For the Monthly Magazine. ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF chemift, who looks upon the muriatic acid as a compound. Citizen Guyton proved, that the jacinth THE FIRST AND SECOND SITTINGS of France is the fame as that of Ceylon, OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTION [The Conductors of the Monthly Magazine FIRST SITTING. The 15th of Germinal (April 4) 1796. CITIZEN Lalande read a memoir, fhowing, that, in confequence of his late labours and obfervations, the orbit of Mercury, fuppofed the moft difficult to be known, is now that the most accurately determined. Citizen Berthollet defended the French chemical theory from the attacks of three German chemifts, who had directed their objections against thofe acriform fubftances, which make fo great a figure in chemical operations, particularly against the oxygenous and azotic gaffes. Citizen Berthollet completely overturned the foundation of their objections, by relating the refult of his experiments upon phosphorus diffolved in azotic gas. Citizen Fourcroy, after having compared with the theories of modern chemifts fome difcoveries, very little known,' which were made by John Mayow, an English phyfician, more than a century ago, defended, in like manner, the French principles of chemistry. Citizen Vauquelin and he gave an account of a great number of experiments they have made upon phofphorus with pure azote, with azote mixed with oxygen, and fubmitted to various degrees of heat, with hydrogen; and, laftly, with fulphurated hydrogenous gas (hepatic air). This laft fubftance forms with phofphorus, fulphureo-phosphorous gas, on which Mefirs. Vauquelin and Fourcroy promise to make farther experiments. Citizen Van Mons, of Bruffels, fent a memoir to the clafs, in which he likewife fupports the principles of modern chemistry, and refutes the opinion of a foreign and that it contains, in like manner, an earth already noticed by Klaproth. This earth being of a diftinct nature from any of the five fimple earths, admitted by chemifts, forms a fixth, to which he continues to give the denomination of Zırconie. Citizen Guyton moreover prefented to the clafs, the model of an inftrument for determining the fpecific gravities of both folids and fluids. He calls it a gravimeter, and demonftrated its fuperiority over the the arometers, for which commerce and the arts are indebted to Nicholson and Fahrenheit. Citizen Cuvier, after reading a memoir upon the circulation of the blood in coldblooded animals; and after pointing out the remarkable variations that occur in the number of mufcles of the hand, upon which the agility and addrefs of the fingers depend, proceeded to fhow the mechanifm of the organs of hearing in whales and other cetaceous animals, the true ftructure of which had before escaped the researches of anatomifts. Citizen Laffus pointed out an eafy mean of curing a difeafe hitherto deemed incurable-a fwelling and elongation of the tongue, of which the extremity fometimes defcends to the chin. In the clafs of moral and political fciences, Citizen Grégoire repelled a charge brought against the French government by the emigrants and the cabinet of St. James's, who accuse it of having deftroyed the philanthropic fettlement which was formed at Sierra Leone, in order to remove the cause of slavery. Citizen Dupont de Nemours thence took occafion to obferve, that this eftablifhment, of which England is fo juftly proud, was first projected by a French man. In the Ephemerides du Citoyen, he had himself demonftrated, as long ago as 1771, that the labour of a negro lave cofts more than that of a free white; and that it was poffible to form an establishment on the coaft of Africa, where the fugar-cane is naturalized, and where it might be cultivated by free blacks. In 1774, he laid his plan before Turgot, who approved of it; but it was rejected by the council of the king. Citizen Dyanniere read two memoirs, which fhow, that the author has endeavoured to bring political economy, as nearly 1796.] Important Proceedings of the National Inftitution. nearly as poffible, to the precision of the exact fciences. It refults from his first memoir, that the district of Gueret, in the department of La Creufe, contains 43,580 inhabitants, in a space of 43 fquare leagues; and that, fuppofing an equal divifion made among all the confumers, the wheat produced in the district, though one of thofe the moft exposed to inclement feafons and fterility, would be more than fufficient for the nourishment of the inhabitants; but that as often any measures are taken which obftruct the free commerce of corn, a fcarcity is fure to ensue. His fecond memoir principally confifts of calculations, furnished by Paris, Lyons, and London, by which it appears, that ail variations in the price of corn have a fenfible effect upon the health and existence of mankind; that an excess in its price being known, a proportionate excefs may be fafely affigned to the number of deaths in thofe towns; that the more government interferes, the greater is the variation that takes place in its price; and that, confequently, all the branches of agriculture ought to be encouraged in fuch a way that the fcarcity of one article may be compenfated by the abundance of others. In the clafs of literature and the fine arts, Citizen Dufaulx read fome fragments of his travels among the Pyrenéan mountains; and Citizen Bitaubé, an effay, intituled, On the Study of the Ancients. Citizen David le Roy read the first part of his New Researches concerning the Ships employed by the Ancients, from the beginning of the Punic Wars to the Battle of Actium, and of the Ufe that might be made of them in the French Marine. Remarking the fudden way in which the Romans, who had never effayed their power at fea, eclipfed the naval glory of the Carthaginians and ruined their ma. rine, he afcribes almoft all their fuccefs to the conful Duilius, the inventor of the corvus, a kind of flying bridge, which, by a new and fimple contrivance, hooked the enemy's fhips, and enabled the Roman foldiers to board them two abreast. The author rectifies the very faulty defcription which Folard has given of this machine in his Commentaries on Polybius; and thinks it might be advantageously used on board the French pri vateers, The reft of the tranfactions recorded in this fitting, were not remarkable for novelty or importance. 633 At the fecond public fitting of the National Inftitution, on the 15th Meffidor, (July 3) Citizen Pelletier communicated to the firft clafs his obfervations on Stronthian earth, found in the north of Scotland. Hope, profeffor of chemistry at Glasgow, Schmeifter, of Hamburgh, and Blumenbach and Klaproth, of Berlin, confider it as a newly discovered earth, diftin&t from the feveral kinds already admitted by chemifts, while feveral other scientific men have long been of opinion, that the combination of Stronthian earth with the car. bonic acid gas, is nothing more than a variety of the combination of barytes, or terra ponderofa, with that acid. Citizen Pelletier refolved to put their opinions to the proof, and made a number of experi ments, which he detailed to the elass, and from which he thought himself authorized to infer, that the Stronthian earth is different from Parytes, and, with still greater reafon, that it is entirely diftinct from the other fimple earths with which we are as yet acquainted. On the fame day, Citizen Fourcroy read a memoir concerning Barytes, and its refemblance to Stronthian earth, from which both he and Citizen Vauquelin thought they had a right to deduce confequences very different from thofe of Citizen Pelletier. Chemifts had long defired to have Barytes in a very pure ftate, when, a few months fince, Citizen Vauquelin discovered a mode of feparating it entirely from the carbonic acid. That point once attained, Citizens Fourcroy and Vauquelin were able to afcertain the principal properties of the earth in queftion, and to make extenfive researches concerning its combinations. The first part of thefe labours were the fubject of Citizen Fourcroy's memoir, which he terminates by advancing, that having carefully compared the new properties of Barytes with thofe afcribed to Stronthian earth by Klaproth, both he and Citizen Vauquelin think they have reafon to confider them as one and the fame earth. In a fecond memoir, however, Citizen Pelletier gives an account of new experiments which he has made upon Stronthian earth and Barytes, rendered very pure by a different procefs from that of Citizen Vauquelin. Thefe experiments induce him to perfift in looking upon them as two diftinct earths. He informed the clafs, that Stronthian earth was not confined to the place from which it derives its name; but but that it had been found in another part of Scotland, and in Saxony alfo. While the above men of fcience were employed in improving the chemical theory, by afcertaining the number of fimple earths, an immediate application of chemiftry to the arts was made by Citizen Guyton (de Morveau.). It is well known, that the inalterability of platina, and the difficulty with which it enters into fufion, render it, in certain circumftances, much more valuable even than gold. The French chemifts having indicated the method of purifying it, and of reftoring to it its ductility, it is Mow fabricated into very ufeful inftruments and veffels; but the art of rendering it fubfervient to our purpofes is ftill far from perfection, and the effential properties of the metal as yet little known. Citizen Guyton thought proper, in confequence, to fubmit it to a feries of experiments. Thofe he communicated to the clafs relate to its denfity, its tenacity, its adhesion to mercury, and its amalgamation. They are of the more importance at this moment, as the Spanish government has juft fent to France a very conklerable quantity of this metal (found only in South America) purpofely to aflift the French chemifts in their refearches. An eafy procefs for the folution of the elaftic gum in fulphuric ether has been invented by Citizen Pelletier. It is by no means difficult to conceive the great utility of this folution, which, on being applied to the furface of a body, lets the ether fly off, and forms a kind of varnish, that preferves it effectually from the deftructive influence of the air. Citizen Chaptal, affociate of the National Institution, after having flown in a treatife the great confumption which foft foap occafions in France of the oils of the Republic and Italy; after pointing out the great advantage that would refult to individuals, and to the nation at large, from the finding of a substitute; and after giving an account of the various fruitlefs attempts made for that purpofe, explains the manner of making a very cheap kind of soap, which he calls foup of wool. It is compofed of a ley of wood afhcs, or of potafh, in which old fcraps of woollen cloth, or flocks of wool, are boiled and diffolved to the point of faturation. The author enlarges upon the utility of this compofition, not only for the fulling of cloth, but for the preparation of cotton intended for dying, for washing linen, and for other domeftic ufes and proceffes of the arts. Obfervations on the structure of the 3 cryftals called Zeolites, were then read by Citizen Hauy. He defcribes the different primitive and fecondary forms of the four fpecies, and fays, that one of them (that which was firft mentioned by Cronstedt) poffeffes alone the remarkable property of acquiring both kinds of electricity by the mere application of heat, and of preferv. ing them for fome time after it has cooled. He obferves, that the crystals which have this property, differ from the ufual fymmetry of crystals by the various forms of the parts in which the two kinds of electricity refide. One of those parts has additional fides, which are wanting in the other, fo that the part which will give figns of vitreous, and that which will exhibit appearances of refinous electricity, may be pointed out before hand. Citizen Hauy concludes, by faying, that the Tourmaline and Topaz were known to poffefs this electric property; that he difcovered it in the oxide (calx) of zinc, and in calcareous boratæ; and that the crystals called Zeolites may now be added to the lift, which he had long been endeavouring, to no purpose, to enlarge, by a multitude of experiments made on a great va riety of fubitances. The organization of vegetables has been the object of Citizen Desfontaines' refearches. It refults from the different comparisons he has made of his obfervations with thofe of feveral other naturaliks, particularly of Citizen Daubenton upon the palm-tree, that vegetables are divifible into two great claffes, of which the diftinctive characters are taken from the ftructure, difpofition, and developement, of the internal organs. After having proved that the feeds of all the vegetables comprehended in the first clafs have only one cotyledon, or feminal leaf, and that thofe of the fecond have two, he points out the advantages that may be derived from thefe new principles, and does not defpair of their affifting, on fome future day, not only to discover the natural rela tion between different vegetables, but their genus alfo, and even their species. Citizen Cuvier gave the clafs a defcription of the skeleton of a very large quadruped, which was found in South America, a hundred feet under ground, which is now depofited in the cabinet at Madrid, and of which Roume, affociate of the Inftitution, has fent an engraving, accompanied with a scientific description *. 1796.] Important Proceedings of the National Inftitution. Citizen Daubenton communicated the plan and the first refult of a series of experiments, made in the National Museum of Natural Hiftory, upon feveral domeftic animals. Their tendency is to make known the produce of the mixture of feveral useful animals; the leaft coftly remedies, and the moft proper food for fheep; the means of giving a good tafte and fmeil to the flesh of tame rabbits, and that of improving the moft productive breed of fowls. Citizen Buache spoke of fome islands in the South Sea, which have been confidered as fabulous, becaufe not properly laid down by the earlier navigators, but which, from the last voyages of Cook, Bougainville, and de la Peyroufe, actually appear to have an existence. In that cafe they are to be found by keeping in the latitude of thirty degrees and a third from the 180th to the 210th degree of longitude. Citizen Goffelin brought together all that the ancients knew of the Arabian Gulf, and of the mobility of its fhore. He fhowed that the Ophir of the Hebrews ftill exifts to the northward of Yemen; but that it is at prefent inland, in confequence of the retrocellion of the fea. Citizen Duvillard read the beginning of a great work upon benefit focieties (caffes d'économie) which by making a profitable ufe of the fmalleft favings of industrious citizens might afford all the affiftance fuffering humanity requires, and furnish all the recompenfes due from fociety. Citizen Delambre related his labours in the measurement of the meridian. In the last public fitting of the Academy of Sciences he had given an account of the delays, dangers, and obftacles of every kind, which, in the fpace of the last nine months, had prevented his meafuring more than twelve triangles, from Compiegne to Pithiviers. The next fummer was more fortunate. Four months fufficed to measure the space between Compiegne and Dunkirk. The fteeples in the way greatly facilitated the operation. It was more difficult between Pithiviers and Orleans. The forest affording no remarkable point of view, it became neceffary to erect a fignal-houfe (Signal) fixty feet high, and experience had shown the danger of drawing the eyes of the people upon fuch objects in revolutionary times. 635 It was refolved upon, however, although the protection given by the conftauted authorities was hardly found to fuffice. The operation became very laborious in the heart of the winter, citizen Delambre being obliged to go every day through three leagues of fnow in his way to and from the fignal-houfe, and being alfo under the neceffity of taking down his inftru- ́ ments every afternoon. Notwithstanding thefe difficulties, the work was drawing to a conclufion, when he was recalled, with an injunction to fufpend it without delay. It was at the time when the danger of difobedience was great. Citizen Delambre, however, ventured to run the risk. He did not quit his moveable obfervatory, till he had 'connected his triangles at Orleans and at Châteauneuf. On the very day that he was putting the last hand to that part of the bufinefs, the wooden tower, on which he was ftanding, was blown down by a gale of wind. Thus did the wifh of a man of fcience to ferve his then ungrateful country, make him brave death in a variety of ways. He was not allowed to return to his tak till eighteen months after, happy at having brought it as far as the folid rocks of Orleans and of Châteauneuf. The space between Orleans and Bourges was that which had given the most trouble in 1740; and the difficulty was greatly increafed by the deftruction of the steeple of Salbris and feveral others. The winter came. Citizen Delambre went to Dunkirk, one of the extremities of the meridian, and measured, with the greateft exactitude, the height of a circumpolar ftar in its two paffages over the me ridian. This operation can only be performed in the months of Frimaire, Nivofe, and Pluviofe, because it is neceffary that the nights fhould be fourteen or fif. teen hours long. The Memoirs of the National Institute contain an explanation of the principles of the operation undertaken by Citizens De lambre and Mechain, in order to measure the arc of the meridian, which paffes. through France, from Dunkirk to the Pyrenean mountains, and which stretches along through Spain towards Barcelona. Citizen Mechain, placed at the other extremity of the arc, was then making, with equal zeal, and with no lefs embarraffments, obfervations, which perfectly agree with thofe of Citizen Delambre, On one fide the meridian is measured from Dunkirk to Dun-fur-Auron, a diftance of two bundred and thirty-feven thousand toifes; on 4 M the |