PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

OF

MANCHESTER.

VOL XII.

Session 1872 — 73.

MANCHESTER:

PRINTED BY THOS. SOAVLER AND SONS, RED LION STREET, ST. ANN’S SQUARE,
LONDON: H. BAILLIERE, 219, REGENT STREET,

1873,

NOTE.

The object which the Society have in view in publishing’ their
Proceedings is to give an immediate and succinct account of the
scientific and other business transacted at their meetings to the
members and the general public. The various communications
are supplied by the authors themselves, who arc alone responsible
for the facts and reasonings contained therein.

INDEX.

Barrow John. — On the Use of Naphthaline in Section Cutting, p. 145.

Baxendell J., F.R.A.S., Hon. Sec. — Observations of the Meteoric Shower
of November 27th, 1872, p. 24.

Binney E. W., F.R.S., F.G.S., V.P. — Additional Notes on the Drift
Deposits near Manchester, p. 12. Observations of the Meteoric
Shower of November 27th, 1872, p. 23. On some Specimens of
Anachoropteris, pp. 44, 72, 107. On the Quality of the Water
supplied to Manchester, p. 81.

Brockbank William, F.G.S. — Notes on Supposed Glacial Action in the
Deposition of Hematite Iron Ores in the Furness District, p. 58.
On Specimens of Iron Manufactured by the old Bohemian Process
from Hematite Ores in the South of Europe, p. 72. Notes on the
Victoria Cave, Settle, p. 95.

Brothers Alered, F.R.A.S. — Observations of the Meteoric Shower of
November 27th, 1872, p. 25.

Broughton S. — On Ball Discharge in Thunderstorms, p. 71.

Dawkins W. Boyd, M.A., F.R.S. — On some remarkable Forms of Stalag-
mites from Caves near Tenby, p. 26. On the date of the Conquest
of South Lancashire by the English, p. 26. On some Human
Bones found at Buttington, Montgomeryshire, p. 30. The Results
of the Settle Cave Exploration, p. 61. Observations on the Rate
at which Stalagmite is being accumulated in the Ingleborough
Cave, p. 83.

Gerland Dr. B. W. — Note on Meta-Vanadic Acid, p. 50.

Hardy John. — On the occurrence of Unio tumidus in the Manchester
District, p. 117.

Herford Rev. Brooke. — On the Transition from Roman to Arabic
Numerals (so called) in England, p. 91.

Hurst H. A.— On the Flora of Alexandria (Egypt), p. 69.

VI

Johnson W. H., B.Sc. — On the Action of Sulphuric and Hydrochloric
Acids on Iron and Steel, p. 42. On the Influence of Acids on Iron
and Steel, p. 74.

Joule J. P., D.C.L., LL.D,, F.R.S., President. — On the increase in the
number of cases of Hydrophobia, p. 41. On an Apparatus for pro-
ducing a high degree of Rarefaction of Air, pp. 43, 55, 57. On a
change in the position of the Freezing Point of a Thermometer,
p. 73.

Mackereth Thomas, F.R.A.S. — Results of Rain Guage Observations
made at Eccles, near Manchester, during the year 1872, p. 140.

Plant John, F.G,S. — Description of Minerals and Ores from Venezuela,
p. 113. Note on a Fossil Spider in Ironstone of the Coal Measures,
p. 146.

Reynolds, Professor 0., M.A. — On the Electrical Properties of Clouds
and the Phenomena of Thunderstorms, p. 34. On a large Meteor
seen on February 3, 1873, at ten p.m., p. 48.

Routledge R., B.Sc. — On the composition of Ammonium Amalgam, p. 1.

Roberts William, M.D. — Experiments on the Question of Biogenesis,
p. 52.

Schunck Edward, Ph.D., F.R.S., V.P. — On Methyl-alizarine and
Ethyl-alizarine, p, 86.

Sidebotham Joseph, F.R.A.S. — On the Destruction of the Rarer Species
of British Ferns, p. 69. Note on an observation of a Small Black
Spot on the Sun’s disc, p. 105. Remarks on an Old Microscope,
p. 117.

Smith H. A., F.C.S. — On some points in the Chemistry of Acid Manufac-
ture, p. 20.

Smith Professor Hamilton G. — On the use of iron or bell metal Specula
coated with Nickel for Reflecting Telescopes, p. 105

Smith R. Angus, Pli.D., F.R.S., V.P. — On a remarkable Fog in Iceland,
p. 11. On the Action of Town Atmospheres on Building Stones,
p. 19.

Spence James M. — On Collection of Natural History and other Objects
from Venezuela, p. 112,

Spence Peter, F.C.S.-— On an Experiment in Heating a Diamond, p. 103.

vii

Stewart Professor B., LL.D., F.R.S. — An Account of some Experiments
on the Melting Point of Paraffin, p. 15.

Vernon G. V., F.P.A.S. — Rainfall at Old Trafford, Manchester, p. 108.

Wilde Henry. — On some Improvements in Electro-magnetic Induction
Machines, p. 129

Wilkinson T. T., F.R.A.S. — Monthly Fall of Rain, according to the
North Rain Guage at Swindon as measured by Mr. .Tames Emmett,
Waterworks Manager, Burnley, from January 1st, 1866, to Decem-
ber 31st, 1872, p. 71.

Williamson Professor W. C., F.R.S. — On some specimens of Astero-
phyllites, pp, 47, 106.

Meetings of the Physical and Mathematical Section. — Annual, p. 108. Ordi-
nary, p. 140.

Meetings of the Microscopical and Natural History Section . — Annual, p. 147.
Ordinary, pp. 66, 112, 113, 117, 145.

Report of the Council. — April 29tli, 1873, p. 119.

PROCEEDINGS

OP

THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL

SOCIETY.

Ordinary Meeting, October 1st, 1872.

Rev. William Gaskell, M.A., Vice-President, in the Chair.

Among the donations announced were a beautiful photo-
graphic copy of a fine portrait of the late Mr. John Dawson,
of Sedbergh, by Mr. Westall, A.R.A., and a fine photo-
graphic portrait of the Rev. Canon Sedgwick, M.A., F.R.S.,
Honorary Member of the Society, both presented by Canon
Sedgwick.

On the motion of Mr. Baxendell, seconded by Mr.
Kipping, the thanks of the Society were unanimously voted
to the Rev. Canon for his interesting and valuable dona-
tions.

“ On the Composition of Ammonium Amalgam,” by R.
Routledge, B.Sc.

The substance now known as ammonium amalgam
appears to have been first obtained by Seebeck* in the
beginning of the year 1808, immediately after Davy had
announced his brilliant discovery of the isolation of potas-
sium and sodium by means of the Voltaic battery. Seebeck
prepared the amalgam by placing mercury which formed
the negative pole of a battery in contact with moistened
carbonate of ammonia. About the same time Berzelius and
Ponthrf- obtained the like result with solution of ammonia.

# Annales de Chimie , LXYI. 191.

f Gilb., YI. 260, and Bibliotheque Britannique , No. 323, 324, p. 122.

Proceedings — Lit. & Phil. Soc. — Yol. XII. — No. 1 — Session 1872-3.

2

This discovery they communicated to Davy early in June,
1808, declaring their conviction that ammonia, like potash
and soda, must he an oxide, and that the new substance
was a combination of its metallic constituent with mercury.
Davy* immediately commenced a series of elaborate experi-
ments on the production and properties of the amalgam,
and in an account of these experiments laid before the
Royal Society in the same month he first uses the name
ammonium to indicate the supposed metallic basis of am-
monia. So convinced was Davy that the substance united
with mercury in the amalgam was of a metallic nature,
and that by combining with oxygen it constituted ammonia,
that he was inclined to view nitrogen and hydrogen, if not
as oxides of metals, at least as metallic gases.

Davy discovered that the ammonium amalgam was readily
produced when an amalgam of potassium was made to act
on moistened sal-ammoniac. He found that the electrically
prepared amalgam when introduced into a tube rapidly
evolved gas, which he describes as consisting of “about
two-thirds to three-fourths of ammonia, and the remainder
hydrogen.” In another experiment, amalgam obtained by
potassium was moistened with strong liquid ammonia, and
when heated in a tube generated gas which was proved to
consist of two-thirds ammonia and one-third hydrogen.

In the following year Gay Lussac and Thenar d*f* investiga-
ted the ammonium amalgam, and were led to regard it as a
triple compound of mercury, ammonia, and hydrogen. They
found on putting some of the amalgam prepared by potassium
into a tube which was filled up with mercury and then
inverted in a vessel of that liquid, that the amalgam gave
off, in decomposing, ammonia and hydrogen gases in the
proportion of 2 \ volumes to 1. But the electrically pre-
pared substance gave off the gases in quite another pro-

* Phil. Trans., 1808, p. 355.
t Pecherches Physico- Chimi ques, I. 52,

3

portion, the ratio in four different experiments being nearly
as 28 volumes of ammonia to 23 of hydrogen. These results
were obtained by first drying the amalgam with bibulous
paper, then introducing it into a tube containing a little
mercury, closing the tube with the finger, agitating it for
some minutes with the enclosed air, opening the tube after
inversion in mercury, measuring the ammonia by absorbing
with water, and determining eudiometrically the hydrogen
mixed with the residual air. The amalgam was afterwards
described by Thenard, in his Trait-4 cle Cliimie * under the
name of “ ammoniacal hydride of mercury.”

It is interesting to observe that in 1816 Ampere; f in the
passage where the now universally received views on the
constitution of ammoniacal compounds are first propounded,
refers to the amalgam. Speaking of the difficulty of
assimilating the constitution of ammoniacal to metallic
salts, he remarks — “ This difficulty would disappear if we
admit that, just as cyanogen, although a compound body,
exhihits all the properties of the simple bodies which are
capable of acidifying hydrogen, so the combination of one
volume of nitrogen and four volumes of hydrogen which is
united to mercury in the amalgam discovered by M. See-
beck, and to chlorine in the liydroclilorate of ammonia,
behaves in all the compounds which it forms like the simple
metallic substances.” This theory was more fully developed
by Berzelius and was soon generally received, except as re-
gards the amalgam, concerning which various conflicting
opinions were entertained. Daniell, j for example, speaks of
it as a mere mixture of mercury and gases resulting from the
cohesion of the mercury and the adhesion to it of the gases,
and he cites the absorption of oxygen by melted silver as a
similar case.

* Yol. II. p. 162, 3me ed.
f Annciles cle Cliimie et de Physique, IT. 16, Note,

% Chemical Philosophy , p. 420.

4

Grove,* in 1841, made a few experiments on the amalgam,
and advanced the idea that it is a chemical compound of
mercury and nitrogen, merely swelled up with hydrogen.

In 1864, Dr. Wetherillf performed several ingenious
experiments on the amalgam, without however attempting
any quantitative estimate of its composition. He concludes
that it is not an alloy of mercury and ammonium, and that
the swelling up of the mass is due to the retention of gas
bubbles by virtue of some unexplained action which he
somewhat vaguely refers to catalysis.

In the Annalen dev Ghemie u. Pharmacia for 1868^ is a
paper by Landolt, in which, after pointing out the discord-
ance of the quantitative results obtained by Davy, and by
Gay Lussac and Thenard, he describes a method by which
he attempted a new determination of the relative quantities
of ammonia and hydrogen. He prepared the substance from
a solution of sal-ammoniac, separated from the mercury,
which formed the negative pole, by a porous cell. The
amalgam, when removed from the circuit, was washed in a
stream of water to get rid of the adhering solution of sal-
ammoniac, which always contains free ammonia. It was
then immediately plunged into dilute hydrochloric acid of
known strength, and the hydrogen evolved was received in
a graduated cylinder placed over it, while the ammonia was
estimated by determining the amount of unneutralised acid
in the liquid. Two experiments gave results corresponding
respectively to 2T5 and 2-4 volumes of ammonia to 1 of
hydrogen. These figures of Landolt’s cannot be considered
satisfactory, neither nearly agreeing with each other, nor
approximating to the ratio 2 : 1 sufficiently closely to justify
his conclusion that they “completely confirm the results for-
merly obtained by Davy.” Indeed Landolt points out a
serious defect in his process, namely, that however rapidly

* Phil. Mag., United Series, yoI. xix., p. 97.
f Silliman’s Amer. Journal [2], xl., 160.

X Supp. Bd., yi., p. 316.

the amalgam may, after washing, be transferred into the
acid, the adhering water will nevertheless take up some
more ammonia from the continuously decomposing substance
while the hydrogen escapes.

found a difficulty in obtaining consistent results, for he does

proportions of the two gases. These are the words in which
he sums up his observations : — “ As it does not seem possible
to obtain an amalgam in an uniform state, as to adhering
moisture, it is not easy to say what would be the exact ratio
between the hydrogen and ammonia produced, if no more
water was present, than would be decomposed in oxidating
the basis. But in the most refined experiments which I
have been ab]e to make, this ratio is that of one to two ;
and in no instance in which proper precautions are taken,
is it less ; but under common circumstances often more. if
this result is taken as accurate ”, &c.*

This statement of Davy’s being apparently the only
authority for the assertion that the decomposing amalgam
gives off the gases in atomic proportions, and yet being in con-
flict with Gay Lussac and Thenard’s results, it appeared to me
desirable to attempt to obtain more exact determinations.

I used amalgam prepared by electricity in the manner
described by Landolt.

A simple mode of eliminating the disturbing effect pro-
duced by the attraction of ammonia for moisture suggested

metres long. At the bottom of the longer
limb, just above the bend, there was an outlet
tube to which was attached a piece of caout-
chouc tubing closed by a pinch-cock. Mer-
cury was poured into the tube until it filled

It must be observed that Davy himself appears to have

not seem to have ever entirely satisfied himself as to the

itself. A U-shaped glass tube was provided,
open at both ends, about 1*4 centimetres in
diameter and having its shorter limb 40 centi-

* Baker ian Lecture, 1809.

6

about two-thirds of the shorter limb, into which was then
introduced the amalgam after the latter had been wiped
with filtering paper. Then into the end of the limb con-
taining the amalgam, a caoutchouc stopper, perforated with
a small opening, was immediately thrust so far that its
upper surface came a little below the rim of the tube. The
decomposition of the amalgam was then allowed to proceed
for a few minutes, during which period any moisture ad-
hering to the amalgam or present in the tube would become
completely saturated with ammonia, and then the two gases
would begin to escape through the perforation in the stopper
in the proportions in which they are really evolved. Mercury
was now poured into the open end of the longer limb until
the amalgam just made its appearance at the top of the hole
in the stopper, which was then closed by pushing in a piece
of glass rod. The evolved gases being now retained in the
tube pressed up the mercury in the longer ]imb, and it was
from time to time drawn off by the outlet tube to prevent
undue pressure on the stopper. When the decomposition
was complete, which usually occurred in about hours
(but in one case more than 2J hours were required) the
mercury was brought to the same level in both limbs and
the space occupied by the gases was marked on the tube. A
little mercury was then let out so as to make the pressure
on the gas somewhat less than that of the atmosphere, and
the space above the stopper was filled with hydrochloric
acid diluted with a little water. The glass rod was then care-
fully withdrawn for an instant so that a few drops of the
acid might enter the tube. The ammonia gas present was
of course immediately absorbed, and the mercury having
been again brought to the same level in both limbs, the
space occupied by the residual hydrogen was marked on the
tube. The volumes occupied by the gases were determined
by finding the quantity of water required to fill them from
a burette.

The following are the results of four experiments : — *

No. of

j Experiment

Volume of
the mixed
gases.

Volume of
residual
hydrogen.

V olume of
ammonia
absorbed.

Volumes of
ammonia found
for one volume
of hydrogen.

1

c.cm.

20-8

c.cm.

7-0

13-8

1-97

2

18-2

6-2

12-0

1-93

3

12-8

4-3

8-5

1-98

i 4

13-6

4-6

9-0

1-95

I believe these figures are as nearly accordant with the

O J

atomic proportions as could be expected from the means
employed, where the possible error in determining the
volumes might amount to perhaps *2 c.cm.

In another similarly conducted experiment, in which it
was sought to obtain as much gas as possible, the tube was
closed too soon, and the result showed a deficiency of
ammonia, but is otherwise interesting : —

Experiment 5.

Volume of
Mercury in
the amalgam
c.cm.
11-8

Volume of
amalgam,
c.cm.

30*5

Volume of
the mixed
gases,
c.cm.

49-0

Volume of
residual
hydrogen,
c.cm.

18-0

A new observation on the amalgam lias recently been
made in America by Professor C. A. Seeley,* who found, by
subjecting it to varying pressure that its volume changes,
apparently in accordance with Mariotte’s law. He employed
simply a glass tube fitted with a plunger, and did not
measure the pressures or volumes. His conclusions were
that the amalgam is a mechanical or physical mixture of
liquid mercury with the gases ammonia and hydrogen, and
that its semifluid consistence is due to the mixture having
the nature of a froth.

Being desirous of submitting Seeley’s remark on the com-
pressibility of the amalgam, to the test of direct measure-
ment, I subjected the electrically formed amalgam to
pressure in a glass tube 48 centimetres long and 1*3 centi-
metres diameter. The pressure was applied by connecting
the tube with a syringe, by which air could be forced into

# Chem. Nezvs, .June 10th, 1870.

8

th e apparatus, and the amount of the pressure was measured
by a column of mercury in an open manometer. There was
some difficulty in measuring the volume owing to the
occasional escape of bubbles of gas, which caused abrupt
alterations of the level. The results obtained are given in
the following table, which also contains a column of volumes
calculated on the supposition that the amalgam is a mere
mixture of fluid mercury and gas, allowance being made for
the pressure on the gas due to the column of mercury in the
amalgam itself. The extreme case was assumed, namely,
that this additional pressure is represented by a column of
mercury half the height of the amalgam.

No. of
Experiment

;

Volume of
mercury
in the
amalgam.

Atmospheric
pressure in
centimetres
of mercury.

Volume of
amalgam
under

atmospheric

pressure.

The

increased
pressure in
centimetres
of mercury.

Observed
volume of
amalgam
under
increased
pressure.

Calculated
volume of
amalgam
under
increased
pressure.

6

c.cm.

14*5

76-2

c.cm.

21-0

152*4

c.cm.

18*0

c.cm.

17*9

7

11-9

76-8

23-0

188*2

17*5

17*1

8

11*9

76-8

22-7

200*9

17*0

16*4

9

24-4

76-2

36-2

152*4

31*6

30*9

10

24-4

76-2

31-6

152*4

28*0

27*4

11

13-2

76-2

28-7

152*4

23*0

21*6

12

13-2

76-2

22*5

152*4

18*5

17*2

13

10-4

76-2

18-0

186*3

14*7

13*7

14

10-4

76-2

16-0

186*3

12*8

12*8

15

23-8

76-2

40-4

178*7

33*6

31-9

16

23*8

76-2

42-0

176-1

33*6

32-7

17

23*8

76-2

42-8

152*6

35*0

34-7

18

23-8

76-2

40-4

177-4

33*3

31*9

19

23-8

76-2

42*2

102*6

38*8

38*5

20

23-8

76-2

42-2

153*6

34*0

34*0

21

23-8

76-2

42-2

177*4

33*0

32*7

22

23-8

76-2

42-0

201*5

32*2

31*6

23

23*8

76*2

40-2

177-4

32*2

32*1

24

23-8

76-2

40-6

201*5

31*2

30*6

25

23-8

76-2

36-2

149*5

32*6

30*6

26

29-2

76-2

42-0

177-4

36*8

35*4

27

29-2

76-2

42-0

200*2

36*2

34*7

28

29-2

76-2

40-6

173-6

36*0

34*7

29

29*2

76-2

39*5

198*9

34*4

33*4

30

24-6

76-2

32*0

155*9

29*7

28*4

31

24-6

76-2

340

177-4

30*4

28-7

Pressures.

9

Five points
deduced from
the mean re-
sults of expe-
riments 15 to
24 having* 1 2
been laid

volumes. down in rela-

tion to rectangular axes, the curve (1) which passed through
them is represented in the diagram, which shows also the
curve (2) through five points representing the calculated
volumes, and a line (3) representing volumes corresponding
to the pressures which were applied to the top of the
columns of amalgam.

The diagram and figures sufficiently show that the com-
pressibility of the amalgam agrees nearly with the supposi-
tion of its being a mixture of gas and mercury, but that it
is, however, somewlmtr less compressible. This no doubt is
owing chiefly if not entirely to its want of fluidity.

I think that from these experiments I am warranted in
drawing the two following conclusions, viz. : —

1. In the fact of the gases being evolved in atomic pro-
portions, we have the clearest proof that the ammonia and
hydrogen are chemically combined.

2. The compressibility of the mass proves that the en-
larged volume or swelling up is due mainly, if not entirely,
to free gases entangled in it.

In connection with the first of these conclusions arises
th£ further question whether the NH4 is combined with the
mercury. That it is so combined appears in the highest
degree probable from the apparently uniform diffusion of
the NH4 throughout the mass, and from the fact that such
a union would be only one additional instance of the innu-
merable cases in which this radical plays the part of a metal.
Seeley says, that if the radical NH4 be contained in the
amalgam at all, it must be in the state of gas. But the

10

figures furnished by my fifth experiment show, that if this
supposed NH4 gas had the normal molecular volume, and
existed in. the amalgam from the beginning, a force of two
atmospheres would be required to compress it within the
amalgam. The decomposition therefore is progressive, and
points to the existence of a real compound of NH4 with the
mercury. We may therefore admit, that such a compound
is originally formed, and decomposes rapidly into mercury,
ammonia, and hydrogen, while the gases becoming entangled
in the mass impart to it that remarkable turgescence, which
is not however a property of the original compound (or
ammonium amalgam), but merely an accidental result of its
decomposition.

As to the cause of the retention of the gases, I am not
prepared to offer an opinion, further than that its explana-
tion would probably involve physical rather than chemical
considerations.

I have to express my obligation to the kindness of Dr.
ftoscoe for the use of the appliances of the laboratory at
Owens College, where the experiments were carried out,
and I am also indebted to him for valuable suggestions.

11

Ordinary Meeting, October 15th, 1872.

E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., Vice-President, in the Chair,

Ordinary Meeting, October 29th, 1872.

EdwaPvD Schunck, Ph.D., F.R.S., Vice-President, in the

Chair.

Dr. R. Angus Smith, F.R.S., described a remarkable fog
which he saw in Iceland. It appeared to rise from a small
lake and from the sea at about the same time, when it
rolled from both places and the two streams met in the
town of Reykjavik. It had the appearance of dust, and
was called dust by some persons there at first sight. This
arose from the great size of the particles of which it was
composed. They were believed to be from 400th to -south
of an inch in diameter. They did not show any signs of
being vesicular, but through a small magnifier looked like
transparent concrete globules of water. They were con-
tinually tending downwards, and their place was supplied
by others that rolled over.

Ordinary Meeting, November 12th, 1872,

J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., &c., President, in the

Chair.

Charles Anthony Burghardt, Ph.D., and Henry Arthur
Smith, F.C.S., were elected Ordinary Members of the Society.
Pkoceedinq-s — Lit. & Phil. Soc. — Vol, XII. — No. 2.— Session 1872-3.

12

“Additional Notes on the Drift Deposits near Manchester,”
by E. W. Binney, V.P., F.R.S., F.G.S.

In my classification of the Drift Deposits of Manchester,
printed in Yol. VIII. (second series), is given a fourfold
division of the beds, No. 4, or the lowest under the till,
being termed Lower Gravel, and described as a bed of sand
or coarse gravel having the pebbles contained in it, consist-
ing of the same kind of rocks as those found in deposits
Nos. 1, 2, and 3, well rounded, sometimes but not always
occurring under the till or brick clay.

Professor Hull, F.B.S., in a paper printed in Yol. II. (third
series) of the Memoirs of the Society, states, “Another modi-
fication which we found it necessary to make had reference
to the lower sand (No. 4) underlying the till in Mr. Binney’s
classification. We have nowhere been able to discover such
a bed in situ during our examination ; and it is remarkable
that in the section of the drift which was furnished by Mr.
Binney as having been proved at St. George’s Colliery,
Manchester, and where it is stated that this sand and gravel
(No. 4) is 10ft. 6in. in thickness, there is no appearance
whatever of it in the neighbouring quarries of Collyhurst,
where the till may be seen directly reposing on the Permian
sandstone. I do not however wish to deny that there are
occasional patches of sand or gravel underlying the lower
till, because such bands occur in the till itself. My only
object is to remove this member from the dignity of a dis-
tinct subdivision of the drift series, at least till there is
some better evidence of its existence than the reports of
well sinkers, the elasticity of whose system of nomencla-
ture is unhappily proverbial.” He then gives his fourfold
division. In a paper of my own, printed in the same vol.
as Mr. Hull’s, a list of eleven drift sections is given in which
the lower gravel (No. 4) appears in ten found in Man-
chester.

No doubt, as Mr. Hull states, it is quite true that on the

13

Permian sandstone in the Vauxhall delph at Collyhurst the
till is seen resting upon that rock without any intervening
bed of sand or gravel; but if any one considered the ex-
posed position of the rock at the last named place when
compared with the sheltered locality at St. George’s Col-
liery, there would be no difficulty in conceiving that a bed
of sand or gravel might be removed by denuding causes
in the former, while it would be preserved in the latter.
Certainly this deposit was not given on the authority of an
ignorant well sinker, but on that of the late Mr. Thomas
Hill, an intelligent colliery manager, who was not likely to
be deceived in the change of a bed of till to 10ft. Gin. of
sand and gravel.

In my first paper previously referred to ten other instances
were given of the occurrence of the lower gravel under the
till in and near Manchester, and in the Additional Notes
on Drift printed in the last two vols. of the Proceedings of
the Society other cases are given of the bed having been
found under.

In the present communication more sections are brought
forward, the first three of which are from my own obser-
vation.

In Dantzic-street near the corner of Wells-street, Shude-
hill, the following beds were met with :

ft. in.

Till 18 0

Coarse Gravel 3 6

Broken Bock — Trias 3 6

25 0

The gravel contained rounded pebbles of the size of a
man’s head, and is of a coarser description and a duller colour
than I had ever previously observed in the neighbourhood
of Manchester.

At the south end of George-street near Oxford-road,

14

opposite Mr. Jackson’s warehouse, the following section was
met with :

ft. in.

Till...... 26 0

Red Gravel and Sand resting on Trias 4 0

30 0

In a shaft shown me by my friend Mr. Mellor at Lime-
kiln-lane, Ardwick, there was :

ft. in.

Till, about 25 0

Coarse Gravel resting on Upper Coal

Measures IS 0

43 0

At Levenshulme Printworks, in Mr. Aitkens bore-hole :

ft. in.

Till 70 0

Sand and Clay 4 0

Sandy Gravel — Trias 5 0

79 0

By the kindness of Mr. Alfred Waterhouse I am enabled
to give three sections of the drift deposits met with in exca-
vating the foundations of the new Town Hall in Albert-
square.

At the south-west angle of Lloyd-street, Albert-square :

ft. in.

Till (hard dry clay) 16 3

Red Loamy Sand 3 0

Running White Sand 0 9

Loam and Sand on Trias 1 6

21 6

At the north-east angle :

ft. in

Till 17 0

Soft Sand 0 3

Trias 7 0

24 3

15

At the north end Albert-square corridor :

ft. in.

Till 13 6

Light Loam 2 0

Running Sand 0 7

Rough Clay, mixed 2 0

P ine Red Sand 1 6

Shaly Rock — Trias 1 3

20 10

All the above sections show that the lower gravel and
sand is a very variable deposit. CJp to the present time, to
my knowledge, no organic remains have been found in it,
and the rocks met with have not been so carefully examined
to speak with certainty as to whether or not they are of
the same description as those found in the till and upper
gravels. It may be the remains of a much greater deposit,
which has been denuded before the formation of the till.
Lip to this, so far as I know, no scored or striated pebbles
have been observed, although there are plenty of well
rounded rocks in it.

Whenever any excavations are being made through the
till it is desirable that parties present should carefully ex-
amine the sands and gravels lying under it as well as the
broken rock so often met with on the upper portions of
Triassic, Permian, and Carboniferous beds found near Man-
chester.

The classification of the drift in this district may still be
conveniently divided into, in the descending order: — 1.
Valley sands and gravels. 2. Beds of sand and gravel con-
taining layers of clay and till. 3. Thick bed of till con-
taining beds of sand and gravel. 4, Lower sands and gravels.

“An Account of some Experiments on the Melting Point
of Paraffin,” by B. Stewart, F.B.S.

The following experiments were made with the view of
ascertaining

16

1st, Whether the melting point of different specimens
of paraffin is the same.

2nd, Whether that of the same specimen remains the
same.

The method of observation adopted in these experiments
was as follows. The thermometer had its stem fitted into
the cork of a colourless glass flask so that when the flask
was corked the bulb was in the centre of the flask, the ex-
tremity of the mercurial column appearing during the
experiment slightly above the cork. The flask was kept
heated to a point slightly below that of the melting point
of paraffin. The bulb of the thermometer was then dipped
for a few seconds into some melted paraffin a few degrees
above its melting point, and while covered with a fluid
coating of paraffin was replaced in the centre of the flask.
The flask being onty a very little colder than the bulb, the
cooling was then very slow.

The instrument was placed so that the reflected image of
the bar of a window was seen distinctly in the mercury of
the bulb through the liquid paraffin. One observer carefully
scrutinised this reflected image by a lens, while another
watched the downward progress of the column of mercury in
the stem of the thermometer. As soon as the observer scru-
tinising the image observed a want of definition produced by
incipient freezing, he noted the circumstance to his col-
league watching the column, and thus the exact reading at
which freezing began was ascertained. It was found easily
possible to ascertain this point to one tenth of a degree
Centigrade. Four or five separate observations were gene-
rally taken, before each of which the thermometer was
re -dipped into the melted paraffin.

In case of any change taking place in the zero of the
thermometer while the experiments were in progress, the
instrument was tried in melting ice before each experiment.

17

The thermometer employed was a standard, constructed at
Owens College, No. 3.

The coating of paraffin surrounding the bulb was some-
times kept from one experiment to another, being always
carefully dried after the bulb was plunged in melting ice,
and sometimes it was removed, but this circumstance did
not appear to affect the results.

It was soon seen that different specimens of paraffin had
very different melting points, so that the research was
directed to the second question, namely, whether the same
specimen retains the same melting point, after being fre-
quently melted and solidified.

The

followin

g is a

record

of the various experiments

made : —

1872.

Feb. 29

Paraffin melted at 45 ’05.

Mar.

6

55

55

(thermometer not observed).

13

55

at 44-90.

21

55

55

(thermometer not observed).

»

26

55

55

at 44-9.

April 11

55

55

(thermometer not observed).

>5

19

55

55

55 55 55

55

26

55

5?

at 45-00.

May

3

55

55

(thermometer not observed).

55

10

55

55

” 55 55

55

16

55

55

at 45-00.

55

23

55

55

(thermometer not observed).

June

1

55

55

’5 55 55

55

6

55

55

55 55 55

55

13 ......

55

55

at 44-90.

The paraffin was melted without an observation of the
thermometer at the following dates — -June 19, 27; July 3,
19, 25; Aug. 1, 9, 16, 22, 31 ; Sept. 6, 14, 21, 27; Oct. 8, 17.

Observations with the thermometer were then resumed
with the following results :

18

Oct. 24 Paraffin melted at 44'60.

„ 31 „ (thermometer not observed).

Nov. 7 „ „ at 44 70.

„ 11 „ „ at 44-75.

The experiments now described have been made chiefly
by Mr. F. Kingdon, assistant in the Physical Laboratory of
Owens College. The most probable conclusion to be de-
duced from them appears to be that the melting point of
this specimen of paraffin has become somewhat lowered
since the experiments began.

It is proposed to continue these experiments for some
time longer ; but in the meantime it has been thought
desirable to describe the method of research, as this may be
of interest to observers of melting points.

19

Ordinary Meeting, November 26th, 1872.

J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., &c., President, in the

Chair.

Dr. R. Angus Smith, F.R.S., said that he, like others,
had observed that the particles of stone most liable to be
in long contact with rain from town atmospheres, in England
at least, were most subject to decay. Believing the acid to
be the cause, he supposed that the endurance of a silicious
stone might be somewhat measured by measuring its re-
sistance to acids. He proposed therefore to use stronger
solutions, and thus to approach to the action of long periods
of time. He tried a few specimens in this way, and with
most promising results. Pieces of about an inch cube were
broken by the fall of a hammer and the number of blows
counted. Similar pieces were steeped in weak acid ; both
sulphuric acid and muriatic were tried, and the latter pre-
ferred. The number of blows now necessary was counted.
Some sandstones gave way at once and crumbled into sand,
some resisted long. Some very dense silicious stone was
little affected ; it had stood on a bridge unaltered for centu-
ries, in a country place however. These trials were mere

Proceedings— Lit. & Phil. Soc. — Yol, XII. — No. 3.— Session 1872-3.

20

beginnings ; he arranged for a very extensive set of experi-
ments to be made so as to fix on a standard of comparison,
but has not found time.

“ On some some points in the Chemistry of Acid Manu-
facture,5’ by H. A. Smith, F.C.S.

The author endeavours to throw some light on the interior
economy of the lead chamber as at present used in the
manufacture of sulphuric acid, by making first : —

An experimental examination of the causes which deter-
mine the action , inter se, of the gases in the lead chamber.

The conclusion come to differed from that generally
received. He believes that action can take place between
dry sulphurous acid and nitric acid gases, without the use
of steam, and showed by several experiments that if action
be commenced between the above mentioned gases it con-
tinues, even in the absence of air, till all the available
oxygen present in the nitric acid has been made use of.

He also comes to the following conclusions : —

1. That the volume of steam introduced should be less

than the combined volumes of the two gases.

2. That the volume of steam introduced should increase

in proportion to the increase of temperature.

3. That the greatest amount of action between the two

gases (and therefore the greatest yield of vitriol)
takes place near the surface of previously formed
sulphuric acid, and that therefore in ‘ starting ’ the

21

working of a chamber sulphuric acid should be
run upon the bottom in preference to water, as at
present generally done.

4. That the upper paid of the chamber is of use princi-
pally as a ‘ reservoir,’ and that little or no action
takes place between the gases at that part.

The next point claiming attention was : —

The distribution of the gases in the lead chamber.

The following tables will show the results arrived at :

Sulphurous Acid. — Table I.

(■Length of
-< Chamber
(. in feet. )

No. 2.

ft. in height, 15
(Entrance.)

No. 1.

ft. in height, 3
(Entrance.)

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90 100

110

120

130

140

to

1

70to

72%

1

46%

1

31to

33%

i

25%

1

26%

1

30%

1

22%

1 i ‘

29to 22%
30/

1

23%

1

13%

00 —

18%

3%

1

8%

1

16%

|

29%

!

28%

1

18%

1

19%

1

o —

CS|

17%' 17%
1 ! 1

^

13%

1

8%

1

16%

1

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90 100

no

120

130

140

f Length of
s Chamber V
C in feet. )

15 ft. in height.
(Exit.)

3ft. in height.
(Exit.)

Length of Chamber in feet.

No. 1 represents the percentage of acid at 3 feet from bottom of chamber.
No. 2 ,, ,, 15 ,, ,,

Sulphuric Acid. — Table II.

f Length of ^
•< Chamber >-
(. in feet, j

15 ft. in height.
(Exit.)

3 ft. in height.
(Exit.)

Length of Chamber in feet.

No. 1 represents the percentage of acid at 3 feet from bottom of chamber
No. 2 „ „ 15

35

59

22

Nitric Acid. — Table III.

15 ft. in height.
(Exit.)

3 ft. in height.
(Exit.)

Length of Chamber in feet.

No. 1 represents tlie percentage of acid at 3 feet from bottom of chamber.
No. 2 5, 15 j,

Ordinary Meeting, December 10th, 1872.

J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., &c., President, in

the Chair.

“ Observations of the Meteoric Shower of November
27th, 1872.”

1. — By E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S.

On the 27th November last, at Douglas, in the Isle of
Man, my attention was called by an inmate of my house to
numerous meteors in the sky. On going out of doors
about 7.45 p.m., they were seen radiating from a point
in Andromeda and falling in all directions towards the
horizon, some not proceeding far down before they dis-
appeared, whilst others travelled to a much greater
distance. The sky was perfectly clear for three hours,
during which time I observed them, and they ap-
peared in all directions to be equally numerous except
during the last hour. Some were as large as a star of
the first magnitude and others were only just perceptible.
Nearly all of them appeared to leave tails in their course,
which were generally straight, but some of them were
curled. In colour most of them were white or yellowish
white, but some of the larger ones were of a reddish tinge.
At about 7.45 p.m. six were noticed at one time. At 8.45,
on looking at about a quarter of the space of the heavens,
towards the west, I counted during a minute 21, 11, 24,
and 12 respectively. This would give an average of 17 per
minute; assuming that the other three portions of the
heavens afforded as many, and to me the meteors appeared
to be about equally dispersed, so there would be probably
about 68 per minute during the two first hours I observed

Phoceehings — Lit. & Phil. Soc. — Vol, XII.— No. 4.— Session 1872-3.

24

them. At eleven o’clock they were still falling, but not so
numerously. The early part of the evening was rainy, but
it cleared up shortly before seven, and I am informed that
meteors were then observed.

On the 3rd December inst., at 8.45 p.m., there was visible
an aurora in the form of a beautiful arch of a yellowish
white colour, extending from east to west and reaching up
to the lower parts of Ursa Major. A slight trace of
streamers was seen on the top of the arch.

2.— By Joseph Baxendell, F.RA.S.

The early part of the evening of the 27th of November
was cloudy, and the meteors were not seen till about 10
minutes to 7, when a partial clearing occurred. It soon
became evident that they belonged to a distinct meteoric
stream, and my attention was therefore chiefly directed to
the determination of the position of the radiant point. The
observations were however frequently interrupted by clouds,
and at no time was the sky entirely cloudless. The inter-
vals of observation and the number of meteors whose tracks
were observed with sufficient precision to be of use in the
determination of the position of the point of divergence
were as follows : —

Number of

k. m. h. in. Meteors.

6 53 to 7 9 G. M. Time 65

7 21 7 51 54

8 1 8 15 80

8 31 8 34 9

8 49 9 2 31

11 21 11 27 7

11 33 11 54 15

12 7 12 19 10

The total number was 271, and of these 266 had the
points of intersection of their paths in an elliptical area of
12 degrees long and 8 or 9 degrees broad, the centre of
which was in right ascension 22J degrees, and north

declination 44 J degrees, near the small star Chi Andro-
medse. Three of the remaining five had their radiant point
in the constellation Cassiopeia,

The average brightness of the meteors was equal to that
of a star between the 3rd and 4th magnitudes ; many, how-
ever, were equal to stars of the 1st magnitude, and several
of the finest exceeded the planets Jupiter and Venus when
in their positions of maximum brilliancy. The colour for
the most part was white ; in many, however, it was yellow
or orange, and in several of the brightest it was at first
white and then a deep red immediately before extinction.

Most of the brighter meteors left luminous trains, but
these seldom remained visible for more than a few seconds.

The apparent velocity of movement was decidedly less
than that of the 13th of November meteors.

The paths of many of the meteors were more or less
curved, and many of them formed curves of double cur-
vature.

It was observed that the radiant point appeared to move
to the eastward during the progress of the shower, so that
the mean position, from the observations made up to
8h. 34m., was about 3 degrees to the west of the position
derived from the observations made afterwards.

The mean position of the radiant point, as given above,
shows that the course of the stream coincides almost exactly
with the orbit of Biela’s comet.

3. — By Alfred Brothers, F.RA.S.

The sky at Wilmslow appears to have been less clouded
than at Cheetham Hill, and I may therefore have had a
better view of the display than Mr. Baxendell. From about
5.50 to 8.30 there was very little cloud, and during that
time the meteors were falling very nearly at the same rate.
There was no difficulty in determining the radiant point — -
7 Andromedse being about the centre.

26

Probably few meteor showers have ever been seen more
favourably for determining the radiant than this one. The
result of careful counting by myself and Mr. Wilde was that
from 1800 to 2000 per hour were visible to the naked eye.
The N.W. horizon was distinctly illuminated about 8 o’clock
by auroral light, and the whole sky was more or less lumi-
nous during the whole time.

Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.RS., brought before the notice
of the Society some remarkable forms of stalagmites which
he had obtained from some caves near Tenby. In one cave
the calcareous deposit had taken the form of small mush-
rooms standing close together with a stem not much thicker
than a hair, that covered every part of the surface, and
in some places had their tops of a dull red colour, and in
others of a snow white. In a second every pool was lined
with most beautiful crystals of dog-tooth spar, while from
the roof there descended slender stalactitic pillars, some
snow white and others of a deep red, and most of the
thickness of a straw, They stood almost as closely to-
gether as the stems of wheat in a wheat field. In a few
pools where the drip caused constant agitation of the water*
pea-like rounded concretions of carbonate of lime were
formed, some of which, polished by friction, were almost as
lustrous as pearls, and might fairly be termed ‘ cave-pearls.’

“ On the date of the Conquest of South Lancashire by the
English,” by W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.B.S.

The most important event in the history of Lancashire,
the conquest by the English, has been either lightly touched
upon by the county historians such as Baines and Whittaker,
or so interwoven with the Arthurian legends as to be
almost unintelligible. The date, so far as I know, has been
altogether ignored.

What, however, the modern writers have passed by or

27

misunderstood, may be gathered from certain events re-
corded in the History of Nennius, Baeda's Life of St. Cuth-
bert, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is possible to fix
the date and the circumstances of the conquest of Southern
Lancashire with considerable accuracy, and to make out the
latest possible time at which any part of the county was
under Welsh, and not English rule, or in other words, was
within the boundary of Wales and not of England. To exa-
mine these points properly we must see what relation
existed between the English on the one hand and the Brit-
Welsh on the other.

In the year 449, the three ships which contained Hengist
and his warriors landed at Ebbsfleet in Thanet, and the first
English colony was founded among the descendants of the
Homan provincials, who were known to the strangers as
Brit- Welsh. From that time a steady immigration of

Angle, Jute, and Frisian set in towards our eastern coast,
as far north as the Firth of Forth, until in the first
half of the 6th century the whole of the eastern part
of our island was occupied by various tribes, whose
names for the most part still survive in the names of
our counties. The principal rivers also offered them a free
passage into the heart of the country, and the kingdom of
Mercia gradually expanded from the banks of the Trent
until it reached as far as the line of the Severn. The river
Humber afforded a base of operations for the Anglian free-
booters who founded the kingdom of Deira, or modern
Yorkshire, while the rock of Bamborough was the centre
from which Ida, who landed with 50 ships in the year 547?
conquered Bernicia, or the region extending from the river
Tees to Edinburgh. The tide of English colonization rolled
steadily westward until at the close of the 6th century the
Pennine chain, or the stretch of hills, heath, and forest ex-
tending southwards from Cumberland and Westmoreland,
through Yorkshire and Derbyshire, as far as the line of the

28

Trent, formed a barrier between the English and Brit-Welsh
peoples. The Brit-Welsh still held their ground as far to
the east as the district round Leeds, which constituted the
kingdom of Elmet, while the kingdom of Strathclyde ex-
tended from Chester as far north as the valley of the Clyde.*
The point which immediately concerns us is the time when
that portion of the latter kingdom which comprises southern
Lancashire fell under the sway of the English.

The two kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia had united to
form the powerful state of Northumbria at the beginning of
the 7th century, under the greatest of her warriors, iEthel-
frith. In the year 607 TEthelfrith advanced along the line
of the Trent through Staffordshire, avoiding by that route
the difficult country of Derbyshire and east Lancashire, and
struck at Chester, which was the principal seat of the Brit-
Welsh power in this district."f* There he fought the famous
battle by which the power of Strathclyde was broken, and
that is celebrated in song for the death of the monks of
Bangor who fought against him with their prayers. By this
decisive blow the English first set foot on the coast of the
Irish Channel, and Strathclyde and Elmet on the one hand
were cut asunder from Wales on the other. Chester was so
thoroughly destroyed that it remained desolate for two cen-
turies, until it was restored by iEthelred and ^Ethelflsed, the
Lady of the Mercians, and the plains of Lancashire lay open
to the invader. In all probability south Lancashire was
occupied by the English at this time, and the nature of the
occupation may be gathered from the treatment of the city
of Chester. A fire, to use the metaphor of Gildas, went
through the land, and the Brit-Welsh inhabitants were
either put to the sword or compelled to become the bonds-
men of the conquerors. It is impossible to believe that the

* See Freeman, Norman Conquest, vol. i., p. 35 — map of Britain in 597-
In this map Elmet is placed in Deira, although it did not pass away from the
Brit-Welsh till 616 according to Nennius and the Annales Cambrise.

t Bceda Fccles. Hist. Lib. II. c. ii. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a.d. 605-607.

29

Brit- W elsh of Strathclyde, after such a defeat as that at
Chester, could have maintained any position in the plains
of Lancashire. The hilly districts, however, of the middle
and northern portions of the county, would offer positions
from which a defence might be successfully maintained.
We may therefore infer that the boundary of the English
dominion in Lancashire, after the fall of Chester, was marked
by the line of hills extending from Bury and sweeping
round to join those in the neighbourhood of Oldham and the
axis of the Pennine chain.

This western advance of the Northumbrians was com-
pleted by the conquest of Elmet in 616,* by Eadwine, the
successor of iEthelfrith, and in all probability then, or about
that time, not merely the valley of the Aire, but also Bibbles-
dale and the hills of Derbyshire and the district extending
between Elmet and Chester became subject to Northumbria.

The remaining fragment of Strathclyde in the north
still unconquered, embracing Cumberland and Westmore-
land, was finally subdued by Ecfrith, about the years
670 — 685, -f* and with its fall the whole of this county
was absorbed into the Northumbrian kingdom. A passage
in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 923 proves
that the south Lancashire was called Northumbria. “In
this year after harvest King Eadward went with his forces
to Thelwal and commanded the ‘burli’ to be built and
occupied and manned, and commanded another force also of
Mercians, the while he sate there to take possession of Man-
chester (Mameceaster) in N orth-Humbria, and repair and
man it/’ This passage is of particular interest, because it
presents us with the first notice of Manchester that is to be
found in any English record. At that time it was clearly
not so important as the town of Thelwal near Warrington.

From these notices it may fairly be concluded that south

* Nennius, c. 66, circa 616, 633 a.d. Annales Cambrise, a.d. 616.

f Bseda, Yita St. Cuthbert, c. 37. For this notice I have to thank the Key.
J. E, Gtreen.

.so

Lancashire was occupied by the Northumbrians immediately
after the battle of Chester, and that the Northumbrian
dominion embraced mid-Lancashire shortly after the fall of
Elmet, and finally that the Welsh occupying the more north-
ern portions were subdued about the years 670-685 A.D-
And it must be remarked that the cause of the Celtic popu-
lation of Strathclyde remaining to this day in the portions
latest conquered, in Cumberland and the south-west of Scot-
land, while it has disappeared from south Lancashire, is due
to the change in the religion of the conquerors on the
interval between the two conquests. When the battle
of Chester laid south Lancashire at the feet of iEthel-
frith, the English were worshippers of Thor and Odin.
When Carlisle was taken by Ecfritlf, they were Christians
warring against men of their own faith. In the one case
the war was one of extermination, in the other merely of
conquest.

“On some Human Bones found at Buttington, Mont-
gomeryshire,” by W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S.

Among some papers which have lately demanded my
attention, there is one relating to the discovery of human
bones in Buttington Church-yard, a hamlet near Welshpool,
Montgomeryshire, which is worthy of being placed on
record, and being brought into relation with history. In
the year 1838 the late Rev. R. Dawkins, the incumbent of
the parish, made a most remarkable discovery of human
remains while digging the foundations for a new schoolroom
at the south-west corner of the church-yard, and in making
a path leading from it to the church door. He discovered
three pits, one containing two hundred skulls, and two
others containing exactly one hundred each; the sides of the
pits being lined with the long bones of the arms and the
legs. Two other pits contained the smaller bones, such as
the vertebrae and those of the extremities. All the teeth
were wonderfully perfect, and the condition of the skulls

OT

oJL

showed that the men to whom they belonged had perished
in the full vigour of manhood. Some of the skulls had
been fractured, and the men to whom they belonged had
evidently come to a violent death. A jaw bone of a horse
and some teeth were found in one of the pits, and among
the circumstances noted at the time was the fact that the
root of an ash tree, growing in the church-yard, had found
its way through the nutrient foramen of a thigh-bone, into
the cavity which contained the marrow, and had grown until
it penetrated the further end of the bone, and finally burst
the shaft : the bone and root were compacted together into
one solid mass. These remains were unfortunately collected
together and reinterred on the north side of the church-
yard, without being examined by any one interested in
craniology, the few fragments which escaped reinterment
being merely the teeth, which were sold at sixpence and a
shilling apiece by the workmen, as a remedy against tooth-
ache; for the possession of a dead man’s tooth was supposed,
by the people in the neighbourhood at that time, to prevent
that malady.

The interest in this discovery died away, and, so far as I
know, there was no attempt made to bring it into relation
with history, although it offers a striking proof of the
accuracy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. In the year 894
we read that the Danes, probably under the command of
Hsesten, left Beamfleet, or Benfleet, in Essex, and, after
plundering Mercia or central England, collected their forces
at Shoebury in Essex, and gathered together an army both
from the East Anglians and the Northumbrians. “They
then went up along the Thames till they reached the Severn ;
then up along the Severn. Then Ethered the ealdorman, and
iEthelnoth the ealdorman, and the Kings-thanes who were
then at home in the fortified places, gathered forces from
every town east of the Parret, and as well west as east of
Selwood, and also north of the Thames and west of the

32

Severn, and also some part of the North -Welsh people.
When they had all drawn together then they came up with
the army at Buttington on the bank of the Severn, and
there beset them about, on either side, in a fastness. When
they had now sat there many weeks on both sides of
the river, and the King was in the west in Devon, against
the fleet, then were the enemy distressed for want of food,
and having eaten a great part of their horses, the others
being starved with hunger, then went they out against the
men who were encamped on the east bank of the river
and fought against them, and the Christians had the
victory. And Ordheli a kings-thane was there slain ; and
of the Danish men there was very great slaughter made,
and that part which got away thence was saved by flight
When they had come into Essex to their fortress and the
ships, then the survivors again gathered a great army from
among the East-Angles and the North -Humbrians before
winter, and committed their wives and their wealth and
their ships to the East- Angles, and went at one stretch, day
and night, until they arrived at a western city in Wirral,
which is called Legaceaster (Chester).

It is evident from this passage that a most desperate
battle was fought at Buttington, between the Danes and
the combined English and Welsh forces. And when we
consider the position of the church-yard, which is slightly
above the level of the fields on the east side, and which
stands out boldly above the stretch of alluvium on the
north side, there can be but little doubt that the battle
was fought on the very spot where the bones were dis-
covered. In the Chronicle we read that the Danes were
compelled to eat their horses. The jaw of a horse was
discovered in the excavations, together with many horse’s
teeth. It is therefore almost certain that these human re-
mains belong to the men who fell in this battle. We cannot
tell who arranged the bones in the way in which they were

38

found; nor do we know whether they belonged to Danes,
English, or Welsh, but it is hardly probable that the
victors would knowingly give Christian burial to their
heathen adversaries. The commanding position offered by
the camp caused it to be chosen by the monks of the neigh-
bouring Abbey of Strata Marcella for the site of the present
church, and it is very probable that they discovered the
relics of the battle, and arranged them in the pits in the
church-yard, after the same fashion as is seen in many
crypts and catacombs.

There is another point of interest in this passage of the
Chronicle. Buttington is said to be on the east bank of the
Severn. Since that time the river course has passed to
the westward, at a distance of about a quarter of a mile.
Its ancient course however is still marked by a small brook
running close under the churchyard, and which finds its
way into the Severn by “the main ditch.” In connexion
with this I may remark that Col. Lane Fox and myself,
when examining Offa’s dyke in the year 1869, lost all trace
of it in passing from Forden northwards, when we arrived
at this stream. The Severn, flowing at that time close to
Buttington Church, would form a natural barrier between
the Mercians and the Welsh, and render the erection of a
dyke unnecessary. There is no material fact added to this
account in the Chronicle of Ethel werd, or in that of
Florence of Worcester, or Henry of Huntingdon.

It is quite possible to trace at the present time the boun-
daries of the Danish camp. It was defended on the north-
west by the river Severn; on the east by a rampart running
parallel, or nearly so, with the road to Forden; on the north-
east by the church-yard wall; and on the south by the
depression which runs down from the present line of the
Forden road behind the Yicarage garden down to what was
then the old course of the Severn. It may also ha^
included the site of the out-buildings, opposite to the Green
Dragon Inn.

34

“ On the Electrical Properties of Clouds and the Pheno-
mena of Thunder Storms,” by Professor Osborne Reynolds,
M.A.

The object of this paper is to point out the three folio wing-
propositions respecting the behaviour of clouds under con-
ditions of electrical induction, and to suggest an explanation
of thunder storms based on these propositions and on the
assumption that the sun is in the condition of a body
charged with negative electricity : an assumption which I
have already made in order to explain the Solar Corona,
Comets’ Tails, and Terrestrial Magnetism.

1. A cloud floating in d,ry air forms an insulated electri-
cal conductor.

2. When such a cloud is first formed it will not be charged
with electricity but will be ready to receive a charge from
any excited body to which it is near enough.

3. When a cloud charged with electricity is diminished
by evaporation, the tension of its charge will increase until
it finds relief.

I do not imagine that the truth of these propositions will
be questioned, but rather, that they will be treated as self
evident. However, as a matter of interest I have made
some experiments to prove their truth, in which I have
been more or less successful.

Experiment 1 was to shew that a cloud in dry air acts the
part of an insulated conductor. The steam from a vessel of
hot water was allowed to rise past a conductor, the apparatus
being in front of a large fire, so that the air was very dry.
When the conductor was charged the column of vapour was
deflected from the vertical to the conductor both for a posi-
tive and negative charge.

Experiment 2 was made with the same object as Experi-
ment 1. A gold leaf electrometer was charged so that the
leaves stood open and then a cloud made to pass by the insu-
lated leaves. As the cloud passed they were both attracted.

35

This experiment was attended with considerable difficulty,
as the moisture from the steam seemed to get on to the glass
shade over the gold leaves and so form a charged conductor
between the leaves and cloud. The cloud was first formed
by a jet of steam from a pipe, then by the vapour from a vessel
of boiling water, and lastly by a smoke ring or rather a steam
ring. By this latter method an insulated cloud was formed*
which, as it passed was attracted by the charged leaf.

Of the two latter propositions I have not been able to
obtain any experimental proof. I made an attempt, but
failed, through the bursting of the vessel in which the cloud
was to be formed. I hope, however, shortly to be able to
renew the attempt, and in the meantime I will take it for
granted that these propositions are true. Faraday main-
tained that evaporation was not attended by electrical
separation unless the vapour was driven against some solid
when the friction of the particles of water gave rise to elec-
tricity. So that unless there were some free electricity in
the steam or vapour before it was condensed none could be
produced by the condensation, and hence the cloud when
formed would be uncharged.

In the same way with regard to evaporation, unless, as is
very improbable, the steam into which the water is turned
retains the electricity which was previously in the condensed
vapour ; the electricity from that part of the cloud which
evaporates must be left to increase the tension of the re-
mainder. So that, as a charged cloud is diminished by
evaporation the tension of the charge will increase, although
the charge remains the same.

I will now point out what I think to be the bearing which
these propositions have on the explanation of thunder storms.
In doing this, I am met with a great difficulty, namely ?
ignorance of what actually goes on in a thunder storm. We
seem to have no knowledge of any laws relating to these
every-day phenomena ; in fact we are where Franklin left

36

us — we know that lightning is electricity and that is all.

It is not, I think, decided whether the storm is incidental
on the electrical disturbance or vice versa, i.e., whether the
electricity causes the clouds and storm or is a mere attendant
on them. Nor can I ascertain that there is any certain infor-
mation as to whether, when the discharge is between the
earth and the clouds, the clouds are positive and the earth
negative, or vice versa. Such information as I can get
appears to point out the following law : that in the case of
a fresh -formed storm, the cloud is negative and the earth
positive ; whereas, in other cases, the cloud is positive and
the earth negative.

Again, thunder storms move without wind or indepen-
dently of wind ; but I am not aware whether any law con-
necting this motion with the time of day, &c., has ever been
observed, though it seems natural that however complicated
by wind and other circumstance, some such law must exist.
In this state of ignorance of what the phenomena of thunder
really are it is no good attempting to explain them. What
I shall do, therefore, is to shew how the inductive action
of the Sun would necessarily cause certain clouds to be
thunder clouds in a manner closely resembling, and for all
we know identical with, actual thunder storms.

In doing this I assume that the thunder is only an
attendant on the storm and not the cause of it •
and that many of the phenomena such as forked and
sheet lightning are the result of different states of
dampness of the air and different densities in the
clouds, and really indicate nothing as to the cause of
electricity. In the same way, the periodicity of the storms
is referred to the periodical recurrence of certain states of
dryness in the atmosphere. Thus the fact that there is no
thunder in winter is assumed to be owing to the dampness
of the air which allows the electricity to pass from and to
the clouds quietly. What I wish to do is to explain the

cause of a cloud being at certain times in a different state of
electric excitation to the earth and other clouds, and of this
difference being sometimes on the positive side and some-
times on the negative, that is to say, why a cloud should
sometimes appear to us on the earth to be positively charged,
sometimes negatively, and at others not to be charged
at all.

The assumed condition of the sun and earth may be repre-
sented by two conductors S and E acting on one another by
induction, the sun being negative and the earth positiv e. The
distance between these bodies is so great that the induc-
tive action would not be confined to those parts which are
opposed, but would in a greater or less degree extend all
over their surfaces, though it would still be greater on that
side of E which is opposite to S than on the other side.

The conductor E must be surrounded by an imperfectly
insulating medium to represent damp air. The formation
of a cloud may then be represented by the introduction of
a conductor C near to the surface of E. Such a conductor
at first having no charge would attract the positive elec-
tricity in E and appear by reference to E to be negatively
charged. If it was near enough to E, a spark would at
once pass, which would represent a flash of forked lightning.
If it were not near enough for this it would obtain a charge
through the imperfect insulation of the medium. Such a
charge might pass quietly or by the electric brush. When
the cloud had obtained a charge it would not exert any
influence on the earth, unless it altered its position. But if
the heat of the sun caused part of the cloud to evaporate the
remainder would be surcharged and appear positive. Or if
C approached E then G would be overcharged, and a part of
its electricity would return, and on its return it might cause
positive lightning. Thus, suppose that after a cloud had

38

obtained its charge part of it came down suddenly in the
form of rain. As the rain came lower its electric tension
would increase until it got near enough the ground to
relieve itself with a flash of lightning, almost immediately
after which the first rain would reach the ground.
It has often been noticed that something like this often
takes place; it often begins to pour immediately after a
flash of lightning, so much so that it seems that the elec-
tricity had been holding the rain up and it was only after
the discharge that it could fall. This, however, cannot be
the case, for the rain often follows so quickly after the flash
that there would not have been time for it to fall from the
cloud unless it had started before the discharge took place.
If on the other hand C receded from E, it would again
be in a position to accept more electricity, or would again
become negative. In this way, a cloud in forming, or when
first formed, would appear negatively charged ; soon after it
would become neutral, and then if it moved to or from the
earth it would appear positively or negatively charged.

If the air was very dry, as it is in the summer, any
exchange of electricity between the earth and the cloud
would cause forked lightning, in the winter it would
take place quietly, by the conduction of the moist atmo-
sphere.

In this way then there would sometimes be positive,
sometimes negative lightning; sometimes the discharge
would be a forked flash or spark, sometimes a brush or sheet
lightning. And if clouds are formed in several layers, as
would be represented by another conductor D outside C,
then in addition to the phenomena already mentioned,
similar phenomena would take place between C and D ; and
if in addition to this we were to assume that there are

39

other clouds in the neighbourhood, the phenomena might be
complicated to any extent.

And if, further, the motion of the sun is taken into
account ; as the conductor S moves round E the charges in D
and E would vary, accordingly as they were more or less
between S and E and directly under the induction of S j
i.e., the charge in a cloud would appear to change owing to
the motion of the sun ; thus a cloud that appeared neutral
at midday would, if it did not receive or give off any
electricity, become charged positively in the evening.

With regard to the independent motion of the clouds,
there are several causes which would effect it. For instance,
a cloud whether it appeared on the earth to be negatively
or positively charged would always tend to follow the sun,
though it is possible this tendency might be very slight.
Again, one cloud would attract or repel another, according
as they were charged with the opposite or the same electri-
cities ; And in the same way a cloud would be attracted or
repelled by a hill, according to the nature of their respective
charges.

Such, then, would be some of the more apparent pheno-
mena under the assumed conditions. So far as I can see they
agree well with the general appearance of what actually
takes place, but as I have previously said, the laws relating
to thunder storms are not sufficiently known to warrant
me in doing more than suggesting this as a probable
explanation.

In these remarks I have said nothing whatever about
what is called atmospheric electricity, or the apparent
increase of positive tension as we proceed away from the
surface of the earth. I do not think that this has much to
do with thunder storms. If the law is established it seems

40

to me that it will require some explanation, besides merely
that of the solar induction acting through the earth’s atmo-
sphere on to the surface of the earth. It would rather
imply that the sun acts on some electricity in the higher
regions of the earth’s atmosphere, and that electricity in
^fehese regions acts again on the surface of the earth ; but,
however this may be, the effect of the assumptions
described in this paper would be much the same.

41

Ordinary Meeting, December 24th, 1872.

J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D., F.RS., &c., President, in the

Chair.

The President drew attention to the increasing number
of cases of hydrophobia. There was every reason for
believing that this dreadful disorder was communicated
from one animal to another by a bite, and seldom if ever
was spontaneously developed. Inasmuch therefore as the
effects of a bite nearly always occurred within four months,
it would only be necessary to isolate all dogs for that period
in order to stamp out the disease. That was the opinion of
Dr. Bardsley, whose elaborate paper will be found in the
4th volume of the Memoirs of the Society, and probably
gave rise to the practice of confining dogs at certain periods
of the year, which has unfortunately been rendered to a
great extent nugatory in consequence of having been only
partially adopted.

Ordinary Meeting, January 7th, 1873.

J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D., F.RS., &c., President, in the

Chair.

Mr. J ulius Allmann was elected an Ordinary Member of
the Society.

The President referred to the great loss which the
Society had experienced by the death of one of its most
Proceedings— Lit. &Phil. Society. — Yol. XII.— No. 5. — Session 1872-3

42

distinguished Honorary Members. Dr. Rank in e was one
of the earliest investigators of the dynamical theory of heat,
and contributed eminently in the work of bringing that
theory to its present advanced condition. Besides this, he
was perhaps more successful than any other man in apply-
ing his own discoveries, and those of his fellow labourers in
abstract science, to practical use. His treatises on the
Steam Engine and other Prime Movers, Applied Mechanics,
Machinery, &c., form what may justly be termed an Encyclo-
paedia of Civil Engineering. Called away in the prime of
life, his loss is one of the most severe that could have
befallen science.

Mr. William H. Johnson, B.Sc., called attention to the
action of sulphuric and hydrochloric acids on iron and steel.

If after immersion for say ten minutes in either of these
acids a piece of iron or steel be tested, its tensile strength
and resistance to torsion will be found to have diminished.
Exposure to the air for several days or gentle heat will
however completely restore its original strength. On break-
ing a piece of iron wire after immersion in sulphuric acid
and gently moistening the fracture with the tip of the
tongue, bubbles of gas arise causing the wetted portion to
appear to boil. The most careful washing and coating with
lime after being dipped in the acid, and even its subsequent
drawing, in which process it is reduced in diameter by pass-
age through a die, does not interfere Avith either of these
phenomena; which only gradually disappear by exposure
to the air, or more quickly by gentle heat.

Prolonged immersion in acid has a tendency to produce
a crystalline structure in even the best wrought iron.

Ordinary Meeting, January 21st, 1873.

E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., Vice-Presi-
dent, in the Chair.

The Pkesident explained a simple ap-
paratus by means of which a very high
decree of rarefaction of air could be

O

produced with much facility, and which
might in some circumstances be found
preferable to the common air-pump or
even the Sprengel. It consists of a glass
funnel a surmounting a globe 6, from
the lower part of which a tube c descends
to a jar of mercury d. The tube e, in
connexion with the receiver to be ex-
hausted, is furnished with a vulcanised
indiarubber plug which fits into the neck
of the funnel. In using the apparatus
the stopcock / is shut and the funnel
filled with mercury. Then by lifting
the tube e with its plug, the mercury
fills the globe b and the pipe c. The
tube e is then replaced, and the stopcock
being opened, the mercury descends in c
emptying the globe. By returning the
mercury into the funnel by means of a
pump, or more simply, by lifting the jar
d, the process is repeated until the requi-
site degree of rarefaction is produced.

Scale

(Z

44

E. W. Binney, V.P., F.R.S., stated that during the last
session he had exhibited specimens of Zygopteris and Stau-
ropteris found in the lower coal measures of Lancashire, short
notices of which appeared in the Proceedings of the 9th Janu-
ary and the 20th February, 1872. He now brought some
drawings of other specimens of petioles from the same locali-
ties, which appeared to belong to the genus Anachoropteris.
One of them given to him by his friend Mr. Whitaker of
Watersheddings, Oldham, was closely allied to Anachoropte-
ris Decaisnii of Renault. It was of an oval form, measuring
half an inch across its major and four tenths of an inch
across its minor axis.

Another singular fossil was from his own cabinet, and
procured from the Lower Brooksbottom seam of coal. It
was of a circular form and about one tenth of an inch in
diameter. Its central axis was bounded by three crescent-
shaped lines which joined together, and at their points of
junction proceeded in three rays, which at their extremities
diverged in numerous curved lines towards the circum-
ference. These rays bore some resemblance to the five rays
in an Anachoropteris figured by Renault in plate 10,
fig. 2 of tome xii. of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles,
but in the place of being embedded in cellular tissue as
in the French specimen, they appeared to traverse a mass
of reticulated tissue arranged in a series of curved lines so as
to appear like three quadrants arranged within a circle
with the central axis in the form of a spherical triangle in
the midst of them. It is nearly impossible to describe the
fossil without the aid of a figure. He considered that it
would have to be placed in a new genus, and he had
already found five or six different species.

45

Ordinary Meeting, February 4th, 1873.

J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., &c., President, in the

Chair.

E. W. Binxey, Y.P., F.R.S., said that the Societ}7- had lost
one of its most illustrious Honorary Members by the death
of the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, F.R.S., Woodwardian Professor
of Geology in the University of Cambridge, a great and
good man, whose loss it will be hard to replace. All who
had the pleasure of his acquaintance have to deplore the
removal of one of the kindest and heartiest of friends, as well
as one of the most eminent geologists of this century. His
published papers in the Royal Society’s Catalogue, sole and
joint, amount to 58. The part of his labours which I have
been best acquainted with are the memoirs on the Magne-
sium Limestone and Lower Portions of the New Red Sand-
stone now known as Permian strata in the North of England.
For patient research and sound conclusions they are models
for all future workers in the same field. Never was a more
generous or willing friend to the humble worker in science.
Many years since, on the death of that excellent naturalist
the late Samuel Gibson, of Hebden Bridge, blacksmith, the
deceased Professor with other friends, lent a ready hand in
raising a fund for the widow and family. During a long
illness poor Gibson had been compelled to part with his
collection of British insects in thirty-four cases to a neigh-
bour for as many shillings. In order to make as much
money as possible by a sale of what was left of his things,
the purchaser of the insects was asked to return them on
Phockeding-s — Lit. & Phil. Soc. — Vol, XII. — Xo. 6.— Session 1872-3.

46

repayment of what he had paid. After a lengthened cor-
respondence the matter was referred to Professor Sedgwick,
who settled it by writing the following letter, which by its
tact and conciliatory language proved quite effectual :

Norwich, June 25, 1849.

My Dear Sir,

I am extremely sorry that you have appealed to me about
the disposal of poor Mr. Gibson’s insects, especially as T am at this
moment confined to my bed by illness. It pains me to write
while propped up in bed, as I feel so much lassitude that I cannot
long attend to anything. Surely no blame, in the first instance,

attaches to the Rev. Mr. . You are bound to accept his

statement without any reserve, viz., " That he was not desirous of
obtaining the insects, but having been applied to, and thinking that
purchasing them might be a little benefit to Gibson’s family, he did
so, giving the amount that was required.” I am truly sorry that

you have not written to the Rev. Mr. with a little more caution,

for he has, not unnaturally, taken offence at an expression in your
letter of June 4th. The case is a very plain one, he and you are
both anxious for the benefit of poor Gibson’s family. He appears
not to have had any idea of the value of the collection, and if he
resolve to keep it he would not surely object to the valuation of
some good entomologist. Between the amount of such a valuation
and the sums he has already advanced he would not, I should
think hesitate to pay the difference to Mr. Gibson’s family. If
this plan be not adopted I think the value of the collection should
be ascertained in the way you propose, by public auction at Man-
chester, or by any method that promises to raise the largest
sum for the widow and children. I must, in conclusion, say that
I do not by any means approve of the plan of making up to the
family for the loss of the insects by occasional acts of pecuniary
help. They, appear to have parted with the collection under the
pressure of dire necessity, and this should not be turned against
them. I write with pain and labour, and fear I hardly make my-
self understood.

Very truly yours,

A. SEDGWICK.

E. W. Binney, Manchester.

47

The insects, when sold by the late Mr. Capes, at his
auction rooms in Manchester, realized the sum of £44 10s.,
and are now in the Peel Park Museum, Salford.
Altogether nearly £150 was obtained for the widow. The
last letter I received from the Professor was in the past
summer, when he presented to the Society photographic por-
traits of himself and his old friend the late Mr. Dawson, the
mathematician of Sedbergh, which are placed in our meeting
room. In the early days of the British Association he was
probably the most eloquent and humorous speaker amongst
its members, and few who had the pleasure of listening to
his reply to Dean Cockburn in the Geological Section at
York will ever forget it.

Professor Williamson, F.R.S., stated that the second
fossil plant described by Mr. Binney at the last meeting of
the Society, on January 21st, and of which a notice appeared
in the Society’s Proceedings, does not belong to some new
genus, as Mr. Binney supposed, but is one that he has
already described on two or three occasions as being the
stem or branch of the well-known genus Asterophyllites,
In his description of the Volkmannia Binneyi, published in
the Society’s Transactions in 1871, respecting which Pro-
fessor Williamson showed that it possessed a vascular axis
exhibiting a triquetrous transverse section, the author gave
his reasons for believing that the strobilus was the fruit
of Asterophyllites. In a letter addressed to Dr. Sharpey
on Nov. 16, 1871, and published in No. 131 of that Society’s
Proceedings, Professor Williamson gave a brief description
of a stem having a similar triangular vascular axis, with
lenticularly thickened nodes, and which he again referred
to the same verticellate leaved genus. In a second letter to
Dr. Sharpey, dated May 3, 1872, the author confirmed the
above conclusions by stating that he had “ got an additional

48

number of exquisite examples showing not only the nodes
but verticils of the linear leaves so characteristic of the
plant. These specimens place the correctness of my pre-
vious inference beyond all possibility of doubt, and finally
settle the point that asteropliyllites is not the branch and
foliage of a calamite, but an altogether distinct type of
vegetation having an organisation peculiarly its own.”
The author said that he had obtained the plant in almost
every stage of its growth, from the youngest twig to the
more matured stem, and that the genus would be the sub-
ject of his next, or fifth, of the series of memoirs now in
course of publication by the Royal Society.

“ On a large Meteor seen on February 3, 1873, at 10 p.m.,”
by Professor Osborne Reynolds, M.A.

On the 3rd of February (that is yesterday), at lOh. 7m.
(as afterwards appeared) by my watch (which was 7 minutes
fast), I was walking from Manchester along the east side of
the Oxford Road (which there runs 30° to the east of south),
I had just reached the corner of Grafton-street, when I saw
a most brilliant meteor. I first became aware of it from the
brightness of the wall on my left, i.e., on the north-east,
which caused me to turn my head in that, the wrong, direc-
tion; the first effect was that of a flash of lightning, but it
continued and increased until it was equal to daylight. On
lifting my head I saw directly in front of me, what had
previously been hidden by the brim of my hat, a bright
object, apparently fixed in the sky, as though it were coming
directly towards me ; immediately afterwards it turned to
the west, and passed just under the moon (which it com-
pletely out-shone). I was very much startled when I first
caught sight of it, owing doubtless to the rapidity with
which it was increasing in size, and the directness with which
it seemed to be coming. The next instant I saw that it

49

was only an extraordinary meteor. It passed the moon,
falling at an angle of I should say 20°, and then ceased
suddenly, having traversed a path of about 90°, from
the south to the east. The colour of the light was
that of a blue-light, or rather burning magnesium. Th©
sky was cloudy, but there was no appearance of redness
about either the head or the train. I endeavoured to fix its
course by the stars, but it was too cloudy, although I could
see here and there a star. The conclusions I came to, there
and then, were that its course must have been nearly parallel
with the road, which by the map runs, at that point, 30° to
the west of north ; that when I first saw it it was about
40° above the horizon and due south ; and that it passed
about 20° to the north of the moon. (This would make its
line of approach from Pegasus.) While I was thinking of
its course I heard a report, not very loud, but which I con-
nected with it. I judged it was about 3(T after the display.
I then looked at my watch, it was lOh. 7m. I then walked
along, talking to a fellow-traveller who had not quite
recovered his alarm. Presently we heard a loud report,
like a short peal of thunder or the firing of a large cannon ;
I immediately looked at my watch, it was then lOh. 10m., so
that this second report was from three to four minutes after
the display. I have no doubt that this was the report of
the meteor, for compared with the other it was like the
firing of a cannon to a musket. The time of the second
report would make the distance 30 or 40 miles, so that it
would have passed over Chester and burst over Liverpool.
In this case it must have been a tremendous affair, for the
sky was cloudy, and I do not think I exaggerate when I
say that at one instant it was as light as day ; the train was
very long and the speed great. It ceased suddenly, as when
a ball from a Roman candle falls into water ; there were no
fragments, as from an explosion.

50

“Note on Meta-Vanadic Acid,” by Dr. B. W. Gerland.
Communicated by Professor Boscoe, F.B.S.

A solution of copper vanadiate in aqueous sulphurous acid,
after part of the latter is removed by boiling, deposits bril-
liant yellow crystals, the description and analysis of which I
gave in the Journ. of Pract, Chem., 1871, page 97. These
crystals are quite uniform in appearance and contain cupric
oxide, vanadic acid, and sulphurous acid. They rapidly
change under the influence of air, their beautiful metallic
lustre soon disappears, and the colour becomes a dark, green.
Although formed in a solution of sulphurous acid, they
nevertheless decompose when treated, after separation from
their mother liquor, with fresh sulphurous acid, so that two
kinds of crystals, brown and orange yellow, now appear
mixed together. An excess of sulphurous acid dissolves the
the former and leaves the latter intact. After filtration,
washing, and drying, they form microscopic scales of beauti-
ful lustre and a deep yellow orange colour ; they are free from
copper and sulphur, and perfectly unalterable in the air.
Heated to 100° C. and even to 130°, they lose no weight,
but at a low red heat water is given off, and the residuum
consists of vanadium pentoxide, which fuses and crystallizes
after cooling.

The composition of the substance, previously dried over
vitriol, is according to analysis the following :

Water (loss by heating) 8.73

Vanadium pentoxide 91.06

Impurities 0. 2 1

100.00

These numbers correspond to the formula of the meta-
vanadic acid VH03, which requires—

Water 8.97

Vanadic pentoxide 91.03

100.00

51

In some instances I obtained the same bronze or gold-
like substance by treating copper vanadiate suspended in
water with sulphurous acid gas, and in many others the
effect of the gas was formation of vanadic oxide in solution.
I intend to elucidate this point by further experiments.

The copper vanadiate was prepared by precipitation of
ammonium vanadiate with copper sulphate. The mother
liquor contained both copper and vanadic acid. After
evaporation the latter is found in the residue as meta-
vanadic acid, with the same metallic appearance as that
just described, and can be obtained by washing with water.
The crystals obstinately retain copper, sometimes as much
as 12 per cent, which is best removed by repeated treatment
with aqueous sulphurous acid. A sample of the substance
so prepared was analysed by Professor Roscoe with the

following results :

Weight of substance taken 0.4505 gram.

Loss on ignition 0f0411 „

Hence the per centage composition is found to be

Water 9.12

Venadium pentoxide 90.88

100.00

The samples of vanadium bronze obtained by these three
different methods had the same composition, the same
appearance, and the same chemical properties. It is essen-
tially distinguished from the amorphous brick-red hydrated
vanadic acid by its indifference to reagents. Sulphurous
acid scarcely acts on it, neither does ammonia, and even a
solution of sodium carbonate dissolves it only after very
long continued boiling. In the air it is perfectly perma-
nent. It is very probable that this meta-vanadic acid will
become a favorite bronze, valued even higher than gold.

52

I trust that at some future time I shall be able to render
a more satisfactory account of this interesting substance,
and particularly of its formation.

Macclesfield, January, 1878.

Dr. Willi A.M Roberts exhibited some preparations and
experiments bearing on the question of biogenesis. He
stated that in the last two and half years he had performed
over 300 experiments. His results supported the conclusion
that the fungi, monads, and bacteria which make their
appearance in boiled organic mixtures are not due to spon-
taneous evolution, but arise exclusively under the influence
of pre-existing germs or ferments introduced from without.
His method of experimenting consisted chiefly in exposing
organic solutions and mixtures to a boiling heat in glass
flasks whose necks had been previously tightly plugged
with cotton wool. Two modifications of the experiment
were adopted.

I. In the first modification a 4- ounce flask was employed,
and the heat applied directly by means of a gas flame.

II. In the second modification —after the introduction of
the materials to be operated on — - the elongated neck of the
flask was sealed hermetically by the blowpipe above the
plug of cotton wool ; the flask was then weighted with a
collar of lead and immersed in a large can of water ; the
can was then put on the fire and the water boiled for 20 or
30 minutes. During the process of boiling the flask was
maintained in an upright or semi-upright position, in order
to prevent any wetting of the cotton-wool plug by the con-
tents of the flask. When the can was cold the flask was
removed and its neck filed off above the cotton wrool, so
as to permit free ingress and egress of air.

Flasks thus prepared were maintained at a warmth vary-
ing from 50° to 90° Fahr. for long periods — many weeks
and months — some in the dark and some exposed to the
light, with the following results.

I. Simple filtered infusions of animal or vegetable tissues
— a very considerable variety were tried — boiled over the
flame for five or ten minutes, in flasks previously plugged
with cotton wool, remained permanently barren. This
result was absolutely invariable.

II. More complex mixtures — milk, neutralized or alkalized
infusions of vegetable and animal tissues, similar albuminous
and gelatinous solutions, mixtures containing fragments of
animal or vegetable substances or cheese — yielded variable
results. In none of them did fungoid growths make their
appearance — but monads and bacteria frequently appeared
in abundance.

This seemingly contradictory result was inferred to be
due to the ineffective application of the heat in the process
of direct boiling over a flame. It was found that many of
these more complex mixtures frothed excessively when
boiled — brisk ebullition could not therefore be maintained
— particles were spurted about on the sides of the flask, and,
in this way, apparently escaped effective exposure to the
heat. Even when the boiling was prolonged for 20 or SO
minutes the results were still uncertain — sometimes the
flasks remained barren — sometimes they became turbid
and swarmed with bacteria.

III. By the second modification of the experiment much
more constant results were obtained — the flasks remained
almost always permanently barren — and the few exceptions
were found to be due to some imperfection in the conduct of

54

the experiment. No exceptions occurred with milk, nor

with substances, however complex, which were in actual

solution, but when considerable pieces of vegetable or animal

substances were introduced into the flasks, bacteria and

monads with putrefactive changes occasionally made their

appearance in abundance. In these exceptional cases, when

the experiments were repeated with the pieces finely com-

•

minuted, or introduced in some other way more favourable
to the diffusion of the heat, the flasks remained permanently
barren.

Dr. Roberts called attention to the crucial significance of
experiments on this subject made in flasks whose necks are
plugged with cotton wool. A plug of cotton wool acts as
an absolutely impervious filter to the solid particles of the
atmosphere, while it permits a free passage to the gaseous
constituents.

When one of these experiments is effectively performed,
the fluid or mixture in the flask may be exposed to the full
influence of light, of warmth, and of air, and yet it remains
permanently barren. As slow evaporation takes place the
liquid passes through all grades of concentration, possibly
chemical changes of various kinds take place within it, and
still no organic growth makes its appearance for months
and even years ; but if the plug of cotton wool be with-
drawn for a few minutes, or a single drop of any natural
water, however pure and well filtered, be introduced, then
all is changed— in a few days the clear solution becomes
turbid from bacteria and monads, or a mass of mildew covers
its surface and soon half fills the flask.

In the face of these experiments it was impossible to
doubt that the biogenic power of the atmosphere resides in

** W
00

its dust, and not in . its gaseous ingredients ; but as to the
exact nature of that biogenic power — whether it be a speci-
fic germ or a ferment— no sufficient evidence has yet been
adduced. Dr. Roberts did not find that diminished pressure
of the atmosphere, obtained by sealing flasks hermetically
in ebullition, after the mode suggested by Dr. Bastian,
materially affected the results.

Dr. R, Angus Smith, F.R.S., said that he was glad to see
such uniformity of results. His own experiments, which
were very numerous on a similar point, were made differ-
ently, but were without exception proving the same. As
to the name of the substances in the air, he preferred germ :
it involved no theory. A germ may be considered that
which germinates. Dust is an equivocal expression, which
may cause a popular error. Polarity introduces a theory
which is so entirely without basis that in our present state
of knowledge we may call the inference it presupposes
decidedly false.

“P.S. To Dr. Joule’s description of a Mercurial Air-
pump.”

The exhauster described in the last number of the Pro-
ceedings has been further improved by dispensing with the
glass tube e, and its stop-cock /. This is effected by attach-
ing the base of the globe b to a strengthened indiarubber
pipe, connected at the other end to a glass vessel of rather
larger capacity than b. This vessel has only to be succes-
sively raised and lowered in order to exhaust the receiver.
The mercury in the vessel may be either under atmospheric

56

pressure or relieved therefrom. In the former case it must
be alternately raised and depressed from 30 inches below b
up to that level. In the latter it must be raised and
depressed from the level of b to 30 inches above it. Castor
oil is a useful medium to prevent the passage of air between
mercury and the glass vessels.

It is important to add a little sulphuric acid to the mer-
cury, in order to remove the film of water which adheres to
the inside of the globe b. On this account it would, perhaps,
be desirable to substitute a plug of glass for the indiarubber
one between a and b .

57

Ordinary Meeting, February 18th, 1873.

E. W. Binney, F.RS., F.G.S., Vice-President, in the Chair.

Dr, Joule, F.RS., gave some
further account of the improve-
ments he had made in his air
exhausting apparatus. As
stated in the last Proceedings,
he had substituted a caout-
chouc tube attached to the
neck of a glass vessel, for the
original perpendicular pipe
v u j '^op-cock. This is
seen in the "ng sketch c

and d. The fitions, viz.

when b is being led, and
when it is being emptied, are
shown by the full and the dot-
ted drawing. It is convenient
to introduce no air into d ex-
cept that required to act as a
cushion to avoid a shock when
filled in the lower position.
Sulphuric acid may be intro-
duced into the receiver to be
exhausted, but it is perhaps
more convenient to place it
over the mercury in a, whence
it may occasionally be drawn
into 6, to effect the drying of
the internal parts of the appa-
ratus. Dr. Joule has met with
some difficulty in using mer-
cury gauges to ascertain the
residual pressure, inasmuch as

Proceedings — Lit. & Phil. Society. — Yol. XII. — Xo. 7. — Session 1S72-3.

58

he finds that mercury thoroughly boiled in clean glass tubes
does not show a convex surface, but adheres strongly to the
glass. However he has confidence in giving the following
results in working with his apparatus, with acid of various
strength, obtained by successive dilutions of sulphuric acid,

. 1.845 by volume.

Sulphuric

Acid. Water.

Pressure in Inches
of Mercury.

3

+

0

Inappreciable.

3

+

1

Inappreciable.

3

+

2

0-01 at 70°

1

+

1

0-03 at 63°

1

+

2

0-15 at 63°

1

+

4

0-30 at 55°

0

+

1

0'37 a,t 47°

“ Notes on supposed Glacial Action in the Deposition of
Hematite Iron Ores in the Furness r .trict,” by William
Brockbank, F.G.S.

The hematite iron ore deposits in le Furness district
are of two very distinct varieties — (1) dose filling hollows

in the limestone, covered only by the 'st tertiary gravels
and clays, and (2) Those occurring i. the carboniferous
limestone in veins, and large irregular & ties, or “ pockets.”

The summit of the mining district o Dalton-in-Furness
is High Haume, which rises about 508 eet above the level
of the sea, and is of Silurian age ; Conif on limestone, grits
and flags ; upon whose flanks rests the arboniferous lime-
stone. The uplifting of this central c xe tilted the lime-
stones, so that they dip very quickly to wards the S.E., and
broke them up into a succession of reefs, the outcrops form-
ing a parallel series of ridges from W. to E., each marked
out on the surface by lines of iron ore workings.

The source of the hematite ore appears to have been, here
as elsewhere, at or about the junction of the Silurian slates
with the carboniferous limestone ; and it found its way into

59

the fissures and caverns with which the latter abounds, and
wherein it is now so largely worked. The surface of the
country is remarkable for the absence of brooks on the lime-
stone area, the only two, viz., Powka Beck and Dragley
Beck, running along the base of the clay slates. The brook-
lets elsewhere find their way through the fissures in the
limestone and into the curious tarns which dot the surface.

The regular veins (2) are thus pretty easily accounted for,
being similar to those of the Whitehaven district.*

The superficial deposits (1) are more especially the sub-
ject of the present communication, as they afford, in the
writer’s opinion, undoubted evidence of glacial action, and
of the mode in which the iron ore has been transported by
its agency.

John Bolton, the Ulverston geologist, published in his
“ Geological Fragments” several sections of bore holes and
open workings in this neighbourhood, from which the fol-
lowing has been compiled as illustrative of the district. It
is not taken from any single example, but adapted from
several instances, to show the general aspect of the whole.

ft. in.

Soil 2 0

Gravel and clay 4 0

Yellow clay, mixed with iron ore 4 0

Black mould 4 0

Iron ore (dark coloured) 2 0

Black mould, mixed with iron ore 6 0

Iron ore 8 0

Decomposed limestone 7 0

Black woody deposit 12 0

Decomposed limestone 6 0

Black mould and wood 2 0

Yellow clay, mixed with ore 6 0

Black mould, mixed with iron ore 10 0

Black mould 4 0

Black mould, mixed with iron ore and limestone 3 0

* See Proceedings, Dec. 10, 1867, pp. 59 — 61, and Dec. 1, 186S, pp. 51 — 56.

60

Mr. Bolton was unable to give any clue to the manner in
which such remarkable sections as the above had obtained.

The occurrence of the superficial deposits, as shown in
the foregoing section, is, I believe, to be explained by the
theory of glacial action, and is evidently a part of the great
change wrought upon the surface, by the agency of ice,
during the “glacial epoch”; coeval with the boulder drift.
The great ice sheet, which then covered all the north of
England, descended from the lake mountains, grinding
down the surface rocks, and depositing the clays and
gravels in its course. The evidence of this is most strik-
ingly displayed in the above section, each line of which
apparently marks out a period, and a pause, in its course.

The iron ore occurring in these deposits is of a dark
colour, and of much lighter specific gravity than that from
the veins of limestone ; and it has the appearance of having
been all ground to powder. After exposure to atmospheric
influence it soon falls again into that state. The clays are
of a bright yellow colour, and of exceedingly fine grain,
being evidently the “ flour of rocks,” ground down by the
glacier in its passage over the clay-slates. The unfossilized
wood is in a remarkable state of preservation, occurring in
large fragments, as if it had been rudely broken up and
crushed, probably also by the ice. It is principally birch,
and some of the trees have been found of 2ft. diameter. In
one of the pits there was also a layer of peat, giving evidence
of a long period of rest and stagnation.

The iron ore was thus, by glacial agency, transferred from
its original place of occurrence, from the outcrop of one reef
to another, and redeposited as drift; covered up by clays
and the debris of rocks, wherever there was a cavity to
receive it. The water resulting from the thaw of the ice
would carry the ore down with it into the crevices and
caverns of the limestone, where it is now found as soft or
“ puddling” ore. Aggassiz points out in his work on glaciers

61

that ice does not sink into all the hollows, but frequently
bridges over large cavities; and these hollows would be just
of such a class as to escape contact with the moving mass
above ; so that the successive deposits would be preserved
from time to time, as the ice passed away and returned.

The following diagram will illustrate the above descrip-
tion, showing the geological structure of the district and the
mode of occurrence of the hematite iron ores, and also of the
ice covering, by which I suppose the superficial deposits to
have been formed.

SECTION NEAR DALTON-IN-FURNESS.

a. Silurian (Coniston Grits and Flags).

b. Carboniferous (Limestone, with Hematite Iron Ore in veins and “pockets”).

c. Drift Deposits (Hematite Iron Ore, with Boulder Clay, Wood, and cUbris of older

rocks).

d. Supposed Glacier (by which the deposits (c) have been formed).

“The Results of the Settle Cave Exploration,” by W.
Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.R.S.

Since the results of the exploration of the Settle Caves
were brought before the British Association at Liverpool,
in 1870, considerable progress has been made in the further
investigation of the remarkable contents of the A ictoria

O

Cavern. Up to that time our researches had revealed,
perhaps, the most remarkable collection of enamelled
jewellery which had ever been discovered in one spot, along
with broken bones of animals and the implements of every-
day life, which afforded a pointed contrast to the culture
implied by the workmanship of the articles of luxury. The
Roman coins, and the style of workmanship of the imple-
ments, pointed out that the cave was occupied during the
troublous times when the Roman Empire was being dis-
membered by the invading barbarians, and when Britain,
stripped of the Roman legions, was falling a prey either to
the Piets and Scots on the one hand, or to the Jutes, Angles,
and Saxons on the other. If we stretch the limits of the
occupation to the latest they cannot be held to extend
nearer to our own times than the Northumbrian conquest
of Elmet (or Kingdom of Leeds and Bradford) by Eadwine,
in the year A. I). 616, that was preceded in 607 by the march
of iEthelfrith on Chester, and the great battle near that
Roman fort, celebrated in song for the defeat of the British
and the slaying of the monks of Bangor. At that time the
Northumbrian arms were first seen on the shores of the
Irish Channel, and the fragment of Roman Britain — which
had extended on the western part of our island, from the
estuary of the Severn uninterruptedly, through Derbyshire
and Lancashire into Cumberland — was divided, never again
to be united. The Roman civilization, which had up to
that time been maintained in that district disappeared, and
was replaced by the civilization which we know as English.
The traces therefore of Romano-Celtic ornaments and imple-
ments from the Victoria Cave must be assigned to the
period before the English conquest, before the Northumbrians
conquered West Yorkshire and Mid-Lancashire.

Underneath the stratum containing the Romano-Celtic or
Brit- Welsh articles, at the entrance of the cave, there was
a thickness of about six feet of angular stones, and at the

bottom of this a bone harpoon or fish -spear, a bone bead,
and a few broken bones of bear, red deer, and small short-
horned ox prove that in still earlier times the cave had
been inhabited by man. A few flint flakes probably imply
that these remains are to be referred rather to the Neolithic
age than to that of Bronze.

Below this was a layer of stiff clay, into which the com-
mittee sank two shafts, respectively of twelve and twenty-
five feet deep, without arriving at the bottom. They have,
however, at last penetrated it, and have broken into an
ossiferous bed, full of the remains of extinct animals, similar
to those which have been discovered at Kirkdale and else-
where; consisting of the cave bear, cave hysena, woolly
rhinoceros, mammoth, bison, reindeer, and horse. The
bottom has not been reached, and the area exposed is so
small that it is impossible to say whether man was living
in the cave at this time or not.

The clay immediately above it is considered, both by Mr.
Boyd Dawkins and Mr. Tiddeman, to be of glacial origin,
and in that case this cave is the only one in Great Britain
which has offered clear proof that this group of animals
was living in the country before the glacial age. It may be
that the remains of man may be discovered here, as in the
caves of Wookey Hole, Kent’s Hole, and Brixham; but this
problem can only be solved by an exploration on a larger
scale, which the committee hope to be able to carry on by
the aid of further subscriptions, and which the British
Association has thought sufficiently important to aid by a
grant of £50. The problem which they are attempting to
solve, is not merely of local interest, but one which is
worthy of the aid of all who care for the advancement of
knowledge.

“The explorations of the Victoria Cave,” writes Mr.
Tiddeman, “ carry with them more than common interest,
from the probability of making out in this district the

64

relation of the older cave mammals (and perhaps of man) to
the Glacial period. The complete absence of this fauna from
the river gravels and other Post-Glacial deposits of this
district, taken with the former existence of a great develop-
ment of ice over the northern counties, renders it highly
probable that the latter was the agent which removed their
remains from all parts of the country to which it had access,
leaving them only in sheltered caves.

“ In this cave we find, above the beds containing the older
fauna, a deposit of laminated clay of great thickness, differ-
ing so much from the cave-earth above and below it as to
point to distinct physical conditions for its origin. Clay in
all respects similar, but containing scratched stones, has
been found intercalated with true glacial beds in the neigh-
bourhood, thus rendering the glacial origin of that in
the cave also highly probable.

“ Moreover, at the back of a great thickness of talus at
the entrance glaciated boulders have been found, resting on
the edges of the beds of lower cave-earth containing the
older mammals. All points considered, there is strong
cumulative evidence pointing to the formation of the lower
cave-earth at times at any rate prior to the close of the
Glacial period and probably earlier. It is to be hoped that
further investigations . may settle these and other most
important questions.”

The objects found in the Victoria Cave will not be
removed from the county, but will be placed in a museum
attached to the Grammar School at Giggleswick.

Mr. Brockbank, F.G.S., differed from Mr. Dawkins as to
the mode in which the “ talus” before the Victoria cave, and
the earth with which it is filled, were deposited, and conse-
quently as to the basis upon which his estimates of time
were based. He believed this cavern had been filled by the
agency of running water, which flowed through it in rainy
seasons, as is the case in the numerous other similar caves, such

65

as the Ingleborough and Peak caverns. He did not believe that
the “ talus” had been made up of debris which had entirely
fallen from the face of the cliffs, and which would have thus
been altogether of limestone “breccia”; but on the contrary
that a great part of it had been washed out from the interior
of the cave in times of flood, carrying with the earth any
loose bones or other light objects which lay in the cave.
The proximity of the Craven fault might account for the
presence of Silurian rocks in the debris, without the neces-
sity of supposing glacial action for their conveyance. He
did not consider it possible for the cavern to have been
filled with debris washed in through its entrance, but rather
the reverse.

66

MICROSCOPICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SECTION.
November 4th, 1872.

Professor W. C. Williamson, F.RS., President of the
Section, in the Chair.

The President delivered an address of which the follow-
ing is an abstract : —

Your secretary has intimated that a few remarks would
be expected from me on the occasion of our entry upon the
work of a new session and of my occupying once more
your presidential chair. Under these circumstances I would
direct your attention for a few moments to a question that
vitally affects us as Lancashire naturalists. We live in a
district that has long been celebrated for the multitudes of
men who have devoted their leisure to the study of nature
in some one or other of its varied aspects. It was the home
of Hobson and of Caley, of Crowther and of Buxton, and the
race is still perpetuated by a large number of men like
Butter worth, Nield, and Whittaker, to whose field-labours,
as active collectors, the special investigations upon which I
have long been engaged owe so much of their success. The
energetic spirits of a kindred society — the Scientific Stu-
dents’ Association — are in like manner taking a fair share in
the work of sustaining the reputation of Lancashire for the
earnestness of its practical naturalists. We have much
reason for being thankful that we are surrounded by so
many men who are able and willing thus to carry on this
labour of love.

(57

But from amidst these grounds for congratulation there
looms out, but too distinctly, a fact of an opposite kind — a
fact which does not affect us alone, but the responsibility for
which is shared, I fear, by the entire nation. I would not
for a moment be deemed capable of unduly depreciating the
systematic study of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, to
which as Englishmen we are so addicted. On the con-
trary, I know too well that such studies are essential to us ;
they constitute the indispensable foundations upon which
those who aim at erecting loftier edifices must build. But
whilst making this admission in the most unreserved manner,
I cannot hide from myself, or from you, the fact that there
are yet higher subjects of thought and research than those
involved in the discrimination of genera and species, or in
the study of the systematic positions which objects should
occupy in the human classifications. It is eminently charac-
teristic of the present age that men have become alive to this
truth ; hence we find them in various parts of the world
grappling with the loftiest of problems. The sneers with
which “Peter Pindar” saluted Sir Joseph Banks for impaling
butterflies and boiling fleas are no longer possible. Goethe,
Oken, and Owen have stimulated us to the study of animal
and vegetable homologies ; Darwin has removed many of
the difficulties that beset the Lamarckian ideas respecting
the origin of species ; by sending us along what I believe to
be the right track he has opened the way to new lines of
enquiry so vast as to demand the greatest of intellects to
trace their ultimate ramifications and to reach the grand
generalisations towards which they will finally conduct us.
Then there is the wide field of detailed physiological research,
in which so much has already been done, but so much of
which is yet uncultivated. We are surrounded one very hand
by myriads of plants and animals of whose life-history we
know little, but which invite our study. To this end we
must make the microscope our primary instrument, with the

68

auxiliary appliances of chemical reagents to which of late
years so much attention has been paid. These remarks
suggest but a few of the problems which are awaiting
a thorough solution. With the remembrance of the import-
ance of these problems fresh in our minds we may ask our-
selves what are we individually doing as our contribution
towards the attainment of the desired results.

With a few noble exceptions I fear the answer to this
question is alike unsatisfactory to us as men of Manchester
and as Englishmen. We do not pursue wide and prolonged
researches and work them out to their ultimate issues, in
the way that is done by the naturalists of France and Ger-
many. This remark is especially applicable to the subject
of Vegetable Physiology. When I take up a number of the
Annales des Sciences Naturelles and see such magnificent
physiological memoirs as have been supplied by men like
Mohl and Trecul, Van Tieghem and Nageli, Hofmeister and
Tulasne, I cannot but ask myself what have we English-
men to show as our contributions to this series. I do not
forget that our countryman Robert Brown was the grandest
figure in the group of pioneers in these researches ; but upon
whom has his mantle fallen ? We fear that no one has
risen up amongst us capable of receiving it. The defective
standard of which I complain is further shewn in the
Physiological text-books with which we Englishmen are
satisfied. Excellent and useful as the Manuals of Henfrey,
Balfour, and Oliver may be, they bear no comparison to the
noble “ Lerbuch” of Sachs ; a volume which is as rich
in the facts which it records as it is profound in the
philosophy which it seeks to expound. I know not
what the cause of this unsatisfactory state of the higher
departments of study in England may be. Something is
doubtless due to the fact that we are all more or less engaged
in a feverish race after the material comforts of life, which
do not, in the same degree, tempt our Continental brethren

69

from the quiet retirement of their studies. Many of them
are content with a less share of worldly things than satis-
fies us ; hence we find amongst them a much larger number
of men who make scientific research the business of a life
than is to be found here. We have around us an earnest
band of amateurs who turn from their special callings at the
close of the day to such branches of natural science as they
severally select for the recreations of the evening and of the
holiday; but such interrupted and superficial studies, invalu-
able as they are to the students themselves— and I believe
that we can scarcely exaggerate that value — are insufficient
to supply the deeper want upon which I have dwelt. I can
only trust that we shall all be roused during the coming ses-
sion to grapple with some of the profound biological questions
that are now before the world asking for solution ; and that
we may thus contribute, in some humble degree, to remove
the reproach which I fear deservedly rests upon us, of being
satisfied with the more easily followed and superficial lines
of enquiry, instead of striving boldly to sink our plumb-
lines into the deepest abysses of the vast ocean of undis-
covered truth.

Mr. H. A. Hurst read a Paper “ On the Flora of Alex-
andria (Egypt)/’ illustrated by a series of specimens collected
by himself.

“On the Destruction of the Barer Species of British
Ferns,” by Joseph Sidebotham, F.RA.S.

The object of the writer was to protest strongly against
the destruction of many of the rare species of our native
ferns. He mentioned four districts in Lancashire, Derby-
shire, Westmorland, and Wales, and gave lists of ferns which
he had found abundantly in them 25 years ago, all of which
have now entirely disappeared, or have become exceedingly
rare. Since fern collecting became a sort of fashion a few

70

years ago, a class of people has sprung up who gain a liveli-
hood by collecting and selling fern roots to tourists ; these
are exposed for sale in the markets during the summer
season, and it is pitiable to see cartloads of them torn from
their native rocks and glens, and to think that not one root
in a hundred will grow when carried away and planted on
rockwork; and the few plants that do survive are but
miserable representatives of their respective species. There
are laws to protect the small birds from being exterminated,
but none can be framed to protect our ferns and wild flowers.
The only suggestions the writer could make to preserve
them was to appeal to tourists on no account to purchase
roots of ferns from these dealers, and not to dig up rare
specimens when they find them, but content themselves
with the fronds. He then enumerated the various native
species of ferns, and showed how few of them were suitable
for cultivation in ordinary gardens and rockeries, and that
for such a purpose the common species were really more
suited in every way than the rarer, being handsomer and
more easily grown. He also strongly advocated the growth
of varieties from spores, and spoke of the pleasure he had
experienced in examining the extensive collection of those
raised by E. J. Lowe, F.R.S., & c., of Highfields, near Not-
tingham.

Mr. Hurst mentioned that the Madeira DicJcsonia Cal -
cita had been eradicated from its sole Spanish habitat, near
Algeziras, by collectors.

71

Ordinary Meeting, March 4th, 1873.

J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D., F.P.S., &c., President, in the

Chair.

Mr. Francis Nicholson, F.Z.S., was elected an Ordinary
Member of the Society.

T. T. Wilkinson, F.P.A.S., communicated the following
“ Monthly Fall of Pain, according to the North Pain Gauge
at Swinden, as measured by Mr. James Emmett, Waterworks
Manager, Burnley, from January 1st, 1866, to December
31st, 1872" : —

1866

1867

1868

1869

1870

1871

1872

January

5T7

3-12

4-08

512

3T9

1-17

4-77

February

3-65

4-45

3-74

6-75

0-78

2-26

3-16

March

2-24

1-48

4-55

0-80

1-70

0-99

3-92

April

0-99

4-75

2-23

2-00

1-33

2-25

4-29

May

1*28

2-75

1-50

3-03

1-54

1-30

2-95

June

4'25

1-75

0-45

1-19

3-62

2-38

6-60

July

5-59

4-92

0-C8

1-52

1-31

2-83

3-40

August

7-60

2-06

4-34

2-70

0-58

1-35

4-05

September

12-07

2-94

2-72

5-21

0-96

1-50

6-75

October

2-71

4-27

5-33

3-50

7-08

3-06

5-88

November

6-86

1-26

2-27

3-75

2-64

2-10

6-58

December

5-88

4-55

io-oo

4-70

1-31

1-85

3-61

Total in inches..

58-24

38-30

41-89

40-27

26-04

23-04

55-96

Note. — The height of the Rain Gauge is about 750 feet above the level of
the sea, and about 18 feet above the ground.

Mr. Baxendell read the following communication from
Mr. S. Broughton : —

It appears there is some doubt as to the existence of ball
discharge in thunderstorms. At the request of Mr. Baxen-
dell I communicate an observation of such, seen during the
approach of a storm, in 1854 or 1855, when walking from
Altrincham to Timperley.

Over the edge of a cloud near the east horizon a flash of
lightning was seen, and a ball apparently the size of one
from a Roman candle shot upwards through an arc of 20 or
Proceedings — Lit, & Phil. Society. — Vol. XII. — No. 8 — Session 1872-3.

72

30°. I cannot say that it went to another cloud, hut that
would most likely he so, as my attention was taken up
watching the progress of the electric hall.

E. W. Binney, V.P., F.R.S., said that shortly after the
meeting of the Society on the 21st January last, when he
exhibited the singular fossil plants, which were quite new
to him at the time, and which he thought would have to be
placed in a new genus, he had received excellent transverse
and longitudinal sections of similar specimens from Professor
Renault of Cluny, which were if possible in a more beautiful
state of preservation than those found in the carboniferous
strata of Lancashire. On the 4th February Professor W. C.
Williamson, F.R.S., stated that these specimens wTere the
branches or stems of the well-known genus Asterophyllites ,
and he had communicated his views to the Royal Society
so early as November, 1871, wherein he expressed his
opinion “ that Asterophyllites is not the branch or foliage of
a Oalamite, but an altogether distinct type of vegetation
having an organisation peculiarly its own.”

Now the distinguished French Professor in his letter to
me states that he had described this fossil plant in a memoir
read before the Academy in 1870, and that in his opinion
it belonged to Sphenophyllum , and an abstract of the
communication appears in the Comptes Rendus for 1870.
I am not in possession of the facts from which the two
learned professors came to such different conclusions, but I
am inclined to consider the singular little stem as belonging
to a new genus until the leaves of Sphenophyllum or Aster o-
phylliies are found attached to it. When this comes to pass
of course there can be no doubt on the matter.

Mr. Brockbank, F.G.S., exhibited specimens of iron
manufactured by the old Bohemian process from hematite
ores in the south of Europe. Similar iron has also recently

73

been sent to England from Japan, the high prices now
ruling having attracted supplies of iron from distant coun-
tries.

Finished bar iron is produced at the present time in
countries where labour is cheap and charcoal plentiful at an
exceedingly low price as compared with present values in
England. The specimens now exhibited cost only £6 per
ton for the bloom and £8 per ton for the finished bar. The
sizes of the bars are however verv small, but it is a remark-
able fact that on so small a scale iron of the very highest
quality can be made and sold at half the price of English
bars made on the largest scale with all the advantages of
our modem machinery and appliances. It is believed that
this iron is made by a similar process to that followed by
the Homans in Britain, the remains of furnaces or “ bloom-
eries” on Ennerdale lake being of this class.

The President said that he had made another observa-
tion of the position of the freezing point in the thermometer
used in making the observations recorded in the Proceed-
ings for April 16, 1867, and February 22, 1870. The gradual
rise of the zero during twenty-nine years will be seen by
the adjoining diagram, the ordinates representing divisions
etched on the glass stem each corresponding to -rhv of a
degree Fahrenheit.

74

" On the Influence of Acids on Iron and Steel,” by
William H. Johnson, B.Sc.

L — General Effects of Acid.

Pieces of iron and steel wire of various qualities were
immersed in sulphuric or hydrochloric acids for spaces of
time varying from 10 minutes to 12 hours, and then well
washed with water and dried, and the following experiments
made :

1. On breaking one of the pieces of wire and moistening
the fracture, still warm from the effort of breaking it,
bubbles were seen to rise through the water from the whole
surface of the fracture, even when the piece was *412 inch
diameter. Further, pieces of wire that had been immersed
in acid, washed, coated with lime, dried, and drawn to a
smaller diameter, thus removing any trace of acid on the
surface, gave bubbles in the same manner. The bubbles
are most abundant if the iron has been immersed in sulphuric
acid, and may be seen several days after the iron has been
removed from the acid. If steeped in hydrochloric acid the
bubbles are seen with difficulty and only after long immer-
sion.

Bubbles are not apparent with steel, even after prolonged
immersion, except the steel be very mild.

Test paper was not sensibly altered in colour by the
water on the fractures.

By exposure to the atmosphere, or more quickly by steep-
ing in water, the above phenomena, as well as those to be
mentioned later on, decrease in intensity until at length
they are no longer visible, and the iron is quite restored to
its original state. Gentle heat greatly aids this. They also
cease to be visible sooner if hydrochloric acid be employed
than if sulphuric acid is used, doubtless because the latter is
less volatile.

% The fracture of a piece of iron or steel immersed for

75

one hour or more in either acid is somewhat darker in
colour than before. After several hours the fracture may
be black in the centre and more or less crystalline in
appearance.

3. Pieces of iron or steel heated in a confined space after
immersion in acid become slightly rusted. If air has free
access during the application of heat, this is not the case.

It thus appears that heat expels the dilute acid from the
interior of the iron, which if not carried away with sufficient
rapidity by the surrounding air attacks the surface of the
iron, forming an oxide or oxychloride of iron.

Sometimes instead of a uniform coating of rust the iron
is simply spotted. The acid will in some cases, after lapse
of time, find its way to the surface of the iron and spot it
with rust, even without the application of heat ; this is par-
ticularly the case with iron which has been soaked in
sulphuric acid.

It is this power which iron possesses of absorbing acid
and afterwards giving it off, which accounts for the difficulty
hitherto experienced of coating iron with copper, tin, or any
other metal in acid solutions. For the acid on coming to
the surface of the iron is unable to make its way through
the impervious coating of metal, and consequently com-
bining with the iron at the surface, forces the copper or tin
off.

4. The universal effect of acid on iron and steel is to
decrease its toughness. This brittleness is most marked
with steel. Sometimes a coil of steel wire after immersion
in acid will break if allowed to fall on the ground. And I
have seen hardened steel and steel containing a large per-
centage of carbon fly in pieces as soon as it was immersed
in acid without being touched at all.

II. — Effect on the Weight.

Pieces of iron and steel w^ere immersed in acid for differ-

76

ent periods of time, well washed in water, and weighed.
They were then heated in a kitchen oven and again weighed.
The results are given in the table below.

TABLE SHOWING THE INCREASE OF WEIGHT AFTER IMMERSION

IN ACID.

HYDROCHLORIC ACID. SULPHURIC ACID.

Weight in Grams.

Loss

Gain

Weight in Grams.

Loss

Gain 7°

hy

7.

by

Heat-

ing.

by Im-

Quality.

Before

1 After

Heat-

in. a*

by 1m-
mer-

REMARKS.

Before

After

mer-
sion in

Heating

Heating

sion.

Heating

Heating

Acid.

1

Steel

124

49-81525

' 49 81500

■00025

•000502

} Appearance of fracture
f crystalliae, speckled

50-56990

50-55516

•01474

•029156

2

Mild Steel.

126

47-36490

1 47-36020

■00470

•009923

T and white ; after heat-
J ing, finer and greyer.

43-85970

43-84990

"00980

•022350

3

Best Iron. .

122

47-48030

47-47495

•00535

•0112601

43-25005

43-23965

•01040

■024052

I

>- Annealed.

4

Char. Iron.

125

43-20994

43-20020

•00974

•022540

X

42 34002

42-32974

•01028

■024285

Total. .J

187-87039 185 '85035^ '02004

•010659

180 01967

179-97445

•04522

•025126

In acid 5 hours,

then washed several times in water and heated 18 hours

in an oven.

5

Mild Steel. 165

78-69240

78-65170

•04070

•05187

71-36530

7P32490

•04040

•05664

6

Best Iron. .

165

81-68530

81-67220

•01310

*01604

85-98500

85-94000

•03500

•04072

7

Char. Iron.

165

78-69240

78-65170

•01595

02028

84-09020

84-07515

•01505

•01796

Total

239-07010

238-97560

■08975

■02918

24114050

241-34005

•09045

•03747

In Acicl 3| hours, then well washed in water. Heated 18 hours.

8

Steel

165

80 08010

80-06770

•01240

•01548

In Acid 12 hours.

Heated 30 hours.

9

Steel.1

180

7910020

79'09005

•01015

01283

10

Mild do. . .

182

f Very slightly rusted
\ after heating.

77-56980

77-56990

-■oooio

11

Best Iron. .

155

74-92055

74-91722

•00333

■00440

12

Charcoal . .

158

61-42040

6P41990

•00050

‘000814

13

Ditto ....

120

8715715

8715500

■00215

•00245

In Acid 12—

-13 hours.

then steeped in water for 10 hours.

Heated 24 hours.

In all cases except one they were found to have lost in
weight, and the exception was probably owing to the
increased weight caused by a slight coating of oxide over-
balancing the loss occasioned by heating.

77

The gain in weight by immersion in H2S04 is greater
than by immersion in HC1.

In experiments 1 — 4 the gain per cent is :

For immersion in HC1 = *010659

Ditto in IPSO4 = -025126

or almost as 2 to 5, more accurately as 1 ; 2*357.

In experiments 5 — 7 the gain per cent for

HC1 *02918

H2S04 - *03714

as 1 : 1*284.

Experiments 9 — 13 show how rapidly steeping in water
removes what the iron has taken up by immersion in acid ;
the loss in weight on subsequent heating being only about
1-1 0th of that in previous experiments where the iron had
not been immersed in water any length of time.

III. — Effect on the Breaking Strain and
Elongation.

The effect of immersion in acid on the breaking strain
and elongation of iron wire naturally suggested itself as an •
interesting subject for inquiry. Accordingly a number of
pieces of iron wire were immersed in hydrochloric acid for
one or more hours, and then carefully tested for elongation
and breaking strain. The pieces were then heated on a hot
plate for some hours and again tested with the following
general results.

1. That immersion in acid diminishes the breaking strain
of iron wire from \ to 3 per cent, and steel wire about 4*76
per cent.

2. That immersion in acid appears in some cases to
diminish, in others slightly to augment, the elongation of
iron wire; and to augment the elongation of steel wire about
30 per cent.

78

Subjoined are the results of a few of the experiments on
iron wire.

QUALITY.

No.

ELONGATION.

BREAKING STRAIN. 1

1

Immersed in
Acid 1 Hour.

Heated.

Immersed in
Acid 1 hour.

Heated, i

Annealed Iron

r

1

15%

22%

1176

1168

Wire, 1

2

19

20

1176

1162

•164in. diam. (

3

22

19

964

1008

Average

18-6%

20-3%

1105-3

1112-6

4

24%

22%

908

944

5

24

21

908

930

6

22

25

896

946

Annealed Iron

7

21

23

914

908

Wire, -i

8

22

22

926

924

•150in. diam.

9

24

24

926

924

10

22

23

934

896

11

22

21

930

928

V

12

21

20

924

906

Average

22-4%

22-3%

918-4

922-8

Hard Iron

13

•5%

2%

1230

1218

Wire, -j

14

2-5

3'5

1146

1230

’136in. diam.

15

2

3

1200

1232

Average

2%

2-83%

1192

1226-6

IV. — Effect of Pyroligneous Acid.

The effect of pyroligneous acid on iron and steel appears
to be exactly similar to that of hydrochloric and sulphuric
acids, causing it to become more brittle, &c., though the
• effects are perhaps somewhat less intense. As in their case,
heat restores the iron to its original toughness.

Y. — • Effects of Acids on Copper and Brass.

Sulphuric acid appears to have no effect whatever on

copper. After 18 hours’ or longer immersion in sulphuric

acid copper is as tough as ever, the action being confined to

the surface onlv.

«/

Brass becomes rotten after long immersion in vitriol,
doubtless because the zinc of which it is partly composed is
attacked by the acid, and, as might be expected, heat does
not restore it to its original condition. Prolonged exposure
to a moist damp atmosphere appears to make brass brittle
just as acid does.

79

VI. — Effect of Zinc on Iron.

A piece of galvanized iron of good quality, which when
cold several times resisted bending to and fro at right angles
to itself, was raised to a red heat with such rapidity that
only a small portion of the coating of zinc was vaporised.
On then attempting to bend it, it broke off sharp, the frac-
ture being short and crystalline. When cold, this piece
broke with all its former toughness, the fracture showing a
long fibre. The same piece was then heated till all the
coating of zinc was driven off ; it was then found impossible
to break it. This clearly shows that the iron was not red
short except when rendered so by the zinc.

The same experiments were tried with iron coated with
lead and with tinned iron, but without the above results.

Some kinds of iron do not appear to be rendered red short
by zinc.

Possibly the above phenomenon may have some connec-
tion with the fact that zinc forms an alloy with iron at a
red heat, containing from 2 per cent to 6 per cent of iron,
and having a melting point which is higher as the propor-
tion of iron is greater, while lead and tin do not alloy with
iron at this temperature. But still the iron appears to
absorb the liquid zinc in a similar way to that in which
it appears to take up acid on immersion in it, and with
similar results.

Hitherto I have spoken of iron absorbing and occluding
acid as though this something which increases the weight
of the iron, alters its tensile strain, &c., had been definitely
proved to be acid ; but in the face of my having been unable
to obtain any reaction to test paper, this is very uncertain.
Though the fact that the immersion of iron which has been
soaked in an alkaline fluid greatly hastens its restoration to
its original state, and the rusting of the surface of iron
soaked in acid when heated in a confined space, all lead to
the belief that acid is absorbed, though other bodies, such
as gases, may be occluded at the same time.

80

The experiments of Professor Graham in 1867, and more
recently those of Mr. Parry, show that hydrogen, carbonic
oxide and carbonic acid, and nitrogen are evolved from
wrought iron, cast iron, and steel, when heated in vacuo.
Therefore it seems probable that a part of the hydrogen
produced by the action of the acid on the iron may be
absorbed by the iron, its nascent state facilitating this.
And when the iron is heated by the effort of breaking it,
the gas may bubble up through the moisture on the frac-
ture.

In Mr. Parry’s experiments while one vol. of iron evolved
two vols. of gas when heated strongly in vacuo ; one vol. of
mild steel evolved only T3 of a vol. of gas. If from a small
evolution of gas during heating of steel in vacuo we may
argue a very small evolution of gas in steel soaked in acid,
then we are led to suppose that the bubbles evolved from
the hot moist fracture of a piece of steel will be very small
or imperceptible, which experiments amply confirm.

81

Ordinary Meeting, March 18th, 1873.

J. P. Joule, D.C.L,, LL.D., F.R.S., &c., President,

in the Chair.

Mr. James Cosmo Melyill, M.A., F.L.S., was elected an
Ordinary Member of the Society.

E. W. Binney, F.R.S., Y.P., said that during the last week
an interesting controversy had been going on in this city
between the Town Clerk and the Professor of Chemistry at
the Royal Institution as to the quality of the water supplied
to Manchester. These disputants are well able to wage their
own warfare, therefore it is not my intention to interfere
with them. In these days no one doubts the blessings of a
constant supply of pure and good water ; but the latter
quality is determined in a great measure by the purpose for
which it is intended to be used. If for manufacturing and
washing then a pure soft water is no doubt most desirable,
but it is very questionable if such a water when conveyed
any considerable distance in leaden pipes is the best for the
drinking purposes of a town population.

In the Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring into the
State of Large Towns and Populous Districts, Dr. Lyon
Playfair, the Commissioner who reported on the then supply
of Manchester appears to have directed little attention to
the quality of drinking water for a town population which
had to a great extent left off using the milk, porridge, brown
bread, and oatcake of our forefathers, and resorted to sloppy
tea, white bread, butter, and a little meat, for at page 41 1
of his Report he says : — “ In considering the best means for
the extension of this benefit,” alluding to a constant supply
“ to the working classes, or in sanctioning the formation of
new waterworks, it would be highly advisable to obtain
Proceedings — Lit. & Phil. Society.— Vol. XTI. — Xo. 9.— Session 1872-3.

82

evidence as to the quality of the water, particularly with
regard to its hardness. The value of attention to this point
will he obvious, when the difference of consumption of
soap is considered. I found by various trials in summer
that the Manchester water possesses a hardness equivalent
to what would be obtained if 13 or 14 grains of chalk were
dissolved in a gallon of pure water.” The learned Commis-
sioner gives the water at Aberdeen at one grain of chalk per
gallon, and comparing that with the 14 of Manchester and
the 12 of London, he concludes “ Thus the hard water of
Manchester may be regarded as increasing the water rent to
a family of five individuals 16s. 8d. per annum, or £49,363
per annum to the whole town, a sum nearly double that of
the present water rental. But large as the cost entailed
upon a town by a bad selection of water in the unnecesary
consumption of soap, still greater loss is incurred in the wear
and tear of clothes.” This was written about thirty years
since, and I have not the death-rate of Manchester in 1842.
In that space of time how much money has been expended
in Manchester by the public authorities in shutting up
cellar dwellings, closing grave yards, removing pigstyes,
altering ashpits and middens, opening new streets, and sup-
plying pure water ? I cannot tell its amount, but every
ratepayer knows practically that it is very large. In looking
at the rate of mortality for the week ending March 8th, as
given in the Manchester Guardian, in the 21 leading places
in the kingdom, it was at the annual rate of 28 per thousand.
In London, the rate was 27; Bristol, 31; Wolverhampton,
28 ; Birmingham, 28 ; Nottingham, 27 ; Liverpool, 31 ; Man-
chester, 36 ; Bradford, 26; Sheffield, 27 ; N ewcastle-on-Tyne,
31. Now I believe the first named five towns are supplied
with hard water, and give an aggregate of 141, whilst the
latter five, are supplied with soft water, and give an
aggregate of 151. This is a significant fact and worthy
of grave consideration. True, it is only one w~eek, and

83

a whole year ought to he examined, but I imagine the
results if carefully gone into will give no advantage to
the use of pure soft water when compared with hard, for 27
is a very high rate for London. In building up the skeleton
of an adult large quantities of the phosphates and carbonates
of limes are required. The well to do, who consume plenty
of butchers’ meat, cheese, and new milk, may manage to
obtain what nature requires, but for the poor, who live on
sloppy tea, line white bread, a little butter, a trifle of meat,
and plenty of soft water, where are they to get their neces-
sary supply from ? It is not my intention to assert that the
high rate of mortality is all due to soft water. No doubt
there are many causes which help to produce it, but good,
wholesome drinking water, containing carbonate of lime'
and plenty of fresh air, which is hard to get in a close and
crooked-built town of high warehouses, have in my opinion
much to do with it. In my own case, I put a little lime in
the drinking water used in my house, and I live on a sandy
hill, well exposed to the winds of heaven. In all sanitary
arrangements too much attention cannot be given to provi-
ding plenty of fresh air and as much light as practicable.

Obseivations on the Rate at which Stalagmite is being
accumulated in the Ingleborough Cave/’ bv W. Boyd
Dawkins, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S.

The only attempt to measure with accuracy the rate of
the accumulation of stalagmite in caverns, in this country,
is that made by Mr. James Farrer in the Ingleborough Cave
in the years 1839 and 1845, and published by Professor
Phillips in “ The Rivers, Mountains, and Sea Coast of York-
shire/’ (second edition, 1855, pp, 34-35). The stalagmite of
which the measurements were taken is that termed, from
its shape, the jockey cap. It rises from a crystalline pave-
ment to a height of about feet, and is the result of a
deposit of carbonate of lime, brought down by a line of
drops that fall into a basin at its top, and flow over the

84

general surface. On March 13th, 1872, in company with
Mr. JohnBirkbeck and Mr. Walker, I was enabled by the
kindness of Mr. Farrer to take a set of measurements, to be
recorded for use in after years.

For the sake of insuring accuracy in future observations,
three holes were bored at the base of the stalagmite, and
three gauges of brass wire, gilt, inserted, gauge No. 1 in the
following table being that on the S.S.E., No. 2 on N.N.E.,
No. 3 on the W. side. The curvilinear dimensions were
taken with fine iron wire, or with a steel measure ; and the
circumferential around the base along a line marked by the
three gauges. The measurements 2, 3, and 4 of the table
ware taken on the 15th of March, by Mr. Walker, and their
accuracy may be tested by the fact that they coincide
exactly with No. 1, which I took two days before.

The lengths of wire, properly labelled, will be deposited
in the Manchester Museum, The Owens College, for future
observers.

In the following table I have given my own measure-
ments and compared them with those taken by Mr. Farrer.

TABLE OF MEASUREMENTS.

13th Mar.
1873.
Inches.

1839.

Inches

30th Oct.

1845.

Inches.

Inci

sir

1839

ease

ice

1845

Rate of increase
per annum.
Inches.

1 Basal circumference at Gauges . .

128

118

120

10

8

•2941— -2857

2 Guage No. 1 to Gauge No. 2 —

52-625

3 , j 2 ,, 3 . . . .

35-0

4 „ 3 „ 1....

40-375

5 Gauge No. 1 to hole in centre of

basin at apex

30

6 ,, 2 ,, „ ....

29-5

7 5> 3 ,, ,, . . . .

31-4

8 Hgt. from Gauge No. 1

20-9

9 ,, ,, 2 minimum

20-4

10 Maximum

29-7

11 Tape measurement on slope

gauge No. 1 to edge of apex..

26-7

12 „ No. 2 „ ,,

26-6

21-0

5-6

13 „ ,, Maximum ,,

36-0

32-0

35-0

4-0

1-0

14 Roof to apex of Jockey cap

87

95-25

8-25

•2946

15 Roof to tip of stalactite

10

16 Stalactite to apex of Jockey cap.

85-25

Unfortunately I have been unable to identify the exact
spots where the stalagamite was measured by Mr. Farrer,

so that the only measurement which affords any trustworthy
data for estimating the rate of increase is number 14. With
regard to this the only possible ground of error is the erosion
of the general surface of the solid limestone, of which the
roof is composed, by carbonic acid, since the year 1845, and
this is so small as to be practically inappreciable. We have
therefore evidence that the jockey’s cap is growing at the
rate of '2946 of an inch per annum, and that if the present
rate of growth be continued it will finally arrive at the roof
in about 295 years. But even this comparatively short
lapse of time will probably be diminished by the growth of
a pendent stalactite above, that is now being formed in
place of that which measured ten inches in 1845, and has
since been accidentally destroyed. It is very possible that
the jockey cap may be the result not of the continuous but
of the intermittent drip of water containing a variable
quantity of carbonate of lime, and that, therefore, the
present rate of growth is not a measure of its past or future
condition. Its possible age in 1845 was estimated by Pro-
fessor Phillips at 259 years, on the supposition that the grain
of carbonate of lime in each pint was deposited. If, however,
it grew at its present rate it may be not more than one
hundred years old. All the stalagmites and stalactites in
the Ingleborough cave may not date further back than the
time of Edward III. if the Jockey cap be taken as a measure
of the rate of deposition.

It is evident, from this instance of rapid accumulation,
that the value of a layer of stalagmite, in fixing the high
antiquity of deposits below it is comparatively little. The
layers, for instance, in Kent’s Hole, which are generally
believed to have demanded a considerable lapse of time,
may possibly have been formed at the rate of a quarter of
an inch per annum, and the human bones which lie buried
under the stalagmite in the cave of Bruniquel are not for
that reason to be taken to be of vast antiquity. It may be

86

fairly concluded that the thickness of layers of stalagmite
cannot he used as an argument in support of the remote age
of the strata below. At the rate of a quarter of an inch per
annum 20 feet of stalagmite might be formed in 1000 years.

“On Methyl-alizarine and Ethyl-alizarine/’ by Edward
Schunck, Ph.D., F.RS.

In a paper which I had the honour of reading before this
Society some time ago* I gave an account of a yellow
colouring matter accompanying artificial alizarine, to which
I gave the name of anthraflavic acid. Though the sub-
stance was at the time new to me and apparently to others
also, it is quite possible it may have been previously observed
by those working with artificial alizarine, since the crude
product is probably hardly ever quite free from it, and its
presence would not be likely to escape the notice of any one
endeavouring to prepare pure alizarine from the manufactu-
red article.

My analyses of the acid and of its barium and silver salts
led to the formula C15H10O4 for the acid, and I was therefore
inclined to view it as a body homologous with alizarine, or
alizarine in which H is replaced by CH3. I supposed it to
be derived from a hydrocarbon higher in the series than
anthracene (C16H12 ?) contained in the ordinary anthra-
cene of commerce, a body which is supposed by some che-
mists really to exist, and which would stand in the same
relation to anthracene as toluol does to benzol. It was
necessary to adopt some such hypothesis, since, as Graebe
and Liebermann remark, in referring to my experiments, a
compound obtained from anthraquinone by the same process
as that yielding alizarine cannot possibly contain 15 atoms
of carbon. The conversion of the acid into alizarine by
the action of fusing caustic potash would however admit of
explanation in accordance with my view, since the methyl

# Proceedings Lit. and Phil, Soc., Session 1870-71.

87

presumed to be contained in it might be supposed to be
eliminated and replaced by hydrogen during the process.

The examination of anthraflavic acid was subsequently
undertaken by Mr. Perkin,* whose analyses of the carefully
purified substance led to the conclusion that it is isomeric
with alizarine. I do not wish to dispute the accuracy of
this view of its composition, since a trifling admixture of
some impurity, such as anthraquinone, might easily have
given rise to the excess of carbon found in my analyses, though
I may state that a specimen of the substance, prepared from
some of the “ by-product” of the manufacture of alizarine —
kindly sent me by Mr. Perkin — and purified with great
care, gave exactly the same composition as before.

Graebe and Liebermann*|* have also examined a yellow
crystalline body accompanying artificial alizarine, which is
converted into the latter by the action of fusing caustic
potash. They are of opinion that it is identical with anthra-
flavic acid, there being, indeed, little or no difference in the
properties of the two substances. They assign to it the
formula C14 H8 03, and consider it as monoxyanthraquinone,
alizarine being dioxyanthraquinone. The results of their
analyses of the substance and its barium compound differ
however so widely from those obtained by Mr. Perkin and
myself (particularly in this respect, that in the compounds
of anthraflavic acid, two atoms of hydrogen are replaced by
metals, whereas in those of monoxyanthraquinone only one
atom is replaced) as to lead to the conclusion either that
there exists more than one body having the general proper-
ties— chemical and physical — of anthraflavic acid, or that we
have not all of us been working with pure substances.

Without pronouncing any decided opinion on this point,
which can only be determined by further investigation, and
without entertaining any sanguine anticipation of being
able to prepare anthraflavic acid directly from alizarine, it
* Chem, Soc. J., XXIV, 1109, f Liebig’s Annalen CLX., 141.

88

seemed to me that it might be of some interest to ascertain
the nature and properties of the methylic and ethylic sub-
stitution products of alizarine obtained directly from the
latter.

In order to obtain methyl-alizarine I tried several
methods. The first consisted in heating bromalizarine with
iodide of methyl and metallic silver in closed tubes. This
process yielded a small quantity of a crystalline substance,
which I believed to be the compound sought for. The other
method, which is one now often practised for obtaining
methylic and ethylic substitution products, gave better
results. Purified artificial alizarine was treated with a
mixture of iodide of methyl, caustic potash, and a little
methylic alcohol in closed tubes, at a moderate temperature.
After heating for some days the tubes were opened and
emptied, and the excess of iodide of methyl having been
evaporated, the residue was treated first with hot water, to
remove the iodide of potassium, and then with a little cold
alcohol. The alcohol — which dissolved out a brown resinous
impurity — having been filtered off, the residue was treated
with dilute caustic potash lye, in which the alizarine not
acted on dissolved with a violet colour. The liquid having
been filtered off, the residue, which consisted of the potassium
compound of methyl-alizarine — a compound very little
soluble in cold water — was washed until the percolating
liquid began to be of a cherry-red colour. It was then
treated with hydrochloric acid, and the orange-coloured
flocks left undissolved were filtered off, washed and dissolved
in boiling alcohol. The alcohol, on cooling, deposited crys-
talline needles of methyl-alizarine.

Methyl-alizarine as thus prepared has the following pro-
perties : — When crystallised from boiling alcohol it appears
in long yellow needles, having a reddish tinge, but without
the semi-metallic lustre peculiar to alizarine which it gene-
rally resembles. When heated it is entirely volatilised,

89

yielding a sublimate of yellow lustrous scales and needles.
It is almost insoluble in boiling water, but dissolves easily
in concentrated sulphuric acid, even in the cold, giving a
cherry-red solution. It does not dissolve sensibly in caustic
potash lye in the cold, but on boiling a bright cherry-red
solution is obtained, which on cooling deposits dark red
crystalline masses. The solution shows no trace of absorp-
tion bands, but onl/ a general obscuration of the green part
of the spectrum, and in this respect differs widely from the
alkaline solutions of alizarine, which exhibit such very
characteristic absorption bands. The solution in concen-
trated sulphuric acid does, however, show an absorption
band on the border of the green and blue, just like a solution
of anthraflavic acid in the same menstruum, but far less
distinctly than the latter, on account of the much greater
obscuration of the parts of the spectrum adjacent to the
band. On adding alcoholic potash solution to an alcoholic
solution of methyl-alizarine the potassium compound is
deposited in dark red * needles, arranged in star-shaped
masses. The sodium compound, prepared in the same way,
crystallises in small light red needles. A watery solution
of the potassium compound gives with chloride of barium a
red flocpulent precipitate. The alcoholic solution of methyl-
alizarine gives no precipitate with acetate of lead. When
treated with boiling nitric acid methyl-alizarine is dissolved
and decomposed, and the solution on evaporation leaves a
white crystalline residue, probably of phthalic acid. Methyl-
alizarine undergoes no change when treated with strong
caustic potash lye, even at the boiling temperature. It is
only when fusing hydrate of potash is employed that de-
composition takes place. If the operation be carefully con-
ducted there is obtained, on the addition of water to the
fused mass, a violet -coloured solution, which shows the
absorption bands of alizarine very distinctly. There is no
doubt, therefore, that by the more energetic action of the

90

alkali at the temperature of fusion alizarine is regenerated.
Methyl-alizarine does not dye mordanted cloth when tried in
the usual manner. It imparts hardly any colour to the
mordants, and differs, therefore, in this respect fi’om the
parent substance more than in any other.

Though methyl-alizarine differs in most points very
widely from anthraflavic acid, still the two substances are
found to resemble one another as regards some of their pro-
perties, Both yield crystallised potassium and sodium
compounds. Both are converted into alizarine by the action
of fusing potassic hydrate, though both remain unchanged
when treated with strong alkaline lyes. The action of both
on the spectrum is very similar. Neither of them is preci-
pitated from its alcoholic solution by acetate of lead. Both
are incapable of dyeing mordants.

The analysis of methyl-alizarine gave numbers corre-
sponding with the formula Ci5H10O4. It is therefore aliza-
rine in which one atom of hydrogen is replaced by methyl.
It still remained to determine how this substitution takes
place, whether it is one of the two hydroxyl atoms con-
tained in alizarine the hydrogen of which is replaced by
methyl, or whether the substitution is effected in a different
manner. In the former case methyl-alizarine would con-
tain only one atom of hydrogen replaceable by metals. The
formula of methyl-alizarine being Ci4H6(H0)(CH30)02,
that of the potassium compound, for instance, would be
C14H6(K0)(CH30)02 and it would contain by calculation
13*3 per cent of potassium. Now the potassium compound
prepared in the manner just described and dried first over
sulphuric acid and then at 130° C., was found to contain
126 per cent of potassium. It is certain therefore that
methyl-alizarine belongs to the class of compound ethers,
being formed by the replacement of one of the hydrogen
atoms of a bibasic acid by methyl. It has a similar com-
position to Mr. Perkin’s diacetyl-alizarine. In the latter

91

how ever two atoms of hydrogen are replaced by the com-
pound radical acetyl. Diacetyl-alizarine seems also to be a
much less stable body than methyl-alizarine.

Ethyl-alizarine may be prepared in the same way as the
corresponding methyl compound, employing iodide of ethyl
in place of iodide of methyl. The properties of the two
substances are so nearly alike that they can hardly be dis-
tinguished from one another. The composition of ethyl-
alizarine is expressed by the formula CieH^O^

Specimens of the two substances were shown along with
some specimens sent for exhibition by Mr. Perkin, including
the new colouring matter lately discovered by him, anthra-
purpurine, and samples of dyed calico showing the different
effects produced by alizarine and anthrapurpurine.

“ On the Transition from Roman to Arabic Numerals (so-
called) in England,” by the Rev. Brooke Herford.

One of the collateral points of interest with which the
local historian has to occupy himself from time to time, is
the determination of dates. When, now three years ago, I
was busy with the re-editing of Baines’s History of Lanca-
shire, left incomplete by the death of my old friend Mr.
Harland, in verifying some notes about the village churches
in Leyland Hundred, my attention was asked to a date on
one of the beams of Eccleston church, wdiich had been an
object of curiosity to many visitors, but which no one had
ever been able to decipher. The inscription was as follows :

anno Uni

carved on the oak beam in an unusually clear, square
character. For a long time I was unsuccessful in my
attempts to decipher it. It was when I had got to the very
last sheet of my work, and while examining some old M.SS.
of the reign of Elizabeth, that I was one day particularly
struck by the resemblance between the 5’s of the M.SS and

92

its h’s, and at once this gave me the clue to the Eccleston
date, the whole difficulty of which had lain in the very
careful “fj” which formed the second figure. I turned to
my copy of it and saw at a glance that it was in reality
1536.

The explanation of it I worked out in my mind as
follows : — The inscription had evidently been cut by a very
careful workman ; but at that time the Arabic numerals
were hardly known except to scholars, and all the associa-
tions that ordinary people had with figures were with
letters used as numerals. Hence workmen tried to make
the figure offered to them like the nearest letter they could
find. So the workman at Eccleston, instead of imitating
what seemed to him the rude h of his copy, made a
beautiful “ f) ” of the period ! And the same with the 3,
which would be to him evidently a rough attempt at a Z ;
and with the 6, which, looking like an inverted e, he judi-
ciously put what he considered the right side up. My
perplexity, however, and especially the solution of it, drew
my attention to the question of how long ago the Arabic
numerals were introduced, and of the source from which
they came to us.

Until latterly it has been generally believed that our
system of decimal notation came to us from the Arabs, and
hence the name Arabic numerals. It is now however gene-
rally admitted that they are originally Indian. Two lines
of possible derivation from India have been traced out, each
of which has been regarded as that by which their use was
actually introduced into Europe. One is through the Moors.
It is known that the present system of arithmetic was intro-
duced from India into Persia at the end of the 8th century.
Hence it passed into use in the north-east of Africa about the
end of the 10th century, and with the Moors it would un-
doubtedly come into Spain. The other line is through the
Latins. Boethius, in the beginning of the 6th century, in the

9.3

first book of his Geometry, describes an adaptation of the
Abacus which really involved the system of decimal numera-
tion, and some of the M.SS.-and as M. Chasles proves the
best and most ancient— contain a table of nine figures, wdiich

, x n . nl0ns us; — more like our

present figures indeed than are the numerals in use among

the Moors. The next link in this chain of derivation is in a

monkish treatise, Be Nwmerorwm Divisione, by Gerbert a

Benedictine monk, subsequently raised to the papal chair

. "9) as Sylvester II. This treatise (says M. Martin)

does not explicitly describe the decimal numeration but
throughout takes it for granted. Whence however did
Gerbert learn it ? It was said, a few generations later, from

e Saracens; but it appears from the arguments of M

Chasles and M. Henri Martin [to whose arguments the paper

refen ed in detail], that this was a mistake, and it seems on

the whole most probable that the abacus with nine fio-ures

las come to us from the Latins, who had it in the time of

Boethius, whose ascription of it to Pythagoras doubtless

arose from its having been brought from India by the Neo

Pythagoreans. Preserved by Boethius, the use of the*e

figures with an abacus of traced columns became known to

the more learned monkish scholars of the middle ages, and

gradually came into use in scientific calculations, the Greek

cypher being supplied and the columns at length dispensed

with. For generations, probably for centuries, the signs and

the use of them would be confined to the learned, as little

understood by the common people as are now the signs of

e zodiac H is in the popularizing of them rather than

1 7 L' mtl'.oductlon that we probably feel the value of Arab
and Moorish influences.

The interesting question still remains as to the date at
which they first began to make their appearance in litera-
e, to be used for inscribing dates, and, last of all, to take
their place m the transactions of the counting-house and

94

the elementary arithmetic of schools. As might be ex-
pected, all the first traces of these figures in England were
found in the old calendars and calculations with which,
here and there, the monkish scholars busied themselves.
Chaucer in his “Dreme” (about 1375) speaks of them as
“figures newe” in a passage the tenor of which shows that
he was aware of the enormous improvement which they
offered upon the old use of the Roman signs. The first
printed book which is known to contain the Arabic nume-
rals is an old blackletter quarto printed at Louvain in 1476,
entitled Fasciculus Temporum. Caxton, I believe, never
uses them, in the works issued from his press ; but in
his Mirrour of the World, 1480, is a curious wood-cut
representing a man sitting at a desk, and before him a
board on which are drawn some rude representations of
Arabic figures. The earliest authentic instances of monu-
mental or structural inscriptions with Arabic numerals are
given in the Archceological Journal for 1850, and were accep-
ted by the Archaeological Institute as genuine : — On a lych
gate, at Bray, Berkshire, 1448 • on a quarry of stained
glass, at St. Cross’s Hospital, Hampshire, 1497 ; on a stone,
also at St. Cross’s, 1503. I believe that nothing earlier
than these is really known. There are, indeed, plenty
which claim to be of greater antiquity — 'but one or two
explanations will probably answer for them all. In several
cases the bottom of the antique 4, in the hundreds, has
been cut off, leaving an apparent date of the eleventh
century. In still more cases a rude 5 has been read
for a 1. These numerals would be used for inscriptions,
as a mere fancy -lettering, long before their real im-
portance was understood. Merchants would go on using
the old figures, which had served their fathers. So we find
the old system holding its place in all known public or
private accounts till the beginning, and in many cases till
far on into the sixteenth century. One curious exception,

95

indeed, has been noted by that trustworthy antiquary the
Rev. Joseph Hunter. At one of the meetings of the
Archaeological Institute, in 1850, he brought forward a fac-
simile of an old warrant which he had discovered in the
Record Office, in which the date (1325) is expressed in one
part in Roman and in another Arabic numerals. It is a war-
rant from Hugh le Dispenser to Bonifez de Peruche and his
partners, merchants of a company, to pay forty pounds. On
the face of it, as executed by the English Chancellor, it is
dated “ the XIX° year” of Edward II. It bears, however,
the endorsement of the Italian merchant on the back, and
he has endorsed it February, 1325, in Arabic figures. I
do not know that I could conclude with a better illustration
of the probability of the account, which I have adopted
from M. Chasles and M. Martin, of the Arabic numerals
having come to Europe from India, not first by means of
the Moors, but through the Italians, since we find an ordi-
nary Italian merchant using them in an ordinary business
transaction, at least two centuries before their common use
in English bookkeeping and commerce.

“Notes on the Victoria Cave, Settle,” by William
Brockbank, F.G.S.

The discoveries of the antiquities and animal remains in
the Victoria Cave have been described to the Society by Mr.
Boyd Dawkins, and are very fully set forth by Mr. R. Tid-

deman, F.G.S., in the Geological Magazine for January
1873 (Yol. x., No. 1).

# Mr. Tiddeman s views are shortly as follows. (1) He
gives a section of the cave, shewing a cavern in the face of
a limestone cliff, the floor of which is covered thickly
over with stratified deposits, sloping inwards from the
entrance, and against the edges of which rests a talus of
Breccia, having below it a stratum of glacial drift clay with
boulders. The latter he shews as just occurring above the

96

bone bed in which the oldest remains were found, and which
he therefore infers to be of preglacial age.

There is a slight but important difference between Mr.
Tiddeman’s statement as herein set forth, and that of
Mr. Dawkins to this Society to which I took exception on
the 18th of February. Mr. Dawkins gave the Society to
understand that the most ancient remains, lately found,
occurred outside the cave, in the talus, in which I think he
was quite mistaken, and Mr. Tiddeman does not so place
them. My remarks, as published in the Proceedings of that
Meeting, had special reference to this very point, and as Mr.
Dawkins varied his description in the published summary,
they do not appear to be a reply to the context.

However, Mr. Dawkins and Mr. Tiddeman are both in
accord in considering that the lower cave earth in which
the oldest remains are found is immediately covered by a
clay of glacial origin ; and that in this case the Victoria Cave
is the only one in Great Britain which has offered clear
proof that the group of animals whose bones have been there
found was living in the country before the glacial age.

The conclusion above stated is so important as to demand
the clearest proof, and therefore the subject is one worthy of
the most careful consideration, and full discussion ; and as I
hold the conclusion to be altogether wrong, I will proceed
firstly to describe the deposits from my own point of view,
and then will try to shew where I think the above gentle-
men are in error.

(1) The Victoria Cave occurs in the face of a limestone
crag, which appears to be much fissured, as the openings of
four other caverns occur in it within a quarter of a mile,
two of which are believed to be in connection with the
Victoria Cave. The cliff rises from 200 to 800 feet above
the cave, and beyond it is a high tract of pasture land, with
numerous hollows on the surface ; into which the rain sinks
and finds its way through the fissures in the limestone. So

»

97

completely does all water sink away, that artificial ponds
are made for the cattle to drink at in suitable places, and it
is a very curious fact, that the only true clay suitable for
puddling purposes, occurs in sheltered hollows on the sum-
mit of the hills, and this is a true glacial clay. No doubt
this clay at one time covered the entire surface of the hill
tops, as they are still dotted thickly over with huge drift
boulders, or “ Calliards,” as they are locally called, chiefly
of whinstone, black marble, and silurian flags, such as occur
in the neighbouring hills northwards. The caverns all
appear to have been formed on the lines of main fissures
where the limestone has been much broken. The close
proximity of the Great “ Craven fault,” (which runs at right
angles to the face of the Langcliffe Scar in which the Vic-
toria Cave occurs), will account for the great extent to which
the limestone has been thus fissured.

It is therefore evident that the surface water in wet
seasons, having to find its way through these fissures, from
the watershed of a large area, would form great underground
streams, which would wear out these caverns and carry
through and into them much detritus from the surface; and
very probably the whole of the drift clays, which have evi-
dently been denuded from the surfaces where the boulders
now lie, have been thus removed and carried away in the
course of the long ages of time which have elapsed since
their deposition, during the glacial epoch.

(2) The evidence to be gathered from the whole district
points to a very considerable falling away of the face of the
limestone scars during wet seasons and frosts. The day
before my visit a mass of at least 100 tons had fallen from
above the face of the Victoria Cave, It appears to me that
the face of the scar at the cave was formerly at least 30
feet in front of its present line, and that this mass must have
fallen away, at any rate since the glacial age. The lime-
stone about the cave is so much fissured, and so constantly

98

permeated with water in large quantities, that its whole mass
is loosened, and falls away from season to season to a very
great extent. The effect of this upon our present subject
has an important bearing in two particulars.

{a) It would entirely do away with the supposition that
any part of this “talus” now lying immediately against the
entrance of the cave, was existent during the glacial epoch,
and hence that the boulders relied upon by Messrs. Tidde-
man and Dawkins cannot be in situ as therein deposited,
and

( b ) That the floor level of the cave has been constantly
rising, having been reformed upon the masses of limestone
which had fallen from the roof. These two important
deductions are amply verified by the present appearances
of the cliff and cavern.

(3) In every instance with which I am acquainted the
clay which fills the caverns of Yorkshire and Derby-
shire has been introduced by the agency of running water,
generally by “ pot holes,” which communicate with the sur-
face, and which in wet seasons give passage to large volumes
of water laden with detritus, a portion of which is deposited
in such parts of the underground channels as are favourable
to its accumulation. Such clays are likely to be laminated,
because of the mode af their deposition, at intervals , which
allowed one layer to harden before another was deposited
upon it. The clay which is found filling the Victoria Cave
is precisely such as we should look for under the circum-
stances before described. The glacial drift deposited clay
of the boulder type upon the surface; and the rains of ages
dissolved it away and carried it down these fissures into the
cavern, where a portion of it remained. That the cave is of
the precise character here indicated I can certify, for I was
able to get to the end of it after going for a considerable
distance through mud and water — -the roof being only about
two or three feet from the floor. I there found that the end

99

of the cave was an oval dome, which continued upwards in
a circular shaft as far as my sight could reach ; and I found
the sides in many places dotted with clay, and the ledges, as
high as I could reach, thickly covered with it, of the precise
colour and appearance of that filling the cave. The surface
under the dome, or “ pot hole,” had also many pebbles scat-
tered over it, and these were of the same rocks as the large
drift boulders occurring on the surface. Much water was
coming down this shaft, as also in several other places in the
Victoria Cave, and it disappeared again through the floor,
and especially at a point near the entrance, where a large
aperture showed that the cavern continued to a much
lower level than the lowest point yet reached.

(4) Mr. Tiddeman’s section and description gives the
stratification of clays in the interior of the cave as regular
and as consisting of (a) lower cave earth (b) bone bed con-
taining bones of older mammals (c) laminated clay, and (d)
upper cave earth.

So far as I can learn, however, I cannot agree that this
correctly describes the interior of the cavern. I should
adopt in preference the following description :

(a) Lower yellow clay, the old floor of occupation of the
cave about 1 foot thick containing large quantities of copro-
lites, the dung of the older mammals, whose bones occur
plentifully in it, and I believe this seam of clay will be found
to occur throughout the cave at varying levels.

(b) Laminated clays above and below the large masses of
limestone which have fallen from the roof and which have
been deposited by water from the surface. This clay
contains pebbles, and occasionally larger pieces of rocks,
such as occur on the surface.

(c) Cave earth on the surface of (6), at varying levels,
and which contained Roman remains. This earth occurred
generally at parts of the cavern where the roof is not much
fissured, and where consequently it has not fallen.

100

Now Mr. Tiddeman describes this upper clay or cave
earth as gradually thickening from the entrance towards the
rear of the cave, and he places a laminated clay between it
and the lower cave earth, which he also describes as dipping
gradually from the entrance towards the rear of the cavern,
and he distinctly pronounces this laminated structure to be
evidence of its glacial origin, and he supposes it to have been
deposited in the following manner : —

“ Let us imagine a glacier or an ice sheet passing by the
mouth of the cave and partly blocking the entrance with its
rubbish * * * * the glacier melts by day and usually
(though not always) freezes by night. The moraine rubbish
hinders the coarser debris from entering the cave, but gives
passage to glacier water charged with fine mud. The glacier
by its grinding keeps the water charged with mud, and the
frequent change from daily flow to nightly inaction, gives
rise to that close lamination, which is its characteristic
feature.”

With all respect to the opinion of so high an authority, I
altogether deny the possibility of this being the true expla-
nation, for the following reasons : —

(a) Glaciers do not deposit fine mud in lateral moraines
150 or 200 feet above the base of the glacier; and even if
they did, it is not possible that such mud could flow into
a cavern closed at its end as here described.

(b) The laminated clay occurs in the cave on the surface,
at a 'point where it can only be of most recent origin, near
the dome which terminates in a “ pot hole,” and by which
it has evidently been only recently introduced ; and similar
clays occur in other caverns, ivhere glacial action as above
described could not have obtained.

After a most careful examination I am perfectly satisfied
that Mr. Tiddeman has overrated the importance of this
laminated clay, and that his theory is altogether erroneous.

101

Mr. Tiddeman describes the “ talus” as having fallen from
the cliff above, and that it continued upwards, so as formerly
to close the entrance of the cave, which is so far quite cor-
rect. He afterwards describes the most recent discovery as
being brought to light below all the “ talus” at the mouth
of the cave, viz. a bed of tenacious clay with scratched Silu-
rian and other boulders, resting on the edges of the beds
containing the remains of the older mammals, and dipping
outwards at an angle of 40°. Professor Hughes had sug-
gested to him the possibility of this boulder clay not being
in its original position, but that it might have fallen from
the cliff; but Mr. Tiddeman thinks this impossible. He
“ considers that it seems likely that it is the remnant of the
moraine (lateral or profonde ) which dammed up the mouth
of the cave, and prevented anything but fine sediment from
entering it during the glacial period” (as before cited), and
it is upon this supposition that the more important one is
based, viz.; that the remains found recently are of pre-
glacial age.

I am sorry again to have to differ from Mr. Tiddeman,
but I am perfectly convinced he is in error, and that
there is at present nothing at all resembling the boulder
drift clay to be seen at the entrance of Victoria Cave.
I examined the whole section very carefully, and had
some of the boulders, which are very few, got out, and
I believe they are fully to be accounted for without any
need to assume glacial action. They are of black limestone,
silurian flags, whinstone, and millstone grit, such as occur
plentifully on the surface of the scar, and where they
were probably deposited as drift. At the point where the
animal remains so plentifully occurred is probably an old
entrance of the cavern, on a much lower level than the
original entrance when the cave was first discovered. Just
within this, in a water-worn hollow, the remains occurred

102

in the yellow clay or cave earth, which abounded with the
dung of the animals. Mr. Jackson says there was a sill
stone in front, evidently worn to smoothness by the frequent
passing of the animals ; and just beyond this point there is
an opening into a cavern, lower still than the lowest point
yet reached, and into which the drainage of the cavern now
flows. Everything points to the probability of a large
quantity of clay having poured out among the talus at this
place in very wet seasons, and the clay itself as now found
is a pasty, tenaceous mass, unlike any naturally deposited
clay with which I am acquainted.

Amongst the boulders I found one which is of itself suffi-
cient to account for the occurrence of boulders without any
need of a glacial theory.

It is a smoothly rounded limestone boulder, precisely such
as is formed by the rolling action of falling water in “ pot-
holes,” and which cannot have had any glacial origin. This
boulder occurring as it did with others of black limestone
and silurian slate, is to my mind perfectly conclusive.

The point at which the last fiisco very of older bones was
made, is at least 30 feet in advance of the original entrance,
and was covered in front with talus. It is however a por-
tion of the solid cliff, which has remained after all the rest
had fallen away, and its evidence is conclusive that a very
large mass has thus fallen since these remains were there
deposited. The fall of this large mass, containing in its
fissures clay and boulders from the glacial drift which cer-
tainly passed over it, would be amply sufficient to account
for all the drift boulders which actually occur in the talus.

I visited Victoria Cave three years ago, when the opera-
tions had newly commenced, and I then found at the top of
the talus precisely similar boulders to those which have

103

recently attracted so much attention, and I believe they will
he found throughout the debris. For all these reasons, there-
fore, I submit that there is no ground for the theory of
glacial action as put forth by these gentlemen, but on the
contrary that the filling of the Victoria Cave was the work
of long ages, by the action of running water, and that there
is no reason to suppose that the remains found in it are
older than the glacial epoch.

The President exhibited a syphon barometer, the pecu-
liarity of which consisted in the introduction of a small
quantity of sulphuric acid over the ends of the mercurial
column.

Mr. Spence, F.C.S., communicated to the Society the
result of an experiment in heating a diamond, which will
considerably modify the general impression as to that gem
being combustible only at an extremely high heat.

A friend of his had brought over a number of diamonds
from the African mines. Some of these were what is called
“ off colour,” not being purely white, and he put one of these
into Mr. Spence’s hands to try some experiments for dis-
placing the colour if practicable.

This diamond, the size of a small pea, was immersed in
fire-clay in a small crucible, the clay being mixed with a
little carbonate of soda and hydrate of lime, the crucible was
then placed in a muffle, and for three days and nights
exposed to a heat, which, at no time, was beyond a low
cherry red. After cooling, the crucible was broken, and the
lump of hardened fire-clay was carefully broken up to
extract the diamond ; after two or three fractures of the
lump an impression or hole in the indurated clay was

104

discovered just at the spot where the diamond should have
been, but not a vestige of the precious stone remained.

The only explanation of its departure that seems feasible
is, that the soda carbonate, causticised by the lime hydrate,
had by its affinity for carbonic acid assisted the oxygen of
the atmosphere getting through cracks in the clay, to
oxidise the pure carbon of which the diamond is composed
.at a vastly lower temperature than would in ordinary
circumstances have been required — at all events this gem
was entirely volatilised at a very low red heat.

105

Ordinary Meeting, April 1st, 1873.

R. Angus Smith, Ph.D., F.R.S., Vice-President, in the

Chair.

Mr. J. S. Kipping and Mr. J. Sidebotham were appointed
Auditors of the Treasurer’s Accounts.

“ Note on an Observation of a small black spot on the
Sun’s disc,” by Joseph Sidebotham, F.RA.S.

As there is again some speculation as to the existence oi
an intra-mercurial planet, and every little fact bearing on
the subject may be of value, I have referred to my diary
and find that on Monday, March 12th, 1849, our late mem-
ber Mr. G. C. Lowe and I saw a small circular black spot
cross a portion of the sun’s disc. We were trying the
mounting and adjustments of a 7-inch reflector we had been
making, and used an ink box between the eye-piece and the
plane speculum. At first we thought this small black spot
was upon the eye-piece, but soon found it was on the sun’s
disc, and we watched its progress across the disc for nearly
half an hour. The only note in my diary is the fact of the
spot being seen — no time is mentioned, but if I remember
rightly it was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

Mr. Baxendell, on behalf of Mr. Sidebotham, F.R.A.S.,
exhibited a knife, the blade of which is steel, the bush at
the handle brass, and the handle itself copper, all coated
with nickel, beautifully polished. In a letter which Mr.
Sidebotham had received from Professor Hamilton L. Smith,
of Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y,, the writer suggests the
use of iron or bell metal specula, coated with nickel, for
reflecting telescopes. He says, “ I ground and prepared a
bell metal speculum, which I coated with nickel, and this,
Proceedings— -Lit, & Phil. Society. — Yol.XII. — No 10. — Session 1S72-3.

106

when polished, proved to he more reflective (at least 1
thought so) than speculum metal. The two objects which
I sought were — first to have a polished surface unattackable
by sulphuretted hydrogen (this, for example, is not injured
by packing with lucifer matches), and secondly, for large
specula, doing most of the work by the turning-tool and
lathe. I really think a large, say 8 feet, mirror, coated with
nickel, but cast of iron, and finished mostly in the lathe,
while it would not cost the tenth of a similar sized specu-
lum metal, would be almost equal to silvered glass of
the same size, and vastly more enduring as to polish.

Professor Williamson, F.R.S., referring to Mr. Binney’s
remarks at the meeting of March 4th, said that Mr. Binney,
after pointing out that I had identified a certain type of
stem-structure with Asterophyllites, and that Professor
Renault had discovered the same structure in Sphenophyl-
lum, Mr, Binney proceeds to say, “ I am not in possession
of the facts from which the two learned professors came to
such different conclusions, but I am inclined to consider the
singular little stem as belonging to a new genus until the
leaves of Sphenophyllum or Asterophyllites a, re found
attached to it When this comes to pass of course there can
be no doubt of the matter/’ I have italicised the two
important points in the preceding quotation. In the first
place I cannot understand how Mr. Binney has overlooked
my statement, made primarily in the Proceedings of the
Royal Society, and repeated in the last number of the Pro-
ceedings of your meeting of February 4th, that I had “ got
a number of exquisite examples showing not only the nodes,
but verticils of the linear leaves so characteristic of the
plant ” These leaves I have obtained attached to the stems
in question in at least a dozen examples. Secondly, Mr.
Binney considers that my conclusions and those of my
friend Professor Renault are different , whereas they mutually

107

sustain each other in the strongest possible manner. Nearly
every writer who has dealt with these subjects has recog-
nised Annularia and Sphenophyllum as genera of plants
having the closest possible mutual affinity ; they are
invariably arranged side by side. Brongniart, in his
Tableau des genres de vegetaux fossiles, says of Spheno-
phyilum that “ great attention is necessary in order to avoid
confounding it with certain species of Asterophyllites;” and
again he says of the fructification of Sphenophyllum that it
“ is too analagous to that of Asterophyllites to allow of any
doubt as to the affinities of these two genera 5 (loc. cit. p. 52).
Mr. Carruthers, in his lecture “On the Cryptogamic Forests
of the Coal Period,” says of Asterophyllites, Annularia, and
Sphenophyllum, “ it is possible they may be found to con-
stitute three genera, but there are no characters possessed
by the leaves which prevent them belonging to one well
defined genus.” (Proceedings of the Royal Institution of
Great Britain for April 18th, 1869.) I could easily multiply
similar illustrations of my statement, but I have probably
said enough to prove that, so far from the “ conclusions” of
Professor Renault and myself on this point being opposed
and “ different,” we have been independently and unknown
to each other arriving at what are practically identical con-
clusions respecting the stem under consideration.

E. W. Binney, F.R.S., said that after having heard Pro-
fessor Williamsons remarks his opinion expressed at the
meeting of the Society on the 4th day of March last was
not altered. Sphenophyllum and Asterophyllites have al-
ways been considered as distinct genera of plants, and they
are so described in Professor Schimper’s great work. Pro-
fessor Renault writes, “Si jenemetrompe ces tiges curieuses
appartiennent a des sphenophyllum, du moins c’est ce que jai
<icrit dans les comptes rendus de bacademie en 1870.” And
again “ Je n’ai pas encore rencontre de feuilles adherentes
au rameau ce qui m’a empeche de determiner specifique-

108

ment ce sphenophyllum.” When he (Mr. Binney) sees the
leaves whether of Asterophyllites or Sphenophyllum at-
tached to the curious little stem he will he convinced of
their connection, but until then he will hold to his original
opinion.

PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SECTION.

Annual Meeting, March 25th, 1878.

E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., Vice-President of the Section

in the Chair.

The following gentlemen were elected officers of the Sec-
tion for the ensuing year :

ALFRED BROTHERS, F.R.A.S,

fticje-fmitottt#.

JOSEPH BAXENDELL, F.R.A.S.

SAMUEL BROUGHTON.

' %xmnxtx>

THOMAS GARRICK.

GEORGE VENABLES VERNON, F.R.A.S., F.M.S.

“Rainfall at Old Trafford, Manchester/5 by G. V. Vernon,

F. R.A.S.

The total amount of rainfall in 1872 was 50,692in. against
33-288in. in 1871.

The amount which fell in 1872 was 14‘883in. above the
average of the last seventy-nine years, and in excess of any
rainfall at Manchester between 1793 and 1872. Referring

109

to the observations made by Mr. Walker from 1786 to 1793,
we find that in 1789 he collected 50'998in., and in 1792
55-250in. Since this period the rainfalls exceeding 40in.
have been 1822, 44'767in.; 1823, 42-941in.; 1828, 45-267in.;
1830, 40‘861in. ; 1833, 41'677in.; 1836, 45-351in.; 1841,
41T90in.; 1845, 4D415in.; 1847, 43’555in.; 1818, 45’230in.;
1852, 45*730in.

At the time Mr. Walker registered his excessive falls, the
mean annual temperature was lower than it has been since,
and reference to my paper, “Inquiry into the question
Whether Excess or Deficiency of Temperature during part
of the year is usually compensated during the remainder of
the same year” (Memoirs, vol. 2, third series, p. 424), will
show that between 1781 and 1791 a lower mean tempera-
ture prevailed than any we have had since. The other
years in which excessive rainfall occurred, 1822, 1823, 1828,
1830, 1833, 1836, 1841, 1845, 1847, 1848, and 1852, appear
to have been irregular as regards temperature; the years
1822, 1828, 1833, 1841, 1847, 1848, and 1852, had a tem-
perature above the average, whilst 1823, 1830, 1836, and
1845, had a temperature below the average. Taking the
average rainfall of each of these series it appears that the
heaviest rainfall occurred during the warmer years.

Returning again to the year 1872, the rainfall rises above
the average in every quarter, especially in the third, the
excess in that quarter reaching 7‘104in.; in the last quarter
the excess was very small.

Every month excepting May, August, November, and
December, had a rainfall above the average, the falls of
June, July, and September being most remarkable, each of
these months having a fall of more than double the average.

The very heavy fall in the middle of July was accom-
panied by a great flood in the Medlock here, and there is
every certainty that such a rainfall again must be accom-
panied by a similar flood and great destruction of property.

110

What would have occurred if the rainfall in J uly had been
like that of 1828, llASOin., or 8,822in. in excess of what
fell in July, 1872 ?

Rain fell on 40 days in excess of the average of the last
10 years (Proceedings, vol. 11, p. 184); rain fell upon the
greatest number of days in January, June, September, and
October, and upon the least in April.

Whatever was the disturbing cause which produced the
excessive rainfall, examination of the excess of each quar-
terly period shows that it went on increasing until Septem-
ber, and then apparently declined to the end of the year, the
excess in question being — March quarter, 2*808in.; June
quarter, 4*794in. ; September quarter, 7'104in. ; and drop-
ping down in the December quarter to O l77in. only.

As regards the temperature of the year, it was above the
average in every quarter, Greenwich giving

March quarter + 5'0°

June quarter + 05°

September quarter ... + 1 ’5°

December quarter ... +1*7°

^ in excesss of
L the average
1 of 101 years;

so that in the case of last year a high temperature has
accompanied the excessive rainfall.

Old Tr afford, Manchester.

Rain Gruage 8 feet above the ground, and 106 feet above sea level.

Quar

Peri

1871.

terly

ods.

1872.

1872.

Fall

in

Inches.

Average

of

79 Years

Days

Days

In.

In,

(

January . .

4-255

2-537

38

564

February . .

3-018

2-409

(

March ....

2-775

2-294

(

April

2-975

2 062

44

504

May

2-145

2-301

(

June

6-900

2-863

f

July

7-658

3-557

52

59 4

August

2-784

3-501

l

September

7-038

3-318

(

October . .

4-404

3-891

48

63 4

November..

3“774

3-784

1

December..

2-966

3-292

182

228

50-692

25-809

Differ-

ence.

No. of
Days
Rain
fell in
1872.

Quarterly Periods.

79 Years

1872.

Differ-

ence.

In.

In.

In.

In.

+1-718

22

)

+0-609

18

)■ 7-240

10-048

+2-808

+0-481

16

j

+ 0-913

9

)

-0-156

17

V 7-226

12-020

+4-794

+4-037

24

i

+4-101

17

)

-0-717

19

> 10-376

17‘480

+7-104

+ 3-720

23

i

+0-513

22

)

-0-014

21

y 10-967

11-144

+0-177

-0-326

, 20

i

+14-883

228

35-809

_

50-692

+14-883

Ill

Ordinary Meeting, April 15th, 1873.

It. Angus Smith, Ph.D., F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair.

Mr. William Thomson was elected an Ordinary Member
of the Society.

Mr. Fkancis Nicholson, F.Z.S., exhibited two fine eggs
of the golden eagle (Falco chrysaetos) taken the previous
week from a nest in the north of Scotland. Fortunately
some of the large landed proprietors both in Scotland and
Ireland are now preserving this noble bird from persecution
during the breeding time, so that it is not likely to be tho-
roughly exterminated at present, but British taken eggs are
difficult to obtain and are rare in collections.

The following letter from Mr. William Boyd Dawkins,
FR.S., was read :

As Secretary of the Committee of the British Association
for carrying on the exploration of the Victoria Cave, I am
obliged to notice the “ Notes on Victoria Cave/’ by Mr. W.
Brockbank, published in the Proceedings, March 10th, 1873,
pp. 95 et seq. The notes in question are based partly on
Mr. Brockbank’s examination of the cave during two visits
with an interval of two years between them, partly on the
facts recorded by Mr. Tiddeman and myself, and partly on a
ground plan constructed by our superintendent Mr. J ackson,
for the Exploration Committee, that is not yet published.
I submit that until the work of the Committee to which
the cave has been handed over by the kindness of the owner
be finished, and the observations, to which Mr. Brockbank
has had no access, be recorded, his notes must of neces-
sity be imperfect and liable to error. How much he is in
error as to matters of fact may be estimated by the exami-
nation of the statement, p. 97 — “ the day before my visit a
mass of at least 100 tons had fallen from above the face of
the Victoria Cave.” Mr. Jackson writes me that not even a
mass weighing one ton, although two blocks possibly of

Proceedings— Ltt. & Phil, Society.— Vol. XII,— No. 11— Session 1872-3.

112

lOcwt. each, had fallen. The statement at p. 96, in which I
am made to differ with Mr. Tiddeman as to the presence of
the pleistocene mammalia inside the cave is altogether
unfounded, and the inference that I “ varied my description”
after my paper came before the Society is negatived by the
fact that the abstract in question was printed for private
circulation in 1872. The remains occur at the entrance and
extend both inside and outside the cave, as I pointed out
in my diagram. These are merely two out of many points
which have been raised, and which do not lead me to alter
my conviction that the stratum containing the mammalia is
of preglacial age, or to undertake any responsibility as to
the views which I have not advanced. Were I to discuss
all the points which have been raised, I should anticipate
the Report of the Committee to the British Association. If
these hasty and necessarily imperfect observations were not
calculated to throw discredit on the Exploration, I should
not trouble the Society with this note.

“ On some Improvements in Electro-Magnetic Induction
Machines,” by Henry Wilde, Esq.

[An abstract of this paper will appear in the next number
of the Proceedings.]

MICROSCOPICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SECTION.

Extraordinary Meeting, December 11th, 1872.

Joseph Sidebotham, F.R.A.S., in the Chair.

Mr. James M. Spence exhibited a large and interesting
collection of natural history and other objects from Vene-
zuela. Mr. Spence had lately returned from that country,
in which he spent eighteen months, during which time he
accumulated a very extensive collection.

The natural history collection contained a number of
hunters’ skins of the larger animals of prey and of the chase ;
but the great wealth and beauty of the fauna of the country
was best illustrated by the extensive collection of birds,

113

which is probably the best ever got together, and embraces
examples of nearly all the tribes found in the Venezuelan
Republic.

The economical portion of the collection was of great
interest and value, chiefly from its extent and the care
which had been exercised in its collection and transportation,
and the valuable notes of Dr. Ernst of Caracas, which
accompany it, rendered it still more valuable. Specimens
of the vegetable and mineral productions of Venezuela were
to be seen in great number and variety.

Among the plants exhibited was a small collection of
Characeos named by Dr. Ernst, but the chief interest was
in a small collection of plants gathered by Mr. Spence on
the summit of Mount Naiguati.

This mountain, whose altitude is nearly 9,500 feet, is the
highest in Venezuela, and was regarded as almost inacces-
sible until Mr. Spence and five companions made a successful
ascent in April, 1872. A species of grass allied to the bam-
boos and new to science was one of the results of this
ascent.

The exhibition also included an assortment of interesting
curiosities of native manufacture, recent and ancient. There
were goblets, drinking cups, and flasks more or less finely
carved out of cocoa nuts, some mounted in silver; and a
series of delicately worked cups and bowls of calabash.

From the State of Trugillo Mr. Spence has brought three
curiously shaped vessels obtained from Peruvian burial
places.

The collection remained open to the public for some days,
and was visited by a large number of persons.

January 27th, 1873.

Professor W C. Williamson, F.R.S., President of the
Section, in the Chair.

“ Description of Minerals and Ores from Venezuela/ by
John Plant, F.G.S.

114

The collection of minerals acquired by Mr. J. M. Spence
during his residence at Caracas, and on several journeys
along the coast, came from the provinces of Barcelona, Boli-
var, Carabobo, and Coro, with a few obtained from the
regions of the River Orinoco and Lake Maracaibo. The
collection contains gold in quartz of very rich character,
argentiferous ores, green and blue carbonates of copper,
copper pyrites, galena, iron ores of various kinds, carbona-
ceous minerals, calcites, silicas, and rock specimens of gneiss,
mica, talc schists, kaolin, hornblendic rocks, and serpentine
with a few imperfect fossil and silicified woods.

The gold quartz of the richest kind, came from the Pro-
vince of Guayana, where vast regions of auriferous rocks
occur ; and where also gold is found in small grains, flakes,
and nuggets of all sizes from an ounce to many pounds
weight, in a clay from two to eight inches thick, as well as
in a red peroxidated iron earth, both probably alluvial
drifts. The quartz veins are richly impregnated with gold
in crystals and strings, as may be seen in specimens in the
collection. Other specimens of the gold rocks come from
the Isle of Aruba, and Loro Estado, Tacasumino.

The argentiferous ores are galenas and cupiferous, and
are not of very great richness; they are from La Guaira
Cumana, and Coro, where decomposed galenas are worked
for silver.

The copper ores include 20 specimens from mines that
have been worked with profit, one of which, the Aroa mines
in the province of Yaracui, is the most famous for the supe-
rior richness of its carbonates. The specimen of cuprite from
this mine or Quebrada has some long and beautiful crystals
of olivenite with cubes of strontian, and from Aragua are
specimens of pyrargyrite or red silver ore; others from
Caracas, Coro, and the river Tui, include malachites and a
native sulphate of copper, probably a crystallisation from
the waters issuing from the mines. The chaleopyrites are

115

neither numerous nor very good ; the best comes from the
Aroa mines, the small granular pyrites appears to be most
abundant in a decomposing gneissoze rock.

The galenas are from mines at Los Teques, Aroa, and
Campano, several are pseudomorphou s crystals in filmy
aggregations, interesting specimens for the mineralogist.

The iron ores include specimens of pyrites (mundic) which
in Venezuela appears to be as abundant as in most palaeozoic
regions, ten of the samples are rich, and would be profit-
able if the cost of mining is not too expensive at Barquis-
imeto, Caracas, and the Aroa mines.

The haematites include specular, micaceous, and red iron
ores, all comparable to the best European ores. The lim-
nites comprise bog-iron ore of recent formation and a brown
amorphous ore. The siderites include an aggregation of
tabular crystals from Caracas, probably a carbonate of
protoxide of iron valuable in making steel, and massive
clay ironstones from the districts of Corui Maehate, where
coal is also worked. The crystallised and compact magnet-
ites come from the same place. A thin vein of brown
siliceous ironstone has its surfaces covered with minute
fragments of clear quartz, singular and beautiful under the
microscope.

The carbonaceous minerals are coals, graphite, sulphur,
asphaltum and/petroleum. The coals are from Nuevo Mundo,
where Mr. Spence has proved the existence of workable
coals, the Island of Toas in the Lake Maraciabo, and a can-
nel coal from Coro, with several black shales from these
localities. These coals are undoubtedly of excellent quality,
and from report can be worked economically ; their age is
at present unknown from the want of any proper geological
survey, and in the absence of fossils of any kind in the
shales in this collection; in all probability however the
Venezuelan coals are of true carboniferous age.

The graphite from Caracas is an impure amorphous earthy

116

kind, in schists of two inches thick, occurring in talcose
and micaceous rocks. The sulphurs are massive and of good
quality from Campano, Cumana, and Coro. Asphaltum and
its varieties are reported to be found on the coasts in great
deposits and in springs : the specimens in the collection are
of excellent quality.

The twelve rock specimens of quartz crystals include -
some of equal purity and size to those obtained from Brazil.
The marbles are of inferior quality and quite devoid of
colour and beauty; but in the International Exhibition of
1862 some excellent green and red marbles were shown.

The predominating rocks of the mountain ranges in
Venezuela are palaeozoic, metamorphosed talcose and clilo-
ritic slates, with great layers of gneiss ; and within this
range along the line of faults and in veins, are found an
endless variety of minerals, of which the collection contains
asbestos, serpentine, talc, hornblende chlorite, kaolin, felspar,
and selenite.

Amongst the comparatively recent rocks are stalactites,
salt, marl, alum, gypsum, and many calcareous deposits from
the sea shores and fresh water lakes.

The special collection made by Mr. Spence during a visit
to the Island of Orchilla is interesting to the geologist. It
contains sufficient specimens to decide the main geological
character of the island to be entirely metamorphic gneiss,
overlaid with modern calcareous tufas.

The collection includes a number of crude guanos, phos-
phates of lime, alumina and urao, a sesquicarbonate of soda
-—all of commercial value and sources of prosperity if effi-
ciently worked.

117

February 24th, 1873.

Joseph Sidebotham, F.R.A.S., in the Chair.

Mr. Hardy made a communication to the Section respect-
ing the occurrence of one of the few large bivalve mollusca
within the limits of the Manchester district, the species
in question, Unio tumidus of authors, having been observed
in considerable numbers in the canal at Barton, a little
beyond the aqueduct, and in several places between there
and Stretford : a few dead shells were also found in the
river.

References were given to works on local conchology in
which no notice of this shell as an inhabitant of the district
was to be found. Allusion was also made to the record of
a single living example of another species of the same genus,
the U. pictorum of Linne, in the canal near Romiley ; and
during the conversation which followed the reading of the
paper Mr. T. S. Peace announced that this latter shell had
since been collected in quantity in the same canal some
short distance beyond Marple; thus establishing satisfac-
torily the occurrence of two out of the three British species
of Unio, the third not being at all likely to inhabit any of
our rivers in their present condition ; although the speci-
mens collected at Barton were many of them much larger
than others of the same species collected in more southern
and apparently more favourable localities, and exhibited to
the meeting.

Joseph Sidebotham, F.R.A.S., exhibited an old micro-
scope sent by Mr. Rideout, and explained its construction.
The workmanship of the brass-work was very beautiful,
and the various motions and appliances much admired ; he
also read a letter from Mr. Dancer, who for several reasons

118

thought that the microscope was not more than 120 years
old, and was made by the elder Adams. He said that many
of these old microscopes in finish of brass-work, good fitting
and screws would compare very favourably with instru-
ments of recent construction, and that the appliances and
apparatus of one of the complete microscopes would surprise
a microscopist of the present day; he would find many parts
and adaptations which are generally supposed to be of
modern invention.

The stand of the microscope is of ebony, and is a fine
specimen of geometrical turning. The optical part is of
course very poor, and inferior to the very cheapest achro-
matic instrument of the present day.

119

Animal Meeting, April 29th, 1873.

E, W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., Yiee-President, in the Chair.

The following Report of the Council was read by one of
the Secretaries : —

The Council have the satisfaction to report that a further
improvement has taken place in the financial position of the
Society, the Treasurer’s account showing that the general
balance on the 31st of March last was £407 Is. 4d, against
£340 Os. 3Jd. on the 31st of March, 1872.

The number of ordinary members on the roll of the
Society on the 1st of April, 1872, was 174, and six new
members have since been elected ; the losses are, deaths, 4 ;
resignations, 4 ; and defaulters, 3. The number on the roll
on the 1st of April instant was, therefore, 169. The deceased
members are John Francis, George Cliff Lowe, Samuel
Emanuel Nelson, and Joseph Jordan.

Mr, George Cliff Lowe, whose death was the result of an
accident in the United States, was known to many of our
members for his general and accurate acquaintance with the
natural sciences, but more particularly that of astronomy.

Possessing a love of knowledge for its own sake, and a
comprehensiveness of mind to deal with other besides purely
physical subjects, he took great interest in the leading philo-
sophical questions of the present time, and his opinions were
generally to be found on the side of progress. Although not
a frequent contributor to the literature of science, Mr. Lowe
had an acuteness of perception combined with a degree of
manipulative and artistic skill which made his co-operation
and judgment much valued and sought for by others.

We thus find Mr. Lowe’s name associated with that of
Professor F. C. Calvert, F.R.S., in a joint paper “ On the Ex-
pansion of Metals and Alloys,” published in the Proceedings
Peoceedinos— Lit. & Phil, Society.—' Vol. XII —No. 12— Session 1S72-3.

120

of the Royal Society, vol. 10, 1860. Mr. Lowe was also
associated in business with our member Mr. Wilde as an
electrical engineer, and suggested to him the plan of exciting
a number of electromagnetic machines by the current from
one machine, instead of employing a separate exciting
machine for each. With his philosophical attainments Mr.
Lowe combined estimable moral qualities, the most con-
spicuous of which were the amiability of his character and
the generosity of his disposition.

Mr. Joseph Jordan, F.R.C.S. Engl., was one of the oldest
members of the Society, having been elected on the 19tli of
October, 1821. He was born in Manchester, and, with the
exception of a short period when he was surgeon of the 1st
Lancashire Militia, resided in Manchester all his life. He
retired from active practice about nine years ago, when he
was in the 76th year of his age. His name will be dis-
tinctly remembered as the founder of provincial medical
schools. As early as 1814 he gave regular courses of lec-
tures on anatomv, with demonstrations and dissections, to
classes of medical pupils and students. He was the first
provincial lecturer and teacher whose certificates were ac-
cepted and recognised by the examining bodies in London.
The Apothecaries’ Hall began to accept his certificates in
1817, and the College of Surgeons in 1821. In 1826 he
built a medical school in Manchester at his own cost, and,
besides its lecture hall, provided it with one of the most
commodious and best-fitted dissecting rooms in England,
and transferred to it his own valuable museum, containing
nearly 4,000 anatomical specimens and morbid and other
preparations. He subsequently placed this museum in the
Manchester Royal School of Medicine. He devoted himself
to the arduous duties of a public lecturer for twenty years.
On his retiring from the chair a public dinner was given to
him by his friends, in October, 1834, attended by almost
every medical man of reputation in Manchester, and a

121

handsome and valuable testimonial in silver plate was
presented to him from his friends and pupils.

Mr. Jordan had further claims upon public regard as a
large benefactor to suffering humanity by professional un-
paid services. In his private practice, extending over more
than fifty years, Mr. Jordan ever showed a special devotion
to the relief of the sickness and suffering of the poor. His
great professional skill, often unpaid, and even supplemented
by a liberal purse, and that genuine kindness which ever
doubles the value of a gift, won for him the blessings of
thousands. Nor was his philanthropy less conspicuous in
official positions. About 1819 he aided largely in founding
the Lock Hospital, for unfortunate women, of which he was
the surgeon or consulting surgeon till he finally retired
from practice, He was always a steady benefactor to the
institution, in wise counsel and liberal donations. In 1835
he was appointed an honorary medical officer of the Royal
Infirmary, and long filled the honourable position of its
senior surgeon with the highest credit to himself and with
great benefit to the institution and the community at large.
Within its walls he often performed some of the greater as
well as the more delicate operations of surgery ; his remark-
able nerve and steadiness and precision of hand admirably
qualifying him for these duties. He invented a most beau-
tiful little lamp to obtain a magnified view of the membrane
tympani and other organs, for which the Society of Arts
awarded their silver medal. His clinical lectures in the
hospital wards always attracted a large and attentive fol-
lowing of the pupils and students, and a few years ago a very
numerously signed testimonial was presented to him by the
pupils of the Royal Infirmary for these lectures. He was a
most eloquent and interesting lecturer, and his great and
long experience enabled him to illustrate his lectures with
cases bearing upon the subject, which rivetted the attention
and increased the knowledge of his hearers.

122

Mr. Jordan was a valued contributor to medical science
by a new method of treating false joints. A difficult class
of surgical cases is presented when the fractured surfaces of
bone refuse to reunite, or else unite so badly as to cause
great suffering and even loss of the use of a limb. For the
cure of these so-called “false joints,” and the effecting of a
speedy, safe, and satisfactory reunion of the fractured bones,
Mr. Jordan, in the year 1854, invented and applied a new
and exceedingly simple mode of treatment. His plan was
recognised not only by his professional brethren in Man-
chester, but in June, 1856, the eminent Paris surgeon,
Professor Nelaton, in a public lecture to his class, described
the method as “ a happy innovation, and one capable of
receiving numerous applications.” The priority of Mr.
Jordan s claim to this invention was beyond doubt. Find-
ing, however, that a French surgeon was introducing the
method as his own, Mr. Jordan proceeded to Paris in 1860,
where he published in French a treatise, illustrated with
three plates, entitled “Traitement des Pseudarthroses par
hAutoplastic Periostique,” which not only effectually ex-
tinguished any rival claim, but comprised a full and clear
exposition of the mode of treatment in all its successive
stages, and gave to the author a European reputation.

It was at one time proposed that some mark of her
Majesty’s favour should be solicited by Mr. Jordan’s friends,
to honour one who had conferred so much credit upon his
profession in Manchester, and so much advantage upon the
community at large ; but the modesty of the veteran self-
sacrificing surgeon shrunk from this distinction, and at his
instance the movement was stopped.

In the last annual report it was stated, with reference to
the benefaction which the late Natural History Society
provided for the promotion of the study of Natural History
in Manchester, under the guardianship of the Literary and
Philosophical Society, that the Owens College would at

123

once proceed to endeavour to sell the Peter-street site, to
be delivered up in June, 1873, for money or for rent, as
may seem best. In the latter case it had been agreed be-
tween the commissioners and the college that the college
should pay £60 per annum as interest at 4 per cent, on
£1,500 until the principal shall have been paid over to the
society. The Council have now to report that the Peter-street
site has not yet been sold, but on the 20th of November last
a letter was addressed by Mr. Harbishire to Mr. H. A. Hurst,
the treasurer of the Microscopical and Natural History Sec-
tion, stating that by an arrangement made on that day
between the commissioners of the Peter-street Museum and
the Owens College the Museum Trust in the hands of the
college will pay to the Philosophical Society, for the present,
interest upon the sum of £1,500 at 4 per cent, from that date.
The first half-yearly payment will therefore become due on
the 20th of May next.

At a meeting of the Council held on the 7th of January
last, a committee was appointed to consider and report
upon the desirability of incorporating the society, and of
acceding to an application of the Manchester Geological
Society for permission to hold its meetings and keep its
library within this society’s buildings. Resolutions em-
bodying the recommendations of this committee will be
submitted this evening for the approval of the members of
the society.

In May of last year, Hr. R. Angus Smith, F.R.S., a vice-
president of this society, attended on behalf of the society
the centenary celebration of the foundation of the Royal
Academy of Sciences of Belgium, and a medal lias this day
been received commemorative of this interesting event.

The following papers and communications have been
read at the ordinary and sectional meetings of the society
during the session now closing : —

October ls£, 1872. — “On the Composition of Ammonium Amal-
gam,” by lv. Routledge, B.Sc.

124

October %§tli, 1872. — On a Peculiar Fog in Iceland, and on
Vesicular Vapour,’’ by R. Angus Smith, Ph.D., F.R.S., V.P.

November ith, 1872. — “On the Flora of Alexandria (Egypt),”
by H. A. Hurst, Esq.

“On the Destruction of the Rarer Species of British Ferns,”
by Joseph Sidebotham, F.R.A.S.

November 1 2th, 1872. — “Additional Notes on the Drift Deposits
near Manchester,” by E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., V.P.

“An Account of some Experiments on the Melting Point of
Paraffin,” by Professor Balfour Stewart, LL.D., F.R.S.

November ‘Noth, 1872. — “On the action of Town Atmospheres on
Building Stones,” by R. Angus Smith, Ph.D., F.R.S., V.P.

“ On some points in the Chemistry of Acid Manufacture,” by
H. A. Smith, F.C.S.

December 10 th, 1872. — “Observations of the Meteoric Shower
of November 27th, 1872,” by E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S. ;
Joseph Baxendell, F.R.A.S. ; and Alfred Brothers, F.R.A.S.

“ On some remarkable Forms of Stalagmites from Caves near
Tenby,” by W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S.

“ On the date of the Conquest of South Lancashire by the
English,” by W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S.

“ On some Human Bones found at Buttington, Montgomery-
shire,” by W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S.

“On the Electrical Properties of Clouds and the Phenomena of
Thunder Storms,” by Professor Osborne Reynolds, M.A.

December 11 th, 1872. — “On a Collection of Natural History and
other Objects from Venezuela,” by James M. Spence, Esq.

December %ith, 1872.-— “On the increase in the number of cases
of Hydrophobia,” by J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., &c.,
President.

January 1th, 1873. — “On the Action of Sulphuric and Hydro-
chloric Acids on Iron and Steel,” by William H. Johnson, B.Sc.

January 21 st, 1873. — “On an Apparatus for producing a high
degree of Rarefaction of Air,” by J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.,
&c., Presiden

“On some Specimens of Anachoropteris,” by E. W. Binney,
F.R.S., F.G.S.

125

January 21th, 1873. — “Description of Minerals and Ores from
Venezuela,” by John Plant, F.G.S.

February Uh , 1873. — “ On some Specimens of Asterophyllites,”
by Professor W. C. Williamson, F.R.S.

“On a large Meteor seen on February, 3, 1873, at 10 p.m.,” by
Professor Osborne Reynolds, M.A,

“Note on Meta-Vanadic Acid,” by Dr. B. W. Gerland. Com-
municated by Professor Roscoe, F.R.S.

“Experiments on the Question of Biogenesis,” by William
Roberts, M.D.

February 1 &th, 1873. — “Account of Improvements in an Air
Exhausting Apparatus,” by J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., &c.,
President.

“ Notes on supposed Glacial Action in the Deposition of Hema-
tite Iron Ores in the Furness District,” by William Brockbank,
F.G.S.

“The Results of the Settle Cave Exploration,” by W. Boyd
Dawkins, M.A., F.R.S.

February 2ith, 1873. — “On the occurrence of Unio tumidus in
the Manchester district,” by Mr. Hardy.

March 4 th, 1873. — “Monthly Fall of Rain, according to the
North Rain Gauge at Swinden, as measured by Mr. James Emmett,
Waterworks Manager, Burnley, from January 1st, 1866, to Dec.
31st, 1872,” by T. T. Wilkinson, F.R.A.S.

“ On Ball Discharge in Thunderstorms,” by Mr. S. Broughton.

“ On Specimens of Iron manufactured by the old Bohemian
Process, from Hematite Ores in the South of Europe,” by W.
Brockbank, F.G.S.

“On a Change in the Position of the Freezing Point of a
Thermometer,” by J. P. Joule, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., &c., Pre-
sident.

“On the Influence of Acids on Iron and Steel,” by William H.
Johnson, B.Sc.

March 1 8th, 1873. — “On the Quality of the Water supplied to
Manchester,” by E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S.

“ Observations on the Rate at which Stalagmite is being accu-
mulated in the Ingleborough Cave,” by W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A.,

F.R.S., F.G.S.

126

“ On Methyl-alizarine and Ethyl-alizarine,” by Edward Schunck,
Ph.D., F.R.S.

, “On the Transition from Roman to Arabic Numerals (so
called) in England,” by the Rev. Brooke Herford.

“Notes on the Victoria Cave, Settle,” by William Brockbank,
F.G.S.

“ On an Experiment in Heating a Diamond,” by Peter Spence,

F. C.S.

March 25th, 1873. — “ Rainfall at Old Tr afford, Manchester,” by

G. V. Vernon, F.R.A.S.

April 1st, 1873. — “Note on an Observation of a small Black
Spot on the Sun’s Disc,” by Joseph Sidebotham, F.R.A.S.

“ On the use of iron or bell metal Specula, coated with Nickel,
for Reflecting Telescopes,” by Professor Hamilton G. Smith, of
Hobart College, Geneva, N.Y., communicated by Joseph Side-
botham, F.R.A.S.

April 1 5th, 1873. — “On some Improvements in Electro-Mag-
netic Induction Machines,” by Henry Wilde, Esq.

Several of these papers have already been printed in the
current volume of the Society’s Memoirs, and others have
been passed for printing.

No increase has taken place during the year in the num-
ber of Sectional Associates ; nevertheless the Council
consider it desirable to continue the system of electing
such Associates during the ensuing year.

The Honorary Librarian reports that during the past year
more pressing duties have prevented him from giving that
attention to the Library which it requires, and he urges
the early appointment of a paid servant to attend to the
multifarious duties of the office. Since the last annual
meeting there is no change to report in the number of
learned bodies with which the Society is in the habit of
exchanging transactions.

On the motion of Mr. J. A. Bennion, seconded by Mr. S.
Broughton, the Annual Report was unanimously adopted.

On the motion of Mr. A. Brothers, seconded by the Rev.

127

Joseph Freestone, it was resolved unanimously — That the
system of electing Sectional Associates be continued during
the ensuing session.

On the motion of Mr. R D. Darbishire, seconded by the
Rev. William Gaskell, it was resolved unanimously — That
the Council be instructed to take steps for procuring the
incorporation of the Society under the provisions of the
Companies Acts, and to apply to the Board of Trade for
permission to omit the word “Limited” from the title of
Incorporated Society.

On the motion of Mr. W. A. Cunningham, seconded by
Mr. W. Radford it was resolved unanimously — That the
application of the Manchester Geological Society for per-
mission to hold its meetings and keep its library within this
Society’s buildings, in consideration of an annual payment,
be acceded to, and the Council be authorised to negotiate
the terms and conditions of such arrangement.

The following gentlemen were elected officers of the
Society and members of the Council for the ensuing year : —

Ipresibcnt.

JAMES PRESCOTT JOULE, LL.D., F.R.S., F.C.S., &c.

EDWARD WILLIAM BINNEY, F.R.S., F.G.S.

EDWARD SCHUNCK, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.C.S.

ROBERT ANGUS SMITH, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.C.S.

REY. WILLIAM GASKELL, M.A.

HENRY ENFIELD~ROSCOE, B.A., Ph.D., F.R.S.

JOSEPH BAXENDELL, F.R.A.S.

feasum.

THOMAS CARRICK.

ITibrariau.

CHARLES BAILEY.

Of the Council.

ROBERT DUKINFIELD DARBISHIRE, B.A., F.G.S.

OSBORNE REYNOLDS, M.A.

WILLIAM BOYD DAWKINS, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S.

BALFOUR STEWART, LL.D., F.R.S.

ALFRED BROTHERS, F.R.A.S.

REY. BROOKE HERFORD.

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129

The following paper was read at the Ordinary Meeting of
the Society, held April 15th, 1873 : —

“ On some improvements in Electro-magnetic Induction
Machines,” by Henry Wilde, Esq.

Soon after the announcement by the author (in 1866) of
the discovery that electric currents and magnets, indefin-
itely weak, could, by induction and transmutation, produce
magnets and currents of indefinite strength,* a number of
electricians suggested other methods by which this principle
could be exhibited and more powerful results obtained than
those which the author described. The most interesting as
well as the most useful of these suggestions was to augment
the magnetic force of the elementary magnet, by transmit-
ting the direct current from the armature of a magneto-
electric, or an electro-magnetic machine through wires
surrounding its own permanent or electro-magnet, in such
a direction as to intensify its magnetism until, by a series
of actions and reactions of the armature and the magnet on
each other, an exalted degree of magnetism in the iron or
steel was obtained.

This idea seems to have occurred to several electro-
mechanicians almost simultaneously in England, Germany,
and America. In a letter to the EjigiyicsT newspaper of
July 20th, 1866, Mr. Murray, after referring to the authors
experiments, writes that he wishes to point out a variety of
the principles embodied in the machine the author had
described, which, he says, is so obvious that it cannot fail
to be hit upon by some inventor before long, and warns
anyone whom it may strike against patenting the idea,
seeing that he had already constructed a machine upon the
plan. Mr. Murray then states that, “Whereas Mr. Wilde,
beginning with an ordinary magneto-electric machine,
uses the current obtained from it to charge a powerful

* Proceedings of the Royal Society, April 26, 1S66. Philosophical Trans-
actions, Vol. clvii., 1867. Philosophical Magazine, S. 4, Yol. xsxiv.

130

“ electro-magnet, and from this obtains a second and more
“ powerful current, which, used in like manner, produces
“ one still more intense. I, using only a single machine,

“ pass the currents from its armatures through wires coiled
“ round the permanent magnets in such direction as to
“ intensify their magnetism, which, in its turn, reacts upon
“ the armatures and intensifies the current,”

Mr, Murray’s warning to inventors against patenting his
idea would seem to have been disregarded, as a patent was
taken out on December the 24th of the same year, by C. &
S. A. Yarley, for “Improvements in the means of generating
Electricity,” wherein is described a machine consisting of
two electro-magnets and two bobbins. The bobbins are
mounted on an axle, on which also a commutator is fixed ;
the ends of the insulated wire surrounding the bobbins are
connected with this commutator and through it with the
insulated wire of the electro-magnets, forming the whole
into one electric circuit. Before using the apparatus an
electric current is sent through the electro-magnet for the
purpose of securing a small amount of permanent magnet-
ism in the iron core of the electro-magnet. On revolving
the axle, the bobbins become slightly magnetised in their
passage between the poles of the electro-permanent magnets,
generating weak currents in the insulated wire surrounding
them. The effect of the current passing through the electro-
magnets is to increase their magnetism, and to magnetise in
a higher degree the bobbins when passing between the poles
of the electro-magnets, and the bobbins act and react on
each other causing the circulation of increased quantities of
electricity.

Another patent for the same idea was taken out by C. W.
Siemens, F.RS., on January the 31st, 1867, as a communi-
cation from Dr. Werner Siemens, of Berlin. Again the
same idea was communicated to the author in a letter from
Mr. Moses G. Farmer, of Salem, Mass., U.S.A., who had

131

constructed a machine to which the initial charge of mag-
netism was imparted by means of a thermo-electric battery.

The last instance of the repetition of this same idea is
that by Sir Charles Wheatstone, in a paper “ On the Aug-
mentation of the Power of a Magnet by the reaction thereon
of currents induced by the magnet itself.”*

This enumeration of the instances where the idea of
augmenting the force of a magnet by currents induced by
itself, the author would have deemed somewhat unneces-
sary, were it not that the contrivance had been described
as a new principle in electric science, whereas it is, as Mr.
Murray justly designates it, an obvious variety of the prin-
ciples embodied in the machine the author first described
before the Royal Society.

At the time when, this method of exciting an electro-
magnet was brought prominently forward by Messrs.
Siemens and Wheatstone, the author directed attention to
the fact (which would seem to have escaped the notice of
these electricians, as they omitted to mention it) that ma^
chines constructed as they had described them, are incapable,
of themselves, of producing powerful electric currents, as
the whole energy of the machine is expended in exciting its
own electro-magnet.~|*

While the current transmitted from the armature of a
magneto-electric or an electro-magnetic machine through
coils surrounding its own magnet is incapable of directly
producing powerful electro-dynamic effects, such current
may be usefully employed to excite the electro-magnets
of other machines in accordance with the author’s original
method. Some idea of the smallness of the quantity
of electricty requisite for this purpose will be found from
the fact that the full power of the 10 inch machine is de-

* Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. xv., p. 369.

f Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester,
vol. vi., p, 103.

132

veloped when its electro-magnet is excited by the current
from four pint Grove's cells. The electro-magnet of this
machine is now excited by its own residual magnetism in
the following manner : — A small magnet cylinder (3*5 inches
diameter and 14 inches long) is bolted to the top of the 10
inch cylinder, so that the sides and axis of the former are
parallel with the similar parts of the latter. The cylinders
are separated for a space of three-quarters of an inch by
packings of brass, and consequently act upon each other by
induction through the intervening space, instead of by con-
tact as in ordinary methods of magnetisation.

The residual or permanent magnetism of the large electro-
magnet with its cylinder is very considerable, being many
times greater than that of the four small permanent magnets
with which it was originally excited.

The small scale upon which the author’s experiments
have been repeated by physicists has, in some instances,
given rise to the notion that the residual magnetism of an
electro-magnet is a lower degree of permanent magnetism
than that which originally formed the basis of his augmen-
tations.

The coils of the small armature are placed in connection
with those of the great electro-magnet, and when the
armature is rotated the magnet cylinders act and react
on each other until the electro-magnet is excited to the
highest degree of intensity. By this arrangement of the
armatures and cylinders the minor current for exciting
the electro-magnet is kept distinct from the major current
from the large armature, which may be coiled for currents
of high or low tension, according to the purpose for which
they are required.

So far as the author has communicated the results of his
investigations on the principle of accumulative action in
electro-dynamics, they have been obtained with machines
designed with reference to the peculiar form of armature

133

contrived by Dr. Werner Siemens, of Berlin. While
possessing several advantages, in point of efficiency over
that of Saxton, the Siemens armature requires to be driven
at a high velocity to produce a succession of currents suffi-
ciently rapid to be available as a substitute for the voltaic
battery. Little inconvenience however arises from the high
speed when the armatures are of small dimensions, but as
the dimensions increase it becomes necessary to lower the
speed, and the large machines are, consequently, not pro-
portionately powerful with the smaller ones. Besides this,
the advantages possessed by this form of armature in
having the moving mass of metal near the axis of rotation
is neutralised, as the dimensions increase, by the excessive
heat generated by the magnetisation and demagnetisation
of the iron ; it would also be convenient in some circum-
stances to drive a machine direct from the crank or fly-
wheel of a steam-engine, without the intervention of multi-
plying gearing.

Considerations of this nature led the author, towards the
end of 1866, to propose to himself the construction of an
electro-magnetic machine with multiple armatures, which
should remove the inconveniences inherent in those hitherto
constructed, by producing a greater number of currents for
one revolution of the armature axis. Since that time he
has been engaged, with more or less interruption, in carry-
ing out this design, and has at length constructed a machine
the performance of which surpasses all his previous essays
in this direction, in regard to power and efficiency, and
with a considerable reduction in the quantity of the mate-
rials employed.

The machine in which these results are embodied consists
of a circular framing of cast iron, firmly fixed together by
an iron bridge and stay rods. A heavy disk of cast iron is
mounted on a driving shaft, running in bearings fitted to
each side of the framing. One of these bearings is carefully

134

insulated from the framing by suitably formed pieces of
ebonite, and also from the shaft, by a cylinder of the same
substance. Through the side of the disk, and parallel with
its axis, sixteen holes are bored, at equal angular distances
from each other, for the reception of the same number of
cores or armatures. The cores project about two inches
through each side of the disk, and are held firmly in their
places by screws tapped through its periphery. Around
each inside face of the circular framing; and concentric with
the driving shaft, sixteen cylindrical electro-magnets are
fixed, at the same angular distance from each other and
from the centre of the shaft as the iron cores round the
disk ; the two circles of magnets, consequently, have their
poles opposite each other, with the disk and its circle of
iron cores revolving between them. The ends of the
cores are terminated with iron plates of a circular form,
which answer the double purpose of retaining the helices
surrounding the cores in their places, and overlapping for a
short distance the spaces between the poles of the electro-
magnets.

The cylindrical bar magnets are each coiled with 659 feet
of copper wire, 0075 of an inch in diameter, insulated with
cotton. The helices are grouped together to form a fourfold
circuit, 2,636 feet in length, and are joined up in such a
manner that adjacent magnets in each circle, as well as those
directly opposite in both circles, have north and south
polarity in relation to each other. A charge of permanent
magnetism wTas imparted to the system of electro-magnets
by the current from a separate electro-magnetic machine.
The armatures, although formed of sixteen pieces of iron,
are, by projecting through both sides of the disk, thirty-two
in number. The length of insulated wire on each armature
is 116 feet, and the thickness is the same as that on the
electro-magnets. These helices are divided into eight groups
of four each, and coupled up for an intensity of 4x116 feet.

135

One of the groups is used for producing the minor current
lor exciting the circles of electro-magnets, while the remain-
ing groups are joined together for a quantity of seven and
an intensity of four for the production of the major current
of the machine. The aggregate weight of wire on the
electro-magnets is 356 lbs., and on the armatures 26 lbs.
The helices for exciting the electro-magnets are connected
with a commutator, while those producing the major current
are placed in connection with two rings, or in place thereof
with another commutator, according as the alternating or the
direct current from the machine is required. The strength
and proportions of the several parts of the machine enable
it to be driven with advantage from 300 to 1,000 revolutions
per minute.

At the medium velocity of 500 revolutions per minute,
the major current will melt eight feet of iron wire 0 065 of
an inch in diameter (No. 16 B.W.G.), and will produce two
electric lights in series, each consuming carbons half an inch
square at the rate of three inches per hour.

When driven at a velocity of 1,000 revolutions (equiva-
lent to 16,000 waves) per minute, the current will fuse 12
feet of iron wire 0'075 of an inch in diameter, (No. 15
B.W.G.)

At this velocity the light from two sets of carbons in
series is unendurably intense as well as painful to those
exposed to its immediate influence. Estimated on the
basis afforded by the performance of the excellent magneto-
electric light machines of MM. Auguste Berlioz and Van
Malderen, who have made a careful study of the photo-
metric intensity of the electric and oil lights ; the power of
the new machine is equal to that of 1,200 Carcel lamps,
each burning 40 grammes (T408oz. avoir.) of oil per hour,
or of 9,600 wax candles. The amount of mechanical energy
expended in producing this light is about 10 indicated
horse power.

136

A comparison between the power of the new machine
and that of the 10 inch machine will show that while the
current from the former fuses 12 feet of iron wire O'OTo of
an inch in diameter, the current from the latter fuses only
7 feet of wire 0'065 of an inch in diameter ; and is, con-
sequently, only about half as powerful as that from the new
machine. Besides this, the quantity of copper used in the
construction of the new machine is about 3Jcwt., and of iron
15cwt. ; while the weight of these metals in the 10 inch
machine is 29cwt. and 60cwt. respectively. In other words,
we have in the new machine a double amount of power,
with less than one-fourth the amount of materials employed
in the construction of the 10 inch machine. Another
advantage possessed by the new machine is the great
reduction of temperature in the armatures by their rapid
motion through the air, which acts much more efficiently
than the circulation of water through the magnet cylinder.
By increasing the diameter of the electro-magnetic circles,
conjointly with the number of electro-magnets and arma-
tures, the angular velocity of the machine may be so
diminished that it may be driven directly from the crank
of a steam engine, concurrently with an increase of electric
power proportionate to the number of electro-magnets and
armatures in the electro-magnetic circles.

In Ms paper “ On a Property of the Magneto-electric
Current to Control and Render Synchronous the Rotations
of the Armatures of a number of Electro-magnetic Induction
Machines,”* the author stated that this property would be
available when the machines were used for the electro-deposi-
tion of metals from their solutions. It has, however, been
found that the small resistance presented by depositing solu-
tions to the passage of the currents, prevents this property
from manifesting itself (in accordance with what the author

* Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester,
December 15th, 1868,

137

stated in his paper respecting the effect of joining the poles
with a good conductor), and it is only when the machines
are employed for the production of electric light, or other
purpose, where the external resistance is considerable that
this electro-mechanical function of the current comes into
useful operation.

The author, before concluding his description of this
further development of the principle of electro-magnetic
accumulation, considers it a duty he owes to himself as well
as to science, that he should not allow to pass unnoticed the
views and statements of certain writers respecting the place
and value of his investigations in the history of natural
knowledge. The peculiar good fortune which enabled him
to follow up the discovery of a great principle to such
brilliant results has contributed, accidentally in some
instances, to establish the idea, that these results are an
expansion of Faraday’s discovery of magneto-electricity
rather than a distinct step in electricial science. A brief
glance at the history and progress of electricity and magnet-
ism will suffice to show the erroneousness of this view, and
also that his discovery bears only the same kind of relation
to that of Faraday as that philosopher’s discovery does to
those of Galvani, Volta, and Grove in galvanic electricity;
and of Oersted, Ampere, Arago, and Sturgeon in electro-
magnetism. That the discovery of the indefinite increase of
the magnetic and electric forces from quantities indefinitely
small is a fundamental advance in electrical knowledge, and
not simply an expansion of known prin ciples or an improvement
in a machine, as it has been made to appear by some, is evident
from the fact that the principle since its enunciation in 1866,
togethei with the author s invention of minor and major mag-
neto-electric circuits, has been embodied in the machines of
different forms constructed by Ladd, Holmes, d’lvernois,
Gramme, and others. Moreover, Faraday himself, while on
the threshold of his discovery, distinctly negatived its possi-

138

bility. Reasoning on the magnet as a source of electricity
in a paper “On the Physical Character of the Lines of
Magnetic Force” (Philosophical Magazine, s. 4, vol. III.,
p. 415), he says, “Its analogy with the helix is wonderful,
nevertheless there is as yet a striking experimental distinc-
tion between them ; for whereas an unchangeable magnet
can never raise up a piece of soft iron to a state more than
equal to its own, as measured by the moving wire, a helix
carrying a current can develop in an iron core magnetic
lines of force of a hundred or more times as much power as
that possessed by itself when measured by the same means.
In every point of view, therefore, the magnet deserves the
utmost exertions of the philosopher for the development of
its nature, both as a magnet and also as a source of elec-
tricity, that we may become acquainted with the great law
under which the apparent anomaly may disappear, and by
which all these various phenomena presented to us shall
become one.” Now, it was the precise and absolute manner
in which Faraday stated the definiteness of the relation
between the magnetism of a permanent magnet and that of
a piece of iron magnetised by its influence, that led the
author to enunciate in terms equally absolute and precise
the antithesis of Faraday’s proposition. How far Faraday’s
hopes and preconceptions of the electro-magnet as a source
of electricity have been realized, the results described in this
and the author’s former papers will show. Already has it
superseded the use of the voltaic battery in every electro-
depositing establishment of note in this country, and it is
making rapid progress abroad.

That the transformation of mechanical energy into other
modes of force on so large a scale, and by means so simple,
will find new and much more important applications than
that above mentioned is one of the author’s most firm con-
victions.

In a note to his paper the author reviews the attempt by

139

M. Gramme to arrive at a nearer approximation to the
continuous current of the voltaic battery than that pro-
duced from a magneto-electric machine when rectified by
means of a commutator of the ordinary construction. This
refinement, the author states, possesses little or no advan-
tage in any of the applications of magneto-electricity, when
the rectified waves succeed each other at the rate of 5,000
per minute, and upwards — a rate of succession easily attain-
able, and far exceeded by the machines of Berlioz and
Holmes. At this rate the discontinuity of the waves is not
distinguishable in the electric light ; nor in the magnetisa-
tion of electro-magnets ; nor on galvanometer needles ; nor
in electrolytic processes ; and it can only be perceived by
the vibrations of a steel spring, placed before the poles of a
small electro-magnet, round which the current is trans-
mitted. Such instrument would, the author thinks, also
indicate similar points of maxima and minima in the current
from Gramme’s machine. As the armature helices in this
machine are each connected with separate pieces of metal,
forming the segments of a circle, from which the current is
taken by means of ordinary metallic brushes, the number of
helices producing currents available for external use, at any
given moment, is only a fraction of those constituting the
whole circle, and, consequently, for a given weight "of mate-
rials such a magneto-electric machine must be greatly in-
ferior in power to machines in which the current is delivered
from the whole of the helices simultaneously, as in those
hitherto constructed. The substitution by M. Gramme of
a commutator with multiple segments insulated from each
other, and having adjacent segments of the same polarity,
while those diametrically opposite have a polarity different,
requires the same precautions to be taken to prevent the
spark at the change of contacts, and is subject to the same
wear from friction, as commutators of the ordinary form, in
which the segments are united with a common metallic

140

base. Moreover, long experience has proved that for the
production of electric light the alternating current is greatly
superior to the continuous one, as commutators are dis-
pensed with, and it has the important advantage of con-
suming the carbons equally, and thereby always retains the
luminous point in the focus of any optical apparatus used
in connection with it.

In short, M. Gramme, in his endeavour to reconcile the
incompatible relations of the voltaic current and the
magneto-electric wave at the instant of its generation, has,
by inverting the order and functions of the organic parts
of an ordinary magneto-electric machine and suppressing
the action of a number of the armature helices, brought
about results retrogressive from those previously attained
by Nollet, Berlioz, and Holmes, and it is only by the
adoption of the principle of electro-dynamic accumulation
(i.e., the exciting of a major electro-magnetic induction
machine by a minor one, fixed on the same base), in accord-
ance with the principles laid down by the author in his
former papers, that the results obtained by M. Gramme
exceed those from ordinary magneto-electric machines.

PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SECTION.

April 22nd, 1873.

Alfred Brothers, F.R.A.S., President of the Section, in

the Chair.

Results of Rain Gauge Observations made at Eccles, near
Manchester, during the year 1872, by Thomas Mackereth,
F.R.A.S., F.M.S.

The characteristic of the rainfall of the past year is its

141

immense excess of the average fall. From the table given
below this excess will be seen to be more than 13 inches, or
about 367 per cent, over the average fall of the year.
There were only two months of the year, August and De-
cember, that had a fall less than the average of twelve
years, but this minimum was exceedingly small. The
greatest excess above the average happened in the summer
quarter, July to September, and the fall in July was 142 per
cent, above the average for that month. June, July, and
September were the wettest months of the year.

The number of days on which rain fell during the past
year was very large. There were only 101 days throughout
the year on which rain did not fall. There was 27 per
cent, over the average of twelve years of days on which rain
fell during the year. But the number of wet days ex-
ceeded the average most in the first six months of the year.
The number in excess in the first three months being as
much as 34 per cent.

Ihe following table shows the results obtained from a

rain gauge, with a lOin. round receiver placed 3 feet above
the ground.

Quarterly Periods.

Average
of 12
years.

1872.

Bays.

Days.

r

52

70 j

46

61 [

51

60 ^

58

73 ^

207

264

1872.

January..
February
March . .

April

May

June

July

August ...
September.
October
November .
December .

Fall

in

Inches.

4- 096

2-849

2- 794

3- 003
2-548

5- 395
7-327

2- 988

6- 534

4- 404

3- 427
3-051

48*416

Average

of

12 years.

Differences.

QuarterlyPeriods.

Average

of

12 years

1872.

Inches,

Inches.

2-693

+1-403 )

2-391

+0-458 £

7*516

9-739

2-432

+0-362 )

2-193

+0-810 \

2-088

+0-460 \

7-014

10-946

2-733

+2-662 )

3-022

+4-305 )

3-001

—0-013 i

10-254

16-849

4-231

+2-303 >

4-245

+0-159 )

3-200

+0-227 f i

10-618

10-8S2

3*173 ;

—0-122 ) j

35-402

—13014

142

Inthenext table I give tlieresults obtained from rain gauges
of two different kinds, placed in close proximity in tlie same
plane, and 3 feet from the ground. The one has a 10 inch
round receiver, and the other a 5 inch square receiver.
The large receiver had an excess over the small one in
every month excepting April, June, July, and December ;
but in June the rain-fall in both cases was the same. The
total difference of the fall in the two gauges was not great,
being less than half an inch on 48 \ inches of rain-fall. In
comparing, however, the fall in the two gauges for an
average of five years, a larger difference arises, being more
than 6-10ths of an inch on an average fall of 36 inches, and
an excess of the large gauge occurred in every month ex-
cepting March.

1

Rainfall in Rainfall in

m

o

From 1868 to 1872.

w

1872.

inches in
10 in. round
Receiver
3 ft. from
ground.

inches in
5 in. square
Receiver
3 ft. from
ground.

o

£

Q

U

Q

‘3

Average of 5 years
rainfall in inches,
in 10 in. round re-
ceiver 3 ft. from
ground.

Average of 5years
rainfall in inches,
in 5 in. square re-
ceiver 3 ft. from
ground.

Difference

January..

1872.

4-096

1872.

3-996

+*100

2-823

2-805

+•018

February.

2-849

2-714

— j-*135

2-590

2-542

+*048

March ...

2-794

2-735

+•059

2-233

2-284

-•051

April . . .

3-003

3-048

—•045

2-490

2-467

[—"023

May

2-548

2-484

+•064

1-876

1-846

-•030

June

5-395

5-395

5)

2-535

2-493

r’042

July

7-327

7-409

— •082

2 618

2-596

r’022

August . . .

2-988

2-971

+'017

2-598

2-522

v-076

Septembr.

6'534

6-363

+•171

4-255

4-204

[-*051

October.,.

4-404

4-347

+•057

5-232

5-191

-•041

Novembr.

3-427

3-422

+•005

2941

2-580

[-•361 1

December

3-051

3-059

—•008

3-816

3-806

[-•010

48‘416

47-943

+•473

36-007

35-336

+•671

In the next table I give the results obtained from two
exactly similar gauges, placed at different heights from the
ground and free from every interference. Each gauge has a
6 inch square receiver, and the one is placed 3 feet, and
the other 34 feet above the ground. The total fall in the
one 3 feet from the ground was 47*943 inches, and in the

143

one 34 feet from the ground it was 41*002 inches for the
last year. The difference between the fall in the two
gauges is 6*941 inches, or about 14J per cent, less rain fell
last year in the higher than in the lower gauge. In the
same table I give the average fall for five years in each
gauge, and by comparing the results I find that for such an
average fall about 16 per cent, less rain falls in the upper
than in the lower gauge.

1872.

Fall of rain in
inches in 5 inch
square receiver
3 feet from the
ground.

1872.

Fall of rain in
inches in 5 inch
square receiver
34 feet from
the ground.
1872.

From 186

Average fall of
rain in inches for
5 years, in 5 inch
square receiver 3
feet from ground.

3 to 1872.

Average fall of
rain in inches for
5 years, in 5 inch
square receiver 34
feet from ground.

January

3*998

3*019

2*805

1*997

F ebruary

2*714

2*212

2*542

1*917

March

2*735

2*166

2*284

1*787

April

3*048

2*590

2*467

2*116

May

2*484

2*181

1*846

1*665

June

5*395

4*762

2*493

2*220

July

7*409

6*947

2*596

2*325

August

2*971

2*607

2*522

2*178

September

6*363

5*714

4*204

3*608

October

4*347

3*638

5*191

4*312

November

3*422

2*455

2*580

2*260

December

3*059

2*711

3*806

3*207

47*943

41*002

35*336

29*592

In the next table I give the fall of rain during the day
from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the fall during the night, from
8 p.m. to 8 a.m. The amount of rain that fell during the
day exceeded the fall during the night in six months of the
year, but in the remaining months, namely, January,
August', September, November, and December, the fall
during the night exceeded the day fall. The total differ-
ence between the night and day fall is much less than
during 1871. In that year the excess of the day over the
night fall was 4*136 inches, whilst during the past year it
was only 1*891 inches.

144

Rainfall in
Inches from
8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Rainfall in
Inches from
8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Difference
between Night
and Day Fall.

January

1-860

2-136

+0-276
— 0*112

February

1-413

1*301

March

2-061

0-674

—1-387

April

1-737

1-311

—0-426

May

1-297

1187

—0-110

June

3-309

2-086

—1-223

July

4-398

3-011

—1-387

August

1-444

1-527

+0-083

+2-179

September

2-092

4-271

October

2*366

1-981

—0-385

November

1-470

1-952

+0-482

+0-119

December

1-470

1-589

24-917

23-026

—1-891

i

In the next table I present the average day and night
fall for five years. This table continues to show, as previous
ones which I have presented have done, that the night fall
is, as a rule, in excess after the heavy falls of rain set in in
August to the end of the year, and during the first months
of the year. The only exception which the present table
presents to this rule is the month of October. It is remark-
able, however, how near the total results of the two periods
are to each other, the difference being really only two per
cent, of the day over the night fall.

Average oe Five Yeaes eeom 1868 to 1872.

Rainfall in
Inches from
8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

— •

Rainfall in
Inches from
8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Difference
between Night
and Day Fall.

January

1-363

1-444

+0-081

February

1-053

1-489

+0-436

March

1-335

0-948

—0-387

April

1-434

1-032

—0-402

May

1-214

0-632

—0-582

June

1*298

1-195

—0-103

July

1-542

1-053

—0-489

August

1-135

1-386

+0-251

September

1-884

2-319

+0-435

October

2‘676

2*514

—0-162

November

1-419

1-550

+0-140

December

. 1-688

2-118

+0-430

18-032

17-680

—0-352

145

MICROSCOPICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SECTION.
March 24th, 1873.

Professor W. C. Williamson, F.R.S., President of the
Section, in the Chair.

The President exhibited specimens of Calamostachys
Binneyana and Selaginella Wallichii.

April 21st, 1873.

Professor W. C. Williamson, F.R.S., President of the
Section, in the Chair.

Mr. Thomas Rogers was elected an Associate, and Mr.
James C. Melvill, M.A., F.L.S., a member of the Section.

Mr. Hardy exhibited specimens of Veronica Buxbaumii
(Ten) gathered on the 14th of April, by the side of a new
road leading from Barlow Moor Lane to the river bank;
growing apparently wild. Buxton in his “ Botanical Guide,”
mentions its occurrence in a lane at Sale in 1847; and Mr.
Bailey stated that the late Dr. Windsor had met with it as
a garden weed at Whalley Range. Mr. H. C. Watson’s
remark in his Compendium of the Cybele Britannica (refer-
ring to the British Islands generally) that this plant is “an
alien fast becoming a denizen,” would therefore appear to

be strictly applicable to the Flora of the Manchester Dis-
trict.

Mr. John Barrow read a paper “ On the Use of Naphtha-
line in Section Cutting1.”

o

I wish to bring before the notice of the members and
those microscopists who are interested in cutting sections of
soft or delicate tissues the use of Naphthaline as a support
for such tissues in the section cutter.

146

The advantages obtained by the use of Napthaline over
wax and other bodies recommended for this purpose are,
a low fusing point, absence of contraction in the cutter, very
little injury to the edge of the knife, and very ready solu-
bility after cutting in Benzol or spirit, so that the substance
is removed at once from the section without injury.

Napthaline is a body not very generally known outside
the works of the tar distiller or colour maker, so that possibly
some of the members may not be able to obtain samples
readily, but I shall have pleasure in supplying it to any of
our own members.

Professor Williamson recommended an admixture of wax
and oil with the Napthaline, and stated that the knife cuts
better with this addition ; he also exhibited some extremely
beautiful longitudinal and cross sections made in this way.

“Note on a Fossil Spider in Ironstone of the Coal Mea-
sures/’ by Mr. John Plant, F.G.S.

More than forty years ago Mr. William Anstice found a
fossil insect in a nodule of ironstone from the coal formation
of Coal brook Dale. It was figured in Dr. Buckland’s Bridge-
water Treatise, plate 46, and described by Mr. Samouelle
the entomologist as a beetle allied to a type of tropical Cur-
culios, and provisionally named as Curculioides Prestvicii .
Since that time many insects have been discovered in the
coal measures both in England and America, and wings of
Neuropterous insects have been found as low down in
palseozoic rocks as the Devonian — below which no true
insects have been yet observed. The specimen figured by
Dr. Buckland remained unique for a long time — until 187l>
when another was discovered by Mr. Elliott Hollier of
Dudley, so well known for his cabinet of rare Silurian trilo-
bites, in an ironstone nodule from the Dudley coal field.
This discovery has thrown considerable light upon the real
character of the one first mentioned, which turns out not

147

to be a beetle but a spider allied to an existing genus of
tropical spiders of the family of Tarentulse. The nodule in
which this specimen is embedded has split cleanly down the
axis of the insect, and both the under and upper surfaces
have been preserved in a singularly beautiful manner,
whereas in Dr. Buckland’s figure the insect is less perfect
and displays rather confusedly a portion of each surface.

Mr. H. Woodward has described and figured Mr. Holders
specimen in the Geo. Mag. September, 1871, under the name
of Eophrynus Prestvicii, from its analogy to the spiders of
the genus Phrynus.

The appearance of each surface of this fossil is so remark-
ably unlike that they might be readily mistaken for separate
species. This is a character which may be seen in living
species of Phrynus. The upper surface in the fossil is
smooth and ringed, and the under surface granulated. In
Phrynus the body is flat, divided into rings, the thorax
broad and crescent-shaped, the skin is horny and hard, as in
the scorpions. Spiders are generally soft and without rings.
The palpi terminate in prehensile claws, the tibia of the
forelegs are of enormous length, with the tarsi of extreme
fineness, admirably adapted for delicate organs of feeling.
The Tarentulae comprise Arachnids of high organization —
approaching the scorpions — which have been found fossil
in coal measures ; and this discovery of a spider opens to
our contemplation another link of a prolific life existing in
the vast forests of tropical coal plants.

Annual Meeting, May 5th, 1873.

Mr. J OSEPH Sidebotham, F.R A.S., in the Chair.

The following report of the Council for the year ending
5tli May, 1873, was read and passed : —

Papers on the following subjects have been read during
the past session :

148

October 7th, 1872. — “On the Destruction of British Ferns,” by
Joseph Sidebotham, F.R.A.S.

“ On Malpighiaceous Hairs,” by Charles Bailey.

November 4 th, 1872. — “The Flora of Alexandria,” by H. A. Hurst.

“ On the Anatomy of Musca domestica,” by T. S. Peace.

January 27 th, 1873. — “ Notes on the Minerals of Venezuela,” by
John Plant, F.G.S.

February lith, 1873. — “On the occurrence of Unio Tumidus in
the Manchester district,” by John Hardy.

“Remarks on an old Microscope,” by Joseph Sidebotham,
F.R.A.S.

March2ith, 1873. — “OnHoemopis sanguisorba,” byT. S. Peace.

“Notes on Calamostachys Binneyana and Selaginello Wallichii,”
by Professor W. C. Williamson, F.R.S.

April 21 st, 1873. — “ The use of Naphthaline in Section cutting,”
by John Barrow.

“Note on a Fossil Spider in ironstone of the coal measures,” by
John Plant, F.G.S.

The most valuable subject in connection with the com-
munications brought under the notice of the section was an
exhibition on December 11th, 1872, of a very large collec-
tion of Natural History and other objects, brought by Mr.
James M. Spence from Venezuela, which remained open to
the public for some days, and was visited by a large number
of persons. As Mr. Spence has just returned to this coun-
try we may hope for further communications respecting its
resources and natural history products.

The Section has to deplore the recent death of Mr. George
Edward Hunt, so well known as a museologist, and whose
papers were some of the most valuable contributed by the
members.

The ordinary members of the Section now number 37,
the associates 12.

From the accompanying statement of accounts it will be
seen that the financial position of the Section is satisfactory,
the treasurer having a balance in hand of £37 13s,

Microscopical and Natural History Section or the Literary and Philosophical Society, in Account

with H. A. Hurst, Treasurer.

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150

The election of officers for the Session 1873-4 was then
proceeded with, and the following gentlemen were ap-
pointed ;

IjSrcsfticnt.

W. C. WILLIAMSON, F.E.S.

Uitt^prestttcnts.

J. SIDEBOTHAM, F.E.A.S.
JOSEPH BAXENDELL, F.E.A.S.
SPENCEE H. BICKHAM, Jun.

treasurer.

HENEY ALEXANDEE HUEST.

Secretaries.
CHAELES BAILEY.
WALTEE MOEEIS.

©f tl;e (Council.

HENEY SIMPSON, M.D.

JOHN BAEEOW.

THOMAS COWAED.

EOBEET B. SMAET.

ALFEED BEOTHEES, F.E.A.S.
T. H. NEYILL.

J. C. MELYILL, M.A., F.L.S.

The following is the list of Members and Associates :

Hast of J4tcmfccrs.

Alcock, Thomas, M.D.

Bailey, Charles.

Barrow, John.

Baxendell, Joseph, F.E.A.S.
Bickham, Spencer H., Jun.
Binney, Edward Wm., F.E.S.,
F.G.S.

Brockbank, W., F.Gr.S.
Brogden, Henry.

Brothers, Alfred, F.E.A.S.
Cottam, Samuel.

Coward, Edward.

Coward, Thomas.

Dale, John, F.C.S.

Dancer, John Benj., F.E.A.S.
Darbishire, E. D., B.A.
Dawkins, W. Boyd, F.E.S.
Deane, William K.
Gladstone, Murray, F.E.A.S.
Heys, William Henry.
Higgin, James, F.C.S.

Hurst, Henry Alexander.
Latham, Arthur George.
Maclure, John Wm., F.E.G.S.
Melyill, J. C., M.A., F.L.S.
Morgan, Edward, M.D.
Morris, Walter.

Neyill, Thomas Henry.

Piers, Sir Eustace.

Eideout, William J.

Eoberts, William, M.D.
SlDEBOTHAM, JOSEPH, F.E.A.S.
Simpson, Henry, M.D.

Smart, Eobert Bath, M.E.C.S.
Smith, Eobert Angus, Ph.D.,
F.E.S., F.C.S.

Yernon, George Yenables,
F.E.A.S.

Williamson, Wm. Crawford,
F.E.S., Prof. Nat. Hist., Owens
College.

Wright, William Cort.

Hast

Bradbury, C. J.

Hardy, John.

Hunt, John.

Labrey, B, B.

Linton, James.

Meyer, Adolph.

of Associates.

Peace, Thos. S.

Plant, John, F.G.S.
Eogers, Thomas.

Euspini, F. 0.

Stirrup, Mark.
Waterhouse, J. Crewdson.