550 [May 7, 



of several hundred atmospheres may facilitate some of the chemical 

 changes involved in the transformation of water and carbonic acid 

 into the organic compounds met with in animals and plants of low 

 organization found at great depths in the ocean, and thus to a 

 certain extent compensate for diminished light. I, however, most 

 willingly admit that very much remains to be learnt before we can 

 say to what extent the principles I have described are applicable ; 

 and yet, at the same time, cannot but think that henceforth they 

 must be taken into account in many departments of chemical and 

 physical geology, and will readily explain a number of facts which 

 otherwise would be very obscure. 



May 7, 1863. 

 Major-General SABINE, President, in the Chair. 



In accordance with the Statutes, the names of the Candidates re- 

 commended for election into the Society were read from the Chair, 

 as follows : 



Edward William Cooke, Esq., 



A.R.A. 



William Crookes, Esq. 

 James Fergusson, Esq. 

 Frederick Field, Esq. 

 Rev. Robert Harley. 

 John Russell Hind, Esq. 

 Charles Watkins Merrifield, Esq. 

 Professor Daniel Oliver. 



William Pengelly, Esq. 

 Henry Enfield Roscoe, B.A. 

 Rev. George Salmon, D.D. 

 Samuel James Augustus Salter, 



M.B. 

 Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, 



D.D. 

 Colonel Frederick M. Eardley 



Wilmot, R.A. 



Frederick William Pavy, M.D. 



The following communications were read : 

 I. " On the Physiological Properties of Nitrobenzole and Ani- 

 line." By HENRY LETHEBY, M.B., F.L.S., &c., Professor 

 of Chemistry, and late Professor of Toxicology in the 

 Medical College of the London Hospital. Communicated 

 by Dr. SHARPEY, Sec.R.S. Received April 23, 1863. 

 It is on record that Thrasyas, the father of Botany, was so skilled 

 in the preparation of drugs, that he knew how to compound a poison 



