Address of the President of the Royal Society. 107 
tifie points which are still more or less obscure—in pre nt 
attention of her Majesty’s Government the expediency of instituting 
under its own auspices a and searching inquiry into the possible 
to be reduced in the proportion of 2 to 3, and the leagth of the gun itself 
to admit of a diminution of nearly one-third. These conclusions are 
based on the evidence of long and apparently very carefully conducted 
Courses of experiment in the imperial factory in the neighbor 00 
Vienna. The results appear to be especially deserving the attention of 
those who are engaged in the important problems of facilitating the 
employment of guns of large calibre and of great projectile force in the 
broadsides of our line-of-battle ships, and in reducing, as far as may be 
possible, the dimensions of the ports. 
altogether a novel subject of discussion in this country. When the 
material was first introduced by Schénbein in 1846, its distinctive quali- 
liability was due to imperfection in its preparation, and ceases altogether 
when suitable processes are adopted in its manufacture. Perfect. gun- 
without danger of: deterioration. It is not impaired by damp; and may 
submerged without injury, its original qualities returning unchanged 
: 
