32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



should be noticed that the clergy had set their minds against 

 the people learning those tales. This had prevented many 

 people who had learned them from repeating them. He had 

 met with an old man who recited at great length many of 

 those tales. 



Mr. VanderSmissen asked whether the poems of Ossian 

 were in accordance with the folk-lore and traditions of the 

 people. 



Mr. Spence said they contained many fragments that were 

 so, though no doubt much amplified. 



Mr. T. R. Rosebrugh, B. A., exhibited and explained a 

 " New Trigonometrical Scale." 



The |)rinciple of the new method of solving triangles depends upon 

 the facts (1) that the diflerence of the logarithms of a side and of the 

 sine of its opposite angle is a constant quantity for every triangle. (2) 

 That when the indexes of a "chord operator " and scale have assumed 

 a relative displacement corresponding to this value, the graduation 

 marks of the three pairs of opposite sides and angles are found 

 respectively at three pairs of coincident points. (3) To secure this 

 the observer need only see that the condition that the three angles of 

 a ti'iangle are together equal to two right angles is satisfied by the 

 scale indications. The "three point problem " may be solved by the 

 scale with great facility without using equations ; the operation 

 being one of simple inspection to determine the point at which a cer- 

 tain condition is satisfied. In the case of right-angled triangles, the 

 sohition may be combined in one operation with that of changing the 

 denomination in which the sides ai-e measured. 



TWENTIETH MEETING. 



Twentieth Meeting, 30th March, 1889, the President in the 

 chair. 



Donations and exchanges since last meeting, 39. 



Mr. Frank L. Blake was elected a member. 



