1896O Proceedings of Irish Societies. Si 



Dubinin Microscopicai, Ci^ub. 



January i6th.— The Club met at Dr. Frazer's, who exhibited micro- 

 scopic sections made from bone pins of large size found in a fragmentary 

 state and bearing evidences of exposure to strong heat causing charring. 

 They were obtained by B. Crofton Rotheram, Esq., in recent explora- 

 tions of cairn R- at Slieve na Calliagh, Co. Meath. Some of these 

 portions of bone are figured in th.e Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries 

 of Ireland, vol. v., 1895, p. 313, by Mr. Rotheram. The bone implements 

 had sharp points and blunt semi-conical heads, and may have been used 

 for pins. Fragments of similar objects (three in number) were obtained 

 by Colonel Wood-Martin some years since from a cairn in Co. Sligo, and 

 are figured in his work on the " Rude Stone Monuments of Sligo." Dr. 

 Frazer had examined these, and was induced to believe they were of 

 Cetacean origin, but the re- examination of his former preparations and 

 sections made from the Co. Meath find demonstrated that they were all 

 obtained from the antlers of the Red Deer, once so widely distributed in 

 all parts of the country, and now almost extinct. Dr. Frazer likewise 

 exhibited careful drawings of all the fragments obtained in Sligo and 

 Meath. No less than eleven of the bone implements were found at 

 Lough Crew cairn judging by that number of the blunt semicircular top 

 portions discovered amongst the fragments. 



Prof. G. A. J. Cole showed a section of a remarkably unaltered and 

 scoriaceous volcanic bomb from the Silurian tuffs north of Clogher Head 

 in the Dingle promontory. In this region a handsome series of bombs 

 occurs, precisely resembling those of the Petit Pu.y-de-D6me,in Auvergne ; 

 they have been preserved without infilling of their cavities, and present 

 a remarkable contrast to the other volcanic rocks interstratified with 

 them. 



Prof. T. Johnson exhibited Hyella nitida, Batt. in litt^ a shell-perforat- 

 ing alga, new to science, found on the Merrion strand this last Decem- 

 ber, after the storm which caused the Kingstown life-boat disaster. The 

 Hyella nitida was shown accompanied by Conchocelis rosea, Batt., both of 

 which were gnawing away the Razor-shell. The differences between the 

 two species were pointed out. 



Mr. a. Vaughan Jennings showed a specimen of the Foraminiferal 

 genus Raimilina growing within a chamber of the large Foraminifer 

 Carpenteria rhaphidodendron Mobius. The slide was from the collection of 

 the late Dr. W. B. Carpenter, and had in 1880 been the subject of a paper 

 in XhQ Journal of the Royal Microscopic Society by the late Dr. Martin Duncan, 

 who described the Ramulina as a calcareous sponge and gave to it the 

 name oi Mobiusispongia parasitica. The specimen njight be regarded as 

 raising the question whether any of the Foraminifera have the power of 

 boring through calcareous shells ; but in the case in question it is more 

 probable that the Ramulina was at first growing on the outside of the 

 Carpenteria and was subsequently enclosed by the rapid growth of the 

 latter. A note on the subject was communicated to the Linnean Society 

 in June, 1895. 



