64 Proceedings. 



Ordinary Meeting, November 12, 1889. 



Professor Osborne Reynolds, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.* 

 President, in the Chair. 



Dr. HODGKINSON mentioned a case that had come 

 under his notice in hospital practice, which suggested a 

 possible cause of error in taking the temperature of patients. 

 It was found that a girl, who was not suffering from any- 

 febrile complaint, registered abnormally high temperatures. 

 Observation led to the discovery that she was in the habit 

 of wrapping the thermometer in the edge of the blanket and 

 then inserting it in her mouth during the temporary absence 

 of the medical man. She thus obtained a dangerously high 

 register, which resulted in her being supplied with food 

 more to her taste than that which she would otherwise have 

 received. Dr. Hodgkinson illustrated the phenomenon by 

 wrapping a thermometer in a handkerchief, placing it in his 

 mouth, and blowing through the handkerchief, the thermo- 

 meter running up to 102 degrees in a few seconds. A 

 discussion on the causes of the phenomenon followed, in 

 which Mr. W. H. Johnson, Dr. Bottomley, Professor W. C. 

 Williamson, Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Gwyther, Mr. Faraday, and 

 the President took part, the conclusion being that the 

 increase of temperature was the result of the work done by 

 the capillary attraction of the moisture. 



- Additional portions of a paper by Mr. H. H. HOWORTH, 

 M.P., on " Dr. Croll's Theory of Alternate Glacial and Warm 

 Periods in each Hemisphere and of Inter-glacial Climates " 

 was read. In the course of the paper attention was called 

 to the fact that in a paper read before the Society in 185 1, 

 and published in the Memoirs, Alderman Thomas Hopkins 

 anticipated Dr. Croll's argument that the great ocean 

 currents are the result of the pressure and traction of winds. 

 A discussion on Dr. Croll's theory of alternating glacial and 

 warm periods ensued. 



