MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 335 
excelsa, but when full grown it was more dwarf and compact. As 
in the case of A. excelsa, the male cones grow at the ends of the 
leaf spires, and the female are produced on the higher branches, 
but the latter are apparently smaller and more clustered. 
Dr. George Hurst exhibited an egg of Scythvops Nove Hollandie, 
taken from the ovarium of a bird shot this month at Kempsey. 
He mentioned that the only other specimen of this egg ever recorded 
was obtained in a similar manner and described in Gould’s Hand- 
book of the Birds of Australia. 
The President also exhibited four specimens of the shell-like 
covering of a species of Phryganea. These are built up entirely of 
small round nodules of brown iron ore, fastened together by a silky 
web. They were obtained on the north end of New Caledonia, by 
Dr. Storer, in a creek flowing over rocks composed ot iron ore. 
The President submitted a lithograph of a new fossil plant, 
found by Mr. R. M. Johnston, of Hobart, in the carboniferous beds 
of the Jerusalem Basin, Tasmania. It has been named by the dis- 
coverer Lepidostvobus Miillert. 
ROYAL SOCIETY OF TASMANIA. 
Hobart, r1th August, 1884.—Mr. James Barnard, Vice-Presi- 
dent, in the chair. 
New fellows—Miss M. Lodder,the Hon. J. Lord, M.L.C., Rev. 
fee eercikland,’B.A., Messrs. C. J. Maxwell, J. R. M‘ Clymont, 
Meee. Saville Kent, F.LS., F.G.S., &.,W. H. Buckland, 
ieee tC. Kingsmill, B.A. J. M‘Cance, ERA. 5, Milles..C.E., 
SE. Magics, P, Seager, H..Cook, jun., [..C. Just, W. H. Char- 
pentier, F. Pedder, and A. North. 
Papers—1. “ Remarks on the observed periodicity of the death- 
rate, with suggestions as to its possible relation with the periodicity 
of solar and other super-terrestrial phenomena,” by Mr. R. M. 
Johnston, F.L.S. The object of the paper was to show that there 
is a marked rise and fall in the death-rate in Europe and Austral- 
asia, as ascertained from the records of various countries during 
the last 39 years, the periodicity of which closely corresponds with 
the maxima and minima of sun-spots, and with the movements of 
Jupiter in his orbit trom aphelion to perihelion. In the colonies 
of Australasia, especially during the last 25 years, there is sucha 
close agreement with each cther in the rise and fall of their respec- 
tive death-rates that it is not easily accounted for unless it be re- 
ferred to some super-terrestrial influence ofa variable character. 
Local causes appear in conjunction with this obscure powerful 
influence as mere ripples on the swell of a great wave. Although 
the several states of Europe do not correspond with each other so 
closely as do the widely separated colonies of Australia, it is con- 
sidered significant that the mean of the death-rate of Europe cor- 
responds in a remarkable way with that of Australasia. Mr. 
Johnston considers that the greater agreement of the Australasian 
colonies is due more or less to the absence of artificial evils, such 
as pestilence of war and excessive density of population, and there- 
fore it is conceivable that the death-rate of the Australasian 
colonies is a more reliable index of the mediate or immediate effect 
of super-terrestrial causes. 
