and pouring into the liquor a certain quantity of barytes, and causing a current of carbonic acid gas to pass over it, if there is an excess of this; then, by pouring upon it sulphuric acid, the barytes is thrown down, and the new acid obtained, which is dried under the receiver of an airpump by sulphuric acid. The greater number of the salts which it forms, with earthy or metallic bases, are soluble and crystallize. The hyposulphites of barytes and lime are unalterable in air. The suberic acid and chlorine do not decompose the hyposulphite of barytes. This new acid is composed of two proportions of sulphur and five of oxygen.

Messrs Dulong and Petit have presented the continuation of their researches on heat. By means of a very simple instrument of their own invention, they have made numerous experiments, and obtained several very important results respecting the capacity of bodies for caloric. One of the most important of these is, that, from the proportion of the atoms of which a body is composed, its capacity for heat may be deduced, and vice versa. It appears also, from their experiments, that the quantity of heat disengaged in chemical combinations, does not depend on the capacity of the body for heat; and, therefore, that the ordinary theory must be rejected.

A sum of money having been anonymously transmitted to the Institute, for the purpose of founding a prize in physiology, a gold medal of 440 francs' value will be given to the author of the printed work or manuscript sent to them before the 1st of December 1819, which shall be considered as having contributed most to promote the progress of experimental physiology.

WERNERIAN SOCIETY OF EDIN

BURGH.

The business of this season was commenced by Professor Jameson, who on the 9th of January read the first part of an account of the Geognostic Structure of the Grampians.

Jan. 23.-Dr Hibbert read to the society his observations on the Stratification of the Shetland Islands.

Feb. 6.-Professor Jameson continued his Mineralogical Account of the Range of the Grampian Mountains, illustrating his descriptions by numerous sections of the country.

Feb. 20.-Dr Hibbert read the second part of his account of the Geognosy of the Shetland Islands, consisting chiefly of Observations on the Relations of the Quartz and Sandstone of the western parts of the country.

March 6.-Mr Campbell of Carbrook read a paper on the Gradations in the scale of Being, and particularly on the Living Principle. After remarking the chain of connection which binds the whole of creation, material and intellectual, together, Mr C. stated, that he limited his abstract to the material division of the scale, and to the consideration of the characters which distinguish the Living Principle from organization and instinct. The first principle, which he pointed out as affecting the individual particles of matter, which lie at the bottom of the scale, and dependent on gravity, was Aggregation. To that succeeds Stratification, the regularity of which he referred to the agency of Almighty Power. The next point in the scale, and a principle more precise in its operation, was Crystallization; from the consideration of which the au

thor proceeded to Organisation, in his opinions respecting which he differed from Drs Thomson and Barclay. He maintained, that the Living Principle cannot be the soul, because plants, which have no souls, have unquestionably the living principle. The structure is the organisation; the living principle is something else. From organisation, which is a lower point in the scale, we ascend to the living principle, or vis vitae. The author's observations, however, being rather of a negative than a positive kind, it does not very clearly appear what are his views on this curious, difficult, and, we fear, inexplicable subject.

March 20.-Professor Jameson read a communication from Dr Brewster, on the optical properties of minerals. Dr B. stated, that in a very extensive examination of the optical constitution of minerals and artificial crystals, he was led to ascertain their number of axes of double refraction, and that he had proceeded only a short way in the inquiry when it became obvious, that a very unequivocal connection existed between the form of the primitive nucleus and their number of axes of double refraction. Every new experiment added to the truth and generality of this result; and when he had examined the greater number of those bodies whose primitive nucleus was known, he had the satisfaction to discover that all the crystals with one axis arranged themselves under a certain series of primitive forms; and that those with two axes arranged themselves under another series : while the remaining primitive forms were occupied by those crystals whose doubly refracting forces were in equilibrio by the combined action of three equal and rectangular axes. To this singular coincidence there is only one or two exceptions. Were

gret that our limits restrain us from giving a more detailed abstract of this very learned and ingenious paper, to which we refer the reader who is desirous of further information.

April 3.-The Secretary read a communication from Captain Scoresby, on the means of overcoming some of the difficulties that obstruct discoveries in the Arctic Seas; and Dr Hibbert gave a description of the sienite district of Shetland, in continuation of his general account of the Geognosy of these islands.

April 10.-Dr Hibbert gave an account of the granite and sandstone districts of Shetland; and completed his view of the Geognosy of these islands by some remarks on Papa Stour.

April 24-The Secretary read a communication from Mr Stewart, containing remarks on the germination of some kinds of cryptogamous plants, and a list of some of the rarer cryptogamous plants which have been lately found in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh: likewise a description, illustrated by drawings, of the fossil remains of a cetaceous animal found in slate clay near Whitby, by the Reverend G. Young.

May 1.-The Secretary read a paper entitled, "Account of some fossil remains of the beaver (Castor Fiber L.) found in Perthshire and Berwickshire, proving that that animal was formerly a native of Scotland." The first instance in which the fossil remains of this animal were discovered in Scotland occurred as far back as 1788. These remains were found in the parish of Kinloch, near the foot of the Grampians, embedded in one of the marl-pits of the Loch of Marli, on the property of Mr Farquharson of Invercauld, which had been partially drained for the sake of

the marl. The second instance occurred so lately as October 1818, on the estate of Kimmerghame, in the parish of Edrom, and near the head of that district of Berwickshire called the Merse. The bones were likewise found in a marl-pit at the depth of seven feet below the surface, which was covered with peat-moss. There was an apparent dislocation in this skeleton, the result probably not of violence, but of the gradual and unequal subsiding of the soft matter in which it was embedded; but, upon the whole, the bones were in a high state of preservation; the cranium particularly being in a much more perfect condition than that of the specimen from Perthshire. Both the fossil heads appeared to have belonged to full-grown animals. The author states, that the fossil remains discovered in Scotland appear to agree with a beaver's head described and drawn by M. Cuvier in his "Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles de quadrupedes," vol. iv. sect. "De rongeurs fossiles." The specimen described by the celebrated French naturalist was found by M. Traullé, in a peat-moss in the valley of the Somme in Picardy.

At the same meeting Mr Bald read a paper on the Coal Formation in Great Britain, illustrated by numerous sections and specimens.

Dec. 11.-The Secretary read a communication from Mr Stewart, Lecturer on Botany, giving an account of his having found and examined many specimens of the rare moss, bux baumia aphylla, and assigning reasons for believing it to be a plant of longer duration than botanists have hitherto imagined. A paper was also read by Mr Stevenson, on the original formation of the land now constituting the territory of the United Dutch Provinces.

Dec. 29.-Professor Jameson read

an account of the rocks of Sandside in Sutherland, and illustrated the description by sections and specimens. A paper on the luminosity of the sea was also read by Mr John Murray, Lecturer on Chemistry.

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

The first communication which calls for notice was a paper, by W. Phillips, Esq., on the Chalk Cliffs, opposite Dover on the coast of France, read at the meeting of the society held on the 6th of November. Mr P. found these cliffs to consist of deposits similar to those between Dover and Folkstone, except that the upper part of the bed with numerous flints is not visible on the French coast. The dip of the strata is nearly the same on both sides of the channel, but the thickness as well as the height of the cliffs is much less on the French side. Mr P. thought they had once been continuous with the English beds, and formed part of what is now termed the chalk basin of London; the then connecting mass having been since washed away by the action of the sea. At this meeting also, Mr P. read a paper on the modifications of the primitive crystal of sulphate of barytes. The angles of the crystal, a right rhomboidal prism, were found by the reflecting goniometer to measure 78° 18' and 101° 42. Mr P. observed eighteen modifications, and described the secondary planes produced by them.

Dec. 4.-A paper from Dr Day, communicated by Sir James Macgregor, on the Geology of Ceylon, was read. This island consists almost entirely of primitive rock, composed chiefly of gneiss and dolomite, rising in some places to the height of 7000 feet above the level of the sea. The mountains and plains are generally

covered with debris, and the soil, which is poor, corresponds to the rocks from which it is formed. There are hot springs in the neighbourhood of Trincomalee, the temperature of which varies from 103° to 137°. Iron is the only metal found in the island, which, however, is rich in gems; such as, tourmaline, garnet, pyrope, cinnamon-stone, zircon, hyacinth, spinelle, sapphire, &c. &c. No traces of volcanic action are anywhere visible.

Dec. 18.-A communication was read from T. Robinson, Esq. of Morley Park Iron Works, Derbyshire, on a tree found in these works. As the miners were sinking a pit for the purpose of obtaining iron-ore, they discovered a tree, apparently oak, in an erect position, its bottom standing below the third measure of iron-stone; its length was about six feet, its diameter from ten to fourteen inches, and its substance dark coloured and mouldering; its position, and the unbroken appearance of the beds it traversed, seem to countenance the idea that it grew there previous to the deposition of the beds surrounding it.

Jan. 1. 1819.-Mr Buckland's paper," On the Geological Structure of the South-western Coal District, and on the Relations of the Deposits by which it is partially covered," the reading of which had been commenced at the former meeting, was now concluded. The district referred to appears generally to consist of two principal formations: the first reposes on the transition rocks, and includes the independent coal formation of Werner; while the second consists of more recent horizontal deposits, lying on the transverse edges of the first formation. The first formation consists of the following beds: 1. Limestone and imperfect slate, which the author considers as the upper members of the greywacke series, and a link between the transition slate-rocks and suc

ceeding formations; 2. Old red sandstone; 3. Mountain limestone; and 4. Coal measures. The second formation consists of-1. Calcario-magnesian conglomerate, and magnesian limestone; 2. Newer red sandstone and red marl; 3. Lias; and 4. Oolite. This paper also states the angles of the inclination and direction of the different strata.

The

At the same meeting, a paper by Thomas Kent, on the Rock of Gibraltar, was read. The rock is a mass of limestone, the greatest height of which is about 1440, and its base about 2200 feet in its longest diameter. small rock on which the Devil's Tower is built appears to be a fragment detached from it: the edge of the summit is in some places so sharp that a person cannot stand upon it." Part of the rock appears to have been much broken and dislocated; and in the intervals between the fragments, as well as in a cavern in the side of the east cliff, bones of animals have been found incrusted with stalactitic car bonate of lime. The hills near St Roque, reaching to a distance of several miles into Spain, contain large quantities of oyster, cockle, and other shells. The ancient city of Carteia was built of stone quarried from these hills.

Jan. 15.-A paper was read by S. Babington, Esq., "On the Geology of the country between Tellicherry and Madras.' The face of the country in general below the Ghauts is marked by low-rounded hills, composed of a porous substance, called by Buchanan laterite. The mountains denominated Ghauts, &c. the author describes as consisting of granite, gneiss, mica, slate, &c. varieties of hornblende rock, sometimes containing garnet, and in one place cyanite. The Carnatic, or country east of the Ghauts, is flat, and the soil to a considerable depth consists of strata of brown and bluish clay, interspersed

with beds of oyster, cockle, and other shells.

Feb. 19.-A paper was read from the Hon. Mr Strangways on the Rapids of Imatra on the Voxa river in Carelia, and containing a notice of the bursting of the lake Loubando into the Ladoga in 1818. The greater part of the course of the Voxa may be considered rather as a chain of

lakes than a river. Near Imatra it is contracted into a narrow channel within rocky banks, about sixty feet in breadth, which continues for 500 yards. Through this channel the river rushes with great fury and dreadful noise. The rock of this channel is the usual red granite of Finland, which is easily disintegrated by exposure to the weather. In 1818 one of the lakes Loubando, which discharged its waters into the Voxa, opened a passage into lake Ladoga eastward, by bursting through the isthmus of Taipala,-a circumstance that will probably alter its future geographical character.

March 5.-An extract was read from a letter written by the Reverend G. Young, Whitby, to S. Parkes, Esq. containing an account of the discovery near that place of the fossil remains of an animal, supposed to have been the ichthyosaurus. These remains were embedded in an alum rock. The skull was entire, measured two feet ten inches in length and one foot in breadth at the broadest part, and tapered to a point like a bird's beak. The jaw-bones were twisted, the teeth broken and displaced, and the remainder of the skeleton mutilated and imperfect. It is supposed that the animal must have been fourteen feet long.

At this meeting also a paper was read from H. T. De La Beche, Esq. On the Rocks and Fossils of the Coast extending from Brideport Harbour, Dorset, to the eastern point of Tor

bay, Devon.

This line of coast, beginning at its western point, consists of the following beds which dip eastward: 1. Rock marl, or red conglomerate: 2. Green sand: 3. Chalk, into which the green sand sometimes passes. The more remarked fossils are, ichthyosaurus, nautili and ammonites, pentacrini, trochi, casts of turbinated shells, pectens, gyphites, anomiae, and other bivalves, &c.

April 2.-The reading of Mr Hennabis' paper, begun at the previous meeting (March 19.) On the Plymouth Lime stone, was concluded. This bed generally rests on clay slate, and rises about 100 feet above high water mark. It runs nearly east and west for several miles, and dips towards the south or south-west its breadth is from a quarter to half a mile. Many organic remains are found in it, chiefly madripores, tubipores, millepores, trochites, pentacrinites, collaties, &c.

An abstract of a letter from Dr Nugent, of Antigua, to the President, was read, accompanying some specimens of the Barbuda limestone, and containing some remarks on the geology of that island and of Antigua. Barbuda consists of a hard level limestone, with scarcely any vegetable mould upon it, which is supposed to be of the same formation with that of Antigua. The more mountainous parts of the latter island consist of trap rocks, on which rests a series of stratified conglomerated rocks, consisting of a clayey basis, containing minute crystals of felspar and spots of chlorite. On this reposes an extensive limestone formation, the lower part of which contains a great number of silicified fossils of various kinds. These islands, and some others in the vicinity, are conceived to afford evidence of the existence of a recent formation, contemporaneous with, or perhaps even posterior to the Paris basin.