Dr. Phillips on the Physical Aspect of the Moon, 555 



cannot fail to be obtained from the homologues of aniline. Toluidine 

 appears to yield perfectly similar bases. I have not, in the present 

 Note, examined into the nature of the reaction by which aniline is 

 transformed into rosaniline ; in most of the processes which give rise 

 to this substance, it is accompanied by several other bases, the study 

 of which is not yet completed. Nor am I at present in a position to 

 offer any definite opinion regarding the constitution of the new com- 

 pounds, tempting though it appears to venture on speculations. It 

 is in the hope of rendering the formulae of the new bases more trans- 

 parent that I have commenced to examine some of the products of 

 decomposition. Their study is likewise far from being completed ; 

 but I may mention, even now, that both rosaniline and leucaniline 

 when in nitric solution, are powerfully acted upon by nitrous acid, 

 new bases being thus generated, the platinum-salts of which are 

 remarkable for their fulminating properties, A splendid crystalline 

 base also deserves to be mentioned, which, associated with aniline, 

 appears among the products of distillation of rosaniline. 



The results obtained in the further prosecution of these studies I 

 propose to lay before the Royal Society in a future communication. 



u On the Integration of Simultaneous Differential Equations." By 

 George Boole, Esq. 



March 13. — "An Account of some Experiments with Eccen- 

 tric Oblate Bodies and Disks as Projectiles.' 3 By R« W. Wooll- 

 combe, Esq. 



March 20. — Major- General Sabine, President, in the Chair. 



The following communication w r as read : — • 



" Suggestions for the Attainment of a Systematic Representation 

 of the Physical Aspect of the Moon." By John Phillips, M.A., 

 LL.D., F.R.S., Reader in Geology in the University of Oxford. 



I. Sketch of the Progress of Selenography. 



(a) By Eye-draughts and Micrometry \ 



1. Beginning with the labours of Hevelius (1647), maps of the 

 moon, embracing the whole, and signalizing special parts, have been 

 repeated by Riccioli (1651), Cassini (1680), Lalande (1/87), 

 T. Meyer (1748), Lambert-Schroter (1791), Lohrmann (1824), 

 Beer and Madler (1836). 



2. The degree in which these laborious efforts may be regarded as 

 meeting the wants of " Selenography," is about equal to that in which 

 the maps of England of the last century satisfy the requirements of 

 physical geography ; and in the same proportion as the great one- 

 inch Ordnance Map of 1862 is superior to the old Chart of 1800, so 

 should be the new drawings of the features of the moon to the older 

 delineations. 



3. That such drawings are attainable by the patient employment 

 of modern instruments, in hands capable of good sketching, is, I 

 believe, not doubted by any competent observer with either achro- 

 matic or reflecting telescopes having equatorial mounting. If any one. 



