Miscellanies. 367 
The apparatus is of a convenient construction for the purposes de- 
signated in the title of the paper. The lower electrode or cathode is 
a parallelopipedon of charoal, on which the body is placed, to be sub- 
jected to the influence of one or more batteries ; and tubes, with valve- 
cocks, communicating with an air-pump, a barometer-gauge, and a 
reservoir of hydrogen, open into the interior of a ground plate, on 
which a bell-glass is fitted, air tight. In the experiments of the au- 
thor, an equivalent of lime was heated with one equivalent and a half 
of bicyanide of mercury, in a porcelain crucible, enclosed in the 
alembic made for this purpose, and described ina former paper. (See 
p- 131 of the Proceedings.) The weight of the residue was such as 
would result from the union of an equivalent of calcium with an 
equivalent of cyanogen. This was then subjected to galvanic action 
on the cathode of the apparatus, the anode being brought in contact 
with it, and the result was the production of masses on the charcoals 
having a metallic appearance. 
Se oanbusek of ssl - 3 exposed i in the same manner, in the galvan- 
ic circuit, left pul ter which eflervesced in water, and, when 
rubbed on porcelain, appeared to contain metallic spangles, which 
were rapidly oxidized in the air. 
In one experiment, particles of ages biecriomes fused or re- 
sembling plumbago, dropped from the ano 
Y After | heating lime with bicyanide of mercury, the mass was os 
solved in acetic acid, in which nitrate of mercury produced a copious 
white precipitate, that detonated undex the hammer like fulminating 
silver. 
November 15.—The committee, consisting of Dr. Patterson, Mr. 
a and Prof. A. D. Bache, on Mr. E. Otis Kendall’s paper, read 
vember 1, and entitled “On the longitude of several places in the 
United States, as deduced from the observations of the Solar Eclipse 
of September 18th, 1838. _By E. Otis Kendall, Professor of Mathe- 
matics in the Central High School of Philadelphia,” reported in fa- 
vor of publication in the Society’s Transactions. The- publication 
was ordered accordingly. The following abstract of the paper was 
contained in the report of the committee. 
The paper contains the reductions of all the observations of the 
Annular Eclipse of the Sun, September 18th, 1838, yet reported to 
the Society; together with those of Mr. Hallowell at Alexandria, 
D. C. ; of Messrs. Olmsted, Mason and Smith, at New Haven, Conn. ; 
and of Mr. J. Blickensderfer, jr. of Dover, Tuscarawas county, Ohio. 
The computations were made after Bessel’s method. 
The corrections of the elements in the Nautical Almanac as derived 
from eight equations of condition, from the durations of the ring, and 
twelve from that of the eclipse, were— 
