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 XI. Further experiments and observations on the action of poisons on the animal system. By B. C. Brodie, Esq. F. R. S. Communicated to the Society for the improvement of animal chemistry, and by them to the Royal Society

1812 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 205-227 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Cause Of Death ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
The Public ◽  
Animal System ◽  
Mode Of Application ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Individual

Since I had the honour of communicating to the Royal Society some observations on the action of certain poisons on the animal system, I have been engaged in the further pro­secution of this inquiry. Besides some additional experiments on vegetable poisons, I have instituted several with a view to explain the effects of some of the more powerful poisons of the mineral kingdom. The former correspond in their results so nearly with those which are already before the public, that, in the present communication, I shall confine myself to those which appear to be of some importance, as they more par­ticularly confirm my former conclusions respecting the reco­very of animals apparently dead, where the cause of death operates exclusively on the nervous system. In my experi­ments on mineral poisons, I have found some circumstances wherein their effects differ from those of vegetable poisons, and of these I shall give a more particular account. What­ever may be the value of the observations themselves, the subject must be allowed to be one that is deserving of inves­tigation, as it does not appear unreasonable to expect that such investigation may hereafter lead to some improvements in the healing art. This consideration, I should hope, will be regarded as a sufficient apology for my pursuing a mode of inquiry by means of experiments on brute animals, of which we might well question the propriety, if no other purpose were to be answered by it than the gratification of curiosity. In my former communication on this subject, I entered into a detailed account of the majority of my experiments. This I conceived necessary, because in the outset of the inquiry I had been led to expect that even the same poison might not always operate precisely in the same manner; but I have since had abun­dant proof, that in essential circumstances there is but little variety in the effects produced by poisons of any description, when employed on animals of the same, or even of different species, beyond what may be referred to the difference in the quantity, or mode of application of the poison, or of the age and power of the animal. This will explain the reason of my not detailing, in the present communication, so many of the individual experiments from which my conclusions are drawn, as in the former; at the same time I have not been less care­ful to avoid drawing general conclusions from only a limited number of facts. Should these conclusions prove fewer, and of less importance than might be expected, such defects will, I trust, be regarded with indulgence; at least by those, who are aware of the difficulty of conducting a series of physiological experiments; of the time, which they necessarily occupy; of the numerous sources of fallacy and failure which exist; and of the laborious attention to the minutest circumstances, which is in consequence necessary in order to avoid being led into error.

scholarly journals An application of the theory of probabilities to the study of a priori pathometry.—Part II

1917 ◽  
Vol 93 (650) ◽  
pp. 212-225 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Active Service ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Government Grant

Part I of this paper was published in the ‘Proceedings', A, vol. 92 (1916), having been read on November 11, 1915. In June last, the Royal Society was kind enough to give a Government Grant for providing me with assistance in order to complete the paper, and for carrying on further studies upon the subject; and Miss Hilda P. Hudson, M. A., Sc. D., was appointed for the work from May 1, 1916. The continuation of the paper has accordingly been written in conjunction with her; and I should like to take the opportunity to express my obligations to her for her valuable assistance, especially in regard to Part III—which is to appear shortly. I must apologise for the rather numerous small errors in Part I—due to the fact that the proofs were received by me when I was abroad on active service.

scholarly journals VI. Electrification of air, of vapour of water, and of other gases

1898 ◽  
Vol 191 ◽  
pp. 187-228 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Atmospheric Electricity ◽  
British Association ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
The Subject

1. In this paper we describe a long series or experiments on the electrification of air and other gases, with which we have been occupied from May, 1894, up to the present time (June, 1897). Some results of our earlier experiments, and of preliminary efforts to find convenient methods of investigation, have from time to time been communicated to the Royal Society, the British Association, and the Glasgow Philosophical Society. 2. The method for testing the electrification of air, which we used in our earliest experiments, was an application of the water-dropper (long well-known in the ordinary observation of atmospheric electricity). Its use by Maclean and Goto, in 1890, led to an interesting discovery that air in an enclosed vessel, previously non-electrified, becomes electrified by a jet of water falling through it. An investigation of properties of matter concerned in this effect, related as it is to the “development of electricity in the breaking up of a liquid into drops,” which had been discovered by Holmgren as early as 1873, and to the later investigations and discoveries described by Lenard, in his paper on the “Electricity of Waterfalls,” forms the subject of 25-37 of the present communication.

On the quantity of carbon in carbonic acid, and on the nature of the diamond

1832 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 272-275
Keyword(s):  
Carbonic Acid ◽  
Horizontal Position ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
Small Furnace ◽  
Guyton De Morveau ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Oxygen Gas ◽  
The Difference

The experiments, which form the subject of the present communication were undertaken, not only on account of the difference between the estimates that have been made of the quantity of carbon in carbonic acid, but because those of Guyton de Morveau, which are most frequently preferred at this time in various systems of chemistry, appeared liable to many objections, from the manner in which they were conducted; while the original experiments of Lavoisier, on the contrary, appear to have been performed with much accuracy, and had moreover been confirmed by Mr. Tennant in his researches on the nature of the diamond. The design of the authoi’s was to consume certain known quantities of diamond and of other carbonaceous substances in oxygen gas; for which purpose it had been originally their intention to employ he sun’s rays, by means of a powerful lens; but, considering the uncertainty of a favourable opportunity in this country, they resolved to employ an apparatus consisting of two mercurial gas-holders, with a tube of platina interposed between them in a horizontal position, and passing through a small furnace, by which the tube and its contents might be heated to any degree requisite for the combustion of the substance employed.

scholarly journals XX. On new compounds of carbon and hydrogen, and on certain other products obtained during the decomposition of oil by heat

1825 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 440-466 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
High Temperatures ◽  
Liquid State ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
New Compounds ◽  
Oil Gas

The object of the paper which I have the honour of sub­mitting at this time to the attention of the Royal Society, is to describe particularly two new compounds of carbon and hydrogen, and generally, other products obtained during the decomposition of oil by heat. My attention was first called to the substances formed in oil at moderate and at high temperatures, in the year 1820; and since then I have endea­voured to lay hold of every opportunity for obtaining information on the subject. A particularly favourable one has been afforded me lately through the kindness of Mr. Gordon, who has furnished me with considerable quantities of a fluid obtained during the compression of oil gas, of which I had some years since possessed small portions, sufficient to excite great interest, but not to satisfy it. It is now generally known, that in the operations of the Portable Gas Company, when the oil gas used is compressed in the vessels, a fluid is deposited, which may be drawn off and preserved in the liquid state., The pressure applied amounts to 30 atmospheres; and in the operation, the gas previously contained in a gasometer over water, first passes into a large strong receiver, and from it, by pipes, into the portable vessels. It is in the receiver that the condensation principally takes place; and it is from that vessel that the liquid I have worked with has been taken. The fluid is drawn off at the bottom by opening a conical valve: at first a portion of water generally comes out, and then the liquid. It effervesces as it issues forth; and by the difference of re-­fractive power it may be seen, that a dense transparent vapour is descending through the air from the aperture. The effervescence immediately ceases; and the liquid may be readily retained in ordinary stoppered, or even corked bottles; a thin phial being sufficiently strong to confine it. I understand that 1000 cubical feet of good gas yield nearly one gallon of the fluid.

The Subject’s Life and the Life of Manifestation: Towards a Privative Biology

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renaud Barbaras
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Exact Nature ◽  
Rigorous Analysis ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference

Abstract The universal a priori of the correlation between transcendental being and its subjective modes of givenness constitutes the minimal framework for any phenomenological approach. The proper object of phenomenology is then to characterize both the exact nature of the correlation and the sense of being of the terms in relation, that is to say, of subject and world. It involves demonstrating that a rigorous analysis of the correlation unfolds necessarily on three levels and that phenomenology is thus destined to move beyond itself towards a cosmology and metaphysics. The phenomenological correlation that we will establish is essentially a relation between a subject that is desire and a world that is pure transcendence and assumes their common belonging to a φύσίς whose description stems from a cosmology. But the difference of the subject, without which there is no correlation, refers itself to a more originary split that affects the very process of the manifestation and opens the space of metaphysics.

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.

scholarly journals XXXIII. On the figure of the earth

1826 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 548-578 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Present State ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Mathematical Theory ◽  
Second Order ◽  
The Earth ◽  
First Approximation ◽  
Figure Of The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference

The ellipticity of the earth, deduced by Captain Sabine from a series of pendulum experiments the most extensive, and apparently the most deserving of confidence, that has ever been made, differs considerably from that which, as is generally believed, is indicated by geodetic measures. The difference can only be explained by errors of observation, by peculiarities of local circumstances, or by some defect in the theory which connects the figure of the earth with the variation of gravity on its surface: under the last head may be placed defects in the mathematical part of the theory, and errors in the assumptions of the original constitution and present state of the earth. It was with a view to ascertain the sufficiency of the mathematical theory, that I undertook the investigations contained in this paper. The celebrated proposition called Clairaut's theorem, by which the earth's ellipticity is inferred from the variation of gravity on its surface, is obtained only by the rejection of the squares and higher powers of the ellipticity. It is by the same rejection that the figure of the earth, supposed a heterogeneous fluid, is proved to be an elliptic spheroid. It appeared therefore probable, that a more accurate theory might introduce some modification into Clairaut's theorem, and might also show he figure of the earth to differ from an ellipsoid ; and there was no reason to think that the first approximation to that figure was more accurate, than the first approximation to the motion of the moon’s perigee. The result of my investigation does not at all serve to reconcile the pendulum observations made by Captain Sabine with the measures of degrees : and with respect to one object, which I hoped to obtain, I am therefore completely unsuccessful. The theory shows, however, that the earth’s figure, on the usual suppositions as to its constitution, is not an elliptic spheroid; and the formulæ which I have obtained will give the means of determining very exactly the figure of the earth, when the experiments on the variation of gravity, or the measures of arcs on the earth’s surface, shall be thought sufficiently accurate. As the subject is one whose interest is not confined to the present time, I have ventured to offer my investigations to the Royal Society. The first part of the following sheets contains the theory of the heterogeneous earth, pushed so far as to include all the terms of the second order: it is succeeded by a comparison of this theory with Captain Sabine’s results, and with the best arcs of the meridian that have been measured and in the conclusion, I have offered some suggestions on the propriety of repeating some of these measures.

V. On the absorption and radiation of heat by gaseous and liquid matter.—Fourth memoir

1864 ◽  
Vol 154 ◽  
pp. 201-225 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Radiant Heat ◽  
Powerful Source ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Volatile Liquids ◽  
Permanent Gases ◽  
Gaseous Form

The Royal Society has already done me the honour of publishing in the Philosophical Transactions three memoirs on the relations of radiant heat to the gaseous form of matter. In the first of these memoirs* it was shown that for heat emanating from the blackened surface of a cube filled with boiling water, a class of bodies which had been previously regarded as equally, and indeed, as far as laboratory experiments went, perfectly diathermic, exhibited vast differences both as regards radiation and absorption. At the common tension of one atmosphere the absorptive energy of olefiant gas, for example, was found to be 290 times that of air, while when lower pressures were employed the ratio was still greater. The reciprocity of absorption and radiation on the part of gases was also experimentally established in this first investigation. In the second inquiry† I employed a different and more powerful source of heat, my desire being to bring out with still greater decision the differences which revealed themselves in the first investigation. By carefully purifying the transparent elementary gases, and thus reducing the action upon radiant heat, the difference between them and the more strongly acting compound gases was greatly augmented. In this second inquiry, for example, olefiant gas at a pressure of one atmosphere was shown to possess 970 times the absorptive energy of atmospheric air, while it was shown to be probable that when pressures of 1/30th of an atmosphere were compared, the absorption of olefiant gas was nearly 8000 times that of air. A column of ammoniacal gas, moreover, 3 feet long, was found sensibly impervious to the heat employed in the inquiry, while the vapours of many of the volatile liquids were proved to be still more opaque to radiant heat than even the most powerfully acting permanent gases. In this second investigation, the discovery of dynamic radiation and absorption is also announced and illustrated, and the action of odours and of ozone on radiant heat is made the subject of experiment.

scholarly journals II. On the mathematical theory of the stability of earth-work and masonry

1857 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 60-61 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Stress ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Mathematical Theory ◽  
Natural Slope ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Stability

In the preparation of my course of lectures, I have found it necessary to re-investigate much of the above-named branch of mechanics, and I have now a paper in preparation on the subject, which I propose to offer to the Royal Society when it is ready. In the meanwhile, it appears to me that the two fundamental principles on which my researches are based are of such a nature, that they may very properly be communicated to the Royal Society at once. They are as follows:― I. Principle o f the Stability of Earth . At each point in a mass of earth the directions of greatest and least compressive stress are at right angles to each other; and the condition of stability is, that at each point the ratio of the difference of those stresses to their sum shall not exceed the sine of the angle of natural slope of the earth.

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