Miscellanies.. 173 
Dr. Hare made a verbal communication in relation to his compound 
blowpipe. He stated that, having in a letter to the chemical section 
of the British Association, mentioned the fusion of twenty-five ounces 
of platinum, of which he had already informed the Society, a Mr. 
Maugham, who is employed at the Adelaide Gallery in London to 
exhibit the hydro-oxygen microscope, had asserted that the fusion” in 
question had been accomplished by a blowpipe of a kind which he 
had contrived, and of which one had been bought by Dr. Hare when 
in London. 
Dr. Hare said he would not have considered this ridiculous and 
groundless allegation worthy of notice, had it not been made before 
the chemical section of the British Association, and had not the indi- 
vidual, by whom it was made, been honored by a British society with 
a premium for the instrament which he miscalled Ais blowpipe. This 
blowpipe differed immaterially from one of which he, Dr. Hare, had 
published an engraving and description in Silliman’s American Jour- 
nal of Science for 1820, (Vol. II, page 298, fig. 3;) being a modifica- 
tion of his blowpipe described in Vol. XIV, of Tilloch’s Philosophical 
Magazine for 1802. 
The only difference between the instruments described and repre- 
sented in those publications, and that employed by Maugham, was that 
the lattér formed near the apex an acute angle, so as to be convenient 
for directing the flame upon a cylinder of lime for producing the lime- 
gat. aS eae ; 
With a view to show this method of illumination, agreeably to the 
process in whicha revolving cylinder of lime is employed, Dr. Hare 
stated that he had purchased one of the crooked blowpipes alluded to; 
but he had never used it for any purpose, having found his own blow- 
pipe above mentioned preferable, when the jet was directed obliquely 
upwards. 
Unless cured of the crookedness, which was its only essential dis- 
tinguishing attribute, the blowpipe used by Maugham was evidently 
unfit for the fusion of any metal. Dr. Hare stated that he would not 
undertake the fusion with it of an ounce of platinum ; and concluded 
by saying, that whenever the process by which he had lately extended 
the power of his blowpipe should be published, it would be seen that 
«however it might differ from those which he had previously contrived, 
it differed still more from that which Maugham had appropriated to 
imself, 
Prof. Bache informed the Society, that, in conjunction with Prof. 
Rogers and Mr. Saxton on the nights of the 12th and 13th of Novem- 
ber, and with Prof. Rogers and Mr. Walker on the 13th and Mth, he 
had observed the number of meteors or shooting stars. The first night 
