A Comparison of some Observations on the Diurnal Variations of the Barometer, made in Peyrouse's Voyage round the world, with those made at Calcutta by Dr Balfour was read by Professor Playfair.

An Account of an Aurora Borealis, observed in day-light at Aberfoyle in Perthshire, on the 10th February 1799, by Patrick Graham, D. D. minister of Aberfoyle, was communicated by the Reverend Dr Finlayson.

“On the 10th of February 1799, about half-an-hour past 3 o'clock P. M., the sun being then a full hour above the horizon, and shining with an obscure lustre through a leaden-coloured atmosphere, I observed,” says Dr Graham, “the rare phenomenon of an aurora borealis by day-light. The weather, for several days before, had been intensely cold; and during the two preceding days, much snow had fallen. On this day a thaw had come on, and the temperature of the air was mild. The general aspect of the sky was serene. Some dark clouds hung on the horizon between S. W. and W. I was intensely observing a large halo about the fun, of about 20 degrees in semidiameter : It exhibited the prismatic colours, though obscurely, except in one quarter, where it coincided with the skirt of a dark cloud on the horizon, almost directly west. In that portion of the halo, the colours of the iris were very distinctly exhibited.

An account of two intersecting rainbows, seen at Dunglass in East Lothian in July last, was communicated by Professor Playfair.

“At Dunglass, where I happened to be in the beginning of July last, our attention was called one evening, a little before sunset, to a very large and beautiful rainbow, formed on a cloud which hung over the sea, and from which a shower was falling at a considerable distance to the S. E. The sun was about 2° high, so that the arch was not much less than a semicircle, with its highest point elevated about 40°. At the point where the northern extremity of this arch touched the horizon, another arch seemed also to spring from the sea, diverging from the former at an angle of 3° or 4°, on the side toward the sun.

Sir George Mackenzie, Bart. read a paper containing an account of experiments which he had made on the Combustion of the Diamond.

What follows is a short abstract of this paper; the paper itself having been published in Nicholson's Journal for July 1800.

The Reverend Dr William Richardson, late F. T. C. D., having sent to Dr Hope a collection of specimens from the northern coast of Antrim, with a catalogue, and observations, the specimens were exhibited, and the observations were read in the Royal Society, March 1803.

Dr James Hutton was the son of Mr William Hutton, merchant in Edinburgh, and was born in that city on the 3d of June 1726. His father, a man highly respected for his good sense and integrity, and who for some years held the office of City Treasurer, died while James was very young. The care of her son's education devolved of course on Mrs Hutton, who appears to have been well qualified for discharging this double portion of parental duty. She resolved to bestow on him a liberal education, and sent him first to the High School of Edinburgh, and afterwards to the University, where he entered as a student of humanity in November, 1740.

The merits of studious men are to be estimated by the aids they have given to the advancement of science, or the literary monuments they have left with posterity; but if the public be gratified by their labours in these respects, readers are generally willing also to be told, who and whence they were.