December 1st, 7896.] Proceedings. xv. 



as the inside, with water, alkalis, and other re-agents, but 

 could, in no case, see any indication of the presence of a 

 red colouring matter. From this it would appear that the 

 colouring matter is an animal secretion and does not pre- 

 exist in the plant. 



Professor Weiss joined in the discussion, and took some 

 of the specimens for microscopic examination. 



Dr. C. H. Lees called attention to the experiments of 

 E. Wiedemann on the specific heats of vapours and their 

 variation with the temperature. Since in all the vapours 

 that have been experimented on the specific heats increase 

 with the temperature, it is probable that this is the case 

 for all vapours, including steam. Hence the value of the 

 specific heat of steam between given temperatures, required 

 in Rankine's formula for the total heat necessary to raise 

 water from any temperature to steam gas at another 

 temperature, is still unknown. Professor Reynolds, Professor 

 Dixon, and Mr. R. L. Taylor took part in the discussion. 



Mr. Herbert Bolton, F.R.S.E., read a paper entitled 

 " Descriptions of New Species of Brachiopoda and 

 Mollusca from the Millstone Grit and Lower Coal 

 Measures of Lancashire." 



The paper is printed in full in the Memoirs. 



Mr. C. L. Barnes, M.A., read a paper entitled "On 

 some Errors in Science." 



It was suggested by Roger Bacon that there are four 

 causes of human ignorance, viz., authority, custom, popular 

 opinion, and the pride of supposed knowledge. Long after 

 his time Francis Bacon, in the same spirit, conceived his 

 Idols of the Tribe, of the Cave, the Market-place, and the 

 Theatre. By the first of these are meant the errors which 

 are common to the whole race of mankind, since they arise 

 from the nature of human understanding. Such sayings as 

 " Nature abhors a vacuum," " Nature always works by the 

 simplest means," are really so many cloaks under which the 

 old philosophers used to hide their ignorance. There is a 



