PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 



1839. No. 37. 



February 14, 1S39. 



JOHN W. LUBBOCK, Esq., V.P. and Treas., in the Chair. 



The Right Honourable Lord Carrington, was balloted for, and 

 duly elected into the Society. 



A paper was read, entitled, Researches on the Chemical Equi- 

 valents of certain Bodies." By Richard Phillips, Esq., F.R.S. 



The author examines, by a new series of experiments, the truth 

 of the theory of Dr. Front and Dr. Thomson, namely, that " all 

 atomic weights are simple multiples of that of hydrogen," a theory 

 which the late Dr. Turner had maintained is at variance with the 

 most exact analytic researches, and consequently untenable. Although 

 the experiments of Dr. Turner, and the inferences which he drew 

 from them, agree very nearly with those of Berzelius, it still ap- 

 peared to the author desirable to investigate this subject ; and it 

 occurred to him that the inquiry might be conducted in a mode not 

 liable to some of the objections which might be urged against the 

 processes usually employed. 



Dr. Turner having adopted a whole number, namely "108, as the 

 equivalent of silver, this substance was selected by the author as the 

 basis of his inquiry into the equivalent numbers of chlorine, and 

 some other elementar}^ gases. It appeared to him that the chance 

 of error arising fi'om the fusing of the chloride of silver might be 

 entirely removed, and other advantages gained, by experimenting on 

 silver on a large scale, with such proportions of the substances em- 

 ployed as were deemed to be equivalents ; and instead of calculating 

 from the whole product of the fused chloride, to do it merely from 

 the weight of such small portion only, as might arise from the dif- 

 ference betvreen theoretical \'iews and experimental results. 



The author concludes, from the train of reasoning he appHes to 

 the series of experiments so undertaken, that no material, and even 

 scarcely any appreciable error can arise from considering the equiva- 

 lent numbers of hydrogen, oxygen, azote, and chlorine, as being 1 , 

 S, 14, and 36 respectively. 



A paper was also read; entitled, " Some Account of the Hurricane 

 of the 7th of Januaiy, 1839, as it was experienced in the neighbour- 

 hood of Dumfries," in a letter addressed to P. M. Roget, ALD, Se- 

 cretary to the Royal Societ}^. By P. Garden, Esq. Communicated 

 by Dr. Roget. 



