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THIRD ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, November 18th, 1878.

JOHN J. DRYSDALE, M.D., M.R.C.S., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Messrs. J. Powell Wright, Richard Steele, and Morton Sparke were elected Ordinary Members.

The

The evening was occupied in a discussion on the paper read at the last meeting, "Is Nature Cruel ?" speakers were Mr. Ball, Rev. H. J. Johnson, and Messrs. Russell, Hayward, Unwin, Snape, Samuel, Symes, Patterson, and Dr. Nevins.

FOURTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, December 2nd, 1878.

JOHN J. DRYSDALE, M.D., M.R.C.S., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Messrs. John Serjeant and W. T. Southward, M.A., were elected Ordinary Members; and Captains Sibthorpe and Cooper, Associates.

The Rev. H. H. HIGGINS introduced Mr. McDonnell, Master-at-Arms of H.M.S. Resistance, who exhibited an extensive collection of insects naturally entombed in Gum Copal, taken in East Central Africa.

The Rev. H. H. HIGGINS exhibited a specimen of White Coral, probably a variety of the Red Coral of Japan; and a rare Mollusc, Teredo (Uperotis) nucivora, whose habitat is in the husk of a Cocoa Nut.

Mr. GUTHRIE then read a paper entitled "A Critical Examination of Mr. Herbert Spencer's Explanation of the Evolution of Organic Matter."

FIFTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, December 16th, 1878.

JOHN J. DRYSDALE, M.D., M.R.C.S., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

The Rev. P. Murphy and Mr. R. Lachlan Bogue were elected Ordinary Members.

Mr. T. HIGGIN, F.L.S., exhibited two new and rare Sponges (Aphrocallistes beatrix and Eurete megalostoma) lately added to the Museum collection, and spoke of some interesting Sponge-balls lately brought to this country, analogous to the "Hairball" of the Ox, and to the "Ambergris Ball" of the Sperm Whale. These Sponge-balls are masses of comminuted spicules, and portions of the skeletons of the Euplectellæ, and they are supposed to have been cast up on the shore, after being thrown up by some cetacean animal that had been browsing on the Euplectellæ.

Some specimens of Carrara marble, completely honeycombed by the action of the boring Sponge Cliona, having been exhibited by Captain MORTIMER, Associate, being part of a cargo wrecked off Long Island in 1871, and alluded to in Silliman's Journal, November, 1878, p. 406, Mr. HIGGIN showed examples of the Cliona in various stages, boring into shells, converting them to its own substance, and finally becoming free. This wrecked cargo of Carrara marble was thus slowly being consumed, and becoming converted into

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living sponge substance, having a skeleton of siliceous spicules.

Mr. ALFRED MORGAN then read a paper on "A description of a Dakotan Calendar, with a few ethnographical and other notes on the Dakotas, or Sioux Indians, and their territory." *

SIXTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, January 13th, 1879.

JOHN J. DRYSDALE, M.D., M.R.C.S., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Messrs. Henry Longuet Higgins and Wm. Fingland were elected Ordinary Members.

References were made to the recent death of Mr. Hugh Shimmin, who had been a member of the Society for thirteen years.

Dr. CARTER briefly reported an experiment he had made to illustrate the filtering power of a thin layer of sand.

Mr. R. C. JOHNSON stated that on the recent occasion of an explosion of forty-five pounds of dynamite, at Holywell, the sound was distinctly heard at Higher Bebington, a distance of ten miles.

Mr. PICTON made some observations on a communication he had received from Australia, describing the fall of a shower of sulphur, as was supposed. Dr. CARTER and the Rev. H. H. HIGGINS considered that the supposed sulphur was most likely the pollen of the willow, &c.

* See page 233.

Mr. J. LINTON PALMER, Fleet Surgeon, R.N., then read a paper on "The Colours of the Sea."*

SEVENTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, January 27th, 1879.

JOHN J. DRYSDALE, M.D., M.R.C.S., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Messrs. J. W. Kynaston and C. H. Beloe were elected Ordinary Members.

Mr. JOSEPH BOULT introduced the subject of overcrowding in our large towns in its influence upon the rates of mortality, and quoted statistics to show that overcrowding, in the sense of so many persons to the acre, was by no means so important an element in the causes of high mortality as was generally supposed. These causes, he considered, were to be found rather in the habits of the people than in the character of their dwellings. An interesting discussion followed, supported by Messrs. Picton, Fletcher, Shearer, Russell, and Symes.

The PRESIDENT, in summing up the discussion, said that whilst they fully acknowledged the importance of the subject and the value of Mr. Boult's statistics, they should also admit the merit of what had been done in improving the sanitary condition of towns, and not consider that the money spent had been wasted. In Liverpool, he thought the chief error committed had been in allowing small and inferior cottage property to be built, instead of encouraging the erection of a larger class of property to be let off in tenements.

A paper was then read by Mr. E. DAVIES, F.C.S., "On

* See page 117.

Mr. Norman Lockyer's Hypothesis of the Compound Nature of the Elements."

After which, Mr. STEARN read a paper, illustrated with experiments, "On Professor Crookes's Researches into an Ultra Gaseous state of Matter."

EIGHTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, February 10th, 1879.

EDWARD R. RUSSELL, VICE-PRESIDENT, in the Chair. The HONORARY SECRETARY reported the results of the Associated Soirée, held on the 31st ultimo. The tickets taken represented 2,774 visitors; and the receipts amounted to the sum of £300, leaving a balance in the hands of the Executive Committee of £22.

The Rev. T. P. KIRKMAN, M.A., F.R.S., presented a paper on "The Solution of the Autopolar Poly-edra, with full constructions up to P = 10.'

Mr. F. P. MARRATT exhibited an extensive collection of shells of the genus Nassa, and read a communication thereon. +

Mr. ARTHUR E. NEVINS, Associate, then read a paper "On Modern Meteorology considered in its Bearing upon Tropical Storms." t

NINTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, February 24th, 1879.

JOHN J. DRYSDALE, M.D., M.R.C.S., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Messrs. George W. Slatter, A.R.C.Sc., F.C.S., Wm.

* See page 133. † See page 255. ‡ See page 101.

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