the night, by more than twenty others, which, though not so violent, were equally fearful. It is now eight o'clock in the morning. Not half an hour has passed since we had another violent shock. The number of persons killed and wounded is not yet known. All the prisoners who were not buried under the ruins of the prison have escaped. God grant that the capital may not have been afflicted with a similar misfortune.

CAPE HAITEN, WEDNESDAY, SIX O'CLOCK IN THE EVENING.— Most deplorable news is spreading throughout the city. It has been brought by Mr. Obas, son of the general commanding the district of Plaisance. In consequence of the earthquake which was felt here on Saturday evening, Cape Town has entirely disappeared, and with it two-thirds of the population. The families which escaped this disaster have taken refuge at La Fosette, where they are without shelter, clothes, or provisions. Such is the news circulating in town, and which unfortunately is probably too true. It is to be hoped, however, it will not be confirmed in its full extent. It is said that the president of Hayti has given orders to the physicians and officers of health attached to the hospital, to set off this evening, and give their assistance to the unfortunate victims of this disaster. Captain Morris (of the brig William Nelson, which brings the account) states, in addition, that a few hours previous to his departure, a courier arrived with information that at Cape Haiten a fire succeeded the earthquake, destroying the remaining houses, the powder magazine, and the remnant of the inhabitants. St. Nicholas and Port Paix are said to be in ruins, and in fact all the towns on the north side of the island. According to a letter in the Journal of Commerce, but one inhabitant of the Cape, a Mr. Dupuy, was saved, all the rest being either crushed, or drowned by the sea, which rose and submerged the city. Fearful, fearful indeed, are the particulars of this awful visitation.

Terrific Thunder-storm.

On Wednesday afternoon, May 27, the town of Birmingham was visited by one of the most terrific thunder-storms that we have witnessed for some time past. Fortunately, no loss of life has been occasioned by it; but a circumstance occurred in Coleshill-street, which caused the greatest consternation in the neighbourhood. While Mrs. Spiers, the landlady of the Green Man Tavern, was standing at the window with her servant, they both received a shock at the back of the head, as though some person had struck them. At the same time, the room appeared to be enveloped in smoke and flame, a strong smell of sulphur pervaded the apartment, the servant was knocked down, and a part of the window-frame was violently displaced. But, in the upper part of the house, the effects produced were even more singular. A strong oak door-post was shivered

into small strips resembling laths, and many of these pieces were conveyed to the distance of several yards. The window-frame was, in this instance, forced inwards, the bell-wires were partly fused or else broken up into short lengths, and marks were observed in different parts of the house, as though the electric fluid had singed it in the course of its rapid transit.-Birmingham Gazette.

Thunder and Hail-storm, near Retford.

During the evening of Friday last, May 29, between seven and eight o'clock, a severe storm of thunder, lightning, and hail, passed over the village of Mattersea, and the adjoining villages, near Retford, which did considerable damage. The thunder and lightning were extremely awful; but the injury done to vegetation was by hail, which lay from two to three inches in thickness, and consisted more of large and irregularly formed pieces of ice, than of common hail; and such was its density, that on the following morning it lay exposed in large masses under the hedges in every direction. The damage done to the gardens is very considerable, especially to the fruit trees; but every part of the vegetable world has suffered severely by this, happily, not very frequent occurrence in this part of the country.-Doncaster Gazette.

The Weather.

The heaviest rain and the most appalling thunder and lightning experienced at Stamford for many years, occurred between one and two o'clock last Tuesday afternoon, June 14. The day had been extremely sultry, and the storm came on suddenly from the west. The rain descended in such torrents as made many of the streets resemble the channels of rapid rivers, and flooded houses in low situations to the depth of two or three feet. Even those in elevated parts of the town were also damaged, by the insufficiency of ordinary spouting to carry off the water from parapets and cisterns, and from this cause general consternation was produced; but the alarm was fearfully augmented by the lightning, succeeded by thunder of that tremendously loud, continued, and crackling kind, which is understood to imply the presence of the greatest danger from such visitations. About half-past one o'clock, the electric fluid struck the beautiful spire of St. Mary's Church, built in the year 1260, and considerably damaged its highest part, forcing some feet of the stonework out of the perpendicular, and also striking off large pieces of the ornamental parts from two of the upper windows. Several of the stones fell into the street, near Standwell's Hotel, and others were afterwards picked up in the belfry. It is feared that the damage done to the steeple is considerable, and that very costly re

pairs will be necessary. Passing onward to the north-east, the lightning struck an attic window in the house of Mr. Mortlock, bookseller, smashing five panes of glass, and rending the frame-work to shivers. It then greatly damaged a stack of chimneys of the next house, occupied by Mr. Althorp, druggist, and pierced through the slated roof into a closet containing a large quantity of Congreve matches in boxes: happily these combustibles were not ignited, or the consequences might have been dreadful; some of the boxes containing the matches were actually thrown to the ground from shelves on which they had stood, but their contents were not deranged.—Stamford Mercury.

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures; Illustrated by Eleven Hundred Engravings. By G. FRANCIS, F.L.S.; Author of The Analysis of British Ferns, The Little English Flora, The Grammar of Botany, &c.-BRITTAIN: Paternoster-row, London. WE have looked over Mr. Francis's Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures, with a great deal of pleasure, because we find it to be a book of extensive usefulness, and one that was much wanted. It is, indeed, the only one of the kind that we have hitherto met with, and we are inclined to think that there is no other of its kind in the English language. It contains an immense number of technicalities which are of continual occurrence to readers of scientific works: many of which, being of recent birth, are not to be found explained in any other work. Mr. Francis, being himself well initiated in the principles of science, and an extensive reader of scientific works, as well as being an investigator and teacher, is well qualified for such an undertaking; and, we are perfectly aware that, independently of such qualifications, no author could have produced a work of such high interest, to the generality of scientific readers, as that now before us. Every technical word and phrase in the book is clearly and fully explained; and upwards of a thousand of them are illustrated by well-finished engravings. Every reader of scientific works ought to have this dictionary at his elbow.

Mr. Francis is also bringing forward another work of great interest, which we shall notice more particularly in our next number.

Letter from WILLIAM STURGEON to Professor SILLIMAN.

MY DEAR SIR,

In looking over your excellent journal for April last, I find a letter inserted from a London correspondent, to whom I ought to be much obliged for acknowledging, though reluctantly, that I was the discoverer of the remarkable fact, that the extremity of the positive wire of a voltaic battery becomes red hot outside of the electric circuit. As your correspondent has neither laid claim to any participation in the experiments, nor contradicted any of my statements on the subject, a perfect stranger to the man, and to the hitherto unpublished transactions connected with that affair, and to some others between me and the London Electrical Society, would be at a loss to understand the motives which induced him to address you; unless, indeed, they could perceive, as possibly they might, a disposition evinced to laud Mr. Gassiot's liberality-to blame me for not selling my "right for a mess of pottage,”—and a decided hatred to the pronoun I.

Your correspondent says, "I am surprised that in a joint-stock undertaking like this, he (W. S.) should talk of his experiments as distinct from those of the rest, but more so when these were kept secret from us." This is "We blew the bellows," in earnest. With the exception of the peculiar distribution of the battery for the decomposition of water, which was solely devised by Mr. Mason, there were no experiments on the occasion but those which were projected and carried into execution by myself; neither have I heard of any discovery being made with that battery since the time that I left the "joint-stock" business, of the proceedings of which, I got sufficient experience for a whole life-time in a very few meetings. These facts, I hope, are sufficient reasons for my declining to bring forward any other experiments in the joint-stock undertaking; and had there been no other demonstration, the whole tenour of your correspondent's letter would have amply proved that I was not mistaken in the views which were then forced upon me, of the probable consequences of a continuation of my humble labours, where even credit alone was already too great a boon for them.

In conclusion, permit me to exonerate you from any blame which you may suspect of having fallen into by the publication of my letters. I write no secrets: which practice, I believe, is my prevailing sin. And, when you read a series of documents, which I shall now be induced to publish, I think you will not blame me for making either hasty claims to discovery, or hasty disclosures of uncourteous treatment.

I am, dear Sir,
Your's truly,

WILLIAM STurgeon.

Royal Victoria Gallery of Practical Science, Manchester,

June 20th, 1842.

To Professor Silliman.

MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION IN MANCHESTER.

FIRST MEETING OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE.

THE general committee held its first meeting in the lecture theatre of the Royal Institution, at one o'clock on Wednesday, June 22nd, for the election of sectional officers and the transaction of general business, when there was a numerous attendance of members. The Rev. Professor Whewell, of Cambridge, occupied the chair. Amongst those present we observed our venerable townsman, Dr. Dalton, who appeared to take great interest in the proceedings.

Professor John Phillips read the minutes of the two last meetings of the general committee, which were confirmed.

The Chairman observed, that in order to induce men of science and distinction to attend the meeting, letters had been written to various foreign bodies, the object of which was the prosecution of science, inviting them to send men of science here, and informing them that every accommodation would be provided for them. Although some distinguished foreigners would be present, yet some of those societies had deputed countrymen of our own to represent them, and he believed Dr. Faraday could speak on behalf of one body.

Dr. Faraday said he had the honour of appearing before the meeting as the representative of the Academy of Sciences at Modena, the members of which had deputed him to return thanks on their behalf for the kind invitation which had been forwarded to them by the committee of the British Association; and he was authorised, at the same time, to express the great desire felt by those whom he represented to co-operate and do everything in their power for the advancement of science. Sir John Herschel was combined with him in this matter, whom he hoped to have had the pleasure of seeing present.

The Chairman: The next proceeding is the report of the general council, which manages the affairs of the society in the interval between the general meetings, and which prepares the report which the secretary will now read.

Lieut.-Colonel Sabine, F.R.S., one of the general secretaries, then read the following report :

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL TO THE GENERAL COMMITTEE.

1. The council having learnt that it had been the intention of the geological section, at the meeting at Plymouth, to have proposed to the committee of recommendations that Mr. Edward Forbes should be requested to draw up a report on the radiata and mollusca of the Ægean and Red Seas, and that £60 should be placed at his disposal for expenses connected therewith-but that, from a circumstance purely accidental, this proposition had not been submitted to the committee of recommendations, and being also informed that Mr.

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