Matches made upon this principle, have been for some time made and sold in this country. They are sometimes put up in little japanned cases with a small phial, from which when inverted with the mouth open, nothing will drop, and yet the match kindles on being thrust in quite to the bottom. The truth is, these bottles contain a little amianthus moistened with sulphuric acid, which thus kindles the match, but as the acid soon weakens by attracting water from the air, it is better to use a phial of the acid in the liquid state. A few drops answer the purpose, and when this is weakened, it is easily renewed. 7. _Cleaveland's Mineralogy._ Our opinion of this work was fully expressed in the review of it in our first number. In the Edinburgh Review for September, 1818, this work is again reviewed, and in a manner which must gratify every friend to American science. It will be necessary to cite only a single sentence. After commending the condensed and _honest_ manner in which the work is printed, (for they say, that the same matter which here fills one volume would in England have been spread over three,) the reviewer adds, "We should be glad to see it reprinted exactly upon the plan of the original; and we have no doubt that it would be found _the most useful work on mineralogy in our language_." More need not be--more scarcely could be said. 8. _A new Alkali._ A new alkali has recently been discovered in Sweden, by M. Arfwedson. It is found in the petalite, a mineral from Utoen, in Sweden, in a proportion not over 5 pr. ct.; also in the triphane or spodumene, in the proportion of 8 per cent. and in what is called crystallized lepidolite, in the proportion of 4 per cent. In its general properties it very nearly resembles the other alkalies. When heated in contact with platinum it acts on it. In the galvanic circuit it was decomposed "with bright scintillations, and the reduced metal being separated, afterward burnt." This metal resembles sodium. The new alkali has been called lithia. (_Jour. of Science of the Roy. Inst._) 9. _Ignited Platinum Wire._ In our last we mentioned the lamp without flame, the ignition of platinum wire being sustained by means of the vapour of alcohol. Sir H. Davy has discovered that the vapour of camphor answers the same purpose: "If a piece of camphor, or a few small fragments in a heap, be placed in any convenient situation, as on a shilling, the bottom of a glass, &c. and a piece of platinum wire, either coiled or pressed up together, be heated and laid upon it, the platinum will glow as long as any camphor remains, and will frequently light it up into a flame." _Jour. Roy. Inst._ 10. _Red Rain._ A red rain fell in Naples, (March 14, 1818,) the common people were much alarmed, and called it _blood_ or _fire_. An earthy powder was collected, which when dry was yellow, unctuous, and of an earthy taste; its specific gravity 2.07.