62 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [Jan. 



appearance of meditation ; but as soon as he spoke, he appeared 

 quite another man ; his eyes acquired a sudden briUiancy ; his 

 countenance became animated, and his figure seemed as if 

 inspired " 



" Monge, debihtated by age, was at last the victim of an 

 imagination which, according as the times were adverse or pros- 

 perous, carried him beyond either just fears or just hopes 



His last moments were without last thoughts — without last 

 effusions — without any adieu : he sunk in silence — without 



agonies — without terror — and without hopes The rules of 



the service did not allow the generous youths to deposit at the 

 time of his funeral the token of their remembrance and their 

 regret upon the tomb of their old benefactor ; but on the dawn 

 of the day after the funeral, the pupils went silently to the place 

 of burial, and fixed upon it an oaken bough, to which they hung 

 a crown of laurel. Twenty-three former pupils of the Polytechnic 

 School, residing in the town of Douay, joined together with one 

 accord, and wrote to M. Berthollet to beg he would superintend 

 the erection of a monument to be built at the expense of the 

 former pupils of the Polytechnic School, in honour of Gaspard 

 Monge. M. Bertrand, Notary, No. 46, Rue Coquilliere, Paris, 

 is charged with the receipt of the subscriptions. The pupils who 

 have studied architecture are invited to propose their plans for 

 Monge's monument, and to send them, with an estimate, to M. 

 Bertrand." 



This notice is terminated by a list of pupils who have already 

 subscribed. The second part contains a catalogue and analyti- 

 cal review of Monge's writings, not only of those which he 

 published separately, but also of those which are inserted in the 

 Memoirs of the Academy, or of the Polytechnic School, and in 

 many other collections. All these works are well known, and 

 duly appreciated ; we have extracted in preference the shghter 

 anecdotes, those which, exhibiting as it were the mind of Monge, 

 explain the attachment of his former pupils, and the regrets of 

 his fellow labourers. 



On the Pontine Marshes ; by M. De Prony. Paris, 1818.— 

 At the meeting of Jan. 9, 1815, the author read a memoir, in 

 which he gave a general idea of the great problem relative to 

 draining and rendering wholesome the Pontine Marshes. This 

 memoir appears again at the head of this work, of which it forms 

 the introductory part, and is accompanied with interesting notes, 

 which could not be got into the text. 



In the 442d year of Rome, at the time of the construction of 

 the Appian way, the Pontine district was in a marshy state. 

 About 150 years afterwards, Cornelius Cethegus undertook the 

 draining of it. These works were afterwards neglected until the 

 dictatorship of Juhus Caesar, whose vast projects were inter- 

 rupted by his death. Nero, Trajan, and their successors, 

 bestowed much attention on the Appian way, and but little oa 



