'318 Intelligence aftd Miscella?ieous Articles* 



ing idio-repulsive powers; the particles of matter are also assumed as 

 mutually repulsive, but matter and electricity are considcrtd as mutually 

 attractive. All these forces are inversely as the square of the di- 

 stance, but the second is not quite so strong as the first and third. 

 These assumptions being made the law of universal gravitation, all 

 the varieties under which statical electricity presents itself, and the 

 general condition of aggregation in solids and fluids flow as neces- 

 sary consequence. For the more complete account we refer to the 

 original paper by Mossotti in the Third Part of the Scientific Memoirs, 

 &c. p. ^^S. 



Jan. 27. Mr. Brande on f]mbossing. The illustration consisted 

 chiefly of the embossing of soft materials, as paper, wood, leather, &c, 

 and was exemplified by the machinery of Mr. De la Rue. 



Feb. ?. Dr. Grant on the Development of the Glandular System 

 in the animal kingdom compared with that in man. 



Feb. 10. Dr. Ritchie on the Velocity of Sound, and the discre- 

 pancy existing between theory and the results of observation. 



Feb, 17. Mr. Faraday on Dr. Marshall Hall's Reflex Function of 

 the Spinal Marrow, and on Mr. Cowper's Parlour Printing Press. 



Feb. 24. — Mr. Cowper on type and stereotype founding. 



March 3 — Mr. Woodward, A demonstration by the oxy-hydro- 

 gen blowpipe and lime, and also by models and experiments, of the 

 general laws and properties of polarized light. 



March 10. — Mr. Wilkinson on bronze, and on various combi- 

 nations of iron and steel to produce the varieties of Damascus. 



March 1 7. — Mr. Faraday on Mr. De la Rue's mode of applying 

 sulphate of copper to the exaltation of the powers of a common 

 voltaic battery. 



LXII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



FOSSIL INFUSORIA USED FOR FOOD. 



IT appears from a letter addressed to Ehrenberg by Prof. Retzius 

 of Stockholm, that the mineral substance commonly called Berg- 

 r^ehl, mountain-meal, described and analysed by Berzelius, and 

 in which he found silex, animal substance, and crenic acid, is some- 

 times eaten in Lapland in times of famine, when the Laplanders 

 mix it with ground corn and bark, to make their bread. It was 

 used thus in the district of Degerfors in 1833, and is super^iti- 

 tiously considered as a gift of the great spirit of forests. Retzius 

 adds that he has discovered in the Bergmehl, nineteen different 

 forms of Infusoria with siliceous shields, the mineral being wholly 

 composed of them, and that the analogy which he supposed to exist 

 between it and the Bergmehl of Franzensbad seems to be well 

 founded*. 



PALEONTOLOGY. 



Organic Forms of certain Minerals. — Prof. Ehrenberg lately read 

 to the Academy of Berlin the following note on the organic forms 



• For a description of the Infusoria contained in this deposit, see 

 M. Ehrenberg's nicinoir on Fossil Infusoria, in Scientific Memoirs, Part III. 

 p. 400. 



