Royal Society. 1 73 



authors forgot that the deluge is stated in Genesis as a mira- 

 cle, or as an immediate art of the Creator's will, and conse- 

 quently that it is superfluous to seek any secondary causes. 



[To be continued.] 



XXIX. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



P ejbruary 2.- — The reading of Mr. Troughton's paper on 

 the Division of Mathematical Instruments by ocular inspec- 

 tion was concluded. One of the methods adopted was the 

 use of a roller one-sixteenth the diameter of the circle to be 

 divided. The description of this principal instrument the 

 author has deferred till a future communication. 



A most curious and interesting paper by Mr. Davy was 

 read, giving an account of various experiments on the ac- 

 tion of potassium on ammonia, from which it appears, that 

 a considerable quantity of nitrogen can be made to disap* 

 pear, and can be regenerated. When it disappears, nothing 

 is obtained in its place but oxvgen and hydrogen ; and when 

 k is formed, its elementary matter is furnished by water. 



There seem to be, at present, only two modes of ex~ 

 plaining these extraordinary and entirely unlooked-for re- 

 sults : i. e. that nitrogen is either a compound of hydrogen 

 and oxygen, — or, which is the most probable, that hydro- 

 gen, nitrogen, ammonia, water, and the nitrous compound, 

 all contain the same ponderable elementary matter, and that 

 their different forms depend upon different electrical states. 

 The paper concluded by stating that the author was still pur- 

 suing this inquiry, so intimately connected with the whole 

 arrangements of chemistry and meteorolgy. 



Feb. 9. — Dr. Young furnished a series of numerical tables 

 of the elective attraction of acids with alkalis, by means of 

 which 100 .figures are made to represent the affinities of 100 

 different salts, which would otherwise require above 5000 

 words to express. 



Feb. 16. — A paper by Mr. Brodie, describing a twin 



foetus, 



