( 167 ) 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



Meeting of 14th December, 1887, at King's College, Strand, W.C., 

 the President (the Rev. Dr. Dallinger, F.R.S.) in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the meeting of 9th November last were read and 

 confirmed, and were signed by the President. 



The List of Donations (exclusive of exchanges and reprints) received 

 since the last meeting was submitted, and the thanks of the Society given 

 to the donors. 



From 

 Dallinger, Rev. W. H., LLD., F.R.S., The Creator, and what we 

 may know of the method of Creation. 38 pp. (Svo, London, 

 1887) The Author. 



Mr. Crisp read to the meeting the preface to Dr. Dallinger's book. 



The President said, that although it would not be imparting any- 

 thing new to the Fellows to remark upon the fact of the removal by 

 death of Mr. Bolton since their last meeting, he thought it was fitting to 

 make public allusion to the fact in that room. Microscopists generally 

 were greatly indebted to him for the measures which he had adopted to 

 enable them to study a great variety of living objects. His friends 

 moved the Government to grant him a small pension for the services he 

 had rendered to science, but unfortunately he only lived to enjoy it for 

 a very short period. Both as individuals and as a Society they would 

 record his death with sorrow. 



Mr. J. Mayall, jun., described two Microscopes by Jaubert, one of 

 which had been described in the Journal for 1887, p. 632, and the other 

 had not yet been described. 



Mr. Michael said that, a short time since, his relative, Mr. W. H. 

 Michael, who was an excellent chemist, drew his attention to the Oleum 

 Rhodii as being a substance very likely to prove advantageous as a 

 substitute for oil of cloves in cases where this was usually employed in 

 the preparation of objects for mounting. He had tried it for a few 

 months, and it had given results sufficiently satisfactory to induce him 

 to bring it to the notice of the Society. "Rhodium oil," as it was 

 commonly called, was supplied by chemists who sometimes thought it 

 had to do in some way with the metal Rhodium. It was, however, 

 obtained from Rhodium Radix — Rhodium being a thorny shrub growing 

 in the Canary Isles. The oil was prepared by distillation, and was used 

 for two widely distinct purposes. Firstly, the refined quality was 

 largely used in this country by perfumers, as diluted attar of roses ; and 

 secondly, the commoner kind was used by rat-catchers on the Continent 

 for the purpose of attracting rats, which were said to have a great 

 partiality for it. Its value for mounting purposes was suggested to him 

 on account of its being an oil of high penetrating power, and at the same 

 time not being volatile. He had used it for about two months on Acari, 



