250 Scientific Intelligence. (Marcu, 
Swedish, he cannot be referred to a better book than Berzelius’s 
Djurkemien.—T. 
XIII. Query respecting Carmine. 
(To Dr. Thomson.) 
SIR, 
I shall feel myself much obliged if you, or any of your corres~ 
pondents, will, through the medium of your Annals of Philosophy Ys 
favour me with the readiest method of preparing carmine, having 
ineffectually tried it by most of the methods recommended by 
Nicholson and Aikin. 
Yours, with the most profound respect, 
J.N.R. M. 
XIV. Aurora Borealis at Sunderland. 
(To Dr. Thomson.) 
SIR, 
On Saturday night, the Sth inst., about seven o’clock in the 
evening, during a strong gale from the north-west, which had con- 
tinued five days, was observed the most beautiful aurora borealis, 
such as had not been seen here for upwards of 20 years. It began 
in single bright streamers in the north and north-west, which, gra- 
dually increasing, covered a large space of the hemisphere, and 
rushed about from place to place, with amazing velocity, much 
higher than the zenith, and had a fine tremulous motion. They 
illuminated the hemisphere as much as the moon usually does when 
eight or nine days from the change. About !1 o’clock part of the 
streamers appeared as if projected from a centre south of the zenith, 
and looked like the pillars of an immense amphitheatre, presenting 
the most brilliant spectacle that can be conceived, and seeming to 
be in a lower region of the atmosphere, and to descend and ascend 
in the air for several minutes. One of the streamers passed over 
e« in the right shoulder of Orion, but neither increased nor 
diminished its splendour. About eight o’clock Venus was about 8° 
above the horizon, and displayed a very peculiar appearance ; for 
her rays passed through a thin mist or cloud, probably electric, of 
a deep yellow tint. Her apparent magnitude seemed increased ; 
and a halo was formed round her, as sometimes appears round the 
moon in moist weather ; but the stars that were in that part of the 
hemisphere shone with their accustomed brilliancy. 
This phenomenon, among English writers, is first described by. 
Matthew of Westminster, who relates that in A. D. 555 there 
were certain appearances of lances seen in the air from the north to 
the west, Or, to use his own words, ‘* quasi species lancearum in 
aere vise sunt a septentrione usque ad occidentem.” (P. 101.) 
And may not the following line in Virgil apply to this phenomenon « 
Fe Armorum sonitum toto Germania ceelo 
Audiit,” Virc. Georg. I. 474, 
