150 Earthquake in Scotland. 



posed by the alkalies ; but, by saturating the excess of acid^ they 

 so act that the sulphate or fiuate of ether, become neuter^ may 

 still I)e divided into isolated ether and acidinulattd salt. ' The 

 stroup'er acids assume with the o:;ides of any of tiiese r^eutral 

 or acidiiiuliited salts the place of weaker acids. E.iiv.'r is not 

 separable from the acidinulated salts, but by its destruction. 

 Boulay has confirmed that the ethers are subi.ydrated alcohol : 

 I sav confirmed, because I said so a long time ago. The car- 

 bon and hydrogen are there in the same absolute ratio, but less 

 organized l)v water. It is not astonishinij that an oxide so en- 

 ergetic as the ethereous gas contracts with the acids equally 

 strong engageinents. In short, when vve say " there is in che- 

 mistry nothing but hydrogen, metals, oxygen, combustibles and 

 acidifiable comhurans, oxides, acids, and salts," we have em- 

 braced tlie whole science, simplified the course of things, and 

 placed as it were an astronomical station. 

 [1 (J he coiitiiiiKil.] 



r.ARTHQUAKE IN SCOTLAND. 



About eleven o'clock on the night of the 13th oi August a 

 tremendous shock of an earthquake was felt in various parts of 

 the north of Scotland. At Aberdeen, Perth, Montrose, and In- 

 verness, its effects were most remarkable ; but although many 

 houses in all these places w^ere shaken from their foi'.ndationa 

 and partially shattered, we are happv td add. that from the du- 

 rable and massv architecture of the houses in Scotland, no hu- 

 rrtan lives were lost. Several bridges in the district thus visited 

 also suftered severely, but the most singidar phaenomenon at- 

 tending the awful concussion is the effect wliich it produced on 

 the spire at Inverness. A letter from this place thus describes 

 part of the devastation there in the following terms: 



*' Ciiimuev-tops were thrown down or damaged in every quar- 

 ter of the town. The Mason Lodge, occupied as an hotel, was rent 

 from top to bottom, the north a stalk of the chimney partly thrown 

 down ; one of the coping-stones, weighing, I should think, from 

 fifty to sixty poimds, was thrown to the other side of tiie street, 

 B distance not less than sixty feet. The spire of the steeple, 

 which I think one of the handsomest in Scotland, has been se- 

 riously injured, and must in part be taken down. The spire is 

 an octagon; and luitliin five or six feel vj llie top, the aii^^lcs 

 of' the octagon are turned vearlij to the middle of the jlat 

 sides of the octuixon immediately nnder it. What is more won- 

 derfid than any thing attending the memorable event, notwith- 

 standing the vast (piantities of stones and bricks that have been 

 thrown frotu such immense heights^ not one person has received 

 any hurt !'* 



