On

and, above all, by further cogitation (for the facts are established), that it is the galvanic fluid itself which is converted into the gases. This union of the electric, or galvanic, or magnetic fluid with water is, in all cases, the first step towards organisation. By this duality, elastic vi brating hollow globes are torined. But first to the experiment. From the Voltaic pile, or other galvanic or electric apparatus, a stream from the major and another from the minor pole is introduced, as above, into the water. The points of the wires being at a certain distance from each other, only a part of the galvanic fluids are able to find their way back into the column, by means of the conducting power of the water. The remainder of the galvanic fluid, seized upon by the water, is, in each of its atoins, covered with a little crust or shell of water. this shell the gas re-acts, and so is constituted into a little elastic ball of the major order, which we call oxygen gas. The fluid from the minor pole being seized upon by the water, in a similar manner, gas of the minor order or hydrogen is produced. If it were now possible to place an atom of one of these gases upon one of the other, we should constitute a galvanic pile, or a magnet in miniature. Now these two gases, the major and the minor, or oxygen and hydrogen, being allowed to enter with perfect tranquillity a glass vessel, will take, one the lower part of the vessel, the other the upper. But we must have two volumes of the hydrogen or minor fluid, for one of oxygen or the major. The globules of oxygen are twice the size of those of hydrogen, but the latter possess double the expansive nobility of the former, which causes an otherwise equal mass to occupy double the space. The two gases being placed together in a closed glass vessel, assume of themselves a real magnetic condition of electric couples, so as to be like the magnetic bar or Voltaic pile, in a state of equilibrinm of separation. The internal expansion of each particle disposes the whole to unite in an equilibrium of mixture, but the capsules of water surrounding every atom are in the way. But subject the mass to a violent action, pass through it an electric discharge, or strike it with a sudden pressure, a strong commotion is excited amongst the globules; the sides of the containing vessel do not

cede; the capsules enveloping every atom, are broken with an explosive force; the magnetic fluids are liberated; heat is felt and light exhibited; and the hollow globes of water lose their shape and temporary office, remain collected in common drops of water on the interior of the recipient. Thus we have another very evident proof of the identity of the matter of the universe, of the galvanic fluid, caloric, light, and the hydrogen and oxygen gases.

If I can manage to proceed with these disquisitions, I think I shall be able to show, that it is the superposition of such globules of gas combined with water, which becoming susceptible of the galvanic and magnetic action, acquire a major and a minor pole, and proceed to the development of animal and vegetable life. It will soon be clearly understood, that every act of production and reproduction; every act of nutrition and growth; every function of the internal parts-the brain, heart, stomach, intestines-is deducible to the electric, galvanic or magnetic action. The first step is the elastic globule; duality follows; additions form filaments; filaments form tubes; two distinct poles follow, one aspiring, the other expelling; ramifications, always subject to duality (an arm, or branch, or leg, on each side), and other double organs, &c.

I will now just, en passant, remind your readers of one other indication of the identity of all matter, which is familiar to us all, this is, the formation of very different substances in various parts of organised bodies, although but one species of alimentary substance be intro.. duction to the action of the digestive and secreting organs. There are many thou sands of people who live exclusively upon rice, yet their bones are supplied with phosphate of lime, their teeth with lime and silica, their blood with iron, their fat with carbon, their nails and hair with ammonia, &c. I have fed hens for many months exclusively on oats, yet they produced abundant eggs, the shells of which are lime, the whites albumen, the yolks containing sulphur. From whence do the oysters and other shell-fish, especially the corallines and other zoophites, derive their enormous quantities of lime; quantities which form chains of mountains on this globe, and raise up from the bottom of the sea those mountainous reefs upon

which navigators have been wrecked, after having sailed over the same spot in deep water some few years before? How is it that recent oyster-shells are formed of phosphate of lime-whereas the moun tains of agglomerated fossil-shells of the very same species consist of carbonate of lime? Starch, sugar, and wax, are composed, as nearly as possible, of the same proportions of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. Water appears to us as a very Proteus; yet custom familiarises us to the metamorphosis. Water is fluid, is solid as ice; disappears in gas, when combined with the magnetic fluid: is solidified in the flint, and crystals, and the bit of lime; is suspended in perfect and invisible solution in the air which we respire. But enough; on this head we shall probably speak again at a more fitting juncture.

Before proceeding any further on the subject of the electric or magnetic action on organised bodies, I will venture a hint about the tides, on which subject many of your intelligent correspondents have favoured us with their ideas. The surface of this globe being impinged upon and compressed on all sides by the expansive emanations of the INFINITE number of suns or stars, of which this globe, as well as every other, is in the centre, it necessarily follows that any large body intervening on a given point between this earth and the stellar pressure, at that point so screened the pressure will be diminished. Moreover, this globe is surrounded to a certain height with an elastic atmosphere, in the midst of which this globe is, as it were, suspended. As the sun or moon proceed to interpose their masses between the earth and the stellar pressure, the waters will not only be disposed to rise, but the balloon-like, elastic atmosphere being drawn forward on one side, necessarily assumes the shape of an ellipsis, or egg, so as to form a corresponding elevation of the waters on the side opposite to the rise occasioned by the interposition of the sun or moon, or both. The course of the moon around the earth is not very far removed from being in the plane of the equator; so that the successive rising of the waters, or the longest axis of the double cone, is nearly perpendicular to the meridian, being in a line with the centre of the earth aud that of the moon. Hence the waters at the poles are constantly compressed and forced

to flow towards the equator as the double cone moves round. Thus at the poles there can be no tides, and in latitude 66° they cease to be sensible. The Caspian and the White Seas, having no communication with the waters of the poles or of the ocean, have no tides. Neither are there any in the Black Sea or the Medi terranean; because the course of the rising action, being from east to west, is contrary to the direction of the only entrance to the Mediterranean (the Straits of Gibraltar), and also to the current with which the waters of the ocean are constantly pouring into the Mediterranean. The effect of the moon on the rise of the tide is three times greater than that of the sun, although by theory it ought to be only in proportion to the squares of their apparent diameters, which differ only in the ratio of 34 to 32. The reason of this is, that the expansive emanations or light of the sun itself act upon the earth with a very great power of compression; whereas the expansive emanations of the moon are absolutely null as to any compressive effect upon the surface of our globe. The fact of the sun's acting on the tides with so much less pro portionate effect than the moon, leads us to the important conclusion, that the quantum of impulsion applied to the sur face of this globe, which is intercepted by the body of the sun, is much greater than the impulsion projected by the sun itself. If the projection of the sun's expansive force, or light, were equal to the stellar projections which he arrests, he would produce no effect whatever on the tides.

On an early occasion I will endeavour to follow up these remarks. Meantime, Yours, &c.

ago, which I considered applicable to large pieces of ordnance, and knowing Mr. Wilkinson to be the very best autho rity upon these matters, I obtained an introduction to him. Mr. Wilkinson received me with the utmost politeness; and having examined my new lock, he pointed out, in the kindest manner possible, the reasons why it could not answer the purpose for which I had intended it. He then exhibited and explained to me many curious and ingenious things with which I found him surrounded, and, among other things, he showed me his new marm for the detection of poachers, rick-burners, &c. This alarm consisted of a percussion-lock of a very strong and curable construction, fixed upon a stout post, from which wires were led in various directions over the grounds to be protected, in the same way as the wires of spring-guns used to be. The lock is made to communicate with a rocket or a maroon, or with both. In the event of any of the wires being touched, the lock is discharged, and striking a percussioncap, ignites the maroon, the audible report of which alarms the persons who are on the look-out; a rocket at the same instant ascends, and remains stationary for five or ten minutes over the spot, throwing down a vivid light, which indicates the situation, and exhibits the progress of the depredators.

Mr. Wilkinson's alarm has been very extensively employed by noblemen and gentlemen for the protection of their property from midnight marauders, and it is the best contrivance for the purpose I ever met with. These alarins are in every way infinitely superior to the inhuman man-traps and spring-guns," even were they still legal; they are properly described as being perfectly free from danger to servants or others having the care of them; but calculated when they go off to strike terror into the breast of the most audacious depredator."

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solution boiled. The alcohol was then decanted, and successive portions of the same solvent were employed, till the silk appeared perfectly decolorised (decolorated). solutions were then reduced to a moderate compass by distillation, and on cooling, de posited a feeble, cloudy precipitate, which subsided slowly. The clear fluid being decanted, and evaporated at a gentle heat, to dryness, left a deep orange brown mass which weighed 09 grains. This substance was adhesive, fusible, scarcely, if at all, soluble in water, but readily so in alcohol, to which, in small proportions, it communicated a fine orange tint. A concentrated solution deposits on cooling a vast number of minute shining crystals, which subside to the bottom in the form of a brilliant orange-brown powder. When this precipitation has ceased, the solution lets fall, by spontaneous evaporation, a few filamentous bunches of a white colour, and apparently fatty nature; but in quantity too small for more particular examination.

B. The flocculent precipitate above-mentioned, being collected and dried, weighed 01. It had the consistency, fusibility, and other sensible properties of wax,

C. The silk, still perfectly elastic, was now transferred to a deep silver vessel, and boiled with successive portions of distilled water as long as any sensible action was produced. A colourless, opalescent solution was obtained. It was frothy and viscid; and exhibited scarce any tendency to deposit the particles it held in suspension. A solution of bi-chloride of mercury, cautiously dropped from a graduated tube, threw down a bulky coagulum, which, after boiling, became much condensed, and permitted the easy decantation of the clear fluid. This precipitate, well washed and dried, weighed (deducting 14 grains, the amount of metallic salt employed,) 8.9 grains. It had all the well known characteristics of albumen.

D. The clear fluid decanted in process C, being evaporated to dryness in a steam-bath left a nearly colourless, transparent, brittle mass, resembling gum. It weighed 13:0 grains, and had a tendency to soften, from the presence of a small quantity of deliquescent salts. It dissolved readily in water, from which neither the bi-chloride nor tan threw it down. It exhibited no tendency to gelatinise, however concentrated; and was copiously precipitated by sub-acetate of lead.

E. Alcohol now took but a feeble tinge from the silk, which still retained a little harshness. A very dilute solution of caustic potash was accordingly exhibited; and after a few hours' digestion, was poured off, exactly neutralised with muriatic acid, and treated with the bi-chloride as in process C. The precipitate of albumen thus obtained, weighed 0.4 grains.

An analysis of white silk gave identical products; and in amount differing only fractionally from the above; except in the particular of the resinous colouring matter, which was indeed present, but in a very much smaller proportion. It is probable that the varieties of colour observable in cocoons, the yellow, the orange, the buff, the white, and the greenish hues, depend only upon the greater or less amount of this resin in the fibre. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. iv. p. 710.

WATER-TANKS,

At the late meeting of the Cornwall Polytechnic Society, a description was given of nine tanks, which had proved eminently useful during the late three dry summers on the Sussex property of Davies Gilbert, Esq., the President of the Society. As these tanks are cheaply and easily constructed, and not liable to decay like wooden vessels, and as rain enough falls on every house in England for the use of its inhabitants, no family would be deficient in good soft water who made a tank to retain it; and such tanks being paved over, take up no room.

The tanks at East Bourn vary in size: one of less than seven feet deep and wide has served two labourers' families for three years; whilst most of the springs in the neighbourhood were dry.

A tank 12 feet by 7 had supplied with water a large family and six horses. This was surrounded by only 4 inch brick-work resting solid against the sides, in consequence of being smaller at the bottom than higher up; and the dome is constructed on the Egyptian plan, by projecting horizontally each row of materials one-third of their length beyond those below, and filling up the bak with earth as it proceeded, to balance the weight of this projecting masonry.

At the East Bourn Workhouse for fourteen parishes, a tank has been made. 23 feet deep by 11 wide, of the roughest materials, being only flint stones, and though they require more mortar than if they had been regularly

shaped, only 90 bushels of lime were allowed, including two coats of plaster, and the workmanship is executed like field walls at 10s. per 100 square feet; the only essential being, that no clay be used (which worms bore through), and that the lime or Parker's cement be good.

A current of air is said to promote the purity of water in tanks, and this is easily effected by the earthenware or other pipe which conveys the rain from the roof, being six or eight inches in diameter, and an opening left for the surplus water to run away; and where the prevailing winds do not blow soot and leaves on the house, the water remains good, even for drinking, without clearing out the rubbish more than once a year; but in some cases filtering by ascension may be found useful, and be effected by the water being delivered by the pipe at the bottom of a cask or other vessel from which it cannot escape till it has risen through the holes in a board covered with pebbles, sand, or pow dered charcoal.

Upwards of twenty labourers' gardens have been watered by the rain which formerly injured the public road, and was therefore turned into a sink well, which sink well was enlarged and surrounded by 9-inch masonry, and the water is drawn up by a cast-iron curb. This water was used in planting potatoes, and occasioned good crops in 1835, when setts not watered failed. And, should the profitable mode of stall-feeding now practised at Armagh be happily extended to England, and fatting oxen be kept in pairs not tied up under shelter, it will be found that preserving in tanks the water which falls on the barns and stalls will amply supply them, whilst it prevents the rain washing away the strength of the manure when straw is spread in the open yard.

Ponds have been made with equal success, dug 4 feet only below the surface, what is excavated being added to the sides, and covered one foot thick like a road with peb. bles and good lime mortar. Such ponds are become general on the dry soil of the South Downs for the use of the large flocks of sheep: and had such ponds been made in Romney Marsh, &c., during the late dry years, the sheep would not have died in such numbers as materially raised the price of meat in London.-Bath aud Cheltenham Gazette.

TUNNEL UNDER THE NIAGARA

Sir, I perceive in some former Number of your Magazine, you have related an account of a proposed tunnel under the Ohio river at Cincinnati; your corre pondent does not state that the bed of the river there, is a limestone rock, and the

huge building of immense thickness, and nine or eleven stories bigh in the water, stands on the rock, and all the stone to build it was procured from the bed of the river at low water. However, I am not going to relate any thing of the difficulties of that affair; my business is to sug. gest to your readers, and all others whom it may concern, that the greatest, best, and most magnificent tunnel in the world, would be in Canada, under the river Niagara, at the rapids of Fort Erie, opposite Buffalo in the United States; I say the best, and the easiest made, for the Niagara river there is narrowest, and its bottom is a flat, hard rock, which is a natural shield of itself, and below it a softer rock, which is easily cut. Captain B. Hall, in his "Travels" in America, has particularly described the strata a little lower down at the falls.

Now, if Brother Jonathan would agree to meet us half way, the thing, though of so great a inagnitude, would be easier performed than any thing of the kind in any other part of the world. The only attention required would be to plug up with clay any fissures in the rock which might occur, and cement them over.

No great

depth is required; the water seems as shallow there as at the falls on the same rock. All Lake Erie is on a complete bed of rock, and so level that an anchor slides along hundreds of yards at a time without holding. The whole is particularly suitable for such a purpose; and whenever done (if ever done), your pub lication will have the honour of first pointing out to the public its true nature. Your constant well-wisher, A TRAVELLER.

Wilden, Sept. 30, 1836.

NEW PLAN FOR TAKING THE VOTES IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Sir, In the House of Commons a considerable loss of time occurs at every division. To obviate this, I would propose that every Member should have a small knob at each hand, placed before him by his seat, with wires attached, to be continued (under the floor) to some convenient part of the House, there to be connected to small slides, in wood or metal, and coloured black and white, with the name of the Member engraved on each. By pressing either of the knobs when a division took place, the Member would raise either a black or white slide

at the same time; and the motion might be so arranged as that a small ball should fall at the same time into two general receiving drawers-the black to denote the noes, and the white the ayes. The balls could be counted over in a few minutes, and the number given out to the House; and while the next business was going forward, the names of the different Members could be copied off the elevated slides by two clerks-one for the whites, the other for the blacks. After this, the slips could be pressed down by them to their places, leaving them ready for the next division, and so on. this plan the Members would be saved all the trouble of going out into the lobby. Each Member should have a key to his knobs, so that when not in his place, his next neighbour might not be able to press it for him.

By

MR. MACKINTOSH'S THIRD LECTURE ON THE ELECTRICAL THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE.

Mr. Mackintosh commenced by observing, that expansion and contraction of matter, to which he had in his first lecture traced all motion, were two real forces, or effects resulting from two real forces, and their conjoint action was fully competent to explain all natural phenomena. One of these forces, attraction, or the contraction of matter, had been recognised in all ages under the names of weight, gravity, &c. because its effects were visible. All men could see large masses of condensed or contracted matter falling to the earth, or approaching a centre; but the expansive force worked in an invisible way, not under the immediate cognisance of the senses, and therefore, although necessarily equal in power and extent with the contractive force, had not been so readily recognised. Its knowledge was approached by reason. Our senses were sufficient to inform us of the approach of a rain-drop towards the earth under the contractive force, but it was by inductive reasoning that we came to the knowledge that that rain-drop had receded from the earth under the expansive force-that the expanded matter had been condensed and contracted into a globular form like the earth in the upper or remote regions of the atmosphere; and that in this condensed form, being under the influence of the contractive force, it must of necessity be attracted.towards the centre, from which it had receded, in an expanded form.