Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris. 389 



the name of moon-stone, and which nobody liad till then found 

 in its gangue. On the banks of the river Cavery he found, 

 at the depth of ten or twelve feet below the surface, corundums 

 of various colours inclosed in their gangue. 



As to the human inhabitants of these regions, we shall only 

 mention what the author tells us of one of the tribes of the 

 Ncilgherry mountains, a part of the chain of the Ghauts. In 

 direct opposition to the prevalent manners of the East, with 

 regard to the union of the sexes, the customs of this tribe per- 

 mit the woman to take more than one husband. 



On the behalf of a Commission, M. Magendi made a Report 

 on the communication of M. Edwards relative to the exha- 

 lation and absorption of azote in respiration. The Academy 

 has requested M. Edwards to continue the interesting inqui- 

 ries on tliis subject, to which he has already devoted his at- 

 tention. 



M. Desfontames, in the name of a Commission, made a Re- 

 port relative to the Commentary of M. Paule on the Plants 

 and Animals mentioned by Virgil. The authors who have 

 attempted to assign to the plants and animals mentioned by 

 Virgil in his Eclogues, Georgics and iEneid, the names im- 

 der which they are respectively known to modern science, have 

 not hitherto agreed. M. Paulet, in his Commentaiy, examines 

 in detail the opinions of his predecessors. According to the 

 report of the Commissaries, the work contains critical observa- 

 tions of the most intei-esting nature, which prove not only ex- 

 tensive botanical information, but a profound acquaintance 

 ■with the writers of antiquity. 



March 3. — A Letter was communicated from the Prefect of 

 Rhodez, On the extraordinary Motion of the Barometer ob- 

 served in that city on February 2. 



M. (Ersted related the results of his experiments on the 

 Compression of Water ; he also informed the Academy of 

 M. Seebeck's late researches on Electro- Magnetic Pheno- 

 mena. 



M. Lonchamps read a Memoir on the Uncertainty of some 

 Results of Chemical Analysis. 



March 10. — A manuscript work, entitled A Geognostic De- 

 scription of the Environs of Puy in Velay, was received from 

 M. Bertrand Roux. 



M. de la Borne presented a scaled packet containing the 

 results of some new reseaiches on the Action of the Voltaic 

 Pile. 



M. Vau(jUfliii read a Notice on a Crystalline Substance 

 formed ui a -Solution of Cyanogen. 



March 



