Academy of Sciences in Paris. 389 



and saltworks of Bakau, recently visited by M. de Lenz. Geographical 

 additions by M. Klapproth, on the limits of the Atlas, after the 

 Chinese authors, and of the volcanic phenomena of Central Asia. 

 Artesian and fire wells of the Chinese, at a depth of one thousand 

 eight hundred feet, (perforated in a manner not yet used in Europe, 

 by raising a beam or rammer with a cord, used by the Chinese 

 from the most remote periods,) of hydrogen gas, both portable and 

 brought by pipes from great distances for lighting, and for the 

 evaporation of salt-waters. Ancient use in China of combustible 

 bricks made of pounded pit-coal. Summary of volcanic phenomena 

 considered in the most general point of view as the effect of the action 

 of the interior fluid of a planet on its solid and oxydized exterior 

 crust. Remarks on the progress of radiation at the surface, and on 

 the interruption of the communications with the interior, which ad- 

 vance a state in which the relation of position with a central body 

 (the sun) alone determines the difference in climate. Considerations 

 on the temperature and the hygrometrical state of the atmosphere of 

 the north of Asia. Effect of the subterranean ices on the preserva- 

 tion of the soft parts of animals, and remarks on the inutility of the 

 geological hypothesis of an instantaneous refrigeration. General 

 reflections on the causes of the inflections of the isothermic lines 

 upon the numerical data of the distribution of heat on the surface of 

 the soil, in the sea and in the air ; upon a mode of arranging the 

 mean results and examining the disturbing causes which are at first 

 insulated, but afterwards accumulated on each other in such a manner 

 as to disclose empyrical laws. 



Statistics of Human Generation. Q\\ the 29th of September, 

 M. Mathieu read a report on a memoir by M. Giroux de Busaringues, 

 containing a statistical account of the marriages, and the births of 

 infants of both sexes, in France, classed in months. M. Giroux 

 imagines the reproduction of man to be subjected to the same laws 

 as that of domestic animals, and that whatever tends to increase 

 the motive power of the man, or to diminish that of the woman, 

 promotes the procreation of male children, and vice versa ; so 

 that a man may render himself more or less apt to procreate boys 

 or girls, according as he addicts himself to exercises productive of 

 muscular force, or to slothfulness, to sobriety, or to intemperance. 

 M. Giroux's facts are drawn from the official returns of every part 

 of France, for ten years, commencing from 1817. He finds that, 

 with respect to the number of marriages, the months are thus to be 

 classed, February, January, November, June, May, July, October, 

 April, September, December, August, and March. This depends 

 on the periods of religious festivals, and on those of rural labours, 

 marriages being rare during those periods and most numerous in the 

 months immediately preceding them. Thus March, the month in which 

 Lent falls, is last on the list; while the preceding month, February, is 

 first. The births of legitimate children are thus distributed, February, 



