PROCEEDINGS 



OI" THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



FIFTY-EIGHTH SESSION. 



Anderso-n^s University Buildings, November 2, 1859. 



The Fifty-eighth Session of the Philosophical Society was opened 

 this evening, — Dr. Thomas Anderson, Professor of Chemistry in the 

 University of Glasgow, President of the Society, in the Chair. 



The Peesidext, in opening the Session, remarked, that the Society 

 had now reached the fifty-eighth year of its existence, and that during 

 the whole of that period, it had gradually advanced, both in the 

 number of its members and the importance of its proceedings ; and 

 that it now possessed a library of considerable extent, well stocked 

 with scientific periodicals, and calculated to be of much value to its 

 members. He pointed out the great importance of such a Society in a 

 city like Glasgow, at a time when the arts and the sciences on which 

 they are founded are every day coming more closely into contact. It 

 is only necessary to watch the progress of the useful arts to feel con- 

 vinced on this point; for we find that in all those which are most 

 cloiely related to science a watchful care is exercised to discover and 

 apply every discovery that is likely to prove useful. On the other 

 hand, instances are constantly offering themselves in which, from the 

 neglect of science, particular arts have fallen far behind our know- 

 ledge of the theoretical principles on which they depend; and in 

 others, it' has required the active interference of scientific men to bring 

 about the practical application of many principles which they have 

 determined. 



It was left for Wollaston to discover a proper means of obtaining 

 platinum from its ores in a malleable state, and platinvmi manufacturers 

 liave gone on using the same process from that day to this ; and it was 

 left for another scientific chemist, ]>eville, to contrive a new process 

 which bids fair to revolutionize that want of manufacturers. To the 

 same chemist also we owe the; development of the manufacture of 



Vol. IV.— No. 2. 2 k 



