S80 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 



1837, January 2. DR ABERCROMBIE, Vice- President, in the 

 Chair. The following communications were read : 



1. On Tea Oil. By Robert D. Thomson, M.D. 



A species of fixed oil, familiarly used in China for the same eco- 

 nomical purposes for which olive oil is employed in Europe, has 

 been ascertained by recent travellers in China to be produced in all 

 probability by the tea-plant, or another species of the same natural 

 family. The author assigns reasons for believing that it either is, 

 or may be, obtained from the seeds of various species of the two 

 genera Thea and Camellia. It has been hitherto almost unknown 

 in Europe. It is when fresh quite free of smell, of a pale yellow 

 tint, without any sediment when long kept. It resists a cold of 

 40 R, but at 39 becomes like an emulsion. Its density is 927. 

 It is insoluble in alcohol, sparingly soluble in ether. It burns with 

 a remarkably clear white flame. It consists of 75 parts of elaine, 

 and 25 of stearin e ; whence the author infers its elementary com- 

 position to be, oxygen 9.853, carbon 78.619, hydrogen 11.527. 

 He is inclined to think that this oil might prove an important ar- 

 ticle of commerce in the East, because in its properties it is superior 

 to cocoa-nut oil, and the various other oils prevalently used for 

 burning, or as oleaginous condiments, in Asiatic countries. 



2. Observations on a New Species of British Gurnard, and 



on a New Species of Sole. By Richard Parnell, M.D. 



3. On Aplanatic Telescopes, a posthumous paper by the late 



Archibald Blair, Esq. 



January 16. Sir THOMAS M. BRISBANE, President, in the 

 Chair. The following Communications were read : 



1. On the Condition of the Earth, as it is first described in 

 the Mosaic Account of the Creation. By Mungo 

 Ponton, Esq. 



In this paper, the author confined his attention principally to 

 those words of the original, which, in the received translation, are 

 rendered " without form and void." He considered that, in a phi- 

 lological point of view, the most correct translation is " vastness 

 and emptiness," or, in the adjective form, " immeasurable and im- 

 ponderable." 



The bearing of the most recent philosophical discoveries, and of 



