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 bieyanide of mercury, in a porcelain crucible, enclosed in the 

 alembic made for this purpose, and described in a 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 charcoal, 

 having a metallic appearance. 



Phosphuret of calcium, exposed in the same manner, in the galvan- 

 ic circuit, left pulverulent matter which effervesced in water, and, when 

 rubbed on porcelain, appeared to contain metallic spangles, which 

 were rapidly oxidized in the air. 



In one experiment, particles of charcoal, apparently fused or re- 

 sembling plumbago, dropped from the anode. 



After heating lime with bieyanide of mercury, the mass was dis- 

 solved in acetic acid, in which nitrate of mercury produced a copious 

 white precipitate, that detonated under the hammer like fulminating 

 silver. 



November 15. — The committee, consisting of Dr. Patterson, Mr. 

 Justice, and Prof. A. D. Bache, on Mr. E. Otis Kendall's paper, read 

 November 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 — 



