l86 Annals of the Philosophical Club 



its presence by the large consumption of coal in the Metro- 

 polis, from which the arsenic passed off in smoke, for he 

 found it even in London rainwater to the extent of 0-008 in 

 100,000 parts. 



Professor Cornu, 1 of Paris (a guest), spoke of an optical study 

 of the deformation of elastic bodies and the employment of 

 a new source of photogenic and monochromatic light. 2 



March 3ist, 2ogth meeting. Mr. Sclater said that a 

 remarkable new fish had been obtained from one of the rivers 

 in Eastern Queensland by Mr. Krafft, curator of the 

 Australian Museum at Sydney, which appeared to be inter- 

 mediate between Lepidosiren and the Ganoid fishes. It 

 was referred by him to the genus Ceratodus (Agassiz), but 

 it appeared to be nearer to Diplerus ; though probably it 

 would require a new genus. Professor Huxley remarked 

 that the discovery had a special interest for those who, like 

 himself, had asserted Lepidosiren to be closely connected 

 with the Ganoids. 



April 25th, 2ioth meeting (anniversary). Mr. Gassiot 

 stated that when the electric discharges from an induction 

 coil are passed through vacuum tubes with uranium-glass 

 globes, these become intensely illuminated, owing to the 

 high refrangibility of electrical light. But on heating one 

 of the globes with a spirit lamp, the peculiar luminosity 

 disappears, which, however, is recovered if the globe be 

 allowed to cool. 



Colonel Sykes enquired whether, when sea water freezes, 

 the salt is or is not eliminated. The opinion expressed was 

 that the salt in this water was only mechanically present and 

 could be eliminated by repeated freezing. 



Oct. 24th, 2i3th meeting. Professor Peirce, 3 of New York, 

 Director of the American expedition to observe the eclipse 



1 M. A. Cornu (1841-1902), Professor of Physics at the ficole Polytech- 

 nique, Paris, who wrote many important papers on the phenomena and 

 properties of light. 



2 The Minute, no doubt supplied by the Professor, is in French, with 

 two pen-and-ink diagrams, and does not admit of condensation. 



3 J. M. P. Peirce, Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics at Harvard 

 University, Cambridge, U.S.A. 



