Royal Academi/ of Sciences of Paris. 2'23 



which we should not hesitate to bestow upon the speculations- 

 of the mere theorist. Let inquiries be instituted and experi- 

 ments be made by those who by situation and scientific attain- 

 ments are qualified for the task. By these investigations it 

 may not only be ascertained what degree of confidence ought 

 to be reposed in the unqualified encomiums which the Indians 

 lavish upon this anomalous production, but properties un- 

 known to them may be discovered, and its history, which they 

 have been accused (perhaps unjustly) of involving in obscurity, 

 be satisfactorily elucidated. 



" To the chemist and the vegetable physiologist in particu- 

 lar, the native oil of laurel, elaborated by the unassisted hand 

 of Nature in a state of purity which the operose processes of Art 

 may equal but cannot surpass, presents an interesting subject 

 for inquiry and a wide field for speculation." 



ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF PARIS. 



Dec. 1 3. — A sealed note relative to a new experiment was 

 deposited vvith the secretary byM. Fresnel. — M.Jules Cloquet 

 read a memoir on the effects and mode of effecting acupunc- 

 turation. — M. Bascary, in the artillery service, presented two 

 memoirs on perspective : the first on a portable instrument, 

 called a Coordonometer, designed to draw exactly after nature 

 the perspective of any plane or spot whatsoever ; the second, on 

 the adoption and utility of exact perspective: with applications 

 to military drawing. ( Messrs. de Prony and Fresnel, com- 

 missioners.) — The Academy proceeded to a scrutiny of votes 

 for the election of a member of the botanical section, to fill up 

 the vacancy left by M. Thouin. Out of 52 votes, M. le Vicomte 

 de Morel de Vinde obtained 46 suffrages ; M. Aug. Saint- 

 Hilaire 3; M. Emmanuel d'Harcourt 1; M. Michaux 1: 

 M. Morel de Vinde was declared elected. — M. de Ferussac 

 read a memoir On the geography of the Mollusca. The sec- 

 tions of Agriculture and Botany presented, as candidates for the 

 Chair of culture and naturalization of exotic plants at the Mu- 

 seum of Natural History, MM. de Mirbel and Bosc. 



Dec. 20. — M. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire presented two of his 

 memoirs ; one entitled The composition of the osseous head of 

 man and of animals, extracted from the Aiinules des Sciences 

 Natwclles ; the other, an article extracted from the eleventh 

 volume of the Mcmoires da Museum d' Histoire. Naturelle, is 

 entitled, Of the opercular and auricular fins of fishes, considered 

 as a princii)al point on which should turn every research re- 

 specting the determination of the parts or pieces which com- 

 pose the cranium of animals, followed by synopjtical tables, ex- 

 hibiting the number and explaining the composition of these 



parts. — 



