242 Annals of the Philosophical Club 



in a work which had lasted for many years, and but for 

 ' accidents ' might not be completed for another half century. 

 Two of them, however, had lately much facilitated the 

 enquiry ; one being the precipitation of one of the con- 

 stituents in a pure state, as a crystalline salt, namely, that 

 giving a close pair of green lines in the spectroscope ; the 

 other being the discovery of a mineral accompanying 

 gadolinite J from Texas, in which fractionation had already 

 advanced to a considerable extent. 



1893. Jan. 26th, 4ioth meeting. Professor Riicker gave 

 the results of experiments, made in the eastern part of 

 London by himself, Professor Ayrton, and others, .which 

 proved that the neighbourhood of a railway worked by 

 electricity would be injurious to a physical laboratory. 



Feb. i6th, 4iith meeting. Professor Newton mentioned 

 the discovery of another deposit containing bones of large 

 mammals at Harrington, near Cambridge, similar to the 

 one described fourteen years ago by the Rev. O. Fisher. 2 

 Bison priscus and Megaceros hibernicus are the more abun- 

 dantly represented, but there are a considerable number 

 of teeth and some bones of Hippopotamus amphibius, with 

 bones of a female Elephas antiquus and her calf, teeth of 

 bear (Ursus prisons), and of a large Felis, with other repre- 

 sentatives of the river gravel fauna. The excavation was 

 now being carried on, by favour of the owner, on behalf of 

 the Woodwardian Museum. 3 



April 27th,'4i3th meeting (46th anniversary). Captain 

 Noble gave an account of experiments with explosive 

 compounds. With a large charge of cordite and a light 

 projectile he had obtained a velocity of nearly 5000 feet per 

 second. He had used six different kinds of explosives. 



1 A silicate of beryllum, iron, and yttrium. 



2 See Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. 1879, page 670. Since the above date 

 many valuable remains, now contained in the Sedgwick Museum at Cam- 

 bridge, have been obtained from this and another pit. See for a full 

 account (with illustrations) Proc. Geol. Assoc. vol. xxii. pages 268-278. 

 The late Professor Hughes thought the gravel probably older than the 

 Chalky Boulder Clay. 



3 The former title of the Sedgwick Museum. 



