May pt/i, ipi6.] Proceedings, xlifi 



Ordinary Meeting, May 9th, 19 16. 



Professor W. W. Haldane Gee, B.Sc, M.Sc.Tech., Vice- 

 President, in the Chair. 



Mr. C. L. Karnes, M.A., mentioned that sea-weed, now 

 again in request as a source of iodine^ was looked upon by the 

 ancients as a type of worthlessness. 



Thus Horace (Odes, III., 17) has 

 Cras foliis nemus 

 multis et alga litus inutili 

 demissa tempestas ab Euro sternet. 

 (To-morrow a storm, swooping down from the East, shall strew 

 the grove with leaves and the shore with useless sea-weed.) 



And in the Satires, II , v. 8, " Et genus et virtus nisi cum 

 re vilior alga." (Birth and character without money are more 

 worthless than sea-weed.) 



Virgil (Eclogues, VII., 42) has "Horridior rusco proiecta 

 vilior alga." (Rougher than broom, more worthless than uncon- 

 sidered sea-weed.) 



Rutilius, a minor poet of the 5th century, a.d., in describing 

 a landlord's bill, says : " Vexatos frutices pulsatas imputat 

 algas." (He charges for damaged shrubs and tumbled sea- 

 weed.) 



Lastly, in the Tempest, we read : 



And, like the unsubstantial pageant faded, 

 Leave not a wrack behind. 



The word "wrack" here, is akin to the French "varec," 

 referring to the ashes of sea-weed, but also meaning " refuse " 

 of any kind. " Wreck " is derived from the same root. 



Mr. Edgar Newbery, M.Sc. read a paper entitled : " The 

 Theory of Overvoltage." 



Mr. R. F. Gwyther, M.A., read a paper entitled, "The 

 Specification of Stress, Part IV. (continued)." 



These papers are printed in full in the Memoirs. 



