I. ELEC.KICITY. 



In 1S26, he left Edinburgh t<> take u;> bis residence on the banks of the Tweed, 

 near to Melrose, where he bad purchased a property, and where he st.ll laboured at 

 the " Edinh -j icdia," and other works. Beautiful as this part of ihe country 



naturally is, and interesting from many associations, yet it is rendered still more 

 -so by the beautiful ruin of Mel rose Abbey, which was founded in 1136, by King 

 David I., or, as he is more commonly called, " St. David." 



In 1828, he obtained the Keith medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, for the 

 discovery of two new fluids contained in the cavities of the topaz. 



In 1830, he published an admirable essay on polarization iu the ** Philosophical 

 Transactions," for which the Royal Society of London awarded him one of their royal 

 medals; and the following year he published the life of Sir I. Newton in the " Family 



He was elected Vice- President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in the year 1831, 

 and received the decoration of the Hanoverian Guelphic Order, with several other 

 eminent and scientific men. In 1832, he was knighted by Kin<r William IV. 



He now fills the Principal's chair in the united college of St. Salvador and St. 

 Leonard, at the university of St Andrew's, Fifeshire. And in the Great Exhibition 

 i, he was chairman and reporter of the jurors and associates in Class X. 

 (Philosophical Instruments and their Dependent Processes.)* 



Besides contributing various important papers and essays to the transactions of the 

 several learned bodies with which he h.is been connected from time to time, and 

 'he journals he has conducted, he has also edited the works of others, translated 

 Legendre's "Geometry and Trigonometry," and published several scientific works. 

 Amon the number, we must m- mion his ' Letters on Natural Magic," which is one 

 of the volumes of the Family Library; "The Martyrs of Science; or, the Heirs of 



. Tycho Brahe, and Kpier ; " a treat ihe on "Optics," in M Lardner's 

 piia;" and the papers in th- M I. imbur-h Encyclopaedia " which more mat 

 interests us iu the present instance. 



ECTBIC1TT, 



QUE8TI ND EXPLANATIONS. 



1 7'. What is the term Electricity 



/' : v word clf<t 



rpW). a- 1 



.on Id amber gire the 



/'.- I hale*, one of the wise 



:ie flee- 



Were aid t' be dtri?,,,tl . r <>,(>, r-l,ke. 



nee? 



/'. It has been observed by philoso- 



(hit then- arc certain "l. 



s which acquire the property of 



light bod es, when they are 



i peculiar kind of excitation 



Hid it has also been observed, 



n in a dark 



:nd the excitation N- powerful, that 

 taint flashes of hitht. or luminous sparks, 



i. ;md that then- is a crack 

 is,- attending the excitation, tad 

 alto a peculiar oil 



-4 '/'. (live me some proof that MetlOB 



recently he ha* been consulted respecting the funoui diamond exhibited In lh< 

 BiMMtion. n I known M ihe " Koob-i-noor," or " Mountain of l.lcht." tnd he hu recommended 

 o cut anew; D is *Uo of optoiwn that it not ihc true K.onh.tBogr, .Ubough a vluMr 



i *ir. nU. 



