, gained in magnetic power.

Dr. Hofmann stated that experiments undertaken by

^This must refer to the two outer rings, though the third — ^the faint
inmost one — was discovered in 1850.

^ The first set of pits was in the latitude of HeUopolis, where the valley
is 16 miles wide. The other is one of a set across the vaDey, where its
width is 5 miles (Lyell, Antiq. Man, eh. iii.).
P.O. I

130 Annals of the Philosophical Club

himself and his guest, M. Cahours,^ showed ammonia (NHg)
and phosphuretted hydrogen (PH3) to have a great analogy.
As in compounds of the former, each equivalent of hydrogen
may be replaced by ethyl, methyl, and amyl, so, in the
latter, the same can be done, thus forming new and highly
basic substances in every way corresponding with the
hydrogen compounds.

M. Cahours, in reply to an enquiry from Admiral Smyth
about the cost of manufacturing aluminium, specimens of
which had attracted so much notice at the Paris Exhibition,
said that some totally different method of manufacture must
be devised, before it could be produced cheaply, so that at
present it was regarded as a curiosity, which had only a
theoretical interest.

Colonel Sabine gave an account ^ of a remarkable tornado
which had occurred on April 30th, 1852, near New Harmony,
in Indiana, U.S. The breadth of the whirUng air-column
appears to have been about a mile, and at nine or ten miles
on either side the air was calm enough to allow of ordinary
agricultural work, but in the track of the tornado, trees,
many of them 15 feet in circumference, were overthrown,
frequently being twisted half round before this happened.
Its axis moved at the rate of about 60 miles an hour, first
N. 30° E. for 50 miles, and then a little N. of E. for 200 miles
further, the change of direction corresponding with an angle
in the Ohio valley, to which its course was roughly parallel.
The sky was described by persons in the neighbourhood
as a cloud, with vivid blue, green and red hght on its
lower part. At 3 p.m., in a place four miles on one side
of the axis, the thermometer stood at 80° and the barometer
at 29-09 inches. At 4 p.m. the first flash of Hghtning
occurred, which was followed by a heavy, driving hailstorm ;
the stones sometimes measuring 8 inches in circumference
and weighing four ounces. At that time the thermometer

1 Probably Professor A. A. T. Cahours, a distinguished French chemist^
elected Professor of Chemistry in the £cole Polytechnique at Paris, who was
bom Oct. 2nd, 1 81 3, and died March 17th, 1891.

" It had been published in Smithsonian Contributions, vol. vii. article 2»

The Monigoljier Balloon 131

had fallen 2*^ and the barometer risen o-o8 inch. The
latter maintained this rise, while the tornado passed over^
but afterwards, by 5.45 p.m., it had fallen by the same
amount. The thermometer continued to fall during the
passage. Mr. Chappelsmith, who gives the account, con-
siders the phenomena to be consistent with the rotatory
theory, but indicative of an ascending column of air in the
axis of the tornado, with an influx of air towards it from
the sides.

At the 79th meeting (Nov. 22nd) Colonel Sykes stated
that gutta-percha ^ had been discovered in the Peninsula
of India.

Mr. Grove gave an account of a visit to the family of
M. Seguin, the inventor of wire-bridges and tubular boilers,
who has a large estate in the Cote d'Or, and related how his
great-uncle Montgolfier had discovered the balloon which
bears his name. He had been airing his wife's gowns,
and observed them to become inflated and tending to rise
when filled with heated air. On her return she found her
husband sending up Uttle paper balloons, and thus originating
his invention. He then referred to experiments of M. Seguin
on the conversion of motion into heat, which formed the
subject of a discussion.

At the 85th meeting (May 22nd, 1856) Dr. Playfair
described an improved method of nature-printing, due to
a student at Marlborough House. The object is dabbed
with hthographic ink, transferred to the stone, and then
worked upon by acid. By this means the ' velvety ' texture
of the leaves is perfectly retained. The impression may also
be transferred to copper and etched in the usual manner.

Colonel James explained how greatly photography had
expedited the production of maps at the Ordnance Survey*
By employing it, the 25-inch map was reduced to the 6-inch
scale with perfect accuracy.

1 Dr. W. Montgomerie, of the Indian Medical Service, introduced it to-
England for practical purposes in 1843, the Malacca Peninsula and Malay-
Archipelago being the chief source of this juice of one or more species of
Isonandra, and by i860 the quantity imported exceeded 16,000 cwt.^
but it is now much greater

132 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Mr. Gassiot informed the Club that Ruhmkorff had
obtained a secondary spark 2 J inches long from his induction
apparatus.

At the 86th meeting (June 19th) Dr. Hooker read a letter
from Colonel James referring to the Ordnance Survey maps,
and exhibited some specimens of them.

Dr. Bence Jones read a communication from Professors
Miiller ^ and Kolliker,^ stating that, if the nerve of a rheo-
scopic frog were spread over the beating heart (removed
from the body) of another frog, a secondary contraction of
the former attended every systole of the latter. The
experiment succeeds only with one frog out of two or three,
but in such case the secondary contractions will go on for
I hour or more. But the most remarkable thing is that the
secondary contraction of the rheoscopic frog a little precedes
the primary contraction of the heart itself.

At the 87th meeting (Oct. i6th) Mr. Rennie described
a new and economical method of making steel, devised by
Captain Uchatius, of the Vienna Arsenal ; exhibiting a box
of cutlery manufactured in that city from Styrian iron, and
bars made, on Oct. loth, at his own works, from Indian
cast-iron and common English cast-iron, Herr Karl Leng,
partner of Captain Uchatius, operating on each occasion.
The effect of this new process would diminish by about
one-half the expense of making steel, and would produce
in a few hours a result which usually required three weeks,
and sometimes double that time. It consisted in running a
certain amount of melted iron into a crucible of water.
This converted it into shot-hke particles. Of these 24
pounds were mixed with 6 pounds of crushed ore, and with
half that amount (as was said) of manganese peroxide.
After the addition of a little fire-clay the whole was melted

1 Johannes Miiller (1801-1858), bom at Coblenz, Professor of Anatomy
and Physiology at Bonn 1826, and at Berlin 1833, regarded as almost
the founder of modern Physiology.

•Albert von KoUiker (181 7-1 905), born at Zurich, where he became
Professor, and was then appointed to the Chair of Anatomy at Wurzburg
in 1847. Distinguished especially for his work on microscopic anatomy
and on the development of the embryo.

An Ancient Indian City 133

down. The bar, produced from this, was then hammered,
and proved to be excellent steel. " The importance of
this process for reducing the cost of steel in the manufacture
of tires, axles, piston-rods, boiler-plates, and other important
machinery can hardly be estimated.'*

On Nov. 13th, the 88th meeting, Mr. Grove described the
recent occultation of Jupiter by the moon, as he saw it
through quite a small telescope (magnifying about 43 times).
As the planet approached the moon, it seemed to project
towards the disc of the latter, and this gave way to an
apparent flattening of both bodies, producing a definite line
between them, as Jupiter skimmed the edge of the moon
for 10° or 15°. If the observation could be trusted, this
might be due to the moon's atmosphere or perhaps to its disc
being only partially illuminated. The light of Jupiter was
not so bright as that of the moon, and looked more blue.

Colonel Sykes communicated the results of some excava-
tions made by Mr. Augustus Bellasis on the site of an Indian
city, about 80 miles to the north-east of Hyderabad, which
had been destroyed by an earthquake in the eighth century.
These showed the arts to have been well advanced. The
people could blow and cut glass, could make china like
Stafford ware, could put glazes on clay and trace designs
upon hard stones without incision. Masses of steel, cast in
crucibles, with charcoal attached, were met with, and a house
containing a lapidary's tools. The town was about three
miles in circumference, and its destruction, as skeletons were
found in the houses, must have been sudden.

Professor Tyndall exhibited an apparatus invented by
M. Matteuchi for determining the power of crystalUne bodies
to conduct electricity in different directions. This was
formed mainly of bars of bismuth, about 2 inches in length
and 2 lines in width, of which the cleavage planes were
sometimes parallel with, sometimes perpendicular to, their
length, and the differential galvanometer showed the rate at
which each set conducted electricity or heat.

He also, with Prof. Huxley, gave an account of investiga-
tions which they had undertaken to ascertain the relation

134 Annals of the Philosophical Club

between the veined structure in glacier ice and rock cleavage.^
The results, in their opinion, threw considerable light on
the theory of glacier motion.

At the 89th meeting (Dec. nth) Professor Huxley invited
attention to Professor Von Siebold's recently published
work. Parthenogenesis hei Schmetterlingen und Bienen, in
which he brought forward strong evidence to show that
the females of certain Pychidae and. of Bomhyx mori produce
fertile ova without previous fecundation, and with the
former the process may be repeated for several generations.
With the bees, not only can the unimpregnated Queen-bee
lay fertile eggs, but she also appears to fertilize, after impreg-
nation, only those ova which are laid in neuter or female
cells, those laid in drone cells remaining unfertilized.

Professor Tyndall drew attention to the fact that the
green colour of many of the Swiss rivers and lakes had not
yet been explained.^

1857. At the 90th meeting (Jan. i8th) Sir C. Lyell
reported that, at his suggestion, Mr. Beckles ^ had opened
a quarry in the Purbeck Beds in search of fossil mammals
and had already discovered about thirteen species.*

On Feb. 5th, the 91st meeting. Professor Tyndall described
some more observations on the physical structure of ice.
Agassiz, he said, had noticed that bubbles made a pecuhar
noise when escaping from the surface of thawing glacier ice,

1 Professor Tyndall did not yet feel satisfied that he could demonstrate
this veined structure to be, like cleavage in rocks, the efifect of pressure
as the ice was forced through a narrow part of a valley. That
happened in 1858. See Glaciers of the Alps, part ii. sect. 27 (i860).

' In his Glaciers of the Alps, part ii. sect. 7 (i860), he suggests that the
greenness and the blueness may be due to the presence of mud of increasing
fineness in the water. . He afterwards worked out this idea, which is
now generally accepted.

' Samuel H. Beckles wrote some papers on footprints and fossils from the
Wealden, became F.G.S. in 1854 and F.R.S. in 1859. He died in August,
1890.

* Sir C. Lyell gives a full account of these and subsequent discoveries in
his Elements of Geology, pages 379-384 (6th ed.). In Mesozoic Mammalia
(Palaeontographical Society, vol. xxiv.) Professor Owen describes and figu:res
(with others) Mr. Beckles' specimens, which he assigns to eleven genera
and about twice as many species.

Green Sands 135

attributing this to the escape of air enclosed in cavities and
acted on by heat that had passed through the ice. He
(the speaker) had compressed a quantity of snow into ice
like that of a glacier, and then by heating it obtained the
results observed by Agassiz.^ Such ice also showed a veined
structure at right angles to the pressure, and this structure
was sometimes exaggerated into a true cleavage.

Dr. Carpenter gave the results of his studies of the green
grains in * Greensands,' which he had found in rocks as far
back as Silurian, and which proved to be casts of f oraminifera
made by a greenish, siliceous material. He gave particulars
of the cast of a curious Orbitolite, the calcareous part of which
had disappeared, as is well shown in Ehrenberg's figures. ^

Sir R. Murchison observed that the Greensands were a
good example of the value of Palaeontology, for it had proved
those near St. Petersburg to belong to the Silurian Period,
which Brongniart had supposed to be Tertiary.

At the 94th meeting (May 14th) Dr. Barth ^ was a guest,
and gave an account of Timbuctoo. The people are such
strict Mohammedans as to forbid the use of tobacco. To
that creed they had not long been converts, for it was forced
upon them by the Fulahs, a warHke race of Arabs, which had
subdued a great part of Central Africa. The natives are
not true negroes, their hair is not woolly, and they show
an affinity, like the Madagascar people, to the Malays.
They are intelligent, but speak an unwritten dialect, Arabic
being the learned language, in which histories exist, of
both Timbuctoo and Bornou, that go back to the fifteenth
century. They are giving way to the Tuaregs, who exact

1 See Glaciers of the Alps, part ii. sect. 5 (i860), and Hours of Exercise in
the Alps (1873), pages 362-8.

2 See W. B. Carpenter, The Microscope and its Revelations (Dallinger's
Ed.), page 827, note.

^Heinrich Barth {1821-1865), a German, ' One of the greatest modem
scientific travellers,' began his journeys in countries near the Eastern
Mediterranean in 1845. In 1850 he started from Tripoli and explored
thence to Adamiwa in the south and from Bagirmi in the east to Timbuctoo
in the west, returning to Europe in 1856. His great work, Travels and
Discoveries in Central Africa, was published 1857-8.

136 Annals of the Philosophical Club

tribute from them. The town Timbuctoo has a resident
population of above 13,000 persons, and a shifting one of
about 10,000.

At the 95th meeting (June nth) General Sabine read a
letter from the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, thanking
English men of science for the interest they had taken in
the preparation of the exploring expedition of the Novara.
All the instruments, which had been prepared and verified
in England, had been safely received, and the vessel had
reached Gibraltar, which was to be its basal station for
magnetic observation on the voyage to the Cape of Good
Hope.i

Mr. Grove, at the 97th meeting (Nov. 19th) said that,
during the past autumn, he had discovered the skin of a
newly captured trout to have photographic properties.
When leaves, or other objects, were pressed upon the skin,
on either side of the upper part, they left a very perfect
outHne, which was negative in character, the darkest portions
being those more exposed to the light. No such impressions
appeared on the under surface. Professor Huxley thought
that the effect might be due to contraction of the chroma-
tophores (sacculae containing coloiu:) upon the surface of the
fish. Dr. Carpenter and Dr. Sharpey thought the suggestion
worth following up, but said that chromatophores had not
yet been actually found in the trout's skin.

Professor Tyndall described an ascent of Mont Blanc made
during last autumn,^ when he and his companions had felt
extreme prostration during the last part, having to halt
after each fifteen steps. He called attention to the blue
tint seen in a hole made by thrusting an alpenstock into
the snow.

At the 98th meeting (Dec. 17th) Mr. Horner gave further
particulars about the borings in the Nile Valley. Fragments
of coarse pottery had been found at a depth of 45 feet.
Taking as a basis for calculation the statue of Rameses H.

* The expedition returned in 1859 after about three years' voyage, and
the results were published 1862-77.

' An account of it is given in Glaciers of the Alps, part i. sect. 11.

Electric Fish 137

(1394 B.C.) near Memphis and about one- third of a mile from
the river, the rate of accumulation would be about 3 J inches
per century, but this, as he explained, could not be regarded
as very precise.

Professor Du Bois-Reymond described in a letter to
Dr. Bence Jones his studies of three specimens of Silurus
electricus ^ from the coast of Africa. From the largest,
9 inches long, he obtained 15 to 20 shocks on alternate days.
The smallest, about 4 inches long, died ; the middle one, as
it became sickly, he killed. Only a single nerve, easily laid
bare, went to each electric organ.

1858. To the 99th meeting (Jan. 21st) Dr. Sharpey
described Dr. Livingstone's plans for a journey in Africa.
He intended to estabhsh a settlement on the high land near
the junction of the Kafue and the Zambesi rivers, some
distance below the Falls, to test the suitability of this region
for cultivating cereals, and to study the tsetse fly, with the
possibiHty of exterminating it.^

In regard to this fly Mr. Grove suggested experiments
which might be advantageous, mentioning its singular
aversion to human excrement. Mr. Spence advised com-
paring it with the zuni fly described by Bruce in Abyssinia.

Dr. Sharpey wished that some fly-fisher would investigate
the temperature of living trout, as he believed it to be higher
than that of water.

General Sabine informed the Club that Dr. Hochstetter
of the Novara had written to him from the Cape of Good
Hope. The vessel was to proceed thence to the Nicobar
Islands.

At the looth meeting (Feb. i8th) Sir Snow Harris exhibited
and described a modification of Lind's wind gauge.

^ The electric catfish, now called Malapterurus and separated from
Silurus, belongs to Tropical Africa ; that inhabiting the Nile grows tcy
about 4 feet in length.

2 He started March loth, 1858. He was rewarded by the discovery of
Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, the northern shores of which he explored,
but met with many disappointments and trials, including the death of
his wife. He returned to London July 23rd, 1864 (see Zambesi and its-
Tributaries, 1865).

138 Annals of the Philosophical Club

General Sabine said that Sir C. Lyell had heard from Mr.
Mallet, 1 who wrote from Naples, where he was engaged
in investigating the effect of the recent earthquake in
Southern Italy. He had not found any change in the level
of the Temple of Serapis, but the Posilippo tunnel, near
Naples, showed several new cracks, and was in a tottering
condition. He was shortly going on to Calabria.

Mr. Grove mentioned that the object-glass in an old
Dollond 6-inch telescope had been sensibly improved by
inserting a metallic ring about one-eighth of an inch from the
glass.

At the loist meeting (March i8th), Sir Charles Lyell
communicated two letters written by Mr. Mallet from
Naples, after his return from Calabria. There he had
suffered much from the cold, and in crossing Mount Vultur
he had to force his way through a sudden fall of snow
5 feet in depth. In order to trace the effect of the earth-
quake in a northerly direction, he intended to return home
by way of Rome.

Sir C. Lyell also called attention to a possible cause of
inaccuracy in estimating the height of the Temple of Serapis,
namely, the action of the wind in raising the sea above its
ordinary level, and so damming back the water of the hot
spring. The staple to which a bronze ring had been attached,
below the level of the water, was an important point in
measuring the elevation of the floor.

The Geographical Society, according to Sir R. Murchison,
had given a favourable reception to a proposal made by
" a gentleman of the name of Baker," ^ who had had con-
siderable experience of travel in tropical climates and
explored parts of Ceylon. This was to land at Algoa Bay

^The results were published in his book, The Neapolitan Earthquake
of j8s7'

* Samuel White Baker {1821-1893), knighted 1866. He must have
changed his plans, for he explored the Nile tributaries of Abyssinia 1861-2,
and then, after a stay at Khartoum, went up the V^ite Nile to Gondokoro,
"Where in February, 1863, he met Speke and Grant on their return from the
Victoria Nyanza. Proceeding southwards he reached Lake Albert Nyanza
and returned to Khartoum in May, 1865.

Transfusion of Blood 139

and explore the part of Africa between the Zambesi and
Port Natal. He hoped to ,have the company of Captain
Palliser,! and would be glad if men of science would suggest
matter deserving investigation.

On April 20th, the 102nd meeting, Dr. Gassiot exhibited
a photograph of spots on the sun, taken at Kew with the
photohehograph on March 15th last, which showed that
the principal difficulties in manipulation had been sur-
mounted.

Professor Tyndall stated that he had found by experiments
that the readiness with which liquids assume a spheroidal
condition depends on their power of absorbing radiant heat,
and this, when of low intensity, is readily arrested in those
into the composition of which hydrogen enters.

Dr. Hooker said that Dr. Livingstone, writing from Sierra
Leone, had stated that Lieut. Glover, in his journey after
the wreck of the Dayspring, had recovered some of Mungo
Park's 2 manuscripts, written on stray leaves of a table of
logarithms.

On May 20th, the 103rd meeting, M. Brown-S^quard ^ (guest
of Dr. Bence Jones) described the results of his experiments
in transfusion of blood on dogs and rabbits in articulo mortis,
to which they had been brought by injuries to the intestines
and peritoneum. When apparently at the last gasp, with
the heart barely beating, blood was transfused from other
animals. This produced instantaneous effect — ^restoration

1 Perhaps W. R. G. Palliser, commander in the Royal Navy, who, in
1854, distinguished himself in expeditions against Chinese pirates.

* Mungo Park (i 771-1806) explored the Upper Niger from 1795 to 1799.
He undertook, under Government auspices, a second expedition in 1805, and
was killed, with all his men, on his journey down that river, at Boussa
{Northern Nigeria) in a conflict with the natives, but the particulars of his
fate were not ascertained till 181 2.

' C. E. Brown-S6quard, born at Port-Louis, Mauritius, on April 8th,
1 81 7, had an American for father and a French woman for mother. He
graduated in medicine in Paris, and for a time practised in London. Then
he held Professorships in the United States and in Paris, to which he finally
returned as Professor of Experimental Medicine at the College de France,
where he died on April 2nd, 1894. He was highly distinguished as a
physiologist, who was a daring experimenter, and made most valuable
contributions to science.

1 40 Annals of the Philosophical Club

of breathing, the heart's action, consciousness, and volition.
In some cases these lasted for several, and in one case for
II J hours.

Mr. Busk enquired whether salt and water of the same
density as the blood would have produced similar effects,
for transfusion of this mixture in cholera cases had prolonged
life, even for sixteen hours.

Dr. Sharpey said the injection of salt and water had never
effected a permanent cure ; febrile symptoms had generall}^
supervened and carried off the patient. He had tried, ia
cases of asphyxia, to restore animation by transfusion, but
without success.

Dr. Falconer gave some particulars about the bone caves
in Devonshire, towards the excavation of which the Royal
Society had granted £100. They had the same general
character as those explored by Buckland twenty-five years
ago, but which had been since then much neglected. One
group of ossiferous fissures in the hmestone, containing bones
of animals no longer living in Britain, was on the slope
of Windmill Hill, near Brixham.^ It had been purchased
some time back, apparently as a speculation, by a dyer, who
was asking too high a price for liberty to excavate it. The
other cave, Kent's Hole, near Torquay, had been known since
16 15. Here excavations were undertaken by the Rev. J.
MacEnery, who died in 1843, after working on them for
some twenty years. His collections were unfortunately
dispersed, and his manuscripts bought for wastepaper by a
tailor. In some of these caves the contents apparently
belonged to two widely separated epochs : the lower to the
Pliocene, the upper to the Glacial. A cave in Gower, which
contained bones of an African rhinoceros, proved marked
changes of level, for it was now many feet above the sea,,
and yet contained sea-shells. As regards the presence of the

^ For the history of the excavation of the Brixham Caves and Kent's
Hole, see Memoir of William Pengelly {1897), pages 296-314, under whose
indefatigable supervision the work was effected. MacEnery's manuscript,
at first supposed to have perished, was happily recovered and was printed ,^
also by Pengelly 's care, in the Transactions of the Devonshire Association,
vol iii. pages 196-482.

Lye IPs Visits to Vesuvius and 'Etna 141

rhinoceros, M. Lartet,^ a French geologist, had suggested,
in explanation of a similar mixture of southern and northern
animals, that the former, at a time of greater cold, had
reached Spain, where their remains occurred in the upper
gravels, and had migrated as far north as the Rhine.

At the meeting on June 17th, the 104th, Dr. Falconer,
invited by the chairman (Mr. Horner), continued the subject
of the Devonshire caves, stating that the owner of the
Windmill Hill cave had now agreed to more reasonable
terms, and Miss Burdett Coutts had given £50 towards the
expense of excavation.

A memorial to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in favour
of retaining the Natural History Collections at the British
Museum was read, and was signed by the majority of the
members present (eighteen in all).

At the 105th meeting (Oct. 28th) Sir C. Lyell gave an
account of his late visits to Vesuvius ^ and Etna. On the
former, during September, he had been able, as the steam
and irrespirable gases escaped by the great crater, while the
lava was discharged from two flattened dome-shaped cones
at its base, to approach within a few feet of the spot from
which the lava was issuing. It was white-hot at the moment
of its escape, moving at the pace of a fast-flowing river ;
in a few yards it changed to a red heat, and then quickly
became encrusted with black scoria, and this, as the upper
part was the first to solidify, took the shape of loops of rope,
with down-pointing curves. Afterwards he spent five weeks

1 Edouard Lartet (1801-1871), the distinguished French palaeontologist,
who, after valuable studies of the Upper Miocene vertebrata in the South
of France, and those of the Pliocene Age from Pikermi in Greece, devoted
himself to exploring the ossiferous caverns in the hmestone region of the
southern Provinces, publishing his first paper in i860, and then co-operating
in Perigord with our late countryman, Henry Christy. The results were
published in Reliquiae Aquitanicae, commencing in 1865. They are now
given in most of the larger text-books of Geology and Anthropology.

'A severe and protracted eruption of Vesuvius began on May 21st,
when lava issued from seven new mouths on the north and north-west
sides of the cone, one great stream flowing towards and on either side of
the Hermitage. A branch of it, which is crossed by the ordinary road up
the mountain, is a very good example of the ' corded ' type of lava, black
And vitreous. See Life, Letters, and Journal, vol. ii. pages 291-293.

142 Annals of the Philosophical Club

on Etna.i There he had seen several compact lava streams
inclined at angles of from 20° to 40° ; that of 1688, which
is 5 feet thick, being as compact as ' Scotch trap.' In some
places it lay at an angle of 48°, but its thickness here was
only 2 J feet. At one part of the mountain horizontal
lava beds rested on others which were highly inclined ;
thus indicating two centres of eruption, as it was at Teneriffe.
Nine-tenths of the fossils, collected from sedimentary beds
under Etna, belonged to existing species; so the volcano
had been built up in later Tertiary times. ^

Professor Tyndall described his examination of the veined
structure in Alpine glaciers, to compare it with the slaty
cleavage of rocks. He had found the former cutting the
stratification of the snow at all angles up to 90°.

Dr. Falconer recurred to the excavations in the Devon
caves. The one carried inwards in a horizontal direction
above the stalagmite floor of the cavern had come upon
reindeer antlers in good preservation. About 2J feet
vertically below them, after breaking through this floor,
several specimens of what were known to antiquarians as
flint knives were found in good preservation. Then came
a * bed of ochry loam ' about 11 feet thick, and then a
gravel, flint knives being found in both, and in the loam
bones of rhinoceros and hyaena belonging to the Glacial
Period.

Mr. Wheatstone then exhibited some specimens of paper,^
pierced for transmitting messages by a form of printing-
telegraph which he had invented. It could produce about
320 symbols or letters a minute.

At the io6th meeting (Nov. 25th) General Portlock gave
an account of the trials of Armstrong's guns at Shoeburyness.
One, with a nine-pounder bore, but a rifled barrel, had thrown
an oblong 18 pounds shot, with an error of only 20 feet in
7000 yards. A 12-pound shot from a 6-pounder gun had

1 op, cit. vol. ii. pages 303-311,

2 See Principles of Geology, vol. ii. page 6 (ed. 11) for a more precise
statement, and chapter xxvi. for a general discussion of the structure-
of Etna and its two eruptive centres.

Armstrong Guns 143

pierced through 6 feet of solid oak at a distance of 400 yards^
and gone 200 yards on the other side.

At the next meeting, the 107th, on Dec. i6th, he resumed
the subject of these Armstrong guns. They are breech-
loaders, the rifled barrel being of steel, which is bound round
with a spiral band of welded wrought iron, the weight being
somewhat greater than that of a brass gun of similar calibre.
He also described the shell, which is built up of segments,
united by lead and enclosed in an envelope of the same, to
secure its fitting closely to the rifling of the barrel. Guns
of three sizes have been made — one, a six-pounder, throwing
a twelve-pound shot ; another a nine-pounder, throwing^
an eighteen-pound shot, and the third a sixteen or eighteen-
pounder, throwing a thirty- two-pound shot. The first sent
a twelve-pound shot, which at 600 yards penetrated eighteen
inches into a brick wall, and then exploded, doing it great
injury. One hundred rounds, 98 of which passed through
a target 9-foot square, were fired from the same gun in as
many minutes, and after that it showed no signs of injury.
The eighteen-pounder threw a thirty-two-pound shot 9600
yards, with a deflection of 20 feet. Sir R. Murchison re-
marked that bringing into the Navy these guns, on the
breech-loading principle, would mean that only eight men
instead of thirteen would be required for working each of
them.

1859. Mr. Homer called attention, at the io8th meetings
(Jan. 27th), to the remarkable contrast between the recent
winter temperatures in England and the United States. In
the one the weather had been very mild ; in the other, at
6 a.m., the thermometer had been down to —32° F. at Keene,
New Hampton, to —38° at White River Junction, and to
— 40° at St. Johnsbury. In Hahfax it registered 0° at
8 a.m. ; in New York, — i6J° at 3 a.m., and in East Boston,
~i8°.

In a conversation which followed, arising from an announce-
ment of the success of a subscription, initiated at a previous
meeting, in aid of an artist whose drawings of microscopic
objects had been very useful to workers in science, the

1 44 Annals of the Philosophical Club

idea of a Royal Society Relief Fund was discussed, and
strongly supported.^

To those present at the 109th meeting (Feb. 24th) Mr.
Wheatstone exhibited the results of experiments made
by M. N. de St. Victor with nitrate of ammonia and per-
manganate of potash in order to produce a specially sensitive
paper. Copies of engravings were taken in about fifteen
minutes by using the former salt, while the blue impressions
resulting from the latter required an hour for their com-
pletion. Another experiment was to wash over a paper
with tartaric acid, expose it to sunlight for two minutes,
then roll it up loosely and enclose it in a dark metallic case,
where it was Jeft for six minutes. At the end of that time,
the case was opened, a few drops of water thrown in, the
whole warmed, and the case inverted over a sheet of photo-
graphic paper, above which was placed the original to be
copied. In a few minutes a negative transfer was effected,
developed, and fixed in the usual manner. Mr. Busk
mentioned an experiment, made about twelve years ago, in
which paper was washed in the dark, first with nitrate of
silver, next with tartaric acid, and then placed between the
closed leaves of an old printed book for twelve hours. After
being removed in the dark, it gave, on exposure to sunlight,
a copy of the printed page. A copper-plate engraving,
however, did not admit of this kind of transfer.

At the iioth meeting (March 24th) Dr. Bence Jones read
a letter from Professor Du Bois-Reymond. His experiments
had shown that, if the sciatic nerve were divided on one
^ide of a rabbit, and the animal then killed by strychnine,
the muscle in the paralysed limb had an alkaline reaction,
and that in the tetanized part an acid one. The result was
unfaiHng in rabbits, but not always so in dogs. One of his
pupils had proved the indirect irritability of muscular fibre
by showing that, after the destruction of the nerve, hydro-

1 The idea was further discussed at the next meeting, and the Treasurer
requested to write to each member of the Club to ascertain his opinion
on the subject (the Minutes contain a copy of the letter). The fund was
estabhshed in the course of the year ; see page 52.

Flint Implements in Maccagnono Cave 145

chloric acid, diluted to one- tenth per cent., caused the
muscle to contract, and ammonia produced the same result,
even when more diluted.

Mr. Paget mentioned a case of a patient whose tendon
Achilles had been divided. The thermometer in the ward
stood at 65° F. ; on the surface of the foot and in the wound
itself only at 70°. He thought this due to the sluggish
movement of the circulating fluid.

Sir B. Brodie said that, in the case of dogs, where life was
prolonged by artificial respiration, the circulation might
continue till the temperature throughout the body had
fallen to about 70° F.

It was mentioned at the 112th meeting (May 26th) that
Dr. Falconer had discovered flint implements among the
bones of preglacial animals in the cave of Maccagnono ; on
which Professor Huxley observed that the absence of strati-
fication in the deposit reduced the value of its evidence in
regard to the extreme antiquity of the human race, while
Mr. Grove thought the non-occurrence of himian bones to
be singular.

At the next meeting (113th) Dr. Falconer was present,
and gave a description of the cave.^ Charcoal and rude
flint implements occurred beneath stalagmite in a breccia
containing bones of Elephas antiquus, the hyaena, a large
bear, a Felis (probably F. spelaea), and numerous bones of
the Hippopotamus. " The vast number " of the last shows
that ** the physical condition of the country must have
been greatly different, at no very distant geological period,
from what obtains now " ; yet, since then, the top of the
material filHng the cave had been cemented to the roof by
stalagmite, after which the greater part of its contents had
been cleared out.

Dr. Perthes ^ (a guest) said he had discovered among some

iThe Minute corresponds in all important respects with the account
given in Lubbock's Prehistoric Times, pages 260-262.

- This is probably one of the noted pubHshers at Gotha. He might be
a son of F. C. Perthes (bom in 1772 at Rudolstadt), who, after estabUshing
himself at Gotha, became noted as a publisher of historical and patriotic
P.C. K

H

1 46 Annals of the Philosophical Club

neglected manuscripts a poem describing the invasion of
England by William the Conqueror ; also a maritime history
of Genoa, commencing in 1099, and continued by authority
of the Senate ; the last entry being by John Doria, who
gives an account of two ships sent round Africa to the East
Indies. They never returned, and the last surviving
descendant of their crews was found by the Portuguese wha
were coasting Africa prior to the departure of Columbus
(1492).

At the 114th meeting (Oct. 27th) Professor Tyndall gave
some results of his work in the Alps during the past summer.
In the previous one he had placed a minimum thermometer
on the rocks close to the summit of the Finsteraarhorn
(14,025 feet), by which, according to another observer
this year, a temperature of —32° or —34° (Cent.) had been
registered. Professor Frankland and he had attached six
thermometers to as many strong posts at intervals from
the bottom to the top of Mont Blanc. They had spent
a night in a tent on the summit, whence the colour effects
of the sky and the mountains in the early morning were
remarkably fine. Candles of the same size were burnt there
and at Chamonix for definite periods. There was no appreci-
able difference in the rate of consumption, but that at the
top gave a very feeble light, and the blue of the flame
extended one-eighth of an inch above the tip of the wick.

Sir C. Lyell described his examination of the gravels
above the Somme valley near Amiens, whence he had
obtained sixty-five flint hatchets, and proved the correctness
of Professor Prestwich's accounts. Though the evidence was
not yet complete, he had little doubt that the Siberian
mammoth and the tichorhine rhinoceros were contempora-
neous with the makers of the hatchets. Commenting
on the absence of human bones from these deposits, he
remarked that not a single human skeleton had been found

works, dying there May i8th, 1843 ; or a grandson of his uncle, S. G. J.
Perthes (i 749-1 816), who devoted himself, with his sons, to publishing
important geographical works, such as Petermann's Mitteilungen. From
the nature of the communication the latter seems more likely.

Central African Exploration 147

on the bed of the Lake of Haarlem, which had now been
dried, drained, and cultivated, though it had been navigated
for hundreds of years and the scene of a great battle between
the Dutch and the Spaniards.

Nov. 24th. Dr. Hofman mentioned that, in lecture
experiments, he had found sparks from the Ruhmkorff coil
useful in the decomposition of gases, for instance with
ammonia, marsh-gas, and carbonic acid. In particular
cases he had observed two stages of decomposition. Pro-
fessor W. A. Miller said that, in his own lectures, he had used
this coil for similar purposes.

On Dec. 22nd (ii6th meeting) Sir R. Murchison said that
Dr. Livingstone had found that his intended exploration
required a steamer, especially fitted for river navigation,
and had applied for one to the Government. ^ It had been
granted, and would leave this country in April or May.
Captain Speke, he went on to say, proposed to descend the
lake which he had recently discovered, ^ and to follow the
river issuing from it, which he beUeved to be the White Nile.
Mr. Petherick, consul at Tetuan, was to ascend the Nile and
meet him. Government had granted £2500 towards the
expense of the expedition.^

Colonel Smythe,* Director of the St. Helena Observatory,
sent word of his mission to the Fiji Islands, asking for sugges-
tions as to matters demanding investigation. Dr. Hooker
was asked if he could be accompanied by a botanist from
Kew.

1 He had left on March loth, 1858. Though the steamer was unfitted
for its purpose, he explored, notwithstanding many difficulties and trials,
the northern bank of Lake Nyassa, returning to the east coast of Africa,
whence an adventurous voyage took him to Bombay.

» On July 30th, 1858.

3 Speke, with his companion. Captain Grant, left England April 27th,
i860. The story of the expedition, which, notwithstanding grave diffi-
culties, placed the matter beyond reasonable doubt, is told in his book.
Journal oj the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (1863),

* William James Smythe (18 16- 1887), R.A., who saw service in Kaffir
War, India, etc., was sent to these islands in 1859 to report upon their
cession to England. He advised against it, on the conditions then proposed,
and they did not become British till 1874.

148 Annals of the Philosophical Club

1860. At the next meeting (117th), on Jan. 26th, Dr.
Hooker announced that Dr. Seeman,^ who had accompanied
Captain Kellett on the Herald, had been allowed by Govern-
ment to go with Colonel Smythe.

Lord Wrottesley announced that at a meeting of the
Trustees of the British Museum, the proposal to separate the
collections had been carried by one vote.

Feb. 23rd, 1 1 8th meeting. Professor Tyndall thought
that Professor James Thomson was wrong in attributing
the regelation of ice to pressure, for, as he had calculated
the height of the column of ice above the Montanvert to be
over 4000 feet, that, if it acted vertically downwards, would
only lower the melting point there by 0.9° C, while its
observed temperature was — 5°C., and yet the ice was
5delding more rapidly in the centre than at the sides in the
proportion of 2 to i. Professor Faraday said that his
experiments on regelation proved that two pieces of ice
which were in contact under water at a single point, would
freeze together ; but he had not observed this property in
the case of any other solid — ^wax, spermaceti, and some of the
metals having failed to show it. He thought it might be
restricted to bodies which expand in becoming solid.

March 22nd, 119th meeting. Professor Brown-Sequard,
who was a guest, gave an account of his recent enquiries
into the existence of special nerve fibres. He had found
that some animals, particularly the frog, when the entire
posterior root of the spinal nerve has been divided, slowly
learned the power of directing the movement of the Umb,
which could also be observed, though to a much smaller
extent, in the mammaHa. He had also endeavoured to
ascertain if any decussation existed in the fibres of the
spinal cord, and had found on making a vertical incision in
it on one side of the medial Hne that the limbs on both sides
were more or less paralysed.

* Berthold Carl Seeman (1825-1871), born at Hanover, studied at Ke\r.
Naturalist to the Herald on its voyage on west coast of America and in
Arctic Seas, 1847-51 ; accompanied Colonel Smythe i860 ; made valuable
contributions to Botany.

Palaeolithic Gravels of Somme Valley 149

Professor Huxley said that investigation by M. Ducaze
Duthiers of the fluid from the Mwr^:v,i which produced the
Tyrian dye, was at first colourless, but when exposed to the
sun's rays, it became, first, bright yellow, then blue, and
finally red. The same investigator had taken a photo-
graphic negative from one of Ostade's pictures, and a
positive from this (which he exhibited) showed the red
colour.

April 23rd, 1 20th meeting (anniversary). Mr. Busk
described his visit to Amiens and Abbeville to study
the gravels. The more they were examined, the more
perplexing became the evidence as to their age, but he had
no doubt that the flint implements were the work of man,
were of great antiquity, and were much older than the
deposits in the bed of the Somme valley. He described the
stone coffins of Charlemagne's age, which were found in the
beds over the gravels. In these were human bones with
teeth in good preservation.

Sir H. James exhibited some specimens of photozinco-
graphy, and gave a description of the process.

On May 24th, Sir R. Murchison resumed the discussion on
the implementiferous gravels, caUing attention to the fact
that the worked flints occurred in the lower part of these,
and were unworn, while the pebbles were rolled, and suggest-
ing that the latter might be long anterior to the former, and
have been transported to the place where the manufacture
had been carried on, and the two mixed up. As an illustra-
tion of this Professor W. H. Miller said that, in the Venetian
Alps near Cortina, he had seen beds of gravel not less than
forty feet in thickness, beneath which, as he was informed,
a village had been found. There had been time enough for
its inhabitants to escape, but not to remove their goods,
so that the works of man would occur under the gravel, but
no human bones. Some members of the Club doubted

1 This, according to Canon Tristram (Lawd of Israel, 1865, page 51),
was M, brandaris, at any rate at Tyre, though according to some authorities
M. trunculus was the more usual source, but he says the masses of broken
shells, which must have been used to obtain the dye, consist almost entirely
of the first species.

150 Annals of the Philosophical Club

whether the implements could be the work of man, because
they are found over so large an area near Amiens and Abbe-
ville and under similar circumstances elsewhere.

Dr. Falconer stated that, after he had left Italy, Baron
Francesco had explored a new ossiferous cave, Ben Fratello,
near Aquadolce, which contained, together with the bones
of large herbivora such as he (the speaker) had found,
those of several carnivora, the identification of which
might, he hoped, be helpful in determining the age of these
deposits.

June 2ist, 122nd meeting. Colonel Sir H. James said
he had learnt that the process of photozincography had
been independently invented by Mr. Taylor, a member of the
Australian Geological Survey.

A letter from M. de Verneuil ^ was read, giving reasons
against the proposed division of the collection in the British
Museum, and showing how space could be gained by a
rearrangement. Professor Huxley stated that, in giving
evidence before the Parliamentary Committee, he had dwelt
strongly on this point.

Professor Frankland exhibited a new chemical compound,
which he had recently obtained. It consisted of boron
and ethyle, the latter standing in the same relation to the
former as the oxygen in boracic acid, and might be named
borethyle. Its composition was — ^boron 10 per cent.,
carbon 75, and hydrogen 15. It ignites spontaneously on
coming in contact with air, and burns with a green flame.

Oct. 25th, 123rd meeting. Dr. Daubeny said that he
had repeated M. Pouchet's experiments on solutions which
had been subjected to high temperatures and accessible only
to air that had passed through a red-hot tube. In these
also low forms of vegetation had appeared.

Professor W. A. Miller described the success of Bunsen

* Philippe-Eduard Poulletier de Verneuil {i 805-1 873), born and died
in Paris, devoted his time and fortune to the study of Geology and Palaeon-
tology. He travelled extensively from the Ural Mountains to the United
States of America, studying more especially the Palaeozoic rocks in these
regions and in the intermediate countries of Europe, including Spain and
Great Britain.

American Expeditions and Solar Eclipse 151

and Kirchoff ^ in detecting minute amounts of metallic
bases by the lines which they produce in the spectrum,
«ach metal revealing itself by a special line or lines. Of
these and of the instrument he gave a description. For
purposes of quaUtative analysis, as was shown by examples,
"this method exceeds in delicacy any other in existence.

Professor Loomis,^ a guest, gave an account of American
expeditions to observe the recent solar eclipse. In that to
Labrador, though the state of the weather prevented the
taking of photographs, the contacts were seen, and an
observer, separated from the rest, saw the red flames with
the naked eye. The expedition to Vancouver Island had
no photographic apparatus, but obtained good observations
of the contacts. He also mentioned that during the aurora
of Sept. 2nd, 1859, which extended all over the United
States, the electric influence on the telegraph wires was
so strong that for about an hour messages were transmitted
from Boston to Portland (fully 100 miles) and back, by its
agency alone. The direction of the current also was con-
stantly changing. On another line, messages were trans-
mitted from Philadelphia to Pittsburg (about 300 miles),
though with less steadiness than in the other case. The
auroral current was frequently strong enough to overpower
the ordinary battery.

Nov. 22nd, 124th meeting. Dr. Hooker, writing to
Professor Huxley from Beirut, announced his discovery
of moraines in the Lebanon, perhaps also in the Anti-
Lebanon. In the former range the heads of the valleys

^ Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811-1900), bom at Gottingen, was
successively Professor of Chemistry at Marburg, Breslau, and Heidelberg.
Of his many discoveries, among them the invention of the magnesium
light, the greatest was spectrum analysis, in conjunction with Gustav
Robert Kirchoff (1824-87), bom at Konigsberg, who became Professor of
Physics at Berlin in 1874 and was also notable for his researches in electri-
city, optics, and the mechanical theory of heat. The Davy Medal was
awarded to them jointly in 1877, the Copley to Bunsen in i860, and the
Rumford to KirchofE in 1862.

'Elias Loomis was born in Connecticut on Aug. 7th, 1811, graduated
at Yale, won distinction in Physical Mathematics, did much research, and
wrote largely on subjects more or less connected with astronomy, returning
ultimately to Yale as Professor of that subject. He died Aug. 15th, 1889.

152 Annals of the Philosophical Club

are broad, open, and shallow, surrounded by bare rounded
heights of broken rock, without precipices or peaks, though
the summits in one part rose above the average height of
the range (about 6000 feet) to fully 9000 feet. The bottoms
of the valleys become, lower down, narrow and terraced.
Above 5000 feet they are very barren, below this level
brushwood is abundant. No glaciers or permanent snow-
fields now exist, and there is little water in the higher parts,
for that from the melted snow (of which much falls till about
May) disappears down conical depressions from five to
twenty feet in depth. Moraines only occur in the broad
fiat heads of the valleys, at from 6000 to 7000 feet. But
these are quite typical, rising abruptly from flat-floored
valleys in long continuous masses of debris, and the cedars
(now about 400 in number) occupy five or six of them in
close contiguity. None of the trees seemed less than forty
years old (for drought kills all the seedlings) ; the more aged
may perhaps have Hved 500 years. ^

Colonel Sykes drew attention to the gale of Oct. 2nd.
In the morning the barometer stood about 30 inches ; it
fell I.I inch before 9 p.m., and began to rise before midnight.
The wind, which had been strong all day, then increased
to a hurricane, which lasted till 9 a.m. on the 3rd, by which
time the barometei had returned to 30 inches.

Dec. 20th, 125th meeting. Dr. Carpenter gave an outhne
of the results obtained by Dr. Wallich,^ who had accom-
panied, as naturaHst, Captain Sir Leopold M'Clintock in
H.M.S. Bulldog on her sounding expedition (in view of
laying a sub-Atlantic telegraph) to Iceland, Greenland, and
Newfoundland. Former deep-sea soundings had proved
the tests of Glohigerina to be abundant on the sea-bottom
at more than 1000 fathoms depth, but it was uncertain
whether the animals habitually lived so far beneath the

1 For an account of these and other survivmg groups of cedars in the
Lebanon, see H. B. Tristram, Land of Israel, pages 623-632.

^ George Charles Wallich (i 815-1899), M.D. Edinburgh, after service
as an army surgeon in India, returned to England. The results of the
above-mentioned voyage were pubUshed in his important work. The North
Atlantic Sea-bed (1862).

Exploration of Australia 153:

surface. Now several specimens of Ophicoma had beea
brought up from 1260 fathoms between Cape Farewell
and Rockall, in the stomachs of which Globigerina were
abundant. Small tubes also, formed of the shells of this
foraminifer, and probably once tenanted by an annelid,
were brought up from 1913 fathoms ; living serpulae with
spirorbis from 680 fathoms, and free annelids, with amphipod
Crustacea, from 445 fathoms, so that the enormous pressure
at great depths seems not to have any destructive effect on
such deHcate organisms.^

Sir R. Murchison stated that Mr. M'Douall Stuart, with
two men and thirteen horses, had recently made a journeys
from Adelaide for 1300 miles to the north. He had turned
back in lat. 18° 47' S. and long. 134° E., being prevented
from reaching the north coast only by the hostility of the
natives. Instead of the arid salt desert, which he had
expected, he had found a succession of oases, providing
sufficient water and vegetation to maintain transit between
the southern and northern part of the AustraUan continent.

1861. Jan. 24th, 126th meeting. Sir R. Murchison
said he had that morning heard of an expedition undertaken
by Mr. M'Douall Stuart, prior to that mentioned on the
last occasion, for which the citizens of Adelaide had provided
the funds, and during which he had discovered in the interior
an immense lake,^ which extended northward beyond the
range of telescopes, its southern margin being 29° S. lat.
and 139° E. long. The water was extremely salt, though
springs of fresh water, often copious, were abundant in
its near neighbourhood. Mr. Stuart had now started, with
a considerably stronger party, on a fresh expedition inta
the interior.3

Dr. Hooker, in exhibiting a branch of a new species of
Araucaria, which had been found growing to a height of

^ The story of the distribution of life in the deeper parts of the Ocean,
prior to the voyage of the Challenger (Dec. 1872-May, 1876), is told by
Professor C. Wyville Thomson in The Depths of the Sea, 1873.

2 Probably Lake Eyre, though 137° would be nearer its longitude.

' The one which reached a point west of Chambers Bay in 1862.

154 Annals of the Philosophical Club

from i6o to i8o feet, on an island off New Caledonia, com-
mented on the extremely local distribution of these trees
over the islands of the southern Pacific, which had now
furnished six species.

Feb. 2ist, 127th meeting. Mr. Darwin gave an account
of his experiments with Dros^m (sun-dew), a species of which
was abundant on a common near Down, and described how
it entrapped flies and held them till they died in a cage of
its hairs, which afterwards returned to their normal position.
He had ascertained that non-nitrogenous materials did not
set these in motion, but that a very small amount of nitrate
or carbonate of ammonia caused one of the hairs to emit its
secretion, and a portion of flesh or even of ordinary hair
had the same effect.^

Mr. Prestwich mentioned that six flint implements,
resembling those from Abbeville, had been found by Mr.
T. Leech between Heme Bay and Reculver at the foot
of a cliff consisting of Lower Tertiary beds, capped with
gravel. Mammalian remains of the same period as those
in the Somme valley had occurred previously at no great
distance. 2

March 21st, 128th meeting. Mr. Prestwich stated that,
since the last meeting, he and Mr. John Evans had visited
Heme Bay, and each of them had found, on the shore at
the foot of the cUff, a flint implement of the Abbeville type.
Next day he found an implement at the foot of Swale Cliff
near Whitstable.

April 29th, 129th meeting (anniversary). Dr. Carpenter
exhibited a specimen of a large Polyzoon, much resembling
in its mode of growth the Eschara foliacea of our own seas.
It had been detached from a ship which was one of the
expeditionary force sent to China, and had been anchored
for about six months at the mouth of the Peiho. Its size,
as its growth might reasonably be Hmited to that interval,

^ He began work on this subject in the summer of i860, and continued
it intermittently till 1875, when he pubUshed the results in his book.
Insectivorous Plants.

^ For a full description see J. Evans, Ancient Stone Implements (1897),
pages 613-7, where five of them are figured.

Heating of Electrodes 1 5 5

"was an indication of the rate at which this occurred. Mr.
Busk remarked on its resemblance to the Biflustra of the
East AngHan CoralUne Crag.

Professor Miller referred to Schroeder's experiments on
fermentation, which led to the conclusion that, if all living
germs are strictly excluded, this cannot take place, even
when the liquid is one easily susceptible of that change.

Mr. Gassiot described his experiments on the heating of
electrodes. He had noticed, twenty-two years ago, that
the positive pole became hot, the negative one remaining
^ool. This Mr. Grove had attributed to the oxidation
of the metal employed in the electrodes. But he had found
that, with an induction coil and thin wires for the electrodes,
the negative pole was the hotter, and that this held good
whether the discharge was passed through air or through a
vacuum. When he used a powerful Grove battery and
solid brass balls as electrodes, the negative ball became
heated, and this ball, with an intermittent discharge from
the battery, first exhibits a white glow round it, and soon
b)ecomes red-hot. But on substituting a continuous dis-
<:harge the negative ball suddenly cools, and the positive one
becomes red-hot. He thought the resistance offered to the
passage of the electric current was the most ready explanation
of these phenomena.

Dr. Bence Jones said that, as Professor Briicke had
informed him, his experiments showed that pepsin does
not act as a ferment, but forms definite chemical compounds
^th ahmentary substances.

Oct. 31st, 132nd meeting. Mr. Gassiot exhibited photo-
graphs of the recent solar ecUpse taken in Biscay by Sefior
Novara with the Madrid equatorial.

Dr. Hooker read a communication from the Rev. M. J.
Berkeley ^ about a human skull, found in the drift at
Nottingham, together with bones of the elk, 18 feet below the
surface of the ground.

1 Miles Joseph Berkeley {1803-1889), F.R.S., Hon. Fellow of Christ's
College, Cambridge, and ultimately Rector of Sibbertoft, Northamptonshire,
was author of Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany and other works on Fungi.

156 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Professor Tyndall communicated some observations ort
lunar radiation, made with a thermoelectric apparatus, on a
bright clear night when a faint haze, indicative of precipitated
vapour in the atmosphere, surrounded the moon. On the
cone being turned towards the moon, the pile indicated
a radiation of cold, which he accounted for by supposing that
the obstruction to terrestrial radiation, due to the mist, had
been removed when this had been dispersed by the moon's
rays.

Professor Huxley described the [Neanderthal ^j skull, a
cast of which he had recently examined. The brain cavity
is only about two-thirds of that in a fully developed man,
being intermediate between it and the chimpanzee. The
supraorbital ridges are of enormous size, and the fragments
of humerus and tibia found with the skull are human in
proportion, but are very thick and have strong ridges. ^

Sir C. Lyell said that the age of the formation, in which
the skull was found, is uncertain, and gave an account of
the discovery by M. Lartet of human bones with those of
extinct animals, including IJrsus spelaeus, and with flint
implements in a sepulchral vault in the south of France.

Nov. 28th, 133rd meeting. Mr. Grove said that recently,
in observing the planet Saturn, the ring of which was then
invisible, he had noticed two bands across its disk, which
he thought might be explained as follows. The plane of
the ring now passes through the earth, but not through the
sun, which accordingly shines on one surface of the ring,
so the bands result from the passage of the solar light ta
the disk of Saturn, through the space between the outer
and inner ring, and that between the latter and the planet.

Mr. Paget mentioned a case, where, during a convulsive
paroxysm, a patient had swallowed a set of artificial teeth,
which had lodged in the throat below the root of the tongue.

1 In the manuscript of the Minutes a blank occurs where the name should
be, but I have no doubt he was referring to the discovery in this cave.

2 See Huxley's Man's Place in Nature, pages 128-143 (1863). They
are more fully described and assigned to the Mousterian age (rather later
than that of the St. Acheul race) by W. J. Sollas, Ancient Hunters, chapter vL

Photographic Reproductions 157

This produced a difficulty of swallowing, which threatened
inanition, and the cause of it was not detected for three
months, the patient having referred the sense of obstruction
to a lower position, about the level of the cricoid cartilage.

Mr. Busk reported that Professor Frankland had found
Acari swallowed nux vomica with impunity, and had shown
that the minute pellets, voided by them, consisted of clear,
highly-refracting particles, almost entirely soluble in alcohol.
These, he suggested, might consist of strychnine and the
immunity be due to its not being absorbed by their ahmen-
tary canal. This alkaloid also was not poisonous to
cockroaches.

Dec. I2th, 134th meeting. Sir H. James informed the
members that photography was now largely employed for
transmitting to officers accurate representations of all
articles of miUtary equipment ; a foot rule, to give scale,
being always included. He also said that it was proposed
to obtain by photozincography facsimiles of the noted
Limancas archives. These require absolute accuracy in
reproduction, for they mostly consist of despatches in cypher,
from documents in very bad Latin. Progress, he reported,
was being made with the reproduction of Domesday Book, ^
but the county of Kent was at present omitted, since Mr.
Lakin had already pubHshed in facsimile a portion of that
county. The reproduction of the Shakespeare folios of
1620 had been suspended, owing to failure of funds. He
also mentioned the completion, in all its details, of the
Trigonometrical Survey of the British Islands, commenced
in 1783. An arrangement was now in progress to connect
it with the Survey of Belgium ; this, with the Prussian one,
and it with the Russian. The completion of that work
wiU give an exact measurement of an arc of parallel from
the west of Ireland to the Ural Mountains. In order to
link up Britain with Belgium, part of France had to be
crossed. For this the French Government had afforded
every facility to our officers, and its own Survey staff had

iThe first instalment, the part relating to Cornwall, was published
before the end of 1861.

158 Annals of the Philosophical Club

gone over their work. A comparison of the results thus
obtained led him to conclude that the great theodoHte,
made by Ramsden in 1783 (which is still in working order
and used on this Survey), was a more accurate instrument
than the French repeating circle.

Dr. Carpenter exhibited photographs by Dr. Haidinger
of dissections of the nervous system, and Mr. Paget men-
tioned that Dr. W. Budd ^ had successfully photographed
many pathological specimens. He suggested that the
Royal College of Surgeons would do a great service to science
by having photographs taken of many important specimens
in the Pathological Museum.

1862. Feb. 27th, 136th meeting. Colonel Sykes com-
municated a description of a black rain, which fell on Jan.
14th at Slains and along the whole eastern coast of Aberdeen-
shire. According to the minister, Mr. James Rust, the
morning, about 8.30, was clear ; then the sky darkened,
threatening rain. About an hour later, " a large, dense,
black, smoky-looking cloud came driving over the sea from
the S.S.E., and discharged a shower of rain with drops like
ink, which blackened all the water collected in cisterns
from the roofs of houses, and dirtied clothes put out to bleach
so effectively that warm water was needed to wash out
the spots." Mr. Rust suggested the dust might be due
to a recent eruption of Vesuvius. 2 Sir R. Murchison said
that though it was not impossible for dust from Vesuvius
to travel as far as Aberdeen, he thought the peculiar blackness
of the cloud indicated a smoky origin. That recent eruption
had differed from those in past centuries, in that for some
miles near Vesuvius the land had risen about 3 feet.

March 27th, 137th meeting. Colonel Sykes referred to
the black rain mentioned at the last meeting, and said that
he had made enquiries which had satisfied him of the
trustworthiness of the narrator. Professor Tyndall stated

* William Budd (i8ii-i88o), M.D. Edinburgh, who practised for many
years in Bristol, was the author of numerous medical papers, especially
on zymotic diseases.

* A rather severe eruption had occurred, Dec. 8th-ioth, 1861.

New Method of Photometry 159'

that his own experiments made him doubtful whether a
sufficient quantity of soot could have been distributed
through the atmosphere to produce the blackness described.

Colonel Sykes then gave an account of a balloon ascent,
made under the auspices of the Meteorological Committee
of the British Association. But as the balloon unfortunately
was not of the stipulated capacity and very leaky, it had
only risen to the height of a mile and a half, and its final
descent had been rather dangerously rapid. Professor
Tyndall suggested the erection, at an elevation of 14,000 feet,
of a permanent hut for scientific observations,^ such as
determining whether the solar spectrum is of the same length
as at lower positions, whether as many obscure rays are
present in it, and whether its red end is longer.

May 22nd, 139th meeting. Professor Dove,^ of Berlin,
described a new method of photometry. When micro-
photographs of inscriptions are viewed through a microscope,
they appear, with transmitted Hght, black on a white ground,
but with reflected light, white on a black ground. By using
both kinds of Hght, and due graduation, the one can be
made indistinguishable from the other, and if the lights to
be compared are adjusted, so that the one is transmitted
and the other reflected, their relative intensity can be
estimated from the amount of movement required by the
microscope. In a similar way the illuminating power of
different coloured lights can be compared.

Professor Wurtz,^ of Paris, gave an account of the method
of reconverting aldehyde into alcohol by digesting it with
an amalgam of sodium.

^That has now been done. Besides the Gniffetti Hut, at 11,877 feet,
there are now the Regina Margherita Hut at 14,961 feet, both on the
ItaUan side of Monte Rosa (see Angelo Mosso, Life of Man on the High Alps
(Translation 1898)), and the Vallot Observatory at 14,320 feet on Mont
Blanc, besides that erected on the summit by M. Janssen (now removed).

' Heinrich Wilhelm Dove (1803-1876), Professor of Natural Philosophy^
at BerUn for many years, made important investigations in optics and
electricity, and did much to establish meteorology on a scientific basis.

3 Charles Adolphe Wurtz (1817-1884), bom at Strasburg, resident in Paris
from 1844, an eminent chemist and author of several works, two of which.
The Atomic Theory a^nd Modern Chemistry, have been translated into English.

1 60 Annals of the Philosophical Club

June 19th, 140th meeting. Sir R. Murchison stated that
a rich bed of graphite had been discovered on the banks
of the Lower Tunguska River, one of the principal tributaries
of the Yenesei in Siberia. It must, however, be transported
to the mouth of the latter river, and then by sea to Russia,
before the discovery would be of any commercial value.
Hitherto no ship had succeeded in making the sea journey,
but the discoverer of the deposit, M. Sideroff, attributed
this to their commanders having always taken the Kara
Strait, to the south of the two great islands of Novaya
Zemlya, or the Matyushin Shar between them, both leading
into the Kara Sea, which is always full of ice. But he
believed that the route to the north of Barents Land would
prove practicable, and had offered a reward to the first vessel
that should be successful.

Oct. 31st, 141st meeting. Mr. Gassiot mentioned recent
experiments with his large water-battery of 3400 cells. At
first he had simply repaired the loss by evaporation. En-
couraged by the results, he had recharged the whole set with
salt and water, and improved the insulation by mounting
each jar on rails of shellac, when the current was sent
through the exhausted tubes as distinctly as with the
Ruhmkorff coil. In a perfect vacuum neither discharge
nor heating of either electrode occurred till heat was applied
to the fused potash, but as the temperature of that was
raised, a cloud of vapour was formed, the negative electrode
became heated, and a continuous action carried off a large
quantity of platinum. With one tube, a distinct singing
sound was produced, when the discharge took place.

Nov. 27th, 142nd meeting. Sir H. James stated that
photozincography, which hitherto had been restricted
to subjects expressed by definite lines (such as maps,
manuscripts, etc.), had now been applied to reproduce
ordinary photographs, where tints had to be rendered,
with good results, as the specimens, which he exhibited,
demonstrated.

Dr. Hooker described that strange African plant, the
Welwitschia, of which additional specimens had recently

Nile Exploration i6i

reached him.^ These had fully confirmed his original
view of its structure. The two great fleshy leaf-Uke bodies
are persistent cotyledons, never changed, though in some
cases they may be a century old. He gave additional
particulars of its structure, stating that the embryogeny
combines in a remarkable way that of the gymnosperms
and the angiosperms, and the fructification consists of cones,
female and hermaphrodite, the ovules in the latter being
abortive.

Dec. nth, 143rd meeting. Dr. Daubeny exhibited some
fibrous balls, picked up on the Mediterranean coast near
Villa Franca,' which apparently were formed from the
leaves of Posidonia maritima, a plant aUied to Zostera marina,

1863. Jan. 29th, 144th meeting. Sir R. Murchison said
that three ladies had fitted out a steamer at Khartimi, and,
after ascending the river Sobat for some distance, had
continued up the White Nile till they were obHged to turn
back, owing to the shallowness of the water, rather south of
Gondokoro and about 4° north of the equator. No news
had reached them of Mr. Petherick, who had set off for that
place to meet Captains Speke and Grant, except a rumour
that, owing to unfavourable weather, he had sent his boats
back to Khartum and proceeded on foot, and it was appre-
hended that he had been killed.

March 24th, 146th meeting. Dr. Bence Jones read an
extract from the Minutes of the Board of Managers of the
Royal Institution, dated March ist, 1813, in which Sir
Humphry Davy reports having engaged a young man named
Michael Faraday,^ " whose habits seem good, his disposition
active and cheerful, and his manner intelHgent." His duties
were to assist Professors and Lecturers, both before and
during their discourses, to prepare instruments and illustra-

^ Welwitschia mirabilis is described by Dr. Hooker in the Linn. Soc.
Trans, vol. xxiv. (part i. 1863). A short account is given in Encyc. Brit.
vol. xxix. page 192 (nth ed.).

* Now Villefranche, a few miles to the east of Nice.

^ He succeeded Davy in the Chair of Chemistry at the Royal Institution
in 1827, and was at the above date a member of the Club, having been
elected May 6th, 1847.

P.O. L

1 62 Annals of the Philosophical Club

tions, and to clean and keep in order the same. His pre-
decessor, it is recorded, was dismissed for striking an official
who had rebuked him for neglect of duty.

April 27th, 147th meeting (anniversary). Dr. Carpenter*
described a new binocular microscope, made by Messrs.
Nachet, which he had examined in Paris. The reflecting
prism of this sent to the right eye the pencil which should
have been transmitted to the left one, and vice versa, the
result being to produce a very complete pseudoscopic con-
version and give a more correct notion of solid form than
could otherwise be obtained. He expected it would be
valuable in testing the strength of our previous mental
associations, by the different degrees in which our notions
of diffeient objects resist the converting process.

He also said that he had seen, during his visit, a lamp for
burning the vapour of American petroleum. A piece of
sponge, soaked in this, was enclosed in a metal vessel, and
atmospheric air, in passing over it, took up so much of the
vapour that, on issuing from a metal tube, it burnt like an
ordinary gas light, the charge lasting for about nine hours.

Mr. Gassiot gave an account of a spectroscope with nine
prisms, made under his direction by Spencer Browning. It
had been too recently finished to enable him to make a
prolonged use of it, but it had, for example, distinctly
separated the thalUum line from the barium one, which pre-
viously had been regarded as coincident.

May 28th, 148th meeting. Dr. Falconer communicated
an account of a recent conference in France concerning the
himian jaw found in the drift at MouHn Quignon.^ On
hearing of the discovery, he had gone in April to Abbeville
and had examined the pit and some flint implements, said
to have been found in the same beds, together with one or

^ He afterwards discussed the question of pseudoscopy in his Menial
Physiology, §§ 168-170. See also his Microscope and its Revelations (ed.
W. H. DalUnger, pages 92-97).

* The following account is condensed from a minute (apparently copied
from a document) which occupies six and a half pages of the Minute Book
(folio). The authenticity of the jaw was for some time a ' burning question/
but it is now generally repudiated.

The Moulin Quignon Jaw 163

two separate human molar teeth. The shape of the jaw
was peculiar, and both it and some of the pebbles in the
drift had a black coating. At first he inclined to regarding
the two as contemporaneous, but, after his return to England,
on closer study of the flint implements, some purchased by
himself and others obtained by Messrs. Evans, Prestwich,
and Brady, he had been suspicious of the authenticity of
both. He at once communicated his doubts, through
M. Lartet, to M. de Quatrefages, who had already expressed
his beUef in the jaw to the French Academy. A meeting
of representative savants of England and France was then
arranged, so he, with Dr. Carpenter, Mr. Busk, and Mr.
Prestwich, went on May 9th to Paris. The points for special
discussion were (i) the genuineness of the flint implements,
(2) the authenticity of the jaw and teeth, said to have been
found in the lowest bed of gravel. Dr. Falconer, after
mentioning the characters generally indicating a forgery,*
said that the conference frequently referred to both genuine
and fabricated specimens, and its French members incUned
to the view that between these no adequate distinction could
be maintained. Next came the examination of the jaw,
the separate tooth (which M. Boucher des Perthes had given
to Dr. Falconer) being withdrawn from the controversy.
A strongly adherent layer of a black material, mixed with
sand, which M. Delafosse pronounced natural, covered the
jaw, but an examination of one end revealed Unes suggestive
of brush marks. The bone, when sawn across, was mode-
rately firm, not very friable, having the ordinary odour,
with the cortical layer a pale buff colour and the diploe of
a darker tint. The section passed through a fang of the
remaining tooth, and showed it to be in the same condition
as the loose one already mentioned. In short, the jaw
is in a state indicative of considerable antiquity, hke one
from an old cemetery, but not such as should characterize a
bone from a drift of so remote an age. The conference
then adjourned to Abbeville, where they engaged workmen

^ As these are now familiar to archaeologists, it is needless to repeat
them.

1 64 Annals of the Philosophical Club

to lay bare a vertical face of gravel, about 15 or 16 feet
from the surface to the chalk, and some distance back from
the old one. In the course of the day five flint implements
were found *' under the very eyes of the members," the
genuineness of which seemed beyond suspicion. Four of
them were of a form which at Paris had been supposed to
indicate forgery. They had, however, been found where
the drift showed signs of disturbance, and a pipe in the
middle, reaching down to the chalk, was occupied by a
material rather different from the usual stratified gravel,
which suggested the possibility that the jaw might have been
subsequently introduced. Several members of the con-
ference, including Messrs. Milne Edwards and de Quatrefages,
expressed no opinion as to the geological age of the bone,
though regarding it as contemporaneous with the gravel.
Dr. Falconer and Mr. Busk thought that if the latter were
really of the same age as the Somme valley deposits, the
bone had too recent an aspect to belong to it. Mr. Prestwich
remarked that he had known the MouHn Quignon gravel for
several years, and that, prior to the discovery of the jaw,
very few hdches had been found, and these of the oldest and
rudest types. Those since obtained were of a different type
and more modem in aspect. That these were not stained,
while the surrounding pebbles were so, was a difficulty
which, however, was diminished by his having got an un-
coloured flint from the couche noire. At first he had doubted
the genuineness of jaw and hdches, but he now thought it
possible that if the latter were so, the former might be
the same.

June nth, 149th meeting. Mr. Lubbock described
the circumstances under which human skeletons had been
found in 1862 at Mesnitos, near Abbeville, as ascertained
by himself, Mr. Prestwich, and Mr. Evans. The lower
law of one of them presented a striking resemblance to that
from MouUn Quignon.

Oct. 29th, 150th meeting. Professor Ramsay said that
during the past summer members of the Geological Survey
liad discovered and mapped terminal moraines in the south

Glacial Action in Britain 165

of Scotland. They apparently belonged to the latest part
of the Glacial Period, and were associated with a gradual
rise of the land. No such moraines, or ice scratches, or
other signs of glacial action, had been found in the Peak of
Derbyshire, though abundant evidence of the former presence
of ice had been met with in the adjacent region.

Dr. Frankland remarked that he had observed glacial
striation in Craven (Yorkshire), and some remarks were
made about rocks on the islets aroimd Spitzbergen being
scored by floating icebergs.

Dr. Hooker exhibited photographs of drawings by Dr.
Hector, made in the South Island of New Zealand, at com-
paratively low levels above the sea, which showed the
effect of glacial action and much resembled similar
phenomena in the Himalayas. Glaciers still existed in New
Zealand at about [2400] feet ^ above the sea.

He also showed a Japanese botanical work, with well-
executed outUne illustrations of the plants. He thought
this was the first instance of an original work on natural
history in the East.

Mr. Busk said that a large cavern had been discovered in
the Rock of Gibraltar during the excavation of a tank, and
had been traced to a depth of above 100 yards. In its
uppermost part works of art and bones of men had been found
associated with those of numerous animals. Others lay
beneath a stalagmite floor, among which were a hyaena,
leopard, deer, and two species of rhinoceros (both probably
extinct). The fauna was African in character, and he, with
Dr. Falconer, was now engaged in working it out.

Nov. 26th, 151st meeting. Colonel Sykes commented
on a recent balloon ascent by Mr. Glaisher.^ At a height
of 22,000 feet it passed through a dry cloud, having a tem-
perature of 18* F., the air in which was not saturated ;

* The manuscript omits the figure. On the eastern side of the New
Zealand Alps the end of the Tasman Glacier is about 2350 feet ; on the
western one the Fox Glacier comes down to about 700 feet.

* He was accompanied by Mr. Coxwell (on September 5th, 1 862). They
reached 29,000 feet, at which elevation the latter was just able to open

. the valve, Mr. Glaisher having already become insensible.

1 66 Annals of the Philosophical Club

on emerging from it he observed numerous dark clouds.
A mile lower down rain fell on the balloon, and below this,
it passed through rain, snow, and ice spicules, and the tem-
perature had risen to 33° F. Professor Stokes thought that
the dry cloud probably consisted of spicules of ice.

Dec. 17th, 152nd meeting. Professor Frankland stated
that recent examination of the lunar surface led him to
suppose that the moon also had undergone a glacial epoch,
and that several of its valleys, rills, and streaks are due to
former ice action. In some cases the moraines would be on
a gigantic scale, and he gave two examples, one, in the great
streak running from the base of Tycho under the S.E. wall
of BulUaldus, lower down in which is a pair of curved ridges
with their convex sides towards the north ; the other, in a
great valley running past the eastern edge of Rheita. The
moon is supposed to be without an atmosphere, but as it
must have cooled much more quickly than the earth, its
internal structure would be very cavernous, and seamed
with communicating fissures. If then it contracted only
to the same amount as granite, a fall of 100° C. would produce
cellular space amounting to nearly 14 million cubic miles,
which would suffice to engulf an ocean, proportionate in
volume to that on the earth.

1864. Jan. 28th, 153rd meeting. Sir R. Murchison
referred to reports about the Zambesi mission and the
rumoured death of Dr. Livingstone, expressing the hope
that the latter was not true, though there was sonfe reason
to beheve he had been wounded in the foot.

He also said M. de Verneuil had informed him that the hook
several inches long and rather hke an anchor, which had been
found in sawing up a block of marble from the Ardennes,
was only part of the bony covering of a Cephalaspis.

Feb. 25th, 154th meeting. Sir H. James said that a
deviation of the plumb-line had been observed at Cowhythe
near Portsoy, the cause of which was now being investigated.

May 26th, 157th meeting. Dr. Hooker exhibited photo-
graphs of fossil ferns from the coal formation of Otago, sent
by Dr. Hector, one being a species of Glossopteris.

New Zealand Glaciers 167

Mr. Lubbock described a visit, recently made with M.
Lartet, Mr. Christy, and Mr. J. Evans, to some caves in
the department of the Dordogne. They contained flint
implements of the roughest type, with very numerous articles
of reindeer horn — ^harpoons, needles, etc. — ^very neatly
made and finished, besides figures of animals, such as the
horse and the reindeer.^

June i6th, 158th meeting. Mr. Gassiot exhibited some
examples of colour photography, but they were fugitive in
character and could be exhibited only in diffused light, so
that the result was not considered to be satisfactory.

Mr. Paget gave an account of a patient in the hospital,
one of whose kidneys had been exposed by a wound in the
lumbar region, so that it could be observed. Its natural
colour appeared to be pale, like that of blotting paper.

Dr. Hooker read a letter from Mr. Haast 2 about some
New Zealand glaciers. The west coast, he said; for the
last fifty miles south of the Totara River 3 is formed by
enormous moraines, CUffy Head, Bad Head, Albert Head
being only terminal moraines of former glaciers. The largest
glacier, equal in size to the Tasman, descends to within
500 feet of the sea-level and eight miles from it. But on
both sides of this glacier, luxuriant forests are growing, with
areca pines and tree-ferns. Mr. Haast had also found in

1 The worMiig out of these caves, some of the more noted being in the
limestone cUffs by the river Vezdre, was continued for some years by Lartet
and Christ^,;, and the results embodied in Reliquiae Aquitanicae (1865-75).
Notices of them will be fovmd in almost any book dealing with ancient man,
and the time when this race existed is called (from one of the caves) the
Magdalenian epoch. It is later than that of Mousterian (Neanderthal)
man. The cUmate was colder than now, the reindeer being abundant
in that part of France.

2 Afterwards Sir J. F. JuUus von Haast (1824-1887), distinguished as
a geologist and explorer of New Zealand ; discovering coal and gold fields
south-west of Nelson, making the first expedition (in 1862) into the Tasman
district. Professor of Geology in New Zealand University, and author of
works on the geology of those islands.

3 The Totara River enters the sea on the west coast a httle nor»,h of that
from the Franz Josef Glacier (which descends to 692 feet above sea-level
and fourteen miles from the sea). The Fox Glacier comes down to 670 feet
and within 10 miles of the beach. Perhaps this was the one mentioned.
See A. P Harper, Pioneer Work in Alps of New Zealand, page 8.

1 68 Annals of the Philosophical Club

some old moraines, cut through by mountain torrents, '* great
quantities of moa bones."

Oct. 27th, 159th meeting. Dr. Hooker exhibited a copy
of an inscription from a large bell, found by a missionary in
crossing the North Island of New Zealand, the characters of
which, as some thought, resembled Malayan.

Mr. Busk gave an account of his recent visit, with Dr.
Falconer, to the Rock of Gibraltar in order to examine the
cave and fissures on Windmill Hill, from which Captain
Brome, Governor of the Military Prison, had obtained and
forwarded to England during the last year a number of
human and other bones. The fissure appears to commence
about 400 feet above sea-level, where the highest part of
the rock joins Windmill Flat, and the dip of the strata
changes from a steep western one to a low eastern one. The
Flat is an old sea bottom, its surface being formed of water-
worn rock, and the fissures, as they contain no marine
remains, must be later in date than the elevation of it.
Captain Brome traced it to a vertical depth of more than
200 feet, but the animal remains are mostly restricted to the
first 80 or 90 feet, the fallen blocks and subsequent stalagmite
having apparently blocked it. Among the animal remains
were a bear, hyena brunnea, two species of ibex (neither of
which had been identified), and cervus elwphus ; the last
two genera being very abundant.

Professor Tyndall mentioned his experiments on obscure
thermal rays, to the existence of which in the solar
spectrum Sir W. Herschel had first called attention. By
using rock-salt lenses he had compared the visible spectrum
of the gas flame with the invisible one of hydrogen, and
had ascertained that the obscure thermal rays in both lay
beyond the red rays of the spectrum. He had also proved ^
iodine to be remarkably transparent to these ultra-red
undulations, and that a solution of this in carbon sulphide,
though wholly opaque to the luminous rays of a spectrum,
however brilliant, nevertheless permitted all the obscure
thermal rays to pass. As pure carbon bisulphide is very

^ Phil. Trans, vol, cliv. pages 201, 327.

Survey of Jerusalem 1 69

transparent to rays emitted from solid incandescent bodies,
a combination of the two makes it possible to separate,
almost entirely, the purely thermal and simply luminous
rays in any spectrum.

Nov. 24th, i6oth meeting. Sir H. James reported that
Captain Vincent, with a party of sappers, had completed
a survey of Jerusalem, for which purpose they had been
permitted to establish a station within the Haram area,
every faciHty having been given by the Turkish authorities.
Captain Vincent, by descending a well, had found a conduit
with Roman work, 82 feet beneath the surface, from which
three steps led down to running water. 1 Dr. Falconer
called attention to the discrepancies of statements about
the relative levels of the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea,
and the depth of the latter, and hoped that the above-named
party would be directed to settle these points.^

Sir H. James referred to some anomalies in pendulum
observations at Portsoy, and stated that, according to
Mr. Otto Struve, the same had been noticed over a tract
of country running east and west of Moscow.

Dec. 22nd, i6ist meeting. Mr. Busk announced the
discovery by Captain Brome of a second cave in Windmill
Hill, Gibraltar, in which abundant human remains and
stone implements had been found embedded in, or covered
by, thick layers of stalagmite, but the excavation had not
yet been carried deep enough to disclose any mammalia,
except man.

^ This survey stimulated interest in the antiquities and topography of
Jerusalem and Palestine. The Palestine Exploration Society was founded
in 1865. Excavations at Jerusalem were begun in 1866 by Captain (after-
wards Sir Charles) Wilson and Lieutenant Anderson, with important
results. Between 1867 and 1870 Lieutenant Warren (afterwards Sir
Charles), with some non-commissioned ofl&cers of the Royal Engineers,
carried out works which settled many disputed questions in regard to
the ancient Temple area and underground Jerusalem.

2 These discrepancies were mainly due to the fact that in all but two
cases the level of the Dead Sea had been determined by barometrical
observations. Triangulation by Lieutenant Symonds gave 1312 feet
below the Mediterranean ; another one by Lynch gave 131 7 feet. The
result afterwards obtained by the Ordnance Surveyors was 1292 feet
(the level varies some 5 feet with the season).

170 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Dr. Williamson described a combination of a glass and a
flexible tube for producing a non-conducting vacuum, and
Mr. Gassiot mentioned some experiments with electric
currents and vacuum tubes.

1865. Jan. 26th, 162nd meeting. Sir R. Murchison
stated that the Geographical Society had resolved to send
out an expedition under Dr. Livingstone to explore the
watershed of East-Central Africa, more especially between
the southern end of Lake Tanganyika and the northern
one of Lake Nyassa.

Dr. Bence Jones communicated the results of experiments
on the absorption of such drugs as iodide of potassium and
chloride of Uthium. Within twelve minutes, the former
had been taken into the system, and the latter was diffused
with extraordinary rapidity ; for instance, three grains
of lithium chloride had been administered to a guinea-pig
by the mouth, and that alkaU was detected by spectrum
analysis in every part of its body, for at least twenty-four
hours, being present even in cartilage and in the crystaUine
lens, but not in the latter till four hoiu-s after administration,
though it reached the aqueous humour within two hours.
In the case of this animal it could be detected in the urine
for at least thirteen days.

Sir H. James stated that he desired to determine the level
of the Dead Sea by carr3dng a Une to it from Jaffa through
Jerusalem, each station being marked.

Feb. 23rd, 163rd meeting. Professor Frankland referred
to experiments by himself and Mr. Duppa in the synthesis
of organic compounds. They had lately succeeded in
forming butyric acid from acetic acid, by substituting two
atoms of methyl for two of hydrogen. By submitting acetic
ether to the action of sodium they had obtained butyric
ether.

Mr. Gassiot spoke of a recent large extension of his constant
galvanic battery. It now consisted of 2000 elements, the
cells being 3 J inches high and i J inches in interior diameter,
the elements being carbon and zinc, and the exciting fluid
sulphate of mercury. This apparatus, properly kept, had

The Absorption of Lithium 1 7 1

^ven him a discharge three feet long through a vacuum
tube, the longest, he believed, which had yet been obtained.
The luminous discharge does not appear till some time after
forming connexion, and the luminosity, at short intervals,
remits in intensity.

March 23rd, 164th meeting. Dr. Bence Jones gave further
details of experiments made to illustrate the absorption
of lithia in the human system. He quoted instances to
show that ' cataract ' resisted this process. Of seven
patients who suffered from this malady, in one instance only
the lens exhibited a trace of Hthium, but when that drug
had been administered gradually it made its way to the
affected organ, being traceable in the lens and present in
the cartilages. Lithia made its way into the urine in from
5 to 10 minutes, and could be detected there for 7 or 8 days
after a dose of 20 grains.

Professor Huxley gave results of his study of the brain
in Dasypus (Armadillo) and Perameles (Bandicoot), indi-
cating their special anatomical features and their transitional
character between those of the placental and non-placental
mammals.

April 24th, 165th meeting (anniversary). Mr. Gassiot
said that in experimenting with his mercury battery of
1200 cells he had received a shock which had left a single
mark on the positive finger and two on the negative finger.
This was analogous with the effects produced on glass by the
discharge of Ruhmkorff's coil.

May 1 8th, i66th meeting. Professor Tyndall stated
that his assistant, in experimenting with the solar luminous
beam, cut off by an iodine solution, had obtained results
like those from the obscure rays of the electric light and of
the limelight. It was also found that platinum foil was
entirely dissipated in the luminous focus of a mirror 8 or
9 inches in diameter.

Professor W. H. Miller stated that the spider's thread
remained intact in the luminous focus of a lens which
could melt a metallic wire.

June 15th, 167th meeting. Dr. W. A. Miller stated that,

172 Annals of the Philosophical Club

in a spectroscopic examination of the planet Saturn, the
spectrum of the planet itself was not so intense as that of
the ring, and a dark line in the red was still more intense
than in the atmosphere of the earth. This fact led him ta
infer the existence of an atmosphere around Saturn, which
contained a substance similar to one of those present in the
earth's atmosphere.

Mr. Busk said that since the last mention of the ossiferous
caves on Windmill Hill, Captain Brome had discovered
three others, containing relics of human workmanship, the
entrance of one being over the edge of the cliff which rose
above the * Governor's Cottage ' on the east face of the
plateau of Windmill Hill. This cavern contained the
remains of several individuals, inchiding four nearly perfect
crania, and numerous implements of bone, flint, and other
stone. The crania were uniformly doHchocephalic, very
Hke those of the Basques at the present day, and that of
a specimen, seen last year by Dr. Falconer and himself at
Madrid, which had been found in the ancient workings of a
copper mine in the Asturias. We might therefore infer
that at the * polished stone period ' a race, resembling the
existing Basques, was living all over Spain.

Professor Ramsay announced that he was to visit Gibraltar
during the autumn to make a geological survey of the Rock
and the adjoining district.

Mr. Busk said that after studying the fossil bones of the
Pigmy Elephant, brought by Captain Spratt from the
Zebbug Cave in Malta, he held them to represent two distinct
species, and not one as had hitherto been supposed.

Oct. 26th, i68th meeting. Sir R. Murchison announced
that Mr. S. Baker had arrived in England, and would
describe to the Royal Geographical Society on Nov. 13th
his discovery of Lake Albert Nyanza, the basin of which lay
under the equator and was about 260 miles in length ; ^
also that news had been obtained from M. De Chaillu, who
was then about 150 miles inlajid from the Gaboon and was

^ Its existence was ascertained by Speke and Grant in 1862, but it was
explored by Baker (afterwards Sir S.) in 1864.

Quinine and Fluorescence 173

desirous of making his way, if possible, across the continent.
The speaker had also received a letter from Dr. Livingstone,
who was fitting out, at Bombay, his expedition for African
exploration.!

Dr. Bence Jones gave some results of experiments on the
rapidity of the absorption of quinine by various parts of
the body. These had also proved the existence in it of a
fluorescent principle. This Helmholtz had already noticed
(in 1853), when he observed that the retina of a man, eighteen
hours after death, was still fluorescent, though less so than
paper or linen, and more than porcelain, while in 1859
Tetschenow had shown the fluorescence of the lens in rabbits
and men to be very strong, exactly resembhng, though not
quite so strong as, that of quinine, with which in optical
respects it agreed. It would be very desirable to isolate,
if possible, this fluorescent substance.

Dr. Pla3^air gave an account of the conclusions arrived at
by the Commission for investigating the Cattle Plague.
The disease was undoubtedly contagious and very subtle.
Inoculation twelve or thirteen times in succession reduced
the mortaHty to about 14 per cent., but as yet no curative
appeared to have been discovered. He also stated that at
Madras, when smallpox virus had been mixed with five times
its weight of milk, no serious s5miptoms — usually only a
single pustule — ^were observed in 100 children inoculated.

Dec. 2ist, 170th meeting. Mr. Sylvester gave an account
of some movements of a planetary body about a centre of
force which had been described in his * Astronomical Pro-
lusions,' pubUshed in the Philosophical Magazine for
January 1868.

Colonel Sykes mentioned some exceptionally high readings
of the barometer in the current month. At his house in
Albion Street, Hyde Park, about 100 feet above mean-tide
level, his sympiezometer had recorded 30-9 on the loth
(at 10 a.m.), 30*8 on the 13th, the same on the 17th (at
3 p.m.), and 30-4 on the 21st (at 10 a.m.) ; the thermometer

^ That on which, after leaving Zanzibar in 1866, he discovered Lake
JBangweolo, was met by Stanley at Ujiji, and died on May ist, 1873.

174 Annals of the Philosophical Club

readings on these days being from 51° to 52°, and the wind
from W. to W. by N. Letters pnbhshed in the Times had
recorded similar observations at Leyton, Essex, and at
Tunbridge, Kent.

1866. Jan. 25th, 171st meeting. Colonel Sykes referred
to the exceptionally high barometric readings mentioned at
the last meeting, stating that the atmospheric wave to which
they were due appeared to have proceeded in a westerly
direction. He urged the importance of a more extensive
collection of observations than was at present possible, and
of forming an international meteorological society.

Dr. Sclater mentioned that the Zoological Society had
obtained a specimen (the first brought to England) of
Arctocephalus Hookeri, a large seal inhabiting the Southern
Ocean.

Feb. 23rd. Colonel Sykes again referred to the above-
named atmospheric wave, and suggested that the tempests
might be due to the filHng up of the vacuum in its rear.
He also furnished observations of temperatures in Canada
during the first cold term in the current year.

Sir R. Murchison announced that Baron von der Decken's
expedition ^ had not been able to ascend the Juba River in
Eastern Africa for more than 385 miles.

March 22nd, 173rd meeting. Dr. Carpenter referred ta
the objections made by Professors King and Rowney to the
foraminiferal origin of Eozoon Canadense,^ and read a letter
from Professor Dawson, of Montreal, stating that he and Dr.
Sterry Hunt were still satisfied that the speaker's view was
correct.

April 30th, 174th meeting (anniversary). Dr. Carpenter
said that since the last meeting Professor Dawson had
examined specimens which consisted entirely of calcareous
material, and yet showed the characteristic Eozoonal struc-

1 Karl Klaus von der Decken {1833- 1863) began African travel after
leaving the Hanoverian army in i860. FaiUng to reach Lake Nyassa,
he went thence to Kilimanjaro, ascending to 13,780 feet. Next he explored
some of the East African rivers, and was murdered on this journey.

* Their views are expressed at length in An Old Chapter of the Geological
Record, 1881.

Zoology of Amphioxus 175

ture, which conclusively negatived the hypothesis of
Professors King and Rowney that this structure was due to
the intermixture of calcareous and siliceous constituents.

Oct. 25th, 177th meeting. Dr. Carpenter read a letter
from Professor Wyville Thomson giving an account of a
small crinoid dredged by M. Sars ^ from deep water on
the west coast of Norway. Though only about three
inches long, it was a mature form and related to the
Jurassic Apiocrinus.

He also mentioned the pubhcation of a memoir by a
Russian zoologist on Amphioxus, ^ which is remarkably
abundant in the Bay of Naples. He had proved that,
notwithstanding the absence of a true spinal column and of
some other characters of the vertebrata, it was rightly
classed with them, though utterly unUke them in its earUer
stages, when it has more resemblance to a medusa.

Nov. 29th, 178th meeting. Col. Sykes called the attention
of the Club to the case of a young naturalist, who had been
arrested in Japan for digging up skulls in a native cemetery
and banished from that country and China.

Professor Frankland spoke of a recently published
pamphlet describing experiments on animal respiration and
excretion with an apparatus much better adapted for that
purpose than any hitherto in use. It consisted of a glass
case large enough to contain a man with his workshop and
a bed, so that quantitative determinations could be made of
the egesta, ingesta and products of respiration both in a
condition of rest and after hard work. The results obtained
were (i) that the amount of work, if it at all affects the
excretion of urea, very lightly lessens it ; (2) that during
hard work a considerably greater amount of carbonic acid

1 It was obtained ofE the Lofoten Islands by Mr. G. O. Sars, son of the
well-known Professor in the University of Christiania, at a depth of about
300 fathoms. A description and figure of Rhizocrinus loffotensis, as it
was named, is given by Prof. Wyville Thomson in The Depths of the Sea
(1873), pages 447-451-

^ Branchiostoma (the lancelet), so named by Costa in 1834, two years
before it was called Amphioxus by Yarrell, is the only genus of the family.
It contains eight or nine species, and belongs to a very archaic type.

176 Annals of the Philosophical Club

is excreted than during rest ; (3) that hard work adds
very little to the absorption of oxygen during the day, but
the amount is greatly increased during the following night.
Diabetic and leukaemic patients, however, absorb no more
oxygen by night than by day.

Sir H. James said that after completing the recent triangu-
lation of the United Kingdom, the Ordnance Survey had
computed the figure and dimensions of the earth from the
results, as well as from a combination of all the separate
measurements of arcs of meridian in Peru, France, Prussia,
Russia, Cape of Good Hope, India, and the United Kingdom.
These gave the equatorial semi-diameter as 20,926,330 and
the polar one as 20,855,240 feet. The equator was also found
to be slightly elliptical, the longer diameter being in 15° 34' E.
long., and the shorter in 105° 34' E. long. ; the semi-diameters
being in the one case 20,926,350 feet, in the other 20,919,972
feet. The meridian of 15° 34' nearly corresponded in the
eastern hemisphere with that passing over the greatest
quantity of land in that hemisphere and in the western with
that passing over the greatest quantity of water. The
meridian of 105*^ 34' corresponds nearly with that which
passes over the greatest quantity of land in Asia and with
that which does the same in the western hemisphere.

1867. January 31st, i8oth meeting. Colonel Sykes
drew attention to the cold of the month, which had been
most intense at or near London, while the weather in the
extreme north of Scotland had been comparatively mild.

Professor Ramsay stated that in the Miocene Period the
vegetation within the Arctic circle indicated a much more
temperate cHmate than the present one, for it consisted of
evergreens or at least leaf-bearing trees, the species of which
are either identical or so closely correspond with those still
existing, that we may fairly suppose them to have flourished
under similar cHmatic conditions. He called attention to
the subject, in the hope that experiments might be under-
taken to ascertain whether leaf-bearing trees could survive
a winter of three, four, or five months without the stimulus
■of light. In the discussion that followed Dr. Hooker stated

Studies of Eozoon Canadense 177

that he thought it would be practically impossible to place
trees in confinement under the same conditions in regard to
heat, light, and ventilation as those in a state of nature, but
that, as deciduous trees are dormant throughout the winter
in temperate cHmates, the absence of light was not likely
to produce any sensible effect on them during winter.

Feb. 28th, i8ist meeting. Mr. A. Smith mentioned results
lately obtained by Sir W. Thomson as to the rate ot a watch
placed horizontally and suspended by two vertical cords,
so that it can take up a vibration the rate of which depends
on the torsion of the cords. When this rate is less than
that of the balance of the watch, the latter gains, when
greater it loses. The change, however, is not gradual, as
might have been expected, but sudden, from the maximum
of gaining to that of losing. In the pocket chronometer,
exhibited by Mr. S. Smith, when the torsional vibration is
very slow, the gain is about i in 1250, or 70 seconds a day.
As the cords are shortened, the gain increases up to i in 50,
or 28 minutes a day. It then suddenly changes to a loss
of 28 minutes a day. When the watch is gaining, the balance
and watch vibrate in opposite directions ; when it is losing,
in the same direction. This can be easily perceived in a
chronometer, which only ticks when the balance is moving
to the right.

Dr. Carpenter exhibited a specimen of Eozoon Canadensg
recently brought to England by Sir WilUam Logan, in which
were two points of interest : (i) it is formed of lamellae,
which curve round in a natural manner to join one another,
and enclose the spaces elsewhere separating them ; (2)
because instead of being preserved in a serpentinous marble
it is imbedded in a homogeneous hmestone. Hence it cannot
be due to any such reaction between calcareous and siliceous
constituents, as Professors King and Rowney have supposed.
Dr. Carpenter thought that no palaeontologist could doubt,
after examining this specimen, that it had an organic
origin, and was identical in character, both to the unaided
€ye and under the microscope, with the ordinary forms of
Eozoon, though its minute structure was not well preserved,
p.c. M

178 Annals of the Philosophical Club

March 28th, 182nd meeting. Mi. Sclater stated that
Professor Huxley, in lecturing at the Royal College of
Surgeons on the osteology of reptiles and birds, had pointed
out some very remarkable characters in the cranium of the
latter, which apparently had not hitherto been noticed, and
showed that if these were taken, as he proposed should be
done, for a basis of classification, the whole class must have
a very different arrangement from that adopted in the
Cuvierian system.

May 30th, 184th meeting. Mr. Wheatstone exhibited a
specimen of avanturine chrome brought from Paris by
M. Pelouse.

Mr. Busk said that, while examining the animal remains
from the Brixham cavern, a large part of which belong to
the bear, he had ascertained the bulk of them to represent
XJrsus priscus, which he had found by cranial and dental
characters to be indistinguishable from Ursus ferox} The
bones of the true TJrsus spelaeus were so scanty, that even
its occurrence was doubtful, but some of Ursus arctos seemed
to be present.

Dr. Carpenter described some important improvements
recently made by M. Nachet in a binocular dissecting micro-
scope. ^

June 30th, 185th meeting. Dr. Carpenter described the
results of examination under the microscope of thin sHces
from Spirifer cuspidatus and from types which have been
confused with it. A true specimen of the first has an
imperforate shell, but* a shell occurs externally indistinguish-
able from it, which is perforate, and has such differences
in its internal structure that it cannot be placed in the same
genus. Of these Dr. Carpenter gave a description, saying that
for the latter Professor Winchell had constituted the genus
Syringothyris. This external isomorphism, associated with
such differences of internal structure, was a remarkable thing.

* They are considered to be identical by Prof. S. H. Reynolds. See
Pleistocene Mammalia, vol. ii. part 2, Palaeontographical Society, vol. Ix^
(1906). So the Grizzly Bear was much more abimdant than the Brown
Bear, and the Cave Bear the rarest.

' An addition to this Minute is placed at the end of those for Oct. 31st.

Age of the Elgin Sandstones 1 79

Oct. 31st, i86th meeting. Dr. Hooker read extracts
of a letter from Dr. Hector, written on Sept. 17th from
Wellington, New Zealand, in which he said that he had
forwarded to England specimens of chert flakes found in
cooking ovens with moa bones, together with bones of the
embryo chick from the egg of that bird, and drawings of the
Qgg and bones.

Professor Huxley referred to a discussion which had
taken place some ten years previously about the age of
the reptiUferous sandstones of Elgin, and stated that he
had recently obtained evidence in favour of referring them
to a more modern age than the Devonian. The quarries at
Cot on End in Warwickshire, which are worked in sandstones
not older than Permian, have furnished fragments of
Hyper odapedon, the most characteristic of the Elgin reptiles,
A no less interesting fact is the discovery of its remains in
India, in strata which are beHeved to belong to the same
series as the Damuda beds, in wliich Labyrinth odonts,
with Dicynodonts and other reptiles, have been discovered.
So these beds, with the South African rocks containing
Labyrinthodonts and Dicynodonts, are probably all of the
same age, and thus, as Professor Oldham has suggested, all
three may be neither Permian nor Trias, but passage beds
between the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic.^

Professor Huxley also mentioned that, during a recent
\dsit to Oxford, Professor Phillips had called his attention
to the fine collection of megalosaurian remains in the Museum
of Geolog}^ and they had concluded after careful examination
that some of the bones of Megalosaurus had hitherto been
wrongly determined, the so-called coracoid being the ilium
and the clavicle probably the ischium. Since his return to
London he had found that similar errors had been made in
the interpretation of the bones of Iguanodon and other

* The difficulties presented by the quarry at Cutties' Hillock have now
been cleared up (J. W. Judd, Proc. Roy. Soc. 1885, p. 394). Of two sand-
stones, Uthologically almost indistinguishable, the upper contains Hypero-
dapedon, with other Triassic vertebrates, the lower well-known Old Red
Saiidstone fish remains, so that an almost inconspicuous unconformity
is the sole record of a great break in time.

i8o Annals of the Philosophical Club

Dinosauria. The rectification is important, for it shows the
true pelvis of Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, etc., to be more
bird-like in character than could have been imagined, and
this, with the tridactylate character of the foot in the above-
named Dinosaurs, caused him to regard them as the nearest
connecting forms, known to us, between the typical reptilia
and the struthious or other ratite birds.

Mr. Sclater announced the probable arrival of a living
walrus at the Zoological Gardens.

Dr. Carpenter recounted some interesting experiments
on a living Comatula, undertaken to show that, as he had
already thought probable, the sarcode cord which passes
through each segment of the arms and pinnules has the
function of a nerve-trunk, though it has not the histological
character of nerve.

Nov. 28th, 187th meeting. Mr. Grove read a letter from
a member of his family, giving an account of a recent
ascent of Vesuvius and the present state of the eruption.
The explosions occurred with a certain periodicity, the
greater ones at intervals of 4 or 5 minutes, with numerous
minor explosions between them at intervals of a few seconds.

Mr. Sclater mentioned that, for the first time in England,
an eland had that morning been sold to a butcher for food.

1868. Jan. 30th, 189th meeting. Dr. Carpenter reverted
to the subject of his communication about the physiological
structure of crinoids, adding several particulars of much
interest.

Professor Flower exhibited a photograph of a drawing
from New Zealand, sent by Dr. Haast, which gave (with
some restorations) the shapes and sizes of six species of
Dinornis.

April 27th, 192nd meeting. Mr. Grove, who had examined
some rocking stones during a recent visit to Cornwall,
exhibited a small model in imitation of the phenomena.

Professor Tyndall gave an account of his recent visit to
Vesuvius during the eruption, when he had succeeded in
ascending to the margin of the crater and looking down into it.

May 28th, 193rd meeting. Dr. Carpenter exhibited a

'Studies of Crinoids i8r

small specimen of the crinoid obtained at 300 fathoms
near the Lofoten Islands (see Oct. 25th, 1866). He also
recounted the results of studies by Professor Wyville
Thomson and himself of a perfect specimen of the West
Indian Pentacrinus. These were (i) the precise conformity
of its general plan of structure to that of the pentacrinou>
larva of comatula, before separation from its stem ; (2) the
close conformity of the visceral apparatus in the two, which,
with the contents of the stomach, indicates their food and
the manner of obtaining it to be the same, the whole
apparatus of arms and pinnules being' a trap for minute
organisms, which are conveyed to the mouth by ciHary
action along the floor of the furrow on the upper surface of
every pinnule; (3) the diagnosis of calcareous plates,
forming the essential or radial skeleton and those which
are accidental, according as they are imperforate or per-
forated for extensions of the axial cord, has been found ta
hold good in such a variety of cases that it may be regarded
as fundamental in determining the homologies of the skeleton
in the whole group of Crinoidea. The specimen exhibited
showed how readily, if these clues were followed, very
aberrant forms might be understood.

Oct. 29th, 195th meeting. Mr. Sclater stated that the
Zoological Society had received from Sir George Grey a
curious New Zealand Uzard, constituting a distinct sub-order,
which was sent by Dr. Hector, and called Hatteria punctata.
Professor Huxley expressed the opinion that this might be
a direct lineal representative of Hyperodapedon.^

Sir R. Murchison exhibited a curious white tissue which
had been found lining the hold of a ship which had recently
arrived in the Thames laden with maize from Trieste. This
was said to be the production of myriads of small maggots.

1 The Tuatera, now called Sphenodon punctatus, which apparently is
confined to the small islands off the north-east of New Zealand, is not
only the most remarkable of all existing reptiles to which the term lizard
can be applied, but is the sole living representative of a distinct family,
as well as of an entire order ; and the difference between it and an ordinary
lizard immeasurably exceeds that by which the latter is separated from
a serpent (Lydekker). A foramen in the parietal bones of the skull covers
a rudimentary eye. Hyperodapedon was among its ancestral forms.

1 82 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Its texture is verj^ thin but extremely tenacious, and when
rubbed it is highly electric. Mr. Busk, in a discussion
about its nature and origin, remarked that he had seen
material from Mexico very similar but yellow in colour, which
is said to be made by spiders and found hanging from trees.

Nov. 26th, 196th meeting. Mr. Busk, reverting to the
above-named tissue, said that Mr. Stainton ^ had suggested
it might be the work of a small Tineina, and similar cases
had been previously observed.

1869. Feb. 25th, 199th meeting. Sir W. Armstrong
described a machine invented by Captain Andrew Noble
for measuring very minute intervals of time, which was
being employed to measure the velocity of a projectile in
passing through the gun. The principle of the machine
was that an electric spark, emitted by a series of pointed
wires, arranged at fixed intervals, marked the circumference
of a number of smoke-blackened discs, which rotated with
a high velocity about an axis. It had proved remarkably
successful in measuring even the smallest variations in the
time occupied by the shot in passing through successive
intervals of the gun. It had also been observed that a
much milder kind of gunpowder had been found to give a
higher average pressure than that generally used, notwith-
standing its lower maximum pressure. This probably was
due to the fact that the higher temperature, accompanying
more intense pressure, caused greater absorption of heat
by the gun, with a consequent loss of propelling power.

March i8th, 200th meeting. Mr. Gassiot spoke of a very
powerful electrical machine by which a spark could be
obtained 19 inches in length.

April 26th, 20ist meeting. Dr. Hooker exhibited drawings
of some curiously-shaped stones, found by Mr. W. T. L.
Travers, F.Z.S., on the isthmus between Lyell's Bay and
Evans* Bay, near Wellington, New Zealand. They have
a strong resemblance to works of human art, occur in great

* Henry Tibbats Stainton {1822-1892), a distinguished entomologist,
author of papers and works on British insects. Secretary of the Ray Society
J861-1872, F.R.S. 1867.

Wind-worn Stones 183

abundance, and vary in size from half an inch to several
inches in length. Mr. Travers believed that, notwith-
standing their artil&cial aspect, they were formed merely by
the cutting action ot wind-driven sand, as it drifted over an
exposed boulder bank which forms the higher part of the
isthmus. Dr. Hector, while adopting this .view, had re-
marked that if they had been elsewhere associated with
works of human art, they would have been referred to the
so-called stone period. ^ Dr. Hector thought that the Umus
of the Maoris (the kjokkenmoddings of New Zealand) were
places Hkely to favour the production of these stones, being
generally on rising ground among sand dunes. Sir P.
Egerton said that Lord Selkirk had given him a stone,
polished by driving sand, which he had found in Egypt nine
years ago. This he would bring to the Club (see next page).
Mr. Evans felt some doubt about the origin assigned to
these stones, but reserved his opinion till he had an oppor-
tunity of examining them.

May 27th, 202nd meeting. Mr. Sclater said that a few
days previously a living specimen of the rare mammal
Ailurusfulgens, the correct zoological position of which is still
doubtful, 2 had arrived at the Zoological Gardens. It had
been obtained near DarjeeHng, and brought to England by
Dr. Simpson.

June 17th, 203rd meeting. Mr. Prestwich referred to the
subway then being constructed under the Thames, which
was expected to be finished in about two months. The
tunnel was about 9 feet in diameter, and some 20 feet below
the bed of the river, being cut entirely through the London
clay, at the rate of about 9 feet a day.

1 They are described and figured by Mr. J. D. Enys in Quart. Jour.
Geol. Soc. vol. xxxiv. {1878), page 86. Specimens have been placed by
myself in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, with sand-worn stones
from near Wady Haifa, Egypt, given to me by Colonel H. G. Lyons,
F.R.S. These dreikanter, etc., have been often noticed in recent geological
literature.

' Aelurus fulgens, the panda, is placed by the late W. T. Blanford, The
Fauna of British India {Mammalia), page 189, in the Procyonidae (racoons,
etc.). The genus contains but a single species pecuUar to the Himalayan
region.

184 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Sir Philip Egerton exhibited a stone, polished by blown
sand, which Lord Selkirk had picked up in March, 1849,
on the east side of the Red Sea not far from Suez near the
wells of Mabouk. These are on a flat strip of land between
the sea and a range of hills. Here the wind is always blowing^
up and down, and the driven sand ^ polishes the exposed
surfaces of the stones.

Oct. 28th, 204th meeting. Mr. Prestwich announced
that the Thames Tunnel had now been completed, still
wholly through the London clay, to 120 feet beyond the
river, on the south side, where the corresponding shaft was
being constructed.

Dr. Carpenter stated the general results of the Deep-Sea
Dredging Expedition of the current year. In the cold area
of the Atlantic the temperature was ascertained to be as
low as 30° F. Its fauna was arctic in character and very
rich, including, at 650 fathoms, thousands of Arctic echino-
derms {Comatula escrichtii, etc.) with dwarfed forms of
ordinary British species. From depths of 550 to 700 fathoms
in the warm area numerous species of HoUenia and Hyalonema
were obtained. Hardly a species was common to the two
areas, which in places were within ten miles of each other.
A depth of 2435 fathoms had been reached in the north of
the Bay of Biscay, 250 miles W. of Ushant. Here a con-
siderable variety of animal life, representing nearly every
division of the invertebrata, had been found in the Atlantic
mud, among which was a new crinoid and certain chalk
fossils hitherto regarded as extinct.

Professor Huxley announced that his examination of
specimens of Thecodontosaurus had proved it to belong to the
Dinosauria.

Nov. 25th, 205th meeting. Professor Flower gave some
particulars of a fin- whale (Balaenoptera 2) which recently had
been stranded in Layston Harbour, near Portsmouth, and
produced some hairs from its beard.

^ See April 26th, page 183.

2 Four species, according to the British Museum Gutde to the Mammalian
Galleries, are occasionally stranded on the British coasts.

Arsenic in River Water 185

Mr. Paget mentioned that a patient, whose tongue he had
recently excised, was nevertheless able to speak articulately
within twenty-four hours after the operation.

Dec. i6th, 2o6th meeting. Mr. Grove called attention to
some recent changes in the planet Jupiter, the south pole,
usually dark, having become brilhantly light. This was
succeeded by a dark belt variegated with light ; afterwards
by an extremely bright belt where it was usually dark.

Dr. W. A. Miller read a letter from Dr. Robinson ^ giving
an account of the progress made with the new telescope
which Mr. Grubb (now Sir Howard), of Dublin, was con-
structing for the Royal Society.

1870. Jan. 27th, 207th meeting. Mr. Evans exhibited
a stone implement discovered in gravel on Southampton
Common 180 feet above the level of the river Itchen.^

Mr. Grove referred to a paper recently pubUshed in 'Nature '
by Mr. Barrett, and made some remarks on the correspon-
dence between the spectrum of Hght and the gamut of sound.

Sir R. Murchison spoke of Mr. Hayward's recent travels
in Kaschgar and Yarkand, sa3dng that he was now preparing
to explore the table-land of Pamir, which had not been
visited since the days of Marco Polo.

Sir B. Brodie called attention to a recently invented
mechanical process for separating the starch and gluten of
rice and other flour.

Feb. 24th, 2o8th meeting. Professor Frankland said that
river water contained an appreciable quantity of arsenic.
In Lancashire he attributed it to the iron pyrites used in
the alkah works, and had estimated that thus 1500 or 1600
tons of arsenic were introduced yearly into Great Britain.
He had found the metal in the London sewage at Barking
to the amount of 0*004 ^^ 100,000 parts, and accounted for

1 Dr. Thomas Romney Robinson (1797-1882), Fellow of Trinity College,
Dublin, in charge of the Armagh Observatory, F.R.S., and distinguished
for his physical and astronomical writings.

2 Implements from this locality, perhaps including the one mentioned
above, are described in J. Evans, Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain
(ed. ii.), pages 613-5.

3 W. F. Barrett, Nature, vol. i. page 286.

1 86 Annals of the Philosophical Club

its presence by the large consumption of coal in the Metro-
polis, from which the arsenic passed off in smoke, for he
found it even in London rainwater to the extent of o*oo8 in
100,000 parts.

Professor Cornu,^ of Paris (a guest), spoke of an optical study
of the deformation of elastic bodies and the employment of
a new source of photogenic and monochromatic light. ^

March 31st, 209th meeting. Mr. Sclater said that a
remarkable new fish had been obtained from one of the rivers
in Eastern Queensland by Mr. Krafft, curator of the
Australian Museum at Sydney, which appeared to be inter-
mediate between Lepidosiren and the Ganoid fishes. It
was referred by him to the genus Ceratodus (Agassiz), but
it appeared to be nearer to Dipterus ; though probably it
would require a new genus. Professor Huxley remarked
that the discovery had a special interest for those who, like
himself, had asserted Lepidosiren to be closely connected
with the Ganoids.

April 25th, 2ioth meeting (anniversary). Mr. Gassiot
stated that when the electric discharges from an induction
coil are passed through vacuum tubes with uranium-glass
globes, these become intensely illuminated, owing to the
high refrangibiUty of electrical light. But on heating one
of the globes with a spirit lamp, the peculiar luminosity
disappears, which, however, is recovered if the globe be
allowed to cool.

Colonel Sykes enquired whether, when sea water freezes,
the salt is or is not ehminated. The opinion expressed was
that the salt in this water was only mechanically present and
cordd be eliminated by repeated freezing.

Oct. 24th, 213th meeting. Professor Peirce,^ of New York,
Director of the American expedition to observe the ecHpse

1 M. A. Comu (1841-1902), Professor of Physics at the ficole Polytech-
nique, Paris, who wrote many important papers on the phenomena and
properties of light.

2 The Minute, no doubt suppUed by the Professor, is in French, with
two pen-and-ink diagrams, and does not admit of condensation.

^ J. M. P. Peirce, Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics at Harvard
University, Cambridge, U.S.A.

A Total Solar Eclipse 187

of the sun on Dec. 22nd (a guest), described its plan. His
Government had granted £6000 for the purpose, and twenty-
five observers were to be sent to the Mediterranean, one
party to Spain, the other to Sicily. The corona would
receive special attention. Comments were made on the
action of the Admiralty, which, by refusing a ship, had
caused the collapse of the English expedition, but it was
stated that the Government would now be more willing
to consider the matter. The members present were in
favour of repeating the appHcation, though it was doubtful
whether there would be sufficient time for the needful
preparations.

Nov. 24th, 214th meeting. A singular atmospheric
phenomenon, witnessed at Copenhagen in July 185 1, but of
which a scientific explanation had only recently been given,
was mentioned by Mr. Gassiot. About sunset a light blue
luminous cone shot through the sky, followed by four others
going in the same direction and of the same colour. Their
diameter was a little less than that of the sun, the fifth
being smaller than the others. It was followed by irregular
masses, with an apparently strong internal movement.

Mr. Huggins described the preparations for observing the
coming ecUpse of the sun, the Government having now
offered the necessary assistance in transport and money.

1871. Jan. 26th, 216th meeting. Mr. Huggins gave
some particulars of the late solar ecHpse. At Or an, where
he was stationed, clouds hid the sun during totaHty. He
exhibited photographs, taken by Lord Lindsay, Mr. Willard
of the American expedition, and Mr. Brothers. One of the
first-named showed a larger amount of halo on the side of
the moon on which the brighter part of the corona round
the sun was visible. This probably had to a great extent
a terrestrial origin, namely in the Hght scattered by the
imperfect transparency of our atmosphere. In the photo-
graphs, taken by Mr. Willard in Spain and Mr. Brothers in
Syracuse, similar dark rifts are seen in the corona, which
suggests that the light in which they occur is exterior to the
earth's atmosphere and probably near the sun.

1 8 8 Annals of the Philosophical Club

March 30th, 218th meeting. Mr. Busk described an effect
produced by different-coloured chalks. During a lecture
at the Royal College of Surgeons, what was written in blue
on the blackboard seemed to be in the same plane as it ;
that in red to project two or three inches from it ; and that
in white to occupy an intermediate position. The effect was
seen by two of the audience, whose attention he had called
to it. Some members present mentioned similar appear-
ances which they thought might help in explaining the
phenomenon.

June 29th, 22oth meeting. Dr. Hooker gave an account
of his recent three months' expedition to Marocco.^ The
general coolness of the climate, due to the prevalent north-
west winds and the cold southerly current along the Atlantic
coast, had especially struck him. His party went from
Tetuan to Mogador by sea, and thence to Marocco. From
that city they visited the main chain of the Atlas, some
20 miles south of it, and reached a height of 12,000 feet.
Though snow falls on the highest parts throughout the year,
it is only permanent as patches in gullies. No glaciers now
exist, but they discovered a moraine at a height of about
7000 feet. No truly Alpine plants were found, the vegeta-
tion, so far as it extended upwards, being purely Spanish.

Oct. 26th, 22ist meeting. Mr. Paget said that the brain
of the late Mr. Babbage,^ which had been examined in
accordance with his desire, was rather below than above
the average weight and slightly asymmetrical. It would
be placed in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.

Nov. 23rd, 222nd meeting. Dr. Carpenter communicated
some results of his expedition to the Mediterranean, during
the past autumn, on H.M.S. Shearwater while on its way to
survey the Red Sea. The evidence of an outflow under-

1 It began on April ist and ended on June 21st. He was accompanied
by Mr. John Ball, the weU-known Alpine botanist, and Mr. G. Maw. The
journey is described in their Journal of a Tour in Marocco and the Great
Atlas, 1878.

2 Charles Babbage {1791-1871), so eminent in mathematics and mechani-
cal science, noted especially as inventor of the calculating machine. He-
had died on Oct. i8th.

The Mediterranean Sea-Bed 189

current from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, which had
iDeen ascertained during the previous year,^ had been fully
confirmed by soundings near Gibraltar. The results of
<iredging in the eastern and western basins, though not yet
fully worked out, showed the foraminifera, at any rate, to
correspond, in the former basin, with the Red Sea species,
and in the latter with Atlantic species. The deeper parts
of both basins were azoic, a consequence, he beUeved, of the
small proportion of oxygen in the bottom waters, due to
Ihe entire absence of currents in those regions.

Dec. 2ist, 223rd meeting. Sir C. Lyell, referring to
Dr. Carpenter's remarks at the last meeting, gave some
additional particulars from a report sent to the Admiralty by
Captain Nares, who thought that the Mediterranean tide
acted and reacted down to the bottom of the Strait, causing
an outflow during flood tide and an inflow during the ebb.
At the surface the constant inflowing current is much checked
by the flood tide, but is strong during the ebb, except when
easterly winds prevail. Admiral Richards, however, con-
sidered that the time (six days) devoted to observation was
not enough to warrant conclusions about the relative volumes
of the outflow and inflow, especially as an easterly wind
prevailed for most of the time.

1872. Jan. 25th, 224th meeting. Mr. Huggins gave
particulars of the late solar ecHpse from accounts by Dr.
Jansen and Colonel Tennant. These showed it could no
longer be doubted that the corona belongs to the solar
atmosphere, and the latter observer stated that the rifts
on the corona had again been noted.

Dr. Hooker stated that Mr. New, of Mombasa, had made
a partial ascent of Kilimanjaro, and had brought back a few
plants. 2

^ Sir Wyville Thomson, The Depths of the Sea (1873), pages 189-195, or
"W. B. Carpenter, Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. xx. p. 535.

2 In August, 1 87 1, he crossed the snow-Hne (probably rather above
13,000 feet) at the south-east base of Kibo, discovering on his return the
little crater lake Jala, and observed that the vegetation on KiUmanjaro
is divisible into six zones. See Hans Meyer, Across East African Glaciers
^translated 1891), page 11.

1 90 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Feb. 29th, 225th meeting. Professor Cornu (see p. 186)"
(guest) mentioned that he had obtained the reversal of several
of the spectral lines of certain metals by placing the metal or
its chloride in the path of either the induction spark or the
electric arc : namely aluminium, sodium, lead, copper, and
thallium, one line ; silver, two Unes ; magnesium, zinc, and
cadmium, three lines. He had failed to get reversal of any
lines in iron, cobalt, bismuth, antimony, or gold. He had
come to the conclusion that a very thin layer of vapour (sa
thin as to be imperceptible at the distance of the earth from
the sun) was sufficient for this reversal. But he thought it
needless to assume that a continuous atmosphere, however
thin, existed around the sun, the absorption being always
local, and taking place spontaneously by the external
refrigeration around each incandescent point.

Mr. J. Evans exhibited some objects of bronze and their
moulds, belonging to the later part of that period, from
a find at Harty in Sheppey.

Mr. Sclater stated that the Zoological Gardens had recently
received a living specimen of Rhinoceros Sumatrensis^

March 25th, 226th meeting. Mr. Spottiswoode, referring
to Professor Cornu's communication to the last meeting,
said that on observing with his large automatic spectroscope
the spectrum of metalUc sodium in a Bunsen burner he
had noticed a well-defined absorption line on the centre
of each of the bright hues D^ and D2, giving them the
appearance of being double. The absorption lines therefore
were much narrower than the corresponding bright Hues.

April 23rd, 227th meeting (anniversary). Professor
Huxley, who had recently returned from Egypt, said he had
been very much impressed by the signs of aerial denudation
in the valley of the Nile, though the climate apparently
was almost rainless.^

* Afterwards it gave birth to a calf. W. T. Blanford, Fauna of British
India (Mammalia), page 477.

* The word ' aerial ' must refer, I think, to action of streams rather than
of winds. In that sense it is very conspicuous above Cairo between the
right bank of the Nile and the eastern hills. See A. J. Jukes-Browne»
Geol. Mag. 1877, page 477.

Visit to the Plain of Troy 19^1

May 23rd, 228th meeting. Dr. Hooker said the Ipeca-
cuanha plant had been lately established in the Himalayas,
and was thriving luxuriantly.

Mr. Siemens explained the working of the pneumatic
despatch tube lately fitted up under his superintendence at
the General Post Office.

Oct. 24th, 229th meeting. Dr. Carpenter said that a
strong under-current, as H.M.S. Shearwater had discovered,
flowed at a depth of about 20 fathoms through the Darda-
nelles into the Black Sea. This he had predicted two years
ago, so he regarded it as confirmatory of the general theory
of under-currents.

Nov. 2ist, 230th meeting. Sir John Lubbock, who had
lately visited the Plain of Troy, said that it did not corre-
spond with Homer's description so well as several recent
writers had asserted. He had opened the so-called Tumulus
of Hector, without finding any sign of an interment, but he
admitted that his exploration was not a complete one.

Mr. Sclater gave an account of the Livingstone search
expeditions about to be despatched from England ; one,
commanded by the Messrs. Grandy, to work from the west
coast of Africa by the river Congo, the other by Lieutenant
Cameron and Dr. Dillon from Zanzibar by Lake Tanganyika.
The Zoological Society had urged on the leaders the impor-
tance of making collections of Natural History, and had
offered a grant in aid.

Dec. 19th, 231st meeting. Dr. Carpenter said that though
the Challenger had encountered rough weather on its way
from Sheerness to Portsmouth, it had arrived there, as he
had ascertained on a visit yesterday, without the sUghtest
injury to the scientific apphances, of which the provision
was most satisfactory.

Sir Benjamin Brodie referred to a movement, both external
and internal, to stimulate the universities to the promotion
of science and the encouragement of original research. Mr.
Grove thought that for this purpose fellowships, tenable for
a term of years, but irrespective of marriage, might be
helpful.

192 Annals of the Philosophical Club

1873. Feb. 27th, 233rd meeting. Professor Tyndall
described his recent visit to the Niagara Falls, stating that
he considered the disturbance of the surface in the centre
of the Rapids, three miles below the Falls, to be due, not to
inequalities of the bottom, but to the meeting of two sets
of waves thrown by the rocks on each bank diagonally
across the stream.

June 19th, 236th meeting. Dr. Hooker said that a
collection of plants, sent by the Challenger from Bermuda,
so far as examined, showed the flora of these islands to be
closely related to that of the southern United States with a
considerable mixture of tropical forms. ^

Sir B. Brodie described results of his experiments on
decomposing carbonic acid gas by induced electricity, in
the course of which he had demonstrated ozone to be a
triatomic form of oxygen.

Professor Mayer,^ of New York (guest), gave an account of
his experiments on the elongation of iron bars by magnetism.

Oct. 30th, 237th meeting. Professor Sylvester exhibited
a model of an instrument invented by Captain Peaucellier,
of the French Engineers, for converting circular into recti-
linear motion. With certain additions, it could also convert
spherical into plane motion. By a suitable combination
of a number of these, the working point could also be made
to describe any algebraical curve up to the sixth order
(inclusive). This result he thought might be extended to
curves of any degree, and that a connected train of these
machines would be capable of reproducing whatever motion
could be obtained by any combination of jointed rods.
Such a train would serve as a universal calculating machine
for extracting the roots of numbers and performing still
more recondite algebraical operations, so that he believed
Peaucellier's machine would prove to be of the highest
practical importance.

1 The subject was discussed afterwards by Mr. Moseley, of the Challenger,
" Notes on the Vegetation of Bermuda," Jour. Linn. Soc. xiv. (Botany),
page 317.

2 Perhaps Dr. A. M. Mayer, Professor of Physics and Director of the
Laboratory at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, U.S.A.

Experiments with Fog Signals 193

Professor Tyndall described the results of experiments,
made off the South Foreland, to ascertain the best means
of producing sounds to serve as fog signals at sea. Of the
various contrivances tested, the most powerful was a steam
siren, with twelve radial slits worked under a pressure of
70 lbs. The experiments had shown the extraordinary
extent to which even the most powerful sounds were affected
by the state of the atmosphere, the direction of the wind,
and the hke, but not by falUng rain, as had been supposed.
A very probable cause of the obstruction of sound, even
on a perfectly calm and optically clear atmosphere, was the
formation, under a hot sun, of strata of air in different degrees
of saturation by aqueous vapour, from the surface of which
the sound apparently was partially reflected. In one
instance the loudest sounds, on a perfectly calm and clear
day, were inaudible at three miles from the shore till after
sunset. Also, when the observers came between the shore
and the stratified portion of the atmosphere, they noticed
the reverberation of the sound from the air to be very loud
and distinct.

Nov. 27th, 238th meeting. In a conversation on Professor
Sylvester's communication to the last meeting, Mr. Huggins
stated that M. Martin, of the Paris Observatory, had given
perfectly flat surfaces to mirrors for heliostats by using
convex and concave instead of flat tools, the process being
carefully watched and tested from time to time.

Dec. 1 8th, 239th meeting. Professor Cleik Maxwell
exhibited an instrument for applying polarized Ught to
detect the state of strain in a moving viscous fluid. This
was placed in a hollow brass cylinder with glass ends, within
which another metal cyUnder was made to rotate, and
parallel to it a polarized beam was passed through the fluid.
Liquid Canada balsam showed the effects well, but he had
failed to obtain them with gum mucilage or syrup. This
method appeared to be capable of indicating the nature of
viscosity in different substances.

1874. Jan. 29th, 240th meeting. Mr. Busk spoke of
two skulls of the tiger, recently brought by Mr. R. Swinhoe
p.c. N

1 94 Annals of the Philosophical Club

from China, one from Fychoo in the south, the other from
Manchuria in the north, where the winter is very severe and
much snow falls, under which the tiger burrows. This
form is covered with long hair. But the two, so far as can
be inferred from their skulls, are specifically identical, and
indistinguishable from the Bengal tiger.

Professor Tyndall described an instrument, the invention
of his assistant Mr. Cottrel, to illustrate the action of flame in
reflecting sonorous vibrations. A sound is transmitted down
one of two tubes which are placed at an angle and is there
reflected from a broad batswing flame down the other, on
to a sensitive flame at the farther end, which was readily
affected.

Feb. 26th, 241st meeting. Principal ElHot,^ of Harvard
University (a guest), in a conversation about the introduction
of small birds into America for the destruction of caterpillars,
said that though the common house sparrow had easily
found food and multiplied rapidly, it was necessary in
Boston and Cambridge to supply them with water during
the dry season, for without this they would die out.

Mr. Siemens gave an account of a vessel constructed for
laying deep-sea telegraph cables, which had recently been
built under his superintendence at Newcastle-on-Tyne.
It was 5000 tons burden, and could contain 1800 miles of
cable. Both ends being alike, it could move either way,
and could turn quickly round, as it was propelled by twin
screws.

March 26th, 242nd meeting. Dr. Carpenter gave *an
account of the parts of a swing-bridge which he had recently
seen in Sir W. Armstrong's works at Newcastle-on-Tyne
for spanning that river. It would be turned by hydraulic
pressure on a central pier, leaving on either side a space of
70 feet. The total weight would be about 1800 tons, but
the turning machinery could be worked by one man.

1 The name is twice written Elliott in the Minutes, but I think it can
only be Charles William Elliot, bom at Boston in 1834, who became
Principal of Harvard in 1869 and was most successful in reorganizing
that University, resigning his position in 1900. He also wrote on
Chemistry.

Studies of Temperatures 195

Professor Frankland made some remarks on the winter
temperature and climate of Davos, where he had recently-
spent about seventeen days. The weather phenomena were
almost opposite to those experienced in England. The
warmest wind was from the north-east, and the thicker the
snow upon the ground, the higher the temperature. Davos,
though about 5200 feet above the sea, enjoyed an almost
perpetual calm and bright sunshine, with a nearly uniform
temperature from sunrise to sunset. The rivers freeze from
the bottom instead of the top, and give off vapour even at
the freezing point. Anyone desirous of warming himself
sits still in the open air, but moves about if the contrary.

June i8th, 245th meeting. Mr. Gassiot exhibited prints
from blocks suited for use in newspapers, to show the daily
meteorological condition. The map outUnes were already
stamped on them, and those required to show these condi-
tions were engraved with Mr. F. Galton's drill pentagraph.

Mr. Gait on stated that the Meteorological Committee had
recently applied the planimeter — an instrument for obtaining
areas mechanically — to calculating the mean values of
meteorological observations, as recorded on the engraved
sheets of their quarterly reports, with quite satisfactory
results.

Sir John Lubbock referred to a recent order of the Public
Schools Commissioners which made the teaching of Physical
Science, with examinations, generally obUgatory in such
schools, and gave some details in regard to it.

Professor Prestwich spoke of a memoir on deep sea
temperatures which he had submitted to the Royal Society.^
In it he had collected and classified all available temperatures
from 1849 to 1865. So far back as 1823 temperatures of
35° to 36° F. were obtained at depths of 8000 to 10,000 feet,
and many concordant observations showed a constant
temperature at great depths in the Mediterranean. It was
not the case, as D'Urville had assumed, that the greatest
depths always had the temperature of the greatest density,
viz. 39° F.

* Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. xxii. page 462.

196 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Dr. Giinther observed that Capt. Kellett's observations
in the North and West Pacific agreed with the more recent
observations made with the latest improved appliances.

Nov. 26th, 247th meeting. The substance of Professor
Wyville Thomson's paper on some observations made by
the Challenger, to be read this evening to the Royal Society,^
was given by Professor Huxley. It showed that the
Globigerina ooze — ^the modern representative of the chalk —
extended to a depth of about 2250 fathoms, and then gave
place to red clay. The organisms, which are the chief
constituents of this ooze, live near the surface, and their
dead shells are constantly falling to the bottom, where they
He in various stages of decay ; the red clay, composed of
alumina silicate and red oxide of iron, being their insoluble
residue.

In a conversation which followed, some members attributed
the removal of the carbonate of lime to free carbonic acid
in the sea-water, and thought that the red clay, instead of
being due to the disintegration of older rocks, might have
been formed simultaneously with the ooze. A discussion
followed on these subjects, and especially on the solvent
power of sea-water and the presence of free carbonic acid
at great depths in association with ice-cold water derived
from the melting of polar ice.

Dec. 17th, 248th meeting. Dr. Carpenter, who was absent
from the last meeting, expressed dissent from some of
Professor Thomson's conclusions. The latter had indeed
proved the young thin-shelled globigerinas to float at the
surface, but their shells, in growing older, as Dr. Wallich
and himself had shown, became so much thicker that they
sink to the bottom, where they continue to live. Only those
who have studied sections of the shells can appreciate this
thickening. That the globigerinas, which he and Dr. Wallich
had collected, were alive, was shown by the exact conformity
of their sarcode with that of other foraminifera. Water,
which they had obtained from immediately above the
bottom, was quite turbid from the number of young

* Proc, Roy. Soc. vol. xxii. page 423.

Red Clay in the Ocean Depths 197

globigerinas floating in it, which he thought must either
have subsided to this level while still living, or, after having
been born there, must be on their way to the surface, there
to live till they had reached full growth, when their increased
weight would cause them to sink. While agreeing with
Professor Thomson that the red clay was derived from the
foraminifera, he thought it a met amorphic form of the iron
alumina siUcate, which often replaces, as in sundry green-
sands, the sarcode of the foraminifer after its death. In
Captain Spratt's dredgings from the Aegean he had found
particles of red clay among the glauconite grains, which
suggested by their shape that they had been formed in the
interior of chambers, which had afterwards been removed
by solution.

Dr. Playfair called attention to some important Indian
coal-deposits, which had recently been found in the Nizam's
Dominions. Pohtical considerations, which it was hoped
would be overcome, prevented English capitalists from
working them. Valuable deposits of iron ore also occurred
near some of them.

1875. March i8th, 251st meeting. Mr. Sylvester
exhibited a model of a new machine on the principle of
Capt. PeaucelHer's parallel motion instrument (see page 192).
It had the form of a fan united at the ends by transverse
bars jointed in the middle. When the latter were straight,
the radii were equidistant ; when they were bent in alternate
directions, the angles formed by the radii are alternately
larger and smaller. This Vandyck fan, as he proposed to
call the instrument, could be easily applied to dividing an
angle into three parts, and Professor Clerk Maxwell had
suggested using the principle in constructing a spectrum
apparatus, for it ensured a regular angular movement of
the prisms.

June 17th, 254th meeting. Sir J. Paget exhibited a
facsimile of a letter of WiUiam Harvey, lately found in the
British Museum. It was written from Flanders, where he
was travelling with the Duke of Lennox, and addressed to
Secretary Dorchester, to complain that his patent as King's

198 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Physician had not been respected, another person having
been appointed, without justification, to receive his salary.
A second letter, similarly found, written officially to Prince
Rupert, describes a visit to Prince Maurice, and states that
the army was suffering from fever. He mentions that,
having found some one in a very bad state, he determined
not to give him any medicine.

Professor Flower exhibited a piece of the Demerara sub-
marine telegraph, the gutta-percha coating of which had
been cut through (and its action stopped) by the rostrum
of a sawfish, one of the teeth of which was left in the coating.
Dr. Giinther said the sawfish is supposed to feed on the
intestines of other fish, its mouth being lined with rows of
very minute teeth, so that it probably used its rostrum to
cut them open. In this case it was very likely near the
bottom.

1876. Feb. 24th, 259th meeting. Dr. Siemens ex-
plained the principle of an apparatus, which he called a
bathometer and had devised for ascertaining the depth
of the sea without using a sounding wire. This was done
by measuring the effect produced by a diminution in density
of the attracting body. As the material of the earth is
more dense than sea- water, gravitation at its surface should
be greater than at that of the ocean. The instrument for
measuring the difference consisted of a vertical tube with
cup-like extremities, containing mercury, which pressed
upon an elastic steel diaphragm, supported in the centre
by carefully tempered steel springs. It was so arranged
as to compensate for variation of temperature, and being
open at both ends was not affected by that of atmospheric
pressure. The effect of latitude had been calculated in
iathoms of depth, and tabulated for use with the instrument.
Dr. Siemens said that a comparison of the instrument's read-
ings with those obtained from Sir W. Thomson's sounding
wire justified the expectation that it would indicate to the
mariner changes of depth long before he reached really
dangerous ground.

An attraction meter had been constructed on the same

Radiometers 199

principle. At each end of a horizontal tube of wrought iron,
a similar horizontal tube is fixed, the openings from the one
to the other being incomplete and only below their horizontal
mid-section. The transverse tubes communicate by a glass
tube of small diameter at a higher level than the wrought-
iron one. The first tube is filled with mercury, but the
second pair only to half their depth ; the remainder being
filled with coloured alcohol, except for a bubble of air in the
centre of the glass tube. The whole apparatus is mounted
on three set screws to maintain its level. When a heavy
object is brought near one end of the instrument the mercury
is attracted thither and the bubble moves away from the
attracting body. Dr. Siemens explained how the sensitive-
ness of the instrument might be increased, suggesting the
application of it to measuring and recording the attraction
of the sun and moon which gave rise to the tides.

May i8th, 262nd meeting. Sir W. Grove described some
experiments which he had made with a modification of
Crookes' radiometer, ^ giving a summary of the results.
Though these were somewhat negative, they tended, in his
opinion, to show that all the effects were due to residual air.

June 15th, 263rd meeting. Sir W. Grove described
experiments with a new electrometer, made for him by
Mr. Crookes, and with the old one after being re-exhausted.
As a result its action had become normal. The experiments
showed the effects of attenuation of air upon discharge and
induction not to be the same. When it has commenced and
is increasing, the discharge passes more and more rapidly
till it becomes a glow, but further attenuation stops it
entirely, while induction does not appear to be in any way
lessened by extreme attenuation. A radiometer also appears
to be a most delicate electroscope. By tilting it till the
vanes touch the glass, the interior of this may be electrified,
and it will then remain for days in that condition. Every
endeavour had been made to discharge or neutrahze the
electricity on the glass surface, but it remained charged,

^The Minutes include a diagram and description of the instrument,
l)ut without the one the other would hardly be intelUgible.

200 Annals of the Philosophical Club

showing what a perfect insulation a good vacuum is. Mr.
Huggins mentioned that Mr. Crookes had told him he was
now convinced the effects were due to residual air, so that
there would be no rotation of the vanes if the vacuum were
perfect. Also he had found a degree of rarefaction at which
the effects of rotation reached a maximum, beyond which
they diminished.

Nov. 23rd, 265th meeting. Sir James Paget mentioned
a case, which he had recently come across, where embryonic
characters were retained in many members of the same
family. It was known that the branchial fissures found in
the early stages of embryonic life, instead of closing in the
later, were retained as small blind sinuses in the neck, the
existence of which was betrayed by their exuding httle
drops of white mucus, by which, whenever the possessor was
affected by catarrh, the outside of the throat was smeared ;
the reason being that, though not in direct connexion with
the bronchial membrane, they sympathized with it. In this
particular case the anomaly existed in a gentleman, his
father, his sister, and four of his eight children. It was
accompanied by another embryonic condition, which he
believed had not hitherto been observed, namely a sinus
on the upper part of the heHx of the ear, large enough to
admit a very fine probe. This was, he beUeved, a reUc of
the second branchial fissure. Five of the children had this
peculiarity.

Mr. Sclater stated that he had just received from the
Marquis G. Doria information of the discovery of a large
species of Echidna on Mount Arfak in New Guinea. This
was an important fact, for hitherto it had been beheved that
the monotremes were restricted to South-east Australia
and Tasmania.

Dec. 2ist, 266th meeting. Professor Abel described ex-
periments with shells when the bursting charge was contained
in a small metal cylinder, and the space between it and the
inner surface of the shell was filled with water. These experi-
ments, of which he gave particulars, showed that the shell
burst into a much larger number of fragments than if it had

Giant Land Tortoises 201

been filled wholly with gunpowder, and their number was pro-
portional to the rapidity of explosion of the bursting charge.
Again, not only is a shell broken into many more pieces by
using a very small charge of guncotton, but these also are
scattered with much violence, and thus are as effective
against troops as the comparatively compHcated shrapnel
shell. By way of illustrating the detonating power of this
water-shell, a wr ought-iron gun, having a bore seven inches
in diameter, after it had been tilted up and filled with water,
had lowered into it a charge of two pounds of guncotton.
When this was exploded the gun was spHt up to the
muzzle in three places, and the external coils of wrought
iron were torn open.

Sir W. Grove spoke of his own experiments in obtaining
gases by passing sparks through water. When that was
wholly deprived of air and perfectly inelastic, the containing
globe or tube invariably burst, but the pieces remained on
the table instead of being blown away.

1877. Jan. 25th, 267th meeting. Dr. Giinther gave a
summary of the memoir on Gigantic Land Tortoises,^ which
he was to read that evening to the Royal Society, including
some earHer memoirs. The isolation of these tortoises was
remarkable, for they occurred only in the Galapagos Islands
and in Mauritius (where they had become extinct) with the
adjacent islands. No intermediate traces of them had
been found except some fragmentary bones in Malta. In
European Museums specimens of these tortoises were rare,
owing either to the fragiUty of their shells, which made
them liable to injury on shipboard, or to the majority of
naturahsts having referred them all to a single very variable
species. But the materials which he had gathered showed
them to belong to three distinct groups : one, in the Gala-
pagos ; another, in the Mascarenes ; and the third, in Aldabra
Island ; each group being represented by several races, the
majority of which had become extinct during the last century.
The date of their disappearance in Mauritius could be fixed

1 See Giinther, Gigantic Land Tortoises Living and Extinct in the Collection
of the British Museum, 1877.

"202 Annals of the Philosophical Club

within a few years, for none were left in 1875. In Rodriguez
they were now carefully preserved. There were hopes of
introducing them into Fiji, where the climate ought to suit
them. They fed on succulent plants.

Feb. 22nd, 268th meeting. The results of experiments to
-test the effects of extreme cold on the vitaHty of seeds were
communicated by Dr. Hooker. He had supplied those of
peas, celery, mustard and cress to the late Arctic expedition, ^
which, after its return, were planted at Kew. The tempera-
ture of the ship's interior, where the seeds were ordinarily
kept, was not below 30° F. With the peas six experiments
were made, when they were submitted to — 6o°F. for
periods varying between five minutes and twelve hours. Of
these 65 to 75 per cent, had grown. Other peas were kept
on deck till January, during which time the temperature
feU to —50° F., and of these 66 per cent, had grown.
Parallel experiments were made with the other seeds, twelve
in each set, the periods in part of them varying from
five minutes to twelve hours, and the temperatures between
— 50° and — 60° ; in the rest, from one hour to twelve hours
and the temperatures from —25° to —40°. The mustard
and cress were invariably killed by this exposure ; the celery
had not yet germinated.

In a conversation which followed, Mr. Simon referred to the
powerful effect of frozen carbonic acid in destroying living
tissue, and thought that the destructive action of the extreme
^old might be a direct, not an indirect one. Dr. Debus
remarked that water in capillary tubes may be reduced to
5° F. before it will freeze. Dr. Hooker referred to the
wheat brought by Sir G. Nares from Polaris Bay, where it
had been for three years exposed to the cold, yet 70 per cent,
of it had grown. A single pea and a single grain of maize
found among it also grew.

Professor Ramsay said that when he, with Mr. James
Geikie, visited Gibraltar last autumn, at the request of the
Foreign Office, to investigate the water supply for the town

1 The one under Captain Nares, during which Captain A. H. Markham,
with sledges, reached lat. 83** 20' N. in 1876.

Geology of Gibraltar 203

and garrison, he made a complete geological survey of the
Rock and the neighbouring part of Spain. They had after-
wards gone along the coast of Africa from Ceuta to Cape
Spartel, staying several days at Tangier. Just outside the
gateway of that town, which leads to the sands, they had
found in a cUff, close to the sea at high water, contorted
strata of shale and sandstone, overlain by coralline sand
and beds of quartz-sand and gravel, looking rather like the
English Crag. In the half consoHdated material of this
they discovered, lying on the denuded surface of the shales
and sandstones, the tooth and a fragment of the jaw of
Elephas antiquus.^ This, the forerunner of the existing
African elephant, had not hitherto been found on that
continent, though it occurs in the bone-caves of Gibraltar,
in England, and in other parts of Europe. He also made
some remarks on the direct communication between Africa
and Europe in comparatively recent geological times.

Conversation then turned to the apes on the Rock of
Gibraltar, which Professor Ramsay said were ' pretty
numerous.' Dr. Sclater observed that when he was there
in 1861, they were reduced to three females, and he had
urged the introduction of others lest the breed should
become extinct. 2

May 31st, 271st meeting. Mr. Huggins exhibited speci-
mens of artificial corundum, recently made by M. Feil, of
Paris, the well-known maker of optical glass. They consist
of about 90 per cent, of alumina, fused, under certain con-
ditions, with small quantities of oxides to give the colour
of rubies, sapphires, and amethysts. Examination with
polarized light distinguishes them from the naturally formed
stones, but they have the same hardness, lustre, and other
physical properties. The subject was resumed on June 21st,
when Sir W. Grove said that M. Becquerel many years ago
had shown him a pill-box full of small rubies which were

* See, for an account of the geology of Gibraltar, A. C. Ramsay and
Jas. Geikie, Q.J.G.S. xxxiv. pages 505-5 39- The tooth is the right ultimate
upper molar. It and the section are figured on page 514.

^ See Vacation Tourists, 1861, pages 206, 207.

204 Annals of the Philosophical Club

identical with real stones and appeared to be crystalline^
The question of making them for sale had been considered,
but they proved to be insufficiently perfect. By means of
a battery M. Deprez had produced diamond crystals from
a solution the composition of which was kept secret. They
were stated to be identical with the real stones, but had a
smoky tint. Some of them had been exhibited at the
French Academy.

Dr. Debus spoke of an analysis which he had made of the
colouring matter of some green mushn. In a square yard
of one specimen he had found 60 grains of arsenide of
copper (Scheele's green), and of another, 10 grains. The
colour adhered so slightly to the mushn that, on washing
it, all the green was removed. He cut a square yard of the
first-named sample into fifty pieces, and gave one for analysis
to each of that number of students, and in 20 minutes
the room was so full of the fumes of arsenic that doors and
windows had to be opened. A ball costume contains
from 18 to 20 yards of mushn. An ohve-green dye, recently
introduced, which is a mixture of arsenious acid and chromate
of potash, appears to adhere to the material more firmly
than Scheele's green.

Oct. 25th, 273rd meeting. The subject of poisoning by
arsenical dyes was resumed, and Professor Huxley men-
tioned a case of severe illness which was traced to the arsenic
in the paper of a room. Dr. Carpenter said that he had
been unable to obtain evidence of a glazed paper producing
an injurious effect. Mr. Abel observed that he had found
green glazed paper to contain more arsenic than green
flock paper. Professor Frankland suggested that the flock
itself might not contain much arsenic, but this might be
in the underlying substance which reinforced its colour, and
from which it might be more easily detached than from
glazed paper.

Mr. Huggins referred to his remarks on artificial rubies,
and said that M. Kreil had succeeded in crystaUizing the
fused alumina and thus in making true rubies, one of which
he exhibited. The mass was kept in a state of fusion for

The Planet Mars 205

-eight days. It was now proposed to use gas furnaces, by
which a uniform temperature could be maintained for
weeks together.

Dec. 2oth, 275th meeting. Sir W. Grove compared
observations of the planet Mars, which he had made last
September under very favourable circumstances, with others
made in 1862, when the planet was also unusucdly near the
earth. They showed considerable differences. In 1862
the dark markings were in the south hemisphere of the
planet, and had jagged or festooned edges. This year
a dark patch, shaped Uke an open hand with fingers and
thumb pressed together, lay across the equatorial regions.
The changes might be due to clouds in drift, but more
probably these produced an effect on permanent markings.
His telescope was 4*6 inches aperture, made by Cooke, of
York. He said, in reply to a question by Mr. Ball, that the
markings were substantially the same, though not identical,
ior the short periods during which he had observed them
this year. Mr. Huggins, though he had not been able
personally to observe the planet, because his own telescope
was employed on spectroscopic investigation, had inspected
some admirable photographs taken at Madeira by Mr. Green.
Here the changes since 1862 were not so great as Sir W.
Grove supposed, since the old markings, though modified,
retained their essential character.

1878. Jan. 31st, 276th meeting. Dr. Burdon-Sanderson
said that he and Mr. Ewart, of University College, had been
investigating Dr. Koch's discoveries of the bacillus which
caused splenic fever, an extremely contagious and fatal
disease of cattle. The organism, so rapidly developed in
the blood and tissues, and particularly the spleen of the
affected animal, can also be cultivated, retaining its viru-
lence, in other soil. It can be communicated to a healthy
animal either by the insertion of a bit of the plant or by
inoculating it with the blood from a diseased one. Mr. Ewart
had been able to study the development of the protophyte
from the spore onwards more completely than had hitherto
been done, and had found it to afford characters even more

2o6 Annals of the Philosophical Club

sharply defined than the disease. The speaker had brought
from Breslau the original matter from which the organism
was grown, and it had been developed from the blood of
an animal, which had died five years before.

Feb. 28th, 277th meeting. After Dr. Burdon-Sanderson
had shown some photographs of the magnified organism,
described at the last meeting, Sir J. Hooker produced two^
pieces of wood, scored and grooved by drifting sand ; one
from an old juniper tree (of a species believed to attain the
age of 2000 years) which was growing on the crest of a ridge
between two valleys at a height of about 9000 feet on Mount
Stanford in the Sierra Nevada (North America). The wind
blowing across this crest carries with it granite sand, which
cuts grooves in the wood, parallel with its direction, and
had thus entirely removed the bark, together with an
unknown thickness of subjacent wood. The other specimen
came from a prostrate Hmb of a living tree (Pinus albicaulis),
growing at an elevation of about 8000 feet on a ridge of
Mount Shasta in Upper California. The Hmb lay in the
direction of the prevalent wind ; here the grooves, cut by
the volcanic sand, were disposed lengthwise.

March 22nd, 278th meeting. Dr. Hooker exhibited a
specimen of petrified wood, which he had obtained from a
museum in Utah, the pores of which contained silver. The
origin of the ore is unknown, but large quantities of the
metal are said to be extracted from wood of this description.

Dr. Allen Thomson showed a piece of wood in which a
bone of the foot of a large ruminant was embedded ; and
several suggestions were offered to explain its presence.

Dr. Siemens stated that if any motive power, such as that
produced by faUing water, were expended in generating an
electric current, and this, after transmission through a
copper rod 2 inches in diameter and thirty miles long, were
used to drive a machine, the mechanical efiect would be
one-half that of the original power.

April 29th, 279th meeting. Mr. Galton exhibited speci-
mens of composite photographic portraits, formed by
throwing faint images of the portraits of different persons

Composite Portraits zoj

on the same sensitized plate. He described the process,
and said that the single figure, which was the aggregate
result, had a surprising air of reahty. He thought such
photographs would be useful to anthropologists in enabling
them to obtain more typical figures of races and famiHes
than they now possessed. In hereditary enquiries alsa
composites of brothers and sisters could be compared with
those of their near ancestry. ^

Dr. Carpenter said the late Mr. Appold used a stereoscope
to combine two portraits of himself, one with a serious, the
other with a smiUng expression. The result was an excellent
likeness.

Mr. Busk thought the process might be applied to produce
typical figures of the skulls of different races. Some members
considered that persons had more points of resemblance
than was generally supposed, Dr. Carpenter sajdng that
to English observers Japanese looked very Uke one another,
though probably to themselves they seem as dissimilar in
aspect as we think our own people to be. Sir PhiHp Egerton
quoted the case of sheep, where the apparently close
resemblance might be equally illusory.

June 2oth, 281st meeting. Mr. Abel exhibited specimens^
to illustrate the ravages of white ants at St. Helena, and more
recently at Pointe de Galle. At the latter place quantities of
thick rope had been rendered useless, the strands in many
places having been cut through. At the former one, they
had reduced a district of James Town to ruins, leaving only
the bare stone walls. Thence they went to the barracks.
Ladder Hill, and then to the arsenal, attacking the woodwork
of the stores, shell-bottoms, rifle-plugs and the like. Mr.
Abel exhibited specimens of these, of papier-mache wads
and office-records ; teak was the only kind of wood which
they did not attack. The frequent use of whitewash was
the only protective agent, not because the lime in it was
poisonous to them, but because the glare of the white waUs

* A specimen of a composite photograph, nearly full-faced, is inserted in
the Minute Book. One would suppose it to be the likeness of an individual,
where the photograph wanted rather more clearness of outline.

2oS Annals of the Philosophical Club

was offensive. Sir Joseph Hooker said the white ant had
been introduced from Africa into St. Helena only about
fifteen years ago.

Oct. 31st, 282nd meeting. In reply to a question about
the principle of Edison's electric hght, Dr. Siemens said
that he had only heard of it that day, but understood that
two iridium wires had their ends formed into cups, which
were brought near together in opposition in the middle of
a small glass globe, partially exhausted. Thus a current
of high intensity, passing between them, formed a zone of
light. It was, however, a question whether the edges of
the cups might not be dissipated.

Sir W. Grove said that zinc in a minutely pulverized state
was largely deposited on the walls of the containing vessel
from two zinc points in vacuo. Professor Frankland gave
his experience that after working for months with platinum
points, though they were not sensibly diminished, a deposit
of the metal had discoloured the containing tube. With
aluminium points there was no apparent diminution of
substance, but no discoloration of the tube.

1879. Feb. 27th, 286th meeting. Professor Maskelyne
exhibited a large and richly-coloured emerald from Santa
F6 de Bogotd (Colombia), attached to a characteristic
piece of the rock in which it occurs. The crystal looked as
if it had been chipped at the edges by ill-usage, which,
however, could not be the case, for he had himself carefully
detached the matrix in which it had been all but embedded.
Two other crystals of emerald in the British Museum, which
he had also freed from the enclosing rock, had the same
chipped character. His interpretation was that the emerald
had not been formed in the rock where it now occurred.
This was a limestone of Cretaceous age, with calcite and
dolomite crystals, some pyrites, and a large amount of
powdery carbonaceous material, quite unUke the mica-
schists in which it is elsewhere found. Possibly this chipped
character may explain the story that the emerald in
Colombia is soft when first found, but is hardened by
exposure.

A Japanese Legend 209

May 29th, 289th meeting. Mr. Huggins exhibited a
small photograph ^ printed by a process recently patented
by Mr. WiUis. The paper, prepared with ferric oxylate,
is floated, after removal from the negative, on a hot bath
of neutral oxylate of potash to which a solution of a platinum
salt has been added. The picture is developed in a few
seconds, the advantages consisting in the artistic effects
of the grey and black tones of the platinum, the pureness
of the whites, and the absence of glaze. As the platinum
is deposited in the paper, the print should be very durable.

June 19th, 290th meeting. Dr. Henry Draper,^ of New
York (a guest), exhibited two photographic negatives
illustrating by the coincidence of the bright lines the presence
of oxygen in the sun. The photograph also shows some
of the iron lines, and the coincidence between these and the
dark lines in the sun indicates that the two spectra, that
of the oxygen and of the sun, are correctly adjusted one
to the other.

Mr. Moseley produced a roll of Japanese pictures illustrating
a legend corresponding in many respects with that of Jack
the Giant-killer. They are bold outline sketches, a style
much admired by the Japanese, and tell this story, though
not accompanied by a descriptive text. A terrible giant
dwelt in the mountains of Oyeyama, near Kioto, who carried
off certain princesses from the Mikado's court. The hero
sets off to rescue them, accompanied, as usual, by twenty
trusty attendants. Disguised as pedlars, with their weapons
in their packs, a hermit shows them the way up the mountain
and a princess guides them to the castle gate, where hideous
gnomes brandishing the giant's arms are on guard. The
owner receives them graciously and invites them to supper,
at which both he and his gnomes get drunk. The avengers

* A copy is inserted in the Minutes.

^ Henry Draper (1837-82) was an enthusiastic, original, and distinguished
observer in astronomy and chemistry ; the son of John WiUiam Draper
(181 1-82), who was born in England and emigrated to Virginia in 1833,
ultimately being Professor of Chemistry at the University of New York.
He also wrote many valuable memoirs on physical and physiological
subjects.

P.C. O

2 1 o Annals of the Philosophical Club

arm themselves, the hero decapitates the giant at a blow,
the gnomes are killed in fight, the princesses are rescued,
vehicles are procured, and the whole party returns to the
capital in triumph, with the heads of the giant and two
gnomes as trophies.

Oct. 30th, 291st meeting. Mr. Evans exhibited a black
slate tablet of Roman work, about one and five-eighths of an
inch square and five-sixteenths of an inch thick, with four
incised inscriptions, which indicated eye-salves.^ It had
been found in the neighbourhood of Bonn, and he beUeved
its date to be the third century of the present era. Upwards
of a hundred such stamps were now known and had been
noticed by various authors, among them the late Sir James Y.
Simpson. 2

Dec. i8th, 293rd meeting. Mr. Galton communicated
some results of a recent enquiry into the difference in the
power of mental imagery in various classes of persons. This
power is not necessarily associated with abiUty, is more
developed in females than in males, and shows a strong
tendency to hereditary transference through both sexes.
A small percentage of persons invariably pictured numerals
in definite diagrammatic forms, and these were described
and deHneated in letters from them which he produced.
They stated that each numeral had its definite place on
the diagram and could be thought of only in that one. The
diagrams were invariably the same, and had been so as
far back as they could remember.

1880. Jan. 29th, 294th meeting. Professor Maskelyne
referred to a correspondence in the Times ^ about the
artificial production of diamonds by Mr. Mactear, of the
St. Rollox Works, Glasgow, who had supplied him with
some of the material, a crystalHne dust, no piece being
larger than a very small pin's head, with which he had
experimented. It could not scratch sapphire or even

1 Copies of the lettering are given in the Minutes, and an impression in
sealing-wax of one of the stamps.

" Monthly Journal of Medical Science, January and March, 1861.

2 Dec. 31st, 1879, and subsequent numbers.

Attempts to make Diamonds 2 1 1

topaz, and was soluble in hydrofluoric acid. Thus it was
not diamond.! He had repeated the experiments with
Mr. Mactear at the British Museum on a large scale, devoting
some days to the work. A crystalline dust was the result,
which was not soluble in the above-named acid, but it
proved to be so ultimately in other reagents ; Mr. Mactear
himself was now satisfied that he had not succeeded in
producing a diamond.

Mr. Moseley exhibited some microscopic sections of corals
received from Dr. G. von Koch, of Darmstadt. To prepare
them the corals were first hardened in absolute alcohol ;
then soaked in a solution of gum sandarach, copal, or Canada
balsam in absolute alcohol, after which they were allowed
to dry slowly. Sections are then cut with a fine saw and
rubbed down in the usual manner. The method can
probably be adopted in very many cases where a soft tissue
is associated with a hard skeleton.

Feb. 26th, 295th meeting. Professor Maskelyne, referring
to Mr. T. B. Hannay's claim to have produced artificial
diamonds, said that he had received some specimens from
him. They were diamonds, but not all of them were com-
plete crystals, and it had been doubted, especially by
Professor Roscoe, to whom Mr. Hannay had sent specimens,
whether he had really made them. One of the specimens,
which Professor Maskelyne had examined, had every
appearance of being a fragment from a natural diamond
crystal much larger in size, and all of them were a minute
dust. Mr. Hannay had not yet entirely explained the
process,^ but very great pressure (some 2000 atmospheres)
and a rather, but not extremely, high temperature were
essentials ; the materials employed apparently being an
alkahne metal, such as sodium or hthium, and a hydro-
carbon, associated with a nitrogenous compound containing
carbon that was sufficiently stable under the circumstances

1 A more detailed account of his experiments is given by Professor
Maskelyne in Nature, vol. xxi. page 203.

"^ Mr. Hannay gave a fuller account in a paper read before the Royal
Society, " On the Artificial Formation of the Diamond," Proc. Roy. Soc.
vol. XXX. page 450, and in a communication to Nature, vol. xxii. page 255.

212 Annals of the Philosophical Club

of the experiment. On its presence, success, which was
not always obtained, seemed to depend.

March i8th, 296th meeting. On further discussion of
the alleged manufacture of diamonds, Professor Frankland
stated that he had recently endeavoured to find a solvent
for the diamond. After carefully weighing one, he had
exposed it to the action of the following solvents : (i) to
boiling pentasulphide of phosphorus (530° C.) for J hour,

(2) to melted cyanide of potassium at a red heat for J hour,

(3) to melted chloride of zinc at a red heat for | hour, (4) to
chrysocene ^ at low redness in a sealed tube for i hour, (5) to
bisulphide of carbon, heated to 320° C. in a sealed tube
for 6 hours, (6) to zinc ethyl in a sealed tube at 320° C. for
2 hours, (7) beneath melted aluminium at a white heat for
4 hours. After all these experiments the diamond was
quite unaltered in appearance and had not lost o-ooi of a
grain in weight. Discussion arose on the degree of con-
fidence to be placed on the experiments, so far as reported ;
some members holding that those, who claimed to have
manufactured diamonds, had either deceived themselves or
been victims of deception. Sir W. Grove said that either
there must have been fraud or the results must be accepted.^

May 27th, 298th meeting. Mr. Hannay's paper, read
that afternoon at the Royal Society, on the artificial pro-
duction of diamonds, was the main subject of conversation.

June 17th, 299th meeting. Professor AUman gave an
account of the new freshwater Medusa,^ lately discovered
by Mr. Sowerby in the Victoria regia tank at the Botanic
Society's Gardens in Regent's Park, on which Professor
Lankester had read a paper that afternoon to the Royal
Society, and he was about to read one that evening to the
Linnaean Society. It was the first example of a Medusa

^ The word is clearly written in the Minutes, but I have failed to ascertain,
though I have consulted a friend who is an authority on chemistry, what
substance is intended.

' This is the last meeting recorded in the first volume of Minutes.

'Accounts are given at greater length in Nature, vol. xxii. page 147
(Lankester), page 178 (AUman), and page 179 (Romanes). See also
under " Medusa, freshwater," in the index to that volume.

A Freshwater Medusa 213

living in fresh water. Hundreds, even thousands of the
animals, a considerable number of which had arrived at
the adult stage, may be seen swimming in the tank, the
temperature of the water being from 80° to 90° F. They
are from one-eighth to half an inch in diameter, the great
majority appearing to be males. These Medusa are aUied
to the Trachomedusae and Narcomedusae of Haeckel, but are
a new generic form, for which he had proposed the name
Lymnocodium. He and Professor Lankester had agreed
on the specific name Sowerbii. Whether it is developed
directly from the egg or from an intermediate hydroid
trophosome, is not yet determined, but the former appears
to be the more probable, as no hydroid polyp has been
observed in the tank. It may be supposed that the ova
were introduced with the roots of some foreign plants,,
perhaps from the West Indies.

Nov. 25th, 301st meeting. Mr. Galton spoke of the
progress made in applying the system of composite photo-
graphs to delineate the more characteristic features of
disease. This was being done at Guy's Hospital. Sir
J. Paget said that hitherto the physiognomy of diseases had
not been accurately portrayed.

Dec. i6th, 302nd meeting. Professor Roscoe referred
to a paper by Mr. Carnelley of Sheffield (to be read that
evening at the Chemical Society ^), which maintained that
in vacuo ice, corrosive sublimate, and camphor may be
raised to temperatures high above their melting points
without being liquefied.

1881. Jan. 20th, 303rd meeting. The subject of Mr.
Carnelley' s paper was resumed, and doubts were expressed
by one member in very positive terms whether his experi-
ments and conclusions were vaUd.^

Mr. John Aitkens's communication to the Royal Society

1 The Minute on Dec. i6th says, " read to the Chemical Society," but
on Jan. 20th, " to the Royal Society." It was read to the latter Society
{Proc. R.S. vol. xxxi. page 284).

* According to the Minutes this member offered to bet another more
favourably disposed ;^ioo to £1, but the exact terms of the bet could not
be settled, though some members so far unbent as to make the endeavour.

2 1 4 Annals of the Philosophical Club

of Edinburgh was also discussed, in which he maintained
that the small globules of liquid, constituting fog and
clouds, are invariably formed round minute particles of
dust or other soUd matter suspended in the air. Professor
Tyndall expressed great doubts in regard to Mr. Aitkens's
contention, for his own observations had convinced him that
dense clouds can be produced in optically pure air. Without
denying that such particles may promote the condensation
of vapours, he did not hold this to be necessary in the
formation of fogs or clouds.

Feb. 17th, 304th meeting. Mr. Bair referred to a recent
discussion at the Royal Society, in which the presence of
fish in the hot springs of the Sahara was treated as an
established fact, though he thought it required further
investigation. Last winter he visited the Fontaine Chaude,
a mineral spring near Biskra in the Sahara, in which the
waters have a temperature of 108° to 110° F., and fish of
the genus Cyprinodon are said to live. He was, however,
assured by the official (Arab) custodian that the fish never
came directly from the spring into the reservoir, but are
found further down in the rivulet which flows from it.
Still, as this, like so many streams of the Sahara, is lost
in the sand, it is difficult to explain their presence in it. It
may be connected with another fact, which appears to rest
on the testimony of competent observers such as Charles
Martins, that minute fish had been observed in water
brought up from great depths by artesian wells newly
opened in the Sahara. Dr. Asa Gray^ (guest) said that
somewhere in the United States springs frequently brought
up small fish with leaves. Sir J. Hooker had heard of fish
inhabiting hot springs in the Himalayas, and Mr. Moseley
had seen goldfish thriving in the hot springs at Bath, and

1 Dr. Asa Gray, born on Nov. i8th, 18 10, at Paris, New York, after
taking the degree of M.D,, devoted himself to the study of botany, and for
fully thirty years was Professor of Botany at Harvard. He was a strong
but not uncritical supporter of Darwin's views on the ' Origin of Species, '
and wrote important books on the flora of North America, besides numerous
special memoirs. Justly ranked among the leading botanists of his time,
he died Jan. 30th, 1888.

The Velocity of Light 2 1 5

had been told of their living in the condensing tank of a
steam engine in Lancashire where the temperature was
over 90° F.

March 17th, 305th meeting. The news of the assassina-
tion of the Czar of Russia led to a conversation on explosives,
which was followed by one on the electric lighting of part
of the City of London.

May 19th, 307th meeting. Professor Stokes gave an
account of a paper on the *' Velocity of Light," just read to
the Royal Society by Messrs. James Young and George
Forbes.^ In their experiments they used, instead of the
single reflector employed by Cornu, two distant reflectors
of the Ught of the artificial star, so placed that, in the
observing telescope field two stars are at first seen, one being
3 miles, the other 3 J miles away, so that, on measuring the
velocity of the toothed wheel, the stars were eclipsed succes-
sively instead of simultaneously, the critical velocity being
that which made the two stars of equal brightness, not that
which, as in Fizeau's and Cornu's experiments, made them
vanish. Besides this a bluish light was observed when the
increasing speed of rotation brought a star near its position
of ecHpse, and a reddish Hght when it had just passed this,
indicating that the blue Hght travels faster than the red in
air. It had been supposed that the differences in velocity,
inferred from astronomical phenomena, were due to ponder-
able matter in the air and that in vacuo both travelled aUke,
but in these experiments there was a difference, though in
the contrary direction. This discovery leads to new ideas
of the luminiferous ether, with its apparently opposed pro-
perties of fluidity and soUdity.

Sir J. Hooker referred to the effect of the cold in 1879 on
the noted pine forest which fringes the eastern coast of
Italy for several miles from Ravenna southwards. In the
part recently visited by himself and Dr. Asa Gray every
pine tree, young or old, had been killed, and they were told
this was the case through the whole extent of the forest.
Other trees or shrubs growing with them, such as juniper

^ Proc. R.S. vol. xxxii. page 247.

2 1 6 Annals of the Philosophical Club

or berberry, had not suffered, nor could he hear that the
Finns pinea had been killed, though he saw at Rome that
it had suffered severely.

Mr. Bowman said that a Committee of the Ophthalmo-
logical Society (of which he was President) had examined
about 18,000 persons of all ordinary positions to test the
existence of colour blindness. They had found more or less
of it in 476 per cent, of the males and only 4 per cent, of
the females, red bhndness being a little in excess of green
blindness, while total colour bhndness was excessively rare.
Among those examined were about 8000 of the metropolitan
poUce, some soldiers, many public schools, including Eton,
with private schools ; also some special classes of persons.
Among 1679 Jewish children colour blindness was more
frequent than among others of the same age and state, but
it was principally red blindness. Among 707 children of the
Society of Friends colour blindness was above the average,
amounting in one school to 12 per cent, of the boys and
6 per cent, of the girls. This excess might perhaps be due
to interbreeding. The Secretary of the Committee, Dr.
Brailey, had taken the chief share of the investigation, which
was being continued and to which the attention of Govern-
ment would be drawn, because of its importance in regard
to those who might be employed for signalling.

June 16th, 308th meeting. Dr. Carpenter gave an
account of the Falls of Niagara when visited by his son,
Mr. W. Lant Carpenter, in the first week of February last.
Their aspect had been greatly altered by the accumulation
of ice. When springs discharged into the gorge, icicles,
sometimes 70 or 80 feet long, had formed. The ice-moun-
tains built up on rocky foundations by the accumulation
of frozen spray were exceedingly high ; one of them, in
front of the American Falls, rising to within 20 feet of their
top. He was informed that an ice-cone of this kind in
the Yosemite valley had actually attained a height of
600 feet. On Feb. 8th he found the whole of the fall over
Table Rock completely frost-bound. Enormous icicles
hung from the rock above and mountains of frozen spray^

Anomalies of Temperature 2 XT'

rose from below. ^ The forms of the frozen spray on
neighbouring trees were most remarkable.

Dr. A. Thomson referred to the shipwreck on January 24th
of the Danish mail-steamer on the coast of Iceland.^ The
large, mound-like accumulation of frozen spray on the
forepartiOf the ship threatened to submerge it, and obUged
the captain to run the ship on shore. But as the actual
wreck was caused by its striking a sunken rock, the captain
and the crew suffered great hardships from the cold and
continued storm.

Oct. 27th, 309th meeting. Mr. Gait on referred to the
remarkable variations of temperature in different regions
during the past season. Packed ice had drifted to within
ten miles of Iceland, from which Greenland polar bears had
swum ashore, yet in Smith Sound the water had been
remarkably open. Professor Frankland said that in Norway
a very low temperature had prevailed, when in England it
was very hot, and Dr. Carpenter remarked on the great
and persistent cold in Scotland during the whole summer'
and autumn.

Nov. 24th, 310th meeting. Professor Dewar exhibited
photographs on glass, illustrating communications to the
Royal Society, from himself and Professor Liveing, on the
reversal of the lines in metallic vapours. They showed
that, as a rule, the rays of high refrangibility are the
most readily reversed and must therefore possess the greatest
emissive power. Many of the plates had almost the whole
of the iron rays reversed in the ultra-violet. On some
plates, lines, due to an emission spectrum of water, appeared.
Further experiments showed it to be a consequence of the
spark being taken in moist gases. This has an important
bearing on the continuity of flame spectra.

It was mentioned that the meeting-room and vestibule of
the Royal Society were Hghted for the first time by electric

^ A photograph (as stated in the Minutes) is given in Nature, vol. xxiii.
on page 512. It was taken in January, 1881.

' He quoted from the description in Nature, vol. xxiv. pages 106-7,.
where a picture is given of the steamer with its ice-loaded bows.

2 1 8 Annals of the Philosophical Club

lamps. These were on the Swan system and arranged under
the direction of Dr. Siemens. " The shaded Hght was
steady, pleasing, and ample for the exhibition of diagrams
and apparatus, as well as for the general illumination of
the hall."

1882. Jan. 20th, 312th meeting. Dr. Carpenter de-
scribed the results of his examination of a limestone from
Sutherland at the request of Professor Heddle.^ Parts of
it exhibited that regular alternation of calcareous lamellae
and those of a magnesium siUcate which characterises
Eozoon Canadense. The latter, however, instead of being
serpentine, is chondrodite, a magnesium siHcate containing
fluorine. This, however, has been recognised by Professor
Sterry Hunt, to whom he had sent specimens, in certain
limestones of North America. These are of the Laurentian
era, so there can be little doubt the Sutherland limestone
belongs to it and not to the Silurian, as hitherto supposed.
The laminated specimens do not indeed exhibit the micro-
scopic structure characteristic of the best preserved speci-
mens of Eozoon, but he had found this in the parts with a
more acervuHne habit, and he considered the resemblance
to an organic structure, presented by the grains of chondro-
dite as they lay loosely scattered in the calcareous areolae,
to show that this was not merely due to metamorphic action,
as Messrs. King and Rowney had maintained in the case
of Eozoon.

Feb. 23rd, 313th meeting. Dr. Siemens gave the sub-
stance of a paper which he was to read on March 2nd to the
Royal Society on the "Conservation of Solar Energ}^" It
suggested how the vast amount of heat and light, supposed
to be radiated into space, could be to a large extent recovered
by the sun. The explanation rested on the postulates,
(i) that interstellar space is filled with attenuated matter
including aqueous vapour and carbon compounds, (2) that

* The crystalline limestone (or dolomite) of Ledbeg is described by-
Professor Heddle, Mineralogical Magazine, vol. v. pages 274-281. The
structure is represented on Plate VII. Figs, i and 2, and some " simulating
Eozoon " are given on Plate VIII

The Conservation of Sola?' Energy 2 1 9

these are capable of being dissociated by radiant solar
energy, (3) that they are then drawn towards the sun in
-consequence of its rotating velocity, impinging on its polar
surface and passing away again into space at its equatorial.
Thus the dissociated material on approaching the solar
photosphere would flash into flame, and in passing from
the polar to the equatorial region it would give rise, through
mixture with the lower and heavier solar atmosphere, to
vortices and sunspots. The gases, which passed away
^quatorially, would consist of products of combustion, which
at last would be sufficiently rarefied to be again dissipated
by the radiant solar energy. By this theory zodiacal
light, the appearance of comets, and the aurora borealis
might be reconciled.

Sir W. Grove said that, even assuming the postulates, he
could not accept the conclusions ; for it would appear that
the force given off from the sun, after expending itself in
producing certain changes in matter, would return to the
sun and add to its heat — that is, to its energy — which had
been already expended. Professor Dewar objected that
as dissociation varied chiefly as a function of the tempera-
ture, and was only affected within narrow hmits by alteration
of pressure, it had yet to be proved that extreme rarefaction
of the gases would suffice to render them capable of being
dissociated by the radiant solar energy.

March 23rd, 314th meeting. In reference to Dr. Siemens's
<:ommunication to the last meeting, Dr. Debus expressed
doubts whether an action, such as the sun had been supposed
to exert on gases and vapours, could rightly be termed
dissociation. This gave rise to a discussion, in which
Professors Dewar, Frankland, and OdHng took part, and it
was the general feeUng that though there were precedents
for using the term as Dr. Siemens had done, decomposition
would be the more appropriate.

Mr. Galton quoted a statement from a newspaper to show
the loss of radial energy in sunbeams as they pass through
the lower atmosphere. A party, which ascended the
Schilthorn (9747 feet) on a bright day in the depth of winter,

220 Annals of the Philosophical Club

found that the snow had melted from patches of rock facing^
the south, on which al pen-roses ^ and other mountain plants
were in full bloom. Dr. Giinther said that in winter insecti-
vorous birds abounded in the Alps at heights of some
5000 feet, since insects were very numerous about that level
on the sunny faces of precipices.

April 24th, 315th meeting. Professor Huxley referred
to the recent death of Charles Darwin,^ stating that when
the inteUigence reached the Royal Society, the President
(Dr. Spottiswoode) at once communicated with the Dean of
Westminster in order that this great leader in science might
be laid in the Abbey. He spoke of the ceremony, and of
the cordial recognition of the nobility of Darwin's character
and the far-reaching influence of his work by leaders of
public opinion, including several representatives of orthodox
theology.

May 25th, 316th meeting. Captain Noble gave an
account of some experiments on which Professor Abel and
himself had been recently engaged. Their object was ta
ascertain (i) to what degree, if any, the erosive action of
gunpowder, so serious with the large charges now used,
depended on the chemical condition of the powder, (2)
whether the tensions developed by the different compositions
used in the experiments were materially different, and
whether the pressures exerted by the larger charges, now
used, were much greater than those of smaller charges.
They experimented with five descriptions of powder, (a) one
of the ordinary composition, (6) one in which the proportion
of saltpetre was reduced, but those of sulphur and carbon
increased, (c) one with the proportion of sulphur halved,
{d) and {e) without any sulphur ; these having been tried
at the suggestion of Sir W. Armstrong, who thought that
its presence might cause the formation of iron sulphide and

^ This can hardly be accurate as regards the alpen-roses, for the rhodo-
dendron, even at about 5000 feet, does not flower till July.

2 Charles Darwin died April 19th, 1882. A memorial presented to Dr.
Bradley, Dean of Westminster, is printed in Life and Letters of Charles
Darwin, vol. iii. pages 360-1. The funeral took place on April 26th, th&
grave being a few feet from that of Isaac Newton.

Observing Animals in Motion 221

thus materially affect the erosion. With respect to this,
the experiments showed that the erosive action depended
much on the kind of powder used, but appeared to be
independent of the amount of sulphur, for the one which
produced the smallest effect had the largest proportion of
that mineral. The heat developed by the explosion appeared
to be the most important factor. To measure the amount
of erosion, the powder was placed in a steel vessel with a
very small vent, through which the products of explosion
had to escape, and their effects were measured by the
quantity of steel removed. Captain Noble described a
curious effect produced upon a screw in one experiment,
when a large charge — about 24 pounds — was fired, giving
a tension of about 43 tons.

Sir H. Lefroy exhibited some samples of merino wool
from Tasmania, remarkable for its fineness, and for the high
price (1400 guineas) that had been paid for the sheep that
had produced it.

June 15th, 317th meeting. Mr. Galton exhibited an
instrument which he had made to verify the attitudes
of an animal in rapid motion. By tapping a stud, a slit on a
screen was made to move rapidly in front of an eyehole,
thus affording a momentary glance of an object. Thus the
eye (far more sensitive than any plate in a photographic
oamera) could obtain a distinct image of the animal at an
instantaneous phase of its motion. He thought naturalists
would find the instrument useful in observing the habits of
birds and insects, and physicists for such things as plants in
rapid motion.

Nov. 9th, 318th meeting. Before the minutes (by an
inadvertency there was no meeting on Oct. 26th) a cutting
from the Times is inserted, recording the death, on July 19th,
of Professor F. M. Balfour, with his guide, Johann Petrus, of
Stalden, on the Aiguille Blanche de Peuteret.^

^ The letter is reprinted, accompanied by some further information,
in the Alpine Journal, vol. xi. pages 90-93 ; pages 101-103 giving an In
Memoriam notice. The first ascent of this dangerous peak was made
-Aug. 28th, 1913 [Alpine Journal, vol. xxviii. pages 81, 82).

222 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Nov. 25th, 319th meeting. In regard to Mr. Galton's
instrument,^ Professor Tyndall referred to M. Topler's
experiments on the intermittent flashing of a singing flame,
as one of a class of phenomena to which that mode of observa-
tion might be apphed, and Professor M. Foster thought it
might be used in connexion with the velocity of hght.

Dec. 14th, 320th meeting. Sir H. Lefroy stated that he
had known many instances of Hghtning striking buildings
on the Bermudas, though the area of the islands was only
about 12,400 acres, and asked whether anything in the
condition of oceanic islands could explain this frequency.
Professor Stokes said that ascending currents of air, charged
with moisture, which is condensed on their rising high
enough, are favourable to thunderstorms. As the Ber-
mudas, in a hot climate, are surrounded by ocean, and have
low and warm surfaces, they would cause ascending currents
in the moisture-charged air that passed over them, which,
though not large enough to cause great tempests, would
suffice to produce many small thunderstorms.

Professor Dewar described the results of his recent experi-
ments on the amount of hydrocarbon acetylene produced ,^
when different forms of electric discharge pass between
graphite poles in an atmosphere of hydrogen. The most
interesting fact was the increase in the partial pressure of
the acetylene in the resulting mixture as the initial pressure
of the hydrogen is diminished. Thus, at the pressure of
the atmosphere, the acetylene amounts to 12 per cent, by
volume, but when the pressure in the hydrogen is only
one-eighth of an atmosphere, it rises to 22 per cent. This
may be called a true manufacture of illuminating gas
by electricity. Benzol is always found mixed with the
acetylene.

Professor Stokes asked whether any substance capable
of producing changes in the plane of polarization had yet
been artificially produced. Professor Dewar replied in
the affirmative, for racemic acid can be obtained from
glyc oxalic and succinic acids, both of which have been

1 See Minutes of June 15th.

Photographing a Transit of Venus 223

produced by synthesis, and as racemic acid could be broken
up into dextro- and levo-tartaric acids.

1883. Jan. i8th, 321st meeting. Professor Newcomb,^
of the U.S. Observatory, Washington (a guest), described
the methods employed by the American expeditions in
photographing the transit of Venus. Instead of pointing
the telescope directly at the sun, they kept it fixed, and
threw the sun's image into it with a heliostat. The telescope
could then be of any length required, and the sun's image
did not need enlargement by the eyepiece. After describing
some details in making and recording the observations, he
said that this method had not overcome two difficulties
which affected astronomical observations, namely the
tremulousness of the atmosphere and the difference in its
refraction of the reddish light of the sun's limb and of the
whiter Hght of the central part of its disc on which Venus
is projected.

Professor W. James,^ of Harvard College, U.S.A. (a guest),,
gave a brief account of investigations into the sense of
dizziness experienced by deaf mutes. As the semicircular
canals of the ear are now supposed to be the organs of this
sense, and as they or their nerves are presumably destroyed
in a large number of these mutes, such persons ought not
to be liable to dizziness in whirUng. An examination of
over 600 such persons showed about one- third to be in this
abnormal condition. But of these a certain number spoke

1 Professor Simon Newcomb, who was born on March 12th, 1835,
graduated at Harvard, was appointed Professor of Mathematics in the
United States navy and to the Naval Observatory at Washington. He
organized an expedition to observe the transit of Venus in 1874, and
observed that of 1882 at the Cape of Good Hope. In 1884 he also became
a Professor at the Johns Hopkins University, He has made many additions
to astronomical science and has written a number of memoirs and books
on different branches of it.

* Professor WilUam James was bom at New York on Jan. nth, 1842,
and graduated at Harvard as M.D. ; afterwards receiving the LL.D. degree
at Princeton, and those of Ph.D. and Litt.D. at Padua. He became
Professor of Physiology, of Philosophy and of Psychology at Harvard,
and was also appointed Gififord Lecturer at Edinburgh. He wrote not a
few valuable books and memoirs on philosophical and psychological
subjects, on human immortality and on pragmatism, dying about 19 12.

:2 24 Annals of the Philosophical Club

•of experiencing an extraordinary bewilderment in diving
under water with closed eyes, through not knowing what
direction was * up * and ' which ' down. This fact proves
the use we can make of these canals in self- orientation, for
the deaf mute, in the above circumstance, has none of the
three means of learning his bearings.

March 8th, 323rd meeting. Dr. Carpenter described
his recent visit to the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,
at which Professor Sylvester was now a member of the
staff, and its Principal and Governors endeavoured to attract
students by offering them the best possible teaching on
each subject. He had been present at the opening of the
current session, and had seen at least 100 students, many
of whom had come to follow a high course of mathematical
study under Professor Sylvester.

He had also been shown the working of the machine,
devised by Professor Rowlands and constructed under his
superintendence, for ruling lines very close together on sur-
faces of speculum metal, as large as 5 inches square, for
purposes of spectroscopic analysis. The machine was
then ruling 30,000 lines to the inch on a concave speculum,
and could work up to 36,000. Professor Rowlands' design
had been carried out by the workman then in charge of it,
and his ability was said to be by no means exceptional,
since the better early education of the American workman
comes out in a greater capacity for understanding his work
and in taking a stronger interest in it. The screw, which is
the essential feature of the machine, was devised by Professor
Rowlands himself, who had shown him, as a specimen of the
work which these gratings could accomplish, two photo-
graphs of the ultra-violet spectrum which were together
between 3 and 4 feet long. They showed a wonderful series
of sharply-defined and well-separated lines. Mr. Lockyer,
who also saw these results, considered them a new departure
in celestial photography.

It was also part of the system of the Johns Hopkins
University to elect young men, who showed marked ability
in any department of research, to fellowships for a term of

The Irruption of Krakatoa 225

years. The results were already excellent, of which he gave
some instances.

April 30th, 324th meeting. Professor Huxley gave an
account of the International Fisheries Exhibition, about to
be opened in South Kensington. Though not the first of its
kind, for there had been one at BerUn, it was of exceptional
size and interest. A novelty would be a Fisheries Congress,
somewhat on the model of the British Association, from
which valuable results were expected.^

Oct. loth, 327th meeting. Dr. Carpenter gave an account
of the recent opening of the electric tramway between
Kilrush and the Giant's Causeway, the working machinery
of which had been devised by Sir W. Siemens.

Some interesting autograph letters by Linnaeus were
shown by Mr. Evans.

Nov. 22nd, 328th meeting. General Strachey called
attention to a remarkable atmospheric disturbance, shown
on Aug. 26-27, by all the photographic registers of barometers
in Europe, which he traced to the great eruption of Krakatoa
in the Strait of Sunda. The difference in the absolute time
of the shock at different places indicated a rate of trans-
mission about equal that of sound, and the disturbance
originated about 27** 3^ 20" of G.M.T.^

Dec. 13th, 329th meeting. Mr. Galton referred to his
recent examination of a curious anthropometric record in
the ledgers of Messrs. Bury, wine and coffee merchants,
3 St. James Street, who kept excellent scales in which their
customers weighed themselves at frequent intervals. Among
them were many of the aristocracy, including all the Royal
Dukes, sons of George III., and other notable persons. One
of his objects was to ascertain whether the ' hard living ' of
that time had produced a marked variation in weight. It

1 The Minutes show that Professor Maskelyne spoke in eloquent terms
of the loss of Professor H. J. S. Smith, of Oxford, who had died on
Feb. 9th.

* The extraordinary twilight glpws in November, 1883, attracted general
attention in Britain, and a menioir on the eruption, with some excellent
illustrations, was published by the Royal Society, in the Report of the
Krakatoa Committee, 1888.

P.C. P

226 Annals of the Philosophical Club

appeared to have this effect to some extent, but hardly so
much as he had anticipated.

1884. Jan. 17th, 330th meeting. Dr. Giinther described
the curious fate of a small fish of the Indian Archipelago —
the fierasfer — which inhabited, as a commensal, the body
cavity of certain holothurians.^ For some unknown reason,
one of them had got between the mantle and the shell of a
pearl oyster (Avicula margaritifera) , by which it was killed,
and, before it could decay, was covered with a layer of
mother of pearl, thin enough to let it be seen in an apparently
perfect state through its transparent shroud.

Feb. 14th, 331st meeting. Professor Stokes said that
some crystals of chlorate of potash had been sent to him
which showed by reflexion splendid colours. The mineral
crystallizes in the oblique system, usually in plates perpendi-
cular to the plane of symmetry. The tint differs from one
crystal to another, and alters with the inclination of the
crystal. When a face is viewed at a given angle, and rotated
in its own plane, the tint disappears twice in a complete
rotation. He had found that all crystals exhibiting this
colour-phenom.enon had a very thin twin structure present,
the individuals being about one- thousandth of an inch thick.
To reflexion from this the colours are due, but he was not
yet in a position to give a complete explanation.

May 22nd, 334th meeting. Professor Moseley exhibited
a specimen of Uiricularia vulgaris, from marshes near
Oxford, which he had received from a young naturaUst, son
of a tradesman in that city, showing that its bladder traps
are capable of catching newly-hatched fishes, numbers of
minute roach being held in various positions by them.^

June 1 2th, 335th meeting. According to Sir J. H. Lefroy,.
information had been received from Zanzibar that Mr.
Joseph Thomson had returned in safety from exploring the
region east of the Victoria Nyanza.

Oct. 23rd, 336th meeting. Professor Tyndall said that

1 Perhaps the subject of the engraving in The Royal Natural History^
vol. V. page 438. (Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1886, page 318.)

2 For more details, see Nature, vol. xxx. page 81.

Edible Bird's Nests 22 j

in Switzerland last summer, at a height of 7000 feet, the sky,
one night, had been completely overcast at the beginning
and quite clear at the end, yet the difference shown by a
thermometer, lying on swansdown, from one suspended in
the air, had been in the one case 9"^ F., and in the other only
10°. His observations at Hindhead had given him con-
firmatory results.

Sir J. D. Hooker said that the plants, collected by Mr.
H. H. Johnston in the high district west of Kilimanjaro and
by Mr. Thompson from the neighbourhood 'of the same
mountain, had been received at Kew, and showed the trees
to be of South African and Abyssinian types.

Dr. Sclater exhibited a specimen of the edible bird's nest,
and asked whether this was certainly composed of fucoid
material or, as some said, of a consolidated salivaceous
matter.

Nov. 27th, 337th meeting. Professor M. Foster said that
he had examined a piece of the bird's nest exhibited at the
last meeting, and had found no cellulose, or fibrine, or pectine,
but only mucine, which seemed to form a kind of lattice of
threads. Sir Everard Home had described the glands which
secreted it. They were present also in the neck of the
common swift. Sir J. D. Hooker, however, said that he
had noted in another piece of the nest a tissue resembling
that of some of the gelatinous algae. ^

General Strachey reported that at the meeting of the
Prime Meridian Conference, which began on Oct. ist at
Washington, U.S.A., the following resolutions were adopted :
(i) that the meridian of the Observatory of Greenwich
should be the initial meridian for longitude ; (2) that the
meridian longitude should be counted in two directions up
to 180°, east longitude being 4- and west longitude — ;
(3) that the conference propose the adoption of a universal
day for all purposes for which it may be found convenient,
not to interfere with the local or standard time, where
desirable ; (4) that the universal day be a mean solar day,
to begin for all the world at the moment of mean midnight
* See Jan. 29th, 1888.

228 Annals of the Philosophical Club

of the universal meridian, coincident with the beginning of
the civil day and date of that meridian, and be counted from
zero up to 24 hours.

Resolutions in favour of a speedy arrangement for the
beginning of the astronomical and nautical days at mean
midnight, and for the extension of the decimal system to
the division of angular space and of time were also adopted.

1885. Jan. 15th, 339th meeting. Sir J. Hooker stated
that a cursory examination of the plants collected by
Mr. H. H. Johnston during his expedition to Kilimanjaro,
which had recently been received at Kew, showed the flora
to be nearly related to that of Abyssinia. Dr. Sclater said
that the zoological collection, sent to the British Museum,
was smaller than had been anticipated, because Mr. Johnston
had lost the services of his collectors, but promised to be
interesting and valuable.

Feb. I2th, 340th meeting. Captain Noble described
brown powder and its value as an explosive. It differed
from ordinary powder in the presence of bituminous matter
and a larger proportion of water. In explosion it developed
a greater amount of hydrogen gas, and that rendered its
explosive energy much greater. Coarse powder lights very
slowly, but when ignited burns very quickly, and thus is
not wasted. Experiments showed it to have much erosive
power due (i) to the pressure, (2) to the temperature
developed in the explosion. A low temperature developed
much gas, a high one little, and the temperatures were very
different for different powders. He also gave an account of
firing heavy charges at Spezzia, where, on one occasion,
850 pounds of powder were fired, and a shot, weighing
2010 pounds, was projected with an initial velocity of
1985 feet per second.

April 27th, 342nd meeting. Professor Frankland spoke
of the occurrence of vegetation in the hot springs of the
Yellowstone Park, U.S.A. He found it abundant in the
water immediately after issuing from the earth, where its
temperature could not be less than 190° F. As the water
cooled, the character of the organisms visibly changed.

Discovery of Germanium 229

Mr. Moseley said he had observed similar organisms in hot
springs of the Azores and West Indies. There Oscillatoriae
were found at the higher temperature.^

May 14th, 343rd meeting. Dr. Sclater said that the
Orient Steam Company had selected Agos Garcia, the
southernmost of the Chagos Islands, for a coaUng station.
These were coral islands, and land birds were said to be few,
but their fauna and flora were almost unexplored. There
was now some hope of this being done.

June nth, 344th meeting. Lord Rosse described the
results of experiments made at Parsonstown Observatory
during the echpse of the moon on Oct. 4th, 1884, to ascertain
how long it took for the moon's heat to follow the Hght.
Careful observations, made during the later part of the
eclipse, showed a defect of heat as compared with light, when
the penumbra was off the moon, for about two hours after-
wards, the heat then being to the full amount about in the
ratio of 30 to 35.

Nov. 26th, 346th meeting. The death of Dr. W. B.
Carpenter, 2 by the ignition of the contents of a spirit-lamp
while he was taking a vapour bath, caused a conversation, in
course of which Professor Tyndall said that in an experi-
ment, when he was heating some alcohol in a glass tube
over a spirit-lamp, the tube burst, the spirit ran over his
clothes and ignited. He tried to extinguish the flame with
his hands, but as fast as he brushed it out, it kindled again.
He tore off his coat, and lay down on the floor, when some
students threw a coat over him and quickly put out the flame.

1886. May 27th, 352nd meeting. Sir H. Roscoe men-
tioned the discovery of a new chemical element which it was
proposed to name Germanium.

Professor Frankland said that, on a recent visit to
Vesuvius, though the volcano had not reached an explosive
stage, scoria and small pieces of viscid lava were being shot
up fairly continuously to a height of 150 or 200 feet, with a

1 Professor Moseley's notes, as he mentioned at the time, had been worked
up by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer and communicated to the Linnaean Society.

2 On Nov. loth.

230 Annals of the Philosophical Club

surging sound, audible for a considerable distance on the
flanks of the mountain. Repl5dng to his request for an
explanation, Mr. Ball and Professor Bonney suggested that
an escape of steam, strong but steady, might make the noise
and have sufficient force to eject fragments of scoria. Lord
Rosse said that he heard a similar noise when he visited
Vesuvius.

Professor AUman described a tubular hydroid, which he
had recently examined. It had been dredged up by the
Challenger Expedition from a depth of four miles. The
unbroken stem must have been about seven feet long, and
the polyp at the end, when expanded, about nine inches in
diameter ; the corresponding dimensions in a shallow water
form being not more than a foot and less than an inch.
The stem was formed of an elastic tissue, peculiar in
character. The animal was a kind of rose colour.

June loth, 353rd meeting. M. Cornu (a guest) described
a method of controlling by electric magnets a bad astrono-
mical clock by a good one. Lord Rosse said he had overcome
a similar irregularity in the working of an equatorial clock
by the use of electro-magnets with very small battery
power.^ Professor Hughes objected to M. Cornu's method,
that no electrical arrangement could overcome the minor
errors incident on the employment of electric contacts with
the controlling clock. This M. Cornu admitted, but said that
such sources of error were so small, that they might be safely
neglected where practical not absolute perfection was sought.

Oct. 28th, 354th meeting. Dr. Huggins exhibited a
specimen of the new metallic element Germanium (page 229)
discovered by Professor Winkler in an ore of silver. It
filled up one of the lacunae in Mendeleeff's series.

Nov. 25th, 355th meeting. Professor Bonney read part
of a letter from Mr. Coutts Trotter, describing a destructive
volcanic eruption in Niua-fu,^ one of the Friendly Islands,

* Lord Rosse gave a description in British Association Report, 1884,
pages 636-7, to which he referred.

2 Nature, vol. xxxv. pages 127, 128, gives an account of the eruption
and of the glass.

The Tea St Plant 231

where a new-formed crater had done great damage by bury-
ing the vegetation under volcanic dust, some of which he
exhibited. It consisted of small fragments of felspar and
of a basic glass (tachylite), but not of scoria. The first
outbreak corresponded very closely with the New Zealand
eruption of June loth, and the principal one with the
Charleston earthquake on Aug. 31st.

1887. Jan. 13th, 357th meeting. Mr. Thiselton-Dyer
stated that the yeast plant of Guinness' Brewery, Dublin,
had been found to differ from similar organisms in other
breweries. Differences also had been observed between the
yeast at the surface and that at the bottom. The yeast
plant in a first-class brewery appeared gradually to attain
a permanent form ; probably through one variety, under
specially favourable circumstances, gradually overpowering
the others.

Feb. loth, 358th meeting. Dr. Giinther exhibited a
series of plates, prepared for a forthcoming volume in the
Challenger Expedition series,^ to illustrate the deep-sea
fishes. All of them, with one exception, belonged to known
types, hving near the surface (such, for example, as the
shark, cod, eel, and sea-devil), but specialized and modified
to adapt them to their altered conditions of Hfe. Probably
all is darkness at greater depths than 100 fathoms. The
modification takes place along two Hues. In one the eye
is very large, with a space beneath it filled with a slimy
substance, supposed to be capable of emitting hght, so that
the fish may be said to carry its own lantern. In the other
case the eye is aborted, and the fish blind. Then the
light-emitting organs are dispersed in various ways about
the body. For instance, in Lophms, the lantern is at the end
of the ' fishing rod,' its supposed function being to attract
smaller creatures, which are snapped up, the jaws generally
having a wide gape. One or two of the illustrations showed
eel-like fishes which had swallowed, whole, other fishes much
thicker than themselves, so that the stomach was hugely
distended.

^ Reports of Challenger Expedition {Zoology, vol. xxii.).

232 Annals of the Philosophical Club

May 12th, 361st meeting. Professor Flower read a letter,
dated Wadelai, November 3rd and 8th, 1886, containing the
latest intelligence received from Emin Bey. He announced
the despatch of several skeletons of the chimpanzee as well
as of the diminutive native tribe, called Akkas, especially
one of a very old woman.^ He expressed his intention of
continuing to collect for the British Museum, and showed
no anxiety as to his own position.

Professor Bonney exhibited and described some sands
given to him by Sir W. Bowman and Mr. J. B. Martin, which
were reported to have been ejected with jets of water during
the Charleston earthquake ^ at the end of August last. They
consisted of quartz, felspar, two micas, and hornblende, with
a little tourmaline and perhaps zircon : evidently the debris
of crystalline rocks, and very probably derived from the
Archaean ridge west of Charleston, which is probably the
source of the Tertiary and later materials of the lower lands.
They had no special character, showed no signs of abrasion,
and had more resemblance to the detritus of a river than of
the sea-shore.

June i6th, 362nd meeting. Mr. Thiselton-Dyer discussed
the alleged formation of pearls in the interior of the cocoa-nut.
They are described in the Herbarium Amboinense, written
about two centuries ago. Since then they have been
occasionally mentioned. Dr. Sidney Hickson recently
obtained two specimens in the Malay Archipelago, but no
European is known to have found one in the nut. The story
is either a fraud of long standing, or it is true. On the one
hand, no similar products are reported from other regions
where the cocoa-nut is cultivated ; on the other, we cannot

1 This race of dwarfs, whose average height does not exceed 4 feet
10 inches, Hves to the south-west of the Albert Nyanza Lake, and was
first made known by Schweinfurth in 1874. Their projecting jaws and
protruding Hps give them an ape-hke aspect, and they are very low in
the scale of humanity.

^It occurred on August 31st, and disturbances continued for two or
three days. For an account see Nature, vol. xxxiv. page 460. For a
similar incident in the neighbourhood of New Madrid on the Mississippi
during the earthquakes of 1811-12, see Lyell, Principles of Geology, vol. ii.
page 109 (ed. 12).

Studies of Quartz Crystals 233

pronounce it impossible, because carbonate of lime is de-
posited as rounded concretions in the presence of mucilage,
and the chemical conditions inside a cocoa-nut do not seem
to differ essentially from those under which a pearl is formed
in the pearl oyster.

Nov. 24th, 364th meeting. Professor Maskelyne exhibited
a new electric lamp which had been tried with complete
success in the Yorkshire collieries. Its weight is 4 pounds
2 ounces, and it gives a light of ij candle-power, which is
maintained by a secondary battery of novel form, the
positive being zinc, the negative a special preparation without
metallic lead. The lamp shown could run with undiminished
light for 9 hours. The glow burner is protected by a dome
of toughened glass. This, when broken, flies into fragments,
releasing a spring which cuts off the current and instan-
taneously extinguishes the light. The lamp had been tested
successfully in the most explosive gases of the Yorkshire
collieries.

Dec. 15th, 365th meeting. Professor Judd gave the
results of his recent studies of quartz crystals. A lamellar
structure has been proved to be developed by strain in many
minerals, and Leydolt and Descloiseaux have shown quartz
crystals to be built up of lamellae having different properties,
the latter observer having demonstrated that the Airy's
spirals, exhibited by equatorial sections of such crystals, are
due to the overlapping of lamellae of right-handed and
left-handed quartz. He exhibited a specimen showing an
intergrowth of two left-handed individuals. An equatorial
section of this, when etched by hydrofluoric acid, exhibited
lamellae, which, with a polariscope and convergent rays, gave
Airy's spirals, but further examination showed this lamellar
structure to be restricted to parts of the crystals which had
been subjected to deforming strain. We were therefore
justified in inferring that lamellar structure could be
developed by mechanical means in quartz as in calcite and
many other minerals.

1888. Jan. 19th, 366th meeting. Professor Newton
referred to the discussion on edible bird's nests on Nov. 27th,

234 Annals of the Philosophical Club

1884 (page 227). A few days since Mr. John Young, of the
War Office, who had recently made a voyage round the
world in his yacht Golden Fleece, placed in his hands a mass
about 18 inches by 12 inches, consisting of some 25 nests
which had been detached in his presence from a lofty over-
hanging cliff (hardly to be called a cave). Some of the
outside nests contained eggs or young ; others, more or
less incrusted by these, were evidently much older, but
nearly all the nests a.re overspread and permeated by fronds
or fibres of (? algae or lichen), in some cases to such an
extent as to hide them. He had requested Mr. J. P. Green
to examine the mass and determine, if possible, the nature
of the vegetable growth and its relation to the material of
the nest, which is made by a species of Collocalia}

March 15th, 368th meeting. Sir W. Grove described
some experiments which he made at the Royal Institution
about the year 1846, when the slow deposit of crystals by
the voltaic arc was attracting attention. By this means
M. Depretz was reported to have obtained crystalHzed
carbon, though not in a transparent form. It occurred to
him that, as strong sulphuric acid abstracts the water from
moist sugar and leaves behind a residue of black amorphous
carbon, so if pure white sugar were added to a weak solution
of sulphuric acid, the result under voltaic action might be
the crystallization of carbon in a transparent form. Employ-
ing a battery and apparatus, which he described, he used
three tubes, hermetically sealed. Two were filled with a
solution of white sugar to which a few drops (not the same
number) of sulphuric acid had been added, but he could not
remember whether the third tube contained any. Each
tube was then connected with a battery, so that the current
passed through them in a vertical direction, and they were
left in a dark vault for about 10 months. The negative
wires were then found in all three cases wholly coated with
a black deposit, which was spangled from top to bottom

^ Nearly allied to the British swift (Cypselus). Mr. Green found the
material to be closely related to mucin. It is secreted by the salivary
glands. See Newton, Dictionary of Birds, s v Swift, and Chambers'
Encyclopaedia, s.v. Edible Birds'-Nests.

Vegetation in the Canary Islands 235

Avith very brilliant crystals of the cubic system, not more
than O'Oi inch in diameter. So far as he remembered, but
lie was not certain, thej^ scratched glass. An expert, to
whom M. Gassiot had shown them, said they were too
small to give conclusive evidence, but he saw no reason why
they should not be diamonds. All were used up in applying
tests. He had intended to repeat the experiments, but
soon afterwards he left the London Institution and returned
to active practice at the Bar. He had, however, done so at
his own house, with small batteries, but the only result was
a black deposit on the negative electrodes.

May 17th, 370th meeting. Mr. Ball, who had recently
visited the Canary Islands, made some remarks on their
flora, which is remarkable for the large number of endemic
plants, not growing in any other part of the world. Of
about 400 described species, some inhabit all or several of
the islands, but the majority are confined to a single island,
and this is generally Teneriffe. Perhaps all these may not
be true species, but we might safely say that the Canary
Islands produce 300 such species, besides about 50 species
common to them and Madeira, and in some cases also to
the Azores, but not known elsewhere. Among the species
strictly confined to the Canaries are several groups which
give a very special aspect to the vegetation, nine of the
genera being elsewhere unknown. Among the former is
the Sempervivum, of which 60 species (possibly 40 of them
quite distinct) have been described. An allied species
had been found by Sir J. Hooker and himself in the Great
Atlas and a shrubby Sempervivum near Mogador ; so one
might suppose this group of plants, which has multiplied
so greatly in the Canaries, to have an African origin. This
may be said with more confidence of the cactoid Euphorbiae,
which are so marked a feature in the Canarian flora, and of
the genus Sonchus, about 10 species of which are peculiar
to those islands ; there are also three African genera,
excluding the groups already mentioned, which are peculiar
to the Canaries. We know too little of the African coast
for the 15° of latitude between the mouth of the Sus river

236 Annals of the Philosophical Club

and French Senegal to justify any confident statement^
but, apart from species extending to other regions, we know
only of about a dozen common to North-west Africa and the
Canaries, and there are three African genera (excluding the
groups already mentioned) which are represented in the
latter by species peculiar to the islands. On the other
hand, we find, besides the genera and species strictly confined
to the Canarian archipelago, three distinct genera, known
only in the Azores and Madeira, and the above-named
50 species, several of which extend also to the Azores.
This extension is the only fact which lends any support
to the theory of an ancient Atlantis, advanced by the late
Edward Forbes.

June 14th, 371st meeting. Captain Noble described the
effect of shells charged with explosives of great power.
The pebbles of the shingle near the spot were in some cases
reduced to powder, a result apparently of the violent com-
pression of the surrounding air.

Nov. 1st, 372nd meeting. Mr. Galton gave an account
of his recent visit to the Bureau des Signalement at Paris
to study M. Alphonse Bertillon's system of identifying
criminals by measurements of different parts of the body.
Doubts had been expressed, which to some extent he also
had felt, whether the method would succeed, but his
experience had been convincing. The measurements were
made and recorded quickly, the system of storing and
classifying the descriptions was simple, admitting of easy
reference, and the results, as he saw from examples, were
most successful. The system was now adopted in France.

Dec. 13th, 374th meeting. Dr. Sclater described a mound
composed of angular blocks in an earthy matrix resembling
a moraine which he had seen, during a recent visit to Algeria,
at the entrance of the gorge of the Chifa, where it debouches
from the Atlas. Also he had noticed another mound like
a moraine on the road between Algiers and Constantine.
Some members doubted if these could be moraines, as they
were only a few hundred feet above sea-level.

1889. May i6th, 379th meeting. Dr. Sclater exhibited

Fall of Black Rain 237

the mummy of a species of falcon, probably Dissodictis
ardesiacus, from Egypt. The possibiUty of dissolving the
bitumen, used in the preserving process, was discussed, so
as to allow of examining the various parts of the bird. In
Cuvier's time a mummy of the Sacred Ibis had been thus
successfully treated, but the process was now unknown.

June 6th, 380th meeting. Lord Rosse mentioned a fall
of black rain,^ on April 12th last, over a considerable area
of Central Ireland, as, for instance, at Lisbeg, near Eyrecourt
in County Galway, where the tanks were subsequently
emptied to get rid of the black water (none being preserved).
It also fell at Cangort Park in King's County and at Golden
Grove near Roscrea, which is about 20 miles from Lisbeg.
A few black drops (compared to ink and to bog-water) fell
at Dundrum, near Cashel. He exhibited a small bottle of
the rain taken at Ballymore Castle. It had now lost the
inky appearance and become of a pale reddish brown, but
contained an amount of dark soHd sediment. Dr. W. J.
Russell had examined it and found neither crystalline nor
organic structure, but a character like that of London rain,
except that it did not give an acid reaction. The cause of
the blackness cannot yet be satisfactorily explained.

Dec. 12th, 382nd meeting. Mr. Evans described the
opening of a barrow at Youngsbury near Ware. The hinge
was found of a wooden box which had enclosed an urn and
a glass bottle, containing bones of man and roe-deer, pieces
of charcoal, and fragments of incense (proved by burning).
The pattern on the bottle is identical with one found at
Harpenden sixty years ago, and the interment belonged to
the later half of the second century.

Professor Dewar made some remarks on the zero of
absolute temperature. Van der Waals had shown that the
critical point of a substance could be calculated from data
which were derived from a knowledge of the isothermal
curves, emplo3dng for the purpose the observations of
Andrews. The subsequent investigations of Amagat can
now also be used. From these the critical points of oxygen,
1 See also Nature, vol. xl. page 202, and page 158 of this book.

238 Annals of the Philosophical Club

hydrogen, and nitrogen can be calculated. Later investiga-
tion has confirmed the accuracy of the numbers for oxygen,
but for nitrogen the calculated value of the critical point was
50° too high. As hydrogen has not yet been Hquefied,^ it
may be inferred that its calculated critical point is above the
true value, which is confirmed by the fact that hydrogen
does not liquet}^ at the calculated critical temperature, which
is about —174° C. The increasing inaccuracy in the cases
of nitrogen and hydrogen, compared with the accuracy
in that of oxygen, is due to the much lower value of their
respective critical points, and to the fact that, as the iso-
thermal curves are observed at ordinary temperatures —
about 15° C. — they are being gradually further removed
from the critical points. Hence, isothermals must be
observed at much lower temperatures to obtain anything
like an accurate calculated value for hydrogen. Wroblewski
constructed such curves, and they show the critical point of
hydrogen to be —240-4° C. (or 32-6 absolute with a
critical pressure of 13-3 atmospheres), the density at the
contact point being 0-027 > both critical point and density are
below those of any other substance. Calculated from these
data the boiling point of hydrogen, at ordinary atmospheric
pressure, would be between 20° and 22° absolute temperature^
the difference between critical and boiling point being about
10°, while it is about 50° in the case of nitrogen and carbonic
acid. So if we had liquid hydrogen, we should have to lower
its boiling point 20° to reach the zero of absolute temperature.
As such reduction can be effected when oxygen, nitrogen,
and other substances are evaporated under diminished
pressure, there is no apparent reason for doubting that, with
a supply of liquid hydrogen, we could arrive at, or very near
to, the zero of absolute temperature. Before this could be
reached, hydrogen would be a solid mass, probably having
the appearance and characters of a metal.

^ Its critical temperature (-233° C.) and the boiling point (-243°C.>
were ascertained by Professor Olszewski {Nature, vol. li. page 488). He
also obtained a momentary liquefaction of the gas, but Professor Dewar
himself succeeded on May loth, 1898, in reducing the gas to a static liquid.
For an account see Nature, vol. Iviii, page 49.

A Roman Glass Bottle 239

1890. March 13th, 385th meeting. Mr. Evans described
a small glass bottle (about three inches in diameter) of
Roman make, inside which five glass rods extended from the
base of the neck to a point a little above the bottom, at
angles of about 45° with the axis of the bottle, and thus
seeming to support the neck. He suggested that, while the
bottle was still soft and before it had reached its full size,
a blunt rod, like a knitting pin, had been pushed into the
side at five different points and the viscous glass carried as
tubes to the base of the neck, where they were finally attached
by the help of a blowpipe. This done, the bottle would
be reheated and blown to its full size, the tubes by this
action being welded into rods. By adopting this device,
Mr. Powell, whose practical knowledge of glass is so great,
and Mr. C. V. Boys, so successful in constructing glass
apparatus, had made a similar vessel.

May 8th, 387th meeting. Professor Judd exhibited a
crystal of beryl, well formed, though somewhat water-worn,
weighing 2650 grains, with a specific gravity 2703. It was
clear, and its colour between aquamarine and emerald.
It had been obtained in Ceylon by Mr. Barrington Brown.
He had also brought from Burma the specimens (exhibited)
of rubies in a matrix of highly crystalline limestone.

Oct. 30th, 389th meeting. Professor Dewar exhibited
a specimen of liquid nickel carbon monoxide, discovered
by Mr. Mond while experimenting with an improved form
of Grove's gas-battery in order to find a way of obtaining
hydrogen cheaply for commercial purposes. While trying
various modes of separating the two oxides of carbon from
their mixture with hydrogen in the gas-battery he found
that nickel united with the carbon monoxide in the pro-
portion of one volume of the former to four volumes of the
latter, forming a gas at ordinary temperatures, which is
reduced by pressure to a heavy, colourless, highly refracting
liquid. As neither cobalt, nor iron, nor any other metal
forms a similar compound, this gives a ready method of
distinguishing nickel from any metal resembling it. That is
the more important, because nickel and cobalt have the

240 Annals of the Philosophical Club

same atomic weight and because it negatives the suggested
existence of a new element present as a constant impurity
in the two metals. It also shows the possible existence of a
group of elements, forming compounds of the type RO^.

Sir F. Bramwell mentioned an attempt, made many years
ago at the old Vauxhall Gardens, to prepare hydrogen gas
for commercial purposes by passing steam over charcoal.
It aimed at producing as little carbon monoxide as possible,
the carbon dioxide being got rid of by passing the gas through
a solution of caustic soda.

Dec. nth, 391st meeting. Professor Frankland gave the
results of experiments on the fitness of electric lamps for
use in coal mines. He found that the small spark from
small storage batteries could not ignite explosive mixtures
of marsh gas or coal gas or even of hydrogen with air. Hence
no such spark, caused by a breaking circuit or otherwise,
can cause danger in a fiery mine. He was still making
experiments to ascertain whether the breaking of the globe
and momentary contact of the incandescent filament with
an explosive mixture would be dangerous.

1891. Jan. 15th, 392nd meeting. Professor Newton
read a letter from Professor Stirling, giving a description of
a recently discovered AustraUan mammal, which proves
to be a marsupial, not a monotreme as at first supposed.^
It has a bird-like pelvis and four or five of the cervical
vertebrae are fused, but has marsupial bones, though these
are exceedingly small. The eyes are pigment spots under
the skin, and it burrows underground in the sand for long
distances. He could not send a specimen to England, for
he had only four, none of them in good condition,
since they had travelled 1500 miles wrapped in a kerosene
rag, and they supplemented each other. Professor Flower
said the animal represented a new order in the marsupials,
which now afforded representatives of the mammalian orders

1 A drawing of Notorhyctes typhops was exhibited at the Royal Society
•Conversazione on June 17th, by Professor Newton {Nature, vol. xliv.
page 188). The first account of the animal, found at a station on the
overland route from Adelaide to Port Darwin, is given by Professor Stirling,
Nature, vol. xxxviii. pages 588-9.

Experiments with Explosives 241

of carnivora, herbivora, and insectivora. Mr. Thiselton-
Dyer remarked that some vegetable types showed a tendency
to assume forms characteristic of very different orders.
For example, the genus Senecio includes many adaptive
types, such as tree-like, succulent, and climbing forms.

June i8th, 397th meeting. Mr. d'Abbadie^ (guest) drew
attention to the nature of hazes, by which, even in the driest
atmosphere, the sun is often obscured and mountains, at
a distance of three or four miles, are invisible. Though so
common as to have received a special name in the languages
and dialects of many savage tribes, their true nature has not
been fully studied, nor their origin determined. He also gave
some account of his scientific travels, especially on magnetic
surveys in Africa and Arabia.

1892. June i6th, 406th meeting. Captain Noble gave
an account of some experiments on explosives. It was
generally agreed that for artillery the pressure employed
should not exceed 17 tons per square inch. The maximum
pressure with the new explosive compounds did not exceed
that of the old, but in some cases, and especially with
cordite, fifty per cent, more energy was imparted to the
projectile, the pressure on the interior part of the gun being
increased, but not that on the chamber. The results given
by the old gauge were incorrect, because the products of
explosion were forced into the gauge. It was not advan-
tageous to increase the velocity of the projectile above
2000 feet per second, though one of 3000 feet might be
obtained. Owing to the resistance of the air a better result
is got by increasing the weight of the projectile. He men-
tioned that cordite of large diameter is blown from a gun
imperfectly burnt, the residue being cordite in all respects
similar to the newly-prepared material.

Oct. 27th, 407th meeting. Mr. Crookes said that a study
of the phosphorescent spectrum of j^trium had suggested
that it was really a compound. Progress had been made

1 A. T. d'Abbadie (1810-1897) lived in Paris and studied meteorological
and astronomical subjects, writing on these and on earthquakes, shooting
stars, and gravitation.

p.c. Q

242 Annals of the Philosophical Club

in a work which had lasted for many years, and but for
* accidents ' might not be completed for another half century.
Two of them, however, had lately much facilitated the
enquiry ; one being the precipitation of one of the con-
stituents in a pure state, as a crystalline salt, namely, that
giving a close pair of green lines in the spectroscope ; the
other being the discovery of a mineral accompanying
gadoHnite ^ from Texas, in which fractionation had already
advanced to a considerable extent.

1893. Jan. 26th, 410th meeting. Professor Riicker gave
the results of experiments, made in the eastern part of
London by himself, Professor Ayrton, and others, which
proved that the neighbourhood of a railway worked by
electricity would be injurious to a physical laboratory.

Feb. i6th, 411th meeting. Professor Newton mentioned
the discovery of another deposit containing bones of large
mammals at Barrington, near Cambridge, similar to the
one described fourteen years ago by the Rev. O. Fisher.^
Bison priscus and Megaceros hibernicus are the more abun-
dantly represented, but there are a considerable number
of teeth and some bones of Hippopotamus amphibius, with
bones of a female Elephas antiquus and her calf, teeth of
bear (Ursus priscus), and of a large Felis, with other repre-
sentatives of the river gravel fauna. The excavation was
now being carried on, by favour of the owner, on behalf of
the Wood war dian Museum. ^

April 27th, 413th meeting (46th anniversary). Captain
Noble gave an account, of experiments with explosive
compounds. With a large charge of cordite and a light
projectile he had obtained a velocity of nearly 5000 feet per
second. He had used six different kinds of explosives.

* A silicate of beryllum, iron, and yttrium.

2 See ^uart. Jour. Geol. Soc. 1879, page 670. Since the above date
many valuable remains, now contained in the Sedgwick Museum at Cam-
bridge, have been obtained from this and another pit. See for a full
account (with illustrations) Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xxii. pages 268-278.
The late Professor Hughes thought the gravel probably older than the
Chalky Boulder Clay.

' The former title of the Sedgwick Museum.

Experiments with Explosives 243

A 100 pounds projectile could acquire a velocity of 3400 feet
per second, but a 40 pounds one a velocity of 4930 feet, and
that could be considerably increased by enlarging the
chamber and increasing the gravimetric density of the
charge. The solid products of combustion of brown prismatic
powder (one of the above six) favoured deposit in the tube,
for it became fluid at the temperature of the explosion. A
dirty gun made a sensible difference in the velocity, amount-
ing to a loss of 9-5 per cent, of energy. Cordite and ballistite
produced no deposit. In the experiments three guns had
been used — of 50, 75, and 100 calibre (ratio of length to
diameter) — that of 75 calibre, fired with brown prismatic
powder, gave, when clean, the same velocity as that of
100 calibre, when foul. He indicated how the velocities
were measured, and said that higher could be obtained, but
they were not practically useful, because of the high resistance
of the air. He also mentioned that when nitroglycerine is
mixed with diatom-earth, or any inert substance, detonation
takes place as if it were not so mixed, but when gun-cotton
is dissolved in nitroglycerine, as in the manufacture of
cordite, this will not detonate. The difference of action
between gun-cotton and cordite is shown by filling a cast-iron
shell with each. When exploded by a fulminate, the one is
broken to pieces, the other reduced to powder.

Oct. 26th, 416th meeting. Dr. Giinther described the
habits of a small ant [Occophylla sp.?) found on the west
coast of Africa. Colonies of it form nests, double the size of
a man's fist, in young shoots of the coffee plant. When a
nest is complete, the ants capture a small spider Gastracantha
curvispina to cover it with a web, and construct for this a
separate cell, opening into the interior of the nest, where
they keep it a prisoner and feed it, to repair or renew the
external web. Eight or nine of the spiders have been
examined, and all prove to be males.

Mr. Galton said that early in the year he had made
experiments to ascertain whether he could work sums in
arithmetic by other faculties than sight or hearing, on one
or other of which some calculators depend. He taught

244 Annals of the Philosophical Club

himself by means of a simple apparatus for smelling different
odours, and practising for a few minutes night and morning,
to consider peppermint as one unit, camphor as two units,
carbolic acid as three, etc., and was able to translate the
earlier part of the addition table into these scents. He
thought that a child, if it began early enough, would not
find a process of this kind more difficult than learning
addition in the usual way. But, having got thus far, he did
not think it worth while to continue the experiments, and
found that the faculty temporarily acquired had already
been almost lost.

1894. April 19th, 422nd meeting (47th anniversary). Mr.
Galton described a visit to an institution at Nice for rearing
prematurely born children. It was furnished with fiat
glass cases like incubators, which could be kept at any
desired temperature, and in each lay a swaddled child, not
yet of the normal age for birth ; the facts being noted on a
placard. Apparently it was a private speculation, but it
received Government approval in 1891, and that of the
French Academy of Medicine in 1893.

May 24th, 423rd meeting. Dr. Debus referred to the
fundamental law in modern chemistry supposed to have
been discovered by Avogadro in 1812. But, as the Italian
chemist was aware, John Dalton clearly stated the principle
in 1808.^ He, however, dropped it because he found such
remarkable discrepancies on comparing the atomic weights
with the densities of the gases. But a more exact deter-
mination of the former showed that they really correspond.
The discovery of this law seemed to him not less important
than that of gravitation by Newton.

Sir A. Noble described an apparatus for determining the
rate with which high explosives part with their heat to the
chamber enclosing them. Corite gases are remarkable
in this respect. A charge of it, giving in a closed vessel a
pressure of a little over 6 tons per square inch, has that
reduced in 0-07 of a second after the explosion to 6 tons,
in 0-17 second to 5 tons, in 075 second to 4 tons, in 175

* See H. E. Roscoe, John Dalton and the Rise of Modern Chemistry, 1895.

Stable a?id Unstable Orbits 245

second to 3 tons, in 3-5 seconds to 2 tons, and in 7 seconds to
I ton, while in 13 seconds the pressure is well below that
amount. He had corroborated the results by two or three
experiments. Powder gases exploded at the same pressure
took triple the amount of time, but this perhaps might be
expected because of the larger charges fired and the lower
temperatures developed.

June 14th, 424th meeting. Professor G. Darwin stated
that, on a recent consideration of the ' three bodies problem,'
he had found a possible mode of motion for a sateUite,
which would give it three changes of moon and one fuU moon
in a single lunation. Its orbit would be a figure of eight
relatively to the sun and planet, the latter lying in the larger
loop of the eight. Such an orbit is, however, very unstable,
so that the satellite, if slightly displaced, must soon cease
to move, even approximately, in its primitive orbit, with
the result that, sooner or later, it will either come into colUsion
with the planet, or be drawn towards and fall into the sun.
Thus all unstable orbits will gradually be eUminated from
a solar system, those that are stable alone remaining. By
considering the stabihty or instabihty of various periodic
orbits he was in hopes of throwing light on the actual
distribution in space of planets and satelhtes.

Professor Victor Horsley gave a brief account of Erlach's
experiments with a solution of methylene blue. When this
is introduced into the system during life, the colouration
or non-colouration of any tissue showed whether oxidation
or reduction took place in that part of the body. During
Hfe (he had repeated Erlach's experiments on a large scale)
no reduction took place in the muscles (including the head)
and the brain ; in the lungs the blue was rapidly deoxidized
and the tissues remained colourless. At the moment of
death the colour instantly fades from tissues, where in the
living state it is very pronounced, showing the occurrence
of an active and universal reduction.

Oct. 25th, 425th meeting. The members discussed some
subjects in electricity, such as Professor Lenard's observa-
tions on cathode rays, the currents about magnetic poles.

246 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Lord Armstrong's hydroelectric machine and its suggested
relation to the lightning that accompanies volcanic eruptions,
the reported new gas discovered by Lord Rayleigh and
Professor Ramsay in association with atmospheric nitrogen,^
the manufacture of aluminium, the preparation of pure
fluorine, the synthesis of diamonds, and the fractionation
of yttrium.

1895. Feb. 14th, 429th meeting. Professor Frankland
gave the results of a three years' investigation of the bacterial
life in Thames water. He found the number contained in a
cubic centimetre to vary between 630 and 56,630, the
largest number, as a rule, being found in winter with a low
temperature, and the smallest in summer with a high one.
The causes affecting the development of microbic life had
all received attention, and he exhibited curves illustrating
its relation to each of them. He inferred from them (i) that
though a few coincidences existed between low temperature
and a high number of bacteria, some other conditions, as a
rule, entirely masked the effect of the latter ; (2) the amount
of sunHght during the past three days has no substantial
effect on the number of microbes present in a cubic centi-
metre of water ; (3) this depends on the rate of flow of the
water, or, in other words, on the rainfall.

March 14th, 430th meeting. Sir H. Roscoe dwelt on the
recent great development by the Institute of Preventive
Medicine in the preparation of antitoxins. Within the last
few days about 400 doses of the antitoxin of tetanus had been
distributed to the Pacific Islands at a cost of one shilling
each. The preparation of diphtheritic antitoxin now took
only eighteen hours, and 300 doses of it were sold daily by
Messrs. Allen and Hanbury at a cost price of eighteen pence
for thirty cubic centimetres, or three average doses. The
■effect had been to reduce by one-half the deaths from that
disease.

April 24th, 431st meeting (48th anniversary). Mr.

* They announced the discovery of argon (as they called the gas) at
the Oxford meeting of the British Association. See British Association
Jleport, 1894, page 614.

Signs of an Ancient Southern Continent 247

Crookes mentioned some recent experiments by Victor
Schumann, of Leipzig, on the photography of rays of very
high refrangibility. Having found that the short length
•of air, through which the light has to pass from the electric
spark to the spectroscope, has a very decided absorptive
action on those rays, he had constructed a spectroscope
from which the air can be exhausted. Mr. Crookes showed
a photograph of a certain part of the hydrogen spectrum,
exhibiting more than 300 lines and representing about
one-eighth of the whole hydrogen spectrum, which contains
from 1500 to 2000 lines.

May 1 6th, 432nd meeting. Mr. Blanford spoke of a fossil
flora, information of which had recently come to him from
the province of San Luis, Argentina, It was remarkably
interesting, because a series of fossil floras had now been
found in Australia, India, and South Africa, ranging in age
from Carboniferous to Jurassic or Neocomian, the older of
which were quite different from the Carboniferous and
Permian floras of Europe and North America, and so much
resembled those of Mesozoic age, that the Australian and
Indian coal-beds had for long been considered Jurassic, but
the higher Indian, Australian, and South African floras did
not differ so much from those in the north. Dr. Kurtz had
now found, in Argentina, a small number of plants identical
with those in the Karharbari and Talchir beds of India,
the Ecca-Kimberley beds of South Africa, and some of the
lower Newcastle beds of Australia, thus indicating that a
more or less connected tract of land, comprising parts of
India, Australia, South Africa, and South America must
once have existed, which, however, was separated by a
break, impassable by plants, from that occupied by the flora
of North America and Europe. Another interesting matter
was that, in each of the first-named four countries, traces of
glaciation have been observed in connection with the beds
containing the Upper Palaeozoic flora.*

1 Sometimes referred to as the " Glossopteris flora," and considered
to be of Permo-Carboniferous age. This and the signs of glaciation are
mentioned in Sir A. Geikie's Text-book of Geology, pages 1057, 1066, etc.

248 Annals of the Philosophical Club

June 20th, 433rd meeting. Dr. Sclater exhibited speci-
mens of the silicified wood [Nicolia), which he had brought
from the * petrified forest ' in the Suez desert, some 7 miles
from Cairo in a direction south of east. From the way
the trunks were lying he had little doubt the trees had
been brought down by water and stranded on the shore
of an ancient estuary.

Nov. 2ist, 435th meeting. In the absence of Professor
Dewar, Mr. Crookes described a simple, rapid, and inexpen-
sive method of preparing Hquid air. One end of a strong
copper tube, about a quarter of an inch in external diameter,
is connected with a steel bottle, about one cubic foot in
capacity, containing air at 180 atmospheres pressure. The
other end (a few feet distant) is twisted into a close spiral
about nine inches long and two inches in external diameter.
Inside this a glass tube, exhausted to a high vacuum, is
tightly slipped, and the whole put into a vacuum-jacketed
glass cylinder a couple of inches longer than the copper-spiraU
the end of which is open. On turning the tap of the high-
pressure cylinder, the compressed air rushes into the lower
part of the outer cylinder. In expanding it abstracts heat
from surrounding bodies, but as the vacuum jacket, inside
and out, almost completely isolates thermally the upper
spiral, the temperature of the stream of expanding air is
lowered till it reaches its own liquefying point, when Hquid
air begins to roll down the outer cyhnder. Last Saturday
he saw Professor Dewar perform the experiment at the
Royal Institution, when liquid air began to appear in about
five minutes after the tap was turned on, and in ten minutes
seventy cubic centimetres of liquid air had collected, the
compressed air expended amounting to about fifty cubic
feet at the normal atmospheric pressure. If the high
pressure cyhnder be filled with oxygen or nitrogen, they also
are liquefied, and with a similar apparatus Professor Dewar
has succeeded in obtaining liquid hydrogen.^

* A fuller account of the experiments, with figures of the apparatus, is given
in Nature, vol. liii. pages 329-331, from a paper read by Professor Dewar to
the Chemical Society on Dec. 19th, 1895, and printed in their Proceedings.

Records of Earthquakes 249

1896. Feb. 13th, 438th meeting. Professor John Milne *
(a guest) described some photographic records of earthquakes
which he had obtained at Shide, Isle of Wight, from a
horizontal pendulum. This, from time to time, showed
sudden movements. As these might be due to local earth-
quakes, he intended to compare their records with those
from an apparatus which would be set up at Carisbrooke.
Earthquakes originating in Europe and other distant
places were also noted. Occasionally tremor-storms lasting
from ten to seventy hours occurred, which so far blurred
the photogram as to obliterate a separate record ; the rate
at which the film was moved being too quick for obtaining
satisfactory diagrams of diurnal tilting. He hoped that
instruments, equivalent to that at Shide, would be estab-
lished at about fifteen stations round the world ; their
chief object being to determine the rate at which earthquake
motion is propagated, not only round the earth but possibly
through its interior.

April 23rd, 440th meeting (49th anniversary). Sir Joseph
Hooker exhibited a small instrument made for measuring
sections of plants. It was on the plan of a pair of propor-
tional compasses, but so arranged that the distance between
the pointed ends is recorded by the opposite end of one of
them on a scale attached by a pivot to the other limb.^

May 7th, 441st meeting. Dr. Sclater described the way
in which the eggs of the Surinam water-toad {Pipa americana)
were deposited on the back of the female, observations

1 Professor John Milne, who founded seismographic observatories in
Britain and made most important contributions to seismology, was born
in Liverpool, Dec. 30th, 1850, studied at the School of Mines in Jermyn
Street, and then in Cornwall, after which he undertook work in Newfound-
land, Labrador, and the Peninsula of Sinai. In 1872 he obtained a post
under the Japanese Government, and on his way to take up this, crossed
Europe and Asia from England to Shanghai. A prolonged period of
earthquake disturbances in Japan enabled him to study their phenomena,
on which he wrote some valuable memoirs. Returning to England in
1 895, he settled at Shide (Isle of Wight), where he established an observatory,
devising instruments for registering secondary shocks, and recording,
classifying, and pubUshing his observations. (See an excellent biography
in the Geological Magazine, 19 12, 337.) He died July 31st, 1913.

- A pen-and-ink sketch of the instrument is inserted in the Minutes.

250 Annals of the Philosophical Club

having been made of two pairs, which had copulated in the
hot pond of the Zoological Society's Gardens. The female,
when spawning, extruded from her cloaca a long bag-like
organ, no doubt a prolongation of its lower part. This was
bent over on her back, and the male, when in copula, pressed
on it, squeezing out the eggs, one by one, and arranging
them on her back — fecundating them, as was supposed,
-while doing this. Oviposition ended, the male left the
female, and the extruded part of the cloaca returned into her
body. Much more, however, remained to be discovered,
for these were the first observations that had ever been
made.

Nov. 19th, 444th meeting. Dr. Frankland related the
experiences of a party sent to observe the total eclipse of
the sun on August 9th from an island on the western side of
Vadso (Norway) . After the necessary preparations had been
made, their party, twenty in number, was landed there about
2.30 a.m. The sun shone at intervals through banks of
•clouds, but was invisible when a bugle note indicated the
first contact. Another sounded five minutes before totality.
A general gloom had already set in, the fleecy clouds had
become yellow, the sea and distant hills deep indigo-blue. A
rifle shot announced the beginning of totality, and now a dark
shadow swept over the heavens and the earth at the rate
of about two miles a second. It came on in great waves,
blackening every fleecy cloud and appearing to bring down
the sky and the clouds upon their heads. An observer called
the time from a chronometer, every ten seconds, to 104
seconds, when totahty ceased ; the sky and landscape
xapidly resuming their ordinary aspect. The darkness
-during totality was not great enough to prevent one from
reading a book, for much light was reflected from masses
of cloud near the horizon and outside the range of totality.
It would doubtless have been more intense had the sky
been clear.

1897. Jan. 21st, 446th meeting. Sir F. Bramwell
•described the roller boat of M. Baxin, on which a paper had
heen read the previous evening at the Society of Arts. It

The Floor of the Pacific Ocean 251

consisted of a rectangular platform carrying deckhouses,
mounted on six hollow lenticular rollers, each about 40 feet
diameter and 12 feet thick, actuated by engines of 150 horse-
power, and an engine of 500 horse-power works a screw-
propeller, which rotates between the pairs of rollers. The
friction of the water should thus be reduced to a minimum,
as the boat rolls over it without cutting through it.

Feb. nth, 447th meeting. Sir A. Geikie gave a summary
of the results of Admiralty soundings in the Pacific. Sub-
marine peaks had been discovered, over areas hundreds of
square miles in extent, with bases averaging about 20 miles
wdde and with fiat tops, which are 25 or 26 fathoms below
high-water mark, and do not vary in depth more than a
few feet. These must be the cinder cones of volcanoes, now
extinct, which the waves have cut down to the level where
they ceased to have any erosive power. On three submarine
peaks corals had grown, and atolls were being formed.

March nth, 448th meeting. Sir John Evans called
attention to the discovery by Mr. Joseph Landon, of Saltley,
near Birmingham, in the highland gravels of the Rea, of at
least one well-formed palaeolith, made of quartzite. The
absence of these implements from the region north of a line
drawn from the mouth of the Severn to the Wash had been
explained by supposing it to have been then covered by ice,
but as similar palaeoliths had already been found at Creswell
Crags in north-east Derbyshire,^ non-discovery might be
the better reason, and a careful search in the older gravels of
northern rivers might result in a large extension of the area
occupied by palaeolithic man.

June 17th, 451st meeting. Dr. Russell gave an account
of experiments on the action of metals and some other
bodies on photographic plates which he had been describing
that afternoon to the Roj^al Society. When repeating
Becquerel's experiments on uranium, he had found zinc to
act in the same kind of way, a fact which, though he was not
then aware of it, had been already observed by Colston.

» See J. M. Mello, Q^AafU Jour, GeoL Soc, 1876, pages 240-244. and
AV. B. Dawkins, ibid, pages 249-256.

252 Annals of the Philosophical Club

A bright zinc plate, however, would not only produce a
complete picture of markings on it, when laid on a sensitive
plate, but this action also occurred through considerable
distances, and even if such substances as celluloid, gelatine,
gutta-percha tissue, goldbeater's skin, vegetable or real
parchment were interposed between the two plates. Other
metals and their alloys, such as mercury, magnesium,
cadmium, nickel, cobalt, aluminium, lead, tin, antimony,
pewter, or fusible metal, acted in the same way. Copal and
some other varnishes produced similar effects, and a picture
of such a thing as a skeleton leaf could be obtained by
putting it between a photographic plate and a sheet of
zinc, or piece of glass, covered with copal, but pure paper,
after being soaked in a solution of certain salts, prevented
the passage of any such action. Wood also was similarly
active, and a good picture was obtained by laying a piece
of it on a photographic plate. Printers' ink in many cases
had the same effect, and remarkably clean dark pictures
came from placing either the blank or the inked side of a
page of print on such a plate. Pill boxes, in which some of
the uranium salts had been kept, were found to have a
similar effect, for they were usually made of straw-board
covered with white paper, and the former could act, though
to a less extent, like zinc and copal.

1898. Jan. 20th, 455th meeting. Professor Anderson
Stuart 1 (a guest), from the University of Sydney (Australia),
gave an account of that University. It was incorporated
by Royal Charter in 1850, and at the present time received
from the State an annual subsidy of £12,000, besides other
pecuniary aid. Its buildings were well situated, and its
students numbered about 600, including 80 women. No
distinction was made between the sexes, and no difficulties

1 Sir Thomas Anderson Stuart was born at Dumfries on June 20th, 1856,
and, after taking the M.D. degree with special distinction at the University
of Edinburgh, became Professor of Physiology in the University of Sydney.
There he has been for not a few years an energetic worker in medical and
alUed scientific subjects, and was a leader in organizing the three expe-
ditions for making a deep boring into the atoll of Funafuti in the EUice
Islands. He was knighted in 19 14.

Deep Boring in a Coral Reef 253

had arisen. It had four faculties — arts, law, medicine, and
science ; the teaching was professorial, not tutorial, and the
staff, including lecturers and demonstrators, was 46 in
number.

April 28th, 458th meeting (anniversary). Professor Judd
gave an outline of the progress made in investigating the
structure of a coral reef by boring. The committee,
appointed by the Royal Society, had selected the atoll of
Funafuti, one of the Ellice Islands, of which Captain Field
in H.M.S. Penguin had made a very complete survey. Two
borings were put down in 1896 by Professor SoUas, and a
third in 1897. This, under charge of Professor Edgeworth
David,^ of Sydney University, had reached a depth of 698
feet. The m.aterials obtained had been sent to England for
examination, and it was hoped that the committee, formed
in Sydney to co-operate with the Royal Society, would be
able to continue the deep bore-hole and to sink one, with the
aid of the Lords of the Admiralty, into the bed of the lagoon.^

June i6th, 460th meeting. Professor Riicker communi-
cated the results of experiments with a self-recording
magnetometer, recently set up in South Kensington. The
self-registered curves (which he exhibited) showed periodic
magnetic disturbances, of about 3 minutes' duration,
superposed on the photographic trace of the instrument.
On every week day they began about 6 a.m. in the morning
and continued till about 11. 15 p.m., but there is no trace
of them during the night or on Sunday, when the electric
trains of the South London Railway are not running.
Careful comparison with records, obtained at Greenwich
Observatory, of trains running on the South London Electric

iTannatt WilUam Edgeworth David, C.M.G., F.R.S.. Professor of
Geology in the University of Sydney, was born in 1858, and graduated from
New College, Oxford (of which University he is now a D.Sc). Besides
his valuable work in Funafuti as head of the second expedition, he was
scientific officer on the Shackleton Antarctic Expedition from 1907 to 1909,
making the ascent of Mount Erebus, and leading a party to the South
Magnetic Pole.

■^ In 1898 the boring was carried down to 11 14 feet, and two, near
together, were sunk into the bed of the lagoon, one to a depth of 144 feet.
See Minutes for Feb. 8th, 1900.

254 Annals of the Philosophical Club

Railway, showed them to be very similar to these in character
and probably due to the same cause. This inference was
confirmed by experiments made at Chelsea (2^ miles from
the railway) and at a point about \ a mile from it, the
disturbances at both places showing an increase over those
registered at South Kensington, and becoming larger as
the railway was approached.

1899. April 27th, 467th meeting (anniversary). Sir
G. G. Stokes, on being asked to account for the difference
in luminosity of mantles consisting of pure thoria in com^
parison with those formed of 99 per cent, of thoria and
I per cent, of ceria, when heated by cathode rays or the
Bunsen flame, explained the physical conditions to which
such difference was due. These were that thoria, from its
molecular structure, is little disposed to vibrate with the
frequencies corresponding with the less refrangible end of
the spectrum and the invisible rays beyond. But, if it can
be thrown into a state of high molecular agitation, by a
cause permanently at work, so that the intake of energy
balances that given out by radiation, much less of the
output is lost (for illuminating purposes) by being in the
form of vibrations with low frequency. Thus a compara-
tively large part of the output is in the form of vibrations
of higher frequency, which are needed for illumination.
To explain how the thoria is to be thrown into a state of
high agitation, we must suppose that, when a mantle of
it is thus affected by the Bunsen burner, this is mainly
produced, not by direct contact with the products of com-
bustion, but by taking up from the ether the violent agita-
tion, produced in it by, and emanating from, the various
molecules born by the combustion. At any moment
only an extremely small fraction of the molecules that
have just been born can impinge on the mantle before
their agitation has to a great extent subsided by com-
munication to the ether and in part to the molecules
in their immediate neighbourhood. We have, therefore,
mainly to look to the agitation in the ether for getting up
agitation in the molecules of the thoria. That will be, in

Borings in a Coral Reef 255*

very great measure, of high frequency, belonging to the
ultra-violet part of the spectrum. But if thoria be nearly
transparent for that part, the etherial vibrations will mostly
pass through without disturbing it, and thus fail to produce
the very high agitation desired. But when the thoria is
mixed with a small quantity of a suitable oxide, such as
that of cerium or of uranium, which is opaque for rays
of high refrangibihty, their molecules take up agitation
from the ether and pass it on to the thoria by molecular
conduction. If a large quantity of the oxide were mixed
with the thoria it would be injurious, because then it would
freely emit radiations of comparatively low frequency, and
so a great quantity of the agitation, which it takes up from
the ether disturbed by the combustion of the gas would be
wasted on etherial vibrations of a kind which are not wanted.
But when thoria is agitated by the so-called cathodic rays,
that is, by molecular bombardment, the process is wholly
different and the foreign oxide is not required.

1900. Feb. 8th, 474th meeting. Professor Edgeworth
David, of the University of Sydney (a guest), gave an account
of the boring which had been put down in the atoll of
Funafuti (see page 253) to a depth of 11 14 feet, and described
his own stay on the island in 1897, while the first part of
that bore-hole was being made.^ In this last expedition
two borings, near together, had been made in the bed of
the lagoon by the aid of Captain Sturdee, one to a depth of
144 feet, the other of 94J feet. The result of the three
expeditions was to obtain maps and a study of the geography,
geology, botany, and zoology of the atoll, and make a complete
section of it, which passed partly through coral rock, partly
through calcareous sand, and the materials obtained had
been sent for study to the British Museum. He considered
that the evidence tended to show that at Funafuti and other
atolls in the ElUce group, algae, like Halimeda and Litho-
thamnion, were not less important than corals and foramini-
fera in their construction, and that the existence of large

* An interesting account of this visit was written by Mrs. Edgeworth
David in Funafuti, or Three Months on a Coral Island, 1899.

^56 Annals of the Philosophical Club

■coral blocks at the depths attained in the floor of the lagoon
and of masses of reef -building corals at depths of more than
1000 feet, favoured the view that in these atolls subsidence
had predominated over elevation.^

April 5th, 476th meeting (anniversary). Sir W. Crookes
stated the results of his recent studies of uranium and its
compounds in regard to their radio-active properties. That
these were inherent in them had been taken for granted,
but he had found that by chemical fractionation they can
be divided, one portion having strong radio-active pro-
perties, the other almost, or entirely, without them. The
strongest of the former is capable of darkening a photo-
graphic plate in five minutes, while the extreme one of the
latter scarcely produces a visible effect after an exposure of
150 hours. He had succeeded in separating the active body
from uranium, but not, as yet, in obtaining it unmixed. It
was not polonium, for its radiations pass easily through glass
and metal, while those of polonium are stopped. Whether
or not it is radium, is at present doubtful, for, though it
closely resembles that body in some of its characters, it
differs in others, as described in the researches of M. and
Mme. Curie.

Nov. 22nd, 480th meeting. Dr. Blanford pointed out
that the distribution of the garial (Garialis gangetica)
favoured the idea of a depression in the upper part of the
Bay of Bengal. It is a crocodile inhabiting rivers only,
being never found like Crocodilus palustris in ponds or
marshes, or like Crocodilus forosus in tidal waters or the
sea. It occurs in the Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Indus, with
their larger tributaries, and in the Mahanadi in Orissa and
the Koladyni in Arakan. The simplest explanation of its
presence in these two rivers is that they were once tribu-
taries of the Ganges. This would require the Bay to have
extended not farther north than about 19° N., where now
its depth is about 800 fathoms. At Calcutta a well section

* A full report of these expeditions and of the materials obtained,
^th maps and illustrations, is given in The Atoll of Funafuti, Report of the
Coral Reef Committee of the Royal Society, 1909.

The Geology of Arran 257

has afforded clear evidence of a depression of 460 feet — or,
so far as it was carried. It is true signs of slight elevation
are shown in the Bay of Bengal. There are none of great
depression on the Arakan coast, but about midway, between
the mouths of the Mahanadi and the Koladyni rivers, is
the ' Swatch of no Ground,' a channel 1800 feet deep in the
sea-bed, which on either side is only about 100 feet below
the surface of the water. This could not be due to submarine
erosion, and, if a result of subaerial, it must have been
formed when the land was at least 2000 feet above its
present level, which accords with the distribution of the
garial.

Sir A. Geikie mentioned an interesting discovery made
by the Geological Survey in the Isle of Arran. Here the
granite and other eruptive rocks have been for some time
past considered to be referable to the great period of Tertiary
volcanic activity, when so much igneous material was
extruded in the north-western portion of the British Isles,
but no actual proof of their age had been obtained before
last summer, when a tract, about two miles in diameter,
was found on the west side of the southern half of Arran,
which obviously marks the site of a volcanic crater, for it
is occupied by coarse agglomerates, with abundant bosses
and dykes of various intrusive rocks. In these agglomerates
are blocks of sedimentary strata, containing fossils, which
show some of them to be Rhaetic, others Lower Lias,
together with large masses of white limestone, indistinguish-
able from the hard chalk of Antrim and full of Cretaceous
foraminifera and sponges. This shows that the southern
part of Arran, when the eruptions occurred, must have been
covered with sedimentary rocks resembling those preserved
under the basalt of Antrim. These probably extended into
the south of Scotland, from which they have since been
removed by denudation. This justifies the inference that
the main topographical features of that region have been, to
at least a great extent, carved out since the time of the
chalk.

p.c.

APPENDIX

I. LIST OF THE 47 ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF THE
PHILOSOPHICAL CLUB.i

April 12.

Mr. D. T. Ansted.

Sir H. T. de la Beche.

Mr. T. Bell.

Mr. W. Bowman.
5 Mr. W. J. Broderip.

Mr. R. Brown.

Sir p. de M. G. Egerton.

Dr. W. Falconer.

Prof. E. Forbes.
10 Mr. J. P. Gassiot.

Prof. J. Graham.

Mr. W. R. Grove.

Mr. L. Horner.

Mr. C. Lyell.
15 Dr. W. a. Miller.

Sir R. I. Murchison.

Mr. R. Owen.

Mr. R, Partridge.

Dr. J. Pereira.
20 Mr. J. Phillips.

Dr. J. F. RoYLE.

Col. E. Sabine.

Dr. W. Sharpey.

Mr. E. Solly.

25 Mr. W. Spence.

Col. W. H. Sykes.

Mr. C. Wheatstone.
May 6.

Adml. F. Beaufort.

Mr. S. H. Christie.
30 Mr. M. Faraday.

Mr. J. T. Graves.

Sir J. F. W. Herschel.

Mr. W. Hopkins.

Prof. J. McCullagh.
35 Dr. W. H. Miller.

Mr. G. Newport.

Mr. G. Rennie.

Sir J. Richardson.

Rev. a. Sedgwick.
40 Capt. W. H. Smyth.
June 3.

Major P. T. Cautley.

Mr. J. GooDsiR.

Mr. J. H. Green.

Sir W. S. Harris.
45 Dr. J. D. Hooker.

Mr. W. H. Fox Talbot.

Dr. N. Wallich.

II. LIST OF TREASURERS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL

CLUB.

1847-1850. W. R. Grove.

185O-185I. J. F. ROYLE.

1851-1854. W. R. Grove.

1854-1857. J. D. Hooker.
1857-1860. W. A. Miller.
1 860-1 863. W. B. Carpenter.

1 Grouped in alphabetical order and according to the evenings on which the assent
of each was announced, with the titles then generally given to them.

259

26o

Appendix

1863-1866. G. Busk.
1 866-1 869. T. Thomson.

1869-1872. P. L. SCLATER.

1872-1874. W. H. Flower.

1874-1876. Sir R. Strachey.

1876-1879. F. Galton.

1879-1882. A. Thomson.

1882-1884. J. H. Lefroy.

1884-1887. T. G. Bonney.

1887-1889. J. Ball.

1889-1892. J. W. JUDD.

1892-1895. W. T. Blanford.

1895-1898. W. Crookes.

1898-1901. W. G. Adams.

III. LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB,
WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE PHILO-
SOPHICAL CLUB.

1902-3.1

Fvesident.
1870. Huggins, Sir W., K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., P.R.S.

Honorary Members.

1874. Bramwell, Sir F. J., 1879. Lister

Bart., D.C.L.
1867. buckton, g. b.
1870. Foster, Sir M., K.C.B.,

LL.D.
1866. Galton, Francis, M.A.,

D.C.L.
1873. GUNTHER, A. C. L., M.A.,

Ph.D.
1864. Hay, Adm. Rt. Hon. Sir

J.D.,Bt.,G.C.B., D.C.L.
1847. Hooker, Sir J. D.,

G.C.S.I.
1890. Kelvin, Lord, D.C.L.,

LL.D.

Lord, M.D.,
D.C.L., LL.D.

1 881. Newton, Prof. A., M.A.

1889. Ommanney, Adm. Sir E.,
C.B.

1 871. Salisbury, The Mar-
quess OF, K.G.

1862. ScLATER, p. L., Ph.D.

1866. Simon, Sir J., K.C.B.,
D.C.L.. LL.D.

1855. Stokes, Sir G. G., Bart,,
LL.D.

1865. Strachey, Sir R., G.C.S.I.

i860. Williamson, Prof. A. W.,
D.C.L., LL.D.

Ex-officio Members.
1884. Christie, W. H. M., C.B., 1900. Larmor, J., M.A., D.Sc.

M.A.
1868. Evans, Sir John, K.C.B.,

D.C.L.
1890. Geikie, Sir A., D.Sc,

LL.D.
1889. Kempe, a. B., M.A.

1874. Rayleigh, Lord, M.A.,

D.Sc.
1886. Rucker, Sir A. W., M.A.,

D.Sc.
1886. Thorpe, Prof. T. E.,

C.B., D.Sc. LL.D.

* Reprinted from Annals of the Royal Society Chiby by Sir A. Geikie, p. 4S5.
The date before each name is that of election.

Appendix

261

Ordinary Members.

D.C.L.,

Wolfe,

, M.A..

, LL.D.
G..

1888. Abney, Capt. Sir W. de

W., R.E.. K.C.B., D.C.L.

1889. Adams, Prof. W. G., D.Sc.
1900. Armstrong, Prof. H. E.,

LL.D.
i860. AvEBURY, Lord,
LL.D.

1897. Barry, Sir J.

K.C.B.
1902. Beddard, F. E.
F.Z.S.

1886. Blanford, W. T.,

1 881. Bonney.Rev. Prof. T.

D.Sc.

1895. Boys, Prof. C. V.

1887. Brunton, Sir T. Lauder,

M.D.

1890. Clifford-Allbutt, Prof.

T., M.D.
1886. Clifton, Prof. R. B.,
M.A.

1892. Common, A. A., LL.D.

1889. Creak, Capt. E. W., R.N..

C.B.

1882. Crookes, Sir William.

1893. Dallinger, Rev. W. H.,

LL.D.

1894. Darwin, Francis, M.A.
1874. Debus, Heinrich, Ph.D.
1881. Dewar, Prof. James,

M.A., LL.D.

1898. Dunstan, Wyndham R.,

M.A.
1898. EwiNG, Prof. James,
B.Sc.

1890. Fletcher, L., M.A.
1897. Forsyth, Prof. A. R.,

M.A., D.Sc.

1896. Foster, Prof. G. Carey,

B.A.
1 881. Gladstone, Prof. J. H.,

D.Sc.
1902. Glazebrook, R. T., M.A.
1889. GoDMAN, F. D., D.C.L.

1897. Greenhill, Prof. A. G.,
M.A.

1899. Griffiths, Principal E.

H., M.A.
1881. Harcourt, a. G. Vernon,
LL.D.

1890. HoRSLEY, Sir Victor,

B.S., M.D.

1892. Hudleston, W. H., M.A.
1902. Jackson, Capt. H. B.,

R.N.
1886. JuDD, Prof. J. W., C.B.

1900. Langley, J. N., M.A.,

D.Sc.

1891. LivEiNG, Prof. G. D.,

M.A.
1885. LocKYER, Sir J. Norman,
K.C.B.

1897. M'Clean. F., LL.D.
1895. MacMahon, Major P. A.,

D.Sc.
1873. Maskelyne, N. Story,

M.A.
1902. Matthey, G.

1898. Meldola, Prof. R.
1898. MiERS, Prof. Henry A.,

M.A.
1895. MoND, L., Ph.D.
1875. MuLLER, Hugo, LL.D.
1 871. Noble, Sir A., Bart.,

K.C.B.
1868. Odling, Prof. W., M.A.
1900. PouLTON, Prof. E. B.,

M.A.
1895. Ramsay, Sir W., K.C.B..

D.Sc, LL.D.
1891. Reinold, Prof. A. W.,

M.A.

1893. Roberts- Austen, Prof.

Sir W., K.C.B.
1880. RoscoE, Sir H., D.C.L.,

LL.D.
1875. RossE, THE Earl of,

K.P., D.C.L., LL.D.

262

Appendix

1879. Russell, W. J., Ph.D.
1874. Sanderson, Sir J. S.

BuRDON, Bart., LL.D.

1880. Scott, Robert H., M.A.,

D.Sc.
1900. Teall, J. J. H.. M.A.
1898. Thomson, Prof. J. J.,

M.A., D.Sc.
1898. Thornycroft, Sir J. I.
1897. Tilden, Prof. W. A.,

D.Sc.

1902. Turner, Prof. H. H.,

D.Sc.
1881. Tylor, Prof. E. B.,

D.C.L.
1899. Weldon, Prof. W. F. R.,

M.A.

1886. Wharton, Rear-Adm. Sir

W. J. L., K.C.B.

1887. Wilson, Col. Sir C. W.,

K.C.B.

Prof. W. G. Adams, Major MacMahon, and Prof. C. V. Boys,

TveasuYevs.

IV. ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.

At the third meeting of the Club it was announced that a Book for
the Minutes had been presented by Sir H. T. de la Beche, a Treasurer's
Box by Mr. Gassiot, and a Seal by Mr. T. Bell, for which thanks
were voted.

Sir W. Flower (page 60) was born in 1831.

In the biographical note on Sir J. Evans (page 62) for 1889 read
1898.

On page 72, in first line of biographical note on Lord Rayleigh,
joY as read and.

The note about Dr. N. Wallich on page 152 is needless, for a short
biography of him, as an original member, is given on page 24.

In the biographical statements I have relied especially on the
DictionaYy of National BiogYaphy, supplemented in some cases by
obituary notices in the Proceedings of the Royal and other Societies,
and occasionally (in those of later date) by personal knowledge.

While this sheet was passing through the press, the death of
Dr. F. du Cane Godman (page 84) was announced as having occurred
on Feb. 20th.

On page 230 a tubular hydroid is said to have been dredged up
on the ChallengeY Expedition from a depth of four miles. That is
stated in the Minute Book, but it did not occur to me till too late
that this depth was considerably greater than any reached from

Appendix 263

the Challenger. The hydroid, subsequently named Monocaulus
imperator, is described by Professor AUman ; see his Report on
the Hydroids, Part ii, page 5 and Plate 3 {Challenger Reports,
Zoology, vol. xxiii.). It had a stem more than 7 feet long and was
brought up from a depth of 2900 fathoms, off Yokohama, in lat.
34° 3/ N., long. 140° 32' E.

My thanks are due to not a few friends, too numerous for separate
mention, for their help in difficulties arising from incorrectly written
words in the Minute Books or from my own ignorance, but especially
to Professor H. G. Plimmer for his care in transmitting to me those
Books, and above all others to Professor W. W. Watts, Sc.D., F.R.S.,
my old friend and former pupil, who has read all the proofs of
Section II. and has detected several misprints and other errors which
had escaped my notice. Such errors insist on creeping into books,
and this is not likely to be an exception, for I have hardly ever
read a new one without detecting two or three misprints. But
I fear there may be others. As the communications made to the
Philosophical Club range over a wide field of knowledge, it is occasion-
ally possible that a statement may not be accurately reported, and
if the author of it were absent from the reading of the Minutes, this
may have passed unnoticed. Some such cases I have observed and
corrected, but others, in subjects with which I am unfamiliar,
have no doubt passed undetected. In other cases, to one or two
of which I have called attention, the speaker has been wrongly
informed. Lastly, the ' somebody who blundered ' may have
been myself. After a certain time in life we become too well aware
that accuracy does not increase with years. So for mistakes of
my own making I crave the reader's pardon and ask him to
remember Horace's genial dictum : " Scimus, et hanc veniam petimus-
que damiisque vicissim."

INDEX

Abbeville, discovery of human
skeletons at, 164.

Abel, F. A., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 69 ; communi-
cations from, 200, 204, 207, 220,

Abney, W. de W., election of, and
biographical note on, 83.

Abyssinia, gadflies in, 112.

Academies, Mr. Grove's objection
to, 63.

Acari, immune from strychnine,

157.

Acetylene gas, experiments in pro-
ducing, 222.

Adams, J. C, election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 48 ; resigna-
tion of, 62.

Adams, W. G,, election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 84.

Adelaide, expeditions from, to
explore Australia, 153.

Africa, Genoese expedition round
the Cape to India, 146.

Agassiz, J. R. L., ancient types
among North American fishes,
108 ; biographical note, id. ; on
bubbles from thawing glacier ice,

134-

Agos Garcia, selected for a coaling
station, 229.

Aiguille Blanche de Peuteret, fatal
fall of Professor F. M. Balfour
and guide, 221,

Ailurus fulgens, living specimen of,
received at the Zoological Gar-
dens, 183.

Air currents through tubes, an
effect of, 106 ; a simple process of
liquefying it described, 248.

Aitkens, Mr. John, on the nature of
clouds, 213.

Akkas, skeletons of, forwarded by
Emin Bey, 232.

Albert, Prince, and juxtaposition,
of Societies, 44.

Albert Nyanza, Lake, discovery
of, 172.

Alcohol, made from olefiant gas,
127 ; and aldehyde, 159 ; Pro-
fessor Tyndall in danger from a
tube of it bursting over a lamp,
229.

Aldehyde and alcohol, 159.

Allman, Professor, election of, and
biographical note on, 65 ; com-
munications from, 212, 230 ; on
a deep-sea hydroid, 230.

Aluminium, medal of, 126 ; use for
voltaic processes suggested, 127.

American expeditions to observe
the transit of Venus, 223 ; effi-
ciency of their workmen increased
by early education, 224.

Ammonia and phosphuretted hy-
drogen, analogy of, 130.

Amphioxus, geological position of,

175-

Animals in rapid motion, instru-
ment for observing, 221.

Ansted, D, T., biography of, 5 ;
retirement of, 50.

Anthropometric records in Messrs.
Bury's ledgers, the weights and
mode of living of aristocratic
customers, 225.

Antitoxins, rapid development in
their preparation and export, 246.

Ants, their nests and captive
spiders, 243.

Ants, white, their ravages at St.
Helena and Pointe de Galle, 207.

Aquadolce, ossiferous cave at, 150,

265

266

Index

Araucaria, a new species of, on an
island near New Caledonia, 153 ;
insulated habits of its species,

154-

Arc of meridian, progress of mea-
surement in Europe, 157.

Arctocepkahis Hookeri, large seal
from Southern Ocean obtained by
Zoological Society, 174.

Ardennes, marble block from, con-
taining part of a Cephalaspis,
166.

Argentine, discovery of a Glossop-
teris flora in, 247.

Arithmetic, a new method of, 244.

Armstrong, Sir W., election of, and
biographical note on, 61 ; de-
scribes Captain Noble's machine
to measure velocity of a projec-
tile, 182 ; swinging bridge con-
structed by, 194 ; suggestion by,
220 ; resignation of, 75.

Armstrong's guns, experiments with,
142, 143.

Aromatic plants of North-west
India, described by Arrian, 109.

Arran, Isle of, discovery of a
Tertiary volcanic neck, 257.

Arrian, on aromatic plants found by
Alexander's army, 109.

Arsenic, in river water, explanation
of its presence, 185.

Arsenical dyes, poisonous effects of,
204 ; in glazed paper, id.

Asiatic (Royal) Society, 30.

Assyria, new discoveries of sculp-
tures in, 112.

Astronomical purposes, use of da-
guerrotype for, 112, 113, 117;
photography applied to, 124.

Astronomical Society, 27, 30.

Atlantic, nature of sea-bed in the
North, 152 ; distribution of life
on it, id.

Atlas, The, vegetation of its main
chain entirely Spanish, 188.

Atmosphere, waves and currents in
the, 117 ; pressure of, at differ-
ent elevations, id. ; obstruction
offered by its strata to passage of
sounds, 193.

Atmospheric agents, effect of, on
plants, 113.

Attraction meter. Dr. Siemens', its
principle explained, 198, 199.

Aurora borealis in United States,
effect on telegraph wires, 151.

Australia, exploration of, 122 ;
expeditions starting from Ade-
laide, 153.

Australian marsupial, a new form
of, described, 240.

Avanturine, specimen of, from Paris,
178.

Avebury, Lord, see Lubbock, Sir J.

Babbage, Charles, remarks on brain
of the late, 188.

Bacteria in Thames water, the con-
ditions of their occurrence, 246.

Baker, S, W., proposed journey in
South-east Africa, 138 ; explores
Lake Albert Nyanza, 172.

Balaenoptera, account of one
stranded near Portsmouth, 184.

Balfour, F. M., election of, 77, and
biographical note on, 78 ; killed
in the Alps with his guide, 221.

Ball, J., election of, and biographical
note on, 68 ; communications
from, 214, 230, 235 ; death of, 84.

Balloon, invention of the Mont-
golfier, 131 ; use of a, for meteoro-
logical observation, 1 20, 1 59 ; as-
cent in a, to a great height, 165.

Balls of plant fibres found near
Villa Franca, 161.

Barometer, general uniformity in
readings in India, 105 ; move-
ments of the, and rain, 121 ; high
readings of, in London, 173, 174.

Barometers, large tubes for, 121.

Barrande, J., communication on
trilobites, 108 ; biographical note
on, id.

Barrington, bones of extinct mam-
mals discovered at, 242.

Barrow at Youngsbury, notes on
its contents, 237.

Barth, H., visit of, to Timbuctoo,

135-

Basques, former extension over
Spain of a race resembling the,
172.

Bathometer, Dr. Siemens', its prin-
ciple explained, 198.

Index

67

Baxin, M., a roller-boat invented
by, 250.

Bear, species of, found in Brixham
Cave, 178.

Beaufort, F., biography of, 5.

Beckles, S., discovers fossil mammals
in the Purbeck Beds, 134.

Beechey, Capt., brings fossil plants
from Greenland, 126.

Bell, T., biography of, 6 ; com-
munications from, 102, 104, 108,
118; resignation of, 55.

Bellasis, Augustus, results of exca-
vation in an old Indian city, 133.

Bengal, Bay of, evidence for de-
pression in its northern part, 256.

Berkeley, Rev. M. J., human skull
and elk bones from Nottingham
drift, 155.

Bermudas, character of the flora,
192 ; cause suggested for frequent
thunderstorms, 222.

Bernard, C, physiological experi-
ments, and note on, 108.

Bernard, Great St., barometric ob-
servations at the, 117.

Bertillon, A., method of identifica-
tion by measurements described,
236.

Beryl, water-worn crystal of, from
Ceylon, 239.

Birds, small, introduced into
America, 194.

Bird's nests, edible, their composi-
tion, 227, 233, 234.

Bismuth and electric conduction,

133-

Black rain, a fall of, in Aberdeen-
shire, 158 ; in Ireland, 237 ;
material examined by Dr.
Russell, id.

Blanc, Mont, see Mont Blanc.

Blanford, W. T., election of, 81 ;
biographical note on, 82 ; com-
munication from, 247, 256.

Blood, experiments on the trans-
fusion of, 139.

Boa constrictor, swallowing a
blanket, 119.

Boat on rollers, invented by M.
Baxin, 250.

Bogota, Santa Fe de, remarks on an
emerald from, 208.

Bois-Reymond, Du, experiments
with galvanometer, 107, 120 ;
on artificial production of leucine,
127 ; on alleged cellulose in the
brain, 128 ; on examination of
Silurus electricus, 137 ; results
from section of sciatic nerve, 144.

Bond, Professor, on the daguerro-
type in astronomical observa-
tions, 117.

Bonelli, Mr., improvements in Jac-
quard's loom, 125.

Bonney, T. G., election of, 78 ;
asked to edit these Annals, id. ;
communications from, 230, 232.

Borethyle, new compound of boron
and ethyle, described, 150.

Botanic Gardens, discovery of a
freshwater Medusa in tank at,
212.

Bottle of Roman make described,
239 ; imitated by Mr. Powell, id.

Bowman, W., biography of, 6 ;
communications from, 108, 123,
216 ; proposes fusion of Philo-
sophical and Royal Society Clubs,
87 ; death of, 88.

Brailey, Dr., investigation of colour
blindness by, 216.

Bramwell, Sir F., election of, and
biographical note on, 79 ; com-
munications from, 240, 250.

Bridge, a swing, constructed at
Sir W. Armstrong's works, 194.

Bridge, Menai, and acquired mag-
netism, 121.

British Association, discussion re-
garding certain sections of the, 70.

British Museum, and letters from
William Harvey, 197, 198.

British Museum, division of, 54 ;
objection to separating the
Natural History department,
141 ; the proposal obtains a
majority of one vote on the Board
of Trustees, 148,

Brittleness, a result of vibration in
iron, 121.

Brixham Cave, investigations of,
140 ; difficulties lessened, 141 ;
contains three species of bears,
178.

Broderip, W. J., biography of, 6.

268

Index

Brodie, Sir B. C. (the elder), election
of, 49, and biographical note on,
50; communication from, 145;
death of, 57.

Brodie, Sir B. C. (the younger),
election of, and biographical note
on, 57 ; communications from,
185, 191, 192.

Brome, Captain, discovery of an
ossiferous cave at Gibraltar, 168 ;
of a second one, 169 ; of three
others, 172.

Bronze articles and their moulds
exhibited, 190.

Brown, Barrington, beryl and
rubies brought by, 239.

Brown, R,, biography of, 6 ; resig-
nation of, 41.

Brown-S6quard, C. E., experiments
by, on transfusion of blood, 139 ;
on existence of special nerve
fibres, 148.

Browning, Spencer, maker of special
form of spectroscope, 162.

Bruce, J., account of Abyssinian
gadflies, 112.

Brunton, T. L., election of, and
biographical note on, 91.

Buckton, J., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 61 ; placed on
honorary supernumerary list, 85.

Budd, Dr. W., photographs of
pathological specimens, 158.

Buenos Aires, subfossil skull of a
peculiar /e/is from, 124.

Bunsen, R. W., on results of spec-
trum analysis, 151.

Burdon-Sanderson, J. S., election
of, and biographical note on, 70 ;
communication from, 205.

Burlington House and Scientific
Societies, 40, 44, 49, 50.

Busk, G., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 41 ; communi-
cations from, 140, 149, 157, 165,
168, 169, 172, 178, 182, 188, 193,
207 ; placed on supernumerary
list, 81.

Cables, telegraph, see Telegraph

cables.
Cahours, M., on affinity of ammonia

and phosphuretted hydrogen.

1 30 ; on manufacture of alumi-
nium, id.

Calabria, study of earthquakes in,.
138.

Canary Islands, note on their vege-
tation, 235.

Candles, difference in flame of, at
top of Mont Blanc and at Chamo-
nix, 146.

Cannon, projectile force of Arm-
strong's, 142, 143.

Canton, J., correspondence with, 99.

Carbon, crystals of, resembling
diamond, obtained artificially,
235-

Carbonic acid, effect, when frozen^
on living tissues, 202.

Carpenter, W. B., election of, and
biographical note on, 34 ; com-
munications from, 121, 124, 135,
136, 152, 154, 158. 162, 174, 175,
178, 180, 181, 184, 188, 191, 194,
196, 204, 207, 216, 217, 218, 224,
225 ; death of, 80, 229.

Carpenter, W. Lant, description of
Niagara Falls in winter, 216.

Cartridge factory at Woolwich, 128,

Cattle plague disease, remarks on
its character, 173.

Cautley, P. T., biography of, 7 ;
communication from, 125 ; ab-
sence from England, 30 ; replace-
ment on list, 41 ; resignation of, 56.

Cave, ossiferous, at Aquadolce, 1 50 ;
at Brixham, with remains of
three species of bears, 178.

Caves in Devonshire, investigations
of, 140, 142.

Cellulose, wrongly said to be present
in the brain, 128.

Ceria, effect of, on luminosity of
gas-mantles, 255.

Challenger, safe journey from Sheer-
ness to Portsmouth, 191 ; sends
plants from Bermuda, 192 ; deep
dredging in Atlantic, 196.

Chappelsmith, Mr., on a tornado in
Indiana, 131.

Charleston earthquake, sands
ejected by, 232.

Chemical Society, 27, 28, 30.

Children prematurely born reared
in incubators, 244.

Index

269

China, two skulls of tiger from,

193-
Christie, S. H., biography of, 7 ;

resignation of, 41.
Cilia, action of solutions on, 129.
Cleavage in rock and vein-structure

in ice, 134, 142.
Clifford, W. K., election of, and

biographical note on, 71 ; death

of, 72.
Clifton, R. B., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 82.
Climatal conditions within Arctic

circle in Miocene times, 176.
Clock, astronomical, controlled by

magnets, 230.
Cloth of flax and wool, 119 ; Lady

Moira's proposal for, id.
Clunn's Hotel, place of first dinner,

I.
Coal discovered at Heraklea, 124 ;

in India, 197.
Cocoa-nut, alleged formation of

pearls in a, 232.
Cold, effect of, on vitality of seeds,

202,
Colour-blindness, report on an

investigation of, 216.
Comatula, function of its sarcode

cord, 181.
Committee appointed to consider

fusion of the Royal and the

Philosophical Clubs, 87,
Committees of Management ap-
pointed, 2, 3.
Communications to Club, proposed

analysis of, 76.
Composite photographs for a por-
trait, 206 ; applied to represent

disease, 213.
Compte Rendu, suggested, 27.
Conservation of solar energy, hypo-
thesis proposed by Dr. Siemens,

218, 219.
Copper, native, near Lake Superior,

III; arsenide of, in green muslin,
• 204.
Coral reef, account of boring in a,

253 ; organisms forming a, 255.
Corals, method of making sections

of, 211.
Cornu, Professor, on optical study

of deformed elastic bodies, and

on light, 186 ; on reversing spec-
tral lines of metals, 190 ; on
control of a clock, 230.

Cornwall, model of rocking stones
in, 180,

Corona of sun, photographs of dur-
ing a total eclipse, 187 ; proved
to be part of the sun, 189.

Cortina, houses at, buried by gravel
slides, 149.

Corundum, artificial forms of, 203.

Cottrell, Mr., instrument to show
effect of sounds on a flame,
194.

Craven (Yorkshire), glaciation in,
165.

Cresswell, Lieut., on wood and shells
upon Arctic islands, 122.

Crinoid from deep water west of
Norway resembling Apiocrinus,

175-

Crinoids, physiological structure of,
180, 181.

Cronstadt, plan for closing channel
leading to Bay, 125.

Crookes, W., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 84 ; constructs
improved radiometers, 199 ; com-
munications from, 241, 247, 248,
256.

Cuttriss' Hotel, place of second and
third dinners, 3.

Czar of Russia, his assassination
and explosives, 215.

Daguerrotype for astronomical pur-
poses, 112, 113, 117.

Dalton, John, priority in discovering
Avogadro's law, 244.

Dardanelles, undercurrent through,
into the Black Sea, 191.

Darwin, C. R., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 39 ; communi-
cation from, 154; resignation of,
57 ; death and funeral, 220.

Darwin, F., election of, 89 ; bio-
graphical note on, 90.

Darwin, G. H., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 83 ; communi-
cation from, 245 ; resignation of,

93-
Dasypus, brain of, and transitional
character of the animal, 171.

270

Index

Daubeny, C. G. B., election of, and
biographical note on, 50 ; com-
munications from, 150, 161 ; re-
signation of, 57.

David, Professor Edge worth, and
atoll of Funafuti, 253, 255 ; bio-
graphical note on, 253.

Davos, winter temperature at, 195.

Dawson, Professor, on foraminiferal
origin of Eozoon Canadense, 174.

Dead Sea, amount of its depression
dubious, 169 ; proposal for ascer-
taining, 170.

Deaf mutes and their sense of
dizziness, 223.

Debus, H., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 67 ; communi-
cations from, 202, 204, 219, 244.

Decken, Von der, partial ascent of
the Juba River, 174.

Deep-sea dredging in the Atlantic,
fauna in the warm and cold areas,
1 84 ; globigerina ooze in red clay,
196 ; hydroid from the, 230 ;
fishes, 231.

De la Beche, H. T., biography of, 8 ;
death of, 41 ; presents first
Minute Book, 262.

De la Rive, communication from,
107.

De la Rue, W., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 80 ; death of,
84.

Demerara, submarine cable partly
cut by a sawfish, 198.

Deprez, M., makes diamonds, 204.

Dewar, J., election and biographical
note on, 76 ; communications
from, 217, 219, 222, 237, 239, 248 ;
on experiments in production of
acetylene gas, 222 ; on properties
of artificial racemic acid, id.

Diamonds, attempted making of,
210,211,212; made by M. Deprez,
204.

Difference engine of M. Schwarz,
invention, 125.

Dinornis, alleged discovery of, in
New South Wales, 114 ; drawing |
showing restorations of six species |
of, 180. j

Dinosaurs, Professor Huxley on I
their relation to birds. 180. i

Diphtheria antitoxin, rapid pro-
duction, and large sale of, 246.

Disco Island, fossil plants from,
126.

Diseases represented by composite
photographs, 213.

Dissociation, meaning of the term
discussed, 219.

Dordogne, caves with stone and
bone implements in the, 167.

Doria, Marquis G., on discovery of
an Echidna in New Guinea, 200.

Dove, Professor, on a new method
of photometry, 159.

Draper, Dr. Henry, on presence of
oxygen in the sun, 209.

Duncan, P. M., election of, 72 ;
biographical note on, 73 ; retire-
ment of, 86.

Duppa, experiments with Prof.
Frankland on synthesis of organic
compounds, 170.

Duthiers, M. Ducaze, on the origin
of Tyrian purple, 149,

Earth, the condition of its interior,
102 ; figure and dimensions of
the, 176.

Earthquake at Charleston, sands
ejected during, 232 ; records from
Shide, Professor Milne on, 249.

Echidna, a large species of, dis-
covered in New Guinea, 200.

Eclipse, total solar, 151 ; photo-
graphs of the recent, 155 ; the
corona, 187, 189; solar, observed
at Vadso, 250.

Edison, principle of his electric
light, 208.

Education, its effects on American
workmen, 224.

Egerton, Sir P. de M. G., biography
of, 9 ; communications from, 108,
183, 184, 207 ; death of, 76.

Egypt, signs of former erosive
action by streams, 190.

Eland, first sold for butchers' meat
in England, i8o.

Electric conductivity in bismuth,
133 ; water-battery, experiments
with a large one, 160 ; discharges
and vacuum tubes, 170 ; effect of^
on a vacuum, 186 ; discharges

Index

271

and the production of acetylene
gas, 222 ; light, Edison's lamp,
208 ; effect on zinc, platinum
and aluminium, id. ; for use in
explosive coal-mines, 233 ; tested
experimentally, 240.

Electric trains, their effect on a
self-recording magnetometer, 253.

Electrical fish, studies of the, 137 ;
machine giving a spark 18
inches long, 182 ; railway and
its effects on a physical labora-
tory, 242.

Electricity, generation and trans-
mission of, 206.

Electrodes, phenomena of heating
by passage of a current, 155, 160.

Electrotyping with silicon, 127 ;
with calcium suggested, id.

Elephas antiqtms, a tooth found
near Tangier, 203.

Elgin, new evidence as to age of the
Reptilif erous sandstone near, 1 79 ;
its geological position discussed
by Professor Huxley, id.

Elk, bones of, from Nottingham
drift, 155.

Elliot, Principal, on introduction of
small birds into America, 194.

Embryonic characters, retention of,
described by Sir J. Paget, 200.

Emerald from Colombia, its form
and relation to the containing
rock, 208.

Emin Bey, intelligence from, 232.

England, William the Conqueror's
invasion of, 146.

Eozoon Canadense, controversy as
to origin of, 174, 177 ; structure
resembling, in a Sutherland lime-
stone, 218.

Erlach's experiments with methy-
lene blue, 245.

Ether used in driving a steam-
engine, 123.

Ethyle and boron, new compound
of, 150.

Etna, its lava streams and their
inclination, 142 ; its two centres
of eruption, id.

Evans, Sir J., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 61 ; com-
munications from, 210, 225, 251 ;

on a stone presumed to be wind-
worn, 183 ; exhibits a palaeolith
from Southampton Common, 185 ;
description of a peculiar glass
bottle of Roman age, 239 ; of a
palaeolith from Rea Valley, 251.

Everest, Sir G., election of, and
biographical note on, 57 ; death
of, 61.

Ewart, Mr., researches into splenic
fever with Dr. Burdon-Sanderson,
205.

Explosive powders, experiments ta
measure their effects, 220.

Explosives, the effects of different
kinds of, 228 ; their action on
shingle, 236 ; experiments with,
for use in cannon, 241, 242 ; rate
at which they part with heat, 244.

Extinct mammals discovered in
Maccagnono Cave, 145 ; in Somme
Valley gravels, 146.

Eye, striae and spots in field of view,
115 ; adaptive action of the, 123,

Falcon, a mummy of, exhibited, 236.

Falconer, Hugh, biography of, 9 ;
communications from, 100, 140,
141, 142, 145, 150, 162, 169 ;
absence from England, 30 ; re-
placement on list, 45 ; death of,
59-

Faraday, M., biography of, 9 ;
engaged as an assistant by Board
of Managers, 161 ; communi-
cations from, 116, 128, 148;
makes alcohol from olefiant gas,
128 ; resignation of, 60.

Farre, A., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 53 ; placed on
supernumerary list, 76.

Felis, subfossil skull of a, from
Buenos Aires, 124.

Fermentation, the part of living
organisms in, 155.

Fever, splenic, studies of, 205.
! Fiji Islands, visit of Colonel Smythe
I to, 147 ; with Dr. Seeman, 148.

Fish, entombed in mother of pearl,
226.

Fisheries Exhibition, the inter-
national, at South Kensington,.
225.

272

Index

Fishes, fall of, discussed, 119;
living in hot springs, 214 ; in
deep underground waters, id. ;
illustrations of those from great
depths, 231,

Flame, instrument to illustrate
effects of sounds on a, 194 ; M.
Topler's experiments on a singing,
222.

Flint implements, with rhinoceros
and hyaena bones in Devon
caves, 142 ; discovered at Heme
Bay, 154 ; near Whitstable, id.

Flour, invention of apparatus for
separating the starch and gluten
from, 185.

Flower, W. H., election of, and
biographical note on, 60 ; com-
munications from, 180, 184, 198,
232, 240 ; placed on honorary
supernumerary list, 87.

Flowers on an Alpine peak, in
depth of winter, 220.

Fluid, viscous, effect of strains in,
on polarized light, 193.

Fluorescence, in living tissues of
the body, 173.

Fog signals at sea, effect of the
atmosphere upon, 193.

Footprints, reptilian, near Phila-
delphia, 122,

Forbes, E., biography of, 10 ; com-
munications from, 107, 109, 115 ;
death of, 41.

Forbes, George, and Young, James,
new experiments on the velocity
of light, 215.

Fortune, Mr., sends tea plants to
India, 114.

Foster, Prof. M., communications
from, 222, 227.

Frankland, E., election of, 50;
biographical note on, 51 ; com-
munications from, 146, 150, 157,
165, 166, 170, 175, 185, 195, 204,
208, 212, 217, 228, 229, 240, 246,
250 ; death of, 93.

Franklin, B., letters from, and note
on, 99.

Franklin, Sir J., reference to expedi-
tion of, no.

Frogs, physiological experiments
with, 132.

Funafuti, survey and boring of coral

reef at, 253, 255.
Fusus contrarius, dredged up in

Bay of Vigo, 107.

Gaboon, explored by M. du Chaillu,
172.

Gadinolite from Texas, 242.

Gale on Oct. 2nd, i860, 152.

Galloway, T., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 29 ; communi-
cation from, 113 ; death of, 34.

Galton, F., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 66 ; com-
munications from, 195, 206, 210,
213, 217, 219, 221, 225, 236, 243,
244 ; placed on supernumerary
list, 92.

Galvanic battery, a greatly enlarged
form described, 170; length of its
spark, 171 ; effects of a shock, id.

Ganges Canal, difficulties overcome
in constructing the, 125.

Garial, geographical distribution of
the, 256.

Gas-mantles of thoria and ceria, 254.

Gases, decomposition of, by Ruhm-
korff coil, 147 ; liquefied by
Professor Dewar, 248.

Gassiot, J. P., biography of, 11 ;
remarks on a passage in Minutes,
63 ; communications from, 116,
127, 132, 139, 155, 160, 162, 167,
170, 171, 182, 186, 187, 195 ;
death of, 71.

Geikie, A., election of, 78 ; bio-
graphical note on, 79 ; com-
munications from, 251, 257.

Geneva, barometric observations at,
117.

Genoa, maritime history of, 146.

Geological Society, 27, 30, 39.

Germanium, discovery of, 229 ;
specimen exhibited, 230.

Gibraltar, examination of ossiferous
cave on Windmill Hill, 168 ;
investigation into water supply
of, 202 ; geology of district, 203 ;
apes on the rock, id.

Glacial epoch in the moon's history,
166.

Glaciers and moraines in New
Zealand, 167.

Index

273

Glaisher, Mr., balloon ascent to
great height, 165.

Glass bottles on Siberian coast, 122 ;
explanation of them, 123.

<jlobigerina ooze, remarks on, 196 ;
Dr. Carpenter's criticisms, id. ;
Dr. Wallich's notes, id.

Olossopteris flora, occurrence of the,
at Otago, 166 ; in India, Aus-
tralia, South Africa and South
America, 247.

<jlover. Lieutenant, recovers some
of Mungo Park's manuscripts,

139-

Codman, F. du C, election of, and
biographical note on, 84 ; death
of, 262,

Goodsir, J., biography of, 11 ;
communication from, no.

Government buildings and Scientific
Societies, 28, 32, 35, 37, 40.

Gower, cave in, its evidence of
change in the level of the land,
140.

Graham, T., biography of, 11 ;
death of, 62.

Graphite, discovery of, on a tribu-
tary of the Yenesei, 160.

Graves, J. T., biography of, 12 ;
communication from, loi.

Gray, Dr. Asa, small fish and leaves
in underground springs, 214 ; on
pine-forest near Ravenna, 215.

Green, J. H., biography of, 24.

Green, C. (the aeronaut), and
meteorology, 120.

Greensands, casts of foraminifera
in the, 135 ; their geological
value, id.

Grey, Sir George, forwards new
form of lizard from New Zealand,
181.

Grove, W. R., biography of, 26 ;
the first Treasurer, 3 ; com-
munications from, loi, 106, 113,
114, 115, 116, 118, 121, 126, 129,
131, 133, 136, 137. 138. 145. 156,
180, 185, 199, 201, 203, 205, 208,
219, 234 ; presents new Minute
Book, 75 ; placed on supernume-
rary list, 89 ; death of, 91.

Guests, modification of rule about
admitting, 84.
p.c.

Giinther, A. C. L. G., election of,
and biographical note on, 67 ;
communications from, 196, 198,
201, 226, 231, 243.

Gutta-percha, discovered in Hindu-
stan, 131.

Haarlem, Lake of, absence of

human bones from its bed,

147.
Haast, Julius von, on New Zealand

glaciers, 167 ; restorations of

Dinornis, 180.

Habits, change of, in London,

95-

Haecker, Dr. Wolfgang, magnets
from, 115.

Haidinger, Dr., dissections of ner-
vous system photographed by,
158.

Hannay, T. B., claims to have made
diamonds, 211.

Harris, W. S., biography of, 12 ;
communications from, loi, 137.

Harvey, WilUam, facsimile of two
letters written by, 197, 198.

Hay ward, Mr., travels in Kaschgar,
Yarkand and Pamir, 185.

Hector, Dr., sends bones of embryo
Moa chick, with flakes, from New
Zealand, 179 ; discovers there
a new form of lizard, 181 ;
describes some wind-worn stones,
183.

Heliopolis, obeUsk of, pits sunk
near, 118.

Heliostats, method of giving flat
surfaces to, 193.

Heraklea, discovery of coal at, 124.

Heme Bay, discovery of palaeoliths
at, 154.

Herschel, J. F. W., biography of,
12 ; communication from, 99 {
resignation of, 56.

Himalayas, establishment of ipeca-
cuanha plant in the, 191.

Hippopotamus, once abundant near
Maccagnono Cave, 145 ; remains
of H. amphibius found at Barring-
ton, 242.

Hirst, T. A., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 59 ; death of,
88.

274

Index

Hofman, A. W. von, election and
biography of, 36 ; communica-
tions from, 129, 147 ; resignation
of, 59-

Hooker, J. D., biography of, 13 ;
communications from, 102, 106,
109, iig, 126, 132, 139, 147, 148,
I5i» I53» 155. 160, 165, 166, 167,
168, 176, 179, 182, 188, 191, 192,

202, 206, 208, 214, 215, 227, 249 ;
absence from England, 30 ; im-
prisonment in Sikkim, 1 1 1 .

Hopkins, W., biography of, 14 ;
communication from, 102 ; re-
signation of, 59.

Horner, L., biography of, 14 ; com-
munications from, 118, 123, 129,
136, 143 ; death of, 57.

Horsley, V. A. H., election of, and
biographical note on, 85 ; com-
munication from, 245.

Hot springs, the vegetation in, 228,
229.

Hudleston, W. H., election of, and
biographical note on, 89.

Huggins, W., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 62 ; com-
munications from, 187, 193, 200,

203, 204, 205, 209, 230.
Hughes, D. E., election of, and

biographical note on, 81 ; com-
munication from, 230 ; death of,

93-

Humphry, G. M., election of, and
biographical note on, 79 ; death
of, 91.

Huxley, T. H., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 42 ; com-
munications from, 129, 133, 134,
136, 145, 149, 150, 156, 171, 179,
181, 184, 18&, 196, 204, 220, 225;
on division of British Museum,
54 ; on a passage in the Minutes,
64 ; on affinities of reptiles and
birds, 178 ; placed on super-
numerary list, 83,

Hydrogen, analogy of phosphuretted
with ammonia, 130 ; experi-
ments to obtain it cheaply, 240,
248.

Hygrometer, Regnault's, 114.

Hyperodapedon, represented by a
New Zealand lizard, 181.

Iguanodon, Professor Huxley ok

wrong attribution of bones, 179.
India, coalfields in the Nizam's

dominions, 197.
Instrument to ascertain depth of

sea without a sounding wire, 198 ;

for studying rapidly moving

animals, 221.
Iodine solution, its effect on solar

light, 171.
Ipecacuanha plant established in

Himalayas, 191.

Jack the Giant-killer, Japanese
version of, 209.

Jacquard's loom, improved by Mr.
Bonelli, 125.

James, H., election of, and bio-

. graphical note on, 45 ; com-
munications from, 131, 149, 157,
160, 166, 169, 170, 176; resigna-
tion of, 70.

James, Professor W., on dizziness
felt by deaf mutes, 223.

Japan, a naturalist banished from,
for digging up skulls, 175.

Japanese book on botany, 165 ; ver-
sion of Jack the Giantkiller, 209.

Jerusalem, the survey of, com-
pleted, 169.

Johns Hopkins University, de-
scribed by Dr. Carpenter, 224.

Johnston, H. H., exploration in
Kilimanjaro district, 227, 228.

Jones, Bence, election of, 36 ■
biographical note on, 37 ; com-
munications from, 128, 132, 137,
155, 161, 170, 171, 173 ; death
of, 66.

Judd, J. W., election of, 80 ; bio-
graphical note on, 81 ; com-
munications from, 233, 239, 253.

Jupiter, observation of moon's
occupation of, 133 ; changes of
lighter and darker areas on its
disc, 185.

Kempe, A. B., election of, and
biographical note on, 87.

Kent's Hole, Torquay, investiga-
tion of, 140.

Kew, construction of standards oS
weight and length at, 121.

Index

275

Kew Observatory, electrical and
meteorological observations at,
115; graduation of thermometer
and barometer tubes, 116.

Khartum, steamer from, explores
part of river Sobat and of White
Nile, 161.

Kidney, study of the human, during
life, 167.

Kilimanjaro, partial ascent of, by
Mr. New, and plants from, 189;
district, botany and zoology of
the, 227, 228.

Kinchinjunga, height of, 102 ; Dr.
Hooker's winter visit to, 106 ;
geology of, 107.

King, Capt. R. P., on discovery of
remains of Leichart's party,
128.

King and Rowney, objections to
foraminiferal origin of Eozoon
Canadense, 174, 177.

KirchofE, G. R., on results of
spectrum analysis, 151.

Kolliker, on physiological action of
solutions, 129.

Krafft, Mr., obtains a fish inter-
mediate betw^een Lepidosiren and
the Ganoids from an East Queens-
land river, 186.

Krakatoa eruption, atmospheric
disturbances caused by the, 225.

Land continuity (former) between

Spain and Ireland, 107.
Landon, Joseph, discovers palaeolith

in the Rea gravels, 251.
Langley, J. N., election of, 93 ;

biographical note on, 94.
Larmor, J., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 93.
Lartet, M., discovery of human

bones and flint implements in

Southern France, 156.
Layard, A. H., communication

from, and note on, 1 12.
Lea, Dr., on fossil bone of reptile

near Philadelphia, 122.
Leaf-bearing trees and the darkness

of an Arctic winter, 176.
Lebanon, moraines in the, 151.
Lefroy, Sir J. H., election of, 72 ;

biographical note on, 73 ; com-

munications from, 221, 222, 226 ;
retirement of, 83.

Leichart, some remains of his party
discovered, 128.

Length, standards of, 121.

Lenses, effect of resinous compounds
on, 118.

Lepidosiren, its relation to Ganoid
fishes maintained by Huxley,
186.

Light, spectrum of, and gamut of
sound, 185 ; polarized, and strain
in viscous fluids, 193 ; electric,
from Edison's lamp, 208 ; velo-
city of, new experiments on the,

215-

Limmer's Hotel, place of dining,
86.

Lind's wind gauge, a modification
of. 137-

Lindley, J., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 51 ; resigna-
tion of, 57.

Linnaeus, autograph letters by,
225.

Linnean Society, 27, 28, 30.

Liquids, the conditions of readiness
to assume spheroidal condition,
139.

Lithium, chloiide of, rapidly ab-
sorbed by living animals, 170,
171.

Living tissues and frozen carbonic
acid, 202.

Livingstone, Dr., plans of, for a
journey in Africa, 137 ; steamer
for, 147 ; rumoured death of,
166 ; projected expedition to
East Central Africa, 170 ; at
Bombay, preparing expedition,
173 ; search expeditions for,
from Zanzibar by Tanganyika
and from the west coast by the
Congo, 191.

Lloyd, H., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 30; placed
on supernumerary list, 72.

Logan, Sir W., specimen of Eozoon
Canadense brought by, 177.

London, University of, and its
accommodation, 47, 50.

Loom, Jacquard's, improved by
Mr. Bonelli, 125.

276

Index

Loomis, Prof. E., on American
expeditions for observing total
eclipse of sun, 151.

Lubbock, Sir J., election of, and
biographical note on, 54 ; com-
munications from, 164, 167, 191,
195 ; visit to Plain of Troy,
191.

Lunar volcanoes, aspect of, 113,
114; radiation, observations of,
with thermoelectric apparatus,
156.

Lus, coast of, mud volcanoes near,
116.

Lyell, C, biography of, 15 ; com-
munications from, 103, 104, 105,
114, 123, 134, 138, 141, 146;
156 ; death of, 68.

Mc Andrew, Mr., dredgings on
Spanish coast, 107.

Maccagnono Cave, flint implements
and preglacial mammals in, 145.

McCullagh, J., biography of, 24 ;
death of, 29.

MacEnery, Rev. J., excavations in
Kent's Hole, 140.

Mackenzie River, geology of neigh-
bouring district, no ; Louchoux
Indians and Eskimo near, 128.

Mactear, Mr., attempts to make
diamonds, 210.

Madeira, geology of, described by
Sir C. Lyell, 123 ; note on his
account, 124.

Maggots forming a white tissue in
a ship's hold, 181.

Magnetic action of moon, 123 ; of
nickel, 129.

Magnetism, effect of, on certain
metals and liquids, 107 ; ac-
quired by rods of Menai Bridge,
121 ; effect of, in elongating iron
bars, 192 ; for control of an
astronomical clock, 230.

Magnets, made by Dr. Haecker,
115-

Mallet, R., journey to study earth-
quakes in South Italy, 138.

Malta, note on the extinct pigmy
elephant of, 172.

Mammals, fossil, from the Oolite,
114.

Mammoth, skeleton of, found in
Swan River district, 128.

Man, palaeolithic, description of
skull from Neanderthal, 156 ; of
jaw from Moulin Quignon, 162.

Management, the first appointed
Committee of, 3 ; authorized to
invite Fellows of the Royal
Society to complete the first
forty-seven, id.

Manuscripts, reproduction of, by
photozincography, 157.

Marcet, Dr., communications from,
on Dr. Bernard's physiological
researches, 108, 120 ; on tem-
perature of body after death, id. ;
on N.E. wind at Geneva, id.

Marocco, Dr. Hooker's expedition
to. 188.

Mars, changes in aspect of the
planet, 205.

Marsupial, description of a new
form in Australia, 240.

Martin, M., method of producing
flat surfaces in heliostats, 193.

Maskelyne, H. N. S., election of,
and biographical note on, 71 ;
communications from, 208, 210,
211, 233.

Mastodon, remains found near Lake
Winnipeg, 128.

Matteuchi, M., experiments on
electrical conductivity in crystal-
line bodies, 133.

MaximiHan, Archduke, letter from,
136.

Maxwell, J. C, election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 57 ; com-
munication from, 193 ; suggests
using the principle of the Van-
dyck fan in a spectrum apparatus,
197 ; death of, 74.

Mayer, Professor, on elongation of
iron bars by magnetism, 192.

Measurements, linear, French and
English systems discussed, loi ;
for identification, system de-
scribed, 236.

Meat, a method of preserving, 127.

Medicine stamp, a Roman, ex-
hibited, 210.

Mediterranean, currents of, studied
by Dr. Carpenter, 188 ; deeper

Index

277

parts azoic, 189 ; temperatures
of the deeper parts constant,

195.

Medusa, discovery of a fresh-water,
212.

Megalosaurus bones in Oxford
Museum of Geology, discussed by
Professors Huxley and Phillips,
179 ; error corrected, id.

Meldola, R., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 92.

Melting points in vacuo, 213.

Members, decreasing attendance of,
49.

Memphis, results of pits sunk at,
129, 137-

Menai Bridge and acquired mag-
netism, 121.

Mental pictures of numbers, 210.

Merino wool from Tasmania, 221.

Mesni^res, human skeletons found
at, 164.

Metelet, M., on atmospheric oscilla-
tions, 117.

Meteor, notice of a, no.

Meteorological observations, plani-
meter used in calculating their
mean values, 195.

Meteorology, use of balloons in,
120, 159 ; observing stations at
high altitudes suggested, id.

Methylene blue, its oxidation or
reduction in tissues of the body,

245-

Microscopes, advantages of photo-
graphic records from, 124 ; im-
provements in binocular, 125 ;
by Natchet, 162 ; for dissecting,
178.

Miller, W. A., alcohol made from
defiant gas, 127 ; use of Ruhm-
korfE's coil for firing explosives,
128 ; biography of, 16 ; com-
munications from, 147, 150, 155,
171, 185 ; death of, 64.

Miller, W. H., biography of, 23 ;
communications from, loi, 121,
149, 171 ; resignation of , 71.

Moen, geology of, 115.

Mond, L., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 90 ; experi-
ments to obtain hydrogen cheap-
ly. 239.

Mont Blanc, exhaustion in ascent
of, 136 ; blue tint in holes in its
snow, id. ; night spent on sum-
mit, 146 ; effect on the flame of
a candle, id.

Montgolfier balloon, invention of
the, 131.

Moon, aspect of volcanoes on, 113,
114 ; magnetic action of the, 123 ;
occupation of Jupiter by the, 133;
supposed glacial epoch in the,
166 ; observations to determine
effect of an eclipse on its heat,
229.

Moraines in the Lebanon, 151 ; in
Southern Scotland, 164 ; in New
Zealand, 167 ; possible occur-
rence of, in Algeria, 236.

Moseley, J. N., election of, 73 ;
biographical note on, 74 ; com-
munications from, 209, 211, 214,
226 ; retirement of, 84.

Mouhn Quignon, jaw found at,
attributed to palaeolithic man,
162 ; a conference of experts,
163.

Mud volcanoes in India, 113,
116.

Miiller, Hugo, election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 85.

Miiller, Professor J., experiments on
interaction of nerves of frogs,
132.

Murchison, R. I., biography of, 16 ;
communications from, 108, 113,
122, 124, 135, 138, 147, 149, 153,
160, 161, 166, 170, 172, 174, 181,
185 ; death of, 65.

Murex, species yielding Tyrian
purple, 149.

MusUn, green, containing much
arsenide of copper, 204,

Natchet, M., improver of binocular
microscope, 125.

Nature-printing, an improved
method of, 131.

Nebulae, difl&culties in daguerro-
typing, 112.

Nerve fibres, experiments on exis-
tence of special, 148.

New Guinea, discovery of a new
species of Echidna in, 200.

278

Index

New Zealand, Glossopteris flora in,
166 ; height of ends of glaciers
above sea level, 167 ; bell in-
scribed with characters like
Malayan found in North Island,
168 ; lizard, representative of
Hyperodapedon, 181.

Newcomb, Professor, on American
observation of transit of Venus,
223.

Newport, G., biography of, 23.

Newton, A., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 77 ; com-
munications from, 233, 240,
242.

Niagara Falls, cause of the waves
in the Rapids suggested by
Professor Tyndall, 192; the effects
of winter on, 216.

Nickel, its magnetic power in-
creased by heating, 129.

Nickel and liquid carbon monoxide,

239.

Nile, the White, steamer ascends
to south of Gondokoro, 161.

Nile Valley, experiments to ascer-
tain thickness of its alluvium,
118, 129, 136,

Niua-fu, volcanic material from,
exhibited, 230.

Noble, A., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 77 ; com-
munications from, 220, 228, 236,
241, 242, 244 ; invents machine
to measure velocity of projectile
in a gun, 182 ; experiments on
explosive powders with Professor
Abel, 220.

Novara, voyage of the Austrian
exploring ship, 136, 137.

Numbers, mental imagery of, 210.

Observatory at Kew, electrical and
meteorological observations, 115.

Observatories at high altitudes
suggested, 159.

Odling, W., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 62.

Odours translated into numbers,
244.

Optical illusion from coloured chalks
on a black-board, 188.

Optics, a problem in, loi.

Ordnance Survey, its maps reduced
by photography, 131, 132 ; its
computation of the figure and
dimensions of the earth, 176.

Organic compounds, synthesis of„
170.

Otago, fossil ferns in coal formation
of, 166.

Owen, R., biography of, 18 ; com-
munications from, 104, 110, 124.

Oxygen, effects on chemical sub-
stances when insolated, 115, 116 ;
present in the sun, 209.

Ozone, Sir B. Brodie on its relation
to oxygen, 192.

Pacific, Capt. Kellett's temperature
observations in, 196.

Pacific Ocean, submerged volcanic
cones on bed of, 251,

Paget, J., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 49 ; com-
munications from, 145, 156, 158,
167, 185, 188, 197, 200, 213 ;
placed on honorary supernume-
rary list, 91.

Palaeolith exhibited from high-
level gravel of Southampton
Common, 185 ; in high-level
gravels of the Rea, 25 1 .

Palaeolithic gravels near Amiens,
evidence of their antiquity, 149 ;
at Heme Bay, 154.

Pamir tableland, preparation to
explore the, 185.

Paper for instrumental printing of
telegraph messages, 142.

Paris Exhibition, scientific instru-
ments for, 41.

Park, Mungo, some of his manu-
scripts recovered, 139.

Partridge, R., biography of, 18 ;
death of, 66.

Pathological specimens, photo-
graphy of, 158.

Paucellier, Captain, machine for
converting circular into recti-
linear motion and its possible
applications, 192 ; principle ap-
plied to the Vandyck Fan,
197.

Pearl, mother of, and an encrusted
fish, 226.

Index

279

Pearls in a cocoa-nut, alleged for-
mation of, 232.

Peirce, J. M. P., account of prepara-
tion for observing total solar
eclipse on Dec. 22, 186, 187,

Pendulum observations, anomalies
in, near Portsea, 169 ; near
Moscow, id.

JPentacrinus, study of a West Indian
specimen, 181.

Pepsin, action of, on elementary
substances, 155.

Perameles, brain of, and transitional
character of the animal, 171.

Pereira, J., biography of, 18.

Permo-Carboniferous, traces of a
southern land-mass in this period,
247.

Perthes, Dr., old historical manu-
scripts discovered by, 145.

Petherick, Consul, exploration of
the Upper Nile, 147, 161.

Petroleum, American, lamp for
burning its vapour, 162.

Phillips, J., biography of, 19.

Philosophical Club, its foundation,
I ; its number, object and rules,
id. ; first officers of, 3 ; list of
the forty-seven original members,
4 ; autographs of, id. ; statistics
given at three -hundredth meet-
ing, 75 ; discontinuance of, sug-
gested, 83 ; joint dinner with
Royal Society Club, 86 ; motion
ior fusion of the two Clubs, 87 ;
statistics of membership and
attendance, id. ', its jubilee, 91 ;
motion for fusion carried, 94 ;
fusion of the two Clubs accom-
plished, id. ; draft rules passed,
id. ; its last dinner, 95 ; summary
of its results, id. ; progress in
discovery during its existence, 97.

Photographic plates, acted on by
certain metallic and vegetable
substances, 251.

Photographs, a new process in
printing, 209 ; demonstrating
existence of oxygen in the sun, id. ;
composite, applied to represent
diseases, 213 ; illustrating the
reversal of lines in metallic
vapours, 217.

Photography, applied to astro-
nomy, 124 ; used for reducing
Ordnance Survey maps, 131,
132 ; a sensitive paper for, 144 ;
attempts at, in colour, exhibited,
167 ; applied to represent
articles of military equipment,
157 ; to dissections of the nervous
system, 158 ; to pathological
specimens, id. ; used to produce
composite portraits, 206.

Photometry, a new method of, 159.

Photozincography, specimens of,
exhibited, 149 ; discovery of,
150 ; for facsimiles of manu-
scripts, 157 ; for reproducing
ordinary photographs, 160.

Pine forest near Ravenna, killed by
winter cold, 215.

Planetary body, movements of
one about a centre of force, 1 73 ;
motion and the " three bodies "
problem, 245.

Plantamour, Prof., on barometric
observations at Geneva and the
Great St. Bernard, 117 ; on sub-
stituting zinc for lead in making
flint-glass, 118.

Plants, action of physical agents on,
113; fossil, from Disco Island,
126 ; their evidence of climate
north of Arctic Circle in Miocene
times, 176 ; instrument for mea-
suring them, 249.

Plants, aromatic, see Aromatic
plants.

Platinum foil, dissipated in lumi-
nous focus of a mirror, 171 ;
spider's thread unharmed but a
metallic wire melted, id.

Playfair, Lyon, election of, 30 ;
biographical note on, 31 ; com-
munications from, no, 116, 124,
131, 173, 197 ; placed on super-
numerary list, 76.

Plucker, M., experiments by, 107.

Plumb-line, deviation of a, near
Portsoy, 166.

Polarization, plane of, changed by
some artificially produced acids,
222.

Polarized light and strained viscous
fluids, 193.

28o

Index

Polyzoon, specimen of, from mouth
of the Peiho, 154.

Porter, G. R., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 29 ; communi-
cation from, 119.

Portlock, J. E,, election of, and
biographical note on, 40 ; com-
munications from, 126, 142 ;
death of, 57.

Portraits, composite, produced by-
photography, 206.

Portsoy, deviation of plumb-line
near, 166.

Posidonia maritima, balls of its
fibres, 161.

Potash, crystals of, colouration
caused by twinning, 226.

Potassium, iodide of, rapidly ab-
sorbed by living animals, 170.

Pouchet, M., experiments on de-
velopment of life in heated solu-
tions, 150,

Powders, explosive, experiments
with different kinds of, 220.

Powell, B., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 39.

Prestwich, J., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 54 ; communi-
cations from, 154, 183, 184, 195 ;
placed on supernumerary list, 76 ;
death of, 91.

Priestley, J., correspondence with
and note on, 99.

Prime Meridian Conference, resolu-
tions adopted at the, 227.

Publications of Societies, plans for
uniting, 27,

Puggard, M., geology of Moen, 115.

Punjab, extension of Salt Range in,
114.

Purbeck Beds, discovery of fossil
mammals in the, 134.

Purple, the source of Tyrian, 149.

Quartz, right- and left-handed
crystals of, studied by Prof. Judd,

233.

Quinine, rapid absorption of, by the
living body, 173.

Racemic acid, synthetic, capable of
changing a polarization plane,
222.

Radioactivity of uranium and its
compounds, 256.

Radiometers, experiments with
Crookes' improved form, 199 ;
as delicate electroscopes, id.

Railway structures, use of iron in^
III.

Rain, black, in Aberdeenshire, 158 ;
in Ireland, 237 ; material exa-
mined by Dr. Russell, id.

Rainfall, variations of, in India, no;
relation of, to barometric move-
ments, 121.

Rameses, discoveries in pits sunk
at statue of, 129, 136.

Ramsay, A. C, election of, and
biographical note on, 53 ; com-
munications from, 164, 172,
176, 202, 203 ; retirement of,.
79.

Ravenna, pine forest near, effect
of cold winter on, 215.

Rayleigh, Lord, election of, and
biographical note on, 72.

Rays, luminous and thermal,
methods of separating, 168.

Red clay, remarks on, 196 ; its
origin, id. ; particles of, among
glauconite grains from Aegean
dredgings, 197.

Regnault, hydrometer and ther-
mometer by, 114.

Relief Fund, Scientific, 52.

Rennie, G., biography of, 23 ;
communications from, no, 123,
125, 127, 132.

Respiration and excretion, special
apparatus for estimating, 175,

Retina, effect of rubbing on the,

115-

Rhinoceros, death of, at Zoological
Gardens, no ; dissection of, id. ;
remains of African, in a cave at
Gower, 140 ; explanation offered
of its presence, 141 ; Sumatrensis,
arrival of, at Zoological Gardens,
190.

Richardson, J., biography of, 25 ;
communications from, no, in,
122, 128 ; absence from England,
30.

Rocking stone, model of one
exhibited, 180.

Index

281

Rolleston, G., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 59.

Roman medicine stamp exhibited,
210.

Ronconi, M., and daguerrotyping
nebulae, 112.

Roscoe, H. E., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 75 ; communi-
cations from, 213, 229, 246.

Rosse, Earl of (third), election of,
30; biographical note on, 31;
communications from, 112, 113,
124 ; death of, 61.

Rosse, Earl of (fourth), election of,
and biographical note on, 68 ;
communications from, 229, 230,

237.

Rowlands' gratings, machine for
ruling devised by the Professor,
224.

Royal Society, et seq., 28 ; its
Proceedings, 38, and proposals
for their more frequent publi-
cation, 39 ; on its advice to
Government, 63 ; tenure of its
Presidency, id. ; suggested

changes in rules for election to,
65 ; number annually elected
discussed, 68 ; soiree proposed,
69 ; formation of a Relief Fund
approved, 144 ; meeting-room
and vestibule lighted for first time
by electricity, 217 ; the results
approved, 218.

Royal Society Club, joint dinner
with, 86 ; fusion with, 94.

Royle, J. F., biography of, 19 ;
communications from, 100, 109,
113, 114, 119.

Rubies, artificial, 203 ; in crystalline
limestone from Burma, 239.

Riicker, A. W., election of, and
biographical note on, 85 ; com-
munications from, 242, 253.

Rules, changes in, 29, 43, 48, 72,
84.

Russell, W. J., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 90 ; com-
munications from, 237, 251.

Russia, Czar of, assassinated by a
bomb, 215.

Rust, Mr. James, account of black
rain, 158.

Sabine, E., biography of, 20 ; com-
munications from, 99, 115, 122,..
123, 130, 136, 137, 138 ; resigna-
tion of, 67.

St. James' Hall, place of dinner, 55.

St. Victor, M. N. de, experiments on
sensitive paper for photography,
144.

Salt Range, extension of, in Punjab,.
114.

Sand, effect on wood of drifting, 206.

Saturn's rings, observations of, 129,.
156.

Sawfish, cuts with its rostrum
through gutta-percha of a sub-
marine cable, 198.

Schilthorn, winter temperature on.
upper part, 219.

Schlagintweit, Messrs., on tempera-
ture and density of Eastern
Mediterranean, 125 ; return to
Calcutta announced, 129.

Schonbein, Professor, on oxydizing
agents, 116.

Schroeder, experiments on fermenta-
tion, 155.

Schwarz, M., difference engine in-
vented by, 125.

Sciatic nerve, results of cutting the,
144.

Science, Physical, teaching of,
ordered by Public School Com-
missioners, 195.

Scientific Aids, Government Com-
mission on, discussed, 63 ;
men and Lord Raglan's army,
40 ; ReUef Fund, 52 ; Research,
impeded by decentralization, 37 ;
Societies, juxtaposition of, 27, 28,
30. 32, 33, 35. 37. 43 ; joint
meetings of, 32 ; report of Com-
mittee on, 33 ; proposals for
accommodation of, 35, 37.

Sclater, P. L., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 56 ; com-
munications from, 174, 180, 181,
183, 186, 190, 191, 200, 203, 227,
229, 236, 248, 249 ; placed on
supernumerary list, 85.

Scotland, South, date of its main
physical features, 257.

Sea-serpent, accounts of the, 102-
105.

282

Index

Sea-water, aeration of, 109 ; efifect
of freezing on the salt in, 186.

Sebastopol, difi&culties and progress
in siege of, 126.

Sections of corals for the micro-
scope, 211.

Sedgwick, A., biography of, 22.

Seeds, vitaUty of, and low tempera-
tures, 202.

S6gmn, M., inventor of wire bridges,
visit to, 131.

Selkirk, Lord, finds a wind-worn
stone on Red Sea coast, 184.

Scnecio, adaptive forms of, 241.

Serapis, Temple of, possible error in
estimating its height above sea-
level, 138.

Sewerage, systems of, no.

Shark, Basking, and Sea Serpent,
104.

Sharp, D., election of, 88 ; bio-
graphical note on, 89 ; resigna-
tion of, 92.

Sharpey, W., biography of, 20 ;
communications from, 136, 137,
140 ; placed on supernumerary
list, 72 ; death of, 75.

Shells, Professor Abel's experiments
on bursting charges of, 200.

Sheppey, find of bronze articles
and their moulds in, 190.

Shide, Professor Milne on earth-
quake records from its Observa-
tory, 249.

Shipwreck, due to weight of spray
frozen on the vessel's bows, 217.

Siberia, glass bottles on coast of, 122.

Sideroff, M., on working graphite
in Siberia, 160.

Siemens, C. W., election of, and
biographical note on, 64 ; com-
munications from, 191, 194, 198,
199, 206, 208, 218 ; arranges
electric lighting at Royal Society's
rooms, 217.

Sikkim, Dr. Hooker's imprisonment
in. III.

Silicon, employed for plating a
dinner fork, 127.

Simon, J., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 60 ; communi-
cation from, 202 ; placed on
honorary supernumerary Ust, 82.

Siren, a steam, best for fog signals,

193-

Skogman, Capt., on measurement
of an arc of meridian, 118.

Skull, human, with elk bones from
Nottingham drift, 155 ; of palaeo-
lithic man, described, 156.

Skulls, dolichocephalic, from a cave
at Gibraltar, 172 ; penalty for
exhuming from a cemetery in
Japan, 175.

Small-pox, effects of inoculation
with mixture of the virus and
milk, 173.

Smith, A., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 57; death of,
66 ; H. J. S., election of, and
biographical note on, 67 ; death
of, 78.

Smyth, W. H., biography of, 26 ;
communication from, 128.

Smythe, Colonel, mission of to the
Fiji Islands, 147.

Snow-line in North India, varia-
tions in height of, 102.

Societies, Scientific, juxtaposition
of, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 35, 37, 43 ;
joint meetings of, 32 ; report of
committee on, 33, 35, 37, 40 ;
proposals for accommodation of,

44. 45-

Sodium, absorption lines in spectrum
of, 190.

Solar eclipses, photographs of the
recent, 155 ; that of Dec. 22,
1870, described, 187, 189.

Solly, E., biography of, 20; resigna-
tion of, 54.

Somerset House, occupation of,
28.

Somme Valley, palaeolithic gravels
of, 146, 149.

Sound, gamut of, and spectrum of
Hght, 185.

Spectra of metallic vapours investi-
gated by Professors Dewar and
Liveing, 217.

Spectral lines, methods for obtaining
a reversal of, 190.

Spectroscope, a new form of the, and
its effects, 162 ; applied to exa-
mination of Saturn and its ring,
172.

Index

283

Spectrum analysis and the nature
of yttrium, 241 ; value and
results of, 151.

Speke, Captain, and source of the
White Nile, 147.

Spence, J., biography of, 21 ; com-
munication from, 137 ; retire-
ment of, 49.

Spermatozoa, action of solutions
on, 129.

Spheroidal condition, effect of hydro-
gen on readiness to assume the,
139.

Spider, a species of, kept captive
by ants, 243.

Spirifer cuspidatus, its microscopic
structure and relations, 178.

Spitzbergen, striated rocks in, 165.

Splenic fever, effects of inoculation
for, 205 ; studies of the bacillus
of, id. ; its vitaUty, 206 ; photo-
graphs of, 206.

Spottiswoode, W., election of, and
biographical note on, 55 ; com-
munication from, 190 ; requests
interment of Charles Darwin in
Westminster Abbey, 220 ; death
of, 79.

Spratt, Captain, on coal at Heraklea,
124 ; brings bones of pigmy
elephant from Malta, 172 ; dredg-
ings in the iEgean, 197.

Springs, presence of fish in hot, 214.

Stainton, H. T., on a tissue pro-
duced by Tineina larvae, 182.

Standards of weight and length,
121.

Steel, a new and economical method
of making, 132.

Stirling, Professor, description of a
new Australian marsupial, 240.

Stokes, G. G., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 42 ; communi-
cations from, 166, 215, 222, 226,

254-

Stones, wind-worn, from New Zea-
land, 183 ; from Egypt, id. and
184.

Stonesfield slate, mammalian jaw
in the, 114.

Strachey, R., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 59 ; com-
munications from, 225, 227 ;

absence from England, 60 ; re-
turn, 65 ; suggests changes in
elections to Royal Society, 65 ;
placed on supernumerary list, 92.

Struve, Otto, on anomalies in pen-
dulum observations, 169.

Strychnine, not hurtful to Acari,

157.

Stuart, M'Douall, exploring expedi-
tions northward from Adelaide,
153.

Stuart, Professor Anderson, describes
the University of Sydney, 252 ;
biographical note on, id.

Subscription in aid of an im-
poverished artist, 143.

Summer of 1881, abnormal distribu-
tion of temperature in, 217.

Sun, spots on the, taken by Kew
photoheUograph, 139 ; presence
of oxygen in the, demonstrated,
209 ; total eclipse of the, ob-
served at Vadso, 250.

Sundew (Drosera), its carnivorous
habits, 154.

Sunset, luminous cones visible at,
187.

Supernumerary members agreed
upon, 72.

Surinam toad, observations on its
oviposition, 249.

Survey, Trigonometrical, of British
Isles completed, 157.

Sutherland limestone, shomng struc-
ture like Eozoon Canadense, 218.

Swan lamps used in lightmg Royal
Society's rooms, 218,

Swinhoe, R., and two skulls of tiger
from China, 193.

Sydney, University of, described,
252.

Sykes, W. H., biography of, 21 ;
communications from, 105, no,
112, 113, 116, 119, 120, 125, 129,
131, 133. 152, 158, 159, 165, 173,
174, 175, 176, 186.

Sylvester, J. J., election of, 57 ;
communications from, 173, 192,
197 ; absence from England, 70 ;
placed on supernumerary list,
81 ; death of, mentioned, 91.

Syringothyris (Winchell), its differ-
ence from Spirifer, 178.

284

Index

Talbot, W. H. F., biography of, 21 ;

retirement of, 29.
Tallow, artificial, 127.
Tangier, geology of neighbourhood,

203.
Tasmania, merino wool from,

221.
Taylor, Mr., an inventor of photo-
zincography, 150.

Tea, introduced into India, 100 ;
cultivation of, in India, 114;
area of this, 119.

Teall, J. J. H., election of, 93 ;
biographical note on, 94.

Teeth, artificial, case of accidental
swallowing, 156.

Telegraph, wire affected by an
aurora, 151 ; sub- Atlantic, sound-
ings for a, 152 ; ship constructed
for laying deep-sea cables, 194,

Telescope for Royal Society, pro-
gress in construction of a, 185.

Telescopes, improved process for
polishing mirrors of reflecting,
124.

Temperature, Professor Dewar on
the zero of absolute, 237.

Temperatures, abnormality in
January, for north and south of
Britain, 176 ; abnormal in 1881,
217.; of deep seas, observations
on, collected and classified, 195 ;
effect of low, on vitality of seeds,
202 ; on water in capillary tubes,
id.

Tendon Achilles, effect of its division
on the circulation, 145.

Tetanus antitoxin, cheap export of
to the Pacific islands, 246.

Thames, tunnel approaching com-
pletion, 183 ; completed, 184 ;
water, bacterial life in, 246.

Thatched House Tavern, place of
dinner, 49 ; charges at, id.

Thecodontosaurus, referred to Dino-
sauria by Professor Huxley,
184.

Thermal rays, experiments on the
obscure, 168.

Thermoelectric observation of lunar
radiation, 156.

Thermometer, water-bulb, causes of
errors in observing, 112 ; Reg-

nault's, 115; accurate gradua-
tion of, 116; placed at high
altitudes in the Alps, 146.

Thiselton-Dyer, W. T., election of.
and biographical note on, 80 ;
communications from, 231, 232,
241 ; resignation of, 89.

Thompson, J. J., election of, and
biographical note on, 92.

Thomson, A., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 71 ; communi-
cations from, 206, 217 ; death of,.
80.

Thomson, James, views on regela-
tion disputed, 148.

Thomson, Joseph, exploration in
Kilimanjaro district, 226, 227.

Thomson, T., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 57 ; death of^

71-

Thomson, Sir W. (Lord Kelvin),
election of, and biographical note-
on, 86.

Thomson, WyviUe, on a new deep-
sea crinoid, 175 ; on Pentacrinus,
181 ; on globigerina ooze and
red-clay, 196.

Thoria, effect of, on luminosity of
gas-mantles, 255.

Thorny croft, J. I., election of, and
biographical note on, 92.

Thorpe, T, E., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 88.

Thunderstorms frequent in the
Bermudas, 222.

Tiger, skullsof, from China, 193.

Tilden, W. A., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 91.

Timbuctoo, its inhabitants and their
history, 135.

Tissue, produced by maggots in hold
of ship from Trieste, 181.

Toad, Surinam, its oviposition ob-
served, 249.

Tongue, articulate speed not de-
stroyed by excision of, 185.

Topler, M., experiments on a singing
flame, 222.

Tornado, account of a, in Indiana^
130.

Tortoises, giant forms of land, their
distribution and history, 201 ;
belong to three distinct groups, id.

Index

28s

Tramway, electric, between Kilrush
and Giant's Causeway, 225.

Transfusion of blood, experiments
on, 139.

Travers, W. T. L., drawings of wind-
worn stones from New Zealand,
182.

Trigonometrical Survey of British
Isles completed, 157.

Trilobites, stages of development
in, 109.

Trimblet, M. du, new principle in
steam engine, 123.

Trotter, Coutts, visit to Niua-fu,
230.

Trout, photographic properties of
the skin of the, 136 ; temperature
of living, 137.

Troy, Plain of, and Homer's de-
scription of it, 191 ; Tumulus of
Hector opened, id.

Tsetse fly, suggested experiments on
the, 137.

Turpentine, effect of sunhghton, 116.

Tylor, E. B., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 77.

Tyndall, J., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 43 ; communi-
cations from, 133, 134, 136, 139,
142, 146, 148, 156, 159, 168, 171,
180, 192, 193, 194, 214, 222, 226,
229 ; placed on honorary super-
numerary list, 85.

Uchatius, Captain, his new method

of making steel, 132.
United States, winter temperature in

the, 143.
Universities and the promotion of

scientific research, 191.
University of London, 29 ; the

Johns Hopkins, described by

Dr. Carpenter, 224.
Uranium glass, effect of electric

discharges on vacuum tubes of,

186 ; its compounds and their

radioactive properties, 256.
Utricularia vulgaris, a trap for small

fishes, 226.

A?^acuum tubes and electric currents,
170 ; effects of a, on melting
points, 213.

Vadso, observation of total eclipse
of sun at, 250.

Vandyck Fan, on principle of Capt.
Peaucellier's parallel motion in-
strument, 197.

Vapour bath and fatal result to
Dr. Carpenter, 229.

Vegetables, a method of preserving,
127.

Venus, transit of, as observed by the
American expeditions, 223.

Verdel, Mr., invents method of pre-
serving vegetables, 127.

Verneuil, M. de, on division of
British Museum, 54,152 ; explana-
tion of a supposed hook in a block
of marble, 166.

Vesuvius, description of an issuing
lava-stream from, 141 ; ascent of,
during an eruptive phase, 180 ;
view into crater, id. ; a peculiar
phase in an eruption of, 229.

Victoria Nyanza, Lake, explora-
tions in district east of it, 226.

Vigo Bay, and Fusus contrarius, 107.

Vincent, Captain, and the survey of
Jerusalem, 169.

Vines, S. H., election of, and bio-
graphical note on, 89 ; resigna-
tion of, 93.

Virchow, Prof., error about presence
of cellulose in the brain, 128.

Viscous fluids, their effect, when
strained, on polarized light, 193.

Volcanic cones, truncated and sub-
merged in Pacific Ocean, 25 1 .

Volcanoes, mud, in India, 113, 116.

Vultur, Monte, heavy winter snow-
fall at, 138.

Wales, New South, and Dinornis,

114.
Wallich, N., biography of, 24 ; on

results of deep dredging in North

Atlantic, 152 ; death of, 41.
Walrus, living, expected at the

Zoological Gardens, 180.
War steamer on wave principle for

king of Prussia, 116.
Water, its effect in increasing force

of bursting charges in shells, 200 ;

effect of sparks passing through

it, if airless, on the enclosing glass

286

Index

tube, 20 1 ; reducible in capillary
tubes to 5° F. without freezing,
202 ; the supply to Gibraltar in-
vestigated, id.

Water-battery, experiments with a
large one, 160.

Wave principle and war steamers,
116.

Weather conditions, diagrams of,
for use in daily newspapers, 195.

Weight, standards of, 121.

Weldon, W. F. R., election of, and
biographical note on, 93.

Welwitschia, description of the
plant, 160.

Westminster, accident in sewers,
no; funeral of Charles Darwin
in the Abbey, 220.

Wheatstone, C., biography of, 21 ;
communications from, 99, io6,
125, 127, 142, 178 ; death of, 69.

White ants, their ravages at St.
Helena and Pointe de Galle, 207 ;
defences against, id. ; date of
introduction from Africa to St.
Helena, 208.

Whitstable, discovery of a palaeo-
lith near, 154.

Williamson, A. W., election of, 54 ;
biographical note on, 55 ; com-
munication from, 1 70 ; placed on
supernumerary list, 80.

Willis, Mr., patents a new process in
printing photographs, 209.

Wind gauge, modification of Lind's,

137.
Winter temperatures in United
States and England contrasted,
143.

Wohler, Herr, artificial production
of leucine and other fatty acids,
127.

Wood, drift, above sea-level on
Arctic islands, 122 ; siUcified
in same region, id. ; scored by
drifting sand, 206 ; fossil, con-
taining silver, id. ; from the
desert near Cairo, 248.

Woolwich, cartridge-case factory
estabhshed at, 128.

Work and rest, effects of, on excre-
tory processes, 175.

Wrottesley, Sir J., election of, 30 ;
biographical note on, 32 ; com-
munications from, 1 20, 148 r
death of, 61.

Wurtz, Professor, on aldehyde and
alcohol, 159.

Yeast plant, at Guinness' Brewery,,

231.
Yenesei, bed of graphite discovered

on the, 160.
Yorke, P. J., election of, and

biographical note on, 56 ; death

of, 68.
Young, James, and Forbes, George,

new experiments on the velocity

of light, 215,
Young, John, studies of edible birds'

nests, 234 ; their composition,

id.
Yttrium, its compound nature sug-
gested by spectrum analysis,

241.

Zoological Society, gadflies ex-
hibited at the, 112.

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Book Slip-20m-3,*60(A9205s4)458

1 207';i9

Call Number:

Qlil

Bonney, Thomas George.
Annals of the Philo-

R75
b6

L-onncj

04-1
-R15
B(^

207519