Proceedings, CXXxi 
Evenine MEETINGS. 
February 18th.—Mr. F. Campbell-Bayard read the Report of 
the Meteorological Sub-Committee for 1895. The stations of 
which records have been tabulated number seventy-three as 
against sixty-six in the last Report, and the number of observers 
is sixty-one as compared with fifty-four. The year 1895 was 
probably the most remarkable one of the century. The pro- 
longed cold in January and February, the warm June, the 
remarkable equality of the mean temperatures of July, August, 
and September, the number of months (four) in which less than 
one inch of rain fell, the intense heat of September 28rd to 30th, 
the unusually cold period of October 23rd to 31st, the warm 
November with a temperature higher than October, combined 
with the short rainfall, form a record unique during the present 
century. 
Dr. Franklin Parsons read ‘‘Some Geological Notes on a 
Recent Sewer Section at Park Hill Rise” (Trans., Art. 129). 
The beds exposed commence with the London Clay and end 
about the middle of the Woolwich and Reading series. In a 
sandy bed belonging to the Oldhaven series numerous fossil 
shells, chiefly fragmentary, were found. 
Mr. Lovett exhibited an apparatus used as a clock from the 
North Philippines. It consisted of twelve pieces of wood sus- 
pended horizontally on a cord, and the time was shown by the - 
position of an indicator placed every hour. 
The President exhibited specimens of so-called Sola pith, the 
stem of an Indian plant used in the manufacture of pith helmets, 
and also some radiolaria dredged by the ‘Challenger’ from a 
depth of 2425 fathoms. 
March 17th.—Mr. Edward Lovett read a paper on ‘ Super- 
stition and Myth,” in special reference to charms and amulets. 
He said that trinkets were first worn as a protection from the 
evil eye, but now only serve as ornaments. In the same way a 
model of the eye was in common use amongst the ancient 
Egyptians, and numbers of these are found in the folds of the 
mummy-cloths. A ladle from Vancouver Island was exhibited, 
on which was a representation of the thunder bird with the eye 
occupying nearly the whole of the head. Among the Maoris 
the origin of many of their designs is the human face with a 
prominent eye made of mother of pearl. Mr. Lovett gave a 
history of the crescent, tracing it from Isis, the Egyptian Diana, 
who is represented as wearing a crescent. He conjectured that 
the ornament on King Prempeh’s headdress was intended for a 
crescent. The crescent was used as an amulet by soldiers, and 
it occurs at the present day on the trappings of horses. The 
