167 



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. 



The iron casing, used to protect the bottle, had been exposed to 

 the fire during three processes ; yet, excepting at the lower corner, it 

 did not appear to be injured. With slight emendation, and with the 

 protection of a stout disk of malleable iron, situate so as to form a 

 basis, Dr. Hare had no doubt it might be used for several more ope- 

 rations. 



In distilling the potassium from the tube, " per descensum," as de- 

 scribed in his account of the process already referred to, the cap con- 

 verging to a tapering tube was screwed on to that end of the receiver 

 which was nearest the bottle ; and, of course, this end was the lower- 

 most in the distillatory process. This arrangement was preferable, 

 as it prevented the loose deposition always found at the end of the 

 tube farthest from the fire, from falling into the naphtha employed 

 together with the potassium. 



Dr. Hare hoped to lay before the Society a drawing of his appara- 

 tus, under the impression that it would be deemed worthy of being 

 published among the Transactions of the Society. 



The purchase of the Reports on Prisons, printed by- order of 

 the House of Commons of Great Britain, was directed by the 

 Society. 



Stated Meeting, January 17. 

 Present, thirty-three members. 

 Mr. Du Ponceau, President, in the Chair. 

 The following donations were received. 



FOR THE LIBRARY. 



A History of the Heathen Mythology ; or the Fables of the Ancients, 

 elucidated from Historical Records, an Important Key to the Clas- 

 sics. To which is added, an Inquiry into the Religion of the 

 first Inhabitants of Great Britain, and a particular Account of the 



