C J°3 "J 

 INTELLIGENCE 



AND 



MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. 



LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



FRANCE. 

 SOCIETY OF HEALTH IN THE COMMUNE OF NANCf. 



J. HE public fitting of this fockty on the ill of Frimaive, 

 VII. Year, was opened by C. Laljemand, prefident, who 

 read a difcourfe on the utility of medical correfpondence for 

 preferving purity of principles in the art of healing, and on 

 the moil advantageous method of teaching it. 



C. Mandel, profeflbr of therapeutics and pharmacy, read 

 a diflertation on iron. The author explained the different 

 ftates in which it is found naturally ; thofe which may be 

 given to it by art ; and the fervices which it has rendered 

 to mankind by its magnetic properties, particularly in regard 

 to the mariner's compafs, and its power of attracting light- 

 ning and conducting it to any place required. He demon - 

 ftrated the affinity of this metal with oxygen, the caufe of 

 its fo eafily uniting with faline fubftances, and of its fpeedy 

 oxydation by air and water, and of its folution in the latter 

 vehicle which it decompofes. He then proceeded to the 

 a&ion of iron on the animal economy, and took a view of 

 the fpeedy cures which it effe&s ; and the accidents, on the 

 other hand, which it has occafioned to fome individuals, 

 even when the dofc was weak. This led him to propofe the 

 following very interefting queftion, Whether the iron which 

 materially and formally in our humours, and above all in 

 ;}ie blood, might not be confidered, on account of its natural 

 II 4. iucreafe 



