following judicious observation concerning them: It is very remarkable that, admitting the correctness of the analyses of these substances by Lavoisier, Cruickshank, the Saussures, Gay-Lussac, and Thénard, and calculating the heat which would have been produced by the hydrogen and the carbon which enter into their composition, if they had been burned separately, we arrive at nearly the same results.'

The Institute had proposed as a prize-question, in the preceding year, to ascertain the capacity for heat of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbonic acid; and the prize was decreed to MM. De la Roche and Berard, who made a very ample train of experiments on the subject, and determined the capacity not only of the gaseous bodies mentioned above, but also of atmospherical air, azote, gaseous oxyd of azote, olefiant gas, gaseous oxyd of carbon, and aqueous vapour. M. CUVIER remarks on the experiments that they are favourable to Berthollet's theory of the nature of chemical attraction; and he afterward gives an account of the analyses that have been made of the olefiant and other carbonated hydrogen gases by Dalton, with the contrary results obtained by Berthollet. We have then a notice of Thénard's experiments on Ammoniac; of those of Proust on Metallic Oxyd; and of those of De la Roche on Animal Heat. Many of the experiments and observations mentioned in this part of the report are sufficiently important in themselves, but again we must say that they have lost a great part of their interest in consequence of the length of time that has elapsed since they were made public.

Various notices also occur of different facts that have been reported on topics connected, with Natural History and Vegetable Physiology: but none of them are of so prominent a nature as to require to be particularized in this place. Under the head of Physiology, is announced an apparently important work on the comparative anatomy of the Organs of Respiration, by M. Tiedeman, Professor at Landshut; in which he has described them in the class of animals that have been called the echinodermata, comprehending the asteria and other analogous genera. Among other curious circumstances in the organization of these animals, he has observed a species of circulation between their organs of digestion and those of respiration; without, however, forming a complete double circle; and we cannot follow the branches into the external organs, nor into those of motion. It even appears that a distinct vascular system is distributed to the numerous peduncles which, in these animals, serve as instruments of loco-motion.' The organs of respiration are said. to differ much in the various genera; in some they represent hollow trees, the branches of

6

which fill themselves with or eject the external water, and are interlaced with a vascular net-work; in others, the water penetrates immediately into the cavity of the body, and bathes all its parts.

In the notice of a work by M. Lamouroux on the Corallines, the reporter states that he has himself presented to the class a tabular view of the divisions into which he proposes to arrange the subjects of natural history in his great work on Comparative Anatomy. His primary divisions are four; animals with vertebræ, the mollusca, articulated animals, and radiated animals or zoophytes; and he says that he finds this division to afford great facility in reducing the diversities of organization under general rules. We are informed that M. Jacobsen, a Danish army-surgeon, has discovered a peculiar appendage to the Nostrils of Quadrupeds, which does not exist in man, and is more developed in the herbivorous than in the carnivorous animals. He conjectures that it is the seat of a sense by which they reject venomous substances, distinguish sex, &c.; and this he conceives to be nothing more than a modification of smell. - MM. Lacepède, Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, and Cuvier, have made some important observations on the different species of the Cetacea; and M. De la Billardiere has added new facts to our knowlege of the natural history of the Bee. Some experiments by M. de Montègre, on the Gastric Juice, seem to shew that it is entirely similar to saliva.

Under the head of Medicine, is an account of a work on Chronic Diseases by M. Dumas; in which he endeavours to draw up a few simple principles, that may apply to the general doctrines of those affections: but, from the report of them, we can scarcely ascribe much success to the attempt.

The first of the Memoirs on physical subjects in Part II. is by M. PALISOT DE BEAUVOIS, on the Plants of the Family of the Cyperea. This family, so named from their resemblance to the Cyperus, is of considerable extent, including the Schoenus, Scirpus, Carex, and some other large genera; and it is remarkable for having the number of the stigmata equal to that of the angles of the seed: a circumstance which is said to depend on an original difference in the organization of the plant, and thus to afford a natural character from which we may deduce our principles of arrangement.

We next come to a very elaborate paper on Iodine, by M. GAY-LUSSAC; which, when it was read, must no doubt have been extremely interesting: but now, after an interval of nearly four years, it has lost much of its claims on our attention, the information which it contains being generally

known

known among the chemists of this country; and therefore all that remains for us is to give a brief view of the manner in which M. GAY-LUSSAC treats the subject. He begins with an account of the properties of iodine, and then proceeds to its combination with simple bodies; especially those processes in which the iodine is made to unite with hydrogen so as to form the hydriodic acid, according to one hypothesis, or, according to the other, loses a part of its oxygen. We are next furnished with a description of many of the iodurets, and of the action of iodine on various oxyds, which leads to an account of the iodic acid and its compounds, particularly with chlorine; and then we have a view of the hydriodates, given much in detail, and with every appearance of great accuracy. Some remarks on chlorine follow, especially as being a body in many respects analogous to iodine. We quote a paragraph towards the conclusion, referring to the hypothesis which has given rise to so much discussion:

'From the analogies which I have established in this memoir, we shall be convinced that oxygen, chlorine, and iodine, do not form an insulated groupe to which the acidifying property exclusively belongs. We have seen that it also belongs to sulphur and to azote, and we may say that it appertains likewise to a number of other bodies. Nevertheless, oxygen will always be considered as the principal acidifying substance, not only by the energy of this property and by the numerous acids which it forms, but because we can employ as solvents only those fluids which, containing oxygen and hydrogen, can change the nature of the compounds which they dissolve. Although chlorine does not disengage oxygen from all its combinations, it appears to me that it ought to be placed before it, on account of the energy of its properties: but fluorine, which we have not yet been able to obtain in an insulated state, would without doubt be placed before chlorine, because it disengagés oxygen from all its combinations. We owe to M. Ampere the first idea that the fluoric acid is analogous to the hydrochloric acid; that is to say, that it is composed of hydrogen and a particular body analogous to chlorine, which he had proposed to name fluorine. Mr. Davy, to whom he had imparted the theory which he had conceived, did not seek to verify it until a long time afterward, when M. Ampere had answered the objections which had been addressed to him.'

Exposition of the Facts collected up to the present Time on the Effects of Vaccination; and an Examination of the Objections that have been urged against it at different Periods, and which some Persons still allege against the Practice of it. By MM. BERTHOLLET, PERCY, and HALLÉ. - In this paper, which terminates the volume, the reporters observe with justice and candour that, notwithstanding the almost unanimous testimony of medical men and the public in general in

favour of vaccination, some objections are still raised against it; and that, as these do not appear, at least in some cases, to originate in any unworthy motive, it is proper that they should be examined with impartiality. They mention five objections that are occasionally urged: but the only one of them that, in this country, is regarded as of the least moment, or has any effect on the public mind, is that vaccination leaves in the constitution a tendency to eruptive complaints of various kinds. The circumstances which attended the first employment of the vaccine matter by Dr. Woodville, at the Small-pox Hospital in London, where eruptions were produced in a great number of cases, may have been a cause for the opinion that they were a necessary consequence of the disease: but the source of the evil in this case is well known, and was very candidly acknowleged by Dr. Woodville. On this topic, generally, it is here remarked:

From the comparison which we have made between the observations cited and the sum of the observations collected, relatively to the eruptions that have accompanied vaccination, we conclude that the cases in which these eruptions, as well as the febrile affections that have taken place, compared with the cases which are exempt from them, are in such a proportion that we cannot attribute these eruptions to the vaccine virus, nor regard them as a consequence of its properties; that they must be referred to accidental circumstances, either general or particular; that these circumstances, which cannot be always appretiated in many insulated individual cases, have in most of them, and especially in those in which the phænomena have shewn themselves at once in a great number of individuals, a relation to variolous emanations concentrated in those places in which the vaccination has been performed, or with the contagion of the epidemic small-pox; that, consequently, they do not prove in any way that the vaccine virus carries into the body a ferment which ought to be expelled by a febrile commotion, and by a particular eruption, or by any other remarkable evacuation; and that we have a right to draw directly the contrary conclusion from the number of cases in which the vaccine matter inserted has not produced any sensible change, except in the very place of the insertion, and has not given occasion to any durable febrile commotion, or to any appretiable inconvenience.'

The objection which, we think, has had the most influence in this country is not noticed in the Report; viz. that the vaccine inoculation, although it may be a complete preservative against the small-pox when it is first performed, loses this preservative power after some time. Our readers must be well aware that this allegation has been made by 'some professional men, and with a certain degree of plausibility; and at one time it appeared to be gaining ground even among

persons

persons of reflection: but we apprehend that it is now maintained by few individuals, except among the vulgar, and even with them we think its influence is not very extensive.

We transcribe the concluding paragraph, in order to manifest the agreement of sentiment which exists on this important subject, between the medical men of England and those of France:

The preservative effect of the vaccine virus, when' this virus has been taken in those determinate circumstances which assure us of its purity, and when the developement of it has been complete, is at least as certain as that of the small-pox itself, or as that which results from the variolous inoculation. Moreover, considered with relation to society in general, vaccination has an advantage which inoculation cannot possess; that of putting a stop to variolous epidemics, circumscribing them, and causing them to disappear; and of considerably diminishing the mortality which threatens the early periods of life, thus preserving to population its most advantageous proportion. In short, the results obtained up to this time inspire us with the probable hope of seeing the scourge of the small-pox, one of the most deplorable under which human nature suffers, disappear from the bosom of society.'

We cannot conclude without remarking that, as far as the physical papers in this and the former volume are concerned, they exhibit a great paucity of matter; and that, if they are to be assumed as any test of the state of general science in France, they would give an unfavourable picture of it. We have already animadverted on the great impropriety of antedating the volumes; and we can only conceive that such a plan was adopted in consequence of the impossibility of obtaining a sufficient stock of materials to form a volume during the course of each previous year.

Our attention will next be devoted to the two volumes which have commenced the publications of the Royal Institute; which term has now supplanted those of National and of Imperial, and has filled up the chasm already noted in the last part of the volume before us.

ART. X. Exposition d'un nouveau Principe général de Dynamique, &c.; i. e. An Exposition of a New General Principle of Dynamics. By the Count DE BUQUOY. Read at the Institute of France, August 28. 1815. 4to. pp. 30. Paris. Imported by De Boffe. Price 4s.

A LTHOUGH this is but a small publication, it undertakes to accomplish much; that is to say, it professes, within the limits of 30 pages, to give a general developement of dynamice, including statics and the principle of virtual velocities as particular cases. The author observes:

• The