London Mechanics' Institution. 381 



stitution which, though labouring under some disadvantages 

 for want of* a suitable building, has already, with the aid of 

 lecturers of the first respectability, furnished an extensive course 

 of instruction to a large body of Members, is now provided 

 with a convenient house for its Schools, Library, Museum, &c. 

 and that the first stone of the Theatre or Lecture-room is to 

 be laid on the 2nd of December, being the first Anniversary 

 of the Institution. The day is to be celebrated by a Dinner 

 at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, Dr. Birkbeck in the chair. 



ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF FARIS. 



May 24. — The Academy received a Memoir, by M. 

 D'Hombres-Firmas, containing Observations on Fossils, and 

 particularly on Ammonites ; a description of a new Astrono- 

 mical Instrument, by the Count de Zuylen of Nyevelt ; a seal- 

 ed packet from M. Castille, clockmaker, relative to an investi- 

 gation in which he is engaged ; and a Refutation of Newton, 

 by J. B. Souton. — M.Vauquelin made a report on M. Dublanc's 

 Memoir on the application of Tincture of Galls, as a means 

 of detecting the presence of morphia. — The Academy elected 

 M. Fresnel as a candidate for the office of Professor of Natural 

 Philosophy in the College of France. — M. Legendre made a 

 report on the new Manuscript Tables of M. Bagay. — M. 

 Poisson, in the name of a Commission, made a very favourable 

 report on M. Damoiseau's Memoir containing the calculus of 

 the Perturbations of the Comet of the short period. — M. Paix- 

 hans read a Memoir in which he examined the question 

 whether Steam-engines can be employed in the art of war. — 

 M. G. St.-Hilaire presented a Memoir on the analogy existing 

 between the filets ])echeurs of the Lophius and the ascending 

 apophyses of the vertebrata ; especially with the first rays of 

 the dorsal fin of the Siluri. — A Letter from M. Audouin was 

 read, on the use of a vesicle which accompanies the female or- 

 gans of generation in insects. 



May 31. — M. Lassaigne read his Chemical Researches on 

 the means of determining the presence of hydrocyanic acid in 

 animals poisoned by that substance. — M. Magendie stated 

 that he was proceeding with his experiments on the fifth pair 

 of nerves. — M. Becquerel read some new elucidations of the 

 electrical effects observed in chemical action. — M. Auguste 

 St.-Hilaire read a Memoir in which he mentioned the poi- 

 sonous effects of the honey of the Lecheguana wasp. M.Des- 

 moulins read a Memoir on the differences between the nervous 

 system of the Lamprey and that of the other vertebrata. 



June 14. — A Memoir was received from M. Feburier on va- 

 rious properties of the electric fluid, and a new refutation of 



Newton, 



