9 
PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SECTION. 
October 12th, 1865. 
Robert Worthington, F.R.A.S., Vice-President of the 
Section, in the Chair. 
Mr. Dancer, F.R.A.S., exhibited a small and cheap, but 
very effective induction coil, and a set of four Geissler’s tubes, 
in which the stratification of the electrical light was very dis- 
tinctly shown when a small battery of only one pair of 
elements was employed to produce the primary current. 
Mr. Brothers, F.R.A.S., exhibited a beautiful series of 
enlarged photographs of the moon from negatives taken 
during the progress of the lunar eclipse on the night of the 
4th instant (see ante , page 3). 
Mr. Dancer stated, with reference to the eclipse, that he 
and his son, Mr. James Dancer, had noticed some irregu- 
larities on the border of the earth’s shadow which, as they 
maintained their forms and relative positions whilst the 
shadow passed over the moon’s disc, could not, he thought, 
be due to differences in the reflective power of different por- 
tions of the moon’s surface. 
Mr. Baxendell suggested that these irregularities might 
be owing to the prevalence of extended masses of clouds in 
certain portions of the earth’s atmosphere and their absence 
in others. 
The following table of rainfall at Eccles for 1864, was 
communicated to the Section by G. V. Vernon, F.R. A.S., 
at a meeting held April 13th, 1865 ; — 
