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REPORT 


SIXTH MEETING 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION 


FOR THE 


ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE; 


HELD AT BRISTOL IN AUGUST 1836. 


VOL. V. 


LONDON: 


JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 


1837. 


— SC 


PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR, 
' RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. 


CONTENTS. 


Ozsxcts and Rules of the Association 

Oiicérs'and, Council: ff er eS es 
Mecasurer S ACCOUNL Br whl. sscit piosasls axid<taetieieieplels gen os 
Reports, Researches, and Desiderata ........-.0.--0.--0005 


DERG MIES OAM ahs aye aah ogy ess p ones centre 


REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 


Report on the Present State of our Knowledge with respect to 
Mineral and Thermal Waters. By Cuarztes Davuseny, M.D., 
F.R.S., M.R.1.A., &c., Professor of Chemistry and of Botany, 
Oxford. . 


Observations on the Direction and Intensity of the Terrestrial 
Magnetic Force in Scotland. By Major Epwazp Sasinz, R.A., 


ee eC er er ey 


M.D:,-F:R:S:, &e. : ii 252 


Supplementary Report on the Mathematical Theory of Fluids. 
By the Rev. J. Cuauuis, Plumian Professor of Astronomy in 
the University of Cambridge 


2 | 


Comparative View of the more remarkable Plants which charac- 
terize the Neighbourhood of Dublin, the Neighbourhood of 
Edinburgh, and the South-west of Scotland, &c.; drawn up 


for the British Association, by J. T. Mackay, M.R.1.A., A.L.S., 


&c., assisted by Roperr Grauam, Esq., M.D., Professor of Bo- 
tany in the University of Edinburgh 


a2 


121 


225 


253 


iv CONTENTS. 


Comparative geographical notices of the more remarkable Plants 
which characterize Scotland and Ireland. te J. T. Mackay, 
M.R.1.A., A.L.S., &c. 


Report of the London Sub-Committee of the Medical Section on 
the Motions and Sounds of the Heart ..............+-445- 


Second Report of the Dublin Sub-Committee on the Motions and 
SCN, CMEC TEM MEEE ot, Glae  Suanednaels « ales aula dn home 


Report of the Dublin Committee on the Pathology of the Brain 
Brel INGORE eS WRECIO Me io. e vied eile Gee Ss Seeds Steam 


Account of the recent Discussions of Observations of the Tides 
which have been obtained by means of the grant of Money 
which was placed at the disposal of the Author for that purpose 
at the last Meeting of the Association. By J. W. Lussocx, Esq. 


Observations for determining the refractive Indices for the Standard 
Rays of the Solar Spectrum in various media. By the Rey. 
Baven Powe tt, M.A., F.R.S., Savilian Professor of Geometry 
inethes University OF OsfOte vo celds see + cds eink aa 


Provisional Report on the Communication between the Arteries 
and Absorbents on the part of the London Committee. By 
Dr. HIODGEING ek cre etn “eae talglak Sete GIUe cto 


Report of Experiments on Subterranean Temperature, under the 
direction of a Committee, consisting of Professor Forses, Mr. 
W. S. Harazis, Professor Powrut, Lieut.-Col. Syxzs, and Pro- 
fessor Paruirrs,) (Reporter) isi. -cnmaavit lr aie) je: Bee 


Inquiry into the Validity of a Method recently proposed by George 
B. Jerrard, Esq., for Transforming and Resolving Equations of 
Elevated Degrees: undertaken at the Request of the Association 
by Professor Sir W. R. Hamrerom. oi. 3 tee 


Page 


257 


261 


275 


283 


285 


288 


289 


291 


OBJECTS AND RULES 


OF 


THE ASSOCIATION. ' 


OBJECTS. 


Tuer Assocrarion contemplates no interference with the ground 
occupied by other Institutions. Its objects are,—To give a 
stronger impulse and a more systematic direction to scientific 
inquiry,—to promote the intercourse of those who cultivate Sci- 
ence in different parts of the British Empire, with one another, 
and with foreign philosophers,—to obtain a more general atten- 
tion to the objects of Science, and a removal of any disadvan- 
tages of a public kind, which impede its progress. 


RULES. 


MEMBERS. 


All Persons who have attended the first Meeting shall be 
entitled to become Members of the Association, upon subscri- 
bing an obligation to conform to its Rules. 

The Fellows and Members of Chartered Literary and Philo- 
sophical Societies publishing Transactions, in the British km- 
pire, shall be entitled, in like manner, to become Members of 
the Association. 

The Officers and Members of the Councils, or managing 
Committees, of Philosophical Institutions shall be entitled, in 
like manner, to become Members of the Association. 

All Members of a Philosophical Institution recommended by 
its Council or Managing Committee, shall be entitled, in like 
manner, to become Members of the Association. 

Persons not belonging to such Institutions shall be elected by 
the General Committee or Council, to become Members of the 
Association, subject to the approval of a General Meeting. 


vi RULES OF THE ASSOCIATION. 


SUBSCRIPTIONS. 


The amount of the Annual Subscription shall be One Pound, 
to be paid in advance upon admission ; and the amount of the 
composition in lieu thereof, Five Pounds. 

Subscriptions shall be received by the Treasurer or Secre- 
taries. 

If the annual subscription of any Member shall have been in 
arrear for two years, and shall not be paid on proper notice, he 
shall cease to be a member; but it shall be in the power of the 
Committee or Council to reinstate him, on payment of arrears. 


MEETINGS. 


The Association shall meet annually, for one week, or longer. 
The place of each Meeting shall be appointed by the General 
Committee at the previous Meeting; and the Arrangements 
for it shall be entrusted to the Officers of the Association. 


GENERAL COMMITTEE. 


The General Committee shall sit during the time of the 
Meeting, or longer, to transact the business of the Association. 
It shall consist of all Members present, who have communicated 
any scientific Paper to a Philosophical Society, which Paper 
has been printed in its Transactions, or with its concurrence. 

Members of Philosophical Institutions, being Members of 
this Association, who may be sent as Deputies to any Meeting 
of the Association, shall be Members of the Committee for that 
Meeting, the number being limited to two from each Institution. 


SECTIONAL COMMITTEES. 


The General Committee shall appoint, at each Meeting, 
Committees, consisting severally of the Members most conver- 
sant with the several branches of Science, to advise together for 
the advancement thereof. 

The Committees shall report what subjects of investigation 
they would particularly recommend to be prosecuted during the 
ensuing year, and brought under consideration at the next 
Meeting. 

The Committees shall recommend Reports on the state and 
progress of particular Sciences, to be drawn up from time to 
time by competent persons, for the information of the Annual 
Meetings. 


RULES OF THE ASSOCIATION. vii 


COMMITTEE OF RECOMMENDATIONS. 


The General Committee shall appoint at each Meeting a Com- 
mittee, which shall receive and consider the Recommendations 
of the Sectional Committees, and report to the General Com- 
mittee the measures which they would advise to be adopted for 
the advancement of science. 


LOCAL COMMITTEES. 


~ Local Committees shall be formed by the Officers of the Asso- 
ciation to assist in making arrangements for the Meetings. 

Committees shall have the power of adding to their numbers 
those Members of the Association whose assistance they may 
desire. 


OFFICERS. 


A President, two or more Vice-Presidents, two or more Se- 
cretaries, and a Treasurer, shall be annually appointed by the 
General Committee. 


COUNCIL. 


In the intervals of the Meetings the affairs of the Association 
shall be managed by a Council, appointed by the General Com- 
mittee. The Council may also assemble for the dispatch of 
business during the week of the Meeting. 


PAPERS AND COMMUNICATIONS. 


_ The Author of any paper or communication shall be at liberty 
to reserve his right of property therein. 
ACCOUNTS, 


_The Accounts of the Association shall be audited annually, by 
Auditors appointed by the Meeting. 


OFFICERS AND COUNCIL, 1836-7. 
a 


Trustees (permanent).—Charles Babbage, Esq. R. I. Murchi- 
son, Esq. John Taylor, Esq. 


President.—The Most Noble the Marquis of Lansdowne. 


Vice-Presidents.—The Most Noble the Marquis of North- 
ampton. Rev. William D. Conybeare. J.C. Prichard, M.D. 


President elect —The Earl of Burlington. 


Vice-Presidents elect.—The Right Rey. The Bishop of Nor- 
wich. Rev. William Whewell. John Dalton, LL.D. Sir 
Philip Egerton, Bart. 


General Secretaries.—Rey. W. V. Harcourt. R. I. Mur- 
chison, Esq. 
Assistant General Secretary.—John Phillips, Esq., York. 


Secretaries for Liverpool.—_James 8. Traill, M.D. J. N. 
Walker, Esq. Wm. Wallace Currie, Esq. 


Treasurer.—John Taylor, Esq., 14, Chatham Place, Black- 
friars. 
Treasurer to the Liverpool Meeting.—Samuel Turner, Esq. 


Council. —Professor Christie, Woolwich. Professor Daniell, 
London. G. B. Greenough, Esq., London. H. Hallam, Esq., 
London. R. Hutton, Esq., London. Professor Sir W. Hamilton, 
Dublin. T. Hodgkin, M.D., London. J. W. Lubbock, Esq., 
London. Professor Lindley, London. Professor Owen, London. 
Professor Powell, Oxford. Dr. Roget, London. J. Robison, 
Esq., Edinburgh. N. A. Vigors, Esq., London. William 
Yarrell, Esq., London. 


Secretary to the Council.—Rev. James Yates, 49, Upper 
Bedford Place, London. 


Local Treasurers.—Dr. Daubeny, Oxford. Professor Hens- 
low, Cambridge. Dr. Orpen, Dublin. Charles Forbes, Esq., 
Edinburgh. Jonathan Gray, Esq., York. George Bengough, 
Esq., Bristol. Samuel Turner, Esq., Liverpool, Rev. John 
James Tayler, Manchester. James Russell, Esq., Birmingham. 
William Hutton, Esq., Newcastle-on-Tyne. Henry Woollcombe, 
Esq., Plymouth. 


OFFICERS OF SECTIONAL COMMITTEES. ix 


OFFICERS OF SECTIONAL COMMITTEES AT THE 
BRISTOL MEETING. 


SECTION A.—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE, 


President.—Rev. William Whewell. 

Vice-Presidents.—Sir D. Brewster. Sir W. R. Hamilton. 

Secretaries.—Professor Forbes. W.S. Harris, Esq. F. W. 
Jerrard, Esq. 


SECTION B.—CHEMISTRY AND MINERALOGY. 


President.—Rev. Professor Cumming. 

Vice-Presidents.—Dr. Dalton. Dr. Henry. 

Secretaries.—Dr. Apjohn. Dr. C. Henry. W. Herapath, 
Ksq. 


SECTION C.—GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY. 


President.—Rev. Dr. Buckland. 

Vice-Presidents.—R. Griffith, Esq. G.B. Greenough, Esq. 
(For Geography) R. I. Murchison, Esq. 

Secretaries—Wm. Sanders, Esq. 8S. Stutchbury, Esq. 
T. J. Torrie, Esq. 


SECTION D.—ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 


President.—Rev. Professor Henslow. 

Vive-Presidents.—Rev. F. W. ne Dr. J. Richardson. 
Professor Royle. 

Secretaries.—John Curtis, Esq. Prokador Don. Dr. Riley. 
S. Rootsey, Esq. 


SECTION E.—MEDICAL SCIENCE. 


President.—Dr. Roget. 
Vice-Presidents.—Dr. Bright. Dr. Macartney. 
Secretary.—Dr. Symonds. 


SECTION F.—STATISTICS. 


President.—Sir Charles Lemon, Bart. 

Vice-Presidents.—H. Hallam, Esq. Dr. Jerrard. 

Secretaries.—Rev. J. EK. Bromby. C. B. Fripp, Esq. James 
Heywood, Esq. 


x OFFICERS OF SECTIONAL COMMITTEES. 


SECTION G.—MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 


President.—Davies Gilbert, Esq. 

Vice-Presidents.—M. J. Brunel, Esq. John Robison, Esq. 

Secretaries. —G. T, Clark, Esq. T. G. Bunt, Esq. Wil- 
liam West, Esq. 


CORRESPONDING MEMBERS. 


Professor Agassiz, Neufchatel. M. Arago, Secretary of the 
Institute, Paris. Professor Berzelius, Stockholm. Mr. Bow- 
ditch, Boston, North America. Professor De la Rive, Geneva. 
Baron Alexander von Humboldt, Berlin. Professor Moll, 
Utrecht. Professor Cirsted, Copenhagen. Jean Plana, Astro- 
nomer Royal, Turin. M. Quetelet, Brussels. Professor Schu- 
macher, Altona. ; 


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Xli SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


The following Reports on the progress and desiderata of dif- 
ferent branches of science have been drawn up at the request 
of the Association, and printed in its Transactions, 


On the progress of Astronomy during the present century, by 
G. B. Airy, M.A., Astronomer Royal. 

On the state of our knowledge respecting Tides, by J. W. 
Lubbock, M.A., Vice-President of the Royal Society. 

On the recent progress and present state of Meteorology, by 
James D. Forbes, F.R.S., Professor of Natural Philosophy, 
Edinburgh. 

On the present state of our knowledge of the Science of Ra- 
diant Heat, by the Rev. Baden Powell, M.A., F.R.S.. Savilian 
Professor of Geometry, Oxford. 

On Thermo-electricity, by the Rev. James Cumming, M.A., 
F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry, Cambridge. 

On the recent progress of Optics, by Sir David Brewster, 
K.C.G., BL.D., FRS.5 &e. 

On the recent progress and present state of Mineralogy, by 
the Rev. William Whewell, M.A., F.R.S. 

On the progress, actual state, and ulterior prospects of Geology, 
by the Rev. William Conybeare, M.A., F.R.S., V.P.G.S., &c. 

On the recent progress and present state of Chemical Science, 
by James F. W. Johnston, A.M., Professor of Chemistry, Dur- 
ham. 

On the application of Philological and Physical researches to 
the History of the Human Species, by J. C. Prichard, M.D., 
F.R.S., &c. 

On the advances which have recently been made in certain 
branches of Analysis, by the Rev. G. Peacock, M.A., F.R.S., &c. 

On the present state of the Analytical Theory of Hydrostaties 
and Hydrodynamics, by the Rev. John Challis, M.A., F.R.S., &c. 

On the state of our knowledge of Hydraulics, considered as a 
branch of Engineering, by George Rennie, F.R.S., &c. (Parts 
I. and II.) 

On the state of our knowledge respecting the Magnetism of 
the Earth, by S. H. Christie, M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Mathe- 
matics, Woolwich. 

On the state of our knowledge of the Strength of Materials, 
by Peter Barlow, F.R.S. 

On the state of our knowledge respecting Mineral Veins, by 
John Taylor, F.R.S., Treasurer G.S., &c. 


at at ae 


DESIDERATA, ETC. xiti 


On the state of the Physiology of the Nervous System, by 
William Charles Henry, M.D. 

On the recent progress of Physiological Botany, by John Lind- 
ley, F.R.S., Professor of Botany in the University of London. 

On the Geology of North America, by H. D. Rogers, F.G.S. 

On the philosophy of Contagion, by Wm. Henry, M.D.,F.R.S. 

On the state of Physiological Knowledge, by the Rev. William 
Clark, M.D., F.G.S., Professor of Anatomy, Cambridge. 

On the state and progress of Zoology, by the Rev. Leonard 
Jenyns, M.A., F.L.S., &c. 

On the theories of Capillary Attraction, and of the Propagation 
of Sound as affected by the development of Heat, by the Rev. 
John Challis, M.A., F.R.S., &c. 

On the state of the science of Physical Optics, by the Rev. 
H. Lloyd, M.A., Professor of Natural Philosophy, Dublin. 

On the state of our knowledge respecting the application of 
Mathematical and Dynamical principles to Magnetism, Electri- 
city, Heat, &c., by the Rev. Wm. Whewell, M.A., F.R.S. 

On Hansteen’s researches in Magnetism, by Captain Sabine, 
FE.R.S. 

On the state of Mathematical and Physical Science in Bel- 
gium, by M. Quetelet, Director of the Observatory, Brussels. 

On the present state of our knowledge with respect to Mine- 
ral and Thermal Waters, by Charles Daubeny, M.D., F.R.S., 
M.R.1.A., &c., Professor of Chemistry and of Botany, Oxford. 

Observations on the Direction and Intensity of the Terres- 
trial Magnetic Force in Scotland, by Major Edward Sabine, 
R.A., F.R.S., &c. 

Report on North American Zoology, by John Richardson, 
M.D., F.R.S., &c. 

Supplementary report on the Mathematical Theory of Fluids, 
by the Rev. J. Challis, Plumian Professor of Astronomy in the 
University of Cambridge. 

Comparative view of the more remarkable Plants which cha- 
racterize the Neighbourhood of Dublin, the Neighbourhood of 
Edinburgh, and the South-west of Scotland, &c. ; drawn up for 
the British Association, by J. T. Mackay, M.R.LA., A.L.S., 
&c., assisted by Robert Graham, Esq., M.D., Professor of 
Botany in the University of Edinburgh. 


xiv SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


The following Reports of Researches undertaken at the re- 
quest of the Association have heen published, viz. 


Report on the comparative measurement of the Aberdeen 
Standard Scale, by Francis Baily, Treasurer R.S., &c. 

On Impact upon Beams, by Eaton Hodgkinson. 

Observations on the Direction and Intensity of the Terrestrial 
Magnetic Force in Ireland, by the Rev. H. Lloyd, Capt. Sabine, 
and Capt. J. C. Ross. 

On the Phzenomena usually referred to the Radiation of Heat, 
by H. Hudson, M.D. 

Experiments on Rain at different elevations, by Wm. Gray, 
jun. and Professor Phillips. 

Hourly observations of the Thermometer at Plymouth, by 
W.S. Harris. 

On the Infra-orbital Cavities in Deers and Antelopes, by A. 
Jacob, M.D. 

On the Effects of Acrid Poisons, by T. Hodgkin, M.D. 

On the Motions and Sounds of the Heart, by the Dublin Sub- 
Committee. 

On the Registration of Deaths, by the Edinburgh Sub-Com- 
mittee. 

Report of the London Sub-Committee of the Medical Section, 
of the British Association on the Motions and Sounds of the 
Heart. 

Second Report of the Dublin Sub-Committee on the Motions 
and Sounds of the Heart. (See vol. iv. p. 243.) 

Report of the Dublin Committee on the Pathology of the 
Brain and Nervous System. 

Account of the recent Discussions of Observations of the 
Tides which have been obtained by means of the grant of Money 
which was placed at the disposal of the Author for that purpose at 
the last Meeting of the Association, by J. W. Lubbock, Esq. 

Observations for determining the refractive Indices for the 
Standard Rays of the Solar Spectrum in various media, by the 
Rev. Baden Powell, M.A., F.R.S., Savilian Professor of Geome- 
try in the University of Oxford. 

Provisional Report on the Communication between the Arteries 
and Absorbents on the part of the London Committee, by Dr. 
Hodgkin. 

Report of Experiments on Subterranean Temperature, under 
the direction of a Committee, consisting of Professor Forbes, 
Mr. W. S. Harris, Professor Powell, Lieut. Colonel Sykes, and 
Professor Phillips, (Reporter.) 


DESIDERATA, ETC. x¥ 


Inquiry into the Validity of a Method recently proposed by 
George B. Jerrard, Esq., for Transforming and Resolving Equa- 
tions of Elevated Degrees: undertaken at the request of the 
Association by Professor Sir W. R. Hamilton. 


The following Reports and Continuations of Reports have 
been undertaken to he drawn up at the request of the Asso- 
ciation. 

On the progress of Electro-chemistry and Electro-magnetism, 
so far as regards the experimental part of the subject, by P. M. 
Roget, M.D., Sec. R.S. 

On the Connection of Electricity and Magnetism, by S. H. 
Christie, F.R.S., &c. 

On the state of knowledge on the Phenomena of Sound, by 
the Rev. Robert Willis, M.A., F.R.S. 

On the state of our knowledge respecting the relative level of 
Land and Sea, and the waste and extension of the land on the 
east coast of England, by R. Stevenson, Engineer to the North- 
ern Lighthouses, Edinburgh. 

On the Botany of North America, by Jacob Greene, M.D., 
and Sir W. J. Hooker, M.D., Professor of Botany, Glasgow. 

On the Geographical Distribution of Insects, and particularly 
the order Coleoptera, by J. Wilson, F.R.S.E. 

On the influence of Climate upon Vegetation, by the Rev. 
J. S. Henslow, M.A., F.L.S., Professor of Botany, Cambridge. 

On circumstances in Vegetation influencing the Medicinal 
Virtues of Plants, by R. Christison, M.D., &c. 

On Salts, by Professor Graham. 

Cn the progress of Medical Science in Germany, by Dr. 
Graves. 

On the Differential and Integral Calculus, by the Rev. G. 
Peacock, M.A., F.R.S. 

_ On the present state of our knowledge of the Phenomena of 

Terrestrial Magnetism, by Captain Sabine, F.R.S. ; 

On the Geology of North America, by H. D. Rogers, F.G.S., 
Professor of Geology, Philadelphia. 

On the Mineral Riches of Great Britain, by John Taylor, 
F.R.S. G.S. 

On the Methods of Printing for the Blind, by the Rev. Wm. 
Taylor, F.R.S. 

On the Statistics of Dukhun, by Lieut.-Colonel Sykes, F.R.S. 

On the Physical and Chemical Properties of Dimorphous 
Bodies, by J. F. W. Johnston, F.R.S. 


Xvi ' SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Researches recommended, and Desiderata noticed hy the Com- 
mittees of Science at the Bristol Meeting*. 


ASTRONOMY. 


Mr. Lubbock’s proposition for the construction of new em- 
pirical lunar Tables was referred to a Committee, consisting of 
Mr. Lubbock, the Astronomer Royal, Mr. Baily, Professor 
Rigaud, Professor Challis, and Professor Sir W. R. Hamilton; 
and Mr. Lubbock was requested to report to the next Meeting 
on the best mode of carrying it into effect. 


WAVES. 


An experimental investigation on Waves, having particular 
reference to the manner in which they are produced, the effect 
of wind, and the effect of the form of the canal, was entrusted 
to Mr. J. S. Russell and Mr. J. Robison, and a sum not ex- 
ceeding 100/. was placed at their disposal for the purpose ft. 


METEOROLOGY. 


The Meteorological Committee was requested to endeavour 
to establish hourly observations of the Barometer and Wet-bulb 
Hygrometer {, and a grant of 30/. was placed at their disposal 
for this object. 


OPTICS. 


The sum of 150. was placed at the disposal of a Committee, 
consisting of the Rev. W. V. Harcourt, Dr. Turner, and Dr. 
Faraday, for the purpose of experimental investigations into the 
fabrication of glass §. 


CHEMISTRY. 


A series of Experiments on the comparative analysis of Iron 


* In addition to those contained in vol. v. 

+ This inquiry is in progress. 

t Mr. W. Snow Harris has commenced these researches at Plymouth. 
§ Mr. Harcourt has been sometime occupied in this investigation. 


prea DESIDERATA, ETC. XVii 


in the different stages of its manufacture, with the hot and cold 
blast, was entrusted to Dr. Dalton, Dr. Henry, and Mr. H. H. 
Watson. 

Dr. Turner was requested to undertake experiments on the 
Amount of Heat evolved in Combustion and other kinds of 
Chemical Action. 

Dr. Daubeny suggested the following points with reference 
to Mineral Waters, as peculiarly worthy of investigation by 
British Chemists. 

1. The chemical composition and physical properties of the water 
drunk in places subject to peculiar endemics, as Goitre. 

2. The nature of the organic matter present in hot springs. 

3. The evolution of Nitrogen from springs of ordinary temperature, 
as well as from thermal ones. 

4, The state in which Alkali exists in certain thermal waters. 

5. The means by which Silica is held in chemical solution. 

6. The geological relations of the country in which thermal waters 
are found. 

7. Anexact estimate of their temperature, taken with accurate instru- 
ments at different periods of the year, together with the amount of 
water discharged in a given time. 

8. Is Carbonate of Potash, in: reality, a very rare constituent of 
_ thermal waters, or may not the Carbonate of Soda have been often 

mistaken for it ? 


Dr. Dalton and Mr. Wm. West were requested to investigate 
the presence and proportion of substances present in minute pro- 
portions in atmospheric air, according to a plan proposed by 
the latter. 


GEOLOGY. 


The Committee for procuring data on the question of the 
permanence of the relative level of Land and Sea on the coasts 
of Great Britain and Ireland, received a grant of 500/. in order 
that the subject might be satisfactorily investigated, by ascer- 
taining with great accuracy the differences of level of a number 
of points in two straight lines at right angles to one another, 
and terminating on the sea-coast *. 

The attention of observers was directed to the discovery of 
Plants of any kind in strata older than the coal formation. 

The observation of divisional planes in Stratified Rocks, 
(cleavage, joints, fissures, &c.) in relation to the surfaces of 


* These measures are in course of execution. 
VOL. V.—1836. 


xviii SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


stratification, the chemical quality, and molecular aggregation 
of the rocks, and other circumstances, was recommended for the 
purpose of procuring accurate data on this part of physical 
Geology. 

The Officers of the Ordnance Survey in Ireland were requested 
to make such excavations in the Peat Mosses of Ireland, as 
may tend to ascertain the relative periods at which they were 
deposited ; and the sum of 50/. was placed at the disposal of 
Colonel Colby for this object. 


NATURAL HISTORY. 


Mr. R. Ball and Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, were requested 
to prepare an exact catalogue of the Animals inhabiting Ireland. 

A Committee was named, consisting of Professor Henslow, 
Dr. Daubeny, Mr. James Yates, Dr. Henry, and Dr. Dalton, 
to institute Experiments on the growth of Plants under Glass, 
and excluded from the external Air, on the plan of Mr. N. G. 
Ward (described in the Transactions of the Society of Arts), 
and the sum of 25/. was placed at their disposal for the purpose. 

Mr. R. Ball was requested to investigate the mode by which Mol- 
lusca, Annelida, and other marine Invertebrata excavate rocks. 

Dr. Richardson mentioned the following desiderata in North 
American Zoology : 

1. Fauna of Mexico, California, New Caledonia and Russian America. 

2. Local Lists of the Animals of the Atlantic States of America, such 
as the one prepared by order of the Government of Massachusetts for 
that State. 

3. Accurate Comparisons of the Skeletons and of Living Specimens 
of European and American Species supposed to be common to the 
two countries. 

4. Monographs of the various Families of North American Mamma- 
lia, including notices of the habits of the Species, from personal obser- 
vation only; and particularly of the Bats, Seals, Deer, and Pouched Rats. 

5. Comparison of the Northern and Woodland Rein Deer. 

6. An account of the Reptiles and Amphibia of Canada and the more 
northern parts of the Contineut. 

7. Notices of the North American Mollusca. 

8. Determination of a Species of Fish which makes a loud drumming 
noise on the bottoms of vessels anchoring on the Coasts of Georgia and 
Florida, and the investigation of the causes and manner of its drumming. 

The Committee of Natural History likewise requested atten- 
tion to the Chemistry of Entomology, and to the Geographical 
distribution of Insects, more particularly with respect to the 
influences exercised by geological conditions and by vegetation. 


DESIDERATA, ECT. Xix 


MEDICAL SCIENCE. 


The Chemical Composition of Secreting Organs, and their 
products, was referred for investigation toa Committee in Lon- 
don, consisting of Dr. Roget, Dr. Turner, Dr. Hodgkin, and 
G. O. Rees, Esq., with a grant of 251. 

The Physiological Influence of Cold upon Man and Animals 
was recommended to the attention of Mr. King, in the event of 
-his visiting the Arctic Regions, and 25/. was placed at his dis- 
posal for the purpose. 

An experimental Investigation of the Physiology of the Spinal 
Nerves was referred to Mr. S. D. Broughton, Dr. Sharpey, and 
Mr. E. Cock. 

‘The Committee appointed in Dublin (vol. iv. p. 32) to re- 
port on the Pathology of the Brain and Nervous System was 
requested to extend its researches to the Physiology of these 
parts. 


STATISTICS. 


In furtherance of inquiries into the actual state of schools in 
England, considered merely as to numerical analyses, 1507. was 
placed at the disposal of a Committee, consisting of Colonel 
Sykes, Mr. Hallam, and Mr. Porter. 


———S 


Committees were named (with power to add to their number) 
to draw up Instructions for observing in different branches of 
Science, viz. 

Physical Science.—Rev. W. Whewell, Professor Forbes, Mr. 
Baily, Mr. Babbage, Professor Christie. 

-Geology.—Mr. Murchison, Mr. Lonsdale, Mr. Hopkins, Mr. 
Greenough. © 
Natural History.—Dr. Richardson, Professor Royle. 


b2 


xx SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


SYNOPSIS OF SUMS APPROPRIATED TO 
SCIENTIFIC OBJECTS 


BY THE GENERAL COMMITTEE AT THE BRISTOL MEETING. 


Reduction of Observations on Stars (vol. iv. p. xv.) . £500 
Discussion of Tides (vol. iv. p. xvii.) . . « « . 250 
Ditto in the Port of Bristol . . . . 150 
Constant of Lunar Nutation (vol. iv. p. xvi.) - . - 70 
Meteorological Instruments and Subterranean Tem- 
perature (vol. iv. p. xix.) . 100 
Comparative Level of Land and Sea (vol. iv. ps "xxvie ) 500 
Lens of Rock Salt (vol. iv. p. xxii.) . 80 
Hourly Observations of Barometer and Wet-bulb Hy- 
grometer . . BP ins) ei) och 
Investigations on the Form of Waves . . . - . 100 


Experiments on Vitrification . . oie ae 
Specific Gravity of Gases (vol. iv. p. xxiii. ‘¥ Hit, ig ee 
Heat developed in Combustion, &c. . . . . . - 30 
Composition of Atmospheric Air. . . . . « - 15 
Chemical Constants (vol. IVs Pe SKIN) a) By plas eee 
Strength of Iron (vol. iv. p. Xxxli.) . . - « + + 60 
Mud in Rivers (vol. iv. p. xxvii.) . . ots, eye Be 
Subterranean Temperature and Electricity enie[eel pre ge 
Origin of Peat Mosses_ . 50 
Growth of Plants under Glass and ‘excluded from. Air 25 
Absorbents and Veins (vol. iv. p. xxxi.). . . . - 50 
Sounds of the Heart (vol. iv. p.xxxi.). . . « . « 50 
Chemical Composition of Secreting Organs . . . 25 
Influence of Cold on Man and Animals. . 25 
Effect of Poisons on the Animal iconomy (vol. iv. Lp. “xxxi. xi.) 25 
Pathology of Brain and Nervous Pie (vol. iv. p. xxxii. i) 25 
Physiology of Spinal Nerves . . ae ares 25 
State of Schools in England .°. .°. . . . + 4150 
Duty of Steam Engines. . . . » - » © » « 50 


-_ 


cooooocooooocooooowooos 


oe ) 


ADDRESS 


BY 


PROFESSOR DAUBENY. 


GENTLEMEN,—The practice of the three preceding Anniversaries has 
prepared you to expect, at the first General Meeting that may be held, 
a short address, explanatory of the nature of those scientific objects 
which had chiefly occupied the Association on the former occasion, and, 
in particular, of the contents of the last published Volume of ‘Transac- 
tions, in which the results of your labours are recorded. This it has 
hitherto been usual for the Local Secretaries of the year to prepare; and 
it seemed but a fair division of labour that such a task should, in the 
present instance, be allotted to the one, on whom, from unavoidable cir- 
cumstances, the smaller share in the other duties of the office had de- 
volved. It was this consideration, indeed, which reconciled me to the 
undertaking ; for had I not felt that the framing of this Address was the 
only part of the functions of Secretary that could be discharged at a 
distance from the intended place of meeting, and that the time of my 
colleague would be engrossed by the preparatory arrangements, in which, 
from my absence, I was unable till lately to participate, J should have 
shrunk from the responsibility of a task which involved the consideration 
of questions of a high and abstruse character, to several of which I feel 
myself but ill-qualified to do justice. It is nevertheless, be assured, with 
extreme diffidence that I enter upon a task which has, at former meetings, 
been executed by men so eminent in science, and that I presume, though 
one of the humblest members of this great body, to exhibit to you a brief 
sketch of the labours of some of those individuals, whose presence 
amongst us sheds a lustre over our proceedings, and has contributed, 
more than any other motive, to draw together this great concourse here 
assembled. 

There is one consideration, however, that may perhaps give me some 
claim to your indulgence: I mean that of my having attended to all the 
meetings of this Association up to the present time, and hence having 
traced its progress through all its various stages, from its first small be- 
ginnings at York, up to this period of its full maturity; thus having 


Xxli SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


been enabled, by an actual participation in the business of the meetings, 
to form a juster estimate of the real condition of the Association. and of 
the services it has rendered to science, than the public at large could 
collect. 

Thus circumstanced, for example, I have become sensible of results, 
flowing from the meetings of this great body, which can scarcely figure 
in a Report, or find expression in the accounts transmitted by the pe- 
riodical press :—I have been struck by the enthusiasm elicited by the 
concourse of congenial minds—the friendships formed and cemented— 
the trains of experiment first suggested, or prosecuted anew after being 
long abandoned ;—above all, the awakening of the public mind to the 
just claims of Science by the celebration of these Anniversaries. 

But, important as these consequences may appear, and imperfectly as 
they may be understood by persons who keep aloof from our meetings, 
it seems almost superfluous to dilate on such topics to those actually 
present at them, when the mere fact of their being congregated here in 
such numbers, conveys the best assurance that such is already their con- 
viction. Nor is it merely the assembling of so large a portion of the 
respectable inhabitants of this city and neighbourhood, nor yet the at- 
tracting from a distance so great a number of the mere amateurs of 
science, which justifies me in this conclusion ; but it is the presence of 
so many hard-working, so many successful, cultivators of physical re- 
search, and their devoting to the service of the Association that most 
valuable of their possessions, their time, which gives me a right to as- 
sume, that the minds of those qualified to judge on such matters (and 
those only can be fully qualified who have been present) are already 
made up respecting the beneficial influence which this Association is 
exerting. 

The volume, indeed, which now lies upon the table, and which con- 
tains the results of our last year’s proceedings, not only amply sustains 
the former character of these Transactions, but even shows more strongly 
than those which have preceded it, the power which the Association has 
been exercising in the direct advancement of Science. It contains, in 
the first place, several valuable contributions to our knowledge of Mag- 
netism,—a branch of science, which within a few years, stood in a 
manner isolated from the rest, but which now, thanks to the researches 
of living philosophers, is shown tobe intimately connected with, or rather 
to be one of the manifestations of that mysterious, but all-pervading 
power, which seems to be displayed not less in those molecular attrac- 
tions that bind together the elements of every compound body, than in 
the direction imparted to the loadstone; perhaps even in the light and 


ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR DAUBENY. Xxlii 


heat which attend upon combustion, no less than in the awful phenomena 
of a thunder-storm. 

Considering the connexion that subsists between the sciences of Heat, 
Electricity, and Magnetism, and considering, likewise, the efforts made 
with various degrees of success, and by men of very unequal pretensions, 
to develop the laws of each of these sciences in accordance with ma- 
thematical formulz, one cannot wonder that the Association should have 
been anxious to assign to a member, no less distinguished for the depth 
of his mathematical attainments than for the range of his acquaintance 
with modern science, the task of drawing up a Report on the theories 
of these three departments of Physics, considered in relation one to the 
other. This accordingly has been executed by Mr. Whewell, whose 
Report stands at the commencement of the volume. 

The point of view in which he was directed to contemplate the sub- 
ject possesses an interest to all who are engaged in the investigation of 
natural phenomena, whatever may have heen the particular bent to which 
their researches have been directed. 

All the physical sciences aspire to become in time mathematical: the 
summit of their ambition, and the ultimate aim of the efforts of their 
votaries, is to obtain their recognition as the worthy sisters of the no- 
blest of these sciences—Physical Astronomy. But their reception into 
this privileged and exalted order is not a point to be lightly conceded ; 
nor are the speculations of modern times to be admitted into this august 
circle, merely because their admirers have chosen to cast over them a 
garb, oftentimes ill-fitting and inappropriate, of mathematical symbols. 
To weigh the credentials of the three physical sciences which have been 
pointed out as mathematical, was therefore a proper office for the Asso- 
ciation to impose upon one of its members; and I believe it will be 
found that no small light has been thrown upon the subject by the 
manner in which that trust has been discharged. 

With regard, however, to Magnetism, which forms one of the sub- 
jects of Mr. Whewell’s Report, much still remains to be done, before 
the mathematician can flatter himself that a secure foundation for his 
calculations has been established ; and the materials for this foundation 
must be collected from such a variety of isolated points, distant one from 
the other, both in time and place, dependent for their accuracy upon 
the occurrence of favourable circumstances, and, after all, demanding 
from the observer an uncommon union of skill and experience, that 
there is perhaps no scientific undertaking for which the co-operation of 
public bodies, and even of governments, is more imperiously demanded; 
and the Association has, in consequence, both engaged its members in 


XXIV SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


the prosecution of these researches, and has proposed to obtain for them 
the national assistance. To call the attention therefore of the scientific 
world, in a greater degree, to the present condition of our knowledge 
as to Terrestrial Magnetism, was the object of Captain Sabine’s Report 
in the present volume of these Transactions; and this he has accom- 
plished by presenting us with an elaborate abstract of the work which 
Professor Hansteen, of Copenhagen, had published upon that subject. 

This mathematician, in the year 1811, constructed a chart, in which 
were laid down, so far as could be ascertained, the lines of equal varia- 
tion and dip of the magnetic needle in all parts of the world. It is 
curious to observe the degree of coincidence which exists between these 
lines representing the distribution of the magnetic force, and the iso- 
thermal lines by which Humboldt has expressed the distribution of heat 
over the earth’s surface ; and this apparent connexion, the cause of which 
remains a mystery, is calculated to stimulate our zeal for investigating 
the phenomena of both. Nor is it less interesting to trace in what de- 
gree these later observations appear to confirm the general conclusions 
arrived at by the celebrated Halley more than a century before. That 
astronomer had inferred, from a general review of all that was then 
known with regard to the variation and dip of the needle, that there 
must be two magnetic axes; whilst the gradual shifting of the line of 
no variation from west to east, led him to propose the ingenious, though 
whimsical hypothesis, of a moveable globe existing in the interior of the 
earth we inhabit, actuated by the same forces as those which propel the 
hollow sphere surrounding it, and, like it, possessing a north and south 
magnetic pole. This interior globe, if it be supposed to move with 
somewhat less rapidity than the exterior shell, might, as he conceived, 
produce a gradual shifting of the poles from east to west, and thus ac- 
count for the difference observed from time to time in the position of 
the magnetic axes. 

Now the researches of Professor Hansteen confirm the existence of 
two magnetic axes, though they led him to discard the hypothesis by 
which Halley accounted for the progressive shifting, which, indeed, the 
recently-discovered connexion between Electricity and Magnetism gives 
us hopes of explaining more satisfactorily, as has been shown by Pro- 
fessor Christie in the Report read by him at our third meeting. 

Since the publication, however, of the great work to which his Mag- 
netic Chart is appended, Professor Hansteen, aware of the mystery 
which still overhangs the subject, has been zealously employed in at- 
tempting to remove it, by ascertaining the present state and progressive 
change of the magnetic forces. He has accordingly employed himself 


ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR DAUBENY. XXV 


in making observations on the line of no variation, or, as he prefers to 
call it, the line of convergence which passes through Siberia; and, by 
a fortunate concurrence of circumstances, the north-western expedition 
lately undertaken by British navigators, has afforded the means of ob- 
taining, at the very same time, corresponding ones on the similar line, 
which extends from Hudson’s Bay through the United States of America. 
Thus the position of these lines in the above two most interesting lo- 
calities, has been almost simultaneously determined with an exactness 
before unequalled. 

In conjunction with Captain Sabine, Professor Lloyd, of Dublin, has 
contributed, in another way, at the instance of the Association, to ex- 
tend our acquaintance with the empirical laws of this interesting de- 
partment of science. This they have effected by determining the dip 
and variation of the magnetic needle in different parts of Ireland, which 
it was considered the more important to ascertain, from the situation of 
that island in the most westerly point of Europe, at which observations 
could be instituted. 

The distribution of the earth’s magnetism through this country was 
determined by the above-named observers ; first by a separate series of 
observations relating to the force of that portion of the magnetic influ- 
ence which operates horizontally ; secondly, by a similar series on the 
dip of the needle; thirdly, by means of observations both on the dip 
and intensity of the magnetic force made at the same time and with the 
same instruments. 

It would occupy too much of the time of the Association, were I to 
attempt to point out, however briefly, the precautions adopted, and the 
corrections applied, in order to arrive at accurate results. I shall there- 
fore only remark, that the method by which the intensity of the mag- 
netic force was ascertained, resembles in principle that by which philo- 
sophers determine the force of gravity. For asa pendulum when set in 
motion oscillates on either side of the vertical line by the force of gravity, 
so the needle, when drawn out of its natural position, will oscillate on 
either side of the magnetic meridian by the earth’s magnetic force, and 
hence, in either case, the force may be inferred to vary, inversely, as the 
square of the time in which a certain number of vibrations are performed. 
In order, however, to arrive at trustworthy results, many precautions 
must be adopted, which are pointed out in detail in Professor Lloyd’s 
memoir, and in particular one relating to temperature; it being found 
that the same needle will vary in force about 1-4000th part for every 
degree of Fahrenheit. Having, however, arrived at a determination of 
the intensity of the magnetic force at the two extremities of the Island 


XXVL SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


by a sufficiently extended series of observations, namely, at Limerick 
by Captain Sabine, and at Dublin by Professor Lloyd, and having com- 
pared the results with those obtained by means of the same needles at 
a spot out of Ireland, whose magnetic intensity had been previously 
settled, by availing themselves of the observations of Captain James 
Ross, at London, our authors proceeded to estimate the relative inten- 
sity of the magnetic force at twenty-five different places within the 
compass of Ireland, by observations made at each of these simultaneously 
with others at Dublin or at Limerick. They thus obtained data by which 
to exhibit the law of Terrestrial Magnetism in Ireland, in a similar 
manner to that by which Humboldt laid down the laws of the distribu- 
tion of Terrestrial Heat. The same principle was adopted in deter- 
mining the lines of dip as of intensity, and the general result was ob- 
tained, that the angle which the lines of dip in Ireland make with the 
meridian of Dublin is 56° 48’, and that the dip increases one degree for 
every distance of 101 miles in a direction perpendicular to these lines. 

The preceding method of estimating the intensity by the number of 
vibrations in a given time only applies to that portion of the earth’s 
magnetic force which operates in a horizontal direction. In order, 
therefore, to determine the whole amount of this force, observations of 
the kind above alluded to must be combined with others on the dip. 
This third series accordingly was instituted at twenty-three different 
stations in Ireland, and the result arrived at was, that the lines of abso- 
lute intensity make an angle of 33° 40! with the meridian of Dublin, 
and that the intensity increases in a direction perpendicular to these 
lines by the 1-100th part for every 95 miles of distance. 

The importance of these researches in extending our knowledge of 
Terrestrial Magnetism, and affording the data on which a correct theory 
with respect to this subject may hereafter be based, will be felt even by 
those who do not fully appreciate the skill and labour they required ; 
and no better proof could be afforded of the substantial benefits arising 
from such an institution as the British Association, than that of having 
originated such an inquiry. 

On the subject of Heat, Dr. Hudson, of Dublin, has detailed some 
experiments, the tenor of which he considers incompatible with the com- 
monly received theory respecting its radiation, which we owe to Pro- 
fessor Prevost, of Geneva, inasmuch as their tendency would be to esta- 
blish that cold is equally radiated with heat—a result inconsistent 
with the notion of the former being a negative quality. Without pro- 
fessing himself a convert to the views of Professor Leslie, who supposed 
heat to be radiated in consequence of the alternate expansion and con- 


eee 


ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR DAUBENY. XXVii 


traction of the air around, producing a series of aerial pulses, Dr. Hud- 
son considers that their particular experiments appear more reconcileable 
to his than to Prevost’s theory, and, therefore, that the former deserves 
to be further investigated. 

In compliance with a wish expressed by the Meteorological Commit- 
tee, Dr. Apjohn has investigated the theory of the Wet-bulb Hygrometer, 
and communicated an account of his experiments on this subject at the 
Dublin Meeting. His paper, having been already published in the 
Transactions of the Dublin Academy, does not appear in our Report, 
which, however, contains two very interesting communications on sub- 
jects of Meteorology. 

Mr. Snow Harris has presented a statement of the variations of the 
thermometer at the Plymouth Dock-yard, as noted down by the war- 
dens and officers of the watch, during every hour of the day and night, 
commencing on the Ist of May, 1832, and terminating in December, 
1834, which are also checked by a concurrent series of thermometrical 
observations, registered every two hours, at the request of the Associa- 
tion, by the late lamented Mr. Harvey. 

Thus have been afforded us, for two complete years, observations to 
contrast with those taken during 1834 and 1835, at Leith Fort, under 
the superintendence of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

Mr. Snow Harris has deduced from an average of these observations 
the following important results :— 

lst, The mean temperature of various seasons, as well as that of the 
entire year. 

2ndly, The daily progression of temperature. 

' 8rdly, The two periods of each day at which the mean temperature 
occurs. 

' Athly, The relation between the mean temperature ofthe wholetwenty- 
four hours, and that of any single hour. 

5thly, The average daily range for each month. 

_ 6thly, The form of the curves described by the march of the tempera- 
ture between given periods of the day and night. 

In this manner has been accomplished one of the first undertakings 
suggested by the British Association to its members, and promoted by 
its funds, and the true form of the diurnal and annual curves in an im- 
portant station of our southern coast been attained, as a standard of 
comparison with that arrived at by Sir David Brewster in the latitude 
of Edinburgh, and from which they exhibit in the results some extremely 
curious and important discrepancies. 

Professor Phillips and,Mr. Gray have presented us with a continuation 


XXViil SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


of those curious observations on the Quantities of Rain falling at differ- 
ent elevations, which had formed the subject of two preceding commu- 
nications published in these Transactions. 

In the first series of these it had been shown by Professor Phillips 
that the difference between the quantities of rain that fell depended on 
two conditions—I1st, the height, and 2ndly, the temperature; the for- 
mer circumstance determining the ratio of the difference between the two 
stations, and the latter its amount. 

In the second series he showed that the ratio likewise varied at dif- 
ferent seasons. 

The present or third series presents us with a formula for expressing 
these variations, and points out its correspondence with the observations 
made. 

That the quantity of rain which falls should be greater at lower than 
at higher elevations, is a result which, though at first sight it may ap- 
pear paradoxical, is quickly perceived to harmonize with the fact, that 
drops of rain descend from a colder to a warmer atmosphere, and con- 
sequently condense a portion of the aqueous vapour which exists sus- 
pended in the lower strata. But that the rate of increase should actually 
be found reducible so nearly to a mathematical formula, is certainly far 
more than could have been expected, and its successful accomplishment 
is calculated to give us hopes that other meteorological phenomena, 
which seem at present so capricious as to baffle all calculation, may at 
length be found reducible to certain fixed principles. So far as relates 
to the rain that falls at York, the results are regarded by Professor 
Phillips as sufficiently complete, but he strongly urges the advantage of 
instituting in other spots selected in different parts of the kingdom si- 
milar observations, which, if executed simultaneously, would mutually 
illustrate each other, and be likely to throw much additional light on 
the theory of rain, and on the distribution of vapour at different 
heights. 

An important practical paper has been published in our Transactions 
of this year by Mr. Eaton Hodgkinson, on the effect of impact upon 
beams. It is a continuation of some researches which he communicated 
at the preceding Meeting, on the collision of imperfectly elastic bodies. 
In these experiments he had laid down the general principles relating 
to the collision of bodies of different natures, and had obtained amongst 
other results the following,—namely, that all rigid bodies possess some 
degree of elasticity, and that amongst bodies of the same class the hard- 
est are generally the most elastic. 

It remained to be seen whether this difference in elasticity influenced 


ee oe, ae ee 


ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR DAUBENY. XxXIX 


the force of their impact, and this he has shown in his present memoir 
not to be the case, the hardest and most elastic substances producing 
no more effect upon a beam than any soft inelastic body of equal weight. 
Various other conclusions of much practical as well as theoretical im- 
portance are stated in the above paper, and the results are severally 
borne out by an elaborate and careful series of experiments. 

Our Foreign Associate, Mons. Quetelet, has presented to us a sketch 
of the progress and actual state of the Mathematical and Physical Sci- 
ences in Belgium, of interest, not only from the information it conveys, 
but likewise as the contribution of a distinguished foreigner, who had 
evinced already his respect for this Association, by attending one of its 
meetings. The appearance of this Report, together with that published 
in the preceding volume by Professor Rogers, of Philadelphia, on the 
Geology of North America, I regard as a new proof of our prosperity. 
It shows that the Association has begun to exert an influence over the 
progress of Science, extending even beyond the sphere which, by its 
name of British, it claims for its own; and that it has enlisted in its be- 
half the sympathies not only of our Transatlantic brethren, who speak 
the same language and boast of a common extraction, but likewise of 
those Continental nations, from whom we had so long been severed. 

On the subject of Chemistry, our transactions of this year contain 
only a short report by Dr. Turner, explanatory of the sentiments of the 
members of the Committee which had been appointed the preceding 
year, to consider whether or not it would be possible to recommend some 
uniform system of Notation which, coming forward under the sanction 
of the most distinguished British chemists, might obtain universal recog- 
nition. In the discussion which took place when this subject was 
brought before us at Dublin, three systems of Notation were proposed, 
differing one from the other no less in principle than in the end proposed 
by their adoption. 

' The first was that suggested by the venerable founder of the Atomic 
Theory, Dr. Dalton, who aimed at expressing by his mode of notation, 
not merely the number of atoms of each ingredient which unite to form 
a given compound, but likewise the very mode of their union, the sup- 
posed collocation of the different particles respectively one to. the other. 
He proposed, therefore, a sort of pictorial representation of each com- 
pound which he specified, just as in the infancy of writing each sub- 
stance was indicated, not by an arbitrary character; but by a sign 
bearing some remote resemblance to the object itself. This, therefore, 
may be denominated the Hieroglyphical mode of Chemical Notation ; 
it was of great use in the infancy of the Atomic Theory, in familiarizing . 


XXX SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


the minds of men of science to the mode in which combinations take 
place, and thus paved a more ready way to the reception of this import- 
ant doctrine. Even now it may have its advantages in conveying to 
the mind of a learner a clearer notion of the number and relation of the 
elements of a compound body one to the other ; and in those which con- 
sist only of two or three elements a symbolic representation after Dr. 
Dalton’s plan might be nearly as concise as any other. But it would 
be difficult, consistently with brevity, to express in this manner any of 
those more complicated combinations that meet us in every stage of 
modern chemical inquiry, as for instance in the compounds of Cyano- 
gen, or in the proximate principles of organic life. 

The second mode of Notation is that, in which the method adopted 
in Algebra is applied to meet the purposes of Chemistry. This method, 
whilst it is recommended by its greater perspicuity, and by its being in- 
telligible to all educated persons, has the advantage also of involving 
no hypothesis, and being equally available by individuals who may have 
taken up the most opposite views of the collocation of the several atoms, 
or who dismiss the question as altogether foreign to their consideration. 
This, therefore, may be compared to the alphabetical mode of writing 
in use amongst civilized nations ; the characters indeed may differ, the 
words formed by a combination of these characters may be very various, 
but the principles on which they are put together to express certain 
sounds and ideas are in all countries the same. 

The third method of Notation, which has been recommenced by the 
authority of several great Continental chemists, and especially of Berze- 
lius, resembles rather a system of short-hand than one of ordinary writing; 
its express object being to abbreviate, so far as is consistent with per- 
spicuity, the mode of Notation last described. But although most che- 
mists may find it convenient to employ some of these abbreviated forms 
of expression, it seems doubtful whether any particular amount of them 
can be recommended for general adoption, since the necessity for it will 
vary according to the habits of the individual, the nature of his inqui- 
ries, and the objects for which his notes are designed. 

A chemist, for example, the character of whose mind enables him 
quickly to perceive, and clearly to recollect minute distinctions, may 
find a much more abbreviated style of notation convenient, than would 
be at all advisable to others; one who is engaged in the analysis of or- 
ganic compounds will be more sensible of the utility of such symbols, 
than another who is conversant chiefly with a less complicated class of 
combinations ; and one who notes down the results of his experiments 
for the benefit of private reference, and not with any immediate view to 


ee ae 


ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR DAUBRENY. XXXi 


others, may indulge in a more concise and complex system of notation, 
than would be convenient, where either of the latter objects were con- 
templated. 

As the shortest road is proverbially not always the most expeditious, 
so in Chemical Notation more time may often be lost in correcting our 
own blunders and those of the compositor, where dots and commas of 
many sorts are introduced in the place of initial letters.to express cer- 
tain elements, than was gained by the more compendious method of 
expression employed. Add to which, in the preference given to one 
set of dots over another, or in the particular collocation of them, above, 
below, or at the side of, the symbol to which they are referred, we have 
no fixed principle to guide us, and can therefore only be determined by 
the greater or less frequent adoption of one method than of another. 

Perhaps, therefore, all that can be hoped from a Committee of British 
Chemists would be, to set forward the various uses of some system of 
Chemical Notation, the purposes for which each of those brought before 
them seems chiefly applicable, and the degree of prevalence which one 
has obtained over the rest. 

If I may be allowed to offer my own humble opinion on a point which 
has been so much debated amongst British chemists, I should remark, 
that for the purpose of rendering more intelligible to beginners the 
mode in which various bodies are supposed to combine, the Daltonian 
method of Notation may still be of use, just as pictorial representation 
often comes in aid of verbal description to convey the idea of a com- 
plex object; but that where the design is to state in the clearest and 
least hypothetical terms, the nature of a series of combinations, a mode 
of notation as closely as possible approaching to that adopted in algebra 
seems preferable—remembering always, that as in algebra we omit cer- 
tain signs for the sake of greater brevity, so it may be allowable to do 
in applying its principles to Chemistry ; these abbreviations being of 
course the most advisable in cases, where, by reason of the greater num- 
ber of elements involved, the expression of them at whole length would 
occupy so much space, as to prevent the whole from being compre- 
hended at a glance. 

. The above remarks will not, I believe, be found inconsistent with the 
spirit of the brief report which Dr. Turner has communicated, and 
which is to the following effect :— 

lst. That the majority of the Committee concur in approving of the 
employment of that system of Notation which is already in general use 
on the Continent, though there exist among them some difference of 
opinion on points of detail. 


EXXli SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Qndly. That they think it desirable not to deviate in the manner 
of notation from algebraic usage, except so far as convenience requires. 

And 3dly. That it would save much confusion if every chemist would 
state explicitly the exact quantities which he intends to represent by 
his symbols. 

But I must hasten on to those few other Reports which the present 
volume contains, but on which I shall have the less to say, as they re- 
late to subjects connected with Anatomy and Physiology, of less general 
interest to a mixed audience. 

Dr. Jacob has replied to a query proposed by the Zoological Com- 
mittee at a former meeting with respect to the uses of the infra-orbital 
cavities in Deers and Antelopes, and has pronounced them to be de- 
signed as the receptacles of a peculiar odoriferous secretion. 

Dr. Hodgkin and Dr. Roupell have detailed a series of experiments 
and observations relative to the specific mode of action of acrid poisons, 
which, whether at once introduced into the stomach, or the circulation, 
by injection into the veins, seem to operate primarily in the same man- 
ner, as irritants to the mucous membrane. 

The Dublin Sub-Committee appointed for the purpose, have given 
in a report connected with a subject of great pathological interest, 
respecting which none, but the experienced medical practitioner, ought 
to pretend to pass a decided judgment. 

Nevertheless, when I look back to the early period of my own pro- 
fessional studies, and recollect the obscurity in which diseases of the 
heart appeared then to be involved, when their remedy seemed so de- 
sperate, as to suggest to one of the most distinguished writers on the 
subject the motto ‘‘ Heret lateri lethalis arundo”’ as appropriate to his 
work, and as significant of the probabilities of cure, and when their 
very nature was known but partially, and could only be guessed at by 
methods purely empirical,—when I recollect all this, I cannot refrain 
from congratulating those of my brethren who are engaged in the duties 
of the profession from which I am myself a deserter, on the discovery 
of a new instrument of investigation in diseases of this nature, the use 
of which, being founded on physiological principles, seems susceptible 
of greater improvement, and more extended application, in proportion 
as our knowledge of the animal ceconomy advances. 

But in order properly to avail ourselves of the indications of disease 


afforded by the differences of sound transmitted through the integu- 


ments by the heart, it is necessary that we should be acquainted with 
the nature of its pulsations, and of the sounds occasioned by them in a 
healthy state, and this information it has ‘been the object of the Dublin 


—— 


) 


ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR DAUBENY. XXxXilll 


Sub-committee to embody in the report which was communicated ,by 
them last year to the Medical Section. 


Such are the principal contents of the volume which records the 
scientific labours instituted at the express suggestion of the general 
body, and prepared for its last Meeting; but, exclusively of these, 
many very valuable and elaborate investigations were submitted to the 
several Sections without any such solicitation. 

I may instance in particular the views with respect to the classifica- 
tion and the geological distribution of Fishes, expounded to us with so 
muck. ability by Mons. Agassiz, whose important labours might perhaps 
have been suspended, but for the timely assistance dealt out to him by 
this body, and the opportunities which its Meetings afforded, for giving 
them that publicity which they deserved. 

I may point out likewise the important results submitted to the Geo- 

logical Section by Mr. Murchison and Professor Sedgwick, with refer- 
ence to the Silurian formations of Wales and Shropshire, and the mul- 
titude of facts illustrative of the physical structure of Ireland, which 
were elicited by the exhibition of Mr. Griffith’s Geological Map, an 
undertaking which, coupled with the researches of Mr. Mackay on the 
plants indigenous to that country, promises to render us as well ac- 
quainted with the Natural History of this portion of the Empire, as we 
already are with respect to Great Britain itself. 
_ Nor must I forget the researches on Comparative Anatomy laid be- 
fore the Medical Section by Dr. Houston, who pointed out the existence 
of reservoirs connected with the veins leading to the lungs in the Ce- 
tacea—an admirable contrivance, by which Nature has provided for the 
unobstructed circulation of their blood, in spite of the enormous pressure 
hich they have to sustain at the great depths to which they are wont’ 
to dive. 

The Members of the Association had also the satisfaction of witness- 
ing the ingenious manner in which Mr. Snow Harris contrives to render 
quantities of Electricity appreciable by the balance, like those of any 
gross material substance; whilst such as could enter upon the more re- 
fined branches of mathematical analysis must have listened with pro- 
found interest to the exposition given by Professor Hamilton, of the 
ingenious labours of Mr. Jerrard, of this city, in solving Equations of 
the higher orders. 


What proportion of such inquiries may be attributable to the influ- 
ence of this Association, and how much might have been merely the 
vot. v.— 1836, c 


. 


XXXiV SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


result of that increased taste for physical research to which the Asso- 
ciation itself owes its existence, I do not pretend to determine ; this, 
however, at least must be allowed, that many of the most important 
truths communicated might have been long in winning their way to 
general recognition, and in ridding themselves of those exaggerated and 
mistaken views, which are the common accompaniments of every infant 
discovery, had it not been for the opportunities which these Meetings 
afford, of examinining the very authors of them, with respect to their 
own inquiries ; of confronting them with others who have prosecuted 
similar trains of research; of questioning them with respect to the 
more doubtful and difficult points involved; and of obtaining from them, 
in many instances, an exhibition of the very experiments by which they 
had been led to their conclusions. 

And it is this personal intercourse with the authors of these great 
revolutions in Science, which in itself constitutes one of the principal 
charms of these meetings. Who would not have listened with delight 
to a Newton, had he condescended to converse on the great truths of 
Astronomy; to a Jussieu, imparting to a circle of his intimates in his 
own garden at Trianon, those glimpses with respect to the natural re- 
lations of plants, which he found it so difficult to reduce to writing; 
or to a Linnzus, discussing at Oxford his then novel views with respect 
to the vegetable kingdom, and winning from the reluctant Dillenius a 
tardy acknowledgment of their merits? Andin like manner, who does 
not value the privilege of hearing a Dalton discourse on these occasions 
on his own Atomic Theory, or a Faraday, (who, however, I regret to 
say, is on this occasion prevented by illness from attending), explain 
orally the steps by which he has traced the relations between Electricity 
and Magnetism, although every one is aware, that the principal facts, 

‘both with respect to the one and the other, have long since been made 
public by their respective authors, and have been abundantly commented 
upon by others. 

And nowhere, perhaps, is it more desirable to instil those sentiments 
to which I have alluded, than within the precincts of those provincial 
cities which the Association now proposes to visit. The inhabitants of 
those great emporiums of Commerce and Manufactures are indeed often 
enough reminded, that processes directed by the guidance of Chemistry 
and Mechanics constitute the very basis of their prosperity, but they 
are too apt to regard these and other kindred sciences, as the instru- 
ments merely of material wealth, and to deem it superfluous to prose- 
cute them further than they are seen to conduce to that one end. 

That such notions are short-sighted, even with reference to the prac- 


ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR DAUBENY. XKXKY 


tical applications of the Arts, it would not be difficult to show ; but I 
am ambitious to place the question on a higher ground, and the presence 
amongst us of such individuals as I have mentioned, will do more to- 
wards that object than volumes of argument would effect. It will con- 
vince us at least, that other roads to distinction, besides that of mere 
wealth, are opened to us through the instrumentality of the Sciences ; 
for although, thanks to the spirit of the age, which in this respect at 
least stands advantageously distinguished from those preceding it, the 
discoverers of important truths are not, as heretofore, allowed to lan- 
guish in absolute poverty, yet the debt which society owes to them 
would be but inadequately paid, were it not for the tribute of respect 
and admiration which is felt to be their due. 

It has indeed been sometimes objected, that too large a share of 
public attention is in this age directed to the Physical Sciences, and 
that the study of the human mind, the cultivation of literature, and the 
progress of the Fine Arts have been arrested in consequence. In what 
degree the accusation is well founded, this is not the place to inquire, 
although, when we look round upon the many literary characters that 
adorn this age, we should rather suppose the remark to have arisen 
from the increasing interest in Science, than from any diminished taste 
for other studies. 

If this complaint however had any foundation in truth, it would only 

‘supply a stronger argument in favour of an Asscciation like the present, 
the express object of which is to correct that narrowness of mind which 
is the consequence of limiting ourselves to the details of a single science, 
or, it may be, to a single nook and corner of one, and therefore to render 
the prevailing taste of the times more subservient to mental culture, and 
therefore a better substitute for the studies it is alleged to have super- 
seded ;—an Association too, which, with no narrow and exclusive feel- 
ing towards those pursuits which it is designed to foster, extends the 
right hand of fellowship to men of eminence in every department upon 
which the human mind can be exercised, and which would have felt 
that no higher honour could have been bestowed upon its present 
Meeting, than by the attendance of the great poet, and the great 
sculptor, who own Bristol as their native city. 
_ To alter indeed the character of the period in which we live, is as 
much beyond the efforts of individuals, as to fix the time of their birth, 
or the country and station in which their lot is cast; and it is perhaps 
inevitable, that an age and country so distinguished above all others 
for the advancement of arts and manufactures, should attach an in- 
ereased importance to those sciences on which both the latter are de- 
pendent. 


XXKV1 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


But it is at least consolatory to reflect, that Providence has attached 
to every one of those conditions of society through which nations are 
destined to pass, capabilities of moral and intellectual improvement, 
and that the very sciences which so amply minister to our physical en- 
joyments, also afford the means of those higher gratifications which 
spring from the exercise of the taste and imagination. Thus, although 
it may not be easy for the citizen to indulge to any extent in studies alien 
from the pursuits which engross his hours of business, yet it cannot be 
deemed incompatible with the latter to mount up to the principles of 
those sciences which are connected with the arts he practises ; to study 
their relation one to the other ; and to acquaint himself with the steps 
by which they have reached their present eminence. It cannot but be 
useful to the chemical manufacturer to study the laws of that molecular 
attraction which binds together the elements of the substances which 
he prepares ; to the mechanic to examine the process of the arts in con- 
nexion with the general laws of matter; to the miner or land-surveyor, 
to inform himself with respect to the physical structure of the globe ; 
to the agriculturist, to become acquainted with the principles of vege- 
table physiology, and the natural relations of plants. 

For my own part, intimately connected as I am, both with the first 
of the commercial cities, and also with the first of the universities, that 
welcomed the British Association within its precincts, warmly interested 
in the prosperity of both, and officiating as Local Secretary on either 
occasion, I have felt personally gratified at seeing the selection of these 
places justified by the cordiality-of our reception in both, and at wit- 
nessing the new vigour which has been infused into the Association, in 
consequence of the support it has therein received. But how much will 
that gratification be augmented if it should be found hereafter that the 
benefit in either case has been mutual; that these Meetings have ce- 
mented those bonds of union between the academical and the commer- 
cial portion of the British community, which it is so desirable to main- 
tain; and that, whilst the University to which I belong has reaped ad- 
vantage, by having its attention called to the interest felt in the phy- 
sical sciences generally throughout the kingdom, my fellow-citizens 
here will in like manner catch the spirit which pervades our body, and 
will engage in the pursuit of knowledge, with a juster conception of its 
high objects, and with a zeal and devotion to its cause, which will not 
be less practically useful, because it is stimulated by a more disinter- 
ested love of truth ; less capable of ministering to the operation of the 
arts, because it is also rendered subservient to mental discipline and im- 
provement ! 


REPORTS 


“ON 


THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 


Report on the Present State of our Knowledge with respect to 
‘Mineral and Thermal Waters. By Cuartes DaAvuseEny, 
M.D., F.R.S., M_R.I_A., &c., Professor of Chemistry and 
of Botany, Oxford. 


Tue term “ Mineral Water,”’ in its most extended sense, com- 
prises every modification existing in nature of that universally 
diffused fluid, whether considered with reference to its sensible 
properties, or its action upon life. For as every agent which 
affects the animal system in a peculiar manner, must be pre- 
sumed to possess something in its constitution which is wanting 
in others, the circumstance of any remarkable medicinal virtue 
residing in a spring ought, if well established, to be regarded, as 
a proof of something distinctive in its physical or chemical na- 
ture. All medicinal springs therefore will range themselves 
under the head, either of thermal, or of mineral waters, deriving 
their properties from the temperature they possess, or from some 
peculiarity of saline or gaseous impregnation ; but the subject- 


Definition. 


matter of the present Report embraces a much wider field than _ 


this, including the consideration of every other description of 
water, whether circulating through the atmosphere, collected in 
the ocean, or distributed over the surface of our continents. 

_ The former of these, however, or atmospheric water, as being 
the purest form of any which nature presents, will supply us 
with the fewest materials for comment. I ought however to 
notice the reported detection in it of small quantities, of iron, 
nickel, manganese, of certain ammoniacal compounds, and of a 
peculiar organic substance chemically different from the extrac- 
tive matter and the gluten of plants and animals, which from its 
yellowish brown colour has been called pyrrhine. 

VOL. v. 1836. B 


Ist. Atmo- 
spheric 
Water. 


Zz SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


According to the statement of Zimmermann*, formerly Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry at Giessen, all the above matters are to be 
found in snow-water, but pyrrhine was first detected in a red 
‘shower of rain which fell at that town in 1821. The water that 
contained it was of a peach red colour, and flakes of a hyacinthine 
tinge floated on its surface. This latter was the substance de- 
signated by the above name. 

Some of these results have been since confirmed by Dr. Wit- 
ting, of Hoxter on the Weser, who declares, that he has ten times 
examined the rain-water from his own neighbourhood, and that 
whilst in seven trials he found it destitute of fixed principles, in 
three he detected in it foreign matter, which in one case proved 
to be muriate of potash, and in the other two free muriatie acid. 
He also found the air collected from elevated spots on the Hartz 
mountains to contain the same organic principle which Zimmer- 
mann had designated as pyrrhine, thus confirming the probabi- 
lity of its existence in rain-water. 

He remarked, that the atmosphere of a place contained in 
general the same foreign ingredients which the first fall of rain 
brings to the ground, such, for exampie, as traces of muriates, 
of free muriatic and carbonic acids, and of carburetted hydrogen 
gas. Rain which fell during a north-west wind commonly con- 
tained much carbonic, together with traces of phosphoric, acid. 
The latter was discovered on several occasions in rain which 
had fallen during particular states of the weather; and Dr. 
Witting goes on to state, that certain plants exhale it, so that 
when they are confined under glass, traces of this acid may be 
detected on the internal surface of the latter. 

In four out of twelve trials snow was found to exhibit signs 
of muriatic acid, and of an organic colouring matter. Hai! and 
sleet collected in the spring of 1824 contained a large quantity 
of this latter substance, but none either of the acids nor the salts 
above mentioned. Dew showed vestiges of nitric and muriatic 
acids, but in hoar-frost no signs of any extraneous matter were 
discoverable. 

Upon the whole then it may be observed, that of the above 
circumstances, the one relating to the existence of organic mat- 
ter in atmospheric water is best substantiated ; and this has more 
lately been ascribed by the distinguished Ehrenberg to the ova 
of a particular class of Infusoria (the Polygastrica), which, being 
raised by currents and by evaporation, fill the atmosphere, and 
thus produce the pyrrhine observed by chemists}. The presence 

of salts and of acids, in the atmosphere, and consequently in 
water derived from it, is also supported by sufficient evidence. 


* Kastner’s Archiv., vol. ii. + Kastner’s Archiv, vol. v. 
+ Ehrenberg in Jameson’s- Journal for 1831, “on Blood-red Water.” 


as 


a 


en eee 


ee 


| 
| 


“ 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS, Se 


Nitric acid, indeed, seems to be spontaneously generated from 
its elements under certain circumstances as yet but imperfectly 
understood, as during the decomposition of water by voltaic 
electricity *, and in the case of the formation of nitre on walls. 
We need not, therefore, be astonished to find it sometimes pre- 
sent in atmospheric water. Common salt is also taken up in 
small quantities by aqueous vapour, and the same is the case 
with many other alkaline and earthy compounds. 

But the existence of metallic bodies in the atmosphere re- 
quires further confirmation, although I am not disposed to reject 
the statements of Zimmermann on this point’as altogether un- 
worthy of examination. Faraday indeed has shown, that such 
matters cannot be suspended there by the mere repulsive force 
of heat, since every substance, according to his experiments, 
possesses a certain fixed point, below which no spontaneous vo- 
latilization of its particles takes place, and the limit of volati- 
lity in these metals greatly surpasses the highest temperature 
which the atmosphere ever attains. 

Still, however, it becomes a distinct question, whether such 
bodies may not exist there by virtue of their affinity for others; 
and experiments recently made in Italy seem to show, that in 
some manner or other they are so suspended. Thus, Fusinierit 
has stated, that electrical light carries with it metallic bodies in 
a state of incandescence, and that ordinary lightning deposits 
upon the substances with which it comes into contact, sulphur, 
and iron, in a metallic, as well as in an oxidized, condition. 
Hence according to him arises the smell which always accom- 
panies thunder, and hence the pulverulent matter deposited 
round the fractures occasioned in those solid bodies which the 
lightning traverses. 

_ The connexion of these researches with the origin of meteoric 

stones is too obvious to require our insisting on; and hence it 
becomes of the more importance that some fresh experiments 
and observations should be set on foot, in order that the ques- 
tion may be finally determined. 

To conclude my account of the foreign bodies met with in 
meteoric water, I may mention, that the fact of carburetted hy- 
drogen having been detected in the water of rain, snow, and 
hail, is the more credible, inasmuch as Boussingault § has found 
this same gas in the atmosphere surrounding large cities. 


With respect to sea-water, the next modification of this fluid 


* See Davy’s Experiments, 1807, Philosophical Transactions. 
t Philosophical Transactions, vol. cxvi. p. 2. 
t Becquerel, Traité d’ Electricité, vol. iii. p. 157. 
§ Annales de Chimie. 
B 2 


2ndiy. Wa- 
ter of Seas. 


4 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


which I shall notice, the only new mineral substances disco 
vered in it are, potash by Dr. Wollaston, iodine by Pfaff, and 
bromine by Balard. The quantity of the two former is so mi- 
nute, that the variation of either in different seas still remains 
undetermined ; but the proportion of bromine is considerable 
enough to admit of being measured with something like preci- 
sion. 

I have myself found it to vary considerably in different sam- 
ples which I examined. 

Thus, 1 gallon of sea-water, taken off Cowes, afforded of bro- 
mine 0°915 grain; in the Bay of Naples, 0°925 grain; off the 
coast near Marseilles, 1°260 grain. 

[have since examined two specimens of sea-water taken on the 
line, the former in long. 21° 30! west, the latter in long. 84° 30° 
east, and in both cases detected a larger proportion of bromine 
than in any of those above mentioned. In one sample, indeed, 
the quantity indicated was so large, that I suspect some error 
to have crept into the analysis, and therefore forbear quoting it ; 
in the other, which probably was correct, it amounted to no less 
than 17 grain to the gallon. 

I mention these facts merely to stimulate inquiry, deeming 
them too few to allow of my grounding any inference at present 
upon them. It may be right however to state, that the quantity 
of bromine did not depend upon the greater amount of saline 
matter in some of the specimens than in others, this being found 
always very nearly to agree. 

With respect to the proportions of the latter present in differ- 
ent seas, it has been remarked by Dr. Marcet*, that the south- 
ern ocean contains more salt than the northern, in the ratio of 
1:02919 to 1:02757, and that the proportion present in the water 
at the equator holds the middle place between the two. 

This corresponds with my own experiments, which indicated 
a difference in that respect between the water of the equator 
taken from long. 84° 30! east of Greenwich, and that from the 
Bay of Naples at a considerable distance from land, off the 
island of Ischia, about as 100 to 95°5; whilst the water taken 
from the line, in the Atlantic, in long. 21° 30! west, was still salter, 
being to that obtained in east longitude as 107°5 to 100-0. 

This latter result agrees with one of the conclusions deduced 
by Lenz+, who accompanied Kotzebue in his expedition round 
the world, from a series of observations made by him during his 
voyage. 

That naturalist ascertained by numerous experiments : 

Ist. That the Atlantic Ocean is salter than the South Sea, and 


* Philosophical Transactions, vol. cxii. 
+ Edinburgh Journal of Science, 1832. 


ee 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 5 


that the Indian Ocean, which unites the two, is salter on the 
west where it approaches the Atlantic, than on the east where 
joins the South Sea. 

2nd. That in each of these oceans there exists a maximum 
point of saltness towards the north, and another towards the 
south, the first being further from the equator than the second. 
The minimum between these two points in the Atlantic is found 
to be a few degrees south of the equator; in the Pacific it still 
remains to be determined. 

3rd. In the Atlantic the western portion is more salt than the 
eastern ; in the Pacific, the saltness does not appear to vary. 

4th. In proceeding northwards from the point at which the 
saltness is at its maximum, the specific gravity of the water di- 
minishes constantly as the latitude increases. 

5th. From the equator to 45° north latitude, the sea-water, 
from the surface to the depth of 1000 fathoms, continues uni- 
form in saltness. 

This last conclusion, however, must not be looked upon as 
fully established, since the instruments, by means of which sea- 
water has hitherto been drawn from great depths, are considered 
by the best judges very faulty in their construction, and inca- 
pable of affording trustworthy results. Such was the opinion 
expressed by Dr. “Marcet *, after examining those that had been 
invented up to the period at which he wrote; and such more 
recently was the impression of M. Aragof, who hence was led 
to recommend, to the navigators of the French discovery ship, 
the Bonite, an instrument for the same purpose of M. Biot’s in- 

vention, which is on a different plan from those hitherto em- 
ployed. 

The description given of this contrivance by M. Arago is in 
itself very brief, and is unaccompanied by a plate. Possibly, 
therefore, I may not have understood every part of its con- 
struction, but upon the best consideration I was able to give 
to the subject, it appeared to me that some parts of the instru- 
ment might admit of improvement. 

I consequently designed an apparatus framed on a similar 
principle to that of M. Biot, but provided neither with a spring 
to exclude the external water, nor with a stopcock and _ bladder 
to receive the compressed gas, both which objects were fulfilled 
by means of a small hollow cap of brass, which being attached to 
a conical stopper, accurately ground to the hole in the bottom of 
the instrument through which the water was admitted, dropped 
down upon this aperture when the vessel was inverted, and 
thus at the same time would cut off all communication with the 


* Philosophical Transactions, 1819. + Annuaire, 1836. 


Instru- 
ments for 
drawing up 
Water from 
depths. 


Gases pre- 
sent in Sea- 
water. 


Water of 
Lakes. 


6 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


external water, and would receive any air, which upon the re- 
moval of the pressure might escape from the body of the vessel. 

This instrument has been exhibited at the Mechanical Section, 
but I am loth to ocenpy more space in its description, until it 
has been put to the test of experiment in the open sea*. 

The gaseous contents of sea-water, which with an apparatus 
of this description may be collected and examined, have not as 
yet received the attention they appear to deserve. 

M. Arago remarks, that oxygen predominates over azote in 
the surface water both of the sea and of rivers+, and likewise in 
that of the Mediterranean even at a depth of 1000 metres {. 
This latter observation, however, is rendered doubtful by the 
imperfection of the means hitherto employed for drawing up 
water from the sea; and supposing it correct, still, as M. Arago 
remarks, we are left in the dark, as to whether the same law holds 
good at greater depths. 

The determination of this point, however, is of the more im- 
portance, inasmuch as some observers have supposed the bub- 
bles of gas, which occasionally rise up through the sea in the 
vicinity of volcanos, as, for example, off the coast of Sicily, to 
have been disengaged from sea-water; now these bubbles, un- 
like what would have been the case, had they been derived from 
the air existing in the surface-water, were found to contain a 
predominance of nitrogen gas§. The pressure exercised upon 
sea-water at great depths would also enable it to hold in solution 
much larger quantities of air, the presence of which, supposing 
it to consist in part of carbonic acid, might cause the waters to 
dissolve a greater amount of carbonate of lime, and thus afford 
a more abundant supply of that ingredient to the numerous 
mollusce, that are building up extensive calcareous formations 
within the ocean. 


Inland seas and lakes may be divided into those which pos- 
sess an outlet, and those which are destitute of one. 

The water of the former commonly corresponds with that of 
the rivers which flow into them; that of the Jatter contains in 
general the same ingredients as sea-water, but in a state of much 
greater concentration. 


* This apparatus has since been tried off Margate in water of 50 feet in 
depth, and appeared to answer perfectly. 

+ The most recent experiments cn this subject are those of Dr. Thomson, 
(Records of General Science for Sept, 1836,) who found that the air contained 
in Clyde water consisted of 70°9 azote, 29°1 oxygen, and that when a 
mixture of the two gases was placed over water, the oxygen was absorbed 
much more readily and in larger quantities than the azote. 

t Annuaire, 1836. 

§ Philosophical Transactions, 1834. 


$ 
:, 
tS 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 7 


Thus, 500 grains of the water of the lake Ourmia in the pro- 
vince of Azerbijan in Persia, contains, according to Dr. Marcet, 
111 grains of salt*, and a similar quantity from the Dead Sea 
192°5 grains, whereas the largest quantity present in the ocean 
does not seem to exceed 21°3 grains. 

In quality the saline ingredients found in these lakes seem to 
differ very little from those of*sea-water, but Lake Ourmia con- 
tained a larger proportion of sulphates, whilst the Dead Sea is 
found to be entirely destitute of them. 

Prof. Henry Rose has lately examined the water of Lake Elton 
in Asiatic Russia, and has found it to possess a specific gravity 
of 1°27288, and to contain nearly 30 per cent. of saline matter, 
which approaches nearly to the quantity present in the Lake 
Ourmia. 

In this, muviate of magnesia was the prevailing ingredient, a 
circumstance doubtless attributable to the extreme concentration 
of the solution, which is such as to have brought about a pre- 
cipitation of the greater part of the less soluble ingredients. 
Hence rock salt is formed in thick beds, at the bottom and on the 
sides of this and of several other lakes adjoining the Caspian. 
The sea or estuary of Ohhotsk, with which are connected the 
brine springs of Irhoutzk, in Asiatic Russia, contains an in- 
gredient not found in the cases before alluded to, namely, mu- 
riate of alumina, with which is associated a large quantity of 
other deliquescent earthy muriates, ingredients which render 
the salt obtained from them unwholesomef. 

With respect to the borax lakes of Thibet, we possess no in- 
formation capable of throwing light on the cause of their pecu- 
liar mineral impregnation. 


Proceeding next to the subject of mineral waters properly so 
called, I shall notice the circumstances relating, 1st, to their 
temperature ; 2ndly, to their chemical constitution ; and 3rdly, 
to their effects upon the animal economy. 

With respect to the first point, much confusion has arisen in 
the application of the term ‘‘thermal’’ to springs. By some, 
that epithet has been applied to those only, which exceed con- 
siderably the average temperature of the springs of the country; 
by others, to such as reach some arbitrary point in the scale. 
It appears to me however, that the only precise mode of pro- 
ceeding will be, to call every spring thermal which surpasses 
ever so little the average temperature of the country in which it 
is situated ; and in constructing ascale of temperatures with re- 
gard to them, to calculate it, not by their actual warmth, but by 
the degree of their excess above the mean of the climate. Thus, 


* Philosophical Transactions, 1819. + Annales de Chimie, vol. xli. 


3rdly. Wa- 
ter of 
Springs. 


Their Tem® 
perature. 


8 SIXTH REPORT—1836, 


a thermal spring having the temperature of 90° in this country, 
ought to stand higher in the scale than one of 100° in Mexico, 
and a spring at 70° might justly be termed thermal in the one 
latitude, but not in the other. 

It is on this principle that I have constructed a table, which 
will appear at the close of this Report, conceiving, that although 
the exact mean temperature of the locality can in many instances 
be only guessed at, and in the majority must not be regarded as 
fully determined, still no error need arise from my mode of ex- 
pression, as the ascertained temperature of each spring may be 
readily computed, by simply adding the number which gives the 
assumed mean temperature of the spot, to that indicating the 
excess of heat inferred to belong to the spring itself. 

Now Prof. Bischof of Bonn* has remarked, that in almost 
every case the temperature of mineral springs (amongst which 
we of course do not include land springs, or waters derived from 
a superficial source,) is such, as places them, according to the 
definition just given, amongst thermal ones; and indeed the 
mere circumstance of a difference in this respect existing among 
them is in itself a strong presumption that such is the case; for 
it is evident that, except where a spring has its origin in certain 
high mountains adjoining, the coldest of the series will approach 
nearest to the mean temperature of the locality, whilst the re- 
maining ones must derive their excess of warmth from some in- 
dependent cause. 

Thus Bischof examined about twenty springs near the Lake 
of Laach, and found the temperature of the coldest of them to 
exceed that of the place by nearly 24 degrees of Fahrenheit. 

This ruie held good even amongst the springs of countries 
like Hessia, Hanover, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg, where no such 
decided indications of recent volcanic action exist. 

The same remark applies likewise to Artesian wells. Thus 
the temperature of forty-eight springs bored in and near Vienna, 
was found by observations made in November 1820, to fall be- 
tween 52°25 and 57°-2, whereas the mean temperature of Vi- 
enna is only 50°°80. 

It would be important, if such observations were followed up 
in other portions of the globe, as well as within the comparatively 
limited range to which Prof. Bischof’s statements apply. In 
some countries, for instance, where volcanic action has once been 
rife, as in the Hebrides and in various parts of Scotland and Ire- 
land, one might expect some excess of temperature in the springs 


of the district over the mean of the climate; whilst in others,. 


* Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, April, 1836. It is to be regretted, 
that a translation of the latter portion of this valuable paper has not yet been 
published in the above Journal. 


ee — 


bet > sn ales ee Mla 


ces Th 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 9 


where volcanic phenomena are of rare occurrence, as in the 
Scandinavian Peninsula*, Russia, and Poland, it would be well 
to learn, whether the temperature of springs more rearly corre- 
sponded with that of the climate, than is the case in the parts 
of Germany where igneous action may still be suspected. Such 
an inquiry would not be without its bearing upon those pro- 
blems concerning the origin of thermal springs in general, which 
will be discussed in a subsequent part of this Report, for if ther- 
mal springs derive their temperature from a remnant of volcanic 
energy existing beneath, they ought to be most frequent in coun- 
tries where such energy has at one time or other been mani- 
fested ; whilst if they simply proceed from a generally diffused 
heat pervading the interior of our planet, they might be expected 
to appear in countries of every geological structure. 

Independently, however, of the mere question, as to whether 
there be any evidence of the existence in the springs of a coun- 
try of an excess of temperature beyond the mean of the climate, 
and the determination of this question by accurate thermome- 
trical observations both on the air and the spring, neither of 
which has in most cases been done in a satisfactory manner, 
two points of inquiry present themselves; first, as to whether 
there be any periodical variation of heat in the latter from day to 
day, or at different seasons of the year; and secondly, whether, 
in the course of the ages that have elapsed since they were first 
knewn, any augmentation or diminution of temperature had oc- 
curred. 

Prof. Bischoft has shown, that in some cases the variations of 
external temperature do manifest themselves in the thermal 
springs of a district; but this only happens when their excess 
of heat is inconsiderable. 

A similar variation has been observed, as I am informed in a 
letter with which I was favoured from Mr. Jephson, M.P. for 
Mallow, in the thermal spring of that town, and it would be 
desirable that exact observations should elsewhere be instituted 
on the same point. 

A variation of temperature at different periods of the year has 
been observed in the spring of Bourboule in Auvergne {, and in 
that of Balaruc near Montpellier. 

Still more important is the question relative to the secular 
variation of temperature in thermal waters. 

In countries where traces of former or present volcanic action 
are discoverable, and where earthquakes are frequent, the tem- 

* I shall allude to Wahlenberg’s observations on this country in a subse- 
quent part of this Report. 


+ Edinburgh Journal, loc. cit. 
t Lecoq, Annales Scientifiques de l Auvergne, 


Periodical 
Variations 
of Tempe- 
rature in 
Springs. 


Secular va- 
riation of 
Tempera-~ 
ture in 
Springs. 


10 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


perature of thermal springs is often inconstant. Thus in Vene- 
zuela, Boussingault and Rivero* found the waters of Mariana 
64° Cent., whereas Humboldt a few years before determined it 
to be 59°; and that of Funcheras 92°°2, which Humboldt had 
found to be 90°°4 Cent. 

But in the interval between these two observations had oc- 
curred the great earthquake, which overwhelmed the Caraccas 
and other towns situated in the western Cordilleras. 

The same explanation however cannot be extended to those 
thermal springs which are unconnected with volcanic action, and 
concerning these the testimony is of rather a conflicting nature. 
Thus Anglada}+ has compared the temperature of ten springs in 
the Pyrenees as ascertained by him in 1819, with that determined 
by Carrere sixty-five years before, and in all of them found a di- 
minution, amounting in one instance to 27°, but in the rest va- 
rying from half a degree to 7° of Fahrenheit. The same ob- 
server found an abatement of 2° in the spring of Molitg in the 
eastern Pyrenees after an interval of only two years. 

On the other hand, it is remarkable that Berzelius{ in 1822 
found the spring of Carlsbad to possess the identical temperature 
which belonged to it in 1770, according to the observations of 
Becher, viz. 164° Fahrenheit. Yet so contradictory is the evi- 
dence, that this very spring is reported by Klaproth, at a period 
intermediate between the above two observations, as being 8° of 
temperature lower. 

With regard indeed to thermal springs in general, it must, I 
believe, be admitted, that no observations have been yet made 
with thermometers of sufficient exactness to set the question at 
rest; and I therefore conceive, that a valuable legacy has been 
bequeathed to science by Prof. Forbes in the report on the tem- 
perature of the thermal springs of the Pyrenees and others, which 
he has lately laid before the Royal Society of London, were it 
only for the pains he had previously taken in verifying, and in 
comparing with an uniform standard, the instruments he em- 
ployed. : 

In the absence, however, of direct experiments, we may be 
authorized on general grounds to presume, that the temperature 
of thermal springs, in countries not exposed to present volcanic 
operations, undergoes no sensible change during a long period 
of time. 

If any change did take place, it would probably be froma 
higher to a lower degree, rather than the reverse; and as several 
of the thermal springs which were known and resorted to by the 


* Annales de Chimie, t. xxiii. p. 274. 
+ Mémoires sur les Eaux Minérales, 1827, p. 65. 
t Annales de Chimie, t. xxviii. 


RS 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 11 


ancients, such as Aix, Mont Dor*, Plombieres, and Bath, re- 
tain at present a heat as great as is tolecable to the human body, 
it seems evident, that if they had been only in a slight degree 
hotter in the time of the Romans, they would have required to 
be cooled down by artificial means before they were employed 
for bathing, which we are not told was ever the case. 

The same question, as the one concerning the temperature of Fixed In- 
mineral springs just discussed, may also be started with respect eredieals F 
to the quality and quantity of their ingredients. But before we Saves 
proceed to state what is known on this subject, it will be con- c 
venient to advert to a notion at one time advanced by Dobe- 
reiner +, namely, that the salts. present in mineral waters bear 
a certain relation as to quantity one to the other. 

Ignorant as we are of the processes by which saline substances Whether in 
are formed in the interior of the earth, it might be rash to affirm, definite, 
that in a mineral water which had obtained its fixed ingredients Prepcrnans 
exclusively from one spot, some fixed ratio did not obtain be- other. 
tween the respective quantities of the latter. 

But it is inconceivable, that a spring, having to pass through 
a great extent of rock before it reaches the surface, should not 

- more commonly find certain substances to dissolve, or become 
intermixed with other currents of water in its way, and that in 
the event of either of these things happening, the relative pro- 
portions of the original ingredients should remain as before. 

If, therefore, Dobereiner were admitted to have established, 
that in a few special cases} the salts existing in a mineral water 
hold a certain definite proportion one to the other, probability 
suggests, that the circumstance is to be regarded as an exception 
merely, and not as the rule, and this inference, I believe, will be 

_ fully confirmed, by referring to the actual results of the analysis 

_ of mineral springs in general. 

Hence, without embarrassing ourselves with the consideration, Whether 

__* At Mont Dor the very bath exists which was constructed in the time the Consti- 

of Cesar. 

 * Ueber die chemische Constitution der Mineralwasser. Jena, 1821. 


————— 


a. 


i _{ Iconfess myself unable to find any examples which establish Doberei- 
“4 ner’s rule. Let us take the Carlsbad water, to which he appeals, and suppose 
_ the ingredients to be in atomic proportions. The following appear to be the 
__ hearest approximation that can be made: 

+4 Real amount 

& being 

* Sulphate of soda ...,.. 15 atoms X 72= 1290 — 1290 

- eee Muriate of soda ...... 9 — x69= 621— 517 

° vel Carbonate of soda ...... 12 — x54= 648— 630 

% Carbonate of lime ...... 13 —- X50= 650— 650 - 

§ Carbonate of magnesia.. 2 — X42= 84— 86 


~iste* 


Here are some remarkable coincidences, it is true, but how are the propor- 
tions of the minor ingredients to be reconciled to such a formula? 


tuents of 
Mineral 
Waters vary 
from time 
to time. 


Cases in 
which they 
have been 
observed to 
be constant. 


Cases in 
which they 
are found to 
vary. 


i SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


how far such a law as that hinted at by Dobereiner could be 
reconciled with the idea of a gradual diminution taking place in 
the strength of the saline impregnation of a spring (which, ac- 
cording to this view, ought to proceed, if at all, in regular pro- 
portions likewise), let us simply consider the weight of evidence 
in favour or against the permanency of mineral springs in this 
respect. 

On the one hand, Bischof* states, that the mineral contents of 
the spring of Geilnau in the Taunus mountains, as determined 
by himself in 1826, agree in quantity with those existing there 
thirty-three years before, if we believe the report of Amburger. 

According to the same author, seventy-seven years have made 
no difference in the mineral impregnation of the spring of Fa- 
chingen in the same district, and the analysis of the water of 
Selters made thirty-eight years before by Westrumb corresponds 
very nearly with his own. 

Berzelius too has shown, that the composition of the Carls- 
bad waters accords with the results of the analysis of Klaproth 
made thirty-three years previously. 

But, on the other hand, the Steinbad at Toeplitz contains, 
according to the last chemist, scarcely half the quantity of fixed 
ingredients which were present in it, according to Ambrozzi, 
thirty-three years before, and even then it was suspected that a 
diminution from an antecedent period in its saline contents had 
taken place. 

Wurzer t found the spring of Neundorf, in the wet summer of 
1833, more fully impregnated with saline matter and with sul- 
phuretted hydrogen, than in the dry summer of 1814. 

Klaproth detected in 1806 carbonate of soda, carbonate of 
magnesia, and silica in the mineral water of Riepoldsau. Sult- 
zer in 1811 could not discover in it one of the above ingre- 
dients. 

Westrumb in 1788 concluded, that in the Pyrmont water the 
saline matter was almost constant in quantity, being from 23 
to 24 grains in the pint, but that the proportion of the respective 
ingredients varied. In March 1788 it contained rather more 
alkaline salt, and rather less gypsum, than in June, July, and 
August ; but though the proportions of the respective salts might 
vary, the same principles always existed in it. 

Struve t remarks, that almost every new analysis of the spring 
of Marienbad affords different results as to quantity, though the 
total amount of saline matter, and the nature of the acids and 
bases present, appear invariable. 


* Vulk. Min. Quellen, p. 329. + See Bischof, p. 331. 
t Kunstlichen Min. Wasser, p. 15. 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS, 13 


Hermann * shows, that in the brine springs of Halle the quan- 
tity of muriate of magnesia has gone on progressively increasing, 
and that of the muriate of lime diminishing, since 1798, whilst 
in those of Schénbeck the sulphate of soda each year has under- 
gone a diminution. 

With respect to our own mineral waters, there is a general 
impression, that the aperient springs, which rise so abundantly 
from the lias, become weaker when long drawn upon, and it is 
only in this way that I can reconcile the extreme discrepancy 
between the analyses of the same spring, at periods not very re- 
mote one from the other. 

Bischof remarks, that in some cases different results may have 
been obtained, owing to some variation in the circumstances 
under which the water had been drawn. 

Supposing the well to have been just before exhausted, the 
water obtained ought not to be expected to be so strongly im- 
pregnated as in common, because time had not been allowed for 
that which had flowed in since to obtain its full complement of 
saline ingredients. 

In this way he accounts for a discrepancy, between the quan- 
tity of sulphate and of muriate of soda, which he detected at 
Roisdorf in September 1824, and in April 1825; and on the 
same principle we may explain, why the Pyrmont water was 
found to be more strongly impregnated before the season of 
taking the waters, in May, than during June and July, the 
months of fashionable resort. 

I may add, that if we suppose the respective salts to require 
different times for their solution, it may be seen, why in some 


_ cases the relative proportions of the saline ingredients have ap- 


| 
| 
| 


- 


7 


peared to vary, whilst the total amount continued as before; for 
if, owing to the well having been just before much drawn upon, 
the salts which required the longest time for their solution ex 
isted in the water in a smaller proportion than usual, that very 
circumstance might enable the water to dissolve a larger quan- 
tity of the remaining ones, so as to make good the deficiency, 
and to render the total amount of fixed ingredients nearly the 
‘same as usual. 

_ Considering, therefore, the great uncertainty that exists with 
regard to this point in most cases, and the progressive condition 
of chemical analysis, which renders the results obtained at one 
period scarcely capable of accurate comparison with those of a 
succeeding one, it were to be wished, that at each of the more 
important mineral springs samples of the water were preserved 
in bottles, hermetically, or at least very closely, sealed, to be 


* Bischof, p. 334. 


Mode of ac- 
counting for 
this varia- 
tion. 


Method of 
determi- 
ning this 
question. 


Classifica- 
tion of Mi- 
neral Wa- 
ters. 


Ingredients 
found in 
Mineral 
Waters. 


Tron with 
Silica. 


14 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


opened at the expiration of a certain time, in order that an ana- 
lysis should be made of it, as well as of the water fresh taken 
from the spring, by some chemist of reputation; which being 
done, and the results being duly registered, a similar sample of 
the water might be set apart for examination after the lapse of 
an equal interval of time. 

If this method were adopted, the question at issue might soon 
be determined beyond the possibility of doubt. 


Writers on mineral waters have frequently attempted to clas- 
sify them according to the nature of their ingredients, but these 
unfortunately are so often found intermixed in all conceivable 
proportions, that no division of them into orders founded on 
such a principle can be regarded as unexceptionable. 

For medical purposes the most useful method would seem to 
be, to select, as the groundwork of the classification, those sub- 
stances which stamp upon a mineral water its peculiar value as 
a therapeutic agent, without regarding whether they are pre- 
dominant in quantity or not. Thus, as the most general di- 
vision, we might distinguish them into, first, alkaline or carbo- 
nated springs, containing a certain proportion of carbonate of 
soda; secondly, saline, rich in muriatic salts; thirdly, aperient, 
containing the soluble sulphates; fourthly, sulphureous, contain- 
ing sulphuretted hydrogen. 

The alkaline might then be subdivided into those with, and 
without iron; the saline into those with, and without iodine and 
bromine; the aperient into those containing the alkaline, the 
magnesian, and the aluminous sulphates; the sulphureous into 
those with free sulphuretted hydrogen, or with the hydrosulphu- 
rets. Each of their subdivisions might then be distinguished 
into two sub-orders, the thermal and cold. 

Such a classification might be convenient in a medical treatise, 
but in a scientific one we should frequently find ourselves em- 
barrassed in assigning a place to a spring, which, like those of 
the Pyrenees, partook strongly of the character of the alkaline 
class, whilst it was at the same time suiphureous; like that of 
Wiesbaden, whilst allied to the alkaline ones in its vicinity, was 
itself strongly saline; or like the Carlsbad, Toeplitz, Bath, and 
Ems waters, seemed from its mineral constitution to possess an 
equal claim to admission into several of the classes established. 


With respect to the particular ingredients which mineral waters 
contain, it would seem superfiuous to notice in the present Re- 
port any, but those which have been either discovered, or newly 
investigated, within a short period. 

Iron in a new form of combination has been detected in the 


—— 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 15 


Springs of Lucca by Sir H. Davy*; the body combined with it 
being, not the carbonic or sulphuric acid, but silica. 

Sir Humphry suggests, that the ochreous deposit so frequent 
in hot springs, as at Mont Dor, Bath, &c., may be a similar 
chemical compound, the iron originally existing in the state of 
a protoxide, but passing into that of a peroxide upon exposure 
to air. 

Though the iron however is thrown down from the water in 
this condition, it does not follow that it exists there in the same, 
since, in proportion as the carbonic acid which had upheld it 
escaped, the silica present in the water might begin to exert its 
affinity, and be carried down along with the metal. 

Iron has also been found by Dr. Thomson combined with 
muriatic acid in the mineral water of Mitchill in the parish of 
Nielstont, near Glasgow, and by Lachmund in the aluminous 
water of Buckowine in Lower Silesia f. 

Manganese was discovered many years ago by Becher in the 
springs of Carlsbad; and recent observations have shown that 
it is by no means uncommon either in cold or in thermal waters. 

Thus it has been found in the chalybeates of Pyrmont§, Ma- 
rienbad, Seltzers, and Fachingen; at Luxeuil near Paris ||; at 
Adolphsberg in Sweden; and in several springs in Russia. Also 
in the thermal waters of Carlsbad and Ems; the sulphureous 
ones of Neundorf and Eilsen ; the aperient ones of Seidschutz ; 
and the brine springs of Kreutznach. 

It has likewise been met with as a deposit from the thermal 
water of Popayan in the Andes 4. 

Zine combined with sulphuric acid has been found by Berze- 
lius in small quantities in a mineral water at Ronneby in Swe- 
den**, probably under circumstances similar to those, under 


which copper is occasionally met with in streams flowing 


_ through beds of copper pyrites. 


Strontian has been detected in the chalybeates of Seltzer tf 
and Pyrmont {{, and in the thermal waters of Carlsbad, Konig- 


; worth, Aix la Chapelle, and Borset§§. It seems also to exist in 


small quantities in the springs of Bristol, it having been found, 
as 1 am informed, in a stalagmitical deposit incrusting the pipes 
that convey water to that city. 


* Annales de Chimie, vol. xix. from the ‘“‘ Memoirs of the Academy of 
Naples.” 
+ Records of Science, vol. iii. p. 418. t Bley, Taschenduch. 
§ See Bley, Tuschenbuch for the German springs. 
|| Annales de Chimie, 1821. Gf Boussingault, Annales de Chimie, 1833. 
_ ** Brandes’ Archiv, b, xiii. as quoted by Osann. 
tt Struve, Kiinstlich Miner. tt Brandes’ Pyrmonts Heilquellen. 
§§ Bley’s Taschenduch. 


Tron with 
Muriatic 
Acid. 


Manganese. 


Zine. 


Strontian. 


Barytes. 


Potassa and 
Lithia. 


Todine and 
Bromine. 


16 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Traces of barytes have likewise been detected by Brandes and 
Kruger in the chalybeate of Pyrmont, and by Berzelius in the 
thermal water of Carlsbad. 

Potass was found in that of Toeplitz * and of Konigsworth in 
Bohemia; in the water of Bourbon Lancy, by Pavis + ; and in 
one of the Cheltenham waters, by Faraday {; whilst even Lithia 
has been discovered in several, as at Pyrmont in Westphalia § ; 
at Carlsbad ||, Franzensbad, and Marienbad, in Bohemia; and 
at Rosheim near Strasburg 7. 

The ingredients of salt springs in general have long been un- 
derstood to be the same, as those which were known to exist in 
the present ocean, but upon the discovery of the two new prin- 
ciples, iodine and bromine,—iodine abundantly in various marine 
productions, and more sparingly in the ocean itself; bromine 
less commonly indeed in the former, but in much larger quan- 
tity in the latter,—chemists were naturally led to inquire, whe- 
ther the correspondence, that had before been traced between 
the actual and former constitution of these reservoirs of salt 
water extended also to the presence of the above two bodies in 
them both. Accordingly Angelini searched for and discovered 
iodine in certain springs of Piedmont ** ; Vogel did the same at 
Heilbrunn in Bavaria ++; and Turner at Bonington near Leith ; 
whilst Boussingault met with it in a spring fifteen leagues from 
Popayan in the Andes, eighty or ninety miles from the sea, and 
10,000 feet above its level tf}. 

With regard to bromine, this principle was detected by Liebig 
at Kreutznach in the Palatinate §§ ; by Vogel|||| at Rosenheim 
in Bavaria, and at Wiesbaden in Nassau ¥{]; by Desfosses at 
Salins, in the Department of the Jura***, and at Bourbon les 
Bains, in France; and by Stromeyer in various springs of the 
kingdom of Hanover}+{+. 

Having also myself discovered bromine as well as iodine in 
several salt springs of South Britain, I was led to prosecute an 
extended examination of the principal ones, containing any con- 


* Berzelius, Untersuchung, translated in the Annales de Chimie, vol. xxviii. 


+ Annales de Chimie, Nov. 1827. ¢ Journal of Science. 

§ Brandes and Kruger. || Kastner’s Archiv, b. vi. 
{ Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, for Oct. 1836. 

**® Journal des Mines, vol. viii. tt Ifineral Quellen des Baiern, 1825. 


tt Annales de Chimie, vol. v. 1833, or Journal of the Royal Institution, N.S. 
vol. iii., from Dr. Mill.” 

§§ Annales de Chimie for 1826, p. 330. 

|\\| Mineral Quellen des K. Baiern. 7] Kastner's Archiv, vol. xiii. 

*** Ferussac’s Bull. part viii. 

ttt See Schweigger’s Journal, 1827, for ‘A List of the Localities in which 
Bromine had been detected.” 


4 . 
Oo 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS, 17 


siderable quantity of common salt, which are distributed through 
the several rocks of this country, beginning my search with the 
Silurian formations of Wales, and terminating it with the ter- 
tiary deposits of the London basin. 

In the tabular view of the constituents of these springs given 
in the paper I presented to the Royal Society * on that subject, 
and which is now published in their Transactions, I showed, 
that although the proportions of the respective ingredients might 
‘vary, yet that as regards their quality, an almost entire corre- 
spondence must have obtained between the earliest accumula- 
tions of salt water and the existing ones, judging from the occa- 
sional presence of iodine and bromine in those of all ages. 

Thus both these principles were found in waters issuing from 
the Silurian slates of Llandrindod and Bualt in Radnorshire, 
and bromine, but not icdine, in those from the coal formation 
of Ashby de la Zouch, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Kingswood. 
Both principles exist in the springs issuing from lias, at Leam- 
ington, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, and Cheltenham; whilst in 
the aperient saline waters of Melksham, Epsom, and London, all 
of which are connected with newer rocks, iodine appeared to be 
altogether wanting, though traces of bromine were detected. 

It remains to be ascertained by a more extensive induction of 
particulars than that hitherto made, whether iodine is commonly 
deficient in springs connected with the more recent deposits ; as 
such a fact, combined with that of its scanty occurrence in our 
present seas, and its comparative abundance in strata of older 
date, might lead to some curious geological inferences. 

The proportion of iodine to water in different springs, I found 
to vary from = to arieanii part; and to the chlorine present 


in it from 35, to saan Part. 

In several of the German springs, however, the proportion 
appears to be much larger t. Thus, there have been“found, in a 
pint of the salt spring of 


Muriate ; Hydrio. 
Muriate | Muriate | of Mag-| date of 


of Soda.| of Lime.| nesia, Soda, 
Relay Uh ieee 's Riesvan re lel cb cee tet 10°514| 3°356| .,.... 0°529 
Saltzhausen .......-...2000: 73°450) 2°570| 8°780| 07590 
Kreutznach.........-..ces2e 59°675|11°758] 4°124]) 0°043 


In the springs I examined, the proportion of bromine to 
: 1 1 wu “7 1 
eater varied from ¢5; to 755) part, and to the chlorine from 7 
‘tO i660 , 
* Philosophical Transactions, 1830. 
tT Osann, Ueber Jod- und Brom-haltige Min. Quellen, 


VOL. v.—1836. c 


18 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


The water however in which I discovered the largest quantity 
of bromine in proportion to its saline contents was that of 
Ashby de la Zouch, which contained only 179 grains of solid 
matter in the pint, and yet yielded more than half a grain of 
this principle. 

This latter result has been confirmed by Dr. Ure in a memoir 
on these springs published in the Philosophical Transactions 
for 1833. 

With respect to the salt springs of Germany, the following 
proportions of bromine and of other ingredients are contained 
in a pint of the water of each according to Osann. 

Muriate| Muriate | Muriate Rha ! Hydro- 
f f 


‘omate 
[) 0} of Mag- bromate 
Soda. Lime. nesia. ppb | of Soda. 


— 


Brine spring of Ragozi at Kissingen| 62°050) ...... 6-850|0°7000. ...... 
Pandur ditto.....|57°000} ...... 5°850|0°6800, ...... 
Hla ic: oe «babies > HO%5 14) 935356)" sscecn') | faces ae 0°4140 
Luhatschowitz ....|18°370) ...... seeeee | cesses 0°0410 


The entire absence both of iodine and bromine from a few of 
the very strongest brine springs we possess, those for example 
of Droitwich in Worcestershire, as was originally stated by 
myself, and as has been since confirmed by Dr. Hastings in 
his Memoir on that subject *, may be explained by considering, 
that in these same waters likewise all the more soluble salts 
present in the sea are of sparing occurrence. 

Hence the masses of salt, to which these springs owe their 
impregnation, may have been the first deposits from the satu- 
rated brine, and therefore contain chiefly muriate of soda. 

Agreeably with this explanation we find, that the lowest sali- 
ferous strata in Cheshire consist of perfectly transparent rock 
salt, without a trace either_of iodine or of bromine, whilst the 
more deliquescent muriates, together with combinations of these 
latter principles, are found plentifully in the clays and marls 
above. 

It may at first sight appear doubtful, whether the saline ape- 
rients existing in the lias ought to be classed amongst brine 
springs, considering the larger proportion of alkaline sulphates 
and of muriate of lime belonging to them. 

In a medical point of view clearly they ought not to be so re- 
garded; for their most active, though not always their predomi- 
nant ingredients, are those very sulphates, which do not exist, 
except in minute quantity, in brine springs properly so called. 


* On the Salt Springs of Worcestershire. Worcester, 1835. 


a” Se Saran Se 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 19 


_ But looking to their origin, or the materials from which they 
are derived, they must be grouped with salt springs of the com- 
mon kind, as I have shown in the memoir already quoted. 

I may appeal indeed to the authority of Mr. Murchison *™ 
when I state, that these waters, like the genuine brine springs 
of Cheshire and Worcestershire, rise out of the new red sand- 
stone formation. Hence it is probable, that, their original con- 
stitution is analogous, but that during the passage of the 
water upwards through cracks and fissures in the lias clays 
overlying, the iron pyrites, which is so abundant in that stratum, 
supplies it by its gradual decomposition with the sulphuric acid 
found amongst its ingredients. 

That. sulphuretted hydrogen is generated in the vicinity of 
these springs, we are assured, not only from the minute quan- 
tity of this gas observed in one or two of the Cheltenham and 
Leamington waters, but also from the strong impregnation of the 
spring of Willoughby in Warwickshire, as noticed by myself, 
and of that of Haslar in Worcestershire, reported by Dr. Hast- 
Ings 7. : 

Nay, if we grant the sulphuric acid to be derived from this 
source, the other differences between these saline aperients, and 
brine springs properly so called, will admit of an easy solution. 

The sulphuric acid, acting upon the several muriates, would 
form with their bases those earthy and alkaline sulphates on 
which their medicinal qualities chiefly depend ; whilst the free 
muriatic acid disengaged, attacking the calcareous rocks, would 
give rise to the production of the increased quantity of muriate 
of lime present in them. 


With respect, therefore, to the origin of the above ingredients 
modern discovery bas added little to the general principle laid 
down by Pliny, ‘‘ Tales sunt aqne, qualis terra per quam fluunt.”” 
For it seems needless to attempt tracing them further than the 
rocks from which the springs themselves issue. 

But there are other substances of occasional occurrence that 
cannot be referred to this source, so immediately, or without a 
more particular inquiry into the circumstances of their appear- 
ance. 


Of this description are two acids discovered recently in mi- Phosphoric 
neral waters, namely, the phosphoric, and the fluoric, an addition *¢ Fiver 
to our knowledge for which we are indebted to the analytical ; 
skill of Berzelius. Subsequently, the former substance has 


* Proceedings of the Geological Socicty, vol. i. p. 390. 
+ Salt Springs of Worcestershire, p. 9. 
c2 


Carbonate 
of Soda, 


20 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


been detected in the following springs amongst others, viz. 
the chalybeate of Hofgeismar by Wurzer, that of Pyrmont by 
Brandes, and that of Selters by Gustavus Bischoff; and the 
latter principle at Carlsbad, Selters, Ems, Wiesbaden, and 
Gastein. 

Now though phosphoric acid is not generally stated as a con- 
stituent of the rocks through whichthese springs have to pass, 
yet I am inclined to believe, that it exists in minute proportions 
in very many of those that contain organic remains. 

I have myself found traces of it in several secondary lime- 
stones ; and its existence there may be ascribed, not merely to 
the coprolites which these strata sometimes envelop, and which 
are found more or less in formations, even as high in the series 
as the Silurian rocks of this country, but likewise to the bones 
of animals, the coverings of crustacea, and the scales of fishes * 
distributed through them. 

In granitic rocks its presence is equally implied by the occur- 
rence of minerals in which it constitutes the acidifying principle. 

The fluoric acid exists in the teeth of animals, but it would 
be absurd to attribute an organic source to its presence in the 
strata. Its origin must be looked for in the minerals which the 
primary crystalline rocks contain. Thus mica and amphibole 
have been shown by Bonsdorff often to contain small portions 
of this acid}, and fluate of lime is to be met with occasionally 
both in primary and secondary formations. 

There is a class of springs, very common in some countries, 
though scarcely found in England, which owes its peculiar pro- 
perties to the presence of a portion of soda, often associated 
with protoxide of iron, both of which are held in combination 
by carbonic acid. 

Now as carbonate of soda does not exist in any of the strata 
with which we are acquainted, its occurrence cannot be so im- 
mediately referred to the latter ; and yet the quantity drawn from 
the bowels of the earth by the agency of springs must be very 
considerable, for Gilbert ¢ calculates, that the water given out 
in a single year by the Carlsbad waters alone contains more 
than thirteen million pounds of carbonate of soda, and about 
twenty million pounds of its sulphate, so that we may fairly 
reckon the annual amount of alkali extracted, under one or the 
other of these forms, to be as much as 6,746,050 pounds. 


* See Notice of Mr. Connell’s Paper in the Fifth Report of the British As- 
sociation, p. 41. 

+ Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. iv. 

+ Annalen, vol. |xxiv. p. 198, 


a 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 21 


But it has been observed, that mineral waters of this descrip- Mode of ac- 
tion occur in many instances in connexion with felspathic f)'.."® 
rocks, issuing either from primary strata, or else from volcanic 
materials. . ) 

Now common felspar* consists, according to Dr. Thomson, 
(Outlines of Mineralogy, 1836, vol. i. p. 295,) of one atom of 
trisilicate of potass, united to three atoms of trisilicate of alu- 
mina; glassy felspar of one atom of trisilicate of potass and 
soda, to four of trisilicate of alumina ; whilst in albite, a mineral 
in which the ingredients are in the same proportions as in com- 
mon felspar, the potass is altogether replaced by soda. 

This latter alkali is therefore commonly traced to the felspa- 
thic rocks in contact with these waters ; and, without going into: 
the elaborate calculations which Professor Bischof has thought 
fit to institute}, by way of showing, that a single mountain of 
moderate dimensions,—the Donnerburg, for example, near Mil-. 
leschau in the Bohemian Mittelgebirge,—contains soda enough. 
to impregnate the Carlsbad water for the space of 35,394 years, 
it will be readily granted, that where a spring is in connexion 
with volcanic or trappean materials, there can be no want of 
alkali, to supply it for any conceivable length of time with that 
portion, which is found belonging to its constitution. 

But three questions still remain to be determined, before the 
source of the alkali can be regarded as explained. 

Ist. By what process does the thermal water separate this 
material from its combination ? 

2udly. Why does not the same force which extracts the soda, 
also cause the separation of a portion of the potass, with which, 
granitic rocks at least are still more abundantly charged ? 

3rdly. How does the spring obtain its soda at all, in eases: 
where it rises, either from granitic rocks containing only com- 
mon felspar, and therefore no other alkali than potass, or from, 
slates and other rocks that are destitute of alkali altogether ? 

The first of these difficulties has been elucidated, by the expe~ 


* The composition of these minerals may be expressed with greater clear- 
ness symbolically, thus : 
Common Felspar (K +3 Si) +3 (Al +3 Si), 


Glassy Felspar . om + 35i. ) + 4 (Al + 3 Si), 
th 


‘Athite sarin: (N+ 3Si) +3 (Al + 3S. 
Tt Vulk. Mineral, p. 322. et seq. 


Objections 
to this ex- 
planation. 


Q2 SIXTH REPORT -- 1836. 


riments of Bischof and Struve, and by the observations of 
Turner. . 

Bischof has stated*, that even long-continued boiling in water 
will separate the alkali from a mass of trass or volcanic tuff, 
but that the process is facilitated by the presence of carbonic 
acid; so that he conceives the disintegration of felspathic rocks 
to be brought about by water impregnated with that ingredient. 

Dr. Struve} of Dresden, known for his imitations of some of 
the most noted mineral springs in Germany, informs us, that 
he has extracted alkali from granite, by merely filling a tall ves- 
sel with small fragments of the stone, pouring upon it distilled 
water, and suffering a stream of carbonic acid gas to rise slowly 
through the materials, and to diffuse itself amongst the water 
filling the interstices between them. 

Turner likewise has pointed out the action of carbonic acid 


and water on such substances in his Lecture on the Chemistry 


of Geology, which will be afterwards adverted to. 

With respect to the second difficulty], it has been argued, 
that the majority of these springs arise from volcanic rocks in 
which glassy felspar predominates ; that when they spring from 
granite, they have been ascertained, in some instances to con= 
tain potass as well as soda, as is the case at Carlsbad, and at 
Schonau near Toeplitz ; and in others soda alone, as at Adolphs- 
burg and Porla in Sweden. : 

It has also been remarked, that granite, in which albite has 
taken the place of common felspar, is more decomposable than 
usual §, so that if the water of a thermal spring were to traverse 
a rock consisting, partly of the one kind of granite, and partly 
of the other, it might dissolve the soda without affecting the 
potass. 

It has been further suggested by Bischof, that in many of 
the analyses which have been made, potass may have been mis- 
taken for soda, and that the former is, in fact, a much more 
common ingredient in mineral waters than has hitherto been 
suspected. 

Bischof also sees a reason for deriving the alkali from the 
contiguous strata, in the circumstance, that the thermal springs 
of the Alps, which arise in general from primary rocks, contain 
little or-no carbonate of soda. 

To these considerations it may be replied : 

1. That the quantity of potass in the Carlsbad springs is too 
inconsiderable to affect the argument; for it was only by a mi- 


* P. 305. + Ueber Kunst. Min. Quellen, vol. ti. 
{ See these arguments detailed in full in Bischof’s Work so often alluded to. 
§ Hence sometimes distinguished as “ crumbling felspar.” 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 23 


nute examination of the sprudelstein, the deposit from the waters, 
that Berzelius was able to detect its presence, whilst in the 
water itself much carbonate of soda, but no potass, was discer- 
nible. 

2. That the detection of potass in the Swedish mineral waters 
only increases the difficulty of explaining, why springs, which, 
like those of Carlsbad, rise also from granite, contain so very 
small a quantity of the so-called vegetable alkali, whilst they 
are thus strongly impregnated with the mineral one. 

3. That the alkaline springs alluded to ought to be shown 
to proceed uniformly from a rock containing albite, before any 

legitimate inference can be deduced from the alleged difference, 
as to the facility of disintegration, between this and other kinds 
of granite. 

4. That although it is conceivable that one alkali may have 
been mistaken for the other by the older analysts, it can hardly 
be suspected that chemists like Berzelius, or even Anglada, 
could have been guilty of such an error with respect to the 
springs they had examined. 

5. That although none of the thermal springs of the Alps, 
with the exception of Yverdun, are represented as containing 
natron, yet all of them are fraught with other salts of soda, and 
some of them with salts of potass, so that probably the earthy 
matter present existed in the water in the state of a muriate or 
a sulphate, whilst the carbonic acid, together with which they 
were thrown down on boiling, was united in the water with a 
portion of that soda, which the analyst represents as being 
combined with some other acid. 

_ Thus the composition of the water of Baden, in the canton 
of Argau, is stated by Bauhof as follows : 

In 300 ounces ‘of the water, 


“Carbonicacid. . . . . . . 48 cubic inches. 
Sulphuretted hydrogen. . . . traces. 
Nulpiate or iine.. = 1. .;. . . soo rains. 
Reririate Of SO0d <5 eons pe. LOO |, ag, 


Muriate of magnesia . . . - 51 4, 
pupuate OL SUUa ale. ae pe. Ons 
oe te Pee sods sO as 
Sulphate of magnesia . . . . 31 = «4, 
Hoe ita 2 Re lenage ge ee agahimetbate cit: uaaeaee 
Extractive matter . .... = sree 
6 p(t iv fs apa ae Pla 2 aE 


Now doubtless Bauhoff here meant to express, that the 
lime and magnesia were thrown down combined with the car- 


New The- 
ory propo- 
sed. 


Origin of 
the Carbo- 
nate of Soda 
in certain 
secondary 
rocks, 


Soda with- 


24 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


bonic acid ; but when we perceive the large proportion of soda 
indicated by the analysis, it seems quite as probable that these 
earths existed in the water as muriates or sulphates, and that 
they were precipitated in the state of carbonates by the car- 
bonate of soda, on concentrating the solution. 

The same explanation may be extended to the cases of Schinz- 
nach, Weissenburg, Pfeffers, and Loueche amongst the thermal, 
and to Gurnigel and Engistein amongst the cold carbonated 
springs; whilst at Fideris, Tarasp, Luxemburg (in Thurgau), 
and others, carbonate of soda is stated as abundant. 

But the greatest difficulty, as appears to me, is presented by 
the thermal waters of the Pyrenees, which are for the most part . 
richly impregnated with soda, and yet are derived exclusively 
from granitic rocks, or others equally destitute of mineral alkali. 

Should future observations, directed expressly to these parti- 
cular points, substantiate the fact of the entire absence of potass 
from these springs, and that of the scanty presence of soda in 
the rocks with which they are connected, I apprehend the hypo- 
thesis of Bischof, plausible as it may seem, and well as it may 
suit the case of *‘ volcanic mineral waters,’’ must be abandoned, 
and the same theory be extended to the carbonate of soda, which 
we have already applied, to the boracie acid present in the La- 
goni of Tuscany, and to the common salt exhaled from the cra- 
ters of volcanos. 

There seems at least no absurdity in supposing, that if, as I 
shall afterwards attempt to show, thermal springs owe their 
temperature to steam and gases given out by volcanic processes 
carried on underneath, the former may carry with it, not only 
boracic acid, but also soda, which, in its passage upwards, might 
enter into combination with the muriatic, the sulphuric, the 
carbonic, or any other acid that was present. 

We need not however resort to any such hypothesis in order 
to account for the occasional presence of carbonate of soda in 
secondary strata. In salt lakes which become nearly dry in 
summer, a portion of natron will often result, either from the de- 
composition of the muriate of soda by calcareous matter, in con- 
sequence, as is supposed, of the operation of the law of Berthol- 
let with respect to the influence of the mass, or, as is more pro- 
bahle, from the conversion of sulphate of soda by organic mat- 
ter into sulphuret, and the decomposition of the latter by the 
earthy carbonate. To one or other of these causes we ascribe 
the natron of Hungary, and perhaps that existing in certain 
mineral waters of Bavaria, said to be remote from volcanic or 
trappean rocks. 

In the cases hitherto mentioned, the alkali has been supposed 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 25 


to be united with carbonic acid, and this is stated as being the 
case in the majority of the mineral springs that contain it. 

Longchamp * however asserts, that in certain of the thermal 
waters of the high Pyrenees, as at Bareges, Cauterets, St. Sau- 
veur, and the like, the soda exists in an uncombined form, and 
that to this must be attributed the peculiar action it exerts upon 
the cuticle, causing the water to feel soapy and unctuous to those 
who bathe in it. 

Anglada + questions this assertion, on the faith of experiments 
made by him on some of these waters that had been sent him, 
(as he says,) carefully corked; but trials of such a description 
cannot of course be put into competition with others instituted, 
as those of M. Longchamp appear to have been, on the spot, 
granting both the individuals to be competent authorities on 
the point. 

I may also state, in confirmation of Longchamp’s evidence, 
that being at Barege some years ago, I tested the water fresh 
drawn from the well with a solution of baryta, and found no 
cloudiness to be produced till after it had stood some little time 
exposed to the air, whilst after the addition of lime-water a 
still longer period elapsed before any indication of carbonic 
acid appeared. 

The experiment was tried with the same success at St. 
Sauveur. 

Dr. Turner has also stated {, that the springs of Pinnarkoon 
and Loorgootha in India, which were examined by him, contain 
soda uncombined with an acid; and Faraday § has confirmed 
the statement of Dr. Black, who long ago reported the soda of 
the Iceland springs as being in that condition. 

Now, as in many of these springs no carbonic acid is pre- 
sent, and as the alkaline salt existing in the rock from which 
they emerge is not a carbonate, but a silicate, we can better un- 
derstand the possibility of the soda being found in the condition 
stated, even if, adopting the theory of Bischof, we refer it to 
the rock in connexion with the spring ; whilst those who lean to 
the contrary hypothesis, and trace the alkali to the very seat of 
the voleanic action which causes the high temperature, will be 
able still more readily to account for its appearance in that 
form. 

Silica appears to be an universal ingredient in thermal 
Springs, and is perhaps present in more minute quantities even in 
those of all temperatures. 


* Annales de Chimie, vol. xxii. {+ Mémoires, p. 302. 
} Edinb. Journal of Science, No. xvii. p. 97. 
§ Barrow’s Visit to Ireland in 1835. 


out Car- 
bonic Acid 
in Springs. 


Silica, its 
origin in 
Springs. 


How farex- 
plained. 


26 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Its existence in the epidermis of most monocotyledonous 
plants proves, that it must be held in solution by the descend- 
ing sap; and the latter, in whatever way it may be supposed to 
be elaborated within the texture of the plant, can only obtain its 
earthy principles from the water which happens to encircle the 
roots. 

On the fact of its solution in water, Turner has lately made 
some observations in his Lecture on the Chemistry of Geology*. 

He has shown, that water must have the property of dissolv- 
ing silica, by contrasting the chemical composition of felspar 
with that of the porcelain clay which results from its decompo- 
sition. ; 

The former, as he represents it, consists of one atom of trisi- 
licate of potass, with one atom of silicate of alumina, in the pro- 
portion of nine of silica to one of alumina; whilst porcelain 
clay consists of seven atoms of silica to two of alumina, or as 
three and a half to onet. 

Hence water had carried off in some way all the potass, and 
eight and a half out of twelve proportionals of the silica, leaving 
all the alumina and the remainder of the silica untouched. — 

Now the solution of the silica may be referred in general to 
its being exposed, at the moment of its disengagement from its 
existing combination, to the joint action of water and alkali. 

But it seems to admit of question, whether the latter be 
really essential to the process. 

I have myself found a coating of a substance like hyalite in 


the fissures of a rock in the island of Ischia, through which hot: 


vapours were constantly issuing, and am at a loss to refer 
it to any other cause, except the gradual solution of silica in the 
first instance by the steam, and its precipitation afterwards 
from it. 


I have also found, in a soft state, coating fissures in a tra- 


chytic rock, near Schemnitz in Hungary, what appeared to be 
silex hardening into the condition of hyalite, a mineral occur- 
ring in many places near,—an observation in which I find myself 
to be anticipated by M. Beudant. 

Dr Wollaston indeed had observed, and Dr. Turner confirms 


* Phil. Magazine, 1833, vol. iii. p. 20. 
+ Represented symbolically thus : 


(K +3 Si) + (Al +9 Si) Felspar, 
(Al + 31 Si) Porcelain Clay ; 


80 that (K +3 Si) + 54 Si have been removed, and only 3} Si remain 


aes Sh it le See 


REPGRT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. Q 


the truth of the remark, that steam under high pressure be- 
comes a rapid solvent of alkaline silicates. 

The latter chemist even found*, that glass exposed to the va- 
pour issuing from an high-pressure engine was rapidly corroded, 
and that the silica taken up was again deposited in a beautiful 
stalactitical form. 

It however remains. open to further inquiry— ) 

1st, What is the solvent of silica in springs which contain no 
free alkali : 

2nd, By what means it is held in solution by the sap of ve- 
getables : 

3rd, What are the circumstances which interfere with its 
solution by artificial means. 

With reference to this subject, I may allude to an interesting 
memoir by Professor Fuchs, on the amorphism of solid bodies}, 
as throwing some light upon the question as to the solubility of 
silex, and illustrating the influence in this case of mechanical 
obstacles upon chemical affinities. 

He has shown, that silica exists in minerals in two condi- 
tions, a crystallized and an amorphous one, and that in the 
latter it is much more readily acted upon by solvents, than in 
the former {. 

Dr. Turner also found, that whilst glass was rapidly dissolved 
by high-pressure steam, rock crystal remained unchanged. 

It would have been curious to determine, whether under such 
circumstances, amorphous silex (such as opal) would continue 
untouched. 


- Muriatic and sulphuric acids in a free state are found only in 
springs counected with volcanos, to which they are obviously 
referable. 

Boracic acid, which has been detected in a thermal spring of 
the island of Ischia, and more abundantly in the water of the 
Lagoni of Tuscany, seems also to be a volcanic product. 

It is well known as resulting from volcanic operations in the 


_ Lipari Islands and elsewhere ; and its appearance in their craters 


* Proceedings of the Geol. Soc., vol. ii. p. 95. 

tT Edinb. New Philos. Journal for April, 1835. 

} A recent traveller in Iceland (Krug von Nidda) in Karsten’s Archiv, vol.ix., 
remarks, ‘‘that the solubility of the silica in such considerable quantity in 
the hot springs of Iceland, remained for a long time a puzzling phenome- 
non, until that property was discovered, which it has in common with 
phosphoric acid, viz. of forming two isomeric modifications, of which one is 
insoluble in water and in acids; the other is soluble in both.” This may 
be true; but the statement must be regarded as a mere expression of a fact, 
not as the explanation of it. 


How far 
unaccount- 
ed for. 


Muriatic 
and Sul- 
phuric 
Acids. 
Boracic 
Acid. 


Nitric Acid. 


Ammonia 
in Springs. 


28 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


becomes intelligible, when we reflect, that although dry boracice 
acid continues fixed at high temperatures, yet when steam is 
passed over it at a red heat, a portion of the acid is always sub- 
limed, as I have myself ascertained by experiment. 

Whether the same explanation will apply to the case of the 
lakes of Thibet, whence so large a quantity of borate of soda is 
obtained, future travellers must determine. 


Nitric acid, united probably with potass (this alkali being 
found along with it), sometimes occurs in the springs of large 
towns, as observed by Pagenstecher* in those of Berne, and by 
Berzelius in those of Stockholmt. 

There is also a tract in Hungary, included betwixt the Car- 
pathians and the river Dran, throughout which all the springs 
are said to be impregnated with this ingredientt. 

The spontaneous production of nitre, wherever organic matter 
in a state of decomposition remains in contact with calcareous 
rocks, or with earth containing carbonate of lime, may suffi- 
ciently account for its existence in such springs as these, which 
probably owe their origin rather to superficial than to deep- 
seated causes. 

It remains, however, to be inquired, whether the same ex- 
planation can be extended to the waters of St. Alban, Dep. de 
Loire §, and of Miinchhof|| in Germany, in both of which nitre 
is said to be present, and that not, as in the former cases, in 
variable, but in fixed proportions. 

Can we attribute to the same decomposition of organic mat- 
ter the presence of ammonia in certain mineral waters ? 

Scherer {] mentions a sulphureous spring in Courland, which 
contains it in union with the muriatic acid ; and Osann** one 
at Raab in Hungary ; whilst Berzeliustt notices its occurrence 
in the mineral waters of Porla, united with a peculiar acid, the 
crenic, which will be noticed presently. 

Longchamp also states, that there are traces of it in some of 
the thermal springs of the Pyrenees ; but he does not state in 
what state of combination it occurs. 

Professor Fischer{t of Breslau has detected it in combination 
with carbonic acid in the thermal water of Warmbrunn, in 


Uehersicht der Bestandth. der Brunnen der Stadt Berne. 
Osann, vol. i. p, 92. t [bid. 
Patissier Manuel des Eaux Minérales, p. 280. 

Schweigger, Journal, vol. xlv. 

Page 180. ** Page 85. 
tt Phil. Magazine, vol. vi. p. 239. 

t{ Groete, Jahrbucher fiir Deutchlands Heilquellen, 1836. 


A=» » 


ii 


REPORT ON MIN® RAL AND THERMAL WATERS, 29 


Silesia; Wetzler* in the cold spring of Krumbach, in Bava- 
ria; and Kastner in that of Kissingen, in the same kingdom. 
The water of Clinton, near New York, is likewise stated to 
contain five grains of carbonate of ammonia in the gallon. 

It may, indeed, be suspected that this principle is in reality 
of still more frequent occurrence, and that chemists have often 
overlooked its presence, in consequence of having driven it off 


by the heat which, in analysing the water, they had in the first 


instance applied. . 

Now in many of the above instances, I should be disposed to 
ascribe the occurrence of ammonia to causes of the same de- 
scription, with those which I suppose to have given rise to it 
when found issuing from the spiracles of volcanos, especially as 
it is remarkable that, although the evolution of nitrogen gas 
and of ammoniacal compounds in a few rare instances occurs 
simultaneously, yet for the most part the two in a manner take 
each other’s place, the volatile alkali being abundant in active 
volcanos, where nitrogen gas is not common, and scanty and un- 
frequent in the thermal springs of primary countries, where 
nitrogen gas is so generally disengaged. 

My own views respecting the formation of ammonia in vol- 
canos are stated in my Memoir on the eruption of Vesuvius in 
1834, published in the Philosophical Transactions, and will be 
elsewhere referred to in this Report ; but I should be unwilling 
to extend them beyond the case of those springs which, judging 
from their temperature, appear connected with volcanic action, 
and from their purity, or freedom from organic matter, cannot 
be supposed capable of generating ammonia by any process of 
animal or vegetable fermentation. 

To these latter causes I should of course refer the presence 
of ammoniacal compounds in those waters, which, from their 
contiguity to large cities, or from their own impure condition, 
seem to contain in themselves the elements from which the 


volatile alkali might be generated. 


Whilst speaking of ingredients which may be suspected to 
arise from the presence of organic matter in springs, I must 
state, that formic acid is said to have been detected in the waters 
of Prinzhofen near Staubing§, and at Brunnen near Emkirchen, 
four or five leagues from Erlangen||, both in Bavaria; and acetic 


* Kastner’s Archiv, vol. x. + Archiv, vol. xxvi. 
} Silliman’s Journal, vol. xviii. 
§ Pattenhofer, in Kastner’s Archiv, vol. vii. || Archiv, vol, xxili, 


Formic 
Acid. 


Acetic Acid. 


Crenic and 
Apocrenic 
Acids. 


Organic 
matter in 
Springs. 
Glairine, or 
so called 
animal 
matter. 


30 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


acid in a spring at Craveggia in Piedmont, by Vauquelin; and 
also in those of Ronneberg*, and Bruchenau in Bavaria. 

More recently Berzelius has described two new vegetable 
acids in the springs of Porlat in Sweden, to which he has given 
the names of the crenic and the apocrenic, both derived from 
an organic matter present in the water, the crenic first, the 
apocrenic from the other by the action of oxygen. 

Crenic acid does not crystallize, but its solution in water 
concentrated to the consistence of a syrup is almost colourless. 
When dried in vacuo it splits in all directions, and its taste is 
then distinctly acid and astringent. Though a weak acid, it 
decomposes the acetates, and combines with the alkalis and 
alkaline earths. Most of them are insoluble in water, but the 
protocrenate of iron is soluble. 

The apocrenic acid imparts a brownish colour to water, in 
which it is but slightly soluble. Its salts resemble the crenates, 
but are either brown or black, and are insoluble in alcohol. 

They combine with hydrate of alumina when digested with 
it, and form a colourless solution. 

These two acids were found in several chalybeate waters in 
Sweden, and may be separated from the ochre which they de- 
posit by boiling it with potass. 

The crenic acid {, or one much resembling it, has since been 
detected by Professor Fischer of Breslau in the mineral spring 
of Landeck in Silesia §. 


The above acids may possibly have some connexion with an 
organic substance found in most thermal and many cold springs, 
which has excited much speculation, and been supposed to 
possess important medicinal qualities. We owe the first accurate 
information respecting it to Bayen ||, who, in 1765, published an 
account of the mineral water of Luchon, in the Pyrenees, in 
which he discriminated this flocculent matter from the sulphur 
also present. 

In 1786 Dr. Willan{] described a white mucous substance ex- 
isting in the waters of Croft, in the county of Durham, which 


* Dodberciner in Kastner’s Archiv, vol. xvi. 

+ Phil. Magazine, vol. vi. p. 239. 

+ The crenic acid has lately, it is said, been found to be an ingredient. of 
the Bergmehl of Lapland, which the natives in times of scarcity mix with 
their flour, considering it to contain nutriment. This material is stated to be 
chiefly made up of the outer shells of fossil infusoria, together with some 
animal matter probably derived from their internal substance, and of the acid 
alluded to.—Phil. Mag. for April 1837. 

§ Jahrbucher Deutschlands Heilquellen. || Opuscules Chemiques. 

¥ On Croft and Harrogate Waters. London, 1786. 


gina: 


one =.= 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. $1 


had likewise been confounded with the sulphur given ont by the 
same springs. 

In a recent visit to Croft I found this substance in abundance, 
and traced it as far as the water flowing from the spring retained 
its sulphureous odour, but not when the latter was dissipated. 

Mr. Dillwyn, i in his work on British Confervee*, notices the 
same as occurring, not only at Croft, but likewise at Harrogate 
in Yorkshire, and Llanwrtyd in South Wales, all of them springs 
of similar composition, and determined the substance to be a 
Conferva, which, from its whiteness, he denominated Vivea. 

In the thermal spring of Bath a Conferva of a different species 
abounds, which, from its colour and appearance, used to be 
called Bath sulphur, although not a particle of this latter prin- 
ciple exists in these waters. 

It seems, therefore, to be generally agreed, that the mucous 
matter found in the mineral waters of this country is owing to 
the generation of organized beings; but with respect to that 
met with amongst thermal and other springs in various parts of 
the Continent, no such correspondence of opinion subsists. 

On the one hand, Bory St. Vincent, in a memoir ‘ Sur la 
Botanique des Eaux+,” appears to attribute it in every instance 
to the growth of a certain class of Conferve, to which he has 
given the name of Anabaina. 

To this opinion also M. Delarive, in his memoir on the springs 
of St. Gervais}, adheres; and I am informed by Professor De- 
candolle, that the waters of Acqui in Piedmont were examined 
by him with reference to this point, and that he always found 
himself able to detect in the so-called animal matter which 
abounds there an organic structure. 

Many chemists, on the other hand, have taken up a contrary 
view of this subject, amongst whom I may instance Professor 
‘Anglada|| of Montpellier, who, in his elaborate work on the 
mineral waters of the Eastern Pyrenees, has given a detailed 
description of its properties, as presented in the localities he has 
specified. 

The substance in question he denominates glaitrine, from its 
glutinous or jelly-like appearance. It was observed by him in 
cold as well as hot sulphureous springs, in all nearly fifty in 
number. It occurs in flocks, in threads, having the character 
of mucus, or of membrane, in compact concentric coats or 


“® P54. : 

+ Bulletin de la Société Philomatique, et Dictionnaire Classique d’ Histoire 
Naturelle, art. ARTHRODIZ. 

{ Bibliotheque Universelle, vol. xxii. || Mémoires peur servir, &e., vol. i. 


Described, 


Accounted 
for. 


32 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


zones, in parallel fibres, and pendent in a stalactitical form 
from caverns. 

With respect to colour, glairine is of various shades of either 
white or red, the latter being found generally in the hottest 
springs. 

It gives out a mawkish smell, succeeded after a little time by 
one of a more repulsive kind, arising from its decomposition. 
In its chemical properties it bears most resemblance to animal 
mucus, and disengages azote when acted upon by nitric acid. 
M. Anglada afterwards shows that the thermal waters which de- 
posit glairine, also contain a portion of the same in a state of 
chemical combination, the largest quantity, however, present 
not exceeding one third of a grain to the pint. 

As the water cools, a portion of this matter separates, and 
may then sometimes be perceived floating in it in minute semi- 
transparent flocks of a mucous character. 

It is this latter circumstance, which principally leads him to 
suppose, that the glairine exists formed in the interior of the earth, 
and that the mineral water is merely instrumental in bringing it 
to the surface. 

In order to explain how such a product could arise, Anglada 
appeals to an experiment of Ddbereiner’s, who found, that 
when steam was passed through an iron tube containing heated 
charcoal, a gelatinous matter frequently made its appearance. 
He also notices the production of a fatty-looking substance by 
Berard, on passing through a red-hot tube a mixture of carbonic 
acid, olefiant gas, and simple hydrogen. 

It is with great diffidence that I dissent from the views of 
M. Anglada, who has undoubtedly paid more attention to this 
remarkable substance than any other individual that could be 
mentioned, and question the fact which he so confidently aflirms, 
of the occurrence of specimens of glairine in the Pyrenean 
springs and elsewhere, to which it would be impossible to assign 
an organic origin +. 


* Vol. xiii. part i. 

} In further corroboration of my views I may quote the authority of the 
naturalist Turpin, who has also examined two specimens of the .so-called 
Baregine, the one from Barege, the other from Neris. An investigation of 
them under the microscope proved, that chemists had been confounding under 
the same name, several very different organic products, and that the so- 
called Baregine from Neris had no resemblance in its origin or constitution to 
that from Barege. 

The former, which he obtained from Robiquet, was nothing else than the 
Nosthoc or Conferva thermalis, already so often described. That from 
Barege, which he got from Longchamp, consisted of a gelatinous transparent 
and almost colourless substance, without any apparent mark of organiza- 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 30. 


_ Nevertheless, the observations I have myself made in some 
of the very same localities as those visited by M. Anglada, the 
substance of which is given in the Linnean Transactions*, lead 
me to conclude, that the glairine of M. Anglada is frequently, 
and therefore justify me in suspecting that it may be always, 
generated at or near the surface, by the rapid growth of certain 
lower tribes of organic beings. 

_ At Greoulx I remarked large patches of it hanging from the 
sides of a highly inclined rock, over which the water of that 
thermal spring had descended. 

Now if it had been a chemical precipitate from the waters, 
this could not have happened; but supposing it an organic 
matter, whose growth was favoured by the temperature or the 
constitution of the spring, its presence therein is not more diffi- 
cult of explanation, than that of Algzeon the face of a precipitous 
cliff. 

Moreover, the specimens of glairine which I collected always 
presented under the microscope, in some part or other, an or- 
ganic structure. 

It is indeed true, that I detected traces of what appeared to 
be the same substance in the water of Barege fresh drawn ;_ but 
it being admitted that, like many other organic matters, glairine 
is slightly soluble in water, and more so in hot than in cold, 
its presence there may be explained, if we only suppose that 
its growth proceeds, not only in the open air, but likewise in 
those fissures and cavities underground through which the 
water has to pass. 

Berthiert also, who has considered this subject in a memoir 
on the Hot Springs of St. Nectaire, declares that he has never 
found this organic matter in waters taken from the fountain-head, 
and corked directly afterwards, but that it makes its appearance 
after a very short exposure of the water to air and light. Though 
this remark may not be universally true, the larger deposits of 
glairine, I believe, always arise in water that has been exposed 
to the atmosphere. 

In short, there seems no insurmountable difficulty, in the way 
of our attributing the existence of glairine everywhere to the 
growth of organic bodies, such as should reconcile us to the 


tion. It is a slimy mass formed out of a great number of parts, which for the 
eee part arose from the decomposition of plants and animals, especially In- 
usoria. 

It is plain from this, how necessary it is that the chemist should ascertain the 
homogeneous nature of any substance which may be suspected to be organic, 
before he submits it to chemical analysis.—Poggendorfi's Aunalen, 1836. 

* Vol. xiii. part i. + Annales des Mines, vol. vii. p. 215. 


VOL.V.— 1836. D 


Red ferru- 


84 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


adoption of an hypothesis, so strongly opposed to probability as 
that advocated by Anglada. 

Those who are sceptical as to the possibility of so very taped 
and apparently so spontaneous a production of organic matter, 
as that which takes place in these thermal waters, should peruse 
a memoir in Schweigger’s Journal*, and also one more lately 
published in Poggendorff’st, by the celebrated Ehrenberg, on 
the blood-red appearances observed at various periods, covering 
the surface of lakes and stagnant pools, spreading over various 
articles of food, or descending in rain from the heavens. 

The former of these papers proves the rapidity with which 
bodies of this kind are generated; the latter establishes, that in 
almost every case in which the particulars have been carefully 
investigated, the phenomenon has resulted from the generation 
of some kind or other of organic matter. 

There is, indeed, an observation of Gimbernat{, which ought 
perhaps not to be passed over, although I am not myself dis- 
posed to attribute any weight to it. I allude to his finding a 
‘substance similar at least to glairine, if not identical with it, in 
the condensed vapours proceeding from the fumaroles of Vesu- 
vius. But when we recollect, that the apparatus in which this 
steam was collected had been allowed to remain for one or two 
days without being disturbed, during which time the water was 
freely exposed to atmospheric influences, under circumstances 
peculiarly favourable to the growth of Conferve, there seems no 
necessity for supposing the organic matter found in it to have 
been derived from the entrails of the volcano. 

I have myself collected, on several occasions, the vapours that 
arose from the spiracles of this very same mountain, after the 


great eruption of 1834, as I have stated in the memoir which I . 


published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1835, but in no 
instance could I discover any organic matter. 


In the thermal springs of Vichy, and in some other localities, 


ginous mat- where sulphur is not present, an organic substance has been 


ter. 


observed floating on the surface §. 

Longchamp, in his account of that spring, states that it is in- 
termixed with carbonate of lime, together with which I found 
entangled within its meshes a portion of peroxide of iron; and 


* For 1827; extracted from a work by Dr. Sette, entitled Mem. Stortca 
Naturale, Venezia, 1824. 

+ Translated in Edinburgh New Philosophical a for 1830. 

t Bibliotheque Universelle, vol. xi. 

§ Vauquelin, Annales de Chimie, vol. xxviii. 


ne 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 85 


in the memoir already referred to*, I explained the mode in 
which I conceived these substances to find their way to the 
surface. 


It seemed to me probable, that each portion of warm water, . 


from below, as it rose to the surface of the well or reservoir 
which received the overfiowings from the spring, would set at 
liberty a little of the earthy and ferruginous matter it had held 
in solution, in consequence of the disengagement of some of 
the carbonic acid with which it had been surcharged whilst 
under a greater pressure. —' 

But this solid matter, being entangled in the Confervz float- 
ing on the surface, would be prevented from becoming precipi- 
tated; and would form, by degrees, an earthy and ochreous crust 
upon the water. 

But Professor Ehrenberg, of Berlin, to whom we are in- 
debted for so many striking discoveries with respect to recent 
and fossil infusoria, has thrown quite a new light upon this 
subject, having ascertained, as he lately assured me, that this 
red matter is in fact composed of the outer sheaths or coverings 
of a multitude of little infusorial animalcules, which appear to 
possess the singular property of secreting oxide of iron as well 
as silica, and hence thrive only in chalybeate waters, which 
afford them the material for the coat of mail which invests 
their softer parts. This at least he finds to hold good with re- 
spect to the red ferruginous matter which collects in certain cha- 
lybeate waters in the neighbourhood of Halle, and I have little 
doubt that the same will apply to the similar incrustation found 
in the water of Vichy, &c. 

Thus, whilst one class of beings requires, as we have seen, 
for its existence the presence of sulphur in such a state of com- 
bination, as is found to be absolutely destructive to other kinds of 
life, another class secretes iron, a substance equally unsuited for 
the nourishment of the great majority of animals ; as if it were 
intended, that there should be no class of inorganic productions 
which did not minister to the wants, and favour the production, 


_ of a corresponding order of organized creatures. 


It seems worth inquiry, whether the red ochreous sediment 
found by Davy in the baths of Lucca may not have arisen from 


_.a similar cause, and be made up of an accumulation of infusoria; 


and likewise whether the colours which belong to certain speci- 
mens of rock-salt, which are sometimes of a deep-blue, but more 


_ generally red, are. not owing to certain vegetable or animal 
_ matters. 


* Linnean Trans., vol. xvii. 
D2 


Ehrenberg’s 
researches 
respecting 
tt. 


Colouring 
matier of 

waters ex~- 
plained. 


Gases 
evolved 
from 
springs. 


Carbonic 
acid. 


36 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Ehrenberg*, in his journey into Siberia, observed a rose-red 
colour in the salt lake Elton, in the steppe of Astracan, which 
did not appear to belong to the water, but faded on drying ; and 
I perceive in a recent journal, that Mr. Pajean, in his travels 
in Tuscany, remarked that the red substance, which is produced 
on the surface of water charged with marine salt in that country, 
is the result of an accumulation of an enormous quantity of 
small crustacea, of one or two lines in length, having nearly the 
form of a craw-fish, which live very well in brine of 15 degrees, 
but die when the water is further concentrated. 

It is stated, that M. Darcet brought similar crustacea from 
certain lakes in Egypt which are charged with natron. 

With respect to the blue colour sometimes observed in rock- 
salt, it is possible that the same kind of explanation may apply 
to it. I was once inclined to imagine, that it might be caused by 
a compound of iodine with some vegetable principle, analogous 
to starch, or producing with the former a similarly coloured 
compound ; but I could detect no iodine in the specimen, and 
failed to reproduce the violet tinge, when the salt had been dis- 
solved in water and crystallized a second time. 

Now Ehrenberg relates, that a lake in the South of Prussia 
in 1819, produced a particular colouring matter very similar to 
indigo, which appeared to be of a vegetable nature ; and Scores- 
byt mentions, having in 1820 observed, that the water of the 
Greenland sea was chequered with alternate green and blue 
stripes, and that these colours were produced by minute animal- 
cules of the medusa kind. 


The gases disengaged from mineral waters have been investi- 
gated by Bischoff, Anglada, Boussingault, Longchamp, and 
others. 

Boussingaultt remarks, that the elastic vapours which rise so 
abundantly from the thermal springs of the Andes, consist of 
carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen, and the same observa- 
tion applies to most of those in connexion with volcanic forma- 
tions elsewhere. 

Of these two gases, the one most copiously evolved is carbonic 
acid, which, as is well known, produces those extensive deposits 
of calc-sinter, that are so common in caverns exposed to the 
drippings of water, and of arragonite§, which are of rather rarer 


* On Blood-red Water. + Arctic Researches. 

t Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol. xv. 151. 

§ See a paper in the Annales de Chimie, June, 1834, on the presence of Ar- 
ragonite in an Artesian well at Tours. I possess some also deposited from the 
spring of St. Nectaire in Auvergne. 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 37 


occurrence in such situations. The particular circumstances 
determining the production of the one rather than the other 
form of calcareous spar, appear to be still unexplained, for 
stalactitical arragonite does not appear to contain any other 
-essential ingredient than carbonate of lime, and is now supposed 
to arise from a difference of form in the integrant molecule of 
that base*. 

Another point requiring elucidation, relates to the absence of 
carbonate of magnesia from stalactites arising from dolomitic 
rocks. 

Is it, that the acidulated water first dissolves the carbonate 
of lime, before it attacks the atomic compound of lime and 
‘magnesia, or that the attraction of carbonic acid for the former 
exceeds that which it exerts for the latter earth ? 

With respect to the extrication of carbonic acid from the Its quan- 
earth, I have myself pointed outt the enormous quantity "Y- 
evolved in the vicinity of Naples, as at Torre del Annunziata, in 
which and in other places it frequently destroys vegetation, and 
likewise near the axis of the Apennine chain, midway betwixt 
the active volcano of Vesuvius, and the extinct one of Mount 
Vultur, at the Lago d’ Ansanto f. 

Bischof § has described its extrication, from the various mine- 
ral waters connected with the volcanic mountains of the Rhenish 
provinces, and likewise from dry fissures in the ground, where 
its escape is recognised by the stunted vegetation, and by finding 
a number of small animals suffocated round the spot. 

Lecoq|| and others have mentioned the remarkable erosion 
produced in the rocks contiguous to the mines of Pont Gibaud 
in Auvergne, owing to the presence of this gas in the water 
which oozes through the rocks encircling them. 

Brandes and Kruger, in their account of the mineral waters 
of Pyrmont §, have shown, that the extrication of carbonic acid 
is by no means limited to the spot from whence the chalybeate 


* Mr. Crosse, amongst the experiments which he detailed at the Bristol 
Meeting of the British Association, stated, his having found that calcareous 
spar was formed on limestone, and arragonite on slate, by the drippings 
from the same cavern, and that he was even able by the slow action of elec- 
tricity, to produce each of these minerals from the same water, charged with 
ea of lime, according as he placed it on a piece of limestone, or of 
slate. 

+ Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 1835. 

t Memoir on the Lake Amsanctus, and on Mount Vultur in Apulia, printed 
by the Ashmolean Society of Oxford, 1836. 

§ Vulkanische Mineralquellen, p. 251. 

|| Annales Scientifiques de l’ Auvergne, and Ferussac’s Bulletin, vol. xvi. 

 P. 155, et seq. See also Brandes’ work on the Mineral Waters of 
Meinburg. Lemgo, 1832. 


Its vari- 
ations. 


Its amount. 


‘38 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


springs of that watering-place arise, but is observed for some 
distance round, wherever fissures, natural or artificial, exist. 

Thus, a cavity having been made by some workmen for quarry- 
ing stone, it was found, that the air within became charged with 
from 36 to 48 per cent. of carbonic acid, which rose in the 
cavern to different heights at different times. 

These writers report, that in winter the gas never attained so 
high a point as at other seasons; that in the morning, some 
hours after daybreak, and in the evening, soon after sunset, the 
mephitic air had reached its maximum, whilst at midday, when 
the sun shone into the cave, it was very low ; that the evolution 
of gas was greatest before the breaking out of a storm, but dimi- 
nished after it had begun; that the variations of barometric 
pressure seemed to exert no influence upon the phenomenon, 
except so far as they were connected with the occurrence of a 
storm ; that it was greater during hot weather than cold; in 
calm than in windy ; in a moist state of the atmosphere than in 
adryone. A similar remark has been made with respect to the 
disengagement of carbonic acid in Auvergne*, as that recorded 
as to Pyrmont, the quantity given out being so large during 
storms, and during the prevalence of a westerly wind, as to 
render some of the mines unworkable. 

Kastner t also alludes to the variation as to quantity, both in 
the water and the carbonic acid, observed at Kissingen in Bavaria, 
and attributes it in both cases to a difference in atmospheric 
pressure, the water being forced out by the gas, and the escape 
of the latter checked, in proportion to the weight of the atmo- 
sphere above. 

According to Mayen, the springs of Bochlet have a regular 
ebb and flow, both as to the amount of water and of gas. The 
greatest difference in quantity corresponded with the interval 
between the first and last of the moon’s quarters. At Fachin- 
gen{ the quantity of gas evolved is said to be greatest just 
before sunrise, and least about two or three o’clock after mid- 
day. 

The amount of carbonic acid given off has in a few instances 
only been determined §. 

Trommsdorff found the quantity evolved from a fissure at 
Kaiser Franzenbad, near Egra, to amount to 5760 Vienna cubic 


* Fournet Annales Scientifigues de ? duvergne, vol. ii. p. 241; or Ferussac’s 
Bulletin, for 1829. 

+ Archiv, vol. xvi. } Kastner, Archiv, vol. i. 

§ See G. Bischoff in Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 1835, from 
Poggendorff’s dunalen. 


—_. 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 39 


feet in 24 hours, whereas the water in the same time emitted 
was calculated at 259 cubic feet; and Bischoff notices one 
spring which gave out in the same time 4237 c. f., the water 
being 1157 c. f. and containing 1909 cubic inches of this 
gas, and another which evolved of gas 3063, and of water 
3645 cubic feet, which contained of gas 871. 

Such statements are worth recording, as enabling our suc- 
cessors to ascertain whether there be any secular variation in 
the quantity of gas evolved; and it is therefore to be regretted, 
that Bischoff has not mentioned the names of the springs which 
he had examined with reference to this point. 

The uninterrupted manner in which the carbonic acid rises 
up through the spring is explained by Bischoff, by supposing 
it held in chemical solution by the water at a great depth, and 
therefore under an enormous pressure. 

Such a supposition would enable us to understand the trifling 
irregularities observed in the flow of gas, without imagining 
that the state of the atmosphere above has any direct influence 
upon the energy of the volcanic operations below, since the 
barometric pressure, the relations to moisture, &c. of the air 
surrounding the spring, might favour at one time more than at 
another the escape of gas from the spring, or its diffusion 
through space. Some have supposed*, that the water of the 
spring is forced upwards by the elasticity of the confined gas, 
but Bischoff justly remarks, that the flow of the former is too 
equable for any such thing to happen. 

An explanation of this kind can only be resorted to in such 
cases as those of the Sprudel at Carlsbad, and at the Geysers 
in Iceland, where the spring appears, as it were, by fits and 
starts. 

Yet in these cases the phenomenon may, perhaps, be more 
readily accounted for by the extrication of steam in cavities 
connected with the fissure through which the spring rises, as 
was first suggested by Sir G. Mackenziet. Dutrochet, how- 
ever, has described an intermitting spring in the Jura, which he 
ascribes with more reason to a periodical evolution of carbonic 
acid gas; though, even here an accumulation of gas taking 
place in a cavity connected with the spring, may have been 
competent to produce the phenomenon. 


That Nitrogen escapes occasionally from thermal springs, is 
by no means a new discovery, for it was remarked by Priestley 


* Berthier, Annales de Chimie, vol. xix. + Travels in Iceland. 


Nitrogen. 


= 


In thermal 
springs. 


Its amount. 


40 ‘SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


at Bath, and by Pearson at Buxton, before the commencement 
of the present century. 

More recently it has been observed issuing from almost all 
the sulphureous thermal waters of the Pyrenees*; and I have 
shown, that not only has it in many instances been mistaken 
for carbonic acid, but also that it is commonly evolved where- 
ever thermal waters existt. 

Even when the prevailing gas emitted is carbonic acid, I find 
that a small quantity of residuary air is present, which consists 
in general of oxygen and nitrogen, but with a much smaller 
proportion of the former than that present in the atmosphere. 

The volcanic district of Ischia affords the only example that 
has occurred to me, of a number of thermal springs lying to- 
gether, not one of which evolves nitrogen. 

In this case, however, we may remark, that no kind of air 
whatever is emitted from the waters, which therefore would 
seem to derive their heat, not from any volcanic processes going 
on at present, but from their contiguity toa mass of rock heated 
by antecedent eruptions. 

in corroboration of this view I may state, that several springs 
on the skirts of Vesuvius, where volcanic operations are actually 
proceeding, give out nitrogen, though in much smaller quantity 
than they do carbonic acid; as for example, the thermal water 
of Torre del Annunziata, and the cold spring of Castellamare. 

From the Thermals connected with extinct volcanos, azote is 
emitted, though for the most part in inferior quantity, than it is 
from springs associated with primary, or with intrusive rocks of 
older formation. 

The quantity of this gas returned to the atmosphere through 
the medium of thermal waters is evidently considerable. I 
measured that emitted from the King’s Bath, in the city of 
Bath§, nearly every day for a month during the autumn of 1833, 
and found that its average quantity was 267 cubic inches per 
minute, or 222 cubic feet in the 24 hours. 

The gas consisted of 97 per cent. of nitrogen, and of 3 per 
cent. of oxygen, with a variable quantity of carbonic acid. 
Since this period, the sinking of a well in a remote quarter of 
the town through the lias to the depth of 250 feet, from which 
water rose of a temperature but little inferior to that of the 


* Anglada, Mémoires. 

+ On Hot Springs and their connexion with Volcanos, Edinburgh New 
Philosophical Journal for 1832. 

{ Daubeny, on a Spring at Torre del Annunziata near Naples. 

§ See my Paper on the quantity and quality of the Gases disengaged from 
the Thermal Springs at Bath, Philosophical Transactions, 1834. 


— 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS, 41 


Public Bath*, was followed, not only by a diminution in the 
supply of water at the latter, but also in the amount of gas 
emitted, which, according to the accurate observations of Mr. 
George Spry, of Bath, made in the beginning of August in this 
year+, appears not to average at present more than 170 cubic 
inches per minute, whilst the quantity of water discharged at 
the original spring, was reduced from 120 gallons to 75, in the 
same interval of time. 

Thus the relation between the decrease of gas and of water 
kept pace very nearly one with another ; for, 


as 150 7228 92 75° TTT. 


The slight excess of gas may have arisen from the more scru- 
pulous manner, in which Mr. Spry prevented its escape from 
all the apertures in the bath, excepting those from which he 
collected it, than had been previously done by myself. 

I have since estimated the amount of gas emitted from the 
thermal spring of Buxton at about 50 cubic inches per minute, 
and find that M. Longchamp determined the quantity at one of 
the springs, Cauterets in the Pyrenees, as being about 7:1 cubic 
inches, whilst he calculates that of the water given out by the 
same during an equal space of time at 1584, or nearly 226 times 
the amount. 

The above are nearly all the observations we at present 
possess, with respect to the quantity of nitrogen emitted from 
thermal springs, though it would be desirable to obtain in every 
instance an exact register of this, as well as of the quantity and 
temperature of the water itself, as affording us the data for de- 
termining at some future time, whether any secular variation is 
taking place in the quality of each spring in these several re- 
spects. 

In the table, therefore, at the close of the present Report, I 
have registered in two separate columns all the observations 
1 could collect, on the quantity of gas and water emitted within 
the space of twenty-four hours by the springs named. 

_ It is worth remarking, that an evolution of nitrogen gas is 
not altogether peculiar to thermal waters. 

I detected it issuing pretty abundantly from a spring near 
Clonmel, which possessed the common temperature of those in 
the neighbourhood; another emitting the same has been de- 


* M. Arago, in his Annuaire for 1836, mentions, that the same falling off 
of the hot spring of Aix, in Provence, took place in consequence of the sink- 


ing of a contiguous well, but it is remarkable that in this case the water of 
the latter was cold. 


+ Viz. in 1836. 


In cold 
springs. 


Oxygen. 


Carburetted 
hydrogen. 


Sulphu- 
retted hy- 
droger. 


42 . SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


scribed, as occurring near Inverkeithing in Scotland, by the Rev. 
W. Robertson*, and I have been informed of a third in Shrop- 
shire by Mr. Murchison. ; 

In one or two cases oxygen is said to predominate in the air 
evolved, as Robiquet says is the case at Vichy ; but as he adds, 
that it is only found, after the water has been standing in the 
reservoir long enough to be covered by a vegetable slime, I- 
conceive this gas to have arisen from the decomposition of car- 
bonic acid within the tissue of the plant, under the influence of 
solar light. 

Carburetted hydrogen has in many instances been observed 
to issue from springs, as well as from clefts in the earth, as at 
the Pietra Mala on the Apennines, and at St. Barthelemi near 
Grenoble, where the gas, when once kindled either by accident 
or design, maintains a continued flame, until pains are taken to 
extinguish it. 

It has also been observed in many parts of the world to issue 
copiously from salt springs, as at Medonia in the State of New 
York, in China, &c.; and a curious proof that the salt, with 
which these springs are impregnated, had been deposited under 
pressure, is afforded by the fact, that at Wielichza in Gallicia its 
cavities contain carburetted hydrogen in a condensed state, so 
that on immersing a lump of this salt in water, a series of small 
detonations is heard during its solution, in consequence of the 
sudden expansion of the gas on escaping from its prison. 

It is an interesting circumstance, to find this phenomenon 
continuing in the very spots, in which it was observed during 
the periods of Grecian history. 

I have quoted in another place}, an instance of its occurrence 
among the Chimariot mountains of Albania, where ancient 
writers speak of a nympheum as existing, by which they meant 
to express, that a stream of inflammable gas had there been 
observed. 

The same permanency seems also in some cases to be the 
attribute of sulphureous waters ; for the hot springs of Bithy- 
nia, which modern travellers describe as impregnated with 
sulphuretted hydrogen, appear from the accounts of Greek 
writers} to have been similarly constituted nearly two thousand 
years ago. 

These, however, which are thermal sulphureous springs, pro- 


* Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 1829. 

+ Memoir on the Bath Waters above quoted. 

t See the Poem “IIgs ra ev IIuésors Ozgueu,” extracted from the Greek 
Anthology in my Description of Volcanos, 8vo; 1826. 


mes 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATEES. 43 


‘bably derive their origin from a totally different cause, to that 
which impregnates cold ones with this same principle. 

The latter in some instances undergo, within a very short 
period, a material alteration in point of strength. 

Thus a sulphureous spring at Willoughby, in Warwickshire*, 
yielded me in the autumn of 1828, 16°9 cubic inches of sul- 
phuretted hydrogen to the gallon. 

In the April following, I could detect only 12°65 cubic inches, 
and in the autumn of 1834 only 5:2. 

Whilst on this subject, I may mention, that Professor An- 
glada of Montpellier}, has satisfied himself by a detailed exami- 
nation of the sulphureous springs of the Pyrenees, that no one 
of them contains sulphuretted hydrogen in a free state, but that 
in every instance this principle is united to an alkaline base, 
with which it constitutes an hydrosulphuret. 

Finding this to be the case so generally, he has proposed a 
classification of sulphureous springs founded on this principle, 
arranging them, according as they contain the above gas ina 
free state, or combined with one, or two atoms of a base. 

By applying the same reagent (the arsenious acid,) which 
M. Anglada had employed, I was led to conclude, that the 
springs of Aix la Chapelle and Borset were similarly consti- 
tuted, and indeed such would necessarily be the case, where- 
ever the soda in the water was not impregnated with carbonic 
acid, nor could there well exist in it any free sulphuretted hydro- 
gen, until the whole of the alkali was thus saturated. 

Hence in affirming that the gas of the Pyrenean springs 
always occurs in this state of combination, M. Anglada has 
(apparently unconsciously) confirmed the statement, which he 
questions, as to the existence of caustic soda in the water, 


We have already considered whether under ordinary circum- 
stances mineral springs are subject to vicissitudes, either as to 
temperature, as to the quantity and quality of their fixed and 
gaseous constituents, or as to the amount of water discharged. 

It will be proper, however, before proceeding further, to 
notice what has been observed, with respect to the influence 
exerted upon them in any of the above respects by earthquakes, 
which are stated in some cases to have affected particular 
springs in an extraordinary manner. 

During an earthquake in 1768 at Vienna, the spring of Baden 
became more copious than before, and the evolution of sulphu- 
retted hydrogen more abundant ft. 


* Philosophical Magazine, Jan. 1835, + Mémoires pour servir, §c. 
} Kastner’s Archiv, vol. v. 


Influence of 
earth- 
quakes 
upon 
springs. 


Springs ex- 
erting a pe- 
culiar action 
upon the 
animal 
ceconomy. 


44 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


An earthquake in 1692 is said to have affected the spring of 
Spa in a similar manner; and one that happened in the sur- 
rounding district communicated to the spring of Bagneres de 
Luchon an increase of temperature. 

But these are effects produced by earthquakes in the vicinity 
of the springs; more remarkable is the influence exerted upon 
them by similar subterranean movements taking place in distant 
quarters. 

Thus during the great earthquake of Lisbon, the hot spring 
of Toeplitz in Bohemia, betwixt the hours of eleven and twelve 
in the day, is recorded to have become turbid, and then to have 
gushed out so copiously as to overflow the well. The water 
assumed a red tinge, and was suspected to have become hotter. 
At the same time the hot spring of Pesth in Hungary is said to 
have shown a similar increase of temperature. 

This sympathy with the subterranean movements of a distant 
quarter will appear less extraordinary, when we recollect, that the 
same earthquake is said to have been felt by the workmen in the 
mines of Derbyshire. 

In other cases, the connexion of the spring with the subterra- 
nean movement has been evinced, perhaps as decisively, by the 
opposite effect occurring. 

Thus in 1660, in consequence of an earthquake, the thermal 
waters of Bagneres de Bigorre were for a short time suspended ; 
during one that occurred at Naples, the Sprudel at Carlsbad is 
stated to have remained tranquil for six hours; and in the great 
earthquake of Lisbon, that of Aix in Savoy ceased to flow. 

Lastly, in a few instances, the existence of a thermal spring 
has seemed to act as a safety valve, and to secure the immediate 
locality from those natural convulsions which affected the neigh- 
bourhood. Thus an earthquake which shook the whole district 
around was not felt at Carlsbad itself, and the same remark has 
been made at Wiesbaden. 


I have now stated the more recent additions that have been 
made to our knowledge as to the contents of mineral springs ; 
but the undertaking would be incomplete, if I passed over with- 
out comment those, which, though not known to contain any 
peculiar chemical ingredient, seem nevertheless to produce cer- 
tain decided effects upon the animal ceconomy. 

For to refuse credence to the reports given by medical men 
with respect to the salutary or injurious effects of a particular 
water, merely because the chemist can discover in it no active 
principle, would seem a proceeding not less unphilosophical, 
than that of which our predecessors were guilty, in treating as 
fabulous the accounts given of stones that had fallen from the 


8 


Pal 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 45 


sky, because they did not understand how such ponderous masses 
could have continued suspended in it. And on the other hand, 
granting that a spring possesses peculiar virtues, we must sup- 
pose that it differs, either in its mechanical, or chemical proper- 
ties, from the rest. 

Accordingly those springs, which are believed on good autho- 
rity to possess medicinal virtues, ought properly to find a place, 
not merely in a professional treatise on the subject, but also in 
one that affects to consider it scientifically. 

Most countries afford examples of springs, that appear almost 
chemically pure, to which medicinal qualities have been accord- 
ed: thus Gastein in the Saltzburg, and Loueche in the Swiss 
Alps, amongst thermal waters; and Malvern in England, 
amongst cold ones*, are very sparingly charged with mineral 
matter, and what they contain consists of ingredients appa- 
rently not calculated to exert any action upon the animal 
system. 

How far the reputation enjoyed by these springs may be 
owing to other causes, such as the purity of the air, the change 
of diet, mode of living, &c., it is for the enlightened physician 
to inform us, and an interesting field of physiological inquiry 
seems to be open to him, in examining the effects exerted upon 
the system by that long-continued immersion in warm water, to 
which it is the practice of invalids in several of these watering 
places to resortf. 

It is remarkable, that a very large proportion of those cele- 
brated warm springs lie at a considerable elevation. Thu 
Gastein is 3100 feet above the sea, Loueche 4400, and Pfeffers 
2128 feet; now one may easily imagine, that the exhalation 
from the surface of the body, and the activity of the functions 
thereon dependent, may be much promoted by the practice of 
the invalid, of remaining alternately immersed, in water of so 
high a temperature, and in so rarified an atmosphere. If, how- 
ever, after taking this and other circumstances into account, 
the testimony, in favour of some specific action derived from the 
spring itself upon the animal ceconomy, should seem unexcep- 


* Dr. Hastings, in his Illustrations of the Natural History of Worcestershire, 
1834, states, that its efficacy is found to be very considerable in arthritic, cal- 
culous, dyspeptic, and scrofulous cases. 

+ Dr. Gairdner doubts the statement I had on a former occasion made on 
this point ; but I can assure him, from personal observation at Loueche, and 
by quite sufficient testimony as to Gastein, that in both these baths it is the 
practice to remain immersed, for periods of time, varying from four to ten 
hours, during the process of cure. At Buda too, and at Glasshutte in Hun- 
gary, the peasants continue in the public baths for a length of time, that would 
quite astonish an English physician. 


Causes of 
theiragency 
considered. 


In the pre- 
sence of io- 
dine and 
bromine. 


Tn the ab- 
sence of air. 


46 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


tionable, the chemist ought to consent to regard this action as 
indicative, of undiscovered principles, or modes of combination. 

Thus certain salt springs in Piedmont had acquired from time 
immemorial a reputation in the cure of goitre, which the nature 
of their then known mineral impregnation would not explain. 

Recent investigations have, however, shown, that these springs 
contain a small quantity of iodine, the very principle now found 
most efficacious in this and other glandular disorders. 

The superior efficacy attributed to the waters of Cheltenham 
and Leamington over mere artificial solutions of sulphate of 
soda, &c. of the same strength, was difficult of explanation, until 
chemical analysis had shown that, in addition to the more 
common ingredients, these springs contain portions of two 
active principles, iodine and bromine, wanting in the imitation 
of them. 

In like manner chemists, in the pride of half knowledge, may 
often have smiled at the faith reposed in the water, of Ashby- 
de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, and of Kreutynach, in the Palati- 
nate, both which, until lately, appeared to be little more than 
mere saturated solutions of common salt. 

But the advance of science has shown, that these two springs 
are precisely the ones most fully impregnated of any perhaps 
known with salts of bromine, and therefore most highly charged 
with the properties of that active principle. 

It has long been a vulgar notion, that goitre arose from 
drinking snow water, and this opinion, which was derided by 
men of science, seems to be in some measure substantiated by 
the recent researches of Boussingault in the Andes*. 

That naturalist commences by showing, that the goitre of the 
above elevated region can arise, neither from the humidity of the 
climate, as had been supposed by some, nor from the nature of 
the earthy ingredients of the springs, as had been imagined by 
others. 

He then observes, that persons who habitually employ as their 
beverage water devoid of its due proportion of air (whether that 
deficiency be owing, to the rarefaction of the atmosphere on the 
high table land on which it lies, or to the circumstance of its 
being immediately obtained from the melted snow of the moun= 
tains) are subject to this disease, whilst persons who take care 
to aerate their water before drinking it, as may be done by 
those residing at a moderate elevation, by merely exposing it to 
the atmosphere for 30 or 40 hours previous, escape the deformity. 

For the same reason, a river, which at a high level appears to 


* Annales de Chimie, 1833. 


— 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 47 


cause goitre, has no such tendency at a lower one, so soon, that 
is, as its waters have become duly aerated in the progress of 
their descent. 

In like manner, water which rises from calcareous rocks, or 
which has become stagnant in lakes, has a tendency to produce 
goitre, not by reason of its solid contents, but owing to the 
absence of the usual quantity of air. 

Boussingault also relates the extraordinary fact, that those 
provinces, which are provided with salt containing iodine, are not 
affected with goitre, whilst in others, where the salt is destitute 
of that principle, the disease is endemic. 

There has likewise been an attempt lately made by a German Intheirelec- 
physician* to mark a difference in the electrical condition of trical condi- 
one of those springs, which, though almost chemically pure, as 
seemed nevertheless to possess active properties. 

He states, that the water of Gastein conducts electricity better 
than common water would do. Such a statement, however, 
cannot receive any credence, until all the details of the method, 
by which a result so paradoxical was arrived at, have been sub- 
mitted to the judgement of scientific men. 

Kastner had previously endeavoured to establish the same in 
the case of the waters of Wiesbaden, but the fallacy of his ex- 
periments is now generally admitted. 

Equally fanciful appear the opinions of those, who attribute Im their 
to natural thermal springs a greater capacity for heat than be- capacity for 
longs to artificially prepared waters of equal temperature, and "“*" 
who maintain that they cool more slowly in consequence. 

M. Longchamp, in France, by experiments on the waters of 
Bourbon; Professor Gmelin, of Heidelberg, by similar ones on 
those of Baden-baden; Reuss, Neumann,and Steinmann bysome 
on the springs of Carlsbad; and Schweigger and Ficinus by others 
on those of Toeplitz, have exposed the fallacy of this notion; and 
have shown, that in reality no difference exists in this respect 
ag the one and the otherf. 


‘Let us next proceed to consider the improvements, that have Analysis of 
been lately introduced into our methods of analysing the solid “ane 
and gaseous constituents of mineral waters. oe 

Most chemists are by this time familiar with the simplification General 
upon the plan of proceeding, which we owe to Dr. Murray} of Principles. 
Edinburgh, in consequence of his having pointed out, that as the 
salts existing in a spring need not be the same with those we ob- 
tain on evaporation, and as salts viewed as incompatible may 


« Dr. Pettenhofer. + Consult Bischoff, Vulk, Mineralq., p. 364. 
t Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 


Particular 
improve- 
ments. 


To distin- 
guish ba- 
rytes or 
strontites 
from lime ; 


barytes 
from stron- 
tites. 


48 SIXTH REPORT—1836.. 


coexist in a state of weak solution, the analysis of a mineral 
water consists in nothing more than in determining the nature 
and amount of the several acids and bases which it contains. 
But Berzelius has further contended*, that everything beyond 
this, which the chemical analysis professes to give, is a matter of 
hypothesis, and that in concluding the salts, actually present in 
the water, to be necessarily the most soluble compounds, that 
could be formed out of the acids and bases present, Murray went 
— than he was justified, either by experiment or analogy, in 
oing. 

The Swedish chemist, on the contrary, contends, and appa- 
rently with much justice, that, consistently with the views of 
Berthollet on the influence of the mass, we ought to suppose as 
many salts to exist in a mineral water, as can be formed out of 
the constituents present, whilst the proportion, in which these 
salts exist, is a point which we cannot obtain data for calculating, 
until we are able to estimate numerically, the relative force of 
affinity subsisting between the ingredients. 

According, therefore, to the received views on this subject, 
the chemist ought in strictness barely to set down, as the results of 
his analysis, the respective weights of the acids and bases present. 

If he does more than this, and professes to combine these 
principles into salts, it should be understood, that he acts merely 
in conformity with existing usage, and in order to convey to the 
public the impression, that those waters, in which he has found 
such and such acids and bases, act upon the system in a manner 
similar to that, which the salts he states to exist in them are 
considered calculated to do. 


With respect to the particular improvements introduced into 
this department of chemical analysis, I may particularize the 
following : 

A solution of sulphate of lime has been proposed as a test for 
barytes, or strontites, in a mineral water. 

If either of these bases exists therein, a precipitate is formed, 
whereas, if lime alone is present, no effect takes place on the 
addition of this reagent. 

An easy method of separating barytes from strontites has been 
invented by Liebigt, who treats the mixed solution with iodate 
of soda, this forming, an insoluble precipitate with the baryt, 
but a soluble compound with the strontian. 

Another methodt has lately been proposed for the same ob- 
ject, namely, that of adding neutral chromate of potass to the 

*Jn his Analysis of the Carlsbad water, dnnales de Chimie, vol. xxviii. 


+ Already noticed in Mr. Johnson’s Report. 
t Philosophical Magaxtne, March 1836. 


— 


in ean 


_ 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 49 


mixture of strontian and baryt, whereby a soluble salt is formed 
with the former, and an insoluble one with the latter. 

The precipitated chromate of barytes must be heated to red- 
ness before it is weighed. 

The common method of detecting lithia in mineral waters is 
to precipitate it by phosphoric acid, a little phosphate of soda 
being first added to the solution, in order to make sure of the 
whole of the phosphate of lithia being thrown down. 

Kastner* proposes as an improvement, that the solution 

should be neutralized by sulphuric acid, and then reduced to 
dryness. 
Mecho! will take up the sulphate of lithia without affecting 
the other sulphates, and the solution on being evaporated, and 
then redissolved in as small a quantity of water as possible, may 
have its lithia thrown down, in combination with phosphoric acid, 
by phosphate of soda. 

An elegant method of detecting nitric acid was proposed by 
Dr. Wollaston. It consisted in adding to the liquid a few drops 
of muriatic acid, and a little gold leaf, which latter will be dis- 
solved if nitric acid be present f. 

Dobereiner{ has lately suggested another methad, which 
enables us to determine also the amount of nitric acid, even 
when in small quantities. 

He mixes the suspected liquid with an equal quantity of con- 
centrated sulphuric acid, and introduces the mixture into a 
graduated tube, placed over quicksilver. A slip of copper is 
then added, and the mixture warmed. Sulphate of copper is 
thus formed, and an amount of azote collected equivalent to that 
of the nitric acid present. 

A more convenient plan of conducting the experiment would 
seem to be, that of heating the suspected liquid in a glass tube, 
containing a little metallic copper and sulphuric acid, and re- 
ceiving the gas over mercury. 

I have already noticed the probability that ammonia has often 
been overlooked in our analyses of mineral springs. To detect 
it, sulphuric acid should first be added to the water, which may 
then be concentrated, and evaporated in a water-bath, after 
which the addition of quicklime will separate the ammonia, and 
render it sensible both by its odour and alkaline reaction. 

The received method of estimating the amount of bromine, 


* Archiv, vol. xvi. 

+ Becquerel has proposed an electro-chemical method of effecting the 
same object founded on the same principle. Traité de I’ Electricité, vol. iii. 
p- 325. 

t Berzelius, Jahresbericht, 1832, p. 162. 

VOL. Vv. 1836. E 


Lithia. 


Nitric Acid. 


Ammonia. 


Bromine. 


50 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


when present in a water, together with chlorine, is stated in my 
work on the Atomic Theory *. 

It is nothing more than an application of the method sug- 
gested by M. Gay-Lussac for calculating the proportions of soda 
- and potass, to the case of bromine and chlorine, and labours in 
common with it under the objection, that the inference is de- 
duced, not from a single experiment, but from a comparison 
of at least two; and that a very trifling inaccuracy in either, 
being multiplied in the calculation founded on them, vitiates 
the whole result. 

It would be well, therefore, if a direct method of determining 
the same could be hit upon; and for this reason I set down one 
suggested by Lowig, which has already found a place in Professor 
Johnston’s Report on Chemistry, published in the first volume of 
our Reports. 

The dried mixture of chloride and bromide is to be heated in 
a stream of chlorine, so long as any bromine appears to be dis- 
engaged, The chlorine and bromine which pass over are re- 
ceived into a solution of caustic potass, by which chloride of 
potassium and chlorateof potass, together with bromate of potass, 
are produced. 

Having neutralized the potass with nitric acid, nitrate of silver 
is added to precipitate the chlorine and the bromic acid. 

The precipitate, after being washed, is introduced moist into 
a bottle, and barytic water added. A soluble bromate of barytes 
is thus formed, whilst the chloride remains untouched. The 
solution being poured off, the excess of barytes is separated by 
carbonic acid, and the bromate of barytes is thus left in a state 
of purity. 

Dr. Osannt has lately suggested another mode of separating 
these two principles. 

It depends on the greater volatility of chlorine than bromine, 
and on the circumstance, that chloride of silver becomes of a vio- 
let colour after exposure to light, whilst bromide of silver is 
rendered greyish black. 

He therefore expels the chlorine and bromine by means of 
sulphuric acid, slowly distils over the two, and makes them pass 
into a solution of nitrate of silver. The precipitate is from time 
to time tested by exposure to light, and when found to assume 
the appearance belonging to bromide of silver, that which comes 
over is set apart, and reckoned as such. 

In order to obviate the objection, arising from the circum- 
stance, that there is an intermediate period when the chlorine 


* Introduction to the Atomic Theory, p. 89. The same method was followed 
by Dr. Ure in his analysis of the Ashby water; Phil. Transactions, 1834. 
+ Poggendorff’s Annalen, 1831. 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 5] 


and bromine come over together, Osann proposes to stop the 
distillation, exactly at the point at which the precipitate is an 
equal mixture of the two acids. The deficiency of bromine in 
the solution is thus compensated for by the chlorine obtained. 
It is evident, however, that a very practised eye would be re- 
quired, in order to obtain correct quantitative results by such 
a method as the above. 

The same author proposes to separate iodine from chlorine, 
by causing the mixture to pass over in a state of vapour into a 
solution of potass, and then precipitating it with arsenious acid 
or arseniate of ammonia. 

_ The iodine unites with the arsenic, which latter is precipi- 
tated by sulphuretted hydrogen. This being got rid of by 
oxide of lead, the iodine is obtained by uniting it with silver. 

Henry Rose* has proposed a new method of distinguishing Oxides of 
between the protoxide and peroxide of iron. 2 a ge: 

When muriatic acid is added to a mixture containing both 
these oxides, the protoxide is converted into a protochloride, the 
peroxide into a perchloride. 

Now metallic silver robs the latter of its half-atom of chlorine, 
converting it into the protochloride, and hence the increase of 
weight in the silver added, enables us to calculate the amount of 
peroxide of iron originally present. 

Another method for the same object has been proposed by 
Fuchs+. It consists in digesting the solution of protoxide and 
peroxide in an acid, with carbonate of lime or of magnesia, by 
either of which the peroxide is precipitated, whilst the protoxide 
remains untouched. 

This peroxide is obtained in a state of mixture with the earth © 
and acid employed, and must be separated from both by the 
ordinary means. 

The only difficulty consists, in preventing the weight of the 
precipitate from being increased during filtration, in consequence 
of the conversion of some of the protoxide into peroxide. 

In order to prevent this as much as possible, the precipitate 
should be washed repeatedly with warm water, before the super- 
natant liquor is thrown upon the filter. 

For the detection of organic matter in mineral waters, Dr. Organie 
Davy has suggested the employment of a solution of nitrate of ™*tr 
silvert. The blackening, which usually takes place in this fluid 
upon exposure to light, is attributable to the presence of organic 
matter ; for if care be taken to purify the water, light produces 
no change. 


- 


* Berzelius, Jahresbericht, 1832, p. 164. 

+ Jahresbericht, 1832, p. 164. 

t Edinburgh New Phil. Journal, 1828, p. 129. 
E2 


Gases. 


Sulphuret- 


ted 
gen. 


hydro- 


52 SIXTH REPORT-—1836. 


When, however, this test is employed, we must first assure 
ourselves that no chlorides exist in the solution ; for chloride of 
silver, which would be formed, is blackened by the sun’s rays, 
even though no organic matter be present. 

For determining the quality and amount of the gases chemi- 
cally combined with a mineral water, Mr. Walcher* suggested 
a modification in the common apparatus, with a view of obviat- 
ing the error likely to arise from a portion of the water being 
driven over by the ebullition. 

In his experiments, the glass globe containing the water to 
be boiled was connected, air-tight, to a little phial, from which 
proceeded a sigmoid tube, passing under mercury, or into the 
vessel containing the substance intended to absorb the gas. 

Let us suppose, for instance, that our object is to ascertain 
the amount of nitrogen and oxygen which a water contains. In 
that case we fill the phial with carbonie acid, and the graduated 
tube with solution of potass. The air expelled by ebullition, 
together with a portion of the water itself, entering the phial, 
expels the air, which passing into the tube, is robbed of its car- 
bonic acid by the potass. 

After the experiment is over, the air remaining in the phialh 
may easily be transferred into the jar, and the water which 
came over may be passed back again into the glass globe, im 
order that it may be treated like the rest. 

In this manner, perhaps, a somewhat greater degree of ac- 
curacy may be attained, than where a glass globe with a sigmoid 
tube alone is employed. 

But I conceive that the utility of Mr. Walcker’s plan will be 
chiefly felt where the object is to ascertain the amount of sul- 
phuretted hydrogen, or of carbonic acid in a mineral water, by 
boiling it, and passing the gases over into a solution calculated 
to absorb them. 

In such cases, if any portion of the water comes over with 
the gas, the result is entirely vitiated; and to prevent this, 
there seems to be a convenience in the intervening bottle, which, 
however, where sulphuretted hydrogen is expected, should be 
filled with some gas not containing oxygen. 

After all, however, the simplest mode of ascertaining the 
amount of sulphuretted hydrogen is by adding directly to the 
water some reagent, which precipitates it in a state of combi- 
nation. 

Mr. Richard Phillips, in his analysis of a spring near Wey- 
moutht+, has employed the nitrate of silver, which appears to be 


* Brande’s Journal of Science for 1828. 
+ Phil. Mag., vol. iii. p. 158. 


AS este Se ree ee 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 53 


preferable to any other substance, as the only combinations 
formed are the chloride and the sulphuret, of which the former 
is soluble in liquid ammonia, whilst the latter is not acted upon 
by it. 

"y have already stated, that M. Anglada considers the sul- 
phuretted hydrogen of the Pyrenean springs to be combined 
with an alkali. In order to determine whether this be the case 
or not, the test he employs is a solution of arsenious acid*, 
which gives a yellow precipitate with the free acid, but does 
not affect solutions of the hydrosulphurets{-. 

Azote is usually detected by negative trials, but an ingenious 
method of directly proving its presence has lately been sug- 
gested. 

This is, to melt a piece of potass in contact with a slip of 
zinc in the air suspected to contain it, suspending over the two 
a piece of turmeric paper, moistened. 

The water of the potass will thus be decomposed, its oxygen 
passing over to the zinc, and the hydrogen being liberated. 
The latter, at the moment of its separation, unites with any 
azote that may be present, forming ammonia, which produces 
its characteristic effect upon the test paper. 


The fabrication of factitious mineral waters, being entirely 
dependent on the knowledge we may possess of their chemical 
constitution, seems to claim a place immediately after the con- 
sideration of their analysis. 

The subject is one which has excited considerable interest on 
the Continent, in consequence of the labours of Dr. Struve of 
Dresden, who has devoted himself, for a number of years past, 
to the imitation of those natural springs which possess the 
highest reputation amongst his countrymen. 

To do this completely, considerable skill in manipulation, 
and a minute attention to several apparently unimportant cir- 
cumstances, are found to be requisite. 

As the first step of the process, the water intended to be 
mineralized, must be impregnated with the same amount, of car- 
bonic acid, and the other gases which its natural prototype 
possesses ; and, in order to effect this object, the whole of the 
atmospheric air existing in the water must be previously ex- 
pelled, and the carbonic acid added, under a pressure, neither 
greater nor less, than that to which it is subjected in nature. 

All this time the fluid must be kept at the exact temperature 


* Mémoires pour servir, &c., vol. ii. 
+ Prof. Johnston mentions in his Report on Chemistry another method, 
p. 460. 


Azote. 


On  factiti- 
ous mineral 
waters. 


54 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


which the natural spring maintains, and access of air during 
the continuance of the process must be scrupulously prevented. 
This done, the same fixed ingredients must be presented to the 
water, and no one principle omitted, however small may be its 
quantity in nature, or however inert it may in itself be, it being 
recollected that the introduction of a fresh substance, by the affi- 
nities it exerts, alters, according to the Berzelian doctrine, the 
proportions of all the salts previously existing in the water. 
Nor is this all, for it is necessary that the water should be 
maintained at the same temperature and under the same pres- 
sure till the very moment of drinking it. 

Similar precautions must be adopted during the act of bottling, 
the bottle being previously filled with carbonic acid before the 
water is passed into it: for if the vessel were already occupied 
by atmospheric air, much of the carbonic acid existing in the 
water would be expelled, and, consequently, a portion of the 
earthy or metallic ingredients be thrown down. 

To fabricate, therefore, a successful imitation of a natural 
spring, a more complicated apparatus is employed than was 
formerly believed requisite, and the water must be made to pass 
through various successive operations, before the process is 
wound up by the addition of the saline ingredients by which it 
is mineralized. 

When thus prepared, the factitious water will coincide with 
the natural one in taste, smell, specific gravity, and other phy- 
sical properties. The gas-bubbles will rise in the same form, 
and spontaneous decomposition will take place within the same 
period and to the same extent. 

The mineral waters prepared by Struve really seem to fulfill 
these conditions in a great degree, and have stood likewise the 
test of a rigorous chemical analysis, without the detection of any 
deviation from the original. 

Their pretensions, indeed, have been occasionally sneered at, 
as might be expected, by the physicians and chemists, who have 
taken under their patronage the interests of any one of those 
natural waters, for which the artificial ones are offered as sub- 
stitutes. 

“Dr. Struve,’”’ says one*, ‘ professed to prepare genuine 
Carlsbad waters, prior to the analysis of Berzelius, who detected 
in it six or eight new ingredients. He went on doing the same 
after the discoveries of this great chemist had been announced. 
Perhaps ten years hence we shall find half a dozen more princi- 
ples in the water. But no matter, for we shall always find at 
Dr. Struve’s a supply of the true and genuine Carlsbad water.” 


* Peez, Traité des Laux de Wiesbaden, p.93. 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS, 5d 


This is scarcely candid criticism. It may be admitted, in- 
deed, that an artificial mineral water can at best be only a near 
approximation to the natural one, and that we can never be ab- 
solutely sure of having arrived at a knowledge of all the contents 
of the latter. 

Yet even if we take the very case of the Carlsbad waters, 
_ which are quoted against Struve, how minute is the difference 
between the analysis of Berzelius, and that of Klaproth, which 
he had previously taken as his guide. 

Struve* indeed calculates, that during a month’s use of these 
waters, an individual who drank ten glasses full of them each 
day, would not have consumed quite five grains of those ingre- 
dients, which Berzelius’s analysis shows to have been over- 
looked, namely, 


Of iuate OF line ee ee De Se rainis 


Carbonate of strontia  -. . . . . O77 ,, 
PuGsguae Ur tne te ee Oe ag 
Carbonate of magnesia . . . . . O67 ,, 


Subphosphate ofalumina . . . . 0°26 ,, 


Potal O° OT44 GO 


When, therefore, we have a mineral water prepared by art, 
which possesses the same apparent physical properties belong- 
ing to the one which it is intended to imitate, and when the 
best analysis, which the existing state of chemical science ad- 
mits, confirms this identity, there is surely no such antecedent 
improbability, in the idea of its possessing similar medicinal 
virtues, as should indispose us to receive the reports of medical 
men, when they assure us that in this latter respect also the 
same correspondence subsistst. 

Still, however, as the natural spring will always deserve a 
preference, I cannot think that Dr. Struve is happy in fixing, 
as the main seat of his operations, upon Dresden, a city lying 
not very remote from any of the springs which it has been his 
business to imitate. 

It is rather in the branch establishments which have been set 
up under his auspices, at Moscow, Warsaw, Konigsberg, and 
Brighton, that the value of his method will be appreciated, 
since the carbonated waters which he prepares are scarcely to 
be met with in these countries, lying as they do beyond the 
range of those volcanic phenomena, which extend from the 


* Ueber kunstlich. Mineralwasser. 
+ Half the substance of Struve’s work consists of the statements of different 
physicians as to the efficacy of his artificial waters. 


Products of 
springs. 


Calcareous. 


56 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


mountains of the Taunus to those of Bohemia and Silesia, and of 
which this class of springs are among the consequences. 


Before I conclude this portion of my subject, it may be pro- 
per briefly to notice, to what extent mineral waters appear to 
have affected the geological structure of certain parts of the earth. 

Trivial as this influence may seem at present to be, yet it will 
be sufficient to refer to Mr. Lyell’s well-known work, as esta- 
blishing the position, that no inconsiderable portion of the crust 
of the globe, in volcanic countries at least, is attributable to the 
deposits which they have occasioned. 

Without pretending to describe the vast accumulations of tra- 
vertin formed by carbonated springs, in Tuscany, in the Cam- 
pagna di Roma, in Hungary, &c., I shall merely remark, that 
the resemblance, which some varieties of this deposit bear to the 
materials of older calcareous rocks is so great, and the passage 
from one to the other so imperceptible, that we are naturally led 
to suspect the latter to have been often produced in the very 
same manner. 

Thus some varieties of travertin are undistinguishable in hand 
specimens from marble, as that formed by the waters of Civita 
Vecchia in the Campagna*. Others, like that near the town 
of Nonette, on the right bank of the Allier in Auvergne, might 
be mistaken for the Juratic limestone +; and the shelly lime- 
stone, now forming at the bottom of many lakes, bears the most 
complete resemblance to certain tertiary deposits f. 

Even the concretionary structure of the limestone of Sunder- 
land, a rock, which, though existing in the magnesian limestone 
formation, and in the midst of a powdery variety of dolomite, is 
itself almcst wholly calcareous, is imitated by the spheroidal 
masses of travertin that occur at Tivoli and at Carlsbad, and 
may have resulted from the same gyratory motion of its com- 
ponent parts during their deposition, to which Mr. Lyell has 
ingeniously attributed the concentric circles of the latter deposit. 
The absence of magnesia confirms this suspicion. 

In the ocean it is probable that mineral springs fulfill a still 
more important office—that, namely, of supplying with calca- 
reous matter those Mollusc which are building up extensive 
coral reefs ; for, as l observed many years back §, the muriate of 
lime which the ocean contains, would long ago have been ex- 
hausted by the operations of these animalcules, supposing them 
to have the power of decomposing it, and of appropriating its 

* Lyell’s Geology, vol. i. p. 198. 

+ Lecoq and Bouillet, Vues e¢ Coupes d’ Auvergne, p. 131. 
t Lyell, Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol. ii. p. 73. 

§ Inaugural Lecture on Chemistry, Oxford, 1824, 


ke ha eal 
: 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 57 


base, unless we assume this salt to have existed originally in sea- 
water, in such a proportion as would have been seemingly in- 
compatible with marine life. 

Mr. Lyell has also justly remarked, that the same volcanic 
agency, which has raised the bed of the ocean, sufficiently to admit 
of its serving as a basef or the coral reefs which form within 
it, also, by the carbonic acid which it causes to be emitted, oc~- 
casions a larger quantity of that calcareous matter, which they 
require, to be dissolved by the water in their vicinity. Gypseous 
deposits are likewise often produced by springs of the present 
day, as noticed, with respect to those of Baden near Vienna by 
Prevost, and that near the lake Amsanctus by myself. 

. How far the beds of sulphur which occur in volcanic districts, 
and the sulphate of lime which is associated with most beds of salt, 
can be referred to the same, will be discussed afterwards; but we 
must take care not to confound (as some writers appear to have 
done,) the creative effects of mineral waters, with their decompo- 
sing agency. The latter is illustrated in the deposits of the mud- 
volcanos, as they are called, of South America, where vast masses 
of matter, chiefly argillaceous, derived from felspathic rocks de- 
composed by water and acid vapours, are washed down into the 
low country, and there constitute extensive beds. 

The rocks described by Menge*, as formed by hot springs in 
Iceland, are probably of the same description, for it is impossible 
to follow this author in that portion of his statement, in which 
he represents basalt, lava, and trap porphyry, as in the act of 
being produced in them. He appeals indeed to the fact of his 
extracting from the midst of a boiling marsh, a mass of matter, 
which when broken, exhibited the characters of basaltic lava in 
the centre, and towards the surface passed gradually into red and 
grey mud; but it seems just as easy to explain this, by the de- 
composing influence of the water extending gradually from the 
eircumference to the centre, as by the contrary process taking 
place in the reverse direction. 

The siliceous formations actually deposited at the present 
time by springs, appear to be comparatively insignificant, the 
most important: being those of Iceland, and of St. Michael in the 
Azores. It is probable, however, that under the sea, where the 
influence of heat, and the chemical affinity of alkali, are height- 
ened by the effect of an enormous pressure, beds of considerable 
extent may be produced in this manner. 

Iron pyrites has been observed in a deposit from the thermal 


Argilla- 
ceous. 


Siliceous. 


Ferrugi- 


springs of Chaudes Aigues in the Cantal, owing probably to the »°¥s- 


* Edinb. Phil. Journal, vol. ii. 


Bitumi- 
nous. 


Origin of 
springs in 
general. 


58 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


decomposition of sulphate of iron by organic matter*, and ochre 
has been often observed forming, in the midst of travertin, small 
beds or veins, which owe their origin to the deposits from fer- 
ruginous waters ft. 

To petroleum springs, which so commonly arise from the ope- 
rations of volcanic fire, Mr. Lyell is disposed to attribute the bi- 
tuminous shales present in geological formations of different ages. 

Thus the phenomena of mineral waters afford a clew to the 
origin of various constituents of our globe, which it would 
otherwise have been difficult to explain by the mere agency of 
water, and relieve us from the necessity of assuming the opera- 


tion of causes that have ceased to exist, in order to explain the 


occurrence of minerals or beds composed of silica in the midst of 
Neptunian formations. 


Having now collected the principal facts of recent observa- 
tion which have fallen under my notice with respect to the na- 
tural history of mineral waters, I will next proceed to state what 
is known with respect to their origin, and the causes of their 
respective peculiarities. 

The notions entertained by our forefathers with respect to 
the formation of land springs by the infiltration of sea-water, 
deprived of its saltness by its passage through the intervening 
rocks, have long given place to the more rational theory which 
attributes them to the large reservoirs of rain-water, collected 
within the porous strata, and forced out by hydrostatic pressure, 
wherever a natural or artificial opening was created for them. 

A German writer, however, named Kefersteinf, has attempted 
to cast doubts upon this explanation, and to substitute for it 
one founded upon certain fanciful speculations with respect to 
the earth’s vitality, which seem to be the fitting progeny of an 
earlier stage of physical research. 

The earth being, according to him, one great animated being, 
performing functions of a nature analogous to those discharged 
by the living creatures that exist upon its surface, the produc- 
tion of springs is regarded as the result of its respiration ; and 
the discharge of steam, carbonic acid, and nitrogen, together 
with the absorption of oxygen, is viewed as originating in pro- 
cesses similar in kind, to those which are carried on by the 
lungs of animals. 

It is not my purpose to combat this strange hypothesis, 
though if there be any in this country who have already become 
converts to it, they may perhaps find excuses for applying its 


* Berthier, Annales des Mines, 1810. + Lecoq, Vues, §c. p. 120. 
+ In Kastner’s Archiv, vol. iii. p. 359, and in his work entitled, Deutsch- 
land geologisch dargestellt. Halle. 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 59 


principles ta the case of springs, by espying difficulties in cer- 
tain special instances to the application of the received theory. 

It may, however, be sufficient for my purpose to remark, 
that, be the difficulties in question real or. apparent, they are 
not, at least, of moment enough, or applicable to a sufficient num- 
ber of cases, to induce more sober theorists to adopt the views, 
which it has been proposed to substitute for the received ones. 

The majority of naturalists will be contented with appealing 
to the researches of Dr. Dalton, who, in a paper published in 
the Manchester Memoirs*, has shown the adequacy of the water 
which descends from the heavens in the part of England he 
inhabits, to supply the springs of that district, notwithstanding 
the loss arising from evaporation. 

There appears indeed, from his calculation, to be an excess 
of 2 inches per annum in the latter beyond the amount of rain 
and dew which fall; but this excess Dr. Dalton thinks may be 
explained without resorting to any other supposition than the 
one alluded to. 

Yet, although the general theory will scarcely admit of dis- 
pute, it is satisfactory to collect facts on this subject, in order 
to compare with the former; and one singularity has been ob- 
served in the instance of springs issuing from chalk, which appear 
to be most copious in June, and least so in Decembert. 

This, however, seems referable to the slowness with which 
water percolates so thick a stratum as the chalk, and is analo- 
gous to what has been observed with respect to terrestrial heat, 
where the excess of summer temperature does not reach the 
utmost limit of its progress into the earth till about the middle 
of winter. 

Mr. Henwood{ has also stated the quantity of water given 
out by the springs in a certain district of Cornwall, as deter- 
mined by the amount raised by the engines in particular mines; 
and concludes, that it is greater by one third than that of the 
rain falling in the country. 

This, however, may easily arise, owing to the mines drawing 
water from a much larger surface, than the area of country di- 
rectly overlying them, which, as being the deepest spots for a 
considerable distance, they may readily be conceived to do. 

To descend from the general theory of springs to the causes 
of their particular characters, I will first notice the circumstance 
of temperature. 


_* Vol.v. See also Arago on Artesian Wells, in the Annuaire for 1835, 
translated in Jameson’s Journal. 

ft Bland in Phil. Magazine for 1832, p. 38. 

t Phil, Magazine, New Serics, vol.i, 1832, p. 287. 


Origin of 
thermal 
springs. 


60 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


According to Von Buch* all springs containing carbonic acid 
are more or less thermal, and Gustavus Bischof goes so far as 
to assert, that this remark extends universally to springs of con- 
stant temperaturet. 

The smallest difference, he says, between the warmth of the 
springs of a country and that of the soil, is never less than 24 
degrees of Fahrenheit. 

But I have already observed, that Bischof generalized on 
too narrow a basis, when he inferred from the observations 
quoted in his memoir the universality of such a law. 

It is one indeed directly at variance with the tenour of obser- 
vations made within the tropics, which seem to show, that in 
warm climates the mean temperature of the atmosphere is even 
higher than that of the perennial springs f. 

And if the remark be limited to colder regions, many ano- 
malies require to be reconciled, and a much more extensive se- 
ries of observations gone through, before it can be decided, 
whether this augmentation of temperature be the result of a ge- 
neral law, or of local circumstances. Thus, for example, if, as 
Humboldt and others have supposed, the excess of temperature 
in springs over the atmosphere increases with the latitude, then 
indeed the temperature assigned by Bischof as the minimum in 
the case of those near Andernach, in lat. 507°, squares very well 
with the rate of progression indicated by observations, on the 
springs of Paris in lat. 49°, and those of Berlin in lat. 524° §. 

For at Paris the mean temperature of the climate was found 
at 51°6, and that of the springs 52°°7, the excess being 1°15 
whilst at Berlin the atmospheric temperature was 46°4, terres- 
trial 50°-2, excess 3°°8, indicating a rate of progression equal to 
about 1°°8 of temperature to 1° of latitude. 

But, on the other hand, the accurate observations of Playfair 
have shown, that at Edinburgh, in a still higher latitude, viz. 
55°°58, the temperature of springs is identical with that of the 
atmosphere, so that the supposed progression would seem to be 
confined to a still higher latitude than this. 

Neither are the observations of Wahlenberg in the Scandina- 

* Poggendorfi’s Annalen, vol. xii. p.415. 

+ Edinburgh New Phil. Journal for April 1836. 

+ See Von Buch, on the Temperature of Springs, Edinburgh New Phil. 
Journal, October, 1828, or his work on the Canary Islands, p. 84, French 
translation ; where he accounts for the fact, from the circumstance of the 
springs being derived from rain, which had fallen exclusively during the 
colder months, and which does not readily acquire, within the slowly con- 
ducting substance of the strata containing them, the temperature of the hotter 


portions of the year. See also Bischof’s often quoted memoir, in which he dis- 
putes the general law, and supposes the tropical springs alluded to, to have been 


derived from high mountains, and therefore to possess a lower temperature. — 


§ Humboldt on Isothermal Lines, Edinburgh New Phil, Journal. 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 61i 


vian Peninsula *, nor those of Kupffer on the Ural range f, ab- 
solutely conclusive, as to the generality of the supposed law even 
in the high latitudes to which they refer. 

The elevation of temperature may, for ought we know, be con- 
fined to the neighbourhood of uplifted chains of mountains ; it 
may be a consequence of those great natural events to which are 
owing the disturbances there experienced ; and consequently it 
may not extend to the great plains of Russia or Siberia, where 
no such local influences exist. Or if it should be found on further 
examination to be general in northern latitudes, it will still re- 
main to be discussed, before referring it to central heat, whether 
the phenomenon may not depend upon the cause suggested b 
Von Buch in the memoir before referred to, namely, that the 
transmission of temperature through the earth chiefly takes 
place by the infiltration of water, a cause which, of course, 
ceases to operate below 32°. 

Granting, however, that the springs, which Bischof has no- 
ticed, owe their excess of temperature in part to a generally per- 
vading cause of heat, we have still to account for the enormous 
differences in this respect existing between one and another, and 
this is what I now propose to consider. 

The degree in which they exceed the mean of the climate is 
dependent, amongst other circumstances, on the elevation on the 
earth’s surface at which they issue. 

Von Buch f has given various instances of springs, belonging 
to the same district, but bursting out at different heights, which, 
though they may correspond in mineral and gaseous impregna- 
tion, differ materially in temperature, the lowest being the hot- 
test. 

Boussingault§ also states, that in the littoral chain of Vene- 
zuela the temperature of the thermal springs is less in propor- 
tion as their absolute height is greater. 

Thus the warm spring of Las Funcheras near Puerto Cabello, 
which approaches the level of the sea, possesses a temperature of 
97° cent. That of Manaro, at a height of 476 metres, has only 
one of 64°; and that of Onoto, at 702 metres, only 44°°5. 

This regularity, however, does not extend to hot springs in 
immediate contact with volcanos. Von Buch|| conjectures, that 
the heat of such springs is derived from the carbonic acid which 
impregnates them, and which possesses itself a high temperature, 
as having proceeded from a great depth. 


* Annals of Philosophy, vol. iv. 1814, translated from Gilbert’s Annalen. 
+ Kupffer in Edinburgh New Phil. Journal, vol. xxii. 

t Poggendorff’s Annalen, vol. xxii. § Annales de Chimie, 1831. 
|| Poggendorff’s Annalen, yol. xii. p.415. 


Geological 
position of 
thermal 
springs: 


1st, near 
volcanos. 


62 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


This, however, is controverted by Bischof *, who shows clearly 
that no considerable augmentation could have arisen from such 
a cause. 

Brongniart, in an article + in the Dictionnaire des Sciences 
Naturelles, has pointed out, that the temperature of thermal 
springs is regulated by the nature of the rocks from which they 
issue. 

The hottest are those associated with recent volcanos, next 
those proceeding from extinct ones, or from primary rocks, and 
lowest in the scale such as are connected with younger forma- 
tions ; and though this rule may admit of exceptions, yet it 
seems to hold good in the majority of cases. 

Now this observation of Brongniart will be found to har- 
monize, and to point the same way, with the conclusions to 
which I have myself been conducted by the study of thermal 
springs, a summary of which will be found in an article in the 
London Review fér 1829, and in a memoir inserted in the Edin- 
burgh New Philosophical Journal for 1831. 

In these publications I have attempted to show, that by far the 
majority of thermal waters arise, either from rocks of a volcanic 
nature, from the vicinity of some uplifted chain of mountains, 
or lastly, from clefts and fissures caused by disruption. 

In many cases, indeed, all the above circumstances are seen 
combined ; for the same spring may at once issue from the midst 
of volcanic products, be situated at the foot of an uplifted chain, 
and proceed out of a chasm or fissure; so that, in classifying 
springs according to the above plan, we should find man 
perhaps possessing an equal claim to a place in all the three di- 
visions. 

This circumstance, however, although it might prevent our 
adopting the above distinction, as the basis of a classification of 
mineral springs, only adds strength to the argument in favour of 
a common origin being ascribed to them. 

With respect to the first of these classes of springs, I have 
pointed out in a subsequent paper {, that they may be placed 
under two heads, namely, first, those impregnated with gases 
which are derived from volcanic energy, and probably owe their 
origin to processes now continuing ; and secondly, those which, 
from the absence of such accompaniments, seem to be nothing 
more than reservoirs of water heated by coming into contact, 
with a mass of rock, retaining some of the warmth it had acquired 
from the volcanic operations of an antecedent period. 

The springs of Mount Dor, of Hungary, and some of those in 


* On Hot and Thermal Springs, Ed. Journal, 1836. + Eaux. 
t On a Spring at Torre del Annunziata in Edinb. New Phil. Journal, 1835. 


ee eyes 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 63 


the Andes, are instances of the former ; those of Ischia, noticed 
by myself, and those enumerated under the head of “ simple 
thermal waters,”’ by Anglada*, and by Fodéré +, which latter are 
called in the country chaudons, and spring from below beds of 
gypsum, I consider to be illustrative of the latter. 

The connexion of thermal waters with uplifted chains will 
best be seen by coupling this description of springs with the 
carbonated ones which usually accompany them, and which, 
from the similarity of their mineral, and still more of their gaseous 
constitution, no less than that of their geological position, seem 
plainly. referable to the same system of causes. 

Gustavus Bischof, in the work so often quoted, has enume- 
rated nine of these groups existing in different parts of Europe, 
alike impregnated with carbonic acid and soda. These are 

1. The springs of the Eyfel and Siebengebirge. 

2. Those of the Westerwald and Taunus. 

3. Of the Habichtswald, Meissner, Vogelsgebirge, and Rhon- 
gebirge. 

4. Of the Fichtelgebirge. 

5. Of the Erzgebirge. 

6. Of the Bohemian Mittelgebirge. 

7. Of the Riesengebirge in Silesia. 

8. Of Auvergne and the Vivarais in France. 

9. Of the Pyrenees it. : 

Now it is to be observed, that of the above groups two, 
namely, the mineral springs of the Rhine Province, and those of 
Central France, belong to our antecedent class ; and that a por- 
tion at least of the sixth group is allied to the same, since the 
mineral waters of Toeplitz aud Bilin are manifestly in connex- 
ion with the porphyry-slate, and the volcanic products of the 
Mittelgebirge, and those of Franzensbad, with the little volcanic 
crater and scoriform lava of the Kammerburg in its immediate 
neighbourhood. 

With regard to the remainder, it may be remarked, that 
the existence of trappean or porphyritic rocks in the vicinity 
of many of them, is a circumstance strongly corroborative of 
their volcanic origin, and consequently of the operation of forces 
capable of uplifting the mountains in their vicinity. 

It is likewise a negative proof of the same connexion, that no 
mineral springs of such a constitution are found on the continent 
of Europe, considerably north of the limit to which basaltic and 


* Vol. ii. p. 170. 

+ Voyages aux Alpes maritimes, p. 155. 

} We have seen, however, that Anglada denies the existence of carbonic 
acid in these waters. 


2nd, near 
systems of 
elevation. 


Relation 
of these 
springs to 
the rocks 
contiguous. 


64 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


trappean rocks extend, a limit which nearly coincides with the 
line of elevation passing through the centre of Germany. 

It is certain, at least, that throughout those vast tracts of 
comparatively level country, which constitute the greater part of 
Northern Russia, Poland, and Prussia, neither basaltic rocks, nor 
thermal or carbonated springs have been noticed, whilst both the 
one and the other appear to become more and more abundant, 
in proportion as other indications of volcanic action appear. 

The above-mentioned groups however constitute but a small 
part of those distributed throughout Europe. 

I have already shown, that the thermal springs of the Alps 
often contain alkali, and the occasional absence of that ingre- 
dient ought surely not to place them in another class, when their 
gaseous impregnation and other phenomena coincide with those 
included under it. 

There is therefore a group of thermal springs manifesting 
itself, both in the central chain of the Alps, as at Baden in 
Argau, Schinznach, Pfeffers, and Loueche, and on its western 
and southern flank, at Aix in Savoy, St. Didier, Bonneval, and 
at Acqui and Coni in Piedmont. : 

Nor are other chains of mountains destitute of their own ap- 
propriate systems of thermal and carbonated springs. To men- 
tion one of the least known, that indefatigable geologist, 
Dr. Boué, who has lately been exploring the provinces of 
European Turkey, informs me, that in Servia and Bosnia, there 
exist acidulous and saline mineral waters, like those of Nassau, 
and that in the western part of the former province, as well as 
in Bulgaria, a line of hot springs with sulphuretted hydrogen, 
and probably azote, makes its appearance. 

The line begins at Mehadia in the Bannat, and continues to 
the south of Nissa. The great masses of travertin found in 
the neighbourhood denote, that carbonic acid was formerly 
evolved in large quantities. 

South of the Balkan and Orbelus, is a line of hot springs, 
running from east to west, which also contain sulphuretted 
hydrogen. Their highest temperature is 58° R. (162° Fahr.). 

Eruptions of trachyte and dolerite seem to have been the pre- 
cursors of the bursting out of these latter springs. 

Without extending our inquiry into other parts of the globe, 
where it would be easy to point out groups of mineral springs 
similarly constituted, let us consider how the latter stand re- 
lated to the mountains in the vicinity of which they lie. 

It would seem, as I have remarked in the memoir on Thermal 
Waters before referred to, that a large proportion of them are 
placed near the line at which the elevation of the chain appears 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 65 


to have commenced; but that when situated near to its axis, 
they generally occur in some deep valley, and consequently at a 
comparatively low level. 

_This is the case with Barege and Cauterets in the Pyrenees, 
and with St. Gervais in the Alps, which latter, as M. Delarive* 
had many years ago observed, is situated exactly on the spot 
which, of all others, unites most completely the conditions, of 
approaching in the nearest degree to the centre of the chain, and 
being at the same time least elevated above the level of the ocean. 

But Professor Forbes, in an interesting memoir to which I 
haye already had occasion to refert, points out other circum- 
stances of physical constitution, which seem to characterize the 
greater part, at least, of springs of this description. 

He has shown, by an extensive induction of particulars, that 
the thermal springs of the Pyrenees, for the most part gush out 
from the vicinity of intrusive rocks, such as granite, serpentine, 
greenstone, and the like; moreover, that the structure and po- 
sition of the stratum through which the latter have heen thrust, 
are both of such a nature as to afford indications of violence. 

Several of these thermal waters he has even traced, rising ex- 
actly from the line of junction between the granite and the 
stratified rock. 

And this brings me to the consideration of the third circum- 3rdly. Con- 
stance alluded to as characterizing thermal waters ; I mean their tiguous to 
connexion with faults or dislocations. aay 

This mutual relation is illustrated by the case of the Carlsbad dislocations. 
springs, according to the description of them given by Von Hoff. 

They are described by him as issuing from the bottom of a 
narrow glen, bearing in itself the evidences of some great natural 
convulsion. 

It lies nearly at right angles to the valleys of denudation that 
exist in the immediate neighbourhood ; it is more narrow and 
more precipitous than the latter ; and, as Von Hoff states, the 
granite which forms the fundamental rock, is overlaid by a 
breccia, made up of fragments of this rock cemented together by 
a siliceous paste, which is in great measure covered over by the 
calc. sinter deposited at present by the springs, but in one side of 
the valley protrudes itself, and appears above it. 

This breccia Von Hoff attributes to the spring, which in former 
times, like those of Iceland, may have deposited siliceous matter ; 
but as, on a recent visit to Carlsbad, I could perceive no kind of 
breccia that bore the appearance of having been cemented b 
the materials of a thermal water, I am disposed to doubt this 


* Bibliotheque Britannique. t Phil. Trans. 1836. 
t Geognostiche bemerkunyen itber Karlsbad. Gotha, 1825. 


VOL. Vv.—1836. F 


66 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


part of Von Hoff’s statement, although able to confirm the gene- 
ral truth of his representation. 

Stifft, in his geological description of the neighbourhood 
of Wiesbaden*, remarks, that the following facts have been ob- 
served by himself relative to the springs of the Nassau territory. 

Ist. That they follow distinctly six lines, and thus evince a 
determinate direction. 

2nd. That the rocks in their neighbourhood manifest evident 
changes in the direction and inclination of their strata, especially 
saddle-shaped elevations, often accompanied with fractures. 

3rd. That in many places the adjacent rocks themselves ap- 
pear altered, and are more friable than elsewhere. 

In my memoir on Thermal Springs already referred to, I have 
pointed out several instances of the same connexion, between 
the existence of evidences of dislocation in the strata, and the 
bursting out of thermal springs, as occurring along the line of 
the Pyrenean chain, as at Aleth, Rennes, and Campagne, and 
still more remarkably at St. Paul de Fenouilhedes, on the road 
from Carcassone to Perpignan, near the town of Caudiez, all in 
Roussillon. The same fact is still more strikingly illustrated, by 
the structure of the country at St. Vincent’s rocks, as described 
by Conybeare and Buckland}, and at Matlock, as long ago 
pointed out by Whitehurst{ ; for, since the rocks from which the 
thermal waters in these two instances proceed, are stratified, the 
inference, to which the mere inspection of the localities conducts 
us, is confirmed by the unconformable disposition of the strata 
themselves ; we not only observe springs gushing out from a 
narrow and precipitous cleft, but we find on examination the 
strata tilted up and disarranged, ina manner which implies that 
some violent action must have taken place. Mr. Murchison 
and Mr. Lyell§ have also remarked, that the hot spring of Aix 
in Provence lies contiguous to some remarkable dislocations of 
the strata. 

We must not, indeed, strain too far our inferences from this 
one circumstance ; for it is probable, as has lately been shown by 
Mr. Hopkins||, that natural springs, of whatever temperature, 
have their origin very commonly in fissures, which appear owing 
to dislocations or disturbances in the strata. 

The latter, however, exhibit no evidences of violence, at all 
comparable to those afforded by the great natural chasms, to 


* In Rullman’s Wiesbaden. 

+ Geological Transactions, vol.i. New Series, ‘‘ On the South West Coal 
Field of England.” 

{ Whitehurst’s Theory of the Earth, 1786. 

§ Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 

|| Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, 1836. 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 67 


which I have principally appealed, exhibited at Carlsbad, Mat- 
lock, and Clifton. 

And it is only in the last of these instances, where, fortunately 
for our argument, the evidence is of a more decisive character 
than in the rest, that we are unable to strengthen it by other 
collateral proofs, derived from the presence of intrusive rocks, 
or the general appearance of the surrounding country. 

In the other examples cited, 1 might have been indisposed to 
‘build upon this one fact, as a decisive proof of violent action 
having taken place in the locality, had not the probability of 
such events having occurred, obtained confirmation from other 
circumstances that had been pointed out. 

Thus at Carlsbad, the existence of volcanic products both to 
the east and west of the spot, as well as the propinquity of the 
spring itself to a mountain range, which doubtless owes its ele- 
vation to volcanic forces, together strengthen the inference 
which the particular character of the locality would dispose us 
to adopt. 


It appears then, that the geological position of thermal waters Theories of 
in general leads to the conclusion, that they are connected with thermal 
certain volcanic processes going on near the places in which “P'S 
they occur; but it must be at the same time admitted, that in a 
few special cases a high temperature is imparted to the springs Local 
of a district, by causes of a more local and superficial character. ¢"s¢s- 

Thus Kastner* states, that in the Westerwald, between Ma- 
rienburg and Stockhausen, the burning of brown coal under- 
ground has caused so great a heat in the contiguous rocks, as to 
give rise to several warm springs, which are characterized by 
the presence of acetic and succinic acids, both probably derived 

_ from the slow distillation of lignite. 

Setting aside, however, these comparatively rare and special General 
cases, let us next briefly consider, how far the facts detailed in °*"S°- 
the preceding part of this Report, will assist us in explaining 
_the cause of that exalted temperature, which thermal springs 

in common with other volcanic phenomena exhibit. 

With respect to this question, a recent memoir by Professor 
Bischof of Bonnt, may be quoted, as disposing successfully of 
the hypotheses, in which certain chemical processes going on at 
the present time near the surface, such, for example, as the de- 
composition of pyrites, were appealed to, as capable of producing 

| the heat which these springs possess. He has also said enough 
| respecting another hypothesis, that of Anglada, who attributes 


TA 


we 


| * Archiv, vol.xvi. + Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, April, 1836. 
F 2 


Chemical 
theory 
stated. 


68 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


the heat of springs to the action of electricity. This mighty 
ugent is doubtless concerned in many of the changes which go 
on in rocks, but before we attribute to it the production of that 
steady heat which resides in certain springs, we ought to eon- 
sider, what peculiar disposition of strata would be necessary to 
give rise to it, what evidence there is of such a disposition exist- 
ing, and why, if it exist at all, it be not more general, and thus 
render the occurrence of hot springs less a local phenomenon.* 

None of these questions having been entered upon by An-' 
glada, it would be superfluous at present to proceed to a formal 
consideration of his hypothesis. 

Neither need I dwell upon any such hypotheses, as are founded 
on assumptions, which either seem contrary to acknowledged 
principles of physics, or which would be rejected by the general 
voice of men of science as absurd and fanciful. : 

Thus I shall do no more than allude to the mode, in which 
Aristotle somewhereaccounts for the high temperature of springs, 
by supposing, that as the figure of the earth is spherical, the 
solar rays penetrating its substance, ought to meet in the centre, 
as in the focus of a burning glass, and thus produce there an 
intense degree of heat. 

Neither shall I labour to refute the idea of Keferstein, that 
thermal springs are merely the result of, what he is pleased to 
call, the respiratory process of the earth, resting, as that opinion 
does, upon the assumption, that the globe itself is an animated 
body, a position, which I am loth seriously to attack, not know- 
ing in what precise sense his language is to be interpreted. 


But there remain two theories with respect to the origin of 
thermal springs, that seem to deserve a more attentive con- 
sideration. 

The former of these supposes them to arise from chemical 
processes carried on within the earth, processes, however, 
which possess nothing, in common with those witnessed on or 
near the surface, except: the circumstance of being attended with 
an absorption of oxygen. 

If it be further demanded of the advocates of this theory, 
what particular chemical processes are alluded to, they will pro- 
bably reply*, that a competent explanation of the phenomena 


* They ought however carefully to distinguish, between that which appears 
to be a direct inference from observed facts, and what at the most can ad- 
vance no higher claim, than of being a plausible conjecture. The general 
occurrence of volcanos in the neighbourhood of the sea, and the constant 
disengagement of aqueous vapour and of sea-salt from their interior, are 
facts, which establish in my mind a conviction, that water finds its way to 
the seat of the igneous operations, almost as complete, as if I were myself an 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 69 


would be afforded, by the supposed oxidation of the bases, of 
those alkalis, earths, and metallic oxides, which are found to 
constitute the crust of the globe, through the agency, first of 
water, and afterwards of atmospheric air. 

Such, in a few words, was the theory which I adopted, to 
account for the phenomena of volcanos* in a work published on 
that subject in 1826+; and to the same, after a mature, and, I 
trust, an impartial review of the question, I am still disposed to 
adhere, in preference at least to any other. 

In an article entitled GrEoLoey, in the Encyclopedia Metro- 
politana, I have endeavoured to reply to all the arguments that 
had been subsequently urged against my views ; and if I have not 
noticed every individual objection, it has only been, because 
the same difficulties were brought forward again and again by 
different persons, often without any allusion being made to the 
answers, which I had given to similar ones before. 

The latter theory, discarding all chemical operations whatso- 
ever, regards thermal springs as arising merely from the internal 
heat of the globe, and consequently as possessing a temperature 
high, in proportion to the depth from which they have themselves 
proceeded. 

For, as the temperature of the earth augments, as we descend, 
on the average, about 1° of Fahr. for every 100 feet, it is evident, 
that, if the increase be progressive, water would arrive at its 
boiling point at a depth not exceeding three miles, and there is 
no difficulty in understanding, that it should retain the greater 


Theory of 
central 
heat. 


part of that exalted temperature, when once the channels and | 


passages in the rock, through which it reached the surface, were 
thoroughly penetrated by the heat. 
The theory just mentioned is sanctioned by the high autho- 


eye-witness of another Phlegethon discharging itself into the bowels of the 
earth, in every volcanic district, as in the solitary case of Cephalonia. 

Nor, as I shall afterwards attempt to prove, is the access of atmospheric 
air to volcanos more questionable, than that of water ; so that the appearance, 
of hydrogen united with sulphur, and of nitrogen, either alone, or combined 
with hydrogen, at the mouth of the volcano, seems a direct proof, that oxygen 
has been abstracted by some process or other from both. 

Having satisfied our minds with regard to the fact of internal oxidation, 
we naturally turn to consider, what principles can have existed in the inte- 
rior of the earth, capable of abstracting oxygen from water, as well as from 
air; and this leads us to speculate on the bases of the earths and alkalis as 
having caused it. But in ascribing the phenomena to the oxidation of these 
hodies, we ought not to lose sight of the Baconian maxim, that in every well- 
established theory, the cause assigned should be, not only competent to explain 
the phenomena, but also known to have a real existence, which latter cannot 
be predicated of my alkaline and earthy metalloids in the interior of the 
earth. 

* Description of Active and Extinct Volcanos. London, 1826. 


70 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


rity of Laplace, and has also received the support of many mo- 
dern naturalists. 

Professor Bischof *, in adopting it, has undertaken in a late 
paper first of all to refute the opposite hypothesis, but in at- 
tempting so todo, has, I conceive, mistaken the views of its ad- 
vocates. 

Thus he quotes an experiment of his own, in which the com- 
bustion of 15 grains of sodium, in water containing a quantity of 
sulphuric and muriatie acid, such as would be adequate to form 
the saline matter present in a particular thermal spring, raised 
the temperature of 1000 grains of water scarcely 3°; and this 
he alleges as a proof, that the heat cannot have arisen from any 
process of oxidation in which sodium acts a part. 

But under either view of the subject, the increased tempera- 
ture of the spring must be attributed to that of the contiguous 
rocks, the only question being, do these rocks derive their high 
temperature from a central fluid mass, or from chemical pro- 
cesses taking place generally in the interior of the globe? 

Having discussed this question at length elsewhere, I will at 
present confine myself to remarking, that the supporters of Bi- 
schof’s views ought to be able toexplain tous,why thermal springs 
are of local occurrence, and most frequent in proportion to the 
frequency of other indications of igneous activity; and if these 
latter indications are assumed to be themselves nothing more, 
than the result of the contraction of the earth’s crust upon its 
internal fluid contents, why that contraction should be always 
accompanied with those exertions of explosive energy which we 
witness in voleanos, and those emissions of gas which are com- 
mon to both. 

They should also explain to us, why primary rocks, traversed 
as they so frequently are with fissures of all descriptions, should 
not in every part of the world, and in every kind of situation, give 
rise to hot springs, by evolving steam from their interior, and 
why they never appear to give issue to that class of thermal 
waters, which I have noticed in Ischia as being unaccompanied 
with gaseous products, and which therefore I suppose, to be 
purely the result of the infiltration of water to spots in the in- 
terior of the earth retaining a high temperature. 

In order however duly to appreciate the degree of support, 
which the chemical theory of thermal waters appears to derive 
from the nature of the gases whicb accompany them, I shall 
next propose to consider in detail the manner, in which these 
clastic fluids may severally be supposed to have been generated. 


* Edinburgh Phil. Jownal for April 1836. 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 71 


The carbonic acid, which is so frequent an accompaniment of Origin of 
thermal waters, is explained by Bischof *, as deriving its origin tbs Wee jac 
from the calcination of earthy carbonates by the heat beneath ; need 
and to this view there seems to be no objection, provided only from 
we admit, that a portion of water is present, without which, *P""s* 
as Faraday has shown, no disengagement of carbonic acid would 
take place under the influence of even a great heat. 

But that the amount of carbonic acid emitted bears some re- 
lation to the igneous or eruptive agency heretofore exerted, will 
appear by amere enumeration of the localities in which this gas 
most abounds. 

Passing over its copious emission in the neighbourhood of 
active and extinct volcanos, I may notice the observations of 
Hoffman +, who has stated, that the carbonic acid so abundantly 
evolved at Pyrmont, rises out of what he describes as a circular 
valley of elevation, caused by the heaving up of the rocks in all 
directions round this central point. 

Sometimes-also the evolution of carbonic acid is connected 
with faults, as has been observed by Professor Phillips with re- 
spect to the carbonated or petrifying springs of Yorkshire {. 

So general indeed is the distribution of calcareous rocks in 
the older, as well as the more modern formations, that I do not 
see the force of the objection started by Berzelius to the chemical 
theory of volcanos, in a notice with which he some years ago 
honoured the work I had published on that subject §, in which 
he says, that it fails in accounting for the extrication of carbonic 
acid gas, as a consequence of volcanic action. 

For my own part, inasmuch as an intense degree of heat is the 
immediate effect of these operations, and as rocks containing 
carbonic acid in a fixed state are so generally diffused, I should 
conceive that the extrication of this gas would have been anti- 
cipated to be a natural result of the process; unless, indeed, by 
those theorists, who, maintaining the contrary hypothesis in its 
simplest form, refuse even to admit that water has had any ne- 
cessary share in the phenomena. 


The evolution of nitrogen from springs has been discussed by Origin of 
Berzelius, Anglada, and others. the nitro- 

Berzelius|| supposes it to arise from the decomposition of the °°" 
organic matter which these waters contain, whilst Anglada{ 


* Vulkanischen Mineralquellen, p. 255. 

+ On Valleys of Elevation, Edinburgh New Phil. Journal, October, 1830. 
t See my memoir on Thermal Springs already referred to. 

§ Jahresbericht, vol. vii. p. 352. 

|| “‘ Analyse des Eaux de Carlsbad,” Ann. de Chim., vol. xxiii. 

4] Mémoires pour servir, &c. 


72 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


refers it to the atmospheric air present in them, the oxygen of 
which is absorbed by the sulphur found along with it. 

The theory of Berzelius may perhaps suit those cases, in which 
the quantity disengaged is small, but can scarcely be extended 
to others, in which it is more considerable. 

No amount of organic matter, that can be supposed to exist 
in the thermal water, could produce a constant supply of nitrogen, 
continuing for hundreds and probably thousands of years, equal 
on an average to 222 cubic feet in the 24 hours, as at the hot 
spring of Bath. 

It would also have seemed needless to remark, had not the 
circumstance been overlooked by some who have commented 
upon this phenomenon, that the decomposition of organic mat- 
ter would generate other gases never met with amongst thermal 
springs, especially carburetted hydrogen, which is actually found 
to accompany nitrogen in cases where the latter proceeds from 
organic matter, as was determined, with respect to the gas that 
renders buoyant the floating island of Derwentwater, by Dr. Dal- 
ton. 

The explanation of Anglada seems to me only faulty in not 
being sufficiently general. 

Sulphur no doubt is one of the principles by which the oxygen 
is abstracted, but it does not seem probable that it should be the 
only one; and the case of Bath alone serves to show, that it is 
sometimes absent altogether from waters, where the evolution 
of nitrogen is most abundant. 

In short, the only direct inference, that seems deducible from 
the fact of the copious evolution of nitrogen from thermal 
waters is, that certain processes, occasioning the abstraction of 
oxygen from common air,are going on in the interior of the 
earth. 

This inference remains the same, whether we suppose the 
nitrogen emitted, to consist merely of that carried down by 
the atmospheric waters, by which the thermal spring is main-. 
tained, or to be the residue of the atmospheric air, that had 
found its way into cavities, where these processes are taking 

lace. 

Both explanations may occasionally be true; but whichever 
one we choose to adopt, the ultimate fact is still as before, 
namely, that a quantity of air, which, if derived from the atmo- 
sphere, contained originally th of its volume of oxygen, and if 
from atmospheric water, would contain nearly double that amount, 
returns to the surface, often with scarcely ;3,5th, and at most 
with not more than ;45th, of this latter ingredient. 

That atmospheric air does find its way into the interior of the 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 13 


globe, and probably pervades every portion of its solid contents, 
is a fact, of which a little reflection will convince us. 

Independently of, the cracks and fissures, by which the earth’s 
crust is everywhere intersected, the large cavities it so frequently 
envelopes, and its general porosity and permeability to water 
containing air in solution, the solid strata themselves have the 
property, as has been shown by Saussure*, in various degrees, 
of absorbing oxygen and nitrogen gases; though it is to be re- 
marked, that by a curious provision of nature, apparently de- 
signed to forward the process of internal oxidation, the two 
gases are absorbed, not in the proportion of five to one, but in 
nearly equal ratios. 

Professor Meinecke of Halle} is the only person, so far as I 
know, who has availed himself of this, as a principle on which 
to explain other phenomena; and his remarks, owing to certain 
loose and fanciful speculations interwoven with them, have not 
yet obtained much attention. 

Nevertheless, if it be true, that air pervades even the solid 
portions of our globe, down at least to a considerable depth, it 
seems not absurd to imagine, that it may suddenly be augmented 
by an increase of atmospheric pressure above, or diminished by 
processes taking place in the interior of the earth. 

Such, in the main, are the views of Professor Meinecke, who 
imagines the amount of air retained in the interior of the earth, 
to be in a state of constant oscillation, and thus,. reacting upon 
the atmosphere above, to be one of the causes of the variation 
of the barometer. He even attributes, to an extraordinary ab- 
sorption of air within the earth, a remarkable sinking of the 
barometer, which took place without any other assignable cause 
at Christmas 1821. 


The sulphuretted hydrogen, which so many springs contain, 
has been attributed to the action of organic matter upon alka- 
line and earthy sulphates; and M. Henry of Parist has cited 
an example, where a spring, which at its source contained sul- 
phates of soda, magnesia, and lime, but no sulphuretted hydro- 
gen, was found to have acquired a trace of that gas, at the ex- 
pense of its sulphuric acid, after mixing with the water of a 
washing place. 

It seems probable, that the hepatic smells, which occur in the 
waste and stagnant waters of towns, sometimes arise from this 


* Bibliotheque Britannique, vol. xlix. p. 319. 
+ Schweigger’s Journal, vol. viii. 1823. 
~ Journal de Pharmacie. for 1827, p. 493. 


Origin of 
the sul- 

phuretted 
hydrogen. 


Origin 
of salt 
springs. 


74 SIXTH REPORT— 1836. 


cause; and M. Brongniart* attributes the sulphuretted hydro- 
gen present in the mineral water of Enghien, to the action of 
organic matter upon beds of gypsum belonging to the Paris 
Basin. 

But no one would attempt to explain in this manner, the sul- 
phuretted hydrogen contained in many thermal waters, still less 
that evolved from volcanos ; a phenomenon, which seems to me 
to supply just the same evidence of the decomposition of water 
within the earth, which the emission of nitrogen affords of the 
abstraction of oxygen from atmospheric air. And if it should 
be established, as many observers of volcanic phenomena have 
thought probable, that the sulphur, which finds its way to the 
surface by the agency of velcanos, is always held in solution 
either by oxygen or hydrogen gases, the enormous quantity of 
either principle which is sent back to the atmosphere in con- 
junction with this Inflammable, may be in some measure appre- 
ciated from one circumstance alone, namely, from the vast beds 
of voleanic sulphur accumulated in many parts of Italy, and still 
more remarkably in Sicily. 

Professor Phillips is even of opinion, that the origin of the mi- 
neral impregnation of the waters of Harrogate is to be ascribed, 
to the chemical effects specially exerted along the line of a 
subterranean disturbance, which he has traced in the vicinity 
of these springs; and Mr. Murchison has been led to similar 
conclusions, with respect to the sulphureous spring of Llanwr- 
tyd, by the geological structure of that locality. 


The only remaining class of springs, that requires further no- 
tice, is that which contains common salt, and the other ingre- 
dients of our present seas. 

The origin of these springs from masses of salt or muriatiferous 
clays, produced by the evaporation of sea-water, or of lakes 
of similar composition, would seem sufficiently obvious; and 
Mr. Lyell} has even attempted to explain the manner, in which 
a deposition of salt may be taking place at the present day from 
the waters of the Mediterranean, so as eventually to build up a 
bed of rock salt underneath it. 

But although the law of the increasing specific gravity] of 
water, in proportion to the degree of its saline impregnation, 
would favour the process of deposition, when once it had com- 
menced, by keeping up a constant supply of the strongest brine 
near the bottom of the sea, we still seem to want some agent, for 


* Dict. d’ Hist. Nat., art. Eaux. + Principles of Geology, vol. i. p. 297. 
{ See a curious paper on the increasing strength of a brine well in propor- 
tion to its depth, inthe Phil. Magazine, vol. iv. p. 91. 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. ris] 


bringing about a separation of its solid contents, from a fluid so 
far removed from saturation, as the water of our present seas is 
found to be. 

Now a submarine volcano, or any other independent cause, 
producing a high temperature in any part of the bed of the 
ocean, might supply this desideratum; it would separate the 
salt from that portion of the water which came most within its 
immediate influence, converting the fluid into vapour, which, in 
a highly compressed condition, we may imagine to be interposed 
between the bed of salt in the act of forming, and the body of the 
superincumbent ocean. 

That volcanic action may have had some share in the forma- 
tion of beds of salt, is no new idea, and is immediately suggested 
by the almost constant association, of sulphuric salts, and espe- 
cially of gypsum, with the former. 

Thus Von Buch*, remarking on the connexion of rock-salt 
and brine springs with anhydrous gypsum at Bex in Switzer- 
land, attributes them both to direct sublimation from the inte- 
rior of the earth, the common salt being accompanied by sul- 
phuretted hydrogen, which, by its gradual conversion into sul- 
phuric acid, had given rise to the formation of sulphate of lime. 

That rock-salt is sometimes sublimed from the bowels of the 
earth we know by an examination of volcanos; and where 
common salt is found abundantly in thermal springs which are 
of voleanic origin, and issue from primary rocks, as is the case 
with that of St. Nectaire in Auvergne, and possibly that of 
Wiesbaden in Nassau, it seems but reasonable to attribute its 
occurrence to a similar cause. 

Proust t even has stated, that the salt mine of Burgos in Spain 
lies in the crater of an extinct volcano ; and though he may pos- 
sibly be mistaken as to this exact point, still such a notion would 
hardly have arisen, had not the beds been in a manner surrounded 
by volcanic products. 

Without, however, proposing so bold an hypothesis as that of 
sublimation, to account for the production of salt beds in general, 
we may perhaps see reason to suppose, that volcanic heat has in 
many cases caused their deposition, and that the sulphates which 
accompany them have arisen from the sulphuretted hydrogen, 
which is at the present day an ordinary effect of volcanic pro- 
cesses. 

In my memoir on the Lake Amsanctus{, I have attempted to 
trace the connexion, between the operations of volcanos, the 


* Poggendorff’s Annalen, 1835. t Journal de Physique. 
{ Published by the Ashmolean Socicty, Oxford 1836, 


Works on 
mineral 
waters. 


“iif SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


emanations of carbonic acid, and the formation of beds of rock- 
salt; on the present occasion it may be sufficient to quote the 
following brief summary of the points therein insisted on. 


Volcanos give out........... Sulphuretted hydrogen, sal am- 
moniac, boracic acid, muri- 
atic acid, steam ; 

And erase: VSI”. SS sseeeeee. Deposits of sulphur, of sulphu- 
AN salts, of muriatic salts, 

c 

Moffettes, connected geogra- 

phically with volcanos now 

in action or extinct, give out The same principles; 

And cause .......+-++..+-.+.++ Deposits of sulphur and of sul- 
phuric salts. 

Many tertiary clays, some of 

which are connected in a 

geographical sense with vol- 

UanUs teres es ee. ee”. Contam “beds” of’ siitphur,” of 
earthy sulphates, and of com- 
mon salt. 

Most salt formations are asso- 

ciated with .............. Beds of gypsum. 


Saine Wah PPPs es A Sulphur, 
Others with..... PESTS OT Salammioniac: 


I shall now conclude, by enumerating a few of the newer works 
on mineral and thermal waters that appear to afford the most 
original and important information on the subject, considered in 
a scientific point of view. 

On English medicinal springs, Dr. Scudamore* has published 
a good practical treatise, and with the assistance of Mr. Garden, 
has undertaken to give an analysis of the more important ones 
which this. country possesses. His work, however, is more 
adapted for practical physicians than for men of science, as he 
has limited himself exclusively to those mineral waters which 
already possess a reputation as medicinal agents. 

Professor Angladat of Montpellier has published a very de- 
tailed and elaborate description of the thermal springs of the 
Eastern Pyrenees, in which he has investigated in particular, the 


* Treatise on the Composition and Medical Properties of the Mineral Waters 


of Buxton, &c. Second Edition. London, 1833. 
+ Mémoires pour servir & V Histoire générale des Eaux minérales sulfureuses, 


2 vols. 1827; and Traité des Eaux minérales des Pyrénées Orientales, 2 vols. 
1833. 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. (7 
condition in which the sulphureous principle of these waters 
exists, and that peculiar organic matter which is associated with 
the waters. 

Having already commented upon these points, I need only 
further remark, that I consider the work in general a most va- 
luable addition to our knowledge. . 

M. Longchamp, who was expressly engaged by the late French 
Government to examine the mineral waters of that country, has 
completed his report on those of Vichy*, which appears to be 
drawn up with considerable care, but has been arrested in the 
further prosecution of the design by the overthrow of the Bour- 
bon dynasty. In a little wurk, entitled “Annuaire des Haux 
Minérales’’ for 1831, he has given a sketch of the principal 
springs of the Pyrenees and of others in France, which may be 
consulted to advantage. 

The work of Alibert}, though it bears the name of a distin- 
guished medical writer, is evidently designed as a popular com- 
pendium, and therefore hardly comes under review on the pre- 
sent occasion; nor am J aware of any other work of scientific 
interest on this subject, that has recently appeared in the French 
language. 

In Germany works on mineral waters abound; but perhaps 
the most important is one published by Professor Bischof { of 
Bonn in 1826, relative to the mineral springs of the Rhine 
province and others of similar constitution, replete with valuable 
information, and important general views. 

In criticising some of the latter, I have all along been con- 
scious of the risk I incurred of being myself in error; nor should 
I, perhaps, have been tempted to question them, had it not ap- 
peared to me, that inferences deduced from one particular class 
of mineral waters, ought to undergo the test of a severe scrutiny, 
before we permitted ourselves to apply them to the springs of 
other and distant regions. 

Brandes §, with the assistance of Kruger, has published a very 
elaborate account of the waters of Pyrmont, and more recently 
a still larger work on those of Meinberg||, containing, not only 
a detailed description of the spring, but also of the topography, 
antiquities, and natural history of the neighbourhood. 

But it would be endless to enumerate the various works on 
particular mineral waters, which have issued from the German 


* Analyse des Eaux Minérales de Vichy, 1825. 

+ Précis Historique sur les Eaux Minérales. 1826. 

t Die Vulkanischen Mineralquellen Deutschlands und Frankreichs. Bonn, 1826. 
~ § Beschreibung der Mineralquellen zu Pyrmont. 1826. 

|| Mineralquellen zu Meinberg. Lemgo, 1832. 


78 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


press, and to which this general character seems to apply, that, 
although more frequently replete with mystical and absurd hy~ 
potheses, than works of the same class in England, they display 
in general greater research and a richer fund of scientific infor- 
mation. 

Of general works, I may mention that of Scherer * on the mi- 
neral waters of the Russian empire, which testify to this im- 
portant fact, that there are neither thermal nor acidulated 
springs in any part of that vast tract, till we approach the 
mountains of the Caucasus and Oural, or the volcanos of Kam- 
schatka. 

Professor Schustert of the University of Pesth has lately 
edited the elaborate work of Kitaibel on the Mineral Waters of 
Hungary, which will be found to contain a very detailed, and 
probably authentic, account of their properties. 

But to the general reader the necessity of consulting these 
local authorities will soon be superseded, by the appearance of 
the treatise of Dr. Osann of Berlin{, of which the two first 
volumes have been already published. 

The first of these includes, a very complete sketch of the ge- 
neral views, entertained, with respect to the nature and constitu- 
tion of mineral and thermal springs, and a catalogue raisonné 
of those best known, classified under their respective heads. 

The second volume is occupied by a detailed description, of 
those of Germany, and some other contiguous countries, with 
copious references to original sources of information. 

The whole appears to be compiled with great care and re- 
search, and promises, when finished, to be the most complete 
work extant on the subject. 

Since the appearance of the first volume of Dr. Osann’s work, 
Dr. Gairdner of Edinburgh has brought out a very compact, 
and useful Manual, in the English language, on the same sub- 
ject§. A large portion of its contents indeed are evidently ex- 
tracted from Osann; nor does it appear, that the author has 
drawn much from any stores of his own in the facts stated by 
him. 

Nevertheless the multitude of details brought together, and 
judiciously arranged in this little volume, ought to secure it a 
place in every scientific library ; and the best proof I can fur- 


* Versuch der Heilquellen des lussischen Reichs. St. Petersburg, 1820. 

+ Pauli Kitaibel Hydrographica Hungaria, edidit J. Schuster, Pesth, 1829. 

+ Darstellung der bekannten Heilquellen Europa’s. Berlin, vol. i. 1829, vol. ii. 
1832. 

§ Essay on the Natural History, &c. of Mineral and Thermal Springs. Edin- 
burgh, 1832. 


— eats ae rr Sp ate i “me 
. + . 


ose nee 


Lt ~ 
. 


== 


-, 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS, 79 


nish of my own opinion of its merits is, that I conceived it to 
have superseded the demand for a distinct work on the subject, 
which I had for several previous years been preparing. 

Indeed I have been induced in some measure to modify the 
nature of this Report in consequence, having endeavoured to be 
most full on those points, which had been passed over by Dr. 
Gairdner, and in other instances supplying rather a comment 
upon the facts he had collected, than a mere recapitulation of 
their substance. 


APPENDIX TO PAGE 42. 


When mentioning the reported presence of oxygen in thermal 
waters, I ought to have added, that Fodéré, Voyages aux Alpes 
maritimes, states, that this gas was extracted, by boiling, from 
the water of Roccabigliera in Piedmont, in such quantities, and 
of such purity, as led him to believe, that a portion of deutoxide 
of hydrogen must have been present to occasion it. But so 
extraordinary a fact in the history of thermal waters, as this 
would be, requires further confirmation. 


80 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Name of the place 
where the spring 
occurs. 


Geographical 


Geological position. position. 


Sate |(Batbsccscsxeses ...|New red sandstone ......| Somersetshire 


Bristol .........0s- Carboniferous limestone |Gloucestersh. 
in a valley of disruption 
Buxton......secee.|DittO ...seeseeeeseeeeeeeee|Derbyshire ... 


W. Long. | to 


Bakewellivc. sires] Ditiol Ce cdoccateected-awste{DtkO lech cccwe 


Stony Middleton|Ditto ....cececcccessceeees|DittO  seaeeeeee 


British Islands. 


N. Lat. 55° to 51°, 


Taafe’s Well......|Coal strata ...............;Near Cardiff, 
S. Wales 

Mallow............|Carboniferous limestone |CountyofCork, 
Ireland 


° 
a 
~ 
~ 
3 
° 
2 
eS 
sc 
vo 
=| 
S 
at 
=] 
ov 
~ 
a 
| 
ov 
2 
< 
Ss 
= 


Bertrich Connected with extinct;Near Treves, 
volcanos Eyfel 
Aix la Chapelle ./At the junction of clay/|Lower Rhine 
slate,andcarboniferous} Province 
limestone 


meeaduae SeMIDDID) > Cdececdosencecetecees|DICCO cecscnnes 


24° to 32°, 
ive} 
[=] 
1 
é 


is) 


IME sencceve covscee|ClAY SlatCeccecerecccsccsses| NASSAU cocccvons 


W. Long. 


Wiesbaden ......|Chlorite slate ........600-|DiftO seecesese 


Germany. 


N. Lat. 51° to 49°. 
temp. reckoned about 50°. 


eZ) 


chlangenbad ...|Clay slate.s.scccsereeeseee|DittO  ceseeeeee 


2 


SOdeN .ccccccccees|DIttO seccocccececceesesess| NearFrankfort 
on the Main 

Kreutznach ......|Felspar porphyry ......|Lower Rhine 
Province 


Mean 


Height in 100 ft. 
above the sea. 


Name of the : eA 
hottest spring and evolved in 24 hours} 07 
its excess of 
temperature above 


that of the locality. | Water, 


66 King’s _|King’s f 
Bath Bath | 
28,339 2) 


D5 lscesccccveesleoes 


King’s Bath 


Hot Well 


St. Anne’s 33/St. Anne’s|St. Anni 


13,500] 41,604 


13] .ccccccccccsleeee 


Bath Spring 
14}. cccvveerese|eocceceeant 


Dlesesveecese] 180 § 


WS livccercctecs ereeeeeseee 


40| 7240] ..s-eseeasell 


Kaiserquelle 85.5}.s..s.seccss|sccvceseuss 
Miihlenbend 121°5).......sesseJeeseeeree 
Rondeel 81 

Kochbrunnen 108 


Schachtbrunnen 
27 

Gemeindebrunnen]..........2.|eeee 
20 

Miinster am Stein|..........+.|eeseseeeee 
36 


21,328]... .ceceus 


* N.B. In this estimate of mean temperature, no allowance is made for height. It is evident, therefore, 


Buxton, Bakewell, &c. 


+ Where the name of the spring is not given, the number is understood to indicate the amount evolved 
t~ N.B. Where not otherwise specified, the spring alluded to in this and the next column is assumed to 


Number of cubic feet/F 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 8L 


Thermal Springs. 


ases evolved & their relative Gaseous contents. Solid contents. 
sroportions one to the other, 
g| 6 tes ae Nature of th bundant 
ingredientsin a pint ature of the more abundan ; 
z bo © According In a pint of the water. of the water of the and of the more active Sen 
ie =I to p spring most strongly ingredients present. 
» 1O) & impregnated. 


| C.In. Grs. 
to| 3°5| 96-5)Daubeny ...| Carbonic acid 1:2/King’s Bath 15|Mur. lime and magnesia ;|Phillips. 
3. iron, (Iodine, Cuff.) 


0.) 8 | 92.|Ditto ......!Carbonic acid 3°750|Hot Well 5°95|Sulph. soda, mur. of lime .|Carrick. 

val Common air 0°375 

0.) 0 |100.)/Pearson_ ...{Carbonic acid 0°187/St. Anne’s _—_‘1°875|Mur. magn. and of soda ...|Scudamore, 
ae Azote 0-580. 

D. | 0 | 100.|Daubeny ...|.....e2eseeeeeecesereseees.|Bath Spring  3°5|Sulph. of lime, mur. of soda|Daubeny. 


t 
0. | 0 | 100.|Ditto ......J.ceseccssereeseeeseseeesees} Warm Spring 2°0/Sulph. of soda and mag.,|Ditto. 
ae mur. lime 
0. 8°] DG*5|Ditto — .....|eeveseevsceecesedeeeeven eee |— 1-2/Sulphate of magnesia ......|Ditto, 
OD. | G5) 93°5|Ditto  ......]......cecessesssoeeseneeees/Spa Well 0°3|Carbonate of lime .........|Ditto. 
i. seess|seeces|secseceeeresees/Carb. acid, with a trace 18-267|Carb. and sulph. of soda;/Funke. 
id of sulph. hyd. Lithia, ‘potass 
BO. |..... 69:5 Monheim...|Sulphuretted hydro-|Kaiserquelle 31-95/Mur., carb., and sulph.,/Monheim. 
oll gen soda; Sulphuret of sodium, 


{ 


: phosph. soda 
(8. {| 2 | 80.|Daubeny ...|Carbonic acid 7°6\Muhlenbend  34'0/Mur., carb., and sulph., of|Ditto. 
‘ Nitrogen 19-0 ‘soda; Lithia, strontian, 
$ jluoric acid 
0.; 0 0 |Ditto ......|Carbonic acid .,......,/Kesselbrunnen 28°9|Carb., mur., and. sulph., 


Kastner and 


= soda; Strontian, barytes,| Struve. 
phosph. and fluorie acids. 
8. | 0 | 27. |Ditto ......|Ditto ....+..000ee+++++.|Kochbrunnen 57°59|Mur. of soda, lime, and po-|Ditto. 


tass; Bromine, manga- 
nese, and fluoric acid 
tees|seesvsleseeeeeseeeeee-(Carbonic acid with ajSchachtbrunn 6°0|Carb. of soda, muriate of Fenner. 
little nitrogen soda 

sepe|sereseleeceseeereeeees|CarbOnic acid ....+....|Saltzquelle unter |Mur. of soda; Potass, bro-|Schwein- 
u 4 der Brucke 119°8} mine berg: 
tal tateleasseslserecseesesesseleascrscesesessescevessescee| 1 HeOdorshall 87°9/Mur. of soda, lime, and|Prieger. 
, magnesia; Potass, alu- 

| mine, phosphoric acid 


tha it a deduction must be made in all cases where the spring is placed above the level of the ‘sea, as at 


| ro a all the thermal springs belonging to the locality. 
be the same, as that of which the composition is given. 


a VOL. V.—1836. G 


ae! + nel aay , 


82 SIXTH REPORT—1836: 


4 


Name of the Number of cubic fi 
hottest spring and | €VOlved in 24 hours ¢ 
its excess of 
temperature above 
that of the locality. 


Name of the place 
where the spring Geological position. 
occurs. 


Geographical 
position, 


ight in 100 ft, 
above the sea. 


Hei; 


° 
;|Wolkenstein «..|Mica slate  ....ssseescese «|SAXONYsessesees 33°5|ecceccscecu-|on serene 


IWiCSENDAG, scassc\DICO. cacccccasvcctsvsensec[DILtDit cospocnes 20:0} ccscnesw ened | cp cownmal 
Carlsbad .........,|Granite, in a valley of/Bohemia ...... Sprudel 117-0|Sprudel ]....+s+0+08 
disruption 111,715 | 

rt 


Bb vaceuscudcscex|M@DCliSicasvecsartessaccescec|DIttO ssstavecs 16:0} 12,288)......006 


| 


Toplitz............|Volcanic porphyry ......|Ditto ..seesee. Hauptquelle 71°0} 77,250).....ss000s 


° 
Nn 
Le] 
° 
a 
° 
= 
nN 
to 
=] 
o 
= 
SE 
8 

s . 
be Oo 
a 
x 
° 
_ 
° 
= 
an 
me) 
3s 
4 
a 


Warmbrunn......|At the foot of a granitic|Silesia ......... Trinkquelle  47.|.ecseseasees|eoreeenoenss 
chain i 
Landeck ...... coe[GMEISS! ccciuaovepeeccccecess|DItCO cocposess Old Bath 35°5| 12,960 os seo 


Mean temperature estimated at about 50°. 


2 to 30°. 


Mean temp. estimated at about 51°. 


Wildbad .........|Granite  ...scssesseeeeseee| Wirtemburg... Hauptquelle 4 7|..sseseeeees|eoeeeeenes 


4 


Baden-baden ...|Ditto  .......06. -».|Duchy of Ba- Ditto 96°4F.F) 12,038 —— 
- 
aden-weiler ...|Ditto ...secccsessseseeeees| Di = S30*D|cccccecbacss|.nsseatimn 


ermany.* 


IN. Lat. 48° to 46°. W. Long. 26 


B 
Baden. .......++++.|Jura limestone............/Austria . 68°5|Haupt-— |...sesseree 
quelle 
40,950 
Gastein.........<+-|Granite .sseeseeseeeeesees/Saltzburg Alps 66°5/4principal]......seses 
springs 
100,080 


+ Within the same range of latitude as the above occur the following thermal springs, few of which 
as stated below, viz. 


In Moravia. 5 In Styria. 5 In Carinthia. 9g 
Uttersdorff ......... 37°25 Doppelbad, near Gratz 32°75 F. RO plifZerytusnscaeeannaarere vee 46°50 
TOplita ...ceeee eeevee 12°00 Romerbad, near Cilli ... 48:00 Montfalcone, near Trieste. 50°00, 

Neuhaus, near Cilli...... 46°25 : di 

In the Tyrol. 7 

On the Brenner .......0+46 23°0 4 

{ Professor Forbes, Philosophical Transactions, part ii., 1836. fy 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 83 


ings. (Continued.) 


es evolved and their relative 
ortions one to the other, 


Gaseous contents. Solid contents. 


Total amount of 
ingredients in a pint | Nature of the more abundant 


According | Ina pint of the water. | of the water of the and of the more active According 
to spring most strongly ingredients present. to 
impregnated. 


C.In. EY Grs. - 
2 | 98 |Daubeny ...|Carbonic acid ....+000- 1:845|Carbonate of soda .........| Kuhn. 


2] 98 {Ditto ......|Ditto ...cerccseescavess 4-03/Carb., sulph., and mur., of|Lampadius. 
soda 
49°6|Sulph. and carb. of soda ;|Berzelius. 
Strontian, manganese, flu- 
orice and phosph. acids 
39°2\Carb., sulph., and muriate/Steinmann. 
of soda; Lithia, potass, 
and manganese, phosph. 
acid 
15°6\Carb. and sulph. of soda;/Ambrozzi. 
t Phosph. acid (Berzelius) 
| | 5°3 | 94°7|/Daubeny ...|/Nitrogen 0°735 4°77|Sulph. and carb. of soda;|Tschortner. 
Sulph. hyd. 6.6 to 8.0 Carb. of ammonia 
0 {100 |Ditto ......|Carbonic acid 1:00 2°62|Sulph., and mur., of soda. 
Sulph. hyd. 4°33 


Buavas|desvqclacvcetaroseesee| Ditto 11°85 


Receutldeeewil cccocytodeccecs Mitto 33°58 


Meese Ecc. soeesbts.|Ditto 2°4 


4 


if 


Fa 
iq 


c-a1 91°56/Weiss ......,|Carbonic acid 12°00 3°59|Mur., carb., and sulph., of |Sigwort and 
i Nitrogen 79°25 soda Weiss. 

i Oxygen 8°25 

Beeasee|voscus| se ceccdescecces| CATDOMIC/ACIG a.cccssas 26°331)Mur. of soda, and of lime,JOtto and 
r sulph. of lime, silica Wolf. 
Minaon|OWcusloccvcsccaadsccs/DNCLO! \dipckmecannqudtaace 1°7|Chiefly carb. of lime ......|Schmidt. 


necsee|eeseee|esseseseesesees/SUlph. hyd. 3°33 
Carbonic acid 1°77 1:076|Sulph., lime and magnesia|Schenk. 


Sencsleesecslocevedsovececes|CALDONIC ACIG .sses.s00 2-°7182|Sulph. of soda, mur. of so-|Hiinefeld. 
da, and potass 


been sufficiently examined, but which exceed the assumed mean temperature (51°) of the climate, 


In Croatia. In Hungary. é In Hungary. a 
: Ofen, or Bada ......ssee0008. 93°S Szalathny .....ccsccsecesessee 9° 
TYENCSIN cesseeeesvecseceeeees 53D Lucska) .,.,0c0ssscsccseeveocsee 26°0 


Postheny, near Presburg... 95°75  Glasshiitte, near Schumnitz 53-0 
Ribar, near Neusohl .,.... 27°80 | Eisenbach, near ditto ...... 53°0 
Altsohl, near ditto ......... 32°75 | Parad, near Erlau............ 35°0 
Stuben, near Kremnitz ... 59°75 © Szobranez, near Unghoar. 19-25 
RVFAU) ceyaeaessnaccsssceessessrhocd Budos, near Fiinfkirchen... 86°75 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Sy BS 
B S% Name of the Number of cubic ie 
= | Name of the place . ». Geographical | £4 | Bottest spring and | €Volved in 24 hours 
| where the spring Geological position. 8 tk So its excess of 
5 occurs. BCRAUOR ‘3 | temperature above 
i that of the locality. | water. 
. |St.Amand ....../Slate covering the coal|Near Valenci-|...... QB cwccicescves|scocecua 
S formation ennes, Dep. | 
Ss g du Nord + 
© -3|Bourbonne les |Granite, covered by Jura|# ( Nr. Chau-|....../La Fontaine 80|2 springs coooc ell 
sl Bains limestone a mont, Dep. 2,916 n | | 
- | Haute | 
a. 3 | Marne | 
Rae: Ey Luxeuil .........|Granite, covered with g Near Ve-|......|Grand Bain 75°5 8,640]....00c0n 
£2 2 sandstone | seul,Dep. id 
fg 24 de Haute et fs 
mes = | Saone a 
°, &lPlombieres ....../Granite seseesseeeeeeeeeeefg | Near Epi-| 13 |Ditto 95°75 9,000]...ses0ssall 
2D 3 | nal, Dep. 3 
3 E 5 de Vosges a 
1 BIBains .ssscccecses{DittO sessereveveessseeeeee[S | Near ditto,|....../Grosse Source 71|....sssssse-|sseesesenal 
g< 8 ditto 
= Bagnoles ......00.|DittO .sessseeereessneeeree| Near Alengon,|....+ QB). cccwsecccos|seucenti 
Dep. d’Orne 
a 
ops | : 
Bourbonne |’Ar-|Slate formation ......... NearMou-|....../Grand Puits 69/Grand —|......008 ' 
chambault lins, Dep. Puits 4 
; g | Tl Allier 86,400 a | 
o* [Bourbon Lancy..|Ditto .....sssesseeeeeeee] sd | Near ditto,]......|Ecures 84} 10,800]. ....cee0 
= | ditto a | 
= £/Vichy .........-+.{Coal formation, covering] # Near Gan-|......|Bassin desBains 57 9,360|..ceeeeees 
3¢ granite =| nat, Dep. 
ma > 2 | ‘del’Allier wi 
ER lNeris ...0+0+++./Sandstone and coal, rest-|2 | Nr. Mont-|......|/Puitsde Cesar 89°5) 19,800)....sene4 
mos ing on granite ‘3 | lugon, | 
$s ..¢g 6 | Dep... de a i 
52,2 24 V’Allier i 
iS _ = |Mont Dor.........|Trachyte ...ssssseeesseseee|2 | NearCler-| 34 |Bains de Cesar 12,780 Bini 
ae = | mont,Dep. 2B. Cesar }} 
Se =| de Puy de 4,2! 
a = | Dome rf) | 
3 5 Bourboule ....+.|Ditto ssvsevvenanectvensvnel B Ditto......| 28 65 Bil ohne s aod | 
vo 
Bet Neotairal. wb IDitto  .ecessuonesecascesseclS 9p: DUtte .nd,».|-.+00.|Gros Bouillon © sr laegayepi>scleseeli 
3 z 45°75 my } 
ss 5 : i 
Chaudes Aigues.|Gneiss s+...ccceeseeseeeeee(O | Nr. Auril-|.,....|Par 1180} 307,188|No. 1 
lac, Dep. at 
de Cantal 3 


ms | 


* The mark (*) indicates that the gas 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 85 


Springs. (Continued.) 


ases evolved and their relative Gaseous contents. 
oportions one to the other. 


~ acid, | 


teleceees|ecnces|ooeveseesseeses(SUlphuretted hyd, ...|. 


Pel eeeenelesecen|sessserecsecees|seeeeeeeeeseseseeneenesereels 


According | Ina pint of the water. 
to 


Oxygen. 
Nitrogen. 


0 ]100 |Longchamp.|....e.ccssessessersesceeree 
4:5 |77°49|Athenas 


PP eecenslsensvelcrccccceccesscelseseessessesseseareesesesse 


 [esceee! * |Longchamp.|.scccssssesesseesccessesnee|e 


AO near leeeseslensesesececesse | CoeeeeOeeeeseoSEessesseerer 


sealeseceslensveslecssecceseesees|DIttO sesrecsecscaseeees 


teeleences 


: 


Solid contents. 
Total amount of 
ingredients in.a pint | Nature of the more abundant 
of the water of the and of the more active According 
spring most strongly ingredients present. to 
impregnated. 
Grs. 


sccsceccsooescsseeeeee(9Ulphuret of sodium, sul- 
phate of soda, and mag- 
nesia 
52/Muriates of soda and lime,|Athenas, 
sulphates of lime and 
magnesia 


sescceeeeceveeceveeeee| Muriates and sulphs.of soda, 
lime, and magnesia 


see saceecseseseeeeeroee| Muriates and sulphs.ofsoda,|Vauquelin. 


magnesia, and lime 


seeccescescessecsecseee|Muriates of soda, lime, and 


magnesia. 
sessevecesesceeeeecees| Muriates of soda, magnesia, 
and lime. 


* |Longchamp.|Carbonic acid ....eceee|secseesceeseeseeeeeeees|Mur. soda, sulph. soda. 


13°478/Mur,. of soda and potass,|Puvis. 
sulph. soda and lime 


0 |Longchamp,|Ditto ...0.s+sseeeeeee.;90urce des Celes-|Carb., mur., and sulph. of|Longchamp. 


tins ' 62.) soda 


100 [Ditto ...ccclesccosccsesccsvereveccersee|eceseoeseesseeseeeeene(Carb., Mur., and sulph, of 


soda. 


*0) 0°85) 9°85|Daubeny ...|Carbonic acid ,........|Source dela Made-|Carb., mur., and sulph, of|Bertrand. 


ar) 


ow4 


laine 11°4) soda 


ts|seees|easerelersseeevestere|DIttO seesererereeeeeeee[Source des Fiéyres|Muriate of soda. 


18-2 


soda Henry. 


13 | 80 |Daubeny ...)..+.ssceesessvareseeseeeees/S0urce de Par J4°5|Carb. and mur. of soda,|Chevallier. 


15 | 25 


magnesia, lime, and ox- 
ide of iron. 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Catalogue of Ther al 


a3 ~ 
rod ee Name of the Number of cubic fe 
= Name of the place : ih Gedgraphical aS hottest spring and | €VOlved in 24 ho 
2 where the spring Geological position. position. Se its excess of 
S occurs. oS temperature above , 
c] a that of the locality. ‘Water. Gas. | ; 
o° |Chateau-neuf ...|Volcanic rocks ....+.+0+00. 8 Near Gan-|......|Grand Bains 45°75 pesvavececeslpocwosam 
Ps = | nat, Dep. 
= | dePuy de 
S. z Dome , 
8, |E VAUX ...sevecsees|GFAMItC seveeeesseeseeeees/o | NearNeris,|......|Puits de Cesar — |seseeceseverlevecenves 
as | Dep. de 81°75 
Ao =} Creuse 
§ ,- 3 |Saint Laurent ...|Tertiary limestone, co-|2] Near Au-|...... CT eee eee 
5 Sa vering granite, with 3 benas, 
Rok volcanic rocks near ‘s Dep.d’ Ar- 
oy 2 Ss deche ’ 
£5 5 |Bagnoles ....+.++.|DittO «s.seseseerssveeeeeeeE | NrsMende,l...0. 57] 6,19 2|.eseeneene 
os a | Dep. de ; } 
3 & | Lozere 
g |Digne .......+....{Limestone in inclined B Dep. des}... Bassin de l’Etuve |.s.ercceceeeleereeesess 
° SHVAtA sessesseseeeseeeee | Basses 59.25 
aa 3 | Alpes be 
is) 
S 
Greoulx .........JLimestone in inclined| Dep. des|,....- BUTS)... cecccred{anccodeaill 
strata 2 | Hautes 1 
= | Alpes 
Aix .sssseseseeeee.|Jura limestone, disloca-|— | Dep.  des|......|Sextius 39°0)..cccceccces|eccconesen 
ted and inclined d Bouches 
S | duRhone 
2. Balaruc ..,......|Jura limestone, near the|Nr. Cette, Dep.|....../Varying from 66].......e+e0.Jecesseeees 
ie} volcano of Agde d’ Herault to 52 
=I 
9 [Sylvanes .........|Granite s.secsssseseeeeee] (Near Stelessees AGL, OL eeeerseln 
Pe Affrique, 
Ane Dep. de 
o's l’Aveyron 
= 2 |Rennes............|Sandstone, breccia, and Near Li-|,.....|Bainfut 5S°O). ceviseeeees ar 
tS limestone, belonging/$ | moux, 
33 Ey to the coal formation,}= | Depart. q 
373 highly inclined | d’Aude : 
22 ~|Campagne ......|Ditto jailer Ditto ...... sees B1+Blierespeeoe bel 
\  §|St. Paul de Fe-|From a fault in lime-|S | Near Cau-|...... 21°5 
2, =| nouilhades stone, covering slate | | dies, Dep. 
SF | d’Aude 
& ElAvles ............|Granite near its junction\S 4, )} 2» | 9 |Petit Escaldadou 86,357|.s.0. call 
. > Su : 
4 2 with limestone 2] 2 1s & 85° 3 F. | 
=< a| 2 tee ; 
& [Preste ......0..00. Granite sseeerecereerereelB | oo = % |....../Source d’Apollon 10,888}.....++00s 
= 3|oJs* 71-0 
E Mernetis. cccsscwes Junction of granite with) | 3 17 |Source interieur [2,455,668 seeneneans 
ee stratified rocks a) 273 72:2 
MONE vas ccsceovees Gilles We coy.sdescevthsc A eae xno Grande Source 40/3 springs }....+.+«+ 
gc |s 1,170 
PDHUEZ wesc cscses Granite and serpentine . 3 S 27 |Source du Torrent).....+ceseselecssorsene 
= | 3 Real 111°5 
St. Thomas ......) | Mica slate, resting on a 3 easncs| NOD leserepasr ti 
Canavilles ......| [a quartzose granite 69°5 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 


Springs. (Continued.) 


evolved and their relative 


a 0 Gaseous contents. 
oportions one to the other. 


According | Ina pint of the water. 
to 


C.In. 


seceesleceves|soceevesseeeess|Carbonic acid. 


Wl eeeerleseccclsosccslcovscccoececces IDIttG)” jccctevencsbcvsseee 


POslececcelcoceesisccsasscuseseseleserareesssreesseseeosenees 


Beevleocecs SCHTHO CHS S SSO HOREHH Cee eeEEeeeesEeEeeEeeEEEESOD 


Bivelsesessleosees|eovsedsseodeae(Sulphur. hydr.sosses30s 


a secseeleceeesleoseceveeeesees{Carbonic acid, sulph, 
hydrogen 


* PRT SSHSS CHK SHH SECTS HC ESSE EEE cose eeeesEEREEESESESEDSEOEe 
seeresleccessleescesvesees «(Carbonic acid 


POPS S CODE eoesorlseeseerereeEee Deer GUSeS LECT ESTTEEEDEHOHEES 


sesces|tevceslecsscceessssees|CALDONIC ACID sessevsee 


* 
|? 


Anglada ...|Nitrogen and oxygen 


Pe eeslecrecceeesenserscccssceseee 


pesleeceee Ae eeeelencesccccscssccescesesesees 


COO esleeeePaleoeronecacesresioerees Doser sereessesserens 


87 


Solid contents, 


Total amount of 
ingredients in a pint 
of the water of the 
spring most strongly 
impregnated. 


Nature of the more abundant 
and of the more active 
ingredients present. 


Grs. 


sesseccseceeeeeeseseees|Card., Sulph., and mur. o: 


soda. 


secccseseseeeeeecseeees|Carb., mur. and sulph. o! 


soda. 


seesccseceesseesceseeee Mur. of magnesiaand sulph. 


of lime. 


14°3|Sulphate of magnesia and 
lime, mur. of soda. 


25°32|Mur. of soda and magnesia. 


1°5|Carb. of magnesia and lime,|Robert. 


sulph. of lime 


6°O).cccceceeere sosseseeee/Mur. of soda and magnesia,|Figueir. 


and lime, carb. of lime 


sevesesscsecoossseeses(Mur. and sulph. of soda 


and magnesia. 


12°0/Oxide of iron. 


2-0|Sulphuret of sodium, soda,|Anglada, 


caustic and combined 
with sulphuric acid 
0°978/Ditto sseeeee|Ditto. 


seeeeeeoes 


1:311)Ditto 


gRhd ip coccdeccccecssepee|DIGto. 


1:326|Ditto 


wimdsbacdvcencccessecoas|l1C0G, 


ODBAIDitto .srecesecececnsensdorece Ditto. 


According 
to 


France. 
W. Longitude 4° to E. Longitude 4°. 


Assumed mean temperature 60° Fahr. 


88 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


-|Beu Calde 23°75]..secsceseee|eteoeneenees 


=e 
e =3 
s Name of the place : Pe 
= where the spring Geological position. toe ae 
38 occurs. position. 28 
fo} 
oe 
Sorede ........ -++.|From granitic pebbles .. wee ladaree 
2 Lee 
Reynez ......+04|Mica slate ...csssccoseeeees 3 [ES Lae 
. . e = 
Enn ...s.s+0seeee0|Mica slate, resting on a ha) ba baal EE 
saccharoid limestone je) = Fi 
Thuez ..........«.|Junction of granite with 3 BS Niece: 
limestone along a line & a) 
of fissure Eo s 
Escaldas .........|Granite near its contact 9 |b 47 
with slate o | a 
cs Om 
rae Os 
Dorres .....+.+++0e(Like Escaldas ......se000 & ( Se | 48 
LiOS fesse occdesesupeldesandassesucncaadeasesesesves a Ky Resges 


AX seseceeseeesee(At the boundary line of Dep. d’Ar-| 25 

granite and slate riege,near 

Tarascon 

Limestone, with granite Ditto, ditto}...... 
contiguous 

GZ Kenesovascsncos|CXautGracsesecgecsscecesess 


Ussat seccvesccces 
Valley Offe..ect 


Bagnéres de Lu-|Granite near its junction 
chon with clay-slate HauteGa- 
ronne 
Dep. del... 
HauteGa- 
ronne, nr. 


St. Gau- 
dens 


Exncausse ......+0-|LimestOMe sscesssssseeees 


with the chain of the Pyrenees 


Bagnéres de Bi- 
gorre clay-slate,with patches|$ | Hautes 
of granite near it 


Capvern seeceeees|Limestone cescoeseseeees 


=| Pyrénées 
9 

© | Dep.  desj...... 
Hautes 
Pyrénées, 
near Ba- 
gnéres de 
Bigorre 


N. Latitude 44° to 42°. 


Barege csseccesees 


i 
Dep. de} 20 |Grotte superieur |+++++sereess|eeeee i: 


Catalogue of lacs | 


Name of the Number of cubic feet ot 
hottest spring and evolved in 24 hours 9 f 
its excess of ¥y 


temperature above 
that of the locality. Water. 


Sete 


° 
Font Agre D-leccsceecesies 


ceeeenceee 


Be | 

| 

GD esvitievevesevosecteae | 

Source d’Exhalade]...ccsscscesleseseseees 4 
71 

Buvette 47:1F.| 28,609 

Source Gervais eaatdivensatldace “tana 

24°25 

Source des Canons}.+.++eee+ses|eveeerersene 

108-0 

40:0 18,000)...... ool 

Source A 26:4 F. 


TO1LF. 
77°75 


G:O|.eseececeverleccecerscens 


j 
“4 
| 


Limestone resting on|g | Dep. des| 20 |Dauphin ola 


Clay-slates, with horn- Dep. des| 42 |Grande Douche _|.+ssse+seeeleesevecennee 


blende ; granite not Hautes 51:9 F. 

far distant Pyrénées 
St. Sauveur .....|Slaty limestone, with Ditto ......| 25 |La Houtalade teeveneeceeeleceeseennens 

hornblende slates ad- 8°5 F. 3 

jacent ; granite not far 

distant a 
Cauterets .........|Clay-slate, with horn- Ditto ......| 31 |Source des Giufs |Source de|Source de 

blende in nearly ver- 70°1 F.| Pauze Pauze “ 

tical beds,near the con- alone 61% 

tact with granite 1,326 

All the 
springs fi 


12,240 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 89 


prings. (Continued.) 


es evolved and their relative} Gaseous contents. Solid contents. 
oportions one to the other. 
: F < Teta amount of - -_ 
o 5 ingredients in a pint | Nature of the more abundant ; 
& &S | According | Inapint of the water. | of the water of the and of the more active Aver ene 
# s to spring most strongly ingredients present. 
° % impregnated. 


Grs 
sesees|eeeees[Anglada ...|Carbonic acid ......... 6°8|Carb., sulph., and mur. of/Anglada. 
soda; owide of iron 

O |Ditto ......|-ecceccecscsecccccccceseseslecessocsceccscesseeese(OUlph. Of lime and soda,|Ditto. 
mur. of soda 

08 |Ditto! 2s i.8.|..0055. shessccccecseneceees|VETY SMAlleceeesees|DittO seeceeeecsesevececeesess| Ditto. 


O [Ditto  ..cccclecececccsccccscccrenccos Sv elsnsscasvateuswbedasdeur [DUE 4Qlcthascsevesasevvauaes| DIttO. 


O {100 |Ditto ....ccjeccsescscsccseesersescerees 1:02|/Hydrosulphuret of soda,|Ditto. 
with soda and potass, 
: caustic? sulph. of soda? 
O |100 [Ditto  ......]e0reveeesccvcreccccseesenslerscccnccsseseercessees|DIttO  sereereeeeeceeceeseeeee+| Ditto, 
GULOG.|Ditior? ..2522}-c0eevechsscoteoensadesoensctius becccvceeneevnvee( DIED | Wiesseebescssssoedevsses|DIttO. 


sncevelececeslreeccecesevcns[secvecccssssescsssesevses lesecccseescessveeesener| yarosulphuret of sodium, 
caustic soda. 


sevees|eererelsecccccececscss|tecsessevecssecscsccseseesclevessscsesseesesseseses(OUlph. and mur. of mag. 


Ranesh|aveccc|csbcvcnccvcces| saganecdonstnssedseanaa awe 2°2|Sulphuret of sodium, carb., 
sulphate, mur. of soda. 


Pecces|soserelececccscscvenss Carbonic acid .+.sees0s|seseeeseeceeseeeeeseees|Sulph. of lime, magnesia, 
and soda. 
sensealececee|ecesenecerseces|DIttO sseseeseeseeseeeee|SOurce de la Reine|Sulph. of lime, magnesia,|Gauderex. 
1:37| and soda, mur. of mag- 
, nesia and soda 
eta oehtetalna nach suacesene| DLO vadasdedonsesaneens 8°0|Sulph. of lime and mag. |Save. 
© [100 |Longchamp.|.....ssccsesesseseneeeenes 2°3/Sulphuret of sodium, caus- 
tic soda, sulph. of soda. 
televeccsleccecslesscceseecccccelecescscesscscescsssescueoes 1°1)/Ditto. 


0 |100 |Longchamp.|.......ceeeseceeeseeeseeees|Le Pré 29. 


Country. 


France. 
N. Lat. 44° to 42°. W. Long. 4° to E. Long, 4°. 


E. Long. 6° to 10°. 


Switzerland. 


N. Lat. 48° to 46°. 


Name of the place 
where the spring Geological position. Geographical 
occurs. position, 


Eaux Bonnes .,./In a yalley of disruption, Dep. des 
from highly inclined|g | Basses 
beds of limestone, near g Pyrénées 


its contact with granite} > 
Eaux Chaudes...|In a valley of disruption, 
at the junction of gra- 
nite, with inclined beds 
of limestone 
Cambo ......+0+...|Clay-slate in 
strata, resting on gra- 


Ditto ...... 


chain of the Pyre 


Ditto ...... 


~ 
5 
° 
i= 
5 
o 
i=") 


Assumed mean temp. 60° Fahr. 
th the 


nite 
Dax «+.,++++-+++++-({Compact limestone, with|'¢ | Dep. 
trap near it | Landes 
Barboutan ...+4./Tertiary ?...ssseeeeeeeseeeel | Dep. de 
& | Gers 
i] 
() 


Castera-vivant...|Tertiary ?eecscssesecssesees Ditto ...... 


Yverdun ....csccclscscoscescscsecceseeeseseesees(canton of Neu- 
chatel 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


des}...... 


Catalogue of Thern 


€. 

a 
i 
= a Name of the ales of sho 
£2 | hottest spring and | €Volved in 24 how 
Peas its excess of 
5 | temperature above 
3 2 that of the locality. | water. 

/ 

26 |Soure Vieille 32-Olssis+scosne-|ucanalll 


314 F. 


22 |Clot 34:6 F. 3,924). scceen 


sores 10.}.cscovcccver|eceoet 


3 
7 
| 
, 


82-25 


ouseee AA, |seereccesees|eocves 


13 


27 Seccopasoccalscsshia 


Pfeffers............|Disrupted beds of lime-|Canton of St.| 23 |From 50°5 to 51:0|Very varia-|, 
stone Gall 48-9 F, ple.greatest|" 
=429,120), 
least in 
winter 
0” |Vals ssssseeeseeeees(Clay slate and compact Valley of Lug-|..... 14). .ceccvsecclouesneam 
g limestone nitz, canton 
a of Grisons 1 
E|Weissenburg ...|...sssseseeseseseseeeeeeeeeees(Canton of | 27 32°5 F. 1,423}....0008 
a Berne | 
¢|Loueche .........,Disrupted beds of lime-|Canton of Va-| 47 74:1 F.| 161,364]....0008 
I stone, with granite not} lais 
z far distant | 
S |Baden .esseccececclecesee sscesseccsesesessseseee(canton of Ar-| 10 |St. Verene 78°0/One ounce 
a gau spring 
< 186,325 
Schinznach ...ccolecccsvcscscsccccsscocscsccevee|DIttO sescceeee| 10 39°25). cevccescceclecesens 
varying a degree | 
or so 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 9] 


Solid contents, 


Total amount of 
ingredients in a pint | Nature of the more abundant 
According | Ina pint ofthe water. | of the water of the and of the more active 
to spring most strongly ingredients present. 
impregnated. 


According 
to 


Grs. 
Diospasalddahel|waneckegrsbscer|scscsecnascodecsecepssannes 0:949|Sulphuret of sodium, caus- 
tic soda, sulph. of lime. 


Blsnowed|ncaces|scccenccscece eereccevcoeneanes 6-000|Sulph. of magnesia, mur. of|Poumier. 
soda and magnesia 


DRnanee lean slenccubarsnectes|soacnantesepevovebensnenees 1:5|Sulph. and mur. of mag. 


leessce|oceees|eesseeeeseeeeee[Sulphuretted hyd. 


slesccealecececlsccscuvsececcee|DIttO  sesccsressenccsselesonsesseeseseeeveeeeee(OUlph. of soda and mur, 0: 
lime. 


Riasialowitsvslnnapeiscteuse.|scsacsccudssbenssentotetes. 2°61|Sulphate of soda and mag~/|Capeller. 
nesia, muriate of soda 
and magnesia 


Se ab alsin ssid] wind avenpronh qivvic| Sup» obudbessbedzonoobinsh old 17°3/Sulph. of lime and _ soda,|Ditto. 
carbonate of lime 


s|eosere|seceeclavevevverenssee|CALDONIC ACIC seceveees 21-1|Sulphates of lime, soda, and|Brunner. 
q magnesia 
0 |100 |Ure .......2.|Ditto .scsereessoernneee 21-47|Sulphate of lime, magnesia,|Morell. 
and soda 


Meh liescwelacsnectqueanass| Ditto 2°56) 32°29/Sulph. of lime, muriate of/Bauhoff. 
Sulphuretted hyd. soda and mag., sulph. of 
‘ soda 
Saws lncsens|uccsescsasess00| Ditto 6:0 27-0|Sulphate of lime and soda,|Ditto. 
Carbonic acid ‘ mur. of soda and mag., 
oxide of iron 
Baers lesesaslacceasessccncvs|scccescccccsscccssenssceses 0°983|/Muriate of soda, sulph. of|Morell. 
lime, carb, of soda 


& Name of the place 
5 where the spring Geological position. 
fs] occurs. 


St. Gervais 


Sts Didier. J: .ecoedlesscoscscvesseccsccccesesevece/Vallee d Aostel.csce: 


Italy. 

N. Lat. 45° to 43°. 
Piedmont ...Acqui, excess of temperature 
Acqua della Bollente ......... 

Valdiervis ciiiis csecescocvccsses 

Vinadio ...ccccccossccccescvvces 

Craveggia ...csceeee cceveeevece 
Bobbi0.....cecccccccvscccvsvccces 

Acqua Santa, near Genoa ... 

La Penna, near Voltri ...... 
Roccabigliera, near Nizza... 
Lombardy... Abano, near Padua...s..s0+00s 
Tuscany.» «6+ LUCCA seseeeceseres 
Monte Cerboli. 

Pisa coscesccccssccvcccscvevccccees 

Monte Catini .....ssesesseseees 
PapalStates.Nocerassscsssscseseeesecensenvees 


Mean temp. 60°. 


° 
107° 


86°75 
93°50 
21°50 


Talc slate......sesee+eeeees| Near Sallenche} 17 


F. 


Geographical 
position, 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Catalogue of Ther 


° 
56°50 


20°25] .ereeceeeees 


Italy. 


4) 


t 


re 
oe ie 

3 : 
o ae ote 
Se Name of the babe pc of cubic feeit 
‘<= | hottest spring and evolved in 24 ho} 
we oR its excess of 
= 3 temperature above 
s 4 that of the locality. Water. 


Gas. 


1;440|..+...00ll 


| 


a] 


N. Lat. 43° to 40°. Mean temp. assumed to be 6) 


Bagni de San Filippo...... cecccccccccereesee 
Bagni de Vignone (the Reservoir)...++++«. 
Viterbo, Bullicami (the Lake) ......++.+«- 
Civita Vecchia .....secccccecenseeesseconeveees 
Civillina ...ccscerececeseess 
Puzzuoli, Temple of Serapis ..+essseeeseee 
Baths of Nero ....sscvcceseeseeeversensessssecs 
Pisciarelli...ssscececevsceeseesecceseccssesecsees 
Torre del AnnunZiata.e.cscscsserscecesensees 


eee eneeeeereeeeesees 


* At the Reservoir evolves gas consisting 


o’ |St. Martino ......|Gritty dark-coloured [Near Worms,| 50 |Varies from 68 to]...ssscesees|eceeesennnuhe 
A sandstone in the can- 46 | 
- ton of Valte- 
° . 
co j 
Eire AUX: ewcewsvelrceds|suacsdvcuceessegedecetenevacs(Nean » (ONAM=c, ese G7 ‘O).ascensereeeleeeeeseens 
Ba | 
Se 
- © , 
38 = Bonnneval ...cccccclscccesscccesscscoccvescccccsees| LALANLAISC, NY.|.ccccclsccccccceccceccccesscsslescvesevccss|evceensds 
8 3 BurgSt.Mau- 
ROE 
3 |La Perrier .csseslesscecsscsesccssscseecesseeees| Near Moutiers,| 14 49°5|.ccccccccvcclecccooe ahi 
Sig Tarantaise ‘ 
oO a IMIGUPIETS  Seccccnesltwtectnrceanedecedecerenccosss AAULAINE | veclncsaae AT*D5lssacchaccccdlescccdai 
SH gq [Echaillon.........|scescsscecssccssscseeevasesees Maurienne ...|...... 39°6 | 
3 Courmayeur sseleccrereeeceeeeeececeeeecescees| Valley of Aoste]...... 14°5|.cccesseesee|eccesecens 
Z 7 ‘ 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 


prings. (Continued.) 


ses evolved and their relative 
oportions one to the other. 


ov 
@ | According 
s to 

a 


j-e+|.+.+e.(chief-| Daubeny ...|Carbonic acid ......... 


ly 


Pelee ces| ee eeeslsesnsecccescsenieesseeseeseeseeseruasonsese 


0 | 0 {100 |Gimbernat ./Carbonic acid, sulph.|Sulphur spring 
4:0 


hydrogen 


2{ 0 | 88 |Daubeny. 


0 | 90 |Socquet ...|Carbonic acid, sulph. 
hydrogen, trace 


sesleceees(eeveee|Daubeny ...|CarbOnic acid ......00. 


seslscseeslsesess(DittO  .e20e|Ditto 


lands connected geographically with Italy, and in 


4 


. the same latitude, viz. : 

N. Lat. 48° to 40°. 
gitello, Ischia, varies from 83°°5 to 
949-5... 

ua de Cappone, Ischia ....sceccecseseees 
MTD a dea suite aghieccsedcapccesscnceceacad 
BD iveiis vn cists asta tay tide «aks« vckseauyante sos 
BRITE ESCHIA, mac cuccnastsacdcccsimeeddocsses 
BSEStItUtarts..ccscepevciseesaccveecssacees Ms 
GUINAS, SATAINIG......csceesececcsvcsssvece 
PRANCOLLD fs cuweds sce! sonscersecereeseccece 
netutti 
BMA We aeiensscee>-cweevarcepsecccdevsene 


MS COPTIC soe dsvines <bveayosteneveteaess 
az 


Poe er eeerasceseesseneessesesessenne 


DO saveveccscvcccscvcccassscsscscesvesesece 


of 10 carbonic, 2 oxygen, 98 nitrogen, 


Gaseous contents. 


In a pint of the water. 


Mean temp. 61°. 


93 


Solid contents. 


Total amount of 
ingredients in a pint | Nature of the more abundant 
of the water of the and of the more active 
spring most strongly ingredients present. 
impregnated. 


According 
to 


Grs. 
45:-47|Sulphate of soda and lime,|Pictet. 
mur. of soda and mag. 
33°3|Sulphate of soda and lime,|Demagre. 
carb. of lime and mag. 


Sulphate of lime, soda, and|Thibaud. 
mag., muriate mag. and 
soda 


58°1|Sulphate of lime, soda, and|Socquet. 
mag., mur. of mag. 
scsececssseeeeseeeee(A Strong brine spring. 


scescesceesesceseceeese| Mur. Soda and mag., sulph.|Ruffinelli. 
of lime and alumina, ox- 
ide of iron 

seccrscvecevecseessvers| Mur. Soda, sulph. of mag.|Ditto. 
and lime, oxide of iron 


Italy and adjacent islands. 
N. Lat. 40° to 37°. E. Long. 13° to 19°. 
: Assumed mean temp. 63°. 


Santa Eufemia, in Calabria 
Bagni di Lipari, Island of Lipari ....e..0000+ 

Termini, Sicily ..ccccocsesesesecsssseceeseesens 47 
Trepani, sulphureous, hot ......secessseesveees 
Sciacca, Baths of Santa Cologero ......ss000» 


eeee.covcsesceseen 


63: 


(Daubeny.) 


94 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Spanish Peninsula. 


@ N. Lat. 41° to 36°. W. Long. 9° to E. Long 1°. 


In Spain.... 


In Portugal. . 


Mean temp. not sufficiently ascertained. 


Along the line of the Pyrenees are several, especially in 
Catalonia, near Barcelona; and at Albama, near Cata- 
layud in Aragon. 

Near the volcanic hills of Murcia—Fuente de Buzot, 
near Alicant (104° F.), and Archena, near Murcia. 

At the foot of the Sierra Noveda range—that near Merida, 
in Estremadura. 

Amongst the mountains of Grenada—the baths of Jayal- 
Cohol, near Baeza; those near Alhama; and those 
near Almeria. 

Amongst the mountain-chain of the Basque provinces— 
Calda di Bonar, near Leon; and Orense, in Galicia. 
Province of Minho—San Antonio das Taipas, or Caldas 

das Taipas, near Guimarens, sulphureous 91° F.; 
2. Caldellas de Rendusa, 89°; 3. Canaveres, near 
Guimarens, sulphureous, 93°°2; 4. Guimarens, sul- 

phureous, 138°; 5. Moncao, near Ucana, 109°-4 

Province of Tra los Montes—1. Carlao, Villa-real, sul- 
phureous, 92°°8 ; 2. Chaves, near Braganza, alkaline, 
141°-8; 3. Pombal d’Anicaes, near Torre de Mon- 
corvo, sulphureous, 95°; 4. Ponte de Cavez, Villa- 
Real, sulphureous, 74°°75 ; 5. Rede de Corvaceira, de 
Moledo, de Panaguiao, 98°°6. 

Province of Beira—1. Alcafache, near Viseu, 98°°6; 2, 
Aregos, near Lamego, 142°°25; 3. Canas de Senho- 
rim, near Viseu, 93°°2; 4. Carvalhal, near Viseu, 
98°°6; 5. Santa Gemil, or Lagiosa, near Viseu, 120°°2; 
6. San Pedro Dosul, near Viseu, 153°°5; 7. Penagar- 
cia, or Caldas di Monsortinho, near Castelbranco, 68°; 
8. Penamacon, 68°; 9. Prunto, Azenha, or Vinha da 
Rainha, near Coimbra, 89°°6 ; 10. Ranhados, near Pin- 
hel, 107°-6; 11. Rapoila de Coa, near Castelbranco, 
93°-2; 12. Unhaes da Serra, near Guarda, 87°°8 

N.B. All the above are sulphureous, excepting 
Penamacon. 

Province of Esiremadura—1. Caldas da Rainhas, near 
Alemquer, sulphureous, 93°°2 ; 2. Cascaes, or Estoril, 
Torres Vedras, 84°°2; 3, Gaieiras, near Alemquer, 
sulphureous, ay 4; 4. Leyria, 77°; 5. Lisbon, sul- 
phureous, 86°; 6. Miorga, Aleobaca, 82°-4 ; 7. Povea 
de Coz, Alcobaco, 77°; 8. Rio-Real, Alemquer, sul- 
phureous, 75°°2; 9. Torres Vedras, 111°-2; 10. Agua 
santa de a 78°-8. 

Province of Alentijo—1. Cabeco de Vide, 80°6 

Province of Algarves—1. Monchique, near Lagos, sul- 
phureous, 92°°7; 2. Tavira, 75°°50. 


. eee 


TFS 


REPORT ON MINERAL AND THERMAL WATERS. 95 


Provinces of European Turkey. 


N. Lat. 46° to 41°. E. Long. 17° to 29°. oft 
Mean temp. not sufficiently ascertained. 

Line of thermal waters extends from north to south in Servia, at the 
foot of the chain of mountains which connects the Carpathians with 
the ridge of the Balkan, and through which the Danube forces its way 
between Moldava and Gladova. The line of hot springs begins at 
Mehadia, in the Bannat, and extends south beyond Nizza in Servia. 

A second line may be traced running east and west at the foot of the 
Balkan. The hottest has a temperature of 162°°5. 

A third group exists in southern Macedonia, near Salonichi and 
Serres. They are mostly sulphureous. 


Greece and its Islands. 


N. Lat. 41° to 36°. E. Long. 20° to 27°. 
Mean temp. not ascertained. 

A group of thermal springs at the base of Mount Olympus, of which 
that at the Pass of Thermopyle is the only one whose temperature is 
ascertained. This found by Clark to be 113°. 

Hot bath of Venus, east of Corinth. 

Korantzia, south of Mount Geranicus, near the Gulf of Corinth, 
gaseous eruptions and a spring at 87°'8. 

At Venetiko, west of Lepanto, a sulphureous thermal spring, called 
Taphoi (Tombs of Nessus). 

Six leagues from Patras, a saline thermal spring, 96°°8. 

In the Morea, near Methone, in the ancient Argolis, near the base 
of an extinct volcano, and in the Archipelago, in the islands of Negro- 
pont, (Lelantho, near the ancient Chalcis,) Milo, Thermia, and Lemnos, 
are thermal waters*. 

Iceland. 
N. Lat. 63° to 67°. W. Long. 12° to 25°. 
Mean. temp. 37°°4 Fahr. 

A very numerous class of sulphureous waters, with a high tempera- 
ture, in that part of the island, where trachyte exists, and volcanic 
eruptions at present take place. 

A second class of thermal waters of a lower temperature, and impreg- 
nated only with carbonic acid gas, in the volcanic promontory of Snee- 
field-Syssel, where igneous operations have ceased t. 


* Consult Virlet, Expedition Scientifique de Morée. 
+ See Krug von Nidda in Edinb. New Phil. Journ., vol. xxii. 


wok idly saint iehieitie 3 aha 
PORIONPT PAO Rh POF ee ee 
Ubenintranea yhicoipiiius Jory. amt aayl * 
; ivao2 mi gitwon of ston: sot yhustxe ety, Lagtes salt! . 
‘ ‘thie orem ie pat ed .Aisagaon doiciee detini wy ong to Gils : Eyit is 
you efi ssotot otfigaat ody: daintw-sguonds hae tealledl 903 to aah 
de eakgod aarti biget Boal. tow oil, ou'D, evahate Freeh iy et 
sorte? ai Asai hubived-dtema' abreize bo: 
6ilt to taut sy 14 ‘trom b buns tana wyshittanes « bose ac % 
igre atioea)} Yo. ranavoqran si ani saab 
indiuelae “ans meolouel hh dtastinoe ti wisi qn TE a 


Sheba: 
p abil iqite {Otcn er 4 OM 


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AD \Pa 8 ee NECKS 3 


Sab os WS wood. ..°a6 of a 
ry3 £9 Fetes tac pes P9 


ie i ‘delta to canegeatO Youpnl Yo oaed of}, de: des 
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Crutwescrs8S bly att ri aha exes fy; panes 


sige? . ‘gh VI. a 


Ait on “sh moby kien t 4 oot 4h. 
Von adit woon lord, deatona-oddcar janodaol 
ome) to shapiat ait at ygalo: idotA odin: Leva. 50% tls gato 5920, 
‘Ponard bas simadl ala! (.uoledOvaptores oft wen. 00 salah), 
es rear F SEs lees Oe hihi 
me sg PRES. 3 + 
8S of St atiod a Pat: ors a jal Ne 
‘ ea er ws NE ing i “apo he os en ? 
‘et ou, 
a “cartayangd fides dso: ashe anaowilighig to s29 fa. ge, ab ks 
L™. oinmpolor haa, ddaicot a! Rapes CL otasdve bisabict grit. to; Jeg, is 
oak gals + Tana TG, BL 


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i omaciyy dgen "Ge pls 


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me Oe oe CN ae PEN RS wen ee 


Observations on the Direction and Intensity of the Terrestrial 
Magnetic Force in Scotland. By Major Enywarp Sasinz, 
R.A., F.RS., &e. 


[With a Plate.] 


THE observations, which form the subject of the following pa- 
per, were made during a leave of absence with which I was in- 
dulged from military duty in Ireland, in the summer of 1836. 

I was indebted for the opportunity of extending them to several 
stations in the Western Islands, to the interest felt in the subject, 
and to the private friendship of James Smith, Esq., of Jordan- 
hill, President of the Andersonian Institution at Glasgow, who 
devoted a cruise of his yacht to the purpose. 


I. Observations of Dip. 


The needle employed in making the observations of dip is the 
one characterized as S (2) in the account of the Magnetical Ob- 
servations in Ireland (Fifth Report of the British Association, 
pp- 141—149). It was made for me by Robinson, of Devon- 
shire-street, London, to be used on Professor Lloyd’s principle 
of determining both dip and intensity by the same needle. Its 
length is 11} inches, The only peculiarity in the apparatus in 
which it is used is, thatthe agate planes of support are rendered 


horizontal by a detached circular brass plate, ground for the pur- 
pose, and carrying a small spirit level. The plate is placed on 


the planes themselves, and the foot-screws are adjusted until the 
level remains stationary whilst the plate is turned in every di- 
rection ; and it is then removed. There are also levels attached 
permanently to the circle, which serve to detect any change which 
might subsequently take place in the horizontality of the planes 
during the course of the observation. The mode of observation 
of the dip is the same as usual. The number of readings em- 
ployed in each result is noted in the tables, the reading of each 
pole being considered as a distinct reading. The needle was re- 
moved from its supports by Ys, and lowered afresh between each 
pair of readings ; and the face of the circle and of the needle were 
changed round frequently in the course of each determination. 
In a needle on Professor Lloyd’s principle, the poles are not 
changed in each observation of the dip; consequently a correc- 
tion is required to be applied to all the results obtained with it 
VOL. v.—1836. H > 


aaa 


LT: Te SE ysis eater 


o§ SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


for the effect of the momentum of the needle, unless the centres 
of gravity and of the axle should be strictly coincident, which is 
a nicety of adjustment rarely if ever attained. The amount of 
this correction is learnt by comparing the dip observed at some 
one station with that needle, and with others of the ordinary con- 
struction in which the poles are changed in each determination. 
The following observations, made at Limerick, furnish this cor- 
rection. 


1. Needle S (2). 


No.of Read- . 
Date. ise popehaass eee Redneso 
{0} ‘ Oo i 
July 1835 ..... 4 80 71 16:93 | 71 15°68 
December 1835) 3 71 146 71 14:60 
February 1836 | 1 40 a haa Fate 
May 1836.......| 2 80 71 12:0 71 13:25 


Mean, weight being allowed proportioned 
to the number of sets. 


71 14:7 | 


2. With other needles. 


No. of No. of Read- 


Date. Sets ae each Reduced to 
i ts 


Dip 
observed. Jan. 1836. 


-_—=- 


54 | Meyer’sNeedle. 
9:5 |Dollond S$ (1). 
1:8 |Dollond S (1). 
1-4 |Meyer’s Needle. 


(e) “ 
November 1833| 4 48 711947 7} 
August 1834... | 2 96 71 03°5 70 
May 1836.....| 1 128 71 00°57 71 
May& June1836) 2 128 71 00°05 7AM 


cons 


Mean, weight being allowed proportioned : 
: to the number of sets. : 71 028 


Whence it results that — 12! is the correction for the dips ob- 
served with Needle S (2); and from the small amount of this 
correction it may be regarded as constant within the limits com- 
prised by the observations in Scotland. The dips inserted in the 


* In Meyer’s needle, by the use of spheres of different magnitudes in the 
different sets, the results are obtained from ares differing very widely from 
each other, and in which the needle*rests on very different parts of the axle. 
The avoidance thereby of any constant error, caused by the imperfect curvature 
of some particular parts of the axle, is one of the advantages of a needle on this 
construction which ought not to be lost sight of, or unattended to in observing 
with it. The partial results may be wider if the axle be not very truly ground, 
but the mean is more likely to be free from error. 


—- 


MAGNETICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SCOTLAND. 99 


following table have therefore been diminished 12!from the ori- 
ginal observations. 


| Taste I. 
Observations of Dip, Needle S (2). 


No. of; 
Station. Lat. |Long.| Date. ail Dip Place of Observation. 
. ovloet ov 

Dublin .........[53 21] 6 15 | July 22, 23.) 240 | 71 01°1 Provost’s Garden, Trinity College. 
Helensburgh .|56 0 | 4 41 | July 28, 160 | 72 15°9 Seabeach. 

Gt. Cumbray .|55 48} 4 50 | July 30. 80 | 71 58°7 NE. end of the Island. 

Loch Ridan ...|55 57] 5 10 | Aug. 5. 52 72 142 Eastern side of the Loch. 

Loch Gilphead|56 04] 5 28 | Aug. 7. 104 | 72 05°2 Wood near the Canal. 

Castle Duart...|56 31] 5 45 | Aug. 9. G6} 72 12°38 Grounds of Castle Duart. 
Tobermorie ...|56 38 | 6 01 | Aug. 10. 80 | 73 05°2 Scabeach §S. of the Town. 

Loch Scavig ...|57 14] 6 07 | Aug. 12. 48 | 73 02°8 Near the entrance of Loch Coruisk. 
Loch Slapin ...'57 14] 6 02 | Aug. 14. 48 | 72 59°7 E. side of the inner Loch. 
Artornish ...... 56 33] 5 48} Aug. 16. 48 | 72 40°4 Limestone Point S. ot the Castle. 
Glencoe ......... 56 39 | 5 07 | Aug. 17. 72 | 72 147 Grove near the Village. 

Fort Augustus|57 08} 4 40 | Aug. 19. 72 | 72 379 Field near the Canal. 

Inverness ...... 57 27| 4 11] Aug. 20. 64 | 72 44°1 Grounds of Abertorf. 

Golspie ......+.- 57 58] 3 57 | Aug. 23. 236 | 72 53°1 Wood near the Inn. 

Inverness ...... 57 27| 411] Aug. 24. 48 | 72 43°9 Grounds of Abertorf. 

Gordon Castle |57 37 | 3 09 | Aug. 25. 88 | 72 384 Grounds of the Castle. 

Rhynie . ..(57 20] 250] Aug. 26. 88 | 72 23°2 Field near the Inn. 

Alford . 57 13| 2 45 |Aug.27&29.) 160 | 72 19°5 By the River in front of the Manse, 
Braemar, 57 01| 3 25] Aug. 30. 80 | 7211°7 Field near the Inn. 

Blairgow (56 36] 3 18 | Aug. 31. 80 | 71 52°25 | Field N. of the Town. 

Newport (56 25] 2 55 | Sept. 1. 136 | 72 14°95 | Field inland of the Village. 
Kirkaldy 56 07 | 3 09 | Sept. 3. 88 | 72 08°5 Mr. Fergus’s Garden, 

Melrose ........-/55 35 | 2 44 | Sept. 6. 80 | 71 3445 | Riverside, E. of the Abbey. 
Dryburgh ...... 55 34] 2 39 | Sept.7. 80 | 71 31°2 Tweed side. 

Edinburgh ...|55 57 | 3 11 | Sept.8. 80 | 71 47°9 Botanic Garden. 
Glasgow.........|55 51] 4 14 | Sept. 9. 104 | 71 59°2 Botanic Garden. 
Helensburgh...|56 0 | 4 41 | Sept. 13. 80 | 72 12°6 Field East of the Town. 

Loch Ranza...|55 42| 5 17 | Sept. 16. 130 | 72 20°45 | East side of the Loch. 
-Campbeltown ./55 23] 5 38 | Sept. 16. 80 | 71 53°5 S. side of the Harbour. 

Stranraer ......|54 55] 4 59 | Sept. 18. 80 | 71 40:93 | Seabeach E. side of the Loch. 
Bangor .........(54 40] 5 40 | Sept. 21. 80.) 71 36:7 Grounds of the Castle. 

Dublin ........./53 21] 6 15 | Oct.4. 80 | 71 00°7 Provost’s Garden, Trinity College. 


NOE eee ee 8 ies IN eT rn a 
The latitudes and longitudes are taken from the map of Scot- 
land published by the Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge. 
The stations and dips enumerated in the preceding table re- 
quire to be combined, according to the method exemplified in 
the Irish Magnetical Report, in order to determine the angle 
which the isoclinal lines in Scotland make with the meridian ; 
and the distance apart of the isoclinal lines which correspond to 
certain differences of dip. For this purpose some one station 
may be selected as the origin of the coordinates of distance of 
the other stations; and at that station the dip should be as- 
certained with all possible accuracy. In the progress of the 
observations, I had occasion frequently to remark the disturb- 
ance in the direction of the needle caused by the vicinity of rocks 


of igneous origin. Rocks of this nature are so extensively and 


generally diffused throughout Scotland, as to make it doubtful 

whether any station could be selected, which might be confidently 

assumed to be entirely free from local disturbance of this na- 
H2 


100 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


ture; and at which consequently the dip, observed with sufficient 
care and repetition, might be presumed to be due solely to the 
geographical position of the station. With this view, I have 
deemed it preferable to take un arbitrary geographical position, 
nearly central in regard to Scotland and to the body of the ob- 
servations, and to compute the most probable dip for that po- 
sition by a combination of the results at all the stations of obser- 
vation. The central position adopted is lat. 56° 27', long. 4° 25! 
W. of Greenwich. The coordinates of distance in latitude and 
longitude of the several stations from the central position, ex- 
pressed in geographical miles, are inserted in the subjoined 
table, together with the observed dips at each station, in degrees 
and decima!s of a degree. 


TaBLe II. 
| 
Diff. | Diff. Diff. | Diff. 
Station. of of Dip. Station, ‘of of Dip. 
Lat. | Long. Tat. | Long. 


Loch Scavig... | +47] +55] 73-047 || Loch Ridan ...|— 30 +25| 73-237 
Lech Slapin .. | +47] +52] 72:995 || Blairgowrie .. |+ 9, —37] 71-871 


Golspie ...... +91] —15| 72°885 || Helensburgh... |— 27, + 9| 72-265 
Inverness .... | +60]— 8| 72-735 |) Helensburgh .. |— 27, + 9| 72:210 
Inverness .... | +60) — 8] 72-732] Lock Ranza .. |— 45) +29] 72-341 


Tobermorie .. | +11} +53) 73-087 || Cumbray .... |— 39, +14] 71-978 


Fort Augustus | +41]+ 8| 72-632 || Campbeltown .|— 64' +42] 71:892|. 


Gordon Castle | +70| +41] 72°640|| Newport .... |— 2 —50| 72-250 
-Astornish ..... + 6|+46] 72-673 || Glasgow....... |— 36 — 6] 71:987 
Castle Duart.. | + 4] +44} 72:213]| Kirkaldy...... — 20 —42| 72-142 
Glencoe...... +12) +23} 72245 || Edinburgh.... |— 30 —41| 71-798 
Rhynie ...... +53] —51| 72-387 || Bangor ...... —107, +43) 71°612 
Braemar...... +34] —33] 727195 || Stranraer .... |— 92) +20) 71-692 
Alford........ +46 |—54| 72°325 || Melrose...... — 52 —57| 71-574 
Loch Gilphead | —23| +35] 72-087 || Dryburgh .... |— 53, —60| 71°520 


| 


We have then three unknown quantities to seek; viz. 8 = the 
dip at the central position; « = the angle which the isoclinal 
line passing through the central position makes with the me- 
ridian ; and r = the coefficient determining the rate of increase 
of the dip in the normal direction. 

Putting 7 cos w = x, and r sin uw = y, the equations of con- 
dition to be combined by the method of least squares are of the 
following form : 


Loch Scavig . . . . 73°047 55.4” — 47.y, 


= - 
Loch Slapin .. . . 72°995 = 8 + 52.4% — 47.y, 
Golspie. ..... . 72°885 =8— 15.4 —91.y, 


NE ee 


MAGNETICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SCOTLAND. 101 


and so forth, there being as many equations as there are stations 
of observation. Or if we diminish by an equal amount (71°, for 
instance,) each of the observed dips, for the convenience of work- 
ing with smaller numbers, and make = 71° + a, these equa- 
tions become, 
9-047 = 9 + 55.4 — 47.9, 
1:995 = 9 4+ 52.u —47.¥, 
1885 = 9 — 15.4 —91.y; 
and so forth. The sum of the 30 equations, representing the 
sum of the equations severally multiplied by the coefficient of 
v*,is 
4+ 38:238 = +300 + 4.7 +56y- + - (A) 
Next, multiplying the same equations severally by the respective 
coefficients of x, we have 
. 4 119°585 = + 559 + 3025.9 — 2585.4, 
4+ 103°740 = 4+ 52 Y 4+ 2704.47 — 2444.y, 
_ 98:975 = —159 + 225.4 + 1365.y, 


and so forth; the sum of these 30 equations being 
4. 170°00 = +49" + 43084.2 + 9660.y . + (B) 


And lastly, multiplying by the coefficients of y, we have 


— 96:209 = — 479! — 2585.4 + 2209. y, 
_ 93°765 = — 47 8! — 2444. 4% 4+ 2209.¥, 
Lie bod =k + 1365.x + 8281.y¥, 


and so forth; the sum being 
— 431°82 = + 562% + 9660.% + 71514.y . - (C) 


The three final equations A, B, C, furnish by elimination the 
most probable values of the quantities sought. These are as 
follows : 


y= 10988, w= +°00557, y= — 00780; 


and from these we obtain the dip at the central station § = 71° 
+ 8 = 72288 = 72° 17':3; the angle which the isoclinal line 
makes with the meridian = — 54° 27'; or its direction is from 
N. 54° 27! E. to S. 54° 27' W.; and the rate of increase of dip 
iu the normal direction = 0'575 in each geographical mile, or 
52°15 geographical miles to each half-degree of dip. 

If now we substitute in the second members of the original 
equations the previously unknown values of 8, 7, and y, we ob- 
tain the most probable dip due to the geographical position of 
each of the stations of observation ; and, by transposition, the 
most probable amount of error in each of the observations, 


102 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


whether it be regarded as error of observation or as resulting 
from local disturbance: bearing in recollection however, in the 
case of stations very distant from the central position, that the 
assumption upon which the equations are founded is probably 
not strictly correct, viz. of parallelism in the isoclinal lines, and 
of an uniform rate of increase of dip throughout Scotland. 

The following Table exhibits the differences of observation 
and calculation ; and shews the geological character of the surface 
rock at each of the stations, taken from Dr. Macculloch’s Map, 
which, as far as I have had opportunities of judging, I have 
found everywhere most remarkably correct. When the ob- 
served dip is greater than the computed, the sign + is affixed, 
and — when less. 


TaBce III. 


Diff. 
observ’d } observ’d 
Station. and_ | Geological Character. Station. and_ | Geological Character. 
compd. compd 
Dip. Dip 
Z ‘ 
Loch Scavig... | + 52 | Hypersthene Loch Ridan ... | ++ 2°0 | Mica Slate. 
Loch Slapin... | + 3°0 | Lias and ‘I rap. Blairgowrie ... | —17*1 | RedSandstone &Trap. 
Golspie ......... | — 1°7 | Red Sandstone. Helensburgh . | + 6°5 | Red Sandstone. 
Inverness ...... | + 1°3 | Red Sandstone. Loch Ranza... | +14°5 | Clay Slate & Granite. 
Tobermorie ... | +-25°7 | Trap. Cumbray ...... + 5°1 | Red Sandstone & Trap 
Fort Augustus | — 1°2 | Red Sandstone. Campbelton ... | — 7°9 | Red Sandstone & Trap 
Artornish ...... + 49 | Limestone and Trap. ||} Newport ...... | —-15°3_ | Trap. 
Gordon Castle | + 2-0 | Red Sandstone. Glasgow....+... | -- 0°9 | Coal Series. 
pote Duart . | —2)-1 rap. . ; Kirkaldy ...... +146 | Coal rae ae Trap. 
sleNncoe ....... | —15°9 | Clayslate & Porphyry. . ane * Coal Series (Botanic 
Rhynie ......... — 1:8 | Gneiss. pow'y;|| Edinburgh ... if { Garden). 
Braemar ..... —10°5 | Granite. Bangor .....000. — 5'1 | Trap. 
7 Na Dee — 1:2 | Gneiss. Stranraer ...... 0°0 | Clayslate. 
Loch Gilphead | —13°0 | Chlorite Slate. Melrose......... | -- 0°5 | Clayslate. 
Dryburgh...... — 13 | Clayslate. 


We may divide the differences shown in this Table into three 
classes; the first, of seven stations, wherein the differences are 
very great, amounting to 14’ and upwards ; second, of eight sta- 
tions, wherein the differences are more moderate, being between 
14’ and 2’; and in the third class we may place the remaining 
twelve stations, at which the differences do not exceed 2’, being | 
an amount which scarcely deserves to be called a difference. 
Referring now to the geological characters of the stations, we 
find, 1st, that all those of the first class, or where the differ- 
ences exceed 14’, are stations either of trap rocks or of rocks of a 
similar nature ; 2nd, that the stations of moderate differences 
are for the most part characterized also by the presence of 
igneous rocks either wholly or partially ; and 3rd, that at all 
the stations at which the differences do not exceed 2’, the sur- 
face rock is sedimentary. It seems a reasonable inference from 
these facts, that instrumental errors make but a small portion of 


1 


—- —— ee eee Se 


a 


"me 


MAGNETICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SCOTLAND. 103 


the differences under the two first heads; and that we are war- 
ranted in considering such differences as evidencing real irre- 
gularities in the magnetic direction at the respective stations, 
caused by the presence of igneous rocks. We shall subsequently 
find that this inference is confirmed by the agreement of the 
intensities deduced by the horizontal and statical methods, 
when the dips actually observed are employed in the reduction 
of the horizontal vibrations, and in their extreme disagreement 
when the dips due simply to the geographical positions are em- 
ployed. 

A question here arises, how far the general results which we 
have derived, in regard to the isoclinal lines, from the combina- 
tion of the dip observations, are likely to have been affected by 
these local irregularities ; and it is satisfactory in this view to 
find, that a careful consideration of the errors in Table II]. leads 
to the inference, that the disturbing cause, whatever it may be, 
has no uniform tendency, but that its effect is nearly as often 
to diminish as to increase the dip. It is indeed a consequence 
of the method of combination that the + and — errors should 
nearly balance; but had the effect of the disturbance at the 
igneous stations been uniformly to augment the dip (for in- 
stance), the sedimentary stations would all have appeared in 
defect, and all the igneous ones in excess; whereas the results 
at the sedimentary stations are indiscriminately in excess and 
in defect, but to a very inconsiderable amount ; and at the ig- 
neous stations they are also indiscriminately in excess and in 
defect, but with differences of considerable amount. 

After much consideration, it does not appear to me that a 
more satisfactory or probable conclusion would be arrived at, 
were any one or more of the stations now included in the cal- 
culation, to be withdrawn from it. Every observation of the 
dip has been included in the calculation, excepting two. One 
of these was at Oban, where I hastily observed the dip on a 
trap rock at no great distance from the wharf, whilst waiting 
for asteamer, and the result has been found to differ more than 
a degree from the dip assigned by calculation. I suspected the 
locality whilst making the observation; and had time per- 
mitted I should have removed the instrument to another spot, 
and repeated the observation. As it is I can only consider it 
too doubtful a result to be placed on the same footing with the 
others. The other rejected observation was of a very extraor- 
dinary nature. On a rock on which I landed, on the west side 
of the harbour at Loch Scavig, I observed a dip of 78° 10°3, 
exceeding by 5° that which could be assigned to the geographical 
position. I had never before experienced an irregularity of dip. 


104 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


of similar amount, nor had I read of others who had done so. 
The weather was fine, and I had full time to assure myself that 
there was no instrumental mistake. After completing the series 
of four readings in each position of the needle, all of which 
corresponded well, I removed the instrument three several 
times to different places of observation distant ten or twelve 
yards, always obtaining the same result. The coincidence of 
the plane of the circle with the magnetic meridian was also 
verified by removing the compass needle to a fourth place con- 
siderably distant. The rock was hypersthene, remarkably tra- 
versed and intersected by trap veins, and certainly not an eli- 
gible spot for magnetic observations. Crossing to the other 
side of the harbour, to a spot less intersected by trap veins, 
near where the waters from Loch Coruisk fall into the sea, the 
needle gave the result 72° 59!°8, which has been included in the 
calculation, and differs only 5”2 from the general deduction. 

The lines of dip are laid down in the annexed chart agreeably 
to the general results which have been deduced. The dip at 
the central position in lat. 56° 27’ and long. 4° 25’ is 72° 17°3, 
and the angle which the isoclinal lines make with the meridian 
at this station is 54° 27’. The isoclinal lines drawn in the 
map are those of 71° 30!, 72°, 72° 30’, and 73°, and are at 
distances apart of 52°15 geographical miles. 

The near accordance in the amount of the angle with the 
meridian, and of the interval corresponding to half-degrees of 
dip, with the results obtained in Ireland in the preceding year, 
is confirmatory of both as near approximations. The angle 
with the meridian of the isoclinal lines in Ireland is 56° 48’, 
and the interval between the lines representing half-degrees of 
dip is 50°7 geographical miles. So far the correspondence of 
the observations of the two years and of the two countries is 
very satisfactory. The lines of 71° 30’ and 72° are the only 
ones that are common to both countries. If these lines are 
prolonged from the Scottish chart, they will enter Ireland to the 
south of the corresponding lines on the Irish chart; the line of 
71° 30’ by a geographical space equal to about 9’ of dip, and 
that of 72° by a space equal to about 8’. In other words, 
the dip in the north-east part of Ireland, computed from the 
Scottish observations, would be about that number of mi- 
nutes greater than if computed from the general result of 
the Irish observations ; and in the north-west of Scotland the 
dip computed by the Irish results would be the same quan- 
tity less than by the Scotch results. Campbelton, Bangor, 
and Stranraer are frontier stations which may illustrate this. 
The dip at Campbelton deduced from the Irish results (dimi- 


——- 


MAGNETICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SCOTLAND. 105 


nished by 3!’ for the decrease of dip between 1835 and 1836,) is 
71° 533; deduced from the Scottish results it is 72° 01’:4 
The actual observation was 71° 53'5, agreeing in this case with 
the Irish deduction. At Bangor the dip deduced from the 
Irish results is 71° 323, and from the Scotch 71° 41'6: the 
observed dip was 71° 36°7, being intermediate between the 
two deductions. At Stranraer the deduction from the Irish 
results is 71° 31’°9, and from the Scottish 71° 40-9; the observed 
dip being 71° 40°9, which in this instance corresponds with 
the Scotch deduction. The discrepancy is not of greater 
amount than may easily disappear on a slight modification of 
the results in one or both countries, a modification which they 
may be expected to receive from more multiplied and extended 
observations. The true values of « and 7 are probably not 
exactly the same in the two countries ; but it may be expected, 
when observations shall be sufficiently multiplied, that the de- 
ductions from the general results in both countries should 
agree in giving the same dip for the frontier stations. 

We have hitherto no general series of observations of dip in 
England ; but from the great pains which Captain James Clark 
Ross has bestowed on its determination in London, we may 
regard the result obtained by him in July 1835, viz. 69° 173, as 
extremely free from instrumental error, and liable only to such 
differences from the dip strictly due to its geographical position, 
as may arise from local causes. The corrected dip for Sep- 
tember 1836 would be about 69° 14’. The difference of dip 
between the central station in Scotland and in London, com- 
puted with the values of x and y resulting from the Scotch ob- 
servations, is —3°-07, which being deducted from 72°17':3, leaves 
the computed dip in London 69° 10"3. This is another con- 
firmation that the Scotch results are near approximations, pre- 
suming, as is probable, that the values of w and r are nearly the 
same in England as in Scotland. In this instance the deduc- 
tion from them is in defect; in the comparison with those from 
the Irish results it is in excess. 


II. Invensiry. 


§. By Professor Lloyd’s Statical Method. 

The observations by this method were made with the same 
needle that was employed in determining the dip, viz. S (2). 
The method itself is described in the Fifth Report of the British 
Association, page 137, and more largely in the Transactions of 
the Royal Irish Academy for 1836. 

It is important in all observations of intensity that the needle 


106 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


should preserve its magnetic state unchanged or nearly so during 
the whole series of the observations. I had had this needle in my 
possession rather more than a twelvemonth, and had ascertained 
by frequent trials at the same station that its magnetic power was 
diminishing, but at a very slow and uniform rate, well admitting 
of interpolation. Being desirous of shortening as much as pos-~ 
sible the period within which interpolation might be necessary, 
(which would naturally have been the interval between my 
leaving Dublin and my return to it,) 1 made more than the 
usual number of observations at Helensburgh, the first station 
I observed at in Scotland, five days only after I had observed 
in Dublin, designing to return to Helensburgh for the purpose 
of verification once, or oftener if occasion required, ia the pro- 
gress of the observations. 

The first place to which I went from Helensburgh was the 
island of Great Cumbray. In disembarking the instruments, 
there being a good deal of sea, the case containing the needle 
fell from the table to the deck of the cabin. The needle was 
securely and immoveably fixed in the case, but the soft iron 
keeper which connected its poles was allowed a slight spring, 
arising from its own elasticity, to prevent its pressing too hard 
on the points of the needle. This occasioned a slight jar to 
take place ; very slight, but still sufficient to be audible. 

I conjectured immediately that the magnetism of the needle 
might be affected thereby; and the observations at Cumbray 
strengthened this conjecture, by showing a greater difference 
from the Helensburgh results than was likely to be due to the 
geographical distance between the stations. I returned to 
Helensburgh the following day, and on repeating the observa- 
tions there, found that the counterpoise which had deflected the 
needle 89° 339, now deflected it 91° 156, showing that the 
magnetism of the needle had been lessened. Needles have been 
frequently remarked gradually to lose magnetism for some time 
after it has been first communicated to them, until they arrive 
at what appears to be a permanent condition for each particular 
needle; after which their magnetism remains steady. As far 
as can be conjectured, the jar above described seems to have 
brought this needle at once to its permanent state; for on re- 
turning to Helensburgh a third time, after an interval of 42 
days, the observations being repeated, the same counterpoise 
again deflected the needle 91° 187, a result almost identical 
with that obtained on returning from Cumbray. Further, on 
my return to Dublin early in October, I found, on carefully 
repeating the observations at the same place I had observed at 
in July, a difference in the magnetism of the needle almost 


MAGNETICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SCOTLAND. 107 


identical with the difference indicated by the results at Helens- 
burgh before and immediately after the accident. 

The ratio of the intensity of terrestrial magnetism between 
Dublin and Helensburgh as inferred from the results of July 
22nd in Dublin and July 27th in Helensburgh, (being both pre- 
vious to the accident,) is 10067 Helensburgh to 1 in Dublin; 
and as inferred from the results of August 2 and September 
13 and 14 in Helensburgh, and October 4th in Dublin, (all sub- 
sequent to the accident,) the ratio is 10066 and 1:0059 Helens- 
burgh, to 1 in Dublin. I have therefore taken the result in 
Dublin of the 4th October as comparable with all the observa- 
tions made with this needle in Scotland, excepting the first 
results (July) at Helensburgh, and those are comparable with 
the first results (July) in Dublin. The same counterpoise was 
used thronghout. 

Before the values of the terrestrial magnetic force can be 
derived with accuracy from the angles of deflection, it is 
necessary to apply a correction for the variations of tempe- 
rature of the needle itself in the observations at the different 
stations. The temperatures were observed by a thermometer 
placed in the circle with the dipping needle, and remaining 
during the course of the observations. For the purpose of 
ascertaining the value of this correction for needle S (2), the 
needle was suspended horizontally by fibres of unspun silk in an 
earthen vessel glazed at the top, standing in a larger earthen 
vessel, into which warm water might be poured to raise the 
temperature of the air and needle in the inner one. Several 
folds of flannel enveloped the whole apparatus, being drawn 
close round the upper part. of the inner vessel, to keep the tem- 
perature steady for periods of sufficient duration. The tempe- 
rature of the needle was shown by a thermometer suspended 
horizontally across it, not being in contact with any part of the 
apparatus. The needle was then vibrated alternately in the 
natural temperature of the room, and in the artificially raised 
temperature. An arc for measuring the extent of the vibration 
was placed beneath the needle, which was drawn out of the 
meridian, and released at pleasure by a suitable contrivance. 
The following observations were made at Limerick on the 30th 
of October. 


108 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 
Hour. Therm. | Time of 100 Means. 
Vibrations. 
ie. ee i bo eo: 
2 45pm.) 49 646°64 re ° 
3 O02 255 49 646°40 pose at 49. 
3°17, | 49 | 64697 
411, | 99 | 646-72 | 
428 ,, 99 646°53 i f 
520. 90 646-73 646°55 at 90:5. 
715. | 74 | 646-00 |} 
1115, | 55 | 645:43 i 
1138” | 54 | 645-26 } 645°35 at 54°5. 


Here in the formula par ee T’ = 645589: Ty 
ere in ee te ae as oT Soe 
= 056; r— 7! = 38°7. Whence « = 000048. 

In this experiment the time of vibration, as may be seen, 
varied considerably in the cold temperatures at the commence- 
ment and at the close, and gave reason to believe that the 
change due to temperature might be overpowered by the 
diurnal variation of the force. The experiment was therefore 
repeated on the 15th November, as follows: 


Hour. Therm. | Time of 110 Means. 

Vibrations. 

h. m. 8. ue 

4 58p.m.| 49 | 660°56 , 

516 ,, | 49 | 66087 pee 

BiBae el age ceeng3® |p SbEO4 at 49. 

5150.35 49 | 661°40 

7 30 ,, 91 661:73 

7 48 »” 89 661°67 661:77 at 87-6. 


8 Up, 86 | 662-20 
Brers 84:5| 661:47 
12.70%, 51°5| 660:60 
11 25 ,, | 51:0} 661-40 | ooo at 51. 
11 43 ,, | 505] 660-93 


Here Tl’ = 661°; T — T’ = 0°76; +r — 7 = 37°°6. Whencea = 
-000061. This experiment appears more satisfactory than the 
preceding one ; but as the results are so nearly the same, I have 
taken the arithmetical mean ‘000055 for the value of «, which 
being multiplied by M, the modulus of the common system of 
logarithms, = ‘000024 the coefficient of r — r’ in the correction 
for temperature. 

In Table LV. the two last columns contain the value of the 
intensity computed from the angles of deflection, and from the 


— 


MAGNETICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SCOTLAND. 109 


dip, and corrected for the variations of temperature inserted in 
the preceding columns. In the first of the final columns the 


ratios are expressed to unity in Dublin. In the last column the 
ratios are expressed to unity in London, and are the numbers in 
the preceding column multiplied by 1:0208, which has been 
ascertained by Mr. Lloyd to express the value of the intensity in 
Dublin, that at London being unity. 
1836.) 


(Trans. h. I. Academy, 


Taste IV. 
Intensity, Needle $ (2). 


£\%S & Intensity. 
Station. Date. Hour. & Sig Angle, nae RL 
HH a3 Dublin = 1 |London = 1 
oO / 


Dublin .........| July 22 |7 to 8 a.m. |56/240|— 18 27-2) 1:0000 | 1:0208 
Helensburgh ...} July 27 {11 to 1 p.m.j60| 80;— 17 17:9] 1-0067 | 1:0276 
Gt.Cumbray ...| July 30 |3 to 5 p.m. |64)144/— 18 31-9} 1:0091 | 1:0301 
Helensburgh ...) Aug. 2 |12 to 3 p.m.|65)108/— 18 59-7) 1:0066 | 1:0275 
Tobermorie....| Aug. 10 9am. {70} 28)— 15 29:3] 10262 | 1:0475 
Loch Slapin ...) Aug. 14 |8 to 9 a.m.|56) 48)— 15 59 | 1-:0228 | 1-0441 
Glencoe......... Aug. 17 |8 to 9 a.m. |57| 60/— 17 50:8} 1:0126 | 1:0337 
Inverness ......,| Aug. 20 | 2 to 4 p.m. |59/160|— 16 44-2) 1-0189 | 1-0401 
Golspie ........., Aug. 23 |11 to 1 p.m.|51) 96|— 17 08-4) 1-:0162 | 1:0373 
Inverness ....... Aug. 24 | 4 to 6p.m. |58} 92/— 16 53-7] 1:0180 | 1:0391 
Gordon Castle .| Aug. 25 | 4 to 5r.m. |60} 80|\— 16 52:4] 1:0182 | 1:0393 
Alford .......... Aug. 27 | 5 to 7 p.m. |57/100)|— 18 22 | 1-:0097 | 1:0307 
Braemar......... Aug. 30 |7 to 8 a.m. |44| 56/— 18 40:1] 1:0072 | 1:0281 
Blairgowrie ....| Aug. 31 | 3 to 5 p.m. |59/120|— 18 06:1] 1:0112 | 1:0321 
Newport ....... Sept. 1 Noon {60} 40/— 18 40:8) 1-0080 | 1:0290 
Kirkaldy ....... Sept. 3 Noon 60) 48/— 18 37:7| 1-0082 | 1-0292 
Melrose...... --| Sept.6 |4to 6p.m. {51} 80|— 19 43-7) 1:0013 | 1:0222 
Dryburgh ......) Sept. 7 |3to 5 p.m. |56) 80/— 19 56:1) 10003 | 1-:0211 
Edinburgh ......} Sept-8 | 5 to 6 p.m. |55| 40/— 19 24-0) 1:0035 | 1:0245 
Glasgow...... | Sept. 9 |11tol2a.m.j56| 80\— 19 24-0) 1:0036 | 1:0246 
Helensburgh ...|Sept.13&14)12 to 3 p.m.j64| S0\— 19 06-1} 1-0059 | 1:0268 
Loch Ranza ...| Sept. 16 |8 to 10 a.mJ57| 80/— 18 55:9} 10065 | 1:0274 
Campbelton ...| Sept. 16 | 6 to8 p.m. |53) 90/— 18 16-1] 10100 | 1:0311 
Stranraer ......) Sept. 18 |9 to 11 a.m/52) 80/— 19 31-8] 1-0026 | 1:0235 
Bangor .........| Sept. 21 |9 to 11 a.m./50| 72|— 18 55-9] 1-0059 | 1-:0268 
Dublin ......... Oct.4 |12 to 2 p.mJ49| 72|-- 19 53-3] 1:0000 | 1:0208 


If now we make f= the most probable value of the intensity 
at the same central geographical position that was assumed in 
the calculation of the dip observations, viz. lat. 56° 27’, long. 
4° 25’ west; wu = the angle which the isodynamic line pass- 
ing through the central position makes with the meridian ; 


110 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


and 7 = the coefficient which determines the rate of increase 
of the force in the normal direction; and if we put as before 
rcosu=2,r sinu=y,andf=1 +f’, we have three series 
of equations, analogous to those in the dip calculations ; each 
series in the present instance consisting of 23 equations. Sum- 
ming each series we obtain the three final equations as follows: 


+ 7158=+4+ 23f'— 158"+ 154y .°. (A) 
— 2°7180 = — 158 f' + 31892x + 8767y . . (B) 
— 1251 = 4+154f'+ 8767 "+ 63334y . . (C) 


From which we obtain by elimination, 


x = + 00010705; y = — ‘00011186 ; 
u = — 46° 15''5; r = 0001548; and f’ = -0326. 


The intensity at the central position is consequently 1-0326 to 
unity in London. The isodynamic line passing through it 
makes an angle of 46° 15':5 with the meridian ; and lines corre- 
sponding to differences of intensity amounting to ‘005 are at 
intervals apart of 32°29 geographical miles. These are the 
results of the statical method. 


Il. INTENSITY. 


§2. By the Method of Horizontal Vibrations. 


These observations were made in the well-known apparatus 
of M.Hansteen. The cylinders employed were two, belonging 
to Professor Lloyd, which had been extensively used by us both 
in the Irish magnetical observations, and are described in the 
report of those observations as L (a) and L (4). The method 
of observing which I pursued in Scotland is precisely similar to 
the description given in that Report ; and nothing further in 
respect to it appears necessary to be added here, except that the 
same silk suspension was preserved throughout ; the same chro- 
nometer, of small and very steady rate, always employed ; and 
that the coefficient for temperature for both cylinders is *00025. 
The column of “ corrected time”’ in the subjoined Tables is the 
time of vibration reduced by this coefficient to a standard tem- 
perature of 60°. 


MAGNETICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SCOTLAND. 


itt 


TABLE V. 


Times of Vibration of Cyl. L (a). 


Station. Date. Hour. Vibra- | Tem.) 
tion. 

hm 5 ° 
Dublin ...... July 24.) 9 0 a.m.!243-47 |59 
25.) 7 30 a.m.|243-11 55 

Helensburgh. 28.) 4 40 p.m.|250:90 |64°5 

28.) 5 10 p.m.|250-93 |63°5 

Aug. 2.) 7 16 a.m.|251:33 |64:2 

1) 8 00 a.m.|251:51 [55-2 

Gt. Cumbray.|July 30.) 1 50 p..|249-62 |58-2 
30.| 2 10 p.m.|249-79 [58 
LochGilpheadjAug. 7.) 0 50 p.m.|250°88 |69 
7.| 4 30 p../249-62 |61 
7.| 4 50 p.m.|249°30 [59 
Tobermorie... 10.| 8 20 a.m.|254-79 |67 


Loch Scavig . 
Loch Slapin... 


Artornish .... 


Glencoe ....... 
Fort Augustus 
Inverness ... 


Golspie ...... 
Inverness 


Gordon Castle 


Braemar ...... 
Blairgowrie... 
Newport...... 
Kirkaldy...... 


Melrose. ,..... 


Dryburgh ... 
Helensburgh . 


Loch Ranza... 


Time of 


6 20 P.m.|263-49 |60 
8 30 a.m.|254°47 |59°5 


8 30 a.m.|252°57 |60 


8 30 a.M./250°17 |57°5 
2 50 p.m.|253-40 |61 

.| 9 80 a.m.1253°16 |52 

.| 5 00 p.m.|252°28 [53-5 
| 5 20 p.m.|252°32 |51 

| 8 50 a.m.|253°20 |50°5 
| 9 20 a.m.|253°15 [50-5 
| 2 30 p.m.}254°62 |52°5 
| 3 00 p.m.|254-82 [53-0 
.| 0 40 p.m.|253°31 154-0 
.| 1 10 p.m.|253°07 |55:0 
.| 1 45 p.m.|252°69 |60-0 
.| 2 10 p.m.|252°78 |60°5 
.| 6 35 p.m.]250:27 |48°5 
| 7 10 p.m|250°42 47-5 
| 7 45 a.m.|251:90 154 

| 8 10 a.m.|251°73 |52 

| 7 50 a.m.}251°79 |52°5 
9 00 a.m.|250°49 |52°5 
| 6 00 p.m.j247°98 157-5 


1.) 1 40 p.m.j251-28 |59°5 
3.) 9 00 a.m.|250°38 |53°5 
6.| 5 50 p.m.j246°91 |49°5 
6. 

7.| 4 10 p.m.|246°89 |55:0 
13.) 1 40 p.m.|251-24 |61-0 


16.)10 10 4.m.|252-66 |61°5 


| 6 30 p.m.|247-92 [57-5 } 


6 10 p.m.|246-86 [48:5 } 


14,12 30 p.11.[251-29 [59-0 } 


Torecten Place of Observation. 


8 
: Provost’s garden, Tri- 
aaual. { nity College. ; 


251-05 |Sea-beach. 


eeerecces 


Field east of the town. 


} 249-82 at N.E. end of the 
island. 


yess Sir John Orde’s grounds. 


25434 |Sea-beach S. of the town. 
4 Near the fall from Loch 
263-49 Coruisk. 
254-50 We Loch, E. side, on 
imestone. 
f On a limestone point S. 
on ay { of Castle. 
250°32 |Wood near the village. 
253°34 |Field near the fort. 
Grounds of Abertorf. 


bso } craig Phatric. 
} Wooa near the inn. 


25448 
} Wooa up the glen. 
} 258-53 Grounds of Abertorf. 
} 252-72 { one of Gordon Cas- 
} 251-09 Field S.E. of the inn. 


252-23 |Grove, near the manse. 


250-96 |Field near the inn. 
248-10 |Field N. of the town. 


251-26 |A field inland. 
250:79 |Mr. Fergus’s garden. 


247-56 |Field E. of the Abbey. 
247-20 |Tweed side. 
251-27 |Field E. of the town. 


‘ Sea-beach E. 
252'57 harbour. 


side of 


112 


Station. Date. 


Campbelton...|Sept. 17. 
17. 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


TaB_e V. (continued.) 


Time of 
Vibra- 
tion. 


Tem, 


45-0 
48-0 


248:5 7 
248-61 


A as Place of Observation. 


ime, 


a Sea-beach S. side of the 
} 249-88 harbour on red sand- 


stone. 


Stranraer...... i any ne } 247-68 Field S. of the town. 
Bangor (co. 21.) 9 45 a.m.|246°53 |48°6 ‘ 
Bava { 91|10 15 s.M.246-72 149-0 247-30 |Grounds of Bangor Castle. 
Dublin......... Oct. 38.10 10 a.m.|243-25 |45:0 
3.| 2 8 p.m.|243-22 |47-0) | 949.99 | { Provost's garden, Tri- 
3.| 2 30 p.m.|243-09 |48°0 nity College. 
4.) 1 45 p.m.|243-18 |51°5 
Times of Vibration of Cyl. L (b.) 
’ Time of Corrected 
Station. Date. Hour. ees Tem. Time Place of Observation. 
10n. . 
h m s ° s 
Dublin... July 24.) 8 30 a.m.|293-22 |59-0 Pascal den, Tri 
25.| 8 00 a.m.|292-25 |54-0 | } 292-96 Mie: tana = tees 
25.) 8 40 a.m|29257 55-5 mn ee 
Helensburgh . 28.| 4 00 p.m./302°15 (69-4 " Sea-beach. 
Aug. 1.| 8 30 4.m./302-22 [54:5 | ¢302-08 | 2 Field E. of the town. 
2.) 7 45 a.m.J802°55 |65-1 Sea-beach. 
Gt. Cumbray .|July 30.) 2 30 p.1.[300-53 [57-6 | 300-71 | Field N.E. end of the isld. 
Loch Gilphead|Aug. c : - ce rah ee } 300-22 | Sir John Orde’s grounds. 


Tobermorie... 10.) 8 40 a.m.|306-03 |67°5 
Loch Scavig... 12.) 8 00 p.m.'316-13 |60-0 
Loch Slapin... 14) 8 50 4.m.|304-97 59-0 
Artornish 16.| 8 50 a.m.|303°75 |60-0 
Glencoe ...... 17.) 9 20 a.m.|300-91 '56-5 
Fort Augustus 19.| 3 00 p.m.|304-30 |64-0 
Inverness...... 21.| 8 30 a.m.|302-46 52-0 
21.| 5 30 p.m.|3802-42 |49-0 
Golspie ...... 23.) 4 15 p.m.!805-33 |53°5 
23.) 4 40 p.m.|3805-50 |54:0 
Inverness 24/11 50 a.o./803-79 |53-0 
24.) 1 20 p.m.'803-68 [53-0 
Gordon Castle 25.| 1 00 p.m.|303°16 (58-5 
25.) 1 20 v.m.'803-27 |59°5 
Rhynie ...... 26.| 6 10 p..|300-27 50-5 
26.) 7 25 p.m.|300-34 |44°5 
Alford ).pcrcates 28.) 8 30 4.m.|302-04 |52- 
28.) 8 50 a.m.|302-09 |52- 
Braemar ...... 30.) 9 30 a.m.|500°47 |54°5 
Blairgowrie... 31.| 5 20 p.m.|297°47 |57°5 
31.| 6 45 p.m.|297°47 |56-4 
Newport...... Sept. 1.) 1 00 p.m./301-79 |61-0 
Kirkaldy...... 3./10 30 a.m.|300°80 [59-0 


305-46 
31613 


305-04 
303°75 
301°17 
304-00 


} 303-16 
}305-87 
| 304-25 
} 303-29 
} 301-24 


} 302-67 
300-88 
297-69 


301-72 
300°87 


Sea-beach S. of the town. 
Near the fall from Loch 
Coruisk. 
Inner loch on limestone. 
On a limestone point. 
Wood near the village. 
Field near the fort. 
Grounds of Abertorf. 
Craig Phatric. 
Wood near the inn. 
Wood up the glen. 


Grounds of Abertorf. 


In the grounds of theCastie. 
Field S.E. of the inn. 


Grove near the manse. 
Field near the inn. 
Field N. of the town. 


A field inland. 
Mr. Fergus’s garden, 


LT 


MAGNETICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SCOTLAND. 113 


TABLE V. (continued.) 


Ti f 
Station. Date. Hour. Vibra- Tem. See | Place of Observation. 
tion. 7 
6) 6 40 r.2nl296-68 14851 oc. 
Melrose ...... Sept. 6.) 6 40 p.m.'290° 4 P i 
de wcm arte ete } 206 85 | Field E. of the Abbey. 
Helensburgh . 13,] 2 10 p.m.'301-61/61-5 
14,)11 45 a.m.'300:99 57-0 | + 301-33 | Field E. of the town. 
14,/12 05 eae 59-0 
Loch Ranza.. 16.| 9 30.4.m.'302-76|58-0 ‘ 
16| 9 50 a.01.'303-39|60-0| £203"15 | Sea-beach. 
Campbelton... 17.) 7 20 ae ieee 50:0; 299-05 |Sea-beach;on red sandstone 
Stranraer...... 18,| 2 40 p.m.'297-03 |56°4 ® : 
18 3 10 p../296-421544 297:06 | Field S. of the town. 
Bangor ..,... Sept. 21.11 10 a.m.'295-28 |49-6 | 296-04 | Grounds of the Castle. 
Dublin.........|Oct. 3.| 9 25 a.m.'291-02 44:5 
- 45 a.m. 291-24 144-5 992-21 Provost’s garden, Tri- 
nity College. 


3. 9 45 acm. 
3.| 2 55 p.m. 291-37 |49°G 
4,| 1 15 r.w. 291-73 [53:5 


From the near agreement in the respective times of vibration 
of the cylinders in Dublin in July and in October, we may infer 
that the magnetic state of each cylinder had experienced little, 
if any, alteration in the interval; an inference which is also 
confirmed for a portion of the interval by the correspondence in 
the times of vibration at Helensburgh in July and September. 
The times of vibration in Dublin at the two periods referred to 
are as follows, viz. , 


Cyl. L (a). Cyl. L (3). 


8s Ss 
July 94 and DF» hdavedeees 243°47 eeeeesooeves 292°96 
October 3 and 4. weesesees 943°92 Pocccescecee 292°21 


Whence it would appear, if we ought to draw any conclusion 
from such small differences, that Cyl. L. (a) had sustained a 
small decrease of magnetism in the interval, and Cyl. L (d), on 
the contrary, a small increase, and very nearly to a proportionate 
amount. However this may be, we cannot err materially in 
regarding the mean of the times of vibration of each cylinder in 
July and October, as its rate in Dublin comparable with the 
rates observed at the different stations in Scotland. The fol- 
lowing Table has been computed accordingly. The first of the 
three columns under the general head of ‘‘ Horizontal Intensity,” 
expresses the ratio of the horizontal force at each station to 
unity in Dublin, deduced from the times of vibration of Cyl. 
L (a); the next column the ratios deduced from Cyl. L (d) ; 
and the third column contains the ratios deduced from a mean 
VOL. V.—1836, “I 


114 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


of the two cylinders. The first column, under the general head 
of “Total Intensity,’’ shows the ratios of the total force derived 


h secd 
from the mean horizontal component by the formula f = 77-793 


8’ and A! being the dip and horizontal intensity in Dublin, and @ 
and A the same quantities at another station. The final column 
contains the values in the preceding column multiplied by 
10208. 


TaBLeE VI. 
Magnetic Intensity deduced by the Horizontal Cylinders. 


Horizontal Intensity. Observed Total Intensity. 
Station, Laer MALI | sh eet Dip. rer ete 
Cyl. L. (a).|Cyl. L. (b).} Mean. Dublin=1.|London=1 


Dublin ...... 1:0000| 1:0000} 1:0000)| 70. 59°4 

Helensburgh. . 0:9422| 0:9381 | 0:9402]| 72 14:2 

Cambray .... | 0°9516| 0:9467| 0:9491 || 71 58:7 || 0-:9992| 1-0200 
Loch Gilphead 0:9521 | 09498} 0:9510}} 72 05:2 || 10071 | 1:0280 
Tobermorie ., | 0°9180| 0:9175| 0:9178 || 73 ie 1:0276 | 1-0490 
4 
7 


1:0000 | 1-0208 
1:0038 | 1-0247 


Loch Slapin ., | 09169] 0-9200| 0:9184 || 72 59:7 || 1-0229 | 1-0442 
Artornish .... | 0:9309. 09278] 0:9293 || 72 40°4|| 1:0164 | 1:0375 
Glencoe _... | 0-9478| 0:9438| 0:9458 || 72.14-7|| 10103 | 1-0313 
Fort Augustus | 0:9253| 0-9263| 0-9258 || 72 37-9/| 1-0102| 1-0312 
Inverness.... | 09270} 0:9314| 0-9292|| 72 44:0|| 1:0197 | 31-0409 
Golspie...... 0:9170.| 0:9150| 0:9160|| 72 53:1 || 1-0138] 1-0349 
Inverness .... | 0°9239| 0:9248| 0:9244]) 72 44-0); 10144} 1:0355 
Gordon Castle | 0°9299| 0°9306| 0:9302 || 72 38°4|| 1:0155) 1-0366 
Rhynie...... 0:9420| 0:9434| 0°9427 || 72 23:2] 1:0148| 1:0359 
Alford ...... 0-9335 | 09345 | 0-9340 || 72 19°5 || 1:0020| 1-0228 
Braemar... | 0-9429| 0-9456| 09442 |) 72 11-7 || 1-0058| 1-0267 
Blairgowrie .. | 09648 | 0:9660| 0:9654 || 71 52°2)| 1:0105) 1:0315 
Newport .... 0:9409 | 0:9402,| 0:9406 |} 72 14:9 || 1:0049} 1:0258 


Kirkaldy .... | 09420} 0:9457| 0:9439']| ‘72 08-5 | 1-0026| 1-0234 
Melrose .... | 0:9690| 0:9715| 0-9702 || -71 34-4 || 0-9997| 1-0205 
Dryburgh.... | 09719] ...... 0:9719 || 71 31-2) 0-:9987| 1-0195 


Helensburgh., | 0:9406]| 0-9430| 0:9418}} 72 14:2]| 1:0055 | 1-0264 
Loch Ranza.. | 09310] 0:9316 | 0°9313\| 72 20:4 || 1-0002| 1:0210 
Cambelton .,' | 09553} 0:9574| 0:9563}| 71 53°5}) 1-0022| 1:0230 
Stranraer .... "}70:9681 | 0:9701 |, 0:9691 || 71 40-9}! 1:0043| 1-0252 
Bangor .+.«:« |) 09710} 0:9768| 0:9739 || 71 36:9 || 1:0058 | 1-0267 
Dublin ...++. | 1-0000] 1-0000| 1-0000| 70, 59:4), 1-0000| 1-0208 


The observed dips in Table VI. are the same as those in Table I. 
with the exception of the dip in Dublin, at which station I have 
availed myself, in addition to my own observations, of the nu- 
merous results which Mr. Lloyd has obtained with several dip- 
ping needles at the same spot where the cylinders were vibrated. 
An abstract of all these observations from which the dip in 


MAGNETICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SCOTLAND. 115. 


Dublin is derived for the month of September 1836, is given 
in the subjoined Table. 


Date. Needle. Dip 
observed. 


Sept.1834.) 1. | 71 038 


Sept. 1834.) IV. | 71 05-1 
Mean}......| 71 04:1 |==70 58-3 (16 obs.);} 
Sept.1835.| I. | 71 03°%5 | 
Sept.1835-| IV. | 71 02:0 | 
Mean|...... | 71 03-0/=71 00-0(18 obs.) | 
2. | (allowing 
Nov. 1835.| IV. | 71 01:3/=70 58-8 (3 obs.) tabaci 
. Boo Rede 
April 1836.} IV. | 71 02-1 ar by 'deni neo Bonr 
April 1836.| II, | 70 59°5 number of 
Saaeneaeenen Lobservations' 
Mean}.......| 71 00:8 |=70 59:8 (8 obs.) | | 
July 1836.| S (2) |71 01°12) | 
Oct. 1836. | S (2) | 71 00°75 | 
Mean). eda 00°93'=71 00:9 (4 obs.) |) 


In Table VI..we have twenty-five results to be combined by 
the method of least squares, in order to determine the most 
probable values of f’, 2, and y. The equations are analogous to. 
those already described in treating of the statical results. We 
obtain from them the three final equations 


+ 7429 = +25 f’—J32 +11y (A.) 
+ ‘1816 = —73/’ + 356814 +413117y  (B.) 
— 59458 = + 11 f’ + 13117 « + 66193y  (C.) 


From which we find by elimination 


x= + °0001094 y = — ‘0001165 
u= — 46°47°5; r = :0001598; and /’ = -0301. 


The intensity at the central position (lat. 56° 27’, long. 4° 
25' W.) is consequently 1:0301 to unity in London. The iso- 
dynamic line passing through it makes an angle of 46° 47'-5 
with the meridian; and the isodynamic lines corresponding to 
differences of intensity amounting to ‘005 are at intervals apart 
of 31°28 geographical miles. 

12 


116 SIXTH anpoer1836. 


By the statical method we have found the intensity at the 
central station 1°0326 ; the angle with the meridian made by the 
isodynamic line 46° 15/5 ; and the intervals between isodyna- 
mic lines representing differences of intensity of -005, to be 
32°29 geographical miles. 

The agreement of the two methods cannot be considered 
otherwise than as very remarkable. They have no element in 
common except the dip, which, whilst it is very influential in the 
horizontal method, might be many minutes in error without 
sensibly affecting the results by the statical method. The close 
agreement of two methods, which are thus independent of each 
other, forms a strong mutual corroboration. 

By substituting in the original equations the values thus 
found of f', x, and y, we may compute the intensity assigned by 
the combination of the observations at all the stations to the 
geographical position of each station in particular, and we shall 
thus see what degree of accordance the observations at each 
station exhibit, with the indications of the combined results. The 
following table shows the differences between the observed and 
the combined result at each station by both the horizontal and 
statical methods ; the sign + signifies that the observed inten- 
sity is in excess ; — that it is in defect. 


TaBie VII. 
Differences of Observed and Computed Results. 


Station. Horizontal.) Statical. Station. Horizontal.| Statical. 


Loch Slapin ... +0029 | +-0007 || Helensburgh ... —0025 | —-0034 
Golspie ...+.....| —"0042 | —-0039 || Campbelton ... —0043 | +0011 


Tobermorie ...| +0118 | +0080 || Cumbray ...... —°0071 | +:0004 
Inverness ...+.. +0020 | +°0012 || Glasgow ......-.. coors | —°00383 
Artornish ....-. +:0017 | ...... |] Newport.........| +0014 | +-0020 
Fort Augustus . ——"OO45ul occas ‘ Kirkaldy ...... +0002 | +-0033 
Glencoe ..eeeeeee —:0027 | —-0027 || Blairgowrie......| +°0044 | +-0065 
Gordon Castle...| +0033 | +°@033 || Bangor .........| +0044 | +-0014 
Loch Gilphead .| —*0082 | ....- Edinburgh ... 22] seeeee — "6004 
Rhynie .......-.| $°0052 | «...-. Stranraer ...... +0036 | —-0010 
Braemer ...++++- —-0037 | —:0048 || Melrose ......... +0027 | +0015 
Alford ...ceeeeses —:0068 | —°0013 || Dryburgh ......| +°0021 | +-0008 
Ranza-eccoseeeee-| —'0070 | —-0083 


We have seen that each of the two methods gives, when 
taken separately, general results agreeing in a very remarkable 
manner with those of the other method. When however we 
examine the contents of the preceding table, we remark that in 
the horizontal method much greater differences appear between 
the observed and the combined results at single stations, than is 


MAGNETICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SCOTLAND. 117 


the case in the statical method. This accords with the antici- 
pations of the inventor of the statical method. And when it is con- 
sidered that an error of a single minute iv the observation of the 
dip will occasion, in so high a magnetic latitude as Scotland, a cor- 
responding error of ‘0009 in the deduction of the total intensity 
from the horizontal vibrations, it must be acknowledged that the 
- statical method possesses a great advantage in such latitudes, in 
being free from this source of liability to error. I must add, 
however, that I do not attribute the discrepancies observable in 
the results of the horizontal method, beyond those of the statical, 
altogether to defects inherent in the horizontal method. The ne- 
cessity of economizing time obliged me frequently to keep the 
dipping needle and the horizontal cylinders employed at the same 
time, when it was of course necessary to place them several yards 
apart. In a country so subject to local magnetic disturbance 
as Scotland, it is not too much to say, that it might not always 
follow that the dip should have been precisely the same at the 
two spots of observation. I have already noticed that at the 
two sides of the harbour at Loch Scavig I cbserved a difference 
of above 5° of dip; and although that was no doubt an extreme 
case and one of very rare occurrence, it can scarcely be sup- 
posed but that irregularities do occur in a minor degree not 
unfrequently. In strict justice to the horizontal method, the 
cylinders, in countries liable to such local influences, should 
always be vibrated precisely in the same spot where the dip 
is observed. The place of observation of the two methods 
not being the same, may also subject the instruments to actual 
differences of intensity apart from the magnetic direction. In 
such cases the results may be true measures, though differing 
from each other; but discrepancies of this nature should 
not exceed the limit of the local irregularities of intensity, 
the existence of which we may infer from the statical results. 
When they are considerably greater, a more probable mode of 
accounting for them is that the horizontal needle was affected 
by a different dip from that acting on the dipping needle and 
used in the reduction. In all such cases the total intensities 
derived from the horizontal vibrations are of course in error. 
It has been shown by the corresponding table of the dip obser- 
vations that there were seven stations at which the observed 
dip differed from the dip computed by a combination of the ob- 
servations at all the stations to an amount varying from 14’°5 to 
25'"1. At six of these stations there were also horizontal and 
statical observations of the force.. Had the differences between 
the observed and computed dips in these cases been errors of 
observation, and not actual irregularities in the magnetic direc- 


118 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


tion from some disturbing cause, the discrepancies between the 
two methods of measuring the force must have been far greater 
than they are. The error in the deduction of the force by the 
horizontal method which would be occasioned by an error of 
observation of 14’ of dip, would have greatly exceeded any dis- 
crepancy existing between the horizontal and statical results in 
the above table. Considerations of this kind are important in 
their bearing on the proper method of deducing the lines of 
total intensity from a series of horizontal vibrations. If disere- 
pancies in the observations of dip arise chiefly from instrumen- 
tal errors or errors of observation, the dip resulting from the 
calculation of least squares should be used in the reduction 
of the horizontal observations. If, on the other hand, the pro- 
bability of local disturbance is greater than of instrumental 
error, the dips actually observed should be employed in the re- 
duction, Were the dips due to the geographical positions 
employed in the reduction of the Scottish observations instead 
of the dips actually observed at the stations, the discrepancies 
in the resulting intensities would be increased to such an ex- 
treme amount, as to leave no doubt that, in the case of the Scot- 
tish observations at least, the observed dips are those which 
ought to be employed ; and it also follows, that in countries 
subject to such magnetic irregularities, the dipping-needle should 
be regarded as an indispensable accompaniment to the horizontal 
cylinders. 

All the observations made with the statical needle have been 
included in the calculations, as well as all those with the horizon- 
tal cylinders, except the vibrations at Loch Scavig, which were 
evidently affected by some very great cause of irregularity, and 
their introduction into the calculation could only be productive 
of error. Loch Scavig, with its hypersthene rocks and its trap 
dykes, is evidently a very unsuitable place for magnetic observa- 
tions. 

The general results from the statical and horizontal methods 
are so nearly the same, that either might be used for the chart 
with scarcely a perceptible difference. Perhaps the statical re- 
sults may be considered as entitled to a preference, and they have 
been employed accordingly. 

Until the relation which the isodynamic lines in Scotland 
bear to the magnetic intensity in England shall be more 
thoroughly and satisfactorily ascertained, by a connected series 
of observations comprehending the whole of Great Britain, it 
has been deemed preferable to give the Scottish lines no other 
designation in the chart than that which expresses their relation 
to each other, thus limiting the conclusion to what is strictly war- 


MAGNETICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SCOTLAND. 119 


ranted by the observations recorded in this paper. Accordingly, 
the line passing through the central station, and making with its 
meridian an angle of 46° 15'*5, is designated simply as unity for 
Scotland ; and the other lines, at intervals of 32°29 geographical 
miles, are entitled +°015, +°010, +°005, —:005, —°010, —°015, 
according to the values of the intensity which they represent 
relatively to the central line. 

The difference between the deductions in Ireland and in Scot- 
land, in regard to the isodynamic lines, is considerable, and 
apparently too great to be supposed due to an actual difference 
in the lines themselves. It will probably be elucidated by future 
observations, 


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Report on North American Zoology. By Joun Ricwarpson, 
. . M.D., F.R.S., &c. 


Tue following paper having reference to the animals of only a 
single zoological province, bears the same relation to the valuable 
report made to the Association by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, 
** On the present State of Zoology*,”’ that a local fauna does to 
a work embracing the whole animal kingdom. As it leaves un- 
touched the principles of systematic arrangement, structure, 
physiology, and in fact the fundamental doctrines of the science, 
the only subjects coming properly within its scope appear to 
be, an enumeration of the animals inhabiting North America ; 
the peculiarities of the fauna which they constitute when cou- 
trasted with those of the other zoological provinces into which the 
earth may be divided; and the geographical range of groups 
or individual species, with the circumstances which tend to infiu- 
ence its extent, such as the configuration of the land, climate, 
vegetation, &¢c. 'The only author who has written on the latter 
branch of the subject is Mr. Swainson, to whom we are indebted 
for an enumeration of the generic forms peculiar to North Ame- 
rica. No separate treatise has hitherto been devoted to the 
laws which regulate the distribution of animals in North Ame- 
rica, and the geographical limits of each species have been 
very imperfectly pointed out in the systematic works containing 
descriptions of the animals. Hence, as the reports called for 
by the British Association are designed to exhibit the present 
state of science, and not for the publication of new facts or the 
mere enunciation of the reporter’s opinions, portions only of the 
outline of a complete fauna will be traced in the following 
sketch ; but the purpose of the report will be answered if. it 
serves to point out the gaps in North American zoology which 
require to be filled up, and to direct the attention of travellers 
and resident naturalists to those investigations which are im- 


* Vide Report of the Fourth Meeting, &c. London, 1835, p. 143. Mr. Jenyns 
limits his report to “those researches which of late years have tended to 
elucidate the characters and affinities of the larger groups of animals, and 
thereby to advance our knowledge of their natural arrangement.” The great 
extent of the field of inquiry thus marked out will appear by a quotation from 
the first zoologist of the age: “ En un mot, la méthode naturelle serait toute la 
‘seience, et chaque pas qu'on lui fait faire approche la science de son but.” (Cuv., 
Reg. An., i. 10.) 

+ Published in the Encyclopedia of Geography; and in his volume on the 
aa mies and Classification of Animals, forming part of Lardner’s Cyclo- 
pedia. 


122 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


portant to the interests of science. A correct knowledge of the 
species is clearly the first point to be attained, being indispen- 
sable for the due discussion of the other subjects embraced by 
a local fauna; but though this has formed the chief aim of the 
works hitherto devoted to North American zoology, great un- 
certainty still exists as to many species, the original descrip- 
tions being so obscure that they do not enable us to recognise 
the animals ; and even the commonest quadrupeds, about whose 
identity, when found in certain localities, there can be no doubt, 
have in very few instances, indeed, been satisfactorily compared 
with the analogous ones inhabiting distant districts of America 
or belonging to the old world. A critical review of the various 
opinions entertained by zoologists respecting the several species, 
(such as that which the Prince of Musignano has instituted in 
his observations on Wilson’s Ornithology,) would be obviously of 
great utility, but want of space excludes it from this report, 
wherein the Mammalia alone will be noticed in detail. The pre- 
ference is given to this order, partly because, the number of spe- 
cies being small, individual notices can be compressed within 
reasonable limits, but chiefly because opinions are more various 
concerning the quadrupeds than respecting the contents of the 
other orders. A sketch of the labours of the different authors 
who have brought North American zoology to its present state 
might have been introduced, but its utility would not compensate 
for the space it would occupy, and the task has been already to 
a certain extent executed in the introductions to the several vo- 
lumes of the Fauna Boreali- Americana. The reader is therefore 
referred to that work, to the American Natural History of 
Dr. Godman, the Fauna Americana of Dr. Harlan, and espe- 
cially to Pennant’s Arctic Zoology, which contains ample re- 
ferences to all the older writers. Fischer’s Synopsis Mammalium 
is a good book of reference for the published species of Mam- 
malia up to the year 1828. 

Previous to entering upon the details of the report, it is ne- 
cessary to state that in it the term of North America is re- 
stricted to that part of the continent which lies north of the 
tropic of Cancer, thus including New Mexico, the Peninsulas of 
Florida and California, and as nearly as may be meeting the 
limits of the very different and peculiar South American zoolo- 
. gical province. In considering Mexico as the region in which 
the Northern and Southern American faune meet and mingle, I 
follow the opinions of Professor Lichtenstein * and Mr. Swain- 


* « Eyléuterungen der Nachrichten des Franc. Hernandez von den vierfiis- 
sigen Thicren Neuspaniens, von Herr Lichtenstein.” Gelesen in der Aka- 
demie der Wissenschaften am 28 Jun. 1827, Berlin. 


ee 


ot 
ee 


Pee, 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 123 


son *, and dissent from those who consider the Isthmus of Da- 
rien as a zoological boundary f. 


Physical Geography. 

The great range of the Rocky Mountains forms a most re- 
markable feature in the physical aspect of North America, 
Viewed as a continuation of the Cordilleras de los Andes of the 
southern continent, and extending from the Straits of Magalhies 
to the Arctic sea through 120° of latitude, it is by far the longest 
mountain chain in the world. In Mexico it divides into three 
branches ; the western one passing through the province of 
Guadalaxara to the Rio Gila; the eastern one extending through 
the Texas towards the confluence of the Missouri and Missis- 
sippi, where it terminates after assuming the appellation of the 
Ozark Mountains; and the highest or central branch con- 
tinuing northwards to between the 29th and 30th parallels of 
latitude, where it is linked to the lateral forks by connecting 
spurs, or as Humboldt names them “counter forts.” Within 
this mountain system, between the parallels of 19° and 244°, lie 
immense table lands, elevated to the height of 6000 or 7000 
feet above the sea. The central Cordillera of Mexico has a di- 
rection of N. 10° W. from the 25th to the 38th degree of latitude; 
and from thence the course of the ridge is with very slight de- 
flections about N. 28° W. to the 69th parallel and 138th meri- 
dian, near the mouth of the Mackenzie, where the Rocky Moun- 
tains terminate. Travellers, who have crossed the mountains at 
various parts, inform us that they are divided into several pa- 
rallel ridges; this is the case near the sources of the Rio del 
Norte; again between the 37th and 41st parallels; in the 58th 
parallel ; and lastly, in the 64th, where according to the report 
of the fur-hunters thirteen successive ridges must be crossed 
before the western declivity is attained. Many of the peaks of 
the Rocky Mountains rise to a considerable altitude: thus, 
Spanish Peak, lat. 37° 20! N.; James Peak, 38° 38’; and Bighorn, 
lat. 40°, have been ascertained by officers of the United States 
to be from 10,000 to 12,000 feet in height. Mount Hooker and 
Mount Brown, in the 52nd and 53rd parallels, were stated by the 
late Mr. Douglas, but from less perfect data, to be respectively 
15,690 and 15,900 feet above the sea. It is manifest that ani- 
mals may travel along the acclivities of a mountain chain whose 
summits enter within the limits of perpetual snow, from the 


* Encyclopedia of Geography, 1834; Geography and Classification of Ani- 
nimals, by William Swainson, Esq., 1835. 
+ Penny Cyclopedia, art, AMERICA. 


124 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


arctic circle down to the table lands of Mexico, almost without 
varying their climate ; and that were the altitude of the ridge 
between the tropics great enough and sufficiently continuous to 
join the temperate zones of North and South America, we might 
expect to find many species of quadrupeds and birds common 
to both; but it so happens that in the Isthmus of Panama, nearly 
at the place where the elevation for the accomplishment of such 
an union would require to be greatest, the Cordilleras are de- 
pressed to a height not exceeding 500 or 600 feet, and still 
further south there is a plain extending from sea to sea between 
Rio Naipipi and the Gulf of Cupica*. It is not, however, as 
Humboldt has remarked, the altitude of the mere peaks which 
is to form an element in an inquiry of this kind, but rather the 
heights of the backs of the mountains over which the passes 
from one side of the chain to the other are usually made. But 
we have no positive information respecting the height of the 
passes of the Rocky Mountains, and even the altitude of the 
base of the range above the sea, which forms a material item in 
the computation of the absolute elevation of the peaks, has not 
been calculated from barometric measurement, but merely by 
vague estimates of the descent of rivers. Major Long assigns 
to this base a height of 3000 feet, while Lieutenant Pike with 
less probability more than doubles that altitude. 

The Rocky Mountains are bounded on the Atlantic side by vast 
plains, having a gradual inclination to the eastward, and forming, 
from the 50th degree of latitude down to the Gulf of Mexico, a 
water-shed traversed by the Red River, the Arkansas, Missouri, 
and Mississippi. A zone to the westward of the latter river 
about 200 miles broad is well wooded, but the remainder con- 
sists of sandy and naked prairies, whose surface though gently 
undulated presents as few landmarks to guide the traveller on 
his way as he would meet with in the middle of the oceant. 

Between the 50th and 54th parallel lie plains of similar 
character, crossed by the forks of the Saskatchewan, which falls 
into Hudson’s Bay; and still further north the Peace River 
flows towards the Arctic sea through a fertile tract generally 
level, and inclosing portions of prairie land, but more en- 
croached on by pine forests than the southern plains. The 
valley of the Mackenzie beyond the 61st parallel, instead of 
being separated from the Rocky Mountains by an intervening 
level tract of land, skirts their bases until it issues in the Arctic 
sea. We thus perceive that to the eastward of the Rocky Moun- 


* Humboldt. 
+ The eastern banks of the Mississippi are in general thickly wooded, but in 
the State of Ilinois there are some considerable tracts of prairie lands. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 125 


tains there is an immense longitudinal valley extending from 
the Arctic sea to the Gulf of Mexico, crossed by no dividing 
ridges of note, but forming three separate water-sheds; the 
southerly one having, in addition to a general easterly declina- 
tion to the Mississippi, also a descent from the 49th parallel 
towards the outlet of the latter river in the Gulf of Mexico ; 
the northerly one having an inclination towards the Arctic sea, 
commencing between the 53rd and 54th degrees of latitude 
and the central one, which is necessarily the most elevated, 
having merely an easterly descent towards Hudson’s Bay. The 
valley or plain is widest beween the 40th and 50th parallels, 
where it includes 15 degrees of longitude. This configuration 
of the land evidently gives great facilities for the range of 
herbivorous quadrupeds from north to south, and is the line of 
route pursued by many species of migratory birds; and while 
the Mackenzie furnishes a‘channel by which the anadromous 
fish of the Arctic sea can penetrate 10 degrees of latitude to 
the southward, the Mississippi offers a route by which those 
of the Gulf of Mexico can ascend far to the north. 

There are no mountain chains to the eastward of the Missis- 
sippi at all approaching to the Rocky Mountains in magnitude, 
the most remarkable of the existing ones being the Alleghanies or 
Apalachian ranges, which have a breadth of about one hundred 
miles, and rise from 2000 to 3000 feet above the sea, springing 
from a base elevated 1000 or 1200 feet. They extend from Ala- 
bama and the northern confines of Georgia nearly to the banks 
of the St. Lawrence, their general direction being about N.E. 
by N., that is, nearly parallel to a line drawn from Carolina to 
Nova Scotia through the principal promontories of the Atlantic 
coast, and forming an angle of five points with the Rocky Mount- 
ain chain. The strip of country intercepted between the Al- 
leghanies and the Atlantic, undulating and rising moderately to- 
wards the base of the mountains and generally very level near 
the coast, has a width of 200 miles in the Carolinas. In Georgia 
the low land becomes broader, and sweeping to the westward 
round the south end of the chain it joins the valley of the 
Mississippi. To the southward the level is continued into the 
peninsula of Florida, and this tongue of land must be noticed 
as influencing the distribution of animal life, not only by its 
southerly extension, amounting to five degrees of latitude, but 
also by its forming a barrier to the direct passage of fish from 
the Atlantic coast to the same parallel in the bottom of the 
Gulf of Mexico, and thus partly accounting for the very peculiar 


ichthyology of the Mississippi and its tributaries as contrasted 
with that of the eastern rivers. 


126 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


The whole northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico is low and 
swampy, and from the very gradual shoaling of the water, in- 
approachable by ships, except at the mouths of rivers.. The 
coast preserves much the same character on the Atlantic side 
up to Virginia, being almost everywhere skirted by low sandy 
islands, inclosing extensive lagoons and winding channels, into 
which numerous large rivers open, and permit the access of 
anadromous fish to the foot of Alleghanies. In the middle and 
eastern districts of the United States the Atlantic plain is nar- 
rowed by an incurvature of the coast and the extensive encroach- 
ments of the Chesapeake, Delaware, and Long Island Sounds, 
to whose muddy beaches vast numbers of water-fowl resort. A 
narrow valley, having a direction of N. by E., runs from the last- 
mentioned sound to join the transverse basin of the St. Law- 
rence; it is occupied on one side by the River Hudson and 
on the other by Lake Champlain and the River Richelieu*. 

The British Atlantic territory is also deeply indented by the 
Bay of Fundy, remarkable for the rise of its tides, and the extent 
of its mud banks exposed at low water. The island of New- 
foundland, viewed merely in reference to its physical geography, 
appears as a prolongation of the coast line; im its animal pro- 
ductions and vegetation it corresponds with the adjacent coast 
of Labrador. Its surface, as well as that of New Brunswick, 
Nova Scotia, and the northern part of the United States, is 
considerably varied by hills. 

We have next to notice a great transverse valley, commencing 
with the mediterranean sea or gulf of the St. Lawrence, con- 
tinued first to the south-westward behind the Alleghanies in the 
channel of the river St. Lawrence and basins of Lakes Hrie 
and Ontario, and afterwards more directly to the west by the 
valleys of Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior, from the 
two latter of which there are communications by low tracts of 
land. with the great basin of the Mississippi. Canals have been 
executed and more are projected in the Canadas and United 
States for connecting the several systems of water communica- 
tion, by means of which an interchange of fish from widely 
diverging rivers will hereafter take place. 

The interior prairie lands lying to the northward of the great 
Canada lakes have on their eastern boundary a well-wooded, 
but swampy zone of nearly level limestone strata analogous to 
the valley of the Mississippi in its general direction, and having 
on or near its eastern border an almost continuous water-course, 


* A recent traveller states that the only instances of tidal waters of sufficient 
depth to carry large ships crossing primitive mountain chains, are those of the 
Hudson and St. Lawrence. Vide Stuart’s Three Years in America. 


| 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 127 


which may be traced on the map as the River and Lake Wini- 
peg, lower part of the Saskatchewan, Beaver Lake, Mississippi, 
_Athabascow River and Lake, Slave River and Great Slave Lake, 
from whence Mackenzie’s River issuing sweeps round the 
north end of the zone, and approaches the base of the Rocky 
Mountains within‘the Arctic circle. This longitudinal water- 
course lying nearly at a right angle with the transverse valley 
of the St. Lawrence cuts off a large north-east corner of the 
continent, including the Canadas, Labrador, Rupert’s Land, 
and the more northern districts. Though this tract, which 
equals Europe in extent, has a greatly varied surface and in- 
cludes some high groups of hills, it possesses no continuous 
mountain ranges of great elevation, nor indeed any peaks which 
reach the limits of perpetual snow. Its lakes are numerous 
and often large, the proportion of water to land being great. 
In a zoological point of view the district admits of being divided 
into two portions: the northern one, destitute of trees and there- 
fore named the “‘ barren grounds,”’ lies beyond a line running 
W.N.W. from Hudson’s Bay in the 60th parallel to Great 
Bear Lake in the 65th. The southerly portion is wooded, ard 
although it embraces many degrees of latitude it presents a 
surprising uniformity everywhere in its ferine inhabitants. 
The great inland sea of Hudson’s Bay, occupying the centre of 
the whole north-east district, (the lands north of Hudson’s 
Strait being considered as part of it,) materially influences its 
temperature, and consequently its capability of supporting animal 
life. ‘The south and south-west shores of this bay are flat and 
swampy with muddy beaches, whereon vast flocks of water- 
fowl halt for a time in the course of their autumn migrations 
from the northern breeding-places to their southerly winter 
haunts. 

On the Pacific side of the Rocky Mountains we have to. the 
northward an expanded wing, as it were, of the continent pro- 
longed by the peninsula of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, 
and similar in geological and zoological characters, as far as has 
been ascertained, to the eastern’ barren grounds. Further to 
the south the coast line approaches the Rocky Mountains, but 
it recedes again in Upper California; while Lower or old Cali- 
fornia runs out in a peninsular form like Florida, intercepting 
the Gulf of Cortes or the Vermilion Sea, which though much 
narrower than the Gulf of Mexico extends nearly as far north- 
wards. The Pacific coast is flanked at some distance by a 
range termed by Humboldt the “ Californian Maritime Alps”’. 

These are in general nearly parallel to the Rocky Mountains, 
and become more and more elevated as they proceed northwards 


128 » SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


from the comparatively low’ peninsula of California until they 
attain an elevation of 9000 feet opposite Cape Mendocino in 
the 40th degree of latitude. Near the 45th parallel, Mount Hood* 
rises 16,000 feet, and in the 46th stands Mount St. Helens, 
which is 14,000 feet high; the Columbia flows between these 
lofty peaks. Mount Fairweather in latitude 59° has an altitude 
of 14,000 feet, and Mount St. Elias in the 60th parallel at- 
tains to 17,000. These peaks are volcanic, and in the Aleutian 
Islands there is another volcanic mountain 7000 feet high. The 
Californian Alps are divided into ridges by long narrow valleys, 
and between them and the Rocky Mountains lies an extensive 
prairie tract, 700 miles long, from 100 to 200 wide, destitute 
of water, and very similar in character to those which lie on 


the eastern side of the ridge just namedt. Between the forks: 


of the Columbia there are also wide prairie lands covered with 
artemisie, and nourishing several interesting and large species 
of tetrao. 

The mountain system of Russian America is unknown. | The 
peninsula of Alaska and the Aleutian Isles, extending towards 
Asia, separate from the Pacific the sea of Kamtschatka, which 
nourishes several fish of very peculiar forms and some singular 
cetaceous animals. 

Climate. 


Many precise and long-continued meteorological observations 
are required to be made in various districts of North America 
before a general view of the climate having any pretensions to 
accuracy can be offered. Abstracts of temperatures already 
recorded are expressed in the subjoined table, which is con- 
structed after a model furnished by Humboldt. It is preceded 
by a few remarks, which are either simply explanatory, or which 
detail facts not readily expressible in a tabular form, yet of im- 
portance to the naturalist who investigates the distribution of 
animals in North America. 

* Dr. Gairdner, an excellent naturalist now employed in a medical capacity 
on the banks of the Columbia by the Hudson’s Bay Company, has executed a 
map, from which I have extracted the following positions of the most remarka- 
ble peaks of the Californian Alps that have received names. Mount Pit, 
41° 36! N.; Mount Shasty, 43° 16’ N.; Mount Vancouver, 44° 18’ N.; Mount 
Hood, 45° 16! N.; Mount St. Helens, 46° 05’ N.; Mount Rainier, 46°57’ N.; 
and Mount Baker, 48° 27' N. 

+ Dr. Coulter states that the Californian Alps form an union with the Rocky 
Mountains north of the 42nd parallel, about the summit level dividing the head- 
waters of the Columbia from those which fall into the Bay of St. Francisco. 
(Geogr. Tr., v. G8.) The “ counterfort’’ here alluded to, hems in the Snake River 
or south branch of Columbia and limits the range of the bison westwards. The 
difficulty of traversing this connecting ridge*is well described by Washington 
Irving in his recent work of Astoria. - 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 129 


Writers on climate have remarked that the eastern coasts of 
continents in the northern hemisphere have a lower mean tem- 
perature than the western coasts. This is certainly true in the 
higher latitudes of North America, for the winters are much 
milder and the vegetation more luxuriant to the westward of the 
Rocky Mountains*. On the coast of Hudson’s Bay down to 
the 56th parallel the subsoil is perpetually frozen, and further 
inland in the 50th degree of latitude the mean annual heat is 
only 36° F. and the ground is covered with snow for more than 
six months in the year. Even in the 45th parallel on the north 
side of the Canada lakes the frost is continuous for more than 
six months, and the grallatorial and most of the granivorous 
birds can find no means of support during the winter season ; 
consequently the migration of the feathered tribes is much more 
general than in the countries of Europe lying under the same 
parallels. Occasional frosts occur as low down on the Atlantic 
coast as the confines of Florida, where during the late war 
several British soldiers were severely frostbitten; this was 
near the 30th parallel, or that of Morocco, Cairo, and Suez. In 
Mexico and Old California there are also sharp frosts even on 
the low grounds, from local causes. The severity of the winters 
in the 40th parallel and even lower on the Atlantic coast of North 
America destroys many evergreens which flourish all the year 
in Scotland, 18 degrees further north. 

The decrement of mean annual heat on an increase: of lati- 
tude is greater in North America than in Europe, and in the 
former country there is a wider difference between the summer 
and winter temperatures ; that is, the isothzral lines in their 
passage through America curve convexly towards the pole and 
the isocheimal lines towards the equator. 

. Vegetation (the growth of forests in particular) is more in- 
fluenced by the amount and duration of heat than by the severity 
of the winter cold. In countries whose mean heat is below 63°, 
spring, or the renewal of vegetation, takes place, as Humboldt 
has shown, in that month which attains a mean temperature of 
33° or 34°; and deciduous trees push out their leaves when the 
méan rises to 52°. It follows from this that the sum of the 
temperatures of the months which attain the latter heat furnish 
a measure of the strength and continuance of vegetation. On 
the eastern coast at Winter Island, lying in latitude 644°, no 
month-of the year reaches a mean heat of 52°; but in the in- 


* Geologists may find it worth while to inquire how far the superior climate 
of the Pacific coast is influenced by the active volcanos of the maritime Alps. 
No recent volcanos exist in the Rocky Mountains or more eastern ranges. 


VOL. V.—1836. K 


130 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


terior at Fort Enterprise and Fort Franklin, in 643° and 65°, 

there are two such months. In latitude 45° near the middle of 

the continent there are five, in latitude 35° there are nine, and 

towards the southern extremity of Louisiana, in 294° N, lat., 

there are eleven; while within the tropics the trees are ever- 
reen. 

The gradual ascent of the isotheral lines as they recede from 
Hudson’s Bay is shown by the direction of the northern termi- 
nation of the woods. On the coast near Churchill trees cease 
about the 60th parallel; but at the distance of sixty miles from 
the sea their boundary line rises rapidly, and then takes nearly 
a straight W.N.W. course, until it reaches Great Bear Lake, 
in latitude 65°: still further west on the banks of the Mackenzie 
the woods run to 68° N. lat. Wedo not know the course of the 
line of termination of the woods in the interior of Russian Ame- 
rica. In the elevated lands of New Caledonia the snow is said 
to be very deep in winter, and to cause a great scarcity of the 
larger ruminating animals ; but near the mouth of the Columbia 
there are almost constant rains during that season, with little 
frost or snow. There are some peculiarities in the climate of 
Lower California and the adjoining parts of Mexico, which are 
mentioned in the subjoined note*. 

In the high latitudes of North America, at some distance 
from the coast, the intense colds of winter have a very consi- 
derable, though indirect influence on the summer vegetation, 
and consequently on the capabilities of the country for main- 
taining animal life: for independent of the accumulation of 


* In a paper by Dr. Coulter, published in the 5th vol. of the Transactions of 
the Geographical Society, the following remarks on the climate of Mexico and 
California occur :—‘‘ The mercury in a thermometer shaded from the sun, but 
within the influence of radiation from an arid plain, frequently stood at 140° F., 
but this great heat was owing to temporary and local causes. The surface of 
the country, composed of bare mountains or arid plains completely destitute of 
water, does not mitigate the cold winds blowing from the Rocky Mountains 
lying to the north and north-east; hence when they blow for any length of 
time it freezes even to the south of Pitis, in latitude 29° N., and in the winter 
of 1829-80 it froze at that place every night for nearly two months. On the 
table land of Mexico similar cases of cold occur more frequently, as may be 
easily conceived from their greater elevation and the same general scarcity of 
water. At Veta Grande, Zatatecas, during the month of December, 1825, it 
frequently froze hard. The condition of the countries on the confines of Sonora 
and California is peculiar, as lying between the summer and winter rains. The 
whole rain of Mexico may be said to fall in the summer months, but in Upper 
California it rains only in the winter. The summer rains reach the lower part 
of Sonora, where they are scanty and irregular, and from Pitis northwards 
across the sands it rarely rains at all; as is also the case in the northern por- 
tions of Lower California, where the summer rains scarcely prevail to the 
northward of Loretto, the capital.” (Lib. cit., p. 70.) 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 131 


irritability which may be supposed to take place in trees and 
other plants during their long and complete hybernation, an 
increased effect is given to the sun’s radiation by the clearness 
of the atmosphere, brought about in the following manner. 
During the intense winter colds, which are very seldom inter- 
rupted by a rise of the temperature to the thawing point, the 
solvent power of the air is so much diminished that almost all 
the moisture is deposited inthe form of snow*; but in spring 
it is increased by the heating action of a sun that never sets, 
while the ice-covered lakes, bearing so large a proportion to 
the land in America, supply it with moisture slowly. The 
consequence is unusual clearness of the atmosphere, enabling 
the rays of the sun to produce their full effect. On the con- 
fines of the arctic circle an agreeable warmth is often per- 
ceived in the sunshine during the months of April and May, 
when the temperature of the air in the shade is below zero. 
But for this adaptation of the constitution of the atmosphere to 
circumstances, the short summer of arctic America would be 
insufficient to clear the earth of the accumulated snows of nine 
months’ winter. Professor Leslie, overlooking the powerful effect 
of direct radiation from the sun, and which indeed he could not 
know from experimenting only in an insular climate, was led 
from theory to fix the mean temperature of the pole at 32°F., 
and to declare that some great error must have pervaded all 
the thermometrical observations of Sir Edward Parry and the 
other arctic voyagers which showed the mean annual heat of 
places lying near the 70th parallel to be below zero. He has 
also described the whole of arctic America as involved in almost 
perpetual fogs ; but this is true only of the sea-coast, and even 
there merely in some of the summer months, when fogs are 
produced by the intermingling currents of air of different tem- 
peratures, coming from the heated lands, the cooler open water 
or chilling masses of ice in the offing. Most of the winter nights 
are beautifully clear, and but for the intense cold, astronomical 
observations could be made nowhere in the northern hemi- 
sphere with more frequency. 


* When air thus deprived of moisture is heated by admission into a warm 
room it causes all the wood-work to shrink in an extraordinary manner, and so 
dries and chops the cuticle of the human hody that it readily becomes electric 
by friction with the palm of the hand, till the hairs stand erect, and a peculiar 
_ odour is evolved, like that which may be perceived when the rubber of an 
electrifying machine presses hard upon the cylinder. 


| 


CoOnaur wore 


132 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Locality. 


Name of Place. ea ib he Altitude. 2 ig 
° ' ° I Feet 2) 

Cumana ..eceseccessseeeeee 10 27 65 15 0 | 81:86 
Havannah ....sereeveeeees 23 10 82 13 0 | 73:08 
Vera Cruz ...ccseeeeeeeees 19 11 96 01 0 | 77°72 
Fort St. Philip (Louis.) 29 29 89 21 0 | 70°37 
Pensacola ..ssecsesereeers 30 24 87 14 0 | 69:07 
Baton Rouge «..-+.+++++ 32 26 91 18 60 | 67:99 
Kalappa .-.sseeeseseeeeees 19 32 98 20 4330 | 67:64 
Natchez ..cceccccercceesers 31 28 90 30 180 | 64:76 
Mexico secceee csovccesoes 19 26 99 05 7468 | 64:40 
Norfolk (Virginia) .-..-. 36 58 76 16 0 | 63°45 
Annapolis ....eeessseeeees 38 58 76 27 0) | 57-42 
Toluca (Mexico)...-.+--- 19 16 99 21: | 8823 | 57-20 
Cincinnati .......eeeeeeee- 39 06 82 40 510 | 53°78 
New York .......0eeeeeese 40 40 73 538 0 | 53:78 
Philadelphia ...-.-+.+. + 39 57 75 09 0 | 53°38 
Det rit. ooo sinens doeenvieoe- 42 19 83 00 564 | 53:08 
Newport seeccseseseeeerees 41 30 71 18 0 | 52°09 
Council Bluffs......--.++- 41 25 95 43 | cweeee 50 68 
Cambridge ....-+..e++0++ 42 25 71 03 0 | 50°36 
Ft. Constitution(Maine)} 43 04 70 49 0 | 4791 
Fort Niagara ....-+-+++++ 43 15 79 05 240 | 47:48 
Portland ...--s.+ee+eeeesee 43 38 70 18 0 | 46:47 
Prairie du Chien.......-. 43 03 OQ 52M ilcinseke 45°19 
Penetanguishene ......- 44 48 80 40 600 | 45°16 
St. Peter’s ..sserceeseeeers 44 53 93 08 680 | 44°12 
Green Bay ...++++ Rbsies Six 44 40 87 00 600 | 44:06 
Eastport ..sceeeeereerereess 44 44 67 04 0 | 42°49 
Quebec «ecseseeeseerterees 46 47 71 10 0 | 41°74 
Mackimac....seeceeeeeeeres 45 51 85 05 600 | 40°12 
Cumberland House...... 53 57 102 17 800 | 32:01 
Fort Chepewyan....-.--- 58 43 111 18 500 | 29:19 
WNatnn erecagecs'e a cbitee ps bee 57 08 61 20 0 | 26°42 
Churchill ......+se+eeereee+ 59 02 92 05 0 | 25°30 
Fort Reliance ...+-+-++++. 62 46 109 01 350 | 21:47 
Fort Franklin .......-+++ 65 12 123 13 200 | 17°24 
Fort Enterprise. ....--++- 64 28 113 06 850 | 14:19 
Winter Island......-..--- 66 11 83 11 0) 6°84 
Felix Harbour.......+++++ 70 00 91 53 0) 529 
Port Bowen....-.eeeees | 73 14 88 55 0| 36 
Tgloolik ......seseeeeeeees 69 20 81 53 0 | 2-20 
Melville Island ......... 74 47 110 48 0 | -1-71 
East Coast of Greenland| 70 to 74° 10 to 21° W. O een: 
Spitzbergen ...eeeeseeeeres 79 21 10 to 11° E. (1 fh Mire pre 
North of ditto ......0s0++- 814 to 8219174 to 24;° E. 0 ase 


Norr.—The table is constructed upon the‘following authorities: 1, 2, 3, 8, 13, 14, 19,) 
10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, Keating, Exped. to St. Peter’s River, 
son, Frankl. First and Second Journ, Ed. Phil. Journ., xi. p. 1;—37, 39, 40, 41, 44, Parry’s: 
Greenl. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOFY. 


Of the 
month, 


° 

79-16 
69°58 
71:06 
51-59 
51°34 
49°71 


46:94 


43-73 
29:28 


30°20 
25°34 
26°30 
22°94 
26°30 
12°80 
29°84 
20°55 
22:40 
17°63 
620 
21°23 
3°26 
9°40 
17°53 
13°81 
10°53 
—1419 
—9°56 
—11°20 


—25:00 
—23°78 
—29°12 
—29:97 
—33'13 
—28°91 
—32'80 
—37'19 


Temperature. 
Of three! of thre 

Of three | Ofthree patty winter f 

spring summer Septem. months, | Of the ek 
months, months, [her Oc- Decem- | warmest} coldes 

[arch, j|June, July, tober, ber, Sant, munth. 
April, May.| August. Novern- roa a 

° ° ° ° ° 
83°66 82°04 | 80:24) 80°24! 84-38 
73°98 83°30 78:98] 71°24} 83°84 
77:90 81:50 | 78°62) 71:96) 81-86 
70°56 82:89 | 72:75) 54:08) 84:31 
69°80 82:71 | 71-22) 52:54! 84:04 
69-40 82°36 | 68:92) 51°28) 84:80 
«apes 69°32 

65:48 79:16 | 66°12) 48°56} 79-70 
62°91 74:68 66°37} 46°51) 80-21 
56:08 73°37 | 62°60) 34°31} 79°88 
48:20 

54:14 72:86 | 54:86) 32:90) 74:30 
51°26 79°16 | 54:50} 29°84) 80-78 
53-33 | 72:75. | 57:31) 29°77 | 75:32 
55°12 76:08 56°31} 26°78| 77°60 
- 48°53 7116 | 57:79} 30°87} 74:02 
52°68 77:03 | 50°76) 22°23) 79°62 
47°66 70°70 | 49°82). 33°98] 72°86 
46°95 67:99 52°37| 24°33) 69°34 
43°82 68:65 | 52°17| 25°27) 70°42 
45°04 67:66 | 50°73) 22°45) 69-95 
44-16 71:76 | 46°60} 14°93] 73°66 
41:13 69°91 47°20) 22°70) 73°15 
47°47 72°88 | 44:57) 11°65] 75°47 
45°73 69°55 46°32) 14-67 | 72°49 
39°90 60-85 50°95] 21-60 | 62°32 
38°84 68-00 | 46:04] 14°18) 73:40 
37°09 64-11 45°02) 14:27| 67°34 
31°37 67:80 | 33:49] —4:62| 73°73 
25°96 62°41 34:08] —3-67 | 65°70 
23°90 48:38 | 33:44) —0°60| 51:80 
52:20 | —6-80 

BI cacece [essa —20°30| ...... 
14:05 50°40 | 21°12/— 16°60 | 52°10 

8-72 51°71 19°34/— 23°03 | 55°36 

2°65 35:00 | 14°67|—24°96 | 36°68 
—143 | 40-73 7:26|— 28°70 | 44:57 
—5:74 | 34:92 | 10°58|—25:09 | 37-29 
—2:19 34°63 3°12|— 26°76 | 40°04 
—6:94 36°44 | —3:44|—33°02 | 42°41 
a 34°53 | oe | .». | 30°29 
eens B4:50 | c.eeee | ceeeee 35°98 
seeeee | weeeee | wevese | eevese 33°13 


| Number 
of 


months 


which |Sums of Means o 


havea 
mean 

empera- 
ture of 


WORD AaQonw st we 


| 


| 


their | their 


tempera- tempera- | 


tures. 


tures. 


: 


Highest temperature 
recorded. 


eoesee 


153 


No. 


© CONT OD Or 09 0D 


26, 32,33, Humboldt, Mém. d’ Arcueil, iii. p. 462, and Ed. Phil. Journ., iii. p. 1;—4, 5, 6, 
1825;—7, Lyon’s Mezico, Lond. 1828, ii. p. 196;—24, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, Richard- 
Voyages ;—38, Ross's Second Voyage ;—43, Franklin, Ed. Phil. Journ.;—42, Scoresby’s 


134 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Although the progress of colonization in the Atlantic States 
of North America has considerably restricted the range of the 
indigenous quadrupeds, and also somewhat modified the migra- 
tory movements of several groups of birds, we have no decided 
evidence that any one species has become extinct in that country 
through the agency of man; and ample opportunities are still 
afforded to the naturalist of making himself acquainted with the 
habits and structure of its ferine inhabitants. Whether we re- 
gard the striking peculiarities of the North American fauna, or 
the remarkable coincidence of most of its generic forms with 
those of Europe and Asia, and the considerable proportion of 
species common to both continents, its study is interesting and 
instructive to the general zoologist. But it is to the resi- 
dent American naturalist that we especially look for a correct 
history of the animals which surround him. He has a field 
before him in a great part untrodden, and where cultivated, so 
overrun with weeds, that the fruit cannot be collected: for the 
early settlers having bestowed familiar European names on the 
specifically and in some cases generically distinct animals which 
they encountered in their new abodes, these were adopted by 
the naturalists of the Old World either without examination or 
after a comparison of dried and distorted exuvie only. Mis- 
takes thus originating are still suffered to encumber our system- 
atic works, and the American zoologist will do good service to 
the branch of science which he cultivates, if, like the immortal 
Cuvier, trusting solely to his own powers of observation, he 
sits down on his own shore to dissect, examine, and reason 
for himself. 

A correct view of the distribution of animals through the 
North American zoological province cannot be given until 
several large districts have been much more thoroughly investi- 
gated. Exclusive of deficiencies in our knowledge of the species 
which frequent the country lying to the eastward of the Rocky 
Mountains, the whole tract to the westward of that ridge, from 
Mexico to the Icy Cape, may be said to be as yet a terra incog- 
nita to zoologists. Of the animal productions of Russian 
America almost nothing has been made public since the days 
of Steller, with the exception of a few species described in 
the Zoologischer Atlas of Eschscholtz, now unfortunately 
brought to an abrupt conclusion by the death of its author. All 
that is known of the zoology of New Caledonia and the banks 
of the Columbia is derived from voyagers or travellers who have 
partially described the objects of chase by their popular names— 
the notices occurring in the narrative of Lewis and Clark being 
by far the fullest. The ornithological portion of the natural 


oO, 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 135 


history appendix to Captain Beechey’s voyage by Mr. Vigors 
is our principal authority for the Californian birds; while the 
only professedly complete view of the Mexican fauna is the al- 
most obsolete work of Hernandez. European museums, that 
of Berlin especially, have since the overthrow of the Spanish 
dominion in the New World obtained many specimens from 
Mexico, but we have not been able to procure a complete list 
of species, nor has the Prodromus Faune Mexicane announced 
by Professor Lichtenstein yet reached England. In the mean 
time we have had recourse to that author’s elucidations of Her- 
nandez (Abhandl. der Ac. der Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1827) ; 
to Deppe’s sale list of Mexican specimens collected by himself, 
and M. Schiede, dated 1830; and to a paper by Mr. Swainson 
in the Philosophical Journal for 1827, describing one hundred 
species of Mexican birds: but as these papers do not notice 
the range of the species, they are very imperfect substitutes for 
Professor Lichtenstein’s expected work. 

From the geographical position of Mexico on the verge of 
the tropical region, the peculiar physical configuration of its 
surface, and its being the boundary between the northern and 
southern zoological provinces of America, it is the region which 
above all others is likely when properly studied to yield infor- 
mation respecting the laws which influence the distribution of 
animals. ‘This has been well shown by Professor Lichtenstein 
in his paper in the Berlin Transactions already quoted. He 
compares the whole of New Spain to a great mountain, whose 
voleanic summit, attaining an elevation of 17,000 feet, enters 
within the snow line*, while its middle, temperate region 
is traversed by numerous valleys communicating at various 
heights, with wide basins, whose bottoms are little more than 
a thousand feet above the sea level. Hence the traveller jour- 
neying down the deep descent of one of these magnificent ra- 
vines through forests of beeches, oaks, and pines loaded with 
cacti and epidendra, finds himself suddenly on the level shores 
of the Rio Alvarado surrounded by palms, and has an oppor- 
tunity of seeing the animal productions, of the north and 
south, of the alpine regions and tropics, nay of the eastern and 
western hemispheres, mingled together. Wolves of northern 
aspect dwelling in the vicinity of monkeys; humming birds 
returning periodically from the borders of the frozen zone with 
the northern buntings and soft-feathered titmice to nestle near 
parrots and curucuis ; our common European whistling ducks, 


* The observations of Humboldt place the inferior limit of perpetual snow 
within ten degrees of the equator in America at about 16,000 feet. 


136 SIXTH REPORT —1836. 


shoyellers, gadwalls, and teals swimming in lakes which swarm 
with sirens (axolotl), and wherein the northern phaleropes seek 
their food in company with Brazilian parras and boatbills ; asso- 
ciations which occur in no other region of the earth. Though 
the Mexican valleys or plains, having various altitudes, furnish 
appropriate stations for peculiar assemblages of animals, and 
by the common practice of the country the different regions are 
distinguished as ‘‘ cold’’, temperate, and “ hot’’, yet we know 
too little of the differences of climate to enable us to characterize 
these local faunz with precision. It may be stated, however, 
that the low and hot maritime tract (tierra caliente) and the 
interior valleys nourish forms which have heretofore been con- 
sidered as peculiarly South American, such as howling mon- 
keys, hapales, armadillos, ant-bears, coatis, peccaris, coandus, 
jaguars, ocelots, maccaws, and ibises, though they do not range 
to the northward of the 19th degree of latitude *. This district 
also abounds in genera of birds common in the Brazils, (¢cterus, 
tanagra, lanius, and muscicapa+ Linn.,) but on a close exami- 
nation few of the species are found to extend to both continents. 

In the temperate region, where the cerealiu are cultivated, 
the animals accord little with those of South America, but re- 
semble closely those of the east coast of North America—deer, 
opossums, skunks, rabbits, squirrels, and other gnawers repla- 
cing the southern monkeys and armadillos; in place of parrots 
there are party-coloured woodpeckers ; and instead of tanagers 
and hepoazas we meet with thrushes, buntings, hedge-creepers, 
and warblers. The couracous, humming birds, and troupials go 
partially beyond this region to colder districts or higher lati- 
tudes; and it may be remarked of the couracous that they are 
larger and more brilliant in the elevated Mexican woodlands 
than in the Brazilian forests, while it may be affirmed of the 
troupials that they spread from their most congenial residence 
in the temperate regions of Mexico, northwards to the United 
States, and southwards to Cayenne and Brazil. 

In the elevated cold region the fauna assumes an Europeo- 
Asiatic character. The fields abound with hares, the woods 
with squirrels; and a destructive sand rat, resembling the Cana- 
dian one, infests the maize grounds. There are also a spermo- 
phile scarcely differing from the Siberian one, the “ cacamitzli’’ 
(bassarts astuta) a beast of prey of a new genus, one or two 


* The Sais, Saguins, Sloths, Tapirs, and Tajasous, also Brazilian, do not 
exist in this district, but there are a few agoutis.—Lichtenstein. 

+ The genera Pipra, Todus, Myothera, Euphone, &c. are wanting in the 
warm district —Lichtenstein. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 137 


species of skunk, some pretty weasels, (but no martins,) and a 
wolf very much like the Canadian species, which descends also 
to the warmer valleys. The white-head sea-eagle, the Virginian 
horned owl, the common barn owl*, and a smaller species, with 
sparrowhawks and falcons are the common birds of prey in 
the cold region, where the Brazilian urubitingas and naked- 
headed carrion vultures also come. Snow-birds, buntings, gros- 
beaks, a great variety of finches, and a peculiar kind of long- 
legged ground cuckoos are the chief singing birds, and among 
the water-fowl which cover the extensive alpine lakes there are 
at least ten or twelve of our northern ducks. Terns and gulls 
seldom fail to appear at certain seasons, but they are species 
that have been described by Hernandez alone, and are not yet 
introduced into our systems}. These remarks, though greatly 
abridged from the original, will serve to show how much the 
North American fauna in general would be elucidated by an 
investigation of that of Mexico. 

In the following observations on the Mammalia, the arrange- 
ment of Cuvier’s Régne Animal is adopted. 


Ord. QUADRUMANA. 


One animal of this order (tnwus silvanus) ranges in the Old 
World northward to the rock of Gibraltar, lying in the 36th 
parallel, but we are informed by Lichtenstein that no monkey 
has been observed in the New World beyond the 29th degree of 
north latitude. Mr. Ogilby again tells us that there are no real 
quadrumana in America, none of the monkeys inhabiting that 
quarter of the globe having a thumb truly opposable to the fingers, 
and he has therefore proposed to arrange them ina group named 


* There is reason to believe that many owls which have heretofore been con- 
sidered as only geographical varieties of the Strix flammea are in fact distinct 
species, though closely resembling the European type. 

+ The views of Mr. Swainson with respect to the junction of the North and 
South American zoological provinces in Mexico correspond generally with 
those of Lichtenstein, though these authors do not appear to have been 
acquainted with each other’s labours on that subject. Lichtenstein’s paper is 
of a prior date to the Geographical Dictionary or Mr. Swainson’s Treatises in 
Lardner’s Cyclopedia. 

t Ogilby, Zool. Proc., No. 39, 1836. “ In ateles the thumb is either merely 
rudimentary or entirely absent; in mycetes, lagothrixz, aotus, pithecia and 
hapale it is similar to the other fingers and in a line with them; while in cebus 
and callithrix, though placed a little further back than the other fingers, it is 
weaker, and acts in the same direction with them, never in opposition to them.” 
“* None of the true guadrumana have prehensile tails.” The American mon- 
keys have other peculiarities, of which the most characteristic are their lateral 
nostrils, That they rarely sit erect is indicated by their hairy buttocks. 


138 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


pedimana, which with the exception of the phalangers of the 
Indian archipelago is proper to the New World and to Australia. 
There are no apes nor baboons without tails in the group; even 
the callosities of the buttocks are wanting, and a large proportion 
of the species have prehensile tails endowed with so great a 
delicacy of touch that they have been compared to the trunk of 
the elephant. This modification of structure evidently indicates 
great capability of travelling from tree to tree in lofty and 
crowded forests, and it is worthy of remark that America excels 
the other quarters of the world in the variety of animals which 
use the tail as an organ of prehension or progression among trees, 
for not only the genera mycetes, brachyteles, ateles, lagothriz, 
and cebus among the guadrumana possess this power, but also 
didelphis among the marsupiata, cercoleptes* ranking with the 
carnivora, and syntheres and capromys with the rodentia. 

The monkeys which enter the southern provinces of Mexico 


belong to the genera mycetes and hapale +. 


Ord. CARNIVORA. Fam. CHEIROPTERA. 


The members of this family which have hitherto been detected 
in North America belong to that tribe of the “ true or insecti- 
vorous bats” which Cuvier has characterized as possessing only 
one bony phalanx in the index, and two in each of the other 
fingers. This is in fact the only tribe of cheiroptere which is 
distributed generally over the world, and to it all the European 
bats belong, with the solitary exception of the Italian dinops 
Cestonii. "The other subdivision of the true bats, comprising 
molossus, dinops, nyctinomes, cheiromeles, noctilio and phyllo- 
stoma, is chiefly South American, though it has a few represen- 
tatives in the warmer regions of the old continent. Phyllo- 
stoma, the most remarkable of the generic groups, is indeed 
peculiar to the new world; but phyllostoma spectrum, placed by 
Geoffroy in a distinct genus named vampirus, is the only 
species which authors have mentioned as ranging northwards to 
New Spainf. 

The following bats have been noted as inhabitants. of the 
United States and British America; and though they almost. all 
belong to the cosmopolitan genus vespertilio, none of the Ame- 
rican species have been detected in other countries. 


* The closest affinities of cercoleptes are with the ursiform plantigrada.— 
Owen, Zool. Proc., No. 32, 1835. 

+ “ Briill-affen” and “ Klammer-affen.”—LicuTEnsTEINn, op. cit., p.97. 

+ Desmar., Mamm., Grirr. Cuv., &e, 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 139 


Rhinopoma carolinensis, GEorr. Mus.* Vespertilio monachus, Rar. 

Taphozous rufus, Wi1s. dm. Or. 50, » phaiops, Iv. 

Vespertilio carolinensis, Gzorr. Mus. 47. Plecotis megalotis, Ip. 
"A arquatus, Say. Long’s Exp. Nycticeius noveboracensis, Penn. 31, 2. 
95 subulatus, Ip. Jd. “ humeralis, Rar. 
» ~  Audubonit, HARLAN. a tessellatus, Ip. 
Pr melanotus, RAFINESQUE. se pruinosus, Gop. p. 72. f.3. 
i calcaratus, Ip. Hypexodon mystax, Rar. 


a cyanopterus, Ip. 


The first species of the above list is in Geoffroy’s opinion not 
a true rhinopoma, and the native country of the only individual 
which has been seen is very doubtfult, The red bat of Penn- 
sylvania is the only American taphozous, the other members of 
the genus being inhabitants of Africa and the East Indies. 
The remaining bats of the list are analogous to those of the 
temperate -parts of Europe; but most of the species are still 
imperfectly described, nor have their distinctive characters been 
properly investigated, and consequently nothing certain can 
be stated respecting their distribution. It can scarcely be 
matter of surprise that these nocturnal animals are so little 
known in the New World, when we consider that though Pen- 
nant described only five species as natives of Great. Britain, 
seventeen are figured in Mr. Bell’s recent work. The American 
bats which have been admitted into systematic works, on M. Ra- 
finesque’s authority, have been named rather than characterized ; 
and few of the many genera proposed by this author have been 
adopted by naturalists, owing to his want of precision and inat- 
tention to structure. His labours are not, however, to be en- 
tirely disregarded; for he has certainly detected many new 
animals both in Europe and America, being one of the first in- 
vestigators of the natural history of the latter country who was 
not prevented from judging for himself by an overweening de- 
ference to European authority. His genus nycticeius, charac- 
terized by having only two widely separated upper. incisors, 
includes a considerable number ef species hitherto ranged with 
vespertilio, and according to M. Temminck comprises even the 
genus atalapha, which Rafinesque had incorrectly founded on 
the vesperiilio noveboracensis, from.a supposed want of these 
two incisors, which nevertheless exist. The characters of hy- 
pexodon are equally vague, and it is not likely that any one of 
these three genera will be permanently adopted. Nycticeius 
pruinosus has been taken on the Saskatchewan, the Missouri, 
and at Philadelphia ; and vespertilio subulatus, having a range 


* The doubtful species, or those which particularly require further elucidation, 
are in italics. 


+ Desmar., /. c. 


140 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


of 24 degrees of latitude from the Arkansas to Great Slave 
Lake, is probably the most generally diffused of the American 
bats, 


Ord. CARNIVORA, cont. Fam. INsEcTIvorA. 


Sorex brevicaudus, Say, Long’s exp. Condylura cristata, Gop. pi. 
»»  parvus, Ip. A longicaudata, Ricu. F.B.A. 
» personatus, Georrr. Mus. 15, 122. GP macroura, Haru. Ricu. F.B.A. 
»  Forsteri, Ricu. F. B.A. 24, 


» palustris, Ip. Jb. EC prasinata, Harris, Less. man. 
»  talpoides, GaPrER, Zool. J. 5. Scalops canadensis, Gop. pi. 


In no other family of carnivora do the North American 
members differ so much from the European ones as this, the 
range both of generic forms and of species being more than 
usually restricted within certain geographical limits. None of 
the family are known to inhabit South America; the European 
genera erinaceus, talpa, and mygale have not been detected in 
North America, while condylura, scalops, and all the shrews in 
the above list are peculiar to the latter country. Cladobates, 
centenes, and chrysochloris belong to the East Indies, Mada- 
gascar, and the Cape of Good Hope, the supposed American 
species of the last-mentioned genus (chrysochloris rubra vel 
rufa) having no other authority for its origin than that of Seba, 
upon which very little dependence can be placed. 

The shrews above enumerated closely resemble their Euro- 
pean congeners, with whom they have not been sufficiently 
compared ; palustris in particular is with difficulty distinguish- 
able from fodiens or Dauhbentonii. Little has been done to- 
wards determining the range of the North American species. 
Those which inhabit the Atlantic states were formerly con- 
sidered as identical with European species; but after Mr. Say, in 
his expedition up the Missouri, had detected and described as 
new brevicaudus and parvus, these names were applied to the 
coast shrews, though it is by no means, certain that they are 
more appropriate than the older appellations. S. brevicaudus 
is said by Mr.'Taylor* to be an inhabitant of the Alleghany 
range, at the height of 2000 feet above the sea, where during 
the winter it makes long galleries in the deep snow. 8S. palus- 
tris and Forsteri have a high northern range, extending within 
the arctic circle to the limit of the woods. The latter differs 
from the description of S. personatus principally in wanting a 
black mark on the end of the nose and in the colour of the 
under fur, so that without a comparison of specimens they can- 
not be positively pronounced to be distinct. S. talpoides, the 


* Mag. Nat. Hist. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 141 


largest of the American shrews, was detected in Canada by 
Dr. Gapper, who has deposited a specimen in the Bristol mu- 
seum. The distributien of condylura and scalops has been but 
partially traced, but it is probable that they do not extend be- 
youd the 53rd parallel. Mr. Taylor captured the scalops cana- 
densis on the north eastern end of the Alleghanies at an elevation 
of 1500 feet, while the condylure were confined to the bottom 
meadow lands. Lichtenstein thinks it probable that the moles 
entirely destitute of sight mentioned by Hernandez as inhabi- 
tants of Mexico, belong to the genus scalops. Authors disagree 
in their accounts of the dentition of the scalopes. Baron Cuvier 
says that they have the teeth of the desmans, and such is the 
case in the specimens which I have examined, the total number 
of teeth being 44. Desmarest enumerates only 30 teeth in all, 
and Dr. Godman, who is followed by Lesson, reckons 36. 
Harlan describes a species (pennsylvanica), of which he has 
merely the skeleton, possessing 40 teeth. The teeth of the Cana- 
dian species round away by use in a very remarkable manner, so 
as to look like rows of seed pearls. The genus of the animal 
named ‘‘ black mole,’’ considered by some as a ¢alpa, is uncer- 
tain, but it is most likely a scalops: Mr. Taylor found it on the 
Alleghany range. The condylure would form an interesting 
subject for a monograph; the species are, perhaps, more nu- 
merous than has hitherto been suspected, and their manners are 
as yet almost unknown. The remarkable enlargement of the 
tail, which has given origin to one of the specific appellations, 
is, according to Dr. Godman, merely a sexual peculiarity con- 
fined to certain seasons. 


Ord. CARNIVORA cont. Fam. Carnivora. 
Div. 1. Plantigrada. 


Ursus arctos*? Ricn. F. B.A. Nasua, species due, Licut. HERN. 
», ferox, In. lc. 1. Meles labradoria, Ricu. F. B.A. 2. 
»,» americanus, F.Cuv. Hist. des Mam. | Gulo luscus*? Epw. 103. 
» Mmaritimus, Ross, Voy. pi. », barbara, Grirr. Cov. pl. 
Procyon lotor, Burr. 8, 43. Bassaris astuta, Licut. Hern. 


Div. 2. Digitigrada. 


Putorius vison, Burr. 13. 43. Mephitis nasua, BeENN. Zool. Proceed. 
x vulgaris* ? Penn. Arct. Zool. »  putorius, CaTEss. 62. 
* erminea* ? Ip. Ib. »  interrupta, Rar. An. of Nat. 
Mustela canadensis, Gme.. Ricu. F. B.A. »  vulpecula, Fiscu. Syn. 
huro, ¥. Cuv. Dict. des Sc. 29. »  myotis, Iv. Ib. 
ny martes*? Ricu. F. B.A. »  ttzqui-epatl, eERNANDEz, Mex. 


Mephitis americana, Sasinz, Fr. Voy. »  conepatl, Ip. Tb. 


142 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Lutra canadensis, Fr. Cuv: B. deg Se. 27. | Felis onca, Fr. Cuv. H. des Mam. pl. 


», lataxina*? Ip. Jd. » discolor, Cuv. 

Enhydra marina*, Coox, Third Voy. 43. », pardalis, Grirr. Cuv. pl. y. 

Lupus occidentalis, Rieu. F. B. A. 3. 5, rufa, Scures. 109, 13. 
»  Mexicanus, Lin. Licut. HERN. » mitis, F. Cuv. H. des Mam. No. 18. 
»  latrans, Ricu. F. B.A. 4. », Canadensis*? Grorr. 
» ochropus, Escuscu. Zool, dil. 2. » Griffithsii, Fiscu. Syn. Grirr. Cuv. 
»  nigrirostris, Licut. HERN. Ocel. 3. 

Vulpes lagopus*, Tu1EN. Nat. Bem. » chiliguoaza, Fiscu. Syn. Grier. &e, 
»  wsatis, Ip. Id. Ocel. 4. 
»  fulvus, Ricu. F. B.A. 5. » maculata, Horsr. & Vic. Zool. J. 4, 
»  cinereo-argentatus, SCHREB. 13. 


» velox, Say, Long. Exp. 


It is to this great family that the terrestrial quadrupeds which 
are common to the old and new continents mostly belong. The 
generic forms are those of Europe, with a few exceptions, such 
as procyon, nasua, bassaris and mephitis, which seem to be 
stragglers from the South American zovlogical province. On 
the other hand, the genus Zwtra, which is a northern form, sends 
a few species to the south of the Isthmus of Darien. 

Plantigrada.—Two bears of the preceding list are peculiar 
to the New World, namely ferox and americanus, the former 
dwelling principally in the Rocky Mountains, but occasionally 
descending to the neighbouring prairies, while the latter inha- 
bits all the wooded districts from Carolina to the Arctic Sea, 
being, however, less numerous near the coast. The maritimus 
is common to all the northern regions, but it ought in fact to 
be considered rather as a sea animal than a land one: it tra- 
verses the whole of the icy seas from Nova Zembla and Spitz- 
bergen to Greenland, and from thence along Arctic America to 
the shores of Siberia. It is, in fact, the most northern quadru- 
ped, having been seen by Sir Edward Parry in the 82nd degree 
of latitude, and it descends on the Labrador coast to the 55th. 
The males, and females that are not gravid, travel far in the 
winter time over the ice in quest of food*. The ursus arctos 
does not range in America much to the south of the Arctic 
circle, being confined to the “ barren-grounds :” its identity 
with its European namesake has not been been properly esta- 
blished. Lichtenstein, in his observations on the work of Her- 
nandez, mentions two or three species of masua as existing in 
Mexico, one of them being white with large black spots. The 
raccoon (procyon lotor) ranges from Canada as far south, it is 
said, as Paraguay: on the coast of the Pacific, its skins are ob- 


* Vide App. to Capt. Back’s Journey, wherein an instance is quoted of a 
whale having been killed by the crew of a vessel which was beset in the winter 
by ice 60 miles from the land. Next day many bears and arctic foxes came to 
feed on the crang!! 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 143 


tained by the fur-dealers up to latitude 60°, but more correct 
observations as to the identity of the species are required before 
so extensive a range can be ascribed with certainty to this ani- 
mal. Mr. Collie, when with Captain Beechey, saw a small: 
ursine animal very abundant on the coast of California, which 
is probably the procyon cancrivorus or an allied species. 

The meles labradoria, which is perfectly distinct from the 
Kuropean badger, has its northern limit about the 55th parallel, 
where it inhabits the prairies only. The meles hudsonius, men- 
tioned by Cuvier in the Régne Animal as differing very little 
from the meles vulgaris of Kurope, is entirely unknown to us. 
The Mexican species, supposed to be indicated by Hernandez, 
is very doubtful. The wolverene (gulo luscus) does not vary, 
according to Cuvier, from the European glutton by permanent 
characters; next to the polar bear and arctic fox it is the 
most northern carnivorous quadruped, its range extending to 
Parry’s Isles in latitude 75° N., if not to a still higher parallel. 
Gulo barbara, enumerated by Lichtenstein in his list of Mexican 
animals, extends southwards through all the warmer districts 
of America. Mr. Gray pointed out to me its closer resemblance 
in external form to the weasels than to the northern glutton, 
and its differences from the latter in the form of its feet, which, 
though plantigrade, are slightly webbed, in its long tail, and 
in its having a tooth fewer in each jaw; it should therefore be 
separated, together with its allied species, in which case gulo 
would remain entirely a northern genus. - Bassaris astuta is a 
Mexican animal, noticed by Hernandez under the name of tepe- 
maxtlatan, which has characters intermediate between viverra 
and naswa, and is therefore placed in a new genus by Lichten- 
stein. 

Digitigrada.—The American weasels and martins have greatly 
perplexed naturalists, and their synonyms are involved in much 
confusion ; yet we can pretty confidently assert that five species 
only are known in the fur-countries from latitude 50° N. to the 
Arctic sea. The range of the described species is limited to the 
northern or middle districts of the United States; but Lich- 
tenstein informs us that some new kinds inhabit the elevated 
lands of Mexico. The ermine has been seen as high as the 734 
degree of latitude on the west side of Baffin’s Bay*. It is very 
probable that both the ermine and stoat of America are distinct 
species from those of the old continents, the superior quality of 
the fur of the Siberian ermine being one marked difference ; 
while there are others, such as the much smaller skull of the 


* Sir J. Ross, Hirst Voyage. 


144 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


American animal, which will be more readily acknowledged by 
naturalists. Baron Cuvier holds the putorius vison to be a di-+ 
stinct species from the mustela putorius of Europe, though some 
-zoologists confound them* ; it ranges from Carolina to the are- 
tic sea. The pine-martin of America is also most probably a 
different species from the European one, and in fact the com- 
parisons of Mr. Yarrell have shown that in the form of its skull 
it approaches more closely to the martes foina, or beech mar- 
tin. Most of the American martins noticed by authors we be- 
lieve to be merely nominal species ; thus the huro of Frederick 
Cuvier is the common American pine-martin in its pale summer 
dress, and the same is most probably the case with the lutreo- 
cephala of Harlant, while the zibedlina of American naturalists 
is the same animal in its prime dark winter fur. The pine- 
martin ranges northwards to the limits of the woods, and many 
specimens corresponding with the descriptions of Awro and lu- 
treocephala were observed at Fort Franklin, where the natives 
considered them, and the darker and often smaller martin sold 
by the furriers under the name of sable, to form only one spe- 
ciest. The m. vulpina of Rafinesque and m. leucopus of Kuhl 
require further investigation. 

The “ fisher’’, or “‘ wejack’’ (mustela canadensis), is found up 
to the 60th parallel. Its synonymy is embroiled in confusion, 
which is attempted to be unravelled in the Fauna Boreali- 
Americana ; but on referring to Fischer’s synopsis, we discover 
that it has more recently received other appellations, and among 
the rest that of mustela Godmanii, apparently from an appre- 
hension that the animal described in Dr. Godman’s natural 
history is either a distinct species or a well-marked variety. 
Now, on referring to this description, we observe that it is sub- 
stantially the same with that drawn up by Mr. Sabine (in the 
appendix to Sir John Franklin's first journey) of the common 
wejack, or woodshuck, with the single addition of “ tail smallest 
at the end’’, which is not really the case in the wejack. 

The mephitis americana ranges northwards to the 61st paral- 
lel§, but its southern limits cannot be ascertained until the 
species are more clearly defined. Some authors consider every 


* Fischer, probably misled by Pennant’s miserable figure of the animal in 
the History of Quadrupeds, has named a fictitious species enhydra gracilis. 
(Synops.) 

+ Dr. Godman says that the original specimen described by Dr. Harlan 
under the appellation of lutreocephala is an overstuffed vison, long kept in 
Peale’s museum. 

t Vide Yarrell’s Zool. Jour. for 1836. 

§ Vide King’s Narrative of Capt. Back’s Journey. Bentley, 1836. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 145 


individual differing in the distribution of its stripes as a distinct 
species, while Cuvier ranks them all as mere varieties, thus at- 
tributing to the animal a most extensive range through North 
and South America. The americana, which is the most north- 
ern species, is very uniform in its markings within the limits of 
the fur countries. Kalm describes one differently zoned as an 
inhabitant of Canada; the béte pwante, discovered by Du Pratz 
in Louisiana, has been named mephitis? myotis by Fischer ; 
Rafinesque distinguishes the mephitis interrupta of the same 
country ; and Hernandez points out two Mexican skunks by the 
names of i¢sgui-epati and cone-epatl. The m. nasua is an in- 
habitant of California. There is, perhaps, an error in the 
statement made by some naturalists, that the South American 
mephitis chincha extends its range to the southern parts of the 
United States, for though the Baron finds the osteological cha-~ 
racters of all to be the same, the varieties distinguished by the 
number and distribution of their stripes do not usually occur 
together in the same districts, nor range through many degrees 
of latitude. 

According to Baron Cuvier, the 7utra canadensis, which ex- 
tends northwards to the vicinity of the polar sea, is the same 
species with the brasiliensis; and the /ataxina has an almost 
equally extensive range frem Great Slave Lake, where it was 
found by Mr. King, to Carolina, where F. Cuvier’s specimens 
were obtained, and the Brazils, whence the Baron received it. 
The variety of climates inhabited by /atazxiaa will be still more 
remarkable if, as Cuvier seems to intimate, it be specifically 
the same with the European otter, for he says they do not 
differ by any permanent characters. Even the domestic dog 
does not change his abode to the same extent without under- 
going more sensible alterations of form. Were the otter to 
live entirely in the water, the severity of the seasons would be 
greatly tempered to it ; but it is wont in the high northern lati- 
tudes to travel far through the snow in quest of open water 
when its summer haunts are frozen up. 

With regard to the species of the genus canis much differertce 
of opinion will most likely continue to prevail among naturalists, 
from the general uniformity of their external forms, the great 
difficulty of characterizing the differences by brief descriptions, 
and the want of a sufficient number of specimens in any one 
collection for comparison. The physiognomy of the American 
wolf when contrasted with that of its Kuropean namesake is 
very distinct; but a family likeness prevails throughout the 
whole group of American wolves, however much they may dif- 
fer in size, colours, or even in habits. The Japus occidentalis 

VOL. v. 1836. L 


146 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


travels northwards to the islands of the Arctic Sea, but its south- 
ern range cannot be defined until its identity with the com- 
mon wolf of the United States be proved or disproved. Accord- 
ing to Lewis and Clark, the latter crosses the continent to 
Upper California. The Mexican wolf seems to differ from oc- 
cidentalis chiefly in the black parts of the fur forming bands on 
the flanks ; an accurate comparison of the two is still required. 
Canis latrans, or the prairie wolf, is found on the Saskatchwan 
and Missouri, being confined, as its name imports, to the prairie 
lands. It is probable that the Californian ochropus and the 
Mexican nigrirostris are but varieties of atrans. Authors are 
not more decided with respect to the species of foxes. Cuvier 
thinks that the canis fulvus differs from the European velpes 
merely in having more brilliant fur; but, as Mr. Bennett 
has remarked, it is impossible for any one to contemplate 
the two species together in the Zoological Gardens without 
observing their very different aspects: the black, silver, and 
cross foxes of the furriers are mere varieties of fulvus. A no- 


tion exists in the United States that the descendants of Euro- » 


pean foxes introduced by the early settlers are now numerous 
in the country, but the fact has not been established by a deci- 
sive comparison of specimens, and it is possible that the ani- 
mal of supposed European origin is the Virginian fox (cinereus 
or cinereo-argentatus of Schreber), which at certain seasons has 
a reddish hue. The latter ranges from Upper Canada across 
the continent to the banks of the Columbia, southwards to 
the Gulf of Mexico, and, according to Cuvier, throughout 
tropical America. The kit-fox (velox) is peculiar to the prairies, 
and does not go higher than the 55th parallel of latitude; it is 
very similar in habits to the Asiatic corsac. Thieneman has 
distinguished two species of arctic fox, which were formerly 
confounded under the name of lagopus. One for which he 
has retained this appellation is stated in Fischer’s synopsis to 
be an inhabitant of Europe only; but it is the species which 
frequents the arctic coasts of America as far west as Mac- 
kenzie’s River, and descends along the shores of Hudson’s 
Bay to the 58th parallel. The other species, named ‘satis, 
characterized by its acute ears and coloured tip of the tail, 
is said to be an inhabitant of the northern parts of Asia and 
America; but I suspect that its range in the latter country 
is confined to the west side of the Rocky Mountains, as it did 
not fall under my observation to the eastward. On the Pacific 
coast the arctic fox is said to occur as far south as the 58th or 
59th degree of latitude. 

The confusion of synonyms in the genus felis is not less per- 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 147 


plexing than in that of canis, and though the labours of F. 
Cuvier, Temminck, and others have expunged several nominal 
species from the American fauna, no dependance can be placed 
on the accounts which previous writers have given of their dis- 
tribution. Temminck has remarked that there is no proof of 
either felis onca or pardalis having been killed in North Ame- 
rica; but both these and the puma, or cougar (concolor), are 
mentioned by Lichtenstein as inhabitants of Mexico, probably on 
the authority of specimens communicated by Messrs. Deppe and 
Schiede. The puma is decidedly common to North and South 
America: Langsdorff observed it in Upper California, Dr. 
Godman adduces authenticated instances of its having been 
killed in Kentucky and New York, and it is said to have strayed 
occasionally as far north as Canada. The existence of the ja- 
guar (onca) within the limits of the United States is more 
doubtful, though Lewis and Clark say that they saw it on the 
banks of the Columbia, and Dr. Harlan includes both it and the 
ocelot (pardalis) in his fauna of the United States. In neither 
case, however, have we any information respecting the means 
used for identifying the species; and as felis mitis, now known 
to range northwards to Mexico*, was confounded with pardalis 
until its peculiar characters were pointed out by F. Cuvier, we 
are not in a condition to say which of the two enter the United 
States, if, indeed, either of them come so far north. According 
to Temminck, felis rufa inhabits every part of the United 
States, but does not exist in Canada: it ranges to the banks of 
the Columbia, and Mr. Bullock found it in Mexico. The pee- 
shew, or felis canadensis, is the most northern of the cat-kind, 
being, in fact, the only species which extends beyond the Ca- 
nada lakes, whence it ranges through the woody districts of the 
fur-countries up to the 66th parallel. Temminck states that it 
is also an inhabitant of the northern parts of the Old World, 
and he has therefore proposed to change its name to borealis. 
The name of canadensis having been occasionally given to the bay 
lynx by the naturalists of the United States, erroneous impres- 
sions of the southerly range of the former have been produced. 
Felis carolinensis and mexicana of Desmarest, and montana, 
floridana, and aurea of Rafinesque, are doubtful species, the 
occurrence of whose names in systematic works shows the ne- 
cessity for extended and correct observations by resident natu- 
ralists. The lynx fasciatus of the latter author is founded upon 
Lewis and Clark’s description of a cat killed by them on the 
banks of the Columbia; but the species requires further eluci- 


* Lichtenstein. It is supposed to be the jaguar of New Spain of Buffon. 
L 2 


148 SIXTH REPORT—1836, 


dation before it can be considered as established. Lieutenant- 
colonel H. Smith has figured two ocelots in Griffith’s Cuvier, 
—No. 3, which came from Mexico, and was preserved in Bul- 
lock’s museum, and No. 4, which he supposes to be a native of 
the same country, and to be the species figured by Buffon, 
Supp. 3, 18. The former is named fi Grifithsii, and the latter 
f. chibiguaza in Fischer’s synopsis. The felis maculata of 
Horsfield and Vigors, figured in the Zoological Journal, was 
brought from Mexico by Captain Lyon. 


Ord. CARNIVORA, cont. Fam. AMPHIBIA. 


Calocephalus vitulinus*, F. Cuv. Otaria jubata, Peron. 
< fetidus*, Fapr. +) wpllrsina,..L Dp; 
a hispidus*, Scur6s. » pusilla, Burr. 13, 53. 
Ay groenlandicus*, EGEDE. »  californiana, Corts, Voy. 11. 
+ lagurus, F, Cuv. »  Stelleri, Less. Fiscu. Syn. 
i barbatus*, Fasr. Trichechus rosmarus*, Lin. 


Stemmatopus cristatus*, GMEL. 


Few of the amphibious carnivora enumerated above are pecu- 
liar to America, for though the otarie are found only in the 
Pacific, they range to its Asiatic as well as the American shores ; 
the others are mostly common to the northern seas of Europe, 
Asia, and America. As it is only of late years that the seals of 
Europe have been investigated with any success, there is little 
probability of the American list being either correct or com- 
plete*. 

Captain James Ross states that the smaller seals (vitulina 
fetida and hispida) come into the bays and near to the shores 
of the arctic seas in winter, living under the ice, in which they 
preserve breathing-holes ; while the harp and great seals (groen- 
landica and harhata) keep at a distance from the land among 
the packed ice and partially open water. Calocephalus lagurus 
was sent from Newfoundland by De la Pilaye, and it is probable 
that lewcoplus (THiEN.), which inhabits Iceland, ranges over to 
Greenland and Davis’s Straits, in which case it belongs also to 
the American fauna. The leonine seal (stemmatopus cristatus) 
descends further southwards on the American coast than else- 
where, one having been captured near New York. This specimen 
has been described as a distinct species under the name of mi- 
trata (Fischer, syn.). Most of the Davis’s Straits seals have 
been enumerated by authors as inhabitants also of the sea of 


* All the calocephali of the above list, except feetidus and lagurus, are men- 
tioned by Graah as inhabitants of the east coast of Greenland, as are also stem- 
matopus cristatus and trichechus rosmarus. (Vide Exp. to East Coast of Green- 
land, by Capt. W, A. Graah.) 


> aaa F 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 149 


Kamschatka. Of the otarie which also frequent the sea just 
named, jwhata is said, though without satisfactory evidence, to 
exist also in the Straits of Magalhaes. O. Stelleri is very im- 
perfectly known, even the genus to which it belongs being un- 
certain. The existence of the otaria fasciculata, or the ‘¢ rib- 
bon seal’’, is surmised merely because a piece of back-skin was 
transmitted from the Kurile islands to Pennant, and figured by 
him in the History of Quadrupeds. 

The trichechus rosmarus is found in all the arctic seas, though 
there are some deep sounds, such as Regent’s and Bathurst’s 
Inlets, into which it does not enter. It descends along the 
Labrador coast to the Magdalene islands, in the 47th parallel. 


Ord. MARSUPIATA *. 


Didelphis virginiana, Grirr. Cuv. pi. Didelphis cancrivora, Grirr. Cuv. pl. 
“6 opossum, Burr. 10, 45, 46. 


As the marsupial animals are now confined to America, New 
Holland, and some parts of the Indian archipelago, and geologi- 
cal researches indicate that they are the earliest mammiferous 
animals whose remains exist in the ancient strata of the earth, 
the study of these zoological provinces must be interesting to 
those who seek to develope the condition of the world at former 
periods. Comparative anatomists have shown that the marsu- 
piata are inferior to other mammalia in their simple unconve- 
luted brain, less perfect organs of voice, and lower intelligence ; 
the rodentia are next to them in these respects ; and the exist- 
ence of marsupiata and the great numbers of redentia in the 
North American fauna are its chief characteristics when con- 
trasted with that of Europe. It has been said that when the 
ancient marsupiata existed they were exposed to the attacks 
of no enemy having higher intellectual powers than a reptile. 
In the present day the opossums of America and the phalangers 
of India have many enemies of different classes, yet they do not 
seem to be in any immediate danger of extinction ; and the 
more numerous marsupials of Australia are kept sufficiently 
under by carnivorous beasts of their own order, aided by birds 


* Though Cuvier has arranged the marsupiata as an order, he considers it 
rather as forming a division, or subclass, parallel to the rest of the mammalia, 
and representing all the other orders. Mr. Owen agrees with him in obser- 
ving, that “the marsupials, including the monotremes, form a very complete 
series, adapted to the assimilation of every form of organic matter.” M. Des- 
moulins and Mr. Swainson have distributed them among the several orders, 
esteeming what Cuvier supposed to be merely analogies to be in reality affini- 
ties. The didelphide being carnivorous, are not, in either view of the matter, 
out of place at the end of the carnivora. 


150 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


of prey, and above all by man and his attendant dog. In the 
order rodentia we have an example of productiveness being 


sufficient to ensure the species from extinction, though assailed - 


by hosts of foes of all kinds. 

Only one didelphis is common to North America, namely, 
the virginiana, which extends to the Canada lakes, being, 
moreover, like the rest of the genus, an inhabitant of the inter- 
tropical parts of the continent. Mr. Collie saw it in California, 
and Temminck says it inhabits Mexico. Didelphis cancrivora 
and opossum range, according to Lichtenstein, as far north as 
Mexico, and if one of these be not the “ coyopollin’”’ of Her- 
nandez, there is a fourth species in that country. Authors have 
somewhat arbitrarily used the name of coyopollin as a synonym 
of dorsigera and philander ; but it is by no means certain that 
the latter species reaches Mexico. 


Ord. RODENTIA. 


Sciurus cinereus, Burr. 10, 25. 

»  capistratus, Grirr. Cuv. pi. 

» ?grammurus, Say, Long. Exp. 

»  nhiger, Ricu. F.B.A. 

»  Collixi, Ip. Beech. App. 1. 

»  Clarkii, Smirn, Griff. Cuv. pl. 

»  Lewisii, I. Ze. pl. 

» hudsonius, Ricu. F.B.4. 17. 
Tamias Lysteri, Ip. F.B.A. 15. 

* 5,  qQuadrivittatus, Ip. F.B.4. 16. 

»  buccatus, Licur. Deppe’s List. 
Pteromys sabrinus, Ricu. 7.B.A. 

» alpinus, In. Ze. 18. 

»  volucella, Burr. 10, 21. 
Spermophilus lateralis, Rica. F.B.4. 13. 

»  Hoodii, In. Ze. 14. 

»  Richardsonii, Ip. Ze. 11. 

»  Franklinii, Ip. Ze. 12. 

»  Beecheyi, In. Zc. 12 B. 

»  Douglasii, Ip. Le. 

»  Parryii, Ip. de. 10. 

»  guttatus? To. Le. 

»  Spilosus, Benn. Zool. Pr., 1833. 

» ?Ludovicianus, Grirr. Cuv. 
Arctomys empetra, Ricu. F.B.A. 9. 

» ?brachyurus, HARLAN, fauna. 

» [ pruinosus, PENN. 
caligatus, Escuscu. Zool. At. 6. 
ochanaganus, Kine, Narr. &c. 

»  monax, Epw. 104, Grirr. Cov. 
Mus leucopus, Rar. Rieu. F.B.A. 

» >? virginicus, Reicu. Fiscu. Syn. 
Meriones labradorius, Ricu. F.B.A. 17. 
Neotoma Drummondii, Ricu. F.B.4. 8. 

»  floridana, Say & Orp. de. Se. 

Ph. 


Sigmodon hispidum, Say. 

»  ferrugineum, Hart. Sill. Jour. 
Fiber zibethicus, Cuv. 

Arvicola riparius, ORp. 

»  Xanthognathus, Leacn. Zool. M. 

»  pennsylvanicus, Ricu. F.B.A. 

»  noveboracensis, Ip. .e. ; 

» borealis, Ip. Ze. 

»  rubricatus, tp. Beech. App. 
Mynomes pratensis, Rar. dn. Nat. 1820. 
Georychus helvolus, Ricu. /.B.A. 

yy  trimucronatus, In. Zc. 

»  hudsonius, In. Ze. 

»  groenlandicus, In. /.c. 

Geomys bursarius, Davies, Lin. Tr. 5, 8. 

» borealis, RicH. nov. sp. 

»  Douglasii, Ip. F.B.A. 

»  bulbivorus, Ip. /.c. (diplostoma). 

»  Uumbrinus, Ip. Le. 

»,  talpoides, Ip. Ze. 

»  pinetis, Rar. 

»  Drummondii, Ricu. nov. sp. 

»  mexicanus, Licut. HERN. 
Saccomys anthophilus, F. Cuv. 

» fasciatus, Rar. (Cricetus). 
Apluodontia leporina, Ricu. F.B.d. 18 C. 
Castor fiber*?, L. 

Eretizon dorsatum, Grirr. Cuv. pil. 
Synetheres prehensilis, F. Cuv. 
Lepus glacialis, Lzacu. 

3 americanus, GMEL. ‘ 

»  virginianus, HARL. 

»  mexicanus, LicuT. 

»  cunicularius, Ip. 

Lagomys princeps, Ricu. F.B.4. 19. 
Dasyprocta carolinensis, F. Cuv. 


North America exceeds the other quarters of the world in the 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 15] 


nuinber of species and variety of forms of its rodent animals ; 
but they are still very imperfectly known, as their original de- 

-scribers have too frequently contented themselves with noticing 
the colour of the fur and the length of the tail, disregarding os- 
teological characters, and rarely noting the dentition, so that 
many of the species enumerated in the American fauna are of un- 
certain genera, and many nominal ones have been introduced. 
The American naturalist who shall sedulously collect rodentia 
from various parts of his country, and describe minutely their 
characters, adding comparative notices of the species of each 
genus, will confer a great obligation on the lovers of science. 
Rafinesque has noticed a considerable number of animals of this 
order, some of them so peculiarly striped that they could not 
easily be mistaken were they to come under the observation of 
another zoologist ; but in the instances in which his animals 
have been traced he is found to be so often inaccurate, and his 
generic characters are so generally imperfect, that science would 
sustain little loss if his notices were expunged from our books of 
natural history, were it not that they serve the purpose of inducing 
search in the localities he points out. In the preceding list we 
have omitted most of the doubtful species which have been ad- 
mitted into the systems. 

Sciurus cinereus, which has a multitude of synonyms tacked 
to it, inhabits most parts of the United States, being very abun- 
dant in Carolina and Pennsylvania. Sc. rufiventer of Geoffroy, 
magnicaudatus of Say, and ludovicianus of Curtis, quoted by 
Harlan, do not, as far as we can judgeyby the published descrip- 
tions, differ from certain states of cinereus. A sc. hypoxvanthus 
occurs in Lichtenstein’s list of Deppe’s Mexican animals; but 
no character is given, so that we have no means of ascertaining 
in what respect it differs from the fulvous-bellied condition of 
cmereus. The sc. capistratus, or fox-squirrel, is a larger spe- 
cies, which varies greatly in its colours, and inhabits the middle 
and southern states of the Union: it is generally supposed to 
be one of the Mexican squirrels described by Hernandez, and 
named by some authors variegatus, but this wants confirmation. 
Say’s se. grammurus lives in holes, does not voluntarily ascend 
trees, and has very coarse fur; hence it is most probably a 
spermophile : it was found near the sources of the Arkansa. 
The black squirrels of the United States are generally referred 
to capistratus ; but a smaller and totally black species (having no 
white muzzle) inhabits the northern shores of Lake Huron, and 
to this we have restricted the name of niger in the Fauna Boreali- 
americana. The larger black kind exists in Canada, and Her- 
nandez mentions Mexicar. squirrels which are totally black, along 


152 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


with others which are white with yellow tints. Sciurus Colliei 
from California, figured in the appendix to Beechey’s Voyage, 
differs from any species inhabiting the Atlantic states, but 
nearly agrees with Hernandez’s account of the Mexican ‘ ¢/al- 
mototli’”. Sc. Clarkii and Lewisii, figured by Lieut.-Colonel 
Hamilton Smith in Griffith’s Cuvier, were brought from the 
Missouri by the travellers whose names they bear. The latter 
is supposed by the editor of the work referred to, to be the se. 
annulatus of Desmarest, whose native country was previously 
unknown. The sciurus hudsonius, named locally red-squirrel, 
or chickaree, the most northern American species, has a range 
from the arctic extremity of the woods to Massachusetts. 
Though destitute of cheek-pouches, it has been generally ranked 
as a tamias, perhaps on account of the dark line which occa- 
sionally divides the fur of the back from that of the belly ; and, 
indeed, it resembles the ¢amias in forming burrows at the foot 
of the pine-tree, on which it seeks its food: it is evidently the 
rubro-lineatus of Warden, and probably the raber of Rafinesque. 

The tamias Lysteri ranges on the eastern side of the Rocky 
Mountains from the 50th parallel down to the Carolinas ; it is 
the ¢amias americanus described by Kuhl (Beitrage, 69)*. 
Cuvier states, that the ¢. striatus inhabits both Asia and Ame- 
rica ; but we have met with no American animal that resem- 
bles Buffon’s figure 10, 28, which Cuvier quotes. 7’. guadri- 
vittatus inhabits the fur-countries, and goes southwards along 
the eastern declivity of the Rocky Mountains to the sources of 
the Platte and Arkansa. 7. buccatus is a Mexican animal, 
which differs from the other admitted species of tamias in want- 
ing longitudinal stripes and colours on the flanks. We cannot 
help surmising, therefore, that it may be a spermophile, for the 
two genera are very nearly allied, the only material difference 
in the dentition being, that the anterior molar of the upper 
jaw, which falls early in the true squirrels, but remains till old 
age in the tamias, is smaller in the latter than in the spermo- 
philes. The typical species of each differ, indeed, a little in 
the feet; but ¢. guadrivittatus and sp. lateralis possess inter- 
mediate characters, which unite the two groups very closely, so 
that we may be prepared to find authors differing as to which 
genus or subgenus certain species ought to be referred. Pte- 
romys volucella inhabits Canada, the United States, and, ac- 
cording to Lichtenstein, Mexico also. P¢. sabrinus and alpi- 
nus, which are not yet fully established as distinct from: each 
other, and closely resemble the vol/ans of Siberia, frequent the 


* Fischer, syn. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 158 


forests of Canada, the Rocky Mountains, and the fur countries 
up to the 57th parallel. 

The marmots are numerous in North America, particularly 
those which enter the subgenus spermophilus. These animals 
abound in the prairies, which are analogous tothe Siberian steppes 
near Lake Aral, that are also overrun by spermophiles; but the 
only species that can be considered as common to the New and 
Old World is guttatus of North California and New Caledonia. 
This little animal is certainly so similar to the “ souslik’’ of the 
Wolga, that the published figures or descriptions do not afford any 
distinctive marks ; but no satisfactory comparison of specimens 
has yet been made. It is probable that Lichtenstein alludes to 
this species when he says, that there is a spermophile in Mexico 
which cannot be distinguished from the Siberian citillus: gut- 
tatus was considered by Pallas to be merely a variety of etti//us.” 
Sp. Parryii is the most northern species, being an inhabitant 
of the arctic coasts and the Rocky Mountains down to the58th pa- 
rallel. Spermophilus lateralis resides on the eastern declivity of 
the Rocky Mountains, from the 57th parallel down to the sources 
of the Arkansas. Beecheyi comes from Upper California, and 
Douglasii, which nearly resembles it, and is perhaps only a 
local variety, is from the adjoining district of the banks of the 
Columbia. Franklinti, Richardsonii, and Hoodii abound on 
the prairies of the Saskatchewan, the last ranging southwards 
to Mexico*, and being perhaps the Mexican squirrel of Seba, 
which is described as brown, with five or seven longitudinal 
whitish stripes. The arctomys griseus of Rafinesque, founded 
on Lewis and Clark’s description of a Missouri animal, does 
not appear very different from sp. Richardsonii. Sp. spilosus, 
described by Mr. Bennett in the Zoological Proceedings, is from 
California. Ludovicianus, the “ prairie dog’’ of the Missouri, 
has not been described as possessing cheek-pouches. Arctomys 
empetra frequents the woods of Canada and the fur countries 
up to the 60th parallel, while monaz belongs to Maryland and 
the more southern Atlantic states. 4. brachyurus is known 
only from Lewis and Clark’s description of a Columbia river 
animal. The alpine districts of New Caledonia are the abode 
of a marmot named the “ whistler’, or perhaps more than one 
species is included under this trivial appellation, for the accounts 
given of it by the traders apply almost equally to the prainosus 
of Pennant, the “ tarpogan’’, or caligatus of Eschscholtz, and the 
ochanaganus described and figured by Mr. King in his recent 


* Mexican specimens exist in the Museum at Frankfort. Dr. Ruppel. 


154 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


narrative of Captain Back’s journey. The latter animal agrees 
exactly with Eschscholtz’s in the remarkable post-auricular black 
bar, in the general colour, and in the relative length of the fur 
on the different parts of the body, but differs in some minor 
points, and particularly in its smaller size, which may, how- 
ever, be owing to its youth. 

The only species of the restricted genus mus which is un- 
equivocally indigenous to North America* is the mus leucopus 
of Rafinesque ; and this so closely resembles mus sylvaticus of 
Europe that there are scarcely grounds for impugning the 
opinion of the older naturalists, who considered it to be the 
same species. In my dissections I did not succeed in detecting 
cheek-pouches, but Dr, Gapper has discovered cheek-pouches 
in a Canadian animal differing in no respect from it in exterior 
appearance, which he has therefore named cricetus myoides, 
and figured in the Zoological Journal. The mus leucopus is 
found everywhere, from the arctic circle down to the United 
States, and some authors state that it is common throughout 
the Union ; but Dr. Harris says that it is not found in Massa- 
chusetts. It readily domesticates itself in the habitations of 
man, wherever the mus decumanus, rattus, and musculus, in- 
troduced from the other side of the Atlantic, have not pene- 
trated. The myoxus virginicus of Reich, quoted in Fischer’s 
synopsis, seems very closely allied to mus leucopus ; it is an 
inhabitant of the foot of the Alleghanies. The mas nigricans of 
Rafinesque is supposed to be merely the common black rat 
(rattus). 

The meriones labradorius inhabits America from the 60th 
parallel to an unascertained distance southwards. We have 
received several examples from different parts of the United 
States, and the canadensis of authors has not been proved to be 
a distinct species. Rafinesque indicates others, viz., soricinus, 
leonurus, hudsonius, megalops, and sylvaticus ; but his notices 
are not sufficiently detailed for scientific purposes. Dr. Mit- 
chell is equally vague in his account of a mertones sylvaticus. 

Neotoma Drummondii abounds in the Rocky Mountains and 
floridana in Florida. As these animals resemble the myowi in 
external form, it is desirable to know whether, like them, they 
are destitute of a cecum. They build well-protected nests 
above ground, instead of burrowing like the meadow-mice, and 
appear to be omnivorous, like the common rat, than which 
they are even more destructive. Of M. Le Comte’s neotoma- 


* A species inhabits Port Famine, in the Straits of Magellan, mus magella- 
nicus. (King, Zool. Proc., 1835.) 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 155 


gossipina, which inhabits the southern states, we know no 
more than the name. The sigmodon* hispidum is found on the 
banks of the river St. John, which flows between Georgia and 
Florida. The ferrugineum inhabits cotton-fields on the Mis- 
sissippi. Fiber zibethicus ranges from the Arctic Sea nearly to 
the Gulf of Mexico. 

Though the various species of arvicola differ in size, aspect, 
and in the relative strength of their members, so as to be readily 
distinguishable from each other when brought into apposi- 
tion, it is very difficult to frame specific characters by which 
they can be recognised when apart; and it is not therefore 
surprising that many nominal species should have been pro- 
posed, and, what is equally adverse to the interests of science, 
that many perfectly distinct animals should have been described 
under a common name. Until a revision of the genus has been 
accomplished, and American and European examples have been 
accurately compared with each other, we cannot admit that any 
one species is common to the two countries, as amphibius has 
been supposed to be. The majority of arvicole in our list be- 
long to the fur-countries, though some, as riparius and penn- 
sylvanicus, extend also far into the United States; the latter is 
the smallest as well as the most common American species. 
4. rubricatus, distinguished by a bright red stripe on the flanks, 
was seen by Mr. Collie in Behring’s Straits}. The georychi, 
or lemmings, distinguished from the true meadow-mice by their 
thumb-nails and extremely short tails, all belong to the north- 
ern extremity of the continent, unless the very doubtful spalax 
vittatus of Rafinesque, found in Kentucky, shall be hereafter 
discovered to belong to this genus. The mynomes pratensis of 
Rafinesque requires further examination, as do also his Jemmus 
talpoides, albovittatus, and noveboracensis, indicated rather 
than characterized in the American Monthly Magazine for 
1820. 

Though the “ gauffres”, or pouched rats, abound in all the 
prairie lands and sandy tracts of the United States, their hi- 
story is still very obscure. The species, which are numerous, 
have been mostly confounded with the ¢wcan of Hernandez.or the 
bursarius of Shaw; but various generic names have been pro- 
posed, such as geomys, pseudostoma, ascomys, diplostoma, and 
saccophorus. he first figure of the Canada species published 
by Major Davies in the Linnean Transactions, represents the 

very large cheeks as filled from within and pendent externally, 


* This genus requires further examination. 
+ A. Nuttallit appears in Dr, Harlan’s ie hat we do not know its distinc- 
tive characters nor its habitat, 


~ 


156 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


slipping, as it-were, from under the common integuments by a 
longitudinal slit, and having their surface covered with short 
hair. Cuvier, however, says of this figure, “il n’y a rien de 
semblahle dans la nature’’, the true form, in his opinion, being 
that represented in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy, 
1822-3, pl. 3, or in the Fauna Boreali- Americana, 18. B., 
where the pouches, running backwards under the integuments 
of the cheek, open externally on each side of the comparatively 
small true orifice of the mouth, producing the appearance which 
is alluded to in the generic appellation, signifying “ false’’, or 
“‘ double mouth”. If the latter be the true form, the pouches 
can be filled and emptied only by the fore feet, which do not 
seem to be well calculated for such a purpose. Moreover, the 
late Mr. Douglas, whose ability as an observer no one will 
question, informed me that the pouches are filled from within 
the mouth by the action of the tongue, becoming, when fully 
distended, pendulous externally ; but when empty being re- 
tracted like the inverted finger of a glove. Mr. Drummond 
also sent me several specimens of different species from various 
parts of the United States, some of them prepared with the 
empty pouches folded beneath the skin of the cheeks, and others 
with them filled and hanging down. Mr. Schoolcraft, on the 
other hand, has given a description of a gauffre from personal 
observation which corresponds with the view of the matter en- 
tertained by Cuvier. To reconcile these jarring statements, I 
adopted both of Rafinesque’s genera, geomys and diplostoma in 
the Fauna Boreali-Americana ; but since the publication of 
that work I have ascertained by the examination of a consider- 
able number of specimens that the character of the dentition 
is the same in all; consequently they form but one genus, and 
Mr. Douglas’s account of the cheek-pouches I now consider as 
well supported by the specimens I have examined. Geomys 
borealis inhabits the plains of the Saskatchewan, Douglasii and 
bulbivorus those of the Columbia; bursarius is from Canada, 
pinetis from Georgia, talpoides from Florida, wmbrinws from 
Louisiana, Drummondit from Texas, and mewxicanus, as its 
name-imports, from Mexico. Diplostoma fusca and alba of 
Rafinesque were brought from the Missouri; but as the spe- 
cimens were imperfect and the descriptions are equally so, they 
must be considered as doubtful*. 


* Rafinesque characterized diplostoma as differing from geomys in the total 
absence of a tail, and in having only four toes on each foot; but Cuvier says 
that his specimens showed five toes, as in geomys; and it is very probable 
that the tails had been removed by the Indian hunters in preparing the skins. 
All the species that have come under our notice had short tapering tails, 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 157 


Saccomys anthophilus of F. Cuvier has the teeth of geomys, 
but he has placed it in a separate genus on account of the sup- 
posed peculiarity of its pendent pouches ; it is smaller than any 
geomys we have seen, and differs from all that we have enu- 
merated in the greater length of its tail. The cricetus fasciatus 
of Rafinesque from Kentucky is probably either a geomys or 
saccomys ; but if so, it is peculiar in having ten transverse 
black streaks on the back, if indeed this appearance was not 
produced, as is sometimes the case, by cracks in mounting the 
skin. -4pluodontia leporina inhabits New Caledonia and the 
banks of the Columbia, where its skins are used for clothing, 
and form an article of traffic. 

The beaver ranges on the eastern side of the continent, from 
the most northern woods down to the confluence of the Ohio 
with the Mississippi; and it would appear, from a remark of 
Dr. Coulter’s, that on the western side it descends in the 
neighbourhood of the Tule lakes to the 38tb parallel. The pur- 
pose served in the economy of the animal by the castoreum 
and a fatty substance deposited in the adjoining sacs has not 
yet been made out. The Canada porcupine (erethizon dorsa- 
tum) inhabits the country lying between the 37th and 67th 
parallels. The hoitzlacuatzin of Mexico is identified by Lich- 
tenstein with the synetheres prehensilis*, we do not know 
with what propriety; but if he be correct, it is, if not a solitary 
instance, at least very nearly so, of a rodent animal being com- 
mon to North and South America. The spotted cavy (celo- 
genys) and perhaps a species of cavia and one of dasyprocta ex- 
tend from South America to the West Indies and Mexico; but 
in other respects the animals of this numerous order differ 
greatly in the zoological provinces of North and South America. 

The most northern American hare is lepus glacialis, which 


thinly clothed with very short whitish hairs. The incisors are differently 
grooved in different species. Geomys bulbivorus and umbrinus have these 
teeth quite smooth; borealis and talpoides have a very fine groove close to the 
inner margin of each upper incisor; Douglasii has fine submarginal grooves 
on all the incisors, viz., next to the inner edges of the upper ones and the 
outer edges of the under ones ; bursarius and Drummondii have a deep rounded 
furrow in the middle of the anterior surface of the upper incisors, in addition 
to the fine inner submarginal one. The under incisors are quite plain in 
Drummondii, and most likely in bursarius, also, as no mention is made of their 
being grooved. In all these species the auditory opening is scarcely percep- 
tibly elevated. Geomys or ascomys mexicanus of Lichtenstein has short 
round ears, with a single central furrow in the upper incisors. A variety of 
this is mentioned in Fischer’s synopsis. They are inhabitants of the Mexican 
uplands, where they lay waste the maize-fields. 

* The island of Cuba nourishes another kind of rodent animal with a prehen- 
sile tail, named capromys. 


158 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


frequents the islands of the Arctic Sea, the barren grounds, and 
the Rocky Mountains, down to the 60th parallel. L. america- 
nus inhabits the woods from the Gulf of Mexico to their northern 
limits. JZ. vinginianus is found on the prairie lands of the 
Saskatchewan and Missouri, and it is said also on the Blue 
Mountains of Pennsylvania; but further investigations are re- 
quisite to prove the existence of the same species in such dif- 
ferent localities. A “marsh hare” from the southern parts of 
the United States has been recently described in the Zoological 
Proceedings, and it may be this that Dr. Harlan has associated 
with the prairie hare under the name of virginicus. Lepus 
mexicanus is the name bestowed by Lichtenstein on the “ citli”’ 
of Hernandez, and cunicularius that by which he designates 
the ‘‘tochtli’’. How far either of these species ranges north- 
wards, or whether they have been compared with the Florida 
marsh hare we know not. Lagomys princeps has its abode on 
the crests of the Rocky Mountains, where it is probable that 
other species will be hereafter detected. Lichtenstein tells us 
that cavys are common in Mexico, and some authors have 
stated that the common agouti (dusyprocta acuti) inhabits the 
southern extremity of the United States; but F. Cuvier has 
separated the latter animal by the specific appellation of caro- 
linensis. The lipura hudsonica of Uliger, or hyrax hudsonius 
of Shaw, must be excluded from the American fauna until we 
receive satisfactory evidence of its origin. 


Ord. EDENTATA. 
Dasypus hybridus, DesM. 


This small order may be called South American, the whole 
of the animals composing it belonging to that country, except 
three or four African or Indian species comprised in the genera 
oryctopus and manis. Lichtenstein, at the close of some re- 
marks on the “ ayo-tochtli” of Hernandez, says, that the spe- 
cimens brought home by Deppe accorded exactly with the 
tatou mulita of Azzara, which Cuvier refers to the dasypus 7- 
cinctus of Linneus. By others the ayo-tochtli is considered to 
be the d. peba of Desmarest, and we also find the mexicanus of 
Brisson ranked among the synonyms of d. Encoubert of Des- 
marest. The latter author informs us that the hybridus is 
common in Paraguay and on the Brazilian pampas. It is the 
only example of an animal of this order that has been ascer- 
tained to enter the North American fauna, though Lichtenstein 
conjectures that a myrmecophaga may also be found in Mexico, 
namely, the atzca-coyotl or tlal-coyot! of Hernandez. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 159 


Ord. PACHYDERMATA. 
Dicotyles torquatus, Cuv. 


This order is at’ once remarkable for the magnitude of the ani- 
mals composing it, the great proportion of extinct species, and the 
small number which now exist in the New World. ‘Two genera 
only, comprising four or five species, are known in America, 
namely, tapir and dicotyles, both of which belong to the southern 
zoological province: yet there is one species, the common pec- 
cari or dicotyles torquatus, which ranges northwards to the 
Red River, a tributary of the Mississippi, where it was observed 
by Nuttall; this is probably the coyametl of Hernandez. Dr. 
Harlan states that the tapir is also an inhabitant of Mexico, 
without quoting his authority; but Dr. Roulin, who has 
written a very learned and elaborate treatise on this animal, 
and figured a second American species, is of opinion that the 
tapirus americanus ranges from the 35th degree of south lati- 
tude only to the 12th north, while the new species, ¢. pinchachus, 
is confined to the higher Cordilleras of the Andes, and does not 
advance further to the north than the 10th degree. The very 
remarkable resemblance between the scull of the Indian tapir 
and that of the paleotherium has been pointed cut both by 
Cuvier and Dr. Roulin. 

Fossil elephants and mastodons occur in North America, and 
though the present stock of horses, wild and tame, in that 
country are believed to have had an European origin, fossil 
bones of horses were found by Captain Beechey under the cliffs 
of Kotzebue Sound mixed with those of elephants and other 
animals. There is a considerable resemblance in the kinds of 
quadrupeds found in the ecocene gypsum quarries of Paris, 
named in Cuvier’s list—bat, large wolf, fox, coatis, raccoon, 
genette, dormouse, and squirrel—to those now existing in Mexico. 
The genette may be represented in tropical America by bassaris 
or gulo barbara, and the dormouse by neotoma; while the 
palgotherium and other extinct pachydermata of Montmartre 
are allied to the tapir. The other genera are American, but 
dicotyles and the felide, which form so conspicuous a part of 
the existing carnivora, do not occur in Cuvier’s list. 


Ord. RUMINANTIA. 


Cervus alces*?, L. Grirr. Cuv. pl. Cervus nemoralis, H. Smiru, Grirr. Cuv. 
»  tarandus*, L.? Epw. 51. Dicranocerus furcifer, Ricu. /.B.A. pl, 
»  Strongylocerus, ScHREB. 247. . Capra americana, Ricu. F.B.A. 
» macrotis, Ricu. F.B.A. 20. Ovis montana* ?, Ip. .c. 
»  Virginianus, Burr. 12, 44. Bos americana, Grirr. Cuv. fig. 
»  Mmexicanus, GME. Grirr. Cuv. »» moschatus, Penn. Aret. Zool. 


»  leucurus, Dovet. Ricu. F.B.A. 


160 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Only two species of this order are common to the old con- 
tinent and America, and these have the highest northern range, 
namely, Cervus alces and tarandus. If the ovis montana be, 
as Cuvier hints, the same with the Siberian argali, it is a third 
common species. The North American deer are still very im- 
perfectly known, and a revision of the species would well repay 
the labour of a naturalist who has an opportunity of seeing 
them in a state of nature; the deer of the Pacific coast in par- 
ticular require investigation, as they are known only by imper- 
fect descriptions, no figures of them having been published nor 
specimens brought to Europe*. The reindeer is the most 
northern ruminating animal, being an inhabitant of Spitzbergen, 
Greenland, and the remotest arctic islands of America. On the 
Pacific coast it descends as low as the Columbia river, being, 
however, much less common there than in New Caledonia. On 
the Atlantic it exists as far south as New Brunswick, while in 
the interior its southern limit is the Saskatchewan river. The 
different varieties of reindeer ought to be compared with each 
other, and detailed dissections of the American kinds are still 
wanted. The southern range of the elk is the Bay of Fundy, 
on the eastern coast, though it is said to have existed formerly 
as far south as the confluence of the Obio and Mississippi ; but 
this report is rendered uncertain by the name elk having been 
applied in different parts of the country to different kinds of 
deer. It frequents all the wooded districts up to the mouth of 
the Mackenzie, in the 68th degree of latitude, but very seldom 
appears in the prairies or barren grounds. The wapiti, or 
cervus strongyloceros, does not travel to any distance from the 
prairie lands, on both sides of the Rocky Mountains, and not 
further north than the 54th parallel. C. macrotis and leucurus 
frequent the prairies of the Saskatchewan and Missouri, and, 
according to report, the west side of the Rocky Mountains also. 
C. virginianus is found from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico ; 
nemoralis and mexicanus inhabit the latter country, the former 
going southwards to Surinam}. The antilope furcifer abounds 
on the prairies of the Missouri, Saskatchewan, and Columbia, 
and is believed to range southwards to Mexico. It differs much 


* The following is a list of the deer of Columbia and New Caledonia fur- 
nished to me by P. W. Dease, Esq., of the Hudson’s Bay Company: moose- 
deer (c. alces); rein-deer (c. tarandus) ; red-deer, or wawaskeesh (c. strongy- 
loceros) ; kinwaithoos, or long-tailed deer ; mule-deer ; jumping-deer, or cabree ; 
fallow-deer, or chevreuil. The specific names of the last four have not been sa- 
tisfactorily ascertained. The antilope furcifer is named white-tailed cabree to 
distinguish it from the jumping-deer, in which neither the tail, nor the rump, 
is white. 

+ Lieut.-Colonel H. Smith, ‘n Griffith’s Cuvier. 5 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 161 


from the true antelopes, and, if it be considered as belonging to 
a distinct genus (dicranocerus), it is the only generic form of 
this order found in North America which does not exist also in 
Europe, unless a second be found in ovibos moschatus, sepa- 
rated from bos. The capra americana and ovis montana in- 
habit the Rocky Mountains from Mexico to the northern ex- 
tremity of the range, and also the maritime Alps of California 
and New Caledonia, the former confining itself to the higher 
ridges. The musk-ox is peculiar to the barren lands, travelling 
in summer over the ice to Parry’s Islands; but though it has 
this high range, it does not exist either in Asia or Greenland. 
The chief residence of the bison (bos Americanus) is on the 
_ prairie lands, east of the Rocky Mountains; it frequents the 
woods also up to the 62nd parallel, but nowhere approaches 
within 600 miles of Hudson’s Bay. Though this animal is at 
sent rarely ever seen to the eastward of the Mississippi, it 

is said to have formerly frequented Pennsylvania and Kentucky, 
but the authority for its ever having ranged to the Atlantic 
coast is by no means good. It does not exist in New Cale- 
donia, though it has crossed the eastern crest of the Rocky 
Mountains further south, to the headwaters of the south branch 
of the Columbia; but even in that latitude it does not advance 
towards the coast, a spur of the Californian Alps* (or ‘ a coun- 
terfort’’ connecting them with the Rocky Mountains), which 
skirts the Snake River, or south branch of the Columbia, otfer- 
ing apparently an effectual barrier to its further progress west- 
ward. In the fur countries it does not go to the eastward of 

the 97th meridiant. 


Ord. CETACEKA. 


As the cetacea traverse the depths of the ocean in pursuit of 
their prey, it is highly probable that many species are commen 
to the same parallels of the New and Old World. Those that 
frequent the Greenland seas are at least entitled to be enume- 
rated among the animals both of Europe and America; and in 
like manner the cetacea of the North Pacific and sea of Kam- 
schatka are common to the latter country and to Asia; but the 
animals of this order are so imperfectly known that we cannot 
give the correct geographical distribution of even a single species. 


* Named the “ Blue Mountains”. 

+ Horned cattle thrive well in America. They were introduced into Upper 
California about 70 years ago, and in 1827 the Missions, according to Dr. 
Coulter, possessed upwards of 300,000 head, 60,000 being annually slaughtered 
to keep down the stock. They are multiplying also very fast on the banks of 
the Columbia, where they have lately been introduced by the Hudson’s Bay 
Company. 

VOL. V. 1836. M 


162 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Dr. Harlan enumerates fourteen of the true cetacea as having 
been detected on the coasts of North America; but on correcting 
his list, and striking out the synonyms agreeably with the indica- 
tions in the Régne Animal, the number is reduced to ten. Of 
the herbivorous cetacea two at least enter the North American 
fauna, viz., the stellerus borealis, or rytina, which belongs to 
the Sea of Kamschatka, and a manatee, that frequents the 
mouths of rivers in East Florida. This species has been named 
latirostris by Dr. Harlan ; but Temminck observes that it is 
** tres douteuse,’’ meaning thereby, we suppose, that it is not 
distinct from one of the ascertained species, senegalensis or 
americanus ; the latter, which inhabits the tropical coasts, is 
supposed to go as far north as Mexico. 


The following list comprises the cetacea which are enume- 


rated in the Régne Animal, Desmarest, Fischer’s synopsis, &c., 
as extending their range to America; but nothing is less cer- 
tain than their identification with European species bearing the 
same names. 


Manatus americanus, Cuv. Delphinapterus leucas*, Scorrss. 14. 
at latirostris, HARLAN. Hyperocdon Dalei*, Hunt. Ph. tr. 77,19. 
Rytina borealis*, Nov. Act. Petr. 13,13. =A anarnichum*, Fasr. 
Delphinus delphis*, Lacer. 13, 1. Monodon monoceros*, ScorEss. 15. 
= tursio*, Hunt. Ph. tr. 1787, | Physeter macrocephalus*, Lacxr. 10. 
18. (nisarnac, FABR.) »  tursio*, Bayer, Nov. Act. Cur. 
3 canadensis, DUHAMEL, 2, 10,4. whe 
Phoczena gladiator*, Lacep. 15, 1. Balna mysticetus*, Scoress. 12. 
~ communis*, Ip. 13, 2. », nodosa, BONNAT. 
= intermedia, Haru. Ac. Se. Ph. »  physalis*, In. 2, 2. 
6, fig. »  boops, In. 3, 2. 


Chamisso, in the Mem. de la Soc. Leopold, &c., v. 12, has 
described nine cetaceous animals which frequent the Aleutian 
islands, founding his species on the figures and reports of the 
natives. (Vide Less. Man.) 

We shall conclude our cursory remarks on the mammalia, 
with a list of the most northern species. 


Cetacea. | Ursus arctos? 

Monodon monoceros. 813° N. lat. Lutra lataxina. roo N 
Calocephala feetida. 823° N. Georychus trimucronatus. 
Phoce aliz. Arvicola rubricatus. 
Trichechus rosmarus. 803° N. Sorex palustris. 

Ursus maritimus. 824° N. »  Forsteri. 


Vulpes lagopus. Vespertilio so ° 
Care po a oN Lepus americanus. 67° or 68° N. 
Georychus Hudsonius. or Fiber zibethicus. 

Mustela —— ? Cervus alces. 

Gulo luscus. Felis canadensis. 66° N. 


Didelphis virginiana. 44° N. 
Dicotyles torquatus. 31° N. 


eed 2 ybrudas: } Mexico. 


Lupus occidentalis. | ~ 5° N 
Lepus glacialis. ‘ : 

Bos moschatus. 

Mustela erminea. 733° N. 
Georychus greenlandicus. 71° N. 


_ aa 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 163 


The species noted as reaching the 80th, or a higher parallel, 
have been observed on Spitzbergen or in the neighbouring seas. 
We are not aware of any rodent animal having been taken alive 
in so high a latitude, but the skeleton of a Lemming was found 
on the ice in 812° N. by Sir Edward Parry on his memorable 
expedition to the northward of Spitzbergen. The same species 
exists on the most northern American Islands, and some small 
gnawers might have been supposed to inhabit Spitzbergen from 
a mustela having been seen there by Captain Phipps’s. people. 
(Voyage towards the North Pole in 1773, p. 58.) The North 
Georgian or Parry’s islands support those marked as reaching 
75° N. with the addition of all the Spitzbergen species, except 
the weasel. We thus sce that the orders carnivora, rodentia, 
ruminantia and cetacea, are represented in the most northern 
known lands or coasts, the felide reach 66° N., the marsupiata 
44°N., the pachydermata 31° N., and the edentata and qua- 
drumana to Mexico. 

The following table exhibits the number of North American 
mammalia belonging to each order, and two tables, extracted 
from Fischer’s synopsis, are inserted in a note to furnish the 
means of comparison; but it is to be observed that Fischer 
admits many species which still require much elucidation before 
they can be fully established. TTemminck considers that there 
are about 930 well-determined species of mammalia, and 140 
doubtful ones. If this estimate be nearly correct, North America 
nourishes about one-fifth of the known species. 


Note.—An (*) is prefived to the species whose identity with those of 
Europe bearing the same names is not fully ascertained. 


Total Proper {Common to 
Orders, or Families. number of ‘oO other 
species. N. Amer. | countries. 


Carnivora 
Cheiroptera 17 
Insectivora Lt 
CarnivOras.sueisssecsessearsesseates 38 2 *7 
Amphibia 12 11 
Marsupiata 3 
Rodentia ... 70 *) 
Edentata 2 
Pachydermata 5 1 
Ruminantia 10 *3 
Cetacea 5 14 


164 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


AVES. 


The birds, having always been objects of interest to collect- 
ors and artists, are better known than the other animal pro- 
ductions of North America. Edwards at an early period figured 
thirty-eight species from Hudson’s Bay; the natural history 
appendices to the recent arctic voyages contain full lists of 
those which frequent the sea-coasts in the higher latitudes, and 
the second volume of the Fauna Boreali- Americana has made 
known some new species, which, migrating through the great 
central valleys of the Mississippi and Mackenzie, or crossing 
the Rocky Mountains from California, had escaped the notice 
of the ornithologists of the eastern states*. Good lists are still 
wanted of the Labrador and Canadian birds, and also loeal cata- 


* Note.—An (*) is prefixed to the doubtful species. 


Cum aliis 


In toto. torrie. 


Ordines et Familie in Europa. Proprie. 


Quadrumana .........00-005 
Carnivora.......s.0 a ee 
Cheiroptera ..sccseseeseeeees 
TOsectivora ....,..cccccecereseee 
Carnivora ... 
Amphibia .... denen 
Rodentia ....0..0.00- spenes ce 
Edentata ....ccsesccseccces } MBps er sl bas ase! 


Pachydermata ....... rane 
Ruminantia .......... askns 
Cetacea .......... 


156 *22 | 51 *22 | 105 


Orbis priscus. America. Polynesia. 


Ordines et Familie. Cum ? Cum Snell Pe Cum 
In toto. | Proprie.| aliis || In toto.) Proprie.) aliis tot ~ | aliis 
eis | terris,|| SOF | PME | torris, 


Quadrumana.... | 78 *2 pial . 
Carnivora ... 5 
Cheiropt., Fere, ¥31)28 *3 

Rodentia (Giires) *15| 7 
Eden., a ta a *10| 2 

{ Bruta, Bellue, Pecora... 

Cetacea *3}9 3 ‘ll *2 


346 *120|/54 *4) 68 *1152 #10116 1/125 *11 | 


* The natural history of Sir John Ross's first voyage, Sir Edward Parry’s 
third and fourth voyages, Sir John Franklin’s first journey, and Captain Back’s 
recent one accompany the respective narratives. Sir Edward Parry’s first 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 165 


logues for various districts of the United States, to contribute 
towards our knowledge of the geographical distribution of the 
species; but with regard to the discovery, description, and illu- 
stration of the feathered tribes of that country comparatively 
little remains to be accomplished. When Wilson’s admirable 
work appeared, European ornithology could boast of nothing 
equal to it*. The Prince of Musignano’s highly valuable cri- 
tical examination of synonyms‘, and his publication of new spe- 
cies{, ably supply what Wilson, cut off in the midst of his 
career, left incomplete ; and the magnificent book of Audubon, 
now in the course of publication, surpasses every attempt of the 
kind in any country. Audubon’s plates present to us some of 
the finest specimens of art, and his ornithological biographies 
conyey the observations of a whole life enthusiastically devoted to 
studying the forms and habits of the feathered inhabitants of the 
air. It is announced that his forthcoming volume will contain 
a synopsis arranged in conformity with the recent improvements 
of science, and also a treatise on the geographical distribution 
and migration of the species; in short, this grand work will 
henceforth be the standard of reference for the birds which fre- 
quent the Atlantic states from Labrador to the Gulf of Mexico, 
and eastward to the great prairies. : 
Of the birds of Russian America and California we have only 
detached notices by travellers, the Appendix to Capt. Beechey’s 
voyage by Mr. Vigors containing the only scientific list. Up- 
wards of sixty species are therein noticed; but it is to be la- 
mented that the collectors have in many instances omitted to 
record the places where the specimens were procured, so that 
even their country is in some instances doubtful§. Lichten- 
stein’s promised Mexican fauna, if it be published, has not 
yet reached this country, and there is no other work to which 
we can look for a full enumeration of Mexican birds. One 
hundred species, however, from that country were character- 


and second voyage, and Sir John Ross’s second voyage have the natural hi- 
story appendices published in separate quarto volumes; while the Fauna Boreali- 
Americana, of which three yolumes have been published, is intended to supply 
the place of an appendix to Sir John Franklin’s second journey. The appendix 
to Captain Beechey’s voyage, though mostly printed off several years ago, is 
not yet published. 

* Vieillot’s ‘‘ Oiseaux de Amer. septentr.,” Paris, 1807, preceded Wilson’s 
book, but only two volumes have appeared. 

+ Observations on the nomenclature of Wilson’s Ornithology, Journ. Ac. Sc. 
Phil., iii. et infra, 1823.—Genera of North American birds, &c., Lyc. of Nat. 
Hist., New York, ii. 1826.—Catalogue of birds of the United States, Maclu- 
rian Lyc., No.i. Phil., 1827. 

t Continuation of Wilson’s Ornithology, V. Y., 2 vols. 

§ Since this report was read, we learn that Professor Nuttall has returned 
from Upper California with a rich harvest of objects of natural history, and 
among the rest with thirty species of undescribed birds, which will be included 
in Audubon’s work. 


166 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


ized by Mr. Swainson in the Philosophical Magazine for 1827, 
and upwards of one hundred and thirty named by Lichtenstein 
appear in the sale-list of duplicates of the collection made for 
the Berlin Museum by Herren Deppe and Schiede. As the 
authors of these two lists do not appear to have been aware of 
each other’s labours, some of the species are probably twice 
named ; and as we have no means of knowing whether many of 
these Mexican birds pass the tropic, or at least frequent the 
elevated table-lands, so as properly to enter the North American 
fauna, all their names are put in italics. The other parts of the 
lists have been compiled chiefly from Audubon’s work ; and 
that I might be enabled to refer to the species which will be 
comprised in the fourth volume, he has obligingly furnished me 
with a list of the plates which it will contain. Additions are made 
from the other works already quoted. The arrangement/adopted 
is that proposed by Mr. Vigors, with Mr. Swainson’s alterations, 
The extreme range of each species as far as ascertained is noted, 
and the birds which have been actually detected in Mexico or 
California are distinguished by abbreviations of the names of 
these countries. 

The similarity of the North American ornithology to that of 
Europe is evinced not only by the identity or close resemblance 
of the generic forms, but also by a third part of the species 
being common to the two faune. Europe is visited by a few 
of the meropide, promeropide, and struthionide, families 
which have no members in North America ; the muscicapide, re- 
presented in Europe by four species, which go pretty far north, 
furnish to the American fauna only the todus viridis and psaris 
cayanus, which do not ascend higher than Mexico; but this family 
is amply replaced in America by the ¢yrannule, which, though ar- 
ranged by Mr. Swainson as part of the Janiade, were considered by 
previous writers as fly-catchers, and scarcely to be separated from 
the Linnean genus muscicapa. North America, on the other hand, 
enumerates in its fauna certain families not found in Europe, viz., 
the trochilide, psittacide, rhamphastide, and trogonide, but 
none of the two latter groups go so far northas to reach the paral- 
lelof the south of Europe. The subjoined tablehasbeen construct- 
ed to show at a glance the chief points of agreement or difference 
between the two faune, the terms of comparison being assimi- 
lated by the omission of the American species which do not attain 
the 36th parallel of latitude. The number of species which 
compose the corresponding groups of each fauna often coincide 
remarkably, and this occurs even in families which have few or 
no species common to each country. There is a discordance 
with this remark observable in some families of dentirostres, 
which is perhaps owing to my imperfect arrangement of the 
species. The agreement between the faune is greatest among 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 167 


the grallatores and natatores, two thirds of these orders being 
common to the two, while in the aggregate of the other orders 
only between one sixth and one seventh are common. As both the 
waders and water-birds are very migratory, we might be induced 
to infer that it is from this cause that so many of them are iden- 
tical on both sides of the Atlantic, but on investigating the habits 
of the species, we find that several which do not migrate at all, 
exist in every quarter of the globe, and some owls, which are the 
most resident birds of prey, inhabit very many distant countries 
without any appreciable change of form in the species. 


Number of Number of 


species. = species. = 
5 5 3 5 
8 Be Be Ss} 
Aa |g S| Be | as s 
Names of Families. fa e/ eo | 8 Names of Families. ee} & | 8 
Sa) | eo | Bah paral. S 
ay; E <Z d 
a 5 | Re Ss) 
CITT OG E Se AP i Bl a | { Promeropidee Lees Atesitan Meals 
Falconidz...... wee... 24 | 28 | 10 || LTrochilide ......... Oi Wea seal has 
Sirigidz...... vesseeseel 14} 15 | 9 || (Columbide ......... 5 lel 4 ier 
Laniadze ............| 19 | 5} 12)|) Phasianide ...... Seal fbas De. 
Merulide ......:.....| 14 | 18 | 3 ||) Tetraonide ......... 15} 17} 3 
Sylviadze ...0.5...0. 63 | 75 | 4 || UStruthionide......... eri \sht25| 
Ampelide ....,.....6.| 9 | “1 | 1 || (Tantalide ............ 4} 1] 1 
Muscicapide.........| --. | 4 Ardeida.........++. wif Liedl | A 
Fringillide .........) 56 | 54 | 8 ||4 Scolopacide ......... 40 | 38 | 24 
{ Sturn vecehtsniads 10| 3]... ||| Rallide ............... VS Sale 
Corvide ............/ 10 | 14 | 3 || \Charadriade........., 12 | 12] 6 
i (cf aoe Le} <9) Sg Anatidee.........------| 40 | 36 | 25 
Psittacidze ..........0.| 1 |... |... ||| Colymbide ...... RA edt Shane 
Cuculide ............ Qe Sa PU | Aleadas® |) wancicecee-| | 7.1 7 | ¥ 
Certhiadz ............ 11 | 6| 1 || Pelecanide ..... gous: |f Gta eS 
Hirundinide ..... sake RR Wie f Ale 0, AGALVOGE: tediees ots aae'y sais 39 | 38 | 33 
Caprimulgide ...... DUPRE, | te 
Halcyonide sasecnade oo iy I Rou ieet se ‘aes Wiel bapetes Sr ravenfine, 
Meropide «.0........5) 0. | 2 Beiter 


Oxs.—In the following lists species which are common to Europe and America 
are marked by an*. The range is denoted by degrees of latitude. The references 
are to plates, and the following abbreviations are used :— 

Col., Planches coloriées, TEmMincK, &c.—Enl., Planches enluminées, &c.—A., 
American Ornithology, by Audubon, &c.—Vic., Ornithological Appendix to Capt. 
Beechey’s Voyage, by N. A. Vicors, Esq.—K1ne., Birds of Patagonia, Zool. 
Journ., by Capt. King, &e.—Sw., Swainson, Phil. Journ.—Licut., Deppe’s Sale- 
List of Birds, &e., Berlin—¥.B.A., Fauna Boreali-Americana.—Cal., California, 
—Mevx., Mexico, &c. 


Mr. Swainson’s five genera of fulconide are falco, accipiter, aquila, cymindis, and 
buteo, corresponding to the groups denoted by brackets in the succeeding table; and 
of his five genera of strigide, the two first, striz and asio, are indicated by brackets ; 
and the three aberrant ones, nyctea, nyctipetes, and surnia, are each represented by 
a single North American species. 


—-- 


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: : fan 'N OS—"N 066 “Wd ‘maypvon 
NOF—'S OF “F6E "V ‘eEEMOKMMD — ‘NOON ofS “SLE “V GduNjeMuay, 


"N oGJ—"'N olf “131 “V ‘xB0x04u ‘N ofI—'S 093 “BLE “V ‘x8m0dyoriq =“ 

“NOG ‘S'I—'S G2 ‘ZAW 0G “IMAI, ‘vuvorxeut =“ 

‘N SI—"'S 08 “46 °V ‘ose =“ ‘N .09—'N OF “Vida ‘smo |“ 

("] ¢ vonipunss) i—"N oFS—i “OS “VA ‘~eouore "N O€S—"N 008 “OF “V ‘xesomnqou =f 
"N .89—"S 069 “19 “V ‘BUeTUISIIA XL "N CPP—'N 002 “TAT “V {vomteg xg 


"HAIDINLG "wns ‘vaqEe 


“LHOTT “TaW—'S OF “OF ‘2ua ‘srgsonubvu 


"MS “LAW—'S .6% °GS "109 ‘sunjuyns “ “LHOI'T “way —'N of ‘T 18 “709 ‘snprziu “ 
"N .89—MS “way “968 °-V ‘,snauvso snoity ‘N BS— SIA 729 “MS “VOW “TGV ‘syeatoq =“ 
“Mg ‘“WAYI—'S GS °6G "700 ‘sajoosagd ‘N OF —N olf “16 ‘V ‘Snotueajssuued =“ 
"N 89—'N o9¢ “991 "V ‘sndodey (‘snpedoorajy) "N .89—N 66 “TPL “VW ‘xsnuequinged amsy 
‘N é—"N 008 ‘98 °V ‘TuRpRyY 2°N of§—"N 066 ‘TLV ‘Syemocy =“ 
"N o8S—"PIA 7290 “MS “Way “Lo WA A ‘,SLednA oayng *"N o£G-—"N G8 “9G "V ‘smyvomy =“ 


(221uDj) "N OF—'N 066 “9€ “V ‘THadoog 
‘wap “MG ‘snuponwam “ 


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“ 


“wayy “LHOIT ‘snuonsyzup 
“LHOVT ‘VAW—'N .G “Hav ‘snyjuninn =“ 


‘ray *@ “ITALIA ‘snsopnapu snuydiopy | ‘N oh —ONIY 'S PS ‘SPT “V ‘suiteareds =“ 

“Mg ‘LAW —'S GZ an) “Malay ‘syprsodue vidanpy i—"N .OF—é “G8 ‘VW ‘Sntie10weg =“ 

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‘walunita, ‘unfdhj-qng “SaOVAVU epee “dh}-qng 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 169 


The generic or subgeneric raptorial forms which are peculiar 
to America are sarcoramphus, cathartes* ,ictinia, morphnus,and 
polyborus : some species of harpya and elanus inhabit Africa, 
one of them, e/. melanopterus, occasionally appearing in the south 
of Europe. <A group of owls, named nyctipetes by Mr. Swain- 
son, is also African, one species only being North American, 
viz., cunicularia, or the singular burrowing owl of the prairies. 
With respect to the distribution of species, no American vulture 
is common to both sides of the Atlantic, and they all belong 
more properly to the tropical fauna, being (with the exception 
perhaps of cathartes californianus) merely summer visitors to 
the north. Indeed, as their food is carrion, their utility in the 
economy of nature is obviously greatest in the warmer latitudes, 
where they accordingly abound: none of them go beyond the 
54th parallel, and they reach that latitude in the interior prai- 
ries only, where the summer-heat is considerable. One European 
vulture (fulvus) ascends to the 51st degree of latitude in Silesia, 
and another (percnopterus) has been occasionally killed in En- 
gland. Nearly one third of the American falconide belong also 
to Europe; several of them, as may be seen by inspecting the 
preceding table, range from one end of the New World to the 
other, and some, as falco peregrinus, pandion haligetus, aquila 
chrysaéta, and circus cyaneus, may be said to be cosmopolites. 
Three of these widely-spread species are types of three of the 
five generic groups into which Mr. Swainson divides the family. 
The common buzzard of the fur-countries is identical with the 
European one; but its winter quarters in America are on the 
coast of the Pacific, hence it has not hitherto been enumerated 
among the birds of the United States. KHlanus dispar so 
closely resembles melanopterus of Africa and southern Europe, 
that the Prince of Musignano hesitates to agree with Temminck 
in pronouncing them to be distinct. On the other hand, the 
goshawk of the New World, though considered by some orni- 
thologists as identical with the European one, is judged by 
Mr. Swainson to be a peculiar species, for which Wilson’s ap- 
pellation of atricapillus ought to be retained; the differences 
of their plumage are pointed out in Sir William Jardine’s edi- 
tion of Wilson. In the same work, the nauclerus furcatus is re- 
corded as having been killed in England. On the authority of 
the Prince of Musignano, also quoted there, we have considered 
the accipiter Stanlet of Audubon as identical with Cooperii. 
The owls, as we have already noticed, though much less mi- 


* Cathartes, or neophron percnopterus, of the European fauna, is considered 
by Mr. Swainson to be only a subgeneric form of vultur. 


170 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


gratory than either the vultures or falcons, are even more 
widely diffused. Two thirds of the North American species 
are found in Europe, and flammea, otus, and brachyotus, all 
belonging to the typical genus, are spread over the whole 
world. As in the case of the falconide, the species entering 
the subtypical generic group are mostly confined to particular 
countries, while the aberrant genus nyctipetes, like cymindis, 
is mostly South American, one species only (cunicularia) ex- 
tending from the 40th degree of south latitude by the valley of 
the Mississippi, to an equal degree north of the equator. Though 
the American ornithologists have all considered their strix otus 
to be actually the same with the European species, Cuvier says 
that the one figured by Wilson, 51, fig.3, (and 19, fig. 1, 
young), is different, while he considers the mexicana (clamator, 
Vieill., longirostris, Spix,) to be merely a dark variety of the 
European bird*. Strix cinerea of Latham, Bonaparte, and th: 
Fauna Boreali- Americana is identified by Temminck with hi 
lapponica. 


Typ. ord. INSESSORES. 
Sub. typ. tribe, Denitirostres. 
Fam. LAniap#. 


Lanius ludovicianus, A. 57. Mex. Licnt. | Tyrannus intrepidus, A. 79. Mex. Sw.— 
fe) 


Sw. Cal. Vic. 23° N.—38° N. 57° N. 
» excubitor*, A. 192. 32° N—60° N. » borealis, A. 174. 38° N.—53° N. 
» excubitorides, F.B.A. 34. ?—54°N. »  dominicensis, A. 170. Mex. Sw. 
» elegans, F.B.A. ?—50° N. 20° N.—35° N. 
» nootka, Laru. ?—50° N. »  Cinereus, Vic. Cal. 36° N.— 
Thamnophilus canadensis, enl. 479. 2. Ca- 38° N. 
nada? ? (turdus cirrhatus, GM.) »  crinitus, A. 129, 23° N.—42°N. 
»  doliatus, enl. 297.2. 2° N.—Mex. »  verticalis, A. 398. Arkans. 36° N. 
Licnut. »  ferox, enl. 571. £. 1. 2° N.—Mez. 
Hypothymis mexicana, Licut. Nov. Gen. Licut. 
Saurophagus sulphuratus, enl. 296. 25°S. »  erassirostris, Sw. Mex. table 1. 
—Sw. Licur. »  vociferans, Sw. Mex. 


Ptiliogonys cinereus, Sw. Table l. Mex. Milvulus savannus, A. 168. 2° N.—40° N. 
»  nitens, Sw. Mex. »  forficatus, A. App. Mex.—34°N. 


* Though many foreign owls, and, among others, four Australian ones, 
castanops, personata, cyclops, and delicatulus, of Gould, were formerly con- 
founded with flammea, causing it to be considered as quite a cosmopolite, its 
range is actually very extensive, there being no difference, according to Tem- 
minck, in the species as existing throughout Europe and Asia, the whole of 
northern and tropical Africa, and in Japan. The North American barn-owls, 
he says, differ only in a few darker tints of the plumage; but the South 
American ones are distinct. ; : 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 


Tyrannula virens, A. 115. Mew. Licur. 


Cuba. 29° N.—50° N. 
fusca, A. 120. Mex. Licut.—57° 
N 


acadica, A. 145. Mex. Sw.—50° 
N 


Richardsonii, F.B.A. 46, 2. ?>— 
50°—60° N. (Labrad. Avp.) 
Saya, A. 399. Mex. Sw.—54° N. 

prairies. 
pusilla, A. app. Mex. Sw.—56° N. 
coronata, enl. 675, 1. Mex. Sw. 
Licut. Cal. Vie. 2° N.—38° N. 
semi-atra, Vic. Cal. 38° N. 
Traillii, A. 45. ?—36° N. Arkans. 


171 


Tyrannula Selbii, A.9. Louis. ?—32° N. 


” 


cayenensis, enl. 569, 2. 2° N.— 
Mex. Sw. Licut. 
afinis, Sw. Mex. maritime. 
barbirostris, Sw. Mex. 
nigricans, Sw. Mex. table t. 
musica, Sw. Mex. 
ornata, Sw. Mex. 
obscura, Sw. Mex. 
despotes, Licut. Mex. 
obsoleta, Licut. Mex. 
larvata, Licut. Mex. 
mesoleuca, Licut. Mex. 
atrata, Licut. Mex. 
pallida, Sw. Mex. 


Fam. MERULIDA. 


Cinclus americanus, A. 374. Mex. Sw.— 


57° N. 


Merle op ere A. 131. Mex. Cal.— 


” 


Saxicola cenanthe*, Behr. Sér.? 


67° N. 
aurorea*, Panu. Kodiak. 58° N. 
TEmMM. 
Wilsonii, A. 164. 25° N.—57°N. 
minor*, F.B.A. 36. 25°N.—54°N. 
mustelina, A. 73. Mex. Licut.— 
50° N. 
solitaria, F.B.A. 35. 27° N.— 
50° N. 
silens, F.B.A. Mex. Sw. table 1. 
Sflavirostris, Sw. Mex. table !. 
tristis, Sw. Mex. table land. 


Orpheus nevius, F.B.A. 38. Cal. Nootka. 


36° N.—66° N. Vic. Coox. 
rufus, A. 116. 30° N.—54° N. 
felivox, A. 128. Mex. Licut.— 
54° N. 
polyglottus, A. 21. 25° S.—_44° N. 
Mew. Sw. 
leucopterus, Vic. Cal. 38° N. 
curvirostris, col. 441. Sw. Mex. 


Turdus* erythrophthaimus, Licut. Mex. 


” 
” 


deflexus, Licut. Mex. 
helvolus, Licut. Mex. 


Myothera obsoleta, A. 400. Arkans. 35° N. 
Icteria viridis, A. 137. 23° N.—44° N. 


Fam. SYLVIADA. 
Sylvicola vermivora, A. 34. 23° N.—42° 


Vic. 
Greenl. SABINE. (@nanthoides.) 


Erythaca sialis, A. 113. Mex. Licur. W. 


” 


” 
” 


Ind.—48° N. Sialia Wilsonii. 
arctica, F.B.A. 39. New Cal. 44° 
N.— 68° N. 
cceruleo-collis, Vie. Cal.. 38° N. 
mexicana, Sw. Mex. 


Anthus aquaticus*, end. 661, 2. Greenl. 


” 


” 


N. Am. Tuo. 
ludovicianus, /.B.4. 44. 24° N. 
—63° N. (ruber, Ga.) 
pipiens, A. 80. V.WV. prairies. 


Mofacilla leucoptera, Vic. Calif. 
‘Parus bicolor*, A. 39. Greenl. Laru. 30° 


” 


” 
” 


N.—70° N 
carolinensis, "A. 160. 30° N.— 
36° N. 
atricapillus, A. 36° N.—65° N. 
hudsonicus, A. 194.44°N.—57°N. 


” 


N. (sud g. Vermivora, Sw.) 
solitaria, A. 20. Mex.—41° N. 
chrysoptera, A. 15, 2. 23° N. 

—50° N. 
protonotaria, A. 3. 23° N.i— 

38° N. 
rubricapilla, A. 89. 23° N.— 

55° N. 
peregrina, A. 154. 23° N.— 

55° N. 
celata, A.178. 24° N.—50°N. 
Swainsonii, A. 198. 23° N.— 

33° N. 
zestiva, A. 95. Mex. Sw. 20°N. 

—68° N. 
americana, A. 15. Mex. Sw.— 

46° N. 
autumnalis, A. 88. 23° N.— 

48°N. 


* Merula and orpheus of Mr. Swainson correspond with turdus of authors; 
the latter name is retained for Lichtenstein’s species, as we do not know to 
which of the former to refer them. 


172 


Sylvicola ccerulea, A. 48. Meax.-—40° N. 
» carbonata, A. 60. Kentucky. 
38° N. 
»  castanea, A. 69. 24° N.—44° N. 
» discolor, A. 14. 23° N.—43°N. 
» formosa, A. 38. Mex.—38° N. 
»»  icterocephala, A. 59. Trop. ?— 
Canada ?. 
»  maculosa, A. 50, 123. Cuda, 
Vie.—55° N. 
»  pensilis, A. 85. Cuba. Vic. Mex. 
Sw. Licur.—36° N. 
» Yara, A. 49. >—43°N. 
»  Rathbonia, A. 65. Mississ. 
»  Childrenii, A. 35. Louis. 
»  Bachmanii, A. 185. S. Car. 
»  Blackburnie, A. 135. Mex. Sw. 
Cuba.—54° N. 
»  palmarum, Bon. 10, 2. W. Ind. 
18° N.—48° N. 
»  agilis, A. 138, 23° N.—44° N. 
» canadensis, A. 155. Cuba. 20° 
N.—54° N, 
»  coronata, A. 153. Cuba. Vic. 
Mex. Licut. Cal. Vic.— 
20° N.—56° N. 
»  parus, A. 134. 23° N.—52°N. 
»»  petechia, A.145.24°N.—55°N. 
» Sphagnosa, A. 148. W. Ind.— 
20° N.—46° N. 
»  Striata, A.133. W.Ind.—54°N. 
»  Maritima, A. App. ?>—40° N. 
»  Virens, A. 393. Mex. Licut.— 
50° N. 
»,  tigrina, Wits. 44, 2. 2—45°N. 
»  tmornata, Sw. Mex. 
»  petasodes, Licut. Mex. 
»  eulicivora, Licut. Mew. 
» ~ varia, A. 90. Mex. Sw.—50° N. 
»  pinus, A. 140. 24° N.—50° N. 
Setophaga ruticilla, A. 40. 2° N.—62° N. 
Mex. Sw. 
» canadensis, A. 103. Cuba, Vie.— 
55°. N. 
»  Bonapartii, A.5. 23° N.—34° N. 
»  Wilsonii, A. 124. 35° N.—58° 
N. (muscicapa pusilla, Wis.) 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Setophaga mitrata, A. 110. 23° N.— 
52° N. (cucullata.) 
»  minuta, A. dpp. 23° N.—40°N. 
»  picta, Sw. Mex. Zool. Ill., 2, 54. 
»  miniata, Sw. Mex. table l. 
» rubra, Sw. Mex. table 1. 
» rufifrons, Sw. Mex. 
Trichas marilandica, A. 23, Mex. Sw. 
Cal. Vic.—50° N. (personata.) 
» philadelphia, A. dpp. ?>—40° N. 
» Roscoe, A. 24. Mississ. 
Accentor auricapillus, A. 143. W. Ind. 
Mex. Latu. Sw. table lL— 
55° N. (sub. g. Seiurus, Sw.) 
»  aquaticus, Wins. 23, 5. F.B.d. 43. 
Mex. Sw.—64° N. 
Culicivora ccerulea, A. 84. Mex. Licut. 
—43° N. 
Sylvia calendula, A. 195. 24° N.—70°N. 
Greenl. Bon. (sub. g. Regulus.) 
»  Cuvierii, A. 55. 40° N. prairies. 
» tricolor, A. 183. 23° N.—54° N. 
»  trochilus*, enl. 651, 1. N. dm. 
TEMM. 


Fam. AMPELID/E. 


Bombycilla carolinensis, A. 43. Mew. 
Licutr. 2° N.—56° N. 
»  garrula*, A. 303. ?—67° N. 
Vireo solitarius, A. 23. Mex. Licat.— 
39° N. 
»» | noveboracensis,A.63.Mexr.Licur. 
—45° N. 
»  flavifrons, A. 119. 23° N.—46° N. 
»  gilvus, A. 118. 23° N.—46° N. 
»  Olivaceus, A. 150. Mex. Sw.— 
55° N. (muse. altiloqua, V1EIL.) 
»  Bartramii, F.B.4. Braz. S. Car. 
New Caled.—49° N. 
»  Vigorsii, A. 30. Penns. 


Fam. MUSCICAPID. 


Todus viridis, enl. 585. W. Ind. Mex. 
Psaris cayanus, enl. 304, 307. 2° N. Mew. 
Licurt. 


As the food of the raptorial order of birds, though variable 
in quantity in different localities, must be almost everywhere 
very similar in quality, it excites no surprise when we discover 
that many species are common to different quarters of the 
world, especially those entering the typical and subtypical 
groups which prey on quadrupeds and birds, taking them alive. 
But we are led to expect that the distribution of birds which 
feed on the fruits of the earth, should be influenced in a greater 
degree by climate, soil, and consequent fertility of the land: 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 173 


and as temperature, moisture, and richness of vegetation have a 
manifest connection with the abundance and variety of insects, 
we look to find the insectivorous birds of the several continents 
nearly as different as their floras. Mr. Swainson has indeed 
already remarked that “ it is among the insectivorous or soft- 
billed birds that the principal ornithological features of any ex- 
tensive region will be traced.’” These observations receive a 
general support by a review of the extensive and varied order of 
insessores which in North America form three fifths of the 
birds ; and though the hirundinide, which are purely insectivo- 
rous, exhibit in the table a large proportion of species common 
to the two continents, there is, as we shall mention again, reason 
to doubt the identity of the species in the two faune. Two or 
three species of carnivoruus corvide are with more certainty the 
same on both sides of the Atlantic, and also several hard-billed 
granivorous birds (fringillide) that breed in the arctic re- 
gions, the physical conditions of which are almost the same in 
all longitudes, though below 65° N. latitude the aspect of the 
two continents differs greatly. 

Dentirostres.—In the quinarian arrangement of Mr. Vigors, 
this is one of the five tribes into which the tzsessores, or perchers, 
are divided, each tribe containing five families. Of the /aniade, 
a normal family of the tribe, only one species stands in our list 
as common to the new and old continents, and it is so marked in 
accordance with the opinions of Wilson and Audubon, but con- 
trary to those of Vieillot, Bonaparte, and Swainson. This and 
the other North American /anii are certainly very similar in 
form to their European congeners, which may be accounted for 
by their approaching the rapaces in their mode of feeding, and 
being less exclusively insectivorous than the tyranine, associ- 
ated with them by Mr. Swainson, which are proper to America. 
The merulide, the other normal family of the tribe, contains 
three American species which have been enumerated in the 
European fauna, one (merula migratoria) because of its occa- 
sional appearance in Germany, and the other two, m. aurorea 
and minor, on account of the capture of one or two individuals 
in Saxony and Silesia. Of the numerous family of sylviade we 
scarcely know more than one species which has an undisputed 
right to be marked as common to both sides of the Atlantic. 
Saxicola cenanthe, hitherto detected only in the higher arctic 
latitudes of America, may prove on further acquaintance to be 
distinct from the more southern European bird bearing the same 
name. Indeed Mr. Vigors has named it @nanthoides, being 
led to consider it to be a proper species, more from its distant 
habitat than from any peculiar character detected in the speci- 


174 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


mens from Behring’s Straits submitted to him: it was found in 
Davis’s Straits by Captain Sabine. Two species of anthus 
existing in America appear to have been confounded under the 
name of aguaticus: one of them identified by Temminck with 
the European species; the other, having a much more brown 
under plumage, is figured in the Fauna Boreali- Americana under 
the name of aquaticus, but, as the author last-named has ob- 
served, it is in reality a distinct species. It was indeed described 
as such by Latham under the appellation of the Louisiana lark, 
and the Prince of Musignano in adopting the specific name of 
ludovicianus, was led to deny the existence of the true aguati- 
cus in America. Opinions vary as to the identity of parus atri- 
capillus with the palustris of Europe. The American and 
European gold-crests (reguli) have also been confounded though 
they are now held to be distinct. It is to be noticed that the 
pari and reguli are typical examples of their respective groups, 
the pariane or titmice-warblers belonging to America chiefly, 
while the sylviane are mostly European warblers. Temminck 
states that the sylvia trochilus belonging to his group of mus- 
civores or to regulus of Cuvier, exists precisely the same in 
North America as in Europe, but it has not as yet founda place 
in the works of the North American ornithologists. Bomby- 
cilla garrula is the only one of the ampelide which is common 
to the two continents, and its manners and the extent of its 
migrations as well as its form and plumage are absolutely the 
same on both sides of the Atlantic. The vireones which feed on 
insects, or, when these are scarce, on the berries of the myrica 
cerifera, are confined to the New World. Of the mascicapide 
several species belong to the European fauna, but there are no 
typical ones in America agreeably with Mr. Swainson’s views of 
the constituents of the family : within the tropics and in Mexico 
we find psaris cayanus, a typical black-cap, and todus viridis, 
considered by him to be a fissirostral form of the broad-billed 
fly-catchers. 


Typ. Tribe, Conirostres. 


Aber. fam. FRINGILLIDE. 


Alauda alpestris*, 4. 200. Mer. Sw.— | Emberiza Townsendii, 4. 369. Philad. 
68° N. (cornuta, W118.) 40° N. 
»  glacialis, Licut. Mex. ” pusilla, 4.139. 30° N.—45° N. 
Plectrophanes nivalis*, 4. 189. 38° N.— " pallida, F.B.4. ?—55°N. 
75°N. 81° N. Spitzd. is socialis, 4.104. Mex. Sw.— 
5 lapponica*, 4. 370. 44° N.— 45° N. 
70°. N. (calcarata, TEM.) x melodia, 4. 25. 30° N.—50° N. 
. picta, F.B.A. 49. ?—54° N. bs oonalaschkensis, Gm. ?—55° N. 
Emberiza canadensis, 4. 188. Cal. Vic. q mexicana, enl. 386. 1. Mex. 


36° N.—60° N. i» pusio, Licut. Mex. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 


Fringilla palustris, 4.64. 30°N.—44°N. 
»  iliaca, 4. 108. 30° N.—68° N. 
: leucophrys, A. 114. 28° N.— 
68° N. 

»  grammaca, Bon. 5, 3. Mex.— 
40°N. prairies. (strigata, 
Sw. 

iy pennsylvanica, A, 8. 23° N.— 
66° N. 

»  graminea, 4.94. 30°N.—57°N. 

" hyemalis*, 4. 13. Cal. Vic. 


30° N.—57° N 
Bs ¥y arctica, Vic. Cal. Unalasch. 
36° N.—55° N. 


»  meruloides, Vic. Cal. 37° N. 

45 crissalis, Vie. Cal. 36°, 38° N. 

»  amena, Bon. 6. f. 5. 37° N 
prairies. 

» cyanea, 4. 44, Mer. ?—45°N. 

» . Giris, 4.53, 1.25° S.—36° N. 

fs caudacuta, 4. 149. 33° N.— 
44°N. 

» maritima, 4.93. 30°N.—44° 
N 


* bimaculata, Sw. Mex. table 1. 

a cinerea, Sw. Mex. 

7 epopea, Licut. Mex. 

5 rhodocampter, Licut. Mex. 

Ke superciliaris, Licut. Mex. 

fe lepida, L.Licut. W. Ind. Mex. 

“= hemorrhéa, Licur. Mex. 

»  melanoxantha, Licut. Mex. 
Pipillo Sy ropkthaina, “A. 29. 23° N.— 


| ea B.A.51,52.2—55°N. 
yy maculata, Sw. Men. 
»  _macronyx, Sw. Mex. 
» fusca, Sw. Mex. 
rufescens, Sw. Mea. 
Tanagra meaicana, L. enl. 290.2, 155. 1 
»  tgnicapilla, Licut. Mex. 
»  gnatho, Licut. Mex. 
» grandis, Licut. Mex. 
5 auricollis, Licur. Mex. 
»  erythromelas, Licat. Mex. 
7 abbas, Licut. Mex. 
»  rutila, Licut. Mex. 
celeno, Licut. Mez. 
Pyranga estiva, 4. 44. Mex. Licur. 
42° N. (Phenisoma, Sw.) 
» rubra, Wixs. 11 f. 3,4. Mex. 
49° N. 
»  ludoviciana, Wits. 20. 1, 2° N. 
—42° N. prairies. 
5 livida, Sw. Mex. 
- hepatica, Sw. Mex. 
rs bidentata, Sw. Mex. 
Euphone jacarina, enl. 224.3, Braz. Mex. 
Licur. 


175 


Euphone tibicen, Licut. Mex. 
»  Tufiventris, Licur. Braz. Cal. 
25° $.—36° N. (Saltator, 
Vic.) 
Tiaris pusilla, Sw. Mex. 
Spermagra erythrocephala, Sw. Mex. 
Coccothraustes vespertina, F. B. 4. 68. 
45° N.—54° N. 
»  ludovicianus, 4. 127. Merz. 
Sw. 56° N. 
»  ccerulea, 4.122. Mex. Sw. 42°N. 
»  cardinalis, 4.159. Mex. Licur. 


23° N.—42° N. 
»  ferreo-rostris, Vie. Cal. 36° or 
38° N. 


»  melanocephala, Sw. Mex. 

»  ehrysopelus, Zool. pr.15. Mex. 
Cumrinc. 

Linaria frontalis, Bon. 6. f. 1. Mex. Sw. 

38° N. (Hemorrhous, Sw.) 

», purpurea, 4.4. 30° N.—55° N. 

»  tephrocotis, 7.B.4. 50. ?—53° 
N. (sub. g. Leucosticte.) 

»  borealis*, ViEIL. gal. 65. Roux, 
101. Greenl. Japan, Tem. 
52° N.—68° N. 

» americana, 4.354. >—44°N. 

»  passerina, 4.130. 23° N.—45° 
N 


»  Bachmanii, 4.165. ?2—35°N. 
»  Henslowii, 4. 70. 30° N.—37°. 
N 


» savanna, 4.109. 30°N.—52° N. 
»  Lincolnii, 4.193. ? 40° N.— 
52° N. 
Carduelis tristis, 4.23. Mex.—60° N. 
»  pinus, 4. 180. 32° N.—52°N. 
»  psaltria, Bon. 6. f. 3. Mex. >— 
R. Platte. 

» mexicana, Sw. Mex. U.St. Aup. 
catotl, GMrL. Mex. 
enucleator*, 4.358. 50° N.— 

63° N. ( Corythus, Cuy.) 
inornata, Vie. Cal. 38° N. 
Loxia ‘curvirostra*, A.197. 40°N.—57°N. 
leucoptera*, A, 368. 40° N.— 
68° N. 


Pyrrhula 


Typ. fam. Corvipz. 


Corvus corax*, 4.101. Cal. Vie. 26° N. 

—74° N. 

»  corone*, 4. 156. 26°N.—55°N. 

»  ossifragus,4.146.24°N.—40°N. 

»  columbianus, 4. 397. 46° N. 
Pacific. 

»  mexicanus, L. Mex. Licur. 

»  morio, Licut. Mex. 


176 


Pica caudata*, 4. 358. 40° N.—58° N. 
prairies. (Corvus pica.) 
»  peruviana, enl. 625. Mex. Licut. 
»  Beechei, Vic. Mex. Montereale. 
+ Colliei, Vic. Mex. San Blas. 
Garrulus Bullockii, 4. 96. Mex. Cal. 
Bon. 46° N. (gubernatriz, 
col. 436.) 
¢ floridanus, 4. 87. 25° N.— 
31° N. (Cyanurus, Sw.) 
Ms Stelleri, F.B.4. 54. Mex. Bon. 


—57°N. 
A cristatus, 4. 102. 25° N.— 
56°'N. 
cs californicus, Vic. Monterey. 
36° N. 
5 coronatus, Sw. Mex. 
+f azureus, col. 108. Mex. Licut. 
+ Sormosus, Sw. col. 436. Mex. 
Temiscalt. 
canadensis, 4.107. 42° N.— 


68° N. (Dysornithia.) 


Sub-typ. fam. STURNIDE. 


Molothrus pecoris, 4.99. Mex. Sw. 56°N. 
Dolichonyx agripennis, 4.54. Mex. Sw. 
—54° N. (oryzivora, Sw.) 


Agelaius phceniceus, 4.67. Mea. Sw. Cal. 
Vic.—56° N. 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Agelaius xanthocephalus, -4. 396. Mex’. 
—58° N. 
5 mexicanus, Epw. 243. Mex. 
7 longipes, Sw. Mex. table l. 
=) Bullockii, Sw. Mex. 
Sturnella ludoviciana, 4.136. Mex. Sw. 
Licut. Cal. Vic.—56° N. 
” holosericea, Licut. Mex. 
Xanthornus baltimore, 4.12. Mex. Sw. 
Licut.—55° N. 
Icterus spurius, 4, 42. 2° N.—49° N. 
»  mexicanus, LEAcH, Zool. Mise. 2. 
Mex. Sw. 
»  dominicensis, enl. 5.1. W. Ind. 
Mex. Sw. 
»  eucullatus, Sw. Mex. 
»  melanocephalus, Sw. Mex. 
»  erassirostris, Sw. Mex. 
»  gularis, Licut. Mex. 
»  calandra, Licut. Mex. 
Cassicus coronatus, Sw. Mex. 
Quiscalus versicolor, 4.7. W. Ind. 57°N. 
+ major, 4. 187. W. Ind. Mex. 
BarlN; 
- dives, Licut. Mex. 
+ palustris, Sw. Mex. 
Scolecophagus ferrugineus, 4. 157. 24°N. 
—68° N. 
»  mexicanus, Sw. 


Conirostres.—Most of the North American species of this, 
which is the typical tribe of insessorial birds, belong to the frin- 
gillide, one of the aberrant families. The two normal families 
also include a tolerable number of species, but the two remaining 
aberrant families (musophagide and huceride) have no members 
in North America. Among the fringillide we find one alauda, 
two plectrophanes, one fringilla, two linarie, one pyrrhula, and 
two doxi@, common to the two countries. In addition to these the 
alauda calandra of the south of Europe is noted in the Fauna 
Boreali- Americana as having been taken at Hudson’s Bay, but 
as the only authority is a specimen in the British Museum of 
not very certain origin, it is omitted in the preceding list. The 
perfection of ornithological structure is to be found, according 
to Mr. Swainson, in the corvide, the typical family of the conz- 
rostres, or typical tribe of the insessorial or typical order. The 
raven, which is a typical example of the genus corvus, is common 
to the four quarters of the world, and most ornithologists con- 


sider the carrion crow and the magpie of America to be the same 


with those of Europe. Mr. Audubon, however, describes the 
former as a peculiar species under the name of americanus, and 
Mr. Sabine has treated the magpie in a similar manner, though 
he has not been followed by subsequent writers :—it is certain 
that he has failed in pointing out any constant or appreciable 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 177 
differences of plumage, but there is something peculiar in the 
habits of the American bird which frequents the interior prairie 
lands, and does not approach the sea coast as in Europe, nor does 
_ it go to the north of the 58th parallel, though the European bird 
extends to Lapland. Further observations are required to prove 
that the differences in the form and size of the eggs noted in the 


wi 


Fauna boreali-americana are constant. 
abounds in Japan, as Temminck informs us. 


The common magpie 
The sturnideé are 


more numerous in America than in Europe, and are all proper 


to the country. 


Aber. tribe, Scansores. 


Typ. fam. Picipz. 


Picus principalis, 4. 66. 25° N.—37°N. 
»  tridactylus*, 4.132. 40° N.— 
68° N. (americanus, arcticus). 
» [ pubescens, 4.112. 30°N.—58°N. 
» | Villosus, 4. 360. Cal. Vie. 28° N. 
63° N. 
» ) querulus, 4. 353. 30° N.—36°N. 
» | carolinus, 4. 391. 19° N.—46°N. 
» (varius,4. 190. Mex. Sw.—61° N. 
»  formicivorus, Col. 451. Mex. 
Licut. Sw. Calif. Vie. 36°N. 
> scapularis, Vic. Mex. San Blas. 
a ? olegineus, Licut. Mex. 
ai ? poliocephalus, Licut. Mex. 
»  canus*, Epw. 65. N. dm. Temo. 
pileatus, 4.111. Mex. 63° N. 
Colaptes auratus, 4.37. 25° N.—63° N. 
» . Mexicanus, Vic. 9. Mex. Cal. 
—49°N. (collaris, Vic.) 
Melanerpes oe pea A. 395. 30° N.— 
0° N. 


a Seyeeeacine A. 27. 24°N. 
—50° N. 

+ ruber, Cal. Vic. Nootka. Coox. 
2° N.—50° N. 

+ ? aurifrons, Licut. Mex. 


a albifrons, Sw. Mex. Table L. 
“3 elegans, Sw. Mex. marit. 


Sub-typ. fam. PsiTTACIDE. 


Psittacus melanocephalus, enl. 527. 2°N. 
—Mex. 
BS, leucorhynchus, Sw. Mex. 
a autumnalis, Epw. 164. 2° N. 
—Meer. Licut. 
i strenuus, Licut. Mez. 
Plyctolophus mexicanus, Gmeu., Licut. 


_ Macrocercus militaris, Vatu. 4. Mex. 


Table L. Sw. San Blas. Vic. 
» | pachyrhynchus, Sw. Mex. 


VOL. Vv. 1836. 


Macrocercus aracanga, enl, 2. 2° N.— 
Mex. Licut. 
Psittacara carolinensis, .4.26. Mex. Licut. 
—42° N. 
- guianensis, Sprx. 25. 2° N.— 
Mex. Licut. (Agapornis, 
Sw.) 
x pertinax, enl. 528. 25° S. Mex. 
Licut. 
Psittacula mexicana, GMEL., Licut. 


Aber. fam. RAMPHASTIDE. 


Pteroglossus pavoninus, Zool. Pr. 34. Mex. 
Ramphastos pecilorhynchus, Licut. Mea. 


Aber. fam. CucuLip2. 


Coccyzus americanus*, 4. 2. ?—45° N. 
"9 erythrophthalmus, 4. 32. 


pgs 


45° N. 
i seniculus, 4. 169. 2° N.—25° N. 
a mexicanus, Sw. Table L. 
“5 cayanus, enl. 211, 2° N.—Mex. 
Licat. 


viaticus, Licnt. Mex. 
Crotophaga ani, enl. 182, 1, 2. 2?°N.— 
Mex. Licur. 
a sulcirostris, Sw. Mex. Table L. 
Leptostoma longicauda, Sw. Mex. (Sauro- 
thera californica, Lxss. ?) 


Aber. fam. CERTHIADE. 


Troglodytes hyemalis, 4. 365. 40° N.— 
46° N. (Sylv. troglodytes). 

os furvus, 4. 83. Surin. Bon. 5° N. 
—57°N.(domestica, aédon). 

» americanus, A. 179. 32°.N.— 


46° N. 

“f spilurus, Vie. 4. Calif.? or 
Mex.? 

is palustris, 4. 100. 25° N.— 


55°. N. (Thryothorus). 


178 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Troglodytes ( Bewickii, 4.18. Louis. Sitta carolinensis, 4. 152. Mew. Sw. 
ty ludovicianus, 4. 78. 30° N. —416° N. 
42° N. (carolinianus). » canadensis, 4.105. 38° N.—52°N. 
3 brevirostris, 4. 175. 26° N. » pusilla, 4.125. 24° N. —40° N. 
—44°N. » pygmea, Vie. 4, 2. Calif. Monterey. 
3 murarius, Licut. Mex. 36° N. 
“4 mexicanus, Licut. Mex. Xiphorynchus leucogaster, Sw. Mex. 
latifasciatus, Licur. Mex. . flavigaster, Sw. Mex. 
Certhia familiaris*, 4. 392. 30° N.— | Dendrocolapies pecilinotus, Wacu. Mex. 
50° N. Licut. 


We may remark of the scansorial birds in general that they 
are very numerous on the American continent, and particularly 
in the intertropical and southern regions, where they find abun- 
dant food in the ancient and interminable forests which they 
inhabit. The North American fauna contains examples of all 
the five families, the typical group being, however, most plen- 
tifully and generally distributed in the middle districts. Three 
species only of the whole tribe are common to the European 
and American faune, viz. picus tridactylus*, which is the most 
northern scansorial bird, and canus (malacolophus) Sw., which is 
introduced into our list on the authority of Temminck, who says 
that it inhabits the north of Europe, Asia, and America: both 
these belong to the typical family. The third species is certhia 
familiaris, a type of one of the aberrant families. Doubts 
existed as to the difference between troglodytes europeus and 
hyemalis, but they have been abandoned by the latest writers. 
The European fauna contains no example of the psittacide or 
ramphastide, and in America the psittacara carolinensis alone 
passes the parallel of the south of Europe: a species of parrot 
reaches the thirty-second degree of latitude in the north of 
Africa. The coccyzus americanus has been recently added to 
the list of European birds, four individuals having been killed in 
Great Britain, consequently it attains a higher latitude there b 
five or six degrees than it does on the other side of the Atlantic. 
Temminck objecting to the geographical designations of ameri- 
canus, carolinensis and dominicus, in which this species rejoices, 
has named it cimerosus, being a translation of Buffon’s epithet 
cendrillard. 


Aber. tribe, Tenuirostres. 


Typ. f m. TrocuiLipz. 


Trochilus { rufus, Jarp.6. Real del Monte, | Trochilus Rivolii, Luss. 4. Mex. 
Sw. 61°N. (collaris, Laru.) . melanotus, Sw. Mex. 
+ montanus, Luss. 33, 54. Mex. mS Sulgens, Sw. Mex. 
a platycircus, Sw. Mex. y latirostris, Sw. Mex. 
J Anna, Less. 74. Cal. 30° N.— A) bifurcatus, Sw. Mex. 
57° N. . minimus, Sw. Mex. 


* Mr. Swainson says the European and American three-toed woodpeckers 
are distinct species. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 179 
Trochilus tricolor, Sw. Mex. Cynanthus arsinoe, Less. sup. 28. Mex. 
ty beryllinus, Licur. Mex. Campylopterus Clementia, Less. 30. Mea. 
# verticalis, Licut. Mex. Lampornis mango, 4. 184. 25° S.—25° 
* euculiger, Licut. Mex. N. Braz. Mex. Fior. 
oo curvipennis, Licut. Mex. as gramineus, Luss. col. 12. Mex. 
+} hemileucurus, Licut. Mex. “4 celigena, Luss. tr. 53. Mex. 
coruscus, Licut. Mex. rs melanogaster, VIEILL. 75. Mex. 
Cynanthus colubris, 4.47. W.Ind.57°N. * punctatus, VreIu. 8. Mex. 
re lucifer, Luss. 5. Mea. Sw. cs holosericeus, Epw. W. Ind. 
7x tricolor, Luss. 14. Mea. Mex. 4° N.—20° N. 
Ps Duponiii, Less. sup. 1. Mex. A gutturalis, enl. 671. 4° N. Mex. 
“ thalassinus, Luss. 55, 56, 57. 
sup. 3. Mex. 


The tenuirostral tribe, containing the five families of trochi- 
lide, cinnyride, meliphagide, paradiside, and promeropida, 
is represented in Europe only by the hoopoe, one of the 7rome- 
ropide, while many trochilide belong to the North American 
fauna, of which, however, but three range northwards to Euro- 
pean parallels. The alpine structure of Mexico, by producing 
a succession of various climates within a short space, adapts it 
admirably to the habitation of the trochilide which seek their 
food in the throats of flowers. Mr. Swainson observes, that the 
vast proportion of suctorial birds inhabiting Australia and 
the neighbouring groups of islands, is one of the characteristics 
of that zoological province, the honey-sucking birds forming 
nearly one-fourth of the New Holland perchers,—for that cha- 
racter belongs not only to the meliphagide, but also to the 
little green lories (¢richoglossi) of the parrot family. The para- 
disidé are natives of New Guinea which is a portion of the Au- 
stralian province. The greater prevalence of this form in South 
America and Australia affords another instance of analogy 
between their faun™, in addition to those noticed in our remarks 
on the mammalia. The cinnyride and promeropide inhabit 
the warmer regions of the old world. 


Aber. tribe, Fissirostres. 
Aber. Fam. Hatcyonip2. Hirundo a, Sw. Mez. 
5 . , coronata, Licut. Mev. 
Alcedo alcyon, A. Lids W. Ind.—68 N. Chewint beara a 158. 225° N.— 


Typ. Fam. Hirunp1nip2. 
Hirundo purpurea, 4. 22. Braz. Sw. 9° S. Sub. typ. fam. Carrmuncip 2. 


—67° N. 

»  Tustica*, 4.173. Mex. Licut.— | Caprimulgus vociferus, 4.82. ?—25°N. 
68° N. (rufa, americana). —48° N. 

»  Yiparia*, 4. 389. 25° S.—68° N. FS carolinensis, 4. 52. Mex.— 

» bicolor, 4.98. Mex. Licut.— 37° N. 
60° N. (viridis). % virginianus, 4.147. ?—25° 

- 9 fulva, 4.68. W. Ind. Viet. N.—68° N. (Chordeiles, 

Mex.Sw.—67°N. (lunifrons?) Sw.) 

»  aoonalaschkensis, Laru., >— = albicollis, Latu. 4° N.— Mer. 
60° N. Licut. 


N 2 


180 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Aber. fam. 'Troconipz. Trogon mexicanus, Sw. Temiscalt. 
meet Se »  resplendens, Zool. pr. 27. Mex. 
Trogon viridis, enl. 195. 2° N.—Mez. elegans, Zool. pr. Mew. 


Licut. 
»  glocitans, Licut. Mex. 
»  pavoninus, col. 372. Mex. 


» ambiguus, Zool. pr. Mex. Nath. pr. 

»  Morganii, Sw. Mex. 
Prionites mexicanus, Sw. Mex. Table L. 

The meropide, one of the aberrant families of the fissirostral 
tribe, have no members in America, though two species enter 
Kurope, the rest of the group being confined to the warmer re- 
gions of the old continent. The trogonide again, another aber- 
rant family peculiar to America, though pretty numerous in 
Mexico, send no species so far north as to reach the United 
States.* The third aberrant family, the halcyonide, contains 
one European species and one North American one. The two 
normal families are spread over the whole world, and are re- 
presented in Kurope and North America by nearly an equal 
number of species, though few are really common to the two 
countries. The chimney or barn swallow of America is consi- 
dered by Audubon as the same with that of Europe ; though pre- 
vious authors, relying upon some differences in the colour of the 
plumage, had named it, as a distinct species, rufa or americana. 
The sand-martin (riparia) has been described as the same in both 
continents without much question, but also perhaps without a 
correct comparison of a sufficient number of specimens from 
both cuntinents. The interesting species named fulva requires 
further investigation ; by Vieillot, who gave it that appellation, 
it is said to have a forked tail, which form is also attributed to 
it in the Fauna boreali-americana, where Say’s appellation of 
lunifrons is adopted: Audubon and the Prince of Musignano, 
who inspected Say’s specimen, describe the tail as square. It 
remains to be ascertained whether these authors all speak of 
the same species or not. 


Aber. Ord. RASORES. 


Aber. fam. Cracipz. Peristera jamaicensis, Tem. 10. Mex. 
Crax hoazin, ALBIN 32. Mex. i Bie epee Mex. 
— PORN" tie 3 Nonny Geophilus cyanocephalus, 4. 172. W. Ind. 
enelope garrula, WAGLER, Mex. Licurt. 95° N. Florida. 
Chameepelia passerina, 4. 182. W. Ind.— 
Aber. fam. CotumsBip2#. 32° N. Cape Hatteras. 
Columba fasciata, Bon. 8, 3. R. Platte. +, squamosa, TEM. 59. 25° S.— 
»  leueocephala, 4. 177. W. Ind. Mex. Licut. 
Mex. Floridas.—25° N. 
“piiliege rem iene ey Lege 36° N. PHASIANID& or Pavonipz. 
Revonnies Bis midiintey hes i Meleagris gallopavo, 4. 1. Mew.—44° N. 


carolinensis, 4. 17. Mex. 

, Licut.—42° N. L. Super. TeTRaonip&. 
Peristera montana, 4. 167. 2° N.—25°N. | Tetrao f umbellus, 4. 41.32° N.—56°N. 
»  zenaida, 4. 162. Cuba.—25°N. a cupido, 4. 186, 36° N.—46° N. 


* Mr. Swainson has recently indicated a prionites bahamensis. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 18l 


Tetrao (canadensis, 4. 176. 44° N.— | Tetrao { urophasianus, 4. 366. 42° N.— 

68° N. Moist Woods. 48°. Prairies of the Columb. 

- Franklinii, F.B.A. 61. 50° N.— » phasianellus, 4. 367. 36° N.— 
58°N. Rocky Mount. 61° N. 


+ obscurus, 4. 361. 40° N.—63° | Ortyx virginiana, 4. 76. Mex.—48° N. 


N. » californica, SHaw. Mis. 345. 36°N. 
PP mutus*, Leacu. 67°N.—70°N. —44°N. . 
£ rupestris*, 4. 373. 55° N.— »  Douglasii, Vic. 9. Cal. 36° N.— 
75° N. Barren Grounds. 42°N. 
es leucurus, F.B.4. 63. 54° N.— » picta, Douc. 38° N.—45°N. 
64° N. Rocky Mount. »  Spilogaster, Zool. pr. 15. Mex. Cum. 
a saliceti*, Ep. 72. 45°N.—70°N. »  eristata, enl. 126. f. 2° N.—Mex. 


The families of rasores are capable of being distributed pretty 
correctly into geographical groups. Thus the cracide belong 
to South America, a few species extending northwards to Mex- 
ico: one genus (megapodius) inhabiting New Guinea, forms 
another link of connection between the Australian and South 
American faune. The struthionide belong mostly to the 
warmer parts of the old continent, one form (the New Holland 
emeu) inhabiting Australia, and another (rhea) South America. 
The phasianide also have their head quarters in the more 
southern parts of the old world, one genus only (meleagris), 
composed of two species, being American. The columbide, on 
the other hand, are spread generally over the world, though the 
family contains several well-marked minor geographical groups. 
The ¢etraonide are likewise widely diffused, but chiefly in the 
colder or temperate regions; and it is to this family that the only 
rasorial birds common to both continents belong,—they are ptar- 
migans, inhabiting the most northern districts, (tetrao mutus, ru- 
pestris and saliceti). On comparing this division of the faunz of 
North America and Europe with each other we find that the for- 
mer wants the partridges so common in the temperate parts of the 
latter, the true pheasants, the genus ofis, and the pterocles 
and hemipodii which have spread to the south of Europe from 
Africa and Asia ; on the other hand it possesses several forms 
of columbide, not known in Europe; the magnificent turkey, 
which for culinary purposes ranks as the chief not only of the 
gallinacei but of the whole feathered race; several singular 
forms.of tetrao; and the beautiful californian quails (ortyx) ; be- 
sides the Mexican cracide, which, as they do not go so far north 
as the southern extremity of Europe, do not fairly come into the 
comparison. In short, the similarity of this portion of the two 
faune is confined to one group of columbe, which does not 
reach higher than the southern parts of the United States, to the 
arctic /agopi, and to another group of tetraones, which includes 
canadensis, but is not generically distinct from the typical 
grouse. 


182 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Aber. Ord. GRALLATORES. 


Aber. fam. TantTaLip#. 


Tantalus lecular A. 216, 25° S.—38° N. 
RD. 
Ibis rubra, A. 385. 25° S.—36° N. 
» alba, A. 222. Mea. 25°S.—40° N. 
»  falcinella*, A. 386. Mex.—46° N. 
Caneroma cochlearia, enl. 38 & 369. 30° 
S.—Mew. Licut. 
Aramus scolopaceus, A. 381. 2° N.—U. S. 
Bon. 


Sub-typ. fam. ARDEIDE. 


Grus americana, A. 226. Mexv—68° N. 
Ardea herodias, A. 211. 25° N.—50° N. 
»  ludoviciana, A. 217. 24° N.—36° 
N. Charlestown. 
» occidentalis, A. 281. Flor. keys. 

Bo. Ns 

candidissima, A. 242. 24° N.— 
42° N. Massachusetts. 

» J rufescens, A. 256. Flor. keys. 

26° N. (Peailii.) 

» | egretta*, A. 378. W. Ind. Mex. 
2° N.—43° N. (alba). 

coerulea, A. 307. Mew. W. Ind. 
2° N.—44° N. 

virescens, A. 333. Mew. W. Ind. 
—44° N. 

» | lentiginosa, A. 337. 38° N.— 
58° N. (minor). 

exilis*, A. 210. W. Ind. Cal. Vie. 
45° N. 

nycticorax*, A.236. Mea.—46°N. 

violacea, A. 336. Mex. W. Ind.— 
2° N.—44° N. 

Platalea ayaia, A. 321. Mew. Licut. 25° 

S.—40° N. 

Hematopus palliatus, A. 223. Mex. Licur. 
54° S. Kine.—52° N. 

ostralegus*, Wiis. 64, 2. Cal. 
Vie.—50° N. 


Typ. fam. ScoLopacip”&. 


Numenius longirostris, A.231. Mex.Licur. 
Cal. Vie.—42° N. 
borealis, A. 208. Cal. Vic. 25° S. 
—70° N. Labrad. Coperm. r. 
»,  hudsonicus, A. 237. ?—60° N. 
»,  rufiventris, Vic. Cal. 36° N. 
Totanus glottist, A. 269. W. Ind. Flor. 
keys.—25° N. 
flavipes, A. 288. Mex. Licnr. 
Cuba.—68° N. 


” 


” 


Totanus melanoleucus, A. 308. W. Ind.— 


60° N. (vociferus, W1xs.) 
»  macularius*, Wits. 59. Mea. 
Licut.—57° N. 
»  Bartramius*, A. 303. ?—55° N. 
” chloropygius, Wixs. 58. Mea. 
Licut. Cuba.—68° N. 
ochropus*, 7. B.A. ?—58° N. 
5 calidris*, F.B.4. ?—58° N. 
5 fuscus*, end. 875. N. dm. TemM. 
= semipalmatus*, A. 274. 23° N. 
—56° N. 
ay candidus, Epw. 139. ?—58° N. 
Recurvirostra americana, A. 318. Tropics 
—63° N. 
» occidentalis, Vic. 12. Cal. 38° N. 
Limosa fedoa, A. 238. 21° N.—68° N. 
yf budsonica, A. 258, 38° N.—68° N. 
melanura*, en/. 874. U.S. Bon. 
an preced. ? 
» candida, Epw. 139. enl. 873. H. 
Bay. 
Scolopax minor, A. 268. 26° N.—52° N. 
»  Wilsonii*, A. 243. 28° N.—55° N. 
»  leucura, F.B.4A. Huds. B. 57° N. 
»  grisea*, A. 335. 50° N.—70°N. 
Phalaropus fulicarius*, A. 255. ?—75° N. 
»  lacialis, Laru. Behr. St. 692° N. 
Lobipes hyperboreus*, A. 215. ?—75° N. 
»  Wilsonii, A. 254. Mea. Sw. S.. dm. 
—i5° N. ( fimbriatus, Trem.) 
Tringa islandica*, A. 315. ?—75° N. 
maritima*, A. 284. 40° N.—74°N. 
Cal. 


” 


” 
» ~ Temminckii*, col. 41, 1. 


Vic. U.S. Bon. 
minuta*, Naum, 21, 30. U. S.Bon. 
pusilla, A. 320. Mew. Licurt. 
Nootka.—68° N. 
maculosa, Vie1u. IV”. Ind.—U.S. 
» { rufescens*, A. 265. 30°N.—70°N. 
subarcuata*, A. 263. ?—39° N. 
& 41° N.—? (africana, Laru.) 
pygmea*, Naum. 10, 22. U.S. 
Bon. (platyrhinca.) 
pectoralis*, A. 294. W. Ind. 19° 
N.—? 

Schinzii*, A. 278. 25° N.—55°N. 
alpina*, Wits. 56, 2. 57, 3. ?— 
74°. N. (cinclus, variabilis.) 
himantopus, A. 344. ?—60° N. 

» | Semipalmata*, A. 350. ?—60° N. 
»  Deppii, Licut. Mex. 
Calidris arenaria*, Wis. 59, 4. 63, 3. 
30° N.—60° N. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 


Aber. fam. Ratiww2. 


Parra jacana, enl. 322. 25° S.—Mex. 

Rallus virginianus, A. 205. 24° N.—50°N. 
»  crepitans, A. 204, 24° N.—41° N. 
»  Clegans, A. 203. 24° N.—40° N, 

Crex noveboracensis, A. 329. ?>—57° N. 
»  carolinus, A. 233. Mex. 25° S.— 


183 


Strepsilas melanocephalus, Vie. Calif. ? 
Charadrius pluvialis*, A. 300. 23° N.— 
75° N. Behr. St. 
»  vociferus, A.225. W. ind.—56° N. 
»  Wilsonius, A. 209. 24°N.—44°N. 
»  melodus, A. 220. Cal. 24° Ni— 
53°. N.  (hiaticula, Wits.) 
»  semipalmatus, A.330. Cal. 24° N. 


62°N. 
Gallinula chloropus*, A. 244. Mex. Cal. 
. 40° N. (galeata, Bon.) 


70° N. 
Vanellus melanogaster*, A. 334. 26° N. 
=o . 
5 martinica, A. 308. 160.N.—38° N. —i10° N. (helveticus). 


: . : Cayenensis, enl. 836. Mex.? Vic. 
Fulica americana, A. 239. Afex. Licurt. pees ano : s dae 
Cal, Vie.56° N. (aéra). Himantopus nigricollis, A. 328. ?—44°N. 


»  melanopterus*, enl. 878. 25° S.— 
Aber. fam, CHARADRIADE. Mex. Licur. Brazil, Egypt, 
Strepsilas interpres*, A. 304. 24° N.— Tem. 
75° N. 

The principal forms of the grallatorial order ave the same 
in the northern divisions of the two continents; but there are 
five minor genera, viz., ciconia, glareola, porphyrio, and cur- 
sorius in Europe, which do not occur in North America; and 
three in the latter country, namely, aramus, tantalus, and 
parra, which do not belong to the fauna of Europe. The 
forms and very many of the species of the typical family (the 
scolopacide) are absolutely the same in both countries, and on 
referring to the table in page 167, it will be seen how nearly 
the number of species of most of the families correspond on 
both sides of the Atlantic ; the numbers would agree still more 
exactly in the principal group but for recent refinements in the 


discrimination of species, by which birds, so closely resembling 


the common snipe as not to be distinguishable by an ordinary 
observer, are described as distinct on account of some differ- 
ences in the tail-feathers. The American coot differs very 
slightly from the European one, and the constancy of these 
differences still requires to be established; the latter occurs in 
India without change of form. The Rev. Mr. Bachman and 
Mr. Audubon have clearly established the brown crane, grus 
canadensis, to be the young of the great hooping-crane, grus 
americana. 


Aher. Ord. NATATORES. 
Anas obscura, A. 302. 25° N.— 45° N. 


op ot ke » discors, A. 313. Mex. Licur. Cal. 
Pheenicopterus ruber*, Wits. 66, 4. ?—40° —58° N. 
N. Bon. »  erecca*, A. 228. Cal. Vic. 24°N. 
Anas clypeata*, A. 327. Mex. Sw. Licut. —70° N. 


Cal. Vie.—70° N. 

»  Strepera*, A.348. Mex. Sw. 68°N. 

» acuta*, A. 227. Mex. Sw. Cal. 
Vie.—70° N. 

»  wrophasianus, Vie. 14. Cal.? 

»  boschas*, A. 221. Mex. Licur. 
—68° N. 


»  glocitans*, A. 338. 
» americana, A. 345. Cuba. Cal. 
Vic.—68° N. (Mareca). 
»  Ssponsa, A. 206. Mex. Cal. Vic. 
19° S.—54° N. 
Somateria mollissima*, A. 246. 39° N— 
81° N. Greenl. Spitz. 


184 


Somateria spectabilis*, A. 276. 43° N.— 


81° N. Greenl. Spitz. 
Oidemia perspicillata*, A. 317. Nootka. 
24° N.—72° N. 
»  fusca*, Wits. 72. f. 3. 36° N.— 
72° N. 


»  nigra*, Wins. 72. 2. 36° N. ?N. 
» americana, A. 349. U. S—62°N. 
Fuligula valisneria, A, 301. Cal. 38° N.— 

68° N. 

»  ferina*, A. 322. Cal. 38° N.— 
68° N. 

»  Marila*, Wis. 69. 5. 38° N.— 
68° N. Cal. Vic. 

»  labradora, A.332. 40°N.—58° N. 

»  Tufitorques, A. 234. 26° N.—68° 
N. (fuligula, Wis.) 

»  rubida, A. 343. 26° N.—58° N. 
Clangula vulgaris*, A. 342. 26° N.—68° 
N. (clangula, Auct.) 

» Barrovii, F.B.4. A. 70. ?—57°N. 
»  albeola, A. 325. Mex. Cal. Vic. 
—68° N. (ducephala). 
»  histrionica*, A. 297. Cal. Vie.— 
74°N. 
Harelda glacialis*, A. 312. 36° N.—75°N. 
Mergus cucullatus*, A. 232, 24° N.—68° 
N 


»  Merganser*, A. 331. 38° N.— 
68° N. 
»  serrator*, A. 382. 38° N.—68° N. 
»  albellus*, A. 347. 38° N—? N. 
Cygnus buccinator, A. 377. 38°N.—68°N. 
»  Bewickii*¥, A. 387. Cal—75° N. 
Anser canadensis, A. 201. 26° N.—70° N. 
»  Hutchinsii, A. 277. 45° N.—69° 
N. Melville peninsula. 
»  bernicla*, A. 380. 26° N.—73° N. 
»  leucopsis*, A. 296. ?—? U.S. 
Bon. 
»  segetum*, enl. 985. U.S. Bon. 
»  hyperborea*, A. 376. 26° N.— 
73° N. 


CoLyMBID&. 


Podiceps carolinensis, A. 248. 26° N.— 
68° N. 

cornutus*, A. 259, 26° N.—68°N. 

»  eristatus*, A. 292. Mer.—68° N. 

»»  rubricollis*, A. 298. 41° N.—68° 


” 


N. 
Podoa surinamensis, enl. 893. 2° N.—40° 
N. Bon. 
Colymbus glacialis*, A. 306. 26°N.—70°N. 
septentrionalis*, A. 202. 36° N. 
—74°N. 
» _ areticus*, A. 346. ?—70° N. 


” 


; ALcaDs. 
Uria Brunnichii*, A. 245. 42° N.—75°N. 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Uria grylle*, A. 219. 37° N.—75° N. 
»  troile*, A. 218. 41° N—61° N. 
»  Marmorata, Lara. N.W. coast. 
Bon. 
»  alle*, A. 339. 39° N.—75° N. 
»  brevirostris, Vic. Kotzebue Sound. 
Mergulus cirrhocephalus, Vie. Kotzebue 
Sound. 
Fratercula glacialis, A. 293. U.S. Bon. 
; Kotzebue Sound. Vice. 70° N. 
»  Cirrhata, A. 249. 40° S.—70° N. 
Kotzebue Sound. Vic. 
»  aretica*, A. 213. 32° N.—? N. 
Phaleris cristatella, col. 200. 50° N.—70° 
N. Aleut. isles ? Vie. 
»  psittacula, Pall. sp. v.2. Sea of 
Kamtsch. 
Alea torda*, A. 214. 40° N.—57° N. 
» impennis*, A. 341. ?—75° N. 
Cerrorhincha occidentalis, Bon. Behr. St. 
Vic. 


PELECANID. 


Onocrotalus americanus, A. 311. Mex. 
Vie.—61° N. 
Pelecanus thajus, 8. 40°.— Mex. Licur. 
Phalacrocorax carbo*, A. 266. 40° N.— 
Do ae 
»  dilophus, A. 257. 33° N.—55° N. 
»  floridanus, A. 252. 24°N.—35°N. 
graculus*, enl. 974. 40° N. Bon. 
cristatus*, col. 322. 40° N. Bon. 
»  pygmeus*, Paty. Voy. 1. U.S. 
Bon. 
brasilianus, Sprx. 106. 25° S.— 
Mex. Licut. 
Sula fusca, A. 251. Mex. Vie. 2° N.— 
35° N. Flor. S. Carol. 

»  bassana*, A, 326. 40° N. Bon. 
Tachypetes aquilus, A. 271. Mex. Vic. 
23° S.—40° N. Bon. 

Phaeton zethereus, A. 262. 30° S. Lxss. 

—25° N. Aub. 
Plotus anhinga, Wits. 74. 1 & 2. 25°S. 
—36° N. (melanogaster). 


LARIDz&. 


Sterna hirundo*, A. 309. 38° N.—57° N. 
(Wilsonii, Bon.) 
»  arcetica*, A. 250. 38° N.—75° N. 
»  eantiaca*, A. 279. 24° N.—33° N. 
»  Dougalli*, A. 240. ?—26° N. 
»  ¢cayana, A. 273. 23° N.—54° N. 
»  fuliginosa, A. 235. 49°S.—40°N. 
»  nigra*, A. 280. Mea.—69° N. 
aranea*, A. 383. 36° N.—44° N. 
»  minuta*, A. 319. ?—44° N. 
»  Stolida, A. 275. 25° S.—24° N. 
»  galericulata, Mex. Licut. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 


Larus glaucus*, A. 379. ? N—75° N. 

»  argentatus*, A.291.24°N.—75°N. 

» _ leucopterus*,A.282.40°N.—75°N. 

»  Marinus*, A. 241. 28° N.—56° N. 

»  zonorhynchus, A. 212. 36° N.— 
56° N. 

»  canus*, Aucr. U. S. —64° N. 

»  Belcheri, Vie. N. Pacif. coast. 

»  eburneus*, A. 287.47°N.—75°N. 

»  fuscus*, Friscu. 218. U.S. Bon. 
TEM. 

»  tridactylus*, A. 224. 30° N.— 
74° .N. 

»  Bonapartii, A. 324. ?—70° N. 

»  Franklinii, F.B.4..71. ?—56°N. 

»  capistratus*, Bag. Bay, Tem. 33° 
N.—74° N. 

»  atricilla*, A. 314. ?—45° N. 

»  ridibundus*,Naum.32,44. Greeni. 
seas. TEM. 

»  minutus*, Faux. Voy. 3, 24. U.S. 
Bon. 65° N. 

»  Sabinii*, A. 285. Cal. Behr. St. 


185 


Waigatz St. Spitzb., Regt. Inlet. 
?—82° N. 

Rhynchops nigra, A. 323. ?—46° N. 

Lestris parasiticus", A. 267. 24° N.—75° 
N 


»  pomarinus, A. 253.43°N.—67°N. 
»  Richardsonii*, A. 272. 42° N.— 
75° N. (parasiticus, Auct.) 
»  cataractes*, Brit. Zool. 50, 6. 
U.S. Bon. 
»  Buffonii*, enl. 762. U.S. Bon. 
Diomedea exulans, A. 388. 35° 8.—U. 8. 
Wits. Cape of Good Hope. 
»  fuliginosa, col. 469. Cal. Aleut. 
islands, Vic. 50°S.—50° N. 
Procellaria glacialis*, A. 264. U. S.—60°N. 
»  puffinus*, enl. 962. U. S—60°N. 
»  obscura*, St. degli Ucelli, 538. 
U.S. Bon. 
Thalassidroma Wilsonii*, A. 270. 23° N. 
—55° N. Bon. (pelagica, W.) 
»  Leachii*, A. 260. 40° N.—55°N. 
Bon. ‘ 


Vie. Spitzb. 36° N.—80° N. »  pelagica*, A. 340. U.S. 

»  Rossii*, F.B.d. Newfoundland, »  Bullockii*, Newfoundland. Auv. 

The natatores, like the cetacea which they represent, in- 
habit the waters, the majority seldom coming ashore except 
for the purpose of nidification; and they are mostly common 
to the two continents, especially the marine ones. The generic 
groups are almost entirely the same in the same parallels of 
latitude; and even where the species are peculiar, there is a 
surprising uniformity in the numbers of each group, as may be 
observed on consulting the table in page 167. The common white 
pelican of America is considered as distinct from the onocro- 
talus of the old world by Mr. Audubon, and some occasional 
differences in the bill are pointed out in the Fauna boreali- 
americana ; but in most other respects the American and Ku- 
ropean pelicans have a very close resemblance. The breeding 
plumage of many of the northern gulls is still very imperfectly 
known, and the exact number of species and their distribution 
will remain uncertain until some ornithologist, who has the re- 
quisite opportunities of observation, accomplishes a revision of 
the genus. The characters of the black-headed gulls especially 
require elucidation. 

In concluding our remarks on North American ornithology, 
made chiefly with a view of pointing out its peculiarities, by 
contrasting it with that of Europe, we may refer the reader to 
the Prince of Musignano’s “ Specchio comparativo”’*, &c., 

* Specchio comparativo delle Ornitologie di Roma e di Filadelfia, di C. L. 


Bonaparte, &c., estratto dal No. 33, del nuovo giornale de’ letterati. °Pisa, 
1827. 


186 SIXTH REPORT— 1836. 


for an excellent comparison of the birds inhabiting the middle 
parallels of the two zoological provinces. 

The following table, which exhibits to an approximate fraction 
the proportion that each group of birds bears to the whole of 
the known North American species, will require correction as 
our knowledge of the ornithology of Mexico and the northern 
shores of the Pacific improves. 


Groups. No. of | Prop. Groups. No. of |Prop. 

sp. fr. sp. fr. 

RaPACes” .- 0)... | OF | qs | Fissirostres ...... 23 | 35 
Vulturide ...... 5 |74;|| Haleyonide .... 1 | sae 
Falconide ...... 35 h Hirundinide .... 9| 77 
: Strigide ...... ar a6 a ges a : Ths 
NSESSORES ...... + rogonide...... vara 
Dentirostres ...... 150 | +; Bunqnan yan ailoe 33 | oy 
Laniade........ 45 | 3+ @ragidzay cap. asia 3 lots 
Merulide...... 21] 35 |} Columbide .... | 12] 3% 
Sylviade ...... 73) & Phasianide .... 1 | goo 
Ampelide ...... 9| 7 Tetraonide \......| dds\eag 
Muscicapide... . 2 |shq|| Gratuarores ....| 87] ¢§ 
Conirostres ...... 134 | 2 Tantalide ...... 6 |G 
Fringillide .... | 90| 3 || Ardeide........ 16 |B 
Corvide........ | 20] Scolopacide .... | 45 | qb 
Sturmida ey yvy pedeur yy Rallide wore: 9 | py 
Scansores »....... 62/54 Charadriade .... 1l | @& 
Pieiden qinswe! . 21 | 35 || Navarores ...... 122 | 4 
Psittacide ...... 12 | sy Anatidz........ 41 | x 
Hawoppestids, bx ats Colbie herbie a a 

uculidz ...... pe ee ee ” 
Certhiade...... 19 | 37 Pelecanide .... 14 | + 
Tenuirostres.Trochil.| 31 | sy Datide wn sg esa 44 | 35 


The whole zoological region of North America being acces- 
sible, without much difficulty, to naturalists and collectors, that 
highly interesting subject, the migration of birds, can be studied 
no where with greater advantage. The American ornithological 
works do, indeed, abound with scattered facts respecting the 
periodical flights of some species: and the introduction to the 
second volume of the Fauna boreali-americana contains a few 
general remarks on this matter; but a paper by the Rev. J. 
Bachman, published in Silliman’s Journal for April, 1836, is 
the only one written expressly on the migration of North Ame- 
rican birds which has come to my knowledge. In this treatise 
the movements of the feathered tribes in America are noticed 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 187 


in a very agreeable and popular style; but there is a want of 
precise numerical data, which we trust Mr. Audubon’s forth- 
coming volume will amply supply ; in the mean time the follow- 
ing pages, containing the chief statements made in the works 
referred to, will give some idea of the question as it now stands. 

The primary object of the migration of birds is generally allowed 
to be the obtaining a due supply of proper food in the various 
seasons of the year; and it is to be observed that in many 
cases the parents at the epoch of reproduction, and their callow 
young, require a very different kind of nourishment from that 
which the species subsists upon at other times; thus many, if 
not most of the hard-billed granivorous birds, feed their un- 
fledged brood on soft insects and grubs. 

Three lines of route, marked out by the physical features of 
the land, are pursued by the bands of migrating birds in their 
course through North America; some species retiring on the 
approach of winter through the eastern states and the peninsula 
of Florida to the West Indies; others passing down the great 
valley of the Mississippi to the Texas and eastern Mexico ; and 
others again keeping to the westward of the Rocky Mountains, 
and entering the tropical regions by the shores of the Pacific. 
Some more widely-diffused species pursue all the three routes ; 
while others, hitherto detected only in a single tract in the 
southerly part of their journey, spread from one side of the con- 
tinent to the other as they approach their breeding quarters on 
the confines of the arctic circle. Many birds, and more espe- 
cially the soft-billed waders, make their flight northwards in the 
higher latitudes through a different zone of country from that 
which they traverse on their return southwards, being influenced 
in this matter by the different conditions of the surface in 
spring and fall. 

The short duration of summer within the arctic circle, taken 
in connexion with the time necessary to complete the process 
of incubation, the growth of plumage, and, in the case of the 
anatide, the moulting of the parent birds, serves to limit the 
northern range of the feathered tribes. The waders, which seldom 
make a nest, and the water-birds, which lay their eggs among 
their own down, and obtain their food on the sea or open lakes 
when the land is covered with snow, breed farthest north. 
The ptarmigans, which breed in very high latitudes, and moult 
during the season of re-production, migrate only for a short dis- 
tance, and by easy flights; and, their food moreover being the 
buds or tips of willows and dwarf birch, can be obtained amidst 
the snow. When we consider that at the northern extremity of 
the American continent, and on the islands beyond it, the sum- 


188 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


mer heat is already on the decline before the country is even 
partially denuded of its wintry mantle, we should scarcely ex- 
pect to find any granivorous birds feeding in such high lati- 
tudes ; but, in fact, by an admirable provision, springing from 
the peculiar severity of the climate, the snow-buntings and Lap- 
land finches are furnished with food on their first arrival, when 
the patches of cleared land are scarcely larger than what suffices 
for the reception of their eggs. In the polar regions, the au- 
tumnal frosts set in so severely and suddenly that the pro- 
cess of vegetation is at once arrested, and the grass-culms, in- 
stead of whitening and withering as they do more to the south- 
ward, are preserved full of sap until the spring, the seeds re- 
maining firmly fixed in their glumes; when the ground is pre- 
pared for their reception by the melting suow, the seeds fall, 
and in a few days, under the influence of continuous light, a 
brilliant, though short-lived, verdure gladdens the eye. These 
grass-seeds, then, and the berries of several vaccinee, empetree, 
&c., which remain plump and juicy till the spring, yield food to 
the birds on their first arrival ; and by the time that the young 
are hatched, their wants are supplied by the further melting 
of the snow liberating the larve of many insects. The nata- 
tores, which feed at sea, find open water early enough for their 
purpose, and it is interesting to observe how well even the 
freshwater anatide (the majority of which breed in high lati- 
tudes) are provided for. Long before the ice of the small lakes 
gives way it is flooded to the depth of several feet with melted 
snow, that swarms with myriads of the larve of gnats and 
other insects on which the ducks feed. The more herbivorous 
of the duck-tribe, viz., the geese, feed much on berries in their 
migrations ; in the spring, before the sprouting of the tender 
grass, which they like, we find their crops filled with the shi- 
ning, white, dry fruit of the eleagnus argentea; and in the au- 
tumn, when they cross the barren grounds, they banquet at 
their halting-places on the juicy berries of the vaccinium 
uliginosum, vitis idea, or empetrum nigrum, which dye their 
crops a deep purple colour. These and other capabilities 
of the lands on the confines of the arctic circle account for 
so many birds entering the arctic fauna. The numbers of 
the falconide and strigide are of course proportioned to the 
abundance of smaller birds and rodent animals on which they 
feed. 

It may be considered as a general rule, that the number of 
species of birds which enter the faunz of successive parallels of 
latitude, diminishes gradually as we advance from the tropics 
towards the poles; but if we deduct the birds of passage and 


et 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 189 


accidental visiters, and conclude with some authors that the 
species properly belonging to a district are only those which breed 
within its limits, we shall then find that in North America the 
number of breeding birds increases as we go northwards, up to 
the 62nd degree of latitude, where the woods begin to thin off. 
Even on the verge of the barren grounds, near to the arctic 
circle, as many species breed as in the neighbourhood of Phila- 
delphia, though in the latter locality some birds rear two or 
more broods in a season, which is not the case in the north. 
The Prince of Musignano states the number which hatch near 
Philadelphia, near the 40th parallel, at 113, while fourteen de- 
grees farther north, at Carlton-house, on the Saskatchewan, the 
number amounts to 149, and the difference would no doubt be 
greater in favour of the latter place were its ornithology more 
thoroughly investigated ; but all the species included in our 
estimate were detected in the course of a single spring by Mr. 
Drummond and myself. 

The amount of species which reside the whole year in any 
one place has no direct relation to the numbers which breed 
there, but is regulated chiefly by the winter temperatures, or, in 
Humboldt’s phrase, by the course of the isocheimal lines; and 
it seems evident that it is the diminution of supplies of food, 
and not the mere sensation of cold, which occasions birds to 
migrate from the high latitudes on the approach of winter. 
After the spring movement, the feathered tribes are often ex- 
posed in the fur countries to much lower temperatures than had 
occurred before their departure in autumn; and the eagle and 
other kinds which soar above the summits of the highest moun- 
tains, do not appear to be inconvenienced by the rapid change 
of climate to which they thus subject themselves. All the 
birds which feed on winged and terrestrial insects and worms, 
such as the fly-catchers, vireos, and warblers, must migrate 
from the northern regions, as well as most of the aquatic and 
piscivorous tribes, the suctorial tenuirostres, and all the gralla- 
tores, which thrust their bills into soft spungy soil in search of 
food. The wood-peckers, though insectivorous, are more sta- 
tionary, because the larve of the xylophagous beetles, on which 
they subsist, lodging in trees, are as accessible in winter as in 
summer; but the colaptes awratus, which feeds mostly upon 
ants, and the picus varius quit the snow-clad fur-countries in 
winter, while they are permanent residents in the more southern 
districts. 

The only bird seen at Melville Island, in latitude 75° N., 
during winter was a white one, supposed to be the strix nyctea, 
or it may have been a wandering falco islandicus, both these 


OP Aa 


190 SIXTH REPORT—1S836. 


birds preying on small quadrupeds. In the pools of water 
which remain open all the year in the arctic seas, the wria grylle 
and Brunnichii are to be found at the coldest periods, the al- 
cade, consequently, are the most northerly winterers. Many 
individuals, however, of the species just named go far south in 
the winter season, and it has been observed that the old birds 
remain nearer the breeding stations, while the young seek their 
food further afield. This has been ascertained also of birds be- 
longing to other families, and more especially of the falconide 
and laride, probably because their young are more readily 
known by their peculiar plumage. In the extreme northern 
parts of the continent the winter residents are the falco islandi- 
cus and peregrinus, strix nyctea and funerea, and the raven, all 
birds of prey, the linaria borealis, which in the winter time 
inhabits dwarf birch or willow thickets, and picks up a subsist- 
ence from the grass-spikes that overtop the snow, and the 
ptarmigan, whose mode of feeding has already been alluded to. 
The strix lapponicaor cinereaand virginiana, corvus canadensis, 
tetrao canadensis, and picus tridactylus, inhabit the woods all 
the year up to their northern termination. The tetrao cana- 
densis feeds on the evergreen leaves of the spruce-fir, and the 
corvus canadensis, which is omnivorous, is one of the few birds 
which lays up food for times of scarcity. As we proceed farther 
southwards, to the banks of the Saskatchewan for instance, we 
find large bands of willow ptarmigan (¢etrao saliceti), which 
have left their breeding-quarters in the north to winter there, 
and the ¢etrao phasianellus and umbellus, which are perma- 
nent residents, also one or two species of parus, some addi- 
tional woodpeckers, two loxie, the pyrrhula enucleator, the 
corvus cristatus, and two additional owls. The emberiza ni- 
valis, which breeds between the 65th and 75th parallels, spends 
most of the winter on the Saskatchewan, being seldom absent 
more than two or three weeks in the severest weather, at which 
time it retires to the confines of the United States. 

In the neighbourhood of Philadelphia we find 44 permanently 
resident birds, and 71 which come from the north to winter 
there, making together 115 winterers in that locality ; in sum- 
mer the 44 residents are joined by 74 species from the south, 
which breed in Pennsylvania, making in the aggregate 118 
breeders ; the rest of the birds enumerated in the Philadelphian 
fauna by the Prince of Musignano consist of 48 species, which 
merely pass through the district in spring and fall, on their 
way from their southern winter-quarters to their breeding- 
places in the north; the amount of species, residents and visit- 
ers, in that district being 281. Dr. Emmons enumerates 241 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 191 


species in his list of Massachusetts birds, 126 of which breed 
within the limits of the state*. Out of: 208 which were de- 
tected by us on the Saskatchewan, 146 species breed there, 
while the permanent residents and winter visiters do not exceed 
25 or 30 species. 

The following table, which is compiled from the Prince of 
Musignano’s ‘ Specchio comparativo’, Dr. Emmons’s list, 
and the Hauna horeali-americana, indicates the number of 
species that breed in three distant localities, the permanent 
residents, and those which come from the south in summer to 
breed being included in this number. A second column un- 
der each head comprises both the birds of passage and ac- 
cidental visiters, these two classes not being easily distin- 
guished in the present state of our knowledge of North Ameri- 
can ornithology. A few observations on the several families 
follow the table. 


Philadel- || Massachu-|| Saskatche- Philadel. || Massachu- || Saskatche- 
phia. setts. wan. phia. setts. wan. 
Lat. 40° N. ||Lat. 423° N.| Lat. 54° N Lat. 40° N.|| Lat. 423° N.|/ Lat. 54° N. 
Families. a cea ae Families. Se 
ol so Py Lo} 
[=<] Ay fQ Py Q Aa 
Vulturide ... ALS] Fyeeaen|lP orwrall] Phares 1 Columbide..| 2 | ... 1 1 1 
Falconide ... 10 8 | 12} 11 3 Payonide ...| 1]... a PLR eul ees. 
(Strigide ...... 6) 7} 3] 9} 1 Tetraonide..| 2] 1] 3 5 
‘Laniade ...... 2 5 2 8]... Tantalide ...| ... OPP ees 1 
Sin Se 5 | 6 2 Ardeide......| 8 4 5 2 2 
5 1} 3 Scolopacide.| 6 | 19 7 | 15 || 11 
4 a) 1 Rallidz ...... 3 3 2 3 2 
4 ea] Charadriade.| 4 | 4 5 3 3 
decate 2 Gullvows : 
rss 7 8 | ... | Anatide.........| 3 | 28 219 || 14 
6 6 | ... | Colymbidze......| °... 6 pe 6 
2 Geel lites Wp) Allcadze Toes ceees sx, 5 3 
5 2 Pelecanide......| .. ; 7 2 3 
1 1 Laride .....+... 4/10 8 4 6 
1 1 
7 4 
2 2 


Rapaces.—The vulturide, as we have already mentioned, 
belong properly to the warm latitudes. Four of the five which 


“\ * List of the birds of Massachusetts, prepared by order of the State Legisla- 
G ture. By Ebenezer Emmons, M.D. . 
+ The inland situation of Cumberland and Carlton-houses on the Saskatche- 
wan excludes the alcadz from their fauna. 


192 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


enter North America are accordingly much more abundant to 
the south of the isthmus of Darien, and one only (cathartes 
aura) breeds as far north on the coast as Pennsylvania; in the 
interior this species reaches the 54th degree of latitude, but it 
is not known to breed there. Of the falconide named in our 
list, twelve range to South America, or have their head-quarters 
there, and as many have been detected in Mexico, where they are 
chiefly winter visiters, while the number that breed on the Sas- 
katchewan is twice as great as in Pennsylvania: only two (pere- 
grinus and islandicus), and these are of the typical group, win- 
ter in the fur-countries. The strigide are very partially migra- 
tory: otus and brachyotus, the only species which quit the 
fur-countries in winter, are resident all the year in the United 
States. Five of the North American owls belong also to the 
South American fauna. 

Insessores, Dentirostres.—With a very few exceptions, con- 
fined, or nearly so, to the typical genus /anius, all the North Ame- 
rican laniade@ retire in winter to Mexico, the West Indies, or 
South America, agreeing in this respect with the fly-catching sy/- 
viade, which they so closely resemble in their manner of taking 
their prey ; the tyrannule especially are numerous in Mexico. 
The merulide wholly quit the fur-countries in winter, and all of 
them extend their migrations to Mexico, the West Indies, or 
South America, though detachments of some species, as merula 
migratoria, orpheus polyglottus, rufus, and felivox remain with- 
in the United States all the year: South Carolina is stated by the 
Rev. Mr. Bachman to be the most northerly winter range of 
the last-mentioned bird. The breeding-range of birds of this 
genus is very extensive; eight species perform that function 
in all parts of the United States, most of them going as high as 
the Saskatchewan. The merula migratoria is known to breed 
from North Carolina to the Arctic Sea; cinclus americanus 
and orpheus nevius breed in the higher latitudes only. Mr. 
Swainson has remarked of the American sylviade that they 
have their head-quarters in Mexico, and that while few species 
migrate towards South America, many go northwards on the 
approach of summer*. It is true that the Mexican fauna in- 


* The Rev. Mr. Bachman, speaking of the neighbourhood of Charlestown, 
says, ‘ The yellow-crowned warbler (sylvia coronata) is the only sylvia out of 
fifty species inhabiting the United States that remains with us in winter; and 
even this bird could not find subsistence in that season were it not that it 
almost changes its nature and lives on the fruit of the candle-berry myrtle 
(myrica cerifera). This is also the case with the only fly-catcher that winters 
in Carolina, viz., the peewee (tyrannula fusca), which sometimes fattens on the 
seeds of the imported tallow-tree (stylingia cerifera). 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 193 


cludes many birds of this family, but many of them are hatched 
in the higher latitudes, to which, therefore, we consider them 
as properly belonging. Comparatively a small number spend 
_ the winter within the United States, more than half have been 
ascertained to enter the West India islands or Mexico, yet only 
one (the setophaga ruticilla) is known to pass the isthmus of 
Darien, so that there are few families in which the distinction 
between the North and South Ameriean faunz are so evident. 
Of the few ampelide which belong to the North American 
fauna, bombycilia carolinensis and vireo Bartramit are known 
to visit South America. Bombycilla garrula breeds at the 
northern extremity of the continent, among. the woods which 
skirt the Mackenzie ; but its winter retreats are still unknown, 
though they are most probably in the Mexican cordilleras. 
Insessores, Conirostres.—The fringillide is another family 
of which few species pass the isthmus of Darien from the 
northern continent; the pyranga ludoviciana, which attains 
the 42nd parallel in the interior prairies, and saltator rufiven- 
tris, which reaches the 36th on the coast of the Pacific, are the 
only ones common to the United States and South America, 
The euphonejacarina, also, and most probably some other Mexi- 
can species, enter the southern fauna. Many of the fringillide 
that breed in the high latitudes winter within the United 
States; some go to Mexico, and a few to the West Indies. 
The emberiza nivalis builds its nest on the most northern lands 
that have been visited, and the alauda alpestris and emberiza lap- 
ponica, likewise breed onthe arctie coasts. The corvide are com- 
paratively little migratory, and the majority inhabit limited 
districts of country, though two or three species are very 
widely distributed ; none which enter the North American fauna 
are known to pass the isthmus of Darien. The sturnide, on 
the other hand, form a closer bond of union between the inter - 
tropical and northern faune; nearly all the North American 
species winter in Mexico or the West Indies, one, the icterws 
spurius, ranging as far south as Cayenne. ‘The southern parts 
of the United States, however, are within the limits of the 
winter-quarters of molothrus pecoris, scolecophagus ferrugi- 
neus and quiscalus major, and versicolor. As cultivation ad- 
vances in the fur-countries, the sturnide attract every year. 
more and more the attention of the settlers on account of the 
havock they make in the corn-fields; but we are not prepared 
to assert that the range of this family of birds nortliwards is 
determined by the progress of agriculture. I am rather in- 
clined to suppose that some individuals of the different species 
have always resorted to those latitudes to feed on the wild rice 
VOL. v.—1836. oO 


194 SIXTH REPORT— 1836. 


(zizania) and other grass-seeds, but remained unnoticed in the 
marshes, until the labours of the husbandman providing them a 
more abundant repast, they made their appearance in the vici- 
nity of the fur-posts. Mr. King, in his narrative of Captain 
Back’s expedition, mentions that a flock of scolecophagus ferru- 
gineus continued feeding on the offal of a fishery on Great Slave 
Lake, lat. 603°, until late in December. 

Insessores, Scansores.—The picide, or typical family of the 
scansores, are, as we have already mentioned, mostly residen- 
tiary, yet some of the species are distributed over forty de- 
grees of latitude. In such cases, many individuals of a species 
may seek a more southern residence in winter, though the fact 
cannot be ascertained by consulting ornithological works, in 
which the migration of a bird is seldom noticed, unless it 
takes place in large flocks or entirely deserts the district ; but 
it is undoubtedly true that near the northern limits of a resident 
species, the individuals are more numerous in summer than in 
winter. None of the North American picide have been de- 
tected in South America. The cuculide do not go to the north- 
ward of the valley of the St. Lawrence, only one species at- 
taining that parallel; the majority of them certainly, perhaps 
the whole, are common to South America also. The certhiade 
abound in Mexico, and none of them go far north. The troglo- 
dytes furvus, or aédon, which has the highest range, extends 
also furthest to the south, the species, according to the Prince 
of Musignano, being precisely the same in Surinam. 

Insessores, Tenuirostres.—Of the trochilide, the only family 
of the tenuirostral tribe which detaches species northwards from 
Mexico, the eynanthus colubris breeds as high as the 57th pa- 
rallel, on the eastern declivity of the Rocky mountains. The 
trochilus anna, according to Lesson, goes equally high on the 
coast of the Pacific, and Eschscholtz informs us that the frochilus 
rufus reaches the 61st degree of latitude on the same shore. 
The lampornis mango, a Brazilian species, has been detected 
recently on the peninsula of Florida in the 25th parallel, and the 
Reverend Mr. Bachman supposes that it is attracted thither 
by certain tubular flowers, lately introduced into the gardens 
in that quarter. This beautiful family of birds is numerous 
in Mexico, the physical conditions of that country ensu- 
ring them a.constant succession of tubular flowers by short mi- 
grations from the low tierras calientes, which enjoy a tropical 
heat in winter, to the elevated plains and mountains as_ spring 
advances. Lichtenstein informs us that many of the Mexican 
humming birds pass the summer near the snow line, thus ob- 
taining by a comparatively short flight a change of climate, which 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 195 


their congeners above-named seek by traversing many degrees 
of latitude. Captain King observed some humming birds ho- 
vering over the fuschie, which grow plentifully in the Straits of 
Magalhaes, the ground being at the time covered withsnow. 

Insessores, Fissirostres.—The only species of the halcyonide 
which enters North America, is universally distributed from 
Louisiana up to the 68th parallel: its winter being spent in the 
southern parts of the United States and in the West Indies. 
Few birds have given rise to more speculation than the swallows. 
Marvellous stories of their hybernating in caverns or at the bot- 
toms of lakes, were believed even recently by naturalists of repu- 
tation, yet there is scarcely a seaman, accustomed to navigate 
the Mediterranean, who has not seen these birds migrating in 
large flocks to or from the coast of Africa, accompanied by pre- 
dacious birds of various kinds. Mr. Audubon has skilfully 
availed himself of the great facilities which America offers for 
tracing the migrations of birds, so as to put to rest for ever the 
question of the hybernation of swallows. From his investiga- 
tions, we are assured that the Airundo bicolor winters in the 
neighbourhood of New Orleans, where it roosts at night in 
hollow trees. Mr. Bachman also states, that this bird appears 
in the neighbourhood of Charlestown in winter after a few 
successive warm days. The other species winter in Mexico and 
the West Indies ; and the hirundo purpureaand riparia, which 
extend in summer to the northern extremity of the continent, 
have a range southwards to the Brazils ; the former it is stated 
by the Reverend Mr. Bachman breeding in the latter locality 
during the winter of the northern hemisphere. A conjecture 
that some species of birds might breed twice in the year in dif- 
ferent climates was hazarded in the introduction to the Fauna 
boreali-americana, but I am not aware of any direct testimony 
to that effect having been adduced prior to the publication of 
Mr. Bachman’s paper. The caprimulgide winter to the south- 
ward of the United States. 

Rasores.—This is the least migratory of all the orders of 
birds, yet the species are in general readily acclimated in lati- 
tudes remote from their native haunts, and in fact it is from 
these birds that man derives the greatest advantage in his do- 
mestic economy. Ourcommon poultry were originally brought 
from warmer regions, and this furnishes another evidence of 
abundance’ of proper food being more important than the tem- 
‘perature of the atmosphere in regulating the distribution of the 
feathered tribes, the dense covering of their bodies protecting 
them well from the severity of northern winters. There is, 
‘however, a limit to the range of each species, and it is found 

o 2 


196 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


that poultry thrive best in our climates when their coops are 
artificially heated in winter. The tetraonide are comparatively 
inhabitants of cold countries, and the ptarmigans, which are the 
most northern of all, are almost the only migratory ones. Most 
of these birds quit the bleak arctic barren lands in which they 
are bred, and retire in winter to the verge of the woods, return- 
ing, however, very early in spring to their former haunts, or as 
soon as the decreasing snow has released the tops of the dwarf 
birches and willows on which they feed, and the crests of a few 
gravelly banks. The passenger pigeon migrates northwards to 
the 62nd parallel, after its breeding season in the United States 
has terminated; through stress of weather individuals have 
been driven very far north, an instance being recorded by 
Sir John Ross, of the capture of one on the coast of Greenland. 
This pigeon visits Carolina in the winter at long and uncertain 
intervals, its arrival being determined, according to the Reve- 
rend Mr. Bachman, not by the severity of the season, but by the 
scarcity of food to the north: when beech mast is plentiful in 
Canada, it remains there in immense multitudes all the winter. 
The grallatores are directly opposed to the rasores in being 
the most migratory order of birds. The scolopacide and seve- 
ral species of the other families breed in high latitudes, yet they 
winter within the tropics. In their migrations through the fur 
countries they pursue different routes in the spring and fall: thus 
at the time of the northern movement, the lateness of the summer 
on the coast of Hudson’s Bay, and the quantity of ice which 
hangs on its shores till late in the year, exclude from that quarter 
the barges, snipes, and curlews which therefore pass by the inte- 
rior prairies, where the melting snow has rendered the soil soft 
and spungy. In autumn again the prairies having been ex- 
posed to the action of a hot and generally very dry summer, are 
comparatively arid, but the late thaws on the coast flood the 
neighbouring flats even in August and September, and it is there 
accordingly that the soft-billed waders pass a month or six 
weeks on their way from their arctic breeding stations to 
the moist intertropical lands. The marshes and sand-banks in the 
estuaries of Hay, Nelson, Severn, and Moose rivers are resorted 
to in the fall of the year by immense fiocks of strand birds. 
The following herons are stated by the Reverend Mr. Bachman 
to breed in Carolina, ardea herodias, ludoviciana, candidissima, 
rufescens, ceerulea, virescens, nycticorax, violacea, and exilis. 
Natateres.—The great majority of North American birds be- 
longing to this order, breed to the north of the valley of the 
St. Lawrence, and are merely winterers or birds of passage in 
the middle states. The lakes of Mexico are the chief winter 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 197 


resort of the anatide. The anas boschas has been found breed- 
ing from the lower part of the Mississippi up to the extremity 
of the continent, but in greatest abundance beyond the 50th 
parallel; and the anser canadensis from the 44th parallel to an 
equally high latitude, being also however most numerous in the 
fur countries. The rest of the geese and many of the ducks 
breed only within the arctic circle. The eider and king-ducks 
remain at sea in the high latitudes all the winter, the young only 
going southwards to the coast of Labrador and the United 
States. No others of the family winter higher than the 50th 
parallel in America, though several species remain at that season 
in Europe as high as the 60th degree of latitude. 

The Reverend Mr. Bachman has made some observations on 
the effect of cultivation in influencing the movements of birds, 
but we think that he goes too far when he attributes the recent 
discovery of many new species within the limits of the United 
States solely to the changes produced in the face of the country, 
for the more general diffusion of accurate ornithological know- 
ledge ought not to be overlooked. Thus among the examples 
of birds formerly rare but now common in the middle states, 
he quotes hirundo lunifrons, but this, (if identical with fulva, 
which is generally admitted,) was taken by Vieillot on the coast 
of New York, many years before the history compiled by Go- 
vernor Clinton supposes it to have reached that state in its 
gradual advance from the interior; and the aborigines of the 
more northern countries have no tradition of a time when it did 
not breed on the perpendicular faces of their rocks. ‘The sin- 
gularity in its history is, that it should have so very recently 
begun to quit the rocks and to put itself under the protection 
of man, by building its nests under the eaves of houses. Zy- 
rannus borealis (muscicapa Cooperii of Nuttall), vireo solitarius 
and ¢ringa himantopus, also newly detected in the United States, 
breed in the uncultivated wastes of the fur countries. 

The migration of the feathered tribes from the “ téerras 
calientes”’ of the Mexican coast to the interior elevated plains 
and peaks, ‘ ¢ierras templadas y frias,” presents within a 
smaller geographical range, as we have noticed in speaking of 
the humming birds, all the phenomena that take place in the 
miendes flights from the intertropical regions to the arctic so- 

itudes. : 


REPTILIA. 


Catesby figured a portion of the North American animals of 
this class, but we are indebted to the labours of living naturalists 


198 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


for the discovery of many more. These are described in the 
** Philadelphia Journal of Natural Sciences,’’ the “ Lyceum of 
Natural History of New York,” “ Silliman’s Journal,” and 
other periodical works, the chief writers being Messieurs Green, 
Say, Harlan, and Gilliams. A summary of the whole is con- 
tained in a paper by Dr. Harlan, entitled “‘ Genera of North 
American Reptilia (including Amphibia), and a synopsis of the 
species,” read in 1826 before the Philadelphia Academy, and 
subsequently reprinted, in a separate form with some alterations. 
Still more recently Dr. Holbrook of Charlestown has com- 
menced a ‘ North American Herpetology,’ which is to be 
completed in four quarto numbers, each containing from 20 to 
30 coloured engravings and 200 pages of letter press. Wieg- 
mann has also published a volume of his “* Herpetologia Mexi- 
cana,” embracing both reptilia and amphibia, having previously 
described many species in the Isis. 

The warm, moist atmosphere of tropical America is very 
favourable to the existence of reptilia, which are more numerous 
there than in any other quarter of the world; and they occur 
even in North America, in much greater numbers and variety 
than in Europe. In the present imperfect state of North 
American herpetology, it would serve little purpose to attempt 
a formal disquisition on the distribution of the reptiles of that 
country, or to compare their numbers with those existing in 
the European zoological province, especially as these tasks may 
be performed with so much more success, when we become ac- 
quainted with the labours of Holbrook and Wiegmann. In the 
mean time we shall merely offer a few brief remarks. With the 
exception, perhaps, of one or two species of sea-turtles, none 
either of the reptilia or amphibia are common to the New and 
Old World; and it will be observed that the reptilia, though 
fewer in number in Europe, attain higher latitudes there than 
in North America. An emys inhabits the river Winipec in the 
latter country in the 50th parallel, but the emys Huropea goes 
some degrees further north in Prussia. The crocodilus acutus, 
which resembles the crocodile of the Nile so closely as to have 
been even mistaken for it, keeps within the trupics ; it is an 
inhabitant of the West Indies and also of the Spanish Main, but 
to no great distance from the equator, for Humboldt believes that 
its northern limit is the peninsula of Yuccatan or the southern 
part of Mexico. Now, though crocodiles do not in the present 
day descend the Nile lower than Upper Egypt, they formerly 
inhabited the Delta at the mouth of that river, lying under the 
314° degree of latitude, where they were wont to pass the three 
winter months in burrows. In this respect they resemble the 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 199 


alligator lucius or Mississippiensis, which attains the 323° N. 
latitude, and in Georgia and Carolina winters in burrows. 
The ophidia swarm in the humid equatorial districts of Ame- 
rica, but disappear on the acclivities of the Cordilleras, at 
an altitude of 6000 feet, and a mean annual temperature of 
64°F, In the fur countries they reach the 55th parallel where 
the mean heat is about the freezing point, but where the tem~- 
perature of the three summer months, during which only the 
serpents are visible, is at least 66° F. and very little infevior to 
the summer heat of the Mexican table lands. In Europe the 
isothermal line of 32° passes through the North Cape (lat. 71° 
104' N.), and we find accordingly that some serpents (as the 
coluber berus) reach Norway. In like manner lizards (lacerta 
ocellata) exist in Kamtschatka and Sweden, though none of the 
saurians pass to the north of the 50th parallel in America. The 
following is a list of the genera of European and Egyptian rep- 
tiles, with the number of species noticed in Mr. Gray's synop- 
sis, or the Reene animalgiven for the purpose of comparison with 
the subjoined table of North American ones. European rep- 
tiles: Chelonia.—Testudo 2; cistudo 1; emys 1; trionyx 1; 
sphargis 3. Emydosauri.—Crocodili 2. Saurit.—Monitor 2 ; 
lacerta 14; psammodromus 1; algyral. Geckotide.—Platy- 
dactylus 2; stenodactylus 1; thecodactylus 2; hemidactylus 2. 
Iguanide.—Agame 6. Scincide.—Scincus 1; tiliqua 2; 
anguis 1. Zonuride.—Ophiosaurus 1. Ophidia.—Trigonoce- 
phalus 2; vipera 1; berus 2; pelias 1; echis 1; naia 1; tro- 
pidonotus 5; coluber 6; coronella 3; dendrophis 1. 


Oxss.—The following list of American repéilia is compiled 
chiefly from Mr. Gray’s synopsis in Griffith’s translation of 
Cuvier, and will appear meagre and inaccurate after the publi- 
cation of Wiegmann’s and Holbrook’s works. Species which do 
not range north of Mexico are in Italics. 


Ord. I. CHELONIA. Emys concentrica, Scuapr. 15. 
»  reticularia, Daun. 23, 3. 
Fam. TESTUDINIDE. »  Vittata, 


»  decussata, 
» Scripta, Scue@pr. 3, 5, 
» serrata, 


Testudo polyphemus, Bartr. 18. 


Fam. Emypx. y Troost, Hots. 4. 

Cistudo carolina, Hots. 1. »  LeSueurii, Gray. : 
Emys Muhlenbergii, In. 5. Kinosternon triporcatum, Wire. 15. Mex. 
»  guttata, Scne@rr. 31. »  scorpioides, SHAW, 15. Mew. 

»  punctata, Hows. 4. »  pennsylvanicum, Epw. 287. 
» picta, Scuepr. 5, »  odoratum, Daun. 24, 3. 


» speciosa, In, Chelydva serpentina, Scuerr, 6, 


200 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Fam. TRIONYCHIDE. 


Trionyx ferox, Scu@pr. 19, 12, 3. 
»  muticus, Le Surur. Mem. Mus. 
Loe ted ds 


Fam. CHELoNIADz. 


Sphargis imbricata, Scu@pr. 18, a. 
»  mydas, Ip. 17, 1. 
» Caretta, Ip. 16. 


Ord. 11. EMYDOSAURIL. 


Fam. CrocoDiLip&. 


Crocodilus rhombifer, Wine. W.Ind. Mex. 
Alligator lucius, Cuv. dn. Mus, X. Georg. 
Mississ. 


Ord. Ill. AMPHISBAINLZE. 


Chirotes lumbricoides, Lacrr. 41. Mew. 


Ord. 1V. SAURII. 


Holoderma horridum, Wacurr, 2, 18. 
Mex. 


Fam. GEcKOTID®. 


Platydactylus americanus, Gray. New 
York. 


Fam. IGUANIDE. 


Iguana tuberculata, Sv1x. 6, 8. S. dm. 
Mex. 

Amblyrhynchus cristatus, Wine. Mex. 

Ctenosaura cycluroides, Winc. Mex. 

»  cyclura, Cuv. Carol. 

Cyclura carinata, Haru. Ph. de. Se. 4, 15. 
Bahamas. 

» teres, Ip. Tampico. 

»  pectinata, Wrec. Mex. 

»  articulata, Ip. Mex. 

5  denticulata, tv. Mex. 
Lemanctus longipes, Wine. Mex. 
Ophyessa umbra, Daun. Calif. 
Scelephorus undulatus, Wree. U. Sé. 

»  torquatus, Wree. Isis, 21. Mex. 

» formosus, WrEG. Mew. 

»  Spinosus, Ip. Mex. 

»  horridus, Iv. Mex. 

» grammicus, Ip. Mex. 

5, microlepidotus, Ip. Mex. 

»  variabilis, Ip. Mex. 

»  @neus, Iv. Mex. 

»  sealaris, Ip. Mex. 

»  pleurostictus, Ip. Mea. 
Phrynosoma Douglasii, Bex. Lin. Tr. 

N. Calif. 


Phrynosoma cornutum, Hart. de. Se, Ph. 
20. Western prairies. 
»  orbiculare, Wiec. Mex. 
Chamelopsis Hernandesii, Wine. Mew. 
Anolius podargicus, Car. 66. Hors. 7. 


Carol. 

»,  bimaculatus, W. Ind. U. S. 

» bullaris, Lacur. 27. W. Ind. 
Mex. 


»  nebulosus, Wiec. Mex. 
»  leviventris, Winc. Mee. 
»  biporcatus, Ip. Mew. 

»  Sehiedii, ln. Mex. 


Fam. Trip. 


Ameiva ceeruleocephala, Sxsa. 91, 3. 
»  tessellata, Say. Long. Exp. Ark. 
»  collaris, lb. drk. 
Cnemidophorus undulatus, Wine. Mex. 
»  Deppii, In. Mex. 
»  Sackii, Ip. Mex. 
»  guttatus, Ip. Mex. 


Fan. Scincip2. 


Tiliqua quinquelineata, Car. 67. Mew. 
(Wree.) Carol. 

erythrocephala, Gruu. de.Se.Phil. 
1, 18, 2. 

lateralis, Say. House. 8. West. st. 

bicolor, Harv. Ac. Se. Phil. 4, 
18, 1. 

Bipes anguinus, Ip. Zc. 4, 10. f. 1. Carol. 

Corythaelus vittatus, Wrec. Mew. 


” 


” 
” 


Fan. Zonuripz. 


Gerrhonotus Deppii, Wee. Is. 21. Mew. 
imbricatus, Ip. 1. c. Mex. 
leiocephalus, Ip. 1 c. Mew. 
teniatus, Ip. 1. c. Mex. 
tessellatus, Ip. 1. c. Mex. 

»  rudicollis, Ip. 1. ¢. Mex. 
Ophisaurus ventralis, Car. 59. U. 8. 


Ord. V. OPHIDIA. 
Crotalus horridus, Cat. 41. S. 4m. Mev. 
U.S. 


durissus, Sprx. 24. S. dm.—45° N. 
miliaris, Car. 42. Carol. 
tergeminus, Say. West. st. 
confluentis, Ip. R. Mount. 

,  triseriatus, Wine. Mew. 

Cenchris mockeson, Car. 45. 

Tisiphone Shausii, Gray. S. dm. Carol. 

Trigonocephalus cacodema, Car. 44. Ca- 

rol. 

Seytale piscivorus, HARu. 

»  cupreus, Ip. 
Heterodon constrictor, Car. 76. Carol. 


™ | wey 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 201 


Tropidinotus porcatus, Car, 46. Carol. 


»  ordinatus, Cat. 53. Carol. & R. 


Mount. 

»  proximus, Say. Missouri. 
»  parietalis, Ip. Missouri. 
» fasciatus, SHaw. S. St. 
»  sittalis, Penns. . 
»  Ssaurita, Car. 50. S. St. 

sipedon, Haru. Mid. St. 

Coluber punctatus, Lin. 

»  getulus, Car. 52.°S. Carol. 
»  Oobsoletus, Hart. 
»  testaceus, Ip. Missouri. 
»  filiformis, Ip. Carol. 
»  flagelliformis, Ip. Carol. 
»  flaviventris, Ip. Missouri. 
»  Striatulus, Ip. Carol. 


Coluber amcenus, Haru. Penns. 

»  Tigidus, Ip. S. St. 

»  Septemyittatus, Ip. Penns. 

»  coccineus, Ip. Carol. 

»,  estivus, Ip. Carol. 

»  getulus, Ip. Carol. 

»  calligaster, Ip. Missouri. 

» melanoleucas, Ip. N. Jersey. 

»  eximius, Ip. Penns. 

»,  vernalis, Ip. Penns. N. Jers. 

»,  cauda-schistosus, In. 

»  doliatus, Ip. Carol. 

» maculatus, Ip. Louis. 

»  guttatus, Ip. Carol. 

»  molossus, Ip. Carol. 

reticularis, Ip. Louis. 

Xeuodon punctatum, Latr. §. Carol. 


AMPHIBIA. 


Rana. 


Rana pipiens, Car. Mid. St. 
»  Clamitans, Bosc. Ditto. 
»  melanota, Rar. L. Champl. 
» halecina, Cat. Penn. & S. St. 
»  flavi-viridis, Harx. Mid. St. 
» sylvatica, Ip. Ditto. 
» palustris, Ip. Ditto. 
» pumila, Le Conte. 


»  gtyllus, Horsroox. Mor. Mid. St. 


»  nigrita, Le Conte. 
ocellata, SHaw 34. Mex. Florid. 

Hyla lateralis, Car. Surin. Carol. 

» femoralis, Daun. S. St. 

»  squirella, Daun. S. Sé. 

»  delitescens, Lz Conte. Georgia. 

» versicolor, Ip. Mid. & S. St. 
Bufo clamosus, Cart. Ditto. 


»  cognatus, Say. Long’s Exp. Miss. 


»  tuscus, Penn. 


SALAMANDRA. 


Salamandra subviolacea, Car. 10. Penn. 
»  tigrina, GREEN, New Jers. 
-y, Tubra, Daun. 


»  variolata, Gitn1ams, de. Sc. Ph. 


1,18, 1. 
»  cylindracea, Haru. N. Carol. 
»  trontalis, NV. Jers. 


Salamandra fusca, GrrEn. N. Jers. 
» dorsalis, Harr. Carol. 
» picta, Harz. Penn. 
»  Beechii, Gray. 
» maculata, GREEN. UN. Jers. 
»  subfusca, In. Ditto. 
»  longicauda, Ip. Ditto. 
» nigra, Lp. Penn. 
»  fiavissima, Haru. Ditfo. 
»  Greenii, Gray. 
»  erythronota, GREEN. 
»  Cinerea, GREEN. 
»  tasciata, GREEN. 
»  glutinosa, Green. New Jers. 
»  symmetrica, Haru. Carol. 

»  ¢ylindracea, Haru. Carol. 
platydactyla, Cuv. Mex. 
Menobranchus lateralis, Hany. dn. Lye. 

1, 16. Z. Champl. Ohio. 
co alleghaniensis, Say. Griff. Cuv. 
Phyllhydrus pisciformis, SHaw 140. Mex. 
Amphiuma means, dn. Lye. 1, 22. Carol. 
Mex. 
»  tridactylum, Cov. Louis. 
Siren lacertina, Lin. S. St. 
», intermedia, Lz Contr. S. St. 
»  Striatus, Ip. An. Lye. 1, 2. 
Menopoma, gigantea, Haru. dn. Lye. 1, 
17. Ohio 


Note.—in the above list, rana scapularis, Haru., is considered as the young 


of pipiens, and rana gryllus and dorsalis of Le Conte as one species. 


Sala- 


mandra rubriventris, Green, is considered the same with rubra; sinciput- 
albida, GreEN, the same with frontalis ; intermixta, Gremn, the same with 


picta, and variegata of Gray with platydaciylus. 


Salamandra porphyritica, 


Jeffersoniana, ‘and cirrhigera of Harlan’s list, being very doubtful species, are 


omitted. 


202 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Our remarks on the amphibia will be still more brief than on 
the reptiles. Some amphibia are evidently more capable of en- 
during extremes of temperature than the repéilia, and they exist 
in higher latitudes ; frogs and salamanders reaching the 67th 
parallel on the Mackenzie, where the mean temperature is not 
above 7 or 8 degrees of Fahrenheit, and the winter colds some- 
times descend to more than 90° below the freezing point, 
Spallanzani relates that living frogs have been seen in the ther- 
mal baths of Pisa, which have a temperature of 115° F. In the 
fur countries the pools of melting snow swarm with very noisy 
frogs long before the soil is thawed; the office of reproduction 
is performed and the pools dried up by the time that the ice 
of the lakes is dissolved, and before the earth is sufficiently 
warmed to permit the snakes to crawl forth from their subter- 
ranean retreats. The principal genera rana, bufo, hyla, and 
salamandra occur both in Europe and North America. The 
genera siren and menopoma belonging to the latter country, are 
perfectly amphibious, the mature animals possessing both lungs 
and gills, and respiring at pleasure either air or water. The 
only analogous animal of the Old World is the proteus anguinus 
of the lakes of Lower Carniola, and the grotto of Adelsberg, 
between Trieste and Vienna. I observed on the banks of the 
Mackenzie a very singular looking tadpole which swarmed in a 
pool of water in the spring. It was about the size of a man’s 
thumb, and its abdomen was greatly distended with fluid, but 
its integuments were quite transparent, and so tender that they 
burst on the slightest touch. Circumstances did not admit of 
my describing it at the time, and the specimens put into spirits 
were destroyed by accident. 


PISCKES. 


The ichthyology of North America has not hitherto been at- 
tended to as it merits, and the distribution of the species through 
a very large portion of the northern hemisphere is still almost 
unknown. Catesby, Pennant, and Schoepfare the chief author- 
ities of older date, for the introduction of the American fish into 
the systems, but the Linnean genera are so ill adapted for the 
reception of many of the forms peculiar to the New World, 
and the specific descriptions of the old writers are so brief and 
indeterminate, that the labours of these naturalists are often 
altogether unavailable to modern cultivators of science. Le 
Sueur, the most accurate of recent American ichthyologists, has 
described many species in the “ Journal of the Academy of 
Sciences of Philadelphia,’ in the new series of the ‘ Trans- 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 2038 


actions of the Philosophical Society’ of the same city, and in 
the “ Museum d’ Histoire Naturelle” of Paris. Dr. Mitchill 
published a paper on the New York fish in the first volume of 
the ‘* Transactions of the Philosophical Society of New York,” 
but his descriptions are almost always imperfect, and often in- 
accurate, and he has arranged the species without judgement 
in Linnean genera, so that but for the accompanying figures it 
would be difficult to recognise the fish he mentions. Ra- 
finesque-Smaltz gave to the world a crude synopsis of the fish 
of the Ohio, proposing many new genera, but characterising 
them with so little skill, that there is little chance of their beng 
adopted by future naturalists. His species are printed in the 
subjoined lists in italic characters, as being doubtful. The 
third volume of the Fauna boreali-americana is devoted to the 
northern fish, and contains a considerable proportion of the 
species which inhabit the fresh waters of the fur countries: it 
is, however, very deficient in marine fish, and even in the fresh 
water ones of New Caledonia and Canada, owing to the author’s 
attempts to procure specimens from these countries having 
failed. The admirable Histoire des Poissons by Cuvier and 
Valenciennes embraces all the determinable species noticed by 
preceding naturalists, but it has not yet advanced beyond the 
acanthopterygii, the untimely death of its great projector having 
retarded its progress. The arrangement of this work is fol- 
lowed in the subsequent lists of species. In it and in the Régne 
animal 16 families of acanthopterygian fishes are indicated. 
All these families are represented by a greater or smaller num- 
ber of species both in Kurope and America, with the exception 
of the anabasidee, none of which exist in the waters of either 
country ; of the acanthuridee which do not occur in Europe ; 
and of the ¢e@nioidee, which, as restricted in the Histoire des 
Poissons, have not been detected in America. All the families 
_ of malacopterygii and chondropterygii enter the faune of both 
countries, with the exception of the sawrvidee of Agassiz, which 
do not exist in Europe. The only fresh water fish which is 
unequivocally common to the two continents is the common 
pike, (esox lucius,) and it is curious that this fish is unknown 
to the westward of the Rocky Mountains, on the very coast that 
approaches nearest to the old continent. Several other Euro- 
pean fresh water fish occur in the lists given by American ichthy- 
ologists, but more rigid comparisons are required to sanction 
their application of the names. Some of the anadromous sal- 
monoidee and clupeoidee are more likely to be common to both 
sides of the Atlantic, but even these require further investiga- 
tion. The curiosity of naturalists has been considerably ex- 


204 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


cited by the noises which certain fishes have the power of making, 
and some facts are stated in the Histoire des Poissons relating 
to this subject in the ghapters devoted to the cottoidee, scie- 
noidee, &c. Several kinds of fish vulgarly named “‘ grunts ”’ in 
America, possess this faculty in an extraordinary degree, and the 
purpose it is intended to serve, and the manner in which the 
sound is produced, are worthy of investigation by naturalists re- 
siding wherethesefishabound*. Every mariner who hasanchored 
early in the spring on the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, 
or Florida, must have been annoyed by a drumming noise, pro- 
duced in the night, apparently on the bottom of the ship, and 
loud enough to deprive a stranger of rest, until habit las ren- 
dered the sound familiar. This noise is said to be caused by a 
fish of about six pounds weight beating its tail against the vessel 
to relieve itself from the pain caused by multitudes of parasitic 
worms which infest it at that season. 

In dividing the ocean into zoological districts to suit our 
present knowledge of species of fish and their distribution, we 
have found the nine following divisions to be convenient. 
European seas,—North American Atlantic and Arctic sea,— 
Caribbean sea and South American Atlantic, — African Atlantic, 
—Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and Polynesian Sea,—Australian 
seas,—Seas of China and Japan,—Sea of Kamtschatka and 
North-west America,—Pacifie coast. of South America. In a 
preceding part of the Report we stated that Mr. Swainson had 
justly included the North of Africa in the European zoological 
province, as far as birds were concerned, but the case is different 
with the fish. The whole of the Mediterranean fish indeed are 
European, but the fish of the Nile have very little resemblance 
to those of the European rivers, while the same species often 
occur on the coast of Senegal and in the Red Sea. The ana~- 
dromous fish of the Mississippi and its tributaries are very dif- 
ferent from those which enter the North American rivers falling 
into the Atlantic, in the same parallels of latitude. 

As in the preceding lists, the species whose names or history 
‘ are doubtful are printed in italics, as are likewise the Mexican 
fish which do not range further northwards. 


ACANTHOPTERYGIHI. 
Fam. PERcore#. 


Perca flavescens, Cuv. New Y.—L. Huron. | Perca gracilis, Cuv. N. York. 


»  Serrato-granulata, Cuv. N. York. » Plumieri, Cuv. Bahamas. 
»  granulata, Cuv. NV. York. Labrax lineatus, Cuv. N. York. 
» acuta, Cuv. L. Ontario. »  notatus, F. B. A. St Lawr. 


* Vide Avovus. Orn. Biogr. 3, p. 199. 


ON NORTH 


AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 


205 


Labrax mucronatus, Cuy. Carib. Si—N. | Pomotis incisor, Cuv. LZ. Pontchartr. 


- York. 

»  multilineatus, Cuv. Wabash r. 
Pomacampsis nigro-punctata, Rar. Ohio. 
Lucioperca americana, Cuv. 40° N.— 

58° N. 
» canadensis, H.Smiru, Griff. Cur. 
St. Lawr. 
Huro nigricans, Cuv. ZL. Huron. 
Serranus fascicularis, Cuv. Braz.— Carol. 

»  morio, Cuv. N. York. 

»  acutirostris, Cuv. CarolBraz. 
? Benn. San Blas. Pacif. 
Centropristes nigricans, Cuv. WV. York. 

_y trifureus, Cuy. Carol. 
Grystes salmoides, Cuv. Wabash. Rivers 
of Carol. 
Stizostedion salmoneum, Rar. Ohio. 
Centrarchus zneus, Cuy. L. Ontario § 
Huron. 

»  pentacanthus, Cuy. Carol. 

» hexacanthus, Cuy. Carol. 

»  irideus, Cuv. Carol. 

»  gulosus, Cuv. L. Pontchartr. 

» viridis, Cuv. Ditto. 

Pomotis vulgaris, Cuv. Philad.—L.Huron. 

»  Ravenelii, Cuv. Charlestown. 

»  Holbrookii, Cuv. Carol. 


»  gibbosus, Cuv. Carol. 

»  Ssolis, Cuv. L. Pontchartr. 

»,  Catesbei, Cuv. Penns. 
Bryttus punctatus, Cuv. Ohio. 

»  reticulatus, Cuv. Carol. 

»,  unicolor, Cuv. Carol. Penns. 
Ichthelis cyanella, Rar. Ohio. 

yy  melanops, \v. Ohio. 

»  erythrops, Ip. Ohio. 

»  aurita, Ip. Ohio. 

»  megalotis, Ip. Ohio. 
Pomoxis annularis, Ip. Ohio. 
Aplocentris calliops, Rar. Ohio. 
Lepibema chrysops, Rar. Ohio. 
Aphrodederus gibbosus, Lesvrur: LZ. 

Pontch. Penns. 

Trichodon Stelleri, Cuv. Unalasch. Gi- 


LIAMS. 

Holocentrum longipinne, Cuv. Braz.— 
Carol. 

Uranoscopus anoplos, Cuy. Massach. 
SMiTH. 


Sphyreena barracuda, Cuv. Bahamas. 
Polynemus tridigitatus, Cuv. New Y. 
Mircu. 
»,  approximans, Benn. San Blas. 
Upeneus punctatus, Cuv. Caribb. s. Mex, 


Fam. CotroiwEe. 


Trigla pini*, Bu. New Y. Bur bye. 
Prionotus strigatus, Cuv. NV. York. 
»  carolinus, Cuv. N. York. Massach. 
» . tribulus, Cuv. WV. York.—Carol. 
Dactylopterus volitans*, Lac. G. of Mex. 
Newfound. 
Cottus cognatus, F. B. 4. drct. Am.— 
Greenl. ? 
»  gobio* ? Smiru. Massach. 
»  Qquadricornis? Ip. Do. 
» polaris, Sapine, Parry’sIs. 75N°. 
»  hexacornis, F.B,A. Polar sea. 
»  octodecim spinosus, Mircu. Virg. 
—N. York. 
_»  groenlandicus, 7.B.4.95, 2. New/. 
— Greenl. 
.»  polyacanthocephalus, Pay. Cape 
St. Elias. 60° N. 
»  scorpioides, Fapr, Greeni. 
»  Mitchilli, Cuv. N. York. 
s+  @neus, Mitcn. N. York. 
»  porosus, Cuv. Baffin’s Bay. 
pistilliger, Cuv. Unalaschka. 
Aspidophorus europxus*, Cuy. Greenl. 
Mass, SMiru. 


Aspidophorus accipenserinus, Cuv. Una- 
laschka. 
»  monopterygius, Cuv. Green. 
Hemitripterus americanus, Cuv. N. York. 
—Newf. 
Hemilepidotus Tilesii, Cuv. Unalasch.— 
Ochotsk. 
»  asper, F.B.4. 95, 1. Columbia R. 
Temnistia ventricosa, Escu. 13. Norfolk 
sound Pacif. 

Scorpena porcus*, L. N. York.—Europe. 
»  bufo, Cuv. Braz.—Newf. Aun. 
Sebastes norvegicus*,Cuv. New/.— Green. 

»  Variabilis, Cuv. Unalasch. 
Blepsias trilobus, Cuv. NV. W. Coast. 
Gasterosteus concinnus, F.B.A. Arcticdm. 

»»  noveboracensis, Cuv. New Y. 

» niger, Cuv. News. 

»  biaculeatus, Penn. New Y. 

» occidentalis, Cuv. New. 

»  quadracus, Mrrex. NV. York. 

»  apeltes, Lesuzur, U. St. 

»  kakilisak, Fasr. Greenl. 


206 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Fam. Scr2®NoiDE&. 


Otolithus regalis, Cuv. Carrib. s.—N. 
York. 

»  Drummondii, F.B.A4. Texas. 

» carolinensis, Cuv. Carol. 
Corvina argyroleuca, Cov. 

»  Richardsonii, F.B.4.77. L. Huron. 

»  oscula, Cuv. LZ. Ontario. 

» grisea, Le Sueur, de. Se. Ph. 2, 

251. Ohio. 

»  multifasciata, Iv. 1. ce. Florida. 
Lepomis pallida, Rar. Ohio. 

»  trifasciata, Ip. Do. 

»  jflexuolaris, Ip. Do. 

»  salmonea, Ip. Do. 

»,  notata, Ip. Do. 

»  ichtheloides, Ip. Do. 
Leiostoma humeralis, Cuv. Penns.—N. 

York. 

»  xanthurus. Cuv. Carib. s.—Carol. 

Amblodon grunniens, Rar. Ohio. 


Etheostoma calliura, Rar. Ohio. 


» flabellata, Ip. Ohio. 
» nigra, Ip. Ohio. 
»,  blennioides, Ip. Ohio. 
»  eaprodes, Ip. Ohio. 
», fontinalis, Iv. Ohio. 
Umbrina albuma, Cuv. G. of Mexr.— 
N. York. 
Pogonias chromis, Cuv.Montiv.—N. York. 
» fasciatus, Lacep. N. York. 
Pogostoma leucops, Rar. Ohio. 
Micropogon lineatus, Cuv. Montiv.—N. 
ork. 


» undulatus, Cuv. G. of Mex. 
Hemulon arcuatum, Cuv. Carol. 

a chrysopteron, Cuy. N. York. 
Pristipoma fasciatum, Cuv. N. York. 

es rodo, Cuv. N. York. 
Lobotes surinamensis,Cuv.Sur.—WN. York. 


Fam. SPaRoivDE&. 


Sargus ovis, Cuv. G. of Mex.—N. York. 
», Yhomboides, Cuv. Do. Do. 
Chrysophrys aculeata, Car. 31, 2. U. St. 


Pagrus argyrops, Cuv. Carol. N. York. 
Dentex ? Benn. San Blas. Pacif. 


Fan. M&Noive&. 


Gerres aprion, Cuv. Carib. s. Mex.—Carol. 


Fam. CH®TODONTOIDE. 


Ephippus faber, Cuv. WV. York. 
5 gigas, Cuv. Do. 
Holocanthus ciliaris, Lacrer. Mex. Ca- 
rib. s.—Carol. 


Pimelepterus Boscii, Lacrr. Carol. 


ScoMBEROIDE. 
Scomber grex*, } Notacanthus nasus, Cuv. Greenland. 
»  vernalis, Merron, N-York. Mass. Caranx punctatus, Cuv. Carib. s.—N. 


»  scomber, Smiru. Massach. ? 
Thynnus vulgaris*, Cuv. Mass. ? Smiru. 
Pelamys sarda, Cuv. N. York. 

Cybium maculatum, Cuv. Mex.—Mass. 
Trichiurus lepturus, Cuv. Braz.—WN. York. 
Xiphias gladius, Smiru. Mass. ? 
Naucrates ductor*, Cuv. N. York. Mass. 
—Eur. 
Elecate atlantica, Cuv. Braz.—N. York. 
Trachinotus glaucus, Cuv. Carib.s.— Mex. 
»  fusus, Cuv. Braz.—wN. York. 
Mitcu. 
»  argenteus, Cuv. NV. York. 
»  pampanus, Cuv. Mex.—Carol. 


York. 
»  chrysos, Cuv. Massach. ? Smitu. 
» fasciatus, Cuv. Mex. ; 
Argyreyosus vomer, Lacer. Braz.—N. 
York. 35°S.—45° N. 
Vomer Brownii, Cuv. Braz.—wN. York. 
35° S.—45° N. 
Seriola Boscii, Cuv. Carolina. 
»  fasciata, Cuv. Do. 
»  leiarcha, Cuv. Penns. 
»  zonata, Cuv. N. York. 
»  cosmopolita, Cuv. Braz.—New 
York. 
» falcata, Cuv. Carib. s—Mer. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 


Seserinus-alepidotus, Massach.? Smitrn. 


Temnodon saltator*, Cuv. Braz.—Mass. 


—Eur. 
Coryphzena Sueurii, Cuv. Penns. 
Pteraclis carolinus, Cuv. Carol. 


207 


Rhombus longipinnis, Cuv. Carol.—wN. 
York. 
»  eryptosus, Cuv. N. York. 
Zeus faber, Massach. ? Smiru. 
Lampris guttatus*, Revz.Greenl.—Mass.? 


Fam. ACANTHUROIDES. 
Acanthurus phlebotomus, Cuv. Carib. s. | Acanthurus ceruleus, Car. 2, 10, 1. Ba- 


N. York. 


hamas. 


Fam. ATHERINIDEA. 


Atherina carolina, Cuv. Carol. 
»  Boscii, Cuv. Do. 
»  menidia, L. N. York. 
»  Humboldtiana, Cuv. Mex. 


Atherina vomerina, Cuv. Mex. 
»  mordax, Mircu. N. York. 
»  viridescens, Ip. Do. 


Fam. MuGtLo1pE&. 


Mugil Plumieri, C. & V. Braz.—New 
York. 
»  albula, L. N. York. Mircu. Mass. 
SMITH. 


Mugil petrosus, C. & V. Braz.—G. of 
Mex. N. York. 

Mugil lineatus, Mirren. WN. York. 

? Benn. San Blas. 


” 


Fam. GoBIoIipEz. 


Blennius geminatus, Woop. de. Sc. Ph. 
Carol. 

» punctatus, Woon. /.c. Carol. 
Pholis carolinus, C. & V. Carol. 
Chasmodes Bosquianus, C. & V. N. York. 

Mirc#. 
»  quadrifasciatus, Woop. 4c.Sc.Ph. 
Baltimore. 


»  novemlineatus, Woop. /. c. Carol. 


Clinus ? hentz, Le Sueur. Carol. 
Gunnellus vulgaris*, C. & V. Greenl. Eur. 
» mucronatus, C. & V. N. York.— 
Mircu. 
» punctatus, C.&V. Newf:—Greenl. 
»  Fabricii, C. & V. Greenl.—Fabr. 
»  anguillaris, C. & V. Kamtsch.— 
N. W. Am. 
»  dolichogaster, C. & V. Aleut.Jsl. 


Gunnellus groenlandicus, C. & V. Greenl. 
Zoarces labrosus, C. & V. NV. York. Mircu. 

»  fimbriatus, C. & V. Do. Ip. 

»  Gronovii, C. & V. N. Am. 

»  polaris*, Ricu. Polar seas. 
Anarhichas lupus*, L. Greenl.—Eur. 


Gobius Boscii, Lac. Carol. N. York. 
Mirtcu. 

Philyprinus dormitator, C. & V. W.Ind.— 
Mex. 


Chirus monopterygius, Cuv. Mem. Pet. 
2, 23, 1. Unalasch. 
»  decagrammus, Cuv. /. c. 2, 22, 2. 
C. St. Elias. 
»  octogrammus, Cuv. 7. c. 2, 23, 2. 
Aleut. Is. 
superciliosus, Cuv. J. c. 2, 23, 3. 
Unalasch. 


' Fam. BATRACHOIDEA. 


Lophius americanus, C. & V. Penns.— 
N. York. Mircn. 
Chironectes levigatus, C. &V. Carol.—N. 
York. Mircu. 
Malthza vespertilio, C. & V. Carib. s.— 
, Newf. 
»  cubifronst, F.B.4. 96. Newf— 


Aupvus. 


Malthzea notata, C. & V. N.York. 
Batrachus tau, C. & V. G. of Mex—N. 
York. ; 
»  Gronovii, C. & V. C. of America. 
»  grunniens, Scuarr. N. York. 


+ M. Valenciennes considers this species to be identical with one figured by 
Seba, and named by Cuvier malthea nasuta ; but I can scarcely conceive that it 
could be possible for any painter to err so far as to give a tapering snout to a 
fish like cubifrons, which has nothing like a snout at all, but merely a round tu- 
bercle, like a grain of shot in the middle of a square forehead. 


208 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Fam. LABROIDES. 
Labrus americanus, Bu. N. York. Mircu. | Crenilabrus burgall, Mrren. 3, 2. N. York, 


Mass. SM. »  merula, Smita. Massach. 
»  coricus, SMira. Mass. »  exoletus, L.? Greenl. ? Fasr. 
» pallidus, Mircu. N. York. Xirichthys psittacus, Cuv. Carol. 
»  Ahiatula, L. Carol. GARDEN. »  lineatus, Cuv. Da. 
Cheilinus radiatus, Bu. Scun. 56. U. St. Scarus Catesbei, Cat. 2, 29. Bahamas. 
Lachnolaimus suillus, Cav. 2, 15. Baham. »  c@ruleus, Cat. 2, 13. Do. 


Fam. FisTuLAROIDES. 


Fistularia tabacaria, Bu. 387, 1. NV. York. | Fistularia neo-eboracensis, Mircu. 3, 8. 
Mass. NV. York. 
» serrata, Car. 2, 17. Baham. U.S. 


Percoidee .—Of 500 species belonging to this family, which 
are described in the Histoire des Poissons, two-thirds inhabit 
the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and warmer latitudes of the 
Pacific; 49 belong to the Mediterranean and eastern side 
of the North Atlantic, and 118 have been detected on the Ame- 
rican side of that sea. The North American fauna embraces 
one-ninth of the species composing the family, all, with the 
slight exceptions we shall mention, peculiar to that country, not 
one of them ranging to Europe. The exceptions are holocentrum 
longipinne, which goes as far north on the American side as Ca- 
rolina, but crosses the Atlantic within the tropics to Ascension 
and St. Helena; and trichodon Stelleri, which is found both 
on the Asiatic and American shores of the sea of Kamtschatka. 
The last-named fish is the most northerly of the known Ame- 
rican percoidee ; and the lucioperca Americana, which inhabits 
fresh waters up to the 58th parallel, stands next to it in that 
respect. The perea vulgaris being an inhabitant of the Sibe- 
rian rivers, which fall into the Icy sea, is one of the most northerly 
of the family, though the very nearly allied American species 
have not hitherto been detected in a higher latitude than the 
45th. With respect to the distribution of generic forms, 
Europe nourishes nine, which are not known to exist in North 
America, viz. lates, apogon, pomatomus, aspro, acerina, poly- 
prion, trachinus, sphyrena, and paralepis ; and North America 
ten, which are not found in Kurope, viz. huro. centropristes, 
grystes, centrarchus, pomotis, bryttus, aphrodederus, trichodon, 
holocentrum, and polynemus, besides the doubtful genera propo- 
sed by M.Rafinesque : only five are common to the two faune, viz. 
perca, labrax, lucioperca, serranus and uranoscopus. Grystes, 
containing only two described species, forms another link con- 
necting the American and Australian faune ; one of the species 


gh 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 209 


inhabiting the rivers of Carolina, and the other those of New 
South Wales. There is a greater variety of forms, as well as a 
greater number of species of fresh water percoidee in North 
America than in any other quarter of the globe ; indeed no other 
quarter possesses such an extent of fresh waters. 
Cottoidee.—This being a more northern family than the 
preceding one, we find, as in the higher orders of animals, a 
greater proportion of its generic forms common to the New and 
Old World;—the condition of the waters aswell as of the land and 
atmosphere of the arctic regions of the two hemispheres is 
more alike than in the more temperate parallels. Prionotus and 
hemitripterus are the only two cottoid genera which frequent 
the Atlantic coasts of America, and do not also occur in Europe. 
On the north-west coast, however, there are three genera which 
are unknown in the Kuropean seas, viz. hemilepidotus, blepsias, 
and temnistia. The Mediterranean produces peristedion and 
hoplostethus, of which no species has been detected on the 
American coast. Five genera are common to both sides of the 
North Atlantic, as are also several species, viz. trigla pini, dac- 
tylopterus volitans, aspidophorus europeus, scorpena porcus, 
and sebastes norvegicus, all marinefish ; there are moreover some 
fresh water cotti and gasterostei in America, which are with 
great difficulty distinguishable from their European representa- 
tives. The family contains in all about 170 species, of which 
one-fifth are North American, and between one-fifth and one- 
sixth European. 
Scienoidee.—Thefish of this family, more closely related to the 
percoidee by external form than the preceding, arealsointimately 
connected with them by internal structure. The scienoidee are 
more American than either of the preceding families, one-third of 
the genera being proper to the Atlantic coast of that continent, 
and several of the remaining genera being represented there by 
one or more species. There are also fouror five times as many spe- 
cies in the North American seas as in Europe; while the intertro- 
pical seas nourish four-fifths of the whole family. None are com- 
mon to both sides of the Atlantic. Several of the American scie- 
noidee make a remarkable grunting noise in the water, which is 
_ thought by Cuvier to be connected with the cavernous recesses in 
_ the skulls of fish of thisfamily. The noise made by several of the 
cottoidee when handled is evidently produced by the sudden 
escape of a quantity of air from their distended branchial mem- 
branes. The total number of ascertained species of the family 
is about 260. 
| Sparoidea.—This family, of which 150 species are known, 
VoL. v.—1836. P 


210 SIXTH REPORT—1836- 


has few representatives in North America, their number not 
exceeding one-thirtieth of the whole, while the European seas 
nourish nearly one-fifth; the majority of the species, as in 
most other acanthopterygian families, belong to the Indian and 
South Seas. 

Menoidee.—Of this very small family, comprising only 42 
species, about one half belong to the Indian and Polynesian 
seas, one fourth frequent the seas of Europe, and only one 
species, gerres aprion, has been detected on the shores of Caro- 
lina, to which it ranges from between the tropics. 

Chetodontoidee.—This family, named also sguammipenne, 
contains about 150 species, of which the greater part are inha- 
bitants of the Indian and Polynesian seas. One species only 
(rama Raii) frequents the European coasts, while four are 
North American, and one seventh of the whole exist on the 
Atlantic coasts of North and South America. The pempheris 
mexicanus is found at Acapulco; the remaining species of that 
genus inhabit the tropical, Pacific, and Indian oceans. 

The next family in Cuvier’s arrangement is that of the ana- 
hasidee or polyacanthoidee, containing only 40 species, all of 
which belong to Southern Asia, except a spirobranchus, which 
inhabits the rivers of the Cape of Good Hope. 

The preceding acanthopterygian families, with the addition of 
the fistularoidee, hereafter mentioned, and the platessoidee, 
anged by Cuvier with the malacopterygii, constitute Agassiz’s 
order CreNoIpE!, so named from the pectinated lamine of their 
scales. About 1400 recent ctenoideans have been described. 

Scomberoidee.—This family, included by Agassiz in his or- 
der CycLorpEI, is, next to the percoidee, the most numerous 
of Cuvier’s acanthopterygii, the described species amounting 
to more than 320. The scomberoidee@, more than any other 
group of fish of equal magnitude, affect the surface of the ocean 
especially in the warm latitudes, and a considerable number of 
the species roam from one side of the Atlantic to the other, 
among which are the scomber grex, pelamys sarda, trichiurus 
lepturus, elecate atlantica, lichia glauca, caranx carangus, 
and nomeus Mauritii. Of sixteen genera, actually ascertained 
to be North American, only seven enter the European fauna, 
viz., scomber, pelamys, naucrates, caranx, seriola, temnodon, 
and coryphena; but five of the remainder occur also on the 
African shores of the Atlantic, viz., eybiwm, trichiurus, elecate, 
trachinotus, temnodon, and vomer, leaving only two of the 
North American genera peculiar to the western side of the At- 
lantic, viz., argyryosus and rhombus. The forms peculiar to 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 211 


Europe are, lepidopus, astrodermus, luwvarus, seserinus, and 
perhaps lampris; while its seas nourish also thynnus, auzis, 
wiphias, tetrapturus, lichia, mastacemblus, scyris, gallichthys, 
lampugus, centrolophus, stromateus, and zeus, common to other 
seas, and some of these to tropical America. Two or three 
of these are enumerated by Dr. Smith in his list of Massa- 
chusetts fish; but as he has not given any details by which 
we can judge of the correctness of his nomenclature, they are 
put in italics in the foregoing table. Scomber grex and tem- 
nodon saltator have a most extensive range from the Cape of 
Good Hope across the Atlantic to the coasts of the United 
States. The latter is also known eastward to Madagascar and 
along the whole western coast of Africa to the Mediterranean 
and Egypt, while the former is scarcely distinguishable from 
the Mediterranean scomber pneumatophorus. There are several 
of the scomberoidee which, inhabiting only the middle longi- 
tudes of the Atlantic, belong as much to the New as to the Old 
World: they pursue the flying-fish over the Atlantic wastes 
as the herds of wolves do the bison on the prairies of America. 

Acanthuroidee.—Of this family about ninety species are 
known, inhabiting the warmer districts of the ocean and feed- 
ing on fuci, being furnished with cutting-teeth instead of pre- 
hensile ones, like those of most other fish. Except three species 
which frequent the Caribbean Sea, the family belongs to the 
Polynesian and Indian oceans and the Red Sea; one species 
follows the gulf-stream to New York, another reaches the Ba- 
hamas: none visit Europe. 

Atherina.—This isolated genus contains about thirty species, 
of which six or seven are European, and five, exclusive of two 
or three doubtful ones, have been described as North American, 
but none are common to both sides of the Atlantic. 

Mugiloidee.—Of four generic forms which belong to this 
family, three are peculiar to the intertropical seas, while the 
typical one, mugi/, is known in all the temperate as well as in 
the warmer districts of the ocean. None of the species cross 
the Atlantic, but some of them have a considerable range coast- 
ways; thus, two of the American mullets extend from the Bra- 
zils to New York, while the mugil capito ranges from Norway 
to the Mediterranean. The genus contains fifty-three described 
species, the whole family about sixty; several are confined to 
fresh waters. 

Gobioides.—This family contains nearly 300 species, of 
which about one half are inhabitants of the Indian and Poly- 
nesian seas; sixty exist in the European waters, and eighteen 
or nineteen,on the American side of the northern Atlantic, 

P2 


212 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


there being only forty-two known on the whole eastern coast of 
both North and South America. The North American and 
European genera are mostly the same; yet among the former 
we have chasmodes and philyprinus which range from within 
the tropics to the United States, but do not visit Europe; 
while ¢ripterygion and callionymus of the Mediterranean and 
British Channel are unknown in the American seas. The only 
species perhaps common to both countries are those which fre- 
quent the Greenland seas. Dr. Smith, indeed, enumerates 
anarrhichas lupus among the fish of Massachusetts, but his 
determination of the species must be considered as doubtful 
until we have some evidence of a proper comparison having 
been instituted between American and European examples. 
The gunnellus vulgaris is also described as a Labrador fish in 
the Fauna Boreali-Americana, on the authority of a single 
injured specimen which differed slightly from the English fish. 
Zoarces polaris, according to Capt. James Ross, is the most 
northern known fish, having been taken on the ice to the north 
of Spitzbergen, or within nine degrees of the pole; it ranges 
westward to Regent’s Inlet. 

Batrachoidee.—The only species of this family which exists 
in Europe is the well known lophius piscatorius, while the 
North American seas contain four out of five of the generic 
forms and seven or more species, there being about fifty in the 
family. Sixteen belong to the Caribbean Sea and South Ame- 
rican Atlantic, and the comparatively small proportion of fifteen 
have been detected in the Indian and Polynesian seas. 

Lahbroidee.—As the publication of the Histoire des Poissons, 
the only trustworthy guide for general ichthyology, has ad- 
vanced no further than the batrachoidee, our observations on 
the succeeding families must necessarily be imperfect, and we 
shall therefore make them as brief as possible ; indeed, our 
American lists cannot be otherwise than very defective, being 
founded on Cuvier’s notes in the Régne Animal, relating almost 
solely to figured species. We have ventured to enumerate only 
thirteen /abroidee as inhabitants of the North American seas, 
and the nomenclature of fully one half of these is doubtful. 
The European seas nourish about fifty species belonging to the 
genera labrus, julis, crenilabrus, coricus, xirichthys, chromis, 
and scarus. 

Fistularoidee.—The members of this small family are mostly 
denizens of the warmer seas. One species only is well known 
as European, viz., the centriscus scolopax, which is common 
enough in the Mediterranean, but rare in the Atlantic, though 
it has been found as far north as Mount’s Bay. This family 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 


closes the list of Cuvier’s acanthopterygian fishes. 


213 
The total 


number of described species belonging to the order amounts 


nearly to 2400. 


Ord. MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 
Fam. CYPRINOIDE. 


Barbus, spec. nove, Cuv. Reg. A 
Abramis balteatus, F.B.4. 3.301. Columb. 
R. 


»  Smithii, Ip.3.110. St. Lawrence. 

5 chrysopterus, Smiru, Massach. 
Labeo cyprinus, Le Surur, de. Sc. Ph. 

» maxilingua, Ip. J. c. Maryland. 

» 2? macropterus, Rar. Ac. Se. Ph. 1. 
» ?annulatus, Ip. 1. c. 17.4. N. York. 
? nigrescens, Ip. 1. c. L. Champl. 

Catastomus gibbosus, Le Sueur, J. c. 
Connect. R. 
»,  tuberculatus, In. J. ec. Penns. 
» macrolepidotus, Ip. Delaware R. 
»  aureolus, In. L. Erie. 
» communis, Ip. Delaware R. 
»  longirostris, Ip. Vermont. 
» nigricans, Ip. L. Erie. 
»  maculosus, Ip. Maryland. 
» ~ elongatus, Ip. Ohio. 
»  Vittatus, Ip. Penns. 
»» _ Dusquesnii, Ip. Ohio. 
»  Bostoniensis, Ip. N. Engl. 
»  Oblongus, Ip. NV. York. 
»  sucetta, Ip. S. Carol. 


» teres, Lace. v. 15.2. N. York. 


»  Hudsonius, Forsr. Ph. Tr. 63. 6. 
F.B.A 46° N.—68° N. 

» . Forsterianus, F.B.4. Backs Voy. 
jig. 48° N.—68° N. 

»  reticulatus, Ip, Bacx’s Voy. fig. 
40° N.—50° N. 

»  anisurus, Rar. Ohio. 

»  anisopterus, Ip. do. 

»  Oubalus, Ip. do. 

» niger, Ip. do. 

» carpio, Ip. do. 

»  velifer, Ip. do. 

»  wxanthopus, Iv. do. 

»  melanops, Iv. do. 

»  melanotus, Ip. do. 

»  fasciolaris, Ip. do. 

»  erythrurus, Ip. do. 

»  flexuosus, Tp. do. 

1»  megastomus, Ip. do. 


Cycleptes nigrescens, Rar. Ohio. 
Leuciseus gracilis, F.B.A. 78. Saskat. R. 
+ chrysoleucus, Mitcu. 40° N.— 
46° N. 
»  caurinus, F.B.A. 3. 304. Columb. 
»  oregonensis, Ip. 3. 305. do. 
» species nove, Cuv. Reg. An. 
»  atronasus, Mircu. N. York. Mass. 
Semotilus dorsalis, Rar. Ohio. 
» cephalus, Iv. do. 
»,  diplemia, Ip. do. 
»  notatus, Ip. do. 
Minnilus dinemus, Ip. do. 
»  notatus, Ip. do. 
»  microstomus, Ip. do. 
Lusilus erythrogaster, Ip. do. 
»  chrysocephalus, Ip. do. 
»  Kentuckiensis, Iv. do. 
» interruptus, Ip. do. 
Rutilus plargyrus, Ip. do. 
» compressus, Ip. do. 
»,  amblops, Ip. do. 
»  melanurus, Ip. do. 
»  anomalus, Ip. do. 
y» ruber, Ip. do. 
Pimephales promelas, I. do. 
Hypentelium macropterum, Ip. do. 
Hydrargyra diaphana, Le Sueur, Ac. Se. 
Ph. Saratoga lake. 
»  multifasciata, Ip. l. c. do. 
»  ornata, Ip. 1. c. Delaware R. 
nigrofasciata, Ip. 1. c. Rhode Is. 
Peecilia multilineata, Le Suxzur, J. c. 
Florida. 
»  Schneideri, VaLeNc. Obs. Zool. 
Lebias ellipsoidea, LE Surur, 1. ce. dr- 
kansas R. 
Fundulus fasciatus, VALENC. J. ec. N. York. 
»  ccenicolus, In. Z. c. N. York. 
Molinesia latipinna, LE Suzur, lc. N. 
Orleans. 
Cyprinodon flavulus, VatEenc. 1. c. N. 
York. 
»  ovinus, Mircu. NV. York. 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Fam. Esocipz. 


Esox lucius*, Z. 38° N.—68° N. East of 
Rocky M. only. 
»  estor, Le Surur, de. Se. Ph. L. 
Erie & Huron. 
»  reticulatus, Ip. 2. c. Connect. R. 
»  phaleratus, In. 1. ec. Florida. 
» niger, In. 1. e. L. Saratoga. 
»  vittatus, Rar. Ohio. 
»  salmoneus, Iv. do. 
Belone —? Smitru, Massach. 
Scomberesox equirostris, Lz SuzuR, Mas- 
sach. 


Scomberesox scutellatus, Lz Suzur, New- 
Soundland. ¥? 
Sarchirus vittatus, Rar. Ohio. 
»  argenteus, Ip. do. 
Exoccetus exiliens, Bu. 397. Trop. seas.— 


N Y. & Pacif. 

»  fureatus, Mitcu. G. of Mex.— 
N. York. 

»  comatus, Ip. NV. York. 

»  Mesogaster, Ip, do.—Massach. 


SmitTH. 
»  Volitans, Bx. 398. Trop. seas, Atl. 
& Pacif:—30° N. 


Fam. SiuuRoiweE#&. 


Bagrus marinus, Mircu. JN. York. 

i ? hornpout,Smiru, Massach.—? 

» —? Benn. Mazatil. Pacif. 
Pimelodus catus, Cat. 2, 23. U.S. 

»  albidus, Le Surur, Mem. Mus. 

U.S. 

5,  nebulosus, In. 7. ¢. do. 

»  eneus, Ip. 7. ec. do. 

»  cauda furcata, Ip. 7. c. do. 

» nigricans, Ip. L. Erie. 

»  natalis, Ip. U. 8. 

»  insigne, Ip. U. 8. 

»  cenosus, F.B.A. 3,122. L. Huron. 

» borealis, Ip. Saskatch. R. 

» maculatus, Rar. Ohio. 


Pimelodus cerulescens, Rar. Ohio. 
» pallidus, Ip. do. 
»  argyrus, Ip. do. 
»  viscosus, Ip. do. 
»  nebulosus, Ip. do. 
»  eupreus, Ip. do. 
» lividus, Ip. do. 
» melas, Ip. do. 
5 wanthocephalus, Ip. do. 
»,  limosus, Ip. do. 
Pylodictis limosus, Ip. do. 
Noturus flavus, Ip. do. 
Doras costatus, Car. Sup. 9. U. S. 
Callichthys —? Bu. 397, 1. do. 
Aspredo levis, Sepa, 29, 9, 10. do. 


Fam. SALMONOIDE. 


Salmo salar*, F.B.4. Connect. R. to Labr. 
»  Scouleri, Ip. 93. New Caled. 
» Rossii, Ip. 80, 85, 2. Aret. sea. 
»  Hearnii, Iv. do. 
»  alipes, Ip. 81, 86, 1. do. 


»  nitidus, Ip. 82, 1. 86, 2. 52° N.— 
72° N. 

»  Hoodii, Ip. 82, 2. 83, 2. 87, 1. 
52° N.—72° N. 


»  fontinalis, Ip. 82, 1. 87, 2. N. 
York.—L. Huron. 

»» Mnamayeush, Ip. 79, 85, 1. 44° 
N.—68° N. 

»  quinnat, Iv. Columb. R. 

»  Gairdneri, Ip. do. 

»  paucidens, Ip. do. 

»  tsuppitch, Ip. do. 

»  Clarkii, Iv. do. 

» carpio, FaBr. Green. 

» alpinus, Ip. do. 

», stagnalis, Ip. do. 

»  rivalis, \p. do. 

»  alleghaniensis, Rar. Chio. 


Salmo nigrescens, Rar. Ohio. 
Stenodus Mackenzii, F.B.d. 84, 94, 1. 
Bacx’s voy. Mack. R. 
Osmerus eperlanus*, Ante. Massach.— 
St. Lawr. 
Mallotus villosus, Cuv. Arct. S— News: § 
Kamtsch. 
»  pacificus, F.B.4. Columb. R. 
Coregonus albus, In. 89, 2. 94, 2. 44° N.— 
G22 Ne 
,»,  tullibee, Ip. 50° N.—54° N. 
»  Artedi, Le Surur, de. Se. Ph. 
L. Erie. 
»  lueidus, F.B.A4. 90, 1. Gr. Bear L. 
»  harengus, Ip. 90, 2. L. Huron. 
»  quadrilateralis, Ip. 89, 1. 60°N.— 
72°N. 
»  labradoricus, Ip. G. of St. Law- 


rence. 
Thymallus signifer, /.B.4. 88. 62° N.— 
68° N 


oy thymalloides, In. lat. 644° N. 
Saurus mezicanus, Cuv. L. of Mea. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 215 


Kam. CLuPEOCIDEA. 


Clupea harengus*, Auct. 40° N.—75° N 
Pacif. Atl. & Arct. Seas. 
»  humeralis, Cuv. G. of Mex. 
»  fasciata, Lz Sueur, de. Se. Ph. 
Penns. 

» elongata, Ip. Marble head. 

»  halec, Mrrcu. N. York. 

» pusilla, Ip. do. 

»  parvula, Ip. do. 

»  imdigena, Ip. do. 

»  vittata, Iv. do. 

cerulea, Ip. do. 

Alosa vernalis, Mrrcu.v. 9. NV. York, Mass. 

»  westivalis, Ip. N. York. 

s» menhaden, In. v. 7. do. Massach. 

»  matowaka, Ip. v. 8. do. 

»  alosa*, Ip. N. York. Mass. 

» * mediocris, Ip. do. 

minima, SmMitH, Massach. 

Pomolobus chrysochloris, Rar. Ohio. 
Dorosoma notata, Rar. Ohie. 
Notemigonus auratus, Ip. do. 


Chatoéssus oglina, Le Sunur, de. Se. Ph. 
Rhode Is. 
»  Cepedianus, Ip. 7. c. Pennsylv. 
»  thrissa, Cuv. G. of Mex. 
»,  notata, Ip. do. 
Engraulis sadina, Mircu. N. York. 
»  encrasicholus*, Bu. 302. Greenl. 
Farr. 

»  edentulus, Cuv. G. of Mex. 
Elops saurus, Lacep. y. 398. W. Ind.— 
Carol. Calif. Benn. 

Butirinus vulpes, Cat. 1, 2. Braz.—U. S. 
Hiodon tergisus, Lu Suzur, /. c. L. Erie. 
Ohio. 
»  Clodalis, Ip. Ohio. 
»  chrysopsis, F.B.A. 94, 3. 52° N. 
—54° N. 


»  vernalis, Rar. do. 
»  heterurus, Ip. do. 
alosoides, Ip. do. 
Amia calva, Bu. Scun. 80. Carol. 
»  ocellicauda, F.B.A. L. Huron. 


Fam. SauroipEa. (Agassiz.) 


Lepisosteus osseus, L. U. S. Lepisosteus albus, Rar. Ohio. 


»  huronensis, F.B.4. L. Huren. »  platostomus, Ip. do. 
» gracilis, Acass. Zool. Pr. »  ferox, Iv. do. 
»  longirostris, Rar. Ohio. » spatula, Laczp. 5, 6, 2. Ohio. 


»  Ooxvyurus, Ip. do. Litholepis adamantinus, ? Rar. Ohio. 


_ The second division of the fish, according to Cuvier’s arrange- 
ment, or the MALAcoPpTERyYGII, includes the bulk of Agassiz’s 
CycLorpEI, together with some families belonging to the other 
orders of the latter naturalist, as the s¢lwroidet and suuroidet 
which rank with his GANorpEI, and the platessoidee or pleuro- 
nectoidee which he places among his CrenorpE: on the 
other hand, we have already noticed that Agassiz’s CrENoIDEZ 
include the scomberoidee, atherine, mugiloidee, and labroidee, 
considered by Cuvier as yal dak pe, 

The MaLacopreRyGII ABDOMINALES embrace the greater 
part of the fresh water fish, and though few species are common 
to Europe and North America, there is much similarity between 
the generic forms existing in the waters of the two continents. 
As the lakes and rivers, however, occupy more space in propor- 
tion to the land in North America than in any other quarter of 
the world, so the number and variety of fresh water fish is 
greater than in Europe, or any other extra-tropical country. 


216 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Cyprinoidee.— Europe nourishes 32 species of this family : it 
possesses, in common with America, the forms of barbus, abra- 
mis, and leuciscus ; labeo, existing in the Nile, is also American ; 
cyprinus, gobio, tinca, and cobitis, which are European, have 
not yet been proved to exist on the other side of the Atlantic: 
while North America possesses catastomus, hydrargyra, pecilia, 
lebias, fundulus, molinesia and cyprinoden, unknown to Euro- 
pean waters, besides the uncertain genera proposed by M. Ra- 
finesque. 

Esocide.—The fresh waters of America contain a greater 
number of species of this family than those of Europe, the only 
one in fact in the latter country being the common pike or esow 
lucius, which exists also abundantly in North America, though 
it is confined to the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. North 
Africa is more productive, the Nile producing many mormy7i, 
and the Mediterranean yielding a single species each of alocepha- 
lus, microstoma, stomias, and chauliodus, forms which have not 
been detected on the western side of the Atlantic. Belone, 
scomberesox and exocatus, are common to both sides of that 
sea, and it is highly probable that some of the hemiramphi of the 
Caribbean sea may follow the gulf stream further north: one 
was taken this year on the coast of Cornwall*. 

Siluroidee.—Though a considerable number of fish of this 
family have been already discovered in North America only one 
is known in Europe, viz., the st/wrus glanis, which inhabits the 
rivers of Europe as far north as Sweden and Norway, as well as 
those of Asia and North Africa. The pimelodus borealis, the 
most northerly of the family in America, goes no higher than the 
54th parallel. The waters of Egypt nourish many species of 
stlurus, schilhbus, bagrus, pimelodus, synodontis, clarias, and 
malapterurus. 

Salmonoidee.—Upwards of thirty described species of this 
family belong to Europe, which possesses all the generic forms 
mentioned in our North American list, with the exception of 
stenodus}, and the addition of argentina and scopelus, found in 
the Mediterranean. Egypt produces two or three other forms, 
one of them, my/letes, being common also to tropical America. 
Some of the salmonoidee are the most northerly of fresh water 
fish. Several of the trouts of North-west America are probably 
identical with Kamtschatka species, to which other names had 
been previously given. This point, with many others, will 

* Yarrevt, Br. Fishes, p. 397. 

+ This genus or sub-genus, which differs from the other sal/mones in the teeth, 
was first named in the Appendix to Captain Back’s narrative of his journey to 
he mouth of the Thleweechoh. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 217 
doubtless be cleared up in the ensuing volumes of the Histoire 
des Poissons. The identity of the salmo salar itself on both 
sides of the Atlantic has not been satisfactorily settled, and some 
interesting facts in the history of the fish as an inhabitant of Lake 
Ontario require to be ascertained ; for instance, whether it de- 
scends to the sea after spawning, or whether, like the salmon 
of Lakes Wenern and Wettern, in Sweden, it passes its whole 
life in fresh watert, recruiting in the depths of the lake, and 
spawning in the feeding streams. The truth of the report, that 
none of the salmon which ascend the Columbia, or the rivers of 
New Caledonia, return again to the sea, deserves to be inquired 
into :—the same thing has been asserted of the salmon of North- 
ern Asia. 

Clupeoidee.—This family is also more numerous in North 
America than in Europe, the latter country yielding only nine 
or ten species belonging to the genera clupea, alosa, and en- 
graulis. Hiodon, a genus peculiar to America, has much affinity 
_ to the salmonoidee. 

Sauroidee.—This family contains only two existing genera, 
lepisosteus, peculiar to America, and polypterus to Africat. 


Ord. MALACOPTERYGII SUB-BRACHIALES. 


Fam. GADOIDES. 


Gadus morrhua*, L. Polar s. Newf. N. 


Merlangus polaris, Sanine, Parry's App: 
York. S. of Kamtsch. 


Polar s. Spitz. 


»  callarias*, L. N. York, Mircu. 
Greenl. Fann. 

»  rupestris, Situ, N. York. Mas- 
sach. 

»  arenosus, Ip. do. do. 

» _ tomcodus, Mrrcu. do.do. SMiTu. 

»  e@glefinus, Penn. do. MitcH. 

» fasciatus, Ip. do. Miteu. Mas- 
sach. SM. 

»  blennoides, Mircu. do. 

»  barbatus*, Bu. 166. Massach. SM. 

»  Fabricii, F.B.A. Greenl. Fase. 

»  ogac, Ip. Greenl. Fane. 

»  luseus*, Punn. S. of Kamtsch. 
TILEs. 

»» macrocephalus, Tires. M. Peir. 
2,16. S. of Kamis. 

» gracilis, Ip. 18. do. 

Merlangus carbonarius*, Bu. 66. Davis’ S. 

Pacif. 


+ Nutsson, Pisces Scand. 


»  vulgaris*, Smitu, Massach. 
»  albidus, Mircu. N. York. 
» purpureus, Ip. do. 
»  pollachius*, SmitH, Massach. 
Merluccius asellus*, Bu. 164. NV. York.— 
Neuf. 
Lota maculosa, Le Surur, de. Se. Ph. 
LL. Erie.—68° N. 
» compressa, Ip. J. c. Connect. R. 
Brosmius flavescens, Ip. M. Mus. 5, 16.2. 
News. 
»  vulgaris*, PENN. Massach. Smitu. 
»  lub*, Mem. Stockh. 15,8. Green. 
Phycis chuss, Scua@rr. N. York. 
» tenuis, Mircu. N. York. 
» punctatus, Ip. F.B.A. 3, 253. N. 
York, Nova Scotia. 
Raniceps blennoides, SmitH, Massach. 
Macrourus rupestris*, Bu. 26. Green. 
North s. 


+ The Ganorper of Agassiz are composed of the sauroidee, lepidoidee 
(fossil), pycnodontes, plectognathi, lophobranchii, goniodontes, siluroidee, and 


-sturionidee. 


218 SIXTH REPORT—i836. 


Fam. PLEURONECTOIDES. 


Platessa plana, Mrreu. N. York. Rhombus argus, Car. 27. Bahamas. U.St. 
»  Stellata, Paty. Polar s. S. of »  glacialis, Pati. Awatska. Polar s. 
Kamtsch. »  maximus*, SMitH, Massach. 
»  dentata, L. N. York, Scua@rr. »  aguosus, Mircu. N. York. 
» americana, Scuarr. Rhode Is. Solea vulgaris*, Penn. Massach. Smitu. 
», melanogaster, Mirren. N. York. Achirus lineatus, Stoane, 346, Carib. s. 
» oblonga, Ip. do. N. York. Mircu. 
Hippoglossus communis*, Bu. 47. N. York. »  Plagiurus, L. Carib. s.—Carol. 


Mass. Sm. Pacif. EscuscHoutz. 


Fam. Discospout. 


Cyclopterus lumpus*, Bu. 90. N. York.— | Cyclopterus spinosus, Fasr. Greenl. 
Greenl. Eur. »  ventricosus, Pau. S. of Kamtsch. 
» minutus, Part. Mass. SmMira.— | Liparis communis*, Anrep, Eur. Polar s. 
Greenl. Ross. »  gelatinosus, Pauy. S. of Kamtsch. 


Fam. EcuENEIDE. 


Echeneis remora*, Bu. 172. N. York. Mass. | Echeneis species alie, U. S. Pacif. BEnN. 
Pacif. 
»  naucrates*, Ip. 171. Massach. 
Neuf. Pacif. 


MALACOPTERYGII SUB-BRACHIALES.—Most of the fish of this 
order feed on or near the bottom, and a very considerable num- 
ber of the species are common to both sides of the Atlantic, par- 
ticularly in the higher latitudes, where they abound. It does 
not appear that their general diffusion ought to be attributed to 
migration from their native haunts, but rather that in this respect 
they are analogous to the owls, which, though mostly stationary 
birds, yet include a greater proportion of species common to the 
Old and New Worlds than even the most migratory families. Se- 
veral of the scomberoidee which feed on the surface have been 
previously noted as traversing many degrees of longitude in the 
Atlantic, but the existence of the ground-feeding gadoidee in 
very distant localities must be attributed to a different cause, as 
it is not probable that any of them wander out of soundings, or 
ever approach the mid-seas. 

Gadoidee.—About twenty-one species of this family frequent 
the European seas, most of which, and all the generic forms, have 
been enumerated by authors as existing also on the North Ame- 
rican coast. More exact comparisons will probably diminish 
the number of species supposed to be common to the two coun- 
tries, but still a sufficient number will remain to justify the pre- 
ceding remarks. 

Pleuronectoidee.—Upwards of thirty-six species of flat-fish 
belong to Europe, two or three of which, and all the generic 
forms, except monochir, occur in the lists of American ichthyo- 


' 


JA 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 219 


logists. Many more will doubtless be detected hereafter on the 
coasts of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Labrador. 

Discoboli.—About eight species of this family, belonging to 
the genera lepadogaster, gobiesox, cyclopterus, and liparts have 
been described as European. The American discoboli are almost 
entirely unknown. 

Echeneidee.—The singular fish belonging to this family, 
though they swim rapidly for a short time, do not appear ca- 
pable of long-continued exertion. The necessity for this is indeed 
obviated by the adhesive apparatus on the head, by which they 
can attach themselves to the larger fishes, and especially to the 
sharks. In this way they are carried about, and are always at 
hand to feed on any morsels that may be detached when the 
monster closes his saw-like teeth on his prey. They also stick 
to the bottoms of ships, being attracted by the greasy washings 
of the coppers thrown overboard by the cook, and thus they are 
often carried beyond the warmer seas in which they are produced. 
The two species which are best known have been taken on both 
sides of the Atlantic, as well as in the Pacific. They range occa- 
sionally northwards to England and the banks of Newfoundland. 


Ord. MALACOPTERYGII APODES. 


Fam. ANGUILLIFORMES. 


Murena rostrata, Le Susur, Z. Cayuga ; Murena xanthomelas, Rar. Ohio. 


and Seneka. » lutea, Ip. do. 
»  bostoniensis, Ip. Massach. » helena, Cat. 20. Bahamas. 
»  serpentina, Ip. Long. Js. Murenophis moringa, Car. 21. do. 
»  argentea, Ip. Boston Bay. »  meleagris, Mircu. U.S. 
» | macrocephala, Ip. Saratoga. Saccopharynx ampullaceus, Harwoop, 
»  vulgaris*, Smitu, Mass. N. York. Ph. Tr. Davis’ Straits. 
Mir. »  chordatus, Mircu. 52° N. lat. 
»  conger*, Mircx. Surinam, do. do. | Ammodytes lancea*, Cuv. Greenl. Fanr. 
5, oceanica, Ip. N. York. »  tobianus*, Penn. N. York. Newf. 
»  laticauda, Rar. Ohio. Ophidium stigma, Benn. Kotzebue Sound. 


»  aterrima, Ip. do. 


Anguilliformes.—From 25 to 30 species belonging to the 
single family forming this order have been detected in the Eu- 
ropean Seas. They are arranged by Cuvier in the genera an- 
guilla, conger, ophisurus, murena, sphagebranchus, leptoce- 
phalus, ophidium and ammodytes. The Nile supports another 
generic form named gymnarchus. One of the species of sacco- 
pharynx having been caught in mid-seas belongs as much to 
Europe as to America. The members of the family existing in 
the American waters are very imperfectly known. 


220 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Ord. LOPHOBRANCHII. 


Sygnathus typhle, Bu. 91, 1. N. York, 
Mass. Mrrcu. SM. 


Sygnathus acus, Bu. 91, 2. U. S. Penn. 
Hippocampus brevirostris? N. York.Mircu. 
Of this order, consisting, like the preceding one, of only one 
natural family, there are about 15 European species. The Ame- 
rican naturalists have mentioned the same generic forms as ex- 
isting in their seas, but no correct details of the species of the 
northern part of the New World have yet been published. 


Ord. PLECTOGNATHI. 


Fam. GyMNoponTEs. 


Diodon punctatus, Bu. 125, 126. Braz.— | Tetraodon hispidus, Scuapr. N. York. 


N. York. Scua@rr. »  turgidus, Mirren. 6, 5. do. Mas- 
»  Yivulatus, Cuv. N. York. Mircu. sach. 
6, 3. »  levigatus, Wixt. I. 2. 
»  pilosus, Mireu. 6, 4. N. York. »  curvus, Mircu. N. York. 
Tetraodon geometricus, Cat. 28. Bah.— »  mathematicus, Ip. do. 
U.S. »  lagocephalus, Car. 28. Virg. 
»  lUneatus, Bu. 141. New York. | Orthagoriscus mola, Bu. Scan. U.S. 


ScH@PrF. »  Orevis, Mircu. N. York. 


Fam. ScLERODERMATA. 


Balistes tomentosus, L. Sepa, 24,18. U.S. 
»  vetula, Bu. 150, Car. 22. Baha- 
mas.—U.S. 
» hispidus, L. Sepa, 24, 2. U.S. 
» monoceros, Cat. 19. Bah. Mass. 
SMITH. 


Balistes aurantiacus, Mircu. 6, 1. New 
York. 
»  broceus, Ip. N. York. 
Ostracion triqueter, Bu. 130. Mass. SM. 
»  icaudalis, Smirn. Mass. 


», quadricornis, Bu. 134. U.S. 
»  suffamen, Mrrcn. 6,2. N. York. 


Gymnodontes.—This family of plectognathi belongs chiefly 
to the warmer seas, and the species have not yet been satisfac- 
torily discriminated, especially the American ones. The ¢etrao- 
don Pennanti, Y aArr., (termed by Pennant levigatus and lagoce- 
phalus,) and orthagoriscus mola and oblongus extend north- 
wards to the English coast. The tetraodon lineatus inhabits 
the Nile. This species, and several others which exist on the 
eastern side of the Atlantic, occur in the lists of American ich- 
thyologists ; but in the absence both of good descriptions and 
figures there is reason to fear that much error exists in their de- 
terminations. 

Sclerodermata.—This family also abounds within the Tropics, 
haunting coral banks and other rocky places. Many frequent 
the shores of the Bahamas, the Florida Keys and the Bermudas, 
but the species have not been fully described. The halistes ca- 
priscus of the Mediterranean and British Channel is the only 
European one. 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. _ 22) 


Ord. CHONDROPTERYGII ELEUTHEROPOMI. 


Fam. STuRIONIDES. 


Acipenser transmontanus, F.B.4. 97. f. 2. | Acipenser rubicundus, Lz Survr, /. c. 12. 


Columb. R. Canada lakes. 

»  Tupertianus, F.B.4.97, 1. Sas- »  platyrhynchus, Rar. Ohio. 
hatch. R.—50° N.—55° N. »  serotinus, lp. Ohio. 

»  brevirostris, Le Svunur, Am. »  ohiensis, Ip. Ohio. 
Phil. Tr. N.S. Delaware R. »  macrostomus, Ip. Ohio. 

» . maculosus, Ip. Ohio. Platirostra edentula, Le Susur. Ohio. 

»  oOxyrhynchus, Mircu. Delaw. N. | Polyodon folium, Lac. 13, 3.Ohio, Mississ. 
York. 


Fam. CHIM#ROIDER. 


Chimera Collxi, Bann. WN. Pacif. Elephant fish, VANcouvER. Straits of Da 
Fuca. 


Sturionidee.—The western European waters produce only one 
species of this family, but several exist abundantly in the Da- 
nube and other rivers flowing into the Black Sea, and also in the 
rivers of Northern Asia. The species are still more numerous and 
various in North America and the Mississippi, and its tributaries 
nourish some curious forms found nowhere else. We are chiefly 
indebted to M. Le Sueur for our knowledge of the sturgeons of 
the United States, but a monograph of the family is much 
needed, the species both of the Old and New Worlds are as yet 
but badly determined. 

Chimeroidee.—Only two species of this family have been figu- 
red, viz., the chimera monstrosa, an inhabitant of the North Atlan- 
tic, and the callorhynchus antarcticus frequenting the southern 
parts of the Atlantic and Pacific. On Captain Beechey’s voyage at 
least two others were discovered, one on the coast of Chili, and 
another, named by Mr. Bennett chimera Colliai, in the Bay of 
Monterey. Vancouver took one in the Straits of Juan da Fuca, 
but he has given no description of it whatever whereby we may 
judge of the species. 


- Ord. CHONDROPTERYGII TREMATOPNEONTES, 
(Placoidet, Agassiz.) 


Fam. SELACHIDES. Carcharias littoralis, Lr Surur, N. York. 
Mass. 
Seyllium Edwardsii, Cuvy., Epw. 289. »  terrenove, F. B. A. 3, 289. 
»  eanis, Mircn. N. York. New. 
»  canicula, Smit. Mass. » vulgaris, Buon, 60. N. York. 


»  eatulus, Ip. Mass. 


; , Mass. Penn. Mir. Sm. 
Carcharias obscurus, Le Surur, 4e. Se. »» vulpes, Sm. Mass. N. York. 
Ph. 9. 


»  glaucus, Mitcu. N. York. Mass. 


222 


Carcharias punctatus, Mrrcu. N. Yerk. 
Selache maximus, |p. N. York. Mass. 
»  Americanus. Ip. N. York. 
Somniosus brevipinna, Lr Suzur, de. Se. 
Ph. Mass. 
Zygzena malleus, VALEN. Mass. N. York. 
»  tiburo, Penn. Sm. Mass. 
Squatina Dumerilii, Lz Surur, /. ec. 1, 
10. 
Pristis antiqguorum, Cuy. U. S. Penn. 


Fam. RAUDEx. 


Torpedo sp.— Benn. Monterey. 
—? Mrrcu. N. York. 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Raia batis, Smivu. Massach. 
»,  ¢lavata, Iv. Do. 
Trygon sabinum, Cuv. Florida. 
» Micrura, Cuv. N. Jersey. Lr 
SuEUR. 
Myliobatis Fremenvillii, Lz Suzur. Rhode 
Id. 
»  quadriloba, Cuv. N. Jersey. Le 
SUEUR. 
»  Narinari, Marcer. San Blas. 
BENN. 
Cephaloptera mobular, Duu. 17. Dela- 
ware. Le SuEUR. 
»  vampirus, Mircen., 
York. 


Penn. N. 


Raia Sayii, Le Sunur, N. Jersey. 
»  Desmarestii, In. Florida. 
»  eglanteria, In. Carolina. 


Fam. CycLosToMATA. 
Petromyzon tridentatus, F. B. A. 3, 293. 


»  Chantenay, Ip. Pennsylv. Columb. R. 

»  fullonica, Fasr. Greenland. » fluvialis, Ip. & Mrtcu. N. York, 
»  ocellata, Mircu. N. York. Mack. R. 

»  diaphana, Ip. Do. Petromyzon marinus, Mircx. N. York, 
»  eentroura, Ip. Do. Mass. 


»  bonasus, Ip. N. York. » niger, Rar. Ohio. 


Selachiidee.—The European seas nourish about thirty mem- 
bers of this family, belonging to the genera scyllium, carcharias, 
lamna, galeus, mustelus, notidanus, selache, spinax, centrina, 
scymnus, zygena, squatina, and pristis. The sharks of the 
American seas have been very imperfectly investigated; but 
since the food provided for them is much the same as on the 
east side of the Atlantic, we may expect to find them exhibiting 
the same generic forms, and their analogy to the birds and 
beasts of prey would also lead us to the same conclusion. 

Raiidee.—Cuvier, in speaking of the Rays, observes that no 
confidence whatever can be reposed on the synonymy of Artedi, 
Linneus, and Bloch, since these authors have taken their spe- 
cific characters chiefly from the number of spines. which vary 
with the age and sex of the individual. Hence as the Linnean 
names have been imposed on many of the American rays, our 
list is without doubt erroneous as well as defective. About 
twenty species have been described as inhabitants of the Euro- 
pean seas; they are distributed by Cuvier into the following 
genera; 7*hinobatis, torpedo, raia, trygon, myliobates, and 
cephaloptera. 

Cyclostomata.—Of this family, which contains the most 
simply organised fishes, the European seas nourish only about 
seven species belonging to the genera petromyzon, gasterobran- 
chus, anmocetus, and amphioxus (Yarrell), but there is reason 
to believe that the family is more numerous in the American 
waters. The petromyzon tridentatus which inhabits the estu- 


ON NORTH AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 223 


ary of the Columbia, resembles p. Planeri in its fringed lips, 
and fluviatilis in the strength and form of its teeth, but not in 
their arrangement. Lampreys exist in the Mackenzie river 
which joins the Arctic sea in the 68th parallel. 


The preceding report occupies a greater portion of the Soci- 
ty’s valuable volume than I could have wished, but I was unable 
to compress it further without departing entirely from the plan 
that I have adopted. The list of species, though they might 
have been omitted had the paper referred only to a country like 
Europe, whose natural productions are fully enumerated in ac- 
cessible treatises, are in fact essential to a view of the present 
state of our knowledge of the ferine inhabitants of a continent 
which confessedly nourishes many species still undescribed ; 
and being moreover the data for our remarks on the geographical 
distribution of animal forms, they are necessary to enable the 
naturalist to judge of the value of the statements collected from 
the various authors referred to, and of the opinions offered upon 
them. The comparison between the faune of North America 
and Europe which runs throughout the paper, contributes to 
indicate not only the variations of animal life in different loca- 
lities, and in different circumstances, under the same parallels of 
latitude, but also, though more obscurely and merely by analogy, 
the tribes of animals of which new species will be most pro- 
bably hereafter detected in North America. 

Zoology, as Cuvier has remarked, is now and must continue 
to be for many years, a science of observation only, and not of 
calculation ; and no general principles hitherto established will 
enable us to say what are the aboriginal inhabitants of any 
quarter of the world. It seemed therefore hopeless to attempt 
to elicit the laws of the distribution of animal life from results 
yielded by a fauna so very imperfectly investigated as that of 
North America; consequently in the preceding report, the 
_ ranges of the species have been generally stated, as recorded by 

_ observers, and without any reference to the opinions which have 
been heretofore advanced by theoretical writers. Buffon ha- 
zarded the remark that none of the animals of the Old World 
exist in the New, except the few which are capable of propagating 
in the high northern latitudes. Temminck adduces circum- 
stances which favour a modern opinion almost directly opposed 
to Buffon’s; namely, that all the genera which people the earth 
(a small number belonging to the polar regions only excepted) 
are to be found in the equatorial zone, or at least within the 
tropics ; and that the genera are spread abroad by means of 
analogues or species possessing exactly similar generic cha- 


224 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


racters, which range in the same parallels of latitude, through 
all the degrees of longitude, and that notwithstanding the bar- 
rier which a wide ocean may be supposed to interpose*. The 
comprehensiveness of this law will evidently be modified by the 
number of generic divisions admitted by naturalists, and it will 
be scarcely tenable if the geographical groups of species be 
raised to generic rank as has been of late frequently done. 

The report includes only the vErTEBRATA, but the fourth 
volume of the Fauna Boreali-Americana, by the Reverend 
William Kirby, now in the press, will give a complete review of 
the present state of North American Enromoxtoey. Almost 
all that is known of the crRusTACEZ, MOLLUSC, and zoo- 
pHyTA of that country, is owing to the labours of Messrs. Say 
and Le Sueur, whose original papers are contained in the Journal 
of the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, so often quoted. 
Dr. 8. G. Morton, in an able synopsis of the organic remains of 
the cretaceous group of the United States, lately republished 
from Silliman’s Journal, gives the following list of recent shells 
common to the European and American coasts of the Atlantic. 


Purpura lapillus. Modiola papuana. 
Buccinum undatum. Mactra deaurata. 
Natica carena. Spirorbis nautuloides. 
Fusus islandicus. Thracia convexa. 
Cyprina islandica. Solecurtus fragilis. 
Saxicava rugosa. Glycimeris siliqua. 
Lucina divaricata. Cardium groenlandicum. 
Pholas crispata. : islandicum. 
“ costata. Strigilla carnaria. 
Solen ensis. Tellina punicea. 
Mya arenaria. Pecten islandicus. 
Mytilus edulis. Balanus ovularis. 


A list of the fresh-water shells of the fur countries occurs in 
the third volume of the Fauna Boreali-Americana. 


EMENDANDA. 


In page 168, line 9, for 85, read 75. The same error occurs in Audubon’s Ornitho- 
logical Biography, vol. i. p. 381. 

Mr. Swainson’s 2d vol. of the Natural History of Birds having been published while 
this paper was passing through the press, we followed it in making some changes in the 
arrangements of the grallatores, in consequence of which the following alterations re- 
quire to be made in the columns of numbers of the table in page 177. Tantalide 5, 1, 
1. Ardeide, 14, 14,4. Scolopacide, 45, 37, 24. Rallide,7,7,1. Charadriade, 8, 
11, 3. 

We have followed the common practice in arranging the phalaropes with the sco- 
lopacide ; but they are, asTemminck has remarked, decidedly natatorial in their habits ; 
and we may add, resemble the ducks in their under plumage and bills: on the other 
hand, the flamingo is, as Dr. Smith has observed, a true wader in its manners, and has 
been classed as such by all ornithologists except Mr. Swainson. Vide Swarns. Birps, 
ii. p. 190. 


* Monogr. &c. 


~~ 


—— 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 225 


Supplementary Report on the Mathematical Theory of Fluids. 
By the Rev. J. Cuaruis, Plumian Professor of Astronomy 
in the University of Cambridge. 


Tue object of the first Report which I read before the Associ- 
ation was to sketch out the processes of calculation, and exhibit 
the results obtained in the applications of analysis to fluids which 
were supposed either to be incompressible, and therefore of uni- 
form density ; or compressible in such a manner that the density 
is, under all circumstances, the same where the pressure is the 
same. Such fluids do not exist in Nature. . All /iguids are com- 
pressible in some degree, and the pressure in every aeriform fiuid 
varies as well with the temperature as with the density ; yet these 
hypothetical fluids are in a mathematical sense intimately allied 
to existing fluids. The results which calculation gives on the 
supposition of incompressibility admit of comparison with facts 
observed in the equilibrium and motion of water ; and the laws 
of pressure, motion, and propagation of motion, arrived at in the 
mathematical treatment of the imaginary fluid, whose pressure is 
conceived to depend on the density alone, are first approxima- 
tions towards a knowledge of what actually takes place in ar. 
The comparison of the calculated results with fact and experi- 
ment, in these normal cases, serves to show the degree of influence 
to be attributed to the modifications which the fundamental pro- 
perties of the imaginary fluids must undergo, to make them agree 
more nearly with those of real fluids. Of late years mathema- 
ticians have introduced such modifications into their theories, 
by reasoning from certain hypotheses, respecting the interior 
constitution of bodies, and the mechanical action of their mole- 
cules, for the purpose of treating mathematically of matter as it 
exists in Nature, and tracing to causes beyund the reach of di- 
rect observation and experiment the various sensible phenomena 
which it presents. I endeayoured in a second Report to give 
some account of the general principle of such theories, and to 
explain how they serve, by a satisfactory comparison of the the- 
oretical results with experiments, to establish the truth of the 
hypotheses on which the mathematical reasoning is based, and 
so to make known, respecting the intimate constitution and un 

seen conditions of bodies, something which could not be ascer- 
tained by observation alone ; as, in an instance in some respects 
analogous, mathematical calculations applied to electrical phe- 
nomena are considered to prove the existence of fluids whose 

VOL. v.— 1836. ; Q 


226 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


nature is such that they cannot be shown to exist by the evidence 
of the senses alone. The phenomena of capillary attraction ap- 
pear to have principally led to hypotheses respecting the consti- 
tution and molecular action of liquids. The first writers on the 
subject considered it sufficient to treat the liquid as incompres- 
sible, and attribute to its molecules, and to those of the contain- 
ing solids, an attracting force, sensible only at insensible distances 
from the attracting centres; on which supposition the problem 
does not materially differ from those that belong to the common 
theory of inelastic fluids. Poisson conceived it necessary to 
treat the question with more distinct reference to the molecular 
constitution of bodies, and to the repulsive, as well as attractive, 
forces which keep the molecules separate from each other in 
places of equilibrium. The views of this eminent mathematician 
respecting the constitution of fluid bodies, particularly as applied 
in his New Theory of Capillary Action, formed, together with 
an exposition of the theories of preceding writers, the main sub- 
ject of my second Report. I propose, in the present essay, to 
speak of some other instances of the application of mathematics, 
in explanation of the phenomena of rest or motion of fluids, and 
carefully to distinguish, as heretofore, the calculations derived 
from hypotheses merely from those that set out from experi- 
mental facts. The mechanical theory of the atmosphere, and 
of the propagation of sound in it, as affected by the development 
of heat, will principally claim our attention. In conclusion, I 
shall take occasion to add some supplementary remarks on sub- 
jects contained in the preceding Reports, and to notice any ad- 
ditions that may have been very recently made to this depart- 
ment of science. 

Mechanical Theory of the Atmosphere.—The pressure of a 
perfectly elastic fluid when at rest, and everywhere of the same 
temperature, varies in the same proportion as its density. This, 
the well-known law of Boyle and Mariotte, was recently proved 
to be true, for pressures amounting to twenty-seven times the 
mean atmospheric pressure, by a committee of the French In- 
stitute appointed for ascertaining the elastic force of steam, in 
some preliminary experiments for executing the purpose of the 
commission*. ‘The modification this law must receive to take 
in the effects of change of temperature (the fluid still remaining 
at rest) was first stated by Dalton as a result of experiment, and 
confirmed very shortly after by the experiments of Gay-Lussac f. 


* Mémoires de l’ Academie des Sciences, tom. x. p. 207. ; 

+, The paper of Dalton was read before the Manchester Philosophical Society 
in October, 1801, and was published in 1802. Gay-Lussac’s experiments ap- 
peared in the Annales de Chimie, 1802, tom. xliii. p. 137. 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 227 


It was ascertained by the independent labours of these two emi- 
nent philosophers, that different aeriform bodies, submitted to the 
same constant pressure, receive equal increments of volume for 
the same increment of temperature ; so that if the masses of any 
two be of equal size at one temperature, they will be of equal 
size at any other temperature, provided the pressure to which both 
are submitted, be the same and constant. It was also found b 
Gay-Lussac, that from the temperature of melting ice to that of 
boiling water, a mass of air, the size of which at the former tem- 
perature is expressed by unity, expands to a size expressed by 
1375. If the augmentation 0°375 be divided into 100 equal 
parts, and each of these parts be assumed to measure a degree 
of temperature, it will follow, from the theory enunciated above, 
that every gas dilates by the fractional part 0°00375 of its size 
at the temperature of melting ice for each degree of the centi- 
grade air thermometer. Thus, v’ being the volume when the 
temperature is 6° above zero, and vy the volume when the 
temperature under the same pressure is at zero, the relation be- 
tween the volume and temperature is expressed algebraically by 
the equation, 
v’ =v (1 + 0:00375 8). 


Also if D', D be the densities corresponding to v’, v, we have 
D' = D», as the quantity of matter is constant. If now the 
pressure on a unit of surface be changed, without altering the 
temperature, from the constant. value it has hitherto been sup- 
posed to have, which we will call @, to the value p, the density 
at the same time changing from D! to p, the law of Mariotte gives 


a = vo These three equations easily conduct to the following 
relation between p, p, and 6; 


Ce 


P=pH° lh + a9), 


where « is put for 0°00375. This formula is considered to ap- 
ply to gases, to vapours, and to compounds of both, or either. 
The value of a is the same for all, but ne differs for different fluids. 
If the unit of density for atmospheric air be assumed to be that 


at a particular place on the earth’s surface at 0° centigrade ip will 


plainly be the pressure there at that temperature. MM. Biot 

and Arago found ihe ratio of the specific gravity of mercury to 

that of air at the temperature of melting ice, and under the ba- 
E a2 


298 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


rometric pressure of 0™-76 (= 29°922 inches) to be 10462. From 
which it appears that if G be the measure of gravity at the place 
where this experiment was made (the Observatory of Paris), the 
value of — is O™76 x 10462 G, or 7951:12 x G. For any 
other place this quantity must be multiplied by the ratio of the 
force of gravity at that place to the force represented by G. The 
numerical value of G is 9™°80896, equivalent to 32°1824 English 
feet. The above coefficient of G is obtained on the supposition 
that the air is perfectly void of moisture. It has been ascertained, 
by a process which will be touched upon at a subsequent part of 
the Report, that the ratio of the density of air completely satu- 
rated with vapour, to air perfectly dry under the same pressure, 
is 099749. On multiplying 7951™12 by this factor the result 
is 7971™-09, which applies to air containing its maximum quan- 
tity of humidity. The mean of the two values, 7961™10, may 
be supposed to apply to the usual state of the atmosphere. Its 
equivalent in English fathoms is 435326. A correction should 
also be given to the factor 0°00375, on account of the effect of 
vapour. When the temperature increases the quantity of vapour 
in the atmosphere augments at the same time, and as the density 
of vapour under the same pressure is greater than that of air, a 
given quantity of humid air will dilate more than an equal quan- 
tity of dry air: it has been usual in consequence to change the 
above factor to 0°004. As the temperature hitherto spoken of 
is always that indicated by the air thermometer when a mercu- 
rial thermometer is employed, a correction may be thought ne- 
cessary, on account of the different rates of expansion of mercury 
and air. The experiments, however, of MM. Petit and Dulong 
show that this correction is insensible between 0° and 100° cen- 
tigrade, and only begins to be of considerable magnitude at a 
temperature of 300° centigrade*. Within the same limits the 
increase of elastic force was found to be proportional to the in- 
crease of temperature, the volume being constant f. 

By the means above indicated, one relation between the press- 
ure, density, and temperature of an aeriform body has been ex- 
perimentally assigned, and the two constants which the equation 
expressive of this relation involves have been determined with 
great exactness. But in addition to this equation the mathe- 
matician requires another for the solution of any question in 
which the effect of variation of temperature is to be taken into 
account. For instance, if it were proposed to determine the 


* Memoir on the Dilatation of Gases. Journal de l’Ecole Polytechnique, 
cah. 18. p. 213. + p. 200 of the same Memoir. 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL TILEORY OF FLUIDS. 229 


pressure of the atmosphere at any assigned altitude above the 
earth’s surface, in other words, to solve the problem of the ba- 
rometric measurement of heights, a second equation, expressing 
the relation of the temperature to the density or the pressure, 
would be required. For want of such an equation, Laplace as- 
sumes, in*investigating his formula for the determination of 
heights by the barometer*, that the temperature is uniform, and 
equal to the mean of the observed temperatures at the higher 
and lower stations. This supposition, as Mr. Ivory has shown t, 
conducts to the same barometric formula as would result from 
supposing the decrements of atmospheric temperature to be 
equal for equal increments of height above the earth’s surface. 

The only attempt I know of which has been made to collect 
the law of variation of temperature at different heights in the 
atmosphere from observations, is that by Mr. Atkinson in his 
Memoir on Astronomical Refractions contained in the second 
volume of the Transactions of the Royal Astronomical Society. 
His object is to arrive at the law by a consideration of as many 
recorded observations as could be procured of temperatures in 
different latitudes and different elevations (principally those of 
General Roy t and Baron Humboldt §), by a discussion of which 
he comes to the conclusion, that for equal decrements of tem- 
perature the increments of height are in arithmetic progression. 
The following is the table of results given at p. 189 of the Me- 
moir, from Humboldt’s Observations in South America: 


Height. Depression of Therm. 
3724) Peet M.moiliaowadt ydlly 14°:070 Fahr. 
O40 TEE, cong wave 23°310 
ORS irish siside Dryeigacays - . « 30°°070 
WOFIOe 21910. play iy idodd oF. kus 34°715 

ASYH4) wy arwedousien Lig ore 49°°620 
WO28G6us) Gwisedasl), Wao ot [20572380 


The same arithmetic progression results from the observations 
in Europe as from those in South America, and the general em- 
pirical formula connecting the height 4 (expressed in feet) and 
the depression z (expressed in degrees of Fahrenheit) below the 
temperature at the earth’s surface, is the following : 


his { 251°3 +3 (n— 1) bn. 


- * Mécanique Céleste, liv. x. chap. iv. §. 14. 

+ Philosophical Transactions, 1823, p. 455. 

{ Phil. Trans. 1777, part ii. p. 653. 

§ Memoir on Isothermal Lines, in the Mémoires @’ Arcueil, tom. iii. p. 462; 
translated in Edin, Phil. Journ., vols. iii., iv., v. ' 


230 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


If this law, which requires confirmation by observations more 
in number, and extended over a greater portion of the earth’s 
surface, should be finally established, the usual formula for the 
barometric determination of heights will require some modifica- 
tion. The mathematical reasoning in this problem ought also 
in strictness to proceed on the supposition that the atmosphere 
is in motion, and not, as is always supposed, at rest ; but this 
improvement in the theory is not likely to be effected till at the 
same time a mathematical theory of the periodic oscillations of 
the barometer can be given. 

It remains to notice the attempts of a purely theoretical cha- 
racter which have been made to furnish the second equation 
above spoken of, and by it to assign a relation between the tem-~ 
perature, pressure, and density of the air at different elevations. 
If we conceive the atmosphere to be at rest, and every point of 
it to be in its mean state with respect to temperature, there will 
be a certain temperature corresponding to a certain density ; in 
other terms, the density will be a function of the temperature. 
Now by experiment it is found that when a given mass of air is 
suddenly rarefied by mechanical means, at the first instant, before 
it receives any accession of heat from surrounding bodies, its 
temperature is lowered, and it is supposed to absorb a quantity 
of heat equal to the diminution of temperature. The heat that 
has disappeared is conceived to become latent, while the total 
quantity of heat, consisting of the latent heat, and that indicated 
by the thermometer, remains the same in the given mass, till 
the temperature is raised by the position of the mass in the midst 
of bodies of a higher temperature. Dr. Dalton conceived the 
condition of the air in this experiment at the first moment of ra- 
refaction to be analogous to that of air of the same state of ra- 
refaction in the atmosphere, and consequently infers that to the 
same quantity of atmospheric air the same quantity of heat is 
always attached, a loss of temperature being compensated for by 
an increase of latent heat, or, as it is also called, heat of combi- 
nation, and an increase of temperature being due to a develop- 
ment of latent heat. Admitting, therefore, that the density of 
the atmosphere is a function of the temperature, it will follow 
from this hypothesis that it is also a function of the latent heat. 
The truth of this theory can be judged of only by its forming a 
basis for mathematical calculation, and so allowing us to compare 
the consequences that flow from it with experience. Mr. Ivory 
has enabled us to judge of it in this manner by a series of valu- 
able papers on this subject contained in the 66th volume of the 
Philosophical Magazine*. Mr. Ivory admits with Dr. Dalton 

* pp. 12, 81, 241. 


” 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 251 


that the density is a function of the heat of combination, with- 
out allowing that the loss of temperature is exactly equal to the 
heat that enters into combination in the latent form. His rea- 
soning is in fact conducted on the supposition that the loss of 
temperature is equal to the heat of combination, diminished by 
heat from extraneous bodies. To ascertain the function that 
the density is of the latent heat, he avails himself of a well-known 
experiment, first made by MM. Clement and Desormes, and re- 
peated afterwards by MM. Gay-Lussac and Welter, which de- 
termined the ratio of the specific heat of air submitted to a 
constant pressure to its specific heat when retained in a con- 
stant volume. This ratio Gay-Lussac found to be nearly of con- 
stant value between the temperatures — 20° and 40° of the cen- 
tigrade thermometer, and between the pressures 0™:144 and 
1™-46. By assuming it to be constant, Mr. Ivory arrives at the 
function he is seeking for, and further, supposing the heat from 
extraneous sources to vanish, i. e. by returning to the Daltonian 
hypothesis, he is conducted to a very simple relation between the 
pressure and the density expressed algebraically by the equation 

=p”, where p is the pressure relative to a unit of pressure, p 
the density relative to a unit of density, and m the ratio just 
spoken of. This same equation M. Poisson had previously ob- 
tained* by means of the same experimental results, but without 
the consideration of latent heat, as I shall afterwards. have oc- 
casion to mention. As the effect of heat in determining the at- 
mospheric density and pressure is taken into account in this 
equation, if it be a true equation, it will be that additional one 
which is required for the complete solution of problems, such as 
the barometric measurement of heights. It is, therefore, im- 
portant to inquire whether the equation p = p” expresses the 
law of nature. By pursuing the investigation, on the supposition 
that:the total heat of a mass of air is made up of the latent heat, 
the heat of temperature, and extraneous heat, and joining to ex - 
pressions previously obtained for p and p, the usual differential 
equation dp = — gpd relative to the pressure, density, and al- 
titude (z), Mr. Ivory arrives at an equation (Phil. Mag., vol. lxvi. 
p- 242) by which the hypothesis of Dalton may. be put to the 
test. He finds that there are an unlimited number of supposi- 
tions all equally leading to an equation of the form p = p”, m 
being different for each, and all indicating different atmospheres, 
which possess’ the common property of decreasing in tempera- 
ture, at a rate proportional to the increase of altitude. Tf m= 1, 
and consequently p = p, the decrement of temperature is infi- 


* Connaissance des Tems for 1826, published in 1823, 


232 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


nitely slow, or the temperature is uniform. If m = 1:375, 
which is the ratio of the specific heats in Gay-Lussac’s experi- 
ment, and consequently the value of m on Dalton’s hypothesis, 
because the air on this supposition possesses the greatest possible 
degree of cold that can be produced by rarefaction, the calcu- 
lated amount of decrement of temperature is 1° centesimal for 
an altitude of 674 fathoms, and the total height of the atmosphere 
is 20 miles. But according to Mr. Atkinson’s memoir, 1° is the 
real amount of depression in the first 80 fathoms of ascent. 
Mr. Ivory adopts 90 fathoms from the temperature observed in 
Gay-Lussac’s balloon ascent, and derives 4 for the corresponding 
value of m. From all this it appears that the theory we are ex- 
amining, being pursued by mathematical reasoning to its con- 
sequences, is shown to be an approximation to fact, but not 
accurately true, because it assigns too large a rate of decrement 
of temperature to the lower strata of the atmosphere ; and, if 
Atkinson’s formula be correct, it errs also in giving a uniform 
instead of a decreasing rate of decrement in ascending to the 
higher regions. 

Mr. Ivory, in his celebrated paper* on astronomical refrac- 
tions, has pursued a different train of reasoning with reference 
to this subject. He there sets out with supposing the decre- 
ments of temperature to be equal for equal increments of height, 
and is readily conducted (p. 437) to an equation equivalent to 
p=p™. When the value 3, derived from Gay-Lussac’s ascent, 
is substituted for m, this equation answers very well the purpose 
of calculating a table of refractions, and gives them with great 
accuracy for altitudes very little above the horizon. It does not 
come within the province of this Report to speak of the problem 
of astronomical refraction, excepting so far as it bears upon 
the constitution of the atmosphere ; I shall therefore only remark 
that a comparison of refractions, determined by astronomical 
observations with refractions calculated on any theory of the 
constitution of the atmosphere, does not serve as a good test of 
_ the truth of the theory. It results from the reasoning in the 
Mécanique Célestet+, that as far as 74° of zenith distance the 
calculated amount of refraction agrees very nearly with the ob- 
served, independently of any assumed law of decrease of density. 
Dr. Brinkley showed the same thing in a more direct manner}, 
and obtained a formula, the error of which at 80° 45’ of zenith 
distance does not amount to half a second, whatever be the va- 
riation of density in the atmosphere. When the comparison is 


* Phil. Trans., 1823, p. 409. + liv. x. c.1. 
+ Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1815, vol. xii. p. 77. 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 233 


made for altitudes nearer the horizon, the differences between the 
calculated and real refractions are of considerable amount, in 
cases where the calculations have proceeded on suppositions re- 
lative to the constitution of the atmosphere very remote from 
the truth, and suffice to detect their inaccuracy. But it appears 
from Mr. Ivory’s reasoning, that if p be assumed proportional 


to p*, and the refractions be calculated accordingly, they come 
out very nearly true quite close to the horizon. It would, however, 


be wrong to conclude from this that the equation p = * repre- 
sents the law of nature, for the whole height of the atmosphere 
calculated by this formula is found to be twenty-five miles, which 
in all probability is far below the truth*. The fact is, astro- 
nomical refractions are very little influenced by the higher parts 
of the atmosphere, so that supposititious atmospheres agreeing 
with the existing atmosphere in the lower strata, and widely dif- 
is in the upper, may yet produce the same amount of refrac- 
tiony. 

For the reasons given above no definite relation between the 
pressure, density, and temperature of the air can be extracted 
either from the observation of astronomical refractions or from 
the theory of them. The only method that seems to be open 
for increasing our knowledge of the constitution of the atmo- 
sphere (and by consequence of elastic fluids in general) is to 
multiply thermometrical observations at various heights and dif- 
ferent stations, for the purpose of determining the law of the 
mean distribution of temperature, and how far the variation 
from one point to another depends on the variation of density 
alone. Something in this respect may possibly be gathered from 
the subject which next claims our attention. 

Theory of the Velocity of Sound.—The difference between 


_* In place af. the equation p=”, Mr. Ivory assumes another, viz., 


p=(1-S) os n + fo, f being an arbitrary quantity, which may have such 
values assigned to it that the rate of decrease of temperature shall be slower as 
the height increases, and the total height of the atmosphere be of any value 
from twenty-five miles to infinity. ‘This formula he employs in calculating 
refractions, and finds them sufficiently accurate by taking f = 4 and x infinitely 
great, which corresponds to an unlimited atmosphere, supposing the force of 
gravity to be the same at all heights. 

4 The memoir of M. Biot on astronomical refractions, read before the Paris 
Academy, Sept. 5, 1836, and printed in the additions to the Connaissance des 
Tems for 1839, treats the problem with all the generality and precision that 
may be hoped for on a subject of this nature. I advert to the memoir here, 
chiefly because its first part, on the conditions of the equilibrium of the atmo- 
sphere, contains a lucid exposition of the mode of mathematically estimating 
the effects of temperature, and of the mixture of aqueous vapour in the air. 


234 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


the observed velocity of sound and that which Newton derived 
from the law of Mariotte (amounting to nearly a sixth of the 
whole), has given rise to researches and experiments of a very 
interesting nature, in which the philosophers of France have 
chiefly signalized themselves. The first attempts to account for 
this difference were unavailing. Newton did not succeed. Euler 
supposed that as the Newtonian formula was obtained by neg- 
lecting powers of the velocity of the aerial particles higher than 
the first, the difference was attributable to an imperfect approxi- 
mation. But Lagrange showed that the velocity of propagation 
in the hypothetical fluid, of which the pressure varies in the 
same proportion as the density, is the same for large excursions 
of the vibrating particles as for small. Lagrange also remarked 
that he could explain the discordance between the theory and 
experiment by supposing the pressure of the air to increase 
more rapidly than its density, but was deterred from arguing on 
this supposition, as he considered it contradicted by the law of 
Mariotte. The true solution was reserved for Laplace, who 
first remarked that the excess of the experimental velocity above 
the theoretical was owing to the development of beat and pro- 
duction of cold which accompanies every very sudden compres- 
sion and dilatation of the air, and which was not taken into ac- 
count in the theory. This may perhaps be considered the most 
successful explanation of a natural phenomenon that has been 
given in modern times. The cause assigned was a vera causa, 
one that may be presented to our senses, and therefore perfectly 
intelligible. A very common experiment by which a combus- 
tible substance is inflamed by the sudden compression of air, 
leaves no room to doubt of the reality of the development of 
heat under the circumstances contemplated in the theory. This 
explanation was known to be Laplace’s a considerable time be- 
fore its author published anything expressly in writing respect- 
ing it. An article by M. Biot in the Journal de Physique, 
1802, and the memoir of M. Poisson on the Theory of Sound*, 
which was written in 1807, contain, I believe, the first applica- 
tions of analysis to Laplace’s Theory. Anterior to such appli- 
cation it is necessary to make some supposition for the purpose 
of connecting the effect of the developed heat with the other 
elements of the problem. That which Biot and Poisson adopted 
is thus expressed by the latter :—‘‘ In the propagation of sound, 
the compression or dilatation which takes place successively in 
the whole extent of the mass of air being very small, we may re- 
gard the augmentation or diminution of temperature due to this 


* Journal de l'Ecole Polytechnique, cah. xiv. 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 235 


change of density as being proportional to it.’’ By aid of this 
consideration he arrives at the following equation : 


a=y/ H(i (+ +qttD)> 


_ in which a is the velocity of sound, g the force of gravity, 2 h 
the pressure of the air on a unit of surface, when its density is D 
and temperature 6, and w the increment of temperature caused 
by the sudden condensation y- At the time this memoir was 
written no experiments had been made by which the rise’ of 
temperature, caused by a given small and sudden condensation, 
could be determined. M. Poisson therefore reverses the ques- 
tion, and infers the increment of temperature from the observed 
sie * 8h ofsound. He finds that if the dilatation or compression 
were ;+, of the whole volume, the temperature would be de- 
pressed or elevated one degree of the centigrade thermometer. 
In the volume of the Annales de Physique et de Chimie for the 
year 1816, Laplace published the following theorem without the 
demonstration : “ The velocity of sound is equal to the product 
of the velocity which the Newtonian formula gives, by the square 
rootof the ratio of the specific heat of air when the pressure is con- 
stant to its specific heat when the volume is constant.’’ The proof 
was first given in the Connaissance des Tems for 1825, and after- 
wards in the fifth volume of the Mécanique Céleste ; previous 
to which the experiment* of Clement and Desormes, before men- 
tioned, had furnished the means of instituting a numerical com- 
parison between the theoretical and the observed velocity of 
sound. This experiment was in fact a practical imitation, as 
near as could be, of what was supposed to take place in aerial 
vibrations. If specific heat be defined to be the quantity of heat 
required to raise the temperature 1° under given circumstances, 
the datum furnished by the experiment is the ratio of the spe- 
cific heat under a constant pressure to the specific heat under a 
constant volume. It is convenient to speak of it in these, ternis 
though the consideration of specific heats is not absolutely ne+ 
cessary in this question, as we shall presently see. By whatever 
terms it be denoted the datum is one which experiment alone can 
furnish, and without it no numerical comparison can be made 


* See the Memoir in the Journal de Physique for November, 1819. This 
memoir, which was composed in competition for the prize awarded by the 
French Institute in 1813 to MM. Delaroche and Berard, contains in addition 
- to the detail of experiments made with reference to the subject proposed by 
the Institute, viz., the specific heat of gases, the views of the authors respecting 
the absolute caloric of space and the absolute zero of caloric. 


236 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


between the theoretical and observed velocities of sound. The 
result of the comparison, first made by Laplace, was, that the 
theoretical determination fell short of the observed value by 
7™°5. A difference of this kind was to be expected, as it was 
impossible to perform the experiment so rapidly that some of 
the developed heat would not escape through contact of the air 
with the containing substances. The ratio of the specific heats, — 
as obtained by MM. Clement and Desormes, is 1°354. Gay- 
Lussac, on repeating their experiment with great care, and un- 
der circumstances a little different, found 1°375, which brings 
the observed and theoretical velocities something nearer, but 
the latter still falls short of the other. 

The mathematical theory* of Laplace is prefaced by certain 
theoretical considerations respecting free and latent heat, and 
the mutual action of the molecules of bodies and their caloric ; 
which are subsequently introduced into the investigation for de- 
termining the velocity of sound}. It is proper, however, to 
observe that the solution of this problem is not necessarily con- 
nected with any considerations either of latent heat or of speci- 
fic heats. This is sufficiently apparent from what M. Poisson 
has written on the subject. In the first of two excellent papers 
(contained in the volume of the Annales de Chimie et de Phy- 
sigue for 1823), which place in a simple point of view all that 
has been most satisfactorily established with reference to the 
question before us, this author deduces the velocity of sound, 
by means of the usual experimental data, from the formula ob- 
tained in his Memoir on the theory of sound, which, as was 
said before, rests on the single assumption that the increment 
of temperature is proportional to the condensation, without em- 
ploying any additional hypothesis whatever, and without any 
mention of specific heats or of latent heat. In the same paper 
he goes on to show, by adopting the definition of specific heat 
stated above, and by further supposing that for small changes 
of temperature the absolute quantity of heat gained or lost is 
proportional to the rise or fall of the thermometer, that the 


* Mécanique Céleste, liv. xii. chap. iii. 

+ Laplace has also supposed (liv. xii. chap. iii. art. 7,) that dee 
ec 
= (1—8) fe , @ being the density of the gas, c the free caloric which has a 
sensible effect on the thermometer, and £ a positive constant. This equation is 
not deduced from anterior considerations. It follows from it that OS Testa B fe. 

Cc 
and consequently that the free caloric increases as the density diminishes. 


° ieee | Niel 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 237 


‘ rAGG MN eree aS. 1 u t 1 
quantity expressed by 1 + (14 @8)y is equal to the ratio of 
the specific heat under a constant pressure to the specific heat 
under a constant volume. From the reasoning of M. Poisson 
we may therefore infer, that for the theoretical explanation of 
the excess of the velocity of sound over the Newtonian determi- 
nation one assumption only is absolutely necessary, viz., that 
the changes of temperature produced by sudden small variations 
of density are, for a given temperature of the air, proportional 
to those variations ; but if the consideration of specific heats be 
introduced, that it is necessary also to suppose the small varia- 
tions of absolute heat to be proportional to the corresponding 
variations of temperature. 

Mr. Ivory has written on this question some things well de- 
serving of notice. In a paper before referred to* he deduces 

j 2 \m 

the velocity of sound from the formula 3 et en ‘5 which 
he had previously arrived at by considerations already stated, 
and finds it equal to V ym, V being the velocity obtained ac- 
cording to the law of Boyle and Mariotte. This is the same 
value that is given by other methods, since the index m is the 
ratio of the specific heats. When the above equation is em- 
ployed with reference to the variation of density in the atmo- 
sphere and to astronomical refractions, the value of m that best 
accords with phenomena is nearly 1°25, as we have seen, in- 
stead of 1:°375. This seems to prove that the law of nature is 
not expressed under all circumstances by the same formula, and 
that one which applies very well to sudden changes of density 
of the air in motion is inapplicable to those that are permanent, 
like the variations of density of the atmosphere at rest depend- 
ing on the height above the earth’s surface. 

Afterwards, in 1827+, Mr. Ivory applied to the problem a 
different kind of reasoning on the following principles. First, 
it was admitted that equal quantities of absolute heat produce 
equal increments of volume: secondly, that the rise of tempe- 
rature is proportional to the increment of volume according to 
the indications of the air thermometer : thirdly, that the abso- 
lute heat is equal to the sum of the latent heat, and the heat of 
temperature. From which it follows that the increment of 
latent heat is also proportional to the increment of volume ; 
hence if y be the volume when the temperature is 0, »/ the volume 


* Phil. Mag., vol. 66, p. 12. 
; Phil. Mag. and Annals, vol. i. pp. 91 and 251. 


ae 


238 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


when the temperature is r, 7 the increase of latent heat accom- 
panying the change of volume from » to »', and a, 6, two con- 
stants, it will be seen that 


y=v(1 + ar), andy =v (1 + 62). 


Hence at = 62, or nie . The first of the expressions 
for v supposes the volume to change under a constant pressure ; 
the other obtains in whatever way the change of volume takes 
place. The ratio of 7 to r is the ratio of the heat absorbed bya 
mass of air, or become latent, by a given sudden rarefaction, 
to the heat of temperature required to expand the mass to the 
same degree of rarefaction. This ratio can therefore be in- 
ferred from the experiment of Clement and Desormes, so often 
cited; and as a is known, 6 may also be found. The absolute 
heat required to produce a rise of temperature + under a con- 
stant pressure is, according to this theory, t +7; and that re- 
quired to cause the same rise of temperature when the volume 
tT+7 
7. 


is constant is tr. Hence is the ratio of the specific heats ; 


and admitting Laplace’s theorem, the factor by which the 


—_———__ 


Newtonian velocity of sound must be multiplied is a/ re i 
7 
or / ree 3 . Mr. Ivory finally observes* that the main ele- 


ment on which the solution of the problem must turn, by what~ 
ever process the result is brought out, is the quantity of heat 
extricated from air condensed in a given degree ; and accurd- 
ingly he proceeds to investigate in an independent manner, 
the relation between the elasticity and density of a mass of air 
that varies its temperature as it dilates or contracts, without 
losing or receiving any heat by means of the surrounding me- 
dium. This investigation conducts to the following relation 
between the pressure and the density 


ed. p COND cise 
Gp Gh ofahis 9 


from which the velocity of propagation of sound is arrived at by 


the usual process, the factor being " 1+ 3 as before. From 


* Phil. Mag. and An., vol. i. p. 252. 


—— eee 


eo eas 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 239 


the above relation between p and p, Mr. Ivory infers (p. 255) 
that the ratio of the specific heats is not a constant ratio for 
large variations of density and temperature*. 

The principle on which the effect of moisture contained in the 
air is introduced into the theoretical determination of the velocity 
of sound, is derived from Dalton’s theory of mixed gases. If 
two quantities, v, v', of two gases under the same pressure p, 
and of the same temperature 9, be put into a space v + y, the 
gases will penetrate into each other and become perfectly mixed, 
so that the proportional parts will be everywhere the same in 
the same space. Also the temperature and pressure of the mix- 
ture will be » and 0, the same as those of the constituents. 
From these facts, established by experience, may be derived by 
reasoning as Poisson has done in the second of his papers in vol. 
xxiii. of the Annales de Chim. et Phys., p. 348, the following 
law, which experience also confirms :—“ The pressure of a mix-- 
ture of gases and vapours will always be the sum of the pres- 
sures which these fluids would support separately at the same 
temperature, and the same in volume as the mixture.’ The 
atmosphere in its usual state is a mixture of dry air and vapour 
of water. It is found that the maximum of aqueous vapour 
formed in a vacuum at the temperature 18°-75 C, is measured 
by the barometric height 0™-016, and by the preceding law the 
same height of the barometer would measure the elastic force of 
vapour formed at the same temperature in dry air of the ordinary 
pressure 0™-76, and increase the pressure to 0™776, since the 
maximum of vapour, that is, the greatest quantity which the 
given temperature allows to be formed, is the same in the two 
cases. Gay-Lussac has inferred from his experiments, that if 
aqueous vapour could be raised from the tension 0™016 to 
0™:76 without liquifying, its density would be to that of dry air, 
under the same pressure and at the same temperature, as 5 to 8. 
Hence in general, if D be the density of dry air, D’ that of moist 
air under agiven barometric pressure f, and at a given tempe- 


_* An equivalent relation between p and g may be obtained in another man- 
ner, which I have adverted to in a communication to the No. of the Phil. Mag. 
and Annals for May, 1830, and have since developed more fully in a paper re- 
cently read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society ; viz. by assuming the 
velocity of propagation of sound to be constant when the temperature is given, 
and then joining with the usual equations of fluid motion, a general expression 
for uniform propagation, which may be arrived at independently of the consi- 
deration of temperature. When the resulting equation between p and eis used 
for finding the velocity of propagation, it gives an expression agreeing with that 
obtained on the supposition of a constant ratio of the specific heats, when the 
eons and rarefactions are small, but diverging from it as they become 

arger. 


240 SIXTIL REPORT—1836. 


rature, and 2 be the tension of the vapour which the moist air 


nie : ' n 
contains, the density ofthe air in the mixture will be D ( 1 — h 


that of the vapour D “4 » and consequently the density of the 


compound D' is equal to D ¢ 7 =" Thus the actual density 


is given in terms of the density of dry air under the same pres- 
sure. In any instance to which this expression is applied, the 
quantity 2 will have to be determined by observation of the hy- 
grometer. 

The manner in which the theoretical formula for determining 
the velocity of sound is brought to the greatest possible degree of 
perfection having been now exhibited, it will be interesting to 
compare the result it gives with the most accurate experiments. 
Those which claim the greatest confidence in this respect are the 
experiments undertaken by Professor Moll, of Utrecht, and Dr. 
Van Beek in June 1823, a detail of which is contained in the 
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for 1824 (p. 
424,) Measures were taken to secure that the firing of the guns 
at two stations should take place as nearly as possible at the 
same instant, which was effected with much greater precision 
in these experiments than in those of the French Academicians 
in 1822. By this precaution the cause of error arising from the 
wind is removed, the velocity of propagation in still air being 
assumed to be the arithmetic mean between the velocities in- 
ferred from the observations at the two stations, as in fact it 
might be shown to be theoretically. The difference between 
two determinations on different days, when this precaution was 
attended to, was only 2°166 feet, whereas two other determina- 
tions on different days, when the shots were not reciprocal, 
differed by 20°84 feet. The mean velocity which the experiments 
gave for dry air at 0° of temperature was 332™-05 ( = 1089°744 
English feet). The mean excess of the experimental determina- 
tion over the theoretical, supposing the ratio of the specific 
heats to be 1°3748*, was 4™°58 ( = 15°032 feet). 

In Dr. Gregory’s experimentst, made in 1823, an anemometer 
was employed whose indications were found to agree with the 
velocity of the wind, as inferred from the difference of the velo- 


* It is shown by Dr. Simons (Phil. Trans., 1830, p. 213.) that the mean value 
of this ratio as derived from the experiments of Drs. Moll and Van Beek is 
1°4152. 

+ Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, vol. ii. p. 119. 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 241 


cities of sound when aided, and when opposed by the wind. 
The experiments were made with intervals between the stations, 
varying from less than half a mile to 23 miles, and in tempera- 
tures varying from 27° to 66° Fahr. The mean of eight results 
reduced to the temperature of freezing is stated by Sir John 
Herschel (Art. Sounn, Ency. Metrop.) to be 1088°05 feet. The 
velocity observed at the temperature of freezing was 1090717 
feet. 

A valuable series of experiments was made by Mr. Goldingham, 
at Madras, in 1820, extending through every month of the year. 
The following is a table of the mean temperature and mean de- 
termination of velocity for each month. 


Mean Height | Velocity Mean Height | Velocity 
of ina Month. of ina 
Thermometer.} Second. Thermometer.| Second. 


Month. 


ft. 
January .. 1101 || July 


_| February. . 1117 || August -. 
March.... 1134 || September 
April .... 1145 || October .. 
May. ~..... 1151 || November 
June .... 1157 || December 


It is interesting to observe, as the author remarks, “‘ how re- 
gularly the mean velocity proceeds to a maximum about the 
middle of the year, and afterwards retraces its steps, giving us 
a velocity in one case of 1164 feet in a second, and in the other 
of only 1099 feet. This regularity would, no doubt, be still 
greater with the mean of the observations of several years.’” In 
these experiments (which have been compared with theory by 
Mr. Galbraith*) the indications of the barometer and hygro- 
_ meter were noted; and though the experiments were not made 
by simultaneous reports, the effect of the wind may be consi- 
_ dered to be completely eliminated in the mean of the observa- 

_ tions of the whole year. It is worthy of remark that the differ- 
ence between the greatest and least velocities is much more 
_ considerable than, according to theory, would be due to the 
_ corresponding difference of temperature. The greatest and least 
indications of the hygrometer were 27‘85 and 1°43, the former in 
July and the other in December, the two months in which the ve- 
locity of sound was greatest and least. Sir John Herschel gives 
as the mean determination from the total of Mr. Goldingham’s 
experiments reduced to the temperature of freezing, a velocity of 


* See Phil. Mag. vol. Ixvi. p. 109, and vol. Ixviii. p. 214. 
VOL. Vv.— 1836. R 


242 SIXTH REPORT—1836- 


1086°7 feet. This must be considered as applying to the mean 
state of the hygrometer, the nature of which not being stated, 
its indications could not be made use of. 

Experiments were made by Captain Parry and Lieut. Foster 
expressly to determine the effect of low temperatures on the 
velocity of sound*. The following is a mean of results. 


— 41°°3 | — 33°°3 | — 27°-2 | — 21°0 


— 20°:0 | + 33°3 


Velocity 
in feet per| 985-9 1011°2 | 1009-2 | 1031-0 | 1039°8 | 1069-9 
Second. 


A comparison of the velocities at the highest and lowest tem- 
peratures differing by 74°°6, gives an increase of velocity of 
1:126 feet for each increase of temperature by 1° of Fahren- 
heit. A like comparison of the velocity at the lowest tem- 
perature, — 41°3, with the velocity in Mr. Goldingham’s 
experiments at the temperature 87°, gives an increase of 1°35 
feet for each degree of Fahrenheit. 

The experiments of Captain Parry and Lieut. Foster at Port 
Bowen in 1824—1825 have been compared with the theory by 
Professor Mollt. On using the coefficient 1°375, the velocity 
given by the theory falls short of the experimental value by 
17°47 feet, a difference exceeding that resulting from a like 
comparison of the experiments in the Netherlands by something 
less than 24 feet. In the arctic experiments the state of moi- 
sture in the air was not noted; but Professor Moll shows that 
this omission is productive of a very small error in very low 
temperatures. The near agreement of experiments made under 
circumstances so widely different, must lead us to suspect, as 
Professor Moll justly observes, that the difference which still 
remains between the results of computation and observation are 
to be ascribed to some imperfection in the theoretical formula, 
and not to any fault in the observations}. 

In 1828 M. Dulong§ read a memoir on the specific heats of 
elastic fluids, which requires to be noticed in conjunction with 

* See p. 235 of the Supplement to the Appendix of Captain Parry’s Voyage 
in 1819—1820. 

+ Phil. Trans. 1823, p. 97. 

t For a synoptical view of the results obtained by different observers, the dates 
of their observations, and the circumstances under which they were made, I 
may refer to a table in Art. 16 of Sir John Herschel’s Treatise on Sound in 


the Encyclopedia Metropolitana. 
§ Mémoires de l'Institut, tom. x. p. 147. 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 248 
the subject before us. M. Dulong takes for demonstrated that 
the square of the quotient of the real velocity of sound in any 
elastic fluid whatever, divided by the velocity calculated accord- 
ing to the formula of Newton, is equal to the ratio of the speci- 
fic heat for a constant pressure to the specific heat for a constant 
volume. His object is to find this ratio for different elastic fluids, 
which, it is plain, may be inferred, according to this theorem, 
from the real velocity with which sound is: propagated in them. 
It is not possible to obtain these velocities for any other elastic 
fluid than atmospheric air, excepting by indirect means. M. 
Dulong avails himself of a method which had been previously em- 
ployed by various experimenters, but not with complete success, 
as was evident from the discordant results they obtained. The 
method consists in determining the velocity of propagation from 
the musical note rendered by a given cylindrical tube, and from 
the measured distance between two consecutive nodal sections 
or positions of minimum vibration, which interval he calls the 
length of a concameration. 'The pitch of the note gives the 
number of vibrations in a given time, and consequently the time 
of propagation over the measured interval, and therefore the ve- 
locity of the sound. By pursuing a process different from any 
that had been adopted before, M. Dulong is enabled to give 
great precision to this method. He first operates on atmo- 
spheric air, with the view of ascertaining the accuracy which the 
method admits of. By various trials, each more exact than the 
preceding, he obtains results, all of which fall short in a small 
degree of the velocity obtained by direct observation, and ac- 

_ cordingly comes to the conclusion that the relation indicated by 

_ theory between the velocity of sound in free air, and the length, 

_ such as it can be observed, of the concamerations that are formed 

_ in a flute-tube, is not verified exactly. He hints at some experi- 

‘ments proper for making evident the cause of this discordance, 

but I am not aware that any such have been published. 

__ As this method fails in giving exactly the ratio of the specific 

heats of atmospheric air, M. Dulong adopts a ratio (viz. 1*421) 

which he says “is the mean of a great number of direct obser- 

| vations made in free air by different observers.’ I mention this 
particularly, as it seems to have been supposed* that Dulong 


f _* M. Poisson’s excellent Treatise on Mechanics is a work so extensively used 
_ that it is desirable to point out any error that may have inadvertently crept 
into it. I do not therefore scruple to advert to an inaccuracy in p. 716, tom. ii. 
- (2nd ed.), where the author asserts that the ratio 1°421 is deduced from obser- 
_ Vation of the sound produced by air inclosed in a tube, and endeavours to ac- 
count for the excess of this value above another derived from the propagation of 
* sound in free air, by the different radiation of heat in the two circumstances. 
This is contradicted by the assertion quoted above from Dulong’s Memoir. 
/ R 2 . 


244 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


obtained this ratio from his own experiments. In the next place 
he establishes, contrary to an opinion previously expressed by 
M. Biot, that with gases very different in their physical proper- 
ties, such as hydrogen gas and carbonic acid gas, the nodal 
sections are exactly in the same positions in the same tube. This 
is an important fact with reference to the theory of vibrations 
of aeriform fluids in tubes, from which it readily follows that 
the relative velocities of propagation of different elastic fluids 
may be inferred from the musical notes they give out from the 
same tube; and taking the ratio of the specific heats of air to be 
that determined by direct observations on sound, the ratios for 
the other fluids will be immediately deduced from these veloci- 
ties. Representing in general the ratio of the specific heats by 
1 + f, the quantity f is taken by Dulong to be the measure of 
the thermometric effect produced by sudden and equal changes 
of density of the several fluids ; then assuming the thermometric 
effects thus developed to be inversely as the specific heats under 
a constant volume, he is furnished with numbers to express these 
specific heats, that of air being expressed by unity. Hence by 
means of the ratios of the specific heats obtained as above men- 
tioned, numbers expressive of the specific heats under a constant 
pressure are also arrived at, that of air being again taken for the 
unit. These last numbers, compared with those which Berard 
and Delaroche* obtained by direct experiment, are found to 
agree with considerable accuracy. In concluding this part of 
the subject I cannot forbear remarking, in the words of Dulong, 
“‘ how much science owes to the natural philosophers who direct 
their labours towards giving more and more precision to the de- 
termination of the numerical coefficients which become theo- 
retical elements of constant use.’’ Suchare the numerical measure 
of the force of gravity ; the ratio of the density of mercury to 
that of air ; the coefficients of the dilatation of mercury and of the 
gases ; the ratios of the densities of elastic fluids; the actual 
velocity of sound in air. All these constants, together with the 
exact length of the aerial vibrations corresponding to a given 
musical note, have been employed in arriving at the principal 
conclusion contained in the valuable memoir which has been the 
subject of the preceding remarks. 

Propagation of Sound through Liquids.—The experiments 
of Canton, of CErsted, and Colladon and Sturm haveascertained 
the degree in which water is compressible, and proved that for 
small changes of volume the compressions are proportional to 
the compressing forces. This law seems to indicate that the 


* Annales de Chimie, tom. Ixxxy. pp. 72 and 118, 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 245 


pressure in the interior of liquids is a function of the density, 
(at least at distances from their surfaces greater than the radius 
of the sphere of the molecular action). For admitting this to 
be the case, it will be a simple analytical consequence, that the 
small variations of pressure are propurtional to the correspond- 
ing variations of density, whatever be the form of the function 
which connects the pressure and density together*. The know- 
ledge of the degree of compressibility of water or of any other 
liquid, furnishes the means of determining the velocity with 
which sound is propagated in it. This application of the expe- 
rimental determination of compression has been made by Dr. 
Young and Laplace, who have each given a formula by which, 
when the contraction is known for a given pressure, the velocity 
of propagation can be calculated. Poisson has also given a de- 
monstration of theformulain question}, which, it appears, applies 
as well to solids as to liquids. If D be the density of the solid 
or liquid, & the length of a cylindrical column of it under a 
known pressure, ¢ the small diminution of this length by a given 
increase of pressure P, then the velocity of propagation will be 

Pk 

De 
made in the lake of Geneva by M. Colladon in 1826§. On ob- 
serving that the sound of a bell struck a little below the surface 
of the water was not audible out of the water at considerable 
distances from the point of disturbance, but appeared to be de- 
flected downwards when it fell very obliquely on the water sur- 
face, it occurred to him to placea little below the surface a metallic 
plate, with its plane vertical and perpendicular to the direction 
of the sound, surmounted by a conical tube, to the end of which 
when the ear was applied the sounds caught by the metal plate 
were audible when they came from a distance of 13487 metres. 
The sound traversed this distance in 9:4 seconds, consequently 
the velocity was 1435 metres in a second. By calculating the 
velocity given by the formula with due attention to all the cir- 
cumstances that might affect the accuracy of the result, M. Col- 
ladon finds 1428 metres. The difference between this and the 
experimental value falls within the limits of the possible errors 
of obseryation, and the accordance of the theory with fact may 


This formula has been put to the test by experiments 


|. * Experiments on alcohol and sulphuric zther show a sensible diminution of 
contraction for high pressures. See the Essay of MM. Colladon and Sturm, 
An. de Chim. et de Phys., tom. xxxvi. p. 144—147. 

+ Lectures on Natural Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 69. 

t Mémoires de l'Institut, An 1819, p. 396—400, 

§ An. de Chim. et de Phys. tom, xxxvi, p. 242, 


246 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


therefore be pronounced to be satisfactory. As the formula was 
obtained without taking into account the effect of the develop- 
ment of heat, we may infer from the small difference between the 
above results, that this effect, if not wholly insensible, is of very 
small amount. M. Colladon remarks respecting the nature of 
the sound transmitted through the water, that when caused by 
the striking of a bell, it was heard as a sharp and dry sound, 
resembling the striking of two knife-blades against each other. 
This fact seems to prove with respect to liquids, what is also 
most probably true of solids, that the relation between their 
density and pressure is such as not to allow the condensations 
arising from any disturbing cause to be transmitted to great di- 
stances exactly in the order and proportion in which they are 
originally impressed, in the same manner as when the pressure 
varies in the simple ratio of the density. On this account pro- 
bably, as well as by reason of their great density, liquids and 
solids are not vehicles so proper for conveying vocal sounds as 
aeriform fluids. 

Theories of Elastic Fluids —A few words must now be said 
on those refined theories respecting elastic fluids, which, pro- 
ceeding upon certain hypotheses of their ultimate constitution 
and the action of molecular forces, are directed to the purpose 
of accounting by mathematical reasoning for certain of their 
fundamental properties, with which we have originally become 
acquainted by experience only. Such a theory is that at the 
commencement of the 12th book of the Mécanique Céleste, to 
which allusion has already been made. The leading principles 
of this theory are of the following nature. Each molecule of a 
body, whether in the solid, liquid, or aeriform state, is submitted 
to the action of three forces: 1°. The repulsion of its caloric by 
the caloric of the other molecules. 2°. The attraction of its 
caloric by these molecules. 3°. The attraction of the molecule 
itself, either by the caloric of these molecules or by the molecules 
themselves. The caloric of each particle is supposed to be 
attached to it by the attraction of the particle. In aeriform 
bodies, the two latter, the attractive forces, are considered to be 
insensible, and the only action the molecules are subject to is 
that arising from the mutual repulsion of their caloric. This 
action is conceived to be independent of the nature of the mole- 
cules. From these principles Laplace derives, by no very com- 
plex mathematical reasoning, the fundamental properties of 
elastic fluids, viz., the law of Mariotte, the law of Dalton and 
Gay-Lussac, (which are shown to be true of mixed as well as 
simple gases,) and the law of the pressure of mixed gases. The 
same principles, together with the consideration of sensible and 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 947 


latent heat and of specific heats, are employed in solving the 
problem of the velocity of sound, the solution of which, as was 
before remarked, Poisson has derived from the fundamental 
properties of elastic fluids considered as data of observation. 

With reference to the preceding theory it may be remarked, 
that although it conducts by simple analysis to the fundamental 
properties of elastic fluids, and would seem on that account to 
possess the character of truth, yet it does not appear to have 
been very generally received, and by some is considered to be 
not sufficiently xatural. I will venture to suggest a reason for 
this, which is equally applicable to some other of the more abs- 
tract physical theories, viz. that after we have gone through 
the mathematical reasoning, and been satisfied of its correctness, 
on recurring to the original hypotheses, there is some difficulty 
in judging of them or comprehending them by comparison with 
anything we see or know by experience. ‘They are too little 
analogous to facts of observation. If a theory cannot rest on 
experimental facts, it ought at least to contain no hypotheses 
which may not be distinctly understood from our experimental 
knowledge: possibly it is not otherwise a view of the real facts 
of nature. In short, the evidence for the truth of hypotheses 
which from their nature do not admit of immediate verification 
by experiment, must depend as much on the facility with which 
they are conceived in the mind, and can be expressed in terms 
of acknowledged import, as upon the accordance of the mathe- 

“matical results they lead to with experience. 

‘In one* of the volumes of the Journal of the Polytechnic 
School there is an elaborate memoir by M. Poisson, which com- 
prises the substance of two preceding memoirs on the equili- 
brium and motion of elastic bodies, and on the equilibrium of 
fluids, and concludes with calculating, according to the principles 
of the reasoning contained in the preceding part, the pressure of 
fluids in motion. Throughout this work the reasoning is con- 
ducted on the hypothesis that bodies are formed of disjoined 
molecules, separated from one another by spaces void of ponder- 
able matter, which is considered to be “actually the case in 
nature ;’’ and the chief object in view is to form the general 
equations of the equilibrium and motion both of elastic bodies 
and of liquid and aeriform bodies, according to this hypo- 
thesis, in a manner as simple and as free from difficulty as 
possible. By taking account of the void spaces separating 
the atoms, it is found that the pressure is expressed, not by 
an integral, but by a sum, which, on the supposition that the 
intervals between the molecules are small compared to: their 


* Tom. xiii. cah. 20, p. 1. 


248 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


radius of activity, is reducible to a very converging series, the 
terms: of which depend on the density. In this manner the 
following equation, containing two terms of the series, and ap- 


plicable to solids not crystallized, to liquids, and to gases, is ob- 
tained : 


p=ap + bp 3, 


in which p is the pressure, equal in all directions, p the density, 
and a and 4 constant coefficients depending only on the nature 
of the body and the quantity of heat. This equation applies 
without any consideration of latent heat. Laplace in his specu- 
lations arrived at an equation of the form p = a p*. But as it 
appeared from the phenomenon of the propagation of sound that 
for a given quantity of culoric, and consequently a constant 
value of a, the pressure varied nearly as p 4, to account for this 


difference the supposition of latent heat was introduced, which 
is avoided by the more general formula consisting of two terms. 
M. Poisson shows how his formula indicates that in solids and 
liquids the mutual attraction of the molecules extends further 
than their repulsion, and may be sensible at distances where the 
latter has altogether disappeared. In this and other of his 
writings M. Poisson considers the characteristic property of 
fluids, or the condition of fluidity to be, that the molecules ar- 
range themselves alike in all directions from any fixed point, 
and with this property, that of pressing equally in all directions 
to be intimately connected. Probably few will be disposed to 
dissent from this view. But when he proceeds to assign as an 
@ priori reason for this property the perfect mobility of the par- 
ticles, and considers this mobility to result from their spherical 
form, or from their being so remote from each other that their 
form has no sensible influence on their mutual action, we cannot 
but feel that the cause assigned is not such that we can judge 
of it by any previous knowledge or experience. It would be 
more in conformity with the rule Newton laid down of referring 
effects to ultimate mechanical causes, if the mobility of the par- 
ticles of fluids and the property of similar distribution in all 
directions about a given point, were ascribed to a particular ac- 
tion of the molecular forces resulting from a particular law of 
variation. If, for instance, the molecular repulsion from a single 
particle, or rather the resultant of the repulsions from an aggre- 
gate of particles, decreased very rapidly at a certain small di- 
stance from the centre to which it is directed, and then after 
becoming attractive, extended to a much larger distance without 
ever becoming of large magnitude, it seems demonstrable that 


E 


el ee eee 


a A Ci al 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 249 


from such a law theabove-mentioned properties would result ; for 
the state of things would thus be nearly the same as if the fluid 
were supposed to consist of perfectly smooth spherical balls in 
contact, whose radii are all equal to the radius of the sphere of 
activity of the molecular repulsion, and whose centres conse- 
quently in the state of equilibrium are equidistant. This mode 
of accounting for the characteristic property of fluids is not in- 
consistent with the principal inference M. Poisson draws from 
his calculation of the pressure of fluid in motion, viz., that the 
pressure is not the same in all directions from a given point. 
For this deviation from the law of equal pressure may be reason- 
ably ascribed to the circumstance that the molecules take ¢ime 
to fulfil the condition of similarity of arrangement, being made 
to assume their positions relatively to each other by the action 
of the repulsive and attractive forces. I may here observe that 
although the inequality of pressure of fluids in motion is a legi- 
timate deduction from the molecular hypothesis, yet as theory 
cannot determine the amount of error committed by considering 
the pressure equal, it seems unnecessary to take account of the 
inequality unless some error should be detected by experiment, 
especially as we know beforehand that the amount must be very 
small. 

In closing this communication, I beg leave to add a few no- 
tices respecting subjects contained in my former reports; and 
first, with regard to capillary attraction, it will be right to ob- 
serve that some remarks made in the last report, in accordance 
with the strictures of Dr. Young on the equation in art. 12 of 
Laplace’s Theory, I afterwards saw reason to conclude were in- 
correct, and ina communication to the Philosophical Magazine 
and Journal of Science for February 1836, explained that the 
proper inference from that equation, though Laplace omits to 
draw it, is, that the angle of actual contact of two fluids, or ofa 
solid and fluid when the specific gravities are not very different, 
is an exceedingly small angle*, if the contact be perfect. It does 
not appear that any exception can be taken to the reasoning in 
any part of Laplace’s Theory. The principles may indeed be 
objected to on the ground that Poisson takes up, viz., that if 
the molecular constitution of bodies be admitted, there must be a 
superficial variation of density which that theory takes no ac- 
count of : as, however, experiment has not yet detected any such 
variation, and we have no means of assigning the amount of its 


“* A phenomenon I chanced to observe presented by oil floating on water 
seems to favour this inference. See Phil. Mag. and Journal of Science for 
April 1836. 


250 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


influence, it would be premature to reject the theory on that 
ground, especially as the probability is that the effect which 
this consideration has on the numerical results of the calculations 
will at all events be small. In the paper just referred to I have 
given reasons for thinking that the law of molecular forces which 
will account for the fluidity of liquids is also that for which the 
effect of the superficial variation of density would be small in 
capillary phenomena. 

Subsequent to the experiments by M. Link, which are noticed 
in the report on capillary attraction, others* were made by 
the same author not agreeing in their results with the former. 
After taking the precaution of freeing the solid plates against 
which the fluid ascended from the effects of greasiness contracted 
in polishing, it was not found as before, that different fluids 
ascended to the same height between the same plates ; and the 
experiments only partially confirmed the law to which theory 
leads, of equal ascents of the same fluid between plates of differ- 
ent material thoroughly moistened. The deviation from this 
law is probably owing to the influence of particular affinities 
between the solids and fluids which the theory cannot take into 
account. 

More recently have appeared the results of experiments by 
M. Frankenheim of Breslau, on the ascents of a great variety 
of fluids in capillary glass tubest. These were made for deter- 
mining thecchesion, or as M. Frankenheim calls it, the synaphia 
of fiuid bodies. If be the height of ascent, and x the radius 
of the tube, the specific synaphia he considers to be proportional 


to \/ r( A+ 5 ): It is worthy of remark that the height of 


ascent of water in these experiments exceeds that of any of the 
other fluids, and that the mixing of water with other fluids has 
avery sensible effect in increasing their heights of ascent. It 
also appears that an increase of temperature sensibly diminishes 
the height of the ascending column. Similar experiments made 
some years sincet by Mr. Emmett, assigned the highest ascent 
{except in one instance) to water, and clearly showed also the 
effect of an increase of temperature in diminishing the height. 
Mr. Emmett has made the remark that to produce this diminu- 
tion of height it is necessary merely to increase the temperature 
of the upper surface of the fluid column. 


* Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 1834, No. 38. 
+ Annalen der Phys. und Chem., 1836, No. 2, p. 409. 
t Phil. Mag. and Annals, vol. i. 1827, p. 115 and 332, 


7 
4 
4 
: 
c 
‘ 


4 


ON THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF FLUIDS. 251 


The circumstance of floating bodies rising vertically when 
drawn with considerable velocities along the surface of water, 
having attracted attention a few years ago, induced me to try to 
explain the fact on mechanical principles, and accordingly, in a 
paper published in the Cambridge Philosophical Transactions*, 
I have entered on a mathematical investigation which accounts 
for such a fact, and shows in the instance taken, that when the 
velocity of draught is uniform the rise is proportional to the 
square of the velocity, in accordance with an experimental re- 
sult obtained by Mr. Russellt. The inquiry is not pursued 
further in that paper (though I believe it may be done according 
to the method there employed), the immediate object in view 
being to gain confidence for the particular process of reasoning 
adopted, which differs in some respects from that of previous 
writers on fluid motion, by explaining to a considerable extent 
a fact which had not before been shown to depend on received 
mechanical principles. 

The problem of the resistance of the air to a ball pendulum 
has been undertaken by M. Plana in a Memoir on the Motion 
of a Pendulum in a resisting medium, (Zwrin, 1835,) in which 
the resistance of an incompressible fluid is first considered, and 
then that of an elastic fluid ; and in both cases the author finds, 
as Poisson had done, that the loss of weight of the sphere 
exceeds by just one half, the weight of the fluid it displaces. 
The question, however, has not yet received a satisfactory solu- 
tion, since theory has hitherto failed to account for one of the 
leading circumstances of the case, viz., that the coefficient of 
resistance is different for small spheres of different diameters. 
This difference it appears would equally exist whether the balls 
vibrated in a confined apparatus or in free air. 

The above particulars are mentioned for the purpose of calling 


_ attention to parts of the theory of fluids which are still open to 
improvement, and I may here state that one of the objects I 


have chiefly had in view in this communication to the Associa- 
tion, and in those preceding it, has been to bring into more notice 


_ the mathematical theory of fluids and place it in its proper rank 
4 among applied sciences. Judging from the very few contribu- 
eons which have been made by Englishmen to this department 


7 
wy 
% 


of science, it would appear to have been held by us in disesteem. 
_ From the time of Newton till within these few years scarcely 


_ anything was written upon it in this country. This neglect is 


the less to be defended as there are few subjects in natural phi- 
losophy which are not connected in some manner or other with 


* Vol. v. Part ii. p. 173. 
¢ Fourth Report of the British Association, p. 533. 


252 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


the properties of fluids. It is even possible that the present 
inquiries respecting the nature of the imponderable agents, which 
have given rise to such long-continued and widely extended 
experiments, may be waiting to receive satisfactory answers 
until greater perfection shall be given to the application of ma- 
thematics to the determination of the laws of fluid motion and 
pressure. 


253 


Comparative View of the more remarkable Plants which cha- 
racterize the Neighbourhood of Dublin, the Neighbourhood 
of Edinburgh, and the South-west of Scotland, §c. ; drawn 
up for the British Association, hy J.T. Mackay, M.R.L.A., 
A.L.S., &c., assisted hy Ropert Granam, Esg., M.D., 
Professor of Botany in the University of Edinburgh. Read 
at the Bristol Meeting, August 1836. 


Conrractions.—N. & S., North and South of Ireland. S. of I., South of Ireland. 
W. of I., West of ditto. S.N. & W., South, North, and West of ditto. S. & W., 
South and West of ditto. S. & N. of I., South and North of ditto. N. & W., North 
and West of ditto. S. Arran, South Arran. S. W. of I., South-west of Ireland. 
N. of L., North of ditto. . 


d ’ South-west F 
Dublin. | Edinburgh. | rccotland. Dublin, 


eS Oe 


Ranunculaceae. 


Thalictrum minus * Barbarea preecox *¥ 
» flavum * Arabis ciliata, W. of I. 
Ranunculus parviflorus* » hirsuta 
» hirsutus N.&S. % Cardamine Amara 
97 ATVEDSIS..0ceeeesees * Thlaspi arvense 
Phan Sisymbrium Iris 
Aquilegia vulgaris * J |asit probably’ Sophia * 
i * 


* Introduced. 


is near Dub- ” ‘ 
lin, Coronopus Ruelli 


Trollius europzeus * Lepidium ruderale 
» campestre 
Papaveracee. » Smithii 
Brassica MONENSIS «20.0. | vereeeserees 
Crambe maritima 
» Argemone Teesdalia nudicaulis .... | ..+-+.s+++es 
_|Meconopsis cambrica * *Introduced. Raphanus maritimus ... | ---+++++++++ 
|) Glaucium luteum * * 


EHH KH HK HK 


Violacee. 
Fumariacee. Viola hirta 
Corydalis claviculata * » odorata 
| Fumaria parviflora,S.ofI. » palustris 


» densiflora, D.C. ? »  flavicornis ......... 
» Curtisii 


Crucifere. 
Nasturtium sylvestre * Cistinee. 


terrestre Helianthemum vulgare, 
§. Arran 


trish Plants under the name of Clypeola Ionthlaspi, but as it is a doubtful native 


d has probably been introduced, 1 have for the present expunged it from the Irish 


=) 
ij + This now appears to be the same plant which was published in my Catalogue of 
= 
Flora. 


Q54 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Dublin, | Eainbargh {South-west Dublin. Edinburgh, |South-west 
Droseracee. Sedum villosum..,...... + 
* 
Drosera longifoligN-&S.)oenseree| Ff” ee) asa 
» anglica, S.N.& W, » Telephum......... * 
‘Mileahocs! Radiola rosea.......s.se> | sessceresees ¥ 
. . * * 
ie et ee * |*Introduced. * Saxifragee. 
Althea officinalis S.&W.) «+++++-+ ++ - Saxifraga Hirculus...... * 
Lavatera arborea a s r » granulata * * 
» tridactylites * * 
Hypericinee. » _hyperoides....+..+. * * 
Hypericum acme nol Jun 3 gy TAIZOICES -o-<scctopus liens secaneeee * 
mum ™ 
» dubium ¥ | Leguminose. 
» hirsutum : vai ies Ulex nanus +) 2 Sees S 
» elodes ee apes = Genista tinctoria * * 
7, ORGAN arco yer sonar Ononis reclinata......... | sssseccoeees i 
Astragalus glyeyphyllus 
Caryophyllee. “y De pbplatiin” : } * 
Dianthus Armeria ....-- * S. Arran 
» deltoides, lately x. - icin ten jscscrscasananee Ea ™ 
found near Cork Genista anglica. ......... * 
Saponaria officinalis * *Introduced. || Orobus sylvaticus ...... = 
Silene anglica, S.& N. \ i Py Melilotus officinalis * * 
of I, » leucantha S. of I. - 
yy COTICA seseeeeeaeee * Trifolium aaeanwe t * = 
yy TUTANS «seeeesereee * dioides “4 
» noctiflora ........ * » maritimum + 
| Lychnis dioica a & B* * * », scabrum * * 
jy WISCAMER Seceseec dee * 9) SOTIAGUIMN.ccsesees * 
Sagina maritima * * * » fragiferum * * 
Arenaria ciliata N. & W. Oxytropis uralensis...... % * 
» verna N.&S. * Lotus tenuis .........006 * 
Cerastium arvense * * Medicago maculata ... * 
Stellaria glauca ey. «ude 
i: Rosacee. 
: eee Spirea Filipendula ... * 
Linum angustifolium * Rubus saxatilis ......... * * 
p », Chamemarus.... * 
Geraniacee. Potentilla fruticosa } y 
Geranium sanguineum* si = S. W. of I. 
» sylvaticum......... ¥ yy argentea * * 
yy Pratense.. sss... 3 97 VEINAs ee eesseeeeeees * 
» pyrenaicum * = Rosa tomentosa * * 
» Jucidum * * », micrantha 2 
yy pusillum .......06 “§ arvensis ¥ * 
» columbinum * * Pyrus pinnatifida ...... | s..sescoeeee * 
Erodium moschatum * Tormentilla reptan$S ...} ........0e0- * 
» mMmaritimum Hl vevseeveteve * 
Onagrarie. 
Crassulacee. Epilobium angustifo- ¢ 
Cotyledon umbilicus. *|........+00+ * lium . 


Dublin. 


Umbellifere. 
Crithmum maritimum * 
Silaus pratensis N. of I. 
Gnanthe pimpinel- 

loides * 
» Phellandrium * 
Helosciadium repens... 
Pimpinella magna 
S. of I. 
Carum yerticillatum 
N. &S. 
Apium graveolens * 
Ligusticum scoticum... 


Stellate. 


Galium Mollugo ie 
| , pusillum 8S. & W. 
Asperula Cynanchica, 
S. & W. 
Rubia peregrina “3 


Caprifoliacee. 


Linnea borealis......... 
Campanulacee. 

_ | Campanula eet 
; loides ..... 
latifolia, 
glomerata ......... 
-Trachelium * 


hederacea * 


hybrida ............ 
* 


” 

| ” 
1 ”. 
| Jaslone montana 
Valerianee. 


| Fedia dentata 
auricula, W. of 
: I, Bab. 
Valeriana rubra 


* 


* 


Composite. 
nbarda crithmoides * 


geron acris 33 
emisia gallica ...... 
» Maritima * 
arduus nutans, N.&W. 
tenuiflorus * 
marianus * 
pis biennis = 
elminthia echioides * 
is hieracioides,rare* 


Edinburgh. 


* 


eeeevesescoe 


Pa 
* 


* 


* 
* 


* Perhaps 


introduced. 


eevecccoeses 


secceccceene 


South-west 
of Scotland. 


Dublin. | Edinburgh. 


Hypocheris glabra...... 
Tragopogon pratensis * 

$f) UBJON. vadpacs sc onus 
Lactuca Virosa ......++- 


Boraginee. 


Lithospermum mari- 
timum 
yy  Officinale * 
Symphytum officinale* 
Cynoglossum officinale* 
Asperugo procumbens.. 


Convolvulacee. 
Convolvulus soldanella*} ............ 


Polemoniacee. 
Polemonium cceruleum*|*Introduced. 


Plumbaginee. 


Statice Limonium 
spathulata 


” 


Ericee. 


Andromeda polifolia *}..........+ 
Menziesia polifolia, 
W. of I. 
Erica mediterranea, 
W. of I. 
» Mackaiana, W.ofI. 
Arbutus Unedo, S. of I. 


Pyrolacee. 


Pyrola media, Down 
& Derry 
minor, Northern 
Counties and 
Mayo .......5. 
secunda, Derry 
and Antrim... 
Monotropa hypopitys * 


” 


” 


Gentianee. 


Exacum filiforme, Kerry 
Gentiana verna, W. of I. 
Chlora perfoliata * 


Solanee. 


Solanum Dulcamara * * 


PLANTS OF DUBLIN, EDINBURGH, AND S.W. OF SCOTLAND. 255 


South-west 
of Scotland.| 


* 


Dublin. 


Edinburgh. 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


South-west 
of Scotland. 


South-west 


Dublin, | Edinburgh. |o¢ scotland. 


—ooro | | | | 


Primulacee. Resedacee. 
Primula elatior % Reseda lutea * 
yy veris * “  fruticulosa * 
5), MAEIDOBA’s sentyy en cae 
Centunculus minimus, . Euphorbiacee. 
Liysimactes fees * Kae he poe eo: } 
Hottonia __ palustris, aiecae of I. J. 
near Downpatrick ” z ok ul 
Trientalis europza...... * panes 
<i og WREIZULLA Raps ca’so otc 
. ; » amygdaloides 
Lentibularia. es ¢ L 
Pinguicula grandiflo- Mercurialis annua = ¥ 
ra, S. of I. 
»  lusitanica pivesscnen cand * Conifere. 
Serophularinee. Taxus baccata,var. frue- 
Veronica Buxbaumii .. - * ed a a) ewes a 
Bartsia viscosa, S. Of I. | ...ceceeseee * snl enkersahink 
Sibthorpia europea, 
Li " of I. Aroidee. 
imosella aquatica ..... 
Scrophularis vernalis... |*Naturalized Arum maculatum * 
Acorus calamus ......... 
Orobanchee. peel 
Orobanche minor Fg Ww Shiai 
» _ xubga, *"""N:’6g I. * Typha angustifolia... { 
Lathrea Tegra _ » (minor ¥ 
. of I, 

Verienacex Alismacee. 
Verbena officinalis * Alisma natans : 
Labiate. Orchidee. 

Salvia verbenaca ss * * Orchis pyramidalis  * 
Mentha gentilis........ “f Gymnadenia conopsea* 
Galeobdolon luteum * Habenaria Chlorantha* 
Betonica officinalis ..... * *  Difolia ..ess0eeeeee 
Nepeta cataria * * * Ophrys apifera * 
Galeopsis Ladanum * * Neottia spiralis * 

versicolor ....e..e: * * Corallorhiza innata ... 
Thymus Calamintha * Listera cordata * 
Origanum vulgare = * “ » nidus-avis oastactey 
Lamium intermedium * Epipactis palustris 
Acinos vulgaris ......... * » _ latifolia * 
57 MECUSIIOND “os ccesctes 
Polygonee. Malaxis paludosa * 
i * * 
pap eae Bere navi 
‘ Narcissus biflorus 
Chenopodee. 
Chenopodium olidum * * hg pics - 
Atriplex portulacoides *| .......06 ++ * Allium arenarium = ¥ 


* Probably 
introduced, 


xX * * 


* |* Introduced, 


eet 


a me a me 


PLANTS OF DUBLIN, EDINBURGH, AND 8.W. OF SCOTLAND. 257 


Dublin. 


Allium carinatum 
Scilla verna 


Smilacee. 
Paris quadrifolia ....... 


Butomee. 
Butomus umbellatus * |*Introduced. 


Juncee. 


Juncus acutus 
» Maritimus 


Graminee. 
Calamagrostis epigejos. 
Avena planiculmis...... 
Hordeum maritimnum * 

» pratense “6 
Triticum loliaceum 
Rottbollia filiformis 


Cyperacee. 


Rynchospora fusca, 

8S. & W. 
Blysmus rufus 

», Compressus . 

Schcenus nigricans 
Scirpus Savii 
Eriophorum pubescens* 
Cladium mariscus, 

8. & W. 
Carex curta, N. &S. 
» axillaris 
» Sstrigosa 


y South-west 
Edinburgh. |o¢ scotland. 


* 
* 


* John 
Mackay. 


Dublin, | Edinburgh. 


Carex extensa 
»  distans 

»  limosa 

»  filiformis 


Filices. 
Polypodium vulgare } 
* 
* 
* 


var. 
Aspidium angulare 

» lobatum 
Asplenium marinum * 

» septentrionale ... 

” 

», alternifolium...... 
Crypt ogramma crispa...| . 
Trichomanes brevise- 

tum,* rare; more 

plentiful at Killar- 
ney. 

Hymenophyllum Wil- 
soni 

» Tunbridgense * 
Ophioglossum yvulgatum 


Lycopodiacee. 
Lycopodium inundatum } ............ 


Marsileacee. 


Isoetes lacustris * 
Pilularia globulifera.... 


Equisetacee. 
Equisetum variegatum* 
» Drummondii...... 


a 


me ae nite tt tact aa 


— 


Comparative geographical notices of the more remarkable 
Plants which characterize Scotland and Ireland. Read at 
the Bristol Meeting of the British Association, August, 
1836. By J.T. Mackay, M.R.1A., ALS. &e. 


A.rHoues the Flora of Ireland cannot boast of so great a 
number of species as the neighbouring island, still there are 
several very remarkable circumstances which attract our atten- 
tion when we contrast the vegetation of Ireland with that of 
Great Britain. 

VOL. v.—-1836. s 


258 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


If, in the first place, we compare the vegetation of Ireland 
with that of Scotland, we find that climate has exercised a power- 
ful influence. Ireland is situated more to the south than Scot- 
land, and its mountains are not so high; it is also more exposed 
to the Western Ocean, hence its climate is more characterized by 
moisture: Scotland is therefore much more rich in Alpine’ plants 
than Ireland, as the following list of those found in Scotland 
and not in Ireland will show. On the other hand the mildness 
of the Irish climate is perhaps the cause why plants are found 
on the western coast whose relative habitats are the mountains of 
Spain and Portugal. It is, however, difficult to account for the 
localities of a few plants as they occur in Ireland. Thus Heli- 
anthemum vulgare, so common in Scotland and England, al- 
though one of the first plants that presents itself to our view 
on the rocks about Portpatrick, has not yet been found in Ire- 
land unless in the Island of Arran on the western coast; and 
Astragalus hypoglottis, so common about Edinburgh and else- 
where in Scotland, is in Ireland confined to the same locality. 

It may also not be unworthy of remark, that 4renaria verna, 
which grows on the basaltic rocks of Arthur’s Seat, is found on 
the same kind of rock at Magillegan, County of Derry. Ihave, 
however, specimens of the same plant from the west coast of 
Clare, where the rocks are, as far as I have observed, composed 
of limestone. 


List of some of the more remarkable Alpine and other plants 
of Scotland which are not found in Ireland : 


Veronica alpina Juncus filiformis 


S saxatilis »  biglumis 
Eriophorum capitatum »  triglumis 
Alopecurus alpinus »  trifidus 
Phleum alpinum »  castaneus 

»  Michelii » tenuis 
Aira alpina Luzula arcuata 
Hierochloe borealis »  Spicata 


Avena planiculmis 
Poa laxa 
Cornus suecica 
Myosotis alpestris 
Primula scotica 

»,  farinosa 
Azalea procumbens 
Gentiana nivalis 
Sibbaldia procumbens 
Meum Athamanticum 
Juncus balticus 


Trientalis europea 
Menziesia ccerulea 
Vaccinium uliginosum 
Epilobium alpinum 

a alsinifolium 
Polygonum viviparum 
Pyrola uniflora 
Arbutus alpina 
Saxifraga nivalis 

»  cernua 

3. rivularis 


REMARKABLE PLANTS OF SCOTLAND AND IRELAND, 259 


Saxifraga pedatifida Draba rupestris 
Arenaria rubella Arabis petra 

»  fastigiata Sonchus alpinus 
Cherleria sedoides Hieracium alpinum 
Lychnis alpina i Halleri 

»  ~viscaria Erigeron alpinum 

Cerastium alpinum Astragalus alpinus 

» latifolium Oxytropis campestris 
Nuphar minima 6 Uralensis 
Bartsia alpina Ononis reclinata 


Linnea borealis 


Geographical notices of several plants found in Ireland, most 
of which have not yet been found in England or Scotland: 


Pinguicula grandiflora, South of Ireland, South of France. 

Erica mediterranea, West of Ireland, Western Pyrenees. EF. Mackaii, 
Hooker in Companion to Botanical Magazine. 

» Mackiana, Bab. West of Ireland, Spain. 

Arbutus unedo, South of Ireland, South of Europe. 

Menziesia polifolia, West of Ireland, Spain, Pyrenees and Portugal. 

Arenaria ciliata, Sligo Mountains, Swiss Alps. 

Saxifraga Geum, South of Ireland, Western Pyrenees. 

hirsuta, South of Ireland, Western Pyrenees. 

umbrosa, 2 varieties, South, West and North of Ireland, 

Pyrenees. 
elegans, Fl. Hib., South of Ireland, rare. 
“ affinis, Fl. Hib., South of Ireland. 
us hirta, Fl. Hib., South of Ireland. 

Rosa HMibernica, North of Ireland. 

Arabis ciliata, West of Ireland, Switzerland. 

Hypericum calycinum, South of Ireland near Killarney, and coast of 
Clare, in hedges ; South of Europe. 

Ulex strictus, (which is probably only a variety of U. ewropeus,) North 
of Ireland, sparingly. 

Neottia gemmipara, South of Ireland, rare, Drummond. 

Taxus baccata, var. hibernica, ( Taxus fastigiata, Lindley,) North of 
Ireland and Florencecourt, cultivated. 

Carex Buxbaumii, North of Ireland, North of Europe, North 
America. 

Eriocaulon septangulare, West coast of Ireland, Island of Sky, Scot- 
land. 

Trichomanes brevisetum. Found in several places near Killarney 

' in considerable abundance, and very sparingly in the 

County of Wicklow. Ihave specimens of this Fern col- 
lected in Madeira by the late Doctor Shuter. 


” 
” 


— 
x 


OP ig a) os 


ut eee 


ie Oe ALaAL cee wna at wae i: 


aor ae thee: ve fi 
bgt clivaclle + Pas « -, lag 
eit SoA ont Bs a er. 
she tag) yah alg, oF 


Se RMON 


om cs hy C ~ Luda hadnare, 
: Mn i Sage ays i Sen rae: 
Si bruce: es neridot he 
ai enelreene 


ae ni ileal gale 


ey 


wa | 


ae aa oe Wp ai 
BiataAT Ny itop of Lita ie aie aoiaahuae, Ra 
Pay irr e bon bagi Sisod dX ie 
yet u ‘ DES FS l9 re. 
me HVS Vive! Gil ae Rar 

ty Hhetae Terry S lbaabeal Yo Aro ; 
a pink ot siete baalogk:An, a0 

ie 


at odvuslon] 


... 


ry aan aiees 


eg 3 

ens = or 

Ho cea tart 0 te 
6 fallids, 1088 ‘vost tema 


af bento - tee 4 

pheseray re, bas: ails sidsrrobiesion- athe 8 
§, Aiihd, 19. ecrnosie ‘aroldoi Uf. 0 “ztemol) 

series neta: saapohL ate. odh qleminhelt oi porost - 
oberittonsd + Z 
Pavey ernest vat tine RO eit ieee nite Fe x 


diaere aaaptabrit: oF o> DANO Ya) xh | ila fart k 
Sra Ra natant “gigs \> sue Gemeente 


ney “a tec ah 


att 
ee = 
iat, . 


264 


Report of the London Sub-Committee of the British Associa- 
tion Medical Section, on the Motions and Sounds of the 
Heart. 


Tue Committee of Members of the British Association resident 
in London who have been charged with the investigation of the 
motions and causes of the sounds of the heart, have held nu- 
merous meetings, and performed a considerable variety of expe- 
riments, on living and on dead subjects, with a view to the ends 
of their appointment. They have also taken pains to inform 
themselves of the facts and reasonings published by preceding 
inquirers, and have now the honour to submit to the Section 
the results at which they have hitherto arrived, together with 
such particulars of their experiments as they consider necessary 
to substantiate their conclusions. 

Before entering, however, upon the statement of their experi- 
ments or of the conclusions to which they lead, they beg leave 
to say a few words with regard to the scope and plan of their 
inquiries, and the spirit in which they have entered on them. 
The Committee would first remark, that though in their in- 
quiries they did not neglect to take note of any phenomena 
which might illustrate the action of the diseased heart, yet 
they have felt it their especial duty to investigate the physiolo- 
gical branch of the subject, and have principally occupied them- 
selves with that part which includes the normal sounds of the 
heart. In thus limiting the field of research, it will be sufficient 
perhaps to remind the Section that they have pretty closely fol- 
lowed the example of the Dublin Committee of last year. 

With regard to the spirit and general views by which they 
have been guided they wish to observe, that in entering upon the 
investigation it seemed to them possible @ priori that each sound 
of the heart might have a single peculiar cause, or several co-ope- 
rating causes ; and if several co-operating causes should be found 
more probable, that then some of such causes might be only con- 
tingent or occasional, and others constant and invariably present ; 
also, upon the supposition of a plurality of causes of one or both 
sounds, that some causes might be common to both sounds, or 
that each sound might have its own set of causes exclusively. 
Keeping in view those several possible @ priori positions, the 
Committee made an enumeration of the circumstances attending 
the heart’s action that had been, or might be, supposed capable 
of producing sound, and endeavoured so to vary their experiments 
as to exclude in turn each of those circumstances, with a view 


262 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


to isolate or at least to bring sufficiently into relief the essen- 
tial cause or causes of each sound. To the execution of the 
plan of experimental inquiry thus glanced at, the Committee 
have devoted some time during the summer, in the course 
of which they have had to encounter numerous difficulties, 
especially from the want of sure means of destroying the sensi- 
bility of the animal, without suspending or greatly impairing 
the action of the heart. And in this respect they have been 
much less fortunate than several preceding experimentalists, 
having in no one of the numerous subjects on which they have 
operated, been able to continue their observations for a longer 
period than forty-five minutes, notwithstanding the utmost care 
to avoid unnecessary loss of blood and to maintain artificial 
respiration. It is proper to add, that the subjects of these ob- 
servations were in most instances young asses from three to six 
months old, in apparently good health, and that the mode of 
preparation was in a few instances poisoning with woorara, in 
others stunning by a blow on the head, but in a majority of 
the experiments the animal was pithed. Other animals were 
tried as well as young asses, viz. the horse, the dog, and the 
domestic fowl; but for various reasons these trials were not 
attended with results recommending their repetition. 


The Committee consider the most convenient order in which 
to state the facts in their possession, and their inferences from 
those facts, to be, to describe first succinctly, and from the origi- 
nal notes taken on the spot, such of their experiments as gave 
available results; then briefly to arrange, under the head of each 
supposed or possible cause, such points in the experiments as 
may seem to the Committee to make decidedly in favour of or 
against the claims of each of such possible causes ; and lastly, 
to give a summary of the conclusions which the Committee 
have adopted from the whole of their inquiries. 

Memoranda of Experiments, &c.—The Committee made 
some observations in the first instance on their own persons. 
To satisfy themselves fully as to how far the sounds might be 
modified by circumstances, such as the state of the lungs, 
whether distended or collapsed; the state of the circulation, 
whether excited or tranquil; and the position of the body; the 
Committee examined the heart in their own persons under all 
those varieties of circumstance, and found, that when the sub- 
ject of observation is supine or leaning a little backwards to- 
wards the right side, the first sound is uniform, dull, and with- 
out any easily perceptible impulse; but the subject leaning 
forwards, and especially if inclining much to the left side, the 


ON THE MOTIONS AND SOUNDS OF THE HEART. 268 


first sound is louder and fuller-toned, and accompanied by strong 
impulse. They found also that full inspiration operated like 
leaning to the right, or the supine position, by diminishing 
sound and impulse, while full expiration like leaning forwards, 
or to the left side, rendered the sounds and impulse more di- 
stinct, the former louder, the latter stronger and more dif- 
fused. When the heart’s action is excited by exertion they 
found, as might be anticipated, the systolic sound and impulse 
at their maximum of tone and force. Moderate exertion they 
observed to increase the intensity of both sounds ; whereas sud- 
den exertion, sufficiently violent greatly to accelerate the action 
of the heart, they found impaired the distinctness of the second 
sound, the first continuing loud, short, and with strong impulse. 
The indistinctness of the second sound in rapid pulsation of 
the heart, seemed to depend in part on its following so closely 
on the loud first sound as to be masked by it. 
Experiment 2.—The Committee made experiments likewise 
on muscular contraction in their own persons, with a view to 
ascertain how far that act is accompanied by sound. The mus- 
cles operated on with the best effect were the buccinator and 
masseter, the muscles of the neck and fore-arm, and of the pa- 
rietes of the abdomen. In all those the flexible ear-tube, care- 
fully applied so as to prevent friction, yielded sounds more or 
less striking ; but the most striking results were obtained from 
the last-mentioned parts. From the abdominal muscular con- 
tractions, sounds of a “ systolic’ character (if the expression is 
admissible) in .all respects, and as loud or louder than those of 
the heart, were with facility obtained: the sounds were excited 
by sudden expiratory efforts made with force, and with the 
mouth closed, and were obtained from various parts of the pa- 
rietes. The sound of muscular contraction seems in the case 
of the abdominal muscles to be exaggerated by the hollowness 
of the subjacent parts. 
_ At the time the sound was heard the muscle under observa- 
tion always felt to the finger tense and hard, but the loud sound 
ceased at the moment that the fibres had attained their maxi- 
mum of tightness and hardness, and was not renewed except by 
a repetition of the contractile effort after previous relaxation. 
. Experiment 3.—Subject, a young ass poisoned with woorara 
introduced into an incision in the flank. 
The animal died sixteen minutes after the introduction of the 
woorara ; much blood was lost in opening the chest; the heart 
was acting at the moment of exposure, but not strongly. Its 
action became more regular after inflation was made more re- 


gularly. 


264: SIXTH REPORT—1836, 


Both sounds were heard with the instrument applied to the 
great arteries ; but the sound with impulse or first sound alone 
was heard on the ventricles. 

The heart could not, the Committee were satisfied, strike 
against the chest’s walls, or any other hard object. 

After opening the pericardium the sounds were weaker ; 
but both sounds were heard with the stethescope applied to 
the roots of the great arteries. Both sounds were heard also 
on the great arteries where a portion of lung was interposed be- 
tween the instrument and the vessels. 

The heart continued to act for forty minutes. 

Experiment 4.—Subject, a young ass prepared as the last. 
Death twenty-six minutes after poisoning. 

At the roots of the great arteries the two mec were di- 
stinctly heard, but after the introduction of two curved awls into 
the arteries (for the purpose of hooking up one lamina of each 
sigmoid valve) the second sound was wanting, the first being 
still distinct ; on withdrawing the awls two sounds were heard, 
and soon after the heart ceased to act, twenty minutes after the 
death of the animal. At each systole while the heart acted 
vigorously, the ventricles felt to the finger as hard as cartilage. 

The heart being cut out and plunged in warm salt and water, 
a slight undulatory contractile motion pervaded the substance 
of the ventricles and columne carne and continued for some 
time. In this and every other observation the vermicular or 
undulatory motion supervened upon the cessation of the normal 
action of the organ, and never before the organ had ceased to 
act as a whole. 

Experiment 5.—Subject, a donkey seven months old, which 
expired forty-three minutes after being poisoned with woorara. 

The heart just before death was heard with short loud pulsa- 
tions ; when the chest was opened, it ceased to beat, and was 
very much distended with blood. When part of the blood was 
let out by cutting the pulmonary artery, the ventricles began 
again to pulsate feebly, but without sound. When the heart 
was cut out it presented the undulatory motion, which was in- 
creased by immersion in cold water. The two ventricles being 
opened by cuts at the apex at right angles to the septum, and the 
heart being drawn with the apex upwards through water, the 
lamine of the mitral and tricuspid valves were seen to close to- 
gether each time the heart was so drawn upwards through the 
water. 

Experiment 6.—Subject, a young ass destroyed by pithing. 

On opening the chest the heart acted regularly, producing 
both sounds distinctly: curved awls were then introduced into 


ON THE MOTIONS AND SOUNDS OF THE HEART. 465 


the aorta and pulmonary artery to hook back the valves, when 
the second sound was replaced by a sucking or bellows sound. 
The awls being withdrawn both sounds were again heard, the 
heart acting feebly. 

Experiment 7.—Subject, a young ass. A small quantity of 
woorara was introduced into the flank, but without destroying 
life, and the animal was despatched by a blow on the head. 

Heart acting very quickly and strongly when the chest was 
opened ; first sound only audible. 

The auricles being pushed in by the fingers into the ventricles 
so as to keep the valves open, the first or impulse sound only 
heard; the second sound wanting. On withdrawing the fingers 
from the auricles both sounds were audible, the heart acting 
more slowly but yet strongly. The roots of the arteries being 
compressed between the fingers and stethescope, the first or im- 
pulse sound only heard, accompanied by a loud bellows or rasp 
sound. On removing the pressure (from the arteries) both 
- sounds again audible. An incision being then made into the 
left auricle, a finger was passed through the auriculo-ventricular 
orificeto the bottom of the left ventricle, and the fingers of the 
other hand being placed under the right ventricle, and the heart 
compressed between the hands so as to obliterate the cavity, the 
first or impulse sound was still distinctly heard by all, but weak. 

Experiment 8.—Animal, a young ass destroyed by stunning. 
The heart at first acted convulsively, as from great. exertion, 
but afterwards nearly normally slowly for a short time. While 
the heart’s action was quick no second sound was heard, but 
after it became slow both sounds were heard, and shortly after 
its action became too feeble and irregular for observation. 

Experiment 9.—Subject, a young ass. Poisoning by intro- 
duction of twenty-four drops of an inefficient preparation of 
coneia into the peritoneum : unsuccessful. Animal ultimately 
pithed. On opening the chest the heart distinctly audible as to 
both sounds, and in vigorous.action. The fingers were pushed 
into the auricles and through the auriculo-ventricular orifices, 
when a first sound was heard prolonged by a whizzing sound. 

On withdrawing the fingers both normal sounds were heard ; 
needles were then introduced to hook up a lamina of the sigmoid 
valves of the aorta, when the second sound was heard by two 
observers. 

The pulmonary sigmoids were also attempted to be so treated 
(the aorta valves being continued under the needle), when two 
observers heard the two sounds, but not the third observer. 

_ Note.—The Committee were uncertain how far the hooking 
_ up of the valves was really effected owing to want of strength in 


266 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


the needles. They were not afterwards able, as in other cases, 
where curved awls were used, to find the marks of the needles 
so as to ascertain the direction in which they had passed. 

Experiment 10,—Subject, a young ass pithed. Chest imme- 
diately opened, when the heart was acting slowly, but forcibly. 
At first nosecond sound was heard, but a bellows sound (instead) ; 
then a violent action was attended with a single sound, accom- 
panied by a bellows sound, which (latter) ceased as the heart 
became more slow in action, after which both sounds became 
distinct ; then, the arteries being pressed with the fingers at their 
origins, a first sound was heard, with a blowing murmur accom- 
panying and another (murmur) following, but no flapping (or 
second) sound. On removing the pressure (from the arteries) 
the second sound was heard and the murmur ceased. Imme- 
diately after the systole a flapping or jerking sensation was sen- 
sible to the finger applied to the arteries at their roots. 

The inversion of the auricles was accompanied by a sensation of 
thrilling in the finger of the operator. The auriculo-ventricular 
valves were found toact in water after the removal of the heart from 
the body, closing on its being drawn apex upwards through water. 

Experiment 11.—Subject, a young ass poisoned with oil of 
bitter almonds. 

A small opening was made in the cartilages opposite the 
heart, when the stroke was perceived, and felt by the finger in- 
side and outside the sternum at the same time, with sound, and 
with considerable pressure upwards against the finger placed 
between the heart and cartilages. 

The chest and pericardium were then opened, which latter had 
a little serum in it. After turning over the animal on its left side, 
so as to make the heart hang vertically (out of the chest), a first 
sound was heard through the tube applied to the ventricles, but 
no second sound by either observer. ‘The same sound was 
heard on the right auricle posteriorly without the second sound : 
the heart acted both times weakly. The tube being applied to 
the roots of the arteries gave the same result to one observer, 7. e., 
a first without a second sound. The animal being again laid on 
his right side the first sound was heard by two observers. Cir- 
cumstances prevented the third member of the Committee from 
ausculting during this experiment, which was not repeated. 

Experiment 12.—Subject as above, and pithed. 

Heart acted thirty-three minutes. On opening the chest the 
two sounds were heard, the heart acting slowly and with tole- 
rable force. 

The auricles were then inverted by the fingers, and the first 

sound, continued into a bellows murmur, was heard. The mur- 


ON THE MOTIONS AND SOUNDS OF THE HEART. 267 


mur was accompanied by a thrilling motion, sensible to the 
finger of the operator, and synchronous with the impulse. A 
lamina of each sigmoid valve was then hooked up (with dissect- 
ing hooks), when a sound was heard not followed by a second 
sound, but on removing the hooks the second sound was again 
heard. 

On inverting the auricles again the chorde tendinee of the 
mitral valve alone were felt to become tense in systole and lax 
in diastole. A finger being introduced into the left ventricle 
through the auricle, the first sound was heard with a murmur. 
Experiment 13.—Subject, a young ass, pithed. On opening 
the chest, and then the pericardium, both sounds were distinctly 
heard, but feeble. On touching the arteries in the vicinity of 
the valves, a sensation of flapping (or jerking) observed by all, 
commencing immediately after the systole, and accompanying 
the second sound. 

The awls being introduced into the arteries (so as to hook up 
the valves), the second sound was wanting. After removing the 
awls, at first but the systolic sound was heard, but after a short 
time both were heard by all. 

On opening the heart (at the close of the experiment), the 
valves were found to have been sufficiently hooked up in both 
arteries. 

Experiment 14.—Subject, a young ass, pithed. After open- 
ing the chest the pericardium was opened, and a thick layer of 
tow was interposed between the heart and surrounding parts, 
the heart continuing to act. At first the systolic sound was 
heard, followed by a bellows murmur; but afterwards the flap- 
ping sensation and second sound very distinct also. 

The finger being introduced into the left ventricle by inver- 
sion of the auricle, was felt to be gently embraced and pushed, 
as if by a membrane distended with blood. On the right side 
nothing similar unequivocally observed. On pressing the aorta 
or pulmonary artery between the finger and thumb gently, a 
“to and fro”’ thrill was felt accompanying the systole and dia- 
stole of the ventricles, and terminated by a flap. The sensation 
of flapping (or jerking) was felt to be synchronous in the two 
arteries. 

The tension and hardness of the ventricles during their systole 
was very remarkable. 

‘The pulmonary artery being cut across, the first sound was 
still loud, and the aorta being then cut across (likewise), the same 
result was obtained (viz. a first, without a second sound). The 
heart was then severed from its other attachments, and the (first) 
sound was still heard distinctly. 


268 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


The heart was then grasped strongly under blood, and it con- 
tinued to contract vigorously, and the first sound was heard (but 
not loud) with the flexible tube as well as the common stethe- 
scope. The heart was then taken out and held in the hand of 
one of the Committee, when the first sound was distinct, but 
feeble. 

On opening the right ventricle the columnee carnee were 
distinctly seen contracting simultaneously with the ventricle. 

Such are the particulars of all the more successful experi- 
ments of the Committee, with regard to those possible causes of 
the normal sounds of the heart which have been investigated by 
the Committee ; the principal of them are as follows. The first 
sound has been attributed to 

1. Impulse, or the beating of the heart against the parietes of 
the chest. 

2. Muscular sound, or the resonance attending sudden mus- 
cular contraction. 

3. Collisions of the particles of the blood amongst each other, 
or against the parietes, valves, &c. of the heart’s cavities. 

4. The action of the auriculo-ventricular valves during sy- 
stole. 

5. And the collision of the opposite interior surfaces of the 
ventricles in the same state. 

The normal or second sound has been attributed to 

1. Impulse of the heart against the thoracic parietes, owing 
to its rapid expansion during diastole. 

2. An intrinsic sound attending the diastole, analogous to that 
which the observations of the Committee prove to attend the 
systolic action of the ventricles. 

3. Flapping of the auriculo-ventricular valves during dia- 
stole against the sides of the ventricles. 

4. The rushing of fluids into the great arteries after the sy- 
stole. 

5. The rushing of the fluids from the auricles into the ven- 
tricles during diastole. 

6. Sudden tension and flapping of the sigmoid valves after 
the systole. 

Of the causes to which the first sound has been attributed, the 
Committee feel it necessary to notice each separately, except the 
last. With regard to the alleged causes, however, of the second 
sound, they will feel themselves justified in being less minute, 
partly to avoid tiresome repetitions, but principally on account 
of the obvious preponderance of evidence, as the Committee con- 
ceive, in favour of the theory last mentioned. 

First Sound—Valvular Tension.—To begin with the first 


ON THE MOTIONS AND SOUNDS OF THE HEART. 269 


sound. It is well known that several eminent writers have at- 
tributed it to the sudden closure and tension of the auriculo- 
ventricular valves during the systole. With reference to that 
question, the Committee have made the following observations : 

1. Inverting the auricles, and passing the finger into the au- 
riculo-ventricular orifices, does not prevent the first sound, though 
it must prevent the action of the valves. Experiments 5, 8, &c. 

2. In the experiments just referred to, the action of the mi- 
tral valve, as felt by the finger, was of too gradual and feeble a 
kind to be capable of producing sound; while on the right side 
the tightening of the tricuspid was not strong enough to be sen- 
sible to the finger at all. 

3. Various instances where the ventricles were treated so as 
to obliterate their cavities by pressure, and render valvular ac- 
tion impossible, gave, nevertheless, the first sound. Experi- 
ments 6, 7, &c. 

From these facts the Committee conclude that valvular action 
is not a cause of the first sound. 

First Sound—Collision in the Fluids, &c.—The following are 
the facts observed by the Committee with regard to the alleged 
resonant collisions of the particles of blood amongst themselves, 
or against the parietes, valves, &c. of the ventricles. 

1. The obstruction of the auriculo-ventricular orifices by the 
fingers introduced by inverting the auricles does not materially 
modify the first sound. Experiments 5, 8, &c. 

2. The heart being pressed between a finger introduced through 
the auricle to the bottom of the left ventricle, and the other hand 
placed outside the right ventricle, continued still to emit the first 
sound. Experiments 5 and 12. 

3. The heart being grasped firmly in the hand, after separation 
from its attachments, and while immersed in blood, gave the first 
sound distinctly. The pressure in this case must, in the opinion 
of the Committee, have prevented collision between the opposite 
interior surfaces of the organ. 

4, The division of the aorta and pulmonary artery, and even 
the extraction of the heart, does not prevent the first sound. 
Experiment 12. 

5. The Committee made also various experiments in order to 
ascertain the power of fluids to produce sound when in contact 
with solids. 

On compressing by the stethescope the gum elastic bottle 
filled with water, and under water, they could not succeed in 
producing any other sound than a bellows sound. The power of 
obstructed currents of liquid to produce the various modifica- 
tions of the bellows sound was further illustrated to the Com- 


270 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


mittee in several experiments on animals, in which pressure of 
the arteries, partial obstruction of the auriculo-ventricularori- 
fices, and suspension of the action of the sigmoid valves, ‘were 
repeatedly accompanied by this phenomenon. The thrill ac- 
companying this sonorous passage of liquid was in every case 
sensible to the finger. 

6. To this we may add that the experiments of MM. Pigeaux 
and Piorry have been repeated by the Reporter in the presence. 
and with the assistance of Dr. Edwin Harrison, and other gen- 
tlemen not of the Committee ; but in no instance of several trials 
was anything like the first sound produced. 

From the preceding facts the Committee conclude that the 
normal first sound of the heart is in no degree referable to any 
collisions of the particles of the fluids amongst themselves or 
against the parietes, &c. of the ventricles. 

First Sound—Impulse.—The facts relating to the connexion 
of impulse with the first sound that are contained in the pre- 
ceding experiments, are the following : 

In a variety of circumstances in which it is difficult to see 
how impulse could occur to cause sound, the systolic sound was 
distinctly audible, viz. 

1. When the heart lay exposed, deprived of its pericardium, 
and supported by the mediastinum alone, as in Experiment 1. 

2. When the heart was held between the fingers with some 
force of pressure, the left side cavities being empty, or nearly 
so, as in Experiment 5. 

3. When the heart was imbedded in tow. Experiment 14. 

4. When the heart hung out of the thorax by its vessels, re- 
moved from all contact to which sound might be referred, as in 
Experiment 9. 

Note. In the four experiments just referred to the instrument 
was applied to the arteries near their roots. 

5. When the heart was severed from all its attachments, and 
grasped strongly in the hand, as in Experiment 12. On the 
other hand, several facts show that the impulse against the ribs 
may produce sound. 

6. In Experiment 11, and in others in the memoranda of 
which the fact has been omitted, the heart during systole was 
felt, both outside and inside the chest, to press with force against 
the sternum and cartilages. 

7. In our observations on the effects of posture we remarked 
that leaning to the left or forwards gave additional force to the 
impulse and loudness to the sound; while inclination of the body, 
such as to cause the heart to gravitate away from the ribs, di- 
minished at once the sound and impulse. 


ON THE MOTIONS AND SOUNDS OF THE HEART. 271 


8. To those we may add the facts pointed out by Dr. Spittal, 
which have been repeated and verified by the Reporter, assisted 
by Dr. Edwin Harrison and other gentlemen not of the Com- 
mittee, and which seem to prove that if the living heart impinge 
with any force upon the walls of the thorax sound must result. 

From the whole of those facts, the Committee conclude that 
impulse is not the principal cause of the first sound, but that it 
_ is an auxiliary and occasional cause, nearly null in quietude and 
in the supine posture, but increasing very considerably the sound 
of the systole in opposite circumstances. 

First Sound— Muscular Tension.—The facts ascertained by 
the Committee relating directly to muscular tension as a pos- 
sible cause of the first sound, are few but striking, and in their 
judgement decisive. 

1. The heart in systole becomes suddenly, from a compara- 
tively soft and flaccid body, extremely tense, and to the touch 
hard as cartilage. Experiments 2 and 12, and many others, in 
which the fact was not recorded. 

2. The unvarying and uniform character of the systolic sound, 
however diversified the circumstances in which the heart was 
placed, furnishes a strong argument in favour of its intrinsic 
nature. 

3. The voluntary muscles, when suddenly contracted, become 
tense and hard, and emit sounds resembling strikingly the first 
sound of the heart. This is especially observable in the action 
of the abdominal muscles. Experiment 14. : 

4. From those experimental facts, taken along with the self- 
evident fact, that the muscular tension thus experimentally 
proved to be sonorous is an essential part, and, as it were, the 
first stage of full muscular contraction, the Committee conclude 
that the first sound of the heart is, for the most part, a physical 
result of the sudden transition of the ventricles from a flaccid 
condition to a state of extreme tension; that in a word the first 
sound is essentially a muscular sound. 

Second Normal Sound of the Heart.—We now proceed to 
the consideration of the normal second sound, and of the hypo- 
theses that have been or might be advanced respecting it, and 
the facts we possess that throw light on its causes and mechanism. 

The Committee had proceeded but a short way in their expe- 
rimental inquiries when they found the conclusion forced on 
them that the majority of the hypotheses. (above enumerated) 
regarding the second sound were wholly untenable. In some of 
their first experiments they found that the second sound might 
be absent, although the first sound was present, and the systolic 


272 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


and diastolic actions were quite normal. The second sound, for 
example, was suppressed by 

1. Pressure on the roots of the arteries. 

2. By hooking up a valve of each set of sigmoids. 

3. By suspending the heart out of the chest. 

4. By inverting the auricles, &c. (see Exp. passim), the first 
sound and alternate ventricular actions continuing unaffected in 
any material degree in each case. Such facts, of which there 
are many in the account of the experiments, seemed to the Com- 
mittee quite incompatible with any other hypothesis respecting 
the second sound than the last, viz. that which refers it to the 
action of the semilunar valves. Besides, several of those hy- 
potheses appeared liable to the weighty preliminary objection 
that they are wholly arbitrary, and without any foundation, so 
far as the Committee have been able to ascertain, in accurate 
observations or experiments. Under those impressions the 
Committee think it best to proceed at once to state the facts 
which in their opinion tend to establish the action of the sigmoid 
valves to be the cause of the normal second sound. In this some 
repetition perhaps may be necessary, but will, it is hoped, be ex- 
cused. 

The following experiments were made with especial reference 
to the mechanism of the second sound. 

1. Pressure with the finger and thumb was exerted on the ar- 
teries close to the sigmoid valves, so as to flatten the tubes a 
little, and the second sound, previously clear, and in every re- 
spect normal, was immediately suppressed, and a bellows mur- 
mur was heard instead: this murmur ceased, and the normal 
sound returned instantly on the removal of the fingers. Mperi- 
ments 7 and 10. 

2. A degree of pressure sufficient, it was conceived, to change, 
but very slightly, the shapes of the vessels, gave to the finger 
sensations of currents moving in opposite directions ; the one 
current more striking, and coinciding with the systole ; the other 
less forcible and synchronous with the diastole, and ending 
suddenly by a sensation of flapping or jerking. Experiment 14. 

3. The fingers being applied gently to the region of the sig- 
moid valves, and the ear-tube applied to the heart, the flapping 
sound was heard, and a sensation of a gentle tap was felt by the 
finger, in coincidence with the diastole and second sound. | Ex- 
periments 10 and 14. 

4. One valve of each set of sigmoids was hooked up in each ar- 
tery successively, and the jerking motion invariably ceased, with 
one apparent exception only, and continued suppressed in the 


ON THE MOTIONS AND SOUNDS OF THE HEART. 273 


artery in which a valve had been so hooked up. If a valve in 
one artery only was so engaged, the second sound was weakened ; 
but if a valve of each set of sigmoids was fixed, then the second 
sound wholly disappeared. In some instances there was a mur- 
mur of the sucking or blowing kind following the systole during 
the suspension of the valve ; in other instances there was absence 
of sound simply. Experiments 4, 6, 12, 13. 

5. The arteries were cut across close to the sigmoid valves, 
the veins being left entire, and the heart beating with consider- 
able force; the ear-tube was then applied, but gave only one 
sound, and that one coincident with the systole. Experiment 14. 

6. In the separated heart the first sound was repeatedly ob- 
served, but the second sound never. 

Summary of Conclusions.—1. The first sound of the heart, as 
heard in the chest, is generally complex in its nature, consisting 
of one constant or essential sound, and one perceptible only under 
certain circumstances ; this constant element of the first sound 
may be considered as intrinsic, appearing to depend on the sud- 
den transition of the ventricles from a state of flaccidity in dia- 
stole to one of extreme tension in systole ; while the extrinsic or 
subsidiary sound, which generally accompanies and increases the 
intrinsic sound, arises from the impulse of the heart against the 
parietes, chiefly of the thorax. 

2. The collisions of the particles of the blood amongst each 
other, or against the interior parietes, valves, &c. of the heart, 
do not appear to have any share in the normal first sound of the 
heart ; neither do the motions of the auriculo-ventricular valves ; 
and the attrition of the opposite interior surfaces of the heart’s 
cavities seems purely hypothetical. 

3. The principal, and apparently only, cause of the second 
normal sound of the heart, is the sudden closure of the sigmoid 
valves by the columns of blood that recoil back on them during 
the diastole, impelled by the elastic contraction of the arteries. 

4, The columne carnee appear to act simultaneously with the 
parietes of the ventricles, and in such a manner as to make it 
apparently impossible that the auriculo-ventricular valves should 
close with a flap, in the same manner as the sigmoid valves. 

Note. An opinion which is further confirmed by the anatomy 
of the heart of the domestic cock, in which M. Bouillard appears 
to have heard both sounds with the naked ear. In that animal 
there is no tricuspid valve resembling that of man, but the val- 
vular office is discharged by laminar extensions of the substance 
of the parietes of the ventricle, which meet in the middle, so as, 
during the systole, to cover the auriculo-ventricular orifice. 

To conclude,—The Committee feel strongly that the subject 
VOL. v.—1836. T 


Q74 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


of the heart’s motions and sounds requires further investigation, 
more especially in their pathological relations, and a wider 
range and greater variety of experiments than have hitherto been 
performed. 


(Signed) C.J. B. Witurams, M.D. F.R.S. 

R. B. Topp, M.D., Oxon, Professor 
of Physiology, King’s College, 
London. 

Joun CLENDINNING, M.D., Edin. and 
Oxon, Fellow of the R. C. of 
Physicians, Hon. Sec. Royal Med. 
Chir. Society, Physician to the 
Marylebone Infirmary, and Re- 
porter. 


ON THE MOTIONS AND SOUNDS OF THE HEART, tS 


Second Report of the Dublin Sub-Committee on the Motions 
and Sounds of the Heart. (See vol. iv. p. 243.) 


§ L—Tue Dublin Committee for investigating the motions 
and sounds of the heart, re-appointed by the British As- 
sociation at their last Meeting, have considered the following 
questions submitted to them by the General Committee of the 
Association. 

1. Whether the muscular fibres of the columne carnez con- 
tract at the same precise moment as the mass of muscular fibres 
of the ventricle ? 

2. What is the precise mode in which the tricuspid and mitral 
valves prevent the reflux of blood? Are they floated up and 
stretched across the auriculo-ventricular orifices, or drawn to- 
gether to a point within the cavity of the ventricle by the action 
of the columne carnee ? 

In order to solve the former of these questions the Committee 
have several times repeated the experiment of opening the heart, 
either while within the body of the newly killed animal, or sud- 
denly removed from it and placed in tepid water, in the expec- 
tation that the movements of the fleshy columns and of the 
general mass of the ventricles might be compared by inspection 
and their relations as to time thus ascertained. But im every 
instance it was found that the injury thus inflicted upon the 
heart caused its death so rapidly that no satisfactory conclusion 
could be drawn from these experiments. 

Independently of any direct experiment on this subject there 
are many considerations which, in the opinion of the Committee, 
serve to prove that the question now under view should be an- 
swered in the affirmative. 

The fleshy columns which are attached to the valves, and 
which have, for the sake of distinction, been called by some 
“papillary muscles,” differ from the other fleshy columns in the 
circumstance of being connected to the substance of the ven- 
tricle only at one of their extremities, while the otheris conjoined 
to the ‘‘ chorde tendinez,’’ but their fibres are, equally as those 
of the ordinary fleshy columns, continuous with the fibres of the 
general mass of the ventricles. That the ordinary fleshy columns 
contract simultaneously with the systole of the ventricles there 
can be no doubt, as the shortening of those columns is neces- 
sary to the completeness of the systole; and as the papillary 
muscles resemble the ordinary fleshy columns in the continuity 
of their fibres with those of the ventricles, it is reasonable to 

T 2 


276 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


suppose that the contractions of the former as of the latter class 
of fleshy columns are synchronous with those of the general 
mass. In the second place it is to be considered that if the 
papillary muscles were not in a state of contraction during the 
whole of the ventricular systole, the valves to which they are 
attached would be driven up by the impulse of the blood into 
the auriculo-ventricular openings, and thus become unfitted for 
their office, as is seen in the dead heart, in which a streamof water 
injected into either ventricle by its artery, drives the valves 
towards the auricle until the water escapes between their edges. 
It is to be observed also that in many quadrupeds, and to a cer- 
tain extent in the human subject, some of the tendinous cords 
attached to a valve are connected to papillary muscles, while the 
remainder are inserted directly into the surface of the ventricle : 
but it cannot be supposed that the former set of tendons are at 
rest while the latter are acted upon by the general ventricular 
contraction. 

To the solution of the second question a consideration of the 
manner in which the mitral and tricuspid valves are connected 
with their respective papillary muscles, and of the relation of 
these to the rest of the substance of the heart is necessary. 
Each of these valves may be regarded as a portion of a hollow 
membranous cylinder, attached by one edge around the auriculo- 
ventricular opening, the other edge projecting into the ventricle 
and connected to certain of the tendinous cords. The greater 
number of these, however, are joined to the valve, not at its edge, 
but at various points of its ventricular surface. The ventricular, 
or moveable edges of those valves are extremely irregular in their 
outline, being deeply notched in some parts and projecting in 
others ; but as to their mode of operation each valve may be con- 
sidered as consisting of two flaps, a larger and a smaller one, by 
the application of which to each other during the ventricular 
systole the blood is prevented from regurgitating into the auricles. 
The large flap of the mitral valve is placed between the orifice 
of the aorta and the left auriculo-ventricular opening, nearly -in 
a horizontal plane, the heart being supposed to be in its natural 
position, and the person in the upright posture, and may be 
described in reference to the smaller flap as superior, somewhat 
anterior, and a little tothe right side. The smaller flap is placed 
opposite to the larger, and is, with regard to it inferior, some- 
what posterior and a little to the left. When these flaps are in 
opposition during the systole of the ventricle, the line of their 
contact is of a somewhat semilunar form, and in the transverse 
direction. 

The larger flap of the tricuspid valve is attached to that part of 


ON THE MOTIONS AND SOUNDS OF THE HEART. QUT 


the margin of the auriculo-ventricular opening which corresponds 
to the portion of the ventricle not formed by the septum, and 
may be described, with reference to the smaller flap, as being 
placed externally to it, and to its right side: the smaller flap is 
connected to that portion of the margin of the opening which 
corresponds to the septum, and is, with regard to the larger flap, 
internal and to the left side. When these flaps are in contact 
with each other during the ventricular systole, the line of their 
junction is vertical, being very nearly at right angles to the ana- 
logous line as described in the mitral valve. 

The papillary muscles of the mitral valve vary in number in 
different subjects, but there are always two larger than the others, 
arising from the posterior wall of the ventricle, about midway 
between the apex and the base, one of which is situated close to 
the septum, and the other at the external edge or part of the 
posterior wall. They are somewhat flat-shaped, and are nearly 

arallel to each other and to the axis of the ventricle. Each 
of these papillary muscles terminates in two or three papille of 
nearly equal length, and whose summits are about one-fourth 
of an inch asunder. From these summits proceed, in a radiating 
form, a great number of tendinous cords, which are distributed 
to the flaps of the valve in the following manner: those cords 
which arise from the superior papilla on each side are connected 
to the superior or larger flap; those from the papilla on each 
side, situated between the superior and inferior, are distributed 
partly to the larger flap, and partly to that portion of the valve 
where the larger and smaller flaps are conjoined ; and the cords 
arising from the lowest papilla on each side are connected chiefly 
to the smaller or inferior flap. Besides the two papillary mus- 
cles just described there are others smaller, which arise from the 
posterior wall of the ventricle, nearer its base, at a situation 
‘corresponding to the attachment of the smaller flap, to which 
flap the tendons proceeding from these muscles are distributed. 

In the right ventricle the papillary muscles connected with 
the larger flap are three or four in number, and arise near the 
apex of the ventricle by footstalks proceeding generally both 
from the septum and from the external wall of the ventricle. 
They are somewhat flat in shape, nearly parallel in their direc- 
tion to the axis of the ventricle, and placed at intervals of half 
or three quarters of an inch from each other, measured along the 
external wall of the ventricle, which is of a curved form, and 
seems to be wrapped round the septum. From the papilla by 
which these muscles are terminated proceeda number of tendinous 
cords, which are distributed in a radiating manner to the surface 
and margin of the larger flap. The superior part of this mar- 


278 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


gin, just where the larger and smaller flaps are about to conjoin, 


receives one or two tendinous cords, which proceed directly from - 


the septum, without the intervention of any papillary muscle. 
The smaller flap receives one or two of its tendons from the 
lowest in position of those papillary muscles which have been 
described as supplying the larger flap; but all the others which 
it receives, to the number of 12 or 14, proceed to it directly 
from the surface of the septum, near the base, no papillary 
muscle intervening. 

From an inspection of the arrangement now described it is 
manifest that the papillary muscles, when they contract, draw 
the tendinous cords more or less towards the axis of the respect- 
ive auriculo-ventricular openings ; and if it be supposed that 
by any cause the flaps have been laid against the sides of the 
ventricles, the contraction of the papillary muscles will remove 
from such situation, or adduct towards the auriculo-ventri- 
cular axis, those portions of the valves to which they are con- 
nected. 

It is also clear that the contraction of the papillary muscles 
cannot, in any instance, close the valves, or bring their flaps 
into contact with each other. For when the contraction of the 
papillary muscles is at its greatest, as at the end of the ventri- 
cular systole, if it be assumed that the cords and flaps of the 
valves have been rendered tense by their action, leaving al- 
together out of view, for the present, the influence of the blood 
upon the valves; and further, if it be supposed that the numerous 
summits of papilla, whence the cords proceed, have been 
gathered in each ventricle into a single point; in such a state 
of things each valve and its cords will have assumed a form 
resembling an irregular funnel, of which the base is at the auri- 
culo- ventricular opening, and the apex at the point of conjune- 
tion of the summits of the papille: and it is evident that the 
opposite points of the moveable edge of each valve will be sepa- 
rated from each other by spaces equal to corresponding dia- 
meters of the funnel. The assumption that the summits of the 
papille are congregated into a single point at the latter part of 
the systole is manifestly incorrect, as the swelling of the papil- 
lary muscles, during contraction, will tend rather to separate 
from each other those summits which arise from the same pa- 
pillary muscle; but in order that the edges of the valves should 
be brought into contact by the action of the papillary muscles 
alone, such an arrangement of those muscles would be necessary 
as should cause the tendons of the opposing flaps to cross each 
other during the systole, an effect totally incompatible with the 
present construction of the organ under consideration. 


ON THE MOTIONS AND SOUNDS OF THE HEART, 279 


It is also an erroneous assumption that the valves are ren- 
dered tense by the action of the papillary muscles, unaided by 
the influence of the blood upon the surfaces of the valves: for, 
were it true, by the time when the contraction of these muscles 
is at its greatest, and for some time previous, the valves would 
be held by them in an open state, as has just been proved; and 
thus during a portion of the systole, towards its end, the closing 
of the passages into the auricles would be rendered incomplete. 
It is accordingly inconsistent with the functions of the heart 
that the papillary muscles, in their state of greatest contraction, 
should render the valves tense: it follows that they cannot ren- 
der them tense at any previous stage of contraction. 

The valves are closed by the impulse communicated to them 
through the blood at the commencement of the systole; and 
are prevented from separating during its continuance by the 
same cause. The papillary muscles have for their office to re- 
gulate the position of the valves, and to prevent them from 
being driven so far towards the auricles as to render incomplete 
the closing of their orifices. It does not appear that the action 
of the papillary muscles is at all necessary for the removal of 
the flaps from the sides of the ventricles, in order that the blood 
may be admitted between them at the commencement of the 
systole: for in the dead heart, if water be injected into either 
ventricle, through its corresponding artery, or through a hole 
made in its apex, it never fails to float the valves towards the 
auricles, and to bring their respective flaps into close contact. 
If force be used in this experiment the valves are driven into 
the auriculo-ventricular openings, and the water escapes between 
their edges. In this experiment it is seen also that the tricus- 
pid valve performs its office as completely as the mitral, op- 
posing a perfect obstacle to the flow of blood until force is em- 
ployed. 

It is probable that in the living heart the valves are not 
applied close to the sides of the ventricles, when these are in their 
diastole, and full of blood; but that an interval exists between 
them occupied by this fluid. The central position of the papil- 
lary muscles of the larger flaps, and the shortness of their ten- 
dons are favourable to this supposition ; and, in the right ven- 
tricle, the mode in which the smaller flap is connected to the 
septum, by tendons inserted directly, and without papillary 
muscles, requires for the closing of this portion of the valve, 
that the blood should have insinuated iiself between it and the 
adjacent surface, previously to the commencement of the systole; 
inasmuch as the mere muscular contraction of the ventricle is 


280 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


incapable of drawing this flap from the adjoining surface; and 
were the systole to commence while this portion of the ‘valve 
was applied to the side of the ventricle, the impulse of the 
blood would be expended upon its auricular, instead of its ven- 
tricular surface. In many quadrupeds, for instance, in the calf, 
the papillary muscles are almost altogether wanting in both 
sides of the heart: the tendons of the valves are inserted direct- 
ly into the surfaces of the ventricles, and are so short that it is 
manifestly impossible that the flaps can be laid against the 
sides of those cavities when they are distended with blood. 

In the dead heart, placed in water, the valves do not hang 
down in the fluid, but assume a cup-like form, and their free 
edges are puckered together ; thus manifesting a disposition to 
acquire, without the aid of the muscles, that figure and position 
which are most favourable for receiving the impulse of the 
blood. 

When the ventricular systole begins, the valves are closed by 
the muscular power of the ventricles transmitted to them 
through the blood, and the papillary muscles, commencing their 
contraction at the same moment, are enabled to resist the im- 
petus by which, but for their aid, the valves would be driven 
unduly towards the auricles. The valvular flaps are now in 
contact with each other by a portion of their auricular surfaces 
adjacent to their free edges, and their form is curvilinear like 
that of a sail distended by the wind ; a form of surface which, it 
may be observed, enables the papillary muscles to resist the 
impetus of the blood by a much less expenditure of their power 
than had the valves been rendered tense in the first instance, 
and drawn to a point by the action of these muscles alone. As 
the systole proceeds, all the parts of the ventricles approach, 
more or less, to the base; and thus the distance which at the 
beginning of the systole intervened between the auriculo-ven- 
tricular openings and the more remote extremities of the papil- 
lary muscles, is gradually abridged. The gradual contraction 
of these muscles serves to compensate for the diminution of 
this distance, and thus the valves are retained in an unaltered 
position from the beginning till the end of the systole. 

This view of the purpose which the contractile power of the pa- 
pillary muscles is intended to fulfil, is strengthened by observing 
that tltose papillary muscles are the longest which have their 
origin from the substance of the ventricles most remote from 
the base of the heart, and that they are found to be shorter in 
proportion as their origins are nearer to that part ; and the ten- 
dinous cords of the smaller flap of the tricuspid valve, which 


ON THE MOTIONS AND SOUNDS OF THE HEART. 281 
arise from the septum very near the base, ‘proceed from its sur- 
face to the margin of the valve without the intervention of any 
papillary muscle. 

This method of arrangement evidently depends upon the 
general law of muscular contraction, according to which the 
shortening of a fibre bears a definite ratio to its length in the 
uncontracted state. The parts of the ventricle most remote 
from the base receive the longest fibres, and accordingly make 
the greatest degree of approach to it during their period of 
contraction. 

§ I1.—The Committee have repeated many of their former ex- 
periments with regard both to the motions and sounds of the 
heart, and have derived from them a confirmation of the views 
detailed in their last Report. In order to elucidate the cause of 
the sounds of the heart the following new experiments have 
been performed. 

Experiment 1.—In a calf, prepared in the manner described 
in the former Report, the thorax was opened, and the apex of the 
heart cut off, so that the blood, during the contraction of the 
ventricles, flowed into the chest, instead of passing into the 
large arteries. An ear-tube being applied to the body of the 
ventricles, one sound only was heard, resembling the first sound 
of the heart, and coinciding with the ventricular systole. When 
the blood had ceased to flow, a finger was inserted into the left 
ventricle, by which it was firmly grasped at each contraction, 
and the ear-tube being again applied to the surface, a sound, 
which may be described as a dull thump, was heard simultane- 
ously with the grasp of the finger by the ventricle. 

Experiment 2.—A stop-cock, communicating at one end with 
a large bladder full of water, was inserted into the right auricle 
of a human heart, and secured by a ligature. A glass tube, 23 
feet long, and { inch in bore, was tied into the pulmonary artery, 
one inch above the semilunar valves. The bladder pressed upon 
so as to fill the right ventricle, which was then compressed at 
intervals by the hand, and thus the fluid was sent into the tube 
by jerks, in imitation of the natural action of the heart. An ear- 
tube being applied to the surface of the heart, two sounds were 
heard, one prolonged, the other abrupt, very closely resembling 
the natural sounds of the beating heart. The former sound was 
heard during the contraction of the hand, the latter immediately 
upon its relaxation. During the first sound the fluid ascended 
in the tube, and descended a little when the second sound was 
heard. The tube was now taken out of the artery; the semi- 
lunar valves were completely removed, and the tube was rein- 
serted and fixed as before. The alternate compression of the 


282 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


ventricle by the hand, and relaxation being renewed, two sounds 
were heard, both prolonged, the second having lost the abrupt- 
ness by which it had been previously characterized. 

Experiment 3.—The experiment now to be described was 
first made by M. Rouanet, and is detailed by M. Bouilleaud, in 
his work on the diseases of the heart. It consists in attaching 
by one end, a glass tube a few inches in length, and about an 
inch wide, to a bladder holding water, and by the other to the 
aorta, close beneath the semilunar valves, but so as not to inter- 
fere with their movements ; the muscular substance of the heart 
having been previously removed. Another glass tube, some 
feet long, and of equal diameter with the former, is tied into 
the aorta at a distance of two or three inches above the semilu- 
nar valves. The bladder is compressed by the hand so as to 
raise the water in the tube to a considerable height; and the 
hand being suddenly relaxed, the column of water in the longer 
tube, deprived of support, descends until it is arrested by the 
closing of the semilunar valves. At this instant, if the ear have 
been applied to the lower part of the longer tube, an abrupt 
sound is heard, resembling the second sound of the heart. If 
the semilunar valves be now removed, and the experiment with 
this alteration, be repeated, the sound, which is heard to ac- 
company the relaxation of the heart, is no longer abrupt, but 
prolonged. 

The conclusions which the Committee have drawn from these 
experiments, as to the causes of the ordinary sounds of the heart, 
are similar to those detailed in their former Report, to which 
they beg leave to refer. 

It appears to the Committee that many writers upon the sounds 
of the heart have not sufficiently distinguished the characters of 
those sounds, the prolongation of the first, and the abruptness 
of the second; and the term “ tic-tac’’ which has been em- 
ployed to express their rythm, is likely to mislead inaccurate 
observers by representing the sounds as of equal length. 

The first sound, of a homogeneous character, beginning and 
ending with the ventricular systole, which is a prolonged action, 
coincides with it in duration; and the observation of this fact 
has enabled the Committee to exclude from the causes of the 
first sound, all those which are of a momentary nature, as the 
closing of valves, and those possessing the character of im- 
pulse. : 


In concluding their second Report, the Committee wish tostate 
their opinion that the motions and sounds of the heart have 
been now, by themselves and others, investigated nearly as far 


PATHOLOGY OF BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM. 283 


as can be done by mere experiment ; but that much light can be 
thrown upon the subject, and the truth of theories tested, by the 
observation of disease. To this part of the subject, the Dublin 
Committee propose to apply themselves during the ensuing 
year, if it be the wish of the Association that their inquiries 
should be continued. 
(Signed) James Macartney, M.D., F.R.S. 
: Roserr Apams, A.M., T.C.D. 

Evory Kennepy, M.D. 

Gerorce Greene, A.B., M.D. 

Joun Hart, M.D. 

Wo. Bruce Joy, A.M., M.B. 

Joun Nouan, M.D. 

Rosert Law, M.D. 

H. Caruiue, A.B., T.C.D. 
August 19th, 1836. 


Report of the Dublin Committee on the Pathology of the 
Brain and Nervous System. 


Tur Committee appointed in Dublin to investigate the ‘* Patho- 
logy of the Brain and Nervous System,”’ feel compelled, on the 
present occasion, to confine themselves to an analysis of the 
cases of nervous affections which have come under their obser- 
vation, during the short period which has elapsed since they have 
considered themselves to be regularly appointed. 

They are of opinion that in order to arrive at accurate patho- 
logical conclusions on a subject so extensive and complicated, 
and on which the most eminent authorities are found to disagree, 
a very great number of cases should be first submitted to their 
examination—then, the symptoms of each case carefully regi- 
stered—and, subsequently accurate post mortem examinations 
made, in the presence of the Committee, to ascertain the struc- 
tural lesion or lesions with which the symptoms co-existed. 

As far as their investigations have as yet extended, they see 
that the subject, if considered in all its details, will require a 
considerable length of time before they can accumulate such a 
number of cases and matured observations as would justify 
them in drawing general conclusions. 


284. SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


They have collected some valuable facts relating to injuries 
and diseases of the nerves, which seem to throw light upon the 
disputed points of the physiology and pathology of this portion 
of the nervous system. They are of opinion, however, that 
more extended observations on this branch of the subject are 
required to be made. They would also submit the necessity of 
repeating those experiments, upon which so many rely as a 
foundation for their doctrines. ‘ 

They have been for some time engaged in registering the hi- 
story and symptoms of cases of nervous affections in the Wards 
of the House of Industry, Dublin, and the different Hospitals 
belonging thereto. 

They find that this Institution presents ample materials for a 
future report, should they be re-appointed, the number of cases 
of mental and nervous diseases which it contains being, in- 
dependently of about 150 cases of paralysis, as follows, viz. 

Males. Females. 


Chronic Insane... « - -.- 44 179 
Epileptic SANE penceks. piste teh 33 
Congenital TG ar ws Cee ee 62 
Epileptic Idiots . - - - + 14 20 


178 294 Total 472 


The number of cases which the Committee have been enabled 
to examine with sufficient accuracy, amounts to forty-one. Of 
these they have made an analysis which is attached to their 
Report. They also affix an index referring to seventeen cases of 
affections of individual nerves, but regret that they have not had 
sufficient time to make either as full and accurate as they could 
wish. 

(Signed) James O’Berrne, M.D. 
Grorce GrerenF, M.D. 
Joun Macponnewi, M.D. 
Rosert Apams, A.M., T.C.D. 


Dublin, August 17th, 1836. 


DISCUSSIONS OF OBSERVATIONS OF THE TIDES. 285 


Account of the recent Discussions of Observations of the Tides 
which have been obtained by means of the grant of Money 
which was placed at the disposal of the Author for that pur- 
pose at the last Meeting of the Association. By J. W. 

-Lussock, Esq. 


I wisn to lay before the Section the points to which I have 
chiefly directed my attention on the subject of the tides since 
the last meeting of the Association, aided by the grant of money 
which was placed at my disposal, and for which I beg to offer 
my warmest acknowledgements. 

In the first place I requested Mr. Dessiou to separate into 
different categories his discussion of the Liverpool tides for the 
calendar months, so as to ascertain the difference between the 
morning and evening tides on the same day, or the diurnal ine- 
quality. This inequality is extremely sensible at Liverpool in 
the height, as may be seen in the diagram and tables which I 
prepared, with Mr. Dessiou’s assistance, and which are published 
in the Phil. Trans. 

Mr. Dessiou also, at my request, classified the errors of pre- 
diction for a year at Liverpool, and also of a year at London, in 
order to deduce the influence upon the tide of variations in the 
atmospheric pressure. I have thus succeeded in confirming the 
result first obtained by M. Daussy from the observations at Brest, 
namely, that the height of high water is less when the barometer 
is high, and vice versd. In the Report which I had the honour 
formerly to present to the Association, I expressed the opinion 
that the tides in the river Thames did not warrant this infer- 
ence; this opinion was founded upon the rough examination of 
a year’s observations, and it is now completely disproved. 

Ihave also been enabled to procure the assistance of Mr. Jones 
and Mr. Russell, two excellent computers. These gentlemen, 
under my guidance, have discussed the observations of 19 years 
at the London Docks. These observations were formerly dis- 
cussed by Mr. Dessiou with reference to the moon’s transit im- 
mediately preceding. But upon examining the results thus ob- 
tained I saw that for the interval no satisfactory comparison with 
theory could be obtained for the moon’s parallax and declination 
corrections in this manner, and that it was indispensible to re- 
fer the phenomena to the tide-producing forces at a period more 
remote. The law of the intervals, when the discussion is insti- 
tuted with reference to the transit immediately preceding the 
time of high water, whether at London, Liverpool, or Brest, de- 


286 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


pends partly upon the phenomena as deducible from Bernoulli’s 
equilibrium theory, and partly upon the law of the intervals be- 
tween the moon’s successive transits. I therefore directed Mr. 
Jones and Mr. Russell to discuss the observations with reference 
to the fifth transit preceding, or that two days before the high 
water under consideration. . 

The results which we obtained, and the comparisons with 
theory which I instituted, are printed in the Phil. Trans. The 
observations of 19 years amount to 13,370; but notwithstanding 
their multiplicity, when they come to be separated into numerous 
categories, as for the purpose of ascertaining the diurnal inequa- 
lity, the irregularities which the results present show clearly that 
even a greater number is required in order to arrive at averages 
which can be sufficiently depended upon. Still the general con- 
clusion to which my discussions lead is that the equilibrium 
theory of Bernoulli satisfies the phenomena nearly if not quite 
within the limits of the errors of the observations, and that it 
leaves very little, if anything, to be accounted for otherwise. 

This question is extremely interesting, and seems to me to 
deserve the fullest investigation which the materials within our 
reach can justify. If the discussion were extended by taking in 
all the observations which have been made at the London Docks 
(which would give us about 16 years more, or nearly double the 
number), [have no doubt that the results would be much more free 
from irregularity. It would also be worth while to bring up the 
interval and the height to what they ought to have been in 
Tables* I. and X. if the moon’s parallax had been exactly 57', and 
in Table VI. to what they ought to have been if the moon’s de- 
clination had been exactly 15°. I have hitherto neglected the 
minute quantities, which would thus have given a second ap- 
proximation on account of the great additional labour which 
they would have occasioned, but I have no doubt that something 
would be gained by supplying this correction. 

Besides all the work which I have detailed, the grant of the 
Association has enabled me to employ Mr. Jones to effect a dis- 
cussion of the Liverpool observations for 19 years, also with 
reference to a back transit in order to obtain the calendar month 
and diurnal inequalities. It would be desirable to complete this 
discussion, in order to obtain in the same manner the moon’s 
parallax corrections. It would also be desirable to extend the 


* Phil. Trans. 1836. The correction for the difference of the moon’s de- 
clination from 15° is, I apprehend, insensible, and that for the difference of the 
moon’s parallax will seldom, if ever, exceed one minute for the interval, and 
one tenth of a foot in the height. 


DISCUSSIONS OF OBSERVATIONS OF THE TIDES. 287 


discussion of the Liverpool tides by employing more of the 
Hutchinsonian observations. 

If the Brest observations were published it might be better to 
proceed at once with their discussion, abandoning, if necessary, 
for the present our Liverpool and London investigations. The 
observations there have no doubt been carefully made, and the 
situation of the port may appear to some to present advantages. 
These advantages I am convinced have been much overrated, 
and I attribute the extreme apathy which has been evinced on 
the subject of the tides in this country until lately to the erro- 
neous idea that little could be reaped from observations at places 
so far removed from the open ocean as London. However I feel 
much regret at being deprived of the opportunity of recurring to 
the Brest observations, particularly as I am informed they have 
long since been printed. 


288 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


A Paper was communicated entitled Observations for deter- 
mining the refractive Indices for the Standard Rays of the 
Solar Spectrum in various media. By the Rev. Bavren 
PoweE.., M.4., F.R.S., Savilian Professor of Geometry 
in the University of Oxford. 


Turs paper contained the details of the observations in a ta- 
bular form, printed copies of which were distributed. The 
author prefaced them by a brief statement of the circumstances 
which had led to them, and of their nature. The determination 
of the refractive indices for definite rays of the solar spectrum 
marked by the dark lines, from the direct observations of their 
deviations produced by prisms of different substances, first pro- 
posed and executed by Fraunhofer, for ten media solid and liquid, 
was carried on by M. Rudberg for ten more cases. The neces- 
sity for an extended series of such determinations was pointed 
out and strongly insisted on by Sir J. Herschel, as well as by 
Sir D. Brewster ; and was further urged by a special recom- 
mendation from the British Association. (Zhird Report, p. 
319.) Not being able to learn that anything has been done 
towards supplying the deficiency in other quarters, the author 
took up the inquiry; and the tabular statements contain the 
results of observations, in which he has attempted to ascertain 
the refractive indices belonging to each of the standard primary 
rays for various media: comprising in the present instance the 
only highly dispersive substances he has been as -yet able to pro- 
cure in a condition capable of prismatic observation ; together 
with some other liquids of different natures: this being a first 
contribution only towards a series of such determinations, which 
he hopes to continue. 


= 


Log 


289) 


Provisional Report on the Communication between the Arteries 
and Absorbents on the part of the London Committee. By 
Dr. Hovexin. 


Dr. Hodgkin read to the Medical Section a provisional Report 
on behalf of the London Committee appointed to investigate the 
communications between the arteries and absorbents. As the 
Committee is continued to pursue the inquiry, the author has 
not transmitted the Report for publication in the present volume. 
The following are the-outlines of the Report. 

The Committee had added to its number Mr. Francis Sibson, 
jun., an expert and practised anatomist then engaged at Guy’s 
Hospital, where it was found most convenient for the inquiry to be 
conducted. Numerous examinations were made of the lacteals 
in man and other animals, in which these vessels were either 
filled with chyle, or artificially injected with mercury, but no 
positive instance of a lacteal communicating with the veins was 
discovered. Two instances were mentioned in which an efferent 
vessel from a mesenteric gland entered a large vein, but there 
was reason to suspect that the vessels, which appeared to be- 
long to the lymphatic system, were really veins. The commu- 
nication between the absorbents and veins in the substance of the 
mesenteric glands was confirmed in numerous instances, and un- 
der circumstances which induced the reporter to believe that no 
rupture or extravasation had taken place. Although the views 
of Professor Lippi had not been confirmed by the examiners, 
the reporter didnot conclude that they were to be wholly rejected, 
and the thoracic duct and right trunk regarded as the sole com- 
munications between the absorbent and venous systems, since nu- 
merous anatomists had seen and described other instances of ab- 
sorbents entering veins. He had himself seen the absorbents from 
a lung entering the vena azygos, and his friend Mr. Bracy Clark 
had found the receptaculum chyli emptying itself into a lumbar 
vein. He was inclined to believe that such communications oc- 
curred as anomalies and variations analogous to other varieties in 
the distribution of vessels. This view derived some support from 
the fact that such communications occurred chiefly in or near the 
neck, and in the pelvis, where they resembled the normal distribu- 
tion observed in birds and reptiles. There was then an analogy be- 
tween these irregularities of the absorbent system, and the most 
frequent varieties in the arterial, which also, for the most part, 
resemble the normal distribution in some of the inferior animals. 


It did not appear that Lippi was able to demonstrate the com- 
VOL. v.—1836. eu 


290 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


munications fer which he contended, in every subject, and the 
care which he had taken to describe and delineate them when 
met with seemed to indicate that they were comparatively rare, 
even amongst his numerous examinations.. Amongst the facts 
connected with the inferior animals, the author remarked that 
in the kangaroo he had found that the thoracic duct was double, 
affording another instance of similarity between the circulation 
in that animal and in birds, and noticed the very considerable 
dilatation of the receptaculum chyli which he had met with in 
a foetal pig. The Report also contained some notice of the la- 
bours of Muller, Arnold, Fohmann, Panizza, and Drs. Thomson 
and Sharpey on this subject, as well as the recently published 
thesis of Professor Brechet. In relation to the origins of the lym- 
phatics, he noticed the fact observed by Mr. T. King, that the 
lymphatics of the thyroid gland were found filled with the very 
peculiar secretion proper to the cells of that organ, and that he 
had himself seen the lymph in the thoracie duct of the pig flow- 
ing alternately colourless and highly sanguinolent, which, as 
no violence had been done to the abdomen, appeared to indicate 
some natural but unexplained communication between the san- 
guiferous and lymphatic systems. The Report concluded with 
some observations respecting the formation of vessels, in which 
the author endeavoured to account for the exact correspondence 
which often exists between arteries and veins, and also for the 
production of valves in the latter vessels and in absorbents. 


ll 
: 


Report of Experiments on Subterranean Temperature, under 
the direction of a Committee; consisting of Professor ForBEs, 
Mr. W. S. Harris, Professor Powewu, Lieut.-Col. Syxes, 
and Professor Putuctps (Reporter). 


Having noticed the principal causes of error in experiments 
on the temperature of the air, water, rocks, and metallic veins 
below the surface, the author described the methods and instru- 
ments of research recommended by a Committee of the Associa- 
tion to eliminate the known and neutralize the unknown sources 
of fallacy. The instruments constructed for this purpose were 
properly placed in many situations, under the direction of com- 
petent persons, and satisfactory results had already been obtained, 
which in every instance agreed with the general results of foreign 
inquiries in proving a continual augmentation of heat below the 
surface of invariable temperature. At the Lead Hills Professor 
Forbes had placed thermometers under the care of Mr. Irvine ; 
Mr. Buddle had established registers at Newcastle; Mr. Ander- 
son, at Monk Wearmouth; Mr. Hodgkinson, near Manchester ; 
and withina few days Professor Phillips had been enabled through 
the kindness of a friend to place a thermometer in a deep coal 
mine at Bedminster, near Bristol. Similar instruments have since 
been extensively distributed, and the following general instruc- 
tions and form of register have been prepared for the assistance 
of observers. 


Instructions for conducting experiments on the Temperature of 
the Earth, at various depths, upon a plan and with instru- 
ments recommended by a Committee of the British Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science. 


‘The general interest and importance of inquiries into the 
interior temperature of the earth render it proper to explain, to 
those who may be engaged in conducting the experiments, that 
for the purpose of obtaining results really valuable, and capable 
of being combined in philosophical investigations, it is essential 
that the same object of research should be proposed,—the same 
planof experiment followed, —and similar instruments employed; 
—it is convenient that. the results obtained should be recorded in 
tables of one form, and transmitted to one person, named by the 
Association, for the examination of the Committee. 

(«.) Zhe object proposed to be accomplished, by the experi- 
ments contemplated, is the acquisition of satisfactory data, for 
the establishment of undoubted conclusions concerning the real 

u2 


292 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


temperature of the interior of the earth, from the surface to the 
greatest depths yet reached by human enterprise. 

(b.) Lhe plan of experiment proposed for general adoption, 
and specially required to be followed by those who undertake 
to use the instruments furnished by the Association, is intended 
to reduce the effect of known and equalize those of unknown 
sources of fallacy. 

For this end certain precautions must be observed, suited to 
experiments in air, water, androck respectively; for none of these 
are wholly free from the influence of sources of serious error. 

The temperature of the air in the gallery of a mine varies ac- 
cording to the place of the observation as compared with the 
entrance and exit of the current ; according to the rate of this 
current as it passes through a confined, open, or complicated 
passage ; according to the place of the thermometer in the sec- 
tion of the air passage; according to lights, respiration, and 
other local conditions. 

On all these accounts the experiments in air are the least ac- 
curate indications of subterranean temperature : however care- 
fully made there is in the result always too much of the effect of 
local influences which cannot be estimated. (They are however 
extremely valuable in combination with those hereafter noticed.) 

The water of a mine offers a less exceptionable subject of ex- 
periment. If it be a small continuous subterranean spring, 
discovered at a known depth, without any sign of efflux under 
violent pressure, its temperature carefully taken will be found 
to be nearly constant. The composition and specific gravity of 
the water may be of importance in the combination of the re- 
sults. It should therefore be correctly stated. But water merely 
lying in the galleries of a mine, or collected from the sides of 
the shafts, is never to be referred to as a standard of subterra- 
nean temperature. 

It is however in the solid rock that the best observations, and 
those most suited to the purpose of philosophical reasoning, are 
to be obtained. The principal sources of fallacy in this class of 
experiments arise from the unequal and varying influences of 
the air-currents, moisture, &c., on the surface of the rock ; local 
chemical actions and electric currents may also be noticed as 
affecting the precision of the result, and if known should be re- 
corded. The only experimental caution, however, available in 
this case, is to sink the thermometer to a sufficient depth from 
the surface, in a hole very little larger than itself, and to record 
the observations after moderate intervals of time. 

(c) The instruments furnished have been compared with one 
known standard, and all that is required of the observer is to re- 


EXPERIMENTS ON SUBTERRANEAN TEMPERATURE. 293 


cord exactly their indications under the conditions mentioned in 
the following table ; of which separate copies have been furnished, 
so as to have all the entries as uniform as possible, and dupli- 
cates to enable the observers to retain a copy. The original 
is to be folded and forwarded to “ Professor Phillips, Assistant 
General Secretary to the British Association, York.” 


Weekly Register of Observations on Subterranean Temperature 
at in Lat. , Long. 


Elevation of the surface above the sea in feet*. 
Mean annual temperature of the air at surface. 
Mean temperature of permanent springs issuing from rock. 


2 Te 


Thermometer (No. ) mec ae for half an hour in the fol-| Thermometer | Thermometer, 
lowing situations, and in 


e following order of succession.|(No. ).|(No. ). 


In air : in the} In air: in the P : 
In air: in the}, mine or col- | mine or col- ia in| In a hole of meloae 
Year, Month,|In air: in the);.ry near thelliery near the a subterra- | rockt 3 feet | yockt 3 feet 


and Day. | shade 4 feet | p2:¢ of th b fthe |2ean spring: |geep, Depth 
above the Bele: ase ofthe | if constantf. |ooe: cuceshe, (deep: Depth 
ground. war Faye ma a Depth 4 nae, | from surfice. 
( ).{( ),|° 1 : 


January. 


Averages. 


* The half-tide level is supposed to be the best standard of sea level: the elevation 
of the surface may be found by levelling, trigonometry, the barometer, or by com- 
parison with navigations orrailways. The method of determination should be stated. 

+ The quality of water should be stated, as salt, chalybeate, ordinary. 

+ State whether the rock be argillaceous, calcareous, or arenaceous. If experiments 
be made in rock dykes or mineral veins, another thermometer should be placed at the 
same depth in the neighbouring rock. 


oe an 


ri ‘2 St ES 


| strange “heh RETOUR ve erwannet 13 12 


Fas : te 
etait Pas, fibaos oil, eo papi tees sigdd hoa 
iil ised oyuid etigog: ae cheat cys. Fey 1 oldat anette m 
Re pers fayts gidinaog ¢ es taveliin 46 sinh | aa iLs_oy, 
Le re trai ae 908. i, @lsstort,-o8 yt wrreto atts olclguys 


a SADE ate re ay toes, EONS aS a ‘oft baba aw vind i & 
Hh vir gees AGEs is itp act oh panei vies “4 
ara, eh de 730 a Wikataoaes > 


"EA NOND Mee ST 
. Egat sine inigerianiott 3 ni % oni 


Re bi: <cirane a Awe. seal cae aS , Oe } 
Ge 1a > cali aK oT we va pa oi i. S See. ‘os ‘ 
, ue | Bul . 
; un ne oe any 7th panera) eat 2 PRE oy ™ mY : 
bis eu Pim i ero rat aah =t ied a > aaa 
. 1 o A + ° PixAT A a * : u 
Kk sagrratt RE HI GET ad. yp od abhi bi ah Sirf r (oh) Halt ed eel 
wat 9 Jingles So thse gsi wotlat 4a ad Trews <PADATaut rhe qysieares 5 gig 

PERE US aes tat Taye oe _ jo: er eer ae ptebetne ‘ 
* rar & MHP AGS al van $ ’ 
“Bawa | ste ae Nes he se anette aa cede a | 
a + Fa Speers 
inde j a meri ak at nl Etat 48 a 
Ha Ni i One hd | 
: beater’ at | ix meen ' 
SP ae re OTE Sa ae ge 4 
Pe PF Fortis hah biel te Awstite | 
Se } AY 2 : ‘ ' f . 
sapraaveat 4 3 — inl be et oe : 


Pogitbiy He! wpa aOR 
Er 9 alee oh see A ree yenentnte os mene te ote 


soles ods: ; Gl: paaBy tasbiene: pedal octets bihioeghie tle abi 
-o0o Yt io Ananoed ofl? yHeatedonity coger ef Dawgs od yore 
bisects ach taiesdin wot niriferaiel te Hoilien aft  eypryitoy Wi mtohegorne 

‘uy aan imo Ais! nbilaeky ther pt sfesgh pal is{iows TENET bad Lire 
eortomieajea 2h (RANE eMmeTyotAy nicely pide Avot oft = 


a Li t Hea) _ 
a 36 booed ies ee MeN a 
ieantn a Ld nlelt ‘ my? ‘ z 
a — <1 oi er . ry a q 
+ a SRS he b ‘ a . . 
ge enor oe getters aad rinetre ea rbrti te Utes ne: 
*hars x . ebeid jor bel » Pee 
a Se Myartiyt 4 ane mec a ys YF ae (Ul ge is say waeveret seme. gt | © “a 
Mae £ Maat 5133" on wee : wre . (abayralive Vikteiee. oT. dopa a ee 
a B iN Die tobi Bp 6 peat aie Peo a atk Hats 6 ap Goer roel pr oi 
i " ; a BF 2 . es PR Kay mk SR DaARY, 40 5 aa te meres 


pk CT ees) SHAUdies tybstt cael 


a bas nase abarhdtine eudnd agen xe Hae coe 


Ee um RN eee) 


a % 
+o 4 rh 
sn, 
4 
WAR 
is 
ariti! 
vik 
i 


ee. 


_ Inquiry into the Validity of a Method recently proposed by 


George B. Jerrard, Esq., for Transforming and Resolving 
Equations of Elevated Degrees: undertaken at the Re- 
quest of the Association by Professor Sir W. R. Hamitton. 


[1.] Ir is well known that the result of the elimination of 2, 
between the general equation of the m' degree, 


Kao" + Aa” = Ba”? 4 Cx™-3 + D x™-* 
+ Ee”"-* 4 &e. =0 
and an equation of the form 
(ee aE me Sieg vest anlar ae 
(in which f (#) denotes any rational function of v, or, more ge- 
nerally, any function which admits of only one yalue for an 


one value of x,) is a new or transformed equation of the m*" de- 
gree, which may be thus denoted, 


{y —F(#)} {y —F (2)} > Ly —~F Om) } = «+ (B+) 
#;, ¥,...#,, denoting the m roots of the proposed equation ; 
or, more concisely, thus, 

Y=y" a Aly”! oi Bl y™-? + Cly™-* ae D'y"—4 (4,) 

Ry"? &e.'= 0, 


the coefficients A’, B', C', &c., being connected with the values 
F (#1), f (#2), &c., by the relations, 


—Al =f (2) + f (%) + &e. + f(@m); 

+ B=f (x) f (%) + fe) (43) +f (x2) f (#3) + &e. 
+f (Gm —1) F (%m)s 

—C=f(x,)f (xo) f (3) + &e. 


And it has been found possible, in several known instances, to 
assign such a form to the function f (2) or y, that the new or 
transformed equation, Y = 0, shall be less complex or easier to 
resolve, than the proposed or original equation X = 0. For ex- 
ample, it has long been known that by assuming 


yf a2 % 4 «, abhi ge Bae Fanon 3) 


(1.) 


(5.) 


296 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 

one term may be taken away from the general equation (1); that 

general equation being changed into another of the form 
Y=y"+ By + cuss a << AM 0 a lee 


in which there occurs no term proportional to y”~1, the condi- 
tion 


ANS 0) ...pe rar. oH esasiB.) 
being satisfied; and Tschirnhausen discovered that by assuming 
ge P Chee et se i ae OR) 


and by determining Pand @ so as to satisfy two equations 
which can be assigned, and which are respectively of the first 
and second degrees, it is possible to fulfil the condition 
BOS ey na tage ie Sa ee 
along with the condition 
Alps Of atone cle) 
and therefore to take away two terms at once from the general 
equation of the m degree; or, in other words, to change that 
equation (1) to the form 


Y =y” pi ome re Tkdioas! fe &e. es 0, F t (11.) 


1 


in which there occurs no term proportional either to y” or to 
m— 2 


y” . But if we attempted to take away three terms at once, 
from the general equation (1), or to reduce it to the form 
Rss” +-Dih yt s* El yh — 5 + he. = 0s — 12.) 


m—1 m—2 
2Y > 


(in which there occurs no term proportional to y or 


y™— °,) by assuming, according to the same analogy, 
y= P+ Qa RGF ey! 2.99 eh). VATS) 


and then determining the three coefficients P, Q, R, so as to 
satisfy the three conditions 


ANE 0, i.'4 +q 685) 
Y = 0,9 .~ (4 .{10,) 
and 
Os 0, oldiseo. hewol maod-aad SEA 


we should be conducted, by the law (5) of the composition of 
the coefficients A’, B’, C’, to a system of three equations, of the 
1st, 2nd, and 3rd degrees, between the three coefficients P,Q,R; 
and consequently, by elimination, in general, to a final equation 
of the 6th degree, which the known methods are unable to re- 
solve. Still less could we take away, in the present state of 


= 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 297 


algebra, four terms at once from the general equation of the m* 
degree, or reduce it to the form 
Y=y" + Wy? 4 &e.=0, 0 2 15.) 
by assuming an expression with four coefficients, 
y=P+ Q@r+R2*+ S822 4+ 24; . 2 . (16.) 
because the four conditions, 
Ah=0, . .»:(8.) 
Blemoys 31 -b54(103) 
C=0, .. (14) 


oo oad Pea ek Oa ed (17.) 
would be, with respect to these four coefficients, P, Q, R, S, of 
the Ist, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th degrees, and therefore would in ge- 
neral conduct by elimination to an equation of the 24th degree. 
In like manner, if we attempted to take away the 2nd, 3rd, and 
5th terms (instead of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th) from the general 
equation of the m™ degree, or to reduce it to the form 


and 


y™ + Cy"-$ 4 By" 4 &e.=0, . . . (18.) 
so as to satisfy the three conditions (8), (10) and (17), 
t=O) B= 6, SDP=.0; 
by assuming 
y=P+Qer4 Rr? 425, . . (13.) 


we should be conducted to a final equation of the 8th degree ; 
and if we attempted to satisfy these three other conditions 


Abie Ogh 311 he1(Bi) 
Oe, F927 (ray) 
and 
PRA ye eg ot) fii sigs OF, bap.) 
(in which # is any known or assumed number,) so as to trans- 
form the general equation (1) to the following, 


Yoy"+ By”? + aB?y”-* 4B y"—? + &c. =0, (20.) 
by the same assumption (13), we should be conducted by elimi- 
nation to an equation of condition of the 12th degree. It might, 
therefore, have been naturally supposed that each of these four 
transformations, (12), (15), (18), (20), of the equation of the m* 
degree, was in general.impossible to be effected in the present 
state of algebra. Yet Mr. Jerrard has succeeded in effecting 
them all, by suitable assumptions of the function y or f (2), with- 


298 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


out being obliged to resolve any equation higher than the fourth 
degree, and has even effected the transformation (12) without 
employing biquadratic equations. His method may be described 
as consisting in rendering the problem indeterminate, by as- 
suming an expression for y with a number of disposable coeffi- 
cients greater than the number of conditions to be satisfied; and 
in employing this indeterminateness to decompose certain of the 
conditions into others, for the purpose of preventing that eleva- 
tion of degree which would otherwise result from the elimina- 
tions. This method is valid, in general, when the proposed equa- 
tion is itself of a sufficiently elevated degree ; but I have found 
that when the exponent m of that degree is below a certain 
minor limit, which is different for different transformations, (be- 
ing = 5 for the first, = 10 for the second, = 5 for the third, 
and = 7 for the fourth of those already designated as the trans- 
formations (12), (15), (18) and (20),) the processes proposed by 
Mr. Jerrard conduct in general to an expression for the new 
variable y which is a multiple of the proposed evanescent poly- 
nome X of the m™ degree in x; and that on this account these 
processes, although valid as general transformations of the 
equation of the m™ degree, become in general zl/usory when they 
are applied to resolve equations of the fourth and fifth degrees, 
by reducing them to the binomial form, or by reducing the 
equation of the fifth degree to the known solvible form of De 
Moivre. An analogous process, suggested by Mr. Jerrard, for 
reducing the general equation of the sixth to that of the fifth — 
degree, and a more general method of the same kind for re- 
sélving equations of higher degrees, appear to me to be in ge- 
neral, for a similar reason, illusory. Admiring the great inge- 
nuity and talent exhibited in Mr. Jerrard’s researches, I come 
to this conclusion with regret, but believe that the following 
discussion will be thought to establish it sufficiently. 

{2.] To begin with the transformation (12), or the taking away 
of the second, third and fourth terms at once from the general 
equation of the m degree, Mr. Jerrard effects this transforma- 
tion by assuming generally an expression with seven terms, 


yof (w) =A a + al ae Al gl” 

OM! a! eM ol” Mg MEV oY (81) 
the seven unequal exponents A! A" Al"! uw!" wl" wIY being chosen 
at pleasure out of the indefinite line of integers 

CFT BS AP sien soo BE Sew aD 
and the seven coefficients A’ A” A!’ M! M" M'” M!Y, or rather 
their six ratios 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 299 


AN’ AN’ WwW’ M” M” A “Mt 


Sam we ae wm a 8) 
being determined so as to satisfy the three conditions 
A’=0, . + (8) 
Bish, o> ees 


C1 =:0,4 sae (14s) 
without resolving any equation higher than the third degree, by 
a process which may be presented as follows. 

In virtue of the assumption (21) and of the law (5) of the 
composition of the coefficients A’, B’, C’, it is easy to perceive 
that those three coefficients are rational and integral and homoge- 
neous functions of the seven quantities N AYA” WM” M” MY, 
of the dimensions one, two, and three respectively ; and there- 
fore that A’ and B’ may be developed or decomposed into parts 
as follows : 

a. Sie ies Oe (24.) 


: B = Boo + Bua + Boe. e . . . (25.) 
the symbol A’,; or BY, ; denoting here a rational and integral 
function of A’, A”, A’, M’, M”, M”, M!¥, which is homogeneous 


of the degree A with respect to A’, A”, A”, and of the degree 2 
with respect to M’, M”, M”, M!V. If then we first determine 


the two ratios of A’, A”, A”, so as to satisfy the two conditions 
A resee es ee STE bss De (26.) 
Bee Ne staid Toate tilted (27.) 


and afterwards determine the three ratios of M’, M”, M”, MY, 
so as to satisfy the three other conilitions 


5 Sle ALC MS TIT (28.) 
Bian ee gilt yhatiant ne A GA eID (29.) 
Tiga thincpa ties: faxes 30 (OD 


we shall have decomposed the two conditions (8) and (10), 
namely, 
A’ = 0, B=, 

into five others, and shall have satisfied these five by means of 
the five first ratios of the set (23), namely 

N A” MW’ M” M” 

wo? MEN? Me? MT? wii 
without having yet determined the remaining ratio of that set, 
namely 


300 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


A” 
Miv SP . . . . . . 


which remaining ratio can then in general be chosen so as to 
satisfy the remaining condition 
Oie=.0, 

without our being obliged, in any part of the process, to resolve 
any equation higher than the third degree. And such, in sub- 
stance, is Mr. Jerrard’s general process for taking away the 
second, third, and fourth terms at once from the equation of the 
m‘ degree, although he has expressed it in his published Re- 
searches by means of a new and elegant notation of symmetric 
functions, which it has not seemed necessary here to introduce, 
because the argument itself can be sufficiently understood with- 
out it. 

[3.] On considering this process with attention, we perceive 
that it consists essentially of two principal parts, the one con- 
ducting to an expression of the form 


y=f(e) =A" 9(e) + M%X(~), - . . 3.) 
which satisfies the two conditions 
A= 05% By = 0, 
the functions $(«) and x («) being determined, namely, 


. (32.) 


, u“ 


A , Nu aw 
(2) = ® tam s 


Dp tit gh ae wi oh hae) 


and 
MW’ , M” ” M” m Iv 
x (@) = yp 2 + pe + ppv 2 + gee 2) (35s) 


but the multipliers A” and M'Y being arbitrary, and the other 
part of the process determining afterwards the ratio of those two 
multipliers so as to satisfy the remaining condition 
CH 

And hence it is easy to see that if we would exclude those use- 
less cases in which the ultimate expression for the new variable 
y, or for the function f(x), is a multiple of the proposed eva- 
nescent polynome X of the m‘ degree in x, we must, in general, 
exclude the cases in which the two functions $ (a) and x (2), 
determined in the first part of the process, are connected by a 
relation of the form 


Wray aX, ...2, 3) 2) 2 Se) 
a being any coustant multiplier, and A X any multiple of X. 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLYING EQUATIONS. 301 


For in all such cases the expression (33), obtained by the first 
part of the process, becomes 


y =f (x) = (A” + aM™) 9 (2) + AMIVX;. . (37.) 


and since this gives, by the nature of the roots 2, .. 2,,, 


Sf (@)=(A” +a M")$ (a), of (@m) = (AY + @ MY) 6 (47m), (38-) 
we find, by the law (5) of the composition of the coefficients of 
the transformed equation in y, 
Ol ye (AM te Me Ba a abt ied ot (Ds) 
the multiplier ¢ being known, namely, 
c= — $(2,) > (#2) $ (#3) — $ (@,) > (2) > (ws) — &e. 40.) 
and being in general different from 0, beeause the three first of 
the seven terms of the expression (21) for y can only accident- 


ally suffice to resolve the original problem ; so that when we 
come, in the second part of the process, to satisfy the condition 


C’ = 0, 
we shall, in general, be obliged to assume 
(A” +a M!v)3 = 0, » : | : = ° (41.) 
that is, 
AY” a a M!V == Ox ° . ° . ° ° (42.) 


and consequently the expression (37) for y reduces itself ulti- 
mately to the form which we wished to exclude, since it becomes 


Sy it tig thao Dh Fi 


Reciprocally, it is clear that the second part of the process, 
or the determination of the ratio of A” to M!Y in the expression 
(33), cannot conduct to this useless form for y unless the two 
functions $ (x) and x («) are connected by arelation of the kind 
(36) ; because, when we equate the expression (33) to any multi- 
ple of X, we establish thereby a relation of that kind between 
those two functions. We must therefore endeavour to ayoid 
those cases, and we need avoid those only, which conduct to 
this relation (36), and we may do so in the following manner. 
[4.] Whatever positive integer the exponent » may be, the 


power x” may always be identically equated to an expression of 
this form, 


* 5,0 J Sh oe! a 3”) ye! + L” xX, (44.) 


m—1 
so, 5, ss”, wey cai ¥ being certain functions of the expo- 


nent v, and of the coefficients A, B, C, ... of the proposed po- 


302 : SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


lynome X, while L is a rational and integral function of , 
which is = 0 if v be less than the exponent m of the degree of 
that proposed polynome X, but otherwise is of the degree 


y—m. In fact, if we divide the power 2” by the polynome X, 
according to the usual rules of the integral division of polynomes, 
so as to obtain an integral quotient and an integral remainder, 


the integral quotient may be denoted by L, and the integral 
remainder may be denoted by 


m—1 


so” + 3, wt s.” ge Se RTE gf x 5 


and thus the identity (44) may be established. It may be no- 

ticed that the m coefficients so”, s, ... 8°) _, may be consi- 
m—t1 

dered as symmetric functions of the m roots 21, 2% +++ %m of 


the proposed equation X = 0, which may be determined by the 
m relations, 


= so” + 3 at s.” i a 2 gens gf BON } 

y (v) (») (vy) 9 (») m—1 
Uo = So + 8,2 Hg + SQ Fg eee #S zx 

2 0 Low ta, haere te ba sah (45.) 
2 = so? + 5x + 5) BP me a ar 


These symmetric functions of the roots possess many other 
important properties, but it is unnecessary here to develop 
them. 

Adopting the notation (44), we may put, for abridgement, 


Wag?) 42 5529 4 0” 56%) = 1 
‘aldadill (46.) 
4M ie aE a 
M’ so). M” 59M!) +.M” 59" + MEY 5g") = pg 
oie eee Sadat: Hostile ot 3 yvte youl natin 


A’ L) - As LO”) + ALO) = A, 4 3 7 } (48.) 
MW LY’) + M” L@) + mM” Le”) 4+. MIV L@ 


IV) 


=M, (49.) 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 303 


A+M=L air slesbel 9 Steel erties oa) 


and then the two parts, of which the expression for y is com- 
posed, will take the forms 
A’ a ae A” Past An A” geet 


epee eh BL) 


tenet pe" 1+ aX, 


Mia! + Mo 4M” a 4 MIVA oy’, ‘} (52.) 
’ m—1 oe NTF? 
+.+-+7P,, 1% + MX, 


and the expression itself will become 


y¥=f(e)=Pot+ Pot (Pit Pi) # 53.) 
dining ABs hd roDe? vacdetallol fig, Loos: 
At the same time we see that the case to be avoided, for the 


reason lately assigned, is the case of proportionality of Pos Ps 
-+ +P, _p 0 Po Pis+++Pm_y It is therefore convenient to 


introduce these new abbreviations, 
fF 
P m—1 
Pm—1 


S Phos. ystiteniues 04) bodies 


and 
Po>P Po = oo Pi —P Pi=Ve PB m—9—P Pm—o=Um—9i (55-) 
for thus we obtain the expressions 


Po= GV tPPrPi=N + PPis + P'n_9 56.) 
= FoF PP ion PvP Pep 
and 
y =f (x) = (1+ P) (Pot Pit + Py _y B”') 
m—2 es (57.) 
+ Jot UX toe t+9,, 9 & + LX; 
and we have only to take care that the m—41 quantities, 
Yoo Vio *** Gm—o Shall not all vanish. Indeed, it is tacitly sup- 
posed in (54) that p,,_, does not vanish; but it must be ob- 
served that Mr. Jerrard’s method itself essentially supposes that 


‘ 4 me, 4 
the function A’ 2% + A” a +A” x” is not any multiple of 


the evanescent polynome X, and therefore that at least some 
one of the m quantities 9, p,, --- p,, 1 1s different from 0; 


now the spirit of the definitional assumptions here made, and of 


804 ‘SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


the reasonings which are to be founded upon them, requires only 
that some one such non-evanescent quantity p, out of this set 
Po» Pir +** Pm—, Should be made the denominator of a fraction 
Pp; . 
like (54), — = p, and that thus some one term qg, x should be 
P; : 
taken away out of the difference of the two polynomes p')+ p', # 
+... and p(p,x + p,x + ...); and it is so easy to make this 
adaptation, whenever the occasion may arise, that I shall retain 
in the present discussion, the asssumptions (54) (55), instead of 
writing D; for Pat 
The expression (57) for f(a), combined with the law (5) of 
the composition of the coefficients A’ and B’, shows that these 
two coefficients of the transformed equation in y may be ex- 
pressed as follows, 


ACE, UEP RTT Qc RO ape 


B= (1 + p)? B49 + (1 + p) BY, + Bes + (59+) 
A”, and B”, , being each a rational aud integral function of the 


and 


2m — 1 quantities py, Py, ++» P,, 4» Yoo Vis *** Ym_—o» Which is 
independent of the quantity p and of the form of the function 
L, and is homogeneous of the dimension A with respect to 
Poo Pir +++ Pm—y and of the dimension 7, with respect to 
Jor Vis *** GY, 9: Comparing these expressions (58) and (59) 
with the analogous expressions (24) and (25), (with which they 
would of necessity identically coincide, if we were to return 
from the present to the former symbols, by substituting, for 
Ps Pos Prs***Pm— 19°**909 19 °°" Ym —o their values as functions of 
A’, AY A”, M’, M”, M”, M!Y, deduced from the equations of 
definition (54) (55) and (46) (47),) we find these identical equa- 
tions : 
A’o = A%,03 Mor = PA Lo + AXo1s + + (60-) 
and 
Bo = BY, 05 By = 2p BY, + BY Bio 


=p B30 +p BY 1a Bo 3 
observing that whatever may be the dimension of any part of 
A’ or B’, with respect to the m new quantities p, 995 915 + 
Ym—» the same is the dimension of that part, with respect to 
the four old quantities M’, M", M", M'V. 


The system of the five conditions (26) (27) (28) (29) (30) may 
therefore be transformed to the following system, 


. (61.) 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 305 


M6 = 0, BY 5.0 =0, - 2 ee we. (62.) 
APs = 0, Bs =: 0, 1b SPS —— Os : ; (63.) 


and may in general be treated as follows. The two conditions (62), 
combined with the m equations of definition (46), will in gene- 
ral determine the m+ 2 ratios of the m+3 quantities pp, p,, + 
Pm—p &; A”, A”; and then the three conditions (63), com- 


bined with the m equations of definition (47), and with the m 
other equations (56), will in general determine the 2 m + 3 ra- 
tios of the 2m + 4 quantities qo, 9), +» Y,,_ 99 PPm_— p> Dor Pr» 
pp M’, M’, M”, M™; after which, the ratio of A” to 
M’ is to be determined, as before, so as to satisfy the remain- 
ning condition C’ = 0. But because the last-mentioned system, 
of 2m +3 homogeneous equations, (63) (56) (47), between 
2m + 4 quantities, involves, as a part of itself, the system (63) 
of three homogeneous equations (rational and integral) between 
m — i quantities, Yo, 915 +++ Jno» we see that it will in general 


conduct to the result which we wished to exclude, namely, the 
simultaneous vanishing of all those quantities, 


Jo= 9, G4 = 0,06 Gg, 9 =0,. - « - (64) 


unless their number m—1 be greater than 3, that is, unless 
the degree m of the proposed equation (1) he at least equal to 
the minor limit FivE. It results, then, from this discussion, 
that the transformation hy which Mr. Jerrard has succeeded in 
taking away three terms at once from the general equation of 
the m™ degree, is not in general applicable when that degree is 
lower than the 5th ; in such a manner that it is in general inade- 
quate to reduce the biquadratic equation 


a+ Ag+ B2?4+C2+D=0, . . . (65.) 
to the binomial form 
' a er roe 88. ¢ 27997 DU RGD Oa 
except by the useless assumption 

y=L (2*+A2e+ Ba? +Ca2?+D),. . (67.) 


which gives 
Sit AP ar a Se eam ( 


However, the foregoing discussion may be considered as con- 
Jirming the adequacy of the method to reduce the general equa- 
tion of the 5th degree, 

x +Ar*+Be+Ca*+Dr+E=0, (69.) 


to the trinomial form 
VOL. V.-—1836. x 


306 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Pt DY! y B08 erg eG) 
and to effect the analogous transformation (12) for equations 
of all higher degrees: an unexpected and remarkable result, 
which is one of Mr. Jerrard’s principal discoveries. 

[5.] Analogous remarks apply to the process proposed by the 
same mathematician for taking away the second, third and fifth 
terms at once from the general equation (1), so as to reduce that 
equation to the form (18). This process agrees with the fore- 
going in the whole of its first part, that is, in the assumption of 
the form (21) for f(x), and in the determination of the five ratios 
(31) so as to satisfy the two conditions A’ = 0, B’ = 0, by sa- 
tisfying the five others (26) (27) (28) (29) (30), into which those 
two may be decomposed ; and the difference is only in the se- 
cond part of the process, that is, in determining the remaining 
ratio (32) so as to satisfy the condition D’ = 0, instead of the 
condition C’ = 0, by resolving a biquadratic instead of a cubic 
equation. The discussion which has been given of the former 
process of transformation adapts itself therefore, with scarcely 
any change, to the latter process also, and shows that this pro- 
cess can only be applied with success, in general, to equations 
of the fifth and higher degrees. It is, however, a remarkable 
result that it can be applied generally to such equations, and 
especially that the general equation of the fifth degree may be 
brought by it to the following trinomial form, 

FO ee a ne ne os oem) 
as it was reduced, by the former process, to the form 
yp+Dy+h=0. . . (70.) 

Mr. Jerrard, to whom the discovery of these transformations 

is due, has remarked that by changing y to = we get two other 


trinomial forms to which the general equation of the fifth de- 
gree may be reduced; so that, in any future researches respect- 
ing the solution of such equations, it will be permitted to set 
out with any one of these four trinomial forms, 
P+Aet+EK= 0, 
P?+Be+H=0 
As es Fe ee 
2+C22+ K=0, 
2+De+4+H=0, 
in which the intermediate coefficient A or Bor C or D may evi- 
dently be made equal to unity, or to any other assumed number 
different from zero. We may, for example, consider the diffi- 
culty of resolving the general equation of the fifth degree as re- 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 307 


duced by Mr. Jerrard’s researches to the difficulty of resolving 
an equation of the form 
Pepe BS Oey yee, (73.) 
or of this other form, 
. + tee gn Sucks al lal a laa On 2 29) 
It is, however, important to remark that the coefficients of 
these new or transformed equations will often be imaginary, even 
when the coefficients of the original equation of the form (69) 
are real. 
[6.] In order to accomplish the transformation (20), (to the 
consideration of which we shall next proceed,) Mr. Jerrard as- 
sumes, in general, an expression with ¢welve terms, 


y =f (x) Al Prat ae AY re + A” Pais } 
+ Ma 4 Mo EM" a + MY (75.) 
+ Na’ +N’ 2" +N” p+ NW e" 4 NV a5 

the twelve unequal exponents, 

Nv, rr”; Ps ey we", pry, ¥iv vs Bit oee Be (76.) 
being chosen at pleasure out of the indefinite line of integers 
(22); and the twelve coefficients, 

A’, 1g Nn”, M’, M”, M”, M’Y, N’, N”, N”, as NY, (77.) 
or rather their eleven ratios, which may be arranged and grouped 
as follows, 

AN’ be. go 

aA” 3 A” eptetiidar shai tate Yuet ¥essedpeyere) scar ots (78.) 

M’ M” M” 

M!v? Mv 3 Miv? . e . . ° e . ° (79.) 

WN’ N’” N” NIV 
sR NT? NY? 


(80.) 


Sens Cat aa mams MOS SL Hk ual A (BB) 


being then determined so as to satisfy the system of the three 
conditions 

vs ge Salen 50 

SIS nee EP) 

D’—«B?=0, (19.) 


55. 


308 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


by satisfying another system, composed of eleven equations, 
which are obtained by decomposing the condition (8) into three, 
and the condition (14) into seven new equations, as follows. By 
the law (5) of the formation of the four coefficients A’, B’, C’, D’, 
and by the assumed expression (75), those four coefficients are 
rational and integral and homogeneous functions, of the first, 
second, third, and fourth degrees, of the twelve coefficients (77) ; 
and therefore, when these latter coefficients are distributed into 
three groups, one group containing A’, A", A'', another group 
containing M', M", M", M!V, and the third group containing 
N’, N’, N'", NY, NY, the coefficient or function A’ may be de- 
composed into three parts, 


A’ = A’,,0,0 + A',1,0 =f A’o.o12 . . . . (83.) 


and the coefficient or function C’ may be decomposed in like 
manner into ten parts, 


C= C's.0,0 + C'o 1,0 sh C'o01 
+ Choo t Chia t+ Choe - «+ «+ (84) 
+ C'o.3,0 om C'o.01 ag Clo1,2 7 i Chom 


in which each of the symbols of the forms A! ik and C’ hei, de- 


notes a rational and integral function of the twelve quantities 
(77); which function (AY, ,, or C, , ,) is also homogeneous 


of the dimension / with respect to the quantities A’, A", A", of 
the dimension 7 with respect to the quantities M', M", M', M?¥, 
and of the dimension # with respect to the quantities N’, N”, 
N", NIV, NY. Accordingly Mr. Jerrard decomposes the condi- 
tions A’ = 0 and C’ = 0 into ten others, which may be thus ar- 
ranged : 


A'\,0,0 = 0, Oe ='0; SONU EE. wea AE Ree) 
Aloo = 0,7C's 10. == 0,90 6 = Oe PT 7 eee) 
A’o,0,1 = 0, C'o.0,1 = 0, Ci = 0, C' 10,2 =0;.. (87.) 
aoa oan edect Cian 05... een GeeCeeE) 


~ 


nine of the thirteen parts of the expressions (83) and (84) being 
made to vanish separately, and the sum of the other four parts 
being also made to vanish. He then determines the two ratios 
(78), so as to satisfy the two conditions (85); the three ratios 
(79), so as to satisfy the three conditions (86) ; the four ratios 
(80), so as to satisfy the four conditions (87); and the ratio 
(81), so as to satisfy the condition (88); all which determina- 
tions can in general be successively effected, without its being 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 309 


necessary to resolve any equation higher than the third degree. 
The first part of the process is now completed, that is, the two 
conditions (8) and (14), 
vol — ai © Mee Oi Ue 

are now both satisfied by an expression of the form 

y =f (2) =A" O (2) + NY y(z), .*. . . (89.) 
which is analogous to (33), and in which the functions ¢ (z) 
and x (x) are known, but the multipliers A’ and NY are arbi- 
trary; and the second and only remaining part of the process 
consists in determining the remaining ratio (82), of A" to NY, 
by resolving an equation of the fourth degree, so as to satisfy the 
remaining condition, 

D'—aB?=0. . . (19.) 


[7.] Such, then, (the notation excepted,) is Mr. Jerrard’s ge- 
neral process for reducing the equation of the m degree, 


Me” 4 Ag ee Batt Os” FE Dat * 4 Ba 


+ &e.=0, . . (1.) 
to the form 


Ysy"+ By"? + aBey”—4 4+ Wy") + &e. = 0,  (20.) 


without resolving any auxiliary equation of a higher degree than 
the fourth. But, on considering this remarkable process with 
attention, we perceive that if we would avoid its becoming illu- 
sory, by conducting to an expression for y which is a multiple 
of the proposed polynome X, we must, in general, (for reasons 
analogous to those already explained in discussing the transfor- 
mation (12),) exclude all those cases in which the functions 
$ (a) and x(x), in the expression (89), are connected by a re- 
lation of the form 


x (v7) =ad(~)+aAX; . . (36.) 
because, in all the cases in which such a relation exists, the first 
part of the process conducts to an expression of the form 
y = (Al + a@NY)o(z) +ANYX, . . « . (90.) 

and then the second part of the same process gives in general 

(ACE aNY)* =O, UN Re IRE OTS) 
that is 

AON SSO OER OY Aik) Gay 


and ultimately 
GFE HINER Oops 1 ey eR BBE) 


310 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


On the other hand, the second part of the process cannot 
conduct to this useless form for y, unless the first part of the 
process has led to functions, ¢ (x), x (w), connected by a rela- 
tion of the form (36.). This consideration suggests the intro- 
duction of the following new system of equations of definition. 


N! 5” 4+ Nl 5”) + Nl 5) + NIV 5 + NV 5) 


= plo, 
. . . . . . . . (94.) 
() (%) (/”) (¥¥) W 
N! s) + NY 5") + NI 5) ENT SO) + NV ath 
=p" > 
ye 
neem +N! Looe Nl” Le”) us NVM) 4 NY 10") — N, (95.) 
| ital 
Silat ° . . . > . veme (96.) 
ae. 


ae 


m—2 


pl — pp = ¢! p!, — pp = q! vee pl! + —p'p_ 
0 0 0) 1 12 m—~—2 n—2 97.) 


to be combined with the definitions (46), (47), (48), (49), (54), 
(55), and with the following, which may now be conveniently 
used instead of the definition (50), 


AebeMlate Ne De.tids 9 sidodom Sys) rei ts} 
In this notation we shall have, as before, 
Po=%o+ PPor Pr =H + PP P'n—2 = mire (56.) 
+P Pm—2> Pm—1 = P Pn—i> 
and shall also have the analogous expressions 
Plo = Cot P'Por P= 91 + P Piss P'n=2 = sel (99.) 
+ P'Pm—2> P'm—1 = P' Pm—13 
the expression (75) for y will become 
y=f (2) =Pot Pot Pot (A+ ph + whi) e+ hp (100.) 
+ (Pn + pln—1 + P"m—1) @"—) + LX, 
that is, by (56) and (99), 
y= (est ptp') (pot pr + +Pm—1% 
+qotqot (tg) + + +(Ym—2t'm—2) a?" -(101:) 
+LX: 


m—1) 


eee 


pals hes 


a 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 311 


and the excluded case, or case of failure, will now be the case 
when the sums.p'y + pl", py) + pls oe Dini Pina are 
proportional to py, Pi, +» Pm— i> that is, when 


Gp +'o 30> Gat G1. One00 Fine t Vine o'= Oe 9.0.2, (102) 


Indeed, it is here tacitly supposed that p,,_, does not varish ; 
but Mr. Jerrard’s method itself supposes tacitly that at least 
some one, such as p,, of the m quantities po, «+» Py» 15 18 dif- 
ferent from 0, and it is easy, upon occasion, to substitute any 
such non-evanescent quantity p; for p,,_,;, and then to make 
the few other connected changes which the spirit of this discus- 
sion requires. 

The expression (101) for f(x), combined with the law (5) of 
the composition of the coefficients A! and C’, gives, for those 
coefficients, expressions of the forms, 

Al=(1+ pt p') Aloo + Aloio + A” oor. + + ++ (103-) 
and 

CH(L+ptp'PC'soo+(1 +p +p!) (C"o10+Clo0,1) 

+(1 +p + p') (Clo + Cla + Clh,02) (104.) 
oe C"o.30 a C"o91 4 C"o1,2 i C".0,39 
A",,;,, and C", ; , being rational and integral functions of the 
3m — 2 quantities 9, P15 +++ Pm—19 Yoo W129 *** Im—a Vo> V19 ** 
q'»—9) Which functions are independent of p, p', and L, and are 
homogeneous of the dimension # with respect to po, --» DP _1> 
of the dimension z with respect to go, +». 7,9, and of the di- 
mension & with respect to gq’), «-- g',, 93; they are also such 
that the sums 
A" 1,0 + A" oo,1 . ° . . e e (105.) 


C"o1,0 = Cl 5.0.1 ® pre Tot aay ° ( 106 .) 


are homogeneous functions, of the 1st dimension, of the m — 1 
sums Go + 'o) «© Gm—a + G'm_93 While the sum 


C" 2,0 + Cy + C".0,2 ° * ° ° ° (107.) 
is a homogeneous function, of the 2nd dimension, and the sum 
C"o3,0 + CMe: + Clore + Cloos + + + (108.) 


is « homogeneous function, of the 3rd dimension, of the same 
m — 1 quantities. These new expressions, (103) and (104), for 


and 


312 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


the coefficients A’ and C’, must identically coincide with the 
former expressions (83) and (84), when we return from the pre- 
sent to the former notation, by changing p, p', po, Py5 «+ 
Pm—v %> V19 *** Im—29 Joo Wis *** Fim—g, to their values as 
functions of A’, Al, Al, M!, M!!, M!", M2Y, NI, N"", Nl, NIV, NV; 
and hence it is easy to deduce the following identical equations : 
A‘0,0 = A"),0,05 


A’on,0 = P Aloo + ANo1,03 neil, hiatus Sees eee 
A‘ = P' A"so0 + Avo, 


and 

C's.0.0 ie C"3.403 

C 21,0 = 3p C"s,.0,0 + C", 1,03 
C 2,0,1 = 3p! C"5.0,0 rh C001 5 
C 


1,20 = 3p? C"s59 + 2p Choi 9 + C1005 

Chin = 6 pp! C's00 + 2p! Clai9 + 2p CMs: + Crs 
Choo = 3p? O"50,0 + 2 pl Cle01 + Ch,0,95 

Clo3,0 + Cloe1 + Core + Coos = (p + P)? C"s,0,0 

+ (p + p')? (Clo1,0 + C"2,0,1) 

+ (p + p!) (C20 + Cara + C102) 

+ O"3,0 + CMoe1 + CXor,e + CNoo,s- 


The system of the ten conditions (85), (86), (87), (88), may 
therefore be transformed to the following : 


Bi 2210 20 seis Os 2 soc, cynel Sdaqaos | cthesaie kee 
A"o1,0 a CC", 0 = 0, C" 2.0 = Os) aicte ae SP aes 
A"o.0,1 = 0, C"o01 = 0, C1 = 0, C02 =0; .. (113.) 
C"o,3,0 WF C"o9,1 + Clore + Clnns=95 + - 2s - (114.) 


and may in general be treated as follows. The two conditions 
(111) may first be combined with the m equations of definition 
(46), and employed to determine the m + 2 ratios of the m + 3 
quantities 7, ++ P,,~1, A’, A", A"; and therefore to give a re- 
sult of the form 


Al a 4 A" a” + al ee A" @ (x)g Or 3) 15.) 


the function $(x) being known. The three conditions (112), 
combined with the 2m equations (47) and (56), may then be 


1 
1 
1 
1 
! 


(110.) 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. $13 


used to determine the 2 m + 3 ratios of the 2m + 4 quantities 
o> *** Im—23 P Pm—1> P'o> ++ P'm—1> M', M", M", M1V, and 
consequently to give 

M! ao! + Ml a” 4 MM ot” 4 MTV ot” = MIVY (x), (116.) 
 (w) denoting a known function. The four conditions (113) 
may next be combined with the 2 m equations (94) and (99), so 
as to determine the 2m + 4 ratios of the 2m +5 quantities 
dor ++ Y'm—29 P! Pm—1> Blo» ++ Dlm—15 N', N", N", NIV, NV; 
and thus we shall have 


Nac” + Nl?” 4 Ng” 4 NW ENV” = NV (r), (L173) 


the function » (x) also being known; so that, at this stage, 
the expression (75) for y will be reduced to the form 
y =f (#2) =A"9 (2) +MY p(x) + N¥a(a), .. (118.) 
the three functions > (2), (x), w(x) being known, but the 
three coefficients Al”, MV, NY, being arbitrary. The condition 
(114) will next determine the ratio of any one of the quantities 
Jo> *** Im—2 to any one of the quantities q'),... g', 9, and 
therefore also the connected ratio of M!” to NY, and conse- 
quently will give 
MI} (2) + NY¥o(e)=NVx (2), 2. . (119, 
x (x) being another known function; and thus we shall have 
accomplished, in a way apparently but not essentially different 
from that employed in the foregoing article, the first part of Mr. 


Jerrard’s process, namely, the discovery of an expression for Ys; 
of the form 


y =f (#) = A" 9 (2) + NV x (2), ... (89.) 

which satisfies the two conditions 

AD 05°Ch==.0, 
the functions $ (2) and x (w) being determined and known, but 
the multipliers A" and NY being arbitrary: after which it will 
only remain to perform the second part of the process, namely, 
the determination of the ratio of A!” to NY, so as to satisfy the 
remaining condition 

D'— «2B? =0, 
by resolving a biquadratic equation. 

_{8.] The advantage of this new way of presenting the first part. 
of Mr. Jerrard’s process is that it enables us to perceive, that if 
we would avoid the case of failure above mentioned, we must in 
general exclude those cases in which the ratics 


314 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


qo qi Gm—s 
PT, me oY ot ged Layee ene 
a Pina Fa ( " ) 


determined, as above explained, through the medium of the 
conditions (113), coincide with the ratios 


%o Ma es age 


Sicha esc. # 121. 
a Im—2. Gee on ( ) 


determined, at an earlier stage, through the medium of the con- 
ditions (112). In fact, when the ratios (120) coincide with the 
ratios (121), they necessarily coincide with the following ratios 
also, 


Jo+ qo At . dm—3 ne, pan 


; 29, 
Ym 2 a9 q'm—2” IGm—2 + @ ged: U res) + ii tas 5 a ) 


and unless the ratios, thus determined, of the m—1 sums 
Go + Qo0 *** Im—2 + Y'm—2s are accidentally such as to satisfy 
the condition (114), which had not been employed in determi- 
ning them, then that condition, which is a rational and integral 
and homogeneous equation of the third degree between those 
quantities, will oblige them all to vanish, and therefore will con- 
duct to the case of failure (102). Reciprocally, in that case of 
failure, the ratios (120) coincide with the ratios (121), because 
we have then 


Go = — Ms G1 = — Ns 0 Tne = A Imo" + + (123.) 


The case to be excluded, in general, is therefore that in which 
the m —1 quantities qo, «-. g',_¢ are proportional to the m —3 
quantities gp, +.» J,—93; and this consideration suggests the in- 
troduction of the following new symbols or definitions, 


U 


= RD St Pe 124. 
Im—2 s ( ) 
Po—F Yo=%09 Ti —F H="13 ++ Vm—3s —1 Im—8="m—s3_ (125-) 


because, by introducing these, we shall only be obliged to guard 
against the simultaneous vanishing of the m — 2 quantities 
o> T19 *** Tm—gi that is, we shall have the following simplified 


statement of the general case of failure, 
FIO SSO Or Pi =) O25 WE) 


Adopting, therefore, the definitions (124) and (125), and con- 
sequently the expressions 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. J15 


Jo=%Mt+ 9 T=MtINs 
q'm—s =Tmn—s + 7Im—3> 'm—2 =J Im—2; 
which give 
Jot o= (1+9) V+ DAMA LEDN AA 
Im—3 + %m—s = (149) mms + %m—s> Im—2+7'm—2 ¢ (128.) 
= (1+) Ym—2> 
we easily perceive that the three homogeneous functions G05) 
(106) (107), of these m— 1 sums. gp + Q's +++ Ym—2 + TU m—23 
may be expressed in the following manner : 
A"o10 + ANoo, = (1 +9) AMo1,0 + rad be. f hee) 
C"o1,0 + C"o01 = (L+¢) CMai,0 + CMe015 + + (180.) 


CO" 20 tr Cha 7 ©" 0,2 = (1+ q)° CO" ,2,0 

+(1 +49) CO" 7h OC" 0,23 } 
the symbol Al", ; , or C”, ; , denoting here a rational and inte- 
gral function of the 3m — 3 quantities po, ++» Py—1> Joo + 
Im—29 709 +++ Tm—3» Which is, like the function A", ; ,.0r CO"), 5 2, 
homogeneous of the dimension / with respect to 9, »»-p,,_, and 
of the dimension 7 with respect to qo, »++ Gm—9, but is homo- 
geneous of the dimension & with respect to 79, ... 7,,_3, and is 
independent of q'o, ».. q',,_9 and of p, p', g; whereas A", ; , or 
oh i, was homogeneous of the dimension / with respect to 
G'o> «+ G'm—2» and was independent of 79, -.. 7,3. The three 
identical equations (129) (130) (131) may be decomposed into 
the seven following, which are analogous to (60) (and (61): 

A" 51,0 = Al 0,1,0 3 42 0,0,1 = g A” 0,1,0 + Al 0,013° ° + (132.) 
C1 0= C103 CHoo1 = WOM oi0 + CM go13% + @ (183) 
©") 2.0 = ON 203 Ci = 29 CM 00 + OM ia } (134 
O02 = PON 20+ FO aay + O"4,023 * 
and, in virtue of these, the seven conditions (112) and (113) may 
be put under the forms, 

AM) .1,0 == ey, 1,0 = 9; C" 20 = OE ar ey 
and 

AM oon = 0, C"s 01 = 0, CM = 0, CV 02 =0. . (136.) 


I. ys Sia} 


. (131.) 


316 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


The three conditions of the group (135) differ only in their no- 
tation from the three conditions (112), and are to be used ex- 
actly like those former conditions, in order to determine the 
ratios of qo, +++ Jm—g, after the ratios of po, «+ p,,—, have 
been determined, through the help of the conditions (111); but, 
in deducing the conditions (136) from the conditions (113), a 
real simplification has been effected (and not merely a change of 
notation) by suppressing several terms, such as g Al"), ), which 
vanish in consequence of the conditions (112) or (135). And 
since we have thus been led to perceive the existence of a group, 
(136), of four homogeneous equations (rational and integral) be- 
tween the m — 2 quantities 79, 7, «.- 7,3, we see, at last, that 
we shall be conducted, in general, to the case of failure (126), 
in which all those quantities vanish, wnless their number m — 2 
be greater than four; that is, unless the degree of the proposed 
equation in x be at least equal to the minor limit srveN. It 
results, then, from this analysis, that for equations of the sixth 
and lower degrees, Mr. Jerrard’s process for effecting the trans- 
formation (20), or for satisfying the three conditions (8) (14) 
and (19), 
A'=0, C’/=0, D'—«B”?=0, 

will, in general, become t//usory, by conducting to an useless 
expression, of the form (93), for the new variable y; so that it 
fails, for example, to reduce the general equation of the fifth 
degree, 


e+Azt+ Bai +C2?+Dr+E=0, .. (69.) 
to De Moivre’s solvible form, 
ye +B +i B®? y+ =0, 2. 8 © (137.) 
except, by an useless assumption, of the form 
y=L(@+Aat+ B+ C2*?+Der+E),. . (138) 
which gives, indeed, a very simple transformed equation, namely, 
POs: } a (cae 


but affords no assistance whatever towards resolving the pro- 
posed equation in 2. Indeed, for equations of the fifth degree, 
the foregoing discussion may be considerably simplitied, by ob- 
serving, that, in virtue of the eight conditions (112) (113) (114), 
the four homogeneous functions (105) (106) (107) (108), of the 
m — 1 sums go + 905 «++ Im—2 +Y'm—2> are all = 0, and there- 
fore also (in general) those sums themselves must vanish (which 
is the case of failure (102),) when their number m — 1 is not 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 317 


greater than four, that is, when the proposed equation is not 
higher than the fifth degree. But the foregoing discussion 
(though the great generality of the question has caused it to be 
rather long) has the advantage of extending even to equations 
of the sixth degree, and of showing that even for such equations 
the method generally fails, in such a manner that it will not in 
general reduce the equation 


®+Aae’+Bat+Ce+Dae?+Ex+F=0 = (140.) 
to the form 
y+ Byt+eB?y+hy+F=0, . . (141) 
except by the assumption 
y=L(e + Av? + Bart+ C2? + Da? +Ex+ F); (142.) 
which gives, indeed, a very simple result, namely, 


ple) sgh RETO ARADO 5 P28 
but does not at all assist us to resolve the proposed equation 
(140.). However, this discussion may be regarded as confirming 
the adequacy of the method to transform the general equation 
of the seventh degree, 


a’ +Aa°+ Boe +Cat+De?+Eo?+ Fa+G=0, (144) 
to another of the form 
Y+By+aB?° e+ y+ Py+Q@=0, .. (145.) 


without assuming y = any multiple of the proposed evanescent 
polynome z’ + Az®+ &c.; and to effect the analogous trans- 
formation (20), for equations of all Aigher degrees ; a curious 
and unexpected discovery, for which algebra is indebted to Mr. 
Jerrard. 

[9.] The result obtained by the foregoing discussion may seem, 
so far as it respects equations of the siath degree, to be of very 
little importance; because the equation (141), to which it has 
been shown that the method fails to reduce the general equation 
(140), is not itself, in general, of any known solvible form, what- 
ever value may be chosen for the arbitrary multiplier «. But it 
must be observed that if the method had in fact been adequate 
to effect that general transformation of the equation of the sixth 
degree, without resolving any auxiliary equation of a higher de- 
gree than the fourth, then it would also have been adequate to 
reduce the same general equation (140) of the sixth degree to 
this other form, which is obviously and easily solvible, 


¥+ Bt Dy? +P =O 6 ice 1(1463) 
by first assigning an expression of the form 
y= f(x) = A"o (w) + NY x (x), . . (89.) 


318 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


which should satisfy the two conditions 

Al =O 278.) 

ee eee. < Yt eee 
and by then determining the ratio of A!’ to NY, so as to satisfy 
this other condition, 

Ey =,0) 07 tanneoashl oye Meee 
which could be done without resolving any auxiliary equation of 
a higher degree than the fifth ; and this reduction, of the diffi- 
culty of the sixth to that of the fifth degree, would have been a 
very important result, of which it was interesting to examine the 
validity. The foregoing discussion, however, appears to me to 
prove that this transformation also is illusory ; for it shows that, 
because the degree of the proposed equation is less than the mi- 
nor limit 7, the functions ¢ (x) and x () in (89) are connected 
by a relation of the form (36) ; on which account the expression 
(89) becomes 

y = f(x) =(A" + aN’) > (2) + ANYX, .. (90.) 
and the condition 
SoeO we (Lae) 
gives, in general, 
(AP? slaNYE S08 2 +. SR ABD 
that is, 
Alt @ DM O30 ces. (922) 
so that finally the expression for y becomes 
UA Nek. 5 lange Coe 
that is, it takes in general the evidently useless form, 
y=L(aS + Av? + Batt C#+De°+Er+F). (142.) 
[10.] Mr. Jerrard has not actually stated, in his published Re- 
searches, the process by which he would effect in general the 
transformation (15), so as to take away four terms at once from 
the equation of the m degree, without resolving any auxiliary 
equation of a higher degree than the fourth; but he has suffi- 
ciently indicated this process, which appears to be such as the 
following. He would probably assume an expression with 
twenty-one terms for the new variable, 


yafla) sa ak 4 a" 4 ae 
Mat eM ol eM ool MEV ott 
4 No” +N’ a" + NY 2” + NV o™ 
+ NVYy" + NV 2 
+ Be + BY ak 4 Bt” ae” 4 BWV PY 4 BV oh 
4 BVT gb 4 SVM By BVI yf", 


(149.) 


————————— 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 319 


and would develop or decompose the coefficients A’, B’, C', of 
the transformed equation in y, considered as rational and inte- 
gral and homogeneous functions of the twenty-one coefficients, 


A’, A”, A", i see HAT se) BY 150.) 
Mr, MM”, M”, MP, .. WOE ie Sa ee AGL SAL) 
ere ae Ce ee ree os, oes a, wy (152.) 
x, 5”, a =e BY, Bvt, A, ge; RSENS EE (153.) 
into the following parts : 
A! = A’ 1,0,0,0 3 A’o.1,0,0 a0 A'o,0,1,0 a= A’o,0,0,13 she, is (154.) 
Bl = Bi.000 + Bi100 + Bio2,0 + Bioo, 
+ Booo0 + Bloi10 + Blo101 ~ + + (155.) 
+ Boo20 + Boo,1 + B'o0,0,23 


1—c ! ! ! 
C= C's 00,0 + Clo i.00 + C'o.0,1,0 + C'2,0,0,1 | 
! t Ul 
Ee 1,2,0,0 C 1,1,1,0 + C 1,1,0,1 | 
! ! t 
+ Cio00 + Cora + C002 


sh 25fbe) 
+ Closo0 + C'o.21,0 + C'o.2,0,1 


' ! ' 
+ C'o.1,2,0 + Cori + C'o1,0,2 

' ' ' z 
+ Cloo3,0 + Clo001 + Coo1,2 + C'oo0,8 3 


! U ' + ; * ] 
each part A’, ;;,; or BY, ; ;,,0r C', 7,7 being itself a rational 


and integral function of the twenty-one quantities (150) (151) 
(152) (153), and being also homogeneous of the degree / with 
respect to the three quantities (150), of the degree z with re- 
spect to the four quantities (151), of the degree & with respect 
to the six quantities (152), and of the degree 7 with respect to 
the eight quantities (153). He would then determine the two 
ratios of the two first to the last of the three quantities (150) 
(that is, the ratios of A’ and A" to A") so as to satisfy the two 
conditions 

A’ 0,005 9) Bleooo= 03, - +» + (157-) 


the three ratios of the first three to the last of the four quanti- 
ties (151), so as to satisfy the three conditions 


A’,1,0,0 = 0, B's 1,00 =O, BasghevOs 2 6 as (158.) 


the ratio of the last of the quantities (150) to the last of the 
quantities (151), so as to satisfy the condition 


C'3,0,0,0 + Cloi0,0 + C’.2,0,0 + C'o.3,0,0 =0;. - « (159.) 


320 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


the five ratios of the five first to the last of the six quantities 
(152), so as to satisfy the five conditions 


A’o.0,1,0 =0, 7 

Bi 0,0 a B’o1,1,0 = 0, | 

Boo,2,0 = 0, Phe Mia ee) 
C'x.0,1,0 t: Ch 11,0 ae C'o,9,1,0 = 0, 

C1020 + Cloreo = 03 J 


the seven ratios of the seven first to the last of the eight quan- 
tities (153), so as to satisfy the seven conditions 


A’o,o,0,1 = 9; | 

Bi 00,1 or Blo1,0,1 = 0, 

Boo1,1 = 0, Bo0,0,2 = 0, 4 . (161.) 
C'x00,1 + C1301 + C'o,20,1 = 9, | 

C1011 a Co1,1,1 = 0, 

C'10,0.2 + Coie = 0% 


and the ratio of the last of the quantities (152) to the last of 
the quantities (153), so as to satisfy the condition 


C'o.0,3,0 55 Coo, + C'o.0,1,9 + C’0.0,0,3 = 0 6 . ° . (162.) 


all which determinations could in general be successively ef- 
fected, without its being necessary to resolve any equation of a 
higher degree than the fourth. The first part of the process 
would be now completed ; that is, the assumed expression (149) 
for y would be reduced to the form 

y =f (z) = MY o(@)+ BY y(@), . . . « (163.) 
the functions ¢ (#) and x (x) being determined and known, but 
the multipliers MY and 5"! being arbitrary, and this expression 
(163) being such as to satisfy the three conditions (8) (10) and 
(14), 

A'= 0, B’=0,° C'=0; 
nineteen out of the twenty ratios of the twenty-one coefficients 
(150) (151) (152) (153) having been determined so as to satisfy 
the nineteen equations (157) (158) (159) (160) (161) (162), into 
which those three conditions had been decomposed. And the 
second and only remaining part of the process would consist in 
then determining the remaining ratio of M!Y to SY"", so as to 
satisfy the remaining condition 
BONG Fas. oe kel 


ae 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 321 


and thereby to reduce the general equation of the m degree, 


X=e"% + Aa™ 4 Ba"? 4 Ca"-3 4+ Da2z™-* (1.) 
+BEv™ 4+ &. = 0, 

to the form 

Y=y"+ El y"-° + &.=0. . . (15.) 


It is possible, of course, that this may not be precisely the same 
as Mr. Jerrard’s unpublished process, but it seems likely that 
the one would not be found to differ from the other in any essen- 


tial respect, notation being always excepted. It is, at least, a 


process suggested by the published researches of that author, 
and harmonizing with the discoveries which they contain. 

But by applying to this new process the spirit of the former 
discussions, and putting, for abbreviation, : 


Al 5o(®") + AM 508) + ll 5" 4 MI 5 (#) 4... 
+ MIV st = Pos 
, ++(164.) 
Al @ 4 ql dig 4 att aie + M! nk + oe 
+ MY Pda = Fig= is } 
N’ 5g(") + oe + NV 5,0") = pl, 
Semi? silt esi gale ABBR 


VI) 


2) ~(v Mas 
N’ he +... + NY =P n-1, 


09 
| He, barron (166.) 
=i s®) + ot + ae! = Pn, 
A’ pu? a4 AY Le” La A” Le”) sig mM! Le) stow cos 
: MLO" 


167. 
+ NLC +... + NYELOM 4 LO) 40 | iil 


+ avaLLe") = L, 
we may change the expression (149) to the form (100), through 
the theorem and notation (44) ; and in order to avoid the case 


of failure, in which the functions ¢ (x) and x (x) in (163) are 
VOL. v.—1836. ¥ 


322 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


connected by a relation of the form (36), we must avoid, as 
in the discussion given in the seventh article, the case where the 
m sums p+ po) +++ 2 m—1 + Pm—1 are proportional to the m 
quantities po, ++» P,—1,> that is, the case 


Gat Gg Oyo Goo + Gna 0 ss - ee 


if we adopt the definitions (54) (55) and (96) (97), so as to in- 
troduce the symbols 7p, 9o5 915 +** Yn--99 and Py 9'q5 J'15°* Uma 
With these additional symbols it is easy to transform the condi- 
tions (160) into others, which (when suitably combined with the 
equations of definition, and with the ratios of pp,» P»_; al- 
ready previously determined through the help of the conditions 
(157) (158) {159),) shall serve to determine the ratios (121) of 
Joo *** Im—23 and then to determine, in like manner, with the 
help of the conditions (161), the ratios (120) of q'o, «++ q'n_2; 
after which, the condition (162) may be transformed into a ra- 
tional and integral and homogeneous equation of the third degree 
between the sums 9 + 905 «** Im—2 + Ym—g> and will in gene- 
ral oblige those sums to vanish, if their ratios (122) have been 
already determined independently of this condition (162), which 
will happen when the ratios (120) coincide with the ratios (121), 
that is, when the quantities q’o, -. 9’,,_1 are proportional to 
the quantities q, ..» J, ,;+ We must, therefore, in general 
avoid this last proportionality, in order to avoid the case of 
failure (102) ; and thus we are led to introduce the symbols 
Y> To 715 *** Tm—g> defined by the equations (124) (125), and to 
express the case of failure by the equations 


OF SRR ec in a 


With these new symbols we easily discover that the seven con- 
ditions (161) may be reduced to seven rational and integral and 
homogeneous equations between the quantities 79, 7), «+» %_3, 
which will in general oblige them all to vanish, and therefore 
will produce the case of failure (126), wnless the number m — 2 
of these quantities be greater than the number seven, that is, 
unless the exponent m of the degree of the proposed equation be 
at least equal to the minor limit TEN. It results, then, from 
this discussion, that the process described in the present article 
will not in general avail totake away four terms at once, from 
equations lower than the THNTH degree, and, of course, that it 
will not reduce the general equation of the fifth degree, 


o+Act+Bet+C22+De+E=0, .. (69) 


> 


5 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 323 


to the binomial form 
apres iBoss ON oil crs) y scehab a (LBB) 
except by the useless assumption 
y=L(ei + Aat+ Ba? + C2? +Dae+ &), . . (138.) 
which gives 
y= . . + (139.) 

[11.] A principal feature of Mr. Jerrard’s general method is 
to avoid, as much as possible, the raising of degree in elimina- 
tion; and for that purpose to decompose the equations of con- 
dition in every question into groups, which shall each contain, 
if possible, not more than one equation of a higher degree than 
the first ; although the occurrence of two equations of the.second 
degree in one group is not fatal to the success of the method, 
because the final equation of such a group being only elevated 
to the fourth degree, can be resolved by the known rules, | It 
might, therefore, have been more completely in the spirit of this 
general method, because it would have more completely avoided 
the elevation of degree by elimination, if, in order to take away 
four terms at once from the general equation of the mth degree, 
we had assumed an expression with thirty-three terms, of the 
form 

y =f (@) = A a® + Al a” + A" @ 


SG, Uh eee a ee MIV yet’ 
+ No” 4...4 NV 0" 
4+ Bata. p Be 
+ Ole” 4... 4 OV 2 

+ Wer 4... evel 


and had determined the six ratios of A’, a", A’, M',... MY; 
and the twenty-five ratios of N’,... TV's as to satisfy the 
thirty-one conditions 


! te I v 

AY ob.000-= 0; BaghooeReOn tb eb ntroa Yor aps se FOl) 
! 
! 


av 


. (169.) 


A'o,1,0,0,0,0 = 0, B.1,0,0,0,0 = 0, Bho,2,0,0,0,0 =0,. . ; (171.) 
C's.0,0,0,0,.0 + C'9,1,0,0,0,0 + C'1,2,0,00,0 + C'os,0,000 = 0  (172-) 
A’o.0,1,0,0,0 = 0, 

B's 0,,0,0,0 + B'o3,1,0,0,0 = 0. 

B 
C 


f ? penta 7 3) 


he ! my I 
2,0,1,0,00 + Cr,1,1,0,0,0 + C'o,2,1,0,0,0 = 9, J 
xy 2 


i] 
! =0 
0,0,2,0,0,0 —— V9 
1 


324 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


A\o.0,0,1,0,0 = 0, 7 

B',0,0,1,00 + B‘o,1,0,1,0,0 = 9, 
Bo.0,1,1,0,0 = 0, 

Bo.0,0,2,0,0 =0, 

C'2.0,0,1,00 + C9800 1) C'o2,6.100, = 0, J 

C'1,0,2,0,0,0 + Ch 0.11.00 + C'1,0,0,2,0,0 \ 


/ ! ! oy 
+Co1,2.000 + C'o.1,1,1,0,0 + C'o.1,0,2,0,0 = 9, 


0,0,0,0,1,0 = 9, 
'1,0,0,0,1,0 Ff '0,1,0,0,1,0 = 0, 
Bo.0,1,0,1,0 + Bho.0,1,,0 = 0, (176.) 
Blo.0,0,0,9,0 = 0, 
“1 


! ! I aks 
C'2.,0,0,1,0 + C 1,1,0,0,1,0 + C'o00,0,1,0 = 0, 


II 
= 


C',0,1,0,1,0 + C’1,0,0,1,1,0 + Co31,0,,0 + C'o3,0,1,1,0 

A'o.0,0,0,0,1 = 0, 

B'0,0,0,0,1 + B’o.1,0,0,0,1 = 0, 
a 


1 
B 0,0,0,1,0,1 — 0, 
0, 
0, 


1 
B 0,0,1,0,0,1 


1 
B 0,0,0,0,1,1 


Bo.0,0,0,0,2 

C'2,0,0,0.01 + C4,1,0,0,0,1 + C'o,2,0,0,0,1 = 9, 

C11.0,1,0,01 + Ch,00,1,0,1 + Co,1,1,0,0,1 + C'o1,0,1,0,1 = 95 

C'1,0,0,0,2,0 + C000, + C'1,0,0,0,0,2 } (178.) 
+C'o,3,0,0,,0 + Cor00,1,1 + C'o,1,0,0,0,2 = 0, 

C'o,0,3,0,0,0 + C'o,0,9,1,0,0 + C'o,0,2,0,1,0 + C'0,2,0,0,1 7 
+ ©'.0,1,2,0,0 + Clo0,1,1,1,0 + C'o,0,1,1,0,1 | 
+ C'.0,1,0,2,0 + C'o0,1,0,1,1 + C'o,0,1,0,0,2 ‘(179.) 
+ C'.0,0,3,0,0 + C'o0,0,2,,0 + C'o,0,0,2,0,1 
+ C',.0,0,1,20 + Cloo0,1,1,1 + C'o,0,0,1,0,2 
+ C'h.0,0,0,3,0 + C'o0,0,0,0,1 + C'o,0,0,0,1,2 + C'o,0,0,0,03 = 9% J 


into which the three conditions 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 325 


A’ =0, B! =0, C’=0, 
may be decomposed; the symbol Aly) iz, OF Bly o, 5, i, 4,0 OF 
C'. 9, 4,4,%,1 lenoting here a rational and integral function of the 


thirty-three coefficients A’,... WVU! which is homogeneous of 
the degree f with respect to A’, A", A", of the degree g with 
respect to M’, ... M!, of the degree A with respect to N’, ... NY, 
of the degree? with respect to &!,... SV1, of the degree & with re- 


spect to O',...OVII, and of the degree / with respect to wy. 
IIVII; while the remaining ratio of MIV to nV, should after- 
wards be chosen so as to satisfy the remaining condition 


But, upon putting, for abridgement, 
N's) +... + NY so) + Bis@) +... 
4 BS O) = ply, 
. ° . . . . . . . . . : (180.) i 
Ns) 4. ENVSO) 4 B's@) +... 
m—1 m—1 m—t1 
a a ae 
eet oat 1) J 
O's) + 02. + OV SO) = po 
os big 3 ee a ene eats NO Ae ~ biRRE 
% VII, (oY) = py! 
O's) +...+0 ey es 
Bs) 4. «See s™ = pl", } 
. eee etd pineal 
m — “ = PB m—v J 
AL) 4 av Le) + aM Le") 4 MILe) 4.0, 
4 MV Le") 
ee! LOO ye NYLO) 4 SLO) 4... 
4 svVILe” 
FOL 4...4 0M LE) 4 WL 4. 
4 WV Lo) L, 


Tse oy Val gent 
m—1 


y 
| 
| (183.) 
z 


826 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


" 

P| ly» nity aheeocmessin alten 
Pm=-1 : 

Dol!" — p" Do = Yol> +++ Pm —2 — P" Pm 2= F' m—a  (185.) 
ft 
fae. Nine. > sea 
Im —2 

do! — ¢ Go = "02 +2 °F m—3 — 7 Im—3 = Mm—3 > (187) 
y! 
ae os ee en se See 
Tn —3 


hee ge Pa EES POU Cenk fee ETE et © EPO ee ke 
and retaining the analogous expressions (164.) (54.) (55.) (96.) 
(97.) (124.) (125.), we find, by a reasoning exactly analogous to 
that employed in the former discussions, that the final expres- 
sion for y will in general be of the useless form 


i DES Shari, linc saa) oe. Ste) 
in the following case of failure, 


O85 Os by 1052 hohe og OF 8% jaye, s') Od) 


and on the other hand that the seven conditions (177.) may be 
reduced to the form of seven rational and integral and homoge- 
neous equations between these m — 3 quantities Zp, t, -» tm — 43 
so that the case of failure will in general occur in the employ- 
ment of the present process, wnless the number m — 3 he greater 
than seven, thatis, unless the degree m of the proposed equation 
in x be at least equal to the minor limit eleven. 

It must, however, be remembered that the less complex pro- 
cess described in the foregoing article, (since it contained no 
condition, nor group of conditions, in which the dimension, or 
the product of the dimensions, exceeded the number four,) agreed 
sufficiently with the spirit of Mr. Jerrard’s general method ; 
and was adequate to take away four terms at once from the ge- 
neral equation of the tenth, or of any higher degree. 

[12.] The various processes described in the 2nd, 5th, 6th and 
11th articles of this communication, for transforming the ge- 
neral equation of the mth degree, by satisfying certain systems 
of equations of condition, are connected with the solution of this 
far more general problem proposed by Mr. Jerrard, “to dis- 
cover m — 1 ratios of m disposable quantities, 


dy, Dog as afte «, “Subp stig oy eee) 


q 
4 
’ 
; 


en ee 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 327 


which shall satisfy a given system of A, rational and integral 
and homogeneous equations of the first degree, 


Al 0, AY =o, AWE Ot OA =’ (193.) 
A, such equations of the second degree, 

B' =0, B’=0,..B™%)=0;. . . . . . (194) 
A, of the third degree, 

Cl=0, C!=0,..C%)=0;. 2.0... (195.) 
and so on, as far as h, equations of the ¢th degree, 

T =0,T"’=0,..T%) =0, 2.0.55. 5) (196.) 


without being obliged in any part of the process, to introduce 
any elevation of degree by elimination.” Mr. Jerrard has not 
published his solution of this very general problem, but he has 
sufficiently suggested the method which he would employ, and 
it is proper to discuss it briefly here, with reference to the ex- 
tent of its application, and the circumstances under which it 
fails ; not only on account of the importance of such discussion 
in itself, but also because it is adapted to throw light on all the 
questions already considered. 
If we asume 


he gll Ui] ns) gal Wi ms Lah I 
a,=a, + 0',,a,=a@,+ a',,...a, =a), + ams + + (197) 


that is, if we decompose each of the m disposable quantities 
@,, Ig, +++ Ay into two parts, we may then accordingly decom- 


pose every one of the A, proposed homogeneous functions of 
those m quantities, which are of the first degree, namely, 


ADD AYA SC tel Meh ud Ag “SET OR.) 
every one of the h proposed functions of the second degree, 

BBY Me pee tes one d= O89 3 gk N19.) 
every one of the A, functions of the third degree, 

i a ON MO a1 0 omen dycaw gah) (200.) 
and so on, as far as all the first , — 1 functions of the ¢th de- 
gree, 

SEMESTER a uO Ae tag a ce 


(the last function T™) being reserved for another purpose, which 


328 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


will be presently explained,) into other homogeneous functions, 
according to the general types, 
A =A®@, 4+ A,,, 7 
BO = B®), , “s B®, ay BY), os | 
OO) = Cc, + Cc) att cM,. a C, 5, > .  (202.) 
(7) — (7) (7) (7). | 
T Ft. lp OS thee! 2 
each symbol of the class 
A, BO CO) 9.28 Wr. Whi psn ee 
PY GF Bd PW ; 


denoting a rational and integral and homogeneous function of 
the 2 m new quantities, 


will sslise seks (is (204.) 
and 


(205.) 
which function is homogeneous of the degree p with respect to 
the quantities (204), and of the degree g with respect to the 
quantities (205). By this decomposition, we may substitute, 
instead of the problem first proposed, the system of the three 
following auxiliary problems. First, to satisfy, by ratios of the 
m quantities (204), an auxiliary system of equations, containing 
h, equations of the first degree, namely, 

A OAT 5 Oe AR SOs we eee 
h, equations of the second degree, 

Boo =O; B20 =i US thot Bl), = 0" 204 SORES) 
h, of the third degree, 

C2 = 0, 0%. = oF)! Otay, = ois ©, Cre amy 
and so on, as far as the following A, — 1 equations of the ¢th 
degree, 

EAT ie i ARN a A apa llna Te 


Noll ] 
Q yy Day +++ Diy + 


Second, to satisfy, by ratios of the m quantities (205.), a sy- 
stem containing h, + hg + hg +... + hz — 1 equations, which 
are of the first degree with respect to those m quantities, and 
are of the forms 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 329 


a) — B) — Cy) axe ©) ergigupktys : 

A) = 0, Bo SOO Oys TI 5 = 05 (210.) 

ha + hg +... + h,—1 equations of the second degree, and of 
the forms 


B® = 0, C®) =0,...TO, = 0; . itsio«ane ade 


hs +... +h, —1 equations of the third degree, and of the forms 
(y) — (7) — - . . . . . . ° . . 

CO =0,...70, ,=03 (212, 

and so on, as far as h, — 1 equations of the ¢th degree, namely, 


h,—1) ‘ 
Py SO ay OF: Tye Pes (eee WEE, OPTS) 
And third, to satisfy, by the ratio of any one of the m quanti- 
ties (205.) to any one of the m quantities (204.), this one remain- _ 
ing equation of the th degree, 


PUpis=ioys (siriging a5 70) 391 woltar (QAR 


For if we can resolve all these three auxiliary problems, we shall 
thereby have resolved the original problem also. And there is 
this advantage in thus transforming the question, that whereas 
there were h, equations of the highest (that is of the ¢th) degree, 
in the problem originally proposed, there are only h, — 1 equa- 
tions of that highest degree, in each of the two first auxiliary 
problems, and only one such equation in the third. If, then, 
we apply the same process of transformation to each of the two 
first auxiliary problems, and repeat it sufficiently often, we shall 
get rid of all the equations of the ¢th degree, and ultimately of 
all equations of degrees higher than the first; with the excep- 
tion of certain equations, which are at various stages of the pro- 
cess set aside to be separately and singly resolved, without any 
such combination with others as could introduce an elevation of 
degree by elimination. And thus, at last, the original problem 
may doubtless be resolved, provided that the number m, of quan- 
tities originally disposable, be large enough. 

[13.] But that some such condition respecting the magnitude 
of that number m is necessary, will easily appear, if we observe 
that when m is not large enough to satisfy the inequality, 


M>h+hethgyt+... thy +.» + » (215.) 


then the original A, + h, + hj +... + A, equations, being ra- 
tional and integral and homogeneous with respect to the original 


3830 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


m quantities (192.), will in general conduct to null values for all 
those quantities, that is, to the expressions 


d= 0, G5 0,....d,, =O, sy | ot ee eg 


and therefore to a result which we designed to exclude; because 
by the enunciation of the original problem it was by the m — 1 
ratios of those m quantities that we were to satisfy, if possible, 
the equations originally proposed. The same excluded: case, or 
case of failure (216.), will in general occur when the solution of 
the second auxiliary problem gives ratios for the m auxiliary 
quantities (205.), which coincide with the ratios already found in 
resolving the first auxiliary problem for the m other auxiliary 
quantities (204.); that is, when the two first problems conduct 
to expressions of the forms 


ae oe ! [es U eS Y 
al, = aa, ag = ada, 6.6 Q' m= AA my + + + (217.) 


a being any common multiplier; for then these two first pro- 
blems conduct, in virtue of the definitions (197.), to a determined 
set of ratios for the m original quantities (192.), namely, 


— = = pe ee 3 . . . . (218.) 


and unless these ratios happen to satisfy the equation of the 
third problem (214), which had not been employed in determining 
them, that last homogeneous equation (214.) will oblige all those 
m quantities (192.) to vanish, and so will conduct to the case of 
failure (216), Now although, when the condition (215) is satis- 
fied, the first auxiliary problem becomes indeterminate, because 


m—1>ht+hthgt.-.-t+h—l, 


so that the number m— 1 of the disposable ratios of the m 
auxiliary quantities (204) is greater than the number of the ho- 
mogeneous equations which those m quantities are to satisfy, 
yet whatever system of m — 1 such ratios 

Goda! eal 


gee 


= guilidrg bavioes, od aeilitiaiaaman 
m 


we may discover and employ, so as to satisfy the equations of 
the first auxiliary problem, it will always be possible to satisfy 
the equations of the second auxiliary problem also, by employ- 
ing the same system of m — 1 ratios for the m other auxiliary 
quantities (205), that is, by employing expressions for those 
quantities of the forms (217) 5 and, reciprocally, it will in ge- 
neral be impossible to resolve the second auxiliary problem 


SaaS rr 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 331 


otherwise, unless the number of its equations be less than m—1. 
For if we put, for abridgement, 

LPG es, ATOMS et RARE: PRR ENC, AE (2805) 
and 

a", —aa', = by, a",—ad'g = doy. 1 — 2 __) = Dy» (221.) 


we shall have, as a general system of expressions for the m 
quantities (205.), the following, 


@ =aa,'+ b,, a= aa, + b,,... a" = aay) 
(222.) 
id bm 1s alm = 40 m3 
and therefore by (197), 
@,=(1+a)a, +3, <.4,/_)'= (1 + @) a, 
293. 
+ Bn» Im = 1+ 0,3 ( ) 


so that. the homogeneous functions A®), B®, ...TO may be, 
in general, decomposed in this new way, 


(=) — (@) 4 A). 

AQ = (1 +a AO +A0); 71 
(@) = 2 Br) 8) 4. Be): 

B® =( +4? BO +0 +a BO+ BO; | 


@) = Faye a Meta 
T (1 + a) Aye gt dksh®) PIPE ilk 3 
rer 
0,¢ 


each symbol of the class 


A), BO, ... 1) » tiiok ait weldsickuth (lB) 
PY PY Psd 


denoting a rational and integral function of the 2m — 1 quan- 
tities a',,..a’,,, hy, . . b,, — 1, which is homogeneous of the di- 
mension p with respect to the m quantities 

ee ee tet led ye. niet (204) 
and of the dimension g with respect to the m — | quantities 


ee et mate PO eee oy ke eas ae) 


but is independent of the multiplier a. And the identical equa- 
tions obtained by comparing the expressions (202) and (224), 
resolve themselves into the following : 


gae SIXTH REPORT—1836. 
(@) — are). Ale) — \() \(@) . 
a A 1,0” AG, an 1,0 “A ane z } 
(6) — B®. Be — \(B) \(B) . 
Bo B 2,0’ a 2aB 2,0 FB * ¢ 


(2) \(6) \(6) (8) , 
Boo Re Bach aBry - Bo3 


Cm) 2 ral) rant), oe (z) ag 

Dg Pp ey rotate 33 - (227.) 
C2) t(é—1 Nes VT 

iiss 2 sk eT +(¢-1)aTO,, 


Ein ice 
+T t— 2,2? 
(7) = gt T+ gt-1 TO) 7). 
5 aT +e Eee et te eel ges 
so that the first system of auxiliary equations, (206) ... (209), 
which are of the forms 


Se easy 7 Bg) On 
A) = 0, BY) = 0, CY) = 0, ... TY") =0, 1) as Pee) 


may be replaced by the system 
M@ (8 af 7 ah ae 7) 
AN =i, ets == ie er ma 1 pe ee ae So Laera 


the change, so far, being only a change of notation ; and, after 
satisfying this system by a suitable selection of the ratios of the 
quantities (204), the second system of auxiliary equations, (210) 
... (213), may then be transformed, with a real simplification, 
(which consists in getting rid of the arbitrary multiplier a, 
and in diminishing the number of the quantities whose ratios 
remain to be disposed of,) to another system of equations of the 


forms, 


(a) (8) _ (y) _ \(7) hin 

Ag, = 0 By HO Cg = Oe Teo 05 

(6) _ (7) — (7) a ies 

BW) = 0, CY = +. Ty 9g = 05 

hen. (2) es (230. 
qneiines Vp taco} ey 
nry"_ Sy’: 

Dy ee J 


yt 


E 


Ci et i i et 


eee SS eee 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 333 


which are rational and integral and homogeneous with respect 
to the m — 1 quantities (226), and are independent of the mul- 
tiplier a. Unless, then, the number of the equations of this 
transformed system (230), which is the same as the number of 
equations in the second auxiliary problem before proposed, be 
less than the number m — 1 of the new auxiliary quantities 
(226), we shall have, in general, null values for all those quanti- 
ties, that is, we shall have 


b, = 0, be =0,...5,,_,=0; e . . ° e . (231.) 
and therefore we shall be conducted, by (222), to expressions of 
the forms (217), which will in general lead, as has been already 
shown, to the case of failure (216). We have therefore a new 
condition of inequality, which the number m must satisfy, in 
order to the general success of the method, namely the follow- 
ing, : 
m—1>h, +h ,t+hg+...+hy3 - . « « (232.) 
in which, h',, h',, h'3,... h!, denote respectively the numbers of 


the equations of the first, second, third, ... and ¢th degrees, in 
the second auxiliary problem ; so that, by what has been already 
shown, 


hh, 1, 7 
Wey = hy _y thy 1, 
Reo = ily 9 + hg. oy ds 033.) 
Wo=hot+...+h;—-1, 
Al =h t+ hg... +h, — 1. 
These last expressions give 
WL+ ha thst... +h, Hh, t+ 2hgt3hgt... 
1 2 3 t 1 2 3 (234.) 


so that the new condition of inequality, (232), may be written 
as follows, 


M—1l>h+2hgt3hgt...+t(hy—1)3 . « ~ (235.) 
and therefore also thus, 
m>h+hothgt... +h; 
a ug. 0 ieee.) 


334 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


It includes, therefore, in general, the old inequality (215); and 
may be considered as comprising in itself all the conditions re- 
specting the magnitude of the number m, connected with our 
present inquiry: or, at least, as capable of furnishing us with 
all such conditions, if only it be sufficiently developed. 

[14.] It must, however, be remembered, asa part of such de- 
velopment, that although, when this condition (232) or (235) or 
(236) is satisfied, the three auxiliary problems above stated are, 
in general, theoretically capable of being resolved, and of con- 
ducting to a system of ratios of the m original quantities (192), 
which shall satisfy the original system of equations, yet each of 
the two first auxiliary systems contains, in general, more than 
two equations of the second or higher degrees; and therefore 
that, in order to avoid any elevation of degree by elimination 
(as required by the original problem), the process must in ge- 
neral be repeated, and each of the two auxiliary systems them- 
selves must be decomposed, and treated like the system originally 
proposed. These new decompositions introduce, in general, 
new conditions of inequality, analogous to the condition lately 
determined ; but it is clear that the condition connected with 
the decomposition of the first of the auxiliary systems must be 
included in the condition connected with the decomposition of 
the second of those systems, because the latter system contains, 
in general, in each of the degrees 1, 2, 3,...¢— 1, a greater 
number of equations than the former, while both contain, in the 
degree ¢, the same number of equations, namely, h, — 1. Con- 
ceiving, then, the second auxiliary system to be decomposed by 
a repetition of the process above described into two new auxiliary 
systems or groups of equations, and into one separate and re- 
served equation of the ¢th degree, we are conducted to this new 
condition of inequality, analogous to (232), 


m—2>h!, + hl, + hls +... thly3 ~ . « «> (237) 
hi, his, hls, ... hl", denoting, respectively, the numbers of 
equations of the first, second, third, ... and ¢th degrees, in the 


second new group of equations; in such a manner that, by the 
nature of the process, 


hl, =— H, en 1; 
AM, = Wy + 1, 
h"s 9 = h' 9 a5 Wey ae hi, —1, . Vises (238.) 


hl, = By t+ het «e+ Ay). 


<a 


——s 


ee ee ee ee 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 3385 


Repeating this process, we find, next, the condition, 

m3 >, eR, hs + eee + ee. > (239.) 
and generally 

m—i>hO + WO+ KO 4, +2; pets oF (bao) 


each new condition of this series including al that go before it, 
and the symbol Wo being such that 


HW) = hy Pe ee ee 75 15) 


WEE DAO sre 7 Pie rte OSS teas!) 
zt t 
and 
G+) _ ,®O. 2 ,GhD 
Apt. Lt ie etd a Vay chalk (243) 


pe cenating these last equations as equations in finite differences, 
we fin 


ie — hs 25 7 
i. =h,_) +72 (4 Aled 5 ys 


j 3 . t+1 i+ 2 


~+1 
=) 


ho = hy_gtihyoti 


ey ee ee) Se i a | We 
+ 2% —— 3 (% 4 )s 


(244.) 


; +1 itli+e2 

1 gr hot galog a tar 
-t+17+2 t+t—2 ( (t=) 

Cg ae Gs ee J 


And making, in these expressions, 
Ba NO olives, beune [> (ade 
so as to have 1 
h® =0, birch Wii § sat Mili ahh 
and putting, for abridgement, 
nh) = ‘hy; ne) = ‘hoy nk. Heo) = ‘Api A ee Ss (247.) 


386 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


we find that at the stage when all the equations of the ¢th degree 
have been removed from the auxiliary groups of equations, we 
are led to satisfy, if possible, by the ratios of m — A, auxiliary 


quantities, a system containing ‘h, equations of the first degree, 
‘hg of the second, ‘A, of the third, and so on as far as “Az;_y of 


the degree ¢ — 1; in which 
‘hy = hy + Hy (hy — 2), | 
he 2 = hyo + hayghy_ + 3 (hy + I) hy (hy — 2), 
hy 3 =hy_g hhyhy_o ttle t+ hye 
+ 3 (hy + 2) (hy + 1) Ay (hy — 1), © + (248.) 
hy = hy, + Ah + 3 (hy + 1) Aghs 
+3 (hy + 2) (hg +l) hyhyt... 


1 
AL AT PY - 8) .30hj (yp—1); 
2.5.4..(6— a8 tt t E—2) (hy + 2-3)... hy (hy —I) 


so that, at this stage, we arrive at the following condition of in- 
equality, 


m — h, > ‘hy + ‘hig + ‘hig t+.++‘hp_y, - + « « -(249.) 
‘Ays hg, -. “hy, having the meanings (248). In exactly the 


a 


same way, we find the condition 
m —h,y—‘h,_y > “A, + “Tig + “ligt... + “Az_o,- ~ (250.) 
in which, 
“he 2 = hy +o hy 1 (Ay 1 — )); 
“Ay 3 = hy + hg fy 2 


+ 4(hy_ 1 +1) 1 (A -1 — 2D), 


(251.) 


&e., 


by clearing the auxiliary systems from all equations of the de- 
greet — 13; and again by clearing all such auxiliary groups 
from equations of the degree ¢ — 2, we obtain a condition of the 


form 
m—h,—‘hy_ — “hyn g7 Ay t+--- + “hi, a5 See 
in which 

“hy 3 = 803 + “hy _o (Ch; 2— 1), Re... (253.) 


—w ¥ 


MBTHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 3087 


so that at last we are conducted to a condition which may be 
thus denoted, and which contains the ultimate result of all the 
restrictions on the number m, 


m—h,—h,_;—"hy_g—"y_g—- + — 4 hy > E-YAy, (254) 
that is, 
m'> hy thy thy + hy_g + 1 FOR Dhy + NA. 255.) 
The number m, of quantities originally disposable, must there- 
fore in general be at least equal to a certain minor limit, which 
may be thus denoted, 
m (hy, hoy Igy» - + hy) = hy + “hy_y + “Ayig +--- 
(Ay, has hes t) t t-1 t—2 (256.) 
=f (t—2)),. + = 15 +1, 
in order that the method may succeed; and reciprocally, the 
method will in general be successful when m equals or surpasses 
this limit. 
[15.] To illustrate the foregoing general discussion, let us 
suppose that 
teaiSere). fos the - 25; ey, cupetiee (RGS7.) 
that is, let us propose to satisfy a system containing A, equa- 
tions of the first degree, 
A'=0,., A® =0,..A%) =0, . . (193.) 
and /, equations of the second degree, 
B' =0,.. B® =o0,.. B%) =0,'. .  (194,) 


(but not containing any equations of higher degrees than the 


second,) by a suitable selection of the m — 1 ratios of m quan- 
tities, 


Gy) 2G (192.) 


m? 


and without being obliged in any part of the process to intro- 


duce any elevation of degree by elimination. Assuming, as 
before, 
— ,/ Ui] — /1 
a =a ates. .¢,= a, +0, « _ (197.) 


_ and employing the corresponding decompositions 


MSA + AUD as Ae AY A ce os ay, (2584) 


0,1? 
and 


BR! = Bio + Bi + ge Sac 
(259.) 


(ig — 1) _ ple — 1) (fa — 1) (a= 4) 
ee or Boo a sf - Boo . 


we shall be able to resolve the original problem, if we can re- 
solve the system of the three following. ‘ 
VOL. v.—1836, z 3 


338 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


First: to satisfy, by ratios of the m auxiliary quantities 
gs pil eR soa. 
an auxiliary system, containing the A, equations of the first de- 
gree 
eee (yy) _ 
AN = 9 +++ Arg =O, 2) ofa. C2OBT 
and the 4, — 1 equations of the second degree 


das ik2 (ig -1) 
Big hss, MBSE TAS Oey Ge lon Jo wean afempy 
Second : to satisfy, by ratios of the m other auxiliary quantities 
ii eM ae Thetis ~e Bg. s ., | (205) 


another auxiliary system, containing A, + 4, — 1 equations of 
the first degree, 


saris Tag gh J atexnellg'h TB) 


and 4, — 1 equations of the second degree, 


i (a — 1) _ 
B= 0, .- BUT.) =o. -., \sro7g9 wit -yiolaeeD 


Third: to satisfy, by the ratio of any one of the m quantities 
(205) to any one of the m quantities (204), this one remaining 
equation of the second degree 


BD Out tie: ustiiseaas rie teined pos eae 
The enunciation of the original problem supposes that 
We oA Ma's ads 8 aigis | ay ns 


since otherwise the original equations (193) and (194) would in 
general conduct to the excluded case, or case of failure, 


= Oe. os Oe = OF, mare. ola 


In virtue of this condition (264), the first auxiliary problem is 
indeterminate, because 


m—17h+h,—1. ° . . . . . (265.) 
But, by whatever system of ratios 


a ae. 
ey a = 2: a ees 


we may succeed in satisfying the first auxiliary system of equa- 
tions, (206) and (260), we may in general transform the second 


~ 


Se 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 339 


auxiliary system of equations, (261) and (262), into a system 
which may be thus denoted, 


geet (Ay) _ 


\ (iy — 1 
A os a: (Ag — 1) 
BL = 0) s.y BUN 1 ath 


_and which contains /, + hg — 1 equations of the first degree, 


and 4, — 1 equations of the second degree, between the m — 1 
new combinations, or new auxiliary quantities following, 


an 1 
——a',,5 (267.) 


Bi 
b, = a oye bin — Og Me re a 
™m ! ™ 
so that the solution of the second auxiliary problem will give, 
in general, 


(ANS atielpmpad E  Anr yA colder 25 99 


and therefore will give, for the m auxiliary quantities (205), a 
system of ratios coincident with the ratios (219), 


I 
Pe Oe nd O08) 


unless 

m— 1 7 hy + S (hg —" 1). . e ° ° e . . (269.) 
When, therefore, this last condition is not satisfied, the two first 
auxiliary problems will conduct, in general, to a system of de- 
termined ratios for the m original quantities (192), namely 


' ! 
aS pot ed ee . . (218.) 
an am am, am 
and unless these happen to satisfy the equation of the third 
auxiliary problem, namely 

‘ BGs) ap wy ere aN ee GS.) 
which had not been employed in determining them, we shall 
fall back on the excluded case, or case of failure, (216). But, 
even when the condition (269) is satisfred, and when, therefore, 
the auxiliary equations are theoretically capable of conducting 
to ratios which shall satisfy the equations originally proposed, 
it will still be necessary, in general, to decompose each of the 
two first auxiliary systems of equations into others, in order to 
comply with the enunciation of the original problem, which re- 
quires that we should avoid all raising of degree by elimination, 
zZ2 


340 SIXTH REPORT—15836. 


in every part of the process. Confining ourselves to the consi- 
deration of the second auxiliary problem, (which includes the 
difficulties of the first,) we see that the transformed auxilia 
system (266) contains A’, equations of the first degree, and /’, 
of the second, if we put, for abridgement, 


hy = h, = } 
(270.) 
Aah +h —l; 


which new auxiliary equations are to be satisfied, if possible, by 
the ratios of m — 1 new auxiliary quantities; so that a repeti- 
tion of the former process of decomposition and transformation 
would conduct to a new auxiliary system, containing A", equa- 
tions of the first degree, and h', of the second, in which 


Ue 4 (res 

ji paae tinbi } San Gy) 
h", = hh, + W',-1, ' 

and which must be satisfied, if possible, by the ratios of m— 2 


new auxiliary quantities; and thus we should arrive at this new 
condition, as necessary to the success of the method : 


th 2 > By t 2 (Wom Ws foe sony me ras) 
or, more concisely, 
mM. —= 2> Wish lg 6 Menno +e 
And so proceeding, we should find generally, 
m— 6 > ht hes si 0.4. hw pulge Te 
the functions h,), Aq being determined by the equations 
§O) APOIO daao> iw ere cong Vuaneae 
BP) eth) =m Vs ge ge eC Oe) 
Ait 1), trengtarises: sao apy 
which give, by integrations of finite differences, 
A, =h,—t; 
ni + i ( ae Bae oe. Sees) 


Thus, making 


(273.) 


B= ew ilQn@) onitrhines ott node Raee 

and putting, for abridgement, 
‘Ay = hy) Sy FE ig (hg —1), 9. (2803) 
we arrive at last at a stage of the process at which we have to 


satisfy a system of ‘h, equations of the first degree by the ratios 
of m — A, quantities ; and now, at length, we deduce this final 


—_Ve7~_.E  , 


— swe ey 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING BQUATIONS. 341 


condition of inequality, to be satisfied by the number m, in order 
to the general success of the method (in the case ¢ = 2), 


ee ean ek. ee tes a AEs) 


that is, 
m > Ry +d (he + Whos es oitne Leh & 9(282-) 


or, in other words, m must at least be equal to the following 
minor limit, 

m(h,, he) = hy +1 + Flag tlhe +» . . (283.) 
For example, making 4, = 1, and A, = 2, we find that a system 
containing one homogeneous equation of the first’ degree, and 
two of the second, can be satisfied, in general, without any ele- 
vation of degree by elimination, and therefore without its being 
necessary to resolve any equation higher than the second de- 
gree, by the ratios of m quantities, provided that this number 
m is not less than the minor limit five: a result which may be 
briefly thus expressed, 


PR aie id a ub gh ORB) 


[16.] Indeed, it might seem, that in the process last described, 
an advantage would be gained by stopping at that stage, at 
which, by making ¢ = A, — 1 in the formule (278), we should 


have 
Aa - D) 
it Ms \. RE oN) 

AY) = hy + § hg (hg — 1), 
and 

m—-ti=m—hgtl; . 2-6 ees 10’ (286) 
that is, when we should have to satisfy, by the ratios of m — hg 
+ 1 quantities, a system containing only one equation of the 
second degree, in combination with h, + 4A, (h, —1) of the 
first., For, the ordinary process of elimination, performed be- 
tween the equations of ‘this last system, would not conduct to 
any equation higher than the second degrce;, and hence, without 
going any further, we might perceive it to be sufficient that the 
number m should satisfy this condition of inequality, 

m~—he+17hy+thhg(hg—1 +1... 4 - (287. 
But it is easy to see that this alteration of method introduces no 
real simplification ; the condition (287) being really coincident 
with the condition (282) or (283). To illustrate this result, it 
may be worth observing, that, in general, instead of the ordi- 
nary mode of satisfying, by ordinary elimination, any system of 
rational and integral and homogeneous equations, containing 7 
such equations of the first degree, - 


342 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


‘A'=0, ‘A =0,.... AM =0, 2. 2 2 2 2 (288)) 
and one of the second degree, 

agi ied] fyepOgeyt 7! Jha heyt deere aaa 
by the » + 1 ratios of m + 2 disposable quantities, 

Gy) Migy e+ Gnagne + + © + © + «© « «© (290) 


it is permitted to proceed as follows. Decomposing each of 
the first m + 1 quantities into two parts, so as to put 


a, =a), + aly dg=ay + Aig 00 yp =O 4 ta", 4, 291.) 
we may decompose each of the given functions of the first de- 
gree, such as ‘A“*), into two corresponding parts, ‘A’ and ‘Aw, 
of which the former, ‘AM. is a function of the first degree of the 
n + 2 quantities, 

@1, Go, --Dyiyy@aia, + + » + « (292.) 
while the latter, ‘AC, is a function of the first degree of the 
nm + 1 other quantities 

1, oy a ys 8 8 eel eben @ (293) 


and then, after resolving in any manner the indeterminate pro- 
blem, to satisfy the 2 equations of the first degree, 


‘Alo = 0, “Alo = 0, eee at => 0, . . . . (294.) 


by a suitable selection of the x + 1 ratios of the 2 + 2 quan- 
tities (292), (excluding only the assumption a, , 9 = 0,) we may 
determine the n ratios of the 2 + 1 quantities (293), so as to 
satisfy these m other equations of the first degree, 


‘A’o1 — 0, ‘AN. — 0, eee yA, = 0; e . . . (295.) 


after which it will only remain to determine the ratio of any one 
of these latter quantities (293) to any one of the former quan- 
tities (292), soas to satisfy the equation of the second degree (289), 
and the original problem will be resolved. 
[17.] Again, let 
PLP RPE, Oy 0800 SOE Rey 


that is, let us consider a system containing h, equations of the 
first degree, such as those marked (193), along with A, equations 


— Te 


=. =. — 


ee 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 343 


of the second degree (194), and A, equations of the third de- 
gree (195), to be satisfied by the ratios of m disposable quanti- 
ties (192). After exhausting, by the general process already 
sufficiently explained, all the equations of the third degree in all 
the auxiliary systems, we are conducted to satisfy, if possible, 
by the ratios of m — Ag quantities, a system containing ‘h, equa~- 
tions of the first, and ‘A, of the second degree, in which, 


‘Tig = hg + b-hz (hg — 1), } 
‘hy = hy + hghg + § (hg + 1) hg(hg — 1)5 
and after exhausting, next, all the equations of the seeond degree 
in all the new auxiliary systems, we are conducted to satisfy, by 


the ratios of m — A; — ‘hg quantities, a system of “A, equations 
of the first degree, in which, 


“fh ‘Ay Hk Mg ee IT tt ob, (298,) 


We find, therefore, that the number m must satisfy the follow- 
ing condition of inequality, 


Wit tea 7, Ryser pide My 8 aE es, AOD) 
that is, 
WT ha Ry 2 hye oy oe, 8, POP SO NE ae 


On substituting for “, its value (298), this last condition be- 
comes, 


m7 hy+ 3 ‘hig (hg +1) +0hy3  - 6 ee es. | BOL) 
that is, in virtue of the expressions (297), 
m7 hy +3 (Ag t+ Ihe + § (ho + 1) (hg + 1) hg | 302.) 
+ 3 (hg + 1) hg (hg—1) + § (Ag + 1) Ag (hg — 1) (hg — 2.) 


The number m must therefore equal or surpass a certain minor 
limit, which, in the notation of factorials, may be expressed as 
follows : 


m < (hy +1) + 3 [he + 1° + 2 (te +1) Wada} 
+ $ [hg + 1)? + [hs + 1)*5 

the symbol [»]” denoting the continued product, 

[fn]" =n —1))—2)..-.2 -nm +1). - ~ + (304) 


So that when we denote this minor limit of m by the symbol 
m (hy, ha, hs), we obtain, in general, the formula 


M(hy, hos hz) = + [no]? + 3 Ne [n3]° +3 [ng]* +g [n3]*, (305.) 


(297.) 


(303.) 


344 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 
in which, 
my SBT) Hg = AP Pag Sa TS OY O82 AES BE} 
For example, 
9% (Tp Wide  bohsubaus on: sv .epuedese vandie(BOee 
[18.] When 
Ces SE FS 8 he 


that is, when some of the original equations are as high as the 
fourth degree, (but none more elevated ,) then 


‘hy = hg + $ hy (hy — v), 
‘ag = hy + Ighs + 3 (hy + U hg (hg — 1), 


‘hy = hy + hyhy + 3 (hy + 1) (hy hg ere 
a (hy + 2) (hg + UW hg g—1)5 J 

“hg = “hg + 3 Ag (hz — 1), } (310,) 

“Vy = ‘hy + “hg ‘hg + § (hg + 1) ‘hg (hy — 1); 


9h, = A, 2 ACS 3 8 CLA’ SK wei) 


and the minor limit of m, denoted by the symbol m (h,, hg, As, Ay), 
is given by the equation 


Mm (hy, ha hg, hy) = hy t+ hg t+ “igt+ “Ay +13 . . (812.) 
which may be thus developed, 


rm (hs hs hss a) = my + 2 [na]? + my [ral ] 
+ [nl + = lal 
+ %g e 13 [ng]? + = [ng]? + a [n+ 
+ bs}? fal? + ay (ni)? +5 [na +3, (nd? 
+ ee + Loy} += bul? + 75 Cul} 


(313.) 


+= [ult + 2 [ul + 9 [na] + — [nul + or , 


if we employ the notation of factorials, and put for ne ieee 
9, Sy ET, PO pS beicide OW dol ath Bits) 
In the notation of powers, we haye 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 345 
m (hy, he, Ag, Ag) = 1 + Ay 7 
+ Lh (12 + 10h, 4 9R2 + DAE + She 
+ 2 hg hy (1 + hy 4 RG) + Shy hg +o he 
4 = hy (QO + 22hy + 2HAS+ hE 
+ 6h! + 5h + 3h, bat (S953) 
4 aye (18 4 10hy + 1542 + 14128 4-9 4,') 


1 
+ AP (1 + Shy + hg) + Shs! 


1 
1152 
+ 24h? + 34ho + 12h, + 94,). J 


" AS? h, + 3642 + 108 he + 169 A! 
4 4 4 4 


As examples, whichever formula we employ, we find 
misO, t. Vota. es oe nen tale 
mi(l,-b. 1, lellgun old each. to Gees) 
Ser Mae NN, Oy eT ga Meg ABs) 
m (5, 4, 3,3) = 922. . . . ... (319.) 
[19.] In general (by the nature of the, process explained in 
the foregoing articles) the minor limit (256) of the number m, 
which we have denoted by the symbol 
m (hy, ho, . . hy), 
is a function such that ; 
mn (ty) Iigy ss hy) = + m0 (yy lag ov Bly) oe (8202) 
h’,, ..h', being determined by the formule (233). This equa- 
tion in finite differences (320) may be regarded as containing the 
most essential element of the whole foregoing discussion ;, and 
from it the formule already found for the cases tf = 2,¢ = 3, 
t = 4, might have been deduced in other ways. From it also 
we may perceive, that whenever the original system contains 


only one equation of the highest or ¢th degree, in such a man- 
ner that 


eh ne oe ne tone ee 


then, whatever ¢ may be, we have the formula 


346 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


M (hy, htgy s+ Ay 1, 1) 322 
=14+m(hy that oo +hy _ yyhg tee tly yy e+e _ 3)5 ( ») 


so that, for example, 
m(1,1,1,1,1) =1+m(4,3,2,1);.. . . . « (823) 
mA, Sonya 2 9n9, 5,2) = 465 2 «Sy ee) 
m(1,1,1,1,],1) =1+ m(5,4,3,2,1);  . . . (325.) 
m (5, 4,3, 2,1) = 1+ m(14,9,5,2)=922; . . (326.) 
and therefore 
m (1,31, Le at FN Se OD POS tae) 
an 
ee ey ak) Oe ets 
[20.] The formula 
m(l, Wyse Bante th aie. @hibe J NaOrS 
may be considered as expressing, generally, that in order to 


satisfy a system of three homogeneous equations, rational and 
integral, and of the forms 


Al ote BO, Oa 0.05 i, vase cou tel (329.) 
that is, of the first, second, and third degrees, by a system of 
ratios of m disposable quantities 


Has ifs i, ek ate gs he Ne * o Mike oi. ee 


which ratios are to be discovered by Mr. Jerrard’s method of 
decomposition, without any elevation of degree by elimination, 
the number m ought to be at least equal to the minor limit five; 
a result which includes and illustrates that obtained in the 4th 
article of the present communication, respecting Mr. Jerrard’s 
process for taking away three terms at once from the general 
equation of the mth degree : namely that this process is not gene- 
rally applicable when m is less than five. Again, the process de- 
scribed in the eleventh article, for taking away, on Mr. Jerrard’s 
principles, four terms at once from the general equation of the 
mth degree, without being obliged to eliminate between any two 
equations of condition of higher degrees than the first, was 
shown to require, for its success, in general, that m should be 
at least equal to the minor limit eleven ; and this limitation is 
included in, and illustrated by, the result 
La eS I Ee 

which expresses generally a similar limitation to the analogous 
process for satisfying any four homogeneous equations of con- 
dition, 


a ee a 


METHOD OF TRANSFORMING AND RESOLVING EQUATIONS. 347 


Abc 053 = O50) Ba OoI his Qjordt soroh.dent (8302 


of the first, second, third, and fourth degrees, by the ratios of 
m disposable quantities, a,, a,,..4,,- In like manner it is 


shown by the result 
m(1,1,1,1,1) = 47, 0... «) « (827.) 


that Mr. Jerrard’s general method would not avail to satisfy 
the five conditions 

A’ = 0, B'=0,C'=0,D'=0,E'=0, . . (331.) 
and so to take away five terms at once from the equation of the 
mth degree, without any elevation of degree being introduced in 
the eliminations, unless m be at least = 47, that is, unless the 
equation to be transformed be at least of the 47th degree ; and 
the result 

m(1,1,1,1,1,1)=923, . . . . (328) 


shows that the analogous process for taking away six terms at 
once, or for satisfying the six conditions 


Af = 0, B= 10,,C= 0, D! = 0, BE. = 0; F\= 0,» . , 82.) 
is limited to equations of the 923rd and higher degrees. 
Finally, the result 


mbt added Vik, 47 «uot iag Gosinsh aevd Qed 
and the connected result 

ee CPL, ey Lae are Bia yO) ReQONT 8 CeeaEN 
show that it is not in general possible to satisfy, by the same 


method, a system of three conditions of the first, third, and 
fourth degrees, respectively, such as the system 


ADS O5Ch =O) Dita B Maoh rls Moe yes wd Beas 
nor a system of 3 conditions of the first, third, and fifth degrees, 
Al = 0, Cl nGy Bias Op) stdcliies Botte ce. 94) 35) 


unless m be at least = 7; which illustrates and confirms the 
conclusions before obtained respecting the inadequacy of the 
method to reduce the general equation of the fifth degree to 
De Moivre’s solvible form, or to reduce the general equation of 
the sixth to that of the fifth degree. 

[21.] Indeed, if some elevation of degree be admitted in the 
eliminations between the auxiliary equations, the minor limit 
of the number m may sometimes be advantageously depressed. 
Thus, in the process for satisfying the system of equations (330), 
we first reduce the original difficulty to that of satisfying, by the 
ratios of m — 1 quantities, a system containing three equations 


348 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


of the first degree, two of the second, and one of the third; and 
we next reduce this difficulty to that of satisfying, by the ratios 
of m — 2 quantities, a system containing five equations of the 
first, and two of the second degree. Now, at this stage, it is 
advantageous to depart from the general method, and to have 
recourse to ordinary elimination ; because we can thus resolve 
the last-mentioned auxiliary system, not indeed without some 
elevation of degree, but with an elevation which conducts no 
higher than a biquadratic equation; and by avoiding the addi- 
tional decomposition which the unmodified method requires, we 
are able to employ a lower limit for m. In fact, the general 
method would have led us to a new transformation of the ques- 
tion, by which it would have been required to satisfy, by the 
ratios of m — 3 new quantities, a system containing six new 
equations of the first, and one of the second degree; it would 
therefore have been. necessary, in general, in employing that 
method, that m — 3 should be greater than 6 + 1, or in other 
words that m should be at least equal to the minor limit eleven ; 
and accordingly we found 
m(I,3¥,1,1)=11. . <=. (817) 

But when we dispense with this last decomposition, we need 
only have m — 2>5 + 2, and the process, by this modifica- 
tion, succeeds even for m = fen. It was thus that Mr. Jerrard’s 
principles were shown, in the tenth article of this paper, to 
furnish a process for taking away four terms at once from equa- 
tions as low as the tenth degree, provided that we employ (as 
we may) certain auxiliary systems of conditions, (160) and (161), 
of which each contains two equations of the second degree, but 
none of a degree more elevated. But it appears to be impos- 
sible, by any such mixture of ordinary elimination with the ge- 
neral method explained above, to depress so far that lower limit 
of m which has been assigned by the foregoing discussion, as to 
render the method available for resolving any general equation, 
by reducing it to any known solvible form. . This Method. of 
Decomposition has, however, conducted, in the hands of its in- 
ventor Mr. Jerrard, to several general transformations of equa- 
tions, which must be considered as discoveries in algebra; and 
to the solution of an extensive class of problems in the analysis 
of indeterminates, which, had not before been resolved: the 
notation, also, of symmetric functions, which has been employed 
by that mathematician, in his published researches* on these 
subjects, is one of great beauty and power. 


* Mathematical Researches, by George B. Jerrard, A.B., Bristol; printed 
by William Strong, Clare Street; to be had of Longman and Co., London. 


NOTICES 
AND 
ABSTRACTS OF COMMUNICATIONS 


TO THE 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION 


FOR THE 


ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, 


AT THE 


BRISTOL MEETING, AUGUST 1836, 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


Tue Enprrors of the following Notices consider themselves respon: 
sible only for the fidelity with which the views of the Authors are 
abstracted, 


oN eae a ? 


CONTENTS. 


NOTICES AND ABSTRACTS OF MISCELLANEOUS 


COMMUNICATIONS TO THE SECTIONS. 


MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. 


Pa 

Mr. Taxzor’s brief Account of some Researches in the Integral Calculus......... om 
Professor Sir W. R. Hamixron on the Calculus of Principal Relations...........++. 4 
Professor STEVELLY’s Illustration of the Meaning of the doubtful Algebraic Sign 

in certain Formulz of Algebraic GeOmetry.........cccecesssserecsssceccscsecsccssesees OD 
Professor STEVELLY on “ The Mathematical Rules for constructing Compensating 

Pendulums.”’ ......ccssecsescoesesseseees osateacentaecs moar soseacceamaccrenbes Src | 
Mr. J. W. Lussocx on the Importance of forming new Empirical Tables for find- 

ing the Moon’s Place.....ccsccecsssesccesscsccsscccscersesceccecevssccsesces ceneeceee coeeee 12 
Sir Davin Brewster on the Action of Crystallized Surfaces upon Common and 

Polarized Light.......... Saneaeneres Ren epetarenct sce cotres Secnaenen poo Soqgpace Spedencrnecine 18 
Sir Davip Brewster on a singular Development of Polarizing Structure in the 

Crystalline Lens after Death ..........0.00 Sieeveeseas Udeva lave Jescchuveccvertasveledences “PLO 
Mr. J. M‘Cu.taes on the Laws of Double Refraction in Quartz.....ccccccscsceses 18 
The Rev. EDWARD CRAIG On Polarization.....c.csssssssssssessesseccssccccesecsessseeces | 19 
Mr. Wm. Snow Harris on some Phenomena of Electrical Repulsion............ 19 
The Rev. J. W. M‘Gautey’s Series of Experiments in Electro-magnetism, with 

Reference to its Application as a Moving Power...........s.s000 Devedeeussvaussesmee (OE 
The Rev. W. Scorespy on a New Compass Bar, with Illustrations, by means of 

a recent Instrument, of the Susceptibility of Iron for the Magnetic Condition 28 
Professor Forpxs’s Experiments on Terrestrial Magnetic Intensity, especially in 

relation to the Influence Of Height......ccsssccsscsssecconsecssssosssenossstensessccsse OO 
Professor Puitxirs on the Direction of Isoclinal Magnetic Lines in Yorkshire... 31 
Professor Luoyp on the Direction of the Isoclinal Lines in England................ 31 
Mr. Wm. HERAPATH on the Aurora Borealis......sssseccsscssscceveseesocesssesesseeess 2 
Dr. Tratit on the Aurora Borealis of 11th August, 1836.....c.ssccsccssssseveeens 32 
Mr. W. Errrick’s Notice of an Instrument to observe minute Changes of Terres- 

trial Magnetism......coscocecessesees sevesceseess edae Sanpete, menpnaneddudensa sebevceeseasee! OD 
Mr. W. Errnicx’s Notice of a new Rubber for an Electrical Machine.............. 33 
Dr. James Apsoun on anew Method of Investigating the Specific Heats of Gases 33 
The Rev. B. Powrxt on the Impermeability of Water to Radiant Heat............ 36 
Mr. R. Appams on the Vibration of Bells........sscsssssessssseccscssssecnenssccess cover 36 
Dr. Cuarues J. B. WittraMs on an Improved Har-Trumpet.rccseceresosersersesse 36 
Dr. Samvet Roorsey on the higher Orders of Grecian MuSiC.....sessossevsevessees 37 


iv CONTENTS. 


Page. 
Dr. Samvet Roorsry on Mnemonical Logarithms........0.. Serecccesscncace svesseects 38 
Professor Forsxs’s Experiments on the Weight, Height, and Strength of Men at 
different Ages......... Subasassoed ae ee Sees ia Arctic cae decascencssscdeuteusas 38 
The Rey. W. WHEwELt’s further Account of his Anemometer......... ecassemexbuae 39 
Mr. G. Wess Hatt on the Connection of the Weather with the Tide........ mvecss 0 EL 
The Rey. L. CARPENTER on Lucas’s Method of Printing for the Blind............ 41 
Mr. J. S. Russrru on the Ratio of the Resistance of Fluids to the Velocity of 
WAVES....0.c000 Susaueusesvavuensscesevesdccscossscesecacsucscarescsvence sovesvasaneshusuccuseet 41 
Professor Sir W. R. Hamitton’s Calculus of Principal Relations...........ceceeees 41 
CHEMISTRY.’ 


Dr. R. Harz on the Chemical Nomenclature of Berzelius.,....s.sssseseesensoeseeeens 
Dr. R. Hare on a Calorimotor for Igniting Gases in Eudiometrical Experiments, 


and Gunpowder in Rock-blasting...........ssssseesees saapaanes ape pswiienascutcakcheacasas 
Dr. R. Hare on the Aqueous Sliding-rod Hydrogen Eudiometer........+++++ xuseenes 
Mr. Anprew Crossr’s Electrical Experiments.........+0+« sab enepacene easaasenpe> panes 
Mr. Henry Hover Wartson’s Remarks on the Results of some Experiments on 
the Phosphate and Pyro-Phosphate of Soda......csssssseseeecesssenseeeeeesenees feos 


Mr. Tuomas Extey’s Extracts from a Paper “on Important Facts obtained Ma- 
thematically,fromzTheory, embracing most of those Experimental results in 


Chemistry, which are considered as ultimate facts.”’......css.+000 zat nihil dapembent 
Dr. Coartes Henry on Gaseous Interference......- ee ee sa eosin aie ee anes 
Dr. Tuomas, THomson’s Experiments’ on the Combinationsjof Sulphuric Acid 

and! Water. ...:s:ussusadb cctenelecaptes ob a dehed dna ddo bigs pamwack on shb oeay apse asnues Sotivet 
Mr. Wm. Biack on a Method of ascertaining the Strength. of Spirits.......... ods 
Mr. Epmunp;Davy’s Notice of a new Gaseous! Bicarburet of Hydrogen........+. 
Mr. Epmunp Davy’s Notice of a peculiar Compound of Carbon and Potassium, 

or Carburet of Potassium, 8.0. ssvyposd~ «nasuxs tissue: <sbidosstcennde eb at me ws 
Mr. Musgzx on Ion-oreasish tiivrssudissaaseice p> moo ae oroae genes SEE sree tl 
Dr. James Inexts on the Conducting Powers of Iodines.+..+.sssvsesssssssnssanees 
Mr. J. F. W. Jonnston on Paracyanogen, a new Isomeric Compound........« ere 
Mr. W. HerapatH on Arsenical Poisons...oseseeeeereeee ee. Wah odd SE I 
Mr. W. Herapats on Lithiate of Ammonia as a Secretion of Insects...:......06 
Mr. W. Herapatn’s Analysis of the Water of the King’s Bath, Bath............ aes 
Mr. W. C. Jonzs on the Analysis of Wheat, a peculiar Volatile Fluid, and a So- 

luble Modification of Gluten, Nitrogen in Lignin, &¢... sssss.sseseceedeecseenssees 
Dr. DavsBeny’s Notice of Experiments respecting the effects which Arsenic pro- 

duces on Vegetation... ....... See eee eee eeiiedeveewewsn ewes ma yaite 
Mr. R. ScanLan on a new substance (Eblanine) obtained from the Distillation 

of Wendasuaiciinnh alteiugialal Mindi maaan nnaesamee 
Mr. Knox on the Insulation of Fluorine..c...sssssscseesseceseceeeerenee See xen 
Mr. Wa. Errrick on a modification of the common Bellows Blowpipe..........-+ 
Mr. Wa. Wesr on a means of detecting Gases present, in small proportions, in 

Atmospheric Air.....cs.+6+ A, ebyosal. Be Sa OED eakuict ads, sie eRe eEN & tetas 


PS eC SCS 


a ar 


CONTENTS. v 
GEOLOGY. 
Page. 
My. Wu. Hopxrns on certain points in Physical Geology......scesersscssererserseneee 78 
Lord Nucent’s Notes on the Sea Rivulets in Cephalonia............. ee Acensceay - OL 
Dr. C. Dauseny on the State of the Chemical Theory of Volcanic Phenomena. 81 
Mr. R. W. Fox on Voltaic Agencies in Metalliferous Veins............++4 Te 
Professor Forsrs’s Remarks illustrative of the Physical Geography of the Pyre- 
nees, particularly in relation to Hot Springs......... SE eee seanatie SRS Als 
Mr. H. T. De 1a Becue on certain Phenomena connected with the Metalliferous 
Veins of Cornwall..........0sses00 Peet east iRecees Svearescpaten eeduensetey SAS 83 
Mr. Epwarp CHARLESWoRTH’s Notice of the Remains of Vertebrated Animals 
found in the Tertiary Beds of Norfolk and Suffolk........ Rims seewe sckaeva cane omwae . 84 
Mr. E. CHARLESWorTH on the Fallacies involved in Mr. Lyell’s Classification of 
Tertiary Deposits according to the proportionate number of recent Species of 
Mollusea which they contain........ Ee etreen beere cre. ese aeae sec Ee EE RITE 86 
Professor Puiiurrs on certain Limestones and associated Strata in the Vicinity 
Of Manchester........ccecccessereseesesees a wee Se buhiatn Sem cas pets sede dswmnkdthie <adaeces « . 86 
Professor Purzirps on the Removal of large Blocks or Boulders from the Cum- 
brian Mountains in various directions.......c.sesceseeesesseneeecenceeccnseceresecsenens 87 
Mr. R. I. Murcutson on the Ancient and Modern Hydrography of the River Severn 88 
Mr. J. E. Bowman on the Bone Cave in Carboniferous Limestone at Cefn, in 
Denbighshire...... eT RURsie as dataset Sree wean Sechons cweaWhWah eaten epee a arate 88 
Dr. Henry Rivey and Samurt Srurcupury on an additional Species of the 
newly-discovered Saurian Animals in the Magnesian Conglomerate of Durd- 
ham Down, near Bristol.......... eavtate TS BI aes et EL oe AIRE sential OD 
Professor SepGwicx and Mr. Murcutson’s Classification of the old Slate Rocks 
of the North of Devonshire, and on the true position of the Culm Deposits in 
the central portion of that County.........cepeeecser eens sedis aiincanee. cb ddp vases QD 
Marquess Sprneto on the Site of the Ancient City of Memphiis.......0i..sseeeeseee 96 
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 
Dr. James Macarrtney’s Account of the Organ of Voice in the New Holland 
RS HELE Dinca santos ola cinvie ab'g guegioriar an ee aiant pacsenes tak anne ake bona doce hay BS: ayldevece “PO 
Dr. Henry Rixey on the Foot of the “ Two-toed”’ Ostrich (Struthio Camelus). 97 
Dr. Joun Hancock on the Manati or Cowfish of the Inland Waters of Guiana.. 98 
Dr. Rootsey on Aranea Avicularia..c.se.s seater Beer Drceank srikipananecaeaseshatas wee 98 
Rey. F. W. Hops on the Probability that some of the early Notions of Antiquity 
Were derived from Insects.....cescecsecsesercssceeecrseeacecscvsescecen sosnssececes SAS ge de: 
Mr. Forses’s Notice of Sixteen Species of Testacea new to Scotland........... oa 99 
Mr. W. Carrenter’s Abstract of Dr. Pritchard’s Views of the Criteria by which 
Species are to be distinguished in Zoology and Botany..........-.seeeeeees Aeneas 99 
Dr. James Macartney on the Means of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Sub- 
BPCES cas oaakicashinw'e’s Ghosh pheNlsinas PaRagMER Sass, PAs sana 9 sd Sp GGRE NAT One cas ACCA MAREE oA Se] 


VoL. v.—1836. 2A 


vl CONTENTS. 


Page. 


Mr. J. E. Bowman on the Longevity of the Yew, and on the Antiquity of Plant- 
ing it in Churchyards......... Seu CoreuNeete ewes cevcoveceuventccussevevessvocteswentheuthe 
Dr. G. Lioyn’s Abstract of Observations on the ere ements Sy 
Mr. Tuomas Bripein Teaxe’s Abstract of a Paper on Aleyonella Stagnorum.... 
Dr. Joun Hancock on a new and scandent Species of the Norantia, or Ascium 

Of Guise ss eriitenecetatecccchlaccas ees Ee TR oe Pe A! 
Dr. C. Dauseny’s Notice of Experiments, now in progress at Oxford, on the Ef- 
fects produced by Arsenic on Vegetation.............. poseececsbeves sendenc sven tae eee 
Professor RoyLe on Caoutchouce.......... Saectens Peta b resis Secedeseedsseesaaeates 
Mr. G. Wezs Hatt on the Acceleration of the Growth of Wheat..........s0se+ees 
Professor Henstow’s Notice of Crystals of Sugar found in Rhododendron pon- 
VUCUI censenpascsussnuneneres steteeeeeseneeeeees WecUaceneuessasecvecsresue ceencesessecousassen 
Lieut.-Col. Sykes on the Fruits cultivated and Wild, of the Deccan, in the East 
IMGIGS cccscosesess Pavmpase Febrobgcedochaaesnge SodeacaEnS Racers cco eee cnacecununesrs 
Dr. S. Roorsry, on Sugar, Malt, and an Ardent Spirit extracted from Mangel 
WitteZles ee teneteea eosewescsanennaceees casas peuLeceqecdcseess Bpadscneessecnensvancunenaate 
Mr. PHELPs on the ees of Peat (illustrated by specimens)........+.seeeeseee 
Dr. Corset on Imbibition of Prussiate of Potash by Plants...... aussaspsevecaleesnae 


MEDICAL SCIENCE. 


Dr. J. C. Pricnarp on the Treatment of some Diseases of the Brain..........++ 

Dr. James O’Beirne’s Abstract of an unpublished Work on Tetanus....... s..+0+ 
Sir D. Brewster on the Cause, the Prevention, and the Cure of Cataract......... 
Mr. R. CarmicHaEL on the Nature and Origin of Cancerous and Tuberculous 


PD) INCASEA seer sksabbas depos Deas eiatipeats aeebed acm Ss asain of eas shaewnyy aie bag adauagee nee 
Dr. James Macartney on the Structure of the Teeth, with an Account of the 
process of their Decay,.......++++ ede Xatebis labs vacdegvbpn s opindecaccecceasaccepessmennsenne 


Dr. Ropert D. THomson on the Chemistry of the Digestive Organs..........+++++« 
Dr. Rosert Rerp’s Exposition of the Functions of the Nervous Structure in the 
Human Frame......scscscessevsesscseccnescscseececeeesssecesssssssescosaessssseseseveseusees 
Dr. Carson on Absorption........+++. ORL basen sibs sonsaneenn ted selene ak Set cence 
Mr. Aucustus F. A. Grerves on the Gyration of the Heart.........-ssssssesesereee 
Mr. Joun WaLxeEr on the Functions of the Muscles and Nerves of the Eyeball.. 
Dr. W. F. Monrcomery’s Notice of a newly-discovered Peculiarity in the Struc- 
ture of the Uterine Decidua, or Decidua Vera........... sipéuscocacaseeass soakite cavtan 
Dr. Joun Hovusron’s Account of Human Twin Feetuses, one of which was de- 
void of Brain, Heart, Lungs, and Liver; with Observations on the Nature and 
Cause of the Circulation in such MOnsters......c.ssececereceseseee sevesseces seseeees 
Mr. R. Apams on the Pathological Condition of the Bones in Chronic Rheuma- 
tism...... eocceccccccerccvecessces enssese seees oe ceeeeensecerccressccssesceesescaes eeeee 
Mr. R. Apams on the state of the new Circulating Channels i in a case of double 
Popliteal Aneurism...... Speonchocenectaceno. scaasacng cece couvecsceseccdas@euuensser=luUsaM 
Sir Davip J. H. Dicxson’s Case of extensive Aneurism of the Arteria Innomi- 
NAtA ANA Thoracic AOrtdssrecscrsersereccncveneceneseveceevarssssssesgeseneeeesscsseeesces 


- 101 
102 
104 
104 
104 
105 
106 
106 
106 
107 


107 
107 


107 
109 
111 
112 


115 
117 


119 
119 
120 
121 


121 


122 


123 


123 


124 


CONTENTS. Vii 


Page. 
Mr. Axcock on the Question whether the Sense of Taste is dependent on Nerves : 
from the Spheno-palatine Ganglion............ acesesesenanee socecaecensensece Shraesasaeh 124 
Mr. Atcock on some particulars in the Anatomy of the Fifth Pair of Nerves..... 124 
Mr. Witt1am Hertine on a new Instrument for the removing of Ligatures at 


PIEHSAIE) wus tenlevestvihs va dep tun enon debts ecsecteasspencccune abiclaia aiicieptaxwesiek sservpiene 124 
Dr. MarsHatu Hatiand Mr. S. D. BrouGHTon on the Sensibility of the Glosso- 
Pltarynpeal: NECVers, sus ssocvewevenendsssyoecevesssnecscnessdetononsuvataseceescnceuvenssecsa 125 


MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 


Mr. Henry CHATFIELD on the Theory of British Naval Architecture.........+0+0 129 
Mr. Henwoop on certain points in the Theory of Naval Architecture........s0.-«. 130 
Rev. W. WHEWELL On the Tides..........ssesecssscesseves Ticr eee aeeeenecce oor ep eee ce 130 
Mr. J. S. Russext on the Application of our Knowledge of the Phenomena of 
Waves to the Improvement of the Navigation of Shallow RiverS...........ss000 130 
Professor MosELrEy on certain points connected with the Theory of Locomotion. 130 
Mr. Joun S. Enys on the Performance of Steam-Engines in Cornwall............ 130 
STATISTICS. 
Baron Durin’s Researches relative to the Price of Grain, and its Influence on 
the French Population....... Mesa dasbaMeMehnvn insnwantasareasastsarcercdhoasgususnseseccaes 132 
Report on the State of Education in the Borough of Liverpool in 1835—1836.... 133 
Mr. C. B. Fripp on the Statistics of Popular Education in Bristol..........scscssees 136 


Dr. CLeLann’s Extracts from Statistical Documents relating to Glasgow.......... 140 

Mr. Joun Taytor on the Comparative Value of the Mineral Productions of Great 
Britain and the rest of Europe........sessseeeseeseees Stbueaeseekecene Shuewamavavedaaeees 144 

Dr. Roperr Coxiins’s Observations on the Periodicity of Births, showing the 
total number born in each Month; the Number of Premature Children; the 
Sex, &c. &c.; the Number of Stillborn Children, and Children Dying; also 
with regard to the Death of the Mothers, and the most important Complications 


met with in Delivery, deduced from the Experience of 16,654 Cases..........+. 146 
Mr. W. Fetxin’s Facts and Calculations on the present State of the Bobbin Net 
Trade, and the past and present State of the Hosiery Trade............0.s0+ soseee 148 


Colonel Syxzs on the Utility of Co-operating Committees of Trade and Agricul- 
ture in the Commercial and Manufacturing Towns of Great Britain, &c. as pro- 
jected by Mr. Holt Mackenzie and Mr. Forbes Royle, and advocated by Sir 
Alexander Johnston and Sir C. Forbes, for investigating more exclusively the 


Natural and Artificial Products of India.............. Goateanass asWavanch ten cetenarcesee 149 
Dr. Yetuoxy on Spade Husbandry in Norfolk............0000. Beane ee sates ASshstecoct 150 
Dr. LARDNER on the Effect of Railroads on Intercommunication...........0006 wee 150 
Mr. W. R. Gree’s Outlines of a Memoir on Statistical Desiderata...........sses00s 151 


Mr. Jerrries Kinestzy’s Formula of Returns of the gross Receipts of the Re- 
venues of Great Britain, and of Savings Banks Returns..........sseceesssessseeeee LOL 


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NOTICES AND ABSTRACTS 


OF 


MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS 
TO THE SECTIONS. 


MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. 


A brief Account of some Researches in the Integral Calculus. By 
H. F. Taxsort, Esq. 


Havine been asked to lay before the British Association a notice of 
my researches in the Integral Calculus, so far as they have been 
published in the Philosophical Transactions for the present year, I 
have drawn up a short account of this subject. 


Upwards of one hundred years ago, an Italian geometer, Fagnani, 
discovered that the difference of two elliptic arcs is in some cases 
accurately equal to a straight line, whose length is known; although 
neither of the arcs, taken separately, can be so expressed. Thus he 
found, for example, that the quadrant of every ellipse is capable of 
being so bisected that the difference of the parts is equal to the 
difference of the major and minor axis of the curve. He also found 
that the hyperbola possesses similar properties, and also the lemni- 
scate, and several other curves. He thus with great ingenuity and 
sagacity opened a new track in the regions of analysis, the existence 
of which had until his time remained unknown. 

The next considerable step was made by Euler, who showed 


: 3 dex d 
enerally that the sum of the two integrals ae Ley 

F : f S- Wf Reg) ay 
may be always rendered equal to a constant, by assuming a proper 
equation between the variables xv and y, provided that X was a poly- 
nomial in z not exceeding the fourth degree. But if X contained 
_ the fifth or higher powers of 7, he was unable (except in very special 
cases) to find any solution of the problem. 

Lagrange, who also endeavoured to remove this difficulty, met 
with no better success. 
' The reason of the failure appears now to be manifest, that the 
solution of the problem was sought for in the wrong direction. It 
was attempted always to combine ‘wo integrals into an algebraic 

Vor. V.— 1836. B 


2 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


sum, which can only be done successfully in certain cases. In all 
other cases it is requisite to combine three or more integrals, and 
the idea of doing this seems not to have occurred to these illustrious 
analysts. — 

Thus, for instance, they tried in vain to find the algebraic integral 
of the equation ph DEL 43 7 PSAENE SE = 0 

JV1i+a@ V1 +y5 
But if they had sought for the algebraic integral of 


dz Sf: dy dz 
Vie: Vi+y> Tt Via. wre 
they would have found that such a solution really exists. 

However, the theorem which Euler gave, although limited in its 
extent, yet proved to be of great importance, and may be considered 
the foundation of the theory of elliptic functions given by Legendre, 
the different properties of which are implicitly contained in Euler’s 
solution, although Legendre’s talents and industry were requisite 
to draw them forth, and develop them with clearness and precision. 

While examining this subject in the year 1825, I met with a new 
property of the equilateral hyperbola, which appeared to me to be of 
great importance, as it gave the algebraic sum of three arcs of that 


curve. 
If the abscissz of the three arcs are the roots of a cubic equation, 


2 


of this particular form, viz. : oe z—r=0O, IJ found that the 


sum of the arcs was an algebraic quantity. In this equation the 
letter ris arbitrary. Each particular value which is attributed to it 
furnishes a solution of the problem, that is, it gives three arcs whose 
sum is algebraic. 

I verified the truth of this theorem by numerical computations of 
different examples of it, but in so doing I met with two difficulties 
of a novel nature. The first was, that by attributing certain values 
to r, the cubic equation had two impossible roots, and the theorem 
then apparently ceased to have any real meaning. (At that time 
Legendre had not yet demonstrated the fact, that two imaginary in- 
tegrals can make a real integral by their addition.) 

The other difficulty was this, that in making the addition of the 
three integrals, I found that it was necessary to attribute a negative 

“sign to one of them, and although by making actual trial in each 

numerical example, it was easy to see which of the integrals had 
this sign, yet it was by no means ‘so easy to assign a convincing 
reason why this ought to be the case. 

The method which had conducted me to this theorem respecting 
the equilateral hyperbola, would, as I saw, furnish a multitude of 
other theorems equally curious ; but the field of inquiry was so new, 
and the results which it afforded at every step so ample, that I was 
at a loss how to classify them, or reduce them into a clear and con- 
nected theory. For instance, I perceived that I1 might consider x 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 8 


variables instead of only three, and that I might suppose them con- 
nected by the general equation, 

a a at! 4 bar? +t on = 0, 
phate coéfiicients a, b, &c. are all different functions of an arbitrary 
quantity r.. Then, when any particular value is given to r, the n 
roots of the equation (or in other words the x variables) become de- 
termined as to their numerical value. 

And if r changes its value to another value, the 7 variables seve- 
rally undergo a corresponding change. Therefore they all vary 
simultaneously, and the variation of any one of them is a determinate 
function of the variation of any of the others. 

The x variables being connected in this manner, I found that the 


‘values of certain integrals which depend upon them might frequently 


be shown to have an ‘algebraic sum. That isto say, the equation of 
condition between the variables being given, new properties of various 
integrals were found to be deducible therefrom. But the inverse 
problem was found to be much more difficult, namely, ‘‘ When the 
form of the integral was given, to discover the equation which ought 
to be assumed between the variables.” 

This problem is the more important one because it is what occurs 
in practical applications of the calculus. The solution of it, which 
I have given in the Transactions of the Royal Society for 1836, ap- 
pears to me to be as simple as the nature of the problem admits of, 
and it conducts readily and rapidly to the form of equation which 
ought to be assumed in any particular instance. And the form of 
that equation being known, the properties of the integral frequently 
flow from it with a facility which is surprising, considering the na- 
ture and difficulties of the inquiry. 

‘While I was occupied in this investigation, that distinguished ma- 
thematician Mr. Abel published a very remarkable theorem, which 
Pde 


VR 
when P and R are polynomials in z of any degree. 

The methods of reasoning by which he arrived at this theorem 
appear to have been quite different from those which I pursued, and 
the form of his solution is altogether different from mine, although 
in all those instances which I have tried the results ultimately con- 
cur (as might be expected). But it will be observed a Ne cele- 


brated theorem is limited to those forms of integral ae where 


gives the algebraic sum of a series of integrals of the form 


the polynomial R has a quadratic radical. 

My method, on the contrary, applies with equal facility to the Cu- 
bic Radicals and to those of all higher degrees, as well as to a great 
many other integral forms of a more complicated nature. 

I have therefore proposed to drop the name which Legendre has 
given, of Ultra-Elliptic Integrals, since it appears that no line of di- 
stinction can be drawn between them and integrals in general, which 


possess similar properties to an extent so much greater than has been 
hitherto imagined. 9 
B 


4 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


In prosecuting further inquiries it will be desirable to consider 
which are the forms of transcendents which ought to be reckoned as 
next in order to those whose properties have been hitherto most in- 
vestigated, viz., to the Circular Logarithmic and Elliptic functions. 

It appears to me that the transcendents might be divided and 
classed according to the number of them which it is requisite to com- 
bine in order to obtain an algebraic sum. Thus the transcend- 
ae ; dz 
.. is of a more complicated nature than : 
V1+2° J V1i+z 
because it is requisite to unite three terms of the former to obtain an 
algebraic sum, while it suffices to add two terms of the latter one. 


According to this view the transcendent poh kas will be the 


‘ V1+2° 
representative of a class whose properties are to be examined by 
themselves, and which are probably irreductible to transcendents of 
a lower class. Before, however, occupying ourselves with these, it 
is well to inquire what results these new methods give when applied 
to the arcs of the Conic Sections, a subject which was supposed to 
have been almost exhausted by the labours of Legendre, but which 
the researches of Jacobi, Abel, and others have shown to be far from 
being so. 

I have found, with respect to my own method, that besides the 
theorem which I originally met with concerning the sum of three 
ares of the Equilateral Hyperbola, it likewise gives a number of other 
theorems respecting the sums of the arcs of the Conic Sections. 

But which of all these theorems are essentially different from each 
other it requires much time to thoroughly examine. And since it is 
desirable for the sake of verification, and to avoid falling into errors, 
to accompany the processes of analysis with numerical examples, 
these examples, if calculated to six or seven places of decimals, often 
run into extreme prolixity, and would be best accomplished by the 
assistance of several independent calculators. 


ent 


On the Calculus of Principal Relations. By Professor 
Sir W. R. Hamitron. 


The method of principal relations, of which Sir W. Hamilton 
gave a short explanation, is still more general than the analogous 
researches in optics and dynamics presented to former meetings of 
the Association. By it the author proposed to reduce all questions 
in analysis to one fundamental equation or formula, no matter how nu- 
merous the conditions, or the independent variables might be. He 
has found the following relation, which he has termed principal, to 
subsist between all differential ee a matter how numerous, or 

ONES 


independent the variables. viz. : 2 aa 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 5 


Tilustration of the Meaning of the doubtful Algebraic Sign in certain 
Formule of Algebraic Geometry. By Professor StevELLY. 


The author had been led some years since to see the importance 
of the present question as bearing upon the determination of geo- 
metric positions by algebraic symbols, by finding that, when trans- 
forming the axes of coordinates, it was sometimes requisite to use 
the positive sign for the perpendicular let fall from a given point 
upon a given line, and at other times the negative sign, although no 
intelligible reason for the difference was assigned in the books, nor 
could he for a long time give any reason that was satisfactory to his 
own mind, or which would lead to an unvarying rule. At length, 
while reflecting upon the origin of this doubtful sign, he was led to 
a conclusion which was quite satisfactory to himself, and which fur- 
nished, he conceived, a complete key to the interpretation. of this 
and many similar cases. 

Af p 


A 


It is well known that if A A‘ and B B* be the axes of coordi- 
nates, O being the origin, and it be arbitrarily determined to con- 
sider distances measured from O towards B‘ as positive, it is ne- 
cessary, by the connection between algebraic addition and subtrac- 
tion, and the increasing and diminishing of such distances, to distin- 
guish by the negative sign all distances measured from O towards B. 
A similar rule holds for the axis A A’, and for every other axis 
passing through O; from hence it can be readily shown that all 
lines drawn parallel to any fixed line, such as A A‘, and falling 
upon and terminated by B B‘, must be similarly distinguished ; 
those that fall upon the upper side or face, for example, being sup- 
posed to be positive, these falling upon the under side or face, must 
be marked as negative. A similar rule can be easily shown to hold 
for any line in the plane of these axes. And this being attended to 
will inform us why algebra ought to mark with the sign +, the per- 
pendicular let fallfrom a point (p) whose coordinates are (2' y') 
upon a line whose equation is y=aa-+ 6. Although at first we 
should think that as but one point can have these coordinates, and 
one line only have that equation, there can be but one perpendicular 
to whose value we ought to be led; yet, in fact, we find the per- 


pendicular to be + y—aa—b 


SPER At The reason why algebra leads 


6 SIXTH REPORT.—18536. 


us to this double value is obvious when we consider that all perpendi- 
culars upon one side or face of the given line being considered as posi- 
tive, all on the opposite side or face must be marked as negative; for if 
the given line be supposed to revolve in the plane of the coordinates, 
any point of it being fixed as soon as it has passed through a semirevo- 
lution, it will take a position in which the very same equation as at first 
will belong to it, and in which the perpendicular upon it from the 
given point p will have exactly the same length ;, and indeed be the 
very same line that was perpendicular to it in its first position. 
In the first position the perpendicular from P falls upon the face of 
the line which is then turned towards it; but after the semirevolu- 
tion, the perpendicular from P falls upon the face of the line which, 
in its first position had been averted from P; and hence one of 
these perpendiculars is presented to us by the analytic investigation, 
audits y—aur—b 

Vi+a? 
the line expressed still by the same equation, y—av—b=o, is 

—axr—b 
Die ahha Boaksthees 

That this is the true origin of the double sign found in the in- 
vestigation of the length of the perpendicular, will be still more 
clearly seen by tracing the varying length of the perpendicular, as 
the line D'C D revolves from its first position. Let us suppose, 
(in order to fix our ideas) round some point, as C, which we may 
suppose to hold its place. Then as the revolving line approaches 
P the length of the perpendicular diminishes; when it reaches P 
that length vanishes; when it passes P the perpendicular now 
falling on the face that had been at first averted from P, becomes 
negative; or, rather, has a sign opposite to that which we first at- 
tributed to it; and this sign it retains as long as the perpendicular 
continues to fall on the same face; and therefore, when it has passed 
through its semirevolution, it retains that contrary sign; but at the 
end of the semirevolution, the perpendicular is the very same as it was 
at first, and the line in the new position has the same equation that at 
first belonged to it; the face alone on which that perpendicular falls 
has changed, and algebra marks that change by the change of sign 
of the value of the perpendicular. Indeed, it is easy to see that 
after the semirevolution is completed, a perpendicular P’ A’ at an 
equal distance from C’, and similarly situated on the other side 
from P A, and erected upon the opposite face of the given line, 
will have come round to the portion of P A, and will then coincide 
with it, if it be supposed to accompany the revolving line, and to be 
inflexibly attached to it. 

An account nearly the same can be given of the double sign of 
the distance between two points (2‘y') and (2‘y"), which, as is well 
known, is = + ¥(2’\— 2")? + (y=y")®. If weat first arbitrarily as- 
sume the + value as belonging to the distance: then if a point be 
made to move from that given point, which is nearest to the origin of 


» while the other from the same point, P, upon 


brought under our notice, as, 


u See ee 


waar’ 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. y | 


the coordinates, suppose from the point («' y") towards the other point, 
it will, by motion in that direction, describe and increase positive 
distances ; but, by a motion in the contrary direction it would de- 
scribe or increase negative distances, If we then suppose the in- 
definite line joining («‘y‘) and (c‘y') to revolve slowly round one of 
these points as a centre, suppose round (2"y") the law of continuity 
will compel us to consider a point moving the same way from the 
fixed point as describing and increasing negative distances; now, 
when the revolving line has completed a semirevolution, it will again 
pass through the second point, (e'y'); but a moving point setting 
off from (zy) must, in order to reach (z'y'), move along the inde- 
finite line after its semirevolution, in precisely an opposite direction 
to that which led to the same point in its first position, and, there- 
fore, the same identical distance must, in this last position, be con- 
sidered as negative, if, in the first position, we assumed it to be po- 
sitive ; and hence the double sign to which the analytic value directs 
our attention. 

In a similar way we can explain the double sign of the secant of 
an arch, the opposite sign of the secant of an arch, and of its sup- 
plement, and of the same arch increased by a semicircle. We may 
also see the reason for the double sign of the analytic value of the 
radius of curvature; and thus many symbols which were formerly 
not perceived’ to have any relation to position, will appear to have a 
very direct and intelligible relation to it; and thus, much that was 
formerly arbitrary will be rendered subject to precise rules. 


On ‘‘ The Mathematical Rules for constructing Compensating Pendu- 
lums.” By Proressor STEVELLY. 


Accident led the author to the discovery of an error of serious 
consequence which he had previously never suspected, in the principle 
of calculating the dimensions of the several parts of compensating pen- 
dulums adopted by Captain Kater, and detailed by him in the latter 
part of the volume on Mechanics in Lardner’s Cyclopedia. Doctor 
Templeton, of the Royal Artillery, had kindly undertaken to find a 
meridian line at the apartments of the Museum of the Belfast Natu- 
ral History Society. When doing so he had used a well-made eight- 
day clock furnished with a pendulum with a deal rod, which although 
carefully made had not been intended to compensate for changes of 
temperature. This pendulum had gone ina room immediately under 
a leaden roof during a very cold winter, and afterwards during a very 
hot summer, and yet had not varied more than a very few seconds 
from mean time, and even that variation had not taken place with 
any considerable departure from a mean rate of gaining. Surprise 
at this fact led Mr. Stevelly to perceive that a common deal rod pen- 
dulum, with a large lenticular leaden bob resting on a nut, and trans- 
fixed by the deal rod, must be to a certain extent compensating. He 
then proceeded to calculate the exact dimensions for perfect compen- 
sation ; but upon applying the mathematical principle upon which he 
had made the calculation to some of the examples given by Captain 


8 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


Kater, he arrived at dimensions differing so much from those given 
by that eminent author as to lead him to fear that he had made some 
gross error in applying the differential calculus to the investigation. 
A little consideration, however, convinced him that the fundamental 
principle of Kater’s calculation was erroneous. 

The erroneous principle virtually adopted by Captain Kater is, that 
the centre of oscillation of the heavy metallic part of the pendulum re- 
tains constantly its relative place in the mass; so that its distance from 
the lowest part where it is supported by the pendulum rod is to be 
taken as the length of metal whose expansions and con- x 
tractions are to compensate those of the rod. Now it is 
almost obvious that the position of that centre in the mass 
changes, on two accounts: first, the moment of inertia P 
of the mass which is the numerator of part of the value 
of the length of the pendulum is changed by the chan- 
ging of the dimensions of the several parts of the pendu- 
lum by changes of temperature ; secondly, the distance 
of the centre of gravity of the mass from the axis of sus- 
pension changes also, and it enters as a denominator into 
the same value. These combined causes produce a 
change of great practical consequence in the position of 
the centre of oscillation during alterations of temperature. L 

Time permitted Mr. Stevelly to exemplify these re- 
marks only in the pendulum composed of a deal rod sus- 
pended by a steel spring, anda leaden tube. ‘This pendu- G 
lum is perhaps the cheapest, simplest, and best that can 
be made. 

Let the annexed figure represent a deal rod and leaden D 
tube pendulum; S P= 2 inches of steel spring; P D the 
length of the deal rod to be calculated; LD=2z2= ® 
length of leaden tube; Ba deal circular bracket, either turned and 
fastened upon the end of the deal rod or made out of the same solid 
piece of white deal wood with the rod, its use being to give a firm 
support to the leaden tube. Let 2 7 = the outside diameter of the 
leaden tube, and 2 7’ equal the diameter of the cylindric hole along 
its axis which receives the deal rod; let G be the centre of gravity, 
and O the centre of oscillation. Let SG = \ andS O = (fora royal 
seconds pendulum) 39°13929 inches: denote this by /. 

It can then be easily shown by the formule for centre of oscilla- 
fion, that 


$s 


Teabags ie DO 
Jig te 2 ipa big MIR aS a afin 
ase etaits' dmc 


By applying the differential calculus to find the change of po- 
sition of O for changes of temperature, we shall see that since / is 


constant, 
Phd aowidnh aden (2 m4 3) ai 
4 3 4 3 
TAT (ie Ste  ——ae | ee a ae 


A Ae 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 9 
Hence 
rs ' 
gy Feet _# Qrdrt+2rdr ane & 
f 4 3) 4 3 
ee x3 = = 
Hence 
Qrdr+2r'dr! Qzdz 
eh 
d d(l—a 6 z oN 
—daA= (¢— )= e reper? 2. 
4 3 


Now if we denote by dm the change of length which the unit 
length of the metal of which the tube is formed, suffers from 
the change of temperature to which the pendulum has been sub- 
jected, then dr =rdm: dr'=r'dm: and dz=z dm; and substi- 
tuting these, we have 
re yl2 232 

grt ye 
A2— 4 3 
The height of the point O, above the bracket which supports it 
is, =2z— (/—A). Hence the change of place of O, upwards or 
downwards in relation to the bracket, is the differential of this, and 
is therefore equal to 


d(I—a) = Adm 


(ar 222 
2 3 
2 12 2 dm 
n2 re+r _# 
4 3 


Now the coefficient of dm in this expression is manifestly the length 

of the metallic part of the pendulum, whose changes for tempera- 

ture are to compensate the changes of the suspending rod ; whereas 

the length of that metal, according to Kater, is the height of o above 
the bracket, which is 

12 2 

retr gf 2 

+ 3 

A 


In other words, this is Kater’s coefficient for dm; and ‘since 


(ri+r'2 2 22 r2 f+ 7'2 2 
r2 + pl? 22 ( + ) 2 sig: 


teh) Ss BR AW) Ba eR ey MASS) Site ee 36 “ize att 308 
4 3 ; re trl? 22 A 


z—(l—a)=2z—- 


Consequently, for any given z, Kater’s coefficient will be greater 
than the true coefficient; therefore, it hence appears that he will 


10 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


be led to use a less z, or aless length of metallic tube than that 
which will truly compensate the changes of the suspending rod. 

But to proceed with the investigation,—if ds and dp respectively 
denote the alterations of the unit length of steel and of white deal 
for the same change of temperature that causes dm in the unit length 
of the metal used for the compensating tube, then the measures 
being expressed in inches we shall have 


2 2 
(+42). 
2ds+(A—2+2z)dp={ z—- EGE Tal 2 dm 
aI 


Since we have supposed the steel spring to be two inches long, . 
and the length of the deal rod is A — 2 + zinches; or, 


r+ rl? 22 

( 4 +3)" dm... 
WE oe 

* ale hot ee 


2 f2 2 
WET a 2n—ia 


2(ds—dp) + adp—z(dm—dp)=— 2 


' But from (a) it will appear that ~2 — 


“ll a arp pari tae 
And solving (a) fora, we getaA= iz a ry nha ane a be es 
= 4 3 
the value of A, found with the negative radical, being the intercept 
between the centre of gravity and centre of oscillation. Now if we 
denote by R the radical in the value of A, and substitute these 
quantities in (4), we shall have 


re yl2 22 
l wy 4 re 
2(ds—dp)+-z4p + Rdp—2(dm—dp)=—\ —— J am 


or, by reducing, substituting for R? its value, and dividing by 
dm—dp 


l 
2(ds—dp) +— 
( (ds Pp) eS ee a dp trl 
dm—dp 3 4dm—dp 4 


According to the table given by Kater, ds = -0000063596, 
dp = ‘0000022685, and if the material of the tube be lead, dm 
= -0000159259; also, J = 39°13929. If we assume the dia- 
meter of the leaden tube to be an inch and a half, and the hollow 
along its axis to be six tenths of an inch, then write r = -75, and 
7! = °3, and substituting these respective values in the foregoing 
equation, and changing the signs of all the terms, we shall have 


A ie 2 
(xz — 3°84963) (382°807880426025 — =) == 63°774774 ..(c) 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. ll 


Now by a well-known method, it is easy to find that z = 8°48252 
will very nearly satisfy this equation ; so nearly that the change of a 
unit in the fifth decimal place will make the side of the equation 
upon which z lies differ from the other constant side in the fourth 
decimal place by nearly two units. This is an accuracy quite un- 
necessary in practice, but Mr. Stevelly resorted to it, lest in quan- 
tities depending for their values upon such minute fractions as dp, 
ds, and dm, there should be any source of fallacy in the mode of 
calculating which did not readily appear ; and this course he was the 
rather led to adopt as the length of z which he arrived at differs so 
materially from that assigned by Captain Kater, and also by Mr. 
Baily, if the latter be correctly quoted by Kater, in Lardner’s Me- 
chanics. Mr. Baily’s paper in the Astronomical Memoirs, Mr. 
Stevelly had no opportunity of seeing. The length of 2 z according 
to Kater should be 14°44 inches, and according to Baily, as quoted 
by him 14°3. Now if either of these values be assigned to 2 z; z will 
be far from satisfying the equation (c) which has been above de- 
duced. 

The dimensions of the several parts of the pendulum according to 
Mr. Stevelly will be as follows :—A steel spring two inches long, 
measured from the cock to the upper edge of the (iron) rivet which 

attaches it to the deal rod ; a deal rod furnished with a circular bracket 
at the bottom, diameter of deal rod = 0°6 inch. ; length from upper 
edge of the rivet above, to the upper surface of the bracket upon which 
the leaden tube rests, = 44:995 inches. The bracket may be easily 
made of sucha shape, while its upper circumference is nearly equal 
to that of the leaden tube, as that the wooden part of the pendulum 
alone shall swing in asecond. The leaden tubeis then to be 16-965 
inches long; external diameter = 1:5 inch; diameter of the space 
along its axis, through which the deal rod passes, six tenths of 
an inch: the leaden tube will weigh about ten pounds avoir- 
dupois. 

If the numbers assigned by Kater be more correct than these, it 
can only arise from the values of ds, dp, and dm not having been as 
yet ascertained with sufficient accuracy, and perhaps an examination 
of the rates of pendulums made of tubes and rods of various mate- 
riais would furnish the best possible method of examining the re- 
lative expansibilities of bodies under various temperatures, 

Mr. Stevelly thinks a bracket of wood firmly attached to the 
lower part of the pendulum rod a method of suspending the 
leaden tube much to be preferred to the method in use by a nut and 
screw, for many reasons; and thus mounted it becomes necessary to 
have, at the upper part or suspension of the pendulum, some con- 
trivance for adjusting its length, so as to make the rate correct. Mr. 
Stevelly exhibited to the section a nut and screw worked by a mi- 
crometer screw, the index of which may come out at the side of the 
clock-case, and there point to a graduated circle; and he stated that 
80 nice an adjustment may be effected by this, that upon a circle of 
about three inches in diameter, each division ; being the tenth of an 
inch in length ; would correspond to an alteration of the length of the 


12 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


pendulum equal to the 140,000dth part of an inch; while the entire 
suspending apparatus may be firmly screwed to the stone back of 
the clock-case, and thus afford a very steady means of suspension, 
quite independent of the clockwork. By this means an alteration 
of the rate of the clock may be effected without stopping it; and an 
alteration to any required ‘amount may be at once effected, after it 
has been ascertained by experiment what change is made in the rate 
by moving the micrometer index through a given number of the 
degrees of its circle. 

A leaden tube, such as here described, can be very easily drawn 
at any place where leaden tubes are manufactured, and is the cheapest 
and best material for the purpose. It will be proper to prepare 
the deal rod by baking; then by passing it through a cork in the 
upper part of the receiver of an air pump, the ends of it can be 
dipped into melted shell lac after the air has been extracted; the 
readmission of the air will drive the lac into the pores; its pRecey 
surface should also be made of the colour of lead by rubbing it with 
black lead, a matter well known to be of considerable importance; 
and when the parts of the pendulum are put together, all may be 
varnished. 


On the Importance of forming new Empirical Tables for finding the 
Moon’s Place. By J. W. Luszock, Esq. 


During the last and the present century the tables for finding the 
places of the moon and planets have been so much improved that 
they may now be considered as sufficiently accurate for the purposes 
of navigation. If therefore astronomical tables were to be viewed 
merely with reference to the facilities which are obtained through 
their means for long voyages, astronomers might be said to have ac- 
complished all that was expected from them. Astronomers, how- 
ever, have never been satisfied with this view of the question, but they 
have constantly endeavoured to reach by calculation and theory the 
same degree of accuracy as that which is obtained in fixed observa- 
tories with the best instruments. This being the case much remains 
to be accomplished. The expressions for the longitude and latitude 
of the moon, to which I shall confine myself in the following re- 
marks, have not yet arrived at the desired precision, although the 
difficulties which remain to be overcome are by no means insur- 
mountable. 

The most remarkable works on the theory of the moon, on account 
of their extent, are those of MM. Damoiseau and Plana. 

M. Damoiseau’s work, to which a prize was adjudged by the 
French Institut, was published by that learned body in the Mémoires 
des Savans Etrangers. M. Damoiseau has pushed to an almost in- 
credible extent the approximation, following closely the method 
given by Laplace in the Méc. Cel., and originally chosen by Clairaut. 
But M. Damoiseau’s calculations are so conducted and are presented 
in such a shape, that it would be next to impossible to verify them, 
nor do I think that such a verification will ever be attempted. 


ae! 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 13 


The publication of M. Plana’s work constitutes a new era in the 
question, from the circumstance that the results are therein deve- 
loped by M. Plana according to powers of the eccentricities, inclina- 
tions, &c., and also of the quantity m, which denotes the ratio of 
the sun’s mean motion to that of the moon. The methods employed 
by M. Plana are otherwise similar to those of M. Damoiseau, but 
M. Plana’s results possess the inestimable advantage of permitting 
each term of which a coefficient is composed to be verified sepa- 
rately. The form in which M. Plana’s results are presented also 
enables us to examine them with facility and to judge of their con- 
vergence. Unfortunately we soon find that the expressions for the 
coefficients in many cases do not converge, so that it will be difficult, 
if not impossible, to push the approximation so far as to arrive a 
priori at expressions upon which reliance can be placed for the prin- 
cipal inequalities, such for example as the annual equation in longi- 
tude*. 

In consequence of this difficulty I wish to call the attention of the 
Section to the importance of deducing the numerical values of these 
coefficients from the best observations empirically, and of thus con- 
structing new Lunar Tables, which may serve to check the results 
obtained by theory, and which may be in form unobjectionable. The 
Tables of Burckardt, otherwise of great merit, and the best empiri- 
cal Tables of the Moon at present in existence, were constructed 
before theory had been brought to its present state ; and their form 
is such that it would be difficult to render them available in the 
manner I have pointed out. 

M. Plana has pushed the approximation to so great an extent that 
if his figures could be depended upon the subject might perhaps be 
considered as exhausted practically ; but notwithstanding M. Plana’s 
great skill and care, of which I am well convinced, it is unlikely that 
calculations of such prodigious difficulty and complexity should be 
free from errors. 

The construction of empirical Lunar Tables such as I have recom- 
mended resolves itself into a question of expense; for we have com- 
puters in this country who are competent to undertake a work of 
this nature under proper guidance. 


On the Action of Crystallized Surfaces upon Common and Polarized 
Light. By Sir Davin Brewster, K.G.H., V.P.R.S.Ed. 


In the year 1819 I submitted to the Royal Society a series of ex- 
periments on the action of crystallized surfaces on common and 
polarized light. These experiments established in the clearest man- 


* According to M. Plana this ceefficient contains the following terms : 


735 1261 149817 

.5e4 wae 3 pedests 5X | Sante AE oe 

3m+ 16 m3 + - m* +- 96 m™ 
3257665 964470235 

cea. pl fesse tdenede SNES 4 

+ —376-™ 55296" ++ “° 


14 SIXTH REPORT.-—1836. 


ner that the interior forces, which produce double refraction, extend 
within the sphere of the ordinary reflecting force, and modify its ac- 
tion not only in polarizing common light and changing the planes 
of polarized light, but in reflecting different quantities of light at 
different angles of incidence. 

These experiments excited no attention among those who were 
studying the theories of light till 1835, when they attracted the no- 
tice of Mr. Maccullagh, of Trinity College, Dublin, who was then 
engaged in investigating the laws which regulate the reflexion and 
refraction of light at the separating surface of two media. 

From principles analogous to those employed by Fresnel, Mr. 
Maccullagh has anticipated effects quite the reverse of those de- 
duced from my experiments ; and in order to account for the latter 
he was obliged to abandon to a certain degree the physical ideas of 
Fresnel in so far as to make the vibrations of the wave parallel to 
its plane of polarization, in place of perpendicular to it. From the 
theory thus modified Mr. Maccullagh has shown that when a ray is 
polarized by reflection from a crystal the plane of polarization de- 
viates from the plane of incidence, except when the azis lies in the lat- 
ter plane. The formula which expresses this deviation represents 
very accurately the measures of the polarizing angles in different 
azimuths, which I have obtained in the only surface in which the 
exception is true; but at all other inclinations of the reflecting plane 
to the axis, the formula and the theory are in fault, as there isa 
large deviation when the axis or principal section of the crystal is in 
the plane of reflexion. 

After the publication of my paper of 1519 I had more than once 
resumed the subject ; but the difficulty of obtaining highly polished 
surfaces of calcareous spar at different inclinations to the axis forced 
me to abandon the inquiry. When I found, however, that Mr. 
Maccullagh had succeeded in deducing from theory the general fact 
of a deviation increasing as the refractive power of the medium ap- 
proached to that of the spar, I had no doubt that he would bring the 
more complex phenomena under the dominion of theory, provided I 
could furnish him with their physical law. In this expectation I 
devoted my whole time to the inquiry during the last winter, with 
more knowledge of the subject and better means of observation ; and 
I should have made much greater progress than I have done had I 
been able to procure crystals of calcareous spar suited to my pur- 
pose. In this difficulty I applied to the British Museum through 
Mr. Kénig, for some useless fragments of their specimens, but I 
was mortified to find that an Act of Parliament prohibited even the 
dust of a crystal from being removed from its walls. 

The difficulty which I experienced in obtaining crystals with 
planes sufficiently regular and polished, obliged me to work with 
artificially polished surfaces; and I have to express my obligations 
to Mr. Nicol, of Edinburgh, for the kindness and the love of science 
which led him to polish with his own hands the surfaces which I 
required. 


rt 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 15 


In attempting to give the Section some idea of the nature and 
singularity of the results which I obtained, I shall omit all details, 
and confine myself to the statement of the general phenomena. 

When light is reflected at the separating surface of two media, 
the lowermost of which is a doubly refracting one, the reflected ray 
is exposed to the action of two forces, one of which is the ordinary 
reflecting force, and the other a force which emanates from the in- 
terior of the doubly refracting crystal. When the first medium is 
air, or even water, the first of these forces overpowers the second; 
and in general the effects of the one are so masked by the effects 
of the other that I was obliged to use oil of cassia,—a fluid of high 
refractive power,—in order that the interior force of the calcareous 
spar, which I wished to examine, might exhibit its effects independ- 
ently of those which arise from ordinary reflexion. The separating 
surface therefore which I used had a small refractive power, and the 
reflecting pencil is so attenuated, especially in using polarized light, 
that it is almost impossible to use any other light than that of the sun. 

When a pencil of common light is reflected from the separating 
surface of oil of cassia and calcareous spar, the general action of the 
spar is to polarize a part of the ray in a plane perpendicular to that 
of the reflexion, and thus to produce by reflexion the very same effect 
that other surfuces do by refraction. 

On the face of calcareous spar perpendicular to the axis of the cry- 
stal the effect is exactly the same in all azimuths, but in every other 
face the effect varies in different azimuths and depends upon the in- 
clination of the face to the axis of double refraction. On the natu- 
ral face of the rhomb common light is polarized in the plane of re- 
flexion in 0° of azimuth, or in the plane of the principal section; 


‘but at 38° of azimuth the whole pencil is polarized at right angles 


to the plane of reflexion, and in other azimuths the effect is nearly 
the same as I have stated in my printed paper. 

In order, however, to observe the change which ‘is actually pro- 
duced upon light it is necessary to use two pencils, one polarized 
+ 45°, and the other — 45° to the plane of incidence. The planes 
of polarization of these pencils are inclined 90° to each other, and 
the invariable effect of the new force is to augment that angle in the 
same manner as is done by a refracting surface, while the tendency 


of the ordinary reflective force is to diminish the same angle. Hence 


I was led to make an experiment in which these opposite forces 
might compensate one another. I mixed oil of olives and oil of cassia 
till I obtained a compound of such a refractive power that its action 
in bringing together the planes of polarization should be equal to the 
action of the new force in separating them. Upon reflecting the com- 


pound pencil from this surface I was delighted to find that the ineli- 
‘nation of the planes was still 90°, and J thus obtained the extraor- 
inary result of a reflecting surface which possessed no action what- 


ever upon common or upon polarized light. 
The action of the new force when the plane of reflexion coincides 


‘with the principal section of the crystal is obviously inexplicable by 


16 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


any theory of light, though I have no doubt that the undulatory 
theory will ultimately accommodate itself to this as well as to other 
classes of phenomena which it does not at present embrace. ‘The 
difficulty, however, is increased by another result of my experiments 
which it is important to notice. On the faces of the spar which are 
inclined 0°, 45°, and 90° to the axis of double refraction, the action 
of the new force is symmetrical upon the two pencils of polarized 
light, whose planes are inclined + 45°, and — 45° to the plane of in- 
cidence, whereas in all intermediate faces: whose inclination to the 
axis is 224° and 674°, the plane of one of the polarized rays remains 
stationary, while that of the other is turned round 15°. 

This effect is undoubtedly a very extraordinary one, and indicates 
some singular structure in calcareous spar, the nature of which it is 
not easy to conjecture. 

I have examined these phenomena by using in place of oil of cassia 
various fluids whose refractive powers descend gradually to that of 
water; but it would be a waste of time to give any detailed account 
of them at present. I shall only state that the action of the new 
force becomes weaker and weaker as the force of ordinary reflexion 
is increased by diminishing the refractive power of the oil which is 
placed in contact with the spar. With an oil of the highest refractive 
index the action of the new force predominates over the feeble power 
of the ordinary force of reflexion. With an oil of a lower index the 
two forces exactly balance each other, while with oils of still lower 
indices of refraction the ordinary force overcomes and conceals the 
action of the new one. 

Although I have obtained pretty accurate measures of the amount 
of the deviations produced by the new force on eight surfaces differ- 
ently inclined to the axis, and in various azimuths on these surfaces, 
yet many experiments are still necessary before we can hope to dis- 
cover the physical law of the phenomena ; and if this should be done 
I have no doubt that Mr. Maccullagh will be equally successful in 
the higher attempt of accounting for them by some modification of 
the undulatory theory. 


On a singular Development of Polarizing Structure in the Crystalline 
Lens after Death. By Sir Davin Brewster, K.G.H., V.P.R.S.Ed. 


In examining the changes which are produced by age in the 
polarizing structure of the crystalline lenses of animals, | was in- 
duced to compare these changes with those which I conceived might 
take place, after death, when the lens was allowed to indurate in the 
air, or was preserved in a fluid medium. After many fruitless ex- 
periments I found that distilled water was the only fluid which did 
not affect the transparency of the capsule, and my observations were 
therefore made with lenses immersed in that fluid. The general 
polarizing structure of the crystalline in the sheep, horse, and cow, 
consists of three rings, each composed of four sectors of polarized 


Ut eee eee eee eee er rloeeree 
i ‘ F 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 17 
light, the two innermost rings being positive like zircon, and the 
outermost negative, like calcareous spar. In other cases, especially 
when the lenses were taken from older animals, four rings were 
seen, the innermost of which was positive as before,and the rest ne- 
gative and positive in succession. 

I now placed alens which gave three rings, in a glass trough con- 
taining distilled water, and I observed the changes which it experienced 
from day today. ‘These changes were such as I had not anicipated ; 
but though I have observed and delineated them under various modi- 
fications, I shall confine myself at present to the statement of the ge- 
neral result. There is a b/ack ring between the two positive structures 
or luminous rings. After some hours’ immersion in distilled water, 
this black ring becomes brownish, and on the second day after the 
death of the animal, a faint blue ring of the first order makes its 
appearance in the middle of it, and its double refraction, as exhibited 
by its polarized tint, increases from day to day, till the tint reaches 
the white of the first order. Simultaneously with this change of 
colour, the breadth of this new Ting gradually increases, encroaching 
slightly upon the inner positive ring, but considerably upon the 
second positive ring; so that the black or neutral ring which sepa- 
rates the two positive structures, and in the middle of which a new 
luminous ring is created, divides itself into two black neutral rings, 
the one advancing outwards, and diminishing the breadth as well as 
the intensity of the second series of positive sectors, and the other 
advancing inwards, and diminishing the breadth and intensity of the 
inner or central sectors. While these changes are going on, the 
outer luminous or negative ring advances inwards, encroaching also 
on the second positive ring. 

Upon examining the character of the new luminous ring, the de- 
velopment of which has produced all these changes, I found it to be 
negative, so that at a certain stage of these variations we have a post- 
tive and a negative doubly refracting structure succeeding each other 
alternately, from the centre to the circumference of the lens, such 


as I have often observed in lenses taken from animals of greater age, 


and examined immediately after death. 

After this stage of perfect development, when there is a marked 
symmetry both ‘in the relative size and polarizing intensities of the 
four series of sectors, the lens begins to break up. The new negative 
ring encroaches so much on the two positive ones, which it separates, 
that the outer one is sometimes completely extinguished, while the 
breadth and tint of the inner sectors are greatly diminished, so that 
the highest double refraction exists in the newly developed ring. In 
a day or two this ring also experiences a great change of distinctness 
and intensity, and the lens commonly bursts on the fifth or sixth day, 
sometimes in the direction of the septa or lines where its fibres have 
their origin and termination, and sometimes in other directions. 

In order to give a general idea of the cause of these singular 


changes, I may state that the capsule which incloses the lens is a 


highly elastic membrane—that it absorbs distilled water abundantly 
Vou. V. 1836. c 


18 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


—and that, in consequence of this property, the lens gradually in- 
creases in bulk, and becomes more globular, till the capsule bursts 
with the expansive force of the overgrown lens. That the reaction 
of the elastic capsule contributes to modify the polarizing structure 
of the interior mass, cannot admit of a doubt, as it is easy te prove 
that that structure is altered by mechanical pressure; but I cannot 
conceive how such a reaction could create a new negative structure 
between two positive ones, and produce the other phenomena which 
I have described. I have been led therefore to the opimion, that 
there is in the crystalline lens the germ of the perfect structure, or 
rather the capability of its being developed by the absorption of the 
aqueous humour; that this perfect structure is not produced till the 
animal frame is completely formed; and that when it begins to. 
decay the lens changes its density and its focal length, and some- 
times degenerates into that state which is characterized by hard and 
soft cataract. 

The results of which I have now given an extecdt nelly brief notice, 
appear to me to afford a satisfactory explanation of those changes 
in the Jens which terminate in cataract, a disease which seems to be 
more prevalent than in former times. Accidental circumstances 
have led me to study the progress of this disease in one peculiar 
case, in which it was arrested and cured; and I am sanguine in the 
hope that a rational method of preventing, and even of stopping the 
progress of this alarming disease, before the laminz of the lens have 
been greatly separated or decomposed, may be deduced from the 
preceding observations. ae 

As the experiments, however, and views upon which this ex- 
pectation is founded, are more of a physiological than of a physical 
nature, I am desirous of submitting an account of them to the Me- 
dical Section, that they may undergo that strict examination which 
they could receive only from the experience and science of that di- 
stinguished body. 


‘On the Laws of Double Refraction in Quartz. By J. M‘Curuacs, 
Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. 


Among the desiderata of optical science, one of the most remark- 
able is a mechanical theory of the laws of double refraction in quartz, 
or rock-crystal. These laws, which, as far as we know, are pecu- 
liar to that crystal, were made out by the successive labours of Ara- 
go, Biot, Fresnel, and Airy; of whose researches a full account 
has been given in the Report on Physical Optics, drawn up for the 
Association by Professor Lloyd*. But the laws so discovered were 
merely isolated facts ; no connexion had been traced amongst them, 
if we except Fresnel’s beautiful explanation of the rotatory phzeno- 
mena. It was the object of Mr. M‘Cullagh’s communication to 


* Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, vol. iii. 
p. 405—409. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 19 


prepare the way for a mechanical theory, by showing that all the 
phenomena may be grouped together by means of a simple geome- 
trical hypothesis, which consists in the addition of certain terms 
(involving only one new constant,) to the ordinary differential equa- 
tions of vibratory motion. ‘The ordinary equations contain two se- 
cond differential coefficients of the displacements—one with respect 
to the time, the other with respect to the coordinate z, perpendicular 
to the wave. The additional terms may be any odd differential co- 
efficients (with respect to z) of the alternate displacements, these 
coefficients being multiplied by a proper function of the length of a 
wave. The third differential coefficients are chosen for simplicity, 
because then the multiplier is a constant quantity. Setting out from 
this hypothesis, we arrive immediately at all the known laws, and 
obtain at the same time a law that was previously unknown, and 
which is technically called the law of ellipticity. This law is ex- 
tremely simple, being expressed by a quadratic equation. Two 
sets of experiments, made long ago by different observers, and re- 
lative to two classes of phenomena, between which no connexion 
was hitherto perceived, are now, by the law of ellipticity, connected 
in such a way, that the one may be computed solely from the data 
furnished by the other ; the ellipticities observed by Mr. Airy in rays 
inclined to the axis of quartz, being computed from the angles of 
rotation observed by M. Biot in rays parallel to that axis, and a 
strict agreement being found between calculation and experiment. 
The discontinuous form of the wave-surface in quartz is also ex- 
plained, and its equation for the first time determined. The parti- 
culars of the investigation will be published in Vol. XVII. of the 
Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. 


On Polarization. By the Rev. Epwarp Crate. 


- The Rev. Mr. Craig read a paper to show that the phenomena of 
polarization are consequences and indications of the molecular struc- 
ture of refracting substances, and explicable by it; illustrating his 
views by some uniaxal crystals, and particularly the Iceland spar. 


On some Phenomena of Electrical Repulsion. By Wu. Snow Harais, 
F.R.S. 


The only connected and extensive series of experiments in statical 
electricity which have ever appeared are those of Coulombe, com- 
municated to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris so long since 
as the years 1782 and 1789; since which time, if we except the 
valuable contributions of Professor Robison of Edinburgh, little 
has been effected in this department of science. Coulombe’s highly 
important researches, however, altogether rest upon the principle of 
electrical repulsion, employed as a quantitative measure, through the 
agency of the proof plane and the torsion balance. The author 
therefore considers, that some further verification of the experi- 
mental processes resorted to by this distinguished philosopher is still a 

c 2 


20 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


desideratum in common electricity, more especially as it may be 
shown that the divergence of similarly electrified bodies is, in its 
application to quantitative processes, liable to much discrepancy. 

The author exhibited his new species of balance, some account 
of which he had already submitted to the Physical Section at 
the last Meeting of the Association; since this however it had 
undergone considerable revision. The reactive force of this in- 
strument, termed a biple balance from the peculiar principle of its 
action, is not derived from elasticity as in the balance of torsion of 
Coulombe, but is altogether dependent on gravity; it seems ex- 
tremely well adapted to the measurement of small forces generally, 
and to researches in electricity and magnetism, and may be con- 
verted if required into a balance of torsion, free from many difficul- 
ties of a mechanical kind, generally attendant on the employment of 
that instrument. 

In examining the operation of the repulsive foree between two 
small insulated discs of “4 of an inch in diameter, the author 
finds that the repulsion is not always in the ratio of the quantity of 
electricity with which either, or both the discs is charged; or as the 
squares of the distances inversely, according to the general expres- 


F 
sion D: deducible from Coulombe’s researches. ‘That hence the 


two constants RR of which we may suppose the force F to be 
made up, do not necessarily enter into the composition of the result, 
so as to cause the total force to increase or diminish with the elec- 
tricity contained in either. The author here referred to the tabulated 
results of above five hundred experiments, taken in a good insulating 
atmosphere. In these experiments the discs were both equally and 
unequally charged with electricity in known proportions, and placed 
at various distances apart. From these results it appeared, 

First, that the forces were only as the squares of the distances 
inversely when the repelling bodies were equally charged, and to a 
moderately high intensity, and even then this law did not always ob- 
tain at all distances; when the discs began to closely approximate 
the law was observed to vary, and at last to approach that of the i in- 
verse simple distance. 

Second, the deviations from the general law deducible from Cou- 
lombe’s experiments are more apparent as the intensity of the charge 
is diminished, the inequality of the respective quantities with which 
each body is charged greater, and the distance less; under any or all 
of these conditions, the rate of increase of the repulsive force dimi- 
nishes, and the repulsion is at length superseded by attraction. 

Third, the quantity of electricity contained in either of the re- 
pelling bodies is not always in the ratio of the repulsive forces : thus 
it was seen by the tabulated results, that the respective quantities of 
electricity at a constant distance D were in several instances in the 
ratio of 2:1 and 4:1, whilst the corresponding forces of repulsion 
were as 3:1 and 5:1 respectively. Hence the electrical reactions 
may be in one proportion, and the quantities of electricity in another. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SKCTIONS. 21 


Although these results may seem at first anomalous, yet they are 
still such as would necessarily arise out of the known operation of 
electrical induction. The inductive process is not confined to the 
case of a charged and neutral body, but operates more or less freely 
even between bodies similarly charged: whatever therefore be the 
precise nature of the inductive force, it is present in every case of 
statical electrical action, although under certain conditions the re- 
sulting attraction attendant on it is not always apparent, or is 
otherwise of a negative character; the tendency of the inductive 
action being first, to raise the anti-attractive state of the bodies to 
zero, if such previously exist; secondly, to generate in them an 
actual attractive force. He conceives, therefore, that no essential 
difference exists in this process, whether it take place between si- 
milarly or dissimilarly charged bodies, or between a charged and a 
neutral body. The only distinction necessary is, that in the latter 
ease the induction commences at a limit which may be termed zero ; 
in the former cases it commences either above or under that limit. 
The author considers that electrical induction between two similarly 
charged bodies, may become indefinitely modified by the various 
circumstances of quantity, intensity, distance of the repelling bodies, 
and the like, giving rise to apparently complicated phenomena, as 
he thinks is evident in his tabulated results. One condition favour- 
able to the disturbances above mentioned, and of importance to 
notice, is the inequality of the repelling bodies in respect of ex- 
tension. ‘Thus in connecting an insulated sphere with the fixed ball 
of the balance, the force. between the discs will be often in the simple 
inverse ratio of the distance, or at least very nearly in that ratio, and 
will be frequently in the ratio of 3:1, when the quantity of elec- 
tricity on the charged sphere is as 2: 1. 

The author considers these facts of great consequence to any ex- 
perimental inquiry in electricity through the agency of repulsion, 
more especially those connected with the use of the proof plane. 
The relative electrical capacities of a hollow sphere and a circular 
plate of equal area, each side to each side, as determined by Cou- 
lombe’s method, is involved in some uncertainty on this account. 
In the detail of Coulombe’s experiments, given in Biot’s celebrated 
Traité de Physique, the capacities of the plane and sphere appear to 
be in the ratio of 2:1. Hence the plane is considered to have a 
double surface of action, the interior surface of the sphere not par- 
ticipating in the distribution of the charge. ‘The result of the con- 
tact however of the plane and sphere, and from which it is inferred 
that the electricity became finally shared between them, in proportion 
to their exterior surfaces, dces not seem to have been compared with 
the result of a similar contact between the charged sphere anda 
neutral sphere of the same diameter. According to the theory, the 
electrical reactions after contact with the plate should greatly ex- 
ceed that after contact with a similar sphere; it should in fact be 
the same as that after contact with a sphere whose exterior surface 
was equal to the two surfaces of the plate. This point deserves 


22 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


great attention since it is of importance to an exact theory of elec- 
tricity. 

The author submitted to experiment under various conditions, 
two equal spheres and a circular plate of the same extent of surface, 
each side to each side, and found their electrical capacities precisely 
the same. ‘Thus the result of the contact with the charged sphere 
and a similar neutral sphere, or with a circular neutral plate, was 
precisely the same. The same quantity of electricity disposed either 
upon the sphere or plate, in connexion with the fixed ball of the 
balance, evinced the same intensity ; and this intensity became also 
equally diminished, whilst thus connected, whether the charged 
body was touched with a sphere or circular plane of the same area. 
The author does not pretend to question the faithfulness of Cou- 
lombe’s experiment, but considers his result embarrassed by the cir- 
cumstances just mentioned ; more especially as he found, that when 
the electricity was equally distributed upon the repelling discs of the 
balance, and the square roots of the forces taken to determine the 
respective quantities of electricity, then the apparent differences in 
the capacities of the sphere and plate vanished ; he considers there- 
fore that the traces of repulsion indicated by the balance did not in 
Coulombe’s experiment truly represent the ratio of the quantities of 
electricity before and after the contact between the sphere and plate. 

These results were further verified by means of the attractive 
forces, through the agency of a new electrometer, and which the 
author exhibited and explained to the Physical Section at a former 
meeting of the Association. The author next proceeded to consider 
more at large the operation of the proof plane, and presented to the 
Section the results of numerous experiments on tangent planes of 
various degrees of thickness and extension, from which it appeared 
that the indications of the proof plate might be so materially in- 
fluenced by the circumstances of position, intensity of the charge, 
thickness, and the like, as not always to become charged, either with 
a similar quantity or in the ratio of the quantity of electricity with 
the point of the electrified body to which it is applied. In treating 
of the proof plane, philosophers have considered its action in more 
than one point of view. Mons. Biot states that it takes up upon 
each of its surfaces as much electricity as exists upon the point 
touched, hence on removal it is charged with twice the quantity of 
electricity as that of the corresponding superficial element. Mons. 
Pouillet, on the contrary, considers the proof plane to be in precisely 
the same state as the superficial element itself, and to be on removal 
in the same condition as a similar portion of the charged body would 
be, if actually taken out of its surface, that is to say, the electricity 
would be first collected on one surface, and be subsequently expand- 
ed on both; each surface has therefore only half the quantity of the 
superficial element, and the proof plane comes away charged with the 
same quantity, but under a diminished intensity. The author deems 
it worthy of further inquiry, whether the proof plane be really iden- 
tical with an element of the charged surface, or whether it be merely 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 23 


in the condition of a neutral insulated body of small capacity, placed 
within an extremely small distance of a charged body; and subject 
to the same laws as subsist between two such bodies under ordinary 
circumstances at more considerable distances, but at which a com- 
munication of electricity can take place, a rigorous examination of 
this question would probably elucidate many phenomena of elec- 
trical action, at present involved in some obscurity. In the mean- 
time he thinks it not unimportant to review such facts connected 
with this point as are already known. It has been found, for ex- 
ample, that the attractive force between charged and neutral bodies 
is less when the neutral bodies are insulated, that very perfect in- 
sulators are not sensibly attracted by electrified substances, and that 
in every case of electrical attraction the force is only in proportion 
to the previous induction of which the bodies are susceptible ; in ac- 
cordance with these facts, a perfectly insulating disc reposes on a 
charged surface without becoming sensibly electrified, an insulated 
neutral conducting disc more or less so in proportion to its thick- 
ness, whilst a similar disc, whose inductive susceptibility is rendered 
nearly perfect by artificial methods, becomes charged with an in- 
tensity nearly equal to that of the point to which it is applied. 
Should therefore the inductive susceptibility of the tangent disc be 
so influenced by position, in respect of the electrical molecules of the 
charged body, as to become at any time nothing; it would be as in- 
efficient in abstracting electricity, as a similar disc of any noncon- 
ducting substance. Now it is not improbable that an insulated con- 
ducting body of small dimensions, plunged within a spherical charged 
shell, is thus circumstanced ; and hence it fails to become in any de- 
gree charged, notwithstanding that electricity may, experimentally, 
be clearly proved to exist there. 

From these and a variety of other considerations, the author is 
disposed to believe, that the force communicated to a proof plane can- 
not always be considered as a faithful indication of the electrical 
state of a charged surface, since it forms no integral part of that sur- 
face, being really placed under the conditions of an insulated neutral 
body of small and variable capacity, arising from the circumstances 
of position, thickness, and the like, and which is about to receive 
electricity from a charged body. He thinks that we really know 
little about the actual distribution of electricity upon a charged sur- 
face, except through the medium of insulated discs, in some way 
applied to it. Now he has already shown* that any charged body 


only gives off its electricity under the influence of an attractive force; 


so that an electrified sphere, when completely insulated, will retain 
its charge in the best vacuum which can be obtained by ordinary 
means, provided it be free from any sensible source of attraction. It 


_ is not therefore until we employ some substance susceptible of in- 


duction, that we begin to disturb the electrical distribution in 
charged bodies, which may be previously uniform or nearly so. 

In conclusion, the author observed, that our present theories of 
electricity may probably be found to require some considerable mo- 


* Phil. Trans. for 1854, p. 242. 


24 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


dification, and thought the subject highly worthy of the learning 
and ability so conspicuously displayed by the English mathematicians. 
He did not consider the ordinary theory of electrical distribution, or 
the experimental data on which it depended to be so completely free 
from objection, as to render all doubts of its accuracy unpardonable ; 
he thinks that the attractive forces between charged and neutral 
bodies ‘in a free state depend only on the surfaces immediately op- 
posed, without regard to any hypothetical distribution arising from 
the peculiar form or disposition of the unopposed parts ; he has cal- 
culated from very simple elements, the force which should arise be- 
tween opposed planes and spheres, and bodies of various forms, 
whether connected or not with other masses, without any reference 


whatever to the distribution of the charge, and finds the result veri- 
fied by experiment. 


A Series of Experiments in Electro-magnetism, with Reference to its 
Application as a Moving Power. By the Rev. J. W. M‘Gautey. 


Mr. M‘Gauley thought it might not be inappropriate to men- 
tion to the Section what he had done in the application of electro- 
magnetism to machinery since the last meeting of the British Asso- 
ciation. He would mention the principal difficulties which remained 
to be overcome, after the construction of the working model he 
had exhibited at Dublin. ‘These, he believed, he had overcome, and 
had in his possession a machine of not inconsiderable power. 

lst. Powerful magnets were to be constructed: the ordinary ones 
were very imperfect, and their effect limited to inconsiderable di- 
stances; their size could not be very great, as the helix must be propor- 
tioned to the iron, to saturate it, and yet cannot extend beyond a 
certain distance from it, or it will be inefficient, perhaps of inju- 
rious effect. A number of coiled bars cannot be united so as to form 
one great magnet : their poles could not be reversed, they would act 
on each other in a greater or less degree by induction. 

2ndly. The action of several magnets cannot easily be united, since 
all the poles cannot be reversed at the same time precisely. 

3rdly. If we succeed in uniting their action, that action is not 


easily applied to machinery : for let B be a bar of iron traversing 
between the magnets Mand M’. 


Let B be the position of the Fig. 1. 
bar when C Ris the position B B’ 
of the crank, B’ its position M’ Cc 


when the crank is at CR’, aM ~~ R’ 
dead point: if the bar is not Mit ota 
ready to leave the magnet M’, 


the inertia of the machinery it 


carries on the crank, and the engine is broken, or the bar torn off, - 


which very often deranges the reversion of the poles, nor can the 
mechanism applied in other cases to prevent this injurious effect, be 
here adopted. 

Mr. M‘Gauley exhibited a reversing apparatus, different from that 
noticed last year, in which mercury is not required, and the difficulty 


ooh 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 


25 


of attaching it to the machinery, so as to be worked by it, is over- 
come. He reserved for a future occasion its description. 
The following experiments he had tried with great care, securing, 


as far as possible, by cleaning the battery, 


renewing the charge, 


&c., a perfect identity of circumstances, without which a fair com- 


parison could not be made. 


Tue HEtix. 


Magnet, No. 1.—Horse-shoe soft ir 


the poles ; 


on. bar, 134 inches across 


5} interior, 72 exterior length; diameter of the bar 
24 inches ; keeper 133 inches long, 24 and 3 
used in all experiments with magnets of the same size. 


thick. This keeper 
The mag- 


net covered with sealing-wax varnish before it was coiled like the 


others used in these experiments. 
No. 13 copper wire, in 10 equal helices. 
double cell charged with 1 in 50 sulphu 


It was coiled with 1690 feet of 
The battery 1 foot square ; 
ric, 1 in 100 nitric acid ; 


lifted at distance of 53, inch, 42 Ibs. 


PCR eee 


Removed one of the coils, and used similar charge, it lifted at 
35 inch, 74 ibs. 


3 


37 — 


Used thicker wires at the poles of magnet and batteries, 
at 335 inch, 143 ]bs. 
3, —— 42 — 


20 

Same magnet, charge, &c. one 

coil of same wire, 150 feet ef- 

fect at 3 perceptible, lifted in 
contact 124 lbs. 


Same magnet, &c., two coils, 
300 feet, lifted at 3; .. 521bs. 
Same magnet, &c., three coils, 
450 feet, lifted at 
3 inch, 21 Ibs. 
y ae 
Fi 
8 
i 


ig---+ 9 
Same magnet, &c., four coils, 
600 feet, at : 
% inch, 24 Ibs. 
z 5 Am 33 
} dieax 
ae bwded 
Same magnet, &c., five coils, 
750 feet, 


3 inch, perceptible 
eect 


3 
BREESE: 
sa: 
: EE 
I 5 . 
Be esc tat 


Same magnet, six coils, 900 ft. 
4 inch, 32 lbs. 
3 


A aes 
wniete he 
Te +--+» 18h 
Same magnet, &c., seven coils, 
1050 feet, 


alpina 


2 oi \ barely 
&--+. f perceptible. 
BO nm a 

e.... 53 


ee 19i 
Same magnet, &c., eight coils, 
1200 feet, 


2 inch, 72 lbs. 
pies 
a@s:-++ 43 

Fy -.+. 83 
vei... 802 


Te 
Same magnet, &c., nine coils, 

1350 feet, at 

4 inch, 5+ lbs. 


Bw 3 Se 
lke 
is keg 9i1 
16° pales” 


26 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


Same magnet, batteries, &c., all the coils remaining on the bar ; 
average of a number of experiments : 


Ibs. lbs. 
1 of the coils connected with 2 helices forming one, 53 
battery.” .fe. ss Siane)#'s =< Bet Oe a ote eae ae 44 
Soke ne anaes tales as wa SE gag Bie testi ite 74 
EP ee Pe ess leno ete EES PND wo le oss bo inte ae 64 
MII HOMO aaa Vics o!S'e eo & 6 Ne eee 0 
SAS We SOE. el ails Lago Ss AIO. 2 ieee - 43 
GIGISA HE bn ne ABS. SA oe 183 
Passe Dt S PU MREA DIE ts 223 
BAL. RAN ten Uh Ce Se FEE io 262 
Bi tat ORAL RE IO, A yb Tor 


Srconp SERIEs. 


No. 1.—Horse-shoe iron bar, 93 inches long, 1% diameter, sur- 
mounted at poles By ground discs, 4 inches diameter, 3 thick. 
Keeper, 9 long, 4,%; wide, and 7 thick, coiled with 5CO feet No. 
15 iron wire, in oe equal Helicon? charge, 1 in 50 sulphuric, 1 in 
100 nitric acid: 

at 51, inch, it lifted 6 lbs. 
Magnet, No. 2.—Same size, coiled with 500 feet No. 13 copper 
wire in 5 coils; same charge &c. : 
at 4 inch, it lifted 4 lbs. 
a 
Magnet, No. 3. eS size, coiled with 500 feet No. 12 iron wire, 
at # inch, it lifted 14 Ibs. 
is” 


Fig. 2 
Magnet. No. 4.—Same size, but discs or poles 
replaced by pins, retaining iol vey the coils on the bar 500 
feet No. 12 iron wire. Same battery, &c. Hardly 
any effect. 


THIRD SERIEs. 


In the other series, the charge is changed before every experiment. 
In this, the same charge is retained throughout. 

Magnet, No. 1.—Soft iron square horse-shoe bar, 7? long, $ 
square, coiled with 90 feet No. 13 copper wire. 

Magnet, No. 2.—Cast iron, same size and helix. 

Magnet, No. 3.—Same size, but round bar diameter 3, coiled with 
90 feet of same wire, in two lengths each, distributed over the whole 
bar. 

Magnet, No. 4.—Same size and coiled with 60 feet, in two he- 
lices; one on each half of bar; number of coils increasing from 
centre to poles ; charge 1 in 50 sulp., 1 in 100 muriatic acid ; keeper, 
52 inches long, 4 wide, } thick. 


al 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 27 


Ibs. oz. 
Magnet, No. 1 lifted in contact 25 33 
Pie es e's «SOBs bE 


‘ B Pees Per. SO SIS 


Fourta SERIES. 


To test the comparative excellence of different charges, the gal- 
vanometer used on this occasion, was M, a small but good mag- 
net; N,a 


needle, at zero, where the magnet was connected with battery B, 
two inches square. 

The first deflection was carefully noted; the number of degrees 
at which the needle settled down, and the deflection after every 
quarter of an hour for six quarters. 

Rain water was used; sulphuric acid, specific gravity 1840; 
nit., spec. grav. 1410; muriatic, spec. grav. 1175; solution of 
caustic potash, saturated. 


1st. |Settled| 1st. 
Def.| def. |Quarter.| 294. | 3rd. | 4th. | 5th. | 6th, 


Se  . 


| Rain-water and nitric acid...... 1 in 21 parts| 90°) 52° | 324 | 16%] 113] 43] 33] 3 
; 31 38 | 273 | 153 |13 | 6%| 52] 34 | 23 
; 41 46 | 40 | 31 |14%| 8| 34] 23] 3 
51 38 | 34. | 26g |193] 74/5 | 3 | & 
| Rain-water and sulphuric acid, 1 in 21 88 | 44 154 |183] 93] 8%] 8%] 7 
31 49 | 302 | 10 | 72} 64] 5 | 4 | 3 
41 67 | 44 | 15 | sa| 5k] 4g] 4 | 28 
; 51 333] 24 34 25) 2 0 | 0 0 
Rain-water and muriat., ..... 1 in 41 97 | 333 7% | 64| 3 | 0;01/0 
: cases tiara 58 | 22 | 9 | 6/0] 0]0 J0 
| Solution caustic potash .........ses08+ 80 | 19 72 | 7 | 5B) 44] 22] 12 
| Sulp. 1 in 414, nit. ............ 1 in 83 98 | 48 | 24 |11 | 72] 6 | 54] 4% 
—— 1 in 263, — ............ 1 in 53 82 | 60 24 155| 95| 73] 62 | 53 
| —  1in1613, — ............1 in 323 233] 203 (Es 4 13} 3] 0 0 
i 1in 2014, — ............1 in 403 50 | 23 2 | 0/]0;]0/;]0 ]0 
} Muriat. 1 in 52; sulp. ......... 1 in 52 35 | 25 7% | G3E| 53| 43] 43] 33 
— lin 52; nit. «..... .» Lin 52 115 | 623 | 28% |183/153/10 | 0 | 0 
1 in 523; sulp. ...... 1 in 103 85 | 463 | 10 6 33; 010 0 
| Solution caustic potash and sulp. lin 51 88 | 45 83 | 63| 4 | 0/0 | 0 
— —_——— and nit. lin 51 43 | 0 0 0 0 0|0 0 
————_—_—_———_ and mur. lin 51 25 | 18 0 0 | 0 0{|0 10 
‘| Sea water from Dublin bay .........++. % | 0 0 0o/0;}0/0)0 
1 —_—_——_ ——_——-and sulp. lin 51 35 | 26 13 8 | 53| 3%] 0 | 0 
|- — and nit. 1 in 51 95 | 55 338% |153| 93) 0 | 0 | 0 
| } Sulp., nit., and muriat., each 1 in 53 95 | 59 40 16 }10 | 8}]0 )0 


28 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


Mr. M‘Gauley wished to satisfy himself by experiment, that the 
inverse ratio of the square of the distance is the law of the decrease 
of magnetic attraction, but relinquished the idea for the present, 
when he found that the same magnet would, with one keeper, lift 
one quantity at ;4; inch, with another the same quantity at 12 times 
the distances, both keepers seemingly appropriate. 

In speaking of the nature of electro-magnetism, and its perfect 
identity with electricity, he remarked, that we should if possible, in 
comparing any agent with electricity, discover some property of the 
latter, not the measure of, nor dependent on either its intensity or 
quantity, which may be so various. 

He attempted to show that the spark and shock obtained from an 
electro-magnet, and which indeed may be obtained from a mere 
heap of wire, are not the spark and shock either of the battery or 
the magnet; that currents cannot circulate perpetually round a mag- 
net, as the magnetism of a bar included in an helix, so far from in- 
creasing the effect of an helix, as it should by its current, may even 
be made totally to prevent it, and ought to do so if it be mere in- 
duced electricity, a supposition strengthened by the otherwise uni- 
versal law of electrical induction. 

He mentioned that he never was able to believe that the effect of a 
galvanic circle was the transmission of electricity from zinc to copper 
in any way, and back along a wire from copper to zinc, since the force 
which drove it through the fluid, an imperfect conductor, ought to 
prevent its return; and that he had frequently tried in vain with se- 
veral pairs of plates, arranged sing/y in galvanic order in waterproof 
cells, separated by glass plates, to deflect a needle. He believed it 
was the arrangement of particles, impossible in insulating substances, 
and not the transmission, which constituted galvanic excitement. 
This supposition of electricity being mere inductive arrangement of 
particles, he believed would unite and explain many different effects ; 
amongst others, the agitation of the muscles of a frog, on breaking 
connection with a single galvanic circle; the danger of discharges 
passing from cloud to cloud, and the shock obtained from a heap of 
wire connected with a galvanic battery of a single circle, 


Ona New Compass Bar, with Illustrations, by means of a recent Instru- 
ment, of the Susceptibility of Iron for the Magnetic Condition. 
Bu the Rev. W. Scoressy, B.D. F.R.S., Corresponding Member 
of the Institute of France, &c. 


Mr. Scoresby first exhibited to the Section a recent instrument 
named a magnetometer, invented by himself in the year 1819-20, for 
measuring minute magnetic attractions, and for finding the dip of 
the needle by the observation of the plane of no-attraction. ‘This 
instrument has its principal recommendation in securing unity of 
character in experiments on the magnetic condition, by enabling the 
experimentalist to try and compare the energy of magnetic bars or 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 29 


needles by the deviations of a compass attached to the instrument, 
under perfectly analogous circumstances, as to the distance and re- 
lative position of the bars and the compass. 

By means of this instrument, the extreme susceptibility of soft 
tron for the magnetic condition, in the small measure of permanency 
belonging to that substance, was exhibited in the case of a cylin- 
drical bar of almost six inches in length and a quarter of an inch in 
diameter. This bar being laid in a groove of the moveable limb of 
the magnetometer, and adjusted in the plane of the magnetic equator, 
was shown to be entirely devoid of action upon the compass needle, 
only 1} inch distance; the bar was then cautiously removed, and, 
whilst held in a vertical position, was merely rubbed down two or 
three times by the naked hand, and then replaced as before on the 
instrument, when it was now found, very much in accordance with 
former experiments, to have acquired magnetism to the extent of 
producing a deviation of 5° on the needle of the contiguous com- 
pass. 

The object of this experiment was to point out the extreme cau- 
tion which is requisite to be observed in the mere moving or handling 
of the substances made use of in delicate magnetical investigations, 
such as the needles employed in experiments on the magnetizing in- 
fluence of the solar rays, since, as was now shown, the slightest 
concussion, or even the friction of the fingers on a bar of iron or 
soft steel favourably situated, may be productive of such striking 
effects. 

Mr. Scoresby’s new magnetical instrument, a compound compass 
needle or bar, was then exhibited to the Section, and its construc- 
tion, adjustments, and capabilities, as far as had hitherto been as- 
certained, were described. The bar, which was sixteen inches in 
length, consisted of six equal and similar plates or ribs of tempered 
steel, placed parallel to each other, but not in contact ; which ribs, 
in this case, were composed of the ordinary steel busks of the shops. 
It was suspended on a point of steel, and its weight partly borne, 
in any required proportion of the whole weight, by a single horse- 
hair (the torsion of which within the limited range of the vibrations 
of the bar was insensible), suspended from a spring fixed on a cross 
bar, supported on pillars, and adjusted in an exact vertical position 
above the centre of suspension. The magnetic position was indi- 
cated by a graduated arch in the top of the instrument, with a ver- 
nier attached to each end of the bar. The principle from which 
this bar was considered to have its superiority over a single bar of 
the same weight and magnitude, was stated to be, that several thin 
bars of tempered steel (tempered throughout the mass) are found to 
have a greater capacity for permanent magnetism than what is af- 
forded by the mere proportional of their mass similarly tempered, 
so that the six tempered bars were capable of receiving a degree of 
magnetic energy considerably greater than it was believed could be 


permanently induced in any single bar of equivalent mass, whatever 


might be its condition as to temper. 


30 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


The author of this communication also mentioned some experi- 
ments illustrative of the general advantage of temper in bars or 
needles in a moderate degree of hardness throughout their length, 
instead of being tempered, as they usually are, both in sea compasses 
and in ordinary magnets, only at the ends. This result, which at 
first sight might seem at variance with those obtained by Captain 
Kater in his laborious investigations for determining the best con- 
struction for sea compasses, the author showed was not inconsistent 
with established principles ; for whilst he admitted the correctness 
of Captain Kater’s conclusion as to the superiority, in point of ori- 
ginal energy, in needles tempered only at the ends, he suggested that 
the ultimate advantage in long voyages, where great permanency 
is requisite, or under circumstances where the permanency of the 
energy is much tried, would probably be found in favour of tem- 
pered needles. At all events, in regard to compound needles and 
compound magnets, the author had abundant experimental evidence 
to prove that a thorough tempering is absolutely necessary for the 
adequate retention of the advantage gained by the combination of 
bars over single bars of equivalent mass. 


Experiments on Terrestrial Magnetic Intensity, especially in relation 
to the Influence of Height. By Professor Fores. 


These experiments were made with Hansteen’s apparatus, the 
property of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, chiefly in the years 
1832 and 1835. ‘The author particularly proposed to himself the 
problem of the influence of height upon intensity, considering the 
observations of Kupffer to be quite inconclusive as well as those of 
preceding experimenters. He showed that by choosing stations at 
considerable elevations, and placed on a ridge so as to have compa- 
ratively low stations on either hand, the influence of geographical 
position in affecting the results may be eliminated ; the intensity at 
the lower level for a point vertically below the elevated station being 
obtained by interpolation, the difference between it and the observed 
intensity may be fairly attributed to the influence of height abstract- 
ing from local disturbing causes. To correct for these, and likewise 
to attain considerable numerical exactness, multiplicity of observa- 
tions is most desirable, nor can any satisfactory result be looked for 
from a single experiment. It appeared from the tables of Professor 
Forbes’s observations in the Alps and Pyrenees, that the sum of the 
heights to which the Hansteen apparatus has been carried by him, 
and which forms the basis of his induction, is more than 160,000 
feet, or 30 vertical miles. 

The author stated that he had not yet submitted his observations 
to one system of calculation from which to deduce the elements of 
disturbance with the greatest accuracy ; but he pointed out from a 
great number of individual observations that had the diminution due 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 31 


to height amounted to anything like that assigned by M. Kupffer, 
it could not have failed to be at once sensible. As it was, until 
those calculations were made he did not see sufficient evidence to 
prove any decided diminution*. 


On the Direction of Isoclinal Magnetic Lines in Yorkshire. By Pro- 
fessor Puiuies. 


Observing with reference to the course of the lines of equal dip on 
the earth’s surface that instances occurred, as for example between 
Ireland and England, of the abrupt flexure or shifting of the lines, 
for which no reason had been assigned, the author proposed to him- 
self to determine in a part of the North of England the exact course 
of the isoclinal lines across a country of very peculiar physical con- 
formation, so as to learn how far flexures and breaks of these lines 
depended on the relative height and mass of elevated land. The 
direction of the principal masses of high ground in Yorkshire is very 
favourable to such an inquiry, because the two great hilly regicns of 
the county are separated from each other by a wide, deep, level 
vale ranging along the actual magnetic meridian; and thus by select- 
ing points in two circles round the city of York as a centre, one 
constant point of reference could easily be had, and the experiments 


repeated as often as needed, in order to test completely the depend- 


ence of the direction of the magnetic lines on the geological and 
geographical configuration of the country. The researches, though 
incomplete, had been carried so far as to give reason to believe that 
across the two hilly regions and intermediate vale in question 
the lines of equal dip were not straight, but bent to the south 
in the vale, and turning up to the north on the hills. Hence 
it would appear that the dip of the needle decreases as we rise 
above the surface of the earth, so as to be well recognised at mode- 
rate heights. The author proposes to complete his observations 
on an extended scale, and to add the results of some other ex- 
periments contemporaneously made as to the lines of equal (total) 
magnetical intensity. 


On the Direction of the Isoclinal Lines in England. 


Professor Luoyp gave a brief account of a series of observations 
on the direction and intensity of the terrestrial magnetic force, 
which he had recently commenced in England. The stations of the 
observations hitherto made extended from the North of Wales to the 


* Since this communication was made the calculatiuns alluded to have been per- 
formed, and from the agreement of different series made with different needles, 
both in the Alps and Pyrenees, the author conceives that he has demonstrated the 
existence of the supposed diminution and approximated to its amount, which is 
usp of the horizontal intensity for every 3000 feet of vertical ascent. 


32 SIXTH REPORT.—1]836. 


Isle of Wight, and it was proposed to extend the series along the 
southern and eastern parts of England. From these observations it 
appeared that the mean direction of the isoclinal lines in England 
differed materially from the direction of the same lines in Ireland. 
In England the mean inclination of these lines to the meridian (as 
deduced from the observations by the method of least squares) ap- 
peared to be about 68°, while the corresponding inclination in Ire- 
land amounted to about 57° only. Professor Lloyd then proceeded 
to state his conviction, that (owing to certain peculiar imperfections 
of the dipping needle) differences of dip at different stations could be 
ascertained with much greater accuracy than the absolute dips them- 
selves ; and consequently that the mean direction of the isoclinal 
lines, which depended on these differences only, could be determined 
with more certainty than their absolute position. In reference to 
this latter point Mr. Fox conceived that his observations warranted 
him in concluding that there existed a dislocation of the lines of equal 
dip in passing from England to Ireland. It remained still, however, 
to be examined whether the results of observation may not be ade- 
quately represented by a bending of the lines, such as that already 
noticed ; and Mr. Lloyd expressed his hope of obtaining a sufficient 
number of observations in other parts of England to throw light 
upon this curious question. 


On the Aurora Borealis. By Wma. Herapatu. 


From observations made on the 18th November, 1835, the author 
was led to entertain a different opinion as to the cause and condition 
of this meteor from that which ascribes it to electrical currents tra- 
versing the aerial or etherial spaces at great heights above the earth’s 
surface. 

‘The phenomena attending the aurora in question were connected 
with the appearance and movement of clouds, and appeared to the 
author to originate in the passage of electricity from a charged cloud 
in the act of resolving in air which can receive the resulting water 
but not the electrical fluid, which consequently while dispersing 
through a rare atmosphere becomes visible to the eye. 


On the Aurora Borealis of 11th August, 1836. By Dr. Trati 


In this aurora a luminous arch, 12° to 15° broad, passed from Co- 
rona Borealis through Ursa Major to Auriga, and consisted of short 
perpendicular cirri or rays, exhibiting the usual fitful horizontal 
movement. Just below it was a dark cloud-like arched mass, whose 
upper limb broke into short perpendicular dark cirri, more stationary 
than the luminous cirri above. Later in the evening a column of 
amethystine light shot up in the E.N.E., relieved on a dark back 
ground, tinged of a faint violet colour. About midnight the arched 


¢ 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. $3 


been of an intense yellow dashed with green, became diffused, and 
threw off luminous portions which passed the zenith. 


Notice of an Instrument to observe minute Changes of Terrestrial 
Magnetism. By W. Errricx. 


The needle, suspended in a glass case by a single fibre or hair, 
bears a graduated card, which is observed by a telescope properly 
adjusted at right angles to its surface. 


i ant ve 
Noiice of a new Rubber for an Electrical Machine. By W. Errnicx. 


On a new Method of Investigating the Specific Heats of Gases. By 
James Apryjoun, M.D., M.R.I.A., Professor of Chemistry in the 
Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland. 

' In the commencement of this communication, which was made orally 
in the Physical Section, Dr. Apjohn drew attention to some prior re- 
searches of his on the same subject, which he had explained at the 
meeting of the British Association held in Dublin. Having established 
(see Notices of Communications made at the Dublin Meeting, p. 27.) 


" 7 48a d pP eo a 
that the formula f” = f’— ery includes the solution of the well- 
known dew-point problem, it follows that a= (f’—f”) x isa x 4 


which expression, when the air is perfectly dry, or, what amounts to 


the same, when f’=0, becomes a = ie x = Hence, if f’ and d be 


determined by observation, that is, if the temperature of air ¢, and 


' the stationary temperature of a wet thermometer immersed in the 


same medium, first brought to a state of perfect desiccation, be ob- 
served, the specific heat of air may be calculated. This formula also, 
as is obvious, is equally true of the other gases, that is, when applied 
to similar observations made upon them, it will give their relative 
specific heats under equal volumes; and such results, it is scarcely 
necessary to say, when divided by the specific gravities, will give the 
specific heats under equal weights. Such, as has been already fully 
explained, was the principle of the method which he had first adopted. 
The numbers, however, in the last column of the table published by 
the British Association, (see Notices of Communications made at the 
Dublin Meeting, p. 32,) are not, as they are represented to be, the 
specific heats of equal weights, but of equal volumes, for the divi- 
sion by the specific gravities had, through hurry, been omitted. Nor 


« f” andf are the respective forces of vapour at the dew-point /”, and ati’, the 
stationary temperature of the wet thermometer: d is the depression of tem- 
perature shown by the latter instrument, e the caloric of elasticity of aqueous 


_ vapour at ?’, a the specific heat of air, p the existing, and 30 the mean 


pressure. 
' vou. v.— 1836. D 


34 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


do the numbers in question correctly represent the specific heats of 
the different gases under equal volumes, as given by his experiments ; 
for being unaware of the omission just alluded to, he had erroneously 
applied to his direct results the correction for the per centage of air as- 
certained by analysis to be present in each gas. The formula, in fact, 
for this correction was contrived for the case of specific heats under 
equal weights, instead of, as it should have been, that of specific heats 
under equal volumes. When this correction is properly made, the ori- 
ginal numbers undergo material modification, as may be seen by in- 
spection of the following table. The original numbers are in column 
2, and the corrected ones in column 3. 


Air 


Nitrogen 


Hydrogen 
Carbonic Oxide 


Carbonic Acid . . 
Nitrous Oxide . 


Upon these results, Dr. Apjohn stated that he never placed much 
reliance. The apparatus employed was very imperfect, particularly in 
not permitting more than a single experiment with the same quantity 
of gas; and he also saw reason to doubt that he had, in every instance, 
by means of it accomplished perfect desiccation. Under these circum- 
stances he had always contemplated returning to the investigation, 
and towards the latter end of last July he did, in fact, commence 
a fresh series of experiments, which were conducted on the following 
plan. : 

A pair of copper gasometers with glass bells, such as are usually 
employed by chemical lecturers, were charged with a proper quantity 
of oil of vitriol instead of water, and placed upon a table, at the di- 
stance of three feet from each other, the brass rods attached to the bells 
being suspended to the extremities of a stout cord passing over a pair 
of runners fixed in the ceiling of the laboratory. Between the lower 
stop-cocks a couple of glass tubes were interposed, connected to the 
stop-cocks by caoutchouc collars, and fitting at their other extremities 
to each other by a tight ground joint. In the longer of these tubes the ~ 
dry thermometer was permanently placed, and into it also the wet one 
was introduced previous to the commencement of an experiment. 
Matters being, we shall suppose, thus prepared, and the unimmer- 
sed bell occupied,—first with atmospherical air,—deprived by the oil of 
vitriol of its moisture, pressure was made upon it by an assistant so as to 
force its contents in a rapid current into the second bell, through the 
tube containing the wet and dry thermometers. During this operation 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. ; 35 


the observer kept his eye, armed with a lens, steadily fixed on the ther- 
mometers, and registered the indications of both as soon as the wet one 
became perfectly stationary. The height of the barometer being now 
taken, the necessary data were obtained for calculating from the hy- 
48 ad 
e 
still existing in the air of the gasometer. The atmospheric air being 
now replaced by some one of the gases, and this being left sufficiently 
long in contact with the oil of vitriol, the manipulations and ob- 
servations just detailed were repeated. This same experiment, with 
sufficient intervals to allow in each instance of maximum desiccation, 
was again and again performed; and it having been ascertained, after 
a considerable number of repetitions, that the results were uniform 
and consistent, and that they might therefore be relied upon, the 
mean of all the observations was taken, and from this the specific heat 
of the gas deduced by means of the formula a = (f’—/f" x a>" 
that value being assigned to f” which resulted from the preliminary 
experiment on atmospherical air. The analysis of the gas was next 
very carefully performed, and it having been ascertained that » volumes, 
ex. gr., of atmospherical air per cent. were present, the proper cor- 


grometric formula f”’=/’ — 


x 5 the elastic force of the vapour 


rection was applied by the formula a’=a+ C— g => in which c =*267 


is the specific heat of air, a’ the true specific heat of the gas, and a the 
specific heat of mixture of gas and air, as previously determined. Such 
was the course pursued in the case of each of the gases submitted to 
experiment, and the following are the final results. The numbers 
represent the specific heats of equal volumes, and, to facilitate com- 
parison, the determinations of Dulong, and those also of De La Roche 
and Berard, are included in the table. 


De La Roche 
and 
Berard. 


Atmospheric Air 
Nitrogen 


Oxygen . 
Hydrogen 


Carbonic Acid . 
Carbonic Oxide 


Nitrous Oxide . 


_ Having stated his numerical results, and given an outline of the 
method of. investigation which conducted to them, Dr. Apjohn con- 
D2 


36 SIXTH /REPORT—1836. 


cluded by giving the leading conclusions which he conceives himself 
justified in deducing from his researches. They are as follows: 

1. That the law so much insisted upon in modern times by Hay- 
erapt, Marcet, and De La Rive, and others, that the simple gases have 
under equal volumes the same specific heat, is not the law of nature. 

2. That the more limited proposition enunciated by Dulong, that 
the simple gases have under a given volume the same specific heat, 
does not appear true in a single instance, and is altogether at variance 
with his (Dr. A.’s) result for hydrogen. 

3. That the numbers at which he (Dr. A.) has arrived, correspond 
tolerably well with those of De la Roche and Berard except in the 
case of hydrogen. 

4. That there does not appear to be any simple relation between the 
specific heats of the gases and their specific gravities or atomic 
weights, and that philosophers in searching for such are probably 
pursuing a chimera. 

A paper on the above subject by Dr. Apjohn will shortly appear in 
the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. 


On the Impermeability of Water to Radiant Heat. By the Rev. B. 
PowE Lt, F.R.S. 


On the Vibration of Bells. By R. Appams. 


On an Improved Ear-trumpet. By Cuarues J. B, WiLiiaMs, 
M.D., F.RS., &c. 


Having lately had occasion to examine the ear-trumpets in common 
use, Dr. W. found them all more or less faulty, especially in that they 
produce confusing noises, like the roaring in large shells, which render 
indistinct the articulate sounds which they are intended to convey. On 
further examination, these disturbing noises were found to consist in: 

1. An exaggeration of all the foreign sounds which may happen to 
accompany the voice, such as the rustling of clothes, reverberations in 
the room, the rolling of carriages out of doors, &c. This defect is ma- 
nifestly as inseparable from all instruments which augment sound, as 
an inefficiency to render distinct an object in a mist is from telescopes. 

2. A sound dependent on the longitudinal vibrations proper to the 
column of air contained in the tube. This sound is the note of the 
instrument as a tube closed at one end, and is therefore deep according 
to its length and the narrowness of its open end. 

3. A sound more or less tinkling or metallic in character, resulting 
from the transverse vibrations which repeated reflections of sound gene- 
rate within hollow bodies, and which constitutes the tinkling note 
produced in the interior of bottles, bladders, and other hollow objects. 
This sound exists especially in those instruments in which sound is 
concentrated by repeated reflection from curvilinear surfaces. 


>) 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 37 


Dr. Williams first endeavoured to diminish these disturbing sounds 
by lateral apertures, which would give exit to the transverse vibra- 
tions; but although this plan succeeded to a certain degree, it caused 
a great loss in the concentrating power of the instrument, the sides of 
which were no longer uniformly reflective. After many other trials, 
Dr. W. succeeded in avoiding the above-named defects to a great 
extent, by combining in an instrument great concentrating power with 
the greatest simplicity of construction. A conical tube 12 or 15 inches 
long, its sides forming an angle of 25°, its apex terminating in a short, 
slightly curved tube adapted to the ear, and its base or open end 
forming an elliptic aperture, the plane of which forms an angle of about 
45° with the axis of the cone, was found to answer best. Such an 
instrument receives the direct waves of sound in so large a body at its 
open end, and concentrates them to its narrow end by so few reflec- 
tions, that the original sound is conveyed, simple and distinct, unmo- 
dified by aberrant vibrations, and greatly increased in intensity. It is 
found to be nearly free from the roar; and it increases the intensity of 
articulate’ sounds to such a degree, that words spoken only just above 
a whisper, could by its aid be distinctly heard at a distance of 50 yards 
during the daytime, and at a much greater distance at night. It 
rendered the tickings of a watch audible at more than three times the 
distance at which they could be heard with the unassisted ear. 

This instrument may be made of tin plate or other light metal, or, 
what is better, fine card-board. For the sake of portability, it may 
be constructed of oiled or gummed silk, folding and unfolding in the 
manner of an umbrella. 


On the higher Orders of Grecian Music. By Samurt Roorsry, M.D. 


That the ancients admitted many primes into their expressions of 
musical intervals is known to the learned, but (the author believes), 
exclusively from the writings of Ptolemy as edited by Dr. Wallis. 

The only three simple and prime ratios admitted by the moderns, are 
the octave 1 : 2, the fifth 2:3, and the major third 4:5. Those systems 
of music of which these form the three bases, the author calls the three 
lowest orders of music, using this term order in the general sense of 
mathematicians; the first being that in which the only perfect interval 
is the octave, the second having the fifths perfect, and the third being 
our ordinary music as improved by the labours of Smith, Liston, Farey, 
Chladni, and others. 

_. The number of small intervals, called semitones, brought into use by 
the adoption of these bases, is seven. 

Besides the above semitones, the ancients used many others which 
Dr. Burney believes are, to modern ears, perfectly intolerable. Some 
of those notes by which these Greek intervals are formed are frequently 
heard upon certain instruments, such as the trumpet; but having a most 
peculiar character, and differing so widely from the notes of the piano 


38 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


forte and organ as now tuned, they are altogether rejected, and pro- 
nounced discordant, although in fact they would occasion no beating in 
an organ perfectly tuned. 

The object of this paper was to show that they are improperly discarded, 
and that as they characterize the sweetest concords, as they are there- 
fore required by the ear, and are constantly practised by the best voices, 
it is worth while to inquire more into the consequence of adopting-them 
wherever it is possible, and of teaching their extensive use in every 
school of Music. 

Plutarch, Boéthius, and all the authors whose writings are collected 
by Meibomius, viz., Aristoxenus, Euclid (Introductio Harmonica), Ni- 
comachus, Alypius, Gaudentius, Bacchius, Aristides, Quintilianus, and 
Martianus Capella, explain none of these higher orders, but Ptolemy in 
his Harmonics proves that Archytas, Eratosthenes, and Didymus, as 
well as himself, used them continually. 

Far from agreeing with Dr. Burney that two tones and two semitones 
are all that are useful, and that eleven ancient intervals are impracticable, 
Dr. Rootsey endeavoured to show that 30 intervals, namely 8 tones and 
22 semitones, are required by a modern ear, and are daily practised on 
the voice and violin; they ought therefore to be universally understood 
and appreciated by all contrapuntists and professors of the science of 
music. 


On Mnemonical Logarithms. By Samuru Rootsey, M.D. 


In this communication the author described and exemplified the use 
of certain low numbers, which serve to compare the simpler ratios with 
sufficient accuracy for many purposes, and thus, when fixed in the 
memory, to supply occasionally the want of a table of logarithms. 


Experiments on the Weight, Height, and Strength of Men at different 
Ages. By Professor Foxsss. 


These experiments, on above 800 individuals, students in the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, were entirely made personally by the author, with 
a view to the extension of M. Quetelet’s general results and to the 
comparison of the physical development of different nations. Of the 
persons measured, (who were chiefly between the ages of 15 and 23,) 
nearly two thirds were natives of Scotland, and in the calculation of 
averages these were kept apart, as were the English and Irish, The 
leading results were these : 

1. The form of the curves indicating the law of development with 
age, remarkably coincide with those of M. Quetelet. The attainment 
of full growth seems (as in his experiments) to be scarcely complete 
even at the age of 25. t 

2. The development of the Scotch in the particulars of weight, height, 


Peay 


le ee 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 39 


and strength seems much greater than that of the Belgians (taken from 
persons of a similar class). 

3. So far as the limited results for the English and Irish are worthy 
of confidence, (and they agree in all the three particulars just specified,) 
the English are less developed than the Scotch, but more than the 
Belgians,—the Irish more developed than either. 

4. The mean weight, height, and strength of a Scotchman 25 years 
of age appears to be (from above 500 experiments used in approxi- 
mating to the curve), weight 152-5lbs., height 69°3 inches, strength of 
muscles of the back by Regnier’s dynamometer 420lbs. 


The Rev. W. WueweE yt gave a further account of his Anemometer, 
previously exhibited and described by him, the instrument being now 
completed and put in operation. It consists of a small wind wheel, (like 
a windmill with eight sails,) which is kept towards the wind by a vane. 
The rapid rotation of the wheel is, by a train of toothed wheels and 
screws, converted into a slow vertical motion, which carries a pencil 
downwards, tracing a line on the surface of a vertical cylinder, having 
the axis of the vane for its axis. The extent of vertical motion shows 
the amount of the wind, and the part of the circumference of the cy- 
linder on which the trace lies, shows the direction. 

The observation is made by clamping the vane, so that a vertical scale 
(of tenths of an inch) coincides with the mean direction of the trace ; 
the amount of wind may then be read off on the scale, and the direction 
on a circle of the cylinder. 

Mr. Whewell proposed that the wind should be registered by writing 
the directions of the compass which it successively assumed, and beneath 
each direction the amount of wind in that direction shown by the scale. 
Thus : 

The observations in July, 1836, were 


July 1. S.E. S.E. by E. 8.S.E. 
12 4 


4 

i Beat.b Bo: 

6 

W.S.W 

ashing 
nthe 28 
— 5. S.E.byS 

22 
— 6. SE.byE. S.byE. 

10 8 


But the common notation for the points of the compass is incon- 
yenient, from its not showing at once the relation between the different 
directions. Mr. Whewell proposes the following notation : 


40 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


N. N.E, E, 8.E. s. s.w. w. NW. N. 
N.N.E. E.N.E. E.S.E. SS.E. SS.W. Ws. W. W.N.W. N.N. W. 


N.by E. E,by N. E.byS. S.by E. S.by W. W.byS. W.by N. N. by W. 
Foatin 
N.E. by N. N.E.by E, S.E. by E, S.E. by S, S.W.byS. S.W. by W. N.W. by W. N.W. by N. 


spain ofl Weps Nyse aif sone AO 


It was also proposed that the wind thus registered should be denoted 
in another manner, for the purpose of showing the combined result of 
the wind of a considerable period, as a year. This is to be done by be- 
ginning from a point in a plane (as a sheet of paper) on which the di- 
rections of the compass are supposed to be represented ; then, drawing 
a line in the direction of the first wind, and of a length proportional to 
the quantity of wind; from the extremity of this line, drawing another 
in the direction of this wind and proportional to its quantity ; “from the 
extremity of this another, and soon. The broken line thus obtained 
will represent the course of the wind for the whole time. 

If the course of the wind be thus represented for a year, and then for 
another year, and so on, there will be a general resemblance among the 
lines so drawn, because we have, in general, the same winds at the 
same seasons. The curve line which is the mean of all these lines, or 
from which they may all be considered as slight deviations, may be 
called the annual type of the wind. It is very different in different places, 
as has been observed by writers on meteorology (Kamtz and others). 
But there has hitherto been no means of obtaining this course with any 
degree of correctness, for want of an instrument which could register 
at the same time the direction and amount of the wind. By means of 
the present instrument, it is conceived that this difficulty is, in a great 
measure, overcome. 

One of Mr. Whewell’s anemometers is erected at Cambridge, and 
will be observed regularly. Another will be erected at York, and another 
at Plymouth ; and the observations will be communicated to the ensuing 
Meetings of the Association. 

It is very desirable that instruments of the same  ehitetatittal’ and 
the same scale, should be erected and observed at other places. Mr. 
Whewell offers all the assistance in his power to those who are willing 
to construct and employ this instrument, 


MS mgr er 


a 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 4] 


On the Connexion of the Weather with the Tide. By G. Wess Hatt. 


From long observations in the vicinity of Bristol, the author has in- 
ferred the following laws of phenomena there occurring. 

1. The barometer generally undulates at times corresponding with 
the changes of the moon, and more frequently sinks than rises. 

2. The weather is generally unsettled at these periods, continuing 
so for about two days; high winds also prevail. 

3. The weather, having become determinate after such unsettled state, 
retains the character which it assumes till the next change of the moon. 

4. ‘These variations are found to obtain, not only at the full and new 
moon, but at the quarters. 

5. The period from whence the weather assumes a determinate cha- 
racter is coincident with the occurrence of spring and neap tides. 


On Lucas’s Method of Printing for the Blind, By Rev. L. Cagrenrer*. 


On the Ratio of the Resistance of Fluids to the Velocity of Waves. By 
J.S. Russexy, Esq.t 


Calculus of Principal Relations. By Professor Sir W. R. Hamutron. 


The method of principal relations is an extension of that mode of 
analysis which Sir William Hamilton has applied before to the sciences 
of optics and dynamics ; its nature and spirit may be understood from 
the following sketch. 

Let ,, 2, .. z, be any number 2 of functions of any one independ- 
ent variable s, with which they are connected by any one given differ- 
ential equation of the first order, but not of the first degree, 


RAS (55) ¥i,.-,-j Poe AS Oe... AZ), (1) 
and also by 2 — 1, other differential equations, of the second order, to 


which the calculus of variations conducts, as supplementary to the given 
equation (1), and which may be thus denoted: . 
fa@)=df' @2)_ if @)—afids),  @ 
J' (dx) J’ (d2,) d 
Let, also, a,, .. @, be the n initial values of the 2 functions z,,.: z,, 
and let a',, .. a’, be the z initial values of their n derived functions or 
dz 


differential coefficients z', ee te ee o, corresponding to any 


_ assumed initial value a of the independent variable z. If we could in- 


tegrate the system of the x differential equations (1) and (2), we should 
thereby obtain z expressions for the z functions 2,,.. 2z,, of the forms 


* In consequence of the request made to the Rev. William Taylor to complete a Ge- 
neral Report on the processes of Printing for the Blind, it has been deemed unneces- 


_ Sary to give an unconnected abstract of Mr. Lucas’s ingenious researches. 


+ The Author is engaged in special researches to complete his views on the subject of 
Waves, at the request of the Asscciation. 


42 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


®, = 9, (8, a, a, .. a, a',,.. a’,), \ 
Pn = Oy (S, A, ,,.. Aq, a, .. a',); 
and, by the help of the initial equation analogous to (1), might then 
eliminate a’,, .. a',, and deduce a relation of the form 
O= W (8, 2, .... Lar, Gs... Gy); (4) 
that is, a relation between the initial and final values of the x + 1 con- 
nected variables s, 2,,..,. Reciprocally, the author has found that if 
this one relation (4) were known, it would be possible thence to deduce 
expressions for the n sought integrals (3) of the system of the n differen- 
tial equations (1) and (2), or for the » sought relations between 
S, 2,,..@,, and a, a,,..a,, a@',, .. a',, however large the number zn may 
be; in such a manner that all these many relations (8) are implicitly 
contained in the one relation (4), which latter relation the author pro- 
poses to call on this account the principal integral relation, or simply, 
the PRINCIPAL RELATION, of the problem. 
for he has found that the n following equations hold good, 


F¥' (ds) no @2)_ _f' (day) (5) 
Ys) Y@) W(@n) ’ 
which may be put under the forms 


a, = 6, G, 8) By os Fy 8,5 <2 e's \ 


(3) 


as ie (6) 
An = Pn (A, 8, Ly, .. Lay Zh, .. Xn), 
and are evidently transformations of the 2 sought integrals (8). 
And with respect to the mode in which, without previously effecting 
the integrations (3), it is possible to determine the principal relation 
(4), or the principal function which it introduces, when it is conceived 
to be resolved, as follows, for the originally independent variable s, 
EE IY I BT I) (7) 
the author remarks that a partial differential equation of the first order 
may be assigned, which this principal function ¢ must satisfy, and also 
an initial condition adapted to remove the arbitrariness which otherwise 
would remain. In fact the equations (5) may be thus written, 
dds _ as dds ds (8) 
DeNAEE ccichas hace 
in which 
dds___f' (dx) Dieu y Ley 
Pee Gey Te eee 9) 
and since, by (1), there subsists a known relation of the form 
dds dds 
Fda; Tae i 
the following relation also must hold good, 
ds ds 
sts 11 
Ta Tae (11) 
that is, the principal function ¢ must satisfy the following partial differ- 
ential equation of the first order, 


Pe Ce ee Pe 


0 FF (85.2 y5.0)1Bys 


' 


—_ 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 45 
epg (¢. #, (nm & By)> 5° P (@)) : (12) 
it must also satisfy the following initial condition, 
‘o = lim. f (4, G,,.. Ons @ — A, Ly — Qj, +. Py — Ay)- (13) 


s=a 
Such are the most essential principles of the new method in analysis 
which Sir William Hamilton has proposed to designate by the name of 
the Method of Principal Relations, and of which, perhaps, the simplest 
type is the formula 
dds _Ss 
de ox 
to be interpreted like the equations (8). 
The simplest example which can be given, to illustrate the meaning 
and application of these principles, is, perhaps, that in which the dif- 
ferential equations are 


o= (=) 4 -(S)- 2 1 


(14) 


and 
ddz, _d dit (2 
dz, Cass 
Here, ordinary integration gives 
t,=a,+ a, (s—a), %,=a,+ a, (s—a); (3) 


and consequently conducts to the following relation, (in this case the 
principal one,) 


o = (x, — @,)* + (x, — a,)* — (s — a)', (4)’ 


‘or 


saat V (x, —4,)* + @ — a)% (7)' 
Renice: by (1)’, we have 
a? +ai=1; 
it enables us therefore to verify the relations (8), or (14), for it gives 
CS Piping? O Liyd 0.8.8 
da, s—a ds dda,’ 
and, in like manner, 


ds _ dds 
da, Odxy 
Reciprocally, in this example, the following known relation, deduced 
from (1)’, 
Sds éds ; 
= 10 
a (saz, iz) + (Fas =) 7 (10) 


would have given, by the principles of the new method, this partial dif- 
ferential equation of the first order, 


44. SIXTH REPORT—1836, 


ed Ge cuny 


which might have been used, in conjunction with the initial condition 


= lim. zt, — a, aes) ae , 
wea G=t) +#(G=4) i}, (13) 
to determine the form (7)’ of the principal function s ; and thence might 
have been deduced, by the same new principles, the ordinary integrals 
(3)’, under the forms 
a,=2,+a,(a—s),a,=2,+ a, (a—S). (6)' 

In so simple an instance as this, there would be no advantage in using 
the new method; but in a great variety of questions, including all those 
of mathematical optics, and mathematical dynamics, (at least, as those 
sciences have been treated by the author of this communication ,) and 
in general all the problems in which it is required to integrate those 
systems of ordinary differential equations (whether of the second or 
of a higher order) to which the calculus of variations conducts, the 
method of principal relations assigns immediately a system of finite 
expressions for the integrals of the proposed equations, an object 
which can only very rarely be attained by any of the methods known 
before. It seems, for example, to be impossible, by any other method, 
to express rigorously, in finite terms, the integrals of the differential 
equations of motion of a system of many points, attracting or repelling 
one another ; which yet was easily accomplished by a particular appli- 
cation of the general principles that have been here explained*. ‘The 
author hopes to present these principles in a still more general form 
hereafter. 


CHEMISTRY. 


On the Chemical Nomenclature of Berzelius. By R. Hare, M.D., Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, 


Berzelius has divided those bodies which by union with a radical 
produce salts, and those which are capable of entering into saline com- 
binations both as acids and bases, into two classes, designated as Halo- 
gen and Amphigen. Dr. Hare stated his objections to this classification, 
remarking especially on the ambiguity of the terms salts, acids, and 
bases. He would distinguish all electro-negative compounds by sub- 
joining the termination acid, and all electro-positive compounds, formed 
either by halogen or amphigen bodies, by subjoining the termination base, 
and confine the use of the termination ide to those compounds of which 
the electrical habitudes are indeterminate : he proposed to substitute 
the terms chlorohydric, sulphohydric, &c., for hydrochloric and other 
analogous words ; and on this point stated that the opinion of Berzelius 
coincides with his own. 


*See Philosophical Transactions for 1834 and 1835; also, Report of Edinburgh 
Meeting of the British Association. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. ADS 


On a‘ Calorimotor for Igniting Gases in Eudiometrical Experiments, and 
Gunpowder in Rock-blasting. By R. Harz, M.D. 


This is a galvanic instrument of two pairs, for producing ignition at 
a distance from the apparatus : when it is an object to produce ignition 
at a greater distance, Dr. Hare resorts to analogous apparatus of larger 
size and consisting of four pairs. 

By means of potassium ignited by this instrument, Dr. Hare has 
been enabled extemporaneously to evolve silicium or boron from fluo-si- 
licic or fluo-boric acid gas. 

He has also been enabled to explode gunpowder at a great distance. 
In one instance, twelve charges had been exploded at 150 feet from the 
calorimotor employed. 

A projector of the name of Shaw had attempted to effect the explo- 
sion of gunpowder by means of the Leyden jar, for the purpose of rock 
blasting, but finding mechanical electricity too precarious, had applied 
to Dr. Hare for means of rendering his process more certain, and this 
had led to the following contrivance. ‘Two iron wires of about the 
size No. 40, and one of the finest kind were twisted together, and the 
larger afterwards nipped, so as to leave a small portion of the fine wire 
uncut between their nipped extremities. All the wires were secured 
in a saw kerf in a piece of hard wood, having a small hole filled witha 
fulminating powder, consisting of arsenic and chlorate of potash, 
through which the fine wire passed. The powder was secured by paper 
pasted on by means of gum arabic. One termination of the twisted 
wire was soldered to a dish of tinned iron, by which the lower end of 
a tube of the same material was closed. The tube being then filled 
with gunpowder was closed by a cock, through which the upper end 
of the twisted wire was made to pass. To the outside of the tin tube 
astrip of metal or a wire was soldered. By connecting these wires 
with the poles of a calorimotor, ignition of the gunpowder in the tube 
might be effected at every distance, or in any situation, and as well 
under water as above it. 

Many accidents had happened in the ordinary mode of blasting, beri 
causes which could not be operative in the use of the means above de- 
scribed. The principal source of danger is the liability of the gunpowder 
to explode during the ramming of it into the perforated rock, or before 
the workmen had time to get out of the way. 

In Dr. Hare’s method, the gunpowder being inclosed in a metallic 
tube previously to its introduction into a perforated rock, is not liable 
to ignition from the process of ramming. 

Dr. Hare conceives that the intervention of the fulminating powder 
would greatly accelerate the combustion, and of course increase the 
force of the explosion. ; 


46 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


On the Aqueous Sliding-rod Hydrogen Eudiometer. By R. Harr, M.D. 


In this instrument measurements are effected by the ingress or re- 
gress of a graduated rod pressing air-tight through a collar of leather 
into a copper tube, at the extremity of which a glass receiver is situated. 
This receiver terminates in an apex, with a capillary opening, which is 
closed by a valve at the end of a lever actuated by aspring, when the 
effect of the latter is not counteracted by the hand. The cavity of the 
instrument being filled with water, and being perfectly air-tight, if the 
rod be withdrawn to any sensible extent, while the orifice at the apex 
of the receiver is closed, a vacuum ensues ; but if that orifice be open 
the resulting vacuity becomes filled with the air, or with any other gas 
by which it may be surrounded. 

To analyse the air, it is only necessary to take into the receiver, in 
the first instance, one hundred measures of that fluid, and then intro- 
ducing the apex into a bell glass containing hydrogen, to draw into the 
receiver about fifty measures or more of this gas. By means of an arch 
of platina wire within the receiver, so situated as to become the me- 
dium of a galvanic discharge, the gaseous mixture being inflamed, and 
all the oxygen, with twice its bulk of the hydrogen, consequently con- 
densed, on introducing the instrument into water, so that the apex 
may be just below the surface, the deficit produced by the combustion 
is replaced by water; and hence, on returning the rod carefully only 
so far as to expel the residual gas, the number of graduations which 
remain without the tube indicates the extent of the condensation. Of 
this, one third is due to oxygen. 


Dr. Hare also exhibited some volumeters, or volume measures, by 
which equal volumes of a gas may be taken with great accuracy. 

By means of one of these instruments a mixture of one part of hy- 
drogen and two of air being introduced into a bell over the pneumatic 
trough, on taking into the eudiometer 150 measures, and proceeding as 
already described, the same results may be obtained, and perhaps with 
more accuracy. 

As the pressure of the spring upon the valve, through the medium 
of the lever, is not sufficient to resist the force of the explosion, the in- 
strument is furnished with a kind of staple, moving on a hinge, and 
furnished with a screw. By these means the valve is firmly held in its 
place as long as is requisite, and afterwards easily released by relaxing 
the pressure of the screw and moving the staple on its hinge, so as to 
get it out of the way of the lever, of which the extremity bearing the 
valve is then easily raised by the pressure of the hand. 

The average results of some hundreds of experiments performed by 
Dr. Hare with various instruments, as well as with that above described, 
would lead to the conclusion that the quantity of oxygen in 100 mea- 
sures of air is 20,66,. 


Dr. Harz also presented to the Members of the Chemical Section 
printed copies of a series of essays, not yet published, on different 
subjects of chemical and electrical science, and descriptive of various 
improvements in philosophical apparatus. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 47 


Electrical Experiments. By AnvRrEew Crosse, Esq. 


Mr. Crosse gave an account of some experiments which he had made 
on the effect of long-continued galvanic action of low intensity in 
forming crystals and other substances analogous to natural minerals. 
At the time when he first commenced these experiments he had not 
heard of those by which M. Becquerel had previously arrived at similar 
results. A few weeks afterwards he was informed by a friend that that 
philosopher had produced sulphurets of lead and silver by electric ac- 
tion, but his account of the mode of conducting his experiments had 
not been seen by Mr. Crosse. ‘‘ It is but due to myself,” Mr. Crosse 
adds, ‘‘to mention that. I attended the meeting at Bristol without the 
least intention of intruding on the notice of the Association, well know- 
ing how incomplete my experiments were ; and had it not been for the 
advice of some friends whom I met there, I should not have presumed 
to offer any communication till I had gone further into the matter.” 

Mr. Crosse stated that by passing a galvanic current from batteries 
with various combinations of plates excited by water only, through so- 
lutions of carbonate of lime, he obtained rhomboidal crystals of that 
substance deposited round the negative pole. Having in oneof these ex- 
periments kept a piece of scouring brick moistened with the solution for 
four or five months, at the expiration of that time he found very fine 
prismatic crystals (which he took for arragonite) deposited on that part 
of the brick which lay contiguous to, without actually touching, the 
positive pole, whilst what he considered as common carbonate of lime 
was confined to the negative pole. Ina similar experiment made on 
fluo-silicic acid, after a deposit of lead at the negative pole, minute 
erystals, which he considered as siliceous, made their appearance at the 
extremity of the deposit of lead, and, on the removal of the lead, at the 
positive pole: a crystal which was a transparent hexahedral prism ter- 
minated with a similar pyramid, but which however was too soft to 
scratch glass, was removed at the end of two or three months from the 
bottom of the piece of brick; a second, well-formed crystal, measuring 
7; of an inch in length by ;; in breadth, after being put in a dry place 
for one or two months, scratched glass readily. Mr. Crosse made simi- 
lar experiments on solutions of silicate of potash and obtained imperfect 
hexahedral crystallizations, which he judged to be siliceous, and in some 
instances chalcedonic deposits. The following is a list of mineral sub- 
stances which he considered himself to have formed by electrical action 
in addition to those above-mentioned :—Red oxide of copper in octa- 
hedrons opake and transparent, crystals of copper and silver in cubes 
and octahedrons, crystallized arseniate and carbonate of copper, phos- 
phate and grey sulphuret of ditto, sulphuret of silver, crystallized 
carbonate of lead, yellow oxide of lead, mammillated carbonate of lime, 
oxide of lime, mammillated black oxide of iron, sulphuret of iron, sul- 
phuret of antimony (Kermes mineral), crystallized sulphur. 

Between three and four years ago Mr. Crosse made a set of experi- 
ments on the voltaic battery, and found the power to be considerably 
increased when each copper plate of the one pair was brought into all- 


48 . SIXTH REPORT.— 1836. 


but contact with the zinc plate of the other pair, but that the insulation 
of each separate pair of plates was of still greater efficacy. He put 
together 1200 pairs of zinc and copper cylinders on this plan,.- filled 
with water alone, and found the effects as follow: the average size of 
the cylinder being about equal to a four-inch plate, four pairs com- 
municate a charge to an electrical battery sufficient to cause iron wire 
barely to scintillate, and will just decompose water; 100 pairs cause 
the gold leaves of an electrometer to diverge 4 of an inch ; 200 pairs 
open the same 2 of an inch; 300 pairs cause the same to strike their 
sides, and fire gunpowder placed loosely on a brass plate, the opposite 
poles being connected. with an electrical battery ; 500 pairs give a smart 
shock, fire gunpowder readily, give a visible stream of fire to the dry 
fingers, and cauterize the skin as though with a red-hot wire; 1200 pairs 
being connected with an electrical battery fuze the point of a penknife, 
deflagrate brilliantly metallic leaves, tin-foil, and even stout silver 
sheeting, &c., &c. Mr. Crosse hes used a battery of this kind for 
eighteen months without any sensible diminution of power. These bat- 
teries are well calculated for electrical crystallization, and from ten to 
fifty pairs of insulated cylinders Mr. Crosse thinks would answer every 
purpose of that sort. 

Another subject noticed by Mr. Crosse was atmospheric electricity ; 
he has for many years paid considerable attention to this part of the 
science, and taken great pains in extending on lofty poles and insulating 
with all possible care a copper wire 54, of an inch diameter and 300 
feet long. The experiments made with this resemble in general those 
made on a smaller scale by other experimenters. Mr. Crosse considers 
a thunder cloud to be divided into zones of alternate positive and nega- 
tive electricity. It appears to him that a nucleus is first formed of one 
electricity, then a layer or zone of the opposite, and so on weaker and 
weaker to the circumference. There are occasionally electric fogs nearly 
as powerful as a small thunder cloud. Mr. Crosse has known during five 
hours a stream of alternate positive and negative electricity pour from the 
atmospherical conductor during a fog, and driving rain sufficient to fuze 
a considerable length of strong wire. These electrical fogs appear to be 
composed of alternate positive and negative columns. 


Remarks on the Results of some Experiments on the Phosphate and Pyro- 
Phosphate of Soda. By Henry Hover Warson. 


Mr. Watson's attention having been drawn to the discordant state- 
ments given by different authors of the proportions of acid and base in 
the salt called phosphate of soda, viz., in the dry state, he Was induced 
to investigate the subject by experiment. On putting to the test the 
experiment which Dr. Thomson gives, page 199, vol. i. First Prin- 
ciples of Chemistry, of mixing a solution of 7°5 grains of anhydrous 
phosphate of soda with one of 20°75 grains of crystals of nitrate of lead, 
the result was not an entire decomposition of each salt, but a little of 
the nitrate of lead remained undecomposed. 


| 


Pe 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 49 


Having exposed a quantity of gradually dried phosphate of soda to a 
bright red heat, he weighed out 30 grains while nearly red hot, dis- 
solved it in water, and added to it a solution of 83 grains of crystals 
of nitrate of lead,—proportions equivalent to those which Dr. Thom- 
son used, and half the numbers which are generally used to indicate 
the atomic weights. The mixture was well agitated; a precipitate 
of phosphate of lead formed, which was washed, dried, exposed to a 
low red heat, and weighed ; the liquor from which it was separated gave 
a precipitate of sulphate of lead by the addition of sulphate of potash. 
The mean of four nearly agreeing experiments gave phosphate of lead 
66:96 grains, and sulphate of lead 4°42 grains. Now 4°42 sulphate of 
lead = 4°82 nitrate of lead ; and 83 — 4°82 = 78°18 nitrate of lead 
spent in producing the precipitate of phosphate. 

The acid in 78:18 nitrate of lead being capable of neutralizing 15-07 
soda, and the liquor when freed from lead by sulphate of potash being 
neutral to the litmus test, it follows that 30 grains of anhydrous pyro- 
phosphate of soda are constituted of 15°07 soda and 14°93 acid; and 
the atomic weight of soda being 32, that of the acid in pyrophosphate 
of soda must be 31-7. 

One hundred grains of the crystals of the ordinary phospate of soda, 
by being placed under the exhausted receiver of an air-pump with a ves- 
sel of sulphuric acid, are reduced to 39°65 grains; and the residue, by 
exposure to a red heat, is reduced to 37:1 grains. From this and the 
result of the above-mentioned experiments Mr. Watson infers that the 
quantity of soda in 100 grains of crystals of the ordinary phosphate is 
18°63 grains, and that the quantity of acid is 18°47 grains. 

Mr. Watson having decomposed both the ordinary uncalcined phos- 
phate of soda and the pyrophosphate with lime water, found thatthe quan- 
tity of lime which sufficed to saturate a proportion of the latter was not 
sufficient to saturate a corresponding proportion of the former. From 
this and other circumstances of the analysis Mr. Watson is led to sus- 
pect that the phosphate of soda when dried as much as possible in the 
exhausted receiver is rendered anhydrous, and that when afterwards 
exposed to a red heat a partial decomposition of the acid takes place ; 


and this opinion he thinks strengthened by the consideration that 


though no gas, nor anything but water, can be collected in converting 
the phosphate into pyrophosphate, a peculiar burnt smell is given out; 
and if the calcination of the salt (it having been previously dried gra- 
dually) be effected in a glass tube, the salt may be observed to acquire 
a carbonaceous tinge during the operation, which, however, vanishes 
by a continuation or perhaps rather an increase of the heat. He 
also adds, that though it has been asserted that a solution of the pyro- 
salt becomes changed, by keeping, into the ordinary phosphate, such 
has not been the case with a solution which he has kept from the 14th 
December, 1835, till now, in order to prove the fact ; for it still conti- 
nues to give a precipitate as perfectly white with nitrate of silver as it 
did when newly prepared. 

- Mr. Watson adds that there is a peculiar difference in appearance 
between the calcined precipitate obtained from the pyrophosphate and 
lime water, and the calcined precipitate obtained from the ordinary phos- 

VoL. v.— 1836. E 


2 
50 SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


phate and lime water. Both precipitates are white when dried as much 
as possible at a low temperature ; but that from the pyrophosphate 
becomes black if exposed to a red heat, while the other by the same 
treatment retains its whiteness. 

When in the course of these experiments crystals were the subject of 
operation, Mr. Watson took care to use such as were neither damp nor 
effloresced. To manage this he powdered a quantity of large crystals, 

~and then intimately mixed them with so much water as rendered them 
decidedly damp ; he then spread them very thinly over a flat surface in 
aroom where the force of vapour in the atmosphere was not so much as 
0:15 of an inch of mercury less than it would have been if the atmo- 
sphere was saturated with vapour, and left them in that state until they 
discontinued to lose weight, an atmosphere of this drying power being 
imeapable of depriving the salt of any of its water of crystallization. 


Extracts from a Paper “ on Important Facts obtained Mathematically from 
Theory, embracing most of those experimental results in Chemistry, 
which are considered as ultimate facts.” By Tuomas Extzy, A.M. 


Mr. Exley observed that his object was to place chemistry under the 
domain of mathematical science, and to establish a new theory by 
legitimate but easy calculations. 

The principles of the theory are: 1. That every atom of matter con. 
sists ofan indefinitely extended sphere of force, varying inversely as the 
square of the distance from the centre; and that this force acts towards 
the centre and is called attraction at all distances except in a small 
concentric sphere, in which it acts from the centre and is called re- 
pulsion. 

2. That there is a difference in atoms arising from a difference in 
their absolute forces, or in the radii of their spheres of repulsion, or in 
both these. 

The attraction is the same as that of gravitation in the theory of 
Newton or that of Boscovich ; but in both these theories, where gravita- 
tion ends a series of alternations of attraction and repulsion varying by 
unknown laws commences; Newton closes with a solid, Boscovich with 
a sphere of repulsion varying inversely as the distance. Mr. Exley con- 
siders that his theory differs in every particular from both these in the 
spaces where chemistry and its connate sciences are concerned, and 
does not like them launch into the regions of conjecture. 

The first principle, as far as regards the attraction, is really true in 
nature ; nothing in physics is better established. It is equally certain 
from pheenomena that there is some repulsion near the centre of atoms ; 
the law of its variation has not been determined, but the order of na- 
ture, the inductive procedure, obliges us, in the absence of every con- 
tradictory phenomenon, to continue the law of gravitation. As well may 
we contend that there is no force of gravitation in spaces where no 
particular observaticns have been made, as to say that the same force 
does not exist in the sphere of repulsion, in the law of force—in the 
quantity of force, there is no violation of the law of continuity ; the di- 
rection only changes per saltum, which is quite as easy to conceive as a 


7A 


TRANSAGTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 51 


change by continuous degrees, as Newton and Boscovich suppose, and 
which breaks the continuity in the law of force. 

The second principle is, the author thinks, as simple and as natural as 
can well be conceived, and an evident result from phenomena and the 
first principle. 

It was stated in a treatise lately published by the author, that nature 
presents two classes of atoms, the one comprehending ponderable matter, 
such as oxygen, carbon, &c., which adhering with great tenacity may be 
called tenacious atoms (tilla better name be found). The other consists 
of atoms which manifest their existence by motions and _actions under a 
form which has been called zthereal ; hence they may be denominated 
zthereal atums ; they comprehended the electric fluid, caloric, and light. 

In the same work the atoms of the electric fluid were considered as 
having a much greater absolute force than those of caloric and light. 
This has been confirmed by subsequent’observations, entitling the elec- 
tric atoms to the rank of an intermediate class, so that we may distin- 
guish atoms into three classes, tenacious, electric, and ethereal, not dif- 
fering in nature but only by a marked difference in their absolute 

force. Of the Ist and 3rd classes there are many sorts, but of the 
electric fluid probably only one sort. 

The weights of the other atoms used in this paper are taken from 
Dr. Thompson’s determinations. Respecting carbon, whose weight, 
according to Dr. Thompson, is 12 (taking oxygen 16), and according 
to Berzelius it is 124, the specific gravities are calculated on both sup- 
positions, and then compared with those ag) by experiment in the 
following table : 


nema th Al Gekieelwinitchl Genet) cic TT 
Atomic, Isp. Gr. by ies Gr. by 


Name. Weight} cal. exper, Authority. 
|Carbonic Oxide....| 12 | -9721| -9732 Thenard and Berzelius, mean, 
} 124} +9895 Lst,-0011 in defect; 2nd,-0163 excess. 
| Carbonic Acid. ....| 12 |1-5277] 1°5213|Thenard and Gay Lussac, mean, ' 
123] 1:5451 Ist, 0064 excess ; 2nd, ‘0238 excess. 
Light Carburetted| 12 | -5555| *5590|Dr. ‘Thompson. 


}|__Hydrogen...... 121] -5728 Ist, -0035 defect ; 2nd, -0138 excess. 
filcohol;......... 12 Ee 15972 1:6133 Gay Lussac. 
123] 1°6319 Ist, "0161 defect ; 2nd, -0186 excess. 
Atherine........| 12 | 1°9444] 1-9100|Dr. Faraday. 
124/ 1°9791 Ist, -0344 excess ; 2nd, :0691 excess. 
‘ panther teehee 12 2°5694!) 2°5830 Gay Lussac and Desprez, mean. 
12} | 2°6388 Ist, ‘0136 defect ; 2nd, ‘0588 excess. 
12 |2°84792/ 2°8330|Saussure. 
121) 2-§993 Ist, ‘0142 excess ; 2nd, ‘0663 excess. 
~12 [44444] 4-5280|Dumas. 
hea 4-5312 Ist, (0836 defect ; 2nd, 0032 excess. 
.--| 12 | 6°6666| 6-741 |Dumas. 
123} 69270 Ist, 0074 defect ; 2nd, -1860 excess. 
. seeeeee-| 12 | 47222) 4°7670}/Dumas. 
’ 124| 4:8090 Ist, 0848 defect ; 2nd, -0420 excess. 
EQ 


52 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


The author assigns reasons for adopting 16 as the atomic weight of 
oxygen, when that of hydrogen is taken = 1. 

It is seen that the calculated specific gravity exceeds that found by 
experiment in three of the ten compounds even when carbon is 12; in 
all cases there is an excess when 124 is used; and except in naphthaline 
the defect is always much less than the excess, which gives the prefer- 
ence to 12 for the atomic weight of carbon. 

The author next proceeds to deduce from the theory important facts 
which are already known to chemists as ultimate results of their expe- 
riments. ‘These are embodied in eight propositions with corollaries, of 
which the last is here given. 

Prop. 8. Taking each elementary atom as representative of a volume, 
then in all strictly chemical combinations, that is, whenever there is a 
condensation, the resulting volume is always, without exception, either 
one or two volumes exactly. Since after combination the volume is 
diminished, the centre of some atom, or those of several atoms, have 
penetrated the atmospherule of some other (prop. 3 and cors.) 

1. When the atmospherule of one atom or single group is penetrated 
by the centres of all the others, the result is a single group, (def. 1.) and 
consequently (prop. 3, cor. 1) the result will be one volume exactly. 

2. When the atmospherule is not penetrated by all the centres of 
the others, then one or more of the atoms will be brought by their mu- 
tual actions to the interval between the two remaining atoms, or single 
groups, which combine, and thus situated, will (prop. 3, cor. 3) supply 
the effect of the zthereal matter, which it displaces; hence the whole 
will form a double group, and (same cor.) will become two volumes 
exactly. 

3. When one atom or single group combines with a double group, 
the centres of the combining atoms will penetrate the atmospherule of 
the double group, otherwise there would be only cohesive combination ; 
hence the compound will continue a double group, and form two volumes 
(prop. 3, cor. 3), except when the mutual actions bring all the centres 
within the sphere of repulsion of one of them, thus constituting one 
volume (prop. 3, cor. 1). Hence still we shall have either a single or 
double group, and itis, from this, evident that no other case can occur ; 
therefore the resulting volume will be always exactly one or two, how- 
ever many volumes combine. 

Cor. This prop. embraces, simplifies, and extends the theory of 
volumes. 

Having deduced this remarkable law from theory, it became import- 
ant to know if such an unexpected result be true in fact or not. To 
determine this point Mr. Exley carefully examined all the compound 
gases and vapours, whose specific gravities had been obtained by expe- 
riment, as far as he could find them in the best authors. These, to the 
amount of fifty-seven, are inserted in the following table. The specific 
gravities are calculated according to this law, from the atomic weights 
as given by Dr. Thompson, doubling some of his numbers to correspond 
with oxygen 16, and in every instance they agree within the allowable 
limits of unavoidable errors in experiments of that kind, except in boro- 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 55 


chloric acid, which, says Dr. Thompson, requires further investigation, 
and a small discrepancy in oil of turpentine, a substance difficult to 
procure in a perfect state. 


Table of the varieties of Chemical Compounds, with their Elements 
and Specific Gravities in the form of Gas or Vapour. 


1. Cohesive Combinations. 


S g eZ Seti Gravity, 
: es =1. 
Name, Nos, and Weights of Elements. £3 iS 3 s By Cal BY ES: Authority, 
10n men 
1. Carbonic Oxide . c+0 12+ 16 | 28)2| 14 972 ‘973 |Thenard. 
2. Nitrie Oxide . N+0 144 16} 30/2} 15 1-041 1-037 Do. 
3. Muiatie Acid r cl+H 36 + i | 37/2) 183) 1-284 1-248 |Biot & Arago. 
. Hydrobromic Acid . Br+H 80 + 1+} 81)}2)| 403} 2-812 2-731 |Turner. 
D. Hydriodic Acid. . I+H 126 + 1127/2) 633) 4-409 4-443 |Gay Lussac. 
et S+2M | 32 + 200 |232/3| 773) 5-370 | 5-384 |Dumas. 
7. Common Air. O+4N 16+ 56] 72/5] 142) 1 1: Assumed. 
¥ 2. Combinations in Single Groups. 
8. ‘Cyanogen N+C 14+ 12] 26/1) 26 1-805 1-806 |Gay Lussac. 
9.Dichloride of Sulphur $+ Cl 32 36 | 68]1]) 68 4:722 4-70 |Dumas. 
10. Fluoboric Acid . F+B 18+ 16} 34/1] 34 2361 2-360 |Davy. 
L . Biniodide ofMercury} I-+ Hg 126 + 100 | 226) 1|226 | 15-694 | 15-670 |Mitscherlich. 
2 Bichloride of Mercury} Cl + Hg 36 + 100 | 136] 1/1386 9-444 9:440 | Do. 
: et Ber Br+Hg | 80 + 100 |180/1\180| 1250 | 1236 | Do. 
4,QlefiantGas ..| C+2H 124+ 2] 14}/1] 14 972 ‘978 |Henry. 
5. Fluosilicie Acid. si+2F 16 + 36 | 52/1} 52 3611 3°60 |Thompson. 
6. Chloride of Silicon Si + 2 Cl 16 + 72] 88/1] 88 6-111 5-939 |Dumas. 
. Nitrous Acid . .| N+20 14+ 32] 46/1/46] 3-194 3°177 |Gay Lussac. 
eesti ¥ Cl+(C4+2H)| 36 4+ 14] 50/1] 50] 3-472] 3-443] Do. 
9. Mtherine ... 2C0+4H| 244 4] 28/1/28] 1-944] 1-91  |Faraday. 
). Bicarburet of Hy-1] 3g 43H | 36 + 3] 39/1/39] 2708| 2776} Do. 
_ drogen + 
Naphtha . 8C+5H} 36+ £5] 41/1] 41 2-847 2-833 |Saussure. 
2. Naphthaline . 5C+4H 60 + 41] 64/1] 64 4-444 4528 |Dumas. 
3. Camphene -|5C+4+8H | 60+ £8] 68/1} 68} 4722] 4767] Do. 
. Oil of Turpentine .| 60 +8H |] 72+ 8] 80/1) 80] 5°555 | 5-013 |Gay Lussac. 
fe Ateenious Acid . 4As+30 152 + 48 | 2001112004 13-888 | 13°67 |Dumas. 


3. Combinations in Double Groups. - 


SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Name. Nos. and Weights of Elements. s 5 
3< 
26. Water - oy OP 2H 14+ 2] 18 
2. St dtd Hy-l) s;eu | 324 2] 34 
28. Carbonic Acid . c+20 12 + 32] 44 
29. Sulphurous Acid .| S+20 32 + 382] 64 
30. Chloride of Sulphur} S + 2 Cl 32 + 72 |104 
31]. Nitrous Oxide . .{| O+2N 16 + 28} 44 
82.Bisulphuretof Carbon} C+25S 12+ 64] 76 
33. Borochloric Acid .| B+ 2 Cl 16+ 72) 88 
34, DeutoxideofChlorine} Cl + 20 36 + 32] 68 
35. Protochloride of 
Mercury Cl+2Hg | 36 + 200 | 286 
36. Bromide of Mercury} Br-+ 2Hg | 80 + 200 | 280 
37. Hydrocyanic Acid. |H + (N+C)) 1+ 26] 27 
8. Chlorocyanic Acid. |C1+ (N+); 36+ 26] 62 
39, Ammonia : N+3H ee Soy oe 
40. Sulphuric Acid . Ss $+30 32 + 48] 80 
41.Inflammable Gas o . 
Of Thome } (C+2H)3-4Cl] 14 4+ 108 | 122 
42.Phosphuretted Hy- r 
drogen)” 2 2P+3H} 324 3] 3d 
sat “aed 49 Hy-llgas+3H| 764 3| 79 
om ee of Phos-1) 9p 4 3¢1| 32 4 108 |140 
45. Chloride of Arsenic |} 2As +3 Cl) 76 + 108 | 184 
46, Perchloride of Tin. | Tn + 4 Cl | 116 + 144 | 260 
47. Light Carburetted 
Hydrogen : c+4H 12,.4- . 4] 16 
A8. Perchloride of Ti- , 
wit Ti+4H 52 4+ 144 | 196 
49. Perphosphuretted ] i 
Hydcieeliog 3P43H |} 48+ 3] 51 
50. Alcohol . . (0+2C4+6H 1642446] 46 
51. Oil Gas 3C+6H 36 + 6 42 
52. ther . . j0+4C+10H/16 + 48 + 10) 74 
53. Muriatic ther. . |Cl+2C+5H) 364 2445) 65 
54; Hydriodic ther . |T+ 2C + 5Hj126 + 24 + 5/155 
55. Citrene . - . .| SC+8H 60 + 8 68 
56. Paranaphhaline .|15C+4+12H}| 180 + 12 |192 
57. Chloro-carbonicAcid|2 Cl-+ (0+ C)| 72 + 28 |100 


On Gaseous Interference. 


Vol. 


bbrhr © ww hlhwlwhhy bw 


bo pr bt rw ww 


robo bob tor bn bo bo 


Ee By Calcula-| By Experi- 


Sil 
= tion. 
9 *625 
17 | 1-180 
22) 1-527 
32 | 2-222 
52] 3-611 
22.) 1527 
88 | 2-638 
44 | 3°055 
34} 2°361 
118 | 8-194 
140 |. 9-722 
133)  -937 
31 | 2-152 
83] 590 
40 | 2-777 
61 4-236 
174} (1-215 
393) 2-743 
70 | 4-861 
92) 6-388 
130 9-027 
8 555 
98 | 6805 
253) 1:770 
23 | 1:597 
21 1-458 
37 | 2-569 
323] 2-256 
773| 5°38] 
341 2-361 
96 | 6-666 
50} 3472 


a Specific Gravity, 
Air=1. 


ment. 


628 
1/190 


1519 
2°255 
3°67 

1-522 
2:644 
3:942 
2346 


8-20 
9-665 
‘947 
2-153 
597 
3°00 
4175 
1:214 
2-695 


4-875 


6:30 
9-199 


“559 
6°856 


1-761 


1-613 
1-455 
2-586 
2-219 
5474 
2-383 
6-741 
3-472 


By Dr. Cuar.es Henry. 


Authority. 


Mitscherlich. 
Do. 


It is universally known to chemists, that if oxygen and hydrogen be 
mixed, and brought into contact with metallic platinum in the state 
of wire or foil, or more especially in the spongy form, the combi- 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 55 


nation of these gases is very rapidly achieved, and if mixed in the 
proper proportion, they are converted, usually with the phenomena 
of ignition, altogether into water. It is also well known, and was 
first noticed by Dr. Turner, that if into an atmosphere of oxygen and 
hydrogen, mixed in the ratio necessary for forming water, certain other 
inflammable gases, such as carbonic oxide and olefiant gas be introduced, 

the combination of the oxygen and hydrogen is, if not altogether sus- 
pended, at least materially interrupted. This is what Dr. Henry de- 
nominates gaseous interference. ‘The cause of this remarkable effect 
has, at different times, attracted the attention of eminent chemists. 
Dr. Turner has ascribed it to the soiling of the platinum by the inter- 
fering gas; Dr. Faraday to some peculiar condition induced in the metal ; 
while Dr. Henry himself, at a period long prior to the present, con- 
ceived it to arise from the fact of carbonic oxide and olefiant gas having 
a stronger affinity than hydrogen for oxygen gas. In his present paper, 
Dr. Henry investigated the entire question. The prominent facts and 
inferences appeared to be that carbonic oxide retards and limits, but 
does not altogether prevent the action of platinum on the usual explo- 
sive mixture, and the same may be said of olefiant gas. The interfering 
power, however, of the former is vastly greater than that of the latter, 
their ratio being represented by the numbers 18 and 1. In the case of 
carbonic oxide, carbonic acid is always produced, the amount depend- 
ing on the form of the platinum. employed, the quantity of the inter- 
fering gas, and the temperature at which the experiment is conducted ; 
and, as a general rule, it may be laid down, that the interfering in- 
fluence of the gas bears an inverse relation to the energy with which 
the platinum acts, and the degree of heat—conditions, however, which 
may be considered as identical. The diminution, and even disappear- 
ance, of interference at high temperatures, Dr. Henry attributes to a 
relative augmentation of the affinity of hydrogen for oxygen, an hy- 
pothesis indeed established by other and independent facts. 

That Dr. Henry’s theory of gaseous interference is the true one, 
he infers from the general fact of no gases exercising any such in- 
fluence but those which have an affinity for oxygen; and that it is 
strictly true, at least in the case of carbonic oxide, there can be no 
question, seeing that some of the oxygen is actually employed in the 
production of carbonic acid. 

In the course of the paper several other interesting facts, of a col- 
lateral description, were stated, and, amongst others, that platinum 
causes, though slowly, the combination of a mixture of oxygen and 
carbonic oxide, but that the process is facilitated by the introduction 
into the jar of a little caustic potash. This latter circumstance he 
attributed to the removal of the carbonic acid by the potash as fast as 
it was produced, 


56 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Experiments on the Combinations of Sulphuric Acid and Water. By 
Tuomas Tuomson, M.D., F.R.S.L. and E., &c., Professor of Che- 
mistry in the University of Glasgow. 


To obtain pure sulphuric acid, Nordhausen acid diluted with water 
till its specific gravity was only 1°8375 was distilled in a retort till the 
liquid remaining in the retort was precisely the same with that of the 
last portion distilled over. This happened when the specific gravity 
of the acid was 1°8422. It was then a compound of 


l atom acid........ 5 
l atom water ...... 1°125 
6°125 


and its atomic weight 6°125. This acid, which was pure, (excepting 
the presence of =,4,,th part of its weight of sulphate of lime) was 
employed in the following experiment : 

1. Specific gravity of different atomic compounds of sulphuric acid 
and water. 

These were obtained by mixing determinate weights of acid and water, 


and taking the specific gravity of the compound. The following table 
shows the result : 


Acid. Water. By Expe-|By Calcu- Difference. 


riment. | lation. 


1 Atom + 1 Atom | 1°8422 ‘ 
a 1°7837 | 1°7114| + 0°0723 or xg 4 
Y 1°6588 | 1°6158| + 0°0430 or 545° 
b 1:5593 | 1°5429| + 0°0164 or gL 
“f 1:4737 | 14854) — 0°0117 or +37 
1:4170| 1°4389} — 0°0219 or 74. 
ny; 1-3730| 1-4006| — 0°0276 or =4.7 
s 1°3417 | 1°3684} — 0°0267 or =1.5 
3 1°5105 | 1:°3410| — 0°0305 or 44.5 
Qd,; 1°2845 | 1°3174| — 0°0329 or 45 


t+tt+++4+ 
KH OONRH Ob & WO 


From this table we see that the compound of one atom oil of vitriol, 
with one, two, and three atoms water, has a specific gravity above 
the mean, while the compounds of one atom oil of vitriol, with four, five, 
six, seven, eight, and nine atoms water, are below the mean. In the 
first case there is a condensation, but in the second an expansion, and 
this expansion increases with the quantity of water. 

2. Heat evolved when an atom of oil of vitriol is mixed with from one 
to nine atoms water. ; 

This was determined by pouring 1000 grains of oil of vitriol of 
1°8422, upon the requisite quantity of water in a glass cylinder con- 
taining the water, and stirring the mixture with a thermometer. The 
thermometer rises with very great rapidity, and begins almost imme- 
diately to descend, so that it is difficult to notice the highest point 
to which it rises. ‘The following table shows the result. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 


SSS 
Oil of Wat Weight of || Thermometer | Heat 
Vitriol. Pile: olmchigid Wate porase Stomi 2}evelved. 


~I 


Gr 


— 


Grains. | Grains. 
1 Atom + 1 Atom}1000 | 183-6] 60° to 245°! 1850 
» |1000| 367:3|67 to 286 | 219 
» |1000| 550:9| 60 to 268 | 208 
» |1000| 734-6] 60 to 263 | 203° 
1000 | 918-3] 60 to 238 | 178 
» |1000|1102..|59 to 222 | 163 
» |1000 |1285:7|59 to 207 | 148 
» |1000|1469-3|59 to198 | 139 
» |1000|16538 |59 to188 | 129 


© CONT O) Or B® CO DO 


But when oil of vitriol previously mixed with water in atomic pro- 
_ portions is mixed with an atom of water, the heat evolved is much 
less. This will appear from the following table. 


5 Thermometer} Heat 
Acid. Water. Water. rose from | evolved. 


ee 


1 Atom + 1 Atom) + 1 Atom| 60° to 245°] 185° 
Driss parte ae ie viper lege whos bol seopie7O 
CEs h OSA eee) ies AU wae rt) Tota 
ee Ee oe Ca te ad en eq? gah tas 
De Siete PE a EO TE SO ee BONN is 
a Preto. area a oa bat 63 to 72 9 
4 sa Ate yt) ee de et OS, ta. 7 
MESO REE EC SSRN TE HI at TO Bef 6 
Glink wreck I ok jae ii BS a RY 4 


3. Specific heats of various atomic compounds of sulphuric acid and 
- water. 

This was determined by putting 24 cubic inches of the acids to be 
tried in a flask, heating them 80° above the air of the room, and noting 
the number of seconds which each took to cool 40°. The following 
table shows the result. 


Time of Cooling, 40°. 


Empty flasks... 2.0.0.0... 215"°5 
24 Inches of Water ......... |5720'°7 
1 Atom Acid + 1 Atom Water| 5860 

i + 2 b> 4837°7 
3 f, 4587-2 
4 t, 4702°7 
5 rr 4831°7 
6 is 4967°3 
7 y 5075. 
8 : 5169 3 
9 AA 5267°7 
10 ip 53807°5 


++++4+4+4++ 


58 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


By subtracting the 215”:5 (the time the empty flasks took to cool) 
from the numbers in the preceding table, we obtained the ratios of the 
specific heat of equal volumes of the above mixtures. By dividing 
these numbers by the specific gravities of the various liquids as given 
above, we obtain the specific heats of equal weights of each. The 
following table shows these specific heats, that of water being reck- 
oned unity. 


Water :...6385 6548 1:0000 


1 Acid + 1 Water | 0°3593 
vw +2 na 0°4707 
sp tke Ba 0°4786 
» +4 a 0°5228 
3 eho #, 0:5690 
» +6. ,, |0°6091 
Saebiiten sian otae 
oe a He Brice’, |. 026699 
>». +9... ,,._ |.0°70038 

+1 0:7201 


To know how far these numbers accord with the theory of Dr. Ir- 
vine, at present universally admitted, namely, that the heat evolved 
when oil of vitriol and water are mixed is owing to the diminution of 
the specific heat, we must make a comparison of the specific heats 
above found with the specific heat of the mixture, supposing it a mean 
of the specific heats of the acid and water without any change. This 
is done in the following table. 


Sp. Heat | Mean Sp. | p- 
by Exp. | Heats. ig 


Water... euhrnus 1:0000 
Acid. Water. 


1 Atom + 1 Atom| 0°3593 


» + 2 ,, |0°4707 | 0°-4587 | + 0°0120 
» + 8 ,, |0°4786 | 0°5326 | — 0°0540 
» + 4 ,, |0°5228 | 0°5869 | — 0:0641 
» + 5 ,, |0°5690) 0°6306 | — 0:0616 
» + 6. ,, |0°6091) 0°6660 | — 0:0569 
» + 7. ,, |0°6428 | 0°6952 | — 0:0524 
» +8 ,, |0°6699 | 0°7197 | — 0:0498 
» +9 ,, |0°7003 | 0°7405 | — 0:0402 
» +10 ,, |0°7201 | 0°7585 | — 0°0384 


an I EE 


The slightest comparison of the second and third columns of the 
table is sufficient to show that the theory of Dr. Irvine cannot be ac- 
curate. The specific heat of a compound of 1 atom oil of vitriol and 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 59 


_ 1 atom water is greater than the mean by about z4,th. Hence it is im- 

possible that the heat evolved can be a consequence of a diminution, 

when no such diminution exists.’ In all the other compounds there is 

a diminution of the specific heat, but it does not correspond with 

the heat evolved. The greatest takes place when one atom of oil of 

 yitriol is mixed with three atoms water. It amounts, in that case, to 
about 4th, and the heat evolved is 208°. But when one atom of oil 
of vitriol is mixed with two atoms of water, the heat evolved is 219°; 
yet the diminution of specific heat is only about 3/5, and consequently 

_ Jess than when the heat evolved is only 208°. The same want of coin- 

 eidence exists in every part of the table. Hence it follows, that when 

oil of vitriol and water are mixed the heat evolved is not the conse- 
quence of a diminution of the specific heat. 

Dulong and Petit observed that when the atomic weight of a simple 
body is multiplied by its specific heat the product is a constant quantity. 
Dr. Thompson has shown in a paper published in the third volume of the 
Records of General Science, that this constant quantity is 0°375. It fol- 
lows from this law, that the same absolute quantity of heat exists in com- 
bination with every simple atom; that the differences of the specific 
heats of different simple bodies are owing to a difference in their atomic 
_ weights. 

_ In the same paper it is shown that when the atomic weight of a 
compound body is multiplied by its specific heat, the product is always 
a multiple of 0°375 by a whole number, which number depends upon, 
or at least is connécted with the number of atoms of which the com- 

pound body is composed. If the number multiplying 0°375 be equal 
to the number of atoms in the compound body, then it follows that 
every atom of the compound body retains all the heat with which it 

was combined when in an isolated state. If the multiple be less 
than the number of atoms, then the compound contains less heat than ex- 
isted in its elements, and the difference between the multiple and the 
number of atoms gives us the proportion of heat wanting. 
Let us apply this method to the combinations of oil of vitriol and 
water. The following table exhibits the result. 


Atomic | Specific |Product o: 


weight. heat. |cols. 2 &3. 


MaWater’:0 lac. .: 1:125|1:0000 | 1-125 


=0°375 x 3 
' 1 Acid + 1 Water | 6°125/)0°3593 | 2°201 }= x 5°87 
is +2 wi 7°25. |0°4707 3°412 |= x 9:09 
a5 +3 33 8°375 |0°4786 | 4:008 |= x 10°68 
ies + 4 n 9°5 0°5228 | 4:966 |= x 13°24 
a9 +5 * 10°625 |0°5690 | 6°046 |= x 16°12 
” +6 - 11°75 |0°6091 V hed 53/8 x 19°08 
Por +7 ‘5 12°875 |}0°6429 | 8°277 j= xX 22°07 
1 A +8 a 14 0°6699 | 9°379 |= xX 25°01 
35 +9 ay 157125 | 0°7003 |10:592 |= xX 28°24 
a3 +10 ~=,, 16°25 |0°7201 |11-702 |= x 31:20 


60 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


The last column shows to what number multiplied by 0°375, the 
product of the atomic weight by the specific heat is equal. These 
numbers approximate to 3, 6, 9,11, 13, 16,19, 22, 25,28, and 31 ; and 
Dr. Thompson thinks it probable that if the experiments on the specific 
heat of these compounds had been perfectly accurate, there would have 
been the exact numbers, which, multiplied by 0°375, would have re- 
presented the product of the atomic weight into the specific heat. 

Now, sulphuric acid is a compound of one atom sulphur and three 
atoms oxygen, so that an integrant particle of it contains four atoms. 
British chemists, in general, consider water as a compound of one atom 
oxygen and one atom hydrogen; but the continental chemists consider 
it as a compound of one atom oxygen and two atoms hydrogen, con- 
sidering the number of volumes as measuring the number of atoms. 
Many unanswerable reasons might be given for adopting this last con- 
clusion as the true one. If, then, we admit that sulphuric acid con- 
tains four atoms, and water three atoms, we may compare the number 
of atoms in each compound with the multipliers of 0°375, which 
represent the product of the atomic weight of each into its specific 
heat. This is done in the following table. 


Number | Multipl.|Differ-| Heat 
of atoms.| of 0°375.| ence. | evolved. 


sb 
+t++4+++4+t4++ 
wWwHWnwwwwwworo& 


a 
CC MID UP & DO 


From this table it is evident that when an integrant particle of oil 
of vitriol is combined with an integrant particle of water, the specific 
heat of the compound, instead of being 0°375 x 7, is only 0°375 x 6; 
so that 4th of the whole heat is thrown out. This amounts to 185°. 
We see from this the cause of the evolution of heat, and we see at 
the same time that the whole heat which existed in the water and oil 
of vitriol before combination was 185 x 7 = 1295°. 

When an integrant particle of acid, composed of (1 acid + 2 water) 
is mixed with a particle of water, the heat of the compound is less than 
0:375 x 13, by 0°375 x 2. In this case ;%ths of the heat are evolved. 
When an integrant particle of acid composed of (1 acid + 3 water) is 
mixed with a particle of water, the heat of the compound, instead of 
being 0°375 x 16, isonly 0°375 x 18, or ;?; ths of the heat are evolved. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 61 


From these examples the cause of the evolution of heat is evident, 
and we havea method of determining the absolute quantity of heat in 
bodies, which has been so long a desideratum. 


On a Method of Ascertaining the Strength of Spirits. By Wm. Brack. 


The author believes it has long been a desideratum with Government 
to find a more scientific and accurate mode of trying the strength of 
spirits than that now in use. A very slight inattention in the mode of 
using the hydrometer may make a difference of at least five per cent. ; 
and when the spirits are adulterated with sugar or salts that instrument 
is totally useless. : 

It is generally known that when equal quantities of proof spirits and 
water are mixed together at equal temperatures between 50° and 60° 
Fahrenheit, the thermometer will, if immediately immersed in the 
mixture, rise 91 degrees, half a degree of caloric being perhaps ab- 
sorbed by the instrument in making the experiment. 

Mr. Black however thinks it is not so generally known that the 
_ thermometer rises more or less according to the strength of the spirits, 
and that it does so apparently in very regular progression. When spi- 

rits 45 per cent. over proof are mixed in equal quantities with water, 
both being at the same temperature, between 50° and 60°, the thermo- 
meter, if immediately immersed in the mixture, will rise 14 degrees ; 
but with the strongest alcohol, also mixed in equal quantities with 
water, it will not rise above that temperature unless more water be add- 
_ed, showing that no further concentration takes place, and that the al- 
cohol can only combine with the water in fixed proportions, and that a 
certain portion of the spirit must remain in the first mixture im an un- 
combined state. Every degree on the thermometer appears to indicate 
a difference of 10 per cent. in the strength of the spirit. Thus, if we 
mix equal quantities of spirit, 10 per cent. over proof, and water, both 
at equal temperatures of about 55°, the thermometer will rise 103°; 
with spirits 20 o.p. it will rise 114°; and so on, one degree for every 
additional 10 per cent. o. p. until it reaches 40 or 45 o.P., when no 
further increase is apparent, unless, as before stated, more water be 
added. 

_ The thermometer seems to act in a similar manner with spirits under 
proof; thus with spirits 10 per cent. v. rp. mixed with water as above 
the indication is 84°, and one degree less for every 10 per cent. under 
until we get to45 percent. u.p., after which, although a rise does take 
place, Mr. Black is not sure that the indications are so regular. 

_. When spirits are mixed with sugar, thus increasing the specific gra- 
vity so as to falsify the hydrometer 20 or 30 per cent or more, the in- 
dications of the thermometer are precisely the same, if we make al- 
lowance for the slight difference in volume caused by the mixture of 

ar. 

__ If the mixtures be made at higher temperatures the thermometer indi- 
" cates a lesser number of degrees in rise according to the temperatures. 


i 


62 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


When between 70° and 80°, nearly two degrees less; but the progies- 
sions appear to go on regularly as before. ‘The thermometer also gives 
pretty accurate results with wine or strong beer when applied as above. 

The author does not however presume to give the above as accurate 
results, but merely to state that the thermometer appears to indicate a 
regular progression according to the strength of the spirits and the 
temperatures at which the experiments may be made. He desires at 
present to draw attention to the subject, in hopes that some mode 
of application may be discovered which may render it available, and per- 
haps accurate, in ascertaining the qualities of spirits or acids. 


Notice of a new Gaseous Bicarburet of Hydrogen. By Epmunp Davy, 
F.R.S., M.R.I.A., &c., Professor of Chemistry to the Royal Dublin 
Society. 


Early in the present year the author, in attempting to procure potas- 
sium by strongly heating a mixture of calcined tartar and charcoal in 
a large iron bottle, obtained a black substance, which readily decom- 
posed water, and yielded a gas which on examination proved to be a 
new compound of carbon and hydrogen. This gas is highly inflam- 
mable, and when kindled in contact with air burns with a bright flame, 
apparently denser and of greater splendour than even olefiant gas. If 
the supply of air is limited the combustion of the gas is accompanied 
with a copious deposition of carbon. When the new gas is brought in 
contact with chlorine gas instant explosion takes place, accompanied 
by a large red flame and the deposition of much earbon ; and these ef- 
fects readily take place in the dark, and are of course quite independent 
of the action of the sun’s rays or of light. 

The new gas may be kept over mercury for an indefinite time with- 
out undergoing any apparent change, but it is slowly absorbed by 
water. Distilled water recently boiled, when agitated in contact with 
the new gas, absorbs about its own volume of it; but on heating the 
aqueous solution the gas is evolved apparently unaltered. The new gas 
is absorbed to a certain extent by, and blackens, sulphuric acid. It 
detonates powerfully when mixed with oxygen gas, especially if the 
latter forms three fourths or more of the mixture ; and the only pro- 
ducts of its combustion with oxygen are carbonic acid gas and water. 

The new gas requires for its complete combustion two and half vo- 
lumes of oxygen gas, which are converted into volumes of carbonic 
acid gas and water. 

From the author’s analysis of the new gas by different methods, it ap- 
pears to be composed of one volume of hydrogen, and two volumes of 
the vapour of carbon condensed into one volume. Hence the new gas 
contains as much carbon, but only half the quantity of hydrogen, that 
is in olefiant gas. The density of the former is therefore less than that 


of the latter, by the weight of a volume of hydrogen equal to its own — 


bulk. The new gas is in fact a bicarburet of hydrogen, composed of 


- 


; TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 63 


two proportions of carbon and one of hydrogen, and may be represented 

by the formula C2 + H! or 2C + H, and differs in constitution, the au- 
_ thor presumes, from that of any other known compound of carbon and 
_ hydrogen. 
. From the brilliancy with which the new gas burns in contact with 
_ the atmosphere, it is, in the opinion of the author, admirably adapted 
for the purposes of artificial light if it can be procured at a cheap rate. 
| A more detailed account of the properties and relations of the new 
_ gas, and of the experiments on which the foregoing statements are 
_ founded, probably will shortly appear either in the Transactions of the 
Royal Dublin Society or of the Royal Irish Academy. 
| Professor Davy made the new gas, and illustrated some of its most 
_ striking properties, at the Scientific Meeting of the Royal Dublin So- 
ciety last March. 


Notice of a peculiar Compound of Carbon and Potassium, or Carburet of 
Potassium, &c. By Epmunp Davy, F.R.S., M.R.I.A., &c., Pro- 
Sessor of Chemistry to the Royal Dublin Society. 


In January last the author made different experiments to obtain the 
metal of potash on a large scale, by exposing to a high temperature in 
an iron bottle a mixture of previously ignited tartar and charcoal pow- 
der, in proportions of the latter varying from about +, to }; of the 
whole mass. In one experiment a substance was obtained of a dark 
grey colour, rather soft to the knife, though adhering with great tena- 
city to the iron and inclining to a granular structure. This substance, 
when thrown into water, decomposes it with great facility, carbona- 
ceous matter is disengaged and gas copiously evolved, with occasional 
inflammations on the surface, as is commonly the case with potassium 
under similar circumstances. The gas when examined was found to 
consist of hydrogen, and the new compound of carbon and hydrogen 
(noticed in a separate communication), in nearly equal volumes. The 
_ author regards this substance as a mixture of potassium and carburet of 
potassium ; the former by its action on water furnishing the hydrogen, 
and the latter the new gas. In collecting gas from this substance by 
the action of water over mercury a novel and interesting case of com- 
bustion was observed. A little of the substance being placed at the 
end of a tube filled with mercury, on letting up a few drops of water 
gas was copiously disengaged, and as the mercury descended along the 

tube small portions of the substance became ignited, exhibiting the ap- 
pearance of bright sparks of fire in continual succession. 
In another experiment with the iron bottle no potassium was ob- 
_ tained, but a small quantity of a substance partly in powder and partly 
’ in smali lumps of a dense black colour, which the author considers car- 
_buret of potassium, probably in a purer state than has yet been de- 
_ scribed. 

_ This carburet exhibits no appearance of crystallization to the naked 

4 eye, but when viewed with a glass of high magnifying power the au- 


64 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


thor thinks he has observed congeries of exceedingly minute four-sided 
prisms truncated at their solid angles. 

When a small portion of the carburet is exposed to the air it soon 
undergoes changes, oxygen is absorbed, and water, and the damp sub- 
stance has a burning taste and is caustic potash with carbon. 

When the carburet is put into water both substances are decomposed : 
one portion of the carbon unites with the hydrogen of the water form- 
ing the new bicarburet of hydrogen, which seems the only gaseous 
product, the remaining carbon being disengaged, whilst the oxygen of 
the water and the potassium form potash. Alcohol and turpentine act 
very feebly on the carburet, acids strongly. 

The carburet undergoes partial decomposition at a dull red heat in 
close vessels, potassium slowly rises from it, whilst the carbon remains 
of a deeper black colour than the carburet. 

From the author’s experiments the carburet appears to be composed 
of one proportion of carbon and one of potassium. 


Mr. Mvusuet exhibited to the Chemical Section several pieces of iron 
ore retaining their original structural form, but converted into masses 
of malleable iron perfectly ductile and capable of receiving polish. He 
explained to the section that this curious change was effected by a 
protracted process of de-oxydation in contact with carbonaceous matter 
shut up from all access of atmospheric air,—the temperature of the 
furnace about 80 of Wedgwood according to the old method of reckon- 
ing, this limitation of temperature being necessary to produce the ef- 
fects. With a higher temperature a more powerful affinity would be 
established between the particles of iron and the embedding carbona- 
ceous matter, which in the first instance would convert the masses into 
steel; and next, by superinducing fusion, into cast iron more or less a 
carburet, according to the proportion of carbon which may have united 
with the iron. The pieces of iron ore may, by being presented to fresh 
charcoal under a repetition of the process, be converted into steel, pre- 
serving as in the present specimen their original forms altogether un- 
changed. One of the pieces had by de-oxydation for twelve or four- 
teen days passed into the state of steel; the others in the state of mal- 
leable iron had been exposed for about a week. Mr. M. then stated 
that the specimens exhibited were made from the hydrous oxide of 
iron known in the Forest of Dean by the name of Black Brush, but 
that other ores, and even the peroxides of Lancashire and Cumberland, 
were subject to the same change by following the same line of opera- 
tion. The converted ore contained 95 per cent. of malleable iron, 
a portion of which if melted alone would be re-oxydized so far as to 
produce only 70 per cent. of cast malleable iron,—the waste or defi- 
cient iron being found in the state of a metallic shining glass covering 
the surface of the precipitated iron ; but if melted with j5th its weight 
of charcoal, 96 per cent. of good cast steel will be the result ; and with 
jth or sth the weight of the ore of charcoal, 98 per cent. of the richest 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 65 


quality of cast iron. In the last two operations the stall quantity of 
earthy matter in the ore will appear in the form of a clear glass with a 
slight purple tinge. 

Mr. Mushet described the process of smelting iron ores in the blast 
furnace as of a twofold nature, and stated that it exhibited all the phe- 
nomena now alluded to (namely de-oxydation and carburation) ; crude or 
cast iron when run from the blast furnace must have passed through 
the various stages of malleable iron and steel before absorbing as much 
carbon from the fuelas would enable the iron to flow from the furnace. 
In the upper region of the blast furnace the first operation that takes 
place towards a perfect reduction is the gradual de-oxydation of the 
iron ore by the heated fuel in the absence, or nearly so, of oxygen. When 
this is perfected the particles are in the state of soft or malleable iron, 
but owing to the short time they are exposed, and the inferior tempe- 
rature, they are not welded together as in the specimens which were 
exhibited. As the ore, however, descends in the furnace and meets 
with a higher temperature and an enlarged volume of fuel, an affinity 
is established between it and the particles of iron, which by absorb- 
ing about 7th of their weight pass into the steely state. A further de- 
scent in the furnace towards its greatest diameter brings the iron in the 
state of crude steel into a still higher temperature and in contact with 
a larger body of fuel, in consequence of which a more powerful affinity 
is exerted, and the iron finally separated in the state of cast iron, more 
or less a carburet as the purposes of the manufacturer may require. 

In reference to the protracted process of de-oxydation first alluded to, 
Mr. Muschet stated that a higher temperature, although required to weld 
and compact together the particles of iron, was not necessary for the 
de-oxydation itself, for at a bright red heat all but the very last portions 
of oxygen may be attracted from the iron, and the pieces of ore left easy 
to be pulverized. He had at one time taken advantage of this cir- 
cumstance to form from the iron ore a powerful metallic cement calcu- 
lated to give stability to great national undertakings, such as the Ply- 
mouth Breakwater, Lighthouses, &c. He presented specimens of it 
resembling masses of iron at a meeting of the Society of Civil Engi- 
neers, with which that intelligent body (the late Mr. Telford then at 
their head) expressed themselves highly pleased. But without reference 
to its merits, as soon as it was known that it could not be rendered as 
cheap as Roman cement, it ceased to excite any interest and was never 
inquired after. Sir John Rennie however saw its value, and was anxious 
to introduce it at the Plymouth Breakwater and at other places, and 
took a great deal of trouble in the matter. Three or four casks were 
sent to the Breakwater and there misapplied, as an unfavourable report 
reached the Admiralty sometime afterwards. This singular cement dif- 
fers from all others, inasmuch as it expands in the act of setting, by 
which means it never shrinks from the substance to which it is at- 
tached, but becomes completely united with it. The West India 
_ Dock Company alone seem to appreciate its peculiar properties. They 
_ find that it binds together their granite pavement in a way superior to 
_ everything else. (The manufacture of it has been discontinued), 

> Vou. v.—1836. F 


66 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


On the Conducting Powers of Iodine. By James Ineuts, M.D. 


The author in this communication replies to objections which had 
been raised relative to the assertion contained in his Prize Essay on 
iodine, viz., that this substance is a conductor of electricity. In the 
experiments which he instituted for the purpose he employed iodine 
from the manufactory of Mr. Whitelaw of Glasgow, where no iron 
vessel is ever employed, and in which in its veriest impurity no iron 
can be detected. He exhibited a tube containing an aqueous solution of 
ioduret of iron, a second containing an aqueous solution of the iodine to 
be tested, and a third having in it a solution of the ferrocyanate of 
potass. Now, on adding a portion of the last to the iron solution, im- 
mediately the blueferrocyanate of iron is formed, but no sucheffect takes 
place when added to the solution of iodine. Add, however, now a sin- 
gle drop of the ioduret solution and instantly the blue precipitate falls. 

But supposing that a small portion of the ioduret was present, we 
know that from its great affinity for water it could be removed by 
washing. Being therefore washed, thoroughly dried with blotting 
paper, and lastly sublimed three times, it is presumed the iodine used 
was as pure as possible. 

Having put a portion of this into a tube with a platinum wire her- 
metically sealed into one extremity, a second wire was introduced at 
the other, till one end approached the former to within about the fourth 
of an inch; this extremity was now hermetically sealed; so that the 
arrangement consisted in a closed tube containing perfectly dry and 
pure iodine, with two separate platinum wires communicating together 
only through the medium of the iodine. A galvanic trough was now 
charged, and one of the platinum wires attached to the positive pole, 
whilst the other was placed in a glass of acidulated water; on forming 
the galvanic circle no effect was produced, nor was there any differ- 
ence on reversing the poles. 

The iodine being now liquified by the flame of a spirit lamp, and 
the tube attached to the negative pole, the platinum wire was placed as 
before in water, and on completing the circle by a copper wire from the 
positive pole, instantly bubbles of gas appeared, and were evolved at 
the platinum wire, whilst none appeared at the copper, being positive. 

The order being reversed, evolution took place at both wires, proving 
clearly that decomposition had been effected. Again, on placing the 
wire on the tongue, and touching the other pole, a strong galvanic 
sensation is instantly experienced. On removing the heat the power 
of conducting gradually dies away, so that in seven minutes it is in- 
capable of transmitting even sufficient to be felt by the tongue. There- 
fore Dr. Inglis, when he stated in a note attached to Mr. Solly’s paper 
that iodine when cold and concrete still conducted, was in error, being 
led to say so from recollection only. But his general statement that 
iodine was a conductor is satisfactorily shown to be borne out by experi- 
ment. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 67 


‘On Paracyanogen, a new Isomeric Compound. By J. F. W. Jounston, 
A.M., Professor of Chemistry, Durham. 


When protocyanide of mercury is heated, cyanogen is given off and 
a black substance remains. When the salt is perfectly dry, the gas 
given off is altogether absorbed by potash, and is perfectly pure. Pro- 
fessor Johnston therefore concluded that the residual black substance 
was isomeric with cyanogen. Having communicated this view to M. 
Liebig, an accurate analysis by that chemist confirmed its truth. Pro- 
fessor Johnston described the principal properties of this remarkable 
body, which is a very stable compound, but is converted into cyanogen 
by an elevated temperature, or by heating it with potassium, with which 
it forms the ordinary cyanide. 


On Arsenical Poisons. By W. Herararu. 


As arsenical poisons are obtained with much facility and their opera- 
tion is deadly, they are the principal means resorted to by the secret 
poisoner. It becomes, therefore, essential to the community that every 
new fact relating to their administration, operation, or detection should 
be made known. The author is not aware that any well-authenticated 
case of poisoning by red arsenic had been published till the Burdock 
case was examined. In this imstance the victim, Mrs. Smith, had 
been buried fourteen months; upon examination orpiment was found 
in the stomach, and the body was partly converted into adipocire. In 
prosecuting his experiments Mr. Herapath conceived the idea of identi- 
fying the poison found with that sold by the druggist to the witness 
Evans through an impurity he discovered in the poison of the stomach. 
With this view he purchased some out of the same box, and requested 
that it might be of the same kind as that sold the prisoner’s agent. It 
was then found that the box contained three different, kinds of substances 
mixed together, white, yellow, and red arsenic, the two former in 
lumps, the latter in powder, and that it was the powder of realgar 
' only which had been administered, although it was undoubtedly 
foundas yellow orpiment in the exhumed body. In tracing the pos- 
sibility of change, he found two agents, sulphuretted hydrogen aud 
ammonia, which would convert realgar into orpiment. Now as it is 
well known that both of these gases are evolved during putrid decom- 
position, there could be no difficulty in accounting for the change of 
‘colour. But, to place the matter beyond all doubt, a direct experiment 
was made by poisoning an animal with realgar, which after putrefaction 
‘became changed, as in the case of Mrs. Smith. The conviction of the 
prisoner mainly rested on the evidence of a little girl, who deposed 
that s she saw the prisoner Mrs. Burdock put a powder into some gruel 
oe afterwards administer it to Mrs. Smith. 

At the time considerable doubt was entertained of the truth of her 
Readence from its being invariably precise, even to a word, and also 
from the difficulty of believing that any person would be so fool-hardy 
as to mix and administer poison before a child, and that child a stranger. 

FQ 


68 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


But what she stated proves satisfactorily that her evidence was correct, for 
she said that “‘ the gruel was of a nasty red colour,” when nothing had 
transpired of red arsenic; and had she invented a tale to account for the 
appearance of the body, or had she spoken from what she heard from 
others, she would have said the gruel was of a yellow colour. 

From what occurred, therefore, it is clear that the realgar of the 
shops would cause death; that half an ounce given at twice (by the 
prisoner’s confession) was sufficient for that purpose; that realgar 
became orpiment during putrefaction; that realgar, like arsenious 
acid, had a tendency to control putrefaction, and convert bodies 
into adipocire. 

During the experiments upon this case it was found that the mi- 
croscopic system of testing, which was first introduced by Dr. Wol- 
laston, and which Mr. Herapath constantly followed, could be made 
to improve the very beautiful reducing process proposed by Dr. Chris- 
tison, and also furnished an excellent method of proving to the jury the 
presence of arsenic. The whole organic matter having been decompo- 
sed in boiling nitromuriatic acid, potash added in excess to prevent the 
injurious effects of mineral acids on sulphuretted hydrogen, a slight 
excess of acetic acid poured in, and the sulphuret of arsenic precipi- 
tated and reduced in Berzelius’s tube to the metallic state, and then 
oxidized, as recommended by Christison, the author found in the subse- 
quent experiments a modification of Dr. Wollaston’s practice very be- 
neficial. 

Instead of putting the few drops of solution of arsenious acid thus 
obtained into test-tubes to apply the reagents, he used a china tablet, 
and having applied a drop of the solution, then a little ammoniacal sul- 
phate of copper, the green of Scheele became evident by the contrast of 
colour with the white plate; but even that might be improved by gui- 
ding the coloured drop by means of a glass rod down upon a piece of 
white blotting paper, previously placed on a flat chalk-stone, which by 
absorbing the solution removed any excess of the blue reagent, (which 
which was always liable to overpower the colour of Scheele’s green,) 
while it left the latter on the paper, and when dried it could be intro- 
duced into a sealed tube, which could be marked by a diamond, in the 
handwriting of the experimenter ready for identification before the jury. 
Mr. Herapath is satisfied that ,>4,5th of a grain of arsenious acid might 
be detected by these means, ‘The other two reagents, ammoniacal ni- 
trate of silver and sulphuretted hydrogen, can be applied in the same way, 
and when dried the product may be similarly inclosed. In all cases 
where a highly oxygenating process is followed, for instance, when the 
mixture is boiled in nitro-muriatic acid, or where deflagration with nitre 
is practised, the arsenical compound is converted into arsenic acid, and 
in passing sulphuretted hydrogen (after the usual precautions) the first 
portion of the gas is decomposed by giving hydrogen to the oxygen of 
the arsenic acid, consequently sulphur falls mixed with sulphuret of 
arsenic, but so extremely light that it takes some hours to deposit ; 
after which the mixed mass may be collected together, and upon re- 
ducing it to metallic arsenic the sulphur would be separated ; for from 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 69 


- being more volatile it is found above the crust of metal, and in the 


——— 


: 


oxydizing process forms sulphurous acid and disappears, while the 
arsenious acid condenses. 

It sometimes happens that arsenic is contained in substances which 
prevent the ordinary processes from being followed, for instance in 
the case of Sophia Edney, who was convicted at Taunton of poisoning 
her husband. The author found about an eighth of a grain in the 
duodenum (the contents of the stomach having been thrown away by 
the surgeon who examined the body, under the belief that an ulcer 
found in the stomach was sufficient to account for death); the only 
other matters brought for examination were a few grains of bacon-fat 
scraped from the edges of a frying-pan. In the fat he could find no 
arsenic, and the potatoe being an amylaceous substance, it was in 
vain to try the usual reagents or to make a filtered solution. It was 
therefore projected into melted nitre ; when it was deflagrated, diluted 
acetic acid was added to rather more than neutralize the carbonate of 
potass resulting from the deflagration of the charcoal of the vegetable 


and animal substances. A stream of sulphuretted hydrogen was then 


passed through it, which turned it yellow, and upon deposition and sub- 
sequent treatment in the way alluded to before, enough was obtained 
to take to a jury: specimens of the reduced metal, of arsenious acid, 
Scheele’s green, arsenite of silver and orpiment, although the reduced 
arsenic was not more than ;1, of a grain. It had been said by the 
dying man that his wife had fried potatoes in this pan for him and he 
had not been well since. The pan had been subsequently used to fry 
bacon, which had been eaten with impunity by two persons, exclusive 
of the prisoner, who had herself “ eaten a bit as big as a nut ;” yet there 
was enough left adhering to the pan to prove her guilt, which her con- 
fession subsequently acknowledged. 

Although nitre affords an excellent means of removing all organic 
matter, and thus leaving the operator free from all embarrassment, yet 
it cannot be depended on in quantitative analysis, as a certain propor- 
tion is volatilized during the process; this loss might be reduced by 


putting a little nitre in the solution before evaporating to dryness. 


The plan of discovering arsenious acid by arseniuretted hydrogen, 


and depositing the arsenious crust during its combustion, recently pro- 


posed by Mr. Marsh of Woolwich, was described by Mr. Herapath as 
the most elegant that could be conceived, and at the same time the 
most sensitive; he suggested the following precautions for the purpose 


_ of evidence before a jury. The zinc used for the preparation of hydro- 
_ gen should have been treated by the experimenter in the same way 
_ without arsenic, or it might be supposed that the arsenic was contained 
in the zinc; the metallic crust should be so received as to be kept as 
_ much as possible from atmospheric air, otherwise it would lose its lustre 


by passing into the ‘“‘ Fly Powder” of the Germans. 

Instead of a plate of glass to receive the crust Mr. H. used one of 
mica, with three drops of water in separate places on one of its sur- 
faces; if the flame was allowed to play under one of those drops, the 
evaporation of the water kept the place cool, and the crust was thicker 


70 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


while the risk of fracture was avoided. Then by inverting the plate, 
and holding the drops in succession some little height over the flame, 
they became solutions of arsenious acid, and could be tested with the 
three reagents as before stated. The part of the plate of mica con- 
taining the crust may then be cut off and introduced into glass tubes, 
hermetically sealed up like the slips of blotting paper containing the 
coloured results of the reagents. If it be necessary to make quantita- 
tive experiments, the products of the flame may be condensed in a 
large globe; the arsenious acid dissolved and precipitated by sulphu- 
retted hydrogen. 


On Lithiate of Ammonia as a Secretion of Insects. By Wm. Hrrapatu. 


Lithic acid has been discovered as an abundant secretion inthe urine 
of mammalia, in that of birds (particularly of those with carnivorous 
propensities), and in the excrement of the boa constrictor; but Mr. H. 
was not aware that it had been noticed among the insect tribes, previ- 
ous to his examination of a fawn-coloured substance which is ejected 
with considerable force by the common silk-worm (Phalena Mori) in its 
moth state of existence. ‘This is principally composed of lithiate of 
ammonia. As the insects do not eat either in the chrysalis or the moth 
state, or even for some days before spinning, and as they discharge at the 
last-mentioned period all the remains of food and become transparent, 
it would seem that the lithiate of ammonia is not excrementitious in 
the common acceptation of the term, but a secretion destined for:some 
particular purpose, possibly for softening the cocoon. He afterwards 
examined other insects of the moth tribe, and found that there are so 
many producing the same substance (varying a little in colour from the 
presence of rosacic or purpuric acids) that it might be considered as 
common to the tribe. Those who wish to carry on experiments upon 
this point will find good subjects in the privet hawk-moth (Sphine 
ligustri), the lackey (Neustria), the puss moth (Cerura vinula), and the 
ermine. 

It is remarkable that in the cases mentioned by Mr. Herapath the 
lithiate of ammonia should be produced by creatures living entirely on 
vegetable food. 


Analysis of the Water of the King’s Bath, Bath. By Wm. Heraratu. 


Grains. 
On June 4th, 1836, the temperature of the spring head of the 
King’s Bath while running was 114° F., and its sp. gr. at 
GOS Was hs sk hye ae od - bes s Feisin- welbptonte Aid - 1:001905 
Upon evaporating to dryness an imperial pint of 8750 grs. 
the residue was found to be... .-. 2.2.05. 000 eee eens 19:075 


A.—A little spirit of wine was three times affused upon this 
and decanted ; it had disselved 3°23 grs. ; slow crystalliza- 
tion under the microscope showed it to be chloride of mag- 
nesium and chloride of sodium ; there was no chloride of 


ed 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. ral 
‘ 


Grains. 
calcium or strontium : precipitated by carbonate of ammonia 
and phosphate of soda the magnesia was equal to magnesium. "187 
The liquid acidulated with nitric acid, precipitated by ni- 
trate silver, gave chloride of silver = chlorine ........... 1-124 
As °187 magnesium is: equal to ‘560 chlorine, and the re- 
maining °564 chlorine to ‘376 sodium, it follows that the 
loss was 1°543. As this loss was enormous it was sup- 
posed to be water of the muriate of magnesia; to prove 
which some magnesia was dissolved in muriatic acid, eva- 
porated to dryness at the same heat, and found = 19°8 grs. 
while hot ; decomposed by heat in a platina dish it weighed 
7°45 only. This loss was equivalent to 1°428 on the mu- 
riate of magnesia of the spirituous solution, the difference 
between 1:543 and 1°428 being caused by inequality of 
heat or extractive matter. 
The spirit salts were therefore Chloride magnesium... . ‘TAT 
Chloride sodium........ “940 
WVBECENUD os ih olesa tein, sah fags 1°543 
B.—Acted on theremaining salts with water containing enough 
alcohol to prevent the solution of sulphate of lime ; evapo- 
rated to.dryness and re-dissolved in as little water as pos- 
sible to leave behind any sulphate of lime which might yet 
have been dissolved; evaporation under the microscope 
showed the mass to be composed of the remainder of the 
common salt, sulphates of magnesia and soda. The ma- 
gnesia was precipitated and found to be ‘312 gr. . After the 
_ addition of nitric acid to suspend the phosphates, nitrate 
of silver precipitated chloride equal to chlorine -700. Then 
nitrate of barytes gave sulphate equal to sulphuric acid 
1°360, of which ‘620 was required by the magnesia, the 
remaining °740 by soda, while the *700 chlorine was equal 
to -466 sodium. 
The water salts were therefore : 
Sulphate a id 2B 932 
Sulphate soda..........). 17334 
Chloride sodium,....... 1166 
Ch) eee 188 
C.—The pulverulent residue was acted on by muriatic acid 
with alcohol; it effervesced ; after decantation the fiuid was 
precipitated by oxalate ae yin paEeins heated red, gave ~ 
carbonate lime. . di ai sk shaebeeaei Silas “680 
Ammonia gave red oxide ofiron...... ‘021 
Phosphate of soda gave on concentration a | trace of 1 ma- 
gnesia. 
P=: The remaining 11°53 was treated with boiling muriatic 
acid diluted, but with no alcohol ; it was all dissolved but 
220, which was taken as silica, the sulphate of lime being. 1131 


72 SIXTH REPOoRT—1836. 


The solid contents of the water were then, 


As found. As ewxisting in the Water. 

Chloride of magnesium.. °*747 Chloride of magnesium.. °*747 
Chloride of sodium....... noe Chloride of sodium...... 2°106 
Sulphate of magnesia....  °932 Sulphate of magnesia.... °932 
Sulphate of soda........ 1°334 Sulphate of soda........ 1334 
Carbonate of lime....... “680 Bicarbonate of lime.,... 1°019 
Carbonate of iron.......  *021 Bicarbonate of iron......  *030 
Carbonate of are .a trace. Bicarbonate of magnesia..a trace. 
et of lime... . 11°310 Sulphate of lime........ 11°310 
Silica. 3 aud ng BEd 2220 Silica as -caot. tee. «alas 220 

17°350 17°698 
Loss, isdn extractive.. °188 
Water.. dtwictnasiar wads 

19:081 


The author has some doubts whether the whole of the iron exists as 
bicarbonate ; certainly by far the greatest proportion is in that state, 
because upon standing an ochre is deposited and the water has but a 
very slight action on iron tests. Some experimenters have imagined 
that a part was dissolved as sulphuret, and others have found the iron 
as metal upon evaporation; but Mr. Herapath found no direct evidence 
of the first ; and as to the second he observes that every experimenter 
who found metallic iron had evaporated in a brass or other metallic 
boiler, which would easily account for its presence; but it is not un- 
likely that a small portion is held in solution otherwise than as bicar- 
bonate: 

The other water was found in Kingsmead-street. A well 59 feet 
deep and 40 feet boring had been upon the premises for some time, which 
contained water of the temperature of 76°, and from the heat of its sides 
it was evidently in the neighbourhood of hot water. As this spring fur- 
nished but 35 hhds. a day, and more was wanted, a boring hole was 
made which passed through the following strata: 

35 feet of blue lias. 


50 white lias. 

11 —— white clay. 

11 —— sulphur clay. 

1 —— red soil. 
108 


59 original well. 
40 original boring well. 


— 


207 
When at this depth no water was found; but one morning upon the 
workmen arriving the well was discov ered to be full of hot water to 


ens / 


‘Sulphate lime....... 8-370 8'850 9-500 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 73 


within 7 feet 5 inches of the surface, and it was running over through 
a weak place in the side at a very rapid rate. 

Examined June 4th, 1836 ; it was found discharging at the rate of 137 
gallons a minute, and it was stated that the flow had been invariable 
from the month of November last ; its temp. was 99°, and its s. g. at 
60°, 1:001957. 

Upon treating 8750 grs. exactly as that of the King’s Bath, the fol- 
lowing salts were obtained as existing in the water : 


Chloride of magnesium........ 673 
Chloride of sodium......... pie iil. 
Sulphate of magnesia.......... 17105 
Sulphate of sodas. 0) PPT To. 2°090 
Bicarbonate of lime........... 1170 
Bicarbonate of iron............ 016 
Bicarbonate of magnesia... .... a trace. 


Sulphate of lime and silica..... 11°472 


19°446 

” This water then is of the same class as the King’s Bath, being ther- 
mal and chalybeate. It contains 13 gr. more of solid contents in the 

imperial pint, and the proportion of the various ingredients differs. 
The Bath waters have been repeatedly the subjects of analysis, but 
the results are very various, scarcely any two experimenters agreeing 
in the details, although the total quantity of solid matter is not so much 
a subject in dispute. Whether the water differs at distant periods, or 
the system of analysis followed is the cause of the disagreements, Mr. 
‘Herapath does not attempt to decide, but contents himself with placing 
the operations of each chemist in juxtaposition, supposing them to 
operate upon the old wine pint, which was the quantity referred to 
by them. The carbonates are assumed to have existed as bicarbonates. 


Scudamore corrected 
Wilkinson, Phillips. by turning muriates 


into chlorides. Herapath: 


Chloride magnesium e 
% sodium.... 38°045} 3°24 
» calcium... . ” 
Sulph. magnesia... . 


1-630] 1:475 
°797 -760 Bicarbonate. . -802 


*200| -00196 01:985| Do........° 
» Magnesia.... Dowie. 
Silica. ......0....  °180 "19 -200 
Extractive "090 Loss. . °58015 
Water.'450 


147303 |14°51696 14-0000 


74 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


On the Analysis of Wheat, a peculiar Volatile Fluid, and a Soluble Modi- 
fication of Gluten, Nitrogen in Lignin, &c. By W.C. Jonxs, 


Having observed a peculiar liquid and soluble gluten in experiments to 
ascertain the quantity of starch, &c. which exists in ordinary wheat, the 
author first gives the results of his observations on the gluten and starch. 
He carefully separated the starch from 100 samples of wheat,every 10 of 
which were as nearly alike as possible, and the analysis given below is the 
mean of every 10 of the similar samples. Every one of the 100 sam- 
ples was separated in two ways: the quantity of water was ascertained 
in cne set of experiments by heating the meal at a temperature of 160° 
until no more was given off, the quantity of gluten by washing away 
the starch in the usual way, the quantity of soluble matter by digesting 
with water at a moderate temperature, and evaporating to dryness before 
fermentation was produced. Inthe other method of operating, which 
has been found the most accurate, the meal was mixed with four parts 
of water atatemperature of 68° Fahrenheit; the fermentation wasallowed 
to go on, until the saccharine matter was converted into alcohol and the 
alcohol to acetic acid, which eventually dissolves every particle of gluten 
in the wheat. When the ingredients, viz., the meal and water, have 
been mixed 12 hours, the mass will swell up considerably, and the 
temperature will increase ; in 12 hours more the solid parts will subside 
and the supernatant liquid will have a sweet taste, slightly acid, s. g. 
1-018. When all the alcohol and other principles are converted into acetic 
acid (more acetic acid being formed than the alcohol would produce), 
and when the gluten is dissolved, the liquid will have an acid, bitter 
taste, and a gravity of 1-047 ; this change will occur in about 15 days. 
On evaporating this solution to dryness a peculiar form of gluten is ob- 
tained in reddish brown transparent gummy masses, smelling like the 
brown part of roasted beef, very soluble in water and alcohol. The acetic 
acid still contained in this gluten has some effect in rendering it so so- 
luble in water, but only to a limited extent, as an alkali added to the 
aqueous solution causes ;%ths of the gluten to subside, the precipitate 
being soluble in alcohol. 

By treating this gluten in a peculiar manner a series of azotized 
bodies may be obtained, peculiarly interesting in their properties: and 
brilliant in their appearance. 

Having obtained the gluten in this way the author inferred the quan- 
tity of saccharine matter by the alcohol and acid produced, the starch 
by the usual separation, and the bran by a hair sieve, drying carefully 
at a temperature of 100°: the results of both sets of experiments did not 
materially differ, and most of them were further corroborated by a third 
series performed in a very large way. Chemists in analysing wheat have 
included the starch under one head, and taken no notice of a low-quality 
starch which exists in wheat, and which must be separated to render 
starch fit for its ordinary uses. This low starch gives a reddish brown 
colour with iodine, and a brown jelly with water, but when torrified the 
amidine approaches to that from the usual starch. In the following 
analyses the small quantity of phosphate of lime existing in wheat is 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 75 


of course included in the starch experiment. No. 2 was a very plump 
English wheat, and all the others were corn of the British empire, some 
thin and some plump grains, that sample being fullest which contained 
least lignin, and vice versd. 


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milar Samples. | 


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milar Samples. 
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Mean of 100 
Samples. 


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Fine Starch.. 
Low Starch.. oo . Oll| 8 4 ig id G 9°243 
RAT ees ; 4 iB " . Z 18°00 | 19°66 : , = 22°641 
Saccharine and other ay 2 : : 2 fa 7 ? ‘: *, ‘ . 
soluble matter S Sri bt Ore 6-419 
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From the above it will be seen that the manufacturer would be greatly 
deceived if he expected to obtain 60 per cent. of starch, as stated by 
some chemists ; he would in fact seldom or never obtain more than 84. 

Kirchoff discovered that very diluted sulphuric acid would convert 
starch to sugar of grapes, and after long boiling Mr. Jones finds the 
concentrated acid will produce this effect immediately. Dry starch 
is, by addition of sulphuric acid, instantly converted into charcoal, 
and acetic or malic acid can be distilled from the mass; but if 1 part 
of starch be mixed into a paste with 1 part of water, and then 2} parts 
of sulphuric acid added, the starch is instantly dissolved: the solution 
has a temperature of about 200°, smelling strongly saccharine and ethe- 
real, in facta peculiar zther cam be distilled from the solution. When the 
solution is diluted, and the acid removed, a light-coloured deliquescent 
sugar is obtained ; but only 63°8 parts of sugar are obtained from 100 
parts of starch in this way, and it would be interesting to find in what 
form of soluble combination the other part exists, and. perhaps this in- 
quiry may tend to show the difference between starch and sugar, and 
throw some light on isomeric bodies. 

Volatile Liguid. — When the lignin of wheat is separated i in the humid 
way, dried at a temperature of 100°, and mixed into a paste with water 
to prevent charring, and sulphuric acid is then added in small quan- 
tities at a time, the | bran will be dissolved, and the solution will have a 
dark brown colour, and a pleasant ethereal odour; upon distilling this 
fluid a pungent liquid is obtained, smelling of hydrocyanic acid, 
though this cannot be detected in the solution. This fluid when rectified 
hasa specific gravity “9829 and boils at 186° Fahrenheit. When poured 
upon caustic lime, the lime slakes and becomes of a bright yellow colour, 
which appears to be peculiar to this fluid ; when boiled with lime-water 
the solution becomes dark orange ; pure ammonia, potassa, and soda 
change the brown liquid to yellow, but not orange; the property of 
changing lime yellow did not exist in the most volatile portion of the 
solution only, as the liquid in the retort after distillation had that pro- 
perty also. An acid changes the brown to yellow, which an alkali re- 
stores, showing some analogy to the colouring matter of turmeric. Sup- 


76 SIXTH REPORT— 1836. 


posing from its slightly reddening litmus, and the colour which origi- 
nated from its combination with lime, that the fluid might contain a 
peculiar acid, the author precipitated the lime with oxalate of ammonia, 
thinking if the supposition was correct a coloured volatile salt of am- 
monia might be obtained. But on evaporating the supernatant liquid 
to dryness and heating to 300°, the colour still remained in a soluble 
state. Professor Hare, in a pamphlet he presented to the members of 
the Association, observed the tendency of sulphurous acid to change 
many volatile oils yellow, and it is not improbable that a portion was 
generated in this case as carbon always is produced in distilling the 
mixture. The author, strongly suspecting the liquid to contain nitro- 
gen, though he could not see from what source it was derived, as the 
husk of wheat is mere lignin, and chemists assert that lignin does not 
contain nitrogen, adduces the following experiment to prove that the 
lignin of wheat does contain nitrogen: a portion was successively 
boiled in alcohol, water, and muriatic acid, washed and dried; from 
112 lbs. he obtained on destructive distillation 14 lb. of sesquicarbonate 
of ammonia. Chemists have observed that the seeds of the cerealia 
contain nitrogen, but Mr. Jones was not previously aware that the 
lignin of the wheat contains the same principle. He has not analysed 
the volatile liquid quantitatively, but it contains carbon, hydrogen, 
oxygen, and nitrogen. 


Notice of Experiments respecting the effects which Arsenic produces on 
Vegetation. By Dr. Dauseny, Professor of Chemisiry, Oxford. 


Dr. Daubeny was led to undertake these experiments from having 
received a communication from Mr. Davies Gilbert, in which he stated 
that there was a district in Cornwall where the soil contained a large 
proportion of arsenic, and that no plants could grow in it except some 
of the Leguminose. By analysis, this soil yielded him about 50 per cent. 
of arsenic, in the form of a sulphuret, the rest being composed princi- 
pally of sulphuret of iron and a little silica. He had already ascer- 
tained that a little of the sulphuret mixed in soils produced no inju- 
rious effect on Sinapis alba, barley, or beans, and that they flowered 
and seeded freely when grown in it. Although the want of solubility 
in the sulphuret might be assigned as a reason for its inactivity, yet it 
was certainly taken up by water in small quantities, and imbibed by 
the roots of plants. Upon watering them with a solution of arsenious 
acid, he had found that they would bear it in larger proportions than 
was presupposed. The experiments were made and are continued at 
Oxford. 


On a new substance (Eblanine) obtained from the Distillation of Wood. 
By R. Scanvan. 


On a former occasion Mr. Scanlan described a new fluid obtained 
from pyroligneous acid, and he now detailed the properties of a new 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SKCTIONS, 77 


substance of similar origin, but solid. It is of yellow colour, insoluble 
in water, but soluble in alcohol, from which it separates in long rect- 
angular prisms. Upon analysis by Mr. Scanlan and Dr. Apjohn it was 
found to be composed of ten atoms carbon, five atoms hydrogen, and 
two atoms oxygen. 


On the Insulation of Fluorine. By Mr. Knox. 


Mr. Knox, by operating with vessels of fluor spar, had been enabled 
to confine this singular substance and submit it to ocular examination. 
He separated it from fluoride of mercury by dry chlorine, and obtained 
it in the state of a gas of a deep orange colour. 


Dr. Darron explained his views relating to Chemical Symbols, and 
compared the method of representation which he advocates with the 
method of notation sanctioned by Berzelius and other chemists. (See 
in this volume the Address delivered by Dr. Daubeny. 


Mr. Bassacx exhibited a Thermometer recently discovered in Italy, 
and supposed to be one of those originally manufactured for the Societd 
del Cimento. It appeared to be filled with alcohol. The bulb was 
spherical ; the stem was divided into 50 equal parts by beads attached 
to it by fusion at equal distances. The scale of these instruments ha- 
ving been adopted without reference to fixed points (as boiling water or 
melting ice), it is a problem of some difficulty to render the results ob- 
tained by the use of them comparable with the indications of modern 
instruments. j 

Mr. Babbage stated the progress in this research made by Libri, and 
the methods which he had employed for the purpose. 


On a modification of the common Bellows Blowpipe. By Wma. Errricx. 

The author proposed to equalize the unsteady blast of the simple bel- 
lows blowpipe, by decreasing the usual size of the blower and giving it 
a rapid motion by means of a crank and multiplying wheels, turned by 
the hand or foot. A valve adjustible to any degree of pressure is placed 
on the upper bellows-board. 


On a means of detecting Gases present, in small proportions, in Atmo- 
spheric Air. By Wiiu1am West, of Leeds. 
The author proposes, by wind-sails or some similar means, to draw 
large measured quantities of air through liquids fitted to combine with 
the gases suspected. 


Mr. Lowe exhibited crystals of iron pyrites produced on the clay 
which lines the iron pots, used in the manufacture of sal ammoniac, 
(See vol, iii, p. 582.) 


78 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


GEOLOGY. 
On certain points in Physical Geology. By Wma. Horxrys, F.G.S. 


Distinct approximations to general laws have long been recognised 
in geological phenomena connected with the dislocations of the crust 
of the globe. In districts (as for instance our coal districts) where 
faults abound, they usually consist of two systems, those in the one 
meeting those in the other nearly at right angles, the faults in each 
system being approximately parallel. ‘The same observation applies 
to anticlinal and synclinal lines, and to longitudinal and transverse 
valleys where they appear to be connected with lines of dislocation. 
The directions of mineral veins present to us striking approximations 
to the same laws ; and further, it is important to remark with respect 
to all the phenomena now mentioned, that when they occur in stratified 
masses their directions are found to bear distinct relations to the dis- 
turbed positions of such masses, one system coinciding with the direc- 
tion of the strike, and the other with that of the dip of the beds. 
Mineral veins also (or rather the fissures in which the matter properly 
constituting a mineral vein has been deposited) possess many characters 
incommon. Their depth is uniformly greater than that to which man 
has been able to penetrate ; the most productive veins in stratified masses 
are in the direction of the dip, the cross-courses in that of the strike of 
the beds, the latter being in general of considerably greater and much 
more irregular width than the former. The corresponding beds in the 
opposite walls of a vein are frequently at different elevations, thus 
forming what is called the rHRow of the vein; the planes of most veins 
approximate to verticality; insulated masses of the adjoining rock 
(termed riders) are often found in them; and finally, at their intersec- 
tions they frequently present various appearances of relative displace- 
ments. ‘Trap and granite veins and horizontal beds of trap are also 
phznomena which must be regarded as associated with the elevatory 
movements to which the crust of the globe may have been subjected. 

That the appearances of fracture in the earth’s crust are not illusory, 
but afford certain indications of actual dislocation, it would appear im- 
possible to doubt in the present state of geological inquiry; and hence 
we are naturally led to the inference that some dislocating force must 
have acted beneath the fractured crust, and moreover that its action 
must have been general and simultaneous, at least to the extent of the 
districts throughout which the phenomena follow the same laws without 
breach of continuity. Assuming this to be the case, Mr. Hopkins’s ob- 
ject has been to institute an investigation, founded on mechanical and 
physical principles, and conducted according to mathematical methods, 
to ascertain how far the phenomena above-mentioned are referrible to 
the cause to which we have been led to assign them. 

The author makes no hypothesis in these investigations as to the 
manner in which the elevatory force is produced ; he merely assumes 
its simultaneous action under portions of the earth’s crust of consider- 
able extent. With respect to the constitution of the elevated mass in its 
undisturbed state, it is sufficient for the strict applicability of his re- 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 79 


sults, that its cohesive power should vary according to any continuous 
law in passing in any direction from one point of the mass to another, 
or according to any discontinuous law in passing along a vertical line, 
so that a difference of constitution in the successive horizontal strata of 
a stratified mass is of no importance. ‘The effects of planes of less re- 
sistance existing irregularly in the mass are also taken into account. 

Taking a mass thus constituted, Mr. Hopkins investigates mathema- 
tically the manner in which fissures will be formed in it when subjected 
to tensions in assigned directions impressed on it by extraneous forces, 
and sufficient to overcome its cohesive power. After thus establishing 
various propositions, he proceeds to apply them to the dislocation of 
the crust of the earth, the tensions to which the mass is, in this case, 
subjected being produced by its elevation and consequent extension. 

One of the first inferences from this theory is that the directions of 
dislocation must in general bear definite relations to what may be termed 
the actual geological conformation of the disturbed district, 7. e., to that 
externai form which would be presented to us if any one originally un- 
broken horizontal stratum extending throughout the whole mass were 
at present to form its surface. In many cases it is easy to determine 
these relations; in others it is more difficult to do so, particularly in 
those in which the disturbed district is of limited extent, and irregular 
form and boundary. If there be a distinct azis of elevation, our system 
of fissures (always supposing them referrible to the cause here supposed) 
will be parallel to it, whether curvilinear or rectilinear ; and if another 
system exist, the fissures composing it must meet those of the former 
system approximately at right angles. If there be a distinct centre of 
elevation our systems will diverge from it, and another system may 
exist concentric about it. The latter kind of elevation will in general 
be on a much more limited scale than the former, and may be frequently 
superimposed upon it; and if this kind of double elevation take place at 
once, a:corresponding modification will result from it in the directions 
of the fissures. Two or three striking examples of this kind were se- 
lected by Mr. Hopkins from the mining district of Derbyshire and the 
adjoining coal district of Nottinghamshire, which, while they appeared 
to offer obvious exceptions to the daw of parallelism as usually inter- 
preted, are strictly in accordance with his theory. 

Another important inference from this theory is that of the simulta- 
neous formation of any system of fissures such as above mentioned, as 
far at least as regards the decided commencement of their formation. If 
there be two systems, they may either have been formed at the same or 
at different epochs. 

These fissures must be regarded as the primary phenomena of this 
branch of the science. The secondary ones of faults, mineral veins, 
anticlinal lines, &c. &c. are easily deducible from them. It is im- 
possible, however, in a limited abstract to enter into the particulars of 
this part of the subject, which may be found in considerable detail in 
the author’s original memoir, in the Transactions of the Cambridge Phi- 
losophical Society, vol. vi. part 1. 

Another view of the phenomena of elevation consists in regarding 


80 SIXTH REPORT— 1836. 


the directions and positions of the primary fissures as determined by 
a regular structure of the mass (such as the jointed or laminated struc- 
ture) superinduced previously to its elevation. Mr. Hopkins thought it 
highly probable however that if such were the case the dislocations 
would be much more numerous in any disturbed district, and much less 
continuous than they are observed to be. He wished particularly however 
to impress on the minds of geologists that the claims of the two theories, 
one of which would assign the directions of the lines of dislocation to the 
mode of action of the dislocating force (as explained in his memoir), and 
the other to the previous constitution of the dislocated mass, must be 
ultimately decided by observation ; and to enable observers to do this, 
he begged to direct their attention to two or three points in particular, 
which might, probably, in many cases, decide the question. 

1. If the lines of dislocation which we observe in the superficial por- 
tion of the earth’s crust were determined by the jointed structure which 
we now observe in that portion, there must manifestly be, not an ap- 
proximate, but an accurate coincidence of the joints and dislocations. 
Wherever such is not the case, we have an indubitable proof that the 
joints in the upper portion of the dislocated mass could not have been so 
far developed as to exercise any material influence on the directions of 
dislocation. 

2. It may be conceived however that the lower portion of the mass 
may have been so far jointed at the period of dislocation as to determine 
the directions of fracture in the upper part. ‘To determine the truth of 
this hypothesis, the directions of the joints in the primitive rocks should 
be carefully examined at points nearest to the observed systems of 
dislocation, to ascertain how far this accuracy of coincidence or the 
absence of it can be established. The want of it must necessarily 
be conclusive, while its existence is inconclusive evidence as to the 
point in question. Further tests must be sought for by examining 
the directions of the lines of fracture in the proposed district; whether 
for instance they are related to an axis or to a centre of elevation, 
or whether they present distinct local deviations from the general 
law of the district, connected with any peculiar local geological con- 
formation. If such deviations be found, it must then be considered 
how far they are inconsistent with the theory Mr. Hopkins has investi- 
gated, or with the general laws which careful observation may hereafter 
establish respecting the directions of well-developed systems of joints. 
It is by these or similar observations, and not by any preconceived no- 
tions as to the constitution of the dislocated mass, that the question at 
issue must be decided. 

Mr. Hopkins elucidated these observations by a reference to the 
limestone, grit, and coal districts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, 
in which two general systems of dislocation are well developed, the one 
being N. and S., the other E. and W., but presenting some local devi- 
ations from this law curiously in accordance with his theory. In the 
same districts (more particularly in the limestone) there exist two ex- 
tremely well defined systems of joints nearly at right angles to each 
other, and running very nearly magnetic N. and S. and E. and W. 


paees 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 81 


These joints therefore cannot have determined the directions of disloca- 
tion, while the local deviations just alluded to, so far as nothing similar 
to them has yet been observed in the directions of joints, offer a strong 
proof that the lines of fracture have not been determined by the joints 
of the inferior portion of the mass, but by the mode of action of the 
elevatory force. 


Notes on the Sea Rivulets in Cephalonia: By Lord Nucenv. 


_ At the extremity of a rocky promontory, Point Theodori, in the har- 
bour of Argostoli, streams of water may be observed rushing inland by 
means of large fissures ; and Lord Nugent stated that Mr. Stephens had 
excavated pits and channels which he had turned toa profitable purpose 
by placing a mill in its course. The level of the water appears to be 
regulated by the height of the tide, and by the fresh waters which oc- 
casionally flow in. 


On the Stute of the Chemical Theory of Volcanic Phenomena. By C. 
Davseny, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry, Oxon. 


In this communication Dr. Daubeny reviewed the hypothesis of vol- 
eanic action involving chemical principles, and defended the opinion 
which ascribes volcanic excitement to the admission of water to the 
metallic bases of the earths and alkalis in the interior parts of the earth. 


On Voltaic Agencies in Metalliferous Veins. By R. W. Fox. 


R. W. Fox submitted to' the Geological Section an experiment tend- 
ing to’ show that the native yellow, or bisulphuret of copper, is convert- 
ible into the grey sulphuret of that metal by voltaic agency. To effect 
this he employed a trough divided into two cells by a mass or wall of 
moistened clay. In one of these cells he put a piece of the yellow 
sulphuret of copper, and a solution of the sulphate of copper; in 
the other cell a piece of zinc, attached to the copper ore by means 
of a copper wire which passed over the clay, and he filled the 
latter cell with water. This simple voltaic arrangement quickly 
changed the surface of the copper ore from yellow to beautiful iridescent 
colours, afterwards to purple: copper, and finally, in a few days, to 
grey copper, on which metallic copper was abundantly deposited in 
brilliant crystals. He considered that the oxide of copper in the solu- 
tion parted with its oxygen to one portion of the sulphur of the bisul- 
phuret of copper, thus forming sulphuric acid, which was transmitted 
by the voltaic action through the clay to the zinc in the other cell, 
whilst the deoxidized copper was deposited on the electro-negative cop- 

er ore. 
PeThese results seemed to explain the reason why. metallic copper is 
often found in contact with grey and black copper ore in our mines, 
and not with the yellow sulphuret of that metal, and likewise, why the 
former generally occurs in metallic veins, nearer the surface and cross 
courses than the yellow sulphuret; in fact, in situations in which it is 

vou. v.—1836. G 


83 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


most exposed to the action of ferruginous matter, as indicated by 
the gossan, and of waters holding salts in solution. The gossan of 
the Cornish miners is a sort of iron ochre, which usually abounds in 
copper veins, but not in those of tin, and Mr. Fox obtained a substance 
closely resembling it by substituting a solution of the sulphate of iron 
for the sulphate of copper. He likewise mentioned his having found 
that when the muriate of tin in solution was placed in a voltaic circuit, 
a part of the tin accumulated at the negative pole ina metallic state, and 
the remainder at the positive pole in the state of a peroxide, the same 
as it exists in the mines, and he considered that this experiment is cal- 
culated to explain why tin and copper ores so commonly occur in dif- 
ferent veins, or in different parts of the same vein. 

He alluded toa paper of his which had been read before the Geological 
Society, in which he referred the definite arrangement of the ores in 
different rocks to voltaic agency, and assumed that the fact of veins being 
often found productive of ore in one rock and barren in another might 
be due to the relative electrical states of those rocks when the deposi- 
tions took place, and he conceived that the prevalence of different salts 
in solution in the minute fissures of different rocks might, amongst 
other causes, have tended to generate voltaic currents. The water 
taken from the mines which he had examined differed exceedingly in 
the nature and proportions of the saline matter which it contained ; and 
he had obtained considerable voltaic action by the influence of different 
ores oneach other, such, for instance, asa piece of yellow, and another 
of grey copper ore, separated by clay which was moistened with water 
taken from the same mine as the ores were. 

Mr. Fox thought that the prevailing direction of metalliferous veins 
might be connected with that of magnetic forces ; the former is nearly at 
right angles to the present magnetic meridian. He moreover stated his 
reasons for thinking that the phenomena of the intersections of some 
veins by others are not incompatible with the contemporaneous forma- 
tion of the original fissures in opposite directions, on the hypothesis of 
their having undergone a progressive opening ; and he considered that 
the proofs of such progressive opening abounded in the Cornish lodes 
and cross courses, the larger veins being commonly divided into smaller 
parallel veins, having walls resembling the outer walls, between which 
all were included. Thus he supposed that tin veins were intersected 
by copper veins in consequence of the latter being less hard than the 
former, and containing in general more clay and other mechanical 
deposits, whilst cross courses have still more of such mechanical de- 
posits, and intersect both tin and copper veins; for if we suppose such 
veins, nearly at right angles to each other, to be cracked or further 
opened, it is evident that the rent in the metallic vein might be rapidly 
filled up with clay or other matter conveyed into it by the water circu- 
lating in the veins. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 83 


Remarks illustrative of the Physical Geography of the Pyrenees, parti- 
cularly in relation to Hot Springs. By Professor Forses. 


The author attempted to embody in this communication the results, 
more particularly geological, of a recent tour to the Pyrenees, and which 
form part of a paper recently read to the Royal Society of London. 
The intimate relations of hot springs to certain classes of rocks had be- 
fore been observed, and the occurrence of granite as characterizing these 
thermal sites is so striking as not to escape the most superficial observer. 
The author remarks in addition that these springs rarely or never ap- 
pear in the heart of a granite country, but on its borders, or at least 
near where stratified rocks occur in contact with granite. He quoted 
many examples in proof of the assertion, but one of the most striking 
is found in the department of the Pyrenees-Orientales, where an insue 
lated deposit of stratified rock surrounded by granite, has its outskirts 
or line of junction studded with hot springs. 

Stratified rocks under such circumstances are usually altered in their 
texture and composition, and the author shows that even where the 
granite does not directly appear its action may be inferred from the 
metamorphic character of the rocks and frequently from the fissures and 
contortions which accompany that character. The author includes the 
whole of Charpentier’s ‘‘ Baréges formation,” or primitive trap slates, 
in this class, and totheir occurrence attributes the hot springs of Baréges, 
St. Sauveur, and Cauteretz. Lastly, he shows that the quantity of 
metalliferous deposits in the Pyrenees seems intimately connected with 
the occurrence of the hot springs, being their almost invariable conco- 
mitants. He showed in a tabular view (which will be published in the 
Phil. Trans.) the number of coincidences of the five following coordinate 
phenomena :—Hot springs, elevatory or intrusive rocks, metamorphic 
rocks, lines of fissure and elevation, metalliferous veins. 

The author explained the importance which he attaches to an accu- 
rate determination of the temperature of these springs, and the precau- 
tions which he observed in order to make them comparable at future 
periods with observations which may be then made; and that the very 
_ few old observations of any value seem to indicate no decided change 
of temperature. The principal spring at Baréges cannot have changed 
_ half adegree of Fahr.in a century. The author also noticed the capricious 
intermingling of springs of every kind in such a way as to separate 
completely the phenomena of mineralization and high temperature. In 
- some parts of the Pyrenees hot springs of pure water, pure cold springs, 
mineral hot springs, and mineral cold springs rise within a few yards of 
one another. 


1 


On certain Phenomena connected with the Metalliferous Veins of Corn- 
wall. By H. T. De ta Becue, F.R.S., G.S. 


Mr. De la Beche brought forward observations on the directions, 
breadth, intersection, and other characters of mineral veins; described 
the relations of the veins to the adjoining rocks, and to the natural 

G2 


48 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


divisional planes in them; and explained the bearing of these data 
on the general question of the origin of the fissures now filled by the 
mixed or distinct masses of sparry, metallic, and earthy matters which 
constitute mineral veins. 


A Notice of the Remains of Vertebrated Animals found in the Tertiary 
Beds of Norfolk and Suffolk. By Eowarpv Cuartesworth, F.G.S. &c. 


The author brings forward this paper principally with a view to sub- 
stantiate the fact that some of the marine fossiliferous deposits on the 
eastern coast of England, belonging to the tertiary epoch, contain the 
remains of extinct and existing species of terrestrial mammalia, clearly 
contemporaneous with the shells and other organic bodies associated 
with them. ~, 

In 1835 the author described a newly-discovered bed of fossils sepa- 
rating the crag from the London clay at various localities in Suffolk, 
which he proposed to call “Coralline crag,” suggesting at the same 
time the term “Red Crag” as an appropriate designation for the overlying 
ferruginous shelly strata with which geologists were already familiar. 
Having never detected the remains of mammalia in either of the above- 
named deposits, and believing that the crag of Norfolk was merely an 
extension of the upper or red crag of Suffolk, the author, in common with 
Professor Phillips and some other geological writers, had thrown doubts 
upon the existence of the bones of elephants and other land animals in 
the tertiary beds of the former county, believing that their supposed 
occurrence probably originated in the erroneous identification of dilu- 
vium with crag; the extremely superficial character of the latter, and 
the abrasion to which it has in some places been exposed, rendering a 
precise separation of the two a matter sometimes of considerable diffi- 
culty. 

A recent examination however of Norfolk has produced a totale hange 
in the opinions previously entertained by the author upon this subject, 
for he finds that not only are the bones of land animals constantly found 
in the so-called crag of that county, but that they are of most frequent 
occurrence in those particular beds which furnish the strongest evidence 
of tranquil deposition; and further, the bones strictly belonging to these 
beds of marine origin can be at once distinguished from those of the 
overlying diluvial or lacustrine deposits by the peculiar chemical change 
which the former have undergone. The list of mammalia enumerated 
by the author belonging to the tertiary period includes six or eight 
species of rodentia and ruminantia, one of the genus lutra, besides teeth 
of the elephant, hippopotamus, and mastodon. Dr. William Smith was 
the first who announced the discovery of the mastodon in our own 
country, and though geologists have generally refused to place it upon 
the list of British fossil pachydermata, the existence of this genus has 
recently been most completely established by the researches of Mr. 
Fitch and Mr. Woodward of Norwich, and Captain Alexander of Yar- 
mouth. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 85 


The author in the next place proceeds to discuss the relation which 
this mammiferous stratum bears to the two tertiary deposits of the ad- 
joining county, showing that it is not, as he had anticipated, an exten- 
sion of the red crag of Suffolk, but a deposit altogether distinct from 
it and the coralline, differing essentially from both in the number and 
nature of its organic contents. Its geographical limits are not confined 
to Norfolk, since it may be traced from Norwich to Aldeburgh in Suf- 
folk, overlying some part of the coral reefs in that most interesting 
locality. It may be most advantageously examined in the immediate 
neighbourhood of Norwich ; at Southwold, and on Thorp Common near 
Aldeburgh. This stratum as regards relative age may be looked upon as 
holding a station intermediate to the red crag, and those deposits in 
which the testacea appear to belong almost exclusively to existing species 
of mollusca. 

The beds above the chalk in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex may be 
grouped into two sections, determined by the presence of terrestrial 
mammalia throughout a part of the series, which in descending order 
will be as follows :— 


1. Superficial gravel, containing bones of land animals, pro-) 
bably washed out of stratified deposits. 

2. Superficial marine deposits of clay, sand, &c., in which the 
shells very few in number (10 or 15 species), may all be 
identified with such as are now existing. 

Ezamples.—Brick earth of the Nar, Norfolk. 

3. Fluviatile and lacustrine deposits, containing a consider- 
able number of land and freshwater shells, with a small 
proportion of extinct species. (Mammalian remains in great 
abundance.) 

Localities —Ilford, Copford, and Grays inEssex. Stutton in 
Suffolk. 

4, Mammiferous crag of Norfolk and Suffolk, hitherto con- 
founded with red crag, containing about 80 species of 
shells : proportion of extinct species undecided. 

Localities.—Bramerton near Norwich ; Southwold and Thorp 
in Suffolk. 


Beds containing numerous remains of ter- 
restrial mammalia 


5. Red crag, containing 150 to 200 species of shells: propor-) 6 Sd 
tion of extinct species undetermined. SEE 
Localities. —Walton and Dovercourt, Essex ; Felixstow, New- | & § & 
bourn, and Bawdesey, Suffolk. ogo 
6. Coralline crag, containing 3 to 400 species of shells ; pro- he 8 
portion of extinct species undetermined. S38 
Localities.—Ramsholt, Sutton, Tattingstone (beneath red = $ 2 
crag), Aldeburgh, Orford. Solve 
7. London clay. 338 
8. Plastic clay. a 


The author next adverts to the remains of birds which he has re- 
cently obtained on several occasions in the mammiferous stratum of 


86 SIXTH REPORT—~1836. 


crag. ‘The bones, principally belonging to the phalanges, have not yet 
been minutely compared with the corresponding portions of skeletons 
of existing species. These remains occur at Southwold, and have un- 
dergone the same chemical change as the bones of mammalia. 

No remains which can be satisfactorily referred to the reptilia have 
been discovered in the crag. 

The remains of fish are very abundantly dispersed throughout the 
red and mammiferous crag, but are less plentiful in the coralline. Oc- 
curring only as detached bones, it is not very easy to arrive at any very 
satisfactory results in their examination. Their distribution throughout 
the three deposits is as follows :— 

Mammiferous Crag.—Bones of the genus Platax in immense numbers ; 
several species of the genus Raia, vertebre of genera totally new to 
Agassiz. 

Red Crag.—Teeth of Carcharias, several species,including C. Megalo- 
don of Agassiz; palates of Myhobatis; teeth of Lamna, Notidanus, 
Galeus. 

Coralline Crag.—Genera undetermined. 


On the Fallacies involved in Mr. Lyell’s Classification of Tertiary Deposits 
according to the proportionate number of recent Species of Mollusca 
which they contain. By E. Cuarteswortn, F.G.S. (The abstract 
of this communication has appeared in Jameson’s Edinburgh Phil. 
Journal; and the author has subsequently treated of the subject in 
the Phil. Mag. and Annals for January, 1837, and also in the new 
Series of Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History. 


On certain Limestones and associated Strata in the Vicinity of Manchester. 
By Professor Paruuirs, F.R.S., &c. 


The subjects treated of in this Memoir were those members of the 
saliferous and carboniferous formations near Manchester which offered 
circumstances of interest in the general study of these deposits, or spe- 
cially important as bearing on a general conclusion presented by the 
author, that between Manchester and Shrewsbury a great deposit of 
coal probably exists below the new red sandstone rocks, though, from 
its want of conformity to these rocks, and the great depth at which only 
it could be found, the search for it might be at this moment unadvisable. 

Referring to the previous notices of thin limestones associated with 
coloured marls and inclosed between rocks of red sandstone at Colly- 
hurst near Manchester, the author proved by sections and analysis of 
specimens, and accounts of organic remains, that these certainly be- 
longed to the magnesian limestone formation. On the contrary, the 
limestone of Ardwick, near Manchester, was proved to belong to the 
upper part of the coal formation, and to contain, in its position with 
reference to the coal, its fossil remains, mineral composition, and asso- 
ciated deposits, perfect evidence of identity with the limestone of the 
Shrewsbury coal-field, first noticed by Mr. Murchison. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECYIONS. 87 


The author having recognised in the Ardwick limestone the same 
minute shells (Microconchus carbonarius, Murchison) which exist in the 
rock, at Le Botwood, Pontesbury, Uffington, &c. near Shrewsbury, 
and found similar plants in the neighbouring shales, and a similar 
succession of strata, was induced to visit some localities in Shropshire 
to complete his knowledge of the facts before stating his conviction that 
the limestones of Shrewsbury and ‘Manchester were deposited in the 
Same great branch of the sea, under circumstances so very similar as to 
render it very probable that they and the coal strata about them were 
really parts of a continuous deposit. (The organic remains hitherto 
collected by different individuals from these deposits were described by 
the author, who ascribes to Dr. Phillips of Manchester the honour of 
first recognising the true geological relations of the Ardwick limestone.) 


On the Removal of large Blocks or Boulders from the Cumbrian Moun- 
tains in various directions. By Professor Puiuuirs, F.R.S., &e. 


This communication was intended to convey information on a subject 
proposed by the Committee of the Geological Section at the Dublin 
Meeting. Confining himself, for the sake of an accurate induction, to a 
case within his own personal knowledge, the author described the geo- 
graphical and geological features of the North of England, and traced 
the distribution of blocks of granite, sienite, metamorphic slates, and 
other rocks of the Cumbrian mountains in various directions. 

Contemplating this detritus, with reference to its abundance, the 
form and magnitude and nature of the masses, the configuration of the 
country over which they have been drifted, and the distances which they 
have thus reached from their native sites, the author stated as a general 
conclusion that in all the ascertained examples the distribution of the 
detritus from the Cumbrian mountains was such as no existing watery 
agencies could explain, nor any imagined simple relation of the level 
of land and sea allow; but that the phenomena required the somewhat 
difficult supposition of most powerful currents of water, guided in their 
direction by the general configuration of the land as it now appears, 
and assisted in their effect not merely by a single elevation of land, 
but by several risings and sinkings. The influence of the existing re- 
lations of the masses of land on the dispersion of boulders was shown 


_ by examples in the Vale of Eden, the Vale of York, the western border 


of Lancashire, &c., and the Pass of Stainmoor, in all which, and many 
other cases, the detrital masses were found to be accumulated against 
the ranges of high ground, and never to have passed these natural 
barriers except at comparatively low points. It was thus evident that 
the causes, whatever they were, which produced the phenomena were 
not capableof overcoming, exceptinalimited degree, the natural obstacles 
of the country, and this condition must be fulfilled in any satisfactory 
theory of diluvial action. 

The hypothesis that extensive deposits of detritus, such as there de- 
scribed, were accumulated before the land was raised above the sea, 


88 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


would remove much of the difficulty experienced in the study of this 
subject, but it appeared not generally applicable to the examples in ques- 
tion, because of the evidence afforded by ossiferous deposits and caverns 
in Yorkshire, that some parts of the country were dry land at the time 
of the occurrence of the diluvial floods. 


On the Ancient and Modern Hydrography of the River Severn. By R. 
I. Murcuison, V.P.R.S. 


On the western side of the Vale of the Severn, Mr. Murchison has ob- 
served the distribution of coarse gravel to be generally such as implied 
’ Jocal action of water from the N.W. to the S.E., or down the slopes of 
the rocks, as they decline from the principal axes of elevation which run 
N.E. and S.W., and in the arrangement of the boulders of Cumbrian 
rocks which pass in along line of drift through Lancashire and Cheshire 
to the plains of Shrewsbury and the Vale of the Severn, he found reason 
to conclude that between the Mersey and the Bristol Channel the waters 
of the ocean had flowed in a strait, and there had distributed the de- 
tritus. ‘This strait must have existed in a comparatively recent geolo- 
gical period, since the remains of many marine mollusca now living 
on the shores of England abound in some of the gravelly deposits on 
the line of what is presumed to have been a former channel of the | 
ocean. In accounting for the position of the great boulders, coarse 

vel and sea-shells, found at different heights, the author expressed 
his belief that they were all accumulated under the sea, and converted 
into dry land by movements of elevation of unequal intensity.—See Ab- 
stracts of the Geological Society’s Proceedings. 


On the Bone Cave in Carboniferous Limestone at Cefn in Denbighshire. 
By J. E. Bowman. 


The author, referring to a memoir by the Rev. Edw. Stanley in the 
Edinb. New Phil. Journal for Jan. 1838, and to a ground plan which 
accompanies it, gives the following description of the present state of 
the cave. The recent excavations have been carried on in the main 
cave about 25 feet beyond D, and as far in the inner lateral fissure, 
commencing at 6*. ‘The floor has also been sunk 3 to 4 feet along its 
whole extent by the removal of an immense quantity of diluvium and 
bone earth, and is now on a level with the entrance. Holes have been 
dug in several places down to the solid rock, which was very uneven 
and free from stalagmite in every instance. 

A perpendicular section of the intruded matter, as now laid bare at 
the inner extremity of the main cave, exhibits the following appearance, 
commencing about 18 inches below the roof :—A series of innumerable 
thin beds of impalpable silt, some reddish, and irregularly alternating 
with others of different shades of pale ochre, slightly micaceous, the 


* All the references are to Mr. Stanley’s ground plan. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 89 


whole when dry easily separating into laminz, often not thicker than 
the ;4,th of an inch; thereddish beds effervesce with acids, but not so the 
ochrey micaceous ones. The whole series varies from 18 inches to two 
feet and a half in depth in different places, and rests upon a stratum of 
marl or clay two feet thick, which imbeds a few water-worn pebbles of 
greywacké and angular pieces of limestone, and a little way from 
the top contains some fragments of bone. Lower down the proportion 
of the latter increases, so much so that the middle portion consists almost 
wholly of a mass of broken and splintered bones much decayed, and 
some teeth, closely jammed together by a mixture of clay and commi- 
nuted bone earth. Among the teeth those of bears, hyzenas, the rhino- 
ceros, of ruminating animals, and probably of the hippopotamus have 
been recognised, and on a few of the broken bones are evident marks of 
the teeth of carnivora. This stratum imperceptibly passes below into 
another of very compact coarse diluvium of clay and pebbles of clayslate, 
with a few splintered bones and broken stalactites, also about two feet 
thick and reaching down to the present artificial floor. On breaking 
up this floor the writer found a series of beds of coarse and fine sand, 
alternating with others of loam and clay, precisely as may be seen on 
the bank of a river, but without any bones, pebbles, or shells; the whole 
about three feet thick, and resting on the solid limestone rock. 

Another section at the extremity of the lateral fissure on the right 
corresponds in every respect, except that in the middle of the bone 
stratum is an additional interpolated series, about 20 inches thick, of the 
thin beds of parti-coloured silts, already described, which here contain 
a few small pieces of bone, and alternate with other beds of fine cal- 
careous matter, probably bone earth. This series has alsoa horizontal 
arrangement, and seems to have been deposited by water in a hollow in 
the bone stratum. 

Mr. Bowman then describes the strata found below the present floor 
in the anterior portion of the cavern, the material that formerly blocked 
it up even to the roof having been long since removed. For some yards 
round B the floor is a perfectly horizontal layer of stratified stalagmitic 
matter, 18 inches to two feet thick ; and below it is a bed of yellowish 
ochrey loam, very different to the marly diluvium already described, but 
containing, like it, smooth pebbles of primitive rocks, pieces of lime- 
stone, broken stalactites, with some splintered bones and teeth of car- 
nivora and ruminantia. It is of uniform complexion down to the solid 
rock, a depth of from four to five feet. In another excavation nearer the 
mouth of the cave the stalagmitic matter is replaced by sand, but below 
is the same ochrey loam, &c., with molar teeth of bears and fragments 
of jaws, and a few quartz pebbles ; while ina third, at the very entrance, 
about three feet of gravel and coarse sand was found under the loam, 
without bones, some of the polished clay slate pebbles being from nine 
inches to afoot in diameter. Below is the solid rock slanting inwards 
from each side, and about five feet lower in the middle than the foot- 
path in the front of the cave. 

There are, therefore, at the extremity of the openings, Ist, a series 
of fine silts; 2nd, the marl overlying and passing into the 3rd or bone 


90 ’ SIXTH REPORT.—1836. 


stratum ; 4th, the lower marl or coarse diluvium with very few bones 
5th, the beds of sand, extending down to the limestone rock. Again, 
near the entrance are, Ist, the bed of sand and stalagmite forming the 
present floor, on about the same level with the bottom of the 4th or 
lower marl just named; 2nd, yellow ochrey loam, with bones, &c., ex- 
tending along the vestibule from A to B, and passing down to the solid 
rock, but at the entrance resting upon coarse gravel. There is no trace 
of the ochrey ioam deposit at the upper end of the cave. 

The author forbears to speculate further on the above appearances, 
than to consider the upper series of fine silts to have been derived from 
two different sources, viz., the red and more compact layers from in- 
filtrations of the decomposed limestone of the cave, and the ochrey mi- 
caceous and more friable ones from water entering the mouth charged 
with a muddy sediment of the decomposed primitive rocks of the neigh- 
bourhood, and having a common origin with the water-worn pebbles so 
abundant within and about the cave. That the valley was occupied by 
water to at least the level of the cave before the deposition of the ossi- 
ferous strata, is proved by the beds of sand and smooth pebbles under- 
neath. Immense masses of these pebbles, more or less water-worn and 
mixed with diluvium, mask the face of the limestone rock in many places, 
and lie even on its summit, 40 or 50 yards above the level of the cave. 
Appearances about a very picturesquely perforated rock much below it, 
show that this diluvium must have been transported hither long subse- 
quent to the disruption and elevation of the limestone, and that not 
simultaneously, for the pebbles still adhere to its irregularly excavated 
sides, and there is an intermediate horizontal layer of them of smaller 
size. 

The author does not decide whether there are two distinct deposits 
of bones, viz., one in the yellow loam under the vestibule, and another 
at the upper extremity of the cave; though the different materials in 
which they are respectively found, the disparity of level, and the inter- 
mediate beds of sand, favour such a conclusion. 

From the concave trough-like shape of the sides about the entrance, 
as well as from the beds of sand and gravel within, the author infers that 
the cave must once have been a water-course ; for the abraded portions 
have been scooped out, alternately right and left, precisely in those places 
to which, from the opposite projections, the water-borne pebbles would 
have been driven with the greatest force. 


On an additional Species of the newly-discovered Saurian Animals in the 
Magnesian Conglomerate of Durdham Down, near Bristol. By Henry 
Ruitey, M.D., and Samueu Strurcusury, A.L.S.* , 


The remains about to be described were found in quarrying the brec- 
ciated beds of dolomitic conglomerate, which rests upon the highly in- 


* In March, 1836, a paper from the same authors was read before the Geological 
Society of London, entitled, “A description of various Fossil remains of three di- 
stinct Saurian animals discovered in the autumn of 1834, in the Magnesian Conglome- 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 91 


clined carboniferous limestone at the south-eastern extremity of Durd- 
ham Down, near Bristol. 

Having in the memoir read some time since before the Geological 
Society entered into the particular characters of this formation, it is 
not necessary here to repeat them further than to show the proofs of 
this deposit being formed upon the spot, and not the effect of accumu- 
lated drift. 

** In all the dolomitic formations we have been enabled to examine in 
this neighbourhood, we find them composed of fragments of the rock 
on which they rest. These observations equally apply to the conglo- 
merate beds of the new red sandstone. For instance, in the quarry 
from whence these bones have been recovered, fragments of the lime- 
stone only upon which it rests are found. In the beds which rest upon 
the old red sandstone, such as those of Ham Green, Valley of Kein, 
Thornbury, &c., it is found to be composed of quartzose pebbles, frag- 
ments of friable sandstone, and limestone boulders, in fact the precise 
components of the conglomerate beds of the old red sandstone which 
they immediately overlie. In the conglomerate or brecciated beds of 
the new red, which occur in the New Cut or River, and flank Brandon 
Hill, are found pebbles of quartz and of compact millstone grit, pre- 
cisely identical with the formation of Brandon Hill itself. 

“ From these facts it naturally follows that the animals were destroyed 
at a period of great local disturbance without transport from a distance 
or great movement. If the latter had taken place the bones would 
have been distributed over a large space, and not as now confined to a 
spot not exceeding half an acre in extent ; besides which, although 
the limestone and bones themselves were dislocated and fractured to a 
great extent, still there is no evidence of abrasion. 

“That the magnesian cementing paste was once subtile and fluid is 
exhibited in all the bones, and beautifully evidenced in a fragment of 
jaw which is exhibited to the Section, in which will be seen the sub- 


- maxillary canal, filled as if injected, also the alveoli of the jaw, hollows 


of the teeth, &c. That it quickly became viscid and tenacious is also 
evidenced by its holding up in its substance the portions of bones and 
fragments of limestone even of great weight, while smaller portions had 
gravitated to the bottom. In many instances, although the bed of 
dolomite is now at this place near twenty feet thick, some of the bones 
were found even resting upon the carboniferous limestone itself, and 
by careful selection would represent fossils occurring in the last-named 
formation.” 

The authors next describe the various bones which had been col- 
lected: as the right half of a lower jaw with teeth; an ulna; a ra- 
dius ; a metatarsal bone; an ungual phalange ; two left ilia ; an is- 
chium ; a left femur ; caudal vertebre ; and discuss seriatim their rela- 
tions to existing and extinct forms of Saurians. 


rate on Durdham Down, near Bristol ; by Henry Riley, M.D., and Mr. Samuel Stutch- 
bury.” In the above-mentioned memoir the authors have established two new ge- 
nera: Ist, Paleosaurus, of which they describe two species, P. cylindrodon, and P. 
platyodon ; 2nd, The codoptosaurus, the species of which they had not designated. 


92 SIXTH REPORT-—1836. 


The authors then proceed to some general views: 

«To make our present notice more complete it will be necessary to 
extract from a former memoir the characters exhibited by a section 
through the axis of the vertebre, which exhibit a peculiar form in the 
spinal canal. In this section we have a mould of the vertebral or spi- 
nal canal formed by the matrix showing a very peculiar form in the up- 
per portion of the annular element, forming the inferior boundary of 
the canal. Thus its inferior surface would not be on one level plane 
like other vertebral canals, but would present a succession of hollows 
or depressions corresponding to the body of each vertebra, for the in- 
ferior surface would present a concavity to the depth of 38th of an inch 
in our specimen. 

‘* In this way the vertical diameter of the canal would, at the middle of 
each vertebra, be at least one third more than at either of its points of 
junction with the next vertebra: traces of the same peculiarity may 
be found in other specimens. 

«< If we retrace our steps we shall find the pieces lately under review 
presenting at least two types. 

‘« To the first belong the caudal vertebre with the chevrons, and the 
two others described immediately after them ; that is, a sacral and first 
caudal ; the two ilia and ischium, the large and small femur, and the pha- 
langes. 

oo To the second the series of caudals without chevrons, and the re- 
maining bones of the members. 

«« The association of the piece of jaw with the latter would be assu- 
ming more than we could prove ; although its characters are more those 
of a lizard than a crocodile, yet we cannot show that it belonged to 
the same animal, for it might have belonged to another extinct sub- 
genus of lizard. We must recollect that the blocks of stone in which 
these remains are met with, are sometimes so filled with bones that 
they would be called osseous breccia by those not aware of their origin. 
This is a sufficient proof of the multitude of animals whose remains 
are here enveloped in the magnesian conglomerate, and at the same 
time a plausible justification of our opinion, that by a careful examina- 
tion and study of these remains we shall be enabled to make out seve- 
ral subgenera of Saurians, independently of the remains of fishes. 

*« Jt is singular that in all the vertebre hitherto met with in this lo- 
cality we should find the double concave system only. We have al- 
ready dilated upon the greater resemblance of the vertebre to the cro- 
codilian type than to any other ; we have moreover pointed out analo- 
gies with other parts of their skeleton. 

««The occurrence of crocodilian remains is both frequent and nu- 
merous in Great Britain as well as elsewhere: an examination of them 
according to their geological position, commencing with those at pre- 
sent in existence on the surface of this earth, and extending to those 
found in the new red sandstone of Guy’s Cliff by Mr. Conybeare, and 
the instances before us from Durdham Down, will show a regular se- 
ries of progressive changes in the type of their vertebrz, from the con- 
cavo-convex of the present day to the same in the newer extinct spe- 


. 
j 
« 


TRANSACTIONS OF-THE SECTIONS. 93 


cies, and thence through the gradually disappearing concavo-convex to 
the superficially double concave, and to the deeply concave instances 
before us. : 

«In the lizards, with the exception of the monitors, we have the 
same order of phenomena. 

«« We should therefore have a right to conclude that the double con- 
cave system is more ancient than the concavo-convex, and that the 


. deep concavity indicates an earlier state of existence than the superfi- 


cially concave ; seeing that the Durdham Down specimens are more 
ancient than those of the chalk, of Honfleur, Caen, Sussex, Monheim, 
the Jura, &c. &c. 

“To carry this disquisition further, to attempt to show a succession 
of creations or changes from the ichthyoid type to the crocodilians 
(ascending as in the diagram), would require an infinitely more pro- 
found acquaintance with the subject than is at present attained. 

“ We nevertheless think ourselves justified in the assumption that 
the saurian type approaches the ichthyoid by two parallel lines, the one 
represented by the crocodiles, the other by the lizards.” 


Recent Crocodile. 


Lumbar Vertebra. First Caudal V. Second Caudal V. 


94: SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


New Saurian. 


Lizarps. Saurians.) CrocoDILEs. 

Type. Locality 
Steneosaurus, Concavo-convex, Honfleur. 
Teleosaurus, Superf. concave, Caen. 
Plesiosaurus, 24 ' Lyme. 


Ichthyosaurus, Deeply concave, Lyme. 


Locality. Type. . 

Wealden. Concavo-convex, Iguanodon, 
Maestricht. Concavo-convex, Mososaurus, 
Monheim. Concavo-convex, Geosaurus, 
Stonesfield f Superficially con- } Megalosaurus, 


2 Ascending to 

c 

3 

= Ascending to 
eee ee) 


and Tilgate. cave, Paleosaurus, a Durdham 
Tilgate. supenaly con- | tv1eosaurus, Se ee | 

? ? ” ” 
Thuringia. Doubtful, Monitor, Fishes. 


The Rev. Mr. Crarxe stated the existence of two springs on the 
north side of Hales Bay (part of Poole Harbour), whose flow is constant, ! 
and whose temperature is also constant, day and night, summer and 
winter, at 514 degrees of Fahrenheit. The line of junction of these 
springs is parallel to the elevated vertical range of chalk which runs 
through the Isles of Wight and Purbeck. 


Mr. Boscawen Iszorson exhibited two models constructed by him- 
self; one of the Principality of Neufchatel, copied from the map of 
Osterwald, and on the scale of 4 an inch to the mile, and the other of 
2a mile of the Undercliff in the Isle of Wight, on the scale of 3 feet 


to 1 mile. 


A letter from Dr. MantTeti was read, accompanying Drawings by 
Mr. Dinkel of various Reptilian Remains. 


A Drawing was exhibited by Mr. Murcutson of a remarkably large 
unknown Fish in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Noble from the Old 
Red Sandstone of Clashbennie in Fifeshire ;* communicated by Mr. J. 
Robinson, Sec. R.S.E. 


* A drawing of this fish having been forwarded to M. Agassiz, he has named it 
Holoptychus Nobilissimus. A figure and description of it will appear in Mr. Murchi- 
son’s new work. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 95 


A letter was read from Dr. Trarut referring to some specimens of 
fossil fishes from the Caithness schist of the Island of Pomona (Ork- 
neys), and from Clashbennie, which were exhibited to the Meeting. 


A Classification of the old Slate Rocks of the North of Devonshire, and on 
the true position of the Culm Deposits in the central portion of that 
County. By Professor Szepvewicx and Mr. Muxcutson. 


The authors began by observing, that this was a mere outline of amore 
detailed memoir on the physical structure of Devonshire, which they 
were about to lay before the Geological Society of London. In the 
published geological maps of that county the whole system of the 
older slate rocks was represented under one colour, without any at- 
tempt at subdivision ; and one colour also represented different lime- 
stones, without any discrimination. The object of the authors was to 
remedy these defects, to ascertain and represent the true position of 
the successive deposits and their natural subdivisions, so as to com- 
pare them with corresponding deposits in other places. They also 
wished to determine the exact place of the remarkable carbonaceous de- 
posits of central Devon, which had been previously regarded as belonging 
to one of the lowest portions of the grauwacke formation. 

A section was exhibited of part of that county, from the north coast 
to one of the granite peaks of Dartmoor immediately south-west of 
Oakhampton. 

In the ascending order this section exhibits— 

1. A system of slaty rocks, containing a vast abundance of organic 
remains, generally in the form of casts. These rocks sometimes pass 
into a fine glossy clay slate, with a transverse cleavage; sometimes 
into a hard quartzose flagstone, not unusually ofa reddish tinge ; some- 
times into a reddish sandstone, subordinate to which are beds of inco- 
herent shale. In North Devon they are very rarely so calcareous as 
to be burnt for lime, but in South Devon rocks of the same age appear 
to be much more calcareous. 

2. A series of rocks characterized by masses of hard, thick-bedded 
red sandstone, and red, micaceous flagstone, subordinate to which are 
bands of red, purple, and variegated shales. The red colour occasion- 
ally disappears, and the formation puts on the ordinary appearance of 
a coarse, silicious grauwacke, subordinate to which are some bands of 
imperfect roofing slate. In this series are very few organic remains. 
It is several feet in thickness, occupying the whole coast from the west 
end of the Valley of Rocks to Combe Martin. 

3. The calcareous slates of Combe Martin and Ilfracombe, of very 
great aggregate thickness, abounding in organic remains, and contain- 
ing in a part of their range at least nine distinct ribs of limestone burnt 
for use. This limestone is prolonged into Somersetshire, and appears 
to be the equivalent of that on the flanks of the Quantock Hills. 

4. A formation of greenish and lead-coloured roofing slate of great 
thickness, and occupying a well-defined zone in North Devon, its upper 
beds alternating with and gradually passing into a great deposit of sand- 


96 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


stones of various colours and micaceous flagstones. These silicious 
rocks alternate with incoherent slates, and are in some places sur- 
mounted by great masses of red unctuous shale, which, when in a more 
solid form, generally exhibit cleavage oblique to the stratification. 

5. The lower part of the Silurian system rests conformably on 
the preceding, and on the north-western coast, near Barnstaple, con- 
taining subordinate beds of limestone. In its range towards the eastern 
part of the county it gradually thins off, but its characters are well 
preserved, and it contains some characteristic organic remains. 

6. The carbonaceous system of Devonshire ranges in a direction 
east and west across the county, in its southern boundary so close to 
Dartmoor, that its lower beds have been tilted up and altered by the 
granite. It occupies a trough, the northern border of which rests partly 
in a conformable position upon the Silurian, and partly upon older rocks, 
probably of the division No. 4. Its southern border also rests on the 
slate rocks of South Devon*. It everywhere exhibits a succession of 
violent contortions. In some places it is overlaid by patches of the 
Green Sand formation, and west of Bideford by conglomerates of the 
New Red Sandstone. The lowest portion of this vast deposit is gene- 
rally thin-bedded, sometimes composed of sandstone and shale, with 
impressions of plants, sometimes of indurated compact slate, containing 
wavellite. These beds are surmounted by alternations of shale and 
dark-coloured limestone with a few fossils. Subordinate to these, on 
the western side of the county, are thin veins and flakes of culm or an- 
thracite; but this is wanting on the eastern side, and the calcareous 
beds are more expanded. The higher beds of this deposit are well 
exhibited on the coast west of Bideford. These often contain impres- 
sions of vegetables. 

Though in astate of greater induration than the ordinary coal-mea- 
sures of England, and even in many places destitute of coal, these beds do 
not differ from the great productive coal or culm field of Pembrokeshire. 
The authors consequently concluded, that from the order of superpo- 
sition,—from mineral structure—from absence of slaty cleavage pecu- 
liar to the older rocks on which it rests—and from the specific character 
of its organic remains—this deposit may without hesitation be referred 
to the regular carboniferous series. 

In the course of the details a remarkable elevated beach was alluded 
to, occupying two miles of coast, on the north side of Barnstaple Bay, 
a more special account of which has since been prepared for the Geolo- 
gical Society. 


On the Site of the Ancient City of Memphis. By the Marquess SpinETo. 


The author read a paper, entitled, ‘‘ A Report of the Attempts made to 
ascertain the Latitude of the Ancient City of Memphis :” he considers 
the site of this city as having been in the present bed of the Nile, in 
latitude 29° 46! north, and longitude 31° 30’ east from Greenwich. 


* The authors have since read a Memoir before the Geological Society, on the gene- 
ral structure of Devonshire, in which the age of the strata of South Deyon is pointed 


out. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 97 


ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 


An Account of the Organ of Voice in the New Holland Ostrich. By 
James Macartney, M.D., F.R.S., &c. 


Those who have visited zoological gardens containing the os- 
triches of New Holland, must have remarked the very singular 
sound produced by these animals; it is a species of grunt, but much 
softer than that of the hog, and involving the vibration of so large a 


volume of air, that the persons standing near the bird may feel a 


tremor communicated to their own bodies. Having had an oppor- 
tunity of examining the structure of the animal, Dr. Macartney 
found that there exists a mechanism amply sufficient for the pro- 
duction of the extraordinary sound above mentioned. In the middle 
of the trachea there is a large opening, directly communicating with a 
membranous cell of very considerable extent, which is placed 
under the skin of the neck. There is no peculiarity of structure at 
the bifurcation of the air tube into the two bronchi, and this part is 
only furnished with the two long muscles usually found in the organ 
of voice in birds when: it possesses the simplest mechanism; conse- 
quently the peculiar sound belonging to the New Holland ostrich is 
entirely occasioned by the reverberation or resonance produced in 
the membranous bag connected with the front of the trachea. 

Several birds of the duck and merganser genera are known to 
have the voice modified, and the volume of tone increased by dilata- 
tions or convolutions of the trachea. It is by a convolution of 
this kind that the land rail also is enabled to utter the creaking 
sound for which this bird is so remarkable. ‘The neighing of the 
horse and the hideous cry of the ass are effected by the addition of 
some membranous chambers situated near the exit of the air from 
the wind-pipe. In some monkeys there is a membranous bag commu- 
nicating with the top of the trachea, and the howling baboon has cham- 
bers composed of boné conjoined with the larynx. The bull-frog, which 
is heard to so great a distance, is provided with reverberating pouches; 
but Dr. Macartney is not aware of any example in the class of birds, 
except the New Holland ostrich, where the organ of voice is furnished 
with a membranous bag for augmenting the sound, nor any instances 
amongst the other classes of animals in which pouches are connected 
with the middle part of the trachea. The structure: of the organ for 
producing sound in the New Holland ostrich is therefore considered 
to be peculiar to that bird. 

As the animal from whence these observations were made was a male, 
the author was inclined to suppose that the peculiarity of voice did not 
belong to the female, which is usual in birds; but he has since ascer- 
tained that it belongs go both sexes, which is a still further deviation 


from common rule. 


VOL. vy.— 1836. H 


98 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


On the Foot of the ‘ Two-toed’ Ostrich (Struthio Camelus). By Henry 
Ritey, M.D. 


In this communication Dr. Riley showed that the number of toes in 
the foot of this bird was the same as that of the Cassowaries and the 
Nandua or Struthio Rhea. The difference observable is, that in Stru- 
thio Rhea the internal toe is fully developed, while in the ‘two-toed’ 
ostrich it is in a rudimentary state, and completely covered and con- 
cealed by the integuments of the foot. In the specimen exhibited (a 
young bird) there was a well defined condyle on the inner side of the 
phalangic extremity of the tarsal bone, smaller but similar in all other 
respects to the other two heads or condyles, serving the purpose of re- 
ceiving the first phalanges of the two toes already described by natu- 
ralists. Articulated with this condyle was a rudimentary toe about an 
inch and a half in length, and consisting of two phalanges; the first or 
tarsal phalange completely ossified, one inch long, cylindrical, and of 
the calibre of a crow’s quill. It was articulated with a second pha- 
lange, not yet ossified, cartilaginous, and barely half the length of the 
preceding. 


On the Manati or Cowfish of the Inland Waters of Guiana. By Joun 
Hancock, M.D. 


This communication contained the author’s observations on the na- 
tural history of the Manati, descriptions of the principal points of its 
remarkable organization, and habits of life. 

Mr. Curtis exhibited some specimens of the terminal shoots of a 
Pinus which had been attacked by the Hylurgus piniperda, and made 
some remarks upon the habits of this insect. 


Roserr Batt, Esq. of Dublin, exhibited for the purpose of eliciting 
information, several crania of a large species or rather genus of Seal, 
which had hitherto unaccountably escaped the notice of naturalists as a 
native animal, though very common on the coast of Ireland. 

Professor Nizsson of Lund pronounced the crania,to belong to the 
Halicherus griseus (synonymous with Phoca Gryphus of Fabricius), 
found in the Baltic, North Sea, and Iceland, and recorded as the type 
of a new genus in his Fauna Suecica. 

Mr. Batu also exhibited the skull of a seal taken on the coast of Sligo, 
agreeing with the principal descriptions of Phoca Vitulina, and much 
less common than the foregoing on the shores of Ireland; and Doctor 
Rirry produced the skeleton of a seal captured in the Severn, very di- 
stinct from the preceding (though under the same denomination). Pro- 
fessor Nitsson stated the former to be Phoca variegata, and the latter 
Phoca annellata, which with P. barbata had long been confounded 
under the name of P. Vitulina. , 


On Aranea avicularia. By S. Rootsry, M.D. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 99 


On the Probability that some of the earlu Notions of Antiquity were 
derived from Insects. By Rev. F. W. Hore. 

In this essay the author has endeavoured, by the aid of the knowledge 
now attained concerning the natural history of insects, to explain the 
origin of many remarkable and erroneous opinions prevalent among an- 
cient nations, such as equivocal generation, the transmigration of 
souls, &c. 


Notice of Sivteen Species of Testacea new to Scotland. By Mr. Forzss. 


Abstract of Dr. Pritchard’s Views of the Criteria by which Species are to 
- be distinguished in Zoology and Botany. By W.R.Canpenter, Esq. 


On the Means of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Substances. By 
James Macartney, M.D., F.R.S., &c. 


When dead bodies were obtained with great difficulty for dissec- 
tion, Dr. Macartney has preserved them in a state quite fit for the 
purpose upwards of two months before the time they were wanted, 
by injecting the arteries so forcibly that the cellular system received a 
part of the fluid. ‘The compound used for this purpose was a con- 
centrated solution of equal parts of alum, nitre, and common salt in 
water, and an equal quantity of proof spirit, to which the essential 
oil of lavender or of rosemary had been added in the proportion of 2 
to a quart of the spirit. When dead bodies have been thus prepared 
they are rendered incapable of the putrefactive process; they remain 
with an agreeable odour until they dry up or become mouldy, which 
may not take place for three or four months. 

When it becomes an object to preserve the whole body or a portion 
of it in a dried state, the injection above mentioned, either with or 
without the salt, according to circumstances, is to be used. The cu- 
ticle is then to be removed by scalding with hot water, and the 
surface having been washed over with the brown or impure pyrolig- 
neous acid, the preparation is exposed to dry air. 

Animal substances thus preserved on becoming dry acquire great 
hardness, and shrink but little; they appear to be perfectly impe- 
rishable, and more capable of resisting all external influences than the 
mummies of Egypt. 

If the injection be made with the salt, the forms fade so little that 
the resemblance of the original parts is retained, and if the prepa- 
ration*be coated over with a solution of wax in any of the essential 
oils, (which is found to be the best security against the exudation of 
the salt,) the part possesses considerable flexibility and softness. 

The empyreuma of the pyroligneous acid operates more suddenly 
and effectually than the smoke of burning wood, but in the same 
manner : thus, fish wiped over with it and hung up to dry, in a very 
short time acquires al/ the flavour and appearance of that cured by 
wood smoke, and hams or bacon washed over with the pyroligneous 
acid resemble those from Westphalia. For every purpose of preser- 

H 2 


100 SIXTH REPORT-—1836. 


vation Dr. Macartney has found this acid in the impure state quite 
as effectual as the creosote. 

Some very curious examples have been met with in Ireland of en- 
tire bodies being preserved in bogs very perfectly for a period probably 
amounting to many centuries. One of these bodies, in the posses- 
sion of the Royal Dublin Society, was clothed with an undressed 
skin only, fastened by a rude skewer in front, a national dress of 
which we have no account either by history or tradition. Another 
body has been more lately found eighteen feet under the surface of 
a bog in the county of Roscommon. It appeared to have belonged to 
a female of rank ; the dress was injured in taking it up, but the hair 
was tastefully arranged, and ornamented by a pin. Her shoes were thin 
and nicely made, with only one seam at the heel, a method of con- 
struction which Dr. Macartney believes is only met with in Eastern 
nations. Some bones which had been taken from a bog, and are in 
the author’s possession, exhibit a very curious change of composition, 
as if they were converted into wood, which appearance they retain even 
after being burned. (Specimens shown.) 

The different essential oils have great powers in preventing putre- 

faction of animal substances, and also of destroying the vegetable 
mould which forms on the surface of vegetable infusions and other 
fluids. Mr. Carlile has employed for preserving animal jelly or size 
a few drops of the essential oil of cloves and of rosemary with com- 
plete success. No animal matter goes sooner into putrefaction than 
size, yet it has been preserved perfectly sweet for more than a year by 
the addition of a very small quantity of essential oil: this fact ap- 
pears very important to scene painters and all artists using what are 
called body colours. Dr. Macartney has likewise used essential oils 
to prevent the mouldiness of paste and of solution of gum arabic. 
. In preparing the dried skins of quadrupeds it is customary to be- 
smear the inner surface of the skin with an arsenical paste, or with a 
solution of corrosive sublimate. Independently of the objection which 
exists to the employment of poisonous substances, it has been found 
that these means have not been always effectual in protecting the ex- 
ternal surface of the skins from the attacks of insects. The following 
is the process which Dr. Macartney has made use of: the skin in the 
first instance is immersed for two or three days in a concentrated so- 
lution of alum and nitre, which has the effect of partially tanning it ; 
next, both surfaces of the skin are wetted with the impure or brown 
pyroligneous acid; this hastens the drying, and when the skin is com- 
pletely dried it becomes exceedingly hard, and whether from this cir- 
cumstance, or from the presence of the empyreuma, it is found that 
insects of any description are not disposed to attack those so prepared. 
If any stain remain on the hair it may be removed by brushing the 
surface with camphorated spirits. 

It is known to botanists that it is impossible to preserve by the 
usual means the forms of massy or succulent plants ; in order to effect 
this object Dr. Macartney has employed a method which exceeded 
his expectations; it consists in dipping the flower fresh pulled into 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 101 


a mixture of the finest plaster of Paris and water, made about as 
thin as milk, or by coating the parts of the plant carefully with this mix- 
ture by a camel-hair brush: the plant on drying within this thin shell 
of plaster is easily detached, leaving the forms of the stamina, pistils, 
and petals in their natural position, with very little change of colour. 
Flowers thus preserved retain their peculiar odour for years, from which 
last circumstance it appears probable that this mode of drying vege- 
table productions would be found very valuable if employed for medi- 
cinal plants, roots, or fruits. 


On the Longevity of the Yew, and on the Antiquity of Planting it in Church~ 
yards. By J.E. Bowman, Esq. ‘ 


Being curious to ascertain how far the reputed longevity of the yew 
would be sustained by an examination of the annual rings of its trunk, 
and how far De Candolle’s average standard of increase at different 
periods of its growth was correct, the author measured the trunks of 
18 yews now standing in the churchyard of Gresford in North Wales, 
which were planted out in 1726, and found their average diameter to 
be 20 inches or 240 lines. By comparing these with the dimensions 
of others whose ages are also known, he came to the conclusion that 
for yews of moderate age, and where the circumference is less than six 
feet, at least two lines or 4th of an inch of their diameter should be 
allowed for annual increase, and even three lines or more if growing in 
favourable situations. De Candolle says this tree increases little more 
than one line in diameter annually during the first 150 years, and a little 
less than one line afterwards, and in very old specimens he considers 
their age to be at least equal to the number of lines in their diameter. 
This average is too high for young yews, and, as will presently be seen, 
too low for old ones. 

The author described a noble yew in Gresford churchyard whose 
mean diameter is eight feet six inches or 1224 lines, and whose age, 
by De Candolle’s method, would be as many years. Sections taken 
from different sides of its trunk contained as follows: 

Average number of annual rings) On the north side... 43 
per inch counted on the hon On the south side.. 46 
FODUAL DIADG ot nti savas ho On the 8. W. side. . 15 


giving a general average of 34% rings in an inch of the diameter. As- 
suming that this yew, when 120 years old, had a diameter equal to the 
average of the 18 already mentioned, and among which it grows, and 
that it continued to increase in the same ratio up to 150 years, and also 
making additional allowance for an intermediate rate of increase between 
150 and 250 years, we arrive at the following result: at 150 years old 
its diameter would be 25 inches, at 246 years old 33 inches, leaving 
five feet nine inches of the diameter for subsequent increase, the radius 
of which, at 34 rings to the inch, would contain 1173 rings or years’ 
growth. To this add 246, and its present age will be 1419 years. 

A still greater yew in Darley churchyard, Derbyshire, having a mean 
diameter of nine feet five inches, was next described. Sections taken 


102 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


from its north and south sides gave 44 annual rings in the inch, so that 
its radius would contain 2486 such rings, supposing them of equal 
thickness throughout ; but making the same deductions as before, its 
present age may be estimated at about 2006 years. 

This examination shows the Gresford yew to be about 200, and that 
at Darley about 650 years older than De Candolle’s standard of one 
line per annum of the diameter would indicate, and consequently that 
for old trees his average is too low. Italso shows that the Darley tree, 
with a greater diameter than the other of only 11 inches, is 587 years 
older, the excess arising from the extreme thinness of its annual de- 
posits. No precise rule can therefore be laid down, and actual sections 
must be resorted to if anything like accuracy be required. Even this 
plan is liable to errors, unless sections from different sides of the tree be 
obtained, owing to the great and constantly recurring inequality in the 
thickness and parallelism of the rings. The same ring often alternately 
swells out and contracts several times in the course of its circuit round 
the trunk, and groups or fascicles of rings also do so as if by common 
consent, while other neighbouring series or individual rings, both within 
and without, will be thickest where the first were thinnest, and vice versd. 
Other sources of error are also pointed out. 

Mr. Bowman considers the custom of planting the yew in church- 
yards to be of very high antiquity, anterior even to the introduction of 
Christianity. It is well known that this tree was used by our Pagan 
ancestors as a substitute for the cypress, both in religious rites and to 
place upon the graves of their deceased friends; it was indeed consi- 
dered scarcely less sacred than their temples near which it was planted. 
On their conversion to Christianity these temples were not destroyed, 
but by an express order from Pope Gregory were converted into Chris- 
tian churches, the better to reconcile them to the change. For the same 
reason the sacred yew remained unmolested. 


Abstract of Observations on the Marsiliacee. By G. Luoyp, M.D. 


Finding in authors many contradictory statements on the nature 
of the organs of reproduction in this small but interesting order of 
plants, and having last year, for the first time, had an opportunity of 
examining Pilularia globulifera, the only British species (since Isoetes is 
transferred to the Lycopodiacez), Dr. Lloyd was induced to endeavour 
to ascertain their true nature. 

Without going into a lengthened detail of the structure of the 
involucre and its contents, it is necessary to state that when opened | it 
is found to contain two distinct kinds of seed-like bodies, differing in 
size, shape and structure, the larger being the true seeds, and the small- 
er appearing to perform an office similar to that of the anthers of phe- 
nogamous plants. The smaller bodies make no discernible attempt 
at germination under any circumstances, The seeds of Pilularia germi- 
nate when taken from the involucre previous to its natural bursting, and 
when entirely separated from the smaller bodies or granules ; so that if 
any impregnation be essential to the perfecting of the seed, it must take 
place within the involucre, and not after dispersion in water, as some 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 1038 


have supposed. To determine the manner of germination, some seeds 
were placed in water in watch glasses, seeds alone, and seeds with 
granules, in separate glasses, and in a few days the seeds appeared 
swollen about the apex, which became of a blackish brown colour, and 
in a few days more a green point presented itself in a direction vertical 
to the axis of the seed and became a leaf. The leaf having attained 
about half an inch in length a white radicle appeared in the opposite 
direction. When the root had grown about half an inch the young 
plants all died, probably from exposure to too much light, and from being 
deprived of other advantages which soil might afford. Suspecting this 
might be the cause, a glass vessel was nearly filled with mud and water, 
which was covered by a bell glass, and a number of seeds placed on the 
surface of the mud and others buried a little below: germination soon 
commenced, but in this experiment the first leaf proceeded at right an- 
gles to the axis of the seed. The leaf invariably appeared before the 
radicle. In about a week a second leaf and radicle, and again a third 
appeared, with a rudiment of an horizontal stem, proceeding from the 
point of union between the first leaf and root. The seed or rather the 
external covering remained attached to the plants for many weeks. 
The number of leaves and roots previous to the appearance of the stem 
is uncertain in different plants. The first leaf is perfectly straight from 
its first commencement, but all succeeding leaves are coiled after the 
manner of the fronds of ferns. 

The plants obtained from the latter experiment are still growing, 
_ though indicating no signs of fructification at present. 

The embryo in all cases proceeds from one determinate point at the 
apex of the seed, which is plainly discernible in the seed in all its 
stages of development, at first in the shape of a minute conical point, 
gradually contracting and flattening ; and when the seed is matured it 
appears like a circular opening closed by minute converging teeth, 
through which the seminal leaf protrudes. The circulation of the sap 
seems to be carried on chiefly by endosmose and exosmose, as the sub- 
stance of the stems and leaves consists for the most part of oblong cells 
of various sizes, their extremities being closed; but in the centre of 
both stem and leaf may be observed a bundle of vessels of minute 
dimensions which appear to be ducts. No spiral vessels could be 
detected. Professor Lindley has noticed ducts in Marsilia. The de- 
velopment of the seminal leaf in Pilularia before the radicle is analogous 
to the germination of some of the Cyperacee, as, according to Mirbel, 
in Scirpus sylvaticus, &c. The habit of this plant also resembles some 
of the species of that order. When it is considered that so many of the 
essential characters of the cellulares do not apply to the Marsiliacez, as 
in the plant in question, the embryo proceeding uniformly from a deter- 
minate point of the seed, the stems and leaves being vascular, and no 
other order of the cellulares having a true stem or so perfect an or- 
ganization, it leads to the conclusion that this order is intermediate be- 
tween the monocotelydons and the cellulares, or at least first among 
the latter, as Mirbel and some other continental botanists have placed it. 


104. SIXTH REPORT —1836. 


Abstract of a Paper on Alcyonella Stagnorum. By biererers: PRIDGIN 
Traxe, of Leeds. 

In this paper it was stated that from August to November, 1835, the 
Alcyonella was found in great abundance in a pond near Leeds, having 
never previously been observed in that district. It occurred in masses 
of considerable size, incrusting stones, leaves, twigs, earthenware, &c. 
‘Lhe author described the anatomical peculiarities of the polype, digest- 
ive apparatus, and reproductive system. 

The paper was illustrated by drawings, and numerous specimens, and 
preparations in spirit. 

A more detailed account of the structure, habits, and literary history 
of this zoophyte was read by Mr. Teale before the Leeds Philosophical 
and Literary Society, and is published in the fasciculus of Transactions 
of that Society. 

The animal was supposed to be new to Great Britain, unless it be 
proved, as maintained by Raspail, that Plumatella and Cristatella are 
varieties of Alcyonella. 


Mr. Mackay read a communication he had received from John Nut- 
tall, Esq., of Tittour, county of Wicklow, ‘‘ On the management of 
the Pine tribe,” in which he stated that having observed almost all the 
plants of Pinus sylvestris and other species, when planted in a light clay 
slate soil on exposed situations, grow too rapidly, or out of proportion to 
their rooting, and thereby became windwaved, and that those which by 
accident had lost their leaders took a strong hold of the ground, he 
commenced a series of experiments as follows. In the spring, when 
the buds were fully developed, he went over those that were suffer- 
ing from the foregoing causes, and broke off all the buds except those 
on short branches. By this process their upward growth is checked for 
a year, the trunk increases in bulk, and the plant roots much more freely 
than if the shoots had been allowed to grow. New buds are formed 
during the summer, and in the following spring these plants present the 
most vigorous aspect. 

The larch he cuts down to a strong lateral branch, on the windward 
side, when possible. These soon begin to spread their roots, increase 
in size similarly, and ultimately become choice trees. In some instances 
he has cut them down a second time, when he found it necessary, and 
with equally good effect. 


On a new and scandent Species of the Norantia, or Ascium of Guiana. 
By Joun Hancock, M.D. 
This species of Ascium, which constitutes a remarkable and splendid 


climber (‘ Bush rope,’) in the forests of Guiana, was minutely de- 
scribed. 


Notice of Experiments, now in progress at Oxford, on the Effects pro- 
duced by Arsenic on Vegetation. By C. Dausuny, M.D., Professorof 
Botany, Oxford. 


Dr. Daubeny was led to undertake these experiments from having 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 105 


received a communication from Mr. Davies Gilbert, in which he stated 
that there was a district in Cornwall where the soil contained a large 
proportion of arsenic; and that no plants could grow in it except some 
of the Leguminose. By analysis, this soil yielded him about fifty per 
cent. of arsenic, in the form of a sulphuret; the rest being composed 
principally of sulphuret of iron and a little silica. He had already as- 
certained that a little of the sulphuret mixed in soils produced no inju- 
rious effect on Sinapis alba, barley, or beans; and that they flowered 
and seeded freely when grown in it. Although the want of solubility 
in the sulphuret might be assigned as a reason for its inactivity, yet it 
was certainly taken up by water in small quantities, and imbibed by the 
roots of plants. Upon watering them with a solution of arsenious acid 
he had found that they would bear it in larger proportions than was 
presupposed. 


On Caoutchouc. By Professor Royux. 


Professor Royle stated that he had been induced to draw up the sub- 
stance of the present communication in consequence of a conversation 
which he had lately held with the director of an extensive establish- 
ment for the manufacture of this substance into various articles of com- 
merce, from whom he learned that the demand at present exceeded the 
supply. Professor Royle asserted that, in the East, there might be any 
quantity of the article procured from a great variety of plants, if the 
natives could only be induced to collect it with sufficient care. The 
South American caoutchouc is generally collected with so much greater 
care than that from the East Indies that it bears a very much higher 
price in the market. That from the latter country is of excellent qua- 
lity, but generally much mixed with a considerable quantity of dirt, 
bark of the tree, and other extraneous matter. Professor Royle then 
enumerated several of the uses to which caoutchouc is now applied, and 
stated that the East Indian kind, from its great impurity, can only be 
used for the purposes of distilling from it the volatile spirit caoutchou- 
cine. At the present time, the article from the East is selling at 2d. 
per pound, whilst that from Para fetches from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per pound. 
It is very remarkable that a substance so incorruptible in water, and so 
insensible to a variety of chemical re-agents, should have remained so 
long unknown in Europe. Professor Royle then recapitulated the chief 
circumstances of its early commercial history, and the method employed 
for procuring and preparing it. The substance is probably also pro- 
duced in the southern parts of China, and is now exported from the 
island of Singapore. The Mauritius, Madagascar, Java, Penang, were 
then instanced as other localities from whence caoutchouc was obtained, 
and reference was made to the manner in which it was prepared in the 
latter country. By experimenting upon other species of the same fami- 
lies as those which were known to contain caoutchouc, it would pro- 
bably be found that the list of plants from which it could be obtained 
might soon be much increased. Professor Royle then mentioned 
those families in which it had already been observed to exist in greater 


106 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


or less proportion. These were, the Cichoracex, Lobeliaceze, Apocynee, 
Asclepiadez, Euphorbiaceze, Artocarpee. It is remarkable that many 
plants of the families which yield caoutchouc are characterized by the 
strength and tenacity of their fibre, and in tropical countries birdlime 
is prepared from plants of the same families. These observations, con- 
nected with the fact that the silkworm feeds on several plants of the 
families which yield the caoutchouc, though otherwise little allied to each 
other, induced Mr. Royle to suppose that this substance might possibly 
form a necessary ingredient in those plants upon which only they can 
feed, and that it was in some way employed in furnishing the material 
from which the tenacity was given to their silk. This induced him to 
inquire whether caoutchouc existed in their favourite food the mulberry, 
and a friend having analysed the juices of this plant, substantiated the 
validity of his conjecture. 


On the Acceleration of the Growth of Wheat. By G. Wess Hatt, Esq. 


The usual period required for the growth and maturity of wheat 
(eight, ten, or even more months,) might, according to the results of 
experiments conducted by Mr. Hall, be considerably abridged. By 
the use of particular seed, planted in a peculiar situation, wheat, sown 
early in March, has been ripened before the middle of August. Mr. Hall 
is of opinion that, in consequence of the transmission of special quali- 
ties from plants to their seeds, the seeds of wheat which had ripened in 
five months would be more likely to exhibit a like acceleration than 
grain taken from plants which had been longer in ripening. 


Notice of Crystals of Sugar found in Rhododendron ponticum. By Pro- 
JSessor HensLow. 


Some crystalline fragments of pure white and transparent sugar, re- 
sembling sugar-candy, and of considerable dimensions, which had been 
naturally formed in the flowers of Rhododendron ponticum, were exhibited 
by Professor Henslow. There is a mimute glandular spot near the base, 
and on the upper surface of the ovarium, from whence exudes a thick 
clammy juice, which, on desiccation, crystallizes into the substance here 
mentioned. 


On the Fruits, cultivated and wild, of the Deccan, in the East Indies. 
By Lieut.-Col. Syxes. 


The author stated that they amounted to forty-five cultivated (many 
of which are found wild also), and twenty-one wild fruits. They were 
illustrated by many drawings which were formed from careful measures, 
and had scales of length attached to them. The times of flowering and 
fruiting were mentioned, and the uses of the various fruits in the arts, in 
the general economy of the people; and, deriving his intelligence from 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 107 


several ancient Sanscrit works, the authordetailed their medical qualities 
according to the opinion of the Hindus; and enumerated the religious 
ceremonies and ideas with which the plants and their products were asso- 
ciated. He found the Annona, Anacardium, and Carica in universal 
cultivation, although they are supposed to be natives of the Western 
world. He described what he considered to be the original of the Citrus 
family, as abounding in the wild state as a good-sized tree along the 
Western Ghauts of the Deccan; and he stated the wild nutmeg to be 
a noble forest tree at the source of the Beema river. Colonel Sykes 
gave, also, the names of various fruits in the Mahratta, Sanscrit, and 
Hindustanee languages; and noticed that, wherever a Sanscrit name 
was wanting, the probability was that the fruit was not indigenous. 

It appeared there were three kinds of mulberry, the species of one 
of which was unknown; and it was suggested that the Deccan afforded 
a fine field for their cultivation, and the profitable production of silk. 


On Sugar, Malt, and an Ardent Spirit extracted from Mangel Wurzel. 
By 8. Rootsry, M.D. 


On the Formation of Peat. By Mr.Purtrs. (Illustrated by Specimens.) 
On Imbibition of Prussiate of Potash by Plants. By Dr. Corser. 


Many specimens illustrative of particular subjects in Natural History 
were presented by Mr. Hope, Mr. Bowman, Mr. Hewitson, Mr. Ball, 
Dr. Riley, Mr. Yates, Dr. Tyarck, Mr. Mackay, &c. &c. 


MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
On the Treatment of some Diseases of the Brain. By Dr. J.C. Pricuarp. 


After a general view of the state of knowledge as to the efficacy and 
modus operandi of the remedies and methods of treatment usually em- 
ployed in these diseases, the author gave the following account of a 
process adopted in the Bristol Infirmary. 

As the means which are within our reach for treating disorders of 
the encephalon are so circumscribed, it appears so much the more ne- 
cessary to endeavour to apply in the most efficacious manner such re- 
sources as we possess. I am not disposed to believe that any material 
improvement can be made in the ordinary rules for the use of evacuants 
or measures of depletion, but I have no doubt that an important ad- 
vantage may be gained by directing, in a particular manner, the mode 
of counter-irritation, and it is chiefly with the view of recommending 
this attempt that I have premised the foregoing remarks. Long ex- 


108 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


perience has convinced me that the most efficacious way of applying 
counter-irritation in diseases of the brain is a method not often practised 
in other places, which has been for many years in almost, constant use 
at the Bristol Infirmary. An objection would probably arise in the 
minds of those who have not witnessed the application of this remedy 
on account of its apparent severity. I hope to convince the Medical 
Section, and through this opportunity to make more general than would 
otherwise be done, the persuasion that the method of treatment to which 
I refer is by no means so painful or severe a remedy as it might be 
supposed to be, and that it greatly exceeds in efficacy all other means 
by which physicians have attempted to relieve diseases of the brain on 
a similar principle. The application I recommend is an issue produced 
either by means of a soft caustic, or what is much better, by an incision 
over the scalp. The incision is most frequently made in the direction 
of the sagittal suture, from the summit of the forehead to the occiput. 
The scalp is divided down to the pericranium. The incision, when that 
method is used, or the aperture left by the slough, when caustic is em- 
ployed, is kept open by the insertion of one or two, or in some instances 
three rows of peas. The discharge thus occasioned is considerable, 
and it obviously takes place from vessels which communicate very freely 
with the vessels of the encephalon. It would appear, @ priori, very 
probable that an issue in this particular region, just over the sagittal 
suture, would have a greater effect on the state of the brain than in 
any other situation, and the result of very numerous trials has abund- 
antly established the fact. I can venture to assert, that in all those 
cases of a cerebral disease in which counter-irritation is at all an avail- 
able remedy, an issue of the kind now described is, next to bleeding, by 
far the most important of all the means which have yet been, or are 
likely to be discovered. The kinds of cerebral disease in which counter- 
irritation is beneficial, include, according to my experience, all those 
complaints which are accompanied by usual stupor or dimitriotical sen- 
sibility, excluding all affections, attended by over-excitement, such as 
maniacal and hysterical diseases. In the latter, I believe all such mea- 
sures to be for the most part highly injurious. 

A case has lately occurred in my practice at the Bristol Infirmary, 
which strongly exemplifies the efficacy of the treatment which I have 
recommended, and which I have fortunately an opportunity of bringing 
before the Medical Section in the most convincing way. A youth’ 
about eighteen came into the Infirmary labouring under complete 
amaurosis, which had been coming on gradually for a week or ten days 
before his admission. At that time it had become so complete that 
vision was entirely lost, and the pupils were totally insensible to light 
even when the rays of the sun were suffered to fall immediately into the 
open eyes. At first he was freely and repeatedly bled from the arm 
and temporal artery, had leeches applied to the scalp, blisters to the 
nape of the neck, and took calomel so as to render his gums sore. 
Finding that no effect whatever was produced by these measures, I 
gave up the expectation which I had at first entertained of his recovering 
sight, but was resolved to give the remedies a complete trial. I ordered 


ce ey 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 109 


him to be bled, ad deliguium. This took place after a small quantity 
of blood had flowed from his arm while he was in an erect posture. 
After a few days, he was still perfectly dark: an incision was now 
made over the sagittal suture from the forehead to the occiput. It 
was filled with peas. In three or four days, precisely at the time when 
suppuration began to take place, the patient declared that he perceived 
light, but was scarcely believed, since the pupils were still widely dilated 
and quite insensible to a strong light. In the course of a few days it 
Was quite evident that he saw ; he could tell when two or three fingers 
were held up. For some weeks the iris was still quite irritable, though 
vision had become in a great degree restored. 

The subsequent treatment of the case consisted chiefly in occasional 
leechings, purging, and low diet: when the issue healed, which was 
not till it had been kept open for some months, a seton in the neck was 
substituted. Under this treatment the case has terminated in a complete 
recovery of the blessings of sight. 


Abstract of an Unpublished Work on Tetanus. By James O’Berryez, M.D. 
Surgeon Extraordinary to the King, &c. &c., Dublin. 


{ ‘Dr. O’Beirne commenced by showing the very extensive opportunities 
which he had enjoyed, both in his military and civil life, of observing 
and treating this most fatal and mysterious disease, the laborious re- 
search, and the patient and strictly clinical observation which he had 
devoted to the investigation of the subject from a very early period, 
particularly for the last fifteen years. He then repudiated all other 
species of the malady than the traumatic and the idiopathic, to the latter 
of which he applied the term ‘‘ atraumatic,” as being more expressive 
and scientific. He admitted no such varieties as trismus, tetanus, rectus, 
or pleurosthotonos, recognising only opisthotonos and emprosthotonos. 
Instead of dividing the latter varieties into acute and chronic, he pro- 
posed dividing them into the peracute, acute, subacute, and chronic. 
He agreed with most authors upon the causes, but considered certain 
unknown electrical states of the atmosphere as the most general and 
operative. The extreme periods of the accession of the traumatic 
species, he stated to be the fourth and seventeenth days from the inflic- 
tion of the wound, and also stated that it never attacks after the cica- 
trization of a wound, or during an inflamed state of a wound, and that 
it does not supervene upon burns, scalds, military flogging, or other in- 
juries of the skin which do not penetrate the fascize or the muscles. He 
asserted the general character of the disease to be the same in all 
climates and countries, and to have been the same inallages. He de- 
nied the existence of any premonitory symptoms, and stated that the 
disease is never ushered in or attended by cutaneous eruptions, or by 
any febrile symptoms; that it has no tendency whatever either to crisis 
or to sudden disappearance; and that recovery invariably takes place 
slowly, the period varying from eighteen days to seven, eight, and even 
nine weeks. After making these and many. other novel statements re- 
specting the attack, course, and termination of the malady, he described, 


110 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


with great minuteness, all the phenomena of the disease, and the general 
laws by which it is regulated, in order to show what constitutes genuine 
tetanus ; and, amongst other interesting facts, he mentioned that he has 
seen the peculiar tetanic expression of the face retained for fourteen 
years. (Here a lithographic representation of the face of a patient, 
during and between the tetanic paroxysms, was exhibited to the sec- 
tion). 

He considered the singular alteration of the countenance to be the 
only true pathognomonic sign of the disease, and declared the pheno- 
mena and laws of this affection to be more uniform and definite than 
those of any other. He considered that there were many strong reasons 
for believing that the degree of general suffering which the patient 
endures, is by no means so great as is universally supposed, or as the 
external and very frightful characters of the malady would seem to in- 
dicate. He then stated, that, after post-mortem examinations made in 
several cases of opisthotonos, and which he knew to be genuine, the 
only morbid or abnormal appearances were great distension of the 
cxcum and colon, and rigid contraction of the rectum; but that in cases of 
emprosthotonos, either the heart or lungs, or both of these organs, were 
always found more or less diseased. He next showed the extraordinary 
extent to which the disease has been confounded with injuries of the 
temple, face, mouth, and pharynx, and with hysteria, rheumatism, 
spinal irritation, spinal arachnitis, cynanche tonsillaris, and a peculiar 
affection to which he gave the name of, “ pseudotetanus.” He also 
showed how satisfactorily the knowledge of such mistakes explained 
numerous perplexing circumstances relating to the pathology and treat- 
ment of the disease. 

Dr. O’Beirne then described the difficulties which he had encoun- 
tered in founding a correct pathology of tetanus, the means and steps 
by which he was enabled to overcome those difficulties, and ulti- 
mately to arrive at a satisfactory solution of those long contested and 
unsettled points, the seat and nature of the malady. He placed its seat 
in the substance of the anterior columns of the spinal marrow, and 
showed that its nature is purely functional, and consists in either an 
accumulated or a peculiarly intense condition of the motific principle 
residing in the anterior spinal columns or pyramids, and perhaps their 
prolongation to the optic thalami and striated bodies. But he considered 
that an affection of the origin of the pneumogastric nerves is super- 
added in cases of emprosthotonos. The remedial agents which he em- 
ploys he stated to be tobacco, the gum-elastic tube, and croton oil, and 
then mentioned the rules which should guide their employment, and 
without a knowledge of which life might be sacrificed at the very mo- 
ment of success. He next laid before the Section a tabular view of 
twenty cases treated upon his plan, from which it appeared that eleven 
had terminated in perfect recovery. From this document it also ap- 
peared that, of the remaining nine fatal cases, one would have been 
successful if the use of the tube had been known at the time, while in 
six others it was found that the patients had laboured under organic 
disease of either the heart or the lungs for a long period previous to 


; 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 111 


the attack of tetanus. He then asserted this amount of success to be 
far greater than had ever been obtained, and that the uncomplicated 
disease is no longer to be considered as either incurable or mysterious. 
Dr. O’Beirne concluded by stating that Mr. Walker, a veterinary sur- 
geon of Dublin, to whom he had communicated his mode of treating 
the disease in man, had succeeded in recovering seventy-three horses 
affected with tetanus. 


On the Cause, the Prevention, and the Cure of Cataract. By Sir D. 
Brewster, F.R.S., &c. 


_ Having submitted to the Physical Section an account of a singular 
change of structure produced by the action of distilled water upon the 
crystalline lens after death, Sir D. Brewster was desirous of communi- 
eating to the medical section some views which this, and previous 
observations, have led him to entertain respecting the cause and the 
prevention and cure of cataract. 

** The change of structure to which I have referred consists in the de- 
velopment of a negative polarizing band or ring between the two posi- 
tive rings nearest the centre of the lens; the gradual encroachment of 
this new structure upon the original polarizing structure of the lens; 
and the final bursting of the lens after it had swelled to almost a globu- 
lar form by the absorption of distilled water. 

“ As the crystalline lens floats in its capsule there can be no doubt 
that it is nourished by the absorption of the water and albumen of the 
aqueous humour, and that its healthy condition must depend on the 
relative proportion of these ingredients. When the water is in excess 
the lens will grow soft, and may even burst by its over absorption, and 
when the supply of water is too scanty, the lens will, as it were, dry and 
indurate, the fibres and laminz formerly in optical contact will sepa- 
rate, and the light being reflected at their surfaces, the lens will neces- 
sarily exhibit that white opacity which constitutes the common cataract. 

“« This defect in the healthy secretion of the aqueous humour, as well 
as the disposition of the lens to soften or to indurate by the excess or de- 
fect of water, may occur at any period of life, and may arise from the 
general state of health of the patient; but itis most likely to occur be- 
tween the ages of 40 and 60, when the lens is known to experience that 
change in its condition which requires the use of spectacles. At this 
period the eye requires to be carefully watched, and to be used with great 


caution; and if any symptoms appear of a separation of the fibres or 


laminze, those means should be adopted which, by improving the general 


‘health, are most likely to restore the aqueous humour to its usual state. 


Nothing is more easy than to determine at any time the sound state of 
the crystalline lens ; and by the examination of a small luminous image 
placed at a distance, and the interposition of minute apertures and 
minute opake bodies of a spherical-form, it is easy to ascertain the exact 
point of the crystalline where the fibres and laminz have begun to sepa- 
rate, and to observe from day to day whether the disease is gaining 
ground or disappearing. 


112 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


‘In so far as I know, cataract in its early stages, when it may be 
stopped or cured, has never been studied by medical men; and even 
when it is discovered, and exhibits itself in white opacity, the oculist 
does not attempt to reunite the separating fibres, but waits with pa- 
tience till the lens is ready to be couched or extracted. 

“* Considering cataract, therefore, as a disease which arises from the 
unhealthy secretion of the aqueous humour, I have no hesitation in say- 
ing that it may be resisted in its early stages, and in proof of this I may 
adduce the case of my own eye, in which the disease had made consi- 
derable progress. One evening I happened to fix my eye on a very 
bright light, and was surprised to see round the flame a series of brightly 
coloured prismatic images, arranged symmetrically and in reference to 
the septa to which the fibres of the lens are related. This phenomenon 
alarmed me greatly, as I had observed the very same images in looking 
through the lenses of animals partially indurated, and in which the fibres 
had begun to separate. These images became more distinct from day 
to day, and lines of white light of an irregular triangular form afterwards 
madetheir appearance. By stopping out the bad parts of the lens byinter- 
posing a small opake body sufficient to prevent the light from falling 
upon it, the vision became perfect, and by placing an aperture of the 
same size in the same position, so as to make the light fall only on the 
diseased part of the lens, the vision entirely failed. 

« Being now quite aware of the nature and locality of the disease 
though no opacity had taken place so as to appear externally, I 
paid the greatest attention to diet and regimen, and abstained from 
reading at night, and all exposure of the eyes to fatigue or strong 
lights. These precautions did not at first produce any decided 
change in the optical appearances occasioned by the disease; but 
in about eight months from its commencement I saw the coloured 
images and the luminous streaks disappear in a moment, indicating in 
the most unequivocal manner that the vacant space between the fibres 
or laminz had been filled up with a fluid substance transmitted through 
the capsule from the aqueous humour. These changes took place at 
that period of life when the eye undergoes that change of condition 
which requires the use of glasses, andI have no doubt that the incipient 
separation of the laminz would have terminated in confirmed cataract 
had it not been observed in time, and its progress arrested by the means 
already mentioned. Since that time the eye, though exposed to the 
hardest work, has preserved its strength, and is now as serviceable as it 
had ever been. 

“ If the cataract had made greater progress, and resisted the simple 
treatment which was employed, I should not have hesitated to puncture 
the cornea, in the expectation of changing the condition of the aqueous 
humour by its evacuation, or even of injecting distilled water or an al- 
buminous solution into the aqueous cavity.” 


On the Nature and Origin of Cancerous and Tuberculous Diseases. By 
R. CarMIcHAEL. 
Mr. Carmichael having stated that the averaged mortality in these 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 113 


islands arising from tuberculous diseases amounts to one-fourth of the 
entire population, proceeded to describe the appearances of tubercles in 
the lungs, and entered into a consideration of the prevailing doctrine 
respecting their nature, viz., that they are inorganizable bodies consist- 
ing of lymph of a vitiated character, and analogous in every respect to 
the depositions which take place in scrofulous tumours near the surface 
of the body, and that therefore those most influential authorities, Clarke, 


_ Carswell, and Todd, insist upon the actual identity of the two diseases. 


From this opinion Mr. Carmichael altogether dissents, although willing 
to admit that the scrofulous constitution is above all others most dis- 
posed to tuberculous consumption, and argues from the following facts 
that tubercles are parasitic entozooa, in the possession of independent 
life, and no further connected with the animal in which they are lodged 
than that they draw from it the materials of their growth, which they 
imbibe and assimilate by their own innate powers. 

1. Scrofulous tumours are preceded and attended by more or less 
inflammation, which tubercles are not, asis admitted even by those who 
contend for the identity of the two diseases. 

2. Tubercles either present the appearance of grey semi-transparent 
vesicles, or of round compact granular-like bodies.of a medullary ap- 
pearance, totally unlike the depositions that are formed in scrofulous 
tumours ; but when they are clustered together in great numbers they 
may be compressed into each other, so as to give the appearance 
of an extended inorganized substance, and in such a state may be 
moulded into the form of the parts in which they are found ; a cir- 
cumstance that has afforded an argument not deemed conclusive. by 
Mr. Carmichael in favour of the opinion that the tuberculous substance 
is nothing more than vitiated lymph or strumous matter. 

3. Tubercles cannot be injected (as was evinced by the prepara- 
tions laid before the Meeting), while no one will contend that scro- 
fulous tumours are not easily injected; therefore, as the former have 
no communication by vessels with the surrounding parts, and as they 
increase sometimes even to an enormous extent, it is inferred that their 
production and growth depend upon their internal powers, by which they 
imbibe nourishment from the surrounding parts. 

4. The tuberculous substance, as long as it maintains life, will not 
give the stimulus of an extraneous body, as is exemplified by the facts 
adduced respecting the Filia medinensis, or Guinea worm; but when it 
dies it causes inflammation and its consequences in the surrounding 
parts: the softening process then takes place in the tuberculous sub- 
stance, which (when these bodies are produced in the lungs) is either 
expectorated by its making its way into the bronchial tubes in the 
form of a peculiar well known tenacious matter which has neither the © 
properties of pus nor mucus, or it is absorbed, leaving scarcely more 
behind than the earthy particles it contained, which appear in the con- 
sistence of chalk and water, or soft putty, lodged in a shrivelled carti- 
laginous cyst. 

5. Pathologists and chemists agree in the fact that a large proportion 
of phosphate and carbonate of lime is found in tubercles, and it is 

I 


114 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


therefore common to find them at their last transmutation changed into 
a mixture resembling chalk and water, or even into solid calcareous or 
bony concretions. Now as these substances are not found in coagula- 
ble lymph, but are furnished in large quantities in the last transmuted 
state of hydatids (acknowledged animals), a strong argument is thus 
afforded against the present opinions respecting tubercles, and in favour 
of those which the author supports. 

6. By feeding rabbits on unhealthy diet, in damp places where they 
are deprived of exercise, hydatids and medullary tubercles will be pro- 
duced in the course of a few months in the organs of the different cavities. 
Doctors Jenner and Baron were thus able to produce hydatids, which 
were afterwards transmuted into solid bodies. Mr. Carmichael by a 
similar experiment ascertained that medullary tubercles might also be 
produced ; and therefore, though he has no doubt but that tubercles are 
frequently transmuted hydatids, yet he infers from his experiments that 
they are also as often found ab initio in the medullary solid form. 

7. It is only on the principle of the parasitic origin and growth of 
the tubercle, that we can satisfactorily account for those enormous 
masses of tuberculous growth found in the abdomen and elsewhere, 
which are not connected by vessels with the surrounding parts, are not 
occasioned by inflammation, and which only destroy the patient by their 
increase to an extent that interferes with the functions of the organs 
in which they are imbedded or surrounded. 

In a work on cancer, published in 1806, Mr. Carmichael advocated 
the independent vitality of that disease. At that period he supposed 
that the entire mass was of zoophytic nature. He has now:ascertained 
that there are two distinct substances in the cancerous mass,—the one 
medullary, the other cartilaginous. The first he considers to be the true 
entozooa; the last, which is capable of being injected, is part of the 
parent animal, and the barrier which it throws out to protect it from 
the progress of this entozooa. In cancer the great bulk of the morbid 
growth is cartilaginous; in fungus medullaris and fungus hematodes 
it is medullary. Hence the more rapid progress and destructive nature 
of the latter, which may generally be esteemed as constitutional, or 
owing to some fault in the habit ; and hence the ill success attendant 
upon all attempts to remove the disease by surgical operation. 

The author observes: ‘‘If my views of these diseases are correct 
and founded in nature, another, but a lower link will be added to the 
entozooa, which according to Cuvier belongs to the second class of zoo- 
phytes.” 

The following species may at present be enumerated : 

lst. Tubercle of the lungs and other parts, whether commencing in 
the form of a grey semi-transparent vesicle or of a whitish medullary 
substance. 

2nd. Masses of tuberculous matter in the abdomen, which either 
commence in the hydatid form, or in that of medullary tubercle; these 
are called by Dr. Baron tuberculated accretions. 

8rd. Fungus medullaris and fungus hematodes. 

4th. Carcinoma. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 115 


» Under these views Mr. Carmichael proceeded to offer some general 
suggestions on the subject of medical treatment in the diseases discussed, 
and referred to a work on scrofula which he had published in 1806. 


On the Structure of the Teeth, with an Account of the process of their 
Decay. By James Macartney, M.D., F.R.S., &c. 


It is universally known that human teeth are composed of two sub- 
stances, one which determines the figure of the teeth, and another 
superposed on the surface subjected to friction. Anatomists agree in 
considering the first of these as the production of the peculiar structure 
called the pulp, and the enamel as the secretion of the capsule or mem- 
branous bag which inclosed the pulp, and the rudiments of the proper 
substance of the teeth. All the other natural forms of osseous matter, 
whether they be original or provided for reparation, are preceded by a 
nidus or preliminary tissue, which is either of a gelatinous or cartila- 
ginous nature; for Dr. Macartney has ascertained that the bones of the 
eranium are produced, like all the others in the body, by the deposition 
of earthy matter in a cartilaginous substance, which is previously formed 
between the dura mater and the periosteum of the skull. The teeth 
therefore in all essential circumstances differ from common bone, and 
more nearly resemble in their mode of growth, and their natural tem- 
porary existence, the external coverings of the body. 

The pulps of teeth are known to be very vascular, and so sensible 
that they are popularly called the nerves of the teeth. When a pulp 
is successfully injected with size and. vermilion, and examined in a soft 
state, it appears of a pink colour, as if it were stained throughout, in- 
stead of deriving its colour from vessels charged with the matter of the 
injection. In this circumstance it differs from the capsule, which ex- 
hibits, after injection, distinct though numerous red vessels. If, how- 
ever, the pulp be dried on glass, its fine vessels become so apparent, 
that their arrangement can be easily seen. Dr. Macartney has been en- 
abled to see the disposition of the nerves in the pulp by the same 
means he has employed for rendering visible the ultimate arrangement 
of the nervous filaments in the brain. Thus if a section be made of the 
pulp ina recent state and a solution of alum applied for a few minutes, 
and the part examined with a lens, a number of white filaments appear 
at the base of the pulp. These coalesce,below the middle, so as to form a 
whitish cloud, from whence more distinct filaments radiate in great num- 
bers towards the surface of the pulp. This appearance may be considered 
as a ganglion of the most delicate structure in the nervous system, and 
fully explains the high degree of sensibility possessed by the pulps of 
teeth, and also the sympathy which is known.to exist between them 
and the rest of the nervous system. 

_ After discovering the structure of the pulps of the teeth, and com- 

paring it with the inferior degree of organization which belongs to the 

capsule, Dr. Macartney is disposed to attribute the irritation which 

so often attends the eruption of the teeth to pressure on the pulp, 
1 2 


116 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


rather than to the tension of the capsule, against which opinion the 
immediate relief obtained by cutting the gum and capsule forms no 
argument, as this operation would also have the effect of liberating 
the pulp from pressure. When we contemplate the ultimate structure 
of the nerves in the pulp, and consider that they are branches of so 
complex a nerve as the fifth, we see sufficient cause for the numerous 
morbid feelings and actions which may attend the development of 
the teeth, and we may admit their connection with this event to the 
extent supposed by Dr. Ashburner in his ingenious little work on 
dentition. 

In the teeth we have an example of an animal substance resembling 
the cartilaginous material of common bone, but placed out of the circu- 
lation, and apparently carrying on no vital action, yet in immediate 
contact with a pulp which is perhaps the most highly organized sub- 
stance in the body, and adhering on the outside without a vascular 
union to the periosteum which lines the alveola of the jaws, and the 
vascular structure of the gums, and subject also to a peculiar species of 
decay, which is neither like the mortification of living structure, nor 
the putrefactive decomposition of the dead. The destruction of the 
substance of the teeth by what is improperly called caries, takes place 
in the following manner, which it is believed has not yet been accu- 
rately described by any author. At first a dark green speck is observed 
on the enamel. When a section is made of the tooth, the enamel at this 
part appears to have lost its animal substance; itis more porous, has a 
more opake white colour, and appears as if it were charred by heat. Tc 
this change succeeds the first step of decomposition in the proper sub- 
stance of the tooth, which is marked by a greenish streak leading from 
the place where the decay began in the enamel, to the nearest part of 
the cavity holding the pulp. The enamel afterwards breaks down, and 
is lost where it was first affected, and the fluids of the mouth are ad- 
mitted more freely to the proper substance of the tooth, which becomes 
soft, and gradually wears away, until the decay reaches the cavity of 
the tooth. The pulp is then exposed, and usually inflames, causing one 
species of toothache. Like all other very delicate tissues, such as the 
brain and the nerves of vision and hearing, the pulp cannot bear ex- 
posure and inflammation without sloughing more or less, and when 
a part of it is thus lost, it is never repaired, nor properly speaking even 
healed. The inflammation of the pulp may be excited, and kept up by 
the slightest external causes, such as contact of foreign bodies or any 
unusual degrees of either heat or cold. The tooth-ache is frequently 
produced by secret irritations of the sentient surface of the alimentary 

~canal, or of some other part of the nervous system, and hence it is 
sometimes removed by an active purge, by baths, or by strong mental 
impressions. 

That the decay of the substance of the teeth is not a vital action, as 
supposed by Mr. Hunter and others, is proved by the fact of its taking 
place even more readily in artificial teeth, than in those naturally fixed 
in the head, whether these artificial teeth be taken from the human 
subject or made of the teeth of an animal: and that it is produced by 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 117 


the fluids of the mouth is demonstrated by the decay taking place in 
those situations where these fluids are longest detained, as between the 
natural teeth, and most frequently in the back teeth and in those of the 
lower jaw, or on those parts of artificial teeth where the ligature, wire, 
or pivots are employed for fastening them. 

It is difficult to explain the manner in which the fluids of the mouth 
act on the teeth. It is evidently not by an acidity of the secretions of 
the mouth, which would dissolve the earthy part instead of affecting 
the animal substance of the teeth. There is every reason for believing 
that the state of digestion influences the secretions of the mouth, and 
prepares them for acting on the teeth. The qualities of the food seem 
to have considerable effect. Some nations, as the Americans and the 
French, suffer from decay of the teeth even at an early age, while some 
other people scarcely ever lose their teeth by the process of decay. 
Mechanic trituration has no effect in producing decay. The inhabitants 
of Greenland, who chew the tough skin of the whale, have their teeth 
worn to the stumps, which are nevertheless perfectly sound. 


On the Chemistry of the Digestive Organs. By Rozert D.Tuomson, M.D. 


Having shortly reviewed the progress of knowledge on the chemical 
actions which take place in the stomach, the author proceeded to the 
further consideration of the subject under two heads: 

I. Chemical state of the stomach: Ist, in health; and, 2ndly, in 
disease. 

II. The chemical state of the mouth and cesophagus in health and 
disease. 

I. Ist. He noticed Dr. Prout’s discovery of free muriatic acid in the 
stomach during the excitement produced in it by digestion. The author 
mentioned the successful repetition by himself of an experiment of M. 
Blondelet, in which a substance similar to chyme had been prepared by 
digesting muscle in dilute muriatic acid at the temperature of the human 
body. He found, on repeating the experiment by digestion at a tem- 
perature of about 100° in the sand bath during ten hours, the fibre still 
retained a portion of its original colour. From these facts it may be 
inferred that free muriatic is an important auxiliary in the process of 
digestion, 

2nd. The most common departure from the natural state of the sto- 
mach is a redundancy of acid, occasioned by the introduction of acid 
fruits and by the fermentation of vegetable matter. This form of dys- 
pepsia is sufficiently well known under the common name of heart-burn. 
But the author showed that an alkaline state often exists which has 
hitherto been unobserved. He showed that pyrosis, or water brash, con- 
sists essentially of an alkaline secretion, instead of the natural acid se- 
cretion. A detail of the chemical analysis of the fluid emitted from the 
stomach in that disease showed that the alkali present was ammonia, 
and probably also free soda: 150 grs. were evaporated in a platinum 
crucible ; when reduced to one third of its original bulk, the fluid con- 


118 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


tinued to render reddened litmus paper blue, and emitted a somewhat 
caustic odour, not an ammoniacal one. When evaporated to dryness, 
the residue was white, and covered the bottom of the crucible in the 
form of a dried membrane. When heated, it became first red, then black, 
and gave out dark fumes and a strong smell of decomposed animal mat- 
ter. When ignited 0°8 gr remained at the bottom of the crucible in 
the form of a white fused mass. Water being poured on the mass, the 
whole of it dissolved, with the exception of a few flocks. During the 
evaporation the evolution of ammonia was apparent. The nature of this 
complaint being thus quite obvious, the treatment consequent upon it is 
apparent. The author accordingly has found the employment of acid 
an effectual remedy. He recommends, however, when the disease is 
of considerable standing, to employ also anodynes, because the nerves 
being affected they require a direct application. He has found also that 
if the acid treatment is carried further than is necessary to re-establish 
the natural secretion, acid dyspepsia is apt to supervene.. It is there- 
fore proper to use in the first instance acid, and then bark or quinine. 
He has observed the disease to be excited in many cases by apples and 
porter; but has detected no general laws which seem to regulate the 
disease, as it occurs in persons of all ages, and of different constitutions 
and countries. 

II. Ist. From an extended series of observations the author has de- 
duced the conclusion that the fluid of the mouth in the natural state is 
either alkaline or neutral, generally the former, in conformity with the 
results of Dr. Donné of Paris. This gentleman has observed that when 
one of the poles of a delicate galvanometer is placed on the tongue and 
the other on the cheek, the needle deflects 15°, 20°, or 30°, in which 
case the mucus of the mouth will be the negative side and the skin the 
positive side; consequently the current proceeds from the mouth to the 
skin. Hence we have a kind of bile, which is formed by causing an acid 
and an alkali to communicate by means of an intermediate body. These 
experiments have been repeated and confirmed by Matteucci of Florence. 

2nd. The author has confirmed the results of Donné relative to the 
secretions from the mucous and serous membranes being acid in inflam- 
mation. He has found this particularly in laryngitis, bronchitis, pneu- 
monia, and in low typhoid fever, as well as in inflammatory diseases. 
He found the principal constituent of the membrane deposited in croup 
to be a substance approaching nearer to albumen in its properties than 
any other known matter, which would give support to the opinion that 
morbid products are deposited by the acid secreted on the surface of 
membranes. If this should turn out to be the case, the author sug- 
gested that an excellent method of retarding the formation of the mem- 
brane in the treatment of croup would be by the inhalation of ammonia. 

The author, in conclusion, directed the attention of the Medical Sec- 
tion to the importance of these facts as features of diagnosis, and also 
as pointing out an improved method of practice by the local application 
of alkaline solutions, frequently repeated, to inflamed surfaces, as in 
gonorrheea, sore throat, erysipelas, and all diseases where the natural 
secretion was alkaline and the abnormal one acid. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 119 


A short Exposition of the Functions of the Nervous Structure in the 
Human Frame. By Rosert Rerp, M.D., M.R.I.A. 


The principal object of this communication was to enforce the method 
of studying the nervous system under three divisions: viz. the gangli- 
onic, the spiral, and the cerebral systems. Dr. Reid pointed out what 
he conceived to be the principal function and province of each of these 
systems, and stated his opinion that all diseases should be arranged, and 
all remedies selected, according as the latter have their action directed 
to, and the former are found to affect one or other of these divisions of 
the nervous system in particular. 


On Absorption. By Dr. Carson. 


Dr. Carson, having shortly sketched the history of discoveries on the 
subject of absorption, and explained the nature of the questions relating 
to the functions of the red veins, lacteals, and lymphatics in this respect, 
proceeded to state his view of the operation of the red veins, with refer- 
ence to the manner in which these veins communicate with the arte- 
ries. The author contended for an intermediate communication by 
means of cells, in all cases; that into these cells the extreme arteries 
poured their contents; that an extreme capillary artery had two com- 
munications, one with the particle which it had deposited for a fixed 
purpose, and another with the cell or channel common to it with the 
corresponding extreme vein, which was to receive the blood not to be 
deposited. ‘The extreme vein in like manner had a double communi- 
cation ; one through the.cell with the artery, another with the particle 
which had become useless in the system, and which was to be displaced 
by that deposited from the artery. 

The change of colour which takes place at this point of union of the 
arterial and venous systems, the nature of the motion in the capillary 
vessels, the permanence of their tubular character, owing to the resist- 
ance of their parietes to external pressure, the nature of the changes 
taking place in the blood as it passes to the lungs, were then discussed. 
The lacteals and lymphatics being shortly noticed as employed in sup- 
plying nutriment to the system, by absorbing from the alimentary canal 
and from other internal surfaces, the author examined the analogous 
action of the imbibers to the lungs, stating reasons founded on the me- 
chanism of respiration for the conclusion, based on experiments, that 
all the air which passes the bronchi enters the cavities of the veins and 
performs the circulation with the blood, yielding heat and ultimately 
nourishment to the frame. 

Dr. Carson observes, ‘‘ It would appear that the change or renovation 
of the frame is far more rapid than is generally supposed ; that air ex- 
pired in respiration is supplied by this renovation ; and that the change 


‘must, in the course of any stated period, exceed the whole substance of 


the air expired in that period, as there are other channels through which 
other matters not so readily evaporable are discharged. It is contended 


120 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


that the process of putrefaction proceeds as rapidly at least before death 
as it does after it, but that the products of it are carried off before they 
become offensive to the senses.” 

The last absorbent process mentioned is that by which the water in 
the ventricles of the brain is renewed. That this fluid is constantly in 
a state of renovation is certain from the fresh condition in animals that 
have been recently killed, and from the smell of substances of a feetid 
nature being soon perceived in the water of the ventricles of the brain. 
There are no lymphatics in the brain. It would appear that the inter- 
nal cavity of the ventricles, or the veins of the arachnoid coat, are sup- 
plied with imbibers, after the manner of the lungs; and that it is by 
these vessels, in connection with the exhalants, that the water of the 
ventricles is renewed. As there are no surfaces within the cranium 
from which liquids required for the repair of the system could be taken 
up, there would be, according to Dr. Carson’s views of the uses of the 
lymphatic system, no employment for it; and he regards the total abs- 
ence of these vessels from the brain as confirmatory of those views*. 


On the Gyration of the Heart. By Avcustus F, A. Greerves, Fellow 
of the Royal Colleges of Suregons of Edinburgh and London. 


The following are the propositions which the author endeavoured to 
establish : 

1. Muscular fibres can act as levers without a solid fulcrum, if there 
be another set of fibres set at an angle and contracting simultaneously. 

2. A hollow organ may be dilated by the contraction of such an ar- 
rangement of fibres, if in contracting they become more parallel to a 
plane passing longitudinally along the axis of the organ. 

3. That there are two spiral, two longitudinal, and one diagonal set 
of fibres in the heart interlacing each other. 

4. The ventricles gyrate incessantly to and fro upon their axis; a. In 
systole or involution, as the left hand pronates; 6. In diastole or evo- 
lution, as the left hand supinates. 

5. The double spiral curve of the two great arteries forms a compen- 
sating and regulating movement, causing, 

6. First, a diminution of friction ; 

7. Second, steadiness and celerity of motion, on the principle of the 
tilt-hammer ; 

8. Third, an isochronous action, on the principle of the balance-wheel 
and spring ; 

9. Fourth, the progression of the whole heart. 

10. That the function of the auricle is to maintain the equilibrium of . 
the venous system. 

11. The first sound is produced by the sudden tension and sudden 


* See on this subject Reports of the Association, Vol. 1V., Transactions of the Sec- 
tions, p. 92, 93. 


4 
7 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 121 


change of gyration, occasioning vibration of the ventricular walls. The 
second sound is from flapping of the sigmoid valves. 

12. The impulse is partly caused by the progression, partly by at- 
mospheric pressure, and chiefly by the left ventricle first gyrating into 
the proper position to do so, carrying the apex against the thorax with 
a force equal to the difference of strength between the right and left 
ventricles. ; 

13. The pericardium forms a peripherad axis for the motions of the 
organ. 


On the Functions of the Muscles and Nerves of the Eyeball. By Joan 
Watker; Surgeon to the Eye Institution, Manchester. 


The action of the oblique muscles of the eyeball is explained by Mr. 
Walker as rotating the eye inwards, but by opposite rotatory movements; 
so that if the eye were rotated in one direction by the action of one of 
these muscles, it would be returned to its former position by the action 
of its antagonist ; while, if both muscles were in action together, there 
would be no rotation at all, but a direct drawing of the eye inwards. 
An explanation of the reason for the complicated muscular apparatus of 
the eyeball is afforded in Mr. W.’s opinion by a reference to the arrange- 
ments of the nerves. The distribution of the third nerve to the supe- 
rior internal and inferior rectus, and to the inferior oblique, points out 
the association of these muscles in all corresponding motions of both 
eyes. And the two other nerves (the 4th and 6th) with which the two 
remaining muscles, viz. the external rectus and superior oblique, are 
severally supplied, are required for the direction of one eye outwards, 
while the other is turned inwards, as is the case when even an object is 
viewed laterally. 


Notice of a newly-discovered Peculiarity in the Structure of the Uterine 
Decidua, or Decidua Vera. By W. F. Montcomery, M.D., Pro- 
Sessor of Midwifery to the King and Queen’s College of Physicians in 
Ireland. 


The author confines himself exclusively to a brief notice of a pecu- 
liarity in the structure of this product; which, as far as he is aware, 


has never been described, although perhaps one of its most important 


and interesting features. 

About four years ago, while preparing the component parts of a 
human ovum in the third month for lecture, he observed that when the 
decidua vera was immersed in water, with its uterine surface uppermost, 
there appeared amongst the floating and shred-like processes which 
covered it certain small circular openings, which at first he took to be 
merely foramina in the membrane; but on attempting to pass the point 
of a fine glass rod through the opening, he found it to be a cul-de-sac, 
and being thus incited to ascertain how the matter really was, and ex- 
amining carefully then, and having repeated the examination frequently 


122 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


since, he has fully satisfied himself and others, who have examined the 
part with him, or to whom he has exhibited it in his lectures on em- 
bryology, both of its existence and peculiar character. 

There are on the external or uterine surface of the decidua vera a 
great number of small cup-like elevations, which project from it. They 
are like little bags, the bottoms of which are attached to or embedded 
in the substance of the decidua; they then expand or belly out a little, 
and again grow smaller towards their outer or uterine end, which is in 
by far the greater number of them an open mouth, when separated from 
the uterus; how it may be while they are adherent, Dr. Montgomery 
does not decide. Their form is circular, or very nearly so, and in size 
they vary in diameter from 4*; to 4 of an inch, and are elevated to about 
+z of an inch above the surface to which they adhere. In the way of 
comparison he would say that they were miniature representations of 
the suckers of the cuttle-fish. They are not confined to any one part of the 
decidua, and the author thinks they are usually most numerous and 
most distinct in those parts of it which are apart from the situation of 
the rudiments of the placenta, and at the period of gestation which 
precedes the formation of the latter (the placenta) as a distinct organ ; 
hence the best time for examining them is up to the third month: in 
the advanced periods of gestation they are not to be found, at least Dr. 
Montgomery has not seen them then. The author observes further : 

“I am ready to confess at once that I am not prepared to offer any 
very decided opinion as to the precise nature or use of these decidual 
cotyledons, for to that name their form as well as their situation appear 
strictly to entitle them; but, from having on more than one occasion 
observed within their cavity a milky or chylous fluid, I am disposed to 
consider them reservoirs for nutrient fluids, separated from the maternal 
blood, to be thence absorbed for the support and development of the 
ovum. ‘This view appears strengthened when we consider, that at the 
early periods of gestation the ovum draws all its support by imbibition 
and by means of the connexion existing between the decidua and the 
villous processes on the surface of the chorion.” 


An Account of Human Twin Fetuses, one of which was devoid of Brain, 
Heart, Lungs, and Liver ; with Observations on the Nature and Cause 
of the Circulation in such Monsters. By Joun Houston, M.D., 
M.RTI.A., &c., Dublin. 


Dr. Houston’s observations were principally directed to the circu- 
lating system in the monster, though he described in full the various 
anomalous conditions of other organs in its body. 

The placenta was double, with separate membranes and chords for 
each foetus: the placenta of the imperfect infant was considerably 
smaller than that of the perfect one. The points of attachment of the 
two chords were several inches asunder. 

The umbilical vein arising from the smaller placenta passed through 
the umbilicus, and opened into the vena cava abdominalis, the branches 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 123 


of which all through the body were totally devoid of valves. The ar- 
terial system, commencing from the capillary terminations of the veins, 
ran together into a central vessel on the front of the lumbar vertebre, 
making there a sort of aorta, like that in fishes, from which two umbi- 
lical arteries arose, and proceeded in the usual manner to the placenta. 
There was no communication between the venous and arterial systems 
such as that established in the natural condition by the foramen ovale 
and ductus arteriosus. By whatsoever system the blood entered the 
umbilicus of the foetus, by the same it must have been distributed through 
all the textures of its body. 

A round tumour existed in the substance of the chord outside the 
umbilicus, which during the growth of the foetus had interfered with 
the freedom of the circulation: the umbilical vein was varicose between 
the tumour and the placenta, and the arteries were similarly affected 
from the opposite side of the same point, as far back as the aorta, as 
was readily ascertained by a comparison of the sizes of these vessels 
before and after they had passed the tumour. 

Reviewing the facts of this case in connection with the published 
views of physiologists, Dr. Houston adopts the opinion that the blood 
in the placentz and chords of both infants takes the same course, but 
that in circulating through their bodies the currents run in opposite di- 
rections ; viz., that in both it arrives at the placenta by the veins, but 
that in the natural infant it is transferred from the umbilical vein to the 
aorta by the foramen ovale and ductus arteriosus, to be distributed 
thence in the usual manner; whilst in the monster, in which there is 
no such communication between the venous and arterial systems, it is 
conveyed all through the body by the veins, and is returned therefrom 
by the arteries. ; 

As to the mode of circulation in the body of the monster, it is obvious, 
Dr. Houston observes, that the blood had but one course, and that the 
very reverse of what is usual. . Having been conveyed thereto by the 
umbilical vein, it passed into the vena cava, and was distributed by the 
valyeless branches of that vessel throughout all the textures of the 
body ; it was there taken up by the capillaries constituting the roots of 
the aorta, and conducted thence out of the body again by the umbilical 
arteries. 


On the Pathological Condition of the Bones in Chronie Rheumatism. 
By R. Avams, Esq. 

The various changes taking place in the extremities of the bones 
which constitute the joints principally attacked by this disease, were 
minutely described, and illustrated by interesting specimens, casts, and 
drawings. 


On the State of the new Circulating Channels in the case of double Pop- 
liteal Aneurism. By R. Avams, Esq. 


Mr. Adams exhibited to the Section a preparation and drawings il- 


124 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


lustrative of the changes which take place after the operation of tying 
the femoral artery, and pointed out some deductions of great importance 
to the surgeon which were to be drawn from a knowledge of the ra- 
pidity with which theanastomosing channels enlarge, with respect to the 
proper place of applying ligatures to wounded arteries. 


Case of extensive Aneurism of the Arteria Innominata and Thoracic Aorta. 
By Sir Davin J. H. Dickson, M.D., F.R.S.E., FLAS. 


This paper was accompanied by a drawing of the diseased parts. 


On the Question whether the Sense of Taste is dependent on Nerves from 
the Spheno-palatine Ganglion. By Mr. Aucocx. 


The statements in this paper were confirmative of the report by Dr. 
Hall and Mr. Broughton on the sensibility of the glosso-pharyngeal 
nerve. 


On some particulars in the Anatomy of the Fifth Pair of Nerves. 
By Mr. Aucocx. 


Dr. Howext communicated a case in which a large portion of the 
ilium was eliminated from the body, the patient surviving more than 
twelve months: it was illustrated by drawings. 


The Report of a Committee appointed in Dublin to pass opinion upon a Case 
exhibited by Mr. Snow Harris to the Section at the last Meeting of the 
Association was read by Dr. Evanson. 


The Committee are decidedly of opinion that this interesting case 
was not one of fracture of the neck of the thigh-bone, as had been sup- 
posed, but an instance of the disease known under the name of ‘‘ Mor- 
bus Coxze Senilis.” 


On a new Instrument for the removing of Ligatures at pleasure. By 
Wituram Heriine, Surgeon, Infirmary, Bristol. 


In consequence of the pain, danger, and delay arising from the pre- 
sent mode of detaching the ligatures of arteries, Mr. Hetling invented 
the simple and easily constructed instrument, of which a description is 
appended, and verified its utility in cases which occurred in the Ho- 
spital at Bristol. He remarks that it is applicable not only to cases 
of amputation and aneurism, but to a ligature on any occasion, whether 
to an artery, vein, tumour, excrescence, polypi, hemorrhoids, &c., and 
that in any unfortunate case of retained ligature, as commonly applied, 
it could easily be removed by a slight modification of the instrument. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 125 


; Description of the Instrument.—It consists of a canula and two sti- 
ettes. 

Ist. A small silver flat canula, about one quarter of the diameter of 
a common female catheter, and like that instrument smoothly rounded 
at its extremity, through which a small hole is drilled, large enough to 
admit freely the silk thread of the ligature. It is light, and about two 
inches and a half long. 

2nd. A flat and blunt silver stilette fitted to the tube of the canula, 
not quite long enough to reach the eye-hole through which the ligature 
passes. This stilette is for the temporary purpose of merely preventing 
the tube of the canula from becoming encrusted or clogged with blood, 
pus, lymph, &c., &c., tillthe period arrives for the removal of the ligature. 

3rd. A steel cutting stilette ground to a sharp edge, flat and fitted to 
the whole tube of the canula, and extending beyond the hole through 
which the ligature has been drawn so as to admit of its dividing the 
noose of the ligature close to the knot, which when effected, enables 
both the ligature and instrument to come away with the utmost facility. 

Mode of using it—The artery is to be denuded quite in the usual 
manner. ‘The ligature is then to be drawn through the eye of the ca- 
nula, previously armed with the blunt silver stilette, and then passed 
round the artery in the usual way, tying the knot of the ligature close 
to the eye of the instrument. The ligature is then to be loosely twisted 
once round the canula, and both together left to lie obliquely out of 
the wound, as in the ordinary way. The instrument and ligature 
are then allowed to remain in this state until the period arrives 
for the removal of the ligature, which is easily accomplished by with- 
drawing the blunt stilette, and introducing in its stead the cutting one. 
The ligature and canula are then to oe held together with the left hand, 
whilst the cutting stilette is pushed down the canula with the right, till 
encountering the noose stretched across its path, the edge cuts it off close 
to the knot, and the whole comes away without the least disturbance 
of the artery, by merely twisting the ligature between the finger and 
thumb (as well described by Sir Charles Bell for the removal of a com- 
mon ligature), instead of the usual dangerous and painful practice of 
pulling and tugging it away with more or less violence. 


Mr. Gorpon exhibited a correct anatomical Model of the Human 
Body, carved in ivory, upon which he has been engaged for many years. 


On the Sensibility of the Glosso-pharyngeal Nerve. By Dr. MarsHatu 
Haut, and 8. D. Broueuron, Esq. 


. The Committee of the Medical Section at the Cambridge Meeting of 
the Association appointed Dr. Marshall Hall and Mr. Broughton to 
investigate by experiments the disputed subject of the sensibilities of 
the cerebral nerves. A report was accordingly drawn up, and the results 
of the investigation were printed in the Transactions of the Association. 
To that report the authors have, at present, nothing further to add beyond 
a short notice respecting the sensibility of the glosso-pharyngeal nerve. 


126 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


«« It may be remembered that this nerve was the only one of the sen- 
sibility of which no demonstrable account could be rendered, no satis- 
factory experiment having been made upon it beyond what led to a 
mere negative result. It was freely exposed to view in an ass, irritated 
and divided, but no response occurred indicative of any apparent func- 
tion. No muscular fibres were made to quiver by pinching or bruising 
the nerve; nor was any movement indicating pain observed ; and when 
it was divided there was no apparent loss of any function. On the 
contrary, when the lingual branch of the fifth nerve was irritated, 
pain was expressed, and when it was divided, the surface of the tongue 
was deprived of tactile sensibility: also, when the ninth nerve was 
irritated, no sign of pain appeared, but the muscles of the tongue qui- 
vered; and when this nerve was divided, the voluntary motions of the 
tongue were destroyed, and the animal was unable to use its tongue. 

«« The evidences of the sense of taste were not investigated at all, being 
considered as satisfactorily demonstrated by Sir Charles Bell and M. 
Majendie to be referable to the lingual branch of the fifth nerve. 

«« Of the incorrectness of this hypothesis we never entertained a doubt 
until the appearance in this country of Professor Panizza’s details of a 
course of experiments of ten years’ standing upon the cerebral and spi- 
nal nerves*. Dr. Craigie’s translation of the professor’s account of his 
labours and results in the Ed. Med. and Surgical Journal is highly sa- 
tisfactory, and leaves no doubt of the correctness of the experiments 
detailed. 

“It has been gratifying to find that our results in reference to our 
paper read at the Edinburgh Meeting, stand generally confirmed by 
those of Panizza, with the important exception that the professor’s 
experiments supply the deficiency of ours regarding the glosso-pharyn- 
geal nerve, and explain the reason why we could not discover its’ sen- 
sibility by simply irritating and dividing it, without reference to the 
gustatory function of the tongue. 

“« The professor found that although the surfaceof the tongue became 
insensible to mechanical injury when the jifth nerves were divided, yet 
the sense of taste remained evidently recognised by the rejection and 
preference of certain substances. The ninth pair of nerves also being 
divided, the sense of taste continued to be exercised as usual, whilst 
the animal was thus deprived of the power of moving the tongue ; and 
the glosso-pharyngeal nerve being divided, no sense of taste was after- 
wards recognised. ‘The dog,’ says Panizza, ‘in which the glosso- 
pharyngeal nerves were divided, having recovered from the state of 
depression in which he was immediately after the operation, (the other 
nerves remaining entire,) lapped water, and ate as freely as if he had 
suffered no injury, and afterwards mastication and deglutition were per- 
fect ; but he had no other guide than smell in the choice of his food, 
so that he swallowed with the same readiness the most disgusting and the 
most noxious, and the most agreeable and beneficial articles, provided 
either they did not smell, or their odour was artificially disguised, or 


* See Ed. Med. and Surg. Journal for January, 1836, 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 127 


blended with another agreeable to. the animal. The dog ate with equal avi- 
dity fresh animal food, or that rendered bitter by the same substance. A 
morsel of flesh pounded minutely in coloquintiva solution he eat, and even 
licked the rest of the fluid in the vessel.—‘ At the same time (continues 
Panizza) I experimented upon another dog, in which I had cut off the 
two lingual nerves (branches of the fifth pair), and after swallowing 
morsels of flesh with avidity, he swallowed an embittered portion also ; 
but it was scarcely in the gullet when he was attacked with vomiting, 
and obliged to disgorge it: when it was presented to the dog in which 
the glosso-pharyngeal nerve was divided on each side, he ate it imme- 
diately without any sign of disgust.’ 

“‘ With respect to the anatomical distribution of the glosso-pharyn- 
geal nerve, the professor says, ‘ In man, the dog, &c., it is wholly dis- 
tributed to the mucous membrane of the tongue, and the other parts 
which have the sense of taste in common with the tongue, and towards 
the base of the tongue, where the nerves are most numerous and the 
sense of taste is most acute.’ 

“« Not doubting the accuracy of these observations, we were neverthe- 
less desirous of communicating to the Section at the present Meeting 
our repetition of Panizza’s experiment on the glosso-pharyngeal nerve 
and its results, which are quite in accordance with those of the Italian 
professor, and thus render our original task more complete. The ex- 
periment was conducted with great care and caution in theidissecting 
rooms of our talented and skilful friend Mr. Lane of Grosvenor Place, 
to whose hands, as an independent party, was consigned the.necessary 
operation. 

«Previously to the experiment, accurate dissections and surveys were 
made of the parts concerned in the intricate distribution of the nerves 
about the throat. A small dog of the terrier breed was preferred, with 
a long and lanky neck, one central incision sufficing for both nerves: 
the glosso-pharyngeal nerve was divided on each side, and a piece cut 
out of about 3 of an inch long. No attempt was on this occasion made 
to prove the sensibility of this nerve to pain, as this cannot be so well 
effected in a dog as in a horse or an ass, the latter having (in our ori- 
gimal experiments) been allowed to stand up unconstrained after the 
exposure of the nerve, so that any feeling experienced on irritating the 
nerve might be freely expressed; the struggles of an animal held down 
forcibly being likely to embarrass the observations made. 

“‘ As soon as the dog had recovered from the necessary exhaustion of 
its situation, a piece of meat rubbed over with aloes was offered to it, 
which it ate, and it lapped water as usual. 'The next evening we re-as- 
sembled, and offered the dog fresh meat, which it eagerly ate. The next 
morsel offered was rubbed over with a strong solution of the extract of 
colocynth, which he snapped up, but instantly ejected from the mouth, 
took itup again, and swallowed it with a little hesitation. Although 
the odour of the extract is very slight, we resolved on the next occasion 
to use the coloquintida powder, which is quite free from odour, and 
also the quinine. . A second similarly embittered morsel was however 
offered the dog, which he ate unhesitatingly ; a third morsel was smelt 


128 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


at and rejected, and so indeed was a piece of fresh meat untainted, 
his appetite being apparently satisfied or yielding to instinctive caution. 

** In a few days we again assembled and introduced another terrier 
dog, not experimented upon. Some pieces of fresh meat were cast 
before each dog on this occasion, and they both indicated voracious ap- 
petite. The next morsels were successively rubbed over with quinine, 
extract of colocynth, and coloquintida powder: the dog not operated 
upon bolted the morsel with the quinine, but rejected the others in suc- 
cession ; but the dog on which the experiment was performed ate all 
the medicated morsels without reserve, exhibiting at several repetitions 
some degree of caution and distrust, more than might perhaps have 
been evinced in eating the sound and fresh meats. 

« We then stirred up a considerable quantity of the extract of colo- 
cynth in a bowl of milk, which the dog not operated on began to lap, 
but instantly desisted with an expression of disgust: it was next placed 
before the dog operated on, and he instantly and voraciously lapped it all 
up. 

«« Such has been our experiment on the sense of taste ; and on compar- 
ing the phenomena mentioned by Panizza with those just detailed,a strict 
coincidence is observable. After the division of the nerve no diminution 
in the power of protruding the tongue occurred, and the dog could still 
lap, masticate, and swallow, and although in possession of the other 
nerves of the tongue entire, when the glosso-pharyngeal nerve was di- 
vided on each side, the recognition of the sense of taste was obviously lost, 
for substances of disgustingly pungent and bitter flavour, which dogs 
will not eat if tasted, were devoured indiscriminately with solid meat 
and milk. 

«« We therefore beg to submit to the deliberate consideration of the 
Section, whether there be not grounds sufficient to warrant the pre- 
sumption of that hypothesis being fallacious, which ascribes the specific 
sense of taste to the lingual branches of the fifth pair of nerves, and 
the power of deglutition to the glosso-pharyngeal nerves? We feel 
that we are fully warranted in acknowledging the conviction to which 
Panizza’s experiments tend, as to the separate functions and sensibili- 
ties of the nerves of the tongue, corroborated as they are by our own 
observations. 

‘«‘ The sense of taste has never long together enjoyed any fixed locality 
amongst the lingual nerves, and each nerve in its turn has been deemed 
the gustatory nerve, whilst all three pairs have also been supposed to 
be concerned in the propagation of flavours to the sensorium. Latterly, 
indeed, the experiments of Sir Charles Bell and M. Majendie have in- 
duced a train of reasoning which terminated the question in favour of 
the fifth pair of nerves being alone concerned in the sense of taste, and 
anatomy is referred to in support of this notion; nevertheless, Pro- 
fessor Panizza was led to doubt the hypotkesis on anatomical grounds, 
and his researches confirmed his doubts, he having found this nerve ra- 
mified upon the mucous membrane of the tongue only. Without, how- 
ever, entering upon the controversial details of the case, it may be as 
well to state, that Mr. Owen, the intelligent comparative anatomist of 


Sle 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 129 


the College of Surgeons’ museum, has observed (before be was aware 
of Panizza’s experiments) in Dr. Todd’s Cyclopedia, in the article upon 
Birds, that he never could discover any nerve corresponding with that 
which in mammalia is called the custaTORY NERVE in the tongues of birds, 
and that the GLOSsO-PHARYNGEAL nerve is freely distributed amongst the 
soft papille of the tongue, and lost where the tip in some birds is covered 
with a horny cuticle. The glosso-pharyngeal nerve moreover, is not 
found in fishes, which have no papillz for the propagation of taste, but 
the organ of smell powerfully developed, and whilst the fifth and the 
ninth branches are liberally distributed. In the assumed function of 
the glosso-pharyngeal nerve we find a close analogy to the optic nerve 
and the retina ; the latter possess no sense of common feeling or tact, 
but they are the media of a specific sense exclusively of all other sen- 
sations, and have no influence upon motion; and such appears to be 
the character of the glosso-pharyngeal nerve. 

Anatomy, both human and comparative, appears to corroborate the 
notion of the glosso-pharyngeal nerve being that which ought properly 
to be termed in future ‘‘ custarory”; at the same time we may 
ascribe “‘ tactile sensibility” to the lingual branches of the fifth, and de- 
glutition and mastication to those of the ninth pair of nerves exclusively. 


MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 


On the Theory of British Naval Architecture. By Henry CuHatriexp, 
Naval Architect. 


The author, after noticing the general disadvantage under which this 
country has laboured from not having applied the principles of science 
to ship-building, and the insufficiency of the experiments hitherto made 
on the construction and qualities of ships, proposes as a means of re- 
ducing the theory of British naval architecture to correct principles, to 
make it a part of an official system in the department of naval architec- 
ture to register, in a very systematic manner, the minutest calculations 
by which it is attempted to predict a ship’s qualities at sea; and to make 
an equally systematic arrangement of faithfully observed results to which 
the calculated predictions refer. Comparisons might thus be instituted 
which would tend gradually to the establishment of correct principles 
in cases where pure mathematics are insufficient. 

Mr. Chatfield contrasts with the precise information which would 
thus be gathered, the vague notions, rather than data, which have been 
collected in the official reports of what are called “ ships’ sailing quali- 
fications” ; replies to objections which have been urged against the at- 
tempt at numerical precision in recording observations of this nature 
made at sea, by showing that the nature of the problems to be solved. 
requires accurate data expressed numerically ; admits that to prosecute 
the subject in an adequate manner and with a reasonable chance of suc- 

voL. v.— 1836. K 


130 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


cess, would be a laborious task ; but shows by reference to the excellent 
condition of the science of navigation, that by great attention in col- 
lecting and classifying facts, the practice of naval architecture might be 
raised to a corresponding degree of perfection. 


On certain points in the Theory of Naval Architecture. 
By Mr. Henwoop. 


On the Tides. By the Rev. W. Wuewett, F.R.S. 


In this communication Mr. Whewell explained the state of knowledge. 


concerning the tide, to which recent investigations had conducted ; 
pointed out the importance of a continuous tide register in furnishing 
data for the improvement of this important branch of science; and ex- 
hibited a model of a tide machine now in the course of erection under 
Mr. Bunt’s direction. 


eeeecent 


Dr. Larpner explained his views of the most advantageous modes 
of forming a steam communication with the East Indies and North 
America*. 


On the Application of our Knowledge of the Phenomena of Waves to the 
Improvement of the Navigation of Shallow Rivers. By J. S. RussExu. 


Joun Rosison, Esq., suggested, and illustrated by a diagram, a 
method of measuring the interval and the velocity of waves at sea, by 
two ships kept parallel to and equidistant from each other, and counting 
the crests of waves between them. 


On certain points connected with the Theory of Locomotion. By 
Professor Mosetry. 


On the Performance of Steam-Engines in Cornwall. By Joun S. Enys. 


The object of the paper was to point out that within the last few 
months the work done (or the duty) per imperial bushel of Welsh coal, 
weighing on an average ninety-four lbs. had been more than doubled 
as compared with similar engines, by two engines employed in stamping 
ore, erected by Mr. James Sims; and that, making allowance for the 
difference of lifting stamp heads (or actual weight) with an uniform 
resistance, and lifting a weight of water, calculated from the size of the 
pumps, with a variable resistance exactly suited to a high-pressure 
expansion engine, a duty of fifty million lbs. raised one foot high per 


* See on this subject the Edinburgh Review. 1837. 


——— 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 131 


bushel of coal might be considered equivalent to eighty millions lifted 
ina pumping engine. Taking the quantity of water lately found, chiefly 
through the exertions of John Taylor, Esq., to have been evaporated per 
bushel, it was shown that the cubic feet of steam which could be 
formed by the consumption of the known quantity of coal per month, 
would readily supply the quantity of steam required in the cylinder 
per month, and be capable of producing at each stroke a mean pressure 
in the cylinder equal to the sum of the work done in the pump (that is 
the calculated weight of the water), the friction of the pit work, and 
the friction of the engine itself. 

The calculations most relied on referred to a large engine, the press- 
ure of whose steam had been ascertained by an excellent indicator 
from the North of England. 


Josrrn T. Price of Neath Abbey exhibited the model of a pair of 
paddle-wheels which he had fixed on the Lord Beresford steamer at 
Southampton, in substitution of a pair of ordinary wheels. 

It has an eccentric wheel fixed to the side of the vessel, in which a 
band is placed, having rods leading to cranks on each paddle iron ; these 
have each an axis, and hence as the engine moves the shaft and its pad- 
dle arms, the eccentric with its rods and cranks producesia motion which 
ensures the nearly vertical insertion of the paddle board or irons into 
the water, and when lifting turn it in like manner nearly vertically, 
hereby avoiding the pernicious effects of ordinary paddles, when from 
any cause they happen to be wading in water beyond the limit allotted 
them in smooth water, with the ship in exact trim. 

The effect J. T. Price described to be great relief to the engine, in 
so much that about two thirds the coal would produce an effect in the 
speed of the vessel, otherwise under equal circumstances, equivalent to 
her former speed, by cutting off part of the steam equal to the reduced 
resistance of the paddles in the water. The objection to these paddles 
J.T. Price fully admitted to lie in the additional liability to require 
repair, and the consequent need of attention ; but he resolved this into 
‘a simple question of expense, and assuming that it might cost 100/ per 
annum more to maintain these than the ordinary paddles, which if all 
needful spare articles were constantly kept ready, he contended would 
suffice for a pair of forty-horse engines (say eighty-horse power), there 
appeared to him a clear advantage in their favour in the ceconomy of fuel 
-or in accelerating the voyages to be performed by the vessel employing 
them. 


Mr. Gower described the nature and construction of the boiler used 
in the steam-packet Vesta, the bottom of which is covered to a small 
depth with mercury, for the purpose of equalizing the distribution of 
heat, and regulating the evolution of steam. 


K 2 


132 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Mr. Brauam exhibited an improvement on Pope’s fluid compass, by 
which he hoped to prevent wear of the pivot and cap, unsteady action, 
change of direction in the card, and obliteration of the points stamped 
on it. 


Dr. Davseny exhibited an instrument intended for drawing up water 
from great depths. 


Mr. Hawerns exhibited and described an improvement of Napier’s 
Rods, by J. N. Cossuam, Esq. of Bristol. 

The invention consists in cutting each of Napier’s rods into ten cubes, 
and in stringing the cubes together by means of pins passing through 
two perforations in each cube, the perforations being made at right an- 
gles to each other, and parallel to the planes and boundaries of the fi- 
gured faces, and passing by without crossing the middle of the cube. 
By this arrangement the cubes may be readily placed in such positions 
that the product may be obtained by addition only, without the necessity 
of previously transcribing the number from the cubes, thus avoiding a 
great liability to error, and effecting a saving of time in the calculation. 


Mr. Jonn Murray forwarded for exhibition a model of a life boat 
tlpon a new construction, accompanied by descriptive notices, and a 
work printed upon paper made from the New Zealand flax, (Phormium 
tenaz.) 


STATISTICS. 


Researches relative to the Price of Grain, andits Influence on the French 
Population. By Baron Durin, President of the Institute of France. 


In this communication the Baron observed that the small annual va- 
riation in births, deaths, and marriages, even for years of great difference 
of price, induced him to search for a function of these three social ele- 
ments, which would both render the variations more perceptible, and 
correcting one by the other, would remove the perturbations arising 
from accidental causes. This function is the mean between the numbers 
of births divided by the number of deaths, and the number of marriages 
divided by the number of deaths. It is sufficiently obvious that this 
function is independent of the amount of population, and the Baron 
considered that the magnitude is a very fair test of social prosperity. 
He proposed to name it the function of vitality. In the years of extreme 
scarcity, the function of vitality averaged 0°5937 ; in the years of high 
prices it averaged 0°6092; in the years of intermediate prices it ave- 
raged 0°6168. He then observed that according to Dr. Cleland’s paper, 
read on the preceding day, the function of vitality in Glasgow was about 
0:7000, a clear proof that social happiness was greater in England than 
in France. He trusted that this function would be calculated for the 
principal continental nations, and for different epochs, in order to com- 
pare their social prosperity by a precise and identical standard. As one 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 138 


valuable result, he showed that this function was far less in England 
during seasons of commercial depression than of agricultural distress. 

[This extract is taken from Dr. Cleland’s Statistical Documents re- 
lating te Glasgow. ] 


Mr. Porter presented the following statement of data drawn up by 
himself, for the determining of this function in England : 


Price of Wheat. Baptisms. | Burials. | Marriages. 


Shillings. 

115°11 237 204 
67:9 273 199 
57:1 294 203 

103°2 298 208 

122°8 301 1S0 
63°8 344 197 
43°3 372 220 


Baron Durrn explained two maps of Britain, shaded so as to repre- 
sent, 1, the density of population; 2, the degree of criminality. He 
presented tables showing the relative amount of male and female offend- 
ers, and the relation of criminality to education. 


Report on the State of Education in the Borough of Liverpool, 
in 1885—1836 *. 


This report was communicated to the Section by the Manchester Sta- 
tistical Society, having been drawn up by a Committee of that Society, 
under whose direction the inquiry was conducted. The report has been 
published by the Society since the meeting of the Association. 

In collecting the materials for this report, each school of every class 
had been visited, and the facts thus obtained by personal inspection and 
the testimony of the teachers were classified in numerous tables. The 
result proved that the returns made to Government in 1833 were ex- 
ceedingly defective ; in the parish of Liverpool alone the deficiency 
amounting to no less than 13,500 scholars, the returns from the out- 
townships being also grossly inaccurate. 

The whole number of children attending the schools in the borough 
of Liverpool was found by the Committee to be 33,183, viz. 

17,815, or 72 per cent. of the population, attending day or evening 
schools only. 
11,649, or 5 per cent. of the population, attending doth day and Sunday 
schools. 
3,719, or 12 per cent. of the population, attending Sunday schools only, 


33,183, or 142 per cent. of the population. 


* Sce in relation to this subject, vol. iv. p. 119, 


134 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Of this number about 6000 were under 5, or above 15 years of age. 
Thus 27,200 children between the ages of 5 and 15 were found to be 
attending school, whereas it is estimated that there are in the borough 
57,500 children of corresponding age (or one fourth of the total popu- 
lation of 230,000); and it consequently appears that 30,300 children 
between 5 and 15 years old (or more than half of the whole number of 
children of that age), were not attending any schools whatever, at the 
time of the inquiry. 

The Report minutely examines the quality and extent of the instruc- 
tion professed to be given in each class of schools, with the exception 
of those where the children of the wealthier ranks are instructed. The 
appendix contains a detailed account of the charity schools, which are 
numerous. Most of them are connected with the Sunday schools or 
congregations of particular sects, the members of which contribute to 
defray the expenses of their schools. The Sunday schools themselves 
form a very unimportant item in the sum total of the existing means of 
education. 

The Committee state in the following general terms the conclusions 
to which their inquiries have led them. 

First.—Of the whole number of children in the borough of an age to 
be instructed more than one-half are receiving no educatio. in schools, 
either really or nominally. 

Secondly.—Of those who do attend school, more than one-third are 
the children attending dame and common day schools, some of whom 
acquire nothing by their attendance at school to which the term educa- 
tion can reasonably be applied, and the remainder, with few exceptions, 
receive an education of the very lowest description. 

Fifthly.—The remaining schools, for the education of the children 

of the lower classes, consist chiefly of charity schools, some of which 
have infant, and most of which have Sunday schools attached to them ; 
they receive, within their walls, about forty-five per cent. of the whole 
number of children attending school in the borough, and are supported, 
in great part, by the funds of private individuals. The education given 
in these schools is of a more effective kind. The school rooms are 
more airy and spacious; and the teachers are often of a higher and 
better educated class, and have stronger motives to the zealous discharge 
of their duties. 

Further.—The result of the Committee’s inquiries may be expressed 
in the following condensed form: 

12,000 Children of all ages receiving, entirely at the cost of the parent, 
an education of a very low order. 

13,000 Children of all ages receiving, partly at the expense of the 
parents, partly from private benevolence, an education 
more or less effective, but in all cases of some real value 
to the child. 

3,700 Children of all ages receiving some little instruction in Sunday 
schools, but no regular education. 

4,000 Children of the upper and middle classes, educated in superior 
private schools, 


32,700 Children of all ages receiving instruction, of whom 26,700 are 
between 5 and 15 years old; and there are not less than 30,000 
children between the ages of 5 and 15 receiving no education in schools 
either really or nominally, 


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136 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


IN THE BOROUGHS 
OF MANCHESTER & 
SALFORD, 1834-5. 


IN THE BOROUGH 
OF Le ae 


COMPARATIVESTATEMENT OF THE 
UMBERS RECEIVING INSTRUCTION. 


Per Centage. 


Of the 
total Po- Of the 


Scholars, 


Attending Day or Evening Schools only ...... 
aoe both Day or Evening and Sunday 
JOOIS se seeesesreareresesesenes 


17815 7°75 
5°06 


12°81} 
1°62 


88°79 
11°21 


Attending Sunday Schools O71]¢/..s:ssssesveersere 


14°43 | 100°00 


Number of Scholars estimated to be under five 
or above fifteen years Of AGC sessscssereseerterees 


Children between five and fifteen years of age 
attending Schools ......-seeseeeeene aad 
Estimate of the total number of nin 
the boroughs between five and fifteen years 


AUPE Hee eeeeeeeeeanesees! 


ON ana desctncptenvercences 


Estimated number of Children Ketween five 
and fifteen years old, not receiving any in- 
StTUCTION at SCHOOIS ...ccseeseecesseeereneeesesecees 

Proportion which the number of Children 

betaveen five and fifteen, receiving no in- 

struction at School, bears to the total num- 
ber of Children between the same ages ...... 


On the Statistics of Popular Education in Bristol. By C. B. Fripp, Esq. 


After some general remarks on the importance of statistical inquiries 
into the state of education in the different towns of the kingdom, with 
the view of comparing their condition in this respect, and of illustrating 
the deficiencies which exist in our present means of instruction, the 
author stated that, as the best means in his power of obtaining the re- 
quisite information in Bristol, he had addressed eighty circulars to the 
clergy and other ministers of religion, soliciting their replies to various 
queries annexed in a schedule. With very few and unimportant ex- 
ceptions, these schedules were returned duly filled up, and from these 
returns various tables were compiled, exhibiting the details in such a 
manner as to admit of their comparison with those published by the 
Manchester Statistical Society. Due care was taken to avoid errors 
from duplicate returns where the children attended more than one 
school, and although some errors of omission may have occurred, the 
author considers the returns as indicating very nearly the actual extent 
of popular education in Bristol. It is to be observed however that the 
returns are confined to public schools, whether day, infant, or Sunday, 
and do not include the children attending private schools or dame 
schools. The instruction given in the latter class of schools is so very 
limited and elementary, that it hardly deserves the name, and as most 
of the children attending them also attend Sunday schools and are re- 
turned under this head, the omission is of little practical importance. 


a 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 137 


The returns relative to the Roman Catholic schools were not received 
in time to include them in the tabular statements, and are therefore to 
be added to the numbers exhibited in the following abstract. In these 
schools there are boys, 123; girls, 92; total 215 ; being an increase of 
58 boys and 33 girls since 1821. The number of Roman Catholics in 
Bristol at that period is estimated at 3000, at the present time it is above 
5000. The instructionis wholly gratuitous, and embraces book-keeping 
and some of the practical mathematics. 

The population of Bristol and its suburbs (now incorporated in the 
new borough) according to the census of 1831 was 104,378. 

Which number at the usual rate of increase (14 per cent. per ann.) 
would now amount to 112,438. 

The total number of schools of which returns have been obtained 
is 128, of which there are, 


Scholars. Scholars. : 
Day schools 51 with 4,130, of whom 1526 attend Sunday schools also. 
Bitant P22 2D ee TOES: b> Doge OTT ditto. 


Sunday .. 68 .. 11,108. — 


128 16,362 


Deduct duplicates... 1,645, leaves scholars 14,717. 


In both day and infant schools the number of boys is greater than 
that of girls; in the Suzday schools the proportions are reversed. 
Of the 14,717 scholars: 


Scholars. Per cent. of Pop. 
Attend day or infant schools only .... 3609 ...... 3°20 
.. day or infant and Sundayschools 1645 ...... 1-46 
Sunday schools only ...... RS GAGS marry ons 8:42 
14,717 13:08 


Thus it would appear that the number of children receiving instruc- 
tion every day is only 35°70 per cent. of the total number under in- 
struction, and 64°30 per cent. of that number receive only Sunday 
instruction. 

On comparing the number of children under instruction in Bristol 
and some other places of which we have accurate returns, the results 
are as follow : 


138 SIXTH REPORT— 1836. 


Per cent. of Population. 


Receiving Instruction in 


Manchester . 4 
and Salford.} Liverpool. Bristol. 


Day and infant schools... . ; 10°46 12°81 
Sunday Schools only...... “5. 11°58 1°62 


Total’ i) 22°04 14°43 13°08 
or | 1 to 3°5 | 1 to 4°6 | 1 to 6°9 | 1 to 7°6 


—~v— — | —————_~ 
persjons. 


It is evident from this comparison that after making the most ample 
allowance for accidental omissions and for the private schools not in- 
cluded in the Bristol returns, the state of education in this city is far 
from satisfactory, looking merely to the number of the children recei- 
ving instruction. 

Classified according to age, the returns obtained exhibit 


Per cent. of 
leg —s 
Est. No: of 
Scholars. Pop. pride i 
Diahlerss 7 6Ota is of ¥ ares ac. pe 1290 isc vs epydade TATE 8:77 
Between 5 and.15 years..... 12,680 .... 11°23 .... 85°82 
Above 15, or not specified. . 7 9 ite, See One se a 5:41 
14,717 13:08 100-00 


It has been usual to employ an analysis of this sort’ for the purpose 
of showing the proportion of the instructed and uninstructed in the 
youthful population, but the author pointed out the fallacy of assuming 
that because the numbers at any one time under instruction between 
the ages of five and fifteen fall greatly short of the proportion between 
the same ages in the population at large (taken by the Manchester 
Statistical Society at twenty-five per cent.), the whole of those thus. 
unaccounted for must be entirely without instruction. It is evident 
that a great number of children may receive instruction for short inter- 
vals and from time to time, though not being at school when the returns 
are made, they would appear among those unaccounted for, and consi- 
dered uninstructed. The only mode to obtain correct results on this 
point, would be to ascertain the number under instruction, according 
to their several ages, from year to year, between five and fifteen, and 
then to compare these numbers with those of the same ages in the po- 
pulation at large at the same time. From the neglect of this distinc- 
tion, some very startling results, which can hardly be received as true, 
have been laid before the public on high statistical authority. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 189 


Maintenance of Schools. Of the day schools there are twelve wholly, 
and ten others partially supported by endowment; twenty-one by pub- 
lic subscription and payments from the scholars; four by public sub- 
scription only ; two by the sole payments of the scholars ; and two out 
of the poor rates. 

The nine infant schools, with one exception, where there is a partial 
endowment, are maintained by subscription, and payments from the 
children. 

Of the sixty-eight Sunday schools, sixty-five are wholly supported 
by private and public subscriptions ; one by the poor rate; and two by 
endowment, subscription, and payment jointly. 

The rate of payment by the scholars varies from a halfpenny (in one 
school) to threepence per week (in two schools), but in the majority 
of cases it is either a penny or twopence per week. 

Instruction. In sixty-six out of the sixty-eight Sunday schools, the 
instruction is confined to reading, religion, and morals; in the other 
two (under the management of the Society of Friends) writing is also 
taught. 

Writing and arithmetic are taught in two of the infant schools; in 
the other seven, only reading and the elements of religion. 

In forty-three out of the fifty-one daily schools, the pupils learn to 
write; in thirty-seven to use figures; in fifteen they have some instruc- 
tion in geography and history ; and in two, a slight admixture of mathe- 
matics. Drawing is not taught in any of the schools. 

Religious Distinction. In connection with the Established Church 
there are 


Day Schools .......... 26 
TRA ties «: dest Ate rvir. (os 2 ww 5 
MBPNGAY yo. .tal be Pees ks 18 

Total .... 49 


which (after deducting duplicate returns) contain 4375 scholars, with 
214 teachers. The average attendance is about eighty-five per 
cent. of the number on the books. 

In connection with the Wesleyan Methodists there are 


Day Schools'.........-. + 
Aundaygetee ss ..0Gk 2 19 
Total .... 23 


containing 3839 children, with 626 teachers. The average attendance 
is about seventy per cent. of the number on the books. 

In connection with other religious bodies distinct or dissenting from 
the Established Church, there are 


Day Schools .......... 11 
Infante! Pou eed. 1.68 wins 
Sunday ...... «or ADO) 


140 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


containing 5026 scholars, with 591 teachers. The average attendance 
is about eighty-five per cent. of the numbers on the books. 
Unconnected with any particular denomination there are 


Day Schools .......... 10 
oo aPC ORIN Na a0 1 
Dumeay ys ye ey Shy 6 

Total >: 17 


containing 1477 scholars, with 74 teachers. The average attendance 
is about eighty-five per cent. of the numbers on the books. 

Almost all the endowed schools are connected with the Established 
Church. In many schools (particularly Sunday schools) which are 
supported at the charge of particular denominations, scholars of all 
creeds are received, and in few comparatively is a strictly exclusive 
character maintained. 

Dates of Establishment. On this point the returns were consider- 
ably defective, but on the whole, it appears that of the total number of 
schools now existing in Bristol, nearly one-half have been established 
since 1820, and nearly one-fourth since 1830. 

Mr. F. concluded his paper with some remarks on the influence of 
education in its present state as compared with what it should be on a 
wider and more efficient basis. He referred in illustration to the course 
of primary instruction established in the Canton of Zurich, as one 
of the most complete and rational schemes of cultivating the mind of a 
people that have yet been proposed. In an appendix, the author gave 
an account of the foundation and nature of instruction pursued in the 
endowed schools of Bristol. 


_ Extracts from Statistical Documents relating to Glasgow, drawn up by 
Dr.Cirevanv*, President of the Glasgow and Clydesdale Statistical Society. 


Population of Glasgow. 


Year. Souls. Year. Souls. Year. Souls. 


1560 4500 1740 17034 1791 66578 
1610 7644 1755 23546 1801 77385 
1660 | 14678 1763 28300 1811 100749 
1688 11948 1780 | 42832 1821 147043 
1708 12766 1785 45889 1831 202426 


The suburbs were included, for the first time in 1780. It will be 
seen that the population fell off immediately after the restoration of 
Charles IJ., in 1660, and that it required more than half a century to 
make up what it had lost. 


* In connexion with these documents see vol. iii. p. 688. 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 141 


Education.—In 1816, exclusive of the University, and 13 institutions 
in the city wherein youth were educated, there were 144 schools. In- 
cluding the publicinstitutions, 16,799 scholars, of whom 6,516 were taught 
gratis in charity or free schools. Several of these however attended 
more than one school. In 1820 there were 106 Sunday schools, 158 
teachers, 4,668 scholars, viz. boys 2,235, girls 2,433, besides 3 adult 
schools, where there were 3 teachers, and 25 male and 54 female 
scholars. Since 1820 the number of Sunday schools has greatly in- 
creased. 

River Clyde.—In 1653 the merchants of Glasgow had their shipping 
harbour on the Ayrshire coast. This port being distant, and land-car- 
riage expensive, the magistrates in 1658 negotiated with the magistrates 
of Dumbarton for the purchase of ground for a harbour; after some 
discussion, the negotiation broke up, the authorities of Dumbarton con- 
sidering that “the great influx of mariners would raise the price of pro- 
visions to the inhabitants.” In 1662 the corporation of Glasgow pur- 
chased ground and laid out the town of Port-Glasgow for their shipping 
harbour, and in 1668 they built a small quay at the Broomielaw; Mr. 
John Golburn, civil engineer, inspected the river, and on the 30th 
November 1768 reported that it was in a state of nature, and that as far 
down as Kilpatrick there were only two feet of water. In 1775 Mr. 
Golburn had so far improved the navigation that vessels drawing six 
feet water could come up to Glasgow at the height of a spring tide. 
Less than 50 years ago gabbarts, and these only about 30 or 40 tons bur- 
then, couldcomeup to the city; and Dr. Cleland recollects when for weeks 
together not a vessel ofany description was to be found at the port. The 
increase of trade consequent on the improvements of the river almost 
exceeds belief. By the year 1831 vessels drawing 13 feet 6 inches 
water came up to the harbour ; and now large vessels, many of them up- 
wards of 300 tons burthen, are to be found three deep along nearly the 
whole length of the harbour. During the year 1834, about 27,000 
vessels passed Renfrew ferry, and at some periods in that year between 
20 and 30 in an hour. A few years ago the harbour was only 730 feet 
long, and all on the north side of the river. It is now 1,260 feet long 
on the south, and 3,340 on the north. There are four steam dredging 
machines and two diving bells employed in deepening the harbour and 
river. 


Amount of the Revenue, Expenditure, and Debt of the River. 


Date. Revenue. Expenditure. Debt. 


Eo s. d. £ s. d £ s. d. 

1770 147 010 2,680 4 11 2 530).~ 4) 1 
1780 1,515 8 4 1,509 O OL 21,305 3 1 
1790 2,239 0 4 1,884 17 14 17,864 18 54 
1800 3,319 16 1 1,904 8 8 11,001 7 5 
1810 6,676 7 6 385,210 9 7 28,706 16 6 
1820 6,328 18 10 7,076 12 2 49,736 18 10 
1830 20,296 18 6 24,821 8 8 113,947 2 8 
29,609 13 11 124,003 13 9 

on 129,882 10 5 


142 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


_ Another proof of the increase of trade from the improvements on the 
river will be found in the duties paid at the Custom-house, as exhibited 
in the following table : 


Amount of Customs Duties collected at Glasgow in years ending 5th 
January. 


Duties, 


eeu ar..d. 
1831) 72,053 17 4 
71,922 8 03/1833) 97,041 11 11 
74,255 O 14/1834) 166,913 3 3 


29,926 15 0 |1830) 59,018 17 3 |1836)314,701 10 8 


Steam Vessels which sailed from Glasgow in 1831 and 1835. 
ABSTRACT. 


1831. 1835. 


Vessels. | Tonnage.| Vessels. | Tonnage. 


USER DORiE ethos fice ane ate : 18 3203 


Goods and Passengers . . . . . . ll 834 
Passengersiit) 15 Lii007 25.08 266, AG 26 1927 
TM proper) cis, 2h ALLORITI Wid Se 470 
DOWIE), sant Oto orca ciel) sulapocsyy « 257 


6691 


In 1836 there are 75 steam vessels plying from Glasgow, some of 
them as long as frigates of the first class. 


Intercourse with Glasgow.—The intercourse with Glasgow by coaches, 
steam boats, track boats, and railroads is so great that it almost exceeds 
belief. As several of the coaches and steam-boats depart and arrive 
more than once a day, and the mail coaches every day, the following 
may be taken as a low average of passengers by stage coaches and steam- 
boats, while the others.are from the books of the respective companies. 
In 1834 Dr. Cleland published the names and destinations of 61 stage 
coaches which arrived and departed during 313 lawful days, each avera- 
ging 12 passengers. This gave 458, 232 in the year. By 37 steam-hoats 
25 passengers each, 579,050. By the swift boats on the Forth and Clyde 
Navigation and Union Canal, 91,975. By the light iron boats on the 
Paisley Canal, 307,275. By the boats on the Monkland Canal, 31,784; 
and by the Glasgow and Garnkirk Railroad, 118,882. These together 
make the gross number of persons passing and repassing to Glasgow 
yearly amount to 1,587,198. A number of these leave Glasgow and 
return to it on the same day. 


eee 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 143 


Increase of Passengers.—The increase of passengers by the canal 
boats and railroads will be seen by the following statement :—viz. In 
1836 by the swift boats on the Forth and Clyde Navigation and Union 
Canal, 198,461. By the Paisley Canal, 423,186. By the Monkland 
Canal, one boat making one trip per day, 33,400. By the Glasgow 
and Garnkirk Railroad, 146,296. Showing an increase in two years of 
251,427 passengers. Experience has shown that the estimate of pas- 
sengers by coaches and steam-boats in 1834 was taken rather too low. 


Iron works in Scotland—quantity of pig iron made in the year ended 
on lst May 1836. 


Erected 
Name of Works. Tons. Aone Name of Works, 
years. 


Carron Company. 10,400 | 1805 | Calder . 
Clvde ire. wile 14,560 | 1805 | Shotts . 


Wilsontown . . 4160 | 1825 | Monkland . 

Muirkirk » .. 7800 | 1828 | Gartsherrie 

Cleland ... 2080 | 1834 | Dundyvan. . 

Devon: «... 3¢4%wns 6240 ——EES 
Total . |34 


Exclusive of the above furnaces there are 22 additional ones in a state 
of forwardness, viz. 4at Somerlie, 4 at Govan, 4 at Carluke, 1 at Shotts, 
2 at Monkland, 4 at Coltness, 1 at Gartsherrie, and 2 at Calder. These 
will make 79,560 tons, and the whole 56 furnaces will make 189,800 
tons of iron annually. In 1825 the quantity of pig iron made in Scot- 
land amounted only to 55,500 tons, of which 2,862 tons was exported 
from Glasgow. In 1836, 23,792 tons were exported from this city. 

The above works are all in the neighbourhood of Glasgow excepting 
five, and none of them are thirty miles distant from that city. 


Post-office—On 17th November 1709, when the magistrates of Glas- 
gow applied to Parliament for a riding post between their city and Edin- 
burgh, the whole Post-office revenue of Scotland was under 2,000/. 


Revenue at the following Dates. 


£ s. d. & ed. £ 
July, 1781 4341 4 July, 1825} 34,190 1 7 | July, 1833) 36,481 


— 1810} 27,598 6 — 1830} 34,978 9 OZ}| — 1834] 37,483 
— 1815] 34,784 16 — 1831] 35,642 19 5 | — 18385) 39,954 
— 1820) 31,533 2 — 1832| 36,053 0 0 


‘Quarter ending 5th April, 1835, 10,0197. lls. 3d.; 5th July, 
9,904. 8s. 4d.; 5th October, 9,814/. 18s. 8d.; 5th January, 1836, 
10,215/. 6s. 3d. 

Bridewell.—In 1835-6 there were 1613 commitments,—viz. males 
above 17 years of age, 738; ditto below 17 years, 213; females above 
17 years, 589 ; ditto below, 17 years, 73. Persons committed during 
the year, 1946; of whomliberated,1632; remaining on 2nd August 1836, 


144 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


314. Average number daily in the prison, 270; viz. males, 157; 
females, 113. 

Abstract accounts for the year ended 2nd August 1836, 
Dasthimementa2if,. AALLO>. [ise D. vile ww ae. £2,627 17 6 
Receipts for work, &c............. £2,267 17 6 
Balance, being the cost to the public 

for maintaining and keeping pri- 

soners, including all salaries, bed 

and body clothes, washing, furni- 

ture, working utensils, machinery, 

repairs on the buildings, keeping the 

ground in order, and everything 

else connected with the internal 

management of the establishment. . 360 0 O 

————_ 2,627 17 6 

The deficiency of 3607. when applied to 240, the daily average num- 
ber of inmates sentenced to labour, shows the expense of each prisoner 
to be only 1/. 10s. per annum, 2s. 4d. per month, or nearly 1d. per day. 

In 1828 Dr. Cleland ascertained that from Ist May 1827, to Ist May 
1828, there were 17,840 bullocks slaughtered in the city and suburbs, and 
144,900 sheep and lambs. The value of the butcher meat in the above 
year (details publishedinthe Annalsof Glasgow) was 303,978/. 14s. 5d.; 
bread, 177,266/. 10s. 8d.; milk, 67,342/.10s. Totalvalue of meat, bread, 
and milk, 548,587/. 15s. ld. 


On the comparative Value of the Mineral Productions of Great Britain 
and the rest of Europe. By Joun Taytor, F.R.S., &c. 

A calculation, he said, was made by Mr. C. F. Smidt, in 1829, of the 
value of the mineral productions of Europe, at continental prices; and, 
from the accuracy of the statements coming within Mr. Taylor’s own 
knowledge, he was disposed to believe in the others. It should be 
borne in mind that the continental prices differed greatly from those in 
England, and, consequently, that the amounts were comparative, and 
not absolute value. The value of the mineral products of Europe, in- 
cluding Asiatic Russia, were,—gold and silver, 1,943,000 ; other metals, 
28,515,000; salts, 7,640,000; combustibles, 18,050,000 ; making in 
round numbers a total of about 56 millions exclusive of manganese. 
Now to this amount Great Britain contributed considerably more than 
one half—viz. 29 millions, in the following proportions :—silver, 28,500; 
copper, 1,369,000; lead, 769,000; iron, 11,292,000; tin, 536,000; 
salts, 756,250; vitriol, 33,000; alum, 33,000; coal, 13,900,000. He 
then gave a sketch of the history of mining in Great Britain, dwelling 
strongly on its vast increase since the introduction of the steam-engine. 

The following is Mr. Taylor’s estimate of the quantity of lead raised 
in Great Britain in the year 1835. 


Northumberland, Mines of Tons. 
Cumberland, and T. W. Beaumont, Esq. .. 9,500 Fodders 10,000 
Durham, Manor of Alston, Green-| 14,139 Bingsof 


wich Hospital ...... Ore, producing 3,850 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 145 


Greensides Mine in Pat- Tons. 
terdale, and other 700 
Mines in the West of ( *°**"***""** 
Cumberland........ 
Dufton, Crossfell, aan 1.000 
arid Lungdales) 2 2onr proto 5° A i 
Derwent Mines™ aelh iacieoY).. .. S. 1,200 
Ballhape 5 e's aus. om» & 231 
Arynehead 5 5 sei snlvs'e « 140 
Fallowfield ............ 100 
Sherlock and Co. and 250 
Jobling and Co. .... \ 791 
TEESDALE. 
Duke of Cleveland’s Li- : 
berty, and Mr. Htc. ue Nom thea 2775 
A é e@ 
inson’s of Shornbury 
Yorkshire .... SwWaLEDALE, 
Ankindale, 0nd, cOONET doco. 7 onetiou i gUe 
BQ IACeNG ic or» <iasics 
Grassington, and other 
Manors of the Duke > ............ 700 
of Devonshire...... : 
Pateley, Greenhough * 
ei sik tec Da nasa! rayne 
Derbyshire .... About 8 furnaces in con- 
stant work, at10Tons > ............ 4000 
, Ber Weel «snus... 
Shropshire .... Snailbeach Mine........ 1300 
Roe NaMRGP 2 lees ole 2 avers 1554 
Grit and Gravel Mines .. 685 
— 3539 
Devonshire and Wheal Betsy ........ a 40 
Cornwall...... And other small Mines .. 100 
140 
North Wales... . TheLeadsmeltedin Flint- \ 13415 Tons 
shire in the year, was 
In Denbighshire ........ 177 
13592 
Of which was produced 
Flintshire. ..... from Ores raised ih 9380 
Flintshire.. ........ 
Denbighshire .. SR AP dad a eR ae BS ga SASHA 177 
South Wales. 
Cardiganshire .. Smelted in Flintshire .... 1020 
Bristol ...... 180 
—— 1200 


Vou. v.—1836. L 


146 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


Tons 

Treland........ Smeltedin Flintshire .... 500 
Ireland ...... 700* 
1200* 

Isle of Man..., Smelted in Flintshire.... ............ 850 
Scotland ....., Scotch Mine Company .. 600 
Wanloch Head Mines... . 700 

1300 


The numbers on which Mr. Taylor has no certain information are marked *. 


Observations on the Periodicity of Births, showing the total Number 
born in each Month; the Number of Premature Children ; the Sex, 
&c. Se. ; the Number of Stillborn Children, and Children Dying ; 
also with regard to the Death of the Mothers, and the most important 
Complications met with in Delivery, deduced from the Experience of 
16,654 Cases. By Roserr Coxiins, M.D., late Master of the 
Dublin Lying-in Hospital. 

This communication was supplementary to a former series of tables 
and deductions}, derived from the same accurate registry kept by Dr. 
Collins in the Lying-in Hospital, Dublin, for a period of seven years, 
commencing November, 1826, during which 16,654 births took place. 
These are classed with reference to several important points in the fol- 


lowing table, (37 being omitted, because the sex was not noted). The 
following are extracts. 


Total Children Born 

Monthly 
Month. 

each Month 

Premature First 

Children. 

each Month. 

Males. 


No. of Males in each 
Premature Births in 
Total First Children. 

Premature Males in 
No. of First Children 


September 
October... 
November. 
December. 


|_| | | FFT 


+ A short abstract is given in Vol. iv. Reports of the Association, under the head of 
“ Transactions of the Sections,” p. 106. 


> 


~ 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 147 


In order to ascertain the results at different periods of the year, with 
regard to most of the above calculations, I divided the years into quar- 
ters, as given in the succeeding table :— 


YE 


es | 3 B | eee] OR | Ss 'o8 
=a = ae 34 2 & | Sa 
Quarters. 3.8 s 2 og za 2 B 2s 
a S | 28 |ao | 88 | &'e 
ge fs | € | g- | 38 | ge | ts 
sy 1Nel Mevesliens iat ars PAs pt ye TS 
Jan., Feb., March.| 4283 | 2191 | 111 | 43 | 1194) 59 | 615 
April, May, June. | 4109 | 2141 | 129 | 36 | 1213 |, 60 | 644 


July, Aug., Sept. | 4122 | 2151 | 124 
Oct., Nov., Dec. 4103 | 2065 | 134 


———— | | | SS | ls | 


The total number of children s¢i//-born in the Dublin Lying-in Ho- 
spital during the seven years the medical charge was intrusted to me, 
was one thousand one hundred and twenty-one ; thus eighty-four occurred 
in January, and so on. 


Bo bass he Bia hyets 

2 o 2 

Bel e\2| 8 

21S |e] 8 

nN a (=) 
97 | 98 |117] 83 | 106 


The following statement with respect to children dying in the Ho- 
spital, exhibits a similarly near approach at all seasons of the year ; thus, 
of the total number, 284, 26 died in January, &c. 


November. 


September. 
December. 


mf | ff | | | 


bo 
co 
i) 
a 


The following table shows the periods at which the several women 
died, during my residence in the Hospital. _The total number was one 
hundred and sixty-four ; of these eighteen died in January, &c. 

L2 


148 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


September 
October. 

November. 

December. 


er | i | | | | | | | | 


_ 
nD 
a 
bo 


In order to ascertain accurately the result as to periodicity, with 
respect to the most frequent, as well as the most important complica- 
tions met with in delivery, I have taken the dates from my registry, 
and arranged them in tables in the following order. 


Labours complicated with Hemorrhage of every variety. 


September 
October. 
November. 
December. 


io) 
Ne} 
— 
— 


Of 131 cases of labour complicated with hemorrhage of every variety, 
the greatest proportionate number (17) occurred in July; the least (8) 
in April. Of 239 cases of labour complicated with twins, the largest 
proportion (33) occurred in July; the least (12) in December. Other 
tables of complicated labours are presented, from which, owing partly 
to the fewness of the cases, Dr. Collins does not venture to draw any 
inferences as to the periodicity of the occurrences. 


Facts and Calculations on the present State of the Bobbin Net Trade, 
and the past and present State of the Hosiery Trade. By W. 
Fevxin, of Nottingham. 


From these very laborious and detailed communications, the following 
are extracts relating to the bobbin net trade. 
Capital employed in spinning and doubling the yarn required :—in 
1831, 935,000/7. ; 1833, 760,000/. 
Capital employed in bobbin net making :—1831, 2,310,000/.; 1833, 
1,932,000/. 
Number of hands employed :—in 1831, 211,000; 1833, 159,300. 
Value of raw material and manufactured goods :— 
1831. Amount of South Sea cotton, 1,600,000 lbs., value, 
TOO Pied pee set in coo i, Oe een BL alte Mec 150,000/ 
,, Amount of raw silk, 25,000 lbs., value, 30,000/.. . 
;, Lhe same when made into a state fit for the bobbin \ 540,000/. 
TICUSIMAR OLS Hehe LVeN. Wi Veradere, hive et al en ae Meee 


SE — 


EEE ere Ee ee 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 149 


1831. Value of 23,400,000 square yards, annual eva xa 1,891,875/. 


Oh  bobhinipets ewes Hel ey. Le Oe eee 
1833. Amount of South Sea cotton, 2,387,000 lbs., raw 224,0007. 
» The same in yarn fit for the bobbin net makers.. 766,000/.* 
» Value of 30,771,000 square yards of English bob- 
himenet! sje Fede aneiae Ae ee ceo. held he 1,850,650/. 
1835. Amount of South Sea cotton, 1,850,000 lbs., worth 185,000. 
aon Amountiof rawisdk'$>9h0 8. 08O de act. 25,0002. 
», The same when fit to be used in the bobbin trade  664,3307. 
5° » Value. of ‘the bobbin net... . 2.0.6. 0. ce eden’ 2,212,0007. 


Mr. Fexxrn also communicated some observations on the difficulties 
which impede the collecting of accurate statistical information. 


On the Utility of Co-operating Committees of Trade and Agriculture in 
the Commercial and Manufacturing Towns of Great Britain, &c. as 
projected by Mr. Holt Mackenzie and Mr. Forbes Royle, and advocated 
by Sir Alexander Johnston and Sir C. Forbes, for investigating more 
exclusively the Natural and Artificial Products of India. - By Colonel 
SYKEs. 


The object of the paper was to invite the formation of committees, as 
suggested in the above title, in our principal manufacturing and com- 
mercial towns, either in co-operation with the Royal Asiatic Society, 
or independently, for the following purposes :-— 

1. To ascertain what articles, the produce of India, now imported 
into England, are of inferior quality to those produced in other coun- 
tries; to investigate the causes of the inferiority, and to explain and 
suggest means for removing them. 

2. To ascertain what articles now in demand in England, or likely 
to be used if furnished, but not yet generally forming part of our com- 
merce with India, could be profitably provided in that country, or their 
place advantageously supplied by other things belonging to it; to take 
measures for making known in India the wants of England, and in En- 
gland the capabilities of India ; and to suggest and facilitate such ex- 
periments as may be necessary to determine the practicability of ren- 
dering the resources of the one country subservient to the exigencies of 
the other. 

3. To ascertain what useful articles are produced in countries pos- 
sessing climates resembling those of the different parts of India whick 
are not known to that country, and vice versd. To consider the means 
of transplanting the productions, and transferring the processes of one 
country to another ; and to encourage and facilitate all useful inter- 
changes of that nature. 

_ 4, With the above views, and for the sake of general knowledge and 
improvement, to consider how the statistics of Indian agriculture and 
arts (including climate, meteorology, geology, botany, and zoology) may 


* Above 100,000/. worth of this yarn was sent abroad (262,000 lbs.). 


150 SIXTH REPORT—1836. 


be most conveniently and ceconomically ascertained and recorded; and 
to encourage and facilitate all inquiries directed to those objects. 

Numerous illustrations of these national considerations were quoted 
from Mr. Royle. It appeared that so lately as 1784, an American 
vessel arrived at Liverpool with eight bags of cotton, which were seized, 
under the belief that America did not produce that article; and now her 
produce is four hundred millions of pounds, the greater part of which 
is consumed in Great Britain; and it is remarkable, that the native 
country of the Sea Island cotton is supposed to be Persia. The 
Carolina rice, which sells at 5d. per lb., whilst the best India rice sells 
at only 23d. or 3d., originated in a single bag of East India rice given 
by Mr. C. Dubois, of the India House, to an American trader. All 
the coffee of the West Indies originated in a single plant in the hot- 
houses of Amsterdam. 

Of new or little-known articles lately introduced from India, and 
which are of the utmost importance to our manufacturing interests, it 
was stated that in 1792, Mr. Brown, the resident at Cossimbazar, told 
the council at Calcutta, that if it should think proper to send a few ewts. 
of lac to Europe, it might be procured in Calcutta. The annual con- 
sumption in England is now estimated at six hundred thousand lbs. 
Catechu was so much neglected that its price was as low as 2s. per 
cwt.; it was discovered to be useful in dying cotton a peculiar brown, 
and is also employed in tanning; and its price is steady at 40s. per 
cwt. Royal safflower is another article of curious illustration. Ten 
years since only Turkey safflower was known, and now East India alone 
commands the market. Rape-seed, recently introduced, has, it is un- 
derstood, produced a profit to one mercantile house of £40,000. Flax 
or linseed, for which we are dependent on Russia for 50,000 tons an- 
nually, was first imported from India in 1832: it was found to be better 
than the Russian, and the crushers gave 15s. per cwt. more for it. The 
importation has amazingly increased, and England will doubtless ere 
long look to her own dependencies for the total supply of her wants. 
In India even, some kinds of Indian iron have recently been sold at 
more than double the price of the English iron. ‘The rapid increase of 
the importation of castor and cocoa-nut oils was mentioned; and spe- 
cimens of cocoa-nut fibre, as a valuable, cheap, and healthy substitute 
for horse-hair, in stuffing mattresses, &c., were exhibited. Many other 
articles were enumerated as of great value to the manufacturers of En- 
gland; gums, resins, varnishes, oil and cordage, plants, &c., &c., besides 
articles of the Materia Medica, such as senna, rhubarb, Xc., &c., &c. 


On Spade Husbandry in Norfolk. By Dr. YELuouy. 


On the Effect of Railroads on Intercommunication. By Dr. LarpnEr. 


The subjects discussed by Dr. Lardner, were the relative numbers of 
persons travelling now by railroads, and formerly by coaches, between 
the same points ; the general proportion being as 4 to 1, a result due 


TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 151 


to the diminished price and augmented speed. The comparative effect 
of swift packets on canals was stated to be very small. The practica- 
bility of augmenting the celerity on railroads to even fifty miles an hour 
was advocated, and illustrated by the results of actual trials. 


Outlines of a Memoir on Statistical Desiderata. By W.R. Gree, Esq. 


In this communication the author brought forward proofs of the total 
deficiency of statistical information on some subjects of national im- 
portance, and the unsatisfactory nature of that which had been collected 
by public authority, on others. From examinations of population ta- 
bles, tables of births and deaths, criminal statistics, the statistics of 
education, of illegitimate birth, and of stolen property, the authoris led 
to conclude, that ‘ with the exception of the revenue and commercial 
tables, no general statistical documents yet exist in England from 
which any philosophical inferences can be safely drawn, and that till 
the materials are wholly re-collected, all attempts to elicit such im- 
ferences can only end in disappointment and error.” In order to 
obtain more satisfactory results in future, he deems it highly necessary 
to depart from the plan so commonly resorted to, of issuing circular 
queries, and to commit the task of obtaining authentic and complete in- 
formation to individuals who shall make the execution of it their pro- 
fessional duty, and whose labours shall be remunerated accordingly. 


On Formula of Returns of the gross Receipts of the Revenues of Great 
Britain, and of Savings Banks Returns. By Jurrries Kinesuey, Esq. 


The object of this communication was to enforce the propriety and 
advantage of an uniform and well-considered plan of gross, rather than 
net returns, on the above-named subjects, under the authority of Par- 
liament. 


M. Le Puay presented to the Section a copy of a “Resumé des 
Travaux Statistiques de l’ Administration des Mines en 1835.” 


[ 152 ] 


INDEX Ff. 


TO 


REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 


Oxy ECTS and Rules of the Asso- 
ciation, v. 

Officers and Council, viii. 

Officers of Sectional Committees, ix. 

Treasurer’s Account, xi. 

Reports on the progress and desiderata 
of different branches of science, al- 
ready printed, xii. 

Reports of Researches, already printed, 
xiv. 

Reports undertaken to be drawn up at 
the request of the Association, xv. 
Researches recommended, and deside- 

rata noticed by the Committees, xvi. 

Synopsis of sums appropriated to sci- 
entific objects, xix. 

Address by Prof. Daubeny, xxi. 


Alpine plants of Scotland, 258. 
America, North, physical geography of, 
123. 


, climate of, 128. 

—_——_——, birds of, 164. 

, cetacea of, 161. 

—_——_—, ichthyology of, 202. 

——_——_,, mammalia of, 137. 

, teptiles of, 197. 

, zoology of, 121. 

Arteries and absorbents, on the com- 
munications between the, 289. 

Atmosphere, mechanical theory of the, 
226. 


Birds of North America, 164. 

Botany :—the remarkable plants of 
Dublin, Edinburgh, and south-west 
of Scotland, 253 ; plants which cha- 
racterize Scotland and Ireland, 257. 

Brain and nervous system, pathology 
of the, 283. 


Carlsbad waters, imitation of the, 54. 

Carbonate of soda, its origin in certain 
secondary rocks, 24. 

Cetacea of America, 161. 


Challis (Prof.) on the mathematical 
theory of fluids, 225. 

Chemical theory of thermal springs, 68. 

Clendinning (Dr.), report on the mo- 
tions and sounds of the heart, 261. 

Colouring matter of water explained, 
35. 


Daubeny (Dr.), address, xxi; on the 
present state of our knowledge with 
respect to mineral and thermal wa- 
ters, 1. 

Dublin, the remarkable plants of the 
neighbourhood of, 253. 

Dublin Committee on the pathology 
of the brain and nervous system, 
283. 

Sub-committee on the motions 

and sounds of the heart, 261. 


Earth, instructions for conducting ex- 
periments on the temperature of, 
291. 

Earthquakes, their influence upon 
springs, 43. 

Edinburgh, remarkable plants of the 
neighbourhood of, 253. 

Elastic fluids, theory of, 246. 

Equations of elevated degrees, on trans- 
forming and resolving, 295. 


Fluids, on the theory of, 225, 246. 


Geography, physical, of North Ame- 
rica, 123 

Geology :—position of thermal springs, - 
62 ; products of springs, 56 ; theories 
of thermal springs, 67. 

Glairine, described, 31. 

Graham (Prof.) on the remarkable 
plants of Dublin, Edinburgh, and 
south-west of Scotland, 253. 


Hamilton (Sir W.) on Mr. Jerrard’s 
method of transforming and resolv- 
ing equations, 295, 


INDEX II. 


Heart, on the motions and sounds of 
the, 261, 275. 

Heat, central, theory cf, 69. 

Hodgkin (Dr.) on the communications 
between the arteries and absorbents, 
289. 

Hydrogen, sulphuretted, in springs, 
73. 


Ichthyology of Nerth America, 202. 
Ireland, on the remarkable plants of, 
257. 


Jerrard (G. B.) on the validity of his 
method of transforming and resoly- 
ing equations, 295. 


London Committee on the communi- 
cation between the arteries and ab- 
sorbents, 289. 

London Sub-committee on the motions 
and sounds of the heart, 261. 


Lubbock (J. W.) on the discussions of 


observations of the tides, 285. 


Mackay (J. T.) on the remarkable 
plants of Dublin, Edinburgh, and 
south-west of Scotland, 253. 

on the plants which characterize 
Scotland and Ireland, 257. 

Magnetic force, terrestrial, its direc- 
tion and intensity in Scotland, 97. 

Mammalia of North America, 137. 

Marsupial animals of North America, 

2: 


Medical science :—on the motions and 
sounds of the heart, 261 ; on the pa- 
thology of the brain and nervous 
system, 283. 

Meteoric water, on, 3. 

Migration of birds, 186. 

Mineral waters, on the state of our 
knowledge respecting, 1. 


Nervous system, pathology of the, 283. 
Nitrogen in springs, 71. 


‘Ornithology, North American, 164. 


Phillips (Prof.) on subterranean tem- 
perature, 291. 

Powell (Rev. B.) on determining the 

_ refractive indices for the standard 
rays of the solar spectrum, 288. 

Pyrrhine, 1, 2. 


Rain-water, examination of, 2. 


153 


Reptilia of North America, 197. 
Richardson (Dr.) on North American 
zoology, 121. 


Sabine (Major Edw.) on the direction 
and intensity of the terrestrial mag- 
netic force in Scotland, 97. 

Salt-springs, ingredients of, 16; origin 
of, 74. 

Scotland, on the direction and inten- 
sity of the terrestrial magnetic force 
in, 97; remarkable plants of, 253, 
257. 


Sea-water, mineral ‘substances found 
in, 4; gaseous contents of, 6. 

Silica, its origin in springs, 25. 

Snow-water, on, 2. 

Soda, carbonate of, in certain'seeon- 
dary rocks, 24; without carbonic 
acid in springs, 25. 

Solar spectrum, on determining the re- 
fractive indices for the standard rays 
of, 288. Y 

Sound, theory of the velocity of, 233; 
its propagation through liquids, 244. 

Springs, mineral, state of our know- 
ledge respecting, 1. 

» exerting a peculiar action“upon 
the animal ceconomy, 44. 

——, gases evolved from, 36. 

——, influence of earthquakes upon, 
43. 

, ingredients of, 11, 14. 

, origin of springs in general, 58. 

» products of, 56. 

, temperature of, 7. 

——, salt, origin of, 74. 

——, thermal, origin of, 59; geologi- 
cal position of, 62; theories of, 67. 


Temperature, subterranean, report of 
experiments on, 291. 

Thermal waters, state of our knowledge 
respecting, 1; catalogue of, 80. 

Tides, discussions of observations of 
the, 285. 

Todd (Dr.), report on the motions and 
sounds of the heart, 261. 


Water, mineral and thermal, on the 
present state of our knowledge re- 
specting, 1. 

, definition of the term ‘ mineral 

water’, 1. 

, atmospheric, 1. 

of lakes, 6. 

—— of seas, 3. 


154 


Water of springs, their temperature, 7 ; 
periodical variations of temperature, 
9; secular variation of temperature, 
9; organic matter, 30; origin of 
springs, 58 ; products of springs, 56; 
springs exerting a peculiar action 
upon the animal ceconomy, 44. 

, mineral, classification of, 14; in- 

gredients found in, 11, 14; gases 

evolved from, 36; on analysing, 47 ; 
improvements in chemical analysis, 

48 ; on the detection of organic mat- 

ter in, 51; apparatus for determin- 

ing the quality and amount of the 
gases combined with, 52; factitious, 

58; works on, 76. 


INDEX II. 


Water, instruments for drawing it up 
from great depths, 5. 
, its colouring matter explained, 


, salt springs, origin of, 74. 

, thermal springs, on the term 
* thermal’, 7; origin of, 59; geolo- 
gical position of, 62; theories of, 
67; catalogue of, 80. 

Williams (Dr. C. J. B.), report on the 
motions and sounds of the heart, 
261. 


Zoology of North America, 121 ; some 
remarks on, 223. 


INDEX IL. 


TO 


MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS TO THE 
SECTIONS. 


ApsorprTion, on, 119. 

Adams (R.) on the bones in chronic 
rheumatism, 123. 

on the new circulating channelsin 
double popliteal aneurism, 123. 

Addams (R.) on the vibration of bells, 


Alcock (Mr.) on taste being dependent 
on nerves from the spheno-palatine 
ganglion, 124. ; 

on the anatomy of the fifth pair 
of nerves, 124. 

Alcyonella Stagnorum, on, 104. 

Algebraic geometry, on the doubtful 
algebraic sign in certain formule of, 
i 


Ammonia, lithiate of, a secretion of 
insects, 70. 

Anemometer, Whewell’s, 39. 

Aneurism, popliteal, 123. 

Animal substances, means of pre- 
serving, 99. 

Apjohn (Dr.) on the specific heats of 
gases, 33. 

Architecture, naval, 129. 

Arsenic, its effects on vegetation, 76. 


Arsenical poisons, 67. 

Artificial crystals, 47. 

Atmospheric air, means of detecting 
gases present in, 77. 

electricity, on, 48. 

Aurora borealis, on the, 32. 


Babbage (C.) on a thermometer re- 
cently discovered in Italy, 77. 

Bath waters, analysis of the, 70. 

Berzelius, chemical nomenclature of, 


44. 

Black (W.) on ascertaining the 
strength of spirits, 61. 

Blowpipe, common bellows, 77. 

Botany :—on the longevity of the yew, 
and the antiquity of planting it in- 
church-yards, 101; observations on 
the Marsiliacee, 102; Alcyonella 
Stagnorum, 104; on the manage- 
ment of the pine, 104 ; new and sean- 
dent species of the Norantia, 104; 
effects of arsenic on vegetation, 104; 
on caoutchouc, 105; on the accele- 
ration of the growth of wheat, 106 ; 
crystals of sugar found in Rhodo- 


INDEX II. 


dendron ponticum, 106; on the 
fruits of the Deccan, 106. 

Bowman (J. E.) on the bone cave at 
Cefn in Denbighshire, 88. 

on the longevity of the yew, and 
the antiquity of planting it inchurch- 
yards, 101. 

Brain, on diseases of the, 107. 

Brewster (Sir D.) on the action of 
crystallized surfaces upon common 
and polarized light, 13. 

on the polarizing structure in 

the crystalline lens after death, 16. 

on cataract, 111]. 

Broughton, (S. D.) on the sensibility 
of the glosso-pharyngeal nerve, 125. 


Calculus, integral, on the, 1 ; new pro- 


perty of the equilateral hyperbola, 2; | 


remarkable theorem of Mr. Abel, 3. 
of principal relations, on the, 4, 


41. 

Calorimotor, Hare’s, 45. 

Cancerous diseases, on, 112. 

Caoutchouc, on, 105. 

Carbon and potassium, on a. compound 
of, 63. 

Carmichael (R.) on cancerous and tu- 
berculous diseases, 112. 

Carpenter (Rev. L.) on Lucas’s me- 
thod of printing for the blind, 41. 
Carpenter (W. R.) on the criteria by 
which species are to be distinguished 

in zoology and botany, 99. 

Carson (Dr.) on absorption, 119. 

Cataract, on, 111. 

Cement, metallic, from iron ore, 65. 

Cephalonia, on the sea rivulets of, 81. 

Cerebral nerves, on the sensibilities of 
the, 125. 

Charlesworth (E.) on the remains of 
vertebrated animals in the. tertiary 
beds of Norfolk and Suffolk, 48. 

Chatfield (H,) on British naval archi- 

~ tecture, 129. 

Chemical nomenclature of Berzelius, 


—— symbols, 77. 

— theory of volcanic phenomena, 
81. 

Chemistry :—on the chemical nomen- 
clature of Berzelius, 44; on a calori- 
motor for igniting gases, 45; aqueous 
sliding-rod hydrogen eudiometer, 
46; Hare’s volumeters, 46; electri- 
cal experiments, 47; results of ex- 
periments on the phosphate and 


155 


pyro-phosphate of soda, 48 ; import- 
ant facts obtained from theory of 
those experimental results which are 
considered as ultimate facts, 50; on 
gaseous interference, 54; on the 
combinations of sulphuric acid and 
water, 56; method of ascertaining 
the strength of spirits, 61; new 
gaseous bicarburet of hydrogen, 62; 
peculiar compound of carbon and 
potassium, 63 ; de-oxydation of iron, 
64; a new isomeric compound, 67 ; 
on arsenical poisons, 67 ; on lithiate 
of ammonia as a secretion of insects, 
70; analysis of the King’s bath 
water, Bath, 70; analysis of wheat, 
&c. 74 ; effect of arsenic on vegeta- 
tion, 76; new substance from the 
distillation of wood, 76; insulation 
of fluorine, 77 ; chemical symbols, 
77; an ancient thermometer, 77 ; 
modification of the common bellows 
blowpipe, 77; on detecting gases 
present in atmospheric air, 77. 

Church-yards, antiquity of planting 
the yew in, 101. ni 

Clarke (Rev. Mr.) on two springs on 
the north side of Hales Bay, 94. 

Collins (Dr.) on the periodicity of 
births, &c. 146. 

Compass, advantage of tempered nee- 
dles, 30. 

Corbet (Dr.) on inbibition of prussiate 
of potash by plants, 107. 

Cornwall, on the metalliferous veins 
of, 83; on the performance of steam- 
engines in, 130. 

Cossham (J. N.), improvement of Na- 
pier’s rods, 132. 

Craig (Rev. E.) on polarization, 19. 

Crosse (A.) on the formation of arti- 
ficial crystals, 47. 

Crystallized surfaces, action of upon 
common and polarized light, 13. 
Crystals, formed by electrical action, 

47. 


of iron pyrites, 77. 
Cumbrian mountains, on the removal 
of boulders from the, 87. 


Dalton (Dr.) on chemical symbols, 77. 

Damoiseau’s work on the theory of 
the moon, 12. 

Daubeny (Dr.) on the effects. which 
arsenic produces on vegetation, 76. 

ou the chemical theory of vol- 

canic phenomena, 81. 


156 


Davy (Prof.} on a new gaseous bicar- 
buret of hydrogen, 62. 

on a compound of carbon and 
potassium, 63. 

Deccan, on the fruits of the, 106. 

De la Beche (H. 'T.) on the metalli- 
ferous veins of Cornwall, 83. 

Denbighshire, bone cave at Cefn, 88. 

Devonshire, on the physical structure 
of, 95. . 

Dickson (Sir D. J. H.) on extensive 
aneurism, 124. 

Digestive organs, on the chemistry of 
the, 117. 

Dublin Committee on a case of Morbus 
Coxz Senilis, 124. 

Dupin (Baron) on the price of grain, 
and its influence on French popu- 
lation, 132. 


Ear-trumpet, improved, 36. 

Eblanine, a new substance from the 
distillation of wood, 76. 

Education, state of, in Liverpool, 133; 
in Bristol, 136. 

Electrical experiments, 47. 

repulsion, on, 19. 

Electricity, atmospheric, 48. 

Electro-magnetism applied to machi- 
nery, 24, 

Empirical tables forfinding the moon’s 
place, on, 12, 
Enys (J. 8.) on the performance of 
steam-engines in Cornwall, 130. 
Ettrick (W.) on an instrument for ob- 
serving minute changes of terrestrial 
magnetism, 33. 

, new rubber for an electrical 

machine, 33. 

on the common bellows blow- 
pipe, 77. 

Eudiometer, aqueous sliding-rod hy- 
drogen, 46. 

Eudiometrical experiments, calorimo- 
tor for igniting gases in, 45. 

Exley (Thos.) on facts obtained ma- 
thematically in chemistry, 50. 

Eye, on cataract, 111; on the muscles 
and nerves of the eyeball, 121. 


Felkin (W.) on the state of the bob- 
bin-net trade, 148. 

Fluorine, on the insulation of, 77. 

Fetus, human, without brain, heart, 
lungs and liver, 122. 

Forbes (Prof.) on terrestrial magnetic 
intensity, 30. 


INDEX II. 


Forbes (Prof.) on the weight, height, 
and strength of men, 38. 

on the physical geography of the 
Pyrenees in relation to hot springs, 
83. 

Forbes (Mr.) notice of sixteen species 
of testacea new to Scotland, 99. 

Fox (R. W.) on voltaic agencies in 
metalliferous veins, 81. 


Gas, new, 62. 

Gaseous interference, on, 54. 

Gases, on the specific heats of, 33. 

Geology :—physical, on certain points, 
in, 78; on the sea rivulets in Cepha- 
lonia, 81; chemical theory of vol- 
canic phenomena, 81 ; voltaic agen- 
cies in metalliferous veins, 81; hot 
springs of the Pyrenees, 83 ; metal- 
liferous veins of Cornwall, 83; ver- 
tebrated animals in the tertiary beds 
of Norfolk and Suffolk, 48 ; fallacies 
in Mr, Lyell’s classification of ter- 
tiary deposits, 86; limestones and 
associated strata near Manchester, 
86; removal of large blocks from 
the Cumbrian mountains, 87; hy- 
drography of the Severn, 88; bone 
cave at Cefn in Denbighshire, 88; 
new species of Saurians, 90; two 
springs on north side of Hales bay, 
94; Holoptychus nobilissimus, 94 ; 
classification of the old slate rocks 
of North Devonshire, 95; site of 
the ancient city of Memphis, 96. 

Glasgow, statistics of, 140. 

Glosso-pharyngeal nerve, sensibility 
of the, 125. 

Gluten, soluble, modification of, 74. 

Gossan of the Cornish miners, 82. 

Grecian music, on, 37. 


Greeves (A. F. A.) onthe gyration of 


the heart, 120. 
Greg (W.R.) statistical desiderata,151. 


Hall (Dr. M.) on the sensibility of the 
glosso-pharyngeal nerve, 125. 

Hall (G. W.) on accelerating the 
growth of wheat, 106. 

Hamilton (Sir W. R.) on the calculus 
of principal relations, 4, 41. 

Hancock (Dr.) on the manati of Gui- 
ana, 98. 

on anew and scandent species 
of the Norantia, 104. 

Hare (Dr.) on the chemical nomen- 
clature of Berzelius, 44. 


INDEX II, 


Hare (Dr.) on a calorimotor for pro- 
ducing ignition at a distance, 45. 

— on volumeters, 46. 

on the aqueous sliding-rod hy- 
drogen eudiometer, 46. 

Harris (W. S.) on some phenomena 
of electrical repulsion, 19. 

Heart, on the gyration of the, 120. 

Henry (Dr. C.) on gaseous interfe- 
rence, 54. 

Henslow (Prof.) on crystals of sugar 
in Rhododendron ponticum, 106. 
Henwood (Mr.) on naval architecture, 

130. 
Herapath (W.) on the aurora borealis, 
32. 


on arsenical poisons, 67. 

on lithiate of ammonia as a se- 

cretion of insects, 70. 

, analysis of King’s bath, Bath, 70. 

Hetling (W.) on anew instrument for 
removing ligatures, 124. 

Holoptychus nobilissimus, 94. 

Hope (Rey. F. W.) on the probability 
that some of the early notions of an- 
tiquity were derived from ins:cts,99. 

Hopkins (W.) on certain points in phy- 
sical geology, 78. 

Houston (Dr.), account of twin fo- 
tuses, one of which without brain, 
heart, lungs, and liver, 122. 

Hydrogen, new gaseous bicarburet of, 
62. 


Inglis (Dr.) on the conducting powers 
of iodine, 66. 

Interference, gaseous, 54. 

Intensity, influence of height upon, 
30. 


Iodine, conducting powers of, 64. 

Isoclinal lines in Yorkshire, direction 
of, 31. 

, direction of in England, 31. 


Johnston (Prof.) on paracyanogen, 67. 
Jones (W. C.) on the analysis of wheat, 
74, 


Knox (Mr.) on the insulation of fluo- 
rine, 77. 


Lardner (Dr.) on the effect of railroads 
on intercommunication, 150. 

Lens, crystalline, after death, 16. 

Ligatures, new instrument for the re- 
moving of, 124. 


157 


Light, polarized, action of crystallized 
surfaces upon, 13. 

Lignin, nitrogen in, 74. 

Lithic acid, in the secretion of insects, 
70. 

Liverpool, state of education in, 133. 

Lloyd (Dr.) on the Marsiliacez, 102. 

Lloyd (Prof.) on the direction of the 
isoclinal lines in England, 31. 

Logarithms, mnemonical, 38. 

Lowe (Mr.) on crystals of iron pyrites, 
77. 

Lubbock (J. W.) on new empirical ta- 
bles for finding the moon’s place, 12. 


Macartney (Dr.) on the organ of voice 
in the New Holland ostrich, 97. 
on the means of preserving ani- 

mal and vegetable substances, 99. 

on the structure of the teeth, and 
account of their decay, 115. 

Machinery, application of electro-mag- 
netism to, 24. 

M’Cullagh (J.) on the laws of dou- 
ble refraction in quartz, 18. 

M’Gauley (Rev. J. W.), experiments 
in electro-magnetism, in its appli- 
cation as a moving power, 24. 

Magnetic force, terrestrial, on, 31. 

Magnetic intensity, terrestrial, influ- 
ence of height upon, 30. 

Magnetical instrument, new, 28. 

Magnetism, terrestrial, instrument for 
observing minute changes of, 33. 

Magnetometer, Scoresby’s, 28. 

Man, on the weight, height, and 
strength of, 38. 

Manchester, on the limestones and 
strata of, 86. 

Marsiliacez, observations on the, 102. 

Mathematicsand Physics :—researches 
in the integral calculus, 1; calculus 
of principal relations, 4, 41 ; on the 
doubtful algebraic sign in certain 
formulz of algebraic geometry, 5; 
rules for constructing compensating 
pendulums, 7 ; on new empirical ta- 
bles'for finding the moon’s place, 12; 
action of crystallized surfaces upon 
common and polarized light, 13 ; po- 
larizing structure in the crystalline 
lens after death, 16; laws of dou- 
ble refraction in quartz, 18; on po- 
larization, 19 ; phenomena of elec- 
trical repulsion, 19; electro-mag- 
netism as a moving power, 24; new 


158 INDEX Ii. 


compass bar, 28; terrestrial mag- 
netic intensity, 30; isoclinal mag- 
netic lines in Yorkshire, 31; iso- 
clinal lines in England, 31; aurora 
borealis, 32; new method of inves- 
tigating the specific heats of gases, 
33 ; improved ear-trumpet, 36 ; on 
the higher orders of Grecian music, 
37 ; mnemonical logarithms, 38 ; on 
the weight, height, and strength of 
men, 38; Whewell’sanemometer, 39. 

Mechanical science :—on British na- 
val architecture, 129; on the tides, 
130; on the performance of steam- 
engines in Cornwall, 130; paddle- 
wheels, 131. 

Medical science : — on diseases of the 
brain, 107; on tetanus, 109; on 
cataract, 111; on cancerous and tu- 
berculous diseases, 112; on the struc- 
ture of the teeth, 1]5; on the che- 
mistry of the digestive organs, 117 ; 
on the functions of the nervous sys- 
tem, 119; on absorption, 119; on 
the gyration of the heart, 120; on 
the muscles and nerves of the eye- 
ball, 121; newly discovered pecu- 
liarity in the structure of the uterine 
decidua, 121; account of human 
twin foetuses, one of which without 
brain, heart, lungs, and liver, 122; 
on the bones in chronic rheumatism, 
123; on the new circulating chan- 
nels in double popliteal aneurism, 
123; new instrument for removing 
ligatures, 124; sensibility of the 
glosso-pharyngeal nerve, 125. 

Memphis, site of the ancient city of, 96. 

Mineral productions of Great Britain, 
value of, 144. 

Montgomery (Dr.) on a newly dis- 
covered peculiarity in the uterine 
decidua, 121. 

Moon, Damoiseau’s and Plana’s works 
on the theory of the, 12. 

Moon’s place, on new empirical tables 
for finding, 12. 

Mushet (Mr.) on the de-oxydation of 
iron ore, 64; on a metallic cement 
from iron ore, 65. 

Music, Grecian, 37. 

Murchison (R. I.) on the hydrogra- 
phy of the Severn, 88, 

, classification of the oldslate rocks 

of Devonshire, 95. 


Napier’s rods, an improvement of, 132. 
Naval architecture, British, 129. 


Nerve, glosso-pharyngeal, on the sen- 
sibility of the, 125. 

Nervous system, functions of the, 119. 

New Holland ostrich, on the organ of 
voice in the, 97. 

Nitrogen in lignin, 74. 

Norantia, new species of, 104. 

Norfolk, vertebrated animals found in 
the tertiary beds of, 48. 

Nugent (Lord) on the sea rivulets in 
Cephalonia, 81. 

Nuttall (J.) on the management of 
the pine tribe, 104, 


O’Beirne (Dr.) on tetanus, 109. 

Ostrich, New Holland, on the organ of 
voice in the, 97. 

, two-toed, on the foot of the, 98. 


Paddle-wheels, on, 131. 

Paracyanogen, a new isomeric com- 
pound, 67. 

Pendulums, compensating, mathema- 
tical rules for constructing, 7 

Phelps (Mr.) on the formation of peat, 
107 


Phillips (Prof.) on the direction of iso- 
clinal magnetic lines in Yorkshire, 
81. 


on certain limestones and asso- 

ciated strata near Manchester, 86. 

on the removal of boulders from 
the Cumbrian mountains, 87. 

Plana’s work onthe theory of the moon, 
12. 

Poisons, arsenical, 67. 

Polarization, on, 19. 

Polarized light, action of crystallized 
surfaces on, 13. 

Polarizing structure in the crystalline 
lens after death, 16. 

Population, influence of the price of 
grain on, 182, 133. ; 

Potassium and carbon, on a compound 
of, 63. 

Prichard (Dr.) on diseases of the brain, 


Principal relations, on the calculus of, 
4, 41. 

Pyrenees, on the physical geography 
of the, 83. 


Quartz, on the laws of double refrac- 
tion in, 18. 


Refraction, double, in quartz, 18, 
Railroads, their effect on intercommu- 
nication, 150. 


INDEX II. 


Reid (Dr.) on the functions of the ner- 
vous system, 119 

Repulsion, electrical, on, 19. 

Riley (Dr.) on an additional species 
of saurians found near Bristol, 90. 

on the foot of the two-toed os- 
trich, 98. 

Rock-blasting, on, 45, 

Rootsey (Dr.) on the higher orders of 
Grecian music, 37. 

on mnemonical logarithms, 38. 

on sugar, malt, and an ardent 
spirit from mange] wurzel, 107. 

Royle (Prof.) on caoutchouc, 105. 

Russell (J. 8.) on the ratio of the re- 
sistance of fluids to the velocity of 
waves, 41. 


Saurians found near Bristol, an addi- 
tional species of, 90. 

Scanlan (R.) on a new substance ob- 
tained from the distillation of wood, 
76. 

Scoresby (Rev. W.) on amagnetometer 
for measuring minute magnetic at- 
tractions, 28 ; on anew compass bar, 
28. 

Sedgwick (Rev. A.), classification of 
the old slate rocks of the North of 
Devonshire, 95. 

Severn, hydrography of the, 88. 

Ship-building, on, 129. 

Soda, phosphate and pyro-phosphate 
of, 48. ‘ 
Spinetto (Marquis) on the site of the 

ancient city of Memphis, 96. 


Spirits, method of ascertaining the |’ 


strength of, 61. 

Springs, hot, of the Pyrenees, 83. 

of Hales Bay, 94. 

Starch, on the quantity of in ordinary 
wheat, 74. 

Statistics :—influence of the price of 
grain on the French population, 
1382; state of education in Liver- 
pool, 133; state of education in 
Bristol, 136; statistics of Glasgow, 
140; on the value of the mineral 
productions of Great Britain, 144; 
periodicity of births, &c., 146; state 
of the bobbin net trade, 141 ; on co- 
operating committees of trade and 
agriculture, 149; effect of railroads 
on intercommunication, 150; on 
statistical desiderata, 151. 

Steam-engines in Cornwall, perform- 
ance of, 130. 

Stevelly (Prof.) on the doubtful alge- 


159 


braic sign in certain formula: of al- 
gebraic geometry, 5. 

Stavelly (Prof.) on the mathematical 
rules for constructing compensating 
pendulums, 7. 

Stutchbury (S.) on an additional spe- 
cies of saurians found near Bristol, 
90. 

Succulent plants, means of preserving, 
100. 

Suffolk, vertebrated, animals found in 
the tertiary beds of, 48. 

Sykes (Lieut.-Col.) on the fruits of the 
Deccan, 106; on the utility of co- 
operating committees of trade and 
agriculture, 149. 


falbe (H. F.) on the integral calcu- 

us, l. 

Taste, experiments on the sense of, 
124, 126. 
Taylor (J.) on the value of mineral 
productions of Great Britain, 144. 
Teale (T. P.) on Alcyonella Stagno- 
rum, 104. 

Teeth, their structure and decay, 115. 

Tetanus, on, 109. 

Thermometer, recently discovered in 
Italy, 77. 

Thomson (Dr. R. D.) on the chemis- 
try of the digestive organs, 117. 

Traill (Dr.) on the aurora borealis of 
Aug. 11, 32. 

Tuberculous diseases, on, 112. 


Vegetable substances, means of pre- 
serving, 100. 

Vegetation, effects of arsenic on, 76. 

Veins, metalliferous, voltaic agencies 
in, 81; of Cornwall, 83. 

Vertebrated animals found in the ter- 
tiary beds of Norfolk and Suffolk, 48. 

Volatile fluid, peculiar, 74. 

Volcanic phenomena, chemical the- 
ory of, 81. 

Voltaic agenciesin metalliferous veins, 
81. 

Voltaic battery, experiments on the, 
47. 


Volumeter, Hare’s, 46. 


Walker (J.) on the muscles and nerves 
of the eyeball, 121. 

Watson (H. H.) on the phosphate and 
pyro-phosphate of soda, 48. 

West (W.) on means ofdetecting gases 
present in air, 77 

Wheat, on the analysis of, 74. 


5 ae 
aut 


160 


Wheat, on accelerating the growth of, 
106. 

, influence of its price on popu- 
lation, 132, 133. j 

Whewell (Rev. W.), account of his 
anemometer, 39. 

on the tides, 130. 

Williams (Dr.) on an improved ear- 
trumpet, 36. 

Wood, a new substance obtained from 
the distillation of, 76. 


Yelloly (Dr.) on spade husbandry in 
Norfolk, 150. 


’ 


INDEX II. 


Yew, its longevity and antiquity in 
church-yards, 101. 

Yorkshire, direction of isoclinal mag- 
netic lines in, 31. 


Zoology, New Holland ostrich, organ 
of voice in the, 97. 

, two-toed ostrich, foot of the, 98. 

——, manati of Guiana, 98. 

, seals, crania of several, 98. 

, testacea, sixteen species new to 

Scotland, 99. 

» animal and vegetable substances, 

means of preserving, 99. 


END OF THE FIFTH VOLUME. 


LONDON: 


PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR, 
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET, 


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