REGIUS PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY, LECTURER ON MINERALOGY, AND KEEPER OF
THE MUSEUM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH;

Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh; of the Antiquarian, Wernerian and Horti-
cultural Societies of Edinburgh; Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy, and of the Royal
Dublin Society; Fellow of the Royal, Linnean and Royal Geological Societies of London; Ho-
norary Member of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta; of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall,
and of the Cambridge Philosophical Society; of the York, Bristol, Cambrian, Whitby, Northern,
and Cork Institutions; of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and New-
castle; of the Royal Society of Sciences of Denmark; of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin;
of the Royal Academy of Naples; of the Imperial Natural History Society of Moscow; of the
Imperial Pharmaceutical Society of Petersburgh; of the Natural History Society of Wetterau;
of the Mineralogical Society of Jena; of the Royal Mineralogical Society of Dresden; of the
Natural History Society of Paris; of the Philomathic Society of Paris; of the Natural History
Society of Calvados; of the Senkenberg Society of Natural History; of the Society of Natural
Sciences and Medicine of Heidelberg; Honorary Member of the Literary and Philosophical Society
of New York; of the New York Historical Society; of the American Antiquarian Society; of
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; of the Lyceum of Natural History of New
York, of the Natural History Society of Montreal; of the Geological Society of France; of the
South African Institution of the Cape of Good Hope; of the Franklin Institute of the State of
Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts; of the Geological Society of Pennsylvania,
&c. &c.

APRIL...OCTOBER 1835.

VOL. XIX.

TO BE CONTINUED QUARTERLY.

EDINBURGH:

ADAM & CHARLES BLACK, EDINBURGH;

LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN & LONGMAN, LONDON.

1835.

PRINTED BY NEILL & COMPANY,

OLD FISHMARKET.

Aug. 11, 1939

3485

87-16

CONTENTS.

ART. I. Physico-Geognostic Sketch of the Island of Oahu,

one of the Sandwich group. By MEREDITH

GAIRDNER, M. D., Medical Resident on the Co-

II. On the Number of Comets in the Solar System; on

their Light, whether Reflected or Emitted; and

on the Comet which will pass its Perihelion in

November 1835. By M. ARAGO,

1. On the Number of Comets,

2. On the Light of Comets; and on the means of deciding

whether this light emanates from these bodies them-

selves, or is borrowed from the Sun.

3. On the Comet which will pass its Perihelion in November

1835,

III. On the periods of the Deluges of Deucalion, Oxyges,

and Noah, according to the various calculations of

time of different Nations. By Dr VON SCHU-

ᏴᎬᎡᎢ,

IV. Note respecting the application of the Compressibi-

lity of Water to Practical Purposes. By JAMES

D. FORBES, Esq. F. R. SS. L. & E., Vice-Pres. Soc.

Arts, and Professor of Natural Philosophy in the

University of Edinburgh,

V. Upon the Egyptian Hieroglyphical Writing. By

M. ARAGO,

39

VI. Remarks on the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway.

By Mr GEORGE MARTIN, Edinburgh,

48

VII. Account of some of the Rarer Plants observed du-

ring an Excursion in the United States and the

Canadas in 1834. Communicated by Mr JAMES

MACNAB,

VIII. Remarks on the question, Does the observation made

in Coal-mines of Canada and of Baffin's Bay, of

plants analogous to those which live at present in

equatorial regions, announce a change in the in-

clination of the Ecliptic? By M. MARCEL DE

SERRES,

IX. Account of the Founding of a New Grand Observa-

tory for the Russian Empire, by the Imperial

Academy of Sciences of St Petersburgh,

X. Account of some remarkable Hailstones which fell

at Padua, on the 26th of August 1834. By D.

L. COSARI,

Hailstones of a Flattened and Irregular Shape,

Hailstones of a Spherical Form,

XI. Account of an attempt to ascend Chimborazo, made

on the 16th December 1831. By J. B. BOUSSIN-

GAULT. In a letter addressed to Alexander Von

Humboldt,

XII. On the Characters of certain groups of the Class

Personatæ. By DAVID DON, Esq. Libr. L. S., &c. 108

XIII. Account of the Discovery by Purkinje and Valentin

of Ciliary Motions in Reptiles and Warm-blooded

Animals; with Remarks, and additional Experi-

F.R.S.E.,

ments. By WILLIAM SHARPEY, M. D.,

Lecturer on Anatomy,

Discovery of Continual Vibratory Motions produced

by Cilia, as a general Phenomenon in Reptiles,

Birds, and Mammiferous Animals. By Professor

PURKINJE and Dr VALENTIN, of Breslaw,

114

118

Parts of the Body, and Classes of Animals, in which the

Vibratory Motions exist,

119

Method of Investigation,

121

XIV. On the Manner in which Friction affects the Mo-

tions of Time-Keepers. By EDWARD SANG, Esq.

Teacher of Mathematics, Edinburgh, Member of

the Society of Arts, &c.

XV. Progressive Increase of Temperature as we descend

in the Crust of the Earth,

129

. 143

XVI. Researches on Wines and other Fermented Liquors.

By LEWIS C. BECK, M. D., Professor of Chemistry

and Botany in the University of the City of New

York, &c. &c.

XVII. On the Action of Voltaic Electricity on Alcohol,

Ether, and Aqueous Solutions. By ARTHUR

CONNELL, Esq. F.R.S. E.

145

. 159

XVIII. Memoir on the Degree of Selection exercised by

Plants, with regard to the Earthy Constituents

presented to their absorbing Surfaces. By

CHARLES DAUBENY, M. D., F. R. S., L. S., G. S.,

Professor of Botany and Chemistry in the Uni-

versity of Oxford,

XIX. Note on Taking the Dew-Point directly, by the Me-

thod of Leroi and Saussure,

XX. SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE,

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.

1. Velocity of Electricity,

GEOLOGY.

2. On the Imprint of the Feet of Animals upon Red

Sandstone. 3. Rolling of the Sea on the Coast

of Peru. 4. Large Mass of Native Copper. 5.

Earthquakes. 6. Fossil Marine Plants. 7. Gold

Region of the United States,

ZOOLOGY.

164

177

189

179

182-185

11. Effect of Mountain

8. On Aphis Persica. 9. Edible Birds Nests, how
formed. 10. Pilot-fish.
Air on Man. 12. Temperature of Fishes. 13.
Salmon of the Columbia River. 14. Respiration
of Birds. 15. On the Mytilus polymorphus, or
the Driessena polymorpha, a remarkable species