3^- iJ^)""' Society of London. 



path of noljie difcovcrv" had been opened, the exertions' 

 of thefc philofnpiiers might comparatively languilh. Tiie 

 difcoveries of Dr. Stephen Hales concerning the diverfities of 

 aiirs, about that time, however, renewed the truths which had 

 been firll explained by Hooke. Difcoveries in natural hillory 

 imd chcniirtrv were continnallv more and more multiplied. 

 IVanklin at length comtnunieaied to the Society the grand 

 ti-tith of the identity of lightning with eleftricitv, and a new 

 iJieorv corabinino; all the electrical phaenomena which had 

 been as yctobicrved. Priedley, following Haies, Ilooke, and 

 Boyle, in experiments upon air, difcovered all the varieties of 

 aiiriform fnbtiancc. Cavendifli, Kirwan, and others, exa- 

 i«ined airs in their relations to the calces of metals, &c. Sir 

 .Tofeph Banks has done high honour to the Society hy the ad- 

 vancement which it has, under his aufpices, made in botani- 

 cal dilcovery, and in the culture of the other branches of na- 

 tural bidory. At the prelent time, its labours are, in all the 

 Uranehes of phvfical and mathematical fcience, moll zealoufly 

 oonlinued. Amid 'in many rival inititutions the Royal Society 

 of London holds ftill the lirft place. Its memoirs, now with 

 great regulariry annually piiblilhcd, fully vindicate its claim 

 to tlie higb.eft eiriination of the public. We have reviewed 

 its hillory with a confcious pride that we are of the fame 

 country and lano'uage with a fucceflion of phi'ofophers who 

 have difcovered, or eollc(itc;d and arranged, the better part of 

 the phvfical knowledge peculiar to modern limes. He who 

 would alpire to the praife of a philofophcr would do well to 

 ftudy the volumes of its TranfaiSiions with peculiar care. 



T, 



ir. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



KOVAL SOCIKTY OF LONDON. 



IT IS learned body had its.fifft meeting after the fummer 

 recefs on the cth inlt. (November), which was occupied hy 

 the reading of the Croonian lecture i)y Everard Home, Elc]. 



The meetings on the I2th and 19th were taken up in read- 

 ing the Bakerian lecture on the theory of light and colours, 

 bv'^Dr. Youiig, profellbr of natural philofophy at the Royal 

 inftitution. 



In this lecture the author offers no new experiments, a 

 Sufficient number for his purpole having been made and re- 

 corded by preceding philofophers, on whicli he refts four bypo- 

 thefci : i'he firfl: is, that a lummiferous oither., of an extreme 

 degree of c:u-»t\ ^ pervades ihe univerfe : the fecoud, that, when 

 -> bodies 



J 



