Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 27 



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. I offer this ex- 

 planation, however, with much diffidence. 



Greensburgh, September 21, 1840. 



Art. 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 

 languaore, 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, 

 it 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- 

 trication impracticable by the force of two men. 



In the effort to withdraw it, the tube was detached from the bottle. As 

 the rod had been rendered smooth and cylindrical by the wire-drawing 

 process, it could not have been thus held, upon any other view than that 

 of its being soldered to the potassium. 



* It is our wish to present to our readers at least occasional notices of the pro- 

 ceedings of our scientific societies ; and to make sure of some arrearages of the 

 reports of the American Philosophical Society, (the parent society,) which have 

 accumulated on our hands, wc now present them as an article, although the mate- 

 rials properly belong to the miscellany — a com'se which we have sometimes taken 

 in similar cases. — Eds. 



