des Agens Physiques sur la Vie^ 158 



in other inquiries; and the effects of dryness and moisture 

 in the air produce a minor degree of influence also, when 

 compared with temperature y on the losses of animal substances. 



We have been thus minute in our analysis, because the 

 subject of it is new to science in its present shape, and of a 

 high degree of interest. Dr. Edwards's researches among 

 the difierent classes of animals have tended more to the 

 illustration of the influence of physical agents upon life than 

 any previous authorities ; and the persevering industry, 

 accuracy of observation, and patient inquiry which he has 

 evinced in his investigations among cold-blooded animals, 

 have placed this department of the creation in a point of 

 view at once curious, interesting, and valuable to science. 

 We attach the greater importance to this part of the author's 

 work, as it is a ground on which he may be consulted, and 

 quoted as indisputable authority, until equal inquiries havQ 

 shewn him to be fallacious. 



Our limits will not at present permit us to proceed farther 

 in our analysis, and we must refer the remainder of the book 

 to a future opportunity. The subjects of the three other 

 parts, though greatly extended, will not probably require 

 such minute analysis as those novel experiments which form 

 the subject of the first part ; but we imagine that the appli- 

 cation of the principles laid down^ in the previous inquiries, 

 to human physiology, will be found not less interesting than 

 those which relate to the natural history of the lower orders 

 of the animal creation. 



An Account of Professor Carlini's Pendulum Experiments on 

 ,^yj^ , Mont Cenis. 



W^ believe that no account of Professor Carlini's pendulum 

 experiments on Mont Cenis has hitherto appeared in the peri- 

 odical scientific publications of this country : the experiments 

 are, however, well deserving of such notice, having been con- 

 ducted with great care, and having had a specific object in 

 vie^, which object seems to have been satisfactorily accom- 

 plished. The following brief account of them, taken from the 

 original memoir published in the Appendix to the "Eph6m6ride 

 di Milano " for 1824, may not be unacceptable to those of our 

 readers who interest themselves in subjects of this class. 

 '- The length of tRe simple pendulum vibrating seconds is a 



