bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
1. Note on the use of Subacetate of Lead as a means of separating some of the Vegetable Alkaloids
Authors: Anderson Thomas
Published: June 2016

In a paper on the crystalline constituents of opium, read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, I described a process for separating thebaine from papaverine and narcotine, withwhich it occurs mixed in the opium liquor I examined. This process consisted in converting the mixed bases into acetates, and adding to the solution an excess of subacetate of lead, by which the feebler bases are precipitated, and the stronger thebaine left in solution.

As it is familiarly known that in those plants in which alkaloids are found, they rarely occur singly, but are generally associated in groups of two or more, often very closely allied in their properties, and consequently require for their separation, processes of considerable complexity, I have been induced to make a few experiments, with the view of ascertaining whether the method I had applied with success to the opium bases could be used for other substances.
1. On the Facets and Corners of Flat-Faced Solids
Authors: Sang Edward
Published: June 2016

In this paper it was shown that the usually received theorems concerning the faces of polyhedrons are true only of one class of solids. The theorem that “no solid can have every one of its faces more than pentagonal” was contradicted by the exhibitionof a solid bounded entirely by hexagons. Each corner of this solid is trihedral, and the sum of all its angles amounts to four times as many right angles as there are corners; whereas the usual theorem is, that “the angles of any solid amount to four times as many right angles as there are corners, lesseight.”
2. Account of the Life and Labours of Dr William Gregory
Authors: Alison
Published: June 2016

Dr Gregory, at the time of his death, which took place on the 24th of April last, was Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, and one of the Secretaries of this Society. He was born on the 25th of December 1803. His father was the late Dr Gregory; for a long time professor of the practice of medicine in the University of Edinburgh. His brothers, James Crawford, who took the degree of medicine in 1824, and died in 1832, and Duncan, who, when he died, was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, were both so highly distinguished for their talents and acquirements as to be worthy representatives of a family of no small distinction in the science and literature of the country; but, in Dr Alison's opinion, Dr William Gregory was the member of the family who, in our day, had shown the greatest original talent and devotion to science for its own sake. His love of science manifested itself at an early period. He had been present at an introductory lecture by Dr Hope, which was illustrated by striking experiments. Several of these experiments he contrived to repeat by means of a rude apparatus which he constructed for the purpose.
1. Note on certain Vibrations produced by Electricity
Authors: Forbes
Published: June 2016

“In the course of last summer (1858) I became acquainted with a phenomenon described by Mr Gore in the Philosophical Magazine for June (Supplement, p. 519), of the following nature:—A metal cylinder, supported on two metallic rods or rails, the latter being in connection respectively with the poles of a battery, revolves in either direction, at will, under the action of an electric current copious in quantity. Also continuous rotation of a light copper ball, supported on two circular metallic rails, takes place in either direction at pleasure, depending on the first impulse. It appeared to me very probable that this interesting fact might be applied to explain what is still obscure in the experiment on heated metals, generally known as the “Trevelyan Experiment,” described by Mr Trevelyan, in the “Edinburgh Transactions,” vol. xii., where there is also a paper by myself on the same subject.
1. Biographical Memoir of the late Dr D. Skene of Aberdeen
Authors: Thomson Alex.
Published: June 2016

This memoir commences by stating that it seemed desirable to arrange and preserve what memorials could still be found of one who had done very much to promote the study of natural science in Scotland, but whose memory had well-nigh perished.

Dr Skene's father and grandfather were both eminent physicians in Aberdeen, where he was born, on 13th August 1731.

His early education was conducted in Aberdeen. He spent the winter of 1751-2 in Edinburgh, attending various medical classes; and in the autumn of 1752 proceeded to London, where he studied under Hunter and Smellie, besides attending several of the hospitals.
1. Some Inquiries concerning Terrestrial Temperature
Authors: Forbes J. D.
Published: June 2016

In this paper the writer starts by assuming Dove's Temperatures for the mean of every 10th parallel of latitude, from 75° N. to 40° S., to be correct. His object is to inquire how far the influence of the proportion of land and water in modifying the annual temperature of a given parallel is susceptible of being reduced to a formula.

The amount of land and water in different latitudes is first tabulated.

It is then shown, from an examination of the ordinary isothermal curves, and also from Dove's charts of the “Thermic Anomaly,” that the influence of land is to exalt the temperature of lower latitudes, and to depress that of higher latitudes.
1. On some First Principles of a Mental Science, deduced from Correlations of the Primary Laws of Matter and Mind
Authors: Laycock
Published: June 2016

The author commences his communication by showing the need that has arisen for a scientific exposition of the laws of thought in relation to the laws of life and organization. In all the practical business of society, as well as of the physician, the phenomena of life and mind are inseparably associated; and consequently without such scientific exposition anything like a scientific application of mental philosophy to medicine and the sciences of human nature, included under sociology, is impossible. But physiology is itself a derivative science, inasmuch as vital processes are primarily dependent upon certain molecular forces of matter, known as light, heat, chemical affinity, &c.
2. Some Observations on the Coagulation of the Blood
Authors: Davy John
Published: June 2016

Dr Richardson, in a recent and elaborate work on the blood, an extension of a Prize Essay on the cause of the coagulation of this fluid, has endeavoured to prove that this phenomenon is of a chemical kind, depending on the escape of the volatile alkali.

The author of the paper of the above title describes three sets of experiments which he has instituted for the purpose of testing Dr Richardson's hypothesis. In all his trials on blood, he has used that of the common fowl, its properties being best adapted to the objects in view.
2. On the Fallacy of the Present Mode of Estimating the Mean Temperature in England
Authors: Stark James
Published: June 2016

In the Meteorological Tables for England, published at the public expense, viz., those of Greenwich Observatory, and those of the fifty-five meteorological stations in England, appended to the Registrar-General's Quarterly Reports, the mean temperature as given is not the true mean, but is an estimated mean, deduced from the united observations made with the self-registering and dry-bulb thermometers, the exact means of these instruments being first altered by certain tables, with the view of correcting them for diurnal and monthly range. The author objected to this mode of estimating the mean temperature, because the tables used for the purpose of correction were drawn up from insufficient data, and because the principle was bad of having observations made by one instrument, whose readings were liable to constant errors, made the basis for the correction of observations made by a more trustworthy instrument.
3. Description of the Plant which produces the Ordeal Bean of Calabar
Authors: Balfour
Published: June 2016

After noticing the various plants used in Africa as ordeal poisons, the author gave an account of the introduction of the Calabar Ordeal Bean into Scotland, by the Rev. W. Waddell, and mentioned its peculiar poisonous qualities, as determined by Dr Christison. To Dr Hewan, and the Rev. Zerub Baillie, who are connected with the United Presbyterian Mission in Old Calabar, he was indebted for some observations on actual cases of poisoning in Africa. The Rev. W. C. Thomson, another missionary, was the first who procured flowering specimens of the plant.
2. On the Climate of Edinburgh for Fifty-six Years, from 1795 to 1850, deduced principally from Mr Adie's Observations; with an Account of other and earlier Registers.—On the Climate of Dunfermline, from the Registers of the late Rev. Henry Fergus
Authors: Forbes J. D.
Published: June 2016

The paper on the Climate of Edinburgh is divided into seven sections.

The First Section includes an account of the earliest records of the thermometer at Edinburgh which are to be found in the Edinburgh Medical Essays. They date from 1731. They were made with a thermometer having an arbitrary scale, which is described in Martine's Essays, and they appear to have been recorded with much care; but they cease in 1736. The next series, printed in the Essays of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, commence in 1764, and are continued till 1770. A parallel Register was begun at Hawkhill, near Edinburgh, and continued till 1776, and probably later.
4. On the Thyroid Gland in the Cetacea; with Observations on the Relations of the Thymus to the Thyroid in these and some other Mammals
Authors: Turner William
Published: June 2016

The author, in the first instance, directed attention to the discrepant statements of various comparative anatomists respecting the thyroid gland in the Cetacea, quoting from the writings of John Hunter, Meckel, Cuvier, Carus, and Dr Martyn. He then related the result of his own dissections made on three specimens of the common porpoise (Phocœna communis), one being a fœtus, another a well grown male, the third an adult male. In each of these animals a well marked thyroid gland was found, lying on the anterior and lateral surfaces of the trachea at its upper end, and extending slightly upwards on each side over the outer surface of the cricoid cartilage. It presented no division into two lateral lobes, as described by Cuvier and Carus, but consisted of a single uniform mass extending across the middle line.
5. Notice of a Panoramic Sketch of Kashmir, recently received from India
Authors: Smyth C. Piazzi
Published: June 2016

A recent panoramic topographical view of the interesting region of Kashmir having been just communicated to me by my friend, Mr Roger Montgomerie, Advocate, I have found it so remarkably well executed, in its almost photographic representation of natural features of hill and plain, that I have obtained his leave to present it to the Royal Society, accompanying the presentation with the following few particulars, abstracted from MS. reports.
2. On the Composition of the Glassy Surface of some Vitrified Forts
Authors: Bloxam Thomas
Published: June 2016

The present paper was undertaken at the suggestion of the late Professor George Wilson, as forming an interesting inquiry, both to the antiquarian and the chemist, and as a sequel to the paper upon old Scotch glass, communicated by me to this Society some time since.

The investigation had for its object,—

1st, To ascertain the exact composition of the glassy surfaces of the various specimens.

2d, The composition of the rocks upon which the glass was formed.

3d, To account for the formation of such glass by the information afforded by the first two inquiries.
2. Note respecting Ampère's Experiment for showing the Repulsion of a Rectilinear Electrical Current on itself
Authors: Forbes
Published: June 2016

The experiment referred to was performed in 1823 by Ampère in the presence of Mr A. De la Rive. It is intended to show that if one portion of a rectilinear conductor is made moveable, it will be repelled from the portions which form its continuation. The arrangement employed was a copper wire-float in a double trough of mercury, which cannot easily be explained without a figure.

This experiment, though quoted by most writers on electricity, is understood to be one not easily repeated. Indeed, the author has not found an indication of its ever having been repeated with success. The author conceiving that perhaps this repulsion described by Ampère might assist in explaining the vibrations of rocking bodies through which an electrical current passes (as described in a communication by him to this Society in January 1859), devised another, and, as he conceives, a more delicate method of testing the supposed repulsion of a rectilinear current on itself.
2. Some Observations on the Albino
Authors: Davy John
Published: June 2016

The subjects of these observations were five individuals—four females, one male—all natives of Ceylon, of its south-east salubrious coast, and the children of coloured parents.

They are described by the author as well made, as having good health, and, though all coming under the denomination of Albinos, on account of their unusual fairness, yet as varying in degree, the lightest having red eyes and almost white hair; the less light, blue eyes and light-brown hair, with a complexion that in this country would be considered merely that of a pure blonde.
4. Notice of an Expeditious Method (believed to be new) for Computing the Time of Descent in a Circular Arc
Authors: Sang Edward
Published: June 2016

In determining the intensity of gravitation from the oscillations of a pendulum, and in estimating the directive power of the earth's magnetism from the frequency of vibration of a needle, we have to make allowance for the extent of the arc through which the motions take place.

The formula usually given for this purpose contains a series converging rapidly enough for very small arcs, but which requires a great amount of labour when the angle of deflection exceeds twenty or thirty degrees.
4. On Natro-boro-calcite, and another Borate occurring in the Gypsum of Nova Scotia
Authors: How Henry
Published: June 2016

About three years and a half ago, I showed the existence of Natro-boro-calcite in the gypsum of Windsor, N.S. I was not aware at that time that Dr Hayes of Boston, U.S., had announced his conviction that the soda which had been attributed to this mineral was an impurity, and had given, as the true expression of the composition of the pure mineral, the formula CaO 2 BO3 + 6 HO.
1. On the Molecular Theory of Organization
Authors: Bennett
Published: June 2016

Parodying the celebrated expression of Harvey, viz., Omne animal ex ovo, it has been attempted to formularise the law of development by the expression omnis cellula e cellula, and to maintain “that we must not transfer the seat of real action to any point beyond the cell.” In the attempts which have been made to support this exclusive doctrine, and to give all the tissues and all vital properties a cell origin, the great importance of the molecular element, it seemed to the author, had been strangely overlooked. It becomes important, therefore, to show that real action, both physical and vital, may be seated in minute particles, or molecules much smaller than cells, and that we must obtain a knowledge of such action in these molecules if we desire to comprehend the laws of organization. To this end the author directed attention: 1st, To a description of the nature and mode of origin of organic molecules; 2d To a demonstration of the fact that these molecules possess inherent powers or forces, and are present in all those tissues which manifest vital force; and 3d, To a law which governs the combination, arrangement, and behaviour of these molecules during the development of organised tissue.
2. Notices of Early Scotch Planting
Authors: Innes Cosmo
Published: June 2016

The common opinion that Scotland was at one time closely wooded, is at least questionable, and some circumstances lead to an opposite belief: as,

The careful stipulations found in the most ancient deeds, about giving or withholding a limited use of wood for building and fuel.

The use of foreign timber for our greater buildings, when to be had; thus, Norway timber used for building the Abbey of Arbroath, in the 15th century.

The importation of bow-staves and spear-shafts, such long straight timber not being procurable at home.
1. Additional Observations on the Chronology of the Trap-Rocks of Scotland
Authors: Geikie Archibald
Published: June 2016

In a communication made to the Society last session, the author stated the results of a series of explorations among the trap-rocks of Scotland, and showed that, at successive periods, during the deposition of the Lower Silurian, Old Red Sandstone, Carboniferous, Oolitic, and Tertiary formations, there were contemporaneous eruptions of volcanic material. During the year 1860, the investigation was continued across the Highlands into the Inner Hebrides, and throughout a large part of the central counties southward to the Cheviot Hills. The author was now able to fill in more fully what had only been sketched in outline in the previous paper, and to prepare a series of maps to illustrate the volcanic areas of Scotland during the successive geological periods.
Opening Address. Session 1860–61
Authors: Ramsay
Published: June 2016

It is with no affectation of humility, it is with no mock modesty that I earnestly bespeak your kind indulgence for the discharge of the duty to which I have been called this evening. My diffidence in this matter arises from no want of interest in the work assigned to me, but from knowing how much I lack that extent of knowledge and that degree of experience which seem to be required for the position in which I am placed, and for such an audience as I have the honour to address. I find different scientific associations adopt different rules. In some cases the secretary makes, in name of the council, a general report of the whole proceedings during the past year; in fact, very much in the business style of the secretary of a railway company. In some cases, the address is delivered on the anniversary of the society by the president, who makes a distribution of its medals and prizes previous to his vacating his office.
1. Note on the Phosphorescence of Beröe
Authors: Allman
Published: June 2016

The author stated, as the results of some experiments which he had made on the phosphorescence of a species of Beröe (Idyia) which abounded during the last summer in the Firth of Forth, that the light is never emitted as long as the animal is exposed to daylight; and that withdrawal from the daylight for some time is necessary, in order to impart to the Beröe the property of phosphorescence.
2. Cases of Poisoning by Goat's Milk
Authors: Mackay Alexander E.
Published: June 2016

On 27th November 1861, eleven wardroom officers of the “Marlborough,” including the author, were simultaneously attacked with extreme faintness, nausea, bilious vomiting, and diarrhœa; the attacks lasting five or six hours—in some of the cases being of great severity, and attended with much depression. The treatment, which was successful in every instance, consisted in encouraging free vomiting, and the administration of stimulants and anodynes. At the same time a series of similar cases occurred in H.M.S. “Agamemnon,” and five other ships in the harbour.
4. On the Constitution of Mannite
Authors: Wanklyn J. A. , Erlenmeyer
Published: June 2016

Chemists are in the habit of assigning to mannite the formula,

C6H14O6;

but the reasons which have hitherto been given for that formula seem not very conclusive. By a process of fermentation, alcohol and a number of other compounds of well established composition may be obtained from mannite; but inasmuch as disintegration takes place in this process, the formulæ of the products afford no guide to the constitution of the original body.
2. Memoir of the Life and Writings of Robert Whytt, M.D., Professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, from 1747 to 1766
Authors: Seller William
Published: June 2016

Biography, the author said, had never done sufficient justice to Robert Whytt, while it began already to omit his name. Whytt had commonly been represented as a follower of Stahl; and this idea, which was without foundation, had probably been a principal cause why his merits had not always been duly recognised.

It was mentioned in the Memoir, that Whytt was born at Edinburgh, September 6, 1714; he was the son of Robert Whytt of Bennochy, a member of the Scottish bar; he was a posthumous child, born six months after his father's death; he was not yet seven years old when he lost his mother; her name was Murray; she was the daughter of Antony Murray of Woodend, in Perthshire.
5. On the Deflection of the Plummet caused by the Sun's and Moon's Attraction
Authors: Sang Edward
Published: June 2016

In this paper it was shown that the attraction of the sun causes a deflection of the plummet, having its maximum about the 240th part of a second, and proportional to the size of twice the sun's zenith distance; the deflection is at its maximum when the sun is 45° above or below the horizon, and occurs in the vertical plane passing through the attracting body.

The deflection due to the moon has its maximum about the 60th part of a second, and follows the same law; it is toward or from the attracting body according as the zenith distance is less or more than 90°.
6. Note on Gravity and Cohesion
Authors: Thomson William
Published: June 2016

The view, founded on Boscovich's theory, commonly taken of cohesion, whether of solids or of liquids, is, that it results from a force of attraction between the particles of matter, which increases much more rapidly than according to the inverse square of the distance, when the distance is diminished below some very small limit. This view might, indeed, seem inevitable, unless the idea of “attraction” is to be discarded altogether; because the law of attraction at sensible distances—the Newtonian law—demonstrated by its discoverer for distances not incomparably smaller than the earth's dimensions, and verified by Maskelyne and Cavendish in a manner rendering it impossible for any naturalist to reasonably doubt its applicability to the mutual action between particles a few hundred yards or a few inches asunder, seems to give only very small, scarcely appreciable, forces between bodies of such masses as those we experiment on in our laboratories, everywhere placed as close as possible to one another,—that is to say, in contact, and does not seem to provide for any considerable increase of attraction when the area of contact is increased, whether by pressing the bodies together, or by shaping them to fit over a large area.
6. On some Thermic Properties of Water and Steam
Authors: Rankine W. J. Macquorn
Published: June 2016

The author refers to the general equation of the mechanical action of heat which Professor Clausius and he arrived at independently by different methods in 1849, and points out that the form of that equation, which was laid before the Society by him in a paper read on the 4th of February 1850, comprehends, as a particular case, the law which connects the volume of a given weight of steam with its temperature, pressure, and latent heat. He describes the use of that law, with proper numerical data, to compute, in the absence of direct experiment, tables of the density and volume of saturated steam, more accurate than those founded on the assumption of the perfectly gaseous condition, as exemplified in tables which he published in 1855 and subsequently.
1. On the Improvement of Navigation in Tidal Rivers.
Authors: Stevenson David
Published: June 2016

Three compartments are pointed out as existing in all rivers, when viewed in connection with the sea, possessing different characteristics, and requiring different classes of works for their improvement. These are,first, The “sea proper,” characterised by the presence of unimpaired tidal phenomena, and including all works connected with the improvement of bars.Second, The “tidal compartment of the river,” characterised by the modified flow of the tide, produced by the inclination of the bed, and embracing works connected with the straightening, widening, or deepening, of the beds of rivers; the formation of new cuts; the erection of walls for the guidance of tidal currents, and the shutting up of subsidiary channels.
3. Experiments and Investigations as to the influence exerted over some Minerals by Animal and Vegetable matter, under certain conditions.
Authors: Marshall Margaret Henrietta
Published: June 2016

It occurred to the author, while examining the fossils of various strata, that possibly the animal matter of the animals originally included in the rock might have played some part in its consolidation, and thus, after their destruction as living animals, they might have continued to serve a useful purpose.

After many unsuccessful experiments, made with common lime, and raw animal or vegetable matter, she had recourse to sulphate of lime, and found that plaster of Paris, when mixed with water, and with not more thanpart of the weight of the whole mass of mixed animal and vegetable matter, it did not set instantly, but continued for some hours quite plastic, developed, in setting, more heat than usual, and finally acquired a remarkable degree of hardness, and the power of resisting both water and fire to a very great degree. A specimen, was exhibited, made in this way.
1. On the Action of Soluble Lead Salts on Natural Waters.
Authors: Connell
Published: June 2016

In a former communication to the Society, the author noticed that spring, well, and river waters, even after being boiled, usually yield, with acetate of lead, a precipitate readily soluble, in whole or great part, in acetic acid; and as the solution appeared not to be attended with effervescence, it was conceived to be due to organic matter. The author has since found that effervescence is more common than was at first supposed, and in that case the precipitate is due to the presence of carbonate of lime in the water. It was ascertained by boiling a solution of carbonate of lime in water containing excess of carbonic acid, that the trace of carbonate of lime retained in solution after ebullition, was too slight to explain the reaction of the spring waters, on the idea that it had been originally taken up by them in this way.
2. A few Remarks suggested by Professor Forbes's Description of the effects of Glacial Action among the Cuchullin Hills, and Mr Maclaren's views of the facts observed by him at the Gareloch.
Authors: Mackenzie G. S.
Published: June 2016

The object of this paper was to shew, that if it be assumed that glaciers had actually existed among the Cuchullin Hills, or in other parts of this country, one of two conditions must necessarily have been present—either a climate much colder than the existing climate of Scotland, or a higher position of the land where the supposed marks of glaciers are seen. With respect to the first condition, the permanency of the relative positions of the heavenly bodies, and of the inclination of the earth's axis, and the adaptation to existing climates of animal and vegetable life, were appealed to as rendering it improbable. The other condition was maintained as probable, on the ground that the changes which have undoubtedly taken place in the positions of the rocky masses forming the crust of the earth, prove that parts of these masses had been depressed, while others had been elevated; so that the probability was, that the Cuchullin Hills had stood at a higher elevation than they do at present, reaching above the line of perpetual congelation.
3. Remarks on certain grooved surfaces of Rock on Arthur's Seat.
Authors: Fleming
Published: June 2016

Dr Fleming read a paper, entitled “Remarks on certain grooved surfaces of Rock in Arthur's Seat.” He referred, in the first instance, to the surface of the bed of porphyry, known as the Bog Crag, and contiguous to the Hunter's Bog; and shewed, from the directions of the markings being neither parallel to the valley, nor the neighbouring cliff, that they could not be the result of glacial, diluvial, or iceberg action, but were probably caused by the sliding of the contiguous beds at their upheaval; and this view he considered strengthened by the state of the detritus of the cliff of the Well Crag. He then took notice of a grooved surface of basalt, contiguous to a singular trough to the east of St Anthony's Well, but which might have been produced either by glacial or diluvial action.
1. Biographical Notice of the late Sir John Robison, K.H., Sec. R. S. Ed.
Authors: Forbes
Published: June 2016

“A laudable usage was formerly more prevalent in this Society than it is at present, of recording the merits and services of persons who have conferred honour upon it by the one, or rendered themselves its benefactors by the other. Some very elaborate biographies have thus been communicated; but, in the old “History of the Society” (to which our published “Proceedings” are in some degree parallel), numerous short notices are to be found of a kind imposing less labour on the biographer, and admitting of more extensive application than the larger memoirs just alluded to. In the hope that such notices may be more frequently contributed, I beg now to offer, within the short compass in which the very limited materials now at my disposal enable me to condense my task, a brief notice of the Life of the late Sir John Robison, whose most energetic efforts were, for many years, constantly directed to the promotio of the welfare of this Society; a circumstance which seems to call for more specific notice than was comprised in the thanks and acknowledgment voted by the Society during his lifetime, and which naturally devolves upon me the duty of drawing it up, not only as his successor in office, but as having enjoyed his friendship, and having been, on several occasions, indebted to him, in no common degree, for personal kindness.
2. On a method of rendering Magnetical Instruments Self-Registering.
Authors: Broun J. A.
Published: June 2016

A sheet of paper being stretched tightly across a flat frame, if fine iron filings be dusted uniformly over it, and a fine pointed sewing needle, magnetised to saturation, held vertically, be moved below it, the point being kept at a short distance from the paper, the motion of the needle-point will be indicated by a fine line of filings which, attracted by the magnet, separate themselves from the homogeneous dust around. The fineness of this line will depend on the sharpness of the needle point, and the smallness of the particles of iron; the distance of the point from the paper will depend on the strength of the magnet, and the smoothness of the surface on which the particles lie. In some experiments already made, lines have been obtained as fine as could be produced by the sharpest pointed pencil, and this with a portion only of a small sewing needle. It will require a more extensive series of experiments to determine the best size for the magnet, and the best kind of paper for the filings. The particles of iron having a certain weight, are not easily shaken from their position if moderate care be taken.
3. On the Solubility of Fluoride of Calcium in Water, and the relation of this property to the occurrence of that Substance in Minerals, and in recent and Fossil Plants and Animals.
Authors: Wilson G.
Published: June 2016

After a preliminary reference to the existence of fluorine in recent and fossil bones, Dr Wilson stated that he had made a series of experiments with a view to discover what solvent carried fluoride of calcium into the tissues of plants and animals. His first trials were made with carbonic acid, which was passed in a current through water containing pure fluor-spar in fine powder suspended in it. The fluor was by this treatment dissolved, yielding a solution which precipitated oxalate of ammonia, and when evaporated left a residue which, on being heated with sulphuric acid, gave off hydrofluoric acid.
4. Two Verbal Notices. (1.) On the Geology of Arthur Seat. (2.) On the Dentition of the Walrus.
Authors: Fleming
Published: June 2016

(1.) Dr Fleming read the following passage from Townson's “Tracts and Observations in Natural History,” Edin. 1799, when treating of the “Rocks in the Vicinity of Edinburgh:”—“The first of the chains or ranges of rocks that I lately described, as lying at the back of Salisbury Crags, extends from Arthur Seat to St Anthony's chapel. It is composed of basalt and sandstone, neither of which are like the whin and sandstone of Salisbury Crags. The basalt is the same as that near Duddingston Loch.
2. On the Extent to which Fluoride of Calcium is Soluble in Water at 60° F.
Authors: Wilson George
Published: June 2016

Dr Wilson stated, that the object of his communication was to supplement a paper read to the Royal Society, April 6, 1846, on the solubility of fluoride of calcium in water. He was not then able to state the extent of its solubility in that liquid, but he has since ascertained the weight of the salt in question, which water at 60° can dissolve. The solutions referred to in the following statements were prepared from native well-crystallized fluor-spar. This was first digested in warm dilute aqua regia, to remove any trace of metallic oxides, soluble lime-salts, or other foreign matters, and afterwards carefully washed till it exhibited no acid reaction. Distilled water was then boiled on the purified fluor till it became saturated; the solution filtered whilst warm, and left at rest for some days in stoppered bottles, at a temperature of about 60°, till it deposited the excess of salt soluble above that temperature. It was then filtered a second time. A certain volume of this solution, measured at 60°, was evaporated to dryness on the vapour bath, in a counterpoised platina basin.
3. New Observations on the Glaciers of Savoy. Part I.
Authors: Forbes J. D.
Published: June 2016

This paper describes the remarkable changes which the glacier of La Brenva, on the south side of Mont Blanc, has undergone between the years 1842 and 1846.

It has increased to such an extent, that it has risen against the opposing wall of rock on the side of the valley nearly 200 feet vertically; it has covered a large additional surface of ground, and appears to be approaching the moraines of 1818. The author describes the measures which he took for comparing its size at any future period, and he cites some observations made by the Vicar of Courmayeur (M. Guicharda), which plainly establish its continued motion during winter.
1. On the Course of Observation to be pursued in future at the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh.
Authors: Smyth C. Piazzi
Published: June 2016

Being at present chiefly taken up with the computation of his predecessor's observations, the author takes this opportunity of examining into what is going on in other Observatories; and then endeavours, from the results of such a survey, to select some unpursued branch of Astronomy, as the proper subject to which the Edinburgh Observatory should be devoted; and he dwells much on the great caution to be used, in the present multiplication of astronomical observatories, that several of them be not working against each other on the same subject; and urges the extreme importance of first selecting an appropriate object of research, and then following it up with a constancy enduring through ages, after the manner of the Greenwich Observatory, which has consequently produced results of such inestimable service to the promotion of the science.
Examination of some Theories of German Writers, and of Mr Grote, on the Authorship of the Iliad and Odyssey.
Authors: Dunbar
Published: June 2016

In the first part of the paper the question was examined, whether the art of writing was known and practised at the time in which Homer is supposed to have lived? It was found that there was no evidence, either in the Iliad or Odyssey, that it was practised at that time; but that these poems must have been transmitted orally by the Bards for a period of nearly three centuries. It was then considered whether poems of such a length as the Iliad and Odyssey could have been composed and committed to memory by one man; and it was shewn, from several examples, that there was no impossibility in the matter.
Verbal Notice.
Authors: Fleming
Published: June 2016

(2.)On the Fluor-Spar of Aden.

Dr Fleming exhibited to the Society several beautiful examples of quartz and calcedony, in the form of cakes or circumscribed stalagmites, from the fort of Aden in the Red Sea, which had been sent to him by Dr Buist of Bombay. They were remarkable as having a few minute crystals of fluoride of calcium, the matter of which aggregated during the evaporation of the water, which had furnished, in greater quantity, the siliceous materials forming the support.
2. Notices of a Flood at Frastanz, in the Vorarlberg, in the Autumn of 1846.
Authors: Brown William
Published: June 2016

The author noticed the general effects of running water, in dissolving, rubbing down, and transporting to a lower level, the solid parts of the earth's surface; and referred to the gradual change which it is producing on the relative level of sea and land. He then described an occurrence which he had witnessed in the Vorarlberg, during the autumn of 1846.
1. On the Action of the Dry Gases on Organic Colouring Matters, and its relation to the Theory of Bleaching.
Authors: Wilson George
Published: June 2016

This communication is divided into six sections. In the first, the author states that the object of his paper is to supply a defect in the theory of chlorine-bleaching, by endeavouring to explain why the removal of water from that gas arrests its bleaching action. In the preliminary discussion, he refers at some length to Davy's theory, that moist chlorine does not bleach directly, but only in a secondary way, by combining with the hydrogen of the associated water, and liberating the oxygen, which is the true bleacher. After pointing out the untenable assumptions and self-destructive arguments on which this theory is built, the author proceeds in the second section, which discusses the influence of sunlight on the bleaching action of dry chlorine, to shew; that Davy's proposition that dry chlorine does not bleach dry organic colours is true, provided direct sunlight be excluded, but does not apply to the gas when exposed to the actinic influence of the sunbeam. In a comparative trial, one specimen of dry litmus paper was found to resist the decolorizing action of dry chlorine for more than eight months when kept in darkness; whilst the colour of another portion of the same paper totally disappeared after six weeks' exposure to sunshine.
2. On the Products of the Destructive Distillation of Animal Substances, Part I.
Authors: Anderson Thomas
Published: June 2016

In this communication the author details the general properties of bone-oil, the substance employed in his experiments, and those of certain of the volatile bases contained in it.

The oil was first rectified, and the product collected in two separate portions, each of which was separately agitated with dilute sulphuric acid for the separation of the bases. The acid solution so obtained was then boiled down to a small bulk for the purpose of separating any non-basic oil which might have been dissolved, and distilled with potash, soda, or slaked lime. The bases passed over in solution in water, from which they were separated by means of solid caustic potass; similar processes were performed with both portions of the bone-oil, but in the present paper the author confines himself to the pure volatile portion only.
2. On the Classification of Colours.
Authors: Forbes J. D.
Published: June 2016

As the reading of this paper was only commenced at his meeting, the abstract is deferred until the conclusion.
1. Description of a Mud-slide at Malta.
Authors: Milward A.
Published: June 2016

A large quantity of mud, dredged up from the harbour of Valetta, having been deposited on a piece of slightly-inclined ground, and having been subsequently moistened to an excessive extent by rain, and by the overflow of a neighbouring tank, the upper parts began to flow down over the lower and the original boundary, in six distinct streams; this separation being apparently caused by the difference of resistance and level of the under stratum.
3. Notice of a Shooting-Star.
Authors: Smyth C. Piazzi
Published: June 2016

The object of this notice was merely to call attention to the importance of observing the phenomena of shooting-stars more carefully and rigidly, and of applying to them more correctly than has generally been the case hitherto, the measurement of time and of space, and to exemplify what may be done in this way by the calculation of a recent instance. This instance, the rare one of anascendingshooting-star, was furnished by Captain W. S. Jacob, Bombay Engineers; and he having given the place where the body first appeared, that where it disappeared, and the time, the author of the paper, who had great faith in his friend's exactitude, considered the opportunity favourable for trying what results would be given by the application of Sir J. Lubbock's theory.
1. On a New Voltaic Battery of Intense Power.
Authors: Wright
Published: June 2016

The author placed on the table a battery of four pairs, each consisting of a rod of coke 2½ inches long by 1½ in diameter, surrounded by a cylinder of amalgamated zinc, 2½ inches high by 2¼ inches in diameter; the different pairs were firmly attached to the same bar of wood, and could be immersed in jars of stoneware at once. The arrangement was charged with a mixture of nitric acid one part, sulphuric acid four parts, water eight parts. The author stated that he considered the power of the battery, which was twice that of Grove's, was due to the heat generated on the surface of the zinc by the local action of the nitric acid.
4. Notes to a Paper on the Motive Power of Heat.
Authors: Thomson William
Published: June 2016

(1.)On the Values of μ derived from Observations on the Vapours of various Liquids.

An important test of the truth of the axiom on which Carnot's Theory is founded, will be afforded by comparing the values ofμdeduced from observations on various liquids. I am informed by Mons. Regnault, that, by the end of this year, data as complete as those which we at present possess for water, will be supplied for five or six different liquids, from certain investigations with which he is now occupied. Carnot gives values ofμfor the temperatures of the boiling of sulphuric ether, alcohol, water, and essence of turpentine, derived from various observations upon those liquids.
5. Note regarding an Experiment suggested by Professor Robison.
Authors: Forbes J. D.
Published: June 2016

In his memoir of Dr Chalmers, lately read to this Society, Mr Ramsay has referred to an experiment which Dr Chalmers was anxious to have performed on the tide-wave in the Bay of Fundy. The object was to determine the earth's density by the attraction of the tide-wave on a plummet or spirit-level, on the same principle as Maskelyne's experiment on Schiehallion, but with the superior advantages arising from the perfect homogeneity of the attracting mass, and from the circumstance that all the observations might be made at a single station. The experiment might, in short, appear to unite the advantages both of Maskelyne's and Cavendish's methods of determining the earth's density.
3. On the solution of certain Differential Equations.
Authors: Kelland
Published: June 2016

Until recently, general solutions of several classes of equations, such as that which occurs in the theory of the figure of the earth, could not be arrived at. An ingenious transformation lately rendered it a matter of comparative ease to arrive at a solution of these equations in those forms in which they are presented in the solution of physical problems; but still much remains to be done. The object of the present paper is to supply some portion of the deficiency in this respect, by the introduction of a new transformation, and the adoption of the function Γ. The solutions thus obtained are perfectly general, and are arrived at with the greatest facility.
2. On Probable Inference.
Authors: Terrot
Published: June 2016

The paper commenced with a suggestion, that, as the inferences of ordinary logic admitted no premises but such as were absolutely certain, and as the premises with which we have to deal in the business of life were not certain, but only probable, therefore it was highly desirable that we should have a logic, or rules for drawing inferences on the case of probable premises.

The attention of the Society was then drawn to the 15th section of the article Probabilities, in theEncyclopœdia Metropolitana, and especially to the following passage: “It is an even chance that A is B, and the same that B is C; and therefore, 1 to 3 from these grounds only that A is C. But other considerations of themselves give an even chance that A is C. What is the resulting degree of evidence that A is C?” To which query the answer in theEncyclopœdiais.
3. On the Combined Motions of the Magnetic Needle, and on the Aurora Borealis.
Authors: Broun J. A.
Published: June 2016

When a steel needle or rod is so constructed that its centre of gravity is in a finely-turned axle at right angles to its length, it will rest in any position when the axle is placed upon polished planes; when, however, we magnetize the needle, it assumes a position which is that of the direction of the magnetic force at the place: in this way we obtain the ordinary dipping-needle. The dipping-needle can obviously move only in one plane, that to which the axle is at right angles; were it possible to suspend it freely, so that it could move in every plane with every variation of the direction of the magnetic force, we should then be able, by observing the variations of its position, to determine at once the laws which a magnet in its true position obeys; this, however, we have not been able to do; even the small variations in the vertical plane, which we might expect to obtain from the ordinary dipping-needle, are nearly or altogether destroyed by the friction of the axle upon its supports; and there are many mechanical difficulties in the way of the other methods of suspension. It has been found convenient, then, to make use of the simplest methods of suspending magnets in a horizontal plane; and to endeavour to deduce, from the composition of their motions, the laws both of the variation of the force with which a truly suspended magnet is directed, and of the direction of that force itself.
1. On the Colours of Natural Bodies
Authors: Brewster David
Published: June 2016

The only Theory of the Colours of Natural Bodies that has met with reception in modern times, is that of Sir Isaac Newton, who considers them as identical with those of thin plates, and as varying with the size of the ultimate particles of the body.

Although this theory, ingenious as it is, be liable to many great objections, and be not capable of explaining the phenomena, even if its postulates be admitted; yet the author of the present paper does not assail it with any arguments of this kind. He has, on the contrary, attacked it in its stronghold, and has endeavoured to bring it to the test of direct experiment.
2. Notice respecting the Determination of the Geographical Positions of the Village of Chamouni, and of the Convent of the Grand St. Bernard
Authors: Forbes James D.
Published: June 2016

The author undertook the determinations of these positions at the suggestion of Professor Gautier of Geneva, who informed him, that they had not been fixed by any direct observations. The great discrepancies of the best maps of the Alps in laying them down, confirm this opinion; and the author has quoted the latitudes and longitudes, given by the best authorities, at the end of his paper.