far what had already been effected, was correct, and might be confirmed. M. Laplace thought it his duty to oppose the amendment, which was, however, carried by a large majority, and the prospectus with the amendment finally adopted. The suspended report, by Mons. Delambre, on a translation of another part of Euclid's works, by Mons. Peyrard, was read, and its conclusions adopted. M. Ampere read a report on a mathematical memoir of M. Berard. M. Jambon presented to the Academy two new planetaries. Messrs. Burckhardt and Arago were appointed to examine them, and make a report. M. Arago, described verbally, the aurora borealis, which appeared at Paris on the 8th of February. The amplitude of the arc was 120°. The culminant point was situated in the magnetic meridian; in every other respect it resembled the aurora borealis so often described by Mairan. A new arrangement and application of what is generally called Zamboni's pile, was presented to the Academy by M. Rousseau. Insome of the columns, the manganese opposed to the zinc, is mixed with some pulverised oligistic iron; and the author pretends to have thus developed the magnetic fluid, by means of an accumulation of an electric and magnetic apparatus. A magnetic bar is made to move horizontally and alternately by the combined fluids; and a spark of some intensity is given out at every contact of the bar with one of the poles of the arrangement. Messrs. Gay Lussac, Biot, and Themard, were named commissaries. Baron Larrey read an account of the amputation at the hip joint, performed by M. Guthrie, at Brussels, on a soldier of the French guard. Adjourned. Feb. 17. Minutes read and approved. The following works were Received. Journal général de Litérature de Jena. Oct. Nov. 1816. de Leipsick. Idem. Idem- The Rights of Literature. By M. Britton. Journal de Pharmacie. Jan. 1817. Two reports, on mechanical and mathematical subjects, were demanded, and commissioners appointed to draw up the same. M. Vauquelin, in the name of the commission appointed ta examine the memoir sent to the Academy for the prize proposed by M. Ravrio, for finding an effective mode to prevent the bad effects of mercurial effluvia in the art of gilding, states that none of them have complied with the conditions, and proposes the further prorogation of the prize to next year. Adopted. M. Beudant read a memoir on the mutual assistance of chymistry and crystallography in the scientific classification of minerals. To ascertain how far a foreign substance might be mixed with a salt without altering its essential form, the author made some experiments, by which it appears, that the form of the sulphate of iron, for instance, continues unaltered even when 97 per cent. of sulphate of copper are present. M. Majendie read a memoir, giving an account of some experiments made with a view of ascertaining the action of arteries on circulation. The Doctor concludes from his observations-1st. That neither the larger nor the smaller arteries present any trace of irritability. 2d. That they are dilated during the systole. 3d. That they are capable of contracting themselves with sufficient force on the blood they contain, so as to propel it into the veins. 4th. That the blood in the arteries is not alternately at rest and in motion; but that it is, on the contrary, in a continual succedaneous (saccade, by little jerks) movement in the trunk and the ramifications; and uniform in the smallest ramifications and divisions. 5th. That the contraction of the heart and the contraction of the arteries, have a considerable influence on the course of the blood through the veins. These conclusions are applicable to man and the mammiferous animals, on which Dr. Majendie has made his experiments; but he is far from drawing any inference in regard to those he has not had an opportunity to examine. MM. Percy and Biot were named commissaries for a report. M. Virey read a note on the nature and generation of intestinal worms. Adjourned. Feb. 24. M. Salvo demands a report on a memoir he presented to the academy on certain astronomical and trigonometrical discoveries he states to have made. The Bibliothèque Universelle for December was presented. A gentleman, whose name we could not learn, announces the invention of a spy-glass, by which objects may be seen at a distance notwithstanding the interposition of elevated parts obstructing the direct sight. Another solution of the quadrature of the circumference was presented to the Academy. Colonel Grosbert presents a model illustrative of his intended ameliorations in scenic decorations, and explains, verbally, its construction. MM. Majendie and Pelletier (pharmacien) read a memoir on ipecacuanha, in which they detailed some analytical experiments made on the psycotria ipec. cynanchus ipec. et viola ipec. They succeeded in separating the emetic principle from all, but in various proportions: the first yielded 16, the second 14, and the third only 4 per cent. of emetine, such being the name given to this principle. Adjourned. ART. XVI. Analytical Review of the Scientific Journals published on the Continent. Continued from page 453, Vol. 11. THE foreign journals appear very irregularly; we are therefore either subjected to the inconvenience of noticing in one review four or five numbers of each, or to the no less unpleasant alternative of leaving them unnoticed, till their novelty, and much of their consequent interest, are gone by. In the present article, therefore, we balance our account with them to the conclusion of last year, for two only, have hitherto made their appearance in 1817. Bulletin des Sciences, par la Société Philomathique. SEPTEMBER. Art. I. The four first articles have already been before our readers. Art. V. Mémoire sur la Variation des Constantes arbitraires dans les Questions de Mécanique; par M. Poisson. The generalization of the theory of varying the constante of the elliptic movement of the planets round the sun; and its application to all the problems of mechanics in which a movement produced by certain given forces, is disturbed by others much smaller in proportion to the former, is due to the great Lagrange, and was one of his last, and not least elegant works. The formulæ serving to explain and calculate this phenomenon, given by Lagrange in 1809, did not resolve the problem so generally, as those which were given a little time afterward by M. Poisson, and which were almost the reverse of those of the former great geometrician. The result obtained by Poisson were in some respects particularly satisfactory, but as part of the problem remained still unresolved, he has, in the present memoir, endeavoured to show that the differentials of the constantes, or at least a part of them, may be obtained by a method independent of the nature of the problem. Art. VI. Construction d'un Colorigrade; par M. Biot. We have announced the presentation of this instrument to the Academy by the author in a former Number; and endeavoured to explain its use from what we had heard from M. Biot himself, who explained its application for the purpose of determining, in a fixed and unalterable manner, the variety of colours occurring in organic and inorganic bodies, so as to be able to retrace them in a correct manner, and thus avoid the desultory mode of describing colours by terms of comparison, or by names which seldom convey to different persons one and the same meaning. We wish our time and limits allowed us to enter further into the details of this elegant apparatus; but the length of the paper and the nature of it are such, as not to admit fairly of curtailment; and we should encroach on the space destined for other matter, were we to give a complete translation of the whole memoir. Art. VII. Supplément à la Théorie analytique des Probabilités, par M. Laplace. We suppose our readers acquainted with the great work of this eminent mathematician on Probabilities, to which the present is a kind of appendix. This supplement is divided into two parts. In the first the author gives some new developements to his method known under the name of Methode des moindres carrés; he exposes the means of facilitating the use of it, and removes certain difficulties, which the analysis of the numbers 19, 20, 21 of the second book of his work might leave. He next takes for example the observations of Saturn and Jupiter, calculated by M. Bouvard, and by which a mass has been giveų to Jupiter equal to that of the sun. In determining the probability of this result, according to Laplace's method, we find a million to one, that M. Bouvard is right in his conjecture. The second part of the Supplement is relative to the probability of judgments-a question hitherto but incorrectly developed, notwithstanding its great importance to every class of society. OCTOBER. Art. L. Sur un nouveau Gisement de Calcaire d'Eau douce près de Montpellier. Par M. De Serre. Art. II. Expériences sur le Gas hydrogène-phosphoré. Taken from the Annals of Philosophy. Art. III. Note sur un Individu qui peut avaler son langue. Par F. Majendie. To swallow one's own tongue is considered by modern physiologists as impossible. M. Majendie allows, that in cases of perfect conformation of the parts, particularly of the mucous membrane lining the internal surface of the lower jaw, and the |