146 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



Arrangements will be made for the accommodation of the members 

 of the Association, both as regards board and lodging, in Cambridge. 



A meeting of unusual interest is expected. This is the second since 

 the change in ihe character of the Association, by which all branches 

 of science are included. The wide range of its subjects, calls together 

 all who would promote the progress of science in any of its depart- 

 ments ; and no place more abounds in attractions, of a scientific, lit- 

 erary or social character than the one chosen for the sessions. 



4. G. G. Page on Galvanic Light, in a letter to the Editors, dated 

 Washington, I>. C, June 13, 1849.— I regret that my letter requesting 

 the suppression of the nonce of experiments upon galvanic light, did not 

 reach you in season. The experiment has no other value than a rep- 

 etition of those made by Prof. Grove, to prove the identity of galvanic 

 with common light in respect to polarization. Dr. Lardner in the 

 course of his lectures in Washington some years since, staled upon the 

 authority of Arago, that galvanic light could not be polarized, and a 

 friend of mine translating tor me a communication of De la Rive, gave 

 a similar rendering upon this subject. Upon recurring to the original 

 notice in the Compies Rendus, I find that the error was committed in 

 translating the French polarize, polarizable instead of polarized, which 

 materially alters the case. 



OBITUARY. 



5. Julius T. Ducatel. — It is with pain that we have to record, since 

 the issue of our last number, the demise of our old friend and contribu- 

 tor to this Journal, Prof. Ducatel of Baltimore, who expired at his res- 

 idence, April 23d. We pay a sadly willing tribute to the memory of 

 this man of science, in inscribing here some particulars of his life and 



character which have been communicated to us by one of his daily 

 acquaintances. 



Julius Tuholeon Ducatel was born at Baltimore, June 6th, 1796; 

 and was therefore at the time of his death nearly 53 years old. He 

 was the oldest son of the late Eome Ducatel, who a Frenchman by 

 birth, was for a long time the principal pharmaceutist of Baltimore. 



Educated at Saint Mary's College, a seminary of learning under the 

 auspices of members of the Order of S. Sulpitius in the Roman Cath- 

 olic Church, young Ducatel gave evidences of extraordinary facility for 

 acquisition and retention ; a faculty characteristic through life. 



After his school-discipline was completed, he attached himself for a 

 while to the business of his father's establishment; and subsequently, 

 at the close of the war in 1815, he visited Havana with a view to a 

 mercantile settlement there. 



But such pursuits were not congenial either to his physical tempera- 

 ment or his intellectual activity. His propensity was always to be 

 making advances in knowledge; and if he was precluded at any time 

 from acquiring new facts, to devote himself to systematizing and gen- 

 eralizing those already in possession. Wilh these traits, West Indian 

 commerce was hardly likely to thrive in his hands: so he returned 

 home in 1816, after a little more than twelve months' absence, and 

 again took part in the Pharmacy-establishment. 



