Miscellanies. 161 



body with the living fibre causes the fibre to vibrate ; that this vi- 

 bration diminishes in proportion to the nunnber of contacts ; that 

 when an organized body is directed by instinct or reason, either 

 pleasure, pain or ennui, result ; that pleasure is a consequence of 

 vibrations of mean or ordinary strength — pain, when the strength is 

 greater than usual, and ennui when the vibrations are quite feeble." 

 These principles form the groundwork of a theory, on which all the 

 phenomena of nature are to be explained. 



5. Congelation of Mercury by Natural Cold. — Extracts from 

 a minute of observations on freezing Mercury in the open air, 

 made at Gardiner, Maine, January 28th and ^dth, 1817. — The 

 whole of the day of the 28th, was intensely cold. At 2, P. M. 

 the thermometer hansrin^ on the wall of a house stood at —6°. 

 About sunset the wind subsided. 



A tray of charcoal was placed upon the end of a wharf project- 

 ing into the Kennebeck, nearly a hundred yards from any building 

 or other elevated object. On this was placed a thermometer in a 

 blackened tin case, and two phials each containing a small quantity 

 of mercury, the lower half of each phial being blackened, and the 

 phial a little raised from a horizontal position, so that the fluid might 

 be within the blackened part. A similar phial of mercury was pla- 

 ced on the snow at a little distance ; but as it underwent no change, 

 no farther notice was taken of it. 



At 10 o'clock in the evening, the thermometer stood at — 29°. 

 The sky was perfectly serene and clear. At half past 11, the ther- 

 mometer had fallen to —32°. At half past 3, (the 29th,) the ther- 

 mometer was at —38° ; the mercury in the phials of course still fluid. 

 The atmosphere was remarkably transparent and perfectly calm. 

 At half past 6, the thermometer stood at —40°. It soon rose one 

 degree while we were bending over to examine it — the mercury in 

 the phials still fluid. I now poured out a small quantity of the 

 mercury into an excavation in a piece of charcoal. At J before 7, 

 the thermometer was again at — 40° ; the mercury in the phials still 

 fluid ; but that on the charcoal was partially congealed. As I ex- 

 amined it with a slender stick, it exhibited the appearance of a soft 

 solid, separating into parts without running into globules ; and the 

 fragments were rough, and evidently crystalline. These appear- 

 ances, however, continued only a short time ; but while I was ex- 

 amining it, being of course necessarily bent over it, the whole soon 



Vol. XXXI.— No. 1. 21 



