6o Proceedings. 



Ordinary Meeting, January loth, 1888. 



Professor W. C. WILLIAMSON, LL.D., F.R.S., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



The Chairman referred to the sudden death of the 

 President of the Society, Professor Balfour Stewart, LL.D., 

 F.R.S., and it was moved by Dr. Burghardt, seconded by 

 Mr. Francis Jones, and resolved, — 



" That the members of the Manchester Literary and 

 Philosophical Society desire respectfully to offer their 

 sincere sympathy and condolence to Mrs. Stewart and her 

 family in the sad bereavement they have sustained in the 

 loss of Dr. Stewart, the esteemed and distinguished 

 President of the Society ; and that the Secretaries be 

 requested to communicate the resolution to Mrs. Stewart." 



The Chairman stated that a similar resolution had been 

 adopted by the Council of the Society, and that the Council 

 had requested Dr. Schuster to prepare a memoir on the life 

 and work of Dr. Stewart, to be read before the Society. 



Mr. Faraday communicated the substance of a letter 

 from Mr. George J. Romanes, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., with 

 reference to experiments bearing on the theory of physio- 

 logical selection. The letter suggested that "splitting" 

 botanists should look out for constant varieties, sow the 

 seeds together with some standard plants for subsequent 

 comparison with the progeny, and then either send all the 

 material to the writer (with diagnostic descriptions of the 

 points of difference), or, if they preferred to conduct the 

 experiments on hybridisation for themselves, should com- 

 municate with Mr. Romanes as to the method. 



Professor WILLIAMSON announced that the gigantic 

 fossil stigmarian roots of a lepidodendroid or sigillarian 

 tree, discovered some time since, had been erected in the 

 Museum of the Owens College, forming the noblest example 

 of fossilised vegetable life yet discovered. 



