306 Royal Society. 



If the system of thermometry adopted* be such that /a — ■ , 



that is, if we agree to call « the temperature of a body, for 



which fi is the value of Carnot's function (« and J being con- 

 stants), the preceding expression becomes 



/ / /c dx dy dz 



The following general conclusions are drawn from the propo- 

 sitions stated above, and known facts with reference to the me- 

 chanics of animal and vegetable bodies : — 



1. There is at present in the material world a universal ten- 

 dency to the dissipation of mechanical energy. 



2. Any restoration of mechanical energy, without more than 

 an equivalent of dissipation, is impossible in inanimate material 

 processes, and is probably never eifected by means of organized 

 matter, either endowed with vegetable life or subjected to the 

 will of an animated creature. 



3. Within a finite period of time past the earth must have 

 been, and within a finite period of time to come the earth must 

 again be, unfit for the habitation of man as at present consti- 

 tuted, unless operations have been, or are to be performed, which 

 are impossible under the laws to which the known operations 

 going on at present in the material world are subject. 



XLVIII. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 236.] 



May 13, " DEPORT of the general process adopted in Gradu- 

 1852. -"-V ating and Comparing the Standard Meteorological 

 Instruments for the Kew Observatory." By Mr. John Welsh. Com- 

 municated by Col. Sabine on the part of the Committee of Recom- 

 mendations of the Government Grant. 



In offering to the Committee a short statement of the progress 

 made at the Kew Observatory in the construction and verification 



* According to " Mayer's byjiothesis," this system fcoiucides with that 

 in which equal differences of temperature are defined as those with which 

 the same mass of air under constant pressiu-e has equal differences of 

 volume, provided J be the mechanical equivalent of the thermal unit, and 



the coefficient of expansion of air. 



