166 MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 



due time a host of insects made their appearance. In another experiment, a 

 bent iron wire, one-fifth of an inch in diameter, in the form of an inverted 

 syphon, was plunged some inches into a concentrated solution of silicate of 

 potassa, and connected with the positive pole, whilst a small coil of fine silver 

 wire joined it with the negative. Similar insects were formed on the gela- 

 tinous silica on both wires, also on that part of the wires free from the silici- 

 ous deposits, about half an inch below the surface of the fluid. Some of them 

 were formed on the inverted part of the syphon-shaped wire, yet they did 

 repeatedly contrive to arrive at the surface, and to extricate themselves from 

 the fluid. The room in which the three last batteries were acting was kept 

 almost constantly darkened. 



Other experiments were described. The concluding remarks were to the 

 following purport : — Mr. Crosse had not observed a formation of the insect 

 excepting on a moist and electrified surface, or under an electrified fluid. 

 By this he did not mean to assert that electricity had anything to do with 

 their birth, as he had not made a sufficient number of experiments to prove 

 or disprove it. These insects do not appear to have originated from others 

 similar to themselves. He believed they live for many weeks ; occasionally 

 he had found them dead in groups, apparently from want of food. It had 

 often been suggested to him to repeat the experiment without the electric 

 agency ; but this he considered would be by no means satisfactory, let the 

 event be what it may. It is well-known that saline matters are easily chrys- 

 tallised without being subjected to the electric action ; but it by no means 

 follows that, because artificial electricity is not applied, such chrystals are 

 formed without the electric influence. Mr. Crosse has made so many expe- 

 riments on electrical chrystalization, that he is firmly persuaded that electric 

 attraction is the cause of the formation of every chrystal, whether artificial 

 electricity be applied or not. He states, however, that he is well aware of 

 the difficulty of getting at the truth of these matters, and of separating cause 

 and effect. With regard to the productions of insects in paste, vinegar, &c, 

 and after blight in fruit trees, he observes — does not a chemical change take 

 place in the former, as also in the sap of the tree, previous to the appearance 

 of the insects, and is or is not every chemical change produced by electric 

 agency ? In making these observations he sought to mislead no one. The 

 book of Nature is opened wide to our view by the Almighty po\ve<-, and we 

 must endeavour, as far as our feeble faculties will permit, to make a good 

 use of it, always remembering that, however the timid may shrink from in- 

 vestigation, the more completely the secrets of Nature are laid bare, the 

 more effectually will the power of that Great Being be manifested who 

 seems to have ordained that " order is Heaven's first law." 



Punishment of Death Mr. Livingston, the illustrious American 



legislator, on being empowered by the House of Representatives of the State 

 of Louisiana to prepare a Penal Code, in his Report to the Legislative As- 

 sembly, thus speaks of the punishment of death : — I approached the inquiry 

 into the nature and effect of this punishment with the awe becoming a man 

 who felt most deeply his liability to err, and the necessity of forming a cor- 

 rect opinion on a point so interesting to the justice of the country — the lite 

 of its citizens and the character of its laws. I strove to clear my understand- 

 ing from all prejudices which education or early impressions might have cre- 

 ated, and to produce a frame of mind fitted for the investigation of truth, 



