156 Scientific Intelligence. [Aug. 



warm water flow over it), white traces will be perceived wherever the 

 point was applied. These consist of the triple phosphate of ammonia 

 and magnesia. In the application of this process on the larger scale, 

 the carbonate of ammonia should be added first, which prevents the 

 chance of any simple phosphate of the earth being formed. — Journal 

 of Science, &c. xv. 336. 



II. Phosphate of Uranium. 



I am indebted to the Rev. J. J. Conybeare for the information that 

 the existence of phosphoric acid in uranite which I supposed 1 had 

 first discovered was ascertained several years since. The fact, he 

 informs me, is mentioned in a work entitled, " Elemens de Mineralo- 

 gie et de Geologic," &:c. Par E. M. J. Patrin. Paris, 1803. 



Having never seen this work, Mr. Conybeare has been so good as to 

 favour me with the following extract from it: " Ekebert [Ekeberg] 

 fait sur I'uranite une observation qui serait tres curieuse si elle etait 

 confirmee ; c'est que I'acide phosphorique se trouve joint a Poxide d'ura- 

 nite. II dit dans une note de son Memoire sur la Phosphate de Chaux 

 (Annales de Chimie, No. 96, p. 233), que si dans une dissolution 

 d'uranite par I'acide nitrique on verse de I'acetite de plomb ; il se fait 

 un precipitc qui est un phosphate de plomb qui fondu au chalumeau 

 ■donne un polyedre de couleur laiteuse." — Patrin, t. iv. p. 48. 



Mr. Conybeare justly observes to me, that ** the circumstance of 

 Ekeberg's discovery being mentioned in a paper 7iot on uranite, but on 

 phosphate of lime, will account for its escaping the notice of Berzelius, 

 of yourself, and even of so many professed compilers of mineralogical 

 systems." — Edit, 



III. On the Use of the Electrical Faculty of the Torpedo. By Mr. Jona- 

 than Couch. 



The following suggestion on this subject has been made by Mr. 

 Jonathan Couch in a paper* on the Natural History of Fishes found in 

 Cornwall, printed in the newly-published part of the Transactions of 

 the Linnean Society; vol. xiv. p. 89: — 



** Torpedo or Cramp Ray. Raia Torpedo. — This fish is extremely rare. 

 The numbing power of the torpedo has been much illustrated by the 

 discoveries which have been made in galvanism ; but the cause of this 

 phenomenon appears to me not to have been explained. I would, 

 therefore, suggest the following observations on this subject. It has 

 been supposed, that by this faculty the torpedo is enabled the more 

 readily to secure its prey; and when Pennant took a surmullet from the 

 stomach of a torpedo, he concluded that it must have been first disa- 

 bled by the shock before it could have been swallovved by its enemy. 

 But I have known a lobster, whose agility is much superior to that of 

 A surmullet, taken from the stomach of a skate ; which fish possesses no 

 such formidable means of disabling its prey. Without denying that 

 the torpedo may devour that which it disables by the shock, I conceive 

 that the principal use of this power has a reference to the functions of 

 digestion. It is well known that an effect of lightning, or the electric 

 shock, is to deprive animated bodies very suddenly of their irritability; 

 and that thereby they arc rendered more readily disposed to pass into 

 a state of dissolution than they would otherwise be ; in which condi- 

 tion the digestive powers of the stomach cap be much more speedily 



