Miscellanies. 161 
body with the living fibre causes the fibre to vibrate; that this vi- 
bration diminishes in proportion to the number of contacts; that 
when an organized body is directed by instinct or reason, either 
pleasure, pain or ennui, result; that pleasure is a consequence of 
vibrations of mean or ordinary strength—pain, when the strength is 
greater than usual, and ennui when the vibrations are quite feeble.” 
These principles form the groundwork of a theory, on which all the 
phenomena of nature are to be explained. 
5. Congelation of Mercury by Natural Cold.—Ectracts from 
a@ minute of observations on freezing Mercury in the open air, 
made at Gardiner, Maine, January 28th and 29th, 1817.—The 
whole of the day of the 28th, was intensely cold. At 2, P. M. 
the thermometer hanging on the wall of a house stood at —6°. 
About sunset the wind subsided. 
A tray of charcoal was placed upon the end of a wharf project- 
ing into the Kennebeck, nearly a hundred yards from any building 
or other elevated object. On this was placed a thermometer in a 
blackened tin case, and two phials each containing a small quantity 
of mercury, the lower half of each phial being blackened, and the 
phial a little raised from a horizontal position, so that the fluid might 
be within the blackened part. A similar phial of mercury was pla- 
ced on the snow at a little distance ; but as it underwent no change, 
no farther notice was taken of it. 
At 10 o’clock in the evening, the thermometer stood at —29°. 
The sky was perfectly serene and clear. At half past 11, the ther- 
mometer had fallen to —32°. Athalf past 3, (the 29th,) the ther- 
mometer was at —38° ; the mercury in the phials of course still fluid. 
The atmosphere was remarkably transparent and perfectly calm. 
At half past 6, the thermometer stood at —40°. It soon rose one 
degree while we were bending over to examine it—the mercury in 
the phials still fluid. I now poured out a small quantity of the 
mercury into an excavation in a piece of charcoal. At + before 7, 
the thermometer was again at — 40°; the mercury in the phials still 
fluid; but that on the charcoal was partially congealed. As I ex- 
amined it with a slender stick, it exhibited the appearance of a soft 
_ Solid, separating into parts without running into globules; and the 
ments were rough, and evidently crystalline. These appear- 
ances, however, continued only a short time; but while I was ex- 
amining it, being of course necessarily bent over it, the whole soon 
Vou. XXXI.—No. 1. 21 
