310 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



of the Middle Lias, accompanied by a total change in the fauna, a 

 break in the stratigraphical succession existed between the Lower 

 and Middle Lias. This view is supported by the fact of the nume- 

 rical decrease of species in passing up through the several stages 

 of the Lower Lias, and that of the introduction of many new generic 

 types with the zone of Ammonites Jamesoni. Many new species were 

 described. 



4. " Geological Observations on the "Waipara Eiver, New Zealand." 

 By T. H. Cockburn Hood, Esq., F.G.S. 



In this paper the author described the general features of the 

 locality from which he has obtained bones of Plesiosaurus, Ichthyo- 

 saurus, and Teleosaurus. The bones were not obtained in situ, but 

 from large boulders and blocks scattered in the ravines of the "Wai- 

 para and its tributaries. 



5. E. H. Scott, Esq., F.G.S., communicated an extract from a 

 letter addressed to him by M. Coumbary, Director of the Imperial 

 Observatory of Constantinople, containing an account received from 

 M. L. Carabello of the reported fall of a large meteorite near Mour- 

 zouk, in the district of Eezzan, in lat. 26° K"., and long. 12° E. of 

 Paris. It fell on the evening of the 25th December last, in the form 

 of a great globe of fire, measuring nearly a metre in diameter ; on 

 touching the earth it threw off strong sparks with a noise like the 

 report of a pistol, and exhaled a peculiar odour. It fell near a group 

 of Arabs, who were so much frightened by it, that they " immediately 

 discharged their guns at this incomprehensible monster." 



XL. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON THE INFLUENCE OF HEAT ON 

 ELECTROMOTIVE FORCE. AY DR. L. BLEEKRODE. 



P~PHIS question has already been the object of the researches of 

 -*- several physicists. Until the present time, only three cases have 

 been considered — (1) when metals are placed in contact with acids, 

 (2) saline solutions with one another, (3) metals with their saline 

 solutions. 



Faraday commenced this investigation in 1840*. He heated one 

 of the branches of a U-tube containing an acid in which two iden- 

 tical metallic wires were immersed. The current was strong when 

 the metal was attackable, weak when gold or platinum was used : 

 in the latter case Faraday considered the current thermoelectric. 



Wildf experimented on liquids in contact with one another. He 

 still considered the current to be thermoelectric, but he tried in vain 

 to reproduce with liquids the phenomena of Peltier. 



LindigJ placed in contact two electrodes of the same metal with 

 a solution of that metal ; he confined himself to zinc and copper, 

 because he proposed to investigate whether the electromotive force 

 of Daniell's battery varies with the temperature. 



* Philosophical Transactions, 1840. 



t Pogg. Ann. vol. cih. p. 353 (1858). % Ibid. vol. cxxiii. p. 1 (18G8). 



