LONDON.Royal Society, December 2.-Sir J. J. Thomson, president, in the chair.-W. H. Young: Note on the existence of converging. sequences in certain oscillating successions of functions.-S. A. Shorter and S. Ellingworth: The emulsifying action of soap-a contribution to the theory of detergent action, (i) The hydrolysis alkali in a soap solution is capable of assisting in the formation of the soap absorption layer by interacting with free fatty acid in an oil. (2) The " surface activity " of the hydrolysis alkali, in case of oils containing small amounts of free fatty acid, is much smaller than that of the undecomposed soap. (3) Surface activity of free alkali in soap solution is less than that of the same concentration of alkali in water. (4) Addition of alkali to soap solution increases surface activity of soap. This effect is much too large to be explained by suppression of hydrolysis. It is suggested that the effect is due to increase, in colloidal nature of " semi-colloidal" soap solution.--P. E. Shaw: The Newtonian constant of gravitation as affected by temperature, (i) It has been found possible (a) to obtain consistent cycle readings in a gravitational experiment of the Cavendish type, even though the large masses are maintained for hours above 200° C., while the small masses remain at ordinary temperatures; (b) to carry on this investigation in the centre of a city at any time by day or night, in spite of tremors and the special disadvantage of having the torsion balance in a vacuum. (2) The conclusion reached is that there is a temperature effect of gravitation. When one_ large mass attracts a smalt one the gravitative force between them increases about 1/500 as temperature rises from, say, 15° to 215°. Provisionally, the result is stated as + 1-2 + io˜5 per i° C. The readings are not steady enough to justify the statement that there is a linear relation for G/6. Time may be a. factor in the effect, but the net result has not been shaken by a long series of tests. (3) The above result, though new, is not entirely unsupported by other experiments, for previous work yields indirect evidence of a positive temperature-coefficient. The weight experiments of Poynting and Phillips, which yielded negative results, are not strictly comparable with the author's. (4) As a by-product of thgse experiments, it was found that silver bars of the highest purity, after being heated to 130° C. and kept in a strong magnetic field, were permanently, though weakly, magnetised, and that the coercivity was considerable.-G. I. Taylor: Skin friction of the wind on the earth's surface. The amount of the skin friction between the wind and the surface of the earth is calculated from observations of wind velocity at different heights above the ground. It is found that the skin friction force acting on unit area of the ground is proportional to the square of the wind velocity, and that its actual value is of the same order as, though probably smaller than, that found by experimenting with flat plates and pipes in the laboratory. The object with which the investigation was undertaken was to find out whether the skin friction on a small surface is nearly equal to that on a very large surface; but if it were assumed that this is the case, the method employed furnishes an explanation of the fact that the surface wind is, on the average, roughly about half the gradient wind in the latitude of the British Isles.