Scientific Intelligence.'^Nattiral Philosophy. 183 



multitudes a boundless field of experiment and observation. 

 Wherever a learned language has been in the possession of a 

 privileged class, history and experience shew that the excluded 

 party is left in ignorance ; and the establishment of a " univer- 

 sal character,'' so much desired by some of the philosophers of 

 the 17th century, instead of advancing knowledge, as they ima^ 

 gined, would most materially have retarded it, and have kept 

 the people in darkness. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 



1. On the Electrical Phenomeiia caused by the Rubbing of 

 Metals with each other. — M. Becquerel, on 3d June 1828, read to 

 the Academy of Sciences of Paris, a memoir wi the electrical p?ie- 

 nomena which result Jrom the rubbirig of' metals with each other, 

 — Natural philosophers have hitherto confined themselves to the 

 Study of the electrical effects resulting from the mutual friction 

 of bodies which are bad conductors of electricity, together with 

 the friction of these with metals. M. Becquerel wished to see 

 what result would take place when metals were rubbed toge- 

 ther. The author, by means of the galvanometer, was enabled 

 to arrange the metals, according to their electrical properties, by 

 friction, in the following order : bismuth, nickel, cobalt, palla- 

 dium, platina, lead, tin, gold, silver, copper, zinc, iron, cad- 

 mium, antimony. This order, in which each metal is positive 

 with relation to those which precede, and negative with relation 

 to those which follow it, is precisely tlie same as that of the 

 electrical effects, which are developed in a circuit formed of two 

 metallic wires soldered end to end, and in which the tempera- 

 ture of one of the solderings is raised, while that of the other 

 remains uniform. Now,- as friction developes heat, it might be 

 imagined that here also it is it that gives rise to thermo-electric 

 effects ; but M. Becquerel has proved that this is not the case. 

 In place of gently rubbing the two bodies, he pressed them 

 strongly against each other, or struck them with repealed blows. 

 These two actions develope heat more than a slight rubbing 

 does, and yet there is no manifestation of electrical effects. To 

 produce these, it is therefore necessary to impress a particular 



