52 
eled and richly embossed with  grape- 
bearing vine-leaves, &c. and the following 
inscription, as the students, in their address, 
observe, will shew the motives which 
suggested its presentation. ‘ Presented to 
Lieut. William Lewis, of the Madras N.I., 
by the medical gentlemen attending Dr. 
Gilchrist’s lectures, as a testimony of their 
gratitude for his friendly and unwearied ex- 
ertions in furthering their studies in the 
Hindoostanee and Persian languages.— 
London, Nov. 1824.” 
Hindoostanee and Persian Lecture Room, 
London, Nov. 3d. 1824. 
WERNERIAN SOCIETY OF NATURAL NISTORY. 
Nov. 13.—Read 1. <A notice of the 
incarceraticn of a live toad, fifty-four years, 
in the wall of Fort-William barracks, Cal- 
cutta; communicated by Major-General 
Hardwick. 2. Account of the monocoty- 
Jedonous and dicotyledonous plants found 
between the 4th and 1]th degrees of north 
latitude, on the western coast of Africa ; 
communicated by Mr. G. Don. 3. Notice 
of a viviparous variety of Juncas Lantpro- 
carpus, with specimens; by Mr. F. C. 
Parry. 
Dec. 4.—Read two communications re- 
lative to the discovery of the bones of a 
grampus or small whale, in the coarse clay 
lying over black peat-moss, communicated 
by Hen. Home Drummond, esq., M. P., 
and Mr. A. Blackadder, surveyor ; Meteo- 
rological observations made at Guayaquil, 
from Jan. to June 1824; by W. Jameson, 
esq-, Surgeon; and barometrical observa- 
tions between the Pacific Ocean and Men- 
doza in 1821; by Dr. Giles. . Dr. Bar- 
clay presented a letter from Dr. Mease of 
Philadelphia, accompanying a specimen of 
the Syran Lacertina. The following office- 
bearers were elected for the year 1825:— 
Robert Jameson, esq., president ; Dr. R.K. 
Greville ;| Rey. James Grierson, M.D. ; 
Robert Bald, esq. ; Sir Wm. Jardine, bart. ; 
Vice-Presidents. P. Neill, esq, Seeretary ; 
A. G. Ellis, esq., Treasurer ; Jas. Wilson, 
esq-, Librarian; P. Syme, esq., painter. 
Council: Professor R. Graham ; Alex. 
Adie, esq. ; Wm. Drysdale, esq. ; Gilbert 
Innes, esq.; Dr. Robert Knox; G. A. 
W. Arnott, esq-; Rev. Dr. Alex. Brun- 
ton; Dr. Andrew Coventry. 
LINNEAN SOCIETY. 
Dec. 7.—W. G. Maton, M. D., Vice-Pre« 
sident, in the chair :—Mr Sowerby ex- 
hibited some specimens of Beryl from the 
mountains of Morne in the county of Down. 
The reading of the third part of Dr. Hamil- 
ton’s commentary on the Hortus Malabari- 
cus was continued. 
Dec. 21 —A letter from Mr. Youell was 
read, stating that Ardea cayanensis had 
been taken near Yarmouth : also a fine spe- 
cimen: of the Green Ibis of Latham, and 
which had been deposited in the Norwich 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
[ Feb. 1, 
Museum. Mr. Y. also corrects some er- 
roneous statements of Mr. Bewick respect- 
ing Fulica atra account. 
An account of a remarkable Fungus, by 
the Rev. W. Kirby, which he names Aérac- 
tus, and places between Clathrus and Phal- 
lus, was also read; anda description, by 
the same, of such Genera and Species of 
Insects, alluded to in Kirby and Spence’s 
“ Introduction to Entomology” as had not 
been sufficiently noticed. 
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 
Dec. 3.— A notice was read, “‘ On some 
Fossils found in the Island of Madeira ;”’ 
by the late T. E. Bowdich, esq., in which 
he deseribes a formation of branched cylin- 
drical tubes ineased with aggiutinated sand, 
which occur in great abundance near Fani- 
cal, 15 miles from Funchal, in the Island 
of Madeira. Mr. Bowdich is inclined to 
refer these to a vegetable origin. They are 
accompanied by shells, some decidedly ter- 
restrial, and others which appear to belong 
to a marine genus. Also an extract of a 
paper was read, “ on the Chemical 
Composition of those Minerals, which be- 
long to the genus Tourmaline ;”” by Dr. C. 
G. Gmelin, professor of Chemistry in the 
University of Tubingen, &c. The author 
divides the ‘different species of Tourmaline 
into: Ist, Tourmalines which contain li- 
thion; 2d, Tourmalines which contain pot- 
ash or soda, or both these alkalies together, 
without lithion and without a considerable 
quantity of magnesia; 3d, Tourmalines 
which contain a considerable quantity of 
magnesia, together with some potash, or 
potash and soda’; and concludes that their 
most essential ingredients are boracic acid, 
silica, and alumine, whose relative quanti- 
ties do not vary much: that any alkaline 
substance, though in no considerable quan- 
tity, may be an essential ingredient ; and 
that the attempt appears useless to give 
mineralogical formule for their chemical 
composition ; because, Ist, we cannot rely 
upon the correctness of any statement re- 
garding the quantity of oxygen im boracic 
acid; 2dly, the quantity of alkaline bases, 
whose oxygen should be unity, is so small 
that it cannot be accurately determined in 
the computation of relative quantities ; 
3dly, in one species no account could be 
given ofa considerable loss of weight. 
ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 
Dec. 10.—A paper by Dr. Gregory, was 
read, describing a bor of rods, named the 
Rhabdological Abacus, presented to the So- 
ciety by the family of the late Henry. Good- | 
wyn, esq, of Blackheath ;—invented by 
him for facilitating the multiplication of 
long numbers of frequent occurrence : pro- 
bably suggested by Napier’s; though for 
the purpose in view, a great improvement 
upon them. The rods, which are square 
prisms, contain on each side successively 
the proposed number in a multiplicand, and 
its 
