1 1 o Annals of the Philosophical Club 



At the 23rd meeting (Oct. 25th), Dr. Playfair gave a short 

 account of an accident in the sewers at Westminster, and 

 Mr. Rennie referred to the drainage system of St. Petersburg, 

 which he had recently examined, and gave his reasons for 

 preferring the plan of taking the sewage of London inta 

 the Thames to any other method. 



To an enquiry about Sir J. Franklin's expedition, Mr. 

 Goodsir replied that the explorer's brother doubted whether 

 the rumour that the Esquimaux had fallen in with its 

 members could be trusted, for none of them possessed a 

 knife of a peculiar shape, which had been taken for giving 

 away, so as to be an indirect means of tracing the expedition. 



A letter written from Swansea and read at the 24th 

 meeting of the Club (Nov. 22nd) described a remarkable 

 meteor of a bright red colour which was seen from near 

 that town on the evening o* Nov. 2nd. 



Afterwards Sir J. Richardson 1 gave some account of his 

 expedition in search of Sir J . Franklin, mentioning, in addition 

 to what had been published in the newspapers, some peculiar 

 limestone hills which occur shortly after leaving the Mac- 

 kenzie River. About 300 miles west of the latter were clays 

 of an Upper Tertiary age, which ignited spontaneously. 



Colonel Sykes mentioned a curious instance of variation 

 of rain-fall in India, for, from May to September, no less 

 than 338-38 inches oi rain had fallen at the Convalescent 

 Station at Mahabaleshwar, on the Western Ghat, while at 

 Paunchgunny, close by, it had been only 58 inches. 



Professor Owen gave an account of the illness, and death 

 on Nov. 20th, of the Rhinoceros at the Zoological Gardens, 

 and described its anatomy. Of this comparatively little had 

 been known, and the accounts published were all written 

 by Fellows of the Royal Society, and appeared in the 



1 Sir J. Richardson (1787-1865) was surgeon and naturalist to Franklin's 

 polar expedition in 1819-21, and was with him in his second expedition 

 to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, 1825, parting from him in the following 

 year and exploring the coast to the Coppermine River, afterwards visiting 

 the Great Slave Lake. He conducted a search expedition for Franklin 

 in 1847, and returned to England without success on Nov. 6th, 1849. His 

 ' Journal ' of the expedition was published in 1851. (See page 25.) 



