4T7 



pendently of education, from the parent to its offspring, several facts 

 which have fallen under his observation in the course of various ex- 

 periments commenced by him nearly sixty years ago and continued 

 to the present time. He relates that a young terrier, whose parents 

 had been trained to destroy pole-cats, and a young springing spaniel, 

 whose ancestors through many generations had been employed in 

 finding woodcocks, were reared together as companions ; and that 

 each of them, immediately on seeing, and for the first time in its life, 

 the particular prey to which it was guided by hereditary instinct, pur- 

 sued it with intense eagerness, while it did not appear to notice that 

 which attracted its companion. In several instances he found that 

 young springing spaniels, wholly inexperienced, were very nearly as 

 expert in finding woodcocks as their well-trained parents. The habits 

 of the woodcock have in the course of the last sixty years undergone 

 considerable change, the fear of man having during that period become 

 much stronger by transmission through many successive generations. 

 The author believes that by continued education these hereditary pro- 

 pensities might be suppressed and others substituted : thus the habits 

 of the springing spaniel would never have been acquired, if shooting 

 on the wing had not been practised by man. A young dog, of 

 the variety usually called retrievers, on account of their being 

 trained to find and recover wounded game, performed this office, 

 although wholly untaught, quite as well as the best-instructed dog. 

 The male and the female parents appear to possess similar powers of 

 transmitting to their offspring these hereditary feelings and propensi- 

 ties ; excepting in the case of hybrid progeny, in which the au- 

 thor thinks he has witnessed a decided prevalence of the character 

 of the male parent. With regard to dogs, the influence of one or 

 other of the parents, and sometimes of both, may occasionally be 

 traced, but without any constancy as to the particular predominance 

 of either sex. 



A paper was read " On Meteorological deductions from Observa- 

 tions made at the Observatory at Port Louis in the Mauritius, during 

 the years 1833, 1834, and 1835." By John Augustus Lloyd, Esq., 

 Surveyor-General of that Island, F.R.S. Communicated by Captain 

 Beaufort, R.N., Hydrographer to the Admiralty, F.R.S. 



The observations, from which the results recorded in the present 

 paper were made, are nearly 50,000 in number, and were taken four 

 times each day, at the hours of 8 a.m. noon, 4 and 8 p.m. The de- 

 tails of the observations themselves are about to be forwarded to the 

 Royal Society; they relate to the states of the barometer, thermome- 

 ter, hygrometer, rain gauge, and the appearance of the atmosphere 

 with regard to clearness or cloudiness. 



June 1, 1S37. 



FRANCIS BAILY, Esq., V.P. and Treasurer, in the Chair. 

 William Ayrton, Esq., James Carson, M.D., William Hopkins, 

 Esq., M.A., and Captain John Thomas Smith, were severally elected 

 Fellows of the Society. 



