PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 24, 8 July 1871, Page 4

PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

A general meeting of this society was held at the Colonial Museum on Saturday evening last, the President (W. T. L. Travers, Esq), in the chair. About 45 persons were present. The minutes of the last meeting having been read by the Secretary (Mr "5\ M. Ollivier) the President delivered an unusually interesting and able address, treating of the transactions of the society in the past, and of its prospects in the future —a few appropriate and wellchosen remarks on the death of the late Mr Davis, the visit of Mr Buller to England, and the subject of acclimatisation, forming pleasing and entertaining parts of the discourse. The following new names were enrolled on the list of membership :—Messrs H. E. Tuckey, Montagu Mosely, J. M. Buller, F. A. Cooper, C. Hulke, and Captain Hutton. The papers read were as follows :—Some remarks by L. Stowe, Esq, on a new shell, which had been discovered on some rocks outside Nelson harbor, and which he had designated Imperator Davisii, the late Mr Davis having discovered a shell of similar character ; a description by Mr Buchanan, of the Colonial Museum, of new plants from the alpine or sub-alpine districts in the province of Nelson, accompanied by artistically executed drawings of some new ferns which had been properly designated and classified by that gentleman. Dr Knox read a paper containing some observations on the anatomy of the New Zealand rat compared with that of the Norway rat. For purposes of comparison and illustration, the doctor exhibited carefully prepared specimens of the skin and skeleton of each. Some interesting facts and a fund of amusement were elicited during the course of the subsequent remarks by members upon the data furnished by the author of the paper. Some doubt existed as to whether the black rat was indigenous to New Zealand. Mr Mantell observed that he was not at all sure that the specimen of the black rat exhibited by Dr Knox was indigenous to New Zealand ; that was a question that would have to be fought by Dr Knox holding out to home anatomists his " weapon" (the New Zealand black rat) to which they would have to hold out their " weapon" (the English black rat)— however, he was nearly positive that a rat indigenous to New Zealand had existed, and he thought he would be able to produce a specimen at their neit meeting. Mr Travers endeavored to throw some light upon the question of indigenosity, by relating an anecdote, on the authority of Sir George O-rey, who stated that in a very early stage of the colony a large native canoe from the South Sea Islands had arrived at New Zealand with a cage containing seme rats, labelled " edible live rats." One fact was generally admitted to be indisputable, namely, that the brown rat proved himself in all parts of the world' to be a match, or more than a match, for the black rat. Mr Travers instanced the case of Whitbread's brewery, where tfie brown rat successfully resisted all attempts at invasion. Also, that in Messrs M'Meckan, Blackwood & Co's'steamboats the black rat and the Norway rat always occupy separate sections of the boats, a community of interest being discouraged by both sides. Captain Hutton observed that he generally detected the difference of species by the vertebrae, the length of the tail being very much longer in some than in others,andtothisDrKnoxanswered Capt. Hutton and closed the discussion by saying that he did not think the length of the tail could have any weight in the argument, because Shakespeare mentioned a rat that had no tail at all. Mr Travers read a letter from Mr Hart, a passenger by the Nevada, on oceanic currents, particularly with reference to the direction of the currents to the northward of New Zealand, mentioning that piles had drifted from New Zealand to the Chatham Islands, which could be recognised as New Zealand timber by their being shaped and squared. Mr Hart suggested that ships leaving our ports should throw overboard bottles, properly sealed, stating longitude and latitude where this had been done, with directions in English, French, and Spanish, to forward them, if found, to the Colonial Secretary of any of the colonies. An interesting discussion ensued, Dr Hector read a paper prepared by Dr Skey on the bitter poisonous properties of the karaka nut. _ The latter gentleman had made the investigation in order to discover what its poisonous properties were, for the purpose of being able to render more easy the curative process to be adopted in the cases of poisoning by the karaka nut. Mr Colenso, of Napier, had rendered some assistance in the matter, and had communicated to the natives and others the mode of cure. That gentleman mentioned a curious method adopted by some of the natives of his district to counteract the poisonous effect of nut poisoning, the patient being buried up to his neck in the earth, which was fitted in tightly all round him, so that the cramps could not double up his limbs. There were some other papers to be read, but as it was evident that there was not sufficient time at the disposal of the meeting, their reading was postponed. Amongst the list of collections presented to die Museum was a most interesting fragment of a moa, which had been recently discovered at Otago, and had been forwarded to the Museum for inspection only. One portion was in a fine state of preservation, even the' feathers remaining on the bones, and the integument, &c, being sufficiently preserved to retain more or less the exact form and size of the animal, while the other portions were somewhat decayed. Dr Hector said he could offer no reason why one side of the animal was in such a good state of preservation and the other destroyed. The hypothesis, he thought, was that the one part of the substance had been converted into a kind of adipocere, while the other had been subjected to the action of the wind and the weather. The exact locality of the discovery had not been determined, as it was brought in by a digger who could not

distinctly state where the particular spot was. It was interesting to know that the moa had lived down to such a recent time as the specimen before the meeting definitely proyed to be the case. Dr Hector next called the attention of the meeting to some casts of eggs of the moa-like bird of Madagascar, compared with which the cast of the egg discovered afc the Kaikoras by Mr Fyfe looked quite small, in reference to the original of which there was a report that the egg had been found placed in the hands of a Maori who had been buried in a sitting nosture in a cave, but this was not tne case, as the egg was found in alluvial soil when digging a well. Mr Buchanan, of the Museum, went to the Kaikoras, and on interrogating Mr Fyfe he found that the original report was incorrect. Dr. Hector said he mentioned this matter because he had observed that Dr. Haast, in a recent ad dress to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, had repeated the rumor. In connection with the subject of moas, Dr. Hector called attention to some lithographs of foot-prints of the moa recently discovered, some of them being found in the neighborhood of Hawke's Bay, and some in the district where the Maori House in which they were at present met was originally built. The footprints were found in an old soft and incoherent sandstone, and were well defined. An addition had been made to the Museum by Mr Buller, in the shape of a collection of birds, numbering 125 specimens, which were to form the collection on which Mr Buller's work on New Zealand ornithology will be founded. Several new and interesting birds had been added to the collection by Captain Hutton. Dr. Hector called attention to two specimens of the kokako, one found in the North Island, the other in the South Island. These birds were wattled, which in some was of a bright orange color, while others were of a deep blue. He had kept two of them in a cage, and he found that the wattle changed color, in one case the lobes disappearing altogether, so that the birds appeared to have no wattle at all, but this singular fact he discovered to be due to the difference of sex. Another interesting addition were specimens of zinc blende and galena discovered in the Perseverance claim at Collingwood, Nelson. Capt. Hutton said he had made five or six additions to the list of birds since the last meeting—one bittern, another small ptern, a sea swallow caught by Sir David Monro near Nelson, also another specimen of the sandpiper; the latter two were to be sent to England. A curious fact he had to mention was that Dr Finsch, of Bremen, had stated, so recently as twelve months ago, that three new varieties of birds would be found in New Zealand, and two of them had already been discovered. Captain Hutton also exhibited a rich specimen of gold from the Thames, and stated that he had seen specimens there about Ift by Bin, the .greater part of which was gold. The specimen of zinc he pronounced to.be similar to that found in Scotland and Devonshire, and also that another specimen exhibited was much like mallite, a mineral which was exceedingly rare. With reference to the moa eggs which he had discovered in 1852, Mr Mantell stated that he had written home for them, and it always happened that when he wanted them they were not to be found, and when they were found his friends always wrote to ask if he wanted them, and by the time he wrote back to say " Yes" they were not to be found again. However, if they did come, he would place them in the Museum. Some of the eggs he had presented to the British Museum, and some to Yale College. Mr Mantell explained that he had discovered these eggs in what were called Maori ovens, or as he preferred to call them, pre-historie man ovens, and were mixed up among bones, stones, &c. The meeting broke up at a quarter-past ten o'clock.