List of Popular Science Lectures. 



"BOOKS; THEIR NATURAL HISTORY." 



Delivered on Tuesday, July 16th, by Seaforth M. Bellairs, Manager, 

 Pin. Chateau Margot. 



HE lecturer began by explaining that he did not 

 intend to treat his subject from the literature 

 point of view, but (so to speak) from the stand- 

 point of the natural history of Books. He then gave a 

 description of the term " Book," historically treated; and 

 from the earliest form, that of object or picture-writing, 

 traced, in detail, the various forms of writing by different 

 racei throughout their developments and conventionali- 

 sations, up to modern times. He then proceeded to 

 describe the various materials employed for these various 

 forms of writing at different periods and by different 

 nations. 



8. — '' STEAM AS A MEDIUM OF POWER. 



Delivered on Tuesday, August 27th, by T. S. Cornish, A.M. Inst. C.E. 



The lecturer began by defining the term " steam,'' and 

 limiting its treatment in the lecture to steam that has 

 been formed from boiling water. He then gave a 

 detailed historical description of steam engines, or 

 engines by means of which steam was made to do work, 

 tracing the gradual improvements and complexity of 

 their mechanism from the earliest recorded times up to 

 the present, and indicating the reasoning of the processes 

 bv which the heat of steam is either made use of as 



