186 Minutes of Meetings. 



ia place of the worst, would make a diiference in the cost of the Atlantic 

 Cable of £100,000 sterling. The result has been, that now, in the 

 actual construction of the Cable, a testing apparatus has been put up, 

 and all those specimens of ^vil■e are rejected which do not come up to 

 the standard maximum of conductivity. The Professor exhibited a 

 similai' apparatus, and illustrated his views by experiments with differ- 

 ent samples of wire. 



In the conversation which followed the reading of the paper, Dr. 

 Francis Thomson and Mr. James Bryce suggested certain theoretical 

 considerations towards an explanation of these singular phenomena ; but 

 the Professor seemed to have anticipated them, and did not appear to 

 regard them as satisfactory. The cause, he held, was still involved in 

 complete mystery, while the facts were undoubted, and of the utmost 

 practical value. 



Mr. James Young described a new method of constructing Submarine 

 Tunnels. 



January 27, 1858. — The Pbesidest in the Chat?-. 



Mr. Thomas Nicolson was elected a member. 



Mr. Bryce, in absence of Mr. Keddie, exhibited a fragment of one of 

 the turrets of the tower of Glencaim Parish Church, which had been 

 struck by lightning, and showed that the siliceous particles of the 

 sandstone had been fused in the course of the electric cm-rent. 



Dr. Anderson, the Libraiian, announced the presentation to the 

 Library of the following Books, viz. : — 



Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. ix., 

 Session 1856-57. 



Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, vol. xiv. 



Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, 

 Session 1856-57. 



Journal of the Royal Institution, Part YIL, 1857. 



Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, vol. i., 1857 ; and 

 Part I., vol. ii., Laws of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria. 



Report of the Committee of Managemeixt of the Melbourne Mechanics^ 

 Institution and School of Arts, for the year 1856. 



Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Dublin, Session 1856-57. 



Dr. Thomas Anderson read a " Eeport on the recent Progress of our 

 Knowledge of the Chemical Elements." 



