189 



almost infinitely improbable, viz., that, after the displacement, 

 what Mr. Mallet calls the centre of adhesion shall have, in rela- 

 tion to the centre of gravity, such a position, that the moment 

 of the weight of the displaced masses, referred to the centre 

 of adhesion, shall have its original value, and tend, at the same 

 time, to produce a motion of rotation opposite to that which 

 has already occurred. Now, in order to this, the centre of 

 adhesion must continue at the same side of the line of direc- 

 tion of the earthquake-movement passing through thecentre of 

 gravity of the displaced materials, and we must also have 

 c?Xsin 9'=:d' X sin 6', d and d' being the distance between 

 centre of gravity and centre of adhesion before and after the 

 first displacement, and 9 and 0' the angles made by the direc- 

 tion of earthquake-movement with the lines connecting centre 

 of gravity with centre of adhesion. It is scarcely necessary 

 to say, that the fulfilment of such conditions in any particular 

 case must be in the highest degree improbable. 



The Secretary of the Academy read the second part of the 

 Rev. Dr. Hincks' paper on Phonetic Hieroglyphics : 



The object of the second part is to shew what data are 

 most to be relied on for determining the exact powers of the 

 Egyptian letters ; the existence of an approximate alphabet is 

 assumed, and the knowledge of facts grounded on the general 

 correctness of this is to be applied to determine the exact al- 

 phabet. It is remarked, in the first place, that, as the powers of 

 the letters probably varied at different times and in different 

 parts of Egypt, it is necessary to assume a particular place 

 and time, the alphabet of which is to be investigated. The 

 place chosen is Thebes, and the time the interval between the 

 deaths of the first and third kings of the name of Rameses, 

 during which the principal sculptures at Thebes were exe- 

 cuted, and the papyri in the British Museum, of which fac- 

 similes have been published, were written. The data which 



