TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

ROYAL SOCIETY

OF

EDINBURGH.

VOLUME XIII.

EDINBURGH :

PUBLISHED BY CHARLES TAIT, AND BELL & BRADFUTE;
AND T. CADELL, LONDON.

MDCCCXXXVI.

PRINTED BY NEILL & CO. OLD FISHMARKET, EDINBURGH.

CONTENTS.

i

Ww

+ 4 {
0 tthe 7 TP
PART I.
Page
I. On the Investigation of Magnetic Intensity by the Oscillations
of the Horizontal Needle. By W. Snow Harris, Esq.
F.R.SS. Lond. & Ed. - - - - 1
Il. An Account of some Experiments on the Electricity of Tour-
maline, and other Minerals, when exposed to Heat. By
James D. Forbes, Esq. F.R. SS. L. & E. Professor of Na-
tural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, - 27

Ill. A General View of the Phenomena displayed in the Neigh-
bourhood of Edinburgh by the Igneous Rocks, in their Rela-
tions with the Secondary Strata ; with reference to a more
particular description of the Section which has been ex-
posed to view on the south side of the Castle Hill. By
Major-General Lord Greenock, C.B., F.R.S. Ed. 39

IV. Description and Analysis of a, Mineral from Faroe, not be-
Jore examined. By ArruurR ConneELL, Esq. F.R.S. Ed. 46

V. Researches on the Vibrations of Pendulums in Fluid Media.
By Grorce Green, Esq., Communicated by Sir Ep-
Warp Frrenco Bromueap, Bart. M.A., F.R.SS. Lond.
Lond. & Ed. - - - - - - 54

VI. On the Force of the Latin Prefix Ve or Ve in the Composi-
tion of Nouns and Adjectives. By the Rev. Archdeacon
Wiurams, F.R.S. Ed. Rector of the Edinburgh Academy, 63

VET

VIIL.

IX.

NI.

XI.

XU.

XIV.

CONTENTS.

On Phosphuretted Hydrogen. By Tuomas Granam, Esq.
F.R.S.Ed., Lecturer on Chemistry in the Andersonian In-
stitution, and V. P. Phil. Soc. Glasgow, - -

General Remarks on the Coal Formation of the Great Valley
of the Scottish Lowlands. By Major-General Lord
Greenock, C.B., LL. D.; V.P.R.S. Ed., F.G.S.

Chemical Examination of the Petroleum of Rangoon. By
Roperr Curistison, M.D., F.R.S.Ed., Professor of Ma-
teria Medica in the University of Edinburgh, Xe. -

. On the Composition of Petroleum of Rangoon, with Remarks

on Petroleum and Naphtha in general. By Witt1aM
Grecory, M.D., F.R.S.Ed., Lecturer on Chemistry,
Edinburgh, &c. - = = “ 2

On the Refraction and Polarization of Heat. By James D.
Forses, Esq. F.R.SS.L. & E., Professor of Natural Philo-
sophy in the University of Edinburgh, - -

On the Fresh-water Limestone of Burdiehouse in the Neigh-
tourhood of Edinburgh, belonging to the Carboniferous
Group of Rocks. With Supplementary Notes on other
Fresh-water Limestones. By Samurt Hippert, M.D.,
F.R.S.Ed., &e. &e. = e 3 : x

Analysis of Coprolites and other Organic Remains imbedded
in the Limestone of Burdichouse, near Edinburgh. By
Artuur Connect, Esq. F.R.S. Ed. = . :

On Water as a Constituent of Salts. 1. In the case of Sul-
phates. By Tuomas Granam, F.R.S. Ed., V.-Pres. of
of the Phil. Soc. of Glasgow, &c. - > :

Page

88

107

118

124

131

169

283

297

CONTENTS. vii

C. dtc:
PART II.
Page
XV. On the Action of Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, Ether, and
Aqueous Solutions. By Artuur ConneELL, Esq. F.R.S.E. 315

XVI. On the Expansion of different kinds of Stone from an increase
_ & Temperature, with a description of the Pyrometer used
in making the Experiments. By ALEXANDER J. ADIE,

Civil Engineer, 2 2 “CLE = ped

XVII. On the application of the Hot Blast, in the Manufacture of
Cast-Iron. By Toomas Criarx, M.D., Professor of Che-
mistry in Marischall College, Aberdeen, - Seco

XVIII. On the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock, and its Alkaloid
Conia. By Rosert Curistison, M.D., F.R.S.E., Pro-
fessor of Materia Medica in the University of Edinburgh, 383

XIX. Account of the Invention of the Pantograph, and a Descrip-
tion of the Eidograph, a Copying Instrument invented by
Witiram Watiace, A.M., F.R.S.Edin. F.R. A.S., Memb.
Cam. Phil. Soc., &c. Professor of Mathematics in the
University of Edinburgh, - - - - 418

XX. Some Observations on Atmospheric Electricity. By Joun
Davy, M.D. F.R.S. Communicated by Professor Forprs, 440

XXI. Researches on Heat. Second Series. By James D. Forzss,
Esq. F.R.SS. L. & E. Professor of Natural Philosophy in
the University of Edinburgh, - - - 446

XXII. On Single and Correct Vision by means of Double and In-
verted Images of the Retine. By W. P. Autson, M.D.
F.R.S.E. Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the
University of Edinburgh, > - - - 472

vill CONTENTS.
Page
XXIII. On one Source of the Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Lan-
guage. ‘By the Rev. Archdeacon Witt1ams, F.R.S.E.,
Rector of the Edinburgh Academy, &c. &c. - - 494

Proceedings of the Extraordinary General Meetings, and List of
Members elected at the Ordinary Meetings, since May 4. 1833, 565

List of the present Ordinary Members in the order of their Election, 577

List of Non-Resident and Foreign Members, elected under the Old
Luvs, - - - - - - - 585

List of Honorary Fellows, - - - - - 586
List of Fellows Deceased, Resigned, and Cancelled, from 1833 to 1836, 588
List of Donations, continued from Vol. XII. p. 574, - - 590
Index to the first 13 Vols. = - - - = 611

Laws of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 18th January 1836.

On the Investigation of Magnetic Intensity by the Oscillations of
the Horizontal Needle. By W. Syow Harris, Esq. F. R.SS.

Lond. & Ed.

(Read 6th January 1834.)

1. Tue many irregularities to which the vibrations of the ho-
rizontal needle are subject, renders the usual method of investi-
gating the terrestrial magnetic intensity, although precise in
theory, occasionally uncertain in practice. It has been my en-
deavour in the following paper, to consider in some measure the
most prominent of the causes of these irregularities, with a view
of arriving at certain practical deductions, by means of which
they may be either greatly palliated, or otherwise avoided.

9. Of the different causes of disturbance in the state of oscilla-
tion of a freely suspended magnet, the following may be consi-
dered as the most important :

1st, Variations in the conditions of the surrounding air, in
which the oscillations are performed.

2d, Influence of changes in the mechanical conditions, inci-
dental to the mode of suspending the bar ; and of other mecha-
nical changes liable to occur in it. :

3d, Changes in the disposition and intensity of the magne-
tism of the bar, from heat and other causes.

4th, To these may be added the influence of the sun’s rays,
and of atmospheric electricity, both of which have been considered
by many distinguished philosophers to exert very sensible effects
on the magnetic oscillations.

VOL. XIII. PART I. A

2 Mr Harris on Magnetic Intensity by the

8. The identity in principle of a needle vibrating by the di-
rective force of the earth’s magnetism, with an ordinary com-
pound pendulum, oscillating by the force of gravity, would lead
us to infer, that the mere friction and resistance of the air has
little or no influence on the time in which a given number of vi-
brations would be performed, supposing every other condition of
the experiment to be the same, as may be seen in Professor
Airy’s profound paper on the disturbances of pendulums, forming
a distinguished portion of the Third Volume of the Cambridge
Philosophical Transactions. But although the presence of a re-
sisting medium, such as the atmosphere, may not be thus far pre-
judicial to the rate of the magnetic oscillation ; yet, in consequence
of the are of vibration becoming more or less rapidly diminished,
by occasional changes in the density of the air, or otherwise, in
consequence of the uniformity of the oscillation being impeded
by invisible currents, known to take place in it from various causes,
the presence of such a medium is extremely undesirable, more
especially when it is considered necessary to vibrate a needle in
large ares.

4. The following experimental illustrations of the differences
which may arise in the times and ares of vibration, in conse-
quence of the presence of a resisting medium ; as also of the dif-
ferences in the rate of vibration, arising solely from differences
in the extent of the arc, may not be here out of place.

(a.) A magnetic bar about 6 inches in length, jth of an inch
wide, and 4th of an inch thick, being delicately suspended by a
silk filament without torsion, and quite free from the disturbing
influence of metallic substances, was deflected from its meridian,
and again set free at an angle of 45°. The times and arcs, cor-
responding to every tenth vibration, were carefully noted, until
the are of vibration was reduced to 10°. This experiment,
frequently repeated, both in open space, and when the bar
was covered by a glass shade, led to the following result: In
a perfectly open space without the glass shade, the terminal

Oscillations of the Horizontal Needle. 3

are at 10° corresponded to the 130th vibration ; whereas, under
the glass, the 180th vibration was completely distinguishable be-
fore the are was reduced to 10°; a slight difference also was ob-
servable in the time of 100 vibrations, which in the first case was
somewhat less.

The room in which the experiments were conducted, was se-
lected expressly for the purpose, being about 12 feet square, and
not liable to sensible currents of air from artificial heat ; it had
a stone pavement, and was not furnished with a fire-place.

(b.) A magnetic bar, about 5 inches long, and 4th of an inch
square, being delicately suspended as before, was deflected and
set free under an exhausted receiver, at an angle of 60° from its
meridian. The following differences in the rate of vibration were
observed as the ares of vibration became reduced: they were ac-
curately ascertamed by means of a valuable chronometer, ex-
pressly constructed for taking time, and which could measure
the ;{;th part of a second *.

When the arc was between 50° and 40°, the rate of vibration
amounted to 9.5 per minute ; between 40° and 30° it was 9.7 per
minute ; between 30° and 20°, it increased to 9.75 per minute.
In an are of about 10° the rate of vibration had increased to 10
in a minute.

This experiment is not adverted to as comprising any very
unexpected result, but merely in illustration of the action of a
particular magnet, the state of magnetic inquiries being such as
to render any instance of this kind worthy of notice.

5. The great advantage likely to attend a method of experi-
ment which admits of the magnetic oscillations being freed from
the disturbing influence of thé surrounding air, has led me at va-
rious times to the construction of instruments calculated to at-

* I have to acknowledge the obligation I am under to my friend Colonel Hamil-
ton Smith, for a long use of this valuable instrument.
A (9)

AA

4 Mr Harris on Magnetic Intensity by the

tain this object *. Plate I, Fig. 2, represents a portable appara-
tus of this kind, which I have employed with considerable advan-
tage. A brief explanation, with the assistance of Figs. 1, 2, 3,
will render it easy to be understood.

Fig. 1. A, represents a strong base, resembling somewhat in
form the sector of a circle ; it is separable into parts, being held
together by a single screw and nut at a. The diameter ach of
this sector is to be directed as nearly as possible in the magnetic
meridian. An oblong plane of wood P, Fig. 2, clamped at each
end, and carrying the magnetic apparatus and air-pump, is placed
upon this base, so as to be moveable for a short distance on a
pin c, Figs. 1 and 2, concentric with the suspended bar and gra-
duated card ; this point c is also the centre of the are mn, Fig. 1,
which admits of a minute adjustment of the graduated card, in the
line of the magnetic meridian, without disturbing the state of
the exhausted receiver 77, Fig. 2.

6. The magnetic bar m, Fig. 3, is suspended in a light frame
of weod ff, attached to a circular block g. The upper and nar-
row part of this frame ,f’, is separable from the lower portion f/f,
and may be detached if required ; it is moveable with friction in
a circular hole in the transverse bar which sustains it, and there
are sight slits ff in the sides of the lower portion of the frame,
which serve to adjust with precision, the position of the needle in
one direction, by observing the suspension silk through them.

The centre of the block ¢ is hollowed to about one half of
its diameter, in order to admit of the operation of a sort of forked
lever //, Fig. 4, moveable through an air-tight collar ; as also for
the purpose of securing the block by means of a screw and nut,
to a circular plate of finely polished slate, ss, Figs. 2, 3, 4. This
plate of slate is extremely well adapted to the purposes of an air-
pump plate, and is connected with the exhausting barrels by

* Trans. Royal Society for 1831, p. 69.

Oscillations of the Horizontal Needle. 5

means of small air-tight collars of brass, and an intervening pipe,
as shewn in Figs. 2 and 4. There is a small gauge-plate g, Fig.
2, connected with the pipe leading to the barrels, which may be
occasionally employed in particular experiments.

7. By means of the forked lever //, Figs. 2, 3, 4, the suspended
bar can be deflected, and steadily arrested at any given angle, or
otherwise set free, at any instant of time. This method of arrest-
ing the bar has a great advantage ; for the forked portions of the
lever operating on opposite sides and ends of the bar, preserves
it completely in a state of rest ; so that, when set free, an extraor-
dinarily steady vibration is obtained, provided the adjustments
of the various points are accurately made. To effect this, the
forked portions //, Fig. 4, are independent of each other, and are
moveable with friction in a tube of brass.

8. The bar is suspended in the usual way, by filaments of un-
spun silk, attached to a vertical rod of brass, which can be raised
or depressed by means of a screw, through certain small distances.
A gauge of an extremely simple kind, 4, Fig. 3, for shewing the
state of the exhaustion, is attached to the wood frame /’, and
there is a thermometer similarly placed on the opposite side, as
seen in Fig. 2.

9. The magnetic apparatus is enclosed in appropriate receivers ;
and when the exhaustion is sufficiently complete, the air-pump,
together with the block to which it is fixed, may be removed, if
requisite, by unscrewing the connecting joint at 7, Fig. 2, and the
four-milled head-screws which confine the block to the oblong
plane P.

10. The are of vibration is observed by means of graduated
cards. There are two of these, mq, np, Fig. 3, placed one over
the other, either of which may be used, according to the nature
of the experiment. The lower one, mq, is a wide plane ring,
having several graduated concentric circles on it ; it corresponds
to the surface of the wood block g, and has a large central hole
for the forked lever above described (7) to pass clear. The up-

6 Mr Harris on Magnetic Intensity by the

per card np isa narrow ring, about half an inch wide, and admits
of the bar vibrating within it. It can be altogether removed if
required.

The bar has fine index wires, ii, Fig. 4, slightly held in shal-
low notches at each end. These indicate the precise degree on the
graduated cards, so that very great precision may be arrived at,
if required, in noting the are of vibration.

It may be readily perceived, that, in the above mechanical ar-
rangements, there is no considerable mass of metal in the vicinity
of the needle, which can disturb its state of oscillation, the parts
being constructed, for the most part, of non-metallic bodies,
whilst every possible facility is obtained, requisite to carry on the
experiments, free from the disturbing influence of the atmo-
sphere.

11. An extensive series of experiments, with magnetic bars
and needles, vibrating in air, and in an exhausted receiver,
under various conditions, has led me to conclude, that we cannot
really depend upon observations embracing extremely minute
differences in the rate of vibration, as applicable to terrestrial in-
tensity, until the usual instruments of research have been so per-
fected, as to place such differences beyond the operation of other
causes, foreign to the object of experiment, (a) (b). Indeed, it
will be readily admitted, on due reflection, that, considering the
vast object to be attained, no less a one than an accurate mea-
surement of the magnetism of the Earth, the same kind of prac-
tical perfection is requisite, and should be continually sought in
the construction of the magnetic pendulum, as is obtained in that
of the ordinary pendulum, oscillating by the force of gravity,
without which we can never hope to arrive at results worthy of
confidence. Do we require the rate of oscillation, such as to de-
tect extremelysmall differences in terrestrial intensity ? A given
number of oscillations, which admit of being considered isochro-
nous, is absolutely requisite. Now, this can be readily effected
with the instrument above described, Fig. 2, by observing the vi-

Oscillations of the Horizontal Needle. 7

brations in a rare medium, and confining them within very small
ares,—as small as possible, so that the are be consistent with accu-
racy of observation, (as shewn in Table III, observations on the
Shade, p. 22) ; with a magnet about 5 inches in length, and about
1th of an inch square, suspended from one of its edges, I have
succeeded in obtaining between 200 and 300 vibrations, before
the arc became reduced from 5° to 3°; the time of 100 vibrations
deduced from 200 vibrations, and estimated from the Oth to the
100th vibration, from the 10th to the 110th, and so on, up to
the 200th vibration, according to the method pursued by Profes-
sor Hansteen, being upon each 100 vibrations exactly the same.
Indeed, when such irregularities as those already stated (a) (b)
are considered, and which almost always happen to a greater or
less extent, when the magnetic oscillations are observed in air,
and taken in large ares, it is not unreasonable to infer that ano-
malies and slight differences of time may appear on a great num-
ber of vibrations, notwithstanding the theoretical corrections pro-
posed. to neutralize them. It may not, therefore, be safe to attri-
bute the cause of minute differences in time to variations in the
terrestrial intensity, before the instruments of research are made
so perfect as to be altogether without the limits of the above
mentioned causes of error.

12. The mode of suspension and other mechanical conditions
connected with an oscillating bar, are not less worthy of conside-
ration than the disturbing influence of the air.

In all experiments with the horizontal needle, it is evident
that we do not measure actually the magnetic intensity of a given
place, but only one of its resolved portions, except the place
should, be directly in the magnetic equator. It is therefore of
consequence to the experiment, to preserve the bar in the same
relative position. This we suppose to be horizontal, butsince
every freely suspended magnet inclines more or less in various
places, it becomes necessary either to measure accurately the angle
of inclination, or otherwise correct it in some way. The latter

8 Mr Harris on Magnetic Intensity by the

has been effected, sometimes by a single weight, at others by a
shifting point of suspension, and occasionally by mechanical con-
straint, all of which may cause important differences in the re-
sults of experiment.

13. The chances of error with bars whose points of suspen-
sion are made to slide on them, are so manifest, that it seems es-
sential to preserve in the bar a fixed point, so as to render this
condition invariable. This point, as is evident, should be as
nearly as possible in a line passing through the centre of gravity,
the centre of motion, and the point of magnetic neutrality. In
this case the bar may be conceived to vibrate without error, by
the action of the two terrestrial resultants, in the same way as
either of its polar halves would oscillate separately, if acted on by
one of them alone, since the directive force of the earth may be
conceived to constitute in the bar an attractive and repulsive sys-
tem of parallel forces, each of which is resolvable into a single re-
sultant, whose direction, intensity, and point of application, may be
determined according to the elementary principles of mechanics.

14. The following method of preparing and suspending a
magnet for vibration, will be found to possess considerable advan-
tage. The bar being at first roughly forged, a coarse hole is
drilled through the middle of it. The upper part of this hole is
then bushed with a small piece of brass, through which an ex-
tremely fine hole is drilled, and which is subsequently intended
to pass through the centre of motion, as also the centre of mag-
netic neutrality. If the bar is to be suspended occasionally from
the opposite side, then that side must undergo a similar prepa-
ration; only, in this case, a second large hole is drilled at right
angles to the former, also through the centre, Fig. 4; the fine holes,
if requisite, may be drilled immediately through the steel. When
the bar has been regularly worked, but before tempering it, equal
distances are accurately measured off on each side the fine cen-
tral hole above mentioned, so as to make the arms exactly equal,
and two shallow slits are cut in the extremities, perpendicu-

Oscillations of the Horizontal Needle. 9

lar to the plane in which the vibrations are intended to take
place: These are to receive the fine index wires, which are easily
retained in the slits after a slight pressure, or tap of a hammer.
It should now be nicely poised on a fine suspension-silk at-
tached to a small loop, inserted through the vertical central
hole, so as to remain exactly horizontal. The horizontal position
may be readily ascertained at any time by avery simple method.
Let the bar, Fig. 5, be held near the surface of a reflecting fluid,
such as mercury, or, what answers equally well, near the surface
of water, in which a little indigo is dissolved, to give it colour ;
an image of the bar will then be perceived in the fluid. When
the lines ab, cd, formed by the bar and its image, are parallel,
then we may be assured that perfect horizontality is obtained.
The parallelism of the lines is easily detected by the eye.

15. After the horizontal position has been thus accurately de-
termined, two points are to be impressed on each side of the cen-
tre, at an equal distance from the centre and ends. Two small
sliders of platinum, a0, Fig. 4, of equal weight, are then closely
fitted, one on each arm. These sliders have small central holes
drilled in them, and bear a very small proportion to the whole
mass. They are at first placed so as to bring the central holes-im-
mediately over the points impressed on the bar, and in this state
the horizontality of the whole is again observed as before.

16. The bar being now properly tempered throughout, is fi-
nally polished by filing, and, after being again examined as to
position when suspended, is rendered magnetic. It is then ex-
posed for a short time to the temperature of boiling water, and
after this to a temperature as low as zero of Fahrenheit’s scale.
We have then a magnet calculated, as far as possible, to retain
for any ordinary temperature an invariable magnetic state. We
should now place the bar thus prepared under a piece of strained
paper, and having sifted some iron-dust over it, by means of an
extremely fine sieve, examine carefully if the centre of the mag-
netic curves falls about the centre of suspension. Each face of

VOL. XIII. PART I. B

10 Mr Harris on Magnetic Intensity by the

the bar should be tested in this way. There will be little diffi-
culty in effecting this, provided the bar is accurately made and
tempered, and has been equally touched at first with magnets of
the same force.

17. For the purpose of an easy suspension, a very small hook
is fixed to the small central hole. This is readily effected, by
securing the eye of the hook to a fine doubled thread of silk, and
then passing the silk either directly through the vertical hole, or
otherwise out at the side, through the horizontal hole above men-
tioned. In either case, a small knot tied in the silk, within the
substance of the bar, secures the hook very effectually.

18. The bar being suspended in this way, and the sliders
placed at first in their original position, the inclination due to
the polarity is corrected, by moving one of the sliders toward,
and the other from, the centre, by nearly an equal quantity. The
distances through which they require to be moved, in order to
correct the inclination, are so little, that we may consider any
error arising from change, in the angular inertia of the mass, as
being indefinitely small, since the sliders are moved in opposite
directions. Should it, however, be considered requisite, in any
extreme case, we may find a series of points on each side the
centre, in some of which the horizontal position may be obtained,
and which would correspond to the same angular inertia with
mathematical precision; since we have only to find a series of
points, the sums of the squares of the distances of any two of
which, from the centre of the bar, taking one on each side, give a
constant quantity, the resistance of the sliders to motion being
really, as the particles themselves, multiplied into the squares of
their distances, from the axis of motion.

In order to adjust the slides with accuracy, a fine pair of
compasses, and a minutely divided scale, may be employed.

19. In addition to these circumstances, incidental to the me-
chanical conditions of a vibrating magnet, the silk thread of sus-
pension requires also to be considered. It will be found, on ex-

Oscillations of the Horizontal Needle. 11

amination, that comparatively slight differences in the flexibility
of the silk, change in some instances the rate of vibration. 'To
avoid this source of inconvenience, it is desirable to prepare a
great number of suspensions from the unspun fibre, so as to be
without the least torsion, and as nearly alike as possible, and sub-
mit each to experiment on the same bar. Their identity as to
effect may then be determined. Each silk should be gently
drawn through between the fingers, slightly smeared with some
extremely fine oil, and finally wound upon a small cork, and laid
aside in a box for use.

The bar is easily hung to the silk by means of the hook
above described, and a fine loop tied in the extremity of the silk.
A similar method is employed, in attaching the opposite end to
the suspension point.

20. The possibility of change in the length of a vibrating
bar, in consequence of variations in temperature, is very apparent.
To arrive at the requisite correction, it seems desirable to make
the particular magnet an immediate subject of experiment. This
may be managed by means of the instrument above described,
Fig. 2, with advantage.

The bar being suspended in the exhausted receiver, and its
rate of vibration determined in a very small are, under a given
temperature, the lower portion of the receiver is then enclosed
in a small oven of copper 0, Fig. 6, and a stream of heated air
made to circulate about the glass, by means of a lamp placed un-
dcr the funnel 7. When the temperature has been raised as
many degrees as is considered requisite, the oven is removed,
and the rate of vibration again taken as before ; and this process
may be repeated through a range of temperature sufficient for
our purpose, that is to say, up to 200 degrees of Fahrenheit. For
the sake of greater accuracy, an additional and very delicate ther-
mometer may be placed near the magnet.

21. I have also employed water with advantage, for the pur-
pose of observing the effects of heat on the needle. An outer

B2

12 Mr Harris on Magnetic Intensity by the

glass vessel v, Fig.'7, open at both ends, and having its lower
edge ground to the pump plate, is placed round the receiver 7,
Fig. 2. Two brass-tubes wy, (Fig. 7,) communicate with the space
between the outer and inner receivers, one of them passing out as
a syphon, the other being connected with a funnel; and thus a
circulation of the fluid, placed round the receiver, may be conti-
nued to any degree of temperature required.

22. It is important to remark, that neither of the above me-
thods of research can be relied on, unless the magnetic vibrations
be observed in a very rare medium ; for currents are produced
by the heated glass, the effects of which on the oscillations of
the bar, mixed up with the influence of heat on the needle itself,
are extremely anomalous. My friend Mr Fox of Falmouth, who
has made some interesting experiments on this subject,* informs
me, that he made the existence of those currents evident, by
means of a little smoke introduced into the receiver. He says,
that they were sometimes sufficient to impart motion to light
needles, and cause them to vibrate in arcs of from ten to twenty
degrees. During the state of vibration of other bars, the ares
became sometimes more rapidly reduced, and in some instances
the vibrations were greatly increased in number. Light needles
were more disturbed than heavy bars. Fine wires not magnetic,
and needles composed of non-metallic bodies, were similarly af-
fected. The effects continued until a perfect equilibrium of
temperature took place in the receiver, and were not apparent
when it was exhausted of the contained air.

These results, taken in connexion with the experiments above
adduced (a), seem to confirm the necessity of a very rigorous
method of experiment in deducing the rate of vibration, so as
to exclude the disturbing influence of the atmosphere.

23. Of the changes which ordinarily occur in the conditions of

* Lond. and Edin. Journal of Science for October 1832,

Oscillations of the Horizontal Needle. 13

the magnetic pendulum, those induced in the magnetism of the
bar itself, from temperature and other causes, may be considered
the most important. The effects of heat in the magnetic tension
seem to be extremely uncertain, since it tends more freely to a
state of neutrality in some magnets than in others. It is therefore
requisite also to examine experimentally, in the way above stated,
the influence of change of temperature in each individual bar, so
as to discover whether it has an invariable magnetic state or not.
The influence of heat also, evidently decreases more rapidly than
the magnetic intensity, so that bars of weak intensity seem inva-
riable under certain low ranges of temperature. I have hence
found it desirable to work with bars of low tension,{reated in the
way above mentioned (16). The interesting and profound re-
searches of Mr Curistiz*, however, would lead us to infer that
certain variable states may occur in magnetic intensity from heat,
without a final loss of force, and for which he has endeavoured
to deduce adequate expressions. Although such authority must
necessarily be highly appreciated, yet the imperfect state of our
knowledge in the sciences of electricity and magnetism requires
a very extensive examination of exceptions, deducible by expe-
riment from any particular instance.

24. After a careful inquiry into the effects of temperature on
certain small magnetic bars employed to determine terrestrial in-
tensities, I have not been enabled to discover, by the method of
vibration, variable changes in their magnetic state, such, that the
tension, being weakened by heat, it could again be restored by
cold ; nor have I, in the particular instances which came under
my notice, been enabled ever to increase the magnetic energy of
a bar by reducing its temperature. On the contrary, the exposure
of small bars to very low temperature, seemed, as tested by the
method of vibrations, to be attended by a decreased energy.
Thus, a small bar of moderate force was observed to make in va-

* Transactions of the Royal Society for 1825,

14 Mr Harris on Magnetic Intensity by the

cuo in small ares, 100 vibrations in 11’ 56”, 6, after exposure for
about half an hour to a cold of about 5° of Fahrenheit’s scale ;
it made under similar circumstances 100 vibrations in 11’ 65” ;
whilst in other cases, similar bars, after being freely exposed to a
range of temperature from 0° to 212°, appeared to remain inva-
riable, in respect of certain ranges of temperature taken between
these points. These results have received some confirmation
since the notice of my paper on this subject, read at the Meeting
of the British Association in June last, as appears in a letter to
Dr Brewsrer from Professor Kurrrer of the Imperial Academy
of St Petersburgh, printed in the London and Edinburgh Jour-
nal of Science for August 1832. The coincidence between Mr
Kurrrer’s results and my own is not a little remarkable. I
have been hence led to hope, that the effects of heat in disturb-
ing the tension of a vibrating needle, may in certain cases be con-
fined to differences of temperature, without the limits of that to
which the needle has been previously exposed. I desire, however,
to evince no greater confidence in this opinion, than the results
of the experiments above alluded to seem to warrant. Mr
Curistie’s profound and interesting researches in this depart-
ment of science have undoubted claims to our confidence; and
we must therefore endeavour, by further investigation, to discover
the source of the apparent anomalies which occasionally present
themselves. It may be fairly observed, at least, that whilst such
questions as these, and others of no less consequence, remain in
any degree doubtful, it is quite impossible to place confidence in
results pretending to detect small periodical variations in the ter-
restrial intensity, which variations, if such exist, may cause diffe-
rences in time, certainly much smaller than might alone arise from
either of the foregoing causes.

25. Beside the changes of tension induced in a bar by heat,
we have to consider those which may happen from the manner
of preserving the magnets themselves, such as occasional contact
with each other, or with masses of iron. The usual method of

Oscillations of the Horizontal Needle. 15

retaining the tension of magnets, by placing the dissimilar poles
in contact, either with each other or with a mass of soft iron, or
both, is certainly very objectionable. A variable magnetic ten-
sion is by no means unlikely to ensue. If the force of two small
bars be measured by the method of vibration, and be then joined
at their dissimilar poles by masses of iron, and again separated,
they will not unfrequently shew very great differences when again
vibrated as before. It seems, therefore, safer not to give needles
intended for experiments on terrestrial intensity a greater degree
of tension than they can themselves retain ; and when laid aside
for use, to place them with reversed poles out of contact with
each other, and at the intervals of some inches apart ; at least I
have found bars prepared as above stated (16), and treated in
this way, remain very constant.

26. The possibility of change in magnetic tension, renders it
desirable that we should be in possession of some means of de-
tecting such change when it occurs. The method occasionally re-
sorted to, of returning again to a given point, and taking the oscil-
lationsas before, is not free from objection and inconvenience; since
we are ignorant of the changes which may occur in a magnet, in
consequence of change of situation, nor are we sure that the di-
rective force is a constant quantity in a given place. We ought,
therefore, to be enabled to detect changes on our needles in any
place, and after small intervals of time, if required. The follow-
ing appears a very delicate method of examining the tension of a
magnetic bar.

27. It is well known, that if a needle be allowed to vibrate
in a ring of copper, it will be more speedily brought to rest,
than if allowed to vibrate in an open space, although no sen-
sible differences seem to arise in the number of vibrations per-
formed in a given time*. The effect seems to be in some direct
ratio of the magnetic energy. ‘The influence of a ring of copper,

* Annals of Philosophy, Vol. IX. N. S.

16 Mr Harris on Magnetic Intensity by the

therefore, might be employed to detect changes in tension, at any
time and place, provided the force which induced motion in the
needle, and that force by which it would be eventually reduced
to rest, without the ring, were both constant quantities. But such
is not the case. We may, however, reverse the experiment with
advantage, and cause the ring e¢, Fig. 8, to oscillate about the bar
m, which may be conveniently fixed within the ring, so as just to
clear it ; and thus a comparative measure of the force of a bar at
its poles may be arrived at, by observing the influence of the mag-
net in reducing the ring to rest. This experiment may be ma-
naged in the following way.

2g. A ring of copper ¢, Fig. 8, of about 0,4 of an inch wide,
and the 1th or the 0,2 of an inch thick, is suspended by two pa-
rallel threads of silk fibre over a graduated circle, as shewn in the
figure. The threads are fixed in a diameter of the circle, by means
of a cross bar of brass a 6, and at about the 1th of an inch dis-
tance on each side of the centre. The ring is to be accurately
balanced, and carefully adjusted to parallelism by means of the
sliding wires at w, from which it is suspended, and its index points,
1, 2, 3, 4, fixed at each of its quadrants, brought exactly over the
zeros on the graduated card below. The ring may be suspended
by means of the brass plane at w, in the frame-work above men-
tioned, Fig. 3, fixed on the bar f’, and hence be substituted
occasionally for the magnetic bar.

29. The ring thus circumstanced, is to be deflected by means
of the forked lever above mentioned, Fig. 4, from the direc-
tion of the parallel threads of suspension ; and again set free at
any given angle by means of the forked portions acting on
the transverse bar from which the ring is hung. In this case
a long and steady state of vibration will be obtained, in con-
sequence of the centre of gravity of the mass constantly
rising and falling as the ring swings from one extremity of
the are of vibration to the other. Now, if the number of
vibrations made by the ring alone, between given points, on the

Oscillations of the HorizontalNeedle. 17

graduated card, be divided by the number made between the
same points, when put in vibration about the magnet m, Fig 8,
then the quotient minus 1, may be taken to express the compa-
rative force of the bar m, and we shall have a constant quantity
for the same degree of tension, whatever extent we take between
the first and last are of vibration. Thus, the ring of copper alone
was observed to make 70 vibrations between 40° and 35°, and 164
vibrations between 40° and 30°. When vibrating about the mag-
net, it made only 30 vibrations between 40° and 35°, and only
70 vibrations between 40° and 30°. It may be here seen that
79 — 184, or very nearly.

30. The formula just given for estimating differences in mag-
netic tension, seems deducible in the following way: Let the vi-
brations of the ring alone be called a, and the vibrations within
the same limits made about the magnet 8, and call the retarding
force by which the ring is brought to rest when vibrating alone 7,
and the retarding force of the magnet R, then 7 + R is the com-
bined or whole retarding force, where the ring vibrates about the
magnet ; but the number of vibrations between given limits may
be assumed to be in an inverse ratio of the retarding forces ;
hence we have r:7-+ R::0:a, or 7a = (r + R) 6; that is to say,
R ee or hy =, ees 1). Now~7 having been taken as the

force by which the ring alone is brought to rest, may be considered
as unity in every csae ; hence the value of R, or the force of the

magnet, is comparatively expressed by the formula Ea which

formula I have found to agree in a remarkable way witb the re-
sults of experiments. The following instance may serve to illus-
trate its application in a particular case.

(c). The tension of a small magnet was estimated at each
pole, by observing the attractive force on a small cylinder of soft
iron at a given distance, in the way described in Vol. IX. of the
Society’s Transactions, p. 278. The magnet was then submitted
to further experiment with the vibrating ring of copper, as above

VOL. XIII. PART I. c

18 Mr Harris on Magnetic Intensity by the

described (29). The force, as again estimated at each pole by
the magnetimeter, was now doubled, and the retarding force on
the copper again observed. In this case the latter was also found
to be doubled.

Thefollowing Table comprises the results of this experiment.

TABLE I.

Tension by Attraction. | Tension by Vib. of Ring.
Distance of Lron 0.25. | Distance of Poles 0,9.

) 100
5 cua 1 = 0.818

10° i = 1.631

= —_—l

38

The vibrations of the ring were observed between 40° and
30°, between which limits, when vibrating alone, it completed
exactly 100 vibrations; and when caused to vibrate about the
magnet, it completed 55 vibrations with the lesser tension, and
88 vibrations when the tension was doubled. In this instance,
the respective forces deduced by the formula, correspond as nearly
as could be expected with the previously observed attraction on
the iron.

This method of detecting changes in the magnetic force of a
bar, seems therefore susceptible of precision. It is besides ex-
tremely delicate ; the only apparent objection is the great accu-
racy in manipulation requisite for its perfect success. It is never-
theless available at any time, and in any place, since the vibra-
tions of the copper-ring alone, taken within certain limits, may
be always reduced to a constant and given number.

31. The experiments of Moricury1 and Mrs SomeRvILLe
seem to shew, that certain magnetic properties exist in the solar

Oscillations of the Horizontal Needle. 19

rays ; and their views have received much confirmation from the
many important inquiries of Mr Curisrre, and which have at va-
rious times appeared in the Transactions of the Royal Society.
These researches are of much consequence to experiments with
the oscillating needle. If a magnet be caused to vibrate in
the shade in air, and subsequently when exposed to the rays of
the sun, the time in which the arc of vibration becomes reduced
to a given point will in the sunshine be considerably less, whilst
the rate of vibration seems upon the whole to be somewhat in-
creased.

In briefly detailing the following experiments made with va-
rious bars, both in the shade and in sunshine, I would by no
means pretend to have decided the question, whether the solar
ray has really magnetic properties or not. My object is merely to
shew, that certain differences observed to arise in the ares and
times in vibration, under a given solar influence, may be caused
to vanish by placing the needle in an exhausted receiver.

32. On exposing an oscillating magnetic bar to the influence of
a bright sunshine, so as to compare the phenomena incidental to
the state of vibration with those previously observed in the
shade, all the effects so accurately noticed by Mr Curistt1e be-
came strikingly apparent ; but whether the bar be caused to vi-
brate in a dense, or in a rare medium, the experiment, under
an air-tight glass, is quite unmanageable for any accurate pur-
pose. The sources of inconvenience appear to be, Ist, an al-
teration in the rare or dense medium surrounding the bar, to-
gether with a constant circulation of currents; 2d, a condensa-
tion of vapour over the interior of the glass; 3d, various mecha-
nical and other changes in the conditions of the suspended bar
itself. These circumstances rendered the experiments in a mid-
day sun so very precarious, that I was obliged to abandon them.

33. (d.) With a view of avoiding the above mentioned sources
of inconvenience, I eventually conducted the experiments in
the following manner. Having observed the oscillations in the

c2

20 Mr Harris on Magnetic Intensity by the

shade under a closed receiver, and from which the air was not
withdrawn, I noted the times and arcs corresponding to every
10th vibration, the needle being liberated at an angle of 45° from
the meridian. Some bright beams of sunshine were then thrown
into the receiver, by means of plane mirrors, so as to impinge
upon the needle, and the same observed again. In this case the
heat was not considerable, and the experiment became very ma-
nageable.

The bar being allowed to rest for a short time, in order to
recover its previous temperature, the same experiments were re-
peated, after exhausting the receiver, so as to free the oscillations
from any disturbing influence produced by the surrounding air.
The general results I have collected in the following Table.

TABLE II.
OSCILLATIONS TAKEN IN AIR. OSCILLATIONS TAKEN IN Vacuo.
ah 2 Exp. A. Exp. B. Exp. C. Exp. D.
Shade, Temp. 62°. | Sunshine, Temp, 70°. Shade, Temp. 62°. | Sunshine, Temp. 70°.
Mean Time of 200 Vibs. 24’.1” 23’ 56,6 DAL Oe DAr to
| bale Time of 250 Vibs. 29'.2” 28' 54,5 30’ 13,5 30’ 24”
| Cernainal Are, 14° 9° 22°, 5 22° 4

These results, which I confirmed by many similar experiments,
would lead us to infer, that, if the oscillations be taken in va-
cuo, the differences in the ares of vibration in sunshine and in
shade, may, under certain conditions, vanish, or nearly so; as
also, that the time of a given number of vibrations, is upon the
whole, in a void, rather increased than diminished. Hence it
may be inferred, in the above instances, Ist, That the influence
of the sun’s rays on a magnet oscillating in air, is to reduce more

Oscillations of the Horizontal Needle. 21

rapidly the arc, and to diminish the time of a given number of vibra-
tions ; 2d, The influence of the sun’s rays on a magnet oscillating
in a void, is to increase the time of a given number of vibrations,
whilst the arc, if the retardation of the rate of vibration be small,
is not materially affected.

34. These phenomena, from the causes already considered
(20) (24), seem quite consistent with each other. Thus, the
more rapid diminution of the are in sunshine, may, in great mea-
sure, arise from the state of the surrounding air, experiment (a)
(4); since it is no longer apparent, in a strictly comparative case,
when the air about the bar is made very rare; differences in the
are might hence, in a perfect void, become indefinitely small.
The differences which thus arise in the are, necessarily cause cor-
responding differences in the rate of vibration, experiment (0) (4) ;
and these will become more or less evident, according as they ex-
ceed, or are less than, the effects of other causes, tending to a
contrary result.

The diminished rate of vibration under the influence of the
sun’s rays in a void, may arise from expansion in the bar itself
(20), or from a decrease in magnetic tension (24), or from both.
If the magnetic state of the bar be at all constant, in regard to
the small elevation of temperature to which it is exposed, the
former would be the most probable cause of the effect, which, be-
ing no longer masked by great differences in the are of vibration,
becomes now very sensible.

35. In the following Table, I have transcribed two series of
experiments, carried on in vacuo, in which the time of 100 os-
cillations is deduced from 150 oscillations observed in small ares.
In these the retarding influence of the sun’s rays is also evident.

22 Mr Harris on Magnetic Intensity by the

TABLE III.

Oscillations taken in Shade, Temperature 62°. Oscillations taken in Sunshine, Temperature 70°.

Time of ||_. Time of
Vib. /Are. Time. |Vib.|Arc.| Time. | 100 Vib. })Vib.{Arc.| Time. |Vib.JArc.) Time. | 100 Vib.

2 4 |100) 4 | 13 54.5)11 50.5
3 14.5) 10 15 5 {11 50.5
4 25.2! 20 16 16 |11 50.8
5 36.5) 30 17 27.5)11 51
6 47.5| 40 18 38.5) 11 51
7 58.5} 50)3.5|19 49.5) 11 51

° 4 a“ ‘
0| 5 |24 4 |100) 4 [35 53.5) 11
10 25 14.5) 10 37 AL
20 26 25.5) 20) 38 15 |11
30 27 36.5) 30) 39 26 | 11
40 28 47 | 40 40 36.5] 11

50 29 58 as Al 47.5) 11

—_—| ———|

60 31 9 11

9° 95 304,8

10 21.5|Mean of 100 Vib.| 11 50.8
11 32.2)/Time of 150 Vib.|17 45.5
12 43.3/Term. are, one.

70 32 20 |Time of 100 Vib.| 11
80 33 31.5/Time of 150 \ ib.) 17
90 34 42.5'Term are,

Although the differences in time, in the above Table, in the
shade and in sunshine, are somewhat small, and might not be
considered, upon an insulated series of experiments, of great im-
portance ; yet the constancy of the result, on repeating the expe-
riments for many successive days, together with the general
agreement with the phenomena in Table I, and the great suscep-
tibility of the bar in indicating such differences when oscillat-
ing in a void and in small arcs, are considerations which claim
for these researches some degree of confidence.

36. With a view of examining, in some measure, the accu-
racy of the preceding deductions, I resorted to the following ex-
periments :—

(e) A bar of copper, of the same dimensions as the magnetic
bar above described, was made to vibrate under a closed receiver
in air and in a void, and the vibrations, arcs, and times noted, as
before (Table II), both in the sunshine and in the shade : the vi-

Oscillations of the Horizontal Needle. 23

brations were produced in the way already described (29), by
means of two parallel threads of suspension. In this instance
the same results ensued precisely. In regard to the differences in
the are of vibration, these nearly vanished in a void ; the subse-
quent retardation in the sunshine, however, was not so apparent
as with the magnetic bar, although it was still very evident. I
do not mean to adduce this experiment as being strictly compa-
rative in regard to the magnetic bar, the rate of vibration having
been found different, but merely in evidence of the effects pro-
duced by the presence of a dense medium, when acted on by the
sun’s rays.

(f) The times, arcs, and vibrations of a magnetic bar having
been noted im vacuo, as in the previous experiments, it was com-
pletely exposed for twenty-five minutes to the intense light
evolved by lime, under the flame of the hydro-oxygen blowpipe,
and the oscillations taken again, but no differences whatever
were found to ensue in the state of vibration.

The first experiment (e) would seem to show, that the phe-
nomena of oscillation observed in the sun’s rays, Table I, are not
altogether dependent on magnetism ; the second (f), that mere
light is, to a certain extent, incapable of producing them.

87. The electricity pervading a vacuum, seems to have no
appreciable effect on a magnet, oscillating under an exhausted
receiver. With a view of examining this, I resorted to the fol-
lowing experiment :—

(g) A stream of common electricity, generated by a power-
ful plate-machine of 3 feet in diameter, was caused to pass
through a long receiver s, Fig. 2, placed within 18 inches of the
needle. This receiver was about 6 feet in length, and 4 inches
in diameter. The electrical light was continuous for twenty mi-
nutes ; it seemed to spread over the whole interior surface of the
receiver, presenting the appearance of a solid column of white
light. No appreciable difference, however, could be discovered,

24 Mr Harris on Magnetic Intensity, &c.

either in the rate or arc of vibration, as compared with the oscil-
lations previously taken, when this artificial aurora was not present.

38. I have been led to offer these inquiries to the attention
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, under an impression that
they contain enough of useful matter, to render them not un-
worthy of its consideration : on this account, alone, I venture to
hope, that the Society may be induced to accept them. The
measurement of the magnetism of the earth must be at least
considered a vast and most important object of physical research.
An attempt, therefore, to perfect the ordinary methods of obser-
vation, may not be altogether without its use, in the present
state of general science.*

PriymoutnH, April 5. 1833.

* I am much indebted to Mr Cox, maker of Philosophical apparatus at Devon-
port, for his valuable assistance in the construction of the Instruments described in
this Paper.

PLATE 1 Roy: Soe: Tran:Vol. 13.

Jor Fig. Dee next Plate

So,

7... by & Bighorick Esq”
»

Engraved by WH Licars

°

Roy Soe Tran Vol 13

PLATE 2

by G Wighowick Faq”
Engraved by WH Lisars

PLATE S

Roy Soc tran Vol 13.

Fig. &

i

Engraved by WH Liears

An Account of some Experiments on the Electricity of Tourma-
line, and other Minerals, when exposed to Heat. By James D.
Fores, Esq. F.R.SS.L. & E., Professor of Natural Philo-

sophy in the University of Edinburgh.

(Read 3d January 1832 *.)

Autuoucu the phenomena of the Pyro-Electricity of Mine-
rals, as it has been termed, and those of the Tourmaline in par-
ticular, have, after a long period of neglect, been recently studied
by more than one philosopher of eminence, there are a sufficient
number of undetermined or debatable points, even at the thres-
hold of the inquiry, to yield facts of novelty and interest to those
who will take the trouble to look for them.

Having during the past summer been much engaged in study-
ing the relations of bodies to heat and electricity, I was induced,
by having in my possession a considerable number of long tour-
malines, to repeat and endeavour to verify some recently pub-
lished experiments with this mineral. These inquiries brought
out several new facts ; and, with the hope of adding something to
our knowledge in this curious field, I have taken this opportuni-
ty of communicating to the Society the results of some very re-
cent experiments.

My attention was principally directed to the verification
and extension of the views of M. BecquerEL, whose ingenious
papers published in the Annales de Chimie for 1828, give us al-
most the only information, with the exception of a short paper

* The publication of this paper was delayed partly under the idea of prosecut-
ing the experiments of which it contains an account; but the author having en-
gaged in some other researches, which appear to him of more immediate importance,
he merely prints this communication in its original form.—Aprrit 1834.

VOL. XIII. PART I. D

26 Prof. Forzes’s Experiments on the Electricity of Tourmaline

by Dr Brewsrer, published in 1824, which we have gained on
this subject since the appearance of the works of Havy. |The
undecided state in which several points of the first importance
were left by the philosophers of the last century, is not a little
remarkable. In fact, the answer to the fundamental question, of
whether the tourmaline must be in the act of changing its tempe-
rature, in order to the development of electricity, may be con-
sidered to rest on the authority of Becqurret (who answered it
in the affirmative), former authorities being divided upon it.
Dr Tuomsoy, in his work on Heat and Electricity, published in
1830, observes that “ when the tourmaline is once excited by
heat, it retains its electricity for a long time, if care be taken to
place it upon non-conductors. Aiprnvus found it electric after
an interval of six hours*.’ He adds in a foot-note, “ These
facts, as stated by Alpinus, if accurate, seem inconsistent with
the statement of Canron and Brcqueret, that the electricity
is only developed whilst the stone is changing its temperature.”
A statement of Dr Brewsrer’s might also appear to support
the views of Aipinus, and by opposing that of BecquERret, leave
the question still undecided. He mentions J, that a slice of tour-
maline cut transversely to the axis of the crystal, and placed
on a plate of glass heated to 212°, adhered to it for six or eight
hours, even when the glass was uppermost, the electricity of the
tourmaline thus supporting its own weight.

The experiment which I am about to describe, will I think
set at rest the question, and is in fact capable of shewing within
a few minutes, and ina very pleasing manner, the most essential
facts of the relation of the electricity to temperature. M. Brc-
auEREL found that when a crystal of tourmaline was heated to
212°, its electricity was inappreciable so long as the temperature
remained stationary ; but that when placed in a cooler medium,
the intensity of the electricity was not, as might have been ex-

* P. 478. + Edinburgh Journal of Science, i. 211.

and other Minerals when exposed to Heat. QW

pected, proportional to the rapidity of the change of tempera-
ture, which of course would correspond to the period at which
the temperature was highest, but on the contrary rose gradually
to a maximum, when the tourmaline was about half way cooled
to the temperature of the apartment; then gradually diminishing,
redescended to zero when it reached that point. This remarkable
result M. Becaurret obtained by suspending the crystal hori-
zontally by a fibre of silk under a glass cover, the temperature
of the air in which he had the means of regulating ; he then ap-
plied to the extremities of the crystal, wires from the opposite
poles of a dry pile, and, counting the number of oscillations made
by the tourmaline, deduced the intensity.

The form of the experiment which I have contrived, and
which bears out M. Becaurrex’s conclusions, gives the same re-
sults with great elegance and simplicity, without attempting to
indicate the precise temperature of the stone at any period,
which, whilst the heat of the medium in which it is placed
changes, can only be by M. Becqueret’s experiment an approxi-
mation, since the interior of the crystal must at any moment
have a different temperature from its surface.

I employed a simple form of Cov-
Loms’s electrometer, which I construct-
ed for the purpose with little difficulty.

A flat shaped bottle, AB, having a wide

tubulature at C, was provided. Fitted

to the neck is a tube D, plugged at top

by a cork F, through which passes a tal
’ =

crooked wire f, for the purpose of re-

gulating a fibre of raw silk, supporting

the needle of gum-lac e, one end of

which is terminated by the disk g of .—

gilt paper. The object to beexamined ¢()==

is introduced through the tubulature

C, the disk having previously been
D2

28 Prof. Fornes’s Experiments on the Electricity of Tourmaline

charged with vitreous or resinous electricity ; and the repulsions
occasioned by the presence of the body under experiment, are
measured with sufficient exactness by the deviation of the needle
reckoned on the divided circle of paper 7k. I may add, that the
graduated circle H at the top of the glass tube is employed to
measure any required torsion of the silk fibre produced by causing
the cork F to revolve. By means of this simple apparatus, I
obtained results of greater accuracy than my objects generally
required *.

Upon presenting to the electrometer, which is quite an insu-
lator, an energetic crystal of tourmaline (which should not be too
thin), heated to a considerable temperature, the gilt disk being
charged with the same electricity as is acquired in cooling by
the pole of the crystal presented, the following results appear :—
At first the tourmaline exerts no influence whatever. But after
its temperature has begun to fall, the repulsive power is gradual-
ly developed, and the gilt disk slowly recedes as the increasing
force appears ; the recession becomes very minute, and at length
reaches a maximum at which the needle remains for a time sta-
tionary. Soon, however, a diminution of repulsion takes place,
the disk reapproaches its original point of rest, and, if left long
enough, will return to the zero point precisely opposite the crys-
tal, which then as at first produces no action whatever. It is
unnecessary to point out how completely this verifies M. Bxc-
QUEREL’s views, and demonstrates that, as soon as the tempera-
ture completely ceases to change, not the minutest vestige of
electricity remains, though the insulation throughout should
be maintained as completely as possible. This I generally ac-

* It is surprising that Coutoms’s instrument has not been more employed in
this inquiry. BrcquEREL seems only to have used it once, and Dr Brewster had
recourse to the laborious and unsatisfactory method of causing pyro-electric crystals
to lift fragments of the Arundo Phragmites, which can give no comovarative re-
sults.

and other Minerals when exposed to Heat. 29

complish by heating and handling the crystal in glass test-
tubes.

With regard to Dr Brewsrer’s remarkable experiment,
it partakes, I suspect, of a partly different class of phenomena.
It occurred to me that it might perhaps, if confirmed, be ex-
plained thus :—The slice of tourmaline may be considered, in
some respect, as an electrical coating to the glass. Suppose that
the tourmaline and the glass are heated together, and that the
side of the slice next the pole of the crystal, assuming vitreous
electricity by cooling, is next the glass. Let the other side of
the glass (which we shall call the second surface) communicate
with the table or any other conductor ; by the law of Induction,
then, it will assume resinous electricity, the first surface repelling
the vitreous. Conceive the glass plate now to be insulated, we
shall then have this state of things :—the surface of the tourma-
line farthest from the glass, by its even excitation, is resinously
electrified, for we have supposed the side which coats the first
surface of the glass to be vitreous; the resinous electricity, which
is insulated at the second surface of the glass, is powerfully
attracting the opposite electricity of the side of the tourma-
line next itself, and prevents the recombination which would
otherwise take place with the electricity of the other side or
pole.

Having succeeded in repeating Dr Brewster’s experiment
with thin slices from a large crystal of black tourmaline, I found
these hypothetical views confirmed. Having heated a slice cut
transversely to the axis of the crystal, I laid it upon a plate of
cold glass with the side which became vitreously electric during
cooling uppermost ; the adhesion was presently complete, so
that the glass could be held with the stone suspended from its
under surface. The other surface of the glass, behind the tour-
maline, being then touched with a minute disk of gilt paper, in-

3

30 Prof. Forses’s Experiments on the Electricity of Tourmaline

sulated on a thin stick of gum-lac, and then presented to the
electrometer, resinous electricity was found of considerable in-
tensity, shewing that a decomposition of electricity had actually
taken place at the second surface of the glass, the resinously
electric pole of the tourmaline forming the coating of its first
surface, thus attracting the vitreous electricity of the second
surface, and disengaging the resinous. Hence it is easy to see,
that if the tourmaline remains sufficiently long warm to prevent
the recombination of the electricities of its two poles, until the
disengaged electricity at the second surface of the glass shall
have been carried off by the air or otherwise, that recombination
will be prevented, and the electric state will become compara-
tively permanent.

The use of Coutoms’s electrometer, in the manner I have al-
ready described, affords an easy and general method of compar-
ing the electric intensities of different crystals. For by measur-
ing the maximum deviation produced by any specimen, we ob-
tain, wholly independent of the exact temperature, a measure of
its electric power, a measure independent of time, and, as expe-
rience shews, little if at ail affected by the precise heat to which
the crystal has at first been raised, at least within moderate
limits. That the experiment admits, even with the most ordi-
nary attention to collateral circumstances, of considerable accu-
racy, I have proved by repeating the measures of the intensity
of a particular specimen several times in succession. It will at
once occur, that a source of fallacy must be guarded against in
the loss of the electricity with which the disk of the electrometer
is charged, which, as it is constantly diminishing by the contact
of air, would give the intensities last measured in a series of com-
parative experiments too small. In favourable circumstances,
and by allowing the disk to remain some time charged before the
series is commenced, it is surprising how little this error amounts

and other Minerals when eaposed to Heat. 31

to; I have always, however, avoided it in practice, by repeating
every series of experiments in an inverted order, by which we
obtain two observations at equal distances from a mean state of
electric tension, the mean of which will give strictly comparable
results.

The principal application which I made of this method of ob-
serving, was to attempt to discover some relation between the
form and dimensions of crystals of tourmaline, and their electric
power.

M. Becaueret, in a Second Memoir on the Tourmaline, pub-
lished in 1828,* announced the rather extraordinary circum-
stance, that long Tourmalines did not become at all electric by
heat, and that their facility of being excited was generally in-
versely proportional to their length. Dr Tomson, in his work
on Heat,+ mentions the former assertion, and observes that it 1s
one which he has never had an opportunity of trying. As my
experiments have been generally made with black Tourmalines
from Van Diemen’s Land, some of which are of great length, this
point early occurred to me as one deserving of investigation.
As these inquiries seem at no period to have excited much at-
tention in this country, and as of late nothing whatever has been
done upon them, these observations may prove the more inte-
resting.

The longest Tourmaline employed by M. BEecqueREL, was
six centimetres, or 3.2 English inches m length, with a diameter
of about .08 inches. My largest Tourmaline is 3.25 inches, or al-
most precisely the same, with a diameter little different. Instead of
finding this crystal “ tout a fait refractoire,” as M. BecquerEL
describes his, it proved uniformly susceptible of powerful excite-
ment, under the very same treatment which I was accustomed to

D ieee Nee yt Ae ees

* Ann. de Chimie. + P. 477.

32 Prof. Fornes’s Experiments on the Electricity of Tourmaline

use towards those of smaller dimensions. The intensity, too,
was very great, though more slowly attained than in shorter ones.
Various Tourmalines, between two and three inches in length,
uniformly shew great activity on being removed from the heat
to which they have been exposed, and left to cool, when applied
to the electroscope.

This discovery led me to some inquiry into the effect.of di-
mension in modifying electric action. Here it is necessary to
draw a distinction between the case of excitation, and the inten-
sity of the effect produced. M. Becaurren generally mentions
the temperature at which electricity appeared : my inquiries have
been directed to the maximum intensity of that electricity when
excited, which is in some respects the more satisfactory informa-
tion of the two. The determination of the temperature, we have
already seen, is a point of great uncertainty, since every range of
atoms, from the centre to the surface, must have a different tem-
perature. Of course, for the same reason, the maximum effect
is the integral of an infinity of variable forces.

Amongst many experiments on different groups of crystals, I
may mention the following as the best determined. Six Tour-
malines, all 1.3 inches long, whose thicknesses or areas of section
were represented by the numbers 14, 11, 7, 6, and 4, had their
maximum intensities measured. 'Two series of experiments in a
direct order, and two reversed, all gave the same order of intensity
for these specimens, which, instead of bearing any direct propor-
tion to the areas, as might have been expected, where the lengths
were equal, gave the following arrangement* in the order of in-

* The best pair of series gave,

No. 1, Deviation 115°
Q) 69.5
3, 0
4, 26

5; 39.5

and other Minerals when exposed to Heat. 33

tensities,—1, 2, 5, 4, 3, the areas following the natural order of the
numbers. Other series being taken with sets of crystals, 1.2 and
1.8 inches long, gave similar indications of irregularity,* but the
area of section has so far a general influence, that where the dif-
ferences are considerable, the thickest crystal has almost univer-
sally the greatest power. The relative forces are so connected,
that we can hardly impute the irregularities to any general law ;
the differences, as I shall immediately illustrate by reference to
another class of experiments, must in all probability be attributed
to a variable structure in specimens of the same mineral, as well
as in those of different species.

I took a crystal 14 inches long, and carefully determined the
intensity of its electricity, which, by a mean of three experiments,
gave 45° of deviation. I immediately broke it at one-fourth of
its length from one end, the two portions being then heated and
their intensities determined each three times, the mean of the
larger portion gave a deviation of 47°, of the smaller 43°, the
mean of which gives precisely the original force. As far as in-
tensity goes, the diminution of length would not therefore ap-
pear to be favourable to the development of electricity. With
a view of procuring through a larger range of dimension, the in-
fluence of length alone, I selected a series of tourmalines whose
sections were as nearly equal as possible, the diameter being
about ;!,th inch, and one of which was the very long crystal be-
fore mentioned. ‘This experiment was made with great care ; a

* Nos. Intensity. Intensity.

1.2 long. 18 long:
1 (thickest) 82 54°
2 77.5 40°
3 50° 34°
4 57.5 35.5
5 65°
6 (thinnest) 34°

VOL. XIII. PART I. E

34 Prof. Forses’s Experiments on the Electricity of Tourmaline

direct and reversed series were taken, and several of the deter-
minations independently repeated. The mean deviations of the
needle of the electroscope will be given in the following Table :

No. Length. Intensity.
1 3.25 inch. 19.°5
2 2.10 82°
3 1.60 60°
4 1.55 60°
5 1.35 89°
6 1.19 68°

We thus see that the long crystal holds a high place among
those of equal section with it, and we have at the same time an
additional proof of the native irregularities of different crystals.

It is well known that the artificial arrangement which repre-
sents best the phenomena of the tourmaline, is that of a series of
insulated plates of glass arranged parallel to one another, suit-
ably coated, and with the contiguous coatings connected by tin-
foil. If one end of this battery be charged from an electrical
source, while the other communicates with the ground, the plates
at one extremity will partake of an excess of the electricity com-
municated, whilst those at the other will have the opposite spe-
cies in excess, and a large proportion of the range in the centre
will exhibit no traces of free electricity: hence, by shortening the
pile (supposing the plates very numerous), no change will take
place in the intensity of the free electricity, but the intensity will
bear a direct relation to the swzface of the plates, or the section
of the pile. So far analogy supports the increase of intensity
with the diameter of the tourmaline ; but when we come to con-
sider the mode of charging, it fails, and leaves us in great doubt
as to whether the length of a crystal, if its structure be perfectly
uniform, should have any influence or not. I have found short
crystals of a considerable area, and so formed as to have a large
surface, perhaps the most energetic.

v

and other Minerals when exposed to Heat. 3:

The unequal temperature of the portion of any section, pre-
vents, as I have already observed, all the parts from giving a
maximum intensity at once. This will diminish the total effect,
but as all the parts afford the same kind of electricity, the re-
sultant can never be null on this account. Therefore, even if
the irregularities of amount did not compel us to admit innate
varieties of structure or electric disposition in different specimens,
stubborn facts must force us to some such conclusion. In the
course of my researches, I have met with a crystal of tourmaline, *
possessing no external irregularities of structure, (the termina-
tions, however, of the crystal are not preserved), which has the
singular property of presenting in cooling a vitreous pole at both
ends. Having ascertained this point, I proceeded to examine
the electricity of its parts, by means of CouLome’s Proof-plane,
by which the electricity of any portion is insulated and examined.
As I expected, I found the central portion of the crystal resi-
nously electrified. This remarkable fact is not unexampled.
Havy has recorded the case of a crystal of topaz which had a si-
milar property, which, from its analogy to known facts in the phe-
nomena of magnetism and of double refraction, Dr Brewster
conceived to be owing to the union of two distinct crystals,
with the vitreous poles in contact, as in that case resinous elec-
tricity was developed at both ends. Be this as it may, the ex-
ample of tourmaline which I have cited, proves that the junction
of the separate crystals, if such exist, may be imperceptible, and
as the probability that such irregularity should exist, however
caused, is in proportion to the length of the specimen, this may
perhaps explain the want of excitability observed by BecquerEL
in very long crystals.

The phenomena of tourmaline, though entirely electric, bear
so strong an affinity to those of magnetism, that the study of

* It is No. 3. of the Series, at the foot of p. 32.
E2

36 Prof. Forses’s Laperiments on the Electricity of Tourmaline

their relations must be considered extremely important. I have
therefore one remark to make upon an experiment which Dr
Brewster thinks indicative of a “ singular breach of analogy
between the distribution of the pyro-electrical and magnetical
forces.” After observing that, in the process of reducing a mag-
net to powder, the coercive force employed effectually destroys
all trace of magnetism, he adds that powder of tourmaline is
highly electric when placed on a glass and heated, which is shewn
by its adhering in conglomerated masses, exhibiting the appear-
ance of viscidity when stirred. It appears to me that this expe-
riment does not go to shew that tourmaline in a state of excita-
tion does not lose its electricity when bruised in a mortar ; in-
deed, such an experiment it would be impossible to perform. A
tourmaline, when it is not changing its temperature, is as inert
as a bar of iron before it is magnetized ; the process of heating
or cooling the one, is precisely equivalent’ to that of conveying
magnetism by induction or otherwise to the other. The powder
of tourmaline is, therefore, analogous to the filings of iron, both
being equally inert, till the native electricity of the former, and
the native magnetism of the latter, is decomposed, when the re-
sult in both is perfectly identical.

I shall now only very briefly allude to the conclusions to
which some experiments on the electricity of other minerals be-
sides tourmaline have led me. I have applied Coutoms’s elec-
trometer with perfect success to the examination of topaz, bora-
cite, and mesotype, which have all been long known to possess
electrical powers. In the case of these minerals, I have been
able to extend Brecqurre.’s remarkable law of the intensity of
electricity rising to a maximum, when the speed of cooling has
become comparatively low, which has not before been demon-
strated for any mineral except tourmaline. Topaz possesses the
remarkable property of retaining its electricity long after the
temperature has ceased to change: probably the decomposition

and other Minerals when exposed to Heat. 37

being effected with greater difficulty, the recombination requires
more time than in the more excitable minerals. Toso great an
extent does this take place, that though the maximum deviation
of the needle, in one instance amounting 115°, took place within
a few minutes after the excited mineral was presented to the elec-
troscope, in 20 minutes it was hardly diminished, in 40 minutes
it was still 95°,in an hour 85°*. After a lapse of several hours it
was still considerably excited. I obtained similar results with se-
veral crystals. Probably in all minerals the difficulty of decompo-
sition and combination increase with the mass; hence, slender
crystals are most easily excited, and the effect less permanent.
Keeping these facts in view, Airrnus’s statement that the tour-
maline preserves its electricity, when insulated, for several hours,
will admit of easy explanation, by supposing that he worked with
large and difficultly excitable crystals, similar to this one of topaz,
which had at the same time a very high degree of intensity.

With a large crystal of boracite having about } inch for the
side of its cube, I obtained very analogous results, when one of its
four resinous poles was presented to the electrometer in a warm
state, the disk slowly and regularly receded from zero as the
cooling advanced, and in about ten minutes reached its maxi-
mum duration, which indicated a high degree of intensity. The
diminution of electricity was very slow; in three quarters of an
hour the disk had receded but a little way. A small crystal of
boracite being similarly treated, the maximum was speedily
gained, and the needle returned to zero in one experiment in
20 minutes, in another in half an hour. The electricity of the
disk in these experiments was extremely steady.

The acicular crystals of mesotype attain with the greatest
facility a high degree of electrical excitement, so much so, that

* The disk during this time was of course slowly parting with its charge.

38 Prof. Forses’s Experiments on Tourmaline, &c.

it required some attention to discover that the maximum inten-
sity was not immediately gained. It lasted a short time, and, as
in the case of slender tourmalines, the needle rapidly receded,
and in a short time returned to zero.

The very satisfactory results which I have obtamed from all
these minerals, give me great confidence in the aptitude and ac-
curacy of my simple apparatus ; and, from the very considerable
intensity which I find them all to possess, I expect to be able to
estimate much smaller degrees of pyro-electricity in other mine-
rals, and in artificial crystals, than has yet been attempted.

Should my first results have appeared interesting to the So-
ciety, I may perhaps at no distant time have the honour of com-
municating my farther progress in the inquiry.

GREENHILL,
2d January 1832.

Royal Soctetys Trans,

<—e

PLATE 4
Royal Soctetys Trans

|

fg a eB
jpn
lf |

I!

( 39 )

A General View of the Phenomena displayed in the neighbourhood
of Edinburgh by the Igneous Rocks, in their relations with the
Secondary Strata ; with reference to a more particular descrip-
tion of the Section which has been exposed to view on the south
side of the Castle Hill. By Major-General Lord Greenock,
C. B. F.R.S. Ed.

(Read 16th Dec. 1833.)

Tue country in which Edinburgh is situated has no great
elevation above the level of the sea, presenting a gently undu-
lating surface, except where hills of igneous origin, in groups, or
perfectly insulated, rise abruptly through the strata, which con-
sist of the sandstones and shales of the coal-formation, with occa-
sional beds of limestone, which they overlie, and this country is
more or less covered by old and. new alluvial deposits.

The views suggested by these hills to the penetrating genius
of Hurzon, who may be justly considered the founder of mo-
dern geology, first led to the knowledge of the true nature and
origin of the trap-rocks. Their analogy to those produced by
existing volcanoes, and the phenomena observed in their rela-
tions with the secondary strata, leave no doubt as to their having
been poured out from the interior of the earth in a fluid or viscid
state, through fissures in the strata occasioned by subterranean
convulsions—not, however, in the open air, like currents of lava
from recent craters, but in sheets or masses at the bottom of the
sea, their cooling and consolidation having evidently been slow
and. gradual, under great pressure, such as might be produced by
a large volume of superincumbent water, as was ably illus-

40 Lord Greenock on the Igneous Rocks

trated by the experiments of the late Sir James Haux; or by
their having been originally formed as dykes, at considerable
depths, either below or among the strata.

The most striking of the phenomena which are to be seen in
many of the hills near Edinburgh, are the apparent interstratifi-
cation of the trap and secondary rocks, owing, in some cases, to
the igneous matter having carried up portions of the latter, which
are, in this manner, placed above the former on their summits,
and in others to its having burst through, and overflowed the
surface of the strata, or been injected between them ; while, at
the same time, it was probably lifting them up from below. Frag-
ments broken away from the stratified rocks, by the passage
through them of the igneous fluid, are also frequently seen im-
bedded in the trap, and the former are very generally observed
to be altered in their nature and appearance, when in contact
with the latter. Different varieties of trap-rocks are often met
with in the same hills, shewing that they must have continued to
be erupted at different intervals, and under varying cireum-
stances, during a long period ; but, in the absence of every for-
mation superior to the coal measures, there are no data whatever
by which their relative ages may be determined.

The igneous rocks almost invariably conform to the same ge-
neral dip as the stratified rocks with which they are associated,
thus affording additional evidence of their having been up-
lifted together by some common cause. A very distinguished na-
turalist has pointed out to the author the important fact, that
the trap-hills appear in general to surround basins, often of con-
siderable extent, in which the rocks of both descriptions are seen
to dip outwards from a common centre, forming, as it were, val-
leys of elevation on an immense scale, and that the environs of
Edinburgh afford an example of one of these basins or valleys ;
for, if lines be drawn north and south from Burntisland to the
Pentland Hills, and east and west from Salisbury Craigs to Cor-
storphine Hill, they will form the anticlinal lines (or nearly so)

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 4

from which these rocks will be found to decline in opposite di-
rections.

The researches of several eminent philosophers relative to the
interior temperature of the earth, have given rise to the hypo-
thesis now very generally received, which refers the extensive
changes of level between the sea and land, that have taken
place in all ages, and may probably be going on, although in a
less sensible degree, at the present moment, to the effect pro-
duced on its surface by the secular refrigeration of the globe,
and its inequality in cooling. At so early a period in the history
of our planet, as that which we are now considering, the heat be-
ing much greater, the process of refrigeration, and the consequent
contraction of the crust of the earth, must have been ‘more
rapid, and the production of gases, from the superficial consoli-
dation of the interior fluid, more abundant. The force, there-
fore, which in our days is seen to cause volcanic action, would
then have been exerted with greater intensity, so as to have oc-
casioned not only the ejection of a much larger quantity of the
igneous matter to the surface, but also elevations of land, on a
much more extensive scale than we can form any idea of, from
the greatest effects of the most active volcanoes in modern times.

The rock upon which the Castle is situated, consists of green-
stone of a hard and compact nature, and of a dark grey colour,
approaching to black. It is throughout of the laminar structure,
which, in several places, gives it a false appearance of stratifica-
tion. Some of the lamina may be seen passing into the cuboidal
or square prismatic structure, and occasionally to split into im-
perfectly columnar divisions. Within the Castle walls fragments
of sandstone are imbedded in the trap, and near its south-west
point, altered rocks, apparently of sandstone and slate-clay, are
observed resting upon it in a highly inclined position.

The situation of the section of the Castle Hill, lately made in |
cutting the new South-west Road, and the relative position of
the stratified rocks displayed in it, will be better understood by
a reference to the accompanying drawing, which has been very

VOL. XIII. PART I. F

42 Lord Greenock on the Igneous Rocks

ably and correctly executed by Dr Greviize, F.R.S. Ed., than
by any written description (See Plate). The first appearance of
disturbance commences to the eastward of the limits of the
drawing in that direction, and about 200 yards from the point
of junction between the secondary rocks and the trap, where the
former may be observed to rise at an angle of about 11° or
12° above the level of the road, crossing a footpath that leads
up the declivity. Owing, however, to the partial covering
of soil and vegetation, several of the strata can be traced only
here and there, by their edges cropping out. There appear to
be about five or six strata of sandstone in all, varying in thick-
ness from two or three feet to a few inches, the intervals between
them being occupied by beds of slate-clay, or perhaps of marl,
of a reddish-brown or purple colour; but in their present state,
neither the continuity of the one, nor the nature of the other,
can be distinguished with any accuracy.

The irregularity and want of conformity in the stratification
of these rocks, and the curvatures observed in them, are very re-
markable, giving such strong evidence, that, whatever the cir-
cumstances might have been which influenced their original de-
position, they must subsequently have experienced a considerable
derangement, as to leave no doubt in the author's opinion, that
the signs of disorder so manifestly visible in this section, are to
be attributed to some subterraneous agency. In this view, the
only rational explanation that occurs to him is, that they were
occasioned by that general disturbing cause, which probably act-
ed upon a large extent of country at the period when it was ele-
vated above the waters, beneath which it had been originally
formed. Considering the subject, therefore, in this light, it ap-
pears probable that the whole of the sandstone strata, with the
intervening beds of slate-clay or marl, had, on the first impulse
they received during the process of elevation, a tendency to rise
in a uniform direction ; but, in consequence of some violent dis-
turbance that must suddenly have interrupted the regularity of

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 43

this movement, a considerable fault or dislocation was occasioned
towards the centre of the section, by which they became bent
and distorted in the manner now seen,—their eastern portions
having been thrown up, whilst their western portions were cast
down, so as to lie unconformably upon the upturned strata. Near
the point of junction of these rocks with the trap, the effects of
subsidence are very evident, the shattered extremities of the
strata having apparently fallen over, being at the same time forced
into a more southerly direction, by which they seem to have been
brought obliquely into contact with the tabular masses of green-
stone, against which they appear to have been precipitated, and
upon which the inverted fragments of sandstone, with interven-
ing portions of slate-clay or marl, are now seen to rest.

If the trap had been in a soft state from fusion at the time,
some intermixture of the igneous fluid with the stratified rocks
must have taken place during this collision; but no imbedded
fragments are to be met with, nor any veins passing from the one
into the other ; neither are there any marks or impressions visible
on the smooth surface of the greenstone, except some slight su-
perficial scratches, such as might have been caused by abrasion
during the simultaneous passage upwards of these two descrip-
tions of rocks, if both had been consolidated previous to their
elevation. The fragments, however, imbedded in the upper part
of the rock, as well as the altered nature of some of the contigu-
ous strata, shew that, at some period, this rock must have been in
a state of fusion, and capable, by its intense heat, of affecting, in
this manner, the stratified rocks in its vicinity.

Although at first sight it might appear difficult to reconcile
these opposite and apparently contradictory facts, if we can ad-
mit that the stratified rocks had been deposited in seas or lakes,
and that the trap had also a subaqueous origin, it must follow
that the dry land which they now form, must, at some time or
other, have been elevated above the waters, when, in all probabi-
lity, a considerable modification of their relations with each other

F2

44 Lord Greenock on the Igneous Rocks

must have taken place. We may therefore conclude, that all
these trap-rocks have undergone elevation at two distinct periods,
—the first when formed ina state of igneous fluidity at the bottom
of the sea, the second when, with the whole district in which
they are situated, they were lifted up to their present positions
in a hard and consolidated state.

The convulsions, which must have been frequent during this
latter period, would doubtless have been most violent at those
points which had before been the principal foci of volcanic
energy ; and although there is no appearance in this place of the
igneous matter having then reached the surface, an expansion of
the interior fluid, while operating these changes of level, may
very probably have filled by injection rents or fissures In many
parts of the strata below, forming, in this manner, the dykes
which are often met with in mining operations, and occasioning
many of the faults and dislocations observed in those above,
where the cause itself is not perceptible.

Consequently, there appear to be sufficient grounds for con-
sidering, that, during the first period, when the greenstone was
in a state of fusion, the fragments of sandstone, which are enve-
loped in it near the summit of the rock, were carried upwards by
the erupted fluid, the intense heat of which has probably, at the
same time, altered the nature of some of the contiguous stratified
rocks. But the derangement of the strata, and all the other signs
of disturbance seen in the section of the Castle Hill, are, in the
opinion of the author, to be referred to the earthquakes and
other commotions of the second period, after the consolidation of
these rocks; for, although local circumstances may have contri-
buted, to a certain extent, in producing these appearances, yet,
when we can trace the operation of the same influence to extend
over a large district of country, determining its features and the
inclination of the strata, we may fairly conclude, that this has
been due to some more general cause, of which these separate
phenomena have only been subordinate effects; and if it be

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 45

granted that any such elevation as that here supposed has taken
place, there seems to be every reason for ascribing this cause to
that epoch.

Several years have now elapsed since this interesting section
was first laid open, and the public are indebted for the preserva-
tion of so instructive a record of the changes and revolutions
which have given rise to the present state of the earth, to the
consent of the Magistrates of the City then in office, obtained
through the active exertions of the distinguished Professor of
Natural History in this University, and of his excellent friend
the late much lamented Treasurer of this Society, Mr Tuomas
Auxan of Lauriston, whose whole life was spent in the cultiva-
tion of science and in contributing to its advancement.

Postscript.—Since the foregoing pages were written, Mr
Maceriuivray, of the Royal College of Surgeons, has very oblig-
ingly put into the hands of the author, a sketch of the section of
the Castle Hill, made by him when it was first laid open in 1829,
from which it appears that a mass of trap was then exposed to
view, lying beneath the disturbed strata. This igneous rock was
so soon covered up in making the road, that it escaped general
notice. It is described, however, by Mr Maceriiivray as being
totally different, both in appearance and character, from that up-
on which the Castle is situated, and more nearly resembling the
dyke that was met with in excavating for the foundation of the

9

Cowgate Bridge. 2

Description and Analysis of a Mineral from Faroe, not before
ewamined. By Artruvur Connex, Esq. F.R.S. Ep.

(Read Jan. 6. 1834.)

Some time ago a mineral was put into my hands by Mr Ross,
the intelligent mineral dealer of this city, the nature of which
was not known, although it had been conjectured to be a variety
of Mesotype. Mr Rose obtained it from Count Varcas Brpe-
MAR of Copenhagen, who brought it from the Faroe Islands, and
subsequently visited this country some years ago. A short che-
mical examination soon satisfied me that it differed entirely from
mesotype; and having ascertained that it contained silica, lime,
water, and potash, and no notable quantity of alumina, I was led
to conjecture that it would prove to be a variety of apophyllite,
although, in that view, it would have presented very remarkable
deviations from the ordinary structure of that mineral.

Some time afterwards, in the course of last autumn, I had
an opportunity of recognising, in the possession of Sir Davin
Brewster, a large mass of the mineral in question ; and as its
nature was quite unknown to Sir Davin, he thought it would.
be a matter of some interest to have its chemical nature fully de-
termined, particularly with the view of ascertaining whether it
could possibly be of the nature of apophyllite.

I accordingly proceeded to complete an analysis of it; and
the result was, that it was found to differ from all other mineral
bodies with which I am acquainted. Its external and chemical
characters, as well as the steps and result of the analysis, are as
follows.

The colour of the mineral is white, with an opalescent tint.

Mr Connexx’s Description and Analysis of a Mineral. 47

Its lustre is glistening and vitreous. Its hardness is interme-
diate between that of fluor and that of felspar. It possesses a
considerable degree of translucency. Its texture is imperfectly
fibrous ; but in a few places the fibres appear diverging with con-
siderable regularity, showing some approach to a crystalline struc-
ture. Its specific gravity, at 67° Fahrenheit, was found to be
2.3616: at 55°, it was 2.3622; we may take 2.362 as a mean.
The most characteristic peculiarity of this mineral is its remark-
able toughness and difficult frangibility. ‘To such an extent
does this’ quality extend, that a mass of it cannot be broken in-
to smaller fragments without great difficulty and repeated blows
of a heavy hammer.

The chemical characters of the mineral were as follows :—
Exposed to heat in a glass-tube, it gave off water in considerable
abundance, which did not affect the colour of litmus or turmeric,
and did not stain Brazil-wood paper yellow, nor in the slightest
degree corrode the tube. Neither was the glass in any degree
attacked by the moisture expelled when the mineral was heated
in an open tube with previously fused salt of phosphorus. Urged
by the blowpipe in the platinum forceps, it did not swell up, but
became opaque and white, and fused only on the edge, and with
difficulty. Alone, on charcoal, the result was the same, except
that the fusion on the edges was scarcely visible. With soda, it
melted with effervescence into a semitransparent glass. With
salt of phosphorus, it gave a colourless glass, showing silica as an
opaque mass, in the midst of a clear globule, which, however.
opalesced. on cooling, especially after the heat had been conti-
nued some time. With borax, it fused into a transparent co-
lourless glass. With soda, on platinum foil, no manganese re-
action could usually be observed, although occasionally a feeble
tint was visible. . With nitrate of cobalt, a fragment of the mi-
neral gave no trace either of alumina or magnesia. | In order to
ascertain whether it contained any phosphoric acid, a little of the

mineral in powder was heated to drive off the water, and then
3

48 Mr Connexu’s Description and Analysis of

ignited in a tube with potassium ; and after the excess of potas-
sium had been removed by mercury, no trace of the smell of phos-
phuretted hydrogen could be observed on blowing into the tube.

When the mineral in fine powder was treated with muriatic
acid, it gelatinized immediately, with considerable increase of
temperature. Even when in coarse powder, there was speedy
gelatinization of the finer particles, and the larger were gradually
acted on. 'The external weathered coating of the mineral effer-
vesced slightly with acid, owing to partial decomposition and ab-
sorption of carbonic acid from the air; but the fresh mineral did
not show the least trace of effervescence.

In a preliminary examination of a portion of the mineral
which was decomposed by muriatic acid, the only constituents
found were silica, lime, a little potash, and traces of one or more
metallic oxides. Magnesia was sought for, but none found. The
presence of water, and absence of fluoric and phosphoric acids,
have already appeared.

The steps of the analysis were as follows :—

a, 20.66 grains of the mineral, in small fragments, lost by
ignition 3.04 grains, equivalent to 14.714 per cent. of water.
The ignited mineral became opaque, and whiter.

b, 24.68 grains were reduced to coarse powder in the steel
mortar, and were treated with muriatic acid. Immediate gelati-
nization of a part took place, with rise of temperature, and the
mineral and acid were left in contact with one another in a
close vessel till complete decomposition appeared to have taken
place. From accidental circumstances, the substances were left
in contact in the present instance for several months. It was
thought better not to reduce the mineral to fine powder at first
in the usual manner in a siliceous mortar, as, from the great
tenacity and considerable hardness of the mineral, a good deal of
silica would probably have been abraded from the mortar.

c, Water was now added to the mass, and heat applied. Si-
lica was separated by filtration, and, after edulcoration and igni-

a Mineral from Faroe. 49

tion, it weighed 14.35 grains. It dissolved in boiling potash ley
except a residue of .47 of a grain, which shall be afterwards no-
ticed. ‘There was thus left of silica 13.88 grains.

d, The liquid separated from silica was treated with ammo-
nia in some excess. A few flocks only fell, becoming gradually
brown. These were separated by filtration, and, after ignition,
weighed 14 of a grain.

e, These ignited flocks were digested in muriatic acid, and
were dissolved, except a residue of .02 of silica. The solution
was boiled with excess of caustic potash. The precipitate re-
maining undissolved was separated by filtration, and the liquid
supersaturated with muriatic acid, and treated with carbonate
of ammonia. A slight muddiness ensued ; but the quantity or
nature of the precipitate was not determined, from its small
amount.

f, The residue left by the caustic potash in e, was dissolved
in muriatic acid, boiled with a little nitric acid, neutralized by
ammonia, and precipitated by benzoate of ammonia. The pre-
cipitate, ignited with a little nitric acid, yielded .04 of oxide of
iron. The residual liquid was boiled with carbonate of soda. A
white precipitate fell, which, after ignition, weighed .05. This,
when examined, proved to be oxide of manganese, mixed with
some lime ; but as the proportion of lime could not be determined,
the whole may be held as red oxide of manganese, equivalent to
046 of protoxide, although, from the reaction of the mineral on
platinum foil with soda, formerly mentioned, the real quantity of
that oxide was apparently less.

g, The liquid. which had been precipitated by ammonia in d,
after concentration by heat, was brought nearly to the boiling
point, and carbonate of ammonia added. A plentiful white pre-
cipitate fell, which, after being collected by filtration, and duly
dried, weighed 11.74 grains. This precipitate, which was carbo-
nate of lime, dissolved without residue in diluted muriatic acid.
A few drops of hydrosulphuret of ammonia were added to the

VOL. XIII. PART I. G

50 Mr Connett’s Description and Analysis of

solution, and a minute quantity of sulphuret of manganese got,
which, by treatment with muriatic acid, and precipitation with
potash, yielded .01 of red oxide of manganese, or .009 of prot-
oxide ; leaving 11.73 of carbonate of lime, equivalent to 6.602
of lime.

h, The liquid separated from carbonate of lime in g, was eva-
porated to dryness, and the ammoniacal salt driven off by. heat.
A small quantity of a white saline residue remained, which, ig-
nited, weighed .39. This residue, redissolved in water, left .07 of
silica, giving .32 for the weight of salt.

i, To the saline solution in /, a few drops of carbonate of
ammonia were added, by which .02 more of carbonate of lime were
got, equivalent to .11 of lime, and to .22 of chloride of calcium,
which, subtracted from the saline residue of .32, gave now .298
for the salt. ‘lhe solution of the salt was not affected by hydro-
sulphuret of ammonia.

k, After the saline solution had been again evaporated, the
residue ignited and redissolved, cubical crystals were obtained by
spontaneous evaporation. To the solution of these crystals,
chloride of platinum was added, when, after a little, a yellow pre-
cipitate formed ; and the liquid being crystallized spontaneously,
crystals of the double chloride of platinum and sodium were ob-
tained, which were taken up by weak alcohol. The residual
double chloride of platinum and potassium, duly dried, weighed
.8, equivalent to .0580 of potash, and to .0916 of chloride of
potassium, leaving for chloride of sodium .2064, equivalent to
.1099 of soda. The double chloride of platinum and sodium
decomposed by sulphate of ammonia and heat, yielded efflores-
cent crystals of sulphate of soda.

I, The residue of .47 left by the potash ley in c, was resolved
by fusion with carbonated alkalies, and other necessary steps, in-
to .27 of silica, .04 of oxide of iron, and .01 of lime.

We have thus in 24.68 grains of the mineral, exclusive of
water,

a Mineral from Faroe.

Silica, . ' : C,
e,
h,
d,
Lime, . . : 2
4,
Soda, k,
Potash, F k,
Oxide of Iron, s off
1,

Oxide of Manganese, f,

And in 100 parts,

Silica,

Lime,

Water,

Soda,

Potash,

Oxide of Iron,
Oxide of Manganese,

13.88

2

7

Q7
14.24

6.613
109 109
058 058

08

55

21.650

57.69
26.83
14.71
0.44
0.23
0.32
0.22

100.44

51

The above composition differs, so far as my information ex-
tends, from that of all other known minerals; and shews the
mineral under analysis to be essentially a hydrated quatersili-
cate of lime. Its constitution is expressed by the formula

9 S* C+ 16 Aq, which gives

Silica,
Lime,
Water,

58.06
26.85
15.08

99.99
eZ

52 Mr Connetx’s Description and Analysis of

From table-spar, the mineral obviously differs in containing
water as an essential constituent, and in the relative proportions
of silica and lime, table-spar being a bisilicate of lime. From
those zeolites which do not contain alumina as a necessary in-
gredient, such as apophyllite, and Dr Tuomson’s wollastonite, it
differs, in respect that the quantity of alkali is too small to be
viewed as an essential constituent, as well as in the relative pro-
portions of silica and base.

As soon as I had completed the analysis, I sent an account
of the result to Sir Davin Brewster, who was so kind as to
examine a few of the optical properties, and to give me the fol-
lowing notice of his observations :

* My Dear Srp,

“ T ought to have thanked you sooner for your letter of the
5th December. There can be no doubt that the mineral is a
new one, and I have made various ineffectual attempts to obtain
crystals from the surface of the large specimen which I have of
it, and which I received from Count Vareas Bepemar. The
crystallized faces are perfectly distinct, but they lie so near the
general surface, that it is impossible to detach any fragment
without pounding it.

« T have, however, ground and polished a piece of the tough
mass, and have ascertained that it possesses double refraction.
It is also opalescent, reflecting a bluish light, and consequently
transmitting a yellowish one. I have also found that its powder
possesses no pyro-electricity. I cannot help thinking, that, by a
careful examination of different specimens, small crystals will be
found in some of the superficial cavities. I am, My Dear Sir,
ever faithfully yours,

« D. Brewster.”
“ Belleville, Dec. 26. 1833.”

a Mineral from Faroe. 53

On receiving this letter, I examined the specimens with
greater care, to endeavour to discover crystals, and I could ob-
serve with a lens, in several places, in one of them faces appa-
rently belonging to minute crystals, and reflecting a fine lustre ;
but still the portions so observed were too small, and the con-
nection of the faces with one another not sufficiently apparent
to enable me to draw any conclusion as to the crystalline form.
As I have every reason, however, to hope that larger quantities
of the mineral are in the possession of Count Breprmar, more
light may possibly still be thrown on that matter.

Its other external characters will, I trust, be held as suffi-
ciently distinctive, especially when supported by the chemical
analysis ; and in case mineralogists shall be willing to receive it
as a new species, I should propose to distinguish it by the name
of Dysclasite *, as expressive of the peculiarity in its external
characters formerly mentioned, its remarkable tenacity and. diffi-
cult frangibility. It will of course be arranged with the Zeo-
lites.

Since this paper was read, I have had a thin slice of the mi-
neral cut and polished by a lapidary ; and Sir Davin Brewster,
who was so obliging as to examine it, observed the same appear-
ances as before, and found that it polarised light in all directions,
shewing that the mineral consists of a congeries of crystals, ad-
hering together in all positions. This structure may serve to
explain its great tenacity.

eee ee i

* From Bus and «Awe.

( 54)

Researches on the Vibration of Pendulums in Fluid Media. By
Grorcr Green, Esq. Communicated by Sir Epwarp Frrencu
Bromueap, Bart. M. A. F. R.SS. Lond. & Ed.

(Read 16th Dec. 1833.)

Prozasty no department of Analytical Mechanics presents
greater difficulties than that which treats of the motions of
fluids ; and hitherto the success of mathematicians therein has
been comparatively limited. In the theory of the waves, as pre-
sented by MM. Poisson and Caucny, and in that of sound, their
success appears to have been more complete than elsewhere ; and
if to these investigations we join the researches of Lariacr con-
cerning the tides, we shall have the principal important applica-
tions hitherto made of the general equations upon which the de-
termination of this kind of motion depends. The same equa-
tions will serve to resolve completely a particular case of the
motion of fluids, which is capable of a useful practical applica-
tion; and, as I am not aware that it has yet been noticed, I shall
endeavour, in the following paper, to consider it as briefly as
possible.

In the case just alluded to, it is required to determine the
circumstances of the motion of an indefinitely extended non-
elastic fluid, when agitated by a solid ellipsoidal body, moving
parallel to itself, according to any given law, always supposing
the body’s excursions very small, compared with its dimensions.
From what will be shown in the sequel, the general solution of
this problem may very easily be obtained. But as the principal
object of our paper is to determine the alteration produced in

Mr Green on the Vibration of Pendulums. 55

the motion of a pendulum by the action of the surrounding me-
dium, we have insisted more particularly on the case where the
ellipsoid moves in a right line parallel to one of its axes, and
have thence proved, that, in order to obtain the correct time
of a pendulum’s vibration, it will not be sufficient merely to al-
low for the loss of weight caused by the fluid medium, but that
it will likewise be requisite to conceive the density of the body
augmented by a quantity proportional to the density of this
fluid. The value of the quantity last named, when the body of
the pendulum is an oblate spheroid, vibrating in its equatorial
plane, has been completely determined, and, when the spheroid
becomes a sphere, is precisely equal to half the density of the
surrounding fluid. Hence, in this last case, we shall have the
true time of the pendulum’s vibration, if we suppose it to move
in vacuo, and then simply conceive its mass augmented by half
that of an equal volume of the fluid, whilst the moving force
with which it is actuated is diminished by the whole weight of
the same volume of fluid.

We will now proceed to consider a particular case of the motion of a
non-elastic fluid over a fixed obstacle of ellipsoidal figure, and thence endea-
your to find the correction necessary to reduce the observed length of a pen-
dulum vibrating through exceedingly small arcs in any indefinitely extend-
ed medium to its true length 7m vacuo, when the body of the pendulum is
a solid ellipsoid. For this purpose, we may remark, that the equations of
the motion of a homogeneous non-elastic fluid are

Vie gain = 1{ aie eS ey + (2) OES EET ICT IS (.)

2s PoP EPugh B
on He gh Par tte seetectceeeeeetteettin (2)

Vide Mec. Cel. Liv. iii. Ch. 8. No. 33, where ¢ is such a function of ‘the

56 Mr Green on the Vibration of Pendulums

co-ordinates x, y, 2 of any particle of the fluid mass, and of the time ¢ that
the velocities of this particle in the directions of and tending to increase the

co-ordinates 2, y and 2 shall always be represented by 5 ae ats and ae re-

spectively, Moreover, 9 represents the fluid’s density, p its pressure, and V
a function dependent upon the various exterior forces which act upon the
fluid mass.

When the fluid is supposed to move over a fixed solid ellipsoid, the prin-
cipal difficulty will be so to satisfy the equation (2.) that the particles at the
surface of this solid may move along this surface, which may always be ef-
fected by making

supposing that the origin of the co-ordinates is at the centre of the ellip-
soid: A and p being two arbitrary quantities constant with regard to the
variables w, y, =; and a, b, c, f being functions of these same variables, de-
termined by the equations

ae—a°+f, =U? +f, C=? +f, and eae sees Sate eaers (4.)

in which a’, b’, c’ are the axes of the given ellipsoid.

* In my memoir on the Determination of the exterior and interior Attractions of El-
lipsoids of Variable Densities, recently communicated to the Cambridge Philosophical So-
ciety by Sir Epwarp Frrencu Bromueap, Baronet, I have given a method by which
the general integral of the partial differential equation

GV, a2Ni av Lies n—s dV
= ae Pees ai az ban oa ae
may be expanded in a series of a peculiar form, and have thus rendered the determina-
tion of these attractions a matter of comparative facility. The same method applied to
the equation (2.) of the present paper, has the advantage of giving an expansion of its
general integral, every term of which, besides satisfying this equation, may likewise be
made to satisfy the condition (6.). The formula (3.) is only an individual term of the
expansion in question. But in order to render the present communication independent
of every other, it was thought advisable to introduce into the text a demonstration of this
particular case.

in Fluid Media. Bip
To prove that the expression (3.) satisfies the equation (2.), it may be

remarked, that we readily get, by differentiating (3.)

Ph PH Pp awdh owe (WE, PF PY
co dz — abe da * abe \da® + ba oe

~ ie (satan tae) GE) + (2 ~ Gs

Moreover, by the same means, the last of the equations (4.) gives

pes

Sage OD O-as

a’ wt Bue
Q
af @f @f #1 Rte

and de tay* dee Fe
c

which values being substituted in the second member of the preceding equa-
tion, evidently cause it to vanish, and we thus perceive that the value (3.)
satisfies the partial differential equation (2.)

We will now endeavour so to determine the constant quantities \ and
y that the fluid particles may move along the surface of the ellipsoidal body
of which the equation is

y 2

2 et ERE SS, Sob I RRS (5.)

But, by differentiation, there results

adxw , ydy , zdz

weiss aie Baadiee

and as the particles must move along the surface, it is clear that the last
equation ought to subsist, when we change the elements da, dy and da in-

to their corresponding velocities eal 3 4? and 1¢. Hence, at this sur-
da’ dy dz
face,

But the expression (3.) gives generally
VOL. XIII. PART I. H

58 Mr Green on the Vibrations of Pendulums

d¢ df , px df dp_ py df dpb_ me df an
dz Sale abe * abbe da’ dy a@bcdy dz abe dz” a
©

and, consequently, at the surface in question, where f= 0,

I Lin Wits Pdf, pe ba df dp_ py af dp_ pz da

date a yf @be 0d da’ dy a®Uc¢ dy’ dz a°U'c dz
r : : c d d
These values, substituted in (6.), give, when we replace eS s nd a

with their values at the ellipsoidal surface,

o= neuf here ee (8.)

which may always be satisfied by a proper determination of one of the con-
stants A and yu, the other remaining entirely arbitrary.

From what precedes, it is clear, that the equation (2.), and condition to
which the fluid is subject, may equally well be satistied by eve

p(s 4H fl) vont o= (ran fh
iv'a)

provided we determine the constant quantities therein contained by means
of the equations

O=5 xen f er +o a vu fer § ae

respectively. The same may likewise be said of the sum of the three values
of @ before given. However, in what follows, we shall consider the value
(3.) only, since, from the results thus obtained, similar ones relative to the
cases just enumerated may be found without the least difficulty.

Instead now of supposing the solid at rest, let every part of the whole
system be animated with an additional common velocity — A in the direc-
tion of the co-ordinate w. ‘Then, it is clear, that the equation (2.), and con-
dition to which the fluid is subject, will still remain satisfied. Moreover, if

x’, y’, 2’ are now referred to three axes fixed in space, we shall have

a =a — frdt, y=y; a

in Fimd Media. 59

and if X’ represents the co-ordinate of the centre of the ellipsoid referred
to the fixed origin, we shall have

Adding now to ¢ the term —) 2 due to the additional velocity, the ex-
pression (3.) will then become

d
p= Led =

and the velocities of any point of the fiuid will be given, by means of the
differentials of this last function. But @ and its differentials evidently va-
nish at an infinite distance from the solid, where f= «©; and consequently,
the case now under consideration is that of an indefinitely extended fluid,
of which the exterior limits are at rest, whilst the parts in the vicinity of
the moving body are agitated by its motions.

It will now be requisite to determine the pressure p at any point of the
fluid mass. But, by supposing this mass free from all extraneous action
V =0, and if the excursions of the solid are always exceedingly small, com-
pared with its dimensions, the last term of the second member of the equa-
tion (1.) may evidently be neglected, and thus we shall have, without sen-
sible error,

dp

= 3es- 1. €. b eta Fe

or, by substitution from the last value of ?,

d
p= px ft
a
Having thus ascertained all the circumstances of the fluid’s motion, let
us now calculate its total action upon the moving solid. Then, the pressure
upon any point on its surface will be had by making f=0 in the last ex-
pression, and is

ga df
= dt be

HQ

60 Mr Green on the Vibration of Pendulums

Hence we readily get for the total pressure on the body tending to in-
crease, &

zy =f a8(p! —R’) )=4 red ate abe x fasten Pr =

v representing the volume of the body, 2” the pressure on that side where
w is positive, p/ the pressure on the opposite side, and ds an element of the
principal section of the ellipsoid perpendicular to the axis of w.

If now we substitute for yz its value given from (8.), the last expression
will become

(or)
alic p of. ie
Y a@oc dx
oneal. ge FoR 7 Fe (10.)
—aic af
@be

Having thus the total pressure exerted upon the moving body by the sur-
rounding medium, it will be easy thence to determine the law of its vibra-
tions when acted upon by an exterior force proportional to the distance of
its centre from the point of repose. In fact, let p, be the density of the
body, and, consequently, p,v its mass, g"X’ the exterior force tending to de-
crease X’. Then, by the principles of dynamics,

aX’ ,
aarp Fi + gX'—

If, now, in the formula (10.) we substitute for \ its value drawn from
(9.), the last equation will become

oo)
avef of. i
abe »tx x

ic
zo vef 5he

which is evidently the same as would be obtained by supposing the vibra-

0= ak

tions to take place in vacuo, under the influence of the given exterior force,
provided the density of the vibrating body were increased from

in Fluid Media. 61

af
ave f
g: s abe

We thus perceive, that, besides the retardation caused by the loss of
weight which the vibrating body sustains in a fluid, there is a farther re-
tardation due to the action of the fluid itself; and this last is precisely the
same as would be produced by augmenting the density of the body in the
proportion just assigned, the moving force remaining unaltered.

When the body is spherical, we have a’ = b’ =c’, and the proportion
immediately preceding becomes very simple, for it will then only be requi-

site to increase p, the density of the body by um or half the density of the

fluid, in order to have the correction in question.

The next case in point of simplicity is where a’ = c’, for then

lee)
feb Bhs ft allie sda uetac a2,
a@be ath as
° ° Vv

If a’ > VU’, or the body, is an oblate spheroid vibrating in its equatorial
plane, the last quantity properly depends on the circular ares, and has for
value

pee 7 —3 wT es y ( — u ) \ uv
(a 6”) { F) are { tan = W@? a) —F@x=W ay

If, on the contrary, a’ —D’, or the spheroid, is oblong, the value of the
same integral is

rap a ir ag a sh ice Ci u
3 (0 — 0) 08 Fae?) | ata)

Another very simple case is where ¢’ = b’, for then the first of the quan-
tities (12.) becomes, if a’> DL’

2 9) —3 a + J(a? — 6") 2
(a? —b*)~ * log @— (G78) & GF =O)

and if a’ = b’, the same quantity becomes

20207! {ae (n= pegs) —F} tapas

62 Mr Green on the Vibration of Pendulum in Fluid Media.

By employing the first of the four expressions immediately preceding,
we readily perceive, that, when an oblate spheroid vibrates in its equatorial
plane, the correction now under consideration will be affected by conceiving
the density of the body augmented from

7 ” é U - uy i J rs
g tb — ab! arc (tan = a) — b? J(a? —b?)

ptop+

D(a! eye re By 4. pO ae B 2 ,/ 72 fe
2(a?— b7)§ — > 2b + ab are (tan =p) + NGO
When 0’ is very small compared with a’, or the spheroid is very flat, we

must augment the density

wT b
from p, top + w p nearly ;

and we thus see that the correction in question becomes less in proportion
as the spheroid is more oblate.

In what precedes, the excursions of the body of the pendulum are sup-
posed very small, compared with its dimensions. For, if this were not the
case, the term of the second degree in the equation (1.) would no longer be
negligible, and therefore the foregoing results might thus cease to be correct.
Indeed, were we to attend to the term just mentioned, no advantage would
even then be obtained; for the actual motion of the fluid, where the vibra-
tions are large, will differ greatly from what would be assigned by the pre-
ceding method, although this method consists in satisfying all the equations
of the fluid’s motion, and likewise the particular conditions to which it is
subject. It would be encroaching too much upon the Society’s time to en-
ter on the present occasion into an explanation of the cause of this apparent
anomaly: it will be sufficient here to have made the remark, and, at the
same time, to observe, that when the extent of the vibrations is very small,
as we have all along supposed, the preceding theory will give the proper
correction to be applied to bodies vibrating in air, or other elastic fluid, since
the error to which this theory leads cannot bear a much greater proportion
to the correction before assigned, than the pendulum’s greatest velocity does

to that of sound.

( 63 )

On the Force of the Latin Prefix Vz or Ve in the Composition of
Nouns and Adjectives. By the Rev. Archdeacon Wru.iams,
F.R.S. Ed. Rector of the Edinburgh Academy.

(Read 3d March 1834.)

Tue Society has lately been delighted with the discovery of
organic remains in our vicinity, which prove, that, at some distant
period of unrecorded time, the fertile plains of Mid-Lothian must
have furnished food and habitation to beings very different from
those which now draw life and enjoyment from their productions.
Yet it must be regretted, that, in the conclusions derived from the
existence of such remains (with the exception of a few general
principles, leading us to regard with deeper feelings of awe and
reverence Him who has made all things so wonderfully and fear-
fully), we have little with which we can sympathise, and still less
that can link our existence with that of those of which we see
nothing but these imperishable monuments. I confess, however,
with the partiality naturally felt by every man for that study to
which he may have principally devoted his time and attention,
that I regard with far deeper feelings those fleeting sounds—
those exex zegoev]a—which, after passing from lip to lip uninjured
during the lapse of so many ages, are, when carefully examined,
found to have been component parts of those languages, falsely
denominated dead, and which can be usefully adduced in illustra-
tion of the written records of those mighty spirits who have as yet
as far surpassed us in the science of mind, in the purity of their
taste, and the perfection of language, as we have surpassed them

64 Rev. Mr Wivurams on the Force of the prefia Ve or Ve

in the severer sciences—in unfolding the mysterious powers of
matter—in discovering the laws according to which they operate
—and in subjecting them to the dominion of man. It is with
these feelings, and also from a wish to contribute to the great
work now so admirably carried on by the German scholars, and
by some distinguished fellow-labourers in this country, that of
uniting the present and the past, the remote and the near, by
proving the consanguinity of the great Caucasian branch of the
human family, that the following statement has been drawn up
on the force of the Latin Sore ve or (as it was written by the
more ancient Romans) ve *.

Fiepemes see in tenui labor.

Ve seems to have been in common use at an early period of
the Roman Republic, as we find it in connection with some of
the most ancient part of their mythology, as in Vedius, Vejovis,
and Veflamen. Yet when their critics and grammarians, the na-
tural produce of a later period, and of more quiet times, began
to inquire into the origin and first meaning both of words in
common use and of obsolete expressions, ve or v@ no longer ex-
isted, except as a part of compounded words. By comparing,
however, in certain cases, the simple word, as grandis, with its
compounded form, as vegrandis, they were enabled to ascertain its
original force, without, however, proceeding further, and apply-
ing such a discovery to the solution of many etymological diffi-
culties. “ Ve” (says Festus) “ was prefixed by the ancients to
a small thing, whence Vejovis, little Jupiter }.” Soon after, he
adds, “ they used ve instead of very small }.” Auius GELutus,

* “ Ve, particula que in aliis atque aliis vocabulis variatim per Dye duas literas,

cum a litera media immissa dicitur.”

+ “ Ve enim syllabam preponebant parve rei, unde Vejovem, parvum Jovem.”
—Vatry’s Delphin. p. 1005. under Vesculus.

+ “ Ve pro pusillo utebantur.”—Ibid. eod. pag. under Vescus.

in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 65

in his Noctes Atticze, goes further, and says, “ The particle ve
has a double and even contrary signification, for it has the power
both to increase and diminish the meaning *.” This royal mode
of solving the knot has often been adopted by ignorant per-
sons more anxious to give a ready answer, than to confess their
doubts, and thus excite others to explain the difficulty. It is
like the answer of the Cambridge man, who, shewing more than
a common want of knowledge, was at last ironically asked, if he
knew whether it was the sun that turned round the earth or the
earth round the sun, and answered, that they did duty alter-
nately; that sometimes the earth turned round the sun, and that
at other times the sun turned round the earth. It may be safely
affirmed, that no one word (and a particle is a word) ever could
have borne two contrary meanings, and that, if such be appa-
rently the case, it can only arise from the fact, that two words,
owing to the action of time, have been ground down into the
same form. Such was the case with the Greek particle «, called
both privative and intensive. The first represents a, the Greek
form of the Latin in, not the English un: the second represents
the Greek cpa, although at times it loses its aspiration. I shall
subsequently shew, that ve does not increase the meaning of any
Latin word.

Ovip, in the third book of his Fasti, has the following lines
on the etymology of Vejovis:

< Nunc vocor ad verbum, vegrandia Farra coloni
Quze male creverunt vescaque parva vocant.
Vis ea si verbi est, cur non ego Vejovis /&dem,
7®dem non magni suspicer esse Jovem.”

Which may be thus translated: “ Now for the meaning of the
word, husbandmen call the grain which has not well filled, ve-

i ee Se

* « Ve enim particula * * * duplicem significatum eundemque inter sese diver-
sum capit. Nam et augende rei et minuendz valet.”

VOL. XIII. PART [. I

66 Rev. Mr Wriutrams on the Force of the prefix Ve or Ve

grandia, and small grain they call vesea. If such be the force
of the word, why should I not suspect that the temple of Ve-
jovis is the temple of Jovis, not large,” (of the little Jupiter).
Ovrp probably derived this information from the works or con-
versation of Verrius Fxaccus, the learned grammarian, to whom
Aveustus entrusted the education of his grandsons Lucius and
Carus Cmsar*. On that occasion, he transferred the whole body
of his then existing pupils to the Palatium, on condition that no
new member was to be admitted. It was undoubtedly owing to
the advantages of his new situation, of his increased and in-
creasing leisure, and the boundless command of books in the Pa-
latine Library, that he was enabled to accomplish his great work
“ De Verborum Significatione,” which can be regarded in no other
light than an Encyclopedia, containing an explanation of every
word connected with the language, the laws, the religion, and
the public and domestic life of the ancient Romans. As he had
before him the works of Caro}, of Varro j, of Jutius Casar ||,
of Messava §, of Appius Cuaupius Puucuer ¥, of Susnius Ca-
prto,**, and of others who had treated of such subjects, and who
had all the opportunities of gaining the requisite knowledge,
there cannot be a doubt that he had embodied in it all that
could be known on such subjects, by men, to whom one great

* « Ab AucusTo nepotibus ejus preceptor electus transiit in Palatium cum tota
schola, verum ut ne quem amplius posthac discipulum reciperet.”—Surr. De Gram.

+ Caro, his “ Origines,” and many other dissertations on similar subjects.
+ Varro, his great work “ De Lingua Latina,” of which we still have a portion.
|| Jutrvus Casar, his work “ On the Analogy of the Latin Language.”

§ The eloquent Messata of Horacr, called also by him Corvinus. He wrote

a book “* In Explanatione Auguriorum, &c. duodecim tabularum;” also, “ De
Dictis involute.”

4] Ciaupivs Purcner, he wrote a book concerning “ Scientia Auguralis.”

** Stnnius Capito.

in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 67

source of their language was unknown, and who looked for a so-
lution of all their difficulties in the only remaining source, name-
ly, the language and literature of the Greeks *.

Had we been fortunate enough to have received this great
work in its original state, we should not have, for so long a pe-
riod, so utterly misunderstood the early history, antiquities, and
constitution of Rome. But this, like many other works, more
useful than amusing, have miserably suffered under the knife of
the abbreviator, that most efficient member of the Society for
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, who, in his anxiety to dif-
fuse, has often succeeded in draining the real sources.

First, oné Festus Pomreivs, a man known to us by this bad
deed alone, but who is supposed by learned men to have lived
under one of the Christian Emperors, undertook to republish
the work of Verrius Fiaccus on the following principles: “ It
is my intention, in selecting from the great number of his books,
to omit all words already dead and buried, and often, as he con-
fesses himself, of no [present] use and authority, and to reduce all
the rest, as briefly as possible, into a very few books +.” If this
work had reached us, mangled and imperfect as it must have
been after such a process, our loss would not have been so great
as it really is; for Frsrus had evidently some knowledge of his
subject, and a great wish fairly to represent the sentiments of his
principal, without either sneering at what he did not understand,
or misrepresenting that which he did not like. But we have
only the shadow of the shade. For, in the eighth century, one

* The Roman who had recourse to the Greek language alone, for a solution of
his difficulties, was.as helpless as the English scholar, who, neglecting the Anglo-
Saxon, expects to find all the necessary knowledge in Latin and French.

+ “ Cum propositum habeam ex tanto librorum ejus numero intermortua jam
et sepulta verba, atque ipso sepe confitente nullius usus aut auctoritatis, preeterire,
et reliqua quam brevissime redigere in libros admodum paucos.”—Fxrstus, under
the word Profanum, Delph. ed. Vatr. p. 554.

12

68 Rev. Mr Wruu1ams on the Force of the prefix Ve or Ve

Pavxus, a Lombard monk, justly termed by the great ScaLicEer
an illiterate barbarian, compelled Frsrus to undergo the same
process which Verrius Fiaccus had undergone under the prun-
ing hands of Festus. In a dedication to no less a person than
Cuartes the Great, the restorer of the Western Empire, as the
degenerate Italians falsely called him, Pavuus, justly terming
himself wltimus servulus, thus writes: “ Being anxious to add to
your library, and having no means of my own, I have been com-
pelled to borrow from another. Now Festus Pompetus, a man
deeply versed in Roman literature, has, in explaining the origin
both of obscure expressions, and of certain circumstances, ex-
tended his work to twenty prolix volumes. I, therefore, omit-
ting every thing superfluous and unnecessary in his tedious work,
thoroughly enucleating with my own pen certain abstruse points,
leaving some few things as I found them, have offered this
abridgment to the perusal of your Highness *.” In the words of
Antoninus Aucustinus‘, the learned bishop of Ilerda (for there
have been most learned bishops even in Spain), “ this book gave
such satisfaction to the unlearned men of the age, that it was
substituted for Festus in all libraries.” “ So that in a short
time” (adds Dacier {) “a true copy of Frsrus was not to be
found.” At a later period, a small fragment of the original Frs-
rus was discovered in Illyricum, and published by Atpus. This,

* « Cupiens aliquid vestris bibliothecis addere, quia ex proprio perparum valeo,
necessario ex alieno mutuavi. Festus denique Pompxrius, Romanis studiis affatim
eruditus, tam sermonum abditorum, quam etiam quarundam causarum origines ape-
riens, opus suum ad viginti usque prolixa volumina extendit, ex qua ego, prolixitate
superflua quaeque et minus necessaria preetergrediens, et quedam abstrusa penitus
stylo proprio enucleans nonnulla ita ut erat relinquens, hoc vestre Celsitudini le-
gendum compendium obtuli.”

+ “Is liber indoctis viris adeo placuit ut pro F'EstTo in omnibus bibliothecis sub-
stitueretur.”——Vatr. Delph. Fest. p. 12.

+ “ Unde brevi factum est ut verus Festr liber non amplius apparuerit.”—Ibid.
pi.

in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 69

when compared with the corresponding portion of Pavus, en-
ables us to discover the extent of the sins both of omission and
commission perpetrated by the monkish barbarian. The mis-
chief caused by omission is of course irreparable ; but, under the
able guidance of JoserpH ScaLIGER, we may exercise our inge-
nuity in discovering his counters, and separating them from the
more valuable productions of the Roman mint: Yet it is a con-
jectural art, where it is scarcely possible to persuade another to
agree with you in all points; consequently that science, as yet
without a name, and of which a small portion only is compre-
hended under the modern acceptation of the word Philology, has
sustained a severe loss, as far as Latin literature is concerned,
from the united labours of Festus and Pauxus. It must, how-
ever, be confessed, that it was principally from this book, maimed,
mutilated, and mangled as it is, that the great Nizsune drew
those materials which enabled him to reconstruct the edifice of
the early‘history of Rome, and infuse life into what had previous-
ly been nothing but a confused heap of lifeless bones.

I have thought it right to make these previous observations,
in order to account for the many absurd derivations of Latin
words commonly found in our dictionaries, many of which (al-
though assuredly not all) are to be fathered upon this miserable
Paut, whose mutilated copy of Festus was almost literally tran-
scribed by the first modern lexicographers of the Latin language.

I must here notice a question which has been often asked,
Why men like Caro, Cmsar, Varro, and Mrssata,—why a
Verrivus Fuaccus or a QuincrTiILiANn, should be so anxious about
the use and etymology of words, seeing the framers of the lan-
guage themselves regarded not such trifles, and left them to the
researches of future and less active ages? To answer this ques-
tion fully, and at the same time conclusively, would require a
volume. But it may be briefly stated, that a language in its in-
fancy has but few radical terms, and that these are confined to
the expression of our common feelings and actions, and to the

70 Rev. Mr Wixx14ms on the Force of the prefix Ve or Ve

names and qualities of the substances with which we are conver-
sant. To each word, therefore, a particular idea is attached, and
as these roots take various forms, from the addition of simple
and well known prefixes and affixes, the shades of meaning gra-
dually multiply, and yet the transition is never so sudden as to
prevent the original idea from being still presented to the hearer’s
mind, as his principal guide, in ascertaining the new meaning.
This can proceed only fora limited period. Political convulsions,
originating in disgust with the past, and in sanguine hopes for
the future, a rage for novelty, and consequently the necessity
imposed upon the orators and poets of the day of courting the
public favour by new metaphors, new versions of the old, and
fresh importations of new words, operate so powerfully, that, im
many cases, the original idea entirely disappears, and nothing
remains for our guidance but the gratuitous meaning which
every body is supposed to attach to a certain term. I need not
say, that, in such a case, no two individuals will agree in attach-
ing the same meaning to a word thus let loose from its moorings,
and sent forth to wander in the boundless ocean of possible com-
binations. That hence misapprehensions must arise, with all
their inevitable train of strifes, quarrels, and combats.

To prevent the deterioration of language is impossible. To
fix it down on certain principles, and to guard it from the caprice
of fashion, the thirst of notoriety, and the slow but sure attacks
of time, is beyond our power. But the evil can be confined
within a certain range ; the transgressor can be forced to err with-
in certain limits, and the path may be pointed out through
which, in better times, a return to first principles may be secured.
Thanks to the Great God who made language the main instru-
ment of rational man, its substance (as far as the lapse of ages
during which the great Caucasian family of man has existed can
lead us to infer) is indestructible. Although apparently the most
fleeting, the most evanescent of all the accidents connected with

man in his temporal state, it has hitherto proved the most im-
3

—

in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 71

perishable. Its forms may vary ; it may assume as many shapes
as the plastic element which the mystic theology of the Greeks
represented under the graphic mythos of o IlgaJevs (of him the
first, rov zgalov) ; but when once firmly grasped, when boldly in-
terrogated, and. bound by the strict chains which judicious ety-
mology has fabricated for the purpose, it will resume its original
form, and enable us to recognize the still existing features—the
disjecta membra of some well known and yet living dialect.

This can be truly said of the particle ve, or rather ve, which
still exists in the language of the Scottish peasant, under the
same form, and, as far as can be ascertained, almost with the
same sound, with which it was pronounced more than twenty-
five centuries ago in the vicinity and streets of ancient Rome.
But I would not wish it to be understood that Scotland alone
has retained the word, which, on the contrary, has been, or still
is, a useful portion of many other languages, as may be seen
from the followmg table, where the precedence is given to those
dialects which have retained the original guttural sound, more
or less softened :

Cimbric, Bach, Vach, softened Va
Gallic, Beag

Persian, Bega, Beja

Teutonic, Fabe

Greek, Betty -05

Scottish, Wee

small, little.

To prove that the Latin ve bore the same meaning, and was
in fact cognate with these general forms, it will be necessary to
examine every word to which it is prefixed, in its pure state as
a long syllable.

Vecors, insane, deficient in sense, literally a man with a small
heart *. In Cicrro’s words, “ to others, the heart seems to be

* Kae, xie, cor, cordis, heart.

72 Rev. Mr Wixt1ams on the Force of the prefix Ve or Ve

the mind: hence men are called vecordes, eacordes, concordes ;
and Scrrro Nasrca acquired the surname of Corculum from his
prudence *.” On the same principle, the great wisdom of Soxo-
mon is described as “ a large heart },” the contrary to which
would of course be expressed, as in the Latin vecordia, by small-
ness of heart. We have no right to blame the ancients for
making the heart the organ of intellect, as we are ourselves,
equally unphilosophically, in making that powerful but senseless
muscle the source and seat of all our benevolent and malignant
emotions : while those among us who pride themselves on as-
signing the several faculties of the mind to their respective or-
gans, are relapsing into the interminable circle of human errors,
and make our sense and folly, our benevolence and malignity,
dependant upon the proportional magnitude of the supposed or-
gans.

Vedius, * Pluto, called also Dist,” as we are informed by Mar-
tianus Capeiya||. One of the most difficult tasks that a scho-
lar has to perform, is to acquire a distinct idea of the Latin my-
thology in its pure state, before it was intermixed, and conse-
quently corrupted, by the wilder and more imaginative inven-
tions of the priests and poets of Greece. In the hands of the
latter, Dis, Dios, or Zeus, became exclusively the god of thunder.
Among the earlier Latins, we find his duties confined to the ope-
rations of light, and that only during the day. “ The ancients,”
says Festus, “ called day-lightning Dium fulgur, because they
attributed it to Jupiter, as night-lightning was attributed to

* « Aliis cor animus videtur, ex quo vecordes, excordes, concordesque dicuntur,
et Nasica ille prudens Corcutum.”—Tusce. i. 9.

+ * And the Lorp gave Soromon largeness of heart.”

+ Avs, dius, dies, day (originally light); hence daze, dazzle, dawn, longer form
Dianus, pronounced and written at a later period Janus.

|| * Vedius, id est Pluton, quem etiam Ditem dixere.”—Lib. ii. p. 40.
2

in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 73

Summanus *,” (Pluto, the god of night). Now, ve or v@ is used
either adverbially, like the Latin parum or minus, answering to
the English affix less, or like the adjective parvus, small. As
Dius was the god of day, so Vedius, according to the first-men-
tioned power of ve, would signify the god of night, and corre-
spond both in office and name with the same mythological being
called by the Greeks AFidzs, the god of darkness, corrupted first
to Aidze, and lastly into ‘Adz; or Hades.

Vejovis , parum juvans, or parvus Jovis, either the not aid-
ing or the small Jupiter.

Avuius Getxivs, a Roman nobleman and scholar who lived
about the middle of the second century of the Christian era,
throws much light upon this word as well as the preceding.
« In ancient inscriptions we see the names of these gods, Dijovis
and Vejovis. Vejovis has even a temple between the arx and
the Capitol. The explanation of whose names I find to be this;
the ancient Latins named Jove from juvando, and, by adding pa-
ter, formed the second name ; for Jupiter is formed by contract-
ing and changing certain letters, from the full and entire word
Jovispater. Thus combined, we have also Neptunuspater, and
Saturnuspater, and Marspater (for such is Marspiter) ; and Jovis
was also called Diespiter, i.e. father of day and light. Conse-
quently he was also called Dijovis and Lucetius, words of simi-
lar import, because he aided us, and bestowed upon us light and
day, our very life, as it were. As, therefore, they named Jovis
and Dijovis from juvando, they, on the other hand, called that

* « Dium fulgur appellabant diurnum quod putabant Jovis, ut nocturnum Sum-
mani.”—Under Dium, p. 227.

+ Jovis, from juvo, to aid (anciently Jovo, in composition Ju, Cimbric, Jow).
The Latin deities were originally male and female. Hence, from Dianus and Ja-
nus, Diana and Jana; and, as rex, regis, makes regina, so the original female deity
of Jovis was first Jovina, shortened into Juno, on the same principle as J ovis be-
came Ju.

VOL. XIII. PART 1]. K

74 Rev. Mr Wittiams on the Force of the prefix Ve or Ve

god who is not capable of aiding, but has the power of hurting,
Vejovis *.”. Whether we admit the explanation of GrLxius, or
incline to that proposed by Ovin, the meaning of ve remains the
same. But as the poet describes him as the youthful Jupiter,
with youthful look and unarmed hand}, the latter seems the
most probable. It is also in unison with the spirit of ancient
mythology, to worship the same god under different names with
different attributes, and with different ceremonies. Here we see
Jupiter worshipped as a child, commonly as magnus or altus.
But not even to Jupiter Latialis himself, the patron of the La-
tin confederacy, and genius of the Mons Albanus, would the
Roman condescend to pay his deepest homage. That was re-
served for the tutelar god of the Capitol, the patron of the Eter-
nal City —Jupiter Capitolinus, Jupiter Optimus Maximus. This
feeling may be illustrated by the zeal with which, in Catholic
countries, the respective merits and powers of our Lady of the
Pillar—of our Lady of the Rock—or of our Lady of Loretto
—are impugned or defended by their several votaries, who yet
allow them all to be one and the same person.

Vepallida, parum pallida, by no means pale, blushing, red-
faced, or rather flushed. The original reading in the passage at
the close of Horacr’s second satire, was vepallida. The older

* « Tn antiquis spectionibus nomina hae Deorum inesse animadvertimus, Dijovis
et Vejovis. Est autem etiam ades Vejovis Rome, inter arcem et Capitolinum ;
suorum nominum rationem hane esse comperi. Jovem Latini veteres a juvando
appellavere, eundemque, alio vocabulo juncto patre dixerunt. Nam quod est, elisis
aut immutatis quibusdam literis, Jupiter, id plenum atque integrum est Jovispater,
sic et Neptunuspater, et Saturnuspater, et Marspater (hoc enim est Marspiter); item-
que Jovis Diespiter dictus est, et Lucetius. Quum Jovem igitur et Dijovem a ju-
vando"nominassent, eum quoque Deum contra, qui non juvandi potestatem, sed vim
nocendi haberet, Vejovem appellaverunt,”—Noctes Attica, lib. vy. cap. 12.

+ “ Jupiter est juvenis juveniles aspice vultus,
Adspice deinde manum fulmina nulla tenet.”

in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 75

commentators, misled by the authority of GexLxrvs, interpreted
vepallida “ very pale.” Brnriey fell foul of the word itself, pro-
nounced it naught, and proposed to read “ ne pallida.”’ Later
commentators and editors read “ vel pallida,” to the ruin of the
sense and spirit of the whole passage, which is subjoined in a
note *. The scholar who will read the whole attentively, cannot
fail seeing that the clause is not an alternative, but a necessary
consequence of “ vir rure recurrat.” BrntTiLey’s emendation
does not destroy the sense, although it does the spirit of the pas-
sage. It retards the almost simultaneous occurrence of the se-
veral incidents, and assigns an epithet by no means felicitous to
the offending dame. Whoever will compare a passage in the
Augustus of Surronius ¢ with Juvenat’s line,

“* Vexatasque comas vultusque auresque calentes,”

and with another in the Nero of Surronrus {, must needs con-
fess, that the “ curiosa felicitas” so deservedly ascribed to Ho-
RacE, must have sadly deserted him, had he applied “ pallida”
to a culprit so circumstanced, however great her alarm. The
old reading was undoubtedly the right one, and its signification
is parum pallida, “ flushed,” and far from being cool and pale
enough to face her husband.

* “ Nec vereor, ne, dum futuo, vir rure recurrat,
Janua frangantur, latret canis, undique magno
Pulsa domus strepitu resonet, vepallida lecto
Desiliat mulier, miseram se conscia clamet.”
Hor. Sat. lib. i. sat. 2. ver. 126. et seq.

+ “ Marcus Antoninus objecit foeminam in cubiculum obductam, rursus in
convivium, rubentibus auriculis, incomtiore capillo reductam.”

{ “ Egressus triclinio cum maxime placitam sevocasset, paulo post, recentibus
adhuc lascivie notis, reversus.”

K 2

76 Rev. Mr Witiams on the Force of the prefix Ve or Ve

Vesanus, parum sanus*, insane. There is no dispute, nor
can any arise, concerning this word.

Vescus and vesculus +, having little to eat, half-starved, not
well grown. Had not there been two Latin words, both written
at present vescus (of which vesculus is only the diminutive), ves-
cus and vesculus might have been dismissed as briefly as vesanus.
But as Geixivs has produced vescus as illustrative of his prin-
ciple, that ve had an intensive as well as a privative force, we
must examine his argument. After advancing the doctrine be-
fore alluded to, he adds, “ for Lucretius calls the sea vescum
(corrosive) in one sense; Luciirus uses vescum (nice or spare
eating) in another sense {.” In this quotation A. Geiurvus has
shown that ignorance of which every philological inquirer who
does not examine into the sources of the language under exa-
mination must often be convicted. sca must originally have
had the digamma, as may be proved from its verb vescor, which
has nothing intensive in its nature. “ Dii” (writes Privy)
“ neque escis nec potionibus vescuntur.” It was consequently
from its original and digammated form that the Lucretian adjec-

* The different forms under which sanus presents itself are very extraordinary.
Its oldest Greek form is the Homeric ess, which must have been a secondary form,
as may be inferred from the Teutonic safé, verb save, which retains the digamma
rejected by the Greek. wes is also ewes in Homer; and it is remarkable that this
latter form, when used for mental saneness, kept its digammated sound, 2oQes.
The Latins introduced a liquid before the v, as salvus, then dropped the digamma
in the noun salus, from which, by substituting one liquid for another, they made a
new adjective, sanus, and a new noun, sanitas. It is from the last adjective that
the various forms of sain, sano, sound, gesund, sund, zond, in the French, Italian,
English, German, Danish, and Dutch languages, have been derived. With salus
and salvus are cognate hail, health, weal, wealth, with their innumerable offspring.

+ Esca, from edo, supine esum.

{ “ Aliter enim Lucretius vescwm salem dicit, ex edendi intentione : aliter
Lucttius vescum appellat cum edendi fastidio.”

in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 2%

tive corrosive was formed, while the Lucilian vescus was a com-
pound of ve and esca, and must originally have differed in ortho-
graphy and pronunciation from the other.

Ve-sbius *, adjective vesbinus, an ancient name for the moun-
tain now called Vesuvius (Monte di Somma), parum extinctus,
scarcely extinguished. Raovt Rocuette, the laborious historian
of the Grecian colonies, assigns the foundation of the Italian
Cume to the twelfth century before Christ. This may be doubt-
ed; but most assuredly the Greek settlements on the shores of the
Bay of Naples cannot be referred to a late era. The Chalcidian
colony of Cumz soon spread along the coast, and Diczearchia (af-
terwards Puteoli), Parthenope, Palzopolis, Neapolis, Pompeii,
Herculaneum, and other names of pure Greek origin, attest the
extent of their prosperity. These colonies assigned to the modern
Ischia the name of Inarime, because Homer had mentioned that
the “ couch of Typhoeus” was e Agiwois}; and the modern Procida
they called Tgoyvra, the “ poured forth.” Hence, we may infer
that the former was an active volcano when the Greeks arrived on
this coast, and that the latter emerged from the sea during their
residence on these shores. Hence also the name “ Phlegrei
Campi” applied to the district between Puteoli and Neapolis.
It is consequently by no means improbable that the same Greeks
bestowed an appropriate name on that mountain, which looked

* ZBinvyys, oBeow (root 78), English, guench (provincial squench). When the
Greeks threw the gu out of their alphabet, they replaced it in general, although
not in all cases, by x or 8. Replace the gu, and the identity of c&s« with the
English quench or squench becomes immediately visible. I am preparing an essay
upon that wonderful reform of the Greek alphabet, by which they threw out all
guttural and drawling sounds, and replaced them by the long vowels and double
consonants. I shall submit the leading facts in a paper to the Royal Society, be-
fore I publish the work.

Evy Agios oft Pact TuQweos empevas evrves. ‘This is the only allusion in the Homeric
he y

writings to volcanic action.
g

78 Rev. Mr Wirx1aMs on the Force of the prefix Ve or Ve

down upon and almost overshadowed their settlements of Nea-
polis, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiz. The Greeks were far
more accurate observers of nature than the Romans. Pxryy the
elder, though a dweller in the immediate neighbourhood of Ve-
suvius, and destined to perish under its renewed activity, makes
no further mention of this mountain in his great work, than to
say that it looks down upon these cities, and that it was celebrated
for a certain grape. But Srrazo, although only a passing tra-
veller, has given us a graphic description of its summit, “ as being
a barren spot, surrounded on all sides by a most fertile district,
having a cinderous appearance, and caverns burnt out in the rocks,
so that it might be safely inferred that the place had formerly
been an active voleano, and contained fiery craters.” For such
a summit, what could have been a happier epithet than Ve-sbius,
parum extinctus, which must have particularly suited its state on
the first arrival of the Greeks, ten centuries before the famous
eruption in A.D. 79? As to the word itself, we find it written
Vesevus, Vesuvius, Vesvius, and Vesbius ; Greek, Oveccousor ogos,
and BeoGios. Lucretius seems to have softened the pronuncia-
tion into Vesevus, and Virer followed him. But it is to be re-
marked, that all the poets who call it Vesbius or Vesvius, wrote
after the eruption, when public attention had been called to it,
and when its local name was likely to be better ascertained.
Nor would I willingly believe, that servile imitators of Vrrert,
like Srxrus Ivaticus * and Srarius +, would have ventured on a
new form of a word already fixed by the authority of the two
great national poets, had it not been the local and original name.

* < Sic ubi vi cxeca tandem devictus ad astra
Evomuit pastos per seecula Vesbius ignes.”
Lib. xvii. ver. 597.

GLa Coal ane icteaaine teats tiem oatni sole Chalcidis
Littoribus fractas ubi Vesbius erigit iras.”

Silo. lib. iv. carm. 4. ver. 79.
3

in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 79

Should my theory be correct, and I firmly believe such to be the
case, the trifling particle ve, in conjunction with history and tra-
dition, may enable us to form a probable conjecture as to the pe-
riod of time during which the fires of Vesuvius hushed them-
selves in “ grim repose.”

Vesica*, a purse, a bladder, literally a small sack, a “ wee
sackie”’ As the vowel a in simple Latin words is changed into
i in composition, as manus, facies, caput, form eminus, superficies,
occiput, so the a of saccus became i in vesica. The absence of
the second ¢ only proves the antiquity of the composition ; be-
cause, as Festus informs us, “ the ancient Latins never doubled
a letter. It is to Enntus that the change of this custom is
ascribed ; for he being a Greek, followed the custom of his
countrymen, who, both in writing and speaking, doubled mutes,
semivowels, and liquids +.” Vesica (apparently because its origin
was unknown) seems to have escaped remodelling, when saccus
and its derivatives admitted the double mute. The difference
of termination between saccus and vesica is of no consequence,
as such is frequently the case even with the same noun, both in
Greek and Latin. The learned Varro uses vesica in its origi-
nal sense for sacellus (our satchel) or sacculus. “ Such fish-ponds
of the nobility are more for prospect than profit,” “ magis ad ocu-
los pertinent quam vesicam,” “ and rather exhaust than fill the
owner’s purse” (marsupium)t}. It is from such passages that the

* Saxxecs, saccus, said to be the most general of all names. The Anglo-Saxon
saec comes nearest in sound and form to the sica of vesica. The Greek cuxxos ori-
ginally a hide or skin, took a secondary form, with one sigma, to denote an inflated
hide or bladder, Acxos.

+ “ Nomen antique consuetudinis per unum ¢c enunciari, non est mirum, quia
nulla tune geminabatur litera in scribendo; quam consuetudinem Ennivus mutavisse
fertur utpote Gracus. Graeco more usus, quod illi zque scribentes ac legentes du-
plicabant mutas semivocales et liquidas.”——Frstus, under Solitaurilia, p. 878.

t “Tlle autem piscine nobilium magis ad oculos pertinent quam ad vesicam

80 Rev. Mr Witutams on the Force of the prefix Ve or Ve

etymologist is enabled to discover the first meaning of a word,
and they are to him what an ewperimentum crucis is to the natu-
ral philosopher. This Varronian interpretation will justify us in
translating Juvenat’s “ vetula vesica beat” a rich old lady’s
purse.

Vespa, a wasp, literally a small conz or cgaZ*. ARISTOTLE,
in his description of ¢yxe¢, says: “ There are two kinds of Yonxes :
of these the wild ones are scarce, larger, longer, and more darkly
coloured than the others, also variegated, all having stings, and
being very fierce. A wound inflicted by them is more painful
than that inflicted by the others, as their sting is proportionally
larger.” This kind is evidently our hornet, which the Latins
called crabrones. AnristoTLe then proceeds to describe the
smaller species, which he calls jmege/ego, more familiar with man,
which is undoubtedly our wasp, vesphaa, softened into vespa.

Vesperus, and vesperugo, both the evening star and evening-
tide, literally the time when objects become indistinct, as the
night is coming on+. No etymologist whose works have been
read by me, has attempted an explanation of this important
word. They have been satisfied with referring us to the Greek
zomegoc, aS if the Greek were not the same word, deprived of
the digamma. What could have induced the Greeks to carry
their hostility to this and other letters, is a difficult question.
But it is certain that they did so, even in cases where it was ne-

et potius marsupium domini exinaniunt quam implent.".—De Re Rust. lib. iii.
cap. 17.

* sont, from cPué or derPak, cut in two, corresponding with the Latin Jnsecta.—
De Animalibus, lib. ix. cap. 28.

+ Specio, specere, spes, spero, old German, spehan, English, spy, Ital. sprare,
Span. espiar, French, espier, and many other forms, all signify fo see. Even the
Scottish spaewif? corresponds with the old English word seer.

2

in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 81

cessary (we might think) to the very essence of the word. Thus,
the Greek «xoo:, Latin viginti, Bol. Bizar1, lost the letter which
gave it any signification ;—as if we were to drop the first two
letters of twenty (twain-tig), and pronounce the word “ enty.”
A similar accident seems to have befallen the Greek eazegos. The
oldest Latin form appears to have been vesperugo, as in PLautus,

« Nec jucule, neque Vesperugo, nec vergilize occidunt.”
gue, 9

And that this was its common name, even in the Augustan age,
is evident from the following passage of Virruvius, an author
notorious for his attachment to the vulgar tongue: “ The star
of Venus appearing in the sky after sunset is called Vesperugo :
at other times, when it precedes the sun, and. rises before day-
break, it is called Lucifer *.” As it was, therefore, when acting
as the harbinger of light, called Pacgogos and Lucifer, it may be
fairly inferred that its name, whilst acting as a precursor of dark-
ness, should have something of an appropriate signification. In
ve and sperugo we have such a meaning. For sperugo may well
be derived from the old verb specere to see, used by augurs even
in Varro’s time, as in the expression “ specere avem,” to view a
bird. Specio became obsolete at an early period, being super-
seded by its own frequentative specto. It left, however, innu-
merable traces of its former existence in all the languages of
western Europe. Even spes and spero, with their numerous
progeny, are derived from specio. For spes signifies a looking
forward ; nor could Cicero himself give a better definition of
spes, than by using a compound noun of specto: “ Si spes sit ex-
pectatio boni.” “If hope be the looking out for some advan-
tage.” Even the difference of the quantity between the e of
spero and that of vesperus, presents no difficulty. For (without
adverting to the cognate word prosperus), in the two words spe-
cula, a watch-tower, derived immediately from specio, and specula,

* Lib. ix. cap. 4.
VOL. XIII. PART I. soy

82 Rev Mr WiuiaMs on the Force of the prefiv Ve or Ve

a ray of hope, derived immediately from specio, through spes, we
see the same difference of quantity. It therefore appears evi-
dent, that vesperugo, and consequently vesperus, signifies the time
which the Scottish peasant so appropriately calls “ the gloaming,”
known in England under the name of the evening twilight.

Vespices. We find this word only in the work of Frsrus *,
who interprets it “a dense thicket, from its similarity to a gar-
ment.” This is poor work, and most probably due to Pau.us.
Vespices has evidently the same etymology as vesperus, and means
an opake thicket. On the same principle, Virerr partly ascribes
the capture of Euryauus to the “ tenebra ramorum +.”

Vestibulum, a vestibule, an entrance to a house, literally a
standing place, “ a wee stall or stable.”

The favourite etymology of this very familiar word, has hi-
therto been that propounded by Ovin in the following lines { :

«« At focus a flammis, et quod fovet omnia dictus ;
Qui tamen in primis zedibus ante fuit :
Hine quoque vestibulum dici reor ; unde precando,
Dicimus, ‘ O Vesta, que loca prima tenes :”

or, as now printed,

ct h.. ct bey. saseoaess - Eb ee inde precando,
Affamur Vestam, quz loca prima tenes.”

According to this explanation, vestibulum was so denominated from
the altar of Vesta, that is, the hearth, fire-place, which, in ancient
times, was “ in primis edibus,” in Scottish words “ the but-end
of the house.” The authority, however, of AXLt1us Gaus, a
Roman lawyer (and, I may add, that sound, well-taught lawyers
are the best authority for the meaning of words), enables me to

* <* Fruteta densa, dicta a similitudine vestis.-—Fxstus, under Vespices, p. 1006.

+- An. ix. ver. 384. + Fasti, lib. vi. ver. 102.

in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 83

prove that Ovip was wrong, both in his fact and his inference.
The whole passage of AuLus GELLI0s, in which reference is made
to Ganxus is so judicious, and especially applicable to us in the
present day, that I willingly introduce it without mutilation.
« There are many words which we commonly use, of which we
do not clearly know the true and proper meaning; so that, fol-
lowing common tradition, without examination, we rather ima-
gine that we say what we intend, than say it in reality. This is
the case with vestibulum, a word in general use, yet not well un-
derstood by those who use it so readily. For I have observed,
that persons by no means illiterate believe the vestibulum to be
the lobby (prima domus pars, “ the but-end”), commonly called
the atrium. C. 7Exv1us Gawvuts, in his second book, ‘ Concern-
ing the signification of Words connected with Civil Law,’ writes,
that the ‘ vestibulum was not in the mansion, nor a part of it, but
a vacant space before the door, through which was the approach
from the street to the house * * * the door itself is thrown back,
having a vacant space between it and the street *.”’ GrELLius
then proceeds to treat with contempt the numerous although
absurd explanations of the word (under which Ovrp’s must be
included), and to give the preference to that of Sutricrus Apor-
tinaris, who derived it from ve, with its supposed increasing
force, and stabulum, on the same principle as prostibulum and
naustibulum were formed: “ Because those of old who built large

* Pleraque sunt vocabula, quibus vulgo utimur, neque tamen liquido scimus
quid ea proprie atque vere significent, sed incompertam et vulgariam traditionem rei
non explorate secuti, videmur magis dicere quod yolumus quam dicimus ; sicuti est
vestibulum, verbum in sermonibus celebre atque obvium, non omnibus tamen qui
illo facile utuntur satis spectatum. Animadverti enim quosdam haudquaquam in-
doctos viros opinari vestibulum esse partem domus priorem, quam vulgus atrium
vocat. C. Hrs Gaxtys, in libro “ De Significatione Verborum que ad Jus Ci-
vile pertinent” secundo, “ vestibulum esse dicit non in ipsis zdibus, neque partem
edium, sed locum ante januam domus vacuam, per quem a via aditus accessusque
ad zedes est.” * * * “ Atque ipsa janua procul a via est, area vacanti inter sita.”

L2

84 Rev. Mr Wixtiams on the Force of the prefix Ve or Ve

houses left a vacant space before the entrance, between the door
and the street. There all who came to pay their morning re-
spects to the owner used to remain until they were admitted ; so
that they neither stood in the street, nor were yet within the
house *.” Had vestibulum been applied only to such mansions,
thus magnificently described by Virerx, Georgie second,

*« Si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis
Mane salutantum totis vomit zdibus undam,
Nec varios inhiant pulchra testudine postes ;”

the opinion of Sutricivs would have had some verisimilitude.
But we know, on the contrary, that every house had its vestebudum.
According to Virruvius, “ men of small fortunes need not have
magnificent vestibules, because they have to pay their morning
respects to others + ;” but small ones of course they must have
had. Nay, further, the very small spot of ground by which ac-
cess from a public road to a sepulchre was secured, was called
vestibulum. Cicero informs us, that, by a law of the Twelve
Tables, the right of way to a tomb, “ forum id est vestibulum
sepulchri,” could not be lost by prescription {. Hence, it is evi-
dent, that the meaning of the ve in vestibulum differs not from
that attributed to it in the words already examined, and that
vestibulum originally meant the small space intervening between
the street and the entrance into the house.

Vestigium, the track, the footstep, literally the small prick

* “ Qui domos igitur amplas antiquitus faciebant, locum ante januam vacuum
relinquebant, qui inter fores domus et viam medius esset. In eo loco qui dominum
ejus domus salutatum venerant, priusquam admitterentur consistebant, et neque in
via stabant neque intra zdes erant.”—Lib. xi. cap. 5.

+ ‘ His, qui communi sunt fortuna, non necessaria magnifica vestibula, quod hi
aliis officia praestant ambiundo.”—Lib. vi. cap. 8.

+ De Legibus, lib. ii. sect. 24.

in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 85

made in moist ground by the nails of hares, foxes, &c. ; also a
small point, “ puncto loci aut temporis *.”

Nothing can be a stronger proof of the deplorable state in
which the science of etymology has so long continued, than that
the absurd explanation of this word, first I believe proposed by
Vossrvs, should still be retained in our best dictionaries: “ For-
merly not only men, but also women, wore long garments, hence
the traces not only of their feet, but also of their dress, were
left’ by those who walked. This was the reason why, although
the feet made the deepest impression, the name was nevertheless
derived from the garment (vestis) }.” Brecmanvs, quoted by
Vosstus, proposed the true etymology, from oriZ#, but, according
to the radical error introduced by Geitrus, wished to assign an
intensive force to ve. Vestigium, as well as the verbs vestigo and
investigo, was borrowed from the hunter’s vocabulary, from which
many words in every language with which I am acquainted have
been derived. In the early ages of every nation, much of the
hunter’s success depends upon his skill in discovering the small
punctures made in moist: places (not, however, admitting the com-
pression of the ball of the foot) by the toe-nails of his game. To
those versed in field sports, I need not say more ; but the unini-
tiated should be informed, that such a trace is still called a prick,
and the process by which a skilful eye is enabled to recognize the
path of a hare from such small punctures is still called pricking.
Nor would I ascribe the origin of the name of the Yeomen Prickers
connected with the king’s hunting establishment to any other
source than this, although I am aware that a rider in old English

rh TI EE a a

* Silo, chee, ypc, stimulus. The verb stigo was itself Latin, as may be seen in
the compound instigo, to goad on, from which simple verb stigium was immediately
formed. The word is found in all the Celtic and Teutonic dialects, in the sense of
the English fo stick, i.e. to stab or puncture, Germ. stechen, Cimbric, ystigaw, the
verb; stich, Germ. the puncture, Anglo-Saxon stice, &c.

+ Vossius, Etym. under the word.

86 Rev. Mr Wixiams on the Force of the prefix Ve or Ve

was, from the frequent use of his spurs, called a pricker :
« A gentle knight came pricking o’er the lea.”

From the first and technical meaning of vestigium other signifi-
cations arose, of which that of the whole footstep was the most
natural. “ Hae video socci vestigium in pulvere,” says PLautus.
Hence also all other traces whatsoever were indicated. by vesti-
gium. But still there remain in the best writers many passages
in which the word is used without the slightest allusion to its
secondary meaning, and for the explanation of which we must
have recourse to ve, little, and stigium, a point. These furnish
us with the “ experimentum crucis” before alluded to, in which,
if the facts are not denied, the inference must be allowed. Such
was the use of the word by Casar, “ Eodemque tempore vis
magna pulveris cernebatur, et vestigio temporis primum agmen
erat in conspectus *.” Here we have “ vestigio temporis,” not
in the meaning of vestige, trace, track, &c. but evidently for
* puncto temporis,” in a moment. Should we entertain any
doubts, they will be resolved by the following passage from C1-
cERo’s invective against Piso, “ Atque eodem in templo, eodem
et loci vestigio et temporis + ;” “ and in the same temple, at the
same point both of time and place.” CoLtumEtLa employs it ina
still more primary sense { (giving to stigiwm its first meaning of a
blow), where he writes, that a vine branch injured by the prun-
ing-knife, used ductim in opposition to c@sim, can be smoothed
(allevari) “ uno vestigio,” “ with one slight stroke.”

Vegraniis ||. We have already seen, on Ovin’s authority,
that vegrandis signified not well-grown. It remains now to show

* Bell. Civ. lib. ii. c. 26. + Cap. ix. * Lib. iv. c. 25.

\| Grandis, a term borrowed from the swelling or rounding of the grains (grana)
of corn, afterwards applied to the full growth of other objects. It is peculiar to the
Latin language.

in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 87

that it never means very large, as asserted by AuLus GELLIUvs.
The only words (with the exception of those already examined)
which he quotes as exemplifying the intensive form of ve,
are vehemens, vetus, and vegrandis. But vehemens has the ve
short, and is derived from the verb veho, not compounded of ve,
aspirated into vehe, and mens, mind. In vetus, he is still more
unfortunate; for, had. it been compounded of ve and @tas, no
power could ever have shortened the penult. In reality, ve-
tus is immediately formed from the Greek ¢zo; (a year), which, in
Homer, has always the digamma, Feros. ‘The Saxon expression,
“ of yore,” corresponds in meaning with the Latin vetus. The
only remaining word for which the intensive force of ve is claimed,
is vegrandis. For such usage two lines were adduced ; the first
from Lucixrius, and to which GELLIUs refers. It is still to be
found in the first book of Nonrvs, n. § 34.

“* Non idcirco extollitur nec vite vegrandi datur.”
But it is to be remarked, that Nonrus having probably found a
better edition of Lucii1vs, quotes the same line in the follow-
ing manner,
“ Non idcirco extollitur vel ira vel gaudii dator.”
The other example was supposed to exist in Persrus,
“ Ut ramale vetus, vegrandi subere coctum.”

But more manuscripts were found to have pregrandi, not ve-
grandi: hence it has long ago disappeared. »

Hence, my induction is complete, that ve never has an in-
tensive power, but has always the signification either of the ad-
verb parum, as in vesanus, or of the adjective parvus, as in vesti-

gium.

( 88 )

On Phosphuretted Hydrogen. By Tuomas Granam, Esq,
F. R. S. Ed., Lecturer on Chemistry in the Andersonian In-
stitution, and V. P. Phil. Soc. Glasgow.

(Read 1st December 1834.)

Few substances have been made the subject of experimental
inquiry more frequently than the compounds of phosphorus and
hydrogen, and no subject is so remarkable for the various and
conflicting results which it has presented to chemists of the
greatest acuteness and practical skill. The obscurity which long
hung over the subject has been dispelled, however, in a great
measure, by the recent investigations of Henry Rose of Berlin.
Although baffled in his early researches, that philosopher return-
ed again and again to the subject, and at last succeeded in de-
termining the chemical functions and true constitution of phos-
phuretted hydrogen. He has shewn it to be analogous to am-
monia in chemical character and composition. But hitherto two
compounds of phosphorus and hydrogen had generally been ad-
mitted to exist, which were believed to differ in composition, as
they do in properties, one being spontaneously inflammable in
atmospheric air, and the other not so. Rose establishes beyond
all doubt that these gases are essentially of the same composition,
and of the same specific gravity ; and, indeed, that they are mu-
tually convertible, each into the other, without any addition or
subtraction of matter that could be perceived. In explanation
of their possessing different properties, under the same composi-
tion, allusion is made by Rose to Jsomerism, or the doctrine that
two bodies may exist identical in composition, but differing in
properties. Certainly the existence of two gases, constituted

Mr Granam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen. 89

alike, and yet possessing different properties, if established, would
afford a firm basis for this doctrine.

It was the importance of the theoretical results which might
be looked for, that induced me to attempt to continue the inves-
tigation beyond the point to which it had been carried by Rose.

Holding the general doctrine of Isomerism as problematical,
my inquiries were directed to the discovery, in one or other of
the gases, of some adventitious matter, to the presence of which
the peculiarities of the species might be attributed.

It is to be understood that the spontaneously inflammable gas
made use of in my experiments, was prepared by the well-known
process of heating phosphorus, lime and water together. This
gas is spoken of as “ the self-accendible gas,” or as “ the gas
from phosphuret of lime.” The other gas, which is not sponta-
neously inflammable, was prepared. by heating hydrated phospho-
rous acid, or by allowing the preceding species, contained in low
receivers, to stand over water for twenty-four hours. It is de-
scribed as “ the non-accendible gas,” “the gas from phosphorous
acid.” The ascendibility of the gas was judged of by allowing it
to escape in bubbles into the air from the receiver containing it,
either over water or mercury. The experiments were all made
when the temperature of the atmosphere was between 60° and
70° Fahrenheit.

1, Inthe process by which the self-accendible gas is procured,
free phosphorus distils over, of which a trace, in the state of va-
pour, may well be supposed to remain in the gas for some time.
Hence the idea has generally presented itself, that the free and
highly accendible phosphorus present may be the cause of the
spontaneous inflammability of the gas. Dr Daron, who all along
maintained, the opinion, which has finally been established by
Rose, that the two gases are of the same composition, was in the
habit of referring the spontaneous inflammability of the one spe-
cies to this cause. The speedy loss of the property in question,
in the case of gas confined over water, seemed to favour this view.

VOL, XIII. PART I. M

90 Mr Granam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen.

I find, however, that if a small quantity of phosphuretted hydro-
gen, when not self-accendible, be added to a confined portion of
air, sticks of phosphorus introduced into that air do not smoke,
that phosphorus has no disposition to combine with oxygen when
phosphuretted hydrogen is present. In a transparent mixture of
one volume phosphuretted hydrogen with one thousand volumes,
or any smaller proportion of air, sticks of phosphorus remain un-
affected, but the phosphuretted hydrogen itself always undergoes
a slow oxidation. In a mixture of one volume phosphuretted
hydrogen and two thousand volumes air, phosphorus smoked
strongly for some time ; but at a certain period the action ceased, .
long before the oxygen of the air was exhausted. A minute pro-
portion of phosphuretted hydrogen is, therefore, sufficient to pro-
tect phosphorus from oxidation, in which respect this gas resem-
bles the hydrocarburets and essential oils, which have been shown
to be equally efficacious in protecting phosphorus from oxidation.
All these bodies appear to act in this respect in one way, name-
ly, by taking the precedence of phosphorus in the process of oxy-
genation. Phosphorus therefore being less oxidable than phos-
phuretted hydrogen itself; cannot be supposed to take fire and
to inflame the gas, or to be the cause of the ascendibility of the
gas at low temperatures.

On sending electric sparks through non-accendible phosphu-
retted hydrogen itself; phosphorus is deposited, but the gas when
still cloudy from the phosphorus suspended in it, proved to be
non-inflammable on passing it into air.

The loss of accendibility in the case of gas confined over water,
is certainly wholly unconnected with the deposition of any free
phosphorus from the gas, which may occur, but is due to the rise
of oxygen from the water into the gas. It was observed that
water which had been boiled to deprive it of all air, and which
was then passed up to self-accendible gas confined over mercury,
did not affect the gas in the course of forty-eight hours. In this
case, moreover, the gas was agitated with the water. The gas

Mr Grauam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen. 91

continues in general spontaneously inflammable over mercury for
forty-eight hours, and sometimes for three or four days, but ceases
to be so ina very short time, after the admission of a small pro-
portion of air, particularly if the air be added in a gradual man-
ner. Thus, if to the gas be passed up one-twentieth part of its
bulk of cork or of dry stucco, containing air in its pores, a white
smoke appears in, the gas, and it ceases to be spontaneously in-
flammable in the course of afew minutes. The same mass of
stucco, warmed before being passed up into the gas, so as to ex-
pel the air it contained, did not, produce the same effect. The
self-accendible gas always deposits on standing a solid matter con-
taining phosphorus, of a lively yellow colour, but in quantity too
minute for analysis. This matter is not acted on by any of the
ordinary solvents, such as alcohol, ether, alkalies, or muriatic acid,
but is destroyed by chlorine-water, and by nitric acid. The pre-
cipitation of this matter is most rapid in the case of gas over
water, and is indicative of deterioration of the gas.

2. The self-accendible gas procured from phosphorus, water,
and lime, is always mixed with free hydrogen, varying in quan-
tity from 25 to 50 per cent.; while the non-accendible gas from
phosphorous acid contains no hydrogen gas, but is pure. Roser
concludes that the spontaneous inflammability of the first species
cannot depend upon this hydrogen, for the other species is not
made self-accendible by the addition to it of any proportion of
free hydrogen. On trying the experiment, however, I obtained
a different result. A quantity of gas had lost. its self-accendibi-
lity by standing over water for two or three hours ; to my surprise,
the addition to this gas of hydrogen, in any proportion from one-
third of a volume to three volumes, restored the self-accendibility
of the gas. Spontaneous inflammability was likewise communi-
cated, in some cases; to the gas procured from phosphorous acid,
merely by adding hydrogen to it. It was early perceived, how-
ever, in the course of the investigation, that hydrogen did not
uniformly communicate the property in question, and that its in-

M 2

92 Mr Granam on Phosphureited Hydrogen.

fluence depended on something accidental and not essential to
the gas. For instance, the hydrogen which comes over almost
pure towards the end of the process for phosphuretted hydro-
gen had none of this property, nor did it appear in hydrogen
obtained from the following sources ;—from the electric decom-
position of water, from the decomposition of steam by iron, from
the action of water on amalgam of potassium, or from the action
of muriatic, arsenic, or phosphoric acid on zinc. Even in the
case of the action of sulphuric acid on zine or iron, which had
first afforded hydrogen possessing the property in question, it
turned out that only the hydrogen evolved at an early period
of the action is efficient, while the gas evolved after the viva-
city of the action is impaired is nearly, and sometimes entire-
ly, destitute of any influence. The activity of the hydrogen was
in short traced to a slight impregnation of nitrous acid vapour,
which it possessed. The sulphuric acid of commerce always con-
tains a small portion of some acid of nitrogen, probably the hy-
ponitrous, from which, I find, it cannot be freed by boiling or
concentration continued for any length of time. On quickly mix-
ing sulphuric acid with two or three volumes of water, the pre-
sence of nitrous acid is attested by its peculiar odour, and almost
certainly by the appearance of brown fumes. ‘That the hydrogen
did not owe the property in question to a trace of nitric oxide,
which, combining with oxygen, might, by a slight consequent
evolution of heat, have an effect in kindling the phosphuretted
hydrogen, was proved by the fact, that the property in question
could not be imparted to hydrogen by any proportion of nitric
oxide ; but to this point there will be occasion to recur.

At an earlier stage in the inquiry, some experiments were
made upon the effect of other gases than hydrogen upon phosphu-
retted hydrogen. None, with the exception of sulphuretted hy-
drogen (evolved by the action of sulphuric acid'on. sulphuret of
iron, and which therefore contains free hydrogen), appeared to
favour the accendibility of the gas. On the contrary, the addi-

Mr.Grauam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen. 93

tion of all others, and even of hydrogen and sulphuretted hydro-
gen themselves above a certain proportion, distinctly impeded or
destroyed the accendibility of this gas. Thus, one volume phos-
phuretted hydrogen ceased to be spontaneously inflammable when
mixed with the following proportions of different gases :—

With 5 volumes hydrogen,

2... carbonic acid,

3... nitrogen,

1 volume olefiant gas,

3... sulphuretted hydrogen,
- po «++ nitric oxide,
- gy +. muriatic acid,

+... ammoniacal gas.

It is to be remarked, however, in reference to the preceding
table, that some specimens of phosphuretted hydrogen appear to
be more highly accendible than others, and that there is consi-
derable latitude in the proportion of foreign gas which may be
requisite for destroying the spontaneous inflammability of a given
specimen. Often a much smaller portion suffices than is stated
in the table. I have found half a volume of carbonic acid or of
nitrogen to produce the: effect. Of course the introduction of
any trace of air, with the gases, must be carefully guarded against.
Nitrous acid, when present in hydrogen in too small a proportion
to enable that gas to communicate spontaneous inflammability to
phosphuretted hydrogen, or to be perceived by the smell, may
be detected by the effect of the hydrogen upon a prepared mix-
ture of non-accendible phosphuretted hydrogen and air, which
mixture may be had quite free from white smoke, and transpa-
rent. The addition of hydrogen to this mixture occasions the
immediate appearance of a dense white smoke, the oxidation of
the phosphorus being partially induced, if even an infinitesimal
proportion of nitrous acid exist in the hydrogen. Although the
oxidation of the phosphorus takes place at the expense of the air
present, and only when air is present, yet the nitrous acid: appears

94 Mr Granam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen.

to be speedily consumed ; the fumes soon ceasing, but appearing
again on every subsequent addition of active hydrogen, till seve-
ral volumes have been added, or till the oxygen of the air pre-
sent is exhausted.

That the influence of hydrogen was referable to the nitrous
impregnation, appeared also from the fact, that phosphuretted
hydrogen, which had lost its spontaneous inflammability, was
rendered as actively inflammable as ever by passing it, bubble by
bubble, into an inverted receiver filled with sulphuric acid, re-
cently diluted with three measures of water and cooled. The
gas was now capable of igniting spontaneously, when passed into
air, without the intervention of hydrogen. The same diluted
acid lost the smell of nitrous acid, by exposure to air in a shal-
low vessel for a few hours, and thereafter was found unfit for the
purpose in question. Phosphuretted hydrogen, which had ac-
quired spontaneous inflammability from a nitrous impregnation,
appeared to retain that property as long as the phosphuretted
hydrogen, which is spontaneously inflammable as first prepared.

Hydrogen gas, too, which had received a nitrous impregnation
by being passed through a diluted sulphuric acid, retained, in one
case, after being confined for twenty-four hours over water, the
power of rendering phosphuretted hydrogen spontaneously in-
flammable. From the preceding results and other considera-
tions, it seemed not unlikely that the spontaneous inflammability
of phosphuretted hydrogen may be an accidental property, and
depend upon the occasional presence of some foreign body in mi-
nute quantity. “The inquiry suggests itself, is there a peculiar
principle in the self-accendible gas, and what is it ?

3. It was very soon found that a peculiar principle is with-
drawn from the! gas by porous absorbents, such as wood, charcoal,
and baked clay, which substances are capable of destroying the
inflammability of several hundred times: their volume of ‘gas.
Thus, in one experiment, to 500 measures of highly accendible
phosphuretted hydrogen, one measure of charcoal, recently heat-

Mr Granam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen. 95

ed. to redness, and cooled under the surface of mercury, was pass-
ed up. In the course of five minutes a contraction of eight or
ten measures occurred, without any oxidation of the gas, for no
air was introduced with the charcoal. The gas was still sponta-
neously inflammable, but ceased to be so in the course of half an
hour. It was found, in fact, by different experiments, that wood-
charcoal can absorb about ten times its volume of phosphuretted
hydrogen gas itself; that the phosphuretted hydrogen and the
peculiar principle are absorbed indiscriminately at first by the
charcoal, but that by-and-bye the peculiar principle comes to be
entirely absorbed by the charcoal, without any farther absorption
of phosphuretted hydrogen.

When the phosphuretted hydrogen did not exceed fifty or
sixty times the bulk of the charcoal, the peculiar principle was
entirely withdrawn in five minutes, and the gas ceased to be self-
aecendible. Charcoal, which had been drenched in water, was
without effect upon the gas. On heating the charcoal saturated
with gas, in a retort filled with water, phosphuretted hydrogen
was given off, which, however, was not self-accendible; and all
my attempts failed to isolate the peculiar principle, by separat-
ing it from the charcoal. It was quite clear that, the peculiar
principle formed but a very small proportion of the volume of
the phosphuretted hydrogen, evidently much less than one per
cent. of the bulk of the gas.

Spongy platinum introduced into the gas did not exercise any
sensible absorbent effect, and no quantity of it seemed sufficient
to withdraw the peculiar principle from a small bulk of the phos-
phuretted hydrogen.

Stucco, likewise, was without effect upon the gas, at least when
access of air was guarded against at the same time. But both of
these substances’ are known to possess a very low absorbent
power.

4. Phosphuretted hydrogen transferred to a receiver over mer-
cury, the inside of which is moistened by a strong solution of

96 Mr Granam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen.

caustic potash, always loses its spontaneous accendibility, although
by no means rapidly, several hours being generally required.

5. Certain acids appear to have a remarkable power in with-
drawing the principle of inflammability from phosphuretted hy-
drogen.

Let phosphuretted hydrogen be transferred into a jar inverted
over mercury, of which jar the inner surface has been moistened
with concentrated phosphorous acid. A small quantity of a milk-
white matter immediately appears in the acid, where exposed to
the gas; and in two or three minutes the gas has ceased to be
spontaneously inflammable, without any appreciable diminution
of its volume having occurred. This white matter, although
very sensible to the eye, exists only in the most minute quantity.
It is not crystalline, and perhaps is not even solid. The intro-
duction of concentrated phosphoric acid into the gas, was attend-
ed by similar phenomena; and the gas lost its spontaneous in-
flammability in the course of half an hour.

A strong solution of arsenic acid acts as rapidly in withdraw-
ing the peculiar principle as phosphoric acid does, but the ar-
senic acid soon begins to react upon the phosphuretted hydrogen
itself, a dark copper-coloured incrustation soon forming upon the
surface of the gas-receiver, which matter is probably a phosphuret
of arsenic. Concentrated sulphuric acid is capable of absorbing
phosphuretted hydrogen itself, which the preceding acids are not,
but even sulphuric acid appears to absorb the peculiar principle,
in the first instance, by a more active affinity than it exerts up-
on the gas itself. Dilute phosphorous, phosphoric, and arseni¢e
acids, react in the same manner upon phosphuretted hydrogen,
but not so rapidly as the concentrated acids do.

6. The following liquids are capable of dissolving the quantity
of phosphuretted hydrogen gas placed against their names, at
65° Fahr.

Mr Granam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen. 97

Alcohol (sp. gr. 850), - 5 3 ’ 4 volume,
Sulphuric Ether, . : ; : : OF aR Oe
Oil of Turpentine, ‘ k : ‘ BL ......

The essential oils and most of the hydrocarburets appear to
withdraw, or to negative the peculiar principle in spontaneously
inflammable phosphuretted hydrogen in a rapid manner. If a
jar be moistened, in the slightest degree, with oil of turpentine,
coal-tar naphtha, or by the liquid distilled from caoutchouc, and
then be used as a receiver for containing self-accendible gas,
either over water or mercury, the gas is found to lose its sponta-
neous inflammability in a very few minutes. White fumes often
appear in the gas at the same time, but these I am satisfied are
due to the evolution of some gaseous oxygen from the liquids,
and appear in the case of the portion of gas which is first brought
into contact with the liquid, but do not occur in the case of sub-
sequent additions of gas, although the liquid remains capable of
destroying the spontaneous accendibility of many portions of gas,
successively exposed to it. It is not easy to decide whether the
vapours destroy irrecoverably the peculiar substance of sponta-
neous inflammability, or merely negative the action of that prin-
ciple by their presence.

I am inclined to think, however, that they destroy that princi-
ple, for the action is not so rapid as the diffusion of the vapour
through the gas, the impregnation appearing to be fully accom-
plished, and yet the loss of inflammability not occurring some-
times for two or three minutes afterwards, particularly in the case
of naphtha, a portion of that pure liquid, in which potassium had
been preserved, being used in the experiment. A small addition
of ether-vapour also destroys the inflammability of phosphuret-
ted hydrogen, although a distinct interval must elapse before the
change occurs, such as a quarter or half of an hour.

The action of alcohol vapour is much slower, generally re-
quiring two or three hours. Pure olefiant gas, containing no air,
added in the proportion of 10 or 20 per cent., eventually de-

VOL. XIII. PART I. N

98 Mr Granam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen.

stroys the spontaneous inflammability, but requires a period of
not less than twenty or thirty hours.

Olefiant gas has a negative influence of quite a different cha-
racter, which has already been alluded to, and which is in action
the moment the gases are mixed, but which does not appear un-
less the proportion of olefiant gas be very considerable. It is
probable that ether-vapour and the gaseous hydrocarburets like-
wise haye an influence of the same kind. An astonishingly mi-
nute quantity of an essential oil suffices to destroy the inflamma-
bility of the gas over mercury, if allowed an hour or two to act.
Hence it is very difficult to preserve gas in the inflammable con-
dition, in the mercurial trough, if any portion of the mercury has
been soiled by an essential oil.

7. The action of potassiwm on the peculiar principle is equally
remarkable. A most minute quantity of this metal, or of its
amalgam, destroys the self-accendibility of the gas in a few mi-
nutes, without occasioning any sensible reduction of volume that
could be measured.

The fact is, potassium, or its amalgam, is without effect upon
phosphuretted hydrogen itself, at the temperature of the air,
neither absorbing nor decomposing the gas ; but upon the pecu-
liar principle the action of this metal is rapid and certain. One
grain of potassium, amalgamated with fifty pounds of mercury,
rendered that large quantity of mercury quite unfit for retaining
gas over it, in the self-accendible condition, for more than a few
minutes. In such experiments the interference of naphtha
vapour was perfectly excluded. Zine and tin, either by them-
selves or in the state of amalgam, have no sensible effect upon
self-accendible gas, at least in a period of five or six hours. Pro-
toxide of mercury speedily withdraws the peculiar principle, but
afterwards also reacts slowly upon the gas itself. On the other
hand, the peroxide of the same metal is nowise injurious to
the self-accendible gas. Arsenious acid in powder acts in the
same manner as protoxide of mercury. The solution of proto-

Mr Grauam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen. 99

sulphate of iron, if previously boiled to deprive it of air, is with-
out effect: upon the gas.

The extraordinary action of potassium, and that also perhaps
of the essential oils, seemed to point to the existence of an oxy-
genated principle, as the cause of the spontaneous inflammabi-
lity of phosphuretted hydrogen.

It is sufficiently evident that) the proportion in which this
principle exists to the whole gas, is exceedingly small, too minute
to afford any hope of isolating that principle. The nitrous im-
pregnation, too, which was found adequate to.render gas sponta-
neously inflammable, shews to how minute a quantity of matter
the spontaneous inflammability of phosphuretted hydrogen may
at times be owing. It seemed within the bounds .of possibility
that the gas might owe its spontaneous inflammability, in ordi-
nary circumstances, if not to nitrous acid, at least to some other
principle analogous to that substance. This led toa careful exa-
mination of the properties of phosphuretted hydrogen made in-
flammable by means of nitrous acid ; a subject of much interest,
as illustrating the effect of a most minute and almost. infinite-
simal quantity of foreign admixture, in communicating so strik-
ing a property as spontaneous inflammability to a chemical body,
independently of the light which it may throw upon the consti-
tution of ordinary phosphuretted hydrogen.

8. Phosphuretted hydrogen, which had lost all trace of spon-
taneous inflammability by standing a day or two over water, or
the gas from hydrated phosphorous acid, might be impregnated
with nitrous acid, and made spontaneously inflammable in vari-
ous ways. It was ascertained that the gas obtained, by either
process, was affected in the same way. Such gas only, entirely
destitute of spontaneous inflammability, was employed in the fol-
lowing experiments :—

(1.) The nitrous acid of Dulong may be added directly to the
gas over mercury, a glass spherule, or the bore of a short piece of
thermometer tube being filled with the liquid, and passed up to

N2

100 Mr Grauam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen.

the gas. When nitric acid is brought into contact with the gas
in this manner, a violent action occurs ; but with nitrous acid the
evolution of white fumes is very slight. The nitrous acid is ab-
sorbed in part by the mercury, but this absorption is slow, pro-
vided the quantity of gas be considerable with which the acid
vapour is mixed. If the quantity of gas primarily impregnated
with nitrous acid, in the manner described, be small, or the im-
pregnation of nitrous acid considerable, the gas exhibits no dis-
position to smoke or to take fire, when passed into air. It has
not become spontaneously accendible. On diluting the gas with
a large proportion of unimpregnated phosphuretted hydrogen, no
reaction is indicated, but the whole becomes spontaneously ac-
cendible in a high degree. In fact, it was discovered that the
gas is not accendible when the nitrous acid exceeds a certain pro-
portion, which is by no means considerable.

(2.) Allow a single drop of nitrous acid to fall into a dry
glass jar, which may be of small dimensions. Fill the jar with
mercury, and invert it without loss of time in the mercurial
trough, a bubble of gas will collect in the upper part of the jar,
which bubble is chiefly nitrous acid vapour. One cubic inch or
so of phosphuretted hydrogen, or of hydrogen itself, may then be
added to the gas in the jar, and this is our nitrous impregnating
mixture. Suppose this mixture to contain one-twentieth of its
bulk of nitrous acid vapour. The addition of it, in any propor-
tion, to phosphuretted hydrogen, is not attended by the slightest
production of white fumes ; in fact no reaction appears to take
place. But the addition of a single bubble of this mixture, not
exceeding one-tenth of an inch in volume, to five or six cubic
inches of phosphuretted hydrogen, will render the whole highly
accendible, so that every bubble passed into the air will take
fire.

(3.) In the above arrangement, a drop of the strongest nitric
acid may be substituted for the nitrous acid, in the preparation
of the impregnating mixture. The nitric acid acts on the mer-

Mr Grauam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen. 101

cury, and nitric oxide, charged with nitrous acid, is collected,
which may be diluted with hydrogen as above.

The preceding processes uniformly afford a nitrous impreg-
nating mixture which may be depended upon; but when the ex-
periment is attempted over water, there is not the same certainty
of the impregnation being successful. I have often, however,
made hydrogen highly suitable for the purpose, by passing it
through a column of fluid composed of nitric acid recently diluted
with water, provided that the acid had been fuming from the
presence of nitrous acid ; or by passing hydrogen through recently
diluted sulphuric acid, as has already been stated.

In regard to the proper proportion of nitrous acid-vapour to
the phosphuretted hydrogen, I am satisfied that the proportion
most efficacious, is somewhere between 1 part nitrous acid to
1000, and 1 to 10,000 phosphuretted hydrogen. One volume
nitrous acid-vapour to 100 gas, or to less gas, is never accendible,
but becomes so on diluting it with enough of phosphuretted hy-
drogen.

I was anxious to discover how far nitric oxide interferes in
the phenomenon. The nitrous acid is never free from, but always
accompanied with, a certain proportion of this gas.

9. Action of Nitrie Oxvide.—In a table formerly given, nitric
oxide is set down as incompatible with the accendibility of the
good gas from phosphuret of lime, when the proportion of the
first is so great as one-tenth of the whole mixture.

In fact, the best inflammable gas, when mixed with nitric
oxide, in quantity from two volumes to one-tenth of a volume,
exhibited no symptoms of spontaneous inflammability. The ni-
tric oxide forms red fumes when the mixture meets the air, but
the phosphuretted hydrogen does not even smoke, so that the
oxidation of the nitric oxide has not a kindling effect upon the
phosphuretted hydrogen, but the very reverse. A mixture of
one volume nitric oxide, with twenty volumes good phosphuretted.
hydrogen (self accendible per se), is still self accendible ; the

102 Mr Granam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen.

bubble, however, does not take fire the instant it bursts in the air,
but after rising to a little height, and then explodes with a puft
like loose grains of gunpowder, and not with the usual snap, the
oxidation of the nitric oxide preceding the oxidation of the phos-
phuretted hydrogen by a sensible interval. Nitric oxide, in a
considerably smaller proportion than one-twentieth volume, ex-
hibits a sensible effect in retarding the combustion of self-accen-
dible gas, but does not altogether prevent it. In the case of
phosphuretted hydrogen, which was not self-accendible, small ad-
ditions of nitric oxide, such as 1 to 100, to 500, to 1000, or to
2000 volumes phosphuretted hydrogen, did not induce self-ac-
cendibility, when the nitric oxide employed had been previously
washed with caustic alkali. The experiment was tried with three
different specimens of washed nitric oxide. But nitric oxide,
which had not been washed with alkali, particularly if it resulted
from a turbulent action of the nitric acid on copper, and came
overcharged with red fumes, and was withal newly collected, was
pretty often efficient in making the gas self-accendible. ‘The pro-
per proportion of such nitric oxide for this purpose, was found to
be 1 volume to a quantity between 1000 and 2000 volumes of
phosphuretted hydrogen. A greater or a less proportion of the
nitric oxide failed to produce the desired effect. All these expe-
riments with nitric oxide were made over water.

It is well known that a mixture of phosphuretted hydrogen
and nitric oxide may be exploded by a bubble of oxygen gas, a
method of firing these gases, first practised, I believe, by Dr
Tuomson. But pure nitric oxide was found by Dr Darrow to
oxygenate phosphuretted hydrogen in a gradual manner, when
the two gases are left together. It is probable, therefore, that
it is, by acting itself upon phosphuretted hydrogen, that nitric
oxide prevents atmospheric air from acting upon that gas in our
experiments. It is conceivable that the oxygenating action of
nitric oxide upon vhosnhuretted hydrogen, like that of air upon

Mr Grauam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen. 103

the same gas, may be promoted by the presence of nitrous acid,
which will explain Dr Tuomson’s experiments.

The impregnating nitrous mixture of the foregoing experi-
ments was not destitute of nitric oxide, but what proves that the
efficiency of the mixture did not depend upon the last mentioned
ingredient, is the circumstance, that the mixture lost its virtue
by standing over mercury for a week, during which period the
acid-vapour was absorbed by the mercury, but the nitric oxide
remained, as appeared on admitting air to the gaseous mixture.
Hence, we may conclude, that when nitric oxide acts in produ-
cing inflammability in phosphuretted hydrogen, it is from the ni-
trous acid which it occasionally contains.

It is certainly, however, very curious that nitric oxide is not
quite equivalent to nitrous acid, in producing the change in ques-
tion upon phosphuretted hydrogen, seeing that the nitric oxide
passes immediately into nitrous acid upon meeting air. Whether
the negative influence of nitric oxide upon really accendible gas
is sufficient to account for this anomaly, I am doubtful. It may
be thought that nitrous acid and phosphuretted hydrogen, when
in contact for a short time, react upon each other, with the pro-
duction of some entirely new and highly accendible body. But
this supposition seems not to quadrate with the fact, that the im-
pregnating mixture requires to be diluted by so large a propor-
tion of phosphuretted hydrogen, before the whole becomes spon-
taneously accendible. Nor is it supported by any visible signs
of reaction between the nitrous acid and phosphuretted hydrogen.
Indeed, nitrous acid-vapour appears to be compatible with phos-
phuretted hydrogen, to an extent which could not have been an-
ticipated.

Again, that nitrous acid, or at least some acid compound of
nitrogen, continues to exist in what we may now call the nitrous
phosphuretted hydrogen gas, appears to be corroborated by the
properties which this self-accendible gas is found to possess.

104 Mr Grauam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen.

10. Properties of nitrous phosphuretted hydrogen.

(1.) This gas loses its self-accendibility when kept over mer-
cury, in a period varying from six to twenty-four hours, accord-
ing to the amount of nitrous impregnation.

It is remarkable that this gas continues, in general, inflam-
mable for a longer time, when confined over water, than over
mercury, which is the reverse of what occurs with the gas from
phosphuret of lime.

(2.) The factitious gas is deprived of its spontaneous inflam-
mability by charcoal and other porous absorbents, by essential
oils and hydrocarburets, and by amalgam of potassium, and quite
as rapidly as is its natural prototype.

(3.) Phosphorous acid, and concentrated sulphuric acid, appear
likewise to withdraw the nitrous principle, although phosphoric
acid does not. The agency of these acids probably exemplifies
the disposition of nitrous acid to combine with other acids. The
action of potassium and of essential oils upon nitrous acid, requires
no explanation. Potassium has, I find, no action upon pure ni-
tric oxide in the cold.

(4.) A cubic inch of this gas, passed up into a receiver, of
which the inside was moistened with caustic alkali, had its accen-
dibility sensibly impaired in fifteen minutes, but not completely
destroyed in less than an hour.

In conclusion, the statement of the above properties is abun-
dantly sufficient to prove that a strong analogy subsists between
our nitrous phosphuretted hydrogen and the self-accendible gas,
which has been so long in the hands of chemists. ‘lhe peculiar
principle of the last may therefore possibly be an oxygenated
body. ‘That principle cannot be nitrous acid, but it may be a
compound of phosphorus and oxygen, P, analogous to nitrous
acid. In all the reactions by which self-accendible phosphuretted
hydrogen is produced, we have the simultaneous formation of
compounds of phosphorus and oxygen, such as hypophosphorous
and phosphoric acids. The compound P is hypothetical, however,

Mr Grawam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen. 105

and has not yet been formed directly. Its existence is only sur-
mised from the parallelism which appears to be established be-
tween nitrogen and phosphorus, and between their compounds ;
phosphuretted hydrogen itself corresponding with ammonia, phos-
phoric, and phosphorous acids, with nitric and hyponitrous acids.
The peroxide of chlorine of Davy and Stadion C corresponds
with nitrous acid, and with our hypothetical oxide of phosphorus,
which we may speak of as the peroxide of phosphorus.

The peroxide of phosphorus would appear to resemble the
peroxide of chlorine, in being acted on more slowly by mercury
and by alkalies, than is the case with nitrous acid. It is to be
admitted, however, that I did not succeed in producing an in-
flammable phosphuretted hydrogen, by the agency of peroxide of
chlorine—that there is no chlorous phosphuretted hydrogen.
The reason is, that peroxide of chlorine is incompatible with
phosphuretted hydrogen, reacting upon that gas the instant of
mixture.

As to the mode in which nitrous acid vapour, in a proportion
so minute, contributes to the accendibility of phosphuretted hy-
drogen, I have been able to form no distinct idea. The most
likely conjecture is, that the nitrous acid, or resulting hyponi-
trous acid, combines with some product of the oxygenation of
phosphuretted hydrogen, and thereby disposes or promotes the
occurrence of that change. The oxygenation of pure hydrogen
itself, under the influence of a clean plate of platinum, is not
promoted in a sensible degree by any nitrous impregnation. Sul-
phurous acid and muriatic acid gases, and vapour of acetic acid,
appeared to contribute nothing to the accendibility of phosphu-
retted hydrogen.

It appears, then, that the two phosphuretted hydrogens are
not isomeric bodies, but that the peculiarities of the spontaneous-
ly inflammable species depend upon the presence of adventitious
matter :

VOL. XIII. PART I. ‘o

106 -Mr Granam on Phosphuretted Hydrogen.

That the vapour of some acid of nitrogen, which, in the pre-
sent state of our knowledge of that class of compounds, seems to
be the nitrous acid, is capable of rendering phosphuretted hydro-
gen spontaneously inflammable, when present to the extent of
one ten-thousandth part of the volume of the gas:

That the last gas has a general resemblance to phosphuretted
hydrogen, as obtained in the spontaneously inflammable state by
ordinary processes, which, it is probable, owes its ready accendi-
bility to the presence of an equally minute trace of a volatile
compound of phosphorus and oxygen, analogous to nitrous acid,

6. OF 00)

General Remarks on the Coal Formation of the Great Valley of
the Scottish Lowlands. By Lord Greenock, C.B., LL. D.,
V..P.R.S, Ed. F. G.S.

(Read 15th December 1834. )

Tuere is perhaps no geological problem of greater interest
than that by which the conditions of the globe, in respect to the
distribution of land and water, at the epoch of the coal formation,
might be determined, if the necessary data for its solution could
be obtained. We possess sufficient evidence to shew that, since
that period, most of the continents and islands of the present day
have been elevated above the waters, under which they were ori-
ginally formed ; but such proofs are altogether wanting when we
endeavour to restore, in imagination, the probable extent of the
older formations that might then have existed as dry land, but
which now lie buried in the depths of the ocean, or have since
been covered by an accumulation of more recent deposits.

If we consider the immense quantity of detrital matter, that
must have been required to form beds of such prodigious extent
and thickness, as many of those which are met with in the coal-
fields of different parts of the world ; we shall naturally be led to
the conclusion that, in the immediate neighbourhood of these
deposits, much more extensive tracts of land must have existed,
in connection with each other, than could possibly have been af-
forded by the older portions of the present countries. For what-
ever might have been the conditions of the globe, in this respect,
at that epoch, we have convincing proofs in the organic remains
of plants, which abound in all the members of the carboniferous
series, as well as in the acknowledged vegetable origin of the coal

02

108 Lord Greenock on the Coal Formation of the

itself, of the pre-existence of a sufficient extent of dry land,
clothed with a luxuriant tropical vegetation, to have supplied
this detritus and these remains, and sufficiently elevated to have
given rise to the rivers and torrents, by the action of which this
transported matter must have been carried down into the lakes
or estuaries, in which, to all appearance, such deposits were
formed. Whether this land constituted groups of islands, ac-
cording to the opinion of many geologists, or continents of great-
er or less extent, which, by subsequent revolutions, have been
either wholly or partially submerged by the existing sea, is not
our present object to inquire; but, from the size and position of
the fossil trees enveloped in many of the beds of this formation,
and other phenomena connected with them, there appear to be
strong grounds for inferring that the volume of water discharged
by these rivers, and the magnitude of their estuaries, must have
been much more considerable than would probably have been
the case if they had been situated in small islands ; and the oc-
currence of terrestrial plants, with the remains of fishes, and of
mollusca, that had either been the inhabitants of fresh-water or
of shallow seas, in the lowest beds of the series, which have after-
wards been covered by other deposits more decidedly of a marine
character, seems to shew, that, although the former might have
been originally deposited in lakes, or on flat shores near the
mouths of rivers, frequent alternations in the relative level of the
sea and land may probably have taken place since, by which a
corresponding succession of deposits, varying accordingly in the
character of their organic remains, have been. produced.

The intermixture, however, of organic remains of a fluviatile
character, with those of marine fishes and shells, is very general
throughout the coal-measures, and it is still doubtful whether
any well-authenticated proof exists of any beds having yet been
discovered in the carboniferous series, which, from their organic
contents, could be pronounced to have had exclusively a fresh-
water origin, unless an exception. should be found in the lime-

Great Valley of the Scottish Lowlands. 109

stone noticed by Mr Murcuison at Pontesbury, and other places
in the Shropshire coal district; for the opinion expressed by M.
Aeassiz, relative to the ichthyolites which have been found in
the Scottish coal-fields, has shewn that neither the Burdiehouse
limestone, nor any of the other beds of the carboniferous group
in this country, with which we are at present acquainted, have
any claim to be so considered ; nevertheless, there are peculiari-
ties in the character of the limestone at Burdiehouse, both in re-
gard to its organic contents, and to its position in the series,
which render it an object of the highest geological interest: and
the discovery by Dr H1nzERr1, of a new species of sauroid fish, the
Megalichthys, in that limestone, is one of the most important
that has been made in the present times.

In Scotland, the greater part of the secondary formations, in-
cluding the coal-measures, have been deposited in that extensive
district which now forms the great valley of the Scottish Low-
lands, and separates the primary country, of which the northern-
most extremity of Great Britain is chiefly composed, from the
transition chain of the southern border (at that time probably
partly submarine), which may be geologically considered as. the
South Highlands.

According to W1Lu1ams*, a line drawn from the mouth of the
Tay, passing through Stirling to the northern extremity of the
Isle of Arran, and another nearly parallel to it from St Abb’s
Head on the east coast, to Girvan on the west, will include be-
tween them the whole of the coal-fields of Scotland, with the ex-
ception of the insulated coal basins on the Nith and the Esk in
Dumfriesshire, and the seams of coal that have been worked in
Roxburghshire and on the coast of Berwickshire. The coal beds
of Brora, and those that have been met with in some of the He-
brides, have generally been referred to formations of a more re-
cent period.

* History of the Mineral Kingdom, vol. ii. p. 302.

110 Lord Greenock on the Coal Formation of the

These lines are merely noticed here, in order to convey a ge-
neral idea of the space occupied by the coal districts of the Scot-
tish Lowlands ; but they can by no means be considered as defin-
ing their precise limits with any degree of accuracy. On the
south side of the great valley, these coal-measures follow the si-
nuosities of the transition hills by which they are bounded in
that direction. Towards the north, although secondary strata
referable to the lowest members of the carboniferous series are
met with, skirting the base of the North Highlands, no workable
coal (of the same formation) appears to have been found beyond
the Tay, or to the northward of the boundary Mr Wii1ams has
indicated.

Although coal may not occur in equal abundance in every part
of the district included within the limits specified, the causes by
which it was produced having probably been influenced during
their operation in a greater or less degree by local circumstances, in
consequence of which a more copious deposition of the vegetable
and bituminous matter from which this valuable combustible was
derived, as well as a greater or less difference in the organic contents,
or mineral character, of the associated strata may have taken place
in some situations than in others ; yet, when we consider that, with
a few exceptions, only occasioned by the partial intrusion of rocks
of’another description, the whole extent of this space is occupied
by an alternation of limestones, sandstones, slate clay, bituminous
shale, coal, and ironstone, containing all the characteristic indica-
tions of their being members of the same formation, we have fair
grounds for supposing, that although now separated into different
fields or basins, the whole of the coal-measures throughout this
extensive district were in all probability originally connected: the
strata appearing to have been deposited more or less in a hori-
zontal position, according to the force of the currents by which
their materials had been transported, and to the nature of the sur-
face upon which they were thrown down at the bottom of the s ea,
that must then have covered at least the whole of that portion of

Great Valley of the Scottish Lowlands. 111

the Scottish Lowlands, forming either a strait or channel between
two islands, or perhaps a vast estuary into which the rivers of the
neighbouring primeval countries discharged their waters. The
ripple marks, which are so remarkably displayed on the surface
of the different beds of this series, even of those which are now
the most highly inclined, likewise afford very strong evidence in
favour of this supposition.

If we examine the nature of those portions of the district re-
ferred to, which form the exceptions to that regularity and con-
tinuity of the beds of the carboniferous series, we have supposed
to have prevailed at the period of their deposition, we shall at
once see that the rocks of which they are composed; although
equally formed beneath the sea, could not like them have been
mechanically produced by the transporting action of water, their
crystalline character, and the various phenomena exhibited in
their relations with the fossiliferous strata, affording sufficient
proof of their origin having been due to a different agency, as
well as that the ranges or groups of hills of the same description,
which are now seen to interrupt or cut off the coal-measures se-
parating them, into the fields or basins in which they are found
at the present day, have for the most part been elevated at pe-
riods subsequent to the deposition and consolidation of that
series.

It. is now generally admitted, that these trappean hills and
rocks are of igneous origin, the eruptions of porphyry, greenstone,
or basalt by which they were produced having taken place from
submarine volcanoes, or through cracks or fissures in the previ-
ously existing strata which at that period formed the bottom of
the sea, over the surface of which the igneous matter appears to
have been poured out in sheets of greater or less extent, either
continuously, that is to say, one stratum overflowing another in
constant succession, so as to form the immense overlying masses
which everywhere present themselves to view in the coal mea-

112 Lord Greenock on the Coal Formation of the

sures, enveloping and carrying up in its passage large fragments
of the broken strata, and exhibiting all those signs of violence
and intrusion which such rocks so frequently display; or they
may sometimes have been followed by sufficient intervals of re-
pose, to have admitted of new deposits of sandstones, shales, or
limestones, above the produce of each successive eruption, and in
this way the interstratification of the trap with these beds, may
be accounted for in those cases in which few, or no marks of dis-
turbance are visible.

To the effects of Plutonic action during the carboniferous
epoch, which may have been in activity for ages under the pres-
sure of the superincumbent ocean, may be referred, besides the
dislocations and undulations by which the strata are broken and
distorted, those gradual risings and depressions of the land which
‘it seems necessary to admit, in order to explain the alternations
we so frequently meet with in the coal-measures, of beds teeming
with the remains of marine animals, with others in which they
are totally wanting, or that contain only those of terrestrial plants.
In fact, they appear to have been the means of gradually prepar-
ing the countries occupied by these deposits, for the purposes
which, in after times, they were destined to fulfil, when, by a re-
newal of the same agency, both descriptions of rocks were simul-
taneously lifted up above the waters in their consolidated state,
to the positions they relatively occupy at the present day.

Nor is the infinite wisdom that has presided over the forma-
tion of our planet in this, as well as in every period, apparent on-
ly in the changes that have been thus produced in the configura-
tion of its surface; for when we consider the various ways in
which these subterranean convulsions may have influenced the
chemical changes and combinations of the vegetable, animal, and
gaseous matters, through which the coal itself has been brought
into its present combustible form, they evidently appear to have
been the chief agents employed by the wise design of a benefi-
cent Providence, in the modification of this important deposit, by

Great Valley of the Scottish Lowlands. 113

which it was prospectively adapted to the future necessities of
the human race, which was not to be called into existence until
after the lapse of a long succession of geological epochs.

The Pentland, Campsie, and Ochill Hills, as well as many
others that occur within the limits specified, afford numerous and
striking examples of the effects produced by their intrusion
among the carboniferous strata, which, indeed, are no where
better seen than in the Plutonic group that surrounds Edin-
burgh.

The Pentland range, which lies in a direction from south-west
to north-east, is prolonged to the shores of the Frith of Forth
by the trap-hills of Edinburgh, separating the coal deposits of
East and Mid-Lothian from those which are situated to the west-
ward of that chain, and form the great coal district in the basin
of the Clyde. These hills bear strong internal evidence of their
having been elevated at periods subsequent to the consolidation
of the carboniferous series. In the midst of the Pentlands, a
mass of sandstone has been thrown up, which forms a hill of con-
siderable elevation ; and, although grauwacke-slate, and portions
of a conglomerate of the same age, are seen at Habbie’s-How, en-
veloped in the porphyry, it is highly probable that, if many of
the rocks of this range, which have hitherto been referred to the
transition period, were subjected to chemical analysis, they would
be found to consist of the sandstones or the slate-clay of the coal-
formation, altered to their present appearance by the effect of the
igneous rocks with which they ‘are in contact.

The occurrence of glance-ceal, both in veins and disseminat-
ed in the porphyry and trap tuffa of the Calton Hill, and, in a
similar manner, in most of the other hills of this group, tends also
very strongly to confirm this opinion ; for it has most probably
been caused by the igneous matter having burst through the
coal strata in a fluid state, carrying up fragments of the coal with
it, which, being by this process deprived of their bituminous
qualities, have been converted into anthracite.

VOL. XIII. PART [. P

114 Lord Greenock on the Coal Formation of the

The Campsie Hills particularly, in the neighbourhood of Kil-
syth, exhibit several magnificent sections illustrative of the pe-
riod and manner of their elevation, when viewed in the relations
they are there seen to bear to the carboniferous series. In the
Bathgate Hills, and in Stirlingshire, coal and limestone are
worked beneath columnar trap; and, indeed, the whole country
occupied by the Scottish coal-measures displays more or less the
effects produced by the influence of such igneous hills, or of the
dykes connected with them, some of the former rising into moun-
tain masses, others forming detached hills, either lofty and
rugged, or scarcely elevated above the level of the surrounding
country ; while many of the latter do not penetrate to the sur-
face, but remain at greater or less depths beneath it, producing
much disturbance in the strata below, as well as many of the dis-
locations and elevations that are observed above ground, although
the cause itself may not be perceptible.

When viewed collectively, a certain degree of parallelism may
be observed in the principal chains formed by the hills of this
nature, their general bearing being from the westward of south
to the eastward of north, which corresponds with the general
strike of the fossiliferous rocks ; and they sometimes appear to
assume a circular arrangement, encompassing valleys or basins of
greater or less extent. This, however, cannot be said to be the
case with respect to the smaller groups or insulated masses, many
of which seem to have been protruded through the strata at dif-
ferent times, and under varying circumstances, without any ap-
parent order or regularity ; and the dykes are found to proceed
in every direction from the principal masses, in some cases ap-
pearing to radiate from them as centres.

Besides the interruption occasioned to the coal measures by
the elevation of the hills, by which the coal-fields are now sepa-
rated from each other, their connection has in many instances
been more or less cut off by rivers, estuaries, or portions of the
sea, the beds of which have been formed in these deposits. This

Great Valley of the Scottish Lowlands’, 115

is particularly exemplified by the Clyde, the Frith of Forth, and
very probably by that part of the Irish Channel which is situ-
ated within the prolongation of the lines before adverted to, as
they flow through or cover strata of the coal formation, which
though now removed by, or concealed beneath their waters, we
have every reason to presume had once been continuous with
those that are still visible on their opposite shores.

The connection between the Lothian coal-fields and that of
Fifeshire, is very apparent, both in the general direction of the
strata as shewn by their outcrop on the opposite shores of the
Frith of Forth, and in the number and thickness of the beds of
coal in each, which exactly correspond. Coal, too, is worked to
some extent under the bed of the Frith at the Wemyss colliery
in Fifeshire ; but, in consequence of the frequent dislocations and
other changes that may be attributed to the influence of igneous
rocks, it would be difficult to establish the complete identity of
each particular stratum on both sides of the water.

The carboniferous strata seen in the Island of Arran, and at
Campbellton in Kintyre, appear to be only portions of the bed
of the Irish channel, that have either been brought up to their
present positions by the elevation of the plutonic rocks with
which they are associated, or left in those situations when the
disruption took place, by which that channel was formed ; for al-
though the coal district does not immediately shew itself on the
Irish coast except at Ballycastle, being cut off by the trap of
Antrim, there are still sufficient indications of its former existence
along that shore, to prove the geological connection in this, as
well as in most other respects between the west of Scotland and
the north-east of Ireland.

The Scottish coal-measures having hitherto been very imper-
fectly described, their exact position in the series, as compared
with that of the coal formation of England, has never been pre-
cisely determined ; and although more than forty years have
elapsed since the remarkable organic remains which have lately

P2

116 Lord Greenock on the Coal Formation of the

excited so much interest were first noticed in the coal-fields of
Scotland, the important conclusions that might have been derived
from this valuable addition to the paleontology of that period
appear to have been entirely overlooked.

It may, however, be worthy of notice in this place, that al-
though traces of some of the more recent secondary formations,
such as the lias and oolite, and even chalk flints, have been ob-
served in the northern parts of the island where primary rocks
chiefly prevail; none whatever of a later date than the coal-mea-
sures (if we except the alluvial deposits) have been met with in
the Great Valley of the Scottish Lowlands. For the red sand-
stones of that district do not appear in any instance to have been
identified with the new red sandstone of England, but they have,
apparently on good grounds, been referred by the best geological
authorities to the lower part of the carboniferous series.

Professor Sepewick * and Mr Conyseare + have remarked
that some of the inferior beds of the English coal-measures, such
as the millstone grit and limestone shale, which are but of little
importance in the southern coal-fields, spread out as they proceed
northwards, presenting subordinate beds of coal; and as these
strata approach the transition chain of the Scottish border, the
lower beds of the carboniferous limestone, in like manner, be-
come subdivided, and alternate with coal, sandstone, and shale,
the calcareous beds decreasing, and the coal-beds increasing, until
they assume the character of a regular coal formation, to which
that of Scotland bears so much analogy, as to render it highly
probable that the same law has extended beyond these mountains,
and that the Scottish coal-measures occupying the great valley
of the Lowlands, are equally referable to the lower beds of the
carboniferous limestone group.

* Sepewrcx’s Address to the Geological Society, 1831.

+ Conyszarn’s Report on Geology, Transactions of the British Association,
vol. i.

Great Valley of the Scottish Lowlands. 117

' Mr De La Becug, in a recent work on theoretical geology, *
from a consideration of the facts connected with these coal-mea-
sures, is led to the conclusion, that, at the period when the carbo-
niferous limestone of the south of England was produced in the
sea, there was probably dry land in the part of the European
area not far to the northward of the present Tweed, and that a
gradual rise of the land was effected, by which means terrestrial
vegetation travelled farther to the south, so that its remains be-
came abundantly entombed in that direction, producing the coal
now found in Southern England and Wales, as also in Belgium
and Northern France, the continuity of the whole being super-
ficially concealed by the more recent secondary and tertiary de-
posits of those countries.

But, as Mr De xa Becue so justly and eloquently adds, +
“ To trace even the probable positions of dry land over the Eu-
ropean area at the carboniferous epoch, would be most difficult,
particularly when we recollect that what we term a geological
epoch, may include a long series of ages, and that thus land may
rise and fall, be degraded and replaced, sometimes by the same,
sometimes by greater, intensities of various forces than those the
effects of which we daily witness, and yet the whole be included
in a geological epoch, or rather one during which a particular
group of rocks has been formed.”

* Geological Researches, p. 318. + Ibid. p. 322.

C*Tig®)

Chemical Examination of the Petroleum of Rangoon. By Rosert
Curistison, M.D. F.R.S. E. Professor of Materia Medica in
the University of Edinburgh, &c.

(Read February 7. 1831.)

Ar the close of the preceding session, the Council of the So-
ciety did me the honour of entrusting me with the chemical ex-
amination of several articles sent not long ago to the Society by
Mr Swintoy, Secretary to Government at Calcutta. The arti-
eles in question are, 1. Specimens of the black varnish used in
different parts of Hindostan and the Burmese territories, with
specimens of the juices of which these varnishes are said to be
compounded ; 2. Specimens of naphtha from Persia, and of petro-
leum from Rangoon; 3. Specimens of wood-oil, a variety of fluid
turpentine; 4. Specimens of crude caoutchouc, and of solutions of
it in wood-oil.

The only one of these articles which has hitherto yielded re-
sults of such interest as to induce me to lay them before the So-
ciety, is the petroleum of Rangoon, which appears to contain a
compound inflammable principle hitherto unknown.

The petroleum of Rangoon, termed by Mr Swinrow Earth-
oil, and more generally in the East, Ground-oil, is probably the
same with what may be procured in various parts of our eastern
dominions, by merely digging a few feet into the soil. In the
vicinity of Rangoon it may be obtained in immense quantity for
the mere trouble of digging it. It is used in Hindostan as pitch
for all manner of wood-work ; and is likewise a favourite external
remedy for rheumatism, being employed for that purpose in the
way of friction.

Professor Curistison on the Petrolewm of Rangoon. 119

I am not aware that either this, or any of the European pe-
troleums, has been subjected to careful analysis; and I should
suppose no such analysis has been made, because no chemist,
even with a careless examination, could have failed to observe
that it contains a peculiar principle, the discovery of which would
have given the analysis publicity.

The petroleum of Rangoon, at ordinary temperatures in this
country, is a soft solid, of the consistence of lard. Its specific
gravity, at the temperature of 60° Fahr. is 880, water being 1000.
At the temperature of 86°, it is of the consistence of thin paste,
and at 90° it melts completely, and forms a sluggish liquid, which
acquires more fluidity as the temperature rises. Hence in the
East, during the hot season, when it is dug for, it must be in the
fluid state, and consequently entitled to its vulgar name ground-
oil. It has a powerful naphthous odour, different from that of
most other petroleums.

It is impossible to analyze this petroleum by means of the or-
dinary chemical solvents. Most of these solvents, such as the acids
and alkalies, have little or no action on it ; while alcohol, which
acts feebly, and, ether and the volatile oils, which act energeti-
cally, dissolve all its principles indiscriminately. The only prac-
ticable method of analysis, therefore, is the process by distillation.

When six ounces of petroleum were distilled, there was first
procured, at a low heat, an ounce of nearly colourless naphtha;
then another ounce of straw-yellow naphtha; then, at a higher
heat, about another ounce, much more yellow, yet still fluid at
60° Fahr.; next, a considerable quantity of a yellowish liquid,
which concreted at 60° into a loose mass, composed of numerous
crystalline needles and plates, in a yellow naphthous fluid; and,
as the distillation went on, this matter became more and more
solid, but even towards the end was not firmer in consistence
than lard. The residual matter in the retort, when the heat had
been raised to full redness, was a spongy charcoal.

The naphtha, when rectified by a second distillation over a

120 Professor Curistrson on the Chemical Examination of

lamp, and then by a third distillation from the vapour-bath, is
limpid and colourless, like sulphuric ether, and its density is 779.
From the trials I have made, I consider that the Rangoon pe-
troleum, when distilled on the large scale, will yield nearly a
third of its volume of this colourless naphtha.

IT need scarcely observe, that, in eastern countries, where the
fresh juice of the caoutchouc tree cannot be procured, the naph-
tha from the Rangoon petroleum may prove a useful article.
Like other kinds of naphtha it freely dissolves, or rather softens,
caoutchouc ; which, after the evaporation of the solvent, is reco-
vered with its original properties. When it is to be used for this
purpose, however, it must be carefully separated by distillation
from the crystalline matter I am presently to describe, which rises
as the distillation advances, and gives the naphtha a yellow co-
lour. For, if any material proportion of this impurity be pre-
sent, the caoutchouc solution dries very slowly, and long retains a
greasy surface.

The yellowish, concrete, crystalline matter, like the petro-
leum itself, is not acted on by the caustic alkalies, or by the
strong acids. Alcohol dissolves it very sparingly; ether and the
essential oils, freely and entirely. None of these solvents, there-
fore, is of any use for separating the crystalline matter from the
mass. But I have succeeded in procuring it in a state of purity
by the following process :

The mass being cooled down to about 40° Fahr. it was spread
out on filtering paper, and then subjected to strong pressure be-
tween many folds of common blotting paper. In this manner, an
oily-like matter was taken up by the paper, and a pale yellowish-
white crystalline substance was left, which was subsequently de-
prived of its remaining colour by repeated solution in boiling
ether and recrystallization. ther dissolved it largely, forming a
pale yellow solution, which, on being cooled by immersing the
vessel in very cold water, became a soft mass of interwoven crys-
tals. This mass was then taken out, spread quickly on filtering

the Petroleum of Rangoon. 121

paper, and immediately subjected to strong pressure between
folds of blotting paper. The yellow colouring matter, which all re-
mained in solution in the ether after it cooled, was thus, ina great
measure, imbibed by the paper; and the crystalline matter was
procured in a state of purity by repeating this process twice.

’ On first procuring this crystalline substance, I considered it
as the same with the naphthaline procured not long ago from coal-
tar by Mr Kipp, as related in his paper in the Philosophical
Transactions for 1821. This opinion I was led to form from the
appearance of the crystals, the nature of the substance which
yields them, and the process of distillation by which they were
procured.

On a careful examination, however, I find that the crystal-
line principle of petroleum differs materally from that of coal-tar,
as well as from every other known body ; and I shall therefore
beg leave to denominate it Petroline, according to the analogy
suggested by the name of Mr Krpp’s crystalline principle.

As procured by the process described above, petroline forms
foliaceous masses of small crystals of snowy whiteness, and bright
pearly lustre. It is somewhat unctuous, and has a naphthous
odour, which becomes very faint on exposure for some time to
the air, and is removed altogether by boiling in alcohol. It
fuses at 135° into a transparent, limpid, colourless fluid; but
softens ten degrees lower. From a state of fusion it concretes
on cooling into a translucent brittle mass, like wax, the density
of which is 909 at 60° Fahr. At a temperature intermediate
between the boiling point of water and a low red heat, the fluid
boils, and distillation takes place. The greater part of the petro-
line condenses in the form of a fluid, which becomes on cooling
a translucent waxy mass, with its original properties. But owing
to the elevated temperature required for its distillation, a part
is decomposed, a little charcoal is left behind, and a small quan-
tity of inflammable gas passes over with the undecomposed sub-

VOL. XIII. PART I. Q

122 Professor Curisrison on the Petroleum of Rangoon.

limate. When heated in the open air, it catches fire, and burns
with a dense white flame and much black smoke.

Petroline is insoluble in water, cold or boiling. Boiling al-
cohol takes up a small quantity, not more than a 450th of its
weight, and on cooling deposites the greater part in minute shin-
ing crystals. Boiling ether, its proper solvent, easily takes up a
fifth of its weight, which on cooling is in a great measure sepa-
rated in a congeries of micaceous crystals, so abundant as appa-
rently to convert the ether into a solid mass. Oil of turpentine
also dissolves it in large quantity, and so does naphtha.

Caustic potass and. caustic ammonia in solution have no visi-
ble effect on this substance. When boiled with it, it simply
fuses, rises to the surface, and is there found, on cooling, with its
usual properties. Concentrated muriatic, nitric, and sulphuric
acids are equally without action, even when aided by the heat
necessary to boil each. It simply melts and rises to the surface,
and, except that it becomes slightly yellow with nitric, and slight-
ly brown with sulphuric acid, no change of property is percepti-
ble. It has no action with acetic or oxalic acid.

With iodine aided by a gentle heat, it quickly unites, form-
ing a violet-coloured fluid, which on cooling becomes a dirty.
greenish-brown. solid, very soluble, like each of its elements, in
sulphuric ether.

I have not made any inquiry into the other chemical rela-
tions of petroline, my object at present being merely to establish
its claims to be considered a new principle, distinct from any
other hitherto known. In its properties it resembles. naphtaline
more than any other substance ; but at the same time it differs
from that body in very many respects. Naphtaline volatilizes at
common atmospherical temperatures ; does not fuse under 180°
Fahr. ; and, when heated a little above 400°, boils and sublimes
in fine micaceous crystals. It is heavier than water. It forms
a rose-coloured solution with acetic or oxalic acid; and with sul<
phuric acid it unites to form a peculiar acid, termed the: Sulpho-

the Petroleum of Rangoon. 123

naphtalic, which, like other acids, neutralizes bases and forms
salts with them. A single glance will satisfy every one how com-
pletely this account of the properties of naphtaline differs from
the description given above of the properties of petroline.

It remains for me to determine its elementary composition.
This I have not hitherto found leisure to accomplish ; but I am
engaged in the requisite experiments at the present moment,
and will soon make them known to the Society. The experi-
ments hitherto made merely enable me to say, that it contains a
very large proportion of carbon.

APPENDIX.—December 1884.

A few months after the preceding paper was read before the
Royal Society, the author observed in BucHNER’S Repertorium, an
account of the discovery, in 1830, by Dr RrIcHENBACH, of a new
crystalline principle in tar, to which that chemist gave the name
of Paraffine. As the properties of paraffine seemed from that
account to be obviously identical with those of the Petroline of
the Rangoon petroleum, and as Dr RericHENBACH had ascer-
tained its properties and composition fully, any farther investi-
gation of the crystalline matter of petroleum appeared unneces-
sary. ‘The original paper is now published, partly because allu-
sions have been made to it in chemical works, and partly to serve
as an introduction to the ulterior inquiry of Dr Grecory on the
same subject.

The author, soon after laying this paper before the Royal So-
ciety, examined by the same process the petroleum of St Cathe-
rine’s near Edinburgh, of Rochdale in Derbyshire, and of the
island of Trinidad ; but was unable to detect a similar crystalline
principle in any of them.

( 124).

On the Composition of the Petroleum of Rangoon, with Remarks on
Petroleum and Naphtha in general. By Wivu1am Grecory,
M. D., F. R.S. E., Lecturer on Chemistry, Edinburgh, &c.

(Read 15th December 1834. )

In the month of August 1830, Rercnensacn published his
first memoir on the products of the destructive distillation of
organic bodies, in which he described a new principle, to which
he gave the name of Paraffine, as constantly occurring among
those products. Not long after, in 1831, Dr Curisrison read
before this Society a paper, in which he described a substance
contained in the petroleum of Rangoon, to which he affixed the
name of Petroline. On comparing the properties of these two
substances, it was found that they agreed so nearly, that no
doubt could be entertained that they were one and the same.
As the priority of discovery rests with Dr Reicyenzacn, the
name of Paraffine is now generally adopted. The properties of
paraffine are as follows :—It is white, tasteless, inodorous, rather
tough, lighter than water, fusible at 125° or 130° F., and it dis-
tils unchanged at a higher temperature. It resists the action of
the strongest acids and alkalies ; and, finally, when pure, it burns
with a bright flame without smoke. In a second memoir pub-
lished by RercuEensBacn in 1831, he described another of the
products of destructive distillation, under the name of Eupione.
This body, according to the latest experiments*, is a liquid, colour-

,* Scuwetccer Scrpxt’s Journal fiir Praktische Chemie, April 1834.

On the Composition of the Petroleum of Rangoon. 125

less and tasteless, but possessed of a fragrant odour. It is re-
markably fluid, and is the lightest liquid known under the ordi-
nary pressure, having a sp. gr. of only .655. It boils at 110°, dis-
tilling unchanged. Like paraffine, it resists the strongest acids
and alkalies, and burns with a bright white flame without smoke.
In the same memoir, Dr Retcnenzacu states, that, proceeding
on the usual idea that native naphtha was a product of destruc-
tive distillation, he examined it with a view to detect in it the
new substance eupione, but could not succeed in obtaining a
trace of it. He ascribed his failure to the difficulty of procuring
genuine naphtha, and conjectured that oil of turpentine had been
employed to adulterate the naphtha examined by him, which
possessed in a high degree the peculiar odour and other proper-
ties of that oil. He returned to the subject in a third memoir,
published in 1833, in which he stated, that he had carefully exa-
mined the best naphtha he could procure, but had been unable to
discover in it the smallest quantity either of paraffine or of eupione.
Struck with this result, he began to think that naphtha might
not, after all, be really a product of destructive distillation. He
distilled large quantities of brown coal along with water, conse-
quently at 212°, at which temperature no destructive distillation
could occur, and obtained considerable quantities of a naphtha,
which agreed in all its characters with that which he had previ-
ously examined. It contained neither paraffine, eupione, nor any
other product of destructive distillation, and, to his great sur-
prise, presented the characteristic odour of oil of turpentine.
He then proceeded to compare together the naphtha of com-
merce, the naphtha prepared by himself, which, of course, had not
been adulterated, and pure oil of turpentine; and the result of
the comparison was, that these three bodies, in sp. gr., in their
boiling point, and in their chemical properties, exactly coincided.
From this remarkable coincidence he drew the conclusion, that
the naphtha (native) which he had examined was not adulterat-
ed, but genuine ; and that it was nothing more than the oil of.

126 Dr Grecory on the Composition of

turpentine of the great pine-forests, to which our coal-beds owe
their origin, having been separated by a gentle heat, either before
the conversion of the wood into coal, or from the coal itself, as in
his own experiments. It does not appear distinctly what native
naphtha Dr ReicuenBacn examined ; but, from several passages,
it would seem to have been that of Amiano.

On reading the last mentioned memoir of RetcnEnsacn, it
seemed obvious that the character given by him of this naphtha
was very different from that of Persian naphtha, or from that of
the naphtha which may be obtained from the petroleum of Ran-
goon by distillation ; and when, in addition to this, we consider
the existence of paraffine in the latter, it is impossible not to in-
fer, that, if Dr RercuenBacn’s experiments be correct, or rather
if his naphtha were genuine, there must exist, at least, two very
different kinds of naphtha. I resolved, therefore, to subject the
Rangoon oil to a new examination, in order to ascertain whether
or not it contained eupione. Dr Curisrison having kindly sup-
plied me with a considerable quantity, I proceeded to rectify it,
in the first instance ; and I very soon obtained a liquid, possessed,
in a very considerable degree, of the properties of eupione, parti-
cularly its mobility, low sp. gr., and odour like that of narcissus.
This rectified naphtha, although far from pure, has a sp. gr. of
only .765, and boils at 200° F. I then subjected it to the action
of oil of vitriol, and of a concentrated solution of potash, several
times alternately, and also, as recommended by ReicuENnsacn,
to distillation with strong sulphuric acid and nitre. It resisted
all these agents, for the most part, and, when finally rectified,
assumed the appearance of the specimen No. 2., the sp. gr. of
which is .744, which boils at 180° F., and which possesses, in a
more marked degree than before, the peculiar odour of eupione.
This odour, I may add, is exactly that of some impure eupione,
which I extracted from coal-tar naphtha, and from the liquid
produced by distilling caoutcheuc. The smallness of the quan-

the Petroleum of Rangoon. 127

tity has alone prevented me from pushing the purification
further.

From these experiments, I consider myself entitled to con-
clude, that the petroleum of Rangoon contains eupione in very
considerable quantity ; and, as Dr Curtstrson has already shewn
that paraffine may be extracted from it, we can no longer doubt
that it has been produced at a high temperature, or, in other
words, that it is a product of destructive distillation.

Dr Crristisoy, in his original paper on petroline, mentioned
that a quantity of oil, sent by Mr Swinton to the Society as
pure Persian naphtha, appeared to be pure oil of turpentine,
which he concluded to have been substituted for the naphtha. I
at first thought from Dr Rercuensacn’s experiments, that it
might have been at once genuine naphtha, and genuine oil of tur-
pentine ; only, in this case, it must have been of that species’ of
naphtha, which, like the artificial naphtha distilled from coal at
212° by Retcrennacn, is not the product of destructive distilla-
tion. But Mr Swinton states that it has not the characters of
true Persian naphtha, and although he was persuaded at the
time that he had sent genuine naphtha, he is now convinced that
a mistake has been committed. The Persian naphtha described
and analyzed by Dr THomson some years ago, of which he was
kind enough to send me a small specimen, has again the charac-
teristic odour of the Rangoon naphtha, indicating the presence
of eupione. Dr Tomson obtained, by rectification, naphtha of
753, and boiling at 320°; while the eupione first described by
Rercuenzacn boiled almost precisely at the same temperature, ,
and had the sp. gr. .740. Some naphtha sold in Paris for pre-
serving potassium, which is colourless and very free from oxygen,
yielded to me by two successive rectifications, a liquid of sp. gr:
755, almost exactly that of Dr ‘l'aomson’s rectified Persian
naphtha. Saussure obtained from the naphtha of Amiano, a li-
quid of sp: gr. 758, boiling at 186°, thus approaching more near-.
ly to the boiling point of Eupione.

128 Dr Grecory on the Composition of

The naphtha examined by Saussure, then, that analyzed by
Dr Tomson, that which may be extracted from the Rangoon
petroleum, and that now sold in Paris, all agree in yielding a li-
quid of sp. gr. 0.753 to .765; while that of oil of turpentine is
0.830, and has never been stated lower than 790. Moreover, Dr
Tuomson’s Persian naphtha, that of Rangoon, and the commer-
cial naphtha from Paris, all possess, in a considerable degree, the
characteristic odour of eupione. If we consider that the specific
gravity of pure eupione is 655, we shall not be surprised that its
odour is somewhat disguised, when it is so impure as to have the
sp. gr. 750. But we have other means of distinguishing between
eupione and oil of turpentine. The first is the action of nitric
acid. The violent decomposition produced by it in oil of tur-
pentine is well known. I have tried Persian, Rangoon, and com-
mercial naphtha with the very strongest fuming nitric acid, such
as set fire to turpentine, but there was no action except at a high
temperature, when a brown colour was produced. In fact, the
Rangoon naphtha, during its purification, was distilled with sul-
phurie acid and nitre without change. The next test was the
action of iodine, which produces a slight explosion when intro-
duced into oil of turpentine. In the three varieties of naphtha
just mentioned, there was scarcely any action beyond simple so-
lution, and, in all, the solution had a rich violet colour, which is
the colour of a solution of iodine in eupione. I am induced to
suspect that a small quantity of oil of turpentine may be present,
from the slight action manifested by nitric acid, and even by
iodine, at a high temperature. But the presence of oil of tur-
pentine is to be looked for in these liquids, if we consider them
the products of the destructive distillation of Coniferze, since the
first effect of heat would be to expel the oil of turpentine, which
would afterwards mix with the products of the true destructive
distillation. Even admitting, therefore, that these varieties of
naphtha contain oil of turpentine, still I conceive we must be sa-
tisfied that it is not a chief ingredient, far less, as in the oils ex-

the Petroleum of Rangoon. 129

amined. by Dr Reicuensacu, the only substance present ; and if
the characters I have mentioned be sufficient to prove the pre-
sence of eupione, these oils must be considered products of de-
structive distillation. This point, as far as the Rangoon naphtha
is concerned, has, I think, been decided by the discovery of pa-
raffine in it; and I think I have been able to ascertain the same
fact with regard to the Persian naphtha described by Dr Tuom-
son. Dr Tuomson sent me two specimens, one of Persian
naphtha, which Mr Swinton considers genuine ; the other of pe-
troleum, which Dr Tuomson said would yield the same naphtha.
The latter, however, turns out to be Trinidad asphaltum sent by
mistake. My experiments, therefore, were confined to the naph-
tha already mentioned. This naphtha, being the most volatile
portion of the petroleum, cannot be expected to contain more
than a trace of the paraffine, which accumulates on the more fix-
ed portions. Accordingly, on redistilling this naphtha, and col-
lecting separately the last portion distilled, I found that when
exposed to cold it became semisolid, just like the latter portions
of the distillation of the Rangoon petroleum. I shall take the
first opportunity of deciding the question on a larger scale ; but
in the mean time, from the great resemblance between this Per-
sian naphtha and that of Rangoon, and the indications of paraf-
fine I have obtained from the former, I am inclined to believe
that the Persian and Rangoon petrolea are identical in composi-
tion.

In conclusion, I would beg to state the chief results which
I have endeavoured to establish.

1. That there are some kinds of naphtha which contain pa-
raffine and eupione, and are consequently the results of destruc-
tive distillation.

2. That the naphtha examined by Dr Re1cuensacu, which
was oil of turpentine, if genuine, differs materially from that of
Rangoon and of Persia, as well as that now sold in Paris, which
are decidedly not oil of turpentine.

VOL, XIII. PART I. R

130 On the Composition of the Petroleum of Rangoon.

3. That the fact of oil of turpentine having been obtained by
Dr Rercuensacn, by distilling brown coal at 212°, proves that
that species of coal had not previously been exposed to a heat
sufficient to expel its oil of turpentine ; and, a fortiori, that: it
had never been subjected to destructive distillation.

It remains for the geologist to ascertain the sources of those
kinds of naphtha which are evidently the products of destructive
distillation. The petroleum of coal districts is probably not of
this kind, for coal, in its ready decomposition by heat, offers a
very strong argument against its having been at any time sub-
jected to a high temperature.

If an easy and economical process could be discovered for ex-
tracting the paraffine and eupion out of the oriental petroleum
in a state of purity, it seems obvious that the property of burn-
ing without smoke possessed by these bodies, would render them
capable of an important practical application in the countries
where they are found. Paraffine equals wax in the whiteness
and purity of its light, while it is much more permanent and in-
destructible ; and there is no liquid used for lamps, at all ap-
proaching to eupione in these properties. Moreover, both these
substances are entirely free from any disagreeable smell when
burnt. I have no doubt that a method of extracting them may
be contrived, so cheap as to be applicable in the east ; but in or-
der to do this, it is necessary to operate, in the first instance, on
much larger quantities than I have hitherto had at my disposal.

I propose, at a future time, to return to this interesting sub-
ject. 3

fy ndsBeleerd)

On the Refraction and Polarization of Heat. By James D. Forsss,
Esq., F. R. SS. L. & E., Professor of Natural Philosophy in the
University of Edinburgh.

(Read 5th and 19th January 1835.)

§ 1. Some Miscellaneous Experiments with the Thermo-Multi-
plier. § 2. On the Polarization of Heat by Tourmaline.
§ 3. On the Polarization of Heat by Refraction and Re-
flection. § 4. On the Depolarization and Double Refrac-
tion of Heat.

1. Tue experiments to be detailed in this paper, which chief-
ly go to establish properties of heat wholly unlooked for, or only
suspected to exist, having been made entirely by means of an in-
strument of great delicacy—the thermo-multiplier of MM. No-
pitt and Mettoyt, I shall premise some account of its application
to the investigation of some more familiar modes of action.

§ 1. Miscellaneous Experiments.

2. We could hardly quote a stronger proof of the rapid and
unexpected advances which enlarged theory may produce in
practice, than by referring to the employment of thermo-electric
action, discovered a few years since by SrEBeck, to the mea-
surement of heat, with a degree of accuracy and facility which,
perhaps, no thermometer has ever attained. Such is the prin-
ciple of the thermo-multiplier of Nosi11 and Meuxonr. It is well
known, that when two metals (and especially bismuth and anti-
mony) are soldered together, and the point of union heated, an
electric current is established from the one metal to the other,

R 2

132 Professor Forses on the Refraction

which may be carried off by wires, and caused to act upon a de-
licate galvanometer or multiplier, the needle of which serves as
an index ; the galvanometer consisting, of course, of a magnetic
needle, nearly freed from the influence of the earth’s magnetism,
and so connected with the wire which transmits the electricity,
that the mutual influence of the magnetism and the electricity
shall (by the law of Orsrep) be a maximum.

3. It will readily be conceived, that, if a series of alternating
bars of bismuth and antimony be placed parallel to each other,
and the extremities alternately soldered together, when all the
extremities facing one way are heated (as by the radiant influ-
ence of a lamp), whilst the others remain at the temperature of
the apartment, the effects produced in a single pair, such as we
first supposed, will be produced at each junction, and that the
intensity of the whole effect will be greater, just as in the Voltaic
pile. At one time it appeared doubtful how far electricity, of
such small tension as is thus produced, could be so reinforced ;
but the instrument in question seems to prove the practicability
of it. About thirty pairs are employed, and so delicately are they
made, that the ends which exhibit one set of junctions are con-
tained within a superficial area of four-tenths of a square inch.

4. The wires, from the extremity of the first and last element
(just as in the Voltaic battery), convey the electricity to the mul-
tiplier, which consists of a flattened coil of silver-wire, covered
with silk, the coils of the wire being parallel to the quiescent po-
sition of an astatic magnetic needle, which is perpendicular to
the magnetic meridian. The deviations are measured in the
usual manner, on a divided circle; upon which, with practice, a quar-
ter of a degree may always be observed, and even minuter quan-
tities occasionally estimated. These divisions are not necessari-
ly proportional to the intensities of the currents which produce
the corresponding deviations. The coils of wire, extending a
long way on each side of zero, prevent the effect from diminish-
ing so rapidly as if they were concentrated there ; and M. Mer-

and Polarization of Heat. 133

Loni has described, in his paper in the Annales de Chimie for May
1833, a simple and satisfactory method of estimating the relative
values of degrees, at different points of the scale. He states,
however, that, under 20° of deviation, he found them quite uni-
form. In the following experiments, the deviations were gene-
rally under 15°, and in almost no case exceeded 20°. I have
therefore assumed the forces to be as the deviations. Besides,
no change of importance would take place from a deviation from
this law by a small quantity.

5. It will be perceived in the experiments which are to be
detailed, that the determination of all the more important facts
depends generally on whether one effect be greater or less than
another, without much regard to their absolute amount. Now,
the confidence which we can place in the uniformity of this in-
strument, or at least of the small changes capable of affecting it
(since it is not liable like thermometers, and especially air-ther-
mometers, to advance by starts) is such, as to admit of almost in-
definite subdivision, where the relations of small quantities are
alone concerned. I conceived, therefore, that, without impairing
its sensibility by lengthening the galvanometer needle, we might
advantageously magnify the divisions by optical means. This I
proposed to do by observing the motions of the index by means
of a small telescope, fixing im front of the object glass a lens whose
focus is situated at the part of the scale desired to be magnified.
It might also be easy, in order to compare larger quantities, to
make this micrometric system revolve so as to be always similarly
placed as regards the needle, and thus avoid the effects of paral-
lax, which at present require constant vigilance.

6. The method here indicated, I have put in practice with
the greatest success in my later researches ; one-tenth of a degree
becomes easily visible, and the constancy of the indications fully
justify this method of microscopic examination, which has enabled
me to verify the most delicate deductions I had drawn from

134 Professor Fores on the Refraction

simple observation, and to obtain results which otherwise I must
have been unable confidently to announce.

7. For the precautions to be employed in the use of the
thermo-multiplier, I must refer to the first of M. Mrxiont’s
very original papers in the Annales de Chimie (for May 1833),
but I may state, once for all, that when habituated to the use
of it, I found it more simple, manageable, and comparable, than
I could previously have imagined. Notwithstanding its delicacy
and the promptitude of its action, a few precautions suffice to
prevent any derangement from without. The only inconveni-
ence which I experienced, was in the determination of the zero
of the scale, which appears liable to some fluctuations, which may
be considered as accidental.* It rarely happened, however, that
these affected the results of my experiments, because, as I have
said, these were always confined to small variations of tempera-
ture (indicated by a deviation generally under 15° on the scale)
when such fluctuations did not appear ; and. the results produced
by the same cause under the same circumstances were admirably
constant, as well as the position of the zero point.

8. There is one circumstance which gives a degree of delicacy
to the indications of the thermo-multiplier, when we wish to as-
certain very minute differences of effect, which no other thermo-
metric instrument possesses. . When we wish to ascertain the
existence, not the measure, of some cause of heat or cold, if we
watch the needle of the multiplier at the instant at which the
change of circumstances intended to produce the effect takes
place, we shall perceive, in the instantaneous effect on the needle,
an evidence of a far more decisive character than the merely statical

* This fluctuation appears to have been wholly, or almost wholly, owing to the
imperfect communications established between the pile and the galvanometer, which,
when I received the instrument from Paris, were in a very rude state, and the want
of continuity gave rise to some curious phenomena. Since I had the more import-
ant junctions soldered, these anomalies disappeared.

and Polarization of Heat. 135

deviation (at which, after several oscillations, it is finally to settle)
could afford. Not only does the acquired velocity frequently carry
it through double the space due to the statical effect ; but I have
observed that the action of the thermo-electric pile so far resembles
that of the voltaic, that we appear to have an excess of effect at the
first moment of action, which gives a greater deviation than can be
afterwards obtained *. It is therefore to be recollected, that in
speaking confidently of effects, which, statically speaking, are ex-
ceedingly small, the experimentalist has a species of evidence far
stronger than the mere numerical expression of the deviation of
the needle, but the degree of which must be taken on the faith
of his veracity. Thus I have obtained repeated differences, not
exceeding half or even a quarter of a degree of the multiplier
(observed without a telescope), which, by the promptitude with
which the needle was repelled or attracted at the instant that the
change of circumstances to be considered was effected, left as little
doubt in my mind as if the numerical result had been many times
greater.

9. Having satisfied myself, in a variety of ways, of the ex-
treme delicacy and promptitude of action of this instrument, I
thought of applying it to detect the heat of the moon’s rays in a
more unexceptionable manner than, I am persuaded, it has ever
been attempted. This curious question had not escaped MM.
Nosrz1 and Metionr when they first constructed the instru-
ment, and they mention in their first account of the thermo-mul-

* This remarkable effect, which may be described as an increase of tension by
confinement, seems generally to exist where the conductors of imponderable agents
oppose considerable resistance to their passage. It is familiar in Voltaic electricity,
and I have often observed it in magnetic electricity. It is similar to the action
which I have attempted to demonstrate in the passage of heat from good to bad con-
ductors (see the 12th Volume of these Transactions), where we have the full advan-
tage of the dynamical effect ; whilst the existence of statical tension in heat seems
likewise to be proved (as we might have anticipated) by the beautiful experiment
described by Professor Powett in the Philosophical Transactions for 1834.

136 Professor Forsers on the Refraction

tiplier their attempts at its solution *. But, like previous expe-
rimenters, they employed a metallic mirror to concentrate the
rays of the moon, which, acting in the usual manner of dispers-
ing the heat of the thermometer, produced so great a cooling
effect, as completely to neutralize any positive results.

10. It occurred to me, however, from the consideration of
M. Mettonr’s very decisive experiments as to the permeability
of screens of different kinds to heat from various sources, that the
moon’s heat must, in very great proportion at least, radiate
through glass. And this on several grounds ; as, 1. because the
sun’s heat, of which this may be considered as an integral part,
does so with scarcely any loss ; 2. because heat, accompanied by
light, always does so, and generally in proportion to the brilliancy
and refrangibility of that light ; and, 3. because the lunar rays ha-
ving passed through the whole thickness of the atmosphere must,
according to the experiments of Dr La Roce, fully confirmed
by Mettont, have parted with the greater part of that species of
heat most easily stopped, and hence arrive at the earth m a
state comparatively capable of passing through glass and si-
milar substances. If this opinion be correct (nor can I entertain
any doubt upon it), and if we substitute a lens for a mirror to con-
centrate the lunar rays, we shall profit by all, or nearly all, of their
heating effect, whilst such a lens, instead of promoting the radia-
tion of the heat of the thermometer to the sky, will entirely stop
it (because heat of this description does not pass sensibly through
the thinnest glass), and thus its disturbing influence will be en-
tirely prevented.

11. I employed, therefore, a polyzonal lens made by Soue1L
of Paris, in my custody, to concentrate the moon’s light. The
diameter of the lens is 50 inches; its focal distance about 41
inches, whence we may compute the size of the lunar image to
be a circle 0.38 inch in diameter. Comparing this with the di-

* Annales de Chimie et de Physique. December 1831.
5

and Polarization of Heat. 137

mensions of the intercepted cylinder of rays, we shall find the
concentration to exceed 6000 times. But even if we admit that
half the rays are reflected, dispersed and absorbed, we shall have
still an effective increase of 3000 times.

12. My experiments were made on the 16th December 1834,
between 9 and 11 o’clock, the moon being only 18 hours past full,
and (towards the close) less than 2 hours from the meridian. She
was also remarkably high, having a declination of 25° north. The
thermal pile, which was particularly commodious for the experi-
ment, had one extremity elevated to the proper angle, and being
placed accurately in the focus of the mirror, the moon’s image was
brilliantly thrown on the extremity of the pile. The sky was on
the whole very pure, though an occasional milkiness was per-
ceived, but the best observations were made at the clearest mo-
ments, because then the air was also most still; for though the
instrument was placed in a most sheltered spot, the faintest breeze
was indicated by the altered temperature inducing a deflection of
the needle, and with such promptitude, that I generally could per-
ceive in this way its approach before I could feel it. The action
of the lens was so perfect, that the image was extremely sharp, and
the spots clearly defined. The lunar rays were alternately
screened and admitted by an assistant passing a sheet of paste-
board across the surface of the lens next the moon ; for when it
was interposed between the lens and the instrument, a sensible
disturbance took place. By these and other precautions, the
needle was steady beyond my expectation, and during an hour
and a quarter that the observation lasted, I had probably at least
twenty perfectly unexceptionable comparative observations, free
from the influence of wind, and which invariably gave not the
faintest indication of warmth. When I got a deviation of the
needle at the moment of unscreening the moon’s rays, I verified
it by screening them instantly, and watching for a return to zero,
but I was always disappointed. I feel quite confident that the
effect, if there was any, could not amount to a quarter of a degree

VOL. XIII. PART I. s

138 Professor Forzes on the Refraction

of the galvanometer; and, owing to the dynamical effect which
I have described of a first impulse, that it is improbable that it
amounted to half that quantity.

13. Hence it becomes an object of interest to form some esti-
mate of the sensibility of the thermo-multiplier, compared to com-
mon thermometers. It would be difficult to give a precise mea-
sure of the degrees of temperature of the two extremities of the
pile,* but we may compare the effect of equal quantities of heat
upon this and another instrument. For this purpose I employed
two air thermometers of great delicacy ; one was the photometer
of Lxesiix, having one ball covered with lamp black, and exposed
to the same source of heat as the pile, whilst the other ball was
shaded. The other instrument was a vertical differential ther-
mometer, having a hemispherical reflector, intercepting a cone of
rays 2.50 square inches in section. I found it impossible to ope-
rate with small degrees of heat, which could not be reckoned ac-
curately on the air thermometers, owing to their tardy action ;
but, from several experiments, I concluded that the same quan-
tity of heat falling on the photometer ball and on the pile, moved
the liquid of the former through 1°, and the needle of the multi-
plier through 4.°2. The degrees of the photometer being 10ths
of 1° cent., one centigrade degree would correspond to 42° of the
galvanometer, (assumed of equal value throughout the scale.)
The experiment with the differential thermometer, being similar-
ly conducted, gave for the effects of equal quantities of heat, 1°
cent. to 62° of the multiplier. If we assume from these experi-
ments that a quantity of heat which raises an air thermometer
by one-fiftieth of a centigrade degree, affects the galvanometer
by 1°, since a quarter of a degree of the latter is a measurable

* This might best be done by adapting a differential thermometer of extreme
delicacy, so that the balls might be in contact with the two extremities of the pile,
and the spaces round them filled up with copper filings, or some such material.
But the experiment could hardly be quite decisive.

3

and Polarization of Heat. 139

quantity, and half of that may be estimated as a sensible impres-
sion, we may measure an effect of z}> of a centigrade degree,
and perceive (by unassisted vision), an effect of 745.

14, In the case of the moon’s rays, concentrated 3000 times,
we have seen that it is improbable that even the last effect was
produced. The whole sensitive extremity of the pile being larger
than the moon’s image, was not brought into action; but if we
compare their relative dimensions,* we shall still find that it is
improbable that the direct light of the moon would raise a ther-
mometer one three-hundred-thousandth part of a centigrade degree,
at least in this climate.

15. The value of the thermo-multiplier consists not so much in
the minuteness of its indications, which may easily be equalled
by employing large enough thermometers, but in the certainty
and rapidity of its action. Air thermometers, such as I compared
it with, though the size of the balls was inconsiderable, required
so long a time to assume their temperature, that, when exposed
simultaneously with the thermal pile to the source of heat, the
latter had almost assumed its maximum effect before the others
had sensibly moved ; and it is obvious that, in delicate experi-
ments, where constancy in the producing cause is presumed, ra-
pidity of execution is essential. In short, with an air thermo-
meter (which requires from 10 to 15 minutes to give a single re-
sult), the greater part of the experiments to be described would
have been impossible from this cause alone, and the remainder
would have been tedious beyond measure. It will therefore be
conceived that were thermometers enlarged so as to give as mi-
nute indications as the multiplier, they would be utterly unma-
nageable.

16. Of all the researches of M. Meixonr on radiant heat that

* The moon’s image contained 0.114 square inches, whilst the area of the pile is
about 0.40. Hence little more than a fourth of the pile was brought fully into ac-
tion ; but any dispersed light (for which we have made allowance), would act on the
neighbouring parts.

140 Professor Forses on the Refraction

of the refrangibility of non-luminous heat by a prism of rock salt is
the most striking. Viewing it in connection with the theory of
heat, and its analogies with light, this experiment is even more
important than those connected with the very obscure subject of
absorption, which has been illustrated by his numerous determi-
nations of the stoppage of radiant heat, by screens or media of
different kinds. At the time when I commenced these experi-
ments, in November last, I was not aware that M. Me.ioni had
published a second memoir, which, after many of my experiments
were made, I met with in the fifty-fifth volume of the Annales de
Chimie. It appeared to me a matter of great interest to deter-
mine the refrangibility of non-luminous heat by direct experi-
ment; and, in doing this, I was led to verify, in the fullest man-
ner, the published experiments of M. Mretxont on the refraction
of heat, not merely derived from brass heated by an alcohol
lamp, so as not to have the faintest luminosity in the dark, but
also of heat derived simply from water under its boiling point.
I found that so admirable was the sensibility of the instrument,
that we may determine, with great accuracy, by repeated trials,
the angular position of the prism which gives the maximum ef-
fect; and, having given the angles made by the incident and
emergent rays with the sides of the prism under those cireum-
stances, we may compute the index of refraction for the rock-
salt, in regard to rays of heat. Upon making the calculation, it
appeared that the direction thus experimentally found, gave
nearly the same result as for light, which was an ample proof of
the reality and striking nature of the experimental result; but
it at the same time appeared that the whole dispersion for the
spectrum is so inconsiderable, that, in this way, we could hardly
expect to obtain a numerical result for the dispersion of the heat-
ing rays. I afterwards found, upon reading M. Me.tonr’s se-
cond memoir, that he had experienced the same difficulties, and
that, though he constructed a pile on purpose, he had not suc-
ceeded in obtaining numerical results. He found, however, that

and Polarization of Heat. 141

the refrangibility of the rays diminished with their temperature.
I also obtained a slight refraction of non-luminous heat through
a glass prism.

17. But if heat be capable of refraction by the ordinary
agents, an important question arises, Is the phenomenon of dou-
ble refraction common to heat and light? Rock-salt, the only
substance yet discovered, which transmits dark heat in large
quantity, does not possess this power. To attempt it with Ice-
land spar would certainly be fruitless, from the very small trans-
mitting power which it possesses, besides some other practical
difficulties which suggest themselves. It must be by more re-
fined processes that we can detect this property. Such will be
stated in the sequel.

§ 2. On the Polarization of Heat by Tourmaline.

18. It is well known that two slices of tourmaline cut parallel
to the axis of the crystal, as they are looked through with their
axes parallel or perpendicular to one another, transmit a great
portion of the incident light in the one case, and almost wholly
intercept it in the other.

19. It occurred to me as a curious question, at an early pe-
riod of my researches, whether non-luminous heat would undergo
any similar change in similar circumstances. I made a prelimi-
nary experiment with heat from an oil-lamp (not an argand), and
though, when the axes were crossed, the whole light was stopped,
the heat transmitted appeared to be as intense as before. ‘The
tourmalines which I employed were mounted on glass, and were
kindly lent to me by the Reverend Mr Craic. Struck with the
singularity of the result, I repeated the experiment with addi-
tional precautions, and I found that some circumstance prevented
this statement from being true in all its generality. The quan-
tity of heat transmitted being very small, the lamp, the tourma-
lines, and the pile were very near to one another; and, as the
tourmaline absorbs heat with great rapidity, I found that a mi-
nute difference might exist if the experiment was made first with

142 Professor Forsers on the Refraction

the axes parallel, and then with the axes crossed, which diffe-
rence might yet be made up by the secondary radiation from the
heated tourmaline, which was constantly becoming more intense.
Such at least appeared to be the chief source of error, which I
am particular in stating, because I afterwards discovered that
M. Mexuonr had been led to the very same conclusion as I at
first was, and had published it.*

20. When I proceeded to verify my results by a series of suc-
cessive observations, under the two conditions of axes parallel
and axes crossed, so as to eliminate any error from a constantly
progressive change, I perceived my mistake. As this illustrates
the method by which almost all my observations have been re-
duced, I shall give an example. Two measures of intensity in
the position where least light was transmitted, which is marked
Dark, have their mean taken, which is then compared with the
intervening observation in the position of greatest illumination,
which is marked Light. These tourmalines we may call A and B.

1834, Dec. 4.—Oil Lamp + six inches from Centre of the Pile.

Dark Mean. Light. Ratio.

od 5.2 86 : 100

eg

z :
Deviations of Galva- 51 j,,5-9 6.0 83: 100

nometer. ie \ 5.2 6.0 86 : 100
ey: 6.5 83: 100
5t

* In operating with tourmaline, and also with other substances which transmitted
directly but little heat, and which, therefore, required to be placed near the source
of heat, in order to get distinct results, I have always found that the small differ-
ences of effect of which I was in search, became gradually less as the process of
conduction advanced. he first result was generally the best marked. This effect
may be compared to the destruction of the phenomena of diffraction in light, by the
interference of other undulations than those producing the phenomenon sought.
Such interfering waves would, in this case, proceed from the secondary radiation
of the interposed bodies. But there seems also some inaptitude in the pile to ac-
commodate itself to reiterated and very slightly different alternations of temperature.

+ The oil lamp used when not expressly called “ argand,” was LocaTELtr’s
Jamp with a solid square wick, which is what M. Mextonr employed.

and Polarization of Heat. 143

Another series on a different day gave the following quantities
per cent. 91, 82, 94. Mean of the whole 86.4 : 100.

21. Having obtained these decisive results, I proceeded to
operate with other sources of heat, and with different tourma-
lines.. Anxious to avoid the interposition of glass, I had a pair
of tourmalines of large size cut without any support. But the
best kind will not bear this, and they polarized imperfectly. On-
ly fifteen-sixteenths (approximately) ofthe light in the bright po-
sition was stopped in the dark, whilst with the tourmalines A and
B every vestige of the brightest gas fame was excluded. With
these tourmalines (which may be called C and D) I verified the
general conclusions. I was unable to get sufficient effect from
non-luminous heat to verify the law in that case.

22. I had two very fine tourmalines cut and mounted on ex-
tremely thin. glass. These we may eall E and F. With them
I was enabled to extend and verify the law of polarization even
to the case of non-luminous heated brass, (whose temperature
when warmed by alcohol, M. Mrxionz estimates at 390° cent.
= 734° Fahr.) And it is worthy of observation’ that among
twenty-nine pairs of comparative observations, made with three
sets of tourmalines, and heated from the following sources, ar-
gand lamp, simple oil lamp, platinum rendered incandescent by
alcohol, and non-luminous hot brass, there was only one which did
not give positive indications of polarization. The effect, how-
ever, with non-luminous heat is extremely feeble, and the per-
centage very small, because it is with great difficulty that we can
obtain results at all with the interposition of two plates of glass,
and two of tourmaline (however thin), and a large portion of heat
which reaches the pile is derived from conduction, and therefore
diminishes the proportion of polarization.

_ 23. It is very important to observe, that in this and all simi-
lar cases, the effect of conduction or the secondary radiation of heat
Srom screens always tends to disguise, and never to produce, the dif-
Serences of which we are in search; that is, so long as the means
of alternate observations are taken in the way we have described.

144 Professor Fores on the Refraction

24. The following are the general results of my experiments
on Tourmaline.

Source of Heat. No. of Comparisons. Proportions of Heat polarized by
A and B E and F Tourmalines A and B Eand F*
Argand lamp, - 3 16 per cent.
Oil lamp, . - 7 3 14 percent. 11 ... ...
Incandescent platinum, 4 3 Dip cts oss eae ce
Brass at 700°, - 7 (1 negative) Dee ins.

I cannot, therefore, entertain any doubt on the polarization of
heat by tourmaline, notwithstanding the opposite result which
M. Metviont (and I also at first) obtained.

25. Some very curious considerations arise from the study of
these facts. Since 84 per cent. of the heating rays of an Argand
lamp pass through the second tourmaline in the case where the
light is entirely stopped, we must adopt one of two conclusions :
either that the heat which necessarily accompanies light is exces-
sively small, or else that radiant light during its instantaneous
passage through a medium, is capable of being converted into ra-
diant heat. The latter supposition we have no analogies strong
enough to warrant us to adopt, though were heat really not polar-
ized by tourmaline, we must have done so. All our experiments
point to the first, namely, that heat, though intimately partaking
of the nature of light, and accompanying it under certain circum-
stances (as in refraction and reflection), is capable of almost com-
plete separation from it under others. Thus, almost all the heat
is stopped by a plate of alum, which transmits nearly the whole
light, whilst a second plate of tourmaline stops the whole light,
but transmits a large share of the heat.

26. The tourmaline affords a precious method of investigat-
ing the influence of light, since the quantity of matter to be tra-
versed is exactly the same, whatever be the direction of the axes
of the crystal. In this it differs from all other modes of absorp-
tion.

* It appears that the axes of E and F were not precisely crossed in these ex-
periments. 3

and Polarization of Heat. 145

97. M. Metxont has proved that the more light that accom-
panies heat, the greater power it has to traverse most media, such
as clear glass or alum. I made several experiments on the quality
of the heat which passed through the tourmalines in their dark-
est and in their brightest positions, and I always found that the
presence of the light materially increased the power of the heat
to permeate such screens, though we have seen how little it add-
ed to the quantity.

28. This fact, namely, that by sifting, as it were, heat sepa-
rate from light, we give to it the characters of non-luminous
heat, or heat of low temperature, and small refrangibility, such as
exists beyond the red extremity of the spectrum, seems so far con-
genial with analogy. But according to Mriiont’s experiments,
this does not hold with other degrees of sifting of heat. Thus
the absorption of all rays of light, except the blue, the yellow, or
the red, by coloured glasses, does not give the peculiar character
to the heat which it possesses, when it accompanies light in the
process of refraction, namely, that of permeating screens (in ge-
neral) more readily as the refrangibility is greater. Hence I con-
ceive we must conclude, that heat in the spectrum accompanies
the light, and has corresponding properties, but that in general
these properties are independent of the nature of the accompany-
ing light.

29. The only fact which appeared to militate against this
view, so far as coloured media were concerned, was the case of
green light. It appeared probable that this arose from some pe-
culiarity in the absorptive nature of the material, not from its co-
lour. To investigate this point, I tried the relative transparency
(or diathermancy, to borrow a word from M. Mrtion1) of screens
for the heat of various coloured flames. I did not find that
marked peculiarity in the gveen, which M. Mettxon1 observed in
the absorptive action of green glass. The following results are
not pretended to be numerically accurate, but they are probably
nearly comparable. The flames were obtained from alcohol, com-
bined with the following substances :—for the red, nitrate of

VOL. XII. PART I. T

146 Professor Forzes on the Refraction

strontia (the muriate is better); the yellow, with muriate of
soda; the green, boracic acid; the blue, pure alcohol. The un-
steadiness of intensity of an alcohol flame prevents great numeri-
eal accuracy.

Number of Rays of Heat out of 100 transmitted by

Colour of Flame. ; Alum. Glass. Rock Salt.
Red, : : : : 2 11 26 85
Yellow, . : : : ? 113 28 87
Green, . : : . - 11 26 84
Blue, : ; F ; ; 10 30 83

The differences are certainly within the limits of errors of obser-
vation.

30. I am disposed to believe, however, that in these experi-
ments, as well as Meuuont’s, some effect is probably due to the
simple presence of light of a particular quality, though its heat-
ing power may be small. This my experiments with tourmalines
countenance. We can hardly, however, look for a solution of
these difficulties, until some of the most stubborn difficulties in
the theory of light, the laws of dispersion and absorption (and es-
pecially that peculiar absorptive power which permits the tour-
maline only to transmit one polarized pencil) are completely over-
come. Meanwhile, we pass with pleasure to the consideration of
some of those properties of heat which serve to connect it with
the best determined and best explained departments of optics.

§ 3. On the Polarization of Heat by Refraction and Reflection.

31. Soon after the discoveries connected with the polariza-
tion of light, which illustrated the earlier part of this century,
the question of the polarization of heat was taken up by Matus
and Berarp.* In the case of heat accompanying solar light, it
was decisively proved, as might have been anticipated ; but in the
case of heat from terrestrial, and especially non-luminous sources,
though M. Berarp considered that he had proved it, he gives

* Memoires d’Arceuil, tom. iii.

and Polarization of Heat. 147

no quantitative measures which could enable us to judge of the
evidence, nor does it appear that subsequent experimenters have
been able to verify the assertion. *

32. The importance of the subject will be estimated, when
we consider the very definite laws to which the polarization of
light is subjected, and the accuracy with which they are repre-
sented upon the undulatory hypothesis. If heat, when wholly
deprived of light, be subjected to similar modifications, our pro-
gress in acquiring a knowledge of the true nature of heat will be
greatly advanced by our previous analogical acquaintance with
the laws of light. +

33. I had been led to make the experiment with tourma-
lines, because of the convenience with which all experiments on
transmitted heat are made by means of the multiplier. But at
the same time it occurred to me, that the transmitted pencil of
heat passing through laminz at the polarizing angle might like-

* See Professor PowE.t’s papers in the Edinburgh Journal of Science Second
Series, vols. vi. and x.

+ The importance of analogies in science has not perhaps been sufficiently insist-
ed on by writers on the methods of philosophizing. A clear perception of con-
newion has been by far the most fertile source of discovery. That of gravitation
itself was only an extended analogy. The undulatory theory of light has been pre-
eminently indebted to the co-ordinate science of acoustics, which afforded to Dr
Youne the most plausible basis of his curious and original investigations; and un-
less that science had existed, it may be doubted whether such a speculation would
ever have been invented, or, if invented, would have been listened to. The pene-
trating sagacity of M. Fresnet, in his prosecution of the subject, has led him to
draw from mechanical and mathematical analogies, accurate representations of laws
which no strict reasoning could have enabled him to arrive at. Of this his marvel-
lous prediction of the circular polarization of light by two total reflections in glass,
is the most prominent example, a conclusion which no general acuteness could have
foreseen, and which was founded on the mere analogy of certain interpretations of
imaginary expressions. The mere reasoner about phenomena could never have
arrived at the result,—the mere mathematician would have repudiated a deduction
founded upon analogy alone. The cause of the long postponement of the discovery
of electro-magnetism was the complete apparent breach of analogy between the
modes of action of the electric and magnetic forces, and any others previously known,

Ga)

148 Professor Forses on the Refraction

wise be adapted to the instrument. I had previously noticed the
large proportion of heat transmitted by thin plates of mica, and
I thought of applying bundles of mica plates placed at the po-
larizing angle, and so cut from the plate, that the plane of inci-
dence corresponded with one of the neutral sections of the mica
plate, (the section used was that perpendicular to the princi-
pal plane.) so that the transmitted pencil would be polarized ex-
actly similarly to that refracted through glass or any singly re-
fracting medium.

34. I prepared two pairs of bundles of plates of mica of this
description, the first (which I called A and B) having a thickness of
about one-fiftieth of an inch, and was split into about ten plates,
whilst the others (C and D) were only half the thickness, and con-
tained but half as many reflecting surfaces. I found that these
plates, placed at the proper angle, polarized light very satisfactorily.
On applying them to heat, I had the satisfaction of finding that
not only was heat from an oil lamp most decisively polarized,
but also that from a brass plate warmed by alcohol, but so as to
be quite invisible in the dark, having probably a temperature (as
before mentioned) of about 700° Fahr. These experiments were
made on the 22d November last, and were afterwards amply
confirmed *.

35. It is to this mode of observing that I attribute chiefly
the success of my after inquiries. The mode of reflection for
polarizing is attended with so much inconvenience where a ther-
mometer is concerned, and especially with the multiplier, as to
render the employment of it tedious and incommodious ; whereas
by having two bundles of mica plates arranged in square tubes, so

* TI did not see M. Mexuonr’s second paper till the 10th of December, after I
had obtained the chief fundamental results contained in this paper. It does not ap-
pear, however, that M. Mrttoni had thought of applying his instrument to any
question of polarization except that of tourmaline, and in a note he alludes to the
objections, which had been urged against Berarp’s conclusions, objections which
he does not consider to have been overcome.—Ann. de Chimie, lv. 374.

and Polarization of Heat. 149

that the one fits the extremity of the thermal pile, and the other
slips into the first, and by turning it round we get observations
with plates, whose planes of incidence for rays passing along the
axis of the tube, are inclined 0°, 90°, 180°, or 270° to one another,
the direction of the ray is generally in a single straight line, and
the observations are made in the same manner, and with equal
facility as in ordinary experiments on transmission. I have little
doubt that, in this way, the polarization of heat might be proved
without the aid of the thermo-multiplier. The plates were fixed
at the polarizing angle for “ight. After what has been said,
art. (16), on the refrangibility of heat, it is clear, that the altera-
tion of the polarizing angle, in order to accommodate it to heat,
could hardly amount (by Sir Davip Brewsrer’s law) to a sen-
sible quantity.

36. I fitted up two other bundles of mica-plates, in square
pasteboard tubes of the kind described, which were marked E
and F, the other plates being occasionally substituted, in order to
verify the results, and to shew that no accidental peculiarity of
the plates could account for the differences observed. My expe-
riments were usually made thus. The tube E was fixed to the
pile; the tube F, containing the other plate, had an index, which
pointed to 0°, when the two plates were parallel, to 90° when
they were at right angles, &c. Five observations were taken ; at
0°, 90°, 180°, 270°, and again at 0°. ‘The mean of the first and
last were taken; then the mean of this, and the indication at
180°, and the difference between this and the mean at 90° and
270°, was considered as the polarizing effect. An example will
best illustrate this :—

1834, Nov. 26.—Brass heated by Alcohol : 53 inches from centre

of P. ile. Deviation.
Analyzing plate (E) at 0°; polarizing plate (F) at 0°.......... 63
90 site. 52
180... oe ar
270 ..00...... 6

150 Professor ForseEs on the Refraction

Mean at 0°...6°.9
180°...7 .0

Mean, . 6.

9 : ‘
Mean at 90° and 270°,. 5.6 | Ratio 100 : 81, or 19 per cent. polarized.

The general concordance of these experiments will be gather-
ed from the following list of results.

37. With non-luminous heat from brass about 700° ; ratio of
effect, when plates E and F were parallel and crossed, 100 : 78;
100 : 76; 100:80*; 100: 81 (from five observations each), with
plates E and A (from three observations each), 100 :74; 100: 59;
100 : 68; 100 : 60; with A and B, ratios 100 : 78; 100: 72.

38. With non-luminous heat frem mercury, about 500°, plates
FE and F; 100: 77; 100: 90, plates E and A; 100: 88; with
A and B, 100 : 78.

39. But even with heat from water below the boiling point.
I was able, by the improved method of observing the galvanome-
ter, art. (5), (6), to establish completely the polarizing effect. One
series of six comparisons (conducted as in (20),) gave for the pro-
portions of heat transmitted, when the plates E and F were
parallel and crossed, 100 : 93; another of eight comparisons, gave
100 : 96; a third, of eight, 100: 92. Among these twenty-two
comparisons, only oxe gave a result slightly negative.

40. With platinum rendered incandescent by alcohol, the ef-
fect appears decidedly greater than with any other source of heat
I have tried. Plates E and F; ratios of effect when parallel and
crossed, 100 : 59; 100 : 62; 100: 66; 100: 54. The brilliancy
of the incandescence affects materially the transmission.

41. Alcohol flame, as might be anticipated, is less steady ;
means from sets of five observations, with plates E and F;
100 : 66; 100: 72; 100: 79; 100: 42; 100: 62.

42. With the simple oi/-lamp of Locatelli; plates E and
F, the ratios are 100 : 76; 100 : 73.5; 100 :'79.

* Plate B was used to polarize in this experiment.

and Polarization of Heat. 151

43. With argand lamp, and glass chimney; Plates E and F :
ratios, 100 : 70 ; 100 : 72; results very steady.

44. When we combine these results *, and compare them
with the quantity of light polarized, which was derived from some
rude photometrical experiments, which agreed pretty nearly, we
get the following approximations to the degrees of polarization,
by a given combination, and depending on the source of heat.

Rays out of 100, polarized by Tan

SOURCE OF HEAT. Se 2s a lectees by tras
Argand Lamp (glass chimney), : : : ‘ 29
Locatelli Lamp, A ; : 5 é ; ; 24.
Alcohol Flame, : F : 3 : : . 26
Incandescent Platinum, . P : f : ; 40
Brass, about 700°, . F F 4 ; F 22
Mercury, about 500° (in enaetbley? : : : : 17
Water under 200°, ~ , = 4 : 6
Proportion of Light polarized, + 5 : : : 89

45. So completely and satisfactorily made out does the pola-
rization of heat appear by these concurrent experiments, that it
was little more than a matter of curiosity to verify it in the case of
reflection from surfaces, as well as in that of transmission through
plates. This, however, I also established, though not without
much more trouble than the other, the change of direction of the
ray by reflection presenting a troublesome necessity for making
the thermometric instrument, that is, the pile, moveable; at
least, this was the most unexceptionable method. I fully esta-

* It should be remarked, that these experiments contain al/ the measures I have
made with a view to this determination, except two, which were made the very first
day I discovered the fact, and which were not accurate enough to be employed. I
mention this, because, in such experiments, it is important to be assured of the con-
stancy and marked nature of a result, which can only be appreciated by keeping
back no fairly made observation.

+ Though I am not aware of any source of error, I cannot help thinking, that,
in this case, and in that of the tourmaline, Art. (21.), the defalcation of light is esti-

mated too high.
7

152 Professor Forses on the Refraction

blished the fact of comparative non-reflection from a second re-
Hlecting plate of mica, the plane of incidence being at right angles
to the first ; but I had more reason than ever to be satisfied of
the value of the simple and effective method of transmission
through thin mica plates. In fact, it was only by the aid of
that method that I could have advanced to the still more delicate
inquiries which, by the constancy of my first results, I was en-
couraged to undertake.

§ 4. On the Depolarization and Double Refraction of Heat
by Crystals.

46. The analogies which have hitherto guided us from the
laws of light to those of heat, suggest that it is far from impro-
bable that the influence of crystallized bodies upon polarized
light, which produces the most splendid and most varied, but, at
the same time, amongst the most determinate phenomena of op-
tics, may have a counterpart in the science of heat. The simpler
of these, of course, it is our object first to verify ; and, to a cer-
tain extent, this is all that is necessary, in order to complete the
analogy of heat and light in this particular case; for the condi-
tions essential to their production in the case of light, are on all
hands admitted to depend on the susceptibility of the principle
of light to undergo certain modifications in certain circumstances,
extremely limited in number, and which then produce, as neces-
sary consequences, all the subsequent effects. If we find that
heat undergoes the same changes under the same circumstances,
so far as we can detect them, there is the highest probability in
favour of the extended analogy ; for if there be a necessary se-
quence in the one case, it must be inferred also in the other.

47. When polarized light is caused to pass through a crys-
tallized body possessing the power of double refraction, it hap-
pens, in a great majority of the conditions under which the ex-
periment may be made, that the light, on emerging from the
crystal, has undergone some change. This change may, for in-

and Polarization of Heat. PSS

stance, render it capable of reflection at a surface inclined to the
rays of light at the polarizing angle, which they were incapable
of doing before the crystal was interposed, or if before capable of
reflection, they may now be partially, or wholly, incapable of it.
Such a mode of action may in general terms be called depolariza-
tion, an expressive term, though not quite correct, or as has more
lately been proposed, in conformity with the more accurate views
now entertained on the subject, D1-polarization, indicating that
the action of the interposed crystal is to separate the incident
polarized ray into two parts by its doubly refracting energy ;
which parts are polarized in rectangular planes, and by their
union produce the modified effect. But whatever be the explana-
tion which we adopt of the curious and complicated changes
which doubly refracting crystals exercise in the case of light, it is
clear that the establishment of a correlative fact in regard to
heat unaccompanied by light, must force us to admit an identity
of the laws which combine, by a smgularly refined mechanism,
to produce an identical result. 'The theory of undulations is
in fact by far the simplest that we can adopt, and it requires us,
if we admit depolarization, to admit the existence of double re-
fraction and of interference. 'The demonstration, then, of such
a property of heat, is one of such importance, as to require the
fullest. proof.

48. The power of mica to depolarize heat, I discovered on
the 16th of December last. If in the case of polarizing light,
whether by reflection or refraction, the planes of incidence rela-
tively to the polarizing and analyzing plates be at right angles to
one another, the light is wholly (or at least in great part) stopped.
The plates remaining in this position, it is well known, that if a film
of mica be interposed between them, so as to be perpendicular to
the incident light, that light will no longer be stopped excepting
in two positions, namely, when the Principal Section of the mica
plate (or the plane containing the two axes) is parallel or perpen-
dicular to the plane of polarization. In intermediate positions,
light reaches the eye. This is true for all thicknesses of the film

VOL. XIII. PART I. U

154 Professor Forses on the Refraction

of mica only where light of different degrees of refrangibility is
combined : with perfectly homogeneous light, at certain thicknes-
ses, no light would in any position reach the eye, that is, it would
not be depolarized.

49. The analogous fact, in heat, would of course be indicated
by interposing a film of mica between a polarizing and analyzing
plate, having their planes of incidence inclined at right angles to
one another, and observing whether any difference of heating ef-
fect appeared when the Principal Section of the plate was parallel
to the plane of Primitive Polarization, or inclined 45° to it.

50. The very first experiments which I tried, seemed deci-
sive on this point. I employed the piles of mica for polarizing
by transmission, and interposed successively two plates of mica
so arranged that the Principal Section was in the one parallel
(or perpendicular), and in the other inclined 45° to the plane
of Primitive Polarization. These were cut from the same piece,
and precisely of the same thickness; but I afterwards employed
one and the same plate, inclined alternately in two positions.
By the first experiments with dark heat (temperature about
700°) the polarizing mica plates (E and F) being crossed, the
ratios of heat transmitted, when the principal section cozncided
with the plane of polarization (when the depolarizing effect was
nothing), and when it was ¢zclined 45° (when the depolarizing
effect ought to be a maximum), were the following :

100:120 100:110 100:122 100:125
With different polarizing and analyzing plates, viz. C and D, the
following ratios were obtained also for dark heat :

100:118 . 100:120 100:120 100:113

51. We have seen that the heat of Incandescent Platinum is
highly polarizable ; it is also powerfully depolarized, as the fol-
lowing proportions obtained with polarizing mica plates, and the
same interposed films as before, indicate, as the principal section
was inclined 0° or 45 :

100:126 100:138 100:138

and Polarization of Heat. 155

52. There were two distinct interposed plates employed for
these experiments ; their thickness was such as to transmit the
red of the second order of the Newtonian Scale, when viewed by
polarized light, analyzed at right angles to the plane of polariza-
tion. To shew that no appreciable difference existed in their
power of stopping common or unpolarized heat, and to point out
the accuracy of such determinations, I may quote the following
experiment on the transmission of unpolarized non-luminous heat
through the two plates.

Plate with sides inclined 0° and 90° Plate with sides inclined 45°
to Principal Section. to Principal Section.
Mean

1Bsid 18°.95 182
18}

17.9 175
he 18.0 18
181 j

Cc

is f 18.25 18+

The reduction is performed as in art. 20. These quantities
were observed with the naked eye, and may therefore be con-
sidered as coinciding in the two columns.

58. In repeating these experiments with a single film of mica,
which was alternately placed with its axis parallel or inclined 45°
to the plane of primitive polarization, similar results were obtain-
ed. With incandescent platinum, the result is of the most striking
character ; under favourable circumstances, the needle moves
through from 2° to 3° degrees, (a quantity, it will be recollected,
of which a twentieth or a thirtieth part is capable of measurement
by the improved method of observation), or even more, com-
mencing the moment that the change in the position of the mica
film is effected (which I generally perform with long forceps, so
as to avoid the near approach of the hand to the pile). A few
of the first experiments gave for the ratio of the effect on the
pile in the two positions, with a single plate,

u 2

156 Professor Forsxs on the Refraction

138:100 118:100 116:100
Another series, | 130:100 125:100 125:100
A third, 120:100 120:100
A fourth,* 128:100 123:100 122:100

54. The depolarizing effect of this mica plate (which also
cives by polarized light the red of Newron’s second order) upon
non-luminous heat, was also exceedingly well marked, as I shall
presently shew, and amounted generally to between 0°.5 and 1°,
as the statical effect ; but as the source of heat requires to be
closer to the mica plates, more is transmitted by conduction,
which constantly tends to diminish the ratio of the true differ-
ence of effect, as observed in (23).

55. It occurred to me, that since thin plates of mica present
comparatively little resistance to the passage of heat, that a very
thin plate might perhaps depolarize more heat than it stopped,
and thus we should have the paradoxical effect of an interposed
obstacle increasing the effect, a mode of action which I thought
I perceived in a thicker plate. I was at first surprised to find
the reverse the case.

56. A film of mica which transmitted a slightly blue white of
the first order (by polarized light), and which was capable of po-
larizing light circularly (nearly), was employed for this experi-
ment. But not only was I unable to detect any increase of effect
when it was placed between the polarizing and analyzing plates
(E and F) crossed so as to give a minimum of transmitted heat,
but there was an evident interception when it was interposed.
In other words, it stopped more heat than it depolarized. This
was true both with non-luminous heat and with that.from incan-
descent platinum. When I proceeded to estimate its depola-
rizing power by the usual method of placing the Principal Section
at O° or at 45°, I totally failed in obtaining a sensible effect with

* Observed by Dr Traitt.

and Polarization of Heat. 157

non-luminous heat, and with incandescent platinum it was ex-
tremely faint. My subsequent experiments gave for the propor-
tion of the depolarizing effect to the whole heat which reached
the pile when the plates E and F were crossed,

Non-luminous Heat. Incandescent Platinum. Argand.

.00 .016 03

But upon performing this experiment with a thicker plate, namely
that before alluded to in (53) and (54), [found that where it was
interposed between the crossed polarizing and analyzing plates, the
quantity of heat which reached the pile was increased by that inter-
position by about 0°.5. Hence we have the singular spectacle of
the transmission of heat being greater when a thick obstacle is
interposed, whilst the direct effect is actually diminished by the
interposition of a thin one. This effect was of the most marked
character with heat from incandescent platinum ; with dark heat
the result was quite analogous, but within narrower limits. With
unpolarized dark heat, I found that the thin plate stopped 30
out of 100 rays, whilst the thick one stopped 65, or more than
twice as much. )

57. The depolarizing effect of mica was tried under every
variety of circumstance, and with the most conspicuous and co-
incident results. The quantity of light accompanying the heat,
appeared by no means to regulate the quantity of heat depola-
rized. The heat emitted from platinum, of a full red, (and
therefore not vividly incandescent), was one of the most favour-
able. Heat from an Argand lamp, with glass chimney, was also
employed, and absolutely non-luminous heat from brass about
700°. I also employed mercury in an iron vessel, at about 500°,
and found the results admirably marked. Pursuing the experi-
ment as the temperature of the mercury descended, I found the
effect still very sensible at 220°, and then thought of trying hot
water, which I had not done since I devised the telescopic
method of observing the galvanometer, (6). The result was,

158 Professor Forzes on the Refraction

that, by most decisive experiments, I found that heat under 200°
Fahrenheit, is capable of being depolarized by mica. Even where
I did not measure the amount, the instantaneous motion of the
needle in the proper direction, when the Principal Section of the
mica plate was parallel, or inclined 45° to the plane of primitive
polarization, gave as strong evidence to this fact as to any other
I have recorded.

58. It would be quite impracticable to give any detailed ac-
count of my experiments on depolarization within moderate com-
pass. It may be satisfactory, however, to mention, that, upon an
examination of all the experiments I have recorded, I find that
(excluding those on the thin plate of mica mentioned in (56),)
amongst 157 numerical comparisons, for the purpose of obtaining
the depolarizing effect, only one gives a negative, and one a neu-
tral result ; and these exceptions occur in observations made up-
on heat of the lowest temperatures, namely, from mercury under
500°, and water under 200°. ‘These experiments were made with
heat from the various sources mentioned above (57), and with
three different mica plates. ‘The comparisons were always made
from alternate observations, as in (20) and (52). Of these 157
comparisons, no less than 92 were made with heat wholly unac-
companied by visible light.

59. These conclusions, derived entirely by the use of mica as
the depolarizing crystal, I endeavoured to confirm in the case of
some others. Selenite, from the thin laminz into which it may
be split, naturally suggested itself, but I found that its intercep-
tive power for heat is so much greater than that of mica, as to
render these experiments nearly abortive. With heat from in-
candescent platinum, however, I got tolerably marked indications
of its action.

60. With tourmaline I was more successful. Not only was I
able to obtain decisive depolarization when slightly luminous heat
was employed, such as that from incandescent platinum, and the

and Polarization of Heat. 159

principal section of the tourmaline was alternately parallel, and
inclined 45° to the plane of primitive polarization, but also when
dark heated brass was used (at 700°). The tourmaline was one
of those marked C and D (21), not mounted on glass, and of a
pale amber colour.

61. From these experiments, the depolarization, or Di-polariza-
tion of heat seems unquestionably established, whence admitting
that it depends on the same mode of action as the corresponding
facts in the case of light, which seems certain, we are bound to
admit that heat (even that from warm water), is susceptible of
double refraction, that the two pencils are polarized in opposite
planes, and that they become capable of interfering by the action
of the analyzing plate.*

62. These results we hold to be direct conclusions from the
establishment of the existence of a mode of action, of a very com-
plicated character, which nothing but an acquaintance with the
corresponding facts with regard to light could have taught us how
to look for, and which, by coinciding with these, indicate a com-
mon mechanism. Hence, too, were our senses or our instruments
capable of perceiving them, we should necessarily discover, by
the passage of heat along the axes of doubly refracting crystals,
all the elegant forms of rmgs and brushes, defined by heating, in-
stead of luminous rays.

63. But this analogy may be carried still farther. So definite
are the experimental results in depolarization, that I thought of
comparing the intensities of the effects with those produced in
light ; and for this purpose, our methods of estimating heat is far
more satisfactory than those for estimating the intensity of illu-
mination. ‘The fundamental law, which I felt most anxious to

* I made one attempt to obtain polarizing effects by means of Mr Nico1’s very
elegant single-image cale-spar prisms, but without success, as I had anticipated, from
the great proportion which the thickness of the spar necessarily bears to its aperture.

160 Professor Forses on the Refraction

verify, was the complementary nature of the transmitted heat,
when the plane of analyzation is parallel, and when it is perpen-
dicular, to the plane of polarization.

64. It is well known in the case of light, that when no crys-
tal is interposed between the Polarizing and Analyzing Plates,
or when the crystal has its Principal Section parallel or perpen-
dicular to the plane of primitive polarization, the whole of the
light is stopped * when the plates are perpendicular or crossed ;
the whole is transmitted when they are parallel. If the Princi-
pal Section of the crystal be now inclined 45° to the plane of po-
larization, the depolarizing effect is a maximum, a portion of
light now being transmitted to the eye, the plates remaining
crossed, which was not transmitted before, and, in like manner,
a portion of the light which was formerly transmitted when the
plates were paradle/ being now stopped. Now these two quantities
are equal to one another, and therefore the sum of the intensi-
ties of illumination in the two cases (plates parallel and plates
crossed) is a constant quantity. Now these two pencils corres-
pond to the ordinary and extraordinary image in an analyzing
prism of calcareous spar. Let us call these intensities O? and E?,
Let the whole quantity of polarized light, or the value of O%,
when the principal plane of the crystal coincides with that of po-
larization, be F*, and, under the same circumstances, E* = zero.
Then since the two effects are complementary, whatever be the
position of the principal plane, O? + E* = const. = F°,
and E? = F* — OQ’;
or the whole intensity gained by the extraordinary pencil (which
at first was zero), by the depolarizing influence of the crystal, is
equal to that dost by the ordinary pencil.

65. That the same law holds in the case of heat, the expe-

* That is, not reflected when the light is analyzed by reflection, or not transmitted
when it is analyzed by refraction. In these experiments the latter method was al-
ways used. 2

and Polarization of Heat. 161

riments, of which the following is a brief summary, seem to in-
dicate. The coincidence has generally been more perfect, as the
steadiness of the source of heat admitted of more accurate com-
parison. The indications in the same line are alone intended to
be compared, as they are expressed in degrees of the multiplier,
the absolute amount of which would vary in different experi-
ments. The interposed film of mica No. 1., is that mentioned in
(54), as giving a red of the second order when placed between
the polarizing and analyzing plates crossed ; the film No. 2. gave
a plum-red of the first order under the same circumstances.

Increase of Intensity of Extra- | Decrease of Intensity of Ordi-
Mica ordinary Pencil, by the De- nary Pencil, by the Depolariz-
Plate polarizing Action of the In-|ing Action of the Interposed
* | terposed Crystal. Crystal.

E2

Source of Heat.

F202
Number of Number of
5 D f 5 Degrees of
pitge? Multiplier. poner Multiplier.

Mercury below 500°, No. 2 5 0.23 6 0.26
No. 1 4 0.46 4 0.82

No. 1 4 0.35 0.55

No. 1 4 0.51 4 0.52

No. 1 4 0.5 5 0.78

Brass about 700°, No.2| 4 Daa 5 ie
No. 2 q 0.75 7 0.70
0.545

2.14

2.52

: 2.13

Incandescent Platinum, 2.50
232

: 1.00

Argand Lamp (with 1.74

chimney.) pace a ee

1.37

VOL. XIII. PART I. x

162 Professor Forses on the Refraction

66. The table generally points to a coincidence, and that as
close as by the nature of the experiments we should perhaps be
warranted in expecting. If there be any excess in the second
column of results (which the observations with incandescent pla-
tinum might lead us to suspect), it is more than probable that it
arises from some imperfection in the apparatus employed, such
as the incomplete parallelism or perpendicularity of the mica plates
employed to polarize, a circumstance which was not minutely at-
tended to.

67. The result, however, is highly satisfactory, as indicating
the almost exactly complementary nature of the ordinary and
extraordinary pencils, as in light.

68. The somewhat complicated conditions of the variable
intensities of the ordinary and extraordinary images (which it is
to be recollected correspond to the Parallel and Perpendicular
positions of the analyzing plate) in the case of light, are easiest
kept in mind by Fresnet’s formule.

O?= cae | 1 — sin? 27 sin? x (=)

o—e
=F? sin? 27 sin*® + (= \

where O°, E’, and F’, have the same signification as in (64), and z
represents the angle between the plane of polarization and the
principal plane of the crystal : 0 — e is the difference of the retar-
dations of the ordinary and extraordinary rays within the crystal,
and 4 the length of an undulation. The sum of the two is al-
ways = F’.

69. Now the quantity o—e may always be known by refer-
ring to the retardation, which produces the corresponding tint

el ee pe 2 =
* This corresponds to the formula “sin? 20 fa — cos aa of Airy’s

Tract on the Undulatory Theory, Art. 172. Both are only restricted expressions of
more general theorems.

and Polarization of Heat. 163

in Newrown’s rings, and which is equal to twice the distance be-
tween the plates in that experiment. For example, with the
thin mica film mentioned in (56), which polarized light circularly,
the tint produced (between crossed polarizing and analyzing
plates) corresponded (by Nrwron’s table) to an interval of about
five-millionths of an inch between the surfaces of glass, or to a 7e-
tardation, (o —e), of .00001 inch. The film, marked No. 2, which
gave plum-red of the first order (65), gives a retardation of
00002. The film No. 1 (65), gives .00004 inch. From these
data, then, having the value of E* (68), it is clear that we may
calculate the value of a, or the length of an undulation of heat.*

70. In our present case we have always made 7 = 45° ; whence
E’ =F’ sin*s (°=*); and of course 0? = F*— E*. But in an
experiment we must not use the direct indication of the multi-
plier, when the polarizing and analyzing planes are parallel, for
the total quantity or F’; for a large proportion of the heat is not
completely polarized, and in order to compare the values of E?
and. F’, we must determine the value of each directly, that is, not
only how much is depolarized, but how much is polarized by the
mica plates. This I did by ascertaining alternately with the
quantities of depolarization, the total intensity of the polarized
part of the heat, which reached the pile. This was effected by
rendering the polarizing and analyzing plates parallel and per-
pendicular to one another ; whilst the principal section of the
interposed mica remained parallel to one or other, so as to exer-
cise no depolarizing influence.

71. To illustrate this mode of investigation, I shall give as an
example the very last series of experiments made on this subject,

* Of course this is only true on the supposition that rays of heat and light are
equally retarded. ‘This is not demonstrated, but it is probable that they are nearly
so, since that part of the heat which accompanies the spectrum is so, and the disper-
sion in the case of double refraction is inconsiderable.

x Q2

164 Professor Forses on the Refraction

which, whilst it points out the mode of operating, will exhibit the
constancy and considerable magnitude of these effects, amidst
the complicated changes of condition to which the heat is sub-
jected. The columns marked “corrected,” have a small correc-
tion applied for the gradual alteration in the quantity of heat
reaching the pile, which corrections are interpolated from the
successive observations marked (1), (2), (3), &c. which are made
under similar circumstances.

1835. Jan. 16.—Source of Heat. Incandescent Platinum. Pola-
rizing Mica Plates Eand F. Film of Mica interposed, No. 1.

Position of |Principal Section Total Po- | Depolariza- |Total Po- iDiato is i
Mica plates.| of interposed Multiplier. larization. tion. larization | 2102 Ratio.
Mica, at Corrected. Corrected.
[E at 0°] (45° (1) | 149.82 [isso + 2.8
F at 90°|1 0 120 Sean 6.0 | 2.75
Beat 20; e 18.0} —2.7
45 15 3 bécebBess ees aie
sias a) laatigh: OL SARE. 42.2
OR {0 12 6) ive i] pea ilaand
| f 0 16.6 me §
Fat 0 45 14. MO seeqaaes’ 2 4
SCARE (Opler cs $2.5
F at 90 {5 11.6) 48 4.9 | 2.65
Fata |J° 16 4) Ba es 8)
é { ae 34} pene !
as Cay 815 eiey | la 42.0
0
Earl he 11.8) 45 | 22
a = 0 oO
F at 0 { 4h 13 's} Rospadasdeea A
(45 () | 13.6
F at 90 { 0 aha 2} \
0 16.1 j
F at 0° 1s ig} [een
F at 90° tN Ae 6}
0 15 .6
F at 0° 45 13. 5} scavetacabes

When the analyzing plate F is said to be at 0°, it is parallel
to the plate E. When the principal section of the interposed
film is at 0°, it is parallel to the plane of incidence at the plate

and Polarization of Heat. 165

E; at 45° it is inclined 45° to that plane. The signs -+ and — in
the column of “ depolarization,” indicate whether the effect of
the interposed film was to increase or diminish the heat trans-
mitted.

72. The physical meaning of the expression for the intensity

of the depolarized light, E? = F* sin’ z — will be found to

a

be this. When the thickness of the interposed film is such as to
give a retardation of 0, 2, or any whole multiple of a, E? is equal
to nothing, or no light is depolarized, and between those values
the amount of E%, or the intensity of the depolarized light, will
gradually increase from the values 0, a, 2a, &c. to the values
aA BA 5A
2’ 2’ 2?

limit. When the retardation is + = = &e. half the light exactly
is depolarized ; it is then circularly polarized ; in other cases, it is
plane or elliptically polarized.

73. Similar effects might be expected to occur in the case of
heat. But we must recollect that it is even more difficult to ob-
tain homogeneous heat, than homogeneous light, and that we shall
have portions of heat differently depolarized by the same plate,
(in consequence of the different character of refrangibility, indi-
cating a different length of undulation), exactly as when we ope-
rate upon white light. We know that heat of various degrees
of refrangibility constitutes the solar heat, and probably all
other kinds. Hence, no one plate can completely depolarize all
these varieties. As far as my experiments go, made similarly to
that of (71), heat unaccompanied by light is generally less de-
polarized by a plate of given thickness than heat vividly lumi-
nous. In the case of contrasting heat from an Argand lamp with
that from incandescent platinum, and heat quite dark, this is
strikingly marked, though not so decisively in comparing the
two last kinds. If the inaccuracy be not in the experiments, it
may very probably arise from the want of homogeneity in the
heat just alluded to. The want of any apparent depolarizing

1

&e. and again diminish in the same manner to the next

166 Professor Forses on the Refraction

power for dark heat in the thin mica film mentioned in (56) is
now easily explained. Its thickness was such as to polarize
(nearly) circularly, the mean luminous rays. Its retardation, or

o —e was then = ; for these rays. But we know from Met-

Loni’s experiments, that the heating rays are /ess refrangible
than the luminous rays (I mean in heat from terrestrial sources,
as well as that of the solar rays), and that generally in propor-
tion to this obscurity. Therefore, on the undulatory hypothesis,

their waves are longer. Hence a retardation of : for light, would

be a retardation of less than > if 2 be the length of a wave of

heat from an Argand lamp; it would be still less for heat from
incandescent platinum, and least of all for dark heat; hence, as
the retardation is a smaller fraction of 4 or approaches zero, the
depolarization or the value of E* approaches zero. This per-
fectly coincides with the experiment of (56).

74. Without attaching much weight to the numerical accu-
racy of the following results, it is worth quoting them as confirm-
ing the general fact, that obscure heat has longer undulations
than luminous heat. The numbers derived from Plate No. 2,
(see 65), are most to be depended upon, and the agreement of
the different series made with dark heat is highly satisfactory.
The numbers correspond to those of the last column in the ex-

ample of (71).

Mica Prate, No. 1. Retardation for Light, Ratio of Total Polarization and Depolarization,
or 0 —e = .00004 inch. or F2; E?,
Number of Comparisons.
Argand Lamp, . ‘ . : 4 100: 80
Incandescent Platinum, d : 4 100: 78
Brass about 700°, J , r 4 100 : 69

Mica Prate, No. 2. Retardation for Light,
or 0 —e = .00002 inch.

Argand Lamp, .- 3 : 4 3 100: 66

Incandescent Platinum, 6 100 : 47
Brass about 700°, 7 100: 52
Ditto, 5 ‘ 4 100: 51

5 100: 52

Mercury about 500°,

and Polarization of Heat. 167

In discussing these observations, it would be necessary to attend
to the remark of (73), respecting the want of homogeneity in the
heat.

75. Fyom the last series it appears that a plate of mica which
transmits by polarized light (when the polarizing plates are cross-
ed) red of the first order, almost exactly circularly polarizes ob-
scure heat, for it depolarizes half the heat. The characteristic
property of circularly polarized light was observed, viz. that little
or no difference of result was obtained whilst the mica film was
interposed (its principal section being inclined 45° to the plane
of polarization), whether the analyzing plate was at 0° or 90°.
With incandescent platinum the effect is exceedingly striking ;
for, if the mica film be at 0°, the polarizing effect on crossing the
plates is about 40 per cent. of the whole.

76. It is almost unnecessary to add, that what we have now
said, inferring the undulatory theory of light to be true, might
be translated into the language of the Newtonian theory of
emission.

77. In conclusion, I would recapitulate the chief results at
which I have arrived. *

1. Heat, whether luminous or obscure, is capable of polariza-
tion by tourmaline.

. It may be polarized by refraction.
. It may be polarized by reflection.
. It may be depolarized by doubly refracting crystals. Hence,
. It is capable of double refraction, and the two rays are

2

oO & OO

* These conclusions were stated nearly in their present form (excepting the 6th),
to the Royal Society at their meeting of the 5th January. The whole of the expe-
riments detailed in this paper (excepting only the repetition of M. MELLONI’s expe-
riment on the refraction of heat (16)), were made between the 22d November and
the 16th January, but all the general consequences had been clearly made out before
the close of 1834.

7

168 Professor Forbes on the Polarization of Heat.

polarized. When suitably modified, these rays are capable of in-
terfering like those of light.

6. The characteristic law of depolarization in the case of light
holds in that of heat, viz. that the intensities in rectangular posi-
tions of the analyzing plate, are complementary to one another.

7. As a necessary consequence of the above, confirmed by ex-
periment, heat is susceptible of circular and elliptic polarization.

8. The undulations of obscure heat are probably longer than
those of light. A method is pointed out for deducing their
length numerically.

78. Of the evidence for these conclusions I have enabled the
reader to judge, by specifying numerical results. But I must
farther add, that all the principal conclusions were arrived at by
the indications of the galvanometer, observed by the naked eye,
including the chief phenomena of depolarization. Since I thought
of the method of magnifying the divisions (described in (5),) I had
little else to perform than the agreeable task of verifying and de-
fining my first conclusions.

EpInBURGH,
19th January 1835.

( 169 )

On the Fresh-water Limestone of Burdichouse in the neighbour-
hood of Edinburgh, belonging to the Carboniferous Group of
Rocks. With Supplementary Notes on other Fresh-water
Limestones. By Samvet Hiszerrt, M. D., F.R.S. Ed., &c.
&e.

(Read December 2. 1833, February 17, April 21, and December 1, 1834.)

INTRODUCTION.

I propose in this memoir to methodically connect several
desultory notices, which I had occasion to read during the last
session of the Royal Society’s meetings, relative to the Lime-
stones of fresh-water origin in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh,
belonging to the carboniferous group of rocks, and to the organic
remains which they contain.

Hitherto, the limestones belonging to this older class of de-
posits have been considered as exclusively of marine origin. I
had long since, however, been prepared to expect that a lime-
stone of a fluviatile or fresh-water origin would, some time or
other, be proved to exist. For, in judging from analogy, it would
be unreasonable to presume, that, when fresh-water limestones
appear in the rocks of every later epoch, they should meet with
an exclusion in the carboniferous group. In entertaining, there-
fore, less confined. views, I was not at all surprised to find them
confirmed in a limestone near Edinburgh, which lately came under
my examination,—I allude to that of Burdiehouse. It enclosed
none of the marine shells, corallines, or encrinites to be found in
the other limestones of the vicinity, but contained in the place
of them, and in the greatest possible abundance, the various
plants observable in our coal-fields. I also procured from it

VOL. XIII. PART I. Y

170 Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

specimens of fish allied to such as are obtained from beds asso-
ciated with coal. These facts indicated to me that I had at
length found a fresh-water limestone belonging to the carboni-
ferous group of rocks.

This fresh-water formation, which has formed the object of
my research, is referable to the lower series of beds belonging
to the carboniferous system. In describing it, the First Part
of the present memoir will be confined to a geological description
of the limestone of Burdiehouse, in reference solely to the vege-
table and animal remains which it encloses ;—a srconp Part will
point out the relations of this limestone to both older and newer
rocks ;—while a supPLEMENT will include notices of certain other
limestones of a similar description, occurring in the vicinity of

Edinburgh.

PART I.

THE FRESH-WATER LIMESTONE OF BURDIEHOUSE CONSIDERED IN
REFERENCE TO THE VEGETABLE ANDANIMAL REMAINS WHICH
IT ENCLOSES.

No geological description whatever having been hitherto
given of this limestone, which, until it had been examined by
myself, and its high interest explained to the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, had been almost unknown, even by name, I must,
upon this account, consider myself as having entered upon a
ground pertectly unbeaten, which I tread with diffidence.

This bed of limestone is quarried, with much profit, for the
purpose of burning. It is to be seen about four miles to the
south of Edinburgh, on the Peebles road, close to the village
known by the name of Burdiehouse, which is a corruption of
Bourdeaux House.

NOTES.
In the Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. i. p. 311,
some little account is given of this village by the Rev. Tuomas Wuirz, in his

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 171

description of the Parish of Libberton. He states that “ north from Straiton is the
village of Bordeaux, so called, perhaps, by some of the French who attended
Queen Mary in her return home to Scotland in 1561, and who happened to take
up their residence here.”

It is probable that the name of Bourdeaux House was derived from an ancient
mansion said to have once stood in the immediate neighbourhood of the village of
Bourdeaux, which was built about the time of the unfortunate Mary, and was in-
habited by the French who came in her train.

SECTION L—THE GEOLOGICAL PLACE ASSIGNABLE TO THE LIMESTONE OF
BURDIEHOUSE.

The limestone of Burdiehouse may be referred to the lower
beds of the carboniferous system, as is evident from the following
section :

amed Vv

NORTH ESK-

2 3
= ae of seams of Scale of one English Mile.

In judging from the foregoing section, the place which the
fresh-water limestone holds in the carboniferous system is suffi-
ciently evident. It maintains a position far beneath a limestone
containing marine shells, which is continuous with the well
known Gilmerton bed, and still farther beneath the rich coal
seams of Loanhead. But I suspend any farther particulars rela-
tive to the strata either below or above this bed of limestone,
which will be better appreciated after it has been itself described

¥2

172 Dr Hrszert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

in detail. I may merely remark, at present, that it is a bed in
which some of the earliest vegetable and animal tribes incidental
to the carboniferous epoch are entombed.

SECTION Il.—MINERALOGICAL CHARACTER OF THE LIMESTONE.

The limestone of Burdiehouse admits of various tints. It of-
ten acquires its bluish-grey or blackish-grey colour from the bitu-
minous or vegetable matter which is so abundantly diffused
through it. Other tints approach to those of a clove-brown, or
even of a lavender-purple. In its composition it shews very rare-
ly any crystalline texture, such as is observable in the mountain
limestone of neighbouring quarries ; but, on the contrary, while it
is of a dull earthy aspect, its consistence is very compact. The
hardness of this limestone is considerable. In its fracture it some-
times breaks into a slaty form, particularly when it is alternated
with thin striz of vegetable or bituminous matter, but, when these
are absent, it shivers into irregular fragments which have a con-
choidal surface. In the quarry the limestone appears in the
form of regular inclined strata, severally about four and a half
feet in thickness, dipping towards the south-east at angles of 23°
to 25°, while its seams of stratification are so regular as to af-
ford, during the process of quarrying, a continuous surface of al-
most unlimited extent. The joint thickness of the mass, which
is intersected by vertical seams, amounts to twenty-seven feet.

The Burdiehouse limestone seems to be tolerably pure, ad-
mitting in its composition few extraneous substances except those
which have a vegetable or animal origin; for which reason, it is
wrought for the kiln with much advantage. It is traversed in
various places by small veins of calcareous spar. It contains
some little siliceous matter, and the sulphuret of iron may be oc-
casionally found interposed between its layers.

But this rock is the most remarkable for the vegetable and
animal remains contained by it, which concur in awarding to it,
not a marine but a fresh-water origin ; and hence, the great diffe-

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 173

rence of character which it will be found to exhibit when com-
pared with the common mountain limestone of geologists.

SECTION III.—THE FOSSIL FLORA OF THE LIMESTONE.

The vegetable matter which is diffused through the lime-
stone of Burdiehouse forms a peculiar feature of its character.
In some parts of the bed, more particularly in its higher seams,
carbonized matter appears in such an extraordinary quantity, as
to impart to the limestone a dark bituminous appearance. In
other sites, however, where such matter is less abundant, the rock
retains its prevailing bluish-grey or brown colour.

Amidst this carbonaceous diffusion, which must have resulted
from vegetable matter in a decayed and pulverulent form, a pro-
fusion of fossil plants, analogous to those of tropical climates, ap-
pears encased in the rock in the most perfect state of preservation
imaginable. It is, however, much to be doubted if this vast as-
semblage admit of much variety among them, at least in propor-
tion to the immense mass accumulated.

The plant which occurs in the greatest abundance is the
fern to which the name of Sphenopteris affinis has been recently
given. It is described by Messrs Linpiey and Hurton, as hav-
ing a leaf which is bipinnate, the leaflets being deeply pinnatifid
into five segments, each of which is divided into from three to
five linear obtuse segments, which are broadest at the upper end,
and which are marked with from one to three parallel veins.
(Fossil Flora of Great Britain, plate 45.)

This beautiful and delicate fern derives its chief interest from
prevailing in the deepest seated beds belonging to the carboni-
ferous group of the south of Scotland. In tracing the succession
of strata superimposed upon the transition schist of Cove in Ber-
wickshire, the first plant, which, in developing itself, breaks the
continuity of a long suite of previously formed sandstones, little
varying, and unfossiliferous in their geological character, is the
Sphenopteris affinis. I found it here enshrined in a bed of bitu-

2

174 Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

minous shale, where it appeared as a sort of harbinger to the
rich primeval flora, which was doomed to follow. And in other
sites, namely in Linlithgowshire and Ayrshire, the Sphenopteris
affinis equally shewed itself as one of the first created plants
of the carboniferous epoch.

Much rarer ferns, which in the limestone of Burdiehouse ap-
pear associated with this very ancient plant of the coal-fields of
Scotland, are the Sphenopteris bifida, the Sphenopteris linearis,
and some few others.

The Sphenopteris bifida exhibits a greater delicacy in the
divisions of its pinnule than a fern which it greatly resem-
bles from a different locality, the Sphenopteris dissecta of M.
Avotrue Broneniart, to which the French botanist has as-
signed the highest antiquity among the carboniferous group of
rocks. Yet there is still so much affinity between the two, that
they might be readily confounded one with another. The fern
of Burdiehouse, however, may be referred to a bipinnated plant
which Messrs Linpiry and Hutton have distinguished by the
name of Sphenopteris bifida. (See Fossil Flora, plate 53.) It
is placed by these authors in the vicinity of Sphenopteris myrio-
phylla, from which it is known by its leaves not having more
than three or four primary divisions, and these not radiating from
a common centre, and repeatedly dichotomous, but arising from
a flexuose axis, and simply bifid. The difference between the
Sphenopteris bifida and that of dissecta, as Professor Linpiey
has obligingly remarked to me, is, that the Sphenopteris bifida is
a smaller plant with much more slender divisions, and with the
principal pinne longer and more repeatedly divided.

The third Sphenopteris resembles one which has been hitherto
only found at Oldham in Lancashire, having been procured by
myself from a deep-seated bed belonging to the great coal-field of
Lancashire. A specimen was many years ago placed in the hands
of M. Anotrne Bronenrart, who, in describing it under the
name of the Sphenopteris linearis, has thus defined it: “ S. foliis

5

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 175

bipinnatis, pinnis ascendentibus, rapidé decrescentibus, pinnulis
obliquis, tri-quadrilobis, lobis bi-trifidis, laciniis truncatis approxi-
matis brevibus multinerviis, nervulis dichotomis.”— Histoire des
Vegetaux Fossiles, tom. i. p. 175.

But this list of ferns might be much increased.

While by the luxuriance of their growth and their conse-
quent numbers, these small ferns appear to have constituted
one of the great divisions of the fossil flora of Burdiehouse, an-
other set of plants not less numerous, comprise the doubtful
tribe named Lycopodiaceze, which, by their vegetation and mode
of increase, approach in character to the comparatively minute
vegetables of recent growth, the Lycopodia, or even to the order
of Cycadez of far larger dimensions, while by their reproductive
organs they have some little affinity to the Coniferze. In the pre-
sent instance, those peculiar structures of vegetable organization,
which, separately considered, would seem of different character,
but which have been conjointly regarded as the dissevered or-
gans of the anomalous Lycopodiacez, appear in this limestone
under circumstances of as great mystery as in other places, ex-
cept that the cone, or one of the supposed organs of fructifica-
tion, is too frequently in approximation, if not in absolute con-
tact with a dichotomous stem, to sanction any other inference
than that each is attributable to one and the same plant. Spe-
cimens of the Cardiocarpon, or of that species of lenticular and
cordiform, or reniform, fruit, equally assigned by M. Apoupur
Bronenrarr to Lycopodiacee, have not to my knowledge been
hitherto found in the limestone.

With respect to such of the stems of Lycopodiacez as have
been discovered, some of them may be referred to Lepidodendron
selaginoides, (Plates 12 and 113 of Linprey and Hurron’s British
Flora), to Li. obovatum, (plate 19 bis of the same work), and to
L. Steinbergii (plate 112). Among the leaves which have been
attributed, though doubted by others, to Lycopodiacez, are those
of Lepidophyllum intermedium, (see Plate 43 of Liwpzzy and

176 Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

Hurron). The circumstances under which these vegetable relies
are found, appear to be the same which had been previously re-
marked in another and very distant locality. At Burdiehouse,
the Lepidophyllum intermedium is found lying along with Cype-
rites bicarinata. But whether this coincidence ought to stimulate
to any fresh inquiry regarding the true character of each, I would
not offer any opinion whatever, as it is but too possible that the
association might have been purely accidental. At least, “ it is
curious,” as Professor Linpuey has remarked to me, “ that these
two fossils, which have no sort of relation to each other, should
have occurred in association with each other, both in the Lee-
botwood coal-pit and at Burdiehouse.” (Compare plate 43 of
L. & Hs Fossil Flora with Fig. 5 of Plate VI, given in this
memoir.)

Regarding the cylindrical and imbricated cones supposed to
be naturally connected with the Lepidodendron, (a notion to
which much countenance is given by the character of the remains
discovered at Burdiehouse), two kinds may be identified, viz. the
Lepidostrobus variabilis, (Linpiey and Huron), Pl. 10 and 11),
and the L. ornatus (ibid. Pl. 26).

No cardiocarpon which can be safely attributed to Lycopo-
diaceze has yet, to my knowledge, turned up. I have only ob-
served the Cardiocarpon acutum of Messrs Linpiey and Hur-
ron (See Foss. Flora, pl. 76), which is supposed by them to
belong to other plants.

These very general remarks must, on the present occasion, be
deemed sufficient.

It is thus shewn, that the smaller ferns, referable to Sphenop-
teris, together with the disjointed organs of Lycopodiacez, con-
stitute the great majority of vegetable remains entombed in the
limestone of Burdiehouse. Along with these are found, but
comparatively in less number or quantity, relics of the Stigma-
na ficoides, and of the less common species belonging to Sigil-
laria, Equisetum, Calamites, and Cyclopteris. But as attention is

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 177

now directed to the daily disclosures of the quarry, we may ex-
pect that, in the course of time, a list of the various genera and
species of plants discovered in this interesting locality will be

perfected.
NOTES TO SECTION III,

Fossil Botany is a subject of inquiry so beset with difficulties, as to demand an
almost exclusive attention to it by the naturalist, if he would pursue it with success
For this reason, I should be unwilling to commit myself by any attempts to treat of
the Fossil Flora of Burdiehouse more in detail ; nor can such attempts be reasonably
expected in a memoir so limited as this must necessarily be. Specimens of the more
important plants, among which are some new ones already discovered, have been
transmitted, not only from the collection made by the Royal Society of Edinburgh,
but likewise from my own cabinet, to Messrs Linptey and Hurrton, to be described
by them in their important work exclusively devoted to the Fossil Flora of Great
Britain. Other specimens, though from my own private collection only, have been
sent to M. Adolphe Brongniart, whose acquaintance I had many years ago the hap-
piness of forming in Edinburgh, while he was prosecuting his important researches
in Fossil Botany: and thus every opportunity has been afforded for having proper
justice rendered to the plants of more peculiar interest which have already turned
up; and, in reference to future disclosures from the quarry, other similar transmis-
sions are meditated.

Hitherto, two plants only from the vegetable remains of Burdiehouse have been
noticed, which were forwarded to Professor Linptrey and Mr Horton, for their
Fossil Flora, by their zealous and very intelligent correspondent Mr WirHam. In
the botanical description given of the Sphenopteris bifida, it is incidentally stated,
(see vol. i. of the work, p. 147), that “ the plant was communicated by Mr Wiraam,
from the mountain limestone of the lime-quarries of Burdiehouse, near Edinburgh ;”
and, upon another occasien, a similar acknowledgment is rendered.

In the absence of any geological description whatever having been hitherto pub-
lished of this limestone, the very name of Burdiehouse would have been unrecorded,
if it had not been for this incidental circumstance.

I am given to understand, that it is intended to devote the whole of a very early
number of the British Flora to an elucidation of the plants of Burdiehouse.

In reference to this anticipation, as well as to the chief object of this memoir,
which is to illustrate the fresh-water character of the limestone of Burdiehouse, one
plate only has been dedicated to its Fossil Flora.

Fig. 1. of Plate VI. is the Sphenopteris bifida.

Fig. 2. is a plant, unfortunately not in the most perfect state, which Iam in-
clined to consider as an undescribed Sphenopteris. But, as I agree with
Mr Horton of Newcastle, in the possibility that the specimen may be

“VOL, XIII, PART I. © Z

178 Dr Hrezerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

ultimately referred to the Sphenopteris bifida, any farther notice of it will
be suspended.

Fig. 3. is the Sphenopteris linearis.

Fig. 4. is the Sphenopteris affinis. In this sketch the Rachis is rather too slen-
derly drawn.

Fig. 5. is the Lepidophyllum, in connection with Cyperitis bicarinata.

Fig. 6. shews the Lepidostrobus variabilis enclosed in the same specimen with a
fish of the genus of Palzoniscus, which will be described in the 7th sec-
tion of the present memoir.

SECTION IV.—THE MICROSCOPIC ANIMALS CONTAINED IN THE LIMESTONE
OF BURDIEHOUSE.

No conchifera, at least of any large size, have hitherto been
discovered in the limestone of Burdiehouse.

From having witnessed the great abundance in which fresh
water unios are contained within a thin band of limestone and
shale, near Old Cumnock, in Ayrshire, and from having read in
Mr Ure’s History of Rutherglen, that they had been found un-
der similar circumstances near Glasgow, I had long anticipated
their discovery in the fresh-water limestone of Burdiehouse. But,
if not found in the bed itself, they at least exist in a superincum-
bent bed of argillaceous shale which encloses similar organic re-
mains.

The animals actually found in the limestone of Burdiehouse
merit a particular regard: For there are assuredly no phenomena
connected with the deposit of Burdiehouse more remarkable
than the Entomostraca with which it abounds.

These minute animals are severally microscopic, ranging from
;isth to j;th part of an inch. Various kinds are found among
them, all of which, with perhaps the exception of one genus, ap-
pear to have been perfectly undescribed. Nor is it the easiest of
tasks to submit them to any kind of successful investigation.
We see nothing more in these crustaceous animals than their
outer and shelly case, while a mineralized state has obscured their
internal organization. Accordingly, if we conceive that cer-
tain minute oval bodies resemble recent specimens of the Cypris

‘in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 179

Faba, or any other of the microscopic animals which are the te-
nants of stagnant waters, the identity can only be inferred from
some external form, not always unambiguous, as for instance,
from a bivalve shell possessed in common with conchifera.

I shall endeavour to describe some few of the infinite ento-
mostraca which are found in the limestone of Burdiehouse, all of
which are powerfully magnified. The little points inserted be-
low each, shew the natural size of the animal.

Perhaps no minute animal found in this limestone is obtained
under circumstances of greater distinctness than the Cypris.

The Cypris, as is well known, is represented as having two
antenne, straight, simple, and like a pencil of hairs at the top.
It has a single eye, and it has four claws. <A bivalve shell, the on-
ly part preserved in a fossil state, encloses the body. ‘The head
is concealed.

In the present instance, the Cypris of Burdiehouse, which is
enclosed in a bivalve of a striking egg-shell complexion and white-
ness, differs from the Cypris Faba of geologists in the straightness
of its hinge, by which the form of a bean (whence the name of
Cypris Faba), becomes lost.

In the annexed wood-cut, the greatly magnified, as well as

e the natural microscopic form of the Cypris,
c) (@) <> meet with a representation: a and c represent
- the general form of the shell, while 6 is a se-

parate and open valve.

This interesting cypris is so characteristic of the deposit of
Burdiehouse, that an appellation expressive of its locality would
perhaps form its most suitable distinction. The limestone, which
is its matrix, occurs close to the village of Bourdeaux, whence, by
corruption, Burdie. And hence the name assigned to the loca-
lity by the French retainers of Queen Mary is most applicable in
the present instance; it suggests the designation of Cyrris
Scoro-Burpi1GaLEnsis.

In the next place, if it be allowable from analogy, rather than

Zz

180 Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

from any other circumstance, to infer that certain of the minute
animals thus described are referable to the Cypris, the prosecution
of this research cannot be more safely conducted than in still
confining our attention to the recent family of the Cypridea, for
the detection, if possible, of other forms belonging to animals pre-
sumed to be of common habits. Another form, for instance, rather
approaches to that of the Daphnia than the Cypris. But if, in-
stead of an external crust, we could arrive at the knowledge of
an internal organization, it is not improbable that the entomos-
traca thus compared might prove to be different animals altoge-
ther.

It is for this reason that I would name the animal repre-
— sented in the three different views of the annex-

* ed wood-cut. by the cautious name of Daphnoidia
A ‘ © rather than Daphnia ; indicative of an individual
approaching to the recent Daphnia.

The shell of the Daphnia, like that of the Daphnoidia of
Burdiehouse, is not described as exactly bivalve, but as subuni-
valve, opening longitudinally on one side only of the encased
animal. This character may, I think, be plainly detected in the
instance of the fossil example. I shall not venture upon assign-
ing to it a specific name, until I am better assured with regard
to its proper generic character.

Other minute animals possess shells of extreme tenuity, too
many of which appear in a crushed and broken state. In this
form they exhibit a sort of spiral organization by no means unlike
that of the Planorbis or Spirorbis, to which they were referred
by an eminent conchologist, whose opmion regarding them I
consulted. But, upon a renewed examination of certain of these
remains, which, owing to an infiltration of calcareous matter,
have had their forms tolerably well preserved, I am now inclined
to place some doubt upon the judgment which had been passed
upon their character.

The external form of one animal most resembles that of the

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 181

Nautilus, but we are totally precluded from identifying it with

= that class of Mollusca, as the internal constitution of
Q CG its shell shews no septa whatever; but, on the con-
S © trary, approaches to that of the Planorbis. It may
perhaps be considered as a new genus altogether,—referable to
mollusca. The dimensions of this microscopic animal are two
or three times those of the Cypris. Its natural size appears in
the representation inserted below the magnified form.

The foregoing best defined forms which have come under
my notice, may for the present suffice. A microcosm of ento-
mostraca, and. possibly of other classes of animals, mvites the
attention of the naturalist, among which many undescribed races
remain to be detected.

Some of these minute beings have been thus proved to
possess a structure in common with that of well known en-
tomostraca, whose habitat is one of stagnant waters rendered
turbid by decayed vegetables or roots. When these waters are
dried up by the sun, they still linger within a humid basin, and
remain there until rains fall anew.

This habitat agrees with every possible circumstance con-
nected with the limestone of Burdiehouse,— with the memorial
of some inland fresh-water lake or tank, within the waters of
which a calcareous deposit was elaborated, or of some river flow-
ing sluggishly through a tract overrun with Ferns, Lycopodiacez,
and such aquatic vegetables, as must have flourished among pri-
meval marshes.

The abundance in which these animals appear is the last ex-
traordinary circumstance to be noticed.

Although the remains of these entomostraca occur in much
greater quantity in some parts of the rock than in others, there
is scarcely a detachable fragment which does not exhibit their
presence ; and when, during the process of quarrying, a plane of
stratification belonging to any portion of the limestone bed has

182 Dr Hiszerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

been allowed to remain long exposed to the air, so that some lit-
tle of its surface has become removed by weathering, the crus-
taceous or shelly coverings of these minute beings become bet-
ter defined, and their numbersare more palpably brought to
light. In fact, I possess specimens which are almost rendered
oolitic by the crowded state of these little animals.

These examples, while they shew to what an extent this pri-
meval lake or river had once teemed with animal life, equally
prove the quietness with which its calcareous deposit was con-
ducted, and, consequently, the stillness and stagnation of these
marshy waters, in which vegetables, together with entomostraca,
have found so extraordinary a diffusion, as well as so extraordi-
nary a conservation of their outward form and character.

NOTES TO SECTION IV,

Mr Ung, in his History of Rutherglen, who wrote forty years ago, has the merit
of having first directed the attention of naturalists to the microscopic shells which
he found at Lawrieston and Stuartfield ; but he does not make us acquainted with
the description of beds in which they occurred at these places. He adds, that he
also found them in a limestone quarry, about fifteen miles west from Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, near the spot where the Roman wall is intersected by Watling Street.
One of the specimens, of which he gives a magnified representation, is evidently
that of a Cypris. (See Ure’s History of Rutherglen, p. 311.)

SECTION V.—THE DISCOVERY OF OSSEOUS REMAINS IN THE QUARRY OF
BURDIEHOUSE.

That various kinds of fish were enclosed in the limestone of
Burdiehouse, was a fact of which I was apprised upon the first
occasion of my visit to the quarry.

My earliest communication to the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh, relative to the limestone of Burdiehouse, was limited to
the information, which I considered as an important one, that, in
reference to its organic remains, it had no characters in common
with the mountain-limestone of marine origin; but that, on the
contrary, the immense abundance of plants which it contained,

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 183

along with entomostraca and fish allied to such as are found in
coal-measures, rather justified our considering it as a fluviatile
deposit.

The view which I had thus taken of the Burdiehouse lime-
stone, was made known to the Royal Society on the 2d of De-
cember 1833.

A single day, however, had not elapsed subsequent to this
communication having been read, when another discovery, per-
fectly unlooked for, ensued. I had charged the workmen em-
ployed at the quarry of Burdiehouse to carefully preserve forme
any animal remains which might turn up; and, upon revisiting
the place, in company with Mr Wiruam, one of the labourers
brought me a fragment of limestone, enclosing a tooth, two inches
and a quarter in length, which was in the most beautiful state of
preservation that can well be imagined, possessing an enamel of
a nut-brown colour, which shone with all the brilliancy of perfect
freshness.

This tooth, which is represented in the annexed wood-cut, I
a ‘ | ue conceived, from its out

ward form and external
structure, to belong to a
large animal of the Sau-
rian class. I also pro-
cured some other relics,
apparently of the same
monster; and was led to
remark, that the limestone contained coprolites, referable, from
their size and from the undigested scales of small fish diffused
through them, to some voracious sovereign of primeval waters.
After this discovery was made public, the workmen were en-
couraged to look after the relics which might turn up; and I
gave them full credit for sincerity when they assured me, to a
man, that, in the long course of their quarrying operations, no
remains whatever, save those of plants, had ever been the object

184 Dr Hizszert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

of their visual organs. But having been now convinced that
bones did actually exist in the limestone, and having been ex-
cited by the promise of a reward if they should find more such
relies, I was presented with an excellent physiological example of
the capability which such a stimulus had of increasing, to an al-
most miraculous degree, the vividness of optical perceptions. The
men, to use their own words, now “saw with new eyes.” Large
scales, large bones, along with the remains of small fish, became
palpable, and, as if by the force of a magician’s spell, were reveal-
ed in a profusion most admirable to behold.

When the quarry had been thus introduced to public notice,
a complete dispersion of its fossil treasures seemed inevitable.
With the view of preventing a catastrophe so much to be dread-
ed, I invited the interference of that influence which the Royal
Society of Edinburgh possessed as a body. The appeal was not
made in vain. ‘To their General Secretary, Mr Rozison, the ac-
knowledgment is due of having successfully rendered his invalu-
able aid in the prevention of a most injurious dispersion of the
osseous relics of the quarry, and in the preservation of specimens
in such an assembled form, as to render them effective for the
requisitions of science.

The very liberal acquiescence of Mr Torrance, the lessee of
the quarry of Burdiehouse, with the views of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh, merits the highest encomium.

NOTES TO SECTION V.

The following explanation regarding the quarry will not, I trust, be found irre-
levant. I owe it no less in justice to certain individuals, than to the Royal Society
of Edinburgh.

Very soon after my discovery, the hopes which I had entertained of the extraor-
dinary acquisitions which geology would derive from it, were soon threatened with
frustration. A sort of scramble had ensued among scientific individuals (which it
must be allowed was a very natural one), to obtain for themselves valuable specimens
from the quarry of Burdiehouse: and thus, the great disastrous result which fossil
zoology most dreads, namely, the dispersion of its relics, and the difficulty, if not
impossibility, of reuniting them, seemed inevitable.

3

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 185

A scramble of this nature, in reference to such a fatal result, not a little re-
sembles the every-day occurrence of workmen who, in the course of digging, have
fallen upon some ancient urn which contains the cremated ashes of our Celtic or
Teutonic progenitors. ‘The pick-axe is supposed to have been resisted by ** a pot
of money ;”—a tremendous scramble ensues; the urn is broken into a thousand
pieces, and the antiquary resigns himself to despair.

Under these circumstances, I took the first occasion in my power to obviate a ca-
tastrophe which appeared so imminent.

In addition to recommendations which I drew up for the public journals, urging
the patrons of the College Museum, or the Council of our leading scientific institu-
tion of Edinburgh, to exert a fostering care over the quarry, and to prevent the dis-
persion of its relics, I took an early oczasion, at one of the meetings of the Royal
Society, to make a personal appeal on the subject.

Upon this oceasion, I stated, that the great French naturalist, to whom geology
has been most indebted, laboured under no difficulty so great as in his endeavours to
counteract the dispersion of osseous relics of comparatively little value in a separate
state, but most important to science when collected together with a view to the appre-
ciation of the whole in their united condition. This difficulty I illustrated by a few
passages from the writings of Cuvier, which shewed the almost incredible labours
to which he was obliged to resort, before he could reassemble certain dispersed frag-
ments necessary for him to come to a satisfactory conclusion respecting the fossil sau-
rian animal of Honfleur.

‘¢ Having been apprised,” he remarks, “ by these two lower jaw-bones, that there
might exist two species at Honfleur, my first object was to regain the skull and the
upper jaw-bone. ‘The collection which I had received from Rouen afforded me some
fragments ; but the original owner had entertained the unfortunate notion of getting
them cut and polished; and he had even distributed a part of them among other
cabinets. It is by a series of almost incredible events, that I have collected and been
able to reunite six fragments, which had belonged to the same cranium, of which two
had been in the possession of the Abbé BacHELet, two had found their way into
M. de Dree’s museum, while two others had been sent to me from Geneva by the
late M. de Jurtnr, without his ever suspecting their importance in this particular
inquiry. By means of these six pieces, I succeeded in reconstructing a considerable
portion of the cranium containing the occiput, the greatest part of the upper face,
and sides, as far as the snout. It is by similar accidents that I have collected three
fragments, which had belonged to one and the same snout, and of which I had only
given two in my first edition. These two last were in the museum of the late Abbe
Besson ; the third was in that of M. Fausas, to whom Besson had given it, with-
out perceiving that, along with the two others, it only formed one entire whole.”

The force of this quotation I urged, in connection with the remark, that it would
be chimerical for a single individual like myself, perfectly unsupported, to suppose

VOL. XIII. PART I. Aa

186 Dr Hisserr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

that he had either the means or the influence to counteract such a fatal dispersion ;
but that the pecuniary means, and, above all, the command of influence possessed
by a scientific body like that of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, might, with the
greatest prospect of success, be exerted in so important an object.

The Council of the Royal Society, with a liberality of which I cannot speak in
too high terms, immediately responded to the representation, and appointed their
General Secretary, Mr Roxtson, with funds at his disposal, to superintend the task,
aided by a small Committee.

The task could not have been entrusted to more able hands. Mr Rozison im-
mediately addressed himself to Mr Torrance of Meadowbank, the lessee of the
quarry, requesting his co-operation with the views of the Royal Society of Edinburgh ;
and, to the honour of the latter be it added, his assent was immediately obtained.
While any dispersion of the relics discovered was strictly forbidden, the labourers
were at the same time amply remunerated for all the specimens which they were en-
abled to collect.

These measures were very soon the means of obviating the dispersion of the os-
seous fragments of the quarry ; which object was still further promoted by a few of
the gentlemen who were extensive geological collectors themselves abstaining from
any attempt at purchases, and thus setting a laudable example of self-denial.

During the whole of the last winter and some part of the spring, not a week was
allowed to intervene without the quarry being visited, either by Mr Rosison or my-
self, always on alternate days; and by this surveillance, aided by the injunctions of
Mr Torrance, and the remonstrances of the worthy minister of the Parish, Mr
Purpte, a constant check was placed upon any clandestine disposal of the bones, and,
perhaps, as few breaches of confidence occurred as might be expected from an assem-
blage of quarrymen, many of whom were burdened with large families.

Toward the accomplishment of another object, Mr Rostson’s labours were unas-
sistedly directed. The osseous fragments discovered were firmly embedded in a hard
limestone rock, and nice mechanical skill was requisite to detach them from their
matrix; which difficulty was again augmented by the very conchoidal fracture as-
sumed by the limestone after a blow of the hammer, and the consequent difficulty in
regulating the extent and direction of the cleavage, or of the chippings. Now, in
order to overcome these obstacles, Mr Roxzison laboured with success, and invented
a small dressing hammer, which effectually brought under control the destructive -
fractures into which the limestone was liable to split. This hammer will be soon con-
sidered as indispensable to the manual operations of the geologist.

The result of these exertions may be readily anticipated. The enlisting of a gen-
tleman of such well known mechanical science as Mr Rontson, in the task of detach-
ing these osseous relics from their stubborn matrix, and of bringing them to light in
a state of integrity, was a result truly favourable to the best interests of Geology.
Very minute specimens, even those which embraced the almost microscopic fry of the
immense questionable animals of Burdiehouse, were developed with a distinctness,

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 187

which has not a little contributed to solve some important questions which the osseous
relics of the quarry have suggested.

While Mr Rosison was thus rendering the most valuable assistance in the com-
mon object which we had in view, this co-operation was the means of affording me
the more leisure to satisfy myself regarding other questions of geological interest sug-
gested by these researches.

SECTION VI._THE GENERA OF FOSSIL FISH DISCOVERED AT BURDIEHOUSE.

The fish discovered at Burdiehouse will be described after
the system of M. Acassiz, Professor of Natural History at Neu-
chatel, whose “ Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles,” is already
familiar to most geologists. They will also be noticed in con-
nection with the judgment passed upon them from personal in-
spection by this eminent naturalist; and, in availing myself of
the kind assistance which he has thus rendered me, I would con-
fess to an obligation for which I am truly grateful.

M. Acassiz’s system, as is well known to those who may have
but glanced at his work, while it carefully includes the distinctions
which prevail in older recognised systems, gives a characteristic
pre-eminence to that portion of the structure of the fish, which
with geologists ought to claim a leading consideration. The skin
of the fish connects the animal with the medium in which he
lives. It is the essential character of the skin to form a sort of
external skeleton, which protects its surface. Its epidermis may
be considered, in the most general point of view, as a membra-
nous layer of horny substance, which covers the whole surface of
the animal, which isolates it from the external world, which
shelters the more delicate part of its organization, and which, as a
bad. conductor of heat, preserves to it that degree of internal tem-
perature which is essential to its vitality. While this covering is
composed of a number of layers, or folia, superimposed upon and
strongly adhering to each other, it is at the same time insensible.
and is reproduced with ease.— Recherches sur les Poissons Fos-
siles, tom. i. p. 26, &c.

Aa

188 Dr Hiszerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

In reference to this most important portion of the structure of
the animal, the great orders of M. Acassiz’s system are founded.

The remains of such fish discovered at Burdiehouse as I in-
tend to notice in the present memoir, are referable to two of these
orders.

The first uf these orders includes Placoidian fish. They are
distinguished by the irregularity manifested in the solid parts of
their integuments, which consist of materials of enamel often con-
siderable, or sometimes reduced to little points ; as, for instance,
the tubercles of rays, or the different chagrins of squali, &c.

To this order M. Acassiz has referred the fish to which
certain bony rays of gigantic dimensions found at Burdiehouse
belong. The animal is supposed to have approached the Ces-
tracion of modern times ; which fish is the type of the family of
Cestraciontes. He conceives that the remains in question may
be referred to a new genus, to which he has given the name of
GYRACANTHUS FORMOSUS.

Other relics are referred to fish of a second or Ganoidian or-
der, distinguished by the angular, rhomboidal or polygonal scales,
which they possess in common ; these scales being at the same
time formed of bony plates, and covered over with enamel. This
order includes various families, but, in reference to the fossil re-
mains of Burdiehouse, two only of them will have to be consi-
dered.

To the family of Lepidoids (Agass.), which are characterised
by teeth after the form of a brush disposed in several rows, or in
one single row of small obtuse teeth, three genera discovered at
Burdiehouse have been assigned, viz. the PaLmontscus, the Am-
BLYPTERUS, and a new genus, to which M. Acassiz has given the
name of Eurynorus.

To the family of Sauroids, which are distinguished by conical
and pointed teeth, alternating with small teeth en brosse, by flat
scales, rhomboidal and parallel to the body, which is entirely co-

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 189

vered by them, and by an osseous skeleton, M. Aeassiz has at-
tributed the remains of two fish which have been found. One
of these belongs to his genus Pygopterus, and another to an un-
described and extraordinary genus, the Megalichthys.

This list could no doubt be extended. I am therefore called
upon to remark, that, as the entire suite of specimens hither-
to collected at Burdiehouse has been submitted to the investi-
gation of M. Acass1z, to be illustrated by him in his “ Re-
cherches sur les Poissons Fossiles,” it would only burden the
volumes of the Royal Society’s Transactions, to enter into a de-
scription of all the fish discovered in the quarry For this rea-
son, I have proposed to confine myself to such individuals only,
as might serve for illustrations of the general character of the
limestone, or might involve geological questions of importance.

NOTES TO SECTION VI.

Soon after my discovery of the fossil treasures of the Burdiehouse limestone, I
was anxious to obtain M. Acasstz’s judgment upon them; and, accordingly, very
early during the last spring, I wrote to him, with drawings of three of the best mark-
ed specimens which had then been found. Since that period many others have been
added to the collection of the Burdiehouse specimens, and when, upon the occasion
of the British Association of Science meeting at Edinburgh, I had the satisfaction of
cultivating a personal acquaintance with M. Acassiz, he promised to favour me with
his opinion regarding all such specimens as I might submit to his consideration.

That I should have consulted M. Acassiz in preference to any other naturalist,
however eminent he might have rendered himself in other departments of zoology
(and I would add that there are zoologists in Scotland whose memoirs form very
valuable portions of the Royal Society’s Transactions), cannot create the least degree
of surprise among such as are aware of the most imperfect state of our knowledge in
fossil ichthyology, and of the great light which is dawning upon this obscure branch
connected with geology, by the transcendent researches which are going on under the
auspices of the Swiss naturalist.

To those who may happen to be unacquainted with M. Acassiz or his writings,
it is sufficient for me to explain, that he appears before us under two great recommen-
dations. ;

In the first place, he has taken up the elucidation of a branch of natural history,
conceded to him as untrod ground by no less an individual than Cuvier himself,—
himself a giant in the field of paleontology. This fact is rendered evident by the

190 Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

acknowledgments which M. Acasstz pays to the French naturalist for having com-
mitted to his possession all the materials which the Baron had himself collected with
a view to similar researches, for which his important occupations in another depart-
ment, namely, in the extinct land, and amphibious animals of a past state of our
globe, had afforded him too little leisure.

A second recommendation of M. Acasstz is, that he comes before us not only in
the character of a zoologist, but as one who has studied the character of fish in refer-
ence to their geological connections; who has endeavoured to trace in this class of ani-
mals the changes of organization which have happened in correspondence with the
various revolutions which the earth has undergone. “ Fish,” as he observes, ** be-
ing more than all other animals most intimately connected with the incidents of the
water, and their organization being besides very high up, they are better calculated
than any other class to give us clear ideas regarding the changes which have been
going on in such vast seas as have formerly covered over the earth. We shall be en-
abled to determine if a fish has lived in rivers, in lakes, or in ponds, in the high sea,
or upon its shores ;—if it was an inhabitant of the surface of the water or of its
great depths ;—which indications, more or less valuable, will aid us in determining
corresponding circumstances with regard to the formation of rocks.”

If I had space allotted me in this memoir, I could point out many instances of
the tact which M. Acasstz evinced while in Edinburgh, illustrative of the import-
ance of fossil ichthyology, in the assistance which it yields in determining the rela-
tive age of rocks, and which would show, at the same time, how inexcusable I should
have been if I had not availed myself of a judgment of such value as that which he
has evinced.

SECTION VIL—THE FOSSIL FISH REFERABLE TO THE LEPIDOID FAMILY.

For motives of convenience, I shall not describe the fish which
I mean to notice in the exact order of classification already ex-
plained.

As I have stated, the Lepidoid family is included in the
Ganoid order of fish.

To this family the genera of Palzoniscus, Eurynotus, and
Amblypterus are referred, of which one species or more of each
have been discovered in the quarry of Burdiehouse.

The fish which the limestone entombs in far the greater
number is an individual which I had little difficulty in referring
to the genus of Palaoniscus. (The first specimens discovered of
this fish were sketched in Plate VII, figs. 1. and 3. But more
perfect ones having been subsequently obtained, they are introduced

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 191

in Plate VI., Figs. 6. and '7., where one of them appears in a
specimen which encloses also the vegetable relic named the Le-
pidostrobus variabilis.)

A doubt at first arose whether the fish formed a new species,
and the more particularly as it approached in character to the
Palzoniscus angustus of Autun. (See “ Recherches sur les Pois-
sons Fossiles,” tom. it. page 57.)

M. Acass1z has, however, referred the specimen to a per-
fectly undescribed species ; and, in pointing out the small pec-
toral and the small ventral fins which it possesses, as well as
the anterior edge of the dorsal fin bemg opposite, or nearly so,
to the ventrals, he adds, “ what principally characterises it, is its
elongated form and the thinness of its body, by which it comes
nearest to the Paleeoniscus angustus of Autun; but, at the same
time, it differs from all other species belonging to the genus, in
the much more considerable length of the anterior rays of its
dorsal and anal fins, and in the considerable size of its tail.”

With the name which ought to be given to this new species,
M. Acassiz has declined to interfere. He states, that in a letter
which I wrote to him, directed to Neuchatel, accompanied. with
a drawing of the fish, I had, in this instance, successfully attribut-
ed it to the genus of Paleoniscus; on which account he would
wish its specific name to rest with myself. An opportunity has
thus been afforded me, of which I hasten to avail myself, of pay-
ing the public acknowledgment which I owe for the unwearied
pains taken by Mr Rosison, General Secretary of the Royal So-
ciety of Edinburgh, not only in preventing the dispersion of os-
seous relics so important to geology, but in otherwise affording
me the greatest assistance in the prosecution of these researches.
As a tribute, therefore, of the gratitude which I feel for such
services,.I would beg to name a new species of fish, which, from
its great abundance, may be almost regarded as characteristic of
the limestone of Burdiehouse, the Patmoniscus Rosison1.—
See Plate VI, Fig. 7.

192 Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

A second fish is considered by M. Acassiz as constituting a
new genus of the same Lepidoid family, referable to his Lepi-
doides hétérocerques. (See the Plates of the first volume of Re-
cherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles.) This genus is considered as
coming near to that of the Palzoniscus and Platysomus. M.
Agassiz writes to me regarding the fish as follows: “ I intend to
call it Eurynorus. What characterises it the best is the great
size of the dorsal fin which occupies the whole back, as in the
Platysomus, the anterior rays of which are very much elongated.
Fig. 4. of Plate VII. does not give a complete idea of it, the
anterior edge of the dorsal fin being much more elongated. M.
Jameson has placed in my hands some, almost perfect, specimens
of the fish, which, at first, I did not recognise, so remarkable
was their aspect. The anal fin is narrow, but its rays are elon-
gated. The general form of the body is rather that of the Am-
blypterus than of the Paleoniscus, but its double fins, the pec-
torals and the ventrals, have fewer rays, and these rays are longer.
The scales (which, like other parts of the fish, are not very well
preserved in the specimen of the Royal Society) are not so long
as they are high, and their posterior edge is crenulated and in-
dented ; for which reason, I have called this species, hitherto the
only one known of the genus, Eurynotus crEeNatus.”

A third fish, referable to the Lepidoid family, is a species of
Amblypterus (Agassiz), of which I possess no drawing nor de-
scription. It will doubtless be noticed in the “ Recherches sur
les Poissons Fossiles.”

SECTION VIII.—THE SAUROID CHARACTER OF CERTAIN OSSEOUS REMAINS
ENCLOSED IN THE LIMESTONE.

A circumstance of no little interest, connected with the or-
ganic remains which had been disclosed during the progress of
quarrying, was the question which they involved regarding their
conceived saurian character.

In the first place, a large tooth was obtained, having no little

1

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 193

resemblance to those of the Gavial of the Ganges. (See Plate
VIII. fig. 1.) Nor did the internal structure of such teeth as were
discovered forbid the supposition. ‘This is shewn in the annexed
figure, which represents the section of a tooth, which had been
found broken longitudinally :—a repre-
sents a lower and outer portion of the
tooth, while 0 is its reverse side, in
which an internal cavity is observable,
at present filled up with earthy sub-
stance, not unlike the cavity observa-
ble in the teeth of large reptiles, which is supplied with a re-
placing tooth.

The larger longitudinal fragment of the same tooth is repre-
sented by c, in which the counterpart of the same internal cavity
is discernible.

It is true that this internal structure was not a decisive mark
of the animal having been a reptile, yet, when the immense size
of some of the teeth subsequently discovered was also taken into
consideration (see Plate IX.), one of which was 33 inches in
length, and when no extinct animal coeval with or earlier than
the new red sandstone formation had been hitherto recorded as
possessing such immense teeth, saurian reptiles alone excepted,
the reference of the teeth to such animals was, at least, the most
ready supposition, and justifiable.

In the second place, various scales were collected. These
were of two kinds.

The first of these comprised the remarkable structures which
are represented in Plate VIII. fig. 2. It is not the first time
that these scales have been discovered in coal-fields. They have
even been figured as fungi belonging to the vegetable world. In
the present instance, it may be supposed that these substances.
had, in the limestone, met with a better state of preservation, as
it was impossible not to be struck with their internal cancellated
structure, which forbad any supposition but that they were osse-

VOL. XIII. PART I. Bb

194 Dr Hiszerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

ous. Owing to this structure, and to their rounded form, it was
conceived that they were the epiphyses of vertebra; but other
specimens having been obtained in which an external lamellar
structure might be also remarked, this notion was discounte-
nanced, and the relics in question were adjudged to be large
scales. But, with regard to the animal to which these scales
might be referred, no supposition was hazarded. Indeed, some
little mystery regarding them may possibly subsist at the pre-
sent moment. (Other representations of these scales appear in
Plate X. and Fig. 2 and 3.) .

A second description of scales possessed great thickness. They
were adorned with a brilliant enamel of a nut-brown colour. They
were of an angular, rhomboidal, or polygonal form, and most of
them exhibited small pits or dots upon their surface, (see Plate
XI. Fig. 4to7). Now, it is certain that any opinion which could
be formed from these scales was at the best equivocal. Although
1 at first advocated their exclusively saurian character, yet, when
I saw a large specimen of the Lepisosteus, named by M. Acas-
siz the Lepidosteus, which is preserved in the British Museum, L
immediately considered the possibility that the scales might be-
long to some animal of the finny tribe, which suspicion was stated
in the memoir that I read at a sectional meeting of the British
Association. At the same time, a comparison made with various
crocodiles, collected from different countries, not only shewed me
scales of the self same form and thickness ; but even the very pits
or dots by which I at first conceived the scales of the Burdie-
house animal were to be distinguished. So far, then, the saurian
evidence was scarcely decisive.

In the third place, a discovery was made of bony rays of ex-
traordinary dimensions and beautifully configurated. (See Plate
XI. fig. 1, A and B. Others also, of a different form, and of less
size, were found. Regarding these relics, no question at all could
arise. They evidently belonged to fish, and could not by any pos-
sibility be confounded with the remains of reptiles.

m the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 195

In the fourth place, very large disjointed bones, generally cra-
nial, were disclosed. ‘These were in such a broken and unconnect-
ed state as to throw no light whatever upon the saurian question.
Some of them appeared fish-like ; and, as it was certain, from the
discovery of large Ichthyodorulites, that ummense fish must have
existed, a reference was easily made. But, on the other hand,
certain bones were strikingly reptilian ; and, accordingly, it was
judged possible that the latter might have belonged to the ani-
mal to which the teeth had been referred.

Such was the character of the osseous relics which had been
discovered. No important bones were in a state of connection,
or integrity, with the exception of a jaw so very minute as to be
comparatively microscopic, (see Plate LX. fig. 1.) Of this relic,
however, an important use was made, as will soon be shewn.

From the foregoing statement it would appear, that, while
the scales, and many other bones, yielded rather ambiguous evi-
dence in determining an exclusively saurian question, it was the
character of the teeth which afforded the greatest ground of pre-
sumption, that saurian reptiles had actually existed during the
carboniferous epoch.

But, in order to arrive at the truth, the greatest desideratum
was the discovery of some part of the head in which the jaws and
teeth would prove to be in a state of connection. It is certain
that two or three of such relics had been actually found, the in-
spection of which was never conceded to myself.: M. Acassrz
had the opportunity of a momentary glance at une of these re-
mains, when he instantly conceived that it belonged rather to a
sauroid fish than to a reptile. This suspicion having been com-
municated to me, I instantly recollected, that the portion of a
very minute jaw, evidently belonging to one of the fry of the
questionable animal, was in the possession of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh; and, upon placing it under a strong magnifying

Bb2

196 Dr Hiszerrt on the Limestone of Burdichouse

glass, M. Acassiz informed me that the suspicion which he had |
entertained was still farther confirmed.

The conclusion eventually drawn from this examination was,
that the large teeth, the scales, and many of the bones, did not
belong to a saurian reptile, but to an immense sauroid fish.

NOTES TO SECTION VIII.

It had been long known among the workmen of the limestone quarry of Burdie-
house how anxious I had been for the discovery of any bones to which the teeth
might be found to actually adhere; which anxiety arose solely from the wish that some
additional light might be thrown upon the saurian question. Now, from some cause
or other (which I will not seek to explain), relics of such importance as these never
came into the possession of the Royal Society, although a price would have been ad-
vanced, even on my own account, should the Royal Society have refused to purchase
them, fully equal to the sum any other individuals would have paid. Such a value,
indeed, did I at one time place upon the discovery of teeth thus found attached, that
for such a prize I would have been content that they should have been rated at the
highest market price which our best dentists actually receive for teeth belonging to
the Homo sapiens of Linnzeus.

I had flattered myself that the line of conduct chalked out by myself during this
investigation had been sufficiently appreciated. As I had publicly expressed my
wish that some individual who had made zoology more a particular object of his
study than myself, would undertake the business of describing the osseous remains
discovered at Burdichouse, and, as the specimens in the possession of the Royal So-
ciety of Edinburgh were open for consultation to every member of it equally with
myself, and, indeed, to every scientific individual capable of forming a judgment up-
on an intricate question of comparative anatomy, I thus conceived that the possibi-
lity of any feeling of rivalry or jealousy being excited, was entirely out of the ques-
tion.

It was not, however, at Burdiehouse alone, but in other localities near Edinburgh,
that sauroidrelics had been discovered, of no less importance towards the elucidation of
truth. They constituted private property; and, of course, I had no right whatever to
make any complaint that I was not permitted to avail myself of the information which
they were calculated to impart. Iam only entitled to express some little regret that no
account of them had ever been published ; otherwise, I might have been enabled much
sooner to have reconsidered the opinion which I had expressed on the saurian ques-
tion, and to have acknowledged my obligation for the correction of any error into
which I might have fallen ;—an acknowledgment whic I have not hesitated to pay
to M. Acassiz.

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 197

SECTION IX._THE FISH OF RECENT TIMES CALCULATED TO EXPLAIN THE
SAUROID CHARACTER OF THE OSSEOUS REMAINS DISCOVERED AT BUR-
DIEHOUSE.

The conclusion arrived at by M. Acass1z could not but be re-
garded, as portending a splendid accession to our knowledge con-
cerning the immense animals which lived in so early an epoch as
that from which our coal-fields date their origin. The monsters
which roamed among the more ancient waters of our planet, did
not possess for purposes of locomotion, paddles or feet like those
of the reptiles of later epochs ;—they were vested with fins, yet
still exhibited along with the attributes of fish, a sauroid form
of teeth, and a sauroid structure of the larger bones, in connec-
tion with the splendent scales of the crocodile, or gavial.

From these considerations a natural question arose,—Does
any animal yet exist upon the surface of the globe, with which
a monster of so mixed a character can be compared? A reply
has been given in the affirmative.

Among the countless numbers of animated races long since
extinct, there would still appear to be some approximating tribes,
which linger on the present surface of the globe even during its
very altered state. These might have been called into life un-
der local or partial circumstances of subsistence, or habitat, alike
common to some condition of a primeval state of our planet. But
such concurrent circumstances, whatever they may be, we have
not always the means of ascertaining.

It is sufficient to state, that, in reference to fish which pos-
sess important characteristics in common with those of extinct
tribes, M. Acass1z, for purposes of comparison and analogy, has
made a very diligent quest, as may be shewn by some striking il-
lustrations which appear among his Ichthyological researches.

This naturalist, in establishing among his ganoid order of
fish a sauroid family, had referred, as a type of it, to a recent
sauroid fish, the principal species of which dwell among the lakes

198 Dr Hiszerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

and rivers of the warm regions of America. To this animal the
name of Lepisosteus, or, according to M. Acassi1z’s altered no-
menclature, Lepidosteus has been given,—a term significant of
the hard, bony, and crocodilian character of its scales.

With this sauroid, yet finny inhabitant of the waters, M.
Acassiz had already, as far as related to certain comparatively
small sauroid fish enclosed in the carboniferous group of rocks,
found much analogy. He had, however, still to learn, that sau-
roid fish of even gigantic dimensions were referable to the self
same geological epoch. The knowledge of this important fact
he first acquired at Burdiehouse.

Peony
SION
DESrn Dn

The Lepidosteus, of which the foregoing is a representation,
admits of three species, the Lepidosteus spatula, the L. Gavial,
and the L. Robolo.

The Lepidosteus Gavial is so named from its actual resem-
blance to the crocodilian animal of the Ganges. “ This fish,”
observes a naturalist, “ has the greatest relations of external
likeness with the saurian reptile, whence it has derived its
name. These traits of resemblance are instantly recalled to the
mind of the observer by the form of the head of the animal ;—
by the very great elongation of its jaws, by their little breadth,
and by the furrow longitudinally hollowed out on each side of
the upper jaw ;—by the irregular osseous pieces, carved, radiated,
and strongly articulated with each other, which envelope its
head, or which compose its opercules ;—by the quantity, the
form, and the inequality of the teeth :—by the position of the
orifices of the nostrils at the end of the snout ;—by the situation
of the eyes, which are placed very near the angle of the mouth ;
—by osseous scales which, being distributed over the whole of

5

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 199

the body, form an impenetrable cuirass against the teeth of other
inhabitants of the water, and even against the ball of a musket,
which makes no impression.” —See the article Lepisosteus (by M.
CLOQUET) in the Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles.

But I have now to communicate a most important addition
to our knowledge relative to this sauroid fish, by which it is even
still more closely approximated to animals of a reptilian charac-
ter.

The cellular structure of the swimming bladder of the Lepi-
dosteus had been long since remarked as curious, but it has
been left to M. Acass1z to discover the use of this internal struc-
ture, and, along with it, that of the swimming bladder itself;—
as this organ is usually named. Having been recently, by the
British Museum, allowed the permission of dissecting a specimen
of the Lepidosteus, preserved in spirits of wine, he has been so
very kind as to favour me with the result of this most important
anatomical investigation.

“ You know,” he observes, “ that the nature of the swimming
bladder of the fish is still an object of controversy among anato-
mists ; some considering it as a particular organ peculiar to the
class of fish, while others (the natural philosophers) suppose that
it is analogous to the lungs. In examining this organ, as it is
met with in the Lepidosteus, I have not only been enabled to de-
monstrate that it is a real lung, but I have also found a great ap-
proach in its structure to that of the lungs of reptiles. The lung
(the swimming bladder) of the Lepidosteus, is not only cellular, .
as we find it to be in salamanders, and in the reptiles improperly
named doubtful reptiles, but it also possesses a trachea (trachée
artere), which is extended the whole length of its anterior sur-
face, and which opens at the bottom of the mouth by a glottis
surrounded by ligaments which close and shut it ;—this apparatus
bemg even more complicated than we find it to be in many rep-
tiles.

200 Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

« The heart also has not the appearance of the heart of an
ordinary fish. It is destitute of that inflation, so characteristic
of fish, called Bulbus-aorticus, and has rather the aspect of the
heart of a ree

Such is the important information transmitted me by M.
Agassiz relative to the Lepidosteus.

That the animal should have been found to possess lungs is
a circumstance which may be availed of in certain geological spe-
culations, and upon which some few remarks will be made _here-
after. In the mean time I may observe, that, if the presence of
lungs in their very complicated structure deserve to be consider-
ed as a reptilian character, which it is usually supposed to be, the
Lepidosteus, instead of being regarded as a sauroid fish, rather
deserves the appellation of a finny reptile.

But without insisting upon the propriety of the latter term,
which, on account of other points of anatomical difference, par-
ticularly the form of the jaw, would be disputed, it may be, last-
ly, remarked, that the teeth, the scales, and various large frag-
ments of bones which have been discovered at. Burdiehouse, will
be referred to an animal bearing the greatest affinity to the Lepi-
dosteus, although far larger.

NOTES TO SECTION IX.

M. Acassiz, in his ** Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles,” has. given a draw-
ing of the Lepidosteus, of which the wood-cut of this Memoir is a reduction. But
in the present incipient state of his work, a full description of the animal has not
yet appeared.

Soon after my Memoir had been read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in,
which I had supposed that a saurian animal was indicated by the teeth and scales
which had been discovered at Burdiehouse, I obtained a glance only at the first num-
ber of M. Acassiz’s work, in which the Lepidosteus was figured ;— (for my own sub-
soription copy had been slow in arriving.) I remember having been struck with the
animal’s crocodilian appearance, which was the only impression I then felt, as I had
not been able to subdue the conviction in my own mind, that the monster which pos-
sessed teeth like those which were found at Burdiehouse, must have been as complete-
ly a saurian reptile as the Gavial of the Ganges.

7

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 201

The impression produced upon my mind by the drawing was but faintly retain-
ed, until I visited the British Museum in London. Upon this occasion, an imper-
fect specimen of a large fish, with splendent scales, and form of head remarkably
gavial-like, immediately arrested my attention. After having taken several notes of
the external character of the animal, I added in my memorandum-book, “ This fish I
must know.” In fact, my suspicion was so excited regarding the validity of my ex-
clusively saurian hypothesis, that after having been politely favoured by Mr Gray
of the British Museum, with a closer inspection than the highly suspended specimen
of the Lepidosteus would permit, of smaller examples of the animal, I came to
the conclusion that some of the large scales of Burdiehouse might have belonged to
a fish,—an opinion which I afterwards supported. And, most probably, I should have
dismissed every notion whatever which I had entertained in favour of an exclusively
saurian theory, if it had not been for the remarkable character of the fossil teeth,
which, after a consultation of the best works on comparative anatomy, I could not
reconcile with the attributes of a fish.

It would be an easy matter for me to shew that I had not been solitary in my
judgment, as it was the same which had been expressed by some of the first natu-
ralists in London and Paris, to whom the teeth in question had been submitted.
Even M. Acassiz himself, when I accompanied him to the collection of Burdiehouse
specimens in the possession of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, with the view that
he might select any of them for drawing which might enrich his great work, was so
far inclined to countenance my opinion, that he rejected the teeth and many of the
large bones collected, as not being objects of his department, considering, like my-
self, that they had belonged to a reptile.

It has been explained, however, that a single day had not passed over, before
M. Acassiz obtained the momentary sight of a jaw of the animal; (for, as I have
stated, more than two jaws at the least had been found, which I had never myself
the opportunity afforded me to inspect) ; he then revoked his opinion, and pronounced
the animal to be a sauroid fish, rather than an exclusively saurian reptile. Upon this
occasion he begged me to accompany him to the College Museum, (my first visit there
for many years), where he pointed out to me a very small specimen of the same Le-
pidosteus which had so commanded my attention in London, to which he now re-
commended me to direct my particular views of comparison,

SECTION X._THE SAUROID REMAINS OF BURDIEHOUSE REFERRED TO A NEW
GENUS OF SAUROID FISH, THE MEGALICHTHYS.

When M. Agassiz visited Edinburgh, he found the bones of
the large sauroid fish of Burdiehouse in so broken a state, among
which were fragments of the bones of other large and unknown
animals, that they almost defied any attempt of successful con-

VOL. XIII. PART I. Ce

202 Dr Hisserr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

nection. In fact this labour is only in progress. The Royal
Society of Edinburgh have transmitted to M. Acassiz as many
of the specimens from the collection as he wished to examine,
in order to be illustrated in his work; and it is to be hoped that
more important relics will still turn up during the process of
quarrying. The details, therefore, of which this memoir must
necessarily be deficient, will no doubt be in the course of time
supplied.

From another source, however, M. Acassiz has obtained
most important information relative to the sauroid fish of Bur-
diehouse. After leaving Edinburgh in company with Dr Bucx-
LAND, these gentlemen visited many of the public museums of
Great Britain, among which was that of Leeds, where they found
the specimen of an entire head of a fossil animal, obtained from
the coal-fields of Yorkshire, which, from the teeth and other
bones, was ultimately referred to the same undescribed genus of
sauroid fish.

Having obtained access to this great prize, M. Acassiz was
then enabled, with advantage, to compare the imperfect relics of
Burdiehouse, first, with the entire head from the Leeds Mu-
seum; and, secondly, with a large specimen of the recent Lepi-
dosteus Spatula, preserved in the British Museum.

After M. Acassrz had, by these various comparisons, esta-
blished the fact, that the teeth, and certain other osseous remains
of Burdiehouse, belonged to a sauroid fish rather than to a sau-
roid reptile, he considered it as a new genus to which he gave
the name of Mrcaticnruys; and to the species found at Bur-
diehouse (the first which he had seen), he added the name of

Megalichthys Hibberti.

NOTES TO SECTION X.

Under ordinary circumstances, I might have declined the honour thus rendered
me. If I have accepted it, the following reasons may be assigned :

M. Acassiz had expressed some little apprehension for any pain which he might
inflict in setting me right upon a question regarding which I had publicly expressed

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 203

my sentiments. That the apprehension was an unfounded one, I knew but too well,
by an appeal to the actual state of my own mind, which admitted no other feeling
except admiration for the great talent and discrimination which he had evinced.
Under these circumstances, I feared) lest my refusal of the compliment which. he
paid me might be interpreted by him as indicative of any lurking sentiment of im-
patience under the correction of a:misconception, and, consequently, of an unfriendly
feeling to the cause of truth and of science.

If I felt any degree of uneasiness whatever, it was in the reflection, that I had,
in two instances, been the sole cause of others partaking with me in the imperfect
view which I had entertained: In the first instance, I was hurt that the miscon-
ception had found its way in a work so replete with invaluable facts as that which
Mr Lyett has published ; and, in the second place, that I should equally have mis-
led another geologist, from whom the most brilliant discoveries in geological science
have emanated ; I allude to Dr Bucxtanp. But I am convinced that these two in-
dividuals possess too enlarged minds not to make a generous allowance for any mis-
apprehension in the case of an animal, which appears, no less in organic structure
than in the date of its existence, to have been the very first connecting link between
fish and saurian reptiles.

We are, in point of fact, only beginning to be aware, that, in an earlier period
of the history of our globe, certain of the largest animals of the waters were endowed
with the mixed organization of fish and reptile; that in a later period of the globe,
pure reptiles have multiplied ; and that the attributes of too many fish and reptiles
have been hitherto confounded. M. Acassiz has already removed from the class
which had been assigned to them, several animals of preconceived reptilian character:
Caithness has lost a trionyx, which now proves to be a fish. The chalk of Sussex
has also lost another large reptile, which, in a similar manner, turns out to bea sau-
roid fish of a genus differing from that of Burdiehouse, and possessing a head, jaws,
and teeth as large as those of a crocodile ten feet long. ‘* The teeth,” M. Acassiz
writes to me, “are as large as those represented in Fig. 8. of Plate IX.”

In short, many saurian reptiles, which were supposed to have lorded it over lesser
tribes, have been dismissed from their administration; while an interchange of repti-
lian and finny attributes has afforded the basis for forming a new natural’ history

cabinet.

Such are the original views opened out to us by the recent discoveries of M.
AGASSIZ.

Statements, however, have recently appeared. in two consecutive foot-notes ap-
pended to the reports of the British Association of Science, and of the Royal So-
ciety of Edinburgh, (See the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for October
1834 and January 1835), that M. Acasstz’s investigation was not only “ confir-
matory” of Professor JamxEson’s previously expressed opinion upon the animal re-
mains of Burdiehouse, but that myself, as well as other geologists, (not even ex-

ce

204 Dr Hiszerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

cepting the Swiss Naturalist himself), had ‘« adopted” this opinion. In justice, there-
fore, to M. Acassiz, I shall distinctly state, that the only opinion to which I ever
yielded was that which constituted the great feature of his own peculiar investigation,
viz. that the osseous remains in question of Burdiehouse had disclosed a remarkable
character possessed by the larger animals of the carboniferous epoch, which appear to
have united in their particular organization the character of fish and reptiles. This
view had never before been even ** dreamt of in our philosophy ;”—it was confirma-
tory of no other opinion whatever which had been previously expressed ;—it origi-
nated with M. Acassiz exclusively ;—it was the only one which had been success-
fully opposed to my own theory ;—and it was the only one ultimately adopted by
myself.

Previous to M. Acassiz’s arrival in Edinburgh, my saurian theory was never
opposed upon any other ground, than that the teeth of the Burdiehouse animal were
those of a squalus ;—which notion, I need not remark, was far more remote from
their true sauroid character, than any opinion which T had myself expressed.

As Thad distinctly stated at the Sectional meeting of the British Association,
my impression that the relics of immense fish existed in the limestone of Burdie-
house, the chief question which remained was with regard to the teeth ; and if I had
simply named them sauroid, instead of sawrian, I should have kept within the strict
limits of correctness. But notwithstanding this approximation to the truth, it was
supposed that my theory had fared worse than was really the case. Granting even
the affirmative, I would rather see any theory of mine annihilated upon true scien-
tifie principles, than survive a different kind of treatment ;—in which feeling, I
partake with the sentiment expressed by one of Morrere’s characters, when expa-
tiating upon the systematic rules with which a physician of Paris killed off his pa-
tients,—that it would be a less evil to expire under his remedies, than to be cured
by those of another person ;—for, as it added, although a fatal event occurs, yet a
conviction remains that every thing is conducted in order, and according to rule.
“ C’est une grande consolation pour un defunct."—“ Assurement. On est bien-aise
au moins d’étre mort méthodiquement.”

But, happily, my noble sauroid animal,—not exactly a saurian reptile, but an
immense sauroid fish,—still holds his sway over primeval waters, the sovereign of the
carboniferous epoch.

SECTION XI.—_COMPARISON OF SOME OF THE OSSEOUS REMAINS ATTRIBU-
TABLE TO THE MEGALICHTHYS, WITH OTHERS FOUND AT LEEDS, AND
WITH THE RECENT LEPIDOSTEUS.

As the investigation of the osseous remains of Burdiehouse
is in a manner only commenced, I merely asked from M. Acass1z
his opinion regarding such important attributes as the teeth, the

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 205

jaws, or the scales. To this information, which he promised to
give me after he had instituted a comparison between the Mega-
lichthys of Leeds and that of Burdiehouse, he has added an ac-
count of other parts of the anatomy of the animal, the whole ha-
ving reference to remarks made upon the recent Lepidosteus.

M. Agassiz’s first observations were evidently directed to the
dispelling of any possible doubt that the animal of Leeds was a
sauroid fish. “ The head,” he observes, “is most perfect ; it is
certainly that of a fish, since we see in it the opercular portions,
and the branchiostic rays, which only subsist in this class of ani-
mals; while behind are the scales of a portion of the trunk. It
gives us, then, the greatest possible certainty with regard to the
remains in question, as there are in the Leeds specimen many
portions in an united state which are only found detached at
Burdiehouse.”

In reference to the same specimen, a comparison was made
with minute bones obtained from Burdiehouse, evidently belong-
ing to one of the fry of the Megalichthys, which had aided in the
discovery, that the animal was less a perfect reptile than a sauroid:
fish. M. Acasstz directs attention to the lamellar bone, which
is represented in Plate IX. fig. 1, on the side where the indication,
fig. 1, appears. He observes, that the lamellar bone, (plaque),
here seen so distinctly, is the folium, which, in the head of Leeds,
covers the space comprised between the branches of the inferior
jaw, and which takes the place of the anterior branchiostic rays.
On the opposite edge, as may be noted, is a row of maxillary
teeth, alternately larger and smaller.

The Structure of the Teeth.—With regard to the teeth of the
Megalichthys, M. Acassiz states, that in the Leeds specimen
they were small, but that upon one of them, which was broken,
there was a striated surface characteristic of those of Burdiehouse.

In comparing the teeth collected from Burdiehouse, with
those of a specimen of the Lepidosteus, several feet in length,

206 Dr Hizzerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

preserved in the British Museum, the latter exhibited teeth of
the same size with such as are represented in Plate IX. fig. 6 and
7. They had also the same external structure; they had large
plicae at their base; while the remainder of their surface was
otherwise smooth. Some of these teeth, it is added, were sharp
at one edge ; others were sharp at both edges ; while a third de-
scription had sharp and projecting edges at their extremity only.
As for their interior structure, there was, in all, a conical cavity,
more or less elongated, like that of Fig. 7, and it was in the bot-
tom of this cavity that the new teeth were developed upon the

old ones falling away.

The Alternation of Large and Small Teeth.—This is the next
circumstance to be investigated.

When M. Agassiz visited Edinburgh, he had little know-
ledge of the distribution of large and small teeth in the Mega-
lichthys, except what was derived from the minute specimen of
the jaw of one of the fry of the animal, to which I have already
adverted. (See Plate IX. fig. 1.) Heremarked an evident alterna-
tion of larger and smaller teeth, yet it was conceived (as far as
such a minute and indistinct specimen could countenance any
inference whatever) that there was a greater proportion of large
teeth, and that canine teeth were placed upon the whole of the
jaw. This notion was again countenanced by the large teeth dis-
covered in an unconnected state, which had been hitherto found
more abundantly than smaller ones. An inspection of the Leeds
specimen, however, was unfavourable to this notion, inasmuch as
there appeared in this instance to be a far greater proportion of
small teeth, while the larger canine teeth were chiefly developed
in the fore part of the jaw; and hence M. Acassziz at first con-
ceived, that there might be two genera of sauroid animals allied
to each other, but differing in the comparative size, number, and
distribution of ther teeth.

While Jabouring under this uncertainty, and in the absence
of any satisfactory specimen whatever from Burdiehouse, there

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 207

appeared no other resource left to this indefatigable naturalist,
than‘to inquire whether, in other examples of recent or fossil fish
allied to the Megalichthys, the larger or smaller teeth prevailed
most in number. Ifthe larger or canine teeth should prove
to be fewer in number, ‘and should have a more interior and
anterior position among the bones of the mouth, he conceived
that a great argument would be afforded for assimilating the spe-
cimen of Burdiehouse to that of Leeds, whence their identity
as one genus of fish, if not exactly established, would at least ‘be
a reasonable presumption.

Such a comparison was accordingly instituted, by which M.
Acassiz came to the conclusion, that in the lesser number of
larger or canine teeth, vr, in other words, in the far greater pro-
portion of smaller teeth, the sauroid genus of Burdiehouse would
be ultimately found to identify itself with that of Leeds, and
that thus each animal would be referable to the Megalichthys.

This anticipation has been remarkably confirmed in the sub-
sequent discovery of part of a jaw, too late for M. Acassiz to see
before he left England. It shews a larger tooth alternating with
several of much smaller size. 'The relic (See Plate X. fig. 1) evi-
dently belonged to a young animal, as it exhibits none of the im-
mense and similarly striated teeth which have been found in a
detached state. It, however, not only displays a larger tooth alter-
nating with an excess of smaller ones, but likewise a difference
of size between the two kinds,—so extraordinary, indeed, as to
afford an illustration of the advantages which were to be derived
from a comparison of isolated remains, with the connected ones
of other animals, at least approaching to one common family.

But I shall now advert to other investigations of comparison.

Inthe recent and very remarkable sauroid fish conceived to
bea living type of the Megalichthys,—the Lepidosteus spatula,—
M. Acass1z observed phenomena nearly similar. He states that
teeth of an inch long, alternate with small teeth which are nota
dine in length. In ‘this species, he adds, the largest teeth are

208 Dr Hrezert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

found upon the palatine bones; but in other species of the same
animal, they rather occur upon the margin of the maxillary bone,
and more especially 1 in their anterior part.

And again, in the new genus of Macropoma (Agass.) of
which Mr Mawreti’s Amia Lewésiensis is considered as the
type, and of which M. Acassrz professes he is not acquainted
with any living species, a similar alternation was observed. Teeth
of very different sizes occurred, always smaller on the edge of the
jaw bones, and proportionally very large upon the internal bones
of the mouth, so that it would have been difficult to conceive
that the fragments shewing a series of palatine teeth, or those
shewing a series of maxillary teeth, had belonged to the same
fish, if they had not been found united in other examples.

These were the instances of analogy by which M. Agassiz, in
the first instance, proposed to explain the difference in the size
of the teeth which are distributed along the jaws of the Mega-
lichthys, and from which he inferred that a similar disposition
might prevail in the Burdiehouse animal. His anticipation, as
I have remarked, was singularly confirmed.

It has been at length shewn that in the Megalichthys very
large teeth have coexisted with very small ones; but as they se-
verally exceed so much in magnitude those of the recent Lepi-
dosteus, our admiration is greatly excited in contemplating the
enormous sauroid fish of a former world.

The larger teeth of Plate IX. fig. 2 and 10, have a breadth
at their base of 14 to 2 inches, and a length of nearly 4 inches

After having explained the teeth and their distribution, I now
proceed to the scales of the Megalichthys.

One description of scales exhibits a coating of enamel of a nut-
brown colour, and often of the most brilliant lustre imaginable.
These scales are of various forms, as may be seen in Plate VIII
fig. 3 to 5, and Plate XI. fig. 2 to 8. They are generally angular.
A curious character is the punctured surface, which many of these

2

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 209

scales display,—a character which I have traced, though in a less
prevalent degree, in the scales of the recent crocodile.

It is remarkable that M. Acassiz, from his observation on the
sauroid fish of Leeds, unites the character of certain large angu-
lar scales, which present a punctured appearance, with the charac-
ter displayed by certain bones of the head, which, in an isolated
state, possess very irregular forms, but which have a surface of
the same kind as that exhibited by the scales. ‘To such bones
he refers all the elongated portions collected at Burdiehouse
possessing such a character; and, in recommending that the
Royal Society of Edinburgh apply for a cast of the head of the
Megalichthys preserved in the Leeds Museum, he adds,—* You
will see in the largest of the Leeds specimens, many portions united
which are only found detached at Burdiehouse. The surface of
these bones is enamelled and punctured in the same manner as
in the larger scales of Burdiehouse, and this trait is again deve-
loped in the bones of the cranium, of the face, of the thoracic
cincture, and of the branchiostegal lamellze, exactly in the same
manner as is shewn in the plates of scales, as well as in all the
detached maxillary and thoracic bones found at Burdiehouse.
It can therefore no longer be doubted, that all these portions are
referable to the same animal.”

These remarks upon the scales of the Megalichthys form the
communication which I have received upon the subject from M.
AGASSIZ.

A chemical estimate has been recently made of these relics in
reference to the scales of the Lepidosteus.

The scales of the Lepidosteus, which struck me as being so
like those of the Burdiehouse animal, had not suggested any
particular observations of comparison ; their mutual similarity,
except perhaps in some few circumstances of form, being so evi-
dent. As far, however, as relates to analysis, a gentleman of
profound chemical knowledge, Mr Arraur Connexu of Edin-

VOL. XIII. PART I. pd

210 Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

burgh, has had his views directed to this subject, as, indeed, to
other comparative inquiries of the same nature, relative to the
change which animal remains of so early a geological date as
those of Burdiehouse have experienced. His valuable memoir
on this subject will appear in the present volume of the Transac-
tions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

I have been favoured by Mr Connex with the result of
his examination of the scales of the Megalichthys, which he has
subsequently compared with an analysis given by Curvrevt of
the scales of the recent Lepidosteus. These two results, with
the view of comparison, I have arranged in a tabular form.

M. CuHEvrEvuL’s ANALYSIS OF THE SCALES OF ANALYSIS OF THE SCALES OF THE FossIL

THE RECENT LEPIDOSTEUS. Mecaticutays, sy A. ConnELL, Eso.
Phosphate of Lime, with a little
Phosphate of Lime, ) ok. 94620 Fluoride of Calcium, . . 50.94
Carbonate of Lime,. . . . 10. Carbonate of Lime, . . . . 11.91
Phosphate of Magnesia, . . 2.02 Phosphate of Magnesia, trace
Carbonate of Soda, . . . . 10 Potash and ‘Soda, -."- =. fe AZ
Gelatinous Animal Matter, . 41.10 Animal Matter, trace
Fatty Matter,. . . . . .- 40
Siliceous Matter, . . 33.10
WA RECT son cuca asice Secure
— 36.58
Bituminous Matter,. . . . 12
99.82 100.02

Upon the assumption that the scales of the recent Lepidos-
teus and those of the Megalichthys identify themselves with each
other, as far as external character and consistence are concerned,
the foregoing Table of chemical comparison is a most important
and instructive one.

With regard to the earthy ingredients of the phosphate of
lime and carbonate of lime, it will be seen at first view, that, in
both the fossil and recent animals, they constitute about three-
fifths of the solid matter of the scales. In the fossil animal, they
have remained in a proportion, most probably, unalterable.

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 211

In Mr Connex’s analysis, a little fluoride of calcium appears.

The phosphate of magnesia, along with potash and soda, or
the carbonate of soda, appear in very small proportions in both
the fossil and recent animals.

Gelatinous substance, with a very trifling quantity of fatty
matter, amounting together to somewhat less than one-half of the
materials contained in the scales of the recent Lepidosteus, has al-
most entirely disappeared. In the fossil animal, Mr Conneiy
could detect nothing more than a trace of animal matter.

But the place of the animal substance has been supplied in
the scales of the fossil fish, by nearly thirty-seven parts in a hun-
dred of siliceous matter, in which is included a little combined
water. These foreign ingredients have no doubt been derived
from the matter in which the scales have been entombed. In
the present instance, they evince the solubility of silex, under cer-
tain circumstances, and its important geological character as a re-
placing substance.

From this interesting comparison, I now pass on to the round-
ed scales of the Megalichthys.

The Rounded Scales.—M. Acassiz has conceived that no doubt
whatever can be supposed to hang over any of the bones which
he has hitherto considered. Regarding one class of relics, how-
ever, perhaps some little degree of obscurity may remain. The
rounded scales of the Megalichthys are indicated by an internal
eancellated, and by an external lamellar structure, as well as by
an absence of ‘the shining enamel so distinctive of the angular
scales. A representation is given of them in Plate VIII. Fig. 2.

Some of the rounded scales appear to be finely fringed at
their edges. (See Plate X. Fig. 2.)

In Plate X. Fig. 3, a representation is given of these scales
in astate of contiguity. M. Acassrz, from an examination of
them, conceives that they are imbricated.

The rounded scales are of various sizes. I have seen speci-

pd2

212 Dr Hiszert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

mens of them attaining the diameter of five inches ; but, in pro-
portion to their great magnitude, they appear to grow thinner.

It is supposed by M. Acasstz, that these relics will meet with
an explanation in the Plate of scales given of the Lepidosteus in
the first volume of his “ Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles ;”
and that they are referable to such dorsal scales as are to be found
at the top of the long series which traverse the Plate, given by
him in Vol. ii, Tab. B.

With these observations, the communication with which I
have been favoured by M. Acassiz relative to the sauroid re-
mains of Burdiehouse, is concluded. Some few additional obser-
vations from the same eminent naturalist, (See the Edinburgh
New Philosophical Journal for January 1835), on the compara-
tive character of the large sauroid fish of early and more recent
formations, will properly close the present inquiry.

He states, that it is in the deposits below the lias that we
begin to find the largest of those enormous sauroid fish, “ the
osteology of which recalls in many respects the skeletons of
saurians, both by the closer sutures of the bones of the skull, by
their large conical teeth striated longitudinally, and by the man-
ner in which the spinous processes are articulated with the body
of the vertebra, and the ribs at the extremity of the spinous
processes.”

It is likewise remarked, that “ we do not find fish decidedly car-
nivorous before the carboniferous series ; that is to say, provided
with large conical and pointed teeth. The other fish of the se-
condary series before the chalk appear to have been omnivorous ;
their teeth being either rounded, or in obtuse cones like a brush.”

I cannot sum up this portion of the investigation, without
adverting to the geological importance of selecting for purposes
of comparison and analogy, of which the Lepidosteus affords a
splendid example, animals subsisting in recent times, which may

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 213

be supposed to have the nearest relationship to races long since
extinct. In the present instance, it has been reserved to the
talents and discrimination of an Agassiz alone, to rescue from a
kind of obscurity a sauroid fish, (I was nearly repeating the term
of a finny reptile) dwelling among the lakes and rivers of the
most thermal regions of America, and to render it elucidative of
one of the earliest states of our globe, when, in the language of
this naturalist, fish combined in their peculiar organization the
character of reptiles ;—of a class of animals, which only appeared
in great number during a later period of the history of our
planet.

NOTES TO SECTION XI.

In closing M. Acassiz’s account of the Megalichthys, I feel it my duty to ex-
press the deep sense of obligation I am under to him for correcting the imperfect
views which I had entertained regarding this animal. But it is not the gratitude of
an individual like myself that will form the meed which awaits this naturalist.
The general cause of geology is interested in the light which he has thrown upon
the subject of Palzontology.

Considering the very disjointed state of the specimens hitherto collected at
Burdiehouse, no feeling can possibly remain, except one of admiration that M.
Aeassiz has been enabled to make so much of them. It is greatly to be lamented,
that this naturalist had not, before he returned to Switzerland, the opportunity of
studying some jaws of the Megalichthys which had assuredly turned up, but the
sight of which was never allowed to extend to the Royal Society, or to myself.

It was in the eleventh hour that I came into possession of part of a Jaw, whicn
was, I believe conceded to me, from motives of compassion. It was considered hard,
that he who had first pointed out the treasures of the quarry should not be permit-
ted to avail himself of one of the relics which he most coveted. I am sorry that it
had arrived too late for a drawing of it to be forwarded to M. Acassiz, in time for
his remarks upon its striking osteological character.

SECTION XII.—OTHER LOCALITIES IN WHICH THE REMAINS OF THE MEGA.
LICHTHYS HAVE BEEN FOUND.

It becomes an interesting object of inquiry if the remains of
the Megalichthys have been found in other localities.

The result of the information that I have been able to obtain
is, that such remains have been discovered in the coal-fields of

214 Dr Hrssert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and im the districts of Cupar,
Errol in Perthshire, East Calder, and Musselburgh ; also in the
coal-fields of Northumberland, of Yorkshire, and of North Wales.
It amounts only to a probability, that remains of the Megalich-
thys have been found in certain limestones of Ashford, in Derby-
shire, and of Northumberland. The details of these discoveries
are given in the note appended to this section.

M. Acassiz has stated his opinion, that there exists in Scot-
land another species of Megalichthys, of which some relics were
placed in his hands by Mr Rostson, who had procured them
from Greenside near Glasgow. He conceives that the animal to
which they may be referred, is to be distinguished from that of
Burdiehouse by the form of the teeth, which is more compressed
and very sharp at the edges. He proposes to call it the Mrca-
LICHTHYS FALCATUS.

NOTES TO SECTION XII.

If it be allowable to suspect that the scales of the Megalichthys have been mis-
taken for those of saurian reptiles, as was the case in the first instance at Burdie-
house, the evidence with regard to other localities in which the remains of the Mega-
lichthys have been found, becomes multiplied.

The black limestone, as it is called, of Ashford in Derbyshire, so named from
the bituminous matter which is diffused through a great part of it, rather affords
evidence of its having been the deposit of an estuary than of a fresh water river,
or lake, such as the limestone of Burdiehouse is supposed to have been. This fact I
shall endeavour to substantiate hereafter. It is sufficient at present to state, that
the limestone of Ashford contains, along with marine shells and corallines, various
remains of the plants common in coal-fields.

In this limestone Mr Wuirruvrst, who wrote his well known ;Theory of the
globe in the year 1778, found, as he stated, the impression of a crocodile. Mr
Wuirtre Watson of Bakewell conceives that Mr Wuitenurst mistook for these re-
mains a large orthoceratite ; but, with all due deference to my old acquaintance, I
am inclined to doubt the legitimacy of this explanation, from having myself lately as-
certained that remains of very large fish existed in this limestone, which, if not of the
Megalichthys, assimilated themselves to other remains found at Burdiehouse ;—this
being a fact which had been previously unknown. It seems then atleast a plausible
conjecture, that some remains of a large sauroid fish might have turned up in this
locality.

This suspicion meets with additional support from a passage which we find in

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 215

the “* View of the present state of Derbyshire” (vol. i. p. 200), written by PrnK1Ne-
ron in the year 1789. The writer not only affirms that a small alligator was found
entire in the black marble of Ashford, but he also adds that another specimen, the
tail and back of a crocodile, had been discovered in the same locality, and had met
with preservation in a cabinet at Brussels.

But it is time to advert to statements better verified.

In the year 1793, the Rev. Davip Ure wrote his History of Rutherglen (a most
interesting work), in which it is certain that he discovered part of a jaw and teeth,
which, from the drawing given of them (plate 19 of his work), are referable to the
Megalichthys. They are said to have been found among schist in the quarries of
of Philipshill, and in the till above coal at Stonelaw. (See p. 330 of the work). Other
remarkable teeth will also be found described in his work.

In the year 1830, Dr Ftemine published an account of scales, and of a tooth
which evidently belonged to the Megalichthys. They were found in the yellow sand-
stone of Drumdryan quarry to the south of Cupar, and in the red sandstone of Clash-
binnie near Errol in Perthshire (Edinburgh Journal of Natural and Geographical
Science, vol. iii. p. 81.)

During the same year, viz. in a. p. 1830, Mr Lye x1, in his Principles of Geology,
states, that the Rev. Vernon Harcourt discovered in the mountain limestone of
Northumberland a saurian vertebra. Whether this relic may be referred, or not, to
the Megalichthys, remains to be determined.

In December 1833 my discovery took place of the Megalichthys of Burdiehouse.

Also in 1833, there was figured in the Fossil Flora of Professor uinpiry and
Mr Hutton some remarkable relics, which, under an impression, acknowledged at
the time to be a very dubious one, that they, might be identified with some fungus,
suggested the name of Polyporites Bowmanni, ‘They were discovered by J. E. Bow-
MAN, Esq., of the Court near Wrexham, among the ejected shale of a coal-pit near
the entrance of the vale of Llangollen in the County of Denbigh (Fossil Flora,
plate 65). Although the writers of the Fossil Flora have proposed the name of
Polyporites Bowmanni, indicative of a vegetable fungus, it is with proper caution re-
marked, that “it is a matter of great doubt whether these relics actually belong to
the vegetable kingdom ;” and they admit with Mr Bowmay, that one of his specimens
“‘ might be taken for the scale of a fish, or of some great saurian reptile.” Now I
have little or no doubt whatever in my mind, that these relics are the round scales
of the Megalichthys. It is stated at the close of the communication, that it may be
worth considering “ whether the Carpolithes umbonatus of Srernzere, referred with
doubt to Cyclopteris by ApotpHe Bronentarr, may not also be something of a si-
milar nature.”

In 1834, Mr Wirnam of Lartington obtained from the limestone of East Calder
some scales of the Megalichthys. Mr Rostson procured some teeth from Greenside,
near Glasgow, of the Megalichthys faleatus (Acass.), and Lord GreENnock made the
highly interesting discovery, that the remains of the Megalichthys were entombed in
a seam of coal and bituminous shale at Stoneyhill, near Musselburgh, along with
various other relics.

216 Dr Hiszerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

During the same year (1834) scales of the Megalichthys were shewn to me by
W. C. Trevetyan, Esq. of Wallington, which he had obtained from the coal-fields
of Northumberland.

As these remarks conclude my account of the Megalichthys, I may here mention
the information which M. Acassiz communicates to me, that in the much newer
formation of Whitby and Scarborough, he has found the fragments of a fish which
even exceed in size those of the Burdichouse animal; some of the portions of the
cranium being nearly two feet in diameter. In announcing to me the discovery of
this monster, he adds, ‘* After having seen so many extraordinary and surprising things
in the monster of Whitby, which exceeds the largest Ichthyosaurus, I perceive that I
am still only commencing the preface of a book, which future years will supply with
the wonders of the sea. And I shall think myself happy if I can only have excited
interest for a study, which is still so difficult for want of terms of comparison suffi-
ciently numerous.”

SECTION XIII—THE GENUS OF PYGOPTERUS BELONGING TO THE SAUROID
FAMILY.

While the primeval waters of the carboniferous epoch had
their larger sauroid monsters, they had also lesser sauroid tribu-
taries, one of which was in the form of the Pygopterus, belonging
to the same family as that to which the Megalichthys has been
referred.

M. Acassiz has favoured me with the following description
of the Pygopterus of Burdiehouse. Unfortunately, however, it
only applies to a fragment of the fossil fish, which is represented
in Plate VII. fig. 2.

‘The proportions of the rigid tail of the animal, the relative posi-
tion of the dorsal and of the anal fins, the form of the fins, which
are horizontally and perpendicularly elongated, as well as the
considerable number of rays which compose them, serve to point
out the posterior part of a fish of the genus Pygopterus, which
belongs to the “Sauroides Heterocerques,” (Acass.) Amidst the
numerous fragments of bones of the head, as well as of the thoracic
cincture, which have been found along with them, it will remain
for a detailed description to explain, by the system of exclusions,
what might have belonged to the animal. M. Acassrz then

conceives, from his having seen so many heads of the Pygopterus,
6

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 217
as well as the head of the Megalichthys of Leeds, that the iden-

tification will not be insurmountable.

This relic was the first which I discovered at Burdiehouse ;
for which reason I have requested M. Acass1z, that, in its specific
name, I may be allowed to dedicate it to a geologist for whom I
‘possess the greatest esteem. He has accordingly obliged me by
sanctioning the name of Prcorrerus Buckianpt.

M. Acassiz conceives that the best specific character of the
Pygopterus Bucklandi is the relative smallness of its scales.

SECTION XIV—THE REMAINS OF THE FISH OF THE PLACOIDIAN ORDER
DISCOVERED AT BURDIEHOUSE.

It has been explained, that Placoidian fish are easily known on
account of the irregularity manifested by the solid parts of their
integuments, which consist of materials of enamel sometimes con-
siderable, and sometimes reduced to little points ; as is shewn in
the tubercles of Rays, or in the different chagrins of Squali, &c.

The same naturalist, at the commencement of his great work,
has expressed his imperfect knowledge of the fossil fish of this
order. But I believe that since his recent visit to Great Britain,
he has been enabled to examine some few specimens in compara-
tively a better state of preservation. He conceives, that, in cor-
respondence with differences of organization, such remains of fish
as are found in beds anterior to the carboniferous group, would
have to be referred to the order of Placoids.

M. Aceassiz has recently stated, that, among the Placoids,
those above all predominate which have their teeth furrowed in
both the external and internal surface, and have large thorny rays.

These large rays are now considered as the supports of the
dorsal fins of several genera, which, from their approach to the
Cestracion of New Holland, M. Acassiz has formed into a dis-
tinct family, under the name of Cestraciontes, to which family six
fossil genera, approaching to the Squalus, with rays differing con-
siderably from each other, have been already assigned.

VOL. XIII. PART I. Ee

218 Dr Hrsserr on the Limestone of Burdichouse,

M. Agassiz remarks of this family, that it only comprehends
one genus of actual creation, the genus Cestracion ; the others
bemg fossil; that the Hybodontes (Acass.) are equally fossil.
Then follow the Squali, the Rays, and the Cyclostome.

The limestone of Burdiehouse entombs thorny rays of im-
mense magnitude, and most beautifully configurated, which it is
impossible to contemplate without amazement. (See Plate XI,
fig. 1, A, B, and C.) The drawings of them given in Plate XI.
are upon a scale of one-half only of their original dimensions.
They are treble the size of a recent dorsal ray, obligingly shewn
me by Mr Curr of the Museum of the Royal College of Sur-
geons, which was supposed by M. Buarnvitue to be the dorsal
bony ray of a large Silurus of the Ganges.

M. AGasstz confesses that he knows of no other relics found
elsewhere to which they bear any resemblance ;—that, while the
mountain limestone, the lias, the oolite, and the chalk formation,
afford some very striking and decided genera, none of them re-
semble the rays found at Burdiehouse, which he thinks ought to
be referred to a separate genus of the family of Cestraciontes.
He proposes to name the fish to which these rays belong the Gy-
RACANTHUS FORMOSUS.,

It is most unfortunate that nothing is known of the Gyracan-
thus formosus more than is indicated by these relics, which give
the promise of a fossil monster some time or other turning up,
equalling, if not surpassing in interest, the Megalichthys.

The teeth, even of the Gyracanthus, are unrecognised. “It is
not impossible,” says M. Acassiz, “ that the teeth of so remark-
ag able an appearance, which have been discovered, may belong

to this animal. But thisisa mere supposition, solely found-
ed upon the analogy of what I have seen concerning the rays of
other formations.” —I may here observe, that the teeth alluded
to were not found at Burdiehouse, but in the important fossili-
ferous coal-seam of Stoneyhill near Musselburgh, first brought to
notice by the researches of Lord Grrrnock.

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 219

Besides the rays which have been assigned to the Gyracanthus,
there exists a peculiar kind of Ichthyodorulite, comparatively
small, and of an elegant form. But as so much more information
is demanded relative to the placoidian animals to which they be-
long, any drawings of them may be properly suspended until
further remains turn up.

I have now to state a very important analysis, undertaken. by
Mr A. Connezt1, of the bony rays of the Gyracanthus formosus :—
Phosphate of Lime with a little Fluoride of Calcium, 53.87 ;
Carbonate of Lime 33.86; Siliceous matter 10.22; Potash and
Soda, partly as chlorides, 0.71 ; Bituminous matter 0.54; Phos-
phate of Magnesia, a trace ; Animal matter, a trace: Total 99.20.

NOTES TO SECTION XIV.

Mr Connett has compared the analysis which he has given of the bony rays of
the Gyracanthus formosus with one by M. Dumentz of the bones of the recent pike.
I shall throw these two analyses into a tabular form, for the sake of a more ready

comparison.

ANALYSIS OF THE BonEs OF THE PIKE, BY ANALYSIS OF A THorny Ray or THE GYRACANTHUS

DumMxniL. FoRMOsUS, BY ARTHUR CONNELL, Esq.

Phosphate of Lime, with a little

Phosphate of Lime,. . . 55.26 Fluoride of Calcium, . . 53.87
Phosphate of Magnesia, . . trace

Potash and Soda, partly as Chlo-
Traces of Soda, and loss, . . 1.82 Tides;izil So saancukem, okie ‘71
Animal Matter, . . . . . 87.86 Animal Matter, . . . . . trace
Carbonate of Lime,. . . . 6.16 Carbonate of Lime, . . . 88.86
Siliceous Matter,. . . . . 10.22
Bituminous Matter,. . . 54
100.10 99.20

If it be allowable to suppose that there was any original approximation in the qua-
lity and quantity of chemical ingredients severally possessed by the bones of the
pike and the fossil thorny rays of the Gyracanthus, which is rendered very probable
by the proportion of phosphate of lime in each so nearly agreeing, the one analysis
yielding 55.26 parts, and the other 53.87 parts in a hundred,—the following obser-
vations occur.

The fossil thorny rays contain a trace only of phosphate of magnesia, which has
not been detected in the bones of the pike.

Ee 2

220 Dr Hiszert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

There is a small proportion of soda in the recent bones, and perhaps a less pro-
portion of potash and soda existing partly as chlorides in the Gyracanthus.

The proportion of animal matter in the bones of the pike amounts to as much as
$7.36 parts in a hundred, of which a trace only appears in the Gyracanthus for-

mosus.

Having stated these differences, I shall first make some. remarks on the great
quantity of phosphate of lime possessed by the fossil ray.

Mr Conn 1 has very properly remarked to me, in reference to the Gyracanthus
having been assigned to the family ofthe Cestraciontes, that the Cestracion is consi-
dered as a cartilaginous fish, whilst the great quantity of bone-earth contained in
the dorsal ray of the fossil animal, amounting to 54 per cent., is incompatible with
the notion of its being any thing but bone. Now, I certainly find it remarked of
cartilaginous fish, that, while the skeleton of these animals remains constantly carti-
laginous, in rare cases only it contains osseous fibres; the calcareous matter being
in such instances deposited simply in the form of small grains. There are, at the
same time, certain fish of this class, though appearing to separate themselves from
it, as, for instance, the orders of Chismopnea and Teleobranchia, among which the
skeleton is fibrous, and becomes with age perfectly osseous.

To such a structure, therefore, I would refer the fossil dorsal rays of the Gyra-
canthus, which appear to have been formed of osseous fibres, disposed in a longitudi-
nal manner (as can even be traced in their mineralized structure), the intervals or
pores having been originally filled with animal matter. This arrangement of. struc-
ture is.indeed remarkably shewn in some fossil specimens, where elongated pores, or
tubes, larger than common, are filled with siliceous matter.

Another remark is suggested by the mode in which the loss of animal matter has
been supplied in the fossil rays of the Gyracanthus. It would here seem, that the
bones of the pike contain, in addition to the phosphate of lime, about six parts in a
hundred of the carbonate of lime. Now, it is remarkable that the fossil thorny ray
contains as much as $4 parts nearly of the carbonate of lime, along with only 10
parts of siliceous matter, by which it appears that the loss of animal matter has been
very readily supplied by infiltrations of calcareous matter, derived no doubt from a
calcareous matrix, but comparatively little with siliceous matter. Ought this cireum-
stance to throw any light upon the original organization of these rays ?

There is, at least with myself, much difficulty in explaining why the loss of animal
matter is chiefly supplied in these fossil rays by carbonate of: lime, which is exactly
the reverse of what appears to have taken place in fossil scales. Whether, in this
instance, the animal matter has been sooner released from the substance of the bone,
and, as a consequence, its place more directly supplied by infiltrations of calcareous
matter from the matrix of these relics. I will not pretend to determine. In the dense
and compact structure of the bony scales of the Megalichthys, the mineralization
might have gone on far more slowly ; and hence the substitution of a great excess of
siliceous matter.

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 221

The two different characters of mineralization are exhibited in the following
Table.

Fossil Scales of the Megalichthys contain Thorny Rays of the Gyracanthus contain
Carbonate of Lime, . : 11.91 Carbonate of Lime, . ; $3.86
Hydrated Siliceous Matter, 36.58 Siliceous Matter, ‘ ‘ 10.22

48.49 44.80

These observations have been suggested by the important analysis of Mr Con-
NELL. But he is far better qualified than myself to enter into questions relative to
the chemistry of geology.

I shall, lastly, make some few remarks upon these. large rays, as they are found in
other localities.

It would appear that the large bony rays of the Gyracanthus are not confined to
the limestone of Burdiechouse, as I have seen specimens of them collected from the
argillaceous shale of Fifeshire. Similar relics have also been discovered in Northum-
berland.

In the next place, large bony rays, referable to other placoidian fish, appear in
the shale of the coal-fields of Glasgow; they are likewise found in limestones of ma-
rine origin, as in the mountain-limestone of Ashford, from which locality I procured
them during the course of the last summer. Dr Simpson of Bathgate found a sili-
cefied organic substance in a mountain-limestone of marine origin, which, if it had
not been in so old a deposit, I should have taken for a belemnite. It was obtained
from Kate Shield’s or Crawford’s quarry, near Bathgate. M. Acassiz thinks that it
indicate an interior cavity (from which the organic matter must have been removed)
of one of these large rays.

SECTION XV.—THE COPROLITES OF THE LIMESTONE OF BURDIEHOUSE.

From the numerous relics of small and immense finny ani-
mals discovered in the quarry, it cannot surprise us to find that
foecal remains should occur in an abundance, rivalling perhaps in
this respect the particular locality which very early excited the
attention of Dr BuckLanp, and to which he has given the name
of the Cloaca maxima of Gloucestershire.

In inspecting the very exact figures of the coprolites which
have been published in the excellent memoirs of Dr Buckianp on
this subject, it might be expected that we should find these
shapes abundantly developed in the limestone of Burdiehouse ;
but the contrary is the fact. The peculiar forms of the foecal
contents of the intestinal canal must, from their aqueous submer-

222 = Dr Hrszerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

sion, have been frequently lost. Although coprolites contain-
ing the indigested scales of fish are most abundantly diffused
through the limestone, they seldom preserve any decisive form.
An exception to this rule certainly occurs in the argillaceous
shale lying above the limestone, indica-
tive of a difference of circumstances by
which the form of the coprolites has been
preserved. This deposit was no doubt ori-
|) ginally a turbid one, calculated to obviate
~ the washing away of any foecal shape.
Two representations of the smaller coprolites are here given.
Their form is far better preserved than that of larger specimens.
The larger coprolites attain a great size. I have seen them
occasionally diffused over a surface of limestone to the extent of

nearly a foot.
These foecal remains are of a pale yellow colour, and have a
very dull earthy aspect. In the shale they acquire a darker tint.
Mr Connett has undertaken an analysis of these coprolites,
which he has accomplished with his usual skill. Two of these I
shall subjoin.

First Second
contains contains
Phosphate of Lime, with a little Fluoride of
Galciims: Glen ewe ee ua Oo US 83.13
Carbonate of Lime, . . - - © es + 10.78 15.11
Silica, cht Wats caer itne s Meseeats F422 .39 29
ohana duSadanthityrs)acuncadhpulsels) AkceeebnieesDO
with alkaline
Bituminous matter, - - - . - se ee 3.95 1.47 { ree
Phosphate of Magnesia, a trace.
imal Matter, a trace.
Animal Mai saan ae

Another analysis of a Burdiehouse coprolite has been recently
published by Dr Wirt1am Grecory and Mr R. Waker; but
as the specimen was unfortunately mixed with foreign matter,
as, for instance, with the sulphuret of iron, the result would
rather mislead. These gentlemen have, however, conducted a

5

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 223

very satisfactory analysis of a coprolite found in Fifeshire. (See
Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for January 1835.)

The most important information yielded by these coprolites,
points to the means of support and habits of the animals which
lived during such a remote epoch.

In the smallest description of coprolites, we see, with few ex-
ceptions, little more than a homogeneous mass. A question then
arises with regard to the support of such immense shoals of
smaller fish as appear to have frequented this locality. These
must have formed objects of pursuit for larger monsters whose
remains are here collected.

In this inquiry I shall recur to the Entomostraca which formed
the subject of our early inquiry.

That calcareous springs, such as must evidently have been in
play when the deposit of Burdiehouse was formed, should have
been favourable to the growth of the myriads of microscopic mi-
nute animals which occupied the waters of this ancient river, or
lake, I need not remark, as the nature of their testaceous cover-
ings points to the medium in which they subsisted.

The inquiry, then, which is suggested, has a reference to the
existence of these Entomostraca as the food of the smaller finny
inhabitants of ancient waters.

The existence of these microscopic races assuredly finds some
analogy with what has been recorded by an excellent naturalist
regarding the modern waters of Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire.
Entomostraca abound in this fresh-water lake about seven-twelfths
of a line in length, which are supposed to approach nearest to
the Lynceus lamellatus and Trigonattus of Mutter. They breed
very frequently throughout the year, and carry the ova about
with them, as is the habit of most crustaceous animals. (See Dr
Knoa’s Memoir in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh, vol. xii. page 505.)

Until the appearance of Dr Knox’s instructive paper on the
habits of the Vendace (the Corrigenus of systematic writers),

224 Dr Hiszert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

which was afterwards extended to those of the herring and sal-
mon, the importance of entomostraca, as an object of the food of
many fish, was either unknown or lost sight of; and the po-
pular opinion regarding the vendace of Lochmaben, long enter-
tained, was, that, “ cameleon like,” they derived support from the
medium in which they existed. But Dr Knox shewed that
more solid matter was demanded for the food of these fish, and
that the microscopic entomostraca diffused through the waters of
Lochmaben served as the food of the vendace, affording them a
rich, and, at the same time, a most delicate bait, for which they
refused every other kind of food, and, consequently, were not to
be captured by the line.

In judging, then, from analogy, it is not an unreasonable sup-
position, that the abundance of microscopic animals contained in
the calcareous deposit of Burdiehouse might, like the modern
Entomostraca of Lochmaben, have stood in a similar relation to
certain of the smaller fossil fish which have been described, in
having afforded them the abundant means of sustenance.

But if this analogy may reasonably explain the kind of sup-
port afforded to some of the smaller fish, it fails of application
when we come to larger kinds.

In proportion as coprolites increase in size, we find that they
contain the scales of fish, shewing that the larger fish to which
these foecal remains are referred, must have frequented the ancient
river or lake, indicated by the limestone of Burdiehouse, in quest
of their prey. Many of the indigested scales are of smaller fish,
but in some of them I have found larger scales, as well as frag-
ments of larger bones, shewing that the Megalichthys might have
even lived upon its own progeny:

But, as a contemporaneous fish of extraordinary magnitude,
the Gyracanthus formosus, must have likewise frequented these
ancient waters, it is not always easy to make very accurate copro-

litic distinctions.
7

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 225

Another kind of food afforded to the lesser finny inhabitants
of primeval rivers or lakes, must of necessity have consisted in
the droppings from larger animals, or even in the putrid carcasses
of such fish as died in the waters. In these cases, numerous little
scavengers (as Dr Buckianp calls them) would not allow putrid
and insalubrious matter to remain long undevoured.

It would thus appear, that while the impurity of ancient
waters was thus obviated, an excess of increase was checked by a
mutual system of voracity.

NOTES TO SECTION XV.

M. Acassiz writes to me, that he has been making observations on the organs of
digestion possessed by the large monsters belonging to later formations. He found
that a very singular body, which Mr Manette had taken for the swimming bladder
of the Macropoma, was in reality its stomach, the different membranes of which were
well preserved, yet were liable to exfoliation when long in contact with the air. At
the posterior extremity of the alimentary tube, coprolites might be detected, round,
like those of the reptiles of Lyme Regis, and containing scales of the Zeus Lewesiensis.
“ Who would have formerly presumed,” he asks, “ to one day find in the fossil state
organs of digestion with all their forms preserved ?”

SECTION XVI—THE MODE IN WHICH VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL REMAINS
ARE DIFFUSED THROUGH THE LIMESTONE OF BURDIEHOUSE.

The sequel of this portion of the present memoir will be de-
voted to a few remarks on the mode in which the vegetable and
animal remains of Burdiehouse are diffused through the lime-
stone.

In this diffusion, little or no order is preserved. Vegetable
and animal remains are not confined to particular seams of the
rock, but may occur in any part of it. Nor are they confined to
the limestone itself, since they have been found in argillaceous
and bituminous shale, both above and below the bed. And if
they are discovered in much greater number in the limestone, the
excess may, in some little degree, be owing to the far better state
of preservation in which organic remains are preserved in a cal-
careous matrix. At the same time, the circumstance must not be
lost sight of, that ancient waters, in which calcareous matter was

VOL. XIII. PART I. Ff

$26 Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

elaborated, seem to have been more favourable to the develop-
ment of animal life than any other medium.

One observation, however, I have not unfrequently made,
which is this : that in portions of the limestone remarkable both
for the quantity of entomostraca, as well as diffused vegetable
matter which they contain, numerous remains of fish are not un-
frequently found. In Plate VII. fig. 6., for instance, is a frag-
ment which includes, along with microscopic entomostraca, the
vegetable remains of the Lepidostrobus, and the fish to which the
name has been assigned of Paleeoniscus Robisoni.

SECTION XVII—THE ACQUISITION OF ORGANIC REMAINS WHICH MAY BE
EXPECTED DURING THE PROCESS OF QUARRYING.

I have at length described the mineral character, and the
various organic remains enclosed in the freshwater limestone of
Burdiehouse ; its plants; its entomostraca; its smaller fish; the
entombed relics of its larger monsters, the scaly Megalichthys,
and the Gyracanthus formosus, the latter armed with immense
and beautifully configurated rays.

An investigation of the rich treasures of the quarry is only at
its commencement. From the multitude of vegetable remains
which every explosion of the quarry brings to light, the limestone
appears as if it had been destined to enclose a whole grove which
had existed of Lycopodiaceze, and other kindred plants, beset
with a dense undergrowth of smaller ferns. Under these circum-
stances, a rich field must surely await the fossil botanist.

Nor is the field of research less promising to the entomologist
who has leisure to study the countless entomostraca with which
the deposit, in its original state, must have almost seemed alive.
Although many genera or species may be detected, only three
have been yet noticed, chiefly on account of the less complex
character which they display.

But the great treasures of the quarry consist in its verte-
bral animals. Upon the valuable additions to fossil ichthyology,

6

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 22071

which, from this source, may be expected, I will not enlarge.
Its fish, though numerous, are known to us by very few speci-
mens ; and, as for its gigantic monsters, we are hitherto only en-
abled to judge of them by broken relics: Ex pede Herculem.

Great, however, as is the satisfaction from contemplating the
riches of the deposit of Burdiehouse, it is impossible that this
feeling should not be alloyed, in some degree, by the recollection
that these limestone quarries had been worked for perhaps half a
century, or more, at no greater distance from Edinburgh than
four short miles; and that, during this period, countless bones, to
the irreparable injury of science, must have been sacrificed on the
fires of the adjacent limekiln.

If we would form some little, yet at the best a very inade-
quate, notion of the extent of this continued destruction of os-
seous fragments which must have been going on throughout a
very prolonged period of time, we must descend into the caverned
chambers which constitute the old workings of the quarry.

The old line of Burdiehouse quarries was, in the earliest stage
of its sinkings, so wrought as to present to view a deep perpen-
dicular escarpment ; which is the state of the newer quarry at pre-
sent. The strata of limestone, which are conjointly twenty-seven
feet in thickness, dip towards the south-east, at an angle of 25°.
Now, in order to extend these workings by deep excavations, im-
mense square pillars, wrought out of the rock, have been allowed
to remain, as the supports of a roof formed by the upper stratum
of the limestone, which roof, in its turn, sustains a great thick-
ness of supermeumbent shale.

These excavations are of considerable extent, greater even
than is rendered manifest. The quarry, which was originally laid
dry by an engine, became converted, upon its abandonment, into
a reservoir intended to contain the drainage-water, conducted by.
subterranean channels, from a more elevated quarry of freestone.
Consequently, long-extended chambers lie concealed beneath the

Frf2

228 Dr Hrssert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

deep waters, which pervade the intricate recesses of this spacious
grotto.

From this vast submerged labyrinth, formed during the pro-
cess of quarrying, myriads of organic remains have, for fifty years
or more, been extracted,—only to be devoted to the kiln!

But this destruction is not without a precedent.

When I accompanied a savant to the older excavations of
Burdiehouse, he pronounced the quarry, as well in reference to
its picturesque character as to the associations which it instantly
inspired,—a seconD Monrmartre.—(See Plate V.)

The famous Gypsum quarry of Paris certainly exhibits an
analogous instance of a prolonged destruction of organic remains,
which was not effectually resisted, until a Cuvrer, supported by
all the aid which a government friendly to science could impart,
interfered, and, with the arm of power, stopped a ruthless anni-
hilation of organic remains fatal to our knowledge of the tertiary
history of our planet.

In the present instance, the merit of a similar interposition,
which Geology will ever commemorate with gratitude, is due to
Tue Royat Socrery or Eprnpureu.

NOTES TO SECTION XVII.

In admiring the picturesque character of the old quarry grotto of Burdiehouse,
the imagination is liable to be carried beyond the precincts of sober philosophical
meditation, and, in reference to the osseous relics enshrined within its solid walls, to
even indulge in the phantasies which geology can but too readily conjure up. No-
thing seems wanting to complete the illusions which the grotto is calculated to excite,
except to connect them with an imaginary emergence from beneath its dark watery
recesses of the Grntus or Fossiz History,—the same Genius who has given inspi-
ration to a Woopwarp, a Cuvier, a BuckLanp, or an Acassiz, to whom, in a vi-
sionary mood, we may assign local attributes of personification, and whom we may
array in the costume of the carboniferous epoch, so well indicated by the fossil relics
of Burdiehouse. She may be armed, cap-a-pée, with a resplendent coat of mail
wrought from the hard and enamelled scales of the Megalichthys; crowned with a
wreath of ferns, in which many fantastic species of the Sphenopteris are entwined ;
while in her grasp may be placed a magic wand, wrought from a jointed stem of the

7

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 229

Calamites, at the waving of which, countless bones of fish, including the dazzling
scales, the elongated bony rays, and the cranial fragments of vast finny tyrants, burst
from their marble prisonhouse amidst a classical shower of coprolitic relics. We
may next suppose, that, in obedience to another fiat, various bones reunite and dis-
tribute themselves into their respective genera, species, and varieties; the mind be-
ing lost in the grotesque appearance of larger monsters, developed in their mixed
ichthyoid and sauroid character.

If it be occasionally allowable, in a disquisition dedicated to Philosophy and
Truth, to let the imagination for an instant run wild, Truth would at least stipulate
that it be strongly pervaded with a philosophical moral. The Genius of Fossil
Zoology may therefore rise again to our fancy ;—she may point to contiguous lime-
kilns, whence issue dense clouds of vapour; she may demand, with scowling looks,
why to these destructive fires, which have blazed for half a century, countless bones
have been devoted ; and why cremations, in honour of her destructive opponent
Cyst, have so long been rendered ; or why no attempt has been made to extricate
the treasury of osseous relics enclosed by them, which may have even aided in the
composition of the very mortar with which the walls of Edina’s geological museums
have been cemented.

I will not, in my own defence, venture upon the task of inquiry, Why the lime-
stone of Burdiehouse, situated so near the city of Edinburgh, had not been before
examined ? or why, in reference to my own private repose, so long as I remained in
Edinburgh, I had thought it necessary to exclude Scottish rocks from my researches ?

I have not, however, on this account, been the less industrious, although labour-
ing under the inconvenient necessity, either of limiting the object of my tours to the
elucidation of the archeology of Scotland, or of selecting any country as a field for
geological exertion except that in which I had long resided, and to which I have
been long attached by many ties of near connexion and friendship.

Many years had consequently elapsed since my retirement from the study of
Scottish rocks, nor did I think that I should ever re-enter that rich, yet almost for-
bidden, field of Geological observation, however much I valued its high interest.
This reluctance was at length overcome by a visit, purely accidental, which I paid
on my return from an excursion to Roslin to the limestone quarry of Burprenouse.
My impression upon the first sight of this quarry, to which the individuals who ac-
companied me will remember I gave utterance, was, that I had found a geological
deposit which I had never seen before, but which I had long hoped to discover. It
was a freshwater formation belonging to the carboniferous group of rocks.

The result attributable to this occurrence has not, I trust, been overrated.

Upon the occasion of the meeting of the British Association of Science at Edin-
burgh, the osseous relics in the possession of the Royal Society were submitted to
M. Acassiz, who considered them as forming some of the most valuable acquisitions

230 Dr Hiszert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

which had ever been made in Fossil Ichthyology, and, in conjunction with Dr Bucx-
LAND, a request was made to the Council of the Royal Society, to continue their
important exertions in preventing the dispersion of the fossil treasures of Burdie-
house.

The following letter, addressed by M. Acasstz to Dr Bucxtanp, I beg leave to
subjoin :—

“ Mon coer Monsieur Bucxtanp,—Vos relations avec les membres de la So-
ciété Royale, vous permettent mieux qu’ 4 moi de faire une démarche que je crois
trés-importante. La découverte d’animaux vertébrés dans les carriéres de Burdie-
house, a suscité des discussions du plus grand intérét sur les caracteres des étres de
cette époque antique. Ce serait une nouvelle ére pour la paléontologie, s'il pourrait
etre démontré, comme je le crois, que les poissons de cet 4ge réunissent 4 leur orga-
nisation particuliére les caractéres des reptiles d’une classe d’animaux qui n’apparais-
sent que plus tard en grand nombre. I] faudrait done poursuivre avec ardeur les
fouilles dans ces carriéres, et prendre les mesures les plus sfires pour empécher la dis-
persion des échantillons, et conserver 4 la science des documens qui pourront constater
une découverte aussi importante.

“ Si vous pourriez contribuer 4 faire prendre ces précautions, vous auriez rendu
un grand service aux recherches sur les fossiles.

“© Agréez Yassurance de ma considération tres-distinguée, et recevez 4 ’avance mes
remercimens pour tout ce que vous voudrez bien faire dans cette circonstance,

Votre tout dévoud,
L. Acassiz,”
“ Eprsouns, e 15 Sep. 1834.”

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 281

PART II.

THE GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE FRESHWATER LIMESTONE
OF BURDIEHOUSE.

INTRODUCTION.

Havine in Parr First confined myself to the description of
the limestone’ of Burdiehouse, considered as an individual. bed
belonging to the carboniferous group, I shall now point out its
geological relations to other strata, both of an older and newer
date.

The carboniferous strata, of which the limestone of Burdie-
house forms a very subordinate bed, appear in the great Low-
land valley of Scotland, which is watered by the Tay, the Forth,
and the Clyde. Some of these strata, particularly such as are in
contiguity with the limestone of Burdiehouse, I propose to con-
sider very generally ; first, in regard to their fractures, and, se-
condly, in regard to the remarkable alternations which they ex-
hibit ; and after these considerations, some important inferences
may be drawn concerning the geological relations of the fresh-
water bed, which forms the proper subject of this memoir.

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION.

Preparatory to entering upon any investigation of carboniferous strata, a few re-
marks on the older rocks to which the coal-fields of the south of Scotland have suc-
ceeded, may perhaps aid the inquiry. These I shall throw into the form of a note.

No rocks are perhaps better calculated than those of Scotland to aid the inquiry
which has been undertaken by various geologists, with the view of determining the
extent of those convulsions of different periods, which have been attended with cor-
responding changes of level affecting the surface of our planet. Sometimes these
changes appear’ to have been the result of sudden violence, and, at other times, of a
gradual process of elevation or depression, carried on perhaps during the whole per-
sistence of a geological age, or system. An early elevation of the Grampian ridge,
for instance, appears to date from a period immediately subsequent to the formation
of such primary rocks as form the ingredients of the Scottish Alps, namely, talcose
schist, or primary clay-slate, mica-slate, gneiss, and their accompanying granites,
serpentines, or primary trap.

232 Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Buriiehouse;

At the foot of the Grampians, in the geographical line which extends from Stone-
haven to Bute, transition strata of grauwacke or argillaceous schist appear in suc-
cession, which seem to have been deposited in a southerly direction over a consider-
able tract of space, though at present concealed beneath newer formations. This
continuity I have inferred from the fragments of grauwacke schist, which I have
found entangled in such trap-rocks of Angus, of the Lothians, of Ayrshire, or of
Berwickshire, as had forced their way through superimposed and newer deposits.
In the ridge of hills extending from Berwickshire to Galloway, grauwacke schist is
seen to emerge.

The grauwacke schist has, generally speaking, a line of bearing from about S.
60° W. to N. 60° E., and dips to the west at very considerable angles, seldom less
than 50° or 60°. It is of a dark grey colour, and is either compact or very finely
granular. In some places it is highly laminar, and is successfully quarried for roof-
ing slate. It frequently passes, particularly in its upper beds, into a substance of a
very arenaceous and mechanical structure, which may be fairly regarded as a harder
sort of sandstone. The colour of the sandstone, or schist, thus induced, is more in-
clined to a light grey, greenish-grey, or yellowish-brown colour than to one of red;
though to this rule I have seen exceptions. It is also remarkable for the quantity
of mica which it contains. In Ayrshire, beds of granular limestone alternate with
the grauwacke schist.

That these beds of grauwacke schist will be found to contain organic remains,
particularly in their upper strata, I have strong reason to suspect.

Subsequently to this formation of transition strata, the range of the Grampians
appears to have undergone a sudden elevation, which may explain the presence of
such lower beds of coarse conglomerate strata as were deposited at the foot of this
chain of mountains. I also suspect that about the same period commenced another
elevation of the ridge of grauwacke schist which extends from Berwickshire to
the Mull of Galloway. But if this southerly elevation may be supposed to have
actually commenced about the same period, I conceive that it was under circumstances
of far less violence, and that it was a gradual, ratlier than a sudden process.

But whatever may be the exact nature of these disturbances or convulsions, it is
certain that, from the cessation of the grauwacke deposit may be dated the incipient
conversion of the considerable track intervening between the chain of the Grampians
and the lowland confines, into a sort of basin, which, in the first instance, would no doubt
have its continuity much broken by irregularities of surface. This I infer from va-
rious insulated and very limited deposits, which appear to me to have a date of for-
mation intermediate to grauwacke schist, and to catboniferous strata. The remark,
however, failsin applying to the district north of the ‘Tay, where a continuous depres-
sion appears to have been formed, within which was deposited very considerable beds.

The oldest beds which have succeeded to the grauwacke schist, and which re-
pose upon it in an unconforniable position, consist of the hard, yet fissile and mi-
caceous sandstone north of the Tay, known under the name of the Arbroath Pave-

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 233

ment, which, in its upper beds more particularly, passes into sandstone, often very
red, but sometimes of a paler reddish-brown or buff colour, and identifies itself with
the old red sandstone of geologists. It is now ascertained that the remains of fish
are enclosed in this very early formation of sandstone, and I have also observed in
it indications of plants.

The termination of this deposit carries us to the dawn of the era when the car-
boniferous group of rocks was deposited, preparatory to which I shall make some few
remarks connected with the formation of the great lowland basin.

Although I believe that the chain of the Grampians dates, at least, two of its ele-
vations from periods antecedent to the deposit of such strata as are known by the
name of the Arbroath Pavement, yet I must consider that its greatest elevation took
place immediately before the deposit of the carboniferous group of rocks. That this
convulsion was a sudden one, and attended by circumstances of great violence, is
evinced by the immense mass of conglomerate strata, which, in being deposited at the
foot of the Grampians, repose upon prior formations of the Arbroath pavement, and
other analogous strata. It would also appear, that the whole district intermediate to
the Grampians and the Tay, and extending SW. by W. to Bute, had likewise been
subjected to a similar process of elevation, though under an agency of far less sud-
denness or violence than that which had thrown up the Grampian chain.

Along with this disturbance, a sort of nearly parallel movement appears to have
taken place in the elevated ridge of grauwacke schist extending in a direction of
ENE to WSW. from St Abb’s Head to Ayrshire and Galloway, which upon this oc-
casion received its great elevation.

Owing to these convulsions, the great chain of the Grampians was elevated con-
siderably above the level of the ocean, as may be shewn by the relative differences
of height which appear among the primary strata of the Scottish Highlands, and such
limestones of marine origin as may be found in the great valley of the Lowlands. In
comparing these levels, and even in allowing for any sources of error arising from
comparatively late disturbances of strata, no inference can possibly arise, but that at
the time when the coal-measures began to be formed, the Grampians must have sus-
tained a very considerable elevation above the level of the ocean which then subsisted.

The same remark, though in a less degree, applies to the ridge of grauwacke
schist which extends from St Abb’s Head to Ayrshire, and which towers greatly
above the carboniferous strata which repose at the foot of this lofty chain, although
it.is, at the same time, of much less elevation than the Grampian Alps.

It would thus appear that, intermediate to the Grampian chain, and to the chain
of hills, which on the south, bounds the present Lowland valley, a deep basin must
have subsisted.

Within this basin the carboniferous strata of the south of Scotland were deposited.

VOL. XIII. PART I. Gg

234 Dr Hiszert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

SECTION IL—THE FRACTURED STATE OF THE STRATA IN THE VICINITY
OF THE LIMESTONE OF BURDIEHOUSE.

The strata with which the limestone of Burdiehouse are more or
less connected form the great Mid-Lothian coal-district, of which
the neighbourhood of Dalkeith may be considered as the centre.

Mr De ta Becuz, in his excellent little system of theoretical
Geology, has remarked of the Earth’s crust, that there is scarcely
an area of eight or ten miles which has not been more or less
fractured ; which remark cannot be better illustrated than in the
Scottish coal-fields, which may be considered as exhibiting a con-
geries of fractured areas, separated from each other by long lines
of fissure.

The rationale of this fractured state is now beginning to be
understood, for which we are indebted to an eminent geologist,
M. pe Beaumont.

The theory hinges upon the following circumstances :—The
interior of our globe has had its temperature diminished sensibly
by the reduction of heat, and it has consequently contracted.
The earth’s crust, however, has preserved, at the same time, a
nearly rigorous constancy of temperature, its refrigeration having
been almost insensible, and hence little contraction has ensued.
Keeping, then, in view these inequalities of contraction, it would
follow that, as the interior of the globe must, in length of time,
have had its temperature lowered far more than its exterior crust,
its capacity must have undergone a proportional excess of dimi-
nution. In this case, the external solid crust, in striving to con-
form itself to the fluid or viscid surface beneath, and to embrace
it more closely, would undergo considerable dislocations ;—and,
from a cause so generally operating, fractures would be induced,
which would have a greater or less tendency to a parallel direc-
tion.

In the Mid-Lothian coal district decided lines of fracture from
these causes must have very early taken place. They have, for

2

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 235

the most part, a direction between the limits of SS.W. to NN.E.,
and S. W. to N. E.; and, in this respect, remarkably confirm the
theory of M. pz Braumont.

The first line of fracture may be traced from the vicinity of
Burdiehouse, and not far from the trap of the Pentlands, in a di-
rection from SS.W. to NN.E. as far as Joppa on the Frith of
Forth. This line of fissure passes to the west of, and close to, the
limestone of Burdiehouse.

A second line of fracture nearly follows the line of the North
Esk, from the vicinity of Penicuik to Bilston Burn near Loan-
head, whence it is continued to the west of Musselburgh, in a di-
rection from 8.W. by 8. to N.E. by N. This great line of fissure
was first traced by Witu1ams, the mineral surveyor, who has
written so ably on the coal-fields of Scotland.

A third line of fracture appears to nearly follow the course of
the South Esk, where it may be traced at intervals from the vi-
cinity of Dalhousie to the east of Musselburgh, in a direction from
SS.W. to NN.E. This line of fissure is not so evident, owing
to the comparatively little difference of inclination subsisting
among the strata upon each side of it, as well as the covered state
of the ground.

A fourth line of fracture, owing to the covered state of the
ground, is not easily traced. It probably has its rise from the
vicinity of the Moorfoot Hills. Its course is assuredly along the
Roman mount, east of Dalkeith, where it is possibly implicated
with an intrusion of trap, which may have not found its way to
the surface. The direction of the fissure is not far from SS.W.
to NN.E.

There are, however, other fissures varying from these, which
do not appear to be of any great extent. Among these, I do
not include the numerous subordinate faults or troubles which
are so well known to miners. One near Dalkeith, perhaps larger
than common, is said to run in a transverse direction, nearly from
N. W. to S. E.

G g2

236 Dr Hiszerrt on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

Fractures among the coal strata, more or less inclined to pa-
rallelism, having been thus induced, a subsequent effect produced
by the struggle of disjointed portions of the earth’s surface to
conform themselves to the diminished capacity of the internal nu-
cleus of the globe, would be manifested in the edges of these frac-
tures being pressed forcibly against each other, by which some of
the strata bounding the edge of a line of fracture would give way
to this mutual compression, and would consequently be thrust up-
wards in the form of mountain ridges.

Accordingly, these mountain ridges observe lines of direction
which are often parallel, or nearly so, to lines of fracture.

It has been thus shewn, that the Mid-Lothian coal-district ex-
hibits lines of fracture nearly parallel to each other ;—that causes in
operation had a tendency to force these broken surfaces into a
nearer contact with the centre of ‘the earth, in order to adapt
themselves to the diminished capacity of the nucleus of the globe ;
that these causes had induced the edges of these fractures to ap-
proximate to each other ; and that in the mutual force and struggle
thus used, such edges of fractures as during the struggle had
given way, were thrust up into mountain ridges.

It must also be evident, that in the case of any newer con-
tracted state of the nucleus of the globe, inviting a fresh struggle
of its broken crust to adapt itself to an internal surface of less ca-
pacity, old lines of fracture would of course be the lines of least
resistance. And hence, broken up and tilted masses would con-
tinue to be thrust up in the same line of direction.

These efforts of a subsequent date appear to have been gra-
dual, and even oscillatory, as will be explained hereafter. Con-
sequently, few or none of the fractured systems of strata which I
have described, shew at their lines of fault marks of sudden vio-
lence ;—a circumstance which had been previously observed by
Witur1aMs, in the instance of the great fault which divides the
Hawthornden and Burdiehouse systems. In short, every thing
indicates, that these later movements must have taken place by
very slow, prolonged, and tranquil processes.

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 237

Lastly, during the tremulous efforts by which lines of fracture
have been made to approximate, igneous matter has not unfre-
quently intruded itself through these fissures. ‘Thus we may
conceive a large fissure through which trap has protruded, to
be indicated by the eruptions, continued with little interrup-
tion, which we trace from Tinto to the Pentlands, and thence
to Salisbury Craigs, in a direction of nearly §. W. to N. E.

From these observations it would appear, that the carbonife-
rous strata under our consideration shew striking marks of the up-
heavings and the rents which they have undergone both before
and subsequent to the completion of their deposit, accompanied
with eruptions through them of plutonic rocks. In conse-
quence of these rents, and of the uplifting power which has been
exerted along the line of them, the coal-fields of Mid-Lothian
have been broken up into various systems of strata, severally dif-
fering from each other in the extent of the beds which have been
made to emerge. This difference would naturally be in confor-
mity with the circumstances under which the uplifting force has
exerted its influence.

In examples where the anticlinal energy has acted powerfully
at one and the same time upon a great extent of surface, we find
that at the line of rent or fissure very deep-seated beds have been
made to emerge, or crop out :—as may be shewn on the coast of
North Berwick and among the Pentlands, by the emergence of
beds even inferior to the carboniferous group. But examples are
far more numerous of the line of fracture being distinguished by
the cropping out of no deeper seated beds than those of a ma-
rine limestone, to which I have given a middle place in the car-
boniferous system to which the limestone of Burdiehouse belongs.

The systems of strata, separated from each other by lines of
fissure which are in greater or less contiguity with the limestone
of Burdiehouse, I shall now explain in reference to the following
section.

238 Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

Section from Morton (at the foot of the Pentland and Braid Hills) to Srosui11,
NW. by W. to SE. by S.

NW. by W. SE. by E.
& Grace- Roman
= mount Mount.
Hawthornden System, Stobhill System.

Fault. Fault. Fault. One Mile.

In reference to this section, it will appear that I have dis-
tinguished four systems of strata, divided from each other by
lines of fissure, viz. the Gracemount, the Burdiehouse, the Haw-
thornden, and the Stobhill systems.

In giving a very brief explanation of these various systems, I
shall commence with the Hawthornden system, notwithstanding
the greater degree of obscurity which still hangs over it, in refe-
rence to the question, long since agitated, regarding its geological
position.

The Hawthornden system comprises a peculiar thick bed of
reddish and softish sandstone, in which small rounded pebbles of
quartz are inclosed. It is geologically known by the name of the
Roslin sandstone. This sandstone, which, from its quartzose in-
gredients and other circumstances, appears to me to have been de-
posited soon after the formation of transition rocks, may have un-
dergone an earlier elevation than perhaps any other strata be-
longing to the systems which are laid down. The consequence of
this priority of elevation may have been that want of continuity
which the coal strata superimposed upon the Roslin sandstone
exhibit, in relation to other coal seams lying to the west and
east of them; although, from a mineralogical correspondence,
their relative date may perhaps be correctly estimated. The
thick bed of Roslin sandstone, which is surmounted by eight or
more conformable seams of coal, exhibits a very trifling dip of
10° or 12° to the east or north-east. It is separated from the
highly inclined strata of the Loanhead coal-measure, belonging

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 239

to the Burdiehouse system, by the second line of fault described,
which may be observed in the channel of Bilston Burn ; and from
the Stobhill system, by the third line of fault which with diffi-
culty is to be traced near the South Esk.

On the east of the Hawthornden system, occurs that of Stob-
hill. A line of fracture, probably accompanied with a concealed
protrusion of trap, has thrown up a limestone of marine origin,
which forms the ridge of the Roman Mount, and from this anti-
clinal centre, superincumbent strata of sandstone, shale, and coal,
dip towards the surrounding low declivities. The system of
Stobhill has a westerly dip, amounting in some places to 30°. It
is continuous with the coal-measure of Brians, which enumerates
twenty seams of coal or more.

To the west of the Hawthornden system, may be observed
the most complete suite of carboniferous strata of which Mid-Lo-
thian has to boast ; namely, the conjoint systems of Gracemount
and Burdiehouse.

Immediately to the east of the Pentland trap, beds of sand-
stone are to be found, which I have named the Gracemount sys-
tem, from a quarry recently opened there, where the strata in
their nearly vertical position may be observed. They belong, as
I conceive, to deeper seated beds, which have been thrown up
during an early eruption of the Pentlands. They are separated
from the Burdiehouse system by the first line of fault enume-
rated.

The Burdiehouse system comprises a series of sandstones,
shales, limestones, and coal, among which the Burdiehouse lime-
stone appears in a very inferior position. 'The system is separat-
ed from that of Gracemount by the first line of fault described.
Near this line of fissure the strata of the Burdiehouse system dip
to the south-east at about 23° to 25°; but, as we approach to-
wards the Hawthornden system, the dip may be found to gra-
dually increase, until it attains, near the second described line of
fault observable at Bilston Burn, so great a dip as 56°, or even
more. It is difficult to explain this circumstance without taking

240 Dr Hiszerr on the Limestone of Burdichouse

into account, that this increased dip might have been caused by
some renewed, yet very slow elevation of the Hawthornden sys-
tem of strata, by which a sort of lateral pressure had been in-
duced among the contiguous strata of the Burdiehouse system,
sufficient to increase their inclination from 23° to 56° or more.

Having at length briefly described the systems of strata to be
found in the great coal-field of Mid-Lothian, as indicated by
fractured areas, I shall now confine my attention to the connected
ones of Gracemount and Burdiehouse.

SECTION III._THE GRACEMOUNT SYSTEM OF STRATA.

Before describing the beds to which the limestone of Burdie-
house belongs, it will be necessary to previously notice the strata
lying to the west of, and separated from, the Burdiehouse system
by a line of fissure. The Gracemount system occupies a place
intermediate to this fault and the trap of the Pentlands.

A sandstone, which perhaps holds the lowest place in the car-
boniferous system of the great Lowland valley of Scotland, is com-
posed of fine, yet very uncrystalline, grains of siliceous matter ; it
contains little mica; it is of a deep red colour, owing to the iron
which is diffused through it ; and it is of a soft consistence. This,
the most deep-seated bed, rises to day in a few places only, and,
if it is to be traced in the group of strata to the west of the lime-
stone of Burdiehouse, we must perhaps look for it among the
upheavings which occur in the immediate vicinity of the range of
trap rocks, extending from the chain of the Pentlands, with some
little interruption, to Arthur’s Seat. Most probably this sand-
stone may be proved to be wholly, or in part, of marine origin,
—a suspicion which I have formed upon certain organic remains
apparently referable to this deposit.

But quitting the consideration of a sandstone, the existence
of which in the Gracemount system is at best dubious, owing
to the rocks being here much concealed, I shall proceed with a de-
scription of what is actually known.

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 241

NW. by W. SE. by E.
a Grace- Roman
= mount Mount.
& System. Burdiehouse System. Hawthornden System, Stobhill System.

—s=IZZsCONNS

TKO
ra i | i
ee em
Fault. Fault. Fault. One Mile.

To the west of the line of fracture described, strata of sand-
stone are thrown into a vertical position, or nearly so, as was
shewn in an old quarry adjoining the village of Burdiehouse,
which is now filled up. But similar phenomena may be still ob-
served within the park of Gracemount, where the same continu-
ous strata, consisting of a pale, yellow-coloured micaceous sand-
stone, with a direction from 8. 10° E. to N. 10° W., are inclined
to the south-east, at so great an angle as 80°. These strata ap-
pear to have been the tilted beds which had been thrown on
edge during one of the convulsive movements connected with
the evolution of the trap of the Pentlands, to which range of hills
they are contiguous.

The limestone of Burdiehouse, however, which is situated to
the east of these nearly vertical beds, dips no more than from
23° to 35° to the south-east, and shews in other circumstances
that it was thrown up by an anticlinal force distinct from that by
which the strata to the west of it appear to have been tilted,
though originating doubtless from the same general cause.

The nearly vertical sandstone of Gracemount forms a good
freestone. It is of a light yellowish colour, and it contains mica
as an ingredient. In the less inclined sandstone of Craigmillar,
which is apparently a continuation of the Gracemount bed, and
which shews many variations of colour, as light yellowish, grey,
or even pale red, some of the strata enclose very small attrited
portions of quartz, as well as of a substance, which, from its mixed
siliceous and argillaceous character, and from its grey, or bluish-
grey colour, may be considered as the detritus of older grauwacke

VOL. XII¥. PART, I. Hh

242 Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

beds. In other localities of the sandstones which hold a similar
place in the carboniferous group of the Lothians, vegetable re-
mains have been found, though sparingly.

To this system of strata may be referred an outcrop of lime-
stone, which is of a marine rather than of a fresh-water origin. It
is to be found in the burn near Moredun Mill, about a mile to
the north of Burdiehouse. A bed not many feet in thickness, and
containing producti, encrinites, &c. is alternated with shale; but
I suspect that more than one bed may be found to thus alter-
nate. This limestone and the strata associated with it dip vari-
ously, and shew marks of disturbance. The inclination is to the
south-east, at angles varying from 44° to 50°, and in some places
it is even greater.

This limestone of marine origin is cut off, by the great fault
described, from the strata connected with the Burdiehouse lime-
stone, and hence their exact relative position cannot be well as-
certained. But I am of opinion that the epoch at which the
Burdiehouse and the Moredun Mill limestones were severally
formed, cannot be widely different.

The limestone of Moredun Mill is interesting in this respect,
—as shewing that a contiguous and shallow sea had subsisted
about the time when the Burdiehouse limestone was deposited.

A similar knowledge I have also acquired from studying the
strata near New Cumnock in Ayrshire, where there is a very
deep-seated bed of marine limestone, which, when compared with
another similar limestone much higher up in the series of carbo-
niferous beds, holds the same relative place as that of Burdie-
house ; and, when compared with the Moredun Mill limestone,
maintains the same deep seated position, in reference to a far
higher and newer marine limestone, which is that of Gilmerton.

NOTES TO SECTION III.

I have to thank Mr Cuartes Macraren of Edinburgh, who is well known for
the sensible descriptions which he has at various times given, in the Journal which
he conducts, of the geology of Edinburgh, as well as for the perspicuous and popular

2

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 243

style in which they are written, for calling my attention to the seams of limestone at
Moredun Mill, of the existence of which I had been previously unaware. It will be
seen that I have not under-rated their importance. In fact, they are in correspon-
dence with what I have since observed in several places, that more than two, or even
three alternating beds of marine limestone occupy different places in the carboni-
ferous system of the south of Scotland.

SECTION IV.—THE BURDIEHOUSE SYSTEM OF STRATA.

The system of strata connected with the limestone of Burdie-
house, is to the east of the great fault described in the last sec-
tion, which has brought to view deep-seated beds.

Wea V

TRAP OF THE

PENTLANDS, NORTH ESK,

AM
Boe

Sandstone, Shale and

shale, and sandstone, ee ee
avery thin with thin ri

coal. be ae Scale of one English Mile.

ironstone.

qed Vv

I may now remark, that, in reference to the section given, I
shall point out, in their several orders, first, the strata in im-
mediate association with the limestone of Burdiehouse; secondly,
the description of overlying beds contained between the Burdie-
house limestone and the limestone of Fountain-well, which is
the name given to the site of a cluster of houses close to the
village of Loanhead ; thirdly, the character of the Fountain-well
limestone, which appears to differ from that of Burdiehouse, in
containing marine remains ; and, fourthly, the rich coal-measures
of Loanhead which take the highest place in the system.

Hh 2

244. Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

SECTION V._THE STRATA IN IMMEDIATE ASSOCIATION WITH THE LIME-
STONE OF BURDIEHOUSE.

To the sandstone of the Gracemount system, I consider the
limestone of Burdiehouse, and its associated beds of argillace-
ous shale, as having immediately succeeded. I need scarcely
recapitulate its character, but merely remark, that no confirmed
marine remains have, to my knowledge, ever been found in it ;—
that it contains the plants usually found in coal-fields in a most
remarkable abundance, as well as numerous Entomostraca, toge-
ther with the relics of fish, large sauroid bones, and coprolites,
and that I consider this limestone as of fresh-water origin.

No rock beneath this bed is developed, except that which forms
the floor of the quarry. I was therefore anxious to obtain from
Mr Torrance of Meadow Head, who possesses the lease of the
lime-works, some knowledge of the beds subjacent to the lime-
stone, which do not, however, seem to have been explored to any
great depth.

The following is a list of the beds above, as well as below,
the limestone of Burdiehouse, which I have given in a descend-
ing order :—

a, Argillaceous and bituminous shale ofa very dark colour, alternating with which
are thin seams of ironstone, and three.or more very thin seams of limestone,
the latter being from 2 to 2} inches thick, and at intervals from each other of
27 to 36 inches. From 80 to 50 feet of shale are exposed.

b, The limestone of Burdiehouse, 27 feet thick.

c, A pavement of rather soft blaes, 2 to 3 feet thick. This is an argillaceous and
bituminous shale mixed with caleareous matter, and forming, near the junc-
tion of the rock, or immediately subjacent to it, an impure limestone.

d, Limestone of inferior quality, 3 or 4 feet thick.

e, Black blaes (argillaceous and bituminous shale), rather soft ; 3 or 4 feet thick.

f, A seam of coal 6 to 10 inches thick.

2, * Yellow clay ;” (an argillaceous and shaly sandstone?) Some of the workmen

describe this bed as metal, and as forming a very coarse freestone. Deptlr
unknown.

The beds of argillaceous shale, both above and below, en-
close the same organic remains as are found in the limestone of

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 245

Burdiehouse, along with coprolites, shewing that they are them-
selves a portion of the lacustrine deposit of this locality.

In the uppermost bed of argillaceous shale, specimens of the
Unio have lately been discovered by the quarrymen, which were
placed in my hands by. Mr Rosisoy.

In the annexed wood-cut, the natural size of the bivalve is
represented, though some specimens occur a little larger. It
does not appear to me that this
species has yet been described. It
differs from any unio which I have
yet seen represented in the tumi-
dity of its form, which is rounded into a sort of nut-shape. The
shell is much less elongated than the Unio Urei, which holds a
similar lace in the carboniferous group of Scotland. If it should
prove a new species, which I suspect, I propose to call it, in refe-
rence to its shape, the Unio nucirorMis,

I have at length enumerated the beds which may be account-
ed as inferior to the limestone of Burdiehouse, and I have also
glanced at contiguous strata holding a superincumbent pcsition.
Their line of direction is from SS.W. to NN.E. The dip is 23°
to 25° SE.

Owing to the covered state of the ground, Burdiehouse is the
only locality where this limestone is seen to crop out. The pre-
vailing notion is, that it reappears at the foot of the Pent-
lands, and that, at Carlops, it is to be identified with a seam of
limestone not more than six inches thick. But this is a very
doubtful opinion.

Another circumstance to be remarked -is, that there is no evi-
dence of the deposit being a continuous one. Thus, in the excel-
lent manifestation of strata which may be traced from the vicinity
of Siccar Point in Berwickshire to Cove, this fresh-water limestone
is deficient. But, in the place of it, there appears to be a bed of
bituminous shale, in which I detected the characteristic fern of
Burdiehouse, the Sphzenopteris affinis, along with coprolites, and

7

246 Dr Hizzerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

the remains of smaller fish. And, on examining the outcrops of
strata in other localities, this deposit was equally wanting.

Some other fresh-water limestones will be described in the
supplement to this memoir. In the mean time, I shall remark,
that they appear to me, like the limestone of Burdiehouse, mere
local deposits of calcareous matter.

SECTION VI.—THE STRATA INTERMEDIATE TO THE LIMESTONE OF
BURDIEHOUSE AND THAT OF FOUNTAIN-WELL.

The interval of space between the limestone of Burdiehouse
and that of Fountain-well, near Loanhead, comprises alternations
of sandstone, and argillaceous and bituminous shale, in which are
ironstone bands, and thin and unworkable seams of coal, with the
exception of one bed of coal, named the North Green seam,
which lies immediately below the Fountain-well limestone. At
the same time, although all the strata rest conformably upon
each other, we find that their angle of inclination has gradually
increased. At Burdiehouse, the limestone dips from 23° to 25°
to the south-east ; but, as we approach a higher series of beds, the
dip is 30° or 40°, and upwards.

NOTES TO SECTION VI.

As it is of great importance that no doubts should subsist regarding the geologi-
cal position which I have assigned to the limestone of Burdiehouse in the carboni-
ferous system of strata, the details will be given at length.

It has been shewn that, immediately above the limestone of Burdiehouse, which
is of the thickness of 27 feet, occur beds of argillaceous shale, through which bitu-
minous matter appears to be diffused. These strata are visible, from the operation
of quarrying, to the height perhaps of 30 to 50 feet, or even more. Alternating
with these beds of shale are three, or even more, seams of a ferruginous limestone,
severally from 2 to 24 inches thick, and occurring at intervals from each other of
from 27 to 36 inches.

With respect to strata still higher, and next in succession, I was enabled to obtain
some little knowledge of them, in consequence of a shaft which had been sunk with
the view of carrying off the water from a freestone quarry, situated at no great dis-
tance, near the village of Straton. The distance between this freestone and the
shale, was described to me as about fifty fathoms in perpendicular depth, in which
nothing was found but Dalk ; that is, a soft argillaceous and bituminous shale. But
this description I must a little qualify. I observed, from the fragments thrown out,

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 247

that a stratum had been pierced, consisting of small water-worn pebbles of quartz,
cemented by a soft greenish and yellowish argillaceous substance, apparently decom-
posed trap or felspar. The argillaceous substance of the conglomerate rock appear-
ed to me indicative of some igneous eruption, though perhaps remotely situated,
which must have taken place not long after the deposit of the Burdiehouse lime-
stone.

The sandstone of Straton quarry is of a yellowish, or yellowish-brown colour, and
of a hardness which recommends it as a durable freestone. It dips rather confused-
ly, varying from 14° to 30° east by south, south-east, or even south-east by south.
Above it are beds of shale. It is evident that great disturbances have here taken
place, which are further manifested as we approach the highroad leading to Loanhead,
where the sandstone which is exposed betrays much irregularity of position. Its
general angle of inclination is about 22°, or upwards, to the south-east. It is sur-
mounted by bituminous shale.

Between Straton quarry and Fountain-well, near Loanhead, a distance of about
five furlongs, we continue our section at right angles to the line of direction observed
by the strata. With the exception of two or three spots of ground, where I found
heds of slaty sandstone or of shale crop out, the ground is much covered. But my
knowledge of this interval of distance was rendered perfectly satisfactory by the in-
formation communicated to me by Mr Ross of Loanhead, the intelligent greve of
Sir George Clerk of Penicuik, Bart. Mr Ross has made himself well acquainted with
the different strata of his neighbourhood ; and from him I acquired the knowledge,
that the covered ground between Straton and Fountain-well had been yery carefully
explored, in the endeavour to find out if there were any outcrops of coal. The re-
sult of the examination was, that the interval of space between Straton quarry and
Fountain-well, near Loanhead, consisted of alternations of freestone and coal blaes,
(sandstone and bituminous shale,) with ironstone bands, which also contained very
thin and unworkable seams of coal. From this remark, however, I except a thicker
seam of coal, which is said to lie immediately below the Fountain-well limestone.

As far as the few visible outcrops of this space of ground enabled me to judge, I
was led to infer that the dip of the strata, in ascending from the lower to the higher
beds, was gradually increasing. For instance, the deep-seated bed of the Burdie-
house limestone inclines from 23° to 25° to the south-east ; but, in the strata higher
up in the system, the inclination had increased to not less than 30° or 40°, or even
more.

The highest bed of the series of strata, intermediate to the limestone of Burdie-
house and the limestone of Fountain-well, is the seam of coal formerly alluded to,
known by the name of the “‘ North-green seam.” It is of the thickness of 44 feet ;
but, having been very early wrought out, its outcrop is no longer visible. It is af-
firmed to lie immediately below the limestone of Fountain-well.

A bed of coal holding this position is not unknown in other vicinities. Mr Wu11-
trams has remarked a seam which occurs in this position, near to the foot of the Pent-
lands, and I have myself observed another similar one in the vicinity of Clerkington.

248 Dr Hizsert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

SECTION VII._THE LIMESTONE OF MARINE ORIGIN AT FOUNTAINWELL,
NEAR LOANHEAD.

The limestone of Fountain-well, which occupies a sort of mid-
dle place in the system, forms a portion of the continuous bed,
which may be traced, cropping out at various sites, in a line, ex-
tending from the neighbourhood of Joppa to Gilmerton, and
thence to Fountain-well; a distance of three miles. It is in
general very impure, being much mixed with siliceous matter,
whence its great hardness, which, in the absence of whinstone or
trap, has caused it to be used for repairing the highways. At
Gilmerton some portion of it is so much mixed up with argil-
laceous matter as to pass into common shale.

This limestone, in its impure state, is named Limestone Blaes.
But it contains fakes, or seams, of very pure limestone, which at
Gilmerton are wrought for the kiln to the thickness of 14 feet.
The bed at Fountain-well encloses three fakes, or seams, each
about two feet thick, or 63 feet conjointly.

The whole of the limestone, whether pure or impure, is of a
blue, or bluish grey, colour.

To farther distinctions I shall allude when I have to compare
this limestone with that of Burdiehouse. In the mean time, I
shall remark, that it contains marine remains, such as encrinites,
corallines, producti, &c., which are severally absent in the Bur-
diehouse limestone.

At Fountain-well, the circumstance most worthy of remark at
present, is the further increase of dip which has taken place in
the tilted and upper beds of the system under examination. In
the inferior bed of Burdiehouse, the dip was 23° to 25° to the
south-east ; but in the much higher limestone of Fountain-well,
it has increased to 50° or 52° south-east.

SECTION VIIL—THE UPPER SERIES OF SANDSTONES, SHALES, AND RICH SEAMS
OF COAL, FORMING THE LOANHEAD COAL-MEASURES.
I shall, lastly, describe the strata superjacent to the Fountain-

well limestone.

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 249

Immediately above this limestone is another seam of coal,
named “ The North Coal,” which, like the North-green seam, is
4}. feet thick. With this seam all marine remains disappear, and
we arrive at the coal strata of Loanhead, which, as the section
shews, rise still higher in the system.

The coal strata of Loanhead consist of alternating beds of
sandstone, argillaceous and bituminous shale, containing iron-
stone bands, coal, and some little limestone. The workable beds
of coal are to the number of twenty-five. They are from 2 to 10
feet in thickness.

In these beds, the angle of inclination is still upon the increase.
I found, upon descending into the mine of Loanhead, that the
seam named the Stair-head coal, had a dip of 56° to the south-
east. But it is affirmed, that, among some of the strata, the
inclination is still greater. From these circumstances, the beds
have acquired the name of Edge seams, in contradistinction to the
more horizontal strata lying to the east of them, belonging to the
Hawthornden system, which bear the name of the Flat seams.
Where the edge and the flat seams appear in contact, which I
found to be in the channel of Bilston burn, south of Loanhead,
some confusion of the strata ensues, indicative of a great fault,
yet unaccompanied with marks of violence.

Among these coal-measures there are at least four slips or
dislocations, by which the coal is variously thrown up and down
from thirty to sixty fathoms.

A section of the seams of coal, “ as they stand in the mines of
Brughlee and Mavisbank,” was made some years ago. It is not
every thing which the geologist could desire, as it does not
include the character of the strata intervening between the coal-
seams. But this deficiency I have supplied, as well as I was
able, from the information which has been given me at the mine,
particularly by Mr Ross.

I have also submitted the section to some alteration in its
arrangement, in order to shew at one view the overlying charac-
ter of the strata.

VOL, XIII. PART I, 1i

250

Dr Hrssert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

Section of the Coal Strata of Loanhead, which repose upon the Limestone containing Marine Remains.
In a descending order.

No proper thickness is given of the
sandstone which forms the higher
part of the beds. It is stated
that from the surface to Mavis-
bank, where the day level has
been made, is 40 fathoms.

From the surface to Bilstone mine
is estimated at 264 fathoms.

Wood Coal,
Sandstone and bituminous shale,

Splint Coal,

Argillaceous shale, alternated with
seams of sandstone, severally 3 or
4 feet thick, and containing about
the middle of the space 2 feet of
bastard limestone, inclosing calca-
reous spar, : aa

Flex Coal, . : :

Argillaceous shale and sandstone,
containing seams of ironstone and
a bastard limestone,

Parrot Coal (also
Rumbles),

Argillaceous strata and sandstone,
with their seams or forke of
coal, .

called

Great Seam (of coal),
Sandstone,

Stair-Head (coal),
Sandstone shale, &c.,

Charlie’s Coal, .
Various strata,

Moffat’s Coal,
Various strata,

Gillespie Coal,

A very thick bed of argillaceous
shale, which contains ironstone
bands. Below it a bed of sand-
stone, which forms the roof of
the Black Chapel coal,

Black Chapel (coal),

Indurated argillaceous shale and
ironstone bands,

Perpetual Coal,
Sandstone and argillaceous shale,

Kittle Purse Coal,

| Argillaceous shale, ironstone bands,
| and-sandstone, .

SSS eS

91

48

12

wi:

wo wo we

or

bo

Fathoms. Ells, | Feet.| Inches.

nm

Stimkie or Peacock,

Argillaceous shale, ironstone bands
and sandstone, . 3 3

Coal Rough,
Argillaceous shale, ironstone bands
and sandstone, : 7
Glass Coal,
Sandstone,

Brown Coal,
Sandstone,

Stonie Coal,
Sandstone,

Hope’s Coal,
Sandstone and shale,

Battie’s Coal,
Sandstone and shale,

Corbie Craig (coal)

Six feet of sandstone resting on a
thick mass of argillaceous shale,

Andrew’s Coal, or Lit-
tle Splinty Coal,

Sandstone and Shale, &c.,

Little Coal,
Stratum unknown,

South Coal,
Sandstone and Shale, &c.

Little Splinty Coal,
Sandstone and Shale, &c.

North Coal,

Beneath the north coal I believe
that there is bituminous shale
with ironstone bands, and free-
stone.

And below these strata is,

Limestone, contain-
ing marine remains,

Consisting of limestone blaes, or an
impure limestone, in which occur
three seams of pure limestone.

The interval between the North
coal and North-Green seam is
estimated at ; 2

North-Green Seam of
Coal (at present wrought out),
lying beneath the limestone,

Fathoms. | Ells. | Feet.

20

100

5

-_

Inches.

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 251

SECTION {X.—REMARKS ON THE ALTERNATIONS OF BEDS OF FRESHWATER
AND MARINE ORIGIN, AS THEY OCCUR, IN THE BURDIEHOUSE SYSTEM OF

STRATA.
No geological phenomena are more striking than the very
miscellaneous beds which succeed. each other in the Burdiehouse
system of strata. But similar phenomena are frequent in all the
coal districts of the south of Scotland.

Some of these alternations of different deposits are explicable
in reference to causes which are still operating, although the cha-
racter of ancient geological agencies far outweighs in magnitude
any system of causation which is at present effecting changes on
the surface of our planet.

A continued humid state, of the atmosphere, for instance,
which is inferred to have existed during the carboniferous epoch,
would manifest itself in a power of disintegrating previously
formed rocks, to an extent of which we have little conception at
the present day, as well as with a proportionate degree of accelera-
tion. The very thick mass of sandstone which has enclosed the
fossil trees of Craigleith is an instance, not only of the extensive
disintegration of pre-existing rocks, but likewise of the very sud-
den drifts to which the earth, in its ancient state, has been ‘sub-
jected. One of the fossil trees, 24 feet in length, was found in-
closed in strata dipping at little more than 10°. The tree, how-
ever, had an inclination of 63°,—very different from that of its
nearly horizontal. and inclosing beds. This circumstance of in-
clination shews that the strata could not have been the result of
a slow and quiet deposition, otherwise the tree would have de-
cayed long before the uppermost stratum had been deposited. It
was doubtless conveyed to its destination by some sudden and
considerable drifting from high lands ; probably, by the sweeping
deluges of rain to which the humid atmosphere of so early a state
of the globe would be subject.

Other phenomena, however, in their reference to causes which
112

252 Dr Hizzsert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

are still operating, meet with even a less adequate explanation,
unless they may be compared with the tranquil elevations of land
which have been long going on in Scandinavia, or with the com-
paratively trifling oscillations of movement which have been de-
tected on the well known site of the Temple of Jupiter Serapis.

In short, no geological phenomena are more striking than the
alternations of fresh water and marine beds which are manifested
in strata, such as those which I have described.

The carboniferous strata of the Gracemount and Burdiehouse
systems, may be summed up as follows :

The lower beds comprise sandstones of considerable thickness,
alternated, as we ascend in the series, with argillaceous or bitu-
minous shale, and with limestones, some of which give indications
of a marine, and others of a fresh water origin ; the latter con-
taining remains of plants and fish. Coal begins to be developed
in these beds, though sparingly.

In a second, and higher description of beds, the sandstone al-

_ternates more frequently with beds of argillaceous and bitumi-
nous shale ; the latter containing nodules or bands of ironstone, as
well as seams of coal, which, though numerous, are, with few ex-
ceptions, thin and unworkable. These higher strata are particu-
larly interesting for the renewed development of a limestone con-
taining marine remains, with which they alternate.

In a third description of beds, which take a still higher place
in the carboniferous system, sandstone and argillaceous shale al-
ternate with rich seams of coal, of which about twenty-five have
been enumerated.

From this summary it appears, that these alternating beds con-
sist of sandstone, shale, coal, a fresh-water and a marine limestone.
Their separate character I shall briefly discuss, previous to inves-
tigating the circumstances of their alternation.

Deposits of sandstone, which are the disintegrated materials
of previously existing rocks of a siliceous character, have no doubt

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 253

been transported into the basins which they have occupied, by
the sudden or gradual operation of streams or rivers. Some sand-
stones, as, for instance, certain beds to the east of Dunbar, contain
marine shells, while the majority of other sandstones inclose nu-
merous plants, and thus afford mdications rather of lacustrine
than of marine deposits.

Argillaceous shale, which, in the limestone quarries of Gilmer-
ton, is filled with marine shells, and at Burdiehouse contains the
freshwater unio, represents the mud, or silt, accumulated in the
beds of ancient rivers, fresh-water lakes, or seas.

Limestones, as I have urged, may be of two kinds. While
that of Gilmerton, adjacent to the Burdiehouse quarry, abounds
in corallines, encrinites, and shells, all evidently marine, these are
in vain sought for in the other limestone which presents the re-
mains of fish, apparently inhabiting fresh-water, and of ferns, ly-
copodiaceous plants, and such aquatic vegetables as flourish most
among fresh-water lakes and marshes. While the one limestone,
therefore, is the memorial of a sea, the other limestone indicates.
some fresh-water river or lake, within which calcareous matter
was elaborated.

With regard to coal, most of the seams of this substance have
resulted from the decay of vegetables which have grown upon the
very site in which such seams of coal are found. This fact has
been incontestibly shewn in the Northumberland coal-field, where
the large roots of Stigmariz have been traced in coal or shale, in-
dicative of the vegetable mud in which they grew. It has been
therefore inferred, that many of the plants of coal-fields flourish-
ed in still and shallow water.—(See Preface to Vol. II. of the
Fossil Flora of Professor Linpiey and Mr Hurrton.) Some
species of coal, however, it is supposed, might have been brought
from a distance in the form of drifted vegetable matter, to which
origin certain kinds of cannel, or parrot-coal, are referred. But
the absence of all attrited, or water-worn pebbles within the sub-
stance of coal, is fatal to this alleged origin.

254 Dr Hiszert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

Such being the plausible origin of carboniferous beds, the next
important circumstance to notice is their alternation. And on
this question the following considerations are suggested.

A sandstone, of itself, may simply indicate sand, which had
been transported by natural causes, or familiar terraqueous con-
vulsions ;—it may indicate a quiet transportation of its ingredients
to the beds of lakes or seas, and as quiet a deposition. Argilla-
ceous shale, also, may be regarded as a tranquil deposit of silt in
some lake, or sea; while limestone, whether it occurs beneath
marine or fresh waters, may be the testimony of some calcareous
elaboration through deep fissures incidental to the fractured state
of our globe. And, when we find alternations of these deposits,
it is possible that we may be presented with no phenomena which
are not familiar to us at the present day. The river, for instance,
which at one period: deposited sand, ‘may, from a change of its
course, which: frequently happens, ‘be fraught with silt, or clay.
Meteoric agencies may interfere, which would bury a deposit
under a deep accumulation of distantly transported sand or mud.
Lastly, new voleanos may open out fissures in the crust of the
globe, and thus give rise to new elaborations of calcareous mat-
ter. That some few of the alternations of sandstone, shale, and
limestone, which we find among coal-fields are attributable to this
kind of agency, 50 doubt: whatever can subsist.

But the inquiry is very different, when we find certain beds
of fluviatile origin alternate with others of marine origin ; as, for
instance, shale-beds which contain numerous plants and the fresh-
water unio, alternating with beds which enclose marine remains,
such as encrinites, corallines, &c. &c.

As far as information is communicated by alternations of this
character, no inference can be drawn, except that the land which
formed the basin of a fresh-water lake had, by’a terraqueous de-
pression, become the bed of the ocean ;—or, vice versa, the land
which formed the bed of the ocean had, by a subsequent eleva-

tion, become the basin of an inland lake.
5

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 255

But, when alternations of coal are included in our considera-
tion, still more complicated views arise.

Coal has arisen from the decay of vegetables which grew
on the spot ; generally in marshy sites, or in shallow waters. If,
then, we find seams of coal alternating with sandstones, shales, or
limestones of a fresh-water origin, no inference remains, but that
oscillatory movements of the earthy crust must have taken place,
by which land became submerged beneath the surface of a fresh-
water lake, from which, by a subsequent elevation of the land, it
has emerged, so as to give rise to a new Flora. And, in the case
of coal-seams alternating with limestones of marine origin, which
is also incidental to the coal-field of Mid-Lothian, a similar in-
ference arises, that dry or marshy land had become submerged be-
neath marine waters, and had again arisen from the bosom of the
deep, to be decked with a new flora, and with fresh verdure.

While all these inferences are suggested by the system of
strata which I have described, there are still other important cir-
cumstances to be taken into consideration.

These alternations of elevation and depression have, in the
coal-fields of Scotland, been conducted with a freedom from dis-
turbance which is most remarkable. In few instances, except
where local eruptions of trap-rock have prevailed, have I found
derangements of strata marking the junction of ‘marine and flu-
viatile deposits, or any intervening conglomerate strata, from
which diluvial effects might: be inferred. Near Bathgate, a lime-
stone of marine origin may, at. its junction with a fluviatile bed,
be found to actually graduate into a fresh-water deposit. While
the great mass of the rock encloses encrinites, corallines, &c., the
unio appears in its uppermost bed,near its junction with an over-
lying bed of sandstone, filled with the remains of plants. | East
of Dunbar, also, no marks of violence whatever. characterise the
junction of two rocks, where, in the compass of a few inches only,
we find the encrinites of a bed of limestone, abruptly, though
quietly, overtopped by a sandstone containing calamites.

256 Dr Hrszert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

This varying, yet tranquil, alternation of sandstone, argilla-
ceous shale, coal, and limestone, some of which are of fresh-water,
and others of marine origin, becomes of difficult explanation. No-
thing is more susceptible of proof, than that, during the carboni-
ferous epoch, the crust of the globe was subjected to continued
and prolonged oscillations of movement ; and these indicate an
ancient instability affecting our planet, of which, in reference to
the comparative state of unchangeableness which now prevails,
we can have little conception.

These circumstances of alternation have recently engaged
much attention.—It has been shewn, that, during the secular re-
frigeration to which the globe is subject, the fractured portions
of its crust would continue to adapt themselves to the diminish-
ing capacity of its nucleus, in order to embrace it more closely ;
but it may be now explained, that, during this process, the same
fractured portions would have their action modified by other cir-
cumstances, namely, unequal degrees of contraction, caused by
thermometrical differences beneath the earth’s surface. These I
shall attempt to explain.

A theory to this effect, proposed by Mr Dr La Becne and
Mr Bassacs, refers to the heated state of the nucleus of the
globe, and its power of radiating heat. It also assumes, that the
surfaces beneath rocks possess different powers of radiating heat.
It follows, then, that the numerous fractured portions into which
the crust of the earth has, by convulsions, been resolved, would,
in reference to subjacent thermometrical differences, manifest
unequal contractions ;—that occasionally these unequal contrac-
tions would cause the sides of great fissures to press against each
other, so as to induce sudden dislocations and movements ;—but
that more frequently very slow movements would be induced,
too slow, perhaps, to be measured by time, attended with new po-
sitions given to great masses of rocks or strata. Large areas
would be gradually thrust upwards along their lines of fracture,

1

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 257

while other fractured areas would be depressed ; so that, in this
manner, extensive tracts of surface would be raised out of water,
while other extensive tracts would be submerged.

But these effects, resulting from thermometrical differences
communicated to the various fractured portions of the earth’s
surface, would scarcely harmonize with oscillatory movements, un-
less we include in our theory an alternation of conditions possess-
ed at different times by such fractured portions. We must as-
sume, that the particular thermometrical condition by which one
fractured portion of the earth’s crust was raised out of the water,
and another was depressed, might become, at different intervals,
liable to alternation ; otherwise we should fail in explaining why
the bed of a fresh-water lake should have so sunk beneath its
level, as to become covered with the waters of the sea ;—or why
the same submerged tract should have again risen from ocean’s
depths, to resume its prior lacustrine condition ;—or why the
very fresh-water lake itself should have been liable to similar os-
cillations ;—why, for instance, a given portion of land, covered
with ferns or lycopodiacez, should have subsided beneath the level
of lacustrine waters, or why it should have been again elevated
above them, and again have afforded the soil for a renewed
flora.

An explanation has been thus attempted of the remarkable
alternations of fluviatile and marine strata, which are found in
the Lothian coal-district, and of the equally remarkable tranquil-
lity with which these alternations have been conducted. Mr Dr
LA Becue, in reference to analogous phenomena which he has
observed in newer formations, conceives, that particular situations
are demanded to explain these deposits ;—situations where they
have not been exposed to the destructive action of waves or
powerful streams of water ;—and hence he argues, that fresh-
water lakes, like those of America, appear the localities which of-
fer the least difficult conditions. (Dz 14 Becue’s Theor. Geo-
logy, p. 162, 820, Se.)

VOL. XIII. PART I. Kk

258 Dr Hreserr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

That the existence of large fresh-water lakes is necessary to
explain the phenomena presented by the coal-fields of Scotland,
I have long since advocated. (See the Reports of the Proceedings
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh). ‘The very great differences
of level which subsist between the coal-measures of the Great
Lowland Valley of Scotland, and the hills by which they are
bounded, namely, the higher lands north of the Tay, the great
Grampian chain, and the southerly grauwacke ridge which
stretches from St Abb’s Head to Galloway, are adverse to the no-
tion that, during the carboniferous epoch, the continuity of
spacious seas was only broken by occasional groups of studded
islets.

If, then, it be conceded, that such elevated lands had very
early risen above the level of the sea, they would rather point to
the existence of large continents than of archipelagos of islets ;
and, in admitting the development of these lofty ridges, we must
also infer that, acted upon by the rains of a humid atmosphere,
they would naturally give origin to corroding water-courses, or
rivers, and to large fresh-water lakes.

Accordingly, the existence of one or more of such fresh-water
lakes is advocated as a very early state of the great valley of the
Scottish Lowlands. But it is also admitted, that this flooded
condition of the country might have been varied by islets ; that
even large tracts of dry land might have subsisted, and have been
invaded by arms of the sea, or estuaries; and that while higher
lands would encourage the growth of such conifere as the Craig-
leith fossils indicate, lesser plants, as ferns, &c. would find a soil
amidst marshes or shallow lakes, or on the borders of deeper fresh-
water basins.

During such a condition of the globe, the calcareous deposit
of Burdiehouse was formed ; new races of fish inhabiting fresh-
waters were created, and among them the Megalichthys. The
ocean also must have possessed its own peculiar races, and its

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 259

own finny monsters, which, in pursuit of their prey, would pene-
trate into fresh-water lakes, and even among the shallows of
marshes.

These speculations may be extended to newer deposits.

In the strata succeeding to the Burdiehouse limestone, which
consist of alternating beds of argillaceous or bituminous shales, of
sandstone, and of thin seams of coal containing both vegetable
and animal remains, we find that the calcareous deposit of
Burdiehouse was but a temporary elaboration.

At Fountain-well, a thicker seam of coal (now wrought out)
was once evident, covered by a bed of limestone, which contains
marine shells, encrinites, corallines, &c. In reference to this, as
well as to similar limestones of the south of Scotland, I may ob-
serve, that if the geologist expects to find these deposits of the
same thickness as many in England, he will not fail to be disap-
pointed. They occur in beds, perhaps not at the utmost more
than forty or fifty feet thick, except im some places, and often
alternating with sandstone and argillaceous shale. It is also re-
markable, that not unfrequently three distinct alternations of
this limestone will be found, as I have noticed between Mussel-
burgh.and Prestonpans. These alternations certainly indicate.
that fresh-water lakes, or marshy tracts, were liable to be sub-
merged by shallow seas, and not to be overwhelmed during a very
prolonged interval beneath the waters of a deep ocean.

Phenomena of this kind are calculated to excite the greatest
possible interest. They may be considered as affording unequi-
vocal proof of the gradual, but momentous geological agency, which
has been in operation. Partly from changes of level, occasioned
by the internal commotions of the globe, and partly from cir-
cumscribed and local circumstances, new seas have in succession
overflowed much of the land which had hitherto been the site of
dense marshes, or tanks. The proof of these phenomena subsists
in the beds of encrinal, coralline, and conchiferous limestones,

Kk2

260 Dr Hrezerr on the Limestone of Burdichouse,

which greatly overtop the lacustrine deposits we have been con-
templating.

The uppermost strata of the coal-measures of Loanhead,
comprise alternating beds of sandstone, argillaceous and bitumi-
nous shale, along with ironstone bands, coal, and some little lime-
stone ; the workable beds of coal, two to ten feet in thickness, be-.
ing about twenty-five in number.

By these beds numerous oscillatory movements are made
known to us. Some of the alternations of sandstone, and argillace-
ous shale, might have been induced by matter drifting from dif-
ferent localities; and, of course, varying with such localities.
But, in other instances, particularly where we find strata alter-
nating with coal, we must refer the whole to corresponding oscilla-
tions of the earth’s surface, by which a land covered with ferns
and other plants has been submerged beneath a fresh-water lake,
only to reappear ;—and only to be succeeded by other alternate
submersions and emersions, incidental to the early history of our
planet.

SECTION X.—THE EFFECTS OF OSCILLATORY MOVEMENTS OF THE EARTH'S
SURFACE, CONSIDERED IN REFERENCE TO THE ANCIENT VEGETATION AND
ANIMALS DESCRIBED IN THE PRESENT MEMOIR.

That these oscillatory movements of the earth’s surface must
have caused corresponding changes in both vegetable and ani-
mal life may be expected. M. Apoipure Bronenrarr has fre-
quently made observations on the differences of such plants as
occur in the lower and upper beds of the carboniferous group.
And, in the present instance, the Sphenopteris affinis and some
few other ferns are, I suspect, confined to the inferior strata of
the Lothian coal-fields.

With regard to the races of animals which inhabit waters,
corresponding changes have been noticed. M. Acassiz has re-
marked, that, in a suite of strata belonging to any given forma-
tion, he has found few fish in a lower bed to agree as a whole

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 261

with those belonging to an upper stratum. Thus, for instance,
the Burdiehouse limestone has a character essentially different
from that of Wardie, which forms a higher stratum.

It is easy to suppose that, in the change which would cause
a fresh-water lake to sink beneath the depths of the ocean, and,
vice versa, to emerge and resume its fluviatile character, many
races of animals, limited to definite conditions of water, must
have been destroyed. But it would also appear, that their place
has been supplied by successions of new races.

In the next place, a state of the earth’s surface, subject to
oscillatory movements, may afford an argument relative to ano-
ther question which has been started. It has been supposed,
from certain a priori reasonings, that during the carboniferous
epoch, the air was so filled with carbonic acid gas as to be un-
favourable to the respiration of animals possessing lungs. And
hence it has been maintained, that no saurian animal during this
period could subsist. If, however, the Megalichthys is really al-
hed to the Lepidosteus, the researches of M. Acass1z have shewn
that recent sauroid fish possess not only lungs, but likewise a
trachea, and a glottis. The argument, therefore, of the air having
been so filled with carbonic acid gas as to be fatal to the respira-
tion of reptiles which possess lungs, becomes at least suspicious.

The question, therefore, remaining is to the following ef-
fect: If the Megalichthys, in common with the Lepidosteus, has
possessed lungs, to what condition of the earth’s surface might
these lungs bear reference? The solution of this question can
perhaps only meet with a satisfactory solution by an appeal to
the actual habits of the recent Lepidosteus, which dwells among
the large lakes of South America, but of which I can find no
written account whatever.

In the absence of this information, it may perhaps be allow-
able to throw out a conjecture with regard to the oscillatory
movements, which were going on upon the earth’s surface during

262 Dr Hiszerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

the period when the Megalichthys lived;—to movements by
which land rose from some large lake, only to be again submerged,
and by which alternations of submersion and emersion were often
repeated. During such a state of our planet, lungs might have
been given to sauroid fish, with the view of enabling them to
support for a continuance the changes of element to which they
were liable ;—that when they were left dry, they might be en-
abled to maintain life until again floated,—either by rains, or by
the renewed effect of geological agency.

There is also another circumstance to be kept in view, name-
ly, that as the remains of the Megalichthys are found in bitu-
minous shale, and even in coal itself, it is evident that the animal
must have frequented shallows, and wet marshes, among which he
would have been liable to be left dry, and consequently to perish,
unless for the provision of lungs.

That fish with analogous habits exist at the present day, may
be learned from Dr Hamiiron’s account of the scaly Cobojius of
India, which lives among the extensive marshes of the Yasor
district. This fish is possessed of great tenacity of life in the
open air; he is enabled to live many days without water ; and he
is even endowed with a considerable facility of progressive mo-
tion on land.

NOTES TO SECTION X.

A speculation has been recently thrown out, which connects itself rather with
the character of the watery fluid, than of the atmosphere in which these sauroid fish
lived. Upon this subject, M. Acasstz has remarked, that if structure be indicative
of habit, this sauroid tendency of the fish of the limestone of Burdiehouse will lead
to further discoveries of the aqueous fluids of the globe, which were neither salt nor
fresh; as, by the character of the vegetation of remote periods, naturalists have
been led to deduce a difference in the gaseous constitution of the atmosphere.—
(Report of the Edinburgh Meeting of the British Association of Science. )

With regard to this observation I would suggest, that the argument regarding
a half-saline state of waters, considered as prevailing over the whole ancient surface
of the globe, is unsatisfactory, so long as it can be shewn that two distinct species of
deposits, one apparently fitted for marine, and the other for fresh-water life, have
existed. Proofs of this coexistence form the leading object of investigation in the

present memoir.
5

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 263

And, with regard to a difference in the gaseous constitution of the atmosphere,
when compared with its present state, I consider that such a difference might, to
some little extent, have subsisted ;—yet so little, as not to be capable of any geolo-
gical proof whatever.

The argument for the air having been greatly charged with carbonic acid during
the time when carboniferous strata were deposited, was first advanced by M.
ApotPHe Broneniart. Mr De ta Becus, in adopting this view, has undertaken
a sort of origin and history of this atmospheric diffusion.

Mr DE ta Becue’s view is as follows: In a very early state of the globe,
cracks or voleanic fissures in the earth’s crust, formed the vents through which a
large amount of carbon combined with oxygen, and, forming carbonic acid, made
its constant escape into the atmosphere. The waters were so hot, that they could
only absorb such portions of carbonic acid as were enabled to form compounds with
the mineral matter rising above the level of the waters, and were sufficiently cool for
the purpose. And hence it is argued, that, in consequence of the obstacles which
would thus arise to the formation of carbonate of lime, at least in any very large
proportion,—in consequence also of the elevated temperature of the water,—and
in consequence of the difficulty of procuring disseminated oxygen, circumstances
would arise unfavourable to the existence of numerous marine polypi, and shell-bear-
ing animals, which require carbonate of lime in comparatively large proportions ;—
and thus, any carbonic acid thrown from the interior of the earth upon its surface,
would, for the most part, remain in the atmosphere.

But, upon the earth becoming less heated, these conditions would necessarily change.
The waters, in consequence of their being cooled down, would be enabled to take up
more carbonic acid, which, when emitted from volcanic fissures, they would inter-
cept. The carbonic acid, thus absorbed, would act chemically on many substances,
and, among other actions, take up lime in solution, which, without this addition of
carbonic acid, would have been insoluble in these waters; and hence, during this
cooled down state of ancient seas, numerous marine animals would be called into ex-
istence, such as the shell-bearing Mollusca, Encrinites, and Corals, which would
appropriate to themselves carbon; while an equal volume of oxygen would be
liberated for their support, or would be thrown into the atmosphere.—De La BEcHE’s
Theoretical Geology, pp. 298, 308, 313.

This is Mr DE ta Becue’s very rational theory. The question, however, still
remains, whether the amount of oxygen thus liberated, would, after much of it had
been arrested for the support of marine animals, form a residue capable, when thrown
into the atmosphere, of contributing in any material degree to its purification. The
theory shews little more than that any additional impurity would be checked, Ist, by
the sea being so cooled down as to admit of an increased absorption of carbonic acid ;
and, 2d, by the requisition of carbon for the creation of marine animals which had
been called into existence, whence the formation of calcareous deposits, produced by
such animal agency.

M. Apvotrne Bronentart has conceived that the atmosphere, after it had re-

264 Dr Hizzert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse,

ceived its excessive proportion of carbonic acid, was puritied by the development of
the numerous plants, particularly of gigantic species, which were created during the
carboniferous epoch, and for the support of which an extraordinary quantity of car-
bon must have been required.

All these views are unexceptionable so far as they go. There can be little doubt
that the development of the abundant vegetation of coal-fields must have rendered
solid much carbon which had existed in the atmosphere ;—but, that this development
was eventually, that is, during a still later formation of rocks, the cause of ren-
dering the atmosphere fit for sustaining the respiration of reptiles possessing lungs,
is another question ; as we have no data whatever for ascertaining if such an amount
of carbonic acid had subsisted, as to really render the atmosphere incompatible with
reptilian vitality. On the other hand, the researches explained in the present memoir
inform us, that an animal closely resembling the Lepidosteus, which M. Acassiz has
proved to actually possess lungs, subsisted during a period when it was supposed
that no animal possessing lungs could have possibly breathed.

SECTION XI.—_SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE RELATIVE TO THE FRESH-WATER
ORIGIN OF THE LIMESTONE OF BURDIEHOUSE.

The fresh-water limestone of Burdiehouse has at length been
described, in which it has been shewn, that this bed is nothing
more than an unit amidst many other fresh-water deposits, vary-
ing in their mineralogical character, and alternately deposited in
the great Lowland basin of Scotland.

In concluding this memoir, I shall bring the fresh-water evi-
dence to as severe a test as is compatible with geological reason-
ing, which must too frequently, in its very nature, be little more
than analogical and circumstantial. In insisting upon a more
rigid species of evidence, too many geological systems which we
have carefully reared, would disappear “ like the baseless fabric

of a vision.”

The fresh-water evidence of the Burdiehouse limestone has
hinged upon various points.

The first has been the absence of all mollusca and conchifera
of acknowledged marine origin.

In recent times, the conchifera and mollusca of marine origin,
1

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 265

as well as of fresh waters, are distinctly recognised. We never wit-
ness seas inhabited by successive races of unios, or fresh-water
rivers filled with a succession of coralline substances. If proof’
have been brought forward that an interchange of element among
animals dwelling in seas, or in fresh-water lakes or rivers, is pos-
sible, it is certain that such an existence could not long be main-
tained with immunity. Vitality would be rather tolerated than
fostered, and this would be shown in the gradual diminution and
eventual obliteration of the races of animals thus subjected to an
interchange of element,—which fact at least indicates, that mol-
lusea and conchifera,.in their distribution, bear reference to difter-
ent mediums of saline and fresh water for their prolonged support.

This principle I have analogically applied to the limestones
of the carboniferous epoch. If we find that marine mollusca and
conchifera are present in most limestones in the vicinity of Edin-
burgh, yet are absent in the limestone of Burdiehouse, to what
other conclusion does this absence point, but that a condition of
waters had prevailed, during the time of this deposit, unfavour-
able to the vitality of marine animals? And hence the supposi-
tion, that this condition was a difference of element, similar to
that which still prevails, namely, fresh water, hostile to the pro-
longed existence of pelagic conchifera and mollusca.

A second point upon which the evidence of the fresh-water
origin of the Burdiehouse limestone has hinged, is circumstantial
rather than analogical.

The circumstantial evidence is to the following effect :—That
the calcareous deposit of Burdiehouse must have taken place in
a depression, or basin, perfectly surrounded with a dense vegeta-
tion, which has been washed into inland waters. But this cir-
cumstance would of itself prove little, as we may easily suppose
that an estuary, or arm of the sea, might have stretched through a
tract where adense vegetation has prevailed. But when, in con-
nection with a perfect absence of all acknowledged marine remains

VOL. XII. PART I. |

266 Dr Hisserr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

whatever, we find plants enclosed in a calcareous deposit in the
greatest profusion imaginable, what conclusion remains, but that
such a deposit is more indicative of a fresh-water river or lake,
than of a sea or estuary ?

Other points of evidence are perhaps less forcible, although
they all tend to the same conclusion.

We find, for instance, that if the inland waters which depo-
sited the limestone of Burdiehouse, were actually unfavourable to
the existence in it of acknowledged marine mollusca or conchi-
fera, they were not unfavourable to countless myriads of ento-
mostraca, one genus of which, the Cypris, is the recent inhabi-
tant of fresh-water marshes ; and it may be fairly suspected that
other genera associated with it were equally so.

I will not at present dwell upon the presence of the fish dis-
covered in the-Burdiehouse limestone, although some of the ge-
nera are found enclosed not only in such sandstones and shales
as are crowded with plants, but even in coal itself. I shall here-
after shew, that if their presence does not afford an analogical
proof, it is at the least circumstantially presumptive, that the
Burdiehouse limestone has had a fluviatile origin.

In short, the evidence, in a general point of view, leads to the
following conclusion.

There are, it is well known, numerous deposits of limestone
belonging to the carboniferous group of rocks, in which, to the
exclusion of any vegetables of a Tropical Flora, nothing but ma-
rine products, such as corallines, or acknowledged shells of ge-
nera hitherto found in open seas only, have been discovered.
With a calcareous deposit of this kind, the comparison of another
calcareous deposit, destitute of all corallines or marine shells
whatever, yet containing, in an abundance perfectly remarkable,
the plants of tropical marshes, along with the entomostraca of
marsh waters, can surely lead to no other conclusion but the fol-
lowing :—That while the first formation must have taken place

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 267

in a pelagic bed analogous to one of recent times, the other must
have been the result of a fresh-water deposit, which, while it was
no less hostile to the growth and increase of marine shells or co-
rallines, must have flowed through marshy tracts, wherein grew
all the plants observable in our coal-fields. Accordingly, in com-
paring the limestone of Burdiehouse with such a limestone as we
find at Aberlady, which appears to be formed of one almost. un-
interrupted aggregate of coralline productions, or with the conti-
guous encrinitic limestone of Gilmerton, or with a zone of lime-
stone filled with numerous varieties of marine remains, which crops
out in a line of nearly SS.W. to NN.E., from Bathgate to Lin-
lithgow, what doubt can remain, that while the limestone of
Burdiehouse is of fresh-water origin, that of the other sites enu-
merated must be of marine origin ?

But it is not with such unequivocal marine deposits, that I
would dwell long for a comparison, as the line of demarcation is
but too obvious. I would prefer drawing a line of difference with
such a limestone as I have studied in Derbyshire, which is illus-
trative of an estuary.

The lowest visible portion of the great mass of Derbyshire
limestone may be seen at Sherbrook, near Buxton. It is very
crystalline, unstratified, and it contains no organic remains what-
ever. In the beds above it stratification commences, and the
limestone encloses numerous encrinites, corallines, producti, &c.
In still higher beds, such as we find at Ashford, indications are
rather afforded of a marine estuary, than of an uninterrupted or
open sea. Although this limestone abounds with acknowledged
marine productions, among which corallines are pre-eminent, I
discovered that in some sites the plants of coal-fields were mixed.
with them, although very sparingly. Among various plants which
I collected, one of them was the Sphznopteris artemisizfolia of
Avotrne Bronenrart (See Pl. 46. of his “ Histoire des Vege-
tauw Fossiles.”.) Other species, some of them new, and perhaps

L12

268 Dr Hiszert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

of new genera, remain to be described. I also obtained Ichthy-
odorulites, along with palatine and incisive teeth, severally refer-
able to M. Acassiz’s family of Cestraciontes. At the same time,
I did not find in the limestone any entomostraca, or any remains
of smaller fish whatever, as at Burdiehouse.

In comparing, then, the limestone of Burdiehouse with that
of Ashford, it will be found that most assuredly these two ap-
proach the most in character to each other. Yet still, in form-
ing a table of comparison, such as the following, which I offer
from my own personal observation, the line of demareation will
be sufficiently apparent. For instance,

Tue LIMESTONE OF ASHFORD CONTAINS Tue Limestone OF BuRDIEHOUSE CONTAINS

1. Encrinites, Corallines, Producti, Or- 1. No marine remains whatever.
thoceratites, &c. in infinite abundance.

2, Plants, which are found very sparing- 2. Plants in the greatest possible profu-
ly, and in a few sites only. sion.

3. No Entomostraca whatever discovered.. 3. Entomostraca, in such abundance as
to occasionally impart to the lime-
stone an oolitic character.

4. No remains of small fish. . Numerous small fish, as the Palzeonis-
cus of coal-fields, &c.- ‘

5. Remains of fish referable to the family 5. Remains of fish referable to the family
of Cestraciontes (Acass.). Genus of Cestraciontes (Acassiz) ; ¢. g. the
not yet ascertained. Gyracanthus formosus.

6. Other animal remains, which have been 6. Remains of large Sauroid fish; e. g.

regarded as important.

Their
true character is hitherto unknown.

referred to Saurian reptiles.

the Megalichthys.

The foregoing table of comparison, whieh, for the sole purpose
of instituting, I revisited Ashford in Derbyshire, will, I trust, be

inferences may arise :—

From a consideration of it, the following

1st, While the great abundance in which Corallines, En-
crinites, Producti, or Orthaceratites, are found in the limestone of
Ashford, prove that it was unequivocally a marine formation, the

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 269

absence of all such remains in the Burdiehouse deposit shews,
that its waters were unfavourable to the manifestation of marine
mollusea and conchifera.

2dly, While the comparatively sparing quantity of plants to
be found in the limestone of Derbyshire rather indicates that they
had been washed into an estuary, or diffused through a sea near
the influx of rivers, the immense abundance of plants contained
in the Burdiehouse limestone, prove the actual flowing of some
river, or fluviatile expanse, through a marshy tract, in which ferns
and lycopodiacez flourished.

The two foregoing points of difference form the great grounds
of distinction between the limestone of Ashford, considered as
the deposit of an estuary, and the limestone of Burdiehouse, con-
sidered as a pure fresh-water deposit. Other circumstances point
to similar grounds of distinction, though perhaps less decisive.

3dly; While the limestone of Ashford contains no entomos-
traca whatever, they are found in such abundance in the limestone
of Burdiehouse, as to- occasionally impart to it an oolitic character.

Now, the presence of these entomostraca can scarcely be con-
sidered decisive so.long as we know that marine waters can ex-
hibit Cytherez, and that the limestone of Burdiehouse encloses
many different kinds of entomostraca. The circumstance, how-
ever, of the Cypris being found in the Burdiehouse limestone, is
assuredly presumptive of this deposit having been formed among
the stagnant fresh-waters of ancient marshes.

Athly, While the Ashford limestone encloses no remains what-
ever of such small fish as are abundant in the sandstones, bitu-
minous shales, or bands of limestone, which contain plants and
fresh-water unios, but in which all marine remains are absent,
these fish appear most abundant in the limestone of Burdie-
house, presumed to be of fresh-water origin.

270 Dr Hiszerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

This circumstance, also, considered as an argument, is not
free from ambiguity. Although I conceive that, during the car-
boniferous epoch, smaller fish dwelt more in fresh-water lakes or
rivers, whither they were pursued by larger finny monsters, I
should be sorry to affirm that they might not frequent estuaries,
or arms of the sea. One genus of Palaoniscus is found in the
limestone of Burdiehouse, and another in the later formation of the
magnesian limestone,—which last, I presume, is of marine origin.

5thly, Remains of fish referable to the family of the Cestra-
ciontes (Acass.), appear both in the estuarian deposit of Ashford,
and in the fluviatile deposit of Burdiehouse. Now, the appear-
ance of these large finny monsters in each formation, at least
countenances the opinion which I have advanced, that estuaries,
as well as fresh-water lakes or rivers, were visited by them in
quest of their prey.

At the same time, the genera of Cestraciontes found at Ash-
ford and at Burdiehouse, are not the same. During the spring
of the present year, I procured large bony rays, as well as large
palatine and maxillary teeth, from the limestone of Ashford ; but
the bony rays widely differed from the character of such as have
been referred to the Gyracanthus formosus of Burdiehouse.

6thly, While the limestone of Burdiehouse encloses remains
of the immense and scaly Megalichthys, it is only a probable con-
jecture that similar relics might have been discovered at Ash-
ford. (See the Notes to Section XII. of Part. I.)

It follows from these premises, that, while a limestone which
contains marine mollusca, &c. and, along with these remains, the
plants common to coal-fields, together with the entomostraca of
marshes, may be regarded as an estuarian limestone, other cir-
cumstances, although they may point to the same conclusion, are
either less decisive, or ambiguous.

2

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 271

As for the remains of Cestraciontes, (and perhaps of the Me-
galichthys,) which appear in more than one description of car-
boniferous limestones, they point to estuaries, no less than to
fresh-water lakes, as having been in primeval times frequented
by large animals in quest of their prey.

The foregomg researches shew,—

lst, That it is by the presence or absence of acknowledged
pelagic mollusca, corallines, &c. that indications are afforded of
the great difference between fresh-water and marine deposits.

2dly, That if, along with marme mollusca or corallines, we
find the plants of coal-fields in a quantity comparatively small, an
estuarian limestone may be inferred. And,

3dly, That if marine mollusca or corallines should be entirely
absent ma limestone, and if plants should be abundantly found in
it, an indication would be afforded of a calcareous deposit which
took place amidst the fresh-water rivers or lakes of primeval
marshes; which indication would be still more favoured, if we
should find, in addition, recognised genera of fresh-water shells,
the entomostraca of stagnant marshes, or the fish incidental to
coal-fields.

It is however admitted, that the presence of fish is an ambi-
guous criterion. The smaller fish of lakes, or rivers, are known in
recent times to venture into estuaries, while larger fish enter fresh-
water rivers, or lakes, im pursuit of their prey.

From these conclusions it is evident, that while a broad line of
demarcation subsists between marine and fresh-water limestones,
it is by no means impossible that limestones of an estuarian and
fluviatile formation may, in some cases, be more diffieult to dis-
tinguish, and particularly, when it is kept in view, that, from a
remote period of the globe, communications between rivers and
seas must have subsisted, as at the present time. Thus, during
the actual state of our globe, the Ganges, as we approach close

272 Dr Hiszerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

to its source, teems with fresh-water animals exclusively ; but, in
following it to its junction with the sea, marine products, even far
from its mouth, begin to appear. Yet the Ganges, notwithstand-
ing any partial ambiguity of its products, possesses not the less
a fresh-water character.

Hitherto, however, I have not found the slightest traces of
marine mollusca or corallines in the limestone of Burdiehouse ;
and hence, I am not induced to consider it as any thing but a
pure lacustrine formation ; and if any marine remains should in
future turn up, which I do not expect, they would be so small,
in comparison with the very abundant indications afforded of an
opposite state of the waters which had yielded this deposit, as to
merely indicate its original connection with an ancient sea, and
nothing more ;—which last supposition I have, from a different
description of evidence, never been once inclined to doubt.

That seas should have been actually synchronous with a fresh-
water deposit, is indeed, as I have shewn, what might be natu-
rally expected. Few rivers or lakes subsist, which do not main-
tain such a communication. I am, therefore, prepared to expect,
that the remains of such large fish as are found in fresh-water
deposits, may also be discovered in marine deposits, analogous, in
fact, to what takes place at the present day in numerous parts of
the globe, where we find the fish which inhabit seas penetrating
many hundred miles up large rivers in quest of their prey, as, for
instance, towards the source of the Ganges.

It is also very probable, when we consider the frequent oscil-
latory movements to which the crust of the earth was exposed
during the carboniferous epoch, that the fish which were then
created might possess an adaptation of animal structure calculat-
ed to enable them to sustain any occasional change of element
caused by terraqueous elevations or depressions ; for M. Acassiz
states, that, among the fish of the earlier formations of strata, he
has not observed those marked characteristics of structure, which,
in later times only, point out these animals as distinct inhabitants
of salt or of fresh water.

‘in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 273

These considerations prove to us, that if we would distinguish
between the marine and fresh-water formations of very early
epochs, we must form our judgment less upon any insulated re-
lics which may turn up, than upon an assemblage of organic re-
mains, considered in reference to a combination of geological cir-
‘cumstances.

I shall, lastly, endeavour to sketch the true character of the
limestone of Burdiehouse, in reference to the beautiful specula-
tions of Mr pr 1a Becue, upon the quietness of deposition in-
cidental to the formation of more ancient strata.

Springs charged with the carbonate of lime, and issuing from
profound crevices incidental to one of the more early fissured
states of the earth’s crust, had mingled their mineral contents
with the waters of some river, or'of some fluviatile expanse, which
had sluggishly flowed through a marshy tract, principally over-
run by the creeping and gigantic stems of the mysterious Lyco-
podiacez, and by a dense undergrowth of ferns, among which the
luxuriant growth of the Sphenopteris affinis was particularly
favoured. And hence the production of a calcareous deposit,
which, in ‘gradually and tranquilly congealing, had preserved to
plants possessed of such tender form and structure as the lesser
ferns, all the delicate divisions of their pinne, or pinnulee, as well
‘as all the slender and linear character of their lobes, unaffected
by the violence of currents, or by any of the atmospheric com-
motions which a later and less heated condition of the globe has
invoked.

So great, in fact, is this state of preservation, that we are
irresistibly carried back to a period, when, in conformity with
the distribution of a thermal ocean over various parts of the
globe, equatorial and polar states, by being rendered uniform,
‘would so adjust the temperature over the whole surface of our
planet, as to induce a quietness of deposition, which no forma-
tion perhaps more happily elucidates than THE FRESH-WATER
“LIMESTONE OF BuRDIEHOUSE.

VOL. XIII. PART I. Mm

274 Dr Hiszert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

NOTES TO SECTION XI.

Having at length carefully drawn every close and tedious distinction of which I
conceived a fresh-water question of this kind was susceptible,—more, in fact, to com-
bat the objections with which T have been assailed, than to aid in my own convic-
tion,—a perfect weariness of fresh-water deposits, and of ancient lakes or rivers, has
more than once tempted me to exclaim, in too literal a strain, with the Mantuan poet,

Claudite jam rivos, pueri: sat prata biberunt.

But this long discussion, in which I have embarked relative to the fresh-water
origin of the limestone of Burdiehouse, has not been uncalled for. I have been de-
sirous that my memoir should embrace the confutation of every charge upon which
I have been attacked. I am unwilling to allude to any particular attack, but as si-
lence has but too often been interpreted as an admission of defeat, I must impose
upon myself the very annoying task of noticing a few animadversions.

The first objection strongly urged against me was that the limestone of Burdie-
house had not a fresh-water but a marine origin.

With regard to this counter opinion,—after the numerous facts which I have
brought to bear against it,—I will not again combat the objection, that the deposit of
Burdiehouse was less under the dominion of the Naiads than of Neptune; nor will I
disturb the opinion publicly expressed against me by the President of the Edinburgh
Wernerian Society, for whose old Neptunian predilections I can make every allowance.

In the second place, my account of a lacustrine limestone existing among the car-
boniferous group of rocks was arraigned on the score of originality.

In order that the force of this charge may be properly estimated, some previous
explanation may be necessary.

Various thin seams, named bands of fresh-water limestone, are common through-
out the whole of the coal-fields of Scotland, and scarcely need be enumerated. Many
of them contain fresh-water Unios. Seams of this kind I have observed near Old
Cumnock, and other places.

These bands of limestone cannot fail to be familiar to every geologist who has
studied coal-measures. From their having come within my notice, I conceived, as
well from this as from other analogies to which I have already alluded, that the
existence of considerable beds of fresh-water limestones, to which the name of bands
could not apply, was a rational expectation. That my expectation has not been
disappointed, the present researches have, I trust, satisfactorily proved.

In reference to one of these bands of limestone, the originality of my discovery
has been arraigned upon the strength of a passage, which appears in the Proceedings
of the Geological Society of London, by Mr Murcutsoy, incidental to an account of
the coal-fields in the neighbourhood of Shrewsbury. It is stated, that “ three thin
beds of coal are for the most part observable, and the deposit is distinguished by

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 275

an included band of limestone, similar in mineral aspect to the lacustrine limestones
of central France, and containing minute shells, referable to fresh-water genera.”

Mr Murcutson has publicly pointed out to me this passage, which, from my
residence abroad, I had not seen, but which I am sure, if I had read, would have
escaped my recollection, from its apparently trivial importance.

The reply which I have to make is, that if my discovery of extensive beds of la-
custrine limestone is to be superseded by mere bands of fresh-water limestone, Mr
Murcutson himself has been anticipated by other writers. The Rev. Mr Ung, in
his History of Rutherglen, written at least forty years ago, states, in reference to
certain fresh-water muscles, or unios, enclosed in a band of limestone, that “ the shells
were commonly entire, and were probably produced in fresh water."—History of
Rutherglen and Kilbride, p. 311.

Granting, however, that Mr Murcutson’s limestone is thicker than what is
usually meant by a band of limestone, the various limestones which I have enume-
rated are not, like his, contained within beds of coal, but, on the contrary, form con-
siderable deposits beneath beds of coal. This difference has been remarked by Mr
De 1a Becur.—Geological Researches, p. 319.

But waving these very subordinate considerations, I shall state in my own defence,
that my memoir was drawn up at a time when many British geologists were inclined
to admit, with a writer of the first weight, that no instance had yet been discovered
of a pure lacustrine formation of the carboniferous era; and that although there
were some instances of shells, apparently fresh water, which might have been washed
in by small streams, they did not by any means imply a considerable extent of dry
land. (See Lyexx’s Principles of Geology, 1st Ed. vol. i. p. 130, and vol. iii. p. 15.)

My own discovery, however, of the fresh-water character of the limestone of Bur-
diehouse, in conjunction with that of other similar limestones of still greater thick-
ness and extent, viz. at Calder and elsewhere (See the Supplement to this memoir),
have, I trust, tended to set geologists right upon the question of pure lacustrine de-
posits existing during the carboniferous epoch.

But after all,—these disputed claims of originality may neither belong to myself
nor to any other British geologist. The far older speculations of M. Dretuc and of
M. ALEXANDRE Bronenrarrt, refer all the varieties of strata comprehended in coal-
measures to a lacustrine origin; while their theory upon the alternation of these
strata with marine deposits has, in some few respects, coincided with the principles
which I have sought to establish in the present memoir.—( Tableau des Terrains,
par Bronenuret, p. 280, &c.)

With a third charge I was industriously assailed during the meeting of the Bri-
tish Association of Science at Edinburgh. It was contended that I had given an er-
roneous position to the limestone. My present memoir will however show, that the
view which I originally entertained on this question remains unaltered. I went over
the ground with some of our most distinguished geologists, among whom was Dr

Mm2

276 Dr Hrszert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse

Bucktanp, who compared very critically the section which I had given, with his
own observations made upon the spot.

Dr Bucxtanp likewise examined with the greatest attention the Roslin, or Haw-
thornden sandstone, in order to set himself right with regard to a notion entertained,
of its belonging to the new red sandstone, rather than to the coal-formation ; an ob-
jection, which it was supposed (though I could not myself see the force of it) would
materially affect the position which I had assigned to the limestone of Burdiehouse.
Accordingly, in conducting Dr Bucktanp to the grounds of Hawthornden, with the
view of examining the best natural section which could be afforded of the rock in
question, we were so fortunate as to meet with the outcrop of the Jewel-coal rest-
ing conformably upon the Hawthornden sandstone. The reference, therefore, of this
deposit to any other formation, except that of the carboniferous group, may be con-
sidered as set at rest. The opinion which I have myself expressed is, that the Roslin
sandstone may possibly be found to rank as one of the more ancient members of the
carboniferous group ; and if this geological position be confirmed, it would make the
Stoneyhill coal, in which the remains of large sauroid fish have been abundantly
found, an older bed than is usually supposed. But this suggestion I throw out, with
submission to another judgment of no little weight. No. one is better acquainted
with the strata of the Scottish coal-fields than Lord Grrrnocx, to whom the merit
of discovering the animal remains of the Stoneyhill coal is due.

In the incidental allusion which I have made to this nobleman, I hope for indul-
gence in the opportunity thus afforded me, of rendering justice to my own feel-
ings, in acknowledging the very kind encouragement which I have uniformly receiv-
ed from his Lordship’s hands, during the course of these researches. A zeal, such
as Lord Greenock evinces, in the science which he himself so successfully prose-
cutes, affords an example, when united with rank, too illustrious not to render it an
object of popular imitation, Nor can the example fail to render the most essential
services to the cause of geology in Scotland.

CONCLUSION.

In concluding this long memoir, I should be most ungrateful
not to acknowledge the very deep obligations which I have been
under to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, for their flattering at-
tention, as well as other marks of kindness.

[ also feel proud in the opportunity of having brought forward
these researches before a Society, whose earlier members, now no
more, are associated with the brightest period of the history of
Geology. The appearance of a Hurron in the field, gave token
of an emergence from the darkness which pervaded the geology,

in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. Q77

not of this country alone, but of every region in Europe. This
was followed by the exertions of a Haux and of a PLayrair, who,
in their days, were towers of strength. The researches of these
philosophers, together with the important labours of some few of
their Neptunian competitors, which, though conducted upon er-
roneous and illogical principles, embodied invaluable facts, reflect
a high lustre on the active interval of Scottish geology, which has
prolonged itself to the date of the important writings of a Mac-
Cuxtocn and a Bove’. If an interval of inertness has followed,,
Industry now promises to resume her sway. The exertions of the
Highland Society, conjoined with the late proceedings of the Bri-
tish Association of Science, severally shew, that the Genius of
Scottish Geology is awakening from his slumbers, like a giant re-
freshed.

SUPPLEMENT.

The great extent to, which my Memoir has reached upon the fresh-water lime-
stone of Burdiehouse, precludes me from doing any thing more than throwing into
the form of a Supplement, notices of other fresh-water limestones in the vicinity of
Edinburgh, brought before the Royal Society, although I possess materials for a de-
scription of them, almost sufficient to fill a volume.

It was a desideratum of no little moment to learn, whether fresh-water limestones,
similar in their geological character to that of Burdiehouse, did not occur in other
localities of the coal formation of Scotland, or even elsewhere.

Having this object in view, I did not content myself with merely visiting the
neighbourhood of Edinburgh ; I travelled at different intervals several hundred miles
over various districts of the Basins of the Forth, the Tay, and the Clyde, and have
even availed myself of the occasion which ajourney to England afforded me of explor-
ing certain parts of Derbyshire, with the self same view. My labour has not been
directly, but indirectly successful. If I have not found these fresh-water limestones
so abundant as I expected them, I have still been enabled ‘to assign. to them a few
localities, and’ the acquisitions which I flatter myself it will be hereafter found I have
made to our knowledge of the general relations of the strata of the south of Scot-.
land, conjoined with the discovery of a fresh-water bed of rather a different character,
but of an interest fully equalling that of Burdiehouse (I allude to the limestone of
Kirkton near Bathgate), far more than recompense me for toils which have been un-

remitted.
1

278 Dr Hiszert on the Limestone of Calder, &c.

1st, The Fresh-Water Limestones of Calder.

At East Calder, and to the south-west of Mid-Calder, the limestone which is
there quarried appears, like that of Burdiehouse, to have a fresh-water origin. Its
strata have undergone great derangement, and dip in various directions. In one of
the quarries of East Calder, where a good section is exposed, the lowest rock is said
to be sandstone, above which the following strata may be enumerated in an ascend-
ing order :—A yellowish coarse limestone, 16 feet thick ;—limestone, 43 feet thick,
in which vegetable remains are contained, such as are usually found in coal-fields,
and, along with these, scales of the Megalichthys have been discovered ;—nine feet of
a very bituminous shale, part of which burns readily, mixed with ironstone ;—shale
(named Blaes) 16 feet ;—and, at the top of the series, an alluvial covering of clay,
sand, &e. in which large boulders occur.

2d, The Fresh- Water Limestone of Burntisland.

A very deep-seated bed of fresh-water limestone is to be found in the road from
Newbigging to Burntisland in Fifeshire. It also crops out on the north of the
Bin Hill. It is comparatively a small bed, being at Newbigging not more than
eighteen feet thick. Plants as well as Coprolites are contained in it.

L have collected numerous details regarding this very deep seated deposit, but,
as I have not space to enter into them, I shall merely remark, that its geological si-
tuation appears in a section of the beds exposed between Burntisland and Seafield
town, which has been published by Dr Bour’. This excellent geologist did not lose
sight of the important fact that the limestone of Burntisland contained the remains
of plants. (See Essai Géologique sur U Ecosse, par A. Bove’, p. 472.)

3d, The Fresh-water Limestone of Kirkton, near Bathgate, indicative of ancient Thermal
Waters.

I regret most exceedingly, that I have only space to give a mere outline of this
very interesting deposit.

From Bathgate to Linlithgow, a distance of about six miles, a long line of fissure
extending from SS.W. to NN-E. may be traced, by which deep seated beds of lime-
stone are brought to view. Near Linlithgow an eruption of trap occurs, but as out-
crops of limestone reappear in the noted quarry of Limekilns in Fifeshire, near the
seat of the Earl of Exery, it is probable that the line of fissure has been prolonged
across the Firth of Forth in the same direction of NN.E.

A mile or two to the east of Bathgate, at Kirkton, we find that a very consider-
able outbreak of greenstone has occurred, Close to it on the west appears the lime-
stone of Kirkton. By this contiguity we are assured, that the limestone must have
been elaborated within the immediate sphere and influence of an extensive volcanic
eruption. The consequence has been, that one of the most unique formations of

2

Dr Hissert on the Limestone of Kirkton. 279

which Great Britain can boast, has been formed, indicative of thermal waters belong-
ing to the carboniferous epoch.

A decidedly fresh-water formation is there exposed, which is characterized by the
absence of all marine shells, corallines, &c., and the presence of the well-known vege-
table remains of the coal-formation.

But the remarkable circumstance in this limestone is its mineralogical character,
indicative of the very powerful chemical action under which it was elaborated.

This chemical action appears to have been so energetic, as to have caused such
miscellaneous earthy matters as are found to enter into the composition of an impure
limestone, like that of Kirkton, to separate into laminz, and to assume a sort of
striped disposition, (rwbané, as it is also named), resembling what I have occasion-
ally noticed in Auvergne, where tertiary strata have come into contact with volcanic
rocks. The strata, for instance, of Kirkton quarry are composed of distinct and al-
ternating thin laminz, some of them being of remarkable tenuity, variously consist-
ing either of pure calcareous matter, of translucent silex, resembling common flint,
or of a mixed argillaceous substance, which approaches to the character of porcella-
nite, or of ferruginous, or even of bituminous layers, originating probably from ve-
getable matter.

Upon one of these very thin aluminous folia, which I have compared to porcel-
lanite, I observed the impression of a Fern, apparently of a Pecopteris, which was
delineated upon it like a painting upon porcelain.

It is also remarkable, that the mixed ferruginous and carbonaceous layers which
enter into the structure of the limestone, often assume a sort of blistered appearance
upon their surface, as if from the effect of heat.

Another effect of ancient thermal waters, may be inferred from the very singular
warping which the strata have undergone. The wavings which they exhibit are ex-
tremely remarkable upon a large scale, and it is no less surprising that the same
contortions should be evinced, even to a far greater degree, in small hand specimens
of the limestone. That this effect has been aided by a lateral as well as superjacent
pressure of eruptive rocks of volcanic origin, is highly probable.

Some part of the limestone, again, shews other species of character. I collected a
specimen, in which a structure, globularly concretional, was observable, the surface
having, at the same time, a mammillary appearance. This is another proof of the
powerful chemical action which was excited when these limestone beds were formed.

All these appearances tend to the hypothesis, that the calcareous beds of Kirk-
ton were elaborated under the action of great heat ; or, in other words, that they had
their origin in deep fissures, intimately connected with a volcanic focus.

But this view does not, in fact, demand any hypothesis whatever. An inter-
posed mass of volcanic tufa, of a green colour, which occasionally assumes the com-
pactness of greenstone, is developed among the higher beds of the deposit. It has an
elongated, wedge-shaped appearance, and it is extended in a direction nearly con-
formable to the general bearing of the strata. The greatest thickness which it ex-

280 Dr Hisszert on the Limestone of Kirkton.

hibits may be estimated at two to three yards, but in tracing it to the part of the
quarry where it disappears, it may be observed to thin off to as many inches.

The inference is, that the calcareous matter was elaborated on the site of Kirk-
‘ton in the form of hot springs, probably at the time in a state of ebullition. I need
not add, that this is a phenomenon perfectly familiar at the present day in districts
where the volcanic agency is still in activity.*

This limestone, as I have remarked, contains plants, among which is'a beautiful
Pecopteris, which I have transmitted for description to Professor Linpirey and Mr
Horton, to be inserted in their British Flora.

It could scarcely be expected that this limestone should contain any animal re-
mains, but, to my surprise, some most singular creatures have turned up

No fewer than five specimens were at one time discovered of a crustaceous animal
of extraordinary large dimensions. Unfortunately, these specimens in their broken
state were’soon dispersed. A very able naturalist of Glasgow, Dr Scouurr, at pre-
sent Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Dublin, obtained the sight of a
portion only of one of these animals, which he described under the name of Eidothea.
(Edinburgh Journal of Natural and Geographical Science, vol. iii. p. 352.)

When my account of the limestone of Kirkton was made known through the
journals, public attention was directed to its singular character, and, as a conse-
quence, more of these dispersed remains were brought to light, particularly by Dr
Reip and Dr Simrsoy, severally of Bathgate. The last named gentleman allowed
me to exhibit the relics in his possession at a Sectional meeting of the British
Association of Science ; and Mr Smiru of Jordanhill then brought forward the head
of the animal described by Dr Scouter.

In Plate XII. figs. 1. and 2. shew both sides of the animal. Fig. 3. is the head
alluded to; while figs. 4. and 5. are the two sides of an extremity, apparently refer-
able to the same specimen.

Upon this occasion Mr Torrie of Edinburgh was so obliging as to place in my

* In concluding my mineralogical account of this deposit, I would observe, that my intelligent
young friend, Dr Simpson of Bathgate, was the first to inform me, after the reading of my paper, that
the limestone of Kirkton had been noticed in an article by Dr Fremtne, published in the Edinburgh
Journal of Science for April 1825, (p. 307.) In this’ paper, a brief allusion is made to the siliceous la-
minze of the limestone, as well as to its botryoidal and mammillary structure. It is also stated, that
‘¢ several trunks of trees with their branches” had turned up, in which concentric zones and perpendi-
cular fibres were visible. Dr Firemr1ne’s remark, that this limestone “ encloses the remains of those
tnarine animals which are common in the limestones of the coal formation,” I consider as a mistake.
The memoir is entitled, “ On the Neptunian formation of Siliceous Stalactites.” It is almost entirely
theoretical} being a defence, in reference to siliceous developments, of the doctrine taught by WERNER.

I may also add, that since an abstract of this memoir appeared in print, Mr Macranren of Edin-
burgh has.published (in the Scotsman) some very ingenious observations upon the trap-rocks in the
immediate vicinity of this thermal deposit, in which their stratified character is advocated. I am sorry
that the extreme length of my memoir prevents me from entering ‘into an explanation of his views,

and from expressing my own opinion regarding them.

Dr Hrszerr on the Limestone of Kirkton. 281

hands Dr Hartan’s account of the Eurypterus of North America, to which the
Kirkton specimens were readily referred

The Eurypterus is assisned by Dr Hartawn to the class Crustacea; and to the
order of Branchiopoda. His description of the genus Eurypterus is as follows :—

Character of the Genus.—* Caput a thorace non distinctum: os ignotum: oculi
duo, sessiles, distantes, lunati: abdomen elongatum, posticam versus extremitatem
sensim gracilius, segmentis transversis subimbricatis divisum. Pedes octo; duo
utrinque antici branchiferi, duo utrinque postici maximi, omnes Jamellosi.”

Dr Hartay’s specimens were obtained from a “ transition calciferous sand rock”
of Westmoreland in the Oneida county of New York. He has described two fossil
species, the Eurypterus lacustris and the E. Remipes. (See Plate XII. fig. 6. and 7.)

The head of the Eurypterus of Kirkton (see Plate XII. fig. 3.), which differs in
many respects from the American specimens, exhibits a physiognomy so human like,
that the quarrymen attributed it to some degenerate offspring of Adam. For this
reason, as well as in reference to the sort of examination which it seemed to invite,
the animal might have been stiled the Eurypterus phrenologicus.

A more suitable specific title is, however, suggested. In honour of the naturalist
who has described in a satisfactory manner’ the only fragment, namely, the head and
a small portion of the abdomen, which came under his observation, I propose, to
name the Eurypterus found at Kirkton, the Euryprerus Scourert.

I consider the Eurypterus Scouleri to be distinguished from other species, by the
prolonged eminences intervening between the eyes, which at their apex form an angle
wherein appears a central tubercle ;—also by the small acutely angular protube-
rances, like spines, which are diffused over the surface of the head beneath the eyes.
The character of the feet cannot be given, as no vestiges of them, except very slight
ones, have turned up *. Perhaps, a last distinction is the greater size of the E.
Scouleri, which may be learned from the following table of comparison :

EURYPTERUS LACUSTRIS, EURYEFTERUS REMIPES. EURYPTERUS SCOULERI.

Larger Specimen. Smaller Specimen.
Length of the head, 14 inch. 1 inch. 6 inches. 5 inches.
Breadth of the head, Be ads BAS. 8 vase 63...
Distance between theeyes,1 —... Bis, 14 s. Paces
Breadth of the body, ar Be was Bik Dials
Total length, . De 3}... Wie See 13}? ...

The Geological Relations of the Kirkton Limestone.—Above this deposit, we find
beds ef very loose friable shale with ironstone bands, some of which are alternated
with its upper strata. These shale beds, composed of pure argillaceous matter, ap-
pear to have undergone few or no alterations from the action of heat.

* Tn concluding this account of the Eurypterus, I beg to express my best thanks to Dr Simpson
of Bathgate, for giving me the opportunity of describing the specimens in his possession, as well as to
Mr Smrru of Jordanhill, for the loan of the specimen in the Andersonian Museum of Glasgow.

VOL, XIII. PART If. Nn

282

Dr Hiszert on the Limestone of Kirkton.

The whole of the limestone strata dip generally towards the west, or north-west
by west, at angles varying from 24° to 28°.

To the west of the limestone is much covered ground, but, as far as I could learn,
the strata succeeding to this fresh-water deposit consist of alternations of sandstone

and shale.

But, at a little farther distance, are limestone beds, containing marine shells,
dipping in like manner to the west, and thus shewing that they are the uppermost,
and, consequently, later strata.

The Kirkton limestone, in common with newer limestones of marine origin, ap-

pears to have not only undergone an elevation subsequent to the period when it was
consolidated, but to have also had its tilted and upturned strata covered over with

subsequent volcanic eruptions of felspathose trap. This trap is superimposed upon
the limestone of several quarries extending from Bathgate to Linlithgow, and it oc-

casionally assumes a prismatic form. More frequently, however, it appears under
the character of a decomposed wacké. From six to fifteen feet of this substance, in
perpendicular depth, repose upon the upturned edges of the Kirkton limestone.

This overlying mass must have originally covered a considerable tract of space in
the form of a lava. ;

t "aoe:

y :
In concluding this account I must observe, that the limestone of Kirkton parti-
cularly recommends itself to the attention of all who are anxious to trace, in the va-

rious effects produced upon rocks, the influence of central heat. I have already trans-
mitted specimens of this limestone to a distinguished philosopher, M. Dr LEonuarp
of Heidelberg, who, more than any other geologist, has successfully prosecuted this
important branch of investigation.

Plate V.
VI.

VII.
Vill.

IX.

A

Description of the Plates belonging to this Memoir.

View of the old quarry of Burdichouse. Described in Part I. section 17

The fossil plants described in Part. I. section 3.

The lesser fish. Described in Part I. sections 7. and 13.

The sauroid remains first discovered in the limestone. Described in
Part I. sections 7. and 11.

The large fossil teeth. Described in Part I. sections 7. and 11.

. Part of the jaw and round scales of the Megalichthys. Described in

Part I. section 11.

. The scales of the Megalichthys, and the dorsal rays of the Gyracanthus.

Described in Part I. sections 7, 11. and 14.

. Specimens of the Eurypterus of Kirkton, &c. Described in the Supple-

ment.

( 283 )

Analysis of Coprolites and other Organic Remains imbedded in
the Limestone of Burdiehouse near Edinburgh. By Anruur
ConneE 1, Esq. F.R.S. E.

(Read 17th February 1834, and 19th January 1835.)

Ir is not my intention to enter into any detailed description
of the external characters of the several interesting organic re-
mains which are found imbedded in the limestone of Burdie-
house, that being a task which belongs to their distinguished dis-
coverer Dr Hizpert.

As little do I mean to describe the geological relations of the
limestone bed, that being equally the province of Dr Hisszerz.
It will be sufficient to state generally, that it forms one of the
lowest members of the carboniferous group, being inferior in posi-
tion even to the Encrinal mountain limestone of its immediate vi-
cinity ; and that besides its numerous animal remains, some of
which will be mentioned in the sequel, it contains throughout its
entire mass numerous impressions of land and fresh-water tropical
plants.

The chemical constitution of certain of the animal remains is
the subject which I have humbly undertaken to investigate. I
shall first advert to the coprolites which are found in vast num-
bers imbedded in the limestone.

All the specimens of coprolites examined, appear to agree in
the following general chemical characters.

When heated in a glass tube in the state of powder, they give

moisture and bituminous oil; and test paper held in the tube
nn2

284. Mr Connewx’s Analysis of the

shews the presence of a trace of ammonia. This reaction indi-
cates the existence of a minute quantity of animal matter; and
it is proper to observe, as I shall afterwards have occasion to no-
tice more particularly, that the dark coloured limestone itself, in
which the coprolites are imbedded, shews a similar reaction. The
coprolites are soluble in dilute muriatie acid with moderate ef-
fervescence, leaving a residue of dark flocky matter ; and when
the solution is treated with ammonia, a plentiful gelatinous pre-
cipitate is thrown-down, having all the appearance of phosphate
of lime. Examined in the usual way for detecting phosphoric
acid by means of potassium, they afford very decided indications
of the presence of that acid. They also contain a little oxide of
iron, but no sulphur in any state of combination. Magnesia was
sought for both by fusion with carbonated alkalies and other ne-
cessary steps, in which way none was detected; and also by
Brrzevivs’s process for finding it in bones.* The ultimate
ignited residue got by this latter method consisted almost en-
tirely of siliceous and alkaline matter, with only a very minute
quantity of magnesia. A trace of fluoride of calcium is easily
detected by treating the coprolites with sulphuric acid in the
usual way.t+ Phosphate of lime and carbonate of lime are thus
the prevailing constituents.

I next proceeded to ascertain the proportion of these constitu-
ents ; and, as it is stated by Dr Prour in his analysis of the co-
prolites from the has, that the proportions appeared to differ not
merely in different specimens, but in different parts of the same

=

* Lehrbuch, iv. 445.

+ In my first search for fluoric acid I merely employed the blowpipe test of fused
salt of phosphorus and Brazil wood paper, with the delicacy of which, the alkaline
reaction of the coprolites interfered: In the mean time, Dr Grecory and Mr
Waker found fluoric acid, in the usual way, in a coprolite examined by them ;
and I have since found that, with due precaution, it may be detected even by thé
blowpipe test.

Organic Remains of Burdiehouse. 285

specimen, I wished to ascertain how far a similar variation might
be observable in the present instance.

In selecting specimens for a fuller analysis, it appeared to me
to be desirable, on the one hand, that such coprolites should be
chosen as contained fish scales, because it is by such contents as
these that the real nature of these fecal remains is best evinced ;
and, on the other hand, that the quantity of these contained re-
mains should not be greater than was sufficient to afford decisive
evidence of their presence, because the purity of the proper mat-
ter of which the coprolites consist would be in some measure af-
fected by them. Two specimens were chosen, in one of which the
imbedded coprolite was about 2 inches long by 1 inch broad, and in
the other it was about 2} inches by 3 broad. The colour of both
was yellowish-white. Their texture was compact, with a con-
choidal fracture. A few fish scales were scattered through their
substance. 22.99 grains of the former coprolite were dissolved
in diluted muriatic acid, and the loss of weight resulting from
effervescence ascertained to be 1.07 grains. A good deal of
brown flocky matter was left, which was separated by filtration,
and dried at the temperature of 212°, when it weighed 1 grain.
It then appeared as a black coally mass, which fused on the appli-
cation of heat, gave a white inflammable vapour and took fire, and
burned with flame, leaving a residue of silica amounting to .09 of
a grain. This, in short, was bituminous matter, which, as will
presently appear, had been derived from the limestone. The
muriatic solution was then precipitated by ammonia, in a little
excess, and the phosphate of lime collected by filtration, and ig-
nited. It then weighed 19.56 grains. The remaining liquid
was precipitated by oxalate of ammonia, and after calcining the
precipitate under the usual precautions, 2.48 grains of carbonate
of lime were procured, which contain 1.083 of carbonic acid, and
thus correspond sufficiently with the loss of weight. by efferves-
cence.

We have thus in 22.99 grains,

286 Mr ConneEu’s Analysis of the

Phosphate of Lime, with a little fluoride of calcium, 19.56

Carbonate of Lime, , : 3 : 248
Silica, : ; ; : : . .09
Bituminous Matter, } 2 ; ‘ 91

23.04

In this analysis alkaline matter in the residual liquid was not
sought for; but another portion of the same coprolite was decom-
posed for that purpose by muriatic acid, and after getting quit of
the earthy constituents, a small residue of chlorides of potassium
and sodium was got, amounting to .59 per cent. of alkalies, which
probably were combined, in the matter under analysis, with sili-
ceous matter, as chlorine or sulphuric acid were not detected in
the coprolites.

The constituents in 100 parts were thus,

Phosphate of Lime, with a little fluoride of calcium, 85.08

Carbonate of Lime, ; ; fp , 10.78
Phosphate of ae aa ; . Trace
Silica, : : ; 4 2 39
Potash and Soda, . ' ; é d 59
Bituminous Matter, : £ : : 3.95
Animal Matter, . , P Trace

100.79

13.76 grains of the other coprolite were decomposed by the
same process, the only difference being that the loss of weight by
effervescence was not determined, and that the amount of the bitu-
minous and alkaline matter was merely estimated from the defi-
ciency on the analysis. This coprolite contained in 100 parts,

Phosphate of Lime, with a little fluoride of calcium, 83.13

Carbonate of Lime, / 3 ; : E59) Gil
Phosphate of Magnesia, . é Trace
Silica, ; A : : i : 29
Animal Matter, . é Trace
Bituminous Matter and Alkalies, . ; ‘ 1.47

100.

Organic Remains of Burdiehouse. 287

A portion from a different part of this panel yielded 84.17
per cent. of phosphate of lime.

It thus appears that the proportion of phosphate of lime, the
principal constituent of these remains, is pretty uniform, in so
far as the examination extended. A little variation occurs in
the relative quantity of the other constituents. Of these last,
the bituminous matter is certainly derived from the matrix ; and
it seems probable that the proportion of the carbonate of lime is
also slightly influenced by the limestone, as I shall afterwards have
occasion to shew. The proportion of phosphate of lime is much
greater than in the lias coprolites, in which it appeared to vary,
according to Dr Prout, from only jth to 3ths of the whole:
whereas in those of Burdiehouse it amounts to about “ths *

On finding the bituminous matter in the coprolites, I sub-
jected the limestone to the same process, to separate the bitumen
from it. A portion of the limestone matrix of the coprolite
first analyzed was dissolved in diluted muriatic acid, and the
undissolved dark flocky matter collected on a filter, washed,
and dried at the temperature of 212°. It then contained one-
half of earthy matter, and hence was not so black and glossy as
that from the coprolites, nor did it fuse on the application of
heat ; but, when heated in the open air with the contact of
flame, it took fire and burned with flame; and, when heated in a

* With reference to an analysis lately published by Dr Grecory and Mr
Wa ker, (Edin. New Phil. Jour., Jan. 1835,) of a coprolite described as embedded
ina rolled mass of clay-iron from Burdiehouse, it is necessary to observe, that this
coprolite appears to have been extremely impure, containing only 10 per cent. of
phosphate of lime, and much foreign matter, such as sulphuret of iron, and large
quantities of carbonates of lime and magnesia. It is essential, therefore, to draw
a marked line of distinction between coprolites in ironstone or shale, and those di-
rectly embedded in the limestone of Burdiehouse, to which last alone my analyses
refer. I have seen coprolites from the shale of Burdiehouse, but I have never hap-
pened to see any from that locality, either in ironstone or in rolled masses.

3

288 Mr ConneEv’s Analysis of the

tube, a yellow oil was sublimed, with a strong bituminous odour,
and the oil concreted on cooling,—appearances which are also
presented when the bituminous matter from the coprolites is
treated in the same manner. The quantity of bitumen obtained
from the limestone, after subtracting the earthy matter, was
about 24 per cent.; but the proportion may vary in different
specimens. The bitumen might also be obtained by distillation ;
for when the powdered limestone is heated to redness in a glass
tube, a brown oily liquid is volatilized, which concretes on
cooling.

It may also be worth while to notice, that the matter com-
posing the carbonaceous layers, covering many of the fine vege-
table impressions of the limestone, possesses, in its relations to
heat, all the properties of common black coal; and appears, in
many instances, to be all that remains of those vegetables which
have left their impressions on the matrix. Thus these miniature
beds of coal afford an excellent illustration of the origin of their
more gigantic likenesses in the coal-measures.

The next fossils from the limestone which I submitted to
analysis, were a portion of a bony fin ray, sent to me for that
purpose by Dr Hrszerr; and also some scales obtained from the
collection of the Royal Society.

Both these substances, as may well be supposed from their
great antiquity, afford only slight traces of perishable animal
matter. Ata red heat, they give off a little water and ammonia-
cal vapour ; and a slightly empyreumatic odour is also evolved,
arising from a small quantity of bituminous matter contained in
them. The alkaline reaction, however, particularly that of the
bones, is not so decided as that of the coprolites or limestone
matrix itself.

The details of the method of analysis need not be entered
into, as the general nature of the process employed was the same
as that used in the analysis of the coprolites.

Organic Remains of Burdiehouse. 289

The bony fin rays, Dr H1sserr informs me, belong to a fos-
sil fish, which has been designated by M. Acass1z, Gyracanthus
formosus, and is supposed to approach in character to the Ces-
tracion of New Holland.

20.14 grains of these rays were found to be composed as
follows :

Phosphate of Lime, with a little Fluoride of Calcium, : . 53.87
Carbonate of Lime, . : . : : . : A é 33.86
Siliceous Matter, : : ‘ : ; 3 10 22
Potash and Soda, partly as Chlorides, : ; i F : 71
Bituminous Matter, . , , \ ; : ; ‘ ; 54
Phosphate of Magnesia, .. ‘3 . : ‘ . Trace
Animal Matter, : ‘ : : : 3 . Trace

99.20

The siliceous matter contained in the fin rays was left undis-
solved when they were treated with the acid, and presented the
appearance of small solid cylindrical masses, grouped longitudi-
nally together. ‘These siliceous portions may be observed in the
solid bone itself, before it is acted on by the solvent, and evident-
ly suggest the idea of longitudinal cavities in its substance, which
had become filled with infiltrated siliceous matter.

The scales analyzed were those of the fossil genus of fish to
which the name of Megalichthys has been given by M. Acassiz.
The great fossil teeth found at Burdiehouse belong to the same
animal. It is supposed to approach in its characters to the Lepi-
sosteus, or Lepidosteus of Acassiz. The scales had the usual
fine lustre, and smooth but delicately punctured surface. They
were generally about three-fourths of an inch long, by some-
what less in breadth.

15.86 grains of these scales submitted to analysis gave the
following result :

VOL. XIII. PART I. 00

290 Mr Connevu’s Analysis of the

Phosphate of Lime, with a little Fluoride of Calcium, A 50.94
Carbonate of Lime, y ‘ . 4 ‘ 11.91
Siliceous matter, ‘ i : ; : 33.10 }
36.58

Water, é és : : é P 3.48 Sm
Potash and Soda, : ; : 3 AT
Bituminous Matter, ’ : - : Z 12
Phosphate of Magnesia, Trace
Animal Matter, Trace

100.02

The most unexpected part of this analysis was the occurrence
of so large a proportion of siliceous matter. Judging from the
beautifully perfect appearance of these scales, presenting a lustre
as fine in all likelihood as they possessed when they clothed the
sides of the immense living tenants of the primeval waters, we are
naturally led to expect no great change in their nature. A little
reflection, however, will show us that as fish scales are known to
contain a good deal of perishable animal matter, in addition to
the more permanent animal earths, which enter into their com-
position, it is necessary that the place of this destructible matter
should be taken by something more durable, in order that the
original form may be preserved. This seems to be the origin of
the siliceous matter ; and, in proof of the justness of this view, it
need only be mentioned, that when the scales are acted on by
acids, the insoluble matter remains behind as a fine siliceous
skeleton, formed, there can be little doubt, by the infiltration of
dissolved siliceous matter which has gradually taken the place
of the decaying animal matter. The fossil scales, on this view,
ought to consist of the infiltrated matter, together with the ori-
ginal animal earths ; and this is exactly what we find to be the
case; and it so happens, that in the present instance we are
enabled to determine, with some degree of plausibility, that even
the relative proportions of the different constituents haye been
to a considerable extent preserved. We luckily possess an ana-
lysis of the scales of the recent Lepisosteus, as well as of several

2

> (jac ein,

Organic Remains of Burdiehouse. 291

other recent fishes, by Curvreut ; and, it is very interesting that,
on comparing the analysis of the scales of the Megalichthys of
Burdiehouse with those of the Lepisosteus, to which, on the high
authority of M. Acass1z, the Megalichthys is in other respects
allied, we find a considerable approximation between the propor-
tions of the different constituents of the scales of the recent and
of the fossil fish on substituting siliceous matter for destructible
animal matter ;—not certainly a numerical identity, but still a
marked analogy, and one of a much stronger description than be-
tween the fossil scales and those of the other recent fishes.
CuHEVREUL’s analyses are as follows :*

Lepisosteus. Perea labrax. A Choetodon.

Phosphate of Lime, i ; 46.20 37.80 42
Carbonate of Lime, : : 10.60 3.06 3.68
Gelatinous Animal Matter, . s 41.10 55. 51.42
Phosphate of Magnesia 4 ‘5 2.2 .90 .90
Fatty Matter, 3 ; : 0.10 40 i
Carbonate of Soda, .- é f 0.10 .90 1.
100. 98.06 100

On comparing the proportion of the first three of the above
constituents with the corresponding ingredients in the fossil
scales, we shall see the analogy, and it is somewhat increased by
the circumstance, that the water was in combination with the si-
liceous matter, as I ascertained by igniting a portion of it after
drying it at 212° ; so that in reality both these constituents, form-
ing together a hydrated siliceous matter, have been substituted
by infiltration for the animal matter.

We may recall to remembrance, that the limestone matrix
contains about 22 per cent. of earthy matter, so that we can be
at no loss to account for the occurrence of the siliceous matter.

The following comparison, framed on this view, will show the

* Berzextus, Lehrb. iv. 628,
002

292 Mr ConneE u's Analysis of the

resemblance in composition between the recent and the fossil
scales.

Scales, Scales,
Lepisosteus. Megalichthys.
Phosphate of Lime, J ‘ ; ¢ 46.20 50.94
Carbonate of Lime, s 10. 11.91
Animal Matter replaced in the Meeatehth ye by Hyder
Siliceous Matter, : ‘ 41.10 36.58
Phosphate of Magnesia and Alkalies, andl quantities.
97.3 99.43

I am happy in being able thus to add something like chemi-
cal evidence in support of the alliance between the sauroid fish
of Burdiehouse and its supposed living type.

I have found also that the scales adhering to coal discovered
by Lord Greenock at Craighall, and of which his Lordship was
so kind as to give me some specimens for chemical examination,
leave, when acted on by acids, a siliceous skeleton, which doubtless
has been supplied by substitution for animal matter in the same
manner as in the other, although to a less extent. I have not
yet had time to complete an analysis of these scales, but shall
communicate the result to the Society when obtained. I hope
to be able to communicate at the same time some other analyses,
farther illustrative of the question how far the chemical nature
of fossil scales may be capable of throwing light on the character
of the animals from which they have been derived.

It is worthy of remark, that the manner in which the animal
matter of the scales of the Megalichthys has been replaced by
siliceous matter, is very conformable to that in which, according
to the views of Von Bucu, shells have in certain instances been
silicefied. According to that eminent geologist, it is only the ani-
mal matter between the calcareous layers of the shell which is
converted into siliceous matter, the calcareous layers being usually
thrown off altogether, although sometimes included within the
flinty substance, but never themselves silicefied.

In like manner in the scales, the phosphate and carbonate of

Organic Remains of Burdiehouse. 293

lime are unchanged in their nature, whilst the animal matter has
been converted into a hydrated siliceous substance. The miner-
alizing substance of the silicefied shells is often also a hydrated
silica or opal.*

As we possess one or two analyses of recent fish bones, we are
also enabled to institute a comparison between the result of these
analyses and that of the fossil bony rays. The following are the
constituents found by Dumentz in the bones of the pike, and by
Cuervrevt in those of the cod.+

Pike.

Phosphate of Lime, F ‘ : 55.26

Carbonate of Lime, : ; 3 6.16

Animal matter, : ‘ 4 ; 37.36

Traces of Soda, &c. and loss, ‘ 4 1.32

100.00

Cod.

Phosphate of Lime, é . ; 47.96

Carbonate of Lime, 4 : : 5.50

Animal Matter and Moisture, . . 438.94
Phosphate of Magnesia, : : 2.
Soda Salt, . ; : : ’ 6.
105.

The first circumstance that here strikes us, is, that the pro-
portion of phosphate of lime is almost identical in the recent
bones of the pike, and in those of the ancient Gyracanthus of
Burdiehouse ; and it is very remarkable, that if we suppose the
animal matter in the fresh bones of the Gyracanthus to be re-
placed partly by siliceous and partly by calcareous matter,—a
supposition sufficiently legitimate, because both these matters are
present in the matrix, and both are soluble in water under favour-

* In examining, however, the. insoluble siliceous matter of the scales by the blow-
pipe, it appears not to be a quite pure hydrated silica, but probably to contain a
small quantity of lime.

+ Berzeutius, Lehrb. iv. 448.

294 Mr Connetu’s Analysis of the

able cireumstances,—we shall obtain a substance almost identical
with the recent bones of the pike, and not differing much from
those of the cod. In this view, if we subtract from the caleare-
ous matter actually found in the fossil bones, a quantity equal to
that in the pike bones, and add the remainder to the siliceous
matter, we shall obtain the following comparison, shewing a sin-

gular resemblance.
Bones. Bony rays.

Pike. Gyracanthus.
Phosphate of Lime, : ; ; : 55.26 53.87
Carbonate of Lime, ‘ 6.16 6.16
Animal Matter replaced in the Gijfecantinty by sili- \ 37.36 37.92
ceous and calcareous matter,
Phosphate of Magnesia, and Alkalies, Ei quantities.
98.78 97.95

I am aware, that if we adopt these last views, we must hold
either, Ist, That the bony rays did not belong to a cartilaginous
fish, in which class I believe the Cestracion is ranked, for the
bones of cartilaginous fishes contain no bone earth; or, 2d, That
the fin spines of cartilaginous fishes have a different constitution
from the other bones, a point which I do not know has been yet
investigated.

Even when we view the composition of the coprolites im-
bedded in the limestone, in combination with that of the recent
fish-bones, we get something approaching to a coincidence. In
one of my analyses of these coprolites, the ratio of the phosphate
of lime to the carbonate of lime was about 8 : 1, and this does
not differ very much from that of those constituents in the re-
cent fish-bones, according to the analyses of Dumenii and Cury-
rEuL. In the other coprolite which I analyzed, there is, on this
view, an excess of about 5 per cent. of carbonate of lime, which,
of course, was derived from the matrix. The phosphate and
carbonate of lime form almost the entire mass of the coprolites
from the limestone, the only other constituent of consequence
being 2 or 3 per cent. of bituminous matter.

Organic Remains of Burdiehouse. 295

It would therefore seem that the coprolites of the limestone
actually contain less foreign matter, or are less altered from their
original nature in so far as regards solid contents, than the bones
or scales; and this fact admits, I think, of a ready explanation.
When a solid compact body, possessing a structure such as a bone
or scale, has been imbedded in any situation in which water, hold-
ing solid matter in solution, has access to it, we may expect that,
in the lapse of time, the perishable animal matter which it con-
tains will disappear, whilst the dissolved solid matter will be de-
posited, by infiltration, and occupy its place, the original solid
structure, more especially when aided by the solid organic earths,
forming a kind of frame-work, on which the deposition will take
place. This is just the process by which ordinary petrifying
springs convert organic objects into the substance held in solu-
tion. But fecal matter, being composed of the residue of di-
gested food, and being destitute of structure or solidity, will not
present such a frame-work. The perishable animal matter will
simply decay, whilst its place will not be occupied by a substitute ;
the solid animal earths will simply agglomerate into a compact
mass ; and. therefore we shall expect to find them,—what they
really appear to be as imbedded in the limestone of Burdie-
house,—masses of durable animal earths, having only a compara-
tively small admixture of foreign mineral matter.

Cases, indeed, sometimes occur of soft animal matter being
mineralized. Thus a silicefied oyster in the centre of the shell is
described by Von Bucu; and Lord Greenock informs me that
he possesses another similar fossil ; but such instances are admit-
ted by naturalists to be comparatively very rare.

Amongst all the fossil remains of Burdiehouse which have
been the subject of these remarks, the phosphate of lime is pre-
served as the standard of comparison ; and we have every reason
to believe that whatever changes may have occurred in the na-
ture or proportions of the other constituents, this one continues
firm and invariable. Well, therefore, might it be called by Dr

296 Analysis of the Organic Remains of Burdiehouse.

Buckuanp, the imperishable phosphate of lime. It has survived
the extinction of species and the wreck of formations, and now
aids us, at the distance of countless ages, in our attempts to con-
nect together the organized beings of periods separated from one
another by so vast an interval.

In concluding for the present, I have only a single word to
say as to the slight trace of perishable animal matter which per-
vades all these remains. As we know that they all contain bitu-
minous matter, and that many kinds of common coal yield am-
monia by distillation, I thought it possible that the alkaline reac-
tion of the limestone and of the various remains when heated,
might arise from the bituminous matter. But on making some
comparative trials between them and the coal used at the Glasgow
Gas-Works, which yields an ammoniacal liquid on distillation, I
found the alkaline reaction of the Burdiehouse remains was so
much more decided than that of the coal, that there can be no
doubt it arises from animal matter.* The strong ammoniacal re-
action of the limestone, when subjected to heat, surpassing that
even of the bones and scales, is remarkable, and shews how large
a quantity of decayed animal matter from the various organic re-
mains which have been entombed in it, has been diffused through
its mass. In this respect, as well as in the character and extra-
ordinary number of its fossil relics, both vegetable and animal,
the subject of the interesting discovery of Dr H1szerr is distin-
guished in a marked manner from the ordinary encrinal mountain
limestone of the vicinity, which contains only a comparatively
slight trace of animal matter.

* Indeed, in the way in which these experiments were made, which was by heat-
ing portions of the substances under examination in glass tubes, and observing the
effect on turmeric paper, it is difficult to notice a proper ammoniacal reaction from
the coal; whilst with the substances from Burdiehouse, particularly the limestone and
coprolites, the alkaline reaction is observed with great readiness. In all such experi-
ments it is easy to distinguish the permanent browning effect which the bituminous

vapour exerts on the paper at a high temperature, from the true ammoniacal dis-
coloration.

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( 297 )

On Water as a Constituent of Salts. 1. In the case of Sulphates.
By Tuomas Granam, F. B.S. Edin., V.-Pres. of the Phil. Soc.
of Glasgow, &c.

(Read 5th January 1835.)

Ir may be useful to distinguish some of the functions which
water is already admitted to discharge in the constitution of
hydrated salts.

Every amphigene ammoniacal salt contains an atom of wa-
ter, and cannot exist without it. The state of combination of
the water is peculiar, and has been represented by supposing
that the elements of ammonia unite with the hydrogen of the
water, and form a new compound radicle, to which the name
Ammonium is given, while the oxygen of the water unites with
this radicle, and produces oxide of ammonium. Hence nitrate
of ammonia, in which there exist the elements of one atom of
nitric acid, of ammonia, and of water, is viewed as anhydrous
nitrate of the oxide of ammonium, and corresponds with nitre
or the nitrate of the oxide of potassium. But it is not the ob-
ject of this paper to discuss particularly the state of water in the
ammoniacal salts.

We have it often in the crystals ‘of salts, united by a feeble
affinity, and known under the name of water of crystallization.
The number of atoms of water with which some salts unite, in
crystallizing from a state of solution, is affected by temperature,
and other slight causes. ‘This water is commonly viewed as a
constituent of salts which is not essential, owing to the facility
with which it may in general be expelled by heat, and also to

VOL. XIII. PART. I. Pp

298 Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts.

the circumstance that many salts usually hydrated, are likewise
capable of existing in a crystalline state without water.

In the hydrates of the caustic alkalies and of the earths,
water is retained by a strong affinity, and is generally supposed
to be united, like an acid, to the alkali or earth. In such hy-
drates, water discharges an acid function.

In the case of hydrates of the acids, the portion of water
which is found to be inseparable by heat, or to be very strongly
retained, has generally been presumed to be in the place of a base
to the acid, although little attention has been paid to the sub-
ject. The most highly concentrated sulphuric acid retains one
atom of water, and is supposed to be a sulphate of water. In
the case, too, of such a supersalt as bisulphate of potash or bitar-
trate of potash, the single atom of water which is known to be
persistently attached to the salt, has been viewed of late, by our
most enlightened chemical theorists, as essential to its constitu-
tion, and the possibility admitted that such salts may really be
double salts ; the bisulphate of potash, a sulphate of potash com-
bined with sulphate of water, and the bitartrate of potash, a
tartrate of potash combined with tartrate of water.

In a late publication, I have developed this view of water
acting as a base in the case of phosphoric acid. That acid is
capable of combining with water in three different proportions ;
and the number of atoms of water with which the acid combines
at any time, depends upon circumstances which are understood.
That the water is basic in these different hydrates, follows from
the fact, that, on treating them with an alkali, the water is con-
stantly replaced by a quantity of alkali chemically equivalent to
the water. By nitrate of silver, the same precipitate is thrown
down from any phosphate of soda and from the corresponding
phosphate of water ; the composition of the precipitate being de-
termined in both cases by the same double decomposition. The
peculiarity of phosphoric acid is, that it is capable of uniting
with water as a base, in several proportions, while all other acids

Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts. 299

combine with water as a base in one proportion only, so far as is
yet known. By these discoveries in regard to phosphoric acid
and its salts, the ordinary conceptions entertained of the consti-
tution of salts were completely deranged. The salts called bi-
phosphate of soda, phosphate of soda, and subphosphate of soda,
are all tribasic salts. ‘The common idea of a supersalt is inap-
plicable to any of them.

I have subsequently found water to exist in a different state
in certain salts, not possessed of a true basic function, being re-
placeable by a sa/t, and not by an alkaline base. To illustrate
this new function of water as a constituent of salts, is my princi-
pal object in the present communication.

The tendency of phosphate of soda to unite with an addi-
tional dose of soda, and form a subsalt, I had traced to the exist-
ence of basic water in the former. The inquiry suggested itself, is
there any analogous provision in the constitution of such salts as
have a tendency to combine with other salts, and to form double
salts? The salts which combine together most readily are the
sulphates, and to these I therefore turned. The result was, that
in that well-known class of sulphates, consisting of sulphates of
magnesia, zinc, iron, manganese, copper, nickel, and cobalt, all of
which crystallize with either five or seven atoms of water, one
atom proved to be much more strongly united to the salt than the
other four or six, which last generally may be expelled by a heat
under the boiling point of water, while the remaining atom uni-
formly requires a heat above 400° Fahrenheit for its expulsion,
and seems to be in a manner essential to the salt. The consti-
tution of crystallized sulphate of zinc, for instance, may be ex-
pressed thus :

ZnSH+H°

We here divide the seven atoms of water into one atom,
which is essential to the constitution of the salt as we know it,
and six atoms which are not so; and to this last quantity we
may restrict the application of the name “ water of crystalliza-

Pp2

300 Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts:

tion.” Now, in the double sulphate of zinc and potash, the single:
atom of water in question pertaining to the sulphate of zinc is
replaced by an atom of sulphate of potash, and the six atoms of
water of crystallization remain. Sulphate of magnesia combines
with sulphate of potash after the same manner, and so do all the
other salts of the class. The constitution of the crystallized
sulphate of zinc and potash, which may be taken as the type of
this family of double salts, is therefore represented by the fol-
lowing formula,
ZnS(KS)+H’;

which differs only from the previous formula in having the sign
of sulphate of potash (KS) substituted for the sign (H) of the
essential atom of water.

From a contemporaneous examination of the supersulphates,
the conclusion proved to be inevitable, that they also are double
salts ; that the bisulphate of potash, for instance, is a sulphate of
water and potash, and that its formula is as follows,

HS(KS),
with or without water of crystallization in addition. There is.
likewise a provision in the constitution of hydrated sulphuric
acid for the production of such a double salt, as in the case of
the sulphate of zinc. Hydrated sulphuric acid of specific gra-
vity 1.78 contains two atoms of water, and is capable of crystal-
lizing at a temperature so high as 40° Fahrenheit. It is the only
known crystallizable hydrate of sulphuric acid. It may be repre-
sented by the formula,
HSH,
ZnSH,
which may be compared with that of sulphate of zinc placed be-
low it. This second atom of water present in hydrated suphuric
acid, is replaceable by sulphate of potash, a salt; and the bisul-
phate of potash results from the substitution. But the first
atom of water in the acid hydrate can be replaced only by an

Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts. 301

alkali or true base. The function of the first atom is basic, but
a new term is required to distinguish the function of the second
atom of water, or of the essential atom of water in the sulphate
of zinc. The application of the epithet saline to that atom of
water, may, perhaps, be permitted, to indicate that it stands in
the place of a salt. The hydrate of sulphuric acid in question
contains, therefore, an atom of basic, and an atom of saline water.
It is “a sulphate of water with saline water,” as the hydrous
sulphate of zinc is “ a sulphate of zinc with saline water.” The
bisulphate of potash also is “ a sulphate of water with sulphate
of potash,” and corresponds with the sulphate of zinc and potash ;
which last is “ a sulphate of zinc with sulphate of potash.”

A reason could now be given why there exist no supersul-
phates (or indeed any supersalts) of magnesia, zinc, &c. A bi-
sulphate of magnesia would be a compound of sulphate of water
with sulphate of magnesia, on our view of supersulphates. Now
sulphate of magnesia, and sulphate of water, are bodies of analo-
gous constitution, or of the same category, and should have as
little disposition to combine together, as sulphate of zinc and
sulphate of magnesia have.

1. Sulphate of Water with Saline Water ; HSH. Sulphuric Acid
of sp. gr. 1.78.

It appears, then, that in an exposition of the relations of the
sulphates, we may set out from this body as our primary sulphate.
Of the two atoms of water which it contains, that atom which is
basic cannot be separated from the acid, unless by the agency of a
stronger base. The second, or saline atom of water, may be separ-
ated by heat, but not by any degree of heat, under 400° Fahren-
heit, and is re-absorbed with great avidity:

A diluted sulphuric acid’ may, I find, be- concentrated at a
temperature not exceeding 380°, without the loss of a particle of
acid ; and the quantity of water retained is reduced to two atoms

302 Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts.

most precisely. This in fact is an exact method of obtaining
the definite sulphate of water with saline water ; which may be
kept at 380° or 390°, without sustaining any farther loss. I have
observed a close approximation to the same proportion of water,
even in the case of a dilute acid concentrated at a temperature
not exceeding 300°. But at 400° or 410°, this hydrate begins
to be decomposed, and a portion of it is apt to distil over with
the water expelled. When, however, this hydrate is distilled in
vacuo, at the last-mentioned temperature, it loses nothing but
water for some time.

In one experiment, a small quantity of dilute sulphuric acid
was found to concentrate down to three atoms of water, at a tem-
perature not exceeding 212°, at which it was sustained in vacuo
for not less than forty hours. It consisted of 100 parts dry acid
united with 68.07 water, while three atomic proportions of water
are 67.32 parts.

The concentrated acid of commerce, which is a definite sul-
phate of water, without the saline atom, does not freeze at a
temperature so low as —36°, according to Dr Tuomson. To
sulphuric acid of sp. gr. 1.78, I added water in the proportion
of two, four, and six atoms ; but all these hydrates remained fluid,
when kept for a short time at 0° Fahrenheit. Anhydrous sul-
phate of magnesia or zinc never dissolves, as such, in water ; or
exhibits any determinate chemical character. It must always
combine with its saline atom of water in the first instance, or
with something equivalent, and it is the compound which. is
soluble, &c. So it is with the sulphate of water, or concentrated
sulphuric acid (HS). In chemical character it is an incomplete
body. There is a hiatus in its constitution, which must be filled
up. When it dissolves in any menstruum, we may be sure that
it has first acquired its second or saline atom of water, or some-
thing in its place. Hence a set of reactions of sulphuric acid,
which are peculiar to its concentrated condition, upon alcohol and
many organic bodies, But to this peculiar state of bodies I shall

1

Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts. 303

again have occasion to allude under sulphate of lime, a body which
illustrates it more strikingly than the sulphate of water.

Sulphate of Water with Sulphate of Patash : HS(KS). Bisulphate
of Potash.

Of all the sulphates, the acid sulphates or bisulphates of pot-
ash and soda deviate least from the primary sulphate of water.
We have, in the one case, merely sulphate of potash ; and, in the
other, sulphate of soda, substituted for the saline atom of water
of the sulphate of water. In none of the specimens of these salts
which I had occasion to examine, was there any water of crystal-
lization, and the evidence which is given of its occasional pre-
sence is of a very doubtful description. The crystals could be
heated to 300°, without impairing their transparency ; and they
fused at a temperature not under 600°, without the loss of any
thing, except a trace of water, which had been mechanically re-
tained. Upon heating a bisulphate nearly to redness, a portion
of sulphate of water is expelled. I greatly doubt whether water
ever comes off in such a case unaccompanied by sulphuric acid,
although Berzexius appears to be of a different opinion. It is
well known that the sulphate of water is not entirely expelled
from these salts by heat alone, even the most intense. Sulphate
of water, however, leaves the sulphate of soda with greater faci-
lity than it leaves the sulphate of potash.

These sulphates should be crystallized from concentrated. so-
lutions at a high temperature ; for their solutions are very apt to
undergo decomposition at low temperatures, the neutral sulphate
crystallizing, and leaving “ the sulphate of water with saline
water” in solution. I have often observed this decomposition to
occur, even in solutions containing a great excess of sulphuric
acid. At low temperatures, therefore, the affinity of sulphate of
water for “ saline water,” prevails over its affinity for sulphate of
potash. Crystals of bisulphate of soda, pounded and put under

304 Mr Granamon Water as a Constituent of Salts.

pressure in blotting paper, are apt to undergo the same decom-
position, if the air is damp, and frequently impart a large quan-
tity of their sulphate of water to the paper in the course of
twenty-four hours. This circumstance must be kept in view in
preparing bisulphates for analysis. The facility with which these
salts are decomposed by water, accords well with their relation
to sulphate of water with ‘saline water, which we have supposed
to exist. Sulphate of zinc, sulphate of magnesia, &c. are capable
of separating the sulphate of water from these salts, at a temper-
ature approaching ‘to redness, and take its place.

I have observed that the bisulphate of soda is more prone to
decomposition, when dissolved in water, than the bisulphate of
potash. The double salts of sulphate of soda with sulphate of
magnesia, &c., are also much less stable than the corresponding
double salts containing sulphate of potash. Indeed, I believe
that the former are uniformly decomposed when dissolved in
water.

Sulphate of Potash, Sulphate of Soda. KS,NS.

These salts differ from other sulphates in having no saline
water. Of the ten atoms water with which sulphate of soda
crystallizes, none is essential to its constitution. The whole
were lost, even at a temperature not exceeding 47° Fahrenheit,
when the crystals of the salt were exposed over sulphuric acid
in vacuo for five days. From the regular progress of the desic-
cation of the salt, which was observed by occasionally weighing
it, it was evident that no portion of the water was more strongly
retained than the rest. It is well known that sulphate of soda
crystallizes in an anhydrous condition from a hot solution.

Sulphate of Zinc with Saline Water : ZnSH-++H’. © Sulphate of
Zine.

‘In the sulphate of zinc, we have the basic atom of water con-
tained in sulphate of water displaced by oxide of zine, while the

‘Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salis. 305

saline atom remains ; and to this compound six atoms of water
are attached in the common crystals. These crystals, placed
over sulphuric acid in vacuo, thermometer 68°, were found to lose
six atoms water, retaining only one. Exposed to the air at 212°,
the crystals likewise ‘readily effloresced down to one atom ; and
the sulphate of zinc is known to be deposited from’a boiling so-
lution, in crystalline grains, containing one atom of water. On
the other hand, the sulphate of zinc was found to retain this
single atom of water at the high temperature of 410° Fahrenheit,
but to lose it, and become anhydrous, at a temperature not ex-
ceeding 460°. In all such cases, the hydrated salt was heated
in a tube receiver, by means of an oil or solder-bath, of which the
temperature was observed by a thermometer. However strongly
it has been heated, without being decomposed, the sulphate of
zinc always regains this atom of water when moistened, slaking
with the evolution of heat. Common sulphate of zinc is there-
fore “ sulphate of zinc with saline water ;” and the true or ab-
solute sulphate of zinc is unknown to us in the crystalline form,
or in a soluble'state. But we may continue to designate the salt
we possess as sulphate of zinc, as the name is attended with no
dubiety.

Sulphate of Zine with Sulphate of Potash: Zn8(KS)+H". Sul-
phate of Zine and Potash.

_ In this well-known double salt, we have sulphate of potash
substituted for the saline water of sulphate of zinc, and the six
atoms of water of crystallization remain. It is readily formed,
on mixing together solutions of sulphate of zinc and sulphate of
potash, in atomic proportions. It is formed likewise, and sepa-
rates by crystallization, when the sulphate of zinc is added to the
bisulphate of potash ; and, in that case, an interesting double de-
composition occurs.

VOL. XIII. PART T. aq

306 Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts.

Sulphate of water with sulphate
of potash,

Sulphate of zinc with saline water, Sulphate of zinc with sulphate of potash.
yield | Sulphate of water with saline water.

In the sulphate of zine and potash, the whole six atoms of
water are retained with considerably greater force than in the
sulphate of zinc itself; but even the double salt becomes anhy-
drous at 250°, and, indeed, the water retained falls below a single
atomic proportion, when the salt is dried in vacuo over sulphuric
acid, at a temperature not exceeding 78° Fahrenheit. The sul-
phate of potash in the double salt has not the effect of neutral-
izing the acid reaction of sulphate of zinc, according to my ob-
servations ; nor has it that effect in the case of any other double
salt.

I subjoin a table of observations, made on the quantity of
water retained by this double salt, in different circumstances.
In the first two columns, the composition of the quantities ac-
tually examined is stated in grains.

Anhydrous! Water. |Anbydrous| Water.

Dried in vacuo over eulphus acid

for ten days, temp. from 68° wo 17.2 0.68 100 3.95

18°, § : ; , :
Nine hours, at 238°, P - 19.03 1.33 100 6.99
Two hours at 250°, and one hour

oe imndiane aie i 7.79 | 0. 100 | 0.
Four hours, at 250°, = Sa 6.55 0. 100 0.
Composition of sulphate of zinc and

potash with one atom water (by 100 5.37

theory), : :

Sulphate of Zine with Sulphate of Soda : ZnS( NS)-+H*. Sulphate
of Zinc and Soda.

This salt, I believe, has not hitherto been described. I fail-
ed in attempting to form it, by dissolving together sulphate of

Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts. 307

zinc and sulphate of soda in atomic proportions: the salts uni-
formly crystallized apart, either in cold or in warm weather.
Each of the salts was also added in excess to the other, but with
no better effect. It appears, then, that sulphate of soda does not
displace the saline water of sulphate of zinc, so easily as sulphate
of potash does. But the desired salt was obtained by a process
of double decomposition, suggested from consideration of the re-
lations of the sulphates. Solutions of bisulphate of soda, and of
sulphate of zine, were mixed together in atomic proportions, from
which the sulphate of zinc and soda separated in a gradual man-
ner in the course of a day or two, leaving sulphuric acid in solu-
tion.

Sulphate of zinc with saline water, Sulphate of zinc with sulphate of soda.
Sulphate of water with sulphate ot yield. jovi of water with saline water.

soda,

This salt is deposited in distinct tabular crystals, of a pecu-
liar form, which are often associated in tufts; and is best obtain-
ed by evaporating the mixed solutions over sulphuric acid with-
out heat. It cannot be redissolved in pure water, without un-
dergoing decomposition, which accounts for the impossibility of
forming it by the direct process. The crystals contain four atoms
of water, and are about as deliquescent as nitrate of soda, in a
damp atmosphere. The anhydrous salt undergoes fusion, like all
the other double sulphates, at an incipient red heat, without the
evolution of acid fumes. The fused salt solidifies, on cooling,
into a white arid opaque mass.

Sulphate of Copper with Saline Water : CuSH+H‘. Sulphate of
Copper. ;

The common blue rhomboidal crystals of sulphate of cop-
per contain five atoms of water, four of which are readily ex-
pelled, by drying the salt in air at 212°; by which treatment
the salt loses its blue colour, and becomes white, with a dirty

308 Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts.

shade of green. The sulphate of copper with one atom of water
was also obtained in a crystallized state by Dr Tuomson,and
called by him green sulphate of copper. Dried over sulphuric
acid in vacuo for seven days, when it had ceased to lose, at a
temperature between 65° and 74°, the common hydrated salt re-
tained 21.67 parts water to 100 anhydrous salt, which is some-
what under two atomic proportions of water, namely 22.57 parts.
At a temperature between 430° and 470°, the sulphate of cop-
per loses its fifth, or saline, atom of water, and is found in the
state of a powder, which is white without any shade of colour.
When a few drops of water are thrown upon anhydrous sul-
phate of copper, it slakes and becomes blue, and so much heat is
evolved as to occasion the ebullition of the water. In one case
the temperature was observed to rise to 276°. This arises from
the resumption of saline water by the salt.

Sulphate of Copper with Sulphate of Potash : CuS(KS)-++H’.
Sulphate of Copper and Potash.

This salt may be formed by mixing sulphate of copper with
either sulphate or bisulphate of potash, in atomic proportions.
Dried in the open air, it loses six atoms water, and becomes quite
anhydrous at a temperature not exceeding 270° Fr. The fol-
lowing Table of the composition of this hydrated salt in diffe-
rent circumstances, illustrates three facts,—that the salt has a
disposition to retain two atoms of water when dried at 212° in
open air,—that a greater portion of water of crystallization is
withdrawn from the salt by drying it over sulphuric acid in va-
cuo, without artificial heat, than by drying it at 212° under the
atmospheric pressure, and that the mechanical water retained by
the crystals of this salt may exceed 3 per cent. of their weight.

Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts. 309

Anhydrous
Salt. Water.

Anhydrous
Salt. Water.

19.6 2.21
22:06 | 2.37

Dried on water-bath at 212°, for three days, \
or till it ceased to lose weight, ‘oem |
Dried on nitre-bath at 238°, for three days,

Dried in. vacuo over sulphuric acid for seven
days, or till it ceased to lose weight ;
therm. from 65° to'74, . . ..- -

Crystals pounded, and slightly dried at vic

1.61

22.97

so as not to injure the lustre of an entire 13.94 | 3.4
crystal, . 2 aE oe pata =: Eis rs

Same crystals.not deprived of mechanical wa-
ter by the above treatment, .

Composition of sulphate of copper and potash 10.77
with two atoms of water (by theory), . f} “"" ‘a a

Composition of do. with six atoms of, water i
(by theory), tee \ bode a 32.33

I have confirmed the observation of BerzEexius, that a con-
centrated solution of this salt, when boiled, deposits an insolu-
ble subsalt, containing sulphate of potash, but which is decom-
posed by washing, and cannot be had in a proper state for ana-
lysis. But the crystals of the double salt are quite soluble after
being heated to 212°, so that they do not undergo the same
change as their solution does at that temperature.

This double salt retains its blue colour after being fused at a
red heat and cooled, and does not become white like the sulphate
of copper. Indeed it appears, that, to be coloured, the salts of
the oxide of copper require the addition of some other constitu-
ent, such as saline water, sulphate of potash, or ammonia. Hence,
if the absolute sulphate of copper could be obtained in a crystal-
lized state, it would be a colourless salt.

Sulphate of Copper with Sulphate of Soda : CuS(NS)+H*. Sui-
phate of Copper and Soda.

Like the other double salts of sulphate of soda, this salt can-
not be formed directly, being decomposed by water. Even when.

310 Mr Grauam on Water as a Constituent of Salts.

it is attempted to form it by double decomposition from the bi-
sulphate of soda, in general a large quantity of sulphate of soda
and of sulphate of copper are separately deposited before the
double salt appears. It is then deposited in a crust, consisting
of small but distinct crystals, which are slightly deliquescent, and
appear to contain two proportions of water. This salt is easily
made anhydrous, and thereafter fuses at an incipient red heat
without loss of acid, and remains of a blue colour when cool.
The fused salt does not split into thin scales in the progress of
cooling, as the corresponding sulphate of copper and potash does.

Sulphate of Manganese with Saline Water : MnSH+H*. Sul-
phate of Manganese.

The water in this salt was found to be reduced from five ato-
mic proportions to little more than one, by drying the crystals
in open air at 238°, while one entire atomic proportion was re-
tained at 410°. Flesh-coloured crystals, dried in vacuo in warm
summer weather, without artificial heat, lost somewhat more
than three proportions of water.

Anhydrous Anhydrous
Salt. Sie

Flesh-coloured crystals of salt, . . . . . 28.42 60.06
Do. dried at 238°, . . Behe o408 21.53 13.05

A portion of last, afterwards dried for one
hour between 380° and 410°, . . . 9.54 11.74

A portion of same, dried for one hour between
415° and 468°, [Sa L1G espe 10.90 | 0. 5.14

sulphuric acid, thermometer 64° to 72°,

Crystals dried for nine days in vacuo cet!
but had lost nothing the last two days,

Composition of sulphate of manganese with
one atom of water (by theory), oe Fi ahae

Composition of do. with five atoms of water, | .:.... oes 59.4

A crystalline crust of sulphate of manganese, deposited from

Mr Grauam on Water as a Constituent of Salts. 311

a warm solution, was found to contain three atoms of water. It
is likewise known to be deposited from a boiling solution with
only one atom of water, namely, the saline atom. We have,
therefore, sulphates of this class with no water of crystallization,
and with two, four, and six atoms.

The sulphate of manganese and potash did not crystallise on
mixing the solutions of its constituents. The sulphate of man-
ganese and soda was obtained in analogous circumstances with
the sulphate of copper and soda, but was not examined.

Sulphate of Iron with Saline Water : FeSH+H’. Sulphate of
Iron.

Of the seven atomic proportions of water which the crystals
contain, 5.48 proportions were lost in vacuo over sulphuric acid ;
and six proportions at 238°, and probably at lower temperatures.
The saline atom of water is retained by this salt at so high a
temperature as 535°. But the salt can be made perfectly anhy-
drous, with proper caution, without appreciable loss of acid.

wee of Iron with Sulphate of Potash: FeS(KS)+H’. Sul-
phate of Iron and Potash.

A specimen of this salt was made anhydrous by a sandbath
heat, which was found not to affect the saline atom of water of
the preceding compound.

Sulphate of nickel was found to correspond closely with sul-
phate of iron in the temperatures at which it lost its water of
crystallization, and also its saline water. And in the case of both
of the compounds of these salts with sulphate of potash, a consi-
derably higher temperature was required to render them perfect-
ly anhydrous, than in the case of the corresponding double salt
of zinc..

312 Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts.

Sulphate of Magnesia with Saline Water : MgSH-+H‘’. Sulphate
of Magnesia.

One atom of water is retained by sulphate of magnesia at
460°, but the other six are not entirely expelled under 270° in
open air. Indeed this sulphate is remarkable for a disposition
to retain two atoms of water, in which respect it resembles the
sulphate of lime. Dried at 212° in open air, the crystals of sul-
phate of magnesia were found in several experiments to retain
somewhat more than two atomic proportions of water. When
dried at the same temperature in vacuo over sulphuric acid, the
water was reduced to two proportions. Crystals placed over sul-
phuric acid in vacuo, without heat, were found to retain only
two and a quarter atomic proportions of water.

Anhydrous Anhydrous] ¥
Salt. Water. Salt. Water.

Crystallized salt, dried in vacuo at 70° for six} jo 34
days, or till it ceased to lose, ; ,

Do. in vacuo at 212, . .. . cnet Seales : 28.62

Do. heated between 410° and 460° for one \ 49
hour, being previously dried at 238°, :

Relative composition of the anhydrous salt
with one atom of water (by theory),

The sulphate of magnesia and ammonia lost its six atoms of
water of crystallization and became anhydrous, when exposed to
a temperature not exceeding 270°, for one hour, having pre-
viously been dried at 212°. It retained of course the atom of
water which is essential to the ammoniacal salts. A somewhat
higher temperature was required to deprive the sulphate of mag-
nesia and potash of its whole water of crystallization.

Hydrated Sulphate of Lime: CaSH+H.
The only crystalline hydrate of sulphate of lime, which is

Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts. 3138

known, contains two atoms of water. It occurs native in gyp-
sum and selenite. Pounded selenite loses little or nothing in
the open air at 212°. Water begins to escape at a temperature
not much higher, but is not completely expelled by any degree
of heat under 270°. That hydrated sulphate of lime may contain
an atom of saline water, is indicated by the existence of a double
salt of sulphate of lime with sulphate of soda, constituting the
mineral Glauberite. I succeeded in obtaining a definite com-
pound of sulphate of lime with one atom of water, by drying
pounded selenite, at 212°, in vacuo over sulphuric acid.* The
salt which had been so dried at 212° did not form a coherent
mass, like stucco, when made into a paste with water. The
affinity of sulphate of lime for the saline atom of water appears
to be feeble, as the salt can be made quite anhydrous under 300° ;
and consequently the sulphate of lime has much less disposition
to form double salts than the sulphates of magnesia, zine, &c.

Anhydrous
Salt.

Selenite, dried for ten days in open \

air at 212, . . . 17.07 4.27

Do. dried in vacuo at 212, . . 17.61 3.04

Sulphate of lime with one atom of
water (by theory),

Do. with two atoms of water (by
theory),. 2... 1...

In drying gypsum, to make plaster of Paris, a third or a fourth
of the water of the salt is allowed to remain, by which it sets more
strongly. But the salt may be made quite anhydrous, I find, and
yet retain the power of recombining with two atoms of water, if
dried at a temperature not exceeding 270° F. ; although the hy-

SS DS) Bene OS

* It has subsequently been observed, that the water is reduced under one atomic
proportion, by a protracted exposure to the same temperature.
VOL. XIII. PART I. Rr

314 Mr Granam on Water as a Constituent of Salts.

drate which results on slaking in the last case is rather pulveru-
lent. When gypsum has been dried at a higher temperature, as
at 300° or 400° F., it refuses entirely to combine with water, and
is technically called burnt stucco. The anhydrous sulphate of
lime which occurs in nature exhibits the same indifference to
water. In Anhydrite we have, I believe, the true or absolute
sulphate of lime in a crystallized state. The body which results
from exposing hydrated sulphate of lime to 270°, although com-
posed of nothing but sulphuric acid and lime, should be viewed
as the debris of the hydrated sulphate of lime, and not confound-
ed with the absolute sulphate of lime, which last has no disposi-
tion to combine with water. The first, which we may call “ an-
hydrous gypsum,” is an imperfect body. We know sulphate of
lime in four states, which may be expressed symbolically as fol-
lows :

Gypsum, : : - P ‘ CaSH+H

Gypsum dried at 212°, . : ‘ CaSH

Anhydrous gypsum (dried at 270°), CaS—

Anhydrite, : é ; i CaS
Here we distinguish the imperfect body, anhydrous gypsum, from
anhydrite, by placing the minus sign after the former. In the
same manner, concentrated sulphuric acid, or oil of vitriol, may
be represented by HS— ; anhydrous sulphate of magnesia, sul-
phate of zine, &c. by MgS—, ZnS—, &c.; the absolute sulphates
of water, magnesia, zinc, &c., HS, Mg, ZnS, &c., being unknown
to us.

The view which is given in this paper of the constitution of

the sulphates, must not be hastily generalized and applied to
other classes of salts. From investigations not yet completed, I

am satisfied that each class of salts has its peculiarities, which
must be studied before the law of the class can be laid down.

a on

On the Action of Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, Ether, and Aqueous
Solutions. By Arraur ConneE 1, Esq., F. R.S. E.

(Read 27th April 1835.)

I was led into the following train of investigation from ob-
serving, that, when minute quantities of certain substances were
dissolved in alcohol, and the liquid was acted on by a moderate
voltaic power, evident signs of decomposition were exhibited by
the evolution of elastic fluid at the negative pole. In investi-
gating the nature of the changes produced, I was farther led to
examine the action of voltaic electricity on a variety of alcoholic
solutions, and also the agency of more powerful galvanic batteries
on pure alcohol and on ether; and, ultimately, I was conducted
into a field, into which I should have hesitated voluntarily to en-
ter, namely, the voltaic decomposition of aqueous solutions,
which has recently been investigated with so much success by
a distinguished cultivator of science. In the following paper,
it will be my object to give some account of the experiments
which I have made on these different subjects, and of the results
and views to which I have been led. I shall begin with the vol-
taic action on alcohol and ether, and as I hope to be able to draw
some conclusions bearing on the various theories which have been
formed as to the intimate nature of these fluids, it will be neces-
sary that the experiments made on them shall be detailed with
considerable minuteness, as it is only by a very careful considera-
tion of the experimental results, that the validity of the conclu-
sions can be judged of.

I. Voltaic Action on Aicohol.

I found, then, that when alcohol (sp. gr. .830), having about
stv part of pure caustic potash dissolved in it, was acted on by
VOL. XIII. PART II. SS

316 Mr Conneu on the Action of

the voltaic pile, the poles employed being of platinum foil, and
approached to one another in an open vessel, gas was evolved
from the negative pole, whilst none whatever appeared from the
positive foil. A moderate voltaic power, such as a small battery
of fifty pairs of two-inch plates, was amply sufficient to produce
this effect. This experiment immediately recalled to my recol-
lection a statement made a year or two ago by Dr Rircurs,* that
when alcohol, not holding any substance in solution, was acted
on by a powerful galvanic battery, gas was evolved from the ne-
gative pole, whilst none appeared from the positive, and that the
gas thus evolved was olefiant gas ; on which idea Dr Rircute con-
cluded that the alcohol had been resolved into olefiant gas and
water. As there was apparently a considerable analogy between
the two observations, I was naturally led to conjecture that the
gas evolved at the negative pole in my experiment, was olefiant
gas ; but an examination of it soon satisfied me that this was not
the case. The gas was collected simply by bringing the negative
foil under a tube filled with alcohol, holding about 53, part of
potash in solution, and inverted in an evaporating basin con-
taining the same liquid ; the power employed being sometimes
fifty pairs of two-inch plates, and in other instances, seventy pairs
of four-inch plates. No gas was evolved from the positive pole.
A small portion of the gas collected from the negative pole was
mixed with three times its bulk of chlorine, and the mixture left
in a dark room over water. In the course of a few hours, an ab-
sorption had taken place to the amount of the chlorine employ-
‘ed, without the least appearance of the formation of oily matter :
and no farther absorption occurred in twenty-four hours. The
residual gas was inflammable. In short, the chlorine had left the
original gas unchanged, which was therefore not olefiant gas. I
then proceeded to examine it in the usual way in the voltaic
eudiometer, and, after repeated and careful trials, fully satisfied

* Phil. Trans. 1882.

PLATE XII.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 1. Pr

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 317

myself that it consisted of somewhat variable proportions of hy-
drogen and of atmospheric air, or rather of the constituents of
atmospheric air in relative quantities, also somewhat variable.
The conclusion which I drew from this result was, that the gas
evolved from the negative pole under the proper galvanic influ-
ence, was pure hydrogen, and that the oxygen and azote had been
simply held in solution by the alcohol, and had been liberated
along with the hydrogen in the manner which is known to occur
when a gas is passed through a liquid holding another elastic
fluid in solution.

Accordingly, I found that when the experiment was made
without the contact of atmospheric air in a close tube, as Fig. 1,
the proportion of atmospheric air mixed with the hydrogen was
much diminished ; and by acting on only a dram and a-half of
fluid inclosed in a small tube, Fig. 2, and exposing the liquid,
before commencing the galvanic action, to the vacuum of an air-
pump, to separate the common air, I obtained a gas which, when
mixed with half its bulk of oxygen, and fired by the electric spark,
left no sensible residue after the explosion, and was therefore
pure hydrogen. By placing the foils side by side in the manner
done in this latter experiment, the quantity of gas liberated is
considerably increased.

Precisely the same result was obtained by employing alcohol
of sp. gr. .7928, at 66°F., as had been got with alcohol of sp.
gr. 830. A dram and a-half of alcohol, sp. gr. .7928, having in
solution from 74, to 71, of potash, yielded, when acted on in the
tube, Fig. 2, by seventy pairs of four-inch plates, the poles being
of platinum foil, and placed side by side at a short distance, a
cubic inch of gas from the negative pole in less than a quarter of
an hour, and 2} cubic inches in 2+ hours from the commence-
ment. The action was so intense, that the liquid boiled in a
short time, although the lower part of the tube was kept plunged
in cold water. The liquid also acquired a reddish colour soon

ss2

318 Mr Connex on the Action of

after the commencement of the action and some white matter
collected by degrees at the bottom of the tube, which proved to
be carbonate of potash. The gas was found to be pure hydrogen.
The reddening of the solution was due to the formation of some
resinous matter, which is obtained when the liquid is afterwards
mixed with a little water, and concentrated by evaporation.
Several circumstances tended to shew, at an early period of
these researches, that the true nature of this action consisted in
the decomposition of water contained in the alcohol, apparently
as a constituent where absolute alcohol was acted on ; the hydro-
gen being evolved at the negative pole, and the oxygen not ap-
pearing, from being employed in producing certain secondary
effects. I found that there were several ways in which gas might
be made to appear at the positive pole also. If alcohol consi-
derably diluted, as with an equal bulk of water, or a little more,
was acted on, a very feeble evolution of gas was observed from
the positive pole, but quite insignificant compared to that from
the negative. If the alcohol was stronger, as .835 or .840, and
the proportion of potash was a little increased, as for instance if
about ;+, potash was dissolved, then a slight effervescence ensued
from the positive pole ; and there was in general a greater ten-
dency to an evolution of gas, when platinum wires were used as
poles, than when foils were employed. A singular influence on the
result was also observed to be produced by the nature of the
vessel employed for containing the solution. Thus, if alcohol,
sp. gr. .830, with ;4, of potash dissolved, was acted on in a ves-
sel of glass or porcelain by platinum foil poles, it shewed, as
usual, the effervescence at the negative pole, and none from the
positive ; but if the experiment was performed in a vessel of pla-
tinum, a feeble stream of bubbles was seen to rise from the posi-
tive pole also, but trifling compared to the negative gas. The
same effect was produced by such other metallic vessels as I
tried, which were those of silver, lead, iron, and copper. A simi-

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, Sc. 319

Jar appearance was observed in certain other equally singular cir-

cumstances. If, after the action had been going on for a few
minutes in a glass or porcelain vessel, the poles being of platinum
foil, the action was stopped by removing one of the wires from the
battery, and when gas had ceased to come, the poles were rever-
sed, the foil which before had been negative being made positive,
and the former positive made negative, then a few bubbles arose
for a minute or two from the positive foil, with the usual effer-
vescence from the negative ; and this might be repeated, after a
sufficient interval, as often as was thought proper. The only ex-
planation I can offer of these curious appearances is, that the
negative foil, when suddenly made positive, still retains for a
short time some portion of its former negative character, and
therefore exerts a kind of repulsive action on the electro-negative
substance the oxygen, at the very time when the electric current
is determining its passage to the positive side of the pile. The
action of the metallic vessels seems more difficult to explain, the
property being possessed as well by electro-positive metals as by
those of an electro-negative character ; but probably depends on
some peculiar electric influence exercised on the constituents of
the alcohol, by which they are rendered less disposed to combine
with the nascent oxygen.

These different modifications of the phenomena do not, how-
ever, I conceive, affect the constant nature of the action. The
evolution of hydrogen from the negative pole is invariable, and
the determination of oxygen to the positive pole I apprehend to
be equally so, the only variation being in the circumstance of its
being visible or not.

Before, however, attempting to develope this view farther, I
wish to state the electric action on alcohol, holding small quan-
tities of other bodies than potash in solution, and on pure alcohol.

I found that similar quantities of several other substances,
soluble in alcohol, produced analogous effects to potash. Thus,
when small quantities of chloride of calcium, of nitrate of lime,

320 - Mr Connewt on the Action of

of iodide of potassium, of boracic acid, of arsenic acid, and of
some other bodies, were dissolved in alcohol, hydrogen was evol-
ved, as in the case of potash, from the negative pole, whilst none
appeared at the positive pole ; but in these cases the action was
not so great as with potash. Thus, from 14 dram alcohol, con-
taining about ;4, of recently ignited chloride of calcium, and
acted on in the tube Fig. 2 by seventy pairs of four-inch plates,
about one-third of a cubic inch of gas was obtained in half an
hour. The negative foil then became coated with lime, and the
action was almost entirely stopped ; but it was again renewed on
removing the coating from the foil, and one-sixth of a cubic inch
more gas was got in from two to three hours. I shall afterwards
notice more particularly the nature of the changes produced on
the substances held in solution, when they appear to be decom-
posed.

Alcohol holding a little iodine in solution shewed no effer-
vescence from either pole, when acted on by fifty pairs of two-
inch plates, a power amply sufficient to shew the action with the
other substances.

My next object was to endeavour to obtain a voltaic action on
alcohol not holding any foreign body dissolved. The strongest
galvanic power which I had at my command consisted of 216 pairs
of four-inch plates ;* and this power I found sufficient for my pur-
pose. The alcohol acted on was placed in the tube Fig. 2, of
the capacity of 1} dram. The platinum foil poles were about
one inch long by one-fifth broad, and were soldered with gold to
platinum wires, of about ;', inch diameter, which passed through
the cork. The bent tube served for collecting the gas. The

* All the galvanic batteries employed in the experiments detailed in this paper
were fixed in mahogany troughs in the usual way. The charge employed was two
measures of sulphuric acid, one measure of nitric acid, and about 100 measures of

water.

Ee ——

— a

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 321

alcohol acted on had the specific gravity of .7928 at 66° F.* To
produce a proper action, it was generally necessary to bring the
foils within one-twentieth or one-thirtieth of an inch of one ano-
ther, although sometimes the effect took place at the distance of
one-tenth. An evolution of gas was observed to begin some-
times almost immediately, and in other instances after the lapse
of a minute or two, the difference in this respect, as well as in
the requisite proximity of the foils, depending on the state of
action of the battery, and the perfection of the various metallic
connexions.

When action was obtained with the foils, at the distance of
one-tenth of an inch, it was easy to observe that the gas came
from the negative pole, none being liberated from the positive
pole. The action was so intense, that the liquid soon began to
boil, and this increase of temperature materially contributes to
the decomposition which ensues. The gas was collected some-
times over water, and sometimes over mercury, the volatilized
alcohol passing over at the same time, and condensing. The
quantity of permanent gas liberated was small, from .2 to .3. of
a cubic inch being collected in about an hour ; and there was a
limit to the quantity collected, arising from the boiling of the
alcohol, which left the foils partly uncovered, as well as from the
diminished action of the battery.

* I obtained the alcohol of this specific gravity by Mr Grauaw’s process of
exposing: alcohol .830 to the vacuum of an air-pump with quicklime, the exposure
being continued for some weeks, and the lime, which was common building quick-
lime, being renewed during the process. I could not get it of lower specific gravity.
The specific gravity of .7928 at 66° F. appears, by Mrtssnxr’s table, to correspond
with .795 at 60° F., and with .792 at 68° F., or 20° C. In this country, absolute
alcohol is usually reckoned to have a specific gravity of .796 at 60° F.; and on the
Continent it is held to be of .791 at 20° C. Metssnrr, while he gives this latter as
the specific gravity of absolute alcohol, states that the alcohol from grain, which is
that used in this country, cannot be carried below .792 or .793.—Gmelin’s Handbuch,
ii. 276. The difference is in all probability due to the presence of a little of the
yolatile oil which grain and potato spirit contain.

322 Mr ConneE.u on the Action of

The gas thus collected from the negative pole was examined
both by chlorine and in the voltaic eudiometer, and was found,
on repeated trials, to be hydrogen. There was usually mixed
with it about one-ninth of common air or its constituents, derived,
as in the former instance, from the liquid, and partly also, perhaps,
from the water over which it was collected, when water was used
for that purpose.

The alcohol acted on acquired a peculiar etherial odour ;
but I could not find that any farther change was produced on it
than the admixture of a minute quantity of a yellow resinous
matter, which was observed by mixing it with a little water, and
evaporating nearly to dryness.

Although a battery of considerable energy is required, when
it is intended to collect the gas evolved from pure alcohol, still it
is possible to observe the action with smaller powers. Thus when
alcohol .7928 was acted on by seventy-two pairs of four-inch plates
in the tube Fig. 2, with foils parallel to one another, and from
one-twentieth to one-thirtieth of an inch apart, gas was observed
to arise in the course of one or two minutes ; but the quantity was
much less than with the greater power, and the liquid got only mo-
derately warm and never boiled. Even with fifty pairs of two-inch
plates, and the foils at the above distance, a minute stream of
bubbles could be sometimes observed with a lens after action for
a minute or two. With the foils one-tenth of an inch apart, al-
cohol of .830 shewed no action in the cold with this power, but
when heated nearly to boiling and then acted on, a slight effer-
vescence could be observed from the negative pole.

It is essential, however, that the foils be placed parallel to
one another, as described in these experiments. If they were
simply approached to one another horizontally, in an open ves-
sel, I did not observe any action on pure alcohol even with the
power of 216 pairs.

It is now time to recur to the nature of the changes which I

conceive to take place during this agency; and I am the more
2

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 323

anxious to endeavour to establish fully the view which I have
taken of the nature of the action, from the obvious bearing which
it has on the intimate constitution of alcohol. The essential
change appears, as already stated, to consist in the decomposition,
by the direct agency of the voltaic current, of water contained in
the alcohol, and apparently entering into its constitution where
absolute alcohol is acted on, the hydrogen being liberated at the
negative pole, and the oxygen being employed in producing cer-
tain secondary changes in the liquid, and, therefore, not appear-
ing at its proper place. In order to pave the way for under-
standing this view, it is necessary to recall to recollection the
strong affinity which alcohol or its constituents have for oxygen,
and the variety of circumstances under which we know that an
oxidation of alcohol ensues, as well as the variation on the nature
of the products, according to the energy of the oxidating circum-
stances. The most familiar example is in the acetous fermenta-
tion, whether it takes place under the ordinary circumstances, or
be accelerated by platinum powder, in DosERerner’s process,
the effect being truly an absorption of oxygen, and consequent
formation of water and acetic acid, by oxidation of the constitu-
ents of alcohol. Another example is afforded by the action of
nascent oxygen proceeding from oxide of manganese and sulphuric
acid, the oxidation being in that case of a more powerful descrip-
tion and a more highly oxygenated acid, the formic being pro-
duced at the same time with the acetic. A third instance I had
occasion to point out a year or two ago,* in which the disposing
affinity of potash was sufficient to lead to the absorption of oxy-
gen, from the atmosphere, by alcoholic solutions of potash, and
to an oxidation sufficiently energetic to occasion the formation
of formic as well as of acetic acid, and some resinous matter. By
the agency of glowing platinum also, with access of air, ether and

* New Edinb. Philos. Jour. April 1833, vol. xxviii. p. 281.
VOL. XIII. PART II. Tt

324 Mr Conneuu on the Action of

alcohol are oxidated, and a liquid results which has been called
the lampic acid, and which, in addition to acetic acid, contains,
as I also had occasion to show, formic acid, to which its reducing
properties are owing.*

Now, in the action of voltaic electricity on absolute alcohol,
holding zz part of potash in solution, I have stated that hydro-
gen was evolved at the negative pole, and that a yellow resinous
matter resulted, and a precipitation of carbonate of potash
ensued.t These changes appear to be of the same character as
those which result from the spontaneous absorption of oxygen
by a strong solution of potash in alcohol, the differences being,
that in the latter case the oxygen is derived from an external
source, and the products of the oxidation are, besides the resinous
matter, acetic and formic acids; while, in the former instance,
the oxygen comes from the liquid itself, by the decomposition of
water under the electric agency, and the products of the oxida-
tion are the resinous matter, carbonic acid, and probably water.
The latter, in short, is a still more energetic oxidation than the
former, for carbonic acid is a more highly oxidated body than
either acetic or formic acids, and if alcohol or ether were oxidat-
ed to the utmost possible pitch, the products would be carbonic
acid and water. The oxidating power here is not only the dis-
posing affinity of the potash, but the presence of nascent oxygen
arising from decomposing water, and the operation of these causes
is greatly promoted by the great elevation of temperature attend-
ing the action.

Accordingly, I have not been able to ascertain that carbonic
acid is a product in the other cases of electric agency which I
have mentioned, where so powerful a disposing affinity is not in
action as when potash is present. I examined the gas liberated

* New Edinb. Philos. Jour. April 1833, vol. xxviii. p. 231.

+ Such a weak solution suffers no spontaneous change in the same time, even
with contact of air.

LS eC OU ee

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 325

from pure alcohol, under powerful galvanic agency, and collected
over mercury, without discovering any carbonic acid in it. The
only secondary product I observed in that instance was a minute
quantity of resinous matter.

Nor is it always easy to observe the formation of carbonic
acid, even where potash is present, when the galvanic action is
less energetic, from not placing the foils side by side, or from
using a smaller power. Thus, where alcohol .802, with 7}, of po-
tash, was acted on by thirty-six pair of four-inch plates in the
tube, Fig. 3, it was only after many hours’ action that I got
traces of carbonate of potash, the liquid acquiring also a pale
yellow tint from the formation of resinous matter. It is in such
circumstances of energetic agency as those formerly mentioned*
that the true nature of the action is best seen.

I formerly mentioned the occasional appearance of gas at the
positive pole, either when very dilute alcohol was acted on, or
under peculiar circumstances, when alcohol of greater strength
was employed. This gas I have assumed to be oxygen, from the
circumstance of its appearing most readily when the alcohol was
weakest, and from the whole bearing of the phenomena leading
to the conclusion, that water was the immediate subject of the
voltaic decomposition. My attempts to collect this gas proved
all unsuccessful. In a platinum vessel, although a little gas, as
already stated, was evolved from the positive pole, yet, in at-
tempting to make it pass up into a tube, the very fine stream was
gradually absorbed by the liquid, and nothing collected. I ex-
pected to be more successful by acting on alcohol of moderate
strength, containing a rather larger proportion of potash dissolv-
ed. Alcohol sp. gr. .838 at 60°, having ;3> of potash dissolved,
was acted on in the tube Fig. 4, the poles being platinum wire,
and the wire A made positive by a power, in one experiment of

* Page 317-18
Tt2

326 Mr Conne tu on the Action of

fifty pairs, and in another of 100 pairs of two-inch plates. The
gas arising from the positive wire was observed to consist partly
of a very fine stream of gas coming from the upper part of the
wire, and partly of rather larger bubbles originating at the bot-
tom of the wire, and increasing a little in size as they ascended,
by running together. The fine stream never reached the top of
the tube, being gradually absorbed by the liquid. The larger
bubbles collected by degrees ; but although the action was con-
tinued for above an hour, the quantity of permanent gas which was
obtained was only .01 of a cubic inch, and, on examination, proved
to be azote. Its origin is very manifest. The minute quantity
of oxygen evolved at the positive pole, liberated along with it, as
usual, some of the common air held dissolved in the liquid ; and
in ascending, and partly also probably after gaining the top, the
oxygen was absorbed by the liquid, the azote only remaining. I
tried also to separate the positive gas from solutions of chloride
of calcium and of boracic acid in alcohol of .838, thinking that
such solutions would exercise a less powerful absorptive ac-
tion on oxygen; but the whole agency in such cases was so
much diminished, that, in the case of chloride of calcium,
amounting in different experiments to ;'; and 75, a very feeble
stream only appeared from the positive wire, and in the case of
boracic acid amounting to ;',, no positive gas was evolved at
all.

The evidence, however, from the whole phenomena of the
various experiments which have been detailed, appears to me to
be quite sufficient to shew, that the action consists essentially in
the decomposition of water by the immediate electric agency,
and I had fully made up my mind that such was the nature of
the action before the appearance of Mr Farapay’s paper describ-
ing the voltaic arrangement, to which he has given the name of
the Volta-electrometer. It then, of course, immediately occurred
to me, that that arrangement afforded the means of bringing
additional evidence in support of the view which I have taken.

ee ee es

Voltaie Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 327

Before applying it to this purpose, | thought it right to investi-
gate the principles on which it was founded, and the degree of
confidence which might be placed in its indications, and I shall
afterwards have occasion to allude to this subject more particu-
larly. In the mean time I shall only observe, that I have fully
satisfied myself of the accuracy of Mr Farapay’s view, that when
the same electric current passes through two different aqueous
solutions, and exerts a decomposing agency on the water of these
solutions, the quantity of that liquid decomposed in each solu-
tion will be exactly the same ; and hence, conversely, when the
same quantity of hydrogen and oxygen, or of one or other of these
gases, is evolved from two different fluids by the passage through
them of the same current of electricity, we have strong grounds
for concluding that in both cases water is the subject of decom-
position.

In applying these principles to the present case, I employed
tubes having platinum wires cemented into them by the blow-
pipe, and terminated by pieces of platinum foil of one inch long
by one-fifth broad, soldered with gold to their extremities. Two
of these tubes were filled with the aleohol under examination,
and inverted in a small evaporating basin ; whilst two others were
filled with the aqueous liquid with which the alcoholic fluid was
compared, and inverted as the others. These tubes were then
connected as in Fig. 5. Occasionally, also, the alcoholic liquid
was placed in the tube A of Fig. 6, having a wire cemented
at N, and another passing through a cork at P; and this tube
was connected with those containing the aqueous liquid, as in
Fig. 6.

The experiments were made on alcohol of specific gravity .802,
and also of specific gravity .796. The vessel A, Fig. 5, with its
tubes was filled with alcohol of the former specific gravity, holding
in solution 34, of potash ; and water acidulated with = of sul-
phuric acid was placed in B. The tube P of the vessel B was
connected with the positive pole of a battery of thirty-six pairs

328 Mr Conne tu on the Action of

of four-inch plates ; and the tube N of the vessel A was connect-
ed with the negative polejof the same battery; the other two
tubes being connected with one another by a short copper-wire.
The same electric current thus traversed both solutions. Gas
slowly collected in all the tubes except the positive tube of the
vessel A, containing the alcoholic fluid ; and after an action of an
hour and three-quarters, the negative tube of A contained .3 of a
cubic inch, and the negative tube of B .35.

The experiment was repeated, placing alcohol .802 with 71,
potash dissolved in A, and water with 73> potash in solution in
B, the same galvanic power being employed. The gas in the
two negative tubes increased very uniformly, and in one hour
and fifty minutes, there was found in the negative tube of A .32,
and in that of B 34. Both gases were analyzed by the electric
spark, and were found to be hydrogen; that from the alcohol
containing mixed with it, as I was fully prepared to expect from
the result of former experiments, from one-fifth to one-sixth of
common air, or rather of azote, derived from the alcoholic fluid,
a corresponding portion of hydrogen having doubtless been ab-
sorbed by the liquid.

Thus, then, we see, that as nearly as possible the same quan-
tity of hydrogen was evolved by the agency of the same current,
whether the liquid acted on was water or alcohol ; and I there-
fore conclude, on the principles of the Volta-electrometer, that
in reality water was in both cases the subject of decomposition,
an equal portion of it being resolved into its elements in both
vessels.

Similar results were obtained with alcohol, specific gravity .796
at 60° F., having in solution, in different trials, small quantities of
potash, of iodide of potassium, and of fused chloride of calcium.
These different solutions were always compared with water hold-
ing the same quantity of the same substance in solution, the al-
coholic solution being sometimes placed in the tubes of one of
the vessels of Fig. 5, and sometimes in the bent tube A of Fig. 6,

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 329

the power employed being usually thirty-six pairs of four-inch
plates. On the first influence of the current, the negative gas
from the aqueous solution sometimes increased a little faster
than that from the alcoholic liquid, but the quantities were not
very long in becoming equalized. When the same current was
made to pass through alcohol of .796, holding -+, of iodide of po-
tassium in solution, and water holding the same quantity of that
substance dissolved, the negative tube of the former liquid was
found to contain in three-quarters of an hour .11 of gas, and the
negative tube of the latter .13. In a similar trial, in which one-
fiftieth of chloride of calcium was the dissolved body, each nega-
tive tube contained .037 of gas in the same time. The results
with 335 of potash closely corresponded with those already
stated as to alcohol of .802, the negative gas of the alcoholic so-
lution collected in the tube A of Fig. 6, being in an hour and fifty
minutes .33, and that of the aqueous .37 in the same time; and
in another trial the proportions were very similar. The negative
gases, when examined, were always found to be hydrogen, that
from the alcohol being as usual mixed with a small variable pro-
portion of common air or azote. In one instance I found this
mixture to amount to about one-fourth part ; an equivalent ab-
sorption of hydrogen having without doubt occurred.

The various experiments which have been detailed, leave, I
conceive; no doubt that water is truly the subject of the direct
agency of the voltaic current transmitted through alcohol.
Where the alcohol is concentrated, and holds no foreign matter in
solution, the quantity of water decomposed even by a powerful
stream is small, owing to the indifferent conducting power of the
liquid. The effect on the needle of the galvanic multiplier when
a stream of moderate power, as from fifty pairs of two-inch plates,
was transmitted through absolute alcohol, was very trifling, but
still perceptible. The galvanometer employed was of the origi-
nal simple construction, consisting of a single magnetic needle,
seven inches long, and suspended by silk fibres, in the centre of

330 Mr Conneu on the Action of

a coil of about thirty circuits of insulated copper wire ; * and its
indications were quite sufficient for my purpose, as my principal
object was to detect such electric currents as might be the cause
of chemical decomposition, and not more trifling streams, if such
exist. When the current was powerful, as from 216 pairs of four-
inch plates, the effect was considerably more marked, although
still limited. When, however, minute quantities of certain solu-
ble foreign bodies, particularly of potash, were added, the con-
ducting power was much augmented, as was shewn by the in-
creased action on the galvanometer, and by the great increase in
the decomposing action. I have already shewn that 14 dram of
absolute alcohol yielded with difficulty .2 or .3 of a cubic inch of
hydrogen in an hour’s action of the power of 216 pairs; whilst
the very same alcohol, with only 74; of potash dissolved, and
with a power of seventy-two pairs, yielded one cubic inch of gas
in one-fourth of that time.

It is remarkable how minute a quantity of potash is capable
of causing symptoms of decomposition to be seen in alcohol, un-
der circumstances where otherwise it cannot be observed. Thus,
if absolute alcohol be acted on in a watch-glass by a power of
fifty pairs of two-inch plates, by simply approaching the plati-
num foil poles to one another horizontally, no action whatever is
observed when the alcohol holds nothing in solution; but the
presence of even ;;'55 part of potash renders a minute stream of
bubbles visible from the negative pole.

I formerly mentioned, that, when a solution of iodine in al-
cohol is acted on by a moderate power, no symptoms of decom-
position are observed. The effect on the galvanometer is, how-
ever, increased by the presence of the iodine.

* I compared the indications of this galvanometer with those of two astatic sew-
ing needles, each two inches long, one of which was placed in the centre of a coil
of twenty circuits, and found the indications of the long needle fully the more de-

licate.
7

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 331

Il. Voltaic Action on Ether.

I have given this title to the experiments made with ether,
although nearly the whole of them gave negative results. The
ether acted on was rectified, first by agitation with water, and
then by careful distillation from chloride of calcium, and possess-
ed all the properties of pure ether. From the powers of ether
as a solvent being greatly more limited than those of alcohol, the
former presents many fewer opportunities of studying the in-
fluence of the solution of foreign bodies on the voltaic agency.
It is usually said that ether is capable of dissolving a minute
quantity of potash; but I found the quantity taken up to be
very insignificant. The ether containing this scarcely percepti-
ble quantity was acted on by fifty pairs of two-inch plates, but
no symptoms of change were observed. Results equally nega-
tive were obtained with a moderately strong etherial solution of
corrosive sublimate, and also with ether holding in solution as
much dry chloride of platinum and as much dry chromic acid as
it was capable of dissolving. Neither was any effect on the gal-
vanometer observed with these liquids when they were acted on
by the power of fifty pairs of two-inch plates. A dram of ether

holding a few drops of bromine in solution, caused a slight de-
_ yiation of the needle with this power; but no evolution of gas
from either pole or other symptom of decomposition was noticed.

The action of the power of 216 pairs of four-inch plates was
next tried on pure ether, in the tube, Fig. 2, both when cold
and when heated near its boiling point ; but no evolution of gas
or other symptom of decomposition whatever was observed, al-
although the action was continued for six or seven minutes ; nor
was the galvanometer affected.*

* This experiment was made with the long needle formerly mentioned. What
might be the effect on a more delicate instrument I do not pretend to say.

VOL, XIII. PART II. Uu

332 Mr Conne.u on the Action of

In none of these experiments, therefore, was there the least
appearance of those indications which led to the conclusion of
the existence of water in alcohol; and it would appear, that, if
the results were sufficient in the one case to warrant that conclu-
sion, the experiments with ether equally justify the contrary in-
ference, that water does not enter into the constitution of the
latter fluid. If water existed as such in ether, I have little
doubt, from the example of alcohol, that it would have yielded
to the decomposing influence of the pile, and that we should
have observed the evolution of at least one of its constituents ;
but in none of the analogous circumstances was such an indica-
tion observed.

III. Some general considerations on the intimate Constitution of
Alcohol and Ether.

Every one knows that the elements of alcohol are in such
proportions, that, when taken in conjunction with the specific
gravity of its vapour, it may be represented by one volume of
olefiant gas and one volume of the vapour of water condensed
into one volume; and in like manner, that ether may be repre-
sented by two volumes of olefiant gas and one volume of aqueous
vapour condensed into one volume. But it is one thing to say
that these fluids may be thus represented, and another and a
very different thing to hold that olefiant gas and water actually
enter into their constitutions as such in these proportions. We
at present know so little of the manner in which the ultimate
elements of those substances which occur in or result from or-
ganic nature are united, that it is only with great caution that
special views of their mode of combination should be received.
Of late a great disposition has been manifested, particularly on
the Continent, to adopt such particular views, and to express the
constitution of those substances more closely allied to organic

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 333

bodies, by what are called rational formule. The principal re-
commendation of this method consists in the greater clearness
which it introduces into our ideas of the relative constitution of
such substances ; but undoubtedly there is the greatest possible
risk that, when not founded on grounds strictly experimental,
these rational formule may not give an accurate representation
of what really exists. We have the authority of the highest
names for the application of such views to alcohol and ether ; but
it is remarkable that these views, although founded on the same
principle, have differed considerably in their details. Gay Lus-
sac appears to have adopted the above-mentioned view, that al-
cohol consists of water and olefiant gas, and ether of water and a
greater proportion of olefiant gas.* Brrzrxius modified this
opinion,+ by assuming that a peculiar hydrocarbon C*H", which
he called Etherine (Ae), having the same proportions of constitu-
ents as olefiant gas, but a greater total number of atoms, entered
into the constitution of both alcohol and ether, which were both
regarded as hydrates of this substance, alcohol being Ae+2H,
and ether Ae+H. He afterwards saw cause to alter his view,
and to assume alcohol and ether to be oxides of different radi-
cles, the former C’H’--0, and the latter C‘H"-++O. | Leste has
adopted this latter opinion in regard to ether, but has rejected
it with respect to alcohol. || He considers ether as the oxide of
a hydrocarbon (E), different from olefiant gas, and represented
by C*H”, and alcohol as the hydrate of that oxide; 7.e. a hy-
drate of ether. Ether is therefore E, and alcohol E+H; and
he has given a view of the composition of all the compound
ethers and other relative substances, which is remarkable for con-
sistency, and its strong analogy with the laws of inorganic com-

* Annales de Chim., tom. xcy.
+ Annales de Chim. et de Phys., tom. li. p. 313.
+ Poggend. Annal. xxviii. 627.
|| Annales de Chim. et de Phys., tom. lv. p. 132.
vuu2

334 Mr Conneuu on the Action of

binations. These different views, however, are rather to be con-
sidered as more or less probable inferences from experimental re-
sults, than as such experimental results themselves. Even the
fact which they nearly all assume, that alcohol is a hydrate, is
merely an inference like the rest; for, when in the process of
etherification, the ultimate result is, that sulphuric acid takes wa-
ter from alcohol, we cannot tell whether this water existed as
such in the ether, or arose from a new arrangement of its ele-
ments by the affinities brought into play.

We are led, then, to inquire how far the researches detailed in
the first parts of this paper are capable of increasing the proba-
bility of this inference, or of affording more direct experimental
proof of the existence of water in alcohol ? I confess I do not see
how it is possible to avoid admitting that water was the imme-
diate subject of voltaic decomposition in the experiments detailed.
The hydrogen was evolved from the negative pole, in the same
proportion as from water; the disappearance of the oxygen was
accounted for; and, by particular arrangements, that element
could even be made visible. ‘The only remaining point, there-
fore, is, Is that water a constituent of the alcohol employed, or is
its presence accidental ? This point was investigated as carefully
as was in my power. The alcohol acted on had, I have reason to
believe, .as low a specific gravity as alcohol from grain has ever
been obtained, without decomposition,* and yet it still yielded
hydrogen at the negative pole, under powerful voltaic agency,
and more freely when its conducting power was improved by an
insignificant morsel of potash. The legitimate conclusion, there-
fore, seems to be, that the water decomposed entered as such
into the constitution of the alcohol acted on. I have not, how-
ever, the least wish to press this latter view farther than the cir-
cumstances may be supposed to warrant; and, if it can be after-
wards shewn that it is possible to prepare alcohol which will

* See Note, p.921,

SS ee

—_—-..ChC””DCrCtC~C<CS:~*S
t

eae ee

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 335

not shew the same appearances with powerful batteries capable
of producing these effects on such alcohol as I employed, I shall
be ready to admit that the question as to the nature of alcohol,
remains as it was.

Assuming, however, in the mean time, that we have direct ex-
perimental proof of the existence of water as a constituent in
alcohol, the next question is, With what is it combined? Is al-
cohol a hydrate of olefiant gas, as Gay Lussac supposes, or of
ether, as Lirpic maintains? Here, then, we are once more
thrown into the field of inference ; with this difference, however,
that our speculations are no longer gratuitous; for, if alcohol is
proved to be a hydrate, it must necessarily be a hydrate of some-
thing or other ; and it is a legitimate subject of probable reason-
ing to inquire, with what the water is combined. On the whole,
I incline to give the preference to LiEsie’s view, for the follow-
ing reasons.

The experiments on ether lead to the conclusion that this lat-
ter body does not contain water. Not only did pure ether resist
the strongest voltaic power which was brought into operation on
it, but I could not find any substance capable of giving it such
conducting power as led to any action which countenanced the
supposition that it contained water. Now, the view that al-
cohol is a hydrate of olefiant gas has always been taken in con-
nection with the idea that ether also is a hydrate of the same
body, having a less proportion of water ; and I think that there
is little doubt that the supporters of these two views will be less
inclined to adopt one of them if the other is held to be dis-
proved. The specific gravity of the vapour of ether, the arith-
metic mean between that of the vapours of alcohol and water,
evidently favours, as Lizsie has remarked, the idea of a less in-
timate union, such as that of a hydrate.

The theory of etherification is also much simplified by holding
alcohol to be a hydrate of ether ; for we have only to withdraw an
atom of water, and the ether remains ready formed, without any

336 Mr Connevu on the Action of

change of elements ; and the antecedent formation of sulphovinic
acid, which is now held to consist of sulphuric acid and alcohol,
scarcely interferes with the simplicity of this view.

Strong analogical grounds would undoubtedly be afforded for
the same opinion, from the composition of the compound ethers,
if we had good reason for holding, with Lirsic, that ether is the
oxide of an unknown radicle. But the galvanic experiments with
ether, seem to me to be rather against that view ; for it would ap-
pear that on electro-chemical grounds, such an oxide ought to
give way under voltaic agency, by a separation of its electro-
positive and electro-negative elements. Of such a separation,
however, I obtained no indication whatever.

It may perhaps, therefore, be safer simply to regard ether as a
ternary compound of its elements, and to express its constitution
by an empirical formula C*H"O. Alcohol, on the other hand,
may be regarded as a hydrate of ether, and its formula will be
C‘H"O + H.

IV. Voltaic Action on Aqueous Solutions.

In the course of the preceding investigations, I was naturally
led into an examination of the nature of the voltaic action on
solutions of various acids, alkalies, and salts in water; my prin-
cipal object being to endeavour to distinguish between those
cases in which the solvent and those in which the dissolved body
was the immediate subject of the voltaic action, and thus to be
better able to draw a similar distinction in the case of alcoholic
solutions. In this inquiry,.I was of course necessarily led to
examine many of those experimental results and conclusions
which have been unfolded by Mr Farapay, in his interesting
series of electrical researches; and therefore I may be pardoned
for stating such views as have occurred to me on this part of the
subject, seeing that I did not gratuitously enter upon it, but was

SE =

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. : 337

necessarily conducted into it, by a train of investigation which,
in its origin, had no reference to this particular part of the in-
quiry.

From the important aid which Mr Farapay’s principle of the
direct connection between the quantity and chemical action of
an electric current, is capable, if well founded, of affording, in
determining such questions as I had in view, this principle was,
of couyse, one of my chief subjects of examination; and I found
it necessary to endeavour to satisfy myself, in so far as regarded
solutions, how far the evidence was sufficient to establish that
the chemical action of an electric stream is proportional to the
absolute quantity of transmitted electricity, and that a given
quantity of electricity will decompose a chemical equivalent of
the substances on which it acts.

For the purpose of bringing these principles to the test of ex-
periment, Mr Farapay has employed an arrangement to which
he gives the name of the Volta Electrometer, of which there are
several modifications, but all of them depending on the principle
that the hydrogen and oxygen evolved from water under decom-
position by a given electric current, are collected, and measured,
and compared with the same or different elements, as the case may
be, separated from the same or a different substance, which is un-
der decomposition by the same electric stream.* Now, I have
had ample opportunities of confirming experimentally the truth of
the above law, in so far as regards water, and have no doubt what-
ever that the same current of electricity will always decompose the
same absolute quantity of water, when it exerts its decomposing

* It is only doing justice to MM. Gay Lussac and Tuenarp to remember,
that they long ago employed the quantity of the gases evolved by water under the
agency of the voltaic current as a measure of its chemical effects (Recherch. Phys.
Chim., Part i.) They did not, however, compare this quantity with other effects
produced by the same current at the same time.

338 Mr Conne tu on the Action of

influence on that body. I have compared dilute sulphuric acid
of a given strength, with the same acid of different strengths,
with alkaline solutions, and with solutions of alkaline sulphates,
by transmitting the same electric stream through them, and have
found that the quantity of hydrogen evolved from the negative
pole was always, with trifling deviations, a fixed quantity for the
same current. The quantity of oxygen separating at the positive
pole was subject to those variations from the absorption of the
fluid, which Mr Farapay has pointed out; but the quantity in
one experiment with ariother was evidently such as corresponded
with the hydrogen evolved, after allowing for the absorption.

It is evident how important an aid this principle affords us, in
explaining what passes during the electric decomposition of
aqueous solutions; for if, in comparing with one another, solu-
tions of substances of different atomic constitutions, we obtain
hydrogen or oxygen, or both, in the proportions contained in
water, we have strong grounds for concluding that the solvent,
and not the matter dissolved, has been the subject of decomposi-
tion.

Accordingly, it is in this way that we are enabled to determine,
with every appearance of probability, that in a great many, per-
haps in all cases of solutions of the oxyacids, water only is the
subject of direct voltaic decomposition. Thus the same voltaic
current was passed through dilute sulphuric acid, and a solution
of boracic acid, and it was found that very nearly the same rela-
tive quantities of hydrogen and oxygen were evolved from both
solutions in the same time, notwithstanding the difference in the
atomic constitution of the two acids. There was, therefore, little
doubt that, in both solutions, the water, and not the acid, had
suffered decomposition. lodic acid appeared to me to be ex-
tremely well calculated for such an experiment, as the feeble
affinity by which its elements are held together, afforded the
most favourable circumstances for a direct decomposition of an

/

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 339

oxyacid in solution, if such a decomposition is likely to occur.
Two of the tubes (Fig. 5), formerly described, * were filled with
a solution of one part of iodic acid, in about ten parts of water,
and inverted in an evaporating basin. ‘Two others were filled
with sulphuric acid, diluted with twelve parts of water, and also
inverted. After connecting them together, as formerly described,
the current from fifty pairs of two inch plates was passed through
them. Iodine separated from the negative pole of the iodic so-
lution, without any evolution of elastic fluid from that pole. Gas
was liberated from all the other poles. In a quarter of an hour,
the following quantities of gas were obtained :—

Cub. In.

In the positive tube of iodic solution, : s ‘ 14
cite? pl by iB AS a ta sulphuric solution, - : : 2
In the negative tube of do. do. : 3 : OG

Now, here there can hardly be a doubt that, in the iodic solu-
tion, the water only was directly decomposed, and the iodine was
a secondary product, arising from the reducing action of hydrogen.
Had the iodic acid been directly decomposed, the quantity of
oxygen liberated ought to have been five times greater than that
got from the dilute sulphuric acid, in which we already know
that water is the subject of direct decomposition.

The next point of inquiry is, whether, in the case of the hy-
dracids, water or the acid is the subject of direct electric agency ?
and this question becomes one of considerable importance ; be-
cause, if the acid is directly decomposed, the experimental results
obtained afford an example of the application of the principle of
definite voltaic action to another substance than water, whilst, if
the water is decomposed, it is only another instance applicable to
that liquid. It is with considerable hesitation that I have brought
myself to differ on this point from so high an authority as the first
propounder of the doctrine of definite voltaic action ; and I have

* Page 327.
VOL. XIII. PART II. >. E>. 4

340 Mr Connewu on the Action of

only done so after obtaining what appears to me to be experi-
mental proof that the decomposition of the hydracids is a second-
ary result. That hydrogen is evolved in such cases in definite
quantity, there can be no doubt whatever. I have repeatedly
found, on comparing dilute solutions of muriatic acid and of hy-
driodic acid with dilute sulphuric acid in the volta-electrometer,
that the quantity of hydrogen evolved was exactly the same from
all these solutions. It is the question, whether, in the case of
these hydracids, the hydrogen proceeds from the acid, or from
the water, that affords room for difference of opinion. Mr Fa-
RADAY contends, that it is derived from the acid, and that conse-
quently the hydracids afford another instance of definite voltaic
action. His reasons, which, at the utmost, are merely analogical,
are, first, that chlorine and iodine combine with hydrogen atom
to atom, as oxygen does; and, secondly, that chlorine can be di-
rectly separated from lead, potassium, &c. in the dry state, by elec-
tric agency. The first bemg an argument which can only be ad-
dressed, in its full extent, to British chemists, can hardly be held
to be of great weight ; and, with respect to the second, | think
I shall soon make it at least doubtful whether one substance,
namely, iodic acid, although it resists decomposition in solution,
may not give way in the dry and fused state. But it is unneces-
sary to dwell longer on mere argument from supposed analogy ;
for I think I can bring forward a few experiments on the hydra-
cids themselves, which appear to lead directly to the conclusion
that the evolution of chlorine and iodine during voltaic action on
solutions of those acids, is a secondary result, and that the hydro-
gen is derived from water directly decomposed by the electric
current.

Into a tube of the capacity of one and a half dram, moderately
strong muriatie acid was poured, and another tube of the same
size was filled with distilled water. These two tubes were con-
nected, as in Fig. 7, by asbestus moistened with distilled water ;
the asbestus having been previously washed with diluted muriatic

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, Se. 341

acid, and then thoroughly freed from all traces of acid by water.
The muriatic acid was then connected with the negative side of
fifty pairs of two-inch plates, and the distilled water with the po-
sitive, when a slight effervescence took place from both poles.
After a quarter of an hour’s action, not the slightest trace of chlo-
rine could be detected in either tube, either by the smell or by
bleaching action on test-paper, but a feeble trace of acid was
shewn by test-paper in the positive tube. After an action of one
hour and a quarter, there was still not a trace of chlorine in
either tube, and the reddening action on test-paper of the po-
sitive liquid was somewhat increased. In nine hours, the red-
dening action of the water was still more decided, and a very
feeble and doubtful odour of chlorine was observed in it. Now,
what inference is to be drawn from this experiment. I appre-
hend the following is the explanation. The slight effervescence
which took place from both poles, arose from decomposed water,
its elements going to their proper poles. The muriatic acid was
not decomposed ; had it been so, the chlorine would have imme-
diately passed towards the positive pole, and would have betrayed
itself in one or both tubes by its usual characters. If, only after
nine hours’ action, a doubtful trace of it could be observed in
the positive water, its origin was due to the secondary action of
the oxygen on the muriatic acid, which had passed over partly
by the natural tendency of the acid to the positive side, and part-
ly by capillary action. That this is the true explanation, will
still farther appear from the following experiments. Muriatic
acid, diluted with two or three times its bulk of water, was placed
in A as before, and water acidulated with a few drops of sulphu-
ric in B, with which latter liquid the connecting asbestus was
moistened. The diluted muriatic was made negative, and the
acidulated water positive. A brisker effervescence than before
took place from both poles, from the better conducting power
of the positive liquid; but still in ten minutes not a trace of
chlorine could be detected in either tube, either by the smell
ie 12

342 Mr Connex on the Action of

or by test-paper. The battery was then reversed, the muria-
tic acid being now connected by the same platinum foil as be-
fore, with the positive side of the battery, and the acidulated wa-
ter with the negative. A brisk effervescence took place as before
from the negative pole, and a slight effervescence from the posi-
tive, and in less than two minutes, a decided smell of chlorine was
evolved from the positive tube, and shortly after test-paper held
close to the positive foil was bleached, and the muriatic liquid
got a yellow tint from dissolving chlorine. In this experiment it
is evident that, before the reversal of the poles, no decomposition
of muriatic acid took place, and that the whole, or greater part,
of the oxygen which was evolved before the reversal from the po-
sitive wire, was employed after that change in reducing muriatic
acid by combining with its hydrogen and liberating chlorine.
When the diluted muriatic was at once connected with the posi-
tive pole of the battery in fresh action, and the acidulated water
with the negative side, the smell of chlorine was even sooner, and
more distinctly observed.

In another experiment, I examined more particularly the gas
evolved from the positive pole, when the muriatic acid was posi-
tive, and found it to be chlorine. A small evaporating basin con-
taining muriatic acid diluted with twice its bulk of water, was
connected with another evaporating basin containing sulphuric
acid diluted with five parts of water, by asbestus moistened with
the latter fluid. The negative foil was placed in the dilute sul-
phuric acid, and the positive foil brought under a tube filled with
the dilute muriatic acid, and inverted in the basin containing the
latter liquid. The gas evolved from the positive pole was shewn
to be chlorine, by being gradually entirely absorbed by the li-
quid, and by the strong smell of chlorine which the liquid ac-
quired.

The experiments with hydriodic acid led all to the same
views, and, from the phenomena being more apparent to the
senses, were even more satisfactory.

i i ie

—————————— LS

7 7 eg

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 343

A moderately strong solution of recently prepared and colour-
less hydriodic acid was placed in A, and connected with the ne-
gative side of fifty pairs of two-inch plates. Distilled water was
placed in B, and connected with the positive side ; and the con-
nexion was made by asbestus, moistened with distilled water. A
slight effervescence ensued from both poles. During the first ten
minutes, there was no appearance of discoloration of the liquid
in either tube. A slight yellow tint then appeared in the positive
liquid, and no change in the negative, and shortly after, a just
perceptible acid reaction on test-paper was observed in the posi-
tive liquid. In a quarter of an hour, the battery was reversed in
the manner already described as to muriatic acid. Instantly, not-
withstanding the diminished action of the battery, the hydriodic
solution which had been previously colourless, acquired a brown-
ish colour round the positive pole, and not a bubble of gas ap-
peared from that pole, whilst gas rose from the positive foil. The
brown colour gradually diffused itself through the liquid.

This experiment was now repeated with the difference that
the level of the distilled water was made about a line higher than
that of the hydriodic solution, which was perhaps a little weaker
than in the preceding experiment. A slight evolution of gas
soon arose from both poles, and in a quarter of an hour there was
not the slightest discoloration of the liquid in either tube, nor
did the water shew any acid reaction. The battery was then re-
versed. The hydriodic solution was immediately discoloured
round the positive foil as before, without any liberation of elastic
fluid, whilst there was a slight effervescence from the negative
foil.

This last experiment was repeated with a power of thirty-six
pairs of four-inch plates, with precisely the same result.

The explanation of these experiments seems very apparent.
When the hydriodic acid solution is in connexion with the nega-

tive side, and the water with the positive, water is resolved into
2

344 Mr ConneE.u on the Action of

its elements, but the acid is not decomposed. If it were, iodine
would have immediately made itself manifest. If after ten mi-
nutes in the first mentioned experiment a trace appeared in the
positive water, this was due to a small quantity of the acid itself
which had passed over, and was reduced by nascent oxygen, as
is evident from the acid action on test-paper which soon follow-
ed, and from the circumstance that no iodine appeared in a longer
time, when precautions were taken to diminish the quantity of
acid passing over. On the other hand, the instant the acid was
made positive, iodine appeared, and oxygen disappeared, the lat-
ter giving rise to the former by combining with the hydrogen of
the acid.

From these experiments, therefore, I consider myself entitled
to conclude, that, when solutions of muriatic and hydriodic acids,
and doubtless of other hydracids, in water are submitted to vol-
taic agency, the chlorine, iodine, or other electro-negative consti-
tuent of the acid, is a secondary product, and the hydrogen arises
from water directly decomposed by the voltaic agency. ‘This ac-
tion, consequently, does not furnish an instance of definite vol-
taic action on the hydracids, but is merely another example of
the application of that principle to water.

Questions of a similar nature arise relative to the decomposi-
tion of the haloid salts, and are also of importance; because, if
chlorides, iodides, &c. are dissolved as such, and are directly de-
composed by the electric current, we have, as before, an instance
of definite action in regard to another class of substances than
water. Mr Farapay inclines to the affirmative of this opinion,
although not with the same confidence as in regard to the hy-
dracids. 'The fact is equally certain in this instance, that the
hydrogen is evolved in a fixed proportion, as I have verified for
alkaline chlorides and iodides ; but, by a set of experiments of
the same description as those detailed in regard to the hydracids,
I have been led to the conclusion, that the chlorine and iodine

————— eC —

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 345

evolved in the case of solutions of the haloid salts also, are second-
ary products, and that the hydrogen arises from the direct de-
composition of water.

A rather weak solution of chloride of potassium was placed
in a tube of the same size as before, and distilled water in an-
other similar tube, its level being a little higher than that of the
saline liquid, and the connexion made by moistened asbestus.
The saline solution was then made negative, and the water posi-
tive, by a power of fifty pairs of two-inch plates. ° Gas appeared
im one or two minutes from both poles. In half an hour, not the
least trace of chlorine could be detected in either tube by the
smell or by any bleaching action on test-paper. The battery was
then reversed. An effervescence took place from the negative
pole, but none from the positive, and in half an hour more, not-
withstanding the diminished action of the battery, a faint odour
of chlorine was discerned.

In a repetition of the experiment connecting the solution
of chloride of potassium with the negative side, and the water
with the positive, gas soon appeared as before from both poles,
and alkali was very soon afterwards detected on touching the ne-
gative foil with test paper, and acid on touching the asbestus on
the positive side of the negative tube, shewing that acid was tra-
velling towards the water in the positive tube ; but no smell of
chlorine was detected. In twenty minutes a doubtful trace of
acid was found in the positive liquid, but still no trace of chlo-
rine. In two and a half hours the trace of acid in the positive
tube was still slight, and a very doubtful trace of the odour of
chlorine observed.’ In seven hours an acid reaction and a feeble
odour of chlorine were quite manifest in the positive liquid; but
not the slightest trace of chlorine in the negative tube.

In these experiments it is manifest, that when the saline so-
lution was negative and the water positive, chlorine was not
liberated until acid had passed into the positive tube, so as to en-
able the oxygen there evolved to occasion the appearance of the

346 Mr Conne tu on the Action of

chlorine by a secondary action. When the saline solution was
positive and the water negative no oxygen was evolved, but it
was employed in causing the secondary appearance of chlorine
which was observed at a far earlier period than when the reverse
arrangement was adopted.

When water acidulated with sulphuric acid was substituted
for pure water, and used for moistening the asbestus, the effects
were much more marked. The saline solution was made posi-
tive, and the acidulated water negative ; there was effervescence
from both poles, but no smell of chlorine, or bleaching action in
thirteen or fourteen minutes. The battery was then reversed,
when a distinct smell of chlorine was observed in less than one
minute, with slight effervescence from the positive pole and
stronger from the negative, and in a few minutes more, test-
paper was bleached in the neighbourhood of the positive foil.

A rather weak solution of iodide of potassium was then ren-
dered negative, and distilled water positive, the connexion being
made by asbestus moistened with water. A slight effervescence
ensued from both poles. In half an hour there was not the
slightest discoloration of the liquid in either tube. The battery
was then reversed. Instantly the liquid near the positive foil in
the saline solution was discoloured, without any evolution of gas
from that pole, whilst gas appeared from the negative foil. The
iodine gradually increased in the positive liquid.

These results were quite analogous to those with chloride of
potassium. When the solution of the iodide was negative, and
the water positive, no iodine appeared, but gas was evolved from
each pole by the decomposition of water. On the reversal of the
battery the oxygen ceased to come, and iodine appeared in its
place by its secondary action.

The question with what substance the oxygen combines to
cause the separation of the chlorine and iodine, depends on the
point whether chlorides and iodides are dissolved as such, or as
muriates and hydriodates. If in the former state, then the

ar =

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 347

oxygen must combine with potassium, and liberate the electro-
negative constituent of the haloid salt. If in the latter condi-
tion, then it will unite with the hydrogen of the acid of the dis-
solved salt and liberate the other element. Either view will ex-
plain the appearance of the chlorine or iodine.

It is evident that we can easily explain, conformably to these
views of the secondary origin of chlorine and other analogous
substances in solutions of the hydracids and haloid salts, the
greater facility with which it has been observed that some of
such solutions are decomposed, than water acidulated with an
oxyacid. The attraction of the element with which the nascent
oxygen, or in the case of ordinary metallic solutions, the nascent
hydrogen, combines, will aid the electric action ; and the more
feeble the existing combination of that element, the less will its
union with the nascent oxygen or hydrogen be opposed, and
the more will the voltaic agency be facilitated.

We can also explain, in a more satisfactory manner, on these
views, that on the idea of the primary origin of the chlorine, the
known fact, that in strong solutions of muriatic acid or of chlorides,
chlorine separates at the positive pole with scarcely any accom-
paniment of oxygen, whilst in weak solutions of these bodies a
mixture of these gases is liberated. When the nascent oxygen
finds around it abundance of the dissolved body, it enters wholly
into the new combination ; but in weak solutions the overplus is
liberated along with the chlorine produced. Analogous views
apply to the combinations of iodine.

If the above views as to the haloid salts are well founded, it
follows that the appearance of hydrogen in definite quantity in
the voltaic decomposition of solutions of those salts is only, as in
the case of the hydracids, another example of the definite decom-
position of water.

It is therefore to the experiments on dry substances that we
must look for the proof of the application of the principle to
other bodies. On such substances I have made no experiments,

VOL. XIII. PART II. yy

348 Mr Connex on the Action of

with this particular view, and therefore am not entitled to make
any other observations on Mr Farapay’s researches on them,
than to observe that many of the experiments, particularly those
with the chlorides and iodides of lead. (814, 818, 794), the chlo-
ride of tin (819, 789), and the borate of lead (799), undoubtedly
appear to lead to the establishment of this highly important
principle with respect to other bodies than water.

We must, however, take care that we do not extend our ideas
of this definite action farther than any of the experiments which
have been adduced in support of it by its author will warrant, a
misconception into which I have reason to believe that some who
have not fully considered. the evidence have fallen. One limit
to it has been set, on the ground that the electric action itself is
supposed to be capable of decomposing such bodies only as are
composed of the same, or at least a like number of atoms of their
elements, a point to which I shall presently advert. Accordingly
there are no grounds whatever for holding that any definite
action applies to such bodies as the great class of oxyacids and
many other substances, admitted on all hands to consist of an
unequal number of elementary atoms, and if such bodies are
really undecomposable, no such definite action of course is pos-
sible. But, farther, there is as yet no evidence of the applica-
tion of definite voltaic action to the extensive class of ordinary
salts consisting of an acid and an alkali, and yet many of them
are composed of a like number of chemical equivalents, and are
undeniably subject to electric decomposition. According to-the
experiments hitherto made, the protoxides, water included, and
the principal haloid salts, are the chief examples of the applica-
tion of the law, and for this reason, that these are the principal
substances on which the voltaic current operates.

The point to which I have just alluded, whether the decom-
posing agency of the electric fluid reaches only to substances
composed of a like number of elementary atoms, is second only
in importance to the law of definite action, and would require

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 349

very conclusive evidence before it could be adopted as a univer-
sal law.

Independently of the consideration, that, according to almost
all the continental chemists, the principal haloid salts are not
composed of a like number of atoms, there is at least one sub-
stance, the oxide of antimony, which Mr Farapay found to be
decomposed, in its fused state, by voltaic action, and which has
been hitherto held, by the universal opinion both of British and
continental chemists, to be a sesqui-oxide.* The oxide of bismuth,
it is also extremely likely, is in a similar situation, according to
the views on the Continent, as to its atomic constitution, which
the specific heat of the metal renders very probable.

Neither does it necessarily follow, because a substance is not
decomposed in solution, that it will not give way in the dry and
fused state ; because, if water is in its own nature more suscepti-
ble of voltaic agency than the dissolved body, the action may be
limited to the solvent when the solution is acted on. Assuming
potash to suffer direct decomposition in its fused state, we have
no reason to suppose that it gives way in solution. Our views as
to the oxyacids will therefore be taken, from experiments made
on them in the anhydrous and fused state, which, however, it is
not always very easy to accomplish.

Arsenic acid I could not succeed in freeing from water with-
out decomposing it. Of anhydrous sulphuric acid I possessed too
little to attempt any experiments with it.

I made some experiments on dry and fused iodic acid, which,
from the slight affinity of its constituents, I thought likely to
throw light on the subject. A difficulty, however, presented it-

* The attempts to show that it contains traces of a protoxide are evidently too
imperfect to be entitled to regard, in their present state.

+ The iodic acid was prepared in the usual way by the agency of nitric acid,
and was several times alternately dissolved in water and evaporated to dryness, to
free it from nitric acid.

yy2

350 Mr Connexu on the Action of

self, arising from the circumstance, that, when completely freed
from water, its points of fusion and decomposition are extremely
near one another. I freed it from water by keeping it in a
fused state, in a tube, for a considerable time after a pertion of
the acid was decomposed, and until water was no longer evolved.
The residue was dry and hard, and was immediately transferred
to a long bent and narrow tube ; where platinum wires connected
with the two ends of a battery of fifty pairs of two-inch plates
were brought into contact with it, the before-mentioned galva-
nometer being also introduced into the circuit. The iodic acid
was then heated to fusion by a spirit-lamp, when immediately a
considerable and even permanent deflection of the needle took
place. Although it was thus quite manifest that a current passed,
it was impossible for me to say with certainty that the acid was
decomposed by the voltaic agency, because the heat applied was
itself sufficient to cause decomposition and volatilization of iodine
on both sides,

I repeated Mr Farapay’s experiment on fused boracic acid,
and at first thought that I had succeeded in decomposing it.
The acid was fused on platinum wire in the reducing flame of a
large lamp of melted tallow, acted on by a hydrostatic table
blowpipe, the voltaic power employed consisting of 216 pairs of
four-inch plates. There was an evident action on the galvano-
meter, and sparks were visible from the fused acid. Similar re-
sults were afterwards obtained with only thirty-six pairs of four-
inch plates. But, on repeating the experiment with the 216
pairs, and fusing the acid by the oxyhydrogen blewpipe, I was
surprised to find that there was no action on the galvanometer.
The idea which I then formed was, that the reducing action of
the carbonaceous vapour of the lamp flame had aided the voltaic
agency, but that in the oxyhydrogen flame, which is of course
destitute of carbonaceous matter, the voltaic current alone could
not produce the effect. This view, if well founded, would un-
doubtedly have been an example of voltaic agency, other affini-

ena ———<— se

I i i a ae i ies

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, §c. 351

ties aiding the action, as is known to happen in other cases.
But on heating the acid strongly in the oxyhydrogen flame, and
then transferring it in its pure and transparent state to the table
blowpipe flame, I could get no action on the galvanometer or ~
sparks with thirty-six pairs of four-inch plates, whilst it remained
clear and transparent, although I observed both, when it became
dark coloured from carbonaceous matter derived from the flame.
The most probable explanation, therefore, seems to be, although
the case is not free from ambiguity, that the carbonaceous matter
merely gives a certain degree of conducting power to the mass,
and that this is the source of the action on the galvanometer and
of the sparks. I have thought it worth while to detail the re-
sults, because they may at least serve as a caution to others in
making similar experiments; if they are insufficient to alter our
ideas of the non-action of the electric current on this substance.
In the whole circumstances, however, I cannot help having
some doubts as to the universality of the law of the necessary
correspondence between voltaic decomposition and equality of
atomic constitution, although I am by no means prepared to re-
ject it altogether, and, on the contrary, think that, to a great
extent, it may be well founded. It certainly appears very pro-
bable, that, when the constituent elements of substances are
nearly balanced in number, and particularly when that number
is small, they will be peculiarly in that state of electric opposi-
tion of character which will make them susceptible of voltaic
agency ; and, on the other hand, where the number of atoms is
considerable and unequally balanced, the mode of combination
may partake more of that character of union of which organic
nature appears to present numerous instances in its ternary and
quaternary combinations, and in which the electric nature of the
combined elements is probably less directly opposed, and will
therefore be less adapted for voltaic action, and may very pro-
bably even afford many cases where it will be altogether exclud-
ed. Feebleness of affinity in the constituent elements may, how-
ever, sometimes supply the place of simple atomic constitution,

352 Mr Connewu on the Action of

by opposing less resistance to decomposing agency, and, on this
ground, may be explained the decomposition of fused iodic acid,
if that really is a case of decomposition; and it seems not un-
likely that the circumstance that the oxide of antimony is easily
reducible, is the reason why it is subject to galvanic action,
although by no means a simple atomic compound. But I throw
out these views merely as speculations on a subject which cannot
be satisfactorily rested except on the sure basis of experiment.

There still remains another part of this memoir, relating to
the nature of the changes produced by voltaic agency on certain
of the substances held in solution by alcohol, particularly in more
concentrated solutions. On this part of the subject I hope to be
able to make a communication to the Society in the course of
next session.

POSTSCRIPT.

Since the preceding paper was read, I have succeeded in ob-
taining alcohol of still lower specific gravity, by continuing the
exposure in the vacuum of an air-pump with quicklime for eight
weeks, and renewing the quicklime after the first week. The
alcohol thus obtained had the specific gravity of .7928 at 62°:F.;
which corresponds with .7938 at 60°F. and with .790 at 68°F.,
or 20°C. A portion of this alcohol submitted to the action of
216 pairs of four-inch plates in the tube, Fig. 2, the platmum
foil poles being at the distance of from ,'; to z', of an inch from
one another, still yielded gas from the negative pole, although in
smaller quantity than the alcohol of sp. gr. .792 at 20°C. That
the quantity of gas was smaller, was merely owing to the circum-
stance that the conducting power of the former alcohol was in-
ferior to that of the latter; for the addition of the most insigni-

Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol, &c. 353

ficant morsel of potash caused the liberation of a comparatively
speaking abundant supply of elastic fluid, and that with a smaller
voltaic power. When only ;,55 part of pure caustic potash
was dissolved in the alcohol of .790, and it was acted on in the
tube, Fig. 2, by seventy-two pairs of four-inch plates, the foils
being ; of an inch apart, half a cubic inch of gas was collected
from the negative pole in ten minutes, and the evolution still
went on. This gas was found to be hydrogen as usual. But this
was by no means the limit to the operation of the alkali in giving
conducting power. With 5,5, of potash in solution, this alco-
hol still gave a considerable stream of gas; and when this solu-
tion was farther diluted with the same alcohol, so as to leave only
zssa0 of potash dissolved, the stream from the negative pole,
with the power of seventy-two pairs, was scarcely diminished, and
much more abundant than that from the alcohol holding nothing
in solution, with the power of 216 pairs. The dilution might
evidently have been carried much farther without destroying the
effect of the alkali. Since alcohol of so low specific gravity thus
still yielded hydrogen from the negative pole, additional confir-
mation is evidently afforded of the views set forth in the preced-
ing paper, as to the intimate nature of alcohol and ether; and it
appears to me that no reasonable doubt can any longer exist,
that the researches which have been detailed afford experimental
proof of the presence of water as a constituent in absolute alco-
hol, and of its absence in ether.

The Figures referred to in the preceding paper are contained in Plate XIII.

( 364 )

On the Expansion of different kinds of Stone from an increase of
Temperature, with a Description of the Pyrometer used in
making the Experiments. By Avexanprer J. Avr, Civil
Engineer.

(Read 20th April 1835.)

For a long time I was anxious to know the rate of expan-
sion of the common building-stone of this neighbourhood, as it
is not given in any of the tables of the expansions of substances,
because I have sometimes thought that the vertical cracks fre-
quently seen intersecting rubble walls might arise from the con-
traction caused by a diminution of temperature. During a long-
continued and severe frost which occurred in 1826, I thought
the rents in a considerable stretch of wall, which I passed at all
seasons, appeared more open than usual. This, however, was
merely conjectural, and I paid no more attention to the subject
until 1830, when, as I mentioned in a notice on the commencement
of my experiments read at the meeting of the British Association
in September last, an interdict of the Dean of Guild Court of
Edinburgh rendered the rate of expansion of stone a matter of
more importance than merely a curious philosophical speculation.
The interdict was issued against a gentleman who wished to alter
his property, by supporting the front on cast-iron pillars, in the
manner now commonly followed in this city in converting the
ground-floor of dwelling-houses into shops. The front of the pre-
mises alluded to was narrow, and of a great height; and the reasons
given for interdicting the operations were, that the pillars had
not sufficient strength to support the weight of the front, and
that the difference of the expansion of cast-iron and stone was so
great, that very prejudicial effects might arise from the use of
such pillars in this situation. Mr Jarping, civil engineer, was

JSrom an Increase of Temperature. 355

desired to report to the Dean of Guild on the subject, and the
proprietor requested my father to calculate the comparative ex-
pansibility of the cast-iron pillars and the stone, for a considera-
ble alteration of temperature. Sufficient data were easily got for
the rate of expansion of cast-iron ; but the only experiments which
could then be found on that of stone, are contained in a short notice
by M. Desrieny, in the 7th volume of the Quarterly Journal of
Science, Literature, and Art. These are not extensive, and have,
moreover, been determined by taking the difference between the
expansion of the stones and rods of iron and copper to which
they were attached, thereby diminishing quantities naturally very
small; and the difference was again augmented and rendered
more visible by a double system of levers; a method liable to
many objections in point of accuracy, even though the experi-
ments were performed with great care.

Since the date of the interdict formerly referred to, the almost
universal adoption of cast-iron supports in constructing elegant
fronts for shops, and the perfect manner in which they have been
found to answer the purpose, has given that practical refutation
to the alleged objections which, in such cases, is always most to
be relied on. And although I do not recollect that, in any in-
stance, a fire has taken place in a building, the front of which was
supported on cast-iron, yet, from the experiments I have made,
it will be seen that, even under such circumstances, the iron is
not likely to be hurtful from the excess of its expansion over
that of stone. Nevertheless it appears to have been a common *
opinion till within a very recent period, and one which has been
supported by names of the very highest authority, that the length
of a rod of Carrara marble could not be sensibly altered in length
by a change of temperature. This opinion was founded on a
very beautiful speculation on the arrangement of the crystals of
marble ; and although none of my experiments tend to show
that it is correct with regard to either of the specimens of Car-
rara marble which I have examined, yet the supposition may not

VOL. XIII. PART II, Z%

356 Mr A. J. Apre on the Expansion of Stone,

be altogether groundless, as I have found no stone which ex-
pands less than the black marble from Galway in Ireland.

Since the commencement of my experiments, I have seen a
notice in the London and Edinburgh Journal of Science, of a
letter read on the 12th of March 1834 to the Geological Society
of London by Mr Cuartes Bassace, in which the author states,
that, from the experiments of Colonel Torren, recorded in S1t-
Liman’s Journal, he has calculated a table of the expansion, in
feet and decimal parts, of granite, marble, and sandstone, from
which he finds the alteration in bulk so great, that, supposing the
strata under the temple of Serapis to expand at the same rate as
sandstone, and an increase of temperature equal to 100° to act
on them to the depth of five miles, the temple would be raised
25 feet. He therefore concludes, that the different changes of
level which this edifice has undergone in reference to the surface
of the sea, may be accounted for, simply by supposing the tem-
perature of the subjacent rocks to have been altered: The sand-
stone which Colonel Torren had experimented on has been even
more sensible to change than any of my specimens ; because I find
that a similar increase of temperature acting on a mass of what
the marble-cutters call Sicilian white marble, five miles thick;
would produce an elevation of only 19.8 feet, or about 4ths of
the other; and it expands more than any other stone I have
tried.

Before making any farther remarks on the experiments them-
selves, I shall give an account of the construction of my pyro-
meter, and of the manner in which the experiments were con-
ducted, so that every one may be enabled to judge how far he
may rely on the accuracy of the results at which I have arrived.

Description of a Pyrometer heated by a Current of Steam.

The pyrometer I employed was constructed of a large piece
of an oak tree of very straight growth, which was squared to eight

Jrom an Increase of Temperature. 357

inches and a half. In order to get the wood as well seasoned as
possible, I selected it from the best of the oak beams got in the
old houses lately pulled down in forwarding the improvements of
Edinburgh ; and from the number of coats of size-paint which
covered three sides of it, there could be no doubt that it had
been long in an open situation. After it was worked to the pro-
per shape, it was allowed to stand for some weeks, as it is some-
times said that, to remove the surface from timber, will cause it
to warp, however well it may have been seasoned beforehand.
The stand for this instrument, however, did not alter; and even
smaller pieces of the same tree, and of another tree from the
same place, which were accurately worked into other parts con-
nected with the experiments, have not altered in the least de-
gree. I therefore concluded that the wood had been very long
kept in a dry situation. To the oak stand A, which was 42 feet
long, all the other parts of the instrument were attached. B is a
double metal case containing the specimen C under experiment.
The bottom of the case B rests in a strong brass plate, which is
fixed on the top of a block of oak 8 inches broad and 11 long,
and the block is strongly hooped and bolted with iron to the stand.
The upper part of the case B is fixed to the stand by a brass clamp.
Fig. 2. is a cross section of the double case of the full size, and the
part marked ss is the space through which the current of steam
passes : so that the specimen C, placed within the inner case, can
be heated by the steam, and yet kept quite dry. P, Fig. 1, is the
pipe by which the steam is brought from the boiler and thrown
into the bottom of the double case ; and DD are eduction-pipes,
from the top and bottom of the case B, by which the steam is
carried off and thrown into the chimney, to prevent the atmo-
sphere of the room from being rendered damp from its escaping
into it. On each of the eduction-pipes DD there is a stop-cock
E, to regulate the quantity of steam which ought to pass off
from the top and bottom of the double case, in order to keep the
thermometers TT, which are inserted into the top and bottom
of the inner case, at the same height; and by regulating the
ZZz2

358 Mr A. J. Avie on the Expansion of Stone

JSrom an Increase of Temperature. 359

openings of these stop-cocks, the thermometers may easily be
kept at the same temperature for any length of time. MM are
the micrometer microscope, strongly fixed to the stand A, and
opposite to plate-glass windows W, Fig. 2, which are placed in
the double case B, so as to suit the lengths of the rods of which
it was wished to measure the expansion. The upper micrometer
reads the thirty-thousandth part of an inch, and the under one
was intended to have been used to read a much smaller quanti-
ty; but it required great care to draw the lines on the silver
studs on which the lengths were laid off; so as to make the up-
per micrometer read to the same division ; it was therefore found
more convenient to employ the under micrometer as a fixed one,
by moving the zero line of the under stud on the rod, till it in-
tersected the angle of the cross spider-threads in the under mi-
crometer. This was done by the screw G working on the long
end of a lever, which raised and lowered the rod under experi-
ment; the lever, besides reducing the quickness of the screw G,
gave it a more convenient position, and made the rod move
without any tendency to turn. The whole body of the double
case B was covered with a jacket, about the third of an inch
thick, made of several plies of flannel; and all the metal parts
of the top and bottom, as well as the upper stop-cock E, and
the greater part of the upper thermometer, were also thickly
covered with flannel. This was found necessary to get the up-
per and under thermometer to stand at the same tempera-
ture. There wasa screen R of polished tin-plate interposed be-
tween the stand supporting the micrometer microscopes and the
double case B, in order to prevent any heat from being radiated
from the one te the other. Also, in order to keep the stand of
the pyrometer at the same temperature during the experiment,
it was placed near the window of the room, and the furnace for
the boiler was built in a common fire-place, the front of which
was closed with a screen of thick boards ; and the polished tin-
pipes which conducted the steam from the boiler to the instru-

360 Mr A. J. Avie on the Expansion of Stone

ment and back again to the chimney passed through holes in
the screen-boards. A detached thermometer was hung over the
instrument, and it was always kept at the same height by admit-
ting more or less air by the window. In order to have the same
direction of light during each experiment, I employed two small
lamps, placed about a foot from the instrument, and their light
was thrown in at the windows by lenses and reflectors. The re-
flectors were fixed on soft wires, so that they could be bent to re-
flect a bright light from the bottom of the lines on the studs. All
the parts of the instrument were made as heavy as consistent with
convenience, to prevent their being affected by sudden changes
of temperature.

The rods of which the expansions were determined varied from
half an inch to an inch square, and the length of twenty-three
inches was carefully laid off on silver-studs, which were fixed into
holes drilled inthe rods, the centres of the holes being twenty-three
inches apart. It was necessary to divide the head of the upper
stud into fiftieths of an inch, in order to determine the value of
the micrometer for each experiment, as it was liable to a little
variation, from the impossibility of adjusting it to exactly the
same focus, which it had when it was adjusted to a fixed value.
To guard against this error arising from alteration of the focal
distance, I read the micrometer for 2; of an inch on the stud in
the rod which was to be heated ; and this was repeated at each
experiment made on the rod, after every thing had been adjust-
ed. In placing the rod in the instrument a socket was tied to
the lower end below the lower stud, and the socket was fitted so
as to slip tightly upon the top of a square head, on the end of a
pin P, Fig. 3, moyed by the lever and screw G, Fig. 1. This served
to raise and depress the rod, and was very convenient in fixing it
in the proper place, for the under microscope. In Fig. 3, A is the
lower end of the rod, S the under stud in it, B the socket, which
is tied to A, by the piece on the front, so that it was of no con-
sequence what the thickness of the rod might be, as the stud was

Jrom an Increase of Temperature. 361

Fig. 3.

always in the same position in the instrument. p is the square
pin fitting into the socket, and moved by the screw G, Fig. 1.
The upper part of the rod was kept in the proper position, by
means of slender springs of wire, which pressed a small roller against
the front of the case, so that the upper stud always stood at the
same distance from the object-glass of the upper micrometer. This
is shewn by Fig. 4, which is a section of the upper part of the
double case of the full size. A is the upper end of the rod
under experiment. R the roller pressing on the front of the
double case. SS the space through which the steam passes. B
the upper stud opposite to the window and upper micrometer M.
CC the back spring, E one of the side springs. F the cover of the
top, which is double ; and the space between the upper and un-
der plate is stuffed with cotton. T the bulb of the upper ther-
mometer.. V is the upper pipe, by which any vapour coming
from the enclosed rod may escape, when it is wished to allow the

of Stone

the Expansion

Mr A. J. ADDIE on

a
co

3

[ UUM eS

i ii
Ha
ARH
Hii ly I)
HATH
in ri

ER

il) aa

=

Ii lh

Bocce a

Jrom an Increase of Temperature. 363

rod to become drier; but the whole of the inner case is so tight
as to prevent any evaporation, unless the upper pipe V, and the
under one of the same size, V, Fig. 1, which passes through the
bottom plate, are left open. The springs and roller represented
in this figure were firmly tied on the rods, and could easily be
shifted from the one to the other It was my intention to have
ascertained the expansion of the different rods between the freez-
ing and the boiling points, by first filling the space SS, Fig. 4,
with melting ice, and then by passing a current of steam to get
the higher point, but the difficulty of getting ice until a few
weeks since made me abandon this; besides, I found that, to
keep the thermometers above 208° F., sent a great heat through
the room, on account of the strong fire it was necessary to keep
up. As the thermometers were made with every precaution to
insure their accuracy; I contented myself with the range I could
get between the temperature of the room, which was generally
under 50°, and 207° or 208°.

The rod was put into the pyrometer, the micrometers set, and
allowed to stand over the night, and the lowest point taken at the
height at which the thermometers stood next day, by making the
line on the under stud intersect the angle of the spider threads
of the lower micrometer; and the index error of the line on the
upper stud was read from the zero of the upper micrometer: This
was repeated four times, by deranging and again adjusting the
height of the under line by means of the screw G.

After completing the readings, the steam was turned into
the case, and the expansion of the rod measured by a similar
set of readings, as soon as the line on the upper stud was found
to be stationary, which sometimes required the temperature of
the pyrometer to be kept at the same degree for an hour and
a half.

I thought that my application of steam for heating a pyro-
meter was the first time it had been done, as I could find no ac=
count of its having been formerly used in any of the descriptions

VOL. XIII. PART II. 3A

364 Mr A. J. Apix on the Expansion of Stone

of the instruments for similar operations ; but Lieutenant Mur-
puy informed me, that he thinks it was employed in some py-
rometric operations connected with a trigonometrical survey in
India; and I am satisfied, from the uniformity of temperature it
maintains in the instrument, no better method of heating can be
resorted to for such operations, because the substance, if of
wood or stone, is kept dry, and the fire or lamps are placed at such
a distance as not to incommode the operator in the least degree.
Some of the rods of stone experimented on are now before the
Society. I had considerable difficulty in making rods of Roman
cement, as they repeatedly cracked in drying, and I was anxious
to have this substance tried, as I found that rods of lime were
too weak, not more to settle the general question, as to the ex-
pansion of buildings, than to have the pleasure, if possible, of as-
sisting Mr Brunet in accounting for the results of some experi-
ments he mentioned at the last meeting of the British Asso-
ciation, when describing one of the many beautiful contrivances
for which his fertile ingenuity has rendered him so celebrated. I
succeeded in making a rod of Roman cement, by at first mixing
as little water with the powder as would make it work, and when
it had become too plastic, from continued working, more of the
powder was added, and the cement again made plastic by work-
ing and beating. This process was continued so long as any of
the cement in powder could be added to the mass, and the whole
again worked into the consistency of soft putty, without any ad-
dition of water, as the strength of the mortar appears to de-
pend on the smallness of the quantity of water with which we
can make the dry powder plastic, this is accomplished by long
continued working. After preparing the mortar, it was put into a
mould of Bristol board, and when it had set, it was immersed in
water, and left for a fortnight to harden.

Having ascertained that all the parts of the pyrometer worked
well from the uniformity of the results I obtained in determin-
ing the expansion of cast zinc, which was selected as the metal

Jrom an Increase of Temperature. 365

most sensible to a change of temperature, I commenced the ex-
periments for which the instrument was made, but, before giving
the results of those on stone, I may mention what took place in
trying the expansion of a rod of oak, cut from the same tree of
which the pyrometer stand was made. On account of a very
small quantity of steam escaping through a hole in the inner
case, the wood expanded very much the first time it was heated,
and when taken out, and allowed to stand some days to dry, I
found it lengthened about the thirtieth part of an inch. The
inner case was made perfectly air-tight, even under considerable
pressure, as it appeared absolutely necessary to prevent steam
from escaping into it, for all experiments to ascertain the effect of
heat on different kinds of wood; and I also wished to keep the
rods of stone quite dry, to be certain what effect moisture had on
their expansibility. When the rod of oak was again thoroughly
dried, and the length of 23 inches laid off anew on the studs,
it was found that for an increase of temperature of 180° Fahr.
it only expanded .001426177 of an inch, or .000062007 in de-
cimals of the length of the rod; which is just one-fifteenth
part of the amount of the expansion of platinum, the least ex-
pansible of the metals. This insensibility to change of tem-
perature in this wood, provided it be kept free from moisture,
has induced me to investigate the subject a little farther I
have procured rods of many of the most straight-grained kinds
of wood, and after I have determined their rates of expansion, I
intend to varnish or cover them with different substances, to
find their expansion again, and then to see to what extent, and
for how long, they will resist moisture, as it has been said that
a wooden rod answers best for a pendulum when unvarnished,
and left in its natural state.

The following Table gives the expansions of the different
kinds of stone I have examined, and also of two rods of east-
iron. The one which expanded least, was cast half an inch
square, and was put into the pyrometer with the outer surface

342

366

Mr A. J. Avte on the Expansion of Stone

rough as it came from the mould. The other rod was also half
an inch square, but was cut out of the centre of a bar of the
same iron cast two inches square, in order to get more nearly the
rate of expansion of a large mass.
In the Table, the substances are arranged in the order of their
rates of expansion, that which expands most being placed first.

1

TABLE or THE EXPANSION OF STONE, &c.

- Roman cement,

. Sicilian white per

Ly

. Carrara marble,

. Sandstone from the)
liver rock of Craig- f
leith Quarry, . .

. Cast-iron from a rod
cut from a bar cast

two inches square,

. Cast-iron from a rod | Y

cast half an inch sq.
. Slate from Penrhyn
Quarry, Wales,

j

. Peterhead red granite, }

. Arbroath pavement,

. Caithness pavement,

. Greenstone from Ratho,

. Aberdeen grey granite,

. Best stock brick,

. Fire-brick, c

. Stalk of a Dutch
bacco-pipe,. . +

. Round rod of Wedge-
wood-ware (11 inches
long) Waceheiy ase

. Black Marble from

Galway, Ireland, .

to-

\

Decimals of an
Inch on 23
Inches, for

180° F.

0330043

“0325392
0253946
0274344
‘0150405

*0270093

0263755

0253498
0238659
0220416

0206266

-0206552
-0205788
“0186043
01815695
0126542
-01135384

‘0105177

0102394

Decimal of
Length for
180° F.

0014349

“0014147
00110411
0011928
0006539

‘00117438

-00114676

-001102166

-0010376
-0009583

-0008968

-0008985
-0008947
-0008089
-00078943
*0005502
0004928

-0004573

*00045294

*00044519

Decimal of

Length for 1°
F.

Whenthe rod contained

-0000075 more moisture it ex-

panded more.
-0900078 From first experiment,

when moist.
00000613 | Mean of three experi-

ments, when dry.
-00000662 From first experiment,

when moist.
-60000363| 4 Mean of two experi-
ments, when dry.

00000652 do.

Mean of four

-00000637 Mean of two do.
‘00000612 | Mean of two do.
-00000576 Mean of three do.
-00000532 ‘a first experiment,
when moist,
00000498 Mean of two do.,
(when dry.
-00000499 | Mean of four do.
-00000457 | Mean of three do.
-000°0449 |Mean of three do.
-00000438 | Mean of two do.
‘00000306 | Mean of two do.
-00000274 | Mean of two do.
-00000254 | Mean of three do.
:00000251 | Mean of two do.
-00000247 | Mean of three do,

from an Increase of Temperature. 367

From the results given in the Table, it is evident that no
danger is to be apprehended from a change of temperature af-
fecting cast-iron and sandstone, in a very different degree, as
their expansion, in su far as regards all building operations at
least, may be considered as the same. The difference between
the expansion of bricks and malleable iron amounts only to
.00042 for 90° F., or half an inch on 100 feet; and Roman
cement, when in as damp a state as all buildings must be, will
expand more than malleable iron, since it did so in my experi-
ment, even after it had been dried for eleven hours at a tempe-
rature of 207°. This, therefore, will in a great measure serve for
an explanation of the fact mentioned by Mr Brunet, in describ-
ing his method of constructing arches, by suspending the courses
of brick with straps of hoop-iron, viz. that he had had some anxiety
as to the manner in which variations of temperature would affect
his mode of operating, by expanding the metal more than the
brick and mortar ; but, on examining his experimental arch, both
in summer and in winter, not a crack was to be seen. The sub-
stances at the bottom of the Table are black marble, and the rod
of Wedgewood’s ware; their expansions are nearly alike, and
they expand very nearly half as much as platinum for the same
number of degrees.*

M. Desriceny mentions in his paper before alluded to, that
he found the expansion of stone not at all affected by a difference
in its state of humidity. From what I have observed in con-
ducting my experiments, I am quite of a different opinion, for
although no increased expansibility was observed by wetting
sandstone after it had been dried, and I did not try any direct
experiment of this nature with any of the marbles, on account of
the very small quantity of water which they were found to ab-

* T have since procured another rod of Galway black marble, which contained.
more fossils, and was softer than the first. Its expansion for 180° F. was .0004'793,
and for 1° F, .00000266.

368 Mr A. J. Avie on the Expansion of Stone

sorb after having been dried, nevertheless the experiments on
greenstone show the effect of moisture, and some of the marbles
certainly became less sensible to the change of temperature, after
they had been heated, and this was probably caused by their natu-
ral moisture being driven off. This diminution is distinctly shewn
by the following series of experiments on Sicilian marble :-—

Ist, ...... -0325392 : Decimals of an inch for
ag, 2! 0267163 |" Diff. peep | 23 inches, the change
Sd, ..<... -0254020' (-~ ‘ ade _ | of temperature being
Ath, ...... 0240656 J J 180° F.

The rod gave off a considerable quantity of moisture. This
gradual diminution of the expansion was scarcely observable in
the sandstones and Aberdeen grey granite, which contained a
great deal of quartz; and in the bricks, in the stalk of a Dutch
tobacco-pipe, and in a rod of Wedgewood’s ware, no such change
took place, although all these substances had been wet in cutting
the holes, &c. before they could be put into the pyrometer. ‘The
Peterhead granite, again, which contains much more felspar than
that from Aberdeen, and also the greenstone, were affected by
losing their moisture, but more especially the latter, as shewn
by the following series of experiments made in November. Un-
luckily the first observation, which always differs most from the
others, was lost.

Dd tere: 0198879 ) Diff, .001'7485 ES of an OS the
Oliseeats -0180894 0002037 expansion of 23 inches
Ath, 0.0. 0178857) ates: for 180° F.

As greenstone absorbs moisture much more readily than the
marbles, I replaced the rod again in the pyrometer, after it had
hung in the room for more than three months, from the time of
performing the first experiments. The instrument was heated
to 207° F., and this temperature was kept up without change
during the four hours in which I watched the alterations of the

Srom an Increase of Temperature. 369

length of the rod. ‘The inner case being closed to prevent the
evaporation of the moisture, the ultimate expansion of the green-
stone for 155° F., was 5.02 revolutions of the screw of the upper
micrometer. The pipes V V, for drying the inner case were then
opened, a good deal of vapour came off, and when the rod
had been allowed to dry for three quarters of an hour, the mi-
crometer read only 3.24; hence, by the effect of drying alone,
the rod contracted rather more than ;+;th part of an inch. I
then poured boiling water on the rod, and closed the drying
pipes, and although this could not moisten it thoroughly, yet
when its expansion was again at the greatest, the upper micro-
meter read 4.15. The drying pipes were then opened a second
time, and although the temperature always remained unaltered,
the reading of the upper micrometer was again reduced to 3.32.
This experiment clearly shews, that the expansibility of some
kinds of stone very much depends on their state of humidity.
An analogous experiment was tried with a rod of satin wood,
and the length of the wood altered with the similar changes in
the same manner, but toa greater extent. With the latter sub--
stance this might have been expected, but such an action of
moisture on stone is certainly very remarkable. I have there-
fore given two rates of expansion in the table for several of the
rods, the greater is when the rod contained most moisture, the
lesser is a mean of several experiments made when it was in a
dryer state, and when the results of the experiments agreed very
nearly among themselves.

A very curious effect of the heat on the white marbles, was
that of causing a permanent increase of their length, which, in
the Sicilian marble, was gradually augmented by the heating for
each experiment. The rod of this marble was heated five times,
but, unfortunately, as the change is always decreasing, I at first
adjusted the micrometers without. noting the quantity, by which
the line on the stud had not returned to the adjustment for the
previous experiment. This was the first time I had met with

370 Mr A. J. Avre on the Expansion of Stone

this gradual increase in the length of the rod ; and by the effect
of the two heatings noted after I observed it, the rod was length-
ened .0096, or nearly the hundredth of an inch. On the rod of
Carrara marble, the elongation took place mostly at the first heat-
ing, and it amounted to .0135 of an inch. This may probably
serve to account for the warping which sometimes takes place on
those parts of chimney-pieces which are subjected to the greatest
action of the fire. It is impossible to say how far this lengthen-
ing would be increased by a greater change of temperature ; but,
since Mr Bazzace has applied the expansion of stone to the ex-
planation of geological phenomena, this property of limestone
may also be taken into account, as it only requires the heat to
have been once in action after the strata have been formed. In
the experiment on the rod of Carrara marble, the whole effect
was produced by an increase of temperature of 157° F.; and
if we suppose this to have acted on strata five miles deep, the
depth taken by Mr Bassace, in accounting for the changes
of the level of the Temple of Serapis, the surface would have been
raised by not less than 153 feet. Little weight, however, can be
attached to such explanations of the great operations of nature,
as there may be a vast difference between the effect of heat
quickly communicated to the small pieces of stone on which we
perform our experiments, and the necessarily slow diffusion of
the heat through such a depth of strata as we have supposed.

In order to ascertain if there was any connexion between the
density of stones of the same composition and their expansibility,
as takes place with the metals, I determined the specific gravity
of several of the rods, but the one property does not appear to
have the least dependence on the other. For instance, the spe-
cific gravity of Sicilian white marble and Galway black marble
is 2.7127 and 2.7093, almost exactly alike ; the expansion for
180° F. of the former is .0325392, while that of the latter is
only .0102394, not one-third of the first. In determining the

JSrom an Increase of Temperature. 371

specific gravities, the stones were first dried on a sand-bath, and,
after being weighed in a dry state, they were put into distilled
water ; and although the pieces of the black and white marble
weighed about 200 grains, and were left three weeks in water,
they only absorbed one-tenth of a grain, yet the white marble, in
particular, gave off a considerable quantity of moisture when first
heated. The Arbroath pavement absorbed #; of its bulk of
water, and the Caithness pavement 74; part; which shews the
great superiority of the latter pavement for all purposes, where
it is wished to exclude dampness.

In conclusion, it may be observed that, from the results of the
experiments given in the Table, it is perfectly evident that not
the slightest danger can arise from the use of cast-iron in build-
ings, on account of the difference of their expansion for all ordi-
nary temperatures. Nor do I think that there is any cause to
dread the effects of fire where such pillars are used, although that
was one of the arguments employed to retard their introduction ;
on the contrary, there is every reason to believe, that even in
cases where the fire would rage with all the fury that a strong
wind could impart to it, cast-iron pillars would support the lintels
of the windows as safely as those of stone, And I do not state
this as a mere matter of speculation. The late great burning of
part of the North Bridge New Buildings, is a proof of the cor-
rectness of the opinion. Of the extraordinary fierceness of this
conflagration, those who did not witness it might easily have
satisfied themselves, by inspecting the injury done to the stones
of the ashler front. I was present at this terrific scene of de-
struction, before the flames burst from the windows, and remain-
ed till the fire was quite under the power of the engines. Very
soon after the flames came sweeping out at the front windows,
the stones began to crack and skirt off, and a constant shower of
such large masses fell, during probably half-an-hour, that the
firemen were obliged to draw back their leathern hose to a con-

VOL, XIII. PART II. 3B

372 Mr A. J. Avis on the Expansion of Stone, &c.

siderable distance from the buildings ; and, so long as the stones
continued to fall, it was impossible to save any of the very valu-
able property from the shops below, which, but for this, might
have been easily and leisurely done. Now, no part of the stone
was at any time red-hot, and the firemen were standing on the
window-soles very soon after the flames retired from them, so
that no danger was to be apprehended from the risk of cast-iron
being melted in such a situation. Indeed, the cast-iron columns
in the interior of the building did not appear to be much injured
by the fire.

Eprnsurcu, April 4. 1835.

(aura)

On the Application of the Hot Blast, in the Manufacture of Cast-
Iron. By Tuomas Crark, M. D., Professor of Chemistry in
Marischal College, Aberdeen.

( Read 16th March 1835.)

Amone persons interesting themselves in the progress of Bri-
tish manufactures, it can scarce fail to be known, that Mr Neit-
son of Glasgow, manager of the Gas Works in that city, has taken
out a patent for an important improvement in the working of
such furnaces as, in the language of the patent, “are supplied
with air by means of bellows, or other blowing apparatus.” In
Scotland, Mr Nerison’s invention has been extensively applied
to the making of cast-iron, insomuch that there is only one
Scotch iron-work where the invention is not in use, and in that
work, apparatus is under construction to put the invention into
operation. Apart from the obvious importance of any consider-
able improvement in the manufacture of so valuable a product as
cast-iron, the invention of Mr Nritson would merit attention,
were it only for the singular extent of the improvement effected,
compared with the apparent simplicity—I had almost said
inadequacy—of the means employed. Having therefore, by the
liberality of Mr Duntop, proprietor of the Clyde Iron-Works,
where Mr Neruson’s invention was first put into operation, ob-
tained full and free access to all information regarding the results
of trials of the invention in those works, on the large scale of
manufacture, I cannot help thinking that an authentic notice of
these results, together with an attempt to explain the cause of
them, will prove acceptable to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
And that these results, as well as the cause of them, may be set

forth with clearness, I shall advert,
aBQ

374 Dr Crarx on the Application of the Hot Blast

First, To the process of making iron, as formerly practised,
Second, To Mr Neixson’s alteration on that process,
Third, To the effect of that alteration,

Fourth, To the cause of that effect.

I. In proceeding to advert to the process of making cast-iron,
as formerly practised, it cannot here be necessary to enter into
much detail in explanation of a process, long practised and ex-
tensively known, as this has been ; nor, indeed, shall I enter into
detail, farther than, to the general scientific reader, may be pro-
per to elucidate Mr Nertson’s invention.

In making cast iron, then, the materials made use of were
three, —

The Ore,
The Fuel,
The Flux.

The Ore was clay iron-stone, that is to say, carbonate of iron,
mixed, in variable proportions, with carbonates of lime, and of
magnesia, as well as with aluminous and siliceous matter.

The Fuel made use of at Clyde Iron- Works, and in Scotland
generally, was coke, derived from splint-coal. During its conver-
sion into coke, this coal underwent a loss of 55 parts in the 100,
leaving 45 of coke. The advantage of this previous conversion
consisted in the higher temperature produced by the combustion
of the coke, in consequence of none of the resulting heat disap-
pearing in the latent form, in the vapours arising from the coal,
during its conversion into coke.

The Flux was common limestone, which was employed to act
upon the aluminous and siliceous impurities of the ore, so as to
produce a mixture more easy to melt than any of the materials
of which it was made up, just as an alloy of tin and lead serves
as a solder, the resulting alloy being more easy to melt than
either the lead or the tin apart.

in the Manufacture of Cast-Iron. 375

These three materials—the ore, the fuel, and the flux—were
put into the furnace, near the top, in a state of mixture. The
only other material supplied was air, which was driven into the
furnace by pipes from blowing apparatus, and it en-
tered the furnace by nozzles, sometimes on two oppo-
site sides of the furnace, sometimes on three, and
sometimes, but rarely, on four. The air supplied in
this manner entered near the bottom of the furnace,
at about 40 feet from the top; where the solid mate-
rials were put in. The furnace, in shape, consisted, at
the middle part, of the frustums of two cones, having
a horizontal base common to both, and the other and
smaller ends of each prolonged into cylinders, which
constituted the top and bottom of the furnace, as may
be well enough conceived from the sectional sketch
on the margin.

The whole of the materials put into the furnace, resolved
themselves into gaseous products, and into liquid products. The
gaseous products, escaping invisible at the top, included all the
carbonaceous matter of the coke, probably in the form of carbo-
nic acid, except only the small portion of carbon retained by the
cast-iron. The liquid products were collected in the cylindrical
reservoir, constituting the bottom of the furnace, and there di-
vided themselves into two portions, the lower and heavier being
the melted cast-iron, and the upper and lighter being the melted
slag, resulting from the action of the fixed portion of the flux
upon the fixed impurities of the fuel and of the ore.

II. Thus much being understood in regard to the process of
making cast-iron, as formerly practised, we are now prepared for
the statement of Mr Nriison’s improvement.

This improvement consists essentially in heating the air in
its passage from the blowing apparatus to the furnace. The
heating has hitherto been effected by making the air pass

376 Dr Criark on the Application of the Hot Blast

through cast-iron vessels, kept at a red heat. In the specifica-
tion of the patent, Mr Nrrxson states, that no particular form of
heating-apparatus is essential to obtaining the beneficial effect of
his invention ; and, out of many forms that have been tried, ex-
perience does not seem to have yet decided which is best. At
Clyde Iron-Works, the most beneficial of the results that I shall
have occasion to state, were obtained by the obvious expedient
of keeping red-hot the cast-iron cylindrical-pipes conveying the
air from the blowing apparatus to the furnace.

III. Such being the simple nature of Mr Neiuson’s inven-
tion, I now proceed to state the effect of its application.

During the first six months of the year 1829, when all the
cast-iron in Clyde Iron-Works was made by means of the cold
blast, a single ton of cast-iron required for fuel to reduce it, 8 tons
1 ewt. of coal, converted into coke. During the first six months
of the following year, while the air was heated to near 300° Fahr.,
one ton of cast-iron required 5 tons 34 ewt. of coal, converted
into coke.

The saving amounts to 2 tons 18 cwt. on the making of one
ton of cast-iron ; but from that saving comes to be deducted the
coals used in heating the air, which were nearly 8 cwt. ‘The
nett saving thus was 24 tons of coal on a single ton of cast-iron.
But during that year, 1830, the air was heated no higher than 300°
Fahr. The great success, however, of those trials, encouraged
Mr Dunvor, and other iron masters, to try the effect of a still
higher temperature. Nor were their expectations disappointed.
The saving of coal was greatly increased, insomuch that, about
the beginning of 1831, Mr Drxoy, proprietor of Calder Iron-
Works, felt himself encouraged to attempt the substitution of
raw coal for the coke before in use. Proceeding on the ascer-
tained advantages of the hot blast, the attempt was entirely suc-
cessful ; and, since that period, the use of raw coal has extended
so far as to be adopted in the majority of the Scotch iron-works.

in the Manufacture of Cast-Iron. 377

The temperature of the air under blast had now been raised so
as to melt lead, and sometimes zinc, and therefore was above
600° Fahr., instead of being only 300°, as in the year 1830.

The furnace had now become so much elevated in tempera-
ture, as to require, around the nozzle of the blowpipes, a precau-
tion borrowed from the finery-furnaces, wherein cast-iron is con-
verted into malleable, but seldom or never employed where cast-
iron is made by means of the cold blast. What is called the
Tweer, is the opening in the furnace to admit the nozzle of the
blowpipe. This opening is of a round funnel-shape, tapering
inwards, and it used always to have a cast-iron lining, to protect
the other building materials, and to afford them support. This
cast-iron lining was just a tapering tube nearly of the shape of
the blowpipe, but large enough to admit it freely. Now, un-
der the changes I have been describing, the temperature of the
furnace became so hot near the nozzles, as to risk the melting of
the cast-iron lining, which, being essential to the twee7, is itself
commonly called by that name. To prevent such an accident,
an old invention called the water-tweer was made available. The
peculiarity of this tweer consists in the cast-iron lining already
described being cast hollow instead of solid, so as to contain wa-
ter within, and water is kept there continually changing as it
heats, by means of one pipe to admit the water cold, and ano-
ther to let the water escape when heated. *

During the first six months of the year 1833, when all these
changes had been fully brought into operation, one ton of cast-
iron was made by means of 2 tons 54 ewt. of coal, which had
not previously to be converted into coke. Adding to this 8 cwt.
of coal for heating, we have 2 tons 134 cwt. of coal required to
make a ton of iron; whereas, in 1829, when the cold blast was
im operation, 8 tons 14 ewt. of coal had to be used. This being

* An incidental advantage attended the adoption of the water-tweers, inasmuch
as these made it practicable to lute up the space between the blowpipe nozzle and
the tweers, and thus prevent the loss of some air that formerly escaped by that
space, and kept up a bellowing hiss, which, happily, is now no longer heard.

378 Dr Cuark on the Application of the Hot Blast

almost exactly three times as much, we have, from the change of
the cold blast to the hot, combined with the use of coal instead
of coke, three times as much iron made from any given weight of
splint coal.

During the three successive periods that have been specified,
the same blowing apparatus was in use; and not the least re-
markable effect of Mr Nerison’s invention, has been the increased
efficacy of a given quantity of air in the production of iron. The
furnaces at Clyde Iron-Works, which were at first three, have
been increased to four, and, the blast machinery being still the
same, the following were the successive weekly products of iron
during the periods already named, and the successive weekly
consumpt of fuel put into the furnace, apart from what was used
in heating the blast :

Tons. Tons, Tons.
In 1829, from 3 furnaces, 111 Iron from 403 Coke, from 888 Coal.
In 1830, from 3 furnaces, 162 Iron from 376 Coke, from 836 Coal.
In 1833, from 4 furnaces, 245 Iron from 554 Coal.

Comparing the product of 1829 with the product of 1833, it will
be observed that the blast, in consequence of being heated, has
reduced more than double the quantity of iron. The fuel con-
sumed in these two periods we cannot compare, since, in the
former, coke was burned, and, in the latter, coal. But on com-
paring the consumpt of coke in the years 1829 and 1830, we
find that although the product of iron in the latter period
was increased, yet the consumpt of coke was rather diminished.
Hence the increased efficacy of the blast appears to be not
greater than was to be expected, from the diminished fuel that
had become necessary to smelt a given quantity of iron.

On the whole, then, the application of the hot blast has caused
the same fuel to reduce three times as much iron as before, and
the same blast twice as much as before.

The proportion of the flux required to reduce a given weight
of the ore, has also been diminished. The amount of this
diminution, and other particulars, interesting to practical per-

in the Manufacture of Cast-Iron. 379

sons, will appear on reference to a tabular statement supplied by
Mr Dun or, and printed as an Appendix to this paper. Not
further to dwell on such details, I proceed to the last division of
this paper, which is,

IV. To attempt an explanation of the foregoing extraor-
dinary results.

Subsidiary to this attempt, it is necessary to discriminate be-
tween the quantity of fuel consumed and the temperature pro-
duced. For instance, we may conceive a stove to be kept at the
temperature of 500° Fahrenheit, and lead to be put into such
a stove for the purpose of being melted. Then, since the melt-
ing point of lead is more than 100° higher, it is evident that
whatever fuel might be consumed in keeping that stove at the
temperature of 500°, the fuel is all consumed to no purpose, so
far as regards the melting of lead, in consequence of deficiency
in the temperature. In the manufacture of cast-iron likewise,
experience has taught us, that a certain temperature is required
in order to work the furnace favourably, and all the fuel con-
sumed so as to produce any lower degree of temperature, is fuel
consumed in vain. And how the hot blast serves to increase
the temperature of a blast furnace, will appear on adverting to
the relative weights of the solid and of the gaseous materials
made use of in the reduction of iron.

As nearly as may be, a furnace, as wrought at Clyde Iron-
works in 1833, had two tons of solid materials an hour put in at
the top, and this supply of two tons an hour was continued for
23 hours a-day, one half-hour every morning, and another every
evening, being consumed in letting off the iron made. But the
gaseous material—the hot air—what might be the weight of it ?
It can easily be ascertained thus: I find, by comparing the
quantities of air consumed at Clyde Iron-works, and at Calder
Iron-works, that one furnace requires of hot air from 2500. to
3000 cubical feet in a minute. I shall here assume 2867 cubi-

VOL. XIII. PART II. 3c

380 Dr Cxiarx on the Application of the Hot Blast

cal feet to be the quantity; a number that I adopt for the sake
. of simplicity, inasmuch as, calculated at an avoirdupois ounce
and a quarter, which is the weight of a cubical foot of air at 50°
Fahrenheit, these feet correspond precisely with 2 cwt. of air
a minute, or siv tons an hour. 'Two tons of solid material an
hour, put in at the top of the furnace, can scarce hurtfully affect
the temperature of the furnace, at least in the hottest part of it,
which must be far down, and where the iron, besides being re-
duced to the state of metal, is melted, and the slag too produced.
When the fuel put in at the top is coal, I have no doubt that,
before it comes to this far-down part of the furnace—the place of
its useful activity—the coal has been entirely coked ; so that, in
regard to the fuel, the new process differs from the old much
more in appearance than in essence and reality. But if two tons
of solid material an hour, put in at the top, are not likely to af-
fect the temperature of the hottest part of the furnace, can we
say the same of six tons of air an hour, forced in at the bottom
near that hottest part ? The air supplied is intended, no doubt,
and answers to support the combustion ; but this beneficial effect
is, in the case of the cold blast, incidentally counteracted by the
cooling power of six tons of air an hour, or two cwt. a minute,
which, when forced in at the ordinary temperature of the air,
cannot be conceived otherwise than as a prodigious refrigeratory
passing through the hottest part of the furnace, and repressing
its temperature. The expedient of previously heating the blast
obviously removes this refrigeratory, leaving the air to act in pro-
moting combustion, without robbing the combustion of any por-
tion of the heat it produces.

Such, I conceive, is the palpable, the adequate, and very
simple explanation of the extraordinary advantages derived in
the manufacture of cast-iron, from heating the air in its passage
from the blowing apparatus to the furnace.

Mariscuat CoLLecr,
Aberdeen, Jan. 10. 1835.

in the Manufacture of Cast-Iron. 381

APPENDIX.

TABLE shewing the Weight of Cast-Iron produced; and the Average Weight of ‘Coals
made use of, in producing a Ton of Cast-Iron, at Clyde Iron-Works, during the Years
1829, 1830, and 1833, the Blowing Engine being the same.

COKE AND HEATED AIR. | COAL AND HEATED AIR.

COKE AND COLD AIR.

3

Weekly Pro- | Average of Weekly Pro- | Average of Weekly Pro- | Average of
duct of Cast- | Coals used duct of Cast- Coals used is duct of Cast- Coals used
Iron by Three | to1 Ton of 1830. | tron by Three} tol Ton. of | 1833. | Tron by Four | to 1 Ton of
Furnaces. Cast-Iron. Furnaces. Cast-Iron. Furnaces. Cast-Iron.
Tons. Cwt. Qrs.| Tons. Cwt. Qrs. Tons. Cwt. Qrs.| Tons. Cwt. Qrs, i" Tons. Cwt, Qrs.| Tons. Cwt. Q
187 18 2 1 |Jan. 6.| 176 10 2 5 2.2 |Jan. 9.) 375 0 2123
148 20 6 92 13.| 181 12 2 5 02 16.| 267 18 0 2 40
148 8 2 6113 20.) 172 52); 5 02 23.| 270. 7 2 2 31
138 92 7 02 27.1 178 70 4190 30./ 250 90 2 40
125 13 0 7 12 1 |Feb.3.| 164 8 0 5 4 © |Meb.6.] 265 3 2 2 10
136 19 0 7131 10.| 172 12 0 5 40 13.} 202 10 0 248
130 16 2 71138 17.| 163 90 5 90 20.} 257 10 243
105 12 2 7100 24.| 170 10 5 30 27.| 264 00 A hod |
101 81 7:17 2 |Mar.3.| 154 19-0 5 10 3 |Mar.6.}. 234 13 0 PA Tie)
lll 20 8H 2) 2 10.| 154 16 0, 5 92 13.| 238 7 2 271
114 10 0 7, 6 2 17.| 151 8 2 5 98 20.) 205 13 0 210 2
110 14 0 8 81 24.| 163 17 0 5 ST 27.| 217 140 2 28
lll 40 So 7 2 31.| 163 8 2 5110 Ap. 3 220 70 2142
107 70 8 30] Ap.7.| 147 10 0 5 70 10.| 280 9 2 2 03
91 12 2 8 150 14,| 154 9 2 5 20 17.| 304 70 117 3
85 13 0 9130 21.) 163 40 4190 24.) 248 lv 2 2 30
91 14 2 9 62 28.) 148 12 2 5 40 ||Mayl.| 245 7 2 2 60
Cee 8 8 2 ||May5.| 162 10 2 5 22 8.| 200 17 0 2 80
94 60 9 21 12.| 149 13 0 5 382 15.) 246 42 2 53
88 42 8 16 3 19.| 162 40 5 50 22.| 219 12 2 60
91 13 0 8 50 26.| 165 7 2 418 3 29.) 231 20 2 80
97 20 8 21 |June2.| 160 40 5 2 2 |June5.| 235 16 0 2 62
104 15 2 7 10 2 9.| 157 17 0 5 10 12.| 232 10 0 ee 1
106 17 2 Tania? 16.| 164 00 4173 19.| 271 12 2 10
93 10 8 60 23.| 149 30 4180 26.| 262 32 2 3 1
113 70 8 18 2 30.| 162 16 2 4168 tw. 30 122 160 2 51
2878 18 0 | 209 19 0 4215 60) 1384 62 6370 30] 5818 3
110 14 2 8 11 162 22 5 31 245 00 2 51

3c 2

382 Application of the Hot Blast in the Manufacture of Cast-Iron.

The Blowing-engine has a steam-cylinder of 40 inches diameter, and a blowing-
cylinder of 8 feet deep and 80 inches diameter, and goes 18 strokes a minute. The
whole power of the engine was exerted in blowing the three furnaces, as well as in
blowing the four, and in both cases there were two tweers of 3 inches diameter to
each furnace. The pressure of the blast was 23 lb. to the square inch. The fourth
furnace was put into operation after the water tweers were introduced, and the open
spaces round the blowpipes were closed up by luting. The engine then went less
than 18 strokes a minute, in consequence of the too great resistance of the materials
contained in the three furnaces to the blast in its passage upwards.

Materials constituting a Charge.

Crt. Qrs. Lb.

1829, Coke, 5 0 0
Roasted Ironstone, : : 3 J: -_-14
Limestone, . ; ; : 0 3 16
1830, Coke, . < A A : 5 0 0
Roasted Ironstone, - : 5 0 0
Limestone, . ‘ ; ; 1 1” 16
1883, Coal, . ‘ d 5 0 0
Roasted Ironstone, a : 5 0 0

Limestone, . ; 8 , 1 0 0

( 383 )

On the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock, and its Alkaloid Conia.
By Roserr Curistison, M. D., F.R.S. E., Professor of Ma-
teria Medica in the University of Edinburgh.

(Read th December 1835.)

Few poisons are of greater interest, in a historical or scienti-
fic point of view, than Hemlock. It has been known ever since
the most classic periods of antiquity, being generally believed to
have been the zwvaov of NicanDER and Tueorurastvus, and com-
monly thought to have been the poison with which state-crimi-
nals were despatched in ancient Athens. Since that period it
has occupied a prominent place in all works on Toxicology ; and
it has been immemorially familiar as a deadly poison to the vul-
gar in every part of Europe, where there is scarcely a country or
even a province which does not produce it in abundance. For
nearly a century, too, since the writings of Baron S'rorcx of Vi-
enna in 1762, it has been constantly in the hands of the physi-
cian as a remedy, and has been currently employed at different
times in the treatment of some of the most common, as well as in
some of the most malignant, of all the maladies to which the hu-
man body is liable.

To its importance, as thus indicated, the attention which it
has received from scientific men, and more especially from the
chemist and the physiologist, has been by no means commensu-
rate. There is scarcely a chemical analysis of hemlock worth
mentioning till Grszxz, in 1827, succeeded in concentrating its
active properties in a compound with sulphuric acid, of such en-
ergy, that two grains killed a small animal in fifty-five minutes ;*

* Journal de Pharmacie, xiii. 266; or, Archiv des Apothekervereins in Nérd-

lichen Deutschland, xx. 97.
6

384 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

and it was not till 1831 that its active principle was detected
and detached by Professor Gricer of Heidelberg, and proved
by him to be one of a new order of organic alkaloids,—not fixed
and crystalline like those previously known, such as morphia,
strychnia, cinchonia, and the like, but volatile and oleaginous in
their physical form.* Prior to this discovery, the knowledge
possessed of the physiological effects of hemlock was vague and
meagre ; and little has since been done to supply the defect. The
ideas entertained by the Greek and Roman naturalists and physi-
cians of the poisonous properties of the ancient zaveov or cicuta, were
for the most part contradictory or obscure. Their statements, how-
ever, were long adopted by modern physiologists without examina-
tion, and applied to the Coniwm maculatum, or spotted hemlock of
botanists ; and the small amount of original inquiry which has
been attempted by late experimentalists, has added little to
the previous stock of knowledge. It is surprising, however,
that some late researches were not carried farther than they have
been ; for it would appear scarcely possible for any accurate ob-
server to attend carefully to the phenomena produced by hem-
lock and its alkaloid in their action on the animal body, without
remarking that they are in many respects among the most inte-
resting and extraordinary of all poisons.

These views, and the physiological facts to be subsequently
related, were brought under my notice during an attempt made
last autumn to repeat the analytic researches of Professor GricEr.
As these researches are too little known in this country, or indeed
out of Germany, and I have had occasion to confirm, almost every
fact advanced by the Heidelberg Professor, I have thought it not
inopportune to reproduce here the general heads of his analysis,
as introductory to the principal object of this paper,—which is,
“ The Poisonous Properties of Hemlock, and its Alkaloid Conia.”

A short time before the analysis of Professor Gricrr, it was

* Magazin fiir Pharmacie, xxxv. 72 and 259.

and its Alkaloid Conia. 385

observed by Grsrxe, that, on distilling hemlock with water and
caustic lime, an alkaline liquid of a strong and peculiar odour
was obtained ; from which, when neutralized by sulphuric acid
anid concentrated by evaporation, he separated with alcohol a
substance of the nature of an extract, possessing the poison-
ous qualities of hemlock in a very eminent degree. Two grains
of it killed a rabbit in less than an hour. But Gisexke was un-
able to detach either an alkaloidal or a crystalline principle.

Proceeding in the same line of investigation, but with more
precision, Grrcer first found that the distilled water of hemlock
leaves, or of the green seéds, although it gives out very strongly
the peculiar mousy odour of the plant, is scarcely if at all poison-
ous ;—a remarkable fact, when we consider that this odour or
aroma is usually thought to be a correct measure of the relative
activity of different specimens, and to possess a narcotic or stu-
pifying tendency on those exposed to it. The imagination
has probably had much to do in the formation of these no-
tions. At all events, we now know that the singular aroma of
hemlock is owing, like other vegetable odours, to a volatile oil ;
and that this oil is very feebly if at all deleterious.

But if the green seeds or leaves, either after or before the
separation of the volatile oil, be distilled with water and caustic
potass or lime,—the heat being applied through means of a mu-
riate of lime bath, to prevent charring,—it will be found that
the liquid which passes over is strongly alkalineand highly poi-
sonous ; and I have also commonly observed, where ten or twelve
pounds of seeds were worked in one operation, that an oily-like
matter comes over with the first few ounces of liquid, which is
soluble in acids, insoluble in’ alkalis, strongly alkaline in its ac-
tion on turmeric, and of a powerful, peculiar, suffocating odour,
allied to, yet by no means identical with, that of the fresh herb.
This, in fact, is a small quantity of tolerably pure conia.

But the greater part of the alkaloid remains in solution in
the water which is distilled over. If this distilled water be dis-

386 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

tilled anew, it is simply reproduced without any material change
except some loss of strength. But if it be previously neutralized
with an acid, such as the sulphuric, the volatile poisonous prin-
ciple becomes fixed, and water alone is distilled over. The resi-
duum consists of sulphate of conia, sulphate of ammonia, and
resinoid matter, the resin and ammonia being produced by de-
composition of a part of the conia under the operation of heat
and the access of air. In order to obtain the conia, the mass is
subjected to a mixture of two parts of rectified spirit and one of
sulphuric ether, which leaves the sulphate of ammonia undissolv-
ed. And then, the ether and alcohol being distilled carefully off,
the remaining sulphate of conia is heated gently with a little wa-
ter and caustic potassa ; upon which there is obtained in the re-
ceiver a watery solution of conia in the lower part, and floating
on this a layer of nearly pure conia, colourless, transparent, and
presenting the physical appearance of an oil.

In this state the conia contains a little ammonia and a fourth
of its weight of water, the latter of which may be removed by
chloride of calcium, and the former by exposing it to the air-
pump vacuum so long as bubbles of gas escape. By neither pro-
cess of purification, however, is the physical appearance of the
conia materially changed.

Conia thus obtained has the appearance of a colour.ess vola-
tile oil. It is lighter than water, of a very powerful diffusible
repulsive odour, somewhat like that of hemlock itself; and intense-
ly acrid to the taste. It has a strong alkaline action on reddened
litmus or turmeric. It is readily soluble in diluted acids, which
it neutralizes ; but its salts have not yet been obtained in the
erystalline form. It is sparingly soluble in water, to which it
imparts its odour and taste. It also combines with about a
fourth of its weight of water to form a hydrate of conia. Both
this hydrate and the watery solution possess the property of be-
coming opaque when slightly heated, and recovering their trans-
parency on being again cooled. When exposed to the air it

and its Alkaloid Conia. 387

quickly contracts a dark brown colour, and is slowly resolved in-
to a resinous matter, with the disengagement of ammonia. This
change takes place more promptly under the co-operation of
heat ; but even at common temperatures it is so apt to ensue, that
unless the alkaloid be kept very carefully excluded from the air,
discoloration will be accomplished in a few hours. When heat-
ed with water it readily distils over at the temperature, of Pal Be
in the same manner as the volatile oils; but its boiling point is
370° Fahr. It cannot be distilled either alone or with water,
without a considerable part being decomposed and converted
into a resin. Like other vegetable alkaloids, it is an azotized
principle ; and according to an analysis by Lzzzze, it is composed
of Carbon 66.91, Hydrogen 12.0, Oxygen 8.28, and Azote 12.8.*

By the process mentioned above, conia may be obtained from
the leaves of hemlock collected immediately before or during in-
florescence of the plant. It exists, however, in much larger pro-
portion in the seeds when fully developed, but still green. Even
in them the quantity is small: from forty pounds I obtained
about 22 ounces of hydrated conia. GriceEr states that he ob-
tained a still larger proportion from the ripe seeds ; a result, how-
ever, which has not been confirmed in the trials I have made.
It is very probable that a much larger proportion exists in
both the leaves and seeds than has yet been obtained. For at
every stage of the process where heat is applied, however care-
fully the heat may be managed, it is evident, from the abundant
formation of ammonia, that much of the alkaloid is decomposed.

An important fact observed by Gricer is, that the dried
leaves of hemlock and some extracts of their juice do not contain
any conia. This observation I have also had occasion to make
in regard to various extracts. It is interesting, in relation to the
well known circumstance that the greatest discrepancy prevails
among medical men as to the activity of hemlock, not. merely
as a remedy but even also as a poison. ‘T'wo drachms of extract

* Magazin fir Pharmacie, xxxvi. 161.

VOL. XIII. PART II. 3D

388 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

have been given to a dog without marked effect of any kind,
and even an ounce has acted only as a feeble poison ;* while it
will presently be found that the same preparation is sometimes
a poison of exceeding energy.

These discrepancies are easily understood now, on consider-
ing the extreme proneness of conia to decomposition, provided
the conig of Grrcer be the true active principle of hemlock.
From what has come under my observation, the extracts of hem-
lock may become feeble, if not even inert, in one of two ways,—
either by the heat being continued after the concentration has
been carried to a certain extent, or by long keeping. On the one
hand, I have always observed, that from the point at which the
extract attains the consistence of thin syrup, ammonia begins to
be given off in abundance, together with a modified odour of
conia. And on the other hand, I have found extracts which
were unquestionably well prepared at first, entirely destitute of
conia in the course of a few years,—a remark which applies even
to the superior extract prepared by M7 Barry of London by
evaporation im vacuo. The mode of ascertaining the presence of
conia is simply to triturate the extract or other preparation with
solution of potassa, upon which an odour of conia is given off.
I have no doubt that potassa is in this way a test of very great
delicacy.

Of the various extracts I have examined, that which has
yielded the largest proportion of conia is one prepared by alcohol
from the ripe seeds. Two hundred and twenty grains gave to-
wards five grains of colourless hydrate of conia. From this pre-
paration, indeed, it is probably to be obtained with more ease
than from any other. I have prepared it quite colourless and
free of all impurity but water, by exhausting ground hem-
lock-seeds with cold rectified spirit in a percolator ; distilling off
the spirit and concentrating in an open vessel over the vapour-

* Orrita, Toxicologie générale, ii. 305.

and its Alkaloid Conia. 389

bath till the residue had the consistence of syrup, and subjecting
this extract, in a proper distilling apparatus, with its own weight
of water and a little caustic potassa, to the heat of a concentrated
boiling solution of muriate of lime. The conia passes over readily
with the water, floating on its surface and quite colourless.

In the proximate analysis of organic substances, it is of primary
consequence that the agents employed be such as will accomplish
simple separation of the proximate principles from each other,
without producing new compounds by a new arrangement of ele-
ments. Some chemists have entertained doubts whether even
any of the methods of analysis at present in use fulfil correctly
this condition. But all are agreed in thinking that the agency
of strong acids or strong alkaline solutions, more especially when
concurring with an elevated temperature, should in general be
avoided, as tending rather to form new compounds, than simply
to detach compounds already formed by nature. Hence a ques-
tion may justly arise, whether the substance I have been de-
scribing is the real active principle of hemlock, or a new product
formed by the action of caustic potassa aided by heat ?

Here it may be observed, in the first instance, that heat is not
necessary for the development of conia in hemlock and its pre-
parations ; for its peculiar odour is at once disengaged from the
powder of the seeds when treated with solution of potassa at or-
dinary atmospheric temperatures,

By far the most direct and satisfactory test, however, of the
force of the above objection in such circumstances, is the effect
of the detached principle on the animal body, and the relation the
phenomena bear to those produced by the crude substance from
which the principle is obtained. In the present ‘case experiment
amply proves, that the conia of Gererr concentrates in itself the
properties of hemlock,—and, if not itself the true active principle,
must contain it in large quantity.

The researches of GercEr on this head are few in number, and
were chiefly confined to small birds as the subject of experiment.

3D2

390 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

Nor does he seem to me to have correctly interpreted the pheno-
mena, since he describes the animals as having been affected with
paralysis and tetanic convulsions, and as presenting, immediate-
ly after death, congestion and loss of irritability of the heart, with
unimpaired irritability of the voluntary muscles, the diaphragm,
and the intestinal canal. The natural inference would be that
conia proves fatal by paralyzing the heart.

On making trial of its effects on one of the higher orders of
animals, I obtained results so different and so remarkable, that I
was led to investigate its physiological action in detail. 'The facts
thus brought under my notice will shew that this substance is one
of the most extraordinary of all known poisons, looking either to
its uncommon energy and subtilty, or to the peculiar phenomena
and nature of its operation. In what follows I shall confine my-
self to a general summary, reserving the details of special experi-
ments for an appendix.

I should premise that the anatomical details were conducted
by Dr Suarrey, and the whole experiments made in presence of
various practised observers. This it is material to state, because
in physiological inquiries like the present, where the incidents
succeed one another with extreme swiftness, it is indispensable
that the anatomical part be executed with facility, certainty, and
despatch, and that the account taken of what passes be checked
by several competent observers.

Conia is probably a deadly poison to every order of animals.
It acts at least with great, and apparently equal energy on the
dog, cat, rabbit, mouse, kite,* pigeon,* sparrow,* frog, slow-worm,*
earth-worm,* fly, and flea.

It acts through every texture of the body where absorption is
carried on readily, namely, when put into the stomach, or dropped
into the eye, or inhaled into the lungs, or introduced into the cel-
lular tissue under the skin, or brought in contact with the peri-

* Animals experimented on by Grtcrr.

and its Alkaloid Conia. 391

tonzum, or injected directly into the veins. Its activity through
these several channels seems on the whole proportional to the
speed with which absorption is carried on by each texture ; so
that it is one of the poisons which act through absorption. Never-
theless, a fact will be mentioned by-and-bye, which would indi-
cate that something more than absorption into the blood is re-
quired before it can affect those vital functions, whose arrestment
constitutes the cause of death and the essence of its operation.

The activity of conia is not impaired, but rather the reverse,
by neutralization with an acid. GrriceER arrived at a different
conclusion, for he says “ its poisonous effect is greatly lessened
by union with acids.” Such a fact would be at variance with a
law in physiology hitherto found to be universal; that poisons
acting through absorption are not at all, or very little, altered in
their effects by any change in chemical form, provided they con-
tinue equally soluble. As the salts of conia are more soluble
than the alkaloid itself, we should expect them to act with at
least equal energy. And, accordingly, I have always found that
the activity of a poisonous dose was materially increased by using
it neutralized with muriatic acid. It will follow as a corollary,
that the discovery of a chemical antidote for conia or hemlock is
extremely improbable.

The chief features in the action of conia are the following. It
is, in the first place, a local irritant. It has an acrid taste; when
dropped into the eye or on the peritonzeum, it causes redness or
vascularity ; and to whatever texture or part it is applied, expres-
sions of pain are immediately excited. But these local effects
are soon overwhelmed by the indirect or remote action which
speedily follows. This consists essentially of swiftly-spreading
palsy of the muscles,—affecting first those of voluntary motion,
then the respiratory muscles of the chest and abdomen, lastly the
diaphragm, and thus ending in death by asphyxia. The para-
lytic state is usually interrupted from time to time by slight con-

vulsive twitches of the limbs and trunk in the early stage of the
6

392 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

poisoning; but this is not an essential phenomenon. ‘The mus-
cular contractility of parts directly acted on,—as when a volun-
tary muscle, a loop of intestine, or the heart, is brushed over
with conia or its muriate,—is sometimes impaired, sometimes al-
most immediately annihilated. But this effect, as will be evi-
dent from the details of the experiments, is not invariable. Un-
der the remote or indirect action of the poison, the muscular
contractility remains altogether unaffected: when an animal is
killed with the poison applied to the eye, a wound, or the like,
both the voluntary and involuntary muscles contract for a long
time after death, when stimulated, either directly or through the
medium of their nerves, by mechanical irritation or by galvanism.
The blood undergoes no apparent alteration, except those inci-
dental to death by asphyxia; it coagulates firmly after death,
if immediately withdrawn from the bloodvessels. The heart,
contrary to Grrcrr’s statement, remains wholly unaffected,—
contracting vigorously for a long time after all motion and respi-
ration and other signs of life are extinct,—and containing after
death, not florid, but dark blood in its left cavities. The exter-
nal senses continue little, if at all, impaired, till the breathing
is nearly arrested ; and volition is also retained. The action of
conia, in short, is exerted chiefly on the spinal chord. In its na-
ture that action is the counterpart of the action of nux-vomica
and its alkaloid strychnia. Strychnia irritates the spmal chord,
producing violent, permanent spasm of the muscles, and death
by asphyxia from spasmodic fixing of the chest. Conia, on the
contrary, exhausts the nervous energy of the spinal chord, pro-
ducing general muscular paralysis, and asphyxia from relaxation.

Few poisons equal conia in subtilty or swiftness. A single
drop put into the eye of a rabbit killed it in nine minutes ; three
drops used in the same way killed a strong cat in a minute and
a-half; five drops poured into the throat of a small dog began to
act in thirty seconds, and in as many seconds more motion and
respiration had entirely ceased. But the most extraordinary evi-

and its Alkaloid Conia. 393

dence of its power is obtained by injecting it into a vein. Ma-
GENDIE, speaking of the concentrated or pure prussic acid when
similarly applied, compares its action to that of a cannon-ball or
thunderbolt : “ La foudre n’est pas plus prompte.” Figurative
as this language may be, it is the only mode of conveying an ade-
quate idea of the effect of conia when injected into the blood.
Proceeding to inject into the femoral vein of a young dog two
grains of the alkaloid exactly neutralized with thirty drops of di-
luted muriatic acid, I was prepared for great rapidity of action,
and was going on the instant to observe the time by seconds ; but
on, glancing for a moment over the watch at the animal, I ob-
served it was dead. In two seconds, or three at farthest, and
without the slightest warning struggle, respiration had ceased, and
with it all external signs of life.

Of the effects previously related some are most clearly seen
where the progress of the poisoning is slow, others where the ac-
tion is rapid. It is only, for example, where death takes place
rather slowly, that we can satisfy ourselves of the maintenance of
the functions of the external senses; because in other circum-
stances the instant invasion of paralysis of the voluntary muscles
takes away all power of expression, by which alone we can judge
of the state of the senses. But when the poison is given so as to
operate slowly, then distinct evidence may be obtained that both
sight, touch, and hearing are retained so long as the most feeble
power of movement is preserved, so that sensation may be follow-
ed by expression. The integrity of the circulation and. muscular
contractility is, on the other hand, best shewn where death is
prompt. When the poison acts slowly, the heart after death is
found gorged, and contracting feebly or imperfectly ;—a physio-
logical phenomenon not connected with any peculiar action of
the poison on the heart, but which is common to all modes of
death by slowly formed asphyxia. But where the action is swift,
and asphyxia prompt and complete, the heart acts spontaneously
with great force even in the higher orders of animals for a great

394 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

length of time. I have seen spontaneous contraction of the ven-
tricles of the heart go on ten minutes, twenty minutes, nay, even
thirty minutes, after death in the rabbit; and have witness-
ed unequivocal contraction of the auricles when scratched even
so late as after an interval of sixty minutes. The most striking
illustration, however, of the integrity of the function of the heart
is obtained by keeping up respiration artificially when it has
ceased : After the breathing had almost ceased in seventeen mi-
nutes in a dog poisoned with six drops through a wound, and
when two minutes more would undoubtedly have put an end to
life, artificial inflation of the lungs was commenced, and conti-
nued with occasional intervals for thirty-five minutes. During
all that time the heart beat with its natural force, except when
the inflation of the lungs was suspended ;—the animal remaining
all the while in a state of paralytic flaccidity, interrupted only by
slight muscular twitches. It appears probable that there is
scarcely any limit to the maintenance of the circulation under
artificial breathing, except what may arise from the difficulty of
imitating exactly the natural respiration, as well as from the se-
veral causes which occasion cooling of the body. ‘There is little
doubt, therefore, that where the dose of the poison is not very
great, animation may be restored by maintaining the function of
respiration artificially till the deleterious agent or its effects be
thrown off,—just as in some other forms of narcotic poisoning.
And when we consider the whole physiological phenomena, it
will appear that this is the only treatment which promises mate-
rial success.

There are several other physiological facts relative to the
action of this poison, which are not devoid of interest, but which
it would be tedious to dwell on here. They will be best exa-
mined by consulting the Appendix of experiments. This de-
partment of my subject, therefore, may now be concluded with a
few remarks on the question, through what channel the action of
conia on the spinal chord is accomplished : Does it act by being

and its Alkaloid Conia. 395

carried substantively with the blood to that organ, or by the
transmission along the nerves of a peculiar impression made on
the texture where it is directly applied ? I must leave the ques-
tion, however, in an unsettled state. Every physiologist who
has attended to the late researches in this field, must agree that
we are not at present in possession of any accurate criterion for
settling the question in the case of any poison which acts re-
motely, that is, on organs at a distance from the part where it is
immediately applied. That absorption is somehow connected
with the action of conia, will appear from its activity seeming
proportional to the activity of absorption in the texture with
which it comes in contact. This inference would be strengthen-
ed if we could actually detect it in the blood after death; but
my observations on this head are contradictory; for, in one in-
stance, where the muriate of conia was put into the stomach, and
secured there by a ligature on the gullet, its odour was distinctly
remarked after death in the general cavity of the abdomen ; while
in another case, where death followed in ninety seconds the applica-
tion of conia to the eye, not the slightest odour could be detected
in the blood of the heart. It would seem to me, however, to be
very nearly made out by a fact already mentioned, that, although
absorption into the blood may be a part of the chain of sequences
which attend the action of conia, yet this is not all; and that the
poison does not act by being carried substantively with the blood
to the spinal chord. JI allude to its tremendous rapidity when
injected into a vein. That it acts more swiftly in this way than
in any other, is evidence enough perhaps that it enters the blood
before it operates. But farther, its effect, when thus introduced, is
too swift for its action to depend entirely on the blood becoming
poisoned, and itself acting on the spine ; for it is impossible that,
in three seconds, which was certainly the limit of interval when all
voluntary movement and respiration had ceased, the poison could
have passed with the blood from the femoral vein to the heart,
from the heart to the extreme ramifications of the pulmonary ar-

VOL. XIII. PART II. 35

396 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

tery, back again to the heart by the pulmonary veins, and, lastly,
by the general arterial system to the spine. If a correct view of
the facts be here taken, there scarcely seems any refuge for the
physiologist, except in the novel, and, at first, startling doctrine,*
that conia acts by entering the blood, and producing on the in-
ner membrane of the bloodvessels a peculiar nervous impression,
which is instantly conveyed by sympathy along the nerves to the
organ remotely and ultimately affected.

After these remarks on the properties of conia, it remains to
be seen whether they coincide with what is known of the proper-
ties of hemlock itself. On this question hangs the ulterior one,
whether conia is the true active principle of the plant.

I have in vain attempted to settle the point by reference to
the existing descriptions of the effects of hemlock by toxicolo-
gical authors. Passing by, for the present, the statements of an-
cient authors, which will be reverted to afterwards, and proved
not to be confidently referrible to the modern hemlock ; we come
first to the older modern writers, suchas Marrurovi and KrRrcHer.
The former says, a vine-dresser and his wife, who ate hemlock
roots for parsnips, became so delirious, that they ran about the
house, frantically knocking themselves against every thing in
their way ;f and the latter says, two monks from the same cause
became raving mad, plunged into a pond, taking themselves for
geese, and suffered long after from incomplete palsy and muscu-
lar pain.{ It is difficult, certainly, to connect these narratives
with the preceding details of the action of conia. As little con-
nection can be traced with the matter of fact narratives of cases
in more recent times, which all point at delirium, coma, and con-
vulsions, as the leading symptoms. These cases, however, are li-

* Lately advanced by Messrs Morgan and Addison in regard to the action of poisons
generally.

+ Petri Andree Matthioli Commentarii in sex libros Dioscoridis, p. 736. Edit. Ve-
netiis 1582.

+ Wibmer, die Wirkung der Arzneimittel und Gifte. i. 172.

and its Alkaloid Conia. 397

mited in number ; few are minutely described ; several occurred
before physicians had learned to discriminate accurately the exter-
nal characters of the true hemlock, and other poisonous umbelli-
ferous plants resembling it; in scarcely any of them is allusion
made to the risk of error from this cause, or any pains taken to
establish the identity of the poison ; and in some, including one
related by myself, which occurred twelve years ago, the symptoms
were taken at second hand, the individuals having died before
being seen by a competent observer.* The resemblance subsist-
ing between hemlock and various umbelliferous plants, such as
Cicuta virosa, Althusa cynapium, Ginanthe crocata, Cherophyllum
temulentum, is alone sufficient to vitiate most of the modern de-
scriptions of the poisonous effects of the first species. We know
that they often have been confounded together ; and hence we
can have no certainty what the plant was in special cases of poi-
soning, where the name merely is given, and the narrative does
not contain internal evidence of its exact nature. Singular then
as it may appear, we are very imperfectly acquainted with the
real effects of one of our most familiar poisons on the human
body.

For the like reasons, our knowledge of the effects of hemlock
on the lower animals is far from being precise or positive. The
only unequivocal experiments, indeed, are those of Professor Or-
FILA,} and a few performed by Professor Scuusartu ;{ and from
these we should infer, that, besides possessing irritant properties,
hemlock induces giddiness, convulsions, loss of sensibility, palsy,
and coma. This account does not agree with the account given
above of the action of conia, which does not seem to affect the
senses so long as the respiration goes on. But it is possible that
the difference is more apparent than real, and that hemlock has

* Gmelin’s Pflanzengifte 605. Corvisari’s Journal de Médecine, xxix. 107. Philo-
sophical Transactions, xliii. 18. Wbmer, ut supra, i. 171. My Treatise on Poisons,
} Toxicologie Générale, ii. 303.
t Horn’s Archiv fiir Medizinische Erfahrung, 1824.
3E2

398 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

been supposed to extinguish sensation, merely because, by indu-
cing general paralysis, it takes away the power of expression.
At least, in some experiments I have made, sensation did not ap-
pear to be affected; and the whole phenomena were identical
with those produced by conia. In these experiments I used very
strong extracts prepared by absolute alcohol from the fresh leaves,
or the full-grown seeds; and each of them occasioned, in doses
of thirty grains or thereabouts, paralysis of the voluntary muscles,
with occasional slight convulsions, then paralysis of the respiratory
muscles of the chest and abdomen ; and finally cessation of the
action of the diaphragm ; sensation appeared to continue so long
as it was practicable to make an observation on the subject ; and
the heart contracted vigorously for a long time after death.
From these extracts a very powerful odour of conia was disen-
gaged by caustic potassa.

It seems to me clear, therefore, that the action of conia and of
hemlock are identical, or nearly so; and that conia is either the
active principle of the plant, or contains it in a modified form.

I wish I could have added to these observations on the poison-
ous effects of conia and hemlock, some account of their physiolo-
gical properties in small doses. This branch of the inquiry into
their action I have not yet been able to investigate. It cannot
be pursued with any accuracy by experiments on the lower ani-
mals. The phenomena must be ascertained in the human sub-
ject chiefly, which I have not hitherto been able to accomplish.
On this head it may merely be observed, that, if physicians or
physiologists would acquire definite information as to.the phy-
siological effects of hemlock in small or medicinal doses, they
must begin the inquiry anew. Little importance can be attached
to any thing already done in this field, as I have no doubt what-
ever, that by far the greater proportion of the preparations of
hemlock hitherto employed have been of very little energy, and
in the doses commonly used are absolutely inert.

and its Alkaloid Conia. 399

Having now accomplished the chief object of this paper, I
ought perhaps to conclude; but there is a topic remotely con-
nected with it, to which I may be allowed briefly to advert.

I have several times been asked by my literary friends what the
poison could have been which was used by the ancient Greeks,
and particularly the Athenians, for putting state-criminals to
death. This question has engaged the attention of many com-
mentators, and of some modern physiologists attached to the
literature and medicine of the classic ages ; and the general re-
sult has been a belief that our hemlock, the Coniuwm maculatum of
botanists, is the Cicuta of the Romans, the Kaveoy of the Greeks,
and the Athenian state-poison. Others, however, have doubted
the correspondence here supposed. And, although the adoption by
modern botanists of the term Conium, for designating the genus
to which our spotted hemlock belongs, may seem to set the mat-
ter at rest, the question is really far from settled ; and the proofs
given above of the erroneous or imperfect ideas entertained, even
in the present day, of the effects of hemlock, would reopen it
even if it had been closed.

This inquiry is obviously one of much interest to every scholar
and physician ; for, on the one hand, it involves the identification
of an ancient medicine of no mean repute ; and on the other, it
tends to enliven our conceptions of one of the most interesting
periods of classic history, by enabling us to point to a known
substance as the poison by which Socrarrs and Puocron died.

In considering the subject, it is right to inquire, in the first
place, whether our knowledge of the botanical and poisonous pro-
perties of hemlock corresponds with what ancient medical authors
have said of the plant Kaveov. Here we ought to be at no loss ; for
both Pxrvy and Droscorzves have left tolerably minute descrip-
tions of the plant ; and Nzcanpez, in his poetical treatise on poi-
sons, has described its effects on the body, and been followed in his
description by succeeding writers. Droscorzpes,in his fourth book,
thus lays down its botanical characters :—“ 'The plant Kaveoy pro-

400 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

duces a tall stem, jointed like that of fennel [ Anethum feniculum] ;*
leaves like the ferula [ Ferula communis], but narrower, and of a
heavy smell; branch-shoots and umbels at the summit ;_ a whitish
flower ; a seed like that of anise, but whiter; a hollow root, not
deep.”+ The description given by Piiny of the Cicuta, which is
well made out to have been the Greek Kavaov, follows closely that
of Dioscoripes. “Thestem * * * igs smooth, jointed like
a reed, blackish, taller frequently than two cubits, very branchy
at top. The leaves are more tender than those of coriander, of a
heavy odour; the seed thicker than anise ; the root hollow.” +
Now it appears to me impossible to refer the plant by these
descriptions to the modern Coniwm maculatum. The description
of the stem, leaves, summit, flower and seed, is so vague, that it
will apply to twenty umbelliferous species as well as to our hem-
lock. Puuvy’s term nigricans, applied to the stem, is but a feeble
approach to the very remarkable character of the modern plant,
the purple-spotted stem,—a character so obvious, that one can
scarcely imagine an ancient herbalist omitting it in taking a de-
scription from an actual specimen. Leaves narrower than those
of ferula, more tender than those of coriander, if modern scholars
and physicians are right in so translating the Greek »xgdz,§ and

* « Magadgoy, Anethum feniculum; hodie aygiouaradgor, Icon. English Botany, t. 1208.”
Sibth. Flor. Greece. Prod. i. 204.

Tt Kavesoy xevrov avincs ryover adn as eeaeabeor, miryory [some read (esrcxvee |, Quarra Oz veeeOnxe een,
orEvarregee De xcee Bagvocpc. oe aneay Be dmoQuctis nets cuicoic. avbos Smrorsvxoy. ome peo eePeess avr,
Acunaregoy. eile no1rn nett g Babu. Dioscorides, iv. 79. Edit. J. A. Saraceni, 1598, p. 276.

t Cicuta quoque venenum est * * * Caulis autem et viridis estur a plerisque et in
patinis. Lzevis hic et geniculatus, ut calami, nigricans, altior seepe binis cubitis, in cacumi-
nibus racemosus: folia coriandri teneriora, gravi odoratu: semen aneso crassius: radix
concaya, nullius usus. Plinii Historia Naturalis, xxv. 95.; p. 421 in Edit. Brotier,
Paris 1779.

§ Sibthorpe found the Ferula communis of Linneus growing on Cyprus, where it is now
called cyveg@nxa; and he conceives it to be the Nwegéxé of Dioscorides. [Flor Grace Pro-
dromus, i. 190.] He refers for a representation of it to Dodonzus, Historia Stirpium,
Antverpie 1676, p. 321. The rude drawing there given has certainly considerable resem-
blance to hemlock in the leaves; but equally resembles many other umbelliferous plants.

and its Alkaloid Conia. A401

Latin coriandrum, cannot be held to designate with any accuracy
the leaes ofour conium ; and still less will the radia concava of
Purny, the es@a xoirn nar 8 Baber of Dioscor1pEes, designate its
root, which is perfectly solid, and even at the present season
[December], when the plant is young, very commonly penetrates
twelve or fifteen inches into the soil. Of the poisonous Umbel-
liferee, our Cicuta virosa, or water-hemlock, comes nearer the an-
cient description than any other; and, in reference to the use
alleged to have been made of the ancient Kaveaoy, it has the far-
ther advantage of being generally considered a much more active
poison than the common hemlock.

It may be right to add, however, that the Coniwm maculatum
of modern botanists has been ascertained by Dr SzerHorPe to
grow abundantly in different parts of Greece. This eminent
authority states he found it “ on rubbish-heaps near Constanti-
nople: not unfrequently in the Pelopponesus ; and most abun-
dantly between Athens and Megara.”* It would have been very
extraordinary if this species had not been a common plant in
Greece, considering that it is abundant in every country in
Europe. But I do not see how such a circumstance should be
considered any proof that the ancient Ka»eoy was our spotted hem-
lock, although some authors seem to look upon it as ample evi-
dence of their identity. It is not unworthy of remark, that the
ancient term has been apparently lost in the modern Greek lan-
guage, and that it bears no relation whatever to the modern
name Peouoxoeror, now applied, according to Sibthorpe, to the spot-
ted hemlock.

The ancient accounts of the properties of Kavé:oy as a poison

* Tn ruderatis prope Byzantium. In Pelopponeso haud infrequens. Copiosissime inter
Athenas et Megaram.—Sibthorpe Flora Greeca, i. 187.

+ Ce qui prouve que c’était la cigué dont les Athéniens se servaient pour faire périr
certains personnages, et dont Socrate mourut. II ne peut pas y avoir le moindre doute 4
ce sujet, car la cigué vireuse ne se trouve pas dans ce pays, non plus que, &c. Meérat et
Delens. Dict. de Matiére Méd. ii. 385.

402 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

harmonize better than their botanical descriptions with what is
known of the modern Conium. The fullest account is that of
Nicanver in his Argkipaguaxa ; and subsequent writers have
either followed him, or, where they have deviated, seem to have
had in their eye the supposed properties of the Athenian state-
poison. “ Behold also,” says he, “ the baneful draught of Kavesov.
For this potion carries destruction to the powers of the mind,
[literally, to the head], bringing shady darkness; and makes
the eyes roll. But staggering on their footsteps and tripping
on the streets, they creep on their hands. And mortal stifling
seizes the upper part of the neck, and obstructs the narrow pas-
sage of the throat. The extremities grow cold; the strong ves-
sels in the limbs contract ; he ceases to draw in the thin air, like
one fainting ; and the soul visits Pluto.”* The Greek Kaveoy,
according to this poetical version, rendered into brief prose, brings
on obliteration of the mental faculties, dimness of sight, giddi-

~ Kas ve cv xavers BAaBosv Texmaigco mun.
Kewo zroroy On yore Te xecgnats Dosvoy lant,
Nouxra Degoy cxoroerrny. ZOunrev OF nett Orcs.
"Tyvece de TParsgos TE xots umrosovTes ayvias,
Xegouy ePeerruCect * nanos Ovmo yetute Tb LOS
*Tobusce zoe Dapuyyos TrEbny eeePeuooer ces GHeoy.
*Axga de ot Poxes wees De Masses eyDobs yuray
“Papeareces oTErAAoVTOUI 6 OyEgce maveov arilet,
“Ore xatruBorcwv® aboxn 3 aidaven Acurce.
Nixavdee AALEi Dat gpecencts Editio Parisiis 1587, p- 140.

Tu quoque signa male jam contemplere cicutz.
Hee primum tentat caput, et caligine densa
Involvit mentes; oculi vertuntur in orbem ;

Genua labant. Quod si cupit ocyus ire, caducum
Sustentant palme corpus; faucesque premuntur
Obsesse, et colli tenuis preecluditur isthmus.
Extremi frigent artus, latet abditus imis

In venis pulsus, nihil inspiratur ab ore.

Fata instant, Ditemque miser jamjam aspicit atrum.

[ Interprete J. Gorreo. |
6

and its Alkaloid Conia. 403

ness,. staggering, stifling, coldness of the limbs, and death by
asphyxia ;—a view of its effects which differs little from the mo-
dern notions of the poisonous action of the spotted hemlock.
But, the poetical effusion of Nicanpzr will apply equally well
to: many narcotics, and among others to various umbelliferous
plants :. It is a generic, though probably intended for a specific,
description.
_ Nicanper, who appears to have lived about 160 years before
Christ, or, according to some, a century later, has evidently been
followed by DioscoripEs, Priny, and other subsequent authors,
in his description ; and where any deviation is observable, it has
been in favour of Pzxa7o’s account of the effects of the Athenian
state-poison in the case of SocraTEs,—this being either tacitly or
expressly assumed to have been a preparation of Kaveo. It seems
needless, therefore, to prosecute the present branch of the in-
quiry by reference to other ancient narratives.

The result at which we must arrive is, that the Greek Kaveov,
so far as regards its effects, may be the modern Conium macula-
tum, but may be equally referred to various other plants ; and
that, if its botanical description by classical authors is to be al-
lowed. any weight at all, or, which amounts to the same thing, if
we admit that the ancient naturalists did describe, and could de-
scribe, fromnature, it must have been a totally different vege-
table.

Turning, in the last place, to the Athenian state-poison, we
find both historians and political authors who lived during the time
it was in frequent use, assuming very much, as a matter of course,
that this was the Greek Kayciov ; and subsequent writers identify
it either with this plant, or with the Roman cicuta, which we
have already seen to be the same with the Kayo».

Thus Xewornon, who died forty years after Socrates, and
during whose lifetime the state-poison was the constant instru-
ment of judicial murder, speaking of the death of Turramenes,
condemned for his political acts by the thirty tyrants, says, “ and

VOL. XIII. PART II. 3F

404 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

when he was condemned to die, and was drinking the Kaveoy, it
is said he tossed away what remained, exclaiming, &c.* In like
manner the orator Lysz4s observes, in his oration against Era-
TOSTHENES, who had put his brother PoLemarcuvs to death:
“ The thirty despatched to Potemarcuus their customary order
to drink Kayem.”+ About the middle of the second century of
the Christian era, we find Diocenrs Larrrius following these
authorities, when he mentions the death of Socrates. “SocraTEs
imprisoned,” observes he, “ after a few days drank the Kavesoy,
discoursing many beautiful and good things, which Piaro has
given in his Phaedo.”{ The same assumption is made by Priny
between six and seven centuries later. “The cicuta,” says he,
“is a poison, abhorred because the instrument of public punish-
ment among the Athenians, yet applicable to many purposes
which are not to be omitted.Ӥ

It is, nevertheless, not a little singular, that no mention is
made of the Kaye as the state-poison of the Athenians by an
author in natural history, who flourished at a time when the
memory of the death of Socrates, Puocron, and many other
eminent individuals, must have been fresh in the minds of all
philosophers, and who nevertheless mentions both the plant and
its poisonous qualities,—I mean Tuzornrasrus. 'THeoruRas-
tus was born but twenty-eight years after the death of SocraTEs,
namely, 371 years before Curist, and was ArIsTOTLE’s successor

* Kes emer yt amobvycxesy chycerycel opnevos To KUVELOY EMS, TO AEtmropecvoy uray amonorraBiouvre
ameiy cvrove Keurie tatecta to) xaaw. SMenophontis Hist. Gree. ii. 3. 24. Tom. iii. 103. Edit.
Dodwell, 1770 Oxon.

T TMorcuceeya de moaenyyarcy Oo TesanovTe To er exetvay beoecevoy Toegaryryenric, Thvesy xOIVELOV.
Lysias. Orat. in Eratosthenen. In Orat. Gree. vol. v. p. 394. Editio Reiske. Lipsie
1772.

$ Cicuta quoque venenum est publica Atheniensium peena invisa, ad multa tamen usus
haud omittendi. Plinii Hist. Nat. xxv. 95.

§ Laxeuras De Dcbers, mer & woAAas nuseas ERLE TO HOVELOV, WOAAC Z~LAG x ayebe ducer HGiks, oe Trwrwy

2) tT Doda Pro. Diogenes Laertius. Editio Meibomii. Amstelod. I. ii. 42. Vol. i. 105.

and its Alkaloid Conia. A405

in the Lyceum; yet he is altogether silent on the point. Every
commentator has adduced the following remarkable passage from
this author. “ Turasyas, the Mantinean, said, that by making
use of the juices of the Kae», the poppy, and such other things,
he had discovered a substance which occasioned death easily and
without pain, and so portable and minute, that the weight of a
drachm was sufficient, and absolutely without a remedy, and ca-
pable of being preserved any length of time without alteration.”*
It has been supposed by some that Turopnrasrus has here de-
scribed the state-poison of the Athenians; but there is no evi-
dence to this effect; and his silence on the point would rather
tend to shew that the state-poison was a different substance.

Leaving these vague inquiries, however, let us see what has
been said of the effects of the Athenian poison in those who were
put to death with it ; and we may then be able to settle, indepen-
dently of cither the assumptions or omissions of classic authors,
whether it was the zavesy of the Greek physicians or the coniwm
of the moderns, or what else it may have been.

So far as I am aware, there is but one account extant of the
effects of the Athenian state-poison, but it is clear and precise.
I allude to the familiar and pathetic narrative by Pato of the
last hours of Socrates. Having first stated that the executioner
told the philosopher that nothing could be spared from the dose
for a libation to the Gods, and that he was to walk about till he
should feel his legs becoming heavy,—P aro goes on to say that
Socrates drained the cup with tranquillity, upbraided his friends
for their weakness when they burst into tears, and proceeded to
walk as he had been directed. “ At length,” continues the nar-
rative, “ when he felt his limbs grow heavy, he lay down on his
back ; for so the man had told him to do. And at the same

* Ogucves de 0 Mayreveus Euenneyees Th TOLSTOY acme eAeryeve OTe ‘eaudicay TOLELY 2oek CATFOVOY THY amoAUCLY,
TOs orrots KEOeEV05 MOVES HOLL nLOV0S, nob ereguy TOBTHY 0s TE evoryxoy ervoce Wav Hab (eixeov oroy ts
BS ecemeens orn. aBonbnroy de WANT Kb Duvaepesvoy Decepesvery omorovsy HKeovoy, rcts edey LADOLBLEVOV. Theo-
phrastus, Lib. ix. I. xviii. Editio Amstelodami 1644.

SEQ

A06 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

time the person who administered the poison went up to him,
and examined for a little while his feet and legs, and then squeez-
ing his foot strongly, asked whether he felt him do so? Socra-
rEs replied that he did not. After this the man did the same
to his legs, and proceeding upwards in this way shewed us that
he was cold and stiff. And he approached him and said to us,
that when the effects of the poison should reach the heart, So-
crates would depart. And now the parts about the lower belly
were cold, when he uncovered himself (for he was covered up),
and said, which were his last words: ‘ Crito, we owe AuscuLa-
prus a cock; pay the debt, and do not forget it.’ ‘It shall be
done,’ replied Crrro ; ‘but consider whether you have any thing
else to say.’ SocrarEs answered not, but in a short time was
convulsed. The man then uncovered him. His eyes were fixed ;
and when Criro observed this, he closed his eyelids and his
mouth.”*

If this narrative be altered to a modern toxicological descrip-
tion, it is plain that the Athenian state-poison must be regarded
as producing spasm and coldness of the limbs, gradually advan-
cing to the internal parts, causing death eventually by acting
either on the heart or respiration, and without affecting the func-
tions of the mind even to the very last-

Such a view of its action is altogether at variance equally
with the effects usually ascribed in recent times to the spotted

* “O de megscrdoy, emeson of Bocguver tact (Dn ru oxern, xcerexrsdn barrios® &ro ya exerevoey 0 avbewaos.
nots cope Pumrouesves airov obros 6 Dous ro Pugpcrnoy, Diarrmay yeovoy emernomes Tous xpodns reLb Te
oKEAN. KeeTELTOL code mlicas avtov Toy mode necro ci aicbcvorro 6 8 om EQn. noes wera Tovto cubic
ras Kynpeces* 00k Emrcuvia orale icy emedenvuTo ors uyorro Te Kok mnyYUTO. Xen aUTOs NETETO, xu
cimey ork emeiDaay pos TH Keegdbe vyemnTaL aUTW, Tore oly nero. on ovy cyedoy Ts ceutou Hy Tae mégs To
areoy Yuyzopesvie, Hobe exnurvipapsvos, evexexarumTro ree, cimey, 6 On rereuTecsoy EDbeyzaro, 2 Keirwy, ePn,
za Acxanmiw aQesrAousy AAMT QUOI. GAA cmodore nett en apeanonte. AAAw TavTH, On, torat, o
Keira" An ope Ei Th GAAS Asyers. Tate eeopmevou avrov ovdey ert amrengiverro, GAN GAuyov yeovov
Siccrimray exivndn re eee 0 ctvgamros kenarviey aurov, reer oc Tae dpepeenee torncey’ idwy De o Kerrwy
BuveraBe to rropen Te nok TOUS 2PbaArpous. Platonis Dialogi. Ex Recensione I. Bekkeri. Berol.
1817, vol. iii. par. 2, p. 127. Phedo.

and its Alkaloid Conia. 407

hemlock, and with the phenomena presented in the experiments
described in the present paper. It seems also not less at va-
riance with the ideas entertained by the Greeks of the poisonous
operation of their zw», as will be apparent on comparing
Puaro’s narrative with the general description of NicanveER.
And lastly, it seems to me incompatible with the ascertained ef-
fects of every poison whatsoever, which is known in modern
times ; for I think it will puzzle the most learned toxicologist to
point out any poison which has the property of occasioning cold-
ness and stiffness of the limbs, proceeding gradually upwards,
and proving fatal without causing either pain or sopor.

There seems, then, no alternative but to conclude, either that
the description of PLaro—who, it must be remarked, was not
present at the death of Socrarss,* as many imagine—is not a
detail of facts, but an embellished narrative, written for effect ;
or that, although we are now acquainted probably with fifty
times as many poisons as the ancient Athenians, and with many
which are fifty times as active as any in their list, we have
lost acquaintance with one with which the ancients were quite
familiar, and which differs totally from every known poison in its
action.

es ee See

* Piato makes PHzDo inform Ecuecratzs in the Dialogue, that he was absent ow-
ing to sickness. “ TAwray d¢, dicot, iodsves.” (Platonis Dialogi. &c. p. 6.)

408 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

APPENDIX OF SELECTED EXPERIMENTS.

I. Experiments with Conia.

Exp. I. Six drops of conia were allowed to fall into the back of the throat of a
young active puppy ten weeks old. In thirty seconds there was sudden convul-
sive respiration, and some stiffness of the hind-legs, immediately followed by great
feebleness of these legs. In a few seconds the fore-legs also became very feeble.
In sixty seconds from the time the poison was introduced, the breathing ceased.
Slight convulsive tremors followed for a single minute more,

In three minutes the chest was laid open. The intestines were moving and the
heart pulsating briskly. In fifteen minutes the auricles of the heart ceased to con-
tract spontaneously, but they began again to contract when the pericardium was
slit open. In eighteen minutes, when all spontaneous motion had ceased, galvanism
directly applied to the right ventricle excited feeble, tremulous contraction. The
blood then discharged from the heart flowed out quite fluid, equally dark from both
sides, and coagulated firmly afterwards. In eight minutes the diaphragm, as well
as the serratus magnus muscle, contracted briskly when a galvanic current was trans-
mitted from their respective nerves to their substance ; and the latter also contracted
when its nerve was either pinched or galvanized by touching it with both poles of
the pile; not so, however, the diaphragm. The vermicular movement of the intes-
tines was instantly arrested by allowing a drop of conia to fall on a loop of the gut,

but only in the part touched, which also contracted much, and became greyish-
white.

Exe. II. A small aperture was made into the peritoneal sac of an active puppy
of the same litter with the last, and three drops of conia were introduced completely
within the peritoneum by a pipette. Instant acute expression of pain followed. For
some little time there was no visible effect, and it pursued a rabbit briskly up and
down the room. But in two minutes it suddenly stopped, and the hind-legs became
stiff. Then the breathing became laboured, and the hind-legs feeble. In three mi-
nutes and a half there was great feebleness of the whole limbs, so that it rose with
difficulty. In four minutes and a half it fell forward in a paralytic state on trying
to walk ; and the limbs were completely palsied. In five minutes the respiration
was diaphragmatic only, the chest being perfectly flaccid. The sensibility was still
quite entire, the eyes turning in the direction of one calling to it, and the countenance
expressing uneasiness when the paws were squeezed. In seven minutes the breath-
ing was confined to feeble respiratory twitches, and the whole body became flaccid,
with occasicnal tremulous movement of the muscles of the trunk. In seven mi-

and its Alkaloid Conia. 409

nutes and a half the breathing ceased, Slight muscular twitches continued for two
minutes and a half more.

The body was opened in twelve minutes. In thirteen minutes the spinal accessary
nerve was pinched and galvanized with the effect of exciting brisk contraction of the
trapezius muscle. In fifteen minutes the fore-leg contracted strongly by similar sti-
mulation of the axillary plexus. In twenty minutes the diaphragm contracted
strongly when galvanism was transmitted from the phrenic nerve to its muscular
structure, but not when both poles of the pile were applied to the nerve. In twenty-
five minutes the trapezius could not be made to contract by pricking or galvanizing
its nerve. In twenty minutes the heart ceased to contract. The blood in it was
fluid, dark in the left side, and coagulable in the usual way. A small portion of
intestine near the aperture through the parietes was very vascular, and with a yel-
lowish-red blush. In thirty-two minutes the vermicular motion was going on feebly
in the intestines.

This experiment illustrates well the leading points of the de-
scription in the text,—the gradual progress of paralysis, the in-
tegrity of the senses, the integrity after death of muscular con-
tractility, the freedom of the heart from depressed action, and the
natural state of the blood. The gradual progress of the paralysis
and integrity of the senses are still better shown in the following
experiment, where the successive phenomena succeeded one an-
other more slowly.

Exp. III. Three drops of conia were introduced through a small wound between
the skin and aponeurosis in the nape of a puppy of the same litter as the two former
animals. In three minutes there was slight stiffness of all the legs. In four mi-
nutes and a half the animal seemed very weak, weary, and uneasy, but perfectly sensi-
ble. In ten minutes it suddenly staggered forward and fell on trying to run, and
had extreme feebleness of all the limbs. In twelve minutes the breathing was
hurried and short, with perfect flaccidity of the chest, extreme general debility and
apparent stupor ; but the animal was quite sensible in reality, changing its position
when touched, and shuffling forward on its belly when called to. In fifteen minutes
the breathing was entirely diaphragmatic, and the four limbs stretched out at right
angles to the trunk completely paralyzed; but when called to it wagged its tail
feebly, turned the eyes in the direction of the voice, and made a feeble effort to raise the
head, but could not; when a rabbit was placed near, it made evident attempts to
reach it; and when the tail was pinched it tried to bark, but could produce only a
few indistinct croaking sounds. In twenty-six minutes it could still make a few
indistinct efforts to change posture by moving the hips and upper joints of the hind-
legs, and exhibited the same proofs of sensibility. The breathing continued gra-

6

410 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

dually less and less distinct. In thirty-five minutes the whole muscular system was
completely paralyzed, except that there were feeble respiratory movements of the
diaphragm, and occasional tremulous contractions of the muscles of the whole trunk.
In forty minutes these movements were scarcely perceptible except at occasional in-
tervals accompanying feeble efforts to breathe. The eyelids still contracted when the
cornea was touched. In forty-two minutes all motion had ceased. There was copious
salivation from an early period till the very last.

In forty-six minutes the chest was laid open. The heart was acting vigorously ;
and in sixty minutes the right auricle continued to contract. The veins were much
gorged; the blood fluid, but coagulable as usual. In forty-eight minutes the dia-
phragm and ¢rapezius muscles contracted when their respective nerves were gal-
vanized.

Exe. IV. Two drops of conia were dropped into the eye of a strong rabbit. In
one minute the hind-legs became stiff and spread, and in one minute and a half the
fore-legs also, with hurried breathing. In two minutes and a half convulsive twitches
of the neck’ occurred. In three minutes and a half the eye which had received the
poison was so insensible, that the eye-lids did not wink when the cornea was irritated,
while the other eye continued quite sensible. In four minutes and a half the con-
vulsive twitches were more marked. In five minutes the eye not touched with the
poison continued sensible. In eight minutes and a half strong convulsions were ex-
cited by dipping the animal in cold water. In nine minutes and a half the breath-
ing was convulsive. In ten minutes the respiration ceased ; and then, for the first
time, the untouched eye became insensible.

In sixteen minutes the diaphragm and serratus magnus muscle contracted freely
when their respective nerves were touched or galvanized.

Exe. V. Two drops of conia were introduced into a wound near the shoulder of
a very strong rabbit. In one minute and a half the hind-legs became stiff, and in
two minutes paralyzed and spread out. In two minutes and a half the fore-legs be-
came stiff. In three minutes and a quarter the whole legs were extremely weak, and
the position of the animal prone, with the legs extended from the sides, the respiration
laboured and short, as if from debility, and the muscles of the chest flaccid. Gene-
ral tremor occurred whenever it tried to move. In four minutes and a half the
head was feebly twitched backwards. In five minutes the paralysis was complete,
and the breathing diaphragmatic; but in six minutes there was more convulsive
tremor than was remarked in any other experiment. In seven minutes and a half
the sensibility seemed entire, so far as could be judged of in the paralyzed condition
of the animal; the eyelids winked when approached, tremors were occasioned by
touching it, or even by striking the table near it, and one iris was sensible to light.
In eight minutes the respiration ceased.

The chest being laid open soon after, the heart was seen in twelve minutes pul-

and its Alkaloid Conia. All

sating vigorously. A drop of conia allowed to fall on the right auricle, at once
stopped its action, and rendered it no longer irritable, even under galvanism; and
the same effect was produced, though less quickly, on the right ventricle. In
nineteen minutes, while the vermicular movement of the intestines was vigorous,
a loop was pulled aside, and touched with conia ; upon which it instantly contracted
with force, and the vermicular action was no longer continued through that por-
tion, but was arrested on approaching it ; nor was this part irritable under galvanism.
This experiment was repeated on various portions of intestine, and invariably with
the same effects. In twenty-three minutes the muscles on the inside of both thighs
were laid bare, and several drops of conia were spread over those of one leg. Ina
few seconds galvanism, which previously excited vigorous contraction in the muscles
of both sides, caused much less in the poisoned limb than in the other; and this
difference quickly increased, till the contractility was all but extinct in the former,
while it remained tolerably entire in the latter.

Exp. VI. The preceding experiments, on the direct action of conia on muscular
contractility, were repeated on the muscles of a frog. ‘The hind legs were severed
from the body, and then from one another, and skinned. In the intervals between
the experiments, the limbs were covered with the detached skin to preserve the ex-
ternal muscles from drying. One limb was not otherwise treated; but the other
had conia carefully spread over the whole exposed muscles,—in the state, however,
of neutralization with muriatic acid, in order to get rid of the effects possibly arising
from the direct irritant action of conia itself. In forty-five minutes, when the crural
nerve of the limb not touched with the solution, was galvanized, powerful contraction
was excited in all the muscles; but in the poisoned limb the thigh alone moved, and
that much less than the other. In sixty minutes the contractions in the thigh of the
poisoned limb were very faint, while in the other the whole limb was powerfully con-
tracted. In seventy-five minutes contractions were excited very feebly in.the poi-
soned limb, and only when the galvanic circle was interrupted ; while, in the other,
they were nearly as strong as ever. Next morning, twenty-one hours from the be-
ginning of the experiment, the femoral muscles of the unpoisoned limb contracted
obviously when a galvanic current was transmitted to them from the femoral nerve,
but not when both poles were applied to the nerve. In the poisoned limb, no trace
of movement could be elicited in any manner.

The facts in this and the two preceding experiments show,
that conia and its muriate produce exhaustion of muscular con-
tractility wherever they are directly applied ; although this pro-
perty of muscular fibre seems wholly unaffected by the indirect
action of the poison. It is not unworthy of remark, that, in the
‘tenth experiment, muriate of conia seemed to have no direct ex-
hausting effect on the contractility of the heart.

VOL. XIII. PART II. 3G

412 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

Exe. VII. Two drops of conia were introduced under the skin of a strong frog
into the cellular tissue of the back. In three minutes there was obviously great general
weakness; and in four minutes such complete paralysis of the fore-legs, that even gal-
vanism applied to them excited no voluntary motion, but merely the usual twitches pro-
duced bythatagentafterdeath. In five minutesand a half the respiration ceased; in six
minutes there was no movement anywhere, except slight twitches of the hind-legs ; in
eight minutes the eyelids were insensible ; and after this no movement of any kind
could be induced, when the skin was pinched and pricked in various parts. In twen-
ty minutes the muscles of the hind legs did not contract when their nerves were gal-
vanized; but they contracted briskly when a galvanic current was passed from the
nerve to the muscles. The heart continued to contract long after death.

I believe there are few poisons which act on the frog with so
much energy as conia is here proved to do.

Exp. VIII. The following experiment was tried on the effect of artificial inflation
of the lungs, the subject of experiment being a middle-sized dog, thin, and full-
grown. A tube was fixed in the wind-pipe, having a large elliptic lateral hole;
and a brass syringe was fitted upon the extremity of the tube. By applying the
finger over the lateral hole, while the piston was gently thrust down,—then with-
drawing the finger, and allowing the injected air to rush out under the impulse of
the contracting chest,—next drawing up the piston,—and then re-applying the fin-
ger, it was found easy to maintain the respiration between fourteen and twenty-four
times per minute, which was the natural rate in this animal. Four drops of conia
were then introduced through a small aperture into the cellular tissue behind the
fore-shoulder. For fourteen minutes little effect was observed, possibly owing to the
animal being firmly tied, and also appearing to be of singularly dull sensibility from
the first. At this time three drops more were introduced into another wound ; but
at the very same instant, the animal made a few hurried inspirations and expirations,
followed by gradual diminution of the breathing, till it became diaphragmatic only,
and then, in seventeen minutes, nearly extinct. At this time the eyelids winked,
when the hand was brought rather suddenly near them; and when the muzzle was
pricked, the muscles of the nose acted feebly, and the head was feebly withdrawn.
Artificial inflation of the lungs was immediately begun. The heart, which had
previously begun to beat slowly, very soon pulsated more firmly and quickly ; and
the usual convulsive twitches consequent on cessation of the breathing ceased. Af-
ter continuing the inflation for six minutes, and observing that the eyelids winked
when the hand was waved before the eyes, and that the head was very feebly with-
drawn when the muzzle was pricked, the process of inflation was discontinued for
one minute ; convulsive twitches of the limbs, chest, and abdomen immediately en-
sued, in consequence of which faint respiration was occasionally accomplished, but
nothing like regular breathing. ‘These movements had nearly subsided, and the
heart had begun to beat more slowly, when the artificial inflation was resumed, and

and its Alkaloid Conia. 418

continued for four minutes. During this period the eyelids and muzzle still showed
some sensibility, and the heart again pulsated vigorously.. The artificial inflation of
the chest was again interrupted for one minute with precisely the same phenomena
as-before, and again resumed, also with the same results, for nine minutes. At this
time, thirty-eight minutes after the poison was applied, the sensibility of the eyelids
and muzzle was distinctly improved, the head in particular being plainly withdrawn
a little; but the pupil was dilated, and the iris quite insensible. The inflation was
now discontinued for five minutes, with the same results as formerly ; the animal
was very nearly at the point of death, and the eyelids greatly less sensible, when, on
again resuming artificial respiration, the heart recovered its usual rate and force, and
the sensibility was somewhat improved. In fifty-two minutes, however, under con-
tinued inflation, the sensibility was greatly impaired, although the heart pulsated
vigorously. ‘The experiment of inflation was then abandoned. The usual convul-
sive twitches of asphyxia followed; and for six or seven minutes there were feeble,
irregular, respiratory movements, as proved by placing the felt of a hat over the
hole in the tube.

In sixty-one minutes every muscular movement had ceased, except that the
heart was felt pulsating through the parietes of the chest. It continued to beat for
some minutes after death. The blood was fluid and coagulated as usual.

Expr. 1X. Three drops of conia were dropped into the eye of a strong and fu-
rious cat. Instantly it made violent efforts with its fore-paws to rub out the poi-
son. While continuing to do so, the hind legs became, in forty seconds, affected
with slight convulsions, and so weak that it could not support itself on them. Soon
afterwards the fore-legs also became weaker and weaker; but they were still con-
stantly employed in efforts to rub the poison out of the eye, and these efforts con-
tinued, though gradually becoming more and more feeble and imperfect, so long as
there was any power of motion left. On account of the frequency of these voluntary
efforts, it was impossible to say how soon the respiration was affected, till in ninety
seconds, when all voluntary motion ceased ; and it was then found that the respiratory
movements had ceased also, even the diaphragm being motionless. A few convul-
sive twitches succeeded, as in ordinary cases of death by asphyxia. The heart pul-
sated vigorously for five minutes after the breathing ceased. It was then tied firmly
at its base, removed from the body, and washed. The blood was immediately af-
terwards discharged from it into a clean saucer, and ascertained, by four persons
present, not to present the slightest odour of conia.

The continuance of voluntary efforts to the very last in this in-
stance is a decided proof that volition, and consequently sensa-
tion, were unaffected. The absence of any odour of conia in the
blood of the heart, seems sufficient proof that, if absorbed, it is
nevertheless not necessary that the poison should reach the heart

in order to exercise its peculiar action.
362

414 Prof. Curist1son on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock

Il. Experiments with Muriate of Conia.

Exe. X. Four drops of conia, neutralized with diluted muriatic acid, or rather with
the faintest excess of acid, were introduced through a small wound into the cellular
tissue behind the fore-shoulder of a strong rabbit. In fifteen seconds, all the legs
became for a few seconds somewhat stiff, then paralyzed, and the animal fell down
prostrate, flaccid, entirely palsied, but affected occasionally with rather brisk con-
vulsive twitches, renewable by touching the body. In one minute the respiration
was entirely diaphragmatic ; and in ninety seconds it ceased altogether. For two
minutes more the usual convulsive twitches of death by asphyxia presented them-
selves. The eyes were quite sensible till the breathing ceased ; after which the lids
did not contract even when the cornea was touched.

In four minutes, the chest being laid open, the heart was seen contracting briskly
in all its parts; and the vivacity of its contractions was not affected by spreading
solution of muriate of conia over the heart. In seven minutes the diaphragm, and
the adductor muscle of the thigh, did not contract when their respective nerves were
galvanized ; but both contracted freely when galvanism was transmitted from their
nerves to their substance. Even twenty minutes after the poison was applied, the
heart continued its contractions briskly, the left side acting as well as the right.
The vermicular movement of the intestines was also at that time active.

Expr. XI. The preceding experiment was repeated with two drops of conia, ex-
actly neutralized with muriatic acid ; but the rabbit was smaller and younger. In
fifteen seconds the animal, which had been sitting, rose with the hind-legs stiff; but
paralysis of these legs instantly succeeded, the fore-legs became similarly affected,
complete prostration and general palsy ensued, and the breathing was short, slow,
laboured, and diaphragmatic. So far as could be judged the animal was sensible.
In sixty seconds the breathing ceased, without any previous convulsive movements.
Convulsive twitches followed as usual.

In two minutes the chest was laid open. The heart contracted vigorously in all
its parts. Evenin thirty minutes the force of its contractions was little diminished.
In forty-two minutes the auricles alone continued to contract a little. The blood
in the left side of the heart was as dark as in the right side, fluid, and coagulable.

The tenth and eleventh experiments, when compared with the
fifth, show that conia is considerably more rapid in its action
when neutralized than when free. I donot know any variety of
death, in which the heart remains so long and so remarkably con-
tractile as these experiments show to be the case in poisoning
with muriate of conia

and its Alkaloid Conia. A15

Exp. XII. Seven drops of a faintly acidulated solution of muriate of conia, con-
taining two drops of conia, were diluted to one drachm, and blown from a pipette
into the stomach of a small rabbit, by a hole in the gullet, which was afterwards
tied. In one minute the hind-legs became stiff, causing the animal to rise as usual
straight up from the sitting position. Instantly, however, paralysis ensued, and it
fell down prostrate and flaccid. ‘The respiration at the same time was short, la-
boured, and diaphragmatic, and the eyes sensible. In two minutes the breathing
ceased, and the eyes became insensible even when touched. Convulsive twitches
succeeded for two minutes,

The heart contracted vigorously long after death, the ventricles acting a little
forty minutes afterwards, and the right auricle feebly even for sixty minutes. There
was a strong odour of conia in the peritoneal sac, when the belly was laid open,
about five minutes after death.

The odour of conia in the peritoneum was here, I presume,
owing to its transmission by imbibition, or exosmose. Similar
phenomena have been observed of various other poisons, and
among the rest of oxalic acid, as was proved by Dr Cornwper and
myself in 1823. [Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, xix. 163. |

Exp. XIII. Thirty drops of water, containing two drops of conia, exactly neu-
tralized with muriatic acid, and preserved in this state for a month, were blown
from a pipette into the left femoral vein of a middle-sized puppy, care being taken
to prevent any air entering the vein, and to tighten a noose round the vein instantly
afterwards. I had taken precautions for noting the time, at the instant after in-
jecting the poison, leaving the care of the ligature to another ; but, in the very act of
observing the time, I happened to glance over my watch at the animal, and saw
that respiration and motion had ceased. Certainly three seconds had not elapsed
before this observation was made. The usual slight convulsive twitches followed,
as in all cases of death by asphyxia.

The body was opened immediately. Two minutes after the cessation of breath-
ing, the external arteries of the chest discharged blood per saltum. The heart con-
tracted spontaneously for two or perhaps three minutes more, and remained con-
tractile under excitement much longer. ‘The blood was equally dark in the left as
in the right side, fluid and coagulable. There was no air in the heart.

Ill. Experiments with Extract of Hemlock.

Exp. XIV. Six ounces of hemlock seeds fully developed, but still quite green,
were carefully bruised and exhausted with absolute alcohol of density '797 in a per-
colator. The alcohol being in a great measure distilled off, a thick dark-green
fluid remained, which was promptly oir aes in the vapour-bath to the consist-

416 Prof. Curistison on the Poisonous Properties of Hemlock,

ence of a firm extract. This extract had a beautiful green colour, and a faint,
sweetish, herbaceous odour, which gave place to a powerful odour of conia, when it
was rubbed with solution of caustic potassa. It weighed seventy grains.

Thirty-one grains were dissolved in the same quantity of water, and the solution
was injected between the skin and muscles of the back of a rabbit, care having
been taken to detach them previously with the finger ; and the poison was secured
by a ligature. The animal immediately cried. Ina minute and a half there was
trembling and stiffness of the hind legs, hurried breathing, general languor, but
no insensibility. In two minutes it fell down, with the chest flaccid, and the
respiration diaphragmatic, and becoming quickly more and more limited in extent.
In four minutes there were some convulsions of the hind-legs, and tossing back of
the head, renewable by pulling the legs. The eyelids winked when the hand ap-
proached the eye, and the snout was twitched when the whiskers were pulled. In
five minutes respiration ceased. The usual twitches of asphyxia followed for two
minutes more.

The body being then laid open, the heart was found in nine minutes contracting,
though not vigorously, and it was somewhat gorged. ‘The blood flowed out as
dark from the left as from the right side, and coagulated as usual.

Expr. XV. Thirty-one grains of the same extract, similarly dissolved, were in-
jected between the skin and muscles of a stout small dog, five months old. In three
minutes and a half the hind-legs were weak, and rather stiff, and in six minutes the
fore-legs also. In seven minutes the bowels, and in nine minutes the stomach, were
evacuated. In eleven minutes the breathing was diaphragmatic, and the chest
flaccid ; the animal had great difficulty in rising, from extreme muscular debility ;
and it made efforts to vomit, confined, however, to the diaphragm,—the muscles of
the chest and parietes of the abdomen remaining flaccid. In fifteen minutes the
breathing was slower and more limited. The legs were slightly twitched at times,
but in the intervals paralytic. The efforts to vomit had ceased. The eyelids were
quite active when the eye was approached with the hand. Occasional efforts were
made to change posture as if from uneasiness, but ineffectually ; and the same re-
sult followed in whatever position it was placed. In twenty minutes the respiration
ceased ; and then the eyelids for the first time became insensible. Convulsive
twitches followed for two minutes more.

The chest was then laid open. In twenty-three minutes the heart was contracting
feebly, and was gorged. Stronger contractions took place when the pericardium
was slit open. Dark venous-like blood issued from the left ventricle when it was
opened, and soon coagulated firmly. In thirty minutes the muscles of the chest
and the diaphragm contracted strongly, when either the muscles themselves, or their
neryes, were pinched.

Exe. XVI. Thirty-three grains of a different alcoholic extract, also of great
strength, as proved by trituration with solution of caustic potassa, were dissolved in

and its Alkaloid Conia. 417

thrice their weight of water, and injected between the skin and muscles of the back
of a strong adult rabbit. In three minutes the lower joints of the hind-legs were
stiff, and this symptom was speedily followed by weakness of the hind-legs. In five
minutes all the legs were extremely feeble, and in one minute more they were spread
out laterally from the body, and affected with occasional convulsive twitches, which
were renewed by touching the body. The general paralytic state was so great, that
the animal was unable to alter its attitude, in whatever position it might be placed.
In seven minutes the respiration was almost entirely diaphragmatic, and the para-
lysis of the trunk and limbs complete. The eyelids continued, however, to wink
when the finger was brought near them, and the head was very feebly withdrawn
when the hind-legs were pricked. In nine minutes the respiration ceased. In six-
teen minutes the heart continued to pulsate vigorously.

To these experiments it may be added, that a flea touched
with conia instantly dropped motionless and dead, and that a fly
touched in like manner rose in flight, but suddenly dropped
down, and shewed no farther sign of life. In a strong young
puppy, where two drops were introduced into the eye, extreme un-
easiness was produced from irritation, the tears were discharged
profusely, and the sclerotic and conjunctiva quickly became vas-
cular and considerably swelled ; but, except staggering for an hour,
apparently from weakness, no other marked effect resulted.

( 418 )

Account of the Invention of the Pantograph, and a Description of
the Eidograph, a Copying Instrument invented by WiLL1aM
Wa uace, A. M., F.R.S. Edin., F. R. A.S., Memb. Cam.
Phil. Soc., &c., Professor of Mathematics in the University
of Edinburgh.

(Read 13th January 1831.)

Tue power of making such a representation of any object, as
shall give a distinct idea of its form, is a faculty which artists pos-
sess in different degrees of perfection. The principal difficulty
is, to get a first delineation of any subject; from this a copy
may be made in various ways, with less exertion of talent than
was required for the composition of the original.

Various geometrical and optical inventions have been pro-
posed to assist the artist in making an outline of an object which
he wishes to represent. The Reticulated Square and other con-
trivances, for placing every point of the thing to be represented
in its proper place in the picture, belong to the first class ; the
Camera Obscura and the Camera Lucida to the second. When
a design is to be copied, a different kind of contrivances will in
general be more convenient. It is only of these that I propose
to treat here.

In making a copy, the assistance the artist seeks from mecha-
nical invention is, the power of forming a correct outline. In
many cases, as in the formation of maps and some architectural
designs, this is all that is wanted: the gradations of light and
shade must, in general, be given by the imitative skill which the
artist exerts by the eye alone.

There are various well known contrivances by which a copy
of any design may be made, when it is to be exactly the size of

Prof. Watuace on the Invention of the Pantograph. 419

the original. Of these, a sheet of semi-transparent tracing paper
laid on the subject to be copied, is one of the most simple and
elegant. On this, the engraver may make an outline of a subject
which he means to transfer to his copperplate. If he set no va-
lue on the original design, he may dispense with the transparent
paper; and having made a trace with black lead along the lines
to be copied, he may render them visible on the copper by the
pressure of the rolling-press.

Another elegant way of making a copy is by means of a tra-
cing glass. This, fixed in a frame, is placed in a sloping direc-
tion like a writing desk: the sheet to be copied is laid on the
glass, and the paper on which the copy is to be made above it:
a strong light, either natural or artificial, is directed upwards
through the glass, while the surface on which the copy is to be
made is skreened from the light. The lines to be copied are
thus made visible through the two sheets, and a trace is made on
the uppermost by carrying a point over them.

If a subject is to be diminished or enlarged, none of these
methods will apply. Now this is by far the most common case
at the present time, when numberless Encyclopedias, Atlases,
and other works illustrated by figures, are in progress of publica-
tion, the materials of which are, for the most part, taken from
writers of established eminence.

It may be supposed that attempts must long ago have been
made to furnish the various classes of artists with instrumental
aid. Jn investigating this subject, however, I did not find that
the mechanical contrivances for copying on an enlarged or redu-
ced scale, had been numerous or considerably different, or that
their application can be traced to a very remote period. There
is a well known instrument called the Panrocrapu : this appear-
ing to have been the earliest, and that from which all the others
have been imitated, I was induced to look into its history ; I
found it figured and described by various writers, who yet have
given no indication of its inventor. In a work called “ Geome-

VOL. XIII. PART I. 3H

420 Prof. Waxuace on the Invention of the Pantograph,

trical and Graphical Essays,” by Gzorcr Apams, printed in 1791,
I found it described under the name of a Pantographer. Apams
says, “* I have not been able to ascertain who was the inventor
of this useful instrument. The earliest account I find is that of
the Jesuit ScHerner, in a small tract entitled, Pantographice,
sive ars nova delineandi.”

Avams must either never have looked into Scurrner’s book,
or assuredly must have forgotten what is in it: Monrucua, ip
his Histoire des Mathematiques, says expressly that ScHEINER
was the inventor. In enumerating this learned Jesuit’s wri-
tings, he mentions his work called Pantographia, in which, he
says, the construction and use of the Pantograph is described ;
and he adds, “ that, independently of his other writings (which
Monrucua did not highly esteem), the invention of this instru-
ment alone ought to have given immortality to his name.”

Besides this notice of Montucua, and ScurerNer’s own book,
TL have met with no other recorded testimony that he had the
merit of being the inventor of the Pantograph, although such
may exist.

There is an instrument, exactly the same as Scuerner’s, de-
scribed and figured in a folio work on Geometry and Perspective
(of which there were various editions), by Samurit Marovors,
who must have been his contemporary. There is also a figure
and description of a like instrument in a small book called Thau-
maturgus Mathematicus, printed in 1651 ; but in neither are we
told who was the inventor, nor is even a name given to the instru-
ment, although I have no doubt it was that of ScHEINER’s in-
vention.

I see it described in Bron’s treatise on Mathematicai Instru-
ments (edit. 1723), where it is called the Pentagraph : and again,
in the History of the Academy of Sciences for 1793, where it is
called the Pantograph ; still the inventor is not named. In this
last mentioned work, some defects in its construction are pointed
out, and improvements suggested by Lanexo1s, Engineer to the

and Description of the Eidograph. 421

King and the Academy. In this state it was taken up by Apams
(the father of Grorcr) the English Instrument-maker, who gave
it nearly the form it has at the present day. Monrucza having
said that the preface to ScHErNER’s book is very curious, |
was desirous to see the work. It must be rare, for I could
not find a copy in any of our Edinburgh public libraries. At
length I found one in the Catalogue of the University Library
of St Andrew’s, from which, by courtesy, it was lent tome. I
found the preface, or rather the first chapter, very curious indeed.
I have shewn to several friends, members of this Society, a trans-
lation of it, who entertain the same opinion ; and it has been sug-
gested, that in this communication, in which I propose to de-
scribe an instrument for a like purpose, I may not improperly
give the most interesting part of Scnerer’s own account of his
invention.

Translation of a part of the first Chapter of Scheiner’s work, enti-
tled “ Pantographice, seu Ars delineandi res quaslibet per Pa-
rallelogramum lineare seu Cavum, Mechanicum, mobile,” &c.

« Being, in the year 1603, a professor in the celebrated Ger-
man Academy at Dillingen, where I taught in general polite
literature, but sometimes also mathematical science, I contracted
a friendship with an excellent painter named Grorcivs, a man
lame and deformed, from whom I learned some secrets of the
arts and of nature, and communicated some discoveries of my own
in return.

« This person boasted to me of possessing an admirable inven-
tion, namely, a compendious method of delineating any object,
most easy, sure, and speedy to practise ; so that whoever would
take a drawing from any original, did it by regarding the origi-
nal alone, without needing to look at the copy he made, and yet
without erring in his delineation by one hair’s-breadth. He de-

3H 2

422 Prof. Watuace on the Invention of the Pantograph,

clared farther, that in the drawing of any figure whatsoever, he
was so assured of accuracy, that he could pass at once from form-
ing the feet to represent the nose ; then, after producing the
hands, he could pass from them to delineate the eyes, or any
other part. All these copies he asserted he could make either
equal to, greater, or less than the original ; which alone required
to be seen, but always most exactly true: he never looking at
the copy he made, although he could point out and designate
any part of it he pleased.

“ Upon hearing these particulars, and many more like them
which he told me, being inflamed with a desire to learn his in-
vention, I asked him to communicate it, promising to recompense
the benefit by disclosing to him some similar and equivalent
discoveries in the art of painting, which I thought were not com-
monly known. He replied, that he valued his invention so
highly, that so far from thinking that any thing comparable with
it existed, he did not believe that such could be even imagined ;
in fact, that it was not a human so much as a divine invention,
which he thought had been brought and disclosed to him by no
human efforts, but rather by some celestial genius. Therefore
he declared that he could not bring his mind to barter a secret
of that nature for any others whatsoever.

“T begged that at least he would give me some specimen of
his art, by copying a picture before me. He replied, that to ex-
ercise his art before a bystander, was the same thing as teaching
it, for he that saw it practised could not fail to learn to imitate
it.

“ Confounded beyond belief at this assertion, I asked him se-
riously if he was advancing fables or facts, hyperboles or the na-
ked truth ? He declared that he said even less than truth war-
ranted.

“ Upon this I, more full of admiration than ever, again in-
quired, how, if the artist was guided by seeing the original only,
he could direct the copying pen or pencil without error? He

6

and Description of the Eidograph. 423

replied, that the nature of the thing was such, that accuracy en-
sued infallibly, and as it were spontaneously : so that it was im-
possible to err without design. I inquired whether the effect
was wrought by the drawing of lines, or by the help of a mate-
rial instrument ? Here he began to hesitate, and to speak eva-
sively, avoiding a clear answer, and hiding.a thing, dark and unin-
telligible in itself; im obscure language. This alone he admitted,
that the thing was done by the help of compasses depending
upon a firm centre. I asked him to shew me these compasses :
he refused, upon the plea that whoever saw them would at once
comprehend the whole mystery. At length I earnestly entreat-
ed that he would make a disclosure to me under the seal of se-
crecy, and a pledge of keeping silence, promising to reveal it to
none without his knowledge or against his will; to all which he
gave around denial. Seeing that I talked to one deaf to im-
portunity, I changed my style ; telling him that I trusted to dis-
cover the thing by the blessing of God, who would, according to
my desire, communicate the invention to me in his own good
time, while he might chafe and fret in vain. He laughed at my
threats, saying, that the invention surpassed the power even of
the Devil himself! These things happened in the beginning of
the year 1603, at which period, turning my attention to the in-
vestigation, I laboured with all my might. TI tried the thing at
first with a cord, which I imagined fixed at one end (for I form-
ed the whole in my mind only, and in thought, until I had at-
tained a true knowledge, along with a clear demonstration) ; then
taking the other end in my fingers, I moved it round on imagi-
nary paper, there being upon it two small spheres acting as cur-
sors, to mark out points and proportional lines. These, indeed,
I saw, might be formed about a fixed centre ; but then, neither
was there any motion to or from the centre by means of the
flexible thread, nor did the cursors change their positions upon
it, which yet was necessary to increase or diminish the motion
proportionally. Dismissing, therefore, lines formed by threads,

424 Prof. Watuace on the Invention of the Pantograph,

I had recourse to iron rods. These, however, it was difficult to
get of the requisite straightness, while to connect them by joints
convenient for motion seemed impossible. I consequently put
them away, and betook me to rods of wood.

« Placing one of these before my thoughts, I supposed it per-
forated at certain distances, and hollowed out ; with this, so fitted
for use, I found out something regarding the motion round the
centre, but with regard to that to and JSrom the centre, it proved
to little purpose. Next I joined two rods, using their common
junction as a moving centre, and assuming a point, which might
be in either, as a fixed centre ; but neither in this way did I at-
tain my object. At length, making an attempt with four rods,
forming a gnomon round a small parallelogram, I began to con-
ceive better hopes of success. However, owing to placing the
tracer and drawing pen almost always on the same rod, or in a
position deviating beyond the straight line, I did not reach the
desired end on the first day that I entered on the inquiry. The
object of this invention related to the producing a copy broader
than the original, but in what manner to perform corresponding-
ly what referred to the height greatly perplexed me. TI had,
indeed, learned how to go round the fixed centre, but I was un-
certain as to the method either of receding from, or approaching
to it. However, I did not despair, but after some consideration,
I resumed the design of accomplishing the work at the hours and
days of my leisure ; telling nothing to any one of my attempt,
but sedulously commending it to God and my guardian genius.

“These at last were not wanting to my arduous efforts, but
most graciously imparted a knowledge of the whole secret, along
with its scientific principles, on that same night which precedes
the day sacred to Saints Fabian and Sebastian. In this reve-
lation, the form itself of the instrument was so represented
to my mind, its practice, and a demonstration of the whole
shewn, as it were, at one glance, as if I had seen all things
with my bodily eyes, and was receiving the lesson of a master

and Description of the Kidograph. 425

guiding and teaching me. This impression upon my mind was
so strong, that after twenty-seven years it appears as of yester-
day. Immediately on arising, giving thanks to God and my
tutelary angel, and being full of joy, I exclaimed often within
myself, ‘evenza, ‘evenxa ! Then having fitted together four wooden
rods by means of needles, I took a picture of St Ignatius, and
drew it on paper, the copy being of like form, but on a larger
scale; also, around this, and from the same picture, I carefully
drew others of a distorted proportion. All these, along with
the instrument I had invented, I sent to the before mentioned
painter, by the hands of a certain novice, MELcuior Scuenckx, at
present Father of our Society, who was commissioned, along with
fifty other young men of my jurisdiction in the Monastery of St
Jerome, to ask and interrogate him, 1. Whether he knew or had
ever seen this kind of instrument? 2. Whether he knew the
use of it, and could assign, at pleasure, points for the fixed centre,
for the tracer, and for the drawing pen? 3. Whether from a
given picture he could draw an unlike distorted one? 4. Whe-
ther from a distorted picture he could restore the symmetrical
one? 5. Whether the picture shewn to him corresponded to
its original? 6. Whether he believed that this invention was
made by Master ScHErner ?

“ The painter on seeing the drawings and instrument, stocd,
as they told me, mute and astonished for a quarter of an hour. At
length, recovering himself, he replied, That he had never seen a
similar instrument, nor knew its use: That the drawing pen, the
point of the tracer, and fixed centre in his compasses, were con-
nected with certain holes, besides which, he could not assign
others. He allowed that he had never seen distorted pictures,
being neither able to produce a distorted copy from a symmetri-
cal original, nor from such a copy to reproduce the original. He
admitted that the figure of the saint in the middle of the copy
shewn to him, corresponded most exactly with the picture. He
declared, lastly, his doubt if Mr Scurrver, without his previous

426 Prof. Watxace on the Invention of the Pantograph,

instruction, would ever have made so illustrious a discovery,
which in his opinion should have been kept secret, and not pro-
mulgated to be trodden under the feet of the vulgar.

“ He that had the commission from Mr Scuerner then return-
ed thanks in his name to the painter, for having, by so indus-
triously concealing his small invention, given occasion for the dis-
covery of a much greater ; and by denying a little gem, having
paved the way to lay open a concealed treasure: and also, that
whereas at one time he might, by the doing of a small good of-
fice, have bound his friend to him for ever, so by his refusal he
had raised him to the dignity of being a benefactor to the
whole world. He added farther, that the inventor would take
care that this divine blessing should not fall into contempt, by
too promiscuous an imparting of it.

« After this I gave instructions to some friends and pupils upon
the subject, and having, after teaching of Humanity for four
years at Dillingen, returned to Ingoldstadt to pursue Theology,
I there also communicated the art to some others. At this time,
Witu1am Duke of Bavaria, a person well skilled in the art of
painting, hearing of the fame of my instrument, invited me to
Munich to exhibit it before him; and so wonderfully was he
pleased with its niceness, its sureness, and facility of execution,
that he desired me to write a short description of the instrument
itself, and the manner of drawing a figure.

“ In requital of this service he paid me the compliment of
making known to me that curious artifice by which water is
raised and projected upward. In this method the air is extract-
ed by means of two wheels closely connected, and by the suction
thus produced, the water is first raised and afterwards impelled ;
the rationale of the experiment being nature’s dread of a vacuum,
and the impenetrability of bodies.

« Having now returned from Munich to Ingolstadt, I went
through the prescribed course of Theology and published my
thesis. Being then requested by my superiors to teach Mathe-
matics, I was sufficiently liberal in communicating a knowledge

and Description of the Eidograph. 427

of my parallelogram ; for both publicly in school did I deliver to
my pupils precepts in the art of delineating objects on a plane,
along with sound demonstrations, and at home also, privately, I
revealed to many the abstruser doctrines of the science. By
this means it happened that a general knowledge of the art got
abroad. I made, however, a more free communication to those
who were going into the Spains, and thence about to traverse
the eastern and western worlds for the dissemination of the Ca-
tholic faith, that they might have by this means a more ready
access to conciliate the benevolence of mankind, and thence in-
stil more easily truths of deeper moment into minds thus pre-
pared to receive them.”*

The Pantograph has no defect in its geometrical principles,
but, considered as an instrument for practice, it is by no means
perfect. It is composed of metallic bars, which turn on five
centres ; it is supported on six rollers turning also on centres,
and continually changing their direction while they move along
the paper; and when the instrument is used, the force which
changes its figure is in some positions applied obliquely, and
thus acts at a disadvantage. On all these accounts, its excellence
as a working machine is by no means equal to the perfection of
its geometrical theory. Land-surveyors sometimes use it from
necessity, in reducing or enlarging plans, but the engraver hard-
ly ever employs it ; indeed, in his more delicate work, he can de-
rive from it very little assistance.

In the summer of the year 1821, my attention was directed
to copying instruments. I found that the Pantograph was then
the only one used; and I formed the resolution of attempting to
invent a new instrument, which should be free from its imper-
fections. ;

* The remainder of Scuzi1neEr’s first chapter contains nothing now particularly
interesting ; it is therefore needless to continue the extract: farther.

VOL. XIII. PART II, 31

428 Prof. Wa.iace on the Invention of the Pantograph,

About the middle of July I shewed my friend Mr Jarpine
my first essay, a rough model made of wood. His favourable
opinion encouraged me to persevere, and I succeeded in contriv-
ing an instrument, which gave reason to expect that, when pro-
perly made, by its use any plan could be copied, of the same or
a smaller size, or even larger than the original, with as much ac-
curacy as a tracing point can be carried along a line. To dis-
tinguish the instrument from others designed for a like purpose,
I have called it an Erpocraru, from the two Greek words, «do,
a form, and yeaa, I write.

I next attempted to contrive another instrument that should
make a reversed copy, that is, such as would be shewn by the re-
flection of the original from a mirror. In this also I succeeded.
but the construction was more complicated than that of the
other. The object of the reversing instrument was to make a
trace, at once, on copper, with a view to the etching of any sub-
ject on a varnished ground. An engraver whom I consulted did
not think this form so necessary and likely to be so useful as the
other, and therefore the invention has not been followed out be-
yond the rough model ; which, however, serves to shew that the
thing is quite possible. By this second construction, which may
be applied also to make a direct copy, an instrument might be
made, by which a person sitting in one room may write at a con
siderable distance in another, notwithstanding intervening walls
or floors. I mention this, because cases may be imagined in
which it might be useful for persons in different parts of an esta-
blishment to have the power of holding intercourse by writing,
without moving from their places.

I shall not trouble the Society with a detail of the pains I
have taken to improve the Eidograph, and of my experience of
that law of the human mind, by which it tenaciously adheres to
old habits and methods to which it has been accustomed, and re-
fuses to adopt new ones, although more perfect. My object in
this paper is to prevent an useful invention from being lost, by
having it recorded. Indeed, its utility is now pretty generally

and Description of the Eidograph. 429

known ; for besides occasional applications to the construction of
enlarged maps and scientific diagrams, exhibited in the meetings
of this Society, and to other purposes of public utility, it has
been extensively employed by some engravers in constructing
drawings for the plates of literary undertakings, and in particu-
lar, the seventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, now in
course of publication ; to the anatomical engravings of which, as
well as to those of other works of a like kind published in Edin-
burgh, it has given a degree of perfection much beyond what could
have been attained without its aid.

I am sorry to have reason to say, that at least one imitation
of my instrument has been pressed on public attention, in oppo-
sition to mine, which, for an obvious reason, has been disparaged
by comparison with the imitation. I possess, however, in wri-
ting the testimony of competent judges that, the defects alleged
to be in my instrument really did not exist. In fact, the imita-
tion isa modification of the first form that occurred to me, but
which was abandoned for a better. My case, however, is no
worse than that of many inventors : their labours have frequent-
ly been imitated after they have been at great pains and expense
in bringing them to some degree of perfection.

The Eidograph has been shewn to every ingenious person
who has visited me since 1821, amongst whom have been many
foreigners. This has been done in order to spread a knowledge
of the invention, and to make it, if possible, useful to society ; and
I have had the satisfaction of knowing that an imitation of it has
been publicly exhibited amongst works of ingenuity in Russia
by a British officer, who, however, had the candour to acknow-
ledge to my friend who saw it, that it really was an imitation of
my instrument.

I shall now state some of the advantages which the graphic
art may derive from the Eidograph.

1. The instrument is applicable to the copying and reducing
of very nice works of design; for example, the lineaments of a
portrait. Indeed, it has actually been applied to the tracing re-

312

430 Prof. Wauuace on the Invention of the Pantograph,

ductions of a subject, of various sizes, on an etching ground on
copper, and the process afterwards completed by an acid in the usual
way, and impressions printed from the plate.* Ofcourse the figure
is reversed in respect of the original. This limits the applica-
tion, except the copy be made by a reversing instrument ; but in
many cases this is a matter of no moment. I know of no at-
tempt to do any thing of the same kind by the Pantograph.

2. In estimating the value of the instrument, the economy of
time by its use is important. This will vary according to the in-
tricacy of the design to be copied. I have been assured by a
skilful engraver who had used the instrument, that in ordinary
cases the saving may be three-fourths of the time required by
the methods used before its invention; and that, in more intri-
cate subjects, the saving may be nine parts out of ten.

3. Another advantage is, that a youth whose labour costs lit-
tle, may be taught in a few days to accomplish what would re-
quire years of practice, by the eye alone, in the ordinary way.

4. In the last place, the work may be better done. In the
old methods, its accuracy could only stand the test of the unas-
sisted eye ; but if done by the Eidograph, it will bear an exami-
nation by measurement on a scale.

The principle which has directed the construction of the
Pantograph and Eidograph is the same: it is taken from geo-
metry, and may be stated thus: “ If two points move ona plane,
so that the straight line which joins them passes always through
a fixed point as a pole; while in every position the distances of
the moving points from the fixed point have to each other the
same invariable proportion: then if, by any means, one of the
points is carried along any line, the other shall trace a line ex-
actly similar; the parts of the two lines passed over by any
change of position of the points, having always to each other the
invariable proportion of their distances from the fixed point.”

* Specimens of these etchings were deposited in the library of the Society some
years ago.

6

PLATE XIV. Koval Soc. Tran. Vo

=
nS

a | be

SSS)

and Description of the Eidograph. 431

Or, generally, and more briefly, thus :

“ If, from a given point, two straight lines be drawn, contain-
ing a given angle, and having to each other a given ratio; and
if one of them terminate in a line of any kind given in position,
the other terminates in a similar line, which is also given in po-
sition.”

The proposition in this second form gives great latitude in
the construction of the instrument. I have, however, only em-
ployed the principle as first enunciated.

In applying the principle, the object to be accomplished was,
to connect by mechanism two material points, which should
move with perfect freedom, subject to the specified conditions of
the abstract proposition ; or so that one of them, a tracing point,
being carried along the lines of any proposed design, the other,
a copying point, should trace on paper a true copy of the design
in any given proportion. This has been effected by the instru-
ment now to be described.

Its general appearance is shewn in Plate XIV. F ig. 1, which is a
projection of it on the plane of the surface on which the design and
its copy are placed. The beam aa is a square prism of brass ; it
passes through a socket ¢c, in which it may slide either way.
The socket is supported by, and turns on an axis rising out of a
base dd, which is a brass cylinder. There are two wheels SF
having equal diameters, below the beam ; these have vertical axes
fixed in them, which turn in bored tubes attached to its extremi-
ties. The wheels are connected by a metallic band Sg, f2, which
passes round them, and is fixed at a point in the circumference
of each, so that it cannot slide along their edges.

Two arms P 4, T 4, pass through sockets (in which they may
slide), under the centres of the wheels, and turn along with them
in a plane parallel to that on which the instrument stands. By
the equality of the wheels, and their connection by the band,
the arms when once placed parallel continue so, although the
wheels are turned about their centres. A tracer with a steel

432 Prof. Watuace on the Invention of the Pantograph,

point is fixed at T, the extremity of one arm, and a black lead
pencil, which serves as a copying point, at P, the extremity of the
other arm on the opposite side of the beam. The distances of
these points from the centres of the wheels are in every case
equal to the distances of the latter from the centre of the beam,
whatever proportion these have to each other. By this disposi-
tion of the members of the instrument, a straight line joining the
tracing and copying points passes through the axis of motion of
the beam, and is there divided into two parts, which have to
each other the proportion of the distances between the centres
of the wheels and the centre of the beam. Thus the conditions
required by the mathematical theory are satisfied.

Having described the instrument generally, I shall now no-
tice its parts, particularly, in detail.

Tue BEAM @ a, for the sake of lightness and stiffness, is hol-
low ; it is about thirty inches long, but may be of any required
length ; its cross section is a square, about nine-sixteenths of an
inch in the side. There is a scatx of 200 equal parts engraved
on one of its vertical faces. 'The length of the scale is the exact
distance between the centres of the axes of the wheels, and each
division is 74,th part of this length. The division at the middle
of the beam is 0 (zero), and the scale is numbered both ways ;
the extreme divisions would be 100, if they were numbered so
far, but they go only to about 70, no more being ever required.

Tue socket ¢¢, in which the beam slides, is four inches long ;
it has an opening on one side, through which the divisions on the
scale appear, ard there is an index engraved on it, against which
the zero division is set, when the middle of the beam is exactly
over the centre of the vertical axis on which the socket turns.
Fig. 4. is a vertical cross section, through the centre of the beam
socket, of half the actual size. The opening for viewing the
scale is at v; c is a steel conical axis, fixed into a strong plate p,
screwed into the bottom of the socket, and turning in the bored
tube s, which is screwed to dd, the base of the instrument.

and Description of the Eidograph. 433

TuE BASE is a cylinder, externally of brass, but filled with
lead to give it stability ; two finger-screws pass through ‘it, so
that, if thought necessary, it may be fixed to the table on which
the instrument stands when the instrument is used ; or the ends
of the screws may have each a sharp steel point, which may just
enter the wood, and keep the instrument from sliding on the
table. The shaded part of the section is a ring, to which the.
short ams e e are fixed ; there are three of these, making equal
angies round the centre: only two, however, are seen, as in Fig:
1, the third being under the beam, and screwed to a strong plate:
which connects the socket and beam.. From the extremities of
these arms vertical rollers descend, Fig. 4. (m, m, are two of them);
which turn on their centres by the motion of the instrument, and
press on the upper surface of the base dd. Their use is to prevent
flexion of the main axis c, when the middle point of the beam is
on one side of its support, as happens in making a reduced or an
enlarged copy. There are adjustments a a, by which the weight
of the moveable part of the instrument is made to bear equally
on the three rollers, which thus transfer the weight from the axis
to the base: There is a screw in the lower end of the axis which
serves to give it greater or less tightness in the conical tube in
which it turns. Returning to the socket of the beam, / is a fin:
ger screw which passes diagonally through one of its angles. It
acts on a spring interposed between two sides of the beam (the
upper, and that opposite to the scale), and clamps it by pressing
it into the opposite angle formed. by the other two. .

By drawing the beam along in the socket, its parts on each
side of the centre may have any assigned proportion to each
other ; and thisis indicated by the scale on its side. Thus, when
the division 1 on the scale is placed opposite to the index on the
socket, one part’ of the beam has to the other the proportion of
99 to 101; and when 5 is opposite, the proportion is that of 95
to 105, or of 19 to 21, and so on. The rule to find the number
on the scale, which shall give a proposed proportion, is this:

434 Prof. Waxuace on the Invention of the Pantograph,

« Annex two ciphers to the difference of the numbers which ex-
press the proportion, and divide the result by their sum ; the
quotient is the number on the scale which must be set opposite
to the index on the socket.” Thus, to give the proportion of 3
to 2, the difference of which, with two ciphers annexed, is 100,
divide 100 by 5; the quotient 20 on the scale must be set oppo-
site to the index. Ifthe proportion be that of 5 to 3, we have
for the dividend 200, and for the divisor 8; this gives 25 for
the division to be set at the index; and so on. In general, the
quotient is a fraction, but the nearest whole number is accurate
enough in practice. Thus, if a design is to be reduced in the
proportion of 8 to 5, the sum being 13, and the difference, with
two ciphers annexed, 300 ; the number on the scale to be set to
the index is %2,° = 23, nearly. In some instruments a vernier
scale has been engraved on the socket, by which each half of the
beam was actually divided into 1000 equal parts ; and then, be-
tween the proportion of equality and that of 6 to 1, there might
be interposed *3°° = 714 different ratios, namely, those of 1001
to 999, of 1002 to 998, &e.

Tue wHeets ff. These turn on steel axes which pass
through vertical bored tubes fixed to the ends of the beam. The
diameter of each is about four inches, and they ought to be exactly
equal, because on this the accuracy of the strument mainly de-
pends.

There is a portion of each wheel, about a third of an inch in
breadth from its circumference, which is thicker than the part
within it. This is shewn in Fig. 5, which is a section of a wheel
through its centre ¢ and a part of the beam, of half the actual
size. The upper surface of this bounding ring rises higher than
the surface it incloses; and the lower surface also rises higher
than the lower central surface. Thus, additional space is given
for the groove in the circumference in which the band lies, and
the band thus raised is kept quite clear of the arms which pass
freely below it.

and Description of the Eidograph. 435

THE BAND is composed partly of very thin and narrow watch-
springs fh, fh, and partly of steel wires gg ; of course, the for-
mer only can be applied to the circumferences, but neither wheel
requires to be turned more than about half a revolution ; and
there are stop-pins fixed vertically in them, which come against
the beam and prevent them from turning farther. Hence the
spring parts of the bands need not be much longer than the ares
on which they are applied, and each is attached by soldering to
a piece of brass screwed to the wheel, so that it cannot slide
along the convex surface. The stops prevent the soldered points
from ever being detached from the wheel. The bottoms of the
grooves to which the band is applied ought to be truly cylindric
surfaces, of exactly the same diameter, and concentric with their
axes. The springs are connected by steel wires, the junctions are
made by swivel screws k, k, by which the band may be tighten-
ed, or one wheel turned round a little, while the other is at rest ;
this last motion is required in the adjustment of the instrument.

Tue arms, These are represented by Pd, Td, Fig. 1; they
are hollow four-sided prisms of brass; their upper and lower
faces are half an inch broad, and their other sides a quarter of an
inch ; their length is about twenty-eight inches ; they fit into
sOcKETS which are directly under the centre of the wheels, and
go quite across them, so that the direction of the sliding motion
of an arm in its socket is in a vertical plane, which should pass
always along the same diameter of the wheel. When the instru-
ment is used, each arm is firmly fixed to its wheel by a clamping
screw. In Fig. 5, b is the socket of an arm, and 7 the head of its
clamping screw. The sockets are slit and sprung, to allow the
arms to enter and pass freely along them. The tracer T, the
point of which is of steel, is fixed at the extremity of one arm,
and the copying pencil P (the point is of black lead) at the extre-
mity of the other arm. Figs. 2. and 3. represent the tracer and
copying pencil of half their actual size. The tracer pp, Fig. 2,
passes through a tube #, in which it slides, and there is a finger
screw in the side of the tube to fix it at the proper height in

VOL, XIIl. PART II. 3K

436 Prof. Wa.uacr on the Invention of the Pantograph,

working. Fig. 3. shews the copying point, and its apparatus ;
P P is a black lead pencil, ¢¢ a tubular case into which the pen-
cil is fitted tightly : these, when the instrument is not used, are
detached from the arm and kept apart. The pencil-case has a
flanch yy, which surrounds it like a collar ; the part ¢ of the case
above the flanch, may be called its neck: W, W, W, are round
discs of metal (three are shewn in the figure) ; each has a hole in
it, through which the neck of the pencil-case may be passed ; one
or more of these are placed on the neck when the instrument is
used, they serve by their weight to bring down the copying
point when raised in working, and also to give the proper degree
of shade to the pencil line traced on the paper. There is a bent
LEVER #2, the arms of which are nearly perpendicular to each
other. It is supported at its angle by the fulcrum s, which
stands on the arm of the instrument. The use of the lever is to
raise the copying point from the paper by lifting the pencil-
case in the tube T. For this purpose, there is a silk line
Imn H, Fig. 1. (of which 7m, Fig. 3, is a part), fixed to it at /;
this passes over the wheels of two small pulleys, one, m, support-
ed on the beam over the centre of the wheel, Fig. 1, and another,
n, fixed to the socket c, over its centre. The end H of the silk
line is held in the operator's left hand while he works ; by draw-
ing it he turns the lever about its centre. By this angular mo-
tion, the arm under the flanch raises the pencil in the tube ; by
slackening the line he allows it to descend, until its point again
reaches the paper.

The pencil-case, when it is put into the tube T, does not
come into absolute contact with its inside, but is held firmly in
an upright position, by pressure on the convex surfaces of five
friction rollers which enter the tube, and project a little beyond
its inner surface. ‘Two of these are at the top of the tube and
two at its bottom, directly under the former (only one of each
pair, viz. 7” 7’, are seen in the figure) ; the fifth, 7, is on the op-
posite side of the tube, towards the wheel, so that its pressure
may be opposed to that resulting from the combined pressure of

and Description of the Eidograph. 437

the other four. The rollers at the top and bottom of the tube T,
turn on axes fixed in short projections, which form a part of it, as
shewn in the figure. There is a spring, wu, passing along the side of
the tube, which is fixed to it at the upper end, and loose at the lower.
On this, the axis of the fifth roller turns when it is pressed upon
by the pencil-case, which is thus acted on by three pressures in
directions making equal angles round the axis. In this way the
pencil is held steady while tracing on the paper, and little force
is required to raise or depress it, because the rollers revolve on
their centres by the pencil passing along their round surfaces,
and the only material friction generated is that on their axes,
which is but little in comparison of what it would be, if the pen-
cil-case moved with equal freedom from shake in the tube T.

There is a scaLe of equal parts on the upper surface of each
arm, exactly like that on the beam, the divisions on all the three
being of the same length, and numbered both ways from 0.
Part of each scale is seen through an oblong opening in the
wheels. There is an index engraved on a side of each opening,
and the divisions are so numbered, that when the distances be-
tween the axes of the tracer and copying pencil and the centres
of motion of the wheels are each equal to one hundred divisions :
then the zero divisions on the scales are opposite to the indices.
There are vernier scales on the wheels exactly the same as that
on the beam. The artist in constructing the instrument, takes
care that the planes which pass along the axes of the tracer
and copying points and the axes of motion of their wheels, be
truly parallel ; when they are nearly so, he completes this adjust-
ment by the swivel screws in the band. If the parallelism be
disturbed by any accident, it may be restored in the same way.
There is a mass of lead belonging to the instrument, which may
be put on the shorter portion of the beam, as a saddle, when its
centre is on one side of its point of support, as happens in mak-
ing a considerably reduced copy. This acts as a counterpoise,
and restores in some measure the equilibrium of the instrument
on its base.

3K 2

438 Prof. Waxuace on the Invention of the Pantograph

The instrument has these two properties, by which its accuracy
may be verified : When the zero divisions on the scales are at their
indices, in which case, a copy made would be exactly the size of
the original ; if two corresponding dots be marked anywhere on
a surface, one by the tracer and the other by the copying pencil,
and the point of the tracer be carried rondu and put on the
mark made by the copying pencil, the latter should fall exactly on
the dot marked at first with the tracer. Of course some allow-
ance must be made for the impossibility of perfect workmanship
in this as in other instruments. 2. If a straight line be drawn
on paper, and there be laid off on it any number of equal parts ;
then if an enlarged trace of the line, in some known proportion,
be made by running the tracer along a ruler, and the divisions
of the original be marked on the copy; this last ought to be
sensibly straight, the divisions equal, and the original and copy
ought to have the prescribed proportion.

For obvious reasons, there is a limit not very remote to the
power of making an enlarged copy ; that of making a reduced

copy has, however, more scope. For two instruments, A and B,
adjusted so as to make each a reduced copy, may be united by
6

Prof. Watiace’s Description of the Eidograph. 439

passing an axis through the tubes of P the copying point of A,
and 'T’ the tracing point of B. If this axis contained a copying
pencil, it would make a reduced copy of the original, and P’, the
copying point of B, would at the same time make a copy of this
first copy ; if the intermediate copy be not wanted, it need not
be made. If each instrument were adjusted so as to make a
copy, reduced in the proportion of five to one, the copy made at
P’ would be one twenty-fifth of the original. It is evident that
two or even more reduced copies might be made at the same
time from one original, by ‘using several instruments. I have not,
however, made more than one at a time by two instruments. It
was in this way that some of the etchings on copper referred to
in this paper were made ; their sizes were 4, 1, +, and ;4; of the
original. The place of the copying pencil was supplied by a steel
point, which just cut through the varnish of the etching ground ;
this was all that was required to allow the acid to act on the

copper.

( 440°)

Some Observations on Atmospheric Electricity. By Joun Davy,
M. D., F. R. S$. Communicated by Professor Forzes.

(Read 4th January 1836.)

Tue few facts we possess relative to the chemical agency of
atmospheric electricity, and a certain degree of obscurity con-
nected with these facts, as pointed out by Mr Farapay,* in com-
menting on the late Mr Barry’s results, published in the Phi-
losophical Transactions for 1831,+ have induced me to institute
some experiments on the subject, with the hope of acquiring ad-
ditional information.

Reflecting on the manner in which, in certain instances, the
great experiment of FRaNKLIN, in apparent proof of the identi-
ty of common and of atmospheric electricity, had been repeated,
especially in our own country ;} reflecting also on the experi-
ments of M. Cotiapon on atmospheric electricity,§ made by
means of a lightning-conductor,—it appeared to me not impro-
bable that results might be witnessed of some interest by substi-
tuting for an electrical kite, the means employed by Mr Barry,
an insulated wire raised a few feet above the summit of any
building of moderate height.

As most convenient for the trial, I chose a turret just fifty
feet above the street, the highest part of my own house—situa-
ted rather high—though not in the loftiest part of Valletta, and
overtopped considerably by the summits of several of the public
buildings of the city. There I elevated, by means of an iron rod

* Philosophical Transactions, 1833, p. 42.

+ On the Chemical Action of Atmospheric Electricity, by Alexander Barry, Esq.
F.L.S.

+ Phil. Trans. abridged, vol. x. p. 303.

§ Annales de Chimie et de Physique, tome xxx. p. 72.

Dr Davy on Atmospheric Electricity. 441

well secured, a glass tube, to which was attached, and by means
of which was insulated, a copper wire of moderate thickness, fur-
nished with short projecting lengths of fine wire of pure gold.
This upper conductor thus terminating, stood about six feet
above the summit of the turret. For communication with the
earth, another copper wire was used, the inferior end of which
was immersed in water contained in a small cistern, from whence
a leaden pipe descended through the building to the ground.

On the 13th of last October I began the experiments, and
continued them till the middle of March, when I was obliged to
stop, in consequence of having to prepare to leave Malta and re-
turn to England.

The first experiment instituted was on the gelatinous trans-
parent compound, formed by mixing together moist starch and a
strong solution of the iodide of potassium, which is, I believe,
the most delicate of all the tests yet known of electro-chemical ac-
tion. The two conductors were connected with naked platina
wires, which passed through a cork into a glass tube containing
the compound in which they were plunged, about a quarter of an
inch asunder. The results of this experiment were clear and de-
cisive. I shall limit myself to mentioning them briefly. In fine
weather, even when the sky was cloudless, a slight precipitation
of iodine was commonly observed, in the course of twenty-four
hours, on the platina wire of the inferior conductor. When the
wind was strong, the effect was occasionally greater ; and it was
almost invariably so when clouds were passing, especially low
clouds. The direction of the wind did not appear to influence
the effect materially ; on the whole, ceteris paribus, perhaps the
effect was more marked when the south-east wind, the damp
sirocco, was blowing, than when the cooler and commonly drier
north-west wind prevailed. ‘These remarks apply to dry wea-
ther, at least to absence of rain. During thunder storms, and
during showers of hail even without thunder, and heavy showers
of rain, the effect was more strongly marked. In the two first

442 Dr Davy on Atmospheric Electricity.

instances, the precipitation of iodine was always copious and ra-
pid, and almost invariably on both the platina wires—sometimes
in greatest abundance on that of the inferior conductor, but oc-
casionally on the superior ;—even when the platina wires were
placed rather more than half an inch asunder, the results were
decisive. In these instances it may be inferred that the precipi-
tation on the two wires was not simultaneous but in succession,
in consequence of the passing clouds, or portions of air in motion,
being in different electrical states,—and, as might be expected,
in accordance with this, at no time when the wires were under
observation was there any indication contrary to this inference.
It may be right to mention, that in these trials with the solution
of iodide of potassium and starch, the platina wires were cleaned
as often as was required, on account of iodine precipitated and
adhering to them; and that the gelatinous solution itself was
often changed, which was necessary both owing to its tendency
to spontaneous decomposition, and to the iodine precipitated
electro-chemically, in part becoming diffused through it.

Other experiments which I have made on the electro-chem1-
cal agency of atmospheric electricity, have been far less satisfac-
tory. Using Volta’s eudiometer, filled with a strong solution of
common salt, no indications could be obtained of the decomposi-
tion of water, although the platina wires of the eudiometer-tube
connected with the conductors were within one-tenth of an inch of
each other, and though the experiment was more than once made
when it was thundering.

The only result obtained clearly shewing the decomposition
of water, was in an experiment in which fine sewing needles,
coated with sealing-wax, excepting at their points, were substi-
tuted for the eudiometer. On one occasion, using this appara-
tus with a strong solution of salt, the point of the needle commu-
nicating with the inferior conductor was oxidated, whilst the
other point communicating with the superior remained bright,
and round the latter very minute bubbles of gas were collected.

Dr Davy on Atmospheric Electricity. 443

This result was obtained during stormy and showery weather,
with a sirocco wind.

Experiments were tried with a view to the decomposition of
some metallic solutions, such as the nitrate of silver, muriate of
platinum, and sulphate of copper, using wires of different metals
not capable of acting on them chemically, but no satisfactory re-
sult was witnessed, excepting once with a solution of sulphate of
copper and platina wires, and during a thunder storm, when a
slight, just perceptible, precipitate of copper took place on each
of the wires immersed.

Occasionally, for comparison, the electro-chemical experiments
were interrupted, and the conductors were connected with a gal-
vanometer, and also with a spiral wire, containing a sewing
needle, placed at about right angles to the magnetic meridian.
The magnetic effects witnessed were very inconsiderable. On
one occasion only, when the atmosphere was in a highly electri-
cal state—lightning frequent, near and vivid—was the galvano-
meter very distinctly affected. The deviation of the needle was
from 8° to 10°. I may mention a particular instance, in which
the absence of magnetic effect to me appeared remarkable. It
was on the 20th December, when I happened to be present du-
ring a shower of hail without thunder. For two minutes that I
attentively watched the galvanometer, I could not observe the
slightest movement of the needle. I then rapidly connected the
conductors with the platina wires immersed in the compound of
the iodide of potassium and starch,—now, in less than half a mi-
nute, there was a considerable precipitation of iodine on the wire
communicating with the inferior conductor.

On the needle in the spiral the effect was even less than on
the galvanometer. Sometimes it appeared on trial to have ac-
quired a very feeble magnetic power, but which it soon lost on
continuing the experiment. It may be worthy of mention, that
in the instance in which the galvanometer was affected, as be-

VOL. XIII, PART I. 3L

44d Dr Davy on Atmospheric Electricity:

fore described, the needle, in a spiral which was then included
in the circle, was not sensibly magnetized.

As the copper-conducting wires, during the period of experi-
menting, were undergoing oxidation, it was not impossible that
the feeble effects which occurred in fine weather, indicated by a
very slight precipitation of iodine, might be connected with the
chemical change the wires were experiencing. To put this to
the proof, gold wires were substituted for the copper throughout.
The results were still similar. Whence it may be inferred that
the results in question were not connected with the oxidation of
the copper wires, and. that they depended solely on the foreign
influence they were the means of communicating.

It was my wish to have instituted other experiments, in more
favourable situations, for witnessing the effects of atmospheric
electricity acting with greater energy,—but hitherto I have been
prevented. Other inquirers who have the means and leisure, I
trust will enter upon the subject and investigate it farther. In
the mean time, it may be asked, how do the results of electro-
chemical action described above, accord with those referred to
obtained by Mr Barry? Making allowance for difference of
intensity, they appear sufficiently well to harmonize. Whilst
water was rapidly undergoing decomposition in his experiment,
he experienced shocks on touching the conducting thread con-
nected with the electrical kite. In none of my experiments did I
ever obtain any shock or spark from the insulated conductor,
therefore it is not surprising that the chemical effects I witness-
ed were so much feebler, and that only slight indications were
afforded of the decomposition of water.

Mr Farapay, comparing Mr Barry’s results with the effects
of common electricity and of voltaic electricity, justly points out
that they are not identical with either. The same remark will
apply not less forcibly to the results of the foregoing experiments.*

* In the abstract of Mr Branper’s Bakerian Lecture for 1819, though, not that
can find in the lecture itself, it is stated, that * the brilliant light occasioned by

Dr Davy on Atmospheric Electricity. 445

He is of opinion that, if confirmed, they will prove the existence
of “ a form of electrical current, which, both in quantity and in-
tensity, is exactly intermediate between those of the common
electrical machine and the voltaic pile.”* Another view may be
taken. It may be said, that they seem to be in favour of atmo-
spheric electricity not being a simple and single power, but com-
pounded somewhat after the analogy of the solar ray, and of its
possessing even a principle peculiar to itself.

This notion I throw out merely conjecturally at present : it
might be equally difficult to prove it correct or to refute it. At
present it seems most desirable to accumulate facts, waiting
for the time when, by means of extensive induction, we may
hope to be enabled to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. But
whatever that conclusion ultimately may be, in the mean time it
hardly admits of a doubt, that what is called atmospheric electri-
city exercises a powerful influence both in the aérial regions and on
the surface of the earth ; and on the latter, perhaps, greater and
more constantly than has hitherto been supposed. The results
of the experiments I have described may warrant this inference
in regard to constancy of feeble effect ; and very many facts, well
established and universally known, especially the changes not un-
frequently witnessed in the cellar and the dairy during thunder-
storms, may be adduced in proof of its more energetic action, in
accordance with Mr Barry’s results, as an agent of chemical

change.

Fort Pirt, Coatuam, June 7. 1835.

the discharge of the voltaic apparatus presently blackens the chloride of silver."—
(Abstracts of the Philosophical Transactions, vol. ii. p. 121.) I have exposed this
compound moist, just made, to the intensely bright light of a succession of flashes
of very vivid lightning, during a thunder-storm by night of unusual violence, even
in Malta, and which lasted several hours, without the least change of its colour. If
the above statement be correct (and it probably is, as Mr Brawor, in 1819, was
senior Secretary of the Royal Society, by whom the abstracts of papers are I under-
stand generally made), we have here apparently another point of difference between
voltaic and atmospheric electricity.
* Phil. Trans. 1833, p. 43.
3L2

( 446 )

Researches on Heat. Second Series. By James D. Forszs, Esq.
F.R. SS. L. & E., Professor of Natural Philosophy in the
University of Edinburgh.

(Read 2d May 1836.)

§ 1. On the Use of the Thermo-Multiplier. § 2. On the Polariza-
tion of Heat by Tourmaline. § 3. On the Laws of the Po-
larization of Heat by Refraction. § 4. On the Laws of the
Polarization of Heat by Reflection. § 5. On the Circular
Polarization of Heat.

1. Tue first series of these researches, in the exact form in
which they are printed, were laid before the Royal Society on the
19th January 1835. The whole of the experiments there de-
scribed were made, and the paper written and printed, within a
space of time little exceeding two months. This haste, unfa-
vourable to composition, I considered as a less evil than postpon-
ing for a period of time, which must have been considerable, the
publication of a class of facts which might be said almost to em-
brace a new science. The professional duties which pressed upon
me during the whole continuance of those experiments, then call-
ed imperatively on my attention, and during the remainder of
the Session my time was devoted to them. The summer I de-
voted to a foreign excursion, some of the results of which I after-
wards digested; and it was not till the commencement of the
winter session which has just closed, that I prepared, with a fresh
stock of health and spirits, to reinvestigate the whole subject of
the Polarization of Heat, and to assign numerical values to the
effects, whose existence I had before been contented to prove.

Koyal Soc Trans. Vol. XM. p. 447.

Professor Forses’s Researches on Heat. 447

2. The mode of publication which circumstances have led
me to adopt, requires that the author should from time to time
state how far fresh experiments, have justified his first conclusions,
and which, if any, he is prepared to sacrifice. A want of perspi-
cuity in this respect has led to considerable ambiguity in several
cases of progressive publication.

3. It affords me, then, no small satisfaction to be able to state
that a persevering examination of the laws of polarized heat, un-
der the improved circumstances which experience put at my dis-
posal, has confirmed every general statement which my first paper
contained ; the numerical results there given, never professed to
be exact, nor will the more accurate ones now to be substituted,
disprove any general conclusions derived from these preliminary
investigations.

4. I proceed, then, to detail the results which have been ob-
tained, defining more clearly the experimental laws already de-
veloped, and the new discoveries to which I have this winter been
led, reserving for another communication the detail of some far-
ther investigations not yet completed.

§ 1. On the Use of the Thermo-Multiplier.

5. I have succeeded in rendering the application of the
thermo-multiplier considerably easier, and more delicate than
formerly. In my last paper, art. 5, I described the application
of the telescope to determine accurately the amount of the de-
viation of the needle of the instrument indicating degrees of tem-
perature. I have made the arrangement more permanent, placing
the instrument on one shelf of a solid press, and clamping a little
arm A, Plate, Fig. 1, carrying the telescope, and centered at
a point in the prolongation of a vertical line, passing through
the centre of the card of the galvanometer, to a shelf above, as
seen in the figure. The little arm bearing the telescope, there-
fore, traverses the divided part of the galvanometer card, just as

448 Professor Forses’s Researches on Heat.

a micrometer does the limb of an astronomical circle.* The re-
sult of this application of optical power is, that equally accurate
conclusions may be drawn within small limits of deviation, as if
the deviations were greater, and observed in the ordinary way.
This is important on several accounts, 1. The instrument is not
liable to those derangements which follow from exposure to con-
siderable heat,—derangements difficult to allow for, and which I
have not succeeded in obviating. 2. The value of the degrees is
more nearly uniform, and less liable to abrupt change ; so that (as
will presently be seen) within the narrow limits under which I am
accustomed to operate, the deviations are almost as the forces.
3. The motions of the needle being much more speedy and cer-
tain within small ranges (particularly in its return to zero) much
time is saved, and the consecutive observations are more accurately
comparative. 4. By the use of the telescope all parallax in read-
ing is avoided, and if a diagonal eye-piece be employed, the posture
is much less fatiguing than in any other method of observation.
6. Besides using this optical contrivance, I have increased the
delicacy of the instrument, by adding a conical reflector (seen at
M, Fig. 1), so as to concentrate nearly parallel rays upon the sur-
face of the pile. This contrivance is not my own. I saw one
in an instrument made on the model of M. Nosixt’s, in the
possession of M. Quere.er, at Brussels, in 1832, which was the
first multiplier I had seen. This reflector increases the sensibi-
lity of the pile to heat from a given source seven or eight times,
or in a proportion not very different from the area of its aperture

* References to Fig. 1—P, the thermal pile. KI, LH, the wires conveying
the electricity from the pile to the galvanometer. G, the galvanometer card, over
which the needle traverses. EF, the cover of the galvanometer, which has a plane
glass top. BC, a telescope, with a diagonal eye-piece, having an additional object-
glass at D, in order to give distinct vision of the galvanometer-needle and the scale
(see First Series, art. 5). A, the telescope-bearer, moving round a point concentric
with G M, the trumpet-mouthed reflector, applied to the pile (art. 6, below).

Second Series.— Thermo-Multiplier. 449

to that of the pile.* The length of the conic frustum which I
employ is 12 inches, and its aperture 12 inches.

7. It is well known that the deviations of galvanometers are
not, generally speaking, proportional to the forces producing them,
and that for the most part angular spaces at greater distances
from zero correspond to increments of force greater than for
equal spaces near zero. Thus to cause the needle to advance
from 25° to 30° requires a force greater than to make it deviate
from 0° to5°. Also the force indicated by a deviation of 30°, is
more than six times the foree indicated by a deviation of 5°. M.
Me txont has pointed out an ingenious method of comparing the
values of the different parts of the scale. This consists in em-
ploying two constant sources of heat to affect the opposite ex-
tremities of the pile, and after observing their separate effects,
noting their joint effect, which will not generally be equal to the
arithmetical difference of the others. Thus let one source of
heat force the needle in a positive direction to 30° on the scale,
and a second source of heat acting separately produce a negative
deviation of 25°, the effect of both acting at once will not be a po-
sitive deviation of 5° merely, but probably will indicate some
greater number, as 6° or 7°. Thus, a érue scale of degrees equal
in value to those near zero may be constructed.. The execution
of this investigation is not so simple as it appears, chiefly owing
to a tendency of the zero point to shift during experiment, ap-
parently owing to a permanent electro-magnetic condition of the
conducting wire. It seems that this electro-magnetic condition

* Suppose that we wish to have a conical reflector ABCD, such that the whole
of the parallel rays which fall upon it shall
reach some part of the surface AB of the
pile, which is all that we want, we have this
simple construction. Let the length of the
trumpet-mouth AE be given. Make FB
equal and parallel to it. Join FA, and pro-
long the line to D, then is DAE the great-
est inclination that the sides of the cone can have to answer ee purpose intended.

450 Professor Forsss’s Researches on Heat.

may continue to exist in one direction, even after the wire has
been transmitting a powerful current in the opposite one. We
have not now time to dwell upon the peculiarities of the instru-
ment. I content myself, therefore, with stating, that I obtained
satisfactory results after several patient trials, and obtained the
following table of reduction to true degrees, or uniform measures
of heating effect, by projecting my rete and drawing through
them an interpolating curve.

Table for reducing Galvanometer Readings to Degrees of uniform

value.

Reading. Corresponding Intensity.
0.0 0.0
2.0 2.1
4.0 4.2
6.0 6.3
8.0 8.6

10.0 10.8
12.0 13.0
14.0 15.4
16.0 17.8
18.0 20.0
20.0 ( 22.4,

The measures in the first column refer to the stationary de-
viation of the needle of the galvanometer by the influence of any
heating cause. The result is remarkably uniform ; the curve from
which these numbers are derived, not differing very materially
from a straight line.

8. Another mode of estimating the indications of the instru-
ment has been used by M. Mextoni, and it is one particularly
adapted to our researches. It likewise gives much more uniform
results than might have been anticipated. Instead of noting the
final or stationary deviation due to any heating cause, it is sufficient
if we note the are through which the needle is first impelled, and

Second Series.— Thermo-Multiplier. 351

employ a table of reduction, indicating the relation ‘subsisting
between the dynamical effect or first are of impulsion, ‘and the
statical effect or that of final deviation. My experiments have
given the following results, and the last column indicates the ac-
tual intensities taken from the preceding table, corresponding to
‘the statical deviation in second column.

Dynamical effect, or first Statical effect, or
arc passed over. Permanent Deviation. Intensity.

1.0 1.2 1.2
2.0 25 2.35
4.0 : 4.5 4.65
6.0 6.7 71
8.0 8.9 9.6

10.0 11.1 12.05

12.0 13.2 14.4

14.0 15.3 16.9

16.0 17.4 19.35

18.0 19.45 21.75

20.0 21.5 24.3

9. The mode of observation by the first impulsive are I have
invariably adopted for obtaining numerical results, and chiefly
for these reasons: 1. It saves time, and thus renders consecutive
observations comparable. 2. It prevents a long exposure of the
pile to heat, which alters the zero point and injures its action.
3. It almost annihilates the effect of conduction where substances,
capable of retaining heat, are placed between the source of heat
and the pile.

10. It is a remarkable circumstance, that when both the cor-
rections obtained from these tables are applied, we obtain (as
far as 20° at least) a measure of intensity increasing, almost
uniformly, with the are first run through. This is found to de-
pend on the circumstance that the curve, expressive of forces, in
terms of the stationary deviation, is convex towards the axis, or
the forces increase more rapidly than the arcs ; whilst the curve,
expressing the stationary in terms of the momentary deviations,

3M

352 Professor Forses’s Researches on Heat.

is concave to the axis, or the Statical effect increases in a less ra-
tio than the Dynamical effect. The convexity of the one curve,
almost compensating the concavity of the other, the relation ob-
tained between the first impulsive arc and the calorific force, is
nearly linear.

11. This will be best illustrated by comparing the true ratios
of the forces obtained from the above table, with the simple ratio
of the first deviations ; and to put it in greater evidence we shall
suppose a deviation of 20°, which is greater than we have ever
employed in these experiments.

First Deviations compared. Ratio. Ratio of Intensities.
20° and 1° -050 .049
20 — 2 -100 097
20 — 4 -200 91
20 — 8 400 395
20 — 12 .600 593
20 — 16 .800 796

Since, therefore, even in this case, we should never have an er-
ror amounting to a unitin the second decimal place, I have con-
tented myself in this paper with the employment of the simple
arithmetical ratio of the first ares passed over.

12. The construction of the table in Art. 8. was attended
with much more trouble than I anticipated. ‘The relation be-
tween the Dynamical and Statical effects appears to depend up-
on circumstances very easily overlooked. Comparisons repeated
apparently under the same circumstances often differ very mate-
rially, relatively to the magnitude of the quantity sought, name-
ly, the difference of the two effects, which is always small. This
seems chiefly to depend upon the condition of the conducting
wire which has transmitted the electric current. It is well
known, that such wires retain for some time the molecular con-
dition, into which they have been thrown, by transmitting elec-
tricity, even after the current has ceased. This may be expected
perhaps to be even more strongly the case in electricity of small

Second Series— Thermo-Multiplier. 353

tension, such as that of the thermal pile. I have even found (as
already stated) that this peculiar electro-magnetic arrangement is ~
not destroyed by producing a brisk action in the opposite direction.
Now, in relation to the statical or dynamical effects, we cannot be
. surprised if the galvanometer coil be brought into action after a
short interval of repose, and in the same direction as before, that
this molecular arrangement, of whatever kind it be, not being
completely destroyed or undone (which it requires many minutes
completely to effect), the electricity finds a more ready passage
through the wire than if it had not previously been transmit-
ting electricity ; consequently, the whole electro-magnetic effect
is more nearly instantaneously developed, and the extent of the
first impulsive arc bears a greater proportion to the total effect,
which, after an unlimited time, the electric current is capable of
producing (indicated by the statical deviation), than if the wire
had been in a perfectly neutral state when the action commenced.
This view is suggested by my experiments, which shewed the
relation between the dynamical and statical effects to depend
materially upon the position of zero, upon the time allowed to
elapse between the experiments, and upon the degree of previous
excitement. It also shews why the difference of the two effects
diminishes, relatively to the are, as the arc increases. The time
of performing the first sweep is nearly (I apprehend not exactly)
the same for large and small arcs. The time for the production
of the effect is, therefore, not greater in the one case than in the
other. But the intensity of the force being greater in one case,
and acting for as long a time, the coercive force or inertia of the
conducting material is already nearly overcome by the time that
the needle has reached the extremity of its oscillation.. The
effect, therefore, will (as observed) approach more nearly to the
permanent effect.

13. The tabular numbers (art. 8) refer to the experiments
made with the conical reflector (art. 6) applied to the pile.
They are derived from several distinct series of experiments se-

3M 2

354 Professor ForsBes’s Researches on Heat.

parately tabulated and projected. It is remarkable enough, how-
“ever, that there is a striking numerical difference between these
results and those obtained when the simple aperture of the pile was
employed without any reflector, being merely incased in its square
brass tube. The excess of permanent above momentary devia-
tion was greater in the latter case than in the former. In other
words, the effect of heat (to the same amount) appeared to be
more quickly developed in the pile when it was concentrated by
the reflector, than when it fell directly on the pile. There is
nothing paradoxical in this result, since the distribution of the
heat on the sentient extremity of the pile differs in the two cases.

14. It appears, then, that these effects are developed on the
whole in a simple and uniform manner; and though such an in-
vestigation as we have undertaken of the instrument, was neces-
sary to give us confidence in the numerical accuracy of the re-
sults, all facts of importance might be determined without it :
and even quantitative laws ascertained by a judicious conduct of
experiments. Many persons, even though not unaccustomed to
physical reasoning, have strangely inaccurate conceptions of the
limits of possible errors. Nor is there a more important part of
the science of experiment than to perceive where physical proof
becomes satisfactory, though yet far removed from mathematical
certainty. To supply the latter is a humbler and more me-
chanical task, which may be undertaken at leisure, as in this
paper we shall partly attempt to do.

§ 2. Polarization of Heat by Tourmaline.

15. On this subject I have little to add. It does not possess
the same theoretical importance as in the case of polarization by
other methods. Double refraction is better shewn by the pheno-
mena of depolarization by mica, described in my last paper (art. 46
et seq-), and the phenomena attendant on the absorption of one of
the doubly refracted pencils, are so capricious and ill understood,
even in the case of light, that it might hold or not for heat with-

Second Series.— Polarization by Refraction. 355

out altering our views as to the probable identity of the cause of
both those physical agents. With heat from incandescent pla-
tinum the effects are extremely well marked. Thus with tour-
malines E and F (see First Series, 22) I obtained for the ratio of
the quantities of heat transmitted, with axes of crystals parallel,
and axes crossed, 100: 76; or 24 per cent. of the heat was
polarized (Jan. 19. 1836). When one of these tourmalines was
combined with a mica plate, marked G, polarizing by transmis-
sion (see below art. 20), the proportion was 100: 62, or 32 per
cent. polarized of heat from incandescent platinum.

16. With dark heat incomparably greater difficulty was ex-
perienced. Excessively little heat could be obtained through
the combined mass of tourmaline and the glass to which it is ce-
mented, and of that little it appeared that but a minute portion
was polarized, or at least absorbed by the action of the former.
At one time I seriously doubted whether any perfectly dark heat
came out of tourmaline polarized in one plane only. I have rea-
son to believe that, in my first experiments, there was a source
of error, arising from the form of the plates, which was not ad-
verted to formerly. I have, however, satisfied myself that even
dark heat is capable of being acted upon by tourmalines in the
same manner as light. In my experiments the quantity appa-
rently polarized did not exceed one-seventh or one-eighth of the
small: quantity transmitted. ‘This was in combination with a
polarizing mica plate (marked I).

§ 3. On the Laws of the Polarization of Heat by Refraction or
Transmission.

17. In my last paper on this subject, I stated the fact of the
polarization of all the kinds of heat which I tried by transmis-
sion through thin bundles of mica placed obliquely. I stated
the difficulties which I experienced, and the quantitative errors
to which the results were liable. I shewed at the same time that
these errors were of a kind calculated to mask the effects of po-

356 Professor Forses’s Researches on Heat.

larization, but not to produce them. The numerical results which
I gave (I. Series, 44), were intended chiefly to shew that, even
under all these disadvantages, the effects which I observed were
of an extremely important and obvious character, such as no slight
or capricious anomaly could possibly have produced. No one
who candidly reads the paper, or is aware of the labour of so ex-
tensive an investigation in so new a field, can suppose that I in-
tended to give these results as to the quantities of heat, of dif-
ferent kinds, polarized by passing through mica bundles, as de/i-
nitive numerical results. I certainly did suppose that the differ-
ent kinds of heat were polarizable in different degrees under the
same circumstances, a conclusion which I am now prepared to
establish.

18. The extent to which the former paper had swelled, like-
wise prevented me from inserting the description of a multitude
of precautionary measures, taken to shew that errors, of whose
existence I was perfectly aware had no influence in producing
the effects which I stated; nor am I now going to enter into
details of manipulation, which the experimentalist must learn for
himself, and which would be highly tedious to any other reader.
[ will content myself with recalling two proofs (which I have else-
where * stated), in justification of my experiments. Could an
effect similar to polarization have been produced by the con-
duction of heat, it must have been im the followimg way: My
earliest experiments were made with bundles of thin mica, A
and B, Fig. 2, cemented to soles or bases of wood, C and D,
forming, with the mica, an angle of about 34°. Two of these
being placed between the source of heat $, and the thermo-elec-
tric pile P, the fact observed was, that when either of these bun-
dles was set on edge, as in Fig. 3, so that the planes of refraction
in the two bundles were perpendicular, /ess heat reached the
pile than in the first position. If conduction produced this ef-
fect, it must have been owing solely to the different quantities

* Philosophical Magazine and Annals, for November 1835 and March 1836.

Second Series.—Polarization by Refraction. 357

of heat communicated from A to B, in the positions of Fig. 2.
and Fig. 3. ‘lo any one who had tried any experiment of the
kind, the enormous difference in the effect observed (rising to
40 per cent. even in my first experiments), and the instantaneous
nature of the change, would have been a sufficient answer. But
I farther shewed that the effect was wholly independent of the
interval between A and B, and that, therefore, the objection must
fall to the ground.

19. To place the matter beyond all cavil, however, I after-
wards devised this experiment: I had a tin canister A, made,
Fig. 4, having a surface a, similar in size, figure, and position to
the mica plate A of Fig. 2, whose absorbed heat was supposed to
affect the pile differently, by being placed in a rectangular posi-
tion. The second mica plate B, was interposed as before,—that
is, between the pile P and the heated body A, the canister being
now filled with boiling water. The effect on the pile, of the sur-
face a, was now very great, exceeding, perhaps some hundred
times, that of the mica surface with its absorbed heat, which it
replaced. Yet, upon turning the canister A into successive rect-
angular positions, no very decided difference of effect upon the
pile could be observed (Dec. 21. 1835.) If any, the effect indicated
a greater supply of heat in the crossed than in the parallel positions,
or was opposed to that which would have indicated polarization.

20. The polarizing effect takes place only at the surfaces of
plates,—the absorptive effect depends upon their thickness.
Hence to polarize heat effectively, a minute subdivision of mica
into thin lamine is essential. ‘This I formerly effected by a pen-
knife. I have since, however, discovered a method much more
effectual. A piece of mica, thrown into a brisk red fire, is split
up, by the expansion of the air between its films, into a multi-
tude of pellicles, which reflect light. with almost metallic bril-
liancy, and polarize it intensely by transmission. Such mica
plates I have used, one pair being marked G and H ; the other
I and K.

21. By experiments with both these pairs of plates I have

358 Professor Forses’s Researches on Heat.

been led to the conclusion, that some kinds of heat are more po-
larizable at a given incidence than others. Between heat from
an Argand lamp, and that from platinum rendered incandescent
by the flame of alcohol, there is little difference ; but heat, un-
accompanied by light, is much less polarizable than luminous
heat, and that apparently in proportion to the lowness of its tem-
perature. I may take the opportunity of giving one or two ex-
amples of such experiments.

Mica Plates I and K. Argand Lamp, with Chimney and Reflec-
tor : 16 Inches from Centre of Pile.

Dynamical Effect. Mean. Ratio.
Parallel ; : 4 : 15.6 Estes bs
Crossed ‘ p : . 42 15.67 27 : 100
Parallel é ; : walbees =
Crossed ; é A - 44 ! 15.85 28 : 100
Parallel : ; : ~ 15.95——~—

Argand without Reflector : 16 Inches.

Parallel ; : : - 10.4 ——-
Crossed . : . J, 18.0, 10.42 29 : 100
Parallel : . ‘ O45
Crossed 5 5 : OO } 10.55 28 : 100
Parallel : ; , SY Se
Incandescent Platinum : 16 Inches.
Parallel : 3 2 >» 1g
Crossed , ; a . 8.45 12.42 28 : 100
Parallel 4 : by Sl Obamas
Crossed ; ‘ é 3.7 } 12.87 29 : 100
Parallel : : 6 SICH ieee

Dark Heat from Brass, warmed by Alcohol : 16 Inches.

Parallel Q > t sat LO:5
Crossed A 4 ’ » 4.05 ' 10.57 38 : 100
Parallel i j ; OG es

Crossed : . : OG ; 10.55 37 : 100
Parallel : : : © LOS eerecers

Second Series.— Polarization by Refraction. 359

22. These are given as examples of the usual mode of pro-
ceeding with such experiments, the zero point being ascertained
between each observation, and the dynamical effect reckoned
from it. On the whole, I obtained for the proportion of heat
polarized, or stopped in the transverse position of the plates, the
following numbers :

Plates I and K.

Source of Heat. Rays out of 100, polarized.
Argand Lamp, ; : é “ : . : ; 72 to T4
Incandescent Platinum, . : ; , : ; ; 72
Brass heated to about ‘700°, . 3 : . 63
Heat from the same source transmitted rome bas, , 72
Mercury in a crucible at 410°, F ; t F : 48
Boiling Water, : : : : , é 2 P 44

Plates G and H.
Argand Lamp, : ; / 4 : : - ; 82
Incandescent Platinum, : ; ; : . ‘ 19
Brass heated to about 700°, . : ’ 68
Heat from the same source transmitted throat: ae 2 13
Boiling Water, ! i 5 A 3 ' x é 49

It thus appears that the Plates G and H are capable of polarizing
no less than 82 per cent. of some kinds of incident heat: these
plates I began to use in the commencement of December last.
23. The unequally polarizable nature of different kinds of
heat having been controverted, I took several methods of as-
suring myself that the observed effects were not due to in-
equalities in the dimensions of the sources of heat employed, or
to their variable distances from the pile. A multitude of proofs
might be given, but I will content myself with stating one or
two of the most decisive. 1. Incandescent platinum and dark
hot brass were successively placed at the same distance of twelve
inches from the pile ; a thin plate of glass being placed between
the latter and the pile, and two thick plates of glass between the
VOL. XIII. PART II. 3N

360 Professor Forses’s Researches on Heat.

former and the pile. The quantities of heat reaching the pile
were thus almost equalized, and the result was, that the heat
froma dark source, after transmission through glass, became as
polarizable as that from incandescent platinum, although. before
NINE per cent. less of it was stopped. 2. If heat from boiling
water or hot mercury be not really /ess polarizable: than that
from luminous bodies, it must appear to be so in consequence of
the surface being larger, or closer to the pile, and therefore seen
at the pile under a greater angle. To shew that this effect, if it do
exist, is at least insignificant in relation to the effect due to the
variable nature of the heat, I placed the brass heated to 700° at
12 inches from the pile, and caused its rays to be sifted by a
plate of glass. I found that 73 per cent. of this heat was pola-
rized by the mica plates I and K. I then removed the glass
plate, and withdrew the heated brass from the pile, until the
impression on the pile was nearly the same as before. This was
at a distance of 26 inches, instead of 12. The source of heat
was therefore seen under a much smaller angle than before.
But instead of the polarization being augmented by this cireum-
stance, the change in the quality of the heat by the removal of
the interposed glass reduced it to 64 per cent.—an effect which
must have been owing to that cause, and to that alone. Ano-
ther experiment similarly conducted with the mica plates G and
H gave 73 per cent. of heat sifted by glass polarized at a dis-
tance of 12 inches, and only 68 per cent. of heat from brass at
700° in its simple state, at a distance of 27 inches. In all these
experiments it is clear that the result is true, independently of
any reduction for the degrees of the galvanometer, since in each
set the deviation is made the same.

24. The general fact that heat from sources of higher tempe-
rature is more polarizable by refraction, agrees with the corres-
ponding case of light. Heat of low temperature is least refrangible,
and Sir Davip Brewster has found that light of less refrangibi-

Second Series. —Polarization by Reflection. 361

lity is less completely polarized by a bundle of plates placed at a
given angle, than the more refrangible rays.
25. Mica is pre-eminently adapted for the purpose of polariz-

ang by its considerable diathermancy, and by the extreme thin-

ness of its laminz. I have, however, succeeded in polarizing

heat by transmission through a bundle of rock-salt plates with

parallel surfaces.* Two bundles consisting of three plates, or six
surfaces each, polarized about one-seventh of the heat which
passed in the parallel position, the angle of inclination to the

incident heat being about 55°; but when all the six plates were
‘combined into one bundle, and the mica plate I used along with

it, not far from a half of the transmitted heat was polarized.+
26. A very convenient mode of mounting the mica plates for

polarizing is shewn in Fig. 5. A cylindrical wooden tube is cut

across at an obliquity of 34° to the axis. The plate of split mica
is interposed and the parts reunited. The plane of polarization
or analyzation may thus be made to shift through any angle by
turning the tube containing the mica round its axis, and a small
support A is provided to preserve it in any position; whilst a
graduation may easily be applied to the exterior of the tube, so
as to mark the angular revolution. The convenience of this
construction will afterwards appear.

§ 4. On the Laws of Polarization of Heat by Reflection.

27. The general fact of the polarization of heat by reflection
was ascertained by me in December 1834, and I stated the re-

* For a supply of this valuable substance I have been greatly indebted both to
Sir Purtre Grey Ecrrton, Baronet, of Oulton Park, Cheshire, and to Dr Trattt.

+ Such plates being equally permeable to every kind of heat, as M. MEttont’s
admirable experiment shews, would probably enable us to polarize cold, or to shew
the negative effects due to a reduction of temperature. This experiment I have not
tried.

3Nn2

362 Professor Forses’s Researches on Heat.

sult in my former paper, art. 45. Under any circumstances the
experiment is a troublesome one, but I have succeeded in arrang-
ing it in perhaps as satisfactory a way as it admits of being done.
The great difficulty arises from the minuteness of the quantity
of heat reflected, and consequently the large quantity absorbed
by the plates, which complicates and obscures the effect. This is
more particularly true with dark heat, which, at the same time,
furnishes the most important case to be examined. The effect of
the absorbed heat is to produce a powerful secondary radiation.
28. My first inquiry on resuming the subject was to ascer-
tain the relative order of several different substances as to their -
power of reflecting heat. This was not proposed to be done with
a view to a general inquiry into that important subject, which
I reserved to another occasion, but simply to ascertain what re-
flecting surfaces might be best employed in polarizing by reflec-
tion. Several series of experiments gave the following arrange-
ment of substances according to their power of reflecting heat, at
an incidence of 45°, beginning with the most perfect reflector.

Polished speculum metal.
Mica, split by the hand into thin plates.
Mica, split by heat (see art. 20).
Thick plate of mica.
Rock-salt, with a thin coating of varnish.
Polished rock-salt.
Glass.
( Alum.

The three last substances (so different in their diathermancy)
were nearly equal in their reflective power for dark heat (from
brass about 7000°). The above order did not, however, appear
to be changed for heat from incandescent platinum, except that
elass seemed to stand above alum and even salt. Ina general way,
we may consider the measure of metallic reflection to be from two
to three times as great as that from mica split by heat, which is

Second Series—Polarization by Reflection. 363

also very superior to a single surface of mica. Glass, salt, and
alum seemed to reflect but a third or a fourth part, or even less,
of that furnished by the laminated mica.

29. [ did not, as I have said, stop to prosecute these experi-
ments ; they clearly shewed that of the substances which I tried,
mica split into thin films afforded the most copious reflection
(next to the metals), and this was the very substance which from
the first I had employed. They likewise satisfactorily shewed
the cause. of the failure in former attempts to polarize by reflec-
tion, seeing that, for dark heat, glass is almost the worst reflector
that could have been used, and as it likewise absorbs almost all
the heat, transmitting very little, the effect of secondary radia-
tion is increased. Hence the difficulty experienced by Pro-
fessor PowELu and others in getting any results at all* before
the thermo-multiplier was devised, and the failure of the at-
tempts of Signor Nosrxi1 of Florence even with its aid+ The
last-named eminent philosopher failed also in obtaining traces of
polarization by metallic reflection, which was not to be wonder-
ed at, as on another occasion we shall be able to make to appear.

30. The form of apparatus which I have more recently em-
ployed for experiments on polarization by reflection was suggest-
ed to me by the present astronomer royal, Mr Arry, after the
publication of my first paper. It is represented in section in Fig.
6, and a perspective view is given in Fig. 7. AB and CD are two
reflecting surfaces of mica fixed to blocks G and H; the former
of which is attached to a board TU, carrying the lamp or source
of heat §, and revolving in a horizontal plane round T as a
centre ;—the latter (H) is permanently fixed relatively to the
pile P, provided with its conical reflector. The surfaces AB;
CD are parallel, and make angles of about 56° with the horizon ;

Edinburgh Journal of Science, N. S., vols. iii. and v.
+ Bibliotheque Universelle, Sept 1834.

364 Professor Forses’s Researches on Heat.

consequently the heat falling on AB at an angle of 34° with the
surface, is reflected in the direction EF, which, by the construc-
tion, is a vertical line. From the surface CD, on which, at inci-
dence, it also falls at an angle of 34”, it is reflected to the pile,
whose opening inclines downwards at an angle of 22°, so as to re-
ceive the rays directly. From this it is clear that the whole ap-
paratus connected with the first plate AB may revolve round the
vertical line EF as an axis, until the plane of section be perpen-
dicular to the plane of the paper, and that yet the heat shall be
correctly reflected to the pile. In this case it is clear that the
planes of reflection becoming perpendicular, a minimum of heat
will be reflected if polarization take place.*

31. Such appears to be the case with all the kinds of heat
that I have tried. The disturbing influence of conduction is
here more difficultly avoided, and serves to diminish the appa-
rent effect. The quantities of heat reaching the pile from any
non-luminous source are always small. The results, however,
are well marked, and seem decidedly to indicate that under the
particular circumstances of the observation, dark heat is more
completely polarized than the more reflexible heat from an Ar-
gand. lamp, whilst that from incandescent platinum was more
polarizable than either. The following results were obtained on
the 12th March 1836. The source of heat was in all cases at a
distance of six and a half inches from the centre of the first re-
flecting plate, and the whole length of the dotted line PFES
Fig. 6, was about sixteen inches. The reflecting plates were
composed of ten or twelve laminz of mica, split with a pen-knife,
and the plane of reflection was perpendicular to the principal
section of the mica.

* Square tubes of wood, seen distinctly in the perspective view, serve to enclose
the apparatus and facilitate its adjustment. Other means not represented in the
figure were also used for preventing direct heat from reaching the pile in any position.

Second Series.— Polarization by Reflection. 365

Rays out of 100 polarized.

Argand-lamp without reflector, é : é 55
Dark heat, from brass about 700°, : : b 61
Incandescent platinum, . : r a3 ; 65

32. This result would be explicable on the supposition that
the angle of incidence was that which corresponds to the pola-
rizing angle for heat from incandescent platinum, whilst it was
too small for the more refrangible heat from an Argand burner,
and too great for the less refrangible heat wholly unaccompanied by
light ; nor is this view devoid of plausibility, as will immediately
be seen, though the troublesome nature of the experiments, and
the smallness of the numerical results, prevented me from prose-
cuting them farther in this way, than merely to verify generally
the preceding results.

33. These experiments were made, as usual, by disclosing
the source of heat only for the time that the needle was making
its first swing. Thus the effect of absorbed heat was to a great
extent avoided. It was worth inquiring, however, whether the
acquired heat of the first plate AB, Fig. 6, could by possibility
produce an effect similar to that of polarization in rectangular
positions. For this purpose I used the tin water-canister al-
ready described (art. 19), which was subsituted for the plate AB.
Whilst, however, it remained vertically below CD, as in F ig. 6,
such a stream of hot air was carried upwards to the pile as to
spoil the experiment. But when the plane of reflection at
CD was made horizontal, as shewn in Fig. 8, the effect could
be accurately observed, and the result was the same as in the
case of transmission, namely, that even on this enormously exag-
gerated scale of error, the quantities of heat reflected to the pile
in parallel and rectangular positions of the surface were almost
precisely the same. (Dec. 21. 1835.)

34. A mica-plate placed between the two reflecting surfaces
in Fig. 6, perpendicularly to the reflected ray, is capable of de-
polarizing the heat, as in the case of heat polarized by transmis-

366 Professor Forses’s Researches on Heat.

sion (17th December 1835). The fact is simply mentioned here,
as we do not at present resume the subject of depolarization.

35. I made some experiments, with a view to the determina-
tion of the maximum polarizing angle for heat, with a more con-
venient apparatus than the one above described. Heat was sim-
ply reflected from the first surface of a thick mica-plate, and its
state of polarization examined by means of a refracting bundle
of mica, fixed in a tube (art. 26). Even then it is difficult to
arrive at a direct conclusion ; for whilst, in the case of light, the
variation in the quantity of polarized light reflected or transmit-
ted at the polarizing angle varies with extreme rapidity, the
same does not seem to hold true of heat,* the angle of minimum
reflection at a second plate depending sensibly on the increased
quantity of heat reflected at great angles of incidence, and there-
fore making the apparent polarizing angle too small; a source of
error which is not perceptible in the case of light, because of the
abruptness of the polarizing action near its maximum. Thus,
we must not simply incline the incident rays of heat differently
to the reflecting surface until the intensity of the analyzed pen-
cil reaching the pile is a minimum, because that minimum is on-
ly apparent, being due to two sets of effects varying according
to different laws ; one, the effect of polarization increasing up to
a certain unknown angle of incidence and then diminishing ; the
other, the intensity of a reflected pencil, constantly increasing up
to an incidence of 90°. To make the experiment correctly, we
must measure accurately, for a great number of angles, the pro-
portion of the reflected pencil polarized in the plane of reflection,
and take that which is a maximum. Such an investigation I
have only very partially performed.

36. I have, however, been enabled to determine approximate-
ly the polarizing angle in a way which might appear at first sight
much more complicated than the other, but which, at the same

* Probably owing to its still more heterogeneous character.

Second Series—Circular Polarization. 467

time, proves the extension of one of the most important laws of
light to the case of heat.

37. It is well known that the following law holds for pola-
nized light. When light, polarized in any plane, is reflected from
a refracting surface ar the polarizing angle for that surface, it is
wholly polarized in the plane of incidence. If it be incident at a
SMALLER angle than the polarizing angle, the reflected light is (po-
larized in a plane lying on the farther side of the plane of incidence
from the plane of primitive polarization. If it be incident at a
GREATER angle than the polarizing angle, the plane of polari-
zation will be on the same side of’ the plane of incidence as at first.
Now, this I have fully verified in the case of heat. Having po-
larized heat by transmission through a mica bundle, mounted as
in Fig. 5, in a plane inclined + 45° to the plane of reflection,
which it subsequently underwent at the first surface of a thick
mica plate, I examined its state of polarization by another simi-
lar mica bundle interposed between the reflecting mica and the
thermal pile. I found that at great incidences the plane of po-
larization was on the same side of the plane of reflection as at
first, whilst at smaller incidences it was thrown to the opposite
side. I varied the incidence until the plane of polarization co-
incided with the plane of reflection, when I concluded that I had
reached the polarizing angle. This was found by the quantity of
effect when the plane of analyzation was inclined + 45° and
— 45° to the plane of reflection. With dark heat, from brass at
700°, I estimated the polarizing angle to be 57° nearly (16th
March 1836). By experiment I found that the polarizing angle
for the same mica surface and for homogeneous red light was 59°:

§5. On the Circular Polarization of Heat.

38. In my last paper I shewed (art. 75) that heat may be
circularly polarized, like light, by the doubly refracting action of
a plate of proper thickness. This circumstance is indicated by

VOL. XIII, PART II. 30

468 Professor ForBes’s Researches on Heat.

an equal quantity of heat reaching the pile in all positions of the
analyzing plate.

39. Last summer it occurred to me that it was probable that
rock-salt, refracting heat almost as it does light, would cause it
to undergo total reflection at a proper incidence. Supposing
this to be the case (and I had afterwards reason to believe that
such had been shewn to be the fact by M. Mexxon1), I then
foresaw the possibility of trying an experiment of the most con-
clusive character, as to the nature of heat,—its susceptibility of
becoming circularly polarized by means of two total internal re-
flections, as in the admirable experiment of F'RresNnex in the case
of light.

40. Various circumstances prevented me from trying this ex-
periment until the end of January last, when I procured a rock-
salt rhomb, similar to that of glass used by Fresnex, but having
its angles calculated by Fresnex’s formula, for the refractive in-
dex for light of rock-salt. I took the smaller of the two angles
which the double solution of the quadratic equation gives, on
account of the smaller dimensions required for the rhomb. ‘This
angle is nearly 45°. On the Ist of February I performed the
experiment with complete success, though with an apparatus less
perfect than I afterwards procured. The arrangement represent-
ed in Fig. 9. proved exceedingly convenient. R is the rhomb
of salt laid on its side, so that the plane of reflection within it is
horizontal ; S the source of heat, P the pile, I the polarizing mi-
ca bundle, K the analyzing mica bundle. The following facts
were observed :

41. When the plane of reflection coincided with, or was per-
pendiculur to, the plane of primitive polarization, the heat (whe-
ther wholly dark, or derived from incandescent platinum) came
out unchanged, that is, on placing the analyzing plate in azimuth
0° and 90° relatively to the polarizing plate, the ratio of the ef-
fects was the same as if no reflection had taken place.

42. When the plane of first polarization was inclined + 45°

Second Series.—Circular Polarization. 469

or — 45° to the plane of reflection, and the analyzing plate was
placed in the parallel and rectangular positions to the polarizing
plate, the ratio of the effects was totally changed, and was, in
general, reduced nearly to unity. This took place whether the
rhomb or the polarizing plate was moveable. The following ex-
periments will illustrate these statements :

Polarizing and Analyzing Plates | and M; Rhomb B; Heat
Srom brass about 700°. Plane of total reflection perpen-
dicular to plane of primitive polarization.

February 2. 1836.

Dynamical Effect. Mean. Ratio.*
Plates parallel : } 19.4
crossed ' J 6.0 11.92 50 : 100
parallel : . 11.45-——~-
parallel 4 3 12.25-———~
crossed é Fi 6.05 11.85 51 : 100
parallel i d 11.45

Other things as before. Plane of reflection inclined 45° to
plane of primitive polarization.

February 2. 1836.

Plates parallel : 5 9.25 : ‘ : 85 : 100
crossed F E 7.9
parallel ; . 9.85 ! ‘ j : 85 : 100
crossed : ‘ 8.4

43. When the plates I and K were used, the ratio was raised.

* Only 50 per cent. of the heat was polarized instead of 63, as in the Table (art 22).
The reason is, that the mica bundle M, used on this occasion, polarized less com-
pletely than that marked K. I have invariably found the per-centage of heat po-
larized after total reflection within rock-salt, in, or perpendicular to, the plane of pri-
mitive polarization, to agree most closely with the results obtained when no reflec-

tion had taken place.
302

470 Professor Forses’s Researches on Heat.

by inclining the plane of reflection 45°, from 37 : 100 to 60: 100;
and when heat from incandescent platinum was employed, from
28 : 100 to 64 : 100.

44. It occurred to me, that, somewhat above the superior
angle of total reflection indicated for light, the effect of apparent
depolarization would be more perfect, and a ready way of doing
this presented itself by the use of two prisms of rock-salt, having
angles of 60°, with which I provided myself. The superior angle
of total reflection for rock-salt (whose index of refraction is 1.56)
is 57°28’ nearly, for light, and since it increases rapidly as the
refrangibility diminishes, it was reasonable to expect it to be still
higher, or not far from 60° for dark heat (of low refrangibility).
The two prisms, arranged as in Fig. 10. (which is a ground-plan),
fulfilled the required conditions, the dotted lines indicating the
path of the rays of heat through the prisms, and the result cor-
responded to my expectation. When the plates I and K were
used to polarize and analyze, and the planes of total reflection
and polarization were parallel, the ratio in the rectangular posi-
tions of the analyzing plate was 40 : 100; whilst, when the plane
of first polarization was inclined 45°, the ratio was raised as high
(in one series of experiments) as 94.5:100. With the same ap-
paratus, and with heat from incandescent platinum, the ratio was
raised from 29: 100 to 84:100. Thus the astonishing proper-
ties of rock-salt enable us most completely to extend the analo-
gies of light even in their most complicated cases to the pheno-
mena of heat.

45. We are naturally led from the consideration of circular
polarization produced by two known methods in the case of light,
viz. by transmission through a thin doubly refracting plate, and
by total reflection in a refracting medium, to consider the third
mode in which it has been effected, that is, by metallic reflec-
tion. In this case, also, the analogy holds as to the general fact
which I have succeeded in completely establishing under several
circumstances. Whilst the copious reflection of heat which takes

Second Series.—Circular Polarization. A471

place at metallic surfaces, renders it easier to obtain distinct re-
sults than in some other cases, the intricacy of the subject, and
some deviations from the laws of light, as established in Sir
Davin Brewster’s remarkable paper on this subject,* demand a
more prolonged investigation than I have yet been able to give
to it. In the hope of being able to resume it in another paper,
I content myself at present with a reference to the facts respect-
ing Metallic Reflection, communicated to the Society on the
2ist of March last, a memorandum of which will appear in their
printed Proceedings.
Evingunen, 2d May 1836.

* Philosophical Transactions, 1830.

(°° 492)

On Single and Correct Vision, by means of Double and Inverted
Images on the Retine. By W. P. Autson, M.D. F.R.S.E.
Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the University of
Edinburgh.

(Read 11th April 1836.)

In entering on a question which may be said to occupy a por-
tion of the debateable land between Physiology and Metaphy-
sics, it seems, in the first place, necessary to state with precision
the nature of the difficulty, which has long been felt on this sub-
ject, and endeavour to determine the degree to which it is rea-
sonable to expect, that this difficulty may be removed ; and on
these points there is such a discrepancy of opinion, even among
the latest and most esteemed authors, as obviously to make far-
ther inquiry desirable.

No one can be more thoroughly convinced than I am, of the
utter futility and absurdity of all attempts “ to shoot the gulf
which separates the sensible world from the sentient soul.” In
all our inquiries in the Physiology of the Nervous System, as
connected with mental acts, we must keep in mind, that the end
of these inquiries can only be, to determine the physical condi-
tions under which the different mental phenomena take place ;
and those under which, when they have taken place, they affect
the different organs of the body. The question, how it comes
about, that when those conditions are fulfilled, these results fol-
low, must be held, in every case, to be beyond our powers.

But as it is clearly in our power to ascertain the general condi-
tions under which any mental phenomena are connected with a
living body, so it may also be in our power to ascertain the special
conditions under which any particular idea, or other mental act,
takes place ; and particularly, to determine the exact sensations
with which any particular notion formed in the mind is naturally

Dr A.ison on Single and Correct Vision. 473

connected, or by which it is suggested ; and, in a case where the
very same notions seem to be suggested by different sensations,
we may expect to arrive at the knowledge of the manner, in which
the intimations acquired by the different senses are made to cor-
respond.

When the attention is fixed for the first time on the fact, that,
although the notions which we acquire of the number and posi-
tion of external objects, during the ordinary exercise of the sense
of sight, are correct, yet the images on the retina, which are the
essential conditions of our seeing any one of these objects, are
double, inverted, and reverted,—-the natural inference certainly is,
that some explanation should be sought, and may be had, of so
singular an anomaly. But a little reflection will shew, that our
notions of the number and position of objects are not connected
merely with the exercise of the sense of Sight, but very much
with that of Touch. And when we find it stated by many phi-
losophers, that we have no notions on those points naturally and
originally connected with Sight, and that it is only by experi-
ence, and by association with the notions acquired by Touch, that
we learn to form judgments of the number and position of ob-
jects by the eye—we must admit, that it is only by appeal to
facts, not by any reasoning @ priori, that the truth or falsehood
of this doctrine can be determined. We must therefore satisfy
ourselves, that number and position are original, not acquired,
perceptions of the eye, before we are entitled to ask for an ex-
planation of single and correct vision, by double and inverted
images.

The late Dr Brown was so confident of the perception of the
number and position of visible objects being acquired only by as-
sociation or custom, that he thought himself justified in dis-
missing the subject with the following observations: “ In the
single vision of the erect object, from a double image of the ob-
ject imverted, there is nothing at all mysterious to any one who
has learnt to consider, how much of the visual perception is
referable to association.’ If the light reflected from a single ob-

474 Dr Auison on Single and Correct Vision, by means of

ject touched by us, had produced, not two merely, but two thou-
sand separate images in our eyes, erect or inverted, or in any in-
termediate degree of inclination, the visual feeling thus excited
would still have accompanied the touch of a single object ; and if
only it had accompanied it uniformly, the single object. would
have been suggested by it, precisely in the same manner as it is
now suggested by the particular visual feeling that attends the
double inverted image.” *

But, with all deference to this illustrious metaphysician, I will
take the liberty of stating, that this view of the subject had been
previously fully considered, and, as far as I can judge, completely
set aside by Dr Rein, at least in reference to single vision by
two images on the retinz ; and that, not by any abstract reason-
ing, but by appeal to facts.

If it were only by experience, and association with the per-
ceptions of touch, that we learned that any object placed before
the eyes, and seen by two images, is nevertheless single, it seems
prima facie reasonable to conclude, that we should never see an
object double, which we know by touch to be single; whereas
we all know, that if, by pressure on the ball of one eye, or by
any other means, we direct the axes of the two eyes to different
points in an object, we immediately see it double, and cannot, by
any means, avoid seeing it double, so long as that condition of
the eyes continues, notwithstanding the full conviction, derived
from touch, of its being single.

The only answer that I can conceive to this is, that the asso-
ciation, by which we are informed of an object of sight being
single, is formed with the natural and healthy state of the vision
of that object, when the axes of the two eyes are directed to the
same point in the object, and its images are formed on corre-
sponding points of the retinz of the two eyes; and that when
its images are formed on dissimilar points of the retinz, the diffe-

* Lect. 29.

Double and Inverted Images on the Retine. 475

rence of the sensation excited, from that which is usually felt, is
at once perceived, and the association, by which its unity had
been made known to us, is broken.

But this answer does not apply to the cases stated on this
point by Dr Rex, of persons who had squinted from infancy,
and in whom, therefore, the association of single objects must
have been formed with images on dissimilar points of the
retine, and must have been broken when the images of an ob-
Ject were formed on corresponding points. These persons, ac-
cording to the theory in question, should have seen objects single
when they squinted in their usual way, and not when the axes
were brought to bear on the same point, in a way quite unusual
to them. But the reverse was the fact. They.saw double when
they squinted (excepting in particular positions of the eyes, when,
as Dr Rem supposed, one of the images was formed on the well
known insensible spot on the retina) ; and “ when they learned
to direct both eyes to an object, they saw it single.”

I can myself confirm the observations of Dr Rx1p from pretty
numerous trials on persons who habitually squinted ; in which it
always appeared, if the vision of both eyes was tolerably good,
that, when the attention was fairly fixed on the sensations of both
eyes, single objects held directly before the face were seen double,
and again, that different and distant objects held carefully in the
direction of the axes of the two eyes, seemed to coincide.

Again, says Dr Rein, “ from the time we are capable of ob-
serving the phenomena of single and double vision, custom makes
no change inthem. I have amused myself,” he adds, “ with such
observations for more than thirty years ; and in every .case, where-
in I saw the object double at first, I see it so to this day, not-
withstanding the constant experience of its being single. In
other cases, where I know there are two objects, there appears
only one, after thousands of experiments.

“ Effects produced by habit must vary, according as the acts
by which the habit is acquired are. more or less frequent ; but

VOL. XIII. PART II. 3P

476 Dr Aurson on Single and Correct Vision, by means of

the phenomena of single and double vision are so invariable and
uniform in all men, and so exactly regulated by mathematical
rules, that I think we have good reason to conclude, that they
are not the effect of custom, but of fixed and immutable laws of
Nature.” *

In fact, it is a very imperfect and inaccurate expression of the
phenomenon in question, to speak of it merely as single vision re-
sulting from two images on the retine. The precise expression
of the fact, as fully illustrated by Dr Rerp, is, that when images
are formed on corresponding points of the retine, they appear as
one; and in all other circumstances they appear as two, as they
really are; and this general fact holds good, equally in the case
of those, in whom the experience of the sense of Touch habitually
opposes the inference drawn from Sight, as in that of those in
whom it habitually confirms, and has been thought to suggest
that inference.

The difficulty which is presented by the inversion of the
images on the retina is, I think, most correctly expressed thus :
The sensations, both of Sight and of Touch, obviously differ from
one another in position ; and by doing so, both convey to us in-
timations of the situation of external objects. But the judg-
ments which we form of the relative position of objects, or of
the parts of an object, from the relative position of the im-
pressions which they make on the sensitive surface of the 7e-
tina, are just the reverse of those which we form of the relative
position of objects or their parts, from impressions made on the
sensitive surface of the skin. Thus, if two impressions are made
on the upper and lower portions of the eye-ball, and felt through
the fifth nerve, the inference immediately drawn is, that the up-
per impression is from a higher object, and the lower from a
lower ; but if two impressions are made on the upper and lower
part of the retina, and felt through the optic nerve, the inference

* Inquiry into the Human Mind, &e. Sect. 17, ad fin.

Se

Double and Inverted Images on the Retine. 477

is, that the impression on the upper part is from the lower
object, and that on the lower part from the higher. Why this
difference should exist, is the point in question.

It is perhaps difficult to find decisive evidence in the human
body, that the intimation of the position of the erect object,
given by the inverted image, is originally correct, and‘in harmo-
ny with the intimation given through the sense of touch, before
experience and association can have time to operate ; but it is un-
necessary to argue this point, because it is allowed even by Dr
Brown, that, in the case of many of the lower animals, there is
an original perception of the true position of objects, acquired
by the sense of sight ; so that those who have so humble an idea
of their own powers of visual perception as to believe, that it is
only by experience and association that they learn to judge, by
the eye, whether an object is erect or inverted, may acquiesce
in what is here to be said, as applicable to the lower animals.

But it is farther necessary to premise here, that, while some
philosophers have thought it unnecessary to seek for any expla-
nation of correct vision by double and inverted images, because
they believe that the eye gives no original intimations whatever
as to the number or position of objects,—others are equally con-
vinced of the futility of the inquiry, because they maintain,
that the eye does give intimations which necessarily imply, that
the objects, of which inverted images are formed on correspond-
ing points of the two retinz, are erect and single.

This is done by reference to the Law of Visible Direction, fully
illustrated by Dr Rerp, and many others, according to which,
every object appears to be in the direction of a straight line
drawn perpendicularly to the retina at the point where its image
is formed. This law has not been similarly expressed by all who
have referred to it; but the terms here used are those employed
by Sir D. Brewster and Mr-Mayo. In conformity with this
law, when an image is formed on a concave surface, the lower

3P2

478 Dr Antson on Single and Correct Vision, by means of

part of that image must be referred to the upper part of the ex-
ternal object corresponding to it, and vice versd ; and again.
images formed on corresponding parts of the two retinz, and
referred, according to this law, to external space, must appear to
come from the same points, 7. e. to represent the same object.

But here the question immediately presents itself, How is this
law of Visible Direction originally formed in, or impressed upon,
the mind? If it be thought to be acquired by experience and
association, the observations already made apply to, and I think
set aside that supposition. If it be thought to be independent of
experience, it implies, in the first place, that the mind has an ori-
ginal perception of distance by the eye, 7.e. that it is originally
aware of impressions on the retina being produced by causes at
a distance from the body, although it draws no such inference
from impressions on the skin ; whereas not only Brrxe.ry and his
followers, but Rerp, and most other authors on this subject, have
believed that it is only by experience that we learn that visible
objects do not touch the eye ; and this has been generally thought
to be supported by observations on persons to whom the sense
of sight has been given suddenly, and at a mature age, by couch-
ing.

But farther, this doctrine implies that the mind naturally
draws an inference, not only as to the position of any impression
that may be made on the retina, but as to the direction in which the
ray of light came, that made that impression ; and as that direction
is not a direct object of sense, and as I apprehend that no reason
can be given, why a ray should be supposed to have come in the
direction of a perpendicular to the surface of the retina, rather
than of any other line falling on that surface,—this theory really
ascribes our perception of the true number and position of ob-
jects by the eye merely to the principle of Intuition, i. e. it merely
states the fact, that the images formed on the retina are referred
to places in the external world according to this law ; and if we
regard the theory as a sufficient explanation, we must regard this
as an ultimate fact in our mental constitution.

Double and Inverted Images on the Retine. 479

Now, no disciple of Rerp or Stewart can have any hesitation
about admitting, that this principle of Intuition is part of the
cause of all the information we derive from this or any other
sense. I hold it to be equally certain, that we learn some things
intuitively, we know not how, as that we do some things instinc-
tively, we know not why. And, admitting the principle of Intui-
tion, it is impossible for us to say @ priori, without special inves-
tigation of any alleged case, how far it may extend, or how much
of the information which we habitually acquire by the senses, is
explicable in no other way. But it is obvious, that this must be
our last resource in attempting to account for these phenomena :
and it is unphilosophical to assume, that the limit to our curio-
sity is to be found on the very threshold of our inquiry.

Dr Rex has stated this with his usual candour and preci-
sion. After observing that he could trace the phenomenon of cor-
rect vision by inverted images no farther than to the law of visi-
ble direction above stated, he adds the following words, which
may be taken as the groundwork of any farther speculations on
this subject. “ We acknowledge that the retina is not the last
and most immediate instrument of the mind in vision. If ever
we come to know the structure and use of the choroid membrane,
the optic nerves and brain, and what impressions are made on them
by means of the pictures on the retine, some more links of the chain
may be brought within our view, and a more general law of vision
be discovered.” —Inquiry, Sc. ch. vi. § 12.

I apprehend, then, that two facts are established,—are not to
be explained by experience or association,—and, not being neces-
sarily ultimate facts, afford a fair subject of physiological inquiry.
1. That images formed on corresponding points of the retine of the
human eyes, and on those only, naturally affect our minds in the
same manner as a single image formed on the retina of one eye ;
and, 2. That impressions made on different points of the retina of
the eye are naturally followed by inferences, as to the relative posi-
tion of the objects producing these impressions, exactly opposite to

480 Dr Autson on Single and Correct Vision, by means of

those which follow impressions made on different points of the sur-
Jace of the body.

I.. Of the first of these facts, 7. e. the single vision by means
of double images, it is well known that an explanation was pro-
posed by Newron, fully considered by Rerp, and since support-
ed by Wotxasron (often calied the Theory of WoLtuaston, but
quite incorrectly), proceeding on the supposition of a semi-decus-
sation of the human optic nerves at their commissure ; whereby
the fibres, from the right half of the retina of each eye, go to the
right optic fobe* in the brain, and vice versa; the consequence
of which may probably be, that the fibres which connect them-
selves with, or terminate at corresponding points of the retine,
may originate at the same points in the optic lobes. If this be
so, impressions made on corresponding points of the retinz are in
fact impressions made on the same points in the optic lobes ;
and, as they are effectual in exciting sensations in the mind,
only inasmuch as they are made on the optic lobes, they must
necessarily co-operate in exciting the same sensations.

Dr Rerp fairly admits that, if the anatomical part of this
theory were ascertained to be correct, “it would lead us a step
forward in discovering the cause of the correspondence and sym-
pathy of the two retine ;’—he ought rather to have said—the
cause of single vision by impressions made on corresponding
points of the two retine. I think we may add, that it is the
only step which we can conceive to be taken, or can desire to take,
in that inquiry. And I will farther venture to maintain, that a
precisely similar step may be taken, even with more confidence,
as to the correct vision by means of inverted images.

We must admit, that the anatomical evidence of the theory

* The term optic lobe is here used as a short expression for that portion (per-
haps not yet absolutely determined) of the contents of the cranium, from which the
optic nerves originate, and on which their sensibility depends.

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Double and Inverted Images on the Retine. 481

of Newron is still defective. Several additions to our knowledge
on the subject have been made since the time of Reip. 1. The
supposition of the semi-decussation of the optic nerves, and con-
sequent connexion of half of the retina of each eye with one of
the optic lobes in the human body, has acquired additional pro-
bability from the observation, first applied to the subject by Dr
Wo vasrton, of that form of temporary loss of vision formerly
called Suffusio dimidians, in which, although both eyes are open,
one-half of the field of vision disappears from the sight ; which
is easily conceivable on the supposition of the right half of each
retina being connected with the same portion of the sensorium,
and not easily understood on any other supposition.* 2. That
the commissure of the optic nerves is really a partial decussation
in all animals where it exists, seems to me, if not absolutely ascer-
tained, to be put on very strong ground, by the dissections of
Mayo and the observations of SERRES.

Of the dissections of Mr Mayo, made after the nervous fibrils
were hardened by alcohol, in the human body, we have a distinct
record in his engraving of the commissure of the optic nerves
(Pl. vii. fig. 3. of his Engravings ; Fig. 1. of Plate X VI. hereto an-
nexed), of the accuracy of which I am satisfied, from some trials
which I have myself made in the same manner, and in which it dis-
tinctly appears, that the outer portion of each optic nerve is
formed by fibres proceeding forward from the outer part of
the tractus opticus of the same side, and that some fibres, at
least, of the inner portion of each optic nerve, have crossed over
from the inner part of the tractus of the opposite side, as sup-
posed in this theory.

The result of the inquiries of Serres on this: point, in various
animals, is stated as follows. He never could satisfy himself on
the subject by preparations either of the human body, or others

* This affection is sometimes quite transient ; but in other cases, as I have my-
self known, it is permanent, at least for weeks together.

482 Dr Axtson on Single and Correct Vision, by means of

of the mammalia in the adult state; but in the foetal state, in
man, in the horse, ox, sheep, rabbit, and guinea-pig, he distinct-
ly saw the internal fibres of the tractus opticus separate them-
selves from the external, and traced them across from the right
tractus to the left nerve, and vice versa. In crossing, they form
a plexus, and, as the animal grows, this plexus is soon loaded
with fresh deposits of medullary matter, so that the course of the
fibres, distinct in the foetal state, is hardly to be traced in the
adult.

The idea that the partial decussation of the optic nerves is
designed to give single vision by two eyes directed to the same
object, is farther strongly confirmed by the fact, that in those
animals in which this structure is generally, if not universally,
found, 7. e. in mammalia and birds, the power of directing the
axis of both eyes to the same object, generally, if not universally,
exists, although in many quadrupeds and most birds the object
which can be thus contemplated must be at a considerable dis-
tance ; whereas in those animals in which there is (generally,
if not universally,) no intermixture of the filaments of the optic
nerves, 7. é. in reptiles and fishes, the eyes are so situated, as re-
marked by Cuvier, that any object must in general, andprobably
in most instances can, only be contemplated by one eye at a
time.*

But notwithstanding this strong evidence of the existence of
the partial decussation in the higher animals, and of its connexion
with the single vision by two eyes, the foundations of the theory
must be allowed to be deficient. The partial decussation of the
nervous fibres will explain the single vision by two eyes only on
the supposition, that the fibres which terminate in corresponding

* Anat. Comp. Lec. xii. Art. 2. It is true that the axes of the two eyes, at
least in some fishes and reptiles, may be brought to bear on the same objects, if
very distant, but as the vision of very distant objects is seldom requisite for these
animals, it is probable that they are not habitually guided by simultaneous impres-
sions on the two eyes.

Double and Inverted Images on the Retine. 483

points on the retine (at least in those corresponding points on
the retina which can be brought to bear on the same objects),
originate in the same points on the optic lobes. Now, in order
that this may be effected, there must be a very peculiar arrange-
ment of the nervous matter, both on the retinz in front, and on
the optic lobes behind. The entrance of the optic nerve in the
human eye being considerably on the inner side of the optic axis,
the separation of the right and left portions of the retina cannot
take place there ; the fibres on the inner side of the nerve, com-
ing from the opposite lobe, must extend outwards as far as the
central foramen, in order that all the inner half of the retina
may be connected with the opposite optic lobe ; and, at that cen-
tral point of the retina, these fibres, or the membrane continuous
with them, must be overlapped by those which come from the
lobe on their own side, and form the outer part of the optic
nerve. Again, the fibres passing backwards from the outer por-
tion of the right, and inner portion of the left retina, to form
the right tractus, must be there so combined, as that those
which come from corresponding points in the retinze may be im-
planted at the same points in the lobes. And I am not aware
that these peculiarities in the course of the fibres, which the
theory seems obviously to require, have hitherto been detected
' by any anatomist.

It is to be observed here, however, and obviates one objec-
tion that has been stated to this theory, that in the case of
most quadrupeds and birds, whose eyes are generally directed
widely asunder, it can only be a small segment of the outer part
of the retina of either eye, which will ever be brought to bear on
objects situated within the sphere of vision of the other eye ; and
it is only this small portion which, if the principle of single vision
has been correctly stated, requires to be associated at its root with
the corresponding portion of the retina of the other eye. Ac-
cordingly, in such animals, it is obviously more than a semi-de-
cussation which takes place at the commissure of the optic nerves ;

VOL. XIII. PART I. 3@

484 Dr Auison on Single and Correct Vision, by means of

and indeed in all animals the term partial decussation is the more
proper. In such animals, we should expect, from anatomical ob-
servation, what we find, from the effects of injury and disease, to
be the case, that the vision of each eye is more dependent on the
opposite optic lobe than on that on its own side. Partial decus-
sation, according to the theory, should exist, and, as far as obser-
vations have been made, I believe does exist, in all animals which
habitually bring their optic axes to bear on the same point, how-
ever distant ; but semi-decussation should exist only in those, in
which the natural direction of the axes is parallel.

On the whole, it may be said, that there is very strong pre-
sumption, though not absolute certainty, in favour of the doctrine
of the dependence of single vision by two eyes on the partial de-
cussation of the optic nerves.

II. The explanation, which seems to me satisfactory, of the
erect vision by inverted images, was first suggested to me by Mr
Dick, veterinary surgeon, and turns on the alleged fact, that the
course of the optic nerves and tractus optici is such, that impres-
sions on the upper part of the retina, are in fact impressions on
the lower part of the optic lobes, i.e. of the sensorium, and im-
pressions on the outer part of the former, are on the inner part
of the latter ; and vice versa.

If this be so, it appears to me, after repeated consideration,
that it will furnish an explanation, and the only one of which the
subject admits, of the harmony or correspondence, which I believe
to exist from the first, between the intimations acquired by sight
and by touch, as to the relative position of objects or their parts,
notwithstanding that the impressions made by them on the ex-
ternal organs of sight and of touch are arranged inversely in re-
gard to one another.

In regard to the nerves which are truly the organs of touch,
i.e. the posterior portions of the spinal nerves, and the larger
portion of the fifth cerebral, which is truly a spinal nerve, the ge-

Double and Inverted Images on the Retine. 485

neral law certainly is, that all impressions made on their branches
are felt by us to be higher or lower, as the points of the cerebro-
spinal axis, from which they originate, and on which their sensi-
bility depends, are truly higher or lower ; and if there be such a
peculiarity in the insertion of the optic nerves into the cerebro-
spinal axis, that its highest portion is inserted lowest, and its
outermost portion inserted innermost, then the fact of impres-
sions on the upper surface of the retina and optic nerve being
felt by us as lower, and of impressions on their outer surface
being felt as inner, will be reduced to the same law as regulates
our perception of the relative position of objects of touch.

In all the vertebrated animals, it is well known that the optic
nerves, behind the commissure or decussation, or Tractus optici,
cross and embrace the Crura cerebri ; and that in the Mammalia
they are in connexion, behind or above the crura, with the bodies
called Thalami nervorum opticorum, and Corpora quadrigemina.

It has been disputed, even lately, whether the true origin of
the optic nerves in the human body is in the Thalami, as was
formerly thought, or in the Corpora quadrigemina, as maintained
by Gat and Spurzuerm ; and I have repeatedly noticed the
accuracy of the observation of the late Dr Gorpon, that the
fibres of the tractus opticus are not merely expanded over the
outer surface of the thalamus in the human body, but at various
points plunge into its interior. Even those which thus dip in-
wardly, however, follow the same direction as the more superfi-
cial fibres, tending inwards and downwards towards the Corpora
quadrigemina. ;

In others of the mammalia, the connexion of the optic nerves
with the thalami is much more superficial ; and in birds, reptiles,
and fishes, it seems perfectly ascertained, that the optic lobes, in
which the optic nerves exclusively originate, correspond to the
Corpora quadrigemina only.

The question of the true origin of the optic nerves, however,
cannot be decided merely by anatomical inquiry. It is now well

3Q2

486 Dr Auison on Single and Correct Vision, by means of

known, not only that the endowments of different nervous fila-
ments, of precisely the same structure, and contained in the same
mass, or bound in the same sheath, are often perfectly different ;
but even that different portions of the same nervous filaments,
especially where they connect themselves with the central masses
of nervous matter, may have perfectly different endowments ; as,
e. g. in the case of the fibres ascending from the Corpora pyra-
midalia, through the crura cerebri and corpora striata, to the
bottom of the convolutions, the whole of which are continuous,
but only part of which possess the power of exciting muscular
contraction when irritated.

Now, if we inquire in what part of the contents of the cra-
nium the sensations of the eye are found by experiment to reside,
the experiments of Mayo and of FLourens, particularly those of
the latter author, which were repeated before, and reported on
by Cuvier, are generally regarded as affording satisfactory evi-
dence that they reside in the Corpora quadrigemina. ‘These
bodies, and the optic nerves, appeared distinctly to be the only
parts of the nervous system, the irritation of which uniformly ex-
cited the contraction of the iris, no doubt by producing a sensa-
tion of light ; and the destruction of which uniformly stopped the
play of the iris, and extinguished vision.*

Our business is, therefore, to learn in what manner those fibres
of the Tractus optici, which can be distinctly traced into the
Corpora quadrigemina, are there implanted ; and when we trace
the course of these fibres in the brains of the mammalia (harden-
ed by alcohol), whether they descend on the Corpora quadrige-
mina from the Thalami, or pass more directly backwards below
the Corpora geniculata, it seems to me quite obvious that they
first turn inwards, and then enter the Corpora quadrigemina
from above downwards, and are so expanded over the superior of

¥ See Recherches Experimentales, &c. p. 150, et seq.

Double and Inverted Images on the Retine. 487

these bodies (the nates), that the outer portions of the Tractus
pass over to the inner part of the nates, and the upper portions
of the Tractus pass down to the lower part of the nates.*

In the lower classes of vertebrated animals, where the course
of the Tractus opticus on each side to the optic lobe, is shorter
and less winding, it is not so easy to ascertain whether the whole
of the fibres passing backwards from the nerve, and turning round
the crura cerebri, are inserted in the same way as in the mamma-
lia ; but that they are expanded over the optic lobes from before
backwards, is easily shewn, and if we can trust the representa-
tions of Serres, the mode of their implantation into the optic
lobes is quite in conformity with what we observe in the Mam-
malia.t

Now, there is no such contortion or involution of the nervous
filaments of the fifth, or of any other nerve of the symmetrical sys-
tem, where it is implanted in the cerebro-spinal axis, and so con-
stituted a nerve of Touch; and from this I think it clearly fol-
lows, that although the impressions made on the retina, by the
different parts of an object, are situated in regard to one another
in the inverse order of those made on the surface of the body,
yet the impressions made, through the retina and optic nerves, on
the cerebro-spinal axis, are in the same order, as those made through
the nerves of touch, on that central portion of the nervous system,
on which the sensibility of all nerves depends ; and therefore,
that the notions which we form of the relative position of the
parts of objects, by the senses of sight and of touch, will naturally
correspond.

But another difficulty here presents itself. Although we un-
derstand, from what has been stated, in what manner the impres-

* See Plate XVI. Fig. 2. of this volume.
+ See Anat. Comp. du Cerveau, Plates vi. vii, Figs. 149, 151, 159, 165, 170,
181, 188-89, and 193; and Pl. XVI. Fig. 3. of this volume.

488 Dr Arison on Single and Correct Vision, by means of

sions, made on each of the optic lobes, by the images on the retinz,
correspond with the real position of the parts of external objects,
which these images represent ; yet, in the case of man, and of all
other animals, in whom the partial decussation of the optic nerves
exists, and in whom, if that form of structure has been rightly
explained, both optic lobes are concerned in vision even by one eye,
(the right lobe in the vision of the right division of the retina,
and the left lobe in that of the left), only one portion of the field
of vision, even of one eye, produces any impression on one optic
lobe ; and the deft portion of the field of vision, being represented
(by the laws of light) on the right division of the retina, makes
its impression on the right optic lobe, while the right portion of
the field of vision, represented on the left division of the retina,
impresses the left optic lobe ; therefore, although the individual
parts of each of these impressions are in the right order, yet the
two impressions are transposed ; and both are necessarily, at one
and the same moment, objects of attention to the mind.

Now, if it be true, as is here supposed, that the impressions on
the eye, by which we are informed of the relative position of ob-
jects, harmonize with those made on the sense of touch, only
because when transmitted to the optic lobes they are arranged
in the real relative position of the objects exciting them, this
transposition of the impressions made by two distinct portions of
the field of vision, even of one eye, appears fitted to deceive us,
and I believe would do so, were it not compensated by another
piece of structure, the use of which has long puzzled physiologists,
and which I do not remember to have seen connected by any one
with the sensations of the eye, viz. the Decussation at the
Pyramidal bodies ;* whereby, as is generally believed, the whole
common sensation, and the whole voluntary motion, of the left
half of the body, are put in connection with the right half of the
brain, and those of the right half of the body with the left half of
the brain. Therefore, while man, and all other animals, that
have the power of looking directly forwards, see what is to their

* Plate XVI. Fig 4.

Double and Inverted Images on the Retine. 489

left when doing so, only by their right optic lobes, so they feel
and move, on their left, also by the right hemispheres of their
brains. And the sensation and motion of the left sides of their
bodies are put in connection with the right sides of their brains,
only because the laws of light necessarily imply, that the images of
whatever lies to their left in the external world, should be formed
on the right side of the retinz of their eyes, and impress their
right optic lobes.

If this be the true use of the decussation at the pyramids, the
following consequences appear naturally to follow :—

1. That this piece of structure will be found only in those animals
which are, more or less, in the habit of directing both eyes to the
same object.

2. That, where it is found, there will be found also the par-
tial decussation of the optic nerves, connecting each eye with
both optic lobes, and each optic lobe with both eyes.

3. That where the decussation at the pyramids exists,—as the
sensation and motion of each side of the body will be dependent
on the opposite side of the brain,—injuries of either side of the
brain, or in general of the parts superior to the decussation, if they
produce palsy, will produce it on the opposite side of the body.

4. That where the decussation at the pyramids does not exist,
this crossing of the effect of an injury of the brain to the opposite -
side of the body will not be observed.

Now, all these things are so; at least, according to the most
general statements of accurate observers, certainly unconnected
with the theory which is here advanced ; and it seems to me ex-
tremely improbable that these coincidences should have ex-
isted, if the piece of structure in question had not been design-
ed for the purpose, and had the effects now stated.

490 Dr Avison on Single and Correct Vision, by means of

The decussation at the pyramids exists in the mammalia and
in birds; but the number of crossing fibres becomes less in
the lower parts of the scale, as does the size of the cerebral lobes,
in proportion to the spinal cord. In reptiles and fishes it does
not exist.* In the two former classes the power of directing the
axis of both eyes to the same object, exists, although in the case
of many quadrupeds and most birds, that object must be very
distant. In reptiles and fishes, the eyes appear to be dissociated
from one another, and directed either laterally, or vertically up-
wards, in such a manner that they evidently regard objects, in
general, only with one eye at a time.}

In the mammalia and birds, the commissure and partial decus-
sation of the optic nerves are found; but in reptiles and fishes
there is the complete decussation and no commissure.{

In the human body, it is well known that the usual effect of
injury of the brain or cerebellum, when it produces palsy, is seen
on the opposite side of the body ; but the effect of injury of one
side of the spinal cord, even in the neck, is seen on the same side
of the body ; and in the experiments of FLoureEns, the crossing
influence of injuries was uniformly seen in the mammalia and
birds, when they were inflicted any where above the decussation
at the pyramids, but not when they were below this point. In
reptiles and fishes, no crossing influence, and indeed hardly any
influence, on sensation or voluntary motion, from injury of con-
tents of the cranium, could be observed.{

I do not, however, offer this speculation as altogether satisfac-
- tory or free from difficulties ; and two difficulties, in particular,
present themselves so obviously as to demand notice.

1. It may be said, that, in the case of reptiles and fishes, al-
though the impressions made on each optic lobe may be in the

* Cuvier, Rapport sur Anat. Comp. du Cerveau, &c par SerRes, in latter
work, pref. p. 26.

+ Cuvier, Lecon 12, Art. 2. { Serres, p. 326, et seq.:

§ Recherches Experimentales, &c. p. 121.

Double and Inverted Images on the Retine. 491

true position of the objects whence they proceed ; yet, as the
optic nerves decussate completely, the vision of the left eye, and
therefore of objects on the left side of the body, will be dependent
on the right optic lobe, and vice versa. Here, it may be said,
there is an apparent cause of discord between tactual and visual
impressions ; yet there is no decussation at the Corpora pyrami-
dalia to compensate for it.

I believe the true answer to this to be, that as the eyes of
these animals, in general, cannot be directed to the same point,
and as any object, accurately observed, is contemplated only by
one eye, so their attention is never fixed simultaneously on the
sensations of both eyes ; and when we attend to our own sensations,
when we produce artificial squinting, we shall see no difficulty in
this supposition. What makes it necessary, as I conceive, that the
decussation at the pyramids should exist, to preserve harmony
between the intimations of sight and of touch, is not the cir-
cumstance of the visual impressions from objects on the left side
of the body being made on the right optic lobe, but the circum-
stance of the impressions made on both optic lobes concurring in
producing one sensation, on which the attention is necessarily
fixed ; and it is where both optic lobes are found to be concerned
in vision, even by one eye, that this structure is therefore to be
expected.

2. When it is said that the decussation at the pyramids trans-
fers the sensation and motion of the right side of the body to the
left side of the brain, the well known objection immediately pre-
sents itself, that the sensitive and motor nerves of the face arise
higher than that decussation ; and therefore that if this piece of
structure explains the harmony of impressions on the retinz,
with those on the body and limbs, it leaves unexplained the still
more remarkable fact, that impressions on the skin of the /eft side
of the face are felt to belong to the same side of the body, as im-
pressions on the right side of the retina, and therefore on the
right optic lobe.

VOL. XIII. PART II. 3R

492 Dr Autson on Single and Correct Vision, by means of

In answer to this, I would observe, first, that although there
may be an anatomical difficulty in understanding how the sensa-
tion and motion of the left side of the face are put in connection
with the right side of the brain, yet observation of the effects of
injury or disease demonstrate that they ave in connection with
it; the palsy depending on injury or disease of the right side of
the brain extending very generally to the left side of the face, as
well as of the body. And secondly, I would say that there is no
great difficulty in understanding that this should be the case, if
we suppose, as Mr Mayo appears inclined to do,* that the true
origin of the nerves is in those columns of the cerebro-spinal axis
which do not decussate (and this is pretty certainly the case as to
the fifth nerve, which is easily traced down into the spinal cord be-
hind the Corpora pyramidalia), and that the decussating fibres of
the Corpora pyramidalia are not to be considered as the continua-
tion of the columns of the spinal cord, but as the cords of commu-
nication between these columns, and the masses of the brain and
cerebellum.t} If this be so, it is easy to conceive, that an injury of
the right side of the brain, transmitted through these cords of com-
munication, should strike downwards to the left side of the body,
and upwards to the left side of the face in palsy ; and that, in the
natural state, the sensation and motion of the left side of the face,
as well as trunk and limbs, should be in connexion, although by
a circuitous route, with the right side of the brain ; and therefore
in harmony with impressions on the right optic lobe.

If the foregoing speculation be just, it would seem that the
structure to which the attention of physiologists was first directed
by Newroy, is only a part of the arrangements, by which the in-

* Outlines of Human Pathology, p. 202.

+ “ The two cords of the spinal marrow do not cross, but merely the middle or
pyramidal fasciculi of each, which give origin to the Crura cerebri by expanding and
becoming broader." —Tiedemann’s Anatomy of the Fetal Brain, Translated by Ben-
nett, p. 144. I am aware of the difficulty of tracing the course of the fibres at the
medulla oblongata, and what Sir Cuares Bett describes, I believe correctly, decus-
sating fibres behind the pyramids; but all are agreed that there are fibres in this

part which do not decussate.

Double and Inverted Images on the Retine. 493

timations given by the sense of Sight are made to harmonize with
those which result from that of Touch.

When we reflect on the importance and pre-eminence of that
sense, by which we are placed in relation almost with the Infinity
of Space, we should bear in mind at the same time, that the con-
ditions of that sense are necessarily put in dependence on the
laws of Light; while the sense of Touch, to which we are in-
debted for our most accurate knowledge of things on the Earth’s
surface, is altogether independent of those laws.

In order that the intimations given by these two senses may
correspond with one another, it would appear, first, that certainly
in some, probably in all animals, the structure of the optic nerve
brings the impressions, which form inverted and reverted images
on the retina, into the same order on the sensorium, as those
which might result from the touch of the same objects ; secondly,
that in those animals which can direct both eyes to one point, the
partial decussation of the optic nerves, generally, if not univer-
sally present, enables the images produced by an object on the
corresponding parts of the retina of the two eyes, to co-operate
in producing one impression on the sensorium, and one sensation
in the mind; and Jastly, that the decussation at the pyramidal bodies
enables those animals to acquire correct information as to objects
of sight, from impressions made by them simultaneously on both
optic lobes, 7. e. on both sides of the sensorium, notwithstanding
that the impression on each side of the sensorium comes from the

opposite side of the object in view.

Nothing is farther from my intention than to represent this
subject as exhausted, or these conclusions as ascertained ; but in
the present state of our knowledge, I think it may be said, that the
inquiry has led to a probable solution of two difficulties, long felt
in Physiology,—the cause of single and correct vision by double
and inverted images, and the use of the decussation at the pyra-
mids. And if the theory shall be found to be incorrect, it may
still be of use, by acting as a stimulus, and to a certain degree as

a guide, to farther inquiry.
3R2

( 494 )

On one Source of the Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Lan-
guage. By the Rev. Archdeacon Wiiviams, F.R.S. E., Rec-
tor of the Edinburgh Academy, &c. &c.

(Read 7th March 1836.)

Payne Kwnicut, no mean name among philologers, after a
masterly and convincing proof, that neither ZeNoporus nor
Aristarcuus, the great critics of the Alexandrian school, could
be acquitted of the charge of “scarcely credible ignorance” of the
primitive form of the Homeric language, thus proceeds :—

“ The grammarians and critics of Alexandria were all guilty
of the same fault. They never investigated the original sources
of the language, but classed among anomalous dialects and poetic
licenses every thing that was not in unison with their own usual
style of speaking. In their age there existed many clews to the
inquiry, which have now disappeared, but which, at that time,
might easily have been found in written records, and in the rude
and semi-barbarous languages of Italy and other countries adja-
cent to Greece. Had any one, however, suggested to Art-
starcuus that the true form and character of the Homeric dia-
lect was to be extracted from the Latin, Tuscan, or Osean lan-
guages, he would in my opinion have been as much astonished
as if he had heard of the claims of the Irish antiquary, who affirmed
that the Homeric poems had been translated furtively from the
“ Gaelic into Greek.”

Whatever might have been the astonishment of AristTarcuus
on being referred to the rude and semi-barbarous dialects of iso-
lated and mountainous districts for a resolution of his philological
difficulties, every man acquainted with the subject knows that the

' Prolegomena, p. 35.

Rev. Mr Wit.iams on the Latin Language. 495

great superiority of the modern over the ancient philologers, is
not attributable solely to the successful prosecution of the study
of comparative etymology, a science unknown to the ancients,
but also to the careful examination of a mass of words and ex-
pressions preserved in ancient glossaries. Many of these, although
not now to be found in classic authors, serve as clews to the dis-
covery of meanings, which, without their aid, must have remained
unknown. In the works of Hzsycurus, Surpas, and in other
semi-barbarous lexicons or glossaries, we have not only the cor-
rupted, or rather, in many instances, the incorrupted form of
Greek words, but innumerable fragments of languages which
have ceased to be spoken among men.

The scholars of our days are wiser than the one-eyed critics
of the Alexandrian school ; and we do not disdain the aid of every
cognate language in explaining works composed. nearly three
thousand years ago. Even our own language and literature have
experienced the beneficial influence of this example. Our Eng-
lish dictionaries are assuming a more scientific form; and the
language daily receives new light and vigour from the publication

.of provincial glossaries, which cease not to issue from the press.
But the English glossaries alone will not suffice. For (with due
respect to Dr Jamieson be it said) it will eventually be found
true, as has been lately suggested by a writer admirably qualified
to give an opinion upon the subject, that no satisfactory thesaurus
of our magnificent and copious language, can ever be completed
without the aid of Celtic scholars.

I speak from knowledge, when I say that the Anglo-Saxon is
deeply tinged with the language of the Britons of Wales, Corn-
wall, and Armorica, and that the meaning of countless words,
commonly regarded. as pure Saxon, will in vain be sought in the
forests of Germany or the wilds of Scandinavia. Even household
terms, the language of every-day life, without the aid of scholars
acquainted with the primitive language or languages of these
islands, must be handed down to posterity as mystic signs devoid
of meaning. But of this at another time.

496 Rev. Mr Wiuxrams on one Source of the

My present object is to shew that a portion of even the Latin
vocabulary is to be referred to the same primitive language still
spoken within this island, and which was once the medium of in-
tellectual intercourse between no small section of the inhabitants
of south-western Europe.

I need not mention that the question, whether the original
population of Italy was to be regarded as Celtic, Hellenic, or
Teutonic, has been argued ponderously and learnedly. But the
result has not been either conclusive or satisfactory. I omit the
claims advanced in favour of the Aramzan or of the Slavonian
origin of this population, as being barely entitled to a serious
consideration. Even in examining the mode in which the pre-
tensions of the first named races have been either affirmed or de-
nied, we must be compelled to express our wonder that prudent
men could have ever hoped to bring their labours to a successful
termination. Not one of those who piled volume on volume on
the subject, seems to have possessed the necessary knowledge.
The very elements of the science, by which the problem was to
be solved, were unknown to them. Some were Greek, Latin, and
French or Italian scholars. Others, to the knowledge of these,
added an intimate acquaintance with the Teutonic dialects. But
this was not enough. A thorough knowledge of the Latin itself, of
the Greek, and of one type at least of the Celtic and Teutonic
dialects, must precede a successful examination of the claims of
the three cognate families. But hitherto no one thus qualified has
entered the field.

Early in life, I became satisfied that nothing could be done
in clearing away the cloud that smks deep and dense on the early
history of Europe, without an extensive and accurate knowledge,
not only of the language, but also of the literature, laws, habits,
and religion of the three races. I had seen enough of the errors
committed by one-eyed scholars, to satisfy me that the greatest
caution is necessary in assigning their several sources to disputed
words, and that the comparative etymology which is grounded

Non- Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 497

on index-hunting alone, and consists in the juxta-position of words
similar in form, and casually, perhaps, in sense, is more likely to
lead to error than to the truth. What would be thought of a
person, who, without a knowledge of the grammar and construc-
tion of a Greek verb, should, from a Greek index, attempt to find
the various forms in which the word sews is found in Grecian li-
terature ? What guide could he have in placing rerayou as its per-
fect passive, or eraéyy as its historical tense, in the same voice ?
But it may be said that such knowledge as is required must be
beyond the reach of any individual, and can scarcely be attained
in the course of along life. This is, I fear, too true, although it is
only of late that I have been compelled to adopt the conclusion.

The Greek and Latin language and literature, I must, from
my situation, be supposed to understand. The Cumrian’ or
Welsh was known to me from my childhood, both colloquially
and as the language of popular poetry, and of the public service
of the Church. But there exists a long series of literary works,
extending from certainly the seventh to the fifteenth century, to
which an acquaintance with the colloquial popular and ecclesi-
astical dialects furnished no sufficient key. To master these the
study of more than one form of the language was necessary, and,
to a certain extent, the task was achieved. The prose style of our
most ancient chronicles, triads, and laws, is familiar to me, and I
can read with satisfaction most of the works of the bards, as far
back as the twelfth century. But there remains a body of poetry,
ascribed to AnEuRIN, Tavirssr1n, and other well known names,
which, if Cumrian, is Cumrian in a very suspicious form. This
language I do not altogether understand, nor, according to my
belief, is it completely understood by any man living. The

1 Much error, both in History and Geography, would have been avoided, had
the names by which nations denominated themselves been alone used to designate
them. Welsh was the general name by which the German tribes designated all the
Roman provincials whose territories they invaded, but especially the Italians.

498 Rev. Mr Wruurams on one Source of the

words are Celtic, and individually recognizable, but their mean-
ing, when strung into sentences, requires an Gipirus. In con.
firmation of this, I appeal to the various attempts which profess
to be translations of the Gododin of Angurtn. With the
Anglo-Saxon literature, both for its antiquity and extent, the
best representative of the ancient Teutonic, I do not profess an
accurate acquaintance. Ihave read much of it, and have studied
its vocabulary and grammar with care, but cannot call myself an
Anglo-Saxon scholar. To a general knowledge of the modern
languages of the south-west of Europe, I can add a slight ac-
quaintance with the Gaelic and Basque tongues.

In a course of study thus followed up, with occasional excur-
sions into other paths of knowledge, for more than twenty years,
it has been my fortune to make, as I conceive, some important
discoveries. Had I the command of the requisite time, they
might be embodied in one great work, but as that is not the case,
I willingly avail myself of the medium of this Society, in order
to communicate some detached fragments to those who take an
interest in such studies. I confine myself, on the present occa-
sion, to the subject of the original population of central Italy,
and to the question which I intend to affirm, that it was of the
Cumrian or Cimbrian race, cognate with the Cumri of our island,
and that their language formed some portion of the non-Hellenic
elements of the Latin tongue. ‘To pave the way for this, I pro-
pose to show that the Umbri, an ancient people of Italy, were of
the same race and lineage with those who within our islands call
themselves Cumri, and that they, through their colonies, formed
no small part of the original population of Rome.’ We are told
by Frorus, “ that the Umbri were the most ancient people of

‘Tt is my intention to write the words as they sound to the ear, not as they appear
disguised in the modern spelling of the Welsh, a spelling which has done more to
throw the language into obscurity, and render its very appearance disgusting to the
eye of a civilized man, than all other causes put together. It not only has done this,
but has absolutely served to render it more abstruse to the Cumri themselves. The
vowel w, equal in power to the double o in wood, I shall retain, and ii with two points

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 499

Italy ;”’ by Pury, that “ they were deemed to be the most an-
cient nation of Italy ;” by Dionysius of Halicarnassus,’ that the
“ Ombrici were a nation of peculiar greatness and antiquity.”
Herroporus’ states, that the Lydian Tyrsenians (according
to him, the germ of the Tuscan race), settled among the people
called by the Greeks Ogio, and supposed by some of their
writers to have derived their name from their having survived
the general deluge [o~¢0;]. We also learn from him that their
country was of great and indefinite extent. In the words of
Nrezunr, “ It stretched to the foot of the Alps, for the rivers
Karpis and Alpis, one of which is certainly represented by the
Inn,’ flowed from the country above the Umbrici.” According
to Scyiax,’ Umbria included Picenum, as he places Ancona
within its limits. .
From Puiny’ we further learn that the Tuscans took no less
than three hundred towns from the Umbri, in other words, “that
the whole Tuscan territory had once been Umbrian.” From
these authorities it is evident that the Umbri, at a remote pe-
riod, occupied the greatest portion of Northern Italy. The Li-

over it, to represent the sound ee. The soft sound of the d I shall leave unmarked,
as it was in the older writers.

‘© Antiquissimus Italiz populus.” Lib. i. cap. 17.
* “ Gens antiquissima Italie.” Lib. iii. cap. xiv.
Mary ouPeinor eOvos Ev ros mroy fey, nour cepryausoy. Lib. i.
omen yevos yurdlov xo: cormiav. Jzetzes, Lye. cap. 199.
To these may be added the testimony of the Historical F ragments ascribed to
Varro: “ Ex his venisse Janum ceu Ogri et Gallis progenitoribus Umbrorum.” Ed.
Lugd. 1560.

* Book i. cap. 94.

° Herod. Lib. iv. cap. 49.
Ex 6¢ rng xoilumegde ues oBernay Kagmis mlawos xa wrdos Amis olauos, eos Bogny

beovles cavepuov, xou dvlor exdsOovor eG Iolgov.
* Page 6.
7 Lib. 3. cap. 14,“ Tercentum eorum oppida Tusci debellasse referuntur.”

VOL. XIII. PART II. 38

500 Rev. Mr Wiu1ams on one Source of the

gurians,’ a nation confessedly Celtic, seem to have shared the
country with them. In historical times these are described as
possessing the upper vale of the Po, the Maritime Alps, and the
Northern Apennines, while the Umbri were confined to the cen-
tral group, the most important natural fortresses of Italy. The
whole of the original population of eastern Italy, with the excep-
tion of those who took refuge in the central Apennines, was re-
duced under the power and influence of the Hellenic colonists,
who encircled the southern Peninsula with a line of Grecian cities
of surpassing wealth and magnificence. But time has grudged to
us the knowledge of the history of Sybaris, Crotona, Elea, and
Pestum. We read that Sybaris was once the chief of five and
twenty cities, and of four nations, and that it could bring three
hundred thousand warriors into the field. Crotona was not infe-
rior in arms, arts, or philosophy—but internal dissensions, the
destruction of the enlightened classes by a riotous democracy, and
the fatal aid of their half conquered subjects, the native tribes, hur-
ried them to a premature decay. Sybaris fell a. c. 508, barely
within the verge of accredited history, and Crotona soon follow-
ed : destined, however, to a more lingering death by the hands of
the barbarian Bruttii. The Lucanians, a mountain tribe, which
had taken the lead in the attacks upon the Grecian States, had
undoubtedly imbibed some portion of Grecian civilisation. In
Nresunr’s” words, “ hereditary enemies as they were, they never-
theless acquired the language to such a degree, that their ambas-
sador filled the popular Assembly at Syracuse with surprise and
enthusiasm by his pure Doric. Nor would the authors of Pytha-

' The Ligurians were themselves Ambrones, or Ombro-nes, as is evident from the
story told by Piurarcn in the life of Marius :—** The Ambrones came on erying
out Ambrones, Ambrones ; this they did either to encourage each other, or to ter-
rify the enemy with their name. The Ligurians were the first of the Italians that
moved against them, and when they heard the enemy cry Ambrones, they echoed
back the word, which was their own ancient name.” The English reader may not
know that the Cumrian name for England is to this day Loiger or Liguria.

2 Vol. i. p. 84.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 501

gorean Treatises have used the titles of imaginary Lucanians, had
it not been notorious that this philosophy had found reception
there, or had it been unusual for Lucanians' to write Greek.”

If the fate of these colonies, whose foundation is supposed to
fall within the bounds of history, be so obscure and unknown, what
can be said of Arpi and Canusium, connected with Greece by my-
thology alone ? Srrazo! infers from their remains, “that they
were the greatest of the Italiot cities.” Yet Arpi is first men-
tioned in history as an Apulian city of no importance, of which
the Romans possessed themselves without difficulty. In confir-
mation of SrraxBo’s authority, we have the strongest modern tes-
timony. **'Those writers, however, who have traced the circuits
of the Walls of Canusium from the remaining vestiges, state, that
they must have embraced a circumference of sixteen miles ;” and
antiquaries dwell with rapture on the elegance and beauty of the
Greek vases of Canosa, which (according to Mitiincen) in
point of size, numbers, and decoration, far surpass those disco-
vered in the tombs of any other ancient city, not even excepting
_ Nola.” It is im vain for us to attempt to raise the veil, and to
form conjectures concerning the state of Italy, both central and
‘maritime, when a city of this magnitude and magnificence could
have been founded, and have flourished, in this apparently unfa-
vourable position. Assuredly the neighbouring mountaineers
must at one period have been in close connection with it, either
as subjects or allies. In either case, the civilisation of Canusium,
as well as of Arpi, must have produced ameliorating effects upon
the manners, laws, and language of the neighbouring aborigines.
It is probably to this period that'a sound historian would be in-
clined to ascribe the deep impression of the Hellenic character,
which is visible in the language, laws, arts, and religion, of the
tribes of ancient Italy, and not to the intervention of some wan-
dering tribes or fraternities, who, under the name of Pelasgi,
came, we know not whence, and departed we know not whither.

1 Srrazo, vi. 248. * Cramer's Italy, vol. ii. p. 92.

382

502 Rev. Mr Wiuu1as on one Source of the

It is not equally vain to ask, who were the destroyers of a
power which could build such cities, of a civilisation so advanced.
as this. History, indeed, is silent, but the occupation of the
country by the Lucanians and Apulians leaves us no room to doubt
as to the agents in the work of destruction. The original Apulia,
according to STRABO, was a small tract of country immediately to
the south of the Frentani, whence they must have spread over
the larger province which, in consequence of the conquest, was
called after their name.

The reaction of the native population against the foreign co-
lonists, which proved thus fatal in the south, was carried on with
equal energy in central Italy by the Samnites, who assailed with
equal fury and success both the Greek colonies and Tuscan in-
vaders of Campania. The Samnites, like the Lucanians, were Sa-
bellians by blood, of Sabine race, and cognate with the Marsi,
Marrucini, Peligni, Hernici, Vestini, Hirpini, and Frentani. If,
therefore, we can trace the origin of the Sabines themselves, we
at once discover the origin of all the tribes that sprung from them.
In the words of Nizugvunr,' “ the Italian national migrations came
down like others from the north ; and Caro’s opinion that the ori-

gin of all the Sabellians was derived from the neighbourhood of

Amiternum, admits of no other rational meaning than that the
most ancient traditions, whether they may have been Sabine or
Umbrian, assigned that district as the habitation of the people
who conquered Reate.” The same author * says, Srrazo calls the
Sabines autochthons. This name, applied to a people whose
spreading so clearly falls within the historical period, can only
mean that they cannot be taken for any colony from any nation
out of Italy.” The question is thus very considerably narrowed,
and we have only to ascertain whether they are the offshoot of
any other people in Italy or not. To this a satisfactory answer

' In the chapter on the Sabelli and Sabini, vol. i.
* Same chapter.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 503

ean be given, because ZENopotus of Troezene, a writer quoted
by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, as the author of a History of
the Umbri, and who must be supposed to have examined into
the subject, expressly asserts that the Sabini were originally
Umbrians. These are his words,—“ The Sabines, who are indi-
genous, inhabited first the Reatine District, but being driven
thence by the Pelasgi, entered that country which they still in-
habit, and having changed their name together with their situa-
tion, were called Sabini instead of Umbri.” '

To connect the Sabini with the original population of Rome
is an easy task. Whatever was the origin of Alba, the supposed
metropolis of Rome, its blood could not have entered largely into
the veins of the Roman people. According to the national tra-
dition, the first occupiers of the strongholds which became the
site of Rome were a half-pastoral, half-bandit race, composed pro-
bably of the broken men of many a tribe; but according to the
same tradition, the mothers of the second generation of Rome
were all Sabines. This would make all the children half Sabine
in blood, and far more so in language and feeling. When to this
we add that the same tradition assigns to the young state a new
settlement, which brings King Trius and his countrymen into
the city in equal numbers, and with equal privileges, the portion
of Roman bleod, not Sabine, is reduced to one-fourth at least.
Moreover, had not. the habits, laws, and institutions been essen-
tially Sabine in the early ages of the Republic, the creation of a
Sabine legislator in the person of Numa, the citizen of the Sa-
bellian Cures, would never have been invented, much less tole-
rated. And had not the mass of the population been decidedly
Sabine in its inclinations, the State would not, after the losses

1 Lib. 11. p. 49.—Znvodclog de TeoiSnwos, ovyleapevs OwPernov ebvods, aubiyevecis ioroger ro (Lev
TQUITOY O1ANOU TERI TY LULAoU[LEVAY Pecilny, exibev toro TleAnoyaw ekeradevrac, eg raurny apinecboas

Hy nv evdoe vv o1xooveW, ou pElaParovlas ape Tw roy TovvoLMe SaBivous c OuPgimwy aeoccyogev-

Onveus.

504 Rev. Mr Wituiams on one Source of the

and disgrace of the war with Porsena, have recruited its exhaust-
ed strength by the admission of Arra Ciausus, with five thou-
sand Sabines, into the full right and privileges of Roman citi-
zens. It may therefore be safely inferred, that the great body of
the original population of Rome was of Sabine, that is, of Um-
brian race and blood.

The next step is to prove that this Umbrian race was cognate
in blood and language with our own Cumrians. In appealing
to ancient testimony, it will be at once felt that much cannot be
expected which will throw any light upon the subject ; yet, con-
trary to such an expectation, there do exist certain testimonies
of the clearest nature. The first is that of Cornneiius Boccuus,
a learned friend and freedman of Syitua, who, according to Soxi-
nus, “ completely proved that the Umbri are an offset of the an-
cient Gauls.” To give its full weight to this testimony, we
ought to remember, that Syixa, the patron of Boccuus, had
every reason, both during the social war and in his wars against
the Marians and their allies, to institute the most serious inqui-
ries into the origin of the Sabellian tribes, and the circumstances
that had changed them from their long continued character of
faithful allies, into the most powerful and inveterate enemies of
Rome. The second testimony is that of Anronrus GNipHo, a
high name among Roman grammarians, himself a native of Cis-
alpine Gaul, and one of the most. accomplished scholars of his
day, to whose instruction even Jutius Cxsar owed much. °
~ Servius, Vireit’s learned commentator, writes, “ M. Anro-
n1us states that undoubtedly the Umbrians were the offspring of
the ancient Gauls.” Isrporvs,’ in his Origines, combines this

' Sorin. Pol. Hist. cap. 8.
Absolvit Umbros Gallorum veterum propaginem esse.

2 Vine. Serv. p. 724, near the end of the twelfth book.
Sane Umbros veterum Gallorum propaginem esse refert.

® Origines, lib. 9, cap. 2,

aS oo

Se

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 505

double testimony by his statement, “ The Umbrians are a na-
tion of Italy, but the offspring of the ancient Gauls.”

The opinion of these learned men that the Umbri were the
descendants of the Galli Veteres cannot, of course, be wrested to
prove that some very ancient preoccupation of Italy by Gauls took
place at a period antecedent to history. The only legitimate
inference to be drawn from such a statement is, that they were
convinced by some evidence which has not reached us, that the
Umbri and “ Galli Veteres” were one and the same race.

It thus becomes an important question to inquire who these
“ Galli Veteres” were. They certainly could not be the Cisal-
pine Gauls who, within the historical period, had crossed the Alps
and taken possession of the greatest part of the Vale of the Po.
Originally, as we have already seen, the plains of modern Lom-
bardy were in the possession of the Umbri. The Tuscans dis-
possessed them, and, in their turn, were exterminated by the
transalpine invaders. But Ravenna and its vicinity, and the
whole of the ancient Venetia, escaped both the Tuscan and Gal-
lic yoke. The very same position which made them the last re-
source of the Romans of the western empire, defended these for-
tresses amongst lagoons and marshes from the assaults of more
early invaders. According to Srrazo,' Ravenna was built by
Thessalians, and surrendered to the Umbri. Hence it is called
by Pxiryy * a Sabine, that is, an Umbrian town. That Venetia
was not conquered by the Tuscans is evident from the fact, that
the Veneti were a powerful tribe as late as the year 390 a.c. ;
for in that year they made so vigorous an incursion into the ter-
ritories of the Gauls, the invaders and captors of Rome, that,
according to Potysius,’ Brennus was induced by this powerful
diversion to grant terms to the Romans besieged in the capitol,

1 Srrazo, book v. p. 214. 2 [bid. p. 217.
2 SrRABO.—To dc Agiuwoy OuBgimuy ech xoilomia nada weg xou 7 Pocoverwor,

3 Book xi. cap. 18.

506 Rev. Mr Wituiams on one Source of the

and to return home. The Veneti, like the Romans, claimed a
Trojan descent, and referred to the vo of Asia Minor as the
founders of their name and race. They,’ like the Romans, called
the spot where their eastern ancestors had landed by the sacred
name of Troja. But the Greeks, who seldom regarded the testi-
mony of a people themselves as sufficient proof of their origin, in-
dulged in various speculations on this head. Srrazo,’ in one place,
informs us, that some writers held that these Italian Veneti were
colonies of the Gallic Veneti. In another place’ he states it as
his own opinion, that these latter were the founders of the for-
mer Veneti, and that it was the similarity of the name alone
that caused them to be referred to the Paphlagonian Evda.
Without attaching any peculiar value to this opinion of
Srraso, it may be adduced to prove that there were some
stronger reasons than a mere similarity of name which led him
to this conclusion. And there would probably be a similarity in
language and habits between the Veneti on the Adriatic and
their namesakes on the shores of the western ocean; and this
clew, if carefully unravelled, may perhaps lead us to a discovery
of who the “ Veteres Galli” of Boccuus and Antonius were.
Now, Potysius, a writer well acquainted from personal inter-
course with all the tribes of the Vale of the Po, thus speaks of
the Veneti *‘ :—* The territory thence stretching to the Adriatic
is occupied by another nation extremely ancient ; they are called
Veneti; in habits and institutions not much differing from the
Kee, but using a various dialect.” ‘This has been by some of
the most judicious inquirers into ancient history regarded as a
conclusive testimony against the Celtic origin of the Veneti; but

! Festus, under Troja.

2 Book v. p. 212.—Tegr rav Evelav dios eal Royos, o1 juev ye, ras avlous Paci Kerray ewes
ATOIKOUS, THY olLuVvuLov, Tleganeceviluv.

3 Book v. p. 195 —Tovlovg owas rous ovevélous ommiclas ewan ra notla rov Adgiay.

"Ta de xeoc rov Adgiav. ndn meoonxovra, ‘yevos WAA0 ravu TO THAGIOY Oiaxaleoye. TIgoduyogevor

roi 62 ovevelor. ros eOeor xo rw xoomw Beayy diapegovles KeATwv, vray & arAoim yeupevor.

Non-Hellenic portion of the Latin Language. 507

if we admit such proof, we must also confess that all the Celtic
tribes of Gaul were not cognate, for Srraso expressly affirms,
“ that these did not all speak the same language, but that some
spoke dialects varying a little in form.”

The inference, on the contrary, ought to be, that they were
originally of the same race, but changed in some respects by time
and circumstances. This will appear more probable, if we take
into consideration that it is impossible for any one acquainted
with the ancient history, laws, and institutions of the Cumrian
race, to recognize it in the accounts given by historians of the
invaders of Italy under Betuovesus. Their blue eyes, red
hair, and great stature, together with their pastoral rather than
agricultural habits, are strong proofs that the majority at least
must have been rather of German than of Celtic origin. But a
rational account of the various races between the Alps and the
ocean, the Pyrenees and the Rhine, as recorded by ancient his-
torians, is as yet a desideratum. The materials are ample, and
the key for the solution of all difficulties will be found in an ade-
quate knowledge of the Basque, the Cumrian, the Teutonic, and
perhaps the Gaelic, which languages alone, previous to the Greek
settlements and Roman invasion, could have been spoken within
those limits. It will be sufficient for me, on the present occa-
sion, to hint, that, in addition to the undoubted Teutonic origin
of all the Belgian tribes, with the exception of the Menapii and
Morini, a considerable portion of the territory assigned by Czesar
to the Celtz or Galli, was possessed by a population semi-Teuto-
nic in their names, habits, and religion. It appears evident that
various eruptions of the northern nations into the south, prior
to that of the Cimbri and Teutones a. c. 110, and of Artovistus
at a later period, had entirely broken up the whole frame-work of
society in Gall, and precipitated the several races upon each other.

E SrraBo.—ijuo-yyruTous ov moles, HAA evious (uixeov Tugarrclloviras rails yrwoons.
The yraTn aaAaow of Potystus is not, as is well known to every scholar, “ ano-
ther language,” as it has been inaccurately translated, but a “ variety in dialect.”

VOL. XIII. PART II. 3T

508 Rev. Mr Wixu1ams on one Source of the

Should we therefore wish to discover who were the “ Veteres
Galli,” we must look for them in the natural fortresses of France,
where they could defend themselves both from the foreign in-
vaders, and the mixed bands of half-bandits, half-warriors, who
ceased not to infest the country after the main body of invaders
had passed away.

Such a race were the Veneti of Western Gaul, so similar in
their history, at an earlier period, to their kin-tribe in Italy.
When the Roman empire was sinking under the repeated as-
saults of the northern barbarians, the Italian Veneti sought refuge
in their marshes and among their lagoons, where necessity soon
compelled them to become a naval and commercial people. ‘This
had been the fate of the Gallic Veneti, at a period antecedent
to history. For Juzius Cmsar’ found them a highly civilized
people, intimately connected with Britain, hardy sailors, and mas-
ters of practical arts, unknown, or at least unrecorded, among
Greek and Roman practices. These Veneti, with their cognate
tribes, the Osismii, Lexovii, Nannetes, Ambialites, Morini, Diablin-
tes, and Menapii, together with auxiliaries from the opposite coast
of Britain, prepared to resist Cmsar. Their fleet, consisting of
220 vessels of immense size and strength, built entirely of oak,
and trusting to their sails alone, was destroyed by the row-galleys
of the Romans, more owing to a chance calm than any other
cause. The position of their cities, on tongues of land and pro-
montories, to which there was no access except by sea, proves that a
superior force had driven them for protection into such fortresses,
which their naval skill and power could make good against land-

1 Hujus civitatis est longé amplissima auctoritas omnis ora maritime, quod et
naves habent Veneti plurimas, quibuscum in Britanniam navigare consueverunt ; et
scientia et usu nauticarum rerum ceteros antecedunt ; et in magno impetu maris,
atque aperto, paucis portubus interjectis, quos tenent ipsi, omnes fere, qui eodem
mari uti consueverunt, habent vectigales—Com. Bell. Gall. lib. iii. cap. 8.

2 Especially their chain-anchors and sails of finely tanned leather.

Non-Hellenic portion of the Latin Language. 509

troops alone.'| That these Veneti were of the Cumrian race in
Britain, there can be no doubt, even the name of the present
Cumri of North Wales is, if spelt after the Roman manner,
the same, Gwined,’ Venetia, Gwinedig Veneticus, Gwinedi-
gion Venetici. The modern latinized form Venedocia and Ve-
nedocians, are pure barbarisms, for which there is not the slight-
est analogical support.

The trade which alone could have enabled the Gallic Veneti
to have maintained so powerful a navy, was, according to Cmsar,
carried on with Britain, but assuredly not with that part of Bri-
tain which he afterwards invaded, as the Britons, with whom he
came in contact, do not appear to have been acquainted with
naval affairs, nor to have possessed a vessel larger than a coracle.
The traffic of the Veneti must have been carried on with their
kindred tribes in the west of the island, where alone within the his-
torical period the Cumrian race is found. Upon this important
question—important I mean as connected with the early history of
our island—I entirely agree with the learned author of Celtic
Researches. The Coritani, an invading tribe,’ “ enlarged their
territories, and comprehended not only the inland regions round
the wide spreading arms of the Humber, but also much of the
eastern coast of England.”

“ When Czsar arrived in Britain, the aborigines were those

1 Erant ejusmodi fere situs oppidorum, ut posita in extremis linguis promonto-
riisque, neque pedibus aditum haberent, quum ex alto se zstus incitavisset, quod
bis semper accidit horarum xii. spatio; neque navibus, quod, rursus minuenti zstu
naves in vadis afflictarentur. In utraque re oppidorum oppugnatio impediebatur.
Ac si quando, magnitudine operis forte superati, extruso mari aggere ac molibus,
atque his ferme moenibus adzequatis, suis fortunis desperare coeperant ; magno nu-
mero navium appulso, cujus rei summam habebant facultatem, sua omnia deporta-
bant, atque se in proxima oppida recipiebant, ubi se rursus iisdem opportunitatibus
loci defendebant-—Com. Bell. Gall. lib. iii. cap. 12.

2 See Pugh. Dict. under the words.

3 Pp. 201.

372

510 Rev. Mr Wriuuiams on one Source of the

of the interior parts and of the western coast. Their character
and their habits were different from those of the other Britons,
with whom Cxsar fought. We are not apprised, and have no
reason to conjecture, that he saw the interior habitants. The
armies that opposed him were similar, in their general habits, in
their military art and resources, to each other, as they were also
to the Belge of Kent.

The monuments we call Druidical must be appropriated ex-
clusively to Aborigines of the midland and western divisions.
They are found in such corners and fortresses as have, in all ages
and countries, been the last retreat of the conquered. In Wales
and in Mona they were used and venerated until the aborigines
were completely subjugated by Roman arms. In the central
counties, and in the west, they perpetually occur, from Cornwall
to Cumberland, whereas few traces of them are discovered in the
eastern part of the island, which therefore appears to have been
occupied by those people who did not construct buildings of this
nature, and who obtained possession before the aborigines deeply
impressed their character upon the soil.”

Of the race of the “ Veteres Galli,” were also the A.dui and
Arverni. Both these nations claimed the sovereignty of all Gaul,
and seem to have been regarded as the natural chiefs’ of the
central tribes. The Aidui seem to have derived their name
from A<) the Great, the father of Prupary, one of the three

pillars of the race of the Cumri. Nor is it improbable, that
C#sar’s notion “that all the Gauls held that they sprang from
Father Drs, and that this was taught by the Druids,” originated
in a mistake, which led him to confound the Greek ‘Ady with
the Cumbrian A<d the Great.’ It is, moreover, difficult, without

1 Quod summa auctoritas antiquitus erat in Aiduis—Casar. Lib. i. 43, Ut
omni tempore totius Galliz principatum A‘dui tenuissent.

2 Triad 2 and 34, &c.

3 Galli se omnes ab Dite patre prognatos predicant, idque ab Druidibus prodi-
tum dicunt—Cazsar, Lib. vi. cap. 17.

rer rs

Non-Hellenic portion of the Latin Language. oll

recurring to the affirmed consanguinity of the Umbri and the
“ Veteres Galli,” to account for a circumstance so striking as the
confession on the part of the Romans, “that the Aidui were
their brothers and kinsmen.”’ As this name was repeatedly con-
ferred upon them by solemn decrees of the Senate, a name which,
to the best of my recollection, was never conferred except upon
nations supposed to have been connected with them by blood,
it is a fair inference that a case in proof of a common origin
was satisfactorily made out, before an honour of so high a nature
could have been bestowed upon people of barbarian, and what
was more hateful, of Gallic race... The Arverni, the neighbours
of the Aidui, and who, from the natural strength of their country,
might be expected to represent the “ Veteres Galli,” were, at a
later period, allowed to assume the same honours, as we read in
Lucan :?

«« Arvernique ausi Latio se fingere fratres
F ; Pe;
Sanguine ab Iliaco populi.

It was undoubtedly in this common claim to a Trojan origin,
a claim eventually to be traced to a common religion and reli-
gious rites, that we are to recognize the principle, which induced
the Veneti, the Romans, the Arverni, and the Cumrians of
our island, who, from the remotest antiquity, traced themselves

1 Imprimis quod Aiduos fratres consanguineosque seepenumero ab Senatu ap-
pellatos, videbat.—Lib. i. cap. 43.

2 Docebat etiam quam veteres, quamque juste cause necessitudinis ipsis cum
ABduis intercederent : que Senattis consulta, quoties, quamque honorifice, in eos
facta essent.—Lib. i. cap. 43.

“Qu ecly ev rg0g Pawouous |ov ovyryevercey xan Pidsoy rqy meres Toy nab nus xgovuy Oto-
juevovocy.— Di1oporus SICULUS, Lib. 4. p. 210.

Oi be Edovor nou cuyyevers row Paywouray ovoneZovlo.— ST RABO, 1. 192.
3 Book i. ver. 427 ; see also the testimony of Sripon1us Aprortrnanis to the same

effect.

512 Rev. Mr Wixu1ams on one Source of the

to Troy and Asia Minor, to regard themselves as “ fratres” and
* consanguinei.”

This community of origin produced very marked political
sympathies, which were of no small aid to the Romans in extend-
ing their empire. In the very romantic account given by Livy
of the passage of the Cimminian Ridge by a Fabius, and the
defeat of the Etrurians in the vicinity of Perusia, one thing
alone appears historical, that at a very remote period a league
was concluded between the Romans and Camertian Umbrians,
for the sake of mutual protection against the Tuscans. Of this
treaty Cicero says,’ that even in his time it was regarded “ sanc-
tissimum et equissimum.” From the same speech we learn
that there was a similar treaty with the Umbrians of Iguvium.
Wars with the Umbrians there were none, and the one battle
which preceded their final submission to Rome, was, if we can
believe Livy,’ almost a bloodless one. In the words of Cramer,’
“ the Umbri appeared to have offered but little resistance to the
Romans, nor is it improbable that this politic people took advan-
tage of their differences with the Etruscans, to induce them at
least to remain neuter, whilst they were contending with the
latter power.” Here, also, CRAMER’s opinion on the question,’
partly examined by me, may be advanced, and as he had no hy-
pothesis to maintain, great weight ought to be given to his con-
clusion. “ ZENopoTuUS was of opinion that the Sabines were
descended from the Umbri, and although it is customary to re-
gard them as belonging to the Oscan race, I see no reason why the
latter people, who are very indistinctly classed and defined,
should not be considered as descended from the same indigenous
stock ; nay, rather when we consider the analogy which is allowed
to exist between the several ancient dialects of Italy, and the
uniformity of topographical nomenclature, which may be traced

1 Lib. 9. 36. * Oratio pro Balbo. 3 Lib. 9. cap. 4.
* Vol. i. 254. > Dor252

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 513

throughout a great part of the Peninsula, there seems to be a
strong argument in favour of such a hypothesis. Considering,
therefore, the Umbri as confessedly the most ancient people of
Italy, I think we may safely ascribe to them the population of
the central and mountainous parts of that country, as also the
primitive form of its language, until the several communities of
the Etruscans, Sabines, and Latins successively detached them-
selves from the parent nation, and, from a combination of diffe-
rent elements, adopted also different modifications of the same
primeval tongue.”

The history of the Veneti,' “ in the words of the same author,
contains little that is worthy of notice, if we except the remark-
able feature, of their being the sole people of Italy who not
only offered no resistance to the ambitious projects of Rome, but
even at an early period rendered that power an essential service,
if it be true, as Potysius reports, that the Gauls, who had ta-
ken Rome, were suddenly called away by an incursion of the
Veneti into their territory (ii. 18.). The same author also ex-
pressly states, that an alliance was afterwards formed between
the Romans and Veneti (ii. 23,) a fact which is confirmed by
Srrapo (vy. 216).”

This state of security and peace would seem to have been
very favourable to the prosperity of the Venetian nation. Ac-
cording to an old geographer, they counted within their territo-
ry fifty cities, and a population of a million and a half; “ when
the Gauls had been subjugated, the Veneti do not appear to
have manifested any unwillingness to constitute a part of the
new province, an event which we may suppose to have happened
not long after the second Punic War. Their territory from that
period was included under the general denomination of Cisal-
pine Gaul, and they were admitted to all the privileges which
that province successively obtained.”

1 Vol. i. p. 113.

514 Rev. Mr Wixu1aMs on one Source o the

It is difficult to account for such a general and complete
amalgamation, without suspecting that the two races, the Roman
and Venetian, were originally the same, especially when we call
to mind, that the invading Gauls of the Vale of the Po, had ab-
solutely to be exterminated by their conquerors.

The Aidui* were the first of their countrymen to embrace
the friendship and alliance of Rome, and continued to a late pe-
riod to partake of the advantages therefrom resulting. Puiiny
calls them in his day “ Foederati,” and their neighbours the Ar-
verni, “ Liberi.’ Even as late as the age of Srpon1us APpouuti-
warts,t the latter nation still prided themselves on their Roman
blood, and supposed descent from Italy.

Est mihi que Latio se sanguine tollit alumnam,
Tellus clara viris.

It is well known that the Cumri of our island claim a Trojan
origin, and that this tradition was held by them long before the
impudent fabrication of Grorrroy of Monmouth, and that even
Newniws gave a historical aspect to the belief. We read in the
Life of Acricoua, that the Britons embraced with avidity the
prominent arts of Roman civilization, a circumstance which an
examination of history should induce us to regard as almost im-
possible, except in cases where the cognation of the victors and
the vanquished is very close.

On the whole, it may therefore be regarded as proved, that
there were at the earliest period, when the history of western
Europe commences, fragments of a great nation to be found in
the fastnesses and natural fortresses of Italy, Gaul and Great
Britain,{ who all agreed in claiming a common origin, and in

* STRAxO. Tigaslos roy ravln meonAboy meoS THY DiAioy Kor UMMwOLrIOLy.
+ Srvon. Arortinar. Poem. 62.

+ Tacrrus, 21. Jam vero principum filios liberalibus artibus erudire et in-

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 515

tracing it, directly or indirectly, to a name called by them
Troy.

I believe that I can solve this riddle, and explain the cause
of this common agreement, and the symbols which enabled the
dispersed members of a great family to recognise each other.
But the investigation of this question alone would require a vo-
lume, and must for the present be dropped.

Having thus shown, from important testimonies, the close
union between the original population of Rome and the Um-
brians, and between the Umbrians, Romans, “ Veteres Galli”
and Veneti, and the Cumri of our island, it now remains that
we should examine into the language of the Umbri, and its close
connection with the language of the Cumri. If the Iguvinian or
Eugubian tables were really Umbrian, this might be supposed
to furnish us with a certian test as to the identity of the two
languages. But this they assuredly do not. The double set of
characters, and the very imperfect representation in the tables,
written in Latin characters, of the sense contained, or supposed
to be contained, in those inscribed with ancient Greek letters,
are in themselves a proof, that the language of the latter was a
sacred one, known to a few alone, and not therefore to be ac-
counted the language of the country. Although terrified by the
fate of learned men, who have made a fearful shipwreck of their
sagacity and judgment, upon these disinterred records of an older
world, I might refuse to meddle with “ such dangerous matter,”
I hesitate not to propose my firm belief, that these inscriptions
are the remnants of a language, which, for want of a better
name, may be called Pelasgic, and that we are on the eve of a dis-

genia Britannorum studiis Gallorum anteferre, ut, qui modo linguam Romanam
abnuebant, eloquentiam concupiscerent, inde etiam habitus nostri honor et frequens
toga, paullatimque discessum ad de linimenta vitiorum porticus et balnea et convivi-
orum elegantiam ; idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis

esset.
VOL. XIII. PART II. 3 U

516 Rev. Mr Wivx1ams on one Source of the

covery, which will enable us to read them with perfect facility.
They are evidently hymns, composed by priests, similar in cha-
racter to the Curetes, Idei Dactyli, Telchines, Orphic initia-
tors, and other such colleges, whose mission it was to communi-
cate the blessings-of corn and wine, under religious and myste-
rious sanctions, to those nations, which had not previously been
made acquainted, with those main supports of civilized life.
Among these names the Pelasgi occupy a conspicuous station,
not, however, as teachers of the art of agriculture and vine-dress-
ing, but as hewers of stone and builders of fortresses and cities.
It would be most difficult to prove that they ever were a distinct
nation, but it is clear that they belonged to that race, call them
Trojans, Pelasgians, Thracians, Phrygians, or any other equiva-
lent name, who sunk under the superior energies of the Achzan
and Hellenic races. Prxascus, the patron saint or mythological
representation of the Pelasgi, is described by Pausanzas,' as the
person “ who first invented huts to defend mankind from the
cold and rain.” Even Fynrs Cir toy, with all his judgment and
sagacity, cannot press this PeLascus into the historical curricu-
lum, without multiplying him into five distinct personages, a clear
proof that there is not the slightest rational ground for clothing
him at all with a real existence. That the Pelasgi were every-
where to be found, is most true, in Asia, in Crete, in the other
islands, in Thrace, Thessaly, Epirus, Peloponnesus, and Italy, but it
is impossible to prove that they were a race distinct in blood from
the other older inhabitants of those countries. The word, twist-
ed as it has been by various attempts at etymology, seems a very
simple compound of the two words =a, the old Macedonian*

| Lib. 8. cap. 1.
TheAaoyos 6c Bacirevous. Tovlo jwev roinonobus narupas ETEVONHEV, WS [LH “eryourres nok vecbus Fouc
avbowsrous.

2 See the Macedonian Glossary at the end of Steph. 'Thes.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 517

name for a stone, and «ox», to work, to dress with care. These
two words would form m-«00;, which, by the slightest change in
pronunciation, would become z:A00yo;. 'The common name for a
Pelasgian fortress was Larissa. “Seventeen places (writes Fynrs
Ciinton) bearing this name may be traced, most of which, pro-
bably all, were founded by the Pelasgi.” Perhaps it would have
been better to have said “ built, rather than founded, by the Pe-
lasgi.” For the general name Larissa, there ought to be as gene-
ral a reason, and this the meaning of the term seems to supply
owas @ Stone, and *gem “euow to hammer or hew. Larissa would
thus signify the fortress of “ dressed stones,” in opposition to the
Cyclopian masses which were superseded by the Pelasgian style
of building. This view of the subject is rendered more probable
by the only account of Pelasgi which can be regarded as histori-
cal. According to Heroporvs, in a well-known passage, certain
Pelasgi had agreed, for a stipulated reward, to surround the Athe-
nian Acropolis with a wall. They performed their bargain, but
were afterwards expelled by the Athenians, first to Lemnos,
and ata later period from Lemnos to the Hellespont. Now, it is
from the language of these Hellespontian Pelasgi that Heroporus
drew his conclusions as to the original dialect of the older Pe-
lasgi. But Pausantas' informs us, that he had ascertained that
they were originally Siceli, and had passed over into Acarnania.
The leaders of these erratic stone-masons ate called by the
same author Aygruc and Ya-e80s :° literally, “ stone-griper,” and
“ very strong,” names, which betray their fabulous origin and

' Paus. lib. 1. cap. 28.
Ty Ge angorors: TAY ooov mina waodoumoey cvInso Mirricdos, megiBuréy ro Aomov rou
-reiyous IleAucyous. oimnourlus role uo rqv uxgoroAw Dao yae Ayeoray xan dereg@i0y. ruvOavowevoc

de Oflwes nom oudey AAO eduvapuny ably 4 SixiAous ro EONS auras Anxapuauoy Melomnoct.

2 Ayea-captura, e. g. rug-aeya, a smith’s forceps, and Aa.as, a stone,
imeg, exceedingly, and Bra, force.

3u2

518 Rev. Mr Wrx.iams on one Source of the

which can no more be regarded as historical, than the Eucnrrr
and Everammvus, the two Corinthian artists, who are supposed
to have attended Demaratusinto Tuscany. Asa proof that the
more uncommon form of the Eugubian inscription is a remnant
of the older Greek, I give the following specimen from the be-
ginning of one of the tables, with the omission of the first line.

2. Famerias Pumplerias x11 Atiiriate etre Atierate.
Clavernie etre Clavernie. Kuriate etre Kuriate.
. Satane etre Satane. Pieriate etre Pierate. Talenas

or me

. Etre Talenate. Museiate etre Museiate. Iviscane
6. Etre Iviscane. Caselate etre Caselate. Tertie Caselate.

In this list of communities, or rather of colleges, we see dis-
tinctly the first and second of the Curiate or Curetes, the first
and second of the Museiate or Muses, the first and second of the
Pieriate or Pierides, of which were the constant companions
of the Orphic priests. The Clavernie, the Satane, and the Ta-
lenate are also known to me, but would, for an explanation, re-
quire more time than can be given to them at present. The
rest of the inscription is nothing more than a long repetition of
the names and titles of Juvis Pater, upon the same plan as the
Orphic indigitamenta. For a full explanation of each title, we
must have recourse to the Sanscrit language.

Throwing aside, therefore, for the present the consideration of
the Eugubian Tables, as not furnishing us with a trustworthy
specimen of the anterior language, I proceed to call other wit-
nesses, to whom we can safely appeal when a question is raised
about the identity of language spoken in various countries, the
names of those eternal monuments (eternal at least as far as hu-
man testimony can reach), the mountains, vales, and rivers, and
even cities, which, in all cases where extermination has not pre-
ceded occupation, preserve the mark impressed upon them by
the primitive occupiers of the soil.

Rivers.—And first of the rivers in Umbria, Venetia, or coun-
tries once occupied by the Umbri and their descendant tribes.

ee lll ee a oe

Non-Hellenie Portion of the Latin Language. 519

And in making these selections, it will be my object to give spe-
cimens, not to accumulate all that can be gathered together.

The most general Cumrian name for a stream is gwy or wy
(Wye), wys (Ouse Isis), and wysk (Esk). The word gwy' itself
has perished in this island, and is only found in names of rivers,
such as Ed-wy, Myn-wy, Onwy, &c. In Italy we find the

Asis.”
Bed-Esis.*
Ath-Esis.*

Es-ar-us.”
Nat-Iso.*
Apr-Usa.'
Pad-Usa.*

Osa.°

Is."°

Aus-ar."
Gal- AE sus.”
Ver-Esis, now L’osa in Latium.

1 « This word and aw, are in the composition of a great many words which relate
to fluidity.”—Ow. Dict.

For the sake of the general reader if such should read so far, it should be men-
tioned that the Cumrian w is pronounced like the English oo in good, and that the
y following it merely iotacizes the oo.

2 A river in Picenum, now called Fiumesino (Flumen Asinum).

* Not far from Bononia, now called Ronco.

* The Adige. Observe the tendency of the v or w to become g, aev-um, Age, &c.

5 Now Isaro, near Crotona. Avs, water,—ar, mountain.

5 Now Natisone, not far from Aquileia.

7 Now Ausa, not far from Ariminum. Wys apparently compounded with aper.

8 A branch of the Po. Pad-wys, water of the Pad, called by Potyzius Padoa.
Now called the Po de Primano.

9 Osa, retains its name, a small river not far from Cosa.

10 Is, now Issa, between Petilia and Velia.

11 Ausar, now Serchio, near Pisa.

12 The Tarentine stream, so celebrated by poets, now called Galeso. This,

520 ‘ Rev. Mr Witx1aMs on one Source of the

The Cumrian name for a river, next in importance, is Avon, the
same word as the Latin Amn-is. It must be remembered by
etymologists, that the Latin M was not our strong labial conso-
nant, but a vocal sound corresponding to our English w at the
end of words. Without this explanation, it is impossible to ac-
count for its perishable nature in verse at the end of words fol-
lowed by vowels. In those terms which the provincial Cumrians
originally borrowed from their conquerors the Romans, and have
since retained, the M, especially in the middle of words, be-
comes a v, thus—

Animal Anivail.
Numerus Niver.
Romani Rhuveiniaid.

Thus also Amn-is, Avn, then Aven and Avon. In its simple form
we find in Italy only two,—

among many others, may be quoted as a proof of the indestructibility of names, ex-
cept by the absolute extermination of the inhabitants. The Dorians of Tarentum
gave it the name of Eurotas, after their own Laconian stream; and, in the days of
Potysius, it was, as we are informed by him, more generally termed the Eurotas.
But as Greek influence declined, the original name prevailed, and the Galesus has
been immortalized in many a poet’s verses. Assuredly, it is not owing to chance
that the two words meant the same thing, the one in the Cumrian, the other in the
Greek language. Ev-gai-as, the fair stream; Gal-wys, fair water. In Owen’s Dic-
tionary, we find the following explanation: Gal, ‘‘ clear,” “ fair.”

Avon reawg ai hynt hir mewn gwaiindir gal.
A river running with its course long in meadow-land fair.

Here, perhaps, I ought to add, that the Bradanus, the largest stream which falls
into the Tarentine Gulf, still called the Bradano, has its representative in the
Guildford river in Surrey, which bore both the generic name “‘ Wey,” and the spe-
cific one Brad-an. The specific name has, however, I understand, perished among
the people, although retained in history.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 521

* Aven-tia,

*Savo ; to which should be added the ’ Ufens, and
the Avens, a tributary of the Himella.

But in the names of places we find

Antemne and Antenne,

Interamna repeatedly, and also a river Scultenna ;
whence it is credible, that the word, in its contracted form of
An or Ann, or En, with the termination Us, is often to be found,
as,

* Vom-an-us,

° Amas-en-us,

° Fibr-en-us, ete. etc.

The full meaning of this latter termination may be proved
from the river Gari-en-us in Norfolk, now called the Yare, ac-
cording to the common English custom of changing the older g
into y.

To these should undoubtedly be added the celebrated

7 Clit-umn-us,
formed on the same principle as the Gallic Garumna (Garw
Avon, Rough River). To these generic names of rivers may be

' Now L’Avenza, near Luna.

? Now Savone, in Campania, after the manner of the Gallic Savona now Saone ;
originally it was Avon Ara, the Slow River, (Vide *Czesar’s description of it, Lib. i.
cap. 12.) in time the specific name perished, the generic remained.

3 Now Aufente, in Latium.

* Now the Vomano in Picenum.

5-In the Pomptine Marshes.

® A tributary of the Liris; evidently the Beaver (Fiber) Stream.

7 Still called Clitunno. That the Clit is a separable prefix is apparent from its
being jomed with ernum also, a very common topographical affix, as Clit-ernum.
The word is apparently synonymous with the Scotish and Welsh Clyde, which
means in Cumrian “‘ warm,” cliid, a term equally applicable to the Italian and

British rivers.

* Flumen est Arar, quod per fines Aduorum et Sequanorum in Rhodanum influit incredibili
lenitate, ita ut oculis in utram partem fluat judicari non possit—-Ara means “ slow.”

522 Rev. Mr Wixu1ams on one Source of the

added, a long list of Italian streams bearing the same names as
rivers in our island. Such are the
' Duria Major,
Duria Minor,
Turia,
Sturia,

° 'Tinna,

+The Umbro.
The Ambra,

° The Truentum,

1 Dwr, pronounced Door, is the common name among the Cumrian tribes for
water, river, sea. The two Duriz, tributaries of the upper Po, are still called
Doria Baltea, and Doria Riparia. The Turia, a small tributary of the Tiber,
about six miles from Rome, is not recognised by modern geographers. The Stura
still retaining its ancient name, is also a tributary of the upper Po. In the Sussex
Adur, and the Kentish Stour, we still retain the original appellations. There was
also a river in Latium, called both Astura and Stura, now Store.

2 Now Timia, in Umbria.

8 Still called Tinna, in Picenum. Both synonymous with our Tyne, and with
another Italian Tinea, a tributary of the Var.

4 Cramer, Vol. i. p. 191, has the following observation :—* A short distance
from the lake Prilis brings us to the mouth of the Ombrone, anciently Umbro, one
of the most considerable rivers of Etruria. It is represented as navigable by Pliny,
and its name, as the same writer observes, is indicative of the Umbri having once
been in possession of Etruria.” The strength of the argument is doubled, by the
occurrence of a second Umbro in Etruria, not far from Arretium, called by Cramer,
Ambra, but written Umbro in the Peutingerian tables. The British Humber, or
Humyr, is evidently the same name, and equally conclusive of the presence of the
Umbri in Britain.

* Truentum, now called Tronto, isin Picenum. TheTraens, not far from Sybaris,
bears the modern name of Trionto. They are both evidently the same word ; the
first being the Latinized, and the other the Hellenized form. ‘Che Greeks seem,
as I shall have further occasion to remark, to have formed imaginary nominatives,
in order to reduce the Italian names to the analogy of their own declensions. The

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 523

The Traens.
1'The Liris.
The Farfarus.

To these leading streams many others might be added ; such as

The Suinus, the Cornish Heyne,

Himella, pronounced Hivella the Bedfordshire Ivel,

Misus, and

Misio, the Cumberland Mite, &c.
But these are enough to prove that the same people gave the
names to the Italian and British rivers. Even the name of the
Roman river itself was, in old times, pure Cumrian, Alb, a hill,
(e.g. Albyn, Scotland,) and ul, water, (see Owen’s Dict.) whence
the Latin, uligo, &c., so that the Alb-ul-a meant the mountain
stream, or the highland river. The more common name Thy-
bris, or Tybris (never Tiber), was, as we are informed by Varro,
in ancient times, written Thebris or Tebris; but the same learn-
ed author tells us in another place, that the Sabines called moun-
tains Tebze, or (with the hard breathing) Thebz. This, with the
Greek ;:., to flow, will again give us a literal translation of the
indigenous appellation.

Saxon name of the great river Trent was Tre-onta, as wellas Trenta; a form which
identifies the British with the two Italian streams, Tronto and Trionto. If these
be compared with the Alpine Druentia, and the British Derventio, the modern Der-
went, it will probably be inferred, that they were all originally the same word.

1 Probably the same as the Gallic Liger (now Loire), especially if it be com-
pared with the Saxon Leire (now Soar), the river of Leicester, originally Leger-
ceaster, or Ligora-ceaster.

2 Near Gabii, now Farfa, evidently the British Wharfe.

Varro, de Lingua Latina, liber V. cap. 6. ‘ Sed de Tiberis nomine anceps
historia, nam suum Etruria et Latium suum esse credit, quéd fuerunt qui ab Thebri
vicino regulo Veientum dixerunt appellatum Thebrim. Sunt qui Tiberim priscum
nomen Latinum Albulam vocitatum literis tradiderunt.” Compare the same author
de Re Rustica, Lib. iii. cap. 1. ‘‘ Lingua prisca et in Grecia Boleis Beeotii sine
afflatu vocant collis Tebas ; et in Sabinis, quo e Grecia venerunt Pelasgi, etiam nunc
ita dicunt.”

VOL, XIII. PART II. Sie

524 Rev. Mr Wituiams on one Source of the

Tue Movunrarins.—Should a list of Italian mountains be pla-
ced before a classical scholar, he will find no difficulty in recog-
nising many as referable to the Greek, and many more to the La-
tin language. To the Greek he would instantly refer

' Epopeus, Prospect-hill, mun,
* Gaurus, lofty, Teves, elatus.
* Pausilypus, — sorrow-ceasing, TOU AYTN.

*Physcus, &c. swelling bladder-like, guox.
To the Latin he would with no less confidence refer
° Algidus, Cold Hill.
* Argentarius, Silver Do.
7 Carbonarius, Charcoal Do.
* Gravis, Heavy Do.
* Suismontium, Boar Do.
" Tetricus, Craggy Do.
" Severus, &e. Hard Do.
and innumerable others.
But many names will still remain, to the meaning of which

' A high hill in Ischia so called, for the same reason as the Acro-Corinthus was
called exwxn. See Stephan. de Urbibus, under the word.

> The height above the Arvnian lake.

3 « It seems allowed that the Greek term Pausilypus was applied to the ridge
of hills which separates the Bay of Naples from that of Pozzuoli, probably on ac-
count of its delightful situation and aspect.”—Cramer’s Italy, page 173.

‘ A hill near the Neaethus.
5 In Latium.

6 In Etruria.

7 Near Marrubium.

& On the Via Sublacensis.

° In Liguria.

10 Among the Sabini not far from the source of the Nar, Tetricus and Severus are
supposed at present to be represented by the high peaks of the Sibilla, among the
PY Pp P ) gn p sg

= =

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 525

the mere classical scholar possesses no key. We, like the learn-
ed Varro, must say, “ of such words the etymology is most diffi-
cult, for, in general, they have nothing in common with the
Greek, and are vernacular terms, to the origin of which our re-
cords do not reach.” Had he always remembered this truth, he
would not have been guilty of such absurd mistakes as too often
are visible in his great work. In explaining the meaning of some
of the names of mountains in ancient Italy, it is not my inten-
tion to meddle with Alb, Tor, or any other such well known
roots. The names selected are the following :

[egos
'. Ap-Peninus.
Le-Pinus.
* Canterius.

loftiest in the Apennine ridge. The Poets are very fond of alluding to the mean-
ing of the name when they knew it. Hence

“ Nam que nivali pascitur algido.-—Hor. Od. lib. i. 21.

And,
“ Qui Tetrici horrentes rupes montemque Severum.”—Virg. Ain. vii. b. 714.

1 « Et locus difficillimus est cuz, quod neque his fere societas cum Greca lingua,
neque vernacula ea, quorum in partum memoria adfuerit nostra.”—1 ib. vi. de Lin.
Sat. cap. 5.

The name Apenninus may safely be merged in the Cumrian form Penninus,
an appellation by which both the god who was worshipped at the pass of the Great
St Bernard (Alpes Pennine), and the god whom the Umbrian shepherds adored in
the vicinity of Iguvium, was called. The spot is marked in the Peutingerian Ta-
bles as the temple of Jupiter Penninus. The Cumrian Pen is the English head
chief summit, and is still used as a common word. “ Penin” is the capital of a
pillar, and was doubtless applied to designate the highest peaks among the hills. I
am inclined to reckon Le-Pinus as another form, especially as the town Pinna, in
the high Apennines, is now called Penne.

2 Varro, in talking of Pecudes, writes (De Re Rust. lib. 2. cap. 1.), ‘‘ Annon

in mari terraque ab his regionum note? in mari, quod nominarunt a capris Ae-

3x2

526 Rev. Mr Wituiams on one Source of the

* Ciminus.
Si-Cimina.
> Cumerium Promontorium.

geum pelagus, ad Syriam montem Taurum, in Sabinis Canterium montem.” ‘ Have
not the characteristics of regions, both by sea and land, been derived from them?
was not the Aigean Sea derived from Asycs? the mountain near Syria from Taugos?
and that in the Sabini, from Cantherium, ‘ a beast of burden?” Now, if it can be
shown that the learned antiquary is wrong in the first, it may be inferred that he
may be also mistaken with respect to the last. Now from Asoow, “ I rush violently,
I spring,” came Az, “ a goat, a springing animal,” and wé, “ impetuosity.” From
this second AE came Avs, “ an impetuous squall of wind,” as may be seen in the
compound Kalas, thus defined by ARISTOTLE, “© Toy yewuny Brosay cvevwolluv nollosyic
peev cols orvevince covey rumloy eLoupyns.” Of the violent winds, the xoayis is “a blast that
suddenly strikes from above.” The Aigean is therefore not the Goat Sea, but the
Squally Sea, a name which, all who know it say, it well deserves. Hence also in Homer,
Aywyos, the epithet of Homfrr’s Jupiter, the Storm-restrainer, not the Goat-skin-
holder, as later commentators interpreted the word. Mount Taurus was not named
after “ the Bull,” but from Zor, one of the most universally diffused names for a
bold and aspiring peak. Canterius Mons, also, has nothing to do with a “ gelding,”
but was named, on the same principle as many other hills, from “ Can,” or Canus,
white, and Terra (originally Tera), land; or, in the Cumrian form, from the same
words, “ Cantir,” from “* Can,” white, and Tir, land.

1 Mons Ciminus was a long and lofty ridge in Etruria, the passage of which (at
least if we credit the annals of the Fabian family) formed an era in the history of
early Rome. I have already observed that the M of the Romans was more of a
vocal than consonantal letter. Hence, this same name of a hill, when applied to the
range of hills in the south-east of France, and written Kees by the Greeks, and
Cebenna by the Latins, still keeps its original sound in the French Cevennes.
But in the language of the modern Cumri (see OweEn’s Dict.), Cevyn (pronounced
Ceven, pl. Cevenau), is “ a ridge, as Cevyn o dir, a ridge of land, a long extended
mountain.” From the same root comes Ceba, now Ceva, a town and district of
Piedmont; the Cevin or Chevin Hills, in Yorkshire; and the Cheviot Hills, called
formerly Chevy, the well-known ridge between Scotland and England. To these
may be added the ancient Si-Cimino, a mountain of Liguria.

2 Cumerium Promontorium, now Monte Comero, a bold headland in Picenum,
still commemorating the possession of that district by the Cumri, under their true
name, and a record as lasting as the Mont-Gomeri, in France, and the Comri Isles,
in the Frith of Clyde, probably in all cases the last retreat of the bravest spirits of
a vanquished district.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 527

' Cunarus.

In entering upon the question of the names of places, it should
be remembered that many of the ancient names of towns, cities,
and fortresses, are merely the names of the people or tribes who
originally possessed them ; and that, first, the district, secondly,
the city, is nothing more than the appellation of the nation. In
the following remarks, I shall, however, as much as possible,
avoid words of this class, and confine the examination to such as
seem to have a local meaning, borrowed from some accident,
whether the work of man or of nature. Again, I have to re-
quest a fair hearing, and to beseech the classical scholar especial-
ly, for a short time to commit himself on subjects unknown to
him to my guidance, and to assure him, that I will not knowingly
abuse his confidence in the slightest degree. But as he, in read-
ing a list of the names of Italian cities, would, without scruple,
infer, without historical evidence, that by the Greeks were given
the following names :

Neapolis. Heraclea.

Dicaeopolis. Poseidonium.

Metapontum. Rhegium, &c. &c.
And by the Latins after the formation of their language, the fol-
lowing :

Concordia. Vicentia.
Consentia. Foro-Juliensis.
Valentia. Faventia, &c. &c.

1 Cunarus. This name is supposed to have been attached to the highest peak
of the Apennines, the modern Monte Corno, or il Gran Sasso d’Italia. And the
etymology strongly confirms the conclusions of comparative geographers, for Cun-
Ar means the chief hill. (See Owen’s Dictionary, under the words.) Cin, “a leader
or chief.” Ar-an, “a high place, alp. It is the name of several of the highest
mountains in Britain.” Ar itself is not used as a noun, but as the preposition
“above, upon,” is in constant use.

It would be easy to extend this examination with the same success to Garganus,
Gurgures, Gurgunium, Massicus, and many others. But, as I only wish to give a
specimen, the above may suffice.

528 Rev. Mr Wiu1ams on one Source of the

So ought he to allow me to select those names which are as plain
to me as the Latin and Greek are to him, and refer them to the
people by whom they were originally given. But it will be bet-
ter, in the first place, to give a list of those accidents, the work
either of man or of nature, from which Cumrian local names are
more commonly borrowed. These I copy alphabetically, and at-
tach to each word the corresponding definition from “ OwEn’s
Dictionary.”

Bala, “ an eruption, a discharge of a lake. Bala Lin, the out-
let of a lake. Hence it is the name of many places in Wales,
Ireland, and Scotland.”

Ban, “ prominence. It is the appellative of several moun-
tains, as Banucdeni, and Bannau (pronounced Bannae), the bea-
cons of Breconshire, and the highlands of Tal-y-van in Glamor-
ganshire.”

Ca, “ a keep or hold.”

Cae, “ an inclosure, a hedge, and metaphorically a field.”

Caer, “a wall or mound of defence; the walls of a city, a
castle or fortress. Caer-y-Vunwent, the churchyard wall.”

Cor, “ around or circle, a close.” Bangor, “ the principal row
or circle.” It was a name given to some of our most noted mo-
nasteries, one in Flintshire, one in Carnarvonshire, one in Ireland,
and another in Belleisle off the coast of Brittany.

Clas, “a space of ground inclosed, a region, a country, an
island, old name of Britain, Clas Merdin,” Bi Cuvranc.

“ Cuvrwng gliw Powis, a clas Gwined.”

“ There was contention between the chief of Powys and
the region of Gwined.”

Din, “ a fortified hill or mount, a camp or fort. It forms the
names of a great number of places in those countries which were
inhabited by the Cumri. Hence the Dunum, Dinum, Dinium
of the Romans.”

Din-as, “ a fortress or fortified town, a city.” It forms the
names of several places in Wales, as Brin-dinas, &c.

_ el

Non- Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 529

Gwl, “a cultivated country. The Cymry appropriated this
name to regions that were cultivated, and had a fixed residency,
opposed to the wilds, or unsettled residences.”

Gwely, “ a bed or couch, also a family or tribe, a family dis-
trict.”

Gwent, “ a fair or open region, a champaign. It is a name
now confined to nearly all Monmouthshire, but which anciently
comprehended parts of the counties of Gloucester aud Hereford,
being the district of which Caer-went, or the ‘ Venta Silurum’
was the capital.”

Gwern, “ a swamp, a bog, a meadow, also alder trees.” He
might have added that it was a generic name for trees, e. g.
Gwernen, a mast of a tree.

Gweridre, “ Cultivated land, an inhabited region, a country ;”
apparently from Gwerin “ people,” tre “ habitation.”

Gwys, Gwés, “ a people, a peopled region, a country.”

Ty, “ a house.”

Trev, “a dwelling-place, a hamlet, a township, a town. It
forms the name of many places, as Trev-Ithel “ Ithelham,” Tre-
va “ Hamburgh.” ‘Treva g tulwith Tég, a fairy circle; Treva
o id, a thrave of corn.”

First, Under Ca or Cae, we find, among others, the follow-
ing :—

, §Ca-latia campana.
Ca-latia samnis.
Ca-letra, in Etruria.
> Ca-Mars or Clusium, in Etruria.

1 A comparison of these two names with Col-Latium, Pa-Latium, &c. will shew
that Ca is a separable prefix. Compare also the rare coin, published by Sxsrin1,
and bearing the inscription PALACIVM, ascribed to the Sabine Palantium, from
which, according to Varro (Ling. Lat. IV.) the Palatine hill derived its name.

2 For the same reason compare Mars Martis, the God, and the river Marta in

Etruria ; also Ma-mertium.

530 Rev. Mr Wixturams on one Source of the

1 Ca-Mere, near the Crathis, a field.
? Ca-Meria, in Latium.
s Ca-Merinum, in Umbria.
Ca-merte, in Umbria.
* Ca-Silum.
* Ca-Silinum.
Under Caer, or Car, pl. Ceirze, written Caerau, we find—
° Cere.
Car-eia, on the Via Clodia, in Etruria.
Car-rea, near Turin on the Po; still called Chien.
Car-sula, in Umbria, ) Both towns are now called
Car-seoli, in the Sabini, § Carsoli.
Car-istum, in Liguria ; now Carosio.
Car-mcianus Ager, in Apulia; naturally supposed to imply
a Carmeia.
Car-Minianum, in Apulia; still called Car-miano.
Car-bina, in Apulia ; now Carovigno
Car-aceni, a division of the Samnites.
Cere-atez, in Latium.
Cer-fennia, in the Sabini.
® A-cerre, in Campania ; still so called.
Lu-ceria, in Apulia ; still called Lucera.
7 Nu-ceria Alfaterna, in Campania ; still Nocera.

ie her Bo ee

' Purus ager, Ca-meren incola turba vocat.—Ov. Fast. 581.

* Compare A-meria in Umbria.

5 Compare Merinum, near Mons Garganus, in Apulia.

* Compare with the English Sil-Chester, Caer-silin, Silinnz isles, Carsula, an
island of the western coast of Britain, mentioned by the geographer of Ravenna,

5 Called by the Greeks Agylla. Caeré is to this day a common name in Wales.

® Another Acerrz in Cisalpine Gaui is now called Gherra.

7 Nu-ceria means New town; an old town in Welsh would be Hengaer, from
hén, sen-ex. Nola, in an inscription given by Lanzi, was Nu-flan, where the F sup-
plies the place of the aspirated 1, New-Lan, or in modern Welsh, Llan-Newyd. Thus
also Latius ager is in an inscription ager Tlatie on the same principle.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 531

Nu-ceria Camellana, also Nocera, in Umbria.
Nu-ceria Cisalpina, on the right bank of the lower Po.
Nu-Cria, also Nocera, a supposed town of the Brutii.
Many more might be added without adding, however, to the
strength of the induction, although I may have to add others
under some other heading. It is to be remarked that the Greek
legends on certain coins give us Novzgiay ; and an Oscan inscrip-
‘tion, quoted by Lawzr,' has the word Nue-krinim. Apparently
Nu is the same word as the Latin Nov-us, Cumrian New-id, or
English new.
Under Cor we have the following names :—
Cora, in Latium ; still Cora.
Corbio, also in Latium.
Corfinium, capital of the Peligni.
Cor-ioli, in Latium.
2 Cormones, still Cormons, in Venetia.
° Cor-sula, in the Sabini.
Cures, now Correse, also in the Sabini.
Curia, in Cisalpine Gaul, now Coire.

‘If we compare these with the Coria Ottadinorum in North Bri-
tain, with Corinium in South Britain, with the Bangor of the
Cumri, it will be difficult to escape the conviction that they all
represent the same original word.

Under Clas we have one :—
Clas-tidium on the Po,
which, compared with At-tidium, proves that both Clas and At
were separable prefixes.

Under Din we have—

1 Vol. i. p. 209.

* Gle-Mona in the same vicinity proves that Cor-Mones is made up of Cor and
Mona.

5 Compare this word with Car-sula, and Carseoli, and Ca-silum, and with Sul-
Mo6n-e

VOL. XIII. PART II. 3 y

532 Rev. Mr Wit.iams on one Source of the

Vin-Dinum in Umbria.
Ve-Dinum in Venetia; now Udine.
And with the D hardened, as in the British Tin-tagel—
An-tinum among the Marsi.
A-tina of the Lucanians ; now Atena.
A-tina of the Volscians ; now Atino.
Al-tinum in Venetia ; still Altino. !
Re-tina in Campania.
Ma-tinum, which gave its name to the mountain.
Ses-tinum in Umbria ; now Ses-tino.

Gwal and Gwely.

But here I must remark, that the Cumri prefix the letter G
to all the radical words which in Latin commence with V, on the
same principle which induces the French to write Wa rer
Guattier. That this was the original pronunciation, in Italy
also, of Latin words commencing with V, is clear from the resus-
citation of the pronunciation in such words as the following :—

Guado, A ford, Vadum.

Guagina, or , }

G eon i A sheath, Vagina, Cum, Gwain.
uaina

Guastare, To waste, Vastare.

This was the true digamma, which has so much puzzled scho-
lars, merely classical. The more refined age of Greece abolished
almost all the hard guttural and labial breathings, and wrote :

0105, Vinum, Gwin, Wine.
exveos, Socer, Chwegir.

In the simple expression, “ Woe’s me,” we have in the difter-
ent languages a complete scale of the original form and subse-
quent disappearance of this digamma.

Cumrian, Gwai Vi.
Latin, Vae-mihi.
Greek, Ob-fhok.

Hellenistic form, ova'-po.
Nor is it less instructive to see it reappear in its original

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 533

shape in the the modern Italian, the language of the common
people :—
Italian, Guai a me.

With this observation, and the remark that gwal means /ovw also,
I refer to it and gwely the following words :—

Val-lia, in Etruria, a river.

Vel-eia, near Placentia.

Vel-itre in Latium ; now Velletri.

Fel-sina, afterwards Bononia ; now Bologna.

Vola-Terra, now Volterra, in Etruria.

Vul-sinii, or Volsinii, in Etruria ; now Bolsena.

Fala-crinz in the Sabini.

Fal-erii in Picenum ; now Faleroni.

Fal-isci, the people of Falerii.

Fal-ernus ager, in Campania.

Fel-tria in Venetia; now Feltri.

Fal-erii in Etruria; now Falari.

It may excite some surprise to see Vola-terra and Vol-sinii in
this list ; but on comparing Vol-sinii and Fel-sina with Vel-athri,
the coin-name of Vola-terra, it will be immediately seen that
Vel, or in a harsher form Fel, is the root of all the prefixes.
Should it be asked what sina is, it may be suggested that it is
probably a portion of Ra-sena, the name of the Tuscans’ retained
pure in Sena in Etruria, and in Sena on the Adriatic ; not called
after the Senones. The same word is visible in Por-sena, which,
in the Cumrian language, means, Por, the Lord, of Sena or the
Sena.

“ Gwent” appears to be a favourite name among the Cum-
rian tribes, and its appearance either in its simple or compound

1 One paper has been already read by me on the Tuscan language, but will not
be published till the second is finished. It certainly is not Greek, and the Cumrian
words in it are not numerous, not more, indeed, than a dominant tribe might be
supposed to have borrowed from their vanquished subjects.

3y2

534 Rey. Mr Wrtutams on one Source of the

form, may be regarded as a certain proof of the presence of the
race. In ancient Britain, we had Venta Belgarum, Winchester,
Venta Silurum Caerwent, Venta Icenorum Caister, near Nor-
wich. In Italy we have—

Arx ' Car-ventana, in Latium ;
> Tre-vent-um, now Trivento, in Samnium ;
* Bene-vent-um ;
Cas-ventum, in Umbria ;
Vi-ventum, in Umbria ;
Ver-entum, in Etruria, now Varentano ,
Vis-entium, do. do. Bisentino.

This list might be increased indefinitely, but it will not be amiss
to add—

No-mentum an ancient city of Latium,
and to compare it with Nu-mantia,’ the Novant ez, and Tri-noban-
tes, of Britain: Asa prefix, it appears without the T, in the names

' Supposed to have been situated on one of the summits of Algidus. The ad-
jective Carventana, necessarily implies the existence at some period of a Caer-went,
or Car-venta, in the vicinity.

2 On coins this name, in Oscan characters, is Trebint-im ; similar names, both
in Wales and Cornwall, will occur to persons acquainted with the locality.

5] place Bene-vent-um under this head without scruple, without paying defe-
rence to the story mentioned by Livy, Priny, and Festus, that before it became a
Roman colony it was called Male-vent-um ; because we have coins of this city bear-
ing the Oscan inscription “ BENEVENTOD,” a proof that such was its name be-
fore it received a colony from Rome, and because there was another Bene-ventum
between Brixa and Verona, in Cisalpine Gaul, and Bennaventa* in Britain. I may
also add, that I look upon such words as Tarentum, &c. as pure Italian, and that
it was the Greeks who formed imaginary nominatives, like Taras, &c. to suit their
swn fables. Pavsanras informs us that Tarentum was “ a very considerable and
opulent town before the arrival of Paatantuus and his Spartans.”

* The Celtiberi were undoubtedly Cumri; Droporus Srcuxus even calls them
by the name, ray 62 xiB2wy of Aovoilovo, &e.; but I have nothing to do with Spain at
present.

= Now Daventry.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 535

of places commencing with the separable word Ven—Venusia and
Venusini, for example. It is to be observed, that the men of
Gwent are called Cumraicé Gwenhwyson, which a Roman would.
write Venusones, or perhaps Venusini.

' Caradawg o Went ai Wenhwyson ;

“ Caradog of Gwent and his Venusini.”

Gwern, a swamp or wood, is one of the commonest sources
of Cumrian names—Penwern Tynwern, Werndii, &c. It seems
to have been no less in use in ancient Italy ; witness

Amit-ern-um, an ancient Sabine town ;
At-ern-um, in Picenum, on the Aternus ;
Av-ern-us, the lake. Aw, water; Gwern, wood ;
Clat-ern-a, near Bononia ;

* Cli-ternum, in the Sabine territory ;
Clit-ernia, in Apulia ;
Lit-ernum, in Campania ;
Leut-erni, in Apulia ;

and many others. 'To the same source should be referred

* Pri-vernum, in Latium, now Piperno ;
Cla-vernia, in Umbria, now Chiaserna ;
Pri-fernum, in the Sabine territory ;
Ti-fernum, in Umbria, on the Metaurus ;
Ti-fernum, in Umbria, on the Tiber ;
Ti-fernum, in Samnium ;
Ti-fernus, the adjacent river, now Biferno ;
Ti-fernus, the adjacent mountain.

Gwery-dre. The root appears to be Gwyr Viri, warriors,

1 See OwEn’s Dict. under Gwenhwyson.

2 It is curious that the hundreds so well known under the name of Chiltern,
were in the Saxon period written “ Clitern.” The word is “ Clid-wern,” warm-
wood.

5 From these examples we see that the Cumrian Gw, of the radical word Gwern,
became V, as in Privernum, F, as in Prifernum, or totally disappeared, as in Ater-
num. Priv-wern means primitive or chief wood, Ti-fernum T¥-wern, wood house.

536 Rev. Mr Wriut1ams on one Source of the

written Gwer also, as in Gwersyll, a camp, Gwer, warriors, Syll,
a seat or sella. Under this head we have the places often called
after the people ; such are
' Ver-ona, on the Athesis ;
> Ver-entum, before mentioned under Gwent ;
* Ver-cellz, now Vercelli, in Gallia Transpadana ;
* Ver-tine, among the Brutii, now Verzine ;
> Ver-ulz, in Latium, now Veroli.
And with F instead of V,—
Fer-entinum, in Etruria ;
Fer-entinum, in Latium.
Gwys or Gwés. Apparently a fertile source of names, hence,
Ves-bula, in the Sabine country ;
Ves-cia, in Latium ;
Ves-cellium, in Samnium ;
Ves-eris, in Campania, a town or river ;
Ves-idia, a small river in Etruria ;
Ves-ionica, in Umbria ;
° Ves-tini, the well-known people ;
7 Ves-ul-us, the Alpine hill Monte Viso.
And with F instead of V,—
® Fes-cennium ;
Fes-ule, in Etruria.
Ty, or Ti, or Te. Under this head we find,—
Te-anum, in Apulia ;
* Te-anum, in Campania, now ‘Teano ;

‘ Avon or Awn, a river. ° Gwent, Gwyr Gwent.

3 Gelli, Groves, Welsh name of the “* Hay,” the town.

4 Ul, water. Compare this Ver with Vero-lamium, Vero-metz, &e. in Britain.
° Din the Town.

5 Compare the Welsh Vale, Festini-og in north Wales.

7 The district of water.

* Cennium, Cevene, ridges, range of hills.

? There still remain many coins of this town bearing the epigraph TIANO.

fs

ere

a

re

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 537

| Te-ate, in the Sabine district, now Chieti ;
* Ti-cinum ;

Ti-fernum, three as before described ;

* Ti-ora Matiena, in the Sabine Hills, near the source of
the Velinus.

It would appear that this prefix was once Tegi or Tig (cog-
nate with Teyos and Tectum) from combining the following with
the above :-—

Tegi-anum in Lucania, on the Tanager, which now, along
with its valley, is called Diano, an evident cor-
ruption of Tegianum, and closely allied to the
Tiano of the coins.

Tig-ulia in Liguria, now Tre-gosa, a word in which Tre-
has usurped the place of its synonym Tig or Ty,
and gwys that of ul.

Trev and Treva, pronounced Tre, plur. Trevi, under this com-
mon prefix of the Cumri, we have

Treva in the Sabini, now Trevi;
Trevia in Umbria, now Trevi;
Treia in Picenum ;

' Tre-bula, Balinea, in Campania ;
Tre-bula, Mutusca in the Sabini ;

' This word, compared with Re-ate, shows that the Te was a separable prefix ;
and the several coins bearing the inscription TIA, proves that its primitive form
was Ti. ;

* Now Pavia, probably gave its name to the Ticinus river, the Tessino.

5 The meaning of 'Ti-ora, “* Ty. oera,” is “ coldest house,” a fit name for its si-

tuation.

* These names, compared with Ves-bula, will shew that Tre is a separable pre-
fix, and if Lanzr (page 508, vol. ii.), is right in affirming, on the faith of inscrip-
tions, that the citizens of this town were called TREBALAces, as the Brutii are
called by Enntus Brutaces, it will necessarily follow that the name of the city was
originally Tre-bala (see Bala in the list of roots), The epithet Balinea, is confir-
mative of this explanation. ;

538 Rev. Mr Wituiams on one Source of the

Tre-bula, Suffenas in the Sabini;
Tre-ventum, before mentioned.
To these may be added,
Tar-visum in Venetia, now Tre-viso ;
' Ter-geste in Venetia, now Trieste ;
Ter-ioli in Rheetia, now the Tyrol.
This induction might have been increased, by examining the
names in which the following words are component parts :—
Man, a place ;
Ban, a hill ;
Gwy, water ;
Glan, the brink, or side of a river, lake, &c. ;
Bre, or Bryn, or Bren, a bre’, or brow of a hill, and others.
But sufficient, I suppose, has been adduced to shew that the Cum-
rian language is the only key to a right understanding of local
names in Italy, and to induce the learned reader to allow, that
the same tongue which entered so deeply into the composition
of the names of places, rivers, and mountains, might also have
left strong proofs of its existence in the more artificial language
which sprung up when the civilization of Magna Grecia and
Etruria sunk before the energy and hardihood of the mountain
tribes; and the victors of Septimontium, as they advanced in power
and a knowledge of the arts and sciences, had to extend their
vernacular vocabulary.

But before I enter upon an examination of this proof, it will
be right to declare, that the Gael as well as the Cumro can claim
in common some of the words which have been placed before
the reader, and more to which his claim appears exclusive.
But this, if granted, does not affect the value of the principle. Let
the Gael and the Cumro decide on their respective rights. It is
something gained to have expelled the encroaching Teutons. The

i Este is a common root in the names of places. See At-Este, Praen-Este,
Greek, ac.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 539

field of conflict is thus narrowed, and the dispute will be the
sooner decided in proportion to the closeness of the lists. If
there be any stout-hearted Teuton, who will persist in still claim-
ing these nations as of his immediate race, let him go over the
ground over which I have travelled, and select the Bergs, the
Hams, the Forts, the Bachs, the Dens, which must be still found
there, if those hills were peopled by his race. Tor, Wick, and
even Briga, are common to both races, and would, if brought
forward, prove nothing. One thiug, also, he must not do; he
must not bring names from Bohemia, nor from the right bank of
the Danube, as far as Illyricum, nor from modern Hungary, nor
from the vicinity of the Cimbric Chersonese, as all these coun-
tries were once held by people of the Cumrian race.

If then the Cumri and the Umbri were the same people, it
may be asked, what became of the letter C in the name of the
latter ? I cannot tell; but I know that the initial x or y was very
loose not only in the Greek, where we have Tai:a and cc for the
earth zo, and i» for going, ziyeve and izaw for venio and inve-
nio, caevdw and xedevdos for go and gait; but also among the La-
tins, where we have cocles and ocles (see Varo under the word)
for a one-eyed man, and Caulon and Aulon, significant of the same
thing in Magna Grecia. Among the Cumri the guttural is still
looser, as they drop it to express a difference even of gender, as
goleu, light, ei oleu, his ight. But the Latins probably dropped
it, because the Greeks of the historical era wrote ouBeio. and op-
(20, whence fashion prevailed, and the word became disguised.
In older times, the Greeks themselves wrote it xipwegio, as we
find in the Odyssey. The mythos, by which the author of that
poem places them in utter darkness, only tells us that they were
placed in what was to him the extreme west. For as the east,
eveos, was the house of light ews, so ZeQugo, the west, was the house
of misty darkness (ZoQos zegoeis). Eruorus, therefore, following

' Quoted by Srrazo. Lib. v. page 244.
VOL. XIII. PART II. 3 Z

540 Rev. Mr Wixuiams on one Source of the

the older commentators, and the tradition of the inhabitants.
places the Cimmerians near the Lake Avernus; others placed.
them a day’s sail to the west of Circeii, in the very country which
the Umbri of history are said to have occupied.

But in addition to the retention of the C in this ancient Cum-
erium promontorium, the modern Monte Comaro, there still re-
mains a convincing proof that the C was attached to the name
even within the year 585 a. c. There isin the Capitoline marbles
the following notice: “Quintus Aufidius, Banker, at the sign of
the Cimbric shield, absconded as he was deep in debt.” Now as
this authentic record, more authentic as many believe than
manuscripts, mentions a Cimbric shield sixty-seven years before
the well-known invasion of the Cimbri and Teutones, the shield
must have been named after some Cimbri other than those of
Jutland, whose name the Romans never heard, before their pas-
sage of the Rhine, and their devastations in Gaul and Spain.
“ The arms of the Cimbri were first heard of in the 640th year
of our city,” writes Tacitus.’ This Cimbricum scutum could
not therefore have derived its name from them. Probably it drew
its origin from some Cumrian tribe, among the Gallic invaders
of Italy, if not from the Umbrians themselves. I have omitted
many coincidences of note between the ancient names of places
in Italy and in Britain, but I find it impossible to omit the fol-
lowing—

* Mevania, in Umbria, Mevania, Anglesea.

! The whole of the inscription applicable to the case is the following :—

“Quintus. Aufidius. Mensarius. Taberne. Argentariz. Ad. scutum. Cimbri-
cum. Cum. Magna. Vi. Airis. Cessit. Foro. retractus. ex. itinere. causam. dixit.”
I owe this quotation to Turrrey’s history of the Gauls, vol. i. page 46.

? Taciti Germ.

Sexcentessimum et quadragessimum annum urbs nostra agebat quum pri-
mum Cimbrorum arma audita sunt.

4 Mevania, a city in a plain (“ Projecta in campis,” or, as Lucan describes it,

** ubi se Mevania campis explicat,”) watered by the sacred river Clitumnus. Now,

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 541

' Spina, on the Adriatic, Spin, in Berkshire.
> Ceneta in Venetia, Cunetio, in Wiltshire.
* The Morgetes, Morgant, Morgan-wg Gla-Morgan.

Having thus, as I hope, proved the close connexion between
the Italian tribes of Umbrian race and origin with our own Cum-
ri, it remains that I should conclude with shewing from the still
existing language of the latter that the ancient Umbrian entered
into the composition of the former.

And first, let me premise that (as it has been lately shewn, and
is now acknowledged by all linguists) two languages may have a
common vocabulary but different grammars. The Latin lan-
guage, whether from Pelasgic or Achzan influence, adopted at an
early period the Hellenic grammar, and under the skilful hands
of the bilingual Ennivus, became that polished interpreter of
thought, which yields in regularity and majesty to the Greek
alone. The Cumri either retained, which is more probable, a

Mai, Cumricé, is a plain, and Man (in composition Van), a place, hence Meivan
or Maivan, means “ a city of the plain.” It is from the Saxons that we learn that
Anglesea also bore this name; they called it Mon-ege, i. e. “ Mona isle,” or Man.
Cyn, 7. e, “ Chief spot,” from its holiness, and, as it appears, Meivan or Mevania,
from its champaign character.

* Spina, supposed to have been a Pelasgic city, was placed at the south-eastern
mouth of the Po. Spina on the river Kennett, is still called Speen. As the Pe-
lasgi gave the name to the one city, it might be inferred that they gave it also to
the other; but it is far more probable that the same primitive race which named
Spina before the visit of the Pelasgi, gave the same name to the British city.

* These two words, together with the name of the river Cunetio, may serve to
fix the original position of the Cunetes of Hrroporus (iv. cap. 49.), “* the Danube
flows through all Europe, beginning from the Celta, who, after the Cunetes, are
the most western inhabitants of Europe.”

° These Morgetes, called also Morgentes, as may be inferred from their city,
Mogyevliov, at the mouth of the Symaithus, in Sicily, were one of the earliest Italian
tribes, so denominated apparently from their position on the sea coast. Mor, sea,
Gant, brink or side, compare Morgan-wg, in South Wales, Vor-ganium or Morganium
in Aremorica. The Samnite Murgantia was, according to the coins, Murtantia.

322

542 Rev. Mr Wrvuiams on one Source of the

still more ancient, or invented a grammar, now peculiar to them-
selves. This, although it be simple and scientific in the highest
degree, is so completely at variance with all the other grammars
of the civilized world that scholars who have to acquire it late in
life feel the strongest repugnance to its forms and principles, and.
are tempted to regard a language more fixed and unchangeable
in its principles than any other existing, as more slippery and
grasp-escaping than the Proteus of the Grecian mythologists.

To persons who have formed their conception of verbal roots
from the unvarying character of those important elements in the
Greek, Latin, and modern languages, it appears strange that these
radicals themselves should be continually shifting in form. Let
such, however, be assurred that the system is as fixed and regu-
lar as that which from

roma derives rufa reru—a rerupos, eruQdny rvPOnoowas.
Now, although the grammars of the Latin and Cumrian lan-

' Take, for example, the following examples :—

Pen, a head.—Plur. Pennae. Tréd, a foot.—Plur. Traed.
Ei-Ben, his head. Ei-Drdd, his foot.
Ei-Phen, her head. Ei-Thréd, her foot.
Fy-Mhen, my head. Fy-Nhrod, my foot.

Gavel, a hold.—Plur. Gaveilae. Cam, a step.—Cammae, steps.
Ei-Avel, his hold. Ei-Gam, his step.
Ei-Gavel, her hold. Ei-Cham, her step.
Fg-Nghavel, my hold. Fy-Ngham, my step.

Bwyd, food. Carii, to love.
Ei-Fwyd, his food. Ei-Garii, to love him.
Ei-Bwyd, her food. Ei-Charii, to love her.
Fy-Mwyd, my food. Im-Carii, to love me.

These and such changes never for a moment cause a scholar to confound two radi-
cals, which change only on certain conditions and fixed principles. But when a
language formed on such a principle breaks up, and a new one is reconstructed from
its fragments, and perhaps that of others, we may expect to see such grammatical
forms figuring in the new language as independent radicals; thus, under one of the
above described forms, we have three English words :—
Bwyd, bait, either for a fish or horse.
Ei-Fwyd, his food.
Fy-Mwyd, my meat.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 543

guages thus entirely disagree, there is a wonderful similarity in
their vocabulary, a similarity by no means to be accounted for by
a supposed common descent from a Caucasian race, but approach-
ing far nearer than the old Teutonic, or as it is called Moeso-Go-
thic tongue does to the Homeric language. “ Grratpus Cam-
BREuUSIS, both a Cumrian and classical scholar, remarked this
similarity nearly 600 years ago.” It is to be remarked that almost
all the words of the British tongue agree either with the Greek or
Latin. It is this strong similarity of features between their own
language and those of Greece and Italy that has induced so many
of my countrymen to claim for it the honour of being the mo-
ther-tongue of all, and to scorn all examination which did not
commence with this confession. Even the late learned Dr Owen
Puen has in his dictionary, by arbitrarily, selecting certain syl-
lables as the roots of all Cumrian words done much to foster this
overweening conceit. The system was carried to its extreme
point of absurdity by the Rev. Epwarp Daviess, who, by the
help of such syllables, expected to unravel the mysteries of all lan-
guages. This failure has, I hope, paved the way for the more
sober consideration of the question, which if worked out fairly
will, in my opinion, establish the claim of the Cumrian tongue,
if not to be the mother of all tongues, at least to be a valu-
able branch of the Caucasian tree of languages. Now, had the
two races, the Roman and Cumrian, remained always separate,
a comparative etymology would have been an easy task, for
no more would be necessary than to put the similar roots,
having the same meaning, side by side. But unfortunately
for the scholar who undertakes to prove the question, the
Romans were in this island 400 years, colonized it partly, and
partly gave it their own form of civilization. As before mention-
ed, the inhabitants adopted with avidity the Roman dress, lan-
guage, and literature. That language, must, therefore, be sup-

1 Notandum etiam, quod verba lingua: Brittanicae omnia fere vel graeco conve-
niunt vel Latino.” Cambriz Descriptio.

544 Rev. Mr Witu1ams on one Source of the

posed to have entered deeply into the composition of the present
Cumrian tongue. The sceptical examiner may, therefore, rea-
sonably object that any similarity between the two languages
might have originated in the adoption of that of Rome by the
British proyincials.' In answer to this I refer, in the first place,
to Luoyp’s reasoning, quoted in the note. In the second place,
to the fact, that Wales and Cornwall do not appear to have been
occupied like the rest of England by the Romans? The main
roads of the Antonine itinerary do not pass to the westward of a
line drawn from Eggerton (Muridunum) to Abergavenny (Goban-
nium) thence from a spot near Draiton (perhaps Mediolanium)
to Chester (Deva). The main road connecting Isca Silurum (Ca-
erleon on Usk), the station of the legion 2nda Augusta, with

! Humrnrey Lawyp (Hompnrey Luoyp), to whom the original inhabitants of
Great Britain, Ireland, and France, owe so much, states the question as plainly as
the prejudices of the day would allow him. ‘* Additions to Merionethshire in
Campen.” ‘It seems to me the word Torques was Celtic before it was Roman.
For although I acknowledge it to be derived from Torqueo, yet we also have the
verb Torchi in the same sense ; and seeing that both the British words Torch and
Torchi are in all appearance derived from the common word Troi, 2. ¢. to turn ; and
also that grammarians know not well whence to derive Torqueo, I know not but
we may find the origin of it in the British Torch. Nor ought any one to think it
absurd that I thus endeavour to derive Latin words from the Welsh, for there are
hundreds of words in that language that agree in sound and signification with
the Latin, which yet could not be borrowed from the Romans, because the Irish
retain the same, who must have been a colony of the Britons long before the
Roman conquest ; and also that the Welsh or British is one dialect of the old
Celtic, whence, as the best critics allow, the Roman tongue borrowed several words,
and I presume, by the help of the Irish, which was never altered by a Roman con-
quest, it might be traced much farther. For instance, we must acknowledge these
British words, Tir, Awyr, Mér, Avon, &c. to have one common origin with those
of the same signification in the Latin, Terra, Aer, Mare, Amnis; but seeing the
Irish also have them, it is evident they were not left here by the Romans, and I
think it no absurdity to suppose them used in these islands before Rome was built.”

2 With the exception of the road along the sea-shore from Chester to Carnarvon,
which appears to have been merely the road to Ireland.

PO a Ee ee

TR

>
"

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 545

Deva (Chester), the station of the twentieth legion, would to this
day almost serve as a boundary between the English and Welsh
counties. Add to this, that the inscriptions of Roman workman-
ship to the west of this line are too trifling to allow us to suppose
that any long occupation of the country could have taken place.
Were it otherwise it would be difficult to account for the station-
ary position of two out of the three legions by which Britain was
garrisoned, the one at Caerleon, the other at Chester. The Ro-
man legions in the provinces, liable to hostile attacks, had their
head-quarters almost invariably on the frontiers. It is, therefore,
almost impossible to account for the selection of two such points
as these, without the supposition that the legions were placed
there to guard against the attacks of a race which, if vanquished,
was nevertheless unbroken in spirit. Even the very grammar of
the language and the traditions of better times long anterior to
the Roman invasion, are proofs that as far as the western portions
of Great Britain are concerned, the amalgamation with Rome was
never completed. Still, however, the long residence of the Ro-
mans in the island, with the known influence always produced by
such a state of things, renders every statement grounded on the
similarity alone of the languages of the two races, the conquered
and the conquerors, liable to suspicion. I have, therefore, been
compelled to enter upon an exceedingly difficult investigation,
which, if successful, must prove the radical identity of the Latin
and Cumrian tongues. The proof is this—

If there are derivative words in the Latin, of which we must
seek the primitives in the Cumrian, and if these primitives be
shewn to furnish an explanation of many words before inexpli-
cable on etymological principles. For example, if the verb “ to
tread,” under various forms, be found with the meaning, “to
trample with the feet,” in most of the western languages of Eu-
rope, and have no noun to base itself upon in these languages,
and yet the noun, “ traed the feet” be found in one of them, the
inference is irresistible that the verb in all its forms was derived

546 Rev. Mr Witurams on one Source of the

from this root. To deny this would be equivalent to a denial that
the Latin verb, calcare, came from calx the heel. In the following
list such words alone, with a few exceptions, for the sake of ety-
mological illustration, have been introduced. It might have been
indefinitely extended, but the difficulty was to confine the ex-
amples within moderate limits.

Am, around; Am-Terminum,! quoted by Macrostus from Caro’s Origines. It is
needless to quote the various opinions of the learned upon the subject. In
Owen’s Dictionary under the word we find: “* Am, prep. round, about. In
composition it answers to circum, as ‘ amgylchii, to circumscribe.” “ Am y
tan, round the fire.” Hence

Amo, I go round—I embrace—I love. Amplector, I clasp in my embrace, has the
same meaning. Crcrro, Fam. Ep. Lib. vi. Ep. 6. ‘“ Me amicissime quotidie
magis Cxsar amplectitur ;” 2. e. adds Forcrriint, Amat. So, Satz, Bell. Jug.
cap. 7: “ Aliquem in amicis habere magis magisque indies amplecti.” Thus,
«© Amplexor, (Cicer. ad Quint. Frat. Lib. ii. Ep. 12.) Appius me totum amplex-
atur,” h. e. Valde Amat. The Greek Ayan, has the same meaning.

2 Am-rrvo, to turn round ; compounded of Am, and Troi, to turn. “ Amdroi (vid.
Ow. Dict.), to revolve, to circulate.”

Axia, contracted; Ala, a wing; eg, membrum illud quo aves volant ; me-
taphorically, an armpit. Now Asgel (by a common change Ag-sel), plur. Esgyl,
is a wing (vid. Ow. Dict.), of which the Cornish form was Esel, plur. Esili.
But Asg, the root, signifies separation, a splinter ; the same idea which guided
man in naming limbs, jg, Brachia, &c.

Asruta—As-del (yulgo Astel, plur. Estyl), a plank ; compounded of As, a plain
or flat, and Del, separation ; verb Delti, to split. The English word Deal is cog-
nate in origin and meaning. Without any collusion or suspicion of any such oc-
currence, Barker’s Forcexiint, has under Astula, “ a board, lath, shingle ;”
and Ow. Dict. under Asdel, “ a board, plank, shingle.”

1 “ Quidam putant, antiquitus fuisse separabilem afferuntque illud fragmentum.”—Caron. in ori-
ginibus apud Macrosium, Lib. i. satur. cap. 14. Am-Terminum, Circa-Terminum, super quo tamen
miras eruditi lites excitarunt.—ForcEtt. in loco. Hence we have a preposition in common use
among the Cumri, which nevertheless had ceased to be so used in Rome long before the Romans in-
vaded Britain.

2 An ancient word, which, like most other expressions which they did not understand, has been
especially maltreated by commentators. I add ForcE.uin1’s account of it: “ Am truo vel Amptruo,
to turn round in the dance. Antiquum verbum ab Am, circum, et trua, qu est instrumentum ad
movendum vel agitandum. Significat motus et saltus quos edebant Salii sacerdotes in suis sacris. Ho-
rum enim qui primus erat, amtruare dicebatur, et qui post eum moyebantur et saltitabant, invicem
motus reddentes, redamtruare.” Cels. apud Festum, Redamptruare. Something analogical to the
Strophe and Antistrophe of the Greek Chorus.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 547

Avipus and Aveo, root Aw. Thus described in OwEn’s Dict.: ‘ Aw, a fluid,
also a flowing. From this expressive root are derived all words that imply flui-
dity, or the motion or action of fluids, and also immaterial qualities, as the im-
pulse or emotion of the will, mind, or soul.” Hence Awid, “ an ardent desire,
eagerness, greediness,” the undoubted source of the Latin “ avidus.”

Avurum, Cum. Aur (also Air and Oir), root Air, brightness; which also produced the
Latin Aura, a gleam, confounded with the Greek word Avga, a breeze. Vinci,
who undoubtedly was acquainted with one form of the language called Celtic,
thus plays upon the source of the meaning of both words:

1 Discolor unde auri per Ramos aura refulsit.”
Hence also—

Avrora, Cum. Gwawr, a compound of Aura, brightness, and hora, the hour or time
of splendour—* the golden dawn.”

Barsa, a beard; Cum, Barv, Arm. Baro, the same. Root, “‘ Bar” (see Ow. Dict.)
an excrescence, a bunch or tuft.”

BENNA, a carriage, a van. Festus under the word writes: “* Lingua Gallica, genus
Vehiculi unde vocantur combennones in e4dem benna sedentes.” Cum. Ben, “ a
wain or cart ;” and Menwr, Men, “ a cart ;” Gwr, “‘ aman, a carter.” Hence the
prolific term, Menare in Italian, and Mener in French, to lead or manage matters.
From Benna came also the British or Belgic Covinus or Covinnus. ‘“ Genus
Carri, quo in bello utebantur Britanni et Belge.” Now Cym, Cyv, or Cy is
the Cumrian form of the Latin Cum, and in composition Com. What would
be written in Welsh Cywain, or Co-van, a 6:?g0s, would in Cornish be Coven, and
in Latin Covin-us. The English word Country would be written in Welsh,

1 Servius, on the words “ Auri, Aura,” has this observation : ‘‘ Splendor auri,” Horatius. “Tua
ne retardet Aura maritos,” i.e. Splendor. Hine et aurum dicitur a splendore qui est in eo metallo.”
Thus Varro also seems to have had access to some source of knowledge afterwards shut, when, under
Aurora (Lib. vi. de Lin. Latina, cap. v.) he writes: “ Aurora dicitur ante solis ortum, ab eo, quod ab
igne solis tum aureo, aer aurescit.” Aureus is used to express brightness, without any reference to
gold, as in “ aurea Phoebe,” “ aurea Venus.” And Manitius has even, “ Aureus olor” (Lib. v.
v. 383), “i.e.” adds Forcerxin1, “ Nitidissimi et candentis coloris,” brilliant white. Perhaps also in
the famous passage (Hor. lib. i. od. v.)—

“ Heu, quoties fidem,
Mutatosque Deos flebit ; et aspera
Nigris zequora ventis
Enmirabitur insolens,
Qui nunc te fruitur credulus awrea ;
Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem,
Sperat ; nescius aurz
Fallacis,”
aurea ought to be translated, “in all your brightness,” the same as Aurea Venus, “all smiles:” and
aura, “a gleam of light,” the deceitful sunshine, ought to be contrasted with “aspera nigris zequora

ventis.”
VOL. XIII. PART II. Aa

548 Rev. Mr Wituiams on one Source of the

Cyv-dre, a svvoimic, from Cyv, and Tre, a residence ; but in Cornish it is Contre.
Hence Contrevak, Anglice, a countryman. It is to be remarked that the first
meaning of Country is the Latin Patria, and that its use to represent Rus is se-
condary.

Besta, a wild beast. Uxrtan (Dig. lib. 3, tit. 1, et lib. 9, tit. 1, Leg. 1) tells us:
« Bestia sunt omnia animalia qui natura fera sunt et hominibus noxia, ut Ursi,
Leones, Apri, Tigres, item canes feri, serpentes, venenati aranei, et hujuscemodi
alia que aliquo in modo in hominem seviunt.” The root is the Cum. bwyst—
« wildness, ferocity” (see Ow. Dict.) as an adjective,’ wild, ferocious, or savage.
In common language, it is joined to Mil, an animal, as Bwystvil, a ferocious, no-
xious beast.

Brassica, a cabbage—Cum. Bresych ; From Bar-aisg, “ head-spreading.” The ad-
jective is Braisg, “ gross, thick.”

Ceres, first, corn, secondly, the goddess—Cum. Ceirch. In Corn. cerh signifies oats.
Among the Sabines, as we are told by Srrvius (1 Georg. v. 7), ceres meant
bread, as in Scotland to this day, meal means oatmeal. From Ceres comes

Cervista, “ a drink (writes Forcetiint) made from various kinds of corn mace-
rated and bruised, but principally from barley. It was formerly much used by
the Gauls, therefore its origin ought to be looked for in their language. For
what some say is not probable, that it is formed by syncope from Cereres vis,
because the strength of corn is concentrated in it.” The roots are—Cerh, oats,
and probably all other grain ; and Wys, water. Those who claim distillation as
a modern discovery, forbid us to consider this Celtic drink to be whisky, the
strong water of the Celts of Scotland and Ireland. But in Celia, or Ceria, its
Spanish name, we recognise Cooroo, the still existing name of ale in Wales. I
have written it as it is pronounced, as its true form Cwrw, has often been quoted
as an instance of the impossibilty of pronouncing Welsh names. Such persons
forget that the Greek w is a vowel, and that it was used long in England to do
the same service which it still performs in Wales.

Carena, a chain. This the etymologers would fain extort from the Greek xaé 4,
one by one, linked together. But both the quantity and meaning reject this de-
‘rivation, as catena signifies any? restrainer. Vitruvius’ says, “ Hique asseres,
catenis dispositis ad contignationes crebriter clavis ferreis fixi religentur.” Here
they must be translated, ‘* bands, pins, wooden brackets, or cramps.” Again, Par-
Lapius’ has a passage of a similar kind, “ Asseres, catenis ligneis ex junipero aut
cupresso factis ad contignationes suspendemus.” Here, also, catenze ligneae must
be translated “ wooden cramps or knees.” But no abuse of metaphor could have

.

1 Once again let the reader be told, that the favourite vocal sound of the Cumri is that represent-
ed by wy, or 00-ee pronounced as Giphthoug The same word Bwyst, is in Corn. Buest, Ang. Beast.

2 PorcEL.1n1, under the word, “ Sumptum etiam pro quovis nexu, quo aliquid conjungitur aut ligatur.”

3 Lib. vii. cap. 3. 4 Lib. i. tit. 13.

wt

Non-Hellenie Portion of the Latin Language. 549

induced plain writers like Virruvius or Patiaptvs to have called wooden cramps
a chain of linked rings. Some other etymon is therefore required, and this we
have in the Cumrian, cadwyn or cadwen, plur. cadwynae, “a chain or bond
(see Ow. Dict.), root, Cadw, “ to keep, preserve, or save.” This verb must, there-
fore, have once formed a part of the Latin language, and perhaps of other lan-
guages also, as the Greek xadoc, the Latin cadus, and the English caddie, signify a
vessel which will hold or keep things. From the same root came catinum, a
deep dish or pot, and its diminutive catellus, our kettle. The change of the Cum-
rian d into the Latin t. is almost invariable, as Luoyp has remarked, who
adds in another place, ‘‘ The Spaniards, to mention once for all, agree with us
in changing the Latin t into d, and the p into b, especially in the middle syl-
lables. In the termination their d often answers our dd (pronounced th soft as
in the), which we also formerly writ only one d.”

Cirrus, and diminutive cippulus. “ Valli genus ex trunco arboris, unde et Vet. Gloss.
xoguoy, truncum exponit.” Forcell. under the word. It also signified a terminus,
and sometimes stocks, of which meaning the Italian “ ceppo” remains yet a living
witness. Now, under the Cumrian “ c¥f,” pronounced “ keef,” we have in OwEnx’s
Dict. the following explanation :—* A stock, a stem, trunk or body, a stump ; cyf
pren, a stump of a tree, plural, cyfion (pronounced cuffion)-stocks (hence Anglice
hand-cuffs).”_ The diminutive “ cippil,” means also “ a stump of a tree with the
branches dried on,” which suits the description given by Casar of his “ cippi.”

Crumena and Crumina. A leathern bag or purse, from croven, an outside crust,
whence croen and croenen, a skin or hide; on the same principle as purse comes
from Bugon, a hide.

Crcura, hemlock, a pipe ; also a “ fistula ad canendum apta.” In Humph. Lloyd’s Bri-
tish Etymologicon “ cecut” is put down as an old Cum, form of this word. The
common name is cegid or coegyd, * the hollow one,” from coeg, hollow. Sxrrvius
observes, ‘‘ Cicuta autem est spatium quod est inter cannarum nodos,” “ the cicuta
(or hollow) is that space which is between the knots of the reeds.”

Cunervs, a wedge, from Cum. cun or cfn, “ a head, first part or wedge, also a chi-
sel.”. Quotation in Ow. Dict., gyrrii r cfin a gerdo, “ to drive the wedge that
will go.” ,

CanrPEntTUM, a carriage, a longer form of Cum. car-ven (see Benna), a cart. It might
have been originally spelt carmen, and hence the “ porta Carmentalis” of Rome,
if this was not derived from leading to the Arx Carventana before mentioned.
To trace its name to an imaginary mother of as imaginary an Evanprr, was
only an old woman’s tale.

Copex, or Caupex, “ the body, trunk, stump, or stock of a tree,” from Cum. “ coed,
trees, Coeden, a standing tree.” In Latin it signifies secondarily a book, but
never bears that meaning in Welsh.

= SS ee eee ee ae

1 De Bello Gall. Lib. vii. cap. 73. * Vire. Eclogues, ii. b. 36.

AT Aue

550 Rev. Mr Witut1ams on one Source of the

Cotuis, a hill, from Cum. Col, (vid. Ow. Dict.) ‘ any projecting body, a peak,”
whence

Cotumna, Cum. Col-ov and coloy-yn, (vid. do.) ‘ a stem or stalk, a prop.” These may
not necessarily be Cuimrian, as the Greek ~odwq seems derivable from a common
root. But assuredly the Cumrian is the only one which has kept the root to this
day ; Colla also is “ the awns of barley.” Collum, “ a neck,” should be referred
to the same root.

Frornum, * a bridle,” Cum. Frwyn, from Froen; plur. Froenz, “nostrils.” The
first bridle was a ring through the cartilage of the nostrils, to which the reins
were attached.

Frusrro and Frusrxok, to disappoint, to baffle, to prevent, from Cum. Rhwystro,
(vid. Ow. Dict.) to go before, to obstruct, to hinder ; root, Rhwystyr, ‘* oppo-
sition, hinderance, impediment, an obstacle.”

Macerta, “ any wall inclosing grounds.” “ Paries sub dio positus ad sepiendos hortos,
villas, vineta, et hujuscemodi, sive ex calce fiat, sive sicco lapide construatur.”
The last would have been the mode of construction originally in use, whence the
name. H. Lioyp, under Maceria, has ‘“* Magwyr,” a dry wall of stones without
mortar. But Magwyr is generally called “*Y. Vagwyr,” i. e. gwag-viir (vacu-us
mur-us) a wall not closely connected, having intervals. This is exemplified by
the Latin cognate word, Vacerree, a paling of hurdle-work used as fences in fields,
and by the Welsh, Gwagar, a sieve formed by slips of wood, with intervals be-
tween, crossing each other at right angles.

Minor, to wonder at, to gaze on, from Cum. Miraz, “ to see,” (vid. H. Lroyn’s Brit.
Etymologicon). The Spanish language also keeps the primitive meaning, ‘“‘ mirar,”
to see. Nay, even the modern Italian has, as in many other instances, retained
the older meaning, “‘ mirare,” to view or behold, while there are but faint traces
of the secondary meaning, which alone is found in classical writers. The root is
the Cum. Mir, “ what is fair or bright.” Mirror also comes from the primitive
meaning.

Moxa, amill. For the origin of this word we are referred to the Greek wn, which
gives us no new information. The Cum. “ Mal” means what is reduced into small
particles, bruised or ground. ‘Hence, “* Malu”, “ to reduce small, to grind.” And
a longer form, Maluri, “ to bruise, break, or pound.” Hence, both the stones
and the teeth, Molares.

Mox, quickly, soon after. A word leftin the Latin language without a single relation
to express its source. The root is the Cum. Moch, “ready, quick.” (Vid. Ow. Dict.)
“ Moch dysg nawv Mab hwyad,” in Latin, “ Cito” or “ Mox discet nare filius
anatis.”

Macros, honoured, increased, said to be derived from ‘* magis augeo,” which assuredly
would never give, especially in older times, the word Mactus. The Latin philo-
logists seem at an early period to have confounded this old participle from an ob-
solete verb, with the frequentative macto mactare, to slaughter. The cognates of

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 551

this latter word are won woroued, and the Latin macellum, the shambles. ‘The
root of Mactus is the Cum. Magii, to breed, to make great, as grow is of great,
alo of altus, and in and gigno of ingens. From Magii came Maethii, to edu-
cate, to nurse, to cause to increase. Mactus is the same word, although it re-
quires some explanation before the truth appears to an English eye Now, the
ct and pt at the end of Latin words is almost invariably represented in Welsh by
th ; e. 2. Vir doctus becomes in Cumrian Gwr-déth, Aur-um coct-um Aur céth,
Mil-es capt-us Mil-wr cath. Plenus fructus Llawn frwyth, Fluv-ius Lact-is
Lliv o laeth, &c. &c. On this principle Mactus would be Maethiis, “full of in-
crease.” Sis macte, “be full of increase,” grow, tua virtute. To the same root
should be assigned the Gallic word, ambacti, mentioned by Czsar, for as Tad-
Maeth is a foster father, and Mam-Vaeth a foster mother, so Am-Vaethi would
be the circle of foster brothers, which in Celtic countries formed the strength and
pride of a chief.

Occo occarg, to harrow, from Cum. “ ogi, to use the harrow, to harrow, (See Ow.
Dict); root, og and oged, “ the instrument.” Occa, once admitted into Latin dic-
tionaries, is now rejected. The derivatives of oc or og are so numerous in the Cum-
rian, with the meaning of quick motion and sharp points, as to make it clear that
it is an original part of the language. Persons who wish to draw subtle inferences
say, that all the terms of the Romans connected with agriculture may be referred
to a Greek source, while the terms expressive of war or hunting are non-Hellenic.

’ The induction fails completely in both parts, as might easily be shewn. When
Czsan landed in Britain, the natives were agriculturists, densely planted, and
Hattery proved that the harvest which Casanr’s soldiers reaped, had ripened at
the average period of a Kentish harvest inhisdays Assuredly, then, the Britons
had not the agricultural names to learn from the Romans of an after age.

Navo, to “ perform vigorously, to work diligently.” Navare operam et opus, “ to per-
form a work ;” root, Nav, “a former, a creator ;” Nav-Neivion, in the Cum.
“‘ opifex opificum,” “ God.” Hence Navawl, relating to formation, and Naviad
an operation.

Narnix,’ Gael Nathair, Cum. Neidiir, Saxon, Nadder and Neddre. The English ad-
der was formed by a mistake, an adder, instead of a nadder. By an opposite one
an evet or eft became a newt.

NeEnkv-us, a muscle, Nervosus, strong. Undoubtedly the same as the Greek Nevgos. The
Cumrian root is Ner-th, strength, and Nér, the powerful one, God. Now accord-
ing to AuLus Getutus, “ Neris et Nerienes, et Neriene et Neria, Sabinum verbum
quo significatur virtus et fortitudo—unde ex Claudiis, quos a Sabinis oriundos
accepimus, qui erat egregia ac praestanti fortitudine Nero appellatus est.”

1 De Bello Gallico, Lib. vi. cap. 14. Equitum ut genere opibusque amplissimus, ita plurimos cirea se
ambactos clientesque habet.

2 Etymologists would derive this from No, to swim, and refer to the Greek d2gs; as an illustration,
but the masculine, swimmer, is Natator, and Natrix is itself masc. ; ““ It natrix violator aque.” See

Forc. in verbo.

G2

552 Rev. Mr Wixuiams on one Source of the

Lacryme, “ tears.” Undoubtedly the same as the Greek Axzgua, and quoted merely
to shew that it was not through the Latin that many words common to the Greek,
Latin, and Cumrian languages crept into the latter, as the Cum. word is still
Dagree, “ tears.”

Ruepa,' “a carriage with four wheels a cart,” a Gallic word, as we are told by
Quintitiay, although both Casar and Cicero scrupled not to use it. The root
is the Cum. Rhedeg, ‘* to run,” on the same principle as currus comes from
curro. Thus also, on the same principle as rgoyo<, “ a wheel” comes from rgeya, the
Cum. Rhod, “a wheel,” comes from Rhedeg. But Rhod is the Cum. form of
Rota, a word confessedly Latin. Rhod is, both in itself and its derivatives, used
as extensively in the Cumrian, as Rota and its derivatives in Latin. Petorritum,
a four-wheeled. carriage is Cum, Pedair-Rhod, “ four wheels.”

Rirvs, rites, ceremonies, customs. Cum. Rhaith, Plur. Rheithe, “ legal decisions,
law, rights, privileges.” Pen Rhaith Yw Duw, “ Caput Ritts est Deus.”

Patma, Greek zaAaun, ‘the hand or palm.” Cum, Palv. (contracted Pawen a
paw) Armor. Palf, whence we can illustrate the Latin Palpo, to grope, to feel
one’s way, and Palpator, Cum. Palvadur, a groper, &c. Hence also Palpebree,
“« eye feelers,” and probably papille also.

Petto, to drive from, to push away, from the Cum. Péll, far distant; Pelli and
Pellaii to put far from one, to render rernote or distant

Pxnates, household gods, originally the chief gods of either the state or a family.
According to Macrostus,” the Penates of Rome were Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, and
Vesta. Cr1crro® derives their name from Penus or Penitus, “ quod penitus insi-
dent,” others from different sources. The root appears to be in any case the Cum.
Pen, a head. Hence Penaeth, (which in a Roman’s mouth would become Penat)
“a principal, he who is pre-eminent, a chief. The old nominative, singular, was
Penas, on the same principle as Primas, Optimas, &e.

Penitus, “ within, interior, inmost and innermost,” from which the preceding, ac-
cording to some, was derived, is also connected with the Cum. Pen, which signifies
not only a head, but also an end, as “ Pen-Tir Lloegur, “* Caput terree Liguriz,”
“the Land’s End of England.” Pen-ucha r ti, “ Caput interius Tecti,” the
innermost room in a cottage, Scotice, Ben, Latin Penus, but latterly confined
to express the innermost cell of the sanctuary of Vesta. Heliogabalus, “in Pe-
num Vest, quod sole Virgines Solique Pontifices adeunt, irrupit.”. From the
same root, prolific of words in this and other languages, spring.

Prnes, Penes me, “ in my house,” consequently “in my power,” answering in the first
place to apud me, in Latin, and chez moi, in French, and in its secondary meaning
to the ex wor of the Greeks, in my power. Of its first meaning we have ample in-

1 The Cumrian, like the Greek, aspirates the letter R at the commencement of a word.

* Lib. iii. Saturn, c. 4. ° De Natura Deorum, Lib. iii. cap. 29.
* Lampridius in Vita, c. 5.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 553

stances. Ter. Adelph, 4 24; Istaec jam penes vos psaltria est! Is that dancing

A girl in your house? S. Ellam intus. She is within, &c. &c. The secondary mean-

ing needs no illustration. From Pen, with its signification of end, came Penis
and Peniculus, a tail, and many other words.

Poprna, “a cook-shop, an eating-house,” derived by scholars from Pora, the minis-
ter who struck the sacrifical victim with a mallet, and who was supposed, on au-
thority which I cannot tind, to vend the flesh of victims. By an edict of Nzro,
“* nothing cooked except pulse and herbs was allowed to be sold in Popinis,” al-
though previously every kind of obsonium was exposed to sale in such places ;
and Trsertus, during a dearth, forbad even pastry-work to be sold in cook-shops.
On the whole, the Popinz of Rome appear to have united our eating-house and
pastry-shop. The root appears to have been the Cum. Pobi, “ to bake to roast au
Pobi bara, “ to bake bread ;” i bobi golwyn, “ to roast a joint.” (Vid. Ow. Dict.)
Poban, “ an oven,” Pobur, Pobwr and Pobid, “ a baker.”

Poprutus, the people, the community, Plebs (says Autus Grxuius,? on the authority
of a competent witness, Arrius Capito) differt a populus, quia hoc nomine
omnis pars civitatis omnesque ejus ordines continentur, Plebs vero ea dicitur in
qua gentes civium patriciz non insunt.” The old form of writing the word was
Popolus, Cum. Pobol, and contracted Pobl, not unlike the Etruscan form,
Puplu, as seen in old inscriptions. The root is Pawb and Pob, (vid. Ow. Dict.)
* every body, all persons.” Pob ac un, omnis et unus, “ one and all.” “ Pob-un,”
every one.

OF St 00

Prettom or Precium, the money value of an article ; apparently the general name
at an early period for the precious metals. Even in later times, it seems to have
retained this primary meaning. Thus Horace, alluding to Jupiter’s transmu-
tation into gold, =

** Converso in pretium deo.”
And Ovip:
“‘ In pretio pretium est, dat census honores.”
And still stronger :
*< Argentum felix, omnique beatius auro,
Quod pretium fuerit quum rude, numen erit.”
Now Pres is in Cum. copper, the only metal which the early Romans coined into
money. It is also to be remarked that, to this day, especially in North Wales,
the word Pres is limited to copper coin. Pris, Anglice price, is closely connected
both in spelling and pronunciation with it.
Pro-cervs, long, compounded of the preposition, and Cérus, unknown. It is the

1 Suetonius in Ner. cap. 16. 2 Lib. x. cap. 20.
3 Lib. iii. od. 16. ver. 8.
4 Fast. v. 217. Lib. ii. Ex. Pont. Ep. 8. v. 5.

554 Rev. Mr Witiams on one Source of the

Cum.! “hir” (vid. Ow. Dict.), “long.” The Triads have recorded three lines, which
they attribute to King Arthur, and which some antiquaries may wish to see as
the only literary composition of that famous monarch :—

Sev-ynt fy nhri Cad-varchog,

Mael hir a Llir Lliiydog,

A choloyn Cymrii Caradog.

Hi sunt mei tres Pugne equites,

Mael pro-cérus ac Lear, copiis instructus,

Atque columna Cambriz Caradog,

Poutvinar and Potvinus, “a pillow and bolster.” Some of the older scholars ac-
knowledged pulvinar to be a change of letters from pluvinum, root plume, fea-
thers; but in Cum. plume are pliiv, whence pluvinar, without any change. In
Cornish with a different termination, but from the same root, it was Pluvog.
Again, by a change similar to that in the Latin, the common name in Wales is
Pilwg, Engl, Pillow.

Pianta, a Latin word, single in form, but double in meaning. In one sense it comes
from planum, flat, and means the sole of the foot. In another sense, it means a
young sucker, which, if detached from the parent tree, and again committed to
the earth, will itself become a tree. In the first sense it has only one derivative,
** plantaris,” used by Srarius and VarErtus Fraccus, to describe the feet wings
of Mercury. The other has a numerous offspring, and has entered deeply into
the composition of the English language. Now the Cum. ‘ Plant” means * off-
spring, children” (see Ow. Dict.), root, plan, ‘a scion or shoot,” whence the verb
planii, ** to plant, to set shoots.” One might imagine that the Cumrian meaning
was before Virci1’s eyes when he wrote the following line:

“ Hic plantas tenero abscindens de corpore matrum ;”
literally, ‘* one separating the children from the tender bosom of their mother.”

Quxro, and Quxso, I seek. Thus Festus, “ Queso ut significat idem quod rogo,
ita quesere ponitur ab antiquis pro querere, ut apud Ennium libro secundo:

‘ nautisque mari quesentibu’ vitam,” &c.

From this observation, and from the practice of the classical writers, we find
that quero, in the sense of seeking, had ceased to be used by the Romans
long before their settlement in,Britain. But the Cum. ceisio, and ceiso (vid. Dict.),
still means “to seek, to go after, and fetch,” and has its own noun cais, ‘ both
a petition and an attempt.” Quzso and ceiso are in utterance the same word.
Quis, Who? Cum. Pwy? This interchange of the p and qu, refers to a period still more
remote than that in which the r and s were mutually interchanged. We know

1 It is a constant practice to represent the Latin S, by the Cum. H, and vice versa, e. g.—
Sérus, hwyr.
Sag-um, hyg and hygan.
Sal, Halen.
Sol, Haul, &c.

* See H. Llwyd’s Brit. Etym. p. 283.

ee ee CCC CS

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 555

not when the qu or q was thrown out of the Greek alphabet ; probably it was
rejected with all the harsher sounds represented by the letter w, whether single
or preceded by gutturals. We know that in some cases it was replaced in Attic
Greek by the =, in Ionic by the x, e.g. the Latin qua became in the former dia-
lect +7, in the latter xy. This change was imported to a certain extent into Italy,
as we find from Frstus that the Oscans called quidquid, pitpit or pirpit, and
quispiam and nuspiam became Latin words. But the Cumrian, which broke
off its connection with the Latin language before it formed or admitted the pro-
noun relative qui, que, quod, (a form of speech unknown both to the Cumrian
and Homeric languages) writes the important interrogatives Pwy, “‘ who 2” and Pa,
“what ?” invariably with a P, while the latter word is again in Irish ka, With
this previous explanation I venture to submit, that the Cum. Pa val, of what kind ?
compounded of pa and mal, “like,” and Pa vaint, of what size? made up of pa
and maint, “ size,” furnish us, if we change again the Cum. pa into the Latin qua,
with the true origin and meaning of the Latin

Qualis, of what kind ;

Quantus, of what size.
For further illustration, I furnish a copy of some observations from Ow. Dict.
under maint, mal, pa. Maint,! « magnitude, size, bigness, greatness, quantity.” Pa
vaint syd yna, “ quantum sit in eo” (loco). Mal, “like, similar to,” mal hyn, pro-
nounced val hyn, “ in this manner.” Pa, “ what,” pa vod, ‘‘ in what manner,” Quo
modo.

Quatus, a basket of twigs, wicker work. Cum. cawell, a hamper or basket ; root, caw,
* a holder which retains or keeps things together.”

Tatra, a mole, from Cum. talp and talpen, ‘a mass, a lump, a knoll, a round heap
not large, a knob ;” in the same manner as Mole came from mould-warp, “ the
caster up of earth.”

Trans, ‘‘on the further side of, beyond, over, across ;” root, Tra, as may be seen
in ultra contra, intra, &. But Cum. Tra is a noun (vid. Ow. Dict.), “an extreme,
an excess,” also a preposition, as tra munid, “ over the mountain,” trans montem,

r)

tra mor, “ trans mare.” The Latin noun trabs, a cross-beam, is the Cum. Traws,
“a cross beam, or a cross man” -

Vaerna, a sheath. Italian, guaina. Cum. gwain, signifying both “a sheath or the
carriage of a sword,” as our ancestors called it, and “a waggon,” the vulgar
pronunciation of vagina, as wain is that of gwain.

VareEs, a name for Roman poets before the time of Enntus, as he thus attacks Nevius,

scripsere alii rem

Versibus quos olim Fauni Vatesque canebant.”

* Maint in French (magnitude applied to numbers, in Cum. to size, two relations which continually
interchange, as raves, a few, parvus, small), is a derivative from Magnus, or some cognate form.
Magnitas in French, would become Maint, as Magis becomes Mais, Pagus Pais, &c.

VOL. XIII. PART II. ARB

556 Rev. Mr Wrtuiams on one Source of the

That it was a Gallic word we know well, as Strazo, when speaking of the
Gauls in general, writes, rag amaor G2 ds eximay rein QuAM ray ryLmrevan OreDegovlus ears
Bugdor, re xo Ovarersy nour Aguidcs. Beegdor pucr dunras ne rola, Oucles de 1eQOTFOIOL HOA
pusiwroyol, Aguidas re me0s 7 Quoiroyic, nou rmy noixmy Pirocopiay aoxovew. * But among
all the Gauls, there are three classes of men who are held in especial honour,
Bards, Vates, and Druids. The Bards are singers and poets; the Vates sacred
ministers and natural philosophers; the Druids to physiology add the study of
moral philosophy.” It was this sacred order that left its name to the poets and
prophets of ancient Italy. Now, the Cum. form of Vates is Ovid, written Ovydd,
of which we have the following explanation in Ow. Dict. :—‘‘ One who is initiated
into first principles or elements, a scientific personage, a natural philosopher,
a teacher of science, the name for a member of the scientific class, in the bardic
system. An ovate.” Probably the name Ovidius is a derivative of the Cum.
Ovid.

Venus, “ true, genuine, not false, not disguised.” Cum, Gwir, “ the pure fluid, the
ether, truth, right.” In Latin also Verus had this meaning of right, as Srr-
vius says on the passage, Ain. 12. v. 694.—

me Verius unum
Pro vobis foedus luere et decernere ferro.
“ Verius justius—Verum enim quod rectum et bonum appellabant. Gwirod, a
derivative from Gwir, “‘ the pure fluid,” means strong unadulterated liquors of all
kinds. (See Ow. Dict.) Hence the connection of merus, noun, merum, with
Verus. The Greek «Ande, no concealment, transparency, agrees in meaning
with the Cum. Gwir. If the English, truth, come from the verb, to trow, as Horne
Toox inferred, it is a memorable proof of barbarism in our Saxon forefathers,
and enough of itself to destroy all their ideas of truth and right.

Verrco, “ to incline, to bend to.” Cum. Gwyro, “* tomake crooked, to bend, to swerve,
to go awry.”

Vinints, “ green, flourishing,” Cum. Gwyrd. In the Cornish dialect, which, less harsh
and guttural, throws great light upon the cognate languages, it is Gwer, French
Ver-d. That Viridis had this form in Latin, appears not only from Ver, “ the
green season,” but from Verbena, “ any green sod or tree,” and Vervactum,
‘+ ground ploughed down in the green sod,” in opposition to stubble land. See
the word in Forcetint, and the mistake of Pury there alluded to.

Srverus, “ strict, severe, sharp ;” root, Chwevyr, “ violence,” Chwevri, “ to act or
affect severely,” Chwevryd, ‘ a severe one.” I have only time to allude to a
large class of words beginning with Chw, and which are found in Latin with an
Sor V. Suffice it to give two examples :—

Socer a father-in-law, in Cum. Chwegyr. The German Schwager means “ a bro-
ther-in-law.” When Homer wrote, either Chw, or Schw, was used, as can be
proved from git: exuge, so well known

1 Pp. 194.

>

om, a

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 557

Soror, “a sister,” Cum. Chwaer, Corn. Hor, the Latin form without the termina-
tion, Germ. Schwester. Italian Suora, where the aspirate still seems to have a
place. But this head is inexhaustible.

Sons, Sortis, Sortes, “lot, chances.” That which falls out, id quod accidit, Cum.
Syrth and Swrth, “a fall, a lot, a chance,” from the verb Syrthio, to fall. In
Corn. Swrth would be written “ sort.”

I am now compelled by want of room to conclude, and to
pass over in silence this long list, which, as I believe, are all Cum-
rian in origin and meaning :—

Blesus Ecce Rigeo Sulcus
Bellum Gula Rixa Quatio
Bellua Lamina Ruga Quiesco
Brutus Latus Rana Sapor ~
Fenestra Latium Salix Suavis
Ferrum Lucrum Scateo Torrens
Calamus Laus Scelus Talio
Caseus Mas Scopa Talus
Carus Mando Scrotum Telum
Canus Neevus Sebum Titio
Colus Paries Serus Vilis
Copula Pastino Solus Vibro
Crena Pruina Solum Venus
Dolor Purus Splendeo Caius
Donec Puteus Stannum Marcus
Dies Raucus Sudor

A few of these may seem to be derivatives from Greek roots, but
if examined comparatively, they will be found to be more imme-
diately Cumrian. But I cannot conclude the paper without en-
tering more at large into an explanation of two words, which, in
my opinion, would of themselves be sufficient to prove the radi-
cal connection of the Latin and Cumrian languages, these are,
Meenia, “ walls,” and Prada, “ a prey.”
And first of the first. Moenia, “walls,” sing. Moene, from the
Cum. Men, “a stone,” plural, Meini “stones.” If this be the root,
Mecenia must signify stone-walls, in opposition to wooden de-
fences or earthen-ramparts. These were expressed by Vaiium,
from “ Vallus a stake,’ and Agger, from Ad-gero, “to throw
4B2

558 Rev. Mr Witu1ams on one Source of the

3

up.’ The probability therefore is, that Moenia, by which the
strongest defences are in general meant, were made of stone. An
examination of Moenio, the verb of Moene and Meenia, and more
commonly written Munio, will furnish us with a proof that such
probability is almost certain. For we find that Munire viam, is
“eam sternere lapidibus ;” e. g. “ Perinde' quasi Appius ille
coecus viam munierit, non qua populus uteretur, sed ubi posteri
ejus impune latrocinarentur.” Nay more, Tacrrus, who is fond
of recurring to the original meaning of words, puts in the
mouth of Gaxeacus the strong expression, “ Sylvas et Palu-
des emunire,” “to make stone causeways through woods and
marshes.” Closely connected with Moenia is Munus, written
by the ancients Moenus, which, if Varro is right, was “ the
metal or earth required from each soldier when a position was
to be fortified,” for after explaining, according to his theory,
the source of Munus, “a gift,” he adds, “ Alterum Munus, quod
muniendi causa imperatum,” “ Another Munus, is that which is
ordered for the purpose of fortifying ;” hence he derives “ Muni-
cipes, qui una Munus funyi debent,” “ who are bound to the com-
mon defence of their town ;” hence Immunes, those who are
free from such or any other public burden; hence Munera,
offices, originally as in England, parish burdens, but latterly, when
wealth increased, sought after, and highly valued. Cognate with
Munus, in the sense of metal, we have the Cum. Mwn, or Mwyn,
“ore, any thing dug out of the earth,” e.g. Mwyn aur, “ gold
mine,” Mwyn arian, “ silver mine,” &c. whence, Anglice, Mine.
It is difficult to account how Minium, red lead, took the generic
name. We only know, that the Romans supposed it to have been
derived from the Minius amnis (the Minho), which probably de-
rived its name from it. Because Virruvius, “ Minium inquit et
Indicum nominibus ipsis indicant, quibus in locis procreantur.”

1 Cicer. Pro Milon. cap 7.
* De Ling. Latin. Lib. v. 42.
In fine Cap. ix. 1-7.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 559

It is a curious coincidence, that, to this day, Gwaith Mwyn, in
Wales, always means “a lead mine.” From Moenus, or Munus,
a metal, came undoubtedly Moneta, “ money.” Cum. Mwnai,
“money coin,” as in Ovip, Fast. v. 221,—

*« Aira dabant olim: melius nunc omen in auro est,
Victaque concedit prisca moneta nove,”

(The fable about Juno Moneta, root, moneo, with a Greek ter-
mination, is unworthy of serious notice), and Munus and Munera,
gifts.

Secondly, Preeda, a prey, from the Cum. Praid, plur. Preide.

In Ow. Dict. we have the following explanation of Praid, “a
flock or herd ; also a booty or spoil of cattle taken in war.”

“Praid gyv-reithiol, pedair bu ar igaint a Tharw,” Welsh
Laws. “A legal herd, twenty-four cows, and a bull.” In similar
Latin order, Praeda Corritualis, Quatuor boves super viginti et
Taurus.

In the Latin transmitted to us, we find Preeda with the second-
ary meaning alone, acquired by the Romans at an early age, when
the robber wolf was their favourite emblem, and their neigh-
bours’ flocks and herds were regarded as legitimate objects of
plunder. But there are, if I am not much mistaken, some Latin
words still extant, which were formed in a more Saturnian age,
when Prada had not lost its proper signification of flocks and
herds. Among these are,

Preedium,

Pres,

Preeditus.
Concerning the meaning of the word Preedium, there is no doubt.
All interpret it to be a farm or landed property. “ Possessio,”
says ForcELurnt, “omnia bona complectitur, mobilia et immo-
bilia ; Pradium immobilia tantum.” The Roman philologists, if
we can honour them with the name, wished to derive Predium
from Prees, a personal security, as if the first quality of landed
property, which would occur to a simple and early race, was
the power of mortgaging it. In later times, such a confu-

560 Rev. Mr Wixt1ams on one Source of the

sion of ideas is perhaps possible, from the close connection be-
tween landed property and mortgages. But assuredly its liabi-
lity to be mortgaged, could not in an early age have been the
accident most likely to strike the sense, and to induce men to
name land after it. What among the Sabine hills, and in a half
pastoral state, could have given a better idea of a farm than to
call it from Preeda, flocks and herds, Preedium their grazing ground,
just as we to this day call a mountain farm a sheep-walk ?

From Preedium (on the same principle as from Pretium, in-
terpres-pretis, a broker, a price-settler between two foreign mer-
chants) came Prees, Praedis, “the possessor of a preedium, or of
Preedia, secondarily, “ one who could give good security, heritable
security as it is called in Scotland.” Ascontus, in his commen-
tary on CrcERro’s speech against Verres,' has the two following
passages :-—“ Bona Preedia, dicuntur bona, satisdationibus obnoxia,
sive sint in mancipiis sive in pecunia numerata; Preedia vero do-
mus, agri.” “ Preedia sunt res ipse, Praedes homines, id est fide-
jussores, quorum res bona Pradia dicuntur,” of which this ap-
pears to be the translation :—* Bona preedia (two terms as usual
in Roman law formularies, put together without a conjunction, as
patres conscripti, &c.) are called the goods hable to be seized by
creditors, whether they consist of saleable property or of ready
money, but Preedia are house, lands.” “ Preedia are the things them-
selves, Praedes the men who have given security, whose property is
called by one name, Bona-predia,” i. e. what we call property per-
sonal and real. Vendere Preedem was what is still called by lawyers
to “sell up a man,” that is to sell all his property. In ancient times,
under the cruel law of Rome, the man himself might have been
liable to sale. The Roman etymologers have written much non-
sense on this word, but not so much as emendators have compelled
them to write. Varro says it comes from Presto est, which has
been changed into an adverbial Pres, as if there had been any

‘ Orat. adver. Lib. iii. 54.

Non-Hellenc Portion of the Latin Language. 561

such word in the language. In taking security, no lawyer re-
gards the mere person, or cares whether he be absent or present,
if he be not rich and able to answer when pressed for the debt.
Pres is therefore equivalent to “ locuples,” full of land, “rich in
land.” Hence “ locuples reus,” is one “ qui cum se obligarit,
habet unde solvat, et idoneus est implendo promisso.” Besides
all this, had the imaginary Praes, or the real Presto, been the
root of Prees, Predis, it would have applied with equal force to
one who gave security in criminal cases either to present him-
self, “se sistere,” or to bring into court him for whose appear-
ance he had become bail. But, as Forceixry1 properly ob-
serves, “ differt praes a vade, vas enim est qui pro alio spondet
in re capitali, pres qui in re nummaria.”

Preditus, endowed or vested. This we know cannot come
from Pre, and “do, to give.” First, because there is no such com-
pound ; secondly, because if it had once existed in the language,
it would signify that its substantive “ had been given before-
hand,” since datus and donatus cannot be interchanged. It ap-
pears to have been first applied to a person invested or endowed
with landed property, and that it was thence metaphorically
transferred to all endowments physical and intellectual. We
have now no hesitation in saying that “a man is possessed of
many good qualities,” because possideo, at the period when Ro-
man literature commenced, signified “to possess.” But in older
times possessio, formed out of pro-sedeo, signified only pre-occu-
pation, “a sitting,” or as the Americans have it, “a squatting,”
on ground not legally conveyed. We know what radical mistakes
in Roman history occurred from a mistake in the meaning of the
two words, “ Possessores agrorum.”

Connected with the idea of property are three other words,
which are also derived from the Cumrian, these are—

Idoneus,
Divitie,
Bonus and bona.

562 Rev. Mr Wittiams on one Source of the

Idoneus, “ proper, suitable,” &c. originally applied to men of
property, hence “ rich, wealthy.” Hear Carus, (for lawyers, as
I have before observed, are more retentive of the original meanings
of words,) “ Si ab idoneo debitore ad inopem transtulerit obliga-
tionem,” i. e. “ab eo debitore, qui est solvendo.’” Here idoneus,
rich, and inops, poor, are put in opposition to each other. So, al-
so, in Urian, “ Tutores et Fidejussores idonei,” are twice opposed
to those “qui lapsi sunt facultatibus” (rumed men). Thus, also,
it changes places with Locuples, as Testis idoneus, Testis locuples,
Auctor locuples, Auctor idoneus. The root of this is the Cum.
eid-ion, vulg. eidon, an ox, the generic name of kine, for beef
is always called “cig eidon.” In the Cum. Italy is always called
“Y’r eidal,” close enough to identify it with Italia, derived from
italus, an ox.

Divitiz seem as clearly referable to the Cum. Dav-ad, plur. De-
veid, or as the word is written in old documents, Deveit, “a sheep.
and sheep.” Indeed I doubt not that Davad and Devaid are com-
pound words, made up of Dav or Déy, “tame,” and Eid, the root
of Eidon, still to be found in the literary language of Ireland as
the generic name for “cattle,” (see Ed. and Eid. in H. Luoyp’s
Irish Dict.) ; and that the animals, reclaimed from their wild state,
and domesticated by man, bore this name, which was subsequent-
ly transferred to express the wealth of man. He who therefore
is inclinedto deny that pecunia and pecuniosus come from pecus,
may also refuse his assent to the inference that Divitiz comes
from Deveit. I could as easily shew that Duonus, the original
form of bonus ; is also of Cum. origin, but I abstain, and reluc-
tantly close the present paper.

To follow it up, three more at least are absolutely necessary—

1. An examination of the facts which made so many tribes in

Italy, Gaul, and Britain, claim a Trojan origin, and a sa-

‘ Lib. et tit. 4. Leg. 27. * Lib. xxvii. tit. 8. Leg. 1.

Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language. 563

tisfactory account of one Troja or Ilium at least, if it was
not also the Homeric one.

2. An illustration of the mythology of primitive Rome, by
comparing it with the oldest fragments of the Cumrian
system, with a satisfactory explanation of the fable of the
Wolf and Eagle, the Sus alba, and other matters which
have hitherto baffled the learned.

3. An illustration of the system of the Agricultural Repub-
lics of ancient Italy, of which Rome was one, by a refe-
rence to the Welsh Laws, where much valuable information
on the constitution of society in south-western Europe,
during the Saturnian Age, is to be found.

Desiderata for a further prosecution of the subject :

Vocabularies of the languages spoken among the hills of Um-
bria, Rheetia, Liguria, the Maritime Alps, and Auvergne.

VOL. XIII. PART II. 4c

( 564 )

EXPLANATION OF PLATE XVL

Fic. 1. Commissure of the optic nerves in the human body, examined after the
nervous fibres had been hardened by alcohol. From Mayo’s Engravings. A A, Op-
tic nerves. B B, Tractus optici, or continuation of the nerves behind the commissure.
C, Semi-decussation.

Fic. 2. Course of the Tractus optici, examined after similar preparation, in the
sheep. A, Part of the right hemisphere of the brain. B, Olfactory lobes. C, Right
Tractus opticus just behind the commissure. D, Crus cerebri. E, Tuber annulare.
F, Right Tractus opticus cut across and torn backwards, as it expands upon and winds
round the Crus cerebri and back of the Thalamus nervi optici, H, to be implanted on G,
The upper portion of the right division of the Corpora quadrigemina, or optic lobes.
Part of the fibres at this, their posterior termination, are turned back, to shew that
those which lie lowest in the Tractus opticus are implanted in the highest part of
the optic Lobe, and those which lie on the inner side of the former, are implanted in
the outer side of the latter. I, Medulla oblongata. K, Cerebellum. L, Implanta-
tion of the fifth nerve (7. e. the nerve of touch of the face and eye) on the side of
the tuber annulare, in which no such contortion is observed.

Fic. 3. Arrangement of the fibres of the optic nerves as they are implanted in
the optic lobes of the fish, from Srrres’ Anat. Comp. du Cerveau, &c. <A, Cerebral
lobes. B, Optic lobes laid open from behind. C, Cerebellum.

Fic. 4. Decussation of the fibres which descend from the brain, through the
Crura cerebri and Corpora pyramidalia, to the spinal cord in the human body ;
found also, in a greater or less degree, in all the mammalia and birds, therefore co-
existent in the Animal Kingdom, with the partial decussation of the optic nerves
(Fig. 1). A, Corpus olivare. B, Corpus pyramidale. C, Decussating fibres. D,
Spinal cord.

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETINGS,
AND
LIST OF MEMBERS ELECTED AT THE ORDINARY MEETINGS,

SINCE MAY 4. 1833.

-

29 jeidts

rae ers
Shires had bens
fiterres WB, Peevn|

i al pene
trodes sta

sdf a pest Bipinde vondsntiinnial "ig “- a

t
eer ERG RO: gy iy smommetivted :
~ | mF “4 7 4
at Reh a ad ce en ora a
mes : cl ate

Pignas . WF ¥ ae ;

ibaa " i a f " . * zt
y ; esas r

ie .

PROCEEDINGS, &c.

November 25. 1838.
Ar a General Meeting held this day, Mr Russxx1, V.P. in the Chair, the fol-

lowing Office-bearers were elected for the ensuing year :—

Lieut.-Gen. Sir Tuomas Maxpoucati Brisbane, President.
The Hon. Lord Guenuze,
1 engi ati Vice-Presidents.
Sir Davin BREWSTER,
James Russeu, Esq.
Joun Rosison, Esq. General Secretary.
Dr EBRISHIEONS \ Secretaries to the Ordinary Meetings.
Professor Fores, J 2
Joun G. Kmynear, Esq. Treasurer.
James SKENE. Esq. Curator of the Museum.

Joun STark, Hsq. Assistant Curator.

COUNSELLORS.
Major-Gen. Sir JosepH SrRATON. Artaur Connewn, Esq.
Auexanper ADIE, Esq. Right Hon. Lord Greenocr.
James Witson, Esq. Dr Trait.
Hon. MounrstTuart ELPHINSTONE. J. D. Forses, Esq.
Dr ABERCROMBIE. Professor JaMmEson.
Sir Henry JARDINE. Wiuiam A. Capen, Esq.

The following gentlemen were appointed a Committee to audit the late Treasurer’s

accounts :—

Sir Henry JarpINE. Tuomas GuTurié Wricut, Esq.
James Narre, Esq.

568 Proceedings of General Meetings,

December 2. 1833.

The Keith Prize was presented by the President to THomas Granam, Esq. pur-
suant to the award of the Council, announced on the 6th May, for his paper ‘“* On
the Law of the Diffusion of the Gases.”

January 6. 1834.
MEMBER ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
Muneo Ponton, Esq.
The President announced that the Council had resolved to award the Keith Bien-
nial Prize, for the second period, to Sir Davip Brewster, for his paper “ On a new
Analysis of Solar Light.”

January 20. 1834.
MEMBERS ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
Isaac Witson, M.D., F.R.S. Lieut.-Col. Murray of Ochtertyre.
JoHN GLADsTONE, Esq. of Fasque.

February 3. 1834.
MEMBER ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
Davm Low, Esq. Professor of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh.

February 17. 1834.
MEMBERS ELECTED.
ORDINARY.
Tuomas Henverson, Esq. late Astronomer at the Cape.
Reverend Dr Cuaumers, Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh.
Winuiam Macaruuivray, Esq. Keeper of the Museum of the Royal College of
Surgeons.

March 3. 1834.
MEMBER ELECTED.
ORDINARY.
ALEXANDER Kinnear, Esq.
Lord GrrEnock gave notice, that at the next meeting of the Society he should
1ove the following resolution :—

and List of Members Elected. 569

“© That Edinburgh having been fixed on for the Fourth Annual Meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, which is to take place in Sep-
tember next, it is necessary that a subscription be immediately set on foot for defray-
ing the expense of such entertainments as it may be found expedient to be given on
this occasion, in a manner suitable to it, and worthy of the hospitality for which Scot-
land has always been celebrated.

‘That the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Scotland generally, but more especially
those resident in Edinburgh or its Vicinity, be as soon as possible requested to enrol
their names as subscribers to such a fund; and that a hope be expressed that public
bodies and chartered societies will be induced to contribute their aid, as far as they
may possess the means, in increasing the amount of this fund.

«* That the Royal Society having been the channel through which the invitation
to the British Association to hold its meeting this year in Edinburgh was conveyed,
and this Society being charged conjunctly with the local Office-bearers of the Asso-
ciation with the preparatory arrangements, shall take upon itself the collection and
management of this subscription, and shall appoint a Special Committee for that
purpose; and shall open Subscription Lists at the principal Banking Establishments,
and at the Office of the Treasurer of the Society. .

“© That the sum of £50 be paid out of the Funds of the Royal Society on a.-
count of this subscription, and that all the members of the Society be specially in-
vited to contribute individually to this fund; it being understood that no donation

should be of less amount than One Guinea.”

March 16. 1834.
MEMBERS ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
Parrick Boyte Mung, Esq. Advocate. Wiwxiam Saarpey, M. D.
Tuomas Batrour, Esq. Advocate.

Lord Grernocx’s motion, announced at the last meeting, was put from the chair,
and being seconded by Sir GrorcE CLERk, was carried unanimously.

April 21. 1834.
MEMBER ELECTED.
ORDINARY.

Joun Daviz Morztzs, M.D.

570 Proceedings of General Meetings,

November 24. 1834.

At a General Meeting held this day, James Russ“, Esq. V. P. in the Chair,
the following Office-bearers were appointed for the ensuing year :—

Lieut.-Gen Sir T. M. Brispanz, President.
The Hon. Lord GuENLEE,
Jamzs Russet, Esq.
Dr T. C. Hors, Vice-Presidents.
Sir Davin BrewstTER,
The Right Hon. Lord Greenock,
Joun Rozison, Esq. General Secretary.
Dr Curistison, ;
Professor ForseEs,
Grorce Forges, Esq. Treasurer.

| Secretaries to the Ordinary Meetings.

Dr Tratruu, Curator of the Museum.

Joun Starx, Esq. Assistant Curator.

COUNSELLORS.

t

Dr ABERCROMBIE. Rev. Dr Cuaumers.

Sir Henry JARDINE. Sir Grorer Cuyrk, Bart.
ApntruuR ConneLL, Esq. Lzonarp Horner, Esq.
Professor JAMESON. Dr J. H. Davinson.
Wituram A. Canett, Esq. Sir Grorce BALuinGALt.
James SKENE, Esq. James T. Grason-Craia, Esq.

The following Committee was appointed to audit the Treasurer’s accounts : —

Siz Henry JARDINE. Lord GREENOCK.

Dr ABERCROMBIE.

December 15. 1834.
MEMBERS ELECTED.
ORDINARY.
Tuomas JAMESON TorRiz, Esq. Rev. Dr Wetsu, Professor of Church
Wixu1am Corranp, Esq. of Colliston. History in the University of Edin.
Joun Srevarr Newsicerne, Esq. W.S.
Sir Henry Jarprne, with the approbation of the Council, gave notice of a mo-
tion for altering the Laws regarding Fees and Compositions.

and List of Members Elected. 571

January 5. 1835.
MEMBERS ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
CuaR es Forses, Esq. Joun Hurron Batrovr, M. D.

Sir Henry JaArpDINE, as announced at last meeting, moved that the Laws II.,
III. and IV. be altered and stand thus:

‘“‘ Law II. Every Ordinary Member, within three months after his election, shall
pay Five Guineas as the fees of his admission, and Three Guineas as his contribu-
tion for the session in which he has been elected, and Three Guineas annually at
the commencement of every session.

** Law III. Members on paying twenty-five years’ Annual Contribution, shall
be exempt from all farther payment.

“ Law IV. Ordinary Members not residing in Scotland shall compound for the
Annual Contribution at the rate of fifteen years’ purchase.”

The consideration of this motion was delayed till a subsequent meeting.

The Council having brought forward a list of eminent foreigners, and others,
whom it was proposed to elect in room of various Honorary and Foreign Members
lately deceased, Sir W. Hamitron moved that this list be remitted to the Council
for further consideration ; which was seconded and agreed to.

Sir Witt1am Hamitron thereafter gave notice of a motion which he proposed
to make, on the first meeting in February, relative to the proposed list of Honorary
and Foreign Members, and to certain improvements he had to suggest in the con-
stitution of the Society, with a view to a more perfect equilibrium and greater effi-

ciency of the two classes of which the Society is composed.

January 19. 1835.
MEMBERS ELECTED.
ORDINARY.
Sir Joun Campsext, Attorney-General. Davip Gzorce Sanpeman, Esq.
Sir Henry Janpine’s motion for an alteration in the Fees and Compositions
was taken into consideration, and the farther discussion of it adjourned to a special

meeting to be held for the purpose on the 26th January.
The Council reported that they could not recommend any alteration in the list

of Honorary and Foreign members.
The President intimated that it had been proposed to the Council, That per-

VOL, XIII. PART II. 4p

572 Proceedings of General Meetings,

sonages of Royal blood in the Honorary List should be deemed to be Extraordinary
Members of that class, and should not preclude the placing on it the names of twen-
ty-one persons eminently distinguished in science or literature,” according to Law XI.
of the Society. It was resolved to postpone the consideration of this suggestion till

a future meeting.

January 26. 1835.

At a Special General Meeting, Lord Greenock, V. P. in the Chair, Sir Henry
JaRDINeE’s motion respecting Fees and Compositions was taken into further conside-
ration, and agreed to by a large majority —an amendment to postpone coming to a
decision on the clause regarding the Composition Fees for Members not resident in
Scotland having been put and negatived. It was further determined, that the new
Laws regarding Fees should not have a retrospective effect on the candidates ad-

mitted since the commencement of the present session till this date.

February 2. 1835.
MEMBER ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
Joun Mackzan, Esq: Accountant.

Sir Wirt1am Hamitron postponed his motion regarding the constitution of the
Society ; but gave notice that at the next meeting he would lay before the Society a
proposal tending to improve its constitution and general well-being ; in particular,
to restore the equilibrium and efficiency of both its Classes, and would move for a
Special Committee to take this proposal into consideration, and to report. He fur-
ther intimated, that he should move,—

« That as the Royal Society was founded and chartered for the promotion of
Literature and Physical Knowledge equally, and as the Literary and Physical
Classes of which the Society consists possess in all respects equal privileges and
rights, it is therefore expedient and just, that each Class should be adequately re-
presented in both the Extraordinary Classes of Honorary and Foreign Members.”

And, “ That as the list of individuals proposed to the Society for election as
Honorary and Foreign Menibers, wholly disregards the equality of the two consti-
tuent Classes, leaving to the Literary, out of a full complement of twenty-one Hono-
rary Members, only one, and out of a full complement of thirty-six Foreign Mem-
bers, only five places ;—therefore the election of the proposed gentlemen shall be
suspended unti] the general question in regard to the constitution of the Society and

the rights of the several Classes be determined.”

EE

and List of Members Elected. 573

On the motion of Dr Horr, it was unanimously resolved to postpone the ballot
for the Honorary and Foreign Members suggested by the Council.

February 16. 1835.
MEMBER ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
Wixu1am Brown, Esq. President of the Royal College of Surgeons.

Sir Witt1am Hamitton made his statement and motion announced at last meet-
ing; and Dr Horr made a reply in regard to that part of the mover’s statement
which related to the constitution of the Society. After a protracted discussion, it
was moved as an amendment by Dr Macuacan, “ That a Special Committee be ap-
pointed to consider and report if any measures can be adopted to improve the con-
stitution and well-being of the Royal Society, and, in particular, to ascertain the
rights, and promote the equilibrium and efficiency of both its Classes, to which

_Committee the proposals of Sir Witt1am Hamutton shall be referred.” This
amendment having been seconded by Mr Horner, and put from the Chair, was
carried by a considerable majority ; and the following Committee was appointed :—

Dr Arson. Joun Rosson, Esq. Professor Prnuans.

Dr Trait. Wixxiam Woop, Esq. Tuomas Tuomson, Esq.
Lzonarp Horner, Esq. Professor BELL. Rey. Archdeacon Wiiurams.
Professor WALLACE. Lord MreapowgBank. Grorce Forzss, Esq.

Dr Curisrison. J. SHanx Morz, Esq. Sir W. Hamrzron.

Sir W. Hamiiton, Convener.

March 16. 1835.
MEMBER ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
Tuomas Evrineton, Esq. F.G.S.

April 6. 1835

MEMBER ELECTED.
ORDINARY.
Reverend Epwarp Craie.

It was moved by Dr Hors, seconded by Sir Josrru Srraron, and carried by a
large majority, that the Society should proceed at its next meeting to ballot for the
Honorary and Foreign Members proposed by the Council in December last.

A report was laid upon the table, prepared by a Committee of the Council, with
the aid of a professional accountant, on the state of the Society’s finances, and sug-

Ame

574 Proceedings of General Meetings,

gesting several alterations in the laws and practice of the Society, the chief articles
of which had been previously, at the suggestion of the Committee, brought before

the Society, and passed into laws on the 26th January.
April 20. 1835.

MEMBERS ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
R. Mayne, Esq.

HONORARY.
Dr Datrton. James Ivory, Esq. Baron pE Prony.
Dr Farapay. Baron Porsson. Professor Arny.
FOREIGN.

Mons. Agassiz, Professor of Natural History, Neuchatel.
Coustn, Pair de France, &c.

Purana, Director of the Turin Observatory.
QuetexeT, Director of the Brussels Observatory.

Srruve, Director of the Dorpat Observatory.

November 23. 1836.

At a General Meeting held this day, for the purpose of electing Office-bearers,
Dr Horr, V. P. in the Chair, announced that it was the wish of Mr Russetx that
he should not again be elected to the situation of Vice-President ; upon which, on the
motion of Dr Hors, it was resolved, by acclamation, that the cordial thanks of the
Society be offered to Mr Russex for his long and valuable services to the Society,
from the time of its institution in 1783. The following Office-bearers were then ap-
pointed :—
Lieut.-General Sir T. M. Brispane, President.

Dr T. C. Hors,

Right Hon. Lord Greenock,

Reverend Dr CHALMERS,
, Vice-Presidents.
Sir Davin BREWSTER,
Hon. Lord GLENLEE,
Dr ABERCROMBIE,
Joun Rosison, Esq. General Secretary.
Dr CuRistTIson, ¢
Pecbealise aREES } Secretaries to the Ordinary Meetings.

3

GxrorcE Forzss, Esq. Treasurer.
Dr Trarxu, Curator of the Museum.
Joun Starx, Esq. Assistant Curator.

ee eC CS

and List of Members Elected. 575

COUNSELLORS.
Winuiam A. Capex, Esq. James T. Gisson-Craic, Esq.
James SKENE, Esq. Hon. Lord MrEapowBank.
Sir Gzorce Curr, Bart. Tuomas Tuomson, Esq.
Leonarp Horner, Esq. Rev. Archdeacon W1nu1Ams.
Dr J. H. Davipson. , Dr Wrtx1am Grecory.
Sir George Bauuineatu. Professor HENDERSON.

The following Committee was appointed to audit the Treasurer’s accounts :—

Dr NEiuu. J. T. Grpson-Craice, Esq. Professor HENDERSON.

Dr Traxx laid on the Table certain resolutions which he announced that he
should move at the first meeting in January next, for modifying the Laws regarding
Honorary and Foreign Members.

December 7. 1835.
MEMBERS ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
James Moncreirr, Esq. Advocate. James Stewart Woop, Esq.

January 18. 1836.

MEMBERS ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
Wiuram Paut, Esq. Accountant. Roser? Paut, Esq. Secretary to Commer-

ciai Bank.

Dr Trattt brought forward, in an amended form, his motion announced on the
23d November, namely, that the Laws I., X., XI. and XII. should stand thus:

“* Law I. The Royal Society of Edinburgh shall consist of Ordinary and Ho-
norary Fellows.

** Law X. The Honorary Fellows shall not be subject to any contribution.
This Class shall consist of persons eminent in Science or Literature. Its number
shall not exceed Fifty-six, of whom Twenty may be British subjects, and Thirty-six
subjects of foreign states. ,

“ Law XI. Personages of Royal blood may be elected Honorary Fellows, with-
out regard to the limitation of numbers specified in Law X.

*‘ Law XII. Honorary Fellows may be proposed by the Council, or by a recom-
mendation in the form given below, subscribed by three Ordinary Members; and in

576 Proceedings of General Meetings.

case the Council shall decline to bring this recommendation before the Society, it
shall be competent for the proposers to bring the same before a Gencral Meeting.

« The election shall be by ballot, after the proposal has been communicated
viva voce from the Chair at one meeting, and printed in the circular for the meeting
at which the ballot is to take place.

“ Form of Recommendation.

« We hereby recommend ———-———— for the distinction of being made an
Honorary Fellow; declaring that each of us, from his own knowledge of his services to
[ Literature or Science, as the case may be] believes him to be worthy of that honour.

“ To the President and Council of the [Signatures of the three

Royal Society of Edinburgh.” Ordinary Fellows. |

The motion having been put from the Chair in this form, it was carried unani-
mously.

It was announced that the Council had adjudged the Kerry Prize for the bien-
nial period, which had terminated with the last Session, to Professor Forses, for his
paper on the Refraction and Polarization of Heat.

February 15. 1836.
The Kerr Prize for the most important discovery recorded in the Society’s
Transactions during {the years 1834 and 1835, was presented, according to the
decision of the Council, to Professor Fornes, by Dr Hors, V. P.

March 21. 1836.

MEMBERS ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
Davin Rurnp, Esq. Architect. James ANDERSON, Esq. Civil-Engineer.
April 18. 1&36.
MEMBERS ELECTED.

ORDINARY.

Martin Barry, M.D. Roser STEvART, Esq. M. P.

May 2. 1836.
MEMBERS ELECTED.

ORDINARY.
ArcuipaLp Rosertson, M. D., F. R. S. Avex. Gipson CarMIcHaEL, Esq.
Macrxerson Grant, Esq. younger Epwarp Sane, Esq.

of Ballindalloch. Rev. Profess. NicHox, Univ. of Glasgow.

( 577 )

LIST OF THE PRESENT ORDINARY MEMBERS IN THE ORDER

Date of

Election.

1783.

1784.
178%.
1788.

1795.
1796.
1798.
1799.

1802.
1803.
1804.
1805.
1806.

1807.

1808.

OF THEIR ELECTION.

His Masesty THE KING, Parron.

Sir William Miller, Baronet, Lord Glenlee.

The above Gentleman is the only surviving member of the Edinburgh Philosophical
Society.

Honourable Baron Hume.

The Honourable Baron was associated with the Members of the Edinburgh Philosophi-
cal Society at the institution of the Royal Society in 1788. .

THE FOLLOWING MEMBERS WERE REGULARLY ELECTED.

Reverend Archibald Alison, LL. B. Edinburgh.

James Home, M. D. Professor of the Practice of Physic.

Thomas Charles Hope, M. D. F.R.S. Lond. Professor of Chemistry.
Right Honourable Charles Hope, Lord President of the Court.of Session.
The Very Reverend Dr George Husband Baird, Principal of the University.
The Honourable Baron Sir Patrick Murray, Bart.

Alexander Monro, M.D. Professor of Anatomy, &c.

Sir George Stuart Mackenzie, Baronet, F. R. S. Lond.

Robert Jameson, Esq. Professor of Natural History.

Colonel D. Robertson Macdonald.

Jobn Jamieson, D. D.

William Wallace, Esq. Professor of Mathematics. é
Thomas Thomson, M. D. F.R.S. Lond. Professor of Chemistry, Glasgow.
Robert Ferguson, Esq. of Raith, F.R.S. Lond.

George Dunbar, Esq. Professor of Greek.

Sir James Montgomery, Baronet, of Stanhope.

John Campbell, Esq. of Carbrook.

Thomas Thomson, Esq. Advocate.

James Wardrop, Esq. Surgeon Extraordinary to his Majesty.

578

Date of
Election.

1808.
1811.

1813.

1814,

1815.

1816.

List of Ordinary Members.

Sir David Brewster, Knight, LL. D. F.R.S. Lond.

Sir Charles Bell, Knight, F. R. 8. Lond. Professor of Surgery.

Reverend Andrew Stewart, M. D. Erskine.

David Ritchie, D. D. Emeritus Professor of Logic.

Major-General Sir Thomas Makdougal Brisbane, Bart. K.C.B., F.R.S. Lond.

John Thomson, M. D. Professor of General Pathology, Edinburgh.

James Jardine, Esq. Civil Engineer.

Captain Basil Hall, R. N. F. R.S. Lond.

J. G. Children, Esq. F. R. 8. Lond.

Alexander Gillespie, Esq. Surgeon, Edinburgh.

W. A. Cadell, Esq. F. R. S. Lond.

Maevey Napier, Esq. F. R.S. Lond. Professor of Conveyancing.

James Pillans, Esq. Professor of Humanity.

Sir George Clerk, Baronet, F. R. 8. Lond.

Daniel Ellis, Esq. Edinburgh.

William Somerville, M.D. F. R.S. London.

J. Henry Davidson, M.D. Edinburgh.

Sir Henry Jardine, King’s Remembrancer in Exchequer.

Patrick Neill, LL. D. Secretary to the Wernerian and Horticultural Societies.

Right Honourable Lord Viscount Arbuthnot.

Reverend John Thomson, Duddingston.

John Fleming, D.D. Professor of Natural Philosophy, King’s Coll. Aberdeen.

John Cheyne, M.D. Dublin.

Alexander Brunton, D.\D. Professor of Oriental Languages.

Professor George Glennie, Marischal College, Aberdeen.

Robert Stevenson, Esq. Civil Engineer.

Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Baronet, of Fountainhall.

Henry Home Drummond, Esq. of Blair- Drummond.

Charles Granville Stuart Menteath, Esq. of Closeburn.

William Thomas Brande, Esq. F. R.S. Lond. and Professor of Chemistry in
the Royal Institution.

Colonel Thomas Colby, F. R.S. Lond. Royal Engineers.

Leonard Horner, Esq. F. R. S. Lond.

Henry Colebrooke, Esq. Director of the Asiatic Society of Great Britain.

George Cooke, D.D. Professor of Moral Philosophy, St Andrew’ s.

Right Hon. William Adam, Lord Chief Commissioner.

Honourable Lord Fullerton.

Thomas Jackson, LL. D. Professor of Natural Philosophy, St Andrew’ s.

John Robison, Esq. Edinburgh.

Hugh Murray, Esq. Edinburgh.

List of Ordinary Members.

Date of ®
Election.

1817. Right Honourable Earl of Wemyss and March.
John Wilson, Esq. Professor of Moral Philosophy.
Hon. Lord Meadowbank.
Sir James Hamilton Dickson, M.D. Clifton.
William P. Alison, M. D. Professor of the Theory of Physic.
James Skene, Esq. of Rubislaw.
Reverend Robert Morehead, Northumberland.
Robert Bald, Esq. Civil Engineer.
1818. Robert Richardson, M. D. Harrowgate.
Harry William Carter, M.D. Oxford.
Patrick Miller, M. D. Ezeter.
John Craig, Esq. Edinburgh.
John Watson, M.D.
John Hope, Esq. Dean of Faculty.
William Ferguson, M. D. Windsor.
1819. Right Honourable Lord John Campbell, F. R. 8. Lond. and M.R.1.A.
Patrick Murray, Esq. of Simprim.
James Muttlebury, M. D. Bath.
Thomas Stewart Traill, M.D. Professor of Medical Jurisprudence.
Alexander Adie, Esq. Optician, Edinburgh.
William Couper, M. D. Glasgow.
Marshall Hall, M.D. Nottingham.
John Borthwick, Esq. Advocate.
Richard Phillips, Esq. F. R.S. Lond.
Reverend William Scoresby, Exeter.
George Forbes, Esq. Edinburgh.
1820. James Hunter, Esq. of Thurston.
Right Honourable David Boyle, Lord Justice-Clerk.
James Keith, Esq. Surgeon, Edinburgh.
Right Hon. Sir Samuel Shepherd.
James Nairne, W.S. Ldinburgh.
John Colquhoun, Esq. Advocate.
Lieutenant-Colonel M. Stewart.
Charles Babbage, Esq. F. R. 8. Lond.
Thomas Guthrie Wright, Esq. Auditor of the Court of Session.
Sir John F. W. Herschel, F. R. 8. Lond.
Adam Anderson, A. M. LL. D. Rector of the Perth Academy.
John Shank More, Esq. Advocate.
George Augustus Borthwick, M.D. Edinburgh.
Robert Dundas, Esq. of Arniston.

VOL. XIII. PART II. AE

580 List of Ordinary Members.

Date of
Election.

1820. Samuel Hibbert, M. D.
Robert Haldane, D. D, Principal of St Mary's College, St Andrew’ s.
Sir John Meade, M. D. Weymouth.
Dr William Macdonald of Ballyshear,
Sir John Hal], Baronet, of Dunglass.
Sir John Hay, Baronet, of Smithfield and Hayston, M. P.
Sir George Ballingall, M. D. Professor of Military Surgery.
1821. Major-General Sir Joseph Straton, K. C. B.
Robert Graham, M. D. Professor of Botany.
Sir James M. Riddell, Baronet, of Ardnamurchan.
Archibald Bell, Esq. Advocate.
John Clerk Maxwell, Esq. Advocate.
John Lizars, Esq. Professor of Surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons, Edin.
John Cay, Esq. Advocate.
Robert Kaye Greville, LL.D. Edinburgh.
Robert Hamilton, M. D. Edinburgh.
Sir Archibald Campbell, Baronet, of Garscube.
Sir David Milne, K. C. B.
A. R, Carson, Esq. LL. D. Rector of the High School.
1822. Sir Francis Chantrey, F. R.S. Lond.
James Smith, Esq. of Jordanhill, F. R. 8, Lond.
William Bonar, Esq. Edinburgh.
Rey. H. Parr Hamilton, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Captain J. D. Boswall, R. N. of Wardie.
George A. Walker Arnott, Esq. Advocate.
Rey. John Lee, D. D. one of the Ministers of Edinburgh.
Sir James South, F. R.S. Lond.
Lieutenant-Colonel Martin White, Edinburgh.
Walter Frederick Campbell, Esq. of Shawyield, M. P.
George Joseph Bell, Esq. Professor of Scots Law.
Dr William Dyce, Aberdeen.
W. C. Trevelyan, Esq. Wallington.
Sir Robert Abercromby, Baronet, of Birkenbog.
Thomas Shortt, M. D. Edinburgh.
Dr Wallich, Calcutta.
1823. The Right Honourable Sir George Warrender, Baronet, of Lochend.
John Russell, Esq. W. 8. Edinburgh.
John Shaw Stewart, Esq. Advocate.
Alexander Hamilton, M. D, Edinburgh.
Right Honourable Sir William Rae, Baronet, of St Catherine’s.

=

Date of
Election.

1823.

1824.

1825.

1826.

List of Ordinary Members. 581

William Cadell, Esq. of Cockenzie.

Sir Edward Ffrench Bromhead, Baronet, A.M. F.R.S. iiaat Thurlsby Hail.

Sir Andrew Halliday, M. D.

Captain Thomas David Stuart, of the Hon. East India Company's Service.

Andrew Fyfe, M. D. Lecturer on Chemistry, Edinburgh.

Robert Bell, Esq. Advocate, Procurator for the Church of Scotland.

Captain Norwich Duff, R. N.

Warren Hastings Anderson, Esq.

Alexander Thomson, Esq. of Banchory, Advocate.

Liscombe John Curtis, Esq. Jngsdon House, Devonshire.

Robert Knox, M.D. Lecturer on Anatomy, Edinburgh.

Robert Christison, M.D. Professor of Materia Medica.

John Gordon, Esq. of Cairnbulg.

Dr Lawson Whalley, Lancaster.

William Bell, Esq. W.S. Edinburgh.

Alexander Wilson Philip, M.D. London.

James Hamilton, M.D. Professor of Midwifery in the University of Edin-
burgh.

Sir Charles Adam, R.N.

Robert E. Grant, M.D. Professor of Comparative Anatomy in the London
University.

Claud Russell, Esq. Accountant, Edinburgh.

Rev. Dr William Muir, one of the Ministers of Edinburgh.

W. H. Playfair, Esq. Architect, Edinburgh.

John Argyle Robertson, Esq. Surgeon, Edinburgh.

James Pillans, Esq. Edinburgh.

James Walker, Esq. Civil-Engineer.

William Newbigging, Esq. Surgeon, Edinburgh.

William Wood, Esq. Surgeon, Edinburgh.

The Venerable Archdeacon John Williams, Rector of the Edinburgh Academy.

W. Preston Lauder, M. D. London.

Right Honourable Lord Ruthven.

Major Sir E. Leith Hay of Rannes.

Edward Turner, M. D. Professor of Chemistry in the London University.

Dr Reid Clanny, Sunderland.

Sir John Archibald Stewart, Baronet, of Grandtully.

Sir William Jardine, Baronet, of Applegarth.

Alexander Wood, Esq. Advocate.

Rev. Dionysius Lardner, LL. D. London.

George Macpherson Grant, Esq. of Ballindalloch.

4An2

582

Date of
Election.

1826.

182%.

1828,

1829.

List of Ordinary Members.

William Renny, Esq. W. 8. Solicitor of Stamps.

Elias Cathcart, Esq. Advocate.

Andrew Clephane, Esq. Advocate.

Rey. George Coventry.

Sir David Hunter Blair, Baronet.

George Moir, Esq. Advocate, Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres.
John Stark, Esq. Edinburgh.

Dr Maewhirter, Edinburgh.

John Gardiner Kinnear, Esq. Edinburgh.

William Burn, Esq. Edinburgh.

James Russell, M. D. Edinburgh.

Prideaux John Selby, Esq. Twizel House, Northumberland.
Henry Thornton Maire Witham, Esq. of Lartington.

Rey. Dr Robert Gordon, one of the Ministers of Edinburgh.
James Wilson, Esq. Edinburgh.

Rey. Edward Bannerman Ramsay, A. B. of St John's College, Cambridge.
Right Rev. Bishop James Walker, D. D. Edinburgh.
Alexander Copland Hutchison, Esq. Surgeon, London.
George Swinton, Esq. Edinburgh.

Sir Francis Walker Drummond, Baronet, of Hawthornden.
Erskine Douglas Sandford, Esq. Advocate.

David Maclagan, M.D. Edinburgh.

Major Maxwell, K. D. Guards.

John Forster, Esq. Architect, Liverpool.

Thomas Graham, A. M. Lecturer on Chemistry, Glasgow.
Thomas Hamilton. Esq. Edinburgh.

David Milne, Esq. Advocate.

Dr Manson, Nottingham.

William Burn Callender, Esq.

A. Colyar, Esq.

William Gibson-Craig, Esq. Advocate.

James Ewing, LL. D. Glasgow.

Charles Fergusson, Esq. Advocate.

Dunean Macneil], Esq. Sherig/-depute of Perthshire.

Rev. John Sinclair, A. M. Pembroke College, Oxford.
Arthur Connell, Esq. Advocate.

James Hope Vere, Esq. of Craigiehall.

Bindon Blood, M. R. I. A.

James Walker, Esq. W.S.

William Bald, Esq. M.R.I. A.

OO OE —<—_ =

Date of
Election.

1829.
1830.

1831.

1832.

1833.

1834.

List of Ordinary Members. 583

Sir Whitelaw Ainslie, M.D. M.R.A.S.

Colonel Pitman, Hon. East India Company's Service.

J. T. Gibson-Craig, Esq. W. S.

Archibald Alison, Esq. Advocate, Sheriff-depute of Lanarkshire.

Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone.

James Syme, Esq. Professor of Clinical Surgery.

Thomas Brown, Esq. of Langfine.

James L’Amy, Esq. Advocate, Sheriff-depute of Forfarshire.

Thomas Barnes, M. D. Carlisle.

James D. Forbes, Esq. F. R. S. Lond. Professor of Natural Philosophy.

Right Honourable James Abercromby, Speaker of the House of Commons.

John Abercrombie, M.D. Edinburgh, First Physician to his Majesty in Scot-
land.

Donald Smith, Esq.

Captain Samuel Brown, R.N.

O. Tyndal Bruce, Esq. of Falkland.

David Boswell Reid, M. D. Lecturer on Chemistry, Edinburgh.

T. S. Davies, Esq. A. M. Woolwich.

John Sligo, Esq. of Carmyle.

Major Alexander Anderson.

James Dunlop, Esq. Astronomer, New South Wales.

James F. W. Johnston, A.M. Reader of Chemistry in the University of
Durham.

William Gregory, M.D. Edinburgh.

Robert Allan, Esq. Advocate.

Robert Morrieson, Esq. Hon. E. I. C. Civil Service.

Montgomery Robertson, M. D.

William Dyce, Esq. A. M.

Captain Milne, R. N.

Alexander Earle Monteith, Esq. Advocate.

George Meikle, Esq. Surgeon Hon. E. I. C. Service.

His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch.

A. T. J. Gwynne, Esq.

David Craigie, M. D. Edinburgh.

George Buchanan, Esq. Civil-Engineer.

Sir John Stuart Forbes, Baronet, of Pitsligo.

John Dunlop, Esq. Advocate.

Alexander Hamilton, Esq. W. S.

Right Honourable Lord Greenock.

Mungo Ponton, Esq. W. S.

584

Date of
Election.

1834.

1835.

1836.

List of Ordinary Members.

Isaac Wilson, M.D. F.R. 8. Lond.
Lieutenant-Colonel Murray of Ochtertyre.

David Low, Esq. Professor of Agriculture.
Thomas Henderson, Esq. Professor of Astronomy.
Rey. Dr Chalmers, Professor of Divinity.

William Macgillivray, Esq. Keeper of the Museum of Royal Coll. of Surgeons.

Alexander Kinnear, Esq.

Patrick Boyle Mure, Esq. Advocate.

Thomas Balfour, Esq. Advocate.

John Davie Morries, M.D.

Thomas Jameson Torrie, Esq.

William Copland, Esq. of Colliston.

John Steuart Newbigging, Esq. W. S.

Rey. Dr Welsh, Professor of Church History.

John Haldane, Esq. Haddington.

Charles Forbes, Esq.

John Hutton Balfour, M. D.

Sir John Campbell, M. P. Attorney-General.

John Mackean, Esq. Accountant.

William Brown, Esq. Surgeon, Edinburgh.

Thomas Edington, F. G. 8.

Reverend Edward Craig.

R. Mayne, Esq.

John Stewart Wood, Esq.

William Paul, Esq. Accountant.

Robert Paul, Esq. Secretary to Commercial Bank.
David Rhind, Esq. Architect.

James Anderson, Esq. Civil-Engineer.

Martin Barry, M. D.

Archibald Robertson, M. D. F. R. S. Lond.

J. Macpherson Grant, Esq. younger of Ballindalloch.
Alexander Gibson Carmichael, Esq.

Edward Sang, Esq. Lecturer on Natural Philosophy, Edinburgh.
Rey. J. P. Nichol, Professor of Practical Astronomy, University of Glasgow.
William Sharpey, M. D.

List of Non-Resident and Foreign Members. 585

LIST OF NON-RESIDENT AND FOREIGN MEMBERS,

ELECTED UNDER THE OLD LAWS.

NON-RESIDENT.

Right Honourable Lord Wallace.

Rey. Bishop Gleig, Stirling.

Charles Hatchett, Esq. F. R.S. Lond.

Sir William Blizzard, M. D. F. R. 8. Lond.
Thomas Blizzard, Esq.

Sir William Ouseley, Baronet.

Sir James Macgrigor, Baronet, M. D.
Richard Griffiths, Esq. Civil-Engineer.

FOREIGN.
M. Le Chevalier, Paris.

Dr 8. L. Mitchell, New York.
M. P. Prevost, Geneva.

586 List of Honorary Fellows.

LIST OF HONORARY FELLOWS.

His Majesty the King of the Belgians.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex.

His Imperial Highness the Archduke John of Austria.
His Royal Highness the Archduke Maximilian.

BRITISH SUBJECTS (LIMITED TO TWENTY BY LAW x.)

Robert Brown, Esq. F. R. 8.

Davies Gilbert, Esq. V. P. R.S.

Sir John F. W. Herschel, F. R. S.

Dr Dalton, F.R.S.

Dr Faraday, F. R.S.

James Ivory, Esq. K. H. F.R. S.

G. B. Airy, Esq. F. R. S. Astronomer Royal.

THE FOLLOWING EIGHT NAMES WERE INCLUDED WITH THE ABOVE PRIOR TO THE
CHANGE IN THE Law, 187TH January 1836.

Le Baron Humboldt, Berlin.

M. Gay Lussac, Paris.
M. Biot, Do.

M. Arago, Do.
Chevalier Hammer.

J. Berzelius, Stockholm.
Le Baron Poisson, Paris.

Le Baron de Prony, Do.

FOREIGNERS (LIMITED TO THIRTY-SIX.)

M. Brochant, Paris.
Le Baron Von Buch, Berlin.
M. Gauss, Géttingen.
M. Blumenbach, Do.

. M. Simond de Sismondi. Geneva.
Le Baron Degerando, Paris.

or

— ===

10.

15.

20.

25.

30.

35.

List of Honorary Fellows.

Le Baron Krusenstern,

M. Oersted,

M. Schumacher,
M. Mohs,

N. Bowdich, Esq.
Le Baron Larrey,

Sir Henry Bernstein,

M. De Candolle,
Dr Olbers,
Bishop Munter,
Le Baron Dupin,
M. Brongniart,
Chevalier Biirg,
M. Bessel,

M. Thenard,

M. Haidinger,
M. Mitscherlich,
M. G. Rose,

M. G. Moll,

M. Hausmann,

J. J. Audubon, Esq.

Chevalier Bouvard,
M. L. A. Necker,
M. Agassiz,

Le Baron Cousin,
M. Plana,

M. Quetelet,

M. Struve,

M. Dulong,

VOL. XIII. PART II.

St Petersburgh.

Copenhagen.
Altona.
Freyberg.
United States.
Paris.
Berlin.
Geneva.
Bremen.
Zealand.
Paris.

Do.

Vienna.
Konigsberg.
Paris.
Vienna.
Berlin.
Berlin.
Utrecht.
Gottingen.
United States.
Paris.
Geneva.
Neuchatel.
Paris.
Turin.
Brussels.
Dorpat
Paris

F4

587

( 588 )

LIST OF FELLOWS DECEASED, RESIGNED, AND CANCELLED,
FROM 1833 To 1836.

(This List is necessarily incomplete. )

Sir Gilbert Blane, M.D. F. R. 8. Lond.

Right Honourable Sir Robert Liston, Bart.

Sir Henry Steuart, Baronet, of Allanton.

John Gillies, LL.D. Historiographer to his Majesty.

Rey. Dr Brinkley, F.R.S. Lond. Pres. Royal Irish Academy.

M. Stromeyer, Professor of Chemistry, Gottingen.

James Hamilton, M. D. senior, Edinburgh.

James Russell, Esq. date Professor of Clinical Surgery, Edin. and Vice-President.
Right Honourable Sir John Sinclair, Bart.

Thomas Macknight, D. D. one of the Clergymen of Edinburgh.

Honourable Lord Robertson, date Senator of the College of Justice.

Rey. Dr Andrew Brown, Professor of Rhetoric.

General Dyce.

Thomas Sivright, Esq. of Meggetland.

Right Honourable Lord Napier.

John H. Wishart, Esq. Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.
James Buchan, M.D. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.
Sir Robert Dundas, Baronet, of Beechwood.

John Bonar, Esq. of Kimmerghame.

Andrew Skene, Esq. Advocate, late Solicitor-General for Scotland.

John W. Turner, Professor of Surgery, University of Edinburgh.

Edward Troughton, Esq. F. R. 8. Lond.

Sir William Knighton, Baronet.

James Weddell, Esq. R.N.

D. G. Sandeman, Esq.

M. Ampere, Member of the French Institute.

Dr Hosack, United States.

List of Members Deceased, or Resigned. 589

RESIGNATIONS.

William Fraser Tytler, Esq. Advocate.
Lieutenant-Colonel Tytler.

Sir William Hamilton, Baronet.
James Tytler, Esq. of Woodhouselee.
John Gladstone, Esq. of Fasque.

ELECTIONS CANCELLED.

John Reddie, Esq. LL. D. Edinburgh.

Anthony Dickson, Esq. date President of Bengal Medical Board.
George Anderson, Esq. Rector of Inverness Academy.

A. N. Macleod, Esq. of Harris.

Ar2

( 590 )

LIST OF DONATIONS.

(Continued from Vol. XII. p. 574.)

December 2. 1833.

DONATIONS.

Flora Batava. Nos. 93 and 94.

The Fortunate Union, a Romance. Translated from the Chinese ori-
ginal, with Notes and Illustrations, by John Francis Davis, F.R.S.
2 vols.

Hoei-Lan-Ki, ou Histoire du Cercle de Craie, Drame en Prose et en
Vers, traduit du Chinois, et accompagné de Notes. Par Stanislas
Julien.

San Kokf Tsou Ran To Sets, ou Apercu Général des Trois Royaumes.
Traduit de original Japonais-Chinois, by Mr J. Klaproth.

The Shah Nameh of the Persian Poet Firdoosi. Translated and
Abridged, in Prose and Verse, with Notes and Illustrations, by
James Atkinson, Esq.

History of the Pirates wlio infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810.
Translated from the Chinese original, with Notes and Illustrations,
by Charles Fried. Neumann.

The Life of Hafiz Ool-Moolk, Hafiz Rehmut Khan, written by his Son.
Abridged and Translated from the Persian, by Charles Elliot, Esq.

The Geographical Works of Sadik Isfahani. Translated by J. C. from
Original Persian MSS. in the collection of Sir William Ouseley,
the Editor.

The Algebra of Mahommed Ben Musa. Edited and Translated by
Frederic Rosen.

The Life of Sheikh Mahommed Ali Hazin, written by himself. Trans-
lated from two Persian Manuscripts, and illustrated with Notes, by
F. C. Belfour, M. A., Oxon, F. R. A. S., LL. D.

History of the War in Bosnia, during the years 1737-8-9. Trans-
lated from the Turkish by C. Fraser, Professor of German in the
Naval and Military Academy, Edinburgh.

Customs and Manners of the Women of Persia, and their Domestic
Superstitions. Translated from the original Persian Manuscript, by
James Atkinson, Esq.

DONORS.

King of Holland.

Oriental Transla-
tion Fund.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

List of Donations.

DONATIONS.
Miscellaneous Translations from Oriental Languages. Vol. I.

Yakkun Nattannawa; and Kolan Nattannawa. Cingalese Poems.
Translated by John Callaway.

Memoirs of a Malayan Family, written by themselves, and translated
from the original by W. Marsden, F.R.S., &c. &c,

The Siyar-ul-Mutakherin ; A History of the Mahommedan Power in
India during the last century. By Mir Gholam Hussein-Khan.
Revised from the Translation of Haji Mustefa, and collated with
the Persian original by John Briggs, M. R. A. S., Lieutenant-Col.
in the Madras Army.

History of the early Kings of Persia. Translated from the original
Persian of Mirkhond, by David Shea.

The History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks. Translated from
the Turkish of Haji Khalifeh, by James Mitchell. Chapters 1 to 4.

The History of Vartan, and of the Battle of the Armenians; contain-
ing an Account of the Religious Wars between the Persians and
the Armenians. By Eliszeus, Bishop of the Amadunians. Trans-
lated from the Armenian by C. F..Neumann.

The Mulfuzat Timiry, or Auto-Biographical Memoirs of the Moghul
Emperor Timir. Translated from the Persian by Major Charles
Stewart.

The Adventures of Hatim Tai; a Romance. Translated from the Per-
sian by Duncan Forbes, A. M.

History of the Afghans. Translated from the Persian of Neamet Ullah
by Bernard Dorn. Part 1.

Han Koong Tsew, or the Sorrows of Han; a Chinese Tragedy. Trans-
lated from the original, with Notes, by John Francis Davis, F.R.S.

The Travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch; written by his atten-
dant Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo, in Arabic. Translated by F. C.
Belfour, A. M., Oxon. Parts 1, 2, and 3.

Memoirs of the Emperor Jahangueir, written by himself; and trans-
lated from a Persian manuscript by Major David Price.

Raghuyvansa Kalidase, Carmen Sanskrité et Latiné edidit Adolphus
Fredericus Stenzler.

Private Memoirs of the Moghul Emperor Humayin. Written in the
Persian language by Jonher, a confidential domestic of his Ma-
jesty- Translated by Major Charles Stewart, M.R.A.5., &c.

Annals of the Turkish Empire, from 1591 to 1659 of the Christian
Era, by Naiman. Translated from the Turkish by Charles Fraser.
Vol. 1. ‘

Sexagesimal Logarithms.

Astronomische Nachrichten. Nos. 39 and 40.

591

DONORS.
Oriental Transla-
tion Fund.
Ditto.
Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.
Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.
Ditto

Ditto.

Ditto.

Fletcher Raincock.
Esq.
Prof. Schumacher.

592 List of Donations.

DONATIONS.

Alphabetical’ Index of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Lon-
don, from vol. exi. to cxx. inclusive.

Abhandlungen der Koniglichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Ber-
lin, aus den Jahre 1830 und 1831.

Reports of the Commissioners appointed to fix the boundaries of the
English Burghs under the Reform Bill. 10 vols.

Reports of the Commissioners appointed to fix the boundaries of the
Irish Burghs under the Reform Bill.

Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

Recueil de Voyages et de Mémoires publié par la Société de Géogra-

2 vols.

] vol.
Vol. v. part 1.

phie de Paris. 3 tomes.

The Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables, found in the Carboniferous
and Oolitic Deposits of Great Britain, described and illustrated.
By Henry T. M. Witham of Lartington, F. G. S., F.R.S. E.

The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture ; and the Prize Essays and Trans-
actions of the Highland Society of Scotland. No. 21.

Mémoire Explicatif des Phénoménes de I’ Aiguille Aimantée. Par De-
monville.

Sur la possibilité de mesurer l’Influence des Causes qui modifient les
Elémens Sociaux. Par A. Quetelet.

Bulletin de l’Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de
Bruxelles, 1832-33. Nos. 1-12.

Recherches sur les Poids de ’homme aux differens Ages. Par A.
Quetelet.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1833.
Part 1.

Address to the third General Meeting of the British Association for
the Advaucement of Science. By the Rev. W. Whewell.

A Letter to the Members of the Temperance Society. By James
Henry, M. B.

Miliaria accuratius Descripta, a Jacobo Henry, M. D.

Catalogue of Preparations, &c. in Morbid, Natural, and Comparative
Anatomy, contained in the Museum of the Army Medical Depart-
ment, Fort Pitt, Chatham.

Bulletia de la Société Géologique de France. Tome iii. Feuilles 6-9
and 14-16.

arometrical Tables for the use of Engineers, Geologists, and Scientific
Travellers. By William Galbraith, M. A.

Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. Vol. iii.
Parts 1 and 2.

Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. Vol. xv.

Asiatic Researches, or Transactions of the Society instituted in Ben-
gal, for inquiring into the History, the Antiquities, the Arts and

Sciences, and Literature of Asia. Vol. xvii.

DONORS,

The Society.
The Academy.
Drummond,

Esq.
Ditto.

The Society.
Ditto.

The Author.

Highland Society.

The Author.

The Author.

The Society.

The Author.

The Society.

Professor Forbes.

The Author.
Ditto.

Sir James M‘Gri-
gor, Bart.

The Society.

The Author.

The Society.

The Academy.
The Society.

List of Donations.

DONATIONS.
The American Journal of Science and Arts. Conducted by Benjamin
' Silliman, M. D., LL. D., Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy,
&c. in Yale College. Vols. xx.—xxiy.

Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. Vol. i. part 1.

Proceedings of the Committee of Science and Correspondence of the
Zoological Society of London. Parts 1 and 2.

Tabelle iiber die Geologie, von Hermann von Meyer.

Lettre i Ja Nation Anglaise, sur l'Union des Peuples et la Civilization
comparée ; sur I Instrument économique du Tems, appelé Biometre,
ou Montre Morale. Par Marc-Antoine Jullien de Paris.

Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, 1833. Nos. 31-32.

List of the Members of the Geological Society of London, 1883.

Memorie della Reale Academia delle Scienze di Torino, Tome xxxvi.

Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ire-
Jand. Vol. i. parts 1 and 2, vol. iii. parts 1 and 2.

Conjectures relative to the Origin of Numerical Hieroglyphics. By
T. S. Davies.

Bulletin de la Société d’Encouragement par l’Industrie Nationale, pour
les Années 1824-83. Jan. Fevr. Mars, Avril, Mai, Juin.

Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Green-
wich. By the Rey. Dr N. Maskelyne. Vols. 2, 3, and 4,

Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Green-
wich, from 1811 to 1832, 44 parts. By John Pond, Esq.

Mémoires de I’Académie Impériale des Sciences de St Petersburg,
VIme Série (Sciences, Mathématiques, Physiques, et Naturelles).
Tomes i. and ii. Livrs 1, 2, 3, 4.

Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St Petersburg,
VIme série (Sciences, Politiques, Histoire, et Philologie.) Tomesi.
and ii.

Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St Petersburg.
Presentés par divers Savans, et lus dans ses Assemblées. Tome i.
Livr. 1-6.

Recueil des Actes de la Séance publique de 1’ Académie Impériale des
Sciences de St Petersburg, 1828-32. 5 parts.

Verzeichniss der Pflanzen. Vom Dr C. Anton Meyer.

Catalogue Raisonné des Objets de Zoologie recueillis dans un Voyage
au Caucase. Par E. Ménétries.

Hyperanthraxis, or the Cholera of Sunderland. By W. Reid Clanny,
M.D., F.R.S.E., M. RT. A. :

December 16.

Transactions of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India.
Vol. ii. parts 1. and 2.

593

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594 List of Donations.

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January 20. 1834.

Proceedings of the Royal Society, No. 13, and Statement of the Re-
ceipts and Payments of the Royal Society between Nov. 29. 1832
and Noy. 29. 1853.

Researches on Spherical Geometry, Polar Triangles, &c. By T. 8.
Davies, Esq.

Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. Tome iii. Feuilles,
17-24.

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. vi.

Astronomical Observations, made at the Royal Observatory at Green-
wich, in October, November, and December 1832, and January,
February, and March 1833. By John Pond, Esq.

Observations of Nebule and Clusters of Stars, made at Slough with a
twenty feet reflector, between the years 1825 and 1833. By Sir
J. F. W. Herschel, K. H.

On the Absorption of Light by Coloured Media, viewed in connexion
with the Undulatory Theory. By Sir J. F. W. Herschel, K. H.

Supplement to Dr Bradley’s Miscellaneous Works, with an Account
of Harriat’s Astronomical Works. By Professor Rigaud.

Mémoire sur le Choléra-Morbus compliqué d’une Epidémie de Fiévre
Jaune, qui a regné simultanément 4 la Nouvelle-Orléans en 1832.
Par M. Michel Halphen, Docteur en Médecine.

Astronomische Nachrichten. Nos. 241 to 250.

On the Influence of Colour and Heat on Odours. By James Stark,
M. D.

Beitrage zur Petrefactenkunde. Von Hermann von Mayer.

February 3.
Transactions of the Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce,
vol. xlix.
Entomologia Edinensis; or a History and Description of the Insects
found in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. By James Wilson,
Esq., and the Rey. James Duncan.

February 17.

History of the Berwickshire Naturalist’s Club, instituted September
1831.

Mémoires de la Société Géologique de France. Tome i. part 1.

Mémoires de la Société de Physique et d’Histoire Naturelle de Généve.
Tome ii. Part 2. Tomes iti. and iy.

Mémoires de l’Académie Royale des Sciences de I'Institut de France.
Tome xii.

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DONATIONS.
March 3.
Letter to his Grace the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, respecting
the Parochial Registers of Scotland. By James Cleland, LL. D.,
&e.
Quarterly Journal of Agriculture ; and the Prize Essays and Transac-
tions of the Highland Society of Scotland. No. 24.

Print of the Statue of Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., G. C. B.

April 7.

List of the Fellows of the Royal Society. November 30. 1833.

Address delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society,
on Saturday, Nov. 30. 1833, by His Royal Highness the Duke of
Sussex, K. G., &c. &c. &c., the President.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for the
year 1833, part 2.

Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1832-33, No. 14.

Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Green-
wich, in April, May, June, July, August, and September 1833.
By John Pond, Esq. Astronomer-Royal.

Supplements to the Greenwich Observations for the years 1830-82.
By John Pond, Esq. Astronomer-Royal.

Catalogue of 1112 Stars, reduced from Observations made at the Royal
Observatory at Greenwich, from the years 1816 to 18338.

Nouveaux Mémoires de l’Académie Royale de Bruxelles. Tomes ii,
iii, iv, v, and vii.

Mémoires de Prix de l’Académie Royale de Bruxelles. Tomes ii, iii
V, Vi, Vii, ix.

Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothéque dite de Bour-
gogne, rélatifs aux Pays-Bas ; publi¢s par l’Académie Royale des
Sciences et Belles-Lettres, pour faire suite 4 ses Mémoires. Par
le Baron de Reiffenberg. Tome i, part 1.

Rapport 4 Monsieur le Ministre de ]'Intérieur sur les Travaux de
Y Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de Bruxelles
depuis le mois de Juillet 1830.

Bulletin de Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de
Bruxelles. 1833-34. Nos. 15-19.

Statistique des Tribunaux de la Bélgique, pendant Jes années 1826-30.
Par MM. A. Quetelet, Directeur de l’Observatoire de Bruxelles,
et Ed. Smits, Directeur du Bureau de Statisque.

Recherches sur les Degrés successifs de Force Magnétique qu'une Ai-
guille d’Acier regoit pendant Jes Frictions multiples qui servent a
Yaimanter. Par M. Quetelet.

VOL. XIII. PART II.

595

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596 List of Donations.

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Astronomische Nachrichten. Nos. 251-257.
Essai sur quelques Zodaiques apportés des Indes. Par M. de Paravey.
Etudes sur l'Archéologie. Par M. de Paravey.
Planum et Statuta Societatis Erudite Hungarice.

Annalium Societatis Erudite Hungarice volumen primum.

The Second Fasciculus of Anatomical Drawings, selected from the
collection of Morbid Anatomy in the Army Medical Museum at
Chatham.

December 1.

An Essay on the Deaf and Dumb: shewing the Necessity of Medical
Treatment in Early Infancy; with Observations on Congenital
Deafness. By John Harrison Curtis, Esq.

The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture ; and the Prize Essays and Tran-
sactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, for
September 1834.

Reports of the Scarborough Philosophical Society, for 1831, 1832, and
1833.

Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. Tome iv. Feuilles 10-24;
and Tome y.

Archiv fur Chemie und Meteorologie, herausgegeben vom Dr K. W.
G. Kastner. Bands ], 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and Band. 7, Heft. 1.

Quelques Observations de Physique Terrestre. Par MM. Aug. De
La Rive and F. Marcet.

Esquisse Historique des Principales Découvertes faites dans I’Elec-
tricité depuis quelques Années. Par M. Auguste De La Rive.

Notice Biographique sur M. le Professeur G. De La Rive.

Bulletins de ’Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de
Bruxelles. Nos. 19-24.

Annales de I'Observatoire de Bruxelles, publices par le Directeur,
A. Quetelet. Part 1.

Astronomische Beobachtungen auf der Kéniglichen Universitats Stern-

Von F. W. Bessel, for 1830.

Astronomische Nachrichten. Nos. 258-264.

Transactions of the Royul Irish Academy.

Asiatic Researches—Transactions of the Physical Class of the Asiatic

warte in Kénigsberg.
Vol. xvii. part 1.
Society of Bengal. Vol. xviii. part 2.

A Treatise on Insects, being the article Entomology, from the 7th Edi-
By James Wilson, Esq.
Nova Acta Regis Societatis Upsaliensis. Vol. x.

The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

No. l.
Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society. Vol. iii. part 3.

tion of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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A Manual of Mineralogy, comprehending the more recent Discoveries
in the Mineral Kingdom. By Robert Allan, Esq.

Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. Vol. i. part 2.

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1833; part 1.

The American Journal of Science and Arts, conducted by Benjamin
Silliman, M. D., LL.D. For April and October 1834.

The Climate of London deduced from Meteorological Observations
made in the Metropolis, and at various places around it. By Luke
Howard, Esq. 3 vols.

Proceedings of the Fifteenth Anniversary Meeting of the Hunterian
Society, held on the 4th February 1834, with the Report and
List of Officers and Members.

A Practical and Pathological Inquiry into the Sources and Effects of
Derangements of the Digestive Organs. By William Cooke, Esq.

Fauna Americana, being a Description of the Mammiferous Animals
inhabiting North America. By Richard Harlan, M. D.

Proceedings of the Geological Society of London. Nos. 33, 34, and 35.

Report of the Managers of the Franklin Institute of the State of Penn-
sylvania, for the promotion of the Mechanic Arts, in relation to
Weights and Measures.

Bulletins de la Société d’Encouragement pour Industrie Nationaie,
1833 and 1834 January to April.

Mémoires de l'Institut Royal de France-——Académie des Inscriptions
et Belles-Lettres. Tome x.

Conjectures concerning the Origin of Alphabetic Writing. By Thomas
Stephens Davies, Esq.

Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. Vol. xvii. part 1.

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. vii.

Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. Vol. v. part 2.

Nautical and Hydraulic Experiments, with numerous Scientific Mis-
cellanies. By Colonel Mark Beaufoy, F.R.S. Vol. i.

Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, held at Phila-
delphia, for promoting Useful Knowledge. Vol. iv. New Series,
part 3.

Abhandlungen der Kéniglichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2u Ber-
lin, 1832.

An Engraving of the Royal Wiiliam Yard, Plymouth. By J. Rennie,
Esq.

Mémoires de la Société d’Agriculture, a 1814 au 1833. 25 Tomes.

Rapport au Conseil Supérieur de Santé sur le Choléra Morbus Pesti-
lentiel. Par Alexandre Moreau de Jonnés.

Statistique de Espagne. Par Alexandre Moreau de Jonnées.

4c2

597

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598 List of Donations.
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Histoire Physique des Antilles Francaises. Par Alexandre Moreau
de Jonnés.

Origines Biblicz ; or Researches on Primeval History. By Charles
Tilstone Beke, Esq. Vol. i.

Population Abstracts of Great Britain. 3 vols.

Proceedings of the Royal Society. No. 15.

Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1834, Part 1.

Elements of Chemistry, including the recent Discoveries and Doctrines
of the Science. By Edward Turner, M.D., F. B.S. L. and EB.
Fifth Edition.

Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Green-
wich, under the direction of John Pond, Esq. Astronomer-Royal,
for the years 1831 and 1832; January to September.

Observations Sommaires, sur les Canaux Navigables, et les Chemins de
Fer, et sur les avantages que la France peut obtenir de sa Canali-
sation, notamment pour Ja prosperité de son Agriculture. Par
M. Huerne de Pommeuse.

A Cameleon, a Fly Fish, and a Lantern Fly, preserved in Spirits.

December 15.

Mémoires de I’Académie Impériale de St Petersbourg (Sciences Ma-
thématiques, &c). Tome ii. Livraisons 5 et 6.

Mémoires de l’Académie Impériale de St Petersbourg (Sciences, Po-
litiques, &c). Tome ii. Livraisons 2, 3, 4, 5.

Mémoires de I’Académie Impériale de St Petersbourg (par divers
Savans). Tome ii. Livraisons 1, Ae ah

Recueil des Séances publiques de I’ Académie Impériale de St Peters-
bourg, tenues en Decembre 1826, Decembre 1827, and Decembre
1833.

Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United King-
dom. Vol. ii.

Mémoires de la Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve.
Tome vi-

January 5. 1835.

Astronomische Nachrichten, Nos. 255, 266, and 267.

Distances of the Sun, and the four Planets, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn, from the Moon, calculated according to Mr Bessel’s me-
thod, together with their places for every day in the year 1835.
Caleulated under the direction of H. C. Schumacher, Professor of
Astronomy at Copenhagen, &c.

Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club. No. II.

Kongl. Vetenskaps-Academiens Handlingar for Ar 1833.

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DONATIONS.
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skaps-Academiens Embetsman, D. 31 Mars 1833.
Series of Geological Specimens, illustrative of the Greywacke series of
Shropshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Wales.

January 19.

Report to the Committee of the Commissioners of Northern Lights,
appointed to take into consideration the subject of Mluminating
the Lighthouses by means of Lenses. By Alan Stevenson, M. A.
Civil Engineer.

Bulletin de la Société Geologique de France. Tome iv. Feuilles 28,
29.

February 2.
Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. Vol. xvii. Part 1.

February 16.

Records of General Science. By Robert Thomson, M. D., with the as-
sistance of Thomas Thomson, M. D., F.R.S.L. and E. No. I.
for January 1835.

Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France.
28-29.

Recherches sur l’Année Vague des Egyptiens. Par M. Biot.

Descriptive and Illustrative Catalogue of the Physiological Series of
Comparative Anatomy contained in the Museum of the Royal Col-

Vol. ii.

Tome iv. Feuilles

lege of Surgeons in London.

March 2.

The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture ; and the Prize Essays and Tran-
sactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland,
No. 28, for March 1835.

The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for
1835; and

Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, held at Philadel-
phia, for promoting Useful Knowledge. Vol. v. Part i. (New
Series.)

Mécanique Céleste, by the Marquis de La Place, Peer of France, &c.
Translated by Nathaniel Bowdich, LL.D. Vol. iii.

Carte Physique de I'Isle de Teneriffe, levée sur les lieux. Par Leopold
de Buch, en 1814.

Carte des Cotes de France, sur laquelle on a indiqué la position et
la nature des diverses especes de Feux établis ou 4 etablir sur

A
ces cotes.

599

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600 List of Donations.

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March 16.

Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufac-
tures, and Commerce, for the Session 1833-34; being Part 1. of
Vol. 50.

Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. Tome vi. Feuilles 1-4.

Correspondance Mathématique et Physique de T’Observatoire de
Bruxelles, publiée par le Directeur A. Quetelet. Tome viii. Liy-
raison 4.

Nouveaux Mémoires de l’Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Let-
tres de Bruxelles. Tome viii.

Bulletin de ’ Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de
Bruxelles, 1834. No. 25.

Memorie della Reale Academia della Scienze di Torino. Tome xxxvii.

Description des Nouvelles Montres & Seconde, & I'usage des Ingé-
nieurs, des Physiciens, des Médecins, &c. Composés par Henri
Robert.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for the
year 1834. Part 2.

Proceedings of the Royal Society. Nos. 17, 18.

List of the Fellows of the Royal Society, 1834-35.

Report on the Adjudication of the Copley, Rumford, and Royal
Medals ; and Appointment of the Bakerian, Croonian, and Fair-
child Lectures. By James Hudson, Assistant Secretary and Li-
brarian.

Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Green-
wich, in the months of April to September 1834. By John Pond,
Esq. Astronomer-Royal.

April 6.

On the Vegetation and Temperature of the Faroe Islands. By W.C.
Trevelyan, Esq.

Natuur en Scheikundig Archief, intgegeven door G. J. Mulder.
2 vols.

Leerboek voor Scheikundige Werktingkunde door G. J. Mulder.
Vols. i. and ii. Part 1.

A List of Test Objects, principally Double Stars, arranged in Classes,
for the trial of Telescopes in various respects as to Light, Dis-
tinctness, &e. By Sir J..F. W. Herschel.

A second Series of Micrometrical Measures of Double Stars, chiefly
performed with the seven feet Equatorial at Slough, in 1831,
1832, and 1833. By Sir J. F. W. Herschel.

On the Satellites of Uranus. By Sir J. F. W. Herschel.

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ment.
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April 20.

Voyage autour du Monde, entrepris par ordre du Roi, exécuté sur les
Corvettes de S. M. l’Uranie et la Thysicienne. Par M. Louis de
Freycinet. 2 tomes 4to; and Atlas, folio.

Voyage autour du Monde, exécuté par ordre du Roi, sur la Corvette
de Sa Majesté La Coquille. Par L.J.Duperrey. 1 Atlas, in folio.

Voyage de la Corvette L' Astrolabe, exécuté sous le Commandement
de M. Jules Dumont D’Urville. 1 Atlas, in folio.

Voyage autour du Monde, exécuté sur la Corvette la Favorite, com-
mandée par M. Laplace. 1 Atlas, in folio.

Le Pilote du Bresil, par le Baron Roussin. 1 vol. 8vo; and Atlas, in
folio.

Description Nautique des Cotes de la Martinique. Par M. P. Monnier.
1 vol. 8vo; and Atlas, in folio.

Pilote de I'lle de Corse. Par M. Hell. 1 Atlas, in folio.

Pilote Frangais. 3 Atlas, in folio.

Exposé des Travaux Rélatifs 4 la Reconnaisance Hydrographique des
Cotes Occidentales de France. Par M. Beautemps-Beaupré. 4to.

Mémoires sur les Attérages des Cotes Occidentales de France. Par
M. le Saulnier de Vanhello. 4to.

Collection de 66 Cartes and Plans.

Table des Positions Géographiques. Par M. Daussy.

Catalogue des Préparations Anatomiques laissées dans la Cabinet d’Ana-
tomie Comparée du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle. Par G. Cuvier.

Nouvelles Annales du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, 1834. . Tome iii.
Livraison 3.

The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ire-
land. No. 3.

Hints on the Trisection of an Angle, and Duplication of the Cube in
Elementary Geometry. By Nasmyth Morrieson, W. S.

Chart of the Chinese Sea. By Captain Horsburgh, Hydrographer to
the Hon. Kast India Company.

December 7.

An Account of the Rev. John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer-Royal ;
compiled from his own Manuscripts, and other authentic Docu-
ments never before published. To whichis added, his British Ca-
talogue of Stars. By Francis Baily, Esq., Vice-President of the
Royal Astronomical Society.

Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. viii.

Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Green-
wich, under the direction of Jolin Pond, Esq.—for 1829, part 5;
1833, part 5; 1834, parts 1, 2, 3, 4; and 1835, part 1.

601

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cal Society.
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602 List of Donations.

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Observations sur le Choléra Morbus qui a régné 4 la Nouvelle Orleans
en 1833 et en 1834. Par M. Michel Halphen, M. D.

Considerations sur la Nature et le Traitement du Choléra Morbus,
suivies d’une instruction sur les preceptes Hygieniques contre
cette Maladie. Par le Chevalier J. R. L. Kirckhoff, M. D.

Bulletin de la Société de Geographie. Deuxieme serie. Tomes i. ii.

Bulletin de la Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale.
Mai 1 Decembre 1834, et Janvier 4 Mars 1835.

Leerboek voor Scheikundige Werktingkunde. Door G. J. Mulder.
Vol. ii. part 2.

Tijdschrift voor Natuurlijke Geschiedenis. Uitgegeven door J. Van
der Hoeven, M.D., en W. H. de Vriese, M.D. Vol. i. parts 1,
2, 3.

Geological Report of an Examination made in 1834 of the elevated
country between the Missouri and Red Rivers. By G. W.
Featherstonhaugh, Esq.

Index to the first Eighteen Volumes of the Asiatic Researches, or
Transactions of the Society instituted in Bengal for inquiring into
the History and Antiquities, the Arts, Sciences, and Literature of
Asia.

Mémoires d’ Agriculture, d’Economie Rurale et Domestique, publiées
par la Société Royale et Centrale d’ Agriculture.
1834.

Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Series.) Vol. i.

Voyage autour du Monde par les Mers de I'Inde et de Chine, ¢xécute
sur la Corvette de ’Etat La Favorite pendant les années 1830,
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de Frégate. 4 tomes.

Pour l'année

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dant les années 1826-27—28-29, sous le Commandement de M. J
Dumont d’Urville, Capitaine de Vaissean. 2 tomes.

The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
No. 4.

Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
(Appendix to Vol. iii.)

Memorias da Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa. Vols. i. to xi.
part 1.

Noticias para a Historia a Geografia das Nagoes Ultramarinas, publi-
cada pela Academia Real das Sciencias. Vols. i. to iv. part 1.

Sur ’Homme et le Développement de ses Facultés, ou Essai de Phy-
sique Sociale. Par A. Quetelet, Secretaire Perpétuel de l’Aca-
demie Royale de Bruxelles, &c. 2 tomes,

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List of Donations.

DONATIONS.

The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Edited by James
Prinsep, Esq. F. R.S. Vol. iii.

A Grammar of the Tibetan Language in English. By Alexander
Csoma de Kérés.

A Dictionary, Tibetan and English. By Alexander Csoma de Korés.

Arsberattelse om Framstegen i Fysik och Kemi afgifven den 31 Mars
1838 af Jac. Berzelius, K. V. Acad. Secret.

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INDEX

TO THE
FIRST THIRTEEN VOLUMES

OF THE

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY
OF EDINBURGH.

VOL. XIII. PART II. 41

N.B.—The first five volumes are subdivided into three parts. Part I., comprehending the His-
tory of the Society, is contained under one set of pages; and Part II., comprehending the Papers,
is contained under two sets, viz. Papers of the Physical Class, under the one; and Papers of the
Literary Class under the other. The references in this Index are accordingly designated in the
class to which they belong by the letters P. C., L. C., and H. The numeral letters refer to the vo-
lume, the figures to the pages.

( 613 )

INDEX.

ABERCROMBY (LORD), biographical account of.
H. App. iv. 1.

ABERDEEN, on the latitude and longitude of. P. C.
iv. 135.

ADIE (ALEXANDER J.), on the expansion of
stone from an increase of temperature, with a de-
scription of the pyrometer used in making the ex-
periments. xiii. 354.

AIR, abstract of experiments made to determine the
true resistance of the air to the surfaces of bodies
of various figures. P. C. ii. 29,

ALCOHOL, on the action of voltaic electricity on.
xiii. 315.

ALGEBRAIC EQUATIONS, on the use of negative
quantities in the solution of problems by. P. C.
i. 131.

ALISON, LL.B. (REV. ARCHIBALD), memoir of
the life and writings of the Hon. Alexander Fraser
Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee. viii. 515.

ALISON, M.D. (PROFESSOR WILLIAM P.), on
single and correct vision, by means of double and
inverted images on the retine. xiii. 472.

ALLAN (ROBERT), abstract of a paper accom-
panying a suite of volcanic rocks from the Lipari
Islands, presented to the Royal Society. xii. 531.

ALLAN (THOMAS), remarks on a mineral from
Greenland, supposed to be crystallized gadolinite.
vi. 345.

——— on the rocks in the vicinity of Edinburgh.
vi. 405.

on the transition rocks of Werner. vii. 109.

———— an account of the mineralogy of the Faroe
Islands. vii. 229.

——— sketch of the geology of the environs of Nice.
viii. 427.

description of a vegetable impression found in

the quarry of Craigleith. ix. 285.

observations on the formation of chalk strata,

and on the structure of the belemnite. ix. 393.

on amass of native iron from the desert of
Atacama, in Peru. xi. 223.

ALLANITE, experiments on, a new mineral from
Greenland. vi. 371.

AMETHYST, remarks on the distribution of the co-
louring matter in the. ix. 139.

ANCRAM (EARL OF), description of some improve-
ments in the arms and accoutrements of light ca-
valry, &e. v. 247.

ANDERSON (DR JAMES), on some economical uses
to which cast iron may be applied. H. i. 26.

ANDERSON (THOMAS), pathological observations
on the brain. P, C. ii, 17.

ANTIMONY, account of experiments on. H. i. 16.

APOPHYLLITE, account of a remarkable structure
in, with observations on the optical peculiarities of
that mineral. x. 317.

AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS, on the action of voltaic
electricity on. xiii, 315.

ARCHITECTURE, on the origin and principles of
Gothic. P. C. iv. 3.

ARTHUR’S SEAT, of certain natural appearances of
the ground on the hill of. P. C. ii. 3.

ARTS. Remarks on the progress of the arts among
the ancient inhabitants of Scotland. L. C. ii, 3.

ASBESTUS, observations on. xi. 352.

ASTA, on the ancient geography of central and east-
erm. viii. 171.

ASTRONOMY of the Brahmins, remarks on the. P.C.
ii. 185.

ATMOSPHERIC REFLECTIONS and REFRAC-
TIONS, description of some remarkable, observed
in the Greenland sea. ix. 299.

AURORA BOREALIS observed in daylight. H. v. 7.

BABBAGE (CHARLES), an examination of some
questions connected with games of chance. ix. 153.

on the application of analysis to the discovery
of local theorems and porisms. ix. 837.

BACON (LORD), remarks illustrative of the scope and
influence of the philosophical writings of. vill. 373.

BALFOUR (DR), on the diurnal variations of the ba-
rometer. H. iy. 28.

BARBADOES, account of a hurricane at. H. i. 80.

BARNES (DR THOMAS), results of ameteorological
journal kept at Carlisle by the late Mr William Pitt
during twenty-four years. xi. 418.

614 INDEX.

BAROMETER, on the diurnal variations of the. H. ; BREWSTER, LL.D. (DAVID), description of a new

iv. 23.

description of a, which marks the rise and

fall of mercury from two different times of obser-

vation. P. C. iv. 209.

of the diurnal variations of the. H. v. 3.

on the horary oscillations of the, near Edin-
burgh. xii. 153.

BAROMETRICAL MEASUREMENTS, on the causes
which affect the accuracy of. P. C. i. 87.

BASALTES of the coast of Antrim, remarks on the.
H. v. 15.

BEATTIE (DR JAMES), remarks on some passages
of the sixth book of the Aineid. L. C. ii. 33.

BELEMNITE, observations on the structure of the.
ix. 893.

BLACK (DR JOSEPH), an analysis of some hot
springs in Ieeland. P. C. iii. 95.

minutes of the life and character of. H. v.

101.

BLACKADDER (HENRY HOME), on the con-
struction of meteorological instruments which de-
termine the indications during absence. x. 337.

description of a new register thermometer,
without any index. x. 440.

BLAIR, BART. (SIR JAMES HUNTER), biogra-
phical account of. H. iii. 31.

BLAIR (DR ROBERT), experiments and observations
on the unequal refrangibility of light. P. C. ii. 3.

BLANE (DRG.), account of a hurricane at Barba-
does. H. i. 30.

BLAST FURNACES, practical remarks on. vy. 31.

BLENDE, on the composition of. xi. 332.

BLIZARD (THOMAS), description of an extra-
uterine fetus. v. 189.

BONAR (JAMES), disquisitions on the origin and
radical sense of the Greek prepositions. y. 805.
BOY, some account of a, born blind and deaf.

vii. 1.

additional communications respecting. viii. 129.

on his education, by Dr H. Dewar. viii. 137.

BRAHMINS, remarks on the astronomy of the. P. C.
ii. 185.

observations on the trigonometrical tables of
the. P.C. iy. 83.

BRAMBLE, account of a variety of the. H. iil. 20.

BRAIN, pathological observations on the. P.C. ii. 17.

BRAZILIAN STONE, of the flexibility of the. P. C.
iii. 86.

BREWSTER, LL.D. (DAVID), demonstration of the
fundamental property of the lever. vi. 397.

on the optical properties of sulphate of car-

bon, &e. vii. 285.

on a new species of coloured fringes produced

by the reflection of light between two plates of

parallel glass of equal thickness. vii. 435.

on the action of transparent bodies upon the

differently coloured rays of light. viii. 1.

darkening glass for solar observations. viii. 25.

on the optical properties of muriate of soda,

fluate of lime, and the diamond. viii. 157.

on a new optical and mineralogical property

of calcareous spar. viii. 165.

on the effects of compression and dilatation in

altering the polarizing structure of doubly refracting

erystals. viii. 281. ‘

on the laws which regulate the distribution

of the polarizing force in plates, tubes, and cylin-

ders of glass. viii. 353.

on circular polarization, as exhibited in the

optical structure of the amethyst. ix. 139.

observations on the mean temperature of the

globe. ix. 201.

account of the native hydrate of magnesia,

discovered by Dr Hibbert in Shetland. ix. 289,

account of a remarkable structure in apophyl-

lite, with observations on the optical peculiarities

of that mineral. ix. 817.

description of a monochromatic lamp for mi-

croscopical purposes, &c. ix. 433.

on the existence of two new fluids in the

cavities of minerals. x. 1.

description of hopeite, a new mineral from

Altenberg. x. 107.

on a new species of double refraction accom-

panying a remarkable structure in the mineral

called Analcime. x. 187.

- results of the thermometrical observations

made at Leith Fort, every hour of the day and

night, during the whole of the years 1824 and 1828.

x. 362,

on the refractive power, and other properties

of the two new fluids in minerals. x. 407.

on the construction of polyzonal lenses, and

their combination with plain mirrors for the pur-

poses of illumination in light-houses. xi. 33.

account of a remarkable peculiarity in the

structure of glauberite. xi. 273.

on certain new phenomena of colour in La-

brador felspar, with observations on the nature and

cause of its changeable tints. xi. 322.

on a new analysis of solar light indicating

three primary colours, forming coincident spectra of

equal length. xii. 123.

ona new species of coloured fringes, produced

from reflection between the lenses of achromatic

compound object glasses. xii. 191.

(now SIR DAVID), observations on the lines

of the solar spectrum, and on those produced by

the earth’s atmosphere, and by the action of nitrous

acid gas. xii, 519.

on the colours of natural bodies. xii. 538.

BREWSTER (REV. JAMES), remarkable case of
Margaret Lyall, who continued in a state of sleep
nearly six weeks, viii. 249.

INDEX.

BREWSTER (REV. PATRICK), description of a
fossil tree found in a quarry at Nites-hill. ix. 103.

BRISBANE (MAJOR-GENERAL SIR THOMAS
MAKDOUGAL), method of determining the time
with accuracy, from a series of altitudes of the
sun, taken on the same side of the meridian.
viii. 497.

memoir on the repeating reflecting circle.

ix. 97.

method of determining the latitude, by a sex-

tant or circle, from circum-meridian observations,

taken near noon. ix. 227.

astronomical observations made at Paramatta

and Sydney. x. 112.

observations before and after the superior

conjunction of Venus and the sun with the mural

circle at Paramatta, 1824. x. 330.

observations on two comets discovered at

Paramatta in 1824, by Mr Rumker and Mr Dunlop.

x. 332.

CADELL (W. A.), on the lines that divide each
semi-diurnal are into six equal parts. viii. 61.

description of some Indian idols in the Mu-
seum of the Society. ix. 381.

CALCAREOUS SPAR, on a new optical and mine-
ralogical property of. viii. 165.

CALCULUS, on the principles of the antecedental.
P. C. iv. 65.

CALORIC, on the radiation of. ix. 179.

CARBON, on the optical properties of the sulphate
of, by Sir D. Brewster. — vii. 285.

CARROTS, on the distillation of spirits from. H. ii. 28.

CAST-IRON, on some economical uses to which it
may be applied. H.i. 26.

on the application of the hot blast in the
manufacture of. xiii. 373.

CAVALRY, description of some improvements in the
arms and accoutrements of. v. 247.

CHALCEDONY, on the formation of. x. 82.

CHANCE, examination of some questions connected
with games of. ix. 153.

CHEVALIER (M.), tableau de la plaine de Troye.
L. C. iii. 3.

his tableau de Ja plaine de Troye illustrated
and confirmed from the observations of subsequent
travellers and others. L. C. iv. 29.

CHLORINE, experiments on the relation between
muriatic acid gas and. ili. 329,

on the combination of, with the prussiate of
potash. xi. 210.

CHLORITE, observations on. xi. 352.

CHRISTISON (DR ROBERT), chemical examina-
tion of the petroleum of Rangoon, xiii. 118.

on the poisonous properties of hemlock, and
its alkaloid conia. xiii. 383.

CHRONOMETERS, observations on the errors in the
sea rates of. ix. 353,

615

CHRONOMETER, remarkable case of magnetic in-
tensity ofa, x. 117.

CINCHONA BRACHYCARPA, account of the.
P. C. iii, 205.

CIRCLE, geometrical investigation of some curious
and interesting properties of the circle. vi. 21.

memoir on the repeating reflecting circle. ix.97.

CLARK, M.D. (PROFESSOR THOMAS), on the
application of the hot blast in the manufacture of
cast-iron, xiii. 373.

CLERK, OF ELDIN (JOHN), fragments of an in-
tended account of his life. ix. 113.

CLERK, MAXWELL, BART. (SIR GEORGE), bio-
graphical account of him. H. i. 51.

CLIMATE OF RUSSIA, dissertation on the.
ii. 213.

COAL, remarks on the coal formation of the great
valley of the Scottish Lowlands. xiii. 107.

COAL MINES, observations on the fire-damp of, by
Dr J. Murray. viii. 31.

COILSFIELD, description of a stone found at.
H. iii. 7.

COLD, experiments and observations upon a remark-
able, which accompanies the separation of hoar-
frost from a clear air. P. C. i. 146.

on certain impressions of, transmitted from
the higher atmosphere. _ viii. 465.

COLLINS (WILLIAM), an ode on the popular su-
perstitions of the Highlands. L. C. i. 68.

COMPOSITION, HISTORICAL, an essay upon the
principles of, with an application of those princi-
ples to the writings of Tacitus. L. C. i. 76, and 181.

on the dramatic, or ancient form of. L. C.i. 99.

COMRIE, account of repeated shocks of earthquakes
felt at Comrie in Perthshire. P. C. iii. 240.

CONIC SECTIONS, new series for the quadrature of
the. vi. 269.

CONJUNCTIONS, grammatical essay on the nature,
import, and effect of certain conjunctions, particu-
larly the Greek 4r. L. C. i. 118.

CONNELL (ARTHUR), description and analysis of
a mineral from Faroe. xiii. 46.

analysis of coprolites and other organic re-

mains imbedded in the limestone of Burdiehouse.

xiii. 283.

on the action of voltaic electricity on alcohol,
ether, and aqueous solutions. xiii. 315.

CORN, observations on the ripening and filling of.
H. i. 17.

COW-TREE, some experiments on the milk of the.
xi. 235.

CREMATION, on the origin of, or the burning of the
dead. Rey. Dr J. Jamieson. viii. 83.

CRYSTALS, on the effects of pressure in altering the
polarizing structure of doubly refracting crystals.
vili. 281.

CUBIC EQUATIONS, new method of resolving.
y. 99.

P. C.

616

DALZEL (ANDREW), on certain analogies observed
by the Greeks in the use of their letters, and parti-
cularly of the letter 2yze. L, C. ii. 111.

M. Chevalier’s tableau de la plaine de Troye
illustrated and confirmed from the observations of
subsequent travellers and others. L. C. iv. 29.

DAVIES (T. S.), inquiry into the geometrical cha-
racter of the hour lines upon the antique sun dials.
xii. 77.

on the equations of loci traced upon the sur-
face of the sphere, as expressed by spherical co-
ordinates. xii, 259, 379.

DAVY, M.D. (JOHN), observations on atmospheric
electricity. xiii. 440.

DEWAR (DR HENRY), observations on the theory
of language. vii. 387.

on the education of James Mitchell, the
young man born blind and deaf. viii. 187.

DIALLAGE, remarks concerning the natural-histori-
cal determination of. x. 127.

DIALS, inquiry into the geometrical character of the
hour lines upon the antique sun dials. xii. 77.

DIAMOND, on the combustion of the. H. vy. 11.

on the optical properties of the. viii. 157.

DICK, BART., M.D. (SIR ALEXANDER), biogra-
phical account of. H. ii. 58.

DISKO ISLAND, on the mineralogy of. ix. 263.

DOIG (DR DAVID), on the ancient Hellenes.
L, C, iii. 131.

DRUMMOND (DR J. L.), on certain appearances
observed in the dissection of the eyes of fishes.
vii. 877.

DRYSDALE, D.D. (JOHN), biographical account
of. H. iii. 37.

DUGONG, observations to determine the dentition of
the. xi. 389.

DUNBAR (PROFESSOR GEORGE), an examina-
tion of Dr Parr’s observations on the etymology of
the word sublimis. x. 349. .

DUNBLANE, analysis of the mineral waters of. Dr
J. Murray. vii. 445.

DUNCAN, Sentor, M.D. (ANDREW), case of ob-
stinate singultus. H. i. 27.

DUNCAN, Junior, M.D. (ANDREW), on muda-
rine, the active principle of the bark of the root of
the calotropis mudarii. xi. 433.

DUNCAN (REV. DR HENRY), account of the
tracks and foot-marks of animals found impressed
on sandstone in the quarry of Corncockle-Muir in
Dumfries-shire. xi. 194.

DUNDAS, OF ARNISTON (RIGHT HON. RO-
BERT), biographical account of. H. ii. 37.

DUNDONALD (EARL OF), on anew method for
purifying sea-salt. H. i. 19.

DUNLOP (JAMES), observations made in Scotland
on the distribution of the magnetic intensity. xii. 1.

DYCE (DR WILLIAM), on uterine irritation, and
its effects on the female constitution. ix. 365,

INDEX.

EARTH, theory of the. P. C. i. 209.

investigation of theorems relating to the figure

of the earth. v. 3.

on the revolutions of the surface of the.

vii. 139.

on the diffusion of heat at the surface of the.

vii, 411.

on the consolidation of the strata of the.
x. 314.

EARTHQUAKES, account of repeated shocks of, felt
at Comrie in Perthshire. P. C. iii. 240.

EDINBURGH, on the rocks in the vicinity of.
vi. 405.

EIDOGRAPH, description of the. xiii. 418.

ELECTRICITY, experiments relating to animal elec-
tricity. P, C. iii. 231.

on the action of yoltaic electricity on alcohol,

ether, and aqueous solutions. xiii. 315.

observations on atmospheric. xiii. 440.

ELECTRO-MAGNETIC experiments and observa-
tions. ix. 465.

ELECTRONOMETER, on a new, and the heat ex-
cited in metallic bodies by a voltaic electricity.
xii. 20.

ELLIOT (REY. THOMAS), an improvement of the
method of correcting the observed distance of the
moon from the sun, or a fixed star. P. C. i. 191.

ELLIPSE, investigation of a formula for the rectifica-
tion of any are of an ellipse. vy. 251.

ELLIPSIS, a new series for the rectification of the,
with observations on the evolution of a certain alge-
braic formula. P. C. iv. 177.

EQUATIONS OF LOCI, on the, traced upon the
surface of the sphere, xii. 259, 379.

EVIDENCE, remarks on a mixed species of, in mat-
ters of history. v. 119.

EYE, observations on the comparative anatomy of
the. x. 43.

FAROE, description and analysis of a mineral from.
xiii. 46.

FAROE ISLANDS, account of some geological facts
observed in the. vii. 218.

account of the mineralogy of the.

on the mineralogy of the. ix. 461.

FERGUSON (ADAM), minutes of the life and cha-
racter of Dr Joseph Black. H. y. 101.

FERGUSON (DR WILLIAM), on the poisonous
fishes of the Caribbee Islands. ix. 65.

extract from inspection-report of the island

of Trinidad. ix. 93.

on the nature and history of the marsh poison.
ix. 278.

FERGUSONITE, description of, a new mineral spe-
cies. x. 271.

FILICES, observations on the germination of the.
x. 263.

FIRE, dissertation on the philosopliy of.

vii, 229,

H. iv. 7.

INDEX.

FISHER (REV. WALTER), four theorems for re-
solving all the eases of plane and spherical triangles.
H. iv. 4.

FISHES, on certain appearances observed in the dis-
section of the eyes of. vii. 377.

on the poisonous, of the Caribbee Islands.
ix. 65.

FLEMING, D. D. (REV. JOHN,) obseryations on
the junction of the fresh waters of rivers with the
salt water of the sea. viii. 507.

——— on a submarine forest in the Frith of Tay,
with observations on the formation of submarine
forests in general. ix. 419.

FLEMING (THOMAS), account of a remarkable
agitation of the waters of Loch Tay. P. C. i. 200.

FLUATE OF LIME, on the optical properties of.
viii. 157.

FORBES (PROFESSOR JAMES D.), on the horary
oscillations of the barometer near Edinburgh, de-
duced from 4410 observations. xii. 153,

account of some experiments in which an

electric spark was elicited from a natural magnet.

xii. 197.

experiments on the electricity of tourma-

line, and other minerals, when exposed to heat.

xiii. 27.

experimental researches regarding certain vi-

brations which take place between metallic masses

haying different temperatures. xii. 429,

on the refraction and polarization of heat.

xiii, 131.

researches on heat, second series. 2. on the
use of the thermo-multiplier—on the polarization of
heat by tourmaline. 3. on the laws of the polariza-
tion of heat by refraction. 4, on the laws of the
polarization of heat by reflection. 5. on the cireu-
lar polarization of heat. xiii, 446.

FOREST, on a submarine, in the Frith of Tay.
ix. 419.

FOSSIL TREE, description of a, found in a quarry
at Nites Hill. ix. 103.

description of a, discovered in the quarry of
Craigleith. xii. 147.

FQTUS, description of an extra-uterine, vy. 189.

FURNACES, practical remarks on blast. vy. 31.

account of certain phenomena observed in the

air-vault of the furnaces of the Devon Iron Works.

v. 31.

GAS, on a new combustible. xi. 15.
GASES, on the specific heat of the. x. 195.
on the law of the diffusion of. xii. 222.
GENERAL MEETINGS—(EXTRAORDINARY
AND SPECIAL).—
Proceedings of extraordinary general meetings from
May 1826 to April 1831. xi. 499,
—— from November 1831 to April 1833, xii.
549,

617

GENERAL MEETINGS—(EXTRAORDINARY
AND SPECIAL.)—

Recommendation, on the motion of Mr Allan, to
use all diligence in obtaining payment of the
money due by the college trustees to the Society.
xi. 502.

Thanks of the Society voted to Thomas Allan, Esq.,
James Skene, Esq., and Robert Stevenson, Esq.,
for superintending the furnishing, &c. of the So-
ciety’s apartments. xi. 502,

Announcement that the library would now be al-
ways open to the members. xi. 502,

Thanks of the Society voted to W. H. Playfair,
Esgq., for the skill and taste displayed by him in
the arrangement of their new premises. xi. 503.

Committee appointed to consider of the best means
of warming and ventilating the Society's apart-
ments. xi. 505.

Intimation of the intention of Mr Watt of Soho, to
present to the Society a copy of Sir William
Beechey’s portrait of his father. xi. 506.

Authority granted to the secretary to open the let-
ters addressed to the general secretary in his ab-
sence. xi. 506.

First biennial prize, from the donation of the late
Alexander Keith, Esq., adjudged to Dr Brewster,
xi. 506.

Resolution empowering the council to enter into
arrangements with the council of the Antiquarian
Society, for making such an exchange of any ob-
jects in their respective collections as may ap-
pear for the benefit of both. xi. 507.

Motions of Sir John Sinclair, Bart., and of Mr Allan,
to testify the sense of the Society to the merits of
Dr Brewster, while secretary to the Society.
xi. 509, 510.

Committee appointed to draw up a memorial of the
late Hon. Lord Newton, one of the vice-presi-
dents of the Society. xii. 550.

On a motion of Lord Meadowbank, and an amend-
ment of the Right Hon. William Adam, the
council were directed to report in what manner
a tribute of respect can be most appropriately
paid to the memory of Sir Walter Scott.
xii. 550.

Report by the council, and the proceedings of a
special general meeting on this subject. xii. 553.

Announcement that the subscription to the monu-
ment for ‘Sir Walter Scott, amounting to L.70,
would now be paid over to the treasurer of the
committee for that object. xii. 555.

Announcement that arrangements had now been
made for having abstracts of the papers read at
each meeting prepared, to be read along with the
minutes at the subsequent one. xii. 555.

GEORGIUM PLANET, observations on the places
of the, made at Edinburgh with an equatorial in-

strument. P. C. ii. 37.

618 INDEX.

GEORGIUM SIDUS, the orbit and motion of the,
determined directly from observations. P.C. i. 305.

GIBRALTAR, mineralogical description of the moun-
tains of. P. C. iv. 191.

GIESECKE (SIR CHARLES), on the mineralogy
of Disko Island. ix. 263.

GLASS, description of a new darkening, for solar ob-
servations. Sir D. Brewster. viii. 25.

on the laws which regulate the distribution
of the polarizing force in plates, tubes, and cylin-
ders of. viii. 353.

GLAUBERITE, account of a remarkable peculiarity
in the structure of. xi. 273,

GLENIE (JAMES), on the principles of the ante-
cedental calculus. P. C. iv. 65.

a geometrical investigation of some curious
and interesting properties of the circle, &c. vi. 21.

GLEN TILT, observations upon some geological ap-
pearances in. vii. 803.

GOLD, some experiments on. xi. 23.

GORDON (DR JOHN), additional communications
respecting the blind and deaf boy. vili. 129.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, on the origin and prin-
ciples of. L. C. iy. 3.

GRAHAM (REV. DR PATRICK), aurora borealis
observed in daylight. H. v. 7.

GRAHAM, A. M. (THOMAS), on the influence of
the air in determining the crystallization of saline
solutions. xi. 114.

an account of the formation of alcoates, de-

finite compounds of salts and alcohol, analogous

to the Hydrates. xi. 175.

on the law of the diffusion of gases. xii. 222.

on phosphureted hydrogen. xiii. 88.

on water as a constituent of salts. xiii. 297.

GRAMPIAN MOUNTAINS, a description of the
strata of the. vi. 3.

GRANITE, observations on the formation of. H. iii. 8.

observations on. P. C. iii. 77.

GRAVEL, on the use of caustic alkali in the cure of
gravel. H. ii. 22.

GREEK LITERATURE IN ITALY, introduction to
an inquiry into the revival of the. x. 389.

GREEN (GEORGE), researches on the vibrations of
pendulums in fluid media. xiii. 54.

GREENFIELD (WILLIAM), on the use of negative
quantities in the solution of problems by algebraic
equations. P. C. i. 131.

GREENOCK, C. B., LL. D. (MAJOR-GENERAL
LORD), on the igneous rocks in the neighbour-
hood of Edinburgh. xiii. 39.

general remarks on the coal formation of the
great valley of the Scottish Lowlands. viii. 107.

GREGORY (DR JAMES), theory of the moods of
verbs.. L. C. ii. 193.

GREGORY (DR JAMES CRAUFURD), notice con-
cerning an autograph manuscript by Sir Isaac New-
ton. xii. 64, ;

GREGORY, M. D. (WILLIAM), on the composition
of the petroleum of Rangoon, with remarks on pe-
troleum and naphtha in general. xiii. 124.

GRIEVE (DR JOHN), an account of the method of
making a wine called, by the Tartars, Koumiss; with
observations on its use in medicine. P. C. i. 178.

GROOMBRIDGE (S.), comparison of the north polar
distances of thirty-eight principal fixed stars, on
the 1st January 1800. vii. 279.

GUIANA, observations on the natural history of.
P. C. iv. 41.

GUTHRIE (DR MATTHEW), dissertation on the
climate of Russia. P. C. ii. 213.

HAIDINGER (WILLIAM), remarks concerning the
natural-historical determination of diallage. x. 127.

on the forms of crystallization of the mineral

called the sulphato-tri-carbonate of lead. x. 217.

description of fergusonite, a new mineral spe-

cies. x. 271.

on the determination of the species, in mine-

ralogy, according to the principles of Professor

Mobs. x. 298.

description of sternbergite, a new mineral

species. xi. 1.

on the parasitic formation of mineral species.

xi. 73.

mineralogical account of the ores of Man-
ganese. xi. 119.
HAIL, notice respecting a remarkable shower of,
which fell in Orkney on 24th July 1818. ix. 187.
HALL (CAPTAIN BASIL), account of the structure
of the Table Mountain, and other parts of the
Peninsula of the Cape. vii. 269.

HALL (SIR JAMES), observations on the formation
of granite. H. iii. 8.

on the origin and principles of Gothic archi-

tecture. P. C. iv. 3.

experiments on whinstone and lava, vy. 43.

on the effects,of compression in modifying the

action of heat. vi. 71.

on the vertical position and convolutions of

certain strata, and their relation with granites. vii.79.

on the revolutions of the earth’s surface.

vii. 189.

on the consolidation of the strata of the earth.
x, 314.

HALL (WILLIAM), account of a variety of the
bramble. H. iii. 20.

account of a singular halo of the moon.
P. C. iv. 174.

HAMILTON (DR FRANCIS), some notices con-
cerning the plants of various parts of India. x. 171.

on the structure of the fruit in the order of
Cucurbitacese. xi. 229.

HAMILTON (DR ROBERT), account of a distem-
. per, by the common people in England oe,
called the mumps. P. C. ii. 59.

EE

INDEX.

HAMILTON (WILLIAM), late Professor of Ana-
tomy in the University of Glasgow, biographical
account of. H. App. iv. 35.

HAMLET, an essay on the character of. L, C.ii. 251.

HARRIS (WILLIAM SNOW), experimental inqui-
ries concerning the laws of magnetic forces. xi. 277.

on a new electrometer, and the heat excited

in metallic bodies by a voltaic electricity. xii. 206.

on the investigation of magnetic intensity by
the oscillations of the horizontal needle. xiii. 1.

HARVEY (GEORGE), remarkable case of magnetic
intensity of a chronometer. x. 117.

on an anomalous case of vision with regard
to colours. x. 253.

HASTINGS (WARREN), letter from the Teshoo
Lama of Thibet to. H. ii. 19.

HANKADAL, account of the hot springs near Han-
kadale, in Iceland. P. C. iii. 188.

HAYCROFT (W. T.), on the specific heat of the
gases. x. 195.

HEAT, dissertation on the philosophy of. H. iv. 7.

on the effects of compression in modifying

the effect of. vi. 71.

On the progress of, when communicated to

spherical bodies from their centres. vi. 353.

on the diffusion of, at the surface of the earth.

vii. 411.

on the refraction and polarization of. xiii. 181.

— on the polarization of, by tourmaline. xiii. 364.

on the laws of the polarization of, by refrac-

tion. xiii. 355.
on the laws of the polarization of, by reflec-
tion. xiii. 361.

on the circular polarization of. xiii. 467.
HELLENES, on the ancient. L. C. iii. 181.
HEMLOCK, on the poisonous properties of, and its

alkaloid conia. xiii. 383.

HERNIA, singular variety of. H. v. 23.

‘HERRING, observations on the natural history of
the. xii. 462.
HERSCHEL (J. F. W.), on the absorption of light
by coloured media, and on the colours of the pris-
matic spectrum exhibited by certain flames. ix. 445.
HIBBERT, M. D. (SAMUEL), on the fresh water
limestone of Burdiehouse, belonging to the carboni-
ferous group of rocks. xiii. 169.
HIGHLANDS, account of some extraordinary struc-
tures on the tops of the hills in the. L. C. ii. 3.
HILL (DR JOHN), an essay upon the principles of
historical composition, with an application of those
principles to the writings of Tacitus. L. C.i. 76, 181.

essay upon the utility of defining synonymous
terms in all languages; with illustrations, by ex-
amples from the Latin. L. C. iii. 93.

HOLLAND (REV. THOMAS CROMPTON), on the
radiation of caloric. ix. 179.

HOPE (DR THOMAS CHARLES), account of a
mineral from Strontian. H. iii. 143.

VOL. XIII. PART II.

619

HOPE (DR THOMAS CHARLES), account of
mineral from Strontian, and of a peculiar species of
earth which it contains. P. C. iy. 3.

experiments on the contraction of water by
heat. y. 879.

HOPEITE, anew mineral from Altenberg, description
of. x. 107.

HOT-BLAST, on the application of the, in the manu-
facture of cast-iron. xiii. 373.

HORNBY (MR), on the distillation of spirits from
carrots. x, 28.

HOWISON (JAMES), account of the Prince of Wales
Island. H. iii. 13.

HUTTON (DR JAMES), dissertation on the philoso-
phy of light, heat, and fire. H. iv. 7.

HUNTER, LL.D. (PROFESSOR JOHN), a -gram-
matical essay on the nature, import, and effect of
certain conjunctions, particularly the Greek AE,
L. C. i. 118.

— conjectures on the analogy observed in the for-
mation ofsome ofthe tenses of the Greek verb. ix. 481.

HUTTON (DR CHARLES), abstract of experiments
made to determine the true resistance of the air to
the surfaces of bodies of various figures, and moved
through it with different degrees of velocity. P. C.
ii. 29.

HUTTON (DR JAMES), on the theory ofrain. P.C.
i. 41.

theory of the earth. P. C.i. 209.

on written languageas asignof speech. H.ii. 5.
of certain natural appearances of the ground
on the hill of Arthur’s Seat. P. C. ii. 3.

answers to the objections of M. De Lue with
regard to the theory of rain. P. C. ii. 39.
observations on granite. P. C. iii. 77.

of the flexibility of the Brazilian stone. P.€.
iii. 86.

on the sulphuretting of metals. H. iv. 27.
biography of. H. v. 39.
HYDROGEN, on phosphuretted. xiii. 88.

ICELAND, an analysis of some hot springs in. P. C.
ili. 95.

account of the hot springs near Rykum in.

P. C. iii. 127.

account of the hot springs near Hankadal in.
P. C. iii. 138,

IDOLS, description of some Indian, in the museum of
the society. ix. 381.

IMRIE (LIEUT.-COL.), mineralogical description of
the mountain of Gibraltar. P. C. iy. 191.

description of the strata of the Grampians. vi.38.

INDIA, some notices concerning the plants of various
parts of. x. 171.

INSTINCT, an essay on. H.i. 39.

IVORY (JAMES), a new series for the rectification
of the ellipsis, with observations on the evolution of
a certain algebraic formula, P. C. iy. 177.

AX

620 INDEX.

IVORY (JAMES), rule for reducing a quare root to
acontinued fraction. H. v. 20. f
new method of resolving cubic equations.

v.99,
new and universal solution of Kepler’s pro-
blem. vy. 203.

JACKSON, LL.D. (THOMAS), elementary demon-
strations of the composition of pressures. viii. 245.

JAMIESON (REV. DR JOHN), explanation of the
old word skull or skull. H. v. 29.

on the origin of cremation, or the burning of
the dead. viii. 83.

JOHNSTON, A:M. (JAMES F. W.), on the com-
bination of chlorine with the prussiate of potash.

+ 210.

KEITH (ALEXANDER), description of a mercurial
level. P. C. ii. 14,
improvement of the mercurial level. H.

iy. 17.

description of a thermometer which marks the

greatest degree of heat and cold from one time of

observation to another. P. C. iv. 203.

des¢ription of a barometer, which marks the
rise and fall of the mercury from two different
times of observation. P. C. iv. 209.

KEITH prize, account of the establishment of a scien-
tific prize by the late Alexander Keith, of Dunottar.
ix. 259,

first biennial prize, from the donation of the

late Alexander Keith, adjudged to Dr Brewster.

xi. 506.

second do. adjudged to Thomas Graham, of

Glasgow. xii. 555.

third do, adjudged to Sir Dayid Brewster.

xii. 568,

fourth do. adjudged to Professor James D.
Forbes. xiii. 576.

KENNEDY (DR ALEXANDER), accounts of anon-
deseript worm (ascaris pellucidus) found in the eyes
of horses in India. ix. 107.

account of the erection of a granite obelisk, of
a single stone, about seventy feet high, at Seringa-
patam. ix. 307.

KENNEDY (DR ROBERT), chemical analysis of
three species of whinstone, and two of lava. v. 76.

chemical analysis of an uncommon species of
zeolite. vy. 293.

KEPLER’S PROBLEM, a new and universal solution
of. v..203.

KNOX (DR ROBERT), observations on the compa-
rative anatomy of the eye. x. 43.

on the philosophical anatomy of the canal of

Petit. x. 231.

observations to determine the dentition of the

dugong, and on the anatomical structure of certain

of the cetacee, xi, 389.

KNOX (Dr ROBERT), observations on the structure
of the stomach of the Peruvian lama. xi. 462.

observations on the natural history of the
salmon, herring, and vendace. xii. 462.

KRAKEN, letter relative to the. H. ii. 16.

LABRADOR FELSPAR, on certain new phenomena
of colour in. xi. 322.

LAMA, observations on the structure of the stomach
of the Peruvian. xi. 479.

LAMP, description of a monochromatic, for microsco-
pical purposes. ix. 483.

LANGUAGE, on written language as asign of speech,
H. ii. 5.

on one source of the non-Hellenic portion of

the Latin language. xiii. 494.

observations on the theory of. ii. 887.

LATITUDE, method of determining the, by a sex-
tant or circle, from cireum-meridian observations,
taken near noon, ix. 227.

LAUDER (SIR THOMAS DICK), on the parallel
roads of Lochaber. ix. 1.

LAVA, experiments on. v. 43.

chemical analysis of two species of lava. v.76.

LAWS (BYE) of the Royal Society. Vide Society.

LEGISLATURES, EUROPEAN, essay on the origin
and structure of the. L. C. i. 8. and 135.

LESLIE (PROFESSOR JOHN), on the resolution of
indeterminate problems. P. C. ii. 193.

on certain impressions of cold transmitted from
the higher atmosphere. vil. 465.

LETTER from the Teshoo Lama of Thibet, to Warren
Hastings, Esq. H. ii. 19.

LEVEL, description of a mercurial level. P. C, ii. 14.

improvement of the mercurial. Hy iy. 17.

LEVER, demonstration of the fundamental property
of the. vi. 397.

LIGHT, on the motion of, as effected by refracting
and reflecting substances, which are also in motion.
P. C. ii. 83.

— experiments and observations on the unequal
refrangibility of. P. C. iii. 3.

dissertation on the philosophy of. H. iv. 7.

on the action of transparent bodies upon the

differently coloured rays of light. viii. 1.

on the absorption of, by coloured media.

ix. 445.

on a new analysis of solar light indicating
three primary colours, forming coincident spectra of
equal length. xii. 125.

LIMESTONE OF BURDIEHOUSE, on the fresh
water. belonging to the carboniferous group of rocks.
xiii. 169.

analysis of coprolites and other organic re-
mains imbedded in the. xiii. 283.

LINDSAY (JOHN), account of the quassia polyga-
ma, and of the cinchona brachyearpa. P. C. iii. 205.

LOCHABER, on the parallel roads of. ix. 1,

INDEX.

LOCHEAD (WILLIAM), observations on the natu-
ral history of Guiana. P. C. iv. 41.

LOCH TAY, account ofa remarkable agitation of the
waters of, P. C. i. 200.

LOCHURR, account of the island and castle of. H. iii. 4.

LOGARITHMS, new series for the computation of.
vi. 269.

LOTHIAN, D.D. (WILLIAM), biographical account
of. H. i. 47.

MACKAY, LL.D. (ANDREW), on the latitude and
longitude of Aberdeen. P. C. iv. 185.

MACKENZIE (SIR GEORGE), on the combustion
of the diamond. H. v. 11.

an account of some geological facts observed

in the Faroe Islands. viii. 213.

on the formation of chalcedony. x. 82.

notice respecting the vertebrae of a whale,
found in a bed of bluish clay near Dingwall. x. 105.

MACKENZIE (HENRY), account of the German
theatre. L. C. ii. 154,

MACLAURIN (PROFESSOR JOHN), a dissertation
to prove that Troy was not taken by the Greeks.
L. C. i. 43.

MACONOCHIE (ALAN), essay on the origin and
structure of the European legislatures. L. C.i. 3.
and 135.

MACVICAR (REV. JOHN), observations on the
germination of the filices. x. 268.

MAGNESIA, account of the native hydrate of, dis-
covered by Dr Hibbert in Shetland. ix. 239.

MAGNET, experiments in which an electric spark
was elicited from a natural. xii. 197.

MAGNETIC FORCES, experimental inquiries con-
cerning the laws of. xi. 277.

MAGNETIC INTENSITY, observations made in
Scotland on the distribution of the. xii. 1.

on the investigation of, by the oscillations of
the horizontal needle. xiii. 1.

MAGNETIMETER, description of a, being a new in-
strument for measuring magnetic attractions, and
finding the dip of the needle. ix, 243,

MANGANESE, mineralogical account of the ores of.
xi. 119.

chemical examination of the oxides of. xi. 148.

MANN (ABBE’), concerning the Chartreuse of Perth.
H. vy. 25.

MARSH POISON, on the nature and history of the.
ix. 278.

METALS, on the sulphuretting of metals. H. iv. 27.

notice regarding some experiments in the vi-

bration of heated. xi. 137.

experimental researches regarding certain vi-
brations which take place between metallic masses
having different temperatures. xii. 429,

METEOROLOGICAL ABSTRACT for the years
1794, 1795, and 1796. P. C. iv. 218.

——— for the years 1797, 1798, and 1799. v. 193,

621

METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL, results of a, kept
at Carlisle during twenty-four years. xi. 418.

METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, on the con-
struction of, which determine the indications during
absence. x, 887.

MILLER OF GLENLEE, BART., (THE RIGHT
HON. SIR THOMAS), biographical account of. H.
ii.63,

MINERAL, account of a, from Orkney. ix, 81.

descriptions and analysis of a, from Fare.

xiii. 46.

on the existence of two new fluids in the ca-

vities of. x. 1.

on the refractive power and other properties

of the two new fluids in. x. 407.

account of the constituents of various. ix. 244.

——— description and analysis of some. xi. 441.

MINERAL SPECIES, on the parasitic formation of.
xi. 73.

MINERAL WATERS, analysis of the, of Cromlix,
near Dunblane, and of Pitcaithly. viii. 445.

a general formula for the analysis of. vill. 259.

MONRO (DR ALEX.), description of a human male
monster. P. C. iii, 215.

experiments relating to animal electricity.

P. C, iii. 281,

observations on the muscles. P. C. iii. 250.

MONRO (DONALD), method of making the otter of
roses, as it is prepared in the Hast Indies, P. C. ii. 12.

MONSTER, descriptionof ahumanmale. P. C. iii. 215.

MOON, improved method of correcting the observed
distance of the, from the sun or a fixedstar. P.C.i.191.

account ofa singularhalo of the. P.C. iv. 174.

MUDARINE, on, the active principle of the bark of
the root of the calotropis mudarii. xi. 433.

MUMPS, account of a distemper by the common
people in England vulgarly called the mumps,
P. C. ii. 59.

MURIATE OF SODA, on the optical properties of,
viii. 157. +

MURIATIC ACID GAS, experiments on the relation
between, and chlorine. viii. 329.

experiments on. viii. 287.

MURRAY (HUGH), on the ancient geography of
Central and Eastern Asia. viii. 171.

MURRAY (DR JOHN), analysis of the mineral
waters of Cromlix, near Dunblane, and of Pitcaithly.
vili. 445.

observations on the fire-damp of coal mines.

viii. 31.

on the diffusion of heat at the surface of the

earth. vii. 411.

an analysis of sea water. viii. 205.

a general formula for the analysis of mineral

waters. viii. 259.

experiments on muriatic acid gas, and on some
subjects of chemical theory. viii. 287.

MUSCLES, observations on the. P. C. iii. 250.

622 INDEX.

NAPIER (MACVEY), remarks illustrative of the
scope and influence of the philosophical writings of
Lord Bacon. viii. 873.

NATURAL BODIES, on the colour of. xii. 538.

NECKER (L. A.), honorary professor of mineralogy,
Geneva, on the determination of the position of
Strata in stratified rocks. xii. 863.

NEILL, LL.D. (PATRICK), notice respecting a re-
markable shower of hail, which fell in Orkney the
24th July 1818. ix, 187.

NICE, sketch of the geology of the environs of,
viii. 427.

NOUNS and ADJECTIVES, on the force of the
Latin prefix ve or ve, inthe composition of. xiii. 63.

OBELISK, account of the erection of a granite obe-
lisk of a single stone, about seventy feet high, at
Seringapatam. ix. 807.

OBSERVATORY, notice of a new observatory at
Aberdeen. H. iy. 19.

OLDENLANDIA UMBELLATA, method of culti-
vating the. H. iii. 16.

OPIUM, experiments on the effects of. H. iy. 18.

OTTER OF ROSES, method of making the, as it is
prepared in the East Indies. P. C, ii. 12.

PANTOGRAPH, account of the invention of the.
xiii. 418,

PEAT-MOSSES, account of the, of Kincardine and
Flanders, in Perthshire. P. C. iii, 266.

PENDULUMS, researches on the vibrations of, in
fluid media. xiii. 54.

PERTH, concerning the Chartreuse of. H. v. 25.

PETROLEUM OF RANGOON, chemical examina-
tion of the, xiii, 118.

on the composition of the, with remarks on
petroleum and naphtha in general, xiii. 124.

PHOLAS, observations on two species of, found on
the sea coast in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh.
x. 428.

, PHOTOMETER, on anew, founded on the principles
of Bouguer. x. 443.

PITCAITHLY, analysis of the mineral waters of.
vii. 445.

PLAYFAIR (PROFESSOR JOHN), on the causes
which affect the accuracy of barometrical measure-
ments. P. C, i, 87.

remarks on the astronomy of the Brahmins.
P. C. ii. 135.

observations on the trigonometrical tables of
the Brahmins. P. C. iv. 83.

on the origin and investigation of porisms,
P. C, iii. 154.

investigation of theorems relating to the figure
of the earth. vy. 3.

of the diurnal variations of the barometer.
H. ve3.

phenomenon of two rainbows intersecting one
another. H. vy. 8.

PLAYFAIR (PROFESSOR JOHN), biographical
account of Dr James Hutton. H. y. 80,

of the solids of greatest attraction. vi. 187.

on the progress of heat, when communicated
to spherical bodies from their centres. yi. 853.

—— account of the structure of table mountains,
and other parts of the peninsula of the Cape.
viii. 269,

biographical account of the late John Robison,

LL.D., &e. vii. 495.

memoir relating to the naval tacties of the late
John Clerk of Eldin. ix. 113,

POLARIZATION, on circular, as exhibited in the
optical structure of the amethyst. ix. 189.

POLYZONAL LENSES, on the construction of, and
their combination with plain mirrors, for the pur-
poses of illumination in lighthouses. xi. 33.

PORISMS, on the origin and investigation of. P. C.
iy. 107.

some geometrical, with examples of their ap-
plication to the solution of problems. P. C. iv. 107.

PREPOSITIONS, disquisitions on the origin and ra-
dical sense of the Greek prepositions. v. 305.

PRESSURES, elementary demonstrations of the com-
position of. viii. 245.

PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND, account of the.
H. iii. 13.

PROBLEMS, on the resolution of indeterminate. P. C.
ii. 193.

QUASSIA POLYGAMA, account of the. P. C.
iii. 205.

QUASSIA SIMARUBA, botanical and medical ac-
count of the. P, C. ii. 73.

RAIN, on the theory of. P. C. i. 41,

answers to the objections of M. de Luc, with
regard to the theory of rain. P. C, ii. 39.

RAINBOWS, phenomenon of two, intersecting one
another. H. v. 8.

RAREFACTION, account of a very extraordinary
effect of. vi. 245,

REFRACTION, description of some remarkable ef-
fects of unequal, observed at Bridlington Quay in
the summer of 1826, xi. 8,

RICHARDSON (REV. DR WILLIAM), on the
dramatic or ancient form of historical composition.
L. C. i. 99.

remarks on the basalts of the coast of An-
trim. H. vy. 16.

RITCHIE A.M. (WILLIAM), on a new photome-
ter, founded on the principles of Bouguer. x. 443.

ROBERTSON (REV. THOMAS), an essay on the
character of Hamlet. L. C. ii. 251.

ROBISON LL.D. (JOHN), (Professor of Natural
Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh), the or-
bit and motion of the Georgium Sidus, determined
directly from observations. P. C. i. 805.

INDEX.

ROBISON LL.D. (JOHN), observations on the places

- of the Georgium planet, made at Edinburgh with
an equatorial instrument. P. C, ii. 37.

on the motion of light, as affected by refract-

ing and reflecting substances, which are also in

motion. P. C. ii. 83.

biographical account of. vii. 495.

ROBISON (JOHN), notice regarding a time-keeper
in the hall of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
xi. 345.

ROCKS, on the igneous, in the neighbourhood of
Edinburgh. xiii. 39.

on the fresh water limestone of Burdiehouse,
belonging to the carboniferous group of rocks,
xiii. 169.

ROEBUCK (DR JOHN), on the ripening and filling
ofcom. H. i. 17.

——— biographical account of. H. App. iv. 65.

account of certain phenomena observed in
the air vault of the furnaces of the Devon Iron
Works ; together with some practical remarks on
blast furnaces. v. 31.

RUSSELL (JAMES), account of experiments on anti-
mony. H. i. 16.

singular variety of hernia. v. 23.

RUSSIA; dissertation on the climate of. P.C. ii. 218,

RUTHERFORD (DR DANIEL), description of an
improved thermometer. P. C. iii. 247.

RYKUM, account of the hot springs near Rykum, in
Iceland. P. C. iii. 127.

RYTHMICAL MEASURES, an essay on.
ii. 55.

L. C,

SALINE SOLUTIONS, on the influence of the airin
determining the crystallization of. xi. 114.

SALMON, observations on the natural history of the.
xii. 462,

SALTS, on water as a constituent of. xi. 114,

SCORESBY (REV. WILLIAM), description of
some remarkable effects of unequal refraction, ob-
served at Bridlington Quay in the summer of 1826.
xi. 8.

SCORESBY, Junior (WILLIAM), description of a
magnetimeter, being a new instrament for mea-
suring magnetic attractions, and finding the dip of
the needle. ix. 243.

description of some remarkable atmospheric

reflections and refractions, observed in the Green-

land Sea. ix. 299.

observations on the errors in the sea-rates of

chronometers. ix. 353. i

electro-magnetic experiments and observa-
tions. ix. 465.

SEA-SALT, on anew method for purifying sea salt.
H. i. 19.

SEA-WATER, an analysis of. viii. 205.

SEYMOUR (LORD WEBB), observations upon
some geological appearances in Glen Tilt. vii. 303.

623

SINGULTUS, cases of obstinate. H. i. 27.
SKULL, explanation of the old word. H. vy. 29.
SLEEP, remarkable case of Margaret Lyall, who con-
tinued in a state of sleep for nearly six weeks.
viii. 249. .
SOCIETY, ROYAL, OF EDINBURGH, history of.
H. i. 3.
charter of. i. 7.
carta nova erectionis Societatis Regis Edin-
burgi, 1808. H. vi. 3.
laws of, in 1783. H. i. 11.
laws of, enacted 23d May 1811. H. vi. 9.
laws of the Society, enacted 23d May 1811,
26th February 1820, and 24th January 1923.
ix. 495.
laws of the, enacted 23d May 1811, and al-
tered on the 26th February 1820, 24th January
1823, 13th January 1824, and 9th January 1826.
x. 449,
copy of the laws of the Society. xi. 510.
copy of the laws of the Society, January 18.
xiii.
motion of Dr Graham to alter the seventeenth
law, in so far “ as to do away the appointment, at
future elections, of presidents to the Physical and
Literary Classes, and to add two to the present
number of vice-presidents.” xi. 505, and 508.
resolution to add an assistant curator to the
office-bearers in Council, unanimously agreed to.
xi. 516.
motion of Sir William Hamilton relative to the
election of foreign and honorary members, and to
certain improvements he had to suggest in the con-
stitution of the Society. xiii. 571, 572, and 573.
motion of Dr Traill to modify the laws regard-
ing honorary and foreign members. xiii. 575.
motion to alter the thirteenth law, so far as
“that ballots for the admission of members may
take place at any ordinary meeting of the So-
ciety during the session,” unanimously agreed to.
xii. 550.
motion to give powerto the Council to dispense
with the exaction of fees of entrance and annual
contribution in certain cases, unanimously agreed
to. xi. 519.
motion of Sir Henry Jardine to alter the laws
regarding fees and compositions. Agreed to. xiii.
571 and 572.
motion of Lord Greenock to open a subscrip-
tion to defray certain charges attendant upon the
meeting of the British Association for the advance-
ment of science, to be held in Edinburgh. Agreed
to. xiii. 569.
list of office-bearers 1788. H. i. 98.
list of office-bearers 1790. H. ii. 34,
list of office-bearers 1799. _H. iii. 27.
office-bearers of the Physical and Literary
Classes. H. iii. 28,

1836.

624

SOCIETY, ROYAL, OF EDINBURGH, office-bear-
ers of 1793. H. iv. 31.

lists of the office-bearers and members elect-

ed between November 1812 and January 18165.

vii. 541.

list of the office-bearers and members elected

from 1815 to January 1818. viii. 565.

list of the office-bearers and members elected

between January 26. 1818, and March 3. 1823.

ix. 503.

list of the office-bearers and members elected

from March 3. 1823, to May 1. 1826. x. 457.

proceedings of the extraordinary general

meetings, and list of the office-bearers and members

elected from May 1. 1826 to April 4.1831. xi. 439.

proceedings of extraordinary general meetings,

and list of office-bearers and members elected from

November 6. 1831 to May 6. 1833. xii. 549.

proceedings of extraordinary general meetings,

and list of office-bearers and members elected from

May 4. 1833 to May 2. 1836. xiii. 565.

list of all the members, 1788. H. i. 83.

list of members, 1790. H. ii. 31.

list of members, continued from the second

volume. H. iii. 23.

list of members continued from the third yo-

lume. H. iv. 33.

list of members continued from the fourth vo-

lume. H. y. 110.

list of ordinary members, in the order of their

election. ix. 517.

list of ordinary members, in the order of their

election. x. 467.

list of ordinary members, in the order of their

election. xi. 521.

list of ordinary members, in the order of their

election. xii. 556.

list of the ordinary members in the order of

their election. xiii. 577.

list of non-resident and foreign members, elect-

ed under the old laws, ix. 524.

list of non-resident and foreign members elect-

ed under the old laws. x. 475.

list of non-resident and foreign members elect-

ed under the old laws. xii. 564.

list of non-resident and foreign members elect-

ed under the old Jaws. xiii. 585.

list of honorary and foreign members elected

under the new laws. ix. 525.

list of honorary and foreign members, elected

under the new laws. x. 476.

list of honorary and foreign members elected

under the new laws. xii. 565.

list of honorary and foreign members elected

under the new laws. xiii. 586.

list of deceased members. 1. 46.

——— list of deceased members, 1790. H. ii. 36.

— list of members deceased, 1794. H. iii. 29.

INDEX.

SOCIETY, ROYAL, OF EDINBURGH, list of mem-
bers deceased, continued from thethird volume. H
iv. 23.

list of deceased members, from 1799 to March

1. 1823. ix. 527.

list of members deceased, and of members re-

signed, from 1828 to 1826. x. 478.

list of members’deceased, and of members re-

signed, from 1826 to 1830. xi. 583.

list of members deceased, and of members re-

signed, from 1831 to 1833. F. xii. 567.

list of members deceased or resigned from
1833 to 1836. xiii. 588.

list of donations presented, 1788, H.i. 77.

list of donations, 1790, continued. H. ii. 77.

list of donations continued from vol. ii. H.

iii. 139.

list of donations continued from the third vo-

lume. H. iv. 38.

list of donations continued from the fourth yo-
A. v. 122.

list of donations continued from the fifth yo-
H. vi. 15.

list of donations received since 1811. ix.

lume.

lume.

530.

list of donations received since 1822. x. 479.

— list of donations received since 1826. xi. 535.

— list of donations received since 1831. xii. 569.

list of donations received from 1833 to 18386.
xiii. 590.

SMALL (DR ROBERT), demonstrations of some of
Dr Matthew Stewart’s genéral theorems. P. C.
ii. 112.

SMELLIE (WILLIAM), an essay on instinct. H.
i. 39.

SMITH, LL.D. (ADAM), biographical account of.
H. iii. 55.

SMITH (JAMES), notice of an undescribed vitrified
fort in the Burnt Islands, in the Kyles of Bute.
Seer

SNAKE, some account of the large snake Alea-azegur,
(Boa constrictor of Linnzeus) found in the proyince
of Tipperah. vi. 249.

SODALITE, chemical analysis of, a new mineral from
Greenland. vi. 387.

SOLAR SPECTRUM, observation on the line of the,
and on those produced by the earth’s atmosphere,
xii. 519.

SOLAR SYSTEM, observations on the. H. i. 28.

SOLIDS of greatest attraction, of the. vi. 187.

SPRINGS, account of the hot springs near Rykum in
Iceland. P. C. iii. 127.

account of the hot springs near Hankadal in

Iceland. P. C. ili. 138.

an analysis of some hot springs in Iceland.
P. C. iii. 95.

SQUARE-ROOT, rule for reducing a, to a continued
fraction, H, vy. 20.

INDEX.

STANLEY (JOHN THOMAS), an account of the
hot springs near Rykum in Iceland. P. C. iii. 127.

an account of the hot springs near Hankadal
in Iceland. P. C., iii. 188.

STERNBERGITE, a new mineral species, descrip-
tion of. xi. 1.

STEWART (DUGALD) some account of a boy born
blind and deaf. vii. 1.

additional communications respecting the boy

born blind and deaf. By Dr J. Gordon. viii. 129.

on his education. By Dr H. Dewar. viii. 137.

STEWART, D.D. (MATTHEW), biographical ac-
count of. H.i. 57.

STEWART (DR MATTHEW), demonstrations of
some of his general theorems. P. C. ii. 112.

STONE, on the expansion of different kinds of, from
an increase of temperature. xiii. 354.

STRATA, on the vertical position and conyolutions
of certain, and their relation with granite. Sir J.
Hall. viii. 79.

observations on the formation of chalk strata,

and on the structure of the belemnite. ix. 398,

on the determination of the position of strata
in stratified rocks. xii. 363.

STRONTIAN, account of a mineral from. H. iii. 143.

STRONTIAN, account of amineral from, and of a pe-
culiar species of earth which it contains, P. C. iv. 3.

SUPERSTITIONS of the Highlands, an ode on the
popular. L. C. i. 63.

SYNONYMES, an essay upon the utility of defining
synonymous terms in all languages; with illustra-
tions by examples from the Latin. L. C. iii, 93.

TABLE MOUNTAIN, account of the structure of,
and other partsof the Peninsula of the Cape. vii.
269.

TAIT (REV. CHRISTOPHER), account of the peat
mosses of Kincardine and Flanders in Perthshire.
E. C, iii. 266.

TALC, observations on. xi. 852.

TAYLOR (RALPH), account of repeated shocks of
earthquakes felt at Comrie in Perthshire. P. C.
iii. 240.

TEMPERATURE, obseryations on the mean, of the
globe. ix. 201.

on the expansion of stone from an increase of.
xiii. 354, ;

THEATRE, account of the German. L. C. ii. 154.

THERMOMETER, description of an improved. P. C.
iii. 247.

description of a, which marks the greatest de-

gree of heat and cold, from one time of observation

to another. P. C. iv. 208.

description of a new register, without any in-
dex. x. 440.

THERMOMETRICAL observations made at Leith
Fort every hour of the day and night, during the
whole of the years 1824 and 1825. x. 362.

625

THERMO-MULTIPLIRR, on the use of the. xiii.446.

THOMSON (DR THOMAS), chemical analysis of a
black sand, from the river Dee in Aberdeenshire ;
and of a copper ore, from Airthrey in Stirlingshire.
vi. 253.

experiments on allanite, or anew mineral from

Greenland. vi. 871.

chemical analysis of sodalite, a new mineral

from Greenland. vi. 387.

on a new combustible gas. xi. 15.

some experiments on gold. xi. 23.

some experiments on the milk of the cow-tree.

xi. 235.

account of the constituents of various mine-

rals. xi. 244,
on the composition of blende. xi. 332.
on asbestus, chlorite, and tale. xi. 352.

description and analysis of some minerals.
xi. 441.

TIME-KEEPER in the Hall of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, notice regarding a. xi. 545.

TOURMALINE, experiments on the electricity of,
and other minerals, when exposed to heat. xiii. 27.

TRAILL (DR THOS. STEWART). account of a mi-
neral from Orkney. ix. 81.

TRAILL (DR THOS. STEW ART), electro-magnetic
experiments and observations. ix. 465.

TREES, experiments on the motion of the sap in.
P. C. i. 3.

TREVELYAN (ARTHUR), notice regarding some
experiments on the vibration of heated metals. xii.187.

TREVELYAN (W.C.), on the mineralogy of the Fa-
roe Islands. ix. 461.

TRIANGLES, fourtheorems for resolving all the cases
of plane and spherical triangles. H. iv. 4.

TRIGONOMETRICAL TABLES OF THE BRAH-
MINS, observations on the. P. C. iy. 83.

TRINIDAD, extracts from inspection—report of the
island of. ix. 98.

TROY, a dissertation to prove that it was not taken
by the Greeks. L, C. i. 48.

TROYE, tableau de la plaine de. _L. C. iii. 3.

TURNER (DR EDWARD), chemical examination of
the oxides of manganese. xi. 143,

TYTLER (ALEX. FRASER), an account of some
extraordinary. structures on the tops of hills in the
Highlands ; with remarks on the progress of the arts
among the ancient inhabitants ofScotland, L. C.xii 3.

remarks op a mixed species of evidence in
matters of history. v. 119.

TYTLER (HON. ALEX. FRASER, LORD WOOD-
HOUSELEE), memoir of his life and writings.
viii. 515.

TYTLER (PATRICK FRASER), historical and criti-
cal introduction to an inquiry into the revival of the
Greck literature in Italy, after the dark ages. x. 389.

TY TLER OF WOODHOUSELEE (WILLIAM), bio-
graphical account of. H. App. iv. 17. :

626

URE (DR ANDREW), experiments on the relation
between muriatic acid and chlorine. _ viii. 329.

UTERINE IRRITATION, on, and its effects on
the female constitution. ix. 365.

VEGETABLE IMPRESSION, description of a, found
in the Quarry of Craigleith. ix. 235.

VENDACE, observations on the natural history of
the. xii. 462.

VERBS, theory of the moods of. L, C. ii. 198.

VERB, conjectures on the analogy observed in the
formation of some of the tenses of the Greek verb.
ix. 481.

VINCE (REV. §.), account of a very extraordi-
nary effect of rarefaction, observed at Ramsgate.
vi. 245.

VIRGIL, remarks on some passages of the 6th book
of the Aneid of. L. C. ii. 33.

VIRLY (PRESIDENT), letter on the use of caustic
alkali in the cure of gravel. H. ii. 22.

VISION, on an anomalous case of, with regard to
colours. x. 2538.

on single and correct, by means of double and
inverted images on the retine. xiii. 472.

VITRIFIED FORT, notice of an undescribed, in the
Burnt Islands, in the Kyles of Bute. x. 79.

VOLCANIC ROCKS, abstract of a paper accompany-
ing a suite of, from the Lipari Islands, presented to
the Royal Society. xii, 531.

VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY, on the action of, on Al-
cohol, ether, and aqueous solutions. xiii. 315.

WALKER (DR JOHN), experiments on the motion
of the sap in trees. P. C. i. 3.»

WALLACE (PROFESSOR WILLIAM), some geo-
metrical porisms, with examples of their application
to the solution of problems. P. C. iv. 107.

development of a certain algebraic formula.

v. 251.

new series for the quadrature of the conic sec-

tions, and the computation of logarithms. vi. 269.

investigation of formule, for finding the lo-

garithms of trigonometrical quantities from one

another. x. 148.

proposed improvement in the solution of a

case in plane trigonometry, x. 168.

account of the invention of the pantograph,
and a description of the eidograph. xiii. 418.

WATER, experiments on the expansive force of

freezing water. P. C. ii, 23.
experiments on the contraction of water by
heat. v. 379.

on, as a constituent of salts. xiii. 297.

INDEX.

WATER, observations on the junction of the fresh
water of rivers with the salt water of the sea. Rey.
Dr J. Fleming. viii. 507.

WEATHER, abstract of a register of the weather
kept at Branxholm for ten years, from 1774 to 1783.
P. C. i. 203.

abstract of a register of the, kept at Hawkhill,
from 1771 to 1776. P. C. i. 338.

WERNER, remarks on the transition rocks of. viii. 109

WHALE, notice respecting the vertebree of a, found
in a bed of bluish clay, near Dingwall. x. 105,

WHINSTONE, experiments on. y. 43.

chemical analysis of three species of. v. 76.

WILLIAMS (REV. ARCHDEACON), on the force
of the Latin prefix vee or ve in the composition of
nouns and adjectives. xiii. 63.

on one source of the non-Hellenic portion of
the Latin language. xiii. 494.

WILLIAMS (MAJOR), experiments on the expan-
sive force of freezing water made at Quebec.in the
years 1784 and 1785. P. C. ii. 28.

WILSON (DR ALEXANDER), late Professor of
Practical Astronomy in Glasgow, biographical ac-
count of. x. 279.

experiments on the effects of opium on the
living animal. H. iv. 18.

WILSON (PATRICK), observation on the solar sys-
tem. H. i. 28.

experiments and observations upon a remark-

able cold which accompanies the separation of hoar’

frost from a clear air. P. C. i. 146,

account of certain motions which small lighted
wicks acquire, when swimming on a basin of oil.
P. C. iv. 163.

WINDISCHGRATZ (COUNT DE), his problem
proposed for the diminution of the number of law-
suits by some required method. H. i. 837-45.

report and judgment on his problem. H. ii. 26.

WINE, method of making a, called by the Tartars
Koumiss. P. C, i. 178.

WITHAM (HENRY), description of a fossil tree dis-
covered in the Quarry of Craigleith, near Edin-
burgh. xii. 147.

WORM, account of a non-descript (Ascaris pellu-
cidus), found in the eyes of horses in India. ix. 107.

WRIGHT (DR WILLIAM), botanical and medical
account of the Quassia simaruba. P. C. ii. 78.

YOUNG (WALTER), an essay on rythmical mea-
sures. ii. 55.

ZEOLITE, chemical analysis of an uncommon species
of. v. 293,

END OF VOLUME XIII.

LAWS

OF THE

ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.

JANUARY 18. 1836.

an
| in AA
1O LEaELO

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puavras

aes) a

LAWS.

Tur Royat Sociery or Eprnzurcs shall consist of Ordinary and
Honorary Fellows.

II.

Every Ordinary Fellow, within three months after his election, shall
pay Five Guineas as fees of admission, and Three Guineas as his contri-
bution for the Session in which he has been elected ; and annually at the
commencement of every Session, Three Guineas into the hands of the

Treasurer*.

III.
All Fellows who shall have paid Twenty-five years’ annual contribu-

tions shall be exempt from further payment.

IV.
Ordinary Fellows, not residing in Scotland, shall compound for the

annual contribution at the rate of fifteen years’ purchase.

V.

Members failing to pay their contribution for three successive years
(due application having been made to them by the Treasurer), shall be
reported to the Council, and, if they see fit, shall be declared from that
period to be no longer Fellows, and the legal means for recovering such

arrears shall be employed.

* A modification of this rule, in certain cases, was agreed to 3d January 1831.

VI.
None but Ordinary Fellows shall bear any office in the Society, or
vote in the choice of Fellows or Office-bearers, or interfere in the patri-

monial interests of the Society.

Vil.

The number of Ordinary Fellows shall be unlimited.

VIL.
The Ordinary Fellows, upon producing an order from the TREA-
SURER, shall be entitled to receive from the Publisher, gratis, the Parts
of the Society’s Transactions which shall be published subsequent to their

admission.

IX.

No person shall be proposed as an Ordinary Fellow, without a re-
commendation subscribed by Onze Ordinary Fellow, to the purport be-
low*. This recommendation shall be delivered to the Secretary, and by
him laid before the Council, and shall afterwards be printed in the circu-
lars for three ordinary meetings of the Society, previous to the day of the

election, and shall lie upon the table during that time.

X.
Honorary Fellows shall not be subject to any Contribution. This
class shall consist of persons eminently distinguished for science or litera-
ture. Its number shall not exceed Fifty-six, of whom twenty may be

British subjects, and thirty-six may be subjects of foreign states.

* « A. B., a gentleman well skilled in several branches of Science (or Polite Lite-
“ rature as the case may be), being to my knowledge desirous of becoming a Fellow
“ of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, I hereby recommend him as deserving of that
“honour, and as likely to prove an useful and valuable Member.”

This recommendation to be accompanied by a request of admission signed by the
Candidate.

XI.
Personages of Royal Blood may be elected Honorary Fellows, without
regard to the limitation of numbers specified in Law X.

XII.

Honorary Fellows may be proposed by the Council, or by a reecommen-
dation (in the form given below) * subscribed by three Ordinary Fellows ;
and in case the Council shall decline to bring this recommendation be-
fore the Society, it shall be competent for the proposers to bring the same
before a General Meeting. The election shall be by ballot, after the pro-
posal has been communicated viva voce from the Chair at one meeting, and
printed in the circular for the meeting at which the ballot is to take

place.

XII.
The election of Ordinary Fellows shall take place at the ordinary
meetings of the Society. The election shall be by ballot, and shall be
determined by a majority of at least two-thirds of the votes, provided

Twenty-four Fellows be present, and vote.

XIV.

The Ordinary Meetings shall be held on the first and third Mondays
of every month, from November to June inclusive. Regular minutes
shall be kept of the proceedings, and the Secretaries shall do the duty
alternately, or according to such agreement as they may find it convenient
to make.

ay Wieverepy recommend 2.) 2 tet ee Oe te
for the distinction of being made an Honorary Fellow of this Society, declaring that
each of us from our own knowledge of his services to (Literature or Science as the case

may be) believe him to be worthy of that honour.
(To be signed by three Ordinary Fellows.)

To the President and Council of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh.

XV.

The Society shall from time to time publish its Transactions and. Pro-

ceedings. For this purpose the Council shall select and arrange the .
papers which they shall deem it expedient to publish in the Transac- -

tions of the Society, and shall superintend the printing of the same.

XVI.

The Transactions shall be published in Parts or Fasciculi at the close
of each session, and the expense shall be defrayed by the Society.

There shall be elected annually for conducting the publications and
regulating the private business of the Society, a Council, consisting of a
President ; Six Vice-Presidents, two at least of whom shall be resident ;
Twelve Counsellors, a General Secretary, Two Secretaries to the Ordi-
nary Meetings, a Treasurer, and a Curator, and an Assistant Curator of

the Museum and Library.

XVII.
Four Counsellors shall go out annually, to be taken according to the
order in which they stand on the list of the Council.

XVIII.
An Extraordinary Meeting for the Election of Office-Bearers shall be
held on the 4th Monday of November annually.

XIX.
Special Meetings of the Society may be called by the Secretary, by
direction of the Council ; or on a requisition signed by six or more Ordi-
nary Fellows. Notice of not less than two days must be given of such

meetings.

XX.

The Treasurer shall receive and disburse the money belonging to the

a

Society, granting the necessary receipts, and collecting the money when
due.

He shall keep regular accounts of all the cash received and expended,
which shall be made up and balanced annually ; and at the last Ordi-
nary Meeting in January, he shall present the accounts for the preceding
year, duly audited. At this Meeting, the Treasurer shall also lay before
the Council a list of all arrears due above two years, and the Council shall
thereupon give such directions as they may deem necessary for recovery
thereof.

XXI.

At the Extraordinary Meeting in November, a Committee of Three
Fellows shall be chosen to audit the Treasurer’s accounts, and give the
necessary discharge of his intromissions.

The report of the examination and discharge shall be laid before the

Society at the last Ordinary Meeting in January, and inserted in the re-
cords.

XXII.

The General Secretary shall keep Minutes of the Extraordinary Meet-
ings of the Society, and of the Meetings of the Council, in two distinct
books. He shall, under the diet of the Council, conduct the corres-
pondence of the Society, and superintend its publications. For these
purposes, he shall, when necessary, employ a clerk, to be paid by the So-
ciety.

The Secretaries to the Ordinary Meetings shall keep a regular Minute-
book, in which a full account of the proceedings of these Meetings shall
be entered: they shall specify all the Donations received, and furnish a
list of them, and of the donors’ names, to the Curator of the Library and
Museum : they shall likewise furnish the Treasurer with notes of all ad-
missions of Ordinary Fellows. They shall assist the General Secretary
in superintending the publications, and in his absence shall take his

duty.

XXIII.

The Curator of the Museum and Library shall have the custody and
charge of all the Books, Manuscripts, objects of Natural History, Scien-
tific Productions, and other articles of a similar description belonging to
the Society ; he shall take an account of these when received, and keep
a regular catalogue of the whole, which shall lie in the Hall, for the in-
spection of the Fellows.

XXIV.

All articles of the above description shall be open to the imspection of
the Fellows, at the Hall of the Society, at such times, and under such

regulations, as the Council from time to time shall appoint.

XXV.

A Register shall be kept, in which the names of the Fellows. shall
be enrolled at their admission, with the date.

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