THE WEATHER OF AUGUST. 277 



At Bishop's Castle the swallows were uoted to be gathering for 

 departure on the 19th, but many still remained on September 2nd. 



At Alstonfield a great body of swifts (Hinindo apus) retired about 

 the 10th. Hyberaated specimen of the Painted Lady butterfly was seen 

 on Derbyshire side on the 1.5th, and of Red Admiral on the 20th. 

 The glow-worm was noted shining in the moist evenings after days of 

 heavy rain. From Shifnal the Rev. J. Brooke ■mites — " Few butterflies, 

 scarcely even white ones ; and only one or two Red Admirals. Peacocks, 

 and Tortoiseshells ; not one Clouded Yellow, although we had such a 

 strange influx of this species in August, 1877. Swifts gone by the 10th." 



Proceedings of the Birmingham Philosophical Society. First Session, 1876-77. 

 Vol. I, No. 1. Birmingham : Martin Billing. 



We have ah-eady announced (p. 1-41) the issue of the first part of the 

 Proceedings of the Birmingham Philosophical Society. We now proceed 

 to give some account of the contents, and in doing so warmly congratulate 

 the Society on the good work its members have already done. We 

 trust this pubUcation may prove to be the commencement of a long 

 series of valuable contributions to local scientific hterature. Of eighty- 

 two pages of "Proceedings" seventy-five are covered by three papers. 

 The first of these is by the Rev. H. W. Watson, of Bex'kswell, and is 

 on " The Kinetic Theory of Gases." Mr. Watson calls attention to 

 the endeavours which have been made " to form a plausible theory of 

 the constitution of a gas." He states, first of all, the theory in 

 accordance with which the elasticity of a gas is the result of the 

 mutual influence of the ultimate atoms of the gas upon one another. 

 These atoms, it was supposed, mutually repelled one another, and the 

 combined repulsion produced the outward thrust or pressure against 

 the envelope of the gas. Mr. Watson points out how it can be 

 demonstrated mathematically that such supposed mutual repulsion of 

 the particles of a gas fails to account for the pressure which manifests 

 itself. He then enters upon an explanation of the theory associated 

 with the title of his paper. According to this, the vaiying states of 

 elasticity of gas imprisoned within any flexible and expansible envelope, 

 or in any cyhndrical chamber fitted with an air-tight movable piston, 

 are due, not to the mutual repulsion of the gas particles, but to the varying 

 energy with which they all \abrate across their points of mean position. 

 The pressure upon the containing envelope always varies with the 

 temperature of the gas ; and as heat is now looked upon as a mani- 

 festation of energy of vibration, the adoption of " the kinetic theory 

 of gases " is but consistent with the reception ah-eady accorded to the 

 correspc iding theory as to the nature of heat. Mr. Watson, however, 

 very candidly shows that the kinetic theory, in one respect, fails to 

 account for experimental results. 



K K 



