Miscellanies. 215 



17. Principles of Forensic Medicine. By William Guy, M. B. 

 Cantab., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, &c. &c. Lon- 

 don, Henshaw, 1844. pp. 568, 12mo. $2 50. — This is a clear, well 

 written and well illustrated treatise on the principles of the important 

 branch of medico-legal science. It embraces the most recent views on 

 the complicated and difficult subject of death by poisoning, in all its 

 protean forms. Medical men will be glad to learn that a full supply of 

 the English edition can be had of Messrs. Wiley & Putnam, at a very 

 reduced price. 



18. American House Carpenter^ a Treatise vjjon Architecture, (^c., 

 together with the most important Principles of Practical Geometry. 

 By R. G, Hatfield, Architect. 300 Engravings. London and New 

 York, Wiley & Putnam, 1844. 8vo, pp. 254, and Appendix, pp. 32. 



This is a commendable attempt to render the principles of geometry 

 involved in the carpenter's art pi'actically useful to the intelligent work- 

 man, who has had the benefits of only the most ordinary education. 

 Such efforts in this country, where every man is the architect of his 

 own fortunes, are eminently useful, and should meet with ample encour- 

 agement. 



MISCELLANIES. 



domestic and foreign. 



1. Soap Bubbles may be considered as rather a trivial subject of in- 

 vestigation for the profound philosopher, but the ingenious application 

 made of them by Prof. Henry, in solving a delicate problem in physics, 

 will serve to dispel such a conclusion. 



In a verbal communication to the American Philosophical Society, 

 (April 5th, 1844,) Prof. Henry stated that very curious notions are 

 given as to the constitution of matter, in the ordinary books on natural 

 philosophy. 



" The passage of a body from a solid to a liquid state is generally 

 attributed to the neutralization of the attraction of cohesion by the re- 

 pulsion of the increased quantity of heat ; the liquid being supposed to 

 retain a small portion of its original attraction, which is shown by the 

 force necessary to separate a surface of water from water, in the well 

 known experiment of a plate suspended from a scale-beam over a ves- 

 sel of the liquid. It is, however, more in accordance with all the phe- 

 nomena of cohesion to suppose, instead of the attraction of the liquid 

 being neutralized by the heat, that the effect of this agent is merely to 



