445 



March % 1843. 



The MARQUIS OF NORTHAMPTON, President, in the Chair. 



1 . A paper was read, entitled, " On the Laws of Individual Tides at 

 Southampton and at Ipswich." By G. B. Airy, Esq., M,A., F.R.S., 

 jlstronomer Royal. 



The author gives the results of his own personal observations of 

 the tides at Southampton and at Ipswich, in both of which places 

 they present some remarkable peculiarities. In conducting these in- 

 quiries he obtained, through the favour of Colonel Colby, R.E., and 

 Lieut. Yelland, R.E., the able assistance of non-commissioned officers 

 and privates of the corps of Royal Sappers and Miners. He explains 

 in detail the nature of his observations, and the method he pursued 

 in constructing tables of mean results ; and deduces from them the 

 conclusion, that the peculiarities in the tides which are the object of 

 his investigation are not dependent on any variations in the state of 

 the atmosphere, but are probably connected with the laws which 

 regulate the course of waves proceeding along canals. 



2. A paper was in part read, entitled, " On the Special Function of 

 the Skin." By Robert Willis, M.D. Communicated by John Bos- 

 tock, M.D., F.R.S. 



March 9, 1843. 



Sir JOHN WILLIAM LUBBOCK, Bart., V.P. and Treasurer, 

 in the Chair. 



John Miers, Esq., was balloted for, and duly elected a Fellow of 

 the Society. 



1. The reading of a paper, entitled, " On the Special Function of the 

 Skin." By Robert Willis, M.D. Communicated by John Bostock, 

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



The purpose which is answered in the animal economy by the cu- 

 taneous exhalation has not hitherto been correctly assigned by phy- 

 siologists : the author believes it to be simply the elimination from 

 the system of a certain quantity of pure v>^ater, and he considers that 

 the saline and other ingredients which pass off at the same time by the 

 skin are in too inconsiderable a quantity to deserve being taken into 

 account. He combats by the following arguments the prevailing 

 opinion, that this function is specially designed to reduce or to regu- 

 late the animal teiuperature. It has been clearly shown by the ex- 

 periments of Delaroche and Berger, that the pov/er which animals 

 may possess of resisting the effects of a surrounding medium of high 

 temperature is far inferior to that which has been commonly ascribed 

 to them; for in chambers heated to 120"^ or '130° Fahr., the tempe- 



