m 
Scientific hitdligence. 
cated to us by Mr John Murray. In the Journal of Science^ 
No. xix. p. 193, and 104, are detailed some experiments of 
Configliachi on the excitement of the muscular fibre by voltaic 
electricity, as modified by the action of poison. In my experi- 
ments on the excitability of muscular action by galvanic agency, 
as modified or suspended by vegetable poisons, detailed in a pa- 
per read before the Linnsean Society in 1815, similar phaeno- 
mena are described. This paper is now more interesting than 
It may have been at the period referred to. For instance, tinc^ 
ture of opium applied to the sciatic nerves suspended the excite- 
ment, but when acetic or other vegetable acid was superadded, 
the susceptibility was restored. Since, then, discovery has an- 
nounced an alkali ( morphia ) as the active principle in opium, 
a stranger which this phsenomenon might have prepared us to 
€xpect. There were numerous experiments of a similar descrip- 
tion mentioned, as those with Atropa belladonna, Hyoscyamus 
niger, &c. I subsequently made many experiments on a por- 
tion of the Wild Bushmails Poison, brought from South Africa, 
and transmitted to me by Mr Campbell. The result of my re- 
searches was the discovery of an antidote to that formidable poi- 
son. This counter poison was caustic potassa. In one of my 
experiments, a swallow wounded in the thigh by an arrow dipt 
in the poison was set at liberty, after thirty hours confinement ; 
the arrow being extracted, and the wound washed carefully 
^ith the alkali. This was repeated on other animals with equal 
success. In other cases, this poison, sufficiently rapid in its fata- 
lity, was accelerated fearfully by some applications, particularly 
solution of chlorine^"' 
18. Experiments on the Electric Spark. appears from a 
statement sent to us by our correspondent Mr John Murray, 
that the electrical experiment of M. Moll, described in our last 
Number, voL iv. p. 200. is only a modification of one published 
by him in the Phil, Mag. for 1815 or 1816, to which the reader 
is referred. 
HYDRODYNAMICS. 
19. Compressibility of Water. — In examining Mr Perkins" 
experiments on the compressibility of water. Dr Roget has found, 
that he has committed a mistake in the calculation, by whicll he 
