172 Proceedings of the 



amongst them were the skull of an Ashantee slain in the battle of 

 August, 1824, broughtby Captain Martin, with two occipital bones; 

 two quivers, with poisoned arrows, and two bows ; the arms 

 taken from the enemy on the same occasion, and a collection of 

 wrought and polished specimens of the hard stones from Catherins- 

 burgh in Siberia. 



Mr. Lingard exhibited and explained his drawings and illustra- 

 tions of the Natural History of Fungi and of Dry Rot. 



Pohl*s fine engravings of Brazilian plants, with several presents 

 of books, were also laid upon the tables. 



February 8th. 



The subject this evening, ^n the Architecture of St. Paul's 

 Cathedral, was taken up hy Mr. Ainger. 



The object of the lecture was to show the inapplicability of 

 Greek architecture to the complicated buildings required by mo- 

 dern society, artd more especially to those in which the arch and 

 the dome formed important and conspicuous parts. 



The origin of Greek architecture was explained on a dissected 

 model of part of the Parthenon, in which the derivation of the 

 several parts of the entablature, namely, the architrave, frieze, 

 and cornice, with the tryglyphs, and mutules, from the timbers 

 which composed the roofs of the Greek temples, was clearly shown. 

 It appeared, therefore, that the entablature (which, with the column, 

 constitutes what is called an order) is merely the representation 

 of the edge of the roof, and therefore that it cannot, with pro- 

 priety, admit any superstructure, but must always terminate the 

 building to which it is appHed, and that it must be confined to the 

 exterior. 



The principle thus obtained was applied to the interior and ex- 

 terior decorations of Saint Paul's, which consist of imitations of 

 this roof, placed at various heights within and without the building, 

 in places where it is obvious they do not represent the edge of an 

 actual roof, and where it is impossible they could do so. Various 

 criticisms on the architecture of St. Paul's were adduced to show 

 that these imitations of the roof, these copies of the Greek entabla- 

 ture, were considered as if they actually could and did conform to 

 the types from which they are derived, the absurdity of which is 

 rendered evident by the circumstance, among others, of their being 

 within the building, and not half way towards its visible summit ; 

 in places, therefore, where their supposititious elements could not by 

 any stretch of imagination be fancied to exist, and where, by attempt- 



