470 Wernerian Nat. History Society.—Dublin Society. 
tiful of the islands in the Mediterranean seem to have been 
produced in this way ;-and the fertile soil of the Neapolitan 
territory, of the Azores; and of some of the Greek islands, 
is entirely volcanic. ' 140 
Mr. Davy concluded by some observations on the general 
harmony and beauty of the laws of the system of the globe, 
attesting the wisdom and, power of the Deity... The evil 
produced by volcanic eruptions isitransient, the good per- 
manent. The lava which: destroyed: Herculaneum has 
been for fifteen centuries a rich and fertile soil: © The ashes 
which buried Pompeia) have rendered::a great country 
continually productive. The destraction is:smalland par- 
tial—the benefit great and general.» In nature. nothing 
must be judged of in. moments, orfromitsammediate ef- 
fects. Her operations are in yearsvand inyawesp'and the 
ultimate tendency the preservation of life. It is by events 
apparently destructive that-her powers are renovated. By 
her most awful and terrible agencies, even the equilibrium 
of things is restored—age and decay. are prevented, land she 
is preserved in eternal youth. ..<~. 
JIQSTUNEM 
WERNERIAN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 
At the meeting of this Society on the 27th of April, 
professor Jameson read a paper concerning the geognostic 
relations of the Iccland crystal, |The Secretary communi- 
cated an account of the Colymbus Immer, or Ember-Goose, 
by Dr. Edmonston, of Shetland. And Dr. Gordon read 
an interesting paper, consisting of observations and experi- 
ments on the qualities of sensations of sound; on the dif- 
ferent modes in which sonorous vibrations are communi- 
cated to the auditory nerye; on the ideas of the distance, 
and of the angular position of sounding bodies with respect 
to the ear, which are associated, by experience, with the 
different qualities of sounds; and on some of the more re- 
markable differences, in the sense of hearing, both original 
and accidental, which are oceasionally observed among in- 
dividuals, and, in particular, on the musical ear. 
DUBLIN SOCIETY. 
A letter from Mr. Thomas Harpur, of Moy, near Ar- 
magh, was laid before the Dublin Society on Thursday the 
6th of May, stating, that he had invented a machine for 
working eight pumps of any length, of eight inches in the 
bore, and eighteen inches plunge, and to strike between 
thirty and forty strokes a minute cach pump, with the easy 
labour of one man. The pumps can he set so close lapr- 
; ther 
