Mb. W. Keddie on the Early History and Proceedings of the Society. 105 



ham with coal gas ; and in 1802, at the rejoicings for the general peace, 

 he employed it for the purpose of illumination at the same works. In 

 the year 1805, when the experiments upon coal gas were commenced 

 by the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, the manufactory of Lee & 

 Philips at Manchester was lighted in this manner by Mr. Murdoch. 

 Mr. Eichard Gillespie's printworks at Anderston were lighted with gas 

 in 1810. Mr. G. Lumsden had also introduced gas-light into his shop 

 about the same period. The Messrs. Hart had their shop and dwelling- 

 house lighted with gas for ten years before it was adopted by the city. 

 It was not till 1818 that gas-lighting was generally introduced into 

 Glasgow. 



The Society, which had met for some time in one of the Assembly 

 Rooms, now removed to Surgeons' Hall, St. Enoch Square ; and the 

 proceedings at this period embraced papers, readings, and conversations 

 on galvanism, chemistry, mechanics, manufactures, and vaccination. 

 A proposal was for some time entertained, but ultimately abandoned, 

 for erecting a laboratory in connection with the Society. The improve- 

 ment of the river now became an attractive object, for which the inge- 

 nuity of the members suggested many and various plans. One of these 

 projects contemplated the formation of a lock and dry docks at Govan ; 

 the widening of the river at the Broomielaw, and a quay to be built on 

 the south side, a proposal since adopted ; also, the erection of a breast 

 between the old and new bridges, to be appropriated for vessels of a 

 small draught of water, which has also been effected. But another sugges- 

 tion brought before the Society at this period has not met with equal 

 favour from the modern River Trustees, namely, that " the Molendinar 

 Burn be made navigable for small and fishing craft, as far, at least, as St. 

 Andrew's Square!" The Society occasionally indulged a taste for 

 antiquities. The minutes notice as a " precious morceau of antiquity," 

 a Highland wooden lock made with a knife, and procured by Mr. James 

 Crichton from the laird of Ballahulish, who had it from a Popish priest 

 near that place ; it was supposed to be as old as the time of Julius Caesar ; 

 and Mr. Hart discovers in the description of its clumsy but ingenious 

 mechanism contrivances resembling those of the unpickable lock of the 

 present day. The first two notices in the department of Natural 

 History are pecuUar. Mr. Wyld reported that " on eating a hen's egg 

 that had been boiled in the shell, he discovered in or about the middle 

 of the yolk, a horse's black hair, about eighteen inches long, coiled up 

 spiral-wise," and he confessed his inability to account for the phenomenon. 

 In the year 1809, the Society engrossed in its minutes a correspondence 

 altogether so curious that it deserves to be preserved. The following 

 letter was addressed to the Rev. David M'Kay, Reay, Caithness : — 



Vol. IV.— No. 1. p 



