o6S Hehetic SocieCu, 



luminous track vvas neither as brilliant nor as extended as 

 (he true tail opposite the sun. It was observed only on the 

 22d, 25th, and 27th of January. — Rev. Encyc. Mai 1824. 



4. Bale. — Rural School. — A number of philanthropists ot 

 of our town have united in founding an agricultural school for 

 poor boys. The number of pupils will be from 12 to 20, and 

 the direction of them will be confided to a pupil of the re- 

 spectable Vehrli of Hofwyl- This school will form the 

 fourth of the kind established in Switzerland. The three 

 others are Hofwyl, canton of Bern ; Biaishof, canton of Zu- 

 rich ; Carra, canton of Geneva. — Idem. 



5. Electricity. — M. Grothus, it is said, has observed that 

 vi^hen water is rapidly congealed in a L^yden bottle, the out- 

 side coating of which is not insulated, it acquires a feeble 

 charge ; the inside becomes positive, and the outside nega- 

 tive. In malting the ice rapidly, the effect is reversed ; the 

 Otftside is then positively, and the inside negatively electri- 

 fied. — Anna's de Chimie, Sep. 1824. 



i;. A Discourse, delivered at the opening of the session 

 of 1824, of the Helvetic Society of Matxiral Sciences, held 

 at Schaffhausen the Q6th, ^Ith, and 28lh of July. By 

 Lieut. Col. Fisher, President of the Society for the cur- 

 rent year. 



Nee aranearum sane textus ideo melior quia ex se fila gig- 



iiunt, necnoster vilior quia ex alienis iibamus ut apes. 



Just. Lips. Monit. Polit. L. 1. Caf. 1. 



Very dear Friends and Colleagues ! 



We are entering the tenth year, dating from the 

 memorable epoch, in which a citizen of Geneva, a city 

 whose right it seems to have been for ages to produce dis- 

 tinguished men, conceived the happy idea of founding an 

 Helvetic Society, devoted to the culture of the natura> ci- 

 ences, and invited to his picturesque hermitage of Mornex 

 upon Mount Saline, the few friends of nature which formed 

 the nucleus of this association. Whatever might have been 

 the views and hopes of this learned and zealous philanthro 



