GtfminaiiOTrt 37 1 



tkoferved, with fmall fcintillations, and had it been in oxygen- 

 gas, the wire would no doubt have deflagrated. 



The wire being armed at the end With a fmall piece of 

 j^hofphorus, the latter iriflamed inftantly upon contact: 



A connexion was made from the trough to a galvanometer 

 on the conftrucYion propofed by Pepy9 *q Upon moving the 

 regulating fcrews, the gold leaves- at the diftanec of half an 

 inch, began to divide : one of them fuddenly (truck the zinc 

 and inftantly inflamed, burning with a bright flame of a white 

 colour ;— a found was heard as though, a fmall quantity of 

 nitre had been projected updn ignited charcoal^ and about a 

 quarter of an inch of the gold was deftroyed, leaving a finoke- 

 coloured ftain upon the plate of zinc. This experiment was 

 feveral times repeated with the fame fuccefs; 



A fmaller trough, confiding of fixty pieces of filver and 

 2*mC, of ail inch and a half iquarc, being connected in the 

 Order of arrangement with the beforementioned, evidently de- 

 oreafed its powers which feems to prove that there will be ho 

 advantage obtained by uniting troughs of inferior powers to 

 ftronger ones, as is the cafe with electrical batteries; but ex- 

 periments are ftill wanting completely to determine the point; 



Profeflbr Pi&et, Mr. A. Aikin, and feveral other fcientific 

 gentlemen, were prefent at thefe experiments, 



GERMINATION. 



E. A. Lefebure, atiiftant chemift in the School of Health 

 at Strafburgh, has lately made fome curious experiments on 

 germination* As he employed in his Experiments only rape- 

 feed, they cannot be confidered as fufficiently varied to admit 

 of general conclufions; but as they may furnifli hints tqf 

 others who may be difpoied to give them greater latitude, 

 we mail briefly flate the 1110ft ftriking remits. 



Lefebure firft ooferves that taking away the cotyledon$ 

 or feed- leaves^ retards and weakens vegetation, but by nd 

 means impedes the germination, if the tipper part or the 

 fibre, to which the cotyledons are attached, be not removed. 

 M. Lefebure contradicts Bohmer; who fays .that imbibing 

 the moifture of the earth is performed merely by the umbili- 

 cal fibre; whereas Lefebure found, by experiments, that this 

 function is difcharged by the whole furface of the ked: The 

 earth is merely the excipicnt of the iiiatter reqtiifltc for the 

 germination of feeds. The conditions of tenderhefs, moifture, 

 warmth, and darknefs of colour in the excipiertt, are confi- 

 dered as necellary to the germination of the feeds depofited 

 in it. M. Lefebure, after the example of Bonnet, made! 

 Choice of other fubftanees for excipients, and found thai 

 Sec pjgc 18 of the prefewt Volume; 



' tht 



