Ncv. 15, 



NATURE 



^7 



ICnergy," that the total energy of the universe will ultimately 



imie the form of uniformly-diftused heat of low temperature. 



The attractions between the heavenly bodies must upon this 



theory be ascribed to their being electrically excited to different 



extents, and continually sucking up electrical energy from the 



ether. When, then, any one of them loses heat by radiation, 



it will take up electrical- energy which may be transformed 



within it into other forms. The sun may thus' receive 



^ unpensation for the light and heat which it emits. In this 



'}■ it seems quite possible that the universe may really be a 



.serv-ative system. Indeed, the sun may receive a direct 



ession of light and heat from the electrical energy diffused 



nigbout space, as this would take place if it receded from 



.le other star with a velocity exceeding by a finite amount the 



sciocity of light. This accession would take place when the 



relative velocity exceeded a certain value, and its effect would 



be to diminish this relative velocity until the accession of light 



or heat ceased, when the velocity would again increase, as in 



the phenomena of the vacuum tube. 



The author considers that this might explain many hitherto 

 unexplained changes ging on in the sun, especially as it would 

 necessarily involve the inequality in the intervals from maximum 

 to minimum and from minimum to maximum, which is actually 

 observed. It might also give an explanation of the phenomena 

 of variable stars, as seems suggested by Secchi's observation 

 that all red stars are variable. 



The author states that he makes these suggestions with diffi- 

 dence, as speculation upon cosmical phenomena based upon the 

 limited data at our disposal is apt to be misleading ;" witness, 

 for example, the limitation to which Weber's law was found to 

 be subject. 



He points out that, if Newton's law of gravitation be con- 

 sidered only as a first approximation to the Law of attraction 

 between the eleclrified bodies of the universe, then every case 

 of gravitational attraction, including the weight of terrestrial 

 substances, may be considered ^as due to electrification. The 

 molecular attractive forces may also be due to the same cause. 

 The differences in the electrical excitation of the molecules of 

 various substances would then play an important part in the 

 phenomena of chemical combination (see footnote to § 16). 



The rigidity of a body would then be determined by the dif- 

 ferences in the electrification of its molecules. '1 hese differences 

 would naturally be determined by external circumstances, and 

 would be greatest in the direction of the normals to the surface.^ 

 G. W. DE TUNZELMANN. 



LEARNED SOCIETIES IN RUSSIA. 

 A T a recent meeting of the French Geographical Society, M. 

 M. Venukoff read a short paper on the learned Societies of 

 Russia. Besides the Geographical Society, the Army Staff, 

 the Academy of Sciences, and other Government institutions, 

 there are in Russia several learned bodies engaged in the explora- 

 tion of those coimtries which are still but little known. Though 

 many of the explorers do not go for geographical purposes 

 properly so called, yet these nort-geographical explorers frequently 

 obtain results of the greatest interest to geography. M. M. 

 Venukoflf' is- a member of many of these Societies, and at the 

 outset of his i>aper he proceeds to name some of his colleagues 

 who have in recent years rendered great service to geography ; 

 amongst the members of the Naturalist Society of St. Pctersburir, 

 MM. Korotneff, Nicolsky, Lidsky, Yaschenko, and Kouzneioff. 

 The first-named has travelled in the Malay Archipelago, where 

 lie has studied chiefly the invertebrate animals, but has at the 

 same time made scientific observation-; of every kind. In the 

 month of June 1887, he visited the country around Krakata~o, 

 where already several little hamlets have sprung up on the site 

 of the town of Anjer, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 

 1883. These poor huts were surrounded by a luxurious vegeta- 

 tion, while the neighbouring portions of the sea were still covered 

 with pumice-stone and altogether deserted by fish. At Billiton 

 Island the traveller met the interesting tribe of Secasses, the 

 fishermen of their state, who, with rare exceptions, inhabit 

 floating-houses — that is, their junks — and even those among 



' The foregoing paper in the original form is itssif a very condensed 

 ;ibKtract of an extensive research, the author only having a limited amount 

 of space placed at his disposal in the journal in which it was published. 

 This may .-iccount for the reasoning, in some parts of the paper, appearing 

 somewhat general and difficult to follow. — G. \V. ue T. 



them who possess huts build them on the sea on piles, and never 



on terra firma. They are distinguishable from the Malays by 

 their tall figure, their curly hair, and projecting cheek-bones ; 

 finally, strange to say, they almost all stammer. They are a very 

 honest race, gentle, kind, joyous, and hospitable, and it is said 

 that robbery is unknown among them. M. Korotneff describes 

 the tides of the Sunda Sea, which are very complicated, and 

 several other interesting phenomena. M. Venukoff then passes 

 to M. Nicolsky, a famous Russian zoolo^^jst, who has pursued 

 his researches in Lake Balkash. He assigns as the. cause for 

 the remarkable difference between the fish fnunse of the two dis- 

 tricts of Tchui and Ele that the basin of Lake Balkash is separated 

 from the Tchui valley by plateaux and mountains of a very ancient 

 formation. Besides, Balkash is 280 metres above the sea-level, 

 the Sea of Aral is scarcely 50 metres, and the height of the plateaux 

 between Balkash and Tchui is 370 metres at least, and so it is 

 difficult to see how the two great lakes were formerly part of one 

 sea. Balkash, Sassyk-Kul, Ala-Kul, and even Ebi-Nor probably 

 formed, and within the modern epochs, a single vast basin of 

 fresh or slightly brackish water, for their fish fauna is identical 

 with that of our days. In spite of its great extent and its latitude, 

 which is the same as that of Bordeaux and Venice, Lake Balkash 

 freezes ever)' year from the month of November up to the middle 

 of April, and the ice sometimes is as thick as 80 centimetres. A 

 fact worthy of observa'ion is that the steppes which surround the 

 lake vary very much according to their position. Those on the 

 north-west are clayey, and completely bare during the summer, 

 and covered with pools in the spring ; those on the south-east 

 are formed of beds of sand, in which there are no pools, but 

 where water is to be found below a certain depth. Thus the 

 desert in the latter case is not so dry as it is to the north and to 

 the west. From the point of view of a zoologist, M. Nicolsky 

 finds that the north and west of Lake Balkash are marked by 

 the presence of jerboas and of larks, whilst at the south of the 

 lake there are numerous reptiles and tortoises ; some hares and 

 mice dwell there also, but there are no birds. M. Venukoff does 

 not follow M. Nicolsky into the remainder of his report, as it 



j deals chiefly with the natural sciences ; but he remarks that M. 



j Nicolsky shows all the qualities of Humboldt and Mr. Wallace 

 — abundance of well-established facts, and great breadth of view 

 in explaining them. M. Lidsky travelled in Karateghin and in 



\ part of Bokhara. Having arrived in the month of June at 



j Schahrisiabz, M. Lidsky wished to journey to Hissar by the 

 Sangardak Hill, but this being prevented by the snows, he was 

 forced to make a detour and enter the valley of the Sourkhan by 



I another route. From this vast prairies stretch away as far as the 

 Oxus, inhaVjited not by men, but by jackals, for the waters of the 

 Sourkhan flood the plain each year. In rising from this valley, 

 he soon arrived at Garma, and then at Karatag, the summer 

 residence of the Bey of Garma, which is usually hidden from the 

 heat and the fevers which prevail in Garma in the hot season. 

 There, and at Fezabad, M. Lidsky saw fish the skin of which was 

 of exactly the same shade as the water which holds them, and 

 which abounds in clayey soils — that i>, of a red colour. Beyond 

 J"ezabad the traveller pushed into the high valley of Dachti- 

 Bidona, which is really a plateau separating the basin of the 

 Sourkhab from that of the Kiafirningm. M. Lidsky describes 

 Karateghin, which is i5dkilometre^in length and 50 in breadth, as 

 a fertile country in its lower parts, and thickly covered with forests 

 in the mountainous regions. Unfortunately this oasis is separated 

 from all the neighbouring countries by high peaks, so that the 

 journey from Garma to Samarkand, for example, passes over 

 Mount Pakchif, which is at least 3850 metres above the sea- 

 level. The cold is so great at the top of the mountain that 

 beasts of b'urder. and even men are frequently overcome by it ; 

 travellers are often compelled to throw before them long strips 

 of felt, on which they walk — a singular and a very slow and 

 painful mode of progression. In 1877, M. Yaschenko made a 

 journey in Russian Lapland, between Kola and Kandalaschka. 

 According to him the lakes of this region belong to the basin of 

 the White Sea or to that of the Arctic Ocean, and have identical 

 fauna ; but the (errestrial animals are not everywhere the same. 

 There are places where bears abound ; there are others where 

 the principal enemy of man is the glutton. In latter years the 

 inhabitants have remarked that the reindeer are changing their 

 habits, and are beginning to prefer the forests to the tundras, or 

 spaces covered with lichens, which make their favourite food. 

 The reason of this change is to seek a more favourable shelter 

 from the hunters ; in the open, whole herds may be taken, but in 

 the forest it is only possible to hunt one or two at a time. 



