the galvanic fluid, that is, with the expansive emanations of the intimate substance of the metals composing the pile, is evident, because the mere fact of effecting a communication with the earth produces a vast increase in the quantity of one and the same identical fluid.

- Disks or plates of all bodies, not in a state of decomposition or death, such as flesh, orange-peel, potatoes, fish, apples, &c. will, placed in alternate layers, give forth their substance in the way we call galvanic. Thus we see that the same expansive products are derived from the metals, salt and water, the acids, the magnetic bar, all other bodies, and the emanations of the globe, and that therefore they are identical.

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Another point to which I would wish to call attention, though this is not the proper moment for introducing it, is the identity of the matter of cosmolithes with that of which our earth is formed. For these many years past I have attended to, and thought upon, that subject with increasing interest. The usual explanation of the nature of what are called falling stars, could never give me any satisfaction, even when a school-boy. I was told that they were caused by inflammable exhalations, or gases, which suddenly took fire in the upper regions, &c. But in what sort of bags or bottles these gases were collected and retained, separate from the surrounding atmosphere, deponents did pot, nor do they say. In the midst of the ocean, on a clear, star-light night, many an hour have I laid upon my back on deck, watching the motions of these minor "heavenly" bodies-these sprats of space, that serve as food for stars and globes of whale-like magnitude. During the first series of ages which followed the formation of this globe, it is evident that the internal expansive agitation was with much difficulty confined by the surrounding compressing forces. Volcanic explosions, on a scale of enormous magnitude, at various periods rent the surface of the globe, and gave a temporary vent to the strife within. The evidences of these early outbreakings of the expansive action of our globe are on a scale that leave those of more recent times in the comparison of "Ossa to a wart." Many of the most ancient volcanic craters occupied an area of several hundred square miles, and have sent forth torrents of basaltic, tuffic, and other lavas, amounting to the

mass of entire continents. If from the comparatively puny, squib-like craters of Chimborazzo, Etna, and Vesuvius, we see the liquid incandescent matter of this earth's interior, thrown to the height of 20,000 feet, what may not have been the distance from the surface of the globe to which these first volcanoes did project their emanations? The stars, or suns, which people universal space, are also subject to the same universal law of internal expansion-external compression -to the periods of infancy or flaccidity; increasing solidity, external density; internal agitation and impatience of compression; irruptions, at first more violent, but which become in time less frequent and less powerful.

Modern astronomers inform us, that many of the stars are to be seen in a state of great agitation. Others have heen seen to wane and then revive, and then disappear. What may be the power of the first irruption from a globe a million of times the size of this our earth? Such was the power, which hurling from the bowels of "our" sun, the products of one of those convulsive efforts of his internal expansive action in the period of his youth, which formed our globe and all our sister planets. The ejected matter, at first, existing in a fluid, pulverulent and gaseous state, was, in its progress through the regions of space, seized and on all points compressed by the universal stellar emanations, so as to become compacted into the globe, as we see occur to a drop of water, an isolated portion of mercury, or of any other substance in a fluid state. The larger ejections, of course, were propelled the furthest, and formed the planets Jupiter and Saturn, which being accompanied by some smaller fragments and nebulous matter, satel lites were formed, and the rapid rotation of the nebulous substance caused it to revolve around the planet, as those rings of smoke we often see projected to a great distance from the mouth of a cannon, or from a common tobacco-pipe. Besides, the masses proceeding from these irruptions of the innumerable globes and suns, which are of a size sufficient to form a planet of permanent visibility to us, there must needs be countless millions of others of every variety of dimensions, all traversing the realms of space in every direc tion. Such of these as are not of a mass sufficient to contain electrical repulsive

power competent to their repulsion from the globes which they approach, must fall on to the surface of such globes, and become integral parts thereof. A body projected from the surface of a sphere, itself in rapid revolution round its axis, describes a curve, which increases in its flexure as it recedes from whence it came. The orbicular rotation of our earth, and of all our sister planets, is in the sense of the sun's rotation on its axis; so is the rotation of the planets on their axes, and the rotation of their satellites is the same.

I have already observed, that the expansive force of all globes is in proportion to their mass. The smaller the globe, the greater is its extent of surface in proportion to the mass. So that, at last, the minute particles, even of the heaviest metals, becoming, as it were, all surface, the action of the internal parts is greatly overbalanced by the resistance of the proportionately vast surface. The matter cast from the irruption of a star or planet, at first, is fluid even to its centre. Its outer parts are still more dilated, and thus it occupies a space immeasurably greater than that to which the stellar pressure will by degrees reduce it. The electric expansive action of its interior substance is also, in regular and sure progression, on the wane. Hence that power which, for a period, enabled the little cosmolithe to play, in some degree, the part of a comet or a planet, dies away. Becoming more and more condensed and powerless, it falls on to the surface of the globe the nearest to it. On Mount Jura there lays a cosmolithe weighing upwards of 80 tons; it is principally of iron, in some parts perfectly soft and malleable. The far greater number of aerolithes or cosmolithes, which are apparent on the surface of our globe, are found towards the poles; and this, again, is indicative of those parts being less repulsive to approaching bodies than those of the equator, from which proceeds with greater energy the electric products of the earth's expansive intestine action. I know of a spot in Kent, on which, in the compass of a few acres, there are as many cosmolithes as would fill 50 carts. They are very minute, that is, not bigger than an egg. The identity of all the matter of which the universe is composed is evident, from stellar and solar emanations which our earth receives, being identical with that which it projects from its most

interior recesses, in the shape of insensible perspiration, that is, heat or galvanic fluid. We further see that the solid bodies proceeding from the sun, or some other globe, are perfectly identical with the condensed substance of our globe.

To return to the subject of the ONE primitive elementary constituent of all things-the TO PAN, commonly, and I say, indifferently, named light, caloric, the galvanic, electric, or magnetic fluidI proceed to observe, that if we attach two wires, one to the major, the other to the minor pole of a Voltaic pile or battery, and pass those wires into the interior of a glass tube not quite full of water; and if we approach the ends of the wires towards each other, so that there shall be but a short interval between them, the following familiar phenomenon will take place. From the extremity of one of the wires proceeds a current of the major fluid, from the other a current of the minor fluid. Before they can combine, they are forced to pass through the water. Small bubbles of air gas are seen rapidly to collect upon the ends of the wires, and the water in the tube sensibly diminishes in quantity. The gas thus produced is found to be of two different natures; the major pole has produced Oxygen gas; the minor has furnished hydrogen; and the volume of the latter is just double that of the former. It is important to remark, that this mutation will not take place if the tube is quite full of water, as in such case it is not at liberty to expand. This operation is erroneously called the decomposition of water. By the "decomposition" of a body, either fluid or solid, is meant the separation of the two, three, or more substances of which that body is com. posed; but then we must show what has become of the substance which we employed to effect the operation. Tartaric acid, for instance, added to a solution of carbonate of soda, having a greater affinity for the soda than has the carbonic acid gas, forms the tartaret of soda, and sets free the gas, which bubbles over the edges of our goblet. Thus, as in other chemical cases, we see what has become of the whole party. But in the case of the streams of galvanic fluid introduced into the water, confined in a close cylinder of glass, what becomes of that? What is the modus operandi? Why, I think it will be allowed, on further investigation,

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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 forined. 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 atoms, 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 equili brium 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 evi dent proof of the identity of the matter of the universe, of the galvanic fluid, calorie, 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 gal vanic 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 as piring, 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 introduction 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 it on, their fat with carbon, their nails and hair with ammonia, &c. I have fed hens for many months exclusively on oats, yet they pro duced 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 and 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 cominu❤ nication with the waters of the poles or of the ocean, have no tides. Neither are there any in the Black Sea or the Mediterranean; because the course of the rising action, being from east to west, is contrary to the direction of the only en trance to the Mediterranean (the Straits of Gibraltar), and also to the current with which the waters of the ocean are constantly pouring into the Mediter ranean. 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 ema nations or light of the sun itself act upon the earth with a very great power of com pression; whereas the expansive emana. tions of the moon are absolutely null as to any compressive effect upon the surface of our globe. The fact of the sun's act ing on the tides with so much less pru 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, The would produce no effect whatever on the tides.

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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 inany curious and ingenious things with which found him surrounded, and, among other things, he showed me his new surm for the detection of poachers, rickburners, &c. This aların consisted of a percussion-lock of a very strong and mirable 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 anade to communicate with a rocket or a maroon,sor 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 alarms 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." so remain, Sir, yours respectfully, WM. BADDELEY.

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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). The 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 0.9 grains. This substance was adhesive, fusible, scarcely, if at all, soluble in water, but readily so in alcohol, to which, in small proportious, 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 ob tained.

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 1-4 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.