ah 
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Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. a7 
ence of this Circle to be again refracted and reflected through an- 
other mass of vapor, an outer ring would evidently result. Again, 
if we suppose the same to take place from another point of this 
circle, a second ring would be formed which would cross the 
other in. some point of its circumference, and in like manner, I 
presume, any number of rings may be formed. TI offer this ex- 
_ planation, however, with much di dence. 
- Greensburgh, September 21, 1840. - 
‘i, 
Arr. IV.—Extracts from the Proceedings of the American Phi- 
losophical Society.* 
Jan. 3, 1840.—Mr. Du Ponceau made a verbal communication respect- 
ing the publication of the Cochin Chinese Dictionary of the late Bishop 
of Adran, and also of a Latin and Cochin Chinese Dictionary by the 
Bishop of Isauropolis, and announced that the Grammar of the Berber 
language, by M. Venture, was about to be published. 
Dr. Hare produced a remarkably beautiful specimen of potassium, in 
the globular form, assumed by falling into naphtha. 
This specimen was a part of the product of one process which yielded 
him six ounces, two hundred and sixty three grains, avoirdupois. 
The process and the apparatus by which this large amount of potassium 
Was procured, had been described in the last volume of the Society’s 
Transactions, & 
The quantity of materials employed, was 8 lbs. cream of tartar, redu- 
ced to 47 oz, by carbonization; and 3 oz. of coarsely powdered charcoal, 
from which the finer part had been sifted. 
Notwithstanding the employment of a tube of two inches in diameter, 
ne became choked with the potassium, carbon, and other volatile products, 
which were sublimed ; and in the effort to open a passage, a steel rod, 
employed for this purpose, became so firmly fastened as to render its ex- 
jeation impracticable by the force of two men. 
{n the effort to withdraw it, the tube was detached from the bottle. As 
‘Tod had been rendered smooth and cylindrical by the wire-drawing 
of its being soldered to the potassium. 
ae ee oe 
ee : ‘ 
. Ps 1S our wish to present to our readers at least occasional notices of the pro- 
‘ngs of our scientific societies ; and to make sure of some arrearages of the 
Ports of the American Philosophical Society, (the parent society,) which have 
* 
Process, it could not have been thus held, upon any other view than that 
a opcate 
“cumulated on our hands, we now present them as an article, although the mate-— 
‘0 Similar cases, 
als properly belong to the miscellany—a course which we have sometimes taken — 
Ds. 
