372 French National Institute. 
Tt has been since discovered by M. Thenard in the me 
teoric stones which fell near Alet, department of Gard, and 
which the Academy collected and sent to the Institute. 
These stones, the fall of which has been established by 
testimony no less respectable than that of preceding ones, 
differ from them, however, in colour-and consistence : they 
are blacker and more friable; but their analysis yielded 
M. Thenard nearly the same prineiples : the metals in them 
are only more oxidated, and there is a little more coal in 
them. This result has been confirmed by a committee of 
the Institute. 
The last year announced the opinion of M. Pacchiani 
upon the composition of the muriatic acid, which he thought 
he had produced by depriving water of a part of its oxygen 
by means of the Galvanic pile. 
This discovery would have been one of the most impor- 
tant that chemistry had ever produced; but it is not veri- 
fied when care is taken to remove from the apparatus 
every thing which could furnish sca-salt. This has been 
established by Messrs. Biot and Thenard by direct’ experi- 
ments. 
In a work upon refraction, at first undertaken for astro- 
nomical purposes, M. Biot was led to employ the action of 
bodies upon light in a very advantageous manner, for the 
analysis of transparent substances *. The substances’ pro- 
duced by organized Leings have never yet been sufficiently 
rigorously examined.- Although we know generally of 
what elements they are composed, and that these primitive 
elements are not very numerous, their combinations are so 
varied, they change their nature so easily in the operations 
which they undergo ; that we must study for a much longer 
time these combinations’ themselves as if they were simple, 
and abstraction made of their true elementary principles. 
These matters thus considered are what are called the imme- 
diate principles of organized bodies. This year has made 
# An extract of Messrs, Biot’s and Arrago’s memoir upon this subject is 
given in our present yelume. 
A : known 
