PROCERDrNGS OP PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 307' 



Drinks, as an article of Diet ; including the consideration whether 

 any quantity of any kind be necessary for the maintenance of healthy 

 even in those who are engaged in laborious occupations^" premium 

 ten guineas, offered by the Rev. J. Angel James, to be sent in on 

 or before the ]st of January next, and to be awarded by the Rev. 

 Chancellor Law, the Rev. Dr. Jeune, Rev. W. M. Lawson, the 

 Rev. J. A. James, Dr. Booth, and Mr. W. S. Cox: the Essays "On 

 the Capillary Vessels, viz., their division, conformation, situation, 

 modes of communication, structure, physical and vital properties, 

 functions, and morbid anatomy, premium ten guineas, offered by- 

 James Upfill, Esq., to be sent in on or before September, 1837. 



The Museums of Natural History and Comparative Anatomy, 

 have been enriched by the following stuffed specimens and skeletons: 

 Felis concolor, Felis discolor, Felis panthera, Didelphis marsupialis, 

 Canis aureus, Meles lotor, ]Mus zibethicus, JVIarmotta alpina, Vesper- 

 tillio spectrum. Lord Viscount Lifford and Sir H. Halford, Bart, 

 have been enrolled in the list of honorary governors ; and the names 

 of upwards of twenty gentlemen have been added to the list of an- 

 nual subscribers. 



BIRMINGHAM PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTIOX. 



The Literary and Philosophical Society of this Institution began 

 the third session of its summer meetings on Monday, May the 2nd, 

 when the president for the last year, the Rev. S. Bache, delivered 

 an address to the members, which has since been printed by the 

 society, for distribution amongst the members. A paper was after- 

 wards read to the society, by Mr. Russell, on the structure and 

 habits of the Teredo navalis. At the second meeting of the society, 

 held on Monday, the 6th of June, Dr. Ogier Ward read an account 

 of an experiment made by Mr. W. Hawkes on the effects of the 

 slow cooling of melted basalt. As this experiment was conducted 

 throughout with great care, by Mr. Hawkes, and as the quantity of 

 basalt melted — exceeding a ton and a half — was more than four 

 times as great as that employed in the well-known experiments of 

 Mr. Gregory Watt, we have inserted an abstract of Dr. Ward's 

 pa])er on the subject : — 



The author of the paper beg'an by giving a general description of 

 basalt in the mass, as exhibited at Rowley, and Barrow Hill, near 

 Dudley, and at Pouch Hill, near Walsall, in which places it as- 

 sumes the columnar configuration ; and then proceeded to describe 

 the intimate structure of the stone as fine grained and confusedly 

 crystalline ; its hardness superior to that of glass, but inferior to 

 feldspar ; its action on the magnet strong, but without polarity ; 

 its spec. grav. from 2.864 to 3.225 ; its colour iron-grey, approach- 



y2 



