446 General Monthly Meeting. [July 6, 



produced by the other deflagrated metals so long as the dusty 

 films are in the metallic state. As these finer preparations could 

 be held in place only on glass or some such substance, and as 

 glass itself had an effect, it was necessary to find a medium in 

 which the power of the glass was nothing ; and this was obtained 

 in the bisulphide of carbon. Here the effect of gold upon a ray 

 of light which was unaffected by the glass supporting it, was ren- 

 dered very manifest, not only to a single observer, but also to a 

 large audience. 



The object of these investigations was to ascertain the varied 

 powers of a substance acting upon light, when its particles were 

 extremely divided, to the exclusion of every other change of con- 

 stitution. It was hoped that some of the very important differences 

 in the action upon the rays might in this way be referred to the 

 relation in size or in number of the vibrations of the light and the 

 particles of the body, and also to the distance of the latter from each 

 other : and as many of the effects are novel in this point of view, it 

 is hoped that they will be of service to the physical philosopher. 



[M. F.] 



GENERAL MONTHLY MEETING, 



Monday, July 6. 



William Pole, Esq. M.A. F.R.S. Treasurer and Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



J. W. Childers, Esq. 

 was duly elected a Member of the Royal Institution. 



Charles Tilston Bright, Esq. 

 was admitted a Member of the Royal Institution. 



A copy of the New Classified Catalogue of the Library, brought 

 down to July 1857, consisting of 946 pages, (including a Chronolo- 

 gical List of Historical Tracts and Indexes of Authors and Sub- 

 jects,) was laid before the Members. The price of a copy, half- 

 bound, will be to the Members, 10*. ; to Non-Members, \6s. 



The special thanks of the Members were returned to the 

 Society of Dilettanti, for their present of three volumes of their 

 Publications — Ancient Sculptures, Vol. II, ; Antiquities of Ionia, 

 Part III. ; and the Bronzes of Siris. 



