172 



NATURE 



{Dec. 27, 1877 



eleven human skeletons with many ornaments, some of them in 

 bronze, representing snakes, heads of various animals, &c. ; and 

 a comparison of the Ryazan skulls and ornaments with those 

 excavated in the Moscow and Meriaks koorqanes, proves that 

 they belong to quite a different people. Altogether the discovery 

 promises to be of great importance. Another gentleman sent 

 by the same society, M, Bensengr is busily engaged in making 

 anthropological measurements and ethnographical descriptions of 

 the Ryazan Tartars. 



At the meeting of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists 

 on December 9, M. Polyakoff— returned from a journey to 

 Western Siberia, the Altai, and Alatan Mountains — read a report 

 on the interesting question as to the state of Central Asia during 

 the glacial period. After having described the boulder-clay?, 

 boulders, and morainic deposits he met with during his journey, 

 as well as the present characters of the flora and fauna of the 

 country, he concluded in favour of a complete glaciation of 

 Central Asia during the last ice-period. 



We notice a valuable Russian work, just published by M. 

 Mushketofif, "Materials for a Knowledge of the Geology and 

 of the Mines of the Zlatoust Mine District in Southern Ural." 

 It is the result of careful study, contains many new and valuable 

 data, and is accompanied by an elaborate geological map. 



At the last meeting of the Russian Geographical Society on 

 December 8, Prof. Ujfalvy, of the Paris High School of Eastern 

 Languages, who was sent by the French Government on an 

 anthropological mission to Central Asia, made a very interesting 

 communication on his work in the Russian provinces of Orenburg, 

 Fergana, and Turkistan. After a careful study of the Bashkirs, 

 he arrived at the conclusion that this people are the original 

 stock of the Madjars ; that the Mescheryacks are intermediate 

 between Bashkirs and Ostyacks,'and that the Tepteri are true 

 Tartars. The conclusions arrived at as to the various peoples of 

 Turkistan are more complicated and could not be briefly stated ; 

 but the learned professor has collected many important data 

 fi.n<\ has obtained viluable photographs, collections of old coins 

 from Turkistan, of stoie imolements from Siberia, i%c. — At the 

 same meeting M. Minaieff referred to the work he has compiled, 

 by order of the society, on the tracts of Central Asia occupying 

 the upper parts of the Amu-daria. The work is divided into 

 three parts : geographical, ethnographical, and linguistic, the 

 former being the richest, and sums up all we know at present 

 about those lands. 



Col. Gordon has lately entered into a contract with Messrs. 

 Yarrow and Co., of Poplar, for four steel steamers of sonall 

 draught. He intends exploring the Albert Nyanza and the 

 rivers flowing into it. The steamers are to be carried as far as 

 pos.^iblrt by water, aad are to be composed of s^tveral portable 

 pieces o' aboui 200 lbs. each, to be put together on arrival at their 

 destination. Col. Gordon and his party are reported to be in 

 good health. 



Since the beginning of last year a new scientific journal has 

 appeared at Christiania (Cammermeyer) under the title Archiv 

 for Mathtmatik o^ Natwvidenskib. It is edited by Herrer 

 Sophus Lie, Jakob Worm Miiller, and G. O. Sars. The journal 

 is published in four yearly parts which form a volume of about 

 500 pages. We have received the first seven parts, and may 

 congratulate the editors and publishers on the decided step of 

 progress which the appearance of this journal evidently marks 

 in the history of Norwegian science. Amongst a number of 

 mathematical papers by Herr Sophus Lie, and others of minor 

 interest, there are some interesting geological treatises by Herr 

 Karl Pettersen, viz., on the orography of Norway, on the geology 

 of the Salten fjord, on the giant's cave near the Lavangen fjord 

 in the neighbourhood of Sandvor^, and on the fjords of Northern 



Norway. Herr S. A. Sexe has contributed two papers on some 

 old coast-lines and on the direction of the winds in the so-called 

 "stille Belt." Herr Amund Helland is the author of a treatise 

 on the ice-fiUed fjords of Noithern Greenland, and of an elabo- 

 rate account of the varying quantities of chlorine present in the 

 sea- water of the German Ocean, the Atlantic, and Davis' Straits. 

 Herr G. O. Sars contributes an interesting note on the scientific 

 expeditions in the Atlantic during 1876, and some detailed 

 researches on the invertebrate fauna of the Mediterranean (with 

 plates. ) Herr J. Worm Miiller gives some notes on Malassez's 

 method of estimating the number of red corpuscles in blood as 

 well as on the relation between the number of red corpuscles 

 and the colouring power of blood. Of the remaining papers we 

 note — a metallurgical paper by E. Miinster : on the influence of 

 the eccentricity of the orbits of heavenly bodies upon the quan- 

 tity of heat they receive from the sun, by H. Geelmuyden ; and 

 two zoological notes, one by J. Koren and D. C. Danielssen, the 

 other by Herman Friele. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Greater Sulphur- Crested Cockatoo {Cacatua 

 gahrita) from Australia, presented by Miss Rosetta Cohen ; a 

 Grey-breasted Parrakeet (Bolborhynchus monachus) from IMonte 

 Video, presented by Mr. Alex. F. Baillie ; a Mocassin Snake 

 (Tropidonoius Jasciatus), born in the Gardens. 



CERTAIN MOVEMENTS OF RADIOMETERS^ 



AT EARLY two years ago Mr. Crookes was so good as to present 

 -'■^ me with two of his beautiful radiometers of different construc- 

 tions, the discs of one being made of pith, and those of the other ot 

 roasted mica, in each case blackened with lampblack on one face. 

 With these I was enabled to make some experiments, having 

 relation to their apparently anomalous movements under certain 

 circumstances, which were very interesting to myself, although 

 the facts are only such as have already presented themselves to 

 Mr. Crookes, either in the actual form in which I witnessed them, 

 or in one closely analogous, and have mostly been described by 

 him. Although it will be necessary for me to describe the actual 

 experiments, which have all been repeated over and over again 

 so as to make sure of the results, I do not bring forward the facts 

 as new. My object is rather to endeavour to co-ordinate them, 

 and point to the conclusions to which they appear to lead. 



I do not pretend that these conclusions are established ; I am 

 well aware that they need to be further confronted with observa- 

 tion ; but as I have not leisure to engage in a series of experi- 

 ments which would demand the expenditure of a good deal of 

 time, and have lately been urged by a friend to publish my views, 

 I venture to lay them before the Royal Society, in hopes that 

 they may be of some use, even if only in the way of stimulating 

 inquiry. 



In describing my experiments I will designate that direction of 

 rotation in wh;ch the white face precedes as positive, and the 

 reverse as negative. It will be remembered that, under ordinary 

 circumstances, radiation towards either radiometer produces 

 positive rotation. 



1. If a glass tumbler be heated ti the temperature of boiling 

 water, and inverted over the mica radiometer, there is little or 

 x^o immtdiate m.o'ixoia. of the fly, but quickly a negative r:tatioD 

 sets in, feeble at first, but rapidly becoming lively, and presently 

 dying away. 



2. If after the fly has come to rest the hot tumbler be removed, 

 z.p)siiive rotation soon sets in, which becomes pretty lively*' and 

 then gradually dies away as the apparatus cools. 



3. If the tumbler be heated to a somewhat higher temperature, 

 on first inverting it over the radiometer there is a slight positive 

 rotation, commencing with the promptitude usual i 1 the case of 

 a feeble luminous radiation, but quickly succeeded by the negative 

 rotation already described. If the tumbler be heated still more 

 highly, the initial poiitive rotation is stronger, and lasts longer, 

 and the subsequent negative rotation is tardy and feeble. 



4. If the pith radiometer be treated as in § i, the result is the 

 same, with the remarkable difference that the rotation is positive 

 instead of negative ; it is also less lively. 



• Paper read at the Royal Society, December so, by Prof. G. G. Stokes, 

 Sec. R.S. 



