Royal Society. 359 



carbonaceous limestones and fossiliferous rocks and culm of 

 Devon and Cornwall to be true coordinates of the upper great 

 coal-field and its carboniferous limestone. At a late meeting of 

 the Geological Society, I endeavoured to show that these 

 blaclc limestones, containing Goniatites, Posidoniae, &c. were 

 in their eastward extension, viz. at Holcomb Rogus, Chud- 

 leigh and Ashburton, overlaid by the gray coralline limestones 

 of those places, and I entertain no doubt that the gi'eater part 

 of their zoophytous reliquiae will be shown not to appertain 

 to the mountain limestone. All the prominent phaenomena 

 of the county tend to show that we are here first ascending 

 within the carboniferous influence, or perhaps attaining the 

 rudimentary efforts of nature at a coal deposit. The downward 

 tendency of the coal in the North of England below the car- 

 boniferous limestone, as shown by Professor Sedgwick, and 

 among the old red sandstone in Scotland, as shown by Mr. 

 Murchison, encourages me somewhat in being the bearer of 

 this flag of truce. If the sum of evidence adduced hereafter 

 should prove these culmiferous limestones not to be an 

 equivalent for the mountain limestone, why they must be be- 

 low it; and the mountain limestone, millstone grit, and the 

 upper great coal-field are not represented here at all, inas- 

 much as the Devonshire culm measures are inseparably asso- 

 ciated with their limestones and subordinate slate rocks, by 

 an indisputable transition and a perfect conformity of strike 

 and dip. The base line of the carboniferous system would 

 thus be placed at a lower level as suggested by Prof. Sedg- 

 wick at Liverpool, and the correctness of Mr. De la Beche's 

 original views of the grauwacke age of the plants and culm 

 admitted. I remain. Gentlemen, yours, &c. 



Bleadon W. Cross, April 24, 1839. D. WiLLIAMS. 



LVIII. Proceedings of Lem-ned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 

 Feb. 14, A Paper was read, entitled, " Researches on the Chemical 

 18;W. -^^ Equivalents of certain Bodies." By Richard Phillips, 

 Esq., F.R.S. 



'I'he author examines, by a new series of experiments, the truth 

 of the theory of Dr. Prout and Dr. Thomson, namely, that " all 

 atomic weights are simple multiples of that of hydrogen," a theory 

 which the late Dr. Turner had maintained is at variance with the 

 roost exact analytic researches, and consequently untenable. Although 

 the experiments of Dr. Turner, and the inferences which he drew 

 from them, agree very nearly with those of Berzclius, it still ap- 

 peared to the author desirable to investigate this subject ; and it 



