Royal Society. 539 



" P. Tlie btraight line a b. 



" T. If you wanted to go from Batteisea school to the church in what 

 line should you walk? 



" P. In a straight line. (Why?) Because a straight line is the shortest 

 distance between the school and the church. 



" T. What have you to say relative to the two straight a b 



lines A B and c d? c d 



" P. They appear to be of the same length ; and moreover they appear 

 to lie even with each other. 



" T. In other words you might say, c d = a b; and a — - b 



also c D is parallel to a b. Is c d now parallel to a b ? c — ~^_D 



" P. No ; for c D would meet a b on the left side. 



" T. On which side would they now meet? a b 



" P. On the right hand side. c__- — ■ — d 



" T. What is therefore the peculiar property or definition of parallel 

 lines? 



" P. That if they be carried out ever so far, on either side, they will 

 never meet. 



""]. A surface is called ajjla!ie,OT flat even surface, when the line between 

 any two points upon it is straight. Thus the surface of the table is a plane 

 if a straight-edge exactly fits it when applied in every direction. To ascer- 

 tain when a surface is a plane, bring your eye on a level with it, and if you 

 find that every point in the surface can be seen at the same time, it will 

 show that the surface is a plane. Our figures are supposed to be drawn on 

 planes." — Pp. 3, 4. 



We now ask, and we do it emphatically and earnestly, whether 

 our readers, as men of science, are disposed passively to allow such 

 works as these to be quietly foisted on the youth of England, and 

 upon English teachers, by a mere act of official patronage, and this 

 at the public expense ? Men of science have a right to be heard in 

 such a case as this ; and they should remember that they can make 

 themselves heard. If books are to be forced U])on all schools, let us 

 at least have the benefit of the judgment of our most eminent and 

 experienced tutors in the universities and out of them both. Let 

 the selection be one that will not be without the weight of ex- 

 perience on its side ; let it not be a job that would disgrace our 

 scientific character throughout all lands. 



LXIX. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 392.] 



March 4, "/'^N the Corrections necessary to be applied to Mc- 



1848. ^^ tcorological Observations made at particular 

 j)eriods, in order to deduce from them Monthly Means." By James 

 Glaisher, Esq., of the Royal Observatory. Communicated by G. B. 

 Airy, Esq., F.Il.S., &c., Astronomer Royal. 



The author, under whose immediate superintendence the whole of 

 the magnctical and meteorological observations taken at the Royal 

 Ob.«ervatory at Greenwich have been conducted, by direction of 

 the Astronomer- Royal, has communicated in the present paper 



