Doncaster Scientific Society

Annual Meeting 1908

The Annual meeting of the Doncaster Scientific Society was held in the Science Room in the Guild Hall Yard on Wednesday, Mr. G. H. Greenslade presiding, and there being a small attendance.

Report

Dr. Corbett, the hon. Secretary and treasurer, read the report, of which the following is a complete reproduction, with the exception of a few paragraphs towards the end.

“Your Committee in presenting this report, regret that they cannot give quite so satisfactory an account of the proceedings of your society, as had been the case for some years past. For while the summer excursions have been better attended than usual, & this despite the very bad weather that characterized last summer, & also while a large amount of individual work in various sections has been done by several members of the society; there has been a very marked decrease in the attendance at meetings held during the winter session.

Various causes have been suggested for this, & probably the main one has been the changes of venue from the County Court Room to the New Science Room. The latter having proved both physically & mentally chilling.

The Summer Excursions were 10 in number including evening rambles.

The first, on Thursday evening May 16th was from the Race Course, through Sandal Beat, up the new line to Hagg Wood & from Sandal Brickfield home.
18 persons took part in the ramble, viz. 8 officers, 6 members & 4 visitors.
The chief object of interest noted en route were,
Caram carvi on the site of the old pond near Sandal Beat.
Marasmius oreades in great abundance in the field beyond the wood
Nemsia reticulata at rest under a piece of dead wood in Hagg Wood
Stentis niger which was found in great numbers at Sandal Brickfield.

The second excursion on Whit Monday, May 20th, was through Cusworth to Melton Wood, Hangman Stones, Hickleton & Marr.
19 persons were present, viz. 7 officers, 3 members & 9 visitors
The entomologist & botanists had hoped for a good day in Melton Wood, but the bitter cold weather, & the devotion of the wood entirely to pheasant breeding were both found minimal to their prospects.
The only good insect seen being Nitidula rufipes, & the chief botanical object was Morchella esculenta which was very fine & common.

The third excursion on Thursday May 30th was to Frodingham for the breeding place of the Brown Headed Gull.
16 persons were present, 7 officers, 3 members & 6 visitors.
This was undoubtedly the most enjoyable outing of the season, especially to bird lovers. The Gull ponds are a veritable paradise to the ornithologist, & nests, eggs or young of the following species were noted, & in many cases, photographed.
Wheatear, Mallard, Shelduck, Shoveller, Teal, Pochard, & Brown Headed Gull, the latter in hundreds.
Microscopists also found very good material in the sandy pools on the moor, where Volvox & many other organisms were gathered.

The fourth excursion from Carcroft through Burgwallis, Campsall, & Askern was attended by 27 persons, viz. 8 officers, 6 members, & 3 visitors.
Mr. Grace conducted his geological class & showed them the Upper & Lower Magnesian Limestone.
The Askern gravels & the Old Lake bed in Rushy(?) Moor with its numerous sub-fossil shells.
The chief botanical feature was the abundance of Hottonia palustris in ditches at Campsall.

The fifth excursion to Brodsworth & Hampole was attended by 12 persons, viz. 6 officers, 3 members & 3 visitors.
Mr. Bunting had made arrangements to conduct a party over the colliery at Brodsworth; unfortunately, very few geologists were present.
The rest of the party walked from Hampole station through Hampole Wood, where much of botanical interest was seen, & through Brodsworth to Adwick le Street.

The sixth excursion to Hatfield at which were present 11 persons, viz. 4 officers, 3 members, & 4 visitors, was spoilt by continuous heavy rain.

The seventh excursion, an evening ramble over the Golf Links at Rossington, was attended by 21 persons, viz. 7 officers, 10 members & 4 visitors.
To many, it was a revelation to find pure moorland country within 4 miles of Doncaster.
Numerous nests were found by the ornithologists, who were in strong force, but although several pairs of Nightjar were seen, no nests of this species were discovered.

The eight excursion on July 11th to Thorne with the Y.N.U., a full report of which has appeared in “The Naturalist”, was attended by8 officers & 3 members.

The ninth excursion, an evening ramble through Cusworth Park was attended by 14 persons, viz. 7 officers, 5 members, & 2 visitors.
Many interesting plants characteristic of the limestone soil were noted, & some good beetles were found in Polyporus & on Birch in the park, among them being
Hallomeues hameralis & Cis bidentatus, both new to the locality, & the former not recorded for Yorkshire

The tenth & last excursion on Saturday July 20th to Pontefract was attended by 9 persons, viz. 4 officers, 3 members, & 2 visitors.
The Castle was inspected, & the party ended an enjoyable day by returning to Doncaster via Goole!

The average attendance at excursions works out to 15.8, officers 5.8, members 4.5, visitors 4.7
The members present on Thursday averaged 13.0
Saturdays 15.6
Whit Monday 19
Evenings 17.6

Altogether 18 officers, 2 honorary & 22 ordinary members have taken part in one or more excursions, or a total of 42.

With regard to the Winter Session, as has been already stated, there has been a great falling off in the numbers present at the ordinary meetings. This cannot be attributed to the programme, which was varied enough to suit all tastes.

The lectures & essays have also been quite up to the standard of former years. Indeed, some of them were of exceptional excellence.

What the cause of the bad attendance here will engage the careful consideration of your committee & we will hope for better things next year.

The Annual Conversazione was attended by about 250 persons & was quite successful.

The Average attendance at Ordinary meetings for the last 3 years is as follows.
1905-6 is 46
1906-7 is 50
1907-8 is 35

There has been a slight decrease in the number of members since last year.
16 have from different causes left the society, 10 have joined, leaving a total membership of 157.

The treasurer wishes to call attention to the fact that 34 members still owe their subscriptions.

The work of the different sections of the society shows great activity in some branches & the reverse in others. On the whole, the report sent in by recorders are most encouraging & show much useful work. The geological section in particular is to be congratulated on possessing two such ardent workers a Messrs. Culpin & W. S. Bisat. Thanks to them much original work in the Paleontology of the local Coal Measures & Permian has been accomplished.

The following are the recorder’s reports.
Archaeology
During excavation for building in Silver Street, the old moat formerly surrounding Danum was opened & many fragments of Roman Pottery were found. Some of these were sufficiently complete to allow of restoration & are now in the museum.

Along with the pottery were found 2 human skeletons, apparently of young women. In the moat was also a horde of copper coins, mostly just ½ d of an early Geo III issue & some spurious coins among them.

Some very interesting relics of the Neolithic, Bronze & Roman periods have lately come within the Ken of your recorder, but their ultimate resting place is yet undecided.

Botany
We are sorry to say that for the second consecutive year, there is no report from this section.

Geology
Mr. Culpin reports good work done in the Coal Measures, as recorded in “The Industrialist” Feb. 08. The article from “The Naturalist” is appended to this report.

Mr. W. S Bisat reports
The past session has been marked by a great increase in our knowledge of the Permian & Carboniferous rocks in this district, mainly due to the colliery shafts that have been sunk at Brodsworth & Bentley. Specimens from the base of the Permian at Brodsworth Colliery have enabled us to verify most of the records for this district some 30 years ago by Mr. Kirkby, his specimens of Polyzoa from this locality being in an exceptionally beautiful state of preservation. Some of the beds towards the Permian base at Bentley colliery, contain a remarkably different fauna to that found elsewhere in the district, including Brachiopoda being exceptionally abundant, including, Trigonotreta, Productus, Camarophoria & Lingula, all of which, with the exception of Prodctus, of which, I obtained one specimen at Brodsworth colliery, are entirely new to the district.

In addition to this, fragments of plant & leaves & several other things probably new to this district occur in the Bentley beds. The colliery sinkings are greatly increasing our knowledge of particular horizons. For instance, the Permian base, of which our only previous knowledge was gained from what are very often extremely imperfect exposures, scattered in a roughly N & S strip from Edlington to Hampole.

Now we are beginning to know something of the beds of the same age further east. In addition the shafts furnished us with the thickness of the beds passed through with greater accuracy than it is possible to obtain otherwise.

During the coming summer, the excavation for cuttings on the line connecting Brodsworth colliery with the G.N.R. south of Adwick le Street, will afford a splendid opportunity for examining the different beds of the Upper Limestone from the top, down to the Middle Marls. The junction of the Limestone with the gravels, at the point where the Great North Road is crossed at Woodlands, will also probably repay careful watching.

Very few, if any, of the quarries in the neighbourhood have been carefully worked with a view to obtaining a correlation of the beds & a more precise knowledge of the succession of the strata. Whilst speaking of quarries I may mention that Miss Fawcett obtained a fine specimen of Bysso-arca from Ashfield, Conisbro’ last summer. This fossil has not, so far as I can learn, ever been found in the district before, & it has not been seen either at Brodsworth or Bentley. This shows that much may yet be done by examination of the exposures in quarries such as that at Ashfield to increase our knowledge of the strata & their contained fossils.

I trust that in the coming season, many of those who up to the present have taken a merely passing interest in local geology, will realise the scope that there is for actual work, & will beg, borrow, or steal a hammer & cuter, the marks of field geologists.

Microscopy – Mr. Stiles reports
In the early part of the session, on the occasion of the Y.N.U. visit to Thorne, one of your recorders on returning home called at Hatfield Brickpond, & had the satisfaction of gathering Volvox globator in great profusion from the pond in the village side of the Brickfield. Volvox was first found in that locality by the writer in company with Mr. & Mrs. J. M. Kirk on the occasion of the Y.N.U. meeting held at Hatfield about 16 or 18 years ago.

It is somewhat significant that on a recent visit paid to the same pond, Volvox was not found, but an allied organism – Ulvella – was present in great abundance. Volvox was also met with at Frodingham in one of the Sand Ponds, when this society visited the district last summer.

The Diatom work of the section has been confined to the examination of a gathering from Studley near Ripon, the result of which will shortly be published in “The Naturalist”. The gathering was noteworthy from the large number of species (over 60) present, some of which are believed to be new to the county.

More recently, attention has been directed to an infusorian parasitic found upon Dytiscus marginalis & D. punctulatus found by Mr. Corbett in ditches on Potteric Carr. The animal which is allied to Vorticella is known as Opercularia nutans. Mr. Corbett also furnished members of this section with Melicerta ringens which appeared in great numbers in his aquarium on leaves & roots of Apium inundatum from Finningley.

One of these was under observation through the binocular with a 1” objective for 2 consecutive hours. It was busy constructing pellets for the building of its tube from particles of floating matter present in the water & drawn into the mouth by the current caused by the movement of the cilia disposed on the edges of the fan like organs surrounding it. The particles in the mouth, as they increase in numbers, are kept in constant rotation until the pellet is sufficiently large & compact to be placed in position on the tube. When ready this was done instantaneously & with absolute precision; then there was no shifting about to get it in to position, the space was chosen & into it the pellet was placed in a fraction of a second, & the Rotifer went on with its work of pellet making without pausing.

For thirty-five minutes the animal was again watched during the manufacture of another pellet, but this time the result was disappointing, for instead of building with the pellet when formed, it was thrown out into the water. Evidently something was wrong with it. Again, the work of brick making was started & this time it was completed in 25 minutes, & deposited, not by the side of the other one in front of the tube, but further round the edge. As it was now early in the morning & the recorder had observed what he had never seen before, the microscope was packed away & the tiny builder left to its silent work.

Photography
The recorders furnished no report, but it may be noted that much useful work has been accomplished by aid of the camera in other sections particularly in the matter of Nature Photographs.

Physics – Although the recorders have not much that is new to report in this section, it may perhaps be noted that several members of the society have taken an increasing share in one or two branches which come under this head.

On various occasions during the Past session, figures have been furnished by Mr. Stiles & others, showing the monthly rainfall, & the contrasts with previous periods for the district. It is hoped that this information may be of use to members of the society generally, since there is frequently a direct connection between atmospheric conditions & phases of animal & vegetable life. It will, from time to time, note any local weather conditions that affect their work.

Physics & especially the cognate science of Chemistry, have had their place in the winter’s programme. & the subjects have found ready speakers in the subsequent discussions. It will be remembered, too, that these sciences showed up prominently at the recent conversazione, no less than five members of the society being prepared & helping in exhibits.

The balance sheet showed that the income for the year was £39 2s 7d. and that there was a balance in hand of £13 18s 10d. less £5 15s 11d due to treasure. [this is incorrect, see minute book]

The chairman regretted the small attendance, and commented upon the admirable general and sectional reports, He also said that the geological section had received much assistant from Mr. Bunting. He regretted the small attendance at their lectures, which, he said, were as good as many lectures he had heard before much larger audiences, and for which an admission fee was charged, in the Guild Hall. They were to have a visit from the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union in the coming year, and they would want every support they could obtain.

The report was unanimously adopted.

Election of Officers

Mr. M. H. Stiles proposed the election of Dr. Corbett as President for the ensuing year. He remarked that during the ensuing year they were to have a visit from the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. And it was essential that they should have as their President a thoroughly representative naturalist. They could not have a better representative than Dr. Corbett. (Applause)

Mr. Bunting seconded, and the resolution was unanimously adopted.

Dr. Corbett, replying, said he considered it a great honour to be elected president for that year. He was very pleased indeed to take the office, and would do his best to make the year a success.

Mr. R. Watson was unanimously elected hon. Sec. and treasurer, with Mrs. Corbett as assistant hon. Sec.

The Vice-presidents were elected as follows. Messrs. Culpin, Greenslade and Bisat.

Miss Cooke and Messrs. Golledge and Cuttriss were elected to the committee