October 3rd, iSgg.] Proceedings. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE MANCHESTER LITERARY AND 

 PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



Ordinary Meeting, October 3rd, 1899. 



Horace Lamb, M.A., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The thanks of the members were voted to the donors of the 

 books upon the table. 



The President referred to the loss the Society had sustained 

 through the death of Mr. Arthur Greg and Mr. Henry Simon 

 (ordinary members), and of Professor Bunsen, Sir W. H. Flower, 

 Sir E Frankland, and Professor Friedel (honorary members), 

 since last session. 



Dr. C. H. Lees gave an account of the experiments of 

 Professor J. J. Thomson on the different behaviour of the anode 

 and cathode rays under the influence of the same magnetic field, 

 from which had been drawn the conclusion that, in the case of 

 hydrogen, the mass carrying the positive charge is an atom of 

 the gas, whereas the mass carrying the negative charge is the 

 one-thousandth part of an atom. 



Professor H. B. Dixon and Mr. J. D. Peterkin described 

 their recent experiments on the union of nitric oxide and nitrogen 

 peroxide gases. These experiments point to the conclusion that 

 these gases are not inert to one another when mixed together, but 

 partially combine to form gaseous nitrogen trioxide until an 

 equilibrium is established between the rate of combination and 

 the rate of decomposition of the unstable trioxide. The 

 apparatus used in the experiments was exhibited, and a discussion 

 followed which was participated in by several members. 



