426 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



magnetism is subject to, and the connexion which it has with 

 other natural phenomena. The academy also would be glad to 

 receive essays on the medical properties of magnetism. 



The prize is 300 ducats, and no memoirs can be received after 

 the 3d of August, 1820. 



9. Fall of a Glacier. — On the 27th of December, at six o'clock 

 in the morning, an enormous portion of the glacier of Weisshorn, 

 in the valley of St. Nicholas, or Vispach, fell from its exalted 

 situation into the valley, causing dreadful devastation amongst 

 the cultivated grounds and habitations. At the moment when 

 the ice and snow struck the masses lying beneath, the minister 

 of the place, and many other persons, observed a strong light, 

 which immediately disappeared, and gave place to utter dark- 

 ness. This phenomenon, from the brightness of the light, and 

 the number of persons who saw it, can scarcely be considered as 

 illusory. It was probably an electrical or phosphorescent effect. 

 The mass of ice and snow covered a space of 2,400 feet in length, 

 1,000 feet wide, and at a mean 150 feet in height, and the 

 displacement of the air by it was such as to cause a hurricane, 

 which destroyed houses, mills, and buildings, even to the dis- 

 tance of a quarter of a league from the place of the fall. Extreme 

 fears are entertained for the remains of the village of Ronds, 

 which stands opposite the glacier, for the upper part of the gla- 

 cier, left unsupported by the part which has given way, threatens 

 to fall and complete the distress which has been brought upon 

 the inhabitants of the valley. 



IV. General Literature. 



I . Literary Prize Question, Amsterdam. — ^The third class of 

 the Royal Institution of Belgium has published a programme, 

 containing the following subject : " Prose and poetry have be- 

 tween them many analogies and many differences. Point out 

 which are qualities common to both, and which are those essen- 

 tial to, and exclusively belonging to, each ?" The prize will be 

 300 florins, or a gold medal of equal value. Any work sent to 

 the sitting which may appear to merit the second prize, will be 

 printed by the Institution. The works may be written in Latin, 



