bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
4. Note on a large Crystal of Calc-spar found in Lough Corrib
Authors: Tait  , Renard Abbé
Published: June 2016

The crystal of calcite found by Professor Tait presents very large dimensions for a specimen, with very simple, and, at the same time, very definite forms. This crystal shows the faces of the primitive rhombohedron of 105°, and is twinned with parallel axes. The two individuals which compose the crystal show the form of the cleavage rhombohedron R (1011); they are applied to each other with symmetrical development with reference to the base oR (0001), and present the appearance of a simple crystal, although formed of two distinct halves, of which the upper belongs to one crystal and the lower to the other, the two individuals being complementary to each other. Along the twinning plane may be noticed a series of very regular grooves, which indicate a repetition of the twinning following the base, It must be noticed that the six faces do not present the same physical characters– two of them, the primitive faces of tho crystal, are smooth; the other four, although having the same crystallographic sign, are faces of cleavage more brilliant than the others. They appear to show that the crystal, although found isolated by Professor Tait, was formerly attached. This is further demonstrated by the presence of irregular faces, which are not amenable to any mathematical law. These false faces may be seen on the superior and inferior portions of the crystal; they are granular, and without lustre, and cannot be confounded either with the crystal faces or with those of cleavage. They have been produced by the pressure exerted upon the crystal by the neighbouring crystals, which were developing at the same time. This consideration explains the anomalies which they show, when regarded from a geometrical point of view.
1. On Radiation
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

The first part of this communication was devoted to a recapitulation of the advances in the Theory of Exchanges made by Stewart in 1858, and published in the Transactions of the Society for that year. Such a recapitulation it will be seen is necessary; as Stewart's papers seem either to have fallen into oblivion or to be deemed unworthy, of notice. It was pointed out that Stewart showed in these papers that the radiation within an impervious enclosure containing no source of heat must ultimately become, like the pressure of a non-gravitating fluid at rest, the same at all points and in all directions; but that this sameness is not, like that of fluid pressure, one of mere total amount; it extends to the quantity and quality of every one of the infinite series of wave-lengths involved. For, as one or more of the bodies may be black, the radiation is simply that of a black body at the temperature of the enclosure. Any new body, at the proper temperature, may be inserted in the enclosure without altering this state of things; and must therefore emit precisely the amount and quality which it absorbs. This remark contains all that is yet known on the subject. For we have only to assume for the purpose of reasoning, the existence of a substance partially, or wholly, opaque to one definite wave-length, and perfectly transparent to all others; or with any other limited properties we choose; and suppose it to be put (at the proper temperature) into the enclosure. If we next assume that its temperature when put in differs, from that of the enclosure, the experimental fact that, in time, equilibrium of temperature is arrived at, shows that the radiation of any particular wave-length by a body increases with rise of temperature. And so forth.
2. On the Need, for Decimal Subdivisions in Astronomy and Navigation, and on Tables requisite therefor
Authors: Sang Edward
Published: June 2016

The abstract question as to what number would have been most advantageously taken for the basis of an arithmetical system has been put aside by the universal preference shown for the number ten. All nations having any culture count in tens. In the English language, traces remain of the old numeration by dozens and scores; the French, still prefer to say “quatre-vingt seize,” rather than “nonante-six.” These vestiges serve to show that there has been change. But from the old Eastern languages all traces of any but the denary counting have disappeared.
4. On an Equation in Quaternion Differences
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

When the sides of a closed polygon are bisected, and the points of bisection joined in order, a new polygon is formed. It has the same number of sides, and the same mean point of its corners, as the original polygon. In what cases is it similar to the original polygon? In what cases will two, three, or more successive operations of this kind produce (for the first time) a polygon similar to the original one?
1. On Galvanic Currents passing through a very Thin Stratum of an Electrolyte
Authors: von Helmholtz H.
Published: June 2016

If one closes a galvanic circuit containing a small battery, the electromotive force of which is not able to decompose water, and a voltameter with two platinum plates dipping into water acidulated with sulphuric acid, the current has a great intensity in the first moment, and diminishes at first very rapidly, afterwards slowly. At last its intensity approaches to zero more and more, but it never ceases completely, The more sensitive the galvanometer by which you measure its intensity, the longer the time during which you are able to observe the deflection of the needle. If the electrolytic fluid is in contact with atmospheric air, it is easy, even with a galvanometer of simple construction and moderate sensibility, to observe that at last a feeble residue of current remains, keeping a nearly constant intensity. This intensity, however, is increased by the slightest motion of the fluid, also by feeble motions produced by changes of temperature.
3. Scottish Vital Statistics
Authors: Seton George , Oxon M. A.
Published: June 2016

It is frequently remarked that the science of statistics, in its various branches, is, like the law, “gloriously uncertain,” and accordingly, it is alleged that, from the same set of figures, two intelligent men can draw very different conclusions. The same assertion may, perhaps even more truly, be made regarding facts, which, although considered somewhat “sair to ding,” are very differently interpreted by different individuals. Interested motives, preconceived opinions, and illogical conceptions constitute some of the principal causes of perverted conclusions; and both facts and figures are very liable to misrepresentation. Hence the tendency in many quarters to distrust the deductions drawn from figures of almost every kind, more especially in the columns of official reports and the prospectuses of commercial enterprises. Even among intelligent and educated men, some strangely confused ideas prevail respecting statistics, many such persons erroneously supposing that every class of numerical facts ought to possess an equal amount of certainty and precision, similar to what is produced by the abstract figures of an arithmetical process.
3. Report on the OPHIUROIDEA of the Faröe Channel, mainly collected by H,M,S. “Triton” in August 1882, with some Remarks on the Distribution of the Order
Authors: Hoyle W. E.
Published: June 2016

Some time ago Mr John Murray kindly placed in my hands the OPHIUTROIDEA collected by H.M.S. “Triton” in the Faröe Channel, with the request that I would draw up a report upon them, and the object of the present paper is to communicate to the Society the results of my. Investigations.
3. Note on the Occurrence of Drifted Trees in Beds of Sand and Gravel at Musselburgh
Authors: Geikie James
Published: June 2016

I am indebted to Mr William Eobertson for calling my attention to the interesting phenomena which form the subject of this communication. Some months ago he showed me at his works, Haymarket, the trunk of a large oak which had been obtained from beds of sand and gravel in his property at Olive Bank, Musselburgh. The wood was very dark in colour, and in a fine state of preservation. It was, in fact, in process of being sawn into planks, from which a number of useful and ornamental articles have since been made. The trunk was perfectly straight, showing no appearance of branches, and when first uncovered measured 31 feet in length, having a diameter of 2 feet at the butt end close to the roots, from which it tapered upwards very gradually. The portion seen by me iu Mr Robertson's premises had been more or less scraped by his workmen, and the bark was almost entirely wanting; but I was informed that very little bark appeared when the tree was disinterred. The roots were somewhat rounded, and looked as if they had been rubbed and abraded. Shortly afterwards I visited the sand-pit, and saw the trunk of another large oak in situ.
3. On the Foundations of the Kinetic Theory of Gases
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

In a former paper, printed in Trans. Boy. Soc. Edin., 1886, I showed that the recovery of the “special” state by a gas supposed to consist of equal hard spheres takes place, at ordinary pressures and temperatures, in a period of the order of 10−9 seconds, at highest.
5. Temperatures at Different Heights above Ground at Ben Nevis Observatory
Authors: Omond R. T.
Published: June 2016

During part of the recent summer (1886), in addition to the ordinary temperature observations here, a set of readings were taken in a Stevenson screen, at a height of 112 inches above ground—that is, at about two and a half times the standard elevation of 48 inches. The high level screen was mounted at the top of a stand used to carry the thermometers in winter, and consisting of two stout upright posts or battens, with cross bars between them at every 2 feet or so; the screen is placed with the lower edge of the back resting on one bar, and is tied to the one above it or to the side posts. The screen used on this stand is smaller than the standard Stevenson screen, but it is constructed in exactly the same manner, with double louvred sides and the bottom open. It measures inside 10 inches broad by 6 inches deep and 15 inches high.
1. On the Front and Rear of a Free Procession of Waves in Deep Water
Authors: Thomson William
Published: June 2016

Takingx horizontal, and y vertically downwards; let (x + ξ, y + η) be, at time t, the position of the particle whose position at time 0 is (x, y); let Φ denote the velocity-potential at (x, y, t); and let Ρ denote its time-integral,
3. Researches on Micro-Organisms, Including Ideas of a New Method for their Destruction in Certain Cases of Contagious Disease
Authors: Griffiths A. B.
Published: June 2016

The opinion of the most profound workers in the so-called “germ diseases” is, that these diseases are really due to the pathological effects of chemical substances (ptomaïnes) elaborated and secreted by certain micro-organisms. That is, a given contagious disease is rather the result of one or more compounds formed by the life-history of a micro-organism, than the mere presence of that micro-organism itself. By looking at certain cases in the above light, we can well understand why persons suffering with cholera die so rapidly. The alkaloid or ptomaïne (discovered by Pouchet in 1885) which the Comma bacillus secretes or forms is rapidly absorbed into the blood, long before the bacillus itself is capable of being absorbed by the mucous membrane of the intestine, and then into the blood. It is a well-known fact that most micro-organisms multiply with great rapidity in the media in which they live, and if particular organisms can be destroyed, the harmful effects of the products produced by their life-histories will not increase, and the disease will soon be at an end.
5. On the Equilibrium of a Gas under its own Gravitation Only
Authors: Thomson W.
Published: June 2016

This problem, for the case of uniform temperature, was first, I believe, proposed by Tait in the following highly interesting question, set in the Ferguson Scholarship Examination (Glasgow, October 2, 1885):— “Assuming Boyle's Law for all pressures, form the equation for the equilibrium-density at any distance from the centre of a spherical attracting mass, placed in an infinite space filled originally with air; Find the special integral which depends on a power of the distance from the centre of the sphere alone.”
2. On Ice and Brines
Authors: Buchanan J. Y.
Published: June 2016

The composition of the ice produced in saline solutions, and more particularly in sea-water, has frequently been the object of investigation and of dispute. It might be thought that to a question of whether ice so formed does or does not contain salt, experiment would at once give a decisive answer. Yet, relying on experiment alone, competent authorities have given contradictory answers. All agree that ice, whether formed artificially in the laboratory by freezing sea-water, or found in nature as one of the varieties of sea-water ice, retains, in one form or another, and with great tenacity, some of the salt existing in solution in the water. The question at issue is whether this salt is to be attributed to the solid matter of the ice or to the liquor mechanically adhering to it, from which it is impossible to free it. Most bodies, and especially those which take a crystalline form, are easily purified and freed from all suspected foreign matter, with a view to analysis, by the simple operation of washing and drying. It is impossible to wash the crystals, formed by freezing a saline solution, with distilled water, because they melt at a temperature below that at which distilled water freezes.
3. On the Achromatism of the Four-Lens Eye-Piece: New Arrangement of the Lenses
Authors: Sang Edward
Published: June 2016

In designing a telescope for a particular class of observations, it was found desirable to have a field-bar in the focus of the object-glass, and, at the same time, to have an image of that object-glass exterior to the eye-lens. These desiderata cannot both be got by the achromatic arrangement of two lenses made of one material; they are combined in the ordinary four-lens eye-piece.
6. Geology and Petrology of St Abb's Head
Authors: Geikie J.
Published: June 2016

The observations recorded in this paper have reference chiefly to the coast-sections at St Abb's Head and Coldingham Shore. The district was geologically surveyed some twenty-five years ago by my brother, Dr A. Geikie, and subsequently described by him in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Since the publication of that memoir, no further examination of the ground in question appears to have been made. During the past summer I visited the neighbourhood, principally for the purpose of studying the igneous rocks which are so well exposed in sea-coast sections. At the date of the Government Survey of Eastern Berwickshire the aid of the microscope had not yet been invoked by field-geologists for the purpose of determining rock-species, and I was therefore curious to compare the igneous rocks of that region with those of similar age which I had studied elsewhere in Scotland, and more especially with the bedded and intrusive porphyrites and tuffs of the Cheviot Hills and the Sidlaws.
2. On the Physics of Noise
Authors: Brown Gram
Published: June 2016

The noises considered in this paper are uniform, continuous noises, such as the fricatives of articulate speech: f, θ, ς, 묪, χ &c. These sounds are considered by the author to stand in a similar relation to musical tones as lights with continuous spectra do to lights with bright-line spectra. Methods were proposed for analysing these uniform continuous noises, and also for imitating them by synthetic means.
4. On the Instability of the Double Sulphates M″SO4.R′2SO4 + 6H2O of the Magnesium Series
Authors: Dittmar W.
Published: June 2016

By a number of observations made incidentally in the preparation of two of the double salts referred to in the heading, namely, the compounds of sulphate of potash with sulphate of magnesia and sulphate of ferrous oxide respectively, I had long come to suspect that these two salts at any rate are not perfectly stable in opposition to water. To settle the question, I have caused Mr James Eobson and Mr Andrew Hodge, two young chemists working in my laboratory, to inquire into the matter by systematic experiments. These were, in general at least, conducted according to the following scheme: —Starting from a known weight of sulphate of potash, this was dissolved in a proportion of hot water,* less than sufficient to hold the intended double salt in solution after cooling; there was then added a known weight of the di-valent sulphate amounting to exactly 1 or 1·1 or 1·2 … 1·5 times MgO or FeO per 1K2O used, the solution filtered hot into a basin, allowed to crystallise, and the crop of crystals produced examined.
1. On the Increase of Electrolytic Polarization with Time
Authors: Peddie W.
Published: June 2016

This paper dealt only with cases in which the electromotive force used is insufficient to produce decomposition. In such cases the electrodes act as condensers. But the observed law of variation of current-strength with time is not exactly that which holds in the charging of ordinary condensers. The author showed that the deviation could be largely accounted for by the continual increase of transition resistance, the existence of which lie proves in a separate paper on that subject.
3. On the Nephridia of Hirudo medicinalis
Authors: Griffiths A. B.
Published: June 2016

The nephridia of Hirudo medicinalis, as is well known to biologists, are in pairs extending from the second to the eighteenth segments (somites). Each nephridium consists of a much convoluted cellular tube. The cells of the tube are perforated by small ducts. The nephridia (“segmental organs”) open externally on the ventral side of the body.
4. On Degenerated Specimens of Tulipa sylvestris
Authors: Griffiths A. B.
Published: June 2016

This note describes a peculiar yet interesting form of degenerated Tulipa sylvestris. Last June (1886) the tulip bulbs were removed (after growing and flowering in very rich soil), and set in the December of the same year in a soil of poor quality. The plants did not flower until the present June.
6. On a Constant Daniell Cell, for use as a Standard of Electromotive Force
Authors: Burton Cosmo I.
Published: June 2016

This cell consists of two tubes about three inches long and half an inch in diameter, sealed at one end, and connected together near the closed end by a glass tube about four inches long, having a glass tap in the middle.
1. Stability of Fluid Motion.—Rectilineal Motion of Viscous Fluid between two Parallel Planes
Authors: Thomson W.
Published: June 2016

Since the communication of the first of this series of articles to the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh in April, and its publication in the Philosophical Magazine in May and June, the stability or instability of the steady motion of a viscous fluid has been proposed as subject for the Adams Prize of the University of Cambridge for 1888.
7. The Thermal Windrose at the Ben Nevis Observatory
Authors: Rankine A.
Published: June 2016

The Table, showing the Thermal Windrose, accompanying this paper, was computed from the observations made at the Ben Nevis Observatory during the three years ending May 1887. It shows the mean temperatures, on the mean of the three years, of the different winds for each month, for the year, and for the seasons. The direction of the wind is observed to the thirty-two points of the compass, but in this table the temperatures are only shown for eight points, the intermediate points having all been added on to these eight points in the same way as that described by Mr Omond inh is paper on " Winds and Rainfall" in the Journal of the Scottish Meteorological Society, namely, the by winds were added to their adjacent octants, and the points half-way between the octants were on the odd day of each month added to the octant to their right, looking out from the centre of the compass card, i.e., they were veered. two points, and on the even days to that on their left, i.e., they were backed two points. The mean temperature of each direction of wind for each month was found by tabulating the hourly observations of temperature under the direction of wind observed at the same time, or under its octant as above, and then taking the arithmetical mean. When the wind was variable, or its direction doubtful, the temperature was entered in the column for calms and variables. These variable winds belong chiefly to the northern half of the compass, their existence being principally due to the abrupt and precipitous character of the north side of the Ben. The temperatures given in the table are those indicated by thermometers which in summer and autumn are protected in the regulation Stevenson screen, and in winter and spring in a smaller pattern of the same, which can be shifted up or down a ladder-like stand, so as to be always at or near the standard height of 4 feet above the surface of the snow.
8. On Ferric Ferricyanide as a Reagent for Detecting Traces of Reducing Gases
Authors: Brown Crum
Published: June 2016

The brown solution obtained when solutions of ferric chloride and potassium ferricyanide are mixed, which may be regarded as containing ferric ferricyanide, is, as is well known, very readily turned blue by reducing agents, Prussian blue or Turnbull's blue being formed. The author uses strips of filter paper dipped in the freshly prepared solution to test for traces of reducing gases, such as sulphuretted hydrogen, sulphurous acid, &c. As nitrous fumes also blue the brown solution, reducing it, traces of them can be detected by using together a piece of paper prepared as above and a piece of iodised starch paper.
11. On the Chemical Composition of the Water composing the Clyde Sea Area
Authors: Dickie Adam
Published: June 2016

About the beginning of this year I was requested by a sub-committee of the Government Grant Committee* to determine some of the components of a series of samples of sea water, which were to be collected during the year at various parts and at different times in the Clyde sea area by the observers of the Scottish Marine Station. The collections were chiefly made under the immediate direction of Dr H. E. Mill. Since January, accordingly, I have been working at this, and have completed in all eighty-nine analyses, the results of which I now take the liberty of placing before this Society. There are various reasons why this paper should consist of little more than tables of results, one of which is that, having little or no experience in the science of oceanography, it would be presumptuous in me to draw conclusions from my results which would no doubt strike any one acquainted with that science at once. Another reason is that, though acquainted with some of the physical conditions under which the samples were taken, such as depth, temperature, place of collection, and date, I am quite ignorant of other conditions quite as important, if not more so, in my estimation, as, for instance, presence or absence of some freshwater stream near place of collection, state of tide, raiafall, 'c,—all conditions which would no doubt influence more or less materially the salinity of the water.
13. Addition to Thermometer Screens. Part IV
Authors: Aitken J.
Published: June 2016

I much regret it has not been possible for me, during this summer, experimentally to determine the best forms and sizes of the details in the construction of the C screen; nor have I been able to keep a continuous record of its readings. Only a few observations have been made at intervals with it, as originally constructed, and shown in fig. 1 of this paper, and with the Stevenson screens. The result of all these trials is to confirm the conclusions already arrived at. The C screen always gave the lowest readings when there was any radiation.
On the Conducting Paths between the Cortex of the Brain and the Lower Centres in relation to Physiology and Pathology
Authors: Hamilton D. J.
Published: June 2016

Methods.—The great difficulties heretofore encountered in investigating the course of nerve fibres in the brain have been, firstly, the want of a method of preparation by which their gross anatomy could be thoroughly exposed, and, secondly, the failure of any previously known process of staining to satisfactorily indicate their direction on microscopic examination. In endeavouring to collect reliable data from the records of lesions of the human brain, it becomes only too evident that until more efficient methods of localising lesions be adopted than those generally in use at the present day, little can possibly be added to the knowledge we already possess.
4. The Edinburgh Equatorial in 1887; a Paper with two Appendices
Authors: Smyth C. Piazzi
Published: June 2016

The Equatorial of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, is still in October 1887, unfinished, blocked against use, and entirely unusable. This lamentable outcome of so many years, is simply the consequence of the necessary funds for finishing and working the instrument having been withheld by Government, after they had been promised by the Board of Visitors, printed again and again in much detail, and thought to have been obtained.
5. On Cauchy's and Green's Doctrine of Extraneous Force to explain dynamically Fresnel's Kinematics of Double Refraction
Authors: Thomson William
Published: June 2016

Green's dynamics of polarisation by reflection, and Stokes's dynamics of the diffraction of polarised light, and Stokes's and Rayleigh's dynamics of the blue sky, all agree in, as seems to me, irrefragably demonstrating Fresnel's original conclusion, that in plane polarised light the line of vibration is perpendicular to the plane of polarisation; the “plane of polarisation” being defined as the plane through the ray and perpendicular to the reflecting surface, when light is polarised by reflection.
6. Investigations on the Malpighian Tubes and the “Hepatic Cells” of the Araneina; and also on the Diverticula of the Asteridea
Authors: Griffiths A. B. , Johnstone Alexander
Published: June 2016

The present memoir is a continuation of those already published by one of us, on the physiology of the Invertebrata.
2. Problem in Relationship
Authors: Macfarlane A.
Published: June 2016

The following problem was sent me by Mr Kirkman, F.R.S.; its solution illustrates the Calculus of Relationship, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb., vol. xi. pp, 5 and 162:—

Two boys, Smith and Jones, of the same age, are each the nephew of the other; how many legal solutions?

The statements are that Smith is the nephew of Jones, and Jones the nephew of Smith. Let c denote child, then denotes parent, and the equations are

Hence .
2. A New Method for Preserving the Blood in a Fluid State outside the Body
Authors: Haycraft John Berry , Carlier E. W.
Published: June 2016

A grant was made by the British Medical Association, on the recommendation of the Scientific Grants Committee of the Association, towards the expenses of a research, a part of which appears in this communication.
1. Observations on the Movements of the Entire Detached Animal, and of Detached Ciliated Parts of Bivalve Molluscs, viz., Gills, Mantle-Lobes, Labial Palps, and Foot
Authors: M'Alpine D. , Hoyle W. E.
Published: June 2016

In the introduction it is pointed out that, although ciliary motion has been observed and noted in the mussel, independent locomotion communicated to the gill itself has not yet been studied, and it is pointed out that a sea-mussel when detached is capable of roaming about—can float and can sink.
2. Report on the Pishes obtained by Mr J. Murray in Deep Water on the North-West Coast of Scotland, between April 1887 and March 1888
Authors: Günther A.
Published: June 2016

In the present paper I propose to give the result of my examination of the specimens of fishes which were obtained by Mr John Murray on the West Coast of Scotland, whilst dredging during the last eleven months on board of the “Medusa.” Exact observations as to the bathymetrical distribution of British fishes at certain seasons and localities, such as have been obtained during the cruises of the “Medusa,” are much needed, and if methodically carried out for some years, will prove a most valuable contribution to the British fauna, especially if they are supplemented by similar reports on the invertebrates which were collected simultaneously with, and form part of the food of, the fishe.
1. Illegitimacy in the Parish of Marnoch
Authors: Seton George
Published: June 2016

An examination of the Birth Registers pertaining to the parish of Marnoch, in Banfishire, for the ten years ended 1886, exhibits the following startling results:
2. On the Conjugated Sulphates of the Copper-Magnesium Group
Authors: Ray Prafulla Chandra
Published: June 2016

From time to time memoirs have appeared by various chemists, pointing out that there is a tendency among the sulphates of the magnesium group to combine with one another in definite molecular proportions. This tendency has been brought into connection with the fact that these sulphates have almost identical atomic volumes.
2. On the Chemical Composition of the Water composing the Clyde Sea Area. Part II
Authors: Dickie Adam
Published: June 2016

This is merely the concluding portion of the tables attached to a paper which was formerly communicated to the Society by Dr Murray, and which is printed in your last Part of Proceedings. I need only state that the same methods described in that paper were used in these analyses, of which the accompanying tables give the results:
2. On the Solubility of Carbonate of Lime under different forms in Sea-Water
Authors: Irvine Robert , Young George
Published: June 2016

It is well known that carbonate of lime is soluble in water in a slight degree, sufficiently so to give a distinctly alkaline reaction. Fresenius gives this solubility at one part of ten thousand, although in the presence of carbonate of ammonia, this is decreased to one in sixty-four thousand.
3. The History of Volcanic Action during the Tertiary Period in the British Islands
Authors: Geikie Archibald
Published: June 2016

In an introductory section of the paper, a sketch is given of the literature of the subject, and reference is made to the labours of Jameson, Macculloch, Berger, Boue, Oyenhausen, Von Dechen, Necker, Zirkel, Judd, and other observers. The author then mentions the progress of his own investigations, which were begun some thirty years ago, and of which the first published part appeared in the Transactions of the Society for 1861. A journey into Western America in 1879 gave him new insight into the problems presented by the youngest volcanic rocks of Britain. Since that time he has devoted every available interval to the prosecution of this research, and he now offers the completed results to the Society, which encouraged him by printing his earliest communication on the subject.
6. On Laplace's Theory of the Internal Pressure in Liquids
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

Laplace, assuming molecular force to be insensible at distances greater than a small quantity a, finds the resultant molecular force on a unit particle at a distance x within the (plane) surface. This being called X, the internal pressure is

where p is the density of the liquid. But this is evidently the work required to take unit volume of the liquid (particle by particle) from the interior to the surface. And it is easily seen that to carry it from the surface beyond the range of the molecular forces requires just as much more work:—for the density of the surface-film is treated as equal to that of the rest of the liquid.
The Change in the Thermoelectric Properties of Wood's Fusible Metal at its Melting Point
Authors: Campbell Albert
Published: June 2016

The thermoelectric properties of tin, at temperatures below and above its melting point, were investigated by the writer about a year ago, and the results of the experiments were given in a paper read before this Society. In those experiments, however, the height of the melting point of tin made it impossible, with mercury thermometers, to obtain anything but an approximate indication of the change in the thermoelectric properties in passing the melting point.
Note on the Relation between the Mutual Distances of Five Points in Space
Authors: Muir Thomas
Published: June 2016

Lagrange, in his paper “Solutions analytiques de quelques problèmes sur les pyramides triangulaires,” Nouv. Mém. de l'Acad. Roy. … (de Berlin), Ann. 1773, pp. 149–176, gives unintentionally the following expression of the relationship between the mutual distances of five points in space, viz.

where, if the points be called 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, the letters

and Δ, α, α′, α″, β, β′, β″, are certain functions of the said distances.
On the Anatomy and Histology of Phreoryctes
Authors: Beddard Frank E.
Published: June 2016

(Abstract.)

The genus Phreoryctes has been known to zoologists since the year 1843, but there is no published account of the reproductive system sufficiently detailed to permit of comparison with other Oligochæta. The gonads (testes and ovaries) and spermathecœ were discovered by Leydig, who did not distinguish between ovaries and testes, owing to the immature condition of the specimens studied. This writer considered that the genital products were evacuated through the nephridia of their segment. The supposition is, however, incorrect, as genital ducts exist. Mr W. W. Smith of Ashburton, New Zealand, forwarded to the author in the spring of 1888 a single specimen of a new species of Phreoryctes, which was described in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for June 1888 as Phreoryctes Smithii. In that paper the gonads and their ducts were briefly described and figured.
A Method of Demonstrating the Presence of Uric Acid in the Contractile Vacuoles of some Lower Organisms
Authors: Griffiths A. B.
Published: June 2016

After some years of patient observation and research, I have found, from direct experiment, that at certain times the contractile or pulsating vacuole of the Protozoa performs the function of a true kidney, or, in other words, its secretion is capable of yielding microscopic crystals of uric acid.

Three organisms were used in these experiments, namely:- Amœba, Vorticella, and Paramœcium.
Differentiation of any (Scalar) Power of a Quaternion
Authors: M'Aulay Alexander
Published: June 2016

Nowhere, I think, does Hamilton, or any other author, attempt the very fundamental problem of finding the differential of qn where q is a quaternion and n any scalar. It was by noticing an oversight in Tait's Quaternions, § 182, where he considers d.q½, that I was led to a consideration of the subject.
On the Relation among the Line, Surface, and Volume Integrals
Authors: Tait
Published: June 2016

The fundamental form of the Volume and Surface Integral is

Apply it to a space consisting of a very thin transverse slice of a cylinder. Let t be the thickness of the slice, A the area of one end, and a a unit-vector perpendicular to the plane of the end.
The Solubility of Carbonate of Lime in Fresh and Sea Water
Authors: Anderson W. S.
Published: June 2016

At Dr Murray's request, I have during the past winter continued the investigation of Messrs Irvine and Young on the solubility of carbonate of lime in its different forms in sea water (the results of which they submitted to this Society in May 1888); and the following notes of the work done and the results obtained by me, under Mr Irvine's guidance, in the laboratory of the Marine Station, Granton, may be of interest.
Molecular Constitution of Matter
Authors: Thomson William
Published: June 2016

§ 1. The scientific world is practically unanimous in believing that all tangible or palpable matter, molar matter as we may call it, consists of groups of mutually interacting atoms or molecules. This molecular constitution of matter is essentially a deviation from homogeneousness of substance, and apparent homogeneousness of molar matter can only be homogeneousness in the aggregate.
On the Scalar Relations connecting Six Vectors
Authors: Wilkinson M. M. U.
Published: June 2016

In the case of two Vectors, α β, the Scalars α2, β2, Sαβ are connected by no relation. In other words, the Tensors of two straight lines, and the angle between them, are three independent quantities. In this case every other Scalar Function of α and β can be expressed in terms of α2, β2, Sαβ.
On the Stomach of the Narwhal (Monodon monoceros)
Authors: Woodhead G. Sims , Gray Robert W.
Published: June 2016

Although numerous most admirable descriptions of the stomach of various species of Delphinidae (the family of toothed Whales to which the Narwhal belongs) have from time to time appeared from the pens of most able observers (of whom a list will be found in the references appended), we have found it impossible to find anything more than a mere indication of the histological structure of the various portions of the walls of the peculiar digestive apparatus of these animals. As one of us had an opportunity of obtaining material in a comparatively fresh condition, we decided to make arrangements for preserving it properly, so that it might be subjected to microscopic examination on being brought to this country, With all the care that was taken some portions of the mucous membrane have suffered slightly, but in all cases the changes are so slight that we are enabled to speak positively on the points to which reference is made.
Observations upon the Structure of a Genus of Oligochæta belonging to the Limicoline Section
Authors: Beddard Frank E.
Published: June 2016

(Abstract)

The present paper refers to a number of specimens of Moniligaster, some of which belong to the species Moniligaster Barwelli already briefly described by myself;* others (one other at least) are possibly referable to a distinct species. I do not, however, give this species a name, principally for the reason that it will very possibly turn out to be identical with one or other of the species recently noted by Professor A. G. Bourne from the Nilgiris and Shevaroys. I am not at all certain that M. Barwelli is not identical with his M. minutus. The present paper contains a fuller account of the reproductive organs than I have yet given, but unfortunately it will be still found to be incomplete in certain particulars; some of these gaps, e.g., the clitellum and the egg-sacs, are filled up by Bourne's paper, assuming of course that the characters of these organs as given by Bourne will turn out to be generic, which is likely. The present paper contains some account of the other organs of the body, which has not yet been published
On a Rapidly Converging Series for the Extraction of the Square Root
Authors: Muir Thomas
Published: June 2016

It is well known that the square root of any commensurable number N is expressible in the form

and that the (z + 1)th convergent to this is,

where the continuant notation K( ) is explained by the example
Enzyme Action in Lower Organisms
Authors: Wood G. B. Cartwright
Published: June 2016

The soluble ferments or enzymes have always aroused the deepest interest, partly from the mystery which enshrouded their mode of action, partly from the importance of the processes with which they are associated. The peculiar power which each possesses of decomposing apparently unlimited quantities of a specific medium, without itself being used up in the process, has occasioned the confusion of enzyme action with processes truly vital in their nature. Although this action had only been demonstrated as subserving an alimentary function, its aid was invoked to explain many of 'the more obscure phenomena of biology. The series of decompositions which carbohydrates may undergo, known as the alcoholic, lactic, and butyric fermentations, were long ascribed to it. Even when Pasteur had proved that these processes were always correlated with a vital fact —the growth and multiplication of living cells—Traube, Hoppe- Seyler, and Liebig still contended that these might act only indirectly by the formation of soluble ferments. The analogy between fermentation and the infectious processes is so striking that the latter have long been grouped together under the term zymotic diseases, and these we are every day coming to recognise more and more as parasitic diseases conditioned by micro-organisms. Here again, however, many tend to regard the microbe as not acting directly; but through the production of soluble ferments.
The Electrolysis of Potassium-Ethyl Malonate and of Potassium-Ethyl Succinate
Authors: Brown Crum , Walker James
Published: June 2016

(Abstract)

Synthesis of Succinic Acid.—Potassium-ethyl malonate is easily prepared according to the directions of Freund (Berichte der deut chem. Gesellschaft, xvii. 780).

The conditions most favourable for the electrolysis were found to be as follows :—A large platinum crucible formed the cathode, while a spiral of stout platinum wire was used as the anode. The source of electricity was a battery of accumulators, and the current was so regulated that while passing through the solution it had an electromotive force of 12 volts and a strength of not more than 5 ampères. Under these circumstances the heat developed in the solution could be easily conducted away by a stream of cold water flowing round the platinum crucible.
On certain Substances found in the Urine, which reduce the Oxide of Copper upon Boiling in the presence of an Alkali
Authors: Ashdown Herbert H.
Published: June 2016

(Abstract)

As the immediate result of the ingestion of certain chemical compounds—chloral, camphor, benzol, phenol, &c.—substances make their appearance in the urine which have long been known to possess the power of reducing the oxides of some of the metals when in solution in the presence of an alkali, if that mixture be raised to the boiling point, but considerable confusion has resulted from the difficulty of finding a short process whereby many of these substances may be readily recognised as not belonging to that comprehensive group of conditions generally styled as glycosuria.
The Determination of Surface-Tension by the Measurement of Ripples
Authors: Smith C. Michie
Published: June 2016

Professor Tait has shown that accurate determinations of surface-tensions would be obtained if we could measure the rate of propagation of ripples set up by the vibration of a tuning-fork of known pitch.
Notes on the Solution of certain Equations
Authors: Allardice R. E.
Published: June 2016

The equations considered are equations of the third and fourth degree in a single variable, and systems consisting of two equations in two variables. This is a comparatively small class; but if there be added systems consisting of a single equation of the third or fourth degree and a number of others all of the first degree, it will include all equations which admit, in general, of an algebraic solution.

The object of these notes is to point out the advantage of making greater use, than is generally the custom, of the discriminant in the solution of equations, and to emphasise the importance of looking for geometrical illustrations of analytical methods whenever this is possible. The usefulness of such illustrations is well known in considering, for example, limiting cases in the solution of equations, such as the cases of infinite roots and of equal roots, of the meaning of which it is almost impossible to form an adequate conception, without the use of such illustrations.
On the Structure and Contraction of Striped Muscular Fibre of the Crab and Lobster
Authors: Rutherford William
Published: June 2016

(Abstract)

The author gave an account of the microscopical appearances of striped muscle of the crab and lobster. The muscle of the crab and lobster is suitable for investigation because of the comparatively large size of the structural elements, and the readiness with which the sarcous matter can be fixed and otherwise prepared in different conditions. The author is entirely opposed to the opinions expressed by Melland, and more recently by Gehuchten, regarding the structure of the sarcous matter, and maintains, as he did at the International Medical Congress in 1881 (Transactions International Medical Congress, 1881, vol. i. p. 270), that the sarcous matter essentially consists of contractile fibrils, with an interstitial substance between them—an opinion previously expressed by Kölliker and others, and recently supported by Rollett.
On an Accidental Illustration of the Effective Ohmic Resistance to a Transient Electric Current through a Steel Bar
Authors: Thomson William
Published: June 2016

After the recent meeting of the British Association at Newcastle, Lord Armstrong, in showing me the appliances by which his house at Cragside is lighted electrically by water-power, told me of a very wonderful incident which he had recently experienced. A bar of steel, which he was holding in his hand, was allowed accidentally to come in contact with the two poles of a dynamo in action.
On the Mean Level of the Surface of the Solid Earth
Authors: Mill Hugh Robert
Published: June 2016

In a paper “On the Height of the Land and the Depth of the Ocean,” read to the Society on 19th December 1887, and published in the Scottish Geographical Magazine, vol. iv. pp. 1–41, Dr John Murray gives a very detailed estimate of the volumes of oceanic hollows and continental protuberances. I have recently had recourse to Dr Murray's calculations in order to determine the position of the contour-line which should separate the portions of the solid earth above the general level of the surface from those below that level. The results of this determination were published in the Scottish Geographical Magazine, vol. vi. pp. 182–187; but since then the theoretical importance of the particular contour-line in question has induced me to give further consideration to the subject.
On the Reflexion-Caustics of Symmetrical Curves
Authors: M'Laren
Published: June 2016

The caustics here considered are those resulting from the reflexion of systems of parallel rays. The subject is purely geometrical. The caustic is considered as a derived curve, and is denned as the envelope of a system of lines drawn from the primary curve, whose inclination to a given line is double the inclination of the normal at the incident point.

It is comparatively easy to find an expression for a caustic in mixed cöordinates. But, where the cöordinates of the primary curve have to be eliminated, the problem becomes more difficult, and unless this condition be fulfilled the expression cannot be considered a true analytical solution of the locus. In the present paper, differential and algebraic expressions are first found containing the cöordinates of the focal point corresponding to a point in the primary or reflecting curve, and the cöordinates of the latter are then eliminated between the differential and algebraic equations.
Synthesis by Means of Electrolysis.—Part III. Synthesis of n-Dicarbodecahexanic Acid
Authors: Brown Crum , Walker James
Published: June 2016

(Abstract)

The synthesis of the diethyl ether of this new acid was effected by the electrolysis of a strong aqueous solution of potassium ethyl sebate, COOC2H6(CH2)8COOK. This salt was prepared by adding the calculated quantity of alcoholic potash to an alcoholic solution of diethyl sebate. After some time the potassium ethyl salt began to separate out: the whole was then boiled, allowed to cool, and filtered. What remained on the filter was dissolved in water; the aqueous solution was extracted twice with ether, and then evaporated to a concentration suitable for electrolysis (cf. this vol. p. 54).
Note on Electrolytic Conduction
Authors: Mond Robert L.
Published: June 2016

At the suggestion of Professor P. G. Tait, I undertook the further investigation of an experiment, an account of which he communicated to this Society on Monday, the 15th of April 1878.

In this experiment a platinum plate of moderate thickness is inserted between the electrodes of an electrolytic cell, so as to completely fill the cross-section. This platinum plate thus becomes the common electrode of two cells, and on perforating it it is found that a comparatively small hole at once changes its functions to that of an obstacle in one cell.