1827.] 



Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



651 



ducing them, ought to be made responsible 

 for the payment of the paper and type 

 which have been wasted on the occasion. 

 More absurd speculations, it was never 

 our lot to meet with ; and our sur- 

 prise was considerable on turning to the list 

 of its members, to perceive the names of 

 men among them, who are really distin- 

 guished by their historical attainments. If, 

 however, the statements in the Westminster 

 and Retrospective Reviews may be relied 

 upon, the cause of the worthlessness of the 

 transactions of the Society, is explained, by 

 the selections which are made for its 

 councils, which, it appears, are consti- 

 tuted of merchants, instead of antiquaries ; 

 and music-masters, instead of historians ; 

 nor are the officers more conspicuous in 

 the republic of letters. Its president is an 

 earl ; its vice-presidents, excepting Mr. 

 Hallatn, are unknown by their works ; its 

 treasurer is a registrer of slaves ; its direc- 

 tor is an attorney; and only one of its 

 secretaries is possessed of any other literary 

 reputation than belongs to a dull compiler 

 of the dullest of all compilations. 



The result is what might be expected : its 

 intellectual members are disgusted : its stupid 

 ones and we fear they preponderate are 

 indifferent, or perhaps worse ; and the ma- 

 nagement of the society's affairs is conse- 

 quently left to an oligarchy, possessed neither 

 of talents nor judgment. The host of ob- 

 jects the translation of early chronicles, 

 the publication of valuable MSS., for exam- 

 ple, upon which its revenues might be em- 

 ployed to advantage, are neglected; and 

 every other proper subject for its attention 

 is equally forgotten. The Society has thus 

 fallen into a state of imbecility, from which 

 nothing short of an absolute change in its 

 government can recover it. 



Fully estimating the services which such 

 an institution might render to historical 

 literature, we rejoice that the press has at 

 length pointed out the abuses by which it is 

 degraded ; and, through its agency, we hope 

 that the members will be induced to remove 

 them. They have the power ; and we dare 

 not libel them by supposing that they have 

 not the inclination to use it for so important 

 an object : or, will they continue to allow 

 the F.S.A., which they affix to their names, 

 to be a mark of derision ; their weekly 

 meetings to be as vapid as the tea-table of a 

 village gossip ; and their lucubrations to be 

 less distinguished by genius or learning, 

 than the worst of the Leadenhall-street 

 novels ? 



FOREIGN. 



INSTITUTE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Paris. August 20, 1827. M. Arago gave 

 an account of the experiments which he had 

 made on steam-engines, in conjunction with 

 M. Dulong. He also read a letter from M. 

 Pons, announcing the discovery of a new 

 comet. M. M. de Mirbel and Cassini made 

 a report on the paper of M. Turpin, con- 

 taining observations on the organization and 

 re-production of the truffle, and remarks 

 on the theory of the organization of 

 vegetables in general. 27. Colonel 

 Bory-de - Saint -Vincent presented a mo- 

 nographic essay on certain animalcula, 

 to the academy. M. Chevreul read the 

 report of a committee upon the process of 

 dyeing in blue, communicated by M. Ra- 

 tienville, jun. September 3. M. F. Cuvier 

 made a verbal report on a work of M.Dege- 

 rando, on the education of the deaf and 

 dumb. M. Journal, jun., a physician at 

 Narbonne, announced the discoveiy of seve- 

 ral caverns, containing fossil bones, in the 

 neighbourhood of Bise. M. M. Dumeril and 

 Majendie reported on a paper of M. Vel- 

 peau, on the human ovum M. M. Chevreul, 

 Gay-Lussac, and Dulong, made their report 

 on the memoirs of M. Serullas, relative to 

 the combination of chlorine and cyanogen, 

 or cyanuret of chlorine and bromate of sele- 

 nium. M. Cauchy read a memoir on the 

 determination of the series of Lagrange by 

 a definite integral ; in another memoir, he 

 determines the law of convergence of the 

 series of Lagrange, and others of the same 

 nature, and proves that the convergence de- 

 pends in all cases on the resolution of a 

 transendental equation. M. de Blainville 

 made a verbal communication respecting 

 the organization of a species of terebra- 

 tulae. M. M. Biot, Gay-Lussac, Poisson, and 

 Navier, made their repoi't on a memoir of 

 M. Clement-Desormes, relating to an effect 

 observed in the escape of elastic fluids, and 

 of the accidents to which safety-valves are 

 liable. 17. M. Raspail announced, that he 

 had discovered in the subterraneous logs of 

 typha, a fecula, possessing very peculiar 

 characters, which he details. M. Poinsot 

 read a memoir on the composition of mecha- 

 nical forces. M. Girard made a verbal re- 

 port on a geographical and hydrographical 

 essay on Egypt, dedicated to the King of 

 France, by M. M. Segato and Masi, of Leg- 

 horn. M. Moreau de Jonnes made a com- 

 munication on the phenomena which re- 

 cently occurred at the Antilles, at the time 

 of the earthquake, which was felt at Mar- 

 tinique on the 3d of June last, 



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