cal touch at the practice of leaving off sugar in stranger would retain a half cupful of the black pires ;-instead of practising, or even admiring order to discourage slavery-a practice, by the dose in his mouth, and stare round at his fellow her self-denial, they laughed at it; and one way, which might be given up since the Eman- guests, as if tacitly putting to them the very wicked wag even compared her, in allusion to cipation Bill passed. Of this pleasantry we question of Mathews's Yorkshireman in the her acerbity and her privation, to a crab withshall not anticipate the point, but content our-mail coach-' Coompany! oop or doon?' The out the nippers. She persevered, notwithselves with one page, descriptive of the con- greatest sufferers, however, were Miss Morbid's standing, in her system; and to the constancy sequences of Miss Morbid's discontinuing the two nephews, still in the morning of their of a martyr added something of the wilfulness use of sugar. youth, and, boylike, far more inclined to sip of a bigot." "With a hope of being similarly remem- the sweets' than to hail the dawn.' They Need we, after these remarks, and still less hered in her will, the poor relations of Miss had formerly looked on their aunt's house as after these extracts (like extracts from sugar), Morbid continued to drink the warm with- peculiarly a dulce domum. Prior to her sudden recommend this re-production to the public? out, which she administered to them every conversion, she had been famous for the manu- We think not; and have only to express our Sunday, under the name of tea: and Hogarth facture of a sort of hard-bake, commonly called fervent hope that its abundant fruits may add would have desired no better subject for a pic- Toffy, or Taffy, but now, alas! Taffy was another and a solid solace, a medicine of price, ture than was presented by their physiogno- not at home,' and there was nothing else to a comforting monthly draught, renovating mies. Some pursed up their lips, as if resolved invite a call. Currant tart is tart indeed with- bills, warm plaisters, effectual mitigants, 'that the nauseous beverage should never enter out sugar; and as for the green gooseberries, noon, night, and morning, to assuage and them; others compressed their mouths, as if to they always tasted, as the young gentlemen finally make a perfect cure of the maladies so prevent it from rushing out again. One took affirmed, like a quart of berries sharpened to cheerfully borne by Thomas Hood. it mincingly, in sips,-another gulped it down a pint.' In short, it always required six pennyin desperation, a third, in a fit of absence, worth of lollipops and bull's-eyes, a lick of continued to stir very superfluously with his honey, a dip of treacle, and a pick at a grocer's spoon; and there was one shrewd old gentle- hogshead, to sweeten a visit at Aunt Morbid's. man, who, by a little dexterous by-play, used To tell the truth, her own temper soured a to bestow the favour of his small souchong on little under the prohibition. She could not a sick geranium. Now and then an astonished persuade the sugar-eaters that they were vam The Cover, by Alfred Crowquill, is one of the cleverest designs we have seen, with a number of Hoods (such as childhood, monk's hood, hood-winking, &c. &c.), wrought into a very fanciful wreath. Quare, Renewed pills?-Printer's Devil! The ass!-Ed. A Traveller's Rambling Reminiscences of the Spanish War; with a Refutation of the Charges of Cruelty brought against General Evans, and the British Legion; and a Defence of British Policy, &c. By the Rev. Thomas Farr. 12mo. pp. 335. London, 1838. Ridgway and Son. It seems rather an odd taste for a clergyman to go rambling among such scenes as are here described, but, as the old proverb has it, "every man to his mind, as the piper said when he kissed the cow." If ever the King of the Gipsies can afford, and wishes to keep a chaplain, we recommend the Rev. Mr. Farr to his majesty for that office. With regard to the work before us, it, not only on the reports of others, but from what the writer witnessed with his own eyes, asserts that the Carlist barbarities were not retaliated by the British Legion, nor even in any great degree by the Christinos, but were met by forbearance and moderation. We should, indeed, be sorry not to believe this; for we cannot imagine that the worst class of Britons ever collected together would be guilty of such cruel atroci-| The author, meeting some of the fugitives among the rest we have the following.An- MISCELLANEOUS. Lonal official information. The result is, an excellent It is is really surprising to notice how much it has been im- was made in the first edition of 1831, and has evidence of such experiments I place in juxtaproved, even since we thought it well deserving of very been repeated in every edition, to the number position with the individual experiment of the high commendation. Since 1832, when it was begun, to the present year, the editor must have bestowed great of four or five, to the present moment, and patentee of the new process, and leave others pains in obtaining corrections of any errors, and addi- through a space of six years. But, to make to judge of their comparative worth. guide to both Houses of Parliament, the opinions of the acknowledgment more distinct, a bar, or likewise stated-"The specified expense for the members, their places of residence, the general parlia- line, has been drawn in every edition between preparing a load of timber (with corrosive submentary intelligence, officers, agents, mode of conducting the original department and the compiled de-limate) is one pound." This infers that it is business, &c. &c. &c.; and all so well arranged, as to save a world of trouble to every one who may have occa- partment, and it is from the compiled depart-one pound sterling, which is not the fact; but ment that you take your quotations. one pound weight of corrosive sublimate is the sion to seek for reference to such matters. medley. The Annual Scrap Book; a Selection of Paragraphs which have appeared in the Newspapers and Periodicals. Pp. 35. (London, W. Smith.)-Scissors well employed; for these pages contain a thousand extracts of humour, oddity, utility, anecdote, and information. It is a strange Gossary of Architecture. 8vo. pp. 144. (London, Tilt; Oxford, Parker; Leicester, Combe and Co.)-To say that this work, with its four hundred cuts, has already reached a second edition, is only to mark its merits and its second step to far more general circulation. Supplement to every Yearly Almanack. (London, Schloss.) -This slight brochure, translated from the German by W. S. B. Woolhouse, has strong claims to notice. As a production of much interest to the science of astronomy, it is more valuabie thau some dozen of large volumes we have seen. The tables of comets, fixed stars, &c. &c. complete a clever guide to the knowledge of the external heavens. Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, Herbert, and Sanderson, by Walton. 12mo. pp. 424, (London, Washbourne.)→→→ A neat new edition of these popular biographies. Library of Entertaining Knowledge. (London, C. Knight.)The last two volumes have given us Davis's Chinese Empire, than which, a more agreeable and instructive work could not be comprised within so portable a form, and so cheap a compass. Dr. Akin's Letters from a Father to his Son. Pp. 365. (London, Smith.)-We have merely to notice this new and neat edition of a justly popular work. ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. - I am, &c. WILLIAM HOWITT. ARTS AND SCIENCES. ANTI-DRY-ROT. Lime Street Square, 26th January, 1838. So much for your charge of borrowing with- quantity requisite for one load of timber. As out the slightest acknowledgment. Had you to the trials to be made at Woolwich, perhaps found your passages in what I professed and you are not aware, that the famous fungus pit claimed to be my own, it would have been to the in that dock-yard has been filled up some purpose, for that is exactly what I accused others years-in 1833,-after having a cube of oak, of doing by me. taking my facts and profess- prepared by Kyan's process, in it for five years ing them to be their own, and even boasting of without the slightest effect having taken place them as such. Yours are taken from a con- on it. The admiralty have been making fessed compilation, in which, if the name of the experiments, since 1828, on timber, canvass, author quoted is not always actually attached, and cordage, prepared by Kyan's process, without he is declared by the general announcement in any one instance of failure in those substances the Preface to be "one of the best sources" of prepared by the solution of corrosive subliinformation on the subject. mate; and these experiments are still going on in Portsmouth dock-yard, as well as in various vessels in her Majesty's service, for the full conviction and satisfaction of the lords of the admiralty. It is not my intention to comment, in any way, on the new process; the public, and those in particular to whom the preservaSIR,-My attention having been called to an tion of timber, canvass, and cordage, is of imarticle in the Literary Gazette of Saturday portance, will judge for themselves, either by last, headed “Anti-dry-rot," I must trespass their own experience, or by the unbiassed teson your columns with some few remarks on timony of competent authorities, which process the erroneous assertions which it contains. is the most efficacious and economical. But, Had the observations referred, solely, to the sir, I conceive, that in promulgating any new new process for preventing dry-rot in timber, discovery, care should be taken to avoid erroSIR,-In your article on the "Rural Life of and mildew in canvass, detailing fairly the ex-neous statements as to the facts and merits of England," on Saturday, you refer to my state- periments made, they would have passed un- others of similar character, applied to the same ment that several contemporary writers had bor- noticed by me; for the field of science is open prepared by Mr. Kyan, and an equal weight by a duplirowed facts from " The Book of the Seasons," to all, and experience, by repeated and long-cate piece of the same cord, but unprepared, immediately without the slightest acknowledgment, and continued experiments, is the surest test of adjoining it, and placed them in one of the vaults where then charge me with having been guilty, in efficacy and merit. But, in the article to which my observations had previously shewn me that cordage decayed with unusual rapidity. This trial was made with "The Book of the Seasons" itself, of the very I allude, it is insidiously attempted to raise the new cord, of the very best quality, sold by Mr. Tull, in offence of which I complained. You quote, in value of this new process by detraction and Fenchurch Street. proof, two passages from "Forster's Perennial false statements regarding a process well known, Calendar," as given in "The Book of the and long since proved-viz. Kyan's patent. Seasons," and follow them up with this pas- Assertions and experiments by the parties insage: "These are specimens of that simple terested, I am well aware, meet with very little and uniform rule, in acknowledging the loan attention; therefore, in reply to the false asfrom other authors, to which Mr. Howitt pro-sertions, "that a solution of corrosive sublimate fesses his adherence; and a fair one, too, consi- is NOT effective in preserving canvass and corddering that we have only copied from two pages age," I request your insertion of the enclosed of his work, and that neither of the passages letters, detailing experiments made by parties in his volume have even the honour of a poor for their own satisfaction and conviction. The inverted comma, much less the name of the author from whom they have been plundered. Did our limits admit of it, we could produce a score or two of similar examples, many of them scarcely varying a word from the works whence they have been taken, without the slightest knowledgment." Esher, January 25, 1833. . "London, June 13, 1836. of this experiment:- March 8, 1833.-Fungus became visible on the unpre- July 4.-The said unprepared specimen broke, and was Oct. 14. The second replaced unprepared cord broke. July 22.-The fourth March 20, 1835.-The fifth ditto ditto ditto ditto. ditto. which period the prepared piece was tried, and found quite sound, although covered with fungus. August 27.-The sixth replaced unprepared broke. Nov. 26.-The seventh ditto. June 10, 1836.-The eighth ditto ditto ditto, and at the date hereof (August 24, 1836), which embraces a period of three years and six months, the prepared cord is still sustaining the 4lbs. weight originally suspended to it, and appears as sound as ever. "Three other trials, of exactly the same kind, were made "SIR,-Having just returned from the East Indies, in the command of the Lord Hungerford, I am anxious to do justice to Kyan's patent process for the prevention of that mildew in sailcloth which causes their certain decay, by detailing to you facts under my own observation. In in different vaults, but which have been consumed by ac-order to satisfy myself of the alleged efficacy of the pro-supplying specimens, at various times, to commissioners cess, on my departure from England, last August, I had sitting at the admiralty, and to other persons. an awning inade partly of common canvass and partly of "Canvass. And with regard tomy experience with canthe same canvass having been submitted to the patent vass, on the 2d of March, 1833, I placed some prepared process, considering this the fairest way of judging of the and unprepared pieces cut from the same bolt in the aforedifference. The result proves that it was so, and by the said damp vault. The unprepared specimen has long end of the voyage I consider that I had most decisive since become quite unsound and rotten, while that which proof of the preservative power of the patent process. was prepared remains, at the present time, sound and The portions of the awning which had undergone the firm in its texture. process, are perfectly sound and clean; whereas those "Considering such tests as these to have proved, inconmade of the common unprepared canvass, are quite mil-testibly, to all who have witnessed them, the great value dewed. You are at perfect liberty to inake use of this and advantage of Mr. Kyan's process, I am convinced it letter, and I have much pleasure in affording to your will be well worth my while henceforward to make use of Company so satisfactory a proof the efficacy of the anti-the preparation. dry-rot process. I am, sir, &c. "CHARLES FARQUHARSON. "To the Secretary of the Anti-dry-rot Company." "London, August 24, 1836. Now, it would have been just as well, if, before making this rash and absurd charge, you had read the very opening of the book on which it is based. You would then have seen that, in the case of the passages which you have instanced, and the score or two which you could have produced," there needed not" even the honour of a poor inverted comma," for they are thus acknowledged in the Preface: Extract from the Preface to "The Book of the Seasons." "My plan has been to furnish an original article on the general appearances of nature in each month, drawn entirely from my own regular observations through many seasons; and, finally, to superadd a GREAT VARIETY OF FACTS, from the best sources, as well as such as occurred to myself after the principal article was written." This clear and unequivocal announcement "CORDAGE. W. P. RICHARDS." "Sir,-On my late voyage to Madras, in the ship Claudine, I was induced to send as much canvass to be prepared as would make an awning; in doing which I put in two cloths of the same canvass unprepared, and am happy to state that, after a very short trial, the supe"To the Secretary of the Anti-dry-rot Company. riority of that which had undergone the process was quite "I, William Parry Richards, of 8 Wellington Street,manifest; and, in about a month after it was made, it Waterloo Bridge, wine-merchant, do hereby certify that, was obliged to be kept rolled up, for about thirty-six early in the year 1833, owing to certain vaults in my cel-hours, in Madras roads; when again spread, the prepared lars being very much affected with damp, I was requested canvass was uninjured, the unprepared quite black. by Mr. Kyan to try some experiments therein, with the "The above awning is now lying at Messrs. Gilmore view of putting to the best possible test the efficacy of his and Co.'s, sailmakers, Limehouse, and is left out for the process against the rot, and consequent decay of rope and inspection of any one wishing to see it. canvass, which I complied with as follows:-On the 23d of February, 1833, I suspended a weight of four pounds by a piece of half-inch cord, two yards long, which was "I am, sir, &c. CHARLES KEMP, Commander of ship Claudine. "Jerusalem Coffee-house, Nov. 8, 1837." ELECTRICAL SOCIETY. SATURDAY, 20th January.-The following paper and extracts of a letter from Mr. Crosse were read. By the kindness of the Society, we are enabled to lay them before our readers in the most complete form, though they are, we understand, in the course of printing, to form part of the Transactions of the Society. Having been the first public channel through which Mr. Crosse's experiments were made known (in our Report of Transactions of the British Association at Bristol), and having also published the various opinions hostile to the accuracy of that gentleman's conclusions, we have the greater pleasure now, in giving a full account of his later expe riments and opinions. a 300 object; and I feel assured, that from your well. I the sake of myself (for I utterly scorn all such edge of the basin and inside the funnel (G.) known impartiality on all sujbects of science misrepresentations), but for the sake of truth which, acting as a syphon, conveyed the fluid out and literature, that these few observations will and the science which I follow, that I am neither of the basin, through the funnel, in successive have immediate insertion in your valuable an "Atheist," nor a Materialist, nor a "self- drops (L.) The middle shelf of the frame was journal. I am, &c. imagined creator," but a humble and lowly likewise pierced with an aperture, in which CHARLES TERRY. reverencer of that Great Being, whose laws my was fixed a smaller funnel of glass (K.), which accusers seem wholly to have lost sight of. supported a piece of somewhat porous red oxide More than this, it is my conviction, that of iron from Vesuvius, immediately under the science is only valuable as a mean to a greater dropping of the upper funnel. This stone was end. I can assure you, sir, that I attach no kept constantly electrified by means of two particular value to any experiment that I have platina wires on either side of it, connected made, and that my feelings and habits are much with the poles of a Voltaic battery of nineteen more of a retiring than an obtruding character; pairs of five-inch zinc and copper single plates, and I care not if what I have done be entirely in two porcelain troughs, the cells of which were overthrown, if truth be elicited. The follow-filled at first with water and 3 of hydrochloric ing is a plain and correct account of the ex- acid, but afterwards with water alone. I may periments alluded to. In the course of my even state, that in all my subsequent experiendeavours to form artificial minerals by a long-ments relative to these insects, I filled the "My dear sir,-I trust that the gentlemen continued electric action on fluids holding in wells of the batteries employed with nothing who compose the Electrical Society will not solution such substances as were necessary to but common water. The lower shelf merely imagine, because I have so long delayed an- my purpose, I had recourse to every variety of supported a wide-mouthed bottle, to receive the swering their request, to furnish the So- contrivance which I could think of, so that, on drops as they fell from the second funnel. ciety through you, as its organ, with a full the one hand, I might be enabled to keep up a When the basin was nearly emptied, the fluid account of my electrical experiments, in which never-failing electrical current of greater or less was poured back again from the bottle below a certain insect made its unexpected appearance, intensity, or quantity, or both, as the case into the basin above, without disturbing the that such delay has been occasioned by any seemed to require; and on the other hand, that position of the latter. It was by mere chance desire of withholding what I have to state from the solutions made use of should be exposed to that I selected this volcanic substance, choosing the Society in particular, or the public at large. the electric action in the manner best calculated it from its partial porosity; nor do I believe I am delighted to find that at last, late, though to effect the object in view. Amongst other that it had the slightest effect in the production not the less called for, a body of scientific gen-contrivances, I constructed a wooden frame of the insects to be described. The fluid with tlemen have linked themselves together for the (fig. 1, A.) of about two feet in height, consisting which I filled the basin was made as follows. I sake of exploring and making public those of four legs (B.), proceeding from a shelf (c.) at reduced a piece of black flint to powder, having mysteries, which hitherto, under a variety of the bottom supporting another at the top (F.), first exposed it to a red heat and quenched it names, and ascribed to all causes but the true and containing a third in the middle (D.) in water to make it friable. Of this powder I one, have eluded the grasp of men of research, Each of these shelves was about seven inches took two ounces, and mixed them intensely and served to perplex, perhaps, rather than to square. The upper one was pierced with an with six ounces of carbonate of potassa, exposed afford sufficient data to theorise upon. It is aperture, in which was fixed a funnel of them to a strong heat for fifteen minutes in a true that much has been done in the course of Wedgewood ware, within which rested a quart black lead crucible in an air furnace, and then few years, and that which has been done only basin (H.) on a circular piece of mahogany poured the fused compound on an iron plate, affords the strongest reason for believing that placed within the funnel. When this basin reduced it to powder whilst still warm, poured vastly more remains to be done. It would be was filled with a fluid, a strip of flannel (1.) boiling water on it, and kept it boiling for some presumptuous in me to enumerate the services wetted with the same, was suspended over the minutes in a sand bath. The greater part of of a Davy, a Faraday, and many other great men at home; or a Volta and an Ampere, with a host of others abroad. These distinguished men have laid the foundations on which their successors ought to endeavour to erect a build. ing worthy of the scale in which it has been commenced. Electricity is no longer the paltry confined science which it was once fancied to be, making its appearance only from the friction of glass or wax, employed in childish purposes, serving as a trick for the schoolboy, or a nostrum for the quack. But it is, even now, though in its infancy, proved to be most intimately connected with all operations in chemistry, with magnetism, with light and caloric; apparently a property belonging to all matter, perhaps ranging through all space, from sun to sun, from planet to planet, and not improbably the secondary cause of every change in the animal, mineral, vegetable, and gaseous systems. It is to determine whether this be, or not, the case, as far as human faculties can determine, to ascertain what rank in the tree of science electricity is to hold; to endeavour to find out to what useful purposes it might be applied, that I conceive is the object of your Society, and I shall at all times be ready and willing, as a member, to contribute my quota of information to its support, knowing well, that however little it might be, it will be as kindly received as it is humbly offered. It is most unpleasing to my feelings to glance at myself as an individual, but I have met with so much virulence and abuse, so much calumny and misrepresentation, in consequence of the experiments which I am about to detail, and which it seems in this nineteenth century a crime to have made, that I must state, not for 18 22 26 Fig. 2 the soluble glass thus fused, was taken up by the Academie des Sciences, as to their genus ous forms was electrically attracted to the slate, the water, together with a portion of alumina, and species. I have never ventured an opinion which it coated in rather a singular manner, from the crucible. I should have used one of as to the cause of their birth, and for a very unnecessary here to describe. In the course of silver, but had none sufficiently large. To a good reason-I was unable to form one. The time I observed similar insects in their inportion of the silicate of potassa thus fused, I most simple solution of the problem which cipient state forming around the edge of the added some boiling water to dilute it, and then occurred to me, was, that they arose from ova fluid within the jar, which, when perfect, slowly added hydrochloric acid to supersaturation. deposited by insects floating in the atmosphere, crawled about the inner surface of the paper A strange remark was made on this part of the and that they might possibly be hatched by the with great activity. The second battery conexperiment at the meeting of the British As- electric aetion. Still I could not imagine that sisted of twenty pairs of cylinders, each equal sociation at Liverpool, it being then gravely an ovum could shoot out filaments, and that those to a four-inch plate. Between the poles of this stated, that it was impossible to add an acid to filaments would become bristles; and, moreover, I interposed a series of seven glass cylinders a silicate of potassa without precipitating the I could not detect, on the closest examination, filled with the following concentrated solutions: silica! This, of course, must be the case unless any remains of a shell. Again, we have no -1. Nitrate of copper: 2. Subcarbonate of pothe solution be diluted with water. My object right to assume that electric action is necessary tassa: 3. Sulphate of copper: 4. Green sulin subjecting this fluid to a long-continued to vitality, until that fact shall have been phate of iron: 5. Sulphate of zinc: 6. Water electric action through the intervention of a most distinctly proved. I next imagined, as acidified with a minute portion of hydrochloric porous stone, was to form, if possible, crystals others have done, that they might have origi- acid: 7. Water poured on powdered metallic of silica at one of the poles of the battery, but nated from the water, and, consequently, made arsenic, resting on a copper cup, connected I failed in accomplishing this by those means. a close examination of several hundred vessels with the positive pole of the battery. All On the fourteenth day from the commence-filled with the same water as that which held these cylinders were electrically united together ment of the experiment, I observed, through a in solution the silicate of potassa, in the same by arcs of sheet copper, so that the same eleclens, a few small whitish excrescences or nipples room, which vessels constituted the bulk of a tric current passed through the whole of them. projecting from about the middle of the elec- large Voltaic battery, and without acid. In After many months' action, and consequent trified stone, and nearly under the dropping of none of these vessels could I perceive the trace formation of certain crystallised matters, which the fluid above. On the eighteenth day these of an insect of that description. I likewise it is not my object here to notice, I observed projections enlarged, and seven or eight fila- closely examined the crevices and most dusty similar excrescences with those before described ments, each of them longer than the excrescence parts of the door with no better success. In at the edge of the fluid in every one of the cyfrom which it grew, made their appearance on the course of some months, indeed, these in- linders, excepting the two which contained the each of the nipples. On the twenty-second sects so increased, that, when they were strong carbonate of potassa, and the metallic arsenic ; day these appearances were more elevated and enough to leave their moistened birthplace, and in due time a host of insects made their apdistinct, and on the twenty-sixth day each they issued out in different directions, I sup- pearance. It was curious to observe the crysfigure assumed the form of a perfect insect pose in quest of food; but they generally tallised nitrate and sulphate of copper, which standing erect on a few bristles which formed huddled together under a card or piece of paper formed by slow evaporation at the edge of their its tail. Till this period I had no notion that in their neighbourhood, as if to avoid light and respective solutions, dotted here and there with these appearances were any other than an in-disturbance. In the course of my experiments these hairy excrescences. At the foot of each cipient internal formation; but it was not upon other matters, I filled a glass basin with of the cylinders I had placed a paper ticket until the twenty-eighth day, when I plainly a concentrated solution of silicate of potassa upon the table, and on lifting them up I found perceived these little creatures move their legs, without acid, in the middle of which I placed a a little colony of insects under each, but no that I felt any surprise, and I must own that, piece of brick used in this neighbourhood for appearance whatever of their having been born when this took place, I was not a little asto- domestic purposes, and consisting mostly of silica. under their respective papers, or on any part of nished. I endeavoured to detach with the Two wires of platina connected either end of the table. The third battery consisted of twenty point of a needle, one or two of them from its the brick with the poles of a Voltaic battery of pairs of cylinders, each equal to a three-inch position on the stone, but they immediately sixty-three pairs of plates, each about two plate. Between the poles of this I interposed died, and I was obliged to wait patiently for a inches square. After many months' action, silica likewise a series of six glass cylinders (fig. 2, A.), few days longer, when they separated them- in a gelatinous state formed in some quantity filled with various solutions, in only one of selves from the stone, and moved about at round the bottom of the brick; and, as the solu- which I obtained the insect. This contained a pleasure, although they had been for some time tion evaporated, I replaced it by fresh additions, concentrated solution of silicate of potassa. A after their birth apparently averse to motion. so that the outside of the glass basin, being bent iron wire (c.), one-fifth of an inch in diaIn the course of a few weeks about a hundred constantly wet by repeated overflowings, was, meter, in the form of an inverted syphon, was of them made their appearance on the stone. of course, constantly electrified. On this out-plunged some inches into this solution, and conI observed that at first each of them fixed itself side, as well as on the edge of the fluid within, nected it with the positive pole, whilst a small for a considerable time in one spot, appearing, I one day perceived the well-known whitish coil of fine silver wire (B.) joined it with the as far as I could judge, to live by suction; but excrescence, with its projecting filaments. In negative. After some months' electrical action, when a ray of light from the sun was directed the course of time they increased in number, gelatinous silica enveloped both wires, but in upon it, it seemed disturbed, and removed itself and, as they succesively burst into life, the much greater quantity at the positive pole; to the shaded part of the stone. Out of about whole table on which the apparatus stood, at and in about eight months from the commencea hundred insects, not above five or six were last was covered with similar insects, which hid ment of the experiment, on examining these born on the south side of the stone; I ex- themselves wherever they could find a shelter. two wires very minutely, by means of a lens, amined some of them with the microscope, and Some of them were of different sizes, there be- having removed them from the solution for observed that the smaller ones appeared to ing a considerable difference in this respect be- that purpose, I plainly perceived one of these have only six legs, but the larger ones eight. tween the larger and smaller; and they were incipient insects upon the gelatinous silica on It would be superfluous to attempt a descrip- plainly perceptible to the naked eye, as they the silver wire, and about half an inch below tion of these little mites, when so excellent nimbly crawled from one spot to another. the surface of the fluid, when replaced in its an one has been transmitted from Paris. It closely examined the table with a lens, but original position. In the course of time, more seems that they are of the genus Acarus, but could perceive no such excrescence as that insects made their appearance, till, at last, I of a species not hitherto observed. I have had which marks their incipient state, on any part counted at once three on the negative and three separate formations of similar insects at of it. While these effects were taking place in twelve on the positive wire. Some of them different times, from fresh portions of the same my electrical room, similar formations were were formed upon the naked part of the wires, fluid, with the same apparatus. As I con-making their appearance in another room that is, on that part which was partially bare sidered the result of this experiment rather distant from the former. I had here placed of gelatinous silica; but they were mostly imextraordinary, I made some of my friends ac- on a table, three Voltaic batteries unconnected quainted with it, amongst whom were some with each other. The first consisted of twenty highly scientific gentlemen, and they plainly pairs of two-inch plates, between the poles of perceived the insect in various states. I likewise transmitted some of them to one of our most distinguished physiologists in London; and the opinion of this gentleman, as well as of other eminent persons to whom he shewed them, coincided with that of the gentlemen of top of the cylinder to keep out the dust. After having previously noticed the fact to them. many months' action, gelatinous silica in vari-Most of these productions took place from hal At the top of the sketch, and marked 14, 18, 22, 26. which I placed a glass cylinder filled with a bedded more or less in the silica, with eight or ten filaments projecting from each beyond the silica. It was perfectly impossible to mistake them, after having made oneself master of their different appearances; and an occasional motion in the filaments of those that had been the longest formed was very perceptible, and observed by many of my visitors, without my THE LITERARY GAZETTE, AND to three-quarters of an inch under the surface | detect their eyes, even when viewed under agation, the more completely the secrets of of the fluid, which, as it evaporated very slowly, powerful microscope, although I once fancied I nature are laid bare, the more effectually will I kept to the same level by adding fresh portions. perceived them. As some of these insects (D. D. fig. 2) were and cold of winter do not appear favourable to who seems to have ordained, that The extreme heat of summer the power of that Great Being be manifested, formed on the inverted part of the syphon-their production, which succeeds best, I think, shaped wire, I cannot imagine how they con- in spring and autumn. As, in the above actrived to arrive at the surface, and to extricate count, I have occasionally made use of the "Order is Heaven's first law." themselves from the fluid: yet this they did word "formation," I bêg that it may be I am, &c. ANDREW CROSSE. repeatedly; their old places were vacated, and understood that I do not mean creation, or any dated Broomfield, near Taunton, 12th Jan. Broomfield, Dec. 27th, 1837. others were born in new ones. Read, also, extracts from Mr. Crosse's letter, were in an imperfect state (except just at the I have any thing more to add, except the few have obtained the insects on a bare platina Whether they thing approaching to it. I am not aware that 1838." Since writing the former account, commencement of their formation), or in a remarks I shall conclude with. 1st. I have wire, plunged into fluo-silicic acid, one inch perfect one, they had all the distinguishing not observed a formation of the insect, except below the surface of the fluid, at the negative characteristics of bristles projecting from their on a moist and electrified surface, or under an pole of a small battery of two-inch plates, in bodies, which occasioned the French savans to electrified fluid. remark that they resembled a microscopic por-assert that electricity has any thing to do with singular fluid for these insects to breed in, who By this I do not mean to cells filled with water. cupine. I must not omit to state, that the their birth, as I have not made a sufficient seem to have a flinty taste, although they are This is a somewhat room in which these three batteries were acting number of experiments to prove or disprove it; by no means confined to silicious fluids. This was kept almost constantly darkened. It was and, besides, I have not taken those necessary fluo-silicic acid was procured from London some not my intention to make known these ob-precautions which present themselves even to time since, and, consequently, made of London servations until I myself should be better in- an unscientific view. formed about the matter. publication of an erroneous account of them, appear. Chance led to the not so easy to observe as may at first sight of the Broomfield water is quite set aside by These precautions are water; so that the idea of their being natives which I was under the necessity of explaining.peat these experiments, by passing a stream follows (reference to fig. 3 of the Illustrations). It is, however, my intention to re- this result. The apparatus was arranged as It is so difficult to arrive at the truth, that of electricity through cylinders filled with Fig. 1. A glass basin (a pint one), partly mankind would do better to lend their assist- various fluids under a glass receiver, in- filled with fluo-silicic acid to the level 1. ance to explore what may be worth investi-verted over mercury, the greatest possible Fig. 2. A small porous jar, made of the same gating, than to endeavour to crush in its bud care being taken to shut out extraneous material as a garden, partly filled with the same that which might otherwise expand into a matter. flower. In giving this account, I have merely me for not having done this before, to such placed upon it, to keep out the light and dust. Should there be those who blame acid to level 2, with an earthen cover, fig. 3, stated those circumstances regarding the ap-I answer, that, independent of a host of Fig. 4. A platina wire, connected with the pearance of insects, which I have noticed other hindrances, which it is not in my power positive pole of the battery, with the other end during my investigations into the formation of to set aside, I have been closely pursuing a plunged into the acid in the pan, and twisted mineral matters; I have never studied phy-long train of experiments on the formation of round a piece of common quartz; on which siology, and am not aware under what circum-crystalline matters by the electric agent, and on quartz, after many months' action, are forming stances the birth of this class of insects is different modifications of the Voltaic battery; singularly beautiful and perfectly formed crysusually developed. In my first experiment I in which I am so interested, that none but the tals, of a transparent substance, not yet anahad made use of flannel, wood, and a volcanic ardent can conceive what is not in my power lysed, as they are still growing. These crystals stone: in the last, none of these substances to describe. 2dly. These insects do not ap- are of the modification of the cube, and are of were present. I never, for a moment, enter-pear to have originated from others similar to twelve or fourteen sides. tained the idea that the electric fluid had ani- themselves, as they are formed, in all cases, passes under the cover of the pan. Fig. 5. A mated the organic remains of insects, or fossil with access of moisture, and, in some cases, platina wire, connected with the negative pole The platina wire eggs, previously existing in the stone or the two inches below the surface of the fluid in of the same battery, with the other end dipping silica; and have formed no visionary theory which they are born; and if a full-grown and into the basin, an inch or two below the fluid, which I would travel out of my way to support. perfect insect be let fall into any fluid, it is and, as well as the other, twisted round a piece I have since repeated these latter experiments infallibly drowned. 3dly. I believe they live of in a third room, in which there are now two for many weeks; occasionally, I have found that the electric fluid enters the porous pan batteries at work. One consisting of eleven them dead in groups, apparently from want of by the wire 4, percolates the quartz. By this arrangement it is evident pairs of cylinders, made of four-inch plates, food. 4thly. It has been frequently suggested out by the wire 5. It is now upwards of six between the poles of which is placed a glass to me to repeat these experiments without or eight months (I cannot at this moment put pan, and passes cylinder, filled with silicate of potassa, in which using the electric agency; but this would be my hand on the memorandum of the date) is suspended a piece of slate between two wires by no means satisfactory, let the event be what since this apparatus has been in action: and, of platina, as before, and covered loosely with it would. paper. Here, again, is another crop of insects ters are easily crystallised, without subjecting to examine them by a lens, yet it was not until It is well known that saline mat- though I have occasionally lifted out the wires formed. The other battery consists of twenty them to the electric action; but it by no means the other day that I perceived any insect; and pairs of cylinders, the electric current of which follows that, because artificial electricity is not there are now three of the same insects, in is passed through six different solutions in applied, such crystals are formed without the their incipient state, appearing on the naked glass cylinders, in three of which only is the electric influence. I have made so many expe- platina wire at the bottom of the quartz, in the insect formed, viz., 1st. in nitrate of copper; riments on electrical crystallisation, that I am glass basin at the negative pole (fig. 6). These 2dly, in sulphate of copper, in each of which firmly convinced, in my own mind, that electric insects are very perceptible, and may be reprethe insect is only produced at the edge of the attraction is the cause of the formation of every sented thus, magnified (fig. 4):- 1. The plafluid, as far as I can make out; and 3dly, by crystal, whether artificial electricity be applied tina wire; 2. The quartz; 3. The incipient the old apparatus of coiled silver and iron wire or not. in silicate of potassa, as before. I am, however, well aware of the insects. It should be observed, that the glass now forming on the bottom of this positively ters, and of separating cause from effect. It with paper. This frosty weather is unfavourThere are difficulty of getting at the truth in these mat- basin (fig. 1) has been always loosely covered electrified wire similar insects, at the distance has often occurred to me, how is it that such able to these experiments." of fully two inches below the surface of the numbers of animalcules are produced in flour ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. fluid. On examining them, I have lately no- and water, in pepper and water; also, the ticed a peculiar quality they possess whilst in insects which infest fruit-trees after a blight? JANUARY 22. an incipient state. After being kept some Does not a chemical change take place in the the chair.-Nine new members were elected, minutes out of the solution, they contract water, and likewise in the sap of the tree, pre- and numerous donations were Mr. Hamilton, president, in their filaments, so as, in some cases, wholly, vious to the appearance of these insects? and among others, a recent map of Ceylon. Speand in others partially, to disappear: I at first is, or is not, every chemical change produced cimens of the spears, war-clubs, assegais, and announced; ught they were destroyed; but, on ex- by electric agency? In making these observa- dresses of the Dámaras, and sketches of scenery aining the same spots, on the next day, they tions, I seek to mislead no one. were as perceptible as before. In this respect, nature is opened wide to our view by the Al- Read, a The book of in South Africa, were laid upon the table. ev seem not unlike the zoophytes, which mighty power, and we must endeavour, as far fessor Lindley, which we defer. are to the rocks on the sea-shore, and which as our feeble faculties will permit, to make a of an Expedition into the countries of the note upon Victoria regia by Proact on the approach of a finger. I may good use of it; always remembering, that, Great Namaquas, Boshmans, and e remark, that I have not been able to however the timid may shrink from investi- maras, in South Africa, by Captain J. E. 2. Report Hill Dá |