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arrangements (1) to ensure a free passage for gases and (2) to prevent 
excessive transpiration. The paper was illustrated with numerous lantern 
slides, and preparations of actual specimens exhibited by Members of the 
Microscopical Section. 
PHOTOGRAPHIC SECTION. 
The Section’s Exhibit at the Annual Conversazione was equal both in 
merit and interest to those, of previous exhibitions. A special feature was 
a series of photographs illustrative of the types of Vegetation, &c., in Sleep- 
ing Sickness Areas in Africa, exhibited by the President of the Society, 
Professor Robert Newstead. 
On January 29th, 1914, a Lecture was delivered before a large audience 
by Mr. Ronald Gorbold, Northampton, on “ Unfrequented Passes of the 
High Alps.” The Lecture was beautifully illustrated by over a hundred 
original lantern slides, which were of a very high order of merit. The 
lecturer’s lucid descriptions of the beautiful scenery portrayed on the 
sereen were also much appreciated by his hearers. 
LITERATURE SECTION. 
The first of the three Lectures assigned to the Section was delivered 
by the Secretary, Mr. J. M. Graham. The title of the address was ‘“‘ Two 
Famous Buildings in Rome,” and the structures dealt with were the Palace 
of the Lateran, and the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The story 
of the Palace, with its two thousand years of vicissitudes, was traced from 
the times of its illustrious founders, the consular family of the Laterani, to 
its appropriation as an imperial residence by Nero, by Maximian, colleague 
of Diocletian, by Maximian’s daughter, Fausta, wife of Constantine the 
Great. The more or less peaceful tenancy of the palace by these august per- 
sonages and others was duly followed by its pillage at the hands of Genseric 
and his Vandals, its capture respectively by Belisarius, 'Totila, and Narses, 
its occupation, more than once interrupted, as a Papal dwelling for up- 
wards of ten centuries, and finally its transformation into a Museum 
some seventy years ago by Pope Gregory the sixteenth. In the course of 
the lecture notice was taken of the relics and memorials of various kinds 
associated with the annals of the building: the sacred staircase of twenty- 
eight marble steps, declared to have been mounted and descended by the 
Saviour on the day of his momentous encounters with Pontius Pilate; 
the numerous oratories; the Chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum; the un- 
surpassed mosaics; the venerable, wonder-working images—one of which 
is, as usual, attributed to the accomplished and indefatigable St. Luke, 
the Evangelist; and many another marvel and treasure.—The miraculous 
events, during the fourth century, attending the origin of the Cathedral 
of Santa Maria Maggiore, were then entered upon. The history of the 
stateliest and most sumptuous church ever erected in honour of her who 
was called, whether by the Greek or the Latin Christian, ‘‘ Theotokos ” 
or “ Deipara,” and was consequently reverenced by each alike as Mother 
of the Redeeming God, is intimately bound up with the munificence of 
popes, emperors, kings, and nobles, who lavished their wealth unceasingly 
on this most gorgeous of sanctuaries. Notably attractive at first view, 
with its exterior of golden yellow travertine, its inside presents an archi- 
tectural elegance, an almost oppressive richness of ornament in mosaics, 
in the rarest of marbles, in silver and gold and priceless gems, to which 
there is no parallel even among the seven cathedrals of Rome. 
ee) 
The second Lecture, on “‘ Christina Rossetti,” afforded the frequenters 
of the Museum a welcome opportunity of hearing, for the first time, the 
Rev. Canon Binney, M.A., of Chester Cathedral. That the gifted sister 
of Dante Rossetti can be ranked as comparable with him in mastery of 
