April 2jrd, ic)[2.] PROCEEDINGS. xxxix 



Other Memlfers of the Coimcil : Svdney J. HiCKSON, M.A., 

 D.Sc, F.R.S. ; T. A. Coward, F.Z.S. ; Francis Nicholson, 

 F.Z.S. ; G. Elliot Smith, M. A., M.D., F.R.S. ; W. W. Haldane 

 Gee, B.Sc, M.Sc. Tech., A.M.I.E.E. ; Bertram Prentice, 

 Ph.D., D.Sc. 



Ordinary Meeting, April 23rd, 191 2. 



The President, Professor F. E. Weiss, D.Sc, F.L.S., 

 in the Chair. 



A vote of thanks was accorded the donors of the books 

 upon the table. These volumes included Vols. VI. — XIV. 

 (Second Series) and Vol. I. (Third Series) of the Society's 

 Alemoirs, from the library of the late Robert Barbour, for 

 many years a member of the Society, kindly presented by his 

 son, Mr. George Barbour. 



The President drew attention to the death of Professor 

 J. Dixon Mann, M.D., F.R.C.P. (Lond.), on April 6th, 1912, 

 and to the loss the Society sustained thereby. Professor Dixon 

 Mann had been a member of the Society since January 26th, 

 1875- 



Mr. R. L. Taylor, F.C.S., F.I.C., read a paper entitled 

 "The Action of Bleaching Agents on the Colouring 

 Matter of Linen." The author showed that the colouring 

 matter of unbleached linen is quite abnormal with regard 

 to the action of the ordinary bleaching agents upon it, 

 and differs from every other colouring matter with which he is 

 acquainted. Whereas colouring matters such as indigo, Turkey- 

 red, and the colouring matter of cotton are bleached much more 

 rapidly by free chlorine or hypochlorous acid than by a hypo- 

 chlorite, with the colouring matter of linen the exact opposite is 

 the case, this being bleached more rapidly by a solution of 

 a hypochlorite. Apparently the maximum bleaching effect on 



