Rev. Charles Burney, LL. D. Charles William, Earl of Charleville. Henry Warburton, Esq. The number of deaths since the last anniversary election has been 16; the number of new members admitted, 23. The number of ordinary members on the election list amounts to 580, that of foreign members to 43, making a total of 623 members. On Thursday Dec. 8, Dr. Brewster's paper on the depolarisation of light by different bodies was continued. He gave a long list of animal, vegetable, and mineral bodies, that have the property of depolarising light; together with a list of bodies that have no effect in producing this depolarisation. He then gave his theory of this depolarisation. Bodies capable of depolarising light may be divided into seven classes. 1. Those that have a neutral axis and produce a double image. With respect to these bodies the theory is evident. 2. Those that have a neutral axis but produce only a single image, as the human hair. In these bodies he supposes that two images are really produced, but that they coincide with each other. On Thursday Dec. 15, Dr. Brewster's paper was concluded. He continued his enumeration of the different classes of depolarising bodies as follows: 3. Those that have no depolarising axis but depolarise light in every direction, as gum arabic. These he conceives to be composed of layers placed one over the other, each of which has a depolarising axis; and as these axes are placed in every direction, the body acquires the property of depolarising in every direction. 4. Those bodies that have an approximation to a neutral axis, as gold-beater's skin. 5. Those that have an approximation to a depolarising axis. 6. Those that allow the light nearly to vanish, but not quite, at every alternate sector, as oil of mace. 7. Those that allow it to vanish entirely at every alternate sector, as calcareous spar, when the light passes through the shorter axis. At the same meeting part of a paper by Benjamin Travers, Esq. was read, On the Mechanism by which the Eye adjusts itself to different Distances. The paper was drawn up with uncommon clearness, and even elegance. It consisted of three parts: 1. A sketch of the different hypotheses to which this mechanism has been ascribed, with the author's reasons for not admitting them. These are the muscles of the eye, the ciliary processes, the supposed muscularity of the lens itself. 2. An account of the anatomy of the eye, as far as it is requisite for the purposes of the paper. 3. His reasons for believing that external pressure is applied to the lens, and that this pressure is sufficient to alter its shape. On Thursday 22d Dec. Mr. Travers's paper was continued. He gave his reasons for considering the iris as muscular, and that by means of it the pupil is adjusted to different distances. The Society adjourned over two Thursdays, on account of the approaching holidays. LINNEAN SOCIETY, On Tuesday, December 6th, a paper by James Johnson, Esq. was read, giving an account of some fossil bones found in the cliff near Lyme, Dorsetshire. This cliff abounds in belemnites, nautili, and the remains of other sea animals. The bones in question have been supposed to belong to the crocodile; but Mr. Johnson gave his reasons for considering that opinion as ill founded. He thinks they constitute the bones of a new and unknown species of amphibious animal. He is of opinion that the animals whose remains are found here lived and died upon the spot. A communication from Mr. Sowerby was also read, On the Spiral Tubes of some Fossil Shells belonging to the genus Anomia of Linnæus and Terrebratula of Lamark. These shells occur in limestone, and he thinks the spiral tubes will furnish characters sufficient to constitute them a new genus. M. Vicillot's paper begun at the last meeting was continued. On Tuesday December the 20th M. Vieillot's paper was continued. Specimens of flax and hemp were exhibited to the Society, prepared by machinery invented by Mr. Lee, without water steeping or dew retting. The specimens were beautiful. The advantages of the plan are that the produce is greater and better; and the green part of the plant is preserved, which furnishes very good food for cattle, and is an excellent manure. The seed also is. preserved. WERNERIAN SOCIETY. At the Meeting of this Society, on Saturday the 12th of November, there was read a paper by the Rev. Dr. Fleming of Flisk, On the Fossil Species of Orthocera found in Britain. The Doctor has paid much attention to petrifactions; and he here described no fewer than ten species of orthocera, all of them found in strata belonging to the independent coal formation in the county of Linlithgow. Two of these orthoceratites have already been figured by the late Rev. Mr. Ure, in his History of Rutherglen and Kilbride; the rest were now for the first time described; and the descriptions were illustrated by beautiful and correct drawings. The secretary presented two communications from Mr. Scoresby, junior, of Whitby, of great interest to the meteorologist; being journals kept during voyages to Davis's Straits, in the years 1813 and 1814, in which Mr. Scoresby notes the latitude and longitude; the temperature, generally giving the mean of three daily observations; the direction and strength of the winds; the aqueous and other meteors; the modifications of the clouds according to Mr. Luke Howard's plan; and the different animals seen, the appearance of the ice, and other incidental circumstances. At the same meeting there was read a letter from Mr. William Nicol, Lecturer on the Philosophy of Natural History, addressed to Professor Jameson, giving an account of a bed of flexible floetz limestone, observed by him on the coast of Durham county, near Tynemouth castle. Fine specimens were exhibited. This limestone is very distinctly of a lamellar structure. When a thin bar of it is thoroughly wetted, it is very flexible; when evaporation has proceeded a certain length, it becomes rather rigid; but when the water is completely exhaled, it regains its flexibility, nearly to the same extent as when saturated with water. There was also read a short account of the different strata cut through in sinking the pit to the coal at Brora in Sutherlandshire, communicated by Mr. Dempster of Dunichen. Mr. SINGER will commence his Lectures on Electricity and Electro-Chemistry, at the Russell Institution, on Monday the 16th of January, at 8 o'clock in the evening. The Lectures will be continued every succeeding Monday at the same hour. A syllabus may be obtained of the secretary, at the institution, Great Coramstreet, Russell-square; or of Mr. Singer, N° 3, Princes-street, Cavendish-square. Dr. Clarke and Mr. Clarke will begin their next Course of Lectures on Midwifery and the diseases of women and children, on Monday, January 23d. The Lectures are read every morning, from a quarter past ten to a quarter past eleven, for the convenience of students attending the hospitals. For particulars apply to Dr. Clarke, New Burlington-street, or to Mr. Clarke, 10, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens. Medical School of St. Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals.-The Spring Course of Lectures at these adjoining Hospitals will commence the beginning of February, viz.: At St. Thomas's.-Anatomy aud the Operations of Surgery; by Mr. Astley Cooper and Mr. Henry Cline.-Principles and Practice of Surgery; by Mr. Astley Cooper. At Guy's. Practice of Medicine; by Dr. Babington and Dr. Curry.-Chemistry; by Dr. Babington, Dr. Marcet, and Mr. Allen.-Experimental Philosophy; by Mr. Allen.-Theory of Medicine, and Materia Medica; by Dr. Curry and Dr. Cholmeley.— Midwifery, and Diseases of Women and Children; by Dr. Haighton.-Physiology, or Laws of the Animal Economy; by Dr. Haighton.-Structure and Diseases of the Teeth; by Mr. Fox. N. B. These several Lectures are so arranged, that no two of them interfere in the hours of attendance: and the whole is calculated to form a complete Course of Medical and Chirurgical Instruction. Terms and other particulars may be learnt at the respective Hospitals, II. Important Chirurgical Operation. A new method of operating for the cure of Popliteal Aneurism has been employed in Dublin with the most complete success, which seems to open new and important views with respect to the treatment of diseased and wounded arteries in general. The operation was performed by Mr. Crampton, Surgeon General, at the King's Military Infirmary, near Dublin, on the 15th of October. The following particulars respecting the operation are extracted from the Hospital Journal. The femoral artery was laid bare at the usual place, by an incision three inches in length and compressed, (but not tied circularly,) by a narrow tape, so as completely to obstruct the current of the blood with the least possible disturbance to the artery, or injury to its coats. The ligature was by a peculiar contrivance applied in such a manner as to enable the operator to tighten or to relax it at pleasure, without interfering with the wound. In two hours and a quarter the ligature was gently relaxed, but not completely loosened; no pulsation in the ham. In twenty-four hours the artery was relieved from all compression; but as a measure of precaution, the ligature was left in the wound. In forty-eight hours the ligature was withdrawn, and the wound was united by adhesive plaster." The patient was examined on the fifth day by several professional gentlemen; his health was not in the least degree deranged. The tumor, which had decreased by one half, was without pulsation, and nearly incompressible. The temperature of each foot was 84°. On the 14th day the wound was nearly healed, and the man went about the ward on crutches. On the 18th day the wound was healed, and the tumor which could be seen only in the extended position of the limb, was incompressible, and altogether free from pain. The advantage of Mr. Crampton's operation consists in its imitating in the most favourable way the process of nature, in the spontaneous cure of aneurism. 1st. By interrupting the course of the blood through the ruptured artery, the fluid contents of the aneurismal sack are allowed to coagulate, and the circulation is thrown upon the collateral branches. 2d. The subsequent obliteration of the artery is effected by a natural process, which protects the patient from the long train of sufferings, and of dangers necessarily attendant upon the permanent contraction of a great artery, and its separation from the ligature by the process of sloughing or ulceration. The details of this important case will no doubt be speedily communicated to the profession, through some of the usual channels of scientific intelligence. III. Air Volcano. The Europeans who are not seasoned to the climate arc accustomed to leave Carthagena (in South America) during the heats of summer, and to spend that season at Turbaco, an Indian inland village, delightfully situated on the top of a hill. Mr. de Humboldt and his fellow traveller M. Boupland, spent the month of April, 1801. in this village. During their herbalizations, they were informed by their Indian guides, that there existed a country not far off, in the midst of a forest of palms, to which the name of volcanitos (little volcanoes) was given; that its surface had been formerly covered with fire; that a priest had extinguished the combustion with holy water; and that now it emitted nothing but water. On going to the spot, our travellers found in the middle of a vast plain, eighteen or twenty small cones, about 24 feet in height. These cones are formed of a blackish grey clay, and have an opening at their summits filled with water. On approaching these small craters, a hollow but very distinct sound is heard at intervals, 15 or 18 seconds previous to the disengagement of a great quantity of air. The force with which this air rises above the surface of the water, may lead us to suppose that it undergoes a great pressure in the bowels of the earth. Five explosions generally take place in two minutes, and this phenomenon is often attended with a muddy ejection. According to the Indians, the forms of the cones undergo no visible change in a great number of years; but the ascending force of the gas, and the frequency of the explosions, appear to vary according to the seasons. Mr. de Humboldt examined this gas, and found that it was azote mixed with less than one thousandth of its bulk of oxygen gas. Here is a phenomenon well worth the attention both of geologists and chemists. Whence comes this azotic gas? How is it produced? Does there exist in this place an immense magazine of ammonium, which by means of water is converted into azote? We are far indeed from being able to philosophize in the present state of our knowledge, respecting the changes that take place under the surface of the earth. IV. Mathematical Problem. (To Dr. Thomson.) Plymouth, Nov. 21, 1814. SIR, I beg, through the medium of your Journal, to present to the attention of the mathematical part of your readers, the following |