Terrestrial Magnetism. 319 
branch of business which affords employment to numerous indi- 
viduals, which has enhanced the profits of agricultural industry 
and the value of real estate, in those parts of the country where 
it is carried on, and contributed to reduce the cost of those pro- 
ducts of labor, in the manufacture of which potato starch is used. 
His mind was highly cultivated and original. He was remarkable 
for the accuracy, variety, extent and depth of his knowledge, and 
still more so for a perspicacity of intellect, which enabled him to 
detect error in its least suspected forms, and to perceive, with al- 
most the quickness and certainty of intuition, truths and relations 
which reveal themselves to most minds of even a high order, only 
after patient and profound thought. What most distinguished 
him, however, and peculiarly endeared him to his friends, was the 
singular purity, elevation and benevolence of his character. It is 
hardly exaggeration to say, that they who knew him longest and 
best, recollect no feeling, word or act of his that was wrong. He 
seemed to be wholly free from any desire of distinction, though 
always active to do good, whenever and wherever he thought he 
could be useful. Possessing a competent fortune, he made a. most 
liberal and generous use of it. In the words of one* qualified both 
by ability and from opportunity to form a right estimate of his 
character, “his unambitious career was bright with a daily use- 
fulness. © His life bore witness that the finest minds may find as 
large a sphere of usefulness in the retirements of the country, as 
among the crowd of acity. Few have been more beloved and 
respected when living, or more widely mourned when dead.” 
He perished in a fire, January 2, 1839, in the prime of lifesi33 
Arr. VIL—On Terrestrial Magnetism; by Joun Locke, M. D., 
of Cincinnati, Ohio. - ee 
Messrs. Editors—For three or four years past, most of the 
scientific men of our country have felt an interest in the exami- 
nation of the elements of terrestrial magnetism on this continent. 
The increasing attention to the subject in Europe has operated 
sympathetically, and has excited a few of us to action. Profes- 
sors Bache, Courtenay, Loomis, Jackson, and myself, have each 
devoted a portion of our time to actual surveys; the results, so 
* Rev. E. Peabody, of New Bedford, Mass. 
