244: PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
Mrs. Ward. Mr. Carruthers exhibited some of the first original 
sun-pictures on metal plates, with etchings from the same, exe- 
euted by M. Niepce in 1827. The Messrs. Wheeler showed various 
experiments illustrating the allotropic conditions of several ele- 
ments. They also electrolysed water, making use of carbon 
poles; and showed that when these were employed carbonic 
acid was obtained at the negative pole in place of oxygen. 
Another experiment illustrated the bleaching effects of nascent 
hydrogen, the gas, at the moment of disengagement, decolorising 
a solution of indigo, but having no effect on the same solution 
when passed into a wash bottle containing it. On Wednesday 
morning, when the microscopical exhibition was visited by a 
large number of ladies, the same gentlemen made a series of 
brilliant experiments with twenty-four cells of a carbon battery 
of their own construction. With this battery they produced a 
powerful electric light, and showed the are of the thallium flame 
on the screen. Iron and zine were burnt with ease by means of 
the battery. They also exhibited the magnesium lght, and showed 
beautiful experiments illustrating the fluorescent property of a 
solution of sulphate of quinine. There was a very large attend- 
ance both on the Tuesday and Wednesday ; on the latter day of 
ladies.”’ 
A less learned critic, writing in one of the daily papers, says, 
“Tt was a pleasant change from the darkness, rain, and mud of 
Bridge Street, and its dismal sub-ways, when at 8°15 p.m. we 
reached the entrance of the hall, made warm and cheerful with 
lights, hot-house plants, and a profusion of flowers. At the hall 
door we were welcomed by Master Saunders, and found ourselves 
in the principal apartment, a handsome oblong chamber, adorned 
with portraits of a few of our English sovereigns, commencing 
with those of James I. and his ill-starred son, with the likenesses 
of many past masters, beginning with John Lorimer, Magister, 
1654. This large room was well filled with students and profes- 
sors of science, and on long ranges of tables were displayed, 
under an almost painful blaze of light, a truly wonderful collec- 
tion of microscopes, hardly to be equalled in any of the museums 
of the world. 
“ Aquatic vegetables, globes inclosing smaller globes, and in 
perpetual motion, fairy baloons inflated by a subtle fluid con- 
sistent with transparency ; a white human hair, shown in pola- 
rized light, and rich in the most brilliant colours; the scalp of a 
negro presenting, under the lens a rich, dotted surface; section 
of a cat’s tongue, of a rich amber tint, with pearly points; tad- 
poles of a newt; animated minute dark bodies moving with great 
velocity; marine polyzoa, shown with remarkable clearness; 
crystals of borax, and oxalate of ammonia, exceeding in beauty 
and splendour the most perfect assemblage of gems; the injected 
lung of a sheep, a brilliant field of vivid scarlet varied with 
dazzling crystal points ; muscle of a mouse, injected ; toe of the 
same animal; spine of echinus; intestine of a frog; and the 
