224 Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



is at once evident. In this manner solntions of blood and of port 

 wine of equal intensity of colour are capable of being instantly dis- 

 tinguished from each other. 



Prof. Stokes has applied this test to the green colouring matter 

 of the bile, supposed by Berzelius to be identical with chlorophyll, 

 and has discovered that it is perfectly distinct. Chlorophyll yields 

 solutions in alcohol, ether, etc., which are characterized by very 

 strongly marked bands of absorption, that are wholly absent in the 

 solutions of the colouring matter of the bile, which has been named 

 Biliverdin. There is no doubt but that the easy and practical mode 

 of discrimination designed by Prof. Stokes will be of very great 

 value to the working chemist and medical jurist in the distinction 

 of organic substances of nearly similar appearance. 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.— March 4 



Ancient Habitations inAnglesea. — TheHonourableW. 0. Stanley 

 communicated a very interesting account of the remarkable circular 

 habitations found in Anglesea, being particularly abundant in the 

 neighbourhood of Holyhead. These habitations, which are usually 

 from 15 to 20 feet in diameter, are designated as Cuttier Qwyddelod, 

 or the Irishmen's huts, in the maps of the Ordnance Survey ; there 

 appears, however, but little doubt that the title is an erroneous one. 



Each habitation is formed of turf, with two stones forming the 

 sides of the entrance ; these are often found standing hi the erect posi- 

 tion. A detailed'description was given of the opening by Mr. Stanley 

 and Mr. Albert Way of a village consisting of upwards of one hundred 

 houses, standing on a terrace about six hundred yards in length from 

 north-east to south-west. On this terrace the houses were* placed 

 close together, but without any regularity or plan, except that 

 the openings were almost always turned towards the south-east. 



A very early age was assigned to these dwellings by the 

 author of the paper, who regarded them as having being constructed 

 before the use of iron or other metals was known in the locality. 

 He thought therefore that they must have been erected by the abo- 

 rigines long before the invasion of the Romans ; and not, as their 

 popular name implies, by immigrants from Ireland. 



Mr. Morgan stated that dwellings of a precisely similar charac- 

 ter existed in Monmouthshire, which certainly wero not the work 

 of Irish invaders. 



