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Divisibility of Matter

fit. One night, feeling a fit coming on, she went to ie down upon the bed; but first walked up to the glass with the candle in her hand, to see how her eyes looked: in observing this, the candle set fire to her cap; and as she was alone, her head was terribly burnt before the fire could be extinguished. M. Homberg was sent for, and ordered bleeding and proper dressings: but the expected fit this night never came on; the pain of the burning wore off by degrees; and the patient found herself from that hour cured of the headach, which had never once returned in four years after; such being the time when the account was communicated.

Another case, not less remarkable, was communicated to 1 Homberg by a physician at Bruges. A woman, who for several years had her legs and thighs swelled in an extraordinary manner, found some relief from rubbing them before the fire with brandy every morning and evening. One evening, the brandy she had rubbed herself with took fire, and slightly burnt her. She applied some brandy to her burn; and in the night all the water with which the afflicted parts were swelled, was entirely discharged, and the swelling did not again return.

ILLUMINATION BY ELECTRICITY. - Professor Meinecke, of Hallchas, in Gilbert's Annals, 1819, Number 5, proposed to illuminate halls, houses, and streets, by the electric spark; and expresses his strong persuasion that one day it will afford a more perfect and less expensive light than gas-illumination, and ultimately replace it. His plan is, to arrange, what are called, in electricity, luminous tubes, glasses, &c.; i. e. insulating substances, having a series of metallic spangles at small distances from each other, along the place to be illuminated; and then, by a machine, send a current of electricity through them: sometimes also partially exhausted glasses, as the luminous receiver, conductor, &c., are used. In this way Professor Meinecke obtained from a two-feet plate machine, a constant light in his apartment equal to that of the moon, and even surpassing it; and by enclosing his system of sparks in tubes filled with rarified hydrogen gas, in which gas it is assumed that the electric spark is more than doubled in brilliancy, he thinks it will be easy to enlarge the plan to any extent.

DIVISIBILITY OF MATTER. - We may be readily convinced of the infinite divisibility of bodies, by simply walking in a garden, and inhaling the sweet incense that rises from a thousand flowers. How inconceivably small must be the odoriferous particles of a carnation, which diffuse themselves through a whole garden, and every where strike our sense or 5 H smell If this is not sufficient, let us consider some other objects of nature; as, for instance, one of those silk threads, the work of a poor worm. Suppose this thread is three hundred and sixty feet long, it will weigh but a single grain. Again, consider into how many perceptible parts a length of three hundred and sixty feet can be divided. A single inch may be divided into six hundred parts, each as thick as a hair, and consequently be perfectly visible. Hence a single grain of silk can be divided into at least two millions five hundred and ninety-two thousand parts, each of which may be seen without the help of a microscope. And as every one of these parts may be again divided into several more millions of parts, till the division is carried beyond the reach of thought, it is evident that this progression may be infinite The last particles, which are no longer divisible by human industry, must still have extension, and be consequently susceptible of division, though we are no longer able to effect it. If we examine the animal kingdom, we shall discover still further proofs of the infinite divisibility of matter. Pepper has been put into a glass of water, and on looking through a microscope, a multitude of animalcules were seen in the water, a thousand million times less than a grain of sand! How inconceivably minute then must be the feet, muscles, vessels, nerves, and organs of sense, in these animals! And how small their eggs and their young ones, and the fluids which circulate in them! Here the imagination loses itself, our ideas become confused, and we are incapable of giving form to such very small particles. What still more claims our attention is, that the more we magnify, by means of glasses, the productions of nature, the more perfect and beautiful do they appear: whilst with works of art it is generally quite contrary; for when these are seen through a microscope, we find them rough, coarse, and imperfect, though executed by the most able artists, and with the utmost care. Thus the Almighty has impressed even upon the smallest atom the stamp of his infinity. The most subtile body is as a world, in which millions of parts unite and are arranged in the most perfect order.