- [ 225 ] 

 XXXII. Proceedings of Learned Societies, 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 155.] 



December 18, 1862. — Major-General Sabine, President, in the Chair. 



HPHE following communications were read : — 

 -*- "Description of a new Specimen of Glyptodon, recently ac- 

 quired by the Royal College of Surgeons of England." By Thomas 

 Henry Huxley, F.R.S. &c. 



" Distribution of the Surface of the Third Order into Species, in 

 reference to the absence or presence of Singular Points, and the reality 

 of its Lines." By Dr. Schlaffle. 



"Experimental Investigations on the Stratified Appearance in 

 Electrical Discharges." — " Effect obtained by varying the resistance." 

 By John P. Gassiot, F.R.S. 



January 8, 1863. — Major-General Sabine, President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



" Applications of the Theory of the Polyedra to the Enumeration 

 and Registration of Results." By the Rev. Thomas P. Kirkman, 

 M.A., F.R.S. &c. 



" Contributions towards the History of the Monamines. — No. VI. 

 Note on the Action of Iodide of Methyle on Ammonia." — No. VII. 

 "Transformation of Aniline into Benzoic Acid." By A. W. Hof- 

 mann, LL.D., F.R.S. 



"A Development of the Theory of Cyclones." By Francis Gal- 

 ton, F.R.S. 



Most meteorologists are agreed that a circumscribed area of baro- 

 metric depression is usually a locus of light ascending currents, and 

 therefore of an indraught of surface winds which create a retrograde 

 whirl (in our hemisphere), because they bring to their destination a 

 lateral impulse, partly due to the greater easterly speed of the earth's 

 surface whence the southern portion of the indraught took its de- 

 parture, and partly due to the less easterly, or we may say greater 

 westerly, speed of its northern portion. 



Conversely, we ought to admit that a similar area of barometric 

 elevation is usually a locus of dense descending currents, and there- 

 fore of a dispersion of a cold dry atmosphere, plunging from the 

 higher regions upon the surface of the earth, which, flowing away 

 radially on all sides, becomes at length imbued with a lateral motion 

 due to the above-mentioned cause, though acting in a different manner 

 and in opposite directions. The currents necessarily travel with 

 diminished radial speed as they widen out from their central area of 

 dispersion, and the eastward tendency of the northern portion of the 

 system and the westward tendency of the southern become more 

 overpowering. It may be presumed, on consideration of the extreme 

 mobility of the air, that a continuous dispersion of currents would 

 result in the yielding of the east and west winds, which had no 

 tangential movement of their own, to the curvature of the others, 

 and that we should witness a disposition of currents like those in the 



Phil. Mag. S. 4. Vol. 26. No. 174. Sept. 1863. Q 



