13 
Ordinary Meeting, December 1st, 1857. 
W. Fairs A iRN, F.R.S., &c.. President, in the Chair. 
Mr. Buchan stated that the amount of rain which fell at 
Ardwick, in November last, was 1 .50 inch. Mr. Curtis had 
observed that the quantity which fell at Plymouth-grove, 
during the same month, was 1.62 inch, whereas in November, 
1856, there fell 3.76 inches, and in November, 1855, only 
0.68 inch. Mr. Hopkins found the quantity which fell in 
November, 1857, at Broughton, to be 1.95 inch. 
Mr. Hunt thought that the amount of nitrate of ammonia 
contained in rain water ought to be determined, as well as the 
quantity of the latter. Mr. Calvert stated, as the result of 
the examination of rain water in Paris, that the amount of 
nitrate of ammonia in the rain of that city was greater than in 
that falling in the outskirts. 
The President alluded to the fact of mines being now 
lighted by gas. Mr. Binney thought that it might be safe 
to light cojiper or lead mines by means of gas, but not coal 
mines. Mr. Spence mentioned a method suggested by 
himself several years ago, for burning the inflammable gas 
escaping in coal mines by introducing a current of atmospheric 
air. Mr. Binney thought it desirable that Mr. Spence’s 
method should be tried in practice, before any opinion was 
pronounced upon it. 
A conversation took place regarding the launching of the 
Leviathan, and the construction of a tunnel under the Alps. 
A paper was then read by R. A. Smith, Ph.D., F.R.S., 
“ On the Derivation and Composition of Rosolic Acid.” 
Runge had found in the carbolic acid from tar, a substance 
which he describes as being of an orange colour, and as giving 
a beautiful rose colour to lime. He says, also, that it is 
capable of forming lakes, and combining with mordants so as 
to form a beautiful dye surpassing safflower, cochineal, and 
Proceedings No. 5. 
