Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 237 



recorded in the Bibl. Univ. vol. xliv. p. 225 ; more recently, in con- 

 junction with M. Melloni, he has exemplified, by researches on the 

 passage of radiant caloric through bodies, all the advantage that 

 might be obtained from this new instrument placed in the hands of 

 experimental philosophers. It is well known to what admirable dis- 

 coveries M. Melloni has since made it subservient ; but we ought 

 not to forget that we owe the first idea to M. Nobili.* Recently 

 again {Bibl. Univ. vol. Ivii. p. I,) he has published, accompanying it 

 with some curious results, a description of two new forms of the 

 thermo-electric pile, adapted to augment its degree of sensibility, 

 already very great, and to suit it to certain calorific researches, for 

 which it could not be used in its original form. 



" M. Nobili had also made some investigations relating to magnet- 

 ism {Bibl. Univ. vol. Ivi. p. 82) ; he had studied in particular the 

 magnetic state which is frequently imparted to the wires of a galva- 

 nometer by the vicinity of magnetized needles. But he paid parti- 

 cular attention to the phsenomena of the currents developed by the 

 induction of magnets. At the first news which he received of Mr. 

 Faraday's discovery, he set to work with M. Antinori to explore this 

 new and curious subject, {Bibl. Univ. vol. xl. p. 127.) These two 

 experimentalists obtained, like Mr. Faraday, all the effects of electric 

 currents, by employing solely the induction of a magnet j they espe- 

 cially succeeded in thus producing the electric spark, and in demon- 

 strating that M. Arago's experiment of the rotating disc is satisfac- 

 torily explained by means of the electric induction of magnetsj-. 



" M. Nobili was besides lately engaged in varous interesting re- 

 searches; we have before us a memoir by him, dated the 25th of 

 January of this year, the first part of which we insert in the present 

 Number of the Bibl. Univ. ; its subject is ' the distribution and effects 

 of electric currents in conducting bodies' We are not aware that he 

 has since finished any other labours j if, however, it should be other- 



* Translations of the first two memoirs, by M. Melloni, on tlie trans- 

 ition of radiant heat have been given in Part I. oi Scientific Memoirs; and 

 the series will be continued in Part II,, which will be published on the 1st 

 of November next. — Edit. 



f We must beg leave to express our dissent from the representations 

 made by M. de la Rive, on these two subjects. In Phil. Mag. and Annals, 

 N. S. vol. xi. p. 401, will be found a translation of a paper by MM. No- 

 bili and Antinori, "On the Electro-niotiveForceof Magnetism,'' with notes 

 by Mr. Faraday, in which it is shown, that M. Nobili and his coadjutor 

 obtained the electric spark from a common magnet before Mr. Faraday had 

 obtained it, simply in consequence, to use their own words at the con- 

 clusion of their paper, of their having " entered into a path before they knew 

 all the steps taken in it by the illustrious jjhilosopher who threw it open." 

 After Mr. Faraday had discovered the means of eliciting the spark from the 

 electro-magnet, to obtain it from the common magnet was a direct con- 

 sequence of that discovery. Mr. Faraday also shows in these notes, that 

 MM. Nobili and Antinori had altogether mistaken the character of the 

 acting causes in Arago's experiments, the true theory of which he had him- 

 self, in fact, fully developed. A more detailed statement on this latter sub- 

 ject will be found in Mr. Faraday's letter, to M. Gay-Lussac, in the Annates 

 de Cliimie ct de l^tiysique, vol. li. pp. 404, 409, &c. — Edit. 



