1813.] Imperial Institute of France. 311 



tainty acquired that the food does not enter there, but on the 

 contrary that they are found full of bilious liquor, has induced 

 M. de Serres to conclude that they are reservoirs of that humor. 



He deprives the grasshoppers, and the analogous genera, of 

 the quality of ruminating animals, which had been ascribed to 

 them, and he has convinced himself that these animals do not 

 bring the food back to the mouth ; but that they throw out only 

 in certain circumstances this biliary juice, of which they have so 

 great a quantity. This long memoir contains many other cu- 

 rious observations on the form of the intestinal canal, the pro- 

 portions of its parts, and their relation to the disposition of in- 

 sects. We shall speak of it with detail in our next year's analysis. 



M. Dutrochet, physician at Chateau-Renaud, department of 

 the Indre, has made a curious observation on the gestation of 

 the viper. He assures us that the young vipers have their um- 

 bilical vessels distributed not only on the yoke of the egg, in 

 which they are at first enclosed, but that a part of these vessels is 

 distributed likewise on the internal surface of the oviducts, and 

 forms a net which may be considered as a real placenta. The 

 vipers in that case would participate in the mode of nutrition 

 peculiar to the mammalia, and in that hitherto conceived to be- 

 long exclusively to the whole class of oviparous animals. 



(To be continued.) 



Article XIV. 



scientific intelligence; and notices of subjects 

 connected with science. 



I. Lectures. 



The following arrangements have been made for lectures, at 

 the Surrey Institution, in the ensuing season: — Mr. J. Mason 

 Ciood, on the Philosophy of Physics ; to commence on Friday, 

 the 5th of November, and to be continued on each succeeding 

 Friday. — Dr. Thomson, on Chemistry ; to commence on Tues- 

 day, the yth of November, and to be continued on each suc- 

 ceeding Tuesday. — Mr. Bakewell, on Natural and Experi- 

 mental Philosophy; to commence early in January, 1814-. — 

 Dr. Crotch, on Music; early in February, 1814. 



William Thomas Brande, F. U.S. Prof. Chem. R.I. will 

 commence his course of Lectures on Chemical Philosophy at the 

 Theatre of Anatomy, Windmill-street, on the second Tuesday 

 in October, at nine in tli*e morning. They will be continued 

 ifvciv Tuesday, Thursday, and .Saturday, throughout the season, 



