176 Annals of the Philosophical Club 



is excreted than during rest ; (3) that hard work adds 

 very little to the absorption of oxygen during the day, but 

 the amount is greatly increased during the following night. 

 Diabetic and leukaemic patients, however, absorb no more 

 oxygen by night than by day. 



Sir H. James said that after completing the recent triangu- 

 lation of the United Kingdom, the Ordnance Survey had 

 computed the figure and dimensions of the earth from the 

 results, as well as from a combination of all the separate 

 measurements of arcs of meridian in Peru, France, Prussia, 

 Russia, Cape of Good Hope, India, and the United Kingdom. 

 These gave the equatorial semi-diameter as 20,926,330 and 

 the polar one as 20,855,240 feet. The equator was also found 

 to be slightly elliptical, the longer diameter being in 15 34' E. 

 long., and the shorter in 105 34' E. long. ; the semi-diameters 

 being in the one case 20,926,350 feet, in the other 20,919,972 

 feet. The meridian of 15 34' nearly corresponded in the 

 eastern hemisphere with that passing over the greatest 

 quantity of land in that hemisphere and in the western with 

 that passing over the greatest quantity of water. The 

 meridian of 105 34' corresponds nearly with that which 

 passes over the greatest quantity of land in Asia and with 

 that which does the same in the western hemisphere. 



1867. January 3ist, i8oth meeting. Colonel Sykes 

 drew attention to the cold of the month, which had been 

 most intense at or near London, while the weather in the 

 extreme north of Scotland had been comparatively mild. 



Professor Ramsay stated that in the Miocene Period the 

 vegetation within the Arctic circle indicated a much more 

 temperate climate than the present one, for it consisted of 

 evergreens or at least leaf-bearing trees, the species of which 

 are either identical or so closely correspond with those still 

 existing, that we may fairly suppose them to have flourished 

 under similar climatic conditions. He called attention to 

 the subject, in the hope that experiments might be under- 

 taken to ascertain whether leaf-bearing trees could survive 

 a winter of three, four, or five months without the stimulus 

 of light. In the discussion that followed Dr. Hooker stated 



