REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
27 
quicksilver adjustment; the latter as yet only existing in theory. The 
writer thought the Campbell arrangement, owing to its simplicity and 
efficiency, was likely to win favour in the future. The paper was 
illustrated by diagrams and instruments. November 29th.—Mr. C. F. 
Beale exhibited bony plates from the sturgeon. Mr. H. Hawkes, 
Phragmidium mucronatum, P. bulbosum, vars. violaceum and rubi; P. 
obtusatum, P. gracile, and P. acuminatum; Mr. J. Madison, Zomtes 
draparnaldi and Limncca peregra, va. acuminata. Under the microscope 
Mr. Hawkes showed slides of Trichobasis suaveolens and Puccinia 
si/ngenesearum. Mr. J. W. Neville, specimens of C hale is minuta, from 
Turkey ; Mr. H. Insley, ovary of Loasa aurantiaca. December 6th.— 
Mr. P. T. Deakin showed specimens of Clausilia , Bulimus, &c., from 
Palestine. An exhibition by the lantern microscope was given by Mr. 
\V. Tylar, a large number of entomological and geological slides being 
shown. December 13th.—Mr. H. Insley showed a number of coal 
measure fossils, including a specimen of calamite with branches in 
situ. Mr. Mulliss exhibited some results of experiments in single and 
double staining vegetable tissues. A discussion on the fixing of the 
dyes closed the meeting. 
LEICESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
—Section D, Zoology and Botany. Chairman, F. T. Mott, F.R.G-.S.— 
Monthly meeting, Wednesday, December 15tli. Attendance seven 
(three ladies). The chairman introduced a discussion on the question 
“Is Bird-Song Music?” It had recently been asserted by the Rev. H. R. 
Haweis, and repeated by others, that there was no music in nature, 
and that the song of birds was not music. The answer to this question 
must of course depend upon the definition of the word “ music.” It was 
admitted that a musical tone depended upon the regularity and the 
rapidity of the air-waves. There could be no doubt that there were 
many musical tones in nature, including the notes of many birds. 
But it might be said that music consisted of musical tones arranged 
in musical phrases, and that bird-song was not so arranged. Surely, 
however, the phrases of the thrush, the blackbird, the nightingale, 
&c., were often musical in the truest sense. The programme for the 
ensuing quarter having been discussed and determined, the chairman 
read a short paper on “ Foreign Fruits available for acclimatisation in 
England,” describing the processes by which plants might be rendered 
hardy in climates to which they were not originally adapted, and 
pointing out nine valuable fruits on which it would certainly be worth 
while to try the experiment of gradual acclimatisation. 
PETERBOROUGH NATURAL HISTORY, SCIENTIFIC, 
AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—December 13th.—Opening 
of the Society’s Museum in the new premises, Minster Close. The 
Very Rev. the President occupied the chair, and was supported by the 
Mayor (H. P. Yates, Esq.) and Lieut.-Colonel Strong. The Dean in 
the course of his address said they were gathered on an historical site, 
the building having originally been a chapel founded in honour of 
Thomas a Beckett, by Abbot de Waterville, the same abbot who built 
the transept and central tower of the Norman cathedral, and completed 
by Prior Benedict, his successor; and full of zeal for the friend he had 
lost he brought with him certain precious relics, consisting of the 
shirt and surplice Thomas a Beckett had worn, and some of his blood 
gathered from the stones of Canterbury Cathedral; these the 
