91 
how ever two atoms of hydrogen are replaced by the com- 
pound radical acetyl. Diacetyl-alizarine seems also to be a 
much less stable body than methyl-alizarine. 
Ethyl-alizarine may be prepared in the same way as the 
corresponding methyl compound, employing iodide of ethyl 
in place of iodide of methyl. The properties of the two 
substances are so nearly alike that they can hardly be dis- 
tinguished from one another. The composition of ethyl- 
alizarine is expressed by the formula CieH^O^ 
Specimens of the two substances were shown along with 
some specimens sent for exhibition by Mr. Perkin, including 
the new colouring matter lately discovered by him, anthra- 
purpurine, and samples of dyed calico showing the different 
effects produced by alizarine and anthrapurpurine. 
“ On the Transition from Roman to Arabic Numerals (so- 
called) in England,” by the Rev. Brooke Herford. 
One of the collateral points of interest with which the 
local historian has to occupy himself from time to time, is 
the determination of dates. When, now three years ago, I 
was busy with the re-editing of Baines’s History of Lanca- 
shire, left incomplete by the death of my old friend Mr. 
Harland, in verifying some notes about the village churches 
in Leyland Hundred, my attention was asked to a date on 
one of the beams of Eccleston church, wdiich had been an 
object of curiosity to many visitors, but which no one had 
ever been able to decipher. The inscription was as follows : 
anno Uni 
carved on the oak beam in an unusually clear, square 
character. For a long time I was unsuccessful in my 
attempts to decipher it. It was when I had got to the very 
last sheet of my work, and while examining some old M.SS. 
of the reign of Elizabeth, that I was one day particularly 
struck by the resemblance between the 5’s of the M.SS and 
