250 
announcing the prizes decreed, notices 
the “Statistic Researches” of M. de 
Chabrol, relative to the city of Paris, 
and the department of the Seine. ‘The 
rest of this work will shortly appear. 
Mention is next made of works re- 
lating to the colonies, M. de Jonnés 
has commenced the publication of sume 
useful memoirs on the “ Antilles ;” they 
are intended to complete the ‘‘ Natural 
History of Guadaloupe and Martinico.” 
Certain other works have been collect- 
ing documents on the same islands ; 
were this plan extended to French 
Guiana, and our establishments in the 
Indian ocean, our colonies would be 
better known than many parts of the 
interior of France. 
M. B. de Chateauneuf produced a 
** Memoir on the Mortality of Women, 
arrived at Ages from Forty to Fifty.” 
In this he proves by evidence, that ap- 
pears undeniable, contrary to a received 
opinion, that the mortality of men is 
greater at this period than that of wo- 
men. This consequence has been drawn 
from observations made in places ex- 
tremely remote, and in very different 
climates; in the south of France, in the 
north of Russia, and in the intermediate 
countries. 
A memoir of M. de Jonnés, on the 
extent of lands susceptible of cultiva- 
tion in the French colonies, makes it 
plainly appear, that even one-third of 
the lands as yet not cleared, put into a 
state of cultivation, would furnish sap- 
plics, not only for the consumption 
and manufactures of France, but for 
exportation. 
Messrs. P. Duchatelet and P. de 
Contreille, medical doctors of the fa- 
culty of Paris, have published some 
Remarks on the River Biévre. About 
the year 1790, the improvement of the 
course of its waters; so as to render ifs 
banks more salubrious, had formed the 
subject of an interesting publication by 
M. Hallé. A considerable part of the 
population of the’ Faubourg St. Mar- 
ceau are daily employed on its banks, 
or in the vicinity, the importance of 
whose establishments would be greatly 
augmented, if the banks were lined with 
a wall of masonry, if a pavement were 
laid down on the soil, if toll-gates were 
removed, &c. 
In chemistry, facts are, progressively, 
accumulating, so as, in time, to form a 
general theory that may include them, 
in all their relations, and reveal, as far 
as it is possible, the causes and laws of 
their action. In such a state of the sci- 
Proceedings of Public Societies, 
[Oct. 1, 
ence, there is reason to fear that facts 
will be inaccurately observed, and im- 
perfeetly described. It has been hi- 
therto believed, that the combination of 
chlore with percarbonated hydrogen, 
contained equal portions of these two 
substances. M. Despretz has shown 
that the volume of chlore is only half of 
that of the percarbonated hydrogen. 
M. Dulong, recently admitted into 
the academy asa member, has made some 
new discoveries on respiration, and on 
the causes of animal heat. He has 
found that the volume of carbonic acid, 
formed in the act of respiration, was 
always less than that of the absorbed 
oxygen; experiments show it to be by 
one third, in birds and carnivorous qua- 
drupeds, and by one tenth in the 
herbivorous. He has, morcover, re- 
marked, that there was constantly so 
strong an exhalation of azote, that, 
in herbivorous animals, the volume of 
air expired surpassed that of the air in- 
spired, notwithstanding the diminution 
of volume of the carbonic acid gas. 
And, lastly, he has found the portion of 
heat, corresponding to that of the acid, 
to be scarcely half of the total heat 
yielded by the animal, unless it be car- 
nivorous; and that, in herbivorous 
kinds, it does not reach three quarters 
of the same quantity. From these pre- 
mises, M. Dulong concludes that there 
remains some other cause, different 
from the fixation of oxygen, to account 
for animal heat in its totality. 
The loss sustained by the academy, in 
the death of M. Hauy, gave reason to 
apprehend that the public would be de- 
prived of a complete edition of his 
works, which the professor was pre- 
paring. Five volumes had already ap- 
peared, and the impression of the sixth 
and last is now proceeding, under the 
inspection of M. Delafosse, pupil of M. 
Haiiy, and selected, by him, to co- 
operate in his labours. 
M. Constant Prevost, a skilful natu- 
ralist, a pupil of M. Bronguiart, has 
traced the geological traits of Nor- 
mandy and Picardy, from Calais to 
Cherbourg. At the two extremities of 
this line, nearly eighty leagues in extent, 
we find rocks. of a similar character ; 
these rocks appertain to the primitive 
soil; and, in some measure, form the 
borders of the immense basin, in which 
are deposited the rows or shells of the 
posterior earths. The middle of this 
basin is pretty near Dieppe; there we 
perceive, only, such as are the most su- 
perficial, and they aie almost all hori- 
zontal, 
? 
