530 Royal Society : — Prof. O. Reynolds on the 



ings of his better-informed judgment, and in his next edition leave 

 out these objectionable passages; and we feel assured that his 

 scientific reputation will be enhanced in consequence. The follow- 

 ing passage from the close of the volume expresses, as we think, all 

 that was necessary for Mr. Proctor to say in such a work as the 

 present: — "I think the astronomers of the first years of the twenty- 

 first century, looking back over the long transitless period which 

 will then have passed, will understand the anxiety of astrono- 

 mers in our own time to utilize to the full whatever opportuni- 

 ties the coming transits may afford ; and I venture to hope that 

 should there then be found among old volumes on their book- 

 stalls the essays and charts by which I have endeavoured to aid 

 in securing that end (perhaps even this little book in which I re- 

 cord the history of the matter), they will not be disposed to judge 

 over harshly what some in our own day may have regarded as an 

 excess of zeal." 



It gives us the greatest pleasure to speak in the highest terms of 

 the lecture by Dr. Huggins. Every important particular relative 

 to the distance of the sun is to be found in it expressed in simple 

 and intelligible language ; and he has further mentioned a point 

 not found in Proctor's book, viz. the use of the spectroscope in ob- 

 serving the approach of Venus to the sun's limb. With the excep- 

 tions above named, we most cordially recommend both works to 

 our astronomical readers as valuable contributions to the literature 

 of the solar system — Proctor's as particularly adapted to the stu- 

 dent, Huggins's as giving a condensed but popular view of the 

 subject. 



LXXII. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 474.] 



April 23, 1874.— Joseph Dalton Hooker, C.B., President, in the 



Chair. 

 rPHE following communication was read : — 

 -*• " On the Refraction of Sound by the Atmosphere." By Prof. 

 Osborne Reynolds, Owens College, Manchester. 



The principal object of this paper is to show that sound is re- 

 fracted upwards by the atmosphere in direct proportion to the 

 Upward diminution of the temperature, and hence to explain several 

 phenomena of sound, and particularly the results of Prof. Tyndall's 

 recent observations off the South Foreland. 



The paper commences by describing the explanation of the effect 

 of wind upon sound, viz. that this effect is due to the lifting of the 

 sound from the ground, and not to its destruction, as is generally 

 supposed. 



The lifting of the sound is showD to be due to the different ve- 

 locities with which the air moves at the ground and at an eleva- 



