Foreign Literature and Science. 179 



to prove that the Aurora Borealis has its origin in an inilam- 

 mable matter produced by the friction of the globe in turn- 

 ing upon its axis, and by an electric fire, which collects 

 round the pole. lie figures to himself this region as a great 

 mountain, rising in form of a cone at the foot of which are 

 attached petrified flakes of ice which plough the icy sea'. 

 He supposes the terrestrial atmosphere to be vastly higher 

 than is generally admitted, and that the polar mountain is a 

 magnetic mass of an immense volume, the effect ofwhicli 

 is to maintain the diurnal motion of the earth ! 1 



Jr _ 



Bevm Enc^ 



. 15s Geneva. — The method of mutual instructio7i continues 

 to receive direct encouragement in our city. A very large 

 building is now constructing, in which is to be placed a new 

 public school, organized according to this method. Many 

 of our protestant pastors of the country have established 

 similar ones in their parishes, and direct them themselves 

 with a zeal worthy of the greatest praise. Their example 

 has been imitated by several rich proprietors, notwithstand- 

 ing the opposition both open and disguised of certain cu- 



rates. 



Idem* 



16. Naples — Surgery. -C'Ai^noso of IMessina, a pupil of the 

 medical school of Paris, has performed thirteen times in 

 succession in this city, and w^ith the happiest success, the 

 operation for cataract by extraction. 



J- 



!?• Deaths in France, — Gouan^ the oldest of the profes- 

 sors of the school of Montpellicr, the friend of Linneus, of 

 Haller, of Seguier, of Jussieu, and other celebrated botan- 

 ists. He died at the age of 88. 



Corvisart, one of the most distinguished physicians o^ 

 Europe, died at Paris at the age of 67, on the 19th of Sep- 

 tember last. He was first physician to Napoleon. His 

 obsequies were celebrated at Athens where he had an es- 

 tate. Leroux Dean of the faculty of Medicine, pronounced 

 on the occasion a discourse in which he expressed the re- 

 gret of all those who knew this celebrated man, to whom 

 the mf^dical sciences w^re under so many obligations. 



