Miscellanies. 163 



The conclusion from these experiments is, either that an echo cannot 

 be heard from the bottom of the sea, or that some more effectual means 

 of producing it must be employed. 



Dr. Hare suggested the expediency of employing the Galvanic fluid to 

 fire gunpowder below the surface of water, in experiments similar to those 

 of Professor Bonnycastle. 



The President laid on the table for the inspection of the members, an 

 English and Japanese, and Japanese and English Vocabulary, by the 

 Rev. W. H. Medhurst, late of Batavia, now in London, and a " Transla- 

 tion of a comparative Vocabulary of the Chinese, Corean, and Japanese 

 Languages, to which are added the thousand Characters classic, in Chi- 

 nese and Corean ; the whole accompanied by copious Indexes of all the 

 Chinese and English Words occurring in the Work," by the same au- 

 thor, under the name of Philo-Sinensis. 



These two books, the President said, throw considerable light on the 

 various graphic systems of the Indo-Chinese nations ; they had been 

 communicated to him by our associate, Mr. Pickering, of Boston, to 

 whom they must be returned ; he, therefore, recommended to the society 

 to take measures to procure them for the library. 



The recommendation of the President was then adopted, and the 

 books referred to, ordered by the society. 



Dr. Hare laid before the society, a specimen of platinum, weighing be- 

 tween tvventy two and twenty three ounces, being part of a mass of twen- 

 ty five ounces, fused by him in May last, by means of his compound 

 blowpipe. 



Dr. Hare alsojnentioned that he had observed, during a recent tor- 

 nado at Somerset, Mass., various circumstances, which he detailed, all 

 leading to the conclusion that a hiatus or place of rest exists at the cen- 

 tre of motion of the tornado. 



Oct. 5, 1838. — The Committee on the solar eclipse of the 18th of Sep- 

 tember, made a further Report in part. 



This portion of the report embraced the observations made in the vi- 

 cinity of Philadelphia, of which the following are the principal results, 

 arranged in the order in which they were received, and, with one excep- 

 tion, in mean time of the place of observation ; the longitudes being 

 reckoned from Greenwich. 



No. 16, by Robert Treat Paine, Esq., at the west front of the Capitol, 

 Washington. Latitude 38° 53' 23" N., as determined by Mr. Paine, with 

 his Troughton's sextant. Longitude 5/«. Sm. 8s. west. With 31 feet 

 equatorial, green screen glass. Time by three chronometers, regulated 

 by eastern and western altitudes of sun and stars, with his Troughton's 

 sextant. 



