1828.] 



Monthly Theatrical Report. 



sively English as the Congreve rockets, the 

 steam-boat, or the gas-light are as much 

 beyond the management of foreign hands- 

 and are as brilliant as the most dazzling of 

 the three. Unfortunately, they will not ap- 

 pear, till too late for record in our present 

 pages. But the promises made by the re- 

 spective magicians, Farley and Barrymore, 

 are of the most overwhelming kind. Covent 

 Garden brings out Harlequin and Number 

 Nip, founded on the most famous of German 

 stories, and, of course, full of the adventures of 

 water-sprites and air-sprites, ending with the 

 marriage of Harlequin and Columbine under 

 the centre-arch of New London Bridge. At 

 Drury Lane, Harlequin Cock Robin charms 

 the wondering world with a domestic story 

 leads the delighted fancy into the kingdom 

 of birds then roves on the wing through 

 every zone, from Kamschatka to Wapping 

 and finally marries Harlequin and Colum- 

 bine in the centre of the Thames Tunnel. 



But we must not anticipate. The delight of 

 curiosity is too exquisite, and the sacredness 

 of secrecy is too solemn, for us to let man- 

 kind in general into the penetralia of the 

 pantomimes. We need only say, that the 

 genius of Farley and Barrymore, in full lustre 

 the pencils of Stanfield and Roberts, in full 

 beauty and the purses of both managers, in 

 full profusion, have been devoted to the en- 

 counter. We, who are determined, like 

 Austria, to stand neuter, till we see which 

 side is likely to triumph, will say nothing. 

 But we should disdain to force our opinions 

 on the public, in matters of such matchless 

 moment ; and recommend every man to see 

 the pantomimes for himself, on the penalty 

 of being charged with want of taste for the 

 most happy combination of pictorial beauty, 

 and mechanic skill, of the powers of the hu- 

 man frame, and the dexterity of stage artifice, 

 that is to be seen in the " round world !" 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



DOMESTIC. 

 ROYAL SOCIETY. 



This body re-assembled on the 15th of No- 

 vember last, when the Croonian lecture was 

 delivered by Sir E. Home, on the muscles 

 peculiar to organs of sense in particular qua- 

 drupeds and fishes. A paper wal read by 

 Captain Sabine, on some experiments to de- 

 termine the difference in length of the seconds 

 pendulum in London and Paris. 22. Two 

 papers, by Dr. Davy, on a peculiarity in the 

 structure of the ductus communischoledochus; 

 and some observations on the action of the mi- 

 neral acids on copper, under different circum- 

 stances, were read by Dr. Davy. Also, 

 another, on the structure of the knee-joint in 

 the echidna setosa and ornithorynchus para- 

 doxus, by Dr. Knox 30, being the anni- 

 versary of the Society, which is held on St. 

 Andrew's days, an election of officers took 

 place ; and Davies Gilbert, Esq., M. P., was 

 nominated President. 



FOREIGN. 



INSTITUTE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Paris Sept. 24. M. M. Prony, Girard, 

 and Dupin delivered a highly commenda- 

 tory report upon a memoir of M. Vicat, one 

 of the principal government civil engineers, 

 entitled, " Physico-Mathematical Observa- 

 tions on some Cases of the Fracture of So- 

 lids." On the report of M. M. Thenard and 

 Chevreul, the second memoir of M. M. Ro- 

 biquet and Collin, concerning the colouring 

 substances of madder, was ordered to be in- 

 serted in the collection of memoirs by per- 

 sons not members of the Academy. Oct. 1. 

 M. Julia Fontenelle displayed to the Aca- 

 demy the head of a New Zealander. It was 

 remarked, as its osteologic character, that 

 the occipital region was of great extent, and 



M.M. New Series VOL. V. No. 25. 



that there was a very distinct longitudinal 

 crest. The frontal region is extremely nar- 

 row, and presents a vertical osseous partition 

 of more than two lines in breadth : the su- 

 tures of the scull are ossified, although the in-* 

 dividual does not appear to have been more than 

 thirty -five years old. M. M. Bosc and La- 

 treille, as reporters, recommended that a mo- 

 nographic essay on the tribe of Zygenides, : 

 belonging to the Lepidopterous order of in- 

 sects, should be published in the " Recueil 

 des Savans Etrangers ;" and, on the report of 

 M.M. G. St. Hilaire and F. Cuvier, the 

 same honour was accorded to a notice of M. 

 Rambur, a physician at Ingrandes, concern- 

 ing a monstrous infant, born at Benais (dept. 

 Indre et Loire), August 30th, 1826, and 

 which died September 10th, 182?. M. 

 Poisson read a note on the vibrations of so- 

 norous bodies. M. Cauchy announced that 

 he had been engaged for a long time with the 

 equilibrium and internal movement of a solid 

 body, considered as a system of distinct mole- 

 cules ; and that he had obtained some equa- 

 tions > in which the components of the forces 

 exercised on each molecule are not generally 

 reduced to integrals : the manuscript of his 

 researches was submitted to the Academy ; 

 and 8 and 15, M. M. Pelletan, Boyer, and 

 Magendie reported on a memoir of M. Bres- 

 chet, concerning the false aneurism of the 

 heart, and the true aneurism of the arteries, 

 which paper would have been inserted in the 

 " Recueil des Savans Etrangers," if its 

 learned author had not given it another des- 

 tination. M. Michel made a verbal report 

 on the botanical part of the expedition of M. 

 Freycinet, arranged by M. Gaudichaud ; M. 

 F. Cuvier, an extract from a memoir on tha 

 organization and development of the quills of 

 a porcupine ; and M. Binet read another, on 

 the resolution of indeterminate equations of 

 the first degree in whole numbers. 

 N 



