546 



Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



[MAY, 



port was made by M. Blainville, on Dr. Char- 

 \ et's work " oa the comparative action of 

 opium, and its constituent principles on the 

 animal economy." A very complimentary 

 report was delivered by M. M. Thenard and 

 Chevreul, on a memoir of M. M. Colin and 

 Robiquet, entitled " new researches on the 

 colouring matter of madder/' which was or- 

 dered to be inserted in the collection of 

 learned foreigners. 26. M. Delessert made 

 some communications relative to M Val- 

 lance's (an English engineer) plan of travel- 

 ling by means of an exhausted cylinder. 

 M. Arago mentioned having heard from Cap- 

 tain Sabine, that Captain Franklin had crossed 

 the whole of North America, and arrived in 

 Behring's Straits. M. Naviere presented a 

 work on the movement of an elastic fluid 

 rushing from a reservoir or gasometer. 

 March 9. The meeting was adjourned, in 

 consequence of the death of M. La Place. 

 12. M. Geoffrey St. Hilaire stated, that M. 

 Tournier Pareay was about to send from Hayti 

 to the academy, a work on the yellow fever, 

 which he had been observing for four years, 

 and did not consider to be at all contagious. 



M. Cauchy read a memoir on the tension 

 or pression in elastic bodies, and another on 

 the shock of elastic bodies. 19. M. M. La- 

 treille and Dumeril made a favourable report 

 on the memoir of M. Vellot, concerning the 

 Cecidomyes, the Gruus Tipula of Linnaeus. 

 M. M. Cuvier and Dumeril made a report 

 on the memoir of M. M. Audouin and Milne 

 Edwards, which was ordered to be inserted 

 in the collection of learned strangers. 

 M. Biot read a memoir on the measure of 

 the azimuths in geodetical operations, and in 

 particular on the amplitude of the chain of 

 triangles which extend from Bourdeaux to 

 Fuimes in Isiria. M. Cuvier read a memoir 

 on a genus of fish called pogonias. M. G. 

 St. Hilaire communicated on this subject 

 some observations which he had made on 

 certain silecies of the Nile, which produce in 

 water a sound, which is very audible to a 

 by-stander, and which they appear to make 

 by means of their fins. -A verbal report was 

 made by M. Girard on M. Lamblardie's work, 

 entitled " observations on the projected tolls 

 upon the Seine." 



VARIETIES, SCIENTIFIC AND MISCELLANEOUS. 



Scientific Consistency. We noticed in our 

 last the fortuitous concourse of certain atoms 

 of gold which had found their way from the 

 Royal Society of England and the Institute 

 of France, to the hand of Captain Sabine ; 

 without alluding to the private motives (and 

 we shall be understood by those whom it 

 concerns) which may have influenced these 

 two learned bodies, in thus crowning with 

 laurels this gentleman's work on the pendu- 

 lum ; we shall offer a few observations on 

 the work itself. On its first appearance, 

 we ventured to hint, that the harmony per- 

 vading it, so far from proving accuracy of 

 observation, merely shewed the skill with 

 which the results had been adjusted, or the 

 judgment displayed in selecting the observa- 

 tions : now we appeal to scientific men, if 

 results differing in general but the fraction of 

 a second, are likely to be obtained from ob- 

 servations made upon certain stars, whose 

 position has been accurately determined by 

 numerous observations, continued through a 

 series of years, and from others whose places 

 are known only from La Caille, or if noticed 

 by Rumker, have not been attended to by 

 him for a sufficient length of time to admit 

 of their right ascension and declination being 

 calculated with precision. Captain Sabine 

 refers in particular, as a proof of the accu- 

 racy of his instrument, to the uniformity of 

 the result obtained at Maranham ; the mean 

 latitude of which, is stated by him, at 

 2o 31' 42-4", when it ought to have been 

 given at 2 31' 23'S"; and the difference of 

 the least and greatest observations, instead 

 of being two seconds and a-half, is greater 

 than twenty seconds ; in fact this difference, 



instead of being constant, is variable : for 

 example the discrepancy between his state- 

 ments and the truth, on his own showing, 

 amounts in six instances to 43.3" 42.1" 

 44.6' / 1.2" 1.3" 2.5" &c. Again, the 

 latitude of Drontbeim is wrong, 1 3."5, but it 

 is needless to select from what is only a mass 

 of error; however, as the time at various 

 places, New York and Maranham, for exam- 

 ple, was determined by observations made 

 with the same unlucky repeating circle, the 

 account of the rate of the chronometers, and 

 in fact, every computation into which the 

 time entered as an element, cannot be de- 

 pended upon; still, did the results published 

 by Captain Sabine admit of correction, all 

 confidence in himself and his proceedings is 

 utterly destroyed, when we find the multipli- 

 cation of errors of which no well made in- 

 strument is susceptible, and when we see this 

 member of a " scientific family" so negli- 

 gent in performing a task which he had un- 

 dertaken, as never to have verified the in- 

 strument he employed. To Lieutenant Fors- 

 ter we do not allude ; he has made the amende 

 honorable, throwing himself on the mercy 

 of the public, and citing Captain Sabine 

 as the authority for his mistake. There 

 is another oversight of Capt. Sabine, w;hich 

 is likely to be attended with more serious 

 consequences. When performing his expe- 

 riments in America, he communicated to 

 the Scientific Institutions of that country 

 the length of the English yard, at that time 

 a particular desideratum, as the subject of 

 regulating their weights and measures was 

 occupying their attention. On his return to 

 this country it was discovered, that an error 



