it, it may may be considered whether common ground and common occasions may not be found. Our libraries and museums, our galleries and schools of art, seem to afford the means and the occasion in many ways if we are willing to address ourselves to the task. More frequent and more friendly intercourse is what we want. Already tentative things have been done. The meetings in connection with the Church Congresses, and that in London on the subject of the working classes and religious institutions, have been, very faint indeed, but perhaps real, shadows of things coming. Such movements as the United Kingdom Alliance, setting aside our opinions of the policy advocated, are valuable, for accustoming people widely separated in society to act together. And perhaps one of the best gatherings of this kind has been the recent Conference on Co-operation in Manchester, both because of its composition, and because of its topic. To keep all ground common that is already properly so- as for instance church ground; to enlarge such as admits of enlargement, and to devise new ways of common intercourse, and new paths of common action in view of new conditions; these seem to be in brief the tasks of the time which the isolating influence of town changes suggest to us.

The isolation of classes is not the only effect of modern town conditions. Those whose tastes and objects are already common, meet and act only with increasing difficulty. Voices we should be glad frequently to hear, grown hoarse with busy care by day, are lost among suburban echoes at night. As the radius enlarges, and the scattering grows, the centre is more and more distant. If we are to come to a circumference of city-villages, each with its small life and its coteries, let us hope the time is distant. The centripetal force has not yet lost its potency. In the converse of congenial minds, the contemplation of ennobling objects, the discourse of profound or graceful

themes, those who will may yet find both luxury and strength; in united conflict with things evil, learn skill to meet them alone; in the independent yet modest exercise of thought, nourish that desire to learn which best qualifies to teach; in the diligent use of social conditions as they are, prepare to meet well and wisely any new conditions which may arise.

"As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man the countenance of his friend." Thus may we aid the race as it is, and assist to forge

66 a closer link

Betwixt us and the crowning race
Of those that, eye to eye, shall look

On knowledge; under whose command
Is Earth and Earth's, and in their hand
Is Nature, like an open book."

FIFTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, 16th December, 1867.

The Rev. C. D. GINSBURG, LL.D., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

The Rev. Andrew Wilson, B.A., was unanimously elected an Ordinary Member.

Mr. Moore exhibited a portion of the collection of natural history specimens from the Island of Madagascar, collected there, and bequeathed to the Derby Museum, by Mr. William Tyrer Gerrard, who was born at Knowsley, and died, aged 35, at Foullpoint, Madagascar, in July, 1866, from yellow fever.

The Rev. J. Holding, F.R.G.S., (several years resident missionary at Madagascar, and introduced to the meeting by Mr. Moore,) then read a lengthened notice of Mr. Gerrard's efforts in the cause of natural history, from the time of his arrival in the Island to his death and burial at Foullpoint, giving many graphic details of the difficulties Mr. Gerrard had to contend with, and of his ardent zeal in the service of science.

The Paper by Mr. John Newton, M.R.C.S., "On Fire as an Agent of Civilisation, and the various modes of obtaining it," which was read at this meeting, will be given in a subsequent part of the Volume, unavoidable circumstances necessitating this arrangement.

F

SIXTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, 13th January, 1868.

J. BIRKBECK NEVINS, M.D., VICE-PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

The Rev. W. A. Whitworth, B.A., and Mr. C. H. Stearn, were unanimously elected Ordinary Members.

The Hon. Secretary read a letter from Dr. Baker Edwards, of Montreal, late one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society, in acknowledgment of the address presented to him by the Society, and expressing his hearty thanks for their expression of good will, which he valued most highly and very cordially reciprocated.

Mr. Moore then exhibited a living specimen of the Proteus anguinus, which he said was an object of very considerable interest. They were indebted for it to Mr. John Dove, who was then present, and who brought it himself from the celebrated grotto of Adelsberg, in Carinthia, on the road from Vienna to Trieste. Although these creatures had been long known, they were rarely seen; they resembled an eel with legs, so much were their bodies elongated. They were quite blind; at any rate the eyes were extremely small, and covered by the skin, through which they were with difficulty discerned as round back spots. The powers of the sight must therefore be very small, if they existed at all.

A singular circumstance was that although this specimen had only been exposed to the ordinary light of the room, the

black spots indicating the position of the eye had become more visible than when Mr. Dove first obtained it; it was a subterranean specimen, and the skin was of a white or flesh colour. Mr. Dove stated the animal was more lively by night than by day.

Mr. Moore then showed two little creatures which Mr. Dove obtained from the same cave. They looked very like ants, but were supposed to be beetles. He thought they were greatly indebted to Mr. Dove for his kindness in bringing these specimens for their inspection.

Mr. Moore next exhibited a group of fossils (Andrias, Schenchzen, Tscudi), of the order of the miocene tertiary, from Eningen, Switzerland, the original of which is to be found in the British Museum. About a century since it was thought that this fossil was a human skeleton, but Cuvier had proved that it was an amphibious reptile, belonging to the group already mentioned.

The following Paper was then read: