NATURALISTS SOCIETY 
SECTIONAL MEETINGS. 
From the Bristol Daily Post of February 20th, li65. 
! Geological Section, Ja Leipner in the 
chair. — Mr. W. Sanders was re-elected president, and Mr. F. 
Asbmead, secretary of the section, for the ensuing year. 
The accounts for the preceding year were read and passed. 
It was resolved that the Geological Magazine shou\d betaken 
in, and circulated amongst the members. Mr. W. W. 
Stoddart continued his paper on the Cambro-Silurian strata 
and fossils, taking as his subject the Llandeilo formation, 
which, he said, could not be distinguished lithologically 
from the lingula beds spoken of at the previous meeting, 
bat which contained an entirely distinct set of fossils, more 
numerous in species and genera, and of much higher organi- 
sation. This series was about 5000 feet in thickness, con- 
sisting chiefly of dark fissile slates and sandy flags, and was 
best observed at the Stipa Stones of Shropshire, Builth, 
Llangollen, and Llandeilo; the author having also disco- 
vered it at Llandewi-Felfrey, 18 miles north of Tenby, 
where many characteristic fossils were found in great 
jabundance, amongst which were Prinucleus, Didymograpsus, 
jAsaphus tyrannus, and a Discina, probably D, Portlocki, 
never yet found in this formation. Going on towards 
Lampeter, near Tenby, the beds were found to be first 
arenaceous, then calcareous and extensively quarried, form- 
ing tbe only lower Silurian beds in Wales used for lime 
burning. All the examples of the Llandeilo beds in England 
were fully explained and illustrated by diagrams. In 
Scotland the series occurred from Dumfries to the Lam- 
mermuir Hills, and contained several species of shells 
unknown in the Welsh series, but common in the North 
American. The altered quartzose and gneissose rocks of 
Sutherlandshire had been recently shown to contain the 
same annelid tube, Scolithus linearis, as the Shropshire 
series. In Ireland the Llandeilo beds had not yet been pro- 
perly made out, but foreign equivalents were described in 
Bohemia and Scandinavia. Mr. Stoddart gave a long list 
of the characteristic fossils of this series, remarking that 
encrinites first made their appearance in it, and exhibited 
specimens of many of them. 
Chemical and Photographic Sections, Feb. 8th,— 
Dr. W. 15. Herapath, president, in the chair. — Mr. Carpenter 
moved the re - election of the sectional officers for the 
ensuing year, with thanks to them for their past services. 
The accounts of the preceding year were read and passed. 
On account of the small attendance of members, it was 
resolved that only one of the two papers proposed for the 
evening should be read. Dr. Herapath's being postponed till 
tbe next meeting. Mr. Alfred Noble, the hon. secretary, 
then read a paper on " Old and New Metals," and modes of 
obtaining them. Of the fifty metals now known to exist, 
seven were in use among the ancients; who, after the age of 
flmt implements, used at first those metals which occurred 
native, as copper, tin, gold, and silver, and then those whose 
ores occurred in the largest quantity, as iron for example. 
Referring to the discovery of some of the new metals, 
thallium, &c., and to the gradual obliteration of the dis- 
tinction formerly drawn between metallic and non-metallic 
bodies, the author observed that there appeared to be a 
simultaneous advance in civilization and in the knowledge 
of metals. The chief ores of the older metals were oxides, 
carbonates, and sulphides, and of these the two last could 
be brought into the state of oxides by heat, which oxides 
were then reduced or deprived of oxygen by coal, with the 
