200 



Proceeding of Learned Societies. 



[Fun. 



presented 



memoir on certain fundamental 

 le calculus of remainders 

 12. M. Girard read a memoir on some 

 standards of the ancient Egyptian cubit 

 recently discovered. MM. Chaussier, Du- 

 meril, and Boyer reported most favourably 

 on two memoirs of Dr. Faure, relative to 

 the iris and to artificial pupils. MM. Pel- 

 letan and Royer reported upon two memo- 

 randa forwarded by Dr. Barery of Limoges, 

 entitled " two cases of luxation of the cer- 



vical vertebrae, with compression of the spi- 

 nal marrow." M. Freycinet read a letter of 

 M. Gaymard, dated New Zealand, March 

 4, 1827) communicating various details of 

 the expedition of the corvette 1' Astrolabe. 

 MM. Desfontaines and Coquebert-Montbret 

 made a verbal report on the first number of 

 the Annals of Science of Havannah, pub- 

 lished by M. Ramor de la Sagra, professor 

 of botany in that city. 



VARIETIES, SCIENTIFIC AND MICELLANEOUS. 



Optical Phenomenon, from the Cambridge Philosophical Transactions Vol 2, Part 2, 



page 267. 



PROFESSOR Airey shut an eye, 



To miss of the discovery 



The image formed therein Profess- 



He could not see at all unless 



This vile defect, quoth he, indeed 



Should master, if I were to read 



His clear eye well refracts the rays, 



The blind did not, at which he says 



Alas, he cried, was ever lot 



It well might puzzle, might it not, 



It passes all imagining 



Thought little more about the thing, 



At last, he gazing from afar 



The images of lamp and star, 



'Twas the left eye that was not right, 



The right was left with perfect sight, 



So then beginning to reflect 



He shrewdly deemed that " this effect 



The major axis in appea 

 As thirty-five degrees, or near, 

 In short, when northern breezes blew, 

 But when the wind was south, he knew 

 Thenceforward he began to pass 

 Iri striving to construct a glass 

 He thought a pair of cylinders 

 If their diameters transverse 

 In reading on it would appear 

 One surface being made a sphere, 

 So one cylindrical was made, 

 But the expression for the Rad- 

 The thing would only raise a laugh, 

 Suffice it, r was four and a half, 

 There were proportions which ensured 

 And he with much ado " procured 



To artists skilful he applied 

 To work the lens was one man's pride, 

 Then Fuller's name (we give the hint) 

 Who with one eye made Airey squint 



Assamese Method of Blasting Rocks 



The old method of blasting rocks was by 

 ramming cky, or a similar substance, over 

 the charge of powder in the chamber ; this 

 was superseded by the practice of pouring 

 loose sand over the powder, which, if it suc- 

 ceed with the softer rocks, usually fails 

 with the harder and primitive ones, and the 

 sand is blown out. We were the first to 

 bring under the notice of the public, through 

 the medium of this journal, the very supe- 



and would have been excuseless 



that t'other eye was useless. 



or A. makes learned mention 



he gave it his attention. 



by optics do I find, I 



entirely with my blind eye. 



but *hen he closed its casement, 



he stared in all amazement. 



deplorable as mine is, 



the chancellor's own highness. 



so turning on his heel, he 



but gave it up like Keely. 



across his nose's tip sees 



not circles but ellipses. 



for though 'twas dim, he had one ; 



except that 'twas a bad one. 



on Nature and her laws, 



defective came by cause." 



ance was inclined as far 



from the perpendicular. 



he saw as never man saw, 



a hawk from any handsaw. 



his meditative hours 



of two dispersive powers. 



the rays would disentangle, 



were placed at a right angle. 



his next step was in finding 



would muih assist the grinding. 



one spherical, each hollow ; 



ii I cannot follow. 



and so we'll let it be, 



and great R three three, three. 



success to his inventions, 



a lens to these dimensions." 



successless, but he skips which, 



Fuller, his name of Ipswich. 



let envy fear to smother, 



as well as with the other. 



rior plan of substituting small broken pieces 

 of the rock to be blasted for the sand. In Scot- 

 land, an iron conical plug was not long since 

 placed nearly at the bottom of the chamber, 

 and the effect of the explosion is represented 

 as prodigious. The Assamese close the 

 mouth of the hole, by driving in with a 

 mallet a stout wooden plug, some inches in 

 length, through which a touch hole is bored. 

 Between the powder and the lower part of 

 the plug an interval of several inches is left, 



