

ORDINARY MEETINGS. XIX 



FIRST ORDINARY MEETING. 



Legislative Council Chamber, Halifax, 14th November, 1898. 



The PRESIDENT in the Chair. 



A paper by PROFESSOR J. DAVIDSON, Phil. D., of the University 

 of New Brunswick, " On Statistics of Consumption and Expenditure in 

 Canada," was read by PROFESSOR W. C. MURRAY. (See Transac- 

 tions, p. 1). 



The subject was discussed by Drs. MACKAY and MACGREGOR, and 

 Mr. DOANE. 



SECOND ORDINARY MEETING. 



Legislative Council Chamber, Halifax, 12th December, 1898. 



The PRESIDENT in the Chair. 



It was announced that PROFESSOR J. DAVIDSON, Phil. D., University 

 of New Brunswick, Fredericton, and REV. BROTHER J. PETER, St. 

 Joseph's Collegiate Institute, Buffalo, N. Y., had been elected Corre- 

 sponding Members of the Institute ; and that ANDREW HALLIDAY, Esq., 

 M. D., Shubenacadie, N. S., and ARTHUR M. EDWARDS, Esq., M. D., 

 F. L. S., Newark, N. J., had been elected Associate Members. 



A paper by DR. A. M. EDWARDS, entitled: " Infusorial Earths of 

 the World, and the Iceberg Period," was read by DR. A. H. MACKAY. 



DR. A. H. MACKAY gave an address on the subject of " The 

 Diatomaceae of Nova Scotia." His treatment of the subject was a 

 popular one, a number of microscopes with prepared slides being arranged 

 for the convenience of their examination by those present. He called 

 attention to the fact that these minute algae were characterized by 

 the power of secreting silica from the waters in which they lived and 

 building it up into the most beautifully formed and sculptured cell walls 

 of transparent rock crystal ; that they were so abundant in all of our 

 fresh water lakes, which are not seriously disturbed by the turbulent 

 earth laden waters of spring freshets, as to form layers many feet in 

 depth in their bottoms of the dead silicious cells, the mass being some- 

 times so pure as to look like the whitest flour when dried ; that this 

 material was of commercial value in the manufacture of dynamite, of 

 water-glass, tooth powders, scouring material of great fineness, firebrick. 



