Royal Institution of Great Britain. 125 



Cephalotus by their obvious identity of nature with Sarracenia ; in 

 Dischidia by their position upon the stem, by the condition of their 

 petiole, and by their relation to the inflorescence being the same as 

 that of leaves ; and in Norantia by their position with regard to the 

 flowers, and their gradual transition from leaves to their most per- 

 fect state. 



May 13th. Mr. Brockedon on the Passage of the Alps by Han- 

 nibal. Mr. Brockedon, in offering his remarks upon the passage 

 of Hannibal across the Alps, illustrated his observations by draw- 

 ings and maps. 



His object was to show the errors and absurdities into which 

 writers upon this subject had fallen by fire-side conjectures and re- 

 liance upon previous authors, who were as ignorant of the Alps as 

 themselves, and whose chief authorities were incorrect maps. His 

 own actual examination of above forty of the passes across the Alps, 

 having traversed them nearly sixty times, has brought to test the 

 impossible and impracticable routes laid down by different authors 

 impossible under the authority of Polybius which, contemporary 

 as he was with the event, and consistent as he was with himself 

 throughout his narrative, Mr. Brockedon thought was the only 

 authority to be relied upon. He successively exposed the fallacies 

 of Livy, St. Simon, Folard, Fortia d' Urban, Whittaker, Laranza, and 

 other authors who theorized upon any other pass than that of the 

 Little St. Bernard, where alone, throughout the great chain, Mr. 

 Brockedon observed the coincidences of times, distances, and events, 

 as related by Polybius, could be found to have occurred. 



The researches of General Robert Melville, given to the world 

 by M. de Luc of Geneva, were the first to excite attention to the 

 true line of the passage of the Carthaginians ; the subsequent exa- 

 minations of this and other routes in the Alps by Messrs. Wickham 

 and Cramer, of Oxford, confirmed General Melville's views ; and 

 Mr. Brockedon's repeated journeys over the Little St. Bernard, and 

 every other course across the Alps, which it was possible for Han- 

 nibal with his army to have taken, confirmed his belief in the moral 

 certainty that it was by this pass only that the extraordinary entry 

 of the Carthaginians into Italy was effected. 



May 20th. On this evening Mr. Charles John Robertson, of 

 Worton-house, tsleworth, gave an account of his improved method 

 of painting in water colours. 



The object which the lecturer proposed to himself in the experi- 

 ments which led to these improvements, was the uniting the advan- 

 tages supposed to exist separately and exclusively in oil or in water 

 colours. Oil painting has been supposed to possess greater dura- 

 bility, and the exclusive power of executing pictures upon a grand 

 scale : the oil which is used as a vehicle bringing out the colours to 

 their fullest tone, and producing a richness and mellowness of effect 



