32 



eastern hemisphere), that the annual temperature near the equator 

 remains unchanged at the depth of a foot below the surface in the 

 shade. This mistake is the more important to correct, because M. 

 Poisson has attempted to confirm his own mathematical theories of 

 heat, by applying them to this alleged fact.* 



Mr Caldecott's experiments appear, farther, to prove a consider- 

 able excess of the temperature of the earth above that of the air at 

 Trevandrum. This result is in opposition to the opinion of Kupffer, 

 which supposes the earth temperature to be less than that of the 

 air at the equator ; and of Boussingault, which supposes them the 

 same. 



The results of Mr Caldecott are confirmed in both particulars by 

 Lieutenant Newbold, of the Madras Army, in a paper lately read to 

 the Royal Society of London. f 



2. Miscellaneous Observations on Blood and Milk. 

 By Dr John Davy. 



The author first treats of the state of combination of the alkali in 

 the blood. Enderlin, from his recent analysis of the ashes of the 

 blood, has inferred that its alkaline reaction is not owing to- the 

 presence of carbonate, but of the tribasic phosphate of soda. The 

 author, even admitting the accuracy of Enderlin' s results, questions 

 the propriety of applying them to the condition of the alkali in the 

 liquid blood. Cai-bonate of soda, he observes, is decomposed when 

 heated with phosphate of lime ; added in small quantity to blood, it 

 is not to be detected in its ashes. This may account for its not 

 havinor been found in its ashes. Were the opinion referred to correct^ 

 an acid added to blood or its serum, after the action of the air-pump, 

 ought not, on re-exhaustion, to occasion a farther disengagement of 

 air ; but he finds that it does. This, with other i-esults, induces him 

 to give the preference to the conclusion, that blood contains the sesqui- 

 carbonate of soda. 



He next considers the viscid quality of the blood particles, and 

 their tendency in consequence to adhere together in groups distinct 

 fi-om their aggregation in piles, and to adhere as well to other objects. 

 Under the microscope, using the compressor, the quality in question 

 is still exhibited ; when a cluster of blood corpuscles is broken up, 

 and its parts set in motion, some of them, while adhering to each 



* Theorie de la Chalced. p. 603. t Phil. Mag. Xo. 5, xxiv. 461. 



