176 
NATURE 
| Dec. 9, 1869 
some of the Macdonald clan, who were smothered there in the 
sixteenth century.—Dr. Foot exhibited human bones from the 
cave of Dunmore, county Waterford, the remains of an Irish 
tribe suffocated there in the tenth century.—Specimens of the 
gold-bearing quartz of South Australia were sent for exhibition 
by Mrs. Gray, of Nareebnareeb, and of the gold-bearing quartz of 
the Rocky Mountains by Dr. Trevor, of Mentena.—Mr. Harte, 
County Surveyor of Donegal, exhibited some specimens of polished 
red granite from that county, which were of great beauty, similar 
in_ appearance to that of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. 
Natural History Society, December 1.—Mr. W. Andrews, 
V.P., in the chair. Dr. A. W. Foot read a paper entitled 
**Notes on Irish Lepidoptera collected during the past sum- 
mer.” These notes were chiefly records of a pleasant summer’s 
excursion in which no very great rarities were met with. Cod/as 
edusa was found abundant in the County Kilkenny, and Vanessa 
polychlovos was mentioned on the authority of a friend as having 
been seen in the County Wicklow. Mr. Williams, Mr. F. W. 
Kirby, Mr. Montgomery, and Dr. Haughton made remarks on 
the interest of many of the facts recorded in these notes. Mr. 
W. Andrews, the chairman, stated that it was a mistake to 
call Chrysophanus dispar the scarce copper; that C. virgaurce 
was the scarce copper. He asserted that C. dispar was not rare 
in England, and that he had met with it in Kerry. He also said 
that the Zzmenztis which he had exhibited some years ago as 
from Tarbert, was neither Z. siéi//a nor L. camilla, but some- 
thing quite different from either ; and that those who thought it 
was L. camil/a were quite wrong. He said he would bring all 
these facts before the society at another time. [Perhaps some 
of our entomological readers will enlighten us on these points. 
Is it possible that C. dispar is not a scarce butterfly? Is not 
C. virgauree a continental insect? If the Zimenitis referred to 
is not, as competent authorities assert, the Z. camzl/a of the Con- 
tinent, what species is it ?] 
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE 
Chemical Society, October 28. Annual Meeting.—Mr. I. 
Lowthian Bell, F.C.S., President, in the chair. After the tran- 
saction of the business of the Society, the President read his 
address, in which he referred to the more important subjects 
which had engaged the attention of the Society at the evening 
meetings. He dwelt at length upon Mr. Pattinson’s paper on 
the relations between English and Foreign Alkalimetry and 
Chlorimetry, which pointed out the fallacious results arising 
from the retaining of the old atomic weight of soda. He also 
called attention to the importance of Mr. B. S. Proctor’s paper 
on the Root of the Rhubarb Plant, which exposed the fallacy 
which had led druggists and the medical profession, for the sake 
of mere appearance, to reject the portion of the drug richest in 
the active principle. The following extract from the address, 
alluding to the relations of science to the public health, is par- 
ticularly interesting :—‘‘ Among the manifold applications of the 
truths revealed by means of chemical research, there is none 
more gratifying to the philosopher or to the philanthropist than 
that whereby chemistry is rendered subservient to the protection 
and promotion of the public health. It has been reserved almost 
for our own time to have it demonstrated that the observance of 
certain so-called sanitary regulations is connected by the closest 
bonds with the rate of mortality. This has been proved repeatedly 
in several large cities, at one time conspicuous for the high annual 
death-rate among their inhabitants, but which, by the authorities 
dealing with the causes of offence, now escape from the penalty 
which never fails to attend on the transgression of any great 
natural law. We need not, indeed, go far for an example in 
illustration of the doctrine I am enforcing, for in the very 
town in which we are now assembled, the rapid increase of 
population had outgrown as it were some of those means and 
appliances which must accompany the crowding together of 
a vast number of human beings on a small area of ground, 
The municipal authorities of Newcastle were no sooner pro- 
perly impressed with the gravity of their position, and con- 
vinced that the remedy and responsibility rested in their own 
hands, than the most vigorous measures were resorted to in 
order to grapple with the evil, and we have, in consequence, to 
congratulate ourselves on a remarkable alteration in the death- 
rate of this town. It may not be unworthy of mention that the 
first quarter of 1866 exhibited a mortality corresponding to 48°4 
for every thousand of the inhabitants, and that the average for 
the whole of that year was a mere fraction within 40, viz., 39-7. 
Taking 10 years, ending with 1860, it was 35'4 per 1000. It 
cannot be otherwise than satisfactory to compare this with the 
three; quarters of the present year, which is only 26°2, and for 
the last quarter the deaths only amounted to 23°3 per 1000; in 
short, from having held a most unenviable position among 
the most unhealthy towns of the empire, we are now con- 
spicuous among those in which the mortality is the lowest. 
I am glad to be able to state that the condition of our atmo- 
sphere, as affected by the burning of coal and the emission of 
objectionable vapours, is now engaging the attention of a Com- 
mittee, with the Mayor at its head, appointed to inquire into the 
subject. I trust, now that the public mind has been directed to 
the evil of a smoke-obscured sky, or poisoned air, before long, 
the inhabitants will experience a happy change from the result of 
the labours of those charged with the investigation. It is only, 
however, due to our chemical manufacturers to state that they 
are fully alive to the importance of not permitting any unne- 
cessary escape of vapours, having an actual value to themselves, 
and very inconvenient to others when set at large, and therefore, 
that they do not intend to rest content with the occasional visit 
of the Government inspector, or of their own superintendents, 
but are making arrangements for the permanent and continuous 
sampling of the gases after they have passed their condensing 
apparatus. Their observations in this direction, will, I feel” 
assured, be much lightened by a very ingenious aspirator, con- 
structed by one of our members, Mr. Swan, now on the table, to 
which I would invite inspection. I have, myself, been engaged 
for some time in an examination of the state of combustion ex- 
perienced by the fuel in our blast-furnaces, and I am so satisfied 
that a proper study of the phenomena attending it involves con- 
siderations of the utmost importance to the iron-smelter, that I 
intend availing myself largely of the facilities which the appa- 
ratus of Mr. Swan is capable of affording.” The officers of last 
year were re-elected by a large majority. 
NorwWICcH 
Geological Society, November 11, Anniversary Meeting. — 
The Rev. John Gunn, F.G.S., President, in the Chair. The 
President and Hon. Secretaries (Mr. J. E. Taylor, F.G.S., and 
Mr. John King) were re-elected. In his opening address Mr. 
Gunn alluded to the death of one of the hon. members of the 
Society, Mr. Bernard B. Woodward. Referring to a paper by 
Mr. Harmer, F.G.S., on the Chillesford clay and the crag con- 
taining Zel/ina balthica, he stated that he had himself published a 
diagram of the coast and inland sections of Norfolk, and a de- 
scription of what seemed to him a downthrow of Chillesford clay, 
or an upthrow of the chalk. He had also instituted a series of 
measurements of the various levels at which this bed appeared 
above the water, with a view to determining the amount of 
disturbance, and had found the heights ranging from fourteen 
to thirty-two feet. He thought that the difference between the 
coast and inland sections might be due to this disturbance. Mr. 
Gunn then noticed an excursion which had been made by the 
Society to Aldborough, where the Norwich crag had been found 
near the railway station, associated with undoubted red crag 
forms. He also adverted to the paper by Mr. Tylor (read 
before the Geological Society of Londen) on Valley Gravels. 
In the discussion which followed the President’s remarks, Mr. 
Harmer gave an outline of the theory he had put forth in his 
Paper with reference to the bed of shells containing 7eé/ina 
balthica. Both he and Mr. Searles Wood held this to be the 
base of the lower drift beds, and contended that a great change 
in the physical geography of the Eastern counties had taken 
place between the period when the upper and lower Norwich 
crags had been formed, and the time when the Ze/lina balthica 
bed had been deposited. The former had been deposited in an 
estuary opening to the south, the latter in a similar one opening 
to the north, This argued an oscillation of level in the mean- 
time. Mr. Harmer also expressed himself against the theory 
that so-called valley gravels were of fluviatile origin, and pointed 
to Lopham Ford, where the height of the ground was only 
twenty feet above water level ; and yet which was the point of 
departure for two streams whose much higher banks at some 
distance were covered with valley gravels containing flint imple- 
ments. With regard to the opinion that many of the flint 
implements had been rolled down or transferred to the lower 
levels, Mr. J. E. Taylor stated that at Sainton Downham these 
implements were found in their most perfect and totally unaltered 
condition at the lowest Jevels. The chippings and edges were as 
fresh as when the weapons left the hands of their makers. He 
suggested that the vicinity of Lopham Ford might haye been 
