Scientific Intelligence—Miscellaneous. 369 
persons, a sixth of the entire population of the capital, representing’ 
every class of the community, from the crown Prince downwards,— 
the ministers of State, with their president at their head, the diplo- 
matic body, the council of State, the clergy, the professors and pu-~ 
pils of the University, and of other schools, and those of the Royal 
Academy of Fine Arts,—all waited on the dead poet to his grave. 
The streets through which the procession passed were strewed with 
sand and green boughs, and the houses hung out black flags hemmed 
with silver. The deceased poet was born in 1778, at the royal re- 
sidence of Fredericksburg, near Copenhagen, of which his father was 
intendant-general. He filled the chair of (Esthetics at the Univer- 
sity of Copenhagen. It was the last of his personal distinctions, but 
an honour to the country which conferred it, that he was a Knight 
of various orders of Scandinavian chivalry.—{ Atheneum, No. 1163, 
p- 160.)—[Compare the manly and affectionate enthusiasm of the 
noble Danes for their great poet, with the paltry and vulgar public 
expressions of regard for our illustrious poets, painters, and philoso- 
phers, on conveying their remains to the grave.—Edit.] 
11. Glass as a Non-conductor—Mahanama, who wrote his history 
before a.v. 477, mentions that Sanghatissa, King of Ceylon (who 
was poisoned .p. 246), placed a pinnacle of glass on the spire of 
Ruanwelli Dagoba, “to serve as a protection against lightning.” 
This shews that the Cingalese were then aware that glass was a non- 
conductor of the electric fluid. (From Forbes’ Recent Disturbances 
and Military Executions in Ceylon. Blackwood, 1850. P. 51.) 
Sir W. C. Trevelyan. 
12. Mean Annual Export of Wool from the Farée Islands. 
In Ten Years Pounds. 
From 1790 to 1800, 85,686 
From 1819 to 1829, 92,776 
From 1829 to 1839, 94,000 
From 1839 to 1849, 115,000 
In 1847, * 113,000 
In 1848, 130,200 
In 1849, 153,200 
—ZIn a Letter to Sir W. C. Trevelyan. 
13.'Outline of the Tamil System of Natural History.—-(Read be- 
fore the Asiatic Society of Ceylon, December 1, 1849.)—The writer 
of this paper shews that, at a period long prior to the knowledge of 
natural history by Europeans, and before Aristotle had given his sys- 
tem to the world, the Tamils had classified as many animals, vege- 
tables, and minerals, as were known, according to their external cha- 
VOL. XLVIII. NO. XCVI.—APRIL 1850. 2A 
