xvi Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



indicate successive increments of growth. These lines of growth 

 have been found to be more widely separated in that part of the 

 scale formed during the warm season of the year than in the portion 

 formed during the cold season. The alternation of the two series 

 gives rise to the appearance of rings which the author maintains to 

 be annual, and these would thus indicate the age of the fish in years. 

 By means of a series of lantern slides from photo-micrographs, Mr. 

 Thomson illustrated his hypothesis by demonstrating these rings in 

 scales from several species of Gadidae. Owing to the statistical 

 nature of this research only a summary was read. The complete 

 paper will be published in the Journal of the Marine Biological 

 Association, Plymouth, 1903. 



Ordinary Monthly Meeting. 

 December 29, 1903. 

 Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist, President, in the Chair. 



The members of the Medical Congress attended by special 

 invitation. 



Present : 110 members and visitors. 



Messrs. A. Brink, A. H. T. Muller, and J. S. Thomson w T ere 

 elected ordinary members. 



Professor Payne was nominated as ordinary member by Professor 

 Logeman and Dr. Marloth. 



The abstract of a paper, " An Introduction to the Study of South 

 African Eainfall," by Mr. J. B. Sutton, and two papers by Dr. 

 Thos. Muir, i.e., " Factorizable Continuants" and " Developments 

 of a Pfaman," were taken as read. 



The first paper is the fifth of the series planned some years ago 

 to describe the meteorology of the South African Tableland in a 

 form suitable to the requirements of the physicist. It gives a history 

 of Kimberley rainfall from 1877-1902, and discusses the annual, 

 monthly, daily, and hourly quantities, both statistically and by the 

 harmonic analysis. 



The greatest known annual fall at Kimberley is 34J inches in 

 1891, the least 8f inches in 1897. This range is less than that of 

 similarly situated places in Australia and India, but greater than 

 that of South America. The greatest fall in 24 hours occurred in 

 September, 1902, and amounted to more than 4J inches. The 

 wettest time of the year is during the last week of February, the 



