598 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
Again visual vertigo occurred when the reflexions of the gas lights 
in the glass of a picture frame were looked at, hut not with the gas 
lights looked at directly. 
It is unfortunate that no observation of the eyes was made during 
the continuance of visual vertigo, as for instance, when the printed 
characters seemed to fly across the newspaper. It would have 
been important to determine in such a case the presence or absence 
of nystagmus. It is to be hoped that any one who may fall in with 
a similar case will not make this omission. 
The relation of nystagmus to visual vertigo is of great importance 
and interest, but it would be out of place to discuss it in a note of 
this kind. I hope to have an opportunity before long of dealing 
with it in a special paper. 
PRIVATE BUSINESS. 
Mr James Sorley, Mr William Thomson, M.D., B.Sc., Mr 
Thomas Graham Young, and Mr W. Dyce Cay, M. Inst. C.E., were 
balloted for, and declared duly elected Fellows of the Society. 
Monday , 20 th March 1882. 
Professor DOUGLAS MACLAGAN, M.D., Vice-President, 
in the Chair. 
The following Communications were read : — - 
1. Note on the Carboniferous Rocks of the South of Scotland. 
By Archibald Geikie, F.R.S. 
The well-known northward attenuation of the massive Carboni- 
ferous Limestone of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the gradual 
replacement of its thick calcareous groups by sandstones, shales, 
and seams of coal, with interstratifications of marine limestone, can 
be advantageously studied in the southern counties of Scotland. 
In these districts a characteristic and recognisable base for the 
Carboniferous system is presented by the deep red Sandstones and 
marles of the Upper Old Red Sandstone, which pass up conformably 
into that system, but rest with a violent unconformability upon every 
formation older than themselves, including even the Lower Old Red 
Sandstone of Berwickshire and the Cheviot Hills. These red rocks 
contain few organic remains ; but here and there they yield scales 
of Holopty chius and other fishes, which suffice to define their 
