%^ TrteitdUgs of the Natmel IrJltluU if FraiKA, 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Jccount of the Public Sitting of the National Injiiute of Sciences and Arts, held at Paris the 

 l^th Alejfulor, in the Tear VI. (July 3, lyyS.) 



CITIZEN Bitaube took the chair at half paft five o'clock, the citizens Villars and An- 

 drieux performing the office of fecretaries. Citizen Villars afcended the tribune, and gave 

 an account of the operations of the clafs during the laft trimeflre, of which the following 

 is an abftra^t : 



A memoir of Cit. Camus on the typograpTiic art, polytipage, and the art of compofing 

 ■geographical charts, fuch as have been executed by the celebrated Haas at Bafle. 



A memoir of Cit. Langlee on the Arabian poets who preceded Mahomet. This young 

 and laborious ftudent (hewed that, even at a period fo remote, the greater part of thefe 

 writings poflefled confiderable poetical merit. 



Cit. Monges read a memoir on the ruins of Perfepolis, in which he proves that the de- 

 ftrudlion by Alexander was not total, but that it fubfifted long afterwards. 



Cit. Papon, aflbciate correfpondent of the clafs of moral and jsolitical fcicnces, read to 

 the claCs of literature a memoir on the advantages which may be obtained from the ftudy 

 of Greek and Roman infcriptions, in order to afcertain a variety of hiftorical facls. 



Cit. Lefevre-Gineau gave a fhort account of the obje£t of the various mathematical 

 tfnemoirs which had been read during the lafl: trimeflre. 



A memoir of Cit. Lamarck concerning the aftion of the moon upon the atmofphere. It 

 lias been obferved, that when this fatellite is to the north of the equator, the winds blow, 

 ■ior the mod part, from the north ; and that they pafs to the weft or fouth-weft, which in 

 thefe climates are attended with rain, when the moon is to the fouth of the equator. 



Cit. Flangaques, aflbciate correfpondent at Viviers, tranfmitted to the clafs a memoir on 

 ihe refraftion of light. 



Cit. Leboflut communicated a memoir on the integral calculus, which, befides the pcr- 

 fpicuous difpofition of its parts, exhibits fome original methods, invented by the author. 



A memoir of the laborious and indefatigable Meflier, on the comet of the 23d Germinal, 

 ^April 12). The orbit of this comet, which, after having been feen for 43 days, difap- 

 peared in the conftellation Urfa Major, has been calculated according to the method of 

 Laplace. Fifty comets have already been obferved by Meflier, of which 21 were difcovered 

 ty him. 



Cit. LafTus, who was appointed to give an account of the memoirs on natural philofophy 

 and chemiftry, mentioned a memoir of Cit. Guy ton on the affinities and the decompofitioa 

 S)i falts at a temperature beneath the freezing point. 



through which the oxygen paffes is of confiderable magnitude. I conclude that thefe dimenfions of the aper- 

 tures were afcertained by experiment, as the beft fuited to the complete though flow cpmbullion of the hydro- 

 gen. As the bulk of hydrogen gas required to be introduced, for perfeft comb\i[lion, it more than twice that 

 of the oxygen, and the friftion througli the fmall aperture is very great, it becomes neceffary that the preflure 

 to extrude the former fliould be the ftrongeft. The hole t renders it impoflible to extrude the oxygen by the 

 reaftion of any longer column of water, than from that hole to the furface of the water in the tub; but the 

 areffure which can be excned in tl\e vtffcl B is nearly twice as much. N. 

 * . Cit. 



