The author, being resident for a time in East Lothian, in order to study the system of agriculture, it occurred to him that the very extensive and complete drainage must materially affect the soil by removing large quantities of its soluble ingredients.

He was disappointed, owing to an accident, in examining, quantitatively, the water which had been first collected for the purpose; but on examining, qualitatively, some that was collected after the drain had been running very copiously for 36 hours, he found it to contain 18.4 grains of soluble matter per gallon. This was chiefly the usual salts of lime and organic matter.

The present notice is a sequel to one presented to the Royal Society on 1st May 1843, containing the results of Mr Caldecott's Observations on the Temperature of the Earth in India, made by means of thermometers sunk to depths of 3, 6, and 12 French feet, corresponding to those employed in the three stations near Edinburgh, of which the results are already before the Society.

The author first treats of the state of combination of the alkali in the blood. Enderlin, from his recent analysis of the ashes of the blood, has inferred that its alkaline reaction is not owing to the presence of carbonate, but of the tribasic phosphate of soda. The author, even admitting the accuracy of Enderlin's results, questions the propriety of applying them to the condition of the alkali in the liquid blood. Carbonate of soda, he observes, is decomposed when heated with phosphate of lime; added in small quantity to blood, it is not to be detected in its ashes. This may account for its not having been found in its ashes. Were the opinion referred to correct, an acid added to blood or its serum, after the action of the air-pump, ought not, on re-exhaustion, to occasion a farther disengagement of air; but he finds that it does. This, with other results, induces him to give the preference to the conclusion, that blood contains the sesquicarbonate of soda.

The author commenced by stating at some length, the nature of Wollaston's argument, the object of which was to affirm that the limitation of the earth's atmosphere justified the conclusion, that the air consists of indivisible particles or true atoms. He then discussed the opinions which have been offered by Daubeny, Dumas, Whewell, and others, as to the validity of Wollaston's conclusion, and stated that the special object of his communication was to shew that the inference from the existence of a limit to the atmosphere, that matter is only finitely divisible, is quite unwarranted.

In undertaking the task which has been assigned me, of laying before the Society a brief history of the life and labours of one of their most valuable members, I am influenced as much by my regard for the deceased, as by my duty to the Society. I feel that, in a place where I am a comparative stranger, I have lost a friend—a loss the greatness of which can only be appreciated by those who have experienced, as I have done, the integrity of his character, and the warmth of his heart. Mr Henderson was a man whose every action was the dictate of a right conscience. With society, his intercourse was marked by an utter want of selfishness—a rare characteristic; with his friends, it was stamped with true and unostentatious kind-heartedness.

The author stated, that, being struck with the singular resemblance between the properties of creosote and those of carbolic acid, as described in all chemical works, he had tried the action of a mixture of chlorate of potash and hydrochloric acid on creosote, and had thus obtained a very large proportion of chloranile, the compound yielded by carbolic acid, when treated in the same way. He had also obtained, by the action of nitric acid on creosote, evidence of the production of nitropicric acid, which is also obtained from carbolic acid.

Mr Broun points out the defects of the usual methods of ascertaining the corrections for temperature, applicable to magnetic instruments generally, and the vertical force magnetometer in particular. The usual methods depend upon the knowledge of the time of vibration, or upon the statical deflection produced by a neighbouring magnet, under differing circumstances of temperature. Mr Broun shews that both these methods are liable to great objection; and he has succeeded by arranging the ordinary hourly observations of the instruments in groups, in obtaining consistent results for the temperature correction by a process of elimination.

Bebeerine is a vegetable alkaloid, discovered by Dr Rodie of Demerara, in the bark of the Bebeeru tree, Nectandra Rodiei, Schomburgk. The properties of the alkaloid and its application in the form of sulphate, in the treatment of disease, were formerly described by Dr Maclagan in a paper read before the Society, and published in their Transactions, vol. xv., part 3.

It was shewn, that, if the ultimate sums of the digits of the terms of any arithmetic series, whose difference is prime to the local value of the notation employed, minus 1, be taken, such sums will range, without any recurrence, through all the digits of the notation, and then recur in the same order as before. It was then shewn, that in any integer series formed upon a given law, the sums of the digits of the terms will have a fixed period of recurrence. This was proved in polygonal and figurate numbers, in the series of squares, cubes, &c., in the successive powers of a given root; in the series whose general term is m.m+1…m + r−1; and in that whose general term is xm + a xm−1.…+l.

The first part of this paper refers to the relations of the hypersthene rock of the Cuchullin Hills to the adjoining formations.

The author undertook the observations here detailed without the slightest view to publication. He made only brief notes on the spot, collected but few specimens, and drew the first sketch of a map which accompanies the paper, for his own amusement and information. Finding, however, that the published writings of geologists contained little or no notice of some facts which he had clearly established, he undertook this paper as a groundwork for future and more systematic researches.

Dr Traill read an account of dust falling from the atmosphere on the 2d and 3d of September last, in the islands of Orkney.

This dust was observed by a gentleman in the island of Rousay, falling from the air in the morning of the 2d. It was collected by another at Skaill, on the western shores of Pomona, on the morning of the 3d; and by two other gentlemen in Kirkwall on the same day. It appears also to have fallen in several other parts of Orkney, probably over all the islands; and was observed also to reach the northern coasts of Caithness, within an area of which the radius cannot be less than 30 or 40 miles.

The observations from which the following results are deduced, were obtained during the years 1844 and 1845, by means of the bifilar magnetometer, described in the Makerstoun Observations for 1841 and 1842; they are corrected for temperature by a method previously described.

From the Observations for the year 1844, the diurnal variation of the horizontal force is found to consist of two maxima and two minima; the minimum occurs at 10h 20m A.M. (Makerstoun mean solar time is used throughout), the maximum at 5h 30m P.M.; a minimum occurs at 2h 20m A.M., and a maximum at 5h 30m, or 40m A.M.: two inflexions occur in the mean curve between 3h and 4h P.M., and between 8h and 9h P.M. The periods of maxima and minima vary throughout the year, and the morning maximum is greater than the afternoon maximum in winter.

It occurred to the author, while examining the fossils of various strata, that possibly the animal matter of the animals originally included in the rock might have played some part in its consolidation, and thus, after their destruction as living animals, they might have continued to serve a useful purpose.

After many unsuccessful experiments, made with common lime, and raw animal or vegetable matter, she had recourse to sulphate of lime, and found that plaster of Paris, when mixed with water, and with not more than part of the weight of the whole mass of mixed animal and vegetable matter, it did not set instantly, but continued for some hours quite plastic, developed, in setting, more heat than usual, and finally acquired a remarkable degree of hardness, and the power of resisting both water and fire to a very great degree. A specimen, was exhibited, made in this way.

In a former communication to the Society, the author noticed that spring, well, and river waters, even after being boiled, usually yield, with acetate of lead, a precipitate readily soluble, in whole or great part, in acetic acid; and as the solution appeared not to be attended with effervescence, it was conceived to be due to organic matter. The author has since found that effervescence is more common than was at first supposed, and in that case the precipitate is due to the presence of carbonate of lime in the water. It was ascertained by boiling a solution of carbonate of lime in water containing excess of carbonic acid, that the trace of carbonate of lime retained in solution after ebullition, was too slight to explain the reaction of the spring waters, on the idea that it had been originally taken up by them in this way.

After noticing various cases of solid and liquid bodies, which disperse light of a colour quite different from the transmitted tint, and Sir John Hersche's explanation of the phenomenon in the solution of acid sulphate of quinine, which, although itself colourless, disperses light of a bright blue, the author considers—

1. The internal dispersion of fluor-spar. By employing a more intense light than Sir J. Herschel did—namely, a condensed beam of the sun's light—he conceives that he has proved that the dispersion is not, as Sir J. Herschel supposes, superficial or epipolic, but, on the contrary, belongs, in some specimens at least, to every part of the crystal. The phenomenon is only seen in the green fluor of Alston, and in some pink and bluish-yellów varieties from Derbyshire. Some specimens are formed of strata alternately dispersing and non-dispersing. The author has not found the same appearances in any other mineral; but he has observed similar phenomena of dispersion in several kinds of glass, and even in some colourless glasses, which disperse a fine green tint.

The object of this paper was to shew, that if it be assumed that glaciers had actually existed among the Cuchullin Hills, or in other parts of this country, one of two conditions must necessarily have been present—either a climate much colder than the existing climate of Scotland, or a higher position of the land where the supposed marks of glaciers are seen. With respect to the first condition, the permanency of the relative positions of the heavenly bodies, and of the inclination of the earth's axis, and the adaptation to existing climates of animal and vegetable life, were appealed to as rendering it improbable. The other condition was maintained as probable, on the ground that the changes which have undoubtedly taken place in the positions of the rocky masses forming the crust of the earth, prove that parts of these masses had been depressed, while others had been elevated; so that the probability was, that the Cuchullin Hills had stood at a higher elevation than they do at present, reaching above the line of perpetual congelation.