362 A HISTORY OF 



flax districts of Belgium, and on the chemical com- 

 position of the ashes of the flax plant." In vol. Ixxxiv. 

 appears a paper by William Hogan, entitled, "A report 

 of the result of experiments made in 1847 on M. 

 Zander's method of propagating potatoes from seed." 

 The reports of the proceedings at the meetings held 

 from November the 28th, 1848, to June the yth, 1855, 

 are printed in a volume entitled Reports of Scientific 

 Meetings, published in 1855. This is a rare volume ; 

 very few copies seem to have been issued, and there is 

 only one in the Society's possession. A short notice 

 of the contents, so far as they seem to be of perman- 

 ent interest, will not be out of place. Irish Fisheries 

 and allied industries are dealt with by Professor Allman, 

 Mr. William Andrews, Mr. J. Knight Boswell, and 

 Dr. William Barker. The manufacture of beet sugar 

 in Ireland formed the subject of communications by 

 Mr. Samuel Copland and Mr. John Sproule. Mr. 

 Copland also read a paper " On the history and cultiva- 

 tion of tobacco with reference to the question of its 

 profitable cultivation in Ireland." Professor Edmund 

 Davy contributed papers on the manufacture of sul- 

 phuric acid, on some applications of peat and peat 

 charcoal, on cabbage as food for the horse, and on the 

 detection and preparation of salts of manganese. Dr. 

 E. W. Davy read papers on new explosive powders 

 and gun-cotton, on native phosphate of lime, on a new 

 test for nitric acid, on a new method for producing 

 nitro-prussiates, on ozone, on a new test for strychnine, 

 on the quantitative analysis of urea, on the determina- 

 tion of nitrogen in guano, and on the decomposition of 

 calp. 



Dr. William Barker's communications dealt with 

 black rain, the preparation of charcoal for electrical 

 purposes, and portable fuel for Arctic voyages. Pro- 



