176 
prove of the very im . 
‘ought to be anxiously cherished. ~ 
* In parsuance of the resolution of par- 
Jiament passed in the. last session, a na- 
tional institution for promoting vaccina- 
‘tion, Is established under the manage- 
‘ment of a board which consists of the 
following members: Sir Lucas Pepys, 
Drs. Mayo, Heberden, Satterly, Ban- 
croft, Sir Charles Blicke, Messrs. Chand- 
ler and Keate. The board have appoint- 
ed_ the following officers:—director, Dr. 
Jenner; assistant director, James Moore, 
Esq. register. Dr. Hervey ; priticipal vac- 
cinator, J. C. Carpue, Esq. vaccinators 
at the stations, Messrs. T’. Hale, Richard 
Lane, Edward Leese, S. Sawrey, and J. 
Vincent ; and secre:ary, Mr, Charles 
Murray. 
Mr. James Scotr, of Dublin, states, 
that he has found by repeated experi- 
ments, that platia possesses, on account 
of its imperceptible expansion, a great 
superiority over other materials for mak- 
ing the pendulum-spring of watches ; but 
that arsenic must not be employed in 
consolidating it, as it would then be li- 
able to expansion. When properly drawn 
it possesses self-sufficient elasticity for 
any extent.of vibration ; it coils extreme- 
ly well, and if placed when coiled on the 
surface of a flat piece of metal, making 
ene end of the spring fast, and marking 
exactly the other extremity, not the. 
slighest expansion is visible when heat is 
applied. Mr. Scott farther remarks, that 
he bas for a considerabie time made use 
of platina for compensation curbs, and 
cotsiders it as very superior to steel for 
every instrument of that kind. 
~ To Some enquiries respecting the smal- 
Jest number of Galvanic combinations, 
-gndthe smallest surface of plates that is 
sufficient to decompose the fixed alkalis ; 
and also, the best solution for charging a 
battery so_as to produce the greatest 
power, professor Davy has given the 
following answer.—“‘ In my early expe- 
riments upon potassium, I often procured 
y first importance, and 
it by means of a battery of one thousand . 
pairs of plates’ of copper and zinc of six 
inches square, charged with a solution of 
concentrated nitrous acid in about forty 
partsof water. This 3s the lowest power 
that I employed ; but as some of the 
plates had been much corroded by former 
processes, I should conceive that a com- 
bination of eighty would be sufficient, 
provided the whoie arrangement was 
erfect. The decomposition of the al- 
ia earths and ammonia by amalga- 
‘tion of electricity. 
“composed by different processes, some 
_ Messrs. 
mation or combination of their bases 
Literary and Philosophicat Intelligence. | [March 1, 
may be accomplished bya much weaker 
combination, fifty plates of six or four in- 
ches square being adequate to produce 
sensible results. The potassium which I 
‘have used in-various analytical enquiries 
‘lately carried on, has been all procured 
by chemical means, without the applica- 
Potash may be de- 
of which are described in a paper which 
Iam now reading before the Royal So- 
ciety, but the best method is that which 
we owe to the ingenious researches of 
Gay Lussac, and Thenard, 
and which is the first of this kind, by 
mere chemica! attraction, made known. 
When melted potash is slowly brought 
into contact with iron turnings or filings, 
heated to whiteness,hydrogen yas is evolv- 
ed, holding potassium in solution: and 
if one part of the iron tube or gun-barrel 
in which the experiment is made, be pre- 
served cool, the metal is deposited in 
this part, being precipitated from the hy- 
drogen gas by cooling. The potash is 
never procured quite so pure in this way 
as by electricity; but it is fit for analy- 
tical purposes, and I have obtained it 
with so little alloy, as to possess a speci- 
fic gravity considerably below 8, water 
eing 10. I have now by mea compact 
mass produced in an operation, which 
weighs nearly 100 grains.” 
Ninety-two whales of a new species 
were stranded in Scapay Bay in Pomona, 
one of the Orkneys, a few days previous 
to a violent storm in Decemter, 1806. 
Of this animal, never before figured by 
any naturalist, Dr. Traill, “of Liverpool, 
gives the followirg description :—It be- 
longs very clearly to the genus delphinus ; 
the only hitherto described species of 
that genus which it at all resembles is the 
delphinus orca, or grampus ; but it is dis- 
tinguished from thie latter by the shape 
of its snout, the shortness of its dorsal 
fin, the length and narrowness of its pec- 
toral fins, the form and number of its 
teeth, and the colour of its belly and 
breast. Almost the whole body is black, 
smooti, and shining like oiled silk. The 
back and sides are jetty black; the 
breast and belly of a somewhat lighter 
colour. 
grown ones is about twenty feet. The 
body 1s thick, the dorsal fin does not ex- 
ceed two feet in length, and is rounded 
atthe extremity. The pectoral fins are 
from six to eight feet in length, narrow and 
tapering to their extremities. The head is 
The general length of the full- * 
obtuse ; the upper jaw projects several 
inches over the lower in a blunt process. 
fe 
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