372 .French National Institute, 



that an indefinite number of calculators might be employed 

 at the same time, the greater part of whom would have oc- 

 casion for no other knowledge than that of addition and sub- 

 traction. 



Galvanic Experiments,— C, Cuvier stated the different 

 opinions that have been advanced respecting the galvanic 

 fluid, and how far its effects were supposed to affect the re- 

 ceived doctrines respecting the composition of water ; but 

 from the length of his notice on this head, and the period 

 at which it came to hand, we are obliged to defer it till next 

 month. 



The other notices read by Cuvier were the following : 



Discussions on the Composition rrf Water. — While Fourcroy 

 and Vauqnelin were defending the French chemistry against 

 the objections which galvanism gave rise to, C. Van Mons, 

 associate resident at Brussels, was combating an adversary 

 who employed arms of another kind. 



M. Wiegleb, a German chemist, having made water in a 

 state of vapour to pass through different kinds of tubes con- 

 taining different matters, obtained gases different from those 

 which compose that liquid, according to the pneumatic 

 theory. He thence concluded that water can be changed ac- 

 cording to circumstances into various kinds of gases. Some 

 of the Dutch chemists, having repeated and varied these ex- 

 periments, found that the gases obtained had penetrated 

 through the pores of the tubes, the. matter of which was not 

 sufficiently compact ; that they were always produced by the 

 substances with which these tubes were surrounded, and that 

 by employing impermeable tubes nothing of the like kind 

 was manifested. M. Wiegleb wrote a reply to the Dutch 

 chemists, and Van Mons has now refuted his answer in a 

 Latin memoir. As we cannot here enter into a minute dis- 

 cussion of this subject, it will be sufficient to observe that 

 the result of Van Mons is entirely favourable to the French 

 theory. 



Means of purifying the Air, — Three months ago I gave an 

 account of Guyton's labour on the means of purifying the 

 air_, preventing contagion, and checking its progress. He 

 ■tontinued the reading of his paper at some sittings of this 



quarter. 



