Reports and Proceedings. Sas 
maximum of gas is obtained : on the other hand, when the object is 
to obtain a large yield of oil, the coal is placed in cold retorts, and 
gradually brought up to a lowred heat. The crude tar-oils are then 
subjected to distillation, among the first products of which are ben- 
zol, toluol, &c.; as the heat is continued, ‘heavy’ or ‘dead’ oil 
passes over (which contains much creosote, and is used for the 
preservation of railway-sleepers), leaving pitch as a residue in the 
retorts. Some idea of the extent of the paraffine-oil manufacture 
may be obtained from the fact that no less than 2,300,000 gallons 
were produced in the United Kingdom in 1862. In 1856 a new and 
important manufacture was established by the discovery, by Mr. W. 
Perkins, of the beautiful mauve-dye, derived from aniline, a basic 
substance existing in tar. Since then this trade has assumed 
gigantic proportions ; and innumerable shades of blue, purple, red, 
yellow, orange, and black have been obtained. These colours, be- 
sides being extensively used at home, are now exported to a large 
extent ; and an eminent chemist has said that in time Great Britain 
will be the great colour-producing mart of the world. 
Mr. Joun Youne exhibited some slabs of Carboniferous shale 
from Arden Quarry, near Thornliebank, containing numerous speci- 
mens of thin bivalve shells, which had long puzzled geologists as to 
their affinities. Lately he had submitted them to Professor T. 
Rupert Jones, who informed him that one of them is an Estheria, a 
genus of Bivalve Crustaceans ; the one exhibited is a new species, 
which, from the beautiful punctate structure of its shell, as revealed 
by the microscope, Professor Jones proposes to name /. punctatella. 
One of the other shells common in this shale Mr. Salter and Pro- 
fessor Jones refer to an American genus of Molluscs (Dr. Dawson’s 
Naiadites) ; the species being possibly as yet undescribed. Mr. 
Young remarked that these shells occur in great profusion in the 
aluminous shales of several localities in the West of Scotland ; and, 
being extremely thin in their texture, they are often converted into 
a thin film of iron-pyrites, which gives them rather a pretty ap- 
pearance when the shale enclosing them is newly laid open. Both 
the shells and shales, however, soon decompose if exposed for any 
length of time to the influence of the weather. 
Mr. Joun Hunter exhibited an interesting series of Carboni- 
ferous Fossils from the ‘ Main Limestone’ beds of the Braidwood 
district, near Carluke, among which were examples of the interiors 
of several Brachiopod shells, not found before ; also, the very rare 
Productus Deshayesianus, of which his friend Dr. Selkirk was the 
first to find specimens in Scotland. Mr. Hunter also exhibited 
a large slab of shale lately obtained by Dr. Selkirk from the strata 
lying between the ‘ Main Limestone’ and under-lying Coal at Braid- 
wood, which contained a splendid example of a large and very rare 
fish, Gyrolepis Rankin. This specimen is in good preservation, 
and shows the beautifully sculptured ganoid seales of the Fish lying 
in their natural position; also, the large granulated plates which 
adorned its head. The ornamentation of these plates and scales are 
peculiar, distinguishing this fish from all others found in the Car- 
boniferous system. ‘This species was first discovered by Dr. Rankin, 
