243 



not been hitherto obtained. The general action of steam on the 

 spectrum is to absorb the violet, blue, and yellow rays, finally 

 leaving only the red and orange, with an imperfect green. 



Since a portion of watery vapour in a confined space, originally 

 transparent and colourless, may become, by mere change of tem- 

 perature, first deep orange-red and transparent, and finally white 

 and semiopake, the author notices another analogy with the singu- 

 lar eflFect of temperature in deepening the colour of nitrous acid 

 gas, and thinks that these facts may one day throw some farther 

 light on the difficult subject of the mechanical constitution of va- 

 pours, and particularly of clouds. 



2. On the meaning of the Homeric terms 6iiii«, hixr^, rtfLn, "jroivri, 

 with their more important compounds and derivatives. 

 By the Venerable Archdeacon Williams. 



Monday, ith February. 

 Dr ABERCROMBIE, V. P., in the Chair. 



The following Donations were presented : — 



Tijdschrift voor Natuurlijke Gescheidenis en Physiologie. Uitge- 



geven door J. Van Der Hoeven, M. D., en W. H. De Vriese, 



M. D — By the Editors. 

 First and Second Annual Reports, Laws, and Transactions of the 



Royal Botanical Society of Edinburgh. — By the Society. 

 Address of His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, K. G., &c. &c. 



President of the Royal Society, read at the Anniversary 



Meeting on Friday the 30tli November 1838 By the Society. 



Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, 1838. No. 59. 



— By the Society. 

 Journal of the Statistical Society of London for January 1839. — 



By the Society. 

 Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Seances de I'Academie des 



Sciences, 1839. 1"' Semestre. Nos. 1, 2 — By the Academy. 

 Natuur-en-Scheikimdig Archief, uitgegeven door G. J. Mulder en 



W. Wenkebach. 1837. St. 4.— By the Editors. 



The following communication was read : — 

 The Colours of the Atmosphere considered with reference 

 to a paper *' On the (Colour of Steam under certain cir- 



