294 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF 



succeeded in demonstrating that conducting bodies transmit electricity by mo- 

 lecular discharges, analogous to small voltaic arcs. The sound produced, when 

 use is made of discontinuous currents and a powerful magnet, is not due to the 

 vibration of the conducting body, but to the vibrations of the^olecules of that 

 body, which are under the influence of the magnet ; hence, to reproduce the 

 phenomenon, we may operate on metallic powders, or even on a column of 

 mercury. 



Dr. Dor (April 5, 1866) drew attention to the sinking of the w-aters of 

 the lake which occurred at the close of the winter, and which appears to have 

 followed the removal of the dam of the Rhone at Geneva. This subsidence, 

 however, is now general. It was perceived first at Nyon, then successively at 

 Eolle, at Ouchy and at Vevay. Colonel Gautier, (May 3,) in reply to the ob- 

 servation of M. Dor, said that he had compared the heights of the water marked 

 on the limnimetres of Geneva and Vevey, during the months of February and 

 March. He thinks, with General Dufour, that the eflFect of the dam on the 

 level of the lake could be only very restricted. 



Meteorology. — Professor Gautier read a note (September 7, 1865) on the re- 

 sults of meteorological observations made, in 1864, at seventy-six Swiss stations, 

 under the relation of temperatures and quantities of water which have fallen. 

 To this note is added a table of the thermometric mean, both annual and for the 

 four seasons, as well as the annual quantities of rain and snow at those stations. 

 A confirmation is hereby afforded of what Professor Plantamour had already 

 observed, namely that at equal heights the temperature of the Swiss stations to 

 the south of the great chain of the Alps is more elevated, by about three degrees 

 Centigrade, than that of the stations to the north of the chain On the north 

 side of the chain, at very proximate points, there are considerable inequaliiies of 

 temperature. In the annual quantities of the water which falls there are also 

 great differences between stations quite near one another and situated at nearly 

 the same height. 



Dr. Lombard, applying the rules of' statistics to the influence of the seasons on 

 the mortality, communicated (December 7, 1865) one of the results of his in- 

 quiries, namely, that in the habitable temperate zone, cold augments the mor- 

 tality, and more particularly that of infants in the two years which succeed birth. 

 Thus there are more deaths in winter than summer. At Geneva, the month of 

 February is, in this respect, the least, the month of September the most healthy. 

 There is an exception, however, to the rule, wherever the intermittent fever 

 (malaria) prevails, and the greatest mortality takes place during the hot weather. 

 This exception is observed even in cold countries, such as Sweden and Iceland. 

 Official documents from Australia, Chili, &c., evince the general rule to be the 

 same in the austral hemisphere. 



Professor Plantamour (January 10, 1866) referred to the anomaly which 

 was observed at Saint Bernard in the month of December last. During several 

 consecutive days the temperature there was two degrees higher than at Geneva, 

 and he asks whether the beds of fog which then covered the valleys might not 

 have contributed to warm the mountains by reflecting the solar rays. 



Professor Favre communicated (February 1, 1866) details respecting the 

 station at Saint Theodule, in Valais, where three guides have been installed since 

 the 1st of August last, in order to make meteorological observations for a year. 

 The present winter seems, so far, to have been there quite mild. There were 

 days in December when the temperature was probably higher than at Geneva. 



Chemistry. — M. Louis Soret communicated (November, 2 and 16, 1865) the 

 results at which he has arrived in his researches on the density of ozone, a sub- 

 ject on which he had already published a memoir in the Archives of tlie Bibit- 

 otheque Universelle of 1863. On this occasion he announced two new series of 

 experiraenis. In the first, he occupies himself with the diffusion of ozone, and 

 proves that this diffusion and the action of the ozone correspond to those of a 



