i8 



HISTORY of the SOCIETY. 



1784. 



Jan. 5. 

 Dr Blane on 

 the difeafes of 

 the fleet 



Jan. 13. 

 Mr T. Robert- 

 fon on inflexion 

 in languages. 



ftounnefs, ice three quarters of an inch thick. It was appre- 

 hended by many farmers, that fuch a degree of cold would ef- 

 fectually prevent the further filling and ripening of their corn. 

 In order to afcertain this point, Dr ROEBUCK felected feveral 

 ftalks of oats, of nearly equal fulnefs, and immediately cut 

 thofe which, on the moft attentive comparifon, appeared the 

 bed, and marked the others, but allowed them to remain in the 

 field fourteen days longer ; at the end of which time, they too 

 were cut, and kept in a dry room for ten days. The grains of 

 each parcel were then weighed ; when eleven of the grains 

 which had been left ftanding in the field, were found to be 

 equal in weight to thirty of the grains which had been cut a 

 fortnight fooner, though even the beft of the grains were far 

 from being ripe. During that fortnight, (viz. from October 7. 

 to October 21.) the average heat, according to FAHRENHEIT'S 

 thermometer, which was obferved every day at 8 o'clock in the 

 morning and 6 in the evening, was a little above 43. Dr ROE- 

 BUCK obferves, that this ripening and filling of corn in fo low 

 a temperature, {hould be the lefs furprifing to us, when we re- 

 flect, that feed-corn will vegetate in the fame degree of heat ; 

 and he draws an important inference from his obfervation, viz. 

 That farmers mould be cautious of cutting down their unripe 

 corn, on the fuppofition, that, in a cold autumn, it could fill no 

 more. 



Mr Profeflbr DUGALD STEWART read the firft part of a pa- 

 per, communicated by Dr BLANE, Phyfician to the Fleet lately 

 in the Weft Indies, giving an account of the Difeafes in that 

 fleet in 1782 and 1783. It is unneceflary to give here any ab- 

 ftract of this paper, as the fubftance of it is publimed by Dr 

 BLANE in his Obfervations on the Difeafes of Seamen. 



Lit. CL The Reverend Mr THOMAS ROBERTSON, minifter 

 of Dalmeny, read the firft part of a Diflertation on the Theory 



of 



