372 Helvetic Sockiij. 



class of cjanureis. It is well known that physucs, encroach- 

 ing to a certain extent upon the domain of chemistry, has 

 attempted with success, to produce bj strong mechanical 

 pressure, combinations v/hich until the present period had 

 been obtained only through the agency of corpuscular attrac- 

 tion. We have now two examples, the one acetic acid 

 crystallized under a pressure of 1100 atmospheres 5 the 

 other a crystallization of salts contained in sea water ex™ 

 po:?ed to a pressure of 4000. Guided by the profound theory 

 of Ampere relative to dynamic electricity, our colleague, 

 Proiessoi- De la Rive. jr. has determined by means of an 

 ingenious apparatus of his invention, the various directions 

 which are puisued by electric and magnetic fluid, and their 

 recipiocai influ'nx e. The calorimotor' and deflafdrator of 

 Prof. Hare, imported from America into our cabinets, opens 

 to us the hope of contributing something to the future pro- 

 gress of voltaic electricity. 



But our true field, that which nature displays in our 

 mountains, ood which she invites us to cultivate with ac- 

 tivity and perseverance, is natural history. Here she ex- 

 hibits to us numerous mineral and thermal waters, endowed 

 with energetic medicinal qualities ; there, geological phe- 

 nomena, varying from the highest central and primitive chain, 

 to rocks of transition, and thence to secondary and tertiary 

 chains, and even to monuments of diluvian catastrophe The 

 chain of the Jura alone, presents to geologists an object of 

 interest and curiosity the most enticing, in the fossil remains 

 of antediluvian animals, which our clear sighted and indefa- 

 tigable colleague Prof. Hugi has discovered, petrified in the 

 lowest JDeds of that chain, in the vicinity of Soleure. BesidesI 

 there have been found in the coal mines of our region, and 

 will presently be laid before you, well preserved remains of 

 animals of a former world, no longer found upon the earth. 

 Researches for coal, as an article for fuel, is an object of the 

 highest interest to the whole of Switzerland in all its econo- 

 mical relations; and a society has just been formed at Ge- 

 neva for this special object. The workinc of salt springs, so 

 happily facilitated by the use of the borer, has been attended, 

 in a neighbouring country *■ with brilliant success, and affords 

 lecfitimate hopes of important consequences in our own. 

 Zoology, in all its branches, presents to us a vast field. 



* The grand Duchy of Baden. 



