328 



Mr. G. H. Darwin on the Influence of 



[Nov. 23, 



November 23, 1876. 

 Dr. J. DALTON HOOKER, C.B., President, in tlie Chair. 



In pursuance of the Statutes, notice was given from the Chair of the 

 ensuing Anniversary Meeting, and the list of Officers and Council pro- ■ 

 posed for election was read as follows : — 



President.— ^ose^}i Dalton Hooker, C.B., M.D., D.C.L., LL.D. 

 Treasurer. — ^"illiam Spottiswoode, M.A., LL.D. 



Secretaries Professor George Gabriel Stokes, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D. 



1 Professor Thomas Henry Huxley, LL.D., Ph.D. 



Foreign Secretary. — Professor Alexander William Williamson, Ph.D. 



Otlier 21emhers of tJie Council. — Major-General John T. Boileau ; 

 Warren De LaEue, D.C.L. ; Professor P. Martin Duncan, M.B., P.G.S. ; 

 Professor William H. Plower, P.E.C.S.; Professor Michael Poster, M.D.; 

 Edward Ei'ankland, D.C.L. ; Prancis Galton, M.A. ; William Augustus 

 Guy, M.B. ; John Eussell Hind, P.E.A.S. ; The Bev. Eobert Main, M.A. ; 

 William Pole, C.E., Mus. Doc. ; The Eev. Bartholomew Price, M.A. ; 

 Eear-Admiral G. H. Eichards, C.B. ; Henrv Clifton Sorby, Pres. jMic. 

 Soc. ; Professor Henry J. Stephen Smith, M.A. ; Professor Balfour 

 Stewart, M.A. 



Mr. J. CroU and Prof. T. A. Thorpe were admitted into the Society. 



The Presents received were laid on the table, and thanks ordered for 

 them. 



The follo\^ing Papers were read : — 



I. On the Influence of Geological Changes on the Earth^s Axis 

 of Potation''^. By George H. Darwix, M.A., Eellow of 

 Tiinitj^ College, Cambridge. Communicated by Professor 

 J. C. Adams. Received October 13, 1876. 



(Abstract.) 



The subject of the fixity or mobility of the earth's axis of rotation in 

 that body, and the possibihty of variations in the obliquity of the 

 ecliptic, has of late been attracting much attention : but the author be- 



^ Since this paper was in manuscript Sir "William Thomson lias delivered his 

 address to the Mathematical Section of the British Association at Glasgow. He 

 therein touches on this subject, and gives some of the results attained here ; but as he 

 has not stated hovr he has attacked the problem, and as the subject has been recently 

 attracting much attention, the author still ventures to offer his paper to the Royal 

 Society. 



