1825.] 
tion throughout Paris. He concluded his 
memoir by reflections on the Epizooiie, 
whieh had been so fatal to cattle in France, 
which, he said, confirmed his doctrine. If, 
he argued, animals perished in such great 
numbers, the mortality is solely owing to 
the precautions taken to stop the supposed 
contagion. To prevent all communication 
with the sick animals, they are shut up in 
stables and cow-houses, where the want of 
air, fresh food, exercise, and cleanliness 
kills them, and this is attributed to conta- 
gion; precautions are then deubled with 
the healthy animals, and the disorder in- 
creases. The epizootie of 1815 was owing, 
according to the Doctor, to the precautions 
taien to prevent the cattle being stolen by 
the allied armies. He adds, many animals, 
already attacked, got well by his advice being 
followed, that they should be sent out to 
graze as usual. He adopts the same argu- 
ments on the disorders which have carried off 
so many horses this season; on which sub- 
ject he citesa curious fact. An eminent ve- 
terinary surgeon declared in his report to 
the Minister of the Interior, that the malady 
was contagious ; and in his report to the 
Minister at War, he declared the reverse ! 
A model of a new balloon has been sent 
to the French Institute, with which the in- 
ventor proposes to navigate the air in any di- 
rection. If 200 subscribers, at thirty frances 
each only, can be obtained, it will enable 
him to construct his machine. He engages 
to reimburse the subscribers and divide the 
profits with them, 7f any. 
M. Everets presented a work entitled, 
“* New Ideas on Population ;”” in which he 
specially proposes to refute the theories of 
M. Malthus. 
Mortality of Children.—There are born 
at Paris about 22,000 annually ; about two- 
thirds of these are sent out to nurse in the 
country: of these, the mortality, during the 
first year, is three out of five ; while of the 
7,000 to 8,000 nursed in Paris, more than 
half die within the year. In the very 
populous quarters of Paris, where the streets 
are narrow, and the inhabitants wretched, 
the mortality is about nine in ten in the 
first year. In the country, when good air, 
cleanlimess and comfort are united, as in 
Normandy, the mortality during the first 
year is only one in eight. At the Found- 
ling Hospital at Paris, where they were all 
confined to the establishment, of 7,000 to 
8,000 received annually, there only remain- 
ed 180 at the age of ten! 
The Academy, considering the import- 
ance of these facts, decided on communi- 
cating them to the Société Maternelle, and 
all the societies whose object it is to aid 
the unfortunate. Hitherto these societies 
haye invariably recommended mothers nurs- 
ing their children; but it is evident that 
bad air, and other concomitant cireum- 
stanees, more than counterbalance the ad- 
vantages. It is more charitable, therefore, to 
aid them to send their children to nurse in 
the country. 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
240 
Dr. Barry read a memoir on the means of 
arresting the progress of any venomous bite, 
by preventing the absorption of the matter. 
He had made the experiment on animals, 
by laying bare a muscle and depositing in it 
strichnine, or hydrocyanie acid, and then 
cupping the part, which was attended with 
success, even after tetanic convulsions had 
taken place. 
M. Dupin, presenting his Course of Geo- 
metry and Mechanics, combated the opinion 
of those who imagine that the knowleage of 
geometry is only necessary for the construc- 
tion of machinery. He stated that upwards 
of 150 arts and trades would derive great 
advantage from the artizans being in- 
structed in that science. M. Dupin took 
a glance at the relative state of industry in 
France and England, and was forced to ac- 
knowledge the great inferiority of France ; 
and cited as a proof, the stagnation of French 
commerce and manufactures, compared with 
the “ prodigious augmentation of the com- 
merce of England. It is not (said he) that 
we have gone back ; but England has made 
an infinitely more rapid progress.” Headded, 
that it was only in the mechanical arts that 
England excelled. For example, chemistry 
in France is far from being behind that of 
any other nation. The Berthollet’s and 
Foureroys had persuaded the government 
to found establishments for facilitating its 
progress. It will be the same with the me- 
chanical arts, if analagous establishments 
are encouraged. Already the schools formed 
in different towns of France, and the lec- 
tures given in them, give the brightest 
hopes. 
M. Moreau de Jonnes, read a note on the 
official inquiries, proving the contagion of 
the yellow fever and the plague. He iain- 
tained, that the yellow fever of 1802 was 
brought to Marseilles by the American ves- 
sel the. Columbia. The government of that 
period consulted the faculty of Montpellier, 
which unanimously decided that the fever 
was contagious. In 1816, the faculty of 
Paris decided unanimously that the yellow 
fever was contagious ; declaring that “ the 
yellow fever is contagious, and susceptible of 
being imported by maritime and other com- 
munications, and is equally transmissible by 
men and merchandize.” 
In 1817, M. Lainé, the minister, insti- 
tuted a committee, composed of disinte- 
rested persons of all professions, who had - 
been eye-witnesses of the facts they stated, 
as well in America, as in Egypt, Syria, and 
Asia Minor : their decision was unanimous, 
that both the yellow feyer and plague were 
contagious. The committee of the colo~- 
nies formed the same year, and com- 
posed of persons who had inhabited Marti- 
nique and the coasts of Guadaloupe, unani- 
mously declared the yellow fever contagious 
both from persons and things. M. de J, 
proposes a future examination of the results 
obtained in the British and Ottoman 
Empires. 
PATENTS 
