compared with the Discoveries of the Modern Sciences. 257 
electricity, this fluid traversed ninety thousand leagues in a 
~ second. Its velocity is therefore greater than that of light, 
which is only at the rate of eighty thousand leagues in the 
same space of time. 
The electric fluid not only exhibits the greatest velocity, 
but it enters in considerable quantity into the composition 
of the molecules of bodies. This quantity is indeed so im- 
mense, that the imagination is startled at it. The elements 
of a simple molecule of water appear to contain eight hun- 
dred thousand charges of an electric battery of eight jars 
two decimeters (about 8 inches) in height and six (about 2 
feet) in circumference, obtained by thirty revolutions of a 
powerful electrical machine. If the quantity of electricity 
accumulated in the elements of a gramme (about 15} grains) 
of water, happened to be suddenly set free in the middle of 
any building, the building would instantly be blown in pieces. 
This power, compared with which steam is as nothing, 
whether we consider it as an extremely subtile matter, or 
rather as the result of a vibratory movement impressed on 
the ether, is only employed by nature in maintaining the 
combinations and molecular constitution of bodies. We 
ought not, therefore, to be surprised at the importance which 
Scripture assigns to thunder and lightning, which is one of 
the not least curious of its effects. There are few natural 
phenomena in which electricity does not act a part, and which 
are not more or less dependent upon it. How can it be 
otherwise, since each material molecule appears to be en- 
dowed not only with a certain quantity of heat and light, but 
also with electricity ? 
Genesis is not less exact when it calls our attention to 
the living beings which, by turns, have animated and em- 
bellished the surface of the earth. It delineates their suc- 
cession, it teaches us that they have appeared in distinct 
generations, and in direct relation to the complexity of 
their organization. We are surprised to find such a law 
written in the Bible, a law equally to be traced in indelible 
_ characters in the bowels of the globe. This fact, clearly 
expressed in a Book which has existed from so old a date, 
VOL. XXXVIII. NO. LXXVI.—APRIL 1845. R 
