Address of the President of the Royal Society. 103 
werfully absorbed than others, rays from objects at a low temperature 
eing more easily absorbed than those from objects at an elevated tem- 
perature. He has also proved that gases radiate as well as absorb; and, 
hitherto held upon the meteorological relations of aqueous vapor. 
e Bakerian Lecture, by Mr. Sorby, is entitled by him ‘On the 
In this paper 
are embodied a series of observations upon the influence of pressure 
upon the solubility of salts, in which he has obtained results analogous 
to the change in the freezing point of liquids under pressure. He finds 
in cases where, as is usual, the yolume of the water and the salt is less 
than the volume of the water and the salt separately, that the solubility 
is increased by pressure; but that, in cases where, as when salammoniac 
, : ; wv 
and purposes pursuing his researches upon chemical action under pres- 
sure. This may, therefore, be regarded as forming the first of a 
series upon a highly interesting and important branch of investigation, 
Pp galy inte sg P s 
metals, has of late years attracted very general attention. ele- 
mentary gas and each metal show certain well-marked characteristic 
i ich it i pl sumed 
are changed? What evidence have we that spectra are superposed, § 
that we Sisenie the full sum of the spectra which the electrodes and 
the medium would produce separately? : ‘ 
To examine these and similar questions in the only unimpeachabl 
way, that of actual experiment, formed the object of a long and labori- 
ous research by Dr. Robinson, the results of which are contained in a 
