Royal Institution of Great Britain. 229 



PROCEEDINGS AT THE FRIDAY EVENING MEETINGS OF ,THE 

 ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Jan. 25. — The Members of this Institution commenced their meet- 

 ings for the season, on this evening j Mr. Brande occupied the place 

 at the lecture table, and gave an account of the discovery of the 

 three most important vegeto -alkalies, Morphia, Cinchonia, and Qui- 

 nia ; also of their properties, the best methods of preparing them, the 

 methods of detecting impurities in them 5 illustrating the whole by 

 reference to experiments and specimens. 



At the close of the evening he paid a just tribute to the memory of 

 Mr. Daniel Moore, who, a firm friend to the Institution during his 

 life, left it a thousand pounds at his death. 



A quantity of the new element bromine was laid upon the library 

 tables, with specimens of Brazilian manufactures, &c. &c. 



Feb. 1 . — An experimental illustration and explanation of the cu- 

 rious phenomena produced in certain circumstances by a current of 

 air, steam, water, or of any other fluid, was given in the lecture 

 room, by Mr. Faraday. The phaenomena were first brought to the 

 notice of scientific men by M. Clement, and consists, as our readers 

 well know, in the apparent adhesion of a flat disc against an aper- 

 ture in a plane surface, out of which the stream of fluid is passing. — 

 Make a smooth round hole about the eighth of an inch in diameter, 

 through the middle of a large sound bung, cut one of the flat sur- 

 faces of the bung smooth with a sharp knife, stick three or four 

 pins upright into that surface, equidistant from each other, and about 

 three quarters of an inch each from the central hole ; and then drop 

 between them a disc of paper or card one inch and a half in diameter, 

 so as to lie loosely between the pins over the hole. No effort to blow 

 tbe paper off by forcing air or the breath through the hole in the 

 bung, will succeed j but the stronger the current, the more forcibly 

 will the paper be pressed up against it. Mr. Faraday gave the same 

 explanation of the effect as that given by M. Clement. He stated it 

 to be a pure effect of the momentum of thd air between the disc and 

 the cork, and to have no necessary connection with the lateral cur- 

 rents of air which move on to join a stream passing in one direction : 

 —these lateral currents were cut off in some of the experiments, and 

 still the effect remained unabated. He equally denied the effects of 

 friction as having any thing to do with the effect. 



Numerous objects of interest were placed upon the library tables, 

 amongst which were several from Ashantee, and especially the scull 

 of an Ashantee slain in the battle of Aug. 1824, which had two oc- 

 cipital bones. 



Feb. 8. — Mr. Ainger gave an illustrated account of the origin of 

 Grecian architecture, and of the principles acknowledged in modern 

 times as derived from it, and then applied those principles to cer- 

 tain parts of St. Paul's cathedral ; at the same time strongly repro- 

 bating the species of tyranny which has resulted from judging a 

 building of one kind by the rules and the taste which have been 

 formed upon others altogether of a different nature. 



Presents, 



