91 



PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE ATIIEN^UM. 



December 4rn. — Rev. G. Smith's Lecture on Meinory. 



Tlie Lecturer commenced by introducing some observations on 

 the advantages of mental science in general, and tlie importance 

 of a correct acquaintance with the faculty of memory in particu- 

 lar, arising from its value in connecting the past with the present, 

 and aiding the judgment in all transactions in life. In defining 

 the capabilities and powers of memory, he enquired into the 

 propriety of classing this property of the mind with conception 

 and imagination as an original power, and endeavoured to prove 

 that they should rather be resolved into the more general mental 

 tendency denominated suggestion. 



The lecturer examined some varieties of memory, and attempt- 

 ed to fix their peculiarities and illustrate their distinctive features 

 by some remarkable instances of susceptibility, retentiveness, and 

 readiness. He next estimated the properties and value of a good 

 memory, and adverted to some natural and artificial methods of 

 attaining that object. In the course of his paper he showed the 

 importance of attention, discrimination, and philosophic arrange- 

 ment in reference to this acquisition ; -and examined the utility of 

 the topical memory of the ancient rhetoricians, the Memoria 

 Technica of Grey, and some other schemes of artificial memory. 



December 11th. — Mr. Hearder's Lecture on Gaseous 

 Combustion. 



The Lecturer began by pointing out the difference which 

 exists between the combustion of solid matter and that of gaseous 

 bodies, showing that this latter state of combustion was the more 

 perfect, in consequence of the combining bodies being presented 

 to each other under the most favourable conditions. The princi- 

 pal characteristics of flame, he stated, were heat and light ; and 

 then showed, by analysing flame, that different portions of it 

 possessed different properties, one part giving light and another 

 heat. He considered that the light of flame depended upon two 

 causes; first, the quantity of solid matter contained in it, and, 

 secondly, the degree to which that solid matter was ignited. He 

 showed that the heat depended upon the energy of combination 

 between the bodies, and exhibited, in proof of this, the combus- 

 tion of oxygen and hydrogen gases, with tlie oxy-hydrogen blow- 



