372 Helvetic Socie ty. 
class of cyanurets. [tis well known that physics, encroachi- 
ing to a certain extent upon the domain of chemistry, has 
attempted with success, to produce by strong mechanical 
pressure, combinations which until the present period had 
been obtained only through the agency of corpuscular attrac- 
tion. e have now two examples, the one acetic acid 
crystallized under a pressure of 1100 atmospheres ; the 
other a crystallization of salts contained in sea water ex- 
posed to a pressure of 4000. Guided by the profound theory 
of Ampére relative to dynamic electricity, our colleague, 
Professor De la Rive, jr. has determined by means of an 
ingenious apparatus of his invention, the various directions” 
which are pursued by eleetric and magnetic fluid, and their 
reciprocal influence. ,The calorimotor and deflagrator of 
rof. Hare, imported from America into our cabinets, opens 
to us the hope of contributing something to the future ie 
gress of voltaic electricity. 
ut our true field, that which nature displays in our 
mountains, and whic ch she invites us to cultivate with ac 
tivity and perseverance, is natural history. Here she ex- 
hibits to us numerous mineral and thermal waters, endowed 
with energetic medicinal qualities; there, geological phe- 
nomena, varying from the highest central and primitive chain, 
to rocks of transition, and thence to secondary and tertiary 
chains, and even to monuments of diluvian catastrophe. The 
chain of the Jura alone, presents to geologists an object of 
interest and curiosity the most enticing, in the fossil remains 
of antediluvian animals, which our clear sighted and indefa- 
tigable colleague Prof. Hugi has discovered, petrified in the 
lowest beds of that chain, in the vicinity of Soleure. Besides, 
there have been found in the coal mines of our region, and 
will presently be laid before you, well preserved remains of 
animals of a former world, no longer found upon the earth. 
Researches for coal, as an article for fuel, is an object of the 
highest interest to the whole of Switze rland i in all its econo- 
mical relations; anda society has just been formed at Ge- 
neva for this special object. The ita: of salt springs, so 
happily facilitated by the use of the borer, has been attended, 
in a neighbouring country,* with brilliant success, and affords 
legitimate hopes of important consequences in our own. 
Zoology, in all its beaisches; presents to us a vast field. 
* * The grand Duchy of Baden. 
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