[ 244 J 
(Oct. 1, 
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
—=a2>~_— 
FOREIGN SOCIETIES. 
Sittings of the Institute, of Monday, 1st 
August.—Dr. Surun addressed a letter to 
the Academy, in which he attempted to 
prove that fear was a great agent in the 
contagion of the yellow fever. 
Observations by M. Avago on the elevated 
Temperature of the Atmosphere this Summer. 
—‘ The thermometer rose to 33° 3’, on 
Thursday, the 19th July. It is rare that 
the heat is so intense at Paris: yet, in 
1793 it rose two degrees higher; but the 
heat was not then continual, as at pre- 
sent.” M. A. wished to ascertain to what 
depth the heat penetrated the earth, and 
what was the Jaw of decreasing heat ; and 
obtained the following results :—“‘ It must 
be premised that the mean temperature of 
Paris is about 10° 5’, at which height the 
thermometer stands all the year round, if 
placed on a depth of thirty to forty feet be- 
low the surface. At present the solar heat 
is sensibly felt at twenty-five feet deep, 
and the thermometer was at 11° 3’. 
At 20 feet it rose to 12° 
ID fetes «angen te 
6Gfeet.......% 18° 
1 foot 6 in. .. 28° 
At the surface of the earth the heat was, in 
the garden of the observatory, at 53° when 
plunged in river sand ; and at 55° if placed 
in dark-coloured earth.” 
M. Geoffroy de St. Hilaire read an ex- 
tract of his work on those monstrous hu- 
man conceptions designated by the name of 
anencephale. The character of these for- 
mations consists in the opening of the cra- 
nio-vertebral tube. M. St. H. enumerates 
twenty-seven species and varieties. 
M. G. St. Hilaire also read reflections 
on the popular opinion of monstrous 
births. He principally dwelt on a case re- 
cently published by two physicians, of an 
anencephale born in the department of the’ 
Var, which states that—Ist, it presented 
an organization similar to that of the toad ; 
2d, this circumstance appeared to be owing 
to fright at seeing a toad on the bed. The 
following are the facts:—The mother had 
a great horror of toads: the father-in-law, 
to cure her, when she was pregnant about 
three months, threw a large toad on her 
bed at night*. Powerfully affected with this 
act of barbarity, she left her father-in-law’s 
house, and returned to her parents. In due 
time she was delivered of the anencephale, 
which all present declared to resemble a 
toad. Notwithstanding this, M.de St. Hi- 
* The folly of such actions is evident;—the Grand 
Duke Constantine of Russia, finding his wife terri- 
fied at the sight of a mouse, had asackfull collected, 
and one day, when they were alone, turned them 
out of the sack. The princess was pregnant at the 
time: ‘*a mouse was not born,” but the fright killed 
the lady. 
laire combats the idea of a foetus assuming 
the likeness ofan object that had produced 
fright, and observes, that all the species of 
anencephale, from the insertion of the head > 
immediately on the shoulders, present a 
similar appearance, and that the internal 
organization had no affinity with that of the 
reptile; the fright having operated only in 
this case, as in all others, of imprinting a 
vicious direction on the organization of the 
foetus in the first periods of its develope- 
ment. 
Sittings of the Institute, on the 8th—M. 
Arago stated, that, on examination, he is led 
to believe that the Marseilles Comet is not 
the comet called the Short Period Comet. 
The Marquis de la Place observed, that 
the very data furnished by M. Pons proved 
as much. The slow motion of the new 
comet was such, that M. Pons was obliged 
to observe it several days in order to be 
certain that ithad any motion. This alone 
suffices to distinguish it from the other, 
which moyes with an extreme rapidity. 
Dr. Audouard, in a collection of memoirs 
on the Nautical, Typhus, or Yellow Fever, 
addressed to the Academy, attributes the 
yellow fever to the slave trade, and thinks 
crowding so many unfortunate beings toge- 
ther developes the infection, which becomes 
contagious. Ele concludes his letter, say- 
ing: “‘ I am even surprised myself at the 
number of facts which tend to prove the 
the truth of the opinion I have adopted.” 
Dr. Lassis, the non-contagionist, read a 
memoir, forming a curious contrast with 
the letter of Dr. Audouard. He still per- 
sists in the absolute non-contagion of the 
plague or yellow fever; and eontends, that 
all the pretended contagious fevers had their 
origin in the places they ravaged, and that 
the sanitary measures adopted to prevent the 
effects of contagion were themselves the 
causes of the mortality that occurs. Among 
other instances, in support of this doctrine, 
lie cited the plague of Lyons in 1664, when 
many persons left the city, who nearly all 
perished, while those who remained were 
saved. At the same period, the inhabitants 
of Digne were afflicted with the plague, 
and fearing that they should be shut up in 
the town, and the threats of their neighbours 
to burn the town and allin it to prevent 
the infection from spreading, took up arms, 
forced their passage out of the place, and 
were thus preserved from destruction. He 
stated that the same thing happened at 
London during the great plague. He 
affirmed, that in 1822, the patients at the 
Hotel-Dieu, at Paris, were really afflicted 
with the yellow fever, which created much 
uneasiness as to the sanitary state of the 
capital at the time ; and added, that if the 
sanitary measures had been adopted which 
are usual under such circumstances, the 
yellow fever would have extended desola~ 
tion 
