184 Society of Ant'tqvaries. -^French National Institute. 

 something overlooked by his predecessors ; it has certainly 

 ipiich simplicity. 



SOCIETi' OF AiNTiaUARIES. 



The meetings of this society took place on the same even- 

 ing and hour iinmediately preceding that of the Royal. On 

 the first night was exhibited a bronze bas-relief of a bov rid- 

 ing on a dolphin,\vith ahead somewhat depressed resembling 

 that of a bird. This curious and highlv interesting piece of 

 antiquity was found at Colchester ', but the discoverer could 

 give no satisfactory account of its nature or use. He sup- 

 posed it to have been one of the Dd Penates or Lares, and 

 that it represented Cupid, the god of love, in one of the 

 various characters in which the antients adored that power- 

 ful deity. Were wc permitted an observation different 

 from these learned antiquaries, we would pronounce it not 

 a Cupid but a Bacchus seated on a. dolphin, the head of 

 which is depressed, indicating the descent of the jolly god 

 ad inferos, which, according to the modern system of ex- 

 plaining mythology, was emblematic of the sun's setting 

 apparently in the sea. This figure is supposed to have been 

 adopted by the Greeks from the inhabitants of the north- 

 west, which they called Skiros, where their Cimmerian Tar- 

 tarus was placed. The discovery of this bronze bas-relief 

 will, we hope, lead to more accurate knowledge of the 

 northern mythology. 



On thel4th, the several silvercnins of Edward III., and two 

 Roman copper coins (one of Claudius) were exhil)ited. 

 The latter were found in the ued of the Thames, opposite 

 Sion-house, near Kew. Two drawings of paintings, disco-r 

 vered in repairina; the walls of St. Steplien's chapel, V/est- 

 minster, were also displayed. They are about three feet by 

 two, and consist of several persons around a table in one 

 compartment ; in the other, of three female figures with an 

 aureola indicative of their saintship. Both the male and 

 female countenances have the air of Normans : perhaps the 

 painter may have been of that country. 



On the "2 1st, this society w^s occupied with the election 

 of a niember of its council. 



FRENCH NATIONAL INSTITPXE. 



Xhe class of physical and mathematical science proposes 

 for the subject of a prize, which it will adjudge in the pub- 

 lic sittino; of the first Mond.ay of Messidor, in the year 

 Jo, the following question, which it remits (o the meeting, 



pi?^- 



To determine by observations and by anatomical and 



chemical 



