i 879 *] Proceedings of Societies . 385 
mist cloud, and floats in the air just above the surface of the 
grass. Taken either separately or combined, the mists appear to 
the author totally and altogether inadequate to account for those 
dense fogs which at times overspread large traCts of country. 
Dense fogs near the earth are often accompanied by a clear sky 
above, when the sun may be seen reflected from the gilded vanes 
of our public buildings. After long consideration the author is 
inclined to attribute these fogs to some cause at present unknov/n 
to us, by which the whole body of the air to some distance above 
the surface of the earth is cooled down, and as a consequence 
part of the vapour of that air is condensed, and forms what has 
been called an “ earth-cloud,” 
“ On the Inclination of the Axes of Cyclones,” by the Rev. W. 
Clement Ley, M.A., F.M.S. In this paper the author calls atten- 
tion to the evidence recently afforded by the results of mountain 
observations to the theory that “ the axis of a cyclone inclines 
backwards.” The author first reviews the state of the question 
up to the present time, and details his own investigations, chiefly 
founded upon the movement of cirrus clouds ; he then refers to 
Prof. Loomis’s recent “ Contributions to Meteorology,” in which 
is discussed the observations at the summits and bases of several 
high mountains, the results of which fully confirm the theory 
that the axis of a cyclone inclines backwards. 
Royal Institution of Great Britain, February 21. — “ A 
New Chemical Industry, established by M. Camille Vincent,” by 
Prof. Roscoe, LL.D., F.R.S. Dr. Roscoe, after referring to the 
experiment by which ammonia was first obtained by Joseph 
Priestley in the gaseous state, and to the various ammoniacal 
discoveries which have been made during the last hundred years, 
remarked that in the French beet-root sugar industry, as in the 
manufacture of cane sugar, large quantities of molasses or 
treacle remain behind after the whole of the crystallisable sugar 
has been withdrawn. These molasses are invariably employed 
to yield alcohol by fermentation. The juice of the beet, as well 
as that of cane-sugar, contains, in addition to the sugar, a large 
quantity of extraftive and nitrogenous matters, together with 
considerable quantities of alkaline salts. In some sugar-pro- 
ducing districts the waste liquors or spent wash from the stills — 
called vinasses in French — are wastefully and ignorantly thrown 
away, instead of being returned to the land as a fertiliser, and 
thus the soil becomes impoverished. In France it has long been 
the custom of the distiller to evaporate these liquors ( vinasses ) 
to dryness, and to calcine the mass in a reverberatory furnace, 
thus destroying the whole of the organic matter* but recovering 
the alkaline salts of the beet-root. In this way 2000 tons of 
carbonate of potash are annually produced in the French distil- 
leries. For more than thirty years the idea has been entertained 
of collecting the ammonia-water, tar, and oils which are given 
