Notices respecting New Books. 135 
accident, which extinguished all the fires during the night, and 
the magazines of the navy being at that time unprovided witn 
paues of sufficient dimensions, M. Rechon promptly supplied the 
deficiency, by putting up panes made of the mica of Newport. 
We see, therefore, that this substance may be rendered useful 
for such purposes, although it does not appear that the navy have 
yet adopted it. Its dearness is probably the reason. The sare 
‘reason too will, doubtless, for a long time, prevent it from being 
brought into domestic use; and our ordinary lanterns happily 
at present require no alteration. 
XXXII. Notices respecting New Books. 
Elements of Electricity and Electro-Chemistry. By Grorck 
JOHN Sincer, Esq. 
[Continued from p. 62.] 
* 
T HE third part of Mr. Singer’s work treats of the “natural 
agencies of electricity,” and includes four chapters, arranged as 
follows : 
Chap. I. On the identity of electricity and the cause of 
lightning. 
Chap. II. On the phenomena of thunder-storms, and on the 
probable sources of atmosphereical electricity. 
Chap. III. On some luminous phenomena of the atmo- 
sphere, the observations of atmospherical electricity, and the ar- 
rangement of a new system of insulation. 
Chap. IV. Connexion of electricity with medicine and with 
natural history. 
The utility of this part of the treatise renders it highly in- 
teresting ; and we observe with pleasure, that Mr. Singer has 
bestowed particular attention on the most useful applications of 
electrical science, and that he has given very extensive practical 
information on this part of his subject. We cannot attempt to 
convey more than a general idea of the ample details this por- 
tion of the work contains. The following is extracted from the 
description of a lightning conductor, p. 224. “ The conduct- 
ing rod or rods (for if the buiiding is large there should be se- 
veral) should be formed of copper or iron, three quarters of an 
inch thick. Its upper extremity should be acutely pointed, 
and rise three or four feet above the highest part of the building. 
The parts of which the rod is formed should be joined closely; the 
ends that are applied to each other being screwed together. All 
the metallic parts of the roof should be connected with the rod, 
14 and 
