Discovery of Germanium 229 



Mr. Moseley said he had observed similar organisms in hot 

 springs of the Azores and West Indies. There Oscillatoriae 

 were found at the higher temperature. 1 



May I4th, 343rd meeting. Dr. Sclater said that the 

 Orient Steam Company had selected Agos Garcia, the 

 southernmost of the Chagos Islands, for a coaling station. 

 These were coral islands, and land birds were said to be few, 

 but their fauna and flora were almost unexplored. There 

 was now some hope of this being done. 



June nth, 344th meeting. Lord Rosse described the 

 results of experiments made at Parsonstown Observatory 

 during the eclipse of the moon on Oct. 4th, 1884, to ascertain 

 how long it took for the moon's heat to follow the light. 

 Careful observations, made during the later part of the 

 eclipse, showed a defect of heat as compared with light, when 

 the penumbra was off the moon, for about two hours after- 

 wards, the heat then being to the full amount about in the 

 ratio of 30 to 35. 



Nov. 26th, 346th meeting. The death of Dr. W. B. 

 Carpenter, 2 by the ignition of the contents of a spirit-lamp 

 while he was taking a vapour bath, caused a conversation, in 

 course of which Professor Tyndall said that in an experi- 

 ment, when he was heating some alcohol in a glass tube 

 over a spirit-lamp, the tube burst, the spirit ran over his 

 clothes and ignited. He tried to extinguish the flame with 

 his hands, but as fast as he brushed it out, it kindled again. 

 He tore off his coat, and lay down on the floor, when some 

 students threw a coat over him and quickly put out the flame. 



1886. May 27th, 352nd meeting. Sir H. Roscoe men- 

 tioned the discovery of a new chemical element which it was 

 proposed to name Germanium. 



Professor Frankland said that, on a recent visit to 

 Vesuvius, though the volcano had not reached an explosive 

 stage, scoria and small pieces of viscid lava'' were being shot 

 up fairly continuously to a height of 150 or 200 feet, with a 



1 Professor Moseley's notes, as he mentioned at the time, had been worked 

 up by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer and communicated to the Linnaean Society. 



2 On Nov. loth. 



