162 MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 



LEICESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITU- 

 TION. 



At a recent meeting of this Institution, Mr. Berry read a paper 

 on the manners of the Romans, in which he gave a general view of 

 the habits of this extraordinary people, during different epochs of 

 their history ; and he described with great ability and power, the oc- 

 cupations of a day in the Augustine age. Dr. Shaw made a commu- 

 nication on Statistics ; and we understand he intends to treat at some 

 length on this intricate subject, particularly in its local and vital 

 branches. 



At an early meeting of the Institution, a paper will be read on the 

 Icelandic Voluspa, which comprises the ancient system of Scandina- 

 vian Mythology, and constitutes part of the celebrated Edda, or Runic 

 Philosophy compiled by Saemund, surnamed the learned, about the 

 middle of the eleventh century. 



MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS 



Electrical Society At a late meeting of this Society, Mr. Crosse 



read a paper giving an account of his electrical experiments, in which a cer- 

 tain insect made its unexpected appearance. He trusted that the members 

 would not imagine that because he had delayed so long furnishing them with 

 the account, such delay had been occasioned by any desire of withholding 

 what he had to state, from the society in particular, or the public at large. 

 He was delighted to find that at last, late, though not less called for, an in- 

 stitution had been formed for the purpose of explaining and making public 

 those mysteries which hitherto, under a variety of names, and ascribed to all 

 causes but the true one, have eluded the grasp of men of research, and served 

 to perplex, perhaps, rather than to afford sufficient data to theorise upon. 

 Much has been done in the course of a few years, and this affords the 

 strongest reason for believing that vastly more remains to be done. Elec- 

 tricity is no longer the confined science it was supposed to be, making its 

 appearance only from the friction of glass or wax, employed in childish pur- 

 poses, serving as a trick for the school-boy or a nostrum for the quack; but 

 it is even now, though in its infancy, proved to be most intimately con- 

 nected with all operations in chemistry, with magnetism, with light and 

 caloric, apparently a property belonging to all matter, perhaps ranging thro' 

 space, from sun to sun, from planet to planet, and not improbably the secon- 

 dary cause of every change in the animal, the vegetable, the mineral, and 

 the gaseous systems. To determine these probabilities, as far as human fa- 

 culties can determine, and to find out to what useful purposes electricity 

 might be applied, Mr. Crosse conceived to be 'he object of the Electrical 



