360 Boyal Society. 



occurred to him that the inquiry might be conducted in a mode not 

 liable to some of the objections which might be urged against the 

 jirocesses usually employed. 



Dr. Turner having adopted a whole number, namely 108, as the 

 equivalent of silver, this substance was selected by the author as the 

 basis of his inquiry into the equivalent numbers of chlorine, and 

 some other elementary gases. It appeared to him that the chance 

 of error arising from the fusing of the chloride of silver might be 

 entirely removed, and other advantages gained, l)y experimenting on 

 silver on a large scale, with such proportions of the substances era- 

 ployed as were deemed to be equivalents ; and instead of calculating 

 from the whole product of the fused chloride, to do it merely from 

 the weight of such small portion only, as might arise from the dif- 

 ference between theoretical views and experimental results. 



The author concludes, from the train of reasoning he applies to 

 the series of experiments so undertaken, that no material, and even 

 scarcely any ajjpreciable error can arise from considering the equiva- 

 lent numbers of hydrogen, oxygen, azote, and chlorine, as being 1 , 

 8, 14, and 36 respectively. 



A paper was also read, entitled, " Some Account of the Hurricane 

 of the 7th of January, 1839, as it was experienced in the neighbour- 

 hood of Dumfries," in a letter addressed to P. M. Roget, M.D. Se- 

 cretary to the Royal Society. By P. Garden, Esq. Communicated 

 by Dr. Roget. 



After describing the position of his house, and the nature of the 

 instruments employed for observation, the writer gives his observa- 

 tions of the barometer and thermometer on the 6th and 7 th of Ja- 

 nuary last, and proceeds to state, that on the 6th, at about ten 

 minutes past ten o'clock p.m. violent squalls commenced, at first 

 with intermissions of perfect calms, but gi'adually becoming more 

 frequent, and being accompanied by the sound of strong and in- 

 creasing whirlwinds. By eleven o'clock the wind was observed to 

 proceed from the East, and its velocity was estimated at forty miles 

 an hour. Its violence then increased, and threatened to blow down 

 the chimneys. At midnight it abated, at the same time shifting to 

 the south or Avest. At two o'clock in the morning nearly two tons 

 of lead were torn away by the wind from the west end platform on 

 the house-top, and thrown down behind the house in a westerly di- 

 rection. Some of the loM^er windows having been left a little open, 

 the wind thus admitted into the house forced up and blew off the 

 very heavy hatch-door of the roof, which was covered with lead. 

 The whole house rocked terribly, and even the stone floor of the 

 half-sunk kitchen story heaved as if shaken by an earthquake : the 

 slates from the roof Avere blown in every direction, some being car- 

 ried to a procUgious distance. During the greater part of the night 

 the rain fell in tremendous torrents. In the interval from two to 

 half-past three in the morning, the barometer sunk very nearly an 

 inch and a half, and reached its greatest dejjression. But the tem- 

 pest continued till about four o'clock, when it began gradually to 

 subside. Extensive devastation occurred among the trees ; some that 



