Chemistry. 183 



its form (the form of its section we presume,) was oval, its length being 

 about 30 feet, and its other diameter about 20. The spout turned, in 

 its progress, each of its faces to all points of the horizon. Globes of fire 

 issued from its centre, and often globes of vapours like sulphureous ones. 

 Its noise was like that of a loaded waggon dragged at a gallop over a paved 

 road. Every globe of fire or vapour that issued from it, was accompanied 

 with an explosion like that of a musket, and the wind, which was violent, 

 added to this a terrible whistling noise. Near Mont Capelle, it penetrat- 

 ed into the vallies of Witernestre and Lambre. The first contains about 

 forty bouses, thirty-two of which, with their barns, were overturned, and an 

 enormous quantity of trees beat down, torn up and carried to a great distance. 

 AtLambre, the revolving motion of the meteor was seen, and also its sulphur 

 brown colour, and from its centre, like that of a fire, there issued flashes 

 of bituminous vapour. The trees round the church were broken and up- 

 rooted. The house of the curate was unroofed, and eighteen houses, most 

 of them built of brick, were sapped to their foundations, and exhibited the 

 extraordinary phenomenon of the separation of the walls, which were 

 thrown outwards. After quitting Lambre, the spout divided itself; one 

 part was dissipated, but the other went to Lillers, about three leagues from 

 Lambre, where it broke and uprooted nearly 200 trees on the fine 

 meadows of M. Defoulers, before it vanished. At three o'clock the wea- 

 ther became calm, the sky serene, and the thunder terminated with the 

 waterspout. Bull. des. Sc. Phys. Avril 1824, p. 236—239. 



II. CHEMISTRY. 



31. Highly calcined Charcoal a conductor oj Caloric. M. Cheuvreusse 

 has found, that charcoal when highly calcined is a perfect conductor of 

 caloric. When the charcoal is not much calcined and is dry, it does not 

 conduct caloric. M- Cheuvreusse proposes to use the first of these char- 

 coals in place of copper in galvanic piles, and also for the purpose of carry- 

 ing electricity into the ground from conductors. — Ann. de Chim. Tom. xxix. 

 p. 440. 



32. Selenium in the Sulphur of the Lipuri Islands. M. Stromeyer has dis- 

 covered Selenium in sulphur from the Lipari Islands, alternating in white 

 and brownish orange layers, with sal ammoniac. It is probable that the 

 orange tint of the sulphur arises from the Selenium. 



33. Iodine Discovered in a Mineral. M. Vauquelin has found 184 per 

 cent, of Iodine in the mineral from Mexico which was labelled virgin silver 

 in serpentine. — Ann. de Chim. xxix. p. 99. 



34. New Experiments on Flame. — It appears from a series of experi- 

 ments by Mr Davies of Manchester, that there is considerable foundation 

 for the opinion of Mr Sym, that the flame of a candle is a conical sur- 

 face, the interior of which is not luminous, a section of the flame being a 

 narrow luminous ring surrounding an obscure disc. Mr Davies found that 



