'MONTENEGRO.' —By MALCOLM BURE, Esg., D.Sc, B.A., F.G S. 



Last yo-ar the members of the Society had the 

 pleasure of listening- to an exceedingly interesting 

 lecture on the Near East given by Dr. G. Wills, 

 who finds recreation from bis professional duties 

 in the study of the history of the various races 

 which inhabit these regions. At this lecture Mr. 

 Malcolm Burr was present, and in the discussion 

 that followed he expressed his willingness to give 

 a lecture on his personal experiences in the country. 

 On November 10th he redeemed his promise, and 

 all those who »^ ere present spent a most enjoyable 

 time listening to Mr. Burr's account of iiis 

 wanderings in the little known country of Monte- 

 negro. 



Before the lecture two new members were pro- 

 posed and unanimously elected — Miss G. Wiltshier, 

 proposed by Miss Mason, and Mr. Nicholson, 

 proposed by Mr. M. Burr, D.Sc. 



The Chairman, Mr. S. Harvey, F.I.C., returned 

 thanks for his re-election as President of the 

 Society and paid a warm tribute to the loyalty of 

 the members of the Committee and the Hon. Sec, 

 Mr. A. Lander. Mr. Harvey also called attention 

 to the recent death of Dr. Dallinger, one of the 

 greatest microscopists of the day. Dr. Dallinger, 

 he said, resided when he (the speaker) first knew 

 him at Boughton. At that time they had Dr. 

 Reid, a celebrated microscopist, living at Bishops- 

 bourne on the one side and Dr. Dallinger at 

 Boughton on the other side. Mr. Harvey then 

 called upon Mr. Burr to deliver his lecture. 



Mr. Burr said he had only just returned to 

 England and was sorry to say that some 

 gramophone rt^cords of Montenegro music, 

 which he had procured, had not yet arrived. 

 He had with him, however, a native musical 

 instrument which those present might like to 

 examine after the lecture. The whole of the 

 slides shown by Mr. Burr were from photographs 

 taken by himself while on a tour of the country, 

 and the lecturer's lucid explanations and spicy 

 anecdotes made up the sura total of an intensely 

 interesting address. One great characteristic of the 

 Montenegrian towns was, he said, their absolute 

 peacefulness; wheeled traffic was most uncommon, 

 and the streets were practically desei-ted. Tho 

 usual method of travelling was on horseback. Most 

 of the towns are situated in the valleys which. 



surrounded as they are with rugged mountains 

 of limestone, have the appearance of craters of 

 extinct volcanoes, but are really caused by the 

 subsidences due to the action of its underground 

 rivers which are so numerous in this country. The 

 prince's palace in Cetigne, the capital of Monte- 

 negro, is a very unpretentious-looking building 

 and differs but little from the dwellings of the 

 common people. Women were the beasts of burden, 

 and it seemed to him (the speaker) that the men 

 did nothing but smoke and chat all day and play 

 cards all night, while the women did the work 

 (laughter). Views of a wedding procession — with 

 the bride walking home on the arm of the best 

 man — types of Montenegrian and Albanian peasants 

 and specimens of the rugged mountain scenery 

 were also shown, and Mr. Burr gave a graphic 

 description, illustrated by a photograph of their 

 stay at one of the mountain "hotels." They gave 

 them some funny things to eat, he said, including 

 some milk which tasted strongly of turpentine. 

 They afterwards discovered that it was sheep's 

 milk, and that the animals had been feeding on the 

 needles of the pines which abounded in the locality, 

 hence the taste of turpentine. Montenegro was 

 the only country south-east of the Balkans which 

 has never been conquered, a fact which was due 

 to the mountainous character of the country. 

 Italian influence was strong in the country, and 

 an Italian firm was carrying on extensive works 

 along the river. The Albanians were a fighting 

 race, and were taught to shoot from infancy ,- 

 many of the clans had been engaged recently in 

 fighting the young Turks. 



At the close of the lecture Mr. Burr exhibited a 

 most interesting little collection of native articles 

 giving a lucid explanation of the uses and mean- 

 ings of each. 



Mr. Harvey, in proposing a hearty vote of thanks 

 to Mr. Burr, said the only fault they had to find 

 with the lecture was that it was too short. That 

 lecture was an excellent supplement to the one 

 given by Dr. Wills on a previous occasion. 



The vote was carried unanimously, and Dr. 

 Wills spoke for a few miniites on the subject, after 

 which a short discussion followed. 



Mr. A. Lander presided atthe lantern, and the 

 slides exhibited were exceedingly clear. 



'■EADIANT HEAT. 



-By AIk. W. T. LEEMING. 



A lecture on the above subject was given at the 

 Simon Langton Schools on December H by Mr. W. 

 T. Leeming. Mr. Harvey. President of the Society, 

 presided over a good aiidience of members and 

 friends. The lecturer said : — 



The subject of " Radiant Heat " has been chosen 

 for consideration, as one on which some interesting 

 exp'.'riments may bu shown. These experiments 

 require the use of some very delicate instruments 

 which in themselves have many points of interest. 

 At the same time an attempt will be made to ex- 



plain the nature of radiant heat, and to sliow the 

 similarity between light and heat. 



Newton thought that light « as a substance, but 

 it was shown later by YounL^ a man who in the 

 opinion of Tyndall was little inferior to Newton, 

 that two certain kinds of light could be added 

 tojjether and produce darkness or no light, This is 

 conclusive evidence that light is not a substance, 

 since two substances added together cannot pro- 

 duce nothing. Heat was for a long time also 

 considered to be a substance. The fact that a 



