transactions of the sections. 
55 
iAmetir was constructed with two plates of 2 square inches each on each 
iofutoutplatina wire. The two plates made positive and the wire negative, or 
mfon a mean of several experiments, a very slight balance m fav-our ot 
4 . Strive and wire negative, but the difference was so slight ns to be probably 
iaUeWe perfect cleaning of the plates by the nascent »yKC»». _ . 
rmsthewhoh of the above Mperunents it wtU appear 
be, ,rt Ike amount of gm, io'ir'-tr vSnUonlS 
kweiscertaia point the mcrcase is mdefimtely small .^secondlj, ^ 
WshdresiasSf the anode and cathode makes no difference m J 
iMpihat provided the sue of tho electrodes be proportional to the battery, the 
■not (f gas is as the surfsce of the battery plates 
On fib MechanicalEguitaknt of Heat, m determined by the 
tin ayUatim of UquidM. By J. P. .louiaB, Sec. Lit. and Phil. Aoc., 
Mawhikr. . 
Tbiothor exhibited and described an apparatu*, consUtiug of a brass P^ddl^whccl 
wbiig in a vessel filled with liquid, with which he had repeated the expenraents 
*ssbt i«fore the Cambridge Meeting of the Association. By th«c experimenU ho 
Wf-wwflred that heat is invariably produced by the fnctiou ot Huid.s in exact pro- 
E U the force expended. Two series of experiments had been made, one on t^ 
rfwster, the other on the fricrion of sperm oil. In the former of these miim 
*« U*J espsbio of raising the temperature of a lb. of water 1 , was found o * 9 
btbemeehanical force capable of raising a weiebt of THI S Ibe. to the beigb 
bl; rMlat in the scries of experiments im the friction of sperm «>I. jji® ^“^“7 
•/loattas found to be equal to a mechanical force represented by r82*l lbs. tlirougu 
osfbot. 
llir author aUo slated tho result of some experimoiits made more than a year pre- 
’wuly.by which he had found that when a spiral steel spring was compressed, no iieat 
•»»T«iTed. The steel spring, whose particles wore thus forcibly disturbed wimout 
tebauge of temperature being produced, was illustrative of the condition o a y 
P»*MBDgwlmtis commonly called “latent boot.” 
On an Amorphous Boracite. ily Dr. M. Karsten. 
boring for rock-salt at Neusalvwerk, in the neighbourhood of Mmden m 
y at the depth of about HOO feet, a bed of amoqihous boracite was touno, oi 
’“llripdtneiis were brought out by the boring apparatus. 
“♦AEniical sttiilysis, which proves that tlic composition of the amorpbou. 
j^fdytlie same HB that of the weU-known crystalliied body, was X . 
Jwjh pardculars of which may be seen in the monthly reports of llie BerltuAca 
h seemed to me interesting to examine if that uncrystallizod spo , 
L pyroelectric quality which in so high degree is to be seen m rk«l^rizcd 
Brewster hs$ pointed out a way by which the pyroelectric quality o P 
may he ahown. By heating that subsUnce, the fnva particles cohere 
‘hat a polarizntion has taken place in them. The aame ph . ^ 
»»be^n m the particles of the amorphous boracite by pulvcniing heaung ^ 
piate. These boracite particles show by ineir pyroclec ^ np 
4«Taiust be crystallized, although by microscopic extimnation ‘j*® 
Werei. The conclusio^ uLt bo. tlmt the difference 
wd the amorphous state cannot be exactly determined, since tb P 
this case no iystallization where the pyroelectricity U a proof that w e must 
«e • crTstalline structure. 
On 
*??<* 
*1" *** Oirnhm of Plants as influenced by Ligld. By Vrof. JIaccaiue. 
afc the pninte demanding most attention iu Ibis p^cr 
‘o explain the curling up of tendrils do no ^ ^ 
““ those of the Tams comntwnw. and that it is ereen 
'^pon by chemical aaents. 2nd. That MS! 
light is not the result of an attraction 
*• the bending outwards of slit atems is due to the elongation of the ceimiar 
