292 The Philosophical Society of Glasgoxo. 



A very great difference of temperature is experienced during da_y, 

 when the solar beams are operating on people while out of doors, and 

 when the same persons go under cover; for though, when in the open 

 air, they have been overpowered by the solar heat, yet immediately 

 after, if out of its influence, they may be seen shivering with cold, as if 

 suffering under ague. 



Though I did not cross the Andes to practise medicine, I was 

 occasionally consulted in the places visited, and noted that cases of 

 pulmonary consumption did not come under my observation. On this 

 subject I some time ago wrote to a friend residing in London. His 

 answer is as follows : — 



" London, 10th Nov., 18.5G. 



" During more than ten years' practice in La Paz,* I did not meet 

 with a mxgle case oi j^^i'thisis pulmonalis. The theory that, at a certain 

 height above the sea, the disease is never met with, has for many years 

 been a favourite idea of mine, amounting almost to a co7iviction.^' 



Mr. Robert Hart made the following communication to the Society, 

 on Spots on the Sun : — 



The paper on the 4th January by Professor William Tliomson, 

 called the attention of the Society to matter falling into the 

 Sun. I beg to follow up his observations, by laying before the 

 members a drawing of the appearance of the Sun on the 31st January, 

 1860 ; and also magnified views of the spots on its surface. And to 

 show the general aspect of these spots, and illustrate the quick changes 

 they undergo, I have also given the appearance of some of the spots, of 

 which I made drawings every day they were to be seen. They show the 

 change in form, increase, and diminution, at the dates marked on each. 



Can these disturbances on the Sun's surface be caused by the falling of 

 matter into it ? 



The whole of the Sun's surface has a granulated appearance. This 

 uniform surface is disturbed at times by parts of it being driven into 

 ridges, like long waves, or snow-wreathes ; and at these parts, the 

 openings often take place. 



Observations on the Supply of Coal and Ironstone, from the Mineral 



Fields of the West of Scotland. By William Mooke, Civil and 



Mining Engineer, Glasgow. 



The two mineral substances, Coal and Ironstone — the supply of 



which from the Lanarkshire district forms the subject of this paper — 



• La Paz is a city with forty thousand inhabitants, and is 12,500 feet above the ocean. 



