[ 89 ] 

 XII. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



BOYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



IVlAY 28. The right honourable Sir Joseph Banks, bart. 

 president, in the chair. — A short paper was rt;ad on the mag" 

 nitiidc and situation of Dr. Olbers's new plauet called Vesta, 

 whose orbit, it appears, is between M.'irs and Venus. The 

 brightness and smallness of Vesta are such as to make it bq 

 considered a true steroid, 



A paper consisting: o^ the description and use of a new 

 eudiometer, invented by VV. H. Pepvs, esq. was also read. 

 This paper was accompanied with a drawing oi' the appa- 

 ratus, the chief novelty of which was the inpiiuious appro- 

 priation of two graduated glass tubes, to the ends of which 

 are attached elastic gum bags, with other vessels, to convey 

 the air under consideration into these graduated tubes. The 

 importance of eudiomelricai experiments to pneumatic che- 

 riiistry is sufficiently known ; and the advantage of an ap- 

 paratus more accurate and manageable than that invented 

 by Dr. Priestley and improved by Guyton, and also moro 

 generally applicable than that of Davy, must be very con- 

 siderable. The great accuracy, however, and minute di- 

 atinctions which the author (to whom the science of eudio- 

 ipctry owes much) has here proposed in the different me- 

 tjhods of investigating the nature of the gases, would not be 

 inlelligiblc in the narrow limits of this report. 



June 4. The President in the chair. — Dr. FTcrschcl com- 

 municated his observations on the new planet Vesta, which. 

 (Jiffer little from those previously reported from the astro- 

 nomer royal. This paper was accompanied by some curious 

 details on the comet which appeared in the latter end of 

 January and first of February last. This reappearance took 

 place as the doctor had predicted from his observations, and 

 bas tended to convince him of the accuracy of his preceding 

 calculation. Oat of 16 comets with which he is acquainted, 

 only two appear to possess a solid body or disk, and the 

 oilier 14 seem composed only of lumijious ajid perhaps in- 

 organic 



