March ii, 1875] 



NATURE 



379 



"By every cne of us," he said, "he was regarded as the leader of 

 our science, by most of us as our tiusted master, and by many of us 

 as our faithful friend. He has lived to see the tnith of those 

 principles for which he so long and earnestly contended accepted 

 by nearly all whose opinions he valued ; and in future times, 

 wherever the name of Lyell is known, it will be as that of the 

 greatest, most philosophical, and most enlightened of British, if 

 not indeed of European geologists."— The following communi- 

 cations were read : — On the Murchisonite beds of the estuary of 

 the Ex, and an attempt to classify the beds of the Trias thereby, 

 by Mr. G. Wareing Ormerod. This paper may be regarded as 

 a continuation of one read by Mr. Ormerod before this Society 

 in 1S6S. After noticing the mineralogical cliaracter of the Mur- 

 chisonite, Mr. Ormerod described, first, the Red Sandstone beds 

 by the sea-shore. To tlie east of Exmouth lie considered that 

 they were " Keuper, " which extended inland to a fault running 

 to the south of Lympstone. A conglomerate rock at the Beacon 

 at Exmouth was probably the upper bed of the "Bunter," and 

 this he considered to be the same rock that occurred at Cock- 

 wood on the right bank of the Ex. This overlay soft red rock, 

 containing occasionally fragments of various rocks, and in the 

 upper part a slight trace of Murchisonite. At Dawlish a soft con- 

 glomerate containing Murchisonite in great abundance occurred ; 

 this extended inland about two miles. On the westerly side of 

 Dawlish conglomerate beds cropped out, containing fragments of 

 granitic and porphyritic rocks, quartz, Lydian-stone ; and here 

 the limestone fragments containing animal remains first occurred. 

 After passing the Parscn-and-Clerk Tunnel, these conglomerate 

 beds ceased until reaching Teignmouth, and the cliffs consist of 

 soft beds. At Teignniouth the conglomerates, with limestone, 

 again commenced, and continued to near St. Mary Church, in 

 this part alternating witli soft sandy or clayey beds. To the north 

 of the fault at Lympstone the Keuper did not appear by the 

 Ex, and the conglomerate with limestone had not been noticed, 

 being possibly buried under the Greensand of Ilaldon. The 

 beds noith of this point on both sides of the Ex were the soft 

 Red Sandstone, with a trace of Murchisonite, and the underlying 

 Murchisonite conglomerates, and near Ilaldon House beds that 

 it was considered were possibly those to the west of Dawlish 

 occurred. These beds were broken up by various faults running 

 in both north and south and cast and west directions. In the 

 district under consideration it was shown that the soft sandy 

 beds, with a trace of Murchisonite, and the underlying bed of 

 Murchisonite conglomerate, occurred in various places, and in 

 such a manner that there could not be any doubt of their 

 identity ; these the author considered as marking a clear division 

 in the Red Sandstone. The paper was illustrated by a map and 

 three sections, and photographs of the cUffs, and by numerous 

 specimens. - On some newly e.xposed sections of the " Woolwich 

 and Reading beds " near Reading, Berks, by Prof. T. Rupert 

 Jones, F. R. S., and Mr. C. Cooper King. The authors described the 

 section of the lowest Tertiai7 beds lately exposed at Coley Hill, 

 Reading, Berks, comparing it with other sections in the neighbour- 

 hood described by Buckland, Rolfe, Prestwich, and Whitaker. At 

 one point in the section oyster-sheUs are wanting in the bottom 

 bed, as observed also by Whitaker at Castle Kiln. At the same 

 part of the section the leaf-bearing blue clays are also absent, 

 but are continued by irregular thin seams of derived clay and 

 clay-galls, with broken lignite, occasional grey flints, and by at 

 least one grem-coated flint and pebble of lydite. At another 

 point, where the blue clay still exists, very numerous and large 

 lumps of clays, rolled and often enclosing sub-angular flints, lie in 

 the sand over the Itaf-bed. Some of these clay-galls have passed 

 into concentric nodules of cchrc and limonite. The probable 

 derivation of the two sets of clay-galls is from pre-existing clay 

 beds — probably the blue shale, one from its worn end, and the 

 other (upper one) from a terrace or ledge in ils thickness — by the 

 action of varying currents in an estuary at different levels. The 

 clay-galls of the upper series vary much in chaiacter ; some are 

 of dense dark brcwn and light coloured clays, others of sandy 

 blue and grey clays, many have involved sand and flints from an 

 old shoal or beach. A probably analogous band of flints has 

 been noticed at Red Hill, Berks, by Prestwich. The direction 

 of the currents wearing away the clay bands and depositing the 

 , galls and sands was suggested ; and these observations were 

 offered as further materials in working cut the hydrography and 

 history of the Lower Tertiaries. — On the origin of Slickensides, 

 with remarks on specimens from the Cambrian, Silurian, Car- 

 boniferous, and Triassic formations, by iNIr. D. Mackintosh. 

 This paper was founded on sptcunens a selection of which was 

 exhibited. The author stated that his observations led him to 



believe that true slickensides are produced by the movement of 

 one face of rock against another, accompanied by partial fusion. 

 He indicated that in many cases the slickensided surfaces are 

 not only polished and striated, but also hardened, and that 

 there is an imperceptible gradation from this hardened film to 

 the ordinary structure of the rock. 



Chemical Society, March 4.— Prof. Odling, F.R.S., in the 

 chair. — A paper on the dissociation of nitric acid, by Messrs. P. 

 Braham and J. W. Gatehouse, was read by the former, and an 

 experiment performed showing the action which takes place.— 

 Dr. Thudichum then addressed the meeting on the chemical con- 

 stitution of the brain, exhibiting a large number of the products 

 obtained from that organ.— There were also papers on calcic 

 hypochlorite from bleaching powder, by Mr. C. T. Kingzett ; 

 and on a simple method of determining iron, by Mr. W. Noel 

 Hartley. 



Zoological Society, March 2.— Mr. Osbert Salvin, F.R.S., 

 in the chair.— An extract was read from a letter addressed to'th'e 

 Secretary by Dr. W. Peteis, pointing out that the Sicnwtlucus 

 figured by Dr. Gray in the Society's " Proceedings" for 1S73, 'o 

 which neither specific name nor locality had been assigned, was 

 S. nigci; and that its habitat wa^ the Cameroons, from which 

 place Dr. Peters had received specimens.— Mr. H. E. Dresser 

 read some notes on the Falco lahradorns of Audubon, Falco sactr 

 of Forster, and Falco spcu/iceiis of the same author. — Mr. A. 

 Boucard communicated a monographic list of the Coleoptera of 

 the genus Phniolis of North America, and gave the description 

 of several new species. — A communication was read from Mr. 

 E. P. Ramsay, giving the descriptions of some rare eggs of 

 Australian birds.— Mr. G. B. Sowerby, jun., communicated the 

 descriptions of ten new species of shells from various localities. — 

 Dr. A. Giinther, F.R.S., communicated on behalf of Dr. T. 

 Ihorell, of Upsala, the description of a collection of spiders 

 made by Dr. Vinson in New Caledonia, Madagascar, and 

 Reunion, amongst which were a few new species. — .\ communi- 

 cation was read from Mr. E. L. Layard, H.B.C., administering 

 the government at Fiji, giving the description of some supposed 

 new species of birds from the Fiji Islands.— Mr. A. H. Garrod 

 read a paper contaming the description of the lower larynx in 

 some of the rarer species of Anatidre. To this was added an 

 account of the tracheal arrangement in Platalia ajaja, which 

 dilfers much from that of the common Spoonbill. Reference 

 was also made to the manner of development of the tracheal loop 

 in those of the Cracidje which have recently died in the Society's 

 Gardens, 



Royal Microscopical Society, March 3.— Mr. H. C. Sorby, 

 F.R.S., the new president, having been formally introduced by 

 Mr. Chas. Brooke, expressed liis sense of the honour conferred 

 upon him, regarding it as a mark of approval of new methods 

 and kinds of investigation, to which, rather than to the more 

 ordinary and general subjects of microscopical inquiry, he had 

 lor many years devoted his attention.— Mr. H. J. Slack read 

 some notes translated from Von Baer, etc., which described an 

 organism closely allied to that recently exhibited by Mr. Badcock 

 and assumed to be a sptcies of Bmc/Zuzliis. — A paper by Dr. 

 Royston Pigott, on the principle of testing object glasses by 

 means of images produced by reflection from globtdes of mer- 

 cury,^ &c., was read by the Secretary.— Mr. H. J. Wenham 

 described, by means of black board illustrations, a new method 

 of viewing objects at extreme angles, and the value of this new 

 mode of examination was explained. — Mr. C. Stewart called 

 attention to some new and beautifid specimens of Polycistina; 

 exhibited in the room by Mr. John Stephenson. 



Anthropological Institute, Feb. 23.— Col. A. Lane Fo.x, 

 president, in the chair.— Mr. R. B. Holt exhibited a collection 

 of models of Esquimaux : Caiques, baidars, winter huts, summer 

 huts, sleighs, and other objects of native maniifacture. — Capt. 

 Harold Dillon exhibited and described a series of flint arrow- 

 and spear-heads found by him near Ditchley, Oxon. The follow- 

 ing papers were read :— On the Milanows of Borneo, by Lieut. 

 C. C. de Crespigny, R.N..; Further notes on the rude stone 

 monuments at the Khasi hills, by Major Godwin-Austen ; Report 

 on the Congress of Anthropology and Prehistoric Archaeology 

 held at Stockliolm in;i874, by H. H. Howorth ; History of the 

 Heung-Noo in their relations «ith China, translated by A. 

 Wylie, of Shanghae, with notes by H. H. Howorth. 



Physical Society, Feb. 13.— The report of the President 

 (Prof. Gladstone, F.R.S.) and Council shows that a gratifying 

 number of physicists responded to the circular issued by Dr. 



