110 Proceedings of Eoycd Society of Edinburgh. [fee. 7 , 
3. Astronomical Notes. By Balph Copeland, Esq., Ph.D. 
Communicated by Lord M'Laren. 
PRIVATE BUSINESS. 
Dr J. B. Buist, Mr A. B. Brown, C.E., Mr Ferdinand Faithful 
Begg, Mr J. Arthur Thomson, Dr Andrew Thomson, Dundee ; Mr 
William Caldwell Crawford, Mr J. G. Bartholomew, Dr William 
Hunter, Mr Thomas Goodall Nasmyth, Sir John Fowler, M. Inst. 
C.E., Mr W. H. Barlow, M. Inst. C.E., and Mr John Muter were 
balloted for, and declared duly elected Fellows of the Society. 
Monday , 21 st February 1887. 
Bev. Professor FLINT, D.D., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
1. Further Determinations of the Effect of Pressure on the 
Maximum Density Point of Water. By Professor Tait. 
i 
2. On the Height of the Land of the Globe above Sea-Level. 
By Dr J. Murray. 
3. Note on the Effects of Explosives. By Professor Tait. 
[Abstract.) 
Many of the victims of the dynamite explosion, a year or two 
ago, in the London Underground Eailway, are said to have lost the 
drum of one ear only, that nearest to the source. This seems to 
point to a projectile, not an undulatory, motion of the air and of 
the gases produced by the explosion. So long, in fact, as the dis- 
turbance travels faster than sound, it must necessarily be of this 
character, and would be capable of producing such effects. 
Another curious fact apparently connected with the above is the 
(considerable) finite diameter of a flash of forked lightning. Such 
