NATCKAL PHILOSOPHY. 153 



Mr. Drach proceeds to demonstrate his theory in the following man- 

 ner. Having lately had occasion to advert to the superior practical 

 utility of Fahrenheit's thermometric scale, as not ordinarily requiring 

 decimal divisions and negative degrees like its congeners, it occurred 

 to me that a superior scale was feasible by dividing the distance from. 

 40 Fahr. up to the boiling point, -[-212 Fahr. (100 Centigrade, 

 or 80 Reaumur), into one thousand degrees, placing zero at the tem- 

 perature first named. Thus one of the new degrees proposed by Mr. 

 Drach would equal G.252 Fahr. = 0.140 Cent. = 0. 112 Reaum. 

 And thus negative degrees are chiefly dispensed with. Ten years 

 since, Mr. Drach published a tract showing that the idea of an abso- 

 lute degree of cold expressible by a thermometer involved some falla- 

 cy. The conclusion therein arrived at, and now sustained by him, is, 

 that every substance has its own minimum temperature for maximum 

 density, above or below which it expands just as water on each side 

 of 39 Fahr. ; the latter fluid having the lion's share of this peculiar- 

 ity, just as magnetism is ordinarily visible in iron above all other met- 

 als, resembling in some sort the electric affinity so common in chemi- 

 cal combinations. 



COMPARISON OF FAHRENHEIT AND CENTIGRADE THERMOMETERS. 



M. ABBADIE observes that the usual formula for comparing Fahren- 

 heit and Centigrade (C = - 3 ^g,j X "> when C and F represent respec- 

 tively the degrees of the two thermometers) supposes that 180 Fah- 

 renheit just equals 100 of Centigrade ; but in France the height of 

 the barometer for gradation is 760 millimetres, while in England it is 

 30 inches, equivalent to 761.9SG2 millimetres. The Centigrade scale 

 corresponding to 212 F. is therefore 100.0727 degrees. To this cor- 

 rection there is still another (for instruments made at London and 

 Paris), amounting to one tenth of the preceding, which depends on the 

 difference in the intensity of gravity at London and at Paris. Apply- 

 ing these two corrections, the Parisian scale should stand at lOO.OSGGG 3 , 

 when the London scale marks 212. The formula for correction then 



i c\ (F 3i) V 103.0S036 m. j.- n i 



becomes G = - -^g" "" ^ ne correction is small; but in exact 

 observations the thermometer is read to 0.08 degrees ; and it is desira- 

 ble that even a slight error should not be added to errors of observa- 

 tion. ISInstitut) No. 854. Silliman's Journal, Sept., 1850. 



EUHARMONIC ORGAN. 



MESSRS. ALLEY AND POOLE, organ-builders, of Newburyport, have 

 produced an invention which has excited much attention and admira- 

 tion in the musical world. It is termed the enharmonic organ. Its 

 advantages and the improvements introduced are of such a nature, that 

 a description of them can be rendered intelligible only to those who 

 have some knowledge of the science and practice of music. Two 

 papers on the subject have appeared in Silliman's Journal, and a paper 

 was also read to the American Association, at New Haven, but the 



