References.—Alibert’s Eloge in Vol. III of the “Mém. de la Soc. Médicale d’Emulation”; “Catal. Roy. Soc. Sc. Papers,” Vol. V. p. 767; “Opus. Scelti,” Vols. VII. pp. 340, 361; VIII. p. 3; XIV. pp. 145, 296; Brugnatelli, “Ann. di chimica” for 1793 and 1795; “Mem. Soc. Ital.,” Vols. II. p. 11; IV. p. 476.
A.D. 1780–1781.—Bertholon de Saint Lazare (Pierre), French physician and Professor of Natural Philosophy, and a great friend of Dr. Franklin, publishes at Paris his “Electricité du Corps Humain ...” in which he relates more particularly his general observations upon atmospheric electricity as affecting the human body while in a healthy state and while in a diseased condition. He likewise treats of the effects of electricity upon animals, and details very interesting experiments upon the torpedo, which latter, he remarks, establishes the closest possible resemblance to the Leyden phial.
He is also the author of “Electricité des Végétaux” (1783), as well as of “Electricité des Météores” (1787), and of a volume entitled “Electricité des Métaux.” J. C. Poggendorff says (“Biog.-Lit. Handw. ...” Vol. II. p. 102) that J. Ferd. Meidinger (1726–1777) had previously written concerning the action of electric fire upon metals and minerals. Johann Jacob Hemmer published, at Mannheim in 1780, “Sur l’Electricité des Métaux” (“Ob. sur la Physique,” July 1780, p. 50), and A. A. De La Rive wrote in 1853 “De l’Elect. Développée ...” (“Bibl. Univ.,” Vol. LIX).
References.—Young’s “Course of Lectures,” Vol. II. p. 431; Ingen-housz at A.D. 1779; Journal de Physique, Vol. XXXV; “Biographie Universelle,” Vol. IV. p. 149; “Biographie Générale,” Vol. V. p. 722; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. II. p. 618; “La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. VI. p. 450. See also Bertholon’s “Nouvelles Preuves ...” pp. 18–19; Arago, “Notices Scientifiques,” Vol. I. pp. 338–340, 386; “Mercure de France,” 1782, No. 52, p. 188; Abbé d’Everlange de Wittry, “Mém. sur l’Elec. ... dans les végétaux et le corps humain,” read June 24, 1773—“Anc. Mém. de l’Acad. Belge,” Vol. I. p. 181; Vassalli-Eandi, “Esame della Elett. delle Meteore del Bertholon,” Torino, 1787; account of the experiments to ascertain the effects of electricity on vegetation, made in France during the summer of 1878 by MM. Grandeau, Celi and Leclerc; and a curious publication, “Les Animaux et les Métaux deviennent ils Electriques par communication,” by L. Béraud (Bérault), alluded to in Poggendorff, Vol. I. p. 146.
A.D. 1780–1783.—Prof. Samuel Williams, at Cambridge, Mass., makes the earliest known observations of the magnetic dip in the United States, and publishes them in the “Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts,” Vol. I. pp. 62, 68. According to this authority, the dip in 1783 was 69° 41’. The next dip observations are those made during Long’s expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1819.
References.—“American Journal of Science,” Vol. XLIII. pp. 93, 94; “Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc.,” O. S., Vol. III. p. 115.
A.D. 1780–1794.—Le Père Amyot (Amiot), learned French Jesuit, who was sent in 1751 as a missionary to Pekin, where he resided till his decease in 1794, writes, on the 26th of July 1780, and also on the 20th of October 1782 that, as a result of a great number of observations, he finds no change in the variation of the magnetic needle, i. e. that “the point which indicates the north declines westerly from 2 to 2½ degrees, rarely more than 4½ degrees, and never less than 2 degrees.”
References.—“Mémoires concernant l’histoire,” etc., Saillant et Nyon, Vol. X. p. 142; Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. 13.
A.D. 1781.—The so-called compass plant (Silphium lancinatum) is first introduced from America into Europe by M. Thouin and blooms for the first time in the Botanic Gardens of Upsala, Sweden.
In the “Scientific American” of February 26, 1881, reference is made to the interesting account of this plant given by Sir J. D. Hooker in Curtis’ “Botanical Magazine,” as well as to the following extract from Prof. Asa Gray’s report concerning it: “The first announcement of the tendency of the leaves of the compass plant to direct their edges to the north and south was made by General (then Lieutenant) Alvord, of the U.S. Army, during the year 1842, and again in 1844, in communications to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.... The lines in “Evangeline” (familiar to many readers):