tantly compelled to coincide with them, and to urge upon the Government the adoption of such a course.

4. As to the qualities of the stones to be recommended for future use in public buildings to be erected in London,

The Committee have been unable, in the time allotted to them, to go into any very extensive examination. It is obvious, however, that although some varieties of magnesian limestone are an excellent and durable material, when not exposed to the deleterious influences of the London atmosphere; yet that in London it is. subject to causes of decay, which render it an undesirable and unsafe material for the construction of public buildings. The Sub-Committee are of the same opinion.

It is equally obvious that Portland stone, well selected, has been used in buildings in London from the date of St. Paul's downwards, under circumstances of great exposure, and with most successful results. Portland stone is a material to be obtained in any quantity, and in blocks of any size, beautiful in colour and texture, reasonable in price, not by any means so hard as the Anston stone, and yet with a power of resisting the influences of the London atmosphere, that leaves but little to be desired. It must be remarked, however, that Portland stone should be carefully selected; an operation which would be the most satisfactorily effected by an agent at the quarries.

The Committee, in conclusion, recommend that the architect of the Palace of Westminster, assisted by scientific chemists, should examine and record the actual state of the stone work of the building at the present moment; that experiments should be made by their direction, under various conditions of height, exposure, and aspect, with such preservative materials and agents as the chemists may suggest from time to time; and that researches should be continued into the effects of the various alkaline silicates, the phosphates, and other substances which have been brought under the notice of the Committee, or suggested in Germany, France, or elsewhere; that where decay arises from damp, means should be taken to protect the stone, as has been before suggested; that any stone extensively decayed should be removed and replaced; but that in particular the earliest symptoms of decay should be carefully watched, and examined, with the view to the application of some immediate remedy. The Committee believe that a very large portion of the stone in the Palace of Westminster is of a very durable nature; and they entertain a confident expectation that a remedy will soon be found to arrest or control the decay when it has unfortunately begun to

appear.

The Report of the Sub-Committee of chemists examines the processes proposed for permanent and temporary protection. Of the processes which are intended to afford permanent protection to the stone, and the use of which is not precluded by the conditions of the case, there are several which claim a careful investigation. These processes may be classed under the following heads :

1. Application of silicates of the alkalies, in various states of concentration. 2. Application of silicates, in conjunction with various saline compounds, intended to produce double decomposition.

3. Application of hydrofluoric or hydrofluosilicic acid, or their saline compounds.

4. Application of phosphoric acid, and acid phosphates.

5. Application of solutions of the alkaline earths, or their bicarbonates, in

water.

All these processes are more or less hased upon chemical considerations, which are supported by analogy, and which, in the case of the two first-named classes, have received considerable experimental confirmation. The experiments which are now in progress with several of the processes included in the two first subdivisions will, it is believed, in the course of a few years furnish_ample data for correct conclusions regarding their applicability. In the meantime it might be advisable to apply to portions of the New Houses of Parliament actually undergoing decay, certain processes selected as representatives of the remaining classes above enumerated, in order that their merits might be submitted to the only conclusive teststhose of actual application, and protracted exposure to the corrosive influence of a London atmosphere.

As to processes which are only calculated to afford protection of a temporary character, the Committee recommend further trials, upon the consideration that substances, included under the appellation of organic, differ essentially in their powers of resisting the destructive action of the atmosphere. Whoever is acquainted with the nature of organic substances, cannot fail to appreciate the different degrees of stability under atmospheric influence exhibited by gluten, gelatine, or starch (which we find enumerated among the proposed protective agents), and by bees-wax and paraffine, not to speak of many of the fossil gums, which exhibit a degree of permanence approaching that of mineral substances.

The materials recommended for selection to be tried in comparison with linseed oil, are paraffine, bees-wax, and some of the more permanent gums and resins, applied in the form of solutions in volatile solvents.

The following is a list of the experiments and the buildings experimented on:

Mr. Page, in 1857, operated on the 7th, 8th, and 9th buttress, plinths, and dies, with intervening bays, to the same extent of the river front of the Houses of Parliament (counting from the south end).

Mr. Daines, in 1854, operated on the bay facing Old Palace-yard and adjoining the Victoria-tower and the battlements of the quadrangle of the Commons' inner court; in 1856, on a portion of the parapet on the river front; in 1857, on a portion of the large cornice of the Conservative Club, St. James's-street.

Mr. Ransome, in 1857, operated on the plinths and dies of buttresses on either side of the Commons' entrance on river terrace of the Houses of Parliament; in 1858, on the plinths and dies on either side of Peers' entrance on river terrace of Houses of Parliament; in 1859, on Bloomsbury Chapel; in 1860, on the Marquis of Westminster's residence, Grosvenor-street; and on the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George-street, Westminster.

Mr. Szerelmey, in 1858, operated on the South side of the Star Chamber-court of the Houses of Parliament; and in 1859 on the Speaker's-court, ditto; in 1860, on Salter's Hall, City; on the statue of Victoria I. at the Royal Exchange; and on part of Spurgeon's Tabernacle, Newington.

As regards the experiments yet made for preventing the further decay of the Houses of Parliament, it appears that the following results have been obtained. We get our information from Mr. Scott's Report on the experiments made on rapidly-decaying stone in Westminster Abbey :

1. Water-glass.-Tried in 1857 and 1858. Stone hardened, but decay only partially arrested.

2. Paul's Aluminate of Potash.-Tried same date. Same result as No. 1.

3. Ransome's Silicate of Lime Process.-Same result.

4. Szerelmey's Secret Process.-Stone much hardened. Decay only slightly visible. Mr. Faraday thinks this method to be the best.

5. Soap and Alum Process.-Effects appear to have ceased.

6. Roche's Silicate.-Effects remain, but efficiency not reported on.

7. Shellac in Spirits of Wine.-Admirably successful where protected from rain. Scarcely so successful where exposed to rain.

8. White Wax in Turpentine.-Failure.

9. Same as No. 8, but with addition of Stearine.-Better, but failing.

10. Daines' Oil and Sulphur Process.-Tried since July, 1859. Almost entirely successful.

The above results are most encouraging. When, in a matter of such import, 30 per cent. of the methods tried are almost complete successes, every hope may be entertained that soon some processes may be discovered quite equal to the demands upon them.

Among the miscellaneous lights thrown upon the failure in the selection of the stone is the following statement in the Rev. John Raine's History of Blyth, in the counties of Nottingham and York— a quarto volume, just published :

"It is known to most of my readers that from the quarries of the Duke of Leeds and of Charles Wright, Esq., adjoining the village of North Anston, in the West Riding of the county of York, and touching each other, was obtained the stone with which the new Houses of Parliament were built, and that it is beginning to perish. Mr. Wright gave me recently, on the spot, the following explanation of this fact. In the first place, the contractors took stone from quarries of the Duke, which was visibly unsound and of inferior quality, although soft to work. 2. They won stone too near the basset-edge-to use Mr. Wright's own expression-that is, they won it from the surface forwards, driving, so to speak, the quarry before them, instead of working deep from the first. And 3. The quarries of the Duke were, in several instances, marked by fissures, which had become filled with soil; and the consequence was, that the stone in contact with these fissures was soft and bad. Mr. Wright's quarries were deep, perfect, and sound, and the stone thence taken good. This explanation of a practical man, in itself interesting, will, I think, answer the purpose for which I give it, and elucidate the word berset, basset. It must mean sloping, and this interpretation corresponds with the actual character of our Bassetlaw.

ARTISTIC ORNAMENTATION.

MR. HANCOCK, the well-known jeweller and worker in the precious metals, having considerably enlarged his establishment in Brutonstreet, Bond-street, for the Ornamentation of the principal saloon has commissioned the celebrated talent of Mr. Owen Jones in decorative art. The ceiling is Alhambresque in style, costly in its character, and of the most delicate colours, harmonizing with the show-cases, in which are displayed the almost priceless jewels, in every style of workmanship, from the lighest filigree to the most massive patterns. The colouring of the columns and the wall ornaments is very light, not any being positive, yet strong in tone and classic design, without frigidity; and ornamented with massive castings of the Council Medal of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and the medaille d'honneur of the French Exhibition, with which the establishment has been honoured. The show-rooms below, and fire-proof receptacles, are extensive and complete. The house of business, facing Bond-street, is reserved for plate; while the addition, which Mr. Owen Jones has decorated with so much skill and taste, is appropriated to jewels.

124

Natural Philosophy.

THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

THE Fellows of the Royal Society assembled in considerable numbers at their anniversary meeting on St. Andrew's Day-a meeting more than usually interesting, as Sir Benjamin Brodie, the President, then delivered his farewell address on resigning the chair. The attention with which the eminent surgeon's words were listened to marked the feeling of respect and admiration for his character that prevails among the Society over whom he has so well presided. After the delivery of the Medals, the meeting proceeded to ballot for council and officers for the ensuing year, and the following were declared duly elected :-President, Major-General Edward Sabine, R. A., D.C.L., LL.D.; Treasurer, William Allen Miller, M.D., LL.D.; Secretaries, William Sharpey, M.D., LL.D., Mr. George Gabriel Stokes, M.A., D.C.L.; Foreign Secretary, Mr. William Hallows Miller, M. A.; other members of the Council, Mr. John Couch Adams, M.A., D.C.L., Sir William George Armstrong, C.B., Benjamin Guy Babington, M.D., Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, D.C.L., Mr. George Bowdler Buckton, William Benjamin Carpenter, M.D., Sir Philip de Malpas G. Egerton, William Fairbairn, LL.D., Captain Douglas Galton, R. E., Mr. William Robert Grove, M.A., Q.C., Mr. William Hopkins, M.A., LL.D., Mr. John Lubbock, Mr. James Paget, Mr. J. Prestwich, Mr. W. Spottiswoode, M.A., Mr. J. Tyndall. The anniversary Dinner of the Fellows and their friends was held at St. James's Hall.

The Copley Medal, in the gift of the Royal Society, has been awarded by the Council to Professor Agassiz, thus setting the seal to the opinion which has so long prevailed of the merits of the distinguished professor. One of the Royal Medals has been awarded to Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S., for his researches on the foraminifera, into the structure of shell, and the embryonic development of purpura, besides his other works on physiology and comparative anatomy. The other Royal Medal has been awarded to Professor J. J. Sylvester, F.R.S., of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, for his important contributions to mathematical science. Papers by each of the two last-named gentlemen have appeared in the Philosophical Transactions.

TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.

A PAPER has been read to the British Association, "On the Secular Changes of Terrestrial Magnetism, and their Connexion with

* For a Portrait and Memoir of Sir Benjamin Brodie, see Year-Book of Facts, 1859.

Disturbances," by the Rev. H. Lloyd. It has been generally supposed that, at a given place, the mean yearly values of the magnetic elements were subject to no fluctuations of a minor period; and consequently that, for a limited number of years, the rate of the change of these values from year to year was either uniform, or else uniformly accelerated or retarded. This idea, so far as relates to the magnetic inclination, has been completely disproved by Professor Hansteen. From the long and accurate series of observations of this element, made by himself at Christiana, Professor Hansteen has inferred that the mean yearly value of the inclination is subject to a periodical fluctuation, as well as to a progressive change. The length of this period, according to Professor Hansteen, is 11 years; the maxima occurring in the years 1828, 1840, and 1851, and the minima in 1823, 1834, 1845, and 1856. The Dublin observations, so far as they extend, exhibit similar results. If we assume that the inclination decreases from year to year proportionally to the ti,me and compare the results calculated according to this hypothesis with those actually observed, the differences clearly exhibit a cycle or period, whose duration does not differ materially from that laid down by Professor Hansteen. The amount of the periodical part of the variation in 1845-the year of minimum-is so considerable as to mark altogether the regular yearly decrease. The Dublin observations exhibit a similar law in the values of the horizontal component of the earth's magnetic force, as deduced by means of the bifilar magnetometer, combined with absolute determinations made according to Gauss' method. When these results are corrected for the secular change, supposed uniform, they show very clearly the existence of a cycle. The maximum is 3.5071, and occurs in the year 1844; the minimum is 3.5027, and is the mean value of the horizontal intensity for the year 1848. Dr. Lloyd concluded by pointing out the connexion of these phenomena with the periods of greater or less prevalence of magnetic disturbances, and showed in what manner the disturbances operated in producing these effects. The general action of a disturbance is to augment the inclination and to diminish the horizontal force; and, accordingly, the year of greatest disturbance should be also that of greatest inclination, and of least horizontal intensity-these elements being supposed to be corrected for the regular progressive change. In the same manner as the easterly disturbances of the magnetic declinations preponderate over the western in this part of the globe, the effect of disturbances should be, on the whole, to diminish the mean westerly declination, which should therefore exhibit a period of the same duration.

General Sabine remarked on the value of this communication as the condensed result of years of laborious research. In his opinion a request should be sent up from the Committee of the Section to the Committee of Recommendations that it should be printed in extenso in the next volume of the Proceedings of the Association, as justice could not be at all done to it by the abstract laid before the Section.