Vlll CONTENTS OF VOL. XLVIII. FOURTH SERIES. 



NUMBER CCCXXI.— SUPPLEMENT. 



Page 

 M. H. Herwig : the Heat-conducting Power of Mercury in- 

 dependent of the Temperature 481 



Prof. J. Lovering on the Mathematical and Philosophical 



State of the Physical Sciences 493 



Mr. R. H. M. Bosanquet on Temperament, or the Division 



of the Octave , 507 



Mr. S. Sharpe on Comets and their Tails 512 



Prof. A. M. Mayer's Researches in Acoustics. — No. V 513 



Mr. F. Guthrie on an Absolute Galvanometer 526 



Notices respecting New Books : — 



Mr. D. D. Heath's Elementary Exposition of the Doc- 

 trine of Energy 527 



Mr. R. A. Proctor's Transits of Venus 529 



Dr. "W. Huggins's Approaching Transit of Yenus 529 



Proceedings of the Royal Society : — 



Prof. O. Reynolds on the Refraction of Sound by the 



Atmosphere 530 



Mr. T. Grubb on the Improvement of the Spectroscope. 532 

 Drs. Stewart and Schuster's Preliminary Experiments on 



a Magnetized Copper Wire 535 



Proceedings of the Geological Society : — 



Mr. J. W. Judd on the Secondary Rocks of Scotland . . 541 

 Mr. A. ~W. Waters on Eossils from Oberburg, Styria . . 545 

 On the Cosmic Dust which falls on the Surface of the Earth 



with the Atmospheric Precipitation, by A. E. Nordenskiold. 546 

 On the Passage of Gases through Liquid Films, by Dr. E. 

 Exner 547 



Index -. . 548 



ERRATUM. 



Page 203, note t, line 3, for limited read closed. 



PLATES. 



I. Illustrative of Mr. W. Crookes's Paper on Attraction and Repulsion 



accompanying Radiation. 

 II., III., and IV. Illustrative of Mr. A. Tylor's Paper on Tides and Waves. 



V. Illustrative of Mr, W. S. Davis's Paper on a simple Method of Illus- 

 trating the chief Phenomena of Wave-motion by means of 

 Flexible Cords. 



