450 Royal Society. 



no increase of effect, but rather a diminution. So that if the voltaic 

 power were represented by the ordinates of a curve of which the 

 abscissa denoted the number of plates, the curve, from being at first 

 a parabola, would afterwards deviate into a form approaching to that 

 of an ellipse. 



In the third part of the paper the author relates experiments which 

 prove that every part of the galvanic circuit conducts the same quan- 

 tity of electricity, whatever be the material, whether solid or fluid, 

 composing it ; for the magnetic needle is deflected in an equal 

 degree by every part. He succeeded in exhibiting the rotation of a 

 piece of charcoal, and of a column of water, while transmitting 

 voltaic electricity, round the pole of a magnet. Having noticed a 

 difference of temperature in the fluid conductor in the vicinity of the 

 two poles, he was led to investigate the cause of this phsenomenon. 

 A rectangular box being divided into three compartments by two 

 partitions of bladder, and filled with water, and the wires from the 

 two poles of the battery being inserted into the extreme compart- 

 ment, the temperature of the water surrounding the positive pole was 

 found to be higher than that surrounding the negative pole, and that 

 in the middle compartment highest of all. These diflerences he as- 

 cribes to the cooling effects of the disengagements of the several 

 gases at each respective pole, the volume of the hydrogen beingdouble 

 that of the oxygen, producing twice the effect. With metallic solutions, 

 the reverse takes place, the effect depending in every case upon the 

 relative specific heat of the substances disengaged at the two poles. 



The reading of a paper, entitled, " On the Org:ins of the Human 

 Voice," by Sir Charles Bell, Knt. K.H., F.R.S., was commenced. 



February 9. — A paper was read, entitled, " Some Remarks on an 

 Error respecting the Site and Origin of Graham's island." By Capt. 

 W. H. Smyth, R.N. K.F.M. F.R.S. 



The author rectifies an erroneous assertion, originating from the 

 report of Captain Larmour, who in tlie year 1800, when command- 

 ing the VVassanaer, a troop-ship on the Egyptian expedition, thought 

 he observed a shoal of four fathoms water with breakers, within a 

 mile of the latitude and longitude of the new volcanic island. The 

 author has determined, by his own observations, that no such reef 

 exists in that spot, nor is the assigned place of this shoal near that 

 of Graham's Island, which arose considerably to the eastward, from a 

 depth of above a hundred fathoms below the surface of the water. A 

 knoll, with only seven fathoms of water upon it, was discovered not 

 far from the sice of these reports. The Adventure bank extends from 

 Sicily nearly to Pentellaria, where the water deepens at once from 

 76 fathoms to above 37.5 fathoms, at which no bottom was met with. 

 But, even on the supposition that what Capt. Larmour imagined he 

 saw was the result of a temporary subaqueous volcanic eruption, it 

 could not have justified the assertion of there being breakers with 

 four fathoms upon them ; and still less does it afford any foundation 

 for the hypothesis that Graham's Island was formed by the mere lifting 

 up of such shoal. 



A paper was also read, entitled, " Researches in Phy.sical Astrono- 

 my." By J. W. Lubbock, Esq., M.A. V.P. and Treasurer R.S. 



Sir 



