Genre:

Serial, Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

Zoology, Botany, Natural History, Societies

    Parody of the activities of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The president of the spoof association, Sir Guy Raffe, communicated a letter from Professor De Lenz on a 'skeleton of a male flea in the folds of a mummy-cloth'. The professor observed that the flea returned to life on exposure to the air, and bit him. Reports on a paper by Mr Slick of Slickville on the 'live oak', an American tree that grows so rapidly that it enabled the author's friend to quickly assemble a boat. The president argues that this tree is the same as that which allegedly 'grew from the horse of the Baron Munchausen', a sample of which the president possessed. Concludes with the report of the 'committee appointed to investigate whether female oysters have beards'.