The investigations contained in this paper were undertaken with the view of ascertaining the nature of the action of sulphur in the free state on organic substances. The author endeavoured, in the first instance, to examine the action of that agent upon some of the simpler organic compounds, but without obtaining any definite results; and finally confined his experiments entirely to the fixed oils.

The distillation of oil of almonds with sulphur, which is attended by the violent evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen, afforded a peculiar nauseous oil, and a crystalline product deposited on cooling from the latter portions of the oil. In order to ascertain the source of these products, comparative experiments were made with pure stearic and oleic acids. It was thus found, that stearic acid, when distilled with sulphur, gave products identical with those obtained by its simple distillation, but that oleic acid gave an oily fluid and crystals similar to those produced from the crude oil.

Nitrogenised principles of food are subservient to the formation of albumen, whilst the non-nitrogenised are mostly converted into fat or oil. The fact, that a union of these is essential to nutrition, is explained, according to the chemist, by supposing that albumen constitutes the basis of the tissues, and that oil furnishes the elements of respiration and animal heat. This theory, however, does not explain the origin and maintenance of all growth, which is so essential to the vital functions. The author considered that the necessity of oil and albumen was accounted for by their being both necessary to the formation of the tissues, and he endeavoured to shew that there is no elementary cell into which these principles do not enter as constituent parts.

In this paper the author, describes 1st, the geological position of the gypsum deposits. The gypsum beds of Nova Scotia all belong to the carboniferous system. No gypsum occurs in older formations, and in the overlying new red, only slender veins and small nodules are found. The gypsum characterises the lower members of the carboniferous series, underlying the productive coal measures. The associated rocks are red sandstones and clays, with very few fossil plants, and thick beds of limestone abounding in marine shells. In the only well ascertained instance of gypsum occurring above the coal measures, it is accompanied by limestone with some of the same shells. The gypsum forms regular conformable beds sometimes 100 feet thick. They are much fractured and difficult to trace from the wooded state of the country; but one thick bed was traced by the author for ten miles.

In this paper, the author, after a general description of the geological character of the country, describes the superficial deposits which he divides into—

1. The unstratified drift or boulder formation. This, the lower of the two superficial deposits, is characterised by the circumstance, that most of the materials have been derived from the rocks on which they now rest, or those in the vicinity. The fragments are angular, and altogether devoid of any regular arrangement. This unstratified drift, however, does contain boulders from distant localities, which may generally be traced. The appearances indicate that the materials have been transported from the northward, and also, to a less extent, from the southward, and, indeed, in various directions.

Professor Henderson had found a connection between the changes in the level of the transit axis and the readings of a thermometer which he conceived to shew the temperature of the surface of the rock outside the Observatory; and was accustomed latterly to determine the level error of the axis merely from the indications of the thermometer.

The absolute westerly declination at Makerstoun, for the mean epoch, June 1844 = 25° 17′·12.

The annual motion of the north end of the needle towards the east = 5′·67.

The annual period of magnetic declination consists of a double oscillation, having nearly the following epochs of maxima and minima.

The first of the two ores here described, found in Cornwall, is a new combination of chloride of copper, sulphate of copper, and water. It occurs in beautiful small deep blue acicular crystals, of high lustre, grouped in bundles. The quantity was too small for a quantitative analysis.

The other is essentially a double carbonate of zinc and copper. It is from Matlock. It is pale-green, with a laminated structure and pearly lustre. In the qualitative examination of it, the author observed indications of one, or even of more than one, metallic oxide, which he could not identify satisfactorily with any known substance. This oxide was found to adhere to the copper, when that metal was precipitated by sulphuretted hydrogen. When the sulphuret was dissolved in aqua regia, and precipitated at a boiling heat by potash, the new oxide remained dissolved in the alkali, and the solution yielded on evaporation a small quantity of a soluble salt of a beautiful orange-yellow colour.

The author had been led to investigate the phosphates of the organic alkalies, with the view of determining the accuracy of an analysis of the phosphate of strychnia by Regnault, which gave results incompatible with the known constitution of the inorganic phosphates. He alluded to the investigation of the phosphates of aniline by Nicholson, and proceeded to the statement of his own observations.

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.

The author commenced by proving the propriety of the adoption of the minus sign for quantities of an affection opposite to those affected by the plus sign, and detecting the limits within which this use of the absolute minus was reasonable and effective.

The author having, on former occasions, stated some results of his travels in Auvergne and the Cantal, gives a more detailed description of the volcanoes of the Vivarais, which have been less frequently and less accurately described.

He first gives an account of the journey from Le Puy across the chain of the Cevennes which culminate at the volcanic summit of the Mezeuc, by the course of the Loire, to Montpezat in the department of the Ardêche.

(1.) Additional example of Diluvial Scratches on the Rocks in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh.

The author stated that, recently, an opportunity had presented itself of observing, at a newly-opened sandstone quarry, dressed and scratched surfaces, at an elevation above the level of the sea greater than any examples of the same kind of diluvial action as yet recorded, as occurring in the neighbourhood. The locality is eastward of the east Cairn Hill, in the Pentland Hills, at a place termed “Thomson's Walls,” and its elevation, according to Knox's map of Mid-Lothian, is 1400 feet.

(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.

After some remarks on the present state of animal chemistry, the author commenced by giving a brief account of the recent discoveries of Liebig in regard to the constituents of the “juice of flesh,” or the liquid contained in the substance of the muscles, which is distinguished from the blood by the large proportion of free acid it contains. This remarkable animal fluid has been found, by Liebig, to contain phosphoric and lactic acids in large quantity, inosinic acid in small proportion, and some other acids not yet studied; also, potash in large quantity with a little soda, a considerable proportion of magnesia, and a little lime, chloride of potassium, with a little chloride of sodium, and, besides some compounds of animal origin not yet investigated, the new base Kreatinine, and the very remarkable substance, Kreatine, first discovered by Chevreul, but in vain sought for by Berzelius and other chemists.

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.

The purport of this paper was to place on record certain observations made during the years 1843–4–5, in the southern hemisphere, at those times of the year when the Zodiacal Light cannot be seen in the Northern hemisphere; to test, by means of these new data,—which, besides the novelty of the geographical position, had the further one of being determined by instrumental measurement,—what laws of the phenomena may be considered to have been satisfactorily made out, and what required further elucidation; and to recommend these latter to the attention of observers situated in more favourable parts of the world than those commanded by European Observatories generally.

The object of this paper was partly to introduce to the notice of travellers and residents in tropical countries, a small equatorial instrument, specially contrived for observing the Zodiacal light; and partly to bring forward before amateur astronomers, prominently, the advantage of equatorial mountings in general; as well as to exemplify the best and easiest methods of adjusting and rectifying the instruments, and placing the telescopes in every respect in the most favourable circumstances for yielding good results.

After noticing that the vertebral skeleton has usually been compared to a column, of which the basis (in man) is formed by the sacrum and coccyx, the shaft or columnar part being the bodies of the true vertebræ, as they are usually styled, and surmounted by the splendid composite capital the cranium, the author proposed restricting the observations to the columnar portion, usually divided into 7 cervical, 12 dorsal, and 5 lumbar vertebræ. This division was denounced, and beginning at the summit, he shewed that the upper or cervical region consisted only of 6 vertebræ, as the 7th, in its normal position in the mammal class, had a rib partly articulated to its body, and therefore acquired the character of a dorsal vertebra.