TWELFTH ORDINARY MEETING. ROYAL INSTITUTION, April 1st, 1878. JOHN J. DRYSDALE, M.D., PRESIDENT, in the Chair. Dr. NEVINS stated that he had received a letter from his son, Mr. Arthur Nevins, one of the Associate Members of the Society, giving the results of further experiments for testing Mr. Hartnup's laws for the Correction of Marine Chronometers, described by him in vol. xxx. of the Proceed-. ings of this Society. * The ship "British Sceptre" was recently sailing from Australia to Madras, and, having horses on board, desired to water at the Keeling Islands, lying about mid-way between these two places. These Islands are a circle of detached Coral Islands, of which the broadest is scarcely a mile across, the diameter of the circle being about as large as from Liverpool to Aintree, while the highest land in the whole group is barely the height of the Exchange buildings. After being eighteen days at sea, they believed themselves to be nearing this group, and compared the three chronometers which were in the ship. When the rate of error given with each chronometer was applied in the ordinary manner, the ship appeared to be as far from the situation of the principal Island as from Egremont to the Town Hall† by one chronometer; as far as from Formby to the Town Hall by the second; and about twice the distance of Southport from the Town Hall§ by the third. When, however, they were corrected by the application of Mr. Hartnup's law, they agreed so nearly that the captain sent an officer aloft to look out, and he had not been there above five minutes before a point of land appeared in the horizon. These Islands were first colonised some forty or fifty years since by an old navy captain, named Ross, who married a Malay woman, and induced other Malays to settle there. They now belong to his five sons, who have all been to England, and received a University education in Edinburgh, and the eldest is also a skilled engineer. They manufacture cocoa-nut oil to the value of £10,000 a year, which they send for sale to Batavia, and they are now building a new vessel in the Island for carrying on their trade. The Islands have become an important station of late, in consequence of the advantages they possess for supplying fresh water to ships sailing from Australia to the East Indies, as they lie in the fair way of the passage. Mr. STEARN described some further experiments he had made with the telephone, with regard to the effect of the vibrations on the plate, at the receiving end of the wires. Mr. E. R. RUSSELL then read a Paper on "Trevelyan's Macaulay."* Ladies were invited to this Meeting. THIRTEENTH ORDINARY MEETING. ROYAL INSTITUTION, April 15th, 1878. JOHN J. DRYSDALE, M.D., PRESIDENT, in the Chair. The PRESIDENT brought in a communication from the Council, recommending the adoption of the following Memorial against the grant of a University Charter to Owens College, Manchester : "Your memorialists have considered the memorial recently presented to your lordships by the Owens College, * See page 257. Manchester, praying that a charter be granted to it conferring upon it the rank of a university, to be called the University of Manchester, and having the power to grant its own degrees in the faculties of Art, Science, Medicine, and Law. "Your memorialists are of opinion that the incorporation of a new university is undesirable; but that, if such an institution be established, its constitution should be such as to enable it to incorporate any colleges desiring incorporation which were able to satisfy certain requirements designed to test their efficiency and the adequacy of their endowments. By no other scheme would it be possible to secure the advantages which would arise from the establishment of centres of academic training in the centres of population, without incurring the serious risks to which an undue increase in the number of degree-giving universities would expose the whole system of English education. "Your memorialists believe that such a scheme can only be successfully carried out if the constitution of the university is so framed as to secure to the colleges united with it rights and privileges depending only on their magnitude and efficiency. "Your memorialists consider that the suggestions of the memorial presented to your lordships by the Owens College, Manchester, that a charter be granted to the Governing Body of the Owens College (with modifications), and that the university be called the University of Manchester, are not calculated to attain this end. They believe that if granted they would prove injurious to other colleges, and that they are incompatible with the position which any particular college or district should occupy in a university based on the principle of federation. "Your memorialists, for the reasons above stated, humbly pray your lordships to advise Her Majesty, if she is pleased to create a new University, not to grant the charter to the Owens College, Manchester, but, if at all, to a new corporation with powers to incorporate the Owens College, and such other institutions as may now or hereafter be able to fulfil the conditions of incorporation laid down in the charter; not to confer upon the said university the name of a town or of any person whose claims to such distinction are merely local." The Memorial was unanimously adopted on the motion of Mr. E. R. RUSSELL, seconded by Dr. BROWN. Dr. RICKARD explained his new method of exhibiting the effect of Polarisation of Light by means of the Oxyhydrogen Microscope, which might be made available also for the electric lantern. Mr. MALCOLM GUTHRIE then read a paper on "A Critical Examination of Mr. Herbert Spencer's Fundamental Physics," of which the following is a SYNOPSIS. 1.-" Does Evo SECTION 1.-Two questions proposed. lution claim to be an exhaustive theory of the Universe?" 2.-"Is it a mechanical theory?" Reply to first question on p. 341. Consideration of the second question. Examination of Dissolution, ch. 23. It results in the re-establishment of the Homogeneous, viz. :-"A sphere of like units of resistance having equal mutual motions of attraction and repulsion;" that is to say, "Matter in motion" (the chapter on Direction of Motion). Conclusion that Evolution is a mechanical theory, and that it does not account for the primary differentiations, nor for the phenomena of life and consciousness. SECTION 2. Since we only know "Force" in its manifestations of matter in motion, the use of the terms "force" and "forces" is objected to throughout Book 2 on the Knowable, since it obscures the argument; or else the Formula of Evolution, which only recognises "matter in motion," should be amended so as to include "Force." This not to be done; the Formula of Evolution must be in terms of matter in motion" only. SECTION 3.—Examination of ch. 19, “On the Instability of the Homogeneous"; and ch. 13, "On Compound Evolution." Ladies were invited to this Meeting. FOURTEENTH ORDINARY MEETING. THOS. HIGGIN, F.L.S., VICE-PRESIDENT, in the Chair. The Rev. H. H. HIGGINS, M.A., referred to the death of the Rev. Dr. Booth, Ex-President of the Society, and gave some interesting reminiscences of the Society's proceedings during his term of office. The following vote of sympathy with Dr. Drysdale, President, as approved of and recommended by the Council, was then unanimously carried : "That the members of the Literary and Philosophical Society greatly regret the sad affliction which has befallen their respected President, and they desire to express their heartfelt sorrow at this calamity, and to assure him of their cordial sympathy with him in his bereavement." The evening was devoted to miscellaneous business. Mr. ISAAC ROBERTS, F.G.S., described the result of the borings he made on East Hoyle Bank: * Dr. Drysdale's son was drowned while boating on the river Dee, 19th April, |