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Abstract

The opening meeting of the 1888 session of the Royal Society of
Tasmania took place on Monday evening, April 23rd, and was held in
the upper room of the new wing recently added to the Museum, which is
intended to be ultimately used as a temporary picture gallery, but was
made use of last night for the special purpose of permitting some technical
subjects to be dealt with by the aid of some large apparatus for illustration.
A large number of Fellows, and an unusually large number of
visitors were present, including Sir Thomas Brady, the Inspector of
Fisheries for Ireland, who accompanied Sir Robert and Lady Hamilton
and a party from Government House.
His Excellency the Governor, who took the chair as President of the
Society. There was no matter which the Royal
Society took up last year which was of greater interest than the
introduction of a new supply of salmon ova under the superintendence
of Sir Thomas Brady. Sir Thomas spoke on the introduction of salmon. The paper was listened to with marked attention and frequently
applauded, and at its conclusion Sir Thomas said no scientist would
consider or talk of the fish we have in Tasmania in any other way but
as a salmon. He remembered three or four years ago Mr. Seager sent
him three fish which after writing his own opinion of, he submitted to
an eminent member of the Royal Society of Dublin, an icthyologist and
a well-known scientist, who was not aware of his opinion and wrote one
that exactly coincided with it. It was that one fish was a true salmon,
one was not, and there was a doubt about the third.
Includes table of daily observations as to temperature made on the voyage – March and April 1888, of Salmon ova to Tasmania aboard the SS Kiakoura.
Mr. Robert Henry then gave a short explanation of submarine
mining, illustrated by apparatus and illustrations of the working of
electro-contact mines as used for the protection of our harbour. Mr. W.
F. Ward, the Government analysist, followed with some simple but
interesting and rapidly performed experiments with the air pump, to
illustrate the elasticity of gases and modern theories deduced from such
phenomena.
In the lower room there was a display of exhibits, a collection of photographs,
a lithographic press, and an oxy-hydrogen microscope.
Great interest was manifested in Mr. Perrin's exhibits, especially in the
proposed design for the timber trophy in the Melbourne Exhibition. The
photographs represent the work of an eight months old association—The
Tasmanian Photographic and Art Association—and are worthy specimens
of this beautiful art.
The oxy-hydrogen microscope was also demonstrated by Mr. Echlin,
assisted by Mr. A. L. Butler. This instrument is probably the only one
of its kind in the colonies, patented by Newton, London. It will project
the smallest microscopic object on the screen eight feet in diameter or at
will the image can be deflected on the table, rendering it applicable either
for copying the object with pencil or photograph ; with the latter an
exposure of a fraction of a second will suffice.

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Royal Society of Tasmania
Keywords:	Royal Society of Tasmania, Van Diemens Land, VDL, Hobart Town, natural sciences, proceedings, records
Journal or Publication Title:	Papers & Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania
Collections:	Royal Society Collection > Papers & Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania
Additional Information:	In 1843 the Horticultural and Botanical Society of Van Diemen's Land was founded and became the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land for Horticulture, Botany, and the Advancement of Science in 1844. In 1855 its name changed to Royal Society of Tasmania for Horticulture, Botany, and the Advancement of Science. In 1911 the name was shortened to Royal Society of Tasmania.
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