1 94 Annals of the Philosophical Club 



from China, one from Fychoo in the south, the other from 

 Manchuria in the north, where the winter is very severe and 

 much snow falls, under which the tiger burrows. This 

 form is covered with long hair. But the two, so far as can 

 be inferred from their skulls, are specifically identical, and 

 indistinguishable from the Bengal tiger. 



Professor Tyndall described an instrument, the invention 

 of his assistant Mr. Cottrel, to illustrate the action of flame in 

 reflecting sonorous vibrations. A sound is transmitted down 

 one of two tubes which are placed at an angle and is there 

 reflected from a broad batswing flame down the other, on 

 to a sensitive flame at the farther end, which was readily 

 affected. 



Feb. 26th, 24ist meeting. Principal Elliot, 1 of Harvard 

 Universitjr (a guest), in a conversation about the introduction 

 of small birds into America for the destruction of caterpillars, 

 said that though the common house sparrow had easily 

 found food and multiplied rapidly, it was necessary in 

 Boston and Cambridge to supply them with water during 

 the dry season, for without this they would die out. 



Mr. Siemens gave an account of a vessel constructed for 

 laying deep-sea telegraph cables, which had recently been 

 built under his superintendence at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

 It was 5000 tons burden, and could contain 1800 miles of 

 cable. Both ends being alike, it could move either way, 

 and could turn quickly round, as it was propelled by twin 

 screws. 



March 26th, 242nd meeting. Dr. Carpenter gave *an 

 account of the parts of a swing-bridge which he had recently 

 seen in Sir W. Armstrong's works at Newcastle-on-Tyne 

 for spanning that river. It would be turned by hydraulic 

 pressure on a central pier, leaving on either side a space of 

 70 feet. The total weight would be about 1800 tons, but 

 the turning machinery could be worked by one man. 



1 The name is twice written Elliott in the Minutes, but I think it can 

 only be Charles William Elliot, born at Boston in 1834, who became 

 Principal of Harvard in 1869 and was most successful in reorganizing 

 that University, resigning his position in 1900. He also wrote on 

 Chemistry. 



