374 Velocity of the Galvanic Fluid, &c. 



quick to the place where the stone fell, and something red In 

 the smoke, and that the for eynost part of the red suhstance was 

 reddest', which is exactly what might be expected to be the ap- 

 pearance, if the body was in a state of incandescence. The only 

 thing singular in this case, if the boy was not deceived in what 

 he believed himself to have seen, is, that the stone should 

 have cooled so rapidly, even in water, as not to be sensibly 

 hot to the touch when the overseer of the quarry thrust his 

 arm into the hole which had been n)ade by it. 



About the time when the above phacnomenon took place, a 

 noise was heard in the air, at places at a considerable 

 distance from where the stone fell. A person walk- 

 ing in his garden at Barnhill, Biantyre, nine miles south- 

 east from Glasgow, heard five or six distinct reports as if 

 from artillery, after which there were several though not 

 loud peals of thunder, accompanied with some flashes of 

 lightning. A somewhat similar noise was heard at the same 

 time near Airdrie, eleven miles east from Glasgow ; at Fal- 

 kirk, which is twice the distance, in nearly the same direc- 

 tion ; at Hamilton, eleven miles to the south, and at many 

 other places. 



VELOCITY OF THE GALVANIC FLUID. 



Vassali-Eandi has lately made some experiments on this 

 subject, as Beccaria did in regard to the velocity of the elec- 

 tric fluid. The fluid of a pile of twenty-five pairs of plates 

 traversed in a second thirteen metres (forty-two feet and a 

 half) of gold cord. In another experiment with a pile of 

 fifty pairs, the fluid passed along a copper wire plated with 

 silver, three hundred and fifty-four metres (1151 feet) in 

 lensth, in a time incommensurable: the shock in this case 

 was three times as strong as that experienced by imme- 

 diately toiiching the two extremities of the pile. 



ACID FUMIGATIONS FOR INFECTED CATTLE. 



T. Rasori has lately communicated to M. Guyton Mor- 

 veau the result of some experiments made with acid fumi- 

 gations to destroy contagious diseases among cattle. Six 

 oxen, which had for several days been attacked by an epi- 

 zootic fever, died, though acid fumigations were employed. 

 A cow was confined in a cow-house, where their straw and 

 even the body of one of them had been left, and continued 

 there fortv days, durins; which fumigations with oxymuriatic 

 acid gas were legtilarly made. The cow remained in good 



health. 



