158 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



A. v. Morlot. It was discovered accidentally in 1811 by a peasant, 

 and has been worked from that time. The sulphur lies in a slaty 

 marl, which is situated between the miocene formation and the calcaire 

 grossier, and itself belongs to the eocene formation. The latter ad- 

 joins the dolomite of themagnesian limestone, and has an inclination 

 rather less than 45°. The sulphur bed consists of four layers. The 

 uppermost layer, for the most part 8 to 10 inches thick, contains 

 nodules of sulphur from the size of a nut to that of a man's head 

 lying separately in marl slate, and is only now and then accom- 

 panied by gypsum. Then follows an argillaceous sandstone 10 to 

 12 inches thick, which contains a remarkable quantity of fossil re- 

 mains, not only of plants, but especially of insects and fishes, Under 

 it lies a second deposit of sulphur, 10 to 12 inches thick, in a dark 

 bituminous marly slate from which the sulphur has to be separated 

 by distillation. A clayey bituminous marly slate, 12 inches thick, 

 forms the bottom stratum . The sulphur beds are covered by, and rest 

 upon hard marly slates. — Arch. dePharm. 2 R., vol. lxvi.pp.315,316. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY OF MOUNT VESUVIUS. 



The Meteorological Observatory recently erected at Mount Vesu- 

 vius was projected by Prof. Melloni, so well known to all the world 

 by his memorable researches on heat, and the most distinguished 

 of all the Italian physicists. The king of Naples gave the enterprise 

 his sanction, and furnished the means to construct the building. The 

 house is of ample dimensions, standing on an artificial terrace at the 

 summit of the hill of ashes which forms the limit of the arable region 

 of Vesuvius, and at an elevation of about 2000 feet. The centre 

 has three floors above the basement, and the two wings each one floor 

 above the basement ; in the rear and joining the main building is a 

 round tower, and the roofs are conveniently arranged for meteorolo- 

 gical purposes. All the plans were furnished by Prof. Melloni, who 

 also superintended its erection, which by an inscription on the exte- 

 rior appears to have been begun in 1841. 



Unfortunately for science, the revolution of 184S entirely arrested 

 the further progress of the undertaking ; the house stands vacant, no 

 instruments are provided, and worst of all, Prof Melloni has been re- 

 moved, not only from his direction in the Observatory, but also from 

 his Professorship in the University, under the caprice of a despot who 

 knows no law but his own will, and who has shown in this act that 

 he was unworthy of so noble a subject. — Silliraan's Journal, Sep- 

 tember 1851. 



EXPERIMENTS ON THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRO-MAGNETISM AS 

 A MOTIVE FORCE. BY M. ARISTIDE DUMONT. 



The author announces in the following terms the consequences to 

 be deduced from the experiments reported in his memoir : — 



1 . The electro-magnetic force, although it cannot yet be compared 

 to the force of steam in the production of great power, either as it 



