39? New Books. — Roijal Society. 



Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart, K.B., P.R.S. — 24. On the 

 JlfFect of westerly Winds in raising the Level of the British 

 Channel. In a Letter to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, 

 Bart. K.B., P.R.S. By James Rennell, Esq., F.R.S.— 

 25. On Respiration. By William Allen, Esq., F.R.S. and 

 William Hasledine Pepys,,Esq., F.R.S. — 26. Experiments 

 on Ammonia, and an Account of a new Method of ana- 

 lysing it, by Combustion with Oxygen and other Gases ; 

 in a Letter to Humphry Daw, Esq., Sec. R.S., &c., from 

 William Henry, M.D., F.R.S., V.P. of the Lit. and Phil, 

 Society, and Physician to the Infirmary, at Manchester. — 

 27. New analytical Researches on the Nature of certain 

 Bodies, being an Appendix to the Bakerian Lecture for 1 808. 

 By Humphry Davy, Esq., Sec. R.S., Prof. Chem. R.f. — 

 Presents received by the Royal Society, from November 

 1808 to July 1809.— Index. 



An Essay on the Torpidity of Animals has lately ap- 

 peared from the pen of Henry Reeve, M.D., Member of 

 the Royal College of Physicians of London, and Fellow of 

 the Linnsean Society. 



LVII. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



± HTS Society met on Thursday the 9th of November, the 

 right hon. Sir Joseph Banks, president, in the chair. It 

 was chiefly occupied in reading the minutes of the last 

 meeting prior to the long vacation, and in receiving pre- 

 sents of both foreign and domestic publications on the sci- 

 ences and arts. 



Nov. 16.— Alexander Marsden, esq., vice-president,- in 

 the chair. The Croonian Lecture on muscular motion, by 

 Dr. WoUaston, was read. Dr. W., perceiving that his re- 

 marks were rather unconnected to form a regular essay, di- 

 vided his lecture into three parts; the first on the duration 

 of muscular action. This he atten)pted to ascertain by 

 pressing his finger on his ear, till it resembled the sound of 

 carriages passing along a pavement of stones about four 

 inches in diameter. These vibrations he found to vary ac- 

 cording to the pressure from 15, which were the least, to 43, 

 the most; but the general number he found to be 30 in a 

 minute. He afterwards endeavoured to imitate the sound 

 of carriages by rubbing two notched sticks against each 

 other, and experienced nearly the same results. Some of 



