Proceedings of Learned Societies. 317 



of folding plates, which commence with the newer and post pliocene 

 fossils, and finish with the lower eocene. In columns on the right 

 hand side of each plate, information is given concerning the various 

 strata in which the organic remains are found, and the nature of 

 the principal fossils. Many of the figures are drawn in their 

 natural size, and in other cases their proportion is given. Mr. 

 Lowry's name is a guarantee that due pains have been taken in all 

 the details ; and it must be admitted that he has rendered an im- 

 portant service to students of tertiary geology. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY OP LONDON. 



Through the zeal of the President, Mr. Glaisher, assisted by his 

 council, a royal charter has been obtained for this Society, and the 

 patronage of the Prince of Wales. Pellows will use the letters 

 F.M.S.L. The first meeting of the season took place on the 10th 

 October, when the charter was read, and other business transacted. 

 The President, in the name of the Society, presented an elegant 

 silver inkstand to T. W. Burr, Esq., F.R.A.S., F.S.C., in acknow- 

 ledgment of his gratuitous services in the legal steps necessary for 

 obtaining the charter. Mr. Slack read a paper describing a new 

 diaphragm eye-piece, which is described in our Notes and Memo- 

 randa. Mr. Suffolk exhibited some metal rings, made according 

 to his directions by Mr. Collins, and adapted for microscopic cells 

 of various sizes and depths. 



PROGRESS OF INVENTION. 



The Terrestrial Dare Lines of the Spectrum. — From the mo- 

 ment that Wollaston observed that certain rays are wanting in the 

 solar spectrum, their places being occupied by dark lines or bands, 

 philosophers have been occupied in attempting to investigate their 

 origin. These attempts have been in a great degree successful. 

 They arise from a cause which, apjDlied to spectrum analysis, en- 

 ables us not only to detect the presence of elements so minute in 

 quantity as to elude the most careful researches of the chemist, but 

 to pronounce with certainty regarding the elementary substances of 

 which the most distant stars are formed. But there is one great 

 source of uncertainty in the application of spectrum analysis to the 

 purposes of astronomy, the difficulty of determining whether the 

 dark lines in the spectrum of a heavenly body belong to the light 

 emitted by that body, or have been caused during the passage of 

 that light through our atmosphere. This difficulty is now in a fair 

 way of solution, if it is not already resolved. M. Jansen has 



