Foreign Literature and Science. 391 
53. dlmarton Skunk.—A chemica] examination has been 
made by J. L. Lassaigne, of the fluid which produces the 
intolerable odour of the American skunk, (viverra putorius.) 
It is contained in a sack of the form and: size of a walnut, 
situated between the tail and the anus, haying two exterior 
orifices. The fluid is ential anly as a defence when the 
animal is provoked. It co 
Ist, a volatile oil, caaner ae é 
2d, Of a fat 
3d, Ofa colouring matt 
4th, Of een combined with fatty matter in the pro- 
portion of ;2 
' bth Ofa small quantity of hydro sulphuret of ammonia. 
- adie French voyens of discovery —The No. for April last 
of the Annales de Chimie et de Physiq an contains a very 
interesting report of a committee of the Institute, consisting 
of Humbold, Cuvier, Desfontaines, de Rossel, Biot, Then- 
ard, Gay Lussae, and Art ago, relative to the voyage of 
Captain Freycenet in the Corvette Uranie. This expedi- 
tion was fitted out by the government, and sent under the di- 
rection of the Royal Academy (Institate, ) for the purpose 
of making pasdarchaas an: the, two -hermisphares, respecting the 
figure of the earth magnetism, 
and at the same time to meee every oceasion of extending 
their observations to Meteorology,Geography, Hydrography, 
and the various departments of Natural History. The corvette 
sailed from Toulon on the 17th of September, 1817, and after 
touching at Gibraltar and Teneriffe, proceeded to Rio Janei- 
ro, theace to the Cape of Good Hope, Isle of ER anes Bour- 
bon, Timor, New Guinea, Mariannes, and © 3; thence 
to Port Jackson in New South Wales and to ms ose del Fu- 
» whence the vessel was driven ated violent storm, and 
in six days after, namely the 13th of February of 1820 they 
were shipwrecked on one of the Falkland Islands. From 
this perilous situation in this desert Island they were happi- 
ly relieved by an American ship ; and without much loss of 
the products of the voyage; they sailed again thé 27th; 
stopped at Montevideo and Rio Janeiro and arrived at Hav- 
re on the 13th of November 1820; having been absent 
three years and nearly two months. The experiments 
made with the pendulum and magnetical apparatus are very 
numerous, and ex collections brought home are rich in 
