Imperial Institute of France. 143, 
undergone by the food at the time of digestion, is an effect 
of the stomachic action. 
It is greatly to be desired that M. de Montegre should 
eontinue his interesting inquiries, and make some upon the 
gasiric juice of the animals employed by Spallanzani, in 
order that we may know precisely what to think of a 
doctrine which seems for a long time to have obtained 
general consent. ae 
In order to secure to some authors the date at least of 
their observations, we shall subjoin a mere sketch of some 
memoirs which have been presented to the Class, but we 
must delay until next year our opiion of their merits. 
"_M. de Blainville has described in detail the forms of the 
articulation of the fore arm with the arm in different ani- 
mals, and determined the motion which each of these 
forms oceasions, principally with respect to the greater or 
less facility of moving the hand. This work upon an im- 
portant point of the mechanism of animals is not without 
interest to their classification, since a greater or less facility 
in the rotation of the fore arm as more or less influencing 
their address, ought to enter considerably into their degree 
of general perfection, and consequently their natural affi- 
nities, 
The same anatomist has also presented a memoir on the 
form of the sternum in birds... As this bone, or rather this 
great osseous surface, resulting (as M. Geoffroy has shown) 
from the union of five different bones, furnishes a point of 
attachment for the principal muscles of the wings; the more 
solid and extensive it is, the more it furnishes these muscles 
with a vigorous point d’appui, and the more it jought to 
contribute to render the wing strong. It ought therefore 
to have an influence over the whole ceconomy of birds, and 
give useful indications as to their classification. 
M. de Blainville draws these indications from the ragged 
or simply membranous places, more or less extensive, which 
fill the place of the osseous substances in a part of the 
sternum. He adds to this the consideration of the fork, 
and of some proximate organs, and in most cases he finds 
a great similarity between the dispositions of these parts 
and the natural families. Nevertheless, there also exist 
exceptions so manifest, that wercannot enurely adhere to 
this new classification. 
M. Marcel de Serves, of Montpelier, has compiled a large 
work on the anatomy of insects, and particularly on that 
of their intestinal canal, which he has described at great 
Jength in aconsiderable number of species. His object was to 
determine 
