PROCEEDINGS 



PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



FORTY-NINTH SESSION. 



6th November, 1850. — Tlie President in the CJiair. 



The Forty-nintli Session of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow was 

 opened this evening. 



Mr. Gourlie, on the part of the deputation nominated at hist meeting 

 to represent the Society at the British Association, reported that the 

 appointment had been fulfilled. 



Mr. Gourlie presented the following donations to the Library, viz. : — 

 from Dr. Hugh F. Cleghorn, of the Hon. East India Company's Service, 

 paper "On the Hedge Plants of India." Thanks voted. From William 

 John Macquorn Rankine, Esq., civil engineer, " On an Equation between 

 the Temperature and the Maximum Elasticity of Steam and other Vapours." 

 " Account of the effect of a Storm on Sea-walls or Bulwarks on the coast 

 near Edinburgh." "On the Hypothesis of Molecular Vortices, and its 

 Application to the Mechanical Theory of Heat." " Experimental Inquiry 

 into the Advantages attending the Use of Cylindrical Wheels on RaiU 

 ways." " On a Formula for Calculating the Expansion of Liquids by 

 Heat." "On the Mechanical Action of Heat, especially on Gases and 

 Vapours." — Thanks voted. 



The following paper was read : — 



XVII. Biographical Account of Dr. WoUaston. By Thomas Thomson, M.D. 



William Hyde Wollaston, one of the most eminent chemists that 

 Britain has produced, was born on Gth of August, 17G6. He belonged 

 to a Staffordshire family, distinguished for several centuries for their suc- 

 cessful cultivation of science. The well known work, entitled " The 

 religion of nature delineated," was the production of his great-grandfather. 

 His father, the Rev. Francis Wollaston, of Chapelhurst in Kent, was an 

 astronomer. He made an extensive catalogue of the northern circum- 

 polar stars. He was the author of ten papers, chiefly astronomical, which 

 appeared in the Philosophical Transactions between 1769 and 1796. 



Vol. III._No. 3. 1 



