84 



ingenuity has been applied to practical objects ; and if an 

 instance were wanted of the usefulness of philosophical 

 enquiries, such an instance might be taken from the most 

 recent of these communications, in which it has been shown, 

 that by a very simple alteration in the usual methods of 

 lighting houses by gas, the power of illumination may be 

 doubled from the same supply. The Meeting will also 

 duly appreciate the scientific zeal which has induced 

 some of the members to unite, for the purpose of assisting 

 the Royal Society of Edinburgh with materials for insti- 

 tuting a comparison between the states of the atmosphere 

 in different places at the same time. The observations have 

 been made in the open air, not only in summer but in the 

 severest season of winter, for every hour of the day and 

 night, and have been conducted with great care and pre- 

 cision. Papers and correspondence of increased variety and 

 interest, as well on subjects of antiquarian enquiry as of 

 natural history and experimental research ^, have been read 

 at the monthly meetings. But of all the communications 

 with which the Society has been favoured, that which it was 

 most gratifying to receive, was the account of hieroglyphical 

 inscriptions deciphered by one of the Secretaries ^ of the 

 Leeds Philosophical Society ; since, independently of the 

 high degree of interest attached to an illustration of the 

 greatest literary discovery that ever has been made, such a 

 contribution strongly shows the cordiality with which the 

 members of the scientific Institutions in different parts of 



' See the List of Communications, page 33. 

 • William Osburn, Esq. F.R.S.L. 



