326 



The following gentlemen were duly elected Ordinary Fel- 

 lows of the Society : — 



George Smyttan, M.D., late of the Bombay Medical Board. 

 James Hamilton, Esq. 



The following Donations were presented : — 



Researches in Embryology. 3(1 Series. By Martin Barry, M.B. 



— By the Author. 

 Quarterly Journal of the Statistical Society of London. Vol. iii. 



part 4. January 1841. — By the Society. 

 Flora Batava. No. 121. — By the King of Holland. 

 Voyage dans la Russie Meridionale et la Crimee. Par M. de De- 



midoff. (Partle Scientifique.) Liv"^ 11 et 12, et planches.— 



By the Author. 

 The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for the 



year 1841. — By the American Philosophical Society. 



15th February 1841. 



Dr ABERCROMBIE, V.P. in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. Farther Researches on the Voltaic Decomposition of Aque- 

 ous and Alcoholic Solutions. By Professor Connell. 



Since his last communication to the Society, the author has made 

 a variety of experiments, with the view of farther testing the truth 

 of the proposed law which limits the direct action of the voltaic cur- 

 rent to the solvent, in solutions of primary elementary combinations 

 in the more important solvents. All his researches have farther 

 confirmed this law in regard to aqueous solutions. Amongst those 

 which he has examined is an aqueous solution of iodic acid as a type 

 of oxy acids ; and he found that by connecting such a solution mixed 

 with starch, with a solution of starch in water, by means of asbestus, 

 no iodine was indicated when the starch solution was negative, but 

 was immediately manifested when the iodic solution was negative 

 from the reducing action of hydrogen. In the whole circumstances, 

 he has no hesitation in concluding, " that when aqueous solutions of 

 primary combinations of elementary bodies are submitted to voltaic 

 ao-ency, the dissolved substance is not directly decomposed by the 

 current, but only the solvent." 



From his farther experiments on solutions in alcohol and pyroxy- 



