420 Scientific Reviews. 



thing new in the most common facts. Cast-iron, it appears, after 

 being poured into the mould, contracts l-8th of an inch nearly per 

 linear foot — and yet cold cast-iron swims upon melted cast-iron ; 

 and these two facts seem to Mr. M'V. so totally irreconcileable, 

 that nothing but some hidden mystery of magnetism is sufficient to 

 account for them. Now we shall take the trouble of making it all 

 plain to Mr. M'V. Liquid cast-iron has a certain bulk and den- 

 sity. It is poured into a mould. At the instant of congelation it 

 expands in consequence of the new and less-compacted arrangement 

 of the particles, incident to the change of state. It has now a bulk 



freater and a density less than when in the fluid state, but always 

 xed and determinate for the point of congelation. As it cools, this 

 bulk diminishes, till at the temperature of the air it has shrunk in 

 the quantity above stated ; but it is still less dense than it was in 

 the fluid state, and therefore it swims on melted cast-iron. 



Wehnerian Natural History Society. 



Since the publication of our last number, a pamphlet of twenty-six pages, 

 entitled " An Address to the Members of the Wemerian Natural History So- 

 ciety, by their Secretary," — and, under the cloak of " A Defence" of the Society, 

 the President, and the Secretary, containing an angry attack upon Mr. Cheek, one 

 of the Editors of this Journal, — has been circulated in this city and elsewhere. Mr. 

 Patrick Neill, the author of the pamphlet, is a gentleman whose name we have, 

 oil account of his office, been unwillingly obliged to connect with certain transac- 

 tions in which we believe his disposition would not have permitted him to involve 

 himself, if he had not been instigated by some very powerful motive ; and, as far 

 as we are Editorially concerned in this matter, we are inclined to acquit him en- 

 tirely of all malice prepense in those doings to which he has been a party. But 

 the dispute, as promoted in this pamphlet, has now assumed the character of a pri- 

 vate quairel, and the whole affair must accordingly pass from our cognizance; for 

 the character of this Journal will not allow of its name being mixed up with the 

 squabbles and recriminations of individuals. Public questions, connected even 

 remotely with science, — either on the management of our institutions, or on the 

 capacity of our scientific men to fill the places which they occupy, — the Editors 

 will most readily discuss ; but personal invective is not a subject for their criti- 

 cism. Had the Secretary of the Wernerian Society thought proper to address 

 the Editors of this Journal, in vindication of the President's conduct, his com- 

 munication would have been noticed with all due courtesy : but as Mr. Neill has 

 chosen to single out Mr. Cheek, and to level unmeasured vituperation personally 

 against him, we must leave Mr. Cheek to pursue his own course, and to answer 

 the attack made upon him in his own way. 



In his address, Mr. Neill attempts to implicate the Wemerian Society in sup- 

 port of the coterie, by pretending that we have attacked that institution, and by 

 ingeniously volunteering a defence. We think it right to repeat, in this place, 

 that the Wernerian Society has never been the object of our censure ; that the 

 party alone which mis-governs it, is answerable for the torpidity in which it was 

 found. But its slumbers have happily been disturbed, and we trust that it will 

 survive to view our exertions in the proper light. 



