Scientifie Intelligence—Aris. 199 
maining water should freeze. I then took the ball cautiously be- 
tween my hands, and carried it slowly into the neighbouring warm 
room. I had scarcely entered it when a portion became frozen, and 
the whole was filled with a multitude of small icy needles. Here, 
then, the slight movement, notwithstanding the warmth of my hands 
and of the air of the room, was sufficient to cause the freezing, inas- 
much as the requisite expansion of the water now met with no ob- 
stacle. It seems probable that the resistance of the glass when the 
globe was full, prevented the freezing during the night. 
It appears to me a circumstance worth noticing in the observation 
of Professor August, that the ice in the broken tube was entirely 
free from bubbles. This does not agree with the observation of 
Lichtenberg, who allowed water to freeze in vacuo under an air-pump, 
having as much as possible removed all air from it by boiling and ex- 
hausting, and, instead of solid ice, obtained a frozen froth-like mass 
(Ercleben Naturlehre, 6th edition, p. 361.) This matter deserves_ 
the more to bo further investigated, because, according to the obser- 
vations of Hugi (Naturhistorische Alpenreise, p. 224), during the 
melting of ice, the bubbles did not give the smallest vesicles of air, 
and therefore could not, as Professor August supposes, be attributed 
to the absorbed air.* 
ARTS. 
New Musical Instrument.—In a very recent report given in to the 
Academy of Sciences by a joint commission of that body and the Aca- 
demy of the Fine Arts,t there are the following remarks by M. Se- 
guier the reporter :—The commission are most anxious to assure to 
M. Isoard, an artist so worthy of commendation for his knowledge of 
acoustics, and for his perseverance in applying it to useful purposes, 
the honour and the fruits of the invention of his new method of pro- 
ducing sounds. It is not to a lucky accident that his invention is to 
be ascribed; in its present state so remarkable, it is yet, we hope, 
* In Hugi’s Trayels, there are interesting details regarding the structure 
of glacier ice. The occurrence, in ice, of the geometrical, granular, tabular, 
concentric, stratified (both kinds), jointed, and venigenous structures, need 
excite no surprise, when we recollect that ice is a mineral, and consequently 
capable of taking on the structures observable in the more solid mineral 
masses of which the earth is composed.—EpirTor. 
t This commission consisted of the following distinguished individuals, 
viz. MM. Cherubini, Berton, Hal¢vy, Carafa, and Spontini, of the Academy 
of the Fine Arts ; and MM, Arago, Puissant, Becquerel, Dutrochet, Ponce- 
let, Pouillet, and Seguier, of the Academy of Sciences. 
