etd nt 
33 
The final afternoon meeting for the session 1880-81 was held 
on March 9th, but Mr. C. E. Davis’s promised paper on “ The 
Roman Baths of Bath” having, for some reason, fallen through, 
Mr. Wanostrocht read a paper on ‘ Bitumen ; its History and 
Origin,” Mr. C. E. Broome being in the chair. The paper con- 
tained information of interest, but cannot be printed in full in 
our “Proceedings,” as the author has already printed and cir- 
culated it amongst some of the members. 
Mr. C. Moore said the reader had given a great amount of 
information new to many of those present. The presence of 
bituminous shales had only been found in England during the 
last few years. It was not generally known that they had 
these shales in the Lias of their own neighbourhood, though not 
of any practical value. He differed from the reader as to the 
gaseous state of the centre of the earth, for he held a heterodox 
opinion as to the production of minerals. The members had been 
told that they came up from below; he believed that they came 
down from the surface, that they were not due to Plutonic, but 
Neptunic action. They knew that metals were held in solution 
though in small quantities, by the waters of the ocean, and he 
believed they were deposited in fissures in the ocean bed. 
The Rey. H. H. Winwoop pointed out that the reader had 
touched upon a disputed question in geology as to what 
bitumen was ; some considered it animal, some vegetable, some 
an element, and some, with whom he agreed, that it was partly 
animal and partly mineral, for in no other way could its wide 
range be explained, 
Dr. FALCONER then read an interesting paper on “Turner and 
Johnson, Physitions and Naturalists,” which it was hoped would 
have been printed in the “ Proceedings,” but his recent lamented 
decease had prevented this being done. A black letter copy of 
Dr. Turner’s “ Herbal,” printed in 1568, was exhibited. 
The next afternoon meeting took place on 7th of December, 
H. D. Skrine, Esq., in the chair ; when the President exhibited 
c 
