PROCEEDINGS 
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ROYAL SOCIETY OE EDINBURGH, 
SESSION 1881 - 82 . 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
General Statutory Meeting , Monday , 28 th November 1881. 
Election of Office-Bearers, . . . . .323 
Monday , 5th December 1881. 
Obituary Notices of Dr. John Hill Burton, Bey. Dr. Cumming, 
Dr. P. D. Handyside, Professor Sanders, Dr. Andrew Wood, 324 
; On a Particular Case of the Symbolic Cubic. By Dr. Gustav 
Plarr. Communicated by Professor Tait, . .342 
On Mirage. By Professor Tait, . . . .354 
Monday , 19 th December 1881. 
Macdougall-Briskane Prize, . . . . .361 
On the Application of the Bocks of Ben Nevis to Ornamental Art. 
By Sir B. C -rtstison, Bart., Hon. HP., . . , . 365 
On the State of v ’bon in Iron and Steel : a New Hypothesis of 
the Hardening of Steel. By B. Sydney Marsden, D.Sc., 
F.B.S.E., &c., ...... 368 
Some Physical Experiments bearing upon the Circulation of the 
Blood-Corpuscles. By D. J. Hamilton, M.B., E.B.C.S.E., 
E.B.S.E., . ...... 370 
Monday , 1 6th January 1882. 
On the Nature and Functions of the “ Yellow Cells ” of Badio- 
larians and Coelenterates. By Patrick Geddes, . . 377 
On the Thermodynamic Acceleration of the Earth’s Botation. By 
Sir William Thomson, . . . . .396 
Notes on a Cist discovered at Parkhill, Dyce, Aberdeenshire, in 
October 1881. By William Ferguson of Kinmundy. With 
Notes on the Bones by Dr. Fife Jamieson, M.B., . . 405 
On a Class of Permanent Symmetric Functions. By Thomas 
Muir, M.A., . . . . . . 409 
Optical Notes. By Professor Tait, . . . .418 
Monday , 30 th January 1882. 
The Historic Evidence for the Destruction of Pompeii and Her- 
culaneum. By the Bev. Dr. Cazenove, . . .421 
On a Specimen of Sowerby’s Whale ( Mesoplodon bidens ) captured 
in Shetland. By Professor Turner, . . .443 
On Respiration in the Roots of Avicennia officinalis (Linn.) and 
other Shore Plants ; with Observations on the Functions of 
the Lenticels. By Joseph Bancroft, M.D. Communicated 
by Professor Balfour, HP., . . . .456 
