57° Mr. Wiseman’s Account of the Effect of 
Diss, May zg , 179S. 
As. the Society have expressed a wish, through Mr. Frere* 
to have some of the water in which the copper wire was depo^ 
sited, which Mr. Frere, at my request, laid before the Society, 
I have sent two gallons of the water of Diss Mere, (No. i.) 
with a small quantity of copper cuttings, (No. 2.) which laid 
in the same water, a few feet from the side, and six feet in 
depth, from the 7th of February, 1797, to the 20th of the pre*- 
sent month. May, 1798. The pieces of copper, when laid in, 
weighed 3051 grains; when they were taken out, and washed 
from the mud that lightly adhered to them, preserving and 
weighing the scaly matter that came off, they weighed 2944, 
grains, indicating a loss of 107 grains. Examining the pieces 
of copper, the same evening they were taken out of the water, 
I observed a number of small crystals formed upon some of 
them, in the form of pyramids joined at their bases; these 
crystals lost their shining appearance, by the evaporation of the 
water of crystallization, in the warmth of the succeeding day. 
Whether they will be preserved in a journey of nearly 100 miles, 
" * A- 
is perhaps doubtful. No. 3. contains two pieces of copper, on 
which the crystals were most abundant. No. 4. contains a 
small quantity of the substance formed upon the copper, that 
came off in washing and in weighing it. 
The town of Diss is principally situated on the NNE and E 
sides of this piece of water. The land runs pretty steep on the 
W and N of it, to the height of 40 or 50 feet : on the SE, 
the ground comes within a few feet of the level of it. The soil 
of the upper part of the town is a stiff blue clay; that of the 
lower part, to the SE, a black sand, beneath which it is a moor. 
