248 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
James Heywood, F.R.S., Dr. Lankester, F.R.S., Rev. H. B. Tristram, and 
others, the speakers all agreeing in the importance of the movement, and 
expressing their satisfaction at the progress it had made in the hands of 
the writer of the Report. 
George D. Gibb, M.D., F.G.S. : “ On the Physiological Effects of Bromide 
of Ammonium.” The author felt justified, by his experiments, in saying 
that not the least important of its properties was its power of diminishing 
fat in the animal economy. He believed til at its action in the diminution 
of corpulence and its allied states would be ultimately found of more 
value than the Fucus vesicidosus (seaweed), or any other substance at 
present known. 
John Davy, M.D., F.R.S. : “ On the Scientific Cultivation of the Salmon 
Fisheries.” Dr. Davy showed how these fisheries had been neglected in 
this country, and pointed out the manner in which they should be 
improved. While in Ireland the annual value of salmon fisheries was 
£300,000, and in Scotland one single fishery, belonging to the Duke of 
Richmond, was valued at £12,000 ; the total value of the English and 
Welsh fisheries was only £10,000. Dr. Davy proceeded to describe the 
improvements made at Galway, by means of which, in ten years, the 
fishery had been rendered ten times as productive ; and 3,000 fish had 
been taken with the rod during the present season. The preservation of 
the stream during the breeding season, at a cost of £500, had chiefly led to 
this result, aided by the introduction of young artificially-bred salmon, 
into streams fitted for them, hut from which the fish had been previously 
excluded, owing to impediments preventing their access to the sea. These 
impediments had been removed by the construction of ladders ; by means 
of which, in Sligo, for example, a fall of forty feet had been rendered 
easily surmountable by the salmon, so that, by this means, a previously 
barren river had been made to yield, in one week of July last, 1,000 fish. 
Professor Kingsley and Professor Huxley commented upon the im- 
portance of this subject, and remarked that there was no reason why 
salmon should not be the abundant fish and the valuable article of diet 
to the lower classes that it had been in days gone by. 
Dr. Davy also read a paper “ On the Vitality of Fishes,” which our 
limited space prevents us from reporting. 
Gilbert Child, M.D. : “ On Marriages of Consanguinity.” Dis- 
trusting the ordinary statistical mode of examining the question, he 
believed that experiments on the lower animals were conclusive in proving 
that degeneracy did not result from in-and-in breeding. He held that 
there is positive evidence, from the results of recorded observations upon 
animals, that no such law affects them ; that is, that where other causes of 
degeneracy are absent, any degree of close breeding may exist, without 
producing ill effects ; and he argued, that unless we are prepared to believe 
in two distinct physiologies, the same must be true of the human race. 
The President, Dr. Paget, opposed these conclusions, as being contrary 
to fact ; and denied that the comparison between the lower animals and 
man in this respect held good. 
Dr. Gray, F.R.S. : “ On the Change of the Form of the Head of Croco- 
diles, and on the Crocodiles of India and Africa.” Confusion has arisen 
