27^ Dr ». G. Morton. 



and the beginning of the next. All Oersted's energies were 

 immediately enlisted for the new field of research thus opened, 

 and he immediately detected the true law of the decomposi- 

 tion of salts. From this time forward he dedicated himself 

 solely to the career of an investigator, and in the pursuit of 

 his studies visited almost all parts of northern Europe. 



His subsequent life is well known to the scientific world. 

 In the year 1820 he discovered the magnetic influence of 

 electricity, thus founding the science of electro-magnetism, 

 and in fact first opening that new course of research into the 

 mutual relations of the several energies of nature, which is 

 still pursued with such brilliant success, yearly leading to 

 more and more astonishing results. Without the discoveries 

 of Oersted, where would have been those of Ampere, Arago, 

 Faraday, Seebeck, and Melloni 1 In 1814 he established a 

 magnetic observatory at Copenhagen, but has since that time 

 devoted himself to those sciences which spring from the 

 mutual relation of the material and spiritual worlds. His 

 books on " The Spirit in Nature," " Natural Science and 

 Spiritual Culture," " Natural Science in its relation to Poetry 

 and Religion," — must be and continue classic works, what- 

 ever may be individual views of the correctness of their philo- 

 sophy. The Bishop of Seeland has very recently published 

 a severe attack upon Oersted's views, occasioned by the 

 publication of his " Geist in der Natur." But although Den- 

 mark has been one of the last continental nations to learn how 

 little our knowledge of the truth is advanced or facilitated 

 by contests between theologians and men of science, the re- 

 ception of Bishop Mynster's book shews that the great fad 

 — ^that the true interpretation of revelations through moral 

 and through physical media, must necessarily coincide, — 

 is now at last appreciated in Denmark also. — (Professor Sif- 

 liman.) 



2. Dr S. G. Morton, author of the Crania Americana and 

 Crania JEgyptiaca. 



With sadness we record the death of an eminent man from 

 the ranks of American science, Dr Samuel George Morton 

 of Philadelphia. He died on the 15th of May last, in his 



