Miscellanies. 



205 



nature could not be less systematic and less interesting in her arrange- 

 ment of living things, than in the inanimate creation ; and he was thus 

 led to the study of Zoology, He was also a practical Botanist, and 

 found health and contentment in the cultivation of plants. His mi- 

 nute observations of philosophical facts have been, in various ways, 

 manifested in the pages of the American Journal of Science, a work 

 in which he ever delighted, and to which he felt himself indebted for 

 much of that love of science, and those acquirements which enabled 

 him to endure, with cheerfulness, a misfortune by which he was in a 

 measure cut off from the social enjoyments of life. It is a great thing 

 for a man who has been active in business, to withdraw from those 

 scenes in which his mind was stimulated to constant effort, to see the 

 place he has filled occupied by others, and to feel that the world can 

 move on without him ; but this condition is incident to human na- 

 ture. Fortunate then are those who, at such a period, can, like him 

 who is the subject of this sketch, find in the contemplation of the works 

 of God, a resource against ennui, and a security against bitter and un- 

 availing regrets. A. H. L. P. 



We are indebted for the above notice, to the pen of a lady, well 

 known and much respected in this country, Gen. Field we knew 

 only as a correspondent, but he was a much valued one, and a steady 



We 



his country. — Ed. 



4. The Rotating Armatures, by T. Edmondson, Jr., Baltimore. 



This instrument is 

 intended to produce 

 the rotation of a set of 

 armatures, by causing 

 a current of galvanism 



to pass, at certain times, 

 through an electro-mag- 

 net, placed near the cir- 

 cle described by their 

 revolution. The arma- 

 tures are attracted by 

 the induced magnetism 

 as they approach the 

 faces of the electro-magnet, and by the arrangement of the instru- 

 ment, the current of galvanism is suspended, and of course the indu- 



