Royal Society of South Australia.

At the usual monthly meeting of this Society, held on Tuesday evening, May 2, there was a good attendance of members, His Honor Chief Justice Way occupying the chair as President.

The Hon. Secretary announced a long list of donations to the library; also that the Waterworks Department had forwarded specimens of the strata gone through in the well-boring at the Waterworks Yard on the North-East Park Lands.

Mr. D. B. Adamson showed a very ingenious planetary map of the Southern Hemisphere, whereby the position or time of rising or setting of any indicated star or planet may be discovered almost instantaneously, and at any time of the day or night.

Professor R. Tate directed attention to a pseudo-morphid of quartz after calcite, forwarded by Mr. J. G. O. Tepper from Clarendon. The same gentleman had also forwarded a piece of fluor spar and a presumed fossil in slate from Field's River.

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Mr. S. Pollitzer mentioned that during an excursion to the neighbourhood of Field's River in search of the traces of the glacial period in this colony, some time ago discovered by Professor Tate, he had found a large block of granite, quite distinct from the prevailing geological character of the district; and Professor Tate stated, in reply, that Mr. Stirling Smeaton had also found traces of the same erratic character further north.

Dr. E. C. Stirling exhibited and explained Williams's Freezing Microtome, intended for making large sections of animal tissues for microscopical purposes by the medium of ice and gum solution. The instrument may be popularly described thus:—A cylindrical wooden box, about six inches diameter and six inches high, having a metal cylinder in the centre, is filled with equal parts of ice and salt. This is then covered with a glass lid, having in the centre a small round or square metal plate. On this plate the tissue to be operated upon is gummed after being saturated with highly concentrated gum solution. This metal plate comes into contact with the cylinder, passing through the middle of the ice and salt mixture, and the gum above is consequently frozen; but as it freezes in its natural state without undergoing crystallization, it enables the razor to cut the frozen tissue without fracturing it. The razor is mounted in a frame, regulated by set-screws, enabling the operator to shave off a section 1/600 of an inch in thickness, or even thinner. Dr. Stirling exhibited several large sections of animal tissues, mounted for microscopical purposes, as made by the use of this instrument, and remarked that one possessed an historical interest. He explained that when in England lately he made application to the Home Secretary for licence to try some experiments upon dumb animals, with a view to testing the virtues of ligatures made from the sinews from kangaroo-tails, which he believed to be far superior to those made of "cat-gut," so-called, because the latter, being made by a process of partial decomposition, were liable to melt away within twenty-four hours when used as a ligature around an artery, and thus occasion great danger to the patient; but the sinews from the kangaroo tails, being in a natural state, would last for many days, and in the meantime a proper closure of the artery would take place, and the ligature would in time be absorbed. The Home Secretary, in his wisdom, refused the application, and he was obliged to wait for an opportunity to try the experiment upon a human subject. This opportunity occurred, and proved to be eminently successful, though the patient died. The death, however, occurred through other causes, and the ligature was then examined, after a lapse of ten days, and it was found that the artery was properly closed, whilst the ligature was in process of absorption, as shown by the section of the artery now exhibited by him. Some discussion followed upon this, and in answer to questions, Dr. Stirling said he considered the sinews made ligatures far superior to any others known.

Professor Tate mentioned that whilst in the Northern Territory he had seen Mr, Foelsche, who had shown him the several plants used by the natives there medicinally, including the Sarcostemma australe, which, it had been stated, was used by the natives as a remedy for page 114 small-pox. As the disease supposed to be small-pox had not prevailed amongst the natives there since the occupation by the present white population, there were no means of ascertaining the reputed virtue of the plant, which extended as far south as the vicinity of Port Augusta, or even further, and during one period of water famine had supported horned cattle for some time by milky juice, when eaten by them.

The President asked if it was known when the last epidemic of supposed small-pox occurred in South Australia, and the Assistant Secretary stated that in the early part of 1839, when he arrived here, many of the natives were much pitted with marks, which they ascribed to a visitation just previous to the advent of the white men on these shores. Other speakers followed, and it was mentioned as a curious circumstance that the disease, which appeared to be so fatal to the aborigines, seemed never to have been communicated to the white settlers; but it was also pointed out that the epidemic in South Australia occurred before its settlement by Europeans, whilst that in the Northern Territory occurred after the abandonment of Port Essington, and before the advent at Port Darwin of the present settlers.

The Assistant Secretary mentioned that he had noticed great quantities of blood exuding through the skin and at the caudal extremities of some Port Jackson sharks which he had caught and carefully abstained from wounding in any manner. The body on the softer parts assumed a red blotched appearance, and the blood seemed to come out like a perspiration whilst the sharks were dying.

The Hon. Secretary stated that Mr. W. L. Wragge, one of the members, had received the gold medal of the Scottish Meteorological Society for a valuable series of observations taken during several months on Ben Nevis, Mr. Wragge taking the higher station, and Mrs. Wragge recording at the lower one at Fort Willian.

The paper upon "Diurnal Lepidoptera of Balhannah District," being almost purely technical, was taken as read, Professor Tate giving a brief résumé of its contents; and the same course was adopted with Mr. J. G. O. Tepper's paper upon "Some South Australian Lizards."