Proceedings of Learned Societies. 381 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



BY W. B. TEGETMEIER. 



CHEMICAL SOCIETY.— Nov. 3. 



The Effect of Ignition on the Density of Minerals. — Pro- 

 fessor Church, related the results of a large number of experiments 

 he had made to test the accuracy of some statements recently pub- 

 lished in the Transactions of the Royal Society, maintaining that 

 minerals of the garnet and idocrase family, after being expanded by 

 heat, did not regain their original density for several weeks. In 

 the Transactions it was stated that lime garnet having an original 

 specific gravity of 3"35 was reduced to 2 - 98 by being heated to red- 

 ness for a quarter of an hour, and being allowed to cool, and that 

 the mineral regained its original density in one month. Professor 

 Church denied the accuracy of these observations, and maintained 

 that there was no "intermittent molecular change," idocrase, iron 

 and lime garnets and olivine having nearly the same specific 

 gravity after as before being heated, and not altering subsequently. 

 Many minerals that undergo fusion at a high temperature he found 

 to become permanently reduced in density. Thus a specimen of 

 idocrase originally 3 - 40, was diminished to 2*937 by fusion, and a 

 iron garnet from Arundel, originally 4*058, became reduced 

 to 3'395, or even to 3"204 by long-continued fusion. These experi- 

 ments of Professor Church accord with the results obtained by 

 Magnus, who also found the densities of these minerals greatly 

 reduced after fusion. 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY.— Nov. 12. 



The Kingdom of Dahome.— Captain R. E. Burton described 

 the present condition of the kingdom of Dahome, which he stated 

 was one of eight purely negro races. Among the others are Ashantee 

 and the kingdom of Benin, both of which are as inhuman in their 

 worship as Dahome. In the Lake Regions of Central Africa is 

 the kingdom of Karagwah ; to the north, where the Lake Victoria 

 Nyanza is supposed to lie, is a fine hilly country, inhabited by a 

 superior race of negroes, who are ruled by a despotism which rivals 

 in atrocity the most terrible despotisms of "Western Africa. In 

 Central Tropical Africa there is the great empire of Matiamoo, and 

 in the south-east there is the country of the Muata Cazembra, in which 

 two countries Captain Burton said nothing could be more horrible 

 than the cruelties practised by the priests and kings. The great 

 military kingdom of Dahome was first made known to Europe in 1724, 

 and from that time it has been notorious for the brutal state of 

 barbarism of its inhabitants, and for the cruelties of its kings, who 

 do not, however, appear to surpass in that respect the rulers of the 

 other kingdoms in Central Africa. There has been a great mixture 

 of foreigners with original natives, and Captain Burton estimates 

 that the only proper freemen with any remnant of ancient blood are 



