146 Institute of Frcmce. 



M. Portal has publislicci a most important work " upon the 

 Nature and Troatnuat oi Diseases of the Liver," in which he 

 has given the result of his long experience on the affections of 

 an organ, whose great iafluence in health and disease is so well 

 expressed in the epigraph chosen by the author: Qnanlo magis 

 ad sunitutem prodest, tanio ct delerius in morhis afficitur. 



Our truly respectable colleague M. Penon, wlio, notwith- 

 standing a delicate temperament, and a youth which did not 

 promise him a good old age, has preserved by care alone the 

 faculties of his body and mind entire, long bevond the term al- 

 lotted to the generality of men, has bequeathed us the secrets, 

 theelHcacy of which he so happily proved : his " Offerings to old 

 men o*" some means of prolonging life," is a code of longevity 

 dictated by science and experience ; but in order to reap from 

 it the same advantages with the author, w6 must enjoy, like him, 

 a tranquil situation in life, the mild exercise of the understand- 

 ing, and the consciousness of a well spent life. 



It is by no means astonishing that the natural history of the 

 animals of the deep should be so scaiity as it is. Traversing 

 at pleasure the profound element in which they escape from hu- 

 man observation, and even when they are caught, they are of 

 most difficult description. 1\I. Cuvier has presented to the 

 Class some inquiries on such fish as have been neglected, or have 

 multiplied beyond example in the catalogue of naturalists. One 

 of them, remarka"ble for its large size, and very much knowm in 

 Italy by the names of mnhra, or fegaro, in Proven"e and in 

 Languedoc by that of pcrisson loyal (royal fish), «'hs much 

 better known at Paris, formerly, by the name of maigre. It has 

 even given rise to some j)opular proverbs ; nowadays, for causes 

 of which we are ignorant, it has become rare in the Channel, 

 and it is brought but seldom to the capital. The naturalists of 

 the sixteenth century have described it very minutely ; and Du- 

 hamel in the eighteenth has also treated of it at length. Ne- 

 vertheless, our systematic authors have either given it as new, or 

 confounded it with smaller and more common species. In ad- 

 dition to its exterior description, M. Cuvier has given its ana- 

 tomy, and chiefly of the air-bladder, rendered curious by the 

 ramified productions placed along its two sides. 



Another species, which has been six times reproduced in the 

 works of naturalists as so many distinct species, is a small fish 

 of the Mediterranean, which its red colour and general form 

 have procured the denomination of king of the mullets, {mullus 

 imberbis Linn.) but which is more like tiie perch than the mul- 

 let. 



M. Noel de la Morinicro, who has been occupied for several 

 years with a treatise on the useful fishes, has presented to the 



Class 



