points of meteoric iron, which are abundant, and some of the sulphuret of iron, rather rare. Its colour is variable, it passes from the common grey to the yellow of oxide of iron, and afterwards to a blackish brown." M. Dubuisson concludes by expressing his conviction of its being a meteoric stone.

2. Prize Question in Meteorology.-The Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Belles Lettres, at Dijon, proposes the following question as the subject for a Prize, in 1821: How far is it possible, in the present state of natural philosophy, to explain aqueous meteorological phenomena ?"

3. Earthquake. It is mentioned in accounts from Rome, that a violent shock of an earthquake was felt at Corneto, on the 26th of May, which considerably damaged several edifices, but no lives were lost. The celebrated cupola of Castello, remarkable for its antiquity and its Gothic architecture, was thrown down; and the church of the minor friars, of which it formed a part, was so much damaged as to prevent the performance of service in it. The shock is stated to have been felt along the whole coast of the Mediterranean.

4. New Voltaic Pile of two Elements, &c., by M. Zamboni.— M. Zamboni has constructed a new voltaic pile, containing only two elements, the one a metal, the other a fluid. He has called it the binary pile. In its construction it is necessary that the fluid should be an, imperfect conductor, as, for instance, water; and that the two elements should be in contact by unequal surfaces. The following is the most simple process :Small square pieces of tin-foil, half an inch in the side, are to be cut out, having a very fine slip, or tail, of the metal, two or three inches long, left adhering to them; these are the metallic elements of the pile. Place thirty watch glasses in a circle, on a well insulated surface, and fill them to a certain height with distilled water; communicate them one with another, as in the couronne de tasses, by placing the pieces of metal across the edges of the two contiguous glasses, always VOL. VIII.

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in the same direction, and so that the square portion may entirely immersed in the water of one glass, whilst the tail barely touches that in the next. The circle remaining open, communicate one of its extremities with the earth, and the other with a good condenser; and it will be found that the apparatus has two poles, that corresponding to the squares of metal, being vitreous (positive), and the other resinous (negative).

An apparatus similar to the preceding, the metallic elements of which are long parallelograms, will not give any electric signs, whilst the pieces of metal are plunged into the water equally at both extremities; but as soon as they are unequally immersed, the electricity becomes evident at the two poles, as in the preceding apparatus; the vitreous pole always corresponding to the metallic surface the farthest in the water, so that the same pole may be made either positive or negative, by plunging the metallic extremities, which correspond to it, more or less into the water.

The same effects are produced by using zinc, and even copper, in place of tin, but oxide of manganese produces no effects.

The binary pile does not charge the condenser immediately ; the electricity does not become evident in less than half a minute, or even a longer period, and it increases by degrees. It may be supposed that this effect is produced by the oxidation of the tin, as then the pile would have three elements; but at the end of many days, the electric tension was the same as at its first arrangement, though not the slightest trace of oxidation could be perceived. That the developement of electricity by the binary pile is not produced by oxidation is proved also by the circumstance, that in using zinc in place of tin, the electricity diminishes as the oxidation increases, until it disappears, after which it again re-appears, but in the contrary order.

A pile constructed of ten discs of tinned paper, without the addition of any other substance, gave to Bennet's electrometer, combined with a condenser, a divergence of the third of an

inch in about half a minute. The metallic face was vitreously electrified, and the paper end resinously. The effect constantly augmented with the number of discs. Another pile of tinned paper discs, of which the reverse sides had been covered with honey, to preserve a constant humidity, also gave electricity, but it required forty or fifty discs to equal the effect of the preceding ten and the electricity was changed, for the metal was resinous and the honey vitreous. On the following day there was scarcely any electricity, and it soon entirely disappeared, in consequence of the paper becoming penetrated by the honey, when the metal was equally in contact with it on both sides. A pile of tinned paper, of which the discs were pasted together, gave no electric signs, because the metal was equally in contact with the paper on both faces.

When a pile of this kind has become inactive, it may be renewed by separating the discs, and afring them, so as to diminish the effect of moisture on one of the faces of each disc.

In general, binary piles only produce their effect by the inequality of contact between the faces of the metallic and humid elements.

The conducting power of the fluid has a very great influence on the energy of these piles. A few drops of a solution of an ammoniacal salt added to the water, somewhat augments the electric tension, a second addition diminishes it, and, at last, by continuing to add the salt, it is entirely destroyed. It is necessary, therefore, that the fluid element of the binary piles should be an imperfect conductor.

With respect to the pile constructed of tinned paper, and the black oxide of manganese, M. Zamboni directs, that as tinned paper alone forms a pile, a paper should be chosen, which, when disposed alone in a pile, has the same electricity as when the oxide of manganese is used. But with whatever kind of tinned paper the pile be made, it is always increased in energy, and its electricity corresponds with that of a pile constructed with tinned paper and oxide of manganese, when the paper has been impregnated with a solution of sulphate of zinc, and afterwards dried.

M. Zamboni waits for dry weather, when he would prepare paper for the construction of his piles. After having spread the solution of sulphate of zinc on the side of the paper which is not tinned, it is dried, but without separating the water which belongs to the paper; this side is then covered with very dry oxide of manganese, and the pile being made, particular care is taken to preserve it from the action of the air. The paper should be thin and unsized, if it is otherwise, alcohol should be added to the solution of sulphate of zinc. M. Zamboni has ascertained, from long experience, that the best method of preserving the pile is to enclose it in a tube of flint glass, of a diameter somewhat larger than that of the discs, and to pour into the intermediate space a warm cement of wax and turpentine. A pile of 2,000 discs, constructed in this way, gives a spark visible by day. M. Zamboni directs also, a perfect insulation of all those parts which require it.-Annales de Chimie, xi. p. 190.

5. Human Electricity.-Dr. Hartmann of Francfort on the Oder, has published in a German Medical Journal, a statement, according to which he is able to produce, at pleasure, an efflux of electrical matter from himself towards other persons. The crackling is to be heard, the sparks seen, and the shocks felt. He has now, it is asserted, acquired this faculty to so high a degree, that it depends on his own pleasure to make a spark issue from his finger, or to draw it from any other part of his body. All this is so strange, that it risks being classed with the reveries of animal magnetism.

§3. MEDICINE, ANATOMY, &c.

1.Medical Benevolent Society.-The great number of societies which have been formed in different parts of the kingdom, within the last 30 or 40 years for the relief of the Widows and Orphans of Medical Practitioners, must be a durable, and at the same time very honourable, memorial of the good sense and active benevolence of the members of that profession. Though the utility of these institutions is indisputable, yet it has, unfor

tunately too often happened, that widows and orphans are not the only persons connected with this profession, who have been the subjects of want and distress, but that practitioners themselves have become from various causes exposed to so many difficulties and privations, as to have been equally, if not in a superior degree, objects of commiseration.

We have great pleasure, therefore, in announcing to the medical public, that an Institution was founded about three years ago, under the name of the MEDICAL BENEVOLENT SOCIETY, for the purpose of raising a fund for the relief and assistance of such of its members, who may, through want of success in business, or unforeseen misfortunes, be so reduced in their circumstances as to stand in need of pecuniary aid. This society is ready to receive into its number regular practitioners, in every branch of the profession, throughout England and Wales. The subscription of one guinea at admission, and the same annually, (paid in advance) constitutes a member, and entitles him, in case of need, to such advantages as the future state of the fund shall be able to afford. It must surely, then, be considered as a duty incumbent upon every medical man, without any exception, to unite with such an institution. The more opulent, for the benefit of that class of their brethren (which is, alas! too numerous) whose situation is that of entire dependance upon the uncertainty of professional success; and the latter class as not knowing but ill health, infirmity, or old age, may overtake them, before they shall have been able to make provision for a period of life which must from these causes be utterly unable to provide for itself.

Though this society is but in its infancy, it consists already of between 200 and 300 members, and is under the special patronage of his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex; Dr. John Latham, president of the Royal College of Physicians, presides over it, and its vice-presidents are, Dr. Hull of Manchester, Henry Cline, esq., Surgeon, and Arthur Tegart, esq., Apothecary to their Royal Highness the Dukes of Clarence and Kent. Among its members will be found the names of Drs. Baillie, Ainslie, and Babington; and Messrs. Abernethy, and Astley Cooper,