7 o 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Royal Meteorological Society. — The 

 monthly meeting of this Society was held on 

 March 21st, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 Westminster; Mr. R. Inwards, F.R.A.S., President, 

 in the chair. Mr. H. C. Kiddle and Mr. S. R. 

 Lowcock, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E., were elected 

 Fellows of the Society. Mr. W. H. Dines 

 read a paper on the ' ' Relation between 

 the Mean Quarterly Temperature and the 

 Death-Rate." The Registrar- General's Quar- 

 terly Returns for the whole of England 

 since 1862 were taken by the author, and 

 the number of deaths in each quarter expressed as 

 a departure per thousand from that particular 

 quarter's average; the value so obtained being 

 placed side by side with the corresponding departure 

 of the temperature at Greenwich from its mean 

 value. The rule seems to be that a cold winter is 

 unhealthy, and a mild winter healthy ; and that a 

 hot summer is always unhealthy and a cold summer 

 healthy. Mr. Dines also read a paper on the 

 "Duration and lateral extent of Gusts of Wind, 

 and the measurement of their intensity." Mr. R. 

 H. Scott, F.R.S. exhibited a diagram showing 

 some remarkable sudden changes of the barometer 

 in the Hebrides, on February 23rd, 1894. At 8 a.m. 

 the reading at Stornoway was 27-39 ins., being a 

 fall of 07 in. since the previous day, and at 6 p.m. 

 the reading was 28-58 in. From the trace of the 

 self-recording aneroid it appears that the minimum, 

 28-50 ins., occurred about 5.30 p.m., and that the 

 fall during the half-hour preceding the minimum 

 was nearly 0-2 in., the rise after minimum being 

 nearly as rapid. The other paper read was " On 

 the calculation of Photographic Cloud Measure- 

 ments," by Dr. K. G. Olsson. 



Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society. 

 — The twenty-fifth annual meeting was held on 

 March 27th ; the retiring President, T. Southwell, 

 Esq., F.Z.S., in the chair. Dr. Charles Plowright, 

 of King's Lynn, was unanimously elected President 

 for the year. The vice-presidents, treasurer, 

 honorary secretary, auditor, journal committee, 

 and excursion committee were re-elected. It was 

 resolved: "That the Society be enrolled as a 

 corresponding society of the British Association." 

 The treasurer's report stated that the finances of 

 the society were fairly prosperous. The present 

 number of members was stated to be 266, an 

 increase of seventeen on last year's total. The Presi- 

 dent then read the annual address, in which he 

 reviewed the useful work which had been accom- 

 plished during the twenty-five years of the society's 

 existence. Referring to the division of the county 

 by the late Mr. Stevenson in the introduction to the 

 first volume of his " Birds of Norfolk " into certain 

 well-marked "districts," the President, contrasting 

 their former with their present condition, pro- 

 ceeded to speak of some of these, and concluded 

 by lamenting the paucity of information left us by 

 our predecessors with regard to the former state of 

 the county, and trusted that our successors would 

 not have to reproach us in a like manner. The 



"Transactions" of the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Naturalists' Society, he hoped, would not only 

 continue to collect and treasure up the records of 

 the past, but would form a continuous history of 

 the ever-changing conditions of the city, both 

 physical and faunal. Thus it would become more 

 and more valuable as time rendered the record 

 more remote. A vote of thanks to the retiring 

 President brought the proceedings to a close. 



Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological 

 Society. — The last meeting of the winter session 

 was held on April nth, in the Free Library, 

 Liverpool, the president (Mr. S. J. Capper, F.L.S., 

 F.E.S.) in the chair, when the following papers 

 were read: — " Lepidoptera of Prescot," by the 

 Rev. R. Freeman; "A note on Aculeate Hyme- 

 noptera and Diurnal Lepidoptera during March, 

 1894," by Mr. Willoughby Gardner, F.R.G.S. ; 

 and " Ammophila lutaria," by Mr. C. E. Scott. 

 The papers were all illustrated by specimens. 

 Reports of the additions to the lists of the insect 

 fauna of Lancashire and Cheshire for the years 

 1891-2-3 were read as follows: — Coleoptera and 

 Hemiptera-heteroptera, by Mr. W. E. Sharp ; 

 Hymenoptera, by Mr. Willoughby Gardner ; and 

 Lepidoptera, by Messrs. Capper and Pierce. The 

 lists showed that many important additions had 

 been made to these lists, and that steady work had 

 been done in the neglected orders of insects. 



Aston Natural History and Photographic 

 Society. — The first exhibition of the above society, 

 held in Burlington Hall, was opened on April 5th, 

 and continued until the 10th. The exhibits were 

 of a highly interesting character, and drew together 

 large numbers of visitors. The competition for the 

 silver and bronze medals of the society was very 

 keen, and entailed a large amount of labour on 

 the jurors. Every phase of photography was 

 represented, and in many instances, by the best 

 photographers in England, the members holding 

 an honourable place among the competitors. 

 Natural history was well represented in the fol- 

 lowing sections : microscopy, entomology, botany, 

 geology, conchology, mineralogy, and a general 

 section. The exhibition was deservedly a great 

 success, the jurors awarding, altogether, sixteen 

 silver and sixteen bronze medals, and a number of 

 certificates to the successful competitors. — J. W. 

 Neville, Wellington Road, Handsumih, Birmingham; 

 April 10th, 1894. 



Greenock Natural History Society. — The 

 usual monthly meeting was held on 29th March, 

 when Mr. J. Ballantyne, Rothesay, read a paper 

 on " Plants with Angular Stems," in the course of 

 which he dealt principally with the morphology of 

 herbaceous dicotyledons, showing how the arrange- 

 ment of the leaves on the stem had in many cases 

 a connection with its angular shape. This was 

 brought out in connection with labiate plants, . 

 which have their leaves placed opposite each other 

 in pairs on the stem. It was explained that the 

 vascular bundles from the leaves divide in pairs, 

 either immediately on entering the stem or after 

 having traversed it a certain distance, when they 

 finally unite with those lower down, which have 

 previously gone through the same process, thus 

 forming the large bundles seen in the corners of 

 transverse sections of these plants. The cortex 

 naturally forms on the outside, and takes the 

 quadrangular shape of the wood within. About 

 thirty slides illustrative of the subject were 

 exhibited by means of microscopes belonging to 

 the members. — G. W . Niven, Hon. Sec. 



