The author enters on the subject by adverting to the apparent lightness imparted to the common woods, and to certain vesicular minerals, by the entanglement of air in their substance, as is commonly understood, and as is proved by the action of the air-pump. The specific gravity of oak-wood, after having been kept under the exhausted receiver till it sunk in water, and ceased to give off air, he found to be (inclusive of hygrometric moisture) 1.58; that of deal, 1.18, or when crushed about 1.5; that of the pith of the elder, 1.45; and that of pumice, 1.94, or crushed, 2.41, which is nearly the same as that of obsidian, from which pumice appears to be formed by the action of volcanic fire.

It must be well known to chemists, that when solution of acetate of lead is added to the transparent and colourless water of springs, wells, and rivers, a more or less dense white cloud is almost invariably produced. This reaction has been usually attributed to the presence of inorganic salts, such as carbonates, sulphates, and muriates; but it will be found that, generally speaking, this precipitate is formed even after the water has been boiled; that it is usually dissolved by the speedy addition of a drop or two either of acetic or of nitric acid, without visible effervescence; and that the agency of the water with nitrate of silver is commonly too small to admit of its being caused by any muriate.

The plant bearing the above Indian name, and also called Sipeeri by the Dutch colonists, furnishes the hard and heavy timber known by the name of Greenheart. The object of the present paper was to state the result of experiments made by the author on the bark and seeds of the tree, which had been found by Mr Rodic, R. N., to contain a vegetable alkali possessed of the power of checking intermittent fevers. Dr Maclagan stated that the tree was unknown to botanists. Sir William Hooker and Dr Lindley had seen the fruit and declared it to be lauraceous, but the author had been unable to find, in Rees v. Esenbeck's Systema Laurinarum, any genus or even suborder of lauraceous plants to which he could refer it.

Dr Hope in the first place read, from the Proceedings of the Geological Society in London, the account of the freezing cavern furnished by the President of the Geological Society of London. This is one of several caves which exist in the southern face of a lengthened low hillock of gypsum. It is entered from the south by a passage rather narrow, and is about fifteen feet high, ten paces long, and seven wide, which seemed to send off irregular fissures into the body of the rock.

These thermometers, made by Mr Adie of Edinburgh, were sunk in the ground at Trevandrum, in lat 8° 30′ 35″, to depths of 3, 6, and 12 French feet. Mr Caldecott says,—“I send you herewith the readings of my long thermometers, which, from various causes, I was not able to put into the ground until the 1st of last May (1842). These two months' readings, therefore, will not, of course, have the proper temperature at the respective depths, especially as it has been raining more or less nearly ever since. Still, I think they will surprise you, as being (so far as they go) entirely opposed to Kupffer's opinion, that the superficial temperature of the earth within the tropics is below that of the air, and to Boussingault's assertion, as to the invariability of the temperature one foot below the surface.

The object proposed by the author of this paper, was to present, in a complete form, the results of investigations into the phenomena of Waves, in which he had been engaged for several years. A part of the experiments referred to in the paper, had been carried on by Sir John Robison, conjointly with the author of this paper, as a Committee of the British Association. The others were new, and had been carried on by himself, for the purpose of completing and giving that systematic form to our knowledge of the subject, which was attempted in this paper.

In the First Part of this inquiry, the author gave an account, in 1840, of some observations made by him, as to the influence of season on the activity of the acrid plants of the natural family Ranunculaceœ, and of the narcotics belonging to the family Drupaceœ. In the Second Part now laid before the Society, he proceeded to relate a series of experiments instituted by him with the view of determining the influence of season on the activity of the poisonous narcotic plants of the family Umbelliferœ.

The three persons referred to came accidentally under the observation of the author during the past year. They were from different parts of the country, and not related to one another. In one of them only was it ascertained that other members of the same family had been similarly affected.

The first part of the paper contained a notice of the history of these persons, and an anatomical description of the malformation with which they were affected.

The author stated, that this phenomenon seems scarcely to be noticed in the writings of Aristotle or of Pliny which have reached us, though Pliny was familiar with the light emitted by certain shell-fish, and by the Sea Lung or Medusa.

Mr Boyle gives an account, from the journal of a shipmaster, of the luminousness of the sea; and it is particularly detailed, from personal observation, in the Indian voyage of Father Bourzes, in 1704.

From the nature of the instrument, it is impossible to give an intelligible abstract of the paper. The paper, with a description of the instrument, and a statement of its indications for some months, is published in the Society's Transactions.

The author, after mentioning that they were collected by himself from a quarry on the estate of Mr Warner of Ardeer, in the parish of Stevenston and district of Cuninghame, shortly described the quarry, as belonging in its geological position to the carboniferous group; and stated that it is considered the most valuable for white freestone in the west of Scotland. He mentioned the different strata in the order of their occurrence; and stated that coal had been wrought out from beneath it, within the remembrance of the present generation. He said that the fossils are not confined to any one stratum of the sandstone, but are found in them all, wherever the stone is faulty.

The object of this paper was the approximate determination of the change of phase, and intensity of a ray reflected at the surface of a medium, which admits of no refraction.

This remarkable nut is now well known as being extensively carved into ornaments, having the high polish and general appearance of the finest ivory.

It is a seed or nut of a palm called Phytelephas macrocarpa, which is found on the banks of the Magdalena river, in the republic of Columbia.

For analysis the fine turnings of the vegetable ivory were employed. These were well rubbed in a mortar successively with cold and hot water, and were then heated with hot alcohol.

In this paper the Author added a few supplementary observations to those made on the alleged poisonous properties of the Œnanthe crocata, in his paper on the poisonous Umbelliferœ, read on the 4th December last.

He stated that he had met with other cases of poisoning with this plant, recorded by Continental authors, shewing that death may take place in an hour,—that so small a quantity as a single tuber, no bigger than the finger, has proved fatal,—that the roots are poisonous in some countries, from the beginning of January till the middle of October at all events, and probably throughout the whole year; and that Spain may be added to the countries formerly mentioned, where fatal effects have been produced by the plant.

The results obtained by the author, on analysing the cellular fibre of different kinds of plants, after a sufficient purification, are, on the whole, in conformity with those of Payen. But he considers the formula, which Payen has derived from his results, an inconvenient one; and that the composition of cellular fibre is in conformity with that of inuline, rather than with that of starch, as that chemist has supposed.

This phenomenon was observed on the 5th July and three following days. It did not occur on all parts of the coasts of Great Britain. In England, it was observed only on the south shores of Cornwall and Devonshire. In Scotland, it was observed on the east coast; and there it was seen at a great many places, between Eyemouth in Berwickshire and the Shetland Islands.

It was only on the 5th July that the oscillation occurred on the Cornish and Devonshire coasts. It prevailed on the Scottish coast, however, from the 5th to the 7th July inclusive.

The phenomenon consisted of a flux and reflux of the sea, beyond what could be accounted for by ordinary tides, or any wind prevailing at the time. The water suddenly rose up and sunk down from 2 to 5 feet in perpendicular height, producing effects more or less striking, according to the shelving character of the shore.

This memoir had been undertaken as preliminary to an ethnological inquiry which the author had proposed to institute into the aborigines of the British Islands. It was premised, that, in this endeavour to seek for ancient races in those which were modern, great caution is required.

It has been asked, if, at the present day, we can as readily distinguish an Iberian type from one that is Gaulish or Caledonian, as was done more than seventeen hundred years ago in the time of Tacitus? It is answered, that, by a conservative principle in our nature, directed to the persistency of types, the influences of Time, Climate, and Civilization, are rendered of little avail.