Abstract
THE Royal Society's conversasione, held on the evening of June 10, was a very great success, and those who had the labour of bringing the various things together must have felt themselves amply rewarded by the great interest taken in them the by the Fellows and guests, both ladies and gentlemen, who attended. Among the objects exhibited we may note the following:—Geological map (unpublished) of Palestine Arabia Pietræa exhibited by Prof. Edward Hull, F.R.S.; original drawings of the skeletal, digestive, and vocal organs of birds, made in the years 1842–46, drawn and exhibited by Prof. W. K. Parker, F.R.S.; Sketches of eclipse of the moon, October 4, 1884, and a very beautiful series of sketches of the wonderful sunsets and after-glows, painted and exhibited by Mr. W. Ascroft; star-charting by photography (enlarged prints rom negatives made in 1883 and 1884), exhibited by Mr. A. A. Common, F. R. S.; electrical influence machine, exhibited by Mr. James Wimshurst; New microscope with novel fine adjustment and sub-stage arrangements, exhibited by Mr. Crouch; large Nicol prism polariscope, for projecting axes of crystals, &c., on the screen (improved form), exhibited by Messrs. Harvey and Peak; Tate's calculating machine, exhibited by the inventor. By means of this machine long operations in the fundamental rules of arithmetic can be performed with rapidity and unfailing accuracy. Eight figures can be multiplied by eight figures in about fifteen seconds. New forms of spectroscopes, exhibited by Mr. A. Hilger ; photographs of fractures of railway carriage and waggon axles, tested to destruction by Mr. Thos. Andrews, Wortley Iron Works, near Sheffield, exhibited by Mr, Andrews; three cases of living animals: (1) Examples of the Tuatera (Sphenodon pundatus) from New Zealand. This reptile is remarkable as deviating from all the lizards in its osseous structure, and is considered by Dr. Günther (Phil. Trans., 1867, p. 620) to constitute an order by itself—Rhynchocephalia. (2) Large bird-eating spider of the genus Mygate from Burmah—probably M. fasciata. (3) Butterflies and moths, showing the way in which living insects are exhibited in the Zoological Society's Insect House, exhibited by the Zoological Society of London. A series of microscopic sections of vegetable tissues, prepared and lent by Mr. J. E. Sunderland, of Hatherlow, near stockport, showing remarkable effects of double and triple anilin staining; a series of botanical microscopic preparations, mounted by Charles Vance Smith, of Carmarthen, being part of a series prepared by him to illustrate the text books of Julius Sachs and Otto Thomé, exhibited by Prof. Moseley, F.R.S. A series of slides with stained specimens of Tænia echinococcus of the dog, prepared and lent for the occasion by Dr. J. Davies Thomas, of Adelaide, Australia, in illustration of his paper on the artificial rearing of this parasite by feeding with human hydatids (to be read before the Royal Society, June 18); a slide showing the same species of tapeworm, reared by Mr. Edward Nettleship, F.R.C.S., by means of hydatids obtained from the lungs of a sheep (Proc. Roy. Soc., 1866). To compare with the above:—Specimens, in bottles, of Tænia serrata, T. margmata, and T. cænurs, &c., artificially reared by Dr. Cobbold, by feeding dogs with the scolices appropriate to each particular species. Also adult examples of Tania cucumerina and of T. canis lagopodis (T. litteraia), the latter from Iceland, prepared by Dr. Krabbe, Bothriocephalus dubius, and other species from the cat and dog, exhibited by Dr. Cobbold, F. R. S. Case of gems, including a great Indian diamond, the largest known opal, a series of cat's eyes, and allied mineralogical specimens, exhibited by Mr. Bryce Wright, F. R. G. S.; “Frith's Selenium Cells,” showing the alteration of resistance and photo-electric currents due to the action of light on selenium, exhibited by Prof. W. Grylls Adams, F.R.S; a sulphur cell, the electrical resistance of which, like that of selenium, is reduced by light, exhibited by Mr. Shelford Bidwell. The sulphur has been heated while m contact with silver, and therefore contains some sulphide of silver. The electrodes are of silver. The original integrating machine, invented by Mr. C. V. Boys; engine-power meter which has been developed from the same, exhibited by Mr. Boys.
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Notes . Nature 32, 158–162 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/032158a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/032158a0