iv Proceedings {November ist, i8g8. 



Ordinary Meeting, November ist, 1898. 

 James Cosmo Melvill, M.A., F.L.S., President, in the Chair. 



The thanks of the members were voted to the donors of the 

 books upon the table. 



A discussion on the aurora borealis, with special reference to 

 the display on September 9th last, was opened by Professor 

 Osborne Reynolds, and part was taken in it by several of 

 the members present. 



A discussion on the subject of electric tramway traction was 

 then initiated by Dr. F. H. Bowman with special reference to 

 the methods now adopted in Berlin. 



Ordinary Meeting, November 15th, 1898. 

 James Cosmo Melvill, M.A., F.L.S., President, in the Chair. 



The thanks of the members were voted to the donors of the 

 books upon the table. 



Mr. Stromeyer called attention to some difficulties which 

 he had met with in applying Fourier's methods to the con- 

 sideration of the conduction of heat in boiler plates, and in 

 considering the motion of spiral springs suddenly released. 



Dr. G. H. Broadbent described the development and life 

 history of Vorticella putrina by means of 34 diagrams made from 

 his own observations. The development from the cyst was 

 fully given in each stage, the remarkable feature being that after 

 the extrusion of the organism through a very small aperture the 

 cyst wall remained quite circular and intact. The manner in 

 which the Vorticella leaves the stalk by means of the development 

 of basal cilia was shown, and it was stated that the free-swimming 

 form steers with these cilia foremost, whereas in the " detached" 

 form — a special term used by the author — -the oral cilia are fore- 

 most. He mentioned that he had seen the stalk contract on its 

 own account after the organism had already left it for several 

 seconds. 



