bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
VIII. On a new Species of Coloured Fringes, produced by reflexion between the Lenses of Achromatic or Compound Object-Glasses
Authors: Brewster David
Published: January 2013

In a paper which I communicated to this Society in 1815, and which was published in the Seventh volume of their Transactions, I described a new species of coloured fringes, produced between two plates of parallel glass. From a consideration of the theory of this class of phenomena, it was obvious that analogous, though much more complicated, systems of rings should be produced between plates with curved surfaces, but it was not till 1822 that I succeeded in detecting them; and so completely are these rings concealed by the superposition of similarly situated images, that, in consequence, of having forgotten my method of observation, I have experienced the greatest difficulty in rediscovering them.

My earliest experiments were performed with a double achromatic object-glass, made by Berge, having a diameter of inches, and 30 inches in focal length. The inner surfaces of the crown and flint glass lenses were ground to different radii, as shewn in the section of it at AB, CD, Fig. 5, Plate IX.; and the outer surface of the flint-glass lens was concave, so that there was left between the lenses a meniscus of air A 2, B 3 A.
XIII.—Account of a Thermometrical Register kept at Dunfermline by the Rev. Henry Fergus, from 1799 till 1837, with the principal Results
Authors: Forbes James D.
Published: January 2013

1. When I found that the interesting meteorological register of Mr Adie, which is well fitted to throw light upon the climate of Edinburgh, and of Scotland generally, was deficient of the important period of nearly sixteen years, from 1805 to 1820, I set on foot inquiries as to the existence of any other register of the thermometer which might approximately supply the defect. After some unsuccessful attempts, my attention was directed by Professor Dove's useful temperature tables to a register of the thermometer kept by the Rev. Mr Fergus of Dunfermline, of which the monthly means, from 1805 to 1824, are given in the “Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,” vol. xiii. Though the distance of Dunfermline from Edinburgh is thirteen miles in a right line, and though it occupies the opposite slope of the valley of the Forth, not far from the Ochil Hills, yet a slight comparison of the observations showed a very remarkable coincidence in its climate with that of Edinburgh, not only as regards the mean annual temperature, but also in the distribution of temperature throughout the year. I therefore made an effort to obtain the original register from which the results published in the “Edinburgh Philosophical Journal” were derived; and through the kindness, in the first instance, of Mr David Laing of the Signet Library, I was brought into communication with the Rev. John Fergus of Bower, near Wick, in Caithness, son of the Dunfermline observer, who most kindly placed in my hands his father's original register of the barometer, thermometer, and weather at Dunfermline, extending from 1799 to the time of his death in 1837, all made with one instrument, and at the same hour daily (9 a.m.), with very remarkable regularity.
I. Account of a Mineral from Strontian, and of a peculiar Species of Earth which it contains
Authors: Hope Thomas Charles
Published: January 2013

The mineral, of which I have the honour to lay an account before the Society, was brought to Edinburgh in considerable quantity about six years ago by a dealer in fossils, though indeed it had found its way, long before this period, into one or two collections.

By some it was mistaken for fluor. Its great specific gravity, its fibrous appearance, and its quality of forming an insoluble substance with sulphuric acid, made it generally be received as the native carbonate of barytes. From a few experiments, I was led at that time to entertain some doubt of its being any form of barytes ; and for several years, when I filled the chemical chair in the University of Glasgow, I used, when I exhibited the mineral itself, to mention in my lectures such of its properties as I had discovered, and which indicated that it did not belong to the barytic genus.
IX. A Short Mineralogical Description of the Mountain of Gibraltar
Authors: Imrie
Published: January 2013

The mountain of Gibraltar is situated in 36° 9' north latitude, and in 5° east longitude from Greenwich. It is the promontory which, with that of Ceuta upon the opposite Coast of Barbary, forms the entrance of the Straits of Gibraltar from the Mediterranean; and Europa Point, which is the part of the mountain that advances most towards Africa, is generally regarded as the most southern promontory in Europe. The form of this mountain is oblong; its summit a sharp craggy ridge; its direction is nearly from north to south; and its greatest length, in that direction, falls very little short of three miles. Its breadth varies with the indentations of the shore, but it no where exceeds three quarters of mile. The line of its ridge is undulated, and the two extremes are somewhat higher than its centre.
I. On the Origin and Principles of Gothic Architecture
Authors: Hall James
Published: January 2013

Long after the arts of ancient Greece and Rome had been lost, and before any effectual attempt was made to revive them, a style of building, known among us by the name of Gothic Architecture, began to appear in Europe.

At first, a few only of its peculiar forms were employed, which, in some old buildings, are to be met with, intermixed with the remains of a still more ancient style. Afterwards, rising by degrees into favour, it supplanted, in all the departments of architecture, every other species of design, and maintained an unrivalled dominion during three hundred years.
XX. On the Nature and History of the Marsh Poison
Authors: Ferguson William
Published: January 2013

In this paper I propose submitting to the Society some observations on the nature and history of the Marsh Poison, which, under the title of Marsh Miasmata, or Malaria, has ever been acknowledged as the undisputed source of Intermittent Fevers, and is believed, with good reason, to be the exciting cause of the whole tribe of Remittent Fevers;—of Endemic Fever, in fact, in every form, and in every part of the world.
XXIII. Account of a Remarkable Structure in Apophyllite, with Observations on the Optical Peculiarities of that Mineral
Authors: Brewster David
Published: January 2013

The variety of Apophyllite to which I have given the name of Tesselite, from the beautiful combination of tesselæ which it exhibits in polarised light, is one of the most singular substances in the mineral kingdom. The agency of that species of light, indeed, seemed necessary to the developement of its peculiar structure; but I have since succeeded in confirming and extending my former results, by the application of the microscope; and have been led to observe several new phenomena, which not only throw much light on the structure and properties of this curious mineral, but which affect the fundamental principles of crystallography.
XXIX. On a Submarine Forest in the Frith of Tay, with Observations on the formation of Submarine Forests in general
Authors: Fleming John
Published: January 2013

The title which I have given to this paper, is, perhaps, faulty, and apt to lead the imagination to expect a description of the various forms of those sea-weeds which clothe the channel of the deep;—the arrangement of the species, as depending on the soil and depth of water, the food which they yield to the various creatures that browse upon them, and the protection they afford to such as take refuge among their leaves and branches. Very different, however, is the scene which I propose to describe,—a bed of peat-moss, covered by the sea at every full tide, but indicating, by the appearances which it exhibits, that its present low level is different from its original position. In other words, it is a geological phenomenon, occurring in the Frith of Tay, similar to the one observed on the Lincolnshire coast, which, in 1796, was examined by the late Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Joseph Correa de Serra, and described by the latter in the Transactions of the Royal Society of London for 1799, p. 145, under the title, “On a Submarine Forest, on the East Coast of England.” I venture to prefix the same title to this paper, which I now offer to the consideration of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, aware of its impropriety, but urged by the wish to connect similar phenomena by the common terms employed in their description.
XXXI. On the Absorption of Light by Coloured Media, and on the Colours of the Prismatic Spectrum exhibited by certain Flames; with an Account of a ready Mode of determining the absolute dispersive Power of any Medium, by direct experiment
Authors: Herschel J. F. W.
Published: January 2013

My dear Sir,

As I see by a notice in your Journal, No. 13., which has just reached my hands, that your attention has been occupied by the phenomena of Coloured Flames, and the Absorption of Coloured Light by Diaphanous Bodies; and that you have been successful in the very valuable discovery of a manageable flame, discharging a homogeneous yellow light of an invariable character, I shall perhaps be excused, while the contents of your paper are unknown to me more particularly, for stating some phenomena Which I have myself observed, relative to this highly interesting department of physical optics.
XVII. Observations on the Lines of the Solar Spectrum, and on those produced by the Earth's Atmosphere, and by the action of Nitrous Acid Gas
Authors: Brewster David
Published: January 2013

In a paper on the Monochromatic Lamp, &c., read before this Society on the 15th April 1822, and published in their Transactions, I recorded some of my earliest experiments on the action of coloured media on the Solar Spectrum. These experiments were continued at irregular intervals, with the view of obtaining distinguishing characters of coloured media, of investigating the cause of the colours of natural bodies, and of examining more correctly the phenomena of the overlapping colours of equal refrangibility, the discovery of which I had announced in the paper already referred to. The results to which I was conducted on the two last of these subjects, have been already communicated to the Society in two papers, one on the Analysis of Solar light, and the other on the Colours of Natural Bodies.
XIX. On the Colours of Natural Bodies
Authors: Brewster David
Published: January 2013

There are few of the applications of optical science so universally interesting as that which has for its object the explanation of the colours of natural bodies. Sir Isaac Newton was the first person who ventured to refer to one general principle all the variety of colours which are found in nature; and he has maintained his opinions on this subject with a confidence in their accuracy which seems to have confounded his adversaries: For while his analysis of light, the most perfect of all his labours, exposed him to the most harassing controversies, his theory of natural colours, the least perfect of his speculations, was allowed to pass without examination or censure.
III.—On the Gradual Production of Luminous Impressions on the Eye: Part II. being a description of an Instrument for producing isolated luminous impressions on the eye of extremely short duration, and for measuring their intensity
Authors: Swan William
Published: January 2013

In 1849 I presented to the Royal Society of Edinburgh a paper “On the Gradual Production of Luminous Impressions on the Eye.” The object of that communication was to investigate the laws of the production of visual impressions. The subject was then new; for although the fact that light requires a certain time to produce its full effect on the eye had been noticed at comparatively early periods, yet no one, so far as I am aware, had attempted to measure that time; and the whole subject of the production of visual impressions, regarded as a branch of experimental science, was quite untouched. I have frequently wished to resume a subject of inquiry which seems to me to merit more attention than it has hitherto received, and which I have not as yet been able to discuss so completely as I could have desired. Various portions of it demand more extended experiments. Among these may be specified, the examination of isolated impressions of shorter duration than my limited instrumental means had enabled me to observe; a more careful determination of the time required for light to produce its complete effect on the eye; and a series of observations on the eyes of various individuals, so that any personal peculiarity of vision, which might affect results derived exclusively from experiments on my own eye, might be eliminated. These, and other subjects of inquiry, I hope sooner or later to overtake; and, indeed, I had anticipated before the end of the present session of the Society to have been able to obtain some experimental results. In this I have been disappointed, owing to the instruments required for my observations having taken a much longer time to make than I had expected.
XXI.—Fragmentary Notes on the Generative Organs of some Cartilaginous Fishes
Authors: Davy John
Published: January 2013

These notes have been made at different intervals of time, and in different places,—some, and the majority of them, in Malta, in 1832–33,—some at Constantinople in 1839–40, and a few at a still earlier period, viz. in 1816, when on a voyage to Ceylon.

Imperfect and brief as many of them are, I am induced to submit them to the Society, thinking they may be of some use as conveying the results of unbiassed observation, and that, as such, they may prove a small contribution, to a difficult branch of icthyology,—difficult, not indeed so much from the nature of the subject as from the comparatively few opportunities enjoyed by naturalists of obtaining specimens.
XXIII.—On the Horizontal Force of the Earth's Magnetism
Authors: Broun John Allan
Published: January 2013

The only observations made with Dr Lloyd's bifilar magnetometer, published with corrections applied to the individual observations, are those made in the Makerstoun Observatory, forming part of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The results obtained from these observations (especially from those for 1844 and 1845), were first compared by me in 1856, with observations (also corrected by myself) made in the Trevandrum Observatory during the same years. The singular resemblance of the variations of daily mean intensity thus discovered at two places so distant, and so differently situated on the earth's surface, induced me to undertake the considerable labour of determining the temperature coefficients, and of correcting and discussing all the published (and some unpublished) observations made in the colonial observatories. This labour was too great to have been undertaken by me alone, in consistence with my other duties, and it is due to the liberality of His Highness the Rajah of Travancore, that I could employ in part for this work the computers attached to his Observatory.
XXIV.—On the Pediculi infesting the Different Races of Man
Authors: Murray Andrew
Published: January 2013

The bearing which the subject of the following communication has upon the much-vexed question of the unity of the human species, and the inferences which may be drawn from it in relation thereto, invest it with an importance which would not otherwise belong to it.

The position which the question I allude to at present occupies is this. On the one hand, the advocates of the view that all men are not of the same species, but that they compose a genus consisting of many species, maintain that the parasites which infest the different races of man are distinct; and because we usually find that distinct species of parasites are allotted respectively to the different species of the lower animals, they infer that the same rule must hold with man, and that therefore each different race possessing a distinct parasite must be a distinct species.
XXV.—Expedition to the Higher Ranges of the Anamalai Hills, Coimbatore, in 1858
Authors: Cleghorn Hugh
Published: January 2013

The excursion described in the following pages was planned by Dr Macpherson, Inspector-General of Hospitals, and myself, with a view to explore the Southern Range of the Anamalai (i.e. Elephant Hills), in the district of Coimbatore, which are sparingly laid down in the Great Trigonometrical Survey Map, while the peculiarities of their Fauna and Flora had not been recorded.

The project was approved by the Right Honourable Lord Harris, then Governor of the Madras Presidency, and the services of Major D. Hamilton were sanctioned by His Excellency Sir Patrick Grant, Commander-in-chief, to accompany us as artist, to delineate the characteristic features of the country.
XXX—Memoir of Rev. John Fleming, D.D., F.R.S.E.
Authors: Bryson Alexander
Published: January 2013

If it be true that “there is a history in all men's lives, figuring the nature of the times deceased,” how much more worthy of record the lives of those who have left an impress upon their age, who have corrected popular errors, have made clear much that was obscure, and, from the force and fulness of truth in them, have become the great teachers of their time. The histories of such lives figure more than the “times deceased,”—they teach us how to occupy our time; and though these earnest men are dead, their works are yet living epistles, ever speaking to those “who have ears to hear.”
II.—On the Cause and Cure of Cataract
Authors: Brewster David
Published: January 2013

My attention was called to the subject of Cataract, in consequence of having, about forty years ago, experienced an incipient attack of that complaint, and studied its progress and cure.

While engaged in a game at chess with Sir James Hall, who was a very slow player, I amused myself in the intervals with looking at the streams of light which radiated from the flame of a candle in certain positions of the eyelids. In one of these observations I was surprised by a new phenomenon, of which I did not immediately see the cause. The flame of the candle was surrounded with lines of light, of an imperfectly triangular form, some parts of which were deeply tinged with the prismatic colours. Upon going home from the chess club, this optical figure was seen more distinctly round the moon, and of course it appeared, with more or less brightness, round every source of light.
V.—A Study of Trilinear Co-ordinates: being a Consecutive Series of Seventy-two Propositions in Transversals
Authors: Martin Hugh
Published: January 2013

The following series of theorems is given as an illustration of the modern method of trilinear co-ordinates, having been wrought out after perusal of Mr Ferrar's very lucid and elegant treatise on that subject. The demonstrations present no difficulty, requiring nothing more complicated than the formation of determinants of two and three places. Accordingly, after exhibiting the method of proof in a few instances, I have merely given the enunciations of the remaining propositions. As the series of theorems advances the manipulation becomes, of course, a little more complicated; but the co-ordinates and co-efficients always appear in such symmetry as very greatly abbreviates the task, and guarantees its accuracy. Two, or perhaps three, of these seventy-two theorems are known mathematical truths; but that so many new consecutive propositions should be so easily found, and so easily proved, is a convincing evidence of the simplicity, fertility, and power of this new and beautiful method.
XII.—On the Law of Frequency of Error
Authors: Tait
Published: January 2013

It has always appeared to me that the difficulties which present themselves in investigations concerning the Frequency of Error, and the deduction of the most probable result from a large number of observations by the Method of Least Squares (which is an immediate consequence of the ordinary “Law of Error”), are difficulties of reasoning, or logic, rather than of analysis. Hence I conceive that the elaborate analytical investigations of Laplace, Poisson, and others, do not in anywise present the question in its intrinsic simplicity. They seem to me to be necessitated by the unnatural point of view from which their authors have contemplated the question. It is, undoubtedly, a difficult one; but this is a strong reason for abstaining from the use of unnecessarily elaborate analysis, which, however beautiful in itself, does harm when it masks the real nature of the difficulty it is employed to overcome. I believe that, so far at least as mathematics is concerned, the subject ought to be found extremely simple, if we only approach it in a natural manner.
XIX.—On the Bands formed by the Superposition of Paragenic Spectra produced by the Grooved Surfaces of Glass and Steel. Part II
Authors: Brewster David
Published: January 2013

In the preceding paper I have described the bands produced by gratings or grooved surfaces with 500 divisions in an inch, when the two grooved surfaces are in contact, and the grooves in the one slightly inclined to those in the other.

The following results were obtained with two gratings, one of wrhich had 2000 and the other 1000 divisions in an inch.

1. When the surfaces are in perfect contact, and the grooves parallel, very irregular bands are seen on the united surfaces, either with a lens or by ordinary vision, and are parallel to the grooves. They are seen only on the 2d, 4th, 6th, &c., spectra on each side of the luminous bar or disc.
V.—On a General Method of Substituting Iodine for Hydrogen in Organic Compounds, and on the Properties of Iodopyromeconic Acid
Authors: Brown James F.
Published: January 2013

In a paper on pyromeconic acid read before this Society, and since published in the Philosophical Magazine for September 1852, I have detailed the preparation and properties of a compound obtained by the substitution of an equivalent of bromine for an equivalent of hydrogen in that acid. Having observed that this substitution was very easily effected, I was induced to attempt the formation of an iodopyromeconic acid, in the hope of adding one to the very few instances in which the direct substitution of iodine for hydrogen has been found possible. For this purpose, I digested pyromeconic acid with tincture of iodine, but no success attended the experiment, the acid remaining entirely unchanged. The failure of this attempt led me to speculate as to its cause, and to contrive a method of producing the required substitution which has proved entirely successful, and has the further advantage of being perfectly general, so that its application will enable chemists to obtain iodine substitution compounds in cases in which they have hitherto failed.
XXXI.—On New Forms of Marine Diatomaceæ, found in the Firth of Clyde and in Loch Fine
Authors: Gregory William
Published: January 2013

In two papers read before this Society, I have very fully described the Diatomaceæ of the Glenshira Sand, which is very remarkable both for the large number of species found in it, which is certainly more than 320, and for the circumstances in which it must have been deposited. There can be no doubt, from the nature of the locality, which I have lately visited, that this bed was formed in the bottom of the Dhu Loch, a shallow fresh-water lake, at that time extending about two miles farther up the valley than it now does, and being at a higher level. In consequence of a rise in the level of the land, or a fall in that of the sea (from which—that is, from Loch Fine, the lower end of the lake is separated by a narrow and low barrier, through which the waters of the lake pass to Loch Fine), the lake has long ago been drained, till its upper end is nearly two miles from the point it must have reached when the bed of sand was formed. The present level of the lake is considerably lower than it was then; the precise difference I had no means of ascertaining, but I believe it is about 30 feet.
I.—The Chemistry of Strophanthidin, a Decomposition Product of Strophanthin
Authors: Fraser Thomas R. , Dobbin Leonard
Published: January 2013

In a paper on the Chemistry and Pharmacology of Strophanthus hispidus, it was pointed out by one of us that when strophanthin, the glucosidal active principle present in the seeds and several other parts of this plant, is subjected to the action of dilute acids, it yields, among other products, a crystalline body—strophanthidin. A brief description was also given of processes by which this body may be prepared, and of several of its characters and chemical properties.

The chemistry of strophanthidin will be more fully described in the present paper.
VIII.—The Lower Carboniferous Volcanic Rocks of East Lothian (Garlton Hills)
Authors: Hatch Frederick H.
Published: January 2013

The rich agricultural tract of country that forms the north-western part of East Lothian, undulating uniformly from the foot of the chain of the Lammermuirs towards the Firth of Forth, swells near Haddington into the cluster of the Garlton Hills, and the neighbouring masses of Traprain Law and North Berwick Law.

The rocks that build up this elevated ground are lavas and tuffs that were produced during the period of volcanic activity that characterised the deposition of the Lower Carboniferous beds of Scotland. In East Lothian their eruption followed close on the deposition of the sandstones and marls that constitute the base of the calciferous sandstone group.
XVI.—On the Fossil Plants of the Kilmarnock, Galston, and Kilwinning Coal Fields, Ayrshire
Authors: Kidston Robert
Published: January 2013

The tract of land embraced in the area from which the fossils have been derived, that form the subject of the present Memoir, extends in an easterly direction from Saltcoats to Newmilns, a distance of about 19 miles. At both extremities, the Coal Measures narrow down to under half a mile wide at Saltcoats, and about a mile broad at Newmilns. The greatest width is found towards the centre of the field, where in a northeast and south-west direction it is over 12 miles broad.
XXIII.—On the Chemical Changes which take place in the Composition of the Sea-Water associated with Blue Muds on the Floor of the Ocean
Authors: Murray John , Irvine Robert
Published: January 2013

The numerous analyses of sea-water by Forchhammer previous to 1865, and the later analyses by Dittmar, from samples collected during the “Challenger” Expedition, show that while the salinity—i.e., the amount of dissolved salts contained in 100 parts of seawater—varies greatly in different regions of the ocean, still the composition of these dissolved salts—i.e., the ratio of the constituents of sea-salts—remains practically the same in all the superficial waters of the ocean. Consequently, it is only necessary to determine the chlorine in a definite weight of water to ascertain at once the respective quantities of the other salts present in the sample. Dittmar's examination of the “Challenger” waters has, however, shown that lime is slightly, although distinctly, more abundant in samples of sea-water collected in greater depths than in those samples collected nearer the surface of the ocean, and Dittmar's tables showing the difference between the chlorine calculated from the specific gravity and the chlorine found by analysis point to differences in the composition of the sea-salts, but the observations are relatively so few, these differences so slight, so mixed up with observational errors, and so irregular in their geographical and bathymetrical distribution, that they cannot be said to indicate any general law other than a greater quantity of lime in deep water.
XXVII.—On Bistratification in the Growth of Languages, with Special Reference to Greek
Authors: Blackie
Published: January 2013

In all languages where there exists a certain amount of intellectual culture, manifesting itself in the oral or written form of what is called Literature, there must always coexist with it an inferior stratum or platform of speech; the platform of common colloquial intercourse of the mass of the people, and specially of the peasantry and lower classes. The necessity of this bistratification arises from the diverse class of ideas, and the diverse style of intercourse, pervading the two platforms. Language is a growth that flows from the intercommunion of associated persons working out, within a certain bounded circle, the vocal expression which their ideas, their energies, and their circumstances demand for the purpose of common action.
XXXII.—On the Manganese Oxides and Manganese Nodules in Marine Deposits
Authors: Murray John , Irvine Robert
Published: January 2013

During the “Challenger” Deep-Sea Exploring Expedition a great many peculiar-looking manganese nodules or concretions were dredged from the floor of the ocean at great depths, chiefly in the Red Clay areas of the Pacific, but also in less abundance in the Red Clays of the Atlantic. In the other varieties of Deep-Sea deposits these nodules were much less abundant than in the Red Clays.

In still more recent soundings, both American and British ships have discovered in many regions of the Pacific and Indian Oceans a dark-brown coloured deposit containing a large amount of manganese dioxide, similar in character to the Red Clays from which the “Challenger” procured the largest hauls of manganese nodules. There is then every reason for supposing that manganese deposits and nodules are very widely distributed over the ocean's bed, especially in deep water at great distances from land. It was only occasionally that manganese nodules were present in any abundance in a Globigerina Ooze, and in these exceptional instances there was always much volcanic debris associated with the deposit. In the Blue Muds surrounding continental shores manganese nodules were rarely observed; still, on some rocks and boulders dredged from terrigenous deposits, a coating of manganese dioxide was observed on that portion of the stone which had projected above the surface of the mud.
XIV.—On the Products of the Destructive Distillation of Animal Substances. Part II
Authors: Anderson Thomas
Published: January 2013

I propose in the following pages to communicate to the Society the progress of my investigation of the products of the destructive distillation of animal substances, the first part of which was published in the 16th volume of the Transactions. Since that period, partly owing to my numerous avocations, and partly to the inherent difficulties of the subject, less progress has been made than I had hoped or expected, but still I have accumulated some facts of considerable interest, which I think deserving of the attention of the Society.

It may be remembered that, in the paper just referred to, I announced the discovery, among those products, of picoline, which I formerly obtained from coaltar, and of a new base, to which I gave the name of Petinine; and I entered pretty fully into the method adopted for the preparation of these substances, and of certain other bases, the existence of which I merely indicated, without at the time attempting to characterize them. On proceeding to the more minute investigation of these bases, I soon found that the quantity of material at my disposal was much too small to admit of satisfactory or complete results, although I had employed for their preparation above 300 pounds of bone-oil. I found it necessary, therefore, to begin ab initio with the preparation of the bases from another equally large quantity of the oil; and after going through the whole of the tedious processes described in my previous paper, with the expenditure of the labour of some months, I found my object again defeated by deficiency of material. After various experiments, which, though they led to no definite or conclusive results, served to familiarize me with the nature and relations of the products obtained, I made up my mind once more to begin again; and being resolved on this occasion not to be foiled in the same way as before, I used for my new preparation no less than 250 gallons of crude bone-oil, the weight of which was somewhat above a ton. The result of this process, though involving an immense amount of labour, has been satisfactory, not only in supplying me with a large amount of material, but has also enabled me to obtain many substances, some of them possessed of very remarkable properties, which had escaped my observation when operating on a smaller scale.
I.—The Clyde Sea Area
Authors: Mill Hugh Robert
Published: January 2013

The first two parts of this paper—Physical Geography and Salinity—were communicated to the Society on May 18th, 1891, and published in the Transactions, Vol. XXXVI, Part III., No. 23, pp. 641–729.

Various circumstances have prevented me from sooner presenting the concluding part of the discussion. I postponed publication again and again, in the hope that it might be possible to discuss the results more thoroughly, and deduce from them more clearly than I have been able to do the laws which regulate the heat-transactions of sea-water of varying salinity, contained in basins of differing degrees of isolation from the circulation of the ocean. At length the conclusion has been arrived at that the observations are not sufficiently uniform, regular, and close to warrant the expenditure of the time devoted to their discussion. Many months of work have been occupied in proving that some special manner of classifying and treating the data led to no definite result. Thus, it is unnecessary to describe several series of voluminous calculations, or to bring forward a great number of maps and sections on which the distribution of temperature was plotted in different ways. It is difficult to establish theoretical conclusions of a general and far-reaching kind from my work, and I have not attempted to compare it with the many memoirs published in continental journals, on the temperature of lakes, fjords, and enclosed seas.
V.—On the Fossil Flora of the Yorkshire Coal Field
Authors: Kidston Robert
Published: January 2013

For many years the Fossil Flora of the Yorkshire Coal Field has been engaging my attention, and among the species occurring in that district are many of considerable interest. This Coal Field supplied Artis with the specimens which he figured and described in his Antediluvian Phytology.

In 1888, at the Annual Meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, held at Malton, a committee was formed for the investigation of the Fossil Flora of Yorkshire, and since that date four Reports have been prepared and published based upon specimens submitted to me for examination by private collectors, and from collections contained in public museums. These Reports only contain lists of the species found, and the localities and horizons from which the specimens were derived, with any occasional short notes that might have been thought necessary. All detailed descriptions or critical remarks were deferred, and the present paper is the first of what I hope may be several, dealing more in detail with the Fossil Flora of the Yorkshire Coal Field.
XIX.—On the Total Intensity of Interfering Light
Authors: Stokes
Published: January 2013

[Extracted from a Letter addressed to Professor Kelland.]

My dear Sir,

In reading your paper in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xv., p. 315, some years ago, it occurred to me to try whether it would not be possible to give a general demonstration of the theorem, applying to apertures of all forms. I arrived at a proof, which I wrote out, but have never published. As I think it will interest you I will communicate it. You may make any use you please of it.

Case I. Aperture in front of a lens; light thrown on a screen at the focus, or received through an eye-piece, through which the luminous point is seen in focus.

The expression for the intensity is given in Airy's Tract, Prop. 20. If the intensity of the incident light at the distance of the aperture be taken for unity, and D be the quantity by which any element of the area of the aperture must be divided in forming the expression for the vibration, that expression becomes

the integration being extended over the whole aperture. If it should be necessary to suppose a change of phase to take place in the act of diffraction, such change may be included in the constant B.
XX.—Some Observations on the Charr (Salmo umbla), relating chiefly to its Generation and Early Stage of Life
Authors: Davy John
Published: January 2013

The natural history of the Charr, especially as regards its generation and the early period of its life, is admitted to be very defective, partly, no doubt, arising from the peculiar habits of the fish withdrawing it from observation, and in part, and more, to the circumstance that it is comparatively of rare occurrence, being found only in a limited number of the deepest lakes of this country, and, with few exceptions, seldom taken by the angler, and consequently a good deal removed from the notice of the naturalist.

Residing for several years in the neighbourhood of Windermere,—a lake in which this fish, though decreasing in number, is still pretty abundant,—I endeavoured to collect information respecting its breeding, the time required for the hatching of its ova, and the peculiarities of the young fish after its exclusion, but in a great measure in vain. The fishermen of the lake were acquainted with its spawning season and the spawning localities; but none of them had ever seen a young charr after its quitting the egg, nor till it had attained a notable size.
XXVI.—Notice of an Antique Marble Bust
Authors: Coventry Andrew
Published: January 2013

Having had the good fortune last autumn to get an antique marble bust of extreme beauty, the question naturally arose, of whom it might be the portrait, if, indeed, it was a portrait at all, and not an ideal head. I had proceeded some way in this inquiry, when it was suggested to me one day that it might interest the Society to know something of it, and that, though a little foreign no doubt to its usual topics, the change would be agreeable, and that ancient art was not without its charms. So urged I yielded,—perhaps too easily; but of this you will judge when I have done.
XXX.—On the Red Prominences seen during Total Eclipses of the Sun. Part II
Authors: Swan William
Published: January 2013

In the first part of this paper, I have endeavoured to prove, that the red prominences seen during total solar eclipses, exist in the sun; and I now propose to state some views which have occurred to me as to the nature of those remarkable objects, and their possible connexion with other solar phenomena. It is not, however, without great misgivings that I venture on this subject; for we know so little of the sun, that any hypothesis regarding the constitution of his atmosphere, can amount only to a conjecture, possessing more or less probability according to the variety of the appearances it serves to explain, and the exactness with which theory and observation correspond in each case: and I am well aware that views which may seem probable to myself may not appear equally so to others, whose greater experience in observing the sun constitutes them better judges of such questions.
XXXI.—On the Dynamical Theory of Heat. Part V. On the Quantities of Mechanical Energy contained in a Fluid in Different States, as to Temperature and Density
Authors: Thomson William
Published: January 2013

81. A body which is either emitting heat, or altering its dimensions against resisting forces, is doing work upon matter external to it. The mechanical effect of this work, in one case, is the excitation of thermal motions, and in the other, the overcoming of resistances. The body must itself be altering in its circumstances, so as to contain a less store of work within it, by an amount precisely equal to the aggregate value of the mechanical effects produced: and conversely, the aggregate value of the mechanical effects produced, must depend solely on the initial and final states of the body, and is therefore the same, whatever be the intermediate states through which the body passes, provided the initial and final states be the same.
XXXII.—On two New Processes for the detection of Fluorine when accompanied by Silica; and on the presence of Fluorine in Granite, Trap, and other Igneous Rocks, and in the Ashes of Recent and Fossil Plants
Authors: Wilson George
Published: January 2013

In several communications made to this Society and to the British Association, I have announced the results of a series of observations on the distribution of Fluorine throughout the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. To myself, the least satisfactory part of these investigations has been the inquiry into the presence of fluorine in plants, for I have been more frequently foiled than successful in my attempts to detect it in them. Others have not, apparently, been more successful. Daubeny was as unable as Sprengel at an earlier period had been, to obtain evidence that the element under notice is present in vegetable structures; and Will of Giessen, the discoverer of fluorine in plants, speaks only of “traces” of it having been detected in barley. Later observers have not spoken more confidently concerning its abundance in vegetables; and in the many analyses of the ashes of plants which have recently been published, it seldom, if ever, finds a place.
XXXIX.—On the Absolute Zero of the Perfect Gas Thermometer; being a Note to a Paper on the Mechanical Action of Heat
Authors: Rankine William John Macquorn
Published: January 2013

Temperature being measured by the pressure of a perfect gas at constant density, the absolute zero of temperature is that point on the thermometric scale at which, if it were possible to maintain a perfect gas at so low a temperature, the pressure would be null.

The position of this point is of great importance, both theoretically and practically; for by reckoning temperatures from it, the laws of phenomena depending on heat are reduced to a more simple form than they are when any other zero is adopted.
XLIII.—On Circular Crystals
Authors: Brewster David
Published: January 2013

In 1836, Mr Fox Talbot communicated to the Royal Society a paper “On the Optical Phenomena of certain Crystals” which he obtained by dissolving a crystal of Borax in a drop of somewhat diluted Phosphoric acid. When the acid and the salt are in proper proportions, “the field of view of the microscope is seen covered with minute circular spots, each of which is like a tuft of silk radiating from a centre, and is composed of a close assemblage of delicate acicular crystals forming a star.” Among these crystals are seen interspersed “a number of circular transparent bodies, which are tufts or stars of acicular crystals, in such close assemblage as to be in optical contact with each other, and to produce the appearance of a single individual.”
II.—On a Melanic Specimen of Hestina nama, Doubleday
Authors: Grimshaw Percy Hall
Published: January 2013

In a collection of Indian butterflies purchased by the Edinburgh Museum in the year 1890, I found a specimen of Hestina which is of some interest. After carefully examining it, and comparing it with a figure by Oberthür of a form which he regards as a melanic aberration of the well-known Hestina nama, Doubleday, I have come to the conclusion that our example is another and more melanic form of the same species. From Oberthür's figure, which he calls ab. melanina (Études d'Entomologie, xx., 1896, p. 30, pl. 10, no. 177), the present specimen differs in the fore wing, in the absence of the inner row of whitish spots, in the size and position of the upper spots in the outer series, and in the spot at the anal angle being nearer to the base of the wing. At the base of the cell there is a rich cream-coloured sub-triangular spot, instead of the slender greenish streak. There is no ferruginous border to the hind wing, and the whitish streaks are more elongated, and in the anal half of the wing only very faintly indicated.
VI.—The Meteorology of Edinburgh
Authors: Mossman Robert C.
Published: January 2013

The first part of this paper was communicated to the Society on June 1, 1896, and published in the Transactions (vol. xxxviii. part iii., No. 20, pp. 681–755), the data there discussed being mean values of the climatic elements for each day in the year.

In the present paper an attempt will be made to focus the results deduced from an examination and reduction of the various meteorological registers kept in Edinburgh from 1731 to 1736 and from 1764 to the present time, with special reference to secular and other weather changes.

The condensed results of a number of minor papers dealing with subjects which have, in many cases, formed part of the daily routine of observation during the last ten years have also been included. Attention may also be called to the list of remarkable atmospheric occurrences, such as phenomenal gales, snow-storms, auroras, etc., which is contained in the appendix. In presenting this paper my warm thanks must be expressed to Dr Buchan, from whom I received invaluable advice when points of difficulty arose in the reduction of the observations.
VII.—The Automorphic Linear Transformation of a Quadric
Authors: Muir Thomas
Published: January 2013

(1) It is well known that Cayley effected the transformation of

by introducing an intermediary set of variables

connected with each of the other sets by means of a linear substitution of a peculiar type. The substitutions in fact were

and

where the determinant of the first substitution is unit-axial and skew, and the determinant of the second substitution is got from the preceding determinant by changing rows into columns, and where, therefore, the number of arbitrary quantities introduced by the two substitutions is only ½n(n−1).
XI.—Chapters on the Mineralogy of Scotland. Chapter VIII—Silicates
Authors: Heddle M. Forster
Published: January 2013

The earlier mineralogists laboured under two great disadvantages. They could not readily, on account of the small number of students of chemistry, call in the aid of that science: and at the time when mineralogy was becoming a distinct branch of science chemistry was in itself crude as well as cumbrous. They were thus forced to rely chiefly upon external properties; and, where crystalline form was absent, they were confined to what may be called physical properties alone.

Their knowledge of the composition of bodies being thus limited and uncertain, the old nomenclature was to a considerable extent founded upon external features alone.
XV.—The Strains produced in Iron, Steel, Nickel, arid Cobalt Tubes in the Magnetic Field. Part II
Authors: Knott C. G.
Published: January 2013

The remarkable changes produced by magnetization in the internal volumes of hollow cylinders of iron, steel, and nickel have been described in Part I. (see Trans. R.S.E., vol. xxxviii. pp. 531–555). As pointed out in the closing paragraph, a complete discussion of these changes had to be “deferred until direct measurements of elongation had been obtained with the various tubes under the same magnetic influences.” It was not possible, of course, to measure the elongations of all the tubes that had been experimented with; for of these, eighteen (Nos. I. to VI. of each inclusive) were no longer in existence, having been the successive stages through which No. VII. was brought from the condition of small bore and thick walls to that of wide bore and thin walls.