Royal Institution during the past year by his friend Mr. Duppa and himself. Two of these families had already received the careful study of many chemists; the acetic having been especially illustrated by the classic researches of Kolbe and Gerhardt, whilst the lactic family had quite recently had the advantage of the equally remarkable investigations of Wurtz and Kolbe. Nevertheless, there seemed to be still some points of great interest regarding the arrangement of the atoms of these acids, their atomic architecture, so to speak,—which had not yet received elucidation; whilst the acrylic family had hitherto enjoyed comparatively but little attention from chemists. It had been proved by Kolbe and the speaker, nearly twenty years ago, that methyl (CH,) is a constituent of acetic acid, and more recently that acetic acid and acetic ether are constructed upon the carbonic acid or tetratomic carbon type, the formula of acetic ether being From this formula it was seen, that the radical methyl in acetic ether contained three single atoms of hydrogen combined with a tetratomic atom of carbon; and the speaker and his friend proposed to themselves the question: Can this hydrogen be replaced atom for atom by the alcohol radicals methyl, ethyl, &c.? In endeavouring to solve this problem, they availed themselves of that class of chemical reactions in which an electro-positive atom is expelled from a compound by a more electro-positive atom. Acetic ether was submitted to the action of sodium, by which two compounds of the following composition were obtained :- These compounds, when brought into contact with the iodides of methyl, ethyl, &c., yielded ethers, exhibiting the substitution which it was sought to obtain. In this way there had been produced the following ethers :— These ethers readily yielded their respective acids by contact with alcoholic solution of potash, and thus the homologous series of fatty acids could be ascended step by step, starting from acetic acid, and terminating with an acid of the composition of margaric acid, containing three atoms of amyl in the place of the three atoms of hydrogen in the methyl of acetic ether. C, H A similar inquiry had been instituted with regard to the family of acids of which lactic acid is a member, and it had been proved that this series of acids are derived from oxalic acid by the substitution of one atom of diatomic oxygen, in the latter by two of hydrogen, methyl, ethyl, &c. The following, amongst numerous other examples, were referred to in illustration of the relations of the primary to the derived acids : From the lactic family of acids access had also been gained to the acrylic family, for it had been found that the abstraction of water from the ether of an acid of the lactic family converted it into the ether of an acid of the acrylic family, thus : The production of these acids was not merely interesting on account of the addition of new members to the acrylic family, but their derivation from the synthesized acids of the lactic family afforded the most convincing proof of the style of architecture in which they were built up. The investigation of the three families of acids had conclusively established between them the very simple relations exhibited in the three following formulæ :- The speaker concluded as follows:-The day has almost gone by when the experimenter was asked the use of such investigations as these; nevertheless, it may fairly be demanded, Whither do such researches tend? What is their object? The sole object that we have had in view in these investigations has been the discovery of the laws according to which organic compounds are moulded, those compounds, the transformation of which from one state of combination to another constitutes an essential part of the phenomena we call life. There is no royal road to this kind of knowledge. It is only by thus patiently and laboriously examining every part of the subject, that the combined efforts of the physicist, the physiologist, and the chemist will one day be able to solve the organic problems which at the present moment appear so unapproachable. The work before us requires a vast amount of experiment and thought. Would that more labourers were engaged in it! How many men of leisure and ability are almost compelled to pass through life with no higher object than their own amusement. Why cannot our schools and universities furnish the next generation of such men, with the scientific knowledge necessary to enable them to take part in the glorious work of investigating Nature? [E. F.] GENERAL MONTHLY MEETING, Monday, July 3, 1865. SIR HENRY HOLLAND, Bart. M.D. D.C.L. F.R.S. President, Samuel Spalding, Esq. was elected a Member of the Royal Institution. The Managers reported, That in pursuance of the Deed of Endowment, they had appointed THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY, Esq. F.R.S. to be Fullerian Professor of Physiology. The PRESENTS received since the last Meeting were laid on the table, and the thanks of the Members returned for the same: viz.— FROM Asiatic Society of Bengal-Journal, No 123. 8vo. 1864. Astronomical Society, Royal-Monthly Notices, 1864-5. No. 7. 8vo. 8vo. Editors-American Journal of Science, May, 1865. 8vo. Artizan for June, 1865. 4to. Athenæum for June, 1865. 4to. Chemical News for June, 1865. 4to. Engineer for June, 1865. fol. Herschel, Alex. Esq. (the Author)-On the Secular Change of Temperature of the Air at Greenwich. (Brit. Met. Soc. Proceedings.) 8vo. 1865. Horticultural Society, Royal-Proceedings, 1865. No. 6. 8vo. Institution of Civil Engineers-Minutes of Proceedings, Vol. XXI. 8vo. 1862. Index to Vols. I.-XX. 8vo. 1865. Linnean Society-Journal and Proceedings, Nos. 33 & 34. 8vo. 1865. Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society-Proceedings, No. 18. 8vo. 1864. Manning, Frederick, Esq. M.R.I.-Astra Castra: Experiments and Adventures in the Atmosphere. By Hatton Turner. 4to. 1865. Mechanical Engineers' Institution, Birmingham-Proceedings, August, 1864. 8vo. Meteorological Society, British-Proceedings, No. 19. 8vo. 1864. Oliveira, Benjamin, Esq. F.R.S. M.R.I. (the Author)—Visit to the Spanish Camp in Morocco. (K 92) 8vo. 1865. Letters on Teneriffe and Madeira. (K 92) 8vo. 1865. Photographic Society-Journal, No. 158. 8vo. 1865. Royal Society of London-Proceedings, No. 75. 8vo. 1865. Royal Academy of Sciences, Madrid-Memorias: Tomo VI. Partes 1 & 2. 4to. 1864-5. Resumen de las Actas, 1862-3. 4to. 1864. Libros del Saber de Astronomia del Rey Alfonso X. de Castilla. 4to. 1864. Tomo III. Salviati, Dr. A. (the Author)—On Mosaics. (L 14) 8vo. 1865. Scharf, George, Esq. F.S.A. (the Author)-Catalogue of the Pictures belonging to the Society of Antiquaries, London. 8vo. 1865. Statistical Society of London-Journal. Vol. XXVII. Part 4. 8vo. 1864. Tyndall, Professor, LL.D. F.R.S. (the Author)-Heat considered as a Mode of Motion. 2nd edition. 12mo. 1865. On Radiation (the Rede Lecture). 12mo. 1865. United Service Institution, Royal-Journal, Vol. VIII. Appendix. 8vo. 1865. Wilson, Thomas, Esq. M.R.I. (the Author)-Partnership "en Commandite; " or, Partnership with Limited Liabilities. 8vo. 1848. The Railway System, and its Pioneer Thomas Gray. (K 92) 8vo. 1860. HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL WISEMAN, On Shakespeare. [“In the autumn of last year a communication was made to his Eminence the late Cardinal Wiseman, by H. Bence Jones, Esq., M.D., as Secretary of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, requesting him to deliver a lecture before that Society. The Cardinal, with the prompt kindness usual to him, at once assented. The Shakespeare Tercentenary seemed to prescribe the subject, which his Eminence therefore selected. The preparation of this lecture" (which was to have been delivered on the 27th of January last) "was his last intellectual exertion, and it overtaxed his failing strength." He died on the 15th of February. His literary executors have published “only a fragment of a whole which was never completed except in the author's mind." "The day before his illness, the Cardinal said to his amanuensis, the Rev. Dr. Clifford, 'I shall have no more real work, for I have every sentence that I am going to dictate already in my mind; it is only a question of time now. I know word for word what I shall say.' The following abbreviation of the intended lecture is printed with the consent of the Cardinal's literary executors.] THERE have been some men in the world's history-and they are necessarily few-who by their deaths have deprived mankind of the power to do justice to their merits, in those particular spheres of excellence in which they had been pre-eminent. When the "immortal" Raphael for the last time laid down his palette, still moist with the brilliant colours which he had spread upon his unfinished masterpiece, destined to be exposed to admiration above his bier, he left none behind him who could worthily depict and transmit to us his beautiful lineaments: so that posterity has had to seek in his own paintings, among the guards at a sepulchre, or among the youthful disciples in an ancient school, some figure which may be considered as representing himself. No less can it be said that when the pen dropped from Shakespeare's hand, when his last mortal illness mastered the strength of even his genius, the world was left powerless to describe in writing his noble and unrivalled characteristics. Hence we turn back upon himself, and endeavour to draw from his own works the only true records of his genius and his mind. We apply to him phrases which he has uttered of others; we believe that he must have involuntarily described himself, when he says, "Take him all in all, We shall not look upon his like again;" From the Preface to William Shakespeare. By his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman.' 8vo. Hurst & Blackett, 1865. |