The mines of Joachimsthal in Bohemia, have long been celebrated for their riches. They were successfully worked at an early period, and though their produce has been exceedingly fluctuating, yet the mining district, in which they occur, continues one of the most important of that country. They seem to have been particularly lucrative and important while they belonged to the house of the Counts Schlick, and when, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, a larger kind of silver coin was introduced into Germany, it took the name of Joachimsthaler, from the place of its coinage, a name which was afterwards changed into thaler, talaro, and dollar.

These mines are not less remarkable for the variety of the species, and for the beauty of the specimens which they have produced. The ancient collections of minerals at Vienna, the Imperial cabinet, that of Von der Nüll, that of Von Morgenbesser, and others, contain magnificent suites of sulphuret of silver, of red silver, &c. chiefly crystallised. The finest specimens, however, of the red silver, and perhaps the finest that ever were known in the species, were dug up so late as 1817 and 1822. The National Museum at Prague possesses one of them, consisting of a group of crystals several inches long, without having any rock attached to it, and weighing about twelve marks, or upwards of six pounds Avoirdupois, the value of the silver of which is more than L. 16 Sterling.

In preparing solutions of various salts with a view to determine their electrical conductivity, we found it of importance to know both the amount of salt in each solution, and its density. We prepared the solutions by mixing known weights of the salt under examination with known volumes of distilled water, and then measured their densities as soon as solution was complete by weighing a glass bulb in the liquid. We employed a balance which weighed to a milligramme with a kilogramme in each pan, and to give the results as great accuracy as possible we corrected for the upward pressure of the air displaced by the weights. The weight of the bulb itself was about eighty grammes. When not in use it was kept immersed in distilled water, in order to prevent change in its weight or volume being caused by impurities adhering to it. The temperature at which the densities were taken was 10° centigrade.

In following out the principle formerly laid down—that the study of the organization and functions of the part to which the nerve is distributed, will explain the peculiarities of its origin and connections—I have in this paper entered on a subject of great extent and difficulty.

As the Facial Nerve is one of a distinct class, it will be necessary to shew in what that class is peculiar—that it essentially belongs to the act of breathing—that the act of respiration being, in its ordinary condition, independent of the will, there are nerves appropriated to that function. At the same time, it must be shewn, as the apparatus of breathing is made subservient to other purposes in the economy, by what relations it is brought under the influence of the will.

The following report deals with the systematics and distribution of molluscs collected in and around certain lakes in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. For the sake of completeness some records published by Baker (2) are also included. The investigations of which this forms a part were made under the direction of Professor Charles H. O'Donoghue at the request of the Biological Board of Canada, and I desire to thank him for his encouragement and help throughout.

The causes of the peculiarities of the solar rotation exhibited by the superficial layers of the sun's body must still be considered unknown, notwithstanding recent interesting attempts at explanation. This is no doubt partly due to the difficulties of the hydrodynamical problem placed before the mathematician in an investigation of such complexity as the movements of particles in a rotating fluid subject to energetic convection. But it must also be conceded that the observational data available for a basis of mathematical, or even speculative, research are still so scanty, that for this reason alone we may perhaps not feel surprised at the failure so far of theoretical attempts.

The observations which have been made to determine the magnitude and figure of the earth, have not hitherto led to results completely satisfactory. They have indeed demonsrated the compression or oblateness of the terrestrial spheroid, but they have left an uncertainty as to the quantity of that compression, extending from about the one hundred and seventieth, to the three hundred and thirtieth part of the radius of the equator. Between these two quantities, the former of which is nearly double of the latter, most of the results are placed, but in such a manner that those best entitled to credit are much nearer to the least extreme than to the greatest.

I some time ago had the honour to present to the Royal Society, a specimen of a very singular fossil which had been found in the freestone quarry of Craigleith, near this city. It presented the appearance so commonly met with in the sandstone of the coal-formation,—an impression of what has always been considered as the bark of a vegetable connected with the Palm-tribe; but it differed from any thing I had ever before seen of the kind, by having circular marks ranged in a line along the surface, being apparently the impressions of flowers or fruit. As neither of these grow directly from the stem of any plant now known, except among the Cactus genus, this impression might have been referred to it, had not the regularity of distance between these supposed flowers, pointed out the improbability; and it consequently must be referred to some one, the prototype of which is no longer known.

The size of the specimen, of which the annexed engraving is a very exact representation, is twenty-one inches in length, and about fourteen broad; the widest part of the impression measures four inches, and the diameter of the circles a little more than three.

In the beginning of July last, I obtained, from the Frith of Forth, a species of bream, which has not been mentioned by naturalists as inhabiting the British seas. A few days after, I procured, from the same quarter, a second specimen of the same species, each exhibiting a conspicuous dark violet-coloured spot at the base of the upper part of the pectoral fins. (See Plate VI.)

On consulting the continental works on Ichthyology, I find this bream to agree best with the description Baron Cuvier has given of the Pagellus acarne, an inhabitant of the Mediterranean; but, as no figure of the fish accompanies his description, the discrimination of the species is rendered somewhat uncertain.

If light, emanating from a fixed source, be reflected to the eye, also fixed, from the surface of a polished cylinder, which cylinder changes its position in some definite manner, the point of reflection moves in some curve or locus whose nature may be made the subject of investigation.

In the present paper I propose to examine that case in which an indefinitely thin cylinder is restricted to pass through a fixed point. The locus of the point of reflection is then a curved surface, For the present I shall still farther restrict the polished line to the plane passing through the vertex, the source of light, and the eye ; the locus being then a plane curve.

Let then a fine polished straight line, extended indefinitely both ways, turn on the vertex O, while light emanating from the source A is reflected to the eye at B; it is required to investigate the locus of the point C at which the reflection takes place.

The reflection is only possible while the polished line passes outside of the angle AOB. When the wire lies along AO, the point of reflection is at A ; when along OB, at B; and when it is equally inclined, outwards, to OA and OB, the reflection occurs at O, wherefore the curve must pass through the three points O, A, and B.

Gigha is a little-visited island off the western coast of Kintyre and between the latter and the island of Islay. It lies about 5¼ miles south-west of West Loch Tarbert, and a little over 1½ miles from the nearest point of Kintyre where the mainland runs out for 1½ miles in the low, sandy, raised beach of Runahaorine (figs. 1 and 10).

The island is 6 miles in length from north-east to south-west, and has a greatest breadth of 2 miles. All round it are innumerable smaller isles, all elongated in the same direction as Gigha. Of these the most important are Cara, 1 mile from north-east to south-west by ½ mile in breadth, and Gigalum, ½ mile by ⅕ mile, and Craro, which is smaller still (figs. 2 and 10). The island forming Ardminish Point, on the eastern coast of Gigha, and Eilean Garbh, at the north-eastern end, will be dealt with here as if they were part of the main island, since at low tide they are connected with it by sandy isthmuses.

In 1855, when the systematic registration of births in Scotland was established, the schedule used exacted from the public a variety of interesting details in connection with each return,—a circumstance which gives to the registers for that year an extraordinary value. For, in consequence, I believe, of numerous complaints regarding the irksome labour of filling up the document, it was discontinued, and a much less comprehensive schedule has been in use ever since. It is from the registers of births for 1855 that I have extracted almost all the data which have yielded the results I am now about to communicate. Similar data cannot be found in the subsequent registers. The great value of these registers has been distinctly pointed out by Dr Stark, the able assistant to the Registrar-General. I must here acknowledge, with grateful thanks, the assistance and encouragement I have received from Mr Seton and other officials of the Register-House.

Sir George Clerk-Maxwell of Pennycuik, Baronet, one of the Presidents of the Physical Class of this Society, was born at Edinburgh, on the last day of October 1715. He was the fourth son of Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik, one of the Barons of Exchequer in Scotland: His mother was a daughter of Sir James Inglis of Cramond.

His more early studies were carried on at the University of Edinburgh, under the eye of his father, who was himself a man of letters, and from whom he appears very early to have caught a strong taste for Natural History, Antiquities and the Theory of Commerce, particularly in so far as these branches of knowledge related to his own country. He afterwards went to Leyden, where he finished his studies under the immediate inspection of the celebrated Boerhaave, who had been the friend of his father; and, before his return home, he visited several parts of France and Germany.

Recent investigation of the historical Mont d’Haurs section near Givet yielded numerous trilobites from Middle Devonian carbonate deposits. The trilobite fauna described in the present paper comprises a number of taxa from the basal Givetian, including two new ones: Dechenella givetensis sp. n.; Dechenella calxensis sp. n.; Dechenella ziegleri Struve, 1992; Goldius cf. capitellum (Archinal, 1994); and Nyterops cf. hollandi van Viersen, 2007a. This fauna confirms the previously recognised taxonomic diversity pattern and the Dechenella and Nyterops Association from the middle Middle Devonian in the Ardenne area.

Restudy of Campyloprion annectans Eastman, 1902 from North America demonstrated that neither specimen included is diagnostic at the species level; thus, the species name is a nomen dubium. Since this species was designated as the type species of the genus, this requires suppression of the generic name also. Another species earlier assigned to Campyloprion, Campyloprion ivanovi Karpinsky, 1924 is used as a type for a newly established genus Karpinskiprion Lebedev et Itano gen. nov. The composition of the family Helicoprionidae Karpinsky, 1911 is reviewed, and a new family Helicampodontidae Itano et Lebedev fam. nov. is erected. A new specimen of Karpinskiprion ivanovi (Karpinsky, 1924) recently discovered in the Volgograd Region of Russia is the most complete Karpinskiprion specimen ever found. It unambiguously demonstrates the coiled nature of these tooth whorls and presents information on their developmental stages. During organogeny, cutting blades of the crown became reshaped, and basal spurs progressively elongated, forming a grater. Whorl growth occurred by addition of new crowns to the earlier mineralised base followed by later spur growth. In contrast to consistently uniform cutting blades, spurs are often malformed and bear traces of growth interruption. Both sides of the outer coil of the tooth whorl bear lifetime wear facets. The youngest (lingual) crowns are as yet unaffected by wear. The best-preserved facets show parallel radially directed scratch marks. The upper jaw dentition of Karpinskiprion is unknown, but we suggest that the faceted areas resulted from interaction with the antagonistic dental structures here. Three possible hypotheses for this interaction are suggested: (a) two opposing whorls acted as scissor blades, moving alternately from one side to another; (b) the lower tooth whorl fitted between paired parasymphyseal tooth whorls of the opposing jaw; or (c) the lower tooth whorl fitted into a dental pavement in the upper jaw.

Twelve specimens of early Toarcian Mecoptera and Diptera from the vicinity of Wolfsburg were investigated for the present study. The material was found during house building activities in the 1980s at the locality Große Kley in Mörse, an urban district of the city of Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The specimens were found in calcareous nodules of the Harpoceras falciferum Zone that occur within the Liassic black shales (Posidonia shale). Six specimens of Mecoptera, five belonging to the family Orthophlebiidae and one belonging to the Bittacidae, and six representatives of the following Diptera families were identified: Ptychopteridae, Limoniidae, Anisopodidae and the superfamily Mycetophiloidea. The fossil fauna of Wolfsburg is similar to that of other early Toarcian sites in Germany, described by Handlirsch (1906, 1939), Bode (1905, 1953) and Ansorge (1996) from Braunschweig, Dobbertin and Grimmen. Two new species are described, Mesorhyphusulrichi sp. nov. (Anisopodidae) and Archipleciomima germanica sp. nov. (Mycetophiloidea).

Following the identification of grey quartz–albite–chlorite–calcite–muscovite rocks in Meso- to Neo-proterozoic sequences in Scotland as metamorphosed tuffs of intermediate composition, it has been shown that this lithology will generate calc-silicate rocks at higher metamorphic grades. Both rock types occur as thin beds with sharp contacts with their host, occur as multiple beds in isolated suites, and share chemical compositions suggestive of volcanic sources with tholeiitic andesite affinities. The failure to recognise calc-silicate rocks as tuffs might explain the apparent scarcity of volcanogenic material through c.220 million years of early Earth history in Scotland.

In a recent paper published by the authors, some measurements of the viscosity of aqueous solutions indicated that it would be of interest to investigate more fully the viscosity of solutions, especially those which exhibit what is now generally known as “negative viscosity,” over a wider range of temperature.

This has now been done to a certain extent, and to enable a comparison to be made between electrolytes and non-electrolytes in aqueous solution, some other substances have been included in the investigation. They are:—potassium chloride, potassium chlorate, ammonium iodide, potassium ferricyanide, potassium ferrocyanide; mercuric chloride, mercuric cyanide; carbamide.

Section VI.—A Review of the Fundamental Principles of the Mechanical Theory of Heat; with Remarks on the Thermic Phenomena of Currents of Elastic Fluids, as illustrating those Principles.

(Article 46.) I have been induced to write this Section, in continuation of a paper on the Mechanical Action of Heat, by the publication (in the Philosophical Magazine for December 1852, Supplementary Number) of a series of experiments by Mr Joule and Professor William Thomson, on the Thermal Effects experienced by Air in rushing through small Apertures. Although those authors express an intention to continue the experiments on a large scale, so as to obtain more precise results; yet the results already obtained are sufficient to constitute the first step towards the experimental determination of that most important function in the theory of the mechanical action of heat, which has received the name of Carnot's Function.