74- Imperial Society of Natural History of Moscow. 



and sulphur arc not conductors of the electric fluid, and, 

 produce no effect. The experiment does not succeed 

 better in vacuo than in the open air. u What is this sub- 

 stance (M. Fischer asks) which resembles a metal ? Is 

 it the alkali reduced, or one of its constituent parts, which 

 feeing combined with oxygen represents it, as Mr. Davy 

 seems to think? or, Is it hydruret of potash? But whence 

 this metallic appearance r" 



Miscellanies. — Their majesties the Emperor Alexander I. 

 and the King of Prussia have examined with great interest 

 the skeleton of the mammoth brought from the shores of 

 the Lena by M. Adams *". 



M. Tilesius, associate of the academy, well known for 

 his talent at painting objects in natural history, has pre- 

 pared 40 folio drawings of the mammoth. His observa- 

 tions do not seem to coincide entirely with those of 

 Cuvier. 



The meteorological observations from Moscow prove 

 that the cold was greatest in the night between the 1 ] th 

 and 12th of January. Dr. Rehman froze mercury in a 

 saucer exposed to the air. Count Bontourline observed 

 that the mercury in three of his thermometers was frozen, 

 and sunk into the bowl. But in a thermometer which 

 was not frozen, he found that from six in the morning to 

 six in the evening, on the 12th of January, the cold was at 

 35° of Reaumur. M. Roger, of Troitsk, observed it at 34 

 degrees before the mercury was frozen. 



The botanist Frederick Fischer, and M. Langsdorff asso- 

 ciate of the academy, who accompanied Krusenstern in his 

 voyage round the world, are occupied with a work on the 

 Ferns. They have prepared drawings of several new species. 



M. Fischer, the professor and director of the academy, is 

 collecting materials for a comparative craniognosy. An 

 accurate knowledge, of the cranium, as one of the chief 

 organs of animal organization, will fill up an important 

 chasm in comparative anatomy. The craniology of Dr. 

 Gall will only be made use of in order to demonstrate the 

 influence of the brain on the form of the excavations of the 

 skull. It will appear in Latin and French, accompanied 

 with engravings. 



M. Mohs has made a mineralogical excursion through 

 Carinthia, Carniola, &c. He has been particularly occu- 

 pied with the situation of the lead mines at Villach. 



The Imperial Academy of Petersburgh proposed a prize 



See Phi!. Mag. vol xxix. p. 141, 



of 



