124 Mr. W. Keddle on the Early History and Proceedings of the Society. 



debates at this time on the solution of the theorem of the base line. 

 Mr. Watt, architect, produced a specimen of granite from St. Peters- 

 burg, used in erecting an edifice there, in which there are sixty-four 

 pillars, each fifty-two feet high, six feet eight inches in diameter, the 

 bases and capitals being of brass, and each shaft one entire stone, weigh- 

 ing 210 tons. The engineering of this structure was executed by Mr. 

 Baird, a native of the west of Scotland. 



Dr. Strange, who had just returned from India, read a paper on water- 

 spouts, opposing the theoretical views of Franklin as to their formation. 

 Mr. John Hart maintained the opinion that waterspouts were owing to 

 electrical action ; and the Society resolved to put his hypothesis to the 

 test of experiment. For this purpose a powerful electrical machine was 

 borrowed from Dr. M'Gavin. A Leyden jar having been charged 

 minus, to represent a cloud in that state, the brass knob was held over 

 a cup of water, representing the sea^ — when there appeared on its surface 

 a little nipple, like the rising of the water, accompanied by a hissing 

 noise. 



Mr., afterwards Dr. Clelland, received the diploma of an honorary 

 member of the Society, and presented a copy of the Annals of Glasgow 

 to the libraiy. 



]Mr. Lumsden is represented as " exhibiting" several specimens of 

 poetry by Dugald Moore, a young man in his emplo3^ For the first 

 time, the Society engrossed in its records a poetical minute, in the form 

 of verses from a heroic poem or dirge, and a love song. Encouraged by 

 the reception given to the compositions of Mr. Moore (afterwai'ds the 

 author of several volumes of poetry, of more than aver-age merit), Mr. 

 Robert M'Call, formerly mentioned, ventured to produce what he de- 

 scribed as a kind of jeu d'esprit on the subject of a method of navigating 

 vessels ; and his verses being practical as well as poetical, were also 

 entered in the minutes. His invention was intended to save ships from 

 being wrecked, as well as to navigate them by a new power. A vessel 

 was to be furnished with pumps, wrought by the agitation of the waves 

 of the sea, which pumps were not to deliver water by raising it to the 

 deck, but to discharge it at the sea-level. How vessels were either to 

 be propelled or prevented from sinking by this method, is not so clear in 

 the old minute-book as it was to the sanguine mind of the inventor, 

 when he said or sang — 



" My men on board, each man a ship can save, 

 And her despairhig crew from watery grave ; 

 But if. for want of pumps, a few go down, 

 I'll strive to bring them up, to add to mj' renown." 



After its fine poetical phrenzy, the Society relapsed into plain prose ; 



