Os ale

Nibrary of the Museum

OF

COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY,

AT HARVARD COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Founded by private subscription, in 1861.

a ee
ee:

TRANSACTIONS

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

Aopal Doctety of Victoria.

JANUARY TO DECEMBER, 1867.

VOB. LET.

Edited under the Authority of the Council of the Society,
BY

Tue Honorary Secretary, THOS. H. RAWLINGS, Esa.

THE AUTHORS OF THE SEVERAL PAPERS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SOUNDNESS OF THE
OPINIONS GIVEN AND FOR THE ACCURACY OF THE STATEMENTS MADE THEREIN.

MELBOURNE :
STILLWELL & KNIGHT, PRINTERS, 78, COLLINS STREET EAST.
“w Issued January, 1868.

AGENTS 1'0 THE SOCIETY.
WILLIAMS AND NorcGate, 14, HENRIErTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON.

To whom communications for transmission to the Royal Society of Victoria
from all parts of Europe should be sent.

PREFACE.

ERRATA.

Page 253, note, dele, “‘ Concerning the Treatment of those who differ from us
in Opinion. By A.K.H.B.”

Page 254, note, dele, “Concerning the Treatment of those who differ from us
in Opinion. By A.K.H.B.”

Page 255, line 11, for ‘‘ with” read ‘‘in.”

Page 255, line 3 from bottom, for “ effects,” read ‘‘ effect.”

Page 257, note, for ‘“‘ Longmans » read ‘ Frazer’s Magazine, March 1867.”

Page 258, note, for ‘‘ Longmans ” read “ Frazer’s Magazine, March 1867.”

Page 258, note, for ‘*39,” read CE

Page 259, note, for ‘‘ Longmans » read ‘* Fruzer’s Magazine, March 1867.”

Page 259, note, for “ 39,” read ‘‘ 319.”

Page 260, note, for ‘‘ Longmans ” read ‘* Frazer’s Magazine, March 1867.”

Page 263, line 10 from bottom for * account” read ‘‘amount.”

Page 265, line 3, for ‘‘involuntary ” read ‘“‘necessitated.”:

Page 265, line 5, dele “‘ necessary.”

Many of the Papers in this volume are of a most
important character, and all are valuable contributions to
scientific literature. !

A Catalogue, carefully compiled by the Hon. Librarian,
Dr. J. E. Neild, is appended to the Proceedings, together
with a Report from the Curator (Mr. Harrison) on the
present state of the Museum of the Society.

rv Preface.

A list of learned bodies with which the Royal Society of
Victoria is in correspondence, and to whom the Transactions
are forwarded, also appended, shows the immense circulation
given to the Papers read before the Society, and affords some —
guarantee of the benefit Victoria must ultimately derive
from the mass of information on all subjects appertaining
to her Natural History being disseminated throughout the

world.
T. Bo

RoyaL Society oF VICTORIA,
Melbourne, December, 1867.

CONTENTS or VOL. VIII.

OFFICE-BEARERS, 1867 uae Sars aN ate 56
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS pe ae bieke ENG sete aes pee

DEV:

XVI.

TRANSACTIONS, 1867.

. Notes of a Geological Trip over the Coal Basin of

New South Wales, by Mr. THomas HARRISON ...

. On the Theory of the Formation of Gold Nuggets in

Drift, by Mr. C. WILKINSON

. On the Extraction of Gold, by Mr. H. a Pe,
. On a Patent Ear-trumpet and Stethoscope, invented

by Davip WILKINSON, Esa.

eeo0

. Notes on Australian Coleoptera, by Coun F. Dr

CASTELNAU.. ase

. Characteristic of an edieaicd Sonnets ae South

Africa, by FrERD. Murnuimr, M.D., F.R.S. _...

. On the Decomposition of Pyrites, by Mr. Surrzss, of

Ballarat

. On Three New Victorian Birds, te Brouicden ‘M'Coy
. On the Discovery of Enaliosauria and other Creta-

ceous Fossils in Australia, by PRoFESSoR M‘Coy ...

. A Contribution to Meteorology, a Mr. G. W.

GROVER

. On the Glacial Period i in ee i the Ray Vo EB,

Tenison Woops, F.LS, F.G.S., &c.. as

. The Manufacture of Paper from Magee Plants, be

J. Cosmo NEWBERY, B. Sc.,
logical Survey of Victoria

nce: of the Geo-

. On Colonial Wines, by the Rv. JoHN i Einepuie.

DID. BLS: F:G.S: 50 aise

- On the Condition of the Blood foe Death fee

Snake-bite, as a probable clue to the further study
of Zymotic Diseases, and of Cholera especially, by
GEORGE B, Hatrorp, M.D. ee ve
Notes on Australian Coleoptera, by Coon F. Dr
CASTELNAU.. :
Rubellite—Red Bea caNine“fouud at ee concn
Victoria, 1867, by the Rrv. J. J. BhEASDALE, D.D,

PAGES
ili
vV—xix

1—11

11—15
15—26

27— 30
31—38
38—40

4]
4]

41—42
43

43—47

47-52

538—72

13—94
95—225

225—227

Contents.

Vill
ArT, XVII. On the Formation of Mineral Veins and the Deposit
of Metallic Ores and Metals in them, by Mr. H. A.
'' THOMPSON . a5
XVIII. The Ethics of Opinion aed Neuen by iL K. Rasoae
XIX. On the Species of Wombats, by PRorgssor M‘Coy ...
XX. Further Observations on the Condition of the Blood
after Death from Snake-bite, by GurorcEe B.
HALFORD, M.D., Professor of Anatomy, Physiology,
and Pathology in the University of Melbourne
XXI. Notes on the Rev. J. E. Tenison Woods’ paper “On
the Glacial Epoch of me by Junius HAAst,
Ph. D., F.RB.S. Bs
XXII. The Mineral Waters of Victor. Ap J. ‘Como Naw
BERY, B. Sc., Analyst to the Geological Survey of
Victoria
XXIII. On a Discovery for ise Bare: of Collision
in Vessels Crossing one another’s Track, by Capt.
C. J. PERRY side a Bad
XXIV. On Purification of eae by 5 G. -W. DAHLEE,
M.S.A.L., &c. ad va we
XXV. On a New Sele Resi tere micoetantes: or, Elec-
trograph, by R. L. J. ELuery, Esq., eocinedt
XXVI. Experiments on Mr. Julius Dahlke’s Filter, C Mr.
J. Cosmo NEWBERY aie Es Le Hp os
Proceedings, 1867 sie ae a Be aie ae a sas wee
Catalogue of the Books sian ae : see Bo
Mr. Harrison’s Report of the Museum sisi His aan sas See
List of Members aa den miele os
List of Institutions onan Go uinuementeons wae Sof

PAGES

228—249
249—266
266 —270

271— 273
273—278
278 —288

284—288
289—294
294—300

300—301

305—330
d01—341
3041—342
343—346
347—349

TRANSACTIONS

AND

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

oval Society of Victoria.

PART EY OL. VET.

Edited under the Authority of the Council of the Society,
BY

Tue Honorary Secretary, THOS. H. RAWLINGS, Esa.

THE AUTHORS OF THE SEVERAL PAPERS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SOUNDNESS OF THE
OPINIONS GIVEN AND OF THE ACCURACY OF THE STATEMENTS MADE THEREIN.

MELBOURNE :
STILLWELL & KNIGHT, PRINTERS, 78, COLLINS STREET EAST.
Issued, May 1867.

AGENTS TO THE SOCIETY.
WILLIAMS AND NorGATE, 14, HenrizrtA STREET, CovENT GARDEN, LONDON.

To whom communications for transmission to the Royal Society of Victoria from all
parts of Europe should be sent.

opal Soctety of Victorww.
OFFICE BEARERS, 1867.

aaron.
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR J. H. T. MANNERS SUTTON, K.C.B.

qoresident.
R. L. J. ELLERY, Esq.

Vice- residents.
A. K. SMITH, Esa. | C. W. LIGAR, Esa.

Ajow. Crensurer.
ROBERT WILLAN, Ese.

Hon. Secretarp.
THOS. H. RAWLINGS, Ese.

Hon. Librarian. Hon. Custos of Collection.
DR. J. H. NIELD. THOS. HARRISON, Eso.

Council,
S. W. McGOWAN, Esq.
H. K. RUSDEN, Esa.
T. E. RAWLINSON, Esq.
H. A. THOMPSON, Esa.
EK. VON GUERARD, Esq.
J. B. WERE, Esq.

C. D’O. H. APLIN, Ese.
Dr. BARKER.

WM. GILLBEE, Esq.
PROFESSOR HALFORD.
G. S. LANG, Esa.
PROFESSOR M,COY.

TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

ovul Pociety of Victoria.

Anniversary Address of the President,
Mr. R. L. J. Every, F.R.AS., Government hedhamaame

{Delivered to the Members of the Royal Society, at the Anniversary
: Meeting, held on the 4th March, 1867.]

Your EXcELLENCY, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE ROYAL
SOCIETY,

We meet to-night to inaugurate a new session of the
Royal Society of Victoria, the twelfth of its existence ; and
as you have done me the great honour to re-elect me as your
President, it now becomes my duty, according to custom,
to address you on the past year’s history and progress of our
Society, and to briefly review the labours and progress of
our public scientific institutions.

During the session 1866, the Society held twelve ordinary
meetings, at which were read fourteen original papers and
communications. The first paper was a brief one by myself,
“On Atmospheric Ozone,” combined with some tables, the re-
sults of observations in various parts of the colony. A paper
was also read by Mr. Ligar, giving an account of the ex-
traction of alcohol, sugar, and resin from the grass-tree.

vi President's Address

(or Xanthorrhea), in illustration of which samples of resin,
spirit, and picric acid were exhibited. '

Mr. Bonwick’s paper, entitled “The Volcanic Rocks
of Rome and Victoria compared,” is the next one on the list.
This was a most interesting communication, giving the
results of Mr. Bonwick’s observations during his late visit to
Italy. Dr. Bleasdale next gave a short description of a new
gem, now for the first time found in Victoria—the green
sapphire, or Oriental emerald, discovered I believe in Gipps —
Land. Avery valuable paper by Professor Halford comes
next, itis “On the Absorption of Colouring Matter by the
Blood,” in which he gave the results of a long and careful
series of experiments on this subject.

At our next meeting an elaborate contribution to
mathematical science, communicated by Chief Justice Cockle,
of Queensland, was read by Sir Redmond Barry, “ On Different
Equations and Co-resolvents.” I also contributed a short
paper on “The Rainfall in Victoria.” A paper by Mr. Thos.
Harrison, on “ A Geological Trip to the Coalfields of New
South Wales,” occupied our next sitting. Mr. C. Wilkinson’s
paper, “On the Theory of the Formation of Nuggets in the
Drift,’ was received with considerable interest, and led to an
animated discussion ; in illustration of this paper, which —
detailed some experiments made with relation to the
behaviour of weak solution of chloride of gold in the presence
of organic matter, Mr. Wilkinsonexhibited specimens of quartz
with pyrites, upon which gold from the solution had been
deposited simply by the presence of organic matter. JI may
mention with relation to this paper, that further investi-
gations of Mr. Wilkinson’s theory are being made at the
chemical laboratory of the Geological Survey, by Mr. Cosmo
Newberry, who informs me that there are two points con-
nected with it which appear to be settled :—Ist. That no
metallic nucleus is necessary for the formation or growth of a

for the year 1867. Vil

nugget, which may explain why the interior and exterior
do not differ upon assay ; the second being, that gold in
pyrites exists as metallic gold, not as sulphide. At the same
meeting, Mr. H. A. Thompson read a valuable paper “ On the
Extraction of Gold from Pyrites.” This communication
was most deservedly received with great interest by your
members, for the question of the economic separation of
gold from the metallic sulphides, with which it is so largely
associated in many of our reefs, is one of immense im-
portance. It is, indeed, well known that very large —
quantities of gold are now lost to us, simply because of the
difficulty, or almost impossibility, of separating it from
pyrites by any economic method. A means whereby the
pyrites could be made to yield anything near its assay value
would, as Mr. Thompson has stated, soon raise our annual
gold returns by a million sterling. Mr. Thompson, in this
paper, describes the method which he has devised towards
this important end as consisting in a first mechanical separa-
tion of the pyrites from the quartz or other matrix by his
peculiar form of percussion-table ; after which the pyrites
is to be treated by a more refined method than could be
adopted with economy without the first separation.

The two last meetings of the session were occupied with
« A new form of Ear-trumpet” by Mr. C. Wilkinson, which, by
means of a double tube, the outer one insulating the inner
one from the touch of the hand, is regarded as possessing a
greater conductive power for the sound ; papers on “New
Australian Coleoptera,’ communicated by that distinguished
naturalist, Count Castelnau ; on “ An undescribed species of
Senecio, from South Africa,” by Dr. Mueller; and a com-
munication from Mr. Shiress, of Sandhurst, “On a New
Method of Decomposing Pyrites.”

It will be seen that the session has been one of ¢on-
siderable activity. Most of the papers, I feel assured, will

Vill Presidents Address

form valuable contributions to the several branches of science
to which they pertain. It isa matter for congratulation,
moreover, that your members evince a most lively and_
increasing interest in all questions having reference to the
development of the rescources and industries of our
colony, and I need scarcely remind them that they can
hardly take a nobler work in hand, or work in which there
is yet so wide a space for progress and improvement. I
may also congratulate the society on the prompt manner in
“which the Council's decision to print the Transactions at
short intervals has been carried out. The 7th volume,
already in the hands of members, brings us up to June, 1866,
and Part I. of Volume VIII. is now in the press ; and I may
add that it is fully intended that the papers and abstracts
shall in future be published every three months. Copies of
the last volume (Volume VII.) have been forwarded to the
numerous scientific and literary bodies in Europe and
America with which our Society is in communication, as
well as to various institutions in this and the neighbouring
colonies ; according to an old custom of this society copies
have also been sent to Her Majesty the Queen and the
Emperor of the French. :

You will be interested to learn that there are ninety-one
learned societies in Europe and America with which we
regularly interchange publications ; and it is not without
some little pride that J hear from our honorary secretary
of constant and eager requests from foreign societies, not
already in communication with us, for copies of our 7rans-
actions. The contributions received from these foreign
learned bodies are rapid)y increasing our library with a most
valuable, and for this part of the world unique, collection of
books, a catalogue of which is now in course of preparation -
by your hon. librarian, Dr. Neild

Our Natural History collections, too long buried in dark

for the year 1867. 1X

boxes and drawers, where they were fast becoming de-
stroyed, are at last restored to view, and by the zeal of
the curator, Mr. Thos. Harrison, have been methodically
arranged.

The progress of this society is obviously closely associ-
ated with that of our various national scientific establish-
ments, and although I have no doubt that many who
are now present have watched their labours with the live-
liest interest, I have yet ventured to act on the opinion that
a brief retrospect of the more prominent results of the last —
year’s work will be acceptable in this place.

In the last year’s history of the botanical department, so
ably directed by our distinguished member, Dr. Mueller,
there are several interesting points which claim our notice.
The president of the Linnzean Society is now publishing a
magniticent botanical work, in which Dr. Mueller is co-
operative editor ; the third volume of this work has now
been issued. Dr. Mueller’s own work, the Fragmenta
Phytographie Australis, has now attained its fifth volume,
and promises, when the Fragmenta shall be combined, to
_ become a complete compendium of the Australian flora. We
are informed by Dr. Mueller that accurate measurements of
some of the great Australian Hucalypti have been made. One
erand specimen in Western Australia, known as Mueller’s
Eucalyptus colossa, is ascertained to be 400 feet high ;
while one of Labillardier’s Hucalyptus amygdalina, in the
Dandenong Ranges, measured 480 feet, which is as high as
the great pyramid of Gizah. Victorian trees of this
character are as yet the only ones which have been found to
rival the Californian Wellingtonia gigantea. In my last
address your attention was drawn to the introduction
into this colony of the cinchona. There are now thousands
of individuals of two of the most valuable kinds, viz., the
_ C. Succirubra and C. Condaminea, thriving in the Botanical

% President's Address

gardens, which, with plants of the coffee, tea, and cork oaks,
the Government botanist is anxious should be fairly tried
in our fern-tree gullies. The great value and importance of
acclimatising such plants as these in the colony can scarcely
be over-estimated, and I am sure you will all join me in
a hearty wish that the requisite support will be afforded to
this undertaking, and that the effort will be rewarded with
complete success.

The phyto-chemical laboratory, not long since established
in the Botanical department, has set vigorously to work
in the vast field of research before it. An examination into
materials likely to be available for paper-making has been
commenced, and the Government botanist informs us ~
that over thirty different varieties of fibre suitable for this
purpose have already been found; included in this list
is the well-known stringy-bark, from which a fair writing
paper has been made. Investigations imto the amount and
quality of wood spirit and vinegar in many of our common
trees, the conversion of some of the products into dyes
and mordaunts, the determination of the amounts of potash
and tannin in many plants and trees, and an examination
Into the resins and picric acid products of the different
species of Xanthorrhea or grass-tree are prominent among the
subjects that have occupied this branch of the Botanical
department during the last year.

Turning from, botany to paleontology, we are informed
of important discoveries in the rocks of this colony, the
most interesting of which is doubtless that of a species of
Squalodon (or Phocodon of Agassiz), closely related to the
famous Phocodon Scillze of the Malta beds, and still more
nearly related to the Phocodon (Squalodon) gratiloupi (Meyer)
of the French miocene tertiary heds, near Bordeaux. Professor
M‘Coy names the Victorian species, which occurs in the
tertiary sands of Cape Otway, after the young geologist

for the year 1867. xi

who found it, Phocodon (Squalodon) Wilkinsonii (M‘Coy).
This most singular occurrence of a highly characteristic
Kuropean miocene tertiary genus of mammal strongly con-
firms Professor M‘Coy’s previous classification of the similar
beds of our coast or lower miocene. In these beds he also
recognizes the teeth of extinct species of fish, identical with
lower miocene and upper eocene formations in Hurope and
North America, such as Charcarodon megalodon, Charcaro-
don angustidens, Oxyrhina Desori, &c. A great number of
new species of extinct Voluta, Cyprcoea, &c., have been cha-
racterised by the same writer from these beds during the
year, and great interest is expressed in the European
journals at his discovery of two species of Trigonia in the
tertiary formation at Schnapper Point, Spring Creek, and
near Geelong. The abundance of species of this genus in
the mesozoic formations in various parts of the world, its
occurrence in the recent seas of Australia, but not occurring
in the intermediate tertiary formation has long been a
curious geological puzzle, now solved by the discovery of
the Trigonia acuticostata (M‘Coy), and Trig. semiundulata
in our miocene tertiary deposits. Both the species are of
additional interest on account of being distinct from the
recent forms.

Beyond the bounds of our colony, however, at the head of
the Flinders, in the same rocks which Professor M‘Coy
proved last year to mark the cretaceous period in Australia,
a still more important discovery has recently been made by
this gentleman, of bones of the Hnaliosaurian genera, so
peculiarly mesozoic as to confirm in a marked manner his
previous determinatians (contrary to the received notion of
all geologists) of the occurrence of formations of this age in
Australia. These are a large new species of Ichthyosaurus,
Ichthyos. Australis (M‘Coy), and two large new species of
Plesiosaurus, P. macrospondylus (M‘Coy) and P. Sutherlandi

xX President's Address

(M‘Coy), the latter named after the donor of the specimen
to the National Museum. With these a new Ancylocorus, A.
Flindersii (M‘Coy), of the size and shape of the A. gigas of
the Isle of Wight greensand, and a new Belemnite, B. diptycha
(M‘Coy), closely related to some belemnites of the English,
French, and German lower chalk, are found, confirming the
original suggestions published in our Transactions of the
lower cretaceous age of these beds. |

Another important paleeontological addition to the geolo-
gical formations previously known in the colony is Pro-
fessor M‘Coy’s determination of the Devonian or old red sand-
stone age of the Buchan limestones, in which among other
Devonian fossils Spirifera levi costa and Placodermatous fish
occur.

As a subject allied to the branch of science I have just
alluded to, I will call to your remembrance a somewhat
animated controversy, both inside and outside these walls,
which took place about two years ago, concerning some
myological and other typical distinctions between man
and the apes. Professor Halford’s paper on the subject is
printed in your Transactions. A great writer on this and
_ kindred subjects, Professor Gratiolet, of Paris, who died early
in 1865, has given his opinion against Professor Huxley’s
views, and therefore, in confirmation of some of Professor
Halford’s conclusions. He says :—‘‘ The anatomical exami-
nation of the chimpanzee reveals the most profound and
really typical differences between man and the most ele-
vated apes.” He further states :—‘The facts upon which I
insist permit me to affirm, with a conviction founded on a
personal and attentive study of all at present known, that
anatomy gives no grounds for the idea, so violently defended ©
now-a-days, of a close relationship between man and ape.
One may invoke in vain some ancient skulls, evident
monstrosities, found by chance, such as that of Neanderthal,

for the year 1867. X1li

and here and there similiar forms may now be found—
they belong to idiots. One of these was discovered a few
years ago by Dr. Binder, who, at the request of M. Macé
presented itto me. It is now in the collection belonging to
the museum. It will henceforth be counted among the ele-
ments of the great discussion on the nature of man which
now agitates philosophers and troubles consciences ; out of
which discussion, some day, the divine majesty of man
_ shall arise consecrated by combat, and ever henceforth be
inviolable and triumphant.”

Our observatory has been occupied with its accustomed
work in astronomy, terrestrial magnetism, meteorology, and
collateral branches of physical science. The most im-
portant amongst the subjects that have engaged its attention
during the past year is the Melbourne share of the survey
of the southern heavens. The objects of this undertaking
I fully explained to you in my last address, when I also
mentioned that our observatory had been selected as one of
three British observatories to which this most important
work should be entrusted. Our portion of this survey was
commenced about twelve months ago, and has progressed
steadily ever since. At the end of the year the positions
and magnitudes of over 10,000 stars had been catalogued.

The second volume of Astronomical Observations has
been published ; it contains the results of the astronomical
work of the observatory from the time of its removal from
Williamstown in June, 1863, until the end of 1865. A
complete set of magnetographs has been constructed in
London and verified at Kew for this observatory ; they are
expected to arrive daily. These instruments are of a form
now accepted as the standard one, at least in all British ob-
servatories; they will be self-registering by means of
photography, so that the time, direction, and amount of
variation of the force of terrestrial magnetism will be con-

X1V President's Addvess

tinuously depicted on paper, thus securing a record that is
incomparably more complete than is attainable by the
ordinary way of observing.

The Great Southern Telescope, which is now approaching
completion may be expected in the course of a few months.
The last accounts received were that the great specula had
been successfully cast, and the tube and heavy mechanism
were in a forward state. There can be little doubt that this
telescope will be one of the best, if not the best, reflector in
the world.

The geological survey has steadily advanced with its
work, and several more of these beautiful and complete
geological maps have been issued during the year.

In the geodetic survey, the principal point of interest is
the extension of the primary triangulation into the out-
lying districts in the north-east. Mount Feathertop, Mount
Gibbo, the Buffalo and Bogong ranges being the last con-
nected ; while in the east of Gippsland, Mount Baldhead and
Mount Taylor mark the progress in that direction.

There have been some important additions to our geo-
graphical knowledge of Australia since inaugurating our
last session ; prominent among which I may mention Delis-
ser’s examination of a large tract of country in the Great
Australian Bight, were he has found extensive areas of ex-
cellent land for pastoral purposes ; Warburton’s exploratory
survey from Neale’s River; and Hunt’s reconnaisance of
the country east of the settled districts of Western Aus-
tralia. M‘Intyre, too, who unfortunately fell a victim to
fever while leading the Ladies’ Leichardt Search Expedition,
has added largely to our knowledge of the country east of
M‘Kinlay’s track.

After the loss of two of its leaders in succession, the Ladies’
Expedition is again in the field, under the leadership of Mr.
Barnett of Sandhurst. It is now directing its search and

for the year 1867. Vv

exploration to the south-west, the rumour of the existence of
white people among the Carpentaria tribes having been
found to be without foundation. ,

As regards the progress of arts and manufactures in this
and the other Australian colonies, I think I scarcely need
speak. The Intercolonial Exhibition has fully informed us
of the rapid strides the Australians have made during the last
few years, especially in the mechanical arts and manu-
factures.

To pass in review the many interesting and im-
portant results of the progress of science and art in the
Western world, would, I fear, occupy far more time than I
have now left to keep my address within the orthodox
limits. J must, therefore, pass over with simple mention
that grand achievement, the successful laying of the
“Atlantic cable; the new method of obtaining dynamic
electricity in almost unlimited quantity, by Mr. Wild’s
invention ; the researches of Dr. Frankland into the che-
mistry of food and assimilation ; Dr. Richardson’s mode of
producing insensibility to pain by refrigeration with ether
spray ; and the various contributions to our knowledge of
solar physics, astronomy, spectrum analysis, geology, che-
mistry, and other branches of science.

I would, however, with your permission, dwell for a few
minutes on the subject of that splendid phenomenon,
the meteor-shower of November last. It will be in the
memory of some of the members that, at a meeting in
October, I informed those present that a most unusual
fall of meteors was looked for on the night of the 13th
or 14th of November, but that it was anticipated to
occur principally on the western portion of the earth’s
surface ; yet we might, if the sky were clear, witness an
unusual number in these regions. Unfortunately, the even-
ings and nights of both the 13th and 14th were cloudy, but

XVi President's Address

had they been clear it is doubtful if we should have
seen anything very unusual, as I have since learned that
this part of the globe must have passed the portion of
space occupied by the node of these bodies before
their arrival there. It was, therefore, reserved for the
western world to witness the stupendous spectacle presented
on this occasion.

The origin of meteors, or falling stars, has for a long
period been a subject of conjecture and speculation, and
I have no doubt many of you are acquainted with the
various theories that have been entertained on this point at
one time and another. The recurrence of unusual numbers
of meteors, or meteoric storms, as they are called, at certain
nearly equal periods, however, has been the means of
directing the attention of many great investigators to
the subject. It was formerly thought—and this not so very
“many years ago—that the interplanetary spaces were occu-
pied only by that mysterious medium called etheng the
discovery, one by one, of the planetoids, now num ering
ninety, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, however, led
to the conjecture years ago that these spaces may yet
be tenanted by masses of matter too minute to reflect
sufficient light to be visible by the most penetrating tele-
scopes yet made. Subsequently, the belief that meteors
were minute masses of planetary matter became pretty
general among astronomers. The occurrence of a meteoric
shower in 1833, which is the last that occurred before
the November one, induced Oldsted, who compared the
account of a similar phenomenon seen by Humboldt and
Bonplan in 1799, to adopt the theory—-which this last
shower so fully confirms—that these meteoric storms are
due to the passages of the earth through a mass of these
atoms of matter, which appear to be congregated into aring,
that intersects the earth’s orbit. We can scarcely now

for the year 1867. Xvil

watch the sky on a clear night without witnessing several of
these shooting stars, and it is estimated that each portion of
space the size of the earth and in the neighbourhood of its
orbit contains, at least, 13,000 of these bodies, and that
could all, large and small, that enter our atmosphere in
every twenty-four hours be counted they would not be
less than, 400,000,000. It nevertheless seems now to be
satisfactorily established, that the bulk of these bodies
is congregated in rings, like rings of dust, as it were,
each little particle of which it 1s composed revolving about
the sun like a miniature planet. The existence of two such
rings is now considered to be satisfactorily proved, one
intersecting the plane of the earth’s orbit in August, with an
inclination of 79 deg., the other in November, with an angle
of J7 deg. It further appears that portions of these rings or
meteor orbits are denser than others; and that there
are immensely more numerous particles crowded together in
particular parts. These rings are now known as the August
and November rings, from their nodes being respectively in
those parts of the ecliptic occupied by the earth in those
months. The motion of the constituent particles of these
rings is in a contrary direction to that of the earth, so
that we always meet them.

It is to the investigations of Professor Newton, of
America, that we owe most of what is known of the
November ring, and he concludes the probable time of
revolution of these rings around the sun to be 3546 days,
our period bemg 365:25 days. From this it follows that
the earth will come into contact with the centre group (or
any other particular part of the ring) once in every 1338
years. He also states that we shall come very near to the
centre of the dense group every thirty-three years. The
shower commenced about eleven at night on the 13th—that

is, meteors were seen in great numbers ; but from midnight
A

XViil President's Address

till after two o’olock on the morning of the 14th the heavens
were alive with arain of fire. I before mentioned that these
rings revolve in an opposite direction to the earth, con- -
sequently, she met the meteors in ‘full tilt. The earth
moving at the rate of 1,000 miles a minute, meets them coming
towards her at the same rate at first, but long before they come
into view attaining a speed of 1,200 miles a minute. They
all appeared to come from one point in the sky, a point in
the constellation Leo, and as some writers state, “at times
appeared to belt the sky like meridians on a terrestrial
clobe.” ve

The occasion of the November shower must, therefore, be
attributed to the earth’s meeting the dense portion of the
November ring exactly as it was rising through the plane of
the ecliptic, and from what I have already mentioned, it ap-
pears that a similar phenomenon will not occur again to any
part of the earth’s surface till 1899. Mr. Alexander ©
Herschell, one of the highest authorities on this subject,
gives, as the result of his observations and deductions of the
meteor-fall of August, the weights and spectrum analyses of
many of these bodies. Some, he says, do not exceed two
grains, and not one in twenty exceeds a pound in weight,
It seems almost impossible that a particle only weighing
two grains should, at a distance of from fifty-four to
seventy-four miles, which is ascertained to be the distances at
which these bodies first become visible to us, be capable of
producing the brilliant effects presented; but it must be
borne in mind the immense velocity they have, and that
this velocity becomes converted into heat when checked by
resistance. Asingle grain of matter moving thirty miles
per second represents a dynamical energy of 55°675 foot
pounds ; this energy becomes converted into heat imme-
diately the meteoric particle enters our atmosphere, of suti-
cient intensity to produce the luminous appearance with

for the year 1867. bab.<

which they are accompanied, even should they enter it
intensely cold.

The examination of the light of these meteors, by means
of the spectroscope, indicates the presence of sodium in
their constitution to a large extent, while some appear to be
entirely gaseous.

In conclusion, [ must for one moment return to the affairs
of your Society. The present session already promises well,
and I trust that your next president will be able to revert
to it with even more gratification than I have now reviewed
your past one. IJ would urge all members who are engaged
in scientific research, in observing, collecting, or occupied
with manufactures or mechanical arts, to communicate to
this Society as often as they can the results or description of
their labours ; for I believe I am justified in saying that the
Transactions of the Royal Society, so widely distributed as
they are, will form one of the most valuable and reliable
means of making known to the world the intellectual and
material progress of the colony of Victoria.

Art. I.—WNotes of a Geological Trip over the Coal Basin of
New South Wales. By Mr. THomas Harrison.
[Read 9th July, 1866. ]

I need not tell those who have visited the spot that the
harbour of Port Jackson is one of the loveliest sheets of sea
water in this quarter of the globe. It-is not, however, so
generally known that there are many other inlets along the
New South Wales coast line the features of which, although
falling somewhat short in point of beauty, nevertheless bear
a strong family likeness to those witnessed in the immediate
vicinity of the sister metropolis. Each of these is distin-
guished by bold beetling clifis, jutting promontories, is often
almost landlocked ; and has one or two nearly barren but
fairy-like islands reposing on its bosom. Such are Broken
Bay, Shoal Haven, and Pitt Water. They are all, in fact,
due to the same cause, that is, the wearing, by waves and
other forces of the sandstone of the district into miniature
eulfs and inlets, and are therefore found at intervals along
the entire line of coast bounding this particular geological
formation. This formation extends from Sydney inland to
some little distance westward of Mount Victoria on the
Bathurst-road. Longitudinally the same is marked upon the
map affixed to Count Strezelecki’s Physical Description of
New South Wales, as stretching from the north near New-
castle to the south near Jarvis Bay ; but detached portions
of the same rocks would appear to be found at points very
much nearer to Cape Howe, since the Pigeon House is de-
scribed by Mr. Clarke as being an undenuded outlier, resting
as I suppose upon granite. As the widest part of the forma-
tion is about its centre the configuration of the whole
resembles an irregular oval, of which the conjugate and
transverse diameters run respectively from Maitland to the
Kangaroo River and from Broken Bay to Hartley.

The line of route taken during the trip I am about to
describe was to the last-named locality, lying about eighty

B

2 Coal Basin of New South Wales.

miles from Sydney, and afterwards along the coast to New-
castle, and from thence to Maitland and Stony Creek by
railway.

The first forty miles of the former journey is made by
train on the Great Western line as far as Penrith, and thence
by coach over the Blue Mountains. What I may term the
civilized part of the road to Hartley, that is, the distance
lying between the terminus of the railway at Sydney and
the one at Penrith, does not arrest the attention by any very
striking features. The country round never rises above
nor seems to fall much beneath mere mediocrity. It is
slightly undulating, seems moderately green and fertile, with
neither any very wide extent of woods, of open country, of
cultivated spots, or of barren regions. Its general appear-
ance is of a mixed description. It is everything—that is
everything Australian—by turns, and nothing long. Here
a bit like the Plains of the Werribee, a mile or two remind-
ing one of the wooded region on the line to Ballarat, a valley
—only on a more minute scale—such as those of the Barra-
bools, with a farm or two, a station. or two, and any quantity
of public-houses thrown in wherever there appears a valid
- excuse for building one ; and save that there are some orange
groves and churches of a nondescript style of architecture at
Parramatta, there is literally nothing else worthy of notice
for over two score miles.

Of course the rocks are of the carboniferous age, and
belong so far to the WIANAMATTA Beps. According to Mr.
Clarke these beds consist of brownish, greenish, or grey and
yellowish nodular or ferruginous shales; lght or dark
colored grits or sandstones, very calcareous, and charged with
ironstone nodules. They are the uppermost beds of the
series, and appear to contain some few, but very thin, seams
of coal. Their outline, as seen on the map, is of an oval
form, and their extent is about that of the county of Cum-
berland, nearly the whole of which is occupied by them.

From Penrith the remainder of the journey is made by .
coach. The first few miles is over what are termed the
Emu Plains, a flat extent of country, but whether the result
of deposits of alluvial or of a regular planing down of the
surface by aqueous agency, was not easily discernible during
our passage over it in the twilight. These plains are ter-
minated by the River Nepean, a tolerably broad stream, and,
crossing this, one is speedily at the foot of the celebrated
Lapstone Hill, geologically in the area of the Hawkesbury

Coal Basin of New South Wales. 3

Rocks, and literally in the region of wayside public-houses,
innumerable teams of weary horses, harrenness, bad roads,
and bushrangers. I am not going to describe the forty miles
of turnpike—for such it was—thus gone over, although,
from the quantity of sand everywhere, the description might
prove not altogether impertinent to such a paper; and
although the time of traversing the same occupied ten hours,
or as I believed at the period rather more than double that
number of geological epochs of your explorer’s life. And all
this time was one incessant series of jolts and tumbles,
varied sometimes by the coach standing as I fancied on its
head and at others turning a somerset. I think I left much
as Philip Vanderdecken may probably feel when he has
vainly essayed doubling the Cape until he sees the South
Pacific gradually dry into another Sahara, that all the while
causesdhim to pitch and toss for ever over waves of sand,
for the road everywhere was sand and nothing else, and
over ridges of this like waves, and down into valley-like
hollows, we surged and tumbled through the hours, or
through the epoch, until gladdened by the sight of the
Valley of Hartley at break of day.

This valley, as is the case with all other valleys of the
district, is of a most interesting character. There is a tolerably
level portion at the bottom, mostly thickly timbered, then a
steep slope covered by gigantic trees, above which the upper
portion of the valley’s side is seen to rise in an almost per-
pendicular wall of rock, which often runs on in an almost
unbroken line for many miles. Along the top of this wall-
like conformation there is almost a continuous level super-
ficies ; but this although of tolerably even surface is of ex-
ceedingly irregular outline. There are tongues of land that
run out into the valleys like promontories, and narrow necks
that seem as it were isthmuses. Anon and you see a de-
tached hill with its level top also looking like an island, or
the valiey opens into a wide-spread gulf with branching arms
of the most fantastic shape. Raise Sydney Harbour and the
- Parramatta River into dry land and you will have one of the
valleys described, or sink the valley so that it may be flooded
with sea water, and straightway you will have an exagge-
rated representation of one and all of the romantic inlets of
the eastern coast. }

The shore line from Sydney to Newcastle is, for the most
part, wild and rugged, and is fringed with one or two
romantic-looking rocky islands, lying a mile or two out to

B 2

4 Coal Basin of New South Wales.

sea. The cliffs near Newcastle are precipitous, and the
“Nobbies” standing at the mouth of the Hunter has an
especially escarped appearance, but nothing, not an absolute
bowling-green, can be flatter than the country bordering
the same river as far as Maitland. The whole is one wide-
spread plain of fertile alluvial, out of which rise a few
rounded hillocks of carboniferous rocks left undenuded. A
more striking contrast to the country near Hartley can
scarcely be conceived. The two districts severally display
examples of one and the same geological formation, acted
upon by different natural forces. The results witnessed are,
as I think, precisely what the student of geology may expect
to find under the circumstances of the case.

THE STRATA.

The rocks spread over the whole of the districts described
have a strong family likeness not only to each other but to
similar deposits in Tasmania and in Victoria. With our-
selves the lower beds of the series do not appear to have
been reached, but in Tasmania, in consequence of great
volcanic disturbances, the entire group can be examined from
top to bottom. We have, for instance, near Hobart Town,
in a descending order, sandstone with coal seams and shales,
claystone and limestone full of fossils. In New South
Wales, near Sydney, and in the centre of the deposit nothing
but sandstones are visible ; but at Newcastle the edge of the
basin towards the north, and at Wollongong the like
edge towards the south, the equivalent of the Tasmanian
limestone is met with, similar in position, at the bottom of
the series, containing fossils in every respect like those in
the Hobart Town beds, only that it appears to be much less
calcareous. Coal, however, appears to lie at a greater depth
in the New South Wales than in the Tasmanian basin, since
in the latter no seams of coal or even of coal shale are dug
below where the claystone—400 feet in thickness—com-
mences, whilst at Newcastle coal is profitably worked only
a, few feet over, 1f not actually below, portions of the lime-
stone itself.

At Hartley only a very few shafts and borings have been
attempted ; the series has not, therefore, been examined to
its entire depth j in this locality. Only a few miles further
west, however, granite is found to crop out, and to form the »
base of hills, the tops of which are of the generally prevalent

Coal Basin of New South Wales. 5

sandstone. The fossiliferous limestone or its equivalent is at
this spot shown to be absent, not even the silurian strata
intervening between the sandstone and the crystalline rocks.
This fact, taken with the circumstance that limestone forms
the base of the series in Tasmania, at Newcastle, and at
Wollongong, goes in some measure to point out the con-
ditions under which the entire formation came to be
deposited, viz., that after the laying down of the limestone
there existed, hereabouts, a gradually sinking sea bottom, |
since the circumstance that no limestone is found reposing
upon the granite shows that at the time of the limestone’s for-
mation the granite must have existed in the form of islands,
afterwards so far submerged as to allow of a subsequent
thick layer of sandstone being thrown down upon them.

I had neither time nor opportunity to explore personally
these deposits, but what fossils obtained from them were
shown me in private collections, were found to resemble in
the most striking manner similar organic remains which |
had met with near Hobart Town, and consisted for the most
part of Fenestella Producta, Terebratulide, Conulare, and
Orthoceratites. I may mention that at Raymond-terrace and
also at Illawarra Terebratula hastata is mentioned by
Stezelecki as a common fossil, one which Mr. Geikie, in his
“Story of a Boulder,” speaks of as occurring at depths of
not more than 50 fathoms ; here then, if the latter assertion
is correct, is sumething like reliable data by which the
maximum depth of the sea hereabouts during the limestone
era, may be approximately arrived at.

A paper professing to treat of the geological features of
the Hartley, Newcastle, and Wollongong districts would be
manifestly incomplete, if no allusion were made to the
large deposits of bituminous shale met with in each of these
localities. That of Hartley is, at present, for the most part
obtained from one of the valleys of the Blue Mountains, pre-
viously alluded to, termed Petrolia Vale. The deposit occu-
pies the very bottom of the slope of the two sides of the
valley, and probably once extended, if it does not now
extend, completely across the intervening flat, made up of
alluvial accumulations. On the western slope it is seen to
crop out at the surface, and is procured by driving a tunnel
into the hill side, but on the opposite side of the valley it is
only reached by means of a shaft some thirty feet in depth.
The seam here hit upon is of exceeding richness, yielding
over 160 gallons of crude oil to the ton. In its purest state

6 Coal Basin of New South Wales.

the mineral has a texture somewhat like very closely
grained wood, and breaks with a conchoidal fracture, but the
seams do not appear to be of equal richness throughout any
very great area. The small specimens which were obtained
from a boring near Mount Victoria show considerable
diversity in the same seam, and that within a very short dis-
tance. The richest of these does not even approach in worth
that of the main seam, but as they fell into my hands imme-
diately after having been brought up by the borer, and as |
they illustrate the variations met with I elected to
exhibit them. The seams, although compact from top to
bottom, are divided by perpendicular fissures into huge
blocks, which divisions would seem to indicate that after
deposition considerable shrinkage has taken place. Both
above and below the seam are found layers of fireclay, and
also strata of shale, much more impure than is the
main seam, but containing large quantities of bituminous
matter and highly inflammable. What is regarded as the
equivalent deposits of the Hartley shales at Stony Creek,
near Maitland, have almost the appearance of cannel coal,
yielding a dense black oil of nearly the consistence of gas
tar. The shales at American Creek, near Wollongong, are
often nearly as soft as leather, can be cut into flakes with a
knife, and the liquid yielded by distillation resembles a
purely vegetable oil.

In writing of the New South Wales’ coal measures, in his
“Southern Gold-fields,” the Rev. W. B. Clarke says :
‘“ Conglomerates of the carboniferous beds have been found
by me occasionally auriferous—that is, pebbles in the rock ©
have contained visible gold. Such I have mentioned as —
occurring on the north shore of Sydney Harbour, where I
have collected some dozen specimens. But I consider these
to have no commercial value, and, therefore, to have no
bearing except in a geological point of view ; they merely
tend to show that the opinions of certain distinguished
geologists in Kurope, respecting the age of the gold, are not
always applicable.” This statement is of especial interest to
ourselves at present, since the Victorian Government geolo-
gist has lately propounded a theory, that all quartz drifts
found in the miocene are non-auriferous, and that the Vic-
torian quartz reefs were not formed, or being formed were not
impregnated with auriferous particles, until the pliocene
period. Mr. Selwyn is, I think, too great a lover of facts not
to duly appreciatet hisone, coming from soreliablean authority

Coal Basin of New South Wales. i

as Mr. Clarke. The circumstance of auriferous drifts not being
found in miocene beds is a species of negative evidence that
must undoubtedly yield before a solitary specimen positively
instancing the direct converse. The actual existence of gold
at the very earliest times would. appear to be clearly
proven. Whether its formation was gradual, extending
over a long period, and developed in different areas at
different dates, is another question. A few isolated reefs
may have been thrown up previous to the mesozoic ages,
and the great majority of them may have had no existence
until just previous to the advent of man himself. There is
ohe circumstance in some way seeming to bear'upon Mr.
Selwyn’s theory, which ought not to be passed over. At
Keilor, Flemington, near Ivanhoe, and in many other por-
tions of the colony, quantities of an immensely hard tertiary
rock are met with. The formation is evidently the result of
some large out-pouring of water, highly charged with sili-
cious matter. Now grant, as many suppose, that quartz
reefs are of aqueous origin, and the result would be that the
springs forming them would escape from their respective
fissures, still strongly charged with silica, which would be
speedily deposited as a matter of course. Can it be that
the beds referred to are traceable to such a source; if so,
then the quartz is clearly of tertiary origin, since the silicious
deposits of which I speak contain leaves and plants, which I
believe are pronounced by the Government botanist, Dr.
Mueller, to be of not earlier than the miocene period ?

A careful study, however, of the carboniferous rocks of
New South Wales will, I think, suggest a reason other than
that of the modern origin of gold, why our miocene rocks
are not auriferous. They, the carboniferous beds, have
everywhere been subjected to immense denuding forces.
They once extended over an area much greater than that
which they at present occupy. The rocks of Western Port,
of Cape Otway, of North Gipps Land, Arapiles, and Mans-
field, are probably their equivalents, and very possibly their
outliers. Victoria, in fact, as I am informed, is pretty
thickly studded over with isolated patches, which seem to
show that such rocks once covered by a thick layer the
major part of the entire colony. The rough section before
you shows Mr. Selwyn’s views relative to this matter, and
by this it will be seen that a vast dome of sandstone, since
_ Swept away, extended from North Gipps Land to the Gram-
pians. Now, whilst this dome remained still intact no

8 Coal Basin of New South Wales.

denudation of silurian rocks, or of their contained quartz
veins, could possibly take place ; and the miocene rocks
generally bear strong evidence of being derived rather from
the mesozoic—that is, the carboniferous shales and sand-
stones, than from the older rocks. The pliocene beds, on the
other hand, contain the refuse of silurian rocks in great |
abundance. Hence the non-auriferous character of the
former, and the rich gold deposits found exclusively in the
latter. You cannot very well divest a man of his shirt
whilst he is still wrapped up in his overcoat. The older
rocks of Victoria probably enjoyed an immunity from
denudation in the miocene period from a somewhat similar
reason ; they were at that time covered to a thickness of
many hundred feet by the lower mesozoic and the upper
palzeozoic deposits. I put forward this bit of theorizing
with the utmost diffidence—a diffidence which would be
still greater only that I find my own views upon the subject
are identical with those of more than one geologist, whose
acquaintance with Victorian strata is by no means con-
temptible.

But then again it must be conceded that there are some
few places, as on the beach near St. Kilda, where patches of
what seem to be miocene repose immediately upon silurian
strata—a fact somewhat militating the theory just laid
down of the older rocks being covered by carboniferous beds
during the earlier tertiary period.

I trust that this attempt to illustrate a fact in Victorian
geology, by the phenomena observed in an adjacent colony,
will not be deemed an unpardonable digression. I trust.
also that I have stated the case with all fairness, for I assure
you that, equally with Mr. Selwyn and your Society, 1 am
only desirous of eliciting the truth.

DENUDATION.

I come, in the last place, to what is perhaps the most
interesting feature of the sandstone formation of New South
Wales—viz., the very remarkable manner in which the
strata have been worn into deep valleys and gorges, pre-
senting phenomena unparalleled in any other portion of the
world.

The denudation that has taken place near Newcastle,
where the surface has been literally planed down by aqueous
agency, presents but few difficulties. The phenomena wit-

Coal Basin of New South Wales. 9

nessed are just such as might result from powerful ocean
‘currents passing over masses of rather friable sandstone.
Similarly we are not startled to see, worn as they are, the
valleys of the Barrabools, nor is it beyond the bounds of
probability to conceive the vast sandstone dome removed
from the centre of Victoria by long-continued oceanic action.
The destruction, too, of the cliffs nearSydneyis only what might
be reasonably expected from the enormous billows which
almost constantly break upon the shore in that locality. The
geologist, however, is not a little surprised to find cliffs
similar to those of Port Jackson eighty miles inland.
Speaking of one of these in the vicinity of the Weather-
board, Mr. Darwin says: “The country here is elevated
2,800 feet above the sea. About a mile and a half from this
place there is a view exceedingly well worth visiting. Fol-
lowing down a little valley, and its tiny rill of water, an
immense gulf unexpectedly opens through the trees which
border the pathway, at a depth of perhaps 1,500 feet.
Walking on a few yards, one stands on the brink of a vast
precipice, and below one sees a grand bay or gulf—for I
know not what other name to give it —thickly covered with
forest. The point of view is situated as if at the head of a
bay, the line of cliff diverging on each side, and showing
headland after headland, as on a bold sea-coast.” And,
again: “ Great arm-like bays, expanding at their upper
ends, often branch from the main valleys and penetrate the .
sandstone platform ; on the other hand, the platform often
sends promontories into the valleys, and even leaves in them
great, almost, insulated, masses.”

In attempting an explanation of the phenomenon, Mr.
Darwin further says: “The first impression, on seeing the
correspondence of the horizontal strata on each side of these
valleys and great amphitheatrical depressions, isthatthey have
been hollowed out, like other valleys, by the action of
water ; but when one reflects on the enormous amount of
stone, which on this view must have been removed through
mere gorges in chasms, (for the valleys many miles in
breadth at. their heads often contract to not more than 2,000
yards at their mouths,) one is led to ask whether the spaces
may not have subsided. But considering. the form of the
irregularly branching valleys, and of the narrow promontories
projecting into them from the platforms, we are compelled
to abandon this notion. To attribute these valleys to the
present alluvial action would be preposterous ; nor does the

BO Coal Basin of New South Wales.

drainage from the summit level always fall, as I remarked
near the Weather board into the head of these valleys, but
into one side of these bay-like recesses.” Mr. Darwin’s own
idea 1s, that what we see are the remains of enormous banks
of sand, such as are now being formed in the West Indies
and in the Red Sea, where it is said that the sea heaps
masses of sand around rocks and islands, and in the most
irregular forms. It is with great reluctance that I differ
from a geologist so experienced as the author of the “Origin of
Species ;”” but I do not think such an explanation as that
given will satisfy one person out of a hundred who has seen
the valleys in question. 3

If I must venture on a hypothesis I should certainly
refer what is witnessed to fluvial if not to atmospheric
action. ‘The valleys, only on a grander scale, resemble the
cullies which one sees cut into pliocene drift on the coast,
more than anything else I am acquainted with. There is,
or there was, previous to its being lately planted with fern
trees, a gully in the Government House Reserve that
looked like one of the Blue Mountain valleys seen through
the wrong end of a telescope. This we know was the result
of rain water, and it is only a question of time that would
refer the larger valley to the came cause.

But take an instance much more striking and conclusive,
Near Keilor we have a valley nearly one hundred feet in
depth cut through, not friable sandstone like that.of New
South Wales, but indurate basalt, hard silicious rock, and
compact silurian strata. All this has been done within a
very limited period ; for the basalt in question is, if I mistake
not, pliocine. All has been done, too, by a tiny stream, the —
Deep Creek, for there are many circumstances which go to
show that in the excavation of this particular valley waves
and currents of the sea could have played no part. Take an
instance, if possible, more striking still, the denudation of
the basalt on the top of Mount Useful. This, too, is of
recent origin, and yet was ever destruction of a rock and
removal of the eroded material more complete and perfect ?

Now the Blue Mountains bear evidence of being of
immense antiquity, not only as a deposit, but as subse-
quently upheaved dry land. If I might hazard an opinion
I should certainly speak of them as being, with the excep-
tion of our granitic chains, as the oldest land in Australia.
The central portions of Victoria must have remained under
water to a much later date, or how could the equivalent

The Formation of Gold Nuggets. ie

strata have been denuded from above the silurian rocks. In
the Blue Mountains, too, so far as I could gather, no evi-
dence of tertiary deposits are anywhere apparent. Here is
another proof of immense antiquity. It gives us time
wherein to do our work, but, furthermore, it presupposes the
existence of a force whereby the work would be carried on.
If the district remained dry ground during the tertiary age
it could only have done so as one or more of a group of
islands. Under such circumstances the rainfall must have
been vastly greater than at present. Torrents might have
roared down these now dry hill slopes and even rivers have
flowed along these now arid valleys.

As to time for working out such grand results by such
trifling agencies, of geologic time we know comparatively
nothing. - We have long since abandoned the old interpreta-
tion of Genesis, limiting the world’s age to 6,000 years.
Having done so, ] am at a loss to know what reasonable
argument can be adduced for refusing the geologist any ex-
tension of time whatever, short of an eternity, during which
the grand results he contemplates may have been brought
about.

Art. IL—On the Theory of the Formation of Gold Nuggets
im Drift. By Mr. C. WILKINSON.

(Read 11th September, 1866.)

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Royal Society,—It
has hitherto been a moot question, and one which has
elicited no small degree of discussion, respecting the occur-
rence of larger nuggets of gold inthe drifts than have yet
been discovered in any quartz reef; and that alluvial gold
is generally of a higher standard than that Begg eC from
the reefs.

Many theories have been introduced to account for these
phenomena: among them is one which does not appear“ to
have received that amount of attention it evidently merits.
J allude to that advanced by Mr. Selwyn, the Government
geologist, suggesting the probability of gold existing in
solution in the mineral water permeating the silurian rocks
and the gold drifts; and that this water, in its passage
through the drifts, became by some unknown means decom-

12 The Formation of Gold Nuggets.

posed, influencing the precipitation of the gold, which
concreted, so to speak, around the most congenial nuclei
presented to it, such as the particles or pieces of reef gold
existing in the drifts or any other metallic substances for
which it had an affinity.

Mr. Daintree, formerly of our Geological Survey, had on —
one occasion prepared for photographic uses a solution of
chloride of gold, leaving in it a small piece of metallic gold
undissolved. Accidently some extraneouus substance, sup-
posed to be a piece of cork, had fallen into the solution,
decomposing it, and causing the gold to precipitate, which
deposited in the metallic state, as in the electro-plating
process, around the small piece of undissolved gold, increasing
it in size to two or three times its original dimensions.

Considering this accidental experiment of Mr. Daintree as
in some measure bearing out Mr. Selwyn’s hypothesis,
I was induced to make a few simple experiments, the
results of which I have now the pleasure of laying before
you.

Using the most convenient salt of gold, the terchloride,
and employing wood as the decomposing agent, in order to
imitate as closely as possible the organic matter supposed to
decompose the solution circulating through the drifts, I first
immersed a piece of cubic iron pyrites taken from the coal
formation at Cape Otway, far distant from any of our gold
rocks, and therefore less likely to contain gold than other
pyrites. This specimen (No. 1) was keptin a dilute solution ©
for about three weeks, and is completely covered with a
bright film of metallic gold. I afterwards filed off the gold.
from one side of a cube crystal to show the pyrites itself
and the thickness of the surrounding coating, which you
will observe is thicker than ordinary note paper. If the
conditions continued favourable for a very lengthened
period, this specimen would doubtless have formed the
nucleus of a large nugget. Crystals of gold have been
found to contain nuclei of brown iron ore and undecomposed
iron pyrites.

No. 2 specimen contains iron pyrites, and was immersed
in a solution of about 4 grs. of the chloride of gold to one
ounce of water ; ina short time, however, it was found that
in such a strong solution the pyrites began to decompose ;
but after diluting to about 2 ers. to an ounce of water this
decomposition apparently ceased, and metallic gold deposited
wherever a particle of the sulphide existed, alike in crevices

The Formation of Gold Nuggets. 13

as on the surface of the quartz, and also in a remarkable
mammillary form. This was in the solution for a week.

No. 3 contains iron pyrites and galena, on both of
which the gold has deposited, so that you cannot now
distinguish one sulphide from the other. It remained ina
solution of one gr. of chloride to the ounce of water for eight
days.

nos 4 and 5 are similar specimens to the last mentioned,
the same strength of solution being used; but they were
only dipped half way into it, so that the immersed part
coated with gold may be compared with the other half on
which the pyrites remains unaltered.

I may here remark that a weak solution produces more
perfect results than a strong one; with the latter the sul-
phides are partly decomposed, and the gold is covered with
a dark brown powdery film, as you will observe in some of
the above specimens. This film does not prevent the growth
of the gold in the solution, and it may easily be rubbed off.

Nos. 6 to 13.—Iron, copper, and arsenical pyrites, anti-
mony, galena, molybdenite, zinc-blend, and wolfram were
treated in the above manner with similar results.

Brown iron ore and quartz covered with peroxide of iron
were also tried in the same way, but the gold was deposited
only as a fine metallic powder.

In the above experiments a small chip of wood was em-
ployed as the decomposing agent. In one instance I used a
bit of leather. All through the wood and leather gold was
disseminated in fine particles, and when cut through the
characteristic metallic lustre is brightly reflected.

The first six of these sulphides were also operated upon
simply in the solution without organic matter, but they re-
mained unaltered.

Iron pyrites was tried with metallic copper, zinc and iron
as decomposing agents ; but metallic gold was deposited only
as a fine powder, which settled at the bottom of the
vessel.

From these experiments it would appear that organic
matter is the necessary chemical agent to decompose a solu-
tion of the chloride of gold in order to precipitate the gold
as a coherent coating around a nucleus presented to it; and
that so far as we have yet tried, iron, copper, and arsenical
pyrites, galena, antimony, molybdenite, blend, wolfram, and
metallic gold, constitute especially favourable nuclei to de-
monstrate this chemical reaction.

14 The Formation of Gold Nuggets.

Organic substances, such as fragments of wood, roots of
trees, &c., exist abundantly in the gold drifts. It remains
therefore a point of great importance to decide whether gold
is actually in solution in the meteoric water circulating
through our rocks and drifts. Iam not aware of direct ex-
periments having been made to solve this question, but that
gold will most probably be found, is indicated by an
analysis made by Mr. Daintree. I quote his own words :—
“In testing a solid mass of iron pyrites gold was found
throughout. This mass retained the structure of a tree stem,
and was a replacement of the organic structure by pyrites,
and had been taken from the Ballarat drift. The same ex-
periment on another tree stem, taken from the same drift,
has been repeated by Mr. Newbery, the Geological Survey
Analyst, with a like result.

I referred to the mammillary form the gold assumes in
No. 2 specimen, which appears to be analagous to that pre-
sented by the surface of nuggets. Analogy, however, though
generally a truthful guide, if relied upon too implicitly in
outward semblances, may lead to erroneous conclusions.
Nevertheless the striking similarity in the surface of the
artificial production to that of the natural gold is a point
worth noticing. For if the form of the latter is the result of
abrasion of its surface by the material carried along by the
streams that once swept down the courses of our old “ leads,”
then our analogy will not hold good. Yet when we have no
evidence of the existence of such large nuggets in the reefs,
and this theory introduces a means of producing results like
those in nature, we are justified, in the absence of such evi-
dence, to attribute these results to analogous causes. Other--
wise to what origin shall we ascribe the presence of gold in
pyrites that has been formed in wood imbedded in the
auriferous drifts, and the fact that sometimes gold encloses
a nucleus of brown iron ore, Wc., unless it was deposited from
solution ?

That gold may be greatly purified by dissolving and re-
precipitating it is strong evidence in favour of the theory
attributing to a similar cause the greater purity or higher
standard generally of alluvial than reef gold.

It would be premature for me to speculate further on the
hypothesis of the growth of gold—the formation of nuggets
in the drift, on which the above recorded few simple experi-
ments may perhaps throw some light—until the result of
more comprehensive and systematic experiments which are

The Extraction of Gold. 15

now being conducted by Mr. Newbery are known. In con-
clusion, I beg to acknowledge my indebtedness for some
points in the foregoing to a Report on the Minerals of Vic-
toria, just completed, by Mr. G. F. Ulrich, of the Geological
Survey.

Art. II].—On the Extraction of Gold. By Mr. H. A.
THOMPSON.
(Read 11th September, 1866.)

The paper I have the honour to lay before the Royal
Society has been compiled from my notes of experiments
extending over the last six or seven years, and entered upon
with a view of diminishing the heavy loss of gold now
sustained in reducing quartz. The greater portion of these
experiments were carried out at the works of the Port
Phillip Company at Clunes by the officers of the company,
or in conjunction with them, and are the more important as
on that large establishment there is every facility for con-
ducting the trials upon a working scale, while an assay office
attached to the works allows of every step being tested
with the accuracy which alone can make the results obtained
reliable. It has long been known that a greater loss occurs
in the treating of gold ores than is the case with any other
metal ; and although this subject has attracted the notice of
scientific and practical men for many years, the advance
hitherto made has hardly been commensurate with the atten-
tion bestowed upon it.

In the old gold mining works of Europe and South
America the loss runs from twenty-five per cent. of the total
contents of the quartz upwards, notwithstanding the accu-
mulated experience of several generations of miners; and in
California Professor Silliman reports that his examination of
tailings from the different works in the Grass Valley, showed
a loss of eighty dollars (say four ounces) of gold per ton, and
he adds, “on the authority of one of the most cautious and
experienced metallurgists of California, that the saving in a
large number of cases was barely thirty per cent. of the
gross contents of the ore, as determined by his own careful
assays both of the ore and the waste.”

In this colony assays of tailings from many cleerennt gold-
fields have led me to the conclusion, that the average loss
sustained in crushing is not less than thirty-five per cent. of

16 The Extraction of Gold.

the total gold contents of the quartz, or at the lowest calcu-
lation £1,000,000 per annum. I doubt if any works are
sustaining less than twenty-five per cent. loss, and several
instances have come under my notice where there was a
large per centage of sulphides in the quartz, and the loss of
gold was in consequence from fifty to seventy per cent. of
the total contents. The discovery of any method that would
retain a fair proportion of the gold now lost, would add
materially to the prosperity of the mining interest, but the
direct saving is not all the benefit that would be obtained
from it. Numerous quartz veins, now considered too poor
to remunerate the miner for working them, would yield a
fair profit if the gold in the sulphides were made available, as
well as the free gold in the quartz, and the advantage
derived from this source would be nearly as great as that
accruing from the direct saving. or.

It has been commonly asserted that this colony was far
behind other mining countries in the adaptation of improved
methods for extracting the gold; but, judging from the
most reliable returns we can obtain, this certainly is not the
case, and either as regards the character of our machinery,
or the attention given to improved methods of treating the
ore, we have no reason to be ashamed of the position we
hold. It should not be matter for surprise that it has taken
us fifteen years to solve the problem which has baffled other
gold miners for four times that period, with all the resources
of an old country, cheap labour, and cheap material at their
command.

For convenience the gold found in mineral veins may be
divided into two classes: first, the free gold, meaning that.
deposited in the quartz, slate, or other matrix in a form
rendering it capable of liberation by the ordinary process of
crushing; and, second, the pyritous gold, meaning that
deposited with and enveloped by the sulphides of iron,
copper, antimony, and lead, but principally in this colony
with iron. ,

The greater part of the free gold is deposited in particles
large enough to be liberated and retained by the ordinary
reducing process, but in nearly all gold-bearing quartz a
certain amount of fine gold exists, which cannot be retained
by the usual mode of treatment, and in some few exceptional
‘cases the proportion of this fine gold is so considerable as to
form one-third of thegold lost. This fine gold, when seen in the
quartz with the aid of the microscope, presents the appearance of

The Extraction of Gold. 17

minute patches of gilding, and must be detached in thin flat
pieces readily floated away in running water. A part may
be pyritous gold lberated in the breaking up of the iron
ores. In practical working some of this fine gold must
always be lost, even where the greatest care is used, but a
large proportion of that now carried away would be retained
with the sulphides by any efficient mode concentrating the
latter.

The pyritous gold is so closely incorporated with the iron
and other ores, that it cannot be separated by the means
found to be most economical for extracting the free gold.
Jt has been a moot question whether this pyritous gold
exists in combination with the sulphides or in a metallic
state. Experiments made at Clunes, using hypo-sulphite of
soda as the dissolving agent, showed a trace of other than
metallic gold in rich pyrites, but none in auriferous antimony
ore. In the first case the quantity was evidently so small
as to be of no practical importance, nearly all the gold being
mechanically deposited with the sulphides. In a sample
washed from the blanket strakes, in which the grains of
pyrites average about one one-thousandth of an inch in |
diameter, gold can be seen on the broken faces in still
minuter particles, and I believe the great bulk of the pyrit-
ous gold is in this finely-divided state. Sulphides have
been found in this colony containing two hundred ounces
to the ton, and in New South Wales over two thousand
ounces of gold per ton; but these were no doubt picked
specimens, and would not represent the average yield of the
sulphides in the vein. I have, however, more than half-a-
ton of pyrites ready for treatment at the Good Hope
mine holding nearly one hundred ounces of gold per ton;
and wherever quartz veins contain a paying amount of free
gold, and carry from two to five per cent. of pyrites, the
latter in every case yet tried has proved to be rich in gold.
I have met with no instance where the yield of the pyrites
was not in proportion to the per centage of it in the quartz,
and the amount of free gold that could be obtained from the
ore. From ten to forty ounces of gold per ton may be taken
as the average yield of the sulphides in paying quartz mines,
although both higher and lower yields are occasionally met
with. |

But it is not the sulphides existing in the quartz veins
only that are auriferous. Many of the blue slate beds, at a
distance of several fathoms from the mineral veins, contain

C

18 The Extraction of Cold.

pyrites in scattered crystals studding the rock. ~These
crystals have been collected, and on assay gave from five to
fifteen dwts. of gold per ton. This fact may throw some
light on the cause of quartz veins being frequently pro-
ductive above and poor below the water line; a circum-
stance usually ascribed to the pyrites in the vein being
undecomposed below the water. This is hardly sufficient
to account for the sudden failure of the gold in depth
in many cases, and it is possible that the existence of
large quantities of undecomposed pyrites in the adjoin-
ing slate beds may have an impoverishing effect, by hold-
ing the gold and preventing its aggregation in the quartz
veins.

Hitherto I have only referred to the sulphides formed in
the quartz or slate; but in the old auriferous drifts of Bal-_
larat the trunks of ancient trees are found imbedded in the
gravel or drift, and on this old timber sulphides have fre-
quently formed. A beautiful specimen of crystallized white
iron pyrites deposited on a piece of wood taken from a drift
immediately below the trap rock, gave by assay forty ounces
of gold per ton. In another case where the old trunks were
burst open, and only the sulphides formed in the heart of
the tree retained, they were found to yield over thirty dwts.
of gold per ton. Again, some of the fine dust obtained in
washing off the gold at the Royal Saxon claim, Ballarat,
yielded by assay over fifteen ozs.of gold per ton. When placed
under the microscope this dust was found to be composed of
minute crystals of pyrites, aggregated into round pellets,
from one three-hundredth to one one-hundredth of an inch
in diameter, the surface of each pellet being roughened by —
the projecting angles of the crystals, and unwaterworn, in-
dicating that the formation was subsequent to the deposit of
the drift. These results show that the deposition of gold
along with pyrites has been in operation at a comparatively
recent date and is probably still going on.

To enter into all the details of the researches made would
extend this paper to too great a length, and it will be sut-
ficient to state that careful trials, including assays of total
contents, different modes of amalgamation “to ascertain the
amount of free gold, and microscopic examinations, indicated
that the bulk of the gold lost was enveloped in the pyrites,
with rare exceptions, not more than one-fourth of the loss
being free gold, and this was usually small flaky pieces
floated off with the water. The proportion of this free gold

The Eatraction of Cold. 19

left in the tailings will depend on whether it has been
deposited in the quartz in fine or coarse particles, and
also on the more or less perfect character of the means
used for retaining it. A small per centage also is left
in the waste consisting of gold still attached to particles of
quartz.

The plan first adopted by our miners was to roast the
quartz in stacks in the open air, or in kilns, to oxidise the
sulphides, and so liberate the gold, while the quartz was
rendered more friable and easy to crush. After several years’
trial this system was given up, as it was found to be rather
injurious than otherwise. Ata low heat the pyrites in the
interior of the quartz was little changed, while the free gold
was coated with a film of some material, probably sulphur,
which impeded the action of the mercury on it. When the
roasting was carried on with a higher degree of heat, the
oxide of iron formed on the exposed faces of the quartz acted
as a flux, and a glazed surface of slag wa formed, in which
numerous minute globules of gold could be discerned under
the microscope, similar to those found in the waste tailings
when crushing roasted quartz. In the interior of the quartz
only a portion of the sulphur was given off, while black veins
were formed by the melted mono-sulphide of iron ; and other
experiments led to the conclusion that a portion of the melted
gold was diffused through these black veins ina form which
rendered it more difficult to separate than when in its natural
state. A careful experiment made on quartz roasted ina
cupola furnace with a superabundance of heated air, showéd
that the loss of gold sustained in crushing was ten per cent.
more than it would have been if the same quartz had been
crushed raw. Even if the pyritous gold could have been
liberated previous to crushing the quartz, it isin such a
minute state of division that much of it would have been
lost in the treatment found to be the most economical for
extracting the free gold.

These experiments indicated that the attempt to liberate
the pyritous gold by roasting the quartz before it was
crushed only increased the loss, and that attention should be
directed to the separation of this pyritous gold from the
sand after the latter had passed the different processes used
for retaining the free gold. The plan it was first proposed
to carry out was to operate on the waste tailings in bulk,
and as this is the principle on which the attempt at improve-
ments are based in California and other mining countries, it

C 2

20 The Extraction of Gold.

may be advisable to state the reasons which induced a differ-
ent line of experiment.

The first attempt to secure this gold was by means of
fine grinding and amalgamating with the following results.
By re-crushing the tailings with mercury in a Chihan mill
about twenty-five per cent. of the gold was obtained with
very careful working. Im the arastra, with grooves’ in the
bottom of the basin for mercury, the return was increased to
thirty-three per cent. of the assayed contents. Several other
plans based on the same principle of regrinding the sand in
mercury gave similar results; and even with careful hand |
amaloamation, when the material operated on was clean
pyrites, we could not make much improvement on the above
return. Dr. Percy, of the English Sehool of Mines, to whom
this matter had been referred, states that from pyrites con-
taining twenty-five and three-quarter ozs. of gold per ton,
he only obtained eight and three-quarter ozs. when ground
with mercury, but by roasting the pyrites before eperatine
he obtained nearly twenty-five ozs. per ton. A sample of rich
pyritous quartz tried by me a few months ago was ground
to a fine powder and then rubbed up with mercury and hot
water to extract all the free gold. The sulphides were then
separated by hand washing, reread and amaloamated, when
they yielded at the rate of one hundred and forty ozs. of gold
per ton. In the two last-mentioned cases the process was
conducted with a care and perfection such as could not be
carried out on a large scale, and they are only quoted as a
sample of numerous trials all tending to the same result, and
indicating that decomposition of the pyrites was a necessary
preliminary to any plan for extracting a fair proportion of —
the gold. But even were it otherwise, the action of the
sulphur and arsenic on the mercury would prevent the sul-
phides from being treated in their raw state.

The advantage gained by decomposing the sulphides has
long been known and acted on in working the pyritous gold
veins of North and South America, where the sulphides were
piled in heaps, and subjected to natural decomposition in the
open air for twelve months, and then re-treated to extract
the gold that had been liberated, this process being repeated
several times until the gold was exhausted. But it must be
evident that a plan requiring the lapse of several years be-
fore the gold in the waste can be rendered available, is not
suited to the conditions under which gold miming is carried
on in this colony, at the same time the expense “and loss of

The Extraction of Gold. 21

gold attending the different re-treatments would be greater
than that incurred in effecting decomposition by means of
roasting.

On the other hand, the cost of roasting in bulk, in addition
to that of grinding, so increased the outlay that it was only
in a few cases of exceptional richness where the waste could
have been so operated on profitably, and therefore little ad-
vantage would have been gained by following up this system.
But as more than seventy-five per cent. of the gold lost was
in the sulphides, and the greater part of the remaining gold
in a form likely to be retained with them, another course
was open, viz., to separate the sulphides from the compara-
tively worthless sand, thus reducing the bulk of the material
to be acted on and the consequent expense of extracting the
gold. This is the system we have been endeavouring to
bring to perfection for many years, and it appears to be the
only course at present known by means of which we can
hope to reduce the loss of gold within reasonable bounds,
As regards the larger grains of pyrites, this concentration is
partially effected on the blanket strakes, and it is the sul-
phides obtained from them, together with a portion sepa-
rated from the waste tailings, which have been operated on
at the Clunes works for several years past at a cost of about
£1 per ounce of gold extracted, leaving £3 per ounce for
profit.

The common reverberatory furnace was first tried for
roasting, but it was found to require such a large expendi-
ture of labour and time in turning over the sand, so aseto
allow of every portion being exposed to the action of the
heated air for a sufficient length of time to imsure perfect
oxidation of the sulphides as to render it a very costly pro-
eess. To remedy this defect a new oxidating furnace was
designed by Mr. Latta, which has been in use at the Clunes
works for three years. It is a reverberatory furnace, with an
inclined bed from thirty to fifty feet long, and from five to
six feet wide. The bed is set at an angle that will
allow the undisturbed sand to remain at rest on it, but still
make it easy to rake down through doorways at the side.
The sand to be roasted is fed in at the upper end of the bed,
and is gradually raked down, its place being supplied by
fresh charges, until it reaches the lower end of the bed com-
pletely. desulphurised, and is then discharged through a
narrow opening between the bed and the firebridge. This
furnace may be supplied with heated air by tubes over the

e
a

22 The Extraction of Gold.

fire, hollow fire-bars, communicating with a hollow bridge,
and, if. necessary with a coil of air-pipes in the ash-pit; the
object being to supply a large amount of oxygen in the
heated air to combine with the sulphur and arsenic, forming
sulphurous and arsenious acids, which pass off in a gaseous
state, thus converting the sulphides into oxides having no
deteriorating action on the mercury, and capable of ready
disintegration to allow of the liberation of the gold. The
sand is spread over the bed of the furnace ina thin layer,
and requires about two hours’ exposure to be roasted per-
fectly at a dull red heat. Soon as it comes out of the furnace
the heated sand is quenched with water, and when cool it 1s
ground and amalgamated in a damp state in Chilian mills, a
very good system, first introduced into this colony by Mr.
Hinck. About 2 ewt. of roasted sand is placed in the mill
for a charge with half its weight of mercury. This is ground
for half-an-hour, the mercury breaking up and becoming dis-
tributed through the sand in small globules. When itis
supposed the mercury has had time to absorb the gold, water
is admitted, and the globules collect together again. The
sand is then flushed out and another charge placed in the
mill. Some of the broken mercury escapes with the sand,
and provision must be made for its separation from the waste
before the latter finally passes away.

The following return gives the results obtained at the
Clunes works for the first six months of the current year in
operating on the pyritous sand saved from the waste in the
way described before :—

Quantity of concentrated sand treated -
Amount of gold obtained’ - it “ .
Cost of concentrating and reducing - -

183 tons
539 ozs. 17 dwts. .
£560

3)
Profit on the six months’ work - - £1,422 5s. 8d.

- Proportion of the total gold contents obtained 87 per cent.
Loss of mercury per ton of sand treated - 2°8 lbs.

The loss of mercury was heaviest at the beginning of the
year ; in the last parcel treated it was reduced to 1-6 Ibs. per
ton. Changes are now in contemplation intended to decrease
this loss still more, and at the same time increase the per
centage of gold obtained. But even in its present state this
is a good practical system of treating the sulphides, giving
fair returns both as regards the profit and the proportion of
gold extracted; and it should be noted that this is not a
mere laboratory experiment, but the results obtained in
actual working on a large scale, under conditions where
each step of the process is accurately tested. -

The Extraction of Gold. 23

The next question requiring attention was the best method
of separating the sulphides from the waste tailings, and this
has been found a difficult problem to solve. There is so
little difference between the respective specific gravities of
the quartz and iron pyrites, that the separation of one from
the other in any known dressing machine, even with par-
ticles of nearly the same size, would be imperfect. But this
difficulty is vastly increased through the pyrites being more
friable than the quartz, and therefore broken under the
stamps into much smaller particles. ‘This difference in size
counterbalances the difference in the specific gravities where
water concentration only is used, thus nullifying the prin-
ciple on which all the systems of ore dressing in general use
are based. An attempt was made to classify the sand, but
it was found that more than half the gold in the waste
tailings was enclosed in particles of pyrites or sand in such
a minute state of division that they could be passed through
fine wire gauze having three thousand six hundred meshes
to the square inch; and as it was evidently impracticable
to pass one hundred tons of sand per day through sieves
of this kind, the idea of direct classification was given up.
A trial was made of the classifying boxes introduced by
Mr. Ulrich, where the coarser sand and larger particles of
pyrites pass out with the water flowing from a lower escape,
and the lighter from an upper one. By this method the
sand can be divided into several different qualities, but the
classification is not according to size only, and is therefore
imperfect. As mentioned before, the coarser particles of
pyrites were retained on the blanket strakes, but the finer
pieces floated away, and no dressing machine hitherto
tried would retain more than a small proportion of these
fine sulphides. The best result was obtained from the
round concave buddle, with the improvements patented
by Mr. Munday ; and this machine is now being worked
to advantage at Clunes and other places, but it falls far
short of the requirements of the case, and the endeavour
to discover a better system has, in consequence, not been
relaxed,

After proving most of the known dressing machines, and
many modifications of old plans, which it was hoped might
overcome the difficulties in the way, without success, a trial
was made of the percussion table, a dressing machine much
used in Germany and South America. This is a table from
ten to fourteen feet long and from four to six feet wide, slung

24 The Extraction of Gold.

by means of four chains leading back, and with its head —
resting against a block of timber. It is pushed forward by
-means 3 of a lever, and when released swings back against
the block with a smart blow, making from. twenty to fifty
blows per minute. The sand and water is run on to the head
of the table and flows down it, carrying off the lighter ma-
terial, the heavier being retained on the table and gradually
brought up to the head by the force of the percussion blows.
In dressing ordinary ores, a table of the size mentioned will
put through from one to one and a half tons in twelve hours,
and the material retained on it is still mixed with such a
proportion of the poor waste as to require a second and some-
times a third dressing. These known defects evidently ren-
dered the percussion table inapplicable to the concentration
of the sulphides in this colony, where material and labour
are so costly, however useful it may be under more favourable
conditions in this respect.

The object in trying the table was therefore to see if its
defects could not be remedied, or the percussion principle ap-
plied to more advantage. Careful observation of the working
of a small percussion table soon led to the conciusion that
the cause of its imperfect action was the hard bank formed
upon it by the sand, which prevented the blow from pro-
ducing its full effect on the heavier particles; and it was
evident that the action would be much improved if the sand
on the table could be kept loose, in a semi-fluid state,.so as
to allow the biow to produce a maximum effect. When
finely ground ore is suspended in disturbed water, a blow
given to the side of the vessel containing the mixture will
momentarily check the current and tend to throw down
‘the materials in suspension in the order of their specifie
gravity, the heavier particles falling first ; and even where
gold or any of the sulphides are in such a fine state of
division as to float on the surface of the water, a similar
blow will at once cause them to sink, and at the same time
draw them towards the point where the blow is applied.
This is the action of the percussion-table, and when the
sand on the table is kept loose the sulphides, however finely
crushed, are thrown down by the sudden check given to the
current of water by the percussion blow, drawn below the |
surface of the sand on the table where they are protected
from the action of the water, and gradually accumulated
towards the head, the point where the blow is given. To
apply this principle with success several details require to

The Extraction of Gold. 25

be attended to. If the sand jis allowed to form a hard bank
on the bed of the table the sulphides cannot settle into it ;
on the other hand, if the sand is kept too loose, the motion
of the table forms a wave which tends to throw the sulphides
to the surface, and again exposes them to the risk of being
carried off by the current of water. Numerous experiments
were made to ascertain the form of stirrer best calculated to
meet these requirements. That finally adopted is not unlike
the prong of a sluice-fork, and is made of quarter-inch nail
rod iron ; each stirrer being eighteen inches in length, with
the end slightly curved. They are set about one and a half
inch apart in rows, each row being fixed into an axle work-
ing on gudgeons nine inches above the bottom of the table,
on which the curved ends of the stirrers always rest, the
axles allowing each row of stirrers to rise or fall with the
table. The bed of the table is covered with light boiler
plate to reduce the wear, as grooves, which impede the action
of the stirrers, are soon formed in a wooden bottom. The
sand and water are passed over a distributing board, which
delivers them in an even sheet on to the sloping head, clear
of the sand on the table. The suspending chains have regu-
lating screws on each for the purpose of adjustipg the levels.
The upper chains are fixed, but the lower ones pass over
and are attached to a roller, by means of which the inclina-
tion of the table can be altered at pleasure without disturb-
ing the cross levels. When put to work the table is set
with a slight inclination towards the head, and is gradually
lowered whenever the sand at the head collects to over two
and a half inches in depth. After working for a longer or
shorter time, according as the sand operated on may be poor -
in sulphides, or the contrary, the table will become loaded
with them. The tailings should then be diverted to a spare
machine, and clean water only allowed to run over the table.
In a few minutes the bulk of the pyrites will have accumu-
lated at the head, when the table must be stopped, the
pyrites shovelled out, and the work resumed as _ before.
Hitherto this machine has only been worked at the Good
Hope mine ; the table used there bei ng a small one, two feet
nine inches wide, with a bed seven feet long. Through this
was passed the waste tailings from four head of stamps (7.e.
from thirty-five to forty tons per week), and these were
carefully sampled at short intervals before going on to the
table and after leaving it, the samples being all filtered
through close woven calico. The assay of these samples

26 The Extraction of Gold.

made at the works of the Port Phillip Company gave the
following results .—

Contents of waste tailings before going
on to the table - - - : - 17 dwts. 22 er. of gold per ton.
After leaving the table - - - it eS Aha
Amount retained on the table - - i
Proportion of total gold contents saved, 82°3 per cent.

99 99
99 99 99

In the gold-bearing material saved on the table was found
fine free gold, and gold still attached to particles of sand, but
it principally consisted of decomposed pyrites converted by
exposure in the vein above the water level into oxide of
iron. It is probable that each of these particles of oxide
contains a nucleous of undecomposed sulphide, yet the partial
oxidation is sufficient to so reduce the specific gravity as to
materially increase the difficulty of separating it from the
quartz sand, and the saving of such a large proportion of
this gold-bearing ore is equivalent to a saving of from ninety
to ninety-five per cent. of the undecomposed sulphides.
Three of these tables are now in course of erection at the
Good Hope mine, and one at the Clunes, where its effective
working on different kinds of material will be -carefully
observed, and the results laid before the Society at a future
meeting ™

Another important matter is the separation of the sul-
phides mixed with as small a proportion of waste sand as
possible, but hitherto this close concentration could not be
effected without such an increase of loss as more than
balanced the gain through having to treat a smaller quantity
of pyritous sand. With the improved percussion table a
much higher degree of concentration can be effected without
risk than by any other means previously discovered, and
there will be a corresponding decrease in the cost per ounce
of gold extracted. No doubt time and experience will lead
to improvements in the working and construction of this
table, but it now surmounts the difficulty which has so long
stopped the way; it is simple, inexpensive, and easily
erected, and when worked in conjunction with the system
now in use at Clunes for extracting the gold, will retain
from seventy to seventy-five per cent. of the gold at present
lost in the waste tailings, at a cost not likely to exceed ten
shillings per ounce obtained. 3

Patent Ear-trumpet. yi

Arr. IV.—On a Patent Ear-trumpet and Stethosccpe,.
invented by DAvip WILKINSON, Esq.

[Read by Mr. C. Wilkinson, 8th October, 1866.]

Mr. President and Gentlemen,—I have much pleasure in
laying before you a new ear-trumpet and stethoscope, or
rather I should say, some improvements on the ordinary
instruments of this kind, invented by my father, Mr. David
Wilkinson. He communicated his ideas to this society some
three years ago, but as there were no instruments ac-
companying his communication it does not seem to have
been considered. Lately some of these instruments have
been made and partially tested.

In order, therefore, to make known that which may prove
beneficial to many members of the community at large,
whose welfare it is the chief object and desire of the Royal
Society to promote, I could not do so in a more satisfactory
manner than by submitting the following brief description
to your consideration. ‘That the present construction of in-
struments for conveying sound to the ear is but imperfectly
adapted to the purpose, is evinced by the very partial relief
they afford to those whose great adiiliction necessitates the
use of them.

I will here premise that it is not my intention to enter
into the acoustic principles on which depend the proper
construction of ear-trumpets ; nor to describe the anatomy
of the ear; forit would be extreme presumption for one like
myself, I must confess, so little acquainted with these
scientitic subjects, to attempt to do so before the profes-
sional members and others whom I have now the privilege
of addressing. I will, however, allude to a few of the more
simple points connected with these subjects, to which it will
be necessary for me to refer in describing these instruments.
Our perception of sound ordinarily results from the pulses
or vibrations in the air conveyed by the various processes of
the ear to the auditory nerves, whence the impressions pro-
duced are communicated to the brain where their effects arc
realized.

The principal parts of the ear are the outer-ear, the drum
of the ear, and the sensorium, or inner-ear. The outer-ear
seems formed as it were like an ear-trumpet, to catch the
vibrations in the air and conduct them toa tube, through

28 Patent Ear-trumpet.

which they pass into the head. Ina short distance this
tube has its passage stopped by a thin membrane—the
drum of the ear—stretched tightly across it. Behind this
lies a cavity, the “barrel of the ear” or tympanum, through
which runs a chain of four small bones connecting the drum
of the ear with the sensorium. These bones are supposed to
continue the vibration produced upon the drum by the
vibratory action of the air, towards the sensorium, whence
the brain receives its impressions.

Thus, from the disorder of any one of these organs, we
may readily conceive how various may be the causes from
which deafness may arise. If the inner ear or sensorium
remains perfect, the loss of hearing produced by the destruc-
tion of the drum, or the derangement of any of the other
parts of the ear, can be in many cases remedied by the use
of instruments which will convey a greater degree of sound
than that which the ear alone receives,

On the other hand, I have been given to understand that,
if deafness arises from the disorder of the sensorium, no
introduction of increase of sound will assist the hearing ; for
according as the auditory nerve is capable of receiving the
vibrations imparted to it, in the same measure will be its
power of communicating to the brain the impressions those
vibrations produce. It would therefore appear evident that
the advantage deaf persons will derive from the use of
ear-trumpets will depend in a great measure, if not entirely,
on the nature of their deafness.

There are two kinds of ear-trumpets commonly used ; one —
consisting of a long indiarubber tube fitted with an ear-

piece at one end, and at the other a bell-shaped piece into
which it is necessary to speak when addressing the deaf
person. This, therefore, cannot be made use of on all occa-
sions; the mode of using it also renders it very inconvenient.
The other trumpet is simply a small funnel-shaped instru-
ment, curved at the‘narrower end, which is inserted in the
ear. The only apparent object of this instrument is to
reflect that amount of sound received at the large end to the
smaller, where it is collected as it were into one point, and
in this condensed state is rendered more audible than could

have been effected by the ear alone. It is to an improve-
ment on this latter trumpet that I would now direct your

attention. It consists simply of two tubes; one inside, the
other but only connected at the smaller end. The object of
this double arrangement is to prevent the hand or any other

Patent Ear-trunpet. 29

soft substance from touching the inner metallic tube, other-
wise its vibratory action would in a measure be checked.
For instance, if you strike a glass tumbler or a bell, the
ringing sound almost immediately ceases on bringing the
hand in contact with the vibrating body. The construction
of this trumpet, however, allows the vibrations produced.
upon the inner tube by the pulses of the air to pass freely
into the ear. Thus you will observe that in addition to the
vibrations reflected into the ear through the medium of the
air, we have those produced and transmitted by the sonorous
inner metallic tube, and the sound is thereby strengthened.
Sound is conducted by some sonorous metals about ten times
quicker than through the air; but as the conducting power
of the latter is at the rate of about eleven hundred (1,100)
feet in a second, the difference in an instrument of this size
would be imperceptible. It may not be necessary for the
outer tube to be constructed of metal, probably any material
strong enough to keep the remainder of the tubes apart,
when joined at the smaller end, would be suitable.

I believe this ear-trumpet will not assist all cases of deaf-
ness ; for, as I have previously remarked, how variable may
be the nature of deafness; so I have no doubt the adaptation
of this or any other ear-trumpet will vary accordingly.

In two cases of deafness this was tried without the
persons deriving any greater benefit from it than from those
ordinarily in use. On the other hand, others have tried it
and assured me of its efficiency, of which I have had satis-
factory evidence in the increased facility with which I could
converse with them when using it.

The stethoscope, though differently constructed, is on the
same principle as the ear-trumpet. By its means the peculiar
sounds emitted by the vibratory action of certain parts of
the body are readily conducted to the ear. The sound
transmitted is also strengthened by resonance, which the
tube, passing up the centre of the stethoscope, produces. In
this tube is introduced a metallic wire connected only at
both ends of the instrument ; it is tightly drawn, and b
its tension is rendered extremely sensitive to the slightest
vibration. The sound received at the one end is imme-
diately communicated to the wire, by which it is more
rapidly conveyed to the ear than by the wood or the air in
the tube, with this addition, the sound is greatly increased.
Wood is an excellent conductor of sound; the difference,
therefore, in the conducting power of these media must be

30 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

less perceptible than in the ear-trumpet just described, if
indeed in this latter it is even possible to perceive any
difference.

One of the first medical men in this city has tried this
stethoscope, and remarked the great increase of sound it con-
veyed ; he also considered it would be most valuable for
those members of the medical profession whose hearing was
rather defective in detecting stethoscopic sounds.

I have not had any experience in stethoscopy, so must
therefore submit this instrument to medical men to judge of
its efficiency.

ArT. V.—Notes on Australian Coleoptera. -
By Count F. DE CASTELNAU.:
’ (Read by Dr. Mueller, 12th November, 1866.)

No. 1. Cricendelider.

One of the most remarkable facts connected with the
distribution of animals in Australia, is certainly the absence
of the cicindelide in all the southern part of that Con-
tinent ; that family of insects being otherwise spread over
_all the regions of the globe capable of bearing animal life.
This fact is just as interesting as is the absence of ophidian
reptiles in New Zealand and New Caledonia.

Little, or nearly nothing, is yet. known of the entomolo-
gical fauna of the northern and north western territories ;
but the eastern coast, which has been studied with some
care, presents a certain number of cicindelide, among which
we find with surprise the Megacephala, a form believed till
lately to be peculiar to the warmest parts of Africa, which
bare, we must remember, a considerable resemblance with
the central regions of Australia, to which it is confined on
this continent. .

An allied genus, Tetracha, had also been long ago signalised
by Hope from specimens brought from Port Essington.
Since then other species have been found by Messrs. Masters
and Thouzet, at Port Denison and Rockhampton, and also
by Mr. Waterhouse, in the central parts of Australia, during
his expedition across the continent, under Mr. Stuart.

Distipsidera is common in most parts of Queensland, the
species being very nearly allied to those which inhabit in
ereat numbers New Caledonia and the neighbouring islands.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 31

Cicindela proper is also numerously represented on the
eastern coast. Upsilon being very common in most parts of
New South Wales; but all at once going south, this family
of insects disappears, and never to my knowledge has a single
specimen been found in Victoria, Tasmania, South Aus-
tralia, nor in the southern parts of Western Australia.

The mild and even warm temperature of most of these
regions affords no possible explanation to this singular
phenomena, which has nothing to do with the isothermal
lines, as the insects I mention are very common all over
New Zealand, even in its most southern parts.

The genus Megacephala, represented till this day by one
single species, described lately by Mr. MacLeay, junr., in
the “Transactions of the Entomological Society of Sydney,”
under the specific name of Cilindrica, was first brought by ©
Major Mitchell from Peak Downs, in the western part of
Queensland. Since, Mr. Howitt met with it on Cooper’s
Creek, during his expedition to relieve Burke and Wills.
Of the three specimens he brought back, and which are in
the possession of his uncle, Dr. G. Howitt, a most learned
entomologist, who has a better knowledge of Australian
insects than any other living man, one is remarkable by
its fine blue colour.

Lately, Mr. Hubert, who was sent by Dr. Howitt and my-
self in the interior, found also one specimen of this beautiful
beetle on the Paroo River; it forms part of my own collec-
tion.

I have here to describe a:second Australian species of
Megacephala, also found by My. Howitt on Cooper's Creek ;
two specimens were taken, one is in Dr. Howitt’s collection
and the other in mine, through the generosity of the latter
gentleman, to whom I dedicate it.

Megacephala Howittii : length 7’, breadth 3’; of a rather
dark metallic green, with the buccal parts, the base of
antennee, lees and last two segments of the abdomen of a
light yellowish brown ; the head is broad and transverse,
with two impressions between the eyes; thorax almost
square, with a longitudinal sulcate in the middle and a
transverse one in front and backwards ; the elytra are short,
of an oval form, covered with deep punctures on their
anterior part, and extending to a little more than the third
of their length ; they are absolete on the remaining portion
of the surface. The inferior parts of the body are green,
with the middle of the abdomen black; this last colour

32 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

extends over the whole -of the latter segments, with the
exception of the two last, which are of a ‘brown, becoming
yellow on the ultimate. The antennee are obscure after the
fifth article. Mr. Howitt stated that he had taken this
Megacephala under dry cow dung.

Of Tetracha, the only species I have to mention is the one
found by Mr. Waterhouse in the centre of the Continent ©
(at 700 miles N.W. of Adelaide), and is, I believe, hitherto
undescribed, although that gentlemen has sent a consider-
able number to Engen. I propose to give it the name of
its discoverer.

Tetracha Ve: length 10’, breadth 4’; of a light
ereen metallic colour, with the buceal parts, the antennee,
legs and ultimate seoments of the abdomen of a yellowish
brown ; head broad with two sulcated impressions between
_ the eyes; thorax a little broader in front than towards its
posterior part, with a suleated and longitudinal line in the
middle, and a transverse one at each end; elytra of a green
colour, becoming bright and gilt near the suture; their
posterior part is covered by a large apical yellow spot,
terminating forward by an arched line ; the surface of the
green part of the elytra is very rugose, and presents a
longitudinal line of deep punctures following the suture at a
short distance.

It is with much pleasure I dedicate this handsome insect
to F. G. Waterhouse, Esq., of Adelaide, whose labours have
thrown so much light on the zoology of Southern Australia,

This species carries up to five the number of the Aus-
tralian species of Tetracha, which are the following :—

1. T. Australasie.—Hope, “ Trans. Ent. Soe. of London.”
Vol. IV.

2. T. Humeralis.—MacLeay, junr., “Trans. Ent. Soc. of
Sydney,” Part I. From Port Denison and Rockhampton.

T. Scapularis.—-MacLeay, Junr., id. From Port Deni-
son.

4. T. Crucigera.—MacLeay, junr., id. From | Port Deni-
son and Rockhampton.

Mr. Macleay, junr., says that these three sorts are pro-
bably nocturnal. I quite agree with him, having always
found that such is the case with all the brown “coloured |
species of the genus (on which Baron Chaudoir had formed
his genus Phwoxanthus), of which I have taken numerous
specimens of almost all the sorts known, during the
night, on the banks of the Amazonas, Tocantins, Arra-

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 33

ouaya, and other rivers of the interior parts of South
America; but I doubt very much 7. Waterhousw having
the same habits; the brilliant green and metallic sorts
being diurnal, and fond of running and flying about
under the rays of a tropical sun. I have lately seen, in a
collection made on the western coast, specimens of a
Tetracha, which seem identical with Humeralis.

Distipsidera is only represented in my collection of Aus-
tralian insects by five species, of which four are known.
Undulata, from the Clarence River, Brisbane and Rock-
hampton. Cursitans, Macleay, junr., equally from the Cla-
rence and from Brisbane. Volitans, MacLeay, from Port
Denison, and (Grutii: Pascoe, from Lizard Island, on the
north east coast of Carpentaria. The fifth species appears to
be undescribed, and I will mention it under the name given
to it in Mr. Deyrolles’s collection.

Distipsidera Stranger: length 64’, breadth 2’; resembles
very much Cursitans, but a little more slender ; head and
thorax of a darker tinge ; the humeral white spot covering
almost all the breadth of the elytra by its sinuations; the
apical spot more transverse ; the legs of a light brown; the
anterior thighs without any obscure spot ; those of the other
two pairs, having a feeble black line on their inferior side ;_
labrum of an obscure yellow ; antennz brown, with their
articles from three to six black.

I do not know from what part of the Australian continent
this insect was obtained.

Of Circindela, I possess several sorts that I believe
undescribed, without being able to certify the fact ; Baron
Chaudoir’s catalogue of Cicondelidee not having yet reached
this colony. Such are the following :—

Cicindela Masteri: length 5’, breadth 12’; brown, or dark
ereen ; labrum white; mandibulz of the last colour, with
their extremity of a dark green; antennze of the same
colour; thorax short; elytra with 1st, a white triangular spot
near the middle of the margin; 2nd, a short line below, follow-
ing the margin and often joining the first ; and 3rd, a lunula
at the apex; near the suture, and towards the two posterior
thirds of the length is a spot also white, which sometimes
unites with the triangular one. Inferior parts of the body
of a dark blue, and covered with a white pubescence ;
legs copper colour, with the base of the thighs green ; tarsi
of the last colour. This little species is not rare on. the
Eastern Creek, in New South Wales.

D

34 Notes. on Australian Coleoptera.

Cicindela Wilcoxw: length 5’, breadth 2’; nearly allied to
the European sort Cirewmdata; of a copper colour, covered
with a white pubescence; labrum of a yellowish white ;
external part of mandibule black; elytra with a broad
white margin, which forms, Ist, a Iunula on the humeral
angle; 2nd, a ramified branch before the middle of the
length of the elytra, directing itself toward the anterior part,
then bending downward, and forming a long lunula near the
suture; 3rd, a long spot, which is directed towards the
former. The lower parts of the body are of a dark green,
with the sides of the thorax pubescent ; legs copper coloured.
This Crcondela was sent to me from the Clarence River by
Mr. Wilcox. |

Cicindela Circumecincta: length 52’, breadth 2’—This
Cicindela has the cylindrical form of Odontocheila, and is
of a dark copper colour ; the labrum is narrow, sulcated, of
a dirty white, and is terminated by three teeth, of which
the strongest is situated in the middle; mandibule of a
black colour ; mentum with a very strong tooth ; eyes large
and prominent ; thorax almost square in the female, narrow
and cylindrical in the male ; elytra with a narrow, marginal,
whitish spot near the middle of the length, which extends
downwards, as a narrow line along the margin, and some-
times unites with a narrow arched line which covers the
apex. Inferior parts of the body green, with a white pu-
bescence ; legs copper coloured, with the tibixe: sometimes
purple. |

I received my first specimens of this species from Mr.
Thouzet, of Rockhampton, to which I owe so many insects —
of the north east part of Australia. Since then numerous
others have been sent to me from Brisbane, the Clarence
River, and Eastern Creek. It appears to be very common
in Queensland ; and it is also found in New Caledonia. This
singular insect is very remarkable on account of the differ-
ence of form the thorax presents in the two sexes. I have
described this insect under the name it bears in Mr.
Deyrolles’s collection, and under which he has sent it to his
correspondents.

The only other sorts of Cicindela of the Australian conti-
nent I possess in my collection, is the common Upsilon, and
the Nigrita, MacLeay, junr., from Port Denison.

I have now to say a few words on the Cicindelide: of New
Zealand. Numerous specimens have been received by me

from Dunedin of the Laticincta White, Turberculata Fab.,and

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. = = — 35

Parryi White. Some specimens of the two last have been
sent to me by Mr. Edwards, from Auckland, but those
of Tuberculata are darker, and have the elytra more
densely punctured than those of the Southern Island.

The Parryi of the northern part is also different from
the specimens of Dunedin ; they are smaller, their colour is
more green; the spots of the elytra are more confused,
and on each elytra there are two dark notches bordering the
middle ramified line. The entire insect appears also more
deeply punctured.

Tam not certain if this insect ought to be considered as
belonging to a different species, or as forming a local variety,
but I incline towards the last opinion.

From Dunedin, I also received several specimens of a new
sort.

Cicindela Dunedensis: length 4’, breadth 14’.—This small
sort is of a light brown; the labrum and base of the
mandibule are white ; the elytra are covered with punctures
of a green copper colour ; a sinuated line of large punctures
follows the suture; a rather broad marginal white band
extends along the exterior margin, and sends forth a short
lunula behind the axillary angle, an oblique band that almost
reaches the suture and an apical lunula. The inferior parts
of the body and legs are of a bright copper colour, and the
abdomen is black. This insect is allied to Parryi, but is
much smaller, more narrow, and has a general green appear-
ance; it is also easily distinguished by the sinuous and
arched form of the elytral line of big punctures, which is
straight in Parryt. :

Among other interesting specimens sent to me by W. L.
Travers, Esq., of Christchurch, are the larvee of the Tuber-
culata and Parryi. The first has a general elongated form,
the head not being much broader than the body; the whole
animal is formed of thirteen segments, including the head,
which is pretty large and rather excavated in its middle;
the parts of the mouth are well formed ; on each side of the
head are two eyes, of which the posterior are the largest ;
the antennze are very short and formed of four articles, of
which the last is very small; the mandibule are strong and
curved, with an acute tooth near their base; the prothorax
is broad, transversal, semicircular, with its anterior margin
protruding in its middle, in form of a point; the sides are
rounded and marginated; the posterior margin semicir-
cular. The surface of this thorax is unequal, and presents a

2D .

36 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

longitudinal carina on the middle. The abdominal seg-
ments are soft ; the eighth is gibbous, and surmounted by
two crooked appendices ; the legs are rather short. This
larva is entirely yellow, with the head and prothorax of
a dark green; the mandibulee of an obscure brown. It is

easy to see how very much this larva resembles those of the -

two European sorts that have been described.

The second larva I have to mention belongs, as I already
stated, to C_ Parryt ; it is of a very different form from the
other, the head and prothorax being of a most extraordinary
size ; at least four times as broad as the body, and nearly as
long. ‘The first is broad, transversal, with two eyes nearly
equal on each side; the labrum is rounded in front; the
mandibulee shorter than in the preceding sort ; the antennze
of the same form; the prothorax is semicircular, with its
anterior angles prolongated ; the. anterior margin is also
advanced in its middle; the two other thoracic segments
and those belonging to the abdomen are narrow, soft, and
hirsute; theeighth isslightly gibbous, but withoutappendiees ;
the legs are robust and proportionately pretty long. The
insect is of a dark yellow ; the head of a metallic green, as
is also the prothorax ; but the last is covered with a short
white and snowy pubescence.

In a following paper I will describe a large number of
new sorts of Australian insects, belonging to the family of
Carabide. I feel it my duty to express here my thanks to
all those who during my three years residence in this
colony, have so liberally granted me their co-operation in

the formation of my very considerable collection of Aus- —

tralian beetles, and in particular to our great botanist, Dr.
Mueller, who most liberally has put me in correspondence
with the greatest part of those who devote themselves to
the study of the zoology of the Southern Hemisphere.

Since the above was written, my knowledge of Australian

Cicindelide has received the following additions :—

Two new sorts of tetracha have been sent me by the
Rev. Mr. Bostock, of Western Australia. They both came
from Nickol Bay.

Tetracha Bostockiz: length, 6°, breadth, 2’3 of a fine

metallic green ; elytra black, with a yellow margin which
projects, towards a third of its length, a strong and oblique
ramification extending towards the suture. The surface of

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 37

the elytra is smooth on the two posterior third parts, the
anterior being covered with very strong and deep punctures;
parts of the mouth, antenne, last segment of the abdomen,
and legs of a dark yellow, the four first articles of the
antennze spotted with black ; end of the mandibulee of the
last colour. This insect very much resembles Humeralvs,
but is easily distinguished by its smaller size, the thorax, of
which the anterior angles are much more rounded, the
granulation of the elytra, &.

Tetracha Hopei: length, 9’, breadth, 32’; of a fine
metallic green ; thorax broader in front than at its posterior
part, sinuous laterally, with the anterior angles rather pro-
tuberant ; itpresents a transversal margin in front and another
towards its posterior part, and a longitudinal sulcate in the
middle; the elytra have a yellow margin that does not
extend to the humeral angle, and which gradually increases
in breadth in its posterior part ; the whole surface is densely
puncturated, but more particularly towards the base; a line
of deep punctures extends near the suture, but forms a
eurve towards the extremity; below, the body is green,
with the middle of the abdomen black, and ity extremity
brown; parts of the mouth, antenne, and legs of a yellow
brown ; extremity of the mandibulz black ; antennee, very
long. This species is dedicated to my lamented and old
friend, the Rev. Mr. Hope.

Of Cicmmdela I also received a new and most remark-
able species from Western Australia.

Cicindela MacLeayi: length, 6’, breadth, 2’; of a gilt
copper colour, head broad, eyes prominent, thorax almost
square, rounded laterally with a transverse sulcate near the
anterior and posterior margins, and a longitudinal one in the
middle ; elytra of a beautiful purple, with three longitudinal
bands of a whitish yellow, one marginal, another sutural,
and the third contral, which does not entirely reach the
margin at its posterior part ; inferior parts of the body of a
beautiful irradiated green; anus, brown ; antennee and legs
of a red copper colour, variegated with green; thighs
covered with a whitish pubescence; labrum white, trans-
verse, with its anterior margin sinuous.

This beautiful insect has an Indian appearance. I have
dedicated it to Mr. McLeay, junr., who has already done so
much for Australian Entomology.

The same magnificent collection of West Australian
insects I obtained from the Rev. Mr. Bostock contains a

38 On an undescribed Senecio, —

specimen of Cicindela which only differs from Circumcincta
by its fine light green colour; I suppose it to be a local
variety.

I will conclude with the following remark. _The Tetracha
Australasice of Hope is perhaps the same as the Crucigera
of McLeay, junr., but it is certainly different from the insect
figured under the name of Awstralasiw by White, in the
expedition of the Beagle (pl. 1, fig. 1). The latter belongs,
I think, without doubt to the Humeralis of McLeay.

With the addition of the sort lately described by Mr.
McLeay in the fifth number of the “Transactions of the
Entomological Society of New South Wales,” the number
of Australian Tetracha is actually eight, and will be cer-
tainly soon very much increased.

Art. VI. —Characteristic of an wndescribed Senecio, from
South Africa. By Frerp. MuELuer, M.D., F.R.S.

In a communication very recently received from Peter
MacOwan, Hsq., principal of Shaw College, of Grahamstown,
the writer of this note has been desired to give an opinion
on the specific validity of a new species of Senecio, dis-
covered not long ago by that learned and ardent investi-
gator of South African plants, in the vicinity of Algoa Bay.
I entered on the examination with all the more pleasure,
not only because the material for comparison of plants from
extratropical Africa is extremely rich in the Phytologic
Museum of Melbourne, but because I was also anxious to
promote in any way within my power the researches of a
gentleman who exercises already important bearings on the
elucidation of the plants of the Capeiand, and who, moreover,
has commenced to add largely to the South African collec-
tions already in possesion of my institution, from the
german naturalist and travellers, Ecklon, Zeyher, Drege,
Pappe, and Gueinzius.

The genus Senecio is not merely more widely distributed
over the globe than any other existing, from the polar to
the equinoctinal regions of both hemispheres (though
almost absent in North Australia), but it embraces also more —
species than any other, nearly a thousand being on record, some
however but ill defined. The genus almost as rich in
species, and almost as extensively diffused is Solanum, and
then seemingly follow Panicum, Carcz, and Huphorbia

from South Africa. 39°

though in Australia Acacia surpasses all others largely in
the number of specific forms. The species of Senecio, as
representatives from almost every part of the globe, become
thus of the greatest possible interest, and are certain to be
always among the first which come under the notice of any
phytographical observer. The groundsels, 1 may- remark,
though generally of the more humble forms#of vegetation,
present, in a recently discovered species from the Chatham
Islands (Senecio Huntis: “ Vegetation of the Chatham Islands,”
sketched by F. M., p. 23, plate 3); and in the Victorian and
Tasmanian S. Bedfordii (F. M., report, 1858, 26) fair-sized
trees, perhaps the only truly arborescent species of the globe.

In transmitting the botanical object, to which more
specially this brief memoir has reference, the discoverer
justly observes, “its nearest affinity to be with Senecio
“ Paucifolius, from which however it abundantly differs in
“its peltate leaves. The leaf is very like a frequent form
“of S. Oxyrifolius, but that plant has discoid capitula and
“a corymbose-paniculate inflorescence.” In these lucid
remarks I cannot but fully concur, and it will be therefore
with these two congeners that Mr. MacOwan’s Senecio wil
rank under the highly appropriate name chosen by that
gentleman for this new species. It may however be that
occasionally monocephalous varieties of S. Paucifolius and
S. Oxyrifolius are formed ; and again, forms of S. Tropwoli-
folvus with more than one capitulum, and thus the affinity
between these evidently closely allied plants would become:
still nearer. The diagnosis would approach to the follow-
ing :—

Senecio Tropeolifolius (MacOwan) :—Herbaceous, gla-
brous; leaves small, peltate, cordate-orbicular, or verging
into a rhomboid or renate form, repand, all radical or crowded -
towards the base of the stem, on long petioles; stem simple,
scapelike, monocephalous, with very few distant minute
scales ; involucre without calycular bracts, unless one, as long
as the discal flowers, consisting of about 13 scales; ray-
flowers yellow, about twice as long as those of the disk ;
achens glabrous.

On Meadows at-Grahamstewn. Prt. MacOwan, Esq., M.A.

The only specimen transmitted, is about a span long, and
without root, which probably will prove tuberous. Petioles
1-2" long, slender; leaves measuring about one inch, without
distinct teeth ; the point of insertion about one-third above

40 On an wndescribed Senecio.

the base ; neither nerves nor veins prominent. Involucre 3-4”
long. Ray-flowers about 7. Disk-flowers about 20, hardly
above 2” long, a little exceeding the copious and very tender
bristles of the white pappus. Ripe fruit not seen on this
occasion.

S. Paucifolius, to which Mr. MacOwan justly compares
his plant, though somewhat resembling it in habit, assumes
by its sessile leaves of mostly ovate shape a very different
appearance ; the nerves, moreover, are not radiate. The
flowerheads of both bear a great resemblance, as a comparison
of S. Paucifolius in the Melbourne Phytological Museum
at once rendered manifest. The affinity of S. Tropeoli-
folius is indeed nearer to S. Oxyrifolius ; the differences of
the latter consist in a pleiocephalous inflorescence, in a
lesser number of scales constituting the involucre, in the
abscence of ligular flowers and in hispidulous achens. On
this, as an apt occasion, the writer would still remark, that
in the extensive series of South African species of Senecio,
diagnostically defined by Professor Harvey, one does occur
among those formerly undescribed, as S. Leucoglossus, so
named by Dr. Sonder, The specific name is, however, pre-
occupied by a West Australian plant, described in the
second Vol. of the “Fragm. Phytogr. Austr.,” p. 15. The
name of the homonymous South African plant might thus _
be altered into S. Actinoleucus.

The writer connot conclude this brief notice of a South
African plant without a tribute of homage to the two ilus-
trious phytographers, Drs. Harvey and Sonder (of whose
lengthened friendship he may well be proud), who, in con-
structing their noble work on the vegetation of extratropical
Africa, have so far and so rapidly advanced to bring to-
gether their discoveries and those of their predecessors in a
form clear erudite and accessible ; though alas! the hand of
death has withdrawn one of these discoverers of the Cape
flora from amidst his glorious exertions, from exertions with
dignity sustained to diffuse combined knowledge and de-
light, and certain to stamp his name on that part of the
globe for all time. But it will not be there alone where the
children of Flora will speak with every returning spring of
both Harvey and Sonder. It is also on the oceanic shores
of the Australian continent, where we ever will be reminded
of the genius of these great men, when we contemplate the
wonderfully rich, varied, and beautiful marine vegetation of
our own extensive coasts.

Cretaceous Fossils in Australia. AY

Art. VII.—On the Decomposition of Pyrites. By Mr.
SHIRESS, of Ballarat. :
[Read by the President, 10th December, 1866.]

This paper treated of a new method of decomposing
pyzites by bringing the ore in contact with the fuel.

[Subsequently Mr. Shiress was requested to furnish the
Council with some data by which a conclusion could be
arrived at as to the correctness of the theory ; but this Mr.
Shiress has not thought proper to do.—ED.]

Art. VIII.—On Three New Victorian Birds. By PROFESSOR
M ‘Coy.

Professor M‘Coy exhibited a specimen of the Herodias
grezetta, shot in Gipps Land. This has been only doubtfully
added by Gould to the list of Australian birds, from inspec-
tion of a photograph of a specimen killed in Queensland.
The Victorian specimen exhibited was not only new to the
colony, but the first of the kind that had been actually
identified with the species from actual comparison. The
second new Victorian bird exhibited was a new species of
Bristle-bird, Sphenura Broadbentt (M‘Coy), found by Mr.
Broadbent near Portland. The third was a new species of
Pardalotus, recently described under the name P. Xanthopyge
(M‘Coy), first noticed by Mr. Leadbeater, taxidermist at the
Museum, but previously confounded with the P. pune-
tatus.

The characters of all these forms were dwelt on in detail,
and the specimens exhibited have been in the National
_ Museum for two years.

Art. IX.—On the Discovery of Enaliosauria and other Cre-
taceous Fossils in Australia. By Prorrssor M‘Coy.

This paper was to illustrate a small but most valuable
series of fossil specimens, sent by Mr. James Sutherland to
Professor M‘Coy, from the head of the Flinders, for the
National Museum, in continuation of the series formerly
described before the Society, presented by Messrs. Sutherland
and Carson, of Collins-street, and which enabled Professor

42, Cretaceous Fossils in Australia.

M‘Coy to establish the existence in Australia of the cre-
taceous formation. The present collection enabled Pro-
fessor M‘Coy on this occasion not only to confirm his
previous determination of the geological age of the rocks of
the district, but to make the very important announcement
of the occurrence of Lnaliosawriun fossil reptiles of the
genera Ichihyosawrus and Plesiosawrus, as well as the
characteristic molluscous genus Ancyloceras and a Belem-
mite, and a second species Ammonites allied to European
cretaceous forms. These were exhibited and described under
the following names :—

I chthyosawrus Australis (M‘Coy).

Numerous deeply bi-concave vertebree, the bodies 4, inches
wide, 3 inches deep, and 14 inches long.

Plesiosawrus Sutherlands (M‘Coy).

Length of centrum 21 inches, width 3? inches, depth 24
inches. This differs in its proportions from the New |
Zealand Plesiosaurus, described by Professor Owen, to
which it is most nearly allied.

Plesiosaurus macrospondylus (M‘Coy).

Having the bodies of the vertebree much longer in propor-
tion to their width than any known species. Length
3 inches, width 3 inches, depth 24 inches. The anterior
and posterior margins are longitudinally wrinkled as in the
P. rugosus.

Ancyloceras Flindersi (M‘Coy).

A gigantic species equalling the A. gigas of the Lower
Greensand in size, but more nearly resembling the A.
Tabarella of the French Lower Greensand in marking.

Ammonites Sutherlandi (M‘Coy).

A new small species like the French Am. — audiert of
the Gault.

Belemnitella diptycha (M‘Coy).

A species with two dorsal inflected folds or sulci on the ©
dorsal face; broadly hastate guard, eight lines wide ; agreeing
in size and shape almost exactly with the English and
French lower cretaceous B. plena.

The Glacial Period in Australia. 43

Arr. X—A Contribution to M eteorology.
[Read 11th February, 1867.]

Mr. G. W. Groves read a paper with the above title, in
which he sought to prove. the correctness of his weather
prophecies, and ascribed to the “Science of Terrestial
Magnetism” certain principles upon which his calculations
were based.

Art. XI.—On the Glacial Period in Australia. By the
Rev. J. E. Tentson Woops, F.LS., F.G.S., &e.
[Read at the Annual Conversazione of the Royal Society, March 4, 1867.]

I owe some apology to the Society for the brief and scat-
tered notes on this subject, which I bring before their notice
this evening ; but I trust they will see that it contains the
germs of what is of the utmost importance to science, not
only in Australia, but the scientific conclusions of many
eminent men of Europe. It is well known that what is
termed the glacial period has occupied a very prominent
position in the researches of geologists at home. I need not
particularize now what is ordinarily understood by the term,
for most of my hearers will be familiar with the facts to
which I refer. It appears that during the close of the
tertiary period Europe, and indeed we may say the whole of
the northern hemisphere, has been visited with a climate
which is only now equalled by what is seen in Greenland
and the Arctic regions. What that is will be best under-
stood by Dr. Rink’s paper in vol. xxii. of the Royal Geo-
graphical Society s journal, p. 143. Not only have such snowy
regions as the Alps been the sources of glaciers, which have
extended far beyond their present limits, but such temperate
regions as the south of Hngland have been visited by floating
icebergs. Large masses of drift and boulder till have been
strewed all over Great Britain ; projecting rocks have been
grooved, striated, and ground down; and in Scotland the
evidence is such that nothing short of an immense system
of glaciers will explain the evidence presented by that
country. 1 need not go into the details of all this. They
are so well known now as to be found in every popular
manual of science.- They have caused quite a revolution in
our received explanations of terrestrial phenomena, and have
in turn themselves become the subject of various theories.

4A The Glacial Period in Australia.

Some have wished to account for them by supposing a cap
of ice to have formed in the Arctic regions sufficient to
reduce the whole temperature of Northern Europe. Others
have proposed various modifications of the land of South
Europe to account for the facts. One very eminent geolo-
gist, Professor Ramsay, considers the change in climate to
have been so vast and general that it can only be explained
by supposing the earth to have revolved upon a different
axis at that time; for observe, the appearances are not con-
fined to Kurope. Even as far as the tropical latitudes, such
as the West Indies, the effects of extreme cold are perceived
in the later tertiary geology. It is not my business now
to specify these theories, but I wish to call your attention to
the fact that the universality of a period of cold seems to be
questioned by none ; and even Australia is supposed not to
have been exempted from it. Indeed, Dr. Joseph Hooker
accounts for the antarctic flora, or more properly our alpine
flora, in this manner; and the prevalence of the glacial
period, even in Australia, forms a prominent feature in the
graceful theory of Dr. Darwin, and the speculations of his
numerous supporters. Now, this is the question to which
I wish to call your attention this evening—Has this theory
of a glacial period for all the world been borne out by
observations in Australia? Of course we do not expect such
evidence as the groovings and striations of icebergs, drift,
and “till” or roches moutonnées. ‘These signs do not extend in
the northern hemisphere below the 40th parallel of latitude.
But do we find evidence of extreme cold? On the contrary,
we find evidence of extreme heat, or at least a heat almost
tropical in South Australia, and as a consequence a sub-
tropical fauna. I do not propose to specify the instances
upon which these conclusions are based, but I will mention
a few of the most striking. In the first place, every geologist
on becoming acquainted with our tertiary fauna is struck
with its climacteristic resemblance to the fauna now existing
in the Philippine seas and Indian archipelago. It is not
that the shells and corals are similar, but the genera are
such as are found principally in tropical or subtropical
regions. I refer now to the extinct fauna and to our earlier
tertiary beds, where any species, if they exist now, do so in |
very different localities. 1 may mention as instances of this
Limopsis Belchert, which is very common in the miocene
beds. Professor M‘Coy, in the “ Annals of Natural History,”
states that only a few specimens have ever been found, and

The Glacial Period in Australia. 45

these were dredged up from a depth of 90 fathoms off the
Cape of Good Hope; but a few shells, which after careful
comparison with the specimens in the Museum, I pronounce
to be the same species of L. Belcheri, were lately cast
ashore on the south coast of South Australia. They are
much smaller in size than the fossil specimens, and their.
extreme rarity shows the different conditions under which
they now exist. Pectunculus laticostatus is another of the sur-
vivors, but now neverfound in Australia. A coral (Plabellwm)
another, but existing only in the Chinese seas. These and is
other instances which might be alleged prove that whatever
changes have taken place are from a warmer to a colder
climate, since the earlier tertiary periods in 8. Australia.
But when we come to those deposits which correspond in
point of time with the glacial period of Europe, we find the
contrast still more marked. As a general rule in the glacial
deposits, it is said that shells of existing species exist only
in extreme Arctic latitudes, and when found in tropical
latitude of tropical species are always stunted in their
erowth in such a manner as must be attributed alone to
cold influences. Not only also were Arctic species able to
live in the temperate seas of Britain, but species belonging
to temperate species were able, owing to the severity of the
climate, to find a congenial home in tropical seas. Now, in
Australia, we find the exact contrary. Though we do not
find actual tropical species in our quaternary beds of Aus-
tralia, still we find a great many species which only live
now in much warmer parts of Australia. A fine instance of
this was lately furnished to me by Mr. Lefroy, the super-
intendent of the Convict Department of W. Australia. He
sent to me from Perth two very large specimens of Fusus
colossus, some which had been dug out from the quarries
close to the prison. I need not remind you of the fine
- specimen of this shell which is in our National Museum, and
was brought from Port Essington. One of my fossils is as
large, and weighs about 10lbs. As far as I am aware
F. colossus has never been found outside the tropics, and yet
it appears that it was able to live and grow to a large size
at Perth, W. A., during what was a period of extreme cold in
Europe. But this is not a solitary instance. The whole
quaternary fauna of Perth is of an actually tropical character.
In beds of the same age, in South Australia, we have the
same phenomena repeated. All the shells found are of much
larger size than those which exist upon the coast at present,

AG The Glacial Period in Australia.

and those which are not found in the same places are to be
looked for in warmer localities. The contrast in some cases
is most marked. Venus strigosa (Sow) is a tolerably common
shell at Guichen Bay. It is also very common but of much
larger size in the quaternary deposits. Shells of a size
equal to that of the fossils are only to be found at Port
Lincoln, which is in very much warmer seas. Venus aphro-
dina is the common shell at Robe now ; a variety repre-
senting, as I believe, Lamarck’s V. aphrodinordes (not
the shell so named in the National Museum, which is a
Philippine species). This shell is abundant also at the head
of Spencer’s Gulf. The fossils at Robe are of a kind only
found in the warmer climate. One more instance out of
thousands which I could cite :—A peculiar variety of Bulla
Australis (called by some naturalists B. striata) is only
found now in Western Australia. It is only found as a
fossil in Robe, and the existing species at Port Adelaide
does not belong to the same variety. I need not detain you
with more particulars, but I may sum up the whole in this
announcement—that after carefully considering the subject
for a period of more than two years, during which thousands
of fossils and shells have passed through my hands, I am
convinced that during the glacial period of Europe our con-
tinent and seas have passed through a subtropical climate,
or one at least very much warmer than what we experience
now. ‘This conclusion is formed upon evidence of the same
nature as that from which they conclude a period of extreme
cold at home ; and most of the arguments used there apply
here, but in a inverse order. I believe that the same con-
clusions are forced upon us by the fossil flora, though none
of the species discovered here and in Australia have been
identified. Yet I am sure my botanical friends will agree
with me in saying that they offer evidence confirmatory of
a warmer climate prevailing during the time in which they
erew. In Tasmania this is especially remarkable where
palms and a sub-tropical flora are found well preserved in
extensive deposits. ‘The importance of the conclusion to be
drawn from these facts is obvious. If we had no period of
extreme cold in the southern hemisphere, then the argu-
ments or the theories which account for the glacial epoch, on |
the hypothesis of changes which affected the whole earth,
must be abandoned. The extent to which such theories
have been relied upon can hardly be credited by those who
have not paid attention to the later developments of

The Manufacture of Paper. AT

Darwin’s hypothesis. I do not pretend to say how far
received theories may be modified by the facts to which I
have drawn attention, but I am convinced that the glacial
period must be confined to the northern hemisphere, and
some other explanation must be sought for our Alpine flora.
I may remind the Society, however, that I do not wish to
extend my observations further than Australia proper. In
New Zealand, Julius Haast has found extensive evidence of
glacial action, but the observations are rather too limited for
us to conclude anything directly therefrom. A true glacial
period in New Zealand would be a puzzling fact, and very
difficult to reconcile with what we observe in Australia ; but
we may find hereafter that even in Europe climatial
changes may depend upon physical conditions to which
New Zealand has been especially aud exceptionally sub-
jected. At any rate there has been no glacial period in
Australia—in fact, the continent is now passing through a
colder period than any of which we can find evidence in its
previous geological history.

Art. XII.—The Manufacture of Paper from Native Plants.
By J. Cosmo Newbery, B. Sc., Analyst of the Geological
Survey of Victoria.

[Read 8th April, 1867.]

The subject of paper-making from raw materials has been
for many years occupying the special attention of manufac-
turers in Europe and Ameriza, in reference to the supposed
deficiency for meeting the increased demand for paper, con-
sequent upon the progress of education, and the use of this
material in various branches of industry. Hitherto rags have
been the great staple upon which paper-makers have
depended, and for many reasons they are the best
adapted for the manufacture of the finer varieties of paper,
they have passed through a thorough cleansing from refuse
during their conversion from raw vegetable fibres into woven
fabrics, and even the wear and tear to which they have
been subjected, renders them particularly well adapted for
the purpose. When, however, the manufacturer has to resort
to raw material, the whole cost of this cleansing and prepar-
ing has.to be defrayed by the paper produced. I am of
course speaking of the best white rags; when those of an

48 The Manufacture of Paper.

inferior quality are used, they need much time and labour to
fit them for conversion into white paper. It is well known
that almost every vegetable fibre may be used in making
paper, but though experiments have been made for the past
hundred years to find a substitute for rags, only very
limited success has attended any of them. In the British
Museum there is a collection of sixty specimens of paper
made from different materials, the result of one man’s ex-
periments in or about the year 1770 ; and the Patent-office
reports teem with patents for the use of various fibres, or
the method of treating those already proposed. But no fibre
has yet been found to make a paper equal to white linen
rags. Some on account of their comparatively trifling value,
arising from the limited use to which they are otherwise
applicable, can be used to mix in various proportions with
rags to make the cheaper white papers, such as that used for
newspaper, which is now seldom made with more than
thirty per cent. of rags. Up to the present date, everything
proposed as a perfect substitute for rags has been ex-
cluded by the cost of freight or preparation, or by these
expenses combined. It is within the last ten years that
straw came into use as a partial substitute for rags in poor
white papers; and until lately the difficulty of and expense
of removing the silicious coating and other expenses con-
nected with working it, made the paper cost almost as much
as pure rag paper. About 1860, esparto, a tough Spanish
grass, was introduced into England, and since then into
Belgium, and some has even found its way to the United
States.

In England this grass has almost wholly superseded straw
in white papers, and also to a great extent in brown and
wrapping papers. Though in the latter so many articles
may be used that it is very difficult to arrive at a correct
estimate of the quantity of any one of the components in the
brown paper of any country. The best brown papers of
England and America consist in a great measure of Manilla
hemp derived from waste and worn-out cordage ; and jute
fibre, either derived from old bags or waste fibre, shipped
direct from Calcutta; and, as I have mentioned esparto in-
England, the cost of freight and customs’ duty to a great.
extent preventing its use in America. The amount annually
imported into England is about 15,000 tons, and is worth
about £6 per ton, Jute is also lar oely imported, but I have

~ no data as to the amount.

The Manufacture of Paper. 49

- The loss in the manufacture of the articles I have named,
are approximately—rags, 30 per cent.; Manilla hemp (clean),
for brown paper, 35 per cent. ; esparto, 40 per cent. ; jute,
40 per cent. ; straw, 60 per cent. ; which at once shows the
value of esparto and jute over straw, and of rags over all.
Between jute and esparto it is difficult to judge, but I be-
lieve that esparto is preferred for white paper, while jute
works much easier into brown.

It was with the idea of finding a substitute for esparto in
case paper mills were started here, that towards the close
of 1865 I began a series of experiments on grasses growing
in the neighbourhood of Melbourne, and have found that
Victoria produces many fibrous plants that may be used in
the manufacture of paper, a branch of industry which must
at some time become an important one to this colony. It is
not my intention to give you an account of all the fibrous
plants I have examined, as I should then be encroaching too
much on the province of our learned member, Dr. Mueller,
who has told us through our President that he has found
some forty plants which yield a fibre from which paper may
be made ; but I shall limit myself to calling your attention
to two grasses, or more properly, perhaps, sedges.

The Xerotes Longifola anda variety of Lepidosperma,
which I believe to be extremely well adapted for mixing
with rags for a white paper, or alone or with any of the
ordinary ingredients for making brown and wrapping papers.
These two plants are to be found over almost the whole
colony, especially on dry, open, sandy country, such as that
between Melbourne and Frankston, where they cover
miles, to the exclusion of almost every other plant. In some
places the Xerotes Longifolia predominates, in others the
Lepidosperma is in greater quantity ; but this is immaterial
to the manufacturer, as the treatment is the same for both
grasses. On this dry country the plants grow from eighteen
inches to two feet in height, but when near water, to a much
greater height. I have seen it near the edge of a swamp at
Western Port growing to a height of six feet or more, but the
fibre in this was much weaker than in the short grass, and the
loss in manufacture would be much greater on account of a
pithy substance which encircles the fibres, which would be lost
while the fibre was being converted into pulp. I have also
noticed a considerable difference in strength between samples
of the grass gathered at the close of 1865 and that gathered
at the end of the past year—that of 1865 being stronger and

E

50 The Manufacture of Paper.

finer. The samples compared were taken from a paddock
near Malvern. The difference may be accounted for by the
difference of rainfall during these two years, and would tend
to show that the manufacturer should collect the OTASSES
from the driest localities. As I have stated, these grasses
are the best Victorian material for a substitute for esparto
that has come under my notice. Under ordinary circum-
stances the grasses may be collected without pith. The
resinous coating is easily got rid of by an alkaline solution,
and at the same time the colouring matter is rendered
soluble. The per centage of pulp is fully equal to esparto,
and the fibre as applied to paper making quite as strong:
Another point greatly in their favour is, that they have no
other uses and are at present valueless.

It may be interesting to go over the present methods used
in converting raw material into paper. The number pro-
posed and patented is very great, but all have one object in
view, the destruction of the silicious and resinous coating, ©
which, besides rendering the fibre brittle, protects the
colouring matter from the action of the bleaching solution.
It has been proposed to crush the fibre between rollers, and
then to destroy this coating by means of an acid, either
hydrochloric, sulphuric, or nitric may be used. This has
been found to answer in the case of sugar-canes, but for
materials having a fine fibre it does not answer well, as the
acid invariably acts on the fibre, rendering it weak and
harsh. Others digest the crushed fibre in vats for from ten
to eighteen hours with an alkaline solution heated by steam —
pipes. This works well with some fibres, but as in the case
of the acids, the fibre is to some extent damaged. I believe
no method has succeeded so well as that in which the un-
crushed material is placed in a rotary high-pressure boiler,
with a solution of lime or dilute alkali, after which the
aperture is closed and high pressure steam introduced
through a pipe passing through the axle upon which the
boiler revolves, and the pressure maintained at about 100 lbs.
per square inch for from five to fourteen hours. When the
fibre is removed from the boiler, the coating is either dis-
solved or rendered lose so that it may be easily removed in
the process of washing in a beating machine, and at the
same time the greater. part of the coleuring matter, which
has been rendered soluble by the action of the alkaline
solution, 1s washed awa

The expense of this method is not much greater than when

The Manufacture of Paper. 51

vats are used, as there is considerable saving in time and in
the amount of alkali used; besides which, there is the great
advantage of having the coating thoroughly destroyed, and
that without the expense of a crushing. When lime is used,
the grass fibres are hardly acted upon at all. I don’t know
whether this method has ever been used with New Zealand
flax, I think it might answer, for that material is so readily
acted on by an alkali or an acid, that it is impossible to treat
it in a vat.

An alkaline solution which had hardly any affect on
Aerotes Longifolia or Lepidospermia, completely destroyed
the fibre of the flax. The solution I used contained slightly
over one per cent. of caustic soda, and the experiments were
conducted in open vessels at a temperature of 212° F., so
that the quantity of alkali I used would be in excess of what
is required in a high pressure boiler. Jam not quite certain
of the amount of lime or alkali which would be required per
ton of the grasses whose use I have proposed, asit will need
experiments on a larger scale than any I have been able to
make to fix it definitely.

It has been proposed to treat raw materials without the
aid of solutions—first passing them through crushing rollers
and packing the crushed material.in a strong iron vessel, and
then introducing super-heated steam, which is said to act far
more effectually and in much less time than the rotary boiler
process, but I have only the patentee’s statement to go
upon. The use of super-heated steam has been patented
before, but it has always been introduced into vessels con-
taining alkaline solutions, the patentees forgetting that the
steam would give upits extraheat to convert the water present
into vapour, and that the concentrated alkaline solution
which would be formed, would act most detrimentally upon
the fibres. There are other methods of treating raw mate-
rials, but no great success has yet attended any of them.
There is also the manufacture of paper from wood, which
may scon become one of importance, though the paper will
never be a strong one.

After one of the processes I have spoken of has been gone
through, the fibre is washed and beaten into pulp in wha is
termed the pulping-engine; and if for brown paper,it is then
coloured and sized as required before passing ont to the
Foudeneir machine to be rolled into paper. But if white
paper is required, it has to be bleached ; this in the-case of
vegetable fibres takes much longer than in the case of rags,

E 2

52 The Manufacture of Paper.

though the chemicals used are the same, chloride of lime,
dilute acid, and weak alkaline solutions. The acid used
is usually hydrochloric or sulphuric, which must be
very dilute or the fibre will be injured. A_ process
has been patented lately in France for using carbonic
acid instead of the stronger acids, which has the ad- -
vantage of being cheaper, and an excess does not
damage the fibre.- It is proposed to generate this acid by
burning charcoal in a current of air and making it pass up
through the vat contaming the bleach by introducing it at
the bottom by means of a perforated pipe. After the bleach-
ing, the pulp undergoes the same treatment, no matter from
what material it is derived.

There seems to be great difficulty in selecting a site for a
mill close to Melbourne, as the Yarra, besides being liable to
floods, is not sufficiently clear for white paper, and the
small streams would not supply sufficient water during the
whole year. Few, I think, know that one hundred gallons
of water are used in the production of every pound of white

aper.

: iyeeyane interested might make experiments testing the
value of plants for paper-making, without having any prior
knowledge of the manufacture by working thus: Gathering
the leaves when they have attained their full size, and
drying in the sun, then taking a weighed quantity and
mascerate it with water in a mortar, then digest it in a hot
solution of lime, or dilute alkali, or strong soap answers
very well, as long as the solution is coloured, then wash
with hot water, dry and weigh. The result is nearly correct —
for brown paper, but a little too high for white, on account
of the loss which takes place in pulping.

Machinery was brought here by the late Mr. Kenny, who
intended to start a manufactory. Since his death this
machinery has lain idle, but I think we may hope soon to
see it In Operation.

Art. XJII.—On Colonial Wines. By Rev. Joun J.
BLEASDALE, D.D., F.LS., F.GS. )
[Read 13th May, 1867.}

Mr. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN,

‘The subject of this paper may be said to belong to the
primary objects contemplated by this Society—viz., to
record original investigations in art, scieuce, and literature,
and I trust it will possess, if not a lively, at least sufficient
interest to engage your attention for a brief portion of this
evening.

Before entering on the subject permit me to say, that I
hardly think it necessary to offer you an excuse or apology
for having chosen Colonial Wines for my subject ; but there
may be others who will read this paper who can know
absolutely nothing of my fitness for my task save what
they can glean from the internal evidences that it may
afford. Neither do I intend to trouble you or any one else
with an autobiography further than to state, that more than
a quarter of a century ago I was placed in favourable cir-
cumstances for acquiring a thorough knowledge of the
erowth and treatment of the vines and wines of Portugal,
especially in the vicinity of the capital, and that I made use
of the opportunity to the best of my ability.

On my arrival in this colony, now more than sixteen
years ago, one of the first things that I turned my attention
to, aS an occupation for the little leisure afforded in the
intervals of ministerial duty, was to collect what informa-
tion I could concerning wine-making and vine-culture in
Victoria and New South Wales.

Early in 185] I visited the vineyards on the Barrabool
Hills, and obtained samples of the various kinds of wines at
that time manufactured. The white was for the most part
agreeable young wine, partaking of a hock character. The
red, without any exception, was high coloured, sweetish, and
adorned with a bouquet that I can liken to nothing I am
acquanted with. Greater age of the vines, and better treat-
ment of the wine, have gradually corrected much of this ;
and of late years I have tasted wine from these same which
was free from this gout de terrain, and quite good in other
respects—in fact, really good wine.

I need not advert to the causes which subsequent to 1851

5A : On Oolonial Wines.

made vineyards more profitable for fruit than wine until per-
haps as late as 1858. Even in 1859 comparatively little had
been done in this colony in the way of systematic cultivation
of the vine. ‘There were not many men in the country
acquainted with vine-culture and wine treatment, and of this
small number some had other pressing and more presently
lucrative avocations ; and most of the rest did not altogether
believe in the suitability of the soil and climate. Previous
to 1858 the Sydney agent of the Messrs. M‘Arthur, of Cam-
den turned his attention to the Melbourne market, but after a
time all but gave up the attempt to establish a branch busi-
ness among us.

I allude to these matters now, because out of this attempt
have come most of the details which I am going to touch
upon in the first part of this paper. While this project was
before his mind, the gentleman I allude to supplied me with
abundant samples of what we knew by the name of Sydney
wines, both red and white—the best being from Camden —
—and also with samples of ports, sherries, and hocks.
These last-named were sent for the purpose of standards,
to which the colonial wines were to be referred in their
various leading characteristics, such as alcoholic strength,
bouquet, resistance of change, &c.

I had intended publishing the results of my investigations
as soon as they were in a condition to be laid before the
public. But the introduction of wines from the Hunter
River district, different in many remarkable respects from
those with which I had been furnished by Mr. Ralph
Hutchinson, caused me to lay aside my intention till I
- should be in a position to report upon them also. About this
time I first saw really good wine from South Australia ; and
this again presented fresh characteristics and new points of
interest. A desire to make my study complete induced me
to defer still longer ; and then circumstances occurred which
obliged me to all but abandon every kind of chemical inves-
tigation. Thus to this day my results have remained on the
pages of my laboratory note-book.

I set to work upon these Sydney Wines in the latter
months of 1859 and about the beginning of 1860, when I had
scarcely well finished studying, analysing, and comparing
them (for I had not a deal of leisure time), Mr. J. E. Blake
appeared in Melbourne, and in an incredibly short time made
us thoroughly acquainted with Irrewang and Kaludah, red,
white, and rosy. From this point the history of colonial
wine in Victoria dates and starts. Till then no wine, the

On Colonial Wines. 55

produce of these colonies, was regarded as a beverage, which
could be safely placed upon the table, save with great
caution and an apology, and only in a few rare and excep-
tional instances ; and it required considerable hardihood in
any one professing to know aught about wine to assert, in
the company of gentlemen, that he could relish any of even
our best colonial wines.

But while Mr. Blake’s importation of wines, of his own
making, created a new era, it did much more, for it indirectly
and by emulation brought the fine wines of South Australia
for the first time into general notice, and thus gave to the
public opportunities of comparing our own colonial produce
with that of our sister colonies.

I need not say how much this country has profited by
these opportunities, and what a spirit of emulation has
sprung up among us.

At later times I tested some wines said to have been made
by Mr. Lindemann, on the Hunter, with much the same
result as to alcohol, but very different in the power of
endurance. Of this class of wines I have met with fine
specimens, made by Mr. Walsh and Mr. Everist, of Haw-
thorn, but they had not the same age as the Irrewang—the
wine I have always thought the best colonial I ever tasted.
May I hope for his own benefit and the benefit of the con-
sumers, that Mr. Blake will be able to equal it at Tabilk.

Belonging to the same high class are the wines of
Adelaide, made by Mr. Gilbert and Mr. E. J. Peake, of
Clarendon. I speak of these, because I am well acquainted
with them, both red and white. They are wines which
would do honor to any country in the world. I tasted also
a few samples from Kapunda, at least called Kapunda,
chiefly red, which rose to the character of middling young
port, but with a somewhat different flavour. With reference
to these wines I am happy to be able to furnish a far higher
expression of opinion than my own word. A gentleman
desired me about a year ago to procure a few dozens, and
send them to friends in England and Ireland. I selected
a red wine of Mr. Gilbert’s, and a Riesling, a few bottles of
Kapunda red, and the rest believed to be Mr. Peake’s
Palomino Blanco.

Samples of this little lot found their way eventually into
the hands of one of the largest and most extensively known
Dublin Wine Merchants, who, when they had rested for a
month or two, invited some other good judges to sample them.
And, I have it on the most reliable authority, that they all

56 On Colonal Wines.

concurred in the expression of opinion, that they were new
in some of their charactistics, and excellent in all. And
that if such kinds could be supplied at fair prices, they would
command ready sale.

Another class of wines, all Victorian, are the produce of
the Geelong district, with which I would place: the young
wines of Yering. These are delicate, dry, and admirable
summer wines. I have seen samples of Dr. Hope’s wines,
of Batesford, and of Mr. Dardell’s, and some others, as well
as the Yering, of great merit. Some wines of Dr. Hope's
were absolutely splendid. The same may be said of Sun-
_bury and Riddell’s Creek wines.

When we pass the Dividing Range north and east, we at
once come upon another class of wines quite distinct from
any of those already enumerated, strong, luscious, and full-
bodied. Here the Scyras and the Verdelho grape seem to
come to perfection, while the Riesling also appears to sur-
pass the produce of Adelaide in sweetness. What these
wines will come to I can only guess, but they promise great
things. From Castlemaine, Sandhurst, Wabgunyah, Albury,
and lately from the Goulbourn, I have met with wines that
lead us to hope that this country will ere long replace
without disadvantage every one of the best imported
varieties, and with this decided advantage, that they are
not sophisticated.

The first lot, then, which I took in hand, was the produce
of the Camden vineyards, New South Wales, furnished by
Mr. Hutchinson, of Sydney, at that time agent for the
Messrs. Macarthur,

These consisted of several. samples of different ages of
wines, labelled ‘“ Cawarra” and Red Camden, at least they
are so entered in my note book. The ‘“Cawarra” was a
fine pale coloured white wine, somewhat resembling
Sauterne, but of course with little bouquet, very thin, quite
dry, and altogether a delicious hot weather wine. A mean of
five distillations gave it 728 per cent. of alcohol
(absolute alcohol). But it would not keep ; ifa bottle were
opened, a glass or two taken out, and the cork replaced,
next day it showed much acetic acid, and by the third
was quite sour. I speak of warm weather. I could never
detect a trace of sugar in this wine, while the residue
of vegetable matter, extractive, &c., was the least I ever saw
in any wine, yet when drank, it gave one the idea “of a
mouthful of wine.” It was remarkable for little tannic acid.
My experiments on the Red Camden were many and

On Oolonial Wines. 57

various ; for I became much interested in it. By distillation
I obtained 10 per cent. of alcohol: and by evaporation, con-
siderable, but not excessive, residue. Its colour was near
Burgundy, and its bouquet, though deficient, was agreeable ;
but unlike that of any wine I am acquainted with. It might.
be calledadry wine. It contained a good deal of extractive,
tannic acid, &c., and I well remember the trouble it gave me to
reduce the residue after evaporation to a condition of dryness.

Much used to be said about the perishable nature of all
colonial wines. “If you open a bottle you must drink it, or
it will turn sour directly.” Now, when I proceeded to
- operate on this wine, I was at once struck by the falseness of
the cry about being easily destroyed, turning sour, &., at
least in the case of red. The method I took in experiment-
ing on this sample, was to take a bottle in hot weather,
open it and take out two wine glasses-full, and replace the
cork in about the same way as a servant might be supposed
to do, and let it stand for a week, and then re-open it and
draw another glass or two, and replace the cork, and so on.
I can state truly of this wine, as indeed of some of the
Adelaide red wines, that nothing could surpass its resist-
ance to acidity. I exhibited to a number of private friends
the bottles in which I carried out the above experiments ;
marked as they were by rings of deposit, thicker as they
descended towards the bottom; while in some cases, the last
three glasses had deposited nearly all their colouring matter,
but were still strong sound wine.

After this, I considered the durability of our red wines to
depend entirely on the ripeness of the grapes, careful fermen-
tation, and on keeping the casks well attended to before the
time of bottling, and great caution about matters made use
of in fining. Subsequently I subjected those red and white
wines, with which Mr. Blake commenced to create a wine
market in Melbourne, to much the same kind of tests, and.
in the case of the reds, with success second only to the
Camden Reds. But in the case of his white wines, “the
Kaludah ” and “ Irrewang,” and remarkably in the case of the
latter, 1 found that they would resist change, and remain
good after being opened, better than ordinary good German
wines, of a somewhat similar class—Riesling for example.
And here again, while the kind of grapes had something to do
with it, fermentation and after treatment had much more.

Three specimens of “Irrewang,” yielded an average of
9103 of alcohol, while the same number of specimens of
Kaludah, gave only 8:31.

58 On Colonial Wines.

ABSTRACT OF THE AVERAGE STRENGTH OF WINES oF AUSTRALIA SHOWN
AT THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION oF 1862, AND SUBSEQUENTLY
ANALYZEDBY Dr. KEENE.

Proof Spirit per cent.

S

2

: Big (73a

Seat of Growth. Colour. ae as $ oes 52

or 7 » an of n oo

ge | ¢2 g fa | 4S

2 ef el AG : Pa ee ite

Os oD < < 5 = oa)

New South Wale ae Red — — 25°9 14:9 2
Do. : don) 635. 365 White 246 189 22°7 13 4
Victoria ... sed 530 Red 28 6 20:2 23°3 13°4 Tf
Do. ClO aes ee | White 279 20:2 25°6 147 5
Mataro- Victoria ... Sos Red — — 20:2 11:7 1
Frontignac do. ... 545 # _ — 22: 12-7 1
Hermitage do. ... eee 3 — == 20°8 12°0 1
Burgundy do. ... oe ee 23°9 28°6 26°7 153 2
Red Victoria _... cre a — ~ 28°6 16°5 1
White do. = «| White — — 29°9 149 il
Tokay ox Hie us a — 27°9 16°0 1
White Pinean ie — — 24°6 14°1 1
Australian Sauterne i — — - 20:2 11°6 1
Chasselas ... ae bs iY _ — 24:6 14:1 1

In every instance the average is about three per cent. of
spirit stronger than I found it in the samples I distilled,
which may be accounted for by either stronger samples
having been chosen for transmission to Europe, or the not
unreasonable addition of three or four per cent. of spirit to
help them to bear the voyage.

The remainder of my paper will have reference to a series
of experiments, chiefly on the durability of colonial white
wines, which I have but lately concluded. |

Most of you probably know, that during the late Inter-
colonial Exhibition I officiated as Special Commissioner for
Juries, and also as chairman of the jury in class 3, section
9, comprising all the exhibits of wine from the Australian
Colonies. |

I need not now say more in this place of the results of
the examinations made by myself and my very able co-jury-
men, than that they will be found so far as our judgment
upon the excellence or the special goodness of the wines
went, in the printed report of the jury of the section soon
to be issued to the public.

My object in mentioning these matters now, is for the
purpose of introducing and to some extent defining the
peculiar nature of the observations and experiments on

On Colonial Wines. 59

wines, which I wish to bring before this Society. These have
very little or nothing to do with the awards of the jurors.
It was the circumstance of my position as chairman of the
jury, and of my having a large and commodious private
oftice as Special Commissioner for Juries, thatfurnished me with
a favourable opportunity of watching and experimenting on
the very numerous and varied specimens of wines placed at
my disposal.

The experiments which I made, and the inferences drawn
from them, do not properly belong to the general report of
‘the Section, because they were made privately by mysellt,
and primarily to satisfy my own curiosity, and as such, I
now respectfully bring them before you, and request you
to consider them as belonging to the class of objects embraced
by the Society.

The reason of my instituting the inquiries I am about to
detail at some length, was this. J know that however well
satisfied individuals may be’ of the durability of our wines,
the public mind is full of the notion that they will not keep,
that if you draw a cork out of a bottle, you must either
drink the contents at once, or lose them ; especially in the
case of white wines, for one of two things, it used to be said,
will certainly occur ; either it will turn to vinegar in a day
in hot weather, or will become thick and discoloured and
“nasty.” A little more favourable opinion used to be enter-
tained of the ved varieties; but even they were some way
implicated with the white, and both colours shared the same
judgment from the ladies, viz, if you open a bottle you
must at once drink it or lose it. It was then to this wide-

spread and most injurious opinion (and to my mind most
ill-founded) of the perishable nature of our native wines,
that I addressed myself under circumstances which were
calculated either to establish it, or utterly destroy it in the
minds of the intelligent and unprejudiced.

The jury commenced examining wines in the latter weeks
of December, and by the end of January had completed the
main body of the white samples, amounting to more than
one hundred, from various parts of Victoria, New South
Wales, a few from Graften and Queensland, - South Australia,
and Western Australia. Obviously these samples stood high
in the estimation of their owners, or they would not have
been sent for exhibition. Presumably, objects are not ex-
hibited for the purpose of bringing discredit on the owner
or producer. I therefore take the liberty of assuming that
these exhibits were the very best their owners possessed.

60 On Colomal Wimes.

I will now endeavour to bring you at once to the nature
and conditions of my experiments, premising only that :—

In the first place it occurred to me that, for some years
to come, probably no individual could have the same chance
of studying the best colonial wines as was offered to me.

And secondly, taking into account the heat of the summer
weather, and the extremes of heat and cold to which the
office was exposed, the thermometer often standing for many
hours at 90°, and then rapidly falling to 65°, there was
afforded a range of trials, such as no wine cellar either of
a merchant or a private individual can boast, for naturally,
both the one and the other would strive to avoid such un-
natural extremes. In my case this was just what I wanted,
and I availed myself of it to the utmost. |

The following forty-eight samples were taken at random
out of more than one hundred, and they have turned out
rather below the average of the whole in their keeping
powers :—

VICTORIA.
S&
Name of Exhibitor. Name of Wine. as Remarks.
re
Te Biverist, Ti din hee Terret —. | Kept pretty well.
2. Ivanhoe Lodge ... White Ivanhoe — | Kept for 10 days.
3. Billing, N. ... | Shepherd’s Riesling | 1864 | Kept well. s
4, Hewitt, J.... one No name 1865
5. Hewitt, J.... Ay No name 1866
6,-Morgan’s:..6/°* 5 Chasselas 1866 | Kept well for one month,
afterwards cloudy.
7. S.E. Le “ioe White Wine 1866 | Fairly.
8. Dromana White — | Fairly for one month.
9. Hope, Dr, R. C. ... White 1866 | Very well indeed, and im-
proved.
10. Hope, Dr. B.C. ... Riesling
11. Weber Brothers ,., Hermitage 1866 | Kept well.
12. Weber Brothers ... A Sweet Water | 1864 Do. do.
13. Tronetti, J.P. :.. White 1866 | Turned after a few days.
14. Weber Brothers ... Riesling 1865 | Kept very well 2 months.
15. Heine, August... Chasselas 1866 | Do. and even improved.
16. Meredith, T, ee Tokay — | Did not keep well, but re-
mained bright.
17. Viaminick Brothers White 1865 | Very good.
18. Corowa Vineyard... Tokay 1865 | Did not keep well.
19. Piper, W..... eee White Muscat 1864 | Kept well.
20. Piper, W.... we Chasselas 1864 | Kept wonderfully, some of
a bottle still remaining.
21. Piper, W.... -- | White Marangau | 1864 | Like ammontillado sherry.

22. Ross and Co. cae White © 1866 | Soon became discoloured,

On Colomal Wines.

6]

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

Sg
Name of Exhibitor. Name of Wine. @ s Remarks.
re
1, Green, W. Riesling 1863 | Kept well.
2. Green, W. Schiraz 1860 | Do.
3. Winckels, F. Tokay 1864 | Did not keep well.
4. Ross, R. D. Mixture 1864 | Kept for three weeks.
Both these samples kept
5. Smith and Sons ., Sherry 1864 and improved. It is
6 Smith and Sons ... Sherry 1864 now more palatable
than when opened.
7, Charlesworth,T. W. Tokay 1865
8. Randall, W. Verdeilho & Tokay | 1865 | Kept pretty well.
9. Green, W. a Schiraz 1861
10, Auld, P. .. | Mixture 4 grapes | 1865 | Kept for ten days.
11. Reynell, J. it Verdeilho 1862 | Moderately.
12. Hunt. F. R. ae Madeira 1865 | Kept for one month.
ie Auld) Po se. asd Hock — | Kept very well.
14. Hardy, T.... ot Verdeilho 1862
15. Gilbert, J.... ie Verdeilho 1860 Fev good three months.
16. Gilbert, J.... ... | Verdeilho, sample 2 | 1860 do.
17. Peake, E. J. 208 Pedro Ximenes 1863 ane a the last glass.
18. Peake, E. J. us Verdeilho 1864 | Do.
19. Peake, E. J. Grenache _ 1864 | Did not ie beyond a
month, became turbid.
NEW SOUTH WALES.
Sg
Name of Exhibitor. Name of Wine. as Remarks.
Ps :
1. Messrs. Wyndham Dalwood White 1863 | Kept exceedingly well.
2. Fallon, J.T. one Toka
3. Bukkulla 1863 | Do. do.
4. Doyle, J. .. | Shiraza & Tokay — | Kept very fairly.

b=

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

oi)
Name of Exhibitor. Name of Wine. ae
re
. Clifton, W. P. bs Verdeilho 1859
. Garden Hill Vine- Muscadine 1863
yard and
1864
. Hardy, Joseph White —

Remarks.

All these wines kept and

improved immensely !
When first opened they
had a bad smell, were
rather thick, and tasted
sweet. The Verdeilho
became a fine strong
Madeira.

62 On Oolonial Wines.

The wine on which I conducted my experiments was that
which was opened for the judges.

1. When they had done with a sample bottle, it was set
aside just as left, the cork replaced as nearly as possible
as a servant might do it in a private family ; and it was
let stand, cork uppermost, on the table. All the white
Wines were served in the same way, save that as some
people very properly decant their wine into suitable decanters,
some were so decanted, especially for experiment, and the
stoppers placed in them, and then let stand on the same
table with the rest.

2. The same was also done for the Red Wines, but it soon
became clear that there was no need of watching them, for
they most manifestly improved by this rough handling.

3. From time to time until the middle cf April, nearly
three months, the corks were drawn out of the White Wines,
now become the main subject of inquiry, and carelessly
replaced.

Surely, then, if they were capable of resisting all the heat
of last summer, and all the violence done to them by repeated
openings and shakings, there is evidence enough supplied to
break down for ever the old calumny against them on the
score of want of durability. That those kept well which
had been made well is proved abundantly by the table.

With a view to ascertaining one or two points in the
chemical conditions of the wines thus favourably shown, I
instituted the following short series of simple experiments,
for the purpose of determining in such a way as any person ©
of ordinary intelligence might easily learn to repeat them, —
the presence of :— | |

1. Tannic acid.

2. A rough estimate of the excess of tannic acid over the
persalts of iron present.

3. If the persalts of iron were in excess of the tannic
acid.

4, The presence of gallic acid.

(a.) A portion was treated with excess of carbonate of
soda, and the change of colour noted.

(b.) To a portion of that so treated with alkali—was added
in excess a persalt of iron—I used the sulphate. A deeper
colour denoted the presence of an excess of tannic acid..

(c.) Another portion. was treated with gelatine, and after
precipitation had taken place the supenatant fluid was_
treated with a persalt of iron for gallic acid. The tannic
acid is wholly thrown down by the gelatine, and the gallic

On Colonial Wines. 63

acid left, as it is not attacked by gelatine. A blackening of
the wine so treated would show gallic acid.

In all the samples which had stood the severe handling
just described, I found hardly more than a trace of gallic
acid ; and in the soundest and finest of them, the Yallumba
Sherry and one or two of Peake’s and Gilbert’s scarcely a
trace, and not a great excess of tannic acid ; showing that
the excess of tannic acid had been happily removed, if it
ever was great, and that what remained had not been
oxidized and raised into the higher form of gallic acid.

Whilst treating of these chemical aspects of wine, I will
avail myself of the present opportunity to say a few words
upon another interesting point. I know I am going to run
the greatest risk of forfeiting my good reputation in the
minds of the great part of wine-makers in Victoria. But
truth and science are to be preferred to prejudice ; and if
I must forfeit my reputation in consequence of what I am
going to add—well, let it be so.

The subject, then, that I am going to call your attention
to is the use of strong spirits of wine under certain circum-
stances.

This employment of brandy, or spirit of wine, is useful
under at least two wholly different conditions, and for pur-
poses widely distinct. It must be borne in mind that wine-
making and maturing are almost entirely of a chemical
nature, scarcely any operation but involves numerous
chemical laws. Yet as a rule. scientific chemists are bad
makers of wine, partly because the whole chemistry of wine
is not yet fully known, and partly because they are
habitually too fond of instituting new inquiries. Perhaps
these admissions will soothe, if not quite appease, my pre-
judiced friends. Now to the subject. ;

In countries like the warmer districts of Victoria, and
the whole of South Australia, the musts are exceedingly
rich in saccharine matter, with abundance also of those
nitrogenised substances which are necessary to fermentation ;
and so actively does fermentation proceed, that in a very
few days the whole of the saccharine matter is split up into
spirit, water, and carbonic acid. For if left to themselves in
warm weather the saccharine and nitrogenous matters will
soon come to a balance ; either the whole of the sugar will
have been split up—and in that case a dry wine will result
—or if there be too little nitrogenous matter to exhaust it,
then the product will be a sweet one.

Whatever the wine is, sweet or dry, one thing is certain,

64 On Colonial Wines.

that in hot climates you can never produce wine with the
perfume (bouquet) peculiar to those of colder regions.
Nature has fixed the impassable barrier. If you are to have
the perfumed wines of France—Sauterne or fine Chablis for
example—you must also have all the other conditions, espe-
cially slow, long-continued fermentation at a low tempera-
ture; and in this case there is no demand for any addition
of extraneous spirit, for it would almost certainly destroy or
vitiate the so-much-prized bouquet, &c.

1. When the fermentation goes on, as it does in all the
warmer districts of Australia, the intelligent maker will
watch the change in specific gravity, and when towards the
point which he considers low enough, he will throw in one
or two per cent. of very strong brandy, say 30 to 40 over-
proof, and when possible made from the same kind of grapes
as his wine has been obtained from. In a few words I will
attempt to make the reason plain. The addition of one,
two, or three per cent. of strong spirit fixes and renders
henceforth either wholly, or very nearly wholly, inoperative
the albuminous matters, and prevents further rapid fer-
mentation—-prevents therefore the formation of spirit; and
just in proportion as it prevents the formation of spirit does
it preserve the natural sugar. The addition, then, at the
proper time of a little strong spirit, not only adds nothing
to the amount which would have been produced if all the
sugar had been split up, but in very many instances it pre-
vents the wine from becoming spirituous in a high degree !
As, therefore, we cannot have here generally Johannisberg,
and Sauterne, and Burgundy, in approximate perfection, we
must turn our attention to perfecting wines of the Portu-
guese, Spanish, and Italian character. And when we have
reached to the achievement of Lisbon sweet and Lisbon dry,
and Bucellas in whites, and to Colares and Ports in red, we
may be very well satisfied, even if three per cent. of brandy
were used to save a portion of the saccharine matter. Whilst
on this topic I may add that boiling the must would do for
it the same as the brandy, fix those matters which are
necessary to carry on active fermentation. | :

2. Brandy is sometimes, and I think needlessly, added to
wine before itis sent on a voyage. Here I agree with the
anti-brandy doctrine, for if the wine was properly made and
matured there is no need of strong spirit being added.

3. In Portugal every vineyard-keeper makes a quantity
o what he calls “arréme,”’ and what the Spaniard calls
“arrépe ’—fresh must—before any fermentation has taken

On Colonial Wines. 65

place, carefully boiled down till of nearly the thickness of
treacle, and most carefully seummed while being evaporated.
It consists then of the natural saccharine matter of the ripest
and best grapes, to which is added when cold five per cent.
of brandy. This is used, if occasion require it, for giving
additional sweetness and fulness to wine. This is a very
different affair from the geropiga prepared for sophisticating
Port wines. _

4. The use of brandy for the purpose of what may be
ealled fortifying wines, 2.¢., making artificially a compound to
resemble some HKuropean wine, and perhaps for the dishonest
purpose of passing it off for what it is not, [ reprobate.

5. Regarding fining wines, it may be mentioned that
when whites of eggs are used, unless the wine shows a vast
excess of tannic acid, when they have been beaten up to a
froth, a small portion of brandy is added to diminish the
effect they would otherwise produce in taking too much of
the tannic acid out. By ignorance of this much wine has
been utterly ruined.

It belongs naturally to this place, to state that no real
advance in wine making, and in creating marketable wine—
wine | mean that can be supplied from year to year of the
same character—can be made, unless accurate accounts of
every circumstance of climate, soil, vines, fermentation and
after-treatment be kept in every wine cellar, as well as sam-
ples of the wines themselves. This for the sake of reference
and comparison.

I would suggest here, that were cellar-books purchasable,
ruled and headed so as to give a column for each particular
I have alluded to, and a good many others which I need not
touch upon at present, with an ample space on one of the
margins for remarks, one great step would be taken in the
right direction. ‘The owner of a vineyard would soon find
his account, in having such records carefully kept. It is
only by adopting these necessary means, that wine of a kind
which happens to secure a market can be continuously sup-
plied from year to year. I have no doubt but my friend
Mr. Blake of Tabilk, has by him books that would serve as
perfect models of this kind of record. I cannot be too em-
phatic in saying that everything done to each particular
wine should be carefully recorded.

It is not, however, my intention to write an essay on
elementary matters and technicalities in wine making, but
to poimt to one or two things which occur to me as not
having been sufficiently insisted upon in the several useful

E

66 On Colonial Wines.

treatises which have issued from our local press ; my object
on this occasion has been yather to give a summary of my
own observations on those colonial wines which have formed
the subjects of my private studies and experiments.

Many inducements of a public character have been held
out to foster this industry ; and perhaps the most valuable
efforts have been made by the Board of Agriculture towards
fostering this spirit, by publishing reports on colonial wines,
and awarding premiums for the best samples. 7

It is matter of regret that the prizes offered for wines
during the last two years have been inadequate to draw the
best of our vignerons into competition at the Agricultural
Exhibitions, and that the recommendations offered by the
judges, regarding the storing of samples of the best kinds,
have not been carried out fully ; the objects of the recom-
mendation being, that in future years judges may be able to
state what at present no man can—viz., how each sample has
stood the test of keeping, and still more, how specimens have
stood a voyage to Kurope and back; for it is only from data
of this kind that the merchant will be justified in trying
foreign markets, and the producer and wine-keeper here
learn how to correct faults in fermentation, and in fact errors
which will affect the character of our wines. i

It must ever be borne in mind, that we are still in the
very infancy of wine producing, but it is for the most part a
healthy infancy and full of promise. The rapidity with which
our Adelaide neighbours have attained almost perfection, and
the steps they have taken to ensure it, are full of instruc- ©
tion, easily attainable by our own cultivators ; and though we
may not all at once attain to their peculiar excellence, yet
we inay attain to others in our own produce, not less rare |
and valuable; though as different in kind as are the finest pro-
ductions of France from those of Germany, Spain, Italy, or
Hungary.

As regards the magnitude of our wine imports, I am
enabled to lay the account before you for 1866.

The following tabulated statement has been courteously
supplied by the Honourable the Commissioner of Trade and
Customs, and will, it is believed, be replete with interest for
the intelligent, as showing the quantity of wine entered at
the Custom House during 1866, the various countries from
which it was shipped, and the total amount Victoria spent
that year on wines.

It would appear that only about £3,000 worth of wine
was imported from South Australia and New South Wales,

67

and that the whole of the rest of the amount (£241,132) was
for wine of foreign growth, whether arriving direct or com-
ing through other colonial ports.

In round numbers Victoria imported from South Australia
9,000 gallons, valued at five shillings (5s.) per gallon, and
very nearly, if not quite, the whole may be presumed to
have been of South Australian growth.

From New South Wales, Victoria received 13,300 gallons,
at a declared value (average) of 10s. per gallon. Con-
sequently very little of this could have been colonial
produce.

So that the whole importation of colonial wine imported
into Victoria from the Australian colonies, calculated at half
a bottle per head, would about suffice for the population of
Melbourne for one day.

One may be pardoned for wishing to see a much larger
proportion of our cash spent on the purchase of colonial
wine, which, for its generous qualities, deserves better of us
than our custom has been hitherto.

VICTORIA.—1866.
RETURN SHOWING THE QUANTITY AND VALUE oF WINE ImPpoRTED
DURING THE YEAR 1866, ARRANGED UNDER THE SEVERAL PLACES
OF SHIPMENT.

On Colonial Wines.

Place of Shipment. Quantity. Value.
183 pipes, 67 butts, 20 puns, 1,437 hhds., 50
United Kingdom { half-hhds., 104 brls., 108 casks, 13,380 qr.- £203,156
cya 511 octaves, 17, 965 cases, 21 301 galls.
hhds., 4 casks, 242 qr -casks, 46 octaves
New South Wales 139 eee, 1 733 aiteeyi i ; 6,662
New Zealand 13 qr.-casks, 281 galls. 351
South Australia 105 bhds., 18 qr.-casks, 6 cases, ap 882 galls, 2,262
Tasmania ... a. | Pthhd 67S casks 3 ae -casks, 3 cases, 182 ace 286
Western Australia,. | 2 galls. . eco 1
FOREIGN STATES.
Bordeaux ..,, is hhds., 100 oe ae 6,144 oe 486 ies, 10,213
Bourbon eae eee, 1
Cadiz ee eS galls. .. i 4
Cape Town... 24 galls, as Ae 23
Charente ... | 1,259 cases, 296 alls... oa dee 1,198
Hamburg ..., Bee 30 cases, 15 galls, Lae 96
Mauritius ... . | 5 galls. ... 5
Oporto tac «. | 50 hhds,, 1, 242, qr.- -easks, 185, cases, 2 "20 galls, 14,282
Rotterdam ... 1,213 cases, 52 galls. ... sare 50 1,834
San Francisco ae 72 galls. Bs es ae wie 8. 28
Tomé 10 galls. bei ay eee 10
183 pipes, 67 butts, 20 puns, 1,768 hhds., 50hf.-
Totaleics. siete hhds., 104: brls., 120 casks, 14,998 qr.-casks, £241,132
557 octaves, 26,944 cases, and 27,373 galls.

abi G. Francis, Commissioner of Trade and SU
Custom-house, Melbourne, 26th ae 1867.

68 On Colomal Wines.

The subjoined table, taken from the statistics just pub-
lished, shows our total amount of wine for 1866 to have been
195,953 gallons. Taking the population of Victoria to be
633,000, this quantity would allow about five half-pints to
each individual—a quantity hardly sufficient to supply the
colony for three days if ours had become a wine-drinking
population. There isan end then to all talk about this
colony being in a position at present, or likely of becoming
so for a few years, to supply anything approaching the wine
required by the people in proportion as their instincts draw
them more and more to it.

VICTORIA.
Tue ACREAGE UNDER VINES, AND THEIR PRopUCE IN EACH COUNTY AND

UNSETTLED DisTRICT, AND IN THE ENTIRE COLONY; DURING THE
YEAR ENDING 81st Marcu, 1867.

VINES. c)
COUNTIES 3 6
No. of Grapes Gathered. 3 =
AND Acres ; SAU : A 5 5
UNSETTLED under | No. of 3 ch} a a =e 8, Ba
DISTRICTS. Vines. Vines. aes Ses Total. q =
Soo zee = A
Za #6
Counties. No. No. Cwt. Cwt. Cwt. Gals. Gals.
Anglesey oa.) Gece. coe 4. 4,000 10 Se 10 30s oe
Bourke.,..... Percre 704 | 1,008,970 | 2,299 | 3,097 | 5,396 | 17,546 | ...
Dalhousie .,........ 50 §2.300 235 29 264 206 Me
Dundas ............ " 13,162 99 198 297 B60, oe
Evelyn ...........-| 365 | 929,348 110 | 5,231 | 5,341 ; 33,004
Follett oc ASOT bad fat eae He ae Laie aie
Grant ...........--| 1,004 | 2,241,881 | 1,972 | 7,409 | 9,381 | 50,758] 21
Grenville... ..:6.02.: 36 76,400 . 64 308 372 | 2,083 st
Elampden, ...s2212: Die i ie ag aa ay :
HeytesDuriyire.c-cct ace see a a iat Legs *
Mornington ......, 56 | 115,840 62 245 307 O75.) ae
Normantiy ...... : 23 | 30,000 43 13 56 60 hice
Polwarth |......0- +. 4, 10,000 3 ily 20 110 ik
Ripon ......-00.-| 60 90.000 234 184 418 USM eines
Talbot ...... .....-.-| 270 470,000 | 2,875 1,300 4,175 5000 iets
Natinets ss. eas e@nsee 42, 67,000 92 130 222 432 ste
Unsettled Districts. :
Gipps Land......... 10 17.020 112 80 192 450
ite Modder) i290 io 495 744,614 | 4,854) 278 7,632 | 15,116
Mie MOOrTay : ccioesc 848 | 1,874,080 296 | 14,5384 | 14,830 62,935
Rodney ...sercenees 58 | 147,750 383 326 709 2,254,
The Wimmera .,.. 95 236,691 760 139 899 _ 569
| Total, 1867 ..... 4,051 | 7,669,126 | 14503 | 36,019 | 50,521 | 195,953 21
| Total, 1866 ...... 4,078 | 8,199,618 | 18,063 | 31,686 | 49.749 | 176,959 | 795
i Tnerease ......... Hee Las Agile 4,332 772 18,994:
| Decrease .........)' 27 530,492 | 3,560 Cee ae ‘

Norr.—The acreage and number of vines are for the year ending 31st March, 1867 ; the
quantity of grapes gathered, and of wine and brandy made, are for the previous season.
The grape crop comes in too late to admit of its being returned when the agricultural

statistics are collected. . :
Witutiam Henry Arcuzr, Registrar-General.

f

—_

On Colonial Wines. | 69

If we take the yield of Victoria as returned in the above
table, as the minimum of our produce, and also the returns
from New South Wales and South Australia, the total
recorded quantity in gallons for 1866 will be as under :—

Wictoria .., aes iis .. 195,953 gallons.

New South Wales ... we Se ermhGSs 1234.55

South Australia... ae. Beer arse eos meee
1,204,055

Suppose the whole produce of the three principal wine
colonies of Australia to be available for the population of
Victoria, who shall be imagined to have become suddenly
enraptured with colonial wine, and must have it as long as
a drop remained, the quantity ‘above stated as obtained from
reliable records would supply us with a trifle less than fifteen
pints—say a dozen bottles each.

Allowing a very moderate supply to the adult population,
and omitting tee-totallers and children, I calculate it would
not suffice for one month! and that we should have to go
eleven months of the year without one drop obtainable for
love or money.

I venture now to draw ie modest conclusion, that for

_many years to come, we of Victoria are unlikely, with all our

natural advantages, to supply our own needs. I have been
repeatedly assured that a single wine store in Great Bourke-
street, soldin one day more than 500 quart bottles during the
last summer; and that the Australian Wine Company dis-
posed of upwards of 15,000 gallons, chiefly in small
quantities, rarely exceeding quarter casks, during the same
time ; and at rates seldom exceeding one shilling. per quart
bottle.

So far then as the instimct and taste of our people. are
concerned, nothing can be more hopeful; and so far as the
prospect of adequately gratifying it goes, nothing looks more
disheartening ; for the planting of the vine is not progress-
ing at all in the ratio in which it might be expected.

Whilst on this topic, perhaps for the last time in my life,
permit me to add a fervent hope, that the evidences afforded
by the Exhibition, the results of the jurors soon to be in the
hands of the public, and these little investigations of mine,
may influence another important element in vineyard form-
ing and wine-making, viz., the monetary. The time has
now surely arrived when this produce will be treated like
any other, and advances of money made upon it, just as on
coals or wool.

70 On Colonial Wines.

Gentlemen, I thank you for patiently listening to so long
a paper, but one word more before I take leave of this class
of subjects, the study of which has afforded me pleasant
occupation for my leisure time for many years.

It may be asked in other places to which this paper will
travel in your Transactions, why I, a clergyman, should have
taken so much trouble about a subject of this nature? To
reply fully to such a question would be long. Yet one or two
reasons may be briefly stated. Certainly it is partof my duty
to inculcate morality, to discourage and put down drunken-
ness to the best of my ability, and to strike a blow, if possible,
at the very root of the evil. Experience has long ago con-
vinced me that pledges and resolutions to abstain from
ardent spirits are but “poor safeguards of unstable virtue ;”
and that to effect a lasting cure the natural instincts must
be not violently assaulted with resolves, but steadily and
gently turned towards sources of reasonable and healthy
oratification, while the danger of excess is effectually
removed.

The experience of all warm countries where wine is the
universal beverage leaves no doubt but that where the vine
flourishes in luxuriance, there our beneficent Creator intended
that his children should drink the produce of it and be glad.

I need not recur to scenes of drunkenness with which we
were all only too much familiarized a few years back; but
I will lay before you some tables of shocking deaths brought
on certainly by drunkenness. The wretched effects of this
vice are forced upon the clergyman and the medical officer
more than upon all others. Consider for a moment the
subjoined tables, and say if I did or did not propose to
myself a meritorious work when I set about striving to turn
this current into another channel; and to help in providing
the requisite conditions.

Males. Females. Males. Females.

1853 (6 months) 40 a 9 1860 oe 78
1854 5m 107 MSE oe if 1861 ri 39 Hin 8
1855 A oye er aes amet (75) 1862 wih 40 wd 9
1856 on 61 ae AD 1863 ie 22. cae tell)
1857 Ae 42 bapa tt Up 1864 te 28 <é 9
1858 By 57 Ly 9 1865 ae 47 Bh daniel te:
1859 mA 50 ee 9 —— -—

| 679 156

Of the above numbers thus much is known, that 51 females
died certainly of deliriwm tremens, and 406 males.

These tables do not contain the other forms of death
derivable from drink, they are purposely confined to deaths

On Colonial. Wines. 71

directly and ammediately caused thereby. And is it nota
sad contemplation ? .

Again, during eight of the above years I was constantly
engaged with investigations, chemical and histological, some-.
times for myself, at others for members of the medical
faculty, and for the General Hospital; and had constant access
to the laboratory of the late Government Analytical Chemist,
for whom I performed for several years very nearly the whole
of the microscopic and histological work. I thus had oppor-
tunities which few non-medical men have had in this
_ country, of witnessing the ravages made by ardent spirits on
the human constitution.

Peculiar forms of liver and kidney disease; fatty
degeneration of the softer viscera ; molecular changes, such
as softening of the brain; and insanity ;—these are a
few of the more prominent rapid consequences of habitual
spirit-drinking in this warm dry climate, as presented to the
student of disease. When to the above catalogue, which
affects primarily the drunkard himself, you add all the ruin
and misery of a family, the wretched home and starving
neglected children, you arrive at something like what used
to be daily and hourly before the eyes of a minister of
religion in this new country.

Application has been made to the Sheriff of Melbourne and
to Dr. Paley, the able head of our great Lunatic Asylum, for
such statistics as they possess of crime and insanity caused
by the abuse of ardent spirits, and in each case I have been
politely promised all the information which it is in their
power to communicate. But I regret to say I had not
applied for it in time to allow of its being furnished for this

aper.

: On the whole perhaps it will be as well to make another
short paper, by way of appendix to the present, as soon as I
have obtained it, and also more of a like character from
Sydney, Adelaide, and Hobart Town. .

If a man believed in the existence of a fundamental
remedy, cheap, easy of application, wholesome and safe,
would he not be to blame if he did not try to apply it? I
have tried to clear the way to give it a chance. I believe in
the remedy myself—I have more than a theoretical belief in
it. I am no quack. I hate quackery. Had the slightest
suspicion of quackery attached to me, I am quite sure the
Medical Society of Victoria would never have elected me
one of their two honorary members.

The following anecdote is worth placing on record.

Tz On Oolonial Wines.

In my youth I spent full seven years in and near the
great capital of Portugal, in times of turmoil and almost dis-
organisation of society, consequent on civil wars, when the
utmost excitement prevailed and the bad passions of men
for a season broke loose, yet in that city of three times the
- population of Melbourne, and where wine was not more
than two pence the quart bottle and strong brandy five
or six pence the imperial pint, | never saw a Portuguese
drunk. The occasional spectacle of a Dutch or British
sailor drunk in the gutter, and dealing largely in loyalty to
his own country and eternal execration of all others, used to
afford an hour’s cheap amusement to a whole street. Among
themselves drunkenness, and delirvun, tremens, and our
forms of liver complaint were wholly unknown.

In the interests then of health and morality, and cheerful
and happy homes, may I be pardoned for recording my
heartfelt wish, that I may live to see the time when
even the humblest labourer, at the close of his hot day’s
toil, will stroll into our fine parks and public gardens, and
there with his happy family around him, enjoy his hour
of relaxation and drink his bottle of wholesome wine at the
cost of a few pence, without either the reproach of extrava-
gance or the danger of intoxication. In fact I hope and wish
to see the Victorians a healthy, sober, jolly, wine-drinking
population.

es in eri akan

STILLWELL AND KNIGHT, PRINTERS, 78, COLLINS-STRERT HART,

a aa OE, Kamer atc

Art. XIV.—On the Condition of the Blood after Death from °
Snake-Bite, as a probable clue to the further study of
Zymotic Diseases, and of Cholera especially. By
GroRGE B. Haurorp, M.D.

[Read 10th June, 1867.]

Mr. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN,

On the 25th of last April I addressed a letter to the
Editor of The Argus, of which the following is part :—

“‘ When a person is mortally bitten by the cobra-di-capella, mole-
cules of living ‘germinal’ matter are thrown into the blood
and speedily grow into cells, and as rapidly multiply, so that
in a few hours millions upon millions are produced at the expense, as
far as I can at present see, of the oxygen absorbed into the blood
during inspiration ; hence the gradual decrease and ultimate extinc-
tion of combustion and chemical change in every other part of
the body, followed by coldness, sleepiness, insensibility, slow
breathing, and death.

“‘ The cells which thus render in so short a time the blood unfit to
support life, are circular, with a diameter on the average of one
seventeen-hundredth of an inch. They contain a nearly round
nucleus of one two thousand-eight-hundreth of an inch in breadth,
which, when further magnified, is seen to contain other still more
minute spherules of living ‘germinal’ matter. In addition to this,
the application of magenta reveals a minute coloured spot at some
part of the circumference of the cell. This, besides its size, dis-
tinguishes it from the white pus, or lymph corpuscle.

‘Thus, then, it would seem that, as the vegetable cell requires for
its growth inorganic food and the liberation of oxygen, so the animal
cell requires for its growth organic food and the absorption of
oxygen. Its food is present in the blood, and it meets the oxygen in
the lungs ; thus, the whole blood becomes disorganised, and nothing
is found after death but dark fluid blood, the fluidity indicating its
loss of fibrine, the dark colour its want of oxygen, which it readily
absorbs on exposure after death.

“Let it not be thought that microscopic particles are unable
to produce such great and rapid changes. It is well known, and
I have frequently timed it with my class, that a teaspoonful of
human saliva will, when shaken with a like quantity of decoction of

G

74 On the Condition of the Blood

starch, convert the whole of the latter into sugar in a little less
than one minute. If ptyaline, the active principle of saliva, exerts
this power at most in a few minutes, then surely the active principle

of the secretion of the serpent’s poison-gland may exert an infinitely —

greater power in as many hours.

“ Té results, then, that a person dies slowly asphyxiated by depri;
vation of oxygen, in whatever other way the poison may also act,
and so far as the ordinary examination of the blood goes, the
post-mortem appearances are similar to those seen after drowning
and suffocation. 3

““T have many reasons for believing that the materies morbid of
cholera is a nearly allied anvmal poison. If so, may we not hope to
know something definite of the poisons of hydrophobia, small-pox,
scarlet fever, and indeed, of all zymotic diseases ?

“‘T am, Sir, your obedient servant,

“GEORGE. B. HALFORD. M.D.
“ April 25.
“«P.S.—At the suggestion of my friend Dr. Neild, I am going
to try the inhalation of oxygen as a remedy.” —°

My reason for addressing The Argus was to obtain
immediate and extensive circulation, copies of the letter
having been sent home by the mail the following day. I
hope the subject will appear of sufficient general importance
to have warranted my so doing. :

The letter you will perceive contains a statement of facts,
upon which is built the hypothesis of the cause of death
after snake-bite, and of the probable origin of cholera from

an allied animal poison. I proceed now to state those facts:
to the Society, and to develop the hypothesis which I put

forth, not as the whole truth, but as a means by which the
action of animal poisons on the body may perchance be
arrived at.

A. gentleman, aged thirty-three, was bitten on the finger
by a cobra-di-capella. About three hours afterwards he was
discovered moaning by Mr. Fielder, who states: “I went to
his side and found him perspiring freely, face flushed ; the
third finger of the left hand punctured at the knuckle of the
second joint, from which a dark fluid oozed freely ; finger
swollen and turning black and purple, discoloration extend-
ing to the back of hand, which was puffed up, having a
glassy and livid appearance; thence upwards and nearly to
the elbow, redness and irregular streaks and patches defined
the track of mischief. I applied the ligature at first sight
close above the elbow, and gave brandy, also washed the

after Death from Snake- bite. 79

mould with the same until medical assistance was sent for.”
About half an hour after the discovery, Mr. Fitzgerald says :
“ T found the patient in astate of stupor (like a person under
the influence of a narcotic). He had a fair pulse, about 80.
The extremities were below the natural temperature, and
the surface of the skin generally covered with a cold
moisture. ‘The power of speech was lost: when attempting
to speak the words seemed so thick that they could not be
understood.” In eight or ten minutes after this, although
stimulants were freely given, the symptoms changed very
much. ‘The patient had lost all consciousness, and his
face and lips were livid ; respiration scarcely to be noticed,
and pulse difficult to detect.” He was then removed to the
hospital, where he died in about halfan hour; Mr. Fitz-
gerald remarking that “his respiration stopped from ten to
fourteen minutes before the heart’s action.” Dr. Moussé
says, “On arriving at the hospital he was in a dying state,
the general appearance was livid, and the temperature of the
body so lowered that it could be felt by the touch.”

The next day a post-mortem examination was made, at
which I was invited to be present. Nothing abnormal was
discovered except fluid alkaline dark blood and some con-
gestion of the lungs. I took a little of the blood from the
spinal canal, and placed it under the microscope in Dr.
Moussé’s room. It appeared to contain a very large quantity
of colourless corpuscles, of large size. With this observation
I left.

The same evening the cobra was brought to me. I made
it insensible with chloroform, and turned it into a jar of
spirit till the next day, when I removed all the poison I
could, about half a drachm or more, and reserving a little for
microscopic examination, injected the remainder beneath the
skin of the abdomen of a full sized dog. The animal died
after the usual symptoms during the same night.

POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION.

The subcutaneous tissue was infiltrated with dark serum,
extending nearly as high as the axilla and down to the
thigh ; outwards nearly as far as the spine, inwards a little
bey ond the linea alba.

No evidence whatever of inflammation or disease of any
_ internal organ or of the lymphatics.

The blood was in parts in a semi-fluid, in parts in a fluid
state. No fibrinous coagula anywhere.

“a 2

76 On the Condition of the Blood

MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATION OF THE BLOOD.

I was at once struck with its resemblance to the blood
of the man I had seen the day before at the hospital, and
now with my own instrument and appliances I spent the
whole of two days (it being holiday time) examining this
blood. What I hastily took for white corpuscles at the
hospital with a strange instrument and no conveniences for
quiet observation, turned out to be nucleated cells of a
perfectly circular form, with a diameter on the average of
iy inch. The nucleus nearly round, x inch broad.
Besides this I detected on the second day, after applying
magenta, a minute spot at some part of the circumference of
the cell. This remarkable spot, when once seen, was dis-
tinctly visible in all.

Puate I.

Foreign cells seen in the blood of the dog poisoned by the venom of the
| Cobra di Capella.

x 400 diameters. x 1100 diameters.
Copied from the Author's drawings, by Dr. Neild.

Of these cells there must have been many millions ; they
were present in the blood of every part of the body, but in
much greater quantity in the dark congested parts of the
lungs. None, however, were detected in the fluid of the
thoracic duct.

after Death from Snake-bite. 10

EXAMINATION OF THE POISON.

It was distinctly acid, nearly as thick as fluid honey,
becoming more so on exposure. Under the microscope,
besides epithelium and much molecular matter, it contained
nucleated cells of the same size as those I have described as
found in the blood, but I saw no spot, or macula, in the
circumference, neither had I at this time detected any in the

~ ¢eells found in the blood, and by the next day my assistant

had unknowingly thrown away my little drop of poison, and
the cobra being in spirit, with the poison-glands laid open,
the form of the cells was destroyed.

We have now to ask the very important question, what
are these cells? They differ from the white corpuscles in
size and in the presence of the spot, or macula, on the
circumference. The diameter of the white corpuscle

being, according to Beale, from zp inch to y@ inch; he
gives a drawing of one, however, nearly oa inch, but the
shape is different, and he describes no macula which so emi-
nent an observer could not have overlooked with the = of an
inch objective. (My own observations were made with a
splendid + of Ross and the % inch of Smith and Beck).
Gulliver says the diameter of the white corpuscle is x
of an inch, and Carpenter ni seldom larger or smaller.
Mr. Ralph figures it about 3 of an inch.

My own observations on the blood have been very nume-
rous, and as regards the white corpuscle, its size,and 1 believe
also its state of maturity, vary very much. Theaverage being
inman 4; of an inch, in the dog xm. When much larger it
my be difficult to distinguish it from the new cell. The
largest white corpuscles I have ever seen were in the blood
taken from the umbilical artery of a pup, while in utero.

But when the white corpuscles abound in the blood, there
is usually an increased amount of fibrine also, as in the Lew-
cocythemia of Bennett and Leucocytosis of Virchow. The
latter author speaks also of their existence in large numbers
in cases where there is a diminution of fibrine as in typhoid
fever. In these cases of snake-poisoning there was a defi-
ciency of fibrine in the blood allying them, if we are to look
upon these cells as white corpuscles, to the leukemia of
fever, in which, according to Virchow, the lymphatics are
unaffected.

78 On the Condition of the Blood

Are they granular cells of pneumonia? In the first place _
no pheumonia was found; and secondly, they are unlike
them.

Are they pus-cells? All observers agree in stating that
there is considerable difficulty in distinguishing well deve-
Joped pus-cells from the white corpuscles of the blood. The
action of reagents upon both being nearly if not precisely
identical. Their usual diameter is, according to Paget,
from 5 to x9 of an inch. Virchow represents them as

sm of aninch. Hassall ficures them = of an inch.
Bennett, of Edinborough, makes them larger, ze¢., from

Are they large exudation cells? No exudation was dis-
covered anywhere, and they are also different in structure.

What are they ?

Their perfectly circular outline, and large nulere prove
them to have grown without impediment, and to have, as
evidenced by their numbers, multiplied enormously and
rapidly ; in other words, living “ germinal” matter from
the cobra has been thrown into the blood and grown at its
expense.

What is the meaning of the macula ?

Until further opportunity occurs to me, I would ask, can
it be possible that the germ inheriting the qualities of its
parent is fed by the blood which tends to make it one of its
own corpuscles, but produces instead a hybrid nucleated —
maculated cell, except for its circular form, like a rep-
tile’s blood-corpuscle? or is the macula a more general
characteristic of cells than is yet known?

Immediately after the occurrence of the accident which
led to the foregoing observations, I endeavoured to pro-
cure Australian snakes in order to see the effects of their
poison on the animal frame, and, if possible, to find some
means of counteracting it. But [I have found the winter
too far advanced, and have been only able, although applying
in many quarters, to procure two very young black snakes. .

The snakes were very disinclined to bite, and my desire
being great to examine the poison, I killed one for this
purpose, and to my regret found very little in either gland.
What there was was slightly acid, and consisted chiefly of
free nuclei, having generally a translucent circular nucleolus,
sometimes two; some of the nuclei and nucleoli were oval,

I examined them with the ~ and -3, inch objectives.

after Death from Snake-bite. is

Puate II.

Germinal matter, or free nuclei, from the poison-gland of young
Australian Black Snake.

e
@ s)

=)

@

x 400 diameters. x 1200 diameters.

From a drawing by the Author.

Determined not to lose the little poison I had, [minced upthe
glands and inserted them beneath the skin of the abdomen
ofa dog. The severe illness and speedy death of one of
my children prevented me continuing the inquiry. It
was, however, proceeded with by Mr. Lawrence, one of my
class, who has been kind enough to forward me the following
notes :—

“May 11th, 1867.—Professor Halford inoculated a dog
with the poison of a young black snake, about eighteen
inches long, by inserting the gland beneath the skin of the
abdomen. The same evening he examined a drop of blood
from the ear, and found the number of white corpuscles
greater than in normal blood, and at least two cells similar
to those seen after poisoning by the cobra-di-capella, but of
somewhat less size. The dog at this time did not show any
very marked symptoms—he had vomited once and seemed
unwilling to move about.

“12th.—Professor Halford being unable to continue his
observations to-day, I examined the blood. The number of
white corpuscles was much increased. After much dilution
with solution of magenta, each field presented about twenty-
four of these bodies, among which a few of the characteristic
cells could occasionally be seen. As regards size, there was
not here such a striking contrast between these cells and the
white corpuscles as there was in the cobra-case, when a
single glance was sufficient for diagnosis between them ; but
still the nucleus being always single, the presence of the —
macula and a peculiar clearness of the cell are, I think,

80 On the Condition of the Blood

sufficient to prevent the two being confounded together.
I drew several under the camera lucida, of which the
diameters were from 35 to ip of an inch.

Prate III.

Maculated nucleated cells, from the blood of the dog which recovered
moculation of the poison of the Australian Black Snake.

x 400 diameters.

From a drawing by Mr. 0. V. Lawrence.

The dog at this time (the forenoon) was drowsy, and when
compelled to move about did so with difficulty, seeming very
weak, especially in the hind parts. His eyes were dull and
protruding, and he evinced pain by his doleful looks and by
snapping at his hind legs. In the afternoon he was very
much worse.

‘“‘13th.— Examined carefully the blood from the ear and
tail. Number of white corpuscles much less than yesterday,
and not one of the other cells to be found. The blood
coagulates much more readily than it did yesterday. ‘The
dog is much better, and except a little stiffness appears to
be quite well.”

The observations of Mr. Lawrence are very interesting,
and seem to point to the simultaneous disappearance of the
cells and restoration to health.

Six days after this, that is, on the 19th, I very carefully
examined this dog’s blood myself, and found nothing

abnormal, none of the white corpuscles exceeding ya of
an inch in diameter. :

The remaining snake I kept constantly before the fire. It,
not eating, afforded avery good illustration of heat being |
converted wmto motion, for it became very lively, and bit a
kitten in the foot one afternoon at halt-past three o'clock.
The kitten died at ten minutes past-seven the same evening.
On examination the lungs were not congested. The blood
was everywhere dark and fluid; some taken from the in-

after Death from Snake-bite. 81

ferior vena cava contained many of the characteristic cells,
and in that of the saphena vein of the bitten leg were many
free nuclei “germinal matter” exactly corresponding to
those of the serpent’s poison.

Puate LV.

Germinal matter, or free nuclei, and large maculated nucleated
cells from the blood of the saphena vein of a kitten, bitten in the foot
by young Australian Black Snake.

_ (@)
®@ 6 |
S@ ©

x 400 diameters.

From a drawing by Mr. Ashworth.

After this a pigeon was bitten, and died in twenty-two
minutes. The blood was not fluid, and none of the
characteristic cells were found. It would be impossible to
say that in this case none existed, the fluid part was
only examined, and therefore there might be such cells in
the clotted parts. Want of time, caused by family illness,
&ec., prevented my examining this case, in fact the case of
the kitten and the following were more observed by my
students than by myself. !

However, the condition of the blood of pigeons bitten by
the rattlesnake has been recorded, according to Nysten in Le
Dictionarre de Medicine, by Dr. Brainard, of Illinois.

“Ist. Change of shape of the red corpuscles from oval to
round.

“2nd. Abundance of white corpuscles, grouped together
in nipple-shaped masses.

“ 3rd. Liquid state of the blood in the cavities of the heart
from want of coagulation of fibrine.”

Lt ws not virprobable the doctor saw similar cells to those
we have been describing, taking them, as I did at first
glance, for white corpuscles.

Not having then seen the cells in the poison of the
serpent as particularly as I wished, I killed the reptile,

82 On the Condition of the Blood

and on examining the poison—of which there was little more
than a trace—found the same free nuclei with nucleoli as in
the other, with only here and there an indication of a
maculated cell like those seen in the blood. Mr, Lawrence
thought he saw one or two, but it is extremely difficult to
tell these cells from the serpent’s blood-corpuscle, which
may have become round by being placed.in fluid. In the
strange cell the nucleus is larger and the macula also.
They were so in the cells pomted out by Mr. Lawrence, but
to clear up this point I must wait till next summer. I may
mention that a week before this, the snake being very lively,
I let it bite a pigeon and a rat, which it did savagely and
shook them, but not the least harm resulted to either.

To return to the poison, a minute quantity was inserted
into the thigh of a rat; it died in one hour.

The examination of this blood was made by Mr. Ashworth,
another member of my class, and his observations were con-
firmed the same evening by ‘myself, ,

The blood was everywhere fluid. The following are Mr.
Ashworth’s words :—

“The large nucleated cells were readily seen if caren
looked for in-the uncoloured blood (2.¢., without magenta
dye), the large cells being three times the diameter of the
red corpuscles.

“In the femoral vein of the injected leg were many of
the cells and free nuclei, the latter mostly circular, some
oval, of a diameter of ls of an inch, the exact size, shape,
&ec., of those of the poison nuclei of the serpent’s venom.*

“The blood in the vena cava and vertebral veins contained
the same cells and nuclei.

“Tn the lungs the same cells were found in addition to a
large number of white corpuscles.”

* T may mention that in all the cases recorded in this essay in which the
iden cells were seen, accurate drawings were made either by Mr. Lawrence,
Mr. Ashworth, or by myself. These were shown at the meeting, and
enlarged drawings made from them by Mr. Morton, whom I have to thank
for his invariable readiness to assist me with his pencil. :

after Death from Snake-bite. | 83

PLaTE V.

Germinal matter, or free nuclei, and maculated nucleated cells from the
blood of a rat poisoned by the Australian Black Snake.

—_ SS
©O© aly

x 400 diameters,
From a drawing by Mr. Ashworth.

T have collected a few cases of snake-poisoning in order
to draw your attention to the state of the blood after
death.

Case 1.—Henwood, a soldier, aged 40, was bitten in the
finger by a diamond snake of Tasmania, and died 92 hours
after. The blood was fluid and dark, and fibrinous clots
were nowhere found. On cutting into the lungs very dark
fluid blood oozed freely. The absorbents were not affected.

Case 2.—Cartwright, a man bitten by an Australian snake,
died twenty minutes after. The whole blood of the
body was in a fluid state, not one single clot was observed,
nor did it coagulate when exposed to the air. The lungs
were healthy, but filled with dark fluid blood, with black
patches here and there.

Case 3.—Underwood, a man bitten by an Australian snake.
Dark fluid blood, with some thread-like clots, in the right
ventricle. The lungs were very much congested, resembling
in many parts the patches of pulmonary apoplexy.

Case 4.—A man, aged about 30, keeper of the reptiles in
the Regent’s Park Zoological Gardens, was bitten on the nose
by a cobra-di-capella, and died in 90 minutes. The blood
was dark, alkaline, and fluid. The right side of the heart
contained blood, the left side none. The lungs were con-
gested.

Case 5—A powerful man was bitten by an unknown
snake. In this case it was remarked that spitting and
coughing up of blood followed. The blood had no tendency
to coagulate, neither did that which was drawn with the
cupping-glasses, although the breathing was natural, and the
aes action 90 per minute. He died 24 hours after the

ite.

Case 6—A sepoy was bitten by a cobra-di-capella.

84 On the Condition of the Blood

Three hours after the bite blood-spitting occurred. Soon
after cupping was resorted to, and seven or eight ounces of
blood drawn off, which remained perfectly fluid. Hight
hours after the extremities were cold and corpse like. This
man ultimately recovered, the medicine being chloroform,
arrack, and camphor.

Such being the facts preceding and following death from
snake-poison, let us see what problems we have to solve :—

The body is menus heat.

The blood is minus oxygen.

Ditto ditto fibrine.
Ditto plus foreign cells.

Ist. The body is minus heat. Let it be remembered that
in death from starvation and in lingering diseases, the tem-
perature of the body is kept up at the expense of the tissues,
even ofthe nitrogenous. In snake-poisoning the bitten man or
dog is breathing ; oxygen is absorbed, combustion occurs, but
where is the heat ? Combustion does not take place in the
tissues, as 1s evidenced by the general coldness; the red
corpuscles do not convey the oxygen, as is shown
by the state of the blood, for, as in cholera, the
blood is dark even as it flows through the arteries,
and becomes red on exposure to the air. Combustion
occurring, the heat that should result is rendered latent,
or rather is converted into motion ; the molecular motion
necessary for the aggregation of the billions of particles
constituting the new cell growth. Ifthis view of the loss of
heat be correct, then after death, when oxygen no longer has
access, and that contarned vn the blood is used wp, the mole-
cular forces being arrested, the heat should be again rendered
up to the now lifeless body.

I have not as yet had a fair opportunity of making the
observation, but ariseof temperature after death from cholera,
yellow fever, &., of seven and of even nine degrees, has been
observed, an amount of heat requiring for its production
molecular energy or chemical action sufficient, if converted
into mechanical force, to raise many tons weight several feet
from the ground, or to raise the lifeless corpse higher than
our highest building. Tyndall, when speaking of the atoms
of water, calls them “giants in disguise.” “The force of
gravity almost vanishes in comparison with molecular
forces;” the pull of the earth upon a pound weight as a
mass, is as nothing compared with the mutual pull of its
own molecules.” .

after Death from Snake-bite. 85

I shall have presently to refer to one authentic case of
cholera, in which a new cell-formation existed in the blood.
Is it unreasonable then to assume that possibly in cholera
and yellow fever the heat during life may be replaced by
molecular motion, and be re-manifested when that motion
is destroyed, as after death? I think at least physicians
must no longer simply record, but endeavour, by as rigid
an adherence to physical laws as possible, to account for the
rise of temperature after death from cholera or any other
disease.

2nd. The blood 1s minus oxygen.

The gas has been absorbed but appropriated by the new
cells, the red corpuscles carry it not to the tissues, or at
least not in sufficient quantity, and the blood soon becomes
charged with carbon. Dr. Marcet states in the Lancet, of
February 2, 1867, that the exhalation of carbonic acid from
the lungs requires a certain temperature, and that as the heat
of the body falls so the carbonic acid tends to accumulate in
the blood. Part of the oxyen inhaled probably enters into
the composition of the growing germinal matter, constituting
the new cell-formation, the remainder uniting to form car-
bonic acid and water.

Now, if we suppose that the blood is deprived of one
quarter of its oxyen only, death would speedily result, for the
late Dr. Snow found that if an animal breathes an atmo-
sphere containing from 104 to 16 per cent. of oxygen, instead
of the normal quantity, 20 per cent., it soon dies, although
provision is made for the removal of the carbonic acid as
fast as it is formed.*

The oxidation of the food in the blood and of the tissues is
transferred from the bitten man to the foreign cell, which is
equivalent to saying, that animal power is transferred from
the one to the other.

It is wonderful to reflect how long this power or energy
may be retained by living “germinal” matter. Seeds grow
after ages of inaction. Vaccine matter is dried and carried all
over the world ; the poison of the cobra has been inoculated
and caused death after having been kept ten years.

ord. The blood is minus fibrine.

Of this there is no doubt, and it is interesting to inquire
how far this may be dependent upon oxygenation.

The blood is dark and fluid in all cases in which it has

* Carpenter’s Human Physiology, Sixth Edition.

86 On the Condition of the Blood

been deprived of oxygen, as in suffocation and drowning.
On the other hand, when animals have breathed an excess of
oxygen, the blood coagulates with remarkable rapidity.

Dr. Gairdner found the proportionate amount of fibrine
corpuscles and albumen in the arterial blood of healthy
rabbits to be—

Fibrine, 1°65
Corpuscle, 82°35
Albumen, 46°30

When other rabbits were made to breathe pure oxygen for

half an hour, the proportion was—
Fibrine, 2°40
Corpuscle, 69°56
Albumen, 40:23

Ath. The blood as plus millions of cells.

So large an amount of cells produced in so short a time
fully accounts for the disorganization of the blood and death.
But death occurs sometimes so rapidly, that it would appear
impossible. for cells to be formed in so short atime. In
which case we must consider the change in the blood to be
brought about as rapidlyand inthe same manneras the change
from starch into sugar under the action of ptyaline. It seems
our only explanation. Quite as mysterious, indeed, is the more
rapid change which takes place in the condition of the blood
afterdeath by lightning. A case has lately occurred athome in
which “the great veins were distended with very dark blood,
everywhere perfectly fluid—not a symptom of a clot, neither
did it show the slightest tendency to coagulate after its
escape.” It does not however follow that a few minutes is
too short a time for the blood to lose a quantity of oxygen
sufficient to destroy life. For the germinal matter, if not
checked in its growth, gains strength as it proceeds, vires
acquirit eundo, and deprivation of oxygen for a few minutes
is always fatal.

Again the presence of these cells leads us to ask- whether
they are in any way connected with fermentation ; if so it
would strengthen, if not establish, the theory that fermen-
tation is never excited except under the influence of
microscopic organisms, and that, as affirmed by Pasteur and
others, each particular organism sets up a particular species
of fermentation, and we might add of animal or vegetable
poisons its peculiar species of disease, and further, that in
all- zymotic diseases these particular organisms should

after Death from Snake-bite. 87

be diligently looked for where indeed their presence has long
been suspected, viz., in the blood.

Respecting the development of animal and vegetable life
in different media as the probable cause of the various pro-
cesses of fermentation, Sir Henry Holland observes: “It is
one of those curious questions where doubt exists as to the
respective conditions—which is cawse, which effect, in their
mutual relation? Such doubt is generally solved in the
event by some simple and single observation, deciding not
merely the particular problem, but opening a way to know-
ledge beyond.” :

I now pass to consider Cholera. Discarding contradictory
accounts, I shall quote principally from the last edition of
Aitkin’s Science and Practice of Medicine, and from
Holland’s Medical Notes and Reflections, and Watson’s
Practice of Physve.

Dr. Aitkin says: “The remote cause of this disease is
unquestionably a poison ; for at no period has a person in
good health in this or any other country been known to
become in a few minutes shrivelled up, his whole body to
be of an icy coldness, his face and extremities to turn purple,
and, with or without vomiting of a peculiar fluid like rice-
water, to die in a few hours, except under the influence of a
poison.” ‘Tbe doctrine now, therefore, universally accepted
regarding the pathology of cholera is that a poison has been
absorbed, and infects the blood ; that after a longer or shorter
time it produces a primary disease of the blood; that it
undergoes enormous multiplication in the living body of
the cholera patient, as a result of the morbid process so
established; and that changes are induced in the function of
respiration directly consequent upon this alteration of the
blood.”

This is, you observe, the pathology of snake-poisoning, so
far as I can apprehend it.

Sir Henry Holland says: “ Singular though the symptoms
of cholera are, in their suddenness and fatality, they offer
no difficulty which does not equally belong to other
kindred diseases. We may even go a step further and affirm
that the notion of an animal virus, applied to absorbing
surfaces, and engendering the disorder by entering into the
circulation, is that which on the whole best accords with
the character of the disease, and with the analogies most
obvious to other morbid affections. We have many proofs
of the power and virulence of different poisons of this class,

88 On the Condition of the Blood

and of the remarkable changes they produce on the nervous
system and the blood ; often so speedily after their absorp-
tion that all observation is frustrated in seeking to follow
the train of events, and speculations equally at fault in
attempting to find a theory for them. The action of the
morbid cause of cholera seems to have most kindred with
these poisons; the change which takes place with such
rapidity in the properties of the blood being, as I think, the
oreat feature of the disease, the basis probably of all the _
other symptoms.”

We have seen that loss of heat and rapidly succeeding
death, attended with fluid dark blood, are the principal
features of severe snake-poisoning.

In cholera, Dr. Aitkin says: “The phenomena resulting
from the changes in the blood are the proper and distinctive
symptoms of the disease, and the term ‘algide,’ first used by
the French pathologists, very happily designates one of its
most remarkable and constant symptoms, viz., the diminu-
tion of animal heat. The algide symptoms, in truth,
essentially constitute the characteristic phenomena of this
disease. In proportion to them is the malignity and rapidity
of the case. They afford the only measure of its severity,
and from them only can a correct prognosis be formed. The
vomiting, purging, and cramps are now considered as non-
essential phenomena ; for authentic cases of cholera are on
record, by several of the most eminent writers on this
subject, entirely divested of these symptoms; and the
suddenness with which the poison sometimes extinguishes
life is extremely remarkable. When the cholera reached
Muscat, instances are given in which only ten minutes
elapsed from the first apparent seizure before life was ex-
tinct.” Dr. Gavin Milroy relates that at Kurrachee, in
1845-6, “ Within little more than five minutes hale and
hearty men were seized, cramped, collapsed, and dead.”
“ Instances of death taking place in two, three, four, or more
hours are extremely common.”

Sir Thomas Watson observes of the London epidemics
of 1832, 1849, and 1853: “In fatal cases death took
place sometimes in the course of two or three hours; and it
was seldom delayed beyond twelve or fifteen.” Dr. James
Johnsou says: “In rapidly fatal cases there is a great ex-
haustion of the power of generating heat; the air expired
from the lungs becomes progressively colder ; and so do all
parts of the body until they are merged in that of death.”

after Death from Snake-bite. 89

Now, the post-mortem appearances in those who have died
in the severe or cold stage of cholera present nothing but an
altered state of the blood, which is usually black and fluid ;
indeed, blood drawn from an artery in this stage is black,
and Schmidt has found the amount of oxygen contained in
the blood corpuscles lessened by one-half.

In a former part of this paper I have said that the snake-
bitten man breathes, oxygen is absorbed, combustion occurs,
but where is the heat? Referring to cholera, Dr. Parkes
evidently had similar thoughts, he says: “ But as the
mechanical part of respiration remains perfect, and as there
is no impairment in the voluntary command of the respira-
tory muscles, and as the heart evidently beats in many
eases till stopped by the want of blood on the left side,
we are compelled to look for the cause of such arrest
of the circulation in the only remaining element of respira-
tion, namely, in the blood itself.”* |

I may allude here to those singular muscular contractions
which occasionally happen after death by cholera, and quote
from the writings of my late friend and colleague, Fred.
W. Barlow. You will find his papers in the London
Medical Gazette from 1848 to 1850. He mentions instances
of convulsions in India after death by cholera in the corpses
of soldiers, which were so violent that their comrades, “in
order to calm the timid, bound the limbs to the bed-frame.”
Again, ‘“‘ A gentleman who died in 1832 of rapid cholera,
was turned after death completely on the side by a strange
and forcible combination of muscular action.” And “ muscular
contractions, after death, took place to a remarkable extent
in a man who died from cholera at Grosvenor-place, in
Bristol. The fore-arms were powerfully flexed, and the
hands approximating, gave the attitude of praying to the
body. No other parts were affected.” Lastly, “A young
man died of cholera. In ten minutes (while I, Mr. N. B.
Ward, of Clapham, was talking to his bereaved mother), I
was quickly summoned by the nurse, who told me that my
patient was not dead, as she had seen him move. On my
return to his bed-side, I found him as I had left him, with-
out pulsation or respiration. In two or three minutes, how-
ever, I was almost as astonished as the nurse had been, at

* “Though the passage of the blood through the lungs has been free, its
natural change is interrupted by cholera.”—Dr. James Johnson on The
Influence of Tropical Climates on European Constitutions. ;

H

90 On the Condition of the Blood

seeing the eyes of my. dead patient open and move slowly in
a downward direction. ‘This was followed, a minute or two
subsequently, by the movement of the right arm (previously
lying by his side) across the chest. There was likewise a
slight movement of his right leo. The motion of the eyes
occurred but once ; those of the limbs were repeated to a
ereater or less degree four or five times, and fully half an
hour elapsed before they entirely ceased. ‘These movements
were not by such fits and jerks as are usually the result of
spasmodic action.”

Dr. Bennet Dowler, of New Orleans, mentions the case
of an Irishman, aged twenty-eight, in which, not long after
death from yellow fever, the left hand was carried by a
reoular motion to the throat, and then to the crown of the
head ; the right arm followed the same route on the right
side; the left arm was then carried back to the throat and
thence to the breast, reversing all its original motions, and
finally, the right hand and arm did exactly the same.

Dr. Dowler proved, by completely separating limbs which
exhibited these movements from the trunk of the body,
that the influence of the nervous system was not in any
degree essential to their production.*

Now, admitting that post-mortem movements have been
seen after death by apoplexy, &c, yet they have never been
of the character described after death by cholera and yellow

fever. If it could be once proved that the symptoms of |
cholera were due to the presence of a new growth in the

blood, molecular or cellular, then seeing the close relation
that exists between the muscular fibres and their capillaries,
and between the latter and the components of the nervous
centres, it would not be difficult to trace these post-mortem
muscular movements to molecular changes still going on in
the blood, changes which I have before alluded to as produc-
ing heat, and now apparently motion.

I am proud to bring the thoughts of my late friend, W.F.
Barlow, in unison with my own. He says, “There is some
stimulus or other, though we know it not, which irritates
the muscles after death from cholera. Is it possible that
changes in the blood go on, and stimulate their fibres, or
the minute branches of the motor nerves which ramity
therein? Further inquiry may one day solve what is com-
plex now, by finding out circumstances necessary to an

* Oarpenter’s Human Physiology, Sixth Edition.

after Death from Snake-bite. 91

explanation, but as Mr. Paget remarks, the problem is too
difficult while the data are so few and the unknown things
so many.”

I must however say, I have met with no record. of such

movements after death by snake-bite, but at the same time
the observers have been few and their attention not directed
to any phenomena occurring soon after death.
_ I must now bring before this Society a remark made to
me by Dr. Moussé, of the Melbourne Hospital. It was to
the effect that the man bitten by the cobra when brought to
the hospital was like one in the cold stage of cholera, and
at the post-mortem examination he said that, with the ex-
ception of not being so thick, the blood was just like that of
a cholera patient. Of cholera Dr. Moussé has had much
experience.

I now come lastly to the remarkable and solitary case
of cholera to which, when speaking of the presence of
foreign cells in the blood of the snake-poisoned man, I said
I should refer. Dr. James M. Cowan, in the Edinburgh
Monthly Journal, observes of the body of a woman who had.
died of cholera, “there was not a single morbid appearance
which could be held as accounting for the cause of death,”
but “on examining a drop of blood under a power of 240
linear diameters, in addition to the red and white corpuscles
were numerous other bodies, which could not fail to attract
notice, generally circular in shape; some however oviform ;
a few caudate, and composed of a well detined membrane,
not at all puckered, enclosing one or two distinct granules.
These were very small, quite round in form, and possessed
of clear centres. They appeared to be attached in general
to one of the extremities of the circumference of the cor-
puscle ; in some cases it was difficult to say whether they
were adherent to its interior or exterior.” The doctor was
totally unable to account for their appearance.

But other observers, such as Virchow, have said that there
is an increase of the white corpuscles in the blood of cholera
patients. Can it be possible that this eminent man has
mistaken foreign cells for the white corpuscle?, I think
not. I should rather suppose he speaks of the observations
of others, and yet it must be remembered that on my first
hasty examination of the snake-poisoned blood I took the new
cells for white corpuscles, but afterwards, with my own
instrument, immediately saw my mistake. )

It cannot be unreasonable to suppose that as both the

H 2 :

92 On the Condition of the Blood

symptoms and post-mortem appearances in severe cases of
cholera and snake-poisoning are nearly identical, they may
have a kindred origin. Certainly the facts before us urge
us to a further and searching examination of the blood in
cholera. If the cells described by Dr. Cowan should again
and always be found, the probability of animal poison
as the cause of cholera would be greatly strengthened.*

This may provoke a smile. I put it forth as hypothesis,
perhaps fanciful hypothesis, and yet if we consider that the
dried poison of the cobra has been kept for ten years and
then destroyed life by imoculation, and remember that the
home of cholera and of the cobra and other venomous
reptiles is India, and that millions of reptiles die yearly,
and that as pollen is carried from place to place by insects,
so may this dried poison be, or carried into the upper
currents of the air, and subsequently inhaled—for the
lung has no thick cuticle to be pierced, and therefore no
poison-fang is needed—and kill a man ina little more. than
five minutes, or if not kill so soon, in addition to the
gradual robbing of animal heat, produce by its presence in
the capillaries of the muscular system those fearful cramps
that follow the cold stage and the post-mortem movements
before alluded to.t I say, if we consider these things,
coupled with the total darkness in which we dwell respect-
ing the origin of this fearful disease, the smile that at first
it is impossible to repress soon passes away, and we are
driven to think seriously of the presence of some animal
poison at least. I do not think this hypothesis more un-
reasonable than that some years ago put forward by one
of our most eminent writers, viz, Sir Henry Holland,
“which looks to animalcule life, diffused by the atmosphere
or by man, as the source of the disease—a form of life not
cognizable by our senses, or other present means of research,
but nevertheless producing a virus which acts noxiously or
fatally on the body of man.” ;

Time will not permit me to say more than just allude to
the probability of yellow-fever and most zymotice diseases

* By some it may be asked, May not these have been vegetable cells ?
Indeed, the line of demarcation between animal and vegetable organisms is
becoming daily less definable, and it is even said that rapidly-growing
fungi play the part of animal cells, z.e., absorb the organic matters on which
they grow, and yield up carbonic acid.

+ Some people, arguing about infection, speak as though poisons were
dissolved in the atmosphere, and everybody must inhale them, whereas they
are suspended or diffused, whereby A may be infected and B may not.

after Death from Snake-bite. 93

being due to animal poisons, and also that opprobrium, if I
may so call it, of surgery, pyeemia. Even so lately as
February last, Mr. Savory says: “The worst cases of
pyzmia, those in which death is most rapid, reveal after-
wards the least sign of local disease. Indeed, in the very
worst cases there has been no time for local mischief to
supervene. The whole mass of the blood is so poisoned and
spoiled that it kills outright. In these cases the blood is
found unnaturally dark and fluid, with few, large, black,
_ soft, and imperfectly formed clots. Its power of coagulation
is evidently impaired.”

Lastly, as suggested to me by my friend Dr. Bayldon, are
the cells seen in leucocytheemia, white corpuscles or other
animal cells ?

I would advocate a thorough re-examination of the blood
in all these cases, and strongly recommend the use of
magenta dye in every instance.* In support of my views
I will quote the words of a great living physiologist,
M. Claude Bernard: “In all post-mortem examinations the
state of the blood more especially deserves our attention.
Towards this object the energies of all our physiologists
ought to be mainly directed. Organic chemistry, however,
is unfortunately not in an advanced state, especially as
regards the constituent principles of the animal organization ;
and chemical analysis must, therefore, be in a great measure
left aside, when the properties of the blood are the subjects
of investigation ;'in other terms, a physiological analysis is
in this respect far preferable.”

Further investigation must be deferred till the summer,
and in the meantime I cannot but think that a wide field
for research into the molecular condition of the blood in
disease has been opened. Although it must be confessed
that if any lght is thrown by these researches upon the
origin and mode of action of animal poisons, it is only sufti-
cient to show us the great darkness that is before us. In
bringing before the Society the hypothesis of the abstraction
of oxygen from the body by the growth of germinal matter in
snake-bite, and possibly in cholera and many other diseases, I
have done so in no vain mood, but with a sincere desire to add
my mite to the discovery of truth, and even should all
turn out error, as possibly it may, the labour will not have
been for me, and I trust not for others, in vain.

* The proportion I find most generally useful for histological inquiry is
one drop of Power’s or Judson’s dye, to twenty of distilled water.

94 On the Condition of the Blood.

One word as to the influence of large doses of alcohol:
In the Australian Medical Jowrnal of April, 1859, a case
of snake-bite is recorded by Dr. Doughty, in which two
bottles of brandy were drunk without the shghest symptoms
of intoxication ; and Mr. Gillbee mentioned to me a case in
which he pave a girl, aged fourteen, three bottles without
intoxication, and she recovered.

These cells being of a rapid growth, have probably a brief
existence, recovery from snake-bite being usually sudden.
Alcohol, as you know, has powerful attractions for oxygen,
and being immediately absorbed by the veins of the stomach,
if it should engage the oxygen the cells would perish and
recovery ensue.

The inhalation of oxygen must be quite an experiment,
some authors, as my former eminent and much respected
teacher, Dr. Bence Jones, thinking the gas essential to cell
life, others of authority, as Dr. Beale, deeming it prejudicial.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. |)

Art. XV.—WNotes on Australian Coleoptera. By Count
F. De CastTELnau.
PART II.

Second Family—CA RABID.

This great family is largely represented in Australia, and
the proportion of species found on this continent is at least
equal to the number of its representatives in the Huropean
fauna. I will present ina summary way the catalogue of the
known sorts, and describe briefly those much more numerous
that are still new to science; in this paper, however, I shall
only be able to review the first tribes of the family.

Pamboride.

The genus PaAmBorvs forms most entirely this tribe, and
is entirely Australian. Mr. Gory gave in 1836, in Guerin’s
Magasin de Zoologie, a monograph of these insects, in which
he describes five sorts—A lternans, Morbillosus, Guerint, Viridis,
and Hlongatus. The first had previously been described by
Latreille, and the two following by Boisduval in his
“Fauna of Australia.” JI have since then described in my
“ Ktudes Entomologiques” a sixth sort, under the name
of Cunninghamii, from the Northern territory.

I have endeavoured, butin vain, to find permanent characters
separating A lternans from Morbillosus, and I believe them to be
mere varieties one of the other. Gwerint presents a particu-
lar appearance, which caused Mr. Hope to propose for it the
genus Callimosoma, but this has not been adopted by subse-
quent authors. Mr. Masters has lately found in consider-
able numbers, in the Pine Mountains of Queensland, an
insect differing only from Guerint by the absence of the
golden margin of the elytra; but it appears to be a simple
variety of it. In some specimens the thorax is much broader
than in others. No sorts of Pamborus have yet been found
in Victoria, but they appear to be rather common in the
northern parts of New South Wales and in Queensland.
Viridis is found on the Clarence River; it is easily identified
by its green colour, and the lateral coste of its elytra being
entire. It is generally smaller than Alternans, but I have
seen specimens from Brisbane as large as those of this
species.

I have only two new sorts of Pamborus to record here.

96 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Pamborus Brisbanensis: length 11’; black with a green
margin to the thorax and to the elytra; thorax broad, much
wider behind than at its anterior part, with a lateral border
forming a deep margin towards the posterior angles; it has
a deep and longitudinal sulcate on the disc, and two short
but deep ones on the posterior part; elytra with eight longi-
tudinal and equal costz, between each of which is a line of
elevated punctures.

This insect has nearly the form of Guerini, and two speci-
mens were found by Dr. Howitt near Brisbane ; one is,
through his kindness, in my collection.

Pamborus MacLeayi: length 10’; much shorter and broader
than Alternans, and something of the form of Guerini; black,
with the margin of the elytra of a dark green; thorax almost
square, strongly marginated laterally, with the posterior
angles broad and very protuberant; the impressions similar
to those of A lternans, but the form very different, being much
broader and wider in its posterior part; elytra shorter, but
with costze and impressions like Alternans.
ee my collection, found by Mr. Wilcox on the Clarence

iver.

LACORDAIRIA.

The new genus I propose under this name is very remark-
able, as presenting characters belonging to various groups ;
the long-pending palpze show its affinity with Cychrus and
Pamborus, but the anterior legs are strongly emarginated on
their inner side, like those of many true Carabide, Brachy-
nide, &c. It is evident to me that this insect ought to be
placed between the last Cychride (Spheroderus) and Pam-
borus, which, in my system, are all united in one family, but
Mr. Lacordaire having divided it in two, it must be placed
at the head of his Pamboride, in modifying the characters
of that family, as far as the anterior legs are concerned; this
genus has also a great affinity with Lestignathus, but is very
distinct by the form of its palpi. Maxillary palpi very long,
hanging down, with their second articles long, broad, inflated,
particularly towards its extremity, third conical much shorter
than the precedent, fourth very large, oval, dilated inside,
pointed at its end, where it is hirsute. Labial palpi like the
former, with their second article very long, the third short,
and the terminal large, inflated and of an oval form, dilated
inside, and pointed at its extremity ; it is hirsute. Labrum
large, furcated ; mentum without a tooth ; antennz rather

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 97

long, slender, with the first article much longer than the
Others, the second the shortest of all, the third rather
longer than the following, which are hirsute. Legs rather
slender; anterior thighs rather inflated, and canaliculated on
their inner side; tibias of the same pair strongly emar-
ginated; spurs situated one before the end and the other
apical. ‘Tarsi slender, the anterior ones rather dilated in the
male, spongious beneath; the first article the longest, the
other three cordiform, the fourth being the shortest; claws
simple. Head small, oval, narrowed behind the eyes, these
small; thorax something like the one of Cychrus rostratus ;
elytra oval, rather long, separated from the thorax. ‘This
genus is dedicated to the illustrious author of the “ Genera
des Coléoptéres.”

Lacordairia Cychroides: length 5’; of a brownish black ;
head oval; thorax almost square, rather narrowed behind,
with two strong longitudinal impressions on the posterior part,
a sulcate in the middle, and the sides strongly marginated ;
its anterior and posterior angles rounded; elytra rather
long, covered with fine regular and deep longitudinal strize ;
the parts of the mouth, and intervals of the two strize
impressed towards the end; antennee, from their fourth article,
and tarsi of a light brown.

Clarence River and Brisbane, under stones.

Lacordairia Proavma: length 5’; differs from Cychroides
by its form, broader and shorter; the thorax is wider and
about as broad as long, with its anterior angles more
advanced; the elytra are also broader, more of an oval form,
with the strize generally deeper.

From the mountains of Victoria \ Yankee Jim).

Lacordaiwria margimata: length 3}; very nearly allied
to Calathoides, and of the same form; the impressions of the
posterior part of the thorax shorter; strize of the elytra not
deeper towards the sutura than near the margin; a yellow
margin to the elytra.

I found a single specimen of this insect at Melbourne in a
flood of the Yarra River. It probably inhabits the moun-
tains of Victoria. _

Lacordairia angustata : length 6’; very much of the same
form as Cychroides, but more elongated; thorax longer, a
little more cordiform, with the posterior angles more erect ;
elytra a great deal longer, being at least two and a half
times the length of the thorax, for all it is larger itself than
in all the other sorts. |

98 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

From the Blue Mountains of New South Wales.

Lacordaria Erichsoni: length 42’; of a rather shiny
black ; head oval and long; thorax almost square, about as
broad behind as in front, rounded laterally, with the margin
much broader behind than on its anterior part; it has a-
longitudinal sulcate on the middle, and a strong impression
on each side behind; elytra striated, with the intervals
flat; they are rather broad, depressed, oval form, and have
a strong line of punctures on the margin; parts of the
mouth, antenne, and tarsi, brown; antennz hirsute after
their first three articles.

I had this insect in a collection, where it was stated to be
from Tasmania.

Note.—Lacordwria proxima and angustatw are dis-
tinct by their narrow and cordiform thorax, and the
numerous strong striz of their elytra; Calathoides and
Erichsont by their broader and more square thorax, and the
striz of the elytra less numerous, and with the intervals
flat, which gives them a more smooth and brilliant appear-
ance.

Lacordairia Calathoides: length 34’; of a metallic
black, very shiny ; thorax broader than in the preceding,
with its anterior angles much more rounded; elytra
short, oval, with longitudinal striz feeble near the
margin and stronger towards the sutura; a series of very
large punctures on the margin of the elytra; anterior parts
of the mouth and legs brown; head very small.

Tasmania. |

Lacordairia Argutoroides : length 3’; head oval; thorax _
almost as long as broad; rather narrow in its posterior part;
slightly marginated laterally; the anterior angles rounded ;
it presents a longitudinal strize on the middle, and two
impressions behind: elytra of an oval form, rather strongly
striated; the entire insect is of a dark brown, with the parts
of the mouth, antennze, and legs, of a dark yellow.

From the mountains of Victoria (Yankee Jim). Dr.
Howitt’s collection. 7

Lacordairia Anchomenoides: length 3’; of a more elon-
gated form than the preceding ; head oval, of a dark brown,
with the parts of the mouth and the antenne of a light yel-
lowish colour; the last article of the palpi dark; thorax
oblong, a little broader in front than backwards, with the
anterior angles very rounded; it has a broad and equal
lateral margin, a rather deep longitudinal striz on the

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 99

centre, and two impressions on its posterior part; its colour
is of a light brown, with the margin lighter; elytra of a
long oval form, striated, of a glossy brown, with the margin
of a light yellow-brown; inferior parts of the body and legs
of the latter ight colour.

Mountains of Victoria (Yankee Jim). In Dr. Howitt’s
collection.

Carabidee Proper.

Carabus which is otherwise represented in most tem-
perate regions of the world, either in the northern or in the
southern hemisphere, does not appear to inhabit any part of
Australia. As far as general form goes it seems to be repre-
sented by Pamborus. ‘The allied genus Calosoma, on the
contrary, has at least three representatives in New Holland—
Curtisii (Hope) which is the same as Shayert of Hrichson,
seems to inhabit the entire continent of New Holland. I
have it in my collection, from Melbourne, New South Wales,
the Paroo River, Flinders River, Swan River, Ganthaume
Bay, and Adelaide. It is never very common.

This Calosoma has nocturnal habits, and is sometimes
taken during dark nights in the most frequented streets of
Melbourne. c :

The other sort described, Calosoma Australis (Hope), is a —
very rare insect, of which few specimens have yet been
found, generally towards Cooper’s Creek, in the central
part of the continent. se

I describe here a new sort in Dr. Howitt’s collection.

Calosoma Grandipenne: length 12’; of a dark green, lighter
on the margins of the elytra; head smooth, having only a
few punctures near the eyes; thorax short, broad, rounded
laterally ; marginated with a longitudinal sulcate in the
centre, and two large round impressions behind; it is smooth
on the disc, and granulated laterally; elytra very large,
broad, twice and a half as long as the head and thorax
united: convex, covered with very strong punctato-strie ;
the intervals between these strive having a few impressions,
these latter forming regular lines on the eighth and twelfth
intervals; margins granulous; lower side of the thorax of a
metallic green; abdomen brown, with the sides of the
segments tinged with green; legs black ; parts of the mouth
and antennee of a dark brown.

Only one specimen of this insect has been found near
Melbourne.

100 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Odacanthidee.

Of this tribe I only know a new genus, and representatives in
Australia of Casnonia and Ophionea. Mr. Macleay, jun., has
described, in the “ Transactions of the Entomological Society
of Sydney,” two insects as Odacantha, but one is a Casnoma
and the other is not perhaps even a Truncatipenm, but in
all cases does not belong to this tribe, perhaps to the
following |

CASNONIA.

Casnoma Obscura: length 34’; black; thorax covered
with a dense puncturation, and bordered or the sides; elytra
glossy with puncturated lines which do not extend over their
posterior portion ; parts of the mouth and four first articles of
the antenne of a pitch brown; legs yellow with the knees
brown; the tarsi spotted with the last colour.

Rockhampton ; sent to me by Mr. Thouzet.

Casnonia Micans.

Odacantha Micans: Macleay, jun., “ Trans. of the Ent.
Soc. of Sydney.”

From Port Denison.

Casnoma? Clarensw : length 54’; of a glossy black; head
long, oval ; thorax long, with a shght longitudinal line in the
middle; its disc covered with little transversal striz and its
sides strongly punctured; elytra with punctured strie, which
do not extend further than the middle, with a large yellow
oval spot on the extremity; legs yellow, with the knees and
tarsi brown; extremity of the palpi yellow.

I received this pretty insect from Mr. Wilcox, who found
it near the Clarence River. It is of large size for the genus,
and its elongated form gives it the appearance of the genus
Apiodera. Having only one specimen I could not dissect
the buccal parts.

OPHIONGA.

This is entirely an Indian form; it differs only from
Casnonia by the fourth article of its tarsi, which is bifid.

Ophionwa Thouzett: length 32’; black; thorax red;
elytra feebly striated of a dark blue, with a transverse
yellow band on their anterior third part, and another on
their extremity; there is also a short white longitudinal
spot on the posterior part that joins the latter band, below
black, with the thorax red ; legs brown, with the thighs of a

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 101

dark blue; parts of the mouth and base of the antenne
brown. |

This beautiful little insect was found by Mr. Thouzet near
Rockhampton.

Note.—This insect is very nearly allied to one of the
Indian sorts that have been wrongly united with Cyano-
cephala, but differs by the white posterior spot of the elytra
being a short longitudinal line, and not a rounded one.

ANASIS.

Mentum emarginated, with a feeble but inflated tooth in
the centre; the wings of the mentum very short and broad,
rounded at the apex; mandibule rather short, arched, pointed;
labrum transversal, ciliated ; palpi maxillary with their two
terminal articles large, long, the third embracing the base of
the last, which is oval or rather pointed at the extremity ;
the last of the labial rather large, oval, and pointed; antennz
filiform, as long as the head and thorax together; the first
article long (of the length of the two following together), the
second short, the third much longer than the following, the
others almost cylindrical; head rather large, oval, with the eyes
prominent, and forming behind a rather long neck; thorax
much narrower than the head, fusiform, rather inflated in
the middle; scutellum small, triangular, elongate; elytra
much broader than the thorax, depressed, parallel, truncated
behind, and a little shorter than the abdomen; legs rather
long ; slender anterior thighs, rather inflated near the knees;
tibize entire, slender at the base, increasing in size towards
the tarsi; these long, slender, their first article longer than
the following, the fifth the largest of all; anterior tarsi
thicker, almost cylindrical, the first and fifth articles long
and about equal, the others short, the second triangular, and
the two following rather cordiform ; claws simple.

This genus comes very near to Odacantha, of which it has
the form.

Anasis Howittii: length 4’; of a bronzed brown; head
black; thorax covered with strong puncturations and having
a longitudinal sulcate on each side; it has also a longitudinal
sulcate in the middle; elytra with punctate stricze ; legs,
palpi, and antennze, yellow.

From Geelong, in the colony of Victoria; found on a
flower, and is in Dr. Howitt’s collection.

102 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Ctenodactylide.

The insects of this group known till now are all American,
and it is with hesitation that I transfer to it the new genus
I propose forming under the name of Hudalia on the Odacan-
tha Latepennis of Mr. MacLeay. This insect. can hardly be
called.a Truncatipenni, his elytra being only slightly
sinuated, but not truncated at the extremity. On account
of the claws of its tarsi being simple, it can only be placed
with Leptotrachelus, but its form is nearly allied to Pionycha,
and it is well characterised by the penultimate article of the
tarsi not being bilobed.

Ludalia Latypennis.

Odacantha Latypennis. —Macheay “ Trans. of the Ee
Soc. of Sydney.”

From Port Denison.

Eudalia Waterhousitt: \ength 5’; black, covered with a
dense puncturation; elytra striated, and having a very narrow
posterior yellow margin; parts of the mouth, base of the
antenne and legs of a brownish yellow. Same form as the
first species.

This insect was found by Mr. Waterhouse in Arnheim’s
Land, and that gentleman kindly favoured me with a speci-
men of it.

Galeritidee.
DRYPTA.

Of this genus one sort (Australis, MacLeay, senior,) has
been known for a long time; no others have yet been dis-
covered in Australia, but I will describe here a species of an
allied genus.

Dendroscellus Smaragdinus, “Chaud. Materiaux,” &c., 1861,
p. 55: length 5°; bluish green, very densely puncturated ;
palpi, antenne and lees black ; thighs, with the exception of
the knees, parts of the mouth, base of the antenne, and
tarsi of a brownish red.

This pretty insect was sent to me from Rockhampton by
Mr. Thouzet; it is very nearly allied to Longicollis Dej. from
Malacca, but it is distinguished by its tibiz, which are black
in the Australian, and red in the Indian species. Itis by
mistake stated by Baron Chaudoir to have been found near
Melbourne.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 103

ZUPHIUM.

The number of known sorts of this genus is very limited,
but they are disseminated all over the globe; New Holland
seems to have a fair share of them; four are in my collection,
of which one appears to be the Z. Australis of Chaudoir,
found by Mr. Masters about Sydney; the others are new.

Zuphium Thouzeti: length 44’; of a brownish black;
antennze of a lighter colour and pubescent, with the excep-
tion of their first article; elytra striated, with a reddish spot
on the humeral angle; this spot disappears in some speci-
mens; abdomen and parts of the mouth brown.

Rockhampton. Found by the indefatigable collector, Mr.
Thouzet ; I have one specimen also from Port Denison.

ZLuphium Rockhamptonensis: length 24’. This little species
is very like Z. Chevrolati of the south of Europe ; the head is
black, with the base of the antennze and buccal parts tes-
taceous; thorax of a light brown; elytra lightly striated, .
yellow, with a broad brown transversal band on the middle
which grooves narrower towards the sutura; lower parts of
the body and legs yellow. )

Rockhampton. Very rare, sent by Mr. Thouzet.

Zuphium Mastersit: length 24’; same size, and very much
like the former; head black, with a brown spot behind the
eyes; parts of the mouth and entire antenne yellow;
thorax of the same colour, as also the elytra and the rest of
the body and legs; elytra striated; a few long straight hairs
dispersed over the body.

The unique specimen of this sort in my cabinet was found
by Mr. Masters on the Eastern Creek, New South Wales.

ZUPHIOSOMA.

The insect on which I propose forming this new genus
has entirely the form of Zuphium, but is distinct by the basal
article of the antennze much shorter and the absence of the
tooth of the mentum. It could only be taken for Metazidius,
but it differs by the palpi, which are not hirsute, and the
antennee longer than half of the body, and formed of articles
long and slender.

Zuphiosoma Fulva: length 3’; of a reddish brown; head
and thorax covered with a dense puncturation ; elytra rather
darker, punctured and striated ; parts of the mouth, antenne,
and legs of a dirty yellow.

Rockhampton, Mr. Thouzet.

104 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Helluomde.

This tribe, entirely absent in Europe, is numerously repre-
sented in Australia; all its sorts were till lately placed
under the generic name of Helluo, but the researches of
modern entomologists have lmited that genus to the only
species on which Bonelli had established it, Hel/us Costatus,
first brought to Kurope by Peron, the learned naturalist of
Captain Baudin’s expedition. To this insect, Baron
Chaudoir adds (“Bulletin de Moscou’) a sorthecalls Carinatus,
which is not well known to me. I received one specimen
under that name from Count de Mniszech, but it is so very
closely allied to Costatus as to be very difficult to distinguish
from it. It is thought certain that some of the specimens
found near Sydney differ considerably from those of Mel-
bourne and Tasmania.

Mr. Lacordaire states erroneously that in this family the
tarsi are similar in the two sexes; in the Melbourne Helluo,
which I believe to be the same as Costatus, the anterior
tarsi of the male are dilated.

The Helluonide of Australia can be divided in the follow-
ing manner :— :

A. Body without wings—

a. Antennz not compressed, but more or less cylindrical.
* Labrum covering almost or entirely the mandibule.
s. ‘Tooth of the mentum short and obtuse (Helluo. )
ss. ‘Tooth of the mentum very long, slender and acute |
(Pseudhelluo).
** Labrum square, not covering the mandibule (Acro-
gonys).
aa. Antenne compressed (Helluodema).
B. Body with wings—
a. A tooth to the mentum.
* Head oval ( Gigadema).
** Head inflated behind the eyes (Helluosoma).
aa. No tooth to the mentum (4inigma).

Pseudhelluo has the general form of Anigma, but is
easily characterised by its very large labrum covering
entirely the mandibule and its mentum having in its centre
a long spine; the wings of that organ are also very long ;
the last article of the palpi is conical; the anterior tibie
are sulcated and very strongly emarginated.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 105

Pseudhelluo Wilsonii: length 5’; head broad, covered with
a dense and strong puncturation, black, with the parts of
mouth and antenne yellow; eyes very large; thorax short,
very broad, with the anterior angles rounded; a longitudinal
sulcate on the middle of the disk; it is flat, very strongly
punctured, and of a reddish brown; scutellum small and
elongated; elytra depressed, brown, covered with points,
and having numerous longitudinal and regular strie: under
side of the body and legs of a light reddish brown. All the
upper part of the insect is hirsute.

From Brisbane; sent to me by Mr. Wilson.

Acrogonys has been established by Mr. Macleay, junr.
(“Transactions of the Entomological Society of Sydney,” No.
2),on an elegant insect from Port Denison; it is very
nearly allied to Helluo, and if it was not for the form of the
labrum it ought to be united with that genus. The only
sort known, HMirsuta, presents two different forms, probably
sexual; in one, the coste of the elytra are all about equal ;
in the other, they form on each side of the insect a sort of
carina. |

Helluodema is a new genus I propose establishing on Mr.
Thomson’s Helluomorpha Batesit (“Arch. Ent.” vol 1, p. 134).
This insect has the general appearance of Helluomorpha, but
cannot be united with it, the terroinal article of the
labial palpi being securiform as the maxilliary and the fourth
article of the tarsi being of the same form as the preceding,
and not bilobated; the tooth of the mentum is simple, and
the body without wings. The general form is elongate,
slender, with the sides of the body almost parallel. The
compressed form of the antenne clearly separates this genus
from all the others of the tribe found in Australia.

This insect inhabits Moreton Bay and the Clarence River.

Gigadema is a name proposed by Mr. Thomson in his
“Arcana Nature” fora large Helluo of the northern parts of
Queensland, the principle character of which ought to be,
according to this author, the absence of a tooth to the
mentum, and on this account he compares it only with
inigma. Unfortunately no sort of Helluwonide probably has
a tooth more distinct than this, and it is curious to see that
this very tooth is faithfully represented in the beautiful
ficure Mr. Nicolet has given of this insect in Mr. Thomson’s
own work. Without this I should hardly have believed that
the insect I was studying was the same as Mr. ‘Thompson’s.
This genus Gzgadema has been established on an entire

I

106 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

false character, but for all that, as the insect on which it is
formed, must be separated from Helluo, I propose to preserve
the name in modifying its generic characters.

Since Mr. Macleay has described, under the name of
Helluo Grandis, an insect that appears to be the same, pro-
bably another sex, but this fact is uncertain; it differs from
Titana by the anterior margin of its thorax, which is ad-
vanced and circular, and by the terminal article of its maxil-
liary palpi being a little more securiform. Germar has also
described a sort under the name of Helluo Longipennis,
very nearly allied to the former. The sorts known to me
as belonging to this genus are the following :—

1. Gigadema Titana, Thomson, “ Arcan, Nat.” page 93,
pl. 5, figs. 7, 8. :

From Port Denison, Clarence River, and the region of the
Lachlan River.

2? Gigadema Grandis, Macleay, junr., “ Transactions of
the Ent. Soc. of Sydney,” No. 2, p. 108. |

From Port Denison.

3. Gigadema Longipennis, Germar; “ Linn. Ent.,” vol. 3,

, 162.
; Generally from South Australia, but I have some specimens
rather smaller from the Paroo River, and one other of the
same size from Swan River. In many specimens the anterior
thighs are considerably inflated. The tooth of the mentum is
bilobated. | |

4. Gigadema Bostock: length 17°; very nearly allied to
the two preceding, but broader ; entirely of a glossy black; —
head large, deeply punctured; thorax broad, cordiform, with
the anterior angles protruding and rounded as in Longi-
pennis; the disk shiny and without punctures, the margin
densely coverd with them; a deep longitudinal sulcate in
the middle; elytra strongly striated, with the intervals of
the strie deeply punctured; legs and inferior parts of the
body covered with strong puncturations.

I received this insect from the Rey. Mr. Bostock ; it in-
habits the northern parts of Western Australia.

5. Gigadema Paroensis: length 11’; of a shiny black;
covered with very strong puncturations which extend over
the entire thorax with the exception of some small spaces
on the disk; the thorax is cordiform, broad and straightly
truncated in front; elytra moderately elongate, striated and
strongly punctured; antenne hirsute, except on- the four

basal articles.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 107

One single specimen in my collection, from the Paroo River,
in the central parts of New Holland.

Note.— This fifth sort is easily distinguished by its smaller
size and its thorax almost entirely puncturated; Grandvs
has the anterior margin of its thorax advanced and rounded
in the middle, with its anterior angles obtuse; Titana and
Longipennis have both the anterior margin of the thorax
lightly emarginated, and the anterior angles advanced, but
the first is constantly larger than the other, and its thorax
is broader in its posterior part and less cordiform. Grandis
is of all the one whose punctures are the finest.

6. Gigadema Minuta: length 10’; of an opaque black ;
covered with very strong punctures, more dense on the disk
of the thorax than on any other part; head large; thorax
broad, very short, with its sides rounded; elytra striated ,
inferior parts of the body punctured, but rather glossy ;
antenne hirsute, except on the four first articles.

Ipswich (Queensland) ; found by Dr. Howitt, to whom I
owe a specimen. Since, I have received two more from Port
Denison. :

Note.—This insect is, perhaps, Mr. Hope’s Aingma
Unicolor, but his description agrees equally with several
other Hellwonide. : |

7. Gigadema Thomsoni: length 12’; of a dull black;
covered with a dense puncturation ; thorax broad, the sides
rounded, but forming a sort of angle at their posterior and
broader part; elytra covered with small punctures, and
striated.

From Port Denison.

This sort is very much like the former, but the colour is
more dull, the head is less impressed in front ; the thorax is
more equally punctured, and has a different form; the elytra
are not so deeply striated.

Hellwosoma is another new form of Helluonide, which is
distinguished by the presence of wings, the mentum armed
with a tooth, and the head inflated laterally behind the eyes.
The form is rather depressed, broader than in Gigadema, and
the colour generally brilliant and metallic, often blue, as in
Ajngma. Five sorts of this group are in my collection ;
the head is rather large; the antenne rather long and
cylindrical; the thorax strongly cordiform.

Hellwosoma Ater: length 7’; black; very strongly punc-
tured; antenne hirsute; thorax rather long, slightly im-
pressed; elytra finely puncturated and striated ; inferior

I 2

108 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

parts glossy ; tarsi brown. This is the only sort of the genus
entirely black.

Sent to me from Rockhampton (Queensland), by Mr.
Thouzet.

Helluosoma Resplendens : length 6’ ; strongly punctured ;
of a beautiful metallic blue; pubescent ; parts of the mouth
and autenne black ; thorax short; abdomen glossy; elytra
long and parallel. |

This beautiful little insect was found near Port Denison
by my collector, Mr. Girardin.

Helluosoma Cyanrvpenne, Hope (dinigma), “ Transact
Ent. Soc. of London ;” length 8°-10’ ; black, brilliant; strongly
punctured ; thorax impressed; elytra depressed, rather
broad, of a beautiful blue, densely puncturated and striated.

Port Denison and Rockhampton.

Note.—This insect was placed by Hope in the genus
Ainigma, probably on account of its colouration, but it has
a tooth to the mentum. |

Helluosoma Cyanea: length 94’; of a dull, dark blue,
almost black; general form elongate ; pubescent ; strongly
punctured ; thorax impressed; elytra long, parallel, of a
dark blue, strongly punctured and striated.

Rockhampton, by Mr. Thouzet; Clarence River, Mr. ©
Wilcox.

Ainigmaiseasily distinguished by its broad compressed form,
which makes it very different from the other genera of the
family. It was established by Mr. Newman ona very beautiful
insect from Queensland, that he called J7is. Since, Mr. Hope,
“Trans. Ent. Soc.,” has described two other sorts under the
same generic name, but one is certainly a Helluosoma, and
the other evidently does not belong to the genus.

The Anigma Iris is an insect of the most magnificent
purple, with the head, thorax, and posterior margin tinged
with metallic green; its thorax is very broad, transversal,
very little narrower behind than at its front part. |

Tt is found not only in Queensland, but also in New South
Wales, but is very rare in all parts. |

[ describe as new the two following sorts.

Anigma Newmanni: length 8’-10'; which is only dis-
tinguished from the former by the form of the thorax, which
is less transverse, more cordiform, and much narrower
behind. It may be a variety of the precedent.

I have in my collection a specimen from Cook’s River, near

Sydney.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 109

Ainigma Splendens: length 10’. This magnificent insect is
of a beautiful green, with apurpletingeat the base of the elytra;
head with some scarce punctures ; parts of the mouth and
antenne black; the latter hirsute, except on their first article ;
thorax broad, but much narrower behind than in front ;
elytra densely punctured and striated; inferior parts of the
body brilliant, and of a blackish green ; legs black

Sent to me from Port Denison by my collector, Mr.
Girardin.

Brachimde.

This tribe, which is numerously dispersed almost all over
the world, is most scantily represented in New Holland.
Of its different genera one alone, which is almost of a tropical
form (Pheropsophus), has been found till now on that con-
tinent. The Pheropsophus Verticalis, of which Dejean made
an Aptimus, is rather common ; I have it from Brisbane; Syd-
ney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, but it is much more abun-
dant in the eastern colonies than in the southern. It is sub-
ject to considerable variations in its colouration, the thorax
being sometimes entirely black, sometimes yellow with the
only exception of the anterior margin, and often spotted, with
these two colours. All these varieties are found in the
different localities I have mentioned.

Mr. Howitt, the explorer, brought from Cooper’s Creek a
variety of this insect, in whicha humeral yellow spot is often
seen, and in one specimen the yellow spots have so much
expanded that the elytra seem to be of that colour, with
four black spots on each, two being sutural and common to
both. The specimens of Pheropsophus from the north of
Queensland form a different species.

Pheropsophus Australis: length 84’; head orange colour,
with a black transversal band between the eyes; thorax
black ; elytra of the same coiour, without any posterior
yellow margin, but with a rather narrow transverse
yellow and sinuated spot a litle before the middle; inferior
parts of the body black; under side of the thorax marked
with orange cclour; parts of the mouth, antenne, and legs
orange ; knees black. |

From Rockhampton (Queensland).

Note—This sort is very nearly allied to Verticalis, but
easily distinguished from it by its larger size, its elytra
rather longer, without the terminal bordure, the colour

110 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

of the inferior part of the margin of the elytra, which is not

yellow but black, and the transversal yellow spot much
narrower.

Lebuide. |
This family is very extensively represented in Australia,
but the documents I have collected on it not being ready, I
will reserve them for a future publication.

Pericalhide.

This family, as established by Lacordaire, contains a most
extraordinary assemblage of insects belonging evidently to
very different groups; Coptodera, Phylophleus, &c., are very
nearly allied to Lebiide, and I will postpone the study of
them till I describe the latter. Mormolyce is a gigantic Agra;
Scopodes cannot be in a natural system far removed from
filaphrus. I will here mention a true Catascopus, which does
not seem to have been described.

Catascopus Chaudoiri: length 10’. This insect is one
of the largest of the genus; it is more nearly allied to
Brasihensis than to any other known to me. It 1s
entirely of a dark green, with the thorax generally a little
lighter; head large, with two strong longitudinal impres-
sions between the eyes, and two slight ones further
backwards; thorax more broad than long, cordiform,
strongly marginated laterally, with the anterior angles pro-
truding ; it has a deep longitudinal sulcate on its centre, a
strong, arched, transverse impression forward and another
straight behind; elytra long, parallel, depressed, very
strongly emarginated at their extremity; the upper angle
of this excavation forming a strong tooth; they are covered
with deep striz; the interval between the second and
third marked with three punctiform impressions; a sort of
carina runs from the humeral angle to the extremity, follow-
ing at some distance the margin; inferior parts of the body,
legs, parts of the mouth and antennz black; tarsi covered
with a brown pubescence.

Clarence River. i

The head is sometimes black, and the elytra have, in some
specimens, a bluish tinge. |

Pseudomorphidee.

This most curious family is almost entirely Australian.
The sorts belonging to it seem to be dispersed all over this
vast continent.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 111

SILPHOMORPHA.

Stlphomorpha Picta: length 54’ ; resembles entirely Mtidu-
loides, with the exception of the thorax, which is either
entirely black, or with two broad longitudinal bands of that
colour, leaving the middle red.

This insect is found rather commonly in the northern
parts of Queensland, at Port Denison, and Rockhampton.
Of the numerous specimens I have received, not one has
the thorax entirely red as are the specimens of Mézduloides
found in Victoria and New South Wales.

Silphomorphe. Marginata: length 5’; broad, depressed, of
a shiny black; parts of the mouth, antennz, and the very
narrow lateral margin of the thorax and elytra brown; the
latter with a large yellow spot extending to all the length
of the elytron, and on its base, dilated at its extremities ;
having entirely the form of the one of Mitiduloides and Picta,
but running at some distance of the margin; inferior parts
of the body and legs of a brownish black.

From the Paroo River, in Dr, Howitt’s collection.

Silphomorpha Quadrisiquata: length 3’; black, glossy ; the
sides of the thorax and elytra yellow; the centre of the
first having generally a red or yellowish longitudinal band ;
elytra smooth, very feebly striated, and having each two yellow
spots, the first at the base in its middle, bifurcated at its
inferior extremity, and the second not far from the end,
oblong, pointed at top and growing broader toward the ex-
tremity; parts of the mouth, lower side of the body and
legs of a light yellow brown; the sides of the thorax and
abdomen often black.

This insect is rare in Victoria, and more common in South
Australia, ~ —

Stlphomorpha Bicolor: length, 34’; black, glossy ; elytra
very feebly striated ; margins of the thorax and elytra black ;
a longitudinal band on the latter nearer to the margin
than to the sutura, arched, wide at its base, where it forms a
sort of a hook; it terminates a little before the extremity,
and does not touch the sutura; parts of the mouth, antennz
and inferior side of the body brown; the lower sides of the
thorax and abdomen black.

From Rockhampton, Mr. Thouzet; and Port Denison,
Mr. Girardin.

Variety, similar; but the thorax yellow, with only a
black longitudinal band on each side.

112 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Port Denison.

Note.—This may be a distinct species, but having only
seen one specimen of it, I think it prudent to wait till more
are discovered.

Siiphomorpha Amabilis: length 42’; head black, with the
parts of the mouth and antenne of a reddish brown; thorax
yellow, with a large black spot occupying its centre ;. elytra
yellow, with a black spot on the base near its centre; the
sutura, the extremity, and a very broad transverse band on the
middle of the same colour ; this band is dentated on its sides,
and does not extend to the margin; inferior parts of the
body and legs of a light brown.

Port Denison. |

Stlphomorpha Marginata: length, 3’; very nearly allied to
Cuttiger, but smaller, of a dark brown; parts of the mouth
and antenne of an orange yellow; lateral margins of
the thorax and of the elytra of the same colour; the latter
entirely smooth; a yellow spot on the sutura of an oval
form, but ending in a point towards the scutellum; this
spot does not extend so far towards the latter organ as
in Guttiger; lower parts of the body and legs of a darkish
brown.

Melbourne and Sydney.

Silphomorpha Bumaculata: length 6’; very nearly allied
to Colymbetoides, but narrower ; no red margin to the thorax,
and a very narrow one to the elytra; the yellow spot on the
elytra almost round, or rather oblong.

Rockhampton. |

Silphomorpha Biplagiata: length,64'; also very nearly
allied to Colymbetoides, and having the same broad and
depressed form; no red margin to the thorax, nor to the
elytra; the yellow spot of the latter round, or rather
oblong.

Brisbane.

Silphomorpha Discoidalis: length 3’; nearly allied to
Guttiger, but smaller and more oval; of a light reddish
brown, very brilliant; sides of the thorax lighter; elytra
black, with the external margin brown; a large broad spot

of the colour of the thorax covering the scutellum, and run-

ning along the sutura; its external side keeping an oblique
direction; the surface of the elytra is very smooth; there
is a weak sutural stria, and a few others more feeble on the
surface (they can only be seen with a magnifying power) ;
under sides red; legs yellow.

=

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 113

From the Murray River.

Note.—This insect is also allied to Suturalis, but its form
is more oval, more narrow; the yellow spot of the elytra is
much broader at the base, so as to have, when the two elytra
are united, a very long triangular form.

Silphomorpha Thouzeti: length 24’; very nearly allied to
Marginuta, but of a more elongate and oval form; no yellow
margin to the thorax, nor to the elytra; the sutural spot

rather broader than in E'marginata ; parts of the mouth and

antennze of a pitchy brown; lower parts of the body and
legs of a dark yellow.

Rockhampton, Mr. Thouzet.

Silphomorpha Rockhamptonensis: length 44°; of a dark
pitchy brown, almost black, glossy ; parts of the mouth and
antenne of the same colour; elytra smooth, with a dark
yellow spot arising near the base towards the middle of the
breadth, and directing itself obliquely towards the sutura,
which it joins a little below the middle, forming thus, by the
union of the two elytra, a sort of broad V; inferior parts of
the body of a dark brown; legs rather lighter.

Rockhampton, Mr. Thouzet.

Stlphomorpha Occidentalis: length 5’; general form
rather broad, compressed ; of a pitchy brown; parts of the
mouth and margin of the thorax and elytra of a light reddish
brown ; a slight impression on each side of the thorax on its
posterior margin; elytra with light strize formed of points ;
the greater part of their surface is covered by a very large
yellow spot which begins behind the humeral angle and joins
obliquely the sutura, extending to near the extremity of the
elytra; inferior parts of the body and legs of a light reddish
brown.

Swan River. Sent to me by the Rev. Mr. Bostock.

Silphomorpha Brishunensis: length 5’; of a pitchy
brown; parts of the mouth, antennez, and a* very narrow
margin on the sides of the thorax and elytra of a brownish
red; elytra with a few longitudinal undulations, but no
strie; they present on the sutura a long, narrow, and
yellow spot extending to very near the scutellum and the
extremity; it is moderately expanded towards its centre;
inferior parts of the body of a dark brown; legs rather
reddish.

Received from Mr. Wilson, of Brisbane; also from Port
Denison and from the Clarence River, Mr. Wilcox.

Silphomorpha CGuttifer: length 34; very nearly allied

114 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

to Guttiger, but form rather more elongate, and the yellow
spot of the elytra almost circular and placed on the posterior
half of the elytra.

Port Denison.

Note.—The last seven sorts are nearly allied to Guttiger,
but are distinguished—Occidentalis, by its punctured elytra ;
Marginata and Brisbanensis, by the light-coloured margin of
the thorax and elytra; Guittifer, by the yellow spot of the
elytra being posterior; Rockhamptonensis, by the same, haying
the form of a V, by the junction of the two elytra; Thouzet,
by its elongate form, its general colour, &c.

I have now to mention a series of species entirely black,
or of a dark brown without spots on the elytra; they are
all more or less connected with Sp. Fallax of West, which is
a large sort rather commonly found in the southern parts of
Australia.

Silphomorpha Grandis: length 8’; of an oblong ‘form ;
black, glossy; parts of the mouth and antenne brown;
thorax rather rounded on its sides; slightly bi-impressed
on its posterior margin; elytra broad, almost parallel, very
slightly striated; inferior side of the body and legs of a.
dark brown.

Port Denison. |

Silphomorpha Striata : length 64’; of an oval, depressed
form; black, rather glossy; thorax much narrower in front
than behind, bi-impressed on its posterior margin; elytra |
very strongly striated; these strie not extending to the base ;
parts of the mouth, antenne, lower parts of the body and
leos of a dark brown.

From the northern parts of New South Wales.

Silphormorpha Vicina: length 6} to 8’; very nearly allied
to Fallax, but bright and glossy; the thorax a little shorter
and broader; the strize of the elytra a little more strongly
marked; the. parts of the mouth of the same dark colour
as the body; inferior side and legs of a dark and glossy
brown.

Brisbane.

Silphormorpha Denisonensis: length 64; broad,
depressed, black, rather shiny; head large; thorax large,
broader than the elytra, with a wide lateral margin; its
posterior margin very slightly impressed; elytra with
strong strie extending very near to the base; parts of the
mouth, antennee, lower side of the body and legs of a dark
brown.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 115

I have one single specimen from Port Denison.

Note.—By its black colour and strongly striated elytra,
this sort can only be mistaken for Striata, but its head is
larger, and the thorax much broader, more particularly so
in its anterior part, with its margin much wider. It is also
nearly allied to fallax, but the elytra are more strongly
striated ; the body is broader and much more glossy.

a aes Tasmanica: length 8’; entirely of a
reddish brown, and rather shiny ; head without any im-
pressions; thorax with its anterior angles considerably
advanced and pointed; its margin much broader forward
than at its posterior part ; it is bi-impressed on its posterior
margin ; elytra strongly striated, except on the base, but
entirely of the same colour ; lower side of the body and
legs of a reddish brown.

This insect is very nearly allied to fallax, but distinct by
its striated elytra; to Mastersii, but of a different form of
thorax, and without coloured margin to the elytra; to
Brisbanensis by its different colour, its much broader
form, &c.

Silphomorpha Leevis : length 54’; of a glossy dark brown,
with a reddish lateral margin to the thorax and elytra ; the
first bi-impressed on its posterior part; the elytra appear
smooth to the naked eye, but are very slightly striated ;
general form broad, compressed, rather short.

Port Denison.

Note.—The light colour of the margin distinguishes this
sort from the preceding, and it is distinguished from Mas-
tersit of Macleay, jun., by its almost smooth elytra.

Silphomorpha Dubia: length 52; this insect only
differs from Mastersia of Macleay, jun., by its size being
always at least one-third smaller than the latter. It seems
to be found rather commonly in New South Wales, and
Mastersvi is abundant in the northern parts of Queensland ;
they are probably only local varieties of each other. Of
a dark brown, brilliant, with a lateral margin of a
lighter and redder colour on the thorax and the elytra, the
latter rather strongly striated ; lower side of the body,
mouth, antennee and legs reddish.

Silphomorpha Semistriata: length 5’; of an oblong
form; dark brown, almost black, glossy ; thorax with two
impressions on its posterior margin; elytra marginated at
the extremity with strize that do not extend on the anterior |

116 Notes on Ausiralian Coleoptera.

part of the elytra; mouth, antenne, under side of the body
and legs of a reddish colour.

Port Denison.

Note.—In form this sort is very much like Grandis ; but
is easily distinguished by its dimensions being so much
smaller, and by the striz of the elytra.

Stlphomorpha Ovalis: length 34; of an oval and
depressed form; colour shiny, of a dark brown; thorax,
bi-impressed on its posterior margin; elytra with strong
striz which do not extend to the base; mouth, antenne,
inferior side of the body and legs of a reddish brown.

Pine Mountains of Queensland.

Note.—This insect has the form of Mastersw and Dubia,
but is much smaller even than the latter; has no coloured
margin to the thorax and elytra, and the strie of the latter
are shorter.

Silphomorpha Loevigata: length 42’; form oblong, de-
pressed ; general colour of a light brown, shiny, with the
lateral margins of the thorax and elytra a little lighter still ;
head dark, almost black; elytra entirely smooth, emar-
ginated at their extremity ; a few strong punctures, forming a
longitudinal line, near the upper part of the margin ; a feeble
impression, like a short longitudinal striz near the margin
on the posterior part of the elytra; mouth, antenne, under
side of the body and legs of a light reddish brown;
abdomen a little darker. :

Victoria ; rare.

Note.—Il have to say a few words on the geographical
distribution of the described sorts known to me. fallax
(Orychtochiloides) Hope, inhabits Victoria, South Australia,
and New South Wales; Colymbetoides, Victoriaand New South
Wales ; Decipiens, Victoria, New South Wales, and Port
Denison, Queensland ; Sutwralis, common in South Aus-
tralia, is also found in New South Wales, as I have received
specimens from the Clarence River ; Guttiger, in Victoria and
New South Wales ; Nitiduloides appears common in New
South Wales, but is scarce near Melbourne ; Hydroporovdes
is not rare in South Australia, nor in Victoria. All are .
found under the bark of trees, and run with great rapidity.
I have not been able, in Australia, to consult the works
containing descriptions of the following species, and so they
may correspond to some of those I have here described:
Maculata, Albopicta (Newmann), and Laevissuma (West-
wood).

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 117

ADELOTOPUS.

Adelotopus Vicinus: length 2%’; very nearly allied to
Hydroboides, but a narrower ; the thorax broader, and its pos-
terior angles depressing more the base of the elytra; extremity
of the latter and abdomen of the same shiny black as the
rest of the body; palpi and legs of a reddish brown.

Sydney.

Adelotopus Paroensis: iength 6’; very nearly allied to
Hydroboides and Vicinus, but distinct from both by its long,
cylindrical form; the thorax is not broader than the elytra;
the body is entirely covered with fine punctures, and its
colour is of a shiny black; the parts of the mouth and the
extreme terminal margin of the elytra and legs are of a
brownish red.

From the Paroo and Darling rivers, in the central parts of
New Holland.

Adelotopus Occidentalis: length 24’; of a shiny black,
covered with fine punctures; thorax narrower than the
elytra; the mouth, antenne, under side of the body, and
legs of a brownish red.

This sort is very nearly allied to Vicinus, but is of a more
elongate form, with the thorax narrower. |

Swan River. |

Adelotopus Politus: length 3’; of a polished black; body
rather depressed; thorax broader than long; marginated
laterally, with its sides rather rounded; elytra rather nar-
rower backwards than at their anterior part ; their posterior
angles rounded; in some specimens a faint transverse line
near the base; under side of the body, mouth, and legs, of a
dark reddish brown.

From Brisbane and the Clarence River.

Note.—In some specimens, the lateral margins of the
thorax have a bluish tinge.

Adelotopus Punctatus: length 23’; of a dark brown, rather
glossy ; entirely covered withadense puncturation; body rather
depressed ; thorax transverse, with its lateral margins broad
and of a reddish brown; a very faint transverse impression
at, its posterior part; elytra almost parallel, with a brown
margin; a very feeble sutural stria; under side of the
body brown; parts of the mouth and legs of a dark red.

From the Clarence River, in Dr. Howitt’s collection.

Adelotopus Cornutus: length 3’; body long, cylindrical, of
a glossy dark brown; head with two tubercles on the fore-

118 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

head, forming two short horns, diverging one from the
other; thorax with a very faint posterior and transverse
impression ; its sides marginated and almost straight; very
_ little broader behind than in its anterior part; elytra
parallel, with their posterior margin reddish; inferior parts
of the body, parts of the mouth and legs of a dark red.

From Arnheim’s Land. Sent by Mr. Waterhouse to Dr.
Howitt.

Note.—This insect has a remarkable likeness to some of
the Diaperide, of the genus Oplocephala.

Adelotopus Fasciatus: length 2’; black, glossy; long, nar-
row, cylindrical; thorax almost square, nearly as wide
foremost as backwards, not broader than the elytra; these
with faint longitudinal puncturated striae, and a broad red
transverse band, covering nearly the two first thirds of the
elytra; this band does not entirely extend to the base,
neither to the external margin, and is cut obliquely behind
the scutellum; lower side of the abdomen red, thorax brown,
legs reddish; parts of the mouth and antenne black.

“Sydney.

Note.—In some specimens the red colour on the postcrien
margin of the elytra extends considerably, and forms a trans-
verse band.

Adelotopus Affinis: length 24’; very nearly allied to the
preceding, but larger and much broader ; thorax wider than
the elytra; the transverse red band of the last shorter, and
not extending to one-half of the length; parts of the mouth,
antennez, abdomen, and legs red.

Sydney.

Adelotopus Zonatus: length 22’; black, glossy ; long, nar-
row, almost cylindrical; thorax rather broader than the
elytra at its posterior part, considerably narrower forward ;
it has a feeble transverse impression, two other impressions
near its posterior margin, and a very feeble sulcate on its
middle, generally only visible at its posterior part; elytra
rather unequal when seen through a lense, with a transver-
sal band near the base, and another covering the extremity
red; the first of these bands is much narrower than in ©
the two preceding sorts; it is sinuous on its sides, narrower
towards the suture, but does not extend to the external
margin; on its surface one can see vestiges of longitudinal
striz ; eee black, with parts of the mouth, antenne,
abdomen, and legs brown.

Melbourne.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 119

Note.—These three sorts are nearly allied to Bimaculatus,
of McLeay, jun. (“ Trans. Ent. Society of New South Wales,”
Part II.), from Port Denison, but are very distinct by their
much smaller size, more elongate form, the disposition of
the coloured band of the elytra, &c.

Adelotopus Brunneus: length 23’; entirely of a rather
dark brown, rather opaque; body not very elongate, but
with its sides parallel; head in great part enclosed in the
thorax; this latter broader behind than in front, its sides
equally marginated aud rounded, a very faint transversal
impression near its posterior margin; elytra darker at that
end, marginated laterally, with a very faint, longitudinal,
‘depressed line near the sutura; inferior part of the body and
legs brown, but rather lighter than the upper surface.

Swan River.

Adelotopus Castaneus: length 24’; more elongate and
cylindrical than the preceding; of a lighter and more bril-
liant brown; head more free from the thorax, with its sides
mareinated but straight and oblique; a transverse impression
backwards; elytra entirely of the same colour, with Mae
faint longitudinal striz, when seen through the lens.

Swan River.

Note—Brunneus and Castaneus are nearly allied to
Aphodioides, but easily distinguished by their smaller
size, &c.; this latter I have from South Australia, Victoria,
New South Wales, the Paroo River, and Port Denison; some
of the latter specimens are narrower than the others; this
may be a sexual character.

Adelotopus Filiformis: length 22’; long, filiform, cylin-
dric ; of a shiny brownish black, with the posterior third of the
elytra red; head rather small for the genus ; thorax longer
than broad, marginated and straight on its lateral sides;
bi-impressed backwards ; elytra smooth, with a faint longitu-
dinal depressed line near the sutura; inferior parts of the
body, mouth, and legs of a brilliant brown; abdomen and
tarsi red.

Adelaide.

Variety.—The red colour covering more than the poste-
rior half of the elytra.

Melbourne.

All the sorts we have seen are brilliant and shiny, the
following are more or less rugose; in this division comes
Cylindricus (Chaudoir), which is not from Melbourne, as
stated by that author, but from Adelaide.

120 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Adelotopus Obscwrus: length 22°; brown, obscure, en-
tirely covered with rugosities ; very much like [psoides, but
shorter, the rugosities much stronger and extending over the _
axillary angle and the basis of the elytra; the longitudinal
strize of the latter much less marked; the under side
of the body, mouth, antennee and legs of a brilliant reddish
brown.

Sydney.

Variety ; elytra of a light brown with a dark-coloured
marein.

Sydney.

A delotopus Bicolor: length 24” ; entirely covered with a
fine granulation ; body moderately elongate, rather broad,
with its sides parallel] ; thorax broad and transversal, with a
rather wide lateral margin obliquely truncated at its
anterior angles; a very slight transversal depression near
its posterior margin ; elytra covered with punctures, rather
glossy and showing very faint longitudinal striz ; their
colour is of a ight yellowish brown, with their posterior part
and their lateral margin almost black; mouth and inferior
parts of the body of a ight yellowish brown.

From the Loddon River, Victoria.

Ozende.

This family is almost wanting in Australia, being only
represented by Mystropomus, of which one single species
has been described. A second one figures in my collection. —

Mystropomus Chaudoiri: length 5’; the form is like
Subcostatus, but much smaller; the thorax is narrower in
its posterior part; the elytra shorter, with a faint longitu-
dinal costa between the four larger ones; this insect is
black, with the lower side of the body, the parts of the
mouth, antenne, and legs, of a dark reddish brown.

From the Clarence River.

Ditonde.

The only Australian representative of this group, so.
numerous in Europe, belongs to the little genus Apotomus,
which had been considered as entirely confined to the Euro-
pean and African shores of the Mediterranean, but I have
found a sort at Bangkok (Siam), and another from Madras
is in my collection.

Mr. McLeay, jun., mentions that a sort of Apotomus has
been found at Picton, but he has not described it, and so I
cannot say if it is the same as the following—

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 121

Apotomus Australis: length 12’; a little smaller than
Rujus, but very much of the same form, a little less
elongated ; the sulcate on the thorax perhaps rather deeper ;
of a reddish brown, with the elytra of a dark colour, often
almost black; they are very strongly punctato-striated and
pubescent ; parts of the mouth, antennz and legs of a yellow
brownish colour.

Rather common round Melbourne.

Note.—In some specimens the base of the elytra is of a
lighter colour.

I have received from Rockhampton several specimens of
this same insect.

Apotomus Nove Hollandic : length 12’; very much like
the precedent, but much more elongated ; elytra longer ;
the entire insect is of a light brown with the legs yellow.
The punctures of the striz on the elytra not so deep.

Rockhampton.

Morionide.

This family seems to be extensively represented in Aus-
tralia. I cannot help thinking that Mazareus, for all it has
not the antenne of Morionide, would be better placed here
than anywhere else.

HYPERION.

The gigantic insect, which alone constitutes till this day
this genus, was first described by Schrebers in the “ Trans-
actions of the Linnean Society ” under the name of Scarites
Schrobert. Mr. Boisduval proposed most properly to separate
it from the latter genus, and gave this new generic
division the name of Heteroscelis; but this designation having
already been applied to a genus of Hemiptera, I proposed
(“ Natural History of the Articulated Animals”) to change
it to Hyperion. Since then Mr. Westwood, in his “ Arcana
Entom.,’ has proposed the name of Campylocnemis.

Mr. Lacordaire, in his genera, has adopted this last name,
Hyperion being, he says, too near Hyphereon—a name
given by Macleay to a genus of Carabide, that nobody
knows anything about. It is evident that a name can-
not be altered because it looks rather like another (for all it
is pronounced quite differently), and so my name being the
oldest has to be maintained.

This magnificent insect is very rarely met with ; it lives
in families of twelve to fifteen individuals. One of these

K

122 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

groups was found a few years ago in Victoria under a fallen
tree, and another more recently in New South Wales.

MORIO.

Morio Australis: length 7’; of a glossy black; form
elongated ; head decreasing behind the eyes, but not in an
abrupt way; thorax a little longer than broad, narrower
behind with its anterior angles acute; it is marginated
laterally, sulcated longitudinally on its centre, and bi-
impressed on its posterior part; its surface presents faint
and irregular transverse striz ; elytra long, parallel, strongly
striated; parts of the mouth, antenne, and legs, of a dark
red ; the antenne are hirsute, except on their basilar
articles.

Variety.— Of a reddish brown, legs of a lighter colour.

From New South Wales.

Note.—The sort most nearly allied to this is Monilicorms, ©
from America. 2

Morio Nove Hollandice: length 5’; very nearly allied to
the precedent, but much smaller, still more elongate and
parallel ; elytra more strongly striated.

Brisbane, Queensland.

Morio Piceus: length 53’; of a glossy brown; thorax
rather broader than long ; marginated laterally, narrowed
behind, with the anterior angles rather rounded ; a longi-
tudinal suleate on the centre; a transversal impression in
front and another behind; the latter has a deep impression
at each of its extremities; elytra with strong punctated
strie.

Victoria (Mount Macedon). In Dr. Howitt’s collection.

Note.—This sort is nearly allied to Morio Senegalensis,
De}. |

Morio Victorie: length 84; this Morio is very nearly
allied to Australis, and it is only with hesitation that I
separate them. It isof a larger size ; the head is larger, the
thorax a little broader, principally behind ; the elytra are
more deeply striated, and their margin is broader.

One single specimen from Victoria, in the collection of
Dr. Howitt.

CELANIDA.
Mentum largely emarginated, with its centre forming a

large, broad, rounded tooth, the lateral wings very large, pro-
longated, arched, and rounded at their extremity; antennz

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 123

rather short, thick, not longer than the thorax, with the
first article moderately large, the second short, the third a
little longer than the following, which are short, almost
square, compressed, and become broader towards the extre-
mity of the antenne ; the terminal article of an oval form;
palpi of both pairs having their terminal article the longest,
and of an oval form, rounded at its extremity; mandibule
rather short, very strong, arched and pointed; labrum very
strongly emarginated; legs strong; thighs rather dilated ;
anterior tibise straight, strongly emarginated at their
anterior side; tarsi strong, hirsute, the anterior pair having
their four first articles triangular, the first being a little
larger than the others; head of a triangular form, nar-
rowed behind the eyes in form of a neck; thorax large,
rather cordiform ; elytra rather depressed, and of an oblong,
oval form.

Celanida Montana: length 8’; of a dark, glossy brown ;
thorax large, cordiform, marginated laterally, with the ante-
rior angles rounded; it has a longitudinal sulcate on the
middle, a strong impression on each side near the posterior
angle, and all its surface is covered with transversal striz ;
elytra striated with a faint marginal line of points; antennez
hirsute, except on their first four articles.

From the mountains of Victoria.

Note.—It is not impossible that this genus may corre-
pond to Mr. Westwood’s Melissadera. It must be in all
eases nearly allied to it, and my only reason for keeping it
apart is that Mr. Lacordaire gives it as a principal character
not to have the posterior part of the head prolongated in
form of a neck, which Celanida has. .

MORIOMORPHA.

The insect on which I propose establishing this new
genus is most interesting, as forming an intimate link
between the gigantic Hyperion and Morio. Its characters
are as follows :—

Mentum deeply emarginated, with its central part rounded
and convex ; the lateral wings large, pointed, cut obliquely
on the interior side, and rounded on the external ; antenne
at least as long as the head and thorax united ; the
first article large, the second very small, the third the
longest, the next conical, the others strongly moniliform,
rather distant one from the other ; the last compressed, oval
form, and very pointed ; palpi of both pairs with their ter-

K 2

124 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

minal article long, oval, and rounded at the extremity ; man- —
dibule strong and arched ; labrum transverse and emargi-
nated in front ; head rounded, terminated behind by a neck ;
thorax almost square, rather broader than long; elytra
rather depressed, long, and parallel; legs strong; thighs
rather dilated ; anterior tibize curved in their lower part ;
tarsi of the same pair rather dilated, with their first four
articles triangular. This genus is distinct from Morio by
the form of the anterior legs, and from Hyperion by the
labial palpi, the antenne, &c. It has almost entirely the
fascies of Morvo. :

Moviomorpha Victorie : length 5}; entirely of a light red-.
dish brown ; thorax a little narrower behind than in front,
with a longitudinal sulcate on the middle, and two strong
impressions behind ; elytra striated. fi

From the Dandenong Ranges; one single specimen in
Dr. Howitt’s collection.

Moriomorpha Adelaide: length 44’ ; entirely of a dark,
glossy brown ; thorax more cordiform than in the preceding, ~
much narrower behind ; elytra very strongly striated.

I received this insect from Adelaide ; it was sent to me
by Mr. Odewahn.

MORIODEMA.

Mentum deeply emarginated, without any appearance
of a tooth; the lateral wings large, straight inter-
nally, rounded on their external side, and terminated by an
acute angle; antenne rather long, nearly the length of —
the head and thorax united ; the first article the strongest, —
the second small, the third the longest, the fourth conical,
the others thicker but shorter, increasing in size, the eleventh
oval and pointed; palpi, with their last article in both
pairs, longer than the others, elongated and oval; man-
dibule rather short, arched and acute at the extremity ;
labrum transverse and lightly marginated in front;
head rounded, terminated posteriorly by a neck; thorax’
almost square, rather transverse; elytra rather depressed,
long and parallel ,; legs strong, thighs rather dilated ; ante-
rior tibie arched, strongly emarginated inside; tarsi of the
anterior pair dilated, with their first four articles short and
triangular.

This genus has almost entirely the appearance of Morio,
but is immediately distinguished by its antenne longer and
increasing in thickness towards their extremity ; the form
of the anterior legs and the mentum without a tooth are

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 125

more than sufficient for its separation from it; it is also
different from Moriomorpha by the form of its mentum.

Moriodema M‘Coyer: length 54’; of a glossy reddish
brown; anterior part of the head black; thorax almost
square, rather transverse, nearly as broad behind as before,
bordered laterally, with a transversal impression forward
and behind, and two strong impressions behind the posterior
angles ; elytra striated ; tarsi with long yellow hair.

Melbourne ; very rare.

I have much pleasure in dedicating this curious msect to
the learned Professor M‘Coy, of the Melbourne University.
My collection contains a most curious specimen, in which the
antenne have their last article short, square and emarginated,
and the two pairs of palpi ended by a short, square and
truncated article. For all these organs are similar on both
sides, I suppose their anormal form is only accidental.

Moriodema Paramattensis: length 5’; absolutely similar
to the preceding, but the thorax much narrower and more
cordiform behind than in its anterior part.

One single specimen from Paramatta, in Dr. Howitt’s
collection.

VERADIA.

Mentum broad, transverse, short ; strongly emarginated,
with the centre of the emargination rounded convexly ;
wings broad, arched externally, truncated in side, rounded
at the apex. Palpi, maxillary, with the first article short ;
the second long, broad, compressed ; the third conical; the
fourth long, conical and very pointed. The last article of
the labial of the same form. Labrum transverse, not emar-
ginated ; mandibule rather strong, arched, carinated, pointed
at the apex ; antenne rather short ; the first article large, the
second conical, the third of the same form but longer, the
others thicker and shorter, the last oval. Tarsi slender, with
first article longer than the others; those of the anterior
pair dilated in the male, having their first article very
small, the three following broad, triangular, furnished below
with squamule, the last article slender ; the head is small,
triangular, narrowed behind in form of a neck; thorax
large, broad, transverse, rounded laterally, broader behind
than in front ; elytra oval, rather large ; thighs rather thick ;
tibie straight, slender, armed externally with a line of
spiniform hair; anterior tibize straight, very strongly emar-
ginated inside ; a long and slender spine on the upper edge
of the emargination ; body thick. |

126 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Veradia Brisbanensis: length 33’; of a dark brown,
rather brilliant ; head with two punctiform impressions in
front ; thorax with a longitudinal sulcate and two broad
impressions behind ; elytra strongly striated with the margin
impressed, particularly on its posterior half; legs, parts of the
mouth and antenne brown.

Brisbane. |
SETALIS.

Mentum very short, transversal, three times broader than
long, emarginated, with the centre convex and rounded ; the
wings of the mentum small, very little advanced, rounded
externally and rather pointed at the extremity on their
inner side; labrum transverse, emarginated in front ;
palpi long; maxillary, with their second article long
and rather arched, the third conical, and the terminal oval
and truncated at the extremity ; this same article of the
labial broader, more largely truncated, scutiform ; antenne
rather long but shorter than the head and thorax united ;
the first article large, the three following conical and
almost equal in length; the others oval, granuliform ;
the last large and rounded at the extremity ; body oblong,
parallel, depressed ; head triangular, connected with the
thorax by a neck ; thorax large, depressed ; broader behind
than in front, rounded on the anterior part of the lateral
margins ; scutellum triangular, short and transverse ; elytra
rather depressed, of the breadth of the thorax, oval behind ;
legs strong, thighs dilated; anterior tibie very strong,
inflated in their inferior part, having a row of very minute
spines on their external side and on the internal a narrow
but very deep split ; tarsi thick, the anterior with their four
first articles triangular ; all the tarsi ciliated below.

Setalis Niger: length 5°; black, glossy; parts of the
mouth, antenne and tarsi brown; thorax marginated
laterally and in front, having a longitudinal sulcate in the
middle and two strong longitudinal impressions on each side
at its posterior part ; the external much shorter than the
other ; its surface presents faint transverse striole ; elytra
covered with very deep simple striz, and a line of puncti-
form rugosities round the margin ; abdomen having a deep
punctiform impression on each side of its segments.

Found round Brisbane and on the Clarence River. »

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 127

SILTOPIA.

Mentum deeply emarginated, without any tooth ; its wings
elongated and acute ; antennee thick, longer than the head
and thorax united, with their first article rather large, the
two following small and almost equal; the others increasing
in size, rather compressed and almost quadrangular ; the last
thick at its base and pointed at the extremity ; labrum
almost square, rather transverse and strongly emarginated
in front; palpi with their second article the longest and
arched, the third shorter and rather scutiform, the fourth
sunk at the base in the preceding, subulated and obtusely
pointed at its end; mandibule large, strong, advanced,
strongly arched and very pointed at the extremity ; legs
rather strong; anterior tibie straight, but strongly emarginated
on their interior side; anterior tarsi not dilated, with their
first four articles triangular ; body depressed ; head triangular,
connected with the body by a very short neck; thorax
rather cordiform, narrower behind than in front; elytra
parallel, rounded at the humeral angle, shorter than the
abdomen.

Siltopia Tricolor: length 34°; general colour of a light
brown ; head black, and elytra yellow ; thorax marginated
laterally, having a longitudinal sulcate in the middle, a
faint transverse impression in front, and two strong rounded
ones behind; elytra feebly striated; antennze of a rather
dark brown.

I have one specimen from the Clarence River, and Dr.
Howitt has another from Paramatta.

TERAPHIS.

Mentum deeply emarginated, with its centre advanced
and forming a sort of broad rounded tooth; the
wings large, protruding, arched and rounded at their
extremity ; labrum transversal and emarginated in front ;
palpi rather long, with the second article long, strong and
rather dilated; the third short and conic; the last oval,
rather inflated and pointed ; antennze strong, about as long as
the head and thorax united ; with the first article long and
thick, the second short, the third the longest and conical,
the others increasing in thickness till the last; they are
granuliform and oblong, the last rounded at the extremity ;
head oblong, narrowed behind the eyes; thorax large,
broad, rounded laterally ; elytra rather broad, oval; legs

128 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

strong, thighs thick ; anterior tibie straight, but strongly
emarginated inside ; tarsi with their four first articles tri-
angular ; those of the anterior pair rather thicker than those
of the others, but not dilated.

Teraphis Melbowrnensis: length 33’; of a dark glossy
brown ; thorax rounded and marginated on the sides with a
longitudinal sulcate on the middle, and impressed trans-
versely in front and behind; two strong, broad and deep
Impressions near the posterior margin ; elytra of an oval
form, covered with punctated strize; legs and parts of the
mouth of a dark red; antennz hirsute except at their
basilar articles.

From the Dandenong Mountains, near Melbourne.

Teraphis Argutoroides: length 32°; of a dark glossy
brown ; generally of a longer form than the precedent ;
thorax a little longer ; elytra almost parallel, laterally rounded
behind.

Kiama, New South Wales.

Teraphis Elongata: length 34’ ; of a rather dark reddish
brown, glossy ; of a much more elongated form than the two
precedent ; thorax as long as broad, with its sides rounded
in front, but straight at its posterior part; a longitudinal
sulcate in the middle, and on each side behind a very deep
impression, which externally runs in an oblique direction
towards the posterior angle; elytra strongly striato-punc-
tated ; legs of a dark orange-red. —

From the Mountains of Victoria (Yankee Jim).

Scaritidee.

This group is almost restricted to the warm parts of the
globe, few of its genera extending further north in Europe
than the shores of the Mediterranean ; its centre of habita-
tion lies between the tropics. Till lately it had been thought
almost wanting in Australia, and for a considerable period one
single Carenwm seemed to be its only representative on this
continent. Mr. Westwood, however, extended our know-
ledge of these insects, and brought their number to nearly
twenty sorts. Lately Mr. Macleay, jun., in a series of able
papers, published in the “ Transactions of the Entomological
Society of New South Wales,” has described a vast number
of new species, and carried the number of the entire group to
seventy-eight: I describe here twenty-two new species, and
I do not doubt that in a short time the number actually
known will be doubled.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 129

Scarites is also found in Australia, and I believe the
number of species will be soon found to equal in quantity
those of India or tropical Africa. ?

The Clivinide are also very numerous, but a learned
entomologist, Mr. Putzeis, is perhaps, by his long study of
them, alone able to make them well known; and I have
sent him my collection of these insects.

SCARAPHITES.

This form has been separated from Carenwm by West-
wood, and lately Mr. Macleay, jun. (Trans. Ent. Soc. of
New South Wales”) has proposed to divide it in two, leaving
under it the sorts having their elytra rounded at the base, and
giving the name of Hwryscaphus to those which have those
parts broadly emarginated. This character would in no case
be generic, even if it was constant ; but the following sort
forms an insensible passage between the two, and so all that
can be done at the utmost is to form two sections in the
genus.

Scaruphites Heros: length 20’; of a rather glossy black ;
head square, with the subocular prominences large and pro-
jecting ; the back part of the head is smooth, but the ante-
rior partis covered with longitudinal little striole ; there
is a transverse impression forward, and two transverse ones
between the eyes; thorax large, broad, marginated, rounded
behind, and rather sinuous at its posterior angles ; the ante-
rior angles are advanced and rounded, and the anterior
margin rather sinuous; on the whole the thorax has the
form of a half moon ; it has a strong longitudinal sulcate in
the middle, a rather faint transverse impression backwards,
and two others rounded towards the posterior angles ; on its
posterior part it is marked with short transverse striole ;
elytra large, rather depressed, oval, broader than the thorax,
rounded at the humeral angles, subtruncated at the base ;
their surface is marked by very feeble longitudinal strize ; a
row of points border the margin, and a series of stronger but
distant ones follow the entire length of the elytra at some
distance from the latter ; on the posterior part of the elytra
there is also a short longitudinal line of four points at no
great distance from the sutura. The anterior tibie have a
line of very strong points, and their exterior margin pre-
sents three strong teeth.

This beautiful insect was found by Dr. Martin at Champion
Bay, West Australia.

130 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Scaraphites Howitt: length 184’; of a shiny black ;
head square, with subocular advances moderately pro-
minent ; two deep longitudinal impressions between the
eyes, diverging in front toward the anterior angles: on the
space left laterally between these impressions and the base
of the labrum there is on each side a deep puncture ; the head
is smooth with a few longitudinal striole near the impres-
sions ; thorax of a semilunar form, transversal, with a broad
lateral margin ; the anterior angles prominent; in front it is
rather sinuous ; on its centre is a longitudinal sulcate, and
a very feeble depression is seen over the posterior angles ;
the entire surface is covered with feeble transverse striole ;
elytra large, broader than the thorax, rounded, and convex ;
truncated anteriorly ; covered with numerous longitudiual
lines, the intervals of which are rather elevated ; a marginal
line of punctures ; a line of deep points on the anterior tibie,
and their external sides armed with three teeth, the upper
much smaller than the lower, and surmounted by one or two
others very minute ; the tibize and tarsi covered with brown
hair ; the elytre have a rather purple tinge on their
margin.

From Port Augusta, South Australia. Dr. Howitt’s col-
lection. ahh

Scaraphites Afjinis : length 124’; very nearly allied to the
precedent but smaller; thorax broader in its posterior portion,
which is the widest ; elytra not so broad, more oval form,
and strongly striated, particularly on their posterior parts,
where they are distinctly punctured ; the marginal row of
punctures only extend to the first half of the elytra.

_ Found by Mr. A. W. Howitt at Cooper’s Creek. Dr.
Howitt’s collection.

Scaraphites Carbonarvus: length 15%’; of a deep black,
with a light shiny tinge ; head large, square ; the subocular
prominences small; between the eyes are two longitudinal
impressions, which diverge forwards towards the anterior
angles ; a deep point on each side between these impressions
and the base of the labrum ; thorax transversal, marginated,
rather semilunar, but having the posterior angles slightly -
marked ; the anterior angles advanced; a longitudinal sul-
cate extends on the centre, and a very slight transverse
impression appears backwards ; faint transverse striole are
seen on the surface of the thorax, and a few longitudinal
ones on its anterior part ; elytra truncated at the base, oval
form in the remaining, about as broad as the thorax at the

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 131

anterior part, and growing narrower towards their extremity ;
they have a lateral margin, and their axillary angles are
carinated ; a feeble marginal row of points extends to this
extremity. To the naked eye they appear smooth, but not
brilliant, and with a lens very faint punctured striz are
seen more visible on the sides ; anterior legs rather slender,
with two strong teeth on their external side, surmounted by
three other very minute ones.

From Cooper’s Creek. In Dr. Howitt’s collection.

This sort -is very nearly allied to Scaraphites Lucidus of
Baron Chaudoir (“ Magas. de Zoologie”), but the elytra of
Carbonarvus are more elongate, and not inflated in the
middle.

The group to which Mr. Macleay, jun., gives the name of
Huryscaphus includes at this moment the following spe-
cies :—Angulatus, Dilatatus, Minor, Bipunctatus, Water-
houset, and Obesus (Macleay, jun.), Lucidus (Chaudoir),
Howittu, Ajfinis, Hoper, and Carbonarvus, here described ;
in all eleven species. Lucidus is erroneously stated by
Chaudoir to be found near Melbourne; it is from the ©
Murray. Two specimens are in my collection from that
locality. I have also obtained lately a specimen of Water-
housei from Nickol Bay on the western coast of Australia.
Mr. Waterhouse had found the one, which has been described
by Mr. Macleay, in the centre of the continent. This mag-
nificent insect bears a remarkable resemblance to the African
Mamnticora.

As I have already stated, Sc. Heros forms a passage
between the two groups. It comes also near to Carenuwm
Tuberculatum of Macleay, jun. ,

Scaraphites Hopet: length 144’; the smooth elytra of
this insect, and the impression of the head without striole,
only allows it to be taken for Lucidus or Mimutus, but in
both of the latter the elytra are nearly circular ; while in
Hoper they are oblong and rather prolongated behind ; the
mandibulee are very acute ; the thorax rounded behind ; the
humeral angles‘rounded, and not advanced ; the elytra when
seen with a magnifying power show four very faint striz
towards the sutura. The colour of the only specimen I have
seen is of a light brown, probably from not being mature.

It was found by Mr. Waterhouse in the centre of New
Holland, and sent to me by that gentleman.

Scaraphites Humeralis: length 15’ to 18’; black, gene-
rally very brilliant ; head large, square, with two large

132 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

impressions between the eyes ; these impressions expand
considerably at their anterior part; the protuberances below
the eyes not very considerable ; the thorax transverse, mar-
ginated laterally, with the anterior angles rounded ; the pos-
terior part much narrower, with the sides rather sinuous,
which gives it a cordiform appearance ; it has a longitudinal
strie in the centre, a transverse impression forward, and —
another backward ; on the latter are two longitudinal im-
pressions ; elytra oval, oblong; the lateral margin forming
a sort of carina at the humeral angles ; a line of impressed
points follow the margin in almost all its length ; the surface
presents very faint longitudinal lines, rather elevated ; in
some specimens fine isolated straight brown hair are dis-
persed on the posterior part of the elytra; the anterior legs
are tridentated ; the first of the teeth only rudimentary ; the
other tibize having long brown hair; the intermediate pair
with two teeth on their external side; they appear long,
thick, and very acute ; the largest of the inner ones long,
slender, and curved.

This insect inhabits Swan River.

The following sorts are real Scaraphites :—

Scaraphites Gigas: length 23’; entirely black and rather
glossy ; labrum and anterior part of the head covered with
short longitudinal rugosities; a transverse impression in front
of the eyes, and two longitudinal ones between them ; a |
strong protuberance on each side of the head below those
organs ; thorax transverse, emarginated in front ; the lateral
sides marginated, narrowing in their posterior part, and pre-
senting a strong sinuosity behind the posterior angles ;
anterior angles advanced and rounded; the surface is covered
with faint lines, which are longitudinal towards the anterior
margin, but transverse and sinuous behind; these markings are
stronger on the sides than towards the centre ; on the middle
of the thorax extends a rather deep longitudinal sulcate ;
elytra oblong, rather narrower than the thorax ; their
humeral angles rounded, their sides almost parallel; they
have a broad and deep margin on their anterior part, but
which is very faint towards the posterior part of the elytra,
and is bordered interiorly by a row of impressed points ;
the entire surface is covered with rugosities, and marked
with several feeble longitudinal punctated striz ; the under
side is glossy, but covered with fine impressions; the
anterior tibie have three very strong teeth on their exterior
side.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 133

From Nickol Bay, on the north-west coast of New
Holland.

Note.—This insect by its oreat size can only be taken for
Bacchus (which is unknown to me), but is very distinct by
the form of the elytra, &c.

Scaraphites Martini: length 14°; im general form
it resembles very much Rotundipennis, but the thorax
is broader and more rounded backwards, it has a
broader lateral margin, and two strong impressions are
seen on the posterior angles; the entire body is more
smooth ; the colour is black, but not very brilliant ; elytra
marked with very faint longitudinal striz ; on their margin
extends a line of punctures, and behind it a series of seven or
eight points much larger, and disposed on a longitudinal line
beginning behind the humeral angle; on the posterior part
of the elytra, and towards the middle of their breadth, are
on each two punctiform impressions situated one below the
other ; the anterior tibiz have three very strong teeth ; the
tibise and tarsi covered with reddish hair.

Found by Dr. Martin at Champion Bay.

Note.—-Scaraphites MacLeayi, of Westwood, seems to me
to be identical with Rotundipennis, of Dejean. Dr. Howitt has
in his collection a specimen, given to him by Mr. Macleay, jun.,
which presents no differential characters. The one given by
that entomologist himself, and based on the number of the
points extending along the margin, is entirely without value.
Rotundipennis presenting in some instances from eight to
nineteen of these impressions ; much more, the numbers on
the two sides of the elytra are often different, and so I find
13 and 14, 8 and 9, 10 and 11, 14 and 10; and the typical
specimen of MacLeayi, I have just mentioned, presents a
similar case, having nine on one side and ten on the other.
Intermedius of the same author seems, from his description,
only to be founded on a similar character, and in that case
ought also to be united with Rotundipennis ; the strong
rugosities of the front part of the head, and the glossy appear-
ance of the body being frequently observed in specimens of
the common sort of Melbourne Rotundipennis.

CARENUM.

The following sorts appear different from all those described
by Mr. MacLeay :—

Carenum Brisbanensis: length 84’ ; black, not very bril-
liant, having more or less a bronzed tinge; head having

134 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

between the eyes two arched grooves, united posteriorly by a
curved and transverse impression, all the space between
these lines being elevated; thorax rather square, a little
broader than long, slightly marginated laterally, with the
sides almost straight ; the posterior angles rounded ; the
surface of the thorax presents transversal striole, and it is
marked in the middle by a longitudinal sulcate, and at
its anterior and posterior sides by two faint transversal
impressions ; elytra oval, with the axillary angles rounded ;
they are slightly marginated laterally, and present each two
strong punctiform impressions on the middle of the breadth,
one towards the fourth of the length, and the other at its three-
fourths ; faint marks of longitudinal striz can be seen, with
a magnifying power, on the surface ; anterior tibie with two
strong teeth on their external side.

Several specimens were found by Dr. Howitt near Bris-
bane ; one was kindly placed by him in my collection.

Carenum Ebermmwm : length 94’; of a rather dull black ;
head with two longitudinal grooves curving transversely
behind the eyes; thorax transversal, rounded behind, rather
sinuous at the place of the posterior angles ; marginated all
round, with a deep longitudinal sulcate in the middle, and
two transverse impressions, one in front and the other
behind ; elytra of an oval form, not broader than the thorax,
having marks of very faint longitudinal puncturated lines, and
presenting two rather deep punctiform impressions on each
elytron, one at some distance behind the axillary angle and a
little nearer the margin than the sutura, and the other a
little past the two-thirds of the whole length ; anterior legs
with two large teeth, surmounted by three others very
small.

I received one specimen from Mr. Odewahn, of South Aus-
tralia, found near Gawler.

Carenum Carbonarium: length 11’; of arather dull black ;
head large, with two deep sulcates between the eyes, they
run rather obliquely, and diverge in front towards the ante-
rior angles of the head ; thorax broad, transverse, semilunar,
rather sinuous behind, marginated, and presents a strong |
longitudinal sulcate in its middle, and a rather faint trans-
versal impression in front ; elytra not quite as broad as the
thorax, marginated, of an oval form, with the axillary angles
pretty well marked ; their surface is covered with very faint
longitudinal lines too feeble to be called striz, and they
present towards their posterior part a very feeble punctiform

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 135

impression ; the anterior tibiz are armed with two strong
teeth, surmounted by two others very minute.

From Hsperanza Bay, on the south coast of Western
Australia.

Carenun Superbum: length 15’; of a dark bronzed and
glossy black, with the sides of the thorax and elytra of a
_ beautiful metallic green ; head large and rounded, with two
deep oblique and rather sinuous impressions between the
eyes ; they diverge in front towards the anterior angles of
the head ; on the space left between these and the base of
the mandibule there is on each side a punctiform impres-
sion; thorax almost round, emarginated in front; it is mar-
ginated laterally and behind, it has a longitudinal suleate, a
transverse impression in front, and two elongated ones at
the plane of the posterior angles ; elytra oval, rather broad
at the base, and narrowing constantly towards the extremity ; -
they are rather depressed, and covered with longitudinal
strize formed with large punctures ; these punctiform impres-
sions more numerous and irregular towards the sutura ;
anterior tibiz armed with two strong teeth on their exterior
side ; underside of the body black ; tibize and tarsi rather
brown. 3

This beautiful insect, from the Lachlan, is in Dr. Howitt’s
collection.

Note.—This insect has almost entirely the form of Care-
num Gagatinum. :

Carenum Amabile: length 8’; so much like Suwperbum -
that it might be taken for it, but smaller ; elytra a little
more cylindric, and not so broad at the base; on the elytra
longitudinal lines rather elevated, but without punctures ;
two punctiform impressions on each elytra, one behind the
humeral angle, and the other on the posterior part ; legs and
antenne of a brownish red.

Also from the Lachlan, and in Dr. Howitt’s collection.

Carenum Multiimpressum : length 7’ ; of a shiny black ;
general form elongate ; head with a deep transversal impres-
sion behind the eyes, and two longitudinal ones between
them, these latter diverge in front towards the anterior angles
of the head ; the intervals between these lines are elevated ;
thorax rather broader than long, the anterior angles pro-
truding and pointed, the sides parallel, rounded, marginated,
and sinuated behind the place of the posterior angles; the
posterior margin truncated; there is a deep longitudinal
sulcate on the centre, and a strong and deep impression at

136 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

each of the four angles, the two anterior ones rather oblique ;
the elytra long, rather parallel, not broader than the thorax,
rather convex, marginated laterally, with the axillary angles
pointed ; they are bordered by a puncturated marginal line,
and they present on the middle of their breadth a longitudi-
nal series of five large and very deep rounded impressions ;
these impressions do not appear to be very regular, my
specimen having on one of its elytra two other similar on —
the posterior part, placed between these and the sutura; the
front tibie are armed with three strong teeth.

Swan River.

Carenum Westwoodii: length 94’; this sort is very nearly
allied to Bonelli, in fact it is only distinguished by the
elytra being a little narrower and rather strongly punctato-
striated ; these striae are very strong near the sutura, and
very feeble towards the external margin ; the colour is also
much darker, and almost black on the head, the middle of
the thorax, and the centre of the elytra.

From Mount Kosciusko.

Note.—It is impossible for me to find any difference
between Bonellia and Viridipenne of Westwood, and I
believe them to be very slight varieties of the same
species.

Carenum Splendens: length 104-12’; very nearly allied
to Coruscum, and of the same form; body of a beautiful
blue, with a purple tinge; thorax and elytra with a fine
metallic green margin ; thorax with a strong longitudinal
sulcate in its middle; elytra with seven very strongly
punctured longitudinal striz, amongst which appears the-
punctiform impression of the posterior part of the elytra ;
along the margin are rows of very strong, oblong impres-
sions; anterior legs tridentated externally ; inferior parts of
the body, head, antenne, parts of the mouth, and legs,
black.

From Port Denison.

Note.—In one of my two specimens the elytra have pos-
teriorly a greenish tinge. This sort can only be taken for
Coruscum, but is very distinct by its general colour, the
much stronger striz of the elytra, &c.

Carenum Smaragdulum (West. “Are. Ent.,” v. 1, p. 84):
length 74’; of a beautiful metallic green, having a bluish
tinge ; margin of the thorax and elytra much more brilliant
and gilt; a marginal row of large elevated points around
the elytra. -

™

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 137

From Swan River.

Carenum Odewahnis: length 103-13’; this insect has been
taken by Mr. MacLeay, jun. (“Trans. Ent. Soc. of New South
Wales ”) for Smaragdulwm, but it is easily distinguished by
its much larger size, its elytra still more rounded at the
humeral angles, and by the punctures of the marginal row of
the elytra being much smaller, more regular and more
numerous ; the punctiform impressions of the posterior part
of the elytra are much less deeply marked; the teeth of the
anterior tibiee are larger.

Found by Mr. Odewahn near Gawler, in South Australia.

Carenwm Coruscum (MacLeay, jun., “Trans. Ent. Soc. of
New South Wales,” part ii, p. 141): specimens of this fine
insect were brought by Mr. Hubert from the Paroo River,
and are in the collection of Dr Howitt and in my own.

Note.—- Carenum Marginatum, Germar (“ Linnee. Entom.”)
from Adelaide, is probably C. Levigatum (MacLeay, jun.), the
true Marginatum not being found in South Australia.

Carenum Schomburgkia: length 84’; this insect is very
nearly allied to Lwvigatum, and is only distinguished from
it by its elytra being a little more elongated and covered
with transverse striole. It may possibly be a simple
variety. |

South Australia.

Carenwm Devastator : length 164’; of a rather brilliant
black ; head large, smooth, with two longitudinal impres-
sions between the eyes, diverging in front towards the ante-
rior angles of the head ; on the space left between these im-
pressions and the base of the mandibule are two punctiform
impressions, one on each side; thorax broader than long,
emarginated in front, with the anterior angles protuberant ;
the sides, which are marginated, are almost parallel, rounded
at the posterior angles, rather sinuous behind them; it is
truncated and marginated behind; it has a longitudinal
sulcate on its centre, a transverse arched impression in front,
and two rounded impressions behind; on its surface are
seen very faint transverse striole ; elytra long, oval, of the
breadth of the thorax, marginated laterally, truncated at the
base ; the axillary angles are well marginated, and rather
acute, their surface is smooth, and they present each two
punctiform impressions, one behind the axillary angle and
the other backwards ; the general form of the body is elon-
gated, and the aspect is that of a Scarites.

From Swan River.

L

138 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Carenum Atronitens (MacLeay, jun., “Transactions Ent.
Soe. of N.S. Wales”): length 114’; of a brownish black ;
general form long and elongated, with the sides parallel;
head with two longitudinal impressions between the eyes ;
they are sinuous, and diverge in front towards the anterior
angles of the head ; thorax longer than broad, margimated
all round, emarginated in front, with the sides parallel ;
the posterior angles are rounded, and the posterior side is
rounded and rather sinuous in its centre. There is a longi-
tudinal sulcate in the centre, and transversal impressions in
front and behind ; an impression is visible on the anterior
angles ; elytra long, same breadth as the thorax, sub-
parallel, marginated laterally ; their base is emarginated, and
the axillary angles prominent ; their surface is smooth to
the eye, but presenting a few very faint longitudinal ele-
vated lines when seen witha magnifying power; they have each
two faint punctiform impressions, one behind the axillary
angle, and the other at their posterior part ; anterior legs
armed with two very strong teeth.

This insect comes from Gawler, in South Australia. I
believe it to be the <Atronitens (Macleay, jun.), but the
description does not exatly agree with it.

NEOCARENUM.

Mentum armed in its centre with a long, acute, and cari-
nated spiniform tooth; its wings very long, advanced,
narrow, arched, and rounded at the end; _ palpi—
the maxillary ended by one article, long, narrow,
arched, and rounded at its extremity ; the same of the
labial, rather longer than the preceding, conical, but rather,
arched ; maxille rather narrow, arched, and densely hirsute
internally ; mandibule strong, arched, pointed at the ex-
tremity, and armed on their internal side with several strong
teeth ; labrum short, and having several denticulations ;
antenne short, strong, getting thicker as they go towards
their extremity ; the two first articles are strong and
conical, the third also, but rather shorter, the others almost
round, not compressed, the last rather pointed ; body
long, cylindrical, filiform ; head almost square ; thorax longer
than broad, joined with the body by a pedoncule, on which
is situated the scutellum ; elytra long, parallel ; legs rather
short ; thighs inflated ; anterior tibize palated ; those of the
other pairs crenulated on their internal margin.

This singular genus, in some respects, unites Carenwmn with

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 139

Eutoma ; it has the long cylindrical form of the latter, but is
very distinct from both by the form of the palpi.

Neocarenum Singularis : length 13’; of a dull black ;
longitudinal grooves of the head. sinuous and diverging in
front towards the anterior angles of the head; thorax
long, with the sides parallel, rounded behind, rather
sinuous in front, it is bordered, has a _ longitudinal
sulcate in the middle; there is a faint depression at the
anterior angles, and a strong one at the posterior ; elytra of
a very long oval form, almost parallel, tolerably narrower in
front than at their posterior part; the humeral angles are
well margined and pointed; a line of widely parted points
follows the internal side of the margin, and a series of very
large punctiform impressions extends laterally in a longitudi-
nal line at some distance from this margin; the anterior
tibiz are bidentated.

Swan River.

Neocarenum Kreusleri: length 134° ; very much like
Singularis, but of a brilliant black ; thorax rather broader
in front than behind ; elytra having the same markings, and
in addition a strong punctiform impression behind, towards
the middle of the breadth ; teeth of the anterior tibie very
long and acute.

From Gawler, South Australia. I dedicate it to Mrs.
Kreusler, a German lady, who devotes her time and great
abilities to the study of the Entomological Fauna of her
adopted country.

EUTOMA.

This genus of Newmann has not generally been ad-
mitted, but it appears to be very distinct from Carenum by
its long linear general form, its palpi very securiform, its
antenne increasing in thickness from the base to the end ;
the thorax is always longer than broad ; the anterior thighs
dilated and like emarginated below. Carenum Violarewm of
MacLeay (“'Trans. Ent. Soc. of N.S.W.”) must also be placed
here, as probably also Megacephalum of Westwood.

Before entering into the description of the new sorts of
this genus contained in my collection, it is necessary to be
certain of the sort (Tinctillatwm) on which Newmann has
established his genus Hutoma. This I find very difficult to
ascertain in insects so nearly allied as are the different
species. His insect is said to be black, with the sides of the
elytra blue. ‘This only applies to a specimen I received from

9

ad
{

140 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

the Clarence River, and of which I think advisable to give
here a short description.

Eutoma Tinctillatum (New., “Ent. Magas.” 5, p. 171) :
length 8°; shiny black ; head with its longitudinal grooves
beginning a little hehind the posterior part of the eye,
running obliquely and curving in front towards the
anterior angles of the head; thorax with the sides
parallel, rounded behind, and marginated; a longitudinal
sulcate in the middle, a transverse impression in front,
strongly margined at its extremities ; one punctiform im-
pression on each posterior angle; elytra smooth, with the
sides of a dark blue; a punctiform impression on their pos-
terior part, and an irregular impression on the humeral
angle; underside of the body black ; anterior tibie with
two very strong teeth. .

Clarence River.

Kutoma Episcopalis : length 11’ ; black, brilliant ; thorax,
and particularly elytra, of the most magnificent purple ;
longitudinal grooves of the head extending behind the poste-
rior side of the eyes, they are oblique, and diverge in
front towards the anterior angles of the head. The space
between these grooves and the base of the mandibule bears
on- each side a punctiform impression; thorax long, with
its sides parallel, rather sinuous, rounded at the posterior
angles, and a little sinuated behind ; it is marginated on its
lateral and posterior sides, and has a slight impression on —
each of the anterior angles; elytra of the breadth of the
thorax, parallel, marginated, perfectly smooth, with a deep
punctiform impression backwards, and an irregular one
on the axillary angle; tibie with brown hair, the
anterior armed with two very strong teeth ; antenne long,
compressed.

From the Paroo River, in the central part of the Conti-
nent.

Eutoma Newmanni: length 83’; very nearly allied to
Tinctillatum, but with its head larger ; the fascial grooves.
a little more extended backwards ; the thorax covered with
transverse striole, and having no anterior impression ;
elytra a little broader, of a fine purple, smooth to the eye,
but when seen through a lense having faint longitudinal
lines of small transverse impressions; legs, parts of the
mouth, and basilar articles of the antenne brown.

From Port Denison.

Eutoma Filiforme : length 84’; long, linear ; head with

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 141

the two longitudinal grooves extending to its posterior
part, where they deviate externally behind the eyes;
their general direction is oblique ; in front they also devi-
ate towards the anterior angles of the head; a puncti-
form impression is seen on each side behind the eye ; thorax
longer than broad, a little wider in front than behind, the
posterior angles rounded ; in its centre extends a longitudi-
nal sulcate, and an impression is seen behind the four
angles, its border is very narrow ; elytra long, covered with
longitudinal lines of transverse points, with a punctiform
impression behind and an irregular one on the axillary
angle (the fore tibize are missing in my only specimen) ;
the insect is black and shiny ; thorax with a cupreous tinge,
and elytra of a dark metallic green.

From the Darling River.

Eutoma Purpurata: length 9’; of a beautiful dark
purple, more brilliant on the elytra; the longitudinal
grooves of the head oblique, extending to the height of the
posterior part of the eyes, diverging in front towards the
anterior angles of the head ; a small punctiform impression
just behind the eyes; thorax longer than broad, with its
sides parallel, rounded behind; it is rather bisinuated on
its posterior margin; it is covered with faint transverse
striole ; it has a longitudinal sulcate on the middle, a
linear, transverse and oblique impression on the anterior
angles, and a rounded and very faint one behind on each
of the posterior angles; these latter are joined by a
transverse one; the thorax has a narrow border on the
sides and behind; elytra smooth to the eye, but when
seen through a magnifying power they show longitudinal
lines of very faint transverse points; they are margined
on their posterior part with a deep punctiform impres-
sion, and on the axillary angle with an- irregular one ;
their anterior tibiz are armed with two very strong teeth ;
the antenne are hirsute, except on their first articles ; the
palpz are purple, with their ends orange.

Adelaide ; received from Mr. Odewahn. .

Hutoma Levis : length 64’; ofa brownish purple; elytraofa
magnificent bluish purple; legs red ; parts of the mouth and
antenne of the same colour; longitudinal grooves of the head
rather oblique, ending behind the eyes by a short line, which
extends to the latter ; in front these grooves expand towards
the anterior angles of the head; a very faint punctiform
impression just behind the eyes ; thorax longer than broad,

142 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

with its sides parallel, and the posterior angles rounded ;
it has a longitudinal sulcate in the middle ; it is bordered
behind, and has an impression on each angle, the front ones
transversal, and the others joined by a transverse one;
elytra bordered, smooth, with a punctiform impression
behind, and an irregular one on the humeral angle ;
legs red; the anterior tibize armed with two very strong spini-
form teeth ; antenne hirsute, except on their first articles ;
lower part of the body and abdomen of a brownish red ; the
extremity of the palpi is slightly orange colour.

From New South Wales, Eastern Creek.

Note.——This insect is in most Australian collections under
the name of Tinctillatum of Newmann, but this naturalist’s
description does not agree with it.

Kutoma Loddonensis : length 8’; long, narrow, cylindric,
of a rather dull black, with the sides of the thorax and
elytra of a beatiful purple; two sulcates between the eyes,
diverging behind these organs, as they do also in front
towards the anterior angles of the head ; a punctiform im-
pression behind the eye ; clypeus dentated ; thorax long, with
the sides parallel, but slightly inflexed inside towards their
middle ; it has a longitudinal sulcate in the middle, a trans-
verse impression behind, another very faint impression at
each angle; the elytra are long, smooth, bordered laterally
with a punctiform impression behind, and several irregular
ones on the humera langle; the thighs are inflated ; anterior
tibie strongly bidentated. :

From the Loddon River ; in Dr. Howitt’s collection.

Note.—This sort is nearly allied to Vewmanm, but very
distinct by its more elongated form ; the elytra much longer
the different form of the thorax, &e.

SCARITES.

I am told that Baron Chaudoir has formed on the Austra-
lian Scarites a genus Geoscaphus, but 1 don’t know its
characters. His Levissimus would also appear to be Mr. |
MacLeay’s Jacksoniensis ?

The Australian Scarites are very little known, but appear
to be numerous. Most of them inhabit the central parts
of the continent. Mr. Macleay (“Trans. Ent. Soc. of
N.S.W.”) mentions eight sorts, which, with the six here
described, make the actual number known to be fourteen.
Of these, twelve are in my collection.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 143

Scarites Substriatus : length 11’; elongated, of a shiny
black; head having between the eyes two longitudinal
grooves, which unite together in front; thorax almost square,
rather transverse ; the posterior angles are rounded ; there
is a longitudinal sulcaté in the middle, a faint transverse
impression in front, this is only well marked at its exte-
mities, and two deep punctiform impressions on its posterior
part, one behind each angle ; on its surface are seen very
faint transverse striole; elytra rather depressed, with longi-
tudinal ridges but no distinct strie ; on the posterior part
of each striz are two punctiform impressions, situated one
behind the other ; front tibize armed with three teeth, the
first much smaller than the others.

From the Darling River.

Note.—This sort can only be taken for Subporcatus of
Macleay, jun., but is very distinct by the markings of the
head.

Scarites Plicatulus: length 12’; of a brilliant black ;
forehead with four longitudinal grooves between the eyes,
the external extending to the back part of the head by a
sinuous line, in frontvthey diverge towards the anterior
angles of the head ; on the space extending between the
grooves and the base of the mandibule is a series of longi-
tudinal and deep striatule ; thorax almost square a little
transverse, rounded behind, marginated all round, having
a deep longitudinal sulcate in the middle and an impression
at each angle; these at the anterior angles being oblique and
at the posterior longitudinal ; elytra not very convex, almost
smooth, with very faint longitudinal ridges, and two puncti-
form impressions on the posterior part, one behind the other;

eles legs tridentated, the upper tooth smaller than the
others.

This insect comes from Escape Cliff, in the Northern
territory, and was given to me by Dr. Mueller.

Scarites Mitchellii: length 124’ ; elongated, subcylindrical
ofa rather shiny black; head with two longitudinal im-
pressions joining in front and of a rather triangular form ;
thorax almost square, rather transverse, marginated all round
with a feeble suleate in the middle and a faint impression at
each angle; the surface iscovered with feeble transverse striolz ;
elytra covered with weak longitudinal strize formed of punc-
tiform impressions ; they present a strong puncture behind a
faint impression on the humeral angle ; anterior tibize armed
with three teeth, the first very small.’ :

144 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

From the Darling River. Named in honour of the cele-
brated Australian explorer.

Scarites Bostocki: length 10’; elongated, subcylindrical,
of a shiny black ; head rather corrugated in front, with two
longitudinal grooves between the eyes; these grooves diverge
in front towards the anterior angles of the head ; thorax
transverse, marginated, rounded at the posterior angles,
bilobed behind, with a longitudinal sulcate in the middle ;
a transverse impression in front, and two very faint longitu-
dinal ones behind ; elytra rather depressed, with very faint
longitudinal lines on their surface, and two punctiform
impressions behind, these are situated one behind the other ;
anterior tibiz armed with three teeth, the upper of which
is the smallest.

Received from the Rev. Mr. Bostock. It comes from
Nickol Bay, on the north-western coast of Australia.

Scarites Ruficornis: length 104’; of a very brilliant
black ; head with its front part and labrum dentated ; the
longitudinal grooves are rather short, and as usual diverge
in front towards the anterior angles of the head ; thorax
broader than wide, with the posterior angles rounded ; it
has a longitudinal sulcate in the middle and an impression
at each angle, the anterior being transverse ; elytra rather
short for the genus, smooth (with a strong magnifying
power a few faint strize are seen, particularly on the posterior
part), with two punctures on the posterior part of each
elytra ; anterior tibiz tridentated, the upper tooth smaller
than the others; antenne hirsute and of a brownish red ;
tarsi of the same colour.

This insect seems to have an extensive habitat. I have
specimens from the Manning River, and Mr. Howitt found
it near Cooper's Creek. In some immature specimens the
legs are of a brownish red.

Scariies Bypunctatus: length 9’; rather subcylindrical, of
a glossy black ; head with longitudinal striole in front, and
having between the eyes two strong longitudinal impres-
sions, the breadth of which increases in front so as to give
them a triangular form ; thorax rather transverse, with the
sides almost parallel ; the posterior angles rounded ; on the
centre is a longitudinal sulcate, in front a slight transverse
impression, and on the posterior part two punctiform,
rounded and deep impressions ; elytra rather long, parallel,
verv feebly striato-punctated, with a transverse impression

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 145

on the base and two punctiform ones on the posteror part
of each elytron, one behind the other; antennz brown.

From Rockhampton. Sent to me by that indefatigable
collector Mr. Thouzet.

GNATHOXYS.

Of this genus I have only three sorts—all known.

I must observe that Blissii of Macleay jun., (described
in the 5th number of the “New South Wales Entomo-
logical Transactions”) is almost certainly identical with
Granularis of Westwood, and that the sort figured by
Lacordaire under the last name is a very distinct insect,
being less than one half the size of Westwood’s sort. I
believe it to be Obscurus of Reich.

All the sorts known to me are from Western Australia. |

Panagerde.

This family had been considered till lately as almost
wanting in Australia; one single species ‘having been
described. Mr. Chaudoir has since made known a second,
and Mr. Macleay, junr., a third. I have to enumerate
seven sorts. :

I just mention here than my Brazilian genus Dercylus,
which Mr. Lacordaire has placed among the chlenidew, seems
to come more naturally among the Panageide, where I had
placed it, as to include 1t among the first, he is obliged to
isolate it, on account of the structure of its palpi, while these
organs are of the ordinary form of those of Panageide.

The larger sorts of Hudema, seem to be confined to
the warmest parts of Africa and India, and it is interest-
ing to find one, at least, on the north-eastern coast of
New Holland.

EUDEMA,

This genus has, since I formed it many years ago (1840),
been published by Hope under the name of Craspedophorus.
Mr. Lacordaire, in his genera, has adopted the latter name,
in acknowledging that mine is anterior ; his reason for doin
so is most singular: ‘“ becwuse,” (he states) vol 1, p. 211, “of
we give this name a masculine ternunation it would have
an almost absurd meaning.” But what right had he to
alter it at all? Probably because most of the other names of
the family are masculine, but that reason is much more
absurd still, and even in that case, why does he not also, in the

146 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

same family, change Coptva and Loricera. In every family
there are, in his book, names of the different genders, and so
in the Scaritide he has Pasimachus, Carenum, and Clivina.

The character which separates Hudema from Panageus
is to have the anterior tarsi of the male simple and similar
to those of the female; all the Australian sorts known to
me belong to Hudema.

These insects are (with the exception of Convexa and
Azurea) so much like one another that I shall only attempt
to give the differences which exist between them.

1. Hudema Convexa, of Macleay, junr., which I have
recelved from Port Denison, is a most distinct insect, having
entirely the appearance of the large, broad Indian sorts, its
length is over 9’.

2. Kudema Australis, of Fabricius: this is the most com-
mon Australion sort; its size is about 53’; itis easily dis-
tinguished by the orange coloured spots of the elytra, which
are proportionately small, and of which the humeral are
almost round.

I have it from the south of Queensland, the Clarence Riven
Sydney, &e.

3. Hudema Australasice, of Chaudoir,is of about the same
size as the preceding, but the spots are of a dark red and
much larger, the humeral more or less square.

From Sydney, Melbourne, the Darling River, and South
Australia.

4. Hudema Alternams: this is a new sort, being about
7 lines long; it is very much like Australis, but much
larger, and more elongated ; it has the centre of its head per-
fectly smooth ; the thorax is of a pentagonical form ; the
costes of the elytra are alternately much larger than the
intermediate.

From Rockhampton.

5. Hudema Rockhamptonensis: also a new sort; its length
is 7’ ; 1t comes very near the preceding, but is smaller
and broader; the head strongly impressed, but almost
without punctures ; thorax broader than in Aliernans, and
the sides more rounded, with the lateral border narrower ;
elytra shorter, with the costze equal.

Also from Rockhampton. :

Note.—In the two last sorts the spots of the okie are
rounded and of an orange colour.

6. Hudema Elongata: : length 74’; more elongated than
the other species ; head covered with very strong punctures ;

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 147

the spots of the elytra rounded and red ; very nearly allied
to Australis, but the thorax is a little longer, and strong
punctures cover the entire head.

Sydney. | :

7. Eudema Azurea: length 5’; general form broad and
depressed ; head small, impressed on the sides, with the
middle smooth and shiny ; thorax short, very broad, rounded
laterally, the widest part being towards the two posterior
thirds of its length, where it forms an angle and proceeds
backwards, becoming much narrower, it is very. densely
puncturated, bi-impressed behind, and has a slight longi-
tudinal sulcate in its middle; elytra broad, depressed,
entirely covered with a dense puncturation, and striated ;
lower side of the body very densely punctated; general
colour of a dark blue, with the legs red; antennee, palpi, and
tarsi black ; the entire body is hirsute.

This is a most distinct species, very remarkable by its
absence of coloured spots on the elytyra.

From Rockhampton, by Mr. Thouzet; and from Eastern
Creek, by Mr. Masters.

Chlanidee.

This family presents a very remarkable geographical fact,
as out of the very small number of its representatives in
Australia, two are inhabitants of India.

HOLOLEIUS.

Theonly knownsortofthis genus, H. Nitidulus, Dej., is found
in India, and I have myself collected many specimens of it
at Siam, and in the Malayan Peninsula ; it is also an inhabi-
tant of Australia, as Mr. Wilcox has lately found it on the
Clarence River.

CHLCENIUS.

The Australian sorts known to me are Australis, De}.
from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South
Australia; Peregrinus, Chaud., from Queensland and New
South Wales ; it is also found in New Caledonia, and is the
Chi. Viridis of Montrousier; Grayanus, White, from King
George’s Sound and Swan River. Two others have been
described by Mr. MacLeay, junr., from Port Denison, but only
one is known to me. Three sorts seem to be new, but one of
them is a common insect,and it appears strange that it has not
yet been described ; this genus presents the rare fact of an

148 Notes on Australian Coleopteru.

Indian species spread all over the known parts of the
Australian continent.

Chlenius Marginatus, Dej. species: I see no difference
whatever between the Australian and the Indian species ;
this is most extensively spread over Siam, the Malayan Penin-
sula, Sumatra, and even Japan. I have taken it myself very
frequently in the three first localities.

The Australian insect is also common in almost all the
known parts of New Holland; I have it from New South
Wales, the Darling River, South Australia, and Swan River.

It is of a metallic green, strongly puncturated on the
thorax ; with the elytra striated and bordered by a yellow
margin ; palpi, antennee, and legs of the latter colour.

Chlenius Subcostatus, Macleay, junr., “Trans. Ent. Soe.,
New South Wales.” I have received from Rockbampton an
insect which I believe to belong to this species ; it is very
nearly allied to the preceding, but is of a darker colour,
almost black, with the intervals of the costz rather cari-
nated; the antennz are almost black, except at their three
first articles.

Chlemius Darlingensis: length 6’ ; this insect is so very
nearly allied to Marginatus as to be, perhaps, only a variety
of it. It has the same general colouration, but is broader,
the thorax shorter, the elytra wider, more depressed, with
their strize deeper; the antenne are almost black, with the
basal articles yellow.

One single specimen from the Darling River.

Chlenius Maculifer: length 7’; dark copper colour,
almost black; covered with a dense and strong punctura-
tion ; head of a lighter copper colour; thorax almost cir-
cular, with a faint longitudinal sulcate in the middle, and
two very feeble impressions behind; elytra striated, with a
bilobed orange spot on the posterior part of the elytra,
towards the two-thirds of its length; lower parts of the
body of a brilliant black ; basa] articles of the antenne, parts
of the mouth and thighs of an orange yellow ; knees, part of —
the tibie, tarsi, and remaining part of the antenne of a
brownish black.

This msect seems to be common on the Eastern coast. :
have it from Port Denison, Rockhampton, and various parts »
of New South Wales. It comes very near to several Indian
and New Caledonian species, and also to Venator of the west
coast of Africa.

Chlemmus Maculiger: length 72’; this insect 1s very

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 149

similar to the preceding, but quite distinct; the general form
is more elongated; the head and thorax are of a greenish
copper colour, the latter strongly puncturated, almost
square, transverse, with the sides rather rounded; elytra
black, striated, with a transverse square orange coloured spot
on the posterior two-thirds of their length; legs entirely
black ; antenne and parts of the mouth of a dark brown.

One single specimen was sent to me from Rockhampton
by Mr. Thouzet.

OODES.

This genus is dispersed all over the globe, but is more par-
ticularly numerous in the tropical parts of both hemispheres,
and is well represented in Australia. It is not at all certain
that it is properly placed among the Chlenide ; its natural
affinities are with Amara.

Oodes Australis, Dej., is a common insect in Victoria and
New South Wales; it is easily distinguished by its thorax
having an arched impression on each side, and by its red
anterior tarsi ; the males are more brilliant than the females.

I have found round Melbourne an insect of a light red
brown, whose thorax appears a little broader ; it may be
only a variety of this species.

Oodes Modestus: length 44’; body rather elongated ; dull
black ; thoracic impressions faint ; strize of the elytra rather
faint ; antennee, buccal parts, and legs black; the first entire
strie running obliquely towards the sutura; between it and
this organ a very faint abbreviated line is sometimes visible
with a magnifying power.

Variety, copper colour.

Melbourne.

Oodes Waterhousi: length 6’; size and general appear-
ance of Australis, body broader, with a copper colour tint ;
thorax with four impressions towards the posterior margin ;
elytra striated, the first striz near the scutellum very short;
lower side of the body and legs of a dark brown; all the
tarsi black ; buccal parts of a rather dark brown.

From Arnheim’s Land; sent to me by Mr. Waterhouse.

Oodes Oblongus: length 7’; oblong, of a dull black;
thorax with no lateral impressions, and only two elongated
ones near the posterior margin; elytra striated ; the first
striz near the scutellum very short; lower side of the body
and legs black ; palpi and tarsi brown; antennze of the same
colour, with their three first articles variegated with black.

Eastern Creek, New South Wales.

150 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Oodes Paroensis: length 7’; oblong, of a dull black; thorax
with a feeble arched impression, extending from the middle
of the margin to the back part over the posterior angles, and
also two faint impressions on the posterior margin; elytra
striated, the first strize very short ; lower side of the body of
a brilliant black; tarsi, palpi, and antennez brown; the
three basal articles of the latter variegated with black.

From the Paroo river, in the central part of New Holland.

Note.—By the form of the impressions of the thorax this
sort comes near Australis, butthese impressions are much more
faint; the size is considerably larger, the form more oblong.

Oodes Denisonensis: length 73%’; oblong, depressed, of
a dark copper colour; thorax with a light longitudinal sulcate
and also two faint impressions on each side of the posterior
margin ; elytra strongly striated, with the first of the strie
short and formed of punctures; lower side of the body and
legs of a brilliant black ; antenne and palpi black.

From Port Denison.

Oodes Interioris: length 6’; of a dark copper colour;
body oval, rather broad, depressed; thorax rounded laterally,
having two impressions on the posterior margin, and one on
each side which extends obliquely behind the posterior angle ;
elytra strongly striated, the first strize short ; lower side of
the body and legs of a shiny black ; palpi brown ; antennz
black, with the basal articles shiny, and the others
pubescent.

From Cooper's Creek. 3 |

Oodes Latus: length 7’; oval form, broad, depressed, of a —
rather brilliant dark brown; thorax witha faint longitudinal ©
sulcate in the middle ; a strong and elongated impression on
each side of the posterior margin, and a very feeble transverse
impression on the posterior angles ; elytra with deep striz,
the first of which is very short ; lower side of the body and
thighs black ; tibiz, tarsi, parts of the mouth, and antenne
of a reddish brown.

Swan River. |

Oodes Trisulcatus: length 5%’; of a shiny black ; head
with a rounded transverse impression in front; thorax with
its posterior margin bisinuated ; its surface is smooth, with
three light longitudinal sulcates on the middle, the two
lateral very obsolete ; elytra strongly striated, without any
short stria near the scutellum ; lower side of the body and
legs black ; palpi and tarsi of a reddish brown; antennze
obscure ; hirsute, except on the three basal articles.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 151

Port Denison.

Oodes Proximus : length 54’; very nearly allied to Modes-
tus, but having the first strize of the elytra oblique round
the scutellum, the short one being absent as in that species ;
the palpi and tarsi are red; the antenna of a dark brown.

Paroo River.

Oodes Inornatus : length 54’; oblong, elongated, depressed ;
sides almost parallel; thorax with two rather strong im-
pressions behind, and a very faint oblique one on the posterior
angles; elytra striated, the first stria running obliquely
towards the scutellum ; no short stria near this organ ; the
entire insect is of a glossy black; tarsi and end of the palpi
red ; antennze black.

Swan River.

Oodes Convexus: length 44’; oval, convex, of a shiny
black ; thorax with a faint sulcate in the middle, feebly bi-
impressed on its posterior margin, and having on each side
a curved impression directed towards the interior part of the
thorax ; it begins at about the first third of the length of
the lateral margin, and extends to the posterior part; elytra
very convex behind, strongly striated ; near the scutellum a
very short stria, formed of a few punctures ; tarsi, palpi, and
antennee red.

Victoria, King George’s Sound, and Swan River.

Oodes Bostock: length 54’; of a fine copper colour; body
oblong, rather broad; head rather darker than the other
parts ; thorax smooth, with two feeble impressions on the
posterior margin and a very faint oblique depression towards
the posterior angles ; elytra broad, rather convex, striated ;
a short stria formed of punctures near the scutellum, and
the first entire stria diverging rather obliquely in that
part; lower side of the body, parts of the mouth and
antennee black ; legs and tarsi of the same colour.

Nickol Bay, Western Australia.

Oodes Thoracicus: length 5’; oval, broad, smooth ; thorax
with the middle longitudinal line elevated ; it has two very °
faint impressions on the posterior margin, and on each side a
very deep and broad impression running in. a curved and
oblique way from the anterior angles to the posterior margin
of the thorax; elytra broad, curved, strongly striated ;
all the striz entire, with only one or two small punctures
between the first and the scutellum; anterior tarsi still more
dilated than in the males of the other species ; the entire

152 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

insect is of a light shiny brown, but this colour may alter in
more mature specimens.

Swan River.

Licinide.

The only Australian form generally included in this
family is, till this day, the genus Physolestus, Chaud., which
is very little known to entomologists, but of which I describe
here a sort, I believe different from the one on which the
genus was formed. I also place here the Dicrochile, which have
till now been put with Anchomenide; the total absence of
cushions below the anterior tarsi of the male doesnotallowthem
to remain in that family, and the general form, particularly in
the larger sorts, evidently brings them near to Licimus. Itis
by mistake that Mr. Lacordaire (“ Hist. Nat. des Insectes,” vol. -
1, page 234) says that Rembus is found in Australia. I also
place near Dicrochile a new form from New Zealand.

Physolestus Suturalis: length 34’; black, rather brilliant;
thorax almost square, rather transverse, narrower behind
than in front, with the sides rounded ; it has a deep, longi-
tudinal sulcate in the middle, with a strong impression on
each side near the posterior angles; elytra striated, with a
rather broad spot extending all along the sutura, but be-
coming narrower towards the extremity ; mandibule and
labrum black; palpi, antenne, extreme margin of the thorax,
legs and lower margin of the elytra yellow. |

From the Paro River.

DICROCHILE.

Two species of this genus are known from New Zealand ;
Baron Chaudoir has described one Australian sort, under
the name of Brevicollis, and also, in a most proper way, he
includes in the genus the Rembus Gory of. Boisduval ;
the last insect has been lately (“ Trans. Ent. Society of New
South Wales”) described again. by Mr. MacLeay, under the
name of Stomatocelus Licinoides.

Dicrochile Gigas: length 11’; of a shiny black; head
large, almost round, very much depressed in front; thorax
short, transverse, very strongly marginated in front, rounded
with a broad margin laterally ; it has a deep longitudinal
sulcate in the middle, a strong transverse impression in
front, and two very deep longitudinal impressions behind ;
elytra large. compressed, covered with striz, of which the
sutural one bifurcates towards the scutellum; a line of
punctiform impressions on the margin of the elytra, more
particularly on their posterior part.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 153

Rockhampton. Brisbane, and Clarence River.
Note.—The elytra have sometimes an irradiated tinge.

Dicrochile Punctupennis: length 9’; very nearly allied to
Goryt, but head larger, eyes more prominent, thorax more
- cordiform, with posterior angles more prominent; elytra
broader, more depressed, with the parts between the striz
_ flat; the interval between the second and third striz bears four
resular punctiform impressions ; the posterior margin of the
elytra is very strongly emarginated ; the insect is of a dark
brown ; the elytra are of a dull colour, without any brilliant
lustre ; the antenne, parts of the mouth, and legs, are of a
reddish brown.

Brisbane. ~

Dicrochile Punctato-striata : length 7’ ; very nearly allied
to Brevicollis, but the thorax is much more narrow, and
' almost square, being not much broader than long ; the pos-
terior angles are sharp and elevated ; elytra a little longer,
with their strize deeper, with the posterior part very strongly
punctated, as is also the margin.

Melbourne.

Dicrochile Quadricollis: length 84’; this sort is also
nearly allied to Brevicollis, but is of larger size ; its head is
broader; its thorax is almost square, not being much
broader than long; the angles are more prominent, the pos-
terior being elevated ; elytra rather longer, but with similar
strie ; the impressions of the lateral margin smaller; an-
tennze, buccal parts, and legs, rather brown.

Mountains of Victoria.

Dicrochile Mantana: length 74’; of a brilliant black ;
head oval, rather broad ; thorax short, transverse, strongly
emarginated in front, rounded laterally; it has a strong
longitudinal sulcate in the middle, a transverse impression
in front, and towards each posterior angle a longitudinal im-
pression bifurcating in front, the internal part extending to
three-fourths of the length of the thorax ; elytra rather
broad, depressed, with their posterior margin very strongly
emarginated ; they are covered with strize, the intervals of
which are rounded ; on the interval between the second and
third are three punctiform impressions, and another on the
interval between the third and fourth near the base ; a few
punctiform impressions are seen on the posterior part of the
margin ; the sutural stria is bifurcated at the base.

This insect is from the mountains of Victoria (Yankee

M

154 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Jim), its thorax 1s very similar to the one of Brevicollis,
but the elytra are much more like those of Punctipennis.

Dicrochile Mimuta: length 52’; black, rather brilliant ;
head oval, thorax small, almost square, very nearly as long
as broad, rounded laterally, covered with transverse striole ;
it has large lateral borders, a longitudinal sulcate in the
middle, and indistinct transverse impressions in front and
behind ; elytra broader than the thorax, elongated, striated ;
the intervals between the striz rather elevated, the one
between the second and third bearing three small punctiform
impressions; a short striz near the scutellum ; a few punc-
tiform impressions near the lateral margin.

From Melbourne, the Mountains of Victoria, Tasmania,
and the Paroo River. |

Note.—Dicrochile Goryi is a most common insect, and
extends its habitat from the north of Queensland, over New
South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, to the southern
parts of Western Australia; I have it also from the Darling
river. Brevicollis is not quite so common; I have speci-
mens from Melbourne, New South Wales, and the Darling
river.

PEDALOPIA.

Mentum broad, strongly emarginated, without a tooth ;
wings of the mentum broad, rather straight externally, pointed
at the extremity ; palpi with their last article oval ; labrum
transversal, not emarginated ; mandibulz short, almost
straight, very broad, obtuse at the apex ; antennze mode-
rately long, rather slender, with the first article large, the
second the smallest, the others conical and about equal; tarsi
slender, with the first article as long as the two following
together ; the anterior tarsi are shorter and thicker, with
the first article strong, the two following short and trian-
gular, the fourth bilobated ; claws very small, simple ; head
very large, depressed, round; eyes small; thorax short, broad,
cordiform ; eltrya oval, oblong, depressed; legs rather
slender. |

Pedalopia Noveezelandie: length 4’; of a dark brown;
head smooth ; thorax with a front transverse impression, and
a light longitudinal sulcate on the middle, the lateral
margins are yellow ; elytra very feebly striated, they are
of a dark yellow, with the anterior part of the discus brown ;
lower side of the body black, with the inferior margin of the
elytra, the legs, antenne, and parts of the mouth of a light

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 155

brown ; the thighs yellow ; this curious insect inhabits New
Zealand.

Note.—The form of the head, of the mandibule, &c.,
brings this insect among the Licinide ; the absence of a
carina to the elytra, and of a tooth to the mentum, and the
oval form of the palpi, places it next to Rembus, ‘Badister
and Dicrochile, but it differs from all by the form of its
labrum. Its fascies has some resemblance with the one of
some of the large Cymindis.

Stomide..

This family has till this day appeared to be missing from the
Australian Fauna, but four genera, all new, seem to belong
to it ; one, Meonis, most certainly does ; the others, Adetipa,
Darodilia, and Letvradira, are rather more doubtful. The
insect on which Meonis is formed is something like a large
Stomis, but broader, and its elytra are more oval. It is
distinguished by the triangular form of its palpi.

Darodilia has much the appearance of a Feronia, but
with the mandibule of Stomis.

Adetipa seems to come near Meonis, but the mandibula,
which are protuberant, are less so than in most Stomide,
and I should probably have placed this insect amongst the
Feronide if it had not been for the entire absence of a
tooth to the mentum.

Levadira is in the same case; its anterior tarsi are
much like those of many Feronide, but it has no tooth to
the mentum, and it is easily distinguished by the great
length of the first article of its antenne, after which these
organs are bent. In general appearance it has something of
Cnemacanthus, but the humeral angles are well formed.

As it is the case with many other groups of Carabidae,
the Stomidee form a very unnatural assemblage of insects.

MEONIS.

Mentum transverse, very deeply emarginated convex
and rounded in the centre; wings of the mentum
large, broad, pointed at their extremity, obliquely truncated
on the inner side; palpi long, ended by a long triangular
article, obliquely truncated at the extremity ; labrum trans-
verse and emarginated in front ; mandibule very long, very
prominent, carinated, rounded and pointed at the extremity,
without any tooth; maxille very long, very prominent,
arched and densely hirsute internally; antenne filiform, as

mM 2

156 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

long as the head and thorax united, the first article large,
rather longer than the two following taken together ; the
second short, the two following conical, the others elongated
and hirsute; head oval, attenuated behind in the form of a
sort of neck ; eyes prominent ; thorax cordiform, attenuated
behind, with the sides rounded, the anterior angles rounded ;
elytra broader than the thorax, oval, rather convex ; legs
strong; anterior thighs rather inflated ; tibiz of the same pair
very deeply emarginated internally; tarsi slightly dilated in
the male, their first article longer than the others, the three
following triangular and hirsute.

Meonms Ater: length 5’ ; black, shiny; thorax with a deep
longitudinal sulcate in the middle, and two strong elongate
impressions behind; elytra with four deep striz, the
margin having deep punctiform impressions ; palpi, antenne,
with the exception of the basal article, and tarsi brown.

Clarence River (New South Wales) and Brisbane (Queens-
land).

Meonis Niger: Length 6’; differmg from the precedent
by its large size, its broader form, and the striz of the
elytra, which are five in number. As in Ater, there is a

considerable smooth space between the strize and the lateral

margin.
Clarence River.
ADETIPA,

Mentum deeply emarginated, without any tooth; the
wings of the mentum large, rounded externally, truncated
inside, and pointed at the extremity ; palpi rather long,
narrow, the two last articles about equal in length, the
terminal long, narrow, almost cylindrical, and rather trun-
cated at its extremity ; labrum quadrangular, transverse,
and rather indented in front ; mandibule rather prominent,
strong, arched towards the end; antenne rather long, filiform,
the basal article the largest, the second the shortest, the
others about equal, subconical, the last oval; head rather
large and oval, narrowed in form of a neck behind the eyes ;
thorax cordiform, about as long as broad; elytra oblong,
rather elongated, and a little depressed ; legs rather strong ;
anterior tibie strongly emarginated internally, armed
laterally with a line of spines ; tarsi narrow, furnished below
with short spines; the first article much longer than the
others, the three following triangular, the fifth long ; claws
moderate.

5
a a Se

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 157

Adetipa Punctata : Length 73’; of a brilliant black ; head
having two strong longitudinal impressions between the
eyes, and a transverse one in front, which unites the former ;
thorax cordiform, with the anterior angles rounded, the
sides emarginated ; on the centre is a strong longitudinal
sulcate; on the anterior part a very feeble transverse
impression, and behind two very deep longitudinal ones ;
elytra of a dark purple, having four very deep longitudinal
strize leaving a broad space between those and the margin ;
in the interval between the second and third stria are two
strong punctiform impressions on each elytron, one rather
before the middle of the length, and the other towards the
two-thirds ; the lateral margin presents a series of very deep
punctiform impressions, and the striz of the elytra unite
towards the extremity ; the lower side of the body is of a
very brilliant black, and the abdominal segments are very
strongly impressed laterally ; the tarsi are brown, and the
antenne hirsute, except on the three first articles.

From the Clarence River.

DARODILIA.

This new genus is nearly allied to Feronia, and the insect
on which it is formed has the fascies of Omaseus, but it is
very distinct by its long advanced mandibule, which are
strong, arched, pointed at the apex, and carinated atthe base;
the labrum is very strongly and angularly emarginated.
The palpi are long and slender, with the terminal article
long, rather oval, and truncated at the extremity ; the men-
tum is strongly emarginated, with a tooth in the centre ; its
wings are very broad, rounded externally, and pointed at the
extremity ; the anterior tarsi are moderately dilated (in the
only specimen I have), the first article is longer than the
following, and all are triangular ; the other tarsi are slender,
with the first article as long as the two others together; on the
lower side all the tarsi are hirsute, but none have squamule ;
the head is oval, attenuated behind in form of a neck; the
antenne are rather long, with the first article strong, the
second short, the third long, the others shorter, about equal
among themselves, the last oval; thorax rather rounded ;
elytra oblong ; legs moderately strong.

Darodilia Mandibularis : length 6’; of a brilliant black ;
head and thorax smooth ; the latter rather longer than broad,
very much rounded on the sides, a little broader in front
than behind ; it has the anterior transverse impression feebly

158 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

marked, only a vestige of the longitudinal sulcate and the
two posterior impressions well marked and elongated ; elytra
having a strong sutural stria, a second abbreviated behind, a

third still shorter, and only extending to the middle of the

elytra, the remaining part smooth ; margin with a few im-
pressions ; tarsi, palpi, and antenne after the third article.
Lachlan River.

LEIRADIRA.

Mentum broad, very strongly emarginated, but having no
tooth ; the wings are broad, and terminated in an acute point.
Labrum transverse, angularly emarginated ; antennz bent
after the first article, which is longer than the three following
together, they grow thicker as they progress towards the

extremity ; mandibule strong, arched towards the extremity, _

and very pointed at the apex, having no tooth on
the inner side, and being slightly carinated at the basis ;
palpi: the maxillary with the first article short, second
conical and long, third of the same form but shorter, last large,
compressed, suboval, truncated ; the labial with the first
article rather short, the second long and conical, the third
large, truncated, and rather scutiform ; tarsi slender, having
the first article long ; they are covered with spiny hair, the
anterior dilated in the male, the three first articles being
equal, triangular, and furnished below with a double row of
squamule, the fourth small; claws simple; in the female
the anterior tarsi are not dilated, and the tirst article is much
longer than the following; head rather large, oblong, the
posterior part forming a neck ; thorax oval, rounded laterally,
elytra oval, with the humeral angles well marked, legs
strong; the anterior tibe strongly emarginated, and having a
spine at the upper end of the emargination, and another at
the apex.

This genus seems to form a passage between the Cnemac-
anthide and the Stomide; the mandibule are not as
elongated as they usually are in this latter group.

Lewadira Latreillei: length 5’; of a brilliant black,
having fine metallic tinges on the sides of the thorax and
elytra ; the thorax is oblong, with the front transverse im-
pression almost imperceptible; the longitudinal sulcate
light, the two posterior impressions elongated and rather deep;
elytra deeply striated, having two punctiform impressions on
the interval between the second and third, the first a
little before the middle, and the other towards the two-

@

‘
a eS HA ee

it ot

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 159

thirds of the length; a series of punctiform impressions
extend near the margin; Jower side of the body and legs
black ; tarsi brown ; antenne covered after the first article
with a brown pubescence. |

Mountains of the south of Queensland.

Leiradiva Auricollis: length 52’; black; thorax of a
fine gold colour ; elytra purple ; thorax more rounded at its
anterior part than in the preceding species; elytra more
oval ; similar in other respects.

Clarence River, New South Wales, and Rockhampton,
Queensland.

Cnemacanthide.

This family is very extensively represented in Australia,
and on this continent the most southern parts seem almost
to have its monoply. They can in general be called antartic
insects, the greatest number being confined to the extreme
south of America, such as Chili, and the Straits of Magellan ;
and in Australia, to Victoria, South Australia, Van Dieman’s
Land, and particularly New Zealand. Few extend to the
north of South Wales, and to the southern parts of Western
Australia. Those that are found in other regions of the
world are in general confined to great altitudes.

The genus Oopterus of Mr. Guerin, which Mr. Lacordaire
places in this group, belongs manifestly to the Subulipalpi,
among which the author of this generic division had most
properly classified it.

MECODEMA.,

This genus of Mr. Blanchard has been very little known
till the present; it is founded on a large insect, Sculptura-
tum, which is not rare in the mountains of New Zealand,
near Dunedin. <A considerable number of other sorts have
been found since, but have not yet been described.

Broscus Gineus of White, belongs also to this genus, as
also very probably the Promecoderus Lottinii, Brulle,
“ Hist. Nat. des Insectes,” vol. iv. p. 459. As yet no Promeco-
derus has been found in New Zealand, and if one could
admit that there has been an error in the locality, that
insect might be Promecoderus Concolor.

Mecodema Howittti: length 13’-16’; this is the largest
species known yet ; its colour is of a dark copper ; the fore-
head is almost smooth, but strong transverse striole cover
the anterior parts of the head ; the thorax is broad and cor-

160 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

diform, it is rather smooth, with some transverse irregular
striole ; on its anterior margin, the striole are longitudinal,
the margins are entire ; elytra oval, rather long, covered with
longitudinal lines, rather elevated, and with their intervals
most irregularly, but strongly, punctated and granulated.

This fine insect has been found near Christchurch, in New
Zealand ; I owe my specimen to the kindness of Dr. Howitt.

Note.—The same as in all the other sorts the thorax has
a longitudinal sulcate in the middle, and two transverse im-
pressions, one in front and the other behind, with others at
each angle ; it is useless to repeat this for each species.

Mecodema Rectolineatum: length 13’; nearly allied to
Sculputatum, but the thorax more smooth, and the elevated
lines of the elytra regular, with the bottom of the striz
strongly punctated ; they are deprived of those irrecular
depressions so remarkable on the typical species ; the general
form of the elytra is also shorter.

From the mountains near Dunedin, New Zealand.

Mecodema Lucidum: length 12’; of a rather dull black,
smooth ; head with a transverse line of very small points on
the forehead; thorax having vestiges of faint transverse
striole only on the middle longitudinal sulcate ; elytra with
punctated striz, almost obliterated near the sutura, but very
strong on the sides and behind; they have also a sort of
longitudinal and smooth costa near the lateral margin, which
is bordered externally by a few large irregular punctures.

New Zealand. '

Mecodema Crenicolle: length 13%; of a dark copper
colour ; head covered with irregular rugosities ; thorax with
its sides crenulated, and its surface covered with transverse
striole; elytra oval, long; covered with very strong and
large points dispersed in irregular longitudinal lines; they
are much deeper and confluent on the sides; base of an-
tennee and legs rather reddish.

This fine insect comes from Auckland (New Zealand).

Mecodema Simplex: length 13’; of a rather shiny black,
having a metallic tinge; head and thorax covered with
transverse undulating striole; others longitudinal on the
internal side of the eyes; elytra regularly striated ; the
strie with very small punctures near the sutura, but those
near to the margin formed of large square points ; the inter-
vals of the striz are nearly carinated ; antennz and legs of
a dark brown.

Auckland, New Zealand.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 161

Mecodema Blagravia: length 10’; of a shiny brownish
black ; head smooth, with two longitudinal striz behind
each eye, and a transverse impression in front of them ;
thorax cordiform, rather depressed, rounded and marginated
laterally, with a slight transverse impression on the anterior
angles-and a large and rounded one near the posterior ones ;
its surface presents transverse striole; elytra oval, rather
strongly striated ; a few very strong punctiform impressions
on the posterior part of the margin; lower side of the body
black; legs and parts of the mouth red; basal articles
of the antenne brown, the others black, and after the third
hirsute.

Mountains of Victoria, found by the lamented Mr. Louis
Blagrave.

Mecodema Impressum : length 103’; of a dark copper
colour, rather brilliant ; head smooth in front, and punctured
on its posterior part; thorax rather smooth, with faint
transverse striolz ; the anterior angles covered with a dense
puncturation ; elytra rather long, covered with strize, which are
very finely punctured, and with the intervals between them
smooth towards the sutura, aud formed of very strong punctures
near the margin; on the interval between the seventh and
eighth striz are three or four rather large but irregular punc-
tiform impressions; a sort of smooth longitudinal carina
follows near the external margin, and is bordered externally
by a line of large and distinct punctiform impressions ; the
posterior part of the elytra is covered with very strong and
irregular impressions ; legs and antennee black. |

Mountains near Dunedin, New Zealand.

Mecodema Alternans: length 11%’; this insect is very
nearly allied to the preceding, and has the same punctiform
impressions of the elytra, but they are very different, being
disposed so as to leave alternatively broad and narrow
spaces between them ; the broad spaces number four, having
two puncturated striz between each; the colour is rather
darker than in Impressum, and the elytra rather broader
and of a more oval form. |

This insect was brought from the neighbourhood of Otago,
New Zealand, and is in Dr. Howitt’s collection.

Note.—The above species have all the same fascies, being
rather depressed, with the thorax more or less cordiform.
The following have a different appearance, but the parts of
the mouth, of which I have made a minute study, being
similar, [ have to include them in the same genus. The in-

162 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

sects I mention are long, rather cylindrical, with the thorax
rather oviform, and very little broader in front than behind ;
the elytra are elongated, and almost cylindrical.

M ecodemua newm (“ White, Voyage of Erebus and Terror,
Ent.,” page 5, pl. 1, fig. 8): lenoth 8’; this insect is of a dark
copper colour, with the parts of the mouth and thighs
brown ; the strize of the elytra are sometimes very feeble.

Common in the mountains of New Zealand, near Dunedin.

Mecodema Incequale: length 7’ ; nearly allied to Zneum,
but shorter and broader ; head large, with longitudinal striole
on the inner side of the eyes, and a transverse series of large
punctiform impressions on the forehead; thorax cordiform,
covered with striole, which are transverse on the disk, and
longitudinal towards the anterior margin ; a number of long
straight hairs are dispersed on its surface; elytra oval,
covered with strong longitudinal striz, which are very irre-
gularly interrupted laterally and behind ; inferior side of
the body, legs, mouth, and antenne black, the latter hirsute,
except on the basal articles.

New Zealand, Dunedin.

Mecodema Elongatum : length 64’; of a brilliant copper
colour; general form elongated, ‘with the sides almost
parallel : head with two strong impressions in front, and a
transverse band of small punctures behind the eyes ; thorax
rather cordiform, larger than broad, narrower behind, with a
transverse impression on each of the anterior angles, and a
deep elongated one on the posterior ; the surface presents
faint transverse striole, and its posterior part is sometimes
rather ruguous; elytra:long, covered by striz formed of
strong punctures; near the lateral margin is a smooth space,
on the inner side of which extends a longitudinal row of deep
punctiform impressions ; lower side of the body, legs, and
mouth black ; the end of the palpi red ; some long straight —
hairs are dispersed on the elytra, and still more on the thorax.

New Zealand.

Note.—Some specimens in Dr. Howitt’s collection are 4
little narrower than the others; I believe this difference to
be sexual.

Note.—A third form now appears, which is easily distin-
guished by a very large head, and the body considerably
depressed ; the thorax very cordiform; the elytra oval.
These insects are very much like Pereus, and partake also
of Siagona, but are not so depressed ; the labrum is emar o1-

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 163

nated, and the tooth of the mentum strongly bifurcated,
much more go than in the other sorts.

Mecodema Percoides : length 12'-15'; of a brilliant black ;
head and thorax furnished with long brown hair, dis-
persed round their margin; elytra smooth, with very faint
longitudinal strie, visible only laterally, and on their pos-
terior portion ; a series of seven or eight deep punctiform im-
pressions form a longitudinal line on each elytra, at some
distance from the lateral margin; end of the palpi and
trochanters brown. Some specimens have the head much
smaller. I believe them to be females.

Mountains of Tasmania. |

Mecodema Montanum: length 11’; black, brillant ; general
form rather long and narrow; thorax rather cordiform,
truncated in front and behind, with the sides rounded
and becoming narrower toward the back part; an im-
pression is seen near each of the anterior angles, and a
few transverse striole on the surface ; elytra oval, rather long,
covered with feeble longitudinal striz ; a line of deep punc-
tiform impressions follow the margins ; these impressions
- are more numerous on their posterior part; parts of the
mouth, legs, and base of the antennz rather brown ; the
remaining part of the latter hirsute; a few long brown
straight hairs are dispersed on the sides of the head and
thorax.

From the mountains of Victoria.

MAORIA.

This new genus is distinguished from JMecodema by its
palpi, which, instead of being more or less securiform, are
terminated by an oval article ; the tooth of the mentum is
simple and not bilobed ; the legs are stronger, the thighs in-
flated; the front tibize are more strongly palmated, and
those of the other two pair are dilated at their extremity,
and protrude in the form of a strong point; the tibie are
all straight, the anterior armed with two very long spurs on
the inner side ; the mandibule are strong; all the sorts
known are from New Zealand. .

Maoria Tibsalis : length 94° ; black, with a rather brown
tinge ; head smooth, with a transverse depression behind the
eyes; thorax rather cordiform, rounded and marginated
laterally, with the anterior angles rounded and impressed, a
very deep punctiform impression on each of the posterior
angles ; elytra oval, very strongly striato-punctated ; a longi- |

164 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

tudinal series of deep punctiform impressions on the intervals
between the sixth and seventh strie; the lower part of the
margin covered with irregular deep impressions, which cover
also the posterior part of the elytra; some long, straight brown
hairs are scattered over the elytra, and on the margins of the
thorax; thighs, base of the antenne, and mouth, of a reddish
brown.

Common in the mountains which border the Molyneux
River in New Zealand.

Maoria Punctata: length 8'; of a brownish black; general
form long and rather depressed, the sides almost parallel : ;
head with a few longitudinal striole on the inner side of
the eyes, and a transverse line of small punctures on the
forehead ; thorax rather cordiform, almost straight laterally,
with the anterior angles rounded and impressed ; the pos-
terior angles very rounded, sinuous, and having a deep
punctiform impression; the surface presents transverse
striole, and others longitudinal on the posterior margin ;
elytra rather long, parallel, covered with longitudinal strie,
formed of oblong points, rather distant one from the other ;
they have a smooth longitudinal space near the margin ;
lower side of the body and antennz black ; palpi brown.

Mountains of Dunedin (New Zealand).

Maorra Morio : length 64’; very much like the precedent,
but smaller, and of a brilliant dark copper colour ; the elytra
are more regularly punctato-striated ; the general HOVE is
rather more convex and less depressed.

Otago (New Zealand). 4

Maoria Clivinoides: length 64’ ; of a dark brilliant brown;
elongated ; head oval, with a strong transverse impression
behind the eyes ; thorax cordiform, rather longer than broad,
narrower behind, with the sides rounded and marginated ; a
very deep impression at each posterior angle, and a trans-
verse one uniting them ; elytra oval, rather convex, covered
with deep strie, of which those near the sutura are rather
punctated ; a smooth space extends near the margin, and
bears a row of deep punctiform impressions; antenne,
mouth, and tarsi of a brownish red.

This insect has rather the appearance of a large Clivina ;
it was found round Wellington (New Zealand), and was
given to me by Dr. Howitt.

Maoria Dyschirioides: length 64’; of a brownish black,
rather brilliant ; head small and oval, with a, longitudinal
impression near the inside of each eye, and a very strong

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 165

transverse impression on the posterior part; thorax con-
siderably broader than wide ; its greatest breadth being past
one half of its leneth ; it is rounded and marginated laterally,
with the anterior angles rather rounded, and the posterior
_broadlyso; behindthoseangles thethoraxisrather prolongated
forward with a strong sinuosity on each side ; there is a light
transverse impression on the anterior angles, and a strong
rounded one behind ; elytra oval, rather depressed, covered
with striz, very strong near the sutura, and disappearing
almost entirely as they go near to the lateral margin ; legs
and parts of the mouth red; antennee black and hirsute,
except the basal articles, which are brown.

This insect has something of the form of a large Dyscha-
rvs; it is from the Crooked River, in New Zealand.

BRULLEA.

Mentum broad, very deeply emarginated, with a small
bilobated tooth in the centre of the emarginated part; the
wings very large, broad and curved on the external side,
obliquely truncated at their extremity ; palpi with: their
anti-penultimate articles very long and slender; the terminal
long, slender, fusiform, and curved, rounded at its end;
labrum very transversal; mandibule large, strong, carinated,
very prominent, almost straight on their inner side, and
arched externally ; legs short, very strong; thighs largely
inflated, particularly the posterior ; tibize strongly curved in-
ternally, particularly the posterior; they arevery much dilated,
and almost triangular, very rugose, and having externally a
sharp edge; tarsi (the anterior missing in my specimen)
having their four first articles triangular, the first longer
than the others; their inferior side covered with long
straight hair ; antennze short, thick, with the basal article
the largest, the second narrower and a little shorter, the
others granular and hirsute, the last oval; body thick;
head almost square, transversal, much broader than the
mandibule; thorax cordiform, rather depressed, separated
from the body by a pedunculi; elytra oval, broader behind
than in front; posterior trochanters very large, oval, arched,
and pointed. me

This genus, which I dedicate to my friend Aug. Brulle,
a well-known naturalist, comes very near his genus Glyp-
tus, but is distinct by its labrum not being emar-
ginated, and its curved tibie. Its place is evidently near
Mecodema and Maoria, forming the link between them.

166 Notes on Australian Coleoptera

Brullea Antarctica : length 124’; of a dark brown, rather
shiny, smooth; thorax cordiform, rounded laterally ; it
presents a longitudinal sulcate in the middle, and a strong
punctiform one on each of the posterior angles; elytra
covered with strong longitudinal striz ; those nearer to the ~
margin very strongly punctated ; posterior part of elytra
rugose ; on the margin a longitudinal row of very large and
strong punctiform impressions, and another of four similar
ones on the seventh striz; lower side of the body, legs, and
antennee of a reddish brown.

New Zealand, Auckland.

PROMECODERUS.

This form is up to the present entirely particular to
Australia; no sorts having been found even in New Zealand.

Promecoderus Tasmanicus: length 5’; subdepressed ;
black, with a slight brilliant tinge ; head smooth ; thorax
rounded, truncated in front, almost plain, with the lateral
margins rather erected ; it is rather longer than broad, with
the anterior prominent ; it has no longitudinal sulcate in
the middle, but a very faint transverse impression is seen in
front, and another behind; elytra smooth, with rather faint
longitudinal strize, which, seen through a magnifying power,
appear punctated; antennz, palpi, and tarsi of a reddish
brown.

Tasmania.

Note.—Some specimens have the thorax much broader
than others. I suppose this is a sexual character ; this sort
is very distinct from Ovicollis by its depressed thorax, and
the absence of the longitudinal sulcate on it.

Promecoderus Bassi: length 7; of a brilliant black ;
head and thorax generally of a dark metallic green ; head
with a feeble transverse impression behind the eyes, and two
very faint longitudinal ones between them (the latter some-
times obliterated) ; thorax a little broader than wide, convex,
of an oval form, with the anterior part truncated ; 1t has
a longitudinal sulcate in the middle, a very faint transverse
impression in front, and a stronger one behind ; elytra oval,
rather convex, covered with striz, in which faint punc-
tures may be seen; three very deep impressions on the
posterior part of the margin ; lower side of the body black ;
antennze, parts of the mouth and tazsi brown.

From King’s Island, in Bass’s Straits.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 167

Promecoderus Pygmcus: length 32’; elongate, of a brilliant
copper colour ; head with two strong rounded impressions in
front, and a transverse one behind the eyes ; thorax nearly
‘as long as broad, oval, truncated in front, having a faint
longitudinal sulcate in the middle, and _ transverse
impressions in front and behind; elytra long, striated,
with a few deep impressions on the posterior part of the
“margin ; lower side of the body of a brilliant copper colour ;
legs, tarsi, buccal: parts, and the three basal articles of the
antennee of a dark brown; the remaining part of the
antennee black and hirsute ; the thighs black.

From the mountains of Victoria.

Promecoderus Mimutus: length 4°; very much like
Pygmeeus, but broader; thorax more globular, elytra
much more,oval, parts of the mouth, antenne and legs of a
light brown, middle of the thighs black; the lateral im-
pressions of the elytra generally faint ; the general colour
seems to be subject to considerable variations, from light
copper colour to nearly black.

Swan River.

Promecoderus Nigricornis: length 7’; black, brilliant ;
head and thorax of a dark copper colour; head smooth,
with two punctures in front, and a very faint transverse
impression behind the eyes; thorax cordiform, convexed,
impressed transversally in front and behind with a deep
longitudinal sulcate in the middle; on the sides of the
sulcate are faint transverse striole; elytra oval, convex
covered with faint longitudinal striz ; their posterior part is
rather corrugated; their margin has no punctiform im-
pressions, but a short longitudinal sulcate ; the palpi are
brown ; the antennez black, with the external base of the
first three articles of a rather dark brown ; the tarsi have
some long brown hair ; palpi of a dark brown.

Mountains of Victoria.

Promecoderus Maritimus: length 6%’; of a brilliant
black ; head large, with several very faint irrecular im-
pressions in front and between the eyes; a feeble trans-
verse impression behind these organs; thorax oblong,
globular, sub-cordiform, with feeble transverse impressions
in front and behind, and a longitudinal sulcate in the
middle; elytra oval, oblong, convex, covered with rather
faint punctated strie ; the posterior part of the margin has
a few faint punctiform impressions, and a short longitudinal
suleate ; some brown hair on the tarsi; antennze black, with

168 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

the base of the first articles of a dark brown; the palpi of
the latter colour.
On the Sea shore of Cape Schanck (Victoria).

Promecoderus Striato-punctatus: length 74; very
nearly allied to the preceding, but head smaller; elytra
more parallel and cylindrical ; the first article of the
antenne is of a dark brown, the following black, and the
four last of a dark reddish brown ; the general colour is
dark but brilliant, and more or less metallic. _

I have one specimen from the mountains of Victoria,
and another from the Darling River.

Promecoderus Semistriatus: length 64’; of a dark
metallic colour, almost black; head with two slight im-
pressions in front, and a strong transverse one behind ;
thorax longer than broad, rather cordiform, considerably
narrowed behind; it has a strong transverse impression
in front, another behind, and a deep longitudinal sulcate in
the middle ; elytra oval, with strong longitudinal striz near
the sutura, but growing fainter as they are more remote
from it; they entirely disappear before they reach the
margin ; a punctiform impression and a short suleate on the
posterior part of the margin; the inferior side of the
abdomen presents a punctiform impression on each side
of its segments; antennz, palpi, and tarsi, of a reddish
brown.

From Eastern Creek, New South Wales.

Note.—A specimen from Clarence River has the striz
of the elytra more feeble. - 3

Promecoderus Albaniensis: length 5’; black, with a
copper tinge ; head with a transverse impression in front,
and another behind the eyes ; thorax sub-cordiform, with a
longitudinal suleate in the middle, and two transverse
impressions, one near the anterior margin, and the other
behind ; elytra oval, with feeble longitudinal strize, which
disappear towards the sides; a punctiform impression and a
short sulecate on the posterior part of the margin; the
lower side of the body is of a glossy black ; the segments of
the abdomen have a deep punctiform impression on each
side ; labrum black ; antenne, palpi, and tarsi of a dark
brown ; the basal articles of the antenne generally black or
dark. ;

Variety of a copper colour.

Common at King George's Sound.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 169

Promecoderus Scawroides: length 4’—5’ ; black, brillant ;
head smooth, with a most feeble transverse impression
behind the eyes; thorax semicircular, truncated in front,
globular, having two transverse impressions, one in front
and the other behind, and a longitudinal sulcate in the
middle, extending to the posterior margin; elytra oval, with
longitudinal striz, not extending to the lateral margin; a
punctiform impression, and a short longitudinal sulcate on
the posterior part of the margin ; lower side of the body of
a shiny brown ; segments of the abdomen having on each
side a punctiform impression, which extends in the form of
a short oblique sulcate towards the centre; labrum black,
palpi, mandibule, and antenne, brown ; thighs black, with
the tibiz generally brown ; tarsi reddish.

Swan River.

Promecoderus Elegans: length 53’; of a brilliant copper
colour ; head with two punctures in front, and a transverse
impression behind the eyes; thorax cordiform, longer than
broad, strongly sulcated longitudinally in the middle, trans-
versally impressed in front and behind; elytra oval, rather
broad, sub-depressed ; they are covered with strong lon-
gitudinal striz, which do not extend to the margin ;
on the lower part of this margin are one or two
punctures, and a short longitudinal sulcate; lower side of
the body of a green copper colour ; segments of the abdomen
with a punctiform impression on each side ; antennee with
their six first articles of a dark brown, the others of a lighter
colour, and hirsute ; thighs black ; parts of the mouth and
tarsi of a light reddish brown.

From Melbourne.

This insect comes near Gibbus, but is quite different, on
account of its light elegant form, and the elytra much more
oval.

Promecoderus Oblongus : length 64’ ; elongated, with the
sides nearly parallel; of a metallic green; head with two
longitudinal impressions in front, and a transverse one
behind the eyes ; thorax with a strong transverse impression
in front, another behind, and a deep longitudinal sulcate
on the posterior part; the surface is entirely covered with
transverse and sinuous striolee ; elytra oblong, convex, almost
parallel laterally, covered with rather faint longitudinal eleva-
tions on the posterior part of the margin a punctiform
impression and a short longitudinal sulcate ; lower side of the
body, labrum, mandibule, and legs black ; tarsi and antennez

N

170 Notes on Australian Coleopteru.

brown; the basal article of the last red; a punctiform
impression on each side of the abdominal segments.

Melbourne.

Promecoderus Modestus: length 6’; elongated; black ; head
smooth,with a light transverse impression in front, and three
punctiform impressions on the more advanced part; a very
feeble transverse impression behind the eyes ; thorax cordi-
form, much longer than broad, with a deep longitudinal
sulcate in the middle, and two very feeble transverse
impressions, one in front and the other behind; elytra
oblong, elongated, with longitudinal striz, which do not ex-
tend to the lateral margin; on the posterior part of the
latter a puncture and a short oblique sulcate; lower side of the
body of a copper colour; a deep punctiform impression on each
side of the abdominal segments ; legs, labrum, and mandi-
bulze black ; antennz and tarsi brown.

Tasmania.

Promecoderus Neglectus: length 6’; elongated, of ashiny
black ; head with two feeble impressions between the eyes,
and a transverse one behind them; thorax longer than
broad, globular, with a strong longitudinal sulcate in the
middle, and a transverse impression in front and behind ;
elytra elongated, oval, and rather strongly striated ; the striz
becoming feeble towards the lateral margin, but extending
to them, the posterior part of this margin having a punctiform
and a longitudinal impression ; the sides of the elytra are
slightly reticulated ; abdominal seements impressed on each
side ; labrum and mandibule black; palpi, tarsi, and four
first articles of the antennze of a dark brown, the remaining
part of the antenne black.

Mountains of Victoria.

Promecoderus Sutwralis : length 7’; very elongated ; of a
brilliant black, having on the elytra a metallic tinge; head
smooth, very feebly impressed in front, and with’a very
faint transverse impression behind the eyes; thorax longer
than broad, cordiform, globular, covered with transverse
striole, having a strong longitudinal sulcate in the middle,
and a rather deep transverse impression in front and
behind ; elytra long, oblong, convex, attenuated behind,
very smooth, with a rather strong sutural striz, and several
short longitudinal impressions on the basis; on the posterior

part of the margin are three. rather deep impressions ;
abdomen with a strong punctiform impression on each side
of the segments; labrum and mandibule black; palpi

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 171

and antenne brown; the first article of the latter of a
lighter colour ; tarsi brown.

Adelaide. |

Note.—This sort has entirely the form of Gracilis, but
is distinct by its much larger size and its black legs...

Promecoderus Howittis : length 7’; very nearly allied to
Brumcornis, having the same form, but the elytra are
smooth, and have only a sutural stria. This sort is common
round Melbourne. I have preserved the name given to it
by the late Mr. MacLeay in his collection. It is distin-
guished from Concolor by the presence of the sutural strie,
and from Sutwralis by the color, which is generally dull, by
its form, much thicker, and the elytra more rounded behind.

From Melbourne.

Promecoderus Wilcoxw: length 116%’; copper colour; head
with two large rounded impressions in’ front and two punc-
tiform ones between the eyes; thorax globular, with a
strong longitudinal sulcate in the middle, and two feeble
transverse impressions, one in front and the other behind ;
elytra oval, with strong striz, which become very weak
towards the margin; these striz appear punctated when
seen through a magnifying power; on the posterior part of
the margin are three impressions, two being punctiform, and
one linear ; lower side of the body of a green copper colour ;
seoments of the abdomen with a punctiform impression on
each side ; legs of a dark brown, antenne, tarsi, and buccal
parts of a ‘light reddish brown.

Sent by Mr. Wilcox from the Clarence River.

Promecoderus Lucidicollis : length 547; of a shiny black ;
head and thorax of a brilliant copper colour, the latter rather
short and globiform, with the longitudinal sulcate, and the
anterior and posterior transverse impressions strong ; elytra
oval, smooth, with three large impressions on the posterior
part of the margin; sides of the abdominal segments very
strongly impressed ; eos, antenne, and parts of the mouth
of a reddish brown.

Melbourne.

This insect, by the absence of all striz on the elytra can
only be mistaken for Concolor or Gracilis. It is distinct
from the first by its much smaller size, its thorax shorter
and more gibbous, the colour of its legs, &e.; and from
the second by the oval form of its elytra, which are oblong,
and rather parallel in Gracilis. In form it resembles
Bassit.

= N 2

172 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

The sorts of Promecoderus are so nearly allied to one
another, that J think it will be useful to give here a few
distinctive characters of the sorts that I have in my
collection. Some of these characteristic distinctions are
light and even variable, but the general fascies makes it
impossible not to separate the species; in all cases the
eens notes will always considerably help the entomo-
ogist :—

A. Thorax without a longitudinal sulcate (Tasmanicus).
B. Thorax with a longitudinal sulcate in the middle.

a. Hlytra striated.

* The strize punctated.

Head large, elytra oval (Maritimus).

Head ordinary, elytra oblong (Striato-punctatus).

Head ordinary, elytra oval, body black (Bassi).

Head ordinary, elytra oval, body copper colour
(Wilcoxit).

The Strize not punctated. |

e. Basal article of the antenne black or dark.

Ordinary size; elytra oval, with faint strize on
the entire surface (Wigricornis).

Ordinary size, elytra oval, with moderate striz on
the entire surface (Albanensis).

Ordinary size, elytra oval, striz strong, but only
on the sutural half of the elytra (Semistri-
atus).

Ordinary size, dvi oval, striz strong, extending
nearly to the margin (Hlegans).
Ordinary size, elytra oblong, strongly striated

(Neglectus).
Small size, elytra oval (Pygmeus).
Small size, elytra very oblong (Mimutus).
cc. Basal articles of the antenne of a light colour.
Elytra oblong, strize all over the elytra (Oblongus).
Elytra oblong, striz only towards the sutura
(Modestus).

Elytra oval, thorax cordiform, globular, striz of
the elytra strong (Gubbus).

Klytra oval, thorax cordiform, globular, strie of
the elytra very faint, colour black (Scawrordes)..

Hlytra. oval, thorax cordiform, globular, striz of
the elytra very faint, colour metallic (Brunni-
cornis).

eR

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 173

Elytra oval, thorax cordiform (Ovicollis).

Elytra oval, thorax and elytra depressed (Subde-
Pressus).

ad. Klytra smooth.
- Elytra without strize, thighs red—

Elytra oval (Lweidicollis).
Elytra oblong (Gracilis).

Elytra without strie, thighs black (Concolor).

Elytra with a sutural striz, their form attenuated
behind (Suturalis).

Elytra with a sutural strie, their form rounded
behind (Howitti).

PARROA.

Mentum with a very large, deep, broad, and almost square
excavation, without any tooth, its wings large, broad,
rounded externally, pointed at their extremity, straight at
their internal side. Palpi thick, the maxillary having the
first article short, the second long, and rather arched, the
third short and conic, the last being the longest, oval form,
and truncated at its extremity, the labial having a rather

. short basal article, the second long, the third of the same
length, thicker, oval, and truncated at the end. Mandibule
short, thick, arched, and pointed, in great part covered by
the labrum ; the right one has several large teeth, the other
is simple. Labrum large, broad, denticulated in front.
Antenne with their first article large, the second short, the
third the longest and conical, the following of the same form;
the others almost oval form, short, rather rounded, and the
Jast oval and pointed. ‘Tarsi strong, the anterior having
their four first articles triangular, the basal being the
largest ; those of the male more dilated ; all having below

long and strong hair. Head rather large, oval; eyes

'round; thorax rounded laterally, almost globular; elytra

‘oval; legs strong.

These insects are nearly allied to Promecoderus, but very
| distinct by the absence of the tooth to the mentum; their
' size is much larger. :

__ Parroa Howititi: length.12'; of a brilliant black ; thorax

globular, rather cordiform, and prolongated behind, with
the anterior angles advanced and pointed ; it has a longitu-.

‘dinal sulcate in the middle, a strong transverse impression.

| behind, and a very slight one in front; the sutura has trans-.

174 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

verse striole; the sides are very strongly marginated ;
elytra long, smooth, oval; antenne and tarsi rather brown.

From the Paroo River, in the central parts of New
Holland. :

Parroa Grandis: length 13’; black, not very brilliant ;
thorax aimost round, globular, with the anterior angles
rather advanced ; the lateral margins very narrow ; it has a
longitudinal sulcate on the middle, a rather strong transverse
impression behind, and a very faint one in front; elytra oval,
with their posterior. part rather rugous, and (when seen
through a magnifying power) covered with irregular inequa-
lities.

Swan River.

Parroa Violacea: length 10% ; black, not very brilliant,
with a purple tinge, becoming on the elytra of a beautiful
purple ; thorax rounded, globular, with the lateral margins
narrow, and the anterior angles a little advanced; it has a
longitudinal sulcate in the middle, and a transverse impres-
sion in front and behind; its surface is marked with trans-
verse striole, and its posterior margin with longitudinal
ones; elytra having their posterior part rather rugous;
inferior part of the body of a rather brilliant black.

Swan River. | |

Parroa Carbonaria: length 8’; black, brilliant ; very much
like Grandis, but much smaller; elytra smooth, their
surface having a few irregular rugosities only on their terminal
part ; antenne and legs rather reddish.

Swan River.

Parroa Bicolor: length 7’; brilliant, of a fine purple,
with the elytra green; thorax globular, with the margin
green; elytra smooth, with a few granulations on the poste-
rior part of the margin; antennz, mouth and legs black, the

latter with rugous hair,
From the Paroo River; in Dr. Howitt’s collection.

ADOTELA.

The insects on which this new genus is formed, have en- |
tirely the form and characters of Parroa, with the exception
of the palpi, which are all terminated by a large triangular —

article, having the form of a hatchet; the last of the labial

is still larger, and more securiform than the one of the max-
illary. The three first articles of the anterior tarsi have ’

below small spongious brushes.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 175

Adotela Concolor: length 113’; entirely of a rather
brilliant black; thorax globular, but with the sides rather
parallel; it has a longitudinal sulcate in the middle, a trans-
verse impression in front. and behind, and its surface is
covered with small transverse striole; elytra oval, smooth,
except on their extremity, which is rather rugous; a few
deep punctiform impressions are seen on the external
margin.

Swan River.

Adotela Esmeralda: length 9’; same form as the preced-.
ing; of a fine emerald green; head and thorax rather darker;
elytra rather rugous on their posterior part; when seen
through a lense, their surface is seen covered with irregular
but longitudinal inequalities; thighs covered with trans-
verse striole ; lower side of the body almost black; parts of —
the mouth, antennez, and legs of a brownish black.

Swan River; received from the Rev. Mr. Bostock.

CEROTALIS.

The insects forming this genus have entirely the general ap-
pearance of Promecoderus, but have no tooth to the men-
tum, and their anterior tarsi are furnished with spongious
cushions below their four first articles.

This latter character separates them from Parroa, and
their palpi ended by an oval subtruncated article, makes
them easily distinguished from A dotela.

Mr. Lacordaire, in the first volume of his genera, had
already mentioned the necessity of establishing this generic
division for P. Degener.

Cerotalis Seminiolacea: length 82°; of a dark copper
colour on the upper side, and of a fine deep purple below;
elytra smooth, with a few large, irregular, and punctiform
impressions on the posterior part, near the margin; legs
black; palpi brown; antenne and tarsi with hair of the
same colour.

Port Lincoln, South Australia.

Cerotalis Substriata: length 73’; same colour as preced-
ing; elytra covered with rather faint longitudinal ridges,
forming irregular striz ; the punctiform marginal impressions
of the elytra generally deeper. |
- King George’s Sound.

Cerotalis Versicolor: length 7’; of a rather dark green ;
thorax covered with transverse striole and the elytra with

176 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

feeble punctated strize; a few punctures, larger than the others,

are irregularly dispersed in these strize; on the posterior

part of the margin a few punctiform impressions; mouth,

antennz, inferior side of the body and legs of a reddish

brown. .
Victoria, in Dr. Howitt’s collection.

Oratoceride.

No Australian Carabide had till lately been placed in this
family, but Forticosomus belongs to it, the anterior tarsi of
the males being very little more dilated than those of the
females ; as also a new genus formed ona large insect previ-
ously described by White as a Feronia. The Acinopus
Australis of Hope is very nearly allied to the latter, but the
squamule of its tarsi make it necessary to leave it among
Harpalide.

This family of Cratoceride is a most unnatural and artifi-
cial division.

I have also placed here as an Amblygnathus, an insect, of
which more specimens must be examined before its definitive
place can be ascertained.

TEROPHA.

Mentum broad, transverse, very strongly emarginated,
having in its centre a strong bifid tooth; the wings very
long, rounded externally, pointed at the extremity, and cut
rather obliquely on the inner side. Labrum quadrilateral,
transverse; mandibule very long, inflexed downwards,
arched, rounded externally, pointed at the extremity,
straight, or rather emarginated inside. They are strong,
and carinated at the base. Palpi: the maxillary long, rather
slender, having their first article short, the second the longest,
the third conical, and the last rather inflexed and rounded at
the extremity; the labial with the first very small, the
second very long, and the third truncated at the extremity ;
trochanters of the posterior pair very long, attenuated poste-
riorly, curved and pointed at the apex. Antenne rather
short, growing more attenuated from the base to the extre-
mity ; first article large, second and fourth equal, third
larger; head very large, inflexed downwards; thorax
large, longer than broad, with the sides almost straight ; it
is broader in front than behind; the anterior margin is
emarginated, and the posterior angles are acute; scutellum

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 177

short and transverse; elytra broader than the thorax, with
the anterior angles carinated, they are oval and depressed ;
legs rather strong; anterior tibize terminated by a spine,
and having another on the upper part of their emargination,
which is short. Tarsi not sensibly dilated in the male, with
the first article rather long, the three following short and
triangular ; those of the anterior part having below some
hard hair, but neither lamellze nor brushes.

The only known sort belonging to this genus, is the
Platysma Flindersii of White, of which his Sturti is only
a mere variety.

This beautiful insect is found but rarely in South Aus-
tralia. I have received one specimen from the Rev. Dr.
Bostock, as having been taken on the Swan River.

FORTICOSOMUS.

The formation of this genus is due to Mr. Schaum
(“* Journ. of Entomology”). It is formed on an insect Felix,
which is not uncommon in Victoria, and extends itself in
the interior at least as far as the Darling River and Cooper’s
Creek.

The following species appear to belong to the same genus
which, by its tarsi being very dilated in the male, and without
lamellze, can only be placed in this family. |

Forticosomus Grandis: length 9’; of a brilliant brownish
black; headlarge, and bi-impressed between the eyes; thorax
much broader in the front than behind, rounded laterally,
with the anterior angles prominent, and the posterior ones
well marked. Tke lateral margin becomes very broad
towards the posterior angles; the transverse impression in
front is pretty well marked, and another is seen backwards ;
the longitudinal suicate moderate ; the elytra are broad, de-
pressed, striated, and impressed laterally ; the humeral
angles rather rounded.

From Cooper’s Creek.

This insect differs from Felix by its much greater size,
and the form of the posterior angles of the thorax.

Forticosomus Rotundypennis: length 44; of a dark,
glossy brown ; head with two short and feeble impressions
between the eyes ; thorax transverse, broader in front than
behind, with the sides rather rounded, and all the angles
well marked; elytra broad, rather short, rounded laterally,

178 Notes on Australian “Coleoptera.

feebly striated; posterior half of the margin impressed ;
abdomen, legs, palpi, and antennz yellow.
Paroo River, in the interior of New Holland.

Forticosomus Lateralis : length 3’ ; of a dark brown, with
a broad yellow border round the elytra; head very lightly
impressed between the eyes; thorax transverse, very
rounded laterally, with the anterior angles rounded, and the
posterior ones very little marked; there is no longitudinal
sulcate, but in front and behind a feeble transverse impres-
sion; elytra rather oblong, rounded, having their disk-
covered with punctated striz, the margins being smooth;
lower side of the body of a light reddish brown; legs, parts
of the mouth and antennee of a light yellow.

Paroo River.

Forticosomus Minutus : length 24’; very much like the
precedent, but the elytra more oblong, with the sides
parallel; the punctated striz very feeble, but extending
nearly to the margin. The insect is of a reddish brown,
with the elytra darker, but having the humeral angles of a
dark red.

Paroo River.

Forticosomus Edel: length 94’; of a shiny brown;
head with two feeble and oblique impressions in front;
thorax transverse, rather cordiform, rounded laterally, with
the posterior angles obtuse, and the anterior acute ; all its
impressions are very faint; elytra depressed, truncated
in front, margined with rather weak striz, the intervals
between which are flat and not convex; the margin is feebly
impressed.

From Swan River.

Forticosomus Nuytsii: length 7’;-of a brilliant. black ;
head with two large, but not deep punctiform impressions
between the eyes; thorax short, transverse, cordiform; the
anterior angles advanced and rather rounded, the posterior
almost straight, or very little obtuse; the impressions are
moderately marked, and on the posterior margin are nume-
rous but faint longitudinal striole; elytra broad, with the
humeral angles acute; they are rather deeply striated, and
their margin is impressed ; lower side of the body, legs, an-
tenne, and palpi, of a reddish brown.

Nicol Bay, Western Australia.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 179

AMBLYGNATHUS.

It is with some hesitation that I place the following species
in this genus, having only one specimen of it, which may
be a female.

Ambygnathus Minutus: length 2’; of a brilliant copper
colour; head very large, with no longitudinal impressions, but
two punctiform ones between the eyes; thorax semicircular,
truncated in front,with theanterioranglesadvanced, and havin
a broad lateral margin; on the middle is a light longitudinal
sulcate; elytra oblong, rather short, depressed, with the
humeral angles rounded ; they are feebly striated, and their
margin is strongly emarginated near the end ; the thighs are
black ; tibie, tarsi, and palpi brown; antennze black, with
the first article red.

King George’s Sound.

Anisodactylide.

Two Australian genera have been placed in this family,
Loxomerus and Lecanomerus ; the first is a curious insect
from New Zealand, having much resemblance with Nebria ;
the second has the general appearance of Stenolophus.

The continent of Australia has also another insect which
has much more the appearance of a Nebria than the one I
have just mentioned ; it forms a new genus,

NEBRIOSOMA,

Which differs from Loxomerus principally by the absence
of a tooth to the mentum; this organ is transverse, very
strongly emarginated, the wings are rounded ; the palpi are
long, with the first and third articles short, the second and
fourth long, the latter truncated at the apex ; the maxillee
are slender, elongated, arched, ciliated inside; the labrum
very short and transverse; the tarsi have their first article
longer than the following, the second, third and fourth are
triangular, the last long and slender, the anterior tarsi are
shorter and broader than the others; antenne long and
slender, with the first article stronger than the others, the
- second is rather shorter than the following.

The characters of this genus are otherwise the same as
those of Loxomerus.

Nebriosoma Fallax: length 4’; head short, eyes prominent,

180 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

two strong impressions between the eyes; thorax short,
transverse, cordiform, strongly marginated laterally, it has
a transverse impression in front, a longitudinal sulcate in
the middle, and two broad impressions behind; elytra
broader than the thorax, depressed, bearing striz which do —
not extend over the posterior part nor towards the margin ;

a strong punctiform impression is seen on the third strie
at about the fourth part of the length of the elytra, a stria
slightly impressed follows the margin. The colour is of a
dark bronze, almost black, with the tarsi, the palpi, and the
antenne of a dark brown.

This rare insect was found by Dr. Howitt at Kiama, in
New. South Wales.

Harpalide.

In this family we have been obliged to form a new genus
from an insect described, many years since, by Hope as an
Acmmopus.

SECATOPHUS.

This genus is formed on Acinopus Australis of Hope,
and is in fact very nearly allied to Acinopus.

The principal differences consist in the labrum, which is
transverse, but not emarginated and in the palpi much stronger
and more broadly truncated at the extremity; the head is
equally large in both sexes, and the posterior thighs are
very long and strong, particularly in the male, they always
extend as far as the extremity of the elytra.

This genus has many points of similarity to the one re
have called Teropha.

This genus is formed on the Acinopus Australis of Hope,
which comes from South Australia. The following seems to
be distinct :—

Secatophus Hoper : length 94’; same coloration as Australis
but thorax more attenuated behind; elytra oval, depressed,
much broader than the thorax at the basis; they are covered
with rather deep strive, on the third of which are three
punctiform impressions, one on the third of the length, the
second on the middle, and the third towards the two-thirds
of the length. 7

Adelaide.

HARPALUS.

This genus is dispersed all over the globe, and the
number of its species must be very considerable. It is as

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 181

well represented in Australia as it is in Europe, but till this
day few species have been described. I have observed that
almost all the Australian sorts have the palpi pointed at the
extremity, but all their other characters being those of
Harpalus, and the passage being insensible, it does not
appear advisable to separate them from that genus.

Dejean’s Species only contains six—Pulcher, Melanarius,
Lucidicollis, Hreus, Australis and Australasice.

Germar, in his paper on the insects of Adelaide (* Linnxa
Entomologica”), only adds one new species, nornatus.

Hrichson gives three from Tasmania (“ Archiv fur Natur-
geschichte,’ 1), Verticals, Promptus, Vestigialis.

Mr. MacLeay, junr., in the “ Transactions of the Entomo-
logical Society of New South Wales,” No. 2, adds three ‘
more, Interstitialis, Picipes, and Plavipalpis.

Mons. Boisduval, in his “Faunede!l’Oceanie,’ addsone, Gory.

This would carry the number of the described sorts to
fourteen, but Jnterstitialis seems to be the same as Pulcher,
and so this number is restricted to thirteen. In the present
paper I describe fifty-three new sorts, which carry the total
number to sixty-six.

Europe has about one hundred and forty sorts, but if we
consider how difficult is the study of this genus, and how
few specimens are usually taken by collectors, on account of
the great resemblance the sorts bear to each other, and also
the very smali part of Australia that has been explored, we
will come to the conclusion that an equal number at least
will, in all probability, be discovered in this part of the
world. No species of the section Ophonus has, till this day,
been found in New Holland.

Hurpalus Interioris: length 4’; short; of a dark brown,
rather brilliant ; head large, with a strong transverse impres-
sion in front, ending at each end by a punctiform one;
thorax semispheric, truncated in form, the posterior angles
almost rounded ; its surface presents a very faint transverse
line in front, a faint, short longitudinal line in the centre,
and a weak transverse line behind; elytra rather short,
broader than the thorax, covered with striae, the first of
which bifurcates in front, near the scutellum; a series of
impressions follow the margin ; lower side of the body of a
dark yellow, with the abdomen brown; legs, parts of the
mouth, and base of the antennze yellow, the remaining of
these brown. :

_ Paroo River.

182 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

This insect belongs to the section Pangus.

Harpalus Waterhousii : length, 42’; very much like the
precedent, but the thorax still more rounded at the posterior
angles, the longitudinal line also very faint, but no posterior

impressions ; the entire surface is marked with transverse ©

striole, the spines of the tibise very strong; the colour is
sometimes dark, but often of a light brown.

Adelaide.

Harpalus Thouzeti: length 6’; oval, rather depressed ;
black, rather brilliant; head with two slight punctiform
impressions in front, united by a transverse line; thorax
quadrangular, rather transverse, with the angles rather
rounded ; it is smooth with the longitudinal line, the anterior
transverse one, and the two posterior impressions very little
marked ; elytra broader than the thorax, depressed, much
less brilliant than the thorax, having longitudinal striz, on
the third of which a punctiform impression is seen behind ;
a short abbreviated striz near the sutura, and a series of
very feeble impressions on the posterior part of the margin ;
lower side of the body and legs of a brilliant black; a feeble
impression on each side of the abdominal segments ; antennze
black, with the basal article brown; palpi of the latter
colour.

Common at Rockhampton. I have also a few specimens
from Port Denison.

Harpalus Rotundicollis: length 5’; form elongated, of a
dark brown, rather brilliant ; head smooth with two puncti-

form impressions in front; thorax semicircular, rather
emarginated in front, rounded and laterally, narrower behind

than in front, with all the angles rounded, the lateral
margins are broad, the surface is covered with small transverse
striole, on the centre a slight longitudinal sulcate, and a
feeble transverse impression in front and behind; elytra
strongly striated, a series of impressions on, the posterior
part of the margin; legs, antenne and parts of the mouth
of a light orange colour.

Note.—There is sometimes a punctiform impression on
the back part of the interval between the second and third
strie, but generally there is none. |

This insect appears to inhabit a great portion of the
Australian continent. I have it from the Paroo River,

Rockhampton (Queensland), the Murray, Melbourne, Ade- ©

laide, and Swan River; the thorax of this insect has the

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 183

form of the one of Ophonus, but it is devoid of the punc-
tures which characterise that division ; it belongs to Pangus.

Harpalus Denisonensis: length 52’; very nearly allied
to Thouzeti, but much larger, entirely black, without any
brilliancy ; thorax larger, broader, with the anterior angles
more advanced, and the impressions deeper ; legs black, the
three first articles of the antenne brown, the others lighter
and hirsute; tarsi and palpi brown.

Port Denison. |

Harpalus Patrueloides: length 42’; very nearly allied to
Patruelis, of the same size; thorax a little larger and a
little narrower in front, the anterior angles not quite so
much advanced; elytra a little broader than the thorax,
more oval than in Patruelis with the impressions of the
margin more strongly marked; the legs are black, with the
base of the tibiz red; antenne, parts of the mouth and tarsi
of a brownish red; the insect is of a bronze metallic colour,
sometimes very obscure.

New South Wales and Victoria.

Harpalus Melbowrnensis: length 4’; body oval, rather
depressed; head rather elongated, very feebly impressed in
front; thorax rather transverse, narrower in front than ~
behind, rounded laterally, with the anterior angles rather
advanced, slightly obtuse and rather rounded ; the anterior
transverse impression and the longitudinal line of the centre
very slightly marked, the two posterior impressions elongated
and rather deep; elytra oval, rather broad, with striz, the
intervals of which are flat; an abbreviate striz near the
scutellum ; a longitudinal series of four or five deep puncti-
form impressions on the third lateral margin, strongly
impressed. ‘The general colour is of a dark brilliant brown;
the elytra are bronzed, lower side of the body, legs, parts of
the mouth and antenne brown.

Melbourne.

Note.—This insect is nearly allied to Paroensis, but it is
distinguished by its brilliant appearance; the elongated form
of the posterior thorax, the depth of the impressions, the
punctiform impressions of the elytra much larger, &c.

’ Harpalus Oblonguisculus: length 4} to 5’; body oblong,
with the sides almost parallel, of a dark brown, rather
brilliant; head faintly impressed between the eyes ; thorax
almost square, rather rounded, and marginated laterally with
the longitudinal sulcate, the anterior transverse impressions,
and the two rounded posterior ones well marked; elytra

184 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

rather long, parallel, striated, with a very short extra strie
near the scutellum; a punctiform impression is seen behind
between the second and third striz, and a series of impres-
sions extend near the margin, more numerous on the posterior
half of its length ; legs black ; tarsi, antennee and palpi brown.

Brisbane. |

Harpalus Punctiferus: length 44’; oval, sub-depressed ,;
dark brown ; head and thorax rather brilliant, the first with
two rather strong punctiform impressions between the eyes ;
thorax transverse, rounded and marginated laterally, with the
anterior angles prominent; the anterior margin rather
advanced and rounded in the middle, posterior angles
rounded, the thorax impressions pretty strong ; elytra oval,
rather depressed, not brilliant, striated, a short extra strie
near the scutellum, between the first and second strize; eight
to ten punctiform impressions dispersed on each elytra, more
particularly between the second and third, and fourth and
fifth striz ; a series of impressions extending only on the
posterior half of the margin, lower side of the body brilliant,
a punctiform impression on each side of the abdominal
segments ; legs, parts of the mouth, and first three articles of
the antennez of a light brownish red, the remaining part of
the antenne rather darker.

Brisbane.

Note.—This insect is very nearly allied to Mr. MacLeay’s
Picipes, but is more depressed and of a dull color.

Harpalus Paroensis: length 34’; this insect is very
nearly allied to Punctiferus, and differs only by its smaller
size, and the elytra having only one series of punctiform
_ impressions between the second and third strie.

From the Paroo River.

Harpalus Rugosipennis: length 53°; of a dull black ;
head large, round, feebly impressed in front; thorax trans-
versal, a little narrower in front than behind, with the sides
rounded ; there is a longitudinal suleate in the middle and a
strong impression near each of the four angles; the whole
surface is unequal and covered with a strong puncturation,
better marked on the sides than towards the centre; elytra
broader than the thorax, rather depressed, covered with
- narrow strie, the sutural one bifurcated in front; the entire
surface is covered with large, irregular impressions; under
side of the body and legs of a rather brilhant black ;
antenne and parts of. the mouth black.

Melbourne.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 185

Harpalus Sculptipennis: length 43’; black, brilliant,
rather bronzed; head nearly smooth; thorax transverse,
quadrilateral, with the front angles rounded, and the posterior
ones straight; the front transverse impression very feeble, the
_sulcate moderate, the two posterior impressions rather short
but deep, the lateral margin becoming much broader towards
the posterior angles; elytra oblong, striated, with an abbre-
viated striz near the scutellum ; the intervals of the elytra
covered with very numerous impressions; the elytra are
very strongly emarginated near their extremity, and the
margins are more densely impressed than the surface ; the
extremity of the palpi and the first article of the antennz of
a reddish brown.

King George’s Sound.

Harpalus Sculpturalis: length 32’; very much like the
precedent, but smaller and of a copper colour; the thorax is
more rounded laterally; tibie and tarsi of a reddish
brown, with the apex of the former black; two first articles

of the antennez red ; palpi variegated with red and black.

King George’s Sound and Swan River.

Harpalus Incequalipennis : length 5’; black; head large,
rounded, rugous; thorax short, transverse, rather cordiform,
rounded laterally, with the posterior angles rather obtuse ;
it 1s narrower in front than behind; entirely rugous, with a
feeble transverse impression in front, a moderate longitudinal
sulcate on the centre, and two strong and elongated impres-

sions behind; elytra broader than the thorax, oblong, de-
pressed, very strongly emarginated ‘at their posterior part;
striated and covered with very irregular impressions; lower
side of the body and legs of a more brilliant black than the
upper side.

King George’s Sound and Swan River.

Harpalus Alternans: length 6’; black; head large,
rounded, strongly impressed in front; thorax a little broader
than long, rounded laterally, with the anterior angles rather
advanced, and the posterior ones obtuse and lightly directed
upwards; the anterior transverse impression is very feeble, the
sulcate moderately marked; the posterior impressions feeble
and elongated; elytra oblong, rather broader than the thorax,
very strongly emarginated externally near the apex; they
are striated; behind the sutural striz is an abbreviated one
which extends to about the first fourth of the total length of
the elytra. On theintervals between the second, third, fourth,
fifth, sixth, and seventh striz are series of strong punctiform

o

186 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

impressions, which extend on all the length; the margin
is also similarly impressed ; lower side of the body and legs
of a brilliant black; antennez black.

One single specimen of this insect was found near Bris-
bane, by Dr. Howitt. |

Harpalus Montanus: length 54’; black, with a very
faint shiny tinge; almost as long as broad, with the sides
rounded; the longitudinal sulcate, front transverse impression,
and the two elongated posterior ones, rather feebly marked ;
the lateral sides of the thorax not sensibly bordered; elytra
a little broader than the thorax, oval, rather depressed,
striated; having a series of six to eight punctiform impres-
sions between the second and third striz ; a series of impres-
sions extend near the margin on the posterior half of its
length; the thighs are black, the tibie aud tarsi of a
brownish red, the same as the antenne and palpi.

Pine Mountains, near Ipswich, in Queensland.

Harpalus Invpressipenmas : length 43’; of a dark bronzed
colour; head rather large, having in front two punctiform
impressions united by a transverse line; thorax transverse,
rounded laterally, with the angles rather rounded; a feeble
transverse impression in front, a weak longitudinal sulcate
in the centre, and behind two impressions feebly marked, but
broad; elytra oval, rather depressed, striated; the ab-
breviated stria of the basis well marked; five punctiform im-
pressions on the third striz, three or four between this and
the second on the posterior part of the elytra, and from
three to five on the fifth strize; a series of impressions on
the margin; lower side of the body black, legs, palpi, and
first article of the antennz brown; remaining articles of the
last obscure.

Rockhampton. Found by Mr. Thouzet.

Harpalus Rana: length 44°; broad; black; head large,
feebly impressed; thorax broad, rather short, very much
rounded laterally, as broad in front as behind; posterior
angles obtuse; the transverse impressions in front hardly
visible ; the longitudinal sulcate moderately marked, but the
two posterior impressions strongly so; elytra oval, broad,
striated ; the abbreviated striz very short, the margin feebly
impressed in front and behind; lower side of the body more
brilliant than the upper surface; legs black, palpi red; first
article of the antennze of the latter colour; the three fol-
lowing black and shiny, the others brown and hirsute.

Melbourne. |

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 187

Harpalus Wilcoxii: length 52’; very much like Striato-
punctatus, Gyl. (Quadripunctatus, Dej.), and of the same
size and general form, but has, generally, no punctiform im-
pressions on the elytra; thorax a little longer and not quite
so broad.

The insect is of a brilliant black with the exception of the
elytra, which are opac; antennze brown, with the first article
lighter; palpi of the last colour; legs black, with brown
hair on the tarsi.

Brisbane, Clarence River and Sydney.

Harpalus Edwardsii: length 5’; very nearly allied to
Infelvx, but the thorax is broader; the posterior impressions
are more deeply marked; elytra more feebly so.

The insect is of a dark eneus green, with a bluish tinge;
the lower side of the body and legs black; the antennz
very dark, with the first and the last articles red; palpi of
the latter colour.

Given to me by Mr. Edwards, who found it near Mel-
bourne.

Harpalus Vandiemenensis: length 5’; oval; of a dark -
copper colour; head rounded, very feebly impressed ; thorax
rather transversal, a little broader behind than in front, with
the sides and angles rather rounded ; it bears no appearance
of the anterior transverse impression, but the longitudinal
sulcate, and the two posterior impressions are moderately
marked; the two latter are united by a transverse line;
elytra oval, striated ; an abbreviated strize, and a faint impres-
sion on each side near the scutellum; a punctiform impres-
sion behind, between the second and third striz, the
lateral margin impressed; lower side of the body and thighs
black ; tibize, tarsi, palpi, and antennee red, the second, third
and fourth articles of the latter in part black.

Tasmania.

Harpalus Planovmpressus : length 44’; oval; head feebly
impressed ; thorax transverse, rounded laterally, with the
anterior angles rather advanced, the posterior ones rather
rounded; impressions moderately marked; elytra oval,
rather depressed, with strize, the intervals of which are plane ;
an abbreviated stria near the scutellum; the intervals
between the second, third, and fourth strize covered with
light but rather broad flattened impressions, extending over
the two anterior thirds of the length; margin impressed on
its posterior half.

The insect is of a dark metallic brown ; the elytra rather

0 2

188 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

copper colour; lower side of the body, legs, antenne, and
parts of the mouth of a reddish brown.

Brisbane.

Harpalus Peronw: length 32’; oval, depressed ; head

feebly impressed ; thorax transversal, with the sides rounded ;

it is about as broad in front as it is behind; the anterior
angles are rather advanced, 'the posterior ones obtuse ; on the
anterior margin are a few longitudinal striole, very faintly
marked ; the anterior impression is feeble; no longitudinal
sulcate visible ; two rather strongly marked rounded impres-
sions behind; elytra broader than the thorax; oval, with
rather feeble striz, the intervals of which are flat ; a small
abbreviated stria near the scutellum, united with the second
stria ; margin impressed. |

The insect is black, with the thorax of a dark copper
colour; the tibize and three first articles of the antenne
red.

King George’s Sound.

Harpalus Plindersi : length 34’ to 4 ; body oblong ; head
large, with the two front punctiform impressions well marked
elongated and united by a transverse line; thorax rather
transverse, very much rounded laterally, with the angles
also rounded ; the front impression and the longitudinal one
very feeble, but the two posterior impressions strong; elytra
with striz much deeper towards the extremity than on the
other part ; a very short abbreviated one near the scutellum ;
impressions on the anterior part and on the posterior half of
the margin; posterior tibize curved. The colour is a dark
shining brown ; lower side of the body of a dark red; legs,
antenne, palpi, yellow ; mandibule brown, with their ex-
tremity red.

Rockhampton.

Note.—On most specimens there is on each elytra, back-
wards and between the fourth and fifth strie, a longitudinal
depression.

Harpalus Quadraticollis: length 4)’; ofa brilliant black ;
head oval, with two punctiform impressions in front of the
eyes; thorax almost square but rather cordiform, a little
broader in front than behind; the sides are rounded, the
anterior angles also, the posterior ones straight ; the anterior

transverse impression is feeble, but the longitudinal sulcate

and the two posterior impressions are very deep; elytra oval,
considerably broader than the base of the thorax, covered
with deep longitudinal striz, the intervals of which are con-

oi

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 189

vex ; two punctiform impressions on the posterior part of the
second stria; the margin is impressed; lower side of the
body very brilliant ; abdominal segments strongly impressed
on each side ; legs, palpi, and Jabrum brown; antenne brown,
hirsute, except on the first four articles.

Sydney and Brisbane (Queensland).

Harpalus Marginicollis: length 32’; elongated; of a
dark bronzed colour, almost black, and brilliant; head smooth,
with two very faint impressions in front; thorax rather
transverse, with the sides rounded, the anterior angles
advanced, the posterior angles almost straight and rather
rounded ; itis rather broader behind than in front, the lateral
margin is yellow; elytra depressed, oval, striated, with
intervals between the striz plane; a series of seven or
eight punctiform impressions extends between the second
and third stria, and one single impression appears on the
interval between the fourth and fifth, near the middle of the
length; a series of impressions extends on the second half
of the margin; lower side of the body black and brilliant,
as are also the thighs ; tibiz, tarsi, palpi, and basal article of
the antenne of a light brown, remainder of the latter dark.

Melbourne. |

Harpalus Velox: length 24’; form oval, of a green
metallic colour; head with two punctiform impressions in
front of the eyes; thorax transverse, with the sides: very
rounded, the anterior angles almost straight, the posterior
rather rounded, the anterior transverse, and the central
longitudinal impressions very feeble, the two posterior ones
strongly marginated ; in some specimens a third impression
appears in the middle of the posterior part of the margin ;
elytra oval, subdepressed, having strize which do not extend
to the lateral margin but leaving a space smooth; the
sutural stria flexuous towards the scutellum, but the abbre-
viated stria of that part generally missing; a punctiform
impression behind, between the second and third strie;
the posterior part of the margin marked with impressions ;
lower side of the body and thighs black ; tibize, palpi, and
antenne brown, first article of the latter lighter.

Melbourne, common.

Harpalus Yarre: length 32’; general form short and
thick ; of a rather brilliant black ; head rather large, very
feebly impressed in front; thorax transversal, very rounded
laterally, with the anterior angles rather prolongated and
impressed, the posterior ones well marked, the longitudinal

190 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

sulcate and the two posterior impressions also rather deep ;
elytra rather short, broad and depressed, covered with striz,
the intervals of which are not convex; a rather irregularly
situated punctiform impression between the second and third
stria, much nearer to the first of the two; a very short
abbreviated stria near the scutellum; a line of impressions
on the lateral margin; lower side of the body and thighs of
a brilliant black ; tibiee of a very dark brown; tarsi of a

lighter colour; antennee of a dark brown; palpi rather
reddish.

Melbourne.

Note.—I have preserved the name under which this
insect is distinguished in various collections; I believe it is
attributed to Mr. MacLeay. It is nearly allied to Dejean’s
Ayreus, and still more so to Germar’s /nornatus, but its
thorax is much broader, and the elytra more strongly
striated.

Harpalus Kreftii: length 42’; general form rather broad;
of a brilliant black ; head and thorax of a dark copper colour,
head rather large, strongly bi-impressed between the eyes ;
thorax transversal, with the anterior angles very rounded,
and the posterior rather obtuse ; it has on its centre a feeble
longitudinal sulcate, near its anterior margin an equally
feeble transverse impression, and behind two deep rounded
impressions; elytra broad, of a purple black, sinuous at
their extremity, covered with striee, the intervals of which are
not elevated; no abbreviated stria, but a light impression
in the place where it generally meets the sutural stria; a
series of strong impressions on the posterior half of the
margin ; legs black, the posterior thighs inflated, and forming
below a rather strong angle; tibia of the same pair very
strongly curved; tarsi, palpi, and antenne brown.

Port Denison.

Named in honor of the learned curator of the New South
Wales Museum. :

Harpalus Germari: length 5°; very nearly allied to
Serripes, and of the same size and general oval and convex-
form; the thorax a little narrower, the strie deeper, more
particularly at their posterior part; no punctiform impres-
sion is seen on the back part of the interval between the
second and thirdstrie; colour black, sometimes with a dark
metallic tinge; extremity of the palpi and first article of
the antenne yellow.

Melbourne.

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 191

Harpalus Erichsons: length 5%’; size and general form
of Cupreus, Dej.; head with two slight impressions before
the eyes; thorax almost square, rather transversal, narrow-
ing a little in front, and rounded towards the anterior angles;
the longitudinal central sulcate is very feeble, as also the
transverse anterior impression ; the two longitudinal impres-
sions of the posterior margin better marked, the posterior
angles straight; elytra oblong, of the breadth of the thorax,
covered with strong strize, of which the sutural one 1s rather
rounded near the scutellum; between that stria and the
second, in the same part, is a short oblique line; a faint
punctiform impression is generally seen between the second
and third interval on its posterior part; a series of deep -
impressions extends on the posterior half of the margin.

The insect is sometimes of a brilliant black, and sometimes
of a copper colour; the legs are black; the antenne of
a dark brown, with the first article palpi and tarsi of a light
colour.

Melbourne.

Harpalus Ranula: length 34’; body short and broad, of
a very brilliant black; head rounded, feebly impressed ;
thorax broad, rather short, very rounded laterally, a little
narrower in front than behind, with the posterior angles
obtuse and rather rounded; the front transverse impression,
the longitudinal one, and the two posterior, are moderately
marked ; between the two last are one or several transverse
impressions; elytra broad, oval, rather convex, covered with
strize, the sutural of which is rather arched in front, but
there is no abbreviated stria, the intervals of the strize are
plane, till towards the end, where they become convex; no
punctiform impressions on the elytra, with the exception of
the margin, which has a series of considerable ones; lower
side of the body, legs and antenne brown; first article of the,
latter and palpi yellowish.

Melbourne. ;

Harpalus Tasmanicus: length 4’; general form rather
broad; head rather large, with two small punctiform impres-
sions, united by a faint transverse line in front; thorax
short, transverse, rounded laterally, considerably narrowed
posteriorly, with the posterior angles straight, the anterior
rounded ; it has a strong transverse impression in front, a
longitudinal sulcate in the centre, and two well-marked
impressions behind; elytra oval, rather short, deeply
striated; no abbreviated stria near the scutellum; a puncti-

192 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

form impression behind, between the second and third striz;
margin impressed on all its length; abdominal segments
very feebly impressed laterally; the entire insect is black,
with the extremity of the palpi and the first article of the
antennee of a brownish red.

Tasmania.

Harpalus Amaroides: length 432’; copper colour, rather
brilliant and smooth; head very feebly impressed in front;
thorax large, almost quadrilateral, with the sides nearly
straight ; it is rather transverse, a little broader behind than
in front, with the angles rounded; all the impressions are
visible, but very feebly marked; elytra large, broad,
depressed, sinuated behind, striated with an abbreviated stria,
near the scutellum; the intervals between the striz are
very plane,a very faint punctiform impression behind, between
the second and third striz, a line of impressions on the
margin ; those impressions very large on the posterior part ;
lower side of the body and legs black, tibie, tarsi, and
antenne, of a reddish brown.

Brisbane, Queensland.

Harpalus Infelia: length 42’; of a rather brilliant black;
general form oblong; head with two strong punctiform
impressions united by a transverse line in front; thorax
almost square, long, very little transverse, rounded laterally,
rather narrower behind than in the middle, but broader
than in front; anterior angles advanced, posterior ones
rather rounded ; all the thoracic impressions feebly marked ;
elytra rather strongly striated, with an abbreviated stria near

the scutellum ; a punctiform impression behind, between the.

second and third striz; the series of marginal impressions

strongly marked on the posterior half of the elytra; tarsi,
alpi and antenne brown, the second, third and fourth
articles of the latter in great part dark, and almost black.

Rockhampton, Queensland.

Harpalus Lapeyrousii: length 5’; black, oblong; head
rather large, with the frontal punctiform impressions pro-
longated transversely backwards, so as almost to meet
each other; thorax rather transversal, about as broad
behind as in front, with the sides rounded, the anterior
angles rather advanced, and the posterior ones almost
straight; no front transverse line, but the longitudinal one
and the posterior impressions moderately marked; elytra
rather oblong, sinuated behind, they are covered with rather
strong strie, the abbreviated one well marked, and joining the

=

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 193

sutural, a punctiform impression a little behind the middle,
between the second and third striz, the margin impressed
at.the base, and on the posterior half; lower side of the
body black and brilliant; legs, antenne, and parts of the
mouth black.

Sydney.

Harpalus Couw: length 32’; size and general form of
Ambigquus ; of a dark copper green; head rather large, with
two punctiform impressions in front, united by a transverse
line ; thorax transverse, very rounded laterally, having a
transverse impression in front, a longitudinal sulcate in the
middle moderately marked, and two impressions behind,
strongly so; elytra broader, than the thorax, rather short,
depressed, covered with strive, the intervals of which are
not elevated ; a short one near the scutellum; a feeble punc-
tiform impression is seen behind on the inner side of the
second stria, and a line of impressions extends along the
margin; lower side of the body black and brilliant, the
abdominal segments impressed laterally ; legs, antenne and
palpi of a dark brown.

Clarence River.

Named in honor of Dr. Cox, of Sydney.

Harpalus Kingw : length 34’; about the size of Alpestris
Redt. ; form rather broad and depressed ; of a dark brilliant
brown, sometimes rather zneus ; head rather large, slightly
impressed in front; thorax transverse, rather quadrangular,
with the angles rounded; the front transverse impression
and the longitudinal sulcate are very faint, but the two
posterior impressions are deep; elytra rather broader than
the thorax, oval, striated; the intervals of the striz not
elevated ; avery short abbreviated stria near the scutellum; a
punctiform impression behind, between the second and third
strie; a line of impressions on the posterior half of the
margin ; lower side of the body and thighs of a dark brilliant
brown; tibize and tarsi reddish; palpi and antenne brown.

King George’s Sound.

Named in honor of the Rey. Mr. King, of Paramatta.

Harpalus Antarcticus: length 24; about the form of
Aineus, but very much smaller ; copper colour ; head smooth,
with a transverse line in front ; having a punctiform impres-
sion at each end; thorax almost quadrangular, transverse,
rather rounded and bordered laterally ; a feeble impression
near each anterior angle, and a strong one behind ; a feeble
transverse impression in front, and a longitudinal striz on

194 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

the middle very little marked; elytra rather short, depressed,
striated, a feeble punctiform impression behind, between the
second and third striz, and a line of impressions on the
lateral margin; lower side of the body of an zeneus brown,
very brilliant; legs brown, with the extremity of the tibiz
obscure ; palpi and antennz brown, the basal article rather
red.

From Dunedin, New Zealand, and also from the North
Island.

Harpalus Noveezelandie: length 5’; body broad and de-
pressed, of a light brown; head round, with two punctiform
impressions between the eyes; thorax short, transverse,
rounded laterally, with the anterior angles rounded, and the
posterior ones obtuse and rather prominent; there is a trans-
verse impression in front, a feeble longitudinal sulcate on
the middle, and two broad impressions behind; elytra broad,
striated, with a broad abbreviated stria near the scutellum,
after the sutural one; a feeble punctiform impression
behind, on the interval between the second and third strie ;
the margin impressed on its posterior half; abdomen not
sensibly impressed laterally ; legs, antenne, and parts of the
mouth of a light brown.

This insect is from the northern island of New Zealand.

Harpalus Iltlawarensis: length 44’; eneus green, bril-
lant; head smooth, with two short transversal impressions in
front of the eyes ; thorax rather quadrangular, transverse,
rounded on the anterior half of the lateral sides ; the pos-
terior angles rather rounded ; in the centre, a feeble longi-
tudinal sulcate and two equally feehle impressions behind ;
elytra rather broader than the thorax, oval, depressed,
striated, with the intervals between the striz, not convex; a
punctiform impression behind, between the second and third
strize, and aseries of impressions on the margin ; these latter
more numerous on the posterior part than on the other ;
legs black ; palpi and antennz brown ; the first article of the
latter of a lighter colour. |

Illawarra.

Harpalus Adelaade: length 3’; elongated; copper colour;
head slightly bi-impressed in front; thorax almost square,
very little broader than long, the sides rounded and the
angles also, the posterior ones rather obtuse ; the transverse
impression is feeble; the longitudinal sulcate moderately
marked, and the two posterior impressions deep; elytra
oblong, elongated, with striz, the intervals of which are

Notes on Austrian Coleoptera. 195

plain; a very feeble abbreviated strize towards the scu-
tellum ; between the second and third striz extends a series
of six or seven punctiform impressions ; the posterior part of
the margin is also impressed ; lower side of the body and
thighs black ; tibize of a reddish brown, obscure towards the
end; tarsi, palpi, and first article of the antennz of a light
brown, the remaining articles of the latter of a dark colour.

Note.—Some specimens are rather broader and of a dark
metallic brown.

From Adelaide and Port Lincoln, in South Australia, and
also King George’s Sound. ~

Harpalus Brunneus: length 3’; rather short; of a bril-
liant brown ; head very feebly bi-impressed in front ; thorax
transverse, rounded laterally, with the anterior angles pro-
minent, the posterior ones obtuse; the impressions moderately
strong ; elytra oval, short, rather feebly striated; the sutural
stria diverging near the scutellum ; between the second and
third strize are three punctiform impressions; one near the
base, another towards the middle, and the third behind;
margin rather feebly impressed on all its length ; lower side
of the body, legs, palpi, and antennze of a reddish brown.

Adelaide and Swan River.

Harpalus Dampier: length 42’; of a dark brown,
briliant ; head round, with two impressions in front, united
by a transversal sulcate; thorax cordiform, short, rounded
laterally, with the transverse front impression hardly visible ;
afaintlongitudinal sulcate and two posteriorimpressionsrather
broad and deep ; elytra broad and short, much wider than the
thorax; very strongly striated; the two first strie rather
diverging towards the scutellum, but no visible abbreviated
striz ; the margin impressed; lower side of the body, legs,
parts of the mouth and antenne of a light brownish red.

Swan River and King George’s Sound, and also Port Lin-
coln (South Australia).

Harpalus Fortnuma: length 34’; brown, brilliant ;
general form rather short and broad ; head impressed between
the eyes; thorax transverse, as broad in front as behind,
very much rounded laterally; the front impression very
' faint ; the longitudinal ‘sulcate well marked, as also the two
posterior impressions ; the latter are longitudinal and narrow ;
the anterior angles are rounded and the posterior obtuse ;
the surface is covered with undulating transverse striole,
which become longitudinal towards the posterior margin ;

196 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

the elytra are oval, broad, truncated in front, convex,

striated ; the first stria bi-furcated in front; the margin im-

pressed ; legs and antenne of the general colour; mandibulee

and labrum dark; palpi of a light yellowish brown.
Adelaide.

Harpalus Boisduvalia: length 32’; very nearly allied to
Australis, Dej., but having the thorax broader, shorter, more
rounded laterally ; the elytra broader and not so deeply
striated; the thorax is often of a brilliant and rather metal-
lic colour.

Swan River.

Harpalus Bostockii: length 4’ ; of a brilliant green cop-
per colour; head rather small, rounded; thorax transverse,
about as broad behind as in front, rounded laterally, with
the posterior angles obtuse, and the anterior rounded; the
impressions are moderate; elytra broad, rather depressed,
marked with slight striz, the intervals of which are plane;
the sutural stria deviates towards the scutellum, and there
is a light abbreviate stria; a small punctiform impression 1s
seen on the posterior part between the second and third
strie; the margin is impressed; legs of a brownish red, with
the thighs and end of the tibie black; antenne dark, with
the two first articles red, as are the palpi.

Swan River.

Harpalus Versicolor: length 4’; broad; of a reddish
brown ; elytra of a dark brown; head aimost round, rather
rugous, and impressed in front; thorax transverse, rather
cordiform, much narrower behind than in front, with a light
longitudinal sulcate, and two equally light posterior impres-
sions; elytra strongly striated, almost sulcated, impressed
laterally; no abbreviated stria near the scutellum; the
humeral part of the margin is yellow; lower side of the body
of a light brown ; legs and parts of the mouth yellow.

Swan River. |

Harpalus Deyrolii: length 34; of a light bronzed
colour ; head rounded, with a transversal line in front; thorax
transverse, rounded laterally, as broad behind as in front ;
having a well marked transverse impression in front, a feeble
longitudinal sulcate and two weak impressions behind; elytra
oval, with feeble longitudinal strie, rather far apart one from
the other, and the intervals of which are plane; the sutural
one deviates towards the scutellum, and there is a very short
abbreviated stria; margin very feebly impressed; lower

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 197

side of the body of a light brown; legs, parts of the mouth
and antenne yellow.

Port Lincoln, South Australia.

Harpalus Femoralis: length 32’; black; rather brilliant;
head with two punctiform impressions united by a transversal —
line in front; thorax almost square, transverse; as broad
behind as in front, having all its impressions feebly marked ;
elytra rather broad, strongly striated; the second stria bi-
furcated near the scutellum ; posterior part of the margin
impressed ; a feebly marked punctiform impression behind
on the interval between the third and fourth striz; thighs
black; tibize, tarsi, palpi and antennz of a light red.

Rockhampton, Queensland.

Harpalus Mandibularis: length 22’; of a bronzed green
colour; body rather broad and depressed; head smooth,
with a strong sulcate in front; thorax broad, transversal,
with the sides very much rounded but straight behind ; the
anterior angles are rounded, and the posterior straight ; the
central longitudinal sulcate and the two posterior impressions
are strong, the anterior transverse one is feeble; elytra
rather broader than the thorax, oval, depressed, having longi-
tudinal striz, the intervals of which are not convex; a very
feeble abbreviated stria near the scutellum; a row of im-
pressions on the margin; lower side of the body brown ;
leos, palpi, and base of the antenne yellow; remainder of
the latter a little darker; mandibulee yellow at the base, and
black towards their extremity.

Port Denison.

Harpalus Dingo : length 2¥ to 3’; general form rather de-
pressed ; of a dark brilliant brown; head large, rounded,
having a faint impression in front; thorax almost square,
broader in front than behind, rounded laterally ; the impres-
sions very faint; scutellum brown; elytra oval, striated ;
an abbreviated stria near the scutellum ; a very faint puncti-
form impression behind, between the second and third strie ;
margin having on its posterior half a series of strong im-
pressions ; lower side of the body black ; inferior margin of
the elytra brown ; legs, palpi, and three first articles of the
_ antenne yellow, the remaining of the latter obscure.

Rockhampton. .

Harpalus Nove Hollandie: length 34’ ; nearly allied to
Rubripes, but smaller; of an eneus copper green; head
with two impressions before the eyes ; thorax rather trans-
versal, rounded and bordered laterally ; narrower in front

198 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

than behmd ; the anterior angles moderately prominent, the
posterior ones rather obtuse ; the longitudinal sulcate very
obliterated, hardly perceptible ; a light transverse impres-
sions in front and another behind; two rather strong
rounded impressions on the posterior part ; elytra a little
broader than the thorax, oval, rather depressed, striated,
with the intervals of the striz not elevated ; a light puncti-
form impression behind, between the second and third striz ;
a series of strong impressions on the posterior half of the
margin ; lower side of the body of a dark brown, thighs
black ; tibize strongly arched, with their extremity obscure ;
tarsi, palpi, and first article of the antenne red ; the remain-
ing articles of the latter obscure.

Common near Melbourne.

Note.—This insect is nearly allied to dvreus, Dej., but is
easily distinguished by the form of the thorax, &e.

Trigonotomide.

The only Australian group that Mr. Lacordaire mentions
as belonging to this family is Amblytelus, but this 1s evi-
dently not in its right place, which seems to me to be near
Dyscolus in an artificial system, or near Phylophiceus in a
natural one; on the other hand, I have several species of
Drimostoma. These insects have entirely the facies of the
genus, but their mentum has a pointed tooth, equal in length
to the wings, which are broad, rounded and pointed at the
apex.

brown ; head elongated ; thorax transverse, rounded laterally,
rather broader behind than in front; having a deep longi-
tudinal sulcate and two other deep impressions behind ;
elytra large, convex, oval, much broader than the thorax,
rounded at the humeral angles ; legs, antennze, and parts of
the mouth of a dark reddish brown.

Mountains of Victoria.

Drvmostoma Montana: length 32° ; differs from precedent
by its larger size, its more elonoated form; thorax not so
narrowed in front ; elytra oblong, not sensibly broader than
the widest part of. the thorax ; the strize of the elytra appear
crenulated laterally when seen through a magnifying power ;
the thorax is not marginated laterally ; legos, anteénnce, and
parts of the mouth of a reddish brown.

Mountains of Dandenong, Victoria,

Drimostomea Thouzeti : length 22°; of a rather brilliant

Drimostoma Australis: length 3°; of a brilliant dark

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 199

black ; thorax short, rather cordiform, marginated laterally,
with the impressions well marked and rather broad ; elytra
oblong, not broader than the thorax at its greatest breadth,
oblong, very strongly striated, margin impressed ; legs,
palpi, and base of antenne of a light red; the remainder of
the latter of a dark colour.

From Rockhampton, Queensland.

Note.—In this sort the elytra are much more oblong than
in Montana, and the thorax much more attenuated behind.

Drimostoma Vicina: length 3’ ; very much like Thouzett,
but more elongated; thorax not so broad ; elytra rather broader
than the thorax at its greatest breadth ; their striz not so
deep.

ae bamitod Queensland.

Drimostoma Alpestris: length 32’; much like Montana,
but broader and thicker ; thorax wider ; elytra more convex,
with strong but simple strize ; legs, palpi, and antennee of a
light red.

Mountains of Victoria.

Drvmostoma Antarctica: length 4’; of a brilliant black ;
thorax cordiform, rather transverse ; the longitudinal sulcate
and the posterior impressions rather deep; elytra oblong,
going decreasing in breadth from nearly the basis to near
the apex, very feebly striated ; a few impressions on the
margin ; legs and parts of the mouth of a dark brown, an-
tennee red. | :

New Zealand, Wellington, in Dr. Howitt’s collection.

Drinostoma Striato-punctata: length 2%’; of a dark
glossy brown ; thorax almost round, rather transverse ; the
impressions moderately marked ; numerous punctiform im-
pressions cover the posterior part; elytra broad, oval, con-
vex, covered with strize, formed with punctiform impressions;
inferior margin of the elytra, legs, palpi, and antenne of a
light red.

New Zealand, Nelson; in Dr. Howitt’s collection.

Drimostoma (?) Tasmanica: length 2’; of a dark brown,
very smooth and brilliant; head rather large, impressed in
front ; thorax cordiform, broader than long, convex, with a
transverse anterior impression, a longitudinal sulcate and
‘two broad posterior impressions; elytra oval, gibbous,
smooth ; legs, parts of the mouth and antenneze of a light
red.

Tasmania; it is doubful that this insect belongs to the
genus.

200 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Feronide.

The family of Feronide is most numerously represented
in Australia, and when the mountains of that continent,
which form the place of residence of most species, will have
been thoroughly explored, I do not doubt that their numbers
will be at least as considerable as the one belonging to the
European Fauna.

T begin the study of this family by the description of
several new genera belonging to it. Feronia proper is the
most difficult group of all Carabide, on account of the great
number of its species. I will describe at first those of Aus-
tralia proper, and afterwards those of New Zealand

ZEODERA.

Mentum deeply emarginated, with a strong tooth in the
centre; the wings broad, pointed at the apex, rounded ex-
ternally ; labrum transversal; mandibule strong, arched,
subearinated, pointed at the apex; palpi: maxillaree with
their first article short, the second long and compressed, the
third conical, the last rather longer than the precedent,
thicker, rather rounded externally, and broadly truncated ;
the labial with their first article short, the second very long,
the last large, broad, truncated, almost securiform ; antenne
filiform, rather long, with the first article large, the second
shorter than the third, which is nearly as long as the first ;

the others of equal length. Tarsi with the three first

articles of the first pair strongly dilated in the male, the first
longer than the others ; they have below two rows of squa-
mulz and spiny hair; the tarsi of the other two pair are
simple, with the first article as long as the two following ;
in the female the anterior tarsi are not dilated, the head is
oval; the thorax large, almost square, rather broader behind
than in front, sulcated in the middle, and having two long
impressions behind ; elytra oval and depressed, no abbre-
viated strie near the scutellum ; legs rather strong, the an-
terior deeply emarginated and having a strong terminal
spine, and another over the emargination. The absence of
the abbreviated striz near the scutellum, and the form of
the palpi brings this genus near Microcephalus, but in the
latter the palpi are very strongly securiform, and obliquely
truncated.

Zeodera Ater: length 10’; oblong, of a brilliant black ;
elytra very deeply striated, almost sulcated, with punctiform

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 201

impressions on the interval between the second and third
strie, a little after the middle of the length, the margin
impressed ; tarsi and antenne brown.

Clarence River.

ECCOPTOGENIUS.

This genus of Baron Chaudoir being very little known, I
give here the generic characters of the Australian species.
Mentum broad, transverse, emarginated ; the excavated part
having no tooth, but being convexly rounded ; the wings
broad, rounded externally, obliquely truncated internally.
Labrum transverse, very strongly emarginated in form of a
half-moon ; palpi long, the maxillary with their first article
short, the second long, arched, rather broad, and depressed ;
the third shorter, but still rather long and convex ; the last
rather longer than the former, oblong, elongated, truncated at
the apex ; the labial have their first article small, the two
following long, the last oblong, truncated at the apex. An-
tennze moderately long, the first article strong, the second
rather shorter than the others, which are about equal. Man-
dibule strong, very slightly arched, carinated, maxille
slender, arched, ciliated inside; tarsi having their first
article longer than the others; in the male the three first
articles of the anterior tarsi are dilated, and have squamule.

The insect I refer to this genus, has entirely the form of
a small Feronia of the Pterostichus group, but it is distinct
by its marginated labrum. )

Mr. Lacordaire describes the labrum of Eccoptogenius
as being angularly emarginated, but this is not the case
in five or six Indian species which are in my collection.

Liccoptogenus Feronoides: length 32’ ; of a dark bronzed
colour, almost black ; head rather small, oval, impressed in
front; thorax lightly cordiform, rather narrower behind than
on the anterior part; anterior angles rounded, posterior
ones almost straight; the impressions well marked, and a light
centre impression on the posterior angles ; elytra broader
than the thorax, oval, strongly striated; a short, abbreviated
stria near the scutellum, after the sutural one; the margin
impressed ; legs of a dark brown, almost black; antennz
and palpi of a light red brown.

Deep Creek.

Note.—This is entirely an Indian form ; the genus was
formed on a species from the north of India, but I have
taken several others in Siam.

P

202 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

CERABILIA.

Mentum broad, transverse, emarginated, without a tooth
in the emargination; wings of the mentum very broad,
rounded laterally, pointed at the apex. Labrum almost
square, rather transverse, entire; mandibule rather strong,
arched, pointed. Palpi with their last article oval, fusiform,
pointed at the apex. Antenne rather long, with the first
article strong and thick, the second conical and short, the
third a little longer, the others equal; the last oval. Tarsi
with their first article longer than the others ; the anterior
having, in the male, their first three articles broad, triangular,
and furnished underneath with squamulz and spiniform
hair. Head rather small, oval ; thorax almost square, rather
transverse ; elytra oval, rather depressed, no appearance of
an abbreviated stria; thighs rather strong; tibie rather
slender, straight, the posterior rather arched ; the anterior
becoming thick towards the apex, strongly emarginated, and
ended by a spine, with another at the top of the excavation;
all the tibia having a row of spines; the form of the tarsi
clearly show, that this insect belongs to the Feromde ;
the absence of the abbreviated stria of the elytra, and the
form of the palpi clearly distinguishes it from all the known
genera of that family.

Cerabilia Maori: length 44’; of a dark brown; thorax
with a feeble transverse impression in front, a moderately
marked longitudinal sulcate, and two narrow impressions
backwards ; elytra feebly striated, with the margin im-
pressed backwards ; legs, palpi, and antenne of a reddish
brown.

From Dunedin, New Zealand.

TIBARISUS.

Mentum deeply emarginated, with the central part ad-
vanced and rounded ; wings large, broad, pointed at the
extremity, rounded on the external side. Labrum trans-
versal, emarginated in front. Mandibulz large, prominent,
as long as the portion of the head extending behind their
bases ; they are broad, subcarinated, rounded towards the
extremity, pointed at the apex, without teeth on the inner
side, and rather curved downwards. Palpi: maaillare long,
the first article very small; the second very long, curved,
compressed; the third more slender, conical, rather shorter
than the precedent ; fourth of the length of the third, sub-

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 203

oval, truncated at the apex; the labicw with the basal
article short, the second very long, straight, the last rather
shorter, straight inside, rather arched externally, and trun-
cated at the extremity; maxille having its external lobe
bi-articulated ; the first article being much longer than the
other, which is curved ; the internal lobe straight, arched at
the extremity, very hirsute internally. Antenne rather
long, slender; the first article large, the second conic, and
shorter, the third the longest of all. Tarsi of the male
having the three first articles of the anterior pair strongly
dilated and triangular, the fourth much less so, and elongate;
below the three first are two rows of squamulz, and below
all long spiniform hair; the other tarsi are not dilated.
Body thick and heavy. Head rather large, oval; thorax
having the same form as in Abax; scutellum short, broad,
rounded behind; elytra oval, legs strong ; trochanters large
and oblong; tibiza lined with short spinous hair; the ante-
rior terminated by a strong spine, and having a second above
the emarginated part; the first strize of the elytra deviating
obliquely towards the scutellum, but no abbreviated strie.

Tibarisus Melas: length 9’; of a shiny black; thorax
transversal, as broad behind as im front, rounded laterally,
feebly impressed in front, having the longitudinal sulcate
moderately marked, strongly bi-impressed oneach side behind;
elytra very strongly striated; the margin impressed;
hair below the tarsi brown, as also the pubescence that
covers the antenne after the third article.

From Queensland (Rockhampton and Brisbane), and north
of New South Wales (Clarence River).

FERONIA.
is First Group.—Omalosoma.

This group is most generally formed on insects of large
eize ; their elytra are not properly striated, but bear large
sostee, between which strize may sometimes be seen, in some
sorts, and particularly in Superba; the palpi are broadly
truncated, and the labial are almost securiform. - ;

Feronia Atlas: length 17’; black, brilliant, with the
exception of the elytra-which are eneus, margins of the
thorax and of the elytra having a fine copper metallic
tinge, sometimes red, sometimes green; the general form
short and robust ; head large, smooth, with two longitudinal
impressions between the eyes; thorax short, cordiform,

aur |

204 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

truncated behind, with the angles very lightly obtuse ; the
sides are rounded, the anterior angles advanced ; there is a
transverse impression in front, a longitudinal sulcate in the
middle and two strong impressions behind ; elytra short,
oval, depressed, having each seven elevated cost, in tho
intervals of which are faint punctured striee, not visible to
the naked eye, the margin is lightly impressed, two puncti-
form impressions on the third coste; antenne hirsute,
except on the four first articles.

This fine insect is found in the cedar bushes on the
Clarence River, and was forwarded to me by Mr. Wilcox.

Feronia Obesa: length 12’; very nearly allied to the
precedent and may possibly be a variety of it, but smaller,
still shorter and broader; thorax shorter, almost as broad
behind as in front, with the sides more rounded on their
anterior part, and the anterior angles very acute; the costee
of the elytra not so marked, particularly behind; the
punctured strize much stronger; the elytra are as shiny as
the thorax ; general color more obscure than in Ad/as.

Clarence River. |

Feronia Solandersii: length 12’; also very nearly allied
to the two precedent, but differmg from Atlas by its
smaller size, its still broader form, its thorax much more
cordiform, and narrower behind, and more rounded at its
anterior part; the elytra broader, shorter and wider on
their posterior part; the coste are much less marked. From
Obesa it is easily distinguished by its cordiform thorax ;
the punctate strize are well marked on the back part of the
elytra, but are not perceptible on their first part.

The insect is black, with a dark green margin on the sides
of the thorax and elytra.

Found by Mr. Wilcox in the pine scrubs (Araucaria) of
the Clarence district of New South Wales.

Feronia Episcopalis: length 17’; elongated, of a beautiful
purple; head with two longitudinal impressions between
the eyes, these impressions present some transverse striolee ;
thorax strongly cordiform, narrow behind, broad in front,
rounded laterally on the anterior part, the anterior angles
produced and rather rounded, the posterior ones straight and
rather elevated, the anterior transverse impression, the
longitudinal one, and the two posterior are deeply marked ;
elytra oval, elongated, with their axillary angles acute, they
have eight longitudinal costz (in counting the sutura) the
seventh of which forms a light carene; the intervals

a
fi
"i
a

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 205

between the costze are punctated ; two punctiform impressions
are seen on the posterior part of the third cost, and the
margin is impressed ; lower side of the body and legs black,
anteuns with their four first articles of the same colour, the
others brown and hirsute, the mandibule are very long.

From Lans Cove in New South Wales.

Feronia Superba: length 17’; of the same colour as
Episcopalis, but broader, head larger, thorax shorter and
more rounded on the sides; elytra broader, oval, but more
rounded ; they have each three strong costze, between each
of which is a much smaller oue; there is no appearance of
punctated strize, and the humeral angle is rounded; the
male is much smaller than the female.

I owe the two sexes of this handsome insect to Dr.
Howitt, who found them on the Hunter River, in New South
Wales.

Feronia Wilsoni: length 13’; black, with the head,
thorax, and margin of the elytra of a fine purple; the
thorax and elytra have the form of Hpiscopalis, the latter
being oval and elongated, but their coste are more like
those of Superba, being only three large ones, without the
sutura, and other very faint ones between these; the
punctated striz which separate them are very distinct, the
humeral angles are prominent, and the third large costz
forms a sort of carina.

I have only one specimen of this insect, which I received
from Mr. Wilson of Brisbane.

Feronia Hercules: length 18’; of a fine, brilliant black,
except the elytra; head large, smooth, with two longitudi-
nal impressions between the eyes; thorax rather square, a
little broader behind than in front, rounded laterally, its
greatest breadth being a little before the middle of its
length, it has a transverse impression in front, which is only
strongly marked towards its ends, a moderate longitudinal
sulcate in the middle, and two strong elongate impressions
behind ; elytra oval, elongated, a little broader behind than
at the base, the axillary angles faintly marked, on each
elytra three strong longitudinal coste, without the sutura,
and between them others much more feeble; the punctate
strize visible ; three punctiform impressions behind on the
first large coste, the margin feebly impressed; antenne,
hirsute and brown, except their four first articles.

This fine insect inhabits the pine mountains of Queens-
land.

206 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Feronia Cunninghamii: length 15’; black, brilliant, with
the exception of the elytra; head impressed between the
eyes; thorax strongly cordiform, with the anterior angles
rather rounded, andthe posterior ones straight; the
transverse anterior impression is strong, the longitudinal
sulcate moderate, the two posterior impressions large and
broad; elytra oval, elongated, with the coste alternately
small and large, the third large one forming a considerable
carina at the humeral angle, margin feebly impressed ;
antenn hirsute, and brown, with the exception of the four
first articles, which are smooth and black.

From Rockhampton—Mr. Thouzet.

Feronia Viridescens: length 13’; very nearly allied to
Cyanocincta of Hope and Boisduval, but smaller; thorax
more cordiform and much narrower behind; elytra nar-
rower near the basis; the costae much more equal, and the
punctated strize well marked, the humeral angles more pro-
minent.

Clarence River. ene

Feronia Nitidicollis: length 10’; of a shiny black;
upper part of the head and thorax of a fine gilt copper colour ;
thorax cordiform, rather short and broad, with a very faint
transverse impression in front; a rather strong longitudinal
sulcate in the middle, and two broad impressions behind ;
elytra oval, black, with a golden margin, they have the
sutural and three other elevated costze on each, and between —
these more very faint costze lined with punctated striz ; the -
last of the large costz forms a carena near the lateral margin ;
antenne brown and hirsute, with their first four article
black and smooth. :

Clarence River—Mr. Wilcox.

Feroma Dingo: length 10’; black, brilliant, except the
elytra, which are dull; head oval; thorax rather cordiform, a
little longer than broad, rounded laterally, with the posterior
angles rather curled upwards, the impressions are mode-
ately marked, the two posterior ones are broad; elytra
oblong, depressed, having six sharp ridges without the
sutura, the posterior half of the margin is impressed, but no
punctiform impressions are seen on the surface of the elytra ;
legs, palpi and basal article of the antennz of a dark red;
the three following articles of the . latter darker, the other
hirsute.

Mountains of Victoria.

Feroma Yarre: length 8’; very much like the pre-

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 207

cedent, but smaller, with the thorax longer and more
attenuated behind.

Victoria,

Note.—The Trigonostoma Violacea of my “ Etudes Ento-
mologiques ” belongs to this group. It is probably not, as
stated, from Port Jackson, but from the north or western
eoast of New Holland, having been brought back by
Baudin’s Expedition.

Srconp Group.—Pterostichus.

This group is very numerous in Australia.

Feronia Regalis: length 18’; of a beautiful purple ; head
large, bi-impressed in front; thorax cordiform, with the sides
rounded on their two anterior thirds ; anterior angles rather
advanced, the posterior rounded; the front impression and
suleate moderately marked ; the two posterior impressions
elongated and deep; elytra oval, depressed, having thei
widest part towards the middle; they are covered with deep
striz; the intervals between two to three, four to five, and
seven to eight bearing each a series of four or five deep
punctiform impressions ; the margin is also strongly marked
with impressions ; a very short oblique stria near the scutel-
lum; lower side of the body, legs, parts of the mouth, and
base of the antennee of brilliant black, the last are from their
fourth article covered with a brown villosity ; the palpi are
broadly truncated, and the labial almost securiform.

Very few specimens of this beautiful insect have yet been
found; the one I describe was found at Kiama (New
South Wales), and is in the collection of Dr. Howitt.

Feromia Ducalis: length 10-11%’ ; of a fine brilliant cop-
per colour; head with two broad impressions between the
eyes ; thorax rather transverse, rounded laterally, with the
posterior angles rather obtuse ; the anterior ones rounded ;
all the impressions strongly marked; elytra oval, oblong,
emarginated behind, with the axillary angles well marked ;
they are covered with strong longitudinal strie; on the
interval between the second and third there are on the pos-
terior part two strong punctiform impressions ; the margin
is impressed ; lower side of the body, legs, parts of the mouth
and antennee black.

Illawarra. :

Note.—In one of my specimens there are three punctiform
impressions on each elytra.

Feronia Comes: length 11°; of a brilliant black, some-

208 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

times rather purple ; head bi-impressed ; thorax longer than
broad, as wide in front as behind; rounded laterally ; the
anterior transverse impression light, the longitudinal sulcate
moderate; the posterior impressions elongated ; elytra oblong,
elongated, broader than the thorax, rather depressed, strongly
striated ; the intervals between the second and third striz
having four or five punctiform impressions ; the margin im-
pressed ; lower side of the body and legs of a brilliant black ;
extremity of the palpi brown; antenne of the last colour,
and pubescent, with their three first articles black and
smooth. -

Clyde River, New South Wales. :

Feronia diques: length 10’-11’; very nearly allied to
Ducalis and of the same brilliant colour, but the thorax is
of the same form as Comes; elytra more oval than in the
latter; between the second and third striz there is a series
of four or five punctiform impressions.

Illawarra.

Feronia Guppsiensis: length 10’-12’; of a shiny black,
sometimes with a copper tinge ; head oval, with the front
impressions elongated ; thorax not much wider than broad ;
sub-cordiform, with the angles rounded ; the front transverse
impressions very faint, but the longitudinal sulcate and the
posterior impressions strongly marked ; the latter elongated ;
elytra oval, rather elongated, strongly striated, with a very
short abbreviate stria near the scutellum ; on the interval
between the second and third strize are four punctiform 1m-
pressions, and the margin is also impressed ; legs, parts of
the mouth, and antennee of a dark reddish brown; the latter
hirsute, except on its first articles.

Mountains of Gipps Land and of the Dividing Range
(Victoria), the specimens from the latter generally smaller.

Feronia Miles: length 73 ; colour, and almost entirely
the form of Comes, but much smaller ; the two posterior im-
pressions of the thorax rounded instead of being long and
narrow ; elytra more elongated, narrower, the strize deeper,
and only two, or very rarely three, impressions on the interval
between the second and third striz. ;

Clyde River (New South Wales).

Feromia Satrapa: length 12’-13%’ ; of a brilliant black;
head large, with the front impressions rather broad ; thorax
rather short, sub-depressed, broader than long, much nar-
rower behind than in front, with the angles rather rounded ;
the impressions are moderately marked, and the entire sur-

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 209

face is covered with transverse undulated striolze ; elytra
oblong, rather depressed, strongly striated; the intervals
between the second and third and sixth and seventh striz
show a series of four or five strong punctiform impressions ;
the margin is also strongly impressed ; legs, palpi, and an-
tenne of a dark brown; the latter pubescent after their
third article. .

_ Gipps Land, Victoria.

Feronia Peroni: length 93’ ; of a metallic green colour ;
head large, impressed in front ; thorax short, cordiform, with
the anterior angles rounded and the posterior straight ; the
impressions strong and deep, with the exception of the front
transversal one ; elytra oval, depressed, strongly striated, with
a series of three or four punctiform impressions between the
second and third striz; the margin strongly impressed ;
legs, palpi, and three first articles of the antennz brown,
the others of the latter black and hirsute; the tibiz and
tarsi of the two last pairs of legs dark and almost black.

Mountains of Victoria.

Dedicated to the learned Peron, naturalist to Captain
Baudin’s exploring expedition.

Feroma Cresus: length 9°; black, with a purple tinge ;
head and thorax of a fine copper gilt colour ; the latter almost
square, rather broader in front than behind, with the anterior
‘angles very much rounded, the posterior obtuse and rather
curled upwards ; the longitudinal sulcate well marked, and
the posterior impressions broad and deep; elytra oblong,
rather depressed, strongly striated with a series of five or
six punctiform impressions between the second and third
striz, and sometimes one or two on the fourth to fifth ; the
marein impressed ; palpi and first articles of the antennze
brown, the others black and hirsute.

Mountains of Victoria.

Feroma Plutus: length 93’; very much like the prece-
dent, but still more beautiful ; head and thorax of a gold
colour ; elytra purple, with the part near the sutura black ;
the general form is more elongated ; head very large ; thorax
longer and narrower, with the anterior angles pointed and
the posterior ones straight ; elytra having the same series of
punctiform impressions, andalsoone unique similar impression
towards the middle of the space between the fourth and
fifth strize ; the strize become very feeble towards the external
margin. .

Mountains of Victoria. Very rare.

210 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Feronia Opulenta: length 8’ ; similar to Plutus in point
of colouring, but much smaller ; head small and oval ; elytra
more depressed, and equally covered with strong striz ; a
series of three or four punctiform impressions on the interval
between the second and third striz ; the spaces between the
elytra are convex in this sort, and depressed in the former.

Mountains of Victoria. Common.

Feroma Lesueurw: length 9’ ; of a long cylindrical form,
and of a brilliant bronzed black ; head oblong, with the im-
pressions between the eyes very feeble ; thorax longer than
broad, rather cylindrical, with all the angles rounded ; no
transverse impression in front, but the sulcate and two
posterior impressions deep ; the surface covered with trans-

verse striole ; elytra long, oblong, deeply and equally striated

with two punctiform impressions on the posterior part of
the interval between the second and third striz ; margin 1m-
pressed ; the elytra more or less copper colour ; lower side of
the body and legs of a brilliant black ; tarsi, antennz, and
palpi of a reddish brown.

Illawarra, New South Wales.

Feronia Tasmanica: length 7}; of a brilliant black ;
head small, elongated, with the two front impressions rather
feebly marked ; thorax large, almost square, rounded late-
rally, a little narrower in front than behind ; the impressions
feeble, with the exception of the two posterior ones, which

are elongate and deep; elytra oval, depressed, with the

axillary angles marked ; they are covered with rather deep
strize, the intervals of which are not elevated ; between the
second and third strize are three punctiform impressions, and
the margin is impressed ; palpi, tarsi, and antenne, brown,
the latter hirsute, except on the first articles.

Tasmania.

Feronia Diemenensis: length 82’; nearly allied to the
precedent, but very distinct; the impressions of the head
deeper ; thorax more cordiform, and considerably narrowed
backwards, with the posterior angles brilliant, and rather
acute; the impressions deeper, and the posterior ones

broader ; elytra having a dark purple tinge, their strie are

not so deep near the sutura as towards the margin ; the latter
is carinated ; the legs and base of antenne rather purple.
Tasmania.
Feronia Victorie : length 7} ; of a brilliant black, with
the elytra of a dark blue, sometimes with a purple tinge ;
head rather rounded, feebly impressed in front; thorax

eR eae ie eee

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 211

rather longer than broad, cordiform, with the anterior angles
rounded, and the posterior rather prominent and acute; front
transverse impressions very little marked, longitudinal
sulcate feeble ; posterior impressions deep; elytra oval,
striated ; three punctiform impressions between the second
and third striz ; margin impressed ; palpi and first articles
of the antennze brown, the other articles hirsute.

- Common in the Mountains of Victoria.

Feroma Auricollis: length 7’; very nearly allied to
Victoriw, but head and thorax of a fine gilt copper colour ;
thorax narrower, about as broad in front as behind, rounded
laterally.

With the precedent.

Feronia Marstersir: length 6’ ; very much like Victoria,
but thorax more cordiform, and broader in front; elytra
more deeply striated, with two punctiform impressions on
the posterior part of the intervals between the second and
third striz.

Pine Mountains, near Ipswich.

Feronia Wilcox: length 7’ ; of a dark colour, sometimes
with a purple tinge; head and thorax often of a copper
colour ; form elongated; head rather large, feebly impressed
in front; thorax cordiform, much narrower behind than in
front; anterior angles advanced, the posterior rather acute,
the fronttransverse impression very feeble, but the longitudinal
sulcate and the posterior impressions very deep; the surface is
generally covered with very faint transverse striole ; elytra
oblong, strongly striated ; the interval between the second
and third strie having two punctiform impressions on its
posterior part; the margin impressed ; lower side of the
body and legs of a brownish black; palpi and antennz
rather lighter; the latter hirsute, except on their first
articles. 7

Clarence River.

Feronia Gippslandica: length 83’; of a rather dark
copper green ; head elongate ; thorax about as long as broad,
rounded laterally, broader in front than behind, with all its
angles rounded ; the impressions, except the anterior one, are
strong and deep, and the entire surface is covered with strong
transverse striole ; the elytraare oval, rather depressed, striated
with a series of five or six punctiform impressions on the in-
terval between the second and third striz, and two more on
the one between the fourth and fifth; the margin is im-
pressed ; lower side of the body and legs of a brilliant black ;

212 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

palpi brown ; antennze with their first articles black, and
the other articles covered with a brown villosity.

Mountains of Gipps Land, Victoria. |

Feronia Phillipsw: length 84’ ; this insect has a great
deal of the form and appearance of ques, but is smaller,
and of a dark copper colour ; the posterior angles of the
thorax are more obtuse ; on the interval between. the second
and third strize there is a series of seven or eight punctiform
impressions, and on the one between the fifth and sixth one
or two more; the tibiz and tarsi are brown.

Mountains of Gipps Land.

Ferona Semiviolacea: length 8’; black, with purple
elytra; body depressed ; the impressions of the head very
feeble; thorax rather broader than long, cordiform; the
sides and anterior angles rounded, the posterior angles well
marked, and rather turned upwards; the impressions
moderately marked, but the two posterior ones long
and deep; elytra oval, striated, with the interval between
the second and third striz bearing three punctiform im-
pressions; margin striated; legs black, tarsi and palpi
brown.

Mountains of Victoria.

Feronia Impressicotlis: length 73’; oblong, rather de-
pressed ; head oval, feebly impressed in front; thorax
nearly as long as broad, rather narrower behind than in —
front, with the sides rounded ; the anterior angles are
rather rounded, and the posterior ones sub-obtuse ; the pos-
terior margin is cut convexly in its middle ; the anterior and
middle impressions are moderate, but the posterior ones are
deep, and extend to one half the length of the thorax ; elytra
oblong, striated, with two punctiform impressions on the pos-
terior part of the interval between the second and third
strie; the margin is impressed; the insect is black,
with the head and thorax of a dark green; the elytra
have a purple tinge; tibie, tarsi, and base of the
antennee of a dark’ brown; the remaining of the latter
hirsute.

Mountains of New South Wales and of Queensland.

Feronia Vilos: length 54’; black, shiny ; the impressions
between the eyes rather deep; thorax large, sub-quadran-
gular, very little broader than long, rather narrowed behind;
the sides rounded, the posterior angles rather obtuse, the
transverse front impression faint, the longitudinal sulcate
well marked; the posterior impressions rather deep,

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 213

elongated, and on each side, behind the posterior angle, is
seen an extra impression, shorter than the others; elytra
oblong, striated, having one or two irregularly placed punc-
_ tiform impressions on the interval between the second and
third striz; margin impressed ; legs, parts of the mouth
and antenne of a dark brown.

Mountains of Victoria.

Feronia Subvilis: length 6’; allied to Vilis, but more
elongated; thorax narrower, and much more cordiform ; im-
pressed in the ordinary manner, without the extra posterior
impression ; elytra more elongated ; legs black, with the tarsi
brown. ?

Mountains of Victoria.

Feronia La Peyrouswi: length 11’ ; head and thorax of a
dark copper colour; the first rather large, and strongly im-
pressed between the eyes; thorax rather short, cordiform,
transverse, with the anterior angles rather rounded, and the
posterior ones straight and rather turned up; the anterior
transverse impression hardly visible ; the suleate and the
two posterior impressions very deep; elytra oval, rather
oblong, black, with a copper-coloured margin ; they are
covered with striz; the interval between the second and
third bearing a series of five or six punctiform impressions ;
the margin is impressed ; lower side of the body and legs
black ; palpi black, with the extremity red ; antennee black
at the base, with the remaining hirsute and brown.

Ash Island, New South Wales.

Feroma Resplendens: length 9’; oblong; head rather
elongate, colour of dark bronze ; thorax longer than broad,
as: wide in front as behind, rounded laterally; the trans-
verse impression very feeble ; the longitudinal sulcate well
marked ; the posterior impressions long and deep ; the ante-
rior angles rounded ; the posterior ones obtuse; the middle
of the thorax is of a dark bronze, with the sides of a fine
gilt colour ; elytra oblong, rather parallel, striated ; a row
of generally fine punctiform impressions on the interval
between the second and third striz ; the margin impressed ;
the colour of the elytra is of a dark purple, with the mar-
gin of a beautiful red. gilt tinge ; lower side of the body and
thighs of a dark brown; tibiz and tarsi lighter; palpi and
antennee brown. |

Merimbula, New South Wales.

Feronia Hunteriensis: length 8’ ; very much like Feronia .
Resplendens, and having entirely the same colouring, but

214 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

general form shorter; thorax almost round, and rather
broader than long, with the posterior angles rounded ; only
two punctiform impressions on the interval between the
second and third striz. __

From the Hunter River (New South Wales).

Note.—A variety of a darker and more opaque aspect is
found in various parts of New South Wales.

Feronia Striatocollis: length 6¥ ; black, with a metallic
tinge on the head and thorax ; the latter considerably longer
than broad, as wide behind as in front, rounded laterally,
with the angles obtuse; the front impression is hardly visible ;
the sulcate strong, as also the posterior and elongate impres-
ions ; the entire surface is covered with rather strong trans-
verse striolz; the elytra are oval, almost black near the
sutura, becoming purple sideways, with the margin impres-
sed, and of a beautiful gold colour; they are striated with
two strong punctiform impressionson the posterior half of the
interval between the second and third strize ; lower side of
the body, legs, palpi, and antennz of a brownish black, the
latter hirsute after their third article.

Clarence River.

Feroma Purpureolimbata: length 7’; of a dark black ;
thorax a little broader than long, rounded laterally, narrower
behind than in front; the anterior angles rounded, and the
posterior ones rather acute ; the anterior impression obliter-

ate, the sulcates strong, the posterior impressions curved, -

elongate and deep; the entire surface covered with trans-

verse striole ; elytra oval, of a dark black, with the margin ~

of a golden purple colour; they are striated, and on the
interval between the second and third strie are two puncti-
form impressions. On all the posterior parts of the elytra
are numerous irregular, rather elongated impressions, the
margin feebly impressed ; lower side of the body, legs, an-
tenne, and palpi of a dark brown.

Clarence River.

Feroma Impressipennis: length 84’; black, with the
elytra generally more brilliant than the thorax, and having

usually a brilliant green margin ; head oval; thorax large,

rounded laterally, as broad in front as behind, with the
angles well marked ; no transverse impression in front; the
sulcate strong, the posterior impressions elongated, deep, and
rather curved ; elytra oblong, striated ; the entire surface,
except the basis, covered with numerous deep and irregular
impressions ; lower side of the body and legs black ; tarsi

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 215

and palpi brown ; antennz black, covered after their third
article with a brown pubescence.

Clarence River.

Feronia Auber: length 9’; entirely of a brilliant black ;
thorax round, with the anterior impression hardly visible, the
longitudinal ‘suleate feeble, the posterior impressions broad
and well marked; elytra oblong , strongly and deeply striated ;
no punctiform impressions between the striz, but several on
the anterior half of the margin, the posterior part of which
is impressed.

From the Hunter River.

Feronia Azureomarginata: length 11’; of a brilliant
black; head oval, very feebly impressed between the eyes; |
thorax round, with the anterior impression very feeble ; the
sulcate also very lightly marked, but ending behind in a deep
punctiform impression, the posterior impressions broad ;
elytra oblong, broader towards the two posterior thirds of
their length than at the basis, having the humeral angles pro-
minent and almost carinated ; ‘they have a purple blue margin,
are covered with puncturated striz, and on the interval
between the second and third of the latter are two punc-
tiform impressions; the margin is impressed; the tarsi,
palpi, and antennze are brown.

From the Lachlan, and Hunter River, in New South
Wales.

Feromia Viridiluembata: length 7} ; black ; interoculor
impressions very lightly marked; thorax rather broader in
front than behind; rounded laterally and at the anteriorangles,
the posterior obtuse front impression very feeble, but the sul-
cate and the posterior impressions very deep, the last almost
linear ; elytra oval, rather depressed, covered with strong
striz, the intervals between the second and third, fourth and
.fifth being broader than the others ; on the interval between
the second and third are seen two punctiform impressions,
one after the middle, and the other towards the extremity ;

margin impressed, and of a fine green; lower side of the
body of a brilliant black ; legs, palpi, and, antenne brown.

Brisbane, Queensland.

Feromm Amabilis: length 6’ ; head and thorax of a fine
purple, with copper tinges ; thorax cordiform ; a little longer
than broad ; the front transverse impression well marked, as
also the suleate and the two posterior impressions, the latter
broad ; elytra oval, rather oblong, with strong striz ; on the
interval between the second and third are four punctiform

216 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

impressions ; the margin impressed ; the colour of the elytra
ig a dark iridescent purple, with a golden margin ; lower side
of the body, legs, antenne, and palpi brown.

Merimbula, New South Wales.

Peroma Viridimarginata : length 8’; black; head oval,
with a copper tinge; thorax about as broad as wide, rounded
laterally ; narrower behind than in the middle, with the an-
terior angles advanced ; the front impression very faint, the
sulcate strong, the two ‘posterior impressions deep but nearly
linear; the surface is marked with very faint transverse
striole; the elytra are oblong, rather elongated, of the
breadth of the thorax at their basis ; they are opaque, of a
dark purple, almost black, with a metallic green margin;
they are covered with striz, the intervals of which are not
convex, but the one between the second and third having
on its posterior part two punctiform impressions; margin
also impressed ; lower side of the body, antenne, and legs
of a brilliant black ; tarsi and palpi rather brown.

Brisbane. }

Feronia Darlingii: length 73’ ; very much like the prece-
dent, and might easily be taken for it, but the thorax at-
tenuated behind and more cordiform ; the elytra more oval,
and narrower near the basis, with the humeral angles more
rounded.

The colour is sometimes black, sometimes of a dark copper,
with the margin of the ely tra green.

Found by Mr. Masters in the Pine Mountains of Queens-
and.

THIRD GROUP.—OMASEUS.

Feronia Mitchelit: length ; black, sometimes. copper
colour ; head rather large ; igre large, almost square, a
little narrower behind than in the middle, with the angles
rather rounded ; the transversal front impression very feeble ;
the sulcate and the two elongated posterior impressions strongly
marked ; elytra rather oblong, striated, with two punctiform
impressions on the posterior part of the interval between the
second and third strie; margin striated; lower side of the
body, legs, palpi, and antennze black. |

Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.

Feronia Rufipalpis: length 6’ ; black ; head large ; thorax
‘short, transverse, rounded laterally and at the anterior angles,
the posterior being well marked and rather obtuse; the front
impression is very faint, the sulcate and posterior impressions

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 217

rather deep ; a few very faint longitudinal striole ‘are seen
on the posterior margin; elytra oval, striated ; a series of
five punctiform impressions on the interval between the
second and third striae; margin impressed ; thighs black ;
tibize, tarsi, and palpi of a dark red; antennee with their
first articles black, and the others covered with a brown
pubescence.
Mountains of Victoria.

FourtH GRoUP.—PCCILUS.

The only Australian insects described belonging to this
section are——

Feronia Prolixa, Erichson, from Tasmania and New
South Wales ; a specimen from Clarence River differs by the
striz of the elytra being much less deep.

Feronia Chalybea, Dej., unknown to me.

Feronia Sphedroidese, Dej., from New South Wales.

The following appear undescribed :—

Feronia Resplendens: length 8’ ; of a fine metallic green,
with the elytra sometimes of a brilliant copper colour ; thorax
rather broader than long, wider behind than in front,
rounded laterally, with the transverse front impression
moderately marked ; the sulcate very feeble ; two impressions
on each side near the posterior angles, the inner one being
much longer than the other ; elytra long, rather broad, de-
pressed, covered with feeble longitudinal striz, which are
very finely punctated ; the sutural stria bifurcated towards
the scutellum ; margin impressed on its posterior half;
lower side of the body, legs, antenne, and palpi black.

Rather common in the interior parts of New Holland,
on the Lachlan, the Darling, the Paroo Rivers, and also found
sometimes at Adelaide and in the Swan River district. It
is also very nearly allied to a New Caledonian insect, and
perhaps not distinct from it.

Note.—Some specimens have the thorax narrower behind,
but I find all transitions between them and the typical
specimen.

Variety, almost black. Swan River. ,

- Keromia Iridipennis: length 5’-6’ ; of a brilliant black
with the elytra iridescent; form rather elongated; head
oval, bi-impressed in front; thorax longer than wide, as
broad in front as behind, rounded laterally, with the ante-
rior transverse impression and the longitudinal sulcate very
feeble ; the two posterior impressions better marked and
: Q

218 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

elongated ; elytra oblong, striated, with an abbreviated stria
near the scutellum; three punctiform impressions on the
third stria; one at ‘less than one-third of the length, the
other near the middle, and the third at about the two poste-
rior thirds of the length ; margin impressed ; tarsi, palpi,
and antenne of a dark brown.

New South Wales, Victoria, and Adelaide.

Feronia Ividescens: length 45°; only differs from the pre-
cedent by its form being less elongated; the elytra broader and
more oval, without punctiform impressions, or at utmost
one on the centre; tarsi, palpi, and antenne of a light
brownish red.

Rockhampton and Clarence River, and also from the
Paroo River, in the interior of New Holland.

Ferona Interioris: length 6’ ; of a brilliant black; head
small, oval, feebly bi-impressed i in front; thorax almost square,
rounded laterally, a little broader behind than in front ; an-
terior and longitudinal impressions very feeble ; the poste-
rior ones strong, broad, and deep ; elytra oblong, depressed,
striated; a short abbreviated stria near the scutellum; a
punctiform impression on the posterior part of the second
stria, and another towards the middle on the third ; ; margin
impressed : legs, antenne, and palpi of a dark brown,

Paroo River, in the interior of Australia.

Feronva Gagatina : length 32’; of a brilliant black; head
oval; thorax rather broader than long, rounded laterally,
and at the posterior angles; the anterior ones rather acute;
a faint transverse 1mpression in front, and another behind ;
the longitudinal suleate, and two posterior elongated impres-
sions, rather deep ; elytra oval, strongly striated, with one
or two irregularly placed impressions towards the middle of
the impression between the second and third striz; the
sutural strie sinuous towards the scutellum, but no abbre-

viated stria ; seen through a strong magnifying power, these ~

strieappear rather punctated ; legs, palpi,and antennee black.

Tasmania.

Note.—For this and for Iridipennis I have preserved
manuscript names, given I believe, by Mr. MacLeay, in his
collection.

Feronia Subgagatena: length 5’; very much like Gaga-
tina, and only differing from it by its larger size and the
colour of the tarsi, palpi, and antenne, which are of a light
reddish brown.

Pine Mountains of Queensland.

ee ee ee

es ae ee eel Ue ee

Notes on Australian. Coleoptera. 219

Feroma Rufilabris: length 5’; of a brilliant black ; head
oval, very lightly impressed in front; the labrum and palpi
of a reddish brown ; antenne of the same colour, with their
first four articles darker; thorax almost square, rather
broader in front than behind, rounded laterally, having the
front impression and the longitudinal sulcate moderately
marked, and the two posterior impressions deep, narrow,
and elongated ; the posterior part of the thorax is punctated ;
elytra oblong, strongly punctated, striated; the sutural
stria sinuous towards the scutellum, but no abbreviated
stria ; there is a punctiform impression towards the middle
of the third stria; the elytra are iridescent; lower side of
the body of a dark brown ; legs black ; tarsi brown.

Pine Mountains of Brisbane.

Note.—These three last sorts could be placed almost as
well with Argutor as with Pecilus.

Ferowa Funebris: length 10’; ofa brilliant black ; head
rather small, oval, with two longitudinal impressions in
front ; thorax rather transverse, almost square, with the an-
terior angles rounded, and the posterior straight; the ante-
rior transverse impression is feeble ; the longitudinal sulcate
moderately marked; the two posterior impressions very
broad ; the elytra oblong, depressed, strongly striated ; the
sutural stria bifurcated towards the scutellum; on the
margin is a punctated stria, on which are seen a few larger
punctiform impressions; tarsi, palpi, and antenne rather
brown.

This fine insect was found at Mount Gambier, and is in
Dr. Howitt’s collection.

FIFTH GROUP.—OMASEUS,

In this division comes the Feronia <Australasic of
Dejean, which is found commonly in Victoria, New South
Wales, South Australia, and extends towards the interior, as
far as the rivers Darling and Paroo; the following sorts
appear undescribed.

Feroma Lachlandiensis: length 74’ ; nearly allied to the
precedent, but the thorax is not cordiform, being rounded
laterally, and much broader in front than behind ; the poste-
rior angles are more rounded.

The insect is of a brilliant black, with the tarsi brown ;
the palpi and antenne of a light brownish red.

From the Lachlan River.

Feronia Clarenciensis: length 5’; of a brilliant black;

Q 2

220 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

head rather triangular ; thorax rather broader than long,
rounded laterally, rather wider in front than behind, with
the front transverse impression not visible, the longitudinal
sulcate moderately marked, the two posterior impressions
elongated and deep ; elytra oblong striated ; the sutura] stria
diverging a little near the scutellum, but no abbreviate stria;
the striz are strong near the sutura, but become more feeble,
and almost disappear towards the sides ; the margin feebly
impressed ; the tarsi and palpi of a reddish colour ; antenne
almost black, hirsute after the third article.

Clarence River.

Feronia Subcarbonaria: length 52’; black, brilliant,
rather depressed ; thorax broader than long, cordiform ; the
anterior impression not visible; the longitudinal sulcate
well marked ; on the posterior part are two longitudinal
and narrow impressions, and two others much shorter on the
posterior angles; elytra oval, strongly striated near the
sutura, and very lightly towards the margins; the sutural
stria diverging a little towards the scutellum, but no abbre-
viated one visible ; margin impressed on its posterior half;
tarsi and palpi of a dark brown; antenne black, with the
articles after the fourth hirsute.

Victoria and New South Wales.

Note.—I have seen this insect in European collections —
under the name of Sphodroides, Dej., but the description of
this author does not in the least agree with it. ,

Feronia Centralis: length 7’; very much like Austra-
lasice, but thorax instead of being cordiform, is almost square,
and about as broad behind as in front.

Darling River.

Feronia Arnhewrmensis: length 6’; black, head rather —
large ; thorax cordiform, with no appearance of a transverse
impression ; longitudinal sulcate moderate ; posterior im- —

pressions rather broad and deep; elytra oblong, depressed, q |

having each five entire striz, and two others abbreviate and
only visible on the posterior part of the elytra, having on
the remaining portion a smooth part towards the margin ;
these strize grow deeper as they go towards the sutura ; two
other striz follow the margin; lower side of the body black ;
legs, palpi, and antennz brown.

Brought from Arnheim’s Land by Mr. Waterhouse.

Feronia Occidentalis: length ’; very much like Arnhei- —
mensis ; the posterior impressions of the thorax broader; —
elytra a little narrower, and more convex, with two puncti-

Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 221

form impressions on each, between the second and third
strie.
King George’s Sound.

Feronia Satanas: length 83’; of a brilliant black; head
large, oval, with the front longitudinal impressions well
marked ; thorax rounded, truncated in front and behind,
with the longitudinal sulcate moderate, the front impressions
almost missing, and the posterior ones deep and broad ;
elytra oblong, rather convex, of a dark purple; they
have five strie, which are stronger near the sutura, and dis-
appear towards the margin, which is impressed ; two puncti-
form impressions on the interval between the second and
third striz; legs black; palpi brown; antenne black,
covered after their fourth article with a brown pubescence.

King George’s Sound.

SIXTH GROUP.—PERCUS.

Feroma Bipunctatus : length 9’; of a brilliant black ; head
oval, feebly impressed in front; thorax almost square, with
the angles rounded ; the front transverse impression is feebly
marked, the sulcate moderately so, but the two posterior
impressions are deep and linear ; elytra oblong, rather elon-
gate, convex, covered with striz, which are much stronger
near the sutura than towards the margin, which is impressed ;

a strong punctiform impression appears on the interval
Bagcei the second. and third striz, considerably beyond
the middle of the length; the humeral angles are well
marked, and the sides of ihe elytra have sometimes a green
tinge ; leos, palpi, and antennz black.

ery common round Melbourne, and also found in New
South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia...

This insect is subject to great variations—

Variety—Of a brilliant green.

Variety—Small size (7’), and green, from the Islands of
the Straits of Bass.

Variety—Elytra more oblong, and rather depressed ; 5 Olea
brilliant copper purple, or green ‘colour.

From the floods of the Yarra River.

Variety—Thorax entirely covered with transverse stricta.

Melbourne.

Feroma Montana: length 8’; nearly allied to Bipunctata,
but the thorax much shorter and broader, with elytra more

222 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

oval, more convex, narrowing considerably in front, and
with the humeral angles very lightly marked; the strize are
strong. 7

Mountains of Gipps Land.

Note.—This insect has something of the appearance of
Feroma Navarica.

Feronia Lacustris: length 10’; very much like Biupwne-
tata, but larger; ofa very brilliant black; anterior angles of the
thorax more rounded ; elytra more oval, and generally quite
smooth to the naked eye ; the punctiform impression on each
elytra well marked.

From Lake Alexandrina, on the Lower Murray.

SEVENTH GROUP.—ABAX.
Feronia Boisduvalii: length 6’; oblong, black; head

rather large ; thorax almost square, narrower behind than in
front ; rounded laterally, with the anterior angles rather
advanced, and the posterior ones straight ; the front impres-
sion 1s hardly perceptible ; the sulcate and posterior impres-
sions well marked, the latter almost linear ; elytra depressed,
striated ; three punctiform impressions on the interval
between the second and third striz ; an abbreviated stria
near the scutellum, between the first and second striz ;
margin impressed ; lower side of the body, legs, antenne,
and palpi brown.

Picton, New South Wales. :

Ferona Reicher: length 42’; very much like precedent,
of which it may be a simple variety, but smaller, and rather
narrower; the colour is of a dark brown, with a metallic tinge.

Kiama, New South Wales.

EIGHTH GROUP.—STEROPUS.

Feronia Germari : length 7-9’; very much like the Civilis,
Germar (“ Linn. Entomol.”), to which this author has united
it, as being its feminine sex, but for all my Ciilis are
every one males, I have the two sexes among Germarv.

This insect is much larger than Civilis, and the strie of
the elytra are strongly punctated, except towards the ex-
tremity and basis, and extend laterally to the margin ; one
single punctiform impression is seen on the third stria; the
elytra are oblong and elongated.

Common at Adelaide. 7

Feronia Saphyreo-marginata: length 7’-9'; very much |
like Civilis and Germari, but with margin of the elytra of a

- Notes on Australian Coleoptera. 223

beautiful blue ; the striz of the elytra are very strongly
punctated, excepttowardsthe extremity; the elytra are oblong.

Melbourne.

Feroma Saphyrypenmis: length 8’; same form and
general appearance as the precedent, but the elytra are en-
tirely of a beautiful purple; they are strongly striated in all
their length, and the striz are strongly punctated, except
behind ; the form of the elytra is oval, with two punctiform
impressions on each near the third stria.

Under sea-weeds on the seashore, Adelaide and Melbourne.

-Feroma Esmeraldipennis: length 63’; head and thorax
of a dark bronzed colour, the first oval; thorax almost round,
a little longer than in the precedent species; the
lateral margin becoming very broad behind, as in those ; the
impressions moderate ; elytra covered with strong striz, ex-
tending to all the length of the insect, and being punctated
in their first two thirds; they have each two punctiform im-
pressions on the third stria, and their colour is of a fine
brilliant metallic green ; lower side of the body and legs of
a dark brown; antenne and palpi of a lighter colour.

Adelaide, very rare.

Feronia Olhviert: length’; very much like Germari,
but the elytra much more oval and rounded; the striz ex-
tending in full depth to the basies, and to the extremity.

Adelaide and Melbourne. 7

Feroma Bonvouloirer: length 72’ ; very nearly allied to
Germari, but smaller; elytra elongated, and much narrower
in front; their broader part being towards the two posterior
thirds of the length ; the humeral angles more prominent ;
the strize not generally so deep.

Brisbane, Queensland.

Feroma Rockhamptoniensis: length 8’; general form
rather broad; of an obscure black; thorax transverse,
rounded, with the impressions feeble, except the two poste-
rior ones; elytra oval, rather broad and depressed with
strie, which appear punctated under a magnifying power.
and which extend on the entire length of the elytra, but
grow weaker towards the sides ; a punctiform impression on
the posterior part of the interval between the second and
third strie, and a series of the same on the margin; lower
side of the body and legs more brilliant ; tarsi and extremity
of the palpi brown ; antenne black, but covered after their
first four articles with a brown pubescence.

Rockhampton, Queensland. ;

224 Notes on Australian Coleoptera.

Feronia Waterhousiz: length 44’; brown, head very
feebly impressed between the eyes; thorax rounded, rather
longer than broad ; the front impression not visible, and the
sulcate feeble, but the two posterior impressions broad and
deep ; elytra oval, oblong, very much rounded at the humeral
angles, entirely and equally covered with single strize, not
very deeply marked ; on the back part of the interval be-
tween the second and third striz is a punctiform impres-
sion, and a series of others extend laterally on the ninth
stria; lower side of the thorax and legs of a light red,
abdomen darker ; palpi and antennsze of a light reddish colour.

Adelaide.

Feroma Elegantula: length 4; very much like Water-
housvi, but of a still more slender and elegant form ; thorax
much narrower behind; elytra more elongated and oval ;
three punctiform impressions on the interval between
second and third striz.

Found by Mr. Masters at King George’s Sound.

Feroma Mastersii: length 34’--44’; also very much like
Waterhousti, and having the same form of thorax, but elytra
much more elongated and deeply striated ; three punctiform
Impressions in the interval between the second and third
strie ; margin strongly impressed ; lower side of the body
and legs of a dark brown; thighs almost black; antennze
and palpi of a light reddish brown. |

Found by Mr. Masters at Port Lincoln. |

Feroma Blagravii: length 5’; oval, elongated, of a dark
glossy brown ; head oval; mandibule advanced and arched ;
thorax as long as broad, of the same breadth in front as
behind ; very rounded laterally, with the margin growing
much broader on its posterior part ; the front impression and
the sulcate are feeble, but the posterior impressions are deep —
and elongate; elytra oval, rather elongated, striated ; a very
short abbreviated stria near the scutellum, and in that

lace the sutural one diverges obliquely ; three punctiform
impressions on the interval between the second and third
strize ; the margin impressed ; lower side of the body, legs,
parts of the mouth and antenne of a dark brownish red.

Swan River.

NIntH GROUP.—ARGUTOR.
Two species of this division have been described.

Feronia Australis (Dej, species), and Argutor Sollicitus
(“Erich, Archiv”),

| Notes on a New Victorian Gem. 925

The following sort appears new :—

Feronia Inedita: length 4’; of a brillant black, elytra of
a dark blue; head rather triangular, with two impressions
between the eyes; thorax short, transverse, rather cordi-
form, with a transverse impression in front and another be-
hind; arather deep longitudinal sulcate in the middle ; behind,
there are two rather deep and broad impressions, and two
others smaller towards the angles; elytra oval, strongly
striated ; the sutural stria diverging towards the scutellum,
but no abbreviated one; two punctiform impressions on
the interval between the second and third strie; one
situated a little after the middle of the length, and the other
backwards ; near the apex, in the place where the striz
unite, there is also a broad and rounded impression ; the
margin impressed ; thighs brown ; legs, tarsi, palpi, and an-
tennze of a heht brownish red.

Pine Mountains of Queensland.

Note.--The general form of this insect is very much like
the one of Sollicitus.

A large number of other sorts of Argutor inhabit Aus-
tralia. I postpone their study to my next publication
on Australian Carabide.

Art. X VI.— Rubellite—Red Tourmaline—found at Tarran-
gower, Victoria, 1867. By the Rev. J. J. BLEASDALE,

D.D.
[Read 8th July, 1867.]

I owe my knowledge of the discovery of this gem-stone
(new to Victoria) to the courtesy and kindness of Mr. A. R. C.
Selwyn, Government Geologist. It was found in Broadford
Lead, Tarrangower, but by whom, precisely, I do not know.
We are now acquainted with the mineral Tourmaline, under
the following generally known names, viz. :—

1. Common School: a black, hard substance, found fre-
quently and abundantly in quartz rocks about the gold-
fields.

2. Transparent Green Tourmaline: discovered by myself
in granite rubbish, not far from Benalla. This consisted of
three specimens. One, the largest, about an inch long and
a quarter-inch in diameter, and of the colour known as dark
bottle green. The other two were smaller and of a paler

226 ‘Notes on a New Victorian Gem.

colour, which, however, might be, perhaps, accounted for by

their being comparatively shorter and less thick. None of

them had any terminal planes of crystalline structure—these
having been broken off. This stone, when of a reasonably
pale green, is a gem-stone by no means to be despised. The
cut specimen which lies on the table is evidence of what I
am saying. |

3. Transparent Red Tourmaline, or Rubellite: found in
that district whence so many fine gem-stones have come,
especially blue topazes, and in which it is a wonder that
hitherto no diamonds have been discovered. _

The half-dozen specimens which I am able to lay before
you to-night—all embedded in transparent quartz-crystals—
are small, it is true, but very interesting ; for they indisput-
ably demonstrate the presence of stone in our mines, and
leave us but little reason to fear that where they came from
originally, there were plenty more.

This particular substance when transparent, I mean
Rubellite, has a value in the scientific world far beyond its
appreciation as anornament. It has a most rare and im-
portant use in relation to light. Some of the very best of
our polariscopes are formed of two thin transparent polished
plates of it—the thinner the better, so that they are barely
thick enough to polarize. And they possess this advantage,
at any rate, over Nicols’ prisms of Iceland spar, that they
do not occupy much room upon the instrument, and can be
often used upon instruments to which it would be difficult
to apply the prism. I used them for years and never had
reason to be dissatisfied; and if I were going to resume
microscopic investigation I would adopt them again.

As a gem, it is of great beauty when its red colour is per-
fect, the crystal free from blemishes or feathers, and of a fair
size, say from three carats upwards, and would command a
good price : perhaps not much less than the Balais Ruby.

With reference to the actual determination and identifica-
tion of these specimens of Rubellite, I have not personally
examined them ; but, I believe, a member of the Council,
Mr. Newberry, the scientific chemist to the Department of
Mines, has, and has. been satisfied. From so much as I can
judge from the angles of the crystals shown, and the striation
well marked on the specimen in the darkest piece of quartz,
I feel no doubt about the matter.

Were I tempted to speculate on a matter of gem-stones,
and the conditions under which they are sometimes found,

Notes on a New Victorian Gem. 297

and the mistakes even the very best judges were liable to
_make before the establishment of the science of analytical
chemistry, I would begin by citing the most extensive and
intelligent traveller, and even to this day one of the best
authorities on all that appertains to gems—Tavernier. He
lived about two centuries ago, or a little more, and was a
most successful trader in gems, having made a huge fortune
in that occupation. Yet he mistook some red stone, found in
agate-balls and quartz-crystals, for the real Oriental ruby.
A short extract will suffice to show this abundantly. He
says :—

“In Bohemia there are mines that produce pebbles of
various sizes, some as large as eggs, others as large as one’s
fist. When broken, some of these are found to contain rubies
as hard and fine as those of Pegu. I remember being one
day at Prague, with the Viceroy of Hungary, in whose service
I then was, when he and General Wallenstein, Duke of
Friedland, were washing their hands before sitting down to
dinner. The Viceroy noticed and greatly praised the beauty
of a ruby the General wore in a ring, but his admiration
was increased when he was told that the mine whence it
came was in Bohemia. When the Viceroy departed, the
Duke presented him with a basket containing a hundred of
the pebbles. On his arrival home the Viceroy had the stones
broken, but out of the hundred only two were found to
contain a ruby: one, a large gem weighing five carats ; the
other, a ruby of one carat.”—Travels.

There has been a good deal of conjecture as to the par-
ticular stone which is here described by him. Some have
thought it must have been a garnet, and certainly some of
the Bohemian ones are very fine ; but it is quite out of the
question that he could have been deceived if he had seen
ae by candle light, for that stone blackens much in artificial
ight.

It might have been, perhaps, a zircon, or hyacinth ; but
then nearly all of them have characters very distinctive from
the grand ruby red, the anthrax live coal of the ancients.

If 1 were disposed to speculate, as I said, I would go in for
a fine specimen of the Red Tourmaline, whether cut or uncut,
as being the most likely to have imposed itself on the
venerable gem-trader for the true Oriental ruby.

228 On Mineral Veins.

Art. XVII.—On the Formation of Mineral Veins and the |

Deposit of Metathe Ores and Metals im them. By
Mr. H. A. THompson.

[Read 12th August, 1867.]

For the purpose of this paper mineral veins may be
divided into two classes—those more or less vertical, found
in all metalliferous strata; and the flat or horizontal veins,
most distinct and regular in the carboniferous limestone,
but also occasionally found in the diorite dykes traversing
the schistose rocks, or in these rocks themselves. The
bounding walls of mineral veins are usually well defined,
but not universally so, there being some irregularity in this
respect ; and the veins vary from a mere thread up to 50,
60, or even 100 feet in width. In some cases the space
between the walls of the vein is filled up with solid mate-
rials—quartz in the silurian rocks, and carbonate of lime and
sulphate of baryta in the carboniferous limestones; in
others a portion of the space is occupied by slate, clay, or
earthy matter. The ores of the different metals are found
mixed with these substances, sometimes in masses without
any perceptible order, at others in layers parallel to the

sides of the vein, and also in the cleavage planes and

fissures or joints of the adjoining rock. Veins are in some
cases continuous for many miles in length, and have been
worked to over two thousand feet in depth without giving
any sign of closing; in others they are limited both in
length and depth. Some veins retain a regular width over
large areas, others open out into bunches, and then contract
into mere joints at irregular intervals.

With such a diversity of conditions it is not surprising to
find that there has been an equal diversity of opinion as to
the mode in which these veins have been formed ; but the
theory now generally supported is, that they have been
faults caused by some disruptive force—the fissures thus
opened having been afterwards filled up with the minerals
now constituting the vein. Acting on this theory, the veins
of different districts have been classed in series in accordance
with their presumed relative age, the latter being fixed by
means of the dislocations which occur at their intersections
with each other.

On Mineral Veins. 229

One object of this paper is to show that, both as regards
the formation of the veins and their relative age, these con-
clusions have been too hastily drawn.

As regards the relative age of veins it has been held

that of two veins crossing each
other, where one is unbroken
(a Fig. 1) and the other faulted
(6 Fig. 1), the unbroken vein indi-
cates the latest fracture, and that
the faulted vein has heen dislocated
by the sliding of the sides of that
fracture. But this evidence of the
relative age is not conclusive, be-
cause the faulting of the vein b
may not arise from the sliding of
the sides of the fissure a, but from
a being the oldest vein, and there-
fore interrupting the action of the

a

alse

pb

aL
Fia. 1.

force which has formed the vein 6, thus causing an apparent
dislocation, when the deduction as to age will have to be
reversed, and a@ must be considered ag the oldest, not the

latest fracture.

Cases are frequently met with where several parallel

veins are faulted in crossing a con-

tinuous or unbroken vein; and °

the respective distances of the
parallel veins from each other
should correspond on each side
of the unbroken vein if the
faulting of these veins was owing
to a dislocation caused by the
sliding of the sides of the un-
broken vein. But instances are
common where this could not be
the case. For example, Fig. 2 is
a plan or horizontal section of the
intersection of several mineral
veins (0, c, d, e, f), with an un-
broken vein @, where each of
these mineral veins reforms at
different distances from the origi-

Fia. 2,
nal line of bearing ; and it would be impossible to account
for the faulting by the sliding of the sides of the cross vein a.

Fig. 2, Hanson Mear mine.

230 On Mineral Veins.

A like section is shown in Fig. 3,
where a mineral vein b comes up to
the unbroken cross vein @ in one
branch, and at one hundred and
fifty feet to the north, passes Pl,
in three branches.

Where the shifting or faulting of
the vein is due to the sliding oe the
sides of the vein crossed, the faulted
vein will be found to curve back to
the old line of bearing, as shown in
Fig. 4, where the cross vein w ap-

pears to have been faulted a dis- a
tance of eighty feet by the sliding Hig. 3,
of the sides of the mineral vein b.

In the examples (Figs. 2, aL

and 3) the unbroken veins or
joints have been in existence
before the mineral veins were
agoregated, and the continuous
line of the latter having been
interrupted by the unbroken
vein or fracture, they have
formed on joints at some dis-
tance from the original line of
bearing. These are not soli-
tary instances of the apparently — a

faulted joints being of more re- Fia. 4,

cent formation than the unbroken joints.

One extensive mining district in Yorkshire is traversed
by a strong east and west vein, having a vertical throw or
fault in some places of two hundred and forty feet, and
which has been traced over thirty miles in length. This
vein is not ore bearing, but at irregular intervals it has
several series of veins striking off from it on each side, and
bearing a few degrees more to the north, which are the
mineral veins of the district; and in none of the instances
coming under my notice did the veins on one side of the
cross vein correspond with those on the other in their
relative distance from each other, although each series was
evidently the same line of mineral veins.

Whatever conclusions may be arrived at on this subject,

Fig. 3, Rampgill mine.
vay. 4, Scaleburn mine, Foster’s sections.

On Mineral Veins. 231

it should be remembered that they will not decide the com-
parative age of the mineral deposits in the veins, but only
that of the joints on which the veins have been formed, for
it is possible that these joints may have been in existence
for unknown ages before they were converted into veins by
the aggregation of the minerals on the lines of fracture.

The principal evidence against the theory, that veins are
formed on the fissures caused by faults, and that these fissures
have either been opened at once, or by successive stages,
marking different epochs of disruption, and remained open
until the material now filling the fissure was deposited,
will be found in the veins themselves, for few cases can be
produced where such a mode of formation is possible.

Mineral veins generally penetrate to a great depth, and
that not vertically, but with a greater or less underlay
through strata of varying character. Under these conditions
it is difficult to see how a fissure a few feet wide, from one
to two thousand feet in depth, and extending for several
miles, could remain open for the hundreds, or perhaps
thousands, of years that would be required to fill it by the
slow process of deposition from water circulating in the
fissure, and holding in solution the minerals now consti-
tuting the vein.

Even in hard rocks, and with only a small area open at
one time, the greatest difficulty the miner has to contend
with, is the keeping of the fissure from closing, by means
of timber or stone-work, until the contents of the vein can
be taken out ; and all who have had practical experience in
working mines will be aware that it is absolutely impossible
for the above theory to be correct.

The pressure on the sides of the vein increases rapidly
with the depth ; and in many of the softer silurian rocks,
where the smallest fissure would not remain open, we have
large mineral veins. Take, for instance, the Old Man vein
at Clunes, which is some five or six feet wide at the surface,
but in going down swells out to one hundred and twenty
feet wide, and then contracts again, or rather breaks up, at
a greater depth. Many cases of a similar kind will be found
in the quartz mines of Sandhurst, Maldon, and other parts
of the colony, where the veins occasionally open out and
form large bunches of quartz. Yet we are asked to believe
that such huge cavities have remained open during the long
period of time required to fill them. |

Still greater is the difficulty of accounting on this theory

232 On Mineral Veins.

for the formation of the mineral veins in the diorite dykes
found in the schistose rocks. Take, for example, the
Morning Star Hill, at Wood’s Point, of which Fig. 5 is a
cross section.

Fig. 5. : *
The dyke underlays to the west, and is traversed by a
series of auriferous quartz veins more or less horizontal,
situate one below the other, and having no connection with
each other. Portions of the dyke are frequently enclosed
within the vein, similar in character to the riders in vertical
veins. These parallel flat veins could not have been a series
of open fissures, unless the portions of the dyke between
them had been suspended by the pressure of the schist on ~
each side—a manifestly absurd supposition. |
The open fissure theory might have been tenable as regards
some veins, so long as it was held that the contents of these
veins had been of igneous origin, for the minerals forced into
the fissure in a molten state might have kept it open, as in
the case of trap dykes; but when the igneous theory has
been abandoned, it is inconceivable how geologists can cling
to a supposition so opposed to all experience. It may
be urged that when the veins were formed the rocks ©
might have been in such a hard and compact state as —

On Mineral Veins. 233

to allow these fissures to remain open. There is no evidence,
_ however, to support such an assumption, and all analogy
would lead to the contrary belief. But even supposing
that the rocks had at some time been so hard as to allow
of open fissures, penetrating to a great depth, this theory
will not account for the formation of the small detached leads
and bunches of quartz found scattered throughout the silurian
rocks wherever these rocks have been much decomposed, nor
for the shallow gash or wedge-shaped veins which do not
penetrate far from the surface. In these cases there could
be no circulation of currents of water, for the quartz leads
only extend afew feet, and the gash veins are closed before
_ they reach the deep source from whence the contents of the
veins are, it is assumed, derived.

The conditions under which riders (z.e. detached masses of
the bounding rocks enclosed in the vein) occur in veins are
also incompatible with the open fissure theory. Fig. 6 is a

section of a lead vein in the limestone rock, where the dark
lines represent the ore in the vein, and in the strings or
joints, ¢ ee, connected with it. It will be seen that the

Fig. 6.—Vertical Section.
R

234 On Mineral Veins.

rider a appears to have been separated from the wall of the
vein by the gradual filling and expansion of a joint at 0.
At ¢ dis shown a similar joint filled with ore, where, if the
deposition of minerals continued, the vein would form along
the joint ¢ d, and the enclosed block would be converted
into a rider. Sometimes these riders remain 7m situ, in
other cases they have been lowered for some distance, pro-
bably through the decomposition and removal of the consti-
tuents of the vein on which they had rested. The riders in
flat veins present much the same appearance as those in the
vertical veins, and have evidently originated in the same
way.

To recapitulate. We have opposed to the theory that
mineral veins have been open fissures caused by some dis-
ruptive force, either acting at once or by a succession of
movements, and filled by the gradual deposit of minerals
brought from below in currents of water circulating in the
open fissures.

1st. The impossibility of any fissure remaining open, even
to the smallest extent, in most of the rocks traversed by
vertical or horizontal veins.

2nd. The fact that this theory will not account for the
filling of the wedge-shaped veins, nor for the formation of
the surface bunches and the detached leads or strings - of
quartz.

3rd. The phenomena attending the occurrence of riders
both in flat and vertical veins.

In support of this theory instances have been adduced,
where the deposit of minerals assumes the form of corres- —
ponding parallel layers on each side of a vertical central rib.
But it should be noted that this is not the ordinary arrange-
ment of the minerals in the vein—in fact, it is an appearance
rarely met with, and then only in hard rocks, and extending
over limited portions of the vein. The ordinary flat veins
in limestone rocks may in some instances have been open
cavities, or it would be more correct to say, that open cavities
may have existed in some portions of these veins previous
to the deposition of the ores ; and similar small cavities may __
occur in vertical veins traversing hard rocks, but these are
exceptional cases, and their occurrence on this small scale
does not remove the impossibility of whole mineral veins
being formed in this wa

On the other hand, nearly all the facts observed point to

On Mineral Veins. 235

the gradual formation of the veins by the same law of
replacement atom by atom, which causes a tendency in the
constituents of some rocks to aggregate in bands or round
some centre—a law still obscure, but the existence of which
is now generally acknowledged. The forming of the vein
fissures and the deposit of minerals in them appear to have
been simultaneous operations.

It will also be found that the majority of mineral veins
are not formed on faults, but either on the cleavage or divi-
sional planes.

All rocks, however elevated they may be above the water
level of the country, are more or less porous, and hold a large
per centage of water.

The most compact marbles known will hold , part, and
ordinary limestones = part of their weight of water, while
Bath stone will take up one gallon, and chalk two gallons
per cubic foot. Mr. 8. T. Hunt has carried out a series of
experiments to ascertain the amount of water that can be
absorbed by the paleozoic rocks of Canada. He found that
the limestones and sandstones would take up from 1 to 13
per cent., and the shales from ‘75 to 7-94 per cent. of their —
weight of water. A bed of rock absorbing only 2°5 per cent.,
and one hundred feet thick, would contain 70,000,000 cubic
feet of water in a square mile of area, a quantity sufficient
to supply seven gallons per minute for over thirteen years.

This water is never pure, for it invariably holds different
mineral substances in solution in greater or less quantity,
which must excite slow electro-chemical action, intensified
by the magnetic currents constantly circulating in the crust
of the earth. However unchangeable the rocks may appear
to our limited experience, it is certain that these forces acting
during long ages have caused, and are now slowly causing,
great changes. Consolidation of the particles of the rocks,
alterations of their crystalline structure, aggregation of their
constituents into nodules or bands, decomposition under a
change of conditions of the bodies previously formed, are all
forces which have been in operation from the time when the
rocks were first deposited, and are now probably as active
as ever. The views as to the great change thus produced in
the structure of rocks are constantly being extended. Nearl
thirty years ago the late Mr. Evan Hopkins called attention
to instances of the gradual change of granite to gniess, and
gniess to mica-schist ; and from these drew the conclusion

R 2

236 On Mineral Veins.

that the gniess and schistose rocks were merely changed
granites. |

The presence of organic remains in the schistose rocks
indicated that this could not be the case, but the investiga-
tions of the English Geological Survey have shown that the
observations of Mr. Hopkins were correct, although the con-
clusions he drew from them will have to be reversed.

The opinion that granite is only a changed form of the
schistose rocks is daily becoming more general among prac-
tical geologists. Messrs. Hicks and Salter, in a report on
the geology of St. David’s, Pembrokeshire, read at the last
meeting of the British Association (1866), state “that the
Harlech group has a passage downwards into the central
syenitic mass, so distinct and gradual as to induce the belief
that that mass is throughout no other than altered Cam-
brian.” Professor Hitchcock also describes an extensive hed
of partially metamorphosed conglomerates where the quartz
pebbles had been elongated, and in some cases had assumed
a laminated structure, the elongation and lamination being
in a meridional direction

Whether such is the origin of the granites or not, 1t must
still be allowed that the slow and gradual changes at
present in operation which, in the long course of ages have
produced the great alterations in the physical geography
of the earth’s surface now observed, may have produced
a like change in the rocks themselves, and unless we
give due weight to the accumulative action of these small —
changes (7.e. small in a limited space of time), little progress
will be made in explaining the phenomena attending the
formation of mineral veins. | |

The silurian and other rocks, besides the planes of deposi-
tion, commonly called bedding or sedimentary planes, are —
traversed by vertical cleavage planes, and these are again —
crossed by joints or divisional planes at different angles, —
which penetrate to a great depth. The ordinary rock-joints —
are usually confined to the bed in which they occur; itis —
not these, however, that we have to consider, but only the —
large master-joints of a district which traverse all the beds. —
Although the direction of these divisional planes is variable,
yet series of them running on parallel lines are found in ~
sufficient numbers to show that they owe their origin to —
some general cause. I have seen large areas of flat lime- —
stone-rocks on the shores of Northumberland, where the —
divisional planes crossed each other with such regularity —

On Mineral Veins. 237

as to present the appearance of a gigantic tesselated pave-
ment. |

_ Mr. Hopkins has tried to demonstrate mathematically that
a series of joints would be formed parallel to an axis of
elevation, along with a second series crossing the first at
right angles; but this theory must be put to the test of a
searching comparison with the observed phenomena in
numerous instances before it could be accepted as the true
explanation, and this has not yet been done. In the case of
the partially-metamorphosed conglomerates described by
Professor Hitchcock, the bed was crossed by east and west
joints or divisional planes, cutting smoothly through the
pebbles; these planes having in some places polished
faces, although the cut pebbles on each side of the joints
exactly corresponded, showing that there had been no slip.
He considered mechanical agency could not possibly
account for these phenomena, and that we are driven to
the supposition that some polarising force has been the
agent.

It is indeed difficult to conceive how these regular series
of parallel joints or divisional planes could be produced
by disruptive forces acting from below, and so far as
the cleavage planes are concerned, the prevailing opinion
is that they have been caused by polar forces originating
with the magnetic currents traversing the earth. It is true
that laminations similar to cleavage planes may be produced
by lateral pressure ; but this will not account for the con-
stant meridional direction of these planes, and has no bearing
on the formation of divisional planes.

Mr. Fox’s investigations into this subject are well known,
and the repetition of one of them by Mr. Hunt of the School
of Mines, Jermyn-street, appears to bear so exactly upon
the question, that it may be well to briefly describe it. The
apparatus used was an oblong box or trough, and the
material operated on was Stourbridge clay, plaster-of-paris,
bath-brick, sandstone, and powdered coal. The trough in
this experiment was divided into two compartments by a
wall of clay three to four inches thick, and on one side of
this wall was placed a plate of copper, on the other a plate
of zinc; the two plates being connected together by a strip
of copper. The cells were then filled with the exciting fluids,
that on the copper side being a weak solution of sulphate
of copper, and on the zinc side of the muriate of soda.. A
complete circuit was thus formed, the current passing from

238 On Mineral Veins.
the zinc plate along the strip of copper to the copper plate,

and from the latter through the wall of clay to the zine

plate. The action was kept up for six months by daily
additions to the solutions, when the clay wall was examined
and found to have assumed the conditions described by Mr.
Fox. On the side next the zinc plate, the clay was tra-
versed by distinct lines of cleavage parallel to the sides of
the clay wall. On the copper side, instead of the vertical
laminated structure, there was a consolidation of the mass ;
this consolidation appearing to take place in the direction of
the current; the induration in many places being very
striking, and the fluid and clay were considerably elevated
on that side. This action produced a hollow in the centre
of the mass, and a series of curved lines proceeding from the
top of the zinc plate towards the centre of the copper plate,
and from thence back towards the bottom of the zine
plate. As these curved lines approached the zine side, they
were crossed and split by the vertical laminations, although
very distinctly continued. A dark band was formed on the
curved lines, and in this near the copper plate laminz of
copper were found, while at a greater distance from the plate
the metallic copper in the laminze was replaced by carbonates
of copper and zinc. A number of nodules were also formed
on the lines of the magnetic currents.

This experiment indicates that two forces or lines of power
were in operation ; one of them producing cleavage lamina-
tions similar in character to those trav ersing the schistose
rocks, the other exerting a drawing action towards the
copper plate ; elevating the clay on that side and leaving a
cavity in the centre. At the same time a molecular change
of structure was going on, as indicated by the formation of
nodules in the clay ; and not only were the metals employed
removed and deposited in the laminations of the clay, but
by the same agent the ores of these metals had been formed
and deposited ¢ on the laminations under the same conditions
as they are found in mineral veins.

If on this small scale, and in such a comparatively short
period of time, these effects can be produced, it is easy to
conceive how powerful may be the action of magnetic currents
circulating in the crust of the earth—how readily the pheno-
mena we now observe may be produced by them—and how
varied these phenomena may become through the disturbing

influence of peculiar local conditions. It is probable that here

we have the principal agent in the formation of the cleavage

On M imeral Veins. 239

and divisional planes, and not unlikely that the magnetic
tension may have at least assisted in the opening of vein-
fissures in the harder rocks.

I have met with one instance where the rock on the north
side of the vein presented a singular appearance, which
might arise from this cause. At the Beldi hill mine—an
east and west vein in the mountain limestone formation—
a drive was taken into the north wall in the twelve fathom
lime ; on the wall of the vein the rock was hard and diffi-
cult to work, with a peculiar knotted appearance as if it had
been compressed by some enormous force, and the drive was
carried several fathoms before the limestone resumed its
usual character. A lower drive was carried in the same
direction in the plate or shale beds underneath the lime-
stone. T’hese beds are nearly horizontal, and the sedimentary
planes correspond ; but on the north wall of the vein there
was a vertical cleavage which had nearly obliterated the
sedimentary planes, and as in the limestone drive above,
the bed only attained its ordinary character at some distance
from the vein. The compression of the sedimentary beds in
the schistose rocks when these beds are at right angles to
the cleavage may possibly arise from the same cause. In
numerous cases, however, the conditions point more to the
gradual replacement of the rock by the constituents of the
vein, and the force of tension could only have acted as an
auxiliary. For instance, a mineral like quartz distributed
through a mass of alumina, as it is found in the schistose
rocks, has a tendency to segregate itself from the clay and
accumulate on certain lines or points, where it will replace
the previously existing rock atom by atom by an action
similar to that by means of which pseudomorphic crystals
are formed. An interesting experiment bearing on this
point is described by Becquerel :—A plate of steel was en-
closed in a case communicating through a fissure at one end
with a weak solution of nitrate of silver—-kept at the same
level by occasional additions to the solution—and left in this
state for eight years. At the end of that time it was found
that one half of the steel plate was changed into very pure
silver, the volume of silver being the same as that of the
steel removed.

After a careful analysis of the observed facts I have come
to the conclusion that mineral veins have not been open
fissures caused by faults in the sense usually understood,
but that they have formed gradually on the existing joints,

240 On Mineral Veins.

irrespective of whether these joints were cleavage planes,
divisional planes, or true faults. 7

The lower silurians of this colony are highly metamor-
phosed rocks, exhibiting the marked cleavage which usually
attends the change from a compact crystalline structure to ~
a comparatively soft state, and in these rocks the quartz
veins have generally formed on the cleavage planes ; but in
the rare instances where they have formed on the divisional
planes, they have usually been exceedingly productive.

In the upper silurians, where the cleavage is imperfect and
when present seldom extends over large areas, the veins
generally form on the divisional planes, or on some fault or
dyke. In consequence they are, as compared with the veins
of the lower silurians, more apt to form rich deposits of sur-
face quartz, which are soon exhausted, as they are not con-
tinuous either in length or depth. Wherever they are
of a more permanent character, it will be found that a
change has occurred in the rocks bounding the vein similar
to that observed in the lower silurians.

Where these upper silurians are traversed by thin diorite
dykes, the auriferous quartz veins usually form on the side
of the dyke, in the same manner as the lead ore veins have
formed on the side of the trap dykes in the island of Islay.

In the wide diorite dykes the quartz veins frequently tra-
verse the dyke itself, either as flat or highly inclined veins,
or as irregular leads of quartz. -

The next point to be considered is the mode in which the ~
contents of the veins have been deposited, and the source
from whence they have been derived :—

In discussing this question occasional reference will be
made to the phenomena observed in the veins of the car-
boniferous or mountain limestone of the north of England.
This formation consists of a series of nearly horizontal alter-
nating beds of shales, sandstones, and limestones, and in the
Derbyshire mining field, of alternate beds of limestone and
basalt. In some of the limestones flat veins are formed, but
generally the veins are nearly vertical, and thus afford an
excellent opportunity for studying their changes of character
as they traverse and are affected by the different beds of
rock. Had more attention been given to the veins of this
formation, a clue would have been obtained to the pheno-

mena attending veins in the silurian rocks, and correct views

would have been sooner promulgated as to the agents
employed in collecting our metallic treasures.

On Mineral Vewns. 241

For some time the question as to whether the’ contents of
veins were of igneous or aqueous origin created much dis-
cussion. This may now be considered as set at rest, the
presence of undoubted aqueous deposits in veins in large
proportions rendering it more than probable that all the
contents are of this character. For example, there can be
no question but that the quartz found in the veins of this
colony is of aqueous origin. Bischof in the first instance,
and Dr. Percy since, point out that although quartz may be
formed artificially both by igneous and aqueous means, yet
there is a difference in the specific gravity of the two
minerals thus obtained, that of the igneous quartz being 2:1
to 2:3, of the aqueous quartz 2°5 to 2°6.

The quartz met with both in mineral veins and in tae
granites has the specific gravity of aqueous quartz, and may
therefore be safely considered as having been formed by
aqueous action, and not by fire. This view is further sup-
ported by the conditions attending these deposits, for on
no other hypothesis yet advanced is it possible to account for
the cases frequently met with of a change from pure quartz
to quartz-rock, sandstone, and slate, so gradual as to render
it impossible to draw a boundary-line between the different
deposits, or for the surface veins and detached strings or
leads of quartz, which are found throughout the lower silu-
rian rocks, and have no connection with any fissure or
opening through which the molten quartz could have been
injected.

Change is no doubt going on in mineral veins as it is in
all other deposits, and the contents may have been fre-
quently removed and replaced, as is indicated by the
presence of pseudomorphic crystals of different minerals.
The same agent that collected the minerals in the veins may
re-arrange them, or even carry them away altogether, and it
is in this way that cavities have probably been formed in
the veins traversing the limestones, and where the walls
were of hard rock, or where they had been left coated with
solid mineral deposits, so as to allow the cavities to remain
open, the space may have been filled in with the earthy matter
and ore now found in some veins, or with the regular crys-
talline deposits seen in others. During these changes, the
corresponding vertical parallel ribs of minerals occasionally
met with in veins may have been formed, and it is even
possible that veins may have been partially or wholly obli-
terated. Bischof mentions a case where a previous deposit

242 On Mineral Veins.

of fluor and cale spar had been removed from a whole series
of veins, and replaced by an equal quantity of quartz.

The deposit of metallic ores and metals in the veins has —
been ascribed to various causes, of which the principal are—

lst. Injection of the ore or metal into the vein in a molten
state.

2nd. Deposition in the veins by the sublimation of sub-
stances driven by heat from beneath upwards.

ord. Deposition of ores from solutions in water, brought
from below.

Ath. Deposition or rather aggregation in the veins of ores
or metals derived from the bounding rocks.

The three first theories are founded on the opinion that
the metallic ores and metals found in the veins are derived
from some deposit situate at an unknown depth below the
surface of the earth. The fourth that they have been derived
from the rocks bounding or immediately contiguous to the
vein, and have been aggregated in the latter in the same
way and by the same power which has collected the other
mineral constituents of the vein.

The first supposition assumes that the ores and metals have
formed a portion of some molten mass, and have been
injected into the veins. It is hardly necessary to dwell on
this theory, the conditions under which the sulphides, car-
bonates and oxides of the different metals are found render-
ing it impossible that they can have been deposited in a
melted state, while the peculiar arborescent and crystalline
form of the native metals in veins—so completely different
from the rounded figure which melted metals assume— and
their frequent presence as fine flakes like gilding in the
cleavage planes of the rock adjoining the veins, afford sufii-
cient proof that they have not been deposited in this
state.

The second theory is more probable, inasmuch as some of
the metallic ores can be formed by sublimation—a_ fact
proved by their occasional presence in the flues of smelting
furnaces—yet to render this theory possible it must be
assumed that molten masses of ore exist in the interior of
the earth; or rather, as there are several metals usually
found in each vein, there must be a corresponding number of
melted parcels of the different ores, and these must each
have communication with the vein. But there are many —
productive veins which do not penetrate far from the surface,
and the flat veins of the diorite dykes and the mountain

On Mineral Veins. 243

limestone formation, could not have obtained their ores in
this way, for there is no passage or communication to
connect them with the hypothetical deep storehouse. Most
veins are also saturated with water, the quantity increasing
with the depth, and it is difficult to see how the sublimed
ores could penetrate this water for many thousand feet,
instead of being deposited as soon as it reached the water,
which we know always is the case in smelting works.

Again, in the Derbyshire and north of ‘England mining
fields, where the veins traverse horizontal beds of limestone,
sandstone, shale, and basalt, if the ores were deposited by
sublimation, they would be distributed indifferently through-
out these beds ; but it is found that the veins only carry ore
while traversing a certain number of these rocks, while in
the remainder they are invariably barren. In the mines of
the silurian formation the same phenomena may be observed.
A change in the character of the bounding rocks usually
affects the ore-bearing qualities of the vein, and where the
latter pass from the schist into the granite there is fre-
quently a change in the metals aggregated, as from copper
to tin, or the contrary.

Similar difficulties have to be overcome in endeavouring
to apply the third theory. As regards the vertical veins it
has been suggested that the magnetic condition of some of
the rocks influences the deposition on them of the ores
brought from below, and held in solution in the water cir-
culating in the vein. In the mountain limestone the pro-
ductive character of many of the beds varies within short
distances, although constant in a certain area, while no
perceptible difference can be detected in the character of the
rock. This is not a convincing refutation, for there may be
a change in the magnetic condition of the rock without any
visible alteration in its appearance ; but the difficult
task still remains of accounting on this hypothesis for the
filling of the flat and wedge-shaped veins, the deposit of
minerals in the detached strings of quartz, or for the metallic
ores intimately incorporated with the rocks. In driving
levels in the mountain limestone, I have met with small
cavities in the solid compact rock not connected with any
fissure or joint, and yet these cavities were filled with galena.

Copper ores are found disseminated through some of the
old red sandstone beds in Ireland, and in the so-called capper
slates of Germany.

Tin ore is also found so intermixed with the granite

244 On Mineral Veins.

as to render it profitable to quarry and crush the surface
rock in many places.

The stream tin of this colony, and most of the gold asso-
ciated with it, appear to have been derived from the decom-
position of the oranites in the neighbourhood of which they
are found. ;

The obstacles enumerated have been felt even by the

staunchest supporters of the above theories; and it has been

suggested that deposition from sublimation, from currents,
and from the bounding rocks, may have been going on at
the same time. It is not probable, however, that nature is
working by several distinct means in filling the veins ; and
if it is found that the theory of deposition or aggregation —
from the bounding rocks will account for all the phenomena
observed, and as it is the only theory which will do so, it
may be safely accepted as the correct explanation of the
mode in which ores have been deposited.

No doubt, in localities where powerful volcanic action is
going on, metallic ores may be deposited from sublimation
in sufficient quantity to afford cabinet specimens. And the
veins acting as channels for water holding minerals in solu-
tion an occasional deposit may occur in this way, or a trans-
fer of the ore from one part of the vein to another, or even
to joints. or veins adjoining it, may be effected. But a close
examination of all the phenomena attending the deposits in
veins leads irresistibly to the conclusion that the great bulk
of the metallic ores have been derived from the bounding
rocks.

In the experiment carried out by Mr. Hunt metallic copper
and carbonates of copper and zinc were deposited along the
curved laminations in the clay wall, forming in fact an
artificial mineral vein. In the same way Mr. Fox obtained
deposits of peroxide of tin and other ores, and proved that
long-continued electro-chemical action with weak currents —
is able to overcome strong affinities, decomposing some —
bodies, and forming new combinations. Using the same ~
agents, Becquerel has produced crystals of the sulphides of ~
tin, copper, lead, and iron, and oxides of copper and zinc; ~
and there can be no reason why the same minerals should —
not be produced by the same agents in the laboratory of —
nature as well as in that of the chemist.

In nature will be found all the requisite conditions
operating ona grand scale. Magnetic currents traverse the
rocks capable of exciting the necessary action, and bearing

On Mineral Ves. 245

along with them the various metals—no such thing as dry
sedimentary rocks exist naturally—for they all contain a
certain amount of water, which fills up their pores, and
affords an ample medium for the decomposition and trans-
port of minerals—a road along which they may travel great
distances. That this road does not remain unused is proved
by the recent deposits of ore sometimes found in old mining
works.

A marked instance came under my notice at the Tees-side
mine, where there was an old level driven on the vein in the
limestone rock, which had not been used for nearly sixty
years. In one part of this level a crop of carbonate of lead
was formed, growing out of the old underlay wall of the
vein in long, delicate, needle-like crystals. Had the growth
gone on at the same rate, the wall of the vein would have
been covered with a sheet of carbonate of lead about an inch
thick in the course of a few hundred years. This is far from
being a solitary case, as there are few men having much
experience in practical mining on old fields who could not
recount similar instances of modern deposits forming in old
workings. ‘These recent deposits of metallic ores could not
have been indebted to sublimation for their origin, nor to
currents of water circulating in the vein fissure, as the water
had been drained off by the level. It must, therefore, be
evident that they could only have been derived from the
rocks bounding the vein.

Coming to the gold deposits of this colony we have
modern auriferous pyrites of recent date formed in the gold-
bearing drifts, and the experiments, particulars of which
have been communicated to the Society by Messrs. Wilkin-
son and Newberry, indicate how this has been effected.

These views, as to the source from whence the ores have
been derived, receive strong support from most of the
phenomena presented by mineral veins.

The veins in the limestone rock are usually accompanied
by strings (joints filled with ore) passing out of the vein,
and coming back to it after they have run a greater or less
distance. (¢ e, Fig. 6.) Sometimes a portion of the wall
of the vein is traversed by these joints of ore, set so close
together as to render it profitable to work ; and the riders
are frequently of the same character, the ores in some
instances being intermixed with the compact rock, in others
collected into a net-work of strings. In the north of England
the beds in which the veins bear ore are generally separated

246 On Mineral Veins.

from each other by long intervals of barren rock, and in
Derbyshire by thick beds of basalt.

Many very productive veins are met with which only
penetrate a short distance from the surface of the earth.

Flat veins are formed between the layers of limestone beds,
and are frequently very rich. The galena deposit of Wis-
consin, in the United States, is of this character ; and in
many places is so regular as to allow of its being worked in —
the same manner as a coal seam.

The flat veins vf quartz in the diorite dykes do not pene-
trate to any depth, and are really detached strings of quartz
having no connection with each other.

Detached masses of metallic ores are found in the cavities
formed in hard crystalline rocks, when these cavities are not
connected with any joint.

Bands of granite are found impregnated with metallic
ores, and these ores are also found disseminated in sedi-
mentary strata.

Recent deposits of ore have been formed in old workings,
where they could only have been derived from the rocks
bounding the vein.

Tt will be seen how impossible it is in some of these cases
—how improbable it is in others—for the minerals to have
been derived from some source deep in the earth, and to —
have been brought to the surface and deposited in open fis-
sures, elther by” currents of water or by sublimation. 4

On the other hand, how readily all the observed facts may
be accounted for by adopting the theory which derives the
mineral contents of the veins from the rocks bounding them,
and assumes these contents to have been deposited on the
joints or fractures of the rock, which have been enlarged by
the aggregation of the minerals in them, operating by the —
law of replacement whose action is so marked, and perhaps
in some instances assisted by the magnetic tension. Ifa —
steel plate can be removed atom by atom, and each atom be
replaced by a corresponding atom of silver—a fact estab-
lished by direct experiment—it will be readily seen thata
mineral vein may be formed in the same way.

Further evidence in support of this theory will be dis-
covered in the fact that productive veins are rarely found in
hard crystalline rocks, unless a portion of these rocks has
undergone decomposition. Bischof has noted this, and —
points out that “the removal of the constituents of a rock —
is always preceded by its decomposition, and is facilitated by

On Mineral : Veins. 24:7

the advance of the decomposition. Whenever quartz exists
in lodes, the adjoining rock is more or less converted into
kaolin, so that we find in the one place what is deficient in
the other ; and when it is found that the abundance of ore
in a lode is proportionate to the extent of the decomposition
of the adjoining rock, this circumstance can only be regarded
as a consequence of that decomposition.”

This peculiarity may be noted even in the lower silurians
of the western gold-fields of this colony, greatly changed as
these all are ; but it is most marked where these rocks are
hard and crystalline, as in some of our mountain ranges, or
in the upper silurians ; for in the latter the cleavage (which
is one indication of this decomposition) is imperfect, and
only extends over limited areas, and-in consequence the
veins formed in them have a corresponding character.
When this decomposition has not penetrated far from the
surface, the veins will soon die out, or become worthless ;
but when the decomposition sets down to a great depth, the
veins will do so likewise, and are as likely to bear ore below
as at the surface. Auriferous veins are only an apparent
exception to this rule, for although the rock may be rich in
gold, yet the latter may be prevented from collecting in the
veins, because a considerable portion of it has already been
ageregated in the rock, and requires a second decomposition
to liberate it. Cases may therefore occur where there has
been a sufficient metamorphosis of the schists to allow of
large quartz veins being formed at great depths from the
surface, while the bulk of the gold may still be retained in
the bounding beds.

This apparent incongruity may be easily explained :—In
| assisting the decomposition of the rocks and the ageregation
(of its constituents in the veins, water no doubt acts an
| important part, and with the exception of gold, the veins
| are found to be as productive in metals at some distance
below the water line as they are above that point. But this
i is not always the case with auriferous quartz veins. Gold
| is generally found intimately associated with the sulphides
of iron, being aggregated along with them, and in auriferous
| strata the iron ore, whether collected in the quartz veins or
scattered in detached crystals through the rock, is seldom
found without gold. This intimate association also exists in
the case of the recent pyrites formed in the auriferous drifts,
which invariably contain metallic gold incorporated with the
| sulphide of iron. The same affinity may be illustrated by

248 On Mineral Veins.

placing a piece of quartz containing iron pyrites in a weak
solution of chloride of gold, and adding any organic sub-
stance, when a deposition of gold occurs on the pyrites, but
none on the quartz. In many places the total amount of this
ore in the schists is very great, and we can understand what
a large quantity of gold may be locked up with it. Still in
localities where the sulphides of iron are not plentiful, or
where the decomposition of the rock has been so great as to
allow a considerable proportion of these auriferous sulphides
to be removed and aggregated with the quartz, rich gold-
bearing veins will be found below the water line, irrespec-
tive of the depth.

When the sulphides in the rocks are completely decom-
posed, as they are found above the water line and near the
surface, the gold thus liberated is then in a condition to be
acted on by other agents, and it is probable that nearly the
whole of it has been accumulated in the veins, forming the
rich surface deposits so frequently met with. The rich
casing or layer of auriferous slate running by the side of the
quartz, which is occasionally found above the water line, —
changes below that point into a layer of slate full of aurifer-
ous pyrites, and an extension of this action to the bounding
rocks will account for the surface deposits.

A similar illustration is afforded by the diorite dykes of
the Wood’s Point district. Near the surface these dykes are
much decomposed, and in this condition the quartz veins
traversing them have yielded large quantities of gold ; but
as the rock becomes hard and compact at a greater depth,
the gold in the veins decreases, indicating that this decompo-
sition of the bounding rock and consequent liberation of the —
contained gold, was necessary to the ageregation of the —
latter in the quartz veins. The dyke may contain quite as —
large an amount of gold where the quartz veins are worth- —
less as 1t does where they are rich, but it will require long ©
ages to pass over before the necessary changes are effected —
that would render this gold available. "¢

The question as to the agency by means of which the
metals were first disseminated through the rocks is not of —
such practical importance to the miner as that of the
formation of the deposits from whence our mineral wealth —
is directly obtained. Mr. S. T. Hunt, who has carefully —
investigated this matter, expresses an opinion that the metals —
have been brought to the surface in solution, and precipi- —
tated by the agency of organic matter along with the con-

The Ethics of Opinion. 249

temporaneous sediments, which gradually consolidate into
rocks. It is well known that both gold and silver are found
in sea-water, and under favourable conditions deposits of
those metals may still be going on in some of the rocks now
forming at the bottom of the ocean.

It would be impossible to detail in a paper of this kind
the number of minute observations made extending over
many years, and forming a strong chain of evidence leading
up to the same deductions. Ihave therefore endeavoured to
lay before the Royal Society an outline of the views I have
formed on this subject—one of some scientific interest, and of
great practical importance to this colony—partly with the
hope of inducing other labourers to enter the field. What-
ever advance may be made will not be due to investigations
conducted in the closet only, but it must in a great measure
depend on the careful and intelligent noting of the facts
observed by those engaged in practical mining. ©

At present these observations only add to individual expe-
rience, and unfortunately pass away with the individual ;
but if some system could be adopted for collecting and
arranging the facts noted by different observers, say some
plan similar to that by means of which Maury has given
such an impulse to navigation, I believe an equal impulse
would be given to our mines, through the greater certainty
a knowledge of the laws which govern the deposition of
metals would give to mining enterprise.

It may even be worthy of consideration whether a section
of this Society might not be usefully employed in carrying
out some plan of collecting and arranging the observations
now lost.

ArT. XVII] —The Ethics of Opinion and Action.
By H. K. Ruspen.

[Read 9th September, 1867.]
Mr. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE RoyYAL SocIETY,

It may be considered that I owe you some apology for
venturing to ask your attention to a paper in the form of
that which I am about to read; as it is in fact, simply
a critique upon an/article in Frazer’s Magazine. Still though
only a review, it contains as quotations all the salient por-
tions of the essay criticised ; and I think that the mode

8

250 The Ethics of Opinion.

which I have adopted of approaching the subject is not
without some important advantages. It leads at once to a
fundamental principle in the heart of the question, and
avoids allthose metaphysical labyrinths in which the real points
at issue are so often lost, and in which the difficulties appear
all the more colossal, as they are purely imaginary. We all
know the magnifying properties of the lens of fancy. I will
only premise that this paper was written without any inten-
tion of thus producing it ; without indeed any definite pur-
pose whatsoever ; but when I was hesitating as to its disposal,
it was suggested to me that it would be desirable to introduce
some such variety into your proceedings.

I now proceed to consider the Ethics of Opinion and
Action ; or how far men are properly lable to praise or
blame, reward or punishment, for their thoughts or actions.

THE ETHICS OF OPINION AND ACTION.

In questions of historical or legal evidence, of mathema-
tics, of logic, or of any practical science, the final human
test of truth, is consistency; of doubtful alternatives, choice
is invariably determined by their respective degrees of con-
sistency with what has been. previously, in the same way,
apprehended and accepted as most certain. Reasoning itself
is nothing but the process by which that which Is, is distin-
_ guished from that which Is NoT ; and that which is consistent
with experience, from that which is inconsistent with it. If
there be an axiom which must be universally regarded as ab-
solutely certain and impregnable, it is this: that a thing
cannot be, and not be, at the same time. And simply be- —
cause the one is inconsistent with the other. Of so great —
importance then is consistency. Even such an axiom as that —
quoted would have to give way, were aggregated experience ~
at any time in future to furnish preponderating evidence of
facts with which it would be clearly inconsistent. Of course —
such a revolution in the primitive data upon which human ~
knowledge and reasoning are founded, cannot be imagined; —
and I only propose it to show that even in our most funda- _
mental judgments, consistency is, as I at first stated, our final
test of truth. q

In matters of opinion, however, it is surprising (or would —
be so but for certain considerations), how far this universal
criterion is disregarded ; either as inadequate, or as too strin- —
gent, it is often treated as inapplicable. We find among men ~

The Ethics of Opinion. | 251

of every degree of ability, many who are accustomed to
entertain some theoretical opinions which they must fail to
find consistent with others that they regard as alike incon-
trovertible, as well as with the principles upon which they
instinctively act every day of theirlives. Of this, of course, they
are wholly unconscious, having in one way or another, gene-
rally as children, imbibed certain views as bases of their
judgments of right and wrong, which in after reasoning they
assume as uncontested starting points or fixed data, and
therefore never question ; they shun all investigation of them
as unnecessary and profitless, and shelve them when circum-

stances force anomalies upon their notice, as “ mysteries,”
_ inexplicable or sacred.

We find that in practical physical matters, similar pre-
judices are now and then assailed, and slowly but surely
exploded, as inconsistent with the facts of progressive scien-
tific discovery. The difficulty with which new inventions
and discoveries are adopted, is sufficient proof of the power
of habit and custom to obstruct the exposure of time-
honoured delusions. I need only to name Galileo, Harvey,
Jenner, and George Stephenson, as my witnesses. In such
eases, however, facts are indeed stubborn things, and though
the old fallacies die hard, they must succumb.

With matters of opinion, and especially of moral philoso-
phy, the case is unfortunately different. For from their
-nature, theoretical errors obtain a stronger and far more
insidious hold upon the human imagination. They are
easier of acquisition, and more difficult to extirpate ; for
in practical life we are rarely brought into a position
to observe their antagonism to the facts calculated to expose
them; and when we are, we are generally so engrossed
with instinctively getting out of the passing difficulty, that
we either entirely overlook the discrepancies, or postpone con-
sideration of them till a more convenient season, which
seldom arrives. In the hurry of life they are thus neglected
by many of the thoughtful, as well as by all the thoughtless ;
for the former frequently live so little in the crowd that they
meet with few favourable opportunities of checking and cor-
recting their philosophy, while the latter have no philosophy
to check. And it is not upon all the thoughtful, nor upon
all among them who are also busy and observant, but simply
upon a few of that section of them, who, having the inclina-
tion and opportunity, are also enabled to secure sufficient
leisure to prosecute such studies, that all have really to

s 2

252 The Ethics of Opinion.

depend for progression in abstract opinions. So varied and so
rare, even among philosophers, are the conditions requisite to
enable them to become discoverers of truth and exposers of
error for their generation.

I confess that I should be fairly liable to the charge of
presumption were I to pretend to intellectual qualifications
superior to those of my neighbours for the study of mental
and moral philosophy ; but when I state that for so much
aptitude as I may have, I am conscious of deserving no
credit whatever, I trust that I may stand acquitted of undue
egotism and impertinence. The principal advantages which
I conceive myself to possess for such investigations, are, a
positive defect of memory which few will envy, but by
which, happily, I am partially relieved from the incubus of
prejudice ; a profound conviction of the supreme importance
of the subject, and a determination to pursue consistently
the principle stated by Mr. John Stuart Mill in his late
“ Inaugural Address,” pp. 32, 33. He there says that we
_ learn from the ancient dialecticians, “To question all things ;
“never to turn away from any difficulty ; to accept no doc-
“trine either from ourselves or from other people without a
“rigid scrutiny by negative criticism, letting no fallacy or
“incoherence, or confusion of thought, slip by unperceived ;
“above all, to insist upon having the meaning of a word.
“clearly understood before using it, and the meaning of a
“proposition before assenting to it.” I would that I could
invariably fulfil this rule.

I consider that the transcendent importance of consistency
is even greater in thought and opinion, than in physical
science ; In consequence of our greater liability to imbibe,
and the far greater difficulty of escaping from fallacies of
that description ; and having lately stumbled in Frazer's
Magazine upon some passages which appear to me to be
wholly inconsistent with the general principles enunciated
and forcibly illustrated in the same entertaining and instruc-
tive article, and also to furnish an unusually favourable
opportunity of exposing their inconsistency and the fallacy
upon which they appear to me to be based ; I seize the occa-
sion presented, not only of doing so, but at the same time of
paying a deserved tribute to the general enlightened
cosmopolitanism of the author.*

* See Frazer's Magazine, March 1867, pp. 316—329. ‘Concerning the
“Treatment of those who differ from us in Opinion.”—By ‘ A.K.H.B.”

The Kthics of Opinion. 253

It is almost needless for me to add to the statement that
_ the article is signed “A.H.K.B.,”that it is excellently written ;
and almost throughout distinguished by a liberality of spirit
and an acuteness of discrimination, which render the expres-
sion in it of an opinion, which I conceive exhibits diametri-
cally opposite characteristics, so much the more astonishing.
I shall consider myself fortunate if, in animadverting upon it,
I accomplish three objects which I have in view—to draw
attention to the admirable lessons interspersed throughout
the treatise—to show that the illiberal sentiment to which I
take exception is not involved in, but rather contradicts, the
general principles advocated by the author ; and what is of
most importance, to arouse thought and discussion on the
subject generally.

It might tend to defeat my first specified intention, were I
to quote so much from the essay as to satisfy the curiosity of
those who have not read it, as to more than the general dritt
of the arguments, for the whole of it is well worth the carefui
study of all those who may have the opportunity of reading
it. I shall therefore only mention how clearly it is shown
that the spirit of intolerance which prompted burning
(while burning was possible) those who differed in opinion
from the burners, is not obsolete, but still animates all those
who misrepresent, or cut, or even avoid, or PRAY PUBLICLY
for, or do anything but endeavour to convince those holding
different opinions.

“Whenever you try to bully a man out of his opinion
“instead of reasoning him out of it: whenever you attempt
“any form or degree of physical or moral intimidation, you
“are showing that you WOULD burn an opponent if you had
“the chance, or if you durst.”* The illustrations given b
“ A.K.H.B.” in verification of this conclusion, should, I think,
carry conviction even to the most prejudiced mind. What
advanced large-mindedness is shown in the paragraph
commencing : 7

“Tt is good for us to see and know people who differ from
“us im opinion, politically, theologically, ecclesiastically,
“esthetically. Itisagreat mistake tolivealways among those
“ whothinkexactly as you do. You will grow very narrow, very
“self-sufficient ; you will get a quite foolish idea of your
“own infallibility and importance. I have known good

* See Frazer’s Magazine, March 1867, pp. 821. ‘‘ Concerning the Treat-
ment of those who differ from us in Opinion.”— By A.H.K.B.”

254 The Hthics of Oprnion.

‘men, more than one or two, who would have been much
; fee and more useful had they occasionally met and con-
“versed with people who did not agree with them.”* The
same spirit of liberality speaks to the conclusion of the essay.

How much more pleasant it is to bear testimony to the
merits than to the defects of anyone, but particularly of one
whom we respect! But as ago says, “J am nothing, if not
eritical.” The passage to which I wish particularly to advert
is this (p. 318):

“ Now, no doubt, to think wrong,is wrong; and deserves
“blame. Nobody has a right to form a wrong opinion.”
Now this dictum appears to me calculated to open the door to
the worst forms of intolerance, and to be opposed to the fun-
damental principles of moral criticism. Let us examine it
closely and test it at once, by applying it to an ordinary
though an extreme case.

I ask, do you not blame a murderer for murdering, solely
because you believe that he THOUGHT RIGHTLY—that to
murder was-wrong? And do you not exempt him from
blame exactly in so far as you believe that he may have
THOUGHT WRONGLY, that to murder was right? If a mur-
derer really think himself right in killing his victim, you
may call him insane or stupid, but you could not BLAME him
any more than you would blame the victim were he in self-
defence to kill his intending murderer ; he, in so doing would
assuredly think himself right. You blame the murderer,
distinctly BECAUSE you assume that he knew better—that he
THOUGHT RIGHTLY ; and that he acted in opposition to what
HE THOUGHT was right. You blame him Nor, if you have
reason to believe that he THOUGHT (WRONGLY) that to murder
would be right. For erroneous (7.é., wrong) thought, you not
only do not blame, but for the same reason you actually also
forbear to blame for AcTS, which you would otherwise regard
as blameable. Thus, if a.man’s thought and act concur, he
cannot be a proper object of blame. If he act contrary to
what he think right (.e., uvconscientiously), he will be as
justly amenable to evil consequences as if he put his finger
in the fire. If he act as he think right (¢.¢.,, conscientiously),

you cannot blame him. Consequently, a man cannot pro-

perly be blamed for what he thinks, nor punished but for
what he does. Consequently, also, thought must be blame-

* See Frazer’s Magazine, March 1867, pp. 827. ‘ Concerning the Treat- 4
ment of those who differ from us in Opinion.” By ‘ A.K,H.B,” e

The Ethics of Opvnion. 255

less, even if erroneous; and as the only valid excuse for an
erroneous thought or act is, that it co-exists with uncon-
sciousness of error, and is the best or rather absolute result
of constitution, education, and circumstances united :
thought must be essentially instinctive in its origin and in-
evitable, being beyond the option or control of the man ;
in one word, INVOLUNTARY. Punishment for evil acts, is
nevertheless, incontestably justifiable and necessary, as a
warning to possible offenders and for security to all, whether
such acts be perpetrated conscientiously or unconscien-
tiously, whether the thought and act concur with the agent
or not.

That no one may misunderstand my use above of the word
INVOLUNTARY, I must explain, that though, physiologically,
motions of which the cerebro-spinal nervous system forms the
medium, are, generally speaking, contradistinctively called
voluntary, and those which are produced through the sym-
pathetic nervous system, involuntary ; still both are actually
involuntary. The true distinction I conceive to be this:
The cerebro-spinal system receives peripherally afferent im-
pressions, which cause, or are at the nervous centre converted
into, corresponding efferent expressions or motions, as neces-
sary, and strictly speaking, involuntary consequences. Such
motions being mostly external, we become so far conscious
of them sensationally. In the sympathetic system, and in the
ease of all those nerves not concerned in so-called voluntary
action, the afferent impressions and the consequent efferent
expressions are internal or insensible, and therefore further
removed from our observation and cognizance; hence they
are technically regarded as more involuntary than the others.
Both, however, are equally absolute consequences of their
antecedents. My use of the word INVOLUNTARY, is there-

fore popular rather than technical ; but I adopt it, because I

recollect no other so well calculated to express repudiation of
the common fallacy, that motions which are both physiolo-
gically and popularly called voluntary, are caused by the will
alone, and not by external impressions. Such a theory is
clearly incompatible with the ascertained scientific fact, that
all efferent expressions have their full adequate causes in
afferent impressions. In fact, afferent nerves would other-
wise be entirely superfluous and useless, for there would then
be two adequate causes of the same effects. |
In connection with this part of my subject, I would point
out one or two other ways in which the freewill theoryis most

256 The Ethics of Opinion.

obviously inconsistent and logically untenable. For the only
way, on the free-will theory, by which I believe it has ever
been imagined orasserted that man could be morally responsible
for his acts or thoughts, is to assume that he is himself the
sole or first cause of them. Now, the whole doctrine of first
causes 1s ostensibly and confessedly built upon the indisput-
able axiom, that everything must have a cause, for ex nahilo
mihil fit. But in deducing such a conclusion from that pre-
miss, it is most unaccountably overlooked that the very prin-
ciple postulated is directly violated and contradicted, for a
FIRST CAUSE is essentially and indisputably THAT WHICH HAS
NO CAUSE!

And if, admitting here for the sake of argument, as the best
means of refuting the theory by showing its inherent contra-
dictions, that men’s acts could be thus UNCAUSED, they
must then be simply the result of CHANCE, a mere word,
which all scientific experience proves to be expressive of
some unknown quantity representative of causes which
man is incompetent, or will not trouble himself to trace.
The natural genesis of the metaphysical theory of freewill in
the superficial notion of chance, and that of the theological
doctrine of predestination in the empirical conviction of
necessary causation (which has thus been degraded into
something really indistinguishable from “ blind Asiatic
fatalism” personified), has been most strikingly and sugges-
tively exhibited by Mr. Buckle, in the first chapter of his —
“ History of Civilisation.” * :

Again, it should be clear that so far from affording a valid
basis for moral responsibility, the doctrine of freewill must
effectually destroy it. For if a man, or any being, have
no natural tendency, motive, or disposition whatever, to-
wards one course of action rather than another, if he be
really free, he cannot possibly be blamed or responsible for
acting in any conceivable manner ; for if he act in any one
manner without a motive, he certainly has none for acting
otherwise under the premised conditions. If he ACQUIRE
any such tendency, he must FIRST have a susceptibility for
acquiring it, for motion cannot originate uncaused ; and if
he have originally a susceptibility-equally appropriative of
good and evil tendencies, he still cannot be responsible for
the priority or nature of the external impressions by which
he may be affected. If he have any original inherent bias

* Longmans, 1867, pp. 9—11.

The Ethics of Opinion. 257

in favour of good or of evil, that bias must inevitably deter-
mine or form his predominant motive, until superseded by
a stronger opposing motive, when the first would no longer
be predominant. But in either case freedom is incompa-
tible, not only with the superseding motive, but also with the
original bias ; for when either exists, it must constitute a
predominant motive until superseded by astronger. This is
as clear and simple as changing the weights ina pair of scales ;
for neither can man’s imagined will, nor any other power,
make a lighter weight preponderate, nor a weaker motive
overcome a stronger.

The sentence which succeeds that which I last quoted from
“A.K.H.B.,” is evidently intended, but entirely fails, as a kind
of compromise. He says, “ But we have learned that great
“lesson of toleration which the world took many ages to
“learn ; that for his HONEST BELIEF, man is indeed respon-
“sible, but responsible solely to his Maker.”* For the words
“HONEST BELIEF,’ clearly involve, that the best use of abili-
ties and circumstances has been made, otherwise they would
be inappropriate and impertinent. Over his original consti-
tution and opportunities, as a man cannot be justly held or
supposed to have any control, so therefore he cannot possi-
bly be held responsible for them. How has the world
“learned that great lesson of toleration,” but by learning that
any man’s beliefis the necessary result of his constitution and
circumstances? And that therefore for such belief he cannot,
be justly held responsible? For so far as that constitution and
those circumstances are MADE by his MAKER, that MAKER alone
must be responsible for them, and not the man who had no
‘possible selection of or control over them. This is essentially
not transferring to a more competent hand merely the right to
blame and punish, but the entire responsibility for erroneous
beliefis what is really transferred. This cannot be evaded.
When “ A.K.H.B.” says that he sees “that Almighty God
“LOOKS ON at us, going through life thinking so differently,
“and VOUCHSAFES TO US NO UNMISTAKABLE INFORMATION
“which of us is right,” - whom does he make responsible
for that want of information? Those who. strive painfully
after information, or him who withholds it ? It is very easy to
say that perhaps “the difference is not one to make any very
“bitter fight about.”} But the difference here at issue is vital,
involving the very bases upon which we erect our moral

* Longmans, p. 318. ft ibid, 'p. 319. { Ibid, p. 319.

258 The Ethics of Opvnion.

judgments. When “ A.K.H.B.” says, “ There are some views
“which show not merely a wrong head, but some moral per-
“version, *—whois responsible for the wrong head and moral
perversion, if not the maker of the one and governing cause
of the other? When he says, “There was a man, a year or
“two ago, who maintained by argument that he had a per-
“fect right to murder his wife and children, and who acted
“on that BELIEF. Society said to him, ‘WE SHALL NOT
“*DISCUSS THE QUESTION WITH YOU; only your ways of
“<thinking and ours are so opposed, that it is plain we can-
““not both go on together ; and as you are in the minority,
““you must give way, so we shall hang you.’ Thus society
“hanged him, and it unquestionably SERVED HIM RIGHT.” +
To this I also say, yes, quite right; BECAUSE that was the
only way to convince him, and others like or unlike him,
thatthe right which he claimed (and which neither“ A.K.H.B.”
nor society appear to have been able to dispute), included that
evil consequence to himself. This he appears to have been so
stupid as to fail to understand : That in the last resort, power
constitutes right, cannot be consistently denied. Nature
confers upon every man a right to do whatever she gives him
power to do ; BUT, she annexes appropriate and inevitable con-
sequences to every act, and gives man generally, also, reason
and capacity to judge from experience of them, what is best,
or wisest, or right to be done, and what is worst, or foolish,
or wrong; according as those consequences may be probably
good or.evil to himself. To consequences then, and to conse-
quences only, can man be properly said to be responsible.
Self-interest is the only natural, valid, efficient basis of morals.
Even in those systems with which man, presumptuously dis-
satisfied with nature’s administration, has endeavoured to
supersede natural morality by imagining supernatural and
unnatural rewards and punishments, the same principle is still
in fact invariably adopted, but wholly stultified and rendered
abortive by the distance and uncertainty of the motives pro-
posed. Asa general rule, to which there are now I believe
but a few doubtful exceptions, all physical force acts inversely
as the square of the distance, whether in time or space ; and
moral power is simply the indirect operation of physical
force. Also, though it may appear precipitate to assert or
assume that the same absolute proportion subsists between
moral, as between physical causes and effects, experience

* Longmans, p. 39. + Lbid, p. 319.

The Ethics of Opvnion. 259

proves that in the former, an analogous relation indisputably
obtains, though in some cases it may be more difficult to
measure or apprehend ; but can any good reason be given
why the ratio may not be absolutely identical in every
instance ?

But is it quite right of “A.K.H.B.” to say next, “There is a
“difficulty, here of course. I find difficulties now in most:
“things,” * and offer no solution. He here quite naively
leads us into “a difficulty ” as he himself calls it; such a
difficulty as to induce him to express strongly a principle at
direct variance with the whole tenor of his essay, and then
leaves us there, without offering so much as a word to help
us out. Is this philosophical ?

Wey did it serve the man right? In the very words put
by “A.K.H.B.” into the mouth of society, the question of
the propriety of blame is tacitly yielded ; and why? Clearly
because the man’s thought and act concurring, it could not
be contested that what is stated to have been his BELIEF,
was sincere. The man may have been, and probably was,
insane, but incontestably he was conscientious, and therefore
blameless. ‘“ A.K.H.B.” himself refrains from asserting his
culpability, but he refrains also from explaiming why.
Yet he says that hanging him “unquestionably SERVED
“HIM right.” This again he leaves unexplained, and the
next paragraph is devoted simply to magnifying the difficulty.
First, he proceeds to say that doubtless it is so desirable Gn
his opinion) to prevent certain opinions of the Mormons from
being generally accepted, that it is well to CRUSH them by
the readiest means within reach. ‘Then perhaps anticipating
a natural suggestion of stakes and faggots, he tantalises and
perplexes us by saying, “ On the other side books have been
“burnt_by the hangman because they set out opinions which
“all intelligent people now accept as true and right.” + Can
he state that those people who caused the books to be burnt
were LESS intelligent than “all intelligent people now,” or
their principles less “true and right” than his own? What
has made those opinions since appear true and right, but the
accumulated experience, matured judgment, and scientific
_ knowledge, of succeeding generations? And what guarantee
have we that posterity may not similarly discard as im-
moral the opinions of those now designated “all intelligent
people ?”’ +

* Longmans, p. 319. + Ibid, p. 39. t Lbid, p. 319.

260 The Hthics of Opinion.

“A. K.H.B.” proceeds: —“To emancipate a certain large class
“of our countrymen from cruel penal laws, would bea national
“sin ; so, once upon a time, declared many worthy men and
“worthy old women. By-and-bye, the nation discerned that
“it was not a sin, but a duty.” That was when its know-
ledge was sufficiently increased. ‘Some day the king’s mails
“will go by railway, and railways will be the great highroads
‘of this country ;” so said old George Stephenson: and for
“thinking so, and saying so, he was hounded down as a
“mischievous fool. Read the reports of the abuse heaped on
“that great man, before the committee of Parliament on the
“ Liverpool and Manchester railway: and you will see how
“perilous a thing it is for a man to be a great deal wiser
“than his generation. Yes, it is an awful charge, to be the
“only man that knows some great truth, flatly opposed to the
“common way of thinking. Hither you must bea miserable
“sneak, shamming a conformity with errors and prejudices
“you despise : or you must set your face to a lifelong strife,
“ obloquy, and misrepresentation.” * Good! but whatdoes all
this tend to prove, but that we have no test whatever of the
justness of new opinions, which must not give way to that of
their stability, or more extensive adoption, as men become
generally wiser? And that the novelty of an opinion, and
the fact that it violently shocks the prejudices of good persons,

do not constitute sufficient reasons for refusing to submit it

to experiment ; or at least to severe, open, and impartial
investigation and discussion. That subjects usually esteemed
sacred cannot be excluded from the category, is conclusively
proved by ‘“A.K.H.B.,” when he adduces more than one
pointed illustration of that description.

But “ A.K.H.B.,” instead of endeavouring to help us out of
the difficulty in which he landed us, and of reverting to the
case of the man whom society hanged, which obviously called
for the explanation he failed to offer, goes off “ to think of some
‘ofthe ways in which people have been found to treat such as
“ differed from them in opinion.’ Let us attend to the mur-

derer’s case. “A.K.H.B.” said distinctly, that the man in

question “ ACTED ON HIS BELIEF ” ; thus indirectly or directly
admitting that he was therefore blameless, and he does not
blame him. Yet he says, hanging him “ SERVED HIM RIGHT.”
So say I. I accept “ A.K.H.B’s” statement of the case, of his
“ difficulty,’ but I decline to pass it by without offering a

* Longmans, p. 319. + Ibid, p. 320.

The Ethics of Opinion. 261

solution. I demur also to his use of the words, “ SERVED
Him.” My reason shall appear presently.

Society DID right in removing the man, for he had forfeited
his right to its protection, by violating that of others to the
same. And society would have been justified in removing
him in ANY manner BEST CALCULATED to prevent repetition or
imitation of his act. For society in dealing with him, should
regard, not HIS FORFEITED interest, but that of its more
worthy members; of its aggregate body. “ Prisoner at the
“bar,” said a wise English judge, “ You will be hanged, not
“because you have stolen a horse, but in order that horses
“may not be stolen,” condensing into one sentence the whole
true principle of moral.and penal legislation.

But as it was in effect conceded that the man who
murdered his wife and children ACTED ON HIS BELIEF—as his
thought and act concurred—as thus he was CONSCIENTIOUS,
society would have clearly done wrong to BLAME him.
Blame thus is not only entirely unjust, but essentially
mischievous. For no man ever, NATURALLY, feels himself
deserving of it. It is notorious that nearly (@f not) every
man instinctively finds ample excuses for his own conduct
in any conceivable circumstances; and I maintain, that
though a man may, in one way, blame himself for errors in
conduct, not only will he energetically deny the justice of
blame experienced from another, but he will in every case
deny, EVEN TO HIMSELF, that his errors have been other than
of judgment. Instinctively, necessarily, and rightly too.
I challenge each man’s impartial introspection. Nothing but
the most cowardly abdication of thought, and abject servility
to a false education and a paralysing superstition, could ever.
delude a reasoning being into believing himself, even theo-
retically, actually WORSE THAN HIS OWN DEGRADED NATURE.
Surely the most certain and effectual way to become every-
thing villainous and base, is to believe one’s self such already.
If this be so, blame does not and cannot operate salutarily
on anyone, but simply arouses feelings of antipathy, recipro-
cation of the blame ; and as a person who blames is past
reason (for every excuse advanced appears to him only an
- aggravation of the offence), it is but the unique and prolific
source of mutual hatred and all uncharitableness.

The fact is, that A.K.H.B’s “difficulty” lies in his failure to
recognise the broad distinction which nature teaches us,
between the improper subjection to blame, and the legitimate
amenability to punishment, of any offender. Nature is our

262 The Kthics of Opinion.

best and unerring tutor and example. Nature never fails to
punish, never condones an offence, not even the first; she
invariably punishes for evil acts done—even those persons
whom man would blindly call morally innocent rather
than none. Children often really suffer for the errors of their
parents, an anomaly which it is simply impossible to justify
by any fantastic, unnatural principles, which are thereby
proved to be entirely illusory. We know that by an inexor-
able necessity this is so, and can discover that we are thus

furnished with an invaluable rule of conduct and pattern of

government. Should we not hence learn that our common
notions of morality are as factitious and unnatural as they
are notoriously unsuccessful and nugatory ? Is it not true that
our administration of praise and blame is but a chimerical
and pernicious device to govern thought, while neglecting to
modify its antecedents? That its causes being unchanged,
thought being involuntary, must be ungovernable ; and that
the judicious distribution of physical pleasuresand pains, is the
only real and operative method of governing human beings.
Through our balancing of imaginary desert for praise and
blame do we not frequently—aye, and consciously, mismeasure
punishment, or withhold it altogether ?—yes, incontestably ;
and hence the glaring inefliciency of our retributory laws ;

criminals, at least, know only too well how to appreciate the —

consequent impunity they enjoy.
As a striking illustration of the fact that our ordinary
notions of moral responsibility are not only arbitrary but in-

consistent, and that the propriety of blame is not a necessary —

corollary of that of punishment, [ would here point out that
exactly in proportion as we find in a child a strong mherent
tendency or original propensity to a bad habit; so do we,
failing other means, augment punishment until we succeed in
counteracting it. Notwithstanding that we must to the same

extent exonerate the child from culpability for what we know ,

to be a constitutional defect; and therefore the more we
punish the less we blame. Is not the pain we feel in inflict-
ing such punishment an instinctive testimony or acknow-
ledgment that it is not merited? That we administer it

with sorrow, but with the knowledge also, that like the |

amputation of a limb, it is indispensable to future welfare ?
All nature’s punishments are exactly proportioned to the
offence, and are absolutely certain in their accomplishment.
Who questions this impugns the justice of nature or. of God.
Nature’s punishments are unquestionably not always in-

eS ee ee eee eee ee See

The Ethics of Opinion. 263

flicted solely upon the offenders themselves. Indeed, the
errors of individuals are frequently visited far more heavily
upon other members of society. And how admirable are the
consequences of this fact! For it is precisely thus that
society acquires a direct interest which it could not otherwise
possess, in discouraging in all, those acts, the evil consequences
of which would else have to be learned by each individual in
his own experience, while society would be but a passive dis-
interested spectator. But for this apparent injustice, one of
the most stringent bonds by which society is established and
held together, would be alogether wanting.

Both nature’s punishments and her rewards are inevitable
and necessary consequences of breaches of that universal law
of self-interest which is the basis of her beautiful selfadjust-
ing system, that administers itself so harmoniously. But
nature as certainly neither blames nor praises ; and knowing
how infallible is her administration and how perfect her code,
can we do better than obey her precepts and follow her in-
structions? When a limb mortifies, is not amputation
necessary to preserve life? On the same principle I say,
society DID right in hanging the murderer, But should I be
justified in saying so if I suppressed my reasons ?

I object to “ A.K.H.B’s” words, “SERVED HIM right,” for
they convey to my mind an idea of even exclusive regard to
his (the murderer’s) interest Instead of to that of the rest of
society, the unworthy as well as the worthy portion; the
first requiring a salutary warning, and the second effective
security against such conduct. He cancelled his title to any
consideration when he incurred the penalty decreed by
society to those who violate that of others. Still, why,
“SERVED HIM right”? Asif the Evit of his crime could be
quantitatively estimated and balanced, by the Evin of his
punishment! Why, as respected even HIM, must not the
first evil in its natural consequences have been enough ? And
what did the second but double it? Swell the account of
evil! Evil simply multiplied! As I before pointed out, the
sole province of society is to govern its body ; to secure the
good, to warn, to instruct, and to convince the bad, by effec-
' tual arguments; even by the punishment, removal, or
destruction of its hopelessly useless members; in fact to
utilise them as visible examples of the evil consequences of
bad acts.

If the supposition of a post mortem rectification of the
imagined unequal apportionment of good and evil to indi-

264 The Ethics of Opinion.

viduals during life, were entirely pertinent in discussing the
value of a secular basis for morality, it should materially
help rather than militate against my argument. For we
should feel all the LEss scruple at removing a mischievous or
dangerous person by death, if any injustice he may suffer
here, can be compensated hereafter. Whereas, the ordinary
arguments used by the opponents of capital punishment
would lead us to suppose that it is better to be unjustly
cruel to innocent society, and as unjustly merciful to the
unworthy criminal, than to send him where society would
be simply rid of him, and where it is imagined that he will
certainly meet with absolute and infallible justice.

But the passage which I have principally questioned con-
tains also such a simple error of logic, that it would be
amazing how so competent a writer could have fallen into it,
if it were not that it furnished such a ready way of its
kind of attaching blame, (in conformity with ordinary secta-
rian habits and prejudices) to persons whom I have shown
nevertheless to be blameless, according to “ A.K.H.B,’s” own
principles. Let me explain where this error lies, though to
many it must be obvious enough. He says, “To think

wrong, is wrong;” meaning, to think incorrectly, is culpa-

ble; or, an error of judgment involves turpitude. He
entirely confuses between the wholly distinct and different
meanings of the word “WRONG,” viz., error with, and error
without, evil intention. That I interpret his words correctly,
is | think unquestionable; for the second “wrong,” he at
once himself defines as equivalent to “deserved blame;’
and the first is next made, by a slight inflection, to mean
“a wrong opinion.”

Whether however my views be accurate or not, if hore
who read “ A.K.H.B.’s” essay be led, by their own thoughts
or by my suggestions upon this part of it, to adopt the same
or a better method of treating its obvious inconsistencies,
and to advance in moral science; it is clear that the very
defects of the treatise may prove its most valuable portion.
For, whereas, as regards the major part of it, with which all
must concur, our moral judgment must remain in statu quo;
the section most open to the charge of inconsistency and
error, is the very one best calculated, with attention, to pro-
duce healthy thought and an improved moral perception
and standard. In this conviction I take leave of “-A.H.K.B.’s”
essay with feelings of unalloyed satisfaction. The general
subject, the most important that can engross attention, is, I

4 The Ethics of Opuvnion. : 265

hope, fairly revived for general consideration. The positions
which I have endeavoured to establish are these: That men’s
opinions and actions are involuntary, and must therefore be
blameless ; that we learn from experience that rewards and
punishments, but for acts solely, are necessary, natural, bene-
ficial, and just; at the same time that praise and blame
are essentially unnatural, unjust, and pernicious. Thatblame
is not only factitious and fallacious in principle, but also
entirely mischievous in its effect; defeating the ostensible
object of its invention by rendering punishment nugatory to —
a far greater extent than that to which it supplants it. That
blame is merely antipathy and hate, under a surreptitious
aspect and an evasive name. That were praise and blame
abolished, reward and punishment would be immeasurably
more efficacious, 1f only consistently administered. That
man’s moral responsibility, traced home, resolves itself into
the fact that he is subject to the necessary consequences,
good or bad, of his own acts. To such consequences, and to
such consequences only, man is really and properly responsi-
ble. He is naturally responsible to natural consequences for
observing or violating the laws which experience prescribes as
necessary to preserve his life, health, and general well-being;
and morally responsible to social consequences for violating or
conforming to those imposed by the society in which he
lives. Ignorance does not exempt from natural penalties,
and rightly too. For otherwise experience of them could
never be acquired, and utter ignorance would remain the con-
stant condition of human nature; whereas by its invaria-
bility only, does experience become reliable as a rule of
conduct. Society is, undoubtedly, to a certain extent unable
to exact its penalties with infallible regularity ; and unfortu-
nately, but with a diftidence which seems not altogether inex-
cusable, it wavers and falters in the infliction of many of
those which it should execute. Thus it deviates, and with
most pernicious results, much further from the perfect rule
afforded by nature, than its comparatively imperfect consti-
tution really renders unavoidable; and I urge, that in fine,
the main object of society should be to follow implicitly the
example of nature, by making its rewards and punishments
as certain and as consistent as hers.

If these principles be,as I think, as novel, as I feel them tobe
both consistent and important, some fresh light may be consi-
dered to have been thrown upon the subject, and possibly
some service done to humanity. It has, so far as I am aware,

T

266 On the Species of Wombats.

been hitherto invariably assumed by the advocates of the
doctrine of liberty, as well as by those of that of necessity,
that the justice of blame, whether asserted or denied, is in-
volved in and inseparable from that of punishment. Even Mr.
J.S. Mill is most unaccountably reticent on this point. He
appears to evade entirely and constantly, any consideration
whatever of praise and blame. But I believe I have shown
that there is no necessary connection between the two ; that
the one is powerful for evil, and the other for good. The
_ vital inconsistencies, and therefore invalidity of all other
moral systems with which I am acquainted, can be distin-
guished almost as readily and clearly as their utter futility
as guides of human conduct. I have long ceased to wonder
at their abortive results. The appalling numbers of our
fellow-creatures which our traditional systems consign or
leave to a fate of hopeless degradation, crime, and misery,
must be apparent to the most obtuse; and resignation to
such results appears to me one of the worst and most lament-
able of them all. Large numbers of men and women of all
classes are notoriously immoral ; and current theories which
pretend to be adequate or adapted to make them moral, are .
therefore glaring failures or impostures. Therefore the pre-
sent state, and the principles of society indisputably demand
a radical reform.

But should my system be proved, which I take leave to
doubt, to be as inconsistent and worthless as the rest, still
it seems not impossible that its consideration may give a clue
to a better. Let my proposition, then, be discussed, and may
the speedy result be such as all good men will delight to
witness—consistency, and therefore truth, in the theory; and
purity in the practice of morality.

Art. XIX —On the Species of Wombats. (Abstract.)
By Proressor M‘Coy.
[Read 9th September, 1867.]

Professor M‘Coy laid on the table well-preserved skins
and osteological preparations from the series he had caused
to be prepared for the National Museum, of all the known
species, both good and doubtful, of the genus Phascolomys,
and explained their characters in detail.

On the Species of Wombats. 267

Until comparatively recently there was only one species
generally known to zoologists, the Phascolomys wombat.
This is now known to be confined to Tasmania and other
islands south of the Australian continent, and as I have
demonstrated from the specimens on the table, it is speci-
fically distinguishable with ease and certainty by the
characters of the skull and skin pointed out by Dr. Murie
and others, from the Wombats of the main land, which were
at one time supposed to be referable to it. Of the continental
species two had been defined and named by Professor Owen in
his Catalogue of the Osteological Collections in the Museum of
the College of Surgeons, from the skulls only, the P. lati-
frons and the P. platyrhinus ; but no zoologist had satisfac-
torily connected these with the skins until 1861, when Mr.
Angas and myself independently,and at the same time, drew
up descriptions of a soft furred Wombat from South Aus-
tralia, two individuals of which were received by our
Acclimatization Society ; the skin and skeleton of the one
described by me being now on the table. Mr. Angas sug-
gested that this might be the P. latifrons of Owen, but as
he only saw the skin, and that species was founded on a skull,
this specific reference was only a surmise, which was generally
rejected, as it could not then be supported by any argument.
The specimen at my disposal, however, having afforded me
an opportunity of examining its bones, I definitely deter-
mined for the first time the relation of the skin and skull of
the P. latifrons, by showing the identity of the skull before
you with that firstdescribed under that name by Owen in the
“ Zoological Proceedings” for 1845. This determination I
forwarded with figures and descriptions to Mr. Gould, since
published in the last number of his work “On the Mammals
of Australia,” but by an unfortunate mistake he submitted
the skull of a different species to Mr. Flower for comparison
with Professor Owen’s type skull of P. latifroms, and as they
did not agree, he supposed my determination wrong, and
using an external character which I was the first to point
out Gt having escaped Mr. Angas), namely, the hairy in-
stead of naked mufile. as specific, he proposed for the animal
the name of P. lasiorhinus; Dr. Gray shortly after,
showing that the difference between a hairy and naked
muffle in ‘the Halmaturus, and Macropus, and in Bos, and
Ovibos was generic in value, formed of it a separate genus,
naming the creature Lasiorhinus M‘Coyi. Dr. Murie, in
his paper in the “ Proceedings of the Zoological Society” for

ie

268 On the Species of Wombats.

December 1865, shows that my original determination was
perfectly correct, and that the supposed correction of Mr.
Flower, accepted by Gould, was erroneous. :

Dr. Murie, in his paper above cited, gives some osteological
characters for the hairy-nosed wombat, differing from those
in the skeleton before you ; he counts, for instance, thirteen
dorsal vertebre, and thirteen pairs of ribs, while there are
really fourteen, the fourteenth or last rib being only about
half an inch long was probably overlooked; and this may
have led to his counting six lumbar vertebrae, when
there are really only five. The caudal vertebra are not
alluded to, but they are extraordinarily numerous, being six-
teen in number, while the Tasmanian Wombat has only
eleven, and the common Victorian Wombat twelve.

The Sacrum is another remarkable portion of the skeleton
not referred to in Dr. Murie’s paper, but which I find singu-
larly interesting ; from the unexpected differences it presents
in the different species. In the Lasiorhimus, two sacral ver-
tebree anchylose with the illium, but three are anchylosed
together by their transverse processes in the male, and the
fourth nearly so in the female. The sacrum in P. platyrhinus
is formed of four vertebree united by their transverse
processes, the two anterior being anchylosed to the illium.
In the Tasmanian P. wombat there is an extraordinary differ-
ence in the sacrum, which is composed of seven vertebre, of
which the first and second are anchylosed to the illium ; the
first five anchylosed by their transverse processes into one
group, and the sixth and seventh anchylosed by their trans-
verse processes into a second group which is attached to the
ischium. The sacrum of the common Victorian fossil species,
the Phascolomys pliocenus (M‘Coy), is composed of seven
vertebree, all anchylosed by their bodies, the first to the
fourth anchylosed by their transverse processes into one
group, the three anterior of which are anchylosed to the
illium, and the sixth and seventh anchylosed by the
transverse processes into a second group, closely approaching
the ischium.

The most common Victorian wombat, the large brown con-
tinental species, has now been proved by Dr. Murie to be,
as I originally suggested, identical with the Phascolomys
platyrhinus of Owen, one of the species founded by him on
the skull only in 1853, but overlooked ever since by zoolo-
gists, and the original skull of which has recently been com-
pared at the College of Surgeons with the skulls taken from

On the Species of Wombats. 269

such skins as are now before you. The P. Angus (gray), is
a synonym of this. The black wombat, Phascolomys niger
of Gould is, as you see by the fine adult, male and female,
_ and the young specimens before you, which I have lately
had trapped at the Goulbourn river for the National Museum
collection, of an intense black colour, not only in the adult
of both sexes, but in the young, and on getting the skeletons
of those stuffed specimens mounted, I nearly fell into the
mistake of supposing that a character might be found in the
nasal bones, distinguishing the species from the brown P.
platyrhinus more satisfactorily than the sole external
character of colour on which Mr. Gould relied. The first

A B

Nasal Bones of the four species of Wombats, reduced to half the natural

length.
A. Lasiorhinus. B. Tasmanian Wombat.
C. P. platyrhinus. D. P. setosus.

adult skull and that of the young agreed in having a small
abruptly rounded lobe, at slightly more than one-third the
length of the outer side of each nasal bone, but fortunately I
had the skeleton of the third specimen prepared, and found to
my astonishment that it quite agreed with the ordinary

270 On the Species of Wombats.

brown examples of P. platyrhinus in having the sides of the
nasal bones converging simply and regularly towards the
front. And to settle the matter I found the skull of the
largest of the brown specimens on the table to have pre-
sented the small outward lobes Gndicated by dotted lines on
the wood-cut) as in the first mentioned black examples. There
can be no doubt then, from the skins and skeletons before
you, that the P. niger (Gould), is only a variety of the P.
platyrhinus (Owen). The skeletons of both agreeing in
having fifteen ribs, the last being four inches Jong in the
males, but only from one to three inches long in the females
examined ; the sacrum of four anchylosed vertebra, two
anchylosed to the illum, and twelve caudal vertebre.

The fourth good living species of wombat that Iam glad
to be able to demonstrate the distinctness of to the Society,
is the Phascolomys setosus of Gray. The stuffed specimen
before you from near Adelaide, shows the characters on
which Dr. Gray relied, in establishing the species, of which
the light ashy yellowish brown colour, and the harsh fur,
with numerous coarse blackish bristles scattered through it,
are the principal ones, obviously distinguishing it from the
other species. The originally described specimen which is
the only one made known until this evening, had unfortu-
nately no skull, and in the absence of osteological or more
important external characters, Dr. Murie in his paper above
quoted, sets P. setosus down as a synonym of the P. platyr-
hinus. Ihave the great pleasure of showing you now that
the species is really a good one by the characters of the
skull, the nasal bone, of which much more nearly resembles
those of the broad-fronted wombat than of the common
brown P. platyrhimus in the great width and flatness of
their posterior sutures. It differs from that species, however,
in having the posterior suture, joining the nasals to the
frontal gently convex, instead of nearly straight, and in
having at rather more than half the length of each side from
the anterior end a rounded angulation, giving a peculiar
width to the middle of the nasals, as seen in the cut marked D.

Condition of Blood after Death from Snake-bite. 271

Art. XX.—Further Observations on the Condition of the
Blood after Death from Snake-Bite. By Guorce B.
-HALForD, M.D., Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, and
Pathology in the University of Melbourne.

[Read 14th October, 1867.]

Mr. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN,

Since I had last the honour to bring this subject under the
notice of this Society, I have made numerous experiments
on dogs and cats, and in all, so far as regards the presence of
the foreign cell, with similar results. A multitude of con-
jectures crowd round the origin of this cell and the interpre-
tation to be put upon its presence ; but I shall this evening
confine myself to what I have been hitherto able to make
out of its life, and of the passage of the poison from the
mother to the embryo.

Nothing, perhaps, is more difficult and tedious than to
trace the growth of a microscopic particle, but I will endea-
vour in a few words, and by the help of. diagrams and
microscopic preparations, to explain all | have been enabled
to learn of this important subject. Blood, soon drawn from
- an animal bitten by a snake contains a larger amount of
nebulous or finely granular matter than is usually seen.
After the lapse of one hour this nebulous matter is much
increased in quantity, lying in the intervals of the red cor-
puscles, and presently breaking up into small masses, out of
which the cell is gradually evolved. In two hours after the
bite the cells may be seen in great numbers, but very
indistinct. From this time every further microscopic obser-
vation shows them in great abundance, and from the sixth to
the twelfth hour they may be seen in perfection, macula and
nucleus included. Whilst this is taking place the nebulous
matter disappears. The nebulous matter may, therefore, be
regarded as the germinal matter out of which the cells are
formed. At this time the cell-wall is extremely delicate, the
macula very plain as a bright particle, and the nucleus either
single, reniform, double, triple, or multiple. It would appear
the cells are then increasing in number by division of their
nuclei, and minute particles having the vibratory movement
of molecules in fluid, may be seen between the nucleus and
cell-wall. On one occasion | watched for upwards of half an
hour a constant revolution within the cell of a particle corres-

272 Condition of Blood after Death from Snake-bite.

ponding in all particulars to a macula. This particle passed
regularly round the nucleus at a uniform rate, revolving both
in the direction of and against the current of the fluid in
which the cell was floating, reminding one of the movements
seen in Valesneria, &c. ‘Twenty-four hours after the bite,
the cells attain their greatest size, and, supposing the animal
then dead, have probably ceased multiplying, and are simply
living, or perhaps growing, the nucleus being usually single,
the macula extremely distinct, and the cell very large. It is
not uncommon at this time and later to see a cup-shaped
hiatus in the cell-wall from which the macula has escaped.
The cells may be seen in the blood for many days, their
presence seeming to be a preservative against putrefaction.
Where they have most room, as in the vene cavee, cranial
sinuses, and cavities of the heart, they attain the greatest
size and most circular form. In every instance the cell-
wall is very elastic, and accommodates itself to surround-
ing pressure. To ascertain how soon after inoculation
these cells appear is a matter of some difficulty. It is not
necessary to suppose that at first they are very numerous,
and in order to detect them so early it might require fifty or
a hundred microscopes and observers at work at the same
instant ; still, from their having been seen two hours after
the bite, and from all we know of the rapidity with which
new formations occcur, both in health and disease, it is
doubtless extremely soon. Of one thing we are sure—viz.,
that the nebulous germinal matter from which they spring is
within a few minutes diffused all over the body ; for, sup-
posing an animal to die in five minutes, and hence all cir-
culation stopped, the cells are as readily seen in its blood a
few hours after death as if it had lived as many hours as we
say minutes. The macula is, doubtless, a particle of germinal
matter, but whether it is to be regarded as that from which
the whole cell has sprung, or whether it has been detached
from the nucleus, and is destined for independent existence,
itis hard to say. The fact that it is almost invariably large
when the cell is small, and small when the cell is large,
favours the first view. Perhaps the most important point
must be left still undecided. Has the blood built up these
celis directly or indirectly from the germinal matter of the
serpent? The answer to this question I will endeavour to
give at a future meeting. Ihave many observations on this
subject, but they are not yet completed. In either case
the result is the same—Storing up of force wm the new

Glacial Epoch of Australia. 278

growth, at the expense of the nutritive properties of the blood,
and by perversion of those chemical changes necessary to the
maintenance of the life of the wmfected animal. That
the germinal matter exists in a state of extreme minuteness,
the following experiment shows :—A cat being with young
was inoculated with the poison, and dying in three hours,
her four kittens were removed from the womb. They were
all dead, and their blood contained the foreign cells, as did
that of the mother. To pass from the cat to the kittens, the
germinal matter must have penetrated the delicate mem-
brane covering the tufts of the foetal vessels. If the poison
of serpents can thus readily be traced through the body, and
from parent to offspring, why should not the path of all infec-
tions be tracked? Some months ago, it was stated that it was
conjectured that a child had been bitten by a snake. No
doubt need ever exist for the future; a drop of blood will
always furnish the necessary evidence. I trust the subject
will call forth other investigators in Victoria, for it will
assuredly be taken up at home. It has been to me a matter
of surprise that while this colony very properly appoints men
-to survey her coasts, explore her skies, and the ground
beneath her feet, no one systematically explores her diseases,
a subject in which the rich and poor, the living and those
about to live, are equally and deeply concerned, and in com-
parison with which many other subjects that excite her
people are trifles. I cannot conclude without thanking Dr.
Gummow, of Swan-hill, for having sent me such a fine
supply of snakes, nor without expressing my acknowledg-
ments to Messrs. Lawrence and Ashworth for their ready
assistance in my many experiments.

ArT. XXI.—WNotes on the Rev. J. E. TENISON Woops’
paper “ On the Glacial Epoch of Australia.” By JuLius
Haast, Pu. D., FBS. -

| Read 14th October, 1867.]

ie the “Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria,”
part 1, vol. viii., which I received a few weeks ago, I find an
interesting and suggestive paper written by the Rev. J. E.
Tenison Woods, “On the Glacial Period of Australia,” and
read March 4th, 1867, on which I beg to offer a few observa-
tions ; the more so, as the author, when alluding to New
Zealand, does me the honour to refer to my labours.

274 Glacial Epoch of Australia.

Mr. Woods states that I have found extensive evidence of
glacial action in New Zealand, but that my observations are
_rather too limited to allow conclusions to be based directly
therefrom. | |

As I have traced glacial action, during the last seven
years, over the whole length and breadth of the south island
of New Zealand, with the exception of its most southerly
portion, which I have not yet visited, I do not consider
my observations too limited for generalisations on that im-
portant subject. eit

Before entering into the consideration of the main areu-
ment of Mr. Woods’ paper, I wish to point out that the ex-
pressions glacial action or glacial deposits, are rather vague,
as they do not convey a definite explanation of the pheno-
mena to be described, and I therefore propose to call these
deposits which are of glacier origin, glacier accumulations,
and the time in which they are formed, the glacier epoch ;
whilst I wish to restrict the expression glacial action to those
forces produced by the moving of icebergs through aérial or
marine currents, and the expression glacial deposits to the
beds originally formed on the bottom of the sea, and de-
rived from the stranding or melting of icebergs. Thus, for
instance, it will at once appear important to express clearly
if certain striz or rocks are made by glaciers on land or by
icebergs on the sea bottom, by designating the first, glacier,
the second, glacial, strize. 2

Consequently, glacier accumulations are of subaérial,
glacial of submarine origin.

Having thus stated what I consider to be of great im-
portance, when considering the nature of accumulations de-
posited during the post-pliocene age, I may add that all
the iceborne deposits in New Zealand are of glacier or sub-
aérial origin.

As no glacier accumulations are found close to the sea
along the east coast of this island, any geologist when travel-
ling through that district, and examining the nearest tertiary
marine beds, will come necessarily to the conclusion (if he
judges only from negative evidence), that no glacial or glacier
epoch has ever occurred there, the more so as the newest
tertiary marine beds seem to indicate that the tertiary plio-
cene sea, even towards the close of its era, had a somewhat
higher temperature, than the sea water of our day possesses
near that coast.

On following the sequence of these our youngest pliocene

Glacial Epoch of Australia. 275

beds, it becomes at once evident that a rising of the land
took place, although probably of only small vertical extent,
immediately after their deposition, and that the glacier epoch

‘then began, succeeded at once by that era in which the

quaternary beds proper were formed, if we call so all beds
of the recent era, or at least those deposited since our great
glaciers retreated to their present position.

Thus although great and important changes in the physical
condition of New Zealand have taken place while these
beds were being deposited, for which a long lapse of time
was necessary, nevertheless when compared with the geologi-
cal record in general these three last changes occupied but a
moment in the earth’s history, and gave but little time for
the extinction and reproduction of new species, if we except
the extinction of our gigantic wingless birds, due principally
I think, to human agency.

However, I believe that during the glacier epoch of New
Zealand, the most of the New Zealand marine species tra-
velled northwards, and only partly returned when the great
glaciers retreated, and the present physical conditions entered
into existence, of which there is ample evidence to be found
in our youngest tertiary beds.

But what would the geologist, who had travelled along
the east coast observe, were he to advance some thirty miles

inland towards the Southern Alps? He would find all the

lower mountains which form the outrunning species of that
gigantic chain, leeworn, innumerable roches-moutonnées
standing along or even in the courses of the former immense
glaciers, the lower end of which, during their greatest ex-
tension, had reached very often fifty miles below their pre-
sent terminal face; huge terminal and lateral moraines
generally encircling and forming our picturesque Alpine
Jakes ; miles and miles of ground covered by morainic ac-
cumulations, broad and straight river beds, the former
glacier channels sometimes three miles wide, filled with
shingle-beds, in which the muddy glacier torrents flow in
numerous channels, and by which, without encountering any
serious obstacle, we reach the existing glaciers.

And, considering the size of the Alpine chain, even the
present New Zealand glaciers are of enormous dimensions
when compared with the European Alps, so that to find an
explanation to this phenomenon, we have to examine
the climatological conditions of New Zealand, its insular
position, and the direction of its Alps, principally in’ refer.

276 Glacial Epoch of Australia.

ence to the equatorial currents, before we can find a vera
CHUSH.

But it is evident that the geologist who on examining the

youngest marine III. beds along the east coast, had pro-
nounced thatno suchepoch ever existedin New Zealand, would
come to a different conclusion after making a journey inland;

the more so if he should happen to travel along the western

coast of this province, where, for more than one hundred
miles, morainic accumulations, from either continuous walls
or bold headlands, against which the sea has for ages con-
tinued its work of destruction and rearrangement. |

Doubtless the observations of the Rev. J. E. Woods are
exceedingly valuable and interesting, but they are, in my
opinion, of a purely negative character only, and do not show
that when the lower portions of the New Zealand glaciers
during their greatest extension reached the sea, and were
washed off and carried away in the form of huge icebergs,
into the Pacific Ocean, the climate of the southern portion
of Australia, and of the neighbouring seas, was not similarly
affected as that of New Zealand.

That peculiar climatological conditions exist even at the
present time, by which glaciers in temperate regions can
reach the sea, has been conclusively proved by Darwin, who
traced glaciers producing icebergs, in deep fiords and bays
on the west coast of South America, in latitudes correspond-
ing to Stewart Island, and which descend from mountain
ranges much less elevated than our New Zealand Alps.

It is in those bays and along the coast of that interesting
region, where very valuable data are offered to us, showing
how far the refrigerating influence of huge icebergs detached
from the terminal face, affects animal and vegetable life when
compared principally with bays and coasts of the same
country, where no glacial action is going on.

The dredge will doubtless prove satisfactorily that a more
antarctic or stunted fauna exists in the bays or in the open
seas of South America, which are under glacial influence,
than in those portions of the east Pacific Ocean near the
same coast, but which is not traversed by icebergs, although
both are situated in the cold antarctic or Humboldt current.
Let us hope.that future explorers of these regions will devote
some time to the investigation of such a highly important
subject, which will no doubt offer us some curious facts for
comparison.

I have elsewhere (“ Report on the Formation of the Can-

Glacial Epoch of Australia. . 277

terbury Plains,” Press office, Christchurch, 1864. “On the
causes which have led to the excavation of deep lake basins
in hard rocks, in the Southern Alps of New Zealand,” vol.
xxi. “Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of Lon-
don,”) treated on some of the causes by which that remark-
able glaciation of New Zealand originated, and will therefore
not repeat here the same arguments on which my theory has
been based. But I wish to point out that during the glacier
epoch in New Zealand, it is possible that Australia was also
rising, and that thus no evidence of the fauna of that epoch
-is accessible to us for examination ; its exuvie, and the beds
of littoral origin formed during its duration, having been
buried still deeper, or submerged, when the country sunk
again towards the close of the glacier epoch.

Therefore if we want to find evidence of a glacier epoch
in Victoria, we must look for it in the Australian Alps,
where morainic accumulations may have been preserved
round the lakes, and along the valleys; and where striz,
rocks, moutonnées, and other physical features peculiar to
glacialised countries may be found. Although from the
altitude of the Australian Alps, the position and extent of
these glacial indications can be expected to be of small
dimensions only, even if they exist at all.

I wish once more to point out that the principal reason
why I take the liberty to lay these few notes before the
Royal Society of Victoria, was simply to show that all the
observations made by me point towards the conclusion that
no glacial epoch, during which the lowlands were buried be-
low the sea, and rose again afterwards above it, has existed
in post-tertiary times in New Zealand; and that con-
sequently no beds derived from icebergs, or deposited in a
refrigerated sea, could be open to our inspection, because this
island during that epoch was either stationary, or was raised
above the present sea-level.

Of course we have no evidence of the amount of emergence
during, and subsidence after, the glacier epoch, which may,
however, have been of various degrees in different localities.
. As far as ] am aware the physical features of Australia are
in that respect similar to those of this island.

And may we not safely assume that by such rising of the
land in the southern seas, however slight it may have been
in the temperate zone, an antarctic continent made its appear-
ance, of larger dimensions than that of which the outlines
are partly known to us; and that large islands between it

278 > Mineral Waters of Victoria.

and Australia and New Zealand were formed from the smaller
islands now existing in those regions, such as Auckland,
Campbell, and Macquarrie Islands? The volcanic region,
mostly submarine, which stretches from the antarctic vol-
canoes Erebus and Terror to New Zealand, may m some
respects, be connected with such changes in the level of the
land during post-tertiary times.

It is obvious that larger tracts of land than at present
exist near the South Pole, must have had a remarkably re-
frigerating effect upon the climate of Australia, especially if
by such rising the warm equatorial currents which now sur-
round us on all sides, and even extend their favourable in-
fluence as far south as Macquarrie Island in 50° latitude,
were driven back by polar currents. If these cold currents
reached the southern shores of Australia, surrounding, per-
haps, New Zealand, as the South Australian current does at
the present day, and which, without doubt, is the cause of
the fine climate of the latter; it is easy to account for any
physical changes in both countries.

I have been led to forward to you these few, and I fear
somewhat desultory observations, in order to draw the
attention of Australian geologists to the study of the physi-
cal and surface geology of the Alps, which would, I have no
doubt, reveal important facts, and assist us in connecting the
glacial epoch with New Zealand, and in unravelling some of
the causes by which such a remarkable extension of its
glaciers has been effected.

Art. XXIT—Parr I.—The Mineral Waters of Victoria,
By J. Cosmo Newsery, B. Sc., Analyst to the Geological
Survey of Victoria.

The analysis of mineral waters is a subject of so much
interest to those engaged in scientific and economic pursuits,
that I propose to bring before you, from time to time, the
results of my investigations in the mineral waters of Vic-
toria. Before speaking of the subject of the present paper,
the analysis of waters from a spring at Ballan, and from
some of the mines of the Maldon district, it may be as
well to make a few general remarks upon the chemical action
of water on the crust of the earth. A certain proportion of

Mineral Waters of Victoria. 279

all the water that falls on the surface of the earth passes
into the soil and from thence through joints and fissures, or

_ by percolation through porous rocks, downwards and becomes
‘subterranean. This water is always more or less charged

with carbonic acid, and in passing through rocks which are
composed of silicates, it decomposes them, forming carbonates
of the alkalies, and alkaline earths. If the carbonic acid is
in excess, the whole of these will be carried away as bi-car-
bonates or simply held in solution by it, for Fresenius has
shown that the carbonates of lime and magnesia are soluble
in water containing much less carbonic acid than would be
required to convert them into bicarbonates. But if there is
not sufficient carbonic acid to carry off these substances they
would remain in the rock as carbonates, thus increasing its
volume and, as Bischof states, in some cases it must give
rise to a mechanical force of expansion capable of uplifting
the incumbent crust of the earth, or acting laterally, com-
press, dislocate, and tilt the strata on each side of the mass
in which the new chemical changes are developed.

Instances of the first kind spoken of; in which carbonated
waters have decomposed granite and carried away everything
except quartz and silicate of alumina (kaolin), may be seen
in many places in Victoria, as at Bulla Bulla, Dunolly, and
Kyneton. The street-cutting at Flagstaff-hill shows a good
section of more or less pure silicate of alumina ; the original
rock undoubtedly belonged to the older basaltic formation,
and was at some period, for the most part, hard, dense
basalt.

- An instance of the second kind may be seen in the green-
stone of Mount Camel, a few miles north of Heathcote,
which contains carbonate of lime as calcite: this mineral has
probably been derived from the rock itself, a specimen
of the rock procured by Mr. Norman Taylor, of the Geologi-
cal Survey, contains calcite in veins and firmly imbedded be-
tween the crystals of pyroxine and feldspar, of which the
rock is composed., Mr. Taylor states that the rock in place
has all the appearance of a stratified rock, but upon examin-

- ing the specimens, I find these lines which resemble strati-

fication to be lines of decomposition, leading to masses of
calcite.

The country near Mount Camel has not been subjected to
a detailed geological survey, which would be required to de-
tect the result of the expansive force which must have fol-
lowed the chemical change in the rock.

280 Mineral Waters of Victoria.

Subterranean waters often contain other chemical substances
instead of carbonic acid, which would act energetically upon
rocks consisting of silicates and carbonates, such as chlorine,
fluorine, sulphuric and hydrochloric acids, salts, which,
acting upon compounds, produce double decompositions.
Even water alone, when at a high temperature, as in the
thermal springs, has the power of holding many substances.
usually considered insoluble in solution. The thermal springs
of New Zealand, Iceland, North America, and many other
places, hold large quantities of one of the most insoluble sub-
stances, silica, in solution. Hot water has also no doubt
caused great alterations in the crust of the earth, aiding in the
formation of mineral veins, crystalline and metamorphic rocks.

The paleozoic and other rocks of Victoria contain a great
number of mineral springs, very few of which have attracted
much attention, most of them being known only as brackish
water. We may divide them into the six classes, proposed
by Dr. Sterry Hunt, for the Canadian waters. The first class
to contain alkaline chlorides, with chlorides of the alkaline
earths, carbonates being present only in very small quantities,
or wholly absent. In this class we may place the waters
from some of the salt lakes, the mines at Maldon, and
probably that from the salt springs on the Saltwater River,
a few miles north of Braybrook.

The second class differs from the first by containing kee
quantities of earthy carbonates and sulphates, as the waters
found in marshy parts of the miocene tertiary in Spring
Creek, near Barwon Heads, and those from the quartz mines
from Moyston.

The third class contains those waters which, in addition to
the above, contain carbonate of soda. In this class we may
place some of the Hepburn springs, and perhaps those of
Daylesford.

The fourth class consists of those which contain carbonate
of soda in excess, as those of Ballan and Glenlyon.

The fifth class are those which contain strong acids, especi-
ally sulphuric. I know of no member of this class in the
colony.

To the sixth class belong those which contain sulphates in
excess. Many waters. belonging to this class are found in
the Murray basin, and in many of the tertiary strata con-
nected with deposits of selenite. At Mount Tarrengower
there are some waters, the solid matter of which consists
almost wholly of sulphate of magnesia.

Mineral Waters of Victoria. 281

No thermal spring has yet been discovered.

The Ballan spring is one of considerable interest, it
belongs, as I have stated, to the fourth class, and contains
117-4 grains of solid matter per gallon, or 1:677 parts in
1000. It is clear, sparkling, inodorous, with a pungent, and
slightly alkaline taste.

An analysis shows the 117-4 aos of solid matter to
consist of :—

4 In 10: 0 parts.
Carbonate of Soda - - 68:8 - - 0-983
Carbonate of Lime~ - - OD - 0-274
Carbonate of Magnesia - - 22°4 - - 0:320
’ Carbonate of Iron - - 1°6 - 0-023
Chloride of Sodium ++ trace KCl - 5A =1\2 O:087
Sulphuric oo ‘ pended
Bromine
117-4 1-677

It also contains a large volume of carbonic acid in solu-
tion, but from the imperfect manner of collection, no two of
the bottles which I received contained the same amount. An
average determination gave 187 cubic inches of carbonic acid
in 100 cubic inches of water, or 519 cubic inches to the gallon,
deducting 103 cubic inches, which is the amount that
would be required to convert the carbonates into bicarbon-
ates, we have 416 cubic inches per gallon remaining that
may be considered free. It is probable that the water may
be collected containing much more gas than this, as it was
effervescing rapidly when bottled.

The spring rises in a basin-shaped cavity at the foot of a
low silurian range, near the township of Ballan, the rocks of
this range are slates and sandstones, containing but to a very
limited extent any of the ingredients of the water. It at-
tracted the attention of those living in, the district many
year ago by its effervescence and agreeable taste, and was
reported on by Mr. Daintree, late of the Geological Survey,
but no attempt was made to bring it into general notice
- until the present year, when an enterprising Melbourne firm
leased from the Government the land in which it occurs.
They intend to bottle it and offer it for sale as a seltzer or
rather a seidlitz water. What peculiar medicinal properties
it may possess I do not know beyond its being a very mild
aperient.

The medicinal properties of mineral waters have been

U

282 Mineral Waters of Victoria.

ascribed to various causes. It has been stated that they are
due not so much to the common ingredients, like carbonate
of soda, as to traces of salts of rare metals, or to a peculiar
arrangement of their particles. It was stated by Scouteten,
ina paper read before the Academy of Sciences at Paris in
July, 1865, that the medicinal value of mineral waters is due
mainly to their electrical condition. But this is a question
we must leave in the hands of the medical men, and they
must decide whether the Ballan water has properties other
than those given to it by the substances detected in analysis.
At all events it is amost pleasant beverage in warm weather.
There are one or two other springs in the neighbourhood of
this one, but though the composition of the inorganic matter
they contain seems to be the same as that from the spring
Just described, the amount per gallon is much less. One of
them rises through a mass of limestone which has probably
been formed by the deposition of the carbonates of the
alkaline earths from the water, as the carbonic acid which
holds them in solution is given off when the water comes in
contact with the air. Indeed, it is probable that to springs
of this kind we owe most of the non-fossiliferous beds of
limestone, such as are found at Geelong, the Duck Ponds
and at Limestone Creek.

The other analyses J wish to call your attention to, are
those of the water from some of the quartz gold mines at
Maldon. The waters were collected and forwarded to me by
Mr. Henry Y. L. Brown, of the Geological Survey. They are
very interesting, as the inorganic matter they contain is
richer in chloride of potassium than any I can find on record.
The following analyses show the composition of waters from
the Eaglehawk, Beehive, and Bell’s Reef mines.

KAGLEHAWK.

: In a gallon. In 1000 parts.
Chloride of Potassium - - 83°428 1:1918
Chloride of Sodium - - - 37-485 - 0°5355
Chloride of Magnesium - - 5 oy a 0:0523
Carbonate of Magnesia - - 9°600 ied Un bai
Carbonate of Iron + Alzg O3 and PO; 4:572~ - 0:0653

= - traces

Carbonate of Lime \
Sulphuric Acid

a - ee ee

138°742 1:9820

Mineral Waters of Victoria. 283

BEE-HIVE.

Contents of Composition per

one gallon. 1000 parts.
Chloride of Potassium - 93:502 - - 1:3357
Chloride of Sodium - - 11:634 = 0°1662
Sulphate of Soda - - - 19-617 - - 0:2802
Carbonate of Magnesia - 11-125 - 0:1589
Carbonate of Iron + Aly O3 and POs) =1:275 - - 00182
Carbonate of Lime~ - - trace - su
Silica . - - - - 2208 - - 0:0316

139:361 - 1-9908

BELL’S REEFS.

Contents of Composition per

one gallon. 1000 parts.
Chloride of Potassium = - - 15-409 - - 0°2202
Chloride of Sodium - - 9°893 - 0-1413
Sulphate of Soda - - - 10°593 - - 01513
Chloride of Magnesium - Te S266, ive 0:0275
Sulphate of Magnesia - - 3°677 - - 0:0525
Phosphates, etc. - - 0:°876 - 0:0125
Silica - - - - 3°766 - - 0:0537

46:140 - - 0°6590

All these waters contained carbonic acid in solution. Cor-
responding results were obtained in qualitative analyses of
waters from the Derby and Nuggety mines of the same
district. The rocks bounding the quartz reefs are lower
silurian, and they to a great extent are surrounded by
granite. An immense quantity of this has been, and is being
decomposed by the action of water, leaving deposits of
irregular quartz grains and kaolin. Analysesare about to be
made of the feldspars of the granite, as they are the pro-
bable source of the potash salt. I was much surprised at
not finding a large quantity of sulphate of magnesia in the
water, as 1t occurs as epsomite filling the fissures in the rocks
of many of the mines of that district.

284 Danger of Collision wn Vessels

ArT. XXITI—On a Discovery for Determining Danger of
Collision in Vessels Crossing one another's Track.

Paper contributed by Capt. C. J. PERRY.
[Read by Professor Halford, Nov. 11th, 1867.]
Mr. PRESIDENT,

Sir,—Seven years have elapsed since the writer of this
paper had the honour of presenting an illustrated treatise
“ On Collisions at Sea,” to this Society, and on page 18 of
that work may be seen the author’s justification for publish-
ing a discovery of very high importance to every maritime
state in the world, in so limited a manner, as by proffering a
newly invented instrument for preventing collisions. But,
of course, the instrument gave effect to the newly discovered
principle, and the inventor naturally supposed that that prin-
ciple would be at once seen, and either approved or con-
demned immediately the instrument should be exhibited in
public ; but such has not been the case. And although the
inventor further announced the discovery in the treatise

(p. 18), by saying: “The process of science is invariably of

“9 two-fold character, she first of all discovers a law or
“governing principle by which the operation may be con-
“trolled, and then constructs an instrument which shall give
‘effect to that discovery.” Yet, strange to say, no one has
perceived it, probably because the thing seemed altogether
incredible. For since during the whole history of navigation
no nautical writer has ever ventured to propose a means

within the reach of seamen of knowing when the danger of |

collision is involved in the courses of two approaching ships,
it no doubt seemed too much to believe that a mere consi-
deration of the collision of the “ Lady Bird” and “Cham-
pion” off Cape Otway, should lead to a discovery of such
means by a humble individual in the colony of Victoria.
Again, a person has only to consider the almost unlimited
diversity in the angle and speed at which ships cross one
another's track, and above all, the uncertainty which always
prevails on these points in the mind of the seaman in order
to understand the apparent improbability of there being any
mathematical principle in existence, which, in spite of such
seemingly insuperable difficulties, should be uniformly and
reliably applicable to every possible case. No wonder then
that the discovery of such a principle was so far beyond the

Crossing one another's Track. 285

expectations of scientific men, as well as the nautical com-
munity generally, as to cause the announcement of it to be
looked upon as a mere chimera. No wonder if the dis-
covery remains In abeyance for seven years without a single
individual to come forward to say whether it be a reality or
not. Still, the discovery is not any the less true, nor any
the less important because it has been so long disregarded,
and now we proceed to explain it.

In looking into the official statistical records in England,
the writer was astonished to find that the number of coll-
sions on the coasts of Great Britain, always increases in
proportion to the means taken to prevent them; that they
are always far more numerous when the weather is clear and
the legally prescribed precautionary system of lights most
fully developed. He observed that the same remarkable fact
applied to the cases of collision on the coasts of Australia.
This unwelcome truth presented itself to the Board of Trade
in the most convincing manner, but they naturally did not
like to dwell upon it; for, in the first place, it seemed to
reflect upon the system they were strictly enforcing, and in
the next place, no other resource whatever was within their
reach. In the “ Wreck Return,” published by the Board in
the Nautical Magazine of Nov. 1857. the true state of things
was shown in the two following items, extracted from the
table of casualties :

Collisions. In the day time. In the night time.
In thick and foggy weather 5 neg 19
In clear weather ee 36 ore 81

This comparative statement is very significant, for it
proves that those cases which no human foresight could pro-
vide against are by far the fewest, and that the most nume-
rous are those which occur when the weather admits of the
fullest development of our supposed safeguards, the signal
lights. The writer therefore concluded that the common
procedure followed by seamen with respect to collisions,
operated deceptively, and that a latent error of a very
insidious and dangerous character pervaded it ; he conse-
quently searched for that error and found it. He found that
it was of so delusive a character that the ships of all nations
had for ages actually reversed the true indications of safety
and danger, and that no writer on navigation, whose works are
extant, had ever detected and exposed the error ; he further
perceived that through the universal adoption of the error,

286 Danger of Collision vn Vessels

the causes assigned for collisions by boards of inquiry are
very seldom the true ones. |
Now, perhaps the best mode of disclosing the error in

question and showing how generally it prevails, will be by —

pointing it out in the case of the late collision between the
steam-ships “City of Launceston” and “ Penola” as it was
presented and adjudicated in the Supreme Court. The
testimony given by the captain of the “City of Launceston ”
and all his officers was concise and clear; it went to show
that they sighted the “Penola” two and a-half points on the
starboard bow, ata distance of about five miles, and that after
pursuing their course until the distance was diminished to
about two and a-half miles, the captain made a second
observation of the “ Penola,” and found that she was on the
same “bearing,” viz., two and a-half points on the bow, as
when first sighted, and in consequence of observing this con-
tonuance of the angle, he, influenced by the common belief
in such cases, concluded that the vessels would pass a long
way off from one another, he therefore confidently held on
his course at full speed, and now positively declares that no
collision could possibly have happened unless the other vessel
had improperly altered her course after the second observa-
tion had been made, which, as he alleges, showed the ships
to be pursuing perfectly safe courses. Now we shall show
that this captain acted precisely wrong, yet his conduct was
fully approved by the Court, the experts, and the jury, and
a verdict was given him accordingly, and there can be
no disrespect in saying (because it is a simple fact), that both
the nautical and legal professions are very much in the dark
with respect to the true indications of safety and danger in
a case of impending collision. The mathematical principle
discovered by the writer to be available as a preventive of
collisions if brought to bear on the case we have been notic-

ing, would at once show that the common practice of j

“keeping” an approaching ship upon whatever angle she
may happen to be on, asa means of safety and the com-
monly received theory that such a practice is a right one, are
altogether delusive, and that the continuance of an
approaching vessel upon any angle whatever, however
“broad” on the bow it may be, is so far from being a
criterion of safety, that it is emphatically the very index of
danger. It proves therefore that in some respects our pre-

sent practice with regard to collisions systematically reverses q
the true indicationsiof safety, and danger blindlychoosesapro- —

Crossing one anothers Track. 287 |

cedure which creates disasters, and then triumphantly ascribes
them to a wrong cause. No wonder, then, if the number of
_ disasters is diminished by three-fourths, when the weather
is so thick and foggy as to prevent the natural courses of the
ships being meddled with. . And now we come to speak of
the discovery itself, and to illustrate it with a diagram
which we conceive will satisfactorily establish all that has
been written on the subject, both in the treatise and in this
paper.

The writer discovered that a grand yet sublimely simple
mathematical principle, easily distinguishable, always
developes itself in every casein which the danger of collision
is involved in the courses of two approaching ships, and
that the principle never can be developed unless that danger
exists, so that being once known, it can never mislead, and
the principle itself may be thus stated :

“Whenever the danger of collision pervades the courses of
“two approaching ships, each vessel maintains unalterably
“one line of direction, or ‘ bearing,’ from the other through-
“out the progress of the ships towards the point of contact,”
so that if the light of an approaching ship in the night
time is seen, after a moderate interval of time, to continue
on the same “ bearing” as was first observed, as in the case
of the “Penola” and “City of Launceston,” it is a certain
indieation that the danger of collision is involved in the
courses of the ships; butif the second observation shows the
approaching ship to be upon a smaller angle with the course
than that which was at first observed, it indicates that she
will pass “ahead; but if upon a larger angle, that she
will pass “astern ;” any alteration therefore in the angle or
“bearing” is a sign of safety ; but a continuance of the same
angle, whether it be two, three, four or five points on the
bow, is an infallible token of danger, as the accompanying
illustrative diagram clearly proves :—

ILLUSTRATIVE DIAGRAM BY C. J. PERRY.

To prove that whenever the danger of Collision pervades
the courses of two approaching ships, each vessel maintains
unalterably one line of direction, or bearing from the other
throughout every stage of their progress towards the point
of contact.

Let A represent a ship when she sights the lights of three other vessels in

various directions, and at different distances, as at the positions C, D, P, the
thin lines shewing their bearings from A. And let it be assumed that all the

288 Danger of Collision vn Vessels.

vessels are steering along the lines connecting them with the point B, at which
they will all arrive at the same moment, and therefore come into collision |
with A. It follows then, that as the different distances from B are run by the
ships in the same space of time, when the ship A has run any portion of
her distance, say a fifth, a third, a half, and so on, all the other vessels will
have attained a precisely similar proportion of theirs. Now, if lines be
drawn from any point on A’s track where the ship may happen to be, sayat 2a,
to the corresponding points on the tracks of the other vessels, which are at
2, 2, 2b, they will be found to be parallel with the lines of the first ‘‘ bearings,”
and therefore upon the same angles with the course of A as the vessels
were observed to be on when first sighted at the positions C, D, P. The

problem to the right, illustrates the case of the ‘City of Launceston” and
‘“« Penola.”

SA

A. First position, ‘‘ City of Launceston.”
P. First position, ‘‘ Penola.”

2a. Second position, ‘‘ City of Launceston.”
2b. Second position, ‘‘ Penola.”

Purification of Water. 289

Ant. XXIV.—On Purification of Water. By Mr. J. G.
W. Dautke, M.S.A.L., &e.

[Read by Dr. J. E. Neild, 11th November, 1867.)

It is well known that pure river and spring water contains
an inexhaustible amount of nutriment from which plants
derive their principal food, and indeed this fact accounts for
many mysterious phenomena in regard to the physiology
and culture of plants and animal life. But little attention is
paid as yet to the subject by the public at large, with whom
brightness and palatableness of the water pass invariably
for guarantee of good quality. However this is but a poor
criterion to go by, because it is quite possible that water,
bemg coloured and having an unpleasant taste, may be whole-
some, whereas bright and good tasting water can be, and not
seldom is, poisonous to a high degree.

I remember a case which occurred in London some years
ago. There was a public pump in the parish of St. James’,
which for generations had the reputation of yielding the
most healthy water in that neighbourhood, and people were
in the habit of sending for it from considerable distances.
Now, it happened at the time of the cholera that this district
suffered far more than might have been expected, it being
well ventilated and generally considered healthy. The
medical men therefore suspected an influence, the origin of
which had escaped their notice and caused a stringent
investigation ; but in vain, until 1t occurred to the district
Medical. Officer of Health (1 believe Dr. Lankester) to
examine the water. Of course this pump came also under
his notice, and sure enough the analysis proved that the so
highly esteemed water was to a high degree injurious, hold-
ing an excess of organic matter kept in solution by an abun-
dance of acids. When known, it was easily accounted for,
because the so-called London valley has a gritty and loose
soil which rests upon a thick layer of rich clay, therefore
the wells sunk in it must get contaminated from the filth
which will necessarily accumulate in such a vast city. A
few years afterwards, the medical faculty of London became
alarmed from the fact that lead poisoning cases had been
noticed, and Dr. Letheby, with whom I happened to be in
personal correspondence about the purification of the water
of the London drinking fountains, told me that he had
good reason to suspect the leaden supply pipes, etc. of

290 Purification of Water.

getting attacked, and particularly so if the water was
strongly impregnated with organic matter. I had paid a —
good deal of attention to the subject at the time, and,
from my practical experience, | knew well that the Doctor
was right in his surmise. To more than half of about two
hundred water tanks, which I inspected, none or hardly any
attention had been paid to the cleansing and vegetation, and
animalculze were flourishing in abundance.

The lead which lined the inside had in many instances
the appearance of corrosion, and when the test was applied,
it proved the presence of lead in the water. —

There has been a great controversy as to how ordinary
water may attack lead. The theory in which I believe is
this, that in the first instance 1t emanates from the dissolving
action of soft water, which rapidly accelerates when in
motion, and the pressure of organic matter when in a state
of repose. Lankester and others assert that experiments
have proved it beyond doubt that distilled water will dissolve
lead to a limited extent.

To be wholesome, the water used for drinking and ordinary
purposes must be free from injurious matter. I don’t mean
that it should be pwre in the literal sense of the word, in-
deed there are bodies, such as iron, carbonic acid gas, ete.,
the limited presence of which might be considered rather co-
inducive to health than otherwise, and I have not un-
frequently employed such media as will cause an impurity in
this direction, when I had soft and flat water to deal with.

Contrivances to purify water for domestic purposes have
been known since time immemoriable. The old inhabitants
of Keypt, the Greeks, and the Romans had them. Sponges
were used to free the water of the Niger from its accidental
contaminations. The Japanese use a porous stone, hollowed
in the form of an egg, and set in a frame over a vessel into
which the water drops as it percolates through the stone.
The Eeyptians have the same for the filtration of the water
of the Nile. be

A favourite medium in France is a porous limestone, found,
I believe, in Brittany, and a similar one used to be imported
into England from Teneriffe, but is not so now, because
equally good filterstones are found in Derby and Northamp-
tonshire, besides, other media have supplanted them in
modern times.

In the latter part of the last century the filteration of
water seems to have attracted public attention in England,

Purification of Water. 291

and we cand that in 1790 and 1791 patents were taken out,
one by a Chelsea potter, for a new filtering medium, which
he made of pipeclay and coarse sand ; the other for a some-
what complicated apparatus, the patentee using sand, char-
coal and other loose materials.

Various contrivances have been introduced since then,
more or less similar to each other, some acting by ascension,
some by descension, and in fact the numbers of patents taken
out to protect what has been known for centuries is in-
numerable, and persons have been always ready who, though
perfectly unacquainted with the real requirements of filtra-
tion, would insist upon introducing their wares as capable
of doing impossible things, just as quacks will recommend
their patent compounds as a certain remedy for diseases of
which they know nothing themselves.

Of course, since the water becomes contaminated from
various influences, the filter ought to be made accordingly ;
a medium which is recommendable for hard water will not do
for soft water, and again, flatness may have to be contended
with, which in itself requires a particular treatment.

Thus the public could not fail, in course of time, to perceive
that they were imposed upon, and the notion that filter
‘makers were more or less mere pretenders, lias become
general.

Competent men however have taken the matter in hand,
amongst whom is Dr. Clarke, who introduced the system of
purifying water by adding quick-lime to it.

Pure water will absorb two grains of carbonate of lime per
gallon, and if the water takes up carbonic acid, this quantity
may be increased to about twenty grains. The causticlime when
added, will seize upon the carbonic acid present and render
the carbonate of lime in solution insoluble, which, falling to
the bottom, carries some of the organic impurities along with
it. It is a beautiful manipulation, and answers well on a
large scale Gf the water be hardened from a superfluity of
lime). Dr. Clarke having also introduced.a test by which
the degree of hardness of the water may be ascertained, to
determine what quantity of lime should be added. Excess
is easily tested with nitrate of silver. But unfortunately
this process does not answer for domestic purposes, requiring
as 1t does removal for each supply, besides it would not affect
soft water and lead. :

A similar method is that of adding alum, which will de-
compose in the water, and fall to the bottom in insoluble

292 Purification of Water.

precipitates, taking with them alumina and other impurities
which discolour the water. But this process has the draw-
back that but a slight excess of alum will form sulphates of
lime, which, remaining in solution, causes hardness.

The mechanical difficulties of constructing an effective
and lasting filter for domestic use are many and have caused
many failures. The maker must not only be thoroughly
acquainted with the nature of the water he has to deal
with, but le must also well consider the local influences.
He may have excess of pressure in the supply or want of
it. Moreover, he has to study the convenience of his
customers, if he wishes for complete success.

A water which is sufficiently pure in itself, and only
subject to accidental and occasional contamination offers no
difficulty. ‘The case however is different if, for imstance,
it holds lead and excess of organic matter in solution.
Here he has not only to remove this impurity, but he runs
the risk of getting flat water, on account of its being invari-
ably of a soft nature in this case. With due regard to the
porosity of the filtermg medium, in accordance with the
pressure of the supply, the filter maker will principally choose
animal charcoal corrugated with steel. The lead coming in
contact with animal charcoal precipitates mstantaneously,
and the joint action of the media employed will reduce the
organic matter to a minimum, causing at the same time the
water to be bright and sparkling.

To describe the mechanical arrangements of apparatuses
for various purposes would be out of place. I may merely
mention that the small filter which I have brought here has
only been constructed for conveniently testing the filtering
medium for given purposes.

Much as I prefer animal charcoal to other materials in
many cases, it would be folly to overrate its qualities by
adopting it as a cure for every impurity which may be found
in water.

In 1860, in a ier which I wrote to The Times, public
attention was called to the fact that animal charcoal, |
when judiciously employed, will remove solution of lead
from water. It was amusing to see how nearly all the
London filter makers at once adopted the cry for their adver-
tisements :—‘‘ No more lead in water,” and commenced using
nothing but animal charcoal for their filters, thinking that
this was all that could be desired. Of course their ignorance
led them astray again, because the effect of animal charcoal

Purificatiow of Water. 293

upon water which is hardened from the presence of
acids and salts is but limited, and other substances, such as
pure silica, &c. (having a great affinity for them) are far
more effective.

About ten years ago I found quite accidentally a most
valuable filtering medium in the refuse of boghead coal. It
appears that this coal yields more gas than any other kind
known ; but, instead of coke, it leaves a pure silica of a
very spongy nature—closely amalgamated with about ten
to fifteen per cent. of carbon. 3

By means of a simple process of my own I convert this
substance into solid cakes of such size and porosity as may
suit the different purposes, and thus I get not only a very
effective filtering agent in quality; but, in this form it
assists me greatly to overcome mechanical difficulties.

I have patented this material under the name of silicated
carbon, by which it is weli known in England. Various
Government establishments, amongst which the General
Post-office, the hospitals, and the public drinking fountains
have adopted it; in fact the latter troduced it to the public
at large.

A lawsuit relating to the Boghead coal called my atten-
tion to it. The lessee of the mine denied it to be a coal,
because it would not yield coke when distilled. A great
sum of money being at stake, there were a great number of
scientific men called upon to give evidence, and the battle
became very fierce. Becoming interested in the feud
between the various and differing members of the learned -
faculty, I profited greatly by finding a new and valuable
filtering medium in the form of such a spongy silica as I
had not met with before.

This silicated carbon has been highly valued by the pro-
fession, and Drs. Letheby, Waller, Lewis, Odling, Buchanan,
Lankester, Noad and others used to support me strongly
whenever I needed their aid.

But a very few days ago I read an abstract of an article
which the well-known water analyst, Dr. Rivers (to whom
I am personally unknown), wrote for the “ Popular Science
Review,” in which he discriminates the merits of the various
filters now used in England. It was very pleasing for me
to find that amongst the three systems which he has proved
to be reliable for what they profess to do, he mentioned
my own silicated carbon. Of.the rest he seems to have
formed but a very poor opinion.

294 New Self-Registerung Electrometer.

This gentleman mentions that he has not extended his
researches sufficiently to form a definite opinion as to the
action of the three systems to which he refers, when the
water is highly charged with carbonate of lime. Had he
done so he would have found that in this particular case,
silicated carbon would have had the advantage of Spencer's
magnetic carbide and pure animal charcoal, on account of the
presence of the pure silica. However, to reduce hardness
of water, I would not entirely rely upon my favourite
material, but get the assistance of other agents. Indeed, as
I have stated before, an universal filtering medium does not
in my Opinion exist.

A competent person will not have much difficulty in
devising means for an efficient purification of water, and a
judicial arrangement will even overcome brackishness to a
considerable extent. J have never had much trouble in
reducing Thames water impurities to about half a grain of
organic matter per gallon with a low degree of hardness.

Messrs. Danks and Co., of Bourke-street will, in a few
days, have a model apparatus which has been purposely
constructed to suit the Melbourne water supply. It will
entirely remove lead and reduce the organic matter to a
minimum, without causing flatness. It can easily be attached
to the supply-pipes without interfering with the existing
arrangements, having also a simple and effective arrangement
for the cleansing. :

Another apparatus of a portable form will be particularly
suitable for country use, at stations, farms, &c.

ArT. XXV.—On a New Selj-Registering Electrometer ; or,
Electrograph. By R. L. J. Evtery, Esq., President.

[Read 9th December, 1867.]

I have lately erected an instrument at the Observatory for
obtaining a continuous record of the amount and variations
of atmospheric electricity, the construction of which I
believe is in some respects new ; Ihave therefore thought it
worth while to lay a description of it before the Society.

I must premise however that the maim principles of this
electrometer are not new, but. were devised and applied by
Sir W. Thomson, of Glasgow, some years ago, and he

New Self-Registering Electrometer. 295

described several forms of electrometer involving these prin-
ciples in the proceedings of the Royal Society of London,
“Nicol’s Encyclopedia’ (1860), and in several other
works.

Sir William Thomson has shown in several communica-
tions to the Royal Society of London, thatif the sensitive or
movable portions of any of the ordinary electrometers be kept
charged witheither positive or negative electricity, it not only
becomes highly sensitive to the slightest electric force, but at
the same time becomes an electroscopic electrometer, indi-
cating at once whether the impressions made on it are from
positive or negative electricity ; and his instruments were so
constructed that the sensitive movable part or indicator was
in connection with the inner coating of a Leyden jar, charged
with either positive or negative electricity, the charge being
maintained in the jar over long periods without any great
change by protecting the jar from external influences
by a surrounding metal case, and further by artificially
drying the air within the case. The sensitive parts were
acted on by insulated pieces of metal, which he styled elec-
trodes, placed in a proper position near to the sensitive parts.
The electrode or electrodes were generally arranged so that
they could either be placed alternately in connection with
the earth or with the body to be tested, or one constantly in
connection with the body to be tested, and the other with

the earth.

Now, supposing the inner coating of the jar to be charged
positively, the sensitive parts are also similarly charged, and
would be repelled by any other body semilarly and attracted
by a body differently electrified. The surface of the earth is
as a rule negative, and if the electrode were connected with
the earth, the sensitive part would be attracted ; but if the
electrode were attached to a positively electrified body, an
atmospheric collector for instance, it would be repelled, and
this attraction and repulsion would be a joint measure of
the amount of electric force on the earth’s surface or in the
_ atmospheric collector and the inside coating of the jar ; the
latter being measurable, the amount of the other forces
becomes also measurable.

The mode of conveying to the electrode the electric poten-
tial of the atmosphere devised by Sir William Thomson, is
very simple and effective ; it consists of an insulated vessel
of water from which a pipe terminating in a fine nozzle pro-
jects into the air ; from this nozzle the water issues in a very

296 New Self-Registering Electrometer.

fine stream soon breaking into drops; the water and vessel

rapidly becomes charged with the same potential of elec-—

tricity as the air at the point where the water breaks into
drops. ifthe vessel be kept indoors, the insulation which it
is necessary should be kept perfect, can be more easily main-
tained. The pipe and nozzle may project through a window
or any other opening into the open air. A conducting-
wire attached to this vessel gives a means of con-
veying to the electrode of the electrometer, either periodi-
cally or continuously, the electric motive force as possessed
by the stratum of air where the water drops from the
nozzle.

In the apparatus I have devised, the Leyden jar, metal
protecting case and dried air are adopted in the electrometer
and the water dropper for the collector, and it is only in the
sensititive or movable part that it differs from those hitherto
constructed. The sensitive part has always been suspended
or held in position by a glass or silk fibre, or metal wire, and
the force to be overcome by the electric force to be measured
has either been torsion, as in Sir W. Thomson’s instrument,
or the directive magnetic force of a small magnet, as in
Peltar’s electrometer; in this instrument, however, the
movable part is a delicately poised metronome pendulum;
substituting for torsion or magnetism the more measurable

and reliable force of gravity. I have styled it “The Pendu- -

lum Electrometer,” and it may be thus described:

On a heavy base of slate, two upright strong brass stems,
about 18 inches long and 10 inches apart, are fixed connected
at the top by a stout cross piece of brass ; at the centre of this
cross piece and at right angles to it, a block of vulcanite is
fixed, and to the under part of this again, and also at right
angles to the cross piece two segments of a heavy ring of
brass of about 44 inches radius are attached, so that they
form together a true circular arch, but with the two seg-
ments separated by about one-sixteenth of an inch at the
vertex. (Plate ) These two segments insulated from all
other parts and from one another constitute the electrodes of
the apparatus. Between the two pillars a large Leyden jar
is fixed to the base, with the mouth upwards. To the
inside, bottom and inner coating of this jar a strong
brass stem is connected, carrying at its top a brass frame
with two arms, reaching above the mouth of the jar,

which form the support of the pendulum. The pendulum — q

consists of a light circular ring of brass (to carry

New Self-Registering Electrometer. 297

a mirror), with two horizontally projecting arms, into
which are screwed the two delicate steel cones on
which the pendulum is poised; these points are in a line
with the centre of the mirror-ring; ninety degrees from
these points the top and bottom stems of the pendulum are
fixed into the edge of the ring; the upper stem is of light
aluminum wire, carrying at its top, about 44 inches from the
centre of the ring, a piece of sheet aluminum about half-inch
broad and three inches long, bent to the curve of a circle of 44
inches radius ; this is fixed at right angles to the plane of the
mirror frame; the lower stem is a piece of light brass wire
screwed over its whole length, on which a small weight to act
as a counterpoise can be screwed upand down. On one of
the arms of the mirror-frame a stud is fixed, through which
is inserted a piece of screwed brass wire to act as a balancing
arm. ‘The mirror, which is a circle of silvered. parallel glass,
is fixed into the ring with cement. The steel suspension-
points of the pendulum rest upon flat polished steel surfaces
let into the arms of the frame attached to the inner coating
of the Leyden jar, and when these surfaces are level, the pen-
dulum properly balanced is counterpoised so as to vibrate
once in two seconds ; it is then extremely sensitive to the
slightest influence. A cradle to lift the pendulum off its
bearings and drop it gently and accurately in its place again
is adapted to the jar-frame, and is worked by a lifting screw
_at the back.

The jar and frame is so fixed to the base, that when the
pendulum is in its place the small segment of sheet alumi-
num on its top swings freely and symmetrically under and
about one-eighth of an inch distant from the electrode arch.
Two leaden trays, holding lumps of pumice stone soaked in
sulphuric acid, rest on the slate base, and partially surround
the bottom of the jar. Over all this is a cylinder of copper,
closed at the top, and fitting on to the base with a ground
flange. Through the top of this cylinder there are two
tubular apertures, fitted with plugs of vulcanite, through
which two stout brass wires are inserted with a sliding
air-tight fitting, and pass into holes in the upper surface of
the electrodes ; one wire ends outsidethe cylinder in a kind of
hook, the other carries a sliding piece, so that it can be
brought in metallic communication with the covering
cylinder. In front of the cylinder is a window of parallel glass,
fitting air-tight. At the back, and ona level with the centre of

x

298 New Self-Registering Electrometer.

the mirror is an aperture lined with vulcanite, leaving an
opening of about half-an-inch, over which is screwed a close
fitting cover; this opening is for admitting the charging
rod for charging or discharging the jar. The rod consists of
a brass wire terminating at one end in a ball, at the other
in a square filed on the wire, the intermediate stem being
covered with gutta percha. When the rod is inserted, the
square end readily finds its way into a trumpet mouth,
formed in the head of the lifting screw, and forms an insu-
lated connection with the inner coating, and at the same
time serves as a key for turning the lifting screw for raising
or lowering the pendulum. To charge the jar the rod is
inserted, and a few good sparks from an electrophorus
passed on to the ball end; the rod is then carefully with-
drawn and the opening closed; the air within being dried
by the sulphuric acid, and the jar and sensitive pendulum
protected from all external electrical influence by the cover-
ing cylinder; the charge of the jar remains sufficiently
constant over a considerable period.

The pendulum need never be lifted off its bearmgs except
to adjust it, or in case it has got out of position, when the
lifting and lowering it puts it imto its place again.—
The pendulum being adjusted, and the jar charged, the
former is highly sensitive to electrical intluences presented
to it through the electrodes; and if we now connect one
electrode with the earth by slipping down the sliding piece
(S) till it touches the cover, the pendulum is immediately
moved towards the earth electrode if the jar is charged
positively, and vice versa if negatively. The mirror moving
with the pendulum gives a means of ascertaining the
amount of its deviation from the vertical or zero position ;
to this end a scale is set up in front of the window and
mirror, so that its reflected image can be seen—this image
is viewed by the aid of a telescope, as the mirror moves
the scale appears to move, and a different position 18 seen In
the telescope.

Suppose before the jar is charged the scale reading corre-
sponding to the zero position of the pendulum is m—this
is the zero reading, after charging and connecting earth
electrode m+ %, this is called the earth reading. The
difference between the two readings, or ”, 18 a measure of
the charge of the jar, and varies with it: and as the stronger
the charge the more sensitive the peudulum, a correction to

New Self-Registerung Electrometer. 299

the indications due to a change in charge is always neces-
sary and afforded by 1.

If now a wire from the water dropper is connected to the
hook wire or avr electrode, the pendulum will be acted on
by the electric force of the air where the water drops, and
if the jar is positive, will be attracted towards this elec-
trode when the air is negative, and repelled when it is
positive, in proportion to the electric potential. And as the
pendulum is so made that the deflections are seldom large,
its angular deviation may be taken as proportional to the

_ force.

I have arranged this Hlectrometer so as to. be continu-
ously self-registering by photography, on the same principle
as is adopted at Kew for the magnetographs, a full descrip-
tion of which arrangement is given in the British Associa-
tion reports for 1859.

This apparatus may be therefore styled “The Pendulum
Magnetograph.” The method of procedure adopted is
this: The electrometer being adjusted and charged, and the
water cistern (which is made to contain twenty-four lfours
supply) filled and dropping, the revolving cylinder covered
with sensitive paper, and the clock going; at about 9 am.,
the earth electrode is connected, but the other disconnected,
it 1s left thus for five or six minutes, and the scale reading
obtained and entered as the earth reading ; at the end of
this time the water dropper is connected to the earth elec-
trode, it is left so till 9 am. next day, when the cistern is
disconnected and filled, the light shifted so as to get the
second day’s curve and the earth reading, and left on five or
six minutes, then the cistern is connected. At 9 am. next
day the same process is gone through, with the addition of
removing the sensitive sheet from the cylinder and putting
on a fresh one.

The sheets when photographicively finished hy developing
and fixing, shows curves corresponding to the variation of
electric potential, and both the time and extent of these can
at once be obtained from them. The beginning and end of
each day's curve is marked by a short mark, distinct and
somewhat removed from the general curve; this is the
_ earth reading at the beginning and end of each day and is
the photographic registration of the pendulum’s position
when the earth electrode only was connected ; a line drawn
from one to the other may be assumed as the line of earth

xio2

300 Experiments on Mr. Duahlke’s Filter.

readings for the twenty-four hours, and forms the datum

line from which the ordinates to the curves are measured.

If we wish to tabulate the numerical values of the ordinates
from these curves a correction has to be applied to each
ordinate, depending on the distance of this datum from the
zero line, or line that would be made by the reflected dot
when the pendulum was vertical. I submit a few of the
curves for your inspection, and hope, at some future time,
to bring before you some results obtained by this apparatus,
and describe the manner in which the indications obtained
are converted to absolute measure in adopted units of
force.

ART. XXVI.—Ewperiments on Mr. Julius Dahlke’s Filter.
By Mr. J. Cosmo NEWBERY.

[Read 9th December, 1867.]

At the last meeting of this Society a paper was read by

Dr. Neild for Mr. Julius Dahlke, describing a new filter,
which was stated to be peculiarly adapted for filtering
water containing organic matter, and water which, having
passed through lead pipes or vessels, contained salts of lead.
And the statement that it would remove acetate of lead, and
some other salts from solution without chemical action was
so remarkable, and of so much importance, that I gladly
undertook to try some experiments with the filter and
report the results to you. I am very much pleased to be
able to corroborate all Mr. Dahlke’s statements, and indeed
go further. Upon receiving the filter I poured into it solu-
tions of sulphate of magnesia and common salt, and to my
astonishment found only traces of these salts in the filtrate,
so small that they could only be detected chemically. These
salts were followed by strong acetic and hydrochloric acids,
with like results, the water from each being absolutely taste-
less. I finally added strong yellow sulphide of ammonium,
which passed through as pure water. Upon inverting the
filter and pouring in hot water, the sulphide of ammonium

was discharged undecomposed, showing that though it fol-

as ste
caee ia Ven

pact er

Experiments on Mr. Dahlke’s Filter. 301

lowed strong hydrochloric acid it never came in contact with
it. After washing for some time the hydrochloric acid made
its appearance.

Similar experiments were repeated several times with like
results, and it was not till I added a fluid containing no
water and which would not mix with water that I overcame
the power of the filter to separate soluble salts from solution.

It is almost impossible to over-estimate the value of this
discovery, especially as Mr. Dahlke is prepared to fit up
filters capable of purifying from 10 to 20,000 gallons, which
without doubt will be of great service in many parts of the
country where nearly all the water is so highly charged
with salt as to be unfit for either human beings or cattle.
To prove what its value may be at sea, I may add that I
filtered some water collected from the end of St. Kilda pier
and that the filtrate contained very little more salt than
Yan Yean.

It has been known for some years that most porous sub-
stances have the peculiar power of retaining a portion
of the soluble salts contained in water, when used as filtering
media. In 1856 it was shown by the late Mr. H. M. Witt,
that when water containing soluble salts was passed through
sand-beds from fivetofifteen percent. of thesalts wereremoved.
It has also been proved that ordinary agricultural soil has the
power of purifying sewage water from all its soluble salts and
organic matter, if it is allowed to flow over a larg earea.
Various other substances, such as ordinary charcoal, animal
charcoal, magnetic oxide of iron, and the new silico-carbon
filter have been described as possessing this peculiar physico-
mechanical power, but. none to the same degree as the sub-
stance contained in Mr. Dahlke’s filter.

PROCEEDINGS.

PROCEEDINGS.

es

ROYAL SOCIETY OF VICTORIA.

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS.
9th July, 1866.
. ORDINARY MEETING.
The President, R. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The following contributions were announced :—Vol. 1, new
series, ‘“‘ Royal Horticultural Society of London.” Second Report
upon the « River Warimakarira,” Canterbury, New Zealand. Vols.
1 and 2, “ Jahresbericht des Vereins fiir Erdkunde_zer Dresden.”

Mr. Cosmo Newbery, proposed at the last meeting, was balloted
for, and declared duly elected.

Mr. H. Zumstein was nominated as an ordinary member. The
ballot to be taken at next meeting. :

The President briefly referred to the Conversazione held on the
2nd inst., and which was in every way successful.

Mr. Thomas Harrison read a paper, “ Notes of a Geological Trip
over the Coal Basin of New South Wales.”

Professor M‘Coy combatted the opinions of the Rev. W. B. Clarke,
of Sydney, to which Mr. Harrison’s paper gave countenance, and
referring to the former discussion on the same subject, under the
Presidency of Sir Henry Barkly, maintained the correctness of the
statements previously made. In Professor M‘Coy’s opinion, Mr.
Selwyn had far better opportunities of observation than Mr. Clarke,
and Mr. Selwyn bore out the soundness of the Professor’s remarks.
Disposing of the arguments put forth in support of the New South
Wales theory, the Professor maintained the Coal Fields of Victoria
were of a mesozoic and not paleeozoic character, and that the Hobart
Town beds bore out this view.

_ Mr. Bonwick mentioned that he had visited the dle referred to,

Stony Creek, but had not time to investigate the matter thoroughly.
He would like to see the spot visited by Professor M‘Coy and Mr.
Selwyn, and thus settle the question.

Mr. Harrison defended his paper, and Messrs. Ellery and Bonwick
joined in the discussion.

Professor M‘Coy went over many of the arguments he had brought
before the Society at different times, showing the errors into which
Mr. Clarke had fallen.

306 Proceedings, &c., 1866.

Some discussion then arose with reference to the Shale, and Bog
Head Cannel Coal, specimens of which Mr. Harrison had placed on
the table, and in which Messrs. A. K. Smith, Ellery, Bonwick,
Harrison, and Professor M‘Coy, took part.

3 (Signed) Rosr. L, J. Envery.
13th August, 1866.

13th August, 1866.
ORDINARY MEETING.

At 8 o'clock, from the non-attendance of Members, the meeting
adjourned.
Tuos. H. Raw1ines,

Hon. Secretary.

10th September, 1866.
ORDINARY MEETING.
The President, R. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The following gentlemen, who were to have been proposed as
Ordinary Members at the August Meeting, were then nominated :—

Mr. Charles Wilkinson. Mr. Thomas Napier.
» William Walker. ,, James Napier.
» H. A. Thompson. », William Clarke.

Mr. Benjamin Barnes.

Moved by Mr. J. B. Were, seconded by Mr. Aplin, and resolved,
“That so much of Law XXII, requiring the names of Candidates
“for Membership to be read at one meeting, and balloted for at
‘“‘a subsequent one, be, in consequence of last meeting lapsing,
‘suspended, and that a ballot be at once proceeded with.

Messrs. Aplin and Bonwick were appointed Scrutineers.

The above-named seven gentlemen, together with Mr. Zumstein,
duly proposed and seconded on 9th July, were balloted for and
declared duly elected.

A vacancy being declared in the Council, by the resignation of
Mr. Robert Adams, Mr. H. K. Rusden was proposed by Mr,
Rawlings, seconded by Mr. R. L. J. Ellery, and no other candidate
being nominated, was declared duly elected.

The Council forwarded a message, recommending that the names
of four gentlemen be removed from the list of members, for non-
payment of subscription.

Upon the motion of Mr. H. K. Rusden, seconded by Mr. George
Ulrich, the recommendation was agreed to.

The following contributions were announced :—“ Transactions
of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow,” 20 parts, 1841 to 1865. {
“ Journal, Statistical Society of London,” March 1866, two parts

Proceedings, &c., 1866. 307

(Nos. 25 to 48). ‘Transactions of the Geological Society,
Darmstadt.” Three maps from the Geological Survey Department—
presented by A. R. Selwyn, Esq. “‘ Bibliotheca Photographia,” “ Dr.
Ludwig Leichardt.” “ Antiquariats Katalog,” ‘‘ Additamenta ad
Geoges,” ‘“ August Pitzelu Thesauram.” “ Literaturee Botanicze’”’—
presented by the author, EZ. A. Zuchold, Esq., Leipzig. ‘‘ Neber die
Fossile Kreideflora unde ehre Leitpflangen,” “ Beitiage zur Keuntniss
fossiler Cycadeen,”—presented by Herr Goéppert, Breslau. “ Erster
Jahres-bericht des Naturwissenschaftlichen Veriene zur Bremen,”
November 1864 to March 1866.

Mr. Charles Wilkinson read a paper, ‘‘ Notes on some experiments,
referring to the theory of the formation of gold nuggets in drift.”

Mr. J. Bonwick rather questioned the novelty of the theory
having heard Mr. Evan Hopkins, in 1852, put forth the same idea.
Mr. Ulrich approved of the paper. Professor M‘Coy went minutely
into the question, considering the analysis of the mine waters as avery
important matter, and gave credit to Mr. Wilkinson for the paper
just read. Mr. Aplin differed from the theory, seeing a physical
difficulty inthe way. Mr. Wilkinson, after some discussion, replied
generally to the objections.

Mr. H. A. Thompson read a paper, ‘‘ Notes on the Extraction of
Gold.”

Professor M‘Coy, Messrs. A. K. Smith, and other members took
part in a long conversation that ensued, and ultimately it was moved
by Mr. A. K. Smith, seconded by Mr. Crooke, and carried, ‘“ That
“the further discussion of Mr. Thompson’s paper be adjourned until
“the next night of meeting.”

(Signed) Rost. L. J. ELLEry.
8th October, 1866.

8th October, 1866,
ORDINARY MEETING.
The President, R. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The Hon. Secretary reported that a deputation from the Council,
consisting of the Hon. Treasurer (Mr. Were), Mr. Gillbee, and himself,
had waited on his Excellency, who had consented to become patron
of the Royal Society.

The following contributions were announced :—Vol. VI. of the
‘Proceedings and Transactions of the Meteorlogical Society,
Mauritius.” “Der Uzeit der Erde Gedicht,”—by Franz V. Kobell.
“ Vortrage aberdie Florenreime oder Imperice Flore,”-—by Dr. Von
Martins. “Memorize Sobre la influencia del Cultivo del arriz
Exposicion de les Medicias, Conducenta a Evitar todo dano o
rebogar losque sean inevitable’—by Dr. Don Juan B. Ullensperger,
. President R. A. Medicine, Madrid. |

308 Proceedings, &c., 1866.

In consequence of the inclemency of the evening, on the motion
of Mr. J. B. Were, seconded by Mr Aplin, the adjourned discussion
on Mr. Thompson’s paper was further postponed.

Mr. Charles Wilkinson read a paper “ On a Patent Ear Trumpet
and Stethoscope,” invented by David Wilkinson, Esq.

The trumpet was shown to the members present.

Mr. Hilery approved highly of the trumpet, and had been present
when it was used by a member of the Society, who was unfortunately
exceedingly deaf, and with very great benefit. The novelty of the
stethoscope was a piece of steel wire, stretched through and kept 1 in
the middle of the tube. .

Dr. Wilkie regretted the absence of the stethoscope, but could not
comprehend how the steel wire could increase or steady the sound.
As to the trumpet, there was a report in the proceedings of the
Royal Society on the subject. Had there been any improvement
since ?

The report appeared to have been unfavorable, as regarded any
novelty or value, as it was then presented to the Society.

A general discussion arose on the paper, in which Mr. Sizar
Elliott, Dr. Wilkie, and,other members offered variouss suggestions,
and Mr. Wilkinson, in replying to the opinion of the various
gentlemen, promised further information on the subject.

(Signed) Rost. L. J. ELLery.
12th November, 1566.

12th November, 1866.
ORDINARY MEETING.

The President, R. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The following contributions were announced :—Vols. 2, 3, and
4, ‘Transactions Philosophical Society of Manchester.” ‘La
Sarcine de L’Estomac,” “‘ De Sarcine (Sarcina Ventricula, Goodsir)
—by Dr. W. F. B. Suringer, of Leyden.

The Hon. Secretary also placed on the table Vol. VII. of the
“Transactions of the Royal Society of . Victoria,” stating that by
the last mail, copies had been transmitted to the agents.in London,
to be forwarded to 85 learned societies, and to honorary members in.
various parts of Europe and America. Copies suitably bound had
been forwarded to His Excellency, for transmission to Her Majesty
the Queen and the Emperor of France. A copy, also, had been pre-
sented to Sir J. H. Manners-Sutton, as patron of the Society. The
Transactions had also been sent to the honorary members in Sydney,
New Zealand, Mauritius, and also to the Public Library and
Mechanics Institute, Melbourne.

Tn accordance with Law IX. the Hon. Secretary announced that
the President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, Custos of Col-

Proceedings, &c., 1866. 309

lection, and Librarian, together with Drs. Barker and Wilkie,
Professor M‘Coy, and Messrs. Bonwick, Gillbee, and Lang, members
of Council, retired from office at the close of the year. Messrs.
Aplin, Rusden, Rawlinson, Von Guerrard, Professor Halford, and
Rev. Dr. Bleasdale, were the members of Council remaining in
office.

Dr. Mueller read a paper on “‘ New Coleoptera” by the Count De
Castelnau, prefacing it, by calling attention to the Count’s reputa-
tion as an Entomologist, and of the zeal he had displayed while
leader of a party sent by the French Government to the tropical
parts of South America.

Several rare specimens of Coleoptera were exhibited by Dr.
Mueller on the part of the Count.

The adjourned discussion on Mr. Thompson’s paper was resumed,
and the model of a percussion table on an improved plan, exhibited
and explained. Mr. Thompson stated that the Port Phillip Company,
finding the loss amounted to £35,000 per annum, had commenced
using the table, after undertaking a series of experiments to test its
value, and with marked success. From experiments made by him-
self the following results had been obtained :—183 tons yielded
5130z. 17dwts. ; the cost was £560, and the profit £1,420.

The medel exhibited was constructed on a scale of ? inch to the
foot.

In the long discussion that ensued, Mr. Gideon 8. Lang con-
sidered the machine as likely to effect a revolution in the crushing
of quartz. And as to its great importance, Messrs. Cosmo Newbery,
Ellery, A. K. Smith, and other members bore testimony. Mr. Smith
offering his establishment to Mr. Thompson for the purpose of
carrying out any further experiments he might think necessary.

(Signed) Rost. L. J. ELLERY.
10th December, 1866.

10th December, 1866.
ORDINARY MEETING.
The President, R. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The following contributions were announced :—“ Catalogue of the
Mammalian Fossils discovered in Ireland,” Three pamphlets on
the ‘‘ Granitic Rocks of Donegal”—by R. H. Scott, Esq. “On an
Undescribed species of Petrel, from the Blue Mountains of Jamaica,”
and ‘‘ Notes on the Genus Chiasmodon”—by Dr. Alex. Carte. Vols.
3,4, 5, 6, and 10, ‘Transactions Geological Society of Ireland,”
and Vol. 1, part 1, “ Royal Geological Society of Ireland”—pre-
sented by the Society. No. 38 “ Fragmenta Phytographize Australi”
—presented by Dr. Miieller.

Dr. F. Miieller read a paper entitled “Characteristics of an
Undescribed Senecio, from South Africa,’ which the author had

310 Proceedings, &e., 1866.

been requested to report on, by the principal of Shaw’s College,
Graham’s Town. Dr. Miieller referred to Drs. Harney and
Sounder, eminent Phytographers.

Professor M‘Coy agreeing with the paper of Dr. Mueller, also bore
testimony to the merit of Dr. Harney, who had himself drawn and
lithographed the whole of the magnificient illustrations for his work
on Natural History.

In reply to some inquiries, Dr. Mueller said that he considered
all unscientific names as ambiguous, and liable to misconstruction.
The Senecio was known under the name of the Duke of Bedford, a
name given to it from the great interest His Grace had taken in
horticultural pursuits. It was easily distinguished by its leaves,
long and broad, quite white, and woolly underneath.

The President then read a paper by Mr. Shiress of Sandhurst,
on the “ Decomposition of Pyrites.” Mr. Shiress proposed to
decompose the pyrites by wood heated in direct contact with the
pyrites. Oe

This paper gave rise to a long and animated discussion.

Professor M‘Coy could not conceive what Mr. Shiress meant by
asserting that by heating pyrites, sulphite of carbon would be pro-
duced. Sulphuric acid might be obtained, and in time of war
pyrites had often been mixed with charcoal to supply the place of
sulphur. He had grave doubts as to the results stated, and thought
the cost of fuel ought also to be considered.

Mr. Shiress (who was present as a visitor) defended the results
stated in the paper arrived at, but generally abandoned all the
questions on which he had been pressed by Professor M‘Coy. Mr.
Shiress exhibited several specimens of tailings from which, by his
process, 3 ounces to the ton had been obtained, but which, under the
old plan, had yielded but 4 dwts.

In answer to other enquiries, Mr. Shiress said that by using
quicksilver and water, from some of the tailings produced, 12 ounces
to the ton had been obtained.

Professor M‘Coy, and Mr. Cosmo Newbery, still doubted the
correctness of the theory, but Mr. Shiress resolutely maintained that
under his mode of operation, the yield had been as stated. In
reply to Mr. Crooke he said the quantity of wood used was about
twice the bulk of the stone. The stone should be broken to
the size of road metal, any stone by his plan would yield 5 to 1 on
its present return.

Mr. Aplin and the previous speakers dissenting, Mr. J. B. Were
trusted, as the matter was really of very great importance, that
the members present would give their opinions freely.

The President said the main issue was whether the results obtained
were as Mr. Shiress stated. He agreed with Professor M‘Coy and
the other speakers as to the non-production of sulphide of carbon.

Mr. Crooke said the burning of pyrites was no new plan, and,

Proceedings, &c., 1866. 311

commending Mr. Shiress for coming from Sandhurst with his paper,
trusted that the Royal Society would superintend an experiment of
the sort referred to. A discussion ensued, Mr. Aplin disagreeing
from Mr. Shiress, and Mr. Rawlings supporting Mr. Crooke’s view.
Mr. Shiress said any description of pyrites would yield a corresponding
return. Mr, Lang suggested obtaining pyrites from Mr. Thompson.
Mr. Gillbee, Mr. Newbery, and Professor M‘Coy, argued against the
plan ; Professor Halford and Dr. Mueller in favor of an investiga-
tion. Ultimately it was proposed by Mr. Rawlings, seconded by Mr.
Crooke, and carried, “That the paper on the decomposition of
“yyrites by Mr. Shiress, be referred to the Council of the Royal
“ Society, with a view to test the plan set forth, and repent to a
‘* meeting thereon.”

Mr. Shiress exhibited various specimens from the “ Whip Reef,”
“ Tipperary Gully,” and other places in the Bendigo District.

On the proposition of Mr. R. L. J. Ellery, seconded by Professor
M ‘Coy, and carried, Mr. Samuel W. McGowan was elected a member
of Council to supply the vacancy caused by the non-attendance of
the Rev. Dr. Bleasdale.

It was proposed by Mr. Rawlings, seconded by Mr. Aplin, and.
carried, “That Mr. Henry Zumstein and Mr. James Blackburn be
appointed auditors.”

1867 .
ANNUAL MEETING.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF VICTORIA.
14th January, 1867.
The President, R. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The following contributions were announced :—“ Report of R.
Rawlinson, Esq., C.E,, On Supplying Water to Liverpool from Bala
Lake, North Wales’— -presented by T. E. Rawlinson, Esq. ‘Result of
25 years’ Meteorological Observations for Hobart Town’ ’"—by Fras.
Abbot, Esq., F.R.A.S.

The Honorary Secretary then read the following Report for
1866 :—

ROYAL SOCIETY OF VICTORIA.

The Council has the honour to submit to the members of the
Royal Society the following report for 1866 :—

“Tt will be in the recollection of the Members that on a revision
“of the Laws of the Society, an alteration was made in the time at
“‘ which the Council was elected, and that on the 15th January,
““ 1866, the present Executive came into office.

312 Proceedings, &c., 1867.

“ During the year nine Ordinary Meetings were held, and the
“¢ following papers read before the Members :—

1866.
“12th Feb.—On Ozone and its Influences, by The President.
12th March.—On the Grass Tree, by C. W. Ligar, Esq.

Satine “a On the Volcanic Rocks of Rome and Victoria
‘“‘ contrasted, by J. Bonwick, Esq.

Sepa he 4, On the Green Sapphire, or Oriental Ruby, by the
“* Rev. Dr. Bleasdale.

“9th April—On the Absorption of Colouring Matter in the
‘“‘ Living Body, by Professor Halford.

oe Lith June.—On Differential Equations and Co-resolvents, by
“ Chief-Justice Cockle.

Pate: »» On Rainfall in Victoria, by The President.
“9th July—Notes of a Geological Trip to New South Wales, by

““ Thomas Harrison, Esq.

“11th Sept.—On the Theory of the formation of Gold Nuggets
‘in Drift, by Charles Wilkinson, Esq.

Open os Notes on the Extraction of Gold, by H. A.
“Thompson, Esq.

“8th Oct.—On a patent Ear Trumpet, by Charles so
66 Esq.

“12th Nov.—On New Coleoptera, by Count de Castelnau, read
“by Dr. Miller.

“10th Dec.—On an Undeseribed Senecio from South Africa, by
*¢ Dr. Mueller.

Thats 5 Onanew method of Decomposing Pyrites, by Mr.
“ Shiress, read by The President.

‘“‘ The discussion on Mr. Thompson’s paper was adjourned, at the
“¢ desire of several members, from September to November. Mr.
“Thompson submitting at the adjourned meeting a model of his
*‘ improved Percussion Table.

“The Council has endeavored to bring into notice papers tending
“ to develop the resources of the gold-fields, and to economize the
‘‘ working in extracting the precious metal.

« The address of the President was delivered on the 2nd July, at
‘“ a conversazione held in the hall of the Society. The success of
“‘ this conversazione renders it, in the opinion of the Council, desir-
“‘ able that the customary address should be, in future, read at similar
“« assemblages.

““ The Council has the pleasure of announcing that His Excellency

Proceedings, &c., 1866. 313°

“ Sir J. H. T. Manners-Sutton, the present Governor of Victoria,
“has accepted the office of Patron of the Society, thus continuing
“the connection recognised by his predecessors.

“The correspondence with learned societies is on the increase,
““ and attention is directed to the Library of the Society, which, in
“foreign scientific works, has been largely augmented during the
“year ; 168 volumes having been presented during the season of
“* 1866.

“ The Society has also received three maps of the Geological
‘‘ Survey of Victoria, issued from the Geological Department during
*‘ the same period.

“The VII. volume of the Transactions has been placed in the
“ hands of members ; copies, according to the established custom,
‘“‘ have been presented to Her Majesty the Queen, the Emperor of
“ the French ; the Public Library ; honorary members, and ninety-
* three Societies with which the Royal Society is in correspondence.

“ During the year ten new members have been elected, but the
“ Council regret having had to remove seventeen names from the roll
“ for non-payment of arrears, and almost the first act of the new
“ Council will be to recommend a further revision of the Roll of
“* Membership.

“ The Treasurer’s audited Balance Sheet, appended to this report,
“ shows a balance of £39 in favour of this Society. The liahilities
** are also appended.

“‘ The extreme economy with which the Society has been worked
“‘ during the past year, even taking into consideration the expense of
“ the conversazione, has enabled the Council to sweep off many debts
“‘ bequeathed by its predecessors ; and it is to be hoped, by the early
“payments of subscriptions for 1867, the future Executive may be
“ better enabled to carry out the purposes for which the Royal Society
“was framed,—The advancement of Science, Literature, and Art,
*““ with especial reference to the development of the resources of the
“colony.

“ The Council hope the Transactions of the Society may in future
“be issued at quarterly intervals, trusting the members, by their
‘“ contributions, will render the publication worthy of the name the
“ Royal Society has obtained, and earnestly invite the co-operation
“of all in the formation of sections, a branch of the Society which
‘has not yet received the attention it deserves.

“The President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, Custos of
“ Collection and Librarian, together with Messrs. Bonwick, Gillbee,
“ Lang, Professor M‘Coy, and Drs. Barker and Wilkie, members of
‘‘ Council, retire from office. The names of gentlemen duly nomi-
“ nated to fill up the vacancies have been submitted to members, and
‘it will be the business of the meeting this evening to elect the
“‘ various officers. |

“In accordance with notice duly published, Dr. Mueller will

Y

314 Proceedings, &c., 1866.

“also submit for the approval of members an alteration in Law
PEKIN,

“The Council, considering that the Royal Society of Victoria is
“a link connecting Australia with the older countries in all matters
“‘ pertaining to Science, Literature, and Art, confidently trust that
“ the year 1867 will prove a successful one, bothin the number and
*“‘ value of papers read, and in the activity displayed in enlisting the
“‘ sympathies of those calculated to advance the Society and place it
“‘ in a position to foster Science, and develop the resources of the
* Colony of Victoria.”

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316 Proceedings, &c., 1867.

Proposed by Mr. C. D’O. Aplin, seconded by Mr. G. 8. Lang, and
carried, ‘‘ That the report and balance sheet of the Council now read,
be received and adopted.”

In accordance with notice, Dr. Mueller brought forward his
proposed alteration in Law XXIV. Seconded by Dr. Barker, in the
absence of Mr. Bonwick.

After some discussion, in which Professor M‘Coy, Mr. Lang, Mr.
Gillbee, the President, and hon. Secretary took part, Dr. Mueller,
by permission of the meeting, withdrew the motion.

The President vacated the chair, which was taken by Mr, C. D’O.
Aplin. Messrs. H. K. Rusden, and James Osborne, junr were
duly appointed scrutineers.

The Chairman announced that as there was but a single nomina-
tion for each office, the following gentlemen were duly elected for
the year 1867 : —

President :
R. L. J. Ellery, Esq.

Vice-Presidents :
A. K. Smith, Esq. C. W. Ligar, Esq.

Treasurer :
Robert Willan, Esq.

Secretary :
T. H. Rawlings, Esq.

Inbrarian :

Dr. Neild.

Curator :
Thomas Harrison, Esq.

And upon a ballot being taken for six members a Council, the.

following were declared duly elected :—

Professor M ‘Coy. H. A. Thompson, Esq.
Wm. Gillbee, Esq. G. S. Lang, Esq.
J.B. Were, Esq. Dr. Barker.

The following gentlemen were proposed as ordinary members,
ballot to take place next evening :—Wm. Johnston, Esq., St. Kilda ;
Alex. C. Allan, Esq., Observatory.

(Signed) Bost. L. J. ELLERY.

11th Feb. 1867.

Se

Proceedings, &c., 1867. 317

Monday 11th February, 1867.
The President, Robt. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The following contributions were announced :—Two maps issued
by the Geological Survey Department—presented by A. R. Selwyn,
Esq.

The gentlemen proposed as members at last meeting were balloted
for and declared duly elected.

Professor M‘Coy then exhibited and described three new species
of Victorian birds. Ist. Herodias Grezetta, obtained from Gipps
Land. 2nd. Sphenura Broadbenti, from Portland, and 3rd. Parda-
lotus Xanthopyge, from the Mallee Scrub.

The Professor also read his notes on the discovery of Enaliosauria
and other cretaceous fossils, proving the conclusions he had _pre-
viously arrived at, and at various times laid before the Society.

Mr. Bonwick, Mr. Aplin, Sir Redmond Barry, and the President
took part in a conversation that ensued upon the value of the
discovery, and congratulated the Professor upon the gratification he
must feel at having his predictions so signally confirmed.

Mr. G. W. Groves read a paper, “ A Contribution to Meteorology.”

A very animated discussion arose upon this contribution, which
was based upon ‘‘ The Science of Terrestrial Magnetism.” Messrs.
Ellery, Aplin, Professor M‘Coy, Messrs. Rawlinson and Lang taking
part. The general impression of members was unfavorable to the
theory put forth by Mr. Groves, who ultimately promised to follow
up his researches, and communicate the results to the Society.

Signed, Rosert L. J. Every,
11th March, 1867.

ORDINARY MEETING.
Monday, 11th March, 1867.
The President, R. L.J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The following contributions were announced.— Proceedings of
the Royal Society of London,” Nos 70, 72, 73,74. ‘“ Journal of the
Linnean Society,’ Nos. 35 to 38 inclusive. ‘“ List of the Linnean
Society,” 1865. “ Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society,”
No. 6, Vol. 10. “ Die Entwicklung der Ideen in der Naterwissen-
chaft,” Von Liebig. ‘‘ Die Bedentung moderne Graclmessungen,”
Von Dr. Bauenfriend. “Sitzungsberichle der konigl bayer Akademie
der Wissenchaften, Zur Munchen,” 1865, If Heft IILand IV. 1866
I Heft, 1, 2, 3,4. 1866, If Heft, 1.

The following gentlemen were duly proposed and seconded as
ordinary members, ballot to take place at next meeting :—Wm.
Williams, Esq., Thomas Moubray, Esq., Samuel Amess, Esq,
Thomas McPherson, Esq., Orlando Fenwick, Esq., Abraham
Linacre, Esq., Henry Sanders, Esq , John Walker, Esq. :

318 Proceedings, &c., 1867.

A paper was announced to be read by Mr. Cosmo Newbery, but
in the absence of that gentleman (without notice), no other paper
had been prepared.

Signed, Ropert L. J. ELLEry.

8th April, 1867.

ORDINARY MEETING.
Monday, 8th April, 1867.
The President, R. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The following contributions were announced :—No. 35 ‘ Transac-
tions Royal Society, Dublin.” Laffarges “ History of Languages.”
Vol. 1, parts 4 and No. 6 of “ Royal Horticultural Society, London.”

On a ballot taking place for the gentlemen duly nominated at last
meeting (Messrs Marshall and Von Guerard acting as scrutineers),
they were declared duly elected.

A message from the Council recommended that five names be
removed from the roll of membership, for non-payment of arrears
of subscription, and on the motion of Mr. Aplin, seconded by Mr.
A. K. Smith, the names of the gentlemen indicated in the message
were erased accordingly.

Mr. Richard Danson was duly proposed and seconded as an
ordinary member, ballot to be taken at next meeting:

The President called the attention of members to Law XXXVIII.,
and suggested the desirability of having it carried out.

Mr. J. Cosmo Newbery read a paper, “On the manufacture of
paper from native plants.”

In the discussion that ensued, Mr. Crooke drew attention to the
native grasses of Tasmania, which he considered well adapted, from _
the strength of fibre and the ease with which they could be obtained,
for the purpose of paper making.

Dr. Mueller went at some length into the question, giving it as
his opinion that stringy bark would prove the best material to
operate upon. The Dr. also handed in for inspection a large number
of specimens of paper, which may be thus catalogued :—

No. 1.—Tissue paper, containing 50 per cent. pine-wood, made in Germany.

2.—Bill paper A) AOn A, wood, 123 China clay, made in
Germany.

3.—Paper. All of wood. “Made in Switzerland.

4.—Paper. Containing 20 per cent. aspen wood, made in Germany.

5.—Paper. Of fern leaves, made in Germany.

6.—Paper. Containing 75 per cent. sparta, 25 per cent. rags, made
in France.

7.—Paper. From maize or Turkish corn, made in Prussia.

8.—Paper. Made from New Zealand flax.

Dr. Mueller briefly noticed the various materials applicable to the
manufacture of paper, and which could be found in India, China,
and the Australian colonies.

Proceedings, &e., 1867. 319

Mr. A. K. Smith spoke more particularly as to the advantages to
be derived from the erection of a paper mill, and the best site where .
such a mill could be erected.—Preston, about 6 miles from Melbourne,
he deemed the best for the purpose, as an abundance of water from
the Preston reservoir of the Yan Yean would be always available.
From the experience he had gathered in Devonshire and elsewhere,
in this manufacture, he had no hesitation in saying that, consider-
ing the quantity of rags sent home, our own grasses, and the state
of the climate—a material point in paper making—Victoria pos-
sessed everything that could be required for embarking in the manu-
facture of paper.

The President, Secretary, Mr. Newbery, and others joined in the
discussion.

Dr. Mueller spoke of some enormously large stringy bark trees,
Mr. Von Guerrard mentioned that he had seen one 100 feet high,
and 45 paces round, two miles from Dobson’s Gully, on the southern
slope of the Dandenong Ranges.

Mr. Crooke stated that the Huon district of Tasmania grew Tee
trees, but nothing compared to those mentioned by Dr. Mueller, and
Mr. Von Guerrard. The largest he had seen was 21 feet through.

The President said at Mount Disappointment there was one 27
feet through.

(Signed) Rost. L. J. Eiuery.

13th May, 1867.

ORDINARY MEETING.
Monday, 13th May, 1867.
The President, R. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The following contributions were announced :—‘“ Proceedings of
the Royal Society of London,” Nos. 78 to 86. ‘‘ Journal of the Royal
Geological Society of Ireland,” (Vol. 1), part 2. ‘Journal of the
Royal Horticultural Society of London,” Vol. 1, part 4. ‘The
Royal Horticultural Society's Proceedings,” Vol. 1, Nos. 6 and 7.
“ Journal of the Statistical Society of London,” for June and
September 1866. “‘ Bulletin de la Societie Imperiale des Naturalis-
tes de Moscow, Nos. 2 and 4 for 1865 ; Nos. 1 and 2, 1866. ‘On
Gems and Precious Stones in Victoria,” by the Rev. J. J. Bleasdale,
D.D. “The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London,”
for February, 1867. ‘Jahrbuch des Kaiserlich, Koniglichen Geolo-
gischen MReichsanstalt.” ‘Laws of the Institution of Civil
Engineers, London.” ‘Proceedings of the Royal Geographical
Society,” for February, 1867. Sitzmgsberichle der Kaisserlichen
Akademie der Wissenchaften Von Wien (Vienna),” for January, Feb-
_ruary, March, and April, 1866. In duplicate, May and June, 1866.

The gentleman proposed at the last meeting was balloted for, and
declared duly elected.

320 Proceedings, &c., 1867. |
Mr. Alfred Hill was duly proposed and seconded as an ordinary

member, ballot to be taken at next meeting.

The Rev. Dr. Bleasdale read a paper, “On Colonial Wines.” In
answer to several questions, Dr. Bleasdale stated that he was unable
to assign a cause for the acidity to which white wine was liable. It
was very difficult to decide on a cause of ropiness, but perhaps a great
deal was owing to the absence of good wine makers. There were
Swiss, German, and a few French vignerons in the colony, but not from
first-class wine districts. There existed also a prejudice against using
strong spirits, however small in quantity, to the must. The effect of
the spirit was to coagulate the albumen and preserve the nitrogeneous
matter. In countries where grapes ripen late, it might not be
necessary to use spirits, but in hot countries fermentation went on so
rapidly that some amount of spirits was necessary. If there was an
excess of sugar over albumen, a sweet wine was made. If the
albumen is in excess, a dry wine is produced. Hence arose the
practice of putting in 4 or | percent. of strong spirits. In Germany
no spirit was used. The German practice was observed here, and
probably the bad wine about, might be ascribed to that cause.

Mr. Aplin called attention to Dr. Bleasdale’s statement, that the
red wines of Camden were good, while the Cawarra was not so
palatable ; could this arise from any variation of soil ?

Mr. Crooke advocated the mixing of colonial wine with an equal
quantity of water, by which the hardness often felt was removed.

Dr. Bleasdale entered into some description of how wine was
tortured, and stated that he found the Reisling grape of a most
adaptable character. On the Murray and about Sandhurst a good
Reisling was grown, from which old Portuguese wine-drinkers would
admit a good Bucellas could be made. ;

Dr. Mueller then read a paper “‘On New Coleoptera,” by Count
de Castelnau, and called the attention of the Society to the way in
which the researches of the Count could be assisted, eulogizing
Dr. Howitt for his exertions in the science of entomology.

(Signed) Rost. L. J. ELLery.
11th June, 1867.

ORDINARY MEETING.
Monday, 10th June, 1867.
The President, R. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The gentleman duly nominated at last meeting was balloted for,
and declared duly elected.

Proposed by Mr. H. A. Thompson, and seconded by Mr. T. rst,
Rawlings, and carried, ‘That Mr. J. Cosmo Newbery be elected a
member of Council, in place of Mr. T. E. Rawlinson, resigned.”

The President announced a message from the Council, recommend-

Proceedings, &c., 1867. 321

ing the following gentlemen, for the approval of His Excellency,
as Trustees of the Society :—

Sir William Stawell. Rev. J. J. Bleasdale.
C. W. Ligar, Esq. R. L. J. Ellery, Esq.

Professor Halford read a paper, ‘‘On the appearance of Blood
after death from Snake-bite and Cholera.”

Mr. Ellery spoke as to the many causes assigned for the appearance
of cholera, amongst others blue mist, and Mr. Glaisher had ascended
in a balloon to make observations thereon.

Dr. Ralph entered rather lengthily into the subject of the paper,
dissenting generally from the results arrived at by Professor Halford.

On the motion of the Rev. Dr. Bleasdale, the discussion was
adjourned until the next meeting.

James Corrigan, Esq., L.L.D., was duly proposed and seconded
as an ordinary member, ballot to take place at next meeting.

(Signed) Rost. L. J. ELLERY.
8th July, 1867.

ORDINARY MEETING.
Monday, 8th July, 1867.
The President, Robt. L J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The following contributions were announced :—“ Transactions
Philosophical Society, New South Wales,’ 1862-5. “ Notes on the
Reduction of Gold Ores,” and “ Notes on the Management of Mining
Companies,” by H, A. Thompson, Esq. “‘ Results of Twenty-five
Years’ Meteorological Observations at Hobart Town,” by Francis
Abbott, Esq., F.R.A.S. Sixty-seven various Books and Pamphlets,
from Dr. Buchenau of Bremen.

The gentleman proposed at last meeting was balloted for, and
declared duly elected.

The Honorary Secretary read a communication, by Mr. Wintle, of
Hobart Town, “ On the Bone Cave of Glenorchy, Tasmania,” illus-
trative of some fossils also sent by that gentleman. (This paper
having been published in a Victorian Magazine, cannot, bythe Laws
of the Society, be included among the papers read before members
and now issued.— HD.)

The Rev. Dr. Bleasdale read his ‘ Notes on a New Victorian Gem,
—-the Rubellite.” A specimen of this stone was. exhibited for the
inspection of Members.

The adjourned discussion on Professor Halford’s paper was
resumed by Dr. D. J. Thomas, who contended that the affinity
between death by cholera and snake-bite would not be proved
without the examination of a great number of cases, which had not
yet taken place. In cases of snake poisoning he did not believe
the inhaling of oxygen was of any service. His plan was to

a22 Proceedings, &c., 1867.

give chloroform, keeping the patient on the verge of the shadow of
death, also he would administer brandy, and send hydrogen and
carbon into the blood. Had inspected the blood of the patient that
died from snake-bite. The blood possessed colourless corpuscles,
from the water used in the magenta solution. Did not see animal-
cule at all. In fact, differed from Professor Halford as to any simi-
larity betweeu blood poisoning and cholera, and thought the Royal
Society of Victoria was not the place where the question should be
discussed. /

The President dissented from the last remark, and Mr. Ford
thought the Royal Society was the most fitting place for such a
discussion to take place.

Mr. Andrews, Mr. Hickie and the President, joined 1 in the dis-
cussion.

Mr. G. 8. Lang, gave two instances from his own experience
where animal poison had been absorbed into the skin, one by the
licking of a lizard, the other by the sting of a hornet.

Dr. Day (of Geelong) thought that, like the rust in wheat, there
was a vegetable germ, common in India, which absorbed itself into
the system, and so produced the disease.

Mr. Ashworth spoke in favor of Professor Halford’s observations.
Dr. Thomas contended the proper way to examine blood was with
serum, and not under water. Physiologists differed about the
number of white to red corpuscles, and so far as the experiments
had gone, he was not at all satisfied with the conclusions arrived at.

Professor Halford, in reply, said he had spent two days in his
experiments, and was not likely to have mistaken cells for white
corpuscles. He would mention that the heat of the body increased
after death from cholera and yellow fever, a man weighing 150lbs,
would rise in-temperature 8° or 9° after death. He trusted that the
discussion would Jead to a more perfect examination of the blood,
and thus good would spring from the paper having been read before
the Society.

(Signed) C. D’Ovitey H. APLIN.
12th August, 1867. -

ORDINARY MEETING.
Monday, 12th August, 186%.
Mr. C. D’Oyley H. Aplin in the chair.

Professor Halford briefly drew the attention of members to the
remarks made at the last meeting on the subject of the Royal
Society not being the place fitted for discussing the paper he had the
honour to read.

The following contributions were announced :—‘‘ Proceedings of
the Royal Geographical Society,” No. 11, Vol. Xi. “Journal of the
Linnean Society,” fur April. ‘Journal of the Statistical and Social

Proceedings, &c., 1867. 323

Enquiry Society of Ireland,” Part III, Vol. IV. ‘Schriften der
Naturferschenden Gesellschaft in Danzig.” ‘‘ Results of Astrono-
mical Observations made at the Melbourne Observatory.” “ Sur
la Structure de la Houille Commentarie des Phytographies et des,
Eixemplaires que fait figurer a l’Exposition Universelle de Paris,’—
by Dr. Goeppert.

Mr. H. A. Thompson read a paper, “ On the Formation of Mineral
Veins, and the Deposit of Metallic Ores in them.”

Professor M‘Coy took exception to the view put forward by Mr.
Thompson, quoting the authority of the late Mr. Hopkins, of Cam-
bridge, on the origin of fissures. The Professor contended that the
fissures remained open until they were filled by igneous or aqueous
means. |

Mr. Newbery and Mr. Aplin took part in the discussion, the latter
gentleman quoting largely from the work of Mr. ‘Sterry Hunt, of the
Quebec Geological Survey, which bore out the views taken by Mr.
Thompson.

In reply, Mr. Thompson thought Professor M‘Coy had mistaken
the sections for vertical in place of horizontal ones. From personal
experience Mr. Thompson was aware of the difficulty of keeping the
fissures open. The Old Man Vein opened out to 120 feet wide, and
how could a large cavity like this in soft rocks remain open? Many
of these veins only a few feet wide could not be kept open for six
weeks. The subject was of great importance, and his theory had
not been weakened by the discussion on his paper.

(Signed) Rost. WILLAN.
9th September, 13867.

ORDINARY MEETING.
Monday, 9th September, 1867.
The Hon. Treasurer, Robert Willan, Esq., in the chair.

The foliowing contributions were announced :—“ Flora Austra-
liensis,” Vol. ILI; and “ Flora Braziliensis,” Parts 1 to 4,—presented
by Dr. Mueller.

Mr. H. K. Rusden read a paper, ‘‘ On the Ethics of Opinion.”

Professor Halford, by permission, called the attention of the
Society to his paper read at a former meeting, ‘‘ On the condition of
Blood after death from Snake-bite and Cholera ;’ and stated that, the
_ question being of great importance, he had been desirous of getting
Australian snakes to ascertain if the blood of what might die from
the effect of their bites was the same in appearance with his pre-
viously ascertained results. Last week a number of tiger snakes had
been received from Dr. Gummow, of Swan Hill, to whom he was
greatly indebted for this act of kindness, and with these, operations
had been performed, The dog bitten had died in three hours.

‘

324 Proceedings, &c., 1867.

The blood was perfectly fluid. The number of cells marvellous,
He had shown his experiments to Professor M‘Coy and other gentle-
men, and he hoped at the next meeting of the Society to read a
paper thoroughly bearing out the opinions he had long held. Of the
result now, he had no shadow of doubt, and it only showed the
correctness of the aphorism, “ Truth was stranger than fiction.”

Professor M‘Coy corroborated the statements of Professor
Halford.

Dr. Thomas had been examining the blood of persons dying from >
diphtheria, and other diseases, more particularly since reading Profes-
sor Halford’s paper ; and amongst other things saw in the blood of a
dog that died of distemper, globules exactly similiar to those figured
by Professor M‘Coy. He believed also that the blood of the man
that died from the bite of a cobra, and the blood of the dog dying of
distemper bore an exact resemblance. He differed from Frotes
M‘Coy’s conclusions.

Professor Halford trusted Dr. Thomas would bring down te the
Society drawings of the globules he had seen, so that there could be
a general inspection. He offered Dr. Thomas half-a-dozen snakes
for the purpose of testing the matter himself.

Dr. Thomas promised some preparations for a microscopic exami-
nation at an early date.

Professor M‘Coy defended his observations, and Dr. Barker agreed
entirely with Professor Halford. He considered the investigations
of the Professor opened up a new study in pathology, and honour
was due to Professor Halford for so steadfastly following up his
researches until the opinion he had first formed had been generally
admitted,

Professor M‘Coy read a paper, ‘‘ On the Character and Species of
Wombats,” exhibiting specimens showing the existence of four _
distinct species, in place of one, as was originally supposed.

(Signed) Rost. L, J. ELLERY.

14th October, 1867.

ORDINARY MEETING.
Monday, 14th October, 1867.
The President, R. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The following contributions were announced :—‘ Report on the
Head-waters of the River Rakaia, with maps and illustrations,’—
presented by the author, Julius Haast, Esq., of Canterbury, New
Zealand.

The Hon. Secretary brought up the following messages from the
Council :—“ With a view to a more perfect report of the papers read
before the Society appearing in the public journals, the Council
recommend that members will prepare a digest of their papers, to

Proceedings, &c., 1867. 325

be handed to the representatives of the Press for publication.”
“The Council having decided upon presenting an address from the
Royal Society of Victoria, to His Royal Highness the Duke of
Edinburgh, requests those members who are desirous of assisting
on the presentation to communicate with the Honorary Secretary
as early as possible.”

Mr. Gillbee called the attention of the Society to the death of
Dr. Hades, who had been among the foremost in promoting the
establishment of the Royal Society, and had filled various important
offices in connection with it, and moved “ That the Council convey
to Mrs. Eades an expression of its deepest sympathy with her in
her recent bereavement.”

Professor Halford seconded the motion, and it was accepted by
the meeting without comment.

Professor Halford read his paper, “‘ Further Observations on Death
by Snake-bite, with Microscopical Demonstrations.” At the con-
clusion of the paper, Professor Halford afforded to those present an
opportunity of witnessing the appearance of the blood as described
by him. The blood of a dog bitten by a snake within thirty-six
hours was closely examined under powerful microscopes by the
members.

The President said that with each edition of Dr. Halford’s paper,
the interest increased. Another point had been arrived at this
evening. There was a question however, that occurred to him,
whether these cells were to be considered as crystalloids, as distin-
guished from koloid. The fact that cells are seen on the other sides
of the membrane in fcetal blood was rather in favour of crystalloids.

Dr. Ralph could not agree that these cells were an original growth
caused by the poison, but was inclined to think they were blood
corpuscles, but under altered conditions. He had examined the
specimens with pleasure, and admitted that the macula was seen on
the periphery of the cells. There was no question of the impor-
tance of the subject, and would suggest that experiments should be
made upon animals kept fasting forty-eight hours before death, and
upon animals made to feed, and then poisoned ; the blood of both
afterwards to be closely examined.

Professor Halford regretted that the main point had not been
referred to, viz. :—The presence of the cells. Reviewing the various
objections raised, Professor Halford said, If the Medical Profession
of Victoria did not look thoroughly into the matter now, when it
was brought before them, the Profession some where else would.

Mr. Thomas Harrison read a paper by Mr. Julius Haast, ‘‘ Notes
on the Rev. J. E. Wood’s Paper on the Glacial Epoch of Australia.”

Mr. J. Cosmo Newbery read a paper ‘‘On the Mineral Waters of
Victoria.”

The President inquired if any of the felspar from Maldon had
been examined.

326 Proceedings, &e., 1867.

Mr, Newbery said it had not, but there was every probability of it
being found rich in potash.

The President said the subject was of some importance ; the dis-
covery of a good supply of potash was invaluable. When the
Defence Committee was sitting, the scarcity of potash was one of
the subjects brought prominently under its notice.

Mr. Newbery promised another paper on the subject after further
experiments had been made.

(Signed) Rost. L. J, ELiEry.

11th November, 1867.

ORDINARY MEETING.
Monday, 11th November, 1867.
The President, Robt. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The Hon. Secretary stated that in accordance with the resolution
passed at the last meeting, the following letter had been forwarded
to Mrs. Hades :—

(Copy.)
‘* Royal Society of Victoria,
“ Melbourne, 4th November, 1867.
‘¢ Madam,—On the part of the Royal Society of Victoria, I have
to offer you its deep-felt sympathies at the severe loss you have

sustained in the death of your late husband, many years intimately
connected’ with this Society. The knowledge that the late Dr.

Eades was universally respected, and his memory cherished and

regarded with the esteem his services merited, may possibly prove
the best help in mitigating the grief of those closely allied to him,
and it is in the earnest hope that some such consolation may be
afforded that the Royal Society of Victoria venture in this hour
of sorrow to intrude upon you with this expression of condolence,
and to assure you, the death of your late husband has been regarded
with the deepest sorrow, while his exertions as one of the members
of the Society will be long remembered.

“‘T remain, Madam, with the deepest respect,
‘“¢ Your obedient servant,
(Signed), * 0. “ Rosr. L. J. ELLERY,
‘“Mrs. Eades, ‘‘ President Royal Society Victoria.”
“ High Street, Prahran.”
On the motion of Mr. G. 8. Lang, seconded by Professor
Halford it was resolved, “‘ That the letter just read be entered on

the minutes of the Proceedings of the Society.”
The Hon. Secretary announced that by Law IX., it was necessary

we

oY ee eee a, ee

Proceedings, &c., 1867. 327

at this meeting to announce that the following office-bearers retired
at the close of the year :—The President, Vice-President, Secretary,
Treasurer, Librarian and Custos of Collection, with Messrs. Aplin,
_ Gillbee, Von Guerard, McGowan, Rusden, and Professor Halford.
By Law X., All nominations to supply these vacancies must be
given before the close of the Ordinary Meeting, to be held on 9th
December, and the election would take place in January next.

Professor Halford read a paper by Captain Perry, “ On a Dis-
covery for determining danger of collision in vessels crossing one
another’s track.”

Captain Perry explained his diagram,

The President considered Captain Perry had described in a very
simple and correct manner a proposition of very great import-
ance. He concurred in the value of the discovery, and thought the
suggestions were worthy of the greatest support.

Captain Perry stated that his attention had been drawn to the
subject through the collision that occurred between the Penola and
City of Launceston. It was a fact that what had been hitherto
considered the proper way of steering, he had demonstrated was
the reverse.

Professor Halford considered the matter of very great importance,
and it was a question how far the Society should take up the
matter.

Mr. Aplin inquired if the President, as the Government Astro-
nomer, could not bring the subject before the proper authorities.

The President said he would be happy to do what he could in
the matter. Perhaps the Council might recommend some course of
- action.

Dr. Neild then read a paper ‘On the Purification of Water,”
by Mr. Dahlke, who afterwards exhibited specimens of various
samples of water from the Yan Yean and the Yarra ; some of which
he had treated with permanganite of potash, and others passed
through a patent filter. Professor Halford, Mr. Lang, and other
members took part in a long discussion; Mr. Dahlke stating
that a filter on an improved plan was in course of construction at
an expense perhaps of two guineas or a little more, quite capable
of preventing the ova of the Hydatids from passing through the
percolator.

Professor Halford called the attention of the Society to the subject
of an antidote to snake-bite ; stating that he had been in commu-
nication with the man Shires, who proclaimed the value of his
antidote, and that it tallied somewhat with an analysis previously
made by himself. It was Tincture of Iodine mixed with a solution
of Ammonia, strong enough to render it colourless, and thought the
matter sufficient to warrant it being brought under the notice of
Government with a view to ae aid in prosecuting the neces-
Sary experiments.

328 Proceedings, &c., 1867.

Dr. Barker suggested a deputation waiting on the Chief Secre-
tary.

After some discussion, it was agreed that a special meeting of
Council should be convened at an early date to consider what steps
had best be taken in the matter.

(Signed) Rost. L. J. ELLery.

9th December, 1867.

ORDINARY MEETING.
Monday, 9th December, 1867.
The President, R. L. J. Ellery, Esq., in the chair.

The President stated that in accordance with a desire expressed
at the last meeting, he had written to Captain Wilkinson, of the
Admiralty Survey, with respect to Captain Perry’s invention,
especially as to whether it was considered a condition of safety,
when two vessels were approaching each other, to keep a broad
bearing on the bow, and whether these conditions of safety were
generally known. He had not yet received an answer, but he had
consulted several naval men of eminence, who looked upon the
suggestion as a novel one. There was no doubt, however, that
Captain Perry’s invention was of great value.

The following contributions were announced:—Vols. VI. and
VIL. “‘ Transactions of the Royal Society of London.” Parts 1 and
2, Vol. XX., “Journal Statistical Society, London.” Nos. 18 and
19 of the “ Anthropological Review,” ‘“ Catalogue of the Library
of the Anthropological Society,” and “List of Fellows of the

Society ;” Nos. 3 and 4 of the “ Bulletin de la Sociétié Im-
periale des Naturalistes de Moscow.” No. 49, Vol. III., “ Transac-

tions of the Geological Society, Darmstadt.”

Mr. O’Neil, of the late firm of Batcheldor and O’Neil, photo-
graphers, exhibited some very fine specimens of photographic art,
representing scenery in San Francisco, the Wellingtonia Gigantea,
and Mountainous Scenery.

Messrs. Blackburn and Zumstein were elected auditors to examine
the accounts for 1867.

The President read a paper “ On a New Self-Registering Elec-
trometer,” illustrated with Diagrams.

The President stated favourable opinions of the instrument had
been received from Major-General Sabine, and the Director of the

Kew Observatory.
Mr. Newbery read his ‘‘ Report of Experiments with Mr.

Dahlke’s Filter.”

Professor M‘Coy corroborated the statement of Mr. Newbery, as
he had witnessed many of the experiments. He inquired whether
the filter possessed the property of dialysis, viz., of separating
crystalline bodies from all others.

OP

|

Proceedings, &c., 1867. 329

Mr. Newbery said, if the filter did not possess that quality, it
came very close to it. He intended to make further experiments
and report hereafter.

Professor Halford drew attention to the importance of the subject
from another point of view. Disease and death had been produced
by the introduction of microscopical animal organism; and it was
of vast importance if this filter could separate such matter, render-
ing the water wholesome.

Mr. Dahlke (replying to the President, Mr. A. K. Smith, and
others) said, that to render the filter available for household pur-
poses, he proposed to attach it to the supply-pipe divided into two
compartments, the first for arresting all the grosser impurities, while
the second would form the real filter. The filtering material would
ultimately wear out; but he had made apparatus for the General
Post Office, London, at a cost of five guineas, which lasted five
years. Mr. Dahlke further stated that a tank to filter 10,000
gallons per day could be erected on stations, say at a cost of £50
for filtering material ; brickwork and his own travelling expenses of
course to be added.

Mr. Newbery made several experiments with a small filter, using
salt, and subsequently Sulphide of Ammonium. The filter in use
was but just completed, and Mr. Dahlke stated that at least four
and twenty hours should elapse from its being finished before being
subject to any test. The mixture of salt and water left a slight
brackish taste, and the Sulphide of Ammonia came out perfectly
clean and free from smell.

The President briefly called the attention of the members to the
importance of the subject.

Nominations for office-bearers for 1868, and to fill vacancies in
Council, were then made.

330 Address to the Duke of Edinburgh.

Copy of the Address presented to H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh
(together wth part 1, Vol. VIII. of the Transactions ), by the
Officers signing the Address.

“To His Royal ee Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh,
WC.

“May it vo your Royal Highness,—

“The Royal Society of Victoria humbly begs to offer its most
respectful and dutiful assurances of the gratification afforded it by
the presence of your Royal Highness in this colony.

“The Royal Society, honoured by the special approbation of Her
Most Gracious Majesty, seeks, in the paths of science, literature, and
art, to foster those studies of which your lamented Royal father
was so energetic a supporter and beneficent a patron.

“The profession adopted by your Royal Highness is so intimately
interwoven with a particular and important branch of study, as to
give earnest hope that beneath your fostering hand, science may
rapidly expand, and the knowledge and enterprise possessed by
Great Britain be disseminated throughout the world.

“The Royal Society refers with great satisfaction to the circum-
stance of its labours having been largely characterised by an attention
to those branches of science which have lately had a principal place
in the studies of naval officers, and it is proud to regard thisas a
prominent reason for requesting the especial consideration of your
Royal Highness.

“Recognising the presence of your Royal Highness in this young
colony as a further proof of the sympathy Her Most Gracious
Majesty evinces towards her loyal subjects in this portion of her
dominions, the Royal Society of Victoria humbly trusts that the
visit of your Royal Highness to Australia may be a means of draw-
ing still closer those bonds which unite us to the old country, and
that the union it is so desirable to promote among the cultivators of
science, literature, and art in different parts of the world, may be
thereby strenethened and permanently established.

“On behalf the Royal Society of Victoria,

(Signed) Rost. L. J. Exuery, F.R.A.S., President.
THos. H. Rawxines, Hon. Secretary. |
R. Wittan, Hon. Treasurer.
J. E, Nemp, M.D., Hon. Librarian.

CATALOGUE OF THE BOOKS.

Atlas de l Archeologie du Nord.

Actinien Echinodermen und Wiirmer. A. E. Grube.

Astronomical Observatory. Half-yearly Report.

American Lakes, Topographical Report on the. J. D. Graham.

Atherosperma Moschatum, chemische untersuchung der Rinde. N.
J. Zeyer.

Acclimatisation of Harmless, Useful, Interesting, and Ornamental
Animals and Plants. G. D. Francis.

Acclimatisation of Animals, On the. F. Buckland. (4 copies.)

Acclimatisation Society of Victoria, Second Annual Report of.

(1865.) |

Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Madras, Report of.
(1860.)

Additamenta ad Georgii Augusti Pritzelii Thesaurum. E. A.
Zuchold.

American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Proceedings of the.
Vols. 1 to 6.

Antiquarisk Tidsskrift (Copenhagen), 1854 to 1860. (5 Nos.)

Atlantis, or Register of Literature and Science. No. 5.

Anthropological Review. P. 2, 3, 5.

Australian Medical Journal. P. 2 to 12.

Academy of Science of St. Louis, Transactions of. 1857 to 1860.
(4 parts.)

Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia, Proceedings of.
1856-7. (Incomplete.)

Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wein, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiser-
lichen, 1866. (9 Nos.)

Abhandlungen Aus dem Gebiete der Naturwissenschaften,
Hamburg, 1860-2.

Australian Magazine. Nos. 1, 2.

Aanteekeningen van het verhandelde in die Sectie verganderingen :
Te Utrecht. 1857 to 1860. (6 Nos.)

Australian Essays. James Norton.

Alms-houses of New York, Reports of. (6th, 7th, 9th).

Astronomical Observations made at Sydney Observatory, 1859-60.
2 Vols. W. Scott.

Aborigines of Victoria, Report on the. 1858-9.

Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Miinchen, Sitzungsberichte der
Konigl. Bayer. 1860 to 64. (51 Nos.)

Anatomie von Argas Persicus. C, Heller.

Z 2

332 Catalogue of the Books.

Anschaffung Naturwissenschaftlicher Apparate und Sammlungen
fiir die Volkschule. M. Schlichting.

Antiquaires du Nord, Memoires de la Société des. 1855 to 1857.
1 Vol. incomplete.)

Do. 1845 to 1849. 1850 to 1860.

Australia, General Map of the Board of Land and Works of.
2 copies.

Australasiatic Reminiscences. D. Bunce.

Almanach der Koniglich. Bayerischen.

Akademie der Wissenschaften. 1855 and 1859.

Annaler for Nordsk. Oldkyndighed. 1858,1859, 2 Vols.

Algarum, Species, Genera et Ordines. 1848, 1851 (2), 1852,
1863. J. G. Agardh.

American Academy, Memoirs of the. Vols. 5 (2), 7, 8.
Abhandlungen der M. P. Classe der Koniglich. Bayer. Akad der
Wissenschaften. 1833 to 1860. 17 parts (incomplete.)

Araignees, Sur |’Evolution des. E. Claparéde.

Abhandlungen der Schlesischen, Gesellschaft fur Vaterlandische
Cultur. 1861 to 1863. 12 Nos. (incomplete).

Astronomical Observations made at Melbourne Observatory,
Results of. KR. L. J. Ellery.

Botanische Mittheilungen. Dr. Géppert.

Bedeutung Moderner Gradmessungen die. C. M. Bauernfeind.

Beskrivelse over Lophogaster Typicus. M. Sars. (2 copies.)

Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Anatomy, Massachusetts.

Barometer Manual. WRear-Admiral Fitzroy.

Bemerkungen tiber die Phyllopoden. A. E. Grube. ;

British North America, An Address on the Present Condition, |
Resources, and Prospects of. The Hon. Mr. Justice Haliburton.

Botridium Granulatum, On the Structureand Development of. G.
Lawson. (2 copies.)

Boston Museum of Comparative Zoology, *Annual Report of the
Trustees of.

Bibliotheca Photographica.

Botanical Report on the North Australian Expedition. F. Mueller.

Botanical Society of Canada, Annals of the. Vol. 1. P. 1.
(2 copies.)

Botanical Society of Edinburgh, "Transactions of, 1860 to 1866.
(Year incomplete.)

Boston Journal of Natural History, 1861 to 1863. (3 Nos.)

Bulletin de la Societé Imperiale de Moscou, 1865 and 1860.
(4 Nos.)

Birds of Australia, Introduction to. By J. Gould.

Boston Society of Natural History, Constitution and Bye-Taws of
the.

Boston Society of Natural History, Proceedings of, 1854 to 1862.
(Incomplete. )

Catalogue of the Books. : 333

Beobachtungen tiber niedere Seethiere. -C. Mettenheimer.
Botanischen Produkte der Londoner-internationalen Industrie-
_Ausstellung. ¥. Buchenau. ;

Biographische Skizzen verstorbener Bremischer Aerzte und Natur-
forscher.

Brackwasse-Studien au der Elbemiindung. J. R. Lorenz.

Chatham Islands, Vegetation of the. F. Mueller.

Contributions to Conservative Surgery. J. G. Beaney.

Contributions to Practical Surgery. J. G. Beaney.

Commerce and Navigation, Report of the Secretary of the Treasury
upon, 1851-1854. 2 Vols.

Claims Between the United States and Great Britain, Report of the
Commission of, 1856.

Central American Affairs and the Enlistment Question. 1856.

Cellula Vegetabili Fibrilis de. J. G. Agardh.

Coal in Tasmania. Brown and Larnack.

Coal-fields in Tasmania. C. Gould.

Cirklers Beréring. C. M. Guldberg.

Central Railway Terminus for Melbourne. ‘‘ Logic.”

Clinical Reports. D. B. Reid.

Constitutional Representation in Victoria. ‘‘ Amor Patrie.”

Comparative Petrology, Essay on. M. J. Darcher.

Carl Christian Rafn, Notice on the Life and Writings of.
L. E. Bowing. )

Catalogues of Scientific and other works. (12 pamphlets )

Cinchonaceous Glands in Galliacie. G. Lawson.

Chemistry in its Application to’ Agriculture, Letters upon.
J. Macadam.

Chiasmodon, On the Genus. A. Carte.

Contributiones ad Acaciarum Australiz cognitionem. F. Mueller.

Cotton-fibre, Microscopical Structure of. (6 copies.) G. Lawson.

Californian Academy, Proceedings of the. Vol. 2.

Charter, Bye-Laws, etc , of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Copepoden, zur Anatomie und Entwickelungsgeschichte. C. Claus,

Chemie, Handbuch.der Theoretischen. Abth. 4. L. Gmelin.

Catalogue de |’Exposition des Produits de la Colonie de Victoria,
1861. (2 copies.)

Colonie Victoria in Australia. (3 copies.)

Calendar of the Melbourne University, 1863-4, 1865-6.

Catalogue of the Victorian Exhibition of 1861. (2 copies.)

Collisions at Sea and Shipwrecks. C. J. C. Perry.

Cambridge Philosophical Society, Transactions of the. 1851 (2),
1853, 1856, 1858.

Coast Survey (U S.), Report of the Superintendent of the. 1857.

Catalogue of the Casts, Busts, etc.,in the Museum of Art at the

Public Library.

Catalogue of the Manchester Free Library.

334 Catalogue of the Books.

Catalogue of the Melbourne Public Library.

Catalogue, Supplemental.

Denkrede auf Johann Nepomuk von Fuchs.

Denkrede auf T. Siber und G. 8. Ohm.

Denkrede anf J. A. Wagner. (2).

Denkrede auf G. H. von Schubert.

Dyeing Properties of Lichens. W. L. Lindsay.

Double-Jointed Pessary, On a. D. E. Wilkie. (4 copies).

Dissertatio Anatomico-Physiologica Inauguralis. F. A. G. Miguel.

Dannenirke og Omegn. C.C Lorenzen.

Diabetes Mellitus, On the Phenomena of. 8S. Haughton.

Dennisona Barklya et Laboucheria. F. Mueller.

Dovres Flora, Supplementer til. F. Hoch.

Deutsche Monatschrift fiir Australien. Heft 1.

Denkschriften der K. Bayer. Botanischen Gessellschaft zu Reyens-
burg. 1859.

Deutsche Naturforscher und Aerztein Bremen. Smidt und Focke.
Abth. 2. 7

Darwin’s Lehre und die Specification. EH. Hallier.

Dudley Observatory, Reply to the Statement of the Trustees of the.
B. A. Gould.

Denkschrift zur feier ihres 50 Jahrigen odialiente 2 copies.

Davidson’s Precedents and Forms. Vol. 2. p. 1.

Erdbeben das, in der Provinz Preussisch Schlesien.

Erinerung an Mitglieder, der M. P. Classe. C. F. P. von Martius.

Exploration Expedition to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Commander
Norman.

Entwicklung die, der ideen in der Naturwissenschaft. J. von Liebig. ©

Entstehung und Begriff der Naturhistorischen Art. C. Nagell.

Entomologisk Reise. H. Siebke.

Erlaiiterung der Steinkohlen Formation. H. R. Goeppert.

Entwickelungsgeschichte der Ampullaria Polita Deshayes.
C. Semper.

Flora Braziliensis. 3 parts.

Francis Bacon von Verulam. J. F. von Liebig.

Familien die, der Anneliden. A. E. Grube.

Family Immigration for Victoria. J. Jamieson. (2.)

Fragmenta Phytographiz Australiz. P, 1 to 38.

’ Fossile Fauna der Silurischen Diluvial Geschiebe von Sadewitz i
Oels. EF. Roemer.

Fossile Mollusken. M. Hornes. (2 parts.)

Flora Australiensis. Bentham and Mueller. Vols. 1, 2, 3.

Fiji and the Fijians. T. Williams. 2 Vols.

Fine Arts Courts in the Crystal Palace. 2 Vols. :

Finances of the U. S., Report on the State of. 1854 to 1857.
3 Vols.

Flora Bremensis.

Catalogue of the Books. 335

Freie Hansestadt Bremen und ihr Gebiet. F. Buchenau.

Feinere Bau und das Wachsthum des Hafhorns der. J. Ravitsch.

Geological Survey of India, Memoirs of. 2 parts.

Gedachtniszrede. I. Tiedmann.

Grenzen und Grenzgibiete. G. Harlesz.

Geological Reports on the Wairapu Coast. J. C. Crawford.

Geological Exploration of the West Coast of New Zealand. J.
Haast.

Geological Formaticn in Timaru District. J. Haast.

Geological Survey of India, Annual Report of. 1858-9, 1859-60,
1862-3, 1863-4.

Geological Society of Ireland, Journal of the. 1864-5, 1865-6. 4
Nos. (2 copies.)

Geological Society of London, Quarterly Journal of the. 1856 to
1867, with Addresses. 26 parts.

Geological Society of Dublin. 1844 to 1863. (Imperfect.)

Geology for Beginners. G. F, Richardson.

Geologiske Underségelser. T.H. M. Irgens.

Geometrische Reprasentation tiber die. C. A. Bjerknes.

Grundziige der Schlesischen Klimatologie. J. G. Galle.

Gunpowder Patent. P. Nisser.

Geognostische, Skizze des “trossherzogthums. fF. Becker.

Geognostische Uebersichtskarte von dem A ee pee Hessen.
F’. Becker.

Gould, Dr., Defence of. (Albany, U.S.)

Granitic Rocks of Donegal, On the. R. H. Scott.

Granitic Rocks, South-West of Donegal. R. H. Scott.

Granites of Donegal, On the Chemical and Mineralogical Con-
stitution of the. R. H. Scott.

Gems and Precious Stones in Victoria. J.J. Bleasdale.

Gold Ores, Notes on the Reduction of. = A. Thomson.

Geologiske og Zoologiske Jag Hagelser. . Sars.

Geographical Society (Royal), eas of the. L861 to 1867.
(30 Nos. incomplete.) .

Germanische Todtenlager bei Selzen. 1848.

Glasgow Philosophical Society, Proceedings of. 1841 to 1865.
(21 Nos.)

Ganmenfalten und Nebenzungen der Chiroptern. F. Kolenati.

Geschlechte der Pflanzen, die Lehre vom. L. C. Treviranus,

Glauben als die Hochste Vernunft. R. Grau.

‘Glossaria Linguarum Brasiliensium.

Geological Survey of India, Memoirs of the. 5 parts, incomplete.

Hugh Miller, Notice of Some Remarks by the late.

Houille, Sur la Structure de la. Dr. Goeppert.

Hobart Town Directory.

Harbours of Lake Michigan, &c., Improvement of the. J. D.
Graham.

336 Catalogue of the Books.

Horticultural (Royal) Society’s Proceedings. 1865 to 1867. 8 Nos.,
incomplete. .

He Maramtaka ara he Pukapuka. 1849.

Hoheren Gewerbschule in Cassel, Programm der. J. Hehl. 1845-6,
1846-7, 1848-9, 1854.

Hauptschule zu Bremen, Programm der.

Icones Algarum Inedite. C. A. Agardh.

Increase, the Law of. F. P. Liharzik.

Isthmus of Suez Canal Question. D. A. Lange.

Induction und Deduction. J. von Liebig.

Inscription Runique du Pirée, Publié par la Société des Antiquaires
du Nord.

India, Album of Photographic Views in.

Jean Baptiste Biot. C. F. P. von Martius.

Jahresbericht (Erster) des Vereins fiir Erdkunde in Dresden.

Jahresbericht des Pollichia (Neustadt.) 1855-6.

Jahresbericht der Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereines zu Bremen.

Jahresbcricht (Erster) des Vereins fiir Erdkunde zu Dresden.

Jahresbericht (Zweiter) ut Supra.

Jahrbuch der Kaiserlich, Koniglichen Geologischen Reichsanstalt.
1865-6.

Jahresbericht der Pollichia der Rheinfalz. 1859, 1861, 1863.

Jahresbericht der Pollichia eines Naturwissenschaftenlichen Vereins
der Bayerischen Pfalz. 1843.

Japan, Naval Expedition to, Report of the Secretary of the U. S.
Navy on 1854. |

Jahresbericht tiber die Real, die Provinzial, Gewerbe und die Hand- |
werker Fortbildungs Schule zu Miinster. :

Jahresbericht der Schlesischen Gesellschaft fiir Vaterlandische Kultur,
1855 (2), 1856 (2), 1857 (2), 1858, 1859, 1860.

Jahrbuch der Kaiserlich Koniglichen Geologischen, Reichsanstalt.
1856 to 1864. 29 Nos., incomplete.

Klima von Miinchen. C. Kulm.

Komet Bauernes Indbyrdes Beliggenhed. H. Mohn.

Kreideflora iiber die fossile. H. R. Goeppert.

Konig Maximilian II. und die Wissenschaft. J. von Dossinger.

Kongelige Norske, Fredericks Universitets. 1861.

Kongelige Fredericks Universitets Halvhundredaars fest. Sep., 1861.

Kartoffeln die Krankheit der. 1845. G. W. Focke. —

La Influencia del Cultivo del Arroz in la Salud Publica, J. B.
Ullersperger.

Lychonophora Martius. C. H. §. Ripontinus. (2 copies.)

Lunar Tidal Wave in the North American Lakes. J. D. Graham.

Languages, Study of. H. Lafargue.

Liverpool Institute, Proceedings and Reports of. 8 pamphlets.

Literature, On the Profession of. G. Craig.

Lepas Anatifera, Remarks on. G. Lawson. (2 copies.)

Catalogue of the Books. 337

Ludwig Leichardt. HE. A. Zuchold.

Leitfaden zur Nordischen Alterthumskunde. (2 copies.)

Linnzan Society, Journal of the Proceedings of the, 1856 to 1867.
(46 Nos., incomplete.)

Linnean Society of London, Proceedings of the, 1848 to 1855.

Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Proceedings of
the. Vols. 2, 3, 4.

Lebenden Natur, Welche Auffassung der. K. E. v. Baer.

Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Memoirs of the.
Wools: and 2.

Meteorological Observations in, Hobart Town, Results of 25 Years’
Observations. (2 copies).

Meteorological Observations in Hobart Town, Results of 20 Years’
Observations. (2 copies).

Metamorphose die, des Caryoborus. A. E. Grube.

Magnetic Observations, Results of. G. Neumayer.

Meteorological Reports, Second. 5B. Smyth.

Meteorological Observations Taken at Adelaide.

Measurements for Distinguishing the Human Races. K. Scherzer.

Meteorological Observations in Mauritius. 1864-5.

Meteorological Observations in South Australia. C. Todd.

Meteorologische Beobachtungen auf Christiana’s Observatorium.

Meteorit von Brannan. C. H. Beinert.

Meteorites on the Earth, Considerations on the Phenomena attend-
ing the fall of. D. Haidinger.

Meteorological Observations in Victoria, Instructions for the
Guidance of. :

Meteorological Observations, A Uniform System of. R. Lachlan.

Magnetic Orbit, Observations on the. H.M. Grover.

Mineralogy and Geology, Notes on, §S. Haughton. (17 pamphlets.)

Mammalian Fossils in Ireland, Catalogue of. KR. H. Scott.

Musci and Desmidiz, Report on. G. Lawson.

Mining Companies, Notes on the Management of. H. A. Thomson.

Madras Journal of Literature and Science. P. 1 to 12. (p.9
wanting).

Month, The. No.1. (2 copies.)

Mining Surveyor’s Reports. Nos. 1 to 18, (wanting 7, 14, 15,
and 17).

Meteorological Society of Mauritius, Proceedings of. 1861-2-4.

Mosses, Australian. F. Mueller.

Message from the President of the United States,

Mikropische Probeobjecte, iiber. J. J. Pohl.

Meteorologische Waarnemingen in Nederland. 1854 to 1860. 8
parts.

Mineralogie Die. FF. v. Kobel.

Marche Annuelle du Thermométre et du Barométre in Neerlande,
Sur la. C. H. Buys Ballot.

338 Catalogue of the Books.

Magnetic, Nautical, and Meteorological Observations at the Flag-
staff Observatory, Melbourne, Results of. G. Neumayer.

Meteorological Observations taken at Hobart Town. F. Abbot.

Maandelijksche .Zeilaanwijzingen van het Kanaal naar Java. 1859
to 1860.
Meteorological Observations taken at the Stations of the Royal
‘Engineers, Abstracts from. 1853 to 1859. H. James, R.E.
Monatsbericht der Koniglichen Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften
zu Berlin. 1856 to 1865. 56 parts, incomplete.

Mittheilungen der Kaiserlich-Koniglichen, Geographischen Gesell-
schaft. 1862.

Menschen und des Hiihunchens, die Entwickelung des. M. P. Erde.

Northern Triangulation. G. W. Goyder.

Norske Veegtlodder. C. A. Holmboe.

Not Like Man. J.B. Halford.

North-Western Expedition of 1864, Report on the.

North Australia, J. HE. T. Woods.

Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften und der Georg-
Augusts-Universitat.

Northern Society of Antiquaries of Copenhagen, Miscellaneous
Papers of. 1848 to 1863. (Incomplete.)

Notziblatt des Vereins fiir Erdkunde. 1864-5.

Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereine zu Bremen.

Naturgeschichte der Insecten. EH. Heeger.

Natur und Geist. L. Biichner.

Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Emden. M. A. F. Prestel.

Nachrichten von der K. Gessellschaft der Wissenschaften, dc.
1865.

Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Danzig, Schriften der.

Naval Architects, Transactions of the Institution of. Vols. 1, 2,
3, 4, 5.

Oratio de Regno Vegetabili, F. A. G. Miguel. (2 copies.)

Observatory and Telegraphs, (S. A.) C. Todd.

Ode in Honour of the Visit of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales to
Canada. John May. (2 copies.)

Offentlichen Priifung der Schuler des Kurfiirstlichen Gymnasiums
zu Marburg. 1857, 1860.

Ohio Agricultural Report. 1356.

Oversigt over det Kongelige Danske Videnskubernes - Selskubs, _
1860, 1862, 1863.

Plants Collected on the Estuary of the Burdekin. F. Mueller.

Political Economy, Lectures on the Common Truths of. J. T.
Danson.

Petrel, On an Undescribed Species of. A. Carte.

Pharmaceutical Society of Victoria, Transactions of the, Nos.
3 and 5.

Presbyterianism in the Australian Colonies. (Pamphilets.)

Catalogue af the Books. 339

Porrasitischer Crustaceen, ueber den Bau und die Entwickelung. C.
Claus.

Proeschel’s Map of Victoria.

TIEPI THS KATASKEYES. 2 copies.

Patent Office Reports. 1855, 3 Vols.; 1857, 4 Vols. ; 1858, 4
Vols. ; 1859, 4 Vols.

Philosophical Society of New South Wales. 1862 t0 1865. 1 Vol.

Plains and Rivers of Canterbury (N. Z.), Report upon. W. J.
Doyne. |

Plants Re ions to the Colony of Victoria. 2 Vols. F. Mueller.

Royal Society of London, Proceedings of 1860, to 1866. 27 parts
(incomplete). Vols. 6, 7,8, 9, 10.

Royal Society of Tasmania, Various Papers and Proceedings.
6 pamphlets.

Royal Society® of Tasmania, Various Papers and Proceedings,
1859-64,

Royal Kalendar (Tasmania), 1859-60.

Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius, 1861 to 1865.
4. Nos. (incomplete).

Railway and Harbour Accommodation in Victoria. T. Oldham and
T. E. Rawlinson. (3 copies.)

Rainfall and Evaporation in St. Helena. J. Haughton. (3 copies.)

Rainfall and Evaporation in Dublin. J. Haughton.

Royal Dublin Society, Journal of, 1860 to 1866 Cacomple),
8 Nos.

Realschule zu Cassel, Programm der 1853, 1857.

Reizen over Moskovie door Persie en Indie. C. De Bruin.

Rakaia River, Report of the Head-waters of. J. Haast.

Recensio Specierum Genesis Pleridis. J. G. Agardh.

Richtung und Starke des Erdmagnetismus, Untersuchungen iiber
die. J. Lamont.

Strictures on the Yan Yean Waterworks. J. Millar.

Siphonodentalium Vitreum om. M. Sars.

Stuart’s and McKinlay’s Explorations. (6 copies.)

Statuten der Pollichia. Neustadt.

Sarcine la, de Estomac. W. F. R. Suringar.

Satzungen des Vereines fiir Erdkunde in Dresden.

Statistical and Social Enquiry Society of Ireland. P. 33.

Scottish Society of Arts, Transactions of, 1859 to 1864 (incom-
complete). 7 parts.

Standard, Free Presbyterian Magazine. No. 16.

Sydney Magazine, 1857.

Société des Sciences Naturelles. Tome 16.

Settled Districts of Melbourne, 1853.

Southern Gold-fields, Researchesin. W. B. Clarke.

Smithsonian Institution, Annual Report of the, 1856-7-9-61-2.
(6 vols.)

340 Catalogue of the Books.

Staat’s Calender der Freien Hansestadt Bremen, 1842, 1856.

Systema Vegetabilium. CC. H. Persoon.

Seelenstérungen in ihrem Wesen und ihrer Behandlung. E. Ricker.

Schleswig’sche Wattenmeer und die Friesischen Inseln.
C. P. Haufen.

Secundire Mineralbildungeniiber. G. Tschermak.

Standard, The, Free Presbyterian Magazine of Victoria, 1861.

Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Vols. 1, 2, 3, 5.

Statistiek van den Handel en de Scheepvaart op Java en Madura,
Deel 1, 2,

Suez Ship-Canal, Inquiry on the. F. de Lesseps.

Statistical Register of South Australia. 1861.

Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. Vols. 11, 12.

Statistical Notes of the Progress of Victoria, 1835 to 1860.

Statistical Society, Journal of the, 1857 to 1866. 47 Nos.
(incomplete).

Schriften der Koniglichen, Physikalisch, Okonomischen Gesellschaft
zu Konigsberg, 1860 to 1864. 10 parts (incomplete).

Telegraph, European and Australian. C. Todd.

Topographical and Geological Exploration, Report of. J. Haast.

Tafeln zur Bestimmung dei Mineralien. F. v. Kobell.

Thitigkeit der Allgemeinen Naturwissenschaftenlichen Sekiton
Gesellschaft. Goepert und Romer.

Taxidermi fur Universitet og dets Samlinger.

Thitigkeit des Vereins fur Naturkunde in Cassel, 1837 to 1847
(in duplicate), 22 pamphlets. R M. Phillipi.

Theoria Systematis Plantarum. J. G. Agardh.

Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-land-en Volkunde, 1857 to 1862.

. 223) Nos,

Tijdschrift voor Nijverheid in Nederlandsch Indie. 1854 to 1860.
29 Nos.

Tijdschrift voor Nijverheid en Landbousy in Nederlandsch Indie,
1864 to 1865. 14 Nos.

Travels in Great Britain. Dosabhoy Framjee.

Urbau und Ertrag des Bodens. F. B. W. v. Hermann.

University Reform (Kingston, 1861). 2 copies.

Urzeit die, der Erde. IF. v. Kobell.

Uitkomsten van Wetenschap en Ervaring, 1858, 1859.

Upsaliensis, Nova Acta Regie Societatis Scientiarum. Vols. 1, 2,
3, 4 (2), 3.

Victoria oe and Literary Institute. J. Millar.

Vocabulary of Tasmanian Aboriginals. J. Milligan.

Vortrige tiber die Florenreiche. C. F. P. v. Martius. (2 copies.)

Verslag van het Verhandelde, 1857 to 1861. (6 Nos.) —

Vegetable Products of Norway, Synopsis of. F. C. Schabeler.

Verslag van P. Hasting, F, A. W. Miguel, en J. van der Hoeven,
over heen in ee ‘handen gesteld.

Mr. Harrison’s Report, 34]

Verzeichniss der Schlesischen Gesellschaft Breslau. 1861.
Veiledning til Dyrkning af glaciale alpinske og arctiske Planter.
N. Moe.
Vogel Neuhollands, Die neiientdeckten. HH. G. L. Reichenbach:
Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap. 1860 (2), 1862.
Verhandlungen der Kaiser. lLepold. Carolin. Deutschen Akad.
der Naturforscher. 1864.

Vergaderingen van het Bataviaasch. - Genootschap van Kunsten
en Wetenschappen. 1857. 3 Nos.

Vital Statistics, Contributions to. F. G. P. Neison.

Witterung im Nordlichen Deutchland, 1859-60.

Woodcuts, drawn and engraved by Greenlanders.

Waimakariri River, Second Report upon. W. T. Doyne.

Water Supply to Liverpool, Proposed. KR. Rawlinson.

Water, Collection and Storage of, in Victoria, Essay on.
F. Acheson.

Water Supply of Hobart Town. J. N. Gale.

Wind, on the Direction and Force of, at Leopold Harbour.
S. Haughton.

Warme Entwickelung in den Pflanzen, tiber die. H. R. Goeppert.

Wind and Current Charts. M. F. Maury.

Yarra Flood Commission Analysed. R. Adams. (38 copies.)

Zeitschrift fur die Gesammten Naturwissenschaften. Berlin. 1858.
(9 Nos.)

Melbourne, October 16th, 1867.
The Hon. Secretary of the Royal Society of Victorra.

Srr,—lI beg herewith to hand you a report of the Museum of the
Royal Society.

The various objects illustrative of art, science, &c., at present
possessed by the Society, are exhibited in four large show cases,
kindly lent to the Society by the Trustees of the National
Museum, and are as follows :—

Native Weapons, uc... Ne .... 20 specimens.
Products of Grass Tree—

Presented by C. W. Ligar, Esq. ©... . 12 44
Victorian Sponges—

Presented by W. H. Archer, Esq. ... 12 rf
Conchological Collection—

Marine Shells ee aki 4 BOOO 3

Land and Fresh-water do. ... ey O00

Victorian and Australian do.—

Presented by late Dr, L. Becker 500

342 Mr. Harrison’s Report.

Entomological Collection—
Presented by late Dr. L. Becker ... 200 specimens.
Collection of Sea-weeds, named by Pro-
fessor Harvey—

Presented by T. E. Rawlinson wen) LAO =
Collection of Botanical Specimens, named—
Presented by Dr. F. Mueller ia) 1200 oS

Geological Collection—
Minerals, &c., illustrative of Victorian

and Australian Rocks, &. ... 100 .
Fossils, &¢.—
Victorian—
Stata Gee ae wee st OO) a

Tertiary ... side waa 100 5

New South Wales—
Carboniferous — Presented
by R. L. J. Ellery reiage G00) i

Tasmanian—
Carboniferous ... see OU ”
Tertiary ... 40 ae o 99
Kuropean—
Green Sand i sue 9
Gault ne ta res OW) 3
Glial | fe las eaten
Tertiary ... Ae OO Te

It will be apparent from the above list that the Museum must at
present be considered solely as the nucleus of a more important —
collection to be formed in the future. I have, however, much pleasure
in reporting that promises of assistance and donations of natural
curiosities, fossils, &c., have, during the past year, been repeatedly
received from scientific gentlemen residing in the various colonies of
South Australia, New South Wales, and Tasmania.

I have the honour to be, Sir,
: Yours obediently,
Tuomas Harrison, Hon. Curator.

MEMBERS

OF

Che Royal Society of Victorw.

Those whose names have * or + prefixed, are Life or Honorary Members
respectively.

Aplin, C. D’O. H., Esq., Geological Survey Office.
Allan, Alex. C., Esq., The Observatory.
Amess, Samuel, Esq., William-street, Melbourne.

Barker, Edw., Esq., M.D., Latrobe-street East, Melbourne.
Barnes, Benjamin, Esq., Little Collins-street Hast, Melbourne.
Beaney, J. G., Esq., F.R.C.S.Ed., Collins-street, Melbourne.
Bear, J. P., Hon., M.L.C., Victoria-parade, Melbourne.
Bland, R. H., Hisq., Flinders-lane, Melbourne.

Blackburne, J., Esq., Elizabeth-street, Melbourne.

Bonwick, James, Esq., F.G.S., St. Kilda.

Boden, Von, F. A. L., Esq., Dartmoor.

*Barkly, Sir Henry, K.C.B., His Excellency, Mauritius.
*Barry, Sir Redmond, Chancellor of the University.
*Blandowski, William, Esq.

*Bleasdale, Rev. J. J., D.D., F.L.S., St. Patrick’s College, Melbourne.
*Bosisto, Joseph, Esq., Richmond.

*Butters, J. S., Esq., Collins-street, Melbourne.

Christy, F. C., Esq., Railway Department.

Carfrae, John, Esq., Victoria-parade, Melbourne.

Crouch, Thos. J. , Hsq., St. Kilda.

Clarke, William, Esq., Elizabeth-street, Mieiverrne.
Corrigan, James, Ksq:, LL.D., St. Kilda.

Crooke, William, Esq., M.R. C, S., Brunswick-street, Fitzroy.
+Clarke, Colonel R. E., The Hon., onda:

- Dixon, S. C., Esq., Commercial-road, Prahran.
Dwight, H. J., Esq., Bourke-street East, Melbourne.
Delisser, Capt. E.

344 Inst of Members.

Danson, Richard, Esq., Cole’s Wharf, Melbourne.
“Denison, Sir William, K.C.B., His Excellency, Madras.
“Detmold, William, Esq., Collins-street, Melbourne.
*Dobree, Arthur, Esq.

“Darling, Sir C. H., K.C.B.

Ellery, R. L. J., Esq., F.R.A.S., The Observatory.
*Eaton, H. F., Esq., The Treasury.
“Elliott, Sizar, Esq., Brighton.
“Elliott, T., Esq., Brighton.

Ferres, John, Esq., Government Printing Office.

Fitzgibbon, E. G., Esq., Town Hall, Melbourne.

Fitzpatrick, Rev. J., D.D., St. Patrick’s College, Melbourne.

Fenwick, Orlando, Esq., King-street, Melbourne.
*Flanagan, J., Esq., Collins-street, Melbourne.

Goold, Right Rev. Bishop, Melbourne.

Grosse, F., Esq., 62 Collins-street, Melbourne.

Groves, G. W., Esq., Crown Lands Office, Melbourne.

Guerard, Eugene Von, Esq., Gipps-street, Melbourne.
*Gillbee, William, Esq., M.R.C.S.E., Collins-street, Melbourne.
“Goeppert, H. R., M.D., Ph. D., &., Breslau.

Higinbotham, Thomas, Hisq., C.E., Railway Department.
Higinbotham, Hon. George, M.P., Attorney-General.
Harrison, Thomas, Esq., Registrar-General’s Office.
Howitt, Godfrey, Esq., M.D., Collins-street, Melbourne.
Halford, G. B., Esq., M.D., Professor, The University, Melbourne.
Haddon, F. W., Esq., Zhe Argus Office, Melbourne.
THaast, Julius, Esq., Ph. D., F.G.S., Canterbury, New Zealand.
tHaidinger, Von, Professor, K.M.T:, Vienna.
*Holmes, George, Esq., New Zealand.

*Tffla, Solomon, Esq., J.P., L.F.P.S.G., Emerald Hill.
Ivey, Geo. Pearce, Esq.

Johnson, William, Esq., St. Kilda.
Jarrett, Rev. William.

*Kay, Capt., R.N., Government House.

Ligar, Chas. W., Esq., Surveyor-General of Victoria.
Lewis, George, Esq., Collins-street, Melbourne. |
Levi, Nathaniel, Esq., M.L.A., Collins-street, Melbourne.
Levey, G. C., Esq., M.L.A., Herald Office, Melbourne.
Lang, G.S., Esq., J.P., Collins-street, Melbourne.

Linacre, Abraham, Esq., Lygon-street, Melbourne.

Inst of Members. 345

Manton, C. A., Esq., The Treasury, Melbourne.

Marshall, James, Esq., M.A., Queensberry-street, Melbourne.

Marsh, S. H., Esq., Collins-street, Melbourne.

Moubray, Thomas, Esq., Fitzroy-street, St. Kilda.

M‘Coy, F., Professor, F.GS., H.M.C.P.S., Government Palzeonto-
logist and Director of Museums.

McGowan, 8. W., Esq., Sup. Electric Telegraph Department.

MacGillivray, P. H., Esq., M.A., M.R.C.S., Hospital, Sandhurst.

McPherson, Thomas, Esq., Bourke-street West, Melbourne.

tMartius, Dr. Von, Munich.

*Mueller, Ferdinand, Esq., M.D., Ph. D., F.R.S., Knt., &c.,

Government Botanist.

Napier, Thomas, Esq., J.P., Essendon.

Napier, James, Esq., Commercial Bank of Melbourne.

Neild, J. E., Esq., M.D., 166 Collins-street East, Melbourne.
Newberry, J. Cosmo, Esq., Geological Analyst.

Nicholas, William, Esq. ., Mines Office.

*Nicholson, Germain, Esq., J.P., Collins-street East, Melbourne!
+Neumayer, Professor, George, he., Bavaria.

O’Shanassy, Hon. John, Colonial Bank, Melbourne.
Officer, S. H., Hsq., Swan Hill, Murray.
*Osborne, James, Esq., junr., Merton Lodge, Elsternwick.

Perry, Right Rev. Bishop, Melbourne.

Pegus, William, Esq., Barkly-street, St. Kilda.

Praagst, G. W., Esq., Latrobe-street, Melbourne.
*Palmer, Sir James, President of the Legislative Council.

Rawlings, Thomas H., Esq., J.P., Epping.

Rusden, H. K., Esq., Tivoli-place, South Yarra.
*Rawlinson, Thomas E., Esq., C.E., Belfast.

*Reed, Thomas, Esq., Collins-street, Kast, Melbourne.
*Read, Joseph, Esq.

Sutton, His Excellency, Sir John Henry T. Manners, K.C.B.,
Governor of Victoria, Patron.

Stawell, Sir William, Chief Justice of Victoria.

Sprent, J. 8., Esq., Custom House, Melbourne.

*Smith, A. K., Esq., Leicester-street, Carlton.

tScott, Rev. W., M.A., F.C.P.S., Sydney.

tSmith, John; Esq., M.D., University, Sydney.

tSchultz, Dr. Von, Bavaria.

Thompson, H. A., Esq., Temple-court, Melbourne.
tTodd, Charles, d&c., Adelaide.
ek

346 List of Members.
Ulrich, George, Esq.

Waugh, Rev. J. 8., St. Kilda.
Walsh, Frederick, Esq., Collins-street, Melbourne.
- Willan, Robert, Esq., Queen-street, Melbourne.
Winter, J. I., Esq.
Wild, Edward, Esq., Collingwood.
Woods, Rev. Julian E. T., F.LS., F.G.S., Adelaide, South
Australia. »
Wilkins, A. G., Esq., St. Kilda.
Walker, William, Esq., St. Kilda.
Wilkinson, Charles, Esq., Geological Survey.
Williams, William, Esq., M.L.A., Albert-street, Melbourne.
Walker, John, Esq., Bourke-street Hast, Melbourne.
*Were, J. B., Esq., Collins-street West, Melbourne.
*Wilkie, the Hon. David E., M.D., Collins-street East, Melbourne.
*Wilson, W. P., Professor, the University, Melbourne.

~

Zumstein, Henry, Esq., Collins-street, Melbourne.

List of the Institutions.

List of ‘the Institutions and Learned Soctettes

communications with the Royal Society of Victoria.

BRITISH.
Royal Society London.
Statistical Society Ae London.
Royal Society of Arts .. London.
Institute Civil Engineers London.
The British Museum London.
Geological Society London.
Royal Geographical Society London.
Museum of Economic Geology ... Londen.
Royal Asiatic Society London.
Meteorological Society ... London.
Anthropological Society London.
Linnean Society } London.
Royal Astronomical Society London.
The Atheneum ... London.
Royal College of Physicians London.
College of Surgeons... London.
Royal South Horticultural Soviety London.
Zoological Society London.
The Geological Magazine London.
The Quarterly J ournal of Science London.
The Popular Scientific Record . London.
The Colonial Office Library London.
Foreign Office Library ... London.
The Institute of Naval Architects London.
The Bodleian Library Oxford.
University Library Cambridge.
Philosophical Society Cambridge.
Collegiate Institute Liverpool.
Public Library Liverpool.
Mechanics’ Institute Liverpool.
Free Public Library get Manchester.
Literary and Philosophical Society Manchester.
Royal Society “ae Edinburgh.
University Library Edinburgh.
Royal Botanical Society Edinburgh.
Philosophical Society Glasgow.
University Library Glasgow.
Trish Statistical Society Dublin.
Royal Irish Academy Dublin.
Trinity College Library ... Dublin.
Royal Geological Society Dublin.

348 Inst of the Institutions

Acclimatization Society re

Institute of France
Scientific Institute

Royal Geographical Society
Royal Society of Antiquaries

Academy of Science
Academy of Science
Royal Society
Imperial Academy
Imperial Society

Petermann’s Geological a ournal .

Society of Naturalists
Royal Institution

Royal Netherlands Meteorological Society

Geological Society
Linnean Society
Geographical Society
Geographical Society

Royal Academy of Science

Institute Vienna

Royal Botanical Society

Imperial Academy

Society for Culture of Science ...

Society of Naturalists
Geographical Society
Royal Society

Society of Naturalists

Society for Natural History
Physica-Graphico aes

Royal Society

Natural History Society.

Office of Public Instruction

Royal Academy of Science

Royal Academy of Science ves

Royal Society of Netherlands-India

Society for Culture of Science and Fine Arts

Geographical Society

Natural History Society

Smithsonian Institute

American Philosophical Society

Academy of Science

Paris.

Paris:
Brussels.
Copenhagen.
Copenhagen.
Stockholm.
Upsal.
Upsal.

St. Petersburgh.
Moscow.
Hamburgh.
Hamburgh.
Utrecht.
Utrecht.
Darmstadt.
Darmstadt.
Darmstadt.
Frankfort on Maine.
Munich.
Vienna.
Ratisbon.
Breslau.
Breslau.
Leipzig.
Berlin.
Berlin.
Halle.
Hannen, Germany.
Lund.
Goettingen.
Geneva.
Florence.
Madrid.
Lisbon.

The Hague.
Bremen. -

New York.

Boston.
Washington.
Philadelphia.

St. Louis, Missouri.

List of the Institutions. 349

Meteorological Society ...
Royal Bengal Asiatic Society

uote Neabrary |...
Mechanics Institute’
Philosophical Society
Royal Society”

Philosophical Society, N.S.W..

Mauritius.
Calcutta.

Melbourne.
Melbourne.
Adelaide, S. A.
Hobart Town.
Sydney.

List of Scientific gentlemen, not honorary or life members of the
Society, to whom the Transactions are forwarded.

General Sabine ...
Wm. Dollond, Esq.
Lieut. Col. Dixon

Rev. H. B. Dwight

The Colonial Secretary ie

Dr. W. F. Suringar
Dr. Buchenau

Dr. Hector ts

Mr. Justice @ackie

Pres. Royal Society, London.

London.

United States.

New York.
Downing-st., London.
Leyden.

Bremen.

New Zealand.
Queensland.

STILLWELL AND KNIGHT, PRINTERS, 78, COLLINS-STREET EAST. |