scyon of the old stock; for the present memoir was designed for the last volume of the Memoirs of the Academy, année 1790.

V. Memoir on a new Genus of the Family of Palms (Areng saccharata), by M. Labillardière.'-Our author is already known to us, by an account of a voyage undertaken to investigate the fate of the unfortunate La Pérouse. This palm occurs in the Molucca Islands, and is the saguerus of Rumphius. His description is full: but we cannot abridge it; and no essential character is annexed. The genus with which it is most closely connected is the borassus. The natives procure sugar from it, by piercing the trunk just below the divarication of the leaves, or by cutting off the upper part at the same spot. The sugar, however, is very dark and impure. The long black filaments, which come from the base of the leaflets, are employed in making cordage, brooms, &c. The leaves are used to cover the huts, to wrap up and secure the white dammara—a resin, of which the natives make excellent torches, &c. The sugar appears to be discharged in considerable quantities.

VI. Memoir on the Prisms found in the horizontal Strata of Plaster or Marle in the Neighbourhood of Paris, and their Analogy with Basaltic Prisms, by M. Desmarest.'-As the conclusion of the memoir, with the plates, will be published in the fifth volume, we shall be more concise in our account of the present article. Our author, who is a mineralogist of the old school, attributed the prismatic form of basaltes to the retraction of lava cooled slowly. Yet, as this idea was not restricted so exactly to bodies passing from a liquid to a solid state when the fluidity was owing to fusion, the occurrence of these prisms, in the alluvial strata here described, supports, in his opinion, the former idea. Our conclusion is very different; and the discovery of the prisms seems to add weight to the opinions of the best naturalists, who, since the time of Bergman, have endeavoured to show that basaltes are not volcanic productions. We mean, however, to examine the subject more at length, when we receive the conclusion.

• VII. Memoir on the solstitial Distance of the Sun at the Zenith, in the Tropic of Cancer, in the Years 1796 and 1797, as well as on the secular Diminution of the Obliquity of the Ecliptic, by M. Duc la Chapelle.'-In the years mentioned, the distance of the sun from the zenith has increased 14′ 4′′, from the year 1750; in other words, the obliquity of the ecliptic has diminished in the same proportion. The secular diminution will consequently amount to 31' 3". The distance of the two periods is not, however, sufficient to establish a general rule, though the diminution certainly exists to nearly this amount. The effect is probably owing to the attractions of Jupiter and Venus.

VIII. Observation of the Summer Solstice of the Year 1801, made at Montauban, with the Sextant of the Abbé de la Caille, by M. Duc la Chapelle.'-The apparent obliquity of the ecliptic seemed to be 25° 28′ 9′′.

IX. Memoir on the Differences of the Milk of the same milking, divided into several different Portions, by M. Parmentier. It is singular that our author, who has engaged so fully in the analysis of milk, should have remained ignorant of a fact so generally known. Every dairy-maid reserves the last milk (the strokings) for her favourite, The cause of the more serous nature of the first milking he has not satisfactorily explained, though a problem not peculiarly difficult. Every secreted fluid seems to be thickened, not in the ducts, but in the glands, or some appended follicle. The excretory ducts are first filled, but the secreted fluid remains in them with little change the rest is thickened in their respective reservoirs, and poured out in a richer state: the final cause is sufficiently obvious. Our author's short table of the comparative richness of different milks, we shall transcribe.

The proportion of butter, &c. in the milks of different animals, is in the following order, beginning with the animal in which it is most copious-sheep, cows, goats, women, asses, mares; of cheese, goats, sheep, cows, asses, women, mares; of essential salt, women, asses, mares, cows, goats, sheep; of serum, asses, women, mares, cows, goats, and sheep.'

Our author's observations on the consequences to be drawn from this fact are of more importance.

It is highly unfair, for instance, to bring the same ass every morning successively to different people, as the first may have too serous a milk, the last an aliment too heavy. It may be managed with a relation to the different states of the patient, under the direction of the physician. The arrangements of the dairy, which this method might suggest, are sufficiently obvious. The milk, drawn at different periods, may be separated for different uses; or, during the sucking of the calves, the young ones may be allowed to suck for a time, after having been kept separate, and the remainder might then be drawn for the dairy.'

M. Parmentier seems, however, not to be aware that the cow can occasionally withhold her milk, and that driving away the calf will probably induce her to do so.

X. Meteorological Observations made at Montmorenci, near Paris, in the Year 5 (1797), by M. L. Cotte.'-The heat was from 26° 4' to -8° 0'; the mean 8° 4. The thermometer employed is said to be the mercurial one of the Academy, probably Réaumur's. The mean heat will then be about 50 of Fah

renheit. The barometer was from 28 inches 5.47 lines to 27 inches 0.57 lines; the mean 27 inches 10 lines. The declination of the needle was from 22° 15' to 19° 57'.

There were only ninety-four fine days, and 139 rainy: the predominant winds, north and south-west; temperature, cold and moist: the quantity of rain, 26 inches 6.8 lines.

XI. A mean Year concluded from meteorological Observations made at Paris from 1763 to 1781, and from 1783 to 1796, a period of thirty-three years, by M. Messier; and, at Montmorenci, for twenty-nine years, viz. from 1768 to 1796, by M. Cotte.'-The mean of the greatest heats, in this extensive period, was, at Paris, 25° 5', at Montmorenci, 23° 2′; the mean of the least, -6° 1′ and -7° 3′: the mean of the whole, 9° 1' and 8° 3' respectively. The mean of the greatest heights of the barometer in this period was 28 inches 6.4 lines, and 28 inches 3.7 lines at the respective places; of the least, 27 inches 2.6 lines and 27 inches 0.10 lines. The mean elevation at Paris and Montmorenci 28 inches 0.4 lines, and 27 inches 10.2 lines. The quantity of rain 20 inches 2.4 lines, and 23 inches 5.9 lines. The average of the rainy days at Paris were 155, and at Montmorenci 145.

XII. Observations on Charcoal and on carbonated hydrogenous Gases, by M. Berthollet.'

XIII. Additions to the Observations on Charcoal and carbonated Hydrogens, by the same.'

• XIV. Second Addition to the Observations on the same Subject, by the same.'

These papers are very important, in a chemical view. The nature of charcoal has been the subject of considerable controversy. Our author supposed that it was compounded of carbon and hydrogen; and, in the reduction of oxyd of zinc, as well as the other oxyds, which require considerable heat, the hydrogen, with the oxygen, formed water instead of carbonic acid. This opinion has occasioned some dispute, which would detain us too long to investigate. In the present article, M. Berthollet considers the inquiries of Lavoisier, respecting the composition of carbonic acid; the proofs of the existence of water in this acid, offered by Monge; the experiments of Guyton on the diamond; the analysis of the gas separated from charcoal by heat; the olefiant gas; the gas separated from alcohol, oil, sugar, and charcoal, by the decomposition of water; the gas separated by the means of oxyd of zinc and carbonated barytes. To follow the author minutely in this discussion, would be impossible, so that we shall only notice generally the result of his inquiries. Charcoal he finds really to consist of hydrogen and carbon, with a little oxygen. These ingredients form water and carbonic acid, sometimes a particular species of infiammable gas. Of the latter, however,

there are two species, one containing the two former ingre dients only, the other the whole number. Of the first kind is the olefiant gas, that separated from alcohol and oil, probably also that which arises from the decomposition of water by charcoal. To the second kind belongs the gas drawn from charcoal by the action of heat; that formed in consequence of the detonation of the oily and olefiant gases with a small proportion of oxygen; the gas drawn from sugar; those obtained by means of the metallic oxyds and charcoal, and of the carbonat of barytes and charcoal.

In the additions, onr author adverts to the experiments of Mr. Cruickshank, in his opposition to the phlogistic theory, as supported by Dr. Priestley, and points out the principal difference in the results of their respective trials. The second addition relates to some experiments of M. Hassenfratz, in opposition to those of our author himself, which he repeated with very different results.

XV. A Journal of the Increase and Diminution of the River in Paris, observed at the Bridge de Tournelle in the Year 5 (1797), by M. Cousin.'-This memoir is of local importance only. The lowest ebb, from which the calculation was made, occurred in 1719, though, in 1767, it is said to have been ten inches lower. The mean state is three feet nine inches; and, in 1658, it was twenty-five feet four inches. In 1719 it was at the zero of the scale, which amounts to twenty-four feet.

'XVI. Inquiries into the greatest Heats which have occurred at Paris from 1682 to 1794, by J. D. Cassini.'-This is also a scyon of the old stock, and a most respectable one. The infamous directory of 1793-for the execrations of philosophers will follow them in every æra, as those of the literati follow the caliph Omar-who dissolved the Academy, prevented its publication. The meteorological remarks are truly valuable, and deserve great attention. We can, in this place, only mention the facts. The two great questions are, What year, since that of 1682, has it been most hot during the summer? 2dly, In what year has the heat, on the whole, been most considerable? Our author fixes his terms in the following manner:-When the mercury is from 18° to 20° of Réaumur (about 75° of Fahrenheit the summer heat on his scale), it is accounted hot; at 24 and 25° (about 87°) it is very hot; but at 30° (about 100° of Fahrenheit) intensely so. In this country the heat rarely amounts to 82°, except when the mercury is suspiciously elevated by the direct or reflected rays of the sun. It is singular that from these tables, during this long period of eighty-two years-for there was, at different æras, an interruption of thirty years-in no one were there three months of heat: in ten only did the hot days exceed sixty in number. The mean

number of hot days was about thirty. The years 1701 and 1704 had each nine days of extraordinary heat; those of 1686, 1691, and 1705, had each five days; 1793, six days. Since 1709, the heats have been much less frequent: which supports Dr. Herschel's system; but, in general, the coldest winters have not been followed by the hottest summers, though it has sometimes happened. The summer of 1701 was, on the whole, the warmest. With respect to the second question, In what years has the heat, on the whole, been most considerable? from the tables it appears that 1682 has exceeded all the others, and that the next was 1793.

< XVII. A Memoir occasioned by a Work presented by Lieut. Maignon, respecting theoretic and practical Explanations of a trigonometric Chart for reducing the apparent Distance of the Moon from the Sun, or a Star, at a true Distance, and for resolving other Questions of Navigation, by M. l'Eveque.'-This is an admirable memoir on many nautical subjects; but, did not our limits compel us to be concise, we should find it very difficult to give any adequate abridgement of it.

XVIII. Observations on the greatest Heats, the Drought, and the Diminution of the Waters of the Seine, at Paris, during the Months of July and August of the Year 1793, compared with the preceding Years, since 1753; 2dly, on the direct Heat of the Rays of the Sun in 1793, and on the Heat of Water exposed to the Sun in a Glass Bottle in the same Year.' -The waters of the Seine, in August, were more than five inches below the standard of 1719. The hottest days raised the mercury above 104° of Fahrenheit, though the wind was occasionally, and indeed at the time of this extreme heat, at north-east: most commonly, however, it was in the western quarter. The barometer was stationary about twenty-eight inches. The drought of the year 1778 seems to have been more considerable, and the storms much more violent. The heat of 1705 was peculiarly violent at Montpellier. The particular facts should be examined in the tables; but, on the whole, this article will be found peculiarly rich in observations of considerable importance in meteorology.

XIX. A new Method of determining the Inclination of the magnetic Needle, by M. Coulomb.'--This valuable article is incapable of abridgement. It is the last of a volume of peculiar interest; but we cannot help remarking, with a sigh, that much of the value is of an earlier date, and really belongs to the Academy, from whose archives some of the best papers have been taken. With this memoir the volume closes.