1868.] 



Messrs. De La Rue &c. on Sun-spots. 



447 



of oxalic acid upon naplitylamine with that procured by treating a naphta- 

 lin-sulphate with cyanide of potassium. M. V. Merz had found the 

 fusing-point of the latter acid to be 140°, whilst for the former I had ob- 

 served the fusing-point 160°. M. O. Olshausen has since prepared in my 

 laboratory a quantity of cyanide of naphtyl according to Merz's process. 

 The acid obtained from this cyanide by treatment with an alkali, thrice 

 recrystaUized and finally purified by distillation, was likewise found to fuse 

 exactly at 160°. Menaphtoxylamide, procured from the same source, ex- 

 hibited the fusing-point 203°, while the compound I had formerly examined 

 fused at 204°*. The identity of the acids obtained by the two processes 

 is thus satisfactorily estabhshed. 



VI. '^Account of some recent Observations on Sun-spots_,^ made at 

 the Kew Observatory.^' By Wauren De La Eue, Esq., F.R.S., 

 Balfour Stewart, Esq., F.R.S., and Benjamin Loewy, Esq., 

 F.R.A.S. Received June 2, 1868. 



(Abstract.) 



The authors, after reviewing briefly the two theories on the nature of 

 suu-spots, which are still subjects of dispute, refer to the stereoscopic views 

 obtained and the results published in their * Researches on Solar Physics,' 

 and state the reasons which have led them to believe that sun-spots are 

 cavities and at a lower level than the sun's photosphere. Their opinion 

 has been recently strengthened by observations of a sun-spot on the 7th of 

 May, which in disappearing produced in two successive photograms inden- 

 tations in the west hmb. 



After proving by the measurements made, which, with the calculations, 

 are appended to their paper, that there can be no doubt about the identity 

 of the heliographical elements of the previously observed spot and tbe 

 successive indentations, they prove from the established details of the 

 phenomena of sun-spots that such indentations must under all circumstances 

 be very rare occurrences, and state fully the conditions favourable to the 

 recurrence of similar observations, inviting observers to give their particular 

 attention to them. . 



VII. '^'^The Formation and Early Growth of the Bones of the 

 Human Face."^ By George W. Callender, Lecturer on 

 Anatomy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Communicated 

 by James Paget, F.R.S. Received June 2, 1868. 



(Abstract.) 



These notes refer to some few points with which we are as yet imper- 



- The fusing-point of this substance is, by misprint (Proc. Eoy. Soc. vol. xvi. ]). 302), 

 stated to be 244°, instead of 204^.- A. W.' H. 



