[1825.] 
[ 49°} 
- PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
—— 
: ROYAL SOCIETY. 
bm Society met on the 2d, 9th, and 
16th of June; on the 2d, a paper by 
Sir E. Home, Bart., v.p-r.s., was read, 
containing microscopical observations on the 
materials of the brain, ova, and testicular 
secretions of animals, to shew the analogy 
that exists between them ; and on the 9th, 
a description of a method of determining 
the direction of the meridian, by J. Pond, 
Esq., F.R.s. Ast. Roy.; and by Sir H. 
Davy, Bart. p.R.s., further researches on 
the preservation of metals, by electro- 
chemical means. At this meeting, M. M. 
Bessel, Encke, Chaptal, Fresnel and 
Brougniart were elected foreign members. 
On the 16th, a paper was read on some 
new compounds of carbon and hydrogen, 
and on certain other products obtained dur- 
ing the decomposition of oil by heat, by 
M. Faraday, F.r.s. On further experi- 
ments, in respect to M. Aragos’ theory of 
Magnetism, by C. Babbage, Esq., F-R-S., 
and J. F. W. Herschel, Esq., F.R.s., and by 
S. H. Christie, Esq., r.z.s. On-the annual 
variation of some principal fixed stars, 
by J. Pond, Esq. Onan improved Hygro- 
meter, by Mr. J. Jones, communicated by 
Captain Kater, F.R.s.; and on the func- 
tions of mortality, and a new mode of 
determining the value of life, and its contin- 
gencies, by B. Gompertz, Esq., F.R.S, 
After which the Society adjourned to the 
17th of November. 
LINNZEAN SOCIETY, 
On the 7th of June, some communica- 
tions were read from Lieut. J. H. Davies 
and C. Wilcox Esq., relative to a species 
of Mitylus (M. bidens) found in great 
quantities, adhering to the bottom of H, M. 
ship Wellesley, built at Bombay, and which 
has been lying in Portsmouth: harbour, ever 
since 1816. It seems to be quite naturalized 
there, and to propagate abundantly. On 
the 2lst; was read a descriptive catalogue 
of the ‘Australian birds in the cabinet of the 
Society, by T. -Horsfield, M.p.F.L.s, and 
N. A. Vigors, Esq., F.L.s.; in which the 
writers express their confident expectation, 
that the deficiency of our knowledge of the 
_ habits of Australian birds will be in a great 
‘measure supplied by the exertions of Mr. 
M‘Leay. 
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
On the 3d of June a paper was read, 
entitled “ Remarks on quadrupeds imbed- 
ded in recent alluvial strata,’”’ by C. Lyall, 
Esq. sec. c.s. In a former communica- 
tion the author had stated the difficulty he 
found to explain the circumstances under 
which these remains were very generally 
found imbedded in the shell-marle in Scot- 
Jand ; often at considerable depths, and far 
from those Jakes in the borders of which 
the marle is accumulated : he suggests that 
Mowry Mag. No. 413. : 
they were lost in attempting to cross 
the ice: in winter, the water never freezing 
sufficiently hard above the springs to bear 
their weight. Cattle, which are lost in bogs 
and marshes, sink and die in an erect pos- 
ture, and-are often found with their heads 
only appearing above the surface of the 
ground'; when, therefore, a lake in which 
marle is deposited, is shallow, the quadru- 
peds which fall through the ice, sink into 
the marle in the same manner, and perish 
in an upright posture ; but when the lake 
is deep and the animals are dead before they 
reach the bottom, they become enyeloped, 
in the marle, in any position rather than the 
vertical. 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
May 3d, a paper was read on the con- 
struction of pine pits, worked by steam, by 
Mr. W. M‘Murtrie. 
May 17th, papers were read—On a 
grape-house, adapted for early forcing, by 
Mr. A. Wilson, on American fruit-trees 
which have been transmitted to the gar- 
den of the Society, by Mr. M. Floy, of New 
York. On the cultivation of strawberries, 
by the president. . 
ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. , 
June 10th,—The reading of Mr. F. Baily’s 
introduction to his new tables, for determin- 
ing the apparent places of about three- 
thousand fixed stars, was resumed and com- 
pleted. This copious introduction com- 
mences with an historic sketch of the most 
important tables hitherto published ; after 
reading this elaborate and interesting paper, 
the society adjourned to Friday, the 11th of 
November next, 
WERNERIAN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 
At a late sitting of this society, a letter 
was read from Mr. J. Fotheringham, giving 
a general account of the shower of small 
fishes, supposed to have fallen in the west 
of Fifeshire, in the summer of 1824. Mr. 
J. Deuchar communicated some observa- 
tions on the practicability of applying Mr. 
Gordon’s portable gas-lamp as a blow-pipe, 
and exhibiting the experiment of a column 
of condensed gas supporting a mahogany 
ball, though striking it at an angle with the 
horizon. Professor Jameson read an ac- 
count of the recent discovery of a large 
portion of a tusk of the mammoth, or fossil 
British elephant, in a bed of old alluvium, 
containing also marine-shells, situate near 
Kilmarnock, in Ayrshire. ‘The secretary 
read a report, by Mr. A. Blackadder, re- 
garding the buried forest at Lawrence Park, 
near Linlithgo. A letter was also read from 
H. H. Drummond Esq., M.P., relative to 
a circular perforation existing in a very large 
stag’s horn, discovered in the great Blair 
Drummond peat-moss, and to a plug of 
wood found fitted into it ; circumstances 
which intimate that this kind 6f stag had 
1 héen 
