364 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Complementary Days. 



* Complementary days, or Sansculottides, called Primidi, Duodi, Tridi, Quartidi, 

 Quintidi, and Sextidi. These days were not considered as belonging to any month. 

 The sonorous names given to the months by the innovators have been freely trans- 

 lated thus : — 



Wheezy, Slippy, Showery, Hoppy, 



Sneezy, Drippy, Flowery, Croppy, 



Breezy. Nippy. Bowery. Poppy. 



Chambers's Descriptive Astronomy, p. 443. 



Six hundred and forty-first Meeting. 



February 13, 1872. — Adjourned Stated Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



Professor John Trowbridge remarked : — 



While experimenting upon the electromotive action of fluids separ- 

 ated by membranes, I was led to reflect upon the surface action ob- 

 served by Tomlinson, and to examine it from an electrical point of 

 view. I made use of a bath of sulphate of zinc in which were placed 

 the amalgamated zinc terminals of a galvanometer. On dropping 

 liquids upon the surface of this bath electrical currents were produced, 

 but they were not due to surface action ; for, on using a drop of colored 

 liquid, the deflection of the galvanometer was observed before the liquid 

 reached the terminals. This was also proved by coating the plates of 

 the terminals with parafine, with the exception of a narrow strip two 

 inches below the surface of the bath. 



