390 
during all geological epochs, as well as at the present day. 
He now applied it to the question under discussion, wherein 
it made the proposition more manifest, that the tendency of 
change of state of the matter composing the interior of the 
earth, in passing from fluidity to solidity, would be.to increase 
the length of the day. At the same time the slow cubical 
contraction of the entire mass, due to its gradual loss of inter- 
nal heat, would tend to accelerate the velocity of rotation, and 
to diminish the length of the day. Both of these opposing 
tendencies depend upon a common cause—the secular refrige- 
ration of the earth. This, from the investigations of Fourier 
and Laplace, has been shown to be so extremely slow, that if 
only one of these counteracting tendencies existed alone, it 
would be difficult to detect its influence on the earth’s rota- 
tion; but when their simultaneous opposition is taken into 
account, it should not excite surprise that astronomical obser- 
vations have hitherto never disclosed any variation in the 
length of the day, and ages may possibly elapse before any 
such variation shall be discovered. 
Mr. J. Huband Smith exhibited to the Academy a rub- 
bing taken from the ancient cross in the market-place at 
Campbellton, in Kyntire, with a restoration, upon an enlarged 
scale, of the inscription upon it, as follows :— 
HEC : EST : CRVX :; DOMINI : YVARI : M ? HEACHYRNA : QVODAM : 
RECTORIS ; DE ; KYL : REACAN : ET : DOMINI : ANDREA : NATI : EIUS : 
RECTORIS : DE ; KIL : COMAN : QVI : HANC : CRUCEM : FIERI : FACIE- 
BAT : 
This inscription, in tolerably good preservation, is in raised 
characters of the fifteenth century, in low relief, and is placed 
about the middle of the shaft of the cross, which occupies a 
conspicuous position in the centre of the town. It is formed 
of a single stone, of dark-coloured compact limestone, about 
9 feet in height; nearly 2 feet across the arms; 15 inches in 
