BRISTOL NATURALISTS' SOCIETY, 
❖ • 
From the Bristol Daily Post of March 5th, 1866. 
The usual monthly general meeting was held at the 
Phiiosopbical Institatioa on Thursday evening last, Mr, 
W. Sanders, E.R S,, the president, occupied the chair, and 
there was an average attendance of members and their 
friends, including ladies. After the transaction of some 
private business relating to the form in which the proceed- 
ings of the society should be printed, the hon. secretary 
announced donations to the society's library of half a guinea 
from the Botanical Section, and one guinea, with a volume 
©f the Geolegical Magazine, from the Geological Section, 
Mr. W. W. Stoddart exhibited a piece of bamboo cane, 
which had been buried in the earth, and then incinerated, 
showing casts of the siliceous cells in the plant, hanging 
together in a remarkable manner. He also read an extract 
from a letter of the Rev. G. Smith in reference to that 
gentleman's account of researches in a bone cave at Tenby, 
read at the previous meeting, from which it appeared that, 
though the bones of the bear, &c,, were found underneath 
the undisturbed stalagmite, and were therefore very old, the 
flint flakes were not, and hence there were no data fur 
dettrmiaing the age of these. 
Mr, Charles F. Ravis tben read a paper on amber, com- 
municated by Mr. Pnilip John Butler, of Lo»don. Mr. 
Ravis recalled the fact ihat about two years ago he had exhi- 
bited to tne society some beautiful specimens of amber, 
specially with reference to the insects therein contained, and 
had then made & short communication upon the subject. These 
specimens had been lent by Mr. Butler, who had since been 
purouiHg his researches, whicb were embodied in a paper 
read at tbe Linnean Society in London, on December 21st, 
1865. rnis paper Mr. Rivisread, adding also a few remarks 
ot nis own iQ tbe course of it. That amber was a fossil 
resin, and that most of what was obtained at the present day 
was disrupted from the submerged fo^rests under the Baltic 
Sea, was now generally admitted. Its resinous character 
was knowB in tne tirst century of the Christian era, although 
some of the ancients adopted the wildest theories respecting 
it, instances of whicb were given from Sophocles, Ovid, and 
other writers, Tnat many of the ancients were wrong in 
their conclusions was certain, and it was equally certain that 
many in our own day were equally mistaken in suppesicg 
specimens to be amber which were only recent resin. Gum 
animi frequently contained insects, and was hence often 
confounded with amber, even in museum specimens, and 
instances had occurred of some authors, in entomological 
catalogues, actually mingling fossil species of insects in 
amber with existing species in modern resins. The 
weight of the largest piece of amber in the British Museum 
was 4loz., but at Berlin there were larger specimens. The 
chief use of amber was in connexion with meerschaum clay, 
animi being used for varnish. Mr. Ravis here read some 
notes on two recent resins, confounded with amber, viz., 
cspal and animi. Copal was the Mexican term for gum as 
well as resin, the resin so called being the produce of Rhus 
Copallinum; it rarely or never contained insects, Animi 
was a product of the Eastern hemisphere only ; it 
exuded from Vateria Indica, a gigantic tree of Malabar, 
and was formerly sold in Indian bazaars under 
the term Sundross. The Portuguese knew it in 1498, and on 
settling in South Aoierica in 1549 they misapplied the term 
aaimi to the re&m of New Spain. la continuing Mr, 
Butler's paper, the following ready mode of distinguishing 
amber from atiimi was given. The specimen being polished, 
was to be placed in cold water, which should be gradually 
heated to boiling; animi thus treated, frequently, even be- 
fore the water reached 200°, but always on boiling, lost its 
brilliancy, and was much altered in appearance aud shape, 
while amber was uaohangad, Some instances were then 
