ISO Royal Socio f 7/, 



which terminates cither in confusion or inanity. The delv- 

 nitions in general care either recKmclant, defective, or other- 

 wise inadequate tO corrvcy precise noticnis of the things de- 

 fined. Many things are taken for granted as well establisheti 

 facts, on wliich no direct and decisive experuuents have 

 ever been rwade ; and ihc observations and deliiiitions of 

 vcgetal)Ie bodies are cquallv trroneon* and defective. Not- 

 « ithstanding these ghiring defects, aiid many more on which 

 it is unnecessary to dwell, the present volume presents such 

 general views, if not of the philosophy of chemistry, at 

 lieast of the modern svsteni ef explaining the chemical phse- 

 nomena of nature, that every chemist will think it deserving 

 his attentive perusal. 



XXV^III. Proceedings of Lcarmdl Sosieties, 



aOYAL SOCIETY. 



\J^ Thursday evening, Nov. 5,. this Society assembled 

 after the loni variation, the Kigiit Honourable Sir Joseph 

 Banks, Eart. president, in the chair. Tlie whole of the 

 evenin'T was occupied in receiving, and in. returnina; thanks 

 for, ti^o numerous presents of iiooks from the Royal Aca- 

 iJcmv of Sciences of Lisbon, and other foreign societies. 



jv^ov, jo^ — ^The president in the chair. A Bakerian Lec- 

 ture on the Decomposition or Analysis of the Fixed Alka- 

 lis by H. Daw, Esq. was read. The results of the e.xperi- 

 nienls here modesdy derailed in this perspicuous lecture 

 are more important, except Galvanism, than any which have 

 occurred since the discoveries of Priestley and Cavendish, 

 and which have given the Transactions of the Royal Society 

 of London a celebritv throughout the civilized world, un- 

 rivalled in the annals of philosophy. Mr. Davy, in his last 

 Bakerian Lecture of la^t year, on the Agencies of Electricity^ 

 (see PlVil. Mag. vol xwiii. p. 1.) suggested the probabi- 

 lity that other bodies, not then enumerated, might be de- 

 composed by electricity. Since that time, by means of 

 several very powerful Galvanic troughs, consisting of lOO 

 »airs of plates of six inches square, and 150 pairs four 



inches- 



