430 
THE LAST DECADE. 
which he had invented. It consists of an indiarubber ball so small 
that all the air within it is expelled by the compression of one hand, 
to which is attached a tube. The tube can be placed in a break in 
the roof or any other position from which it is supposed that there is 
an escape of combustible gas, and by squeezing the bag so as to expel 
the contained air and drawing in that suspected of inflammability, 
suflicient is obtained to test it. This is done by forcing the gas 
through the tube near the flame of a lamp, and if gas be present it is 
at once revealed by the elongation of the flame in the ordinary way, 
at the same time burning with a blue flame at the top of the test 
tube. By means of this simple apparatus the lamp may be kept at a 
distance from the suspected atmosphere, whilst a small quantity is 
obtained and brought to it. It also prevents the lamp becoming 
extinguished by foul air, and the necessity to go perhaps a mile to 
re-light it. 
Mr. Davis described a new species of Heterolepidotus, a fossil 
flsh from the lias, of which a figure is given. 
The Rev. J. Stanley Tute described Spirangium carbonarium, a 
fossil plant not hitherto found in this country, from the Carboniferous 
Sandstone near Harrogate. 
Three species of fossils not hitherto described, viz., Chonetes 
Clevelandicus, Pleuromya navicula, and Isis liasica, all from the lias 
beds, formed the subject of a communication from Mr. "VV. Y. Veitch. 
Mr. H. B. Stocks described the analyses of the composition of 
coal-balls and baum-pots found in the Lower Coal Measures at 
Halifax, and afterwards of a hydraulic limestone obtained from 
Sewerby, near Flamborough. It occurs in nodules, grey and very 
hard sometimes, containing fossils which are burnt so as to form 
cement. The nodules consist essentially of a mixture of carbonate 
of lime and clay, with some phosphoric acid probably due to fossil 
molluscan remains which the nodules contained. 
At a meeting held at Barnsley in 1866, Mr. Joseph Mitchell 
presided, and gave a brief abstract of the final report on the Royal 
Commission on Accidents in Mines. The principal points in the 
report referred to the lighting of mines and to the use of explosives. 
With respect to the former, Mr. Mitchell considered that a lamp of 
