scholarly journals VI. Additional note to the eleventh series of researches on the tides

1840 ◽  
Vol 130 ◽  
pp. 161-174 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Great Care ◽  
Additional Note ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Made In ◽  
Remarkable Manner

The tide observations which I recorded and discussed in my eleventh memoir on that subject, were laid before the Royal Society, because, though the different series of observations were both brief and imperfect, the features of the tide phenomena as there exhibited were novel; and it appeared desirable to put them on record with a view to future comparison with other places. I have now to notice other observations which I have received from another region, and which display similar features in a still more remarkable manner. These, with the results of a few other sets of observations, which may, I trust, hereafter be of use, I beg to lay before the Society, as an Appendix to my eleventh memoir on the subject of the Tides. The principal tide observations which I now bring forward are those for which I am indebted to the Russian Admiral Lὒtke. These observations were made in 1827 and 1828 by the officers and men of the Seniavine corvette, commanded by the (then) Captain Lütke. From the account given me of the mode of observing, it appears that they were made with proper apparatus and with great care and perseverance, as is indeed sufficiently shown by the observations themselves. At one place (Petro-paulofsk in Kamtchatka) the height of the surface was carefully observed every ten minutes day and night; and when near its maximum, every two minutes. And it is proper to remark, that this great care and labour, which would have been superfluous at most places, was necessary in this instance. If the observations had not been thus continued, they would not have enabled us to detect the very curious laws of the phenomena which I have now to describe.

XXIII. On the water-barometer erected in the hall of the Royal Society

1832 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 539-574 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Metallic Tube ◽  
French Academy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Made In

I have for some time entertained an opinion, in common with some others who have turned their attention tot he subject, that a good series of observations with a Water-Barometer, accurately constructed, might throw some light upon several important points of physical science: amongst others, upon the tides of the atmosphere; the horary oscillations of the counterpoising column; the ascending and descending rate of its greater oscillations; and the tension of vapour at different atmospheric temperatures. I have sought in vain in various scientific works, and in the Transactions of Philosophical Societies, for the record of any such observations, or for a description of an instrument calculated to afford the required information with anything approaching to precision. In the first volume of the History of the French Academy of Sciences, a cursory reference is made, in the following words, to some experiments of M. Mariotte upon the subject, of which no particulars appear to have been preserved. “Le même M. Mariotte fit aussi à l’observatoire des experiences sur le baromètre ordinaire à mercure comparé au baromètre à eau. Dans l’un le mercure s’eléva à 28 polices, et dans Fautre l’eau fut a 31 pieds Cequi donne le rapport du mercure à l’eau de 13½ à 1.” Histoire de I'Acadérmie, tom. i. p. 234. It also appears that Otto Guricke constructed a philosophical toy for the amusement of himself and friends, upon the principle of the water-barometer; but the column of water probably in this, as in all the other instances which I have met with, was raised by the imperfect rarefaction of the air in the tube above it, or by filling with water a metallic tube, of sufficient length, cemented to a glass one at its upper extremity, and fitted with a stop-cock at each end; so that when full the upper one might be closed and the lower opened, when the water would fall till it afforded an equipoise to the pressure of the atmo­sphere. The imperfections of such an instrument, it is quite clear, would render it totally unfit for the delicate investigations required in the present state of science; as, to render the observations of any value, it is absolutely necessary that the water should be thoroughly purged of air, by boiling, and its insinuation or reabsorption effectually guarded against. I was convinced that the only chance of securing these two necessary ends, was to form the whole length of tube of one piece of glass, and to boil the water in it, as is done with mercury in the common barometer. The practical difficulties which opposed themselves to such a construction long appeared to me insurmount­able; but I at length contrived a plan for the purpose, which, having been honoured with the approval of the late Meteorological Committee of this Society, was ordered to be carried into execution by the President and Council.

XIII. Experimental researches in voltaic electricity and electro-magnetism

1832 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 279-298 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Experimental Researches ◽  
Made In

The splendid discoveries which have lately been made in magnetism and electro-magnetism have so much engaged the attention of philosophers, that the theory and laws of action of voltaic electricity, no longer possessing the charms of novelty, have been entirely neglected. The subject appearing to me full of interest, and lying at the very foundation of a large portion of physical science, induced me to undertake an experimental investigation of some of the most important points connected with it, the result of which I have the honour of laying before the Royal Society.

XXIX. On the tides of Bombay and Kurrachee

1868 ◽  
Vol 158 ◽  
pp. 685-696 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Diurnal Tide ◽  
Semidiurnal Tide ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Engineering Survey ◽  
Continuous Curves ◽  
Made In

The tides on the coasts of India present a marked difference from those on our own coasts in the large amount of diurnal inequality to which they are subject. My attention was first directed to the subject in the course of an engineering survey of the Harbour of Kurrachee which I made in 1857-58, when I obtained between three and four months’ continuous observations, a copy of which is deposited with the Royal Society. Subsequently I obtained from the Admiralty, through the kindness of Captain Burdwood, R. N., the loan of the records of three years’ observations taken at Bombay in 1846, 1847, and 1848. Of these I plotted in a series of continuous curves the records for 1846, and deposited them, at the Astronomer Royal’s request, at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. These records, however, are not perfect. They were made by a self-acting machine, the adjustment of which does not appear to have been always accurately pre­served; and I hope that they will be superseded as data for investigation by a better record 'for the year 1868. Taking them as they were, however, I discussed them to obtain the semimonthly curves of semidiurnal tide, and also formulæ for the approxi­mate determination of diurnal tide.

VII. On a group of varieties of the muscles of the human neck, shoulder, and chest, with their transitional forms and homologies in the mammalia

1870 ◽  
Vol 160 ◽  
pp. 83-116 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Head And Neck ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
King's College ◽  
Extensive Range ◽  
Statistical Frequency ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Transitional Forms ◽  
Made In

In the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ between the years 1864 and 1868 inclusive, were published five series of observations upon variations in Human Myology, made in the Anatomical Rooms of King’s College, London. These observations extended over 202 dissected subjects ; they were restricted chiefly to the muscles of the head and neck and those acting upon the extremities, and did not include the numerous irregularities which are usually found in those of the back. From the extensive range of the subject, and the importance of ascertaining as far as possible the statistical frequency of the abnormal forms, there was little opportunity afforded of giving due prominence to many of the specimens which were entitled to special distinction, either from their first appearance in the records of anatomical science, or from their homological importance as transitional forms, or as representatives of muscles hitherto found only in certain classes of animals.

scholarly journals XXIV. On the Indian arc of meridian

1861 ◽  
Vol 151 ◽  
pp. 579-594 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Central India ◽  
Negative Sign ◽  
Great Care ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
Direct Process ◽  
Resultant Effect ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference

It is with pleasure that I request the attention of the Royal Society to the present com­munication, in continuation and completion of my former papers, because I think that the anomalies which the Indian Arc has appeared to present are here traced to the true causes. 1. I will explain what those anomalies were. On completing a laborious and wellexecuted survey of the two northern portions of the Indian Arc of Meridian, between Kaliana (29° 30' 48") and Kalianpur (24° 7' 11"), and Kalianpur and Damargida (18° 3' 15"), Colonel Everest found that their astronomical and geodetical amplitudes differed considerably; in the higher arc the geodetic amplitude he found to be in excess by 5"·236, in the lower of the two ares in defect by 3"·791. The three stations had been selected with great care, and were finally chosen as being apparently free from all disturbing causes. Indeed, a fourth station which had been at one time adopted, Takal Khera in Central India, was rejected by Colonel Everest because a neighbouring hillrange was discovered on calculation to produce a deflection of about 5". Kaliana had been chosen nearly sixty miles from the lower hills at the foot of the Himmalaya Moun­tains, in the full conviction that it would be free from mountain influence. The surprise was therefore great when, on the completion of the survey of the two arcs in question, these two errors were brought to light. The first was attributed to the influence of the Himmalayas, but without any calculation; but the second, with its negative sign, received no interpretation. At this stage I devised a method of calculating the effect of the Himmalayas by a direct process; and found that the deflections produced are far greater than the errors which had to be explained, and the negative sign was left alto­gether unaccounted for. Thus the perplexity was increased. It next occurred to me that the vast Ocean to the south of India might have some influence on the plumb-line. On making the necessary calculations the effect of this cause was found, as the moun­tain attraction had been, to be far greater than had been anticipated; the negative sign was still unexplained, and the difficulties were not cleared up. No other cause of dis­turbance was apparent at the surface. But I showed by calculation that in the crust below one might exist sufficient to reduce the large deflections occasioned by the Moun­tains and the Ocean, and make them accord with the results deduced by Colonel Everest from the arcs themselves. But, being hidden from our sight, neither the magnitude nor indeed the existence of this cause could be à priori ascertained, much less reduced to calculation. Whether, moreover, the errors brought to light by Colonel Everest arose solely from local attraction, or from local attraction combined with some local peculiarity in the curvature of the Indian Arc, was not apparent; so that the subject of local attrac­tion and its influence on geodetic operations in this country, was still involved in obscu­rity, and the anomalies of the Indian Arc remained unexplained in the papers which I have hitherto forwarded to the Society. In the present communication I think ambi­guity is removed. It is demonstrated that no peculiarity in the curvature of the arc can produce any part of the errors brought to light by Colonel Everest; that those errors arise solely from local attraction; that they are in fact the exact measure of the difference of the resultant local attraction at the two extremities of each arc, from what­ ever causes the attraction may arise—mountains, ocean, or crust; lastly, it is proved that there are hidden causes in the crust below the Indian Arc, and the differences of their resultant effect upon the stations of the arc are computed. An inference from these results is, that the relative position of places in a Map, laid down from geodetic operations, is accurate, being altogether unaffected by local attraction; though the position of the Map itself on the terrestrial spheroid will be dependent upon the observed latitude of some one station in it, and that observed latitude will be affected by the local attraction at that place. To determine the absolute latitude in some one station connected with the geodetic operations is still a desideratum.

scholarly journals The Bakerian lecture. - On the radiation of heat from the moon, the law of its absorption by our atmosphere, and its variation in amount with her phases

1873 ◽  
Vol 21 (139-147) ◽  
pp. 241-242 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Zenith Distance ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Single Curve ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Law ◽  
Made In

In this paper is given an account of a series of observations made in the Observatory of Birr Castle, in further prosecution of a shorter and less carefully conducted investigation, as regards many details, which forms the subject of two former communications to the Royal Society. The observations were first corrected for change of the moon’s distance from the place of observation and change of phase during the continuance of each night’s work, and thus a curve, whose ordinates represented the scale-readings (corrected) and whose abscissas represented the corresponding altitudes, was obtained for each night’s work. By combining all these, a single curve and table for reducing all the observations to the same zenith-distance was obtained, which proved to be nearly, but not quite, the same as that found by Professor Seidel for the light of the stars.

Preliminary report on the pathology of Cholera Asiatica (as observed in Spain, 1885)

1887 ◽  
Vol 41 (246-250) ◽  
pp. 173-181 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Preliminary Report ◽  
Alimentary Canal ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Differences Of Opinion ◽  
Intestinal Contents ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Micro Organisms ◽  
Different Parts ◽  
Made In

The differences of opinion among pathologists as to the relation of certain micro-organisms,—and more especially of a curved bacillus described by Koch—to Cholera Asiatica, led to our being deputed last summer, by the Association for the Promotion of Research in Medicine, acting in conjunction with the Royal Society and University of Cambridge, to proceed to Spain to make further investigations on the subject. In Madrid we were able to make autopsies on twenty-five typical cases of cholera, the post-mortem examinations being made in many of them either immediately after death or w ithin very few hours of it. Our attention was at first directed chiefly to the relation of the comma bacillus of Koch to Cholera Asiatica. Early in our inquiries we were struck by the fact th at Koch’s comma bacillus is not discoverable in the intestinal contents of all cases of cholera. W e employed much time and care in the examination of thin dried films of the mucous flakes and fluid contained in the intestine, these films being stained by methods which we knew to be well fitted to show the comma bacillus if that micro-organism were present. Such films from one or two fatal cholera cases showed that the intestinal contents contained enormously larger numbers of comma bacilli than of other parasites. In some of the cases the comma bacillus, though certainly present, was not the most marked feature in the preparation, and in certain of these cases we were only able to find these bacilli after prolonged and careful searching. In many cases of undoubted Cholera Asiatica where death occurred before the reaction stage had set in, we were unable to detect comma bacilli in any of the films or cultures prepared from the intestinal contents taken from different parts of the alimentary canal.

scholarly journals III. Additional note to the paper "On a supposed alteration in the amount of astronomical aberration of light produced by the passage of the light through a considerable thickness of refracting medium."

1873 ◽  
Vol 21 (139-147) ◽  
pp. 121-121 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Additional Note ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
Nautical Almanac ◽  
Made In

Some months since I communicated to the Royal Society the result of observations on γ Draconis made with the water-telescope of the Royal Observatory (constructed expressly for testing the equality of the coefficient of sidereal aberration, whether the tube of a telescope be filled with air, as usual, or with water) in the spring and autumn of 1871. Similar observations have been made in the spring and autumn of 1872, and I now place before the Society the collected results. It will be remembered, from the explanation in the former paper, that the uniformity of results for the latitude of station necessarily proves the correctness of the coefficient of aberration employed in the Nautical Almanac.

Vote of thanks to Professor C. L. Wilson

1978 ◽  
Vol 358 (1693) ◽  
pp. 136-139
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Energy Supply ◽  
Good Choice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Formidable Challenge ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Made In

I am sure you will all agree that the Fellowship of Engineering has made a good choice for its first lecture. The choice has been good in terms of the subject. Energy has always been important to engineers in this country and to the Royal Society. Many valuable fundamental contributions to thermodynamics and to the generation and application of energy have been made in this country and by this Society. It is becoming increasingly evident that energy is going to offer to engineers a rather more formidable challenge than it has in the past. The challenge affects every aspect of energy supply and use, and it gives great opportunities for innovation and design.

The Historia Piscium (1686)

2000 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Kusukawa
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
John Ray ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Francis Willughby ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Made In

In 1686, just as Newton was preparing for the publication of the Principia , the Historia Piscium was being printed under the auspices of The Royal Society. The Historia Piscium was a work begun by Francis Willughby (1635–1672, F.R.S. 1663), completed by John Ray (1627–1705, F.R.S. 1667) and brought into print with the financial support of The Royal Society. The text and illustrations of the Historia Piscium reflect the 17th-century origins of the enterprise: Ray's quest to recover the knowledge and language lost in the Fall, and The Royal Society's support for establishing a reformed natural history of fish through publication. Ray's biblical belief in the corruption of human language and knowledge led him to reform natural history through ‘characteristic marks’. He sought to define, classify and depict fishes through their external features, which when matched up, would yield the same nature, and thus allow humans to identify and give a name to a fish. The Royal Society helped Ray's task by confirming the validity or uselessness of a given author on the subject, suggesting other authorities and sources for illustrations, organizing the printing, checking the corrections and paying for the cost of the printing. Subscriptions were sought for the illustrations and the inscriptions of subscribers reflect the Society's concern to promote its institutional identity and its supporters. Some Fellows of the Society also helped Ray with identities and classification of fishes, and changes were made in response to suggestions and objections of other Fellows. Without the intellectual and financial support of the Society, especially Pepys, Lister and Robinson, the Historia Piscium would not have been published in the way that it was. Despite the subscription, however, the Historia Piscium was a costly venture, largely due to its lavish illustrations, and the subsequent flop of sales of the book meant that The Royal Society faced serious financial problems. This is perhaps the main reason why it could not meet the cost of publishing Newton's Principia .

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