WINTER SESSION. 



Note — The authors of the various papers, of which abstracts are here 

 appended, are alone responsible for the views expressed in them. 



The first joint meeting for the Winter Session of 1870-71 was 

 held in the Museum, College Square North, on Wednesday 

 Evening, 2d November. 



The President of the Senior Society (Robert Patterson, 

 Esq., F.R.S.) occupied the chair, and made some prefatory 

 observations suitable to the occasion. In connection with the 

 future, he mentioned that in all probability the British Asso- 

 ciation would hold their meeting of 1873 in Belfast, if not, it 

 would be held here in 1874. Amongst other matters brought 

 forward at the last meeting of the Association in Liverpool 

 was a request which he thought might meet a response from 

 several members of the Societies he was addressing, namely, 

 the request expressed by the Meteorological Committee for a 

 volunteer force of 1,500 or 2,000 scientific observers, who 

 would keep a systematic record of the rainfall in the particular 

 locality of each, by means of the inexpensive rain-gauge now 

 in general use. Particulars would be furnished by G. J. Symes, 



