MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. " 519 
MEE TINGS OF} SOCIETIES. 
ROYAL SOCIETY. OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
Sydney, July 4th, 1883—Hon. Professor J. Smith, M.L.C., in 
the chair. 
New members—Messrs.. J. Barnet; J. Fraser, B.A.; J. H. 
Maiden; F. Morley; S. Sinclair; T. P. Stuart, M.D.; T.B. Tre- 
beck, B.A.; P. W. Tuxen; W. Wardell, C.E.; and W. C. Wil- 
kinson, B.A. 
Papers—(1) ‘‘On the Wainamatta Shales,” by the Rev. J. E. 
Tenison-Woods. The author discusses the group or series of beds 
so-named by the late Rev. W. B. Clarke in his ‘‘ Sedimentary 
Formations of New South Wales,” and again described by Mr. 
Beete Jukes in a paper read before the Geological Society of Lon- 
don in 1847, and disagrees from both these geologists. The con- 
clusions arrived at are ztey alia:— That the shales do not lie on 
but are intercalated with the Hawkesbury Sandstones ; that they 
do not occupy any basin in the formerly eroded rocks; that both 
in the contained fossils and the stratification, the shales are one 
with the Hawkesbury Sandstone; and that consequently there is 
no such formation as the Wainamatta. ‘The verification of these 
conclusions has been rendered possible by examination ot the cut- 
tings and tunnels in connection with the new waterworks. A list of 
the fossil flora of these rocks is given, and it is pointed out that allthe 
fossils of the Blue Mountain shales and sandstones are found inter- 
mingled in the mesozoic coal basin around Moreton Bay. These 
latter beds again are identical in their fossil contents with the 
shales and sandstones of all the so-called carbonaceous shales and 
sandstones of Victoria, and they also have the closest relations 
with the Jurassic plant beds of India, ot Siberia, and of Yorkshire 
in England; from which facts the author concludes that the 
Hawkesbury rocks belong to the Lower Jurassic. The lacustrine 
origin of these beds is denied, and it is shown that they probably 
were due to the drifting of loose sand over moorlands and shallow 
marshes covered with a thick vegetable growth. 
(2.) “On the Australian Strophaosiz,” by Professor Liversidge. 
(3.) Description of a new species of Ancella from the cretaceous 
rocks of N. E, Australia,” by Mr. R. Etheridge, jun. 
MEDICAL SECTION. 
Sydney, 20th July, 1883.—Dr. Manning in the chair. 
Papers—(1) ‘‘On the use of the Jequirity Bean in the treat- 
ment of granular ophthalmia,” by Mr. Thos. Evans. 
(2.) ‘On the desirability of establishing Federal Quarantine,” 
by Dr. Mackellar, Government Health Officer. The author de- 
scribed the growth and history of quarantine regulations in Europe 
and other parts of the world, and particularly instanced the various 
cases in which epidemic diseases were introduced into the Austra- 
lian Colonies. He urged the advisability of all the Australian 
Governments coming to some agreement on the subject, and ot 
