1820.] Scientific Intelligence 65 



Languedoc, begun in 1668, and finished in 1681. Thus the 

 French engineers have, without the least contradiction, the 

 exclusive glory of having invented canals, and of having pro- 

 duced, as the first apphcation of this invention, two grand 

 works, justly esteemed the finest in their kind ; and the novelty 

 of which has not been sufficiently remarked or perceived by 

 those who have written the history of the art." 



The remainder of the work contains, at full length, the apph- 

 cation of the principles and formula; given by the author in his 

 Physico-mathematical Researches upon Running Waters. These 

 principles and methods, established upon all the experiments 

 the author could collect, have been already reduced to practice 

 in several cases, and especially in a very large drainage ; namely, 

 that of the marshes of Bourgoin directed by M. Roland. 



The whole review of this work shows this important conse- 

 quence — the possibility of including in regular canals all the 

 water which inundates this unfortunate soil, and of giving it a 

 free and easy passage to the sea. The draining being completed 

 by the means now pointed out, the keeping the ground in good 

 culture will be neither difficult nor expensive, but it should be 

 followed up with great care. 



The results of such extensive researches for rendering whole- 

 some the neighbourhood of Rome, and for its prosperity, 

 cannot be foreseen at present with much certainty : the author 

 has done every thing that depended on him ; and his work will 

 at least exhibit to young engineers an useful example of the 

 union of theory and experience in forming the project of an 

 extensive drainage. 



(To be conlinued.) 



Article IX. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE, AND NOTICES OF SUBJECTS 

 CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE. 



I. Potafoe. 



The general opinion is, that the potatoe is indigenous in 

 America, and that it was brought from that continent to Europe 

 by the Spaniards soon after the discovery of America by Colum- 

 bus. A fact mentioned in the Transactions of the Linnaean 

 society, vol. xii. p. 585, may, perhaps, be considered as a corro- 

 boration of this opinion. Don Jose Pavon, of Madrid, one of 

 the authors of the Flora Peruviana, states, in a letter to Mr. 

 Lambert, that he and his companions Ruiz and Dombey had 

 found the potatoe (So/anuni tuberosum) growing wild in the 

 environs of Lima, and 14 leagues from thence on the coast of 



Vol. XV. N° I. E 



