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Proceedings of the Boi/al Society of Edinburgh, 



1841, March 1— -The Right Hon. Lord Greenock, V.P., 

 in the Chair. The following Communications were read : — 



1. On the Sea-Level of the Neapolitan Coast. By Sir John 

 S. Forbes, Bart. 



This paper is intended to give an account of the more recent researches 

 of the Italian antiquaries and geologists connected with the well-known 

 temple of Jupiter Serapis at Pozzuoli, which have been verified in 

 several particulars by the author, by personal inspection^ and extended 

 to other parts of the western coast of Italy, where traces of marine 

 lithophagi have been found at a height, as alleged by Niccolini, of even 

 250 feet above the present sea-level. 



The most interesting modern observations are those of Niccolini on 

 the actual change of relative level of the sea and land, ascertained by 

 a fixed gauge which he has observed frequently between 1823 and 1838. 

 In that time the land appears to have risen through a height of 1 1 2 

 millimetres or 4j inches ; and this change has been progressively and 

 not suddenly effected. 



2. On the Supposed Progress of Human Society from Savage 

 to Civilized Life, as connected with the Domestication of 

 Animals and the Cultivation of the Cerealia. By John 

 Stark, Esq. 



1841, March 15. — Dr Abercrombie, V.P., in the Chair. 



1. On the Parallel Roads of Glen-Roy, with an Examination 



of Mr Darwin's Theory of their Formation, Part I. By 

 Sir T. D. Lauder, Bart. 



2. On the Polarizability of Heat from different Sources. By 



Professor Forbes. 



The author of this paper states in it his belief, that the curious fact 

 formerly announced to the Society of the greater permeability of mica, 

 laminated by heat, to heat of low temperature, contrary to the usual 

 character of the same substance (a property which he has since extended 

 (see Proceedings, Jan. 1840) to changes of mechanical conditions of 

 surface), may very probably explain, as M. Melloni anticipates, the 



VOL. XXXI. NO. LXII. OCTOBER 1841. C C 



