disadvantages mentioned under I. must be taken into the bargain, and, besides, the inherent precision of the balance gets less.* To pass to an example: What we gain by substituting a 7-inch for a 14 inch beam is that, for the most convenient t, the sensibility becomes 2 to 4 times greater; but this advantage is secured without expense in good qualities by placing before the graduated limb a lens magnifying the excursions of the needle into 2 to 4 times their natural size. This is the theory of the "short beams," which have lately come so much into fashion. To come back to my own balance, I must not forget to thank Messrs Becker Sons of Rotterdam for the readiness with which they have, at their own risk, tried to realise my ideas in an actual instrument, which, by the way, is now being exhibited at South Kensington. To increase the usefulness of the instrument, I have caused Messrs Becker to add to it a glass plunger, which is adjusted so that it displaces exactly 10 grammes of water at 15°, and which consequently enables one with great rapidity to determine the specific gravities of liquids by the method of immersion. To pass now to the new gas-governor, its most essential part consists of a mercury-manometer (fig. 2), of which one limb, A, is about 20 mms. wide, and stands vertical; while the other, C, is of the width of a thermometer tube, and is placed horizontally. *For fuller explanations, see my article "Balance" in the "Encyclopædia Britannica." The empty part of the wider limb communicates, through F, with the gas-supply, through G with the gas-lamp serving to heat the air-bath; and the quantity of mercury is adjusted so that, when the gas is at the lowest pressure which, in the course of the experiment, it is likely to assume, the mercurial index in C occupies a certain convenient position a. The manometer is connected with a constant battery (the circuit of which includes an electro-magnetic arrangement for opening or shutting the gas-tap), in such a manner that, as soon as, through an increase of pressure in E, the index in C travels ever so little towards the right of a, the current is closed, and the gas cut off. The following Gentlemen were elected Fellows of the Society: JOHN MACMILLAN, M.A. JOHN GIBSON CAZENOVE, D.D. The following Gentlemen were elected Honorary Fellows of the Society: 1. Foreign Honorary. CARL LUDWIG, Leipzig. FERDINAND DE LESSEPS, Paris. 2. British Honorary. HENRY JOHN STEPHEN SMITH, Oxford. THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY, London. THOMAS ROMNEY ROBINSON, D.D., Armagh. Monday, 17th April 1876. Professor FLEEMING JENKIN in the Chair. The following Communications were read : 1. On an Improved Form of Galvanic Battery. By J. Cook, Esq. Communicated by Professor Tait. I wish to direct attention to a simple improvement on battery cells, whereby porous cells are dispensed with, and the inconveniences of gravity batteries avoided. I may say it is a year or two since I first tried the plan. It consists in first filling the outer glass cell one-third or onehalf with fine silver sand, then pushing a ring of glass (which I cut from a common ale pint-bottle with a hot soldering bolt) down an inch or so into the sand. The zinc element forms a ring round the glass, and the copper lies as a plate on the sand within the glass. Its superiority to the gravity batteries, and to those, such as Sir William Thomson's, where the sand forms a dividing layer between the copper with its sulphate below and the zinc with its liquid above, will be obvious. I did not find the cupric sulphate solution to diffuse into the zinc division. It so readily admits of inspection that it would be infinitely preferable to the Meidinger and other plans. 2. On the Properties of the Perigon Versor. By G. J. P. Grieve, Esq. Communicated by Professor Kelland. 3. Descriptions of some new or imperfectly understood Forms of Palæozoic Corals. By H. Alleyne Nicholson, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.E., Professor of Natural History in the University of St Andrews, and James Thomson, F.G.S. (Abstract). In this communication the authors gave descriptions of several new or imperfectly understood forms of Paleozoic corals. After giving a general account of the method of investigation employed by them, the genus Heliophyllum, Hall, was discussed at length. The external structure of this genus is very peculiar, and it was shown that the genus is not by any means as nearly related to Cyathophyllum as has been generally believed. The new genus Crepidophyllum was proposed for a group of forms possessing the extraordinary and characteristic endothecal dissepiments of Heliophyllum, but with the remarkable character that the central tabulate area of the corallum is shut in by a well-developed accessory wall or inner mural investment. Sometimes this secondary investment constitutes a complete circular sheath to the central tabulate area, and in this case all the primary septa become directly connected with the outer surface of the cylindrical tube thus formed. More commonly, the secondary investment is open all down one side, and becomes directly continuous with two of the primary septa, thus constituting a horse-shoe shaped space, formed by the central tabulate area together with a wide fossula containing three short septa. It was shown that the fine coral described by Mr Billings under the name of Diphyphyllum Archiaci was truly a Crepidophyllum. It was further shown that two different forms, of very similar aspect, had been included by one of the authors under the name of Heliophyllum sub-caespitosum. One of these forms, the typical one, is a Crepidophyllum, and will stand as C. sub-cœspitosum. The other is a Heliophyllum, and the authors described this under the name of H. elegantulum. The name of Thysanophyllum was proposed for a genus of æstræiform corals from the Carboniferous rocks of Scotland. This genus is related to Lonsdaleia in the general form of the corallum, in the presence of an exterior vesicular zone of largesized cells, and in the possession of septa, which have no connection with the outer wall. It differs from Lonsdaleia, however, in the fact that the columella, so conspicuous in the latter genus, is wholly wanting, and the central area of the visceral chamber is occupied by strong remote, transverse tabulæ. Two species of the genus were described, under the names of Thysanophyllum orientale and T. minus. Finally, the genus Lindströmia was proposed for a group of small corals, in which the corallum is simple and conical, with an extremely deep calice. The septa are well developed, and meet in the centre of the visceral chamber, where they coalesce to a greater or less extent, and form a strong twisted pseudo-columella, which projects into the floor of the calice, and occupies a large portion of the entire visceral chamber. There are no tabulæ, but the septa are furnished with more or less strongly developed dissepiments, which, however, are remote, and do not give rise to any vesicular zone. The genus may, perhaps, be regarded as belonging to the Aporosa. The species L. columnaris was described from the Devonian rocks of North America, and it was mentioned that the authors were in possession of other forms of the genus, still undescribed, from the Carboniferous rocks of Scotland. 4. On a Stable and Flexible Arch. By Professor Monday, 1st May 1876. Professor KELLAND, Vice-President, in the Chair. The Council have awarded the Keith Prize for the biennial period 1873-75, to Professor CRUM BROWN, for his Researches on the Sense of Rotation, and on the Anatomical Relations of the Semi-circular Canals of the Internal Ear. The following Communication was read: - Is the Gaelic Ossian a Translation from the English? By Professor Blackie. The recent revival by a distinguished Celtic scholar of the theory of Laing that Macpherson's Gaelic Ossian is a translation from the English, affords an opportunity of examining that question in a more strictly philological fashion than it has hitherto had the fortune to enjoy. Parts of the question were no doubt touched by Mackenzie in the Report of the Highland Society, published in 1805 by Graham in his dissertation on the authenticity of Ossian, by Dr Clerk of Kilmalie, the distinguished author of the new version of Ossian in the late splendid edition published at the expense of the Marquis of Bute; but systematically grappled with the question has never been. Having recently gone through the whole of the originals, I have made careful notes of whatever might tend to settle this question, and have come to the conclusion, in the face of the statement of Mr Campbell-whose authority, no doubt, is one of the highest on the subject, that the Gaelic is unquestionably the original. The tests by which a translator's hand seems clearly discoverable are the following five:-(1) In the English version, awkward, forced, and unidiomatic expressions frequently occur, which can be clearly traced to the influence of a Gaelic original. (2) In all poems of any antiquity handed down VOL. IX. X |