[ 220 1 

 XL!. Vroccedings of Learned Sodeila. 



ROYAL SOCIETV. 



March 2 and 9. x iiE rcaiaiuder of Sir Humphry Davy's p«- 

 per On the Chemical Coniposiciou of the Paints and Colours used 

 by the ancient Greeks and llonians, was read. It appears that 

 ceruse was never used for white in any of the places exaini-acd 

 bv Sir numphry, in the ruins of Pompeii, the baths of Titus, 

 and other vestiges of ancient art, although the ancients were ac- 

 quainted with the acetats. Their azure was prepared with nitre, 

 flint, and copper filings. Sli' Humphry states that 1.5 p^rts of 

 soda, and 20 of Oint, added to copper, produced tlieir bines ; co- 

 balt was also used; minium, oxides of iron, and ochres, consti- 

 tuted their reds and browns ; their whites were carho:iatcs of 

 lime; their glass sometimes contained manganese 3 and their 

 blacks were all carbonaceous matter. The colour of the cuttle- 

 fish was likewise occasionally used. 



March 16. A long letter from Dr. Brewster to the President 

 W.13 read, detailing the particulars of Malus's discovery of the 

 polarization of light reflected from the first and second surfaces 

 of bodies, relating some of the auth.or's first' essays in this 

 1)1 anch of physical science, and concluding with an cloge of the 

 late M. Malus, and the merit or importance of his disccvcries 

 and researches. The Society then adjourned over two Thursdays 

 till April G. 



SOCIETY OF ANXmUARiES. 



Mr. Lysons exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries, in the 

 evening of the i6th of March, very accurate and finely coloured 

 drawings of tlie mosaic pavement lately found in the remains 

 of a Roman villa near Bignor in Sussex. The site of the build- 

 ing extended about 230 by 150 feet, and contained all the va- 

 riety of apartments usual in Roman villas. In one apartment 

 the mosaic consisted of squares laid over each other at right an-, 

 glcs, and the intervening spaces filled with florets ; in another, 

 a pentagonal fountain in tiie centre, with a passage for carrying 

 off the water ; around t'lc fountain were nymphs also in penta- 

 gonal compartments, many of them very well executed. The 

 whole were inclosed in a circle more correct than usual with 

 Roman artists. Others consisted of mosaics with tolerably fine 

 heads of Venus in the centre, r(i>icsentcd no doubt as beautiful 

 as the artists of the age of Agricola (tlie period at which Mr. L. 

 suppo:.e.-> that tl is villa had been erected) could execute. 



WJill- 



