On this annual occasion of resuming the Ordinary Meetings of the Royal Society, it becomes us, as almost a duty which we owe to science, and to our country, whose science we in some measure represent, that we should review what has been done by the Society during the past year, to merit the position which it holds in public opinion, and the title which it pre-eminently enjoys.

I believe it may be allowed me to congratulate you on the result of such a retrospect of your proceedings. We cannot, indeed, boast of any great or prominent discovery in the physical or natural sciences having been first announced during last Session in this Hall, or first given to the world in our Transactions for that period. But in truth, the past year has been nowhere, to my knowledge, marked by any such event in any country.

The author had resided for fifteen months, in 1855–56, within a few miles of the Plain of Troy, and had made excursions over it at all seasons.

His paper commenced with a description of the western extremity of the Asiatic coast of the Hellespont, between Abydos and Koum Kaleh, including the River Rhodius and the sites of Dardanus, Ophrynium, Pteleos, Rhætium, and Novum Ilium, all of which he considered positively identified. A minute topographical account followed: first, of the valley of the Dumbrek (Simois); next, of the valley of the Mendere (Scamander); next, of the valley of the Kimair (Thymbrius of Strabo); and lastly, of the hilly country between these streams, and of the relics of antiquity which it included.

In prosecution of the analyses of Scottish building stones commenced last winter in the laboratory of the Industrial Museum, by the examination of the bed-rock from Craigleith quarry, four more sandstones have been analyzed since May 1856 by Mr Bloxam. The stones in question are the Craigleith liver-rock, and the Binnie sandstone, from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and the Gifnock and Partick Bridge stones, from the neighbourhood of Glasgow.

After several introductory observations on the refractive condition of the human eye in infancy, in the prime of life, and in old age; and also in some tribes of artizans, in shepherds, and in mariners, with notices of the focal adjustment in the eyes of oxen, common fowls, and in fishes, as the cod and haddock, the author examined the different theories which have been advanced to account for this adapting power, and expressed his strong opinion that the external muscular apparatus was the principal and initiating agent.

Most of the observations contained in the present communication were made some years ago, and during the last autumn the author had an opportunity of repeating many of them and of adding some others. His object in now bringing them together was, that by being thus placed in possession of sufficient material, we might be enabled to make a useful correlation of the ascertained facts, so as to obtain, if possible, some more general expressions forthe phenomena presented.

So far as my reading extends, the nature of the black varnish of the ancient Greek and Etruscan vases is still undetermined.

From the experiments I have made, operating on very small quantities, abraded from vases which were taken from tombs in the Ionian Islands, I have been led to the conclusion, that it is a vitreous matter, coloured by black oxide of iron, probably mixed with particles of metallic iron, to which its peculiar lustre may be owing.

After alluding to the comparatively superficial manner in which physiologists, with the exception of the brothers Weber, have hither-to investigated the structure and movements of the joints, the author gave an abstract of the general results which he had formerly obtained in an examination of the knee-joint, made with reference to Meyer's valuable observations. He had found that, as stated by Meyer, the thigh and leg rotate on one another in opposite directions,—at the close of extension, and at the commencement of flexion; and that the co-ordinated movements in the patella, the ligaments, and muscles correspond generally with the account given by that observer; but in addition he had ascertained what had previously escaped notice,

1. That the articular surfaces of the femur, tibia, and patella are not continuous but faceted surfaces.

In continuation of his former essay on the sculptured stones peculiar to the north-eastern portion of Scotland, the author produced, for the inspection of the Society, two specimens of the Buddhist dorje, which he considered to be the prototype of the well-known spectacle-ornament, found on no fewer than thirty-four of those stones; and, in twenty-nine instances, in combination with zig-zag lines, the symbol of power.

When Linnæus said that all objects of natural history must have a specific name, he did not mean a trivial name (which was not then invented), but what is called a short, distinctive character, otherwise it is not imperative on others to adopt the trivial name imposed, or recognise it in any way. The want of short characters (intended to place clearly before the mind the few essential points of difference between supposed new and already known forms or species) cannot be supplied by figures or diffuse descriptions of the entire object, as these leave quite in the dark the precise marks of distinction observed by the writer, if such actually existed.

Dr Traill's paper was divided into four sections: the 1st contained the geology of Andalucia from the Sierra Nevada of Granada to the south; the 2d described the mountain or rock of Gibraltar; the 3d traced the succession of rocks from the Sierra Morena to the south and south-west; and the 4th described the Sulphur Mine near Conil.

1. In the part of the Sierra Nevada visited by Dr Traill, which was at about two-thirds of its height, the only visible rocks were mica-slate, in its lower portions approaching to gneiss, on which reposed beds of limestone, evidently belonging to the same formation as the slate.

This slab was found lying on the sand about 150 yards within high-water mark, a little northward of the projecting headland called Whitberry Point, on the coast of East Lothian. The head-land is of trap, which rests on a red sandstone, similar to that of the slab. The sandstone covers some acres northward of the headland at low water, running out in a succession of ridges in a north-east direction, and dipping to the south-east. The slab is of a triangular form; its length is 17 inches, greatest breadth 9, and the thickness varies from 1½ to 2 inches.

In the Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. iii., p. 348, an account has been given by Professor Forbes of the discussions which had then taken place as to the geological constitution of the chain of Mont Blanc, and as to the reality of the alleged superposition of the primary rock (gneiss) to the secondary (limestone), near Chamouni, and at Courmayeur.

In order to clear up any remaining doubt, Mr Ruskin caused sections to be made, laying bare the junction at several points of the Valley of Chamouni.

The Council of the Royal Society, in the exercise of the power conferred on them, have awarded the Keith Medal to Professor Boole of Cork, for his Memoir “On the Application of the Theory of Probabilities to the Question of the Combination of Judgments or Testimonies,” printed in the Society's Transactions of last Session.

In conferring this medal, in the name of the Council, it may reasonably be expected that I should say a few words on each of two different heads—first, the person on whom the medal is conferred; secondly, the paper, which has appeared to the Council worthy of the award. And I admit that I ought not to decline to fulfil the expectation after some sort. I shall accordingly offer some remarks on these separate topics.

The author began by some remarks upon the expression or . Where p represents the a priori probability of an event attested by a witness whose veracity, or the ratio of whose true assertions to the number of all his assertions is, v. He observed that U, or the ultimate probability of the asserted fact, depended upon the accuracy of the numerical value given to v, and that men have never such knowledge of their neighbours' antecedents, as to assume this value with anything like an approximation to the truth.

The author stated that during summer, in neap tides, the stream flows from the Atlantic into the Minch all day, but from the Minch into the Atlantic all night. In winter this was reversed, the stream flowing through the Sound of Harris from the Minch into the Atlantic all day, but from the Atlantic into the Minch all night.

In spring tides, both during summer and winter, the stream comes in from the Atlantic during the greater part of the time the water is rising, and flows back into the Atlantic during the greater portion of the fall of the tide.

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.

Two varieties of the seeds of the Rhamnus tinctoria are found in commerce, known by the names of Persian and Turkish berries. The former are said to be gathered before being fully ripe, and are carefully preserved; the latter have remained much longer on the branches, and are brown and shrivelled. Kane has examined both varieties, and finds in the former a substance which he names Chrysorhamnine, soluble in alcohol and ether, and crystallizing from the latter in minute silky needles of a brilliant yellow colour. This substance is replaced in the ripe berry by another, which he names Xanthorhamnine, of a much less beautiful yellow, and not crystallizable; this change is effected also by boiling the chrysorhamnine for a few minutes with water. Xanthorhamnine is easily soluble in alcohol and water, but quite insoluble in ether.

The object of these experiments was to compare together the radiations from the polished surfaces of different bodies, all having the temperature of 212°. In order to heat the bodies, a tin box was used, double-sided and double-bottomed, or a box within a box. Water being kept boiling in the interval, the interior chamber was found to have a temperature of nearly 212°; and on the bottom of this chamber the bodies to be experimented on were placed. When being used these were taken out of the chamber and placed before the sentient pile of a thermo-multiplier, the galvanometer needle connected with which was immediately deviated from its zero position.