his recent elaborate work on electricity (tome 1, page 46) falls into the same mistake.* Lardner in his Lectures even goes so far as to make an enthusiastic defense of Davy from the imputation that he owed this accession to his reputation to the fortuitous circumstance of his having access to the large battery of the Royal Institution. But he does not correct the error. A few of our minor authors (Bakewell for instance) seem to have read the Bakerian Lecture for themselves; and a few French authors, as Becquerel and Figuier, have nobly given Davy his due. The extent to which this error has been copied shows with what servility many of our modern compilers of text-books follow the leadership of any great name, and how necessary it is to look to original authorities where accuracy is of the least importance. The facts to which we have called attention occupy no mean place in the history of chemistry, and as it was in Davy's time so it is now, many have been deterred from repeating these interesting experiments by an apprehension that an apparatus of great power is requisite. Such is however by no means the case. Singer states that a battery of fifty pairs of plates in good action are amply sufficient, and of the modern and improved forms a much smaller number is requisite. Rochester, N. Y., July 26th, 1859. J. P. [Note by the Editors.-Another remarkable example of the regular propagation of error from hand to hand, extending through a large portion of our scientific literature, is the story usually found in text-books, of the accidental discovery in 1790 of the science of galvanism by the twitching of frogs legs prepared for the repast of Madame Galvani. This fabrication is attributable to Alibert, an Italian writer of no repute. Galvani had for eleven years been engaged in an elaborate research on animal electricity, in which he used frogs legs as sensitive electroscopes. The error has been continued from the want of a careful distinction between the real discoveries of Galvani and of Volta. Galvani was an anatomist and physiologist, and he really discovered the existence of electrical currents in living or recently dead animals, and he justly attributed the convulsions of the frogs legs when made without a metallic arc-by contact of the exterior mucous with the interior nervous surface-as due to a nervous or vital fluid, the true galvanic fluid. The importance and even the reality of this discovery of Galvani was hidden by the splendors of Volta's pile, until in 1837, more than fifty years afterwards, Matteucci * The words of M. De la Rive are-"La pile à auges independentes en verre ou en porcelaine avec couples metalliques mobiles, forme sous laquelle fut construite la pile de deux cents couples de l'Institution Royale de Londres, au moyen de laquelle Davy fit les grandes decouvertes qui out immortalisé sou nom." He here evidently alludes to the great battery of the Institution which consisted of two hundred instruments, each containing ten "couples" or pairs of plates, thus making 2000 pairs in all. (Davy, Elements of Chemistry, p. 152.) This battery was first used in May or June, 1810 (Phil. Mag., vol. xxxv, page 463), while the alkalies were decomposed October 19th, 1807. (Life of Davy by Paris, and Journal Royal Institution, vol. i, p. 360.) Another battery of 500 pairs of plates was constructed in May, 1808. But the battery used in the decomposition of the alkalies was constructed in 1803 and was very much worn at the time of Davy's discovery. We can find no record of any battery having been constructed for the Royal Institution which answers the description given by M. De la Rive, but if for "couples" we read "instruments" the description applies exactly to the great battery. revised Galvani's original and correct opinions. Volta's discovery of the pile he announced in March, 1800, to Sir Joseph Banks, although he conceived his "contact theory" in 1796. Galvani died, however, in 1798 (Dec. 4), before the discovery of the pile, and yet we constantly read of the galvanic battery and the frogs legs as related facts of his discovery. It is worse than an anachronism to say that Galvani divided with Volta the honor of discovery of the pile, since he died before it was discovered. Prof. James D. Forbes, in his sketch of the progress of mathematical and physical science in the Encyc. Brit., (8th ed.) has given the best account of the labors of Galvani and Volta to be found in English. In that essay Prof. Forbes says (§ 765) respecting the discoveries of Davy, "Potassium was discovered in the laboratory of the Royal Institution on the 6th of October, (Oct. 19th ?) 1807, and sodium a few days later. The battery used contained 250 pairs of plates of 6 and 4 inches square." Davy in reality employed, it is probable, two batteries; one of one hundred pairs of 6 inch plates, and another of one hundred and fifty pairs of 4 inch plates.] 7. On the Electrolysis of Sulphuric acid; by Dr. ANTON GENTher. (Liebig and Kopp's Annal., Feb. 1857).-The following experiments were undertaken for the purpose of deciding the question whether an electrolyte of different constitution than the simple binary relation of atom for atom of each element is capable of decomposition by the current. Previous experiments with chromic acid, chlorid of iron and chromate of potash, had well nigh decided the question in the affirmative, but the attempt to decompose sulphuric acid made with eight cells of Bunsen's battery by Prof. Magnus, failed to confirm this view of it. The failure Dr. Genther attributed to the limited force of the current, and accordingly renewed the experiment with fourteen of Bunsen's cells. The anhydrous acid still resisted, and even when the platina poles were approached so close as to ensure the direct transmission of the current, it only gave signs of a rapid bubbling movement. The anhydrous acid was next mixed with different quantities of acid of the constitution SO3+HO, and the mixture exposed to the action of the same battery in a U-form tube. The proportions first tried were four of the anhydrous to one part of the other acid. This mixture yields a solution crystallizing at 68° F. It is therefore necessary to apply a higher temperature which is invariably obtained by the continued action of the current. The conducting power of this solution is so low as to allow only a very small distance to intervene between the poles. Soon after the action commences oxygen is liberated at the positive pole, whilst not a gas bubble appears at the negative. The solution however being of a brownish yellow cast, becomes colorless in the arm of the tube containing the positive electrode, the color being entirely confined to the other arm. action being allowed to continue, blue streaks slowly make their appearance on the surface of the liquid at the negative pole, which although multiplied with the duration of the current, are yet very sparingly developed. The In a second mixture the proportions were three parts of the anhydrous acid to one of the acid SO3+HO. This gives a solution of better con SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXVIII, No. 83.-SEPT., 1859. ducting power. As in the former experiment oxygen appears at the +pole, but much more copiously; and at the pole a slight escape of gas bubbles is perceptible, whilst the blue streaks present themselves in greater quantity, coloring the liquid contained in the negative arm of the tube. The odor of sulphurous acid is also distinctly perceptible. With the continuance of the action the temperature rapidly rises, the escape of gas at the pole is more abundant, sulphurous acid is formed, but the blue streaks diminish when the tube is immersed in water gradually heated, the blue streaks disappear altogether at 140° F., and a more copious formation of sulphurous acid sets in. As the tube containing the electrolyte is gradually cooled the color reappears. This whole process is effected much more rapidly when the mixture is in the proportion of two parts of the anhydrous to one of SO+HO, or of equal parts of both, the temperature being kept at 32° F. The blue color at the pole clearly proves that sulphur is liberated there, the solution resembling that obtained by dissolving sulphur in anhydrous sulphuric acid. Of this fact, the temperature at which decomposition takes place, and the formation of SO2, furnish sufficient testimony independent of the color produced. The development of sulphurous acid seems to be occasioned by the rise of temperature produced in the solution by the action of the current. Nor is it confined to the negative arm of the tube; circumstances which indicate that it is a secondary product In regard to the sulphur which has been observed as the negative pole, there are only two ways of accounting for its presence. It is either the result of direct decomposition by the current, or of the reducing action of the liberated hydrogen. The combination SO3 with HO, according to Faraday, is decomposed into sulphur and hydrogen at one electrode and oxygen at the other. The same combination subjected to the action of the battery by Genther gave at first only H and Ŏ at their proper poles; sulphur was liberated only when the temperature of the electrolyte was considerably raised by the action of the current, When the tube was placed in water kept at 32° F., the liberation of oxygen and hydrogen was of longer duration before free sulphur appeared. The temperature of the electrolyte was found to rise almost instantaneously with the removal of the tube from the water. This would seem to indicate that by keeping the electrolyte at 329, the liberation of sulphur would be prevented, which shows the great influence temperature has on the product of the decomposition. It was further observed that the odor of sulphurous acid accompanied the liberation of sulphur, owing probably to the action of S on the warm sulphuric acid. If we assume that in this process the liberation of the sulphur is due to the reducing action of H, then it consistently follows, that the H endowed with so strong an affinity, must unite with the sulphur it meets at the moment of separation, and form sulphuretted hydrogen. Not a trace of this gas has however been yet detected. Furthermore if the hydrogen could exert this reducing action, it would at most be but the reducing of SO3 to SO2. With such proofs drawn from experiment we must assume the direct decomposition by the current of sulphuric acid into S, which appears at the pole, and oxygen at the+pole. It - depends on the concentration of the acid whether the extra decomposition of water accompanies the foregoing products. That an electrolyte differing from the simply binary constitution is capable of direct decomposition by the current is thus shown in the case of SOs, and even with less room for doubt in the case of anhydrous chromic acid, and chromate of potash, as the researches of Prof. Magnus prove. II. GEOLOGY. 1. Teeth and Bones of Elephas primogenius, lately found near the western fork of White River, in Monroe County, Indiana; communicated by Prof. T. A. WYLIE.-On Friday, July 23d, in company with Prof. Cole, I visited the place where these bones were found. It is situated on the farm of Jefferson Wampler, about a mile southeast of the town of Gosport. On the 6th of June last, one of the young men, in whose possession the bones now are, found one of the teeth, which had been washed out from the bank by a heavy rain. This led to a further exploration, and the discovery of the tusks and teeth and several fragments of the skeleton. The bank into which they dug is a stiff plastic bluish clay. The bones were found at the depth of eight or nine feet, in a bed of sand underlying the clay, all in confusion as if they had drifted there, and had afterward been covered with the clay. The sand probably rests on sandstone (Carboniferous) which forms the bottom of the brook not many yards distant. Several of the larger bones were so far decayed that they crumbled on attempting to take them out. The tusks are much broken and require to be bound with cord to keep the pieces together. Some portions of the ivory are so soft that they yield to the knife like chalk. Toward the point of one of the tusks the substance is much harder. The intelligent young men, W. M. Craven and J. H. Richardson, by whom the discovery of these remains was made, deserve credit for the care they have taken in disinterring and preserving them. The bones consist of two tusks, four molar teeth, and several fragments, viz., a piece of a rib, an end of the radius (?) much worn, measuring about seven inches across its concave surface, and a few spongy portions of the larger bones. One of the tusks measures on the outside of the curvature eight feet, a foot or more has been lost from the root, the cavity of which is filled with sand. The diameter of the root end is eight inches, the tusk varies very little in the size of the cross section till near the point. The projection of the axis of the tusk on a plane is nearly a semicircle of a radius of 30 inches. The deviation of the axis from the plane is but slight, though this could not be determined accurately on account of the transverse cracks. The other tusk has lost a portion of the pointed extremity, judging from the appearance of the fracture, this might have been lost before the death of the animal. It measures five feet in length, and in diameter is the same as the other. The weight of the larger tusk is 166 pounds. There are four molar teeth, two larger and two smaller. The largest measures, in the longer diagonal from crown to base, eleven inches; ver tically, eight inches. Across the grinding surface, four inches. The smaller molars are about eight inches, and five inches in the same directions. The length of the grinding surface on one of the smaller molars is six inches. The grinding surfaces of these teeth are nearly flat. The plates of enamel very perfectly preserved. In the larger of the teeth twenty of these double plates were counted; in the smaller, fourteen. The distance between the plates, and the interval between the pairs, is about one-fourth of an inch. They resemble some drawings I have seen of modern elephant's teeth, though the flattened cylinders of enamel in the case of the fossil are much more compressed and closer together than those of the recent teeth. The columnar structure, if it might be so called, was very evident in all, particularly in the smaller, where the cylindrical columns of enamel were distinct, and where also the gradual coalescing of three of these into one, could be distinctly perceived. Indiana State University, Bloomington, August 1st, 1859. 2. Eruption of Mauna Loa, Sandwich Islands; (latest information in a letter to J. D. DANA from Prof. R. C. HASKELL, Oahu College, dated Kona, Hawaii, June 22d, 1859).—I have just returned from a second visit to the scene of the lava-flood on Mauna Loa. There is one fact which I observed, that I desire to communicate to you. The real source of the flow is about four miles above the two craters, which in February seemed to be the source. From this point down to the two craters, a crack in the mountain can be traced nearly all the way. At first it is no more than two inches in width, but gradually increases to about two feet. At the present time heat can be perceived in the crack within a few feet of the highest point. But little lava has issued from this crack above the two craters. During the first quarter of a mile, lava has oozed out in different places a few rods apart, to the amount of three or four cubic feet. Below this point there is a stream, now cold of course, a few rods in width. In this flow therefore there is no doubt that there is a continuous crack in the side of the mountain for four miles. How much farther this crack extends down the mountain cannot be ascertained, now at least, for the craters are still sending forth immense columns of sulphurous vapors, and the stream of lava is still flowing below them. This stream however is much smaller than it was in February, and is entirely subterranean for the first twenty-five or thirty miles, except that there are a few holes where the running lava can be seen. In some instances this stream is as much as forty feet below the surface. During this trip I went to the top of Mauna Loa. There is no perceptible action in the crater of Mokuaweoweo. The source of the present flow is probably about 11,000 feet above the level of the sea. 3. Observations on the Ossiferous Caves near Palermo; by Dr. FALCONER, (Proc. Geol. Soc. London, Athenæum, July 16, 1859, p. 86).—Dr. Falconer, in the first place, adverted to his previous communication, read on the 4th of May last, before his collections had arrived in England. In the present paper he submitted, with more detailed explanations, the materials on which his first statements were founded. Dr. Falconer then described the physical geography of that portion of the northern coast of Sicily in which the ossiferous caves abound, namely, between Termini on the east, and Trapani on the west. Along the Bay of Palermo, and |