Novetnber 26th,\(^l'^^^ PROCEEDINGS. v. 



Ordinary Meeting, November 26th, 191 8. 



The President, Mr. Willi.^m Thomson, F.R.S.E., F.I.C., F.C.S., 

 in the Chair. 



Professor H. Lamb, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. read a paper entitled 

 "The Movement of the Eye." 



The theory of the movements of the eye, as developed by 

 Helmholtz, includes some results of great interest to mathe- 

 maticians as well as to physiologists. Unfortunately they have 

 scarcely become familiar to mathematicians, who have been apt 

 to regard the whole matter as outside their province. The 

 analytical investigations of Helmholtz are moreover long and 

 intricate, and have doubtless been an obstacle to mathematicians 

 and physiologists alike. 



The author had found that with the help of one or two 

 propositions in the theory of rotation, now well known, the whole 

 question can be treated in a simple and purely geometrical 

 manner, without the use of a single mathematical symbol. The 

 only difficulties which remain are those of ordinary spherical 

 geometry. These (such as they are) are intrinsic to the nature 

 of the subject, and cannot be avoided. 



The paper consisted of an exposition of the subject from 

 the above point of view. By the aid of diagrams, the classical 

 theorems of Euler and Sir W. Hamilton on rotation were 

 explained, and used to illustrate Listing's law, which governs the 

 positions of the eye ball when the gaze is directed to various 

 parts of the field. , 



Finally, the apparent distortion of straight lines, and the 

 theory of those lines which are apparently straight were con- 

 sidered. The eye is necessarily imperfect in these respects, and 

 in obeying Listing's law effects a compromise, which is probably 

 the best admissible. 



Ordinary Meeting, December loth, 1918. 



The President, Mr. William Thomson, F.R.S.E., F.LC, F.C.S., 

 in the Chair. 



Mrs. Margaret White Fishenden, M.Sc, (late Beyer 

 Fellow of the Manchester University), read a paper on " The 

 Efficiency of Domestic Fires and the Effects of certain 

 ' Coal Saving ' Preparations." 



