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the other from Barcelona to Carcassonne, in a country and circumftances ftill more difficult, along a space of five hundred thoufand toifes.

This great operation, which requires an union of all the most perfect geodetical means, and an inconceivable number of aftronomical obfervations, has been fometimes attacked, and fometimes fufpended. But the law of the 18th Germinal, of the third year of the republic, has given fresh fpirit to every part of the undertaking. The different commiffioners charged with its execution are now bufily employed. Mechain is refuming his triangles at Perpignan; Delambre is fetting off to continue his at Bourges and at Dun; and both hope to return to Paris after having completed their honourable and laborious

tafk.

A differtation was read to the clafs by Citizen Tenon, upon the different degrees of increafe and decrease of the human skull, confidered particularly at the four principal periods of life; at the birth, at the age of fix years, at the age of maturity, and in the season of decrepitude. After indicating thefe different degrees, with a great deal of precifion, the author afferts that the knowledge thence refulting will be of great ufe in the management of the head, while growing, and when attacked by diseases more or lefs ferious, efpecially thofe that requi re important opera

tions.

Citizen du Pont de Nemours, after remarking the connexion that exifts between the sciences, affirmed that the greater number of queftions of political economy, efpecially thofe that relate to the caufes and effects of the prices of productions and merchandize, could only be folved with perfect exactnefs by means of the moft tranfcendant geometry, without which nothing better than a vague and uncertain refult can be obtained. He gave, as an example, the effect of freedom restored to commerce, or of a tax taken off any commodity; an effect which cannot be properly expreffed, unless by two correfponding ferpentine and affymptote curves. called upon the learned members of the phyfical and mathematical clafs to turn their attention towards thefe political curves, which are perhaps innumerable.

He

Having thus given a fuccin& account of every thing of a practical and phyfical nature that defers notice in the Tranf. actions of the Infte for the laft three months, we shall mention the labours of the French literati in matters of a moral,

metaphyfical, and speculative nature with ftill greater brevity and referve.

Citizen Prony pronounced a panegyric on citizen Pingré, who died on the 12th of Floreal laft. One part produced a great effect upon the minds of the auditors:

"Pingré," faid he, " though upwards of eighty-four years of age, was not lefs affiduous at the fittings of the National Inftitute, but he came accompanied by melancholy: bis eyes fought these in vain that friend, that competitor, whose pen no less profound and eloquent than bis own”

At thefe words every body prefent divined the name of Bailly, and loud applaufe interrupted the orator. bt redoubled when he named that excellent man, fø celebrated on account of his learning, and fo remarkable for his courage, for his probity, and for the virtues he difplayed dur ing the revolution. They were repeated a third time, and were mingled with tears, when Prony fpoke of the tragical end of Pingré's refpectable friend.

After a moment of involuntary filence, occafioned by the idea of Bailly's death and of that of Pingré, Baudin, of the Ardennes, read a treatife on the Spirit of Faction, in which he denied that an attempt to give freedom to all could be denominated factious. Brutus, the first conful, William Tell, and Washington, might have failed, as Marcus Brutus and Caffius did at Philippi, and Barneveldt upon the fcaffold. It is not fuccefs which diftinguishes the hero from the factious fpirit: it is the difference of the object they have in view.

Nor would he admit that the being a minority constituted a certain proof of faction. Cato's firmnefs, furviving in the midst of almost universal defpondency, did not make him a factious man; fince all the Romans would have wished to be free; but Cato was almost the only one who preferved fufficient courage to remain fo. But he who, under the pretence of supporting rights, endeavours to diffolve the state itfelf, becomes a factious man ;. epithet will doubtlefs apply to the two Gracchi, against whofe memory the very names of thofe who have taken them for models bear witnefs."--(This paffage excited the loudest applause.)

"and the

Baudin concluded, by faying, that in a monarchy factions are only formidable to the authority of the prince; while in a republic they endanger general liberty, which is the property of all; and, confequently, that in the latter they ought to be more odious to every one who poffeffes patriotism or virtue.

Citizen

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The SKELETON of a large species of QUADRUPED hitherto unknown

lately discovered one hundred feet under ground near the River la Plata.

1796.]

Account of the Skeleton found at Paraguay.

Citizen Camus communicated to the Inftitute his remarks on the Illyrian tongue, either the parent or a dialect of the Sclavonic, and the fource of the Polith and Hungarian languages. These refearches are one of the fruits of the author's captivity.

He mentioned afterwards the juftice done to France by the learned of Germany, and the great hopes they conceive from the formation of a national inftitute of fciences and arts; and thence proceeded to fpeak of the arrangement of libraries. One of the principal regulations he recommends, is the making a fyftem of Bibliography, or an index of books, pointing out the works of real utility in every branch of fcience.

A treatife by Citizen Roederer followed, concerning the funeral inftitutions proper for a republic, which permits all kinds of worship, but authorizes none.

He would neither with to have the dead depofited on the high roads, as among the Romans; not in catacombs, as was the cuftom of the Chriftians in the earlier ages; nor in caves, as among the Germans; nor in temples erected to the dead themfelves, as was the practice of the Greeks in heroic times; nor in church yards, as among the people of modern Europe: he would have their remains laid to reft in a facred wood. There trees, flowers, birds, air, and light would furround the manes of the virtuous; and there barren and frightful rocks would prefent to the wicked fepulchral caverns, haunted by vultures, the fymbols of remorse. It

may be doubted whether this fanciful way of difpofing of the dead, will be more approved of by philofophers on this fide of the water, than the charitable piety of the legiflator Paftoret, who propofed ten years imprisonment in fetters, as the punishment of those who should in any way violate their afhes. It would, befides, be worthy Roederer's ingenuity to fhow how vultures can be compelled to Ay round the tombs of the wicked (errer autour des cauernes fépulcbrales.)

In the fame fitting Citizen Prony was to have given an account of the progrefs of regifter land fle.cadaftre), and Citizen Fontanes was to have read his obfervations on fome notes written by Voltaire in his youth upon a copy of Virgil, but time did not permit.

637

ing care that the divifions indicate the deci mal parts of the day; namely, the tenths, thousandths, and hundred thousandths; or that the day be divided into ten hours, the bours into a hundred minutes, and the minute into a hundred feconds.

PHYSICS.

The comparison of the nature, form, and ufe of the liver in the different claffes of animals.

POLITICAL and MORAL SCIENCES.
First Prize.

To determine the influence of figns on the formation of ideas.

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Second Prize. tions, is it proper for a republican state to For what purposes, and on what condiopen public loans?

LITERATURE and FINE ARTS.

First Prize.

To examine the changes that the French tongue bas undergone from the time of Mal.. berbe and Balzac to the prefent day.

Second Prize.

To examine what has been, and what may be, the influence of painting on the manners of a free people?

Notice concerning the Skeleton of a very large
Species of Quadruped, bitherto unknown,
found at Paraguay, and depofited in the
Cabinet of Natural Hiftory at Madrid.
Drawn up by G. CUVIER.

(SEE THE ANNEXED PLATE.) THIS skeleton is foffil. It was found a

hundred feet beneath the furface of a fandy foil, in the vicinity of the river of La Plata. It only wants the tail, and fome pair-bones, which have been imitated in wood; and the skeleton is now mounted at Madrid, where the Citizen Roume, correfpondent of the National Inftitution, has examined it with attention.

This fkeleton, reprefented in the annexed plate, is twelve feet (French) long, by fix feet in height. The fpine is compofed of feven cervical, fixteen dorfal, and four lumbar vertebræ : it has, confequently, fixteen ribs. The facrum is fhort; the offa ilia very broad, and their plane being almoft perpendicular to the fpine, they form a very open pelvis.

The following are the fubjects of the There is no pubis or ifchium; at least prizes propofed by the Institute:

MATHEMATICS.

The conftruction of a watch for the pocket, capable of bowing the longitude at fea, tak

they are wanting in this fkeleton, and there is no mark of their having existed when the animal was alive.

The thigh bones are exceffively thick, 4 M 2

and

and the leg bones ftill more fo in proportion. The entire fole of the foot bore on the ground in walking. The fhoulderblade is much broader than long. The Cavicles are perfect, and the two bones of the fore-arm are diftinct and moveable upon each other.

The fore limbs are longer than the hind. To judge by the form of the laft phalanxes, there must have been very large pointed claws, enclofed at their oriin in a bony fheath. There appears to have been only three of thefe claws on the fore-feet, and a single one on the hind. The other toes feem to have been deprived of them, and, perhaps, entirely concealed

beneath the fkin.

The head is the greateft fingularity of this fkeleton. The occiput is elongated and flattened, but it is pretty convex above the eyes. The two jaws form a confiderable projection, but without teeth, there being only four on each fide above and below, all grinders, with a flat crown, and grooved across. The breadth of the branches of the lower jaw, and the great apophyfis placed on the base of the zygomatic arch, deferve particular notice.

This quadruped, in its characters, taken together, differs from all known animals; and each of its bones. confidered apart, alfo differs from the correfponding bones of all known animals. This refults from a detailed compariton of the skeleton with that of other animals, and will readily appear to those who are verted in this kind of refearches; for none of the animals which approach it in bulk have either pointed claws, nor fimilarly forined head, fhoulder-blades, clavicles, pelvis, or limbs.

As to its place in the fyftem of quadrupeds, it is perfectly marked by the fole infpection of the ordinary indicatory characters, that is, the claws and teeth. Thefe how that it must be claffed in the family of unguiculated quadrupeds deftitute of cutting teeth; and, in fact, it has ftriking relations with thefe animals in all parts of its body This family is compofed of the Shotbs (Bradypus, L.); Tatoos (Dalypus, L.); Pangolins (Manis, L.); Ant-eaters (Myrmecophaga, L.); and Oyeteropus, or Cafe Ant-eater.

[The writer proceeds to a detailed comparifon of parts of thefe animals with the keleton in queftion, which, for the fake of brevity, we omit.]

The great thickness of the branches of the lower jaw, which, furpaffes even that of the elephant, feems to prove that the vait animal, which is the fubject of our

examination, was not content with leaves, but, like the elephant and rhinoceros, broke and ground the branches themfelves. Its clofe and flat-crowned teeth muft have been very proper for this purpose. The pofition of the bones of the nofe, having fome analogy with that of the elephant and tapir, would induce a fufpicion that our animal wore a trunk, but it must have been very fhort, fince the length of the head and neck together equals that of the fore-legs. However this be, we find, in the absence of canine teeth, and the shortnefs of the muzzle, fufficiert characters to conftitute a new genus in the fan.ily of the edentated, which ought to be placed between the Sloths and the Tatoos, fince to the fhape of the head of the former, it joins the teeth of the latter. It would be necellary to know particulars of which a fkeleton cannot inform us, such as the nature of the teguments, form of the tongue, pofition of the mamma, &c. in order to determine to which of thele it approached the mott. In the mean time, I thought I might give it the generic name of MEGATHERIUM, and the trivial one of Ameri

canum.

It adds to the numerous facts which apprize us that the animals of the ancient world were all different from thofe which we now fee on the earth; for it is fcarcely probable, that if this animal ftill exifted, fo remarkable a fpecies could have hitherto efcaped the refearches of naturalifts. It is alfo a new and very ftrong proof of the invariable laws of the fubordination of characters, and the juftuels of the confequences, thence deduced for the claffification of organifed bodies; and under coth thefe views it is one of the most precious difcoveries which have for a long time been made in natural hiftory.

MATHEMATICAL CORRESPONDENCE.

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