The New York herald., 1851-08-22

FOR THE
WANG e M f Mt OF sCIENC CE
ALBANY MEETING.
TUESDAYS PROCEEDINGS.

TUESDAYS PROCEEDINGS.
TUESDAY, August 19-4 P. NJ.
srcTIoS 1-nArHEaArIcs, PHYSICS, AND CHEMISTRY.
This section commenced its session by confirming the
nomination of Professor A. d. Bache its Chairman
who had been proposed by the Standing Committee.
Professor L. Loomis Of New York. appointed its
Secretary.
The first paper read entitled Experimental Re-
searches, tending towards Improvement iu the
Telescope by Professor Alexander c. Twinng, of New
IIaven.n The authors design to show that much
light lost in telescopes by unsuspeced defect in the
ordinary pieces For some reason the best teles
copes far inferior to the eye compared with their
proper performance. In careful experiments
Professor Twinng found that only one-seventh Of the
light of his telescope effective for vision. He thus
found by other experiments (Which stated at length
his paper that there Is in fact sufficient dispersion
in the ordinary yepeces to account for large part of
the less He also proposed and demonstrated enalyti
cally. theory Of visual efficacy.
The practical issue of the whole is that eye pieces Of
a truly achrematc character should be tried in the
hope Of vastly improving penetrative power:
DR.. BAcHE remarked that although he had endeavored,
during the reading to find fallacy in the facts aud
guments by which to ward off the attack the eye
pieces he had found none. Legibility could not be
made photometrc test. If Professor Twning had not
the apparatus and means on his hands, he ought to
them from some I'M ttution and prosecuts the
subject to completeness There could be no question as
to the value Of the investigation.
Professor sIrrHEN ALEIANpEn Of Princeton. read a
paper ION the Atmospheric Envelopes of Venus and other
Planeten His remarks chiefly observations Of
Venus at the time Of her inferior conunction and, Of
made in daylight Like many observers he bad
nstsd poTpon OF the planet The line separating the
illuminated and dark portions sometimes most dis
and even jagged as in the moon Spots had been no.
tced at times The planet was for the most part umi.
this phenomenon, and an apparently long twilight Be-
vera Of various appearances Of Venus
exhibited The cusps had been observed to be uue
quail in size and in direction The atmos here Of this
planet must be very unsettled and we might suppose
this be the case from knowledge Of its revolutions
and Of its probable temperature vz-twce that of the
earth Professor A. closed with remarks concerning the
Asteroids which Pcsass very peculiar gaseous atmos
phere, and the density Of that Of Jupiter
Professor PIERCE remarked that in reference to the
ring of Saturn, discovered by Mr. Bond he ncln
cned to believe that it was an optical phenomenon sim
lar respects to those referred to by Professor Al
exandr the supposed ring being seen only when the on
ter ring viewed very obquey In which the light
striking on the atmosphere Of the planet much elongated
towards the outer ring, would form caustic which
would give luminous appearance to that portion OF the
Professor LOOMS observed, that noon. day comets
which had suddenly appeared and disappeared might
he thought, be explained by similar csuscs, produced
in the dense vspors OF which they were composed
Professor ALEXANDRA remarked was inconsistent with
the known want Of density Of these bodies: .,
and Mitchell to whether spots had been seen on the
disc the planet Venus; the former gentleman suppos
latter having failed to them through his fae refrac
ing telescope being inclined to the opinion that the
parent spots resulted the mperfecons Of the In
strumepts used. In reply to question Of Professor
Caswsl T. Brown, the nsrument used by Professor Al
exander was stated to be . Fraunhofer telescope.
Professor BRowN inquired whether any attempt had
been made to verify the specustons to the nud
stuton Of saturns ring BY the test Of the action at
considerable obquities In polsrizing light specifically
different In asolId and liquid propt sed BY Arsgo.
Professor PERcE was not aware that such observations
The third paper was . very lengthy yet interesting
one entitled observations the freesng Of Vegetables
and ON the Causes which enable Plants to Endure
the Action Of Extreme Cold by Prof John LIE Conte, Of
the University Of Georgia"
The following is an abstract of Its contents The OBJ
ect Of this paper to show that the coumonly received
opinion smong eminent vegetable Physioossts, that
plants always destroyed when the juices contained In
Il appears ffom Historical sketch that the celebrated
John Hunter published sere: Of sxperiments In
from which he concluded that both .amais and plants
be deprived Of the principle Of life before they
Be frozen In relation TO animals, more recent observe
ions have convinced Psychologists that Hunters gem
which sS.oussy freezes .h.r bodies not Equally fatal
to all clssses Of animals
Many striking instances Are esumerated IN which
the lower orders d animals have been completely frozen
without the sshtsst injury to the powers Of NE Al.
endowed with like power sf resistance to the destructive
Effects Of cold yet shown By reference to the wr
general and decided that the complete cOnsaaon ot
the jssss Of = plant necessarily and Inevitably re-
impressed with this fundamental idea all at tempts
whh lave been made TO explain how vegetables endure
the action Of excessive cold resolve themieves into an
their iuces from freezing These causes may be re-
ductd to five. viz IL certain amount of proper heat
generated by physiological action z. The visible
necessity Of ths juices lowering the freezing point
The distribution OF the cap through minute veslces and
capillary depressing the poln. q stu h
sap Ia pumped up; The low conducting power OF the
eoncentric layers Of bark aud wood
The author takes up each Of these causes aud shows
that individually and collectively they totally in
adequate to prevent the congeaton Of the juices Of
lie was induced TO institute Q series Of observations
and experiments, by which he soon convinced that
,ome plants may be and frequently frozen without
receiving the slightest injury The fluids in the
Of and other plants are frozen during cold winter
mornings in Georgia. His experiments ~ the aid OF
artificial cold show that nternode Ot elder OF about
one inch In diameter could In the course OF two houc
be frozen 10 M centre BY adcgree OF cold not exceedax
sn,s. 20 asgr'ss . rsnd.nn.n me .ss Ss
dinsry observation well by watching the sdhse-
quent process OF thawng under the compound micro
scope shoot of silanus which had thus been frozen
found to pui forth aaves aud grow when the spring
returned.
Collateral evidence Is then produced to show that the
sap plants growing In high attudes is frozen during
the winter TO show that all parts Of plant inclu ding
lite descending axis and sppcndsss may be frozen with
injury to its growth, aluson Is made to the town OF
Yshietsh, in Asatic siberia, the mean temperature Of
which is 14h degrees Fahrenheit degree Of cold ex
ceedng 81 degrees below zero occurs every year. aud
the temperature of the winter months Ia less than
40 degrees below Mercury has been known to
main solid during three successive months The ground
Ierpetuay frozen to the depth of AGO feet During
summer the superficial stratum OF 10 Is less than
three feet and yet continued Professor arch forests
flourish in this town II Is impossible to imagine that
any combination Of vital anu physical causes could
prevent the juices Of these trees from being frozen
In the next part IL is shown thst the cleaving OF
trees by extreme cold IL not the result Of the expansion
which accompanies the congeation Of the sap as has
been supposed the result Of the contraction which
takes place In the exterior layers OF wood, after the
fluids frozen by the rapid augmentation OF cold.
Tn. paper concluded with discussion of the manner
in which cold produces death la plants.
cIoUps rqUsropfAL cLovD-RtSGs rHE EARTH,
nM y. MkrRy. LEUT. y. 3 e.. AND sUFERtNrEsDEsr OF
IHE NAIIoNAL oBsERvATUaY.
The TAILOR at observes phenomena aud witnesses
operations In the terrestrial economy which tell him that
in the beautiful and exquisite ments Of the grand
machinery Of the atmosphere the clouds have other Ian
pcftsnt ,nces TO perform besides those OF dtpenrny
howes OF producing the rans and ~ weaving ma tes
81 snow fef the protection Of Onr fields In winter AS
rlna t.