The Eruption of Krakatoa 225 



years. The results were already excellent, of which he gave 

 some instances. 



April 3Oth, 324th meeting. Professor Huxley gave an 

 account of the International Fisheries Exhibition, about to 

 be opened in South Kensington. Though not the first of its 

 kind, for there had been one at Berlin, it was of exceptional 

 size and interest. A novelty would be a Fisheries Congress, 

 somewhat on the model of the British Association, from 

 which valuable results were expected. 1 



Oct. loth, 327th meeting. Dr. Carpenter gave an account 

 of the recent opening of the electric tramway between 

 Kilrush and the Giant's Causeway, the working machinery 

 of which had been devised by Sir W. Siemens. 



Some interesting autograph letters by Linnaeus were 

 shown by Mr. Evans. 



Nov. 22nd, 328th meeting. General Strachey called 

 attention to a remarkable atmospheric disturbance, shown 

 on Aug. 26-27, by all the photographic registers of barometers 

 in Europe, which he traced to the great eruption of Krakatoa 

 in the Strait of Sunda. The difference in the absolute time 

 of the shock at different places indicated a rate of trans- 

 mission about equal that of sound, and the disturbance 

 originated about 27 d 3 h 20" of G.M.T. 2 



Dec. I3th, 329th meeting. Mr. Gait on referred to his 

 recent examination of a curious anthropometric record in 

 the ledgers of Messrs. Bury, wine and coffee merchants, 

 3 St. James Street, who kept excellent scales in which their 

 customers weighed themselves at frequent intervals. Among 

 them were many of the aristocracy, including all the Royal 

 Dukes, sons of George III., and other notable persons. One 

 of his objects was to ascertain whether the ' hard living ' of 

 that time had produced a marked variation in weight. It 



1 The Minutes show that Professor Maskelyne spoke in eloquent terms 

 of the loss of Professor H. J. S. Smith, of Oxford, who had died on 

 Feb. gth. 



*The extraordinary twilight glows in November, 1883, attracted general 

 attention in Britain, and a memoir on the eruption, with some excellent 

 illustrations, was published by the Royal Society, in the Report of the 

 Krakatoa Committee, 1888. 



P.C. P 



