502 Geological Society : — Anniversary of 1839. 



May 16. — A paper was read, entitled " On the visibility of cer- 

 tain rays beyond the ordinary red rays of the Solar Spectrum." By 

 J. S. Cooper, Esq., in a letter to Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L., 

 F.R.S., &c., &c. Communicated by Dr. Faraday. 



The author states his having observed an extension of the red por- 

 tion of the solar spectrum, obtained in the ordinary way, beyond 

 the space it occupies when seen by the naked eye, by viewing it 

 through a piece of deep blue cobalt glass. He finds that the part of 

 the spectrum thus rendered perceptible to the riglit is crossed by 

 two or more very broad lines or bands : and obsei-ves that the space 

 occupied by the most powerful calorific rays, coincides Avith the si- 

 tuation of the red rays thus rendered visible by transmission through 

 a blue medium. The author expresses a regret that he has not had 

 sufficient leisure to pursue the investigation of these phaenomena. 



A paper was also in part read, entitled, " Fifth letter on Voltaic 

 Combinations, with some account of the effects of a large constant 

 Battery :" addressed to Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c. 

 .By John F. Daniell, Esq., F.R.S. 



The Society then adjourned over the Whitsun Recess, to meet 

 again on the 30th of May. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Presidents Anniversary Address, Feb. 15.- continued from p. 461. 



GEOLOGICAL DYNAMICS. 



In that part of geology which I have termed Geological Dynamics, 

 and whicli investigates and applies those causes of change by which 

 we may hope to explain geological phenomena, we may still observe 

 that fundamental antithesis of opinion which has long existed on the 

 subject; — the division of our geological speculators into Catastro- 

 phists and Uniformitarians ; — into those who read in the rocks of the 

 globe the evidence of vast revolutions, of an order different from 

 any which those of man has survived ; — and those who see in the con- 

 dition of the earth the result of a series of changes which are still 

 going on without decay, the same powers which produced the ex- 

 isting valleys and mountains being yet at work about us. Both these 

 opinions have received their contributions during the preceding 

 year : Mr. Darwin having laid before us his views of the formation 

 of mountain chains and volcanos, which he conceives to be the effect 

 of a gradual, small, and occasional elevation of continental masses 

 of the earth's crust*; M'liile Mr. Murchison gathers from the re- 

 searches in which he has been engaged, the belief of a former state 

 of paroxysmal turbulence, of much deeper rooted intensity and wider 

 range than any that are to be found in our own period ; and M. de 

 Beaumont, in France, has endeavoured to prove that Etna and many 

 other mountains must have been produced by some gigantic and ex- 

 traordinary convulsion of the earth. Both Mr. Darwin and M. de 



• An abstract of Mr. Darwin's paper was given iu L. & E. Phil. Mag., 

 vol. xii. p. 584. 



