499 



Hundreds of persons agree as to having experienced a distinct 

 shock, their impressions varying according to the positions occupied 

 by the observers. Those inhabiting the solid granite structures of 

 the lowei'-town conceived that heavy masses of furniture were over- 

 turned and moved in the apartments above or below them; they 

 were not, however, so conscious of vibratory motion as those in the 

 less substantial houses of the uj^per part of the town, or as those in 

 the open air. In many houses, this vibratory motion was so violent as 

 to cause much alarm, and was accompanied by crashing sounds, as 

 though roofs and chimneys were falling ; in some instances, chimney- 

 pots were thrown down ; suspended lamps were observed to wave ; 

 bells rang spontaneously ; the vane of the town church M^aved, and 

 one of its bells struck twice. 



Persons in the open air were sensible of an undulatory motion, 

 tending from the S.W., which occasioned unsteadiness of footing, 

 and in some cases a transient feeling of nausea. A steam-engine in 

 the Serk mines was remarked to suspend one out of its usual five 

 strokes per minute ; the engineer was alarmed lest this should be a 

 precursor of bursting of the boiler. The massive granite vrorks of 

 St. Sampson's quay were so shaken, that glass vessels situated on 

 various parts were thrown off. Two gentlemen engaged in Daguer- 

 reotype experiments on the ramparts of a fortification founded on a 

 solid granite rock, felt the whole to vibrate. The crews of sailing- 

 vessels beating up in the roads," also felt the shock ; those below 

 rushing on deck under the impression that the vessels had struck on 

 a rock. 



The testimony of a great number of witnesses leaves no doubt as 

 to the distinctness and strength of the shock. It v,^as also felt, though 

 in a slighter degree, in the neighbourhood of St. Malo, and near 

 Brixham in Devonshire. 



January 18, 184^4. 

 SIR J. W. LUBBOCK, Bart., V.P., in the Chair. 



" On a new Method of Analysis." By George Boole, Esq. Com- 

 municated by S. Hunter Christie, Esq., Sec. R.S., &c. 



The purport of this paper is to exhibit a new form of analysis, 

 and to found upon it a new theory of Linear Diff'erential Equations, 

 and of Generating Functions. The peculiarity in the form of the 

 analysis consists in the linear differential equation, instead of being 

 represented, as it has hitherto been, under the type 



X^-^^+X— ~ +Xu = X, 



Xo, Xj, &c. being functions of the independent variable x, being 

 exhibited in the form 



/o (D) u+f,(B)B^u ^ f, (D) a^m = U ; 



in which = x^ and /q (D), /i (D), &c. imply functional combina- 



