” 
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL SOCIETIES. 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAND. 
At the October meeting, Mr. W. E. Appleby and Dr. E. O. Marks were elected 
to ordinary membership of the Society. 
Professor H. C. Richards, D.Se., delivered a lecture entitled “The Hawaiian 
Islands.” The lecturer gave an account of the recent Pan-Pacific Scientific 
Conference at Honolulu, and made some remarks on the origin, structure, and 
character of the Hawaiian Islands. The lecture was illustrated by a large 
series of excellent lantern slides, a number of hand-coloured photographs of 
the active voleano of Kilauea, and specimens collected from the recent lava flows. 
THE MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY OF VICTORIA. 
The twelfth Annual General Meeting of the Society was held at the rooms 
on Monday evening, 27th September, 1920. During the year there were held 
eleyen general meetings, at which nine interesting papers were read; and excur- 
sions made to Cheltenham, Mont Albert, Ringwood, Fitzroy Gardens, Beaumaris, 
River Yarra, the Zoological and the Botanical Gardens. The Committee met 
eleven times during the year. The Hon. Treasurer pointed out that owing to 
‘the increase in the cost of printing, postage, and lift expenses, the financing 
of the Society’s activities has been difficult, but the Committee deems an 
increase in annual subscription undesirable. Therefore, it solicits members to 
endeavour to increase the membership list, and it desires to thank all those 
who have in various ways contributed their services to the Society. 
The President in his address referred to the tendency, as a result of the 
recent upheaval of nations, for science to be more helpfully linked with the 
economic side. At the same time it is necessary for those in authority to 
have a clear knowledge of the use of research and not to hamper the man of 
science with a prohibitive taxation on his correspondence and apparatus. 
The various fields of microscopic research open . to members was touched 
upon, the speaker referring to a want of workers in the domain of the microzoa, 
the smaller insects, and many other rather neglected subjects, some of which 
have never }een examined from the Australian stand-point. , 
Jn coneluding his remarks, Mr. Chapman gave a description of the principal 
forms of Guano and Phosphatic Rock from the microscopic point of view, a 
subject to which he has paid some special attention during the past few years, _ 
and illustrated his remarks by sketches of the chief types of structure on the 
blackboard. - 
ROYAL SOCIETY OF VICTORIA. 
At the October meeting, the following paper was read:—“ A Generalization 
of Elementary Geometry,” by D. K. Picken, M.A. : 
The subject of the paper was an outstanding defect of generality in elementary 
geometry, associated with the ambiguity “equal of supplementary” in certain 
fundamental angle theorems. he ‘appropriate principle of generality was first 
arrived at by the author of the paper, in a paper on “ Simson’s Line,” read to 
the Edinburgh Mathematical Society, in May, 1914. Subsequent consideration 
had made it clear that the principles in question are basic to the elementary 
geometry of the Straight Line, of Parallels, and of the Circle, and are of wide 
applicability in the geometrical theory dependent on these. ‘ 
A Lecture of “Giant Stars and Dwarf Stars,” was delivered by J. M. Bald- 
win, M.A., D.Sc., of which the following is an abstract:— . . 
“The amount of light received. from a star determines its apparent magni- 
tude (m), the ratio for two stars differing by one magnitude being 2.512. The 
absolute magnitude (M) is what the apparent magnitude would be if-the star 
were at the standard distanee of 10 parsecs, which corresponds to*a parallax 
of 0.1 inches. If 7 is the parallax of a star in seconds of arc— ~*~ 
M =m + 5 + 5 log =. 
In this equation, m is not difficult to measure, and hence if = 
mined the other can be found. 
Russell took all stars for which fairly accurate values of + were available, 
and from the above equation computed M. Then plotting M as ordinate, type 
of spectrum as abscissa, he found:— 
(1) All white stars are far brighter than the Sun. 
(2) Range of brightness increases with redness. 
(3) All faint stars are red. 
(4) All red stars are very bright or very faint. 
699 2 Z 
or M is deter- 
