^62 Notices respecting New lioo'ks. 



to combine in the proportions which can form water, by artifi- 

 cially raising their temperature. 



*' MM. Gay-Lussac and tie Humboldt suppose, that the ac- 

 tion of electricity in producing combination is owing to the heat 

 it produces by the com]iression of the elastic medium through 

 which it passes. This idea is very ingenious ; but the pbseno- 

 mena of decomposition by electricity, show that there is some 

 relation between the primary attractive powers of the chemical 

 elements and their electrical energies. 



" When the common electrical or Voltaic electrical spark is 

 taken in rare air, the light is considerably diminished. I made 

 some experiments to ascertain whether the heat was likewise 

 diminished, and I found that this was certainly the case. Yet 

 in a receiver that contained air sixty times rarer than that of the 

 atmosphere, a piece of wire of platinum, placed in the centre 

 of the luminous arc, produced by the great Voltaic apparatus of 

 the Royal Institution, became white hot; and that this was not 

 owing to the electrical conducting powers of the platinum, was 

 proved by repeating the experiment with a filament of glass, 

 which instantly fused in the same position. 



" It is evident from this, that electrical light and heat may 

 appear in atmospheres in which the flame of combustible bodies 

 could not exist, and the fact is interesting from its possible ap- 

 plication in explaining the phsenomena of the aurora borealis 

 and australis." 



Journal of llie Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia. 

 Part I. Vol. I. Svo. pp. 218. 



The Academy of whose earliest Transactions we are here pre- 

 sented with an account, has only been recently instituted. I' 

 consisted at first of a voluntary association for the encourage- 

 ment and cultivation of the sciences, but on the 24th March 

 1817 was incorporated by an act of the legislature of Pennsyl- 

 vania. In the list of its members and donators we observe some 

 of the most eminent scientific names of North America; and 

 it will be sufficient to mention the heads of the papers which 

 have been selected for publication out of the mass aheady sub- 

 mitted to its consideration, to show that the portion of diligence, 

 research, and ability embodied in its support, is such as to war- 

 rant us in entertaining the strongest hopes of its future usefulness. 

 The following are the contents of this first part. 



*' Description of six new Species of the Genus Firola, ob- 

 served by Messrs. Le Sueur and Peron in the Mediterranean Sea, 

 in the months of March and April, 1809. By C. A. Le Sueur. 

 — Account of a North American Quadruped, supposed to belong 



to 



