Vlll PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
“ Caught ’mid some mother work, 
Torn by a hunter Turk, 
Just for your hat! 
Plenty of mother hearts yet in the world : 
All the more wings to tear, carefully twirled— 
Women want that! 
“Oh, but the shame of it, 
Oh, but the blame of it, 
Price of a hat! 
Just for a jauntiness brightening the street ! 
This is your halo, O faces so sweet— 
Death : and for that! ” 
The other subject on which I wish to say a very few words, since 
it is one on which we, as members of a scientific society, should not 
be altogether silent, is that very much debated matter, that quaestio 
vexata—i\\o. water supply of Perth. 
With regard to the amount of the supply we have at present 
nothing to say, although we have not always been silent on that 
point: nor have we any concern with the engineering aspects of the 
subject. But since it would appear, from the discussions on the 
matter that have been reported, that various schemes for extending 
the supply have been, and I suppose still are, under consideration, 
the quality of the liquid supplied, or to be supplied, ought to have 
our attention. It seems to be true that the supply from the present 
filter-bed is, so far as chemical analysis goes, all that it should be. 
But is chemical analysis a sufficient guarantee that water, drawn from 
a source which is contaminated by sewage, will be always innocuous? 
Is any filter-bed, however good, impenetrable by the almost infinitely 
minute specific germs which produce disease ? These are questions 
which deserve very serious consideration, and to which satisfactory 
answers can be given only by scientific experts. For my own part I 
believe that there is more than a sentimental (as I think I have seen 
it termed) reason for deprecating the derival of the water supply of 
Perth from that portion of the river which is frequently nothing else 
than dilute sewage. 
Dr. Buchanan White gave his Report as Delegate to the Meet¬ 
ings of the East of Scotland Union of Naturalists’ Societies, held at 
Aberdeen in August, 1886. 
The following paper was read :— 
“ Mnium riparium in Scotland.” By R. H. Meldrum. (See 
Trans., Vol. I., p. 15.) 
2nd December, 1886. 
John Thomas, Esq., Sheriff-Clerk, in the Chair. 
Miss Millicent Thomas, George A. Miller, W.S., William Cormack, 
M.A., and R. Clough, were elected Ordinary Members. 
