PROCEEDINGS OP PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 315 



vertebrate animals of Shropshire and North Wales, interspersed 

 with brief but excellent remarks on their varieties and habits. This 

 first portion comprised the Order Mammalia, in which 23 animals, 

 exclusive of varieties, were enumerated as existing in the district. 



IMr. W. A. Leighton read a Paper, illustrated with drawings, on 

 the structure of the mummy-cloth of the Egyptians ; and shewed, 

 from a microscopical examination of the unravelled fibres of the 

 bandages enveloping the mummy presented to the Society by the 

 Venerable Archdeacon Butler, that the same was linen ; and not 

 cotton, as had been supposed by many writers. The fibres of the 

 mummy-cloth, and those of flax, proving to be cylindrical tubes, 

 articulated like a cane ; whilst those of cotton w^ere plain cylin- 

 drical transparent tubes, without joints. 



Dr. Henry Johnson followed, with a Paper on the chemical com- 

 position of the Egyptian mummy-case ; and exhibited to the Soci- 

 ety, by several interesting analyses, the peculiar nature of each of 

 the substances composing the bituminous matter in which the body 

 was enveloped, and the different colours employed in the beautiful 

 paintings with which the cases were adorned. 



Dr. Du Gard presented the Society with a Paper, containing a 

 detailed account of the French botanist, Dutrochet's, observations 

 relative to the phenomenon named by him endosmose ; the princi- 

 ple, according to him, by which the circulation of the sap in plants 

 is carried on. 



The phenomenon endosmose consists in the mutual affinity ex- 

 erted towards each other by two fluids of different densities placed 

 on opposite sides of a membrane ; an immediate intermixture taking 

 place, the denser fluid passing through the membrane, and its place 

 being supplied by the less dense fluid, until the density of the two 

 fluids becomes equal. An instrument, termed an endosmometer, 

 was exhibited, in which the phenomenon was going forward, and 

 by which the comparative velocity of the current of the fluids was 

 ascertained ; that of a syrup three times the density of water pro- 

 ducing an endosmose capable of sustaining a pressure equal to the 

 weight of three atmospheres. 



Mr. H. Pidgeon concluded his ])aper (the former portion of which 

 was read in January) on the History of Stottesden, with an account 

 of the advowson, and a description of the church. 



Among the more interesting donations received by the society 

 lately, were the following : Skull of the red-deer, boar's tusks, and 

 iron instruments, found sixteen feet below the surface, in excavat- 

 ing the foundations of the New Town Hall, Shrewsbury, presented 

 by the Venerable Archdeacon Butler. Sixty species of Land and 

 Fresh-water Shells, by Mr. H. Bloxam, of Ellesmere. Injected 

 Preparations of the Head and Leg of the Ass (Equus Asinus), and 

 twenty skins of Foreign and British Birds, by IMr. T. C. Eyton. 

 A case containing two Idols, from the East Indies, by Mr. J. Ross. 

 Leaf of the Talij)ot Palm, from Ceylon, by the Rev. L. Ottley. 

 Roman Fibulee and Lachrymatories, from Pontesbury and Wroxe- 



