28 Miscellaneous Notices on Galvanic Results. 



to diminish their humidity will also diminish their conducting 

 power, and with it their susceptibility. * * * The destruc- 

 tive effects of frost upon the succulent parts of plants, or upon 

 their tissue when in a succulent condition, may thus be accounted 

 for independently of the mechanical expansion of their parts; 

 indeed, it is chiefly to that circumstance that Dr. Neufter ascribes 

 the evil influence of cold in the spring ; for he found, that at 

 Tubingen nearly all trees contain eight per cent, more of aqueous 

 parts in March than at the end of January ; and the experience 

 of the past winter shows that the cultivation of plants in situa- 

 tions too much sheltered, where they are liable to be stimulated 

 into growth, and consequently to be filled with fluid, by the 

 warmth and brightness of a mild, protracted autumn, exposes 

 them to the same bad consequences as growing them in damp 

 places, or where their wood is not ripened, that is to say, ex- 

 hausted of superfluous moisture, and strengthened by the deposi- 

 tion of solid matter, resulting from such exhaustion." 



Art. in. — Miscellaneous Notices* on Galvanic results, in letters 

 addressed to Prof. Silliman, October 4, 1838, and August, 

 6, 1839, /rom the vicinity of London; by William Sturgeon, 



Esq. > . 



KEMARKS BY THE EDITORS. 



The invention of the constant battery by Prof. Daniel of the 

 Royal Institution, and its modifications and improvement by suc- 

 cessive investigators, are more or less known to the scientific pub- 

 lic. 



A very economical and efficient arrangement of this nature was 

 adopted by several members of the London Electrical Society, 

 and a report of the construction and performance of the battery, 

 in a series of experiments performed at Olapham Common in the 

 autumn of 1838, is contained in the report of Mr. Charles V. 

 Walker, published in the Transactions of the London Electri- 

 cal Society, in two papers dated October 16, and November 6, 

 1838. In allusion to this battery, Mr. Sturgeon observes, in his 

 letter of October 9, 1838 : — 



* Their earlier appearance has been accidentally prevented. 



