S3 



March 6, 1851. 



GEORGE RENNIE, Esq., V.P„ in the Chair. 



In accordance with the statutes, the following List of Candidates 

 for admission into the Society was read by the Secretary : — 



Charles Cardale Babington, M. A. 



- Thomas Snow Beck, M.D, 

 Daniel Blair, M.D. 

 Alexander Bryson, M.D. 

 Charles James Fox Bunbury, Esq. 

 Rev. Jonathan Cape, M.A, 

 Rev. John Camming, D.D. 

 Hewitt Davis, Esq. 



- George T. Doo, Esq. 

 Edward B. Eastwick, Esq. 



„ Charles M. Elliot, Capt. Madras 

 Engineers. 

 Robert Fitzroy, Capt. R,N. 



* Henry Gray, Esq. 



* Wyndham Harding, Esq. 

 John Hawkshaw, Esq. 



e John Higginbottom, Esq. 

 ^ John Russell Hind, Esq. 



Augustus Wm. Hofmann, Ph.D. 

 Thomas Henry Huxley, Esq. 

 Edward Augustus Inglefield, 

 Com. R.N. 



Richard Hartley Kennedy, Esq. 

 William Edmund Logan, Esq. 

 Edward Joseph Lowe, Esq. 

 Charles Manby, Esq. 

 Joseph Maudslay, Esq. 

 James Paget, Esq. — 

 Hugh Lee Pattinson, Esq. * 

 Apsley Pellatt, Esq. 

 Rev. Bartholomew Price, M.A, ^ 

 Lovell x\ugustus Reeve, Esq. 

 Julius Roberts, Lieut. R.M.A. 

 George Gabriel Stokes, Esq. — 

 William Thomson, Esq. — 

 Augustus Waller, M.D. - 

 Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, Esq. , 

 Arthur Parry Eardley Wilmot, 



Cora. R.N. 

 Forbes Benignus Winslow, M.D. 

 Charles Younghusband, Capt. ^ 



R.A. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. "On the Explanation of the so-called 'Mysterious Circles.'" 

 By the Rev. Robert H. Atherton. Communicated by the Earl of 

 Rosse, P.R.S. &c. Received November 28, 1850. 



The author refers to explanations which have been given of the 

 phenomenon, of which he proposes to give a new one, and points 

 out various courses which the propelled air may be supposed to 

 to take with reference to the cards. He then offers what he con- 

 siders to be the true explanation of the phenomenon. He con- 

 siders that no sooner has the air struck upon the loose card, than it 

 is reflected, spreading partly, if not entirely, over its surface, and 

 then ascends, carrying with it the interposing atmosphere, and ex- 

 cluding the surrounding air. This, he submits, is analogous to ordi- 

 nary suction, and by this means the loose card is at once drawn 

 up and fixed. He considers that the reflected air, thus rising and 

 driven out by the descending current, will have additional power 

 when the fixed card is considerably larger than the other. 



2. " On the relation of the Direction of the Wind to the Age of 

 the Moon, as inferred from observations at the Royal Observatorj-, 



Proceedings of the Royal Society. Vol. VL No. 78. 3 



