Geological Remarks on the Stratification^ &c. 113 



5lh. That the nerves of ihe torpedo may tiot only keep 

 the electric organ undef the command of the will, but 

 charge the battery, by secreting the fluid between the plates j 

 that IS necessary for its activity. 



Gth. As albumen bfconics visibly coagulated, by the 

 cfFect produced froni twelve four-inch double plates of cop- 

 per and iron, a jTower much too low to aficcteven the most 

 delicate electrometer, may not this be occasionally eniployed 

 with advantage as a chemical lest of electricity, whilst the 

 production of acid and alkali, affected by still inferior de- 

 grees of electricity to those required for the coagulation of 

 albumen, may likewise be regarded is auxiliary tests on such 

 occasions ? 



If these facts and observations appear to the society tQ 

 throw any lisht upon the principle of secretion, it may bef 

 an advantage to medical science, that they should be laid 

 before the public^ as hints for future inquiry. 



XIX. (geological tlemarh and Quefiea on Messrs, Cuvieu 

 a?id Brogni art's Memoir on t lie Mineral Geography of 

 the Environs of Paris, Bij A/r* John Farey, Miner alo- 

 gical SurueyoKi. 



To Mr. Tiiloch, 



"Stn, XT gave me great pleasure to observe^ that you had ia 

 the commencement of the present volume of the Philo- 

 sophical Magazine, introduced the term ^'Geology'* into 

 its title; a science, if I may so call it, which stands perhaps 

 more in need than any other, of a respectable channel for 

 freely discussing its facts and principles; and the satisfac- 

 tion I felt, was much increased, by the perusal of the valu^ 

 able body of facts which you have therein presented to the 

 English reader, re:'ipecting the stratification in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Paris. We are informed by the very able na- 

 turalists who drew up the Memoir alluded to (p. 37), that 

 (hvir geological survey of the environs of Paris (which 

 commenced in 1804 or 1803) was unfinished at the be-" 

 ginning of IS09, but that ** some . circumstances" com- 

 pelled them at that njomcnt, to publish an abridged account 

 of their labours, *< and to assign a date^^ to their laborious 

 researches, although they were not then brought to a con- 

 clusion. What the *^ circumstances'* were which are here 

 alluded to, we are uninformed; but it seems material to^ 

 the credit of our country, and an act of justice to a merito" 

 Vol. 35.No. 142. F«^. ISIO- H rigua 



