90 NOTICES OF THE MEETINGS, [June 6, 
Der Vereins zur Beférderung des Gewerbfleisses in Preussen — Verhandlungen, 
1849-50. 4to. Berlin, 1849-50. 
Benj. Gibbons, Esq. M.R.I.— Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical 
Engineers, Birmingham, April 23, 1851. 8vo. 
Reginald J. Morley, Esq. M.R.I.—An Analytical Digest of all the Reported Cases 
decided in the Supreme Courts in India, &c. with an Introduction and Notes ; 
by W.H. Morley, Esq. 2 vol. 8vo. 1850. 
Henry Twining, Esq., M.R.I. (the Author.) ~ Inquiry into the Nature’and Appli- 
cation of Perspective and Foreshortening. 8yo. 1850. 
Jacob Bell, Esq., M.P., M.R.J. (the Editor.) The Pharmaceutical Journal for 
June, 1851. 8vo. 
The Editor — The Athenzeum for May, 1851. 
Charles Babbage, Esq., (the Author) —The Exposition of 1851; or Views of the 
Industry, the Science, and the Government of England. 8vo, 185). 
— Mc Dowal, Esq. — Specimens of Franklinite and Red Oxide of Zinc. 
WEEKLY EVENING MEBTING, 
Friday, June 6. 
Tue Duxse or NortTHuMBERLAND, President, 
in the Chair. 
Prorressor ALEXANDER WILLIAMSON, 
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. 
Suggestions for the Dynamics of Chemistry derived from the Theory 
of Etherification. 
Tue human mind is only capable of understanding complicated 
phenomena when prepared by the study of simpler ones; and one of 
the most remarkable illustrations of this necessary order is afforded 
by the preparation of dynamical laws by the consideration of sta- 
tical facts. In statics we consider phenomena in a state of rest, 
while in dynamics we study their change ; and this distinction has 
been concisely stated by saying that the transition from the sta- 
tical to the dynamical point of view, consists in superadding the 
consideration of ¢ime to that of space. 
To represent the unknown cause of any change in phenomena, the 
word Force has been formed, and is generally retained until the law 
of that change has been discovered; so that the dynamics of a 
subject may be said to constitute the explanation of the phenomena 
belonging to it. 
It unfortunately often occurs that names are mistaken for expla- 
nations, and people deceive themselves with the belief that, for 
instance, ih attributing chemical decompositions to affinity, attrac 
tion, contact-force, catalysis, &c., they explain them. 
But owing to the necessary dependence of investigations on our 
