bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
2. On the Motion of Free Solids through a Liquid
Authors: Thomson William
Published: June 2016

This paper commences with the following extract from the author's private journal, of date January 6, 1858:—

“Let be rectangular components of an impulsive force and an impulsive couple applied to a solid of invariable shape, with or without inertia of its own, in a perfect liquid, and let u, ν, ω, ѽ, ρ, σ, be the components of linear and angular velocity generated.
1. Notice of Exhibition of Vegetable Spirals
Authors: Dickson Alexander
Published: June 2016

Dr Dickson exhibited a number of specimens, chiefly Fir Cones and Cacti, illustrating the principal series of vegetable spirals. Almost all the cacti and many of the cones were from the Edinburgh Botanic Garden and the Museum of Economic Botany there. As the nomenclature of the cacti in the Edinburgh garden, as in many other botanic gardens, is in a state of considerable confusion, the specific names will not be referred to, and the generic ones, even, must in some cases be held as only approximately correct.
2. Note on some Anomalous Spectra
Authors: Talbot H. F.
Published: June 2016

A recent number of Poggendorff's “Annalen” contains a short but interesting paper by Christiansen, of Copenhagen, in which he states that a hollow prism filled with the alcoholic solution of fuchsine produces a highly anomalous spectrum, which, instead of proceeding regularly from the red to the violet like the ordinary solar spectrum, stops at a certain point, returns backward, then stops again and resumes a direct course to the end. This paper by Christiansen, kindly pointed out to me by Professor Tait, recalls to my memory an experiment which I formerly made more than thirty years ago, and which, with the permission of the Society, I will briefly describe, premising, however, that I write from memory, and without access at present to the original paper which I believe I have still preserved.
3. On the Fall of Rain at Carlisle and the neighbourhood
Authors: Barnes Thomas
Published: June 2016

In this communication, the author offers remarks on journals kept by Dr Carlyle, in the city of Carlisle, from 1757 to 1783 inclusive; by the Rev. Joseph Golding, at Aikbank, near Wigton, Cumberland, from 1792 to 1810 inclusive; and by himself at Bunkers Hill, two and a half miles west of Carlisle, which is situate 184 feet above the sea-level. The author gave tables showing the quantity of rain of each month and year included in these periods. From the averages, it appears that about twice as much rain falls in each of the latter months of the table as in the month of April; and about one-third less rain falls in the first six months of the year than in the last six months, and that April is the driest month of the year.
1. On the remarkable Annelida of the Channel Islands, &c
Authors: M'Intosh W. C.
Published: June 2016

The extraordinary richness of the littoral region and the deeper water surrounding Guernsey and Herm, as well as the marked southern character of many of the Annelidan types, formed, for instance, an excellent comparison with the ample series of specimens which the dredgings of Mr Jeffreys in the Shetland seas had lately brought before us; or, again, with the valuable collections procured during the expeditions of the “Porcupine,” in 1869 and 1870, the former chiefly from the Atlantic, the latter from the same region and the Mediterranean.
1. On the Homologies of the Vertebral Skeleton in Osseous Fishes and in Man
Authors: Macdonald
Published: June 2016

After a brief notice of the seven bi-vertebral segments of the cranium in man:—

1. The hypo-cranial, or the axis and atlas vertebræ, which is adopted as a key to the cranial segments;

2. Para-cranial, or occipital;

3. Wormi-epiotic parietal, or meta-cranial;

4. Sphenoidal, or meso-cranial;

5. Ethmo-frontal—pro-cranial;

6. Nasal, or apo-cranial.

7. Rhino-nasal.

Professor Macdonald gave a short outline of the osteology of the human cranium, in order to trace the homologous osteology of the osseous fishes, or ichthyia.
2. Scheme for the Conservation of Remarkable Boulders in Scotland, and for the indication of their Positions on Maps
Authors: Home D. Milne
Published: June 2016

Among many geological questions which wait solution, there is probably none more interesting or perplexing than the agency by which Boulders or “blocs erratiques,” as the French term them, have come to their present sites. I allude, of course, not to blocks lying at the foot of some mountain crag from which they have fallen by the decay or weathering of the overhanging rocks, but to blocks which have manifestly been transported great distances, after being detached from the rocks of which they originally formed part.
3. Note of a New Form of Armature and Break for a Magneto-Electric Machine
Authors: Ferguson R. M.
Published: June 2016

The magneto-electric machine, which I am about to describe, approximates in its general arrangements to Ladd's hand machine. In it Mr Ladd makes use of a compound Siemens' armature, consisting of two separate armatures placed in length, and revolving round the same axis, with their coils at right angles to each other. The armature revolves between the poles of an electro-magnet, of the description introduced by Mr Wilde. The electro-magnet, in the present instance, is made of a rectangular piece of boiler-plate, three-quarters of an inch in thickness, bent so as to form three sides at right angles to each other, as shown (in section) in fig. 1. The upright sides (P P' P) are nearly 9 inches high and 11 inches in length, and the top of the same length is 6 inches broad. Pieces of cast-iron (N and S) are put in the open end to form the poles of the magnet.
4. Mathematical Notes by Professor Tait - 1. On a Property of Self-Conjugate Linear and Vector Functions
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

In the course of an investigation connected with the free rotation of a rigid body I was led to the remark that, if ξ and η be two vectors related to one another so that

where φ is a self-conjugate linear and vector function, we have also

(so that the relation is reciprocal) provided which implies also the corresponding equation
6. On the Homological Relations of the Cœlenterata
Authors: Allman
Published: June 2016

In this communication an Actinozoon (Actinia) was compared with a Hydrozoon (Hydra), and the various Sub-orders of the Hydrozoa were compared with one another.

The author agreed with Agassiz in regarding the radiating chambers of an Actinia as the homologues of the radiating canals of a medusa, but he differed from him as to the true homologies of the differentiated stomach-sac of Actinia; for while Agassiz regards this as represented by the proboscis or hypostome of the Hydra inverted into its body cavity, Professor Allman maintains that it is impossible on this supposition to conceive of the structure of Actinia; and on comparing a Hydra with an Actinia, he imagines the tentacle to become connate for a greater or less extent with the sides of the hypostome and with one another, so that the hypostome of the hydra, while retaining its normal position, will thus become the stomach of the Actinia, and will at the same time become connected with the outer walls by a series of radiating lamellæ—the connate tentacle walls—separated from one another by radiating chambers, the cavities of the tentacles; while such portions of the tentacles of Hydra as still continue free will be represented by a single circle of the tentacles of Actinia.
3. On the Ultramundane Corpuscules of Le Sage
Authors: Thomson W.
Published: June 2016

Le Sage, born at Geneva in 1724, devoted the last sixty-three years of a life of eighty to the investigation of a mechanical theory of gravitation. The probable existence of a gravific mechanism is admitted and the importance of the object to which Le Sage devoted his life pointed out, by Newton and Rumford in the following statements:—

“It is inconceivable that inanimate brute matter should, without the mediation of something else, which is not material, operate upon, and affect other matter without mutual contact; as it must do, if gravitation, in the sense of Epicurus, be essential and “inherent in it.
4. Note on Spherical Harmonics
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

While engaged in some quaternion researches with reference to Spherical Harmonics, which I hope soon to lay before the Society, I was led to imagine that some of my results might produce a simplification of the ordinary modes of treating the subject. The following is the result of the attempt. It seems to make the calculus somewhat more intelligible to the beginner than the methods employed by O'Brien and Murphy, whose works on the subject are usually read in this country. As I am not writing a treatise, but merely sketching a method, I shall run over the principal elementary propositions only.
4. Note on Sprengel's Mercurial Air-Pump.
Authors: Dewar James
Published: June 2016

The ordinary Sprengel, requiring careful manipulation, and being apt to get out of order, has not yet become an essential piece of lecture apparatus as it ought to be. The author exhibited to the Society two modifications adapted to lecture illustration. In both instruments the mercury receptacle is made of iron, and instead of the india-rubber joint of the original, a well-ground iron stopcock is substituted, the portion of iron tube before the stopcock terminating in a Y-shaped piece bored out of the solid. In the one form the drop-tube is of glass, attached by means of marine glue; in the other, of carefully made india-rubber tube four or five millimetres in thickness, of a very small uniform bore, made expressly for the purpose by the Edinburgh Rubber Company.
2. On the Mean Monthly Rainfall of Scotland
Authors: Buchan Alexander
Published: June 2016

So far as regards the annual amounts of the rainfall of Scotland, deduced from observations made at 296 different places, the chief point brought out is the enormous difference between the rainfall of the west and that of the east; the stations along the west coast showing such figures as 40, 45, and 54 inches, as compared with 24, 27, and 30 inches at stations on the east coast, not situated in the immediate neighbourhood of hills. When it is considered that the source of the rainfall is the prevailing south-westerly winds, it is evident that the comparative dryness of such districts as the south shore of the Firth of Forth is due to high land lying to the south-west, which drains the winds of a large portion of their moisture in their passage across them.
5. On the Fruiting of the Ipecacuan Plant (Cephaelis Ipecacuanha, Rich.) in the Royal Botanic Garden
Authors: Balfour
Published: June 2016

The cultivation of the Ipecacuan plant in this country has received an impetus from the demand on the part of his Grace the Duke of Argyll, for a large supply of fresh plants for India. The object of the India office is to cultivate the plant extensively, and thus prevent the evils which might arise from scarcity of a drug which is so important in the treatment of dysentery. The risk of such an occurrence is due to the mode in which the plant is gathered in Brazil, and the want of care in preserving it. A similar fate threatens Ipecacuan as that which has occurred in the case of Cinchona.
2. On the Composition of the Flesh of the Salmon in the “Clean” and “Foul” condition
Authors: Christison Robert
Published: June 2016

Having had occasion lately to fill up some blanks in a table of the Nutritive Value of different kinds of Food, I was unable to find for the purpose an analysis of the flesh of the Salmon. I have therefore made such an analysis as is necessary; and as the results may be useful to others, I beg to offer them to the Society.

I first examined the composition of a very fine “Clean” fish, caught in the estuary of the Tay in May last year, and weighing 20 pounds. I have never seen a finer fish from that far-famed salmon-river.
3. On Recent Estimates of Solar Temperature
Authors: Dewar James
Published: June 2016

After referring to the recent discussion on the temperature of the sun, in which Secchi, Zollner, Vicare, Deville, and Ericsson have taken part, the author proceeds to group all the known methods of arriving at a knowledge of high temperatures under eight different processes.
2. Some Observations on the Dentition of the Narwhal (Monodon monoceros)
Authors: Turner
Published: June 2016

The author expressed his concurrence with those anatomists who hold that the two tusks of the narwhal are situated in sockets in the superior maxillary bones, and not, as was stated by the Cuviers, in the premaxillæ, or partly in the pre- and partly in the superior maxillæ. He then proceeded to relate some further observations on the dentition of the narwhal, and pointed out, both in the skull of a young male and in those of three well grown fœtuses, an elongated canal on each side of the upper jaw, parallel and inferior to the tusk socket, which had the appearance of a socket for a supplementary tooth, although none protruded from it. In the young male a minute denticle was seen at the bottom of this socket.
4. On the Maternal Sinus Vascular System of the Human Placenta
Authors: Turner
Published: June 2016

The author gave a brief sketch of the various theories which have been advanced by Velpeau, R. Lee, Braxton Hicks, the Hunters, Owen, Weber, J. Reid, J. Goodsir, Virchow, Kölliker, Van Der Kolk, Arthur Farre, and Ercolani regarding to the relations of the maternal blood-vessels to the placenta and chorionic villi. He then proceeded to state the results of his own observations on various specimens of placentæ, some of which had been separated at the full time, others prematurely, and on three specimens attached to the uterine wall.
4. On Some Quaternion Integrals. Part II
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

Commencing afresh with the fundamental integral

put

and we have

from which at once
5. On the Currents produced by Contact of Wires of the same Metal at different Temperatures
Authors: Durham W.
Published: June 2016

At the suggestion of Professor Tait, I undertook the investigation of the momentary thermo-electric current developed when two conductors or wires of the same metal are brought into contact, the one being at a different temperature from the other.

Platinum was chosen as the most suitable metal to experiment with, in the first instance, as it is free from the interfering action of oxidation at high temperatures.
3. On the Principles of the Logical Algebra; with Applications. Part I
Authors: Macfarlane Alexander
Published: June 2016

In this memoir I examine the principles of the logical calculus of Boole, as laid down in his celebrated treatise on the “Laws of Thought,” and also the criticisms which have been published concerning these principles. I bring forward a new theory of the operation of the mind, founded upon an analysis of language and the nature of mathematical reasoning, which enables me to correct these principles, to place them on a clear, rational, and generalised basis, and to show that there is a logical algebra which coincides with the ordinary algebra when its symbols are integral, but is a generalised form of the ordinary algebra when its symbols are fractional.
1. Notes on some Experiments with the Telephone
Authors: Blyth James
Published: June 2016

While experimenting with an ordinary Bell telephone, of small resistance, I found that it was able to reveal the existence of electric currents produced by the mere friction between conducting substances. This was shown in the following way. Two files had wires firmly connected to them, and were thereby attached to the terminals of a telephone circuit in a distant room. When these files were rubbed against each other, a most distinct grating noise was heard in the receiving telephone. In order to find if this sound varied, when different substances were rubbed together, the following plan was adopted. A wire was firmly attached to a small table-vice, and led to one of the terminals of the telephone circuit, while the wire from the other terminal was attached to a clamp into which any substance, which it was desired to test, could be screwed. Different substances were then screwed into the vice and clamp, and rubbed against each other by an assistant, in each case, as far as possible, with the same pressure. By listening attentively in the receiving telephone, I endeavoured to detect any variation in the sound as the assistant passed from one substance to another. As far as I could judge, little or no variation was produced when the following substances were rubbed on themselves and on each other, viz.: steel, brass, iron, zinc, lead, gas carbon, copper, with possibly the exception of copper on iron, which, I thought, gave the sound a little louder.
2. On the Measurement of Beknottedness
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

In my former papers on the subject of Knots, I have provisionally measured Beknottedness by the smallest number of changes of sign at the crossings, which will render all the crossings nugatory.

Though I have not seen occasion to doubt the accuracy of this mode of measurement, there are two objections to it—(I) It is very difficult of application in complex cases; (2) It suggests no direct relation to the electrodynamic method which, except in the case of knots wholly or partially amphicheiral, gives results quite in accordance with it.

The object of the present paper is to describe a method which, while at least partially meeting these objections, very considerably simplifies some of the more important processes for the treatment of knots, which I have already given.
4. Note on the Distribution of Temperature under the Ice in Linlithgow Loch
Authors: Buchanan J. Y.
Published: June 2016

The following observations of the temperature of the water at different depths below the ice covering Linlithgow Loch were made with one of Messrs Negretti & Zambra's “half-turn” self-registering thermometers, which proved to be a useful instrument for this species of inquiry. It was necessary, however, to fit it with a suitable inverting contrivance, as this part of the apparatus supplied by the makers is quite useless. The temperatures have received a provisional correction for error of graduation, and they may still have to receive a further, though certainly very slight, rectification, when a thorough comparison with a Kew standard has been made.
On the Principles of the Logical Algebra; with Applications. Part II
Authors: Macfarlane Alexander
Published: June 2016

The equation

x2 = x

expresses the condition that the symbol x be single and positive. The equation

x2 = −x

expresses the condition that the symbol x be single and negative. The principle of contradiction

x(1−x)=0

can be legitimately deduced with the help of the fundamental axioms of the science.
Remarks by the Vice-President, David Milne Home, LL.D., on delivering to Professor Heddle the Keith Prize
Authors: Home David Milne
Published: June 2016

The Keith Prize for the biennial period 1875–77, which has been awarded to Professor HEDDLE, for his papers on the “Rhombohedral Carbonates,” and on the “Felspars of Scotland,” originally communicated to the Society, and containing important discoveries, was presented by the President (Professor Kelland) with the following remarks:—

Professor Heddle,—I am here to-night to exemplify a remark which is often made, that to insure success in an address such as I am about to deliver, the best way is to commit the charge of it to one absolutely ignorant of the subject. No false pride will then stand in the way of the best sources of information, nor will any undue admixture of half knowledge clog and darken the truth. For every particular contained in these remarks, then, I at once unhesitatingly acknowledge myself indebted to Professor Geikie.
3. Exhibition of Specimens of Auriferous Quartz from the Leadhills District
Authors: Dudgeon Patrick
Published: June 2016

Mr Dudgeon exhibited some specimens of auriferous quartz from Wanlockhead and Leadhills districts.

was found in July 1878, by Thomas Tennant in Wingate burn, Leadhills; it is a very rich specimen, and is now placed in the collection of Scotch minerals in the Museum of Science and Art.

was found by Eleanor Handcock in April 1878, on the banks of the Wanlock water, Duntercleuch.
1. Heating and Ventilating of Churches and other Buildings: Report of a Series of Experiments made in a Hall in Upper Grove Place
Authors: Henderson Charles J.
Published: June 2016

Thermometers were placed throughout the hall, one on each of the four walls, 6 feet from the floor, the one on the south wall being a couple of feet below the inlet for the hot air. Three were placed along the centre of the roof, 2 feet or so under the roof. In the stove-chamber, first one and afterwards two stoves were placed, with double smoke-pipes before entering the chimney.
1. Professor Geddes's Theory of the “Iliad.”
Authors: Blackie
Published: June 2016

Professor Blackie, after paying a high compliment to the erudition, ingenuity, and fine taste of the Aberdeen Hellenist, proceeded to give reasons why, in his opinion, the theory now broached, to the effect that certain books of the “Iliad” were composed by the author of the “Odyssey,” which author is to be considered as the real Homer, though not destitute of a certain plausibility, is untenable. The reasons were—(1.) The character of the minstrel as distinguished from the literary epos warrants the presumption that any small diversity in certain secondary characteristics of different sections of the poem, as we now have it, is a legitimate proof, not of diversity of authorship, but only of diversity of materials collected from different sources. (2.) The manner in which the minstrel epos was originally circulated, not as a separate literary composition to be read and studied, but as a sequence of easily separable cantos to be handed about and sung separately, rendered it, even when wrought into a finished artistic whole by the genius of a great singer, peculiarly liable to interpolations and variations of various kinds, which form no legitimate ground of induction with regard to the character or attitude of the original composer.
2. Fifth Report of the Boulder Committee
Authors: Home D. Milne
Published: June 2016

The Committee had submitted to them Notes by the Convener of two visits to the West Highlands (including the Outer Hebrides) which he had made during the summer and autumn of 1878. These Notes, accompanied by diagrams of boulders and striated rocks, afford a large amount of information bearing on the subject of boulder transport, the direction of transport, and the agent of transport.

There has also been laid before the Committee a report by William Jolly, of Inverness, one of its members, “On the Transportation of Rocks found on the Shores of the Moray Firth;” as also Notes by Messrs Somervail and Henderson (Edinburgh), “On Boulders and Striated Rocks in the Pentland Hills.”
4. Quaternion Investigations connected with Minding's Theorem
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

Minding's Theorem deals with what may be called by analogy the “focal lines,” of the system of single resultants of a set of given forces, applied at given points to a rigid body, when these forces are turned about so as to preserve unchanged their inclinations to one another.

Having obtained an exceedingly simple proof of the theorem by quaternions, I next tried to find the locus of the foot of the perpendicular let fall on each of these resultants from the “centre of the plane of centres.” The resulting equation is very complex:— but if we extend the data so as to include every position of the central axis (whether there is a couple or no), we arrive at a very simple, and at the same time singular, result.
1. The Pituri Poison of Australia
Authors: Fraser Thomas R.
Published: June 2016

An opportunity for examining the Pituri of Australia was afforded to the author by Dr Bancroft of Brisbane, who, in 1877, gave him for that purpose specimens of dry broken leaves of the plant, in the form in which it is used by the natives, and also a small quantity of watery extract.

After describing its use by the natives of Australia, the author advanced reasons in support of Von Mueller's opinion, that Pituri is obtained from Duboisia Hopwoodii, and that this plant should be placed in the Solanaceæ.
3. Note on the Probability that a Marriage entered into by a Man above the Age of 40 will be Fruitful
Authors: Sprague Thomas Bond
Published: June 2016

When it is desired to disentail a landed estate, it is necessary for the heir in possession, after obtaining the consent of the first substitute heir, to pay to the second and third heirs the estimated value of their expectancy or interest in the estate. In the calculations that have to be made for the purpose of ascertaining this value, the actuary has often to take into account not only the probabilities of life, but the probabilities of marriage and of leaving issue. The heir in possession may be unmarried, in which case he may marry at some future time, and leave a child who would inherit the estate to the exclusion of the subsequent heirs; or the heir in possession may be married but have no children, and the probabilities then to be estimated are (1) that his present wife will have a child at some future time, and (2) that she will die before her husband, that he will then marry a second time, and have issue by his second marriage.
2. Action of Heat on some Salts of Trimethylsulphine
Authors: Brown Crum , Blaikie J. Adrian
Published: June 2016

I.The carbonate of trimethylsulphine is obtained by the action of carbonate of silver on the iodide of trimethylsulphine. The solution of the salt may be evaporated to a syrup in the waterbath. On standing for some weeks over sulphuric acid in vacuo it crystallises out in exceedingly hygroscopic prismatic crystals, containing water of crystallisation, and having a strong alkaline reaction.

Heated in the air to 100° the salt gives off water, sulphide of methyl, and carbonic acid. Heated in a sealed tube to 100° C. for about eight hours it was almost entirely decomposed, gave off a gas consisting entirely of carbonic acid, and yielded two layers of liquid—the upper, sulphide of methyl; the lower, water and methylic alcohol.
3. Comparison of the Salts of Diethylmethyl-sulphine and Ethylmethylethyl-sulphine
Authors: Brown Crum , Blaikie J. Adrian
Published: June 2016

It seemed to the authors to be desirable to ascertain the mode in which the salts of diethylmethyl-sulphine and ethylmethylethylsulphine respectively decompose when heated.

They prepared the iodides by the method described by Krüger, whose observations on the iodides and chloroplatinates they substantially confirm.

The benzoates were prepared from the iodides by action of benzoate of silver. They are exceedingly soluble substances, and were only obtained as thick syrups. Heated to between 110° and 120° C. they decompose in exactly the same way, yielding benzoate of methyl without any benzoate of ethyl.
4. On the Bursting of Firearms when the Muzzle is closed by Snow, Earth, Grease, &c
Authors: Forbes George
Published: June 2016

It is well known that if an ordinary fowling-piece, charged with shot or ball, have touched the ground or snow, so as to close the muzzle of the gun, or if the muzzle of the gun be in any way artificially closed with grease or other substances, the fowling-piece is certain to burst at the muzzle when it is discharged. This would not be the case if, instead of firing a shot, a piston were driven up the tube by hand.
1. Notice of Striated Rocks in East Lothian and in some adjoining Counties
Authors: Home David Milne
Published: June 2016

I know no more interesting problem in geology than the question, What was the great agency which brought the surface of northern Europe into the condition in which it is now occupied by man? and it seems marvellous that geologists should not yet be agreed as to what that agency was.

Our own country of Scotland is strewed with boulders, many of immense size, and which we allow have been somehow transported to their present sites from remote regions. Rocks on our hill-sides have been ground down, smoothed, and striated by ponderous bodies which have come against and rubbed upon them.
2. On Methods in Definite Integrals
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

This paper deals with various formulæ of definite integration which are, in general, put into forms in which they enable us with great ease to sum a number of infinite series. As a simple example of such a formula the following may be given:—

From this it is easy to deduce innumerable results, of which the annexed are some of the more immediate.
1. The Solar Spectrum in 1877–8; with some Idea of its Probable Temperature of Origination
Authors: Smyth Piazzi
Published: June 2016

This solar spectrum contains measures of about 2000 fixed lines, or fully a third more than are represented in Ångström's worthily celebrated Normal Solar Spectrum Map, which is taken as the standard reference for “place.” The observations were made in Lisbon during the summers of 1877–8, with apparatus prepared by the author; who aimed at including everything visible, from the extreme red to the extreme violet ends of the spectrum, so far as that is amenable to the human eye after transmission through glass.
3. On the Composition of “Reh,” an Efflorescence on the Soil of certain Districts of India
Authors: Gibson J.
Published: June 2016

The following brief statement concerning “Reh” is chiefly derived from the Report of the Committee on Reh, November 1878:—

Large tracts of country in the north-west of India have from time immemorial been covered with a white alkaline efflorescence, which renders them incapable of supporting any form of vegetable life. These tracts are called “usar” plains, and the white efflorescence “reh.”† The appearance of this reh on the surface is owing to the subsoil water, which is impregnated with sodium salts, being sucked up to the surface by capillary attraction and there evaporated by the fierce heat of the Indian summer sun. The reh is often very irregularly distributed,—bald patches occurring in the midst of cultivation, or cultivated patches surrounded by reh,—and this capricious distribution has rendered a right comprehension of its mode of production difficult.
1. On the Expansion of Cast Iron while Solidifying
Authors: Hannay J. B. , Anderson Robert
Published: June 2016

The fact that certain bodies expand on solidifying, as in the case of water, has long been well known, and this property has been recognised in some of the metals, owing to their filling the mould in which they are cast so as to reproduce the finest lines. The fact of their so doing is, however, only known qualitatively—no accurate measurements having, so far as we are aware, been recorded. The property being of great interest to ironfounders, we have undertaken a series of experiments to determine its real value—the materials being put at our disposal by Messrs M'Dowall, Steven, & Co., to whom we tender our best thanks.
3. The Action of Sulphide of Potassium upon Chloroform
Authors: Nicol W. W. J.
Published: June 2016

The author, after referring to the paper by Pfankuch, who obtained by the action of sulphide of potassium upon chloroform a crystalline substance which he held to be a compound of sulphide of potassium and sulphoform, and to the paper by Bouchardat on sulphoform, gives a detailed account of his own investigation.

The products formed when chloroform acts on an alcoholic solution of sulphide of potassium (prepared by dissolving caustic potash in alcohol, saturating one-half with sulphuretted hydrogen and then adding the other half) are sulphydrate of potassium and thioformiate of potassium (HCOSK, analogous in constitution to thiacetate). The action is probably as follows :— HCCI3 + 2K2S = 3KCI + HCSSK, and HCSSK + H2O = HCOSK + H2S, this sulphuretted hydrogen forming sulphydrate with the sulphide of potassium.
1. On Steam-Pressure Thermometers of Sulphurous Acid, Water, and Mercury
Authors: Thomson W.
Published: June 2016

The first annexed diagram represents a thermometer constructed to show absolute temperature realised for the case of water and vapour of water as thermometric substance. The containing vessel consists of a tube with cylindric bulb like an ordinary thermometer; but, unlike an ordinary thermometer, the tube is bent in the manner shown in the drawing. The tube may be of from 1 to 2 or 3 millims. bore, and the cylindrical part of the bulb of about ten times as much. The length of the cylindrical part of the bulb may be rather more than of the length of the straight part of the tube. The contents, water and vapour of water, are to be put in and the glass hermetically sealed to enclose them, with the utmost precautions to obtain pure water as thoroughly freed from air as possible, after better than the best manner of instrument makers in making cryophoruses and water hammers. The quantity of water left in at the sealing must be enough to fill the cylindrical part of the bulb and the horizontal branch of the tube. When in use the straight part of the tube must be vertical with its closed end up, and the part of it occupied by the manometric water-column must be kept at a nearly enough definite temperature by a surrounding glass jacket-tube of ice-water.
4. The Structure of the Comb-like Branchial Appendages and the Teeth of the Basking Shark (Selache maxima)
Authors: Turner
Published: June 2016

Attention was drawn to the statements made on the position of peculiar comb-like fringes on the branchiæ of the basking shark by Gunnerus, Pennant, Low, Mitchell, Foulis, Brito Capello, Cornish, Steenstrup, Pavesi, P. & H. Gervais, Percival Wright, and Allman, and to the structure of these fringes by Hannover and MM. Gervais. The author then proceeded to give a detailed description of the structure of the plates forming these fringes from a specimen presented to him by the Rev. M. Harvey of St. John's, Newfoundland, the general summary of which is as follows: the whole periphery of a plate consisted of a hard unvascular dentine, the tubes in which were very distinctive; in a considerable part of the shaft these tubes arose from a single central pulp cavity, but in the semilunar attached base of the plate the single central cavity did not exist, but was replaced by a set of anastomosing vascular canals, which collectively represented a pulp cavity, and which gave origin to numerous characteristic dentine tubes.
5. Preliminary Report on the Tunicata of the “Challenger” Expedition
Authors: Herdman W. A.
Published: June 2016

The entire collection comprises from 150 to 200 species, the majority of which are new to science.

As yet only some of the more abnormal Synascidiœ and about half the Ascidiœ simplices have been carefully examined. The present paper is the preliminary report on the ASCIDIÆ, the first family of the Ascidiœ simplices.
4. On a Thermomagnetic Thermoscope
Authors: Thomson W.
Published: June 2016

This thermoscope is founded on the change produced in the magnetic moment of a steel magnet by change of temperature. Several different forms suggest themselves: the one which seems best adapted to give good results is to be made as follows:—

(1.) Prepare an approximately astatic system of two thin, hardened steel wires, r b, r′ b′, each 1 cm. long, one of them, r, b, hung by a single silk fibre, and the other hung bifilarly from it, by fibres about 3 cms. long, so attached that the projections of the two, on a horizontal plane, shall be inclined at an angle of about ·01 of a radian (or ·57°) to one another.
5. On a Constant Pressure Gas Thermometer
Authors: Thomson William
Published: June 2016

In the article on “Heat” published in the eleventh volume of the Encyclopœdia Britannica, referred to in my previous communications to the Royal Society on Steam Pressure Thermometers, it is shown that the Constant Pressure Air Thermometer is the proper form of expansional thermometer to give temperature on the absolute thermodynamic scale, with no other data as to physical properties of the fluid than the thermal effect which it experiences in being forced through a porous plug, as in the experiment of Joule and myself on this subject; and the thermal capacity of the fluid under constant pressure. These data for air, hydrogen, and nitrogen have all been obtained with considerable accuracy, and thererfore it becomes an important object towards promoting accurate thermometry, to make a practical working thermometer directly adapted to show temperature on the absolute thermodynamic scale through the whole range of temperature, from the lowest attainable by any means, to the highest for which glass remains solid.
4. Positive and Negative Electric Discharge between a Point and a Plate and between a Ball and a Plate
Authors: Macfarlane Alexander
Published: June 2016

I have made the following observations in the Natural Philosophy classroom of the United College, St Andrews, with the view of ascertaining whether the electromotive force required to cause a spark to pass between a small globe and a plate, or between a point and a plate, differs for the two kinds of electricity. Sir William Thomson suggested that I should apply to this question the method of measuring the electromotive force required to produce sparks, which I have described in papers already contributed to the Society (Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. vol. xxviii. p. 633). It is a problem to which Faraday attached great importance. He says at sect. 1523, vol. 1, of his Experimental Researches in Electricity: “The results connected with the different conditions of positive and negative discharge will have a far greater influence on the philosophy of electrical science than we at present imagine, especially if, as I believe, they depend on the peculiarity and degree of polarised condition which the molecules of the dielectrics concerned acquire.” He records a great number of experiments on this subject in sections 1465–1525. He took sparks between a ball 0·25 inch in diameter and a ball 2 inches in diameter. When the large one was connected with a discharging train, the small one charged positively gave a much longer spark than when charged negatively; also the small ball charged negatively gave a brush more readily than When charged positively in relation to the effect produced by increasing the distance between tho two balls (sect. 1489).
1. Preliminary Notice of a Method for the Quantitative Determination of Urea in the Blood
Authors: Haycraft John
Published: June 2016

The subject of these investigations, some of the results of which are before the Society to-night, was suggested to me by Professor Carl Ludwig, and was carried out in his laboratory at Leipzig, where I worked with the help of his assistant, Dr Drechsel, to whose kindness and large knowledge of the subject I was much indebted.

In this paper I shall give simply an account of the method of analysis, leaving for the future a record of the facts which it has enabled me to obtain.
4. Sixth Report of the Boulder Committee
Authors: Home David Milne
Published: June 2016

The materials for this Report have been obtained from the Convener, Professor Forster Heddle of St Andrews University, William Jolly, Esq., H.M. Inspector of Schools, Inverness, and William Wallace, Esq., High School, Inverness.

To make the descriptions of the boulders more intelligible, it has been found necessary, as in former Reports, to annex a few diagrams, which will be found at the close of the Report.
1. Non-Euclidean Geometry
Authors: Chrystal
Published: June 2016

When I had the honour of being asked by the Council of the Royal Society to give the following address, I chose the subject partly because it had been brought under the notice of the fellows by my predecessor, Professor Kelland. His memoir was written comparatively early in the history of the subject; and he seems to have been but little acquainted with what others had done even up to the time at which he wrote. Accordingly, although the subject is treated very ably in his paper, it is treated from only one point of view; and, indeed, one side of it is left out of sight altogether. The relation of the whole theory to the question of the origin and mutual independence of the axioms of geometry has been made much clearer of late, and I believed that some account of the more modern views might be of interest.
4. On two unrecorded Eggs of the Great Auk (Alca impennis) discovered in an Edinburgh Collection; with remarks on the former existence of the bird in Newfoundland
Authors: Gray Robert
Published: June 2016

The two eggs of the Great Auk which I now exhibit were bought in Dowell's Auction Rooms rather more than a month ago, and formed part of a collection of “birds' eggs, shells, and other natural history specimens” which was disposed of among a lot of miscellaneous property belonging to a legal gentleman of this city. This small collection of eggs had been in the possession of the owner for about thirty years, and the two eggs in question had been purchased by his father from another collector in Edinburgh— a Mr Little—in whose possession it is thought, from collected and trustworthy evidence, the specimens had been at least other thirty years. These eggs, therefore, have probably not changed hands more than once during a period of fifty or sixty years. The present owner of the specimens, Mr Small, animal preserver, George Street, purchased the lot at the sale for £1, 12s., and has since taken great pains to establish the few facts I have stated regarding their history.
1. On the Differential Telephone, and on the application of the Telephone generally to Electrical Measurement
Authors: Chrystal
Published: June 2016

The plans and calculations in this paper are now more than two years old, but the author has only lately, by the kindness of Professor Tait, found opportunity to carry them out in practice.

A discussion is given of the different methods of applying the telephone to accurate measurement, and mention is made of the points which the author thinks have been missed by most of those who have worked in this way hitherto.

A common principle runs through all telephonic null methods, viz., that the balance may be dependent on the frequency of the interrupted current or may be independent of it. In the latter case there are in general more than one condition of balance, and in the former case, although one will very often suffice, two may occasionally be necessary. In the former class of cases we get relations between electric quantities of the same dimension, in the latter relations between quantities of different dimensions, e.g., between coefficients of induction and resistances: so that when the frequency is known we can find a coefficient of induction in terms of a resistance, and so on.
3. On a “Navigational” Sounding Machine
Authors: Buchanan J. Y.
Published: June 2016

The sounding machine of which the annexed figure is a representation, is intended for use at considerable depths while the ship is proceeding on her course. It is therefore necessarily capable of indicating the depths independently of the length of sounding line or wire used. It possesses the further great practical advantage, that when it has served its purpose once it is immediately available for another sounding.

It indicates primarily the extent to which a given volume of air at atmospheric pressure has been condensed by the column of water to which it has been subjected. As the law of the compression of air is known, the depth reached by the instrument is at once deduced.
5. Suggestions on the Art of Signalling
Authors: Macfarlane Alexander
Published: June 2016

After considering the analogy which exists between the arts of writing and of signalling, the author proceeded to discuss what alphabet is the most suitable where the physical agent is not electricity. If we choose for elementary signals two qualities of the agent of communication A and B, which can be produced independently of one another, then the agent can be put into four states, viz., 1st, having the quality A, but not the quality B; 2d, having the quality B, but not the quality A; 3d, having both the qualities A and B; 4th, having neither of the qualities A and B. One of these states is required to separate letter from letter, and word from word; the fourth state where the agent is undifferentiated, is the one naturally adapted for the purpose. From the remaining three states we can get 3 permutations of one signal, 9 permutations of two signals, 27 permutations of three signals.
3. On the Wire Telephone and its Application to the Study of the Properties of strongly Magnetic Metals
Authors: Chrystal
Published: June 2016

Four distinct sources of sound were noticed in the course of the experiments.

1. The variation of the longitudinal tension of the wire, owing to variation in the heating, still appears to be the most likely explanation of the action of the wire telephone, when a very fine wire of ordinary metal is used. Experiments were tried with induction coils of various sizes, the violin and microphone being put into the primary circuit and the fine wire telephone into the secondary. It was found that the sound diminished as the spark-giving power of the coil increased. With Professor Tait's large induction coil no sound at all could be obtained, when the secondary was closed through the most sensitive wire I possess.
11. Note on the Wire Telephone as a Transmitter
Authors: Blyth James
Published: June 2016

It was shown some time ago by Dr Ferguson, and more recently by Professor Chrystal and Mr Preece, that a fine wire attached to a mechanical telephone can act very well as a receiver in a telephonic circuit, provided a make and break, or some form of microphone transmitter, be employed. None of these experimenters, however, have said anything about the action of such a wire as a transmitter. Being struck by the convertibility, in general, of all forms of telephone receivers into transmitters, and vice versa, it occurred to me to try how far this wire telephone, as it has been called, could be made to act as a transmitter to an ordinary Bell telephone as receiver. I was much interested to find that it could act in that capacity wonderfully well, as thereby a new element of some importance is introduced into the discussion of the real cause or causes of the action of the wire telephone whether as receiver or as transmitter.
IV.—The Occurrence of Cell Division in the Endodermis
Authors: Bond George
Published: June 2016

1. Endodermal cells frequently show considerable increase in tangential dimension at a late stage in their existence, as a result of which the continuity of the endodermis may be maintained, despite the rapid expansion of the intra-endodermal cylinder following secondary growth.

2. This tangential increase in size of the endodermal cells is usually accompanied by their division. The divisions may actually cause the increase in size of the cells, that is, there is active growth of the cells. Or they may follow a passive stretching. In either case the new walls fulfil a mechanical function, lending added strength to the stretched walls of the original cell.

3. Two types of division are distinguishable:

(a) Those occurring in primary endodermal cells. The new walls soon develop Caspary strips, linking up with those of the parent cells.

(b) Divisions in tertiary endodermal cells. The new walls here show neither Caspary strip nor suberin lamella.

4. It is pointed out that in neither case does the development of new walls interfere with the impermeability of the endodermis.

5. The occurrence of the divisions is considered in relation to the supposed impermeability of the suberin lamella of the secondary endodermal cell, and to the conditions resulting in the deposition of the Caspary strip.