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REPORT OF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS. 



ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, PARIS. 



Sitting, August 2nd , 1858. — Disease of Silkworms. 

 M. Armand Augliviel writes, that lie lias examined into the disease which 

 affects silkworms upon different common caterpillars, and that he considers 

 the present epidemic as one of the causes of the very visible diminution, this 

 year, in the number of the caterpillars, which are so injurious to apple trees. 

 This observation is another confirmation of what we have already published, 

 and what has been observed also by several breeders of silkworms, by ento- 

 mologists, and among others, by- Madame Bournay, the directress of the model 

 weaving, in the Hall of Commerce at Lyons, who had attributed, like ourselves, 

 the decrease in the number of butterflies, and other insects, to the effects of 

 the present epidemic. It is therefore evident, as I have before remarked, that 

 the epidemic in silkworms is not caused by ignorance in the breeders, as stated 

 by some scientific men, who have only lately turned their attention to silk- 

 culture; that it is not from mischievous practices that they are suffering at 

 the same moment in France, Italy, Spain, and even in the East, where the 

 worms are bred almost in the open air, and that it is unjust to accuse culti- 

 vators of this disaster; for that, the disease, on the contrary, depends upon 

 other causes, among which the epidemic, which destroys both wild and culti- 

 vated vegetables, has an active share.* 



August 9th. — Frogs in Rain. 

 M. Dezautiere, a physician at Decize, (Nievre,) communicated an account, 

 which was related to him by an eye-witness of the occurrence. Some years 

 ago, he said, an inspector of highways and bridges was overtaken by a shower, 

 and took refuge in a house. An abundant rain fell; and the inspector, with 

 several dwellers in the house, saw many toads fall from the chimney into the 

 fire-place of the room in which they had taken shelter. The storm passed 

 over, they went out, and the ground was covered with similar toads to those 

 which had fallen upon the hearth.f 



August 23rd. — Geology of Russia. 

 The secretary presented to the sitting Dr. Nordmann, Professor of Zoology 

 in the University of Alexander, in Finland, well known to the scientific world 

 by his travels in the Caucasus and Crimea, his "Micographical Researches," 

 his "Faune Pontique," and many other works upon the lower orders of animals. 

 M. de Nordmann presented to the academy the two first numbers of his last 



* Have any of our readers observed this disease among the Lepidopterous larvae in this 

 country? — Ed. 



f Notwithstanding this somewhat loose statement, it is now well known that the frogs, 

 or Bnails, or caterpillars, do not fall with the rain. Frogs and toads always jump about 

 everywhere at certain seasons of the year, after rain has fallen. M. Dezautiere does not 

 say what sort of a house his friend the inspector went into. It was probably one to which 

 the young toads had free access. — Ed. 



