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Account of some Experiments in ivhich an Electric Spark was 

 elicited from a Natural Magnet. By JAMES D. FORBES, 

 Esq. F.R.S.E., F.G.S., &c. 



(Read 16th April 1832.) 



+. 



NOTWITHSTANDING the intimate connexion which has long been 

 known to exist between magnetism and electricity, we may safely 

 say, that, only fifteen years ago, the announcement of the excita- 

 tion of a luminous spark from a natural magnet would have been 

 received with astonishment and even with incredulity. 



After the great discovery of electro-magnetism, in 1819, by 

 Professor OERSTED, the extreme improbability of such a disco- 

 very was indeed removed ; but, even after that period, until the 

 recent researches of our distinguished countryman Mr FARADAY, 

 every attempt having failed to procure the feeblest trace of 

 electricity from the obdurate magnetic mass, so striking a result, 

 which comes home to the comprehension of those least accus- 

 tomed to interest themselves in the less palpable results of scien- 

 tific enquiry, could scarcely have been looked for with any degree 

 of confidence. 



The beautiful experiments of Mr FARADAY, the fundamen- 

 tal facts of which I had the honour to lay before the Society at 

 their last meeting, pointed out the path for arriving at this fine 

 result, and enabled us to appreciate the probability of attaining 

 it. Having had the good fortune conclusively to establish so 



VOL. XII. PART I. C C 



