THE 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



December 18, 1879. 



THE PRESIDENT in the Chair. 



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

 them. 



The following Papers were read : — 



I. " On the Secular Changes in the Elements of the Orbit of a 

 Satellite revolving about a Tidally Distorted Planet." By 

 Gr. H. Darwin, F.R.S. Received December 8, 1879. 



(Abstract.) 



This memoir is a continuation of four previous papers on similar 

 subjects.* 



As the investigation is entirely analytical, and is rather long and 

 complicated, it seems useless to attempt a detailed abstract, and I 

 shall therefore confine myse]f to giving an outline of the results, and 

 a few remarks on the method employed. I also here partially replace 

 the analytical treatment of the paper itself by general reasoning, so as 

 to give some idea of the physical causes which underlie the definite 

 results of analysis. These general considerations are not, however, 



* 1. " On the Bodily Tides of Viscous and Semi-elastic Spheroids, and on the 

 Ocean Tides upon a Yielding Nucleus." 



2. " On the Precession of a Viscous Spheroid, and on the Remote History of the 

 Earth." 



3. " On Problems connected with the Tides of a Viscous Spheroid." 

 These three "will appear in the " Phil. Trans." for 1879. 



4. " The Determination of the Secular Effects of Tidal Friction by a Graphical 

 Method." "Proc. Eoy. Sqc," vol. xxix, 1879. 



VOL. XXX. B 



