108 [May 22, 



shown in the Memoir, involved in and given immediately by these 

 forms. It is also shown that the formulee are greatly simplified in 

 the case e. g. of tangents drawn to a conic from a point in a conic 

 having double contact with the first-mentioned conic, and that in 

 this case they lead to the linear automorphic transformation of the 

 ternary quadric. The Memoir concludes with some formulae re- 

 lating to the case of two conies, which, however, is treated of in only 

 a cursory manner. 



May 22, 1862. 

 Major-General SABINE, President, in the Chair. 



The following Gentlemen were proposed by the Council for 

 Election as Foreign Members, and it was announced that they 

 would be balloted for at the next Ordinary Meeting of the Society, 



viz. : 



Cesar Mansuete Despretz, of Paris. 



Franz Ernst Neumann, of Konigsberg. 

 Ernst Heinrich Weber, of Leipsic. 



The following communications were read : 



I. " Letter to the President from Mr. WILLIAM LASSELL, F.R.S., 

 dated Malta, May 13, 1862, giving an account of Observa- 

 tions made with his large Equatorial Telescope." Received 

 May 22, 1862. 



9 Piazza Stierna, Malta, 

 May 13, 1862. 



DEAR GENERAL SABINE, I have ventured to think that a word 

 of my proceedings may be acceptable to you, though I have been 

 much more tardy in getting into observing order than I had expected. 

 It is indeed only now that I am able to make observations without 

 finding some one part or other of my apparatus capable of improve- 

 ment. At length, however, I find my hopes exceeded in the per- 

 fection, precision, and facility with which my colossal equatorial is 

 directed and carried on : the driving motion is indeed as perfect and 

 uniform, I believe, as that of any telescope with which I am 

 acquainted. For the luxury of observing two assistants are necessary, 



