New Books. — Geography. 381 



bird ; two kinds which are enduwed with the ftrongeft power 

 of flight and the acuteft vilion. It refulls from his obferva- 

 tions that the fight of thefe birds is nine times more exten- 

 five than that of the fui'theft fighted man ; and that in 220 

 hours, that is to fay, in a Httlc more than nine days, allowing 

 them 16 or 17 hours of repofe, they would make the tour of 

 the whole earth. 



C. Cuvier read the cloge of Daubenton, with an account 

 of his labours, in the courfe of which he drew a parallel be- 

 tween him and his friend Buffon. Buftbn always fuffered 

 himfelf to be led away by his imagination, Daubenton al- 

 ways endeavoured to guard againithis: the former was full 

 of vivacitv, the latter of patience : the firft chofe rather to 

 guefs at the truth than to obfcrve it; thefecond remarked all 

 its details, and was always diffident of himfelf. 



The Ckfs has received from feveral of its members the 

 following works : 



C. Olivier has prefented the three firft volumes of his 

 Natural Hiftor)* of Infefts, which contain a defcription and 

 figures of an immcnfe number of new and interefting fpecies. 



C. BrilTon prefented a new edition of his DlSiionnaire de 

 Thyjiquc, with additions containing an account of all the 

 modern difcoveries. 



C. Cuvier has prefented the two firft volumes of his Lef- 

 fons of comparative Anatomy. In this work the author ex- 

 amines the organs of motion and fenfation in reoard to their 

 ftrufture and ufcs in man and all the other clafles of animals. 



C. Levefque read at the fame time an account of the la- 

 bours of the -Clafs of the Moral and Political Sciences during 

 the preceding three months. 



C. Goffelin has examined the geographical knowledge of 

 the ancients refpeiling the fouthcrn coafts of Arabia. He 

 has proved that Ptolemy, notwithftanding the Angular form 

 he has given to them, has prcferved with the greateft accu- 

 racy all thediftances, and that our bell modern charts micht 

 be corrected by the labours of that ancient geographer. 



C. Biiache has communicated to the Clafs a memoir, ia 

 manufcript, written at Cairo in 1717 by the French traveller 

 Paul Lucas. This memoir contains fome curious informa- 



VoL. VI. O o tiori 



