104 
formed by the riveting of the sheets of copper together and 
also between the plates and the rivets, so that when the 
boiler was washed and heated with a solution of carbonate 
of soda, it could not enter into the crevices to neutralize the 
acid during the few hours the soda solution was heated, but 
which under the subsequent prolonged action of the hot 
water gradually dyalized out bringing the copper with it. 
1 called one day at the chapel, and found them using the 
hot water from this boiler for washing dishes, so that fresh 
quantities of pure water were being added as the hot water 
was drawn off. I took another sample of it, and on 
analysis I found it to contain S'57o gTains of metallic 
copper to the gallon, equal to 14’056 grains of crystallised 
sulphate of copper. I consider it well that results such as 
these should be generally known, as I understand that 
boilers of this kind are often employed for culinary pur- 
poses, and through ignorance of the above facts serious 
results might accrue. 
Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, F.B.S., exhibited a collec- 
tion of articles of the Neolithic and Bronze ages from the 
pile dwellings in the Lake of Bienne, lately presented to 
the Manchester Museum, Owens College, by Joseph Thomp- 
son, Esq. He called attention to the fact that the neolithic 
peoples were the first herdsmen and farmers of whom we 
have any trace, and stated that to them we owe the intro- 
duction into Europe of domestic animals and of cultivated 
cereals. They were also the first weavers and gardeners. 
From the southern character of some of the domestic ani- 
mals such as Sus palustris, and of some of the vegetables 
such as the Egyptian wheat and Silene Cretica, it may be 
inferred that they came from the south, probably from the 
south-east, from the warmer regions of Central Asia. 
With regard to the Bronze age it is a disputed question 
as to whether the knowledge of bronze was spread by 
