BEISTOL NATURALISTS SOCIETY. 
From the "Bristol Daily Post" of April llth, 1864. 
The seventh meeting of this session was held on Thursday 
I evening last, when upwards of eighty members and friends, 
I including several ladies, attended, and Mr. William Sanders, 
I the president, occupied the chair. 
The usual routine business having been gone through, Mr. 
A. Leipner, the honorary secretary, explained a scheme 
which he had devised for a systematic registration of the 
objects of natural history, in the widest sense of the term, 
in the neighbourhood of Bristol, in such a manner that the 
work done by the various members might be collected and 
systematised, with a view to the ultimate publication of a 
complete flora and fauna of the Bristol district, a wish for 
which had often been expressed, and which was a work 
especially suited for such a society. Mr. Leipner detailed at 
some length the manner in which each and every contributor 
I would have his full share of acknowledgment for his labours, 
however small, and, consequently, also of responsibility, for 
the accuracy of his statements. The scheme embraced, 
I besides, a plan for utilising the labours of the past, in the 
shape of the various collections in possession of members or 
their friends, provided the locality and year of discovery 
were given ; and Mr. Leipner stated that he thought a 
fundamental rule should be that, of such animals, only such 
should be recorded as were found living ; of plants, only those 
found growing; and of geological and mineralogical speci- 
mens, only such as were found in situ. Mr. Leipner con- 
T j eluded by proposing the four following resolutions, which, 
after some discussion, were carried unanimously : — 
j 1. That the members of the Bristol Naturalists' Society 
undertake to register all the objects of natural history found 
I by them, with a view of publishing the result. 
I, ! 2. That the society intends to extend its operations over 
I the Bristol coal-field. 
I 3. That the locality where the object is found shall be 
i given in the number of the square mile on a map to be thus 
divided, instead of the usual one of the town or village. 
4, That the expenses for printing the papers for registrar 
lion, as well as the maps required, shall be defrayed from 
the funds of the society, unless paid for by the members 
1 requiring them. 
Mr. W. Lant Carpenter, the hon. reporting secretary, 
then read a short paper on " The soluble fflass used in the 
I decorations of the houses of Parliament." Soluble glass 
was a silicate of soda, or of potash, or of both, entirely 
' soluble in water, thereby differing from ordinary glass, 
I which was a silicate of soda and lime. The solution of this 
1 " water glass" was used for a great many purposes, — one 
I application was in a new kind of fresco painting, invented by 
i a German chemist, Dr. Fuchs, and now practised largely in 
this country, as well as at Berlin. In the old frescoes, the 
colour was laid upon a fresh damp surface of mortar. In 
this mode, called stereochromy, the colours were laid on a 
dry wall, the surface of which was then covered with a 
solution of this water glass, which gelatinised there, form- 
ing a protective coating, and eventually a silicate of lime, by 
its action on the mortar. The advantages of this mode of 
painting, to the artist, were very great. At the request of 
