1818.] Neiv Scientific Books. 155 



exertion was made to render assistance to those in the mine, 

 and we regret to add that two of the above men fell a sacrifice 

 to their humane endeavours, having* been suffocated by the 

 impure air. The viewers and agents were extremely active, and 

 had nearly shared the same fate. A correspondent who visited 

 the pit says — ' After particular inquiries, 1 found that though 

 Dr. Clanny's safety lamps have been generally employed in the 

 collieries of Lady P. Ann Vane Tempest, it so happened that this 

 pit has heretofore been so free from fire-damp, that no safety- 

 lamp had ever been used in it.' All the dead bodies were got 

 out by Sunday ; 13 were buried at Houghton, and four at 

 Chester, on Saturday evening ; and the remaining nine were 

 interred at the former place on Sunday." 



VII. Dr. Breivster , s Experiments on Surfaces. 



We are requested to insert in the Annals the following notice, 

 which appeared in the last number of the Journal of Science and 

 the Arts : 



We understand that Dr. Brewster has lately completed a series 

 of experiments on the action of the surfaces of crystallized bodies 

 in the polarisation of light ; and that he has determined the laws 

 according to which the forces emanating from the surface are 

 modified by the polarising forces which emanate from the axes 

 of crystals. As it had always been taken for granted, in conse- 

 quence of some incorrect experiments by Malus, that these last 

 fotces had no influence whatever upon the first, the results 

 obtained by Dr. Brewster must be considered as very interesting 

 and important, particularly as they lead to new views respecting 

 the ordinary attraction of repulsive forces, by which the pheno-. 

 mena of refraction and reflection are produced. 



Article XVII. 



Scientific Books in hand, or in the Press. 



Part VI. of the Ordnance Survey, including the greater Part of 

 Surry, with Portions of the adjacent Counties of Wilts and Hampshire. 



Mr. Mawe is about to publish Familiar Lessons in Mineralogy, in 

 which will be explained the Methods of distinguishing one Mineral 

 from another. 



A new Edition of Kitchiner's Practical Observations on Telescopes. 



Dr. Armstrong's Practical Illustrations of Scarlet Fever, Measles, 

 Pulmonary Consumption, and of Chronic Nervous Diseases, is just 

 ready : as is anew Edition of his Work on Typhus Lever. 



