318 



Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



[MARCH, 



Messrs. Lacroix, Dupin, and Fresnel, " A 

 theory of social riches" was delivered from 

 Count Skarbek, and Messrs. Fourier and 

 Coquebert-Moutbret, appointed commissioners 

 to examine it. Messrs. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 

 Latreille, and Dumeril, reported very fa- 

 vourably on the memoir of Messrs. Audouin 

 and Milne Edwards, concerning ilie parasitic 

 animal which sucks the blood of the lobster, 

 and which they call Nicothoe. A report was 

 delivered by Messrs. Bosc and Latreille, on 

 the memoir of M. Le Normand, concerning 

 the tissue produced by the caterpillar of the 

 moth of the prunus padus. M. Heben- 

 streit placed many of these insects under a 

 bell glass, and by oiling those parts of the 

 paper which were to remain uncovered, soon 

 obtained the stuff in question. The Queen 

 of Bavaria wore a robe of it, which was 

 torn by the slightest breeze. This curious 

 but useless discovery received the thanks of 

 the academy. Dec. 14. A letter was re- 

 ceived from M. Gambart of Marseilles con- 

 cerning the comet in Bootes. An indelible 

 ink, with some specimens of its performance, 

 and an account of the proofs to which it had 

 been subjected, was transmitted from M. 

 Palm. M. Vincent Portal, a physician at 

 Montmirail, sent a manuscript description 

 with plates, of several human monsters, 

 referred to M. de Lamarck, G. St. Hilaire, 

 and Boyer. M. Frederic Cuvier was elected 

 member of the academy, on the decease of 

 M. Pinel. A second memoir was read by 

 M. Magendie, on the liquid which is found 

 in the skulls and spines of man and other 

 mammilerous animals. M. Dupin read a 



memoir on the slate of primary instruction 

 in France M. De Blainville a note on the 

 paps of the female ornithorynchus, and on 

 the spur of the male, and Mr. Clement one 

 upon steam engines, referred to Messrs, de 

 Prony, Girard, and Dupin. II. A work 

 was presented from M. Vautro relative to 

 money and finance ; and a letter from M. 

 Vail on the comet in Bootes. M. Becquerez 

 announced that by physical force alone, he 

 had succeeded in producing some new com- 

 pounds, of which each had its own peculiar 

 system of crystallization, and most of 

 which miirht be decomposed by water. A 

 favourable report was made by Messrs. 

 Legender and Poinsot, on the elements of 

 arithmetic of M. Bardel. M. Dureau de la 

 Malle presented a piece of the root of a 

 mulberry tree, which when deprived of its 

 trunk had lived in the earth for twenty-four 

 years, without throwing out any suckers, 

 and then produced some in 1S26. M. 

 Poisson road a memoir on the numerical 

 cukvilation of definite integrals, and M. 

 Vicat some physico- mathematical observa- 

 tions, on some cases of the fracture of solid 

 bodies; also M. Segalas a note on a method 

 of illuminating the urethra. <fec. so as to 

 admit of tiie inspection of the interior of 

 these organs. 



French Academy In the meeting which 

 took place on the 14th of December, the 

 places vacant by the deaths of Messrs. 

 Lemontey and Villar, were supplied by the 

 appointment of M. Fourier, perpetual se- 

 cretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 

 and the Abbe Feletz. 



VARIETIES, SCIENTIFIC AND MISCELLANEOUS. 



Greenwich Observations. A short time 

 since, an ofler of sale, was publicly made of 

 about two tons and a half of Mr. Pond's 

 Greenwich Observations, at three shillings per 

 annual volume. The singularity of the offer 

 led to some inquiry, when it was found that 

 the original quantity of waste paper, in 

 which shape these observations had been sold, 

 amounted to about five tons, but that half 

 had been disposed of. The selling price of 

 the volumes is, we believe, two guineas. Sus- 

 picion naturally arose as to the honesty of the 

 parties implicated ; an investigation ensued, 

 by the eminent institution, under the more 

 immediate superintendence of which the 

 Observatory is placed, when it appeared that 

 the unsold copies of the observations being the 

 perquisite of the Astronomer Royal, he had 

 disposed of them as he thought proper. The 

 funds placed in the hands of the society in 

 question, are, for the most part, so judici- 

 ciously managed, and abuses, when disco- 

 vered, so immediately rectified, that we 

 make no comment upon the fact of five tons 

 of the finest paper and printing, which on an 

 average must have cost about two shillings 

 a pound, being sold for, at the most, three- 

 pence, for the worth of waste paper is in^ 



versely as its goodness, and that in question 

 could be used for little else than the manu- 

 facture of Bristol board. But we do com- 

 plain of, and strongly reprobate the spirit 

 displayed by Mr. Pond. The Greenwich obser- 

 vations are published by a scientific body, not 

 for the private emolument of their servant, but 

 for the use of the scientific, and, consequently, 

 not the richest part of the community. They 

 are published in a style and at an expence 

 that defeats the main object of their publi- 

 cation ; an opportunity occurs by which that 

 error may be repaired, but no : sooner than 

 allow them to be offered at a reduced rate to 

 those for whom alone they were designed, 

 rather than permit the market price of the 

 article to be lowered ; in fact, sooner than 

 advance the great cause of science, by a 

 nominal sacrifice of his vanity, he consigns 

 all his observations to destruction. We are 

 far from joining in the hue and cry against 

 Mr. Pond, that because he is not a regularly 

 educated man, therefore he is unfit to be 

 intrusted with the management of a national 

 establishment. The charge is illiberal and 

 improper. Mr. Pond is an accurate observer, 

 and we doubt if a practical astronomer 

 ought to be much more. But we have very 



