200 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1746. 



is not so properly a phosphorus, as the effect of the mercury electrifying the tube 

 of the barometer. 



Mr. TAllamand has put mercury into exhausted tubes, and when these are 

 rubbed, they give much more light than before ; there then came out from them 

 on all sides rays of very lively light. Mr. T. has also seen at Leyden, at Mr. 

 Muschenbroeck's, an exhausted globe of glass, which, when rubbed with the 

 hand, seemed all filled with a very bright fire. 



An experiment that Mr. I'AUamand has tried, is this : he electrified a tin tube, 

 by means of a glass globe ; he then took in his left hand a glass-full of water, in 

 which was dipped the end of a wire ; the other end of this wire touched the elec- 

 trified tin tube : he then touched, with a finger of his right hand, the electrified 

 tube, and drew a spark from it, when at the same instant he felt a most violent 

 shock all over his body. The pain has not been always equally sharp, but he 

 says, that the first time he lost the use of his breath for some moments ; and he 

 then felt so intense a pain all along his right arm, that he at first apprehended ill 

 consequences from it ; though it soon after went off without inconvenience. 



It is to be remarked, that in this experiment he stood simply on the floor, 

 and not on the cakes of resin. It does not succeed with all glasses ; and though 

 he has tried several, he has had perfect success with none but those of Bohemia. 

 He has tried English glasses without any effect. That glass with which it best 

 succeeded was a beer-glass. 



Mr. Muschenbroeck has repeated his experiment, holding in his hand a hollow 

 bowl exceedingly thin, full of water ; and he says he experienced a most terrible 

 pain. He says, the glass must not be at all wet on the outside. 



On the Manner of the Seeding of Mosses. By Mr. John Hill,* apothecary. 



N°.478, p. 60. 



The particular species of moss here described, is the hypnum terrestre, tri- 



* John Hill, an ingenious English writer, and a celebrated botanist, was born in 17)6, and was 

 bred to the business of an apothecary, which he carried on for some time in St. Martin's Lane. 

 His first publication was a translation of Theophrastus's Tract on Gems, which procured him great 

 reputation. This induced him to undertake a general Natural History in 3 vols, folio. He tlien 

 became a kind of general writer. He published a Supplement to Chambers's Cyclopedia, and 

 other works. Soon afterwards he obtained the degree of m. d. ; and being patronised by the Earl of 

 Bute, continued his botanical labours under the title of the Vegetable System, in 26 thin vols, folio. 

 The king of Sweden conferred on him the order of the Polar Star. Being offended at the treatment 

 he met with in the r.s., of which, on application, he was not admitted a member, he took his re- 

 venge by publishing what he termed a Review of tlie Royal Society, wherein he studiously holds up 

 to ridicule some of the more trifling papers in the early Vols, of the Phil. Trans. He possessed quick 

 and lively parts, with a considerable degree of taste for natural history, and particularly for botany ; 

 but his pursuits were so varied, that he did not always allow himself the time necessary for the com- 

 position of works of science ; hence some of his writings in natural history do not possess all the 

 accuracy thai could be desired. 



