354 Proceedings of Societies. 



But after having indicated the sort of appearance that those collections 

 of human habitations would make when transferred to the moon, Professor 

 Smyth proceeded to show that the registered and published observations 

 of the moon are by no means sufficiently accurate to be used to test this 

 question : and that they do show changes, and often to a far greater 

 amount than the mere building of a lunar Manchester would occasion , but 

 such changes bear the impress of error of observation. More powerfully 

 still was this brought out, on comparing even the best of the published 

 documents with some manuscript drawings of the Mare Crisium in the 

 moon , recently made at the Edinburgh Observatory ; and the author 

 hoped that this statement of the imperfection of existing maps would lead 

 to observers generally applying themselves to improve this important and 

 interesting field of astronomy. 



3. On the Interest strictly Chargeable for Short Periods of Time. 

 By the Rev. Professor Kelland. 



Monday, 15th January 1855. Dr Traill, Curator of the Library, in 



the Chair. 



The following Communications were read : — 



1. On the Ethers and Amides of Meconic and Comenic Acids. 



By Henry How, Esq. Communicated by Dr Anderson. 



This paper appears at page 212 of the present number of this Journal. 



2. On the Result of a Revision of the British Association Catalogue of 

 Stars at the Madras Observatory. By Captain W. S. Jacob. Com- 

 municated by Professor C. Piazzi Smyth. 



See page 206 of the present number of this Journal. 



3. Notice of Ancient Glacier Moraines in the Parishes of Strachur and 



Kilmun, Argyleshire. By Charles Maclaren, F.R.S.E. 



See page 189 of the present number of this Journal. 



Monday, 5th February 1855. The Right Rev. Bishop Terrot in the 



Chair. 



The following Communications were read : — 

 1. On the Properties of the Ordeal Bean of Old Calabar, Western 

 Africa. By Dr Christison. 



In various parts of Western Africa it appears to be the practice to sub- 

 ject to the ordeal by poison persons who come under suspicion of having 

 committed heinous crimes. On the banks of the Gambia river the poison 

 used for the purpose is the bark of a leguminous tree, the Fillcea suaveo- 

 lens of MM. Guillemin and Perottet. In the neighbourhood of Sierra 

 Leone it is the Erythrophleum guineense, which some botanists have 

 considered'identical with the former species. On the Congo river, Captain 

 Tuckey found that either this species, or an allied species of the same 

 genus, was in constant use for the same purpose. These barks, when 

 their active constituents are swallowed in the form of infusion, sometimes 

 cause vomiting ; and then the accused recovers, and in that case is pro- 



