Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 543 
a battery is discharged through a column of water, three-eighths of 
the charge remain on the battery, but that two-thirteenths remain 
when the discharge is effected through a metallic wire; and from 
this I concluded that the electricity of the battery is discharged in a 
successive manner (Pogg. Ann. vol. lili. p. 14. ‘‘ Lehre von der Rei- 
bungselectricitat,” § 634). 
Since then I have always assumed that the spark accompanying 
the discharge consists of several sparks ; and the discharge of an elec- 
trified body, of several individual discharges, which I have called par 
tial discharges. By this assumption Wheatstone’s and many other 
electrical experiments have become capable of explanation. 
I am, Gentlemen, 
Yours truly, 
Berlin, May 10, 1861. P. Riess. 
ON THE FREEZING OF WATER AND THE FORMATION OF HAIL. 
BY M, L. DUFOUR. 
When water is preserved from contact with solid bodies by placing 
it ina mixture which has the same density, and which does not form 
aqueous mixtures, its congelation may be materially retarded, Water 
placed in a mixture of chloroform and oil (the best is oil of sweet 
almonds) takes the form of perfect globules, and remains at rest in 
the interior of the mixture. If this mixture be cooled, the water in 
this condition scarcely ever freezes at 0° C.; its temperature sinks 
_ to —6°, —10° before this change takes place. Globules have in this 
way been even reduced to —20° while still liquid. 
The globules either change into globules of ice, or they simply 
freeze on the surface, according to their dimensions and the diminu- 
tion of temperature. They persist in the liquid state with remark- 
able stability. In this mixture of chloroform and oil they may be 
shaken, and foreign bodies introduced, without solidifying ; but soli- 
dification immediately ensues when they are touched with a piece of 
ice. ‘The discharge of a Leyden jar or a galvanic current may tra- 
verse these globules without their solidifying ; but the powerful dis- 
charge of a Ruhmkorff’s coil causes their immediate solidification. 
When an ice-sphericle formed in the mixture of chloroform and 
oil is surrounded by other spheres which still remain liquid, the con- 
gelation of the latter may be effected by bringing them in contact 
with the first. Different effects are obtained according to the tem- 
perature and dimensions of the globules. Sometimes (with small 
globules and low temperatures ) the spheres touched solidify suddenly, 
and remain separate; sometimes (with larger globules and some- 
what higher temperatures) they coalesce more or less completely ; 
they stretch out on each other at the moment of solidification. In 
this way pieces of ice of the most varied shapes may be obtained—irre- 
gular spheres formed of concentric layers (each layer consisting of a 
globule which enveloped the nucleus at the moment of its forma. 
tion), spheres with protuberances, &c. ‘These varied forms would 
have but a subordinate interest, if they did not recall the concentric 
zones and the irregular shapes observed in hailstones. This reseme 
blance is evident in these experiments; and the question naturally 
