396 Royal Medical Societij of Ediuturgh. 



per, splintery hornstone, flinty-slate, and clay-slate. Near 

 Ketliam Bridge, the traces of" a coal deposition, and a por- 

 tion of a coal-field make their appearance 5 many alternat- 

 ing beds of sandstone, bituminous shale and clay ironstone 

 occurring along with thin beds of slate- coal and cannel- 

 coal. Mr. Macgregor stated it to be bis opinion, that the 

 sandstone exposed on the banks of the Clyde and of the 

 Mouse river near Lanark, tjelongs to one and the same 

 formation ; and that the Mouse has gradually scooped out 

 tlie present channel, ir. the same way as the Clyde is sup- 

 posed to have done, and that there are here no marks of 

 any violent coiivulsion of nature, as some have imagined. 



An extract of a letter from Lieutenant Huey of the 73d 

 regiment was also read, mentioning the circumstance of 

 a large marine animal, supposed to be about 30 feet long, 

 and shaped like a snake, having been observed from a ship 

 in lat. 08^ 13' S. and long. 5^ £. 



ROVAL MEDICAL SOCIETY, EDINBURGH. 



All Members of this Societv are invited to write an Ex~ 

 perimental Essay on the following s^ubject : 



" To determine bv experiment, what sul)stances are ex- 

 haled by the skin; and the changes, if any, which they 

 produce on the surrounding air." 



The disscrtaticns are to be written in English, Latin, or 

 French, and are to be delivered to the Secretary on or be- 

 fore the 1st of December 1S13, (being the year succeeding 

 that in which the subject is proposed.) The adjudication 

 will take place in the last week of February following. 



To each dissertation shall be prefixed a moito, and this 

 motto is to be written on tlic outside of a sealed packet, 

 containing the name and address of the authors. No dis- 

 .sertation will be received with the author's name affixed; 

 and all dissertations, except the successful one, will be re- 

 turned, if desired, \'. ith the sealed packet unopened. 



KIRWANIAN SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 



April 1. — The reading of a long paper by AL Donovan, 

 Esq., inemi)er of the Kirwanian Society, entitled " Ob- 

 servations on the Inadequacy of the Flypotheses, at present 

 received, to explain the Fhapnomena of Electricity," was 

 commenced. 



After a statement of Dr. Franklin's doctrines, Mr. Do- 

 novan referred them to five general and ultimate proposi- 

 tions. He conceived that the elasticity attributed to the 

 electric fluid was assumed on insufficient grounds, and 



brought 



