196 Foreign Literature and Science. 
manganese, or the contrary. He has found that either, of 
these results may be obtained at will, by imbuing with vari- 
ous substances, the paper pasted to the tin. If oil is used, 
elements are sprinkled with oxide of manganese. 
In using a dry pile, of a thousand pair, of which the plates 
were not more than 5 or 6 centimetres in diameter, M. Zam- 
boni obtained from the condenser sparks an inch long, so 
t i is pile, an electric battery could be kept con- 
stantly charged, at a tension which might be rendered as 
great as desirable, by muliplying to a sufficient extent the 
number of plates. 
Zamboni thinks that a pile of fifty thousand pairs of plates 
of the size of ordinary sheets of tinned paper, would furnish 
2 constant source of electricity, of a tension equal to that of a 
strong electrical machine. He expresses the wish that such 
an instrument may be constructed, and states many interest- 
ing experiments to which it might be applied.—Jdem. 
_ 18. Action of Poisons on the Vegetable Kingdom.—In an 
interesting memoir read before the Society of Physics and 
Natural History of Geneva, Dec. 16, 1824, by F. Marcer, 
it is proved that poisons, both mineral and vegetable, act up- 
on Sm amanner as certainly destructive as upon ani- 
mals, The metallic poiscns appear to be absorbed and drawn 
: cts, that there must exist, in the ve- 
structure, a system of organs, which is affected by 
» nearly in the same manner as the 
mals, e 
: Marcet, were the ox- 
ide of arsenic and s mercury, tin, copper and lead; 
k pi vomica, seeds of coculus menis- 
permis, prussic acid, water of the cherry laurel, belladona, 
ae oo be | digitalis. The mode of — 
eae va us,——watering the plants by solutions 
- the poisonous material, inserting the reets or stems of 
The metallic poisons employed by F. 
; i : lts o} 
