54 



neral Wilson. Communicated by S. H. Christie, Esq., M.A., 

 Sec. R.S. 



The author states that the Regar of India is found, by chemical 

 analysis, to consist of silica, in a minute state of division, together 

 with lime, alumina, oxide of iron, and minute portions of vegetable 

 and animal debris. Hence it is usually considered as having been 

 formed by the disintegration of trap rocks : the author, however, 

 after examining its numerous trap dykes traversing the formation of 

 the ceded districts, which he found invariably to decompose into a 

 ferruginous red soil, perfectly distinct from the stratum of black 

 regar through which the trap protrudes, was led to regard this opi- 

 nion of its origin as erroneous : and from the circumstance of its 

 forming an extensive stratum of soil covering a large portion of the 

 peninsula of India, he believes it to be a sedimentary deposit from 

 waters in a state of repose. 



Specimens of basaltic trap and of the Regar soil were transmitted 

 to the Society by the author, for the purpose of analysis. 



The reading of a paper, entitled, "Experimental Researches in 

 Electricity," Thirteenth Series, by Michael Faraday, Esq,, D.C.L., 

 F.R.S., &c., was resumed but not concluded. 



March 29, 1838. 

 JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 



Simon MacGillivray, Esq., was elected a Fellow of the Society. 



The reading of a paper, entitled, " Experimental Researches in 

 Electricity," Thirteenth Series, by Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L., 

 F.R.S., was resumed but not concluded. 



April 5, 1838. 



FRANCIS B AILY, Esq., V.P. and Treas., in the Chair. 



John Hardwick, John Macneill, and Edward William Tuson, 

 Esqs., were elected Fellows of the Society. 



The reading of a paper, entitled, *' Experimental Researches in 

 Electricity," Thirteenth Series, by Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L., 

 F.R.S., was resumed and concluded. 



The author, in this paper, pursues the inquiry into the general 

 dilFerences observable in the luminous phenomena of the electric 

 discharge, according as they proceed from bodies in the positive or 

 the negative states, with a view to discover the cause of those dif- 

 ferences. For the convenience of description he employs the term 

 inductric, to designate those bodies from which the induction ori- 

 ginates, and inducteous to denote those whose electric state is dis- 

 turbed by this inductive action. He finds that an electric spark, 

 passing from a small ball, rendered positively inducteous, to another 

 ball of larger diameter, is considerably longer than when the same 



