0,-0 H'ri O4. By oxidation of this substance by means of lime and 

 potasli, the acid Cgo Hgo O , melissic acid, was obtained ; and by the 

 action of chlorine, a body analogous to chloral, a substance, that is, 

 of the aldehyde series, but with a substitution of between fourteen 

 and fifteen equivalents of chlorine for hydrogen. In its conversion 

 into this substance the alcohol loses two equivalents of hydrogen, 

 without substitution. The author also investigated the products of 

 the distillation of myricine. From these he procured likewise pal- 

 mitic acid and li solid hydrocarbon, which, rectified over potassium, 

 had a melting-point of 62°, and contained, as shown by analysis, 

 carbon and hydrogen in equal equivalents. The analogy of the mode 

 of formation of this substance to cerotine from Chinese wax shows 

 that it is the hydrocarbon, melene, Geo ^m- By repeated crystalliza- 

 tion from ether a substance was obtained from the impure myricine, 

 of a crystalline character, melting at 72° ; the analysis of which 

 agrees with the formula C92 O4, which explains the reactions of 

 the substance. 



The general conclusion from this investigation is, that waxes are a 

 class of bodies which, chemically speaking, stand in the same rela- 

 tion to fat as fatty bodies do to the alcohol and acetic acid of vinous 

 fermentation ; all vv^hich bodies are members of one chemical series, 

 possess an analogous chemical character, and are susceptible of 

 analogous, transformations. 



Robert Gordon Latham, M.D., was admitted into the Society. 



"An account of Astronomical Observations proposed to be made 

 in South Am.erica/' By S. M. Gilliss, in an extract of a letter to 

 Lieut. -Col. Sabine, R.A., For. Sec. R.S. Communicated by Lieut. - 

 Col. Sabine. 



Dear Sir, Washington, October 25, 1848. 



During the month of April last I sent to you, through the Royal 

 Society, a printed report from one of the naval committees in con- 

 gress, recommending a grant of funds for the purpose of sending 

 an astronomical expedition to the most available point in South 

 America, to make observations which should have for their object 

 the improvement or verification of the solar parallax. The basis of 

 this report was a correspondence between Dr. Gerling of Marburg, 

 other astronomers, and myself, that had been presented for con- 

 sideration by the Secretary of the Navy, and, in accordance with the 

 views of the Philosophical Society and of the Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences, had been laid before congress for their decision. 



Conformably with the recom.mendation of the committee, an ap- 

 propriation was made, and the Honourable Secretary of the Navy 

 directed to employ it in making the observations requested by the 

 two societies just named. The command of the party has been as- 

 signed to me, and a plan of operations submitted to the societies 

 having received their sanction, has been approved by the Secretary, 

 This is briefly as follows : — 



To embark the instruments and their assistants by the 1st of June 



