334 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



of course, a subject of the highest interest. After briefly explaining 

 the uses of electricity, so far as these are known, our author ob- 



*' Another property which has been said to belong to the principle of elec- 

 tricity, is the assistance which it affords to the processes of vegetation. 

 While these processes proceed, it is ascertained, by some late experiments, 

 that there is a constant circulation of this fluid, if it deserves that name, 

 between plants and the atmosphere ; and there is, therefore, reason to believe 

 that the circulation is essential to the growth and health of the former. Va- 

 rious contradictory experiments, however, have been made on this subject, 

 producing conflicting theories, and not ending in any very satisfactory result. 

 The Abbds NoUet and Bertholon both made experiments which seemed to 

 prove that the artificial application of electricity considerably accelerated the 

 vegetable process, and rendered it more vigorous ; and the latter took so 

 strong a view of this subject, that he seriously proposed the erection of what 

 he named electro-vegetometers, or thunder rods, for bringing down the electri- 

 city of the atmosphere to the earth, for the purpose of fertilizing the soil. 

 After describing his plans, he thus expresses himself: — ' By these means we 

 shall have an excellent vegetable manure, or nourishment, brought down, as 

 it were from heaven, and tnat, too, at so easy an expense ; for, after the con- 

 struction of this instrument, it will cost nothing to maintain it. It will be, 

 moreover, the most efficacious you can employ ; no other substance being so 

 active, penetrating, or conducive to the germination, growth, multiplication, 

 or reproduction of vegetables.' The Abbe's views, however, appear to be 

 visionary, and the experience of several other philosophers is far from con- 

 firming the effects above mentioned ; so that nothing more can be positively 

 affirmed, from acutal experiment, than the existence of a circulation of elec- 

 tricity in plants during vegetation. Further experiments are required to 

 elucidate this very interesting subject." — p. 30. 



In a work containing so much philosophical research as the pre- 

 sent, we cannot of course be expected to give a detailed analysis of 

 the whole : we are, indeed, unable to spare either time or space to 

 mention even the heads of the various chapters ; but will proceed to 

 make a few more extracts, which we will intersperse, if convenient 

 or necessary, with observations of our own. The ensuing para- 

 graph is from the chapter on vegetable fixed oils : — 



" The Sesamum, or oil-plant of the east, is indigenous in the island of Cey- 

 lon and on the Malabar coast. It is an annual, growing about two feet high, 

 and producing seeds of the size of those of mustard. It is grown universally 

 throughout Asia and in some parts of Africa, where the whole seed is valued, 

 not merely lor its oil, but as an article of food. The oil is abundant, nine 

 pounds of seed yielding two quarts of this substance. It is perfectly sweet, 

 and is used for the purposes of olive oil, while it has the great advantage of 

 not becoming rancid, though kept for years. From the kernels of walnuts, 

 hazel-nuts, and beech-masts, and from the seeds of the poppy, oils are ex- 

 tracted, which are much esteemed by varnishers, on account of their trans- 

 parency. The latter is also extensively used in place of olive oil. The co- 

 coa-nut and some species of palm likewise yield an abundant and useful oil 

 well known in this country, the latter being chiefly used in the manufacture 

 of a certain kind of soap, and the former being in very general use. The 

 chief defect of the oil extracted from the cocoa-nut was its congealing at the 

 ordinary temperature of the atmosphere in England. Recently, however, a 

 discovery has been made of a method of separating the concrete matter from 

 the liquid part of the oil, by which means a pale, limpid, tasteless fluid is 



