Numerical Divisioris in Nature. 371 



Schizope talon, but division by five goes no further even in that 

 order ; and it is a remarkable fact, that in all the other parts 

 of the volume in which the supposed coincidence with Mr. 

 Macleay's views are found, there is no other case in which 

 any tendency to a quinary division is discoverable. In Ber- 

 berideae the genera are six ; in Podophylleae the tribes two, 

 and the genera five ; in Nymphaeaceae, the tribes two and the 

 genera four ; in Papaveraceae, the genera nine ; and in Fu- 

 mariacefe, the genera are six. In his first cohort of Thala- 

 miflorae, the orders are eight, and in the second they are 

 four ; thus telling in favour of Oken rather than Macleay. 



But to conclude : we hope that what has been here said 

 will be viewed with no feelings of asperity, but as the legi- 

 timate reasonings of fair and temperate criticism. If we 

 cannot agree with the naturalists whose opinions we have 

 discussed, it is not from any want of a due sense of their 

 scientific attainments, for we have the highest respect for all 

 of them, but from a sincere desire ourselves to steer clear 

 of delusion, however brilliant it may be, and to guard the 

 world from its influence by such means as we may chance to 

 possess. 



Note on the Chemical Composition of two Liquids lately pro- 

 posed as Disinfectants of great power ; and on the action of 

 those Liquids on put lid Animal Matter. By A. B. Gran- 

 ville, M.D., F.R.S., &€., Physician in ordinary to His 

 Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence. 



[Read before the Royal Society, February 20, 1827.] 



A CHEMTCO-MEDICAL discovcry, which bids fair to prove of the 

 highest service to society, has for some time engaged the public 

 attention in France, and is now making its way into this 

 country. It consists in an improved method proposed by 

 Mons. Labarraque, a Pharmacien, residing in Paris, of dis- 

 infecting air in which putrid animal effluvia are difiiised, by 

 means of chlorine, in a liquid form, instead of the troublesome 

 and inconvenient process recommended by the late Guyton de 

 Morveau, of evolving that gas in the dry state, from a mixture 

 6f manganese, marine salt, and sulphuric acid. 



Mons. Labarraque's improved method consists in employ- 

 ing either ^ solution of the bleaching powder (the old oxy- 



