Rejleclloii) on the FormatUn of the Bom:. 20j; 



fluiJ, with thofe of Fourcroy on the ferofity of milk, and more efpecially a remarkable fact 

 comnumicated to us by this lad chemift, namely, that the nearer the mill< of the human 

 female approaches to the period of parturition, the more the ferofity is charged with cal- 

 careous phofphate ; and the more remote, on the contrary, the time is, from that moment, 

 the lefs is the proportion of that fubftance, while the other nutritive parts of which it is 

 compofed are augmented in an inverfe ratio; — if we confider that at the epocha of gefta- 

 tion and parturition a diminution of folidity takes place in all the articulations of rhe mother, 

 and a relaxation of the cartilages ; that fratlures of the bones at this time are mofl particu- 

 larly flow in uniting by the formation of the callofity •, that it is at this very time of change 

 in the oflcous fyftem that the milk becomes charged with calcareous phofphate, whiLh it 

 lofes in proportion as the infant and the mother become more removed from the time of 

 the birth ; fo that the fluids which contribute moft to the formation, the growth, and the 

 nutrition of the foetus, contain in themfelves the eirential principle of folidity, the elements 

 of offification ; and lallly, that it is not till this onilication is very dillinft, and the digeftive 

 organs of the infant are fufficiently flrengthened to anfwer the purpofes and the work of 

 animalization, that the bafis difappears from the milk of the mother; — we fliall be compelled 

 to acknowledge a particular direaion of nature, by which the calcareous phofphate becomes 

 the matter of a peculiar fecretion,,efrentially ordained to give firmnefs to our organs, and 

 to confolidate the firft elements of man. 



May thefe refleftions impart to medical men a convidion how truly important the 

 phyfical fciences may become to their refearches, though too often regarded as merely ac- 

 ceflary to medical fcience ! May they fee the advantage and necefllty of ftudying the pjo- 

 grefs of nature in thefe refpeds ! For it is by thefe fciences, and more efpecially by the 

 improvements of animal analyfis, which are rapidly advancing, that we may probably expeift 

 in a {hort time to diminilh the uncertainty of a large number of our methods of pradtice, 

 and, to fpeak freely, the too frequent ambiguity of our conje£lures. 



111. 

 AbfiraE} of a Memoir rend at the Sitting of the Frehth National hiJUtiite on the 26th P!uvio/e, 

 containing an Account of fame Experiments concerning the Section -which Cylinders of Camphor 

 undergo at the Surface of Water ; with RefeBions on the Motions which accompany this 

 Seclion, By J. B. FlNTUXI, Profejfor of Natural Fhihfophy at Mcdena, Member of the 

 Inflitute of Bologna, is'c,* 



Re 



^OMIEU formerly obferved, that fmall pieces of camphor have a progrefTive and ro^ 

 tatory motion upon water, and attributed this efl^ed to eleftricity. Lichtenberg attributed 

 it to the emanation of an ethereal fpirit from the camphor itfelf. Volta produced the fame 

 motion of turning, by throwing upon water fmall bddics foaked in ether, or rnrticles of the 

 acids of benzoin and amber. Brugnatelli found that the bark of aromatic plants moves 

 on the furfacc of water like camphor. There was always a certain mylterious caprice in 

 thefe motions, according to which they fometimcs could not be produced 5 and on other 



• Annalcs dc Chimic, XXI. 16J. 



occafions, 



