1818.] Scientific Intelligence. 385 



M. Girard, in the name of a committee, commenced reading 

 a report on a memoir by M. Vicat on the composition of mortars 

 and cements. 



Feb. 16. — M. Daussi read a memoir on the planet Ceres. 



M. Chevreul read his seventh memoir sur les corps gras. 



M. Girard finished his report on M. Vicatfte memoir on 

 mortars and cements. The memoir having been approved by 

 the Academy, was ordered to be printed among the Receuil des 

 Savans Etrangers. 



A letter from M. Cagniard-Latour was read, on a hydraulic 

 machine for raising water by the explosion of successive portions 

 of vapour. 



M. Morichini writes word that his experiments on the magnetic 

 power of the violet rays continue to be attended with success. 



M. Cuvier communicated some observations on several sculls 

 of the ourang-outang, from which he concludes that the East 

 Indian animals hitherto described under this name are probably 

 only young specimens of the large species of monkey, called 

 Pongo by Wurmb. 



Feb. 23. — M. Dumeril read a report on certain pieces of appa- 

 ratus, presented by M. Brize-Fradin, for the purpose of purifying 

 foul air. 



M. Dupin read a notice of his second voyage en Angleterre. 



Article XVIII. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE, AND NOTICES OF SUBJECTS 

 CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE. 



I. On the raising of Olive Trees* 



Trials have been frequently made, but without success, to 

 multiply the olive by sowing the seeds ; it has always been found 

 necessary either to employ cuttings, or to procure wild plants 

 from the woods. One of the inhabitants of Marseilles, asto- 

 nished to find that we cannot obtain by cultivation what nature 

 produces spontaneously, was led to reflect upon the manner in 

 which the wild plants were produced. They proceed from the 

 kernels, which kernels have been carried into the woods, and 

 sown there by birds, who have swallowed the olives. By the 

 act of digestion, these olives have been deprived of their natural 

 oil, and the kernels have become permeable to the moisture of 

 the earth, the dung of the birds has served for manure, and^ 

 perhaps, the soda which this dung contains, by combining with 

 a portion of the oil which has escaped digestion^ may also favour 



• Journ. de Pharm. March, 1817. 



Vol. XI. N° V. 2 B 



