317 



On the Electrical Relations of Metals and Metalliferous Minerals, 

 By R. W. Fox, Esq. Communicated in a letter to Davies Gilbert, 

 Esq., F.R.S. 



The author states that he has ascertained that the crystallized gray 

 oxide of manganese holds a much higher place in the electro-mag- 

 netic scale than any other body with which he has compared it, when 

 immersed in various diluted acids, and alkaline solutions : he also 

 gives a table of the order in which other metals and minerals stand in 

 this respect. When employed in voltaic combinations he found that 

 on being so arranged as to act in opposition to one another, the di- 

 rection of the resultant of their action, as indicated by the deflection 

 of the magnetic needle, did not coincide with the mean of the direc- 

 tions of the needle when under the separate influence of each. Hence 

 he infers that the needle is not a true index of the electricity trans- 

 mitted; and that electro-magnetic action does not depend on a con- 

 tinuous electric current. He conceives, therefore, that the pheno- 

 mena are better explained on the hypothesis of pulsations which he 

 formerly advanced. A galvanometer of a new construction is em- 

 ployed by the author for weighing the deflecting force of these elec- 

 trical impulses. 



On the Circulation of the Blood in Insects. By John Tyrrell, 

 Esq., A.M. Communicated by P. M. Roget, M.D., Secretary 'to the 

 Royal Society. 



The observations on the circulation of the blood in insects, which 

 is a discovery of comparatively recent date, have been made almost 

 exclusively on insects in the larva state ; but the author of the pre- 

 sent paper details a variety of observations of the same fact in insects 

 which had arrived at their last or perfect stage of development. 

 Among the Myriapoda, the circulation was traced in the Geophilus, 

 and still more distinctly in the Lithobius forjicatus. The author also 

 detected the circulation, by the motion of globules, through the ner- 

 vures of the wings of various perfect insects, namely, of some species 

 of the Hemerobius, Panorpa, Phryganea, and Ephemera; and par- 

 ticularly in the Musca domestica, or common house-fly. The paper 

 is accompanied by drawings of the appearances described. 



January 22, 1835. 



JOHN WILLIAM LUBBOCK, Esq., Vice-President and Trea- 

 surer, in the Chair. 



A paper was read, entitled, " Notes on the Temperature of the Air 

 and the Sea, &c, made in a Voyage from England to India, in the 

 Ship Hoogly, Capt. Reeves, in the year 1833." By Alexander Burnes, 

 Esq., F.R.S. 



The observations contained in this communication are recorded in 

 a tabular form, and show that the variations of the temperature of the 

 sea accord very closely with those of the air, in all the latitudes 

 which the author traversed in this voyage. 



