78 PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 



wise seen the developement of magnetic phenomena, when electricity 

 is operating in bodies, and indirectly when heat is exerted in bodies : 

 inasmuch as heat developes electricity. The relation between magne- 

 tism and heat seems to exist through the intervention of electrical 

 currents : but the excitation of electricity by pure magnetic action 

 was not detected until Dr. Faraday discovered their induction, or 

 influence of electricity in motion, and from which has resulted our 

 knowledge of the excitation of electrical currents by simple- magnetic 

 bars. If a somewhat extensive length of wire be twisted round a tube 

 of pasteboard, everywhere kept from contact with the adjoining 

 spirals by a covering of silk, and an iron rod be placed in the tube, 

 then, on connecting the ends of the iron rod with the poles of a 

 powerful magnet, an amazing rush of electricity will be generated in 

 the wire, so much so as to produce vivid sparks at its extremities ; 

 and, on connecting these extremities with a wire included in the 

 thermo electrometer, the rise of the fluid in the stem immediately 

 indicates a considerable degree of heat in the wire, which, at the same 

 time, exhibits all the phenomena of a wire transmitting a current of 

 galvanic electricity. 



The lecturer concluded, by advancing a theory calculated to obviate 

 the difficulties arising from the supposition, that the planetary bodies 

 revolved in an elastic medium. He supposed that there merely 

 existed, between the sun and each planet, an extremely attenuated 

 chain of influence, closely assimilated to that which exists between 

 magnetic or electrical bodies ; and through this chain, which revolves 

 with the planets, he considered that all the phenomena of light, heat, 

 electricity, magnetism, &c., were propagated. 



JAN. 2ND. 1834. Col. C. H. SMITH, On the Battle of Mtilpltn/ntt. 

 It was intimated to the members on Thursday last that circum- 

 stances would prevent Dr. Jacob from delivering his lecture on 

 Egypt a substitute was however found in Colonel Smith, who, in 

 the space of seven days and nights, prepared a most interesting paper 

 on the Battle of Malplaquet, in which he gave a detailed account 

 of every circumstance connected with that important historical event, 

 and illustrated the movements and positions of the contending ar- 

 mies by means of a plan of the field of battle, so large that it was 

 distinctly visible from any part of the Athenaeum. The lecture was 

 received with the reiterated plaudits of a most numerous assembly. 

 Arch Deacon Coxe made an abstract of Colonel Smith's original 

 minutes of the Battle of Malplaquet and published the contents, 

 with scarcely verbal alterations, as his own account of the battle. 



