﻿February 7th, ipoj.] PROCEEDINGS. xxvii 



exactly a normal one. The D lines can just be separated in 

 the pocket instrument, and readings can be made by taking the 

 mean of several to about one Angstrom unit. 



Mr. F. A. Bruton, M.A., exhibited some leaden weights 

 found at Melandra Castle, an old Roman edifice near Glossop, 

 among them being the uncia, or ounce, and other weights 

 related thereto. 



At this point the chair was taken by Mr. Francis 

 Nicholson, F.Z.S. 



Professor H. B. Dixon, M.A., F.R.S., stated that during the 

 last two years he had made, in conjunction with Mr. E. C. Edgar, 

 a direct determination of the atomic weight of chlorine by burning 

 a known weight of hydrogen in a known weight of chlorine. 

 The hydrogen was occluded in palladium and so weighed ; the 

 chlorine was prepared by the electrolysis of silver chloride, and 

 was weighed in the liquid state. The atomic weight comes out 

 about 35-192, higher than the accepted number by "012. This 

 higher value is of interest in view of the recent (unpublished) 

 work of Professor Theodore Richards, of Harvard, who obtains 

 a value -019 higher than the accepted atomic weight. 



Mr. Charles Oldham read a paper entitled, " On the 

 occurrence in Britain of the Pacific Eider (Somateria 

 v-fiigrum, Gray), a species new to the European 

 avifauna." The bird, which was exhibited by the kindness 

 of Mr. Fred Stubbs, of Oldham, was shot out of a flock at 

 Graemsay, Orkney, by a wild-fowler named George Sutherland, 

 in December, 1904. Its known habitat is the Behring Sea. 

 Mr. Stubbs has presented the specimen to the Oldham Public 

 Museum. 



Mr. Oldham also read a paper entitled, " Some Habits 

 of Bats, with special reference to the Lesser Horse- 

 shoe Bat (Rhi?wlophus hippos iderus).'" 



Lantern slides of bats inhabiting the caves around Alderley 

 Edge were exhibited. 



