bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
3. On the Place of the Poles of the Atmosphere.
Authors: Smyth C. Piazzi
Published: June 2016

This was merely a note on some of the recent discoveries and generalizations, by Lieut. Maury, U.S.N., on the motions of the atmosphere. It had been clearly proved by the extensive researches of Lieut. M., that the trade-winds when rising at the equator, do not, as previously held, return to their own poles, but cross over to the opposite ones; and thus traverse the extent of the whole earth from pole to pole, in a curvilinear direction, on account of the effect of the rotation of the earth.
2. Notice of an Antique Marble Bust (with Photographs).
Authors: Coventry Andrew
Published: June 2016

Mr Coventry read a short notice of an antique marble bust which he had had the good fortune to purchase from a gentleman in Westmoreland, last autumn, and had reason to believe had been brought from Italy.

The bust, of which some very fine photographs were exhibited (executed by Mr Tunny of Newington, and Captain Scott, R.N.), Mr Coventry considered to be a portrait, and a work of high Greek art.
1. On some Salts and products of Decomposition of Pyromeconic Acid.
Authors: Brown James F.
Published: June 2016

The pyromeconic acid employed in the following experiments was obtained by distilling impure meconic acid at a temperature of about 500° or 600° Fahr., when there is obtained a highly crystalline sublimate of a dark colour and empyreumatic odour. Its purification was effected by pressing the crystals so procured between folds of filtering paper, and finally subliming them at a moderate heat in cylindrical glass vessels provided with paper diaphragms.
2. On the Organs in which Lead accumulates in the Horse, in cases of slow poisoning by that Metal.
Authors: Wilson George
Published: June 2016

The chief object of this paper was to state the result of a careful analysis of the viscera of a mare, which had died after receiving daily, for six weeks or more, carbonate of lead in its food and drink. Portions of the lungs, the heart, the large intestine and its contents, the stomach and duodenum, the spleen, the kidney, and the liver, were subjected to analysis by the author, assisted by Mr Stevenson Macadam.
2. On a Necessary Correction in the Height of the Barometer depending on the Force of the Wind.
Authors: James Henry
Published: June 2016

During the frequent violent gales of last autumn, the author had remarked the excessive fluctuation of the barometer; and following up this phenomenon by means of the portable aneroid barometer, he found that not only was this fluctuation dependent on the wind and on the barometer being in a screened position; but that accompanying the fluctuation was a constant depression increasing in amount with the velocity of the air, and that this depression amounted in strong gales to a larger quantity than all the other usual corrections applied to a barometrical reading; and must be applicable to all the ordinary positions where barometers are observed, whether by sea or land.
2. An Account of some Experiments on the Diet of Prisoners.
Authors: Christison
Published: June 2016

From careful experiments made, under direction of the Board of Directors of Prisons in Scotland, on 1624 prisoners confined in eight of the principal prisons, for periods not exceeding sixty days; and from an analysis of numerous observations on their weight and general health, the author arrives at the following conclusions:—

1. For the average of people whose occupation involves moderate muscular effort and no great exercise, a simple, well-selected sort of food, supplying seventeen ounces of daily real nutriment, of which four ounces are nitrogenous principles, constitutes a sufficient diet for maintaining health, strength, weight, and general condition; but less is not sufficient.
1. On the Red Prominences seen during Total Eclipses of the Sun. Part II.
Authors: Swan William
Published: June 2016

In the first part of this paper, the author endeavoured to shew, from a comparison of various observations of the red prominences seen at the eclipse of the 28th July 1851, that those objects were not mere optical phenomena, but that they actually existed in the sun.

The object of the present communication is to offer some conjectures regarding the nature of the red prominences, and their possible connection with other solar phenomena.
2. On a Universal Tendency in Nature to the Dissipation of Mechanical Energy.
Authors: Thomson William
Published: June 2016

The object of the present communication is to call attention to the remarkable consequences which follow from Carnot's proposition, established as it is on a new foundation, in the dynamical theory of heat; that there is an absolute waste of mechanical energy available to man, when heat is allowed to pass from one body to another at a lower temperature, by any means not fulfilling his criterion of a “perfect thermo-dynamic engine.” As it is most certain that Creative Power alone can either call into existence or annihilate mechanical energy, the “waste” referred to cannot be annihilation, but must be some transformation of energy. To explain the nature of this transformation, it is convenient, in the first place, to divide stores of mechanical energy into two classes—staticalanddynamical.
3. On Rifle Cannon.
Authors: Davidson
Published: June 2016

This paper was written in India as far back as 1839, but many of its suggestions were still untried, and present circumstances seem to urge their importance.

The recent improvements in the hand-rifle have so greatly increased the practical range of that instrument, as to have passed and left far behind, in point of range and precision, the heavy field pieces which heretofore have done accurate execution at distances impracticable to small arms. The large guns therefore imperatively require to undergo the same alteration which, by converting the musket into a rifle, has so greatly increased the directness and accuracy of the flight of its ball.
2. On the Absolute Zero of the Perfect Gas Thermometer; being a Note to a Paper on the Mechanical Action of Heat.
Authors: Rankine W. J. Macquorn
Published: June 2016

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.

As no gas is entirely devoid of cohesion, the immediate results of experiment give only approximations to the position of this absolute zero. These approximate positions approach nearer to the true position as the gas is rarefied.
2. On a Mechanical Action of Heat, Section VI.:—A Review of the Fundamental Principles of the Mechanical Theory of Heat; with remarks on the Thermic Phenomena of Currents of Elastic Fluids, as illustrating those principles.
Authors: Rankine W. J. Macquorn
Published: June 2016

This section contains four sub-sections, the first three of which constitute a review of the fundamental principles of the Mechanical Theory of Heat, which are investigated by a method different from any that has been hitherto employed; while the fourth contains the application of those principles to the determination of the inferences to be drawn from the recent experiments of Mr Joule and Prof. William Thomson on the thermic phenomena exhibited by currents of air rushing through small openings.
Notice of recent Measures of the Ring of Saturn.
Authors: Smyth C. Piazzi
Published: June 2016

This communication chiefly described the observations made by W. S. Jacob, Esq., of the Madras Observatory, during the last apparition of the planet, with a telescope having a six-inch object-glass, lately completed by Lerebours and Secretan.

Previous to its being sent to India, the object-glass had been tested at the Edinburgh Observatory; and its quality, which was then approved, had been more conspicuously brought out in the subsequent trial in a clearer climate.

Immediately after the receipt of the object-glass, in September 1852, Mr Jacob directed it to Saturn, then in the zenith, and immediately perceived the “transparency” of the dark ring which has since been discovered independently by Mr Lassel and others; and on very accurately adjusting the focus, he saw a fine division in the outer dark ring.
4. Some Observations on Fish, in relation to Diet.
Authors: Davy John
Published: June 2016

In this communication the attention of the author is chiefly directed to two subjects of inquiry:—

1st, The comparative nutritive power of fish, taking the specific gravity of their substance, and the proportion of solid matter left on thorough drying, as a measure of the same. In illustration, two tables are given, containing the results of trials on several kinds of fish and other articles of animal food; from which he deduces that the difference of nutritive power of these several articles, has commonly been overrated.
2. Account of a remarkable Meteor seen on 30th September 1853.
Authors: Swan William
Published: June 2016

On the 30th September 1853, I was with my friend Mr David Wallace, in a field near his house, Balgrummo, in the neighbourhood of Leven, in Fifeshire. The atmosphere was very clear, and the sun was shining brightly. The sky was covered in some quarters with thin cirrous clouds, and we had been watching the changes in the appearance of the clouds nearly overhead, when Mr Wallace, who was still observing the sky, pointed suddenly upwards, and called on me to look. I did so, and instantly saw a round body, apparently as large as a star of the first magnitude, moving rapidly upwards,—roughly speaking, towards the zenith, or more accurately, towards the sun. This, as I immediately afterwards ascertained, was about 11h15mGreenwich mean time.
1. On a New Hygrometer, or Dew Point Instrument.
Authors: Connell
Published: June 2016

This instrument consists essentially of a little spherical bottle of thin brass, polished externally; a small exhausting syringe; a thermometer with ground brass stopper; and a brass clamp. The bottle has a diameter of 1 3/20 inch, and is capable of holding half an ounce. Its neck is attached to the syringe by means of a lateral screw, and is three-fourths of an inch high, and about three-tenths of an inch wide. The syringe is about five inches long, and has a diameter of eight-tenths of an inch. The stopper attached to the thermometer fits air-tight into the upper part of the neck of the bottle. The clamp is intended for securing the instrument to the sill of an open window, or to a table or other fixture in a room. Three drams of ether are then slowly introduced into the little bottle, and the thermometer inserted.
4. Account of Experimental Investigations to answer questions originating in the Mechanical Theory of Thermo-Electric Currents.
Authors: Thomson W.
Published: June 2016

In this communication the mode of experimenting was described by which the experimental results quoted in the theoretical paper were obtained; and the principal parts of the special apparatus which had been constructed and used in the investigation, were laid before the Royal Society.
1. On the Properties of the Ordeal Bean of Old Calabar, Western Africa.
Authors: Christison
Published: June 2016

In various parts of Western Africa it appears to be the practice to subject to the ordeal by poison persons who come under suspicion of having committed heinous crimes. On the banks of the Gambia river the poison used for the purpose is the bark of a leguminous tree, theFillœa suaveolensof MM. Guillemin and Perottet. In the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone it is the bark ofErythrophleum guinëense, which some botanists have considered identical with the former species. On the Congo river, Captain Tuckey found that either this species, or an allied species of the same genus, was in constant use for the same purpose.
1. On the Mechanical Action of Heat:—Supplement to the first Six Sections, and Section Seventh.
Authors: Rankine W. J. Macqueen
Published: June 2016

This paper is written in continuation of a series of papers, of which six sections have already been published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

It commences with some articles supplementary to the first six sections, and intended to apply to the theoretical principles contained in them to the extensive and precise experimental data which have been obtained in the course of the last two years.
1. On Annelid Tracks in the Exploration of the Millstone Grits in the South-west of the County of Clare.
Authors: Harkness Robert
Published: June 2016

The author remarks that the existence of Annelida during the Palæozoic formations is manifested in two conditions. In the one, we have the shelly envelope which invests the order Tubicola, in the form of Seapolites; and in the other, the tracks of the orders Abranchia and Dorsi-branchiata are found impressed on deposits which were, at one time, in a sufficiently soft state to receive the impressions of the wanderings of these animals.

Among the strata which have hitherto afforded annelid tracks, those which, in the county of Clare, represent a portion of the equivalents of the Millstone Grit, contain such tracks, in their most perfect state of preservation in great abundance; and these strata also furnish evidence concerning the circumstances which prevailed during their deposition.
2. On the Extent to which the Theory of Vision requires us to regard the Eye as a Camera Obscura.
Authors: Wilson George
Published: June 2016

The object of this communication was to combat the current theory of vision, as exercised by vertebrate animals, in so far as it teaches that the light which reaches the retina from without, thereafter passes through that membrane, and is absorbed by the pigment of the choroid behind it.
1. Notice of some new Forms of British Fresh-Water Diatomaceæ.
Authors: Gregory William
Published: June 2016

The author stated that he had examined, more or less minutely, nearly 300 fresh-water gatherings, and that he had found in these very nearly all the known British species, besides a number not yet described. He mentioned that, from the want of figures, it was often difficult to know whether a form were new or not. Thus,Pinnularia latestriata, found by the author two years since in the Mull earth, had been considered as a new species by all British naturalists, as well as several foreign ones; yet in Ehrenberg's last work, “Mikrogeologie” it is figured asP. borealis, and as having been described by Ehrenberg ten or twelve years ago. The papers of that author, in the Berlin Reports and Transactions, are not generally accessible.
2. On Glacial Phenomena in Peebles and Selkirk Shires.
Authors: Chambers Robert
Published: June 2016

In this short paper, the author presented facts, from which he thought himself entitled to infer that the Silurian mountain tract of southern Scotland falls entirely into his views regarding ancient glacial operations in the country generally, as expounded in a paper read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in December 1852, and published in theEdinburgh New Philosophical Journalfor April 1853. He showed that the compact boulder clay, which he regards as the detritus of the early and generalglaciationof the country, exists in the valleys of this district, and in passes amongst the hills, up to those of Glenlude and Tweedshaws, which are respectively 1152 and 1352 feet above the mean level of the sea.
3. Preliminary Notice on the Decompositions of the Platinum Salts of the Organic Alkalies.
Authors: Anderson Thomas
Published: June 2016

The following pages are intended merely as a preliminary notice of an investigation, which has occupied me for some time past, and which, though still too incomplete for publication in full, is sufficiently advanced to render obvious the general character of the results, although, from the extensive and elaborate nature of the inquiry, a very considerable time must elapse before it is complete in all the requisite details.
4. On the Volatile Bases produced by Destructive Distillation of Cinchonine.
Authors: Williams C. Greville
Published: June 2016

In this paper the author shows that Cinchonine by distillation with potash, undergoes a very complex decomposition, and that instead of yielding one base, as has hitherto been supposed, gives at least seven.

The mode of research at first adopted was to convert the basic liquid into platinum salt, and separate the bases by fractional crystallization in the manner described in his paper “On the Presence of Pyridine in the Naphtha produced by destructive distillation of the Bituminous shale of Dorsetshire.”
2. On Errors caused by Imperfect Inversion of the Magnet in Observations of Magnetic Declination.
Authors: Swan William
Published: June 2016

The direction of the Magnetic Meridian, as indicated by that of a freely suspended magnetized needle will generally be erroneous, unless the magnetic axis of the needle is parallel to its axis of figure; and hence, in order to obtain an accurate value of the magnetic declination, it becomes necessary to take the mean of two observations of the needle, first suspended in its usual position and next inverted. If, however, the inversion of the needle is not accomplished with perfect accuracy, the correction, for want of parallelism between the magnetic axis of the needle, and its axis of figure, will not be complete; and the value of the magnetic declination obtained from the mean of two observations of the needle, first in its usual position, and then inverted, will be affected with a residual error due to imperfect inversion of the needle. The present investigation refers chiefly to that form of declinometer magnet, in which the magnet is converted into a collimator by attaching to it a lens and cross fibres or a divided glass scale, in the principal focus of the lens.
2. Notice respecting recent Discoveries on the Adjustment of the Eye to Distinct Vision.
Authors: Goodsir
Published: June 2016

The question as to the arrangement by means of which the eye is adapted for distinct vision at different distances has for two centuries strongly attracted the attention of physiologists. The numerous hypotheses, and untenable theories which have been advanced on this subject are all, however, more or less unsatisfactory.
2. On the Geological Relations of the Secondary and Primary Rocks of the Chain of Mont Blanc.
Authors: Forbes
Published: June 2016

This paper is intended to meet the objections taken by Mr D. Sharpe, in a paper published in theQuarterly Journal of the Geological Society for February1855, to the views of the present writer, and those of several eminent geologists, on the structure of the chain of Mont Blane.

De Saussure first described the singular superposition of gneiss to limestone which occurs on the south-east side of the valley of Chamouni, a testimony the more clear from its obvious opposition to the Wernerian views of the period.
3. On Solar Light, with a Description of a simple Photometer.
Authors: Ponton Mungo
Published: June 2016

The first part of this communication was occupied with a detail of some observations, made in the course of last summer, on the quantity and intensity of Solar light, as compared with familiar sources of artificial flame. The instrument employed for these observations was a simple monochromatic photometer, whose construction was minutely described.
2. On the Deflection of the Plumb-Line at Arthur's Seat, and on the Mean Density of the Earth.
Authors: James
Published: June 2016

The author states that the results of the Trigonometrical Survey of Great Britain are nownearly ready for publication, and that he has deduced from them the most probable measures which they afford of the length of a meridian, and the figure of the earth.

After determining the most probable spheroid from all the astronomical and geodetical operations in Great Britain, it has been found that the plumb-line is sensibly deflected at several of the trigonometrical stations; but in almost every case the physical cause of such irregularity may be with probability inferred.
2. Observations on the Crinoidea, showing their connection with other branches of the Echinodermata.
Authors: Austin Thomas
Published: June 2016

The author remarks, that although there are upwards of 280 writers on the Crinoidea, yet there is no class of ancient animals so much misunderstood. These animals have not merely played an important part in the system of creation as regards animal life, but they have also modified the physical condition of the globe. They are found abundantly in limestones, both of the Silurian and of the Carboniferous epochs, attaining their maximum in the latter.
3. Short Verbal Notice of a simple and direct method of Computing the Logarithm of a Number.
Authors: Sang Edward
Published: June 2016

Mr Sang briefly explained an application of the method of continued fractions to the resolution of the exponential equation, and illustrated it by exhibiting the computation of the logarithm of the prime number 27073 directly.
2. On the Delta of the Irrawaddy.
Authors: Login T.
Published: June 2016

Little is known of the course of the Irrawaddy River above Ava, and as it is joined by no large tributary near its mouth, its sectional area differs very little for hundreds of miles. At Prome, a distance of 190 miles in a direct line from the sea, the river is confined between two ranges of hills. The eastern range passes through the Tharawaddy district, separates the Irrawaddy from the Sittang Valley, and is lost in low undulating hills at Rangoon.
4. On the mode in which Light acts on the Ultimate Nervous Structures of the Eye, and on the relations between Simple and Compound Eyes.
Authors: Goodsir
Published: June 2016

Since the publication in 1826, of Joh. Müller'sVergleichende Physiologie des Gesichtssinnes, Physiologists have admitted three fundamental forms of the organ of vision. 1st, The eye-spot, organized for the mere perception of light. 2d, The compound eye, in which the picture on the nervous surface is a mosaic. 3d, The simple eye, in which the retinal picture is continuous. The difference between the simple and compound eye, as explained by Mülier, and since generally admitted, consists in this, that the formation of the picture in the simple eye is the result of the convergence of all the pencils diverging from the visible points of the object on corresponding points of the retina, by means of the crystalline lenticular structure of the organ; while, in the compound eye, the picture is formed by the stopping off, by means of the constituent crystalline columns of the eye, all rays except those which pass in or near the axes of the columns.
1. On the recently discovered Glacial Phenomena of Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags.
Authors: Chambers Robert
Published: June 2016

It will be remembered that, when the cutting was made, early in 1846, athwart the shoulder of Arthur's Seat above Samson's Ribs, for the formation of the Queen's Drive, the rock was found hollowed in a trough-form for a space of about eighty yards, and smoothed and striated in the manner of a glacier-bed of the Alps. The striæ were in the direction of the hollow, pointing to east 20° south. The whole was covered over with a brown tenacious clay, containing fragments of rocks of the district, along with some supposed to have come from a distance.
5. Analysis of Specimens of Ancient British, of Red Indian, and of Roman Pottery.
Authors: Thomson Murray
Published: June 2016

The specimen of this pottery was found last spring (1856) on the property of William Stirling, Esq. of Keir, along with the remains of a human skeleton, and so broken into fragments as to be of no archæological value

The clay, or rather loam, from which this pottery had been made had evidently undergone little or no previous preparation; the fragments were brittle, and had not been highly fired;—in this respect being inferior to the pottery of the Ojibbeway Indians about to be described.
Opening Address
Authors: Christison Robert
Published: June 2016

The Society now enters into its 90th session since its foundation. During the session recently concluded the number of its Ordinary Fellows has increased from 331 to 343. Twenty-two members were admitted during last session. In the twelve months ending with the 30th ultimo, death has laid his hands sparingly upon our brethren. During the former year we lost by death ten Ordinary and three Honorary Fellows, several of whom occupied during their lives a very high position in science. Last year has deprived us of only four Ordinary Fellows, and one on our Honorary list; and although these were all men of great estimation in their several professions, our Honorary Fellow alone, among them all, was widely known as a successful scientific labourer.
1. On the Anatomy of a new Species of Polyodon, the Polyodon Gladius of Martens, taken from the river Yang-tsze-Kiang, 450 miles above Woosung. Part I., being its External Characters and Structure
Authors: Handyside P. D.
Published: June 2016

The position of this new species of Ganoid, under our commonly accepted classification, the author gave as follows:—

After referring to the Polyodon folium of Laépède (the P. reticulata of Shaw, the Planirostra spatula of Owen), the paddle-fish or spoon-bill sturgeon of the Ohio and Mississippi and their tributaries, as a well-known species of the genus in question, Dr Handyside went on to state that the new species now to be described was first observed on a Chinese fishmonger's stall at Woosung, 12 miles from Shanghai, and had since been found in the Yang-tsze-Kiang, and, as was alleged, in the northern Japanese sea. He then sketched the history of the Polyodontidoæ family, and narrated the researches of Lacépède, Von Martens, Blakiston, Kaup, and Duméril.
2. The Meteorology of the Month of May
Authors: Buchan Alexander
Published: June 2016

Excepting the months of January and July—the months of extreme temperatures for the larger portions of the globe—there is no month the meteorology of which is so peculiar, and a careful investigation of which is so likely to lead to striking and important results, as the month of May. The peculiarity of the meteorology of the month of May is, that it is the month of the year during which the most rapid rise of temperature takes place over the greater parter part of the northern hemisphere, and the most rapid fall over the greater part of the southern hemisphere; and since that rapid rise and equally rapid fall takes place at very different rates, according to the peculiar distribution of land and water in each region, the inquiry is calculated to bring out in strong relief some of the more prominent causes which influence climate, and some of the more striking results of those causes.
1. A Contribution to the Visceral Anatomy of the Greenland Shark (Læmargus borealis)
Authors: Turner
Published: June 2016

Naturalists have recorded a few instances of the capture of the Greenland shark in the British seas. Dr Fleming states that one was caught in 1803 in the Pentland Firth, and that one was found dead at Buna Firth, Unst, in 1824. Mr Yarrell refers to a specimen caught on the coast of Durham in 1840, which has been preserved in the Durham University Museum. In May 1859, a specimen about ten feet long was caught in the Firth of Forth, near Inchkeith, the stuffed skin of which is preserved in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art. In 1862 a specimen was caught on the Dogger Bank, and brought into Leith. A brief description of its externarcharacter was read by Mr W. S. Young to the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh.
2. Observations and Experiments on the Fluid in the Cavities of Calcareous Spar
Authors: Hunter James , Sang Edward
Published: June 2016

At a recent meeting I laid before the Society a short notice of a phenomenon exhibited by the fluid contained in the cavities of calcareous spar. This phenomenon had been observed only a few days before, and the notice was given for the purpose of directing to it the attention of other observers, and particularly of those who happen to possess other minerals with analogous cavities, and I now propose to give an account of some more recent experiments and observations in regard to it.
2. On the Placentation of the Seals
Authors: Turner
Published: June 2016

After pointing out that the observations of Alessandrini, Rosenthal, Eschricht, and Barkow on the placentation of the seals had been limited to the determination of the form of the placenta, and to the more salient facts connected with the arrangement of the fœtal membranes, the author in this memoir proceeded to describe systematically the gravid uterus, the form and structure of the placenta, and the arrangement of the fœtal membranes of the grey seal, Halichœrus gryphus. He was indebted to Dr M'Bain and Captain Macdonald of the cruiser “Vigilant” for the opportunity of acquiring the gravid uterus of a recently killed specimen of this seal. The distribution of the utricular glands was described. The affinities between the placentation of the seals and the proper carnivora, more especially the common bitch, were pointed out.
3. On the Physiological Action of Ozone
Authors: Dewar James , M'Kendrick John G.
Published: June 2016

A systematic investigation into the physiological action of ozone, so far as we are aware, has never been undertaken. Isolated observations have been made by many while engaged in the examination of its physical and chemical properties, which have chiefly tended to show that it acts as an irritant on the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract, and they have also observed the peculiar odour which it excites by its effect on the organ of smell, from which the name ozone originated. Beyond this little has been attempted.
3. Remarks upon the Footprints of the Dinornis in the Sand Rock at Poverty Bay, New Zealand, and upon its recent extinction
Authors: Cockburn-Hood T. H.
Published: June 2016

Impressions of the tracks of large birds from this locality have lately been objects of attraction to visitors to the museum at Wellington, New Zealand. To these Dr Hector, F.R.S., has affixed a label, stating that they are from the “Sea shore sand” at Poverty bay, a harbour on the east coast of the north island. “Sand rock” would have been a preferable term, as to most observers the description is calculated to convey the idea that these footprints are but of yesterday's date.
9. The Kinetic Theory of the Dissipation of Energy
Authors: Thomson William
Published: June 2016

In abstract dynamics the instantaneous reversal of the motion of every moving particle of a system causes the system to move backwards, each particle of it along its old path, and at the same speed as before, when again in the same position. That is to say, in mathematical language, any solution remains a solution when t is changed into – t. In physical dynamics this simple and perfect reversibility fails, on account of forces depending on friction of solids; imperfect fluidity of fluids; imperfect elasticity of solids; inequalities of temperature, and consequent conduction of heat produced by stresses in solids and fluids; imperfect magnetic retentiveness; residual electric polarisation of dielectrics; generation of heat by electric currents induced by motion; diffusion of fluids, solution of solids in fluids, and other chemical changes; and absorption of radiant heat and light. Consideration of these agencies in connection with the all-pervading law of the conservation of energy proved for them by Joule, led me twenty-three years ago to the theory of the dissipation of energy, which I communicated first to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1852, in a paper entitled “On a Universal Tendency in Nature to the Dissipation of Mechanical Energy.’
4. Preliminary Note “On a New Method of obtaining very perfect Vacua.”
Authors: Tait P. G. , Dewar James
Published: June 2016

Professor Andrews, in the “Philosophical Magazine” for 1852, recalled the attention of physicists to the method originally devised by Davy of making a vacuum so perfect, that the residual gas exercised no appreciable pressure as registered by the depression of a barometric column. This he effected by filling the vessel to be exhausted with carbonic acid gas, having previously inserted a cup containing a concentrated solution of caustic potash. On rapidly exhausting with an air-pump, and leaving time for the absorption of the residual carbonic acid by the caustic potash, he obtained a vacuum as perfect as a Torricellian. Andrews' method was afterwards employed by Gassiot in his well-known investigations on the passage of electricity through attenuated media.
1. On the Resistance of the Air to the Motion of Fans
Authors: Fairweather James C.
Published: June 2016

The design of this paper is to describe the results of some experiments on “the Resistance of the Air,” which I made under the superintendence of Professor Forbes, in the physical laboratory of the Andersonian University, Glasgow. The apparatus employed resembles somewhat that used by M. le Chevalier de Borda, whose experiments on “the Resistance of Fluids” are recorded in the “Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences.” It consists essentially of a wooden frame, which was firmly secured to the floor, and supporting a horizontal axis, at one extremity of which is fixed a wooden arm, on to which were bolted the vanes of different forms and sizes, the resistance of which it was desired to ascertain. A cylinder or barrel, about 3 inches in diameter, is fastened to the axis, whereon was wound a cord, which, being acted on by weights, gave a circular motion to the axis, and consequently to the arm, thereby carrying the vanes in the circumference of a circle of 3 feet diameter, and causing them to impinge upon the air with velocities due to the force applied.
2. On the After-glow of Cooling Iron at a Dull-Red Heat
Authors: Forbes George
Published: June 2016

The facts to be explained were observed by Messrs Gore and Barrett, and were described by the latter gentleman in the “Philosophical Magazine” for 1873.

The experiments are performed on an iron or steel wire of no great thickness. When this is heated to an intense white heat and allowed to cool, the following facts appear at the instant it has cooled down to a dull-red heat:—

1. The wire expands for an instant, and then continues its normal contraction.

2. The glow from the wire is at the same instant seen to increase.
4. On the Semicircular Canals of the Internal Ear
Authors: Brown Crum
Published: June 2016

The author had laid before the Society, on the 19th January, a preliminary note containing an outline of a theory of the function of the semicircular canals of the internal ear. In that note it was stated that the six semicircular canals form three pairs—the members of each pair being parallel, and having their ampullæ at opposite ends. In this paper the author communicates the results of measurements of the position of the bony canals in a large number of animals.
2. Biographical Notice of Cosmo Innes
Authors: Neaves
Published: June 2016

We have lost another eminent member of our Society in Mr Cosmo Innes, of whom I shall venture to give a short account. I do not think it necessary to make it long, and this for various reasons. Mr Innes's labours were more nearly akin to the studies of another Society which meets under the same roof with ourselves, and within that body, I believe, tributes have been paid to his memory far more intelligent and more worthy of his reputation than any I could venture to offer. The general features of his career, also, are so well and widely known, and have been recalled to our recollection of late in such various ways, that any detailed narrative would be superfluous.
Laboratory Notes by Professor Tait a. On the Application of Sir W. Thomson's Dead-Beat Arrangement to Chemical Balances
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

A considerable amount of time is lost in making an accurate weighing on account of the slowness of oscillation of the balance when the loads are nearly equal; and this loss of time is nearly proportional to the delicacy or sensitiveness of the balance. Hence it becomes a matter of importance to endeavour to bring the balance speedily to rest without, if possible, impairing its sensitiveness; as thus much time and labour would be saved in weighing. Several methods of applying gaseous friction for this purpose have been tried by me of late.
3. On the mode of Growth and Increase amongst the Corals of the Palæozoic Period
Authors: Nicholson H. Alleyne
Published: June 2016

In the first portion of this communication, the author discussed the general phenomena exhibited by the Palæozoic corals as regards their mode of growth and increase.
3. On the Products of the Oxidation of Dimethyl-Thetine, and its Derivatives
Authors: Brown Crum , Letts E. A.
Published: June 2016

The difficulty experienced in determining the sulphur contained in the compounds of dimethyl-thetine (described in a former communication) by oxidation to sulphuric acid, induced the authors to study the effects of various oxidising agents on these compounds.

By acting on nitrate of dimethyl-thetine with dilute nitric acid, two bodies are produced. The one has acid properties, and forms a well-marked soluble salt with baryta. The other has neither acid nor basic properties. It crystallises in very beautiful needles from a hot solution in alcohol.
4. Note on the Electrical Conductivity of Saline Solutions
Authors: MacGregor J. G.
Published: June 2016

In the Sitzungsberichte of the Munich Academy, Professor Beetz has recently published a review of a paper by Mr J. A. Ewing and myself on “The Electrical Conductivity of certain Saline Solutions,” which was read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh during the session of 1872–73, and is published in their Transactions. I take the earliest opportunity of discussing the strength of the arguments on which his criticisms are based. Unfortunately, on account of Mr Ewing's being at present in South America, I am unable to communicate with him. I alone am therefore responsible for the contents of the present paper.
1. Note on Electric Resistance of Solutions
Authors: Durham William , Lang P. R. Scott
Published: June 2016

This note contains the results of experiments we have made on the electric resistance of solutions by a method brought under the notice of this Society by Messrs Ewing and M'Gregor, and described in their paper printed in the Transactions, vol. 27, page 51. Our results, so far as they have gone, are as follows :—

1. Resistance of solutions of sodium-chloride, and potassium-chloride, varying in strength from ·002 grains to 4 and 5 grains to 25 cubic inches of water. In these weak solutions the polarization was very little and easily got rid of, and the results satisfactory.
2. On the Circumscribed, Inscribed, and Escribed Circles of a Spherical Triangle
Authors: Colson C. G.
Published: June 2016

In the following paper I propose to investigate expressions for the vector of the following six points of a spherical triangle :—

(1.) Pole of inscribed circle.

(2.) (3.) (4.) Poles of escribed circles.

(5.) Pole of circumscribed circle.

(6.) The orthocentre or intersection of arcs drawn perpendicularly from angles upon the opposite sides.

These vectors will all be found in terms of the vector of the corners of the triangle drawn from the centre of the sphere.
Laboratory Notes by Professor Tait a. On the Origin of Atmospheric Electricity
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

This was a preliminary notice of the results of a series of experiments devised to test the part played by water-vapour in the production of atmospheric electricity. While water is in the form of vapour it must be electrified by contact with the gases of the atmosphere—as they are by contact with one another. Precipitation of vapour in a receiver, whether produced by cold or by exhaustion, was found to be steadily accompanied with a disengagement of electricity. Further experiments are to be made with receivers of very great capacity.
III.—A New Experimental Method of investigating Certain Systems of Stress
Authors: Gulliver G. H.
Published: June 2016

By experimental methods a close similarity has been shown to exist between certain simple stress systems and the corresponding systems of hydrodynamic flow. How nearly exact this similarity is, and how widely the application of the principle may be extended, are points which remain to be determined.

In a simply loaded bar there are secondary stresses which vary with the shape of the bar; the existence of these secondary stresses explains some apparent anomalies in the character of the lines of deformation.
VIII.—The Short Muscles of the Hand of the Agile Gibbon (Hylobates agilis), with Comments on the Morphological Position and Function of the Short Muscles of the Hand of Man
Authors: Fitzwilliams Duncan C. L.
Published: June 2016

The kindness of Professor Cunningham has enabled me to carry out the dissection of a gibbon in his possession. The dissection was performed in 1905, in the Anatomical Department of the University of Edinburgh. The following paper is a description of the short muscles of the hand of the animal, to which is added a consideration of the primitive position and function of the short muscles of the human hand.
XI.—On Waves in a Dispersive Medium resulting from a Limited Initial Disturbance
Authors: Green George
Published: June 2016

§ 1. In a former paper “On Group-Velocity and on the Propagation of Waves in a Dispersive Medium” (Proc. R.S.E., xxix. pp. 445–470, 1909), it was shown that group-velocity, or the principle of “stationary phase,” provides us with a satisfactory explanation of the modus operandi of dispersion; and the principle was applied to obtain an expression for the effect of a single impulse confined to the neighbourhood of a point of the medium. The present paper is intended to fulfil a promise given in § 29 of that paper, to show that by means of this principle we can arrive at the general features of the wave-system in a dispersive medium resulting from any limited initial disturbance.
XVII.—The Development of the Autonomie Nervous Mechanism of the Alimentary Canal of the Bird
Authors: Abel Williamina
Published: June 2016

Concerning the development of the ganglia and plexuses in the intestine, various theories have from time to time been formulated. The older writers, among whom were Remak (1, 2), Götte (5), Balfour and Foster (6), assumed that they had a mesoblastic origin, were formed in situ, and became joined on to the main sympathetic chain at a later date.

Later, an ectodermic origin was generally recognised as belonging to the central nervous system, but writers were not agreed as to the origin of the sympathetic. A few, among whom were His (4), Birdsall and Schenk (8), maintained that its origin was, like the central nervous system, ectodermic, but many held the older view that it was a mesoblastic structure.
XXI.—A Chemical Investigation into the Nature of the Clay Substance in the Glenboig Fireclay
Authors: McDonald D. P.
Published: June 2016

This investigation into the nature of the clay substance contained in the fireclay from Glenboig was undertaken at the suggestion of Professor J. W. Gregory. Professor Gregory thought that the fine material might be halloysite, and the results obtained tend to confirm this view.

The very finest material was separated by repeated washing from a sample of the best clay, and used for the analyses. Although apparently white when suspended in water, the material when dry had a decided buff colour. As the colour indicated the presence of some impurity, efforts were made by further washing to remove it; but with no good result. The sample was dried in the steam oven and analysed.
XXIV.—The Theory of Bigradients in the Historical Order of Development up to 1860
Authors: Muir Thomas
Published: June 2016

As we have already pointed out (Hist., i. p. 487), bigradients were first brought to light by Sylvester in 1840 in the paper in which he made known his so-called “dialytic“ method of eliminating the unknown from two equations of the same or different degrees. Shortly afterwards Richelot and Cauchy recalled attention to Euler's and Bezout's method of 1764, as giving substantially the same result as Sylvester's, the fact being that the determinant obtained by Sylvester differs from that obtainable in the other case merely by being its conjugate. The details of these papers and of others related to them have already been given.
XL.—A Stereoscopic Illusion
Authors: Baily Francis Gibson
Published: June 2016

If the finger be held vertically in front of the eyes and a distant object be looked at, it is well known that two images of the finger will be seen, quite transparent if the two images do not overlap, and opaque only at overlapping parts. In place of the finger, use a thin rod at a distance of some 6 or more feet, and focus on another vertical rod at a distance of 30 feet or more, so that the second rod is seen between the two images of the first. The apparent position of the second rod will be found to be distinctly nearer than its real position.
I—On a Method of determining Vapour Densities at High Temperatures, and on a new form of Quartz Manometer
Authors: Gibson G. E.
Published: June 2016

All methods of vapour density determination hitherto in use, in which quartz or glass manometers are employed, suffer from the disadvantage that the highest temperature attainable is about 750° C.

It is, however, possible to overcome this difficulty whenever the substance under investigation has a considerable vapour pressure below 750° C.
VII.—Preliminary Observations on Magnetic Induction in Ferric Oxide at Various Temperatures and in Different States, and on the Possible Chemical Changes indicated by the Observations
Authors: Allan G. E. , Brown John
Published: June 2016

In a previous paper by one of us, it was shown that a certain part of rock magnetism was variable and uncertain under the influence of raised temperature. In some instances the rock specimen became permanently more magnetic after it was heated in air, whereas, in the majority of cases, heating caused great loss of magnetic quality. It was suggested that the increase of magnetism observed was caused by the transformation of hæmatite into a more magnetic iron oxide.

In order to obtain material which might support this assumption, and also to amplify the work of previous investigators, experiments were undertaken with artificial and natural ferric oxide, in which the transformation of ferric oxide from a non-magnetic into a magnetic condition was observed, while some of the conditions which assist or impede this change were also studied.
XIV.—The Absorption of Light by Inorganic Salts. No. XI.: Conclusion
Authors: Houstoun R. A.
Published: June 2016

In this paper a short account will be given of the present state of the theory of the absorption of light, with special reference to the results gained in this series of investigations.

Theories of the dispersion of light may be divided into two classes: (1) those in which the body is regarded as consisting of particles which vibrate under the influence of the light wave; and (2) those in which the body is regarded as consisting of obstacles which diffract the light wave. According to (2), light is scattered, not absorbed; a wave going through the body diminishes in intensity, but the energy lost is radiated out laterally without change of wave-length.
XV.—On the Occurrence of Functional Teeth in the Upper Jaw of the Sperm Whale
Authors: Ritchie James , Edwards A. J. H.
Published: June 2016

Writers on mammalian anatomy are united in stating that one of the characteristics of the Cetacean family Physeteridæ is the presence of functional teeth in the lower jaw only. Typical statements are those of Flower and Lydekker (1891): “No functional teeth in the upper jaw”; Beddard (1900): “Teeth found in both jaws, but those of lower jaw alone functional; often very reduced in number”; Turner (1912): “Functional teeth in lower, but not in upper jaw.” A possible exception is the Pigmy Whale,Kogia, in which the upper jaw may altogether lack teeth or may possess an anterior rudimentary pair (as inK. simus, Owen) the utility of which is a matter of some doubt.