SCIKNTIFIC NEWS, 79 



' S* By following the same process, a certain number of 



maenets, as well as a certain number of pairs of metals. Piles of Mag- 



=* ' .... nets WJll affect 



afforded electricity; and in this manner the electricities the Eleccronw 



afforded by the poles of different magnets, have been sue- ^^» 



cessfully indicated by the electrometer. 



I 4. By means of these slectricities, one of these batteries —and GaWa* 



^ "^ ..... , nrze bodies. 



cf magnets, accordingly as it is more or strong, produces 



tipon dead and living bodies, all the phocnomena which are 



produced by a pile of Volta of the common kind, and of 



the same force. 



5. The exper iments which prove this ,8hew, that in mag- , , . 

 netised iron the south pole gives positive electritity, andiron and ftecl 

 the north pole negative electricity ; but that on. the contrary ^^^^^ . ^'.J^erent 

 in magnetised steel, the north pole affords the positive eleC- 



tticity, and the south pole the negative. 



6. The same inverse disposition is also observed with re- 



^ . . —and contrary 



gard to the polar oxidability of the magnetized body in oxidabilitie?. 

 which this change is produced by magnetism. In magnet- 

 ized iron the south pole is most oxidable, and the north 

 pole least ; whereas in magnetized steel the north pole is 

 Biost oxidable and that ot the South least. 



7. Mr. Ritter thinks, that by considering the earth as an The Earth a» 



immense magnet, these results mioht serve to explain vari- ^^ immense 



'^ . magnet, pro- 



ous phoenomena of nature, such as physical difference be- dudng electri© 



tvveen the two hemispheres, the Aurora-borealis, and the *^^'^"» ^^' 

 Aurora Australis. In fact, after what has been j«st stated, 

 the earth considered as a magnet, muy be taken as an equi- 

 valent to an immense pile of Volta of which the poles are on 

 one side sufficiently closed by the waters of the ocean. 

 And the action of this pile must produce, and have pro- 

 duced the greatest chemical changes in the materials of the 

 earth ; changes which must have differed according to the 

 poles; and of which pile the poles at the other extremity 

 have always such an abundance of electricity as to cause 

 its splendor to appear by radiations in the vast spaces of 

 the heavens. 



National 



