On the 10th of June, M. Von Zach received another letter from profeffor Bode, in which he fays, " Piazzi's first letter I received on the 20th of March, and on the next post-day, the 23d, I answered it. But he did not wait for my reply; andconceive my joy and at the fame time my vexation !-I received a fecond letter from Piazzi, in which I found only the following few words relative to the newly-discovered planet: 'I wrote to you in January, informing you that I had difcovered a comet in Taurus, which comet I continued to observe till the 11th of Feb. uary, when I was attacked by a dangerous disease, from which I have not entirely recovered. As foon as the state of my health will permit, I fhall calculate elements for it, and fend them to you. In the mean time I have communicated my observations to M. La Lande.'-It is remarkable that he ftill calls the star a comet as in his firft letter."

On the 18th of June, M. Von Zach received a letter from Dr. Burckhardt, in Paris, from which we learn the following parti culars: La Lande had received Piazzi's obfervation on the 31st of May, when Dr. Burckhardt immediately began to calculate its orbit. Two days later they received Von Zach's and Oriani's investigations, which gave them caufe to hope that the fuppofed comet would prove to be a planet. Dr. Burckhardt had already found that the arc defcribed by it was not confiderable. The fmall geocentric and heliocentric motion of the comet gave him a great deal of trouble in calculating its orbit. He had firft chofen for this purpose the observations of the 14th, 21st, and 28th of Jannary: but from this circumstance found himself under the neceffity of felecting the obfervations most distant in time from one another, viz. thofe of the 1ft and 21ft of January, and of the 11th of February. During thefe 42 days the geocentric longitude of the comet varied only 3°, and the heliocentric longitude only 10. On attempting to correct, by La Place's methods, the parabola found by his method, he discovered that nothing in this refpect could be effected by the conditional equations. He then tried La Place's method of aproximation, but with as little fuccefs: the unavoidable errors of obfervation having too great an influence on the difference of the geocentric longitudes and lati. tudes. He now proved eight hypotheses by means of La Place's method of correction, but without approximating nearer to the truth. He then calculated the following orbit which agrees with the three obfervations to within 2 minutes :

Diameter of the orbit, 2,74-Epoch, 1801, 2s 8° 16′ 20′′.Afcending Node, 2s 20° 15'.-Inclination of the orbit, 11° 21'.Period of revolution, 4 years.

However various the trials that had been made; yet, as it did not thence follow, that it was impoffible to find a parabola for thefe obfervations, he determined to apply a method, which had often proved successful, when all other methods of interpolation

failed.***** Putting the logarithm of the distance from the fun equal 0,378, the smallest error was 8'; then putting the logarithm of the diftance 0,378, the fmalleft error was ±4. It was therefore neceffary ftill more to diminish the distance; and after 20 hypothefes he found the following parabola :

Place of the afcending node, zs 20° 50'.-Inclination of the orbit, 9° 41'-Place of the perihelium, 4s 8° 38' 25"-Smalleft distance from the fun, 2,21883, its log. 0,3461250.-Logarithm of the diurnal motion, 9,4409408.-Time of the paffage through the perihelium, 1801, 30th June, 19h. 1'.

Dr. Burckhadt is of opinion, that there is no other parabola that more nearly agrees with thefe three obfervations. The errors in the longitude are on the 14th and 28th of January-1' 47" and +38. But Piazzi had not mentioned any thing refpecting the accuracy with which he was able to obferve the comet.

On the 21ft of June M. Von Zach received the promifed continuation of Dr. Burckhardt's refearches. He had calculated an ellipfis for the comet, although the arc it had run through was too fmall for us to expect great accuracy, but he thought he should thereby facilitate the finding of the star.

Place of the afcending node, 2s 20° 58' 30".-Inclination of the path, 10° 47' 0".-Place of the aphelium, 2s 8° 59′ 37′′.Time of the paffage through the aphelium, January, 1801, 1,3328.-Excentricity, 0,0364.-Logarithm of half the great axis, 0,4106586.-Period of fidereal circumvolution, 4,13 years.. This elipfis reprefents, within a few feconds, the longitudes and latitudes of five obfervations. It would have been eafy to obtain a greater degree of accuracy, but he thought it quite fuperfluous, as the arc run through is fo fmall." The above ellipfis gave Dr. Burckhardt the following

Places of the Planet difcovered by PIAZZI.

Medium Time. Geocentr.Long, Geocentr. Lat.

1

It was to be expected, that there would be various opinions refpecting the name that fhould be given to the new planet.-A Correfpondent of the Allg. Liter. Anzeig. No. 72, proposes the name of Vulcan. He thinks it would not be improper to affign to the god who fabricated the arms of Achilles a place in the heavens, near the God of war-to the husband of Venus a place near her paramour. Nor could Vulcan murmur that it was fo late before this honour was done him, and a planet of fo fmall luminofity called after his name, fince he himself, on account of his unfortunate lameness, is not very fwift of foot, or stately in his appearance. Vulcan too, he fays, being the fon of Jupiter, is one of the family, and in this refpect, likewife, had a well-founded claim to the honour intended him.

Profeffor Reimarus, of Hamburg, is of opinion that it should be called Cupid. It being an established cuftom to name the planets after the deities of antiquity; there is, he thinks, fufficient reafon for adopting that of Cupid, for he would be the nearest (reckoning downwards from Venus) to Mars, the lover of Venus. Others think that the name of Cupid would, therefore, be proper, because it convey's an idea of blindness; for the new planet has the appearance of a ftar of only the 8th magnitude, and cannot be seen by the unaffifted eyes of man. But on this point, if the right of the newly-difcovered ftar to be admitted among the number of the planets be confirmed, the plurality of voices, or perhaps only accident, will decide. It is, likewife, poffible, that, as it happened with refpect to Urannus, there will be no general agreement among aftronomers. In Italy it will, perhaps, retain the name of Ferdinandeum Sidus, in France that of Planéte Piazzi, till time and circumstances fhall have otherwife decided.

It has long been customary to exprefs the order of the planets in Latin veries, that they might the more easily be committed to memory; as for inftance, in the old well-known distich

Saturni atque Jovis fidus, Mars, Sol, Venus alma,

Mercurius, claudit ultima Luna chorum.

When Herfchel difcovered the new planet beyond Saturn, Poinfient Defivry wifhed to have it named after Cybele, the wife of Saturn; and gives us the order of the feven planets in the following verfes :

Ambit Solem Hermes, Venus hunc, mox Terra, Diana,
Mars fequitur. Pergit Rex Jupiter. Hunc Saturnus ;
Omnes hos orbes amplectitur alma Cubelle.

A friend of M. Von Zach expreffes the order of the now eight planets, in the following lines :

Mercurius primus; Venus altera; Terra deinde ;
Mars pofthac ; quintam fedem fibi vindicat Hera.
Jupiter hanc ultra eft. Sequitur Saturnus; at illum
Uranus egreditur, non aufim dicere fummus.

Or,

Mercurius Solem comitatur proximus. Illum Infequitur
Venus, hanc Tellus, Lund comitante;
Mars pofthac; Martem prohibet Jovis effe fequacem.
Hera latens fruftra, et melioribus obvia vitris.
Saturnum extrema proavi statione locabant,

Nos aliter. Supremam cœli nunc Uranus arcem
Ufurpat, pœnas aufi fortaffe daturus.

Prefent State of the New Science of Galvanism, being the Report of a late Commiffion of the National Inftitute, by C. CUVIER.

CCIDENT,the parent of most difcoveries,has lately favoured

prefent period remarkable in the history of the fciences. Some pieces of metal brought into contact have manifefted phenomena which no fagacity could foresee, and a new field has been opened as vast as it is fertile in important applications. The influence of these phenomena becomes more and more extended. Being at firft confined, according to every appearance, to the animal œconomy, it seems now to act an important part in chemistry. It was to the genius of VOLTA, that we were indebted for this new difcovery. His opinion, that galvanism was only an application of electricity to the animal economy, having been confirmed by fever. al men of fcience, he endeavoured to find out the means of increafing its effects, fo far as to render the real nature of them evident to every body. He found that, by multiplying the pairs of metals, difpofing them always alternately, and keeping them moift-certain attractions, repulfions, and commotions, perfectly fimilar to thofe occafioned by the electrical jar, are produced; and that, in general, a pile, formed of pieces of filver, zinc, and moistened pafte board, placed alternately, one above the other, immediately mani fefted all the appearances of pofitive electricity at the extremity where the filver is, and of the negative electricity at that end where the zinc is placed. There was however, this difference, that a Leyden phial, once discharged, exbibits no further effects, unless it be charged again; whereas Volta's pile conftantly charges itfelf, and its effects are continually renewed; it is only by dif charging it with very large conductors that its effect can be dimin ifhed even for a fingle moment. The Leyden phial always difcharges, if there be the least moisture in continuity between its two furfaces; but if the pafteboard pieces of Volta's pile are impregnated with ever fo much water, its effects lofe none of their intenfity: the phenomena do not cease till the pile is entirely immerfed in water. Thefe differences have excited fome doubts respecting the perfect idéntity of galvanism with electricity; and other phepomena, ftill more extraordinary, have increased these doubts.

If the ends of two metallic wires be immersed in water, one of which communicates with the refinous or negative extremity of

the pile, and the other with the vitreous or pofitive; and if they be kept at a little diftance from each other, there are difengaged from the extremity of the former bubbles of hydrogen gas, and from that of the other oxygen gas, which becomes fixed in the metal when the latter is oxydable, or, if it be not fo, rifes in bubbles; and this action continues as long as the apparatus remains in this ftate. But it is not in this that the great fingularity of the phenomena confifts, and it is here that galvanifm begins to enter the province of chemistry. It would have been very natural to confider this gas as the product of the decompofition of water, if a particular circumftance had not excited doubts in regard to this explanation. That the difengagement may take place, the ends of the wires must be at a certain diftance: if they touch, no bubbles are feen. How comes it that the oxygen and hydrogen, arifing from the fame molecule of water fhould appear at points fo far diftant? And why does each of them appear exclufively at the wire connected with one of the extremities of the pile, and never at the other?,

Such was the knowledge refpecting the phenomena of galvanism at the time of the report made to the Clafs in the last quarter. All the experiments made in France and other countries, arranged and confirmed by the commiffion, have tended to confirm the three following refults:-1. An augumentation of intenfity according to the number and extent of the metallic furfaces brought into contact:-2. A continued renewal of the action-3. A production of the two gafes by the communication of the two extremities of the pile through water.

During the last three months, philofophers have redoubled their efforts; their curiofity has been excited, above all, by the laft phenomenon: fome have imagened they could diftinguish in it the foundation of a new fyftem of chemistry; others, more prudent, have fufpended their judgment, or have endeavoured to refer the facts to the theories already known. But, whatever might be their individual fyftem, they ought all to have begun by a fimilar refearch-by trying to produce the two gafes in feperate quantities of water. If the two quantities of water are perfectly infulated, the gas does not appear: if they are made to communicate by a metallic wire, there is only a double production of gas; that is to fay, each extremity of the intermediate wire acts in the por tion of water in which it is immerfed, as if the wire came immediately from the extremity of the pile oppofed to that which communicates with that portion, fo that each portion gives, at the fame time, two gafes. But if fulphuric acid be interpofed between the two quantities of water, the gafes manifest themselves each on its own fide. The cafe is the fame if a communication be established between the water by the means of a living body, fuch as the hand. Thus, the production of each gas in the feperate quantities of water is completely proved.