cantos. This is a remarkable foreshadowing of the spiritualistic communications of more recent years. Two more

cantos subsequently were brought to light, and the subject terminated, and was forgotten for more than half a century.

An accidental circumstance recently brought to my knowledge the name of the author, who was a young gentleman from Dublin, named Brooke, and at that period filled a situation in the office of Messrs. Brown, Shipley and Co. He returned to Dublin, but of his subsequent career my informant had no knowledge. Since then I have obtained further information. Mr. Brooke went into the Church. He was for many years Chaplain of the Mariners' Church at Kingstown. He is still living, and is Rector of a parish in the South of England.

This little history is interesting in itself, but it will be felt to be much more so when I state that Mr. Brooke is the great grandson of the celebrated Henry Brooke, the author of the tragedy of the Earl of Essex, and of the Fool of Quality, which, in its abridged form of Henry, Earl of Moreland, has, perhaps, been the most popular novel ever written. It was highly praised and recommended by John Wesley, and, after going through many editions, was brought out in 1872, with a preface by Canon Kingsley. In the Dublin University Magazine, for 1842, will be found a memoir of Henry Brooke, by his descendant Richard, the poet of Liverpool. Mr. Brooke is also the father of a distinguished son, the Rev. Stopford Brooke, one of the Queen's Chaplains, a well-known author, and a distinguished member of the Broad Church School of English Theology. Several other members of the family are also known in the literary world, authorship having been indigenous in the family for several generations.

I thought a short notice of these incidents might not be unacceptable to the Literary and Philosophical Society.

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Dr. CAMPBELL BROWN then read a Paper on tricity compared with Heat as a source of motive power.'

THIRD ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, November 15th, 1875.

J. A. PICTON, F.S.A., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Ladies were present at this meeting.

Messrs. W. Bellis and E. L. Fleming, F.C.S., were elected ordinary members.

The Rev. H. H. HIGGINS exhibited a copy of the Primer, published in the reign of Henry VIII., and an original copy of the Book of Common Prayer, published by Edward VI., also an original copy of the Directory, published by authority of Parliament in the reign of Charles I.

The PRESIDENT exhibited a collection of the Fine Art volumes recently added to the Free Library. A lengthened conversation followed on the comparative merits of English and French typography.

Mr. G. H. MORTON, F.G.S., exhibited a series of fossil corals from the carboniferous limestone of North Wales. The specimens were all remarkably perfect, and some of the species are of very rare occurrence. He also showed some photographs, indicating the position in the strata where the specimens were found in several localities, but principally in the neighbourhood of Llangollen.

Mr. R. C. JOHNSON, F.R.A.S., gave an account of the November meteors, and showed their path in the sky by a diagram on the blackboard.

* See page 93.

Mr. T. J. MOORE exhibited the recently-mounted composite skeleton of the Elephant-footed Moa, Dinornis elephantopus, Owen, the bones of which were received from Capt. Hutton, Director of the Otago Museum, Dunedin, through the kind offices of Dr. Millen Coughtrey, Corresponding Member, early in the year, and a portion exhibited in their unmounted state, Nov. 16th, 1874. (See Proceedings, 1874-5, vol. xxix, p. xlvi.)

FOURTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, November 29th, 1875.

J. A. PICTON, F.S.A., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Ladies were present at the Meeting.

Messrs. D. E. Yates, J. H. Tetley, and W. Gardner were elected ordinary members.

Dr. Collingwood, one of the Honorary Members, and formerly Honorary Secretary to the Society, attended the Meeting.

Mr. LUTSCHAUNIG exhibited a small collection of aërolites and meteoric stones.

Mr. C. J. ENGLISH exhibited a horizontal section of one of the piles found among the remains of the Lake Dwellings near Rolle, on Lake Leman.

Mr. E. R. RUSSELL then read a Paper on "The True Macbeth."*

* See page 41.

FIFTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, December 13th, 1875.

J. A. PICTON, F.S.A., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Messrs. E. Harpin, Peter Cowell, Jas. Barnes, and Jos. B. Hutchinson, M.R.C.S., were unanimously elected ordinary members.

The PRESIDENT read a brief communication on "The House of Stanley, and the Origin of its Legend of the Eagle and Child."*

The Honorary Librarian read a Paper by Dr. Inman, “On a Means employed for Removing and Erecting Menhirs."+

SIXTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, January 10th, 1876.

J. A. PICTON, F.S.A., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Messrs. Alexander Reid and Geo. R. Rogerson, F.R.A.S., F.R.G.S., were duly elected ordinary members.

Mr. ALFRED MORGAN, Honorary Librarian, read "A Few Notes on the Khasi Hill Tribes, and the Geology of the Shillong Plateau.”‡

Mr. JOSEPH BOULT read a Paper called "Gleanings from the Early History of Liverpool." §

* See page 283.

+ See page 103.

See page 115. § See page 153.

SEVENTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, January 24th, 1876.

J. A. PICTON, F.S.A., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Ladies were invited to the Meeting.

Messrs. Lewis Hughes and Robinson Souttar were duly elected ordinary members.

Mr. CHANTRELL invited the co-operation of the Society in assisting the proposed exhibition of English and Foreign Scientific Apparatus to be held at the South Kensington Museum in the ensuing summer.

Mr. R. C. JOHNSON, F.R.A.S., exhibited the new instrument called the Radiometer. This beautiful apparatus was invented by Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S., about two years ago, when engaged on researches into the laws of radiation of light. The instrument now exhibited was constructed by Herr Geissler, the well-known maker of vacuum tubes, and was obtained from Mr. Browning, of London. It consists of four small vanes, attached by short axes to a central cup, which is delicately suspended on a steel point. The vanes are metallic, polished on one side, and covered with a deadblack substance on the other, and the whole is enclosed within a glass globe, from which almost all the air has been exhausted by means of the Sprengel pump, the exhaustion being carried on for twelve to eighteen hours, and in some cases for four days. When the radiometer is subjected to the action of light the vanes immediately rotate in one direction-i. e., the blackened vane moves from the light as if it were repelled. Sunlight or the electric light causes such rapid rotation that the vanes cannot be distinguished, while

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