Royal Society. 429 



strikingly illustrate the deflexions and curvilinear courses taken by 

 the inductive actions which precede the disruption ; these lines being 

 not unlike the magnetic curves in which iron filings arrange them- 

 selves when under the action of opposite magnetic polarities. 



March 8. — A paper was read, entitled, " Proposal for a new 

 method of determining the Longitude, by an absolute Altitude of 

 the Moon," by John Christian Bowring, Esq. Communicated by 

 John George Children, Esq., F.R.S. 



The method employed by the author for determining the longitude 

 by the observation of an absolute altitude of the moon, was pro- 

 posed, many years ago by Pingre and Lemmonier; and the princi- 

 pal difficulty which stood in the way of its adoption, was its re- 

 quiring the exact determination of the moon's declination reduced 

 to the place of observation. This difficulty the author professes to 

 have removed by supposing two meridians for which the altitudes 

 are to be calculated : and the only remaining requisite is the accu- 

 rate determination of the latitude, which presents no great difficulty, 

 either on land or at sea. Examples are given of the practical work- 

 ing of this method ; showing that if the latitude of a place of obser- 

 vation be obtained within a few seconds, the longitude will be found 

 by means of a single observation of the altitude of the moon. 



A paper was also read, entitled, " An Inquiry into a new Theory 

 of earthy Bases of Vegetable Tissues," by the Rev. J. B. Reade, 

 M.A., F.R.S. 



The author, after briefly noticing the results of some of his expe- 

 riments described in two papers which appeared in the Philosophical 

 Magazine for July and November, 1837, and also those of Mr. Ro- 

 bert Rigg in a paper read to the Royal Society*, next adverts to the 

 theory of M. Raspail, detailed in his Tableau Synoptique, and Nou- 

 veau Systeme de Chimie. In opposition to some of the views enter- 

 tained by the latter, he finds that in the bark of the bamboo and the 

 epidermis of straw the silica incrusting these tissues is not crystal- 

 lized, but, on the contrary, exhibits, both before and after incinera- 

 tion, the most beautiful and elaborate organization, consisting of au 

 arranged series of cells and tubes, and differing in its character in 

 different species of the same tribe, and in different parts of the same 

 plant. 



The observations of Mr. Golding Bird, contained in the 14th 

 number of the Magazine of Natural History, New Series, are then 

 referred to ; and the author states in confirmation, that, by employ- 

 ing caustic potash, the siliceous columns may be removed from the 

 leaf of a stalk of wheat, while the spiral vessels and ducts, which 

 form the principal ribs of the leaf, as well as the apparently metallic 

 cups which are arranged on its surface, remain undisturbed. He 

 proposes, therefore, to substitute, in the description of vegetable 

 tissues, the term skeleton, instead of that of bases, whether saline or 

 siliceous, of those tissues. 



March 15. — The reading of a paper, entitled, ''Experimental 



• Sec Lend, and Edinb. Phil. Mag., vol. ix. p. 635. 



