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~ PROCEEDING

AND REPORT

: | of the

Be BELEAS HF) 32

NATURAL 2
HISTORY AND :: ©
3 PHILOSOPHICAL
= -SOGIETY. 3, 23

== or the = 2 =
Session 1921-22.

q Price- - - - Five Shillinas.

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BELFAST :
Tue Norruern Wuic, Lrp., CommerciaL Buripines, Brince S1

1923.

SIE SES ET AS EE SEE - SS RE TT TS HR pe

COST OF PUBLICATION:

In view of the increased cost of Printing and Publica-
tion, the Council. desire to urge upon Authors of Papers the
necessity for brevity of statement and for restricting, to a
minimuin, the number of Plates, Figures, Diagrams, and
‘Tables.

ANKCHAKOLOGY,

The Council urgently request that any “find ’’ of
Archaeological interest in Ulster, should at once be re-
ported to Mr. H. C. Lawlor, M.R.IL.A., Hon. Secretary of
the Archaeological Section, B.N.H.)P.8., 8, Windsor Ave.,
Belfast.

Proceedings and Reports
BELFAST NATURAL HISTORY

AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

—— FOR THE ———

SESSION 1921-22.

Edited by
Arthur Deane, M.R.I.A
Hon. Secretary

il
BELFAST NATURAL HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
[ESTABLISHED 1821. |

CONSTITUTION.

‘Lhe membership of the Society consists of Shareholders,
Annual Subscribers, and Honorary Members.

Shareholders holding more than two shares are not liable
for an annual subscription, but shareholders of two shares pay
an annual subscription of five shillings, and holders of one
pay ten shillings.

In 1914 a new class of membership was created
including persons of either sex, to be elected under the bye-
laws of the Society, and admitted by the Council on payment
of ten shillings per annum. Such members have all the privi-
leges of the Society, and take part in any business of the
Society not affecting the ownership of the property of the

Society. In 1917 an Archaeological Section was founded.
Persons wishing to join the Section must be members of the

Society and pay an additional minimum subscription of five
shillings per annum. An Application Form for Membership
to the Society and to the Section will be found on page vii.

A general meeting of Shareholders and Members fs held
annually in June, or as soon thereafter as convenient, to re-
ceive the Report of the Council and the. Statement of
Accounts for the preceding year, to elect members of Council,
to replace those retiring by rotation or for other reasons, and
to transact any other business incidental to an Annuai
Meeting.

The Council elect from among their own number a Presi-
dent and other officers of the Society.

Each member has the right of personal attendance at the
Ordinary lectures of the Society, and has the privilege of
introducing two friends for admission to such. The session
for lectures extends from November to May.

Any further information required may be obtained from
the Hon. Secretary at:—-The Museum, College Square
North, Belfast. :

CONTENTS.

Beaumont, Ivor a _.... The Public Appreciation of Art.
p. 3.

d’Albe, Dr. Fournier .. The Optophone: An Instrument
for Reading by Ear. pp. 70-80.

Kilison, Rev. W. I. A. ... Comets. p. 27.

Gibson, Dr. W. H. ... ... some Products of Wood Waste.
pp. 36-48.

Laird, Professor John — .. Ulster Philosophers. pp. 4-26.

Riddell, Alex ar ... Drennan and His Times. p. 27.

Robertson, Dr. G. S. ... ... The Use of Phosphates in Agri-
culture. pp. 28-35.

Savory, Professor ee ... Moliere. p. 27.

Small, Professor J. ... ... More About the Erectness of
Plants pp. 49-69.

Thomson, Professor J. A. ... The Conquest of Land and Air:
A Study in Natural History.
pp. 1-2.

Wren, Professor H. ... ... Recent Investigations on the
Fuel Problem. p. 3.

Aunual Meeting of Society ag is pp. 81-86.

oi i Archaeological Section pp. 87-106.

List of Exchanges an ae Wa pp. 116-118.

List of Lectures mS ma a pp. 114-115.

List of Members ne es io pp. 120-131.

List of Past Presidents a Be p- vi.

Membership Application Form ... ee p. Vii.

Officers and Council, 1922-23 aa man p. 119.

Statement of Accounts site use pp. 107-108.

Subscription to Mahee Fund ss “ae pp. 109-113.

BELFAST NATURAL HISTORY
AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

Officers and Council of Management for 1921-22.

President :
HENRY RIDDELL, m.«., m.1.mech.u.

Vice-Prestdents :
Str CHARLES BRETT, wu.v.
S. W. ALLWORTHY, M.a., M.D., F.C.S.
' Pror. GREGG WILSON, o.8.£., M.A., D.SC., PH.D., M.RI A.
ROBERT M. YOUNG, M.a., M.R.I.A., J.P.
J. M. FINNEGAN, B.a., B.sc.
WILLIAM SWANSTON, v.e.s.

Hon. Treasurer :
HENRY RIDDELL, m.tz., m.1.vech.ez.

Hon. Librarian ;
ROBERT M. YOUNG, M.A., M.R.1.A., J-P.

Hon. Secretary:
ARTHUR DEANE, m.r.1.a.

Council ;
Str CHARLES BRETT, tu.p.
T. EDENS OSBORNE, r.r.s.a.1.
S. W. ALLWORTHY, m.a., mM.b., F.c.s.
WILLIAM FAREN, F.r.s.a.1.
ARTHUR DEANE, m.Rz.1.A.
W. B. BURROWES, F.r.s.a.1.
CounciLtor E. J. ELLIOTT.
H. C. LAWLOR, m.pr.1.<.
WILLIAM SWANSTON, F.e:s.
Proressor GREGG WILSON, p.sc., M.R.1.A.
JOHN M. FINNEGAN, B.a., B.sc.
Proressor W. B. MORTON, .a.
HENRY RIDDELL, m.s., m.1.mech.z.
ROBERT M. YOUNG, m.a., M.R.1.A.
Proressor A. W. STEWART, M.a., p.sc.

Retire 1922

Retire 1923

Retire 1924./

——_.————{—|— ——_ sO

1821-22.

1822-27.

1827-4-.

1843-52.

1852-54.

1854-56.

1856-58.
1858-60.
1860-61.
1861-63.
1863-64.

1864-66.
1866-68.

1868-69.

1869-70.

1870-71.

1871-74.
1874-77.

1877-79,
1879-81.
1881-83.

*Died during their Presidency

sal

PAST PRESIDENTS.

James L. Drummond,
M.D.

Rev. T. Dix Hincks.

James L. Drummond,
M.D.

*¥Wm. Thompson.
Robt. Patterson, F.R.S.

Thos. Andrews,
KRESS Use en Ae

M.D.,

John Stevelly, uu.p.
George C. Hyndman.

*kJas. McAdam, F.R.S.

Robt. Patterson, r.R.s.

Prof. Wyville Thom-
son.

Prof. Jas. Thomson.
Joseph John Murphy.
Robt. Patterson, F.R.S.

Prof. Wyville Thom-
son.

Robt. Patterson, F.R.s.
Joseph John Murphy.

Prof. J. F. Hodges,
M.D.

Robert Young, c.&.
Prof. John Purser.

sir KR. Lloyd Patter-
son, F.L.S.

1883-85.

1886-86.

1886-89.
1889-91.

1891-94.
1894-96.

1896-98.

1898-00.
1900-03.
1903-06.

1906-08.
1908-11.

1911-15.

1915-19.

1919-21.

President 1921:
Henry Riddell, w.z., m.1.mech.z.

Prof. R. O. Cunning-
ham, M.p.

Wes alie
M.R.I.A.

Prof. E. A. Letts.

J. Jel. Greenhill,
MUS.BAC.

Prof. M. F Fitzgerald

Sir R. Lloyd Patter-
son, F.L.S,

Prof. J. D. Everett,
FLR-S) Dole

Patterson,

*Vhos. Workman, J.P.

John Brown, F.R.S.

Prof. J. Symington,
M.D., F.R.S.

Sir Otto Jaffe, Lu.p.

Sir John Byers, m.a.,
M.D., M.A.O.

Prof. J. A. Lindsay,
M.D., F.R.C.S.

Prof. W. St.
Symmers, M.B.

Clair

Prof. Gregg Wilson,
O:B Ere, Av D.SCo,
PH.D., M.R.I.A.

vil

Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society.

Founded 5th June, 1821.

Application Form for Membership.

INIGIINENVCUC nc anata tnitla! tie oce cut ofien sae, eee
[ Please write name in full. |
WDesGHPtONG Hei ye eek to crcal sh Gorthvecusiolecene
To be filled
up by the
Candidate. HE SIC ONCE sroiies Pe wan ciinae bs boas Saseaaussdesnes ous
2065) SBC SaaS Cea ae , being desirous of becoming a Member
of the Society, I, the undersigned member, recommend........

as a suitable candidate for election.

Dated <this....:2..-. GEOR ec cseatitds ae asl ceca bs Oe.

Signature of
Member

evr oeees ooo oeeeveeeeFFHVHAFHDFTHHF HF HOCHHMH FHF FHET HGH HE HD

[Candidate must be known to the Member signing this form. ]
[All applications are subject to the approval of the Council. |

BRRICCCIVER: oii. tae. escent eden Filected by
Council

Vill
CONSTITUTION OF SOCIETY.

The membership of the Society consists of Shareholders,
Annual Subscribers, and Honorary Members.

Shareholders holding more than two shares are not liable
for an annual subscription, but shareholders of two shares
pay an annual subscription of five shillings, and holders of
one pay ten shillings.

ARCHAZOLOGICAL SECTION.

Persons wishing to join the Archaeological Section must
be Members of the Society, and pay an additional minimum
subscription of five shillings per annum. State below if you
wish to join this section.

I desire to join the Archaeological Section.
Signature )

OE MR ee PG aah areas as 6 Ae i A ee
Candidate i

[All applications for Membership to the Section are
subject to the approval of the Executive Committee. |
This form, when filled in, should be addressed to the
Hon. SECRETARY,
Bo Ne Be’ 2 Sb ciming
seers THE Museum,
MUSEUN CouLeGE Square N.

Procecdings of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, 1921-1922.

5th October, 1921.

Proressor Greaa, Wiison, Iix-President, in the Chair.
robe CONOUHST OF LAND AND AIR: A STUDY IN
NATURAL HISTORY.”

By Proressor J. Anrnur ‘THomson,.M.A., LL.D... ¢.,8_E,

(Abstract)

Over and over again in the history of hfe there have been
attempts to get out of the water on to dry land. Plants pre-
pared the way for animals. . The first important invasion was
on the part of worms,. and from that there eventually re-
sulted the making of good soil. ‘The second great invasion
was on the part of air-breathing jomted-footed animals, and
this led eventually to the very important linkages between
flowers and their insect visitors. The third great invasion
was on the part of ancient amphibians, and this led on to the
evolution of the higher land-animals, with great improve-
ments in wits and in parental care. The conquest of the dry
land imphed new wavs of breathing, new protections, new
adjustments to the seasons, new ways of caring for its voung.
There are interesting betwixt-and-between animals, like land-
erabs, shore-skippers, and mud-fish, which gives us hints as
to the ways in which the transition from water to dry land
may be effected. The surface of the earth has its peculiar
difficulties and dangers as a home of life, and so we under-
stand why many land animals became burrowers, and others
climbers, and others cave-dwellers.

The last haunt to be conauered was the air, and although
no animals are altogether aerial, the problem of true flight
has been solved four times—by insects, bv the extinct flving
dragons or Pterodactyls, by birds, and by bats. It is interest-
ing to contrast these four solutions, for they are all different,

2 Professor J. Arthur Thomson

‘he possession of the air meant greatly increased safety,
greatly enhanced independence, improved locomotion and
means of following food, and even that circumvention of
winter which we see in migratory birds.

Of great interest are the half-way solutions of the flight
problems, asin ~ flying ’’ fishes, flying ’’ tree toad, ~~ fly-
ing ’’ lizard, and several ‘* flving ’’ mammals—none flying in
the true sense, but many attaining to great excellence in
parachuting. The familiar case of the aerial journeys of gos-
samer spiders shows how there may be a sort of flight without
wings, and is a fine instance of life’s insurgence.

The Chairman formaily conveyed the thanks of the
Society to Professor Thormson for his instructive lecture.

Sth November, 1921.

Professor GreaGa WiiLson, Ex-President in the Chair.

“THE PUBLIC APPRECIATION OF ART.”’

iy ivor, Beaumont, A.R.C.A. (Lond.), M.S.A.,; FoW.S.A..

F I.B.D., Head Master, School of Art, Municipal
College of Technology.

[No Abstract. |

29th November, 1921.

PROFESSOR GREGG WIuson in the Chair. -

“ RECENT INVESTIGATIONS ON THE FUEL
PROBLEM.”’
By Proressor H. Wren, M.A., D.Sc., Ph.D.,
Professor of Chemistry. Municipal College of Technology.

[No Abstract. |

4 Professor John Laird on
13th December, 1921.
>

PROFESSOR GreaG WILson, ex-President of the Society,
in the Chair.
ULSTER PHILOSOPHERS.
By Proressor Jonn Latrp, M.A., Professor of Logic
and Metaphysics, Queen’s University, Belfast.

ABSTRACT.

I have called this lecture “‘ Ulster Philosophers,’’ not
“* Ulster Philosophy,’’ because there is no such thing as
Ulster Philosophy. ‘That is to say, the red-handed province
has no continuing philosophical tradition in it of any kind—
nothing either autochthonous or imported that was born,
grew and died. On the other hand, quite a large number
of philosophers of varying degrees of eminence have been
connected with the province.

In certain ways, however, my subject offers difficulties
concerning what should be included and what omitted. It
is not very clear whom one ought to count a philosopher or
how rigorous one should be in excluding all save genuine
Ulstermen from consideration. In a word, on both of these
points I must claim the lecturer’s privilege of using his own
judgment. I shall, in fact, be satisfied with any degree of
affinity to Ulster which I deem sufficient, and as for the
people I am to reckon philosophers I shall follow the some-
what shifting boundaries of the usual books. In truth, no
one has vet succeeded in defining what is meant by a
philosopher in such.a way that all reasonable people (or even
all who consider themselves philosophers) would admit the
truth or the sufficiency of the description. To choose an
example. everyone would admit, I supposs, that Herbert
Spencer was a philosopher—-that is to say, he would have to
be included in all the books, whatever might be thought of
the merits of his speculations; but it would be a much rnore

Uister Philosophers. 6

delicate matter to decide whether or not Carlyle was to be
accounted a philosopher. Anyone who wrote about his
“ philosophy °” would have to suffer the distressing accusa-
tion of trying to be popular—-presumably because a great
many people were interested in Carlyle. Finally, if you said
that Mr. Thomas Hardy was a philosopher you would be
taking even greater risks. Incredible as if may seem, you
might have ceased to be respectably academic.

Consequently, as I say, I am going to use my own jJudy-
ment in these confusing matters, and as I have to speak only
of individual men and not of ‘‘ movements ’’ or “* currents
of thought ’’ I am naturally bound to choose a mercly
chronolovical order of arrangement.

T shall pass over the Middle Ages very rapidly, partly be-
cause Ulster had not then attained the fame in the world with
which we are now acquainted, partly because time has effaced
the recorded thoughts of her philosophers (if any such were
recorded), and principally because I know very little about
the matter. Still J have a little—a very little—to say eveu
here.

The name of Duns Scotus (whose dates are approxi-
mately 1265 to 1808) has a very distinguished place in the
roll of the great schoolmen, and the name of Johannes
Seotus Hrigena (who flourished in the ninth century) recalls
us to one of the very few among the forerunners of the
echolastics who are worth considering.

Now the second of these—-Johannes Scotus Erigena—
was quite certainly an Irishman. The word Erigena plainty
means ‘‘ hailing from Erinn,”’ and to make assurance
doubly sure, “‘ Scotus’ then. meant “Irishman ’’ too.
Therefore Scotus Erigena was certainly born in Ireland,
and so, of course, he may have been born in Ulster. On the
other hand, no one knows where he was borr:, so it would be
rash to pursue the point, and it must be admitted that the
literary activities of Scotus Erigena had no connection with

6 Professor John Laird on

Ireland at all. The best part of his life was spent in France
at or near the court of Charles the Bold, and although
according to the legend he was one of the “‘ merchants of
wisdom ’’ who crossed in a stream from Ireland to Paris
(one hopes their trade was good): he does not seem to have
been inordinately proud of his native land. At any rate, one
of the few witticisms which have survived from this rude
period is a reply he made to Charles the Bold. Charles
asked “° Quid distat inter sotturn et Scottum?’’ (What is
there between a sot and a Scot or Irishman) and Erigena
replied “‘ Mensa tantum ’’ (which is, being interpreted,
~ Just a table ’’).

To cut a long story short, I have not the face to say
anything more about Scotus Erigena. I admit, of course,
that he was a very great min. despite the pun which the
historians bring up against him.

The case of Duns Scotus is distinctly different. By the
thirteenth or fourteenth centuries, it appears, Scotus had
come to mean “* North Briton,’’ at any rate in Franciscan
literature. And Duns Scotus was a Franciscan. The pro:
babilities, therefore, appear to be that Duns Scotus was not
an Irishman at all, and it may even be the case that he was
called Duns because his birthplace was Dunse in Berwick-
shire, or because it was Dunstane in Northumberland (as a
manuscript in Merton Library asserts). On the other hand, it
was claimed by Hugh MacCaghwell. who was Archbishop ot
Armagh early in the 17th century, that Duns was an Irish-
man after all, and that Duns is just Down; and several
writers, not all Irish, have followed the archbishop in this.

Consequently, if Duns Scotus really was an Irishman
(which is unlikely) then it is highly probable that he caine
from Down, and with this crumb of comfort I must leave him.
He also was a very great man—not a mystic like Scotus
Erigena, but none the less a very great man. Indeed, it may
fairly be claimed, I think, that no one has come so near as

Ulster Philosophers. 7

he and his pupil Ockham to what is called nowadays
“scientific method in philosophy,’’ ana any competent person
will admit, I think, that this means that the Subtle Doctor
(as Duns was called) was a very acute person indeed.
However, he also was a cosmopolitan, as a tombstone erected
to his memory at Cologne asserts. ‘‘ Scotia me genuit ”’
(whether Ireland or Scotland does not matter), it declares,
“Anglia me suscepit (that was Oxford), Gallia me docuit (aa
untrustworthy legend makes him out to have been a regent
of the University of Paris), Colonia me tenet.’’ JI do aot
think, therefore, that we have any right to dwell upon him
longer now.

Passing to the seventeenth century we come first to
Bishop Jeremy Taylor. Jeremy Taylor’s claims to be
counted among the philosophers are, as I think, incontest
able. Primarily, of course, he was a notable divine, one oi
the very greatest in the greatest age of English divinity, and
his Liberty of Prophesying, his Holy Living, and his Holy
Dying are his most enduring monuments—more enduring
even than the one which stands to-day in the cathedral at
Droinore. On the other hand, every treatise on British
ethics gives some account of his Ductor Dubitantium, which
he completed in his study at Portmore in the parish of Ballin-
derry, some eight miles from Lisburn, in the year 1659, at
the very moment when Cromwell’s Anabaptist commis-
sioners were knocking at his gates and sunimoning him to
explain himself to them in Dublin. A recent historian of
English philosophy states, indeed, that the Ductor Dubi-
tantium in “‘ perhaps the greatest treatise on casuistry ever
written by a Protestant theologian.’’ ‘‘ He will not collect
individual cases of conscience,’’ this histori:n goes on, ** for
they are infinite; but he seeks to provide ‘ a general instru-
iment of moral theology, by the rules and measures of which
the guides of souls may determine the particulars that shall
be brought before them’.’’ And our commentator concludes
thus—‘‘ The whole forms a comprehensive treatise on

N Professor John Latrd on

Christian ethics, based undoubtedly upon _ traditional
scholastic doctrines, but holding firmly to the inwardness of
inorality, and illustrated by an extraordinary wealth of con-

’

crete examples.’

There is no doubt, then, that Jeremy Taylor was an
eminent philosopher, but, of course, hee was not an Ulster-
man. He was born at Cambridye in 1618, and he spent
the greater part of his life in Mngland, feeling to the full the
stress of the times, for he was chaplain to Laud, then
chaplain in ordinary to Charles I., and he was taken prisoner
in the royalist defeat before Cardigan Castle on February 4,
1644-5. On the other hand he spent the last ten years of
his life in Ulster; Down and Connor was the only bishopric
he ever held; and he died in Jisburn in 1667 of a fever he
had caught when visiting a sick parishioner there. These
facts, I think, justify me very fully in considering him here,
but even if they did not I could still defend myself by
pointing out that he had, to this day, an enduring influence
upon Ulster life. Jeremy Dunensis stirred up the Presby-
terian clergy so thoroughy that he consolidated the ranks of
these ‘‘Scotch spiders ’’ (as he called him) in such a way that
the solidity of Presbyterianisin in Ulster is due as much to
this cause as to any other single episode.

In truth Jeremy Dunensis had a bad time with these
Presbyterian ministers, although he appears to have
behaved with dignity and tact towards the Presbyterian
gentry. Things were not so bad at first. Alter much per-
suasion from Conway of Ballinderry he came over to Ireland
in 1659 with a pass. under Cromwell’s sign-manual giving
protection to himself and tc his family in order to undertake
the work of what was called a “weekly stipendiary
lecturcship ’’’ at Lisburn. Now in these days the Ulster
Presbyterians did not like Cromwell. They had protested
against the execution of Charles I., and Milton had called
them the ‘‘ blockish presbyters of Claneboye.’’ Taylor did

Ulster Philosophe rs. | g

not quarrel with them then, therefore—indeed, as we have
seen, he was subject to the same sort of persecution as they
were from these Anabaptist commissioners in Dublin. But
with the Restoration all was changed. ‘Taylor, it is true,
came into his own, and after a delay, which can scarcely be
accounted for by the absence of the appropriate seal (which
was the excuse given), he was duly installed Bishop of Down
and Connor. But the Presbyterians came into their own,
too. It was held that their loval sentiments during the
Protectorate gave them a legal right to the tithes and the
twentieth parts, and therefore, with some reason, ‘they
refused to submit to an Episcopalian bishop.

So there was strife. -Jeremy Dunensis refused to
recognise them “*‘ as a body.’ They refused to recognise
Jeremy Dunensis. Jeremy explained to Ormonde that he
‘would rather be a poor curate in a village church than a
bishop over such intolerable persons,’’ and he explained also
that he was “ perpetually contending with the worst of the
Scotch ministers.’’ The Scotch ministers retaliated by
nosing out traces of what they considered Arminianism in the
Lishop’s writings, and they made representations to Dublin
accordingly |

Taking it all in all, Jeremy Taylor did not like Ulster.
“I will petition your Excellency,’’ he says, writing. $0
Ormonde again. “‘ to give me some parsonage in Munster
that I may end my davs in’peace.”’ Per contra (perhaps) his
last words as he lay dying in his house at Lisburn were,
“ Bury me in Dromore.’’

There is one other episode in his life in Ulster, however,
which I must mention before I pass on. It has to do with

‘

psychical research. According to the “‘ relation ’’ given by
one Thomas Aleock, secretary to Bishop Jeremy Taylor, and
published in the contemporary Sadducismus Triumphatus of
Joseph Glanvil, the Bishop of Down investigated the case of
an apparition which had appeared to a certain James
Taverner. The examination took place in the first instance

1O Professor John Laird on

at Dromore. but the bishop afterwards took Taverner with
him to Hillsborough (Hilbrough) because he was informed
that ““ my lady Conway and other persons of quality were
come purposely to hear his Lordship examine the matter.’’

The tale is a long one, and I have time to give the gist
of it cnly. In Michaelmas, 1662, James 'Taverner, described
as a “‘ lusty proper stout fellow then servant at large to the
Kiar! of Uhichester,’’ was riding home from Hillsborough to
the Earl’s house in Belfast when his horse shied at Drum-
bridge. The cause of the animals’s fright was an appariticn
who described himself to Taverner as James Haddock,
formerly of Malone. ‘This apparition claimed acquaintance
on the ground that Taverner had brought the Haddock family
soine nuts five yeers before.

The former wife of the apparition (maiden name Eleanor
Welsh) had now married a man called Davis, who held the
lease of Malone, and the apparition contended that the lease
belonged legally to John Haddock, his son by this lady.
Mrs. Davis, however, was unwilling to act in the matter.
When Taverner, instructed by the apparition, called on hez
first she put him off by saying that there was another Hleanor
Welsn. The apparition, however, was exceedingly per-
sistent, It appeared every night for more than a month,
generally wearing a white coat, but sometimes assuming
‘many formidable shapes,’’ and vanishiag either with
‘‘ hideous sereeches and noises’ or else “‘in a flash oi
brightness ’’: and once it apeared to Taverner when he
was sitting with friends in the house of one Pierce, a shoe-
maker in Belfast. On this occasion, however, no one saw
the ghost except Taverner, though all heard him addressing
it and for this reason perhaps Dr. Lewis Downs, then
minister of Belfast, attributed the ghost, in the phrase of the |
times, ‘‘ rather to melancholy than to anything of realivy.”’

The Bishop, however, took Taverner seriously, and a4-
vised him the next time he saw the spirit to ask him certain
questions, such as, ‘‘ Are you a gocd or a bad spirit? How

Ulster Philosophers. II

are you regimented in the other world? Why do you appear
tor the relief of your son in so small a matter when other
spirits do not for greater cause? ’’ This advice was very
wise. The spirit appeared again to Taverner, it is true, this
time at Lord Conway’s house at Hillsborough; and Lady
Conway and the other persons of quality saw Taverner
trembling before it; but when Taverner asked his questions
‘“ It gave him no answer, but crawled on its hands and feet
over the wall again, and so vanished in white with a most
melodious harmonv.”’

The boy, one gathers, was righted. According to the
‘relation ’’ it was common report that he had been
wronged.

I pass next to a genuine son of Ulster, William King,
Archbishop of Dublin, who wus born in the town of Antrim
in 1650, his father having fled thithcr from Aberdeenshire to
avoid the Solemn Jueague and Covenant.

King’s title to eminence in philosophy (and it is a very
sound one) is derived principally from his book De Origine
Mali, an attempt (on a philosophical basis similar to Locke’s)
to reconcile the conflict between the existence of evil and
the omnipotence of a benevolent deity. ‘This work had
Kuropean influence. Bayle, the sceptical author of the
celebrated Dictionary, replied to it; so did the great
philosopher Leibniz; so did Wolff: and to this day the
ordinary student of philosophy hears of it, although in a
rather curious way. The book was translated by Law and
in an edition of 1731 John Gay prefixed a dissertation to
this translation. This dissertation gives in simple outline
the theory which Paley later niade fashionable, and thus it
comes about that King’s Latin work, so renowned in its day,
is now remembered principally because a preface to a transla-
tion of it is one of the chief landmerks in the history of the
celebrated utilitarian theory.

{2 Professor John Laird on

A short account of King’s life, however, may prove of
greater general interest. After receiving his early education
at a Latin school in Dungannon, King went to Dublin, and
had a stormy and a busy career. He was a warm supporter
of the Prince of Orange, and on this account was imprisoned
by the Tyrconnel Government in 1689. The Battle of the
Boyne, however, brought him release, and he preached the
thanksgiving service in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which com-
memorated “‘the preservation of his Majesty's person, his
good success in our deliverance, and his safe and happy
return into England.’’

He becaine Bishop of Derry in 1690-91; and there he also
had trouble with the Presbyterians, whom he found “' mighty
insolent.’” On the other hand, unlike Jeremy Taylor, he was
a Stalwart Irishman, and whereas Jeremy Taylor had depre-
cated the Irish tongue (that is puttimg it mildly) and had
entreated that all should be taught English “ that they
may understand and live,’’ King made arrangements that a
Gaclic colony in the Inishowen Peninsula should have a
clergvinan sent them who could speak their own language.
In a word, Orangeman as he was, he was also the leader of
the party opposed to the English interest in Ireland, and
after he was appointed Archbishop of Dublin he wrought
michtily (for many years with the aid of Swift) to this end.

The next philosopher with whom we have to deal is the
celebrated Toland the Deist. Janus Julius Toland changed
lis name to John verv early in life in order to avoid the
ridicule of his schoolfellows, but he had to faze ridicule (and
worse) during the whole of his extraordinary career. On the
other hand, adventurer, starveling, spy and Grub Street
hack, as he was by turn, he was certainly a pioneer in the
history of free thought in England, and he deserved praise
and fame as well as the somewhat dubious notoriety which
was all he achieved in his lifetime.

Toland was born on the Inishowen Pensula in 1670. He
was illegitimate, and his enemies declared (maliciously, no

Ulster Philosophers. 13

doubt, but perhaps truly) that his father was a priest. Be
that as it may, Toland had the best possible education for a
freethinker, since warring sects strove for the possession of
him. Bred a Catholic up to the age of 16, he was then
captured by ‘‘ some eminent dissenters ’’ (Presbyterians
again, I suppose) who made a Protestant of him, and after
some schooling at Redcastle, near Londonderry, he went to
Glasgow University. I!dinburgh gave him an M.B., and he
then proceeded to Leyden where the echoes of Spinoza’s
Tractatus Theologico—Politicus could still be plainly heard.
He returned to Britain in 1694, and stayed at Oxford, where
ais orthodoxy seems to have been suspect from the hour oi
his arrival. The proof appeared in 1696, when Toland
published his Christianity not mysterious.

The work is undoubted!yv rationalistic, but it is very far
from being simply the cheap profligacy of a seeker for
notoriety (as its many enemies alleged). On the contrary, it
is seriously argued, and even moderate in its tone. Still the
bishops and the clergy did not like it, and that is scarcely
surprising. Locke’s Reasonableness of Christianity was not
to their liking either, and it had appeared shortly before ; but
whereas Locke had not openly flouted the mysteries of
Christianity—his sole aim, professedly at least, was to show
that Christianity was a reasonable religicn—Toland went
further, and argued that because Christianity was reasonable
it could contain neither mystery nor miracle nor aught of the
kind. The irony of this argument (which was quite in the
style of the day) could not hoodwink a Churchman. — And it
did not.

The book raised a storm. It was burnt by the Grand
Jury of Middlesex (who ‘lid not consider this action a com-
pliment), and it drew the fire of the heavy artillery of the
Church with more than military promptitude. The author
had to leave Oxford and retire to Dublin. There he received,
at first, something like a welcome. Willian: Molyneux,, for
example, the student of optics who wrote the Dioptrica Nova

leas Professor John Laird on

with Llumnsteed’s help, the architect of that portion of Dublin
Castle which stands on the Piazza, and the friend and corres-
pondent of Locke, received Toland gladly, and did his best.
for him.* After a very short time, however, even Molyneux
did not dare to countenance Toland openly. The deist
had a way of feasting indiscreetly in coffee-houses (I do not
suppose he was more sober than other honest Irish gentle-
men), and the bailiffs dunned him for his wigs and his
lodgings. Finally the Irish Parliament intervened. As
South, the ecclesiastic says, ‘‘ The Parliament to their im-
mortal honour sent him packing, and without the help of a
faggot soon made the kingdom too hot to hold him.’’
South’s one regret was that the rest of the kingdom was less
torrid.

Toland in fact had offended the institutions of his
country and he had a very lean purse. Therefore he
suffered, like the most of the deists that succeeded him, for
the double crime of poverty and lése majesté. The deists did
not fare well. They had to fight privilege, and they had also
to fight an array of scholarship and ability far greater than
their own. They were crushed, therefore, as thoroughly as
Grub Street hacks and such-like canaille could be crushed ;
and yet, in the usual way of such affairs, their doctrine has
lived. The eighteenth century was the flowering time of
rationalism, deism, and their step-child scepticism.
Shaftesbury, Bayle, Bolingbroke, Voltaire, Hume and the
French encylopedists were far too important to be crushed:
and they were not.

Returning to Toland, however, we must admit that his
fate was as good as he deserved. He was born to live from
hand to mouth and to get his ideas printed. And this, in
a word, was the story of his career. He had his bad times, no
doubt. As Sir Leslie Stephen says, “‘ The poor man did not
know how to starve,’’ but generally he was able to stave

*So far as I know, Molyneux had no connexion with Ulster, but his son Samuel
—who was a friend of Berkeley’s—owned an estate in Armagh,

Ulster Philosophers. 16

starvation off, and he had an interesting, if unconventional,
career. Most of the remainder of his life after he left
Ireland (he died in 1722) was spent. on the Continent, where
he was a political informer (a spy in plain language), a court
sycophant and a hack writer by turns or all together. He was
not troubled with too nice a conscience (for example, he
printed Shaftesbury’s Inquiry without permission when
Shaftesbury was making the grand tour), and he did not
object to his espionage, although, as he said (with an
attempt at dignity), he would rather be a ‘* private monitor
and purveyor of education ’’ than a spy.

We need not weep for him, therefore; and he was known
to the most interesting people of his day. Leibniz, for
example, respected his ability ; a Turkish effendi inquired of
Mr. Toland from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu; Prince
Eugene of Holland befriended him, and Queen Sophia
Charlotte of Prussia, sister of George I. and mother of
Frederick the Great, received him at court, where she set the
literary fashion which her belleslettristic warrior-son
continued in the way that every schoolboy knows of. And
Toland had help from England, too. He expected a good
deal from Harley, and he got something. Shaftesbury, too,
overlooking the incident of the pirated manuscript, paid him
a pension for somne years, although he withdrew it later in
one of his fits of economy.

And Toland went on writing. He had learned more at
Leyden from the rationalists than the simple tactics of
frontal assault. . He had also learned the other rationalistic
method ; the method of sapping and mining by research into
the authenticity of the Sacred Texts and by attacking the
character of the early Christian bishops. I have time only
for two examples of this. To his Mangoneutes being a
defence of Nazarenus he appends certain ‘* queries to be sent
to Christians residing in Mahomedan countries.’* One of
them runs as follows: “Since we. find that they
charge our Gospel with corruption and alteration in

6 Professor John Latrd on

many things, and particularly that Mahomet’s name
was raz d out of ‘em, as likewise out of the Penta:
teuch and the Psalms; you are. to’ enquire of the
most learned, judicious and candid among ’em, how they
can prove such expunctions or interpolations, if they have no
authentic copies to confront with ours?’ (And so .n.
Toland’s excursions into the higher criticism have not stood
the test of time. le was not even a pioneer, except perhaps
in England, but he was keen). The other quotation I shall
give is the title page to his Hypatia. It runs, ‘‘ Hypatia, or
the history of a most beautiful, most virtuous, most learned
and every way accomplished lady; who was torn to pieces
by the clergy of Alexandria, to gratify the pride, emulation,
and cruelty of their Archbishop Cyril, commonly but un-
deservedly stil’d Saint Cyril.’’ Cyril’s iniquity, in fact, is
Toland’s subject quite as much as Hypatia’s virtue, but "| is
only fair to add that Toland’s pamphlet does not assign too
rnuch space (for the times) in discussing the important ques-
tion whether or not Hypatia was virtuous.

Writings such os these, as well as his Letters to Serena
in which he makes suggestions towards a _rationalistic
philosophy to the Queen of Prussia, sum up his literary ex-
ecursions. His last work, however, should receive some
mention. It is not in good taste. He got it up like a prayer
book, with red rubrics, and it contains the ritual of a pan-

theistic religion. But the most interesting point in it for

us is that the writer returns in spirit to the name and place
of his birth. The preface is signed Janus Julius Koganesius.
Now Inis Eoghain is Inishowen: and we have already seen
the history of Janus Julius.

It is unfortunate for my purposes that Bihop Berkeley
—the greatest of Irish philisophers—never resided in Ulster.
He was a Kilkenny man, and Dublin was his spiritual home,
as far as that was in Ireland at all. What is more, the slight
connection he had with Ulster does not show that he had any
love for the province. The matter befel in this wise, In the

Ulster Philosophers. 17

year 1721 Berkeley returned to Ireland after some eight years
spent partly in London and principally on the Continent.
‘’ I had no sooner set foot on shore,’’ he wrote to Sir John
Percival in October of that year, ** but I heard that the
Deanery of Dromore was become vacant, which is worth
about £500 a year and a sinecure; which circumstance recom-
mends it to me beyond any preferment in the kingdom.’’
Percival did his best for him, but without much success. On
February 10 of the next year, it is true, Berkeley wrote that
‘‘ his patent was now passing the seals,’’ but he added that
the Bishop “ pretending a title hath put in a presentee of his
own, which unavoidably engages me in a lawsuit.’’

Thereafter Berkeley experienced the law’s delays.
™ God preserve your Lordship from law and lawyers,’’ he
wrote piously in April, 1722; and, indeed, he had little hope
of success. ‘“* The suit,’’ he wrote, ‘‘ upon enquiry I find
will be more tedious, and the event much more doubtful than
I was at first aware of, but with a sure expense on my side,
if I am informed right, of several hundred pounds besides
what I am likely to get from the Government,* which will go
but a little way to pay eight lawyers (for so many I have
engaged) and to pay all other expenses of a suit against a man
who is worth £1,200 p.ann., besides the Deanery which he is
in actual possession of, and who hath been practised in law-
suits five and twenty years together.”’

The Bishop’s motives, doubtless, were principally
private and personal, but he may have known that Berkeley
wanted a sinecure, and it is probable that he objected to
Berkeley for precisely the reason that Percival thought in
Berkeley’s favour, viz.: that Berkeley had been as much in
England as in Ireland for a great many years. (There is a
hint, too, that B.‘s politics were those of a mugwump.)
However that may be, by the year 1723, while this lawsuit
was still pending, Berkeley had made up his mind to go to
_ Bermuda to found an Arcadian university in these summer

*Notre—£50 concordation money had been voted him,

18 Professor John Laird on

islands both for white and coloured. . He wished, indeed,
not only to go there, but to maintain ten savages and ten
whites at his own expense. This new purpose, he wrote,
‘“ sets me above soliciting anything with earnestness in this
part of the world, which can now be of no use to me, but as it
may enable me the better to prosecute that design; and it
must be owned that the present possession of something
in the Church would make my application tor an establish-
ment in these islands more considered. I mean a charter for
a college there.”’

He wanted money, however, as well as the charter,
although he had, quite unexpectedly, inherited half the
estate (one Robert Marshal inherited the other half) of
Hester Vanhomrigh, Swift’s Vanessa, who had revoked her
legacy to Swift in view of the Dean’s conduct when he heard
that she had questioned Stella concerning her relations with
him. And an appointment came, too. “‘I can now tell
your Lordship,’’ he wrote to Percival in 1724, ‘* that yester-
day JI received my patent for the best deanery
in the kingdom, that of Derry. This deanery is said to be
worth £1,500 p.ann., but then there are four curates to be
paid and great changes upon entering, for a large house and
offices, first fruits, patent, ete., which will consume the first
year’s profit and part of the second.’’ However, Providence
tempered the wind for him. ‘‘ I am now on my return from
Derry,’’ he wrote a month later (May, 1724), “* where I have
taken possession of my deanery and farmed out my tithe
lands, etc., for £1,250 a year. I am assured they are worth
two hundred pounds per ann. more, but thought it better to
have men of substantial futures engaged for the punctual
payment of the foregoing sum than by keeping them in my
hands to subject myself to all that trouble, and all those
cheats which Dissenters (whereof we have many about
Derry) are inclined to practice towards the clergy of our
Church,”

Ulster Philosophers. 19

However, he was enthusiastic about the place. ‘‘The
Cathedral,’’ he went on to say in the same letter, “‘ is the
prettiest in Ireland. My house is a fashionable thing not
five years old, and cost eleven hundred pounds. The Cor-
poration are all good Churchinen, a civil people, and
throughout English, being a colony from London. I have
hardly seen a more agreeable situation, the town standing
on a peninsula in the midst of a fine spreading lake, en-
vironed with green hills, and at a distance the noble ridge of
Ennishowen mountains and the mighty rocks of Maghilligan
form a most august scene. There is, indeed, much of the
gusto grande in the laying out of this whole country, which
recalls to my mind many prospects of Naples and Sicily.”’

Nevertheless he never went there again. lLaw-suits
concerning the Vanhomrigh will and an attempt to obtain
from the British House of Commons for the Bermuda
scheme—a grant of £60,000 was voted, but never paid—kept
him in Dublin or in London till 1728. Then he sailed for
America. When he returned in 1731 it was to London that
he came, and he did not take up residence in Ireland till 1783,
when he was appointed Bishop of Cloyne.

On the whole then (save for this one week of his visit to
Londonderry) his connection with Ulster is simply that he
got something out of her.

Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746) is commonly regarded as
_ the Ulster philosopher, and certainly he was both an Ulster-
man and a philosopher. The facts of his life are briefly as
follows. He was the second son of John Hutcheson, Presby-
terian minister of Ballyrea, near Armagh, but he seems {0
have been born at his grandfather’s house at Drumalig in
County Down. This grandfather, Alexander Hutcheson was
a Plantation Scot who was minister of Saintfield in Co.
Down for the greater part of his life, and had wealth enough
to purchase the estate of Drumalig. Francis Hutcheson’s
mother was a Longford lady.

20 Professor John Laird on

Francis was educated at a Dissenting school near Saint-
field, and thereafter at the Academy (as it was called) of
Killyleagh. Thence, like the other local Dissenters in
Ulster, he proceeded to the University of Glasgow, sitting
under Gershom Carmichael and others. At Glasgow he
seems to have studied diligently, and he was tutor to the
Earl of Kilmarnock—a somewhat remarkable fact so shortly
after the 15 when we remember that the Harl’s family were
Jacobities and Hutcheson a staunch Presbyterian. How-
ever, perhaps Hutcheson was not so very. staunch. He
returned to Ulster in 1719 and was licensed as a probationer,
but his preaching was not to the liking of his father’s friends.
A story is told, indeed, to the following effect. One cold and
rainy Sunday, Francis Hutcheson went to preach at Armagh,
taking the place of his father who had a cold; but a flickering
sun and a determined curiosity took the old man out of his
bed and sent him to hear the conclusion of his son’s sermon.
Instead of that, the unhappy parent met the whole of his
flock returning in disgust from the meeting-house. An elder
enlightened him. ‘*‘ We a’ feel muckle wae for your mishap,
Rev. Sir,’’ the elder said, ‘‘ but it canna’ be concealed.
Your silly loon Frank has fashed a’ the congregation wi’ his
idle cackle; for he has been babbling this ’oor aboot a gude
and benevolent God, and that the souis o’ the heathen them-
selves will gang to Heaven, if they follow the licht o’ their
ain consciences. Not a word does the daft loon ken, speir
nor say about the gude auld comfortable doctrines o’ election,
reprobation, original sin and faith. Hoot man, awa’ wi’ sic
a fellow.”’

The truth was that Hutcheson had leanings towards the
New Light while his family preferred the old. Hutcheson
was cautious, however (or—shal! we say ?—filia]), and he
never took sides openly, but was content instead to contri-
bute (anonymously) to the Non-Subscribers at various times
throughout his life. He seems to have felt, however, that
he had no vocation for the kirk, so he refused the “ call ”’

Ulster Philosophers. VI

of the congregation at Magherally and founded an Academy
at Dublin instead. There he prospered, was bitten with the
fashionable philosophical virus of the city, and plunged into
authorship. Prosperous as he was, however, two separate
complaints were lodged against him in the archbishop’s court
for daring to teach without a license from the church; and
there are indications that Hutcheson would not have objected
to joining the Kstablishment. Still he did not; and Arch-
bishop King (of whom we have already heard) protected his
follow- Ulsterman.

His troubles were ended in 1729 when he was appointed a
professor in Glasgow. ‘There he had enormous influence.
He was principally responsible for the abolition of the old
system of regents (who taught everything) substituting the
regime of specialist professors. His lectures on the State
directed Adam Smith’s attention to political economy, and
the Kircaldy boy’s Theory of the Moral Sentiments owes
much to his old professor. Moreover, Hutcheson had many
other distinguished pupils. For the truth was that he was not
only an eminent philosopher and a good organiser but a
magnificent teacher. He could speak eloquently, forcibly,
and clearly, and this gift, in addition to his personal charm
and his liberal opinions, made a deep mark on the literary
history of Scotland. The Scottish revival of letters in the
18th century owes as much to this Ulsterman as to any one.
When the young Huine was trying to struggle into fame by
the publication of his Treatise he wrote to Hutcheson for
advice concerning the third book on morals. Hume was not
a sycophant, and he was the very last of Scotchmen to be
reckoned a fool. His action, therefore, was most significant.

Indeed, Hutcheson owes his place in the histories of
philosophy quite as much to his personal influence, and to
his literary popularity as to the distinctively philosophical
merits of his work. In some respects, even, the tale of his
work is somewhat disappointing when one comes to exarhine
it. In Glasgow he was too busy to write much, and the

22 Professor John Laird on

books on logic and on metaphysics which he published there
(they are only compends or text books) are both eclectic and
unsatisfying. He tried to unite the scholasticism he had
imbibed at Killyleagh with certain fashionable ideas: and
he did not succeed very well. For the rest, it is his moral
philosophy that is remembered, and here again there are
qualifications. | He was in Dublin and only thirty when he
published his Enquiry into the Original of our Ideas of
Beauty and Virtue; his essay on the Nature and Conduct of
the Passions also appeared during the Dublin period; and his
System of Moral Philosophy was published posthumously. So
the former works are immature and the latter incomplete.
His ethical system, then, cannot be reckoned among the
greatest in British philosophy. Philosophically speaking,
he improved greatly upon Shaftesbury’s moral philosophy,
although without the support of Shaftesbury’s fatally sedue-
tive metaphysics, and he tried, not without success, to de-
velop the psychological side of ethics in the best literary vein.
This is a popular procedure to-day—indeed it is the fashion—
but the modern philosophers can surround their doctrines
with a plausible halo derived from anthropology and the
history of human evolution, while Hutcheson could not.
What is more, a cool historian must admit that Hutcheson
did not appreciate the sceptical tendencies of his moral
philosophy (as his great contemporary Bishop Butler did)
that frequently he did not perceive the logical consequences
of his own doctrine, that Hume and others developed it far
more consistently than he did, that Hutcheson ciien
descended (like Lord Kames and others after him) to woolli-
ness scarcely redeemed by illogical piety, and that although
Hutcheson was an important figure in the movement which
led eventually to utilitarianism his SEOMETORS did not le in
his clearheadedness.
None the less, Hutcheson, the man, is a considerable
figure in British philosophy. It has been claimed for him
that he was one of the founders of the Seottish school, but

Ulster Philosophers. 23

this is a mistake. He builds upon human nature, as Reid
did later, but he gives in essence and even upon the surface
a very different account of human nature from Reid’s. The
impetus which he gave to philosophy lay rather on the side of
psychology and of the literary aspects of philosophy : but it is
no mean thing to succeed in this enterprise. Scotland
needed a renaissance, and therefore she owed much to
Hutcheson.

And Hutcheson’s influence was not confined to Scotland.
To Dublin in his early years he brought an Ulster leaven, and
he remembered the interests of Presbyterian Ulster in
Glasgow. Hutcheson’s letters to Dr. Drennan of this city
show a constant solicitude for the Ulster youths under his
charge. And some of therm needed it. ‘‘ I am deeply morti-
fied by the vanity and foppery prevailing among our country-
men,’’ Hutcheson writes, ‘* beyond what I see in others; and
a sauntering forsooth which makes them incapable of any
hearty drudgery at books.’’ As one of the culprits he par-
ticularly mentions was the son of a non-subscribing minister
in Belfast, this comment perhaps is scarely what one would
expect. The rowdiness of the Ulstermen of which we hear
from other Glasgow sources seems more natural somehow.
Reid later had a great deal of trouble with the “* wild Irish
Teagues,’’ as he call them—those Ulster Protestants whose
natural university was Glasgow.

In course of time, however, Belfast began to want a
university of its own, and the Academical Institution (which
included a college) was founded in 1815. Two philosophers,
both of them Scottish seceders, were imported from Glasgow
—one of them, John Young; the other, William Cairns.
Cairns published a book on Moral Freedom in 1844, and
Young’s lectures were published posthumously under the title
‘“* Lectures on Intellectual Philosophy.’’ This book (I hope
I am not offending any of Young’s descendants) gained the
following unenviable notice from Sir William Hamilton,

DM Professor John Laird on

‘This unfortunate speculator seems to have been fated in ©
almost every instance to be anticipated by Brown; and as far
as I have looked into their lectures I have been amazed with >
the never-failing preamble—of the astonishment, the satis-
faction and so forth, which the author expresses on finding,
on the publication of Brown’s Lectures, that the opinions
which he himself, as he says, had always held and taught,
were those which had obtained the countenance of so dis.
tinguished a philosopher. The coincidence is, however, too
systematic and precise to be the effect of accident; and the
identity of opinion hetween the two doctors can only
(plagiarism apart). be explained by borrowing from the
hypothesis of a pre-established harmony between their
minds.’’ later, however, Hamilton added a footnote. ~‘ I
‘now find, and have elsewhere stated, that the similarity
between these philosophers arises from their borrowing, 1
may say stealing, from the same source—De Tracy.’’

After the Queen’s College was founded in Belfast,
Clarendon the Lord Lieutenant of the day was so much
impressed by the merits of a book entitled The Method of the
Divine Government, Physical and Moral that he appointed
its author, a Brechin minister called James M‘Cosh, to the
Professorship of Logic and Metaphysics in the year 1857.
This appointment prompted Thackeray’s lines ‘‘ The Last
Trish Grievance,’’ from which I quote some stanzas.
Thackeray speaks in the person of an Irish youth.

As I think of the insult that’s done to this nation
Red tears of rivinge from me faytures I wash,

And uphold in this pome, to the world’s daytistation
The slaves that appointed Professor M‘Cosh.

I look round me counthree, renowned by expayrience,
And see midst her children, the witty, the wise—

Whole hayps of logicians, potes, schollars, grammarians,
All ayger for pleeces, all panting to rise.

Ulster Philosophers. Dk

| gaze round the world in its utmost diminsion,
Lord John and his minions in Council I ask,

Was there ever a Government pleece (with a pinsion)
But children of Erin were fit for that task?

On the logic of Saxons there’s little reliance,
And, rather from Saxon than gather its rules,
I’d stamp under feet the base book of his science,
And spit on his chair as he taught in the schools.

O false Sir John Kane! is it thus that you praych me?
I think all your Queen’s Universitees bosh;

And if you’ve no native professor to taych me
I scawurn to be learned by the Saxon M‘Cosh.

M‘Cosh remained in Belfast for the next seventeen
years, and then went to Princeton (of which celebrated
university he was president). It was in Belfast, however,
that his most important books were written and his consider-
able reputation consolidated. It is not quite fair to discuss
his philosophy nowadays. Some of his ideas, it is true, are
now more fashionable than they were twenty years ago, but
they are not very likely to recur in the form in which he put
them, and he was neither eminent enough nor enough of a
pioneer to make it likely that future historians of philosophy
will honour him with more than a footnote.

On the other hand he was certainly a very clear writer,
and a most assiduous and successful teacher. I have met
many of his pupils here, and they all concur in this verdict.
IT have no doubt, indeed, that some of my audience here can
vouch for the fact from personal experience. On this
account chiefly I do not propose to say more about M‘Cosh
now. A historian is more comfortable when he is dealing
with remoter persons and events, and this consideration
restrains me even more forcibly from dealing with Ulster
philosophers who are either alive or who have died only

26 Professor John Laird, etc.

recently. I think, for example, of William Graham or of
J. J. Murphy, President of the Linen Hall Library for
twenty years and author of Habit and Intelligence and of other
works: or of my predecessor, John Park, and I am silent.
I shall only venture on one tiny phophecy. At last, after an
interval of centuries, the philosophers of England are be-
ginning to construct what the Germans call a natur-
philosophie, and I venture to predict that when our grand-
children come to estimate the origin of this movement in
twentieth century Britain, they will unanimously place the
name of Mr. A. A. Robb very high.

One other reflection and I have done. The influence of
Ulster in philosophy, as in everything else, cannot be limited
to the work of those who have been born or who have long
resided within her borders. Her children and_ their
descendants beyond the seas must also be counted to her
credit; and I confess that I conceived the idea of writing this
lecture when I read the recently published Letters of William
James. James was a delight to the world. and Ulster gave

him. James’s paternal grandfather—also William by
name—went to America from the town of Ballyjamesduff, in

County Cavan, in 1789. He arrived with very little money
and a latin grammar, founded the salt industry of Syracuse
and amassed so considerable a fortune as to be able to
bequeath a comfortable inheritance to his widow and to
each of his eleven children. ‘‘ When old Billy James came
to Syracuse,’’ the customary old inhabitant said, “* things
went as he wished.”’

Therefore James was an Ulsterman by descent on his
father’s side, and his mother’s forbears were also Ulster
people. His mother was descended from a certain Hugh
Walsh who came from Killingsley (?), Co. Down, according
to James’s Letters (Killyleagh, according to Henry James),
in 1764. All honour then to the province that gave us
William James.

10th January, 1922.

Henry Rippeuu, Esq., M.E., M.I.Mech.E., President,
in the Chair.

“ COMETS.”’
By Rev. W. F. A. Eviison, M.A.

[No Abstract. |

16th January, 1922.

Henry Ripe, Esa., in the Chair.

\
“ MOLIERE.”’’
By Professor Savory, M.A.

[No Abstract. |

14th March, 1922.

Henry RippEewu, Esq., M.E., M.I.Mech.E., President,
in the Chair.

‘“ DRENNAN AND HIS TIMES: FOUNDED ON
FAMILY LETTERS.”

By ALEXANDER RIDDELL.

[No Abstract. |

28 G. S. Robertson on

31st January, 1922.

Henry RippELL, M.E., M.I.Mech.E., President, in
the Chair.
VE USE OF PHOSPHATES IN AGRICULTURE.”’
By G. 8. Rozertson, D.Sc., Head of Chemical Research
Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Northern Ireland.

Agricultural science began in the Nineteenth Century.
In the opening decades the important fact was established
that there are three fertilising elements which must be
applied to the soil in order to maintain its fertility, and
in order that increased crops may be obtained. They are
Nitrogen, Phosphates, and Potash.

The future of agriculture in this and every other country,
tc a very large extent, depends upon the manufacture of these ~
three groups of fertilisers in suitable forms, and in adequate
quantities.

Few realise that agriculture has progressed so rapidly
during the past 80 years that to satisfy the requirements of
- the industry for artificial fertilisers large chemical industries
have been created, necessitating in many cases the establish-
ment of new towns and cities.

The problem associated with the supply of nitrogenous
fertilisers has been solved by the discovery of methods for
utilising the nitrogen of the air. To-day over 44 million tons
of nitrogenous fertilisers are manufactured annually from the
nitrogen of the air; the total value being in the neighbourhood
of 45 million pounds. :

We are not, however, in such a happy position with re-
gard to our supplies of phosphates. It would be difficult to
say when phosphates were first used in agriculture. As far —
back as we can go they seem to have been used in the torm
of bones, which we now know contain in the dry state from
60 to 80 per cent. of phosphate of lime.

The Use of Phosphates in Agriculture. 29

It was not, however, till 1500 that Lord Dundonald estab-
lished the fact that bones owed their value to the phosphates
which they contained, and not, as was then thought, to their
oil or fat content.

From 1800 onwards the use of bones in agriculture grew

with great rapidity. ‘The home supply became inadequate,
and we began to import in very large quantities.
About 1834, Lawes—the first English agricultural chemist
—patented a process for dissolving bones in sulphuric acid
and thus making the phosphate soluble in water. Hitherto
bones had been simply broken into small lumps and ploughed
or rolled into the soil. In such a form they were very slow
in their action, and could be ploughed up after the lapse of
several years apparently unaltered. Lawes’ dissolved bones,
o: bone super-phosphate, contained phosphate soluble in
water, which when applied to the soil could be immediately
utilised by the young plant. So effective was it in its action
that it save a great fillip to the search for bones and England
began to ransack the whole of Europe for supplies. So keen
was the competition that even the battlefields of Leipsic and
Waterloo are said to have been turned over in the course of
the search.

The situation was eased by the discovery of large de-
posits of rock phosphates in Spain, North Africa, the United
States, and certain of the Pacific Islands, and Lawes was
able to continue making his superphosphate by dissolving
these ground rock phosphates, which were found to contain
from 50-80 per cent. of phosphate of lime.

For the next forty years or so the use of Lawes’ super-
phosphate grew rapidly, and as there seemed to be no limit
to the amount of raw rock phosphate which could be obtained
no anxiety was felt with regard to our supplies.

In 1878 a new type of phosphatic fertiliser appeared,
namely, basic slag, and it was the means of connecting agri-
culture with our great modern steel industry.

30 G. S. Robertson on

Steel is made from ‘“* Pig iron,’’ which in turn is made
from iron ore. Our most important deposits of iron ore occur
in the Cleveland district of the North Riding of Yorkshire.
‘T'hese iron ores contain phosphorus, and it was not at first
possible to manufacture steel from them because the phos-
phorus passed into the steel, rendering it brittle and unfit for
industrial purposes.

This difficulty was overcome by two steel chemists,
Thomas and Gilchrist, who devised a process for removing
the phosphorus. They lined the steel furnace with lime, and
also charged lime into the furnace along with the pig iron.
The lime passing through the molten metal combined with
the phosphorus, forming phosphate of hme. This, together
with the excess of lime and other impurities, floats on the
top of the molten metal at the end of the boil as a scum or
slag. The slag, being lighter than the molten metal, is re-
moved by pouring, and on cooling sets into a hard, rock-like
mass.

Ground to a fine powder, so that 80-90 per cent. will pass
a sieve with 10,000 holes to the square inch, this waste pro-
duct from the manufacture of steel by the Basic Bessemer
process became the basic slag so highly prized by the agricul-
tural community. It contained about 40 per cent. of phos-
phate of lime.

At first basic slag was considered to be of little value,
because the phosphates were insoluble in water. Various
attempts were made to dissolve the slag in sulphuric acid,
and so obtain a water soluble phosphate, but the attempt was
abandoned as uneconomical and impracticable.

Two agriculturai experimentors, Prof. Wrightson and
Mr. Munro, persuaded some of the steel manufacturers to
grind some of the waste slag to a fine powder. They applied
it to grass land, and obtained highly-successful results.

These results were amply borne out by experiments in
other parts of the country, particularly at Cockle Park, and
the foundation was laid for the big basic slag industry.

The Use of Phosphate in Agriculture. oa

Last year the British farmer used no less than half a
million tons of the fertiliser.

THE PRESENT Position.

Unfortunately for the farmer, changes in the manufac-
ture of steel began to take place about 1912, and these
changes were hastened by the conditions resulting from the
war.

The new process of steel manufacture enabled the steel
maker to produce his steel more economically; but, alas for
the farmer, it meant a slag containing only half the quantity
of phosphates (20 per cent. instead of 40 per cent.), and one
in which the phosphates were much more insoluble than
previously.

The farmers of the United Kingdom are now faced with
a possible supply of only 40,000 tons per annum of high-
grade slag instead of 400,000 tons.

The agricultural significance of the change is apparent
from a consideration of the figures in the following table:

TABLE I.
Production of Basic Slag in 1920.
Grade. Tons.
1. Over 33% phosphate... ... 46,300
2. 26 to 338% ys aA ... 121,400
3. 22 to 26% us cae ie 190,900
4. 15 to 22% si sie ... 802,500
5. 11 to 15% is wae ... 118,000
6. Under 11% = se 22. 22,000

701,100

It is exceedingly doubtful whether grades 4, 5, and 6
can be profitably marketed on account of their low phosphate
content. The available supply is thus only about 160,000
tons, whereas the demand, which is steadily increasing, is
-approximately 500,000 tons.

It has been estimated that the farmers in Great Britain

2 G. S. Robertson on

and Ireland could use with advantage to themselves and the
community 33,820,000 units of phosphate in the form of -
basic slag, equivalent to 850,000 tons of high grade basic slag
containing 40 per cent. of phosphate. If all the basic slag
containing 154 per cent. of phosphate and upwards could be
used the available supply would only be 13,400,000 units of
phosphate, leaving a deficiency of 20,420,000 units, equiva-
lent to 510,500 tons of basic slag containing 40 per cent. of
phosphate.

It is a matter of great importance to find a substitute for
basic slag, because we now know there are certain soil condi-
tions for which superphosphate is not the most suitable
phosphate to use.

With this object in view, experiments have been con-
ducted during the past few years with raw ground phos-
phates, mined in North Africa, to ascertain whether if they
are finely ground they can take the place of basic slag.

The results from some of these field experiments are set
out in a condensed form in Table 2.

TABLE IT,
ESSEX EXPERIMENTS WITH VARIOUS PHOSPHATES.
WEIGHT OF HAY IN CWTS PER ACRE—PLOTS 4 ACRE IN AREA.
= G8 elie des 8 ae
Te ae 4) SU wg Pi Sie)
Type of Phosphate as Oe ee : He elie eo) 2 e
S™ sss em lat ese se) os
Se eg sia g) Gs
| <x x <x Gl el Ss
Basic Bessemer Slag
(old process slag) Be. | 27.2 | 2010) =40:G. |» 20:4iegOng
Open Hearth Fluor-
spar. Basic Slag
(new process slag) — 21.3 | 16.8) — rae 29.9
Untreated QOB i TOs, |-25/Ole ZO.4) aZOnsm amc,
Gafsa rock Phosphace) 20.5 | 27.0 | 22-2) 26.te 2503
Egyptian do — DESIG OIA = |. 260
Algerian do — BNS6 Bu | BORN ae =F =
Tunisian do a —. | 23.5) 7 aa BON
Florida Pebble Phos- :
phate ... — — |15.0.° — — 28.4.

The Use of Phosphates in Agriculture. 33

The plan followed in the above experiments was to give
each plot exactly the same amount of phosphoric acid (200
lbs. per acre), the only difference being the form in which it
was applied. Only one dressing was given and no other
artificials were apphed. The hay crop on each plot was
weighed for four or five years in succession.

It is quite clear from the results that in some soils—par-
ticularly on grass land—-ground rock phosphates are capable
of giving as good, and sometimes better, results than the best
grades of basic slag.

At one of the centres given in the above table—Horndon
—the experimental plots were grazed during the season of
1919 instead of being reserved for hay. The plots, unfortu-
nately, were not big enough to permit of grazing trials, but as
the differences in the botanical composition of the untreated
plots and the plots receiving the various phosphates were so
striking, a method was devised for determining the percen-
tage of the ground space occupied by the various species.
The results are set out in table 3.

TABLE IIT.

PERCENTAGE OF THE GROUND SPACE OCCUPIED
BY THE VEGETATION ON THE PLOTS AT HORNDON

Bare

ae Type of Phosphate ae a as ie Space

3 Algerian with Phosphate AF AN +201 TA tee

5 Basic Slag (old process) Adil; 25-01, 13-7 | 13-0

6 Untreated .~. ae AD | AO) BLO! | 5O1O

8 Gafsa with Phosphate AN 34103223 | 1 20 8:8

9 Tunician do BOS! 130:0h | 22.0 3:6

12 Egyptian do 55-5 | 41-0 0-7 2:8

16 Untreated do ee OVA WT Qulal 420; On |, A595
18

Basic Slag (new process) | 43.8 | 31-8 | 13-3 | Vrer

34 G. S. Robertson on

The contrast between the figures for the untreated plots
and the plots receiving phosphates is very striking indeed. it
will be noted that the various phosphate have brought about
a revolution in the botanical composition of the heroage, and
that in this respect the various types of phosphate appear to
be equally efficacious. ‘The bare space has become filled in
with clover and so vigorous is its growth when supplied with
suitable phosphates that it is able to crowd out the weeds to a
very large extent. The appearance of three of these plots is
illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. ,

Experiments which have recently been made in the
North of Ireland confirm the results recorded above. Further
experiments, which, it is hoped, will throw considerable light
on the problem raised, are in progress under the auspices of
the Ministry of Agriculture for Northern Ireland.

THE FUTURE.

It is very probable that in the near future we shall be
dependent for our supplies of phosphates upon the deposits of
rock phosphates. The farmer may have these phosphates in
two forms :—

(1) Dissolved in sulphuric acid as superphosphate in
which the phosphate is soluble in water. This is
the quickest acting type of phosphate available.

(2) Finely ground, in which form it is hoped it may
take the place of basic slag which we know is more
suitable to certain types of soil than superphos-
phate.

At present 8 million tons of these ground rock phos.
phates are being mined annually for agricultural purposes.
Tt is certain that the world’s requirements will increase with
creat rapidity, and it is no exaggeration to say that the agri-
cultural prosperity, and therefore the industrial prosperity, of
the various countries will be determined in the future by the
supplies of phosphates which they can secure. In this re-
spect the British Empire is badly off. The United States has

The Use of Phosphates in Agriculture. 35

already taken steps to conserve its supplies, France has con-
trol of the North African deposits—the largest deposits in the
world; whilst, with the exception of the deposits on Nauru
and Ocean Island, the sources of supply within the British
Empire are, as far as we know, insignificant.

_ Just as in the past, we have seen a struggle for oil
supplies, in view of the fact that oil was to play a determining
part in industrial supremacy, so at the present moment we
are witnessing a keen competition amongst the world powers
for phosphates, because there is every prospect of such
supplies becoming of vital importance in the future.

36 ce W: H. Gibson on

7th February, W922.

Henry Rippevt, M.E.,M.I.Mech.E., President,
in the Chair.

‘““ SOME PRODUCTS OF WOOD WASTE.”’
By W. H. Gisson, O.B.E., D.Sc., F.1.C.,; F Inst.P.

ABSTRACT.

The industry of Wood Distillation goes back to very
early times, though the ancients only sought the charcoal
obtained. In Engiand in the Middle Ages there were large
forests in the southern counties, and this was a manu-
facturing district. ‘The timber was used for building and for
the construction of ships, while the waste material was used
partly as fuel and partly to ubtain the charcoal wanted for
iron-smelting.

Charcoal-burning in the old-fashioned way still goes on
in remote districts in Russia and Finland. The wood is
piled round a narrow central shaft, and the mound is
covered with a layer of charcoal and earth. The heap is
lighted in the middle at the bottom. Part of the wood burns
away, but as the access of air is closely restricted combustion
is not complete, and the most of the wood is converted into
charcoal. When the charring is complete the kiln is allowed
to cool down before exposure to the air, as it would other-
wise burst into flame.

The next development lay in constructing the kiln with
« small well underneath the base of the pile, into which tar
could run. The smoke from burning wood in a restricted
air supply contains several different gases, with a quantity |
of tar and an acid vapour consisting mainly of acetic acid,
the basis of vinegar. The desire to recover these products
Jed to the construction of more elaborate kilns, resembling

st 1919.

Augu

€.olag.Plot at: Horndon.

asi

Figz |,

August, 1919.

Fig. I].—Gafsa Rock Phosphate Plot at Horndon.

Fig. J1].--Untreated Plot at Horndon. © August,: 1919.

The Society is indebted to the University Press, Cam-
bridge, for permission to reproduce Figs 1, 2, and 3 from the
monograph by Dr. Robertson on *‘ Basic Slags and Rock
Phosphates. ’’

as “AUG 25

NAL rURAL
1ISTORY

Some Products of Wood Waste. 2)

brick ovens with pipes carrying off the products for con.
densation with water. These were replaced by retorts some
thing similar to those used in the manufacture of coal gas,
and with this type of apparatus we reach modern conditions.
To understand the use of such retorts it is necessary to
have at least a rough idea of the chemical nature of wool
and the reaction that takes place during the distillation.

Wood is essentially composed of the three elements
carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, the approximate analysis
being: carbon, 50 per cent.; hydrogen, 6 per cent. , oxygen,
44 per cent. There are two main constituents in wood,
cellulose and hgenin. Cellulose is known in a very pure form
in cotton, and has a composition of carbon 44 per cent.,
hydrogen 6 per cent., oxygen 50 per cent.; while lignin is
richer in carbon and poorer in oxygen. Both these sub-
stances are very complicated in nature, and their construc-
tion is not vet unravelled. Cellulose, however, seems to be
closelv related to grape sugar, and formule have been
suggested with molecules of grape sugar linked up in various
ways. The main product of the distillation of cellulose is
charcoal, about 39 per cent.; accompanied by water, 34.5
per cent.; tar, 4 per cent.; acetic acid, 1.5 per cent.; and 2
considerable volume of gas amounting to a proportion of
carbon dioxide 10 per cent. and carbon monoxide 4 per cent.

The effect may be broadly described as the removal of
water, accompanied by charring and evolution of carbon
dioxide gas, the tar and acetic acid being by-products.

The lignin gives in addition methyl! alcohol, or wood spirit,
so that it is on the proportion of lignin that the yield of wood
spirit depends. Lignin is also the principal source of the
tar, yielding about 18 per cent. of this material.

The proportions of lignin and cellulose largely determine
the products given by distillation, and these proportions vary
considerably in different trees, changing with the age of the
tree and differing in heart and in sap-wood. ‘The age of the

38 W. H. Gibson on

tree affects also the nature of the charcoal, voung wood con-
taining more sap and giving inferior charcoal, while very
old wood gives charcoal which splits readily and causes loss
in transport. The time of year in which the trees are felled
is of importance, winter felling giving less sap and better
results in distillation. The quantity of moisture present is
extremely important, and it is usual to store the wood for
six months or more, when a fairly constant figure of 20 per
cent. 1s obtained. This enables more regular results to be
obtained.

In the process of distillation, starting from cold up to a
temperature of 270° C., the water contained in the wood is
first driven off, accompanied by gases which are mainly
oxides of carbon, but as soon as the critical temperature is
passed the nature of the gases changes completely, the
oxides of carbon diminishing and being replaced by hydro-
carbons, methane, etc. The quantity of aqueous distillate
also diminishes; the gases are drier; the quantity of tar
increases and its nature is more viscous. Up to 270° C. the
apparatus requires external heat, but from this temperature
the charring proceeds with practically no external heating,
the reaction becoming exothermic, the decomposition spon-
taneous. Up to a temperature of 500° C. the evolution of
hydrocarbon gases increases, while at a higher temperature
the hydrocarbons are replaced by hydrogen. In practice the
carbonisation is stopped and the process finished at 380° to
400° C. If the process is stopped at 400° C. and the retort
closed a further formation of hydrocarbons occurs while
cooling is going on, and oxides of carbon and hydrogen
gradually disappear. When retorts in which the charcoal
is kept to cool are closed during this stage the pressure rises
und the gases inside the retort become 80 per cent. to 90 per
cent. hydrocarbons. This pressure gradually disappears as
the charcoal absorbs the gaseous hydrocarbons, with forma-
tion of solid varieties, the carbon content increasing in the
charcoal by 5 per cent. to 6 per cent.

Some Products of Wood Waste. 39

On the commercial scale of distillation all the stages
mentioned may be taking place at the same time in the one
retort, as the large size of the apparatus does not allow
uniform transmission of heat to all the wood in the vessel.
Some of the wood near the heating surface may be in the
final stage, while part further removed from the source of
heat may be only beginning the reaction. The nature of the
products can be influenced by the method of heating the
retort and by the temperature of the furnace, a high tem-
perature and rapid working giving much gas and less acetic
acid, wood spirit, and charcoal. The design of the retort
used will also influence the results. In small retorts the
radiation from the heated sides is sufficient to keep the
internal temperature differences small, but this is not the
case with the large American and Swedish retorts. With
vertical retorts delivering downwards the lavers at different
levels will be at different stages. When any considerable
portion of a charge reaches the exothermic stage it supplies
toa ‘the remainder so much heat that this portion is brought
with a rush to the distillation stage. There is consequently
a period of violent and copious evolution of gas and distillate
which extends over one to six hours,according to the size of
the vessel.

The practical divisions of the process on the commercial
scale are :—

1. Simple evaporation of water, almost without gases
up to 170° C.

2. Water vapour, oxides of carbon, and some acetic
acid up to 270° C.

8. The exothermic stage, or spontaneous period, with
copious and even violent evolution of gases, hydrocarbons,
acetic acid, wood spirit, and tar.

4. A gentler distillation unti] a temperature of 400° C.
is reached.

40 W. H. Gibson on

5. The period of cooling, with re-absorption of gases by
vhe charcoal.

The first two periods require external heat, but the
third gives out heat and yields the most useful combustible
gases. Arrangements must therefore be made for a rotation
ef work in a number of retorts, that these gases given out
in the third stage may be applied to heat the retorts at the
initial stages of the process. The lower the temperature in
the first period and the slower the addition of heat at the
beginning of carbonisation, the greater the quantity of the
dried wood in the retort and the more violent the action in
ths: third period.

As the reaction after the wood reaches 270° C. is so
rapid the method of firing is such as to prevent complete
drying of large masses at the same time; the drying and the
carbonisation must be run together. This is naturally more
difficult with large retorts. The condensation arrangements
must be planned to cope with the rush of the vigorous periods
by a joint condensing system for several retorts, the heavy
demand of each coming in turn.

The final temperature regulates the composition of the
charcoal obtained.

Wood differs much in composition, even when taken
from the same tree; it varies in water content, in propor-
tions of cellulose and lignin, in the porosity or the sound-
ness of the wood; and these differences are such that the
results of any two distillations are never exactly alike. The
skill or attention of the stoker is also a considerable element
in the final result.

A description of the use of a small retort system often
used in Germany will enable the process to be better under-
stood.

- Two horizontal iron cylinders, each about ten feet long
by’ three feet six inches in diameter, are embedded in

Some Products of Wood Waste. 4l
matsnry, having a furnace between them, and arrange-
ments permitting the circulation of the hot gases from the
fire around the retorts slowly to carbonise the charge of wood.
There is a wide tube: connecting each retort to a tar-
separator, followed by a coil of copper tubes cooled by a
water tank and acting as a condenser for the watery dis-
tillate. The uncondensed gases pass a water seal and then
return to the furnace to be burnt. In the continuous use of
such a plant the charcoal is removed as soon as the opera-
tion is finished, and rapidly emptied into a kind of iron box,
which is closed air-tight, and in it the charcoal is allowed to
cool. As soon as the charcoal is thus removed the retorts
are refilled with billet wood, closed up, and the fire applied.
Within ten minutes the neck of the retort warms up, then
the first distillate begins to pass, accompanied by carbon
dioxide and nitrogen from the air present. Almost at onee
this is replaced by a mixture of carbon dioxide and carbon
monoxide, and the distillate becomes acid, showing that the
wood touching the hot sides has reached the temperature of
carbonisation. The quantity of uncondensed gases increases,
as does also the acid content of the brown aqueous distillate,
with a darkening of its colour through the increase in quan-
tity of tar, while the oxygen containing gases give place to
hydrocarbons and hydrogen. At last the gas evolution
weakens, and the cooling of the retort neck indicates the
completion of the process. The fire is removed, the door
opened, the charcoal removed, and the work begins again.

This dry distillation yields from deciduous trees:

1. Wood gas, of which the combustible portion is
utilised in the furnace.

2. A brown watery liquid. wood vinegar, containing
8. Wood tar, partly dissolved and partly in suspension.

4. Wood charcoal.

Aids W. H. Gibson on

When pine wood is being used there is also given off:

5. <A product floating on the wood vinegar, consisting

of terpenes, products of the dry distillation of resimous sub-
stances.
Typical yields from 100 parts of dry wood are:

Beech—Charcoal, 80 per cent.; acetate of lime, 8 per
cent. ; wood spirit, 2 per cent. : tar, 6 per cent.

Pine—Charcoal, 30 per cent.; acetate of lime, 24 per
cent.; wood spirit, 0.4 per cent.; tar, 20 per cent.; and tur-
pentine, 8 per cent.

The lime acetate is obtained by neutralising the acid
liquor with lime. ‘The gases consist of about 60 per cent.
varbon dioxide, 33 per cent. varbon monoxide, and about 6
per cent. of hydrocarbon gases and hydrogen. At the
vigorous period the composition is about as follows :—
Carbon dioxide, 86 per cent. ; carbon monoxide, 48 per cent. ;
end hydrocarbon gas, 16 per cent. It is desirable to keep
the quantity of gas as low as possible by keeping down the
temperature of carbonisation, to recover a greater quantity
of the methyl alcohol or wood spirit. 'The heat value of the
gases thus derived from one hundred tons of wood is about
equivalent to three tons of coal.

There are some inconveniences and disadvantages due
to the small size of such apparatus, and these are removed
by the use of a later development, the modern oven. This
is much used in America, from which the greater part of
the supply of charcoal and wood spirit is derived. It takes
the form of an iron tunnel fifty or sixty feet long, through
which runs a light railway, which takes the trucks contain-
ing the wood. Five or six of these, containing about tea
tons of the billet wood, are run into the tunnel by the
entrance end, the iron doors are closed, and the heat from
the furnace below the tunnel starts the reaction. Above
the iron tunnel is a brick floor for drying the acetate of lime,

Some Products of Wood Waste. 43
while pipes lead from the top to condensers in the manner
already described, the condensers being at the side of the
plant. When the distillation is finished the iron door at
the other end is opened, and the locomotive drags out the
trucks and carries them into another iron tunnel, where they
are closed up for cooling. As they cross the few feet of
space between the two tunnels the charcoal breaks out into
flame, but the cooling tunnel is airtight and the flames do
not last. It is usual to have a third tunnel, a second cooler,
into which the trucks are removed at the next changing time.
From this second cooler it is taken to the store, where the
charcoal is bagged and sent away. The raw distillate is
allowed to settle in large wooden vats to separate the tar.

In such a factory a large area is covered by stacks of
wood in process of air drving, sawmills for reducing the wood
to billets. stores, redistilling houses, and other buildings.

A further development of plant is found in the Grondal,
or Swedish, system. Here the trucks pass through a heated
central chamber and are admitted and sent out one at a
time. By this means a constant heat is maintained, the
different stages being in operation at the same time. ‘The
retort takes the form of a masonry tunnel about 220 feevr
long, divided into chambers by iron doors. The entrance
compartment is about fifteen feet in length, the charring
chambers about one hundred and thirty-five, the cooling
chamber about fifty-five feet, and the exit compartment
fifteen, all being separated and closed by iron doors. The
heat from the furnace gases is supplied by iron flues. The
volatile products escape from pipes in the roof, and are con-
densed as usual, while the tar drips on the floor and is led
to tanks by pipes. One truck is pushed in at the entrance
chamber, the outer door shut, and all the internal doors open
so that the trueks are all moved forward one length, thus
releasing one truck at the exit chamber. This is repeated
about every hour.

44 W.H. Gibson on

The destructive distillation having been completed, the
products require to be isolated. ‘The wood vinegar contains
from ten to twenty per cent. of soluble organic compounds,
say three per cent. of wood spirit and eight per cent. acetic
acid. A few of the substances found may be named :—

Acids — Formic, acetic, propionic, butyric, valeric,
caproic.

Alcohols—Methy]l, allyl.

Aldehydes—Acetaldehyde. furfurol, methyl furfurol.

Ketones—Acetone, methyl-ethyl ketone, ethyl-propyl
ketone. :

Acetals—Methylal, dimethyl acetal; with ammonia and
amines.

The tar contains a whole series of hydrocarbons and
Phenols. As the weak liquor cannot be profitably trans-
ported it is necessaiy to separate the substances of value at
the works. Acetone boils at 56° C., wood alcohol at 66° C.,
water at 100° C., and acetic acid at 120° C. Fractional
distillation is used to separate the acetone and wood alcohol
from the water and acetic acid, when the latter is neutralised
hy lime and recovered as calcium acetate. Owing to the
presence of so many reactive substances, such as aldehydes,
ketones, phenols, and amines, a troublesome condensation
crroduct is obtained called ‘‘ blister tar.’’ Unless this is
removed it remains mixed with the acetate. This crude
brown mixture contains only about sixty per cent. of calcium
acetate. The crude liquor is allowed to settle in tanks, when
tar separates. This is the useful tar which can be worked
up. The clear, settled liquor is then distilled in a copper
still, when the wood spirit and wood vinegar pass over,
leaving the resinous “‘ blister tar,’’ which is practically
useless. It is either burnt direct, or redistilled to get from
it the last remnant of acetic acid, of which it has retained
about eight per cent. The liquor is then neutralised with
slaked lime and distilled to remove the wood alcohol. The

Some Products of Wood Waste. AS

acetate is evaporated further in a multiple effect evaporator,
then transferred to open tanks above the retorts, and when
it reaches the pasty stage is spread on the drying-floor to
dry. In some modern factories the pasty acetate is taken
up from the tank by a steam-heated drum, drying rapidly,
and being removed by a scraper at another part of the
revolution.

The wood spirit liquor left after removing the acetate is
run through a continuously-acting fractioning still, where it
is completely freed from the spirit, which is again separated
into two fractions, of which the more volatile is a crude
ucetone, containing methy! acetate and other organic liquids.
This is run to storage tanks. The second fraction collected
is wood spirit, about 82 per cent. methyl alcohol, removed at
another level. This is refractioned to about 98 per cent.
The tar is used as a wood preservative, or distilled, the pitch
being removed and creosote being formed, which is used for
curing processes and as an antiseptic.

Wood spirit is used for denaturing alcohol, as a solvent
for varnishes and resins, and in the manufacture of formal-
dehyde, which is used as a preservative and disinfectant, as
well us being a starting point for the manufacture of many
valuable chemicals and dyes.

The acetone fraction, generally called methyl acetone,
is used in many industries as a solvent for collodion, or
cellulose acetate. :

The calcium acetate is used to make acetic acid by
reaction with sulphuric acid and distillation. The uses of
acetic acid are many. It is the basis of vinegar, which is
eften only a solution of acetic acid thus made, with colour-
ing and flavouring matter sometimes added.

The acetates are useful salts; for example, aluminium
acetate is much employed in dyeing and calico printing. The
water-free or glacial acetic acid is used to convert cellulose
into cellulose acetate, which is the basis of one type of

46 W. H. Gibson on
artificial silk, and when dissolved into varnish is used for
varnishing aeroplane wings and is known as dope.

Another derivative is the valuable drug aspirin, in whose
manufacture the acetic acid is used. It is acetyl salicylic
acid. From acetate is also derived the very important
acetone.

These derivatives are often obtained at the wood dis-
tillation works, acetone, for example, being obtained fromm
the acetate by a process of destructive distillation, in which
it is heated to a temperature between 300° C. and 400° C.,
leaving CaCO; behind. Acetone is about the best solvent
for nitrocottons, and is used in the manufacture of celluloid
and cordite. It is the starting point for the manufacture of
chloroform and iodoform. Sulphonal is also derived from
acetone.

Perhaps enough has been said to show that a process
apparently so simple as the destructive distillation of wood
is, when translated into the industrial scale, a most elaborate
and complicated business, and that, although the products
are valuable, the industry is remarkably dependent for suc-
cess on favourable conditions. It is therefore possible that
this method of disposal of wood waste will not survive
indefinitely. Some of the larger pieces of waste may be
worked up into small articles, broom and brush heads, toys,
etc. A cheap source of wood is necessary for the develop-
ment of a toy industry. Larger articles may be built up in
laminated structure, as was done for aeroplane propellers,
and possibly may be applied in many other ways. When
suitable glues are used the built-up article is stronger and
less able to warp than a solid one. Small pieces are con-
verted into wood wool by a machine which cuts them into
fine curly threads, much used for packing pucposes. Wood
waste may also be converted into wood pulp for paper manu-
facture, but at present the immense demand for this materia]
leads to the sacrifice of whole forests. As a fuel wood waste

Some Products of Wood Waste. 47

is, of course, used in woodworking factories. As a source of
heat it has about half the value of the same weight of coal.
In Sweden wood waste mixed with coal has been used for the
eeneration of town gas, and in woodworking factories in this
country and elsewhere it is often used for the generation of
producer gas for power purposes, as much as 35,000 cubic
feet per ton of wood being generated, of a thermal value of
340 B. Th. U.

Much work has been done in the endeavour to convert
wood waste into alcohol, but commercial results have not
been obtained. The process depends on the intermediate
production of grape sugar, and a good vield of this substance
can only be obtained at present by the use of strong acids,
which renders the process too costly. It is, of course,
possible that an economical conversion process may be dis-
covered in the near future, when the great potential value of
alcohol as a substitute for petrol would allow an immense
development.

The products we now obtain by the destructive distilla-
tion of wood may have in the future to fear competition from
synthetic methods. Acetic acid, the main product other
than charcoal, has been made from acetylene, while acetone
has been got by the fermentation of starch with a special
culture of bacteria—a process considerably developed during
the war.

There is no finality in scientific work, and processes
accepted as standard in one generation are obsolete in the
next. Scientific research is being applied to many indus-
tries that formerly were content to depend upon traditional
methods, so that we may expect the coming age to be one of
ereat industrial changes, in which old industries will go and
new ones arise. The processes described must certainly go
unless improvements in methods are effected to reduce the
waste. In the American forest trade only 25 per cent. of the
‘timber cut is obtained as finished lumber, and the waste in

48 W. H. Gibson

making wooden articles from this lumber varies from 30 per
cent. to 65 per cent. Waste has arisen because of the large
quantity of wood available, but this supply is becoming
restricted, and the necessity of economy will be driven home.
In the conversion of wood too much is done by mere rule of
thumb. Chemical investigation will assist in the utilisation
of vast quantities of waste, perhaps for purposes now totally
unsuspected. For example, there have already been several’
methods suggested for the conversion of sawdust into cattle
food. Even in the process of distillation described more
careful investigation and attention to detail may lead to
eonsiderable economy. The rapid decrease of forest area
within reach of transport facilities will compel this attention
to be given, and large economy must somehow be obtained
if the industry is to survive.

Fig. 1.
Big. 2.

Six cuttings of Aucuba saponica, treated with carbon dioxide, showing two with roots and tour other 1

Proceedings, Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, Session 1921-22,

SQA GC...

4 YY

EXPLANATION OF PLATE

callused. Started 23rd November, 1921. Photographed 16/2/22. Oak cuttings in back-grounc |
Six cuttings of Aucuba zaponica, treated with air, show ng one with roots and two others callusec |
Started 23rd November, 1921. Photographed 16/2/22 Oak cuttings in back-ground.

Halt of a leaf of Brvophyvllum calycinnm, treated with carbon dixoide; a. tip of one of the lon,
roots; J. translucent leaf of etiolated shoot. f
Other halt of same leaf, treated with air; a. tips of short roots; @ tops of short roots ; 6. stem an
normal shoot. The bottles in Figs. 3 and 4 were filled up with water for photographing purpose

x
ag
=
ze
Zz

i
i

Proceedings of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, 1921-1922

Friday, 24th February, 1922.

Henry Ripper, M.E., M.I.Mech.E., President,
in the Chair.

JAMES SMALL, D.Sc., F.U.8., M.B.I.A.,

Professor of Botany, Queen’s University, Belfast.

MORE ABOUT THE ERECTNESS OF PLANTS.

—— ee

It has been established since 1806 that the influence of
gravity is the usual cause both of the upward growth of the
shoot and of downward growth of the root. The region in
the root, which is sensitive to gravity, has been shown to lie
at the extreme apex, while the region of actual curvature lies
a few millimetres up from the root-tip, coinciding with the
region of greater growth. It has further been shown that in
many cases the shoot has similar regions of sensitiveness at
the tip and of curvature lower down, although the stem
frequently exhibits sensitiveness for the larger part of its
length, especially in seedlings. Since the beginning of the
present century gravity has been generally considered to act
on root and shoot by displacing certain loose starch grains
or other movable heavy bodies in the cells of the sensitive
region. The puzzle of the opposite directions given to root
and shoot by this spar uniform cause has, however,
remained.

In the previous lectures on the erectness of plants * a
theory was given which accounts for this difference of
direction and some experiments were described, the results
of which are in accordance with that theory.

*See Proc. Belf, Nat. Hist. & Phil. Soc,, 1920-1921, p. 91 sqq.

50 | James Small on

The theory as originally stated may be briefly sum-
imarised as follows:—Protein-fatty particles, suspended as
an emulsion in the celi, carrying an electropositive charge in
the root and an electronegative charge in the shoot, were
supposed to cream upwards in the cells which are sensitive
to gravity. This creaming of charged particles was then
supposed to give rise to electric currents flowing in a more
or less circular path, passing along the under side first in the
root and along the upper side first in the stem. This current
would be subject to leakage; the path is not properly
insulated and shows a high resistance. Its effects would,
therefore. be greater'in the side through which it passed
first, and by the loss of turgidity in the affected cells, one
effect would be a slower rate of growth in the more affected
side. Thus the under side of the root and the upper side of
the stem, when stimulated by gravity, would grow more
slowly. This in its turn would lead to downward curvature
in the root and to upward curvature in the stem.

The direction of curvature is, according to this theory,
governed by the direction of the electric current, which is
governed by the sign of the electric charge on the moving
particles, which is governed in its turn by the relative acidity
_ or relative alkalinity of the protoplasm. The relative acidity
or alkalinity is in its turn governed largely by the percentage
of carbon dioxide in the cell, a quantity which depends upon
both the breathing of the cell and upon the amount of sugar-
building or photosynthesis which is going on. The latter
process uses up carbon dioxide, while respiration increases
the amount present.

For the details of the theory and experiments I refer you
to the published account of my previous lectures, but in
order to refresh your memories I now show a few lantern
slides (some of which are given in the plates illustrating the
above-mentioned account) of roots which have turned up at
the tips in dilute ammonia vapour; of stems which have

More About the Hrectness of Plants. 51

turned down in acetic acid vapour and in excess of carbon
dioxide, and also as the result of being coated with vaseline
and kept in the dark in order to retain the carbon dioxide of
respiration.

THE CriticaL Point ror REVERSAL.

Having proved that the reversed curvature in excess of
carbon dioxide is really a geotropic phenomenon, by means
of rotation on a klinostat, Miss M. J. Iiynn, M.Sc., investi-
gated carefully the action of varying percentages of carbon
dioxide on the geotropic curvature, and found that with
10.3% or more the stem of seedling sunflowers always turned
down; while with 7.2% or Jess they always turned up. In
the table given below from The New Phytologist, Vol. XX..,
p. 119, it will be seen that with 9% six turned up and two
down (Expts. 20-21). The seedlings used in No. 20 had been
grown in bright light, with photosynthesis active and _ all
available carbon dioxide being used up; when these seedlings
are taken as not quite norinal compared with the others
grown in dull light, the critical percentage of carbon dioxide
for normal seedlings falls to 9%. Similarly the two seedlings
in Expt. 27 were grown in very dull light and may be taken
as abnormal; then all other seedlings in 7.76% or less turn
up in the normal way. This variation in the critical percent-
age of carbon dioxide, for reversal of the direction of geotropic
response in the stem of seedling sunflowers which have been
grown in various intensities of light, indicates that photo-
synthesis plavs an active part in determining the reaction or
hydrion concentration of the stem within certain lmits.1
This will become more apparent when we discuss helio-
tropism and its reversal.

pet ert — — = 7 =

1 Miss Lynn’s work has been published in some detail in The New Phy/ologisé,

Vol, XX,, 1921.

Date of

experiment

SO} 00 Se Sere OO ie

Ist Dec.

11th Feb.
llth Feb.
17th Jan.
19th Nov.
11th Feb.
25th Nov.
30th Nov.
19th Jan.

1st March =

27th Jan.

22nd Nov. a

21st Jan.
7th Feb.
7th Feb.
20th Jan.
21st Feb.

18th April ...

1st Feb.

14th March .

ist Feb.

14th March
23rd Feb. ...

10th March

11th March
16th March
21st Feb.
17th Feb.

15th March >
25th Feb. ..
25th Feb. ...

14th Feb.
15th March

James Small on

seedlings

—
WNWWMNINWDMNWON N HDAN ANNAN KROWUNNOONWRWWONT

TABLE I.

Number of Per cent.
seedlings ue aoe CO, Tempera-
showing Bee (by ture °C
curvature oo analysis)
5 down 4000 33 14
(C90 7000 32 12
Dip gis 7000 29.7 12
Siseen 4000 26 13
S55 4000 25 14
CS 7000 22 12
Byes 4000 20.9 14
7 99 9000 20 13
nee 4000 19.6 13
Hg 7000 18 12
Zina 9000 16.8 14
5 4000 1fi 14
D 45 4000 14.5 13
Sees 7000 14 1t
Sea 7000 loro Tul
22 Pag 5500 12.6 14
2. 99 7000 10.5 13
fh. 9p 7600 10.4 14
2 hs 4000 10.3 18
6 up 7000 9 14
2 down 4000 9 14
7 up 7000 8.2 14
4 cove 7000 8 14
Bok cou ilee 22080 7.9 13
7 up 6250 7.76 15.5
Be 7000 7.6 14
2 down 7000 7.4 14
9 up 7000 V2 14
eon 7000 Coll 14
5; 6250 7 14
8 ,, 9000 6 14
his 7000 Som, 13
$,, 7000 5.2, 14

More About the Hrectness of Plants. ee

I.XTENSION OF REVERSAL OF GEOTROPIC RESPONSE OF STEMS
TO REPRESENTATIVE SPECIES.

Although Miss Lynn had obtained reversal in the
seedlings of Clarkia elegans, and of Antirrhinum in addition
to those of the sunflower, it was not certain that this reversal
would occur with all species and with mature stems.
‘herefore, Miss M. W. Rea, M.8c., undertook an investiga-
tion of other species. She extended the experiments, using
the same method as employed by Miss Lynn without, how.
ever, analysing the atmosphere in the bell-jars to check the
percentage of carbon dioxide as the fact of reversal was the
point under investigation. The time taken for downward
curvature to appear was noted and the angle made with the
horizontal was measured with a protractor. The material
included seedling stems, the upper parts of mature vegetative
shoots and flowering shoots. Each specimen was placed
horizontally in excess of carbcn dioxide and left in the dark.
A total of 190 species were investigated ; of these 179 showed
reversal of the normal upward response to a greater or lesser
degree ; while 11 failed to show curvature at all. In all these
eleven species control specimens laid horizontally in fresh
air showed no curvature. These results are still under con-
sideration, but in order to give you some idea of the scope of
the work I give a list of the farnilies represented and ot some

of the more definite results :—

Ranunculaceae—14 species belonging to 8 genera, including

Anemone nemorosa, curved 70° in 4 hours in 30% carbon

dioxide,
Aquilegia vulgaris, Ce 5c a ae gl a” 5
RONUNCULUS QUTICOMIS, «45° 4.4 4 5 BOM
i repens NY AORN ae ae BOC n oa
Trollius europaeus, SCD VAL) ok TOMA) OF rach a

Papaveraceae—2 species belonging to 2 genera.
Fumariaceae—Dicentra sp.

b4 | James Small on
Crucilerae—15 species belonging to 15 genera, including

Arabis sp., curved 380° in 1 day in 30%
Cheiranthus Cheiri, sine RIE tay gs LN oth ot eee CS
Cochleana ojicmalis, = 30° Wei Sere ees
Iberis amara, 7. 40°. A hours S450.
Lepidium sativum, Ran oe eens rene AUN),
Matthiola incana, Serko” cof lyidayertaaies
Cistaceae—Helianthemum sp.
Violaceae—Viola tricolor.
Polygalaceae—Polygala vulgaris, curved 10° in 1 day in 50%
Caryophyllaceae—9 species belonging to 6 genera, including
Cerastium vulgatum, curved 30° in 1 day in 45%
Lychnis dioica, ot 4070. de ehours men 0.
Stellaria media, dias outs hee Se ae a 76

Hypericaceae—Hypericum, 4 spp.

Geraniaceae—Pelargonium sp. (hairy var.)
curved 45° in 1 day in 30%
do.- (smooth) ~ ,;* =30° 3 4 honms. 43.076
Tropaeolaceae—Tropacolum sp.
Limnanthaceae—Limnanthes sp.
Leguminosae—8 species belonging to 6 genera, including
Lotus corniculatus, curved 45° in 1 day in 50%
Lupinus sp., pe o0 ae Srdavisa yacore
Trifolium dubium, 2 802 a a homns ove
iW pratense, JC NBD (ade Oes
Rosaceae—8 species belonging to 6 genera, including
Alchemilla vulgaris, curved 45° in 4 hours in 60%
Geum sp , ih 1D a5) Ledaly, S etowe
Pyrus aucuparia, > 90°) 4 hours 4159.
Saxifragaceae—4 species belonging to 2 genera, including
Heuchera parviflora, curved 90° in 4 hours in 50%
Ribesiaceae—Ribes, 5 spp.
Crassulaceae—Sedum Telephium.
Begoniaceae— Begonia sp.

More About the Hrectness of Plants. be

Oenotheraceae—38 species belonging to 2 genera, including
Epilobium montanum, curved 45° in 1 day in 45%

Umbelliferae—9 species belonging to 9 gensra, including
Oenanthe crocata, curved 45° in 8 hours in 45%
Myrrhis odorata, on BD ee ebuday es BO%

Caprifoliaceae—Sambucus nigra.

Rubiaceae—2 species belonging to 2 genera.

Valerianaceae; Valerianella olitoria.

Compositae—18 species belonging to 15 gencra, including

Bellis perennis, curved 75° inl day in 30%
Chrysanthemum -Parthenium, ;, © 90° ,, 4 hours.,, 45%
Hieracium Pilosella, Wee ae CON ae AU dian hy wool
Hypochaeris radicata NOE ees Oke tun re MS OG
Senecio vulgaris ea 4 amen Water oNniee rs \ 0
Tussilago Farfara, He aed (Sok a eR ers 8

Campanulaceae—Campanula, 2 spp.
Plumbaginaceae—Statice, 2 spp.
Primulaceae-—2 species belonging to 2 genera, including
Primula vulgaris, curved 30° in 1 day in 30%
Oleaceae—Ligustrum vulgare.
Gentianaceae—Gentiana acaulis (flowering axis).
Apocynaceae—Vinca minor.
Asclepiadaceae—Asclepias curassivica,
Polemoniaceae—2 species belonging to 2 genera, including
Polemonium caerulewm, curved 90° in 1 day in 50%
Boraginaceae—5 species belonging to 4 genera, including
Symphytum officinale, curved 90° in 4 hours in 50%
Buumonaria.opecimalis,: “Ci 007.) .4'. 0, .., bO%
Solanaceae-——3 species belonging to 2 genera, including
Solanum dulcamara, zurved 40° in 3 hours in 45%
Scrophulariaceae—7 species belonging to 4 genera.
Labiatae—8 species belonging to 7 genera, including
Salvia officinalis, curved 80° in 4 hours in 45%
Ajuga reptans, Peo wet Ao Ole SB(9G
Plantaginaceue—Plantago, 4 spp.
Chenopodiaceae—Atriplex, 2 spp.

56 James Small on

Polygonaceae—Rumez, 3 spp.

Urticaceae—Urtica (flowering axis) curved 380° in 2 hours
in 60%

Kuphorbiaceae—Huphorbia lucida.

Araceae—Arum maculatum.

Gramineae—Zea Mays.

Liliaceae—8 species belonging to 7 gensra, including

Hyacinthus sp. curved 40° in 4 hours in 80%
Scilla verna, Sy £bSs day. ie B876
Tulipa Gesneriana, jo 45°) 4 hourcmans O96

Amaryllidaceae—Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus, curved 30° in
1 day in 80%
Orchidaceae—3 species belonging to 2 genera, as follows
Listera ovata, curved 90° in 8 hours in 45%
Orchis: maculata, We) 907 Ban aie
Orchis mascula, ;, 45° |; loday %. 4oK5

The list is sufficient to show that we can now generalise
with some safety, and say that any plant which shows
negative geotropic curvature under normal conditions will
probably show reversal or positive geotropic curvature in
excess of carbon dioxide. It is, perhaps, needless to state
that the curved sterms in all caces were turgid, and that the
downward curvature was a positive active movement, not a
drooping passive movement of a flaccid structure. Indeed,
one of the most surprising features of these experiments was
the freshness of stems which had been for days in an
atmosphere which it has been usual to describe as toxic;
many of the species remained fresh much longer in excess of
carbon dioxide than in ordinary air.

MISCELLANEOUS INVESTIGATIONS.

A study of the responses of Phaseolus, the French bean.
has been made by Miss F. M. Adams, M.Sc. The main
stem was found to show the usual reversal of the direction
of geotropic response in 30% carbon dioxide. This piant,
however, also shows what are called sleep movements. Hach

More About the Hrectness of Plants. ay,

ieaf-stalk and each stalk to the leaflets has a pulvinus or
cushion of special tissue at its base, and movement takes
place at these points. The main stalk of each leat and the
leaflets all droop in dark, rising again in light, with a daily
periodicity which continues for a day or two even when the
plant is kept continuously in the dark. These normal move-
ments are controlled partly by gravity (which determines the
direction of the movement) and partly by light (variations in
which initiate the actual drooping or rising). It was found
that the addition of 20% carbon dioxide caused the leaves tc

assume the night or dark position, but further experiments
are required to show whether this is an enesthetic effect or

an effect of change in hydrion concentration. These are

being carried on.

It is “‘ common knowledge ’’ that carbon dioxide in
excess retards the growth of stems, and further experiments

are being conducted on the degree of retardation in varying
percentages of that gas by Miss Rea and the writer with
simple auxanometers magnifying 24 times. These are still
unfinished, but the results to date show that with 5% carbon
dioxide there is little or no retardation in the dark, while in
the light there is a distinct acceleration of the rate of growth
in stems. With 30% carbon dioxide there is a retardation
after the first few hours even in the presence of light, and
this becomes more distinct when the plants are kept in the
dark. 1

I Since this lecture was delivered the acceleration of the rate of growth in the
sunflower stem, which was noted in light with 5 per cent. carbon dioxide, has been
conclusively proved to occur in darkness during the first hour of exposure to the gas in
any percentage of carbon dioxide from 10 per cent. to 100 percent. The subsequent
retardation begins during the second or third hour and has been confirmed during the
fourth hour for all percentages above ten. The effects of percentages below ten have
still to be investigated. The initial acceleration by carbon dioxide of stem growth in
darkness lasts for at least thirty minutes. This phenomenon may be correlated with
the change in geotropic response noted by Miss M. J. Lynn (p. 26), and may be
regarded as due to increased acidity in an already acid, positively geotropic tissue.

58 | James Small on

These experiments on stem growth are to be correlated
with work by Miss I. Finnegan on the rate of growth of roots
in carbon dioxide. The apparatus used is a modification
(whereby a higher degree of aceuracy can be obtained) of a
simple root auxanometer which was devised and described
by Professor W. Neilson Jones.2 The results obtained,
although they vary considerably, tend to support the idea
that the rate of root growth is accelerated by excess of carbon
dioxide. All these investigations are still in progress, and
the results are mentioned to-night because some of you may
be interested in what we are, at the moment, working upon.

REVERSAL OF HELIOTROPIC RESPONSE IN STEMS.

In the report of the previous lectures (op. cit., p. 98)
under the heading of “‘ Another Cause of Erectness in

Plants ’’ certain preliminary experiments by Miss I.
Finnegan, M.Sc., on the reversal of normal heliotropic
curvature were mentioned. This investigation has been

carried to a point where we can now be positive about the
fact of reversal, but there rernains a number of points to be
investigated before the theory of the direction of heliotropism
being governed hy the percentage of carbon dioxide in the
stem can be considered proved in detail. Several methods
were adopted in the attempt to get conclusive results. The
chief points to notice in the tabular summary below are—1l.
slit light constant ’’ means that the sunflower seedlings
were exposed in a bell-jar to continuous illumination; 2. the
seedlings were placed erect at first, but, since it has been
shown that seedlings of sunflower turn downwards in more
than 10% carbon dioxide, they were afterwards inverted to
avoid the possible error due to reversed geotropic response.
In the last series of experiments they were placed horizontal
and kept for three or fours hours in the dark so that they
might attain geotropic equilibrium before being stimulated
by light.

2. Annals of Botany, XXXIV., p. 555, October, 1920.

More About the Erectness of Plants. $9

TABLE II.

| vesults
Per cent. of Total No. of WRC ree aes Rasta Taha UES oy Tea moo -
Methods Boe | Seedlings | Gace. Nile Curved
; | away ' towards
La Seedlings erect. 16 to 45 | 12 | 8) | 3 0
| Percent. CO, not
| analysed Sht hght
constant | |
es ee aioe nu 8 fa
B. Seedlings erect. | 4.6 to 5.9 | et 0 | 0 | A
| Percent. CO, 7.5 to 9.1 | 30 | 10 | 3 17,
| analysed Slit light | 10.4 to 42.1) 89 | 32 24 33
constant
ites aU a i
C. Seedlings erect. | 13.1 to 26.7 | ai 0 4 17
_ Per cent. CO, 27.4 to 33.7. 24 19 D 0
| onalysed. Shit light |
| for Luour, then dark
jeeensb bites zi Seales Beg B Lae ES Gis PAS ESE
| | Hl | |
: 1D. Seedlings inverted) 19.6 to 28.3 | VW 0 | 4 if |
| Per cen. CO, 29.4 to 35.1 35) 11 | 2 0
ana ysed. Shit light
for 1 hour, then dark
we = —j/— soos Se wa a
EK. Seedlings inverted) 21.9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5
per cent. CO, 25.4 | 3 | 3 ) 0
| analysed. 5-4 hours |
dark, then 2 hours |
light, then dark
F. Seedlings | 5.2to16.9 ~° 54 | 8 Pace a
| horizontal. Per cent. | 18.2 to 31-1) 38 17 | 6 | 15
CO, analysed. |
| 3-4 hours dark, then | |
slit light constant

60 James Small on

In the first series, A, every curvature was reversed, but
the seedlings, being erect in more than 10% carbon dioxide,
would have curved in any case. The results indicate, but do
not prove, that the direction of response to light has been
reversed, otherwise some of the seedlings would have curved
downwards but towards the light.

In the second series, B., these conclusions are supported
by the increasing proportion of the seedlings turning away
from the light with increasing concentration of carbon
dioxide. In both these groups, however, there seems little
doubt that, during the continuous exposure to light, photo-
synthesis used up the internal carbon dioxide and interfered
with the heliotropic response.

In the third series, C., the exposure to light being
limited to one hour, the disturbing action of photosynthesis
is more or less eliminated, with the result that all curvatures
in more than 27% of carbon dioxide are reversed.

In the fourth series, D., the disturbing effect, if any, of
positive geotropism in the stem is eliminated by the inversion
of the seedlings. Photosynthesis is also eliminated as far
as possible. ‘The result is the reversal of aj! curvatures in —
tore than 29% of carbon dioxide.

In the fifth series, E., the seedlings were given three or
four hours in the dark in which to settle down in the excess
of carbon dioxide, with the result that the percentage of
carbon dioxide necessary for reversal is apparently reduced
from 27—29% to something below 25.4%.

In the sixth series, 1'., the results again show the
disturbing effect of photosynthesis with continuous illumina-
tion.

Further experiments are being conducted which indicate
that the intensity of the illumination has a distinct effect
on the percentage of carbon dioxide required for reversal.
Most of the experiments in the table were carried out during
the dull winter days in a rather dull window; this may
account for the close approximation (25 to 29% of carbon
dioxide) of the results in the series C., D. and E.

More About the Erectness of Plants. 61

The theory upon which these experiments are based is
given briefly in The New Phytologist, Vol. XIX., p. 275,
1920.

THE STIMULATION oF Roor PRopuction By Actpic Menta.

I have Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour’s permission to tell you
of the work on this subject, which was begun at the Royal
Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, by himself and Mr. Lawrence
Stewart. The idea occurred to Professor Balfour on
perusing that section of my textbook which deals with acid
root and alkaline shoot, and with the kind permission of the
Edinburgh workers Miss Lynn and I have extended the
investigation in the new greenhouses of Queen’s University.

The idea underlying the work can be described very
briefly. If the root is an acid structure, root-production in
the striking of cuttings should be stimulated by acidic media.
Oaks are not known to have been propagated by cuttings
until recently, when at Edinburgh oak cuttings were induced
to strike root by the rather special methods in use there.
The percentage of successes even after ten months was very
iow but, when the cuttings were watered with the acidic
supernatant fluid obtained by soaking peat in water, the
pereentage of successes became very high and the cuttings
struck root in about two months. This work is being con-
tinued by Mr. Lawrence Stewart.

At Qnueen’s we have some 1.500 cuttings mostly
arranged in ten groups, each group being treated differently.
These have as yet given no definite results, but they are all
of species which are known to be very difficult to strike. We
have also 50 rose cuttings, in groups of ten; watered
periodically with-—l. cold water; 2. hot water, about 60°;
3. cokd dilute acetic acid, 1 in 1,000; 4. cold dilute acetic
acid, 1 in 10,000; 5. hot dilute acetic acid, 1 in 10,000.
These cuttings are all inserted loosely in coconut fibre
which retains the moisture weli and is very slightly acid in
itself. Within three weeks two cuttings struck root,’ and
these were in the lot which were being watered with hot acid.

62 James Small on

Within six weeks eight cuttings out of the ten in hot acid
had struck root, while the other sets showed not more than
from one to four cuttings with roots.

Another test was made with cuttings of Chrysanthemum
sp., of which eleven were treated with hot water alone, and
rine with hot dilute acetic acid. Within one week seven out
of the nine in hot acid had struck and the other two struck
during the following week. Of the eleven in hot water only
two struck during the first week and another one during the
second week, while the rest failed altogether. It seems
clear, therefore, that root development in cuttings is stimu-
lated by acidity of the medium in which they are set,
especially if the temperature be raised temporarily. 1
THE STIMULATION OF Root PropuctTion BY CAarBoN DIoxIDE.

The work on cuttings described above is purely a search
for a method by which propagation of plants by cuttings on
a commercial scale may be rendered more rapid and more

1. Since this lecture was delivered certain other results have been obtained.
Using the same four boxes as before and watering periodically with the different fluids
we have obtained the following :—-

| cae oy onan oe Gait we Rooted ise!
| | i tOugs OnOIye))
Plant Number {Cold Water Ho Water! Acetic | Acetic
pate See Ss a pi ene. i Acid Acid
Privet Cale ea 2 | 6 (less eran er
| | healthy) | (healthy).
Rhododendron... 10 | | 2 | 2 | 5
cece ie aN | 3 | aes | fo) | 2 |
| |
| otalsi ae. 40 | 8 | Ss el 18 :
| ° | | | |

A once sceptical chemist has also reported the following—‘* Two dozen * Japonica’
cuttings were put in earth in the open on 21st March. One dozen were left to be
watered by rain; the other dozen were watered twice with 3-4 parts of ordinary
vinegar in 200 parts of warm water. On the 2nd of May the first dozen were all
dead, while 9 of the second dozen had struck root and seemed quite healthy.

Many other cases of successful “striking’ of cuttings from shrubby plants in the
open, after watering with acid water (three teaspoonfuls of ordinary vinegar to the
gallon of tepid water), have also been reported. Vhe writer will be glad of notes on
any amateur work done along these lines, especially with shrubs which are difficult
to strike,’’

~ More About the Erectness of Plants. 63

certain ; but, from the standpoint of the theory of differentia-
tion of root and shoot in their reaction or hydrion concentra-
tion and the control over that factor exercised by carbon
dioxide, certain other experiments were indicated as being of
purely scientific value.

Cuttings of the oak and of the spotted laurel (Aucuba
japonica) were inserted through holes in sheet cork fitted into
the tops of two flat museum jars. The cork fitted closely,
all holes being sealed with plasticine, and each jar was fitted
with two tubes by which water and gases could be passed in.
- Water was run in until it just reached the tips of the cuttings,
and it was kept at that level throughout the experiment.
Then air was drawn through the space between cork and
water in one jar, while pure carbon dioxide was draws
through in the other jar. This “* aeration ’’ was continued
for about fifteen minutes, and repeated at weekly intervals
for one month. ‘The oak cuttings have stil! failed to show
any signs of striking, but after one month five of the six
Aucuba cuttings treated with carbon dioxide showed good
callus, and two of these had sent out roots; of the six Aucuba
cuttings which were treated with ordinary air one had sent
out two roots with little callus, and none of the other five
showed any signs of callus or roots. (Figs. 1 and 2, Plate I.)

Another experiment was carried out with Bryophyllum
calycinum, the American life-plant. <A single leaf was taken
and cut carefully in two up the centre of the midrib. One
half was suspended with its tip in water and carbon dioxide
was drawn into the bottle through two tubes in the cork as
before. The other half was suspended in the same way and
treated with ordinary air. In air nothing happened during
the first month, but in carbon dioxide two sets of long roots
were developed from two of the lower notches of the leaf
margin. Two weeks later two small, but healthy, deep green
shoots with corresponding short roots were developed on the
half leaf in air; while by that time more long roots had grown

64 James Small on

from the same two notches of the half leaf in carbon dioxide,
and one corresponding shoot had grown out from one of the
notches. This shoot was of the shade type, with pale green
colour, large thin Jeaves and longer internodes than in the
eontrol. Further growth only emphasised the difference
between these two sets. No shoot has yet arisen from the
first group of roots to develop in carbon dioxide, while the
stem of the other plantlet shows quite long internodes, and
the shoot has a general appearance of etiolation. The roots
of the plantlets in air remain short, and the stéms also are
still short with numerous dark green leaves and short inter-
nodes. (Figs. 3 and 4, Plate I.)

These two sets of experiments on the influence of carbon
dioxide on the development and growth of roots are, of
course, not conclusive, but they tend to support the general
position, and further work on these lines is in progress.

More About the Krectness of Plants. 65

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL.

The Hydrion Differentiation Theory of Geotropism was
first published im Apri, 1920, and in the following month
two papers appeared which have important bearings upon the
theory.

The first is ‘“ Studies on the Reaction of Plant Juices,’’
by A. RK. C. Haas,1 of the University of Wisconsin, who
deterrmiined the actual acidity of parts of various plants.
ixpressed as PH numbers (which increase with decrease in
acidity), his results with medium red clover are :—Leaves
6.19-6.02, tops 6.12-5.04, roots 5-92-5.82. Then he heads a
paragraph with ‘‘ Is there a gradient of reaction in plants ?”’
and gives the following data as “° the actual acidity deter-
minations of the juice taken from different portions of the
same plant ’’—

; Reaction Part of. Plant:

8.00 Upper 3 inches of the tops, stem, leaves
and buds.

7.04 Leaves and petioles of reinainder of tops
(no stems).

6.68 Stems to about 2 inches above the soil (no
leaves).

6.46 2 inches of lower part of stem and 2 inches
of upper part of root.

5.82 Root: 6-inch portion below the. upper 2

inches of root.

Mhe: second. is a paper.in the Journal of General
Phystology- tor: May,-1920;: by. Jacques Loeb on.© The
reversal of the sign of the charge on protein membranes, ”’ in
which it is demonstrated experimentally that there is a
change in the sign of the electric charge on protein mem-
branes with a change in the hydrion concentration of the
surrounding medium beyond the iso-electric point of the
protein used. Later papers in the same Journal by the same
author extend this proof to protein particles.

—

1, Soil Science, Wolume IX, No. 5--May, 1920,

66 James Small on

Two points of importance in the theory, namely the
acidic root-tip and the alkaline stem-tip, and the change in |
the sign of the charge on the protein, received experimental
support within a month of publication.

Criticism has, of course, abounded, but has reached
print only in a few cases. In fact, I at one time considered
the issue of ‘‘ A Guide to Critics,’’ for no one seems to realise
more than I do iust how many points in connection with the
theory still call for experimental evidence. As a theory it
has already justified its publication, firstly on acccunt of the
experimental work to which it has been a guide, and secondly
on account of the attentioa which has since been given to
hvdrion concentration in plants.

The first criticism published was by Professor V. H.
Blackman, who suggested that the hypothecated
““ creaming ’’ could not be effective on account of the small
size of the ultramicrogcopic ’’ particles. This was
answered fully in the following number of the same journal,
the New Phytologist (June, 1921), where it was pointed out
that the size of the particles could be taken as much larger
than was supposed in the criticism, and that the creaming of
such particles might, theoretically, be effective. My critic
replied to this with an arguinentum.ad populum which has
no scientific value, and need not be discussed.

The second criticism was by Professor J. H. Priestly in
Science Progress for December, 1921. He intervened in the
controversy to point out that the creaming was not absolutely
necessary, since a delicate membrane such us occurs in the
cell might have a different electric charge in different media,
and might be sensitive to the change in hydrostatic pressure
produced by turning the plant. Apart from the great
similarity in the height and width of the cells in question,
the membrane would require to be sensitive to the difference
between 1 in about 600,000 and 13 in 600,000 if
hydrostatic pressure were to be effective. But this sug-
gestion may be helpful in another way, since it is possible

More About the Erectness of Plants. 67

that the loose starch grains, known as statoliths, falling upon
the delicate charged membranes may produce electric
currents of stimulation which would pass in different
directions according to the sign of the charge on the
membrane. Work on these lines is proceeding.

A third criticism has appeared (New Phytologist,
December, 1921) by R. Snow which, although rather con-
fused, is easy on the whole to answer, with a theoretical
answer to a theoretical! criticism. The value of the theory,
of course, lies in its practical experimental results. Snow
first supposes a single cell to be isolated, and then, comparing
this with a Voltaic cell set up with terminals unconnected,
says there can be no current. The cells are, however, never
isolated in nature, and the surrounding tissue is usually a
conducting path for any current present. He next questions
the statement that Bose found in stems and roots currents
of the required kind, and suggests that if any current does
cccur it will flow in the opposite direction ** to that required
by Professor Small.’’ This part of his criticism seems to
be based upon an assumption that the original theorist was
unaware of the direction of flow of the current in an ordinary
Voltaic cell. However, in the brief quotation of the results
reported by Bose due aliowance was made for the direction
of the flow being from negative pole to positive pole in the
cell or from electro-positive element to electro-negative
element in the Voltaic cell, as well as for other still
undiscussed points, such as the relative resistance of tissue
and wires in the experimental arrangements used by Bose in
his investigations of the poteutial differences in plants.

On one point he frankly asks for information. It has
been supposed that the current will produce a greater effect
in that side of the organ along which it flows first “‘ on
account of the resistance in the circuit.’’ The resistance as
measured is as much as 10,000 ohms for a length of one
millimetre. With such a high resistance there are various
theoretical possibilities, any one of which may prove to be

68 James Small on

the acting cause, or the various factors may act together,
their effects being increased by subsidiary phenomena; to
mention only one ocr two possibilities—there may be an
usyinmetric current density on account of the presence of
more free liquid outside the.cells, or for other reasons, such
as the leakage of the current through the endodermis into
the pith or into the conducting strands; there may be a
capacity effect similar to that shown by submarine cables,
bringing a time factor into the flow of the current. When
there are so many alternative explanations, direct investiga-
tion is preferable to a balancing of theoretical possibilities.

The last part of his criticism I have entirely failed to
understand. One or two extracts may make the reason for
this apparent. “* The chief scurce of difficulties is surely the
practice of speaking of ‘currents’ in tissues.
in a state of nature, though it is evident that such must
occur, by local short-circuiting through cell-walls or other
paths.’’:1 ‘* Such currents must, in fact, occur if the two
points at different potential are connected also by tracts of
conducting tissue . . . the resulting currents will be
circular, flowing in one directien along the one path and in
the other direction along the other ’’ (cp. the diagrams of
the supposed path of the current in previous accounts cf
the theory). There may be something in this beyond a re-
affirmation of the original standpoint of the theory, but I
really fail to see it.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE HypbDRION
DIFFERENTIATION THEORY.

1. The essential difference between shoot and root in
their responses to gravitv and to light is proved to be one cf
relative acidity and alkalinity. This is demonstrated by the
experimental facts—

(a) the curving of roots upwards in an alkaline

atmosphere,

1, he Italics are mine,

More About the Erectness of Plants. 69

(b) the curving of shoots downwards in an _ acidic

atmosphere,

(d) the extension of this phenomenon of reversal of
normal gravity-curvature to the stems of a
large number of cther species,

2. It has been proved that there is a difference in
electrical conductivity between the upper and under sides of
a root which has been stimulated by gravity.

3. Since even the experimental observations of the
chief plant electro-physiologists, Bose and Waller, are not
universally accepted, the hypcthecated currents have still
to be demonstrated, together with their supposed effects.

4. It has also stili to be demonstrated either that
particles which are electrically charged do cream. in the
sensitive regions or that the impact of the statoliths on
aifferently charged membranes gives currents opposite in
direction. Indeed, beyond the points given in paragraphs
1 and 2, the whole of the hypothecated mechanism of gravity
perception and response has still to be investigated
experimentally.

5. Geotropism has been described by one critic as “* one
of the most obscure of physiological phenomena.’’ One
cannot, therefore, expect to solve to the point of experi-
mental demonstration all the problems connected therewith
in one set of experiments; but it may be taken as a hopeful
sign that the first points for which we have obtained exper-
mental proof have led almost immediately to a practical
application which promises to ve of considerable value.

70 HE. E. Fournier d’Albe on

7th March, 1922.
Henry RIppE.u, Esq., M.E., President of the Society,
in the Chair.

“THE OPTOPHONE: AN INSTRUMENT FOR

READING BY EAR.”
By HE. E. Fournier p’Auge, D.Sc. (Lond. & Birm.).
Aci Sey, MOR AL y evanasteley:
Honorary Member of the Society.

The problems presented by blindness can be approached
along several different lines. The physician will endeavour
to prevent the diseases giving rise to blindness. The
opthalmic surgeon will cure blindness by operation in cases
which do not transcend his skill. The philanthropist will
mitigate the evils of blindness by means of special educa-
tional facilities and by the provision of remunerative employ-
ment.

To-day I wish to direct your attention to certain more
radical methods of approach, which are based upon the
fundamental principles underlving all sense perception.

Physiologists inform us that the retina of the eye con-
sists of skin containing nerve endings specially adapted to the
perception of hight. The general sensibility of the skin is
modified so as to react to ether waves instead of bodily con-
tacts or heat or cold. The sense organs are, it appears, mere
modifications of the ordinary skin, and, in their original
forms, they are mere depressions in the surface of the skin,
lined with a finer skin sensitive to ether waves (eye), air
waves (ear), or to the chemical properties of gases (nose), and
liquids (mouth) respectively.

Bearing this in mind, we may conclude that the most
direct way of replacing one of these senses, if lost, 1s to trans-
late its action into terms of some other sense, preferably the

The Optophone: An Instrument for Reading by Ear. 71

sense which is most closely allied to the lost one. Thus, if
light could be made audible, and if sound could be made
visible, we should be in a position to replace the eye by the
ear and the hearing by sight, and the problems both of blind-
ness and deafness would be practically solved.

We have thus reduced the problem to a problem of
physics. It is the physicist whose business it is to study the
properties of sound and light, and it is to him we must look
for methods of translating one into the other. It is, there-
fore, very appropriate that I should describe to you one solu-
tion of the problem of blindness in this building devoted to
the study of physics, the most fundamental of the exact
sciences.

The difficulty which confronts us at the outset is the
enormous disproportion between the rapidities of sound
waves and light waves. If an ordinary light impulse could
be slowed down so as to last a whole second, an ordinary
sound wave, slowed down in proportion, would last 200
million years !

It is, therefore, quite futile to hope to make the ear
directly sensitive to light waves. Not that the ear is in-
‘sufficiently sensitive—it is actually as sensitive as the eye,
the minimum energy required to stimulate either sense organ
being approximately the same. But in order to translate
light into sound we must find some intermediate link.

Such an intermediate link is found in electricity. Minute
electric currents can be made audible in a telephone. So our
problem reduces itself to one of producing electrical effects
by means of light.

There are various ways of doing this. The thermo-couple
or thermo-electric cell converts radiant heat into electric cur-
rent. The “‘ photo-electric ’’ cell,’’ consisting of a “* retina ”’
of colloidal potassium or rubidium mounted in a vacuum and
connected with a battery gives a minute current when
illuminated, a current which varies in close proportion with
the illumination.

Ht. . Fournier d’Albe on

wT
N

But there is one substance which transcends all these a
milhionfold in efficiency, and that is the light-sensitive variety
of the element seleniuin, discovered by Berzelines a hundred
years ago. The discovery of its light-sensitive properties was
not made until 1873, and then it was discovered by accident
in Valentia Island, in the County of Kerry, in connection
with some work on transatlantic telegraphy.

Selenium, even in the allotropic form which conducts
electricity, has a high resistance. The selenium tablet (some-
times called a “* selenium cell ’’) must therefore be designed
so that the conductivity is as high as possible. This is done
by having numerous conducting elements bridged over by
short bridges of selenium. The best method is to coat a plate
of unglazed porcelain with graphite and inscribe upon it with
a diamond a fine zig-zag line cut through the graphite into
the porcelain. A conductivity of some 5 °° micro-mhos ”’ per
centimetre of line may thus be obtained, giving, with 100
volts, a current of half a milli-ampere. This current may be
doubled or trebled by suitable illumination. As a square inch
plate is sufficient to contain a zig-zag line of a total length of
20 centimetres, we cau thus ootain a current of some 10
milliamperes, or a“ useful ’’ current due to light of the same
amount or more.

As modern instruments go, this is the sort of current
with which inany things can be done. A small current may
be amplified a thousand times by means of relays, so that in
the end we may produce quite formidable effects by means ci
a ray of light alone.

Thus, we may use a beam of light to produce an electric
current through selenium. ‘This current may work a relay
which switches on a stronger current, and that current may
be used to, let us sey, spring a mine. Such an experiment I
can show you now. TIT have here a small model of a search-
light which I can turn in any direction I please. I shall
throw the beam across the Lecture Theatre on to a selenium

The Optophone: An Instrument for Reading by Ear. 3

tablet in circuit with a relay. You can see the beam travel-
ling across the room, and as soon as it lmpinges upon the
selenium there is the loud report which tells us that the
mine’ has been exploded. .(Demonstration.) There
would be no doubt in the bind man’s mind that the light had
been shining on the selenium !

The light can also be made to ring a bell (demonstration)
and to act in numerous different ways. But searchlights are
not the kind of thing that a blind person would ordinarily
wish to discover. Most visual appearances are of much
smaller intensity. and they require more delicate apparatus
to bring them home to the ear.

A method of making ordinary lamplight and daylight
‘ audible ’’ is illustrated by the diagram (Vig. 1). It repre-
sents what electricians call a ‘“‘ Wheatstone Bridge ”’ ar-
rangement of four conductors, two of which (Se.) are otf
selenium, wlule the remaining two are of eraphite (Ce
There is also a variable resistance shown as a zig-zag line,
connected by a movable arm to the battery in the centre.
The outer covers are joined through a telephone receiver (‘T’e. )
and a clock-work interruptor.

TA E. E. Fournier d’Albe on

The instrument acts as follows:—In the dark, the re-
sistances of the two selenium tablets (Se.) are equal, and s9
are the two carbon resistances (C.). As a consequence, there
is no current in the telephone circuit, and the interruptor,
maintained by clockwork, produces no sound in the tele-
phone. If now one of the Se. tablets is illuminated the
balance is upset, and a current traverses the telephone and
becomes audible by virtue of the interruptions (a steady cur-
rent is inaudible in a telephone).

The various parts of the instrument are packed in a case
resembling a camera (Fig. 2), only the telephone being out-
side the case, as it has to be worn on the head.

FIG. 2.
I devised the akove instrument in 1912 while at the

University of Birmingham. A gifted blind man in Birming-
ham used it for finding lamps and windows, and was even
able to count a number of nurses in a row by listening to the
sound produced by their white aprons!

Certain heads of institutions for the blind represented to
me, however, that the instrument was of little practical
utility to the blind, and so I was obliged to make further re-
searches with a view towards finding something undeniably

The Optophone: An Instrument for Reading by Ear. 7G

useful. The result, after a further two vears’ work, was the
Type-reading Optophone, which, at all events, enables totally
blind persons to read ordinary printed books and newspapers.

The essential parts of this instrument are a revolving
perforated disc of the type known as a Siren disc (Fig. 2)
and a perforated selenium tablet. The disc revolves some 30
times per second in front of a linear source of light extending
from the centre of the disc to its rim. The line of light is thus
broken up into five dots of intermittent flashes, with a fre-
quency of from 600 to 1,200 flashes per second. These
frequencies are of the order of musical sounds, and the five
dots represent the scale of Soh, Doh, Re, Mi, Soh. All these
notes, sounding together, form a discord, but if the Re is
emitted a common chord is formed.

DiGH 3.

The line of ‘‘ musical dots *’ having thus been obtained,
the remainder of the construction is mainly devoted to throw
the line of dots upon the type to be read, and to let the letters

76 Ht. EH. Fournier d’Albe on

pick out various notes which will enable us to recognise them
by their sounds. |

A system of lenses is designed in such a manner that a
small image of the line of dots or “ scala ’’—just sufficient
to fill up the letter /—is thrown upon the type to be read,
This has to be done from below, as only thus can we hope
to arrange bound volumes for reading. The ilustration (Fiz.
4) shows an upright cohamn which contains the dise and the
system of lenses. This column or °° tracer ’’ swings on the
lower axis. The top of the tracer holds the perforated
selenium tablet which moves through an are of about 8 inches
close to the type, but separated from it by a bent glass cover.
Books and newspapers can be clamped on this cover. The
movement along the line of print takes place under the action
of a spring and is governed by an oil governor which can be
adjusted so as to read the line in anything from 3 seccnds to
3 minutes.

BIG? 4

A friction clutch or a rack-and-pinion device are used for
changing to the next line, and this change can be adjusted to
any line interval used in printing.

The Oplophone: An Instrument for Reading by Ear. vi

A simple displacement of one of the lenses enables the

reader to adjust the size of the ‘‘ scala’ to fit any ordinary
type used in books or newspapers, and this adjustment can
be made by ear alone.

The first public reading demonstration with the Opto-
phone was given at the British Scientific Products Exhibition
in August, 1918, by Miss Mary Jameson, of South Norwood,
who is blind from birth. An unknown page was selected
from a book by the Chairman (Sir Richard Gregory), and
Miss Jameson read a line from that page without a mistake,
including punctuation. The speed of reading at that time
was about 2 words per minute, but Miss Jameson has
steadily increased that speed by practice, until her present
speed is over 40 words a minute with ordinary reading mat-
ter. Miss Jameson is also the heroine of a remarkable
exploit in Paris—that otf reading unknown french print—-

aecents and all!

In 1920 the late Sir Arthur Pearson, Bart., and Captain
Jan Fraser arranged for a test course of instruction in. Opto-
phone reading at the National Institute for the Blind in
London. The pupils selected were Mr. Emblen and Miss
Mabel Green. Of these, the latter made the best progress.
She is totally blind, and holds the speed record for Braille
reading. She is also an expert typist and shorthand writer.
I think I cannot do better than quote from the report of the
examiner (Mr. H. Stainsby), as published in St. Dunstan’s
Magazine. Mr. Stainsby reports as follows :—

‘“T have’tested Miss Green’s reading on the Optophone
or seven different -occasions, each test being of thirty
minutes’ duration and on ‘ unseen matter.’

(1) Extract from ‘ Heroes cf the Darkness,’ eighty-five

words in thirty minutes, say three words per minute.

(2) Extract from leading article of Daily Telegraph, sixty

words in thirty minutes—two words per minute,

78 EK. EH. Fournier d’Albe on

(8) Extract from ‘ Optimism ’:— |
Test (a) Highty-nine words in thirty minutes, say
three words per minute.
Test (b) Seventy-eight words in thirty minutes, say
two-and-a-half words per minute.
Test (c) Sixty-four words in thirty minutes, say two
words per minute.
(4) Extract from ‘ The World I Live in,’ sixty-five words
in thirty minutes, say two words per minute.

(5) Extract from ‘ Pier’s Plowman Histories, Junior,
Book II.,’ 119 words in thirty minutes, say 4 words
per minute.

‘“ Tt will thus be seen that the average speed is under
three words per minute. Although slow the reading was ac-
curate, very few words being unread or miscalled. Short and
easy words of frequent recurrence were read with compara-
tive ease, the reader evidently taking the word as a whole
without analyzing into letters. This is borne out by the last
test, which was from a junior school book in everyday Eng-
lish. Long and uncommon words, particularly those con-
taining little used letters as ‘z,’ caused much delay and
consequently brought down the averages. Towards the close
of a test the reading became slower, demonstrating the fact
that until it becomes mechanical it will be tiring. This was
obvious in the last test, when Miss Green read the first
twenty-four words in four minutes, or six words per minute.
This condition exists in a very marked degree in tactile read-
ing, learners always being recommended to take their lessons
in small ‘ doses.’

‘* Notwithstanding this, I am assured by Miss Green
that she does not experience any tired feeling. Further, she
assures me that the process of listening neither prevents her
from grasping the full import of what she has read nor
detracts from the enjoyment which she ordinarily gets out of
reading.

The Optophone: An Instrument for Reading by Ear. "9

‘“ Miss Green manipulated the instrument quite un-
aided, and occupied less than two minutes in placing her
book in it ready for reading.

“I am informed by Mr. Emblen, the other Optophone
student, that my tests, while perfectly fair, do not do justice
to Miss Green. This is doubtless due to the fact that exami-
nations of all kinds rarely show the examinee in the best
light.

‘“ In preparing this report I have had two main issues
in mind, all others being in my judgment quite subordinate
to these two. The first is, can blind people read ordinary ink-
print matter? The reply to this is emphatically yes. The
second is, can they read at a speed which would make it
worth their while to adopt the Optophone as a reading instru-
ment? On this point I have already shown that speed is
slow, but as a set-off against this it should be borne in mind,
first, that no one has had adequate practice upon it, and
secondly, that the right type of learner has not been tested.
After mature consideration I have come to the conclusion
that tests should be made on young children in a school for
the blind, and that the same facilities should be afforded
them as for tactile reading. In the latter this period extends
over a number of years, and fluency is only attained after
long practice. While I am inclined to think that tactile read-
ing will be more easily acquired than reading by means of the
Optophone, it must be borne in mind that the literature avail-
able through the former is relatively small, but through the
latter world-wide and unlimited.’’

This report, though very favourable to the Optophone,
leaves the question of the maximum speed attainable unde-
cided. The speed observed by Mr. Stainsby has already,
within twelve months of the publication of his report, been
exceeded more than tenfold, and I see no reason whatever
- why the speed of reading a page of print by ear should fall
short of the speed obtainable by ordinary eye-reading. The

oO EB. EH. Fournier d’ Albe

only real handicap is in turning over the page, which involves
removing the book and re-inserting it. |

But I think we can say that the problem of blindness, as
far as reading is concerned, is now definitely solved, at least
as regards print and typescript.

In conclusion, Iam able, through the kindness of the

Gaumont Co.’s “* Around the Town
film of the Optophone in action at the National Institute for

’ Editor, to show you a

the Blind. This film had the honour of being shown before
their Majesties last year on the occasion of their visit to the
Karl of Derby. The last scene shown is Miss Green reading
a book by ear, copying it on her typewriter, and correcting
her own typescript by reading it over in the Optophone—a
performance which marks a distinct epoch in the history of
achievement by the blind.

Annual Meeting. SI

ANNUAL MEETING.

10ist SESSION, 1921-22.

The Annual Meeting of the Shareholders and Members
for the past session was held in the Museum, College Square
North, on the 14th November, 1922.

Mr. Henry Riddell, M.K., M.I.Mech.E., President of
the Society, occupied the chair, and among those present
were :—FProfessor Gregg Wilson, O.B.H., M.A., D.Sc.,
PhD., M.B.I.A.;-Councillor E. J. Elliott, Messrs.. H. C:
Lawlor, M.R.I.A.; J. M. Finnegan, B.A., B.Sc.; T. Edens
Osborne, F.R.S.A.1.; Wm. Faren, F.R.S.A.I.; W. B: Bui-
rowes, F.R.S.A.I.; J. G. Grogan, James Loughridge,. A.
Milligan, 8. Turner, and P. J. M’Mullan, J.P. Apologies for
absence were announced from Sir Charles Brett, L1..D.; Dr.
S. W.. Allworthy, M.A.; and’R. M. Young, M.A., M.R.IA.

The Chairman called upon the Hon. Secretary to read
. the report of the Council, which was as follows :—

The Council has pleasure in submitting its report on the
work of the Society during the past session.

OBITUARY.

Unfortunately we have to record, with regret, the death
of the following shareholders and members :—
Edward H. Clarke.
Sir Wm. Crawford. J.P.
K. Stanley Jones.
Henry Musgrave, O.B.E.. DL.
David C. Patterson.
John Sinclair, D.I..
John Workman, J.P.

82 Annual Meeting.

MEMBERSHIP.

Your Council is glad to intimate that there has been a
steady increase of Members under the new subscription
scheme, thus justifying the step the Society took in creating
a new class of membership in 1914. In that year there were
only 182 Shareholders and Members. At the end of the ses-
sion covered by this report there were over 300 Shareholders
and Members.

During the present session your Council unanimously
decided to elect the following gentlemen Hon. Members of
the Society, making the list of these up to seven :—

Sir Charles Brett, LL.D.

Robert Magil! Youne, J.P MoAS? Nein AS
F.R.I.B.A.

Fournier dAlbe, Disc, (lond “& ‘ira eves.
@iond?)| S\N ia AS

LECTURES.

While the lectures have not been so numerous—only
eleven as compared with sixteen in the previous year—yet all
of them were important and much appreciated by the Mem-
bers and their friends. (Cn each oecasion they were weil at-
tended. The session was opened on the 5th October, 1921,
by Professor J. Arthur Thomson, M.A., LL.D., F.BR.S.E.,
who delivered an instructive lecture entitled ‘° The Conquest
of Land and Air: a Study in Natural History,” in the
Assembly Minor Hall. On the 16th January last a special
lecture was given in French by Professor Savory, M.A., to
commemorate the tercentenary of the great French dramatist
Moliére. The second portion of the session was opened in the
Assembly’s Minor Hall by an interesting lecture on
‘“ Comets,” delivered bv the Rev. W. F. A. Ellison, M.A.,
of the Armagh Observatory ; while our new Honorary Mem-
ber, Dr, Fournier d‘Albe, kindly gave a special address in

Annual Meeting. 8 3

the Physics Lecture Theatre at Queen’s University on ‘‘ The
Optophone,’’ an instrument which the lecturer had in-
vented, and which enables totally blind people to read
ordinary print.

A complete list of the lectures and lecturers appears on
pages 114 and 115.

COUNCIL THANKS.

The Society 1s again indebted to the Vice-Chancellor of
Queen’s University (the Rt. Hon. the Rev. Thomas Hamil-
ton, M.A., D.D., J.L.D.) for the use of Lecture Theatres at
the University for those lectures requiring experiments, and
also to the Chairman (Alderman 8S. TT. Mercier, J.P.) and
Members of the Technical Instruction Committee. for the use
of rooms in the Municipal College of Technology.

The Council desires to express its sincere thanks for the
facilities so willingly rendered, and for the co-operation exist-
ing between these Institutions and the Society.

The Council also wishes to thank the lecturers for their
assistance, and the local Press for the continued interest it
takes in the Society’s meetings.

TRISH NATURALIST.

In order to assist the ‘‘ Irish Naturalist,’’ which is the
organ of the various Natural History Societies in Ireland, and
which, like many other scientific magazines, had suffered
financially during the war, the Council felt that it was only
right that we, as the senior Society in Belfast, should give a
subscription and donation amounting to seven pounds. ‘This
has been duly acknowledged and much appreciated, |

84 Annual Meeting.

EXCHANGES.

Your Council continues to receive in exchange, from
home and foreign societies, valuable publications which con-
siderably augment the Society's Library. So important has
become the Library and so inadequate is the space available
for the additions that your Council gladly agreed to an ap-
plication from the University authorities for the loan of a
selection of pamphlets and publications. The University
undertakes to permit access to the loan by Members of the
Society and to return it when required.

ARMOUR PLATE.

The Steel Armour Plate which has formed such a strik-
ing object at the Museum entrance since 1889, on loan from
his Majesty’s Dockyard at Portsmouth, has now been pre-
sented to the Society by the Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SECTION.

A separate report will be submitted by the Hon. Secre-
tary of the Archaeological Section (Mr. H. C. Lawlor,
M.R.1.A.), at the Annual Meeting of the Sectional Members,
which will be held during the month. This report will be
printed in the proceedings. The Section deserves to be con-
gratulated upon the amount of practical work it has been able
to accomplish during the session.

HON. TREASURER’S STATEMENTS.

Our President (Mr. Henry Riddell, M.F., M.I.Mech.E.),
who is also Hon. Treasurer of the Society, will submit the

financia) statement,

Annual Mecting. 8 6

COUNCIL MEMBERS.

Jn accordance with the constitution of the Society five
members require to be elected to the Council, in place of the
following Members who retire by rotation, all of whom are —
eligible for re-election :—-Sir Charles Brett, Dr. 5S. W. All-
worthy, Messrs. Wm. Faren, T. Edens Osborne, and Arthur
Deane. |

HON. TREASURER’S STATEMENT,

The heaviest expenditure during the past year has been
for printing and advertising. This is an outlay which the
Society will feel is repaid by the interest taken in the proceed-
ings circulated, and the effect on the numbers of our Mem-
bers. It is expected that a considerable reduction will be
found in the cost of this service for the coming year.

_ Attention is drawn to the fact that there is a good
balance in the hands of the parent Society credited to the
funds of the Archaeological Section. A detailed Statement
of Accounts as passed by the Government Auditor appears
on page 107.

ADOPTION OF REPORTS.

_ Professor Gregg Wilson, in moving the adoption of the
report, which was cordially passed, congratulated the Society,
and more particularly the Hon Secretary, on the satisfactory
nature of the work done. He commented favourably on the
grant to the ‘* Irish Naturalist.’’ It was the only magazine
of the kind published in Ireland, and it would be a disgrace to
the whole of them if it were allowed to die. _ Scientific pub-
lication was expensive and not properly appreciated. Mr.
Lawlor and his colleagues of the Archaeological Section were
to be sincerely congratulated on the brilliant and practical
work they were doing.

86 Annual Meeting.

Councillor M!liott, in seconding, said citizens and visitors
alike had been greatly pleased Ly the lectures. He was only
sorry that the grant to the ‘‘ Irish Naturalist ’’ could not be
larger. The importance of the work by the Archaeological
Section was indicated by references he had seen in American
and Spanish journals.

HLECTION OF COUNCIL MEMBERS.
sir Charles Brett. Ll DD Sw. Allworthy, M.A.,
E\G.S.; Messrs. T, Edens Osborne. F.R.S: A.I.; Wim: Faren,
F.R.S.A.1., and Arthur Deane were re-elected Members of
the Council for three years, on the proposition of Mr. W. B.
Burrowes, seconded by Mr. G. O’Searle, B.Se.

VOTE OF THANKS.

Mr. H:. C. Lawlor, M.R.1.A., moved a vote of thanks to
Mr. Henry Riddell for his services during the past year as
President of the Society, which was seconded by Mr. T.
Edens Osborne, F.R.S.A LL.

Resolved—‘‘ That the Society desires to place on record
their high appreciation of the services of the Hon. Secretary,
Mr. Arthur Deane, during the past vear, and hereby desire
to convey to him their warmest thanks.’’ Moved by H. C.
Lawlor, seconded by Professor Gregg Wilson.

“WUNIpPUI NT *yeyses) JouUy pue ‘IIMO [| punory “yoiny7) jo MITA [PI9UIT)

HOIWSAM “f CU

Fas polALy brraranm tlaniancr 1woHArrrinacnaiirtsy mrw Lrasarry wrmiwy ey 1¢CVTTA co

Q
|

SAG LAF EM RE TES
iy xa ahi
BY Gans | If } mal

| MUSEUA

;
,
|

Archaeological Section. 87

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SECTION.

The sixth annual general meeting of the Archaelogical
Section was held in the Old Museum on Monday, November
27th, at 4 p.m. The attendance of members was large.

Sir Charles Brett, LL.D., the Chairman, briefly referred
to the increased interest that was being taken both by the
members and the general public in the work of the Archaeo-
logical Section. The renovation and repair of the ruins of the
ancient Celtic Monastery of Nendrum, on Mahee Island,
had received wide notice in the Press, not only in the local
papers and the ‘‘ Irish Times,’’ but in the principal English,
Continental and American papers. This widespread interest
augured well for the future prosperity of the Section.

Mr. Henry Riddell, President of the Society and Hon.
Treasurer, submitted his Annual Report; as a special fund
had been raised for the work at Nendrum he would deal with
the genera! finances and this special fund separately. The
actual money at credit of the ordinary account was £98 13s
7d. Subscriptions for the opening season, together with the
subsidy from the parent Society, interest, etc., would amount
to about £40, so that the section would have about £140 in
hand. Of this, £100 had been voted towards the work at
Nendrum, and would be transferred to that fund in due
course. Dealing with the special fund, a sum of £387 8s 7d
had been received in subscriptions (a list of the Subscribers
appearing as an appendix, pp. 109-113): sale of tickets for the
two excursions which had been organised amounted to £48 2s
4d, making the total receipts £485 11s 11d. The expenditure
came to the following:

James Lowry, contractor, for labour
and materials, £312 2s Od; cost of excursions (train fares,
chars-a-banes, etc.), £88 15s 2d; advertisements, including
publication of subscription lists, £27 17s 6d; travelling ex-
penses, postages, photography, lantern: slides and miscel-
laneous, £28 2s 11d; total—£406 7s 7d; leaving balance of
£29 4g 4d, to which had to be added the £100 voted bv the

88 Archacological Section.

Section, making a nett sum of £129 4s 4d in hand for com-
pleting the work at Nendrum, which it was hoped would be
recommenced in the coming spring.

Mr. H. C. Lawlor, M.R.1.A., Hon. Secretary, presented
his Annual Report of the past season’s work. He said that
the Executive Committee had held three meetings during the
season, at which all the members, except one, attended re-
gularly. They had also visited the work in progress at Mahee
Island, in which all had taken the keenest interest. Subs:
members of the Archaeological Section had resigned, but a
large number of new members had been introduced, the total
‘nembership being now over 100. He then gave a detailed
interim report on the work carried out at Mahee Island,
which will be found on pages 92—106.

The following were elected as office-bearers for the
coming season :—

Chairman: Sir Charles Brett, LL.D.

Hon,,» Treasurer: Mr, -. Henry = Riddell ih,
M.I.Mech.E., President of the Society.

Hon. Secretary: Mr. H. C. Lawlor, M.R.1.A.

Executive Committee: Mr. Arthur Deane, M.B.J.A.
(ex officio), Canon Carmody, Messrs. W. B.
Burrowes, T. E. Osborne, Godfrey Ferguson,
C.E.; Fergus Greeves, J. Theodore Greeves, I.
A. -Eleron, : Di; and - 1, - 8) Awepper LN
F.R.Hist.S.

The Hon. Secretary, in conformity with notice duly
given, explained that in his opinion the income of the
Archaeological Section arising from subscriptions was not
sufficient to enable the Section to carry out a programme of
work commensurate with the importance of its objects, and
moved ‘‘ That the annual subscription to the Section be in-
creased from 5/- to 10/-, commencing with the Session 1923-
1924.’’ As several members were strongly opposed to this,
the motion was withdrawn.

Archaeological Section. 89

he Hon. Secretary called attention to two further
items on the agenda of which he had given formal notice as
follows :—

To consider the advisability of abbreviating the name of
“The Archaeological Section of the Belfast Natural History
and Philosophical Society,’’ and passing a recommendation
to this effect to the Council of the Society ; and

To consider the possibility of reviving either in its old
form, or under some other name, ‘‘ The Ulster Journal ot
Archaeology.’’

He said he thought there were strong reasons why the
name of The Archaeological Section of the Belfast Natural
History and Philosophical Society should be altered. In its
present form it was exceedingly long and cumbersome; at the
same time narrow. Its membership was practically confined
to within a radius of a few miles of Belfast, and the reports
of its proceedings had an exceedingly limited circulation. He
would like to rope in all Ulster Archaeologists and raise the
standard of the Section from that of a mere department of
wu purely local society to that of at least provincial standing.
There are hundreds of archaeologists throughout Ulster, to
say nothing of the rest of Ireland, who hardly ever more than
hear of the Natural History Society, or know that it has an
Archaeological Section, much less see the Annual Reports.
He had no wish to break off or alter the present happy re-
lations between the Section and the venerable Society of
which it was a branch, and he though there was nothing to
prevent it remaining affiliated with the Natural History
Society while abbreviating the name to the ‘‘ Ulster Archaeo-
logical Society,’’ at the same time making a strong effort to
bring in as many members interested in archaelogy all over
Ulster as possible. If this could be carried out he thought
in time the old Ulster Journal of Archaeology might be re-
vived, either under its old name or some other. He formally
moved the following resolution :

gO Archaeological Section.

‘That in the opinion of this meeting it is advisable to
abbreviate the name of ° The Archaeological Section of the
Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society ’ to the

Ulster Archaeological Society,’ without altering in any
Way its existing relationship to the Parent Society.”

Mr. Henry Riddell, President of the Society, strongly
opposed the motion. He said that it was quite open to the
Section to form itself into a new Society if it saw its way
to do so, but that it could not be a Society or Association and
still be a Section of the Natural History Society. It must
either continue as it was or be an entirely separate, although
friendly, entity. In that case he would go so far as to say
that the Natural History Society would discontinue its finan-
cial contribution towards the funds of the Section if the
proposed change were carried out.

Colonel Berry, M.R.I.A., expressed his sympathy with
the idea the Hon. Secretary had in view, and wished to sec
the Archaeologists of Ulster, of whom there were very many,
roped in to the Archaeological Section, so that its scope might
be broadened and the interest in its work be widely extended ;
but he did not think that this end could be achieved by the
means suggested by the Hon. Secretary. He did not see how
an Ulster Archaeological Society or Association could be any-
thing but a separate entity, and remain a section or branch
of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society.

Mr. W. B. Burrowes and Mr. T. E. Osborne also spoke
to the same effect, and on the advice of the Chairman, Sir
Charles Brett, the Hon. Secretary withdrew the motion.

On the question of the possibility of the revival, under
its old name or some other, of the “* Ulster Journal of
Archaeology,’’ Canon Carmody said that while in sympathy
with the idea, he was afraid that there could not be got to-
gether material in Ulster to keep such a publication alive for
more than a limited number of issues. If it could be guaran-
teed that sufficient original research work would be forthcom-
ing to supply material for such a publication, he would

Archaeological Section, gi

support it as far as he could, but he would not advise a re-
suscitation of such a publication under the old name. The
First Series of the “’ Ulster Journal of Archaeology ’’ he said
was conducted purely as such, but the Second Series gradu-
ally deteriorated, so far as archaeology was concerned, until
it ceased to be an archaeological publication at all. He would
let the old name rest, and if material were forthcoming for
w new publication, let it be called “* The Ulster Archaeo-
logist,’’ or ““ The Ulster Antiquary,’’ but he was doubtful if
material would be forthcoming.

Mr. R. J. Welch was strongly opposed to the word
“ Journal ’’ appearing in any publication of the sort. He
beheved that an “* Ulster Antiquarian Magazine,’’ embracing
archaeology, folklore, genealcgy, heraldry, topography, and
even geology, would appeal to thousands of readers in
America and the Colonies if properly edited and advertised.
He was in hearty support of some such publication being
organised.

Sir Charles Brett, agreeing with Canon Carmody,
doubted if there could be sufficient material of a purely
archaeological nature forthcoming to sustain for any length
of time a new archacological publication, but suggested that
a sub-committee be appointed consisting of Colonel Berry,
Messrs: BR: J. Welch, H.-C. Lawlor, W. B. Burrowes, A.
Deane, and himself, to consider the whole matter and report
to the Executive Committee at a later date.

This suggestion was unanimously agreed to. Votes of
thanks to the office-bearers brought the meeting to a close.

92 Archaeological Section.

IntTERIM Revort on WorK oF REPAIR AND PRESERVATION OF
THE Ruins or Nenprum Monastery,
MAHEE ISLAND.

Myr. H. C. Lawlor, M.R.I.4., Hon. Secretary, explained
that but for the scholarly researches of that famous archaeo-
logist, the late Bishop Reeves, no one to-day would have
known even of the existence of Nendrum. Just eighty years
ago he undertook the work of editing that portion of the
Taxation Roll of Pope Nicholas IV. which relates to the
Dioceses of Down and Connor and Dromore, and every
student of Irish Antiquity knows the value of that stupendous
work, and the care and knowledge of his subject displayed in
Reeves’ Heclesiastical History of Down, Connor and Dro-
more, a work which is the foundation of probably nine-tenths
of all we know to-day of the early history of the Counties of
Antrim and Down. That Taxation Roll is still preserved in
London, and it is to be hoped that another Reeves will yet
arise to edit the remainder of the Roll, which relates to the
other Irish Dioceses. |

Before Reeves’ time the existence of Nendrum was coin-
pletely unknown, to say nothing of its locality. Certain
writers confused the references to it in ancient writings with
Aendruim, or Antrim; others thought these references ap-
plied to a site on the Copeland Islands; it rested with Dr.
Reeves to unravel the historical tangle made of the subject
by previous writers. The result of his work is best seen in
« pamphlet he read before the Down and Connor Architec-
tural Society in 1845. This booklet is now exceedingly scarce,
but has been, fortunately, reproduced in the Ulster Journal
of Archaeology, 2nd Series, Vol. VIII., which is easily ac-
cessible. |

When Dr. Reeves visited Nendrum in 1844 nothing re-
sembling ecclesiastical remains were visible except the stump
of what was locally regarded as an old lime kiln; it was in
practically the same condition as it remained up to the time

Archaeological Section. 93

the recent repairs were carried out; all around were brambles
and thorns, and no other building was then visible; but as-
suming the possibility of the supposed “‘ old lime kiln ’’ being
the stump of a round tower, Reeves searched for remains of
the associated church, which after some clearing of the over-
growth, he found. To confirm the conclusion he had thus
come to, he spent some days clearing the debris away from
the south wall and in excavating the site generally, finding
several graves both inside and outside the remains of the
building. He removed a number of skulls to Belfast for
scientific examination. These skulls have now been dis-
covered among those collected by Grattan, and are inctuded
in the Grattan collection in possession of our Society. A
full scientific report on these skulls and others found in our
excavation is in course of preparation by Professor Walmsley
of the Queen’s University.

As the present work on the repair and preservation of
the ruins is as vet far from complete, the following can only
be regarded as an interim report; we have found many valu-
able relics bearing on the history of the foundation, and have
come to conclusions on many points. Some of these cot
clusions may, however, be modified or upset on further in-
vestigation, so that beyond a brief account of the work done
during the summer recently ended, I deem it wiser to defer
the publication of minute details or conclusions until our
materials are more complete.

Early last spring Mr. A. G. Johnston, the owner of the
Western end of the Island, on which the ruins stand, was
approached on the subject of the suggested work, and nothing
could exceed the kindness with which he has responded to our
wishes and assisted us in every way from the beginning of
and all through the progress of the work. I should like to
refer also to the assistance of Major C. Blakiston Houston,
whose bungalow is close by; his assistance was invaluable ;
ever on the spot, he noted down every day’s work, marked

94 Archaeological Section.

on a map the spots where each relics was found, and recorded
details of inestimable value. In Mr. James Lowry, the con-
tractor, and his sons we were more than fortunate; they
brought as well selected a body of workmen as it would be
possible to procure; after a few days’ instruction these men
got used to examining every spadeful of soil; every fragment
of pottery or metal, every scrap of stone carved or chipped by
hand, no matter how small, was carefully put aside, and the
position of its discovery reported.

The actual work commenced early in June with the re-
moval of the clumps of briar and thorn which almost com-
pletely covered the site. These had to be torn out by the
roots by means of chains drawn by horses. By the 12th of
June a good clearance had thus been made inside the inner
cashel, ready for actual excavation. While clearing work
proceeded on the site of the inner cashel wall and outside it,
ten good labouring men commended removing the debris from
the sites of the church and round tower. Fortunately, Canon
Carmody was able to superintend this work for the first fort-
night while the guest of Maior Houston, and under his ex-
perienced guidance the men soon learned to proceed with the
minute care necessary for such work.

Soon the shape of the church became clear. The stones
as removed from the debris heap were all carefully examined
and put to one side. The vegetable soil which had accumu-
lated in the debris was examined carefully as extracted before
being carted away and spread over adjoining fields. Here
again the spreaders examined it as spread. On the occur-
rence of the first shower of rain after spreading, the soil was
again gone over with rakes so that nothing might be missed.
Many small objects of interest that might easily have been
lost were thus recovered, including several mediaeval coins,
worked flint flakes, an iron spear ferrule and stone beads or
buttons. Among the raised heaps of the debris of the church
were discovered evidences of burials, including many of
voung children, probably unbaptised infants, which up to a

Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. Session, 1921-1922.

Ab ut J/3rd ac ual size. A. E. Lawlo .

Fragment of old Norse (?) Inscription.

Archacological Section. 95

couple of centuries ago, or in places, recent times, were
buried in some otherwise disused holy place.

Of the larger relics found on the church site the most
important was a triangular fragment, 10dins. across, of an
inscribed grave stone containing a portion of a circle, beneath
which are remains of two lines of inscription. By extending
the arc of the circle it can be ascertained that the width of
the stone was originally about 27ins. The men were offered
a special reward if they could find any more fragments of the
inscription, but, unfortunately, although most careful search
was made, nothing more of it was found except a few inches
of the circle.

The inscription on this stone is shown. Copies of this
were sent to the British Museum, and by the authorities
there to Cambridge University; to the National Museum in
Dublin; to the National Museum, Copenhagen, and else-
where. No quite satisfactory solution is as yet forthcoming.
Several letters are ordinary Irish characters of about the 10th
century, three are runes of about the same period, while four
are difficult to classify. I am not without hope that even yet
we may find more of this inscription, so that meantime it
may be premature to print a very ingenious but purely tenta-
tive solution offered by Professor R. A. 8. Macalister, of the
National University in Dublin. He considers it probable that
the stone is a fragment of a grave slab to a Norse Abbot of
Nendrum, of tenth or eleventh century. The abbot’s name is
missing, but the remains of the first line may perhaps be
read Brimopata, interpreted as equivalent to PRrIMABOTA,
the old Norse for.“ of the. chief abbot.’” .. The fourth
letter occurs in some later runes. found in the North
of England, and is clearly M. The fitth letter is the
same as the smal letter between the two lines, and
seems undoubtedly to be. an‘'O or long A. The sixth
letter is clearly a B, but the seventh presents some diffi-
culty; it resembles the fifth with the lower cross stroke in-
complete, This is probably a differentiation between che

96 Archaeological Section.

two, denoting the slight difference in the letters O and A.
The eighth letter as it stands is a runic L, but it has been
found, as in the Killaloe rune, used asa T. The last letter is
a runic A (short). The small letter between the lines seems
to be a correction in the bottom line, a letter omitted in carv-
ing and inserted afterwards. Unfortunately so little of this
line is left that no one has been able to decipher it. The third
letter from the right cannot be identified as belonging to any
known alphabet.

Professor Macalister regards this inscription as of im-
mense archaeological importance. It is one more monu-.
ment, like his Killaloe find, of the Christianisation of the
Norseman, and even indicates an instance of what was
probably a rare occurence—a Norseman actually entering
into Irish monastic life and becorning abbot.

About the middle of July the sites of the church and
ground about the round tower were cleared, and all the finds
put carefully to one side.

The excavation had laid bare all that was left of the
ehurch, which proved to be the remains of apparently a
mediaeval nave, with a somewhat later chancel of the same
width, with a small exedra or sacristy on the north side.
The inside measurements of the whole, above the founda-
tion or plinth, are 52 by 16 feet.

At the west end were remains of butresses, continua-
tions of its north and south walls. These protruded 30ins.
x 30ins. The jambs of the west door were completely gone,
but the huge lintel, measuring 66ins. x 18ins. x 15ins., was
lying prone on the door step.

From July onwards the men worked steadily clearing
away the debris from the inner and second cashel walls, re-
placing the fallen stones as they proceeded. A number of
men were engaged at this work until October, when we
stopped work for the winter, while others were turning over
the soil over the greater part. of the space enclosed by the
inner cashe], While removing the debris of the inner cashe!

Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Socie‘y, Session 1921-1922.

West Doorway restored, showing Commemorative Tablet.

k, J. WELCH, PHOTO

Archaeological Section. 97

wall a remarkable pathway or paved causeway was found
leading from the southern entrance round inside the wall and
turning towards the west door of the church. This is ap-
parently the pathway ‘‘ by which the brethren come to
Matins,’’ referred to in Celgan’s ‘‘ Actae Sanctorum,’’ of
which O’Laverty gives a translation in his Down and Connor
(Vol. I., 354). This refers to the period when Saint Colman
of Dromore was a boy at Nendrum under Saint Mochaoi,
probably between 465 and 470, when he is related to have
performed a miracle in removing a large stone which impeded
the brethren on their way to church. ‘This story is preserved
in the name of a little bay in Ranish or Rainey Island, al-
most within a stone throw of Mahee Island, known from time
immemorial as Colman’s bay. ‘This paved causeway is a
most important discovery. It leads from the west door of
the church to where is now one of the three entrances in the
inner cashel wall. Had it not been for the pathway stopping
at this point, the antiquitv of this entrance could not have
been established. No remains of the original jambs of this
entrance remain, but from the pathway beginning at this
entrance we can establish not only the fact of an entrance
having been here originally, but the strong presumption that
it led from the hospitia or dwellings of the monks, and guest
houses, which must in consequence have occupied the wide
space between the south sections of the inner and second
eashels. This flat space has been subjected to tillage, so
that all signs of these huts, which undoubtedly were of wattle
and mud or planks, have long since disappeared.

Among the more impertant discoveries made during the
turning over of the-soil were foundation walls of apparently
very ancient buildings of dry masonry, directly Hast of the
ehurch. These suggest a building of considerable size joined
on to the inner side of the cashel wall; but, unfortunately,
little of it can now be traced, as probably the builders of the
mediaeval church of stone and lime used the old materials to
build the new church, The site is now largely taken up with

98 Archaeological Section.

graves covered with rough stones. As these graves are in
rows it is difficult to say in all cases whether the rows of
stones are remains of the ancient building or rows of stone-
covered graves. *urther investigation on this point may en-
able us to arrive at a more definite conclusion. !

To the West, just inside the second cashel wall or stone
faced terrace are foundations of two very ancient buildings of
dry masonry. Our examination of these is not yet complete.
In the Western portion of this second cashel was found, in a
fairly complete state a wide doorway about 5ft. 6ins. across,
inside which are the foundations of what may be two
janitors’ cells, in such a position that if restored, they would
divide the wide entrance into three narrow ones, by which
ingress or egress could only be effected in single file.

To the North-East and North of the second cashel there
can be traced among the bracken and brambles foundations
of numerous walls and apparently circular buildings, but
these have not as yet been touched. Jf during the coming
season we are enabled to excavate and repair these, doubt-
less much of great interest may be exposed to view.

To the South of the church, about half-way between it
and the inner cashel wall, were two circular mounds or rings
about 20 feet in diameter. These were carefully excavated,
and proved to be the remains of two promiscuous heaps of
bodies. The skeletons included those of men, women, and
children, thrown together without any arrangement or order,
and lightly covered with soil and stones. On digging lower
we came upon older regular graves lined with rough stones.
These graves were not due E. and W., but with the feet to
the S.E. In two places among these graves were fragments
of foundations of a stone and mortar building, but so small
as to afford no clue as to what the building could have been ;
yet, that the traces of building distinctly showed lime mortar
is of great importance, as the skeletons of the promiscuous
heap were superimposed on the masonry fragments, proving
that these bodies were thrown in the heaps at a compara-
tively late date, and after the introduction into Ireland of

Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, Sesssion, 1921-1922.

Section of Second Cashel Wall, West Side showing entrance, before and after restoration.

R. J. WELCH. PHOTO,

Archacological Section. 99

lime mortar in building. This is generally admitted to be
about the ninth century at the earliest.

T'wo causes can be alternatively put forward to explain
these heaps of skeletons—namely, a plague, or a battle or
massacre. Two facts, however, seem to rule out the former
of these two alternatives. Among the skeletons was one of a
woman apparently holding in her arms a child of a few years
old. Had they both died of a plague and been brought here
for interment this could not have been. The second fact is
that one of the skulls was that of a man who had met his
death by sword cut. We may eliminate, therefore, a plague,
as the explanation of these heaps of skeletons, and there re-
mains the other alternative, a massacre or battle. Of the
date of this there seems to be no clue to guide us, unless
Professor Walmsley’s examination of the bones gives one.
There is little doubt that a massacre occurred at Nendrum in
974 when Abbot Sedna O’Deman ‘‘ was burned in his own
house,’’ after which the annals never again mention
Nendrum.

Of the stone lined graves which lay on a lower level than
the mounds, these were close together, and extend over a
considerable area South and East of the mounds. It seems as
if this were at an early date the burial place for the people of
the surrounding country, and not confined to the inmates of
the monastery, as remains of both sexes were found side by
side. From near the South-West corner of the church to al-
most the southern entrance to the inner cashel can be seen
in the grass what appears to be the foundation of an ancient
wall, which probably shut off the burial place from the level
space bounded on the west by the paved pathway. This open
space probably corresponded with what, in later monasteries,
was known as the cloister garth.

To the west of the church,,on clearing away a consider-
able quantity of debris we found a number of stone topped
graves. These are all much shorter than human adults, and
investigation showed that the stone tops were only surface

100 A rchacological Section.

markings of full length graves, not stone lined, some 18 to
24 inches deep. Most of these graves appear to have been
disturbed at some time, as the bones in many cases were in
confusion. In every case care was taken to leave the grave
covers exactly as when exposed.

About 30 feet from the west gable, and among these
graves was a small mound. Examination of this produced a
fragment of a carved cross (No. 5) and one small stone about
Yins. x 6ins. with a rude scratched cross on one surface (Noa.
6). On penetrating further into this site a roughly-shaped
rectangular foundation of what may have been a mud and
wattle cell was exposed. From its position it was probably
the cell of the janitor or ostiarius, an officer corresponding
to the modern sexton or bell-ringer. The janitor was in Holy
Orders, and in monastic rank was probably the lowest. Ex-
cavating to some depth under the floor of this rectangular
space we came upon several skeletons of men in position un-
disturbed. With one of these, a few inches from where were
the finger bones, was a small polished stone celt, almost an
exact duplicate of one of the three found together in our in-
vestigation in the Rath of Dreen (See Report B.N.H. & P.
Society for 1919).

In clearing away debris in various places many carved
stones of great interest were found in addition to the one
already referred to. These were mostly crosses of a very
early Celtic type (illustrated). In no single instance had any
of these crosses a nimbus, nor was any one inscribed with
lettering. Most of these were found in the neighbourhood of
the west gable; but few were perfect, and where fractured
the pieces when found were widely scattered. For instance,
one arm of cross No. 8 was found in the debris of the east
end of the church, while the other portion was among the
debris of the inner cashel. A stone cresset lamp mould and
a rough sandstone fragment of a slab cross were also found
in other parts of the cashel wall. The finding of these
three caryed stones is exceedingly puzzling in an effort

Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, Session, 1921-1922.

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Belfast Natural History and Phisolo-hical Society, Session 1921-1922.

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Fragment of Pillar Stone, with Romanesque Geometrical Design ;

exactly similar designs occur at Clonmacnoise, Lough Derg, and

Isle of Man.

Archacological Section. IOI

to arrive at the age of this cashel. They were among
the stones which had tumbled from the cashel, as if they had
been at one tinie built into it, which would imply a quite
late date for the erection; but we have no proof what they
were, and they may have been merely thrown where they
were found and got covered up by the gradual falling of the
stones from the wall. The two crosses Nos. 4 and 1 were
found outside the N.W. and 8.W. corners of the church re-
spectively on clearing away the debris. ‘The cross figured No.
9 cannot now be found. Fortunately, the late Mr. W. H.
Patterson made an accurate sketch of it about the year 1874.
It was then bwilt into a fence near Mr. Johnston’s house;
but, unfortunately, Mr. Patterson omitted to record its size,
so that in the accompanying sketch it cannot be included in
the scale given. ‘To the South of the West gable were found
the square base and face of a remarkable sundial. Five small
fragments of the pillar of this were found in various places,
all richly carved in local whinstone. In a fence built of
stones taken from various places, in modern times, was a
large cubic fragment of a pillar stone, measuring 12ins. x
1idins. x 8ins., on which is incised an elaborate geometrical
design of interlaced circles. In spite of careful search, no
other fragment of this pillar stone has been found. In the
debris of the chureh itself were found three w:ndow-top
arches, each carved cut of one piece of sandstone. These
show that the windows were, as is usual in the early
churches, very narrow but widely splayed inside.

The question of how best to conserve all these relics was
cne which gave rise to much careful consideration. The first
impulse was to remove them to the Society’s collection in
the Belfast City Museum, but the proprietor, Mr. Johnston,
strongly expressed his desire that they should not be removed
from their natural home and ancient associations.

The restoration to its ancient position of the great lintet
stone of the west door was also an important problem, as,
although the door step remained, the doorway was entirely

102 A rchaeolagical Sectton.

gone. Mr. R. J. Welch came to our assistance with his in-
valuable store of photographs of Irish church doorways, and
it was eventually decided to restore the west doorway after
the model of that of the Church of Tomgraney, Co. Clare,
whose west gable with protruding butresses apparently co-
incides exactly with what remained of the west gable of
Nendrum. ‘Tomeraney is regarded as being one of the very
oldest, if not the oldest, example remaining of lime mortar
built churches in Ireland, and dates from the 10th century.
From the width of the lintel at Nendrum, 66 inches, we
gauged the width of the top of the doorway to have been the
middle half, 33 inches, the outside fourths, 164 inches each,
resting on the jambs. After the model of Tomgraney and
many other ancient churches, it was decided to widen the
doorway slightly at the bottom, to 38 inches, or an inward
slope from doorstep to lintel of 24 inches in each jamb in a
height of 70 inches. To conserve the ancient crcsses and
other carved stones, it was decided to insert these in slight
recesses in a partially-restored gable, at each side of the
doorway so constructed, snd lest anyone should in time to
come make the mistake of thinking that these stones are in
their original position, or that this fragment of the west gable
is wholly original, a tablet to the following effect has been
inserted in the wall:
THE EccuestasticaL Ruins or NENDRUM
ON Mauer ISLAND AND THE ENcIRCLING CASHEL WALLS
Havr BEEN REPAIRED
BY THE BELFAST NATURAL History
AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIBTY
BY PERMISSION OF THE Owner, Mr. A. G. JOHNSTON.
THE CARVED AND INSCRIBED STONES,
Founp 1x Various PLACES IN THE DEBRIS

ARK INSERTED IN TH1s PARTIALLY RESTGRED GABLE
MereLy For THEIR CONSERVATION.
23rd Jung, 1922.

Archacological Section. 103

It is, perhaps, needless to say that the above inscription
contains an apparent inaccuracy, as manifestly all could not
have been done that is stated to have been done on the 23rd
of June. The date is the festal date of Saint Mochaoi, the
patron saint of Nendrum, whose death is recorded in the
ancient festologies as having taken place on that day in 497.
fourteen and a quarter centuries ago.

The date is important as, according to supposed ancient
usage, a church dedicated to a patron saint was orientated in
accordance with the ascension of the sun on the festa! date
of the saint. The Church of Nendrum lies almost exactly
W.S.W. by E.N.E. If anyone could observe sunrise on the
23rd of June, and compare it with the position of the church,
allowing tor the alteration of the actual position arising from
the progress of the universe, it would be interesting.

The round tower stump was cleared of ivy early in June,
and the fallen debris cleared from around its base. It was
found that the ivy had obtained such a hold of the ruin that
almost the entire outer surface of the masonry above the first
three or four feet had been pushed down. At the height of
five and seven feet, respectively, however, there rernained
still in original position two through stones, from which the
batter of the wall could be accurately ascertained. This was
very slight, only about one inch in seven feet. The wall
itself is mounted on a plinth about three feet in height. The
actual external circumference of the plinth is 47 feet, and
above the plinth 45ft. 6ins. Comparing these measurements
with those of other round towers, supplied by Petrie, it may,
with fair accuracy, be assumed that the original height of the
tower, that is if it were ever actually finished, was between
50 and 60 feet.

The condition of the ruin was, before we repaired it, not
much altered from Reeves’ time. In his pamphlet, already
referred to, he reproduced a careful sketch of it, showing the
position of the two protruding ‘‘ through stones.’’ This
sketch, unfortunately, has not been reproduced in the Ulster

104 Archaeological Section.

Journal (2nd Series), already mentioned, but may be seen in
O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints (28rd June). The
Ulster Journal, however, supplies an admirable sketch of the
tower (in 1902) by Mr. Joseph Carey, and a plan and section
by Mr. Philip Reynolds. From perusal of these three
sketches it will be seen that the ruin appears to stand upon
a smaJl grass knoll. This on investigation proved to consist
merely of the fallen masonry of the tower, pushed down in
the course of time by the ivy. The men were set to remove
this knoll, which was from three to four feet high, laying
aside all the fallen stones, and removing the vegetable soil.
The fallen stones were restored to the ruins, all being set in
good cement, the ivy having been carefully extracted and the
roots killed with strong chemical solution. The inner shell
of the stump of the tower remained intact, and it was found
that when the mason had restored all the fallen stones of the
outer surface they only sufficed to bring it to the existing
height of the inner shell. The broken top of the building has
now been grouted with cement so that no water can lodge, or
consequently, vegetation find a place to root.

If our estimate of the original size of the tower is correct,
what remains is about one-fifth. The question arises, what
then became of the missing four-fifths? The builders of the
Elizabethan Castle at the Causeway could not have quarried
here for their material, as they had copious supplies of stone
on the shore and in the outer cashels, much nearer at hand,
which they used, but by no means exhausted. The only
other apparent use the material of the tower could have been
put to was to build the church close at hand; but it is almost
inconceivable that the builders of the church would pull down
the tower to build the church had it been still standing at the
time. <A probable solution of the difficulty may be found in
the following :—The date of the erection of the tower origin-
ally may, with all likelihood, be fixed shortly after the first
invasion by the Danes, say about the vear 850, when it likely
would have been erected as a place of refuge, watch tower,

pA » >| ? 7 . ] f If 1 ;
Archacological Section. 105

and also bell tower. It likely shared in the general destruc-
tion by the Danes, which appears to have taken place in 974,
when the abbot Sedna “* was burned in his house.’’

Adamnan, in his Life of Saint Columba, tells us that the
hospitium, tugurium or domus abbatis, the abbot’s residence,
was a detached building usually on an eminence. from which
the abbot could survey the surrounding monastery. It is,
therefore, quite possible that the abbot Sedna used the tower
as his house, and that its destruction is, therefore, implied in
the entry in the annals saying that he was vurned in his own
house in 974. The thoroughness displayed by the Danes in
their destruction of everything Christian on their early ex-
peditions is well-known, and seems to find confirmation at
Nendrum by the minuteness of the fragments into which all
the crosses (except two) and the sundial were smashed. We
iniy therefore conclude with reasonable certainty that the
round tower was knocked down by them, and lay a hopeless
ruin a century or so later, when the church of stone and lime-
mortar was built. If this were the case, as seems most
likely, it would have been only natural that the church
builders used the debris of the tower to build their church.
At the same time they naturally used any loose stones that
remained over to repair the cashel wall. This would satis-
factorily account for the three carved fragments already re-
ferred to having at one time been built into it.

In many places large quantities of pottery of various
ages were found, also iron implements, sharpening and
polished stones or rubbers, broken querns, and _ other
miscellaneae. 3

Before giving details or theories regarding these I atn
consulting, or have already consulted some of the best
authorities. Meantime I await more complete reports.

T have not referred to the known history of Nendrum.
A useful outline of this has been supplied by Bishop Reeves.
Much, however, has developed since his time, and further
facts are gradually coming to light. I am therefore deferring

106 Archacological Section.

a report on this subject unti) enquiries now pending are more
complete. ?

It is regrettable that, owing to the narrowness of the
road from Comber to Mahee, and the extraordinary number
of dangerous corners, several more or Jess serious motor ac-
cidents occurred to the cars of visitors during the season.
Fortunately no one was injured. It is to the credit of the
neighbouring farmers and local residents that these danger
spots on the road are in process of being removed. The worst
of the corners are being cut off and the road widened where
necessary. To effect this the farmers concerned gave up
stretches of their land, either for nothing, or for a nominal
charge. The Down County Council are assisting in every
way. The road from the Ardill Memorial Causeway to Mr.
Johnston’s gate is his private property. He has most gene-
rously offered to surrender this road to the County Council if
they will render it more convenient for motor traffic. He has
also offered the necessary ground at the end of the road for
making a turning place for motor cars. All this is costing a
considerable sum of money, and it is to the credit of all con-
cerned that most of the money necessary has been locally
subscribed, though more is still required. The Executive
Committee voted a subscription of £10 towards this laudable
object. The special thanks of the public are due to Mr. David
Boyd, of Comber, who has been primarily responsible for
organising this most important undertaking, and to Mr.
James G. Wilkin, C.E., County Surveyor, for his assistance
in carrying it out. The Down County Council have gene-
rously recognised their responsibilities as part custodians of
this most important National Monument, and have already
supplied the sum necessary for the repair of the Elizabethan
castle at the causeway.

I have to thank Dr. A. E. Lawlor for the admirable
etchings accompanying this report. Her view of the nine
ridges from which the Island derives its name of Nendrum is
‘taken from a point in Island Reagh (not illustrated). The
photographs are by Mr. R. J. Welch, M.R.I.A.

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‘19 ‘NOLLOUS TVWOIDO1IOaVHOUV 1
“CC6I— I C6l

‘ALAIOOS TIWOIHdOSOTIHd GNV AYOLSIH TVYNLVN LSVATAG AHL HLIM LNNOOOV NI

Subscriptions to Muhee Fund. 109

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO MAHEE FUND.

essed,
Acheson, I. W. di cOF 0)
Aird, W. bic 2 Qie0
Andrews, Miss Hlizabeth 111 ‘6
Andrews, lirnest a bE: 0:0
Andrews, the Rt. Hon. J. M. Fh, ae Parcels Blea)
Andrews, J. .... anf eee a os shea Ol Ore O
Andrews, Oscar os a a ee oe dO a0)
Andrews, Mrs. ‘I’. J. oe ie a 28 O00
Atkinson, Arthur §. hk ne vid Hoaterelte. Cowin.Q)

Baird, Major i ee ae ee ky rome (
Bébe, Charles a a SE =. ise he OiO
Bell, Mrs. ee ae ae ae ae
Belfast Naturalist’s Field Club _ ... el mise Oru sD
Bennett, 5. A. ae obs me Dee ai 2 OrlO;, 40

Berry, Colonel 1: 0.0
Breakey, Rev. J. P. 010 O
Blakiston-Houston, Major C. i eores yee)
The Ven. Archdeacon Brett 410) -.0
Brett, Sir Charles 5 0° 0
Bristow, Jas. R. b sOpe 0
J. B. Bryson E00
Boal, R. Aa ae 0)
Boyd, David Ue)
Boyd, Hugh 0 10..'6
Byrne, J. Edward es
Burrowes, W. B. Aon 0

S
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o>
fer)

Campbell, A. A. ae ee oe, AG
Campbell, James __... ot see Se of a |
Carmody, Rey. Canon aae

Q&
cae)

L110 Subscriptions to Mahee Fund.

Chambers, h. ,
‘“* Christian, An Hark
Christen, Madame
Ciark, George E.
Clark, Sir George
Cletund, A. Mel.
Cleiand, W. M.
Cieaver, J. I.
Cleaver, Colonel
Cembe, George
Corbett, J

Craio, it: C:

Creig, Captain FE.

Crawtford, ht. Hon. on Sones

Crawford, Hugh

Cunningham, Josias, Jun.

Deacon, Miss BE. A.

Deane, Arthur

Despard, V. D.

Diamond, Rev. Edward, C. C.
Dobbs, Miss M. E.

Down and Connor and Dromore,

Bishop of
Dewn Co. Council (for Crete)

Eawards, — ...
Heel jc ahaa a.
Ewart G. Herbert

aren, a a
‘ Briend, A ’’ (1)
A he (2)
‘* Friend, A’’ (8) Anon. ...
‘‘ Friend, An Interested ”’

CREP NMD RF RFP eke KR rR Oomocco &

=r)

oa EE eS Re

= SK CO OO

SO 9S. & ©

Subscriptions to Mahee Fund,

“ Friends, A Few at St. Malachy’s ’

Ferguson, Godfrey W.
Finlay, A. H.

Greeves, Arthur
Greeves, Iergus
Greeves, Joseph
Greeves, Leopold
Greeves, J. ‘Theodore
Haddow, C. P.

Hamilton, Rt. Hon. and Rev.

Hastings, Messrs. 8. & T.
Henderson, Sir 'l'revor
Herdman, A. 1’.
Herdman, R. E.

Heron, Francis A.
Higinbotham, Granby
Hunter, James
Hutchinson, Captain 5. i.

Johnston, S. A.

Kernohan, J. W.
“ Taisren ”’

lawlor, H. ©;

Lepper, R. S. a!
Londonderry, The Marquis of

Lowry, David KE.

Mackie, James
MacKisack, Dr. H. L.
Magowan, T’. R.

Maleolmson, Herbert

III
£8. d,
2,92). 40
di OQ
Pia sen O)
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11205420
12.0210)
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14.0.0
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112 Subscriptions to Mahee Fund.

Maleolmson, Major G. EK.
Macoun, S. M.

Metcalfe, Arthur a8
‘“ Methodist, A Primitive ”’
Mitchell, Captain W. C.
Montgomery, Miss E. 8.
Montgomery, H. C. & T. W.
Murland, Captain C. W.
McAuley, Rev. T. H., C.C.
McCready, H. L. |
Mellveen, J. H. be a
McKee, J. (Brooklyn, U.S.A.)

MeKinley, Very Rev. Canon, P.P.

MeLorie, James mee
McNeill, Miss and Mr. Wm.

Neill, H. J.

Orr, Dr. Gawn
Osborne, 'T’. Edens

Parkes, Mrs. and Miss
Perceval, R. D.

Reade, J. S.
Richardson, Miss
Riddell, Alexr.
Riddell, Henry

oR?

Roden, Countess of
Rogers, W. E.

Rotary Club Excursion

TF HLH OrHONH

DPN oH HEP EP EN OGF DORE HE &

coco

Subscriptions to Mahee Fund. 112

Gish a.
Sawerse. Uso... | OQ
Sheil, Henry Percy 52 0-0
Shields, Rev. J., P.P. t.'Or 70
Shillington, T. C. 2-0). 0
Sides, W. S. Lb .0
Sinclair, John Li 0.0
Sinclair, H. D. 0 10 -0
Sinclair, Mrs. 8. E20! 0
Sinton, Alfred H. Doe 0)
Sinton, Edwin ne t .0°.0
Smith, Canon N. KE. & Mrs. 010 0
Stevenson, John 010 O
Strick,.G. H. O. {e120
MNoalvinev. D: O. Riz C.C. ... oi hee enemy Ora)
Thompson, Joseph ... a a Be rad tis Be)
iMmurner, Se. ae Be ih te HO LOG
Turtle, W. H. ane ca Ou: ae fee eh, MO eQ
‘* Ulster, For the Credit of ”* vu Bh we LOO" O--0
Wallace, Rt. Hon. Colone! ... or en soe EEO. 0
Wallace, William... oe a aay ee Oo LOGO
Welch, R. J. i oa Fee
+ -Well Wisher ’’ .... ae a ae onl shi Oe "G
Wilhams, Captain... ahi a ee eae Ob 20
Wilson, George tO
Young, R. M. ae wis a ne vee OHO

Contents of Collecting Box at Nendrum ... cig hO aay 4

114

List of Lectures.

LIST OF LECTURES

1921.
5th October.

8th November.

29th November.

18th December.

1922.
10th January.

16th January.

1921-1922.

In Assembly Minor Hall.

‘The Conquest of Land and Air: A
Study in Natural History,’’ by Prof.
J. Arthur Thomson, M.A., LL.D.,
F.R.S.E.

In Municipal College of Technology.

“The Public Appreciation of Art,’’ by
Mr. Ivor Beaumont, A.R.C.A.(Lond.),
MSTA, 2 Soa, aD:

In Municipal College of Technology.

‘* Recent Investigations on the Fuel
Problem,’’ by Professor H. Wren,
VED Se. Eh. Dp.

In Museum, College Square North.
‘“ Ulster Philosophers,’’ by Professor
John Laird, M.A.

In Assembly Minor Hall.
“ Comets,’’ by Rev. W. F. A. Hillison,
M.A.

In Museum, College Square North.
** Moliére,’’ by Professor Savory, M.A.

31st January.

Tth February.

24th February.

7th March.

14th March.

list of Lectures. [15

In Museum, College Square North.
‘The Use of Phosphates in Agricul-
ture,’’ by Mr. G. S. Robertson, D.Sc.

In Museum, College Square North.

‘“ Some Products of Wood Waste,’’ by
Mr. W. H. Gibson, O.B.E., D.S8c.,
F.I.C., F.Inst.P.

In Queen’s University.
‘* More About the Erectness of Plants,”’
by Professor James Small, D.8c.,
P@; 8 L.8.; MRA:

In Queen’s University.

‘The Optophone: An Instrument for
Reading by Ear,’’ by Mr. Fournier
d’Albe, D.8Sc., A.R.C.Sce.(Lond.),
M.R.I.A.

In Museum, College Square North.
‘“Drennan and His Times,’’ by Mr.
Alexander Riddell.

116 Hachanges.

EXCHANGES.

Ann ArBpor—Publications of the University of Michigan.

BaseL (Switzerland)—Verhandlungen der Naturforchenden
Gesellschaft in Basel, 1920-21.

BERGEN (Norway)—Publications of the Bergen Museum.

Buenos Arres—Anales del Museo Nacional del Historia
Natural.

CAMBRIDGE (v.S.A.)—Bulletins and Annual Report of the
Cambridge Museum of Comparative
Zoology.

CAMBRIDGE—Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical
Society.

CoLorapo Sprincs—Publications of the Colorado College.

DusLin—Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society.

EpinspurGu-—Proceedings of the Royal Society of IEdin-

burgh, 1918-19.
Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical
Society, Edinburgh.

Essex—The Essex Naturalist. Vol. XX., Part 1.

GLascow—Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society,
1918-1920.

Hauirax—Proceedings and Transactions of the Nova Scotian
Institute of Science, 1918-19.

Inp1ANA—Proceedings of the Indiana Society of Sciences
1919-1920.

La Prata (Argentine)—Obras Completas y Correspondencia
Cientificia de Florentino Ameghino.

LAWRENCE—Bulletins of the University of Kansas.

Lima (Peru}—Boletin del Cuerpo de le Ingenieros de Minas
del Peru. :

Lonpon—Quarterly Journal of the Royal Microscopical

Society.
Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society.

hiarchanyes. L147

Lousanne—LBulletin de la Societe Vaudoise des Sciences
Naturelles.

Mavison—Bulletins of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural
History Survey.

Mapras—Report of the Government Museum of Madras,
1920-21.

Mancuester—Journal of the Manchester Geographical
Society, 1920.
M&ELBOURNE—Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria.

Mexico—Anales del Instituto Geologico de Mexico.

MILWAUKEE—Annual Report of the Milwaukee Public
Museum.

New Haven—Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of
Arts and Sciences, 1921.

NictnEroy—Achivos de escola Superior de Agricultura e
Medica Veterinaria, 1921.

Onto—The Ohio Journal of Science.

Orono—Bulletin of the Maine Agricultural ITixperiment
Station.

OttawA—Publications of the Geological Survey of Canada,
Department of Mines.

Parts—Publications of the Geological Society of France.

PHILADELPHIA—Proceedings of the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia.

a Proceedings of the American Philosophical

Society.

PoRTLAND (U.S.A.)—Proceedings of the Portland Society of
Natural History, 1919.

Pusa—Reports of the Agricultural Research Institute,
1920-21.

RennES—Bulletin de la Societe Geologique.

Rio pe J ANEIRO—Report of the National Museum of Brazil.

ROCHESTER (N.Y.)-—Proceedings of the Rochester Academy of

| Science.

irs Hachanges.

San Francisco—Proceedings of the Californian Academy oi
Sciences.
STIRLING—Transactions of the Stirling Natural History and
Archaeological Society, 1920-21.
_ Sr. Lovurs—Public Library Monthly Bulletin.
Toronto—Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute.
ViENNA—Verhandlungen der Geologischen Staatsanstalt,
1920.
WasuHInGToN—Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution.
Annual] Report of the United States National
Museum.
Publications of the Bureau of American
Ethnology.
Bulletins of the Smithsonian Institution.
Contributions from the United States National

Herbarium.
. Proceedings of the United States National
Museum.
Sinithsonian Institution, Miscellaneous Col-
lections.
@ Publications of the United States Geological
Survey.

Zuricn (Switzerland)—Vierteljahrsschrift der Naturforchen-
den Gesellschaft in Zurich.

Zacres (Youngoslavie)—Glasnik Hrvaksko prirodoslovnoga
Drustva, 1921.

119

BELFAST NATURAL HISTORY
AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

Officers and Council of Management for 1922-23.

resident;
HENRY RIDDELL, n.z., m.1.uech.e.

Wice- Presidents ;
Sir CHARLES BRETT, tt.p.
S. W. ALLWORTHY, M.a., M.pD., F.C.S.
Pror. GREGG WILSON, o.8.£., M.s., D.SC., PH.D., M.B.I A.
ROBERT M. YOUNG, M.a., M.R.1.A., J.P.
J. M. FINNEGAN, B.a., B.sc.
WILLIAM SWANSTON, r.e.s.

Hon. Creasurer ;
HENRY RIDDELL, m.t., m.1.Mech.z.

Hon. Librarian ;
LOBERT M. YOUNG, M.a., M.R.I.A., J.P.

Hon. Secretary ;
ARTHUR DEANE, M.B.1.A., F.R.S.E.

@ouncil :
W. B. BURROWES, F.R.s.a.1.
Councitutor BE. J. ELLIOTT. ;
H. C. LAWLOR, m.r.1.a. Retire

WILLIAM SWANSTON, r.e:s. wo
Proressor GREGG WILSON, p.sc., M.R.1.A.

JOHN M. FINNEGAN, B.a., B.Sc.

Proressor W. B. MORTON, m.a. | Renee
HENRY RIDDELL, .tf., m.1t.mech.r. 1924.
ROBERT M. YOUNG, .a., M.R.1.A.

Proressor A. W. STEWART, M.a., v.sc.

Stir CHARLES BRETT, tt.p. F
T. EDENS OSBORNE, r.r.s.s.1. |
S. W. ALLWORTHY, w.a., up. F.c.s. eee
WILLIAM FAREN, F.R.s.a.1. | 925.

ARTHUR DEANE, .r.1.A., F.R.S.E.

t20 Shareholders and Members.

SHAREHOLDERS AND MEMBERS.
Corrected to 30th November, 1922.

[*Denotes Holders of three or more Shares. |

[a e Members of Archacological Section. |
aAcheson, F. W., Cloneevin, Dundalk
aAcheson, Mrs. M. K., 67 Eglantine Avenue, Belfast
aAcheson, M. K. m.p., do. 3 do.
aAdams, Rev. Wim. M.A., The Manse, Antrim
*Alexander, Francis, 3.£., Belfast

Alderdice, Richard Sinelaire, 124 Linenhall Street, do.
Allworthy, S. W. m.p., Manor House, Antrim Road, do.
*Anderson, John, J.p., F.G.8. (Representative of),
Holywood, Co. Down
aAnderson, Frank, M.B.e., Willoughby Terrace, Portadown
aAndrews, Michael C., F.8.G.S., F.B.S.G.S., Orsett,

Derryvolgie Avenue, Belfast
Andrew, John, t.D.S., R.S.c.ENG., 23 University 5q. do.

aAndrews, Miss Elizabeth, 10 Park Crescent,
Tonbridge, Kent

Armstrong, Hamilton, Corlea, Ashley Park, Belfast
aAtkinson, Arthur 8., Dromana, Knockdene Park, do.
aBaird, Major William, g.p., Roval Avenue, do.
Beaumont, Ivor, 4.R.c.A., School of Art, do.
aBennett, S. A., B.A., B.Sc., Campbell College, do.
aBerry, Colonel, m.r.r.4., Ardluin, Neweastle
Bigger, Francis J., M.R.1.4., F.R.S.A.I., Ardrigh,

Antrim Road, Belfast,
Bingham, John A., M.p.s.1., 43 Donegall Place, do.
aBirch, J. P., Ashfield House, Ravenhill Road, do.
aBlake, R. F., F.1.c., 4 Knock Road, ~ do.
Boyd, Thornton, Blackstatf Spinning Company, do.

aBoyd, Miss Kathleen St. Clair, Chatsworth,
University Road, do.

Shareholders and Members, 121

Boyd, John, San Remo, Holland Park, Neill’s Hill, Belfast
Brandon, H. B., 3.P., Rosemount House, Antrim Rd., do.
aBrett, The Venerable Archdeacon, m.a-, Montrose,

Fortwilham Park, do.
aBristow, James R., M.a., Woodville, Malone Park, do.
Bristow, John, 10 College Square North, do.
*Brown, George B., Lisnamaul, Ormeau Road, do.

Brown, J., M.A., B.Sc., 338 Marlborough Park (centre), | do.
aBurrowes, W. B., F.R.8.A.1., Ballvnafeigh House,

Ravenhill Road, do.
aByrne, J. Edwards, 37 Royal Avenue, do.

Calwell Re 1s, G.B.B., BeH., M.1/C.E., Carninard,
Annadale Avenue, do.

Campbell, A. A., F.R.s.4.1.. Drumnaferrie, Rosetta

Park, do.
*Campbell, Miss Anna (Representatives of), do.
aCarmody, Rev. Canon, m.a., The Rectory, Lisburn
Carr, A; H. R., 224 Donegall Place, Belfast
aCarter, C. 8., 7 Knockbreda Road, do.
aCarter, H. R., 28 Waring Street, do.
*Charley, Phineas H., Coolbeg, Cultra, Co. Down

*Christen, Madame Rodolphe, St. Imier, Brig of Cairn,
Ballater, N.B.

Clark, Sir George S., Bart., p.t., Dunlambert, Belfast
Clarke, E. H., 69 Marlborough Park S., do.
aClarke, John, Antrim Arms Hotel, Glenarm

aCleland, A. McI., Macedon, Green Road, Knock, Belfast
Corbett, Miss K. M., Ardsallagh, Derryvolgie Avenue, do.

Combe, Barbour & Co., Ltd., “do.
a@rawtord ; WIM BeAYLIeCcS., F.E.S., Orissa,
Marlborough Park, do.

aCromie, Thomas M.D., Clough, Co. Down

122 Shareholders and Members,

Crymble, H., 40 Wellington Place, Belfast
Culbert, J. C., m.p.s.1., 172 North Road, do.
aCunningham, Right Hon. 8., Fern Hill, Ballygo-

martin Road, . do.
Cutler, H. A., M.1ns?.c.n., City Hall, do.
Dalzell, James, 4 Tokio Gardens, Chichester Park, do.
Davies, A. C., Lenaderg House. Banbridge, Co. Down
aDavis, Colonel, 21 Malone Park, ~~ Belfast
Davison, A. H., F.A4.1., 82 Wellington Place, do.
aDeane, Arthur, m.R.1.a., Municipal Art Gallery and

Museum, Royal Avenue, do.
*Deramore, Lord, D.L.,
Despard, V. D., 10 Academy Street, do.
Devoto, V. A., Kilmorna, Glastonbury Avenue, do.
Dickson, 5. E., 9 Donegall Square West, do.
Dixon, Professor, M.A., SC.D., F.R.S., St. Ives,

Bladon Drive, do.
*Donegall, Marquis of (Representatives of), do.

Doran, Councillor, J. A. 3.e., Ardavon, Antrim Road, do.

*Downshire, Marquis of, The Castle, Hillsborough, Co. Down
Duffin, Adam, Lu.p., 5.P., Dunowen, Cliftonville, Belfast
Dunleath, Lord, Ballywalter Park, Ballywalter, Co. Down

Earls, Professor J., B.A., Municipal College of

Technology, Belfast
Ewart, G. Herbert, m.a., 3.P., Firmount, Antrim

Road, do.
Ewart, Fred W., M.A., B.L., Derryvolgie, Lisburn

Ewart, Sir Robert H., Bart., Glenmachan House, Belfast
Elliott, E. J., The Towers, Donegall Park Avenue, do.

aFaren, William, F.R.S.4.1., 454 Waring Street, do.
Fee, David A., 3.p., Baythorpe, Holywood
*Fenton, Francis G., 5 Rue Cervaux, Paris

Shareholders and Members. 123

aFerguson, G. W., C.E., J.P., Carnamenagh,

Antrim Road, Belfast
Finlay, Archibald H., Willesden, Holywood
Finlay, Mrs. Fred W., Wolfhill House, Ligoniel, Belfast
Finlay, Robert H. F., Victoria Square, Beltast

Finlay, W. J., 10 High Street, do.
Finnegan, John M., b.4., B.sc., 23 Botanic Avenue, do.
Fitzsimons, N., F.R.1.B.4., 92 Myrtlefield Park, do.
Forsythe, J., Lisadell, Cliftonville Road, do.
aFrazer, Kenneth J., Hillmount, Cullybackey
Fry, W. Arthur, High Street, Holywood
Fulton, G. F., Arlington, Windsor Avenue, Belfast
Geale, R. G., 40 Wellington Park, do.
*Getty, Edmund (Representative of), do.
Gibbon, Lt.-Col. W. D., p.s.o., M.A., Campbeli

College, Belfast
Gibson, Andrew, F.R.S.A.1., Fairfield, Lansdowne

Road, do.
Gibson, S., g.p., Summerhill, Dunmurry, Co. Antrim
Gibson: W. A o:B-E., DSC: F.Icc., F.INST-P., York

Street Flax Spinning Co., Belfast
Gibson, W. K., 16 Chichester Street, do.
Goldsbrough, J. B., Central Public Library, do.
Gordon, J. 8., p.sc., Ministry of Agriculture, do.

- Gordon, Malcolm, Dunarnon, Unversity Road, do.
Gourlayv, R. J., Central Public Library, do.
Green, H. Percy, Limehurst, Holland Park, Knock
aGreeves, F. M., Garranard, Strandtown, Belfast
aGreeves, Joseph M., Bernagh, Circular Road, do.
aGreeves, Arthur, Altona, do.
aGreeves, John Theo., Nendrum, Knockdene Park, do.
aGreeves, W. Leopold, 11 Ormeau Road, do,
Grogan, James, 2 Orient Gardens, do.
Grogan, J., junior, do. do.

Hale, W. Barcroft, 6 Salisbury Gardens, do.

124 Shareholders und Members.

*Hall, Frederick H.., : Waterford
Hamilton, Rt. Hon. and Rey, Vhomas. .A.; D.D., ine

Vice-Chancellor Queen’s University, Belfast
*Hamilton, Hill, 3.p. (Representatives of), do.
Hanson, W.M.,.St. John’s Villa, Holland Park, do.
Harland, Capt. W., 4 Psalter Lane, Shefheld
aHastings, 5S. R.. 3.p., Church Street, Downpatrick
Hastings, Archibald, 7 Cavehill Road, Belfast
Hawthorne, John, B.A., PH.D., F.1.c., 16 Donegall

Square S., do,
Hayward, Harold R., Hopefield House, Antrim Road, do.
Henderson, J. W., m.a., Methodist College, do.
aHenry, Professor R. M., M.A., M.R.1.A., Crosshill,

Windsor Avenue North, do.

aHenry, T. W., F.s.arcu., Greenbank, Mountpleasant, do.
Herdman, Hi. C., Carricklee House, Strabane
*Herdman, Robert Ernest, 3.p., Merronhurst,

Craigavad, Co. Down
aHeron, F. Adens, D.U., J.P., F.R.S.A.1., Maryfield, Holywood
_ aHewton, John, m.p.s.1., Ava Pharmacy, 315 Ormeau

Road, Belfast
Heyn, James A. M., Head Line Buildings, do.
Higginson, RK. K., 20 Waring Street, do.
aHill, S. W., M.p., 46 Pound Street, Larne
Hind, John, 22 Cliftonville Road, Belfast
aHogg, A. R., 10 Thorndale Avenue, do.
Hodges, Miss, Old Spout Farm, Notherfield, Sussex
aHolness, John J., 26 Ava Street, Belfast

Honneyman, Wm. B.SC., (LOND.), F.1.c., 18 Halstein
Drive, Ballyhackamore, do.
Hoskins, A. Percy, F.1.c., F.c.s., 14 Rosetta Park, do.

Houston, John Blakiston, D.L., J.P. (Representatives of),
Orangefield, do.

*Hughes, Edwin (Representatives of), Craigavad, Co. Down

Shareholders and Members. ib)

Hummel, Professor, M.Sc., A.M.I.C.E., Queen’s

University, Belfast
Hunter, Dr. J. A., 6 Stranmillis Road, do.
Hunter, William, s.p., Fortwilliam Villas, do.
Ireland, J. Herbert, 102 South Parade, do.

Jaffé, Sir Otto, 3.P., Lu.p., 10 Donegall Square S., do.

aJaffé, W., 10 Donegall Square South, do.
Jamieson, Andrew (Andrew Jamieson, Ltd.),

Sandy Row, do.
Jenkins, J. C., 86 University Road, do.
aJohnston, E. C., F.R.8.4.1., Glenmount, Newtownards

Johnston, Samuel A., y.p., Dalraida,
Whiteabbey, Co. Antrim

Jones, H. H., 2 Wilmont Terrace, Belfast
aJury, P. M., Brooklands, Dunmurry
aKendall, 8. O., 47 Adelaide Park, . Belfast
*Kinghan, John R., Windsor Avenue (Repre-

sentatives of), 7 do.
Kinkead, G. W., Chellowdene, Jordanstown, do.
Kyle, Robert Alexander, 15 Wellington Park, do.
Laird, Professor J., M.a., 4 Cranmore Gardens, do.
aLamb, G. C., Leura, Finaghy, do.
Juarmor, Sir Joseph, M.A., D.SC., LL.D., F.R.A.S.,

Nec. R.8., St. John’s College, Jambridge
alawlor, H. C., M.R.1.4., 8 Windsor Avenue, Belfast

alepper, R. 8., M.A., F.R.HIST.S., F.R.S.A.1., Elsinore,

Crawfordsburn, Co. Down
Lewars, D. B., 17 Dundela Gardens, Bloomfield, Belfast
Lindsay, Professor J. A., M.A.. M.D., F.R.C.P.,

Queen’s Elms, do.
aLindsay, W. A., mM.P., Lindsay Bros., Donegall Place, do.
aloewenthal, John McC., Lennoxvale, Malone Road, do.
Loughridge, James, 173 Cliftonville Road, do,

126 Shareholders and Members.

aLowry, David E., Oakley, Strandtown

*Macrory, A. J. (Representatives of), Belfast
aMagill, Mrs. A. P., 9 Wibnont Terrace, Lisburn

Road, Belfast
aMagill, Hugh, 217 Cavehii! Road, dc.
Magill, John E., Eversley, Whitehead
aMackie, James, J.p., Albert Foundry, Belfast
Malcolm, Bowman, M.I.C.E., M.I.MECH.E., Inver,

Ashley Park, Antrim Road, 3 do.
Maleolmson, Herbert, Riverside, Holywood
Matthew, J. A., M.Sc.(LOND), 4.R.c.Sc., 204 Upper

Newtownards Road, Belfast
Maxton, James, M.I.N.A., M.I.MAR.E., 6 Kirkliston

Drive, do.
aMayes, William, Kenmuir, 12 Deramore Park South, do.
Mayne, H. Horner, 24 Elmwood Avenue, do.
aMercier, Ald. 8. T., g.e., 2 Mount Clifton,

Cliftonville Road, do.
aMerrick, A. 8., 18 Wellington Park, Belfast
Metcalfe, A. W., Hawthornden House,

Hawthornden Road, do.
Milligan, A., 4 Cooke Street, do.

Mitchell, Robert A., Lu.B., T.c.D., Marmount,
Strandtown, do.
Moneypenny, Sir Frederick, c.B.E., c.v.o., City Hall, do.

aMontgomery, Miss E. 8.. 26 College Green, do.
aMontgomery, H. C., F.R.s.4.1., 40 Rosemary Street, do.
aMontgomery, H. H., 17 Malone Park, do.
Moore, Harold M., 26 Wellington Place, do.
aMorton, Professor W. B., M.A., Glencarse, Nottinghill, do.
Muir, A. H., 7 Donegall Square West, do.

Mullan, William, Lindisfarne, Marlborough Park, do.
*Murphy, Isaac James (Representatives of), Armagh

Shareholders and Members. 129

*Murphy, Joseph John (Representatives of), Beltast
*Musgrave, Henry, D.L. (Reps.), Drumglass, Malone, do.
uMacalister, Professor, R.a.S., D.LITT., M.A., 18 Mount

Kden Road, Donnybrook, Dublin
McBride, A. H., Ormeau Avenue, Belfast
*McCalmont, Robert (Representatives of), London

*McCammon, Thos. P. (Representatives of), Plaisted,
Woodvale, Holywood, Co. Down
McCance, Captain Stouppe, 4 Markham Square,
London, S.W.3

aMcCoy, B., F.R.S.A.1., 84 Smithfield, Belfast
McCoy, W. R. 8., 27 Damascus Street, do.
*McCracken, Francis (Representatives of),
aMcCready, H. L., m.a., 104 Myrtlefield Park, Belfast
aMecGowan, Thomas R., 73 Ann Street, do.
Macllwaine, Dr. John E., 26 College Gardens, do.
MacKenzie, W. G., A.rR.H.A., The Studio, Clarence

Place, do.
aMcKisack, H. L., m.p., Chlorine Place, do.
Maclaine, Alexander, J.P., Queen’s Elms

(Representatives of), do.
aMcMeekin, Adam, 3.P., Cogry House, Doagh
MacMillen, Rev. J., m.a., p.p., 151 Ravenhill Road, Belfast
McMullan, P. J., s.p., Churchfield, Holywood
aMecNeill, George, 12 Deramore Park, Belfast
Napier, N.-J; E., m.1.c.5.,; City Hall, do.
aNeill, F. F., 35 Candahar Street, do.
Nelson, Captain G. M., 2 Howard Street, do.
Newel, J. F., 25 Lombard Street, do.
Nicholl, J. W., 25 High Street, do.
Nicholl, William, 10 St. James’ Street, do.

aNolan, Dr. M. J., r.m.s., Resident Medical Super-
intendent, Asylum, Downpatrick

128 Shareholders and Members

ONeill 8 26 Gromellakoad! Bolas
Orr, Dr. Gawn, Ballylesson, do.
Orr, James, 17 Garfield Street, do.

aOsborne, T. Edens, F.R.8.A.1., 4 College Square N. do.

Patterson, Mrs. Isabella, Glenard, Holywood, Co. Down
Patterson, John F., 2 Mountcharles, Belfast
Patterson, Robert, M.R.1.A., F.z.S., M.B.0.U.,

Glenbank, Holywood
Patterson, William H. F., Auburn, Warren

Road, : Donaghadee
aPercival, R. D. 5.2., Karyhill, Downpatrick
Pinkerton, EK. S., B.A., B.E., A.M.1.¢.E., Oak Lodge,

Cedar Avenue, ; Belfast
Pomeroy, A. G.mM.A., Arnside; Dundonald
Porter, J. W., 35 Templemore Avenue, Belfast
aPringle, A., P. K. Arm, Ltd., Clarence Street W.,

Bedford Street, do.
Rafter, H. L., 29 Fitzwilliam Street, do.
Rentoul, J. L.. M.B., B.cH., 28 University Square, do.
aRiddell, Alexander, 12 Lower Crescent, do.
aRiddell, Henry, M.E., M.1.MECH.E., 64 Great

Victoria Street, do.
aRitchie, John, Cullintra Comber
Roberts, J. R., 43 Fitzwilliam Street, Belfast
Robertson, G. §., p.sc., Queen’s University, do.
Robinson, E. G., 1 Ashville, Inver Avenue, Antrim

Road, do.
aRoden, Countess of, Tullymore Park, Newcastle, Co. Down
aRutherford, Rev. J. C. B.a., 18 Lisburn Road, Relfa -
Salter, Victor, 6 Pickie Terrace, Bangor
Savage, Arthur, Westhorp, Cherryvalley, Belfast

Scott, James, B.s., Craigtara, Annadale Avenue, do.

Sharcholders and Members. 129

adearle, G. O., B.sc., Research Institute, Glenmore

House, Jambeg
aShanks, E., Fernagh, Saintfield Road, Belfast
aSheridan, Wm., 9 Roe Street, Cliftonville, do.
Sinclair, Professor Thomas, M.p., F.R.c.s., Eng.,

University Square, do.
aSinclair, Thomas, J.p., Lisburn
aSkillen, Joseph, The Lisnagarvey Linen Co., Lisburn
“Small, Professor James, D.SC., M.R.1.A., PH.C.,

Queen’s University, Belfast
Stanley, Major Rupert, LL.D., B.A., M.I.E.E., F.I.R.E.,

Municipal College of Technology, do.

Steen, William, B.u., Roseberry, Marlborough Park, do.
aStephens, Captain J. K., 3.p., 18 Donegall Square N., do.
aStevenson, John, Coolavin, Malone Road, do.
Stirling, James H., Ardenreagh, Windsor Avenue, do.
Stelfox, Arthur W., A.R.I.B.4., M.R.1.A., 14 Clareville

Road, Rathgar, Dublin
Stewart, A. W., Seaforde, Park Road, | Belitast
Stewart, Prof. A. W., M.A., D.sc., Queen’s University, do.
aSymmers, Professor W. St. C., M.B., 23 Windsor

Avenue, do.
aTate, T. M., u.p., Infirmary House, Downpatrick
atate, Dr: W. P., Bi do.
Taylor, A. E., 20 Cranmore Gardens, Lisburn Road, Belfast
aTaylor, James, 6 Royal Avenue, do.

*Tennent, Robert (Representative of), Rushpark, do.
*Tennent, Robert James (Representative of),
| Rushpark, do.

Thomas, 8. L., 3.p., 4 Downshire Park, Bangor
aThompson, Fidward, Prospect Mills, Belfast
Thompson, John, 3.P., Mountcollyer, Malone Road, ‘do.
aThompson, Joseph Altorf, Holvwood Road, do.

Thompson, J. M. 4 Milton Terrace, Wolseley Street, do.

130 Shareholders and Members.

Thompson, 8. B., J.p., Piney Ridge, Malone Road, Belfast .

Thomas, Trevor C., 6 Chichester Street, do.
Torney, H. C. S., F.R.S.A.1., The Moat, Holywood
Totten, J. H. B.a., B.sc., F.1.c., 16 Donegall

Square S., Belfast
Torrens, T. H., p.u., s.p., Edenmore, Jordanstown
Trimble, Dr. A., 3.p., Tyn Owen, Downview Ave., Belfast
Todd, Robert G., 1 Mount Easton, Cliftonville, do.
«Turner, S., junior, 142 Cliftonpark Avenue, do.
Turnley, Francis, Drumnasole, Carnlough
aWalker, Franklin M., Mount Royal, Whitehead
Ward, William C., Seafield, Raglan Road, Bangor
aWallace, the Rt. Hon. Colonel R. H.. c.B.,.p.z.,

Myra Castle, Downpatrick
*Webb, Richard (Representative of), Knock, Belfast
aWelch, R. J., m.r.1.a., 49 Lonsdale Street, do.
Whitaker, W. Martin, k.c., M.A., 4 Castleton Terrace, do.
White, Charles E., 10 Donegall Square West, do.
White, G. W., Chatsworth, Balmoral Avenue, | do.

« White, Right Hon. J. C., 3.p. Craigavad
Whitla, Sir William, M.P., M.p., J.p., Lennoxvale, Belfast
aWilson, Prof. Gregg, 0.B.E., M.A., PH.D., D.SC.,

M.R.I.A., Queen’s University, do.
aWilson, George, 17 Bedford Street, do.
Wilson, W. J. P., Chamber of Commerce, do.
*Wilson, W. Percival (Representative of), do.
*Wolff, G. W. (Representatives of), do.
Woodhouse, William, 24 Evelyn Gardens, Cavehill

Road, do.
Workman, Francis, p.L., The Moat, Strandtown, do.
Workman, W. H., m.B.o.u.. F.z.s., Lismore, Windsor

Avenue, ) do.

*Workman, T. (Representative of),
Workman, W., 8 Corporation Street, do.

Shareholders and Members. 131

Wren, Prof. H., M.4., p.sc., Pu.p., Municipal College

of Technology, Belfast
Wright, W. 8., 71 Marlborough Park, do.

HONORARY MEMBERS.

aBrett, Sir Charles H., tu.p., Gretton Villa, S.,
Malone Road, Belfast
d’Albe, Fournier, p.sc. (Lond. & Birm.), a.R.c.sc.,
M.R.I.A., The Hermitage, Portsmouth Road, Kingston
Foster, Nevin H., M.8.1.A., F.L.S.,.M-B.0.U.,
; Hillsborough, Co. Down
aStendall, J. A. S., m.B.o.u., Museum, College Sq., Belfast

Swanston, William, F.c.s., Farm Hill. Dunmurry

Wright, Joseph, F.c.s., 10 May Street, Belfast

a*Young, Robert Magill, 3.p., M.A., M.R.I.A., F.R.S.A.L.,
F.R.I.B.A., Rathvarna, do.

ANNUAL SUBSCRIBERS OF TWO GUINEAS.

Belfast Banking Company, Ltd., Belfast
Northern Banking Company, Ltd., do.
Ulster Bank, Ltd., do.

|The Hon. Secretary will be obliged if shareholders and
members will notify him in the event of change of address, cr
of any inaccuracies appearing in the names and addresses
in the list. Address:—The Museum, College Square North,
Belfast. |

15
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