The author commenced his paper by observing that it formed a sequel to one communicated to the Society last Session on comenic acid; his object in the present instance having been partly to ascertain whether some of the substances described in his former paper could not be derived from meconic acid, which is the parent acid of comenic acid. This he shewed to be the case; but before detailing these experiments, he gave his process for purifying meconic acid, which is that of Gregory, modified by the use of ammonia instead of potass.

This was merely a note on some of the recent discoveries and generalizations, by Lieut. Maury, U.S.N., on the motions of the atmosphere. It had been clearly proved by the extensive researches of Lieut. M., that the trade-winds when rising at the equator, do not, as previously held, return to their own poles, but cross over to the opposite ones; and thus traverse the extent of the whole earth from pole to pole, in a curvilinear direction, on account of the effect of the rotation of the earth.

The object of this paper was to fix attention on the great physiological discovery which has been gradually effected during the present century, of the mode in which certain of the elements contained in the earth's atmosphere, under the influence of light and of a certain temperature, are continually employed in maintaining that great vital circulation, of which vegetable structures, animal structures, the air, and the soil, are the successive links; and to point out that the most essential and fundamental of the changes here effected,—particularly the formation of the different organic compounds in the cells of vegetables,—are strictly chemical changes, at least as clearly distinct from any chemical actions yet known to take place in inorganic matters, as the vital contractions of muscles are distinct from any merely mechanical causes of motion; and justifying the statement of Dr Daubeny, that there appears to be “a power, residing in living matters” and producing chemical effects,—in fact manifesting itself most unequivocally by the chemical changes which result from it,—“distinct, at least in its effects, from ordinary chemical and physical forces.”

The author had been enabled to study the blood corpuscles under circumstances capable of extending our information with regard to their relations, mode of formation, and ultimate destination. In 1845, he had discovered a peculiar condition in human blood, in which the colourless cells were greatly increased in number. This condition he had called leucocythemia, which was always associated with enlargement of the spleen or other lymphatic glands, a circumstance which had induced him to form the opinion that the corpuscles of the blood originated in these organs.

On the Mechanical Action of Radiant Heat or Light.

It is assumed in this communication that the undulatory theory of radiant heat and light, according to which light is merely radiant heat, of which the vibrations are performed in periods between certain limits of duration, is true. “The chemical rays,” beyond the violet end of the spectrum, consist of undulations of which the full vibrations are executed in periods shorter than those of the extreme visible violet light, or than about the eight hundred million millionth

The excessive motion of a ship at sea renders the use of the ordinary instruments employed on land impossible, and restricts the sailors to the use of one on the principle of the duplication of images discovered by Hadly.

Mr Coventry read a short notice of an antique marble bust which he had had the good fortune to purchase from a gentleman in Westmoreland, last autumn, and had reason to believe had been brought from Italy.

The bust, of which some very fine photographs were exhibited (executed by Mr Tunny of Newington, and Captain Scott, R.N.), Mr Coventry considered to be a portrait, and a work of high Greek art.

The following method of taking collodion portraits and views, is so easy in manipulation, and so rapid in its results, that it is worthy of the notice of every lover of photography. By means of an apparatus adjusted to the lens of the camera, so as to open and close it instantaneously, views can be taken with sufficient rapidity to delineate vehicles in motion, assemblies of people, and even the waves of the sea.

The pyromeconic acid employed in the following experiments was obtained by distilling impure meconic acid at a temperature of about 500° or 600° Fahr., when there is obtained a highly crystalline sublimate of a dark colour and empyreumatic odour. Its purification was effected by pressing the crystals so procured between folds of filtering paper, and finally subliming them at a moderate heat in cylindrical glass vessels provided with paper diaphragms.

The chief object of this paper was to state the result of a careful analysis of the viscera of a mare, which had died after receiving daily, for six weeks or more, carbonate of lead in its food and drink. Portions of the lungs, the heart, the large intestine and its contents, the stomach and duodenum, the spleen, the kidney, and the liver, were subjected to analysis by the author, assisted by Mr Stevenson Macadam.

The Duke of Argyll (in connection with other evidences of a more conclusive kind, that, during some portion of the tertiary ages, there had been some subaerial volcanic action in the Hebrides) explained the mode in which pumice occurred in the Island of Tyree. The pumice was found to form a bed or layer along the line of an ancient sea-beach, and was in the shape of balls more or less closely packed together. These appearances seemed to indicate that they had come in on the waters of a tide or current in large numbers at a time. They were manifestly sea-borne; and the only question was as to the most probable source.

Mr Smith of Jordanhill next read a paper on the direction of the striae on rocks and boulders in the West of Scotland.

It had generally been supposed that the cause, whatever it was, which lodged the erratic block beds in their present position had proceeded from the north and west.

This was true with respect to the basin of the Clyde and the east coast of Scotland; but on the western coast of Argyllshire, at Loch Crinan and Appin he had observed that the strike side (stoss seite) of the rocks pointed to the east, and the lee side (lee seite) to the west, shewing that, in these cases, the direction of the moving force was from east to west.

In this paper, the author detailed the analysis of some minerals which were placed at his disposal through the kindness of Dr Anderson, in whose laboratory they were examined by him.

During the frequent violent gales of last autumn, the author had remarked the excessive fluctuation of the barometer; and following up this phenomenon by means of the portable aneroid barometer, he found that not only was this fluctuation dependent on the wind and on the barometer being in a screened position; but that accompanying the fluctuation was a constant depression increasing in amount with the velocity of the air, and that this depression amounted in strong gales to a larger quantity than all the other usual corrections applied to a barometrical reading; and must be applicable to all the ordinary positions where barometers are observed, whether by sea or land.

The observations contained in this paper are given under several heads: 1st, on the roe and milt of the Charr; 2dly, on the time required for hatching the ova, and on the young fish in progress after exclusion; 3dly, on some agencies and circumstances supposed likely to exert an influence on both.

Two methods are at present followed by chemists for the analysis of organic bodies containing nitrogen. In the first of these the nitrogen is directly separated from the substance, and measured in a pure state; while in the second method it is converted into ammonia, collected and weighed, its amount being calculated from the known composition of this latter substance.

In accordance with the first-named mode of proceeding, the substance is burned at a high temperature, in contact with oxide of copper, chromate of lead, or some other body capable of yielding oxygen, when the carbon of the organic substance becomes converted into carbonic acid, and its hydrogen into water, while all the nitrogen is given off in a free state.

From careful experiments made, under direction of the Board of Directors of Prisons in Scotland, on 1624 prisoners confined in eight of the principal prisons, for periods not exceeding sixty days; and from an analysis of numerous observations on their weight and general health, the author arrives at the following conclusions:—

1. For the average of people whose occupation involves moderate muscular effort and no great exercise, a simple, well-selected sort of food, supplying seventeen ounces of daily real nutriment, of which four ounces are nitrogenous principles, constitutes a sufficient diet for maintaining health, strength, weight, and general condition; but less is not sufficient.

The author commenced his paper by referring to the numerous researches on opium which had already appeared, and stated that notwithstanding their number and extent, our information on the properties and composition of its various bases and indifferent constituents was still extremely imperfect. He had therefore submitted some of them to a renewed examination, employing as the source from which they were obtained the mother liquor of the manufacturers of muriate of morphia. By treatment of this liquor in a manner detailed in full in the paper, he obtained from it a large quantity of narcotine, and a certain proportion of thebaine and narceine.

The object of this communication is to discuss the evidence afforded by various observations of the eclipse which occurred on the 28th July 1851, as to the nature of the rose-coloured prominences which are seen round the moon during the total phase of solar eclipses.

In order to render the inquiry into the nature of the red prominences as complete as possible, the author has not confined himself to the consideration of such hypotheses only as have been formally stated regarding them; but has also included in his examination such other views as he thought might probably be entertained regarding those remarkable objects.