Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 233 



•waves behave towards more or less incoherent deposits reposing on 

 inclined or on level beds, under various conditions. 



lEr. ]5tlallet also explained the dynamic conditions under which the 

 water from water-bearing beds, such as that of ooze beneath the 

 Cachar clay-beds, becomes elevated in the fissures formed, and gave 

 approximate expressions for the minimum height to which the Avater 

 can rise in relation to the velocity of the elastic wave particle. The 

 paper concluded with some explanatory remarks upon the continual 

 noises, like the irregular fire of distant artillery, heard long after 

 the shock had passed, and when the country had become perfectly 

 quiescent. 



The noble collection of photographs which were made by Dr. 

 Oldham, and forwarded to Mr. Mallet, illustrative of the physical 

 features of the huge earth-fissures and other effects of this earth- 

 quake, were exhibited to the Pellows present, and arc well w^orthy 

 of attentive study. 



XXVIII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ON THE INFLUENCE OF PRESSURE IN THE PHENOMENA OF EN- 

 DOSMOSE AND EXOSMOSE. BY M. BECQUEREL. 



''I^HE various causes to which the phenomena of endosmose, exos- 

 -^ mose, difi'usion, and dialysis are due have been the object of the 

 important researches of Dutrochet, Graham, Liebig, and other physi- 

 cists and chemists, who have determined the part that each of them 

 contributes in the production of the phenomena observed ; but they 

 have not taken into consideration all the conditions which intervene 

 in that production, especially the following : — (1) the pressure which 

 acts as soon as endosmose has raised the level of one of the liquids 

 above that of the other, whence results a filtration, through the se- 

 parating film, of the most pressed liquid towards that which is less 

 so, the effects of which appear to be subject to very simple laws, as 

 we shall see; (2) the formation of an insoluble compound by the 

 reaction of the two hquids upon each other when this takes place, 

 a case which had not yet been examined ; (3) the action of the 

 electrocapillary currents resulting from the same reaction, which I 

 have already brought before the Academy in several memoirs. 



I commence by giving a very succinct analysis of the researches 

 of Dutrochet and Graham, as well as of those of Magnus and Liebi"-, 

 on endosmose, in order the better to establish the relation of the 

 eff'ects which they observed to those about to be considered, relative 

 to the influence of pressure on the filtration which takes place 

 through a capillary film — an influence which makes itself perceptible 

 in the phenomena of endosmose and exosmose, as well as in the 

 effects resulting from the circulation of liquids in the tissues of 

 living bodies, especially of the blood in the arteries and veins. Two 

 apparatus were set up to exert pressures up to 2500 millims. of 

 water or another liquid, and were provided with a cathetometer 

 which permitted the determination of the height of the liquid columns 



