Foreign Literature and Science. 173 



ted observation, will in his opinion, be hereafter of little con= 

 sequence, unless, by a chance on which it would be unsafe to 

 re!) , it should happen to be made at a point where the action 

 of gravity would be a maxhrairn or a minimmn. In general, 

 observers should hereafter endeavor to repeat their observa- 

 tions, either along the same parallels, or on the same merid- 

 ian, in order to ascertain the laws (if any such exist) which 

 regulate the diversity which can now no longer be contested. 

 The author concludes his memoir in observing that the Eng- 

 lish have erred in taking the length of the pendulum as the 

 basis of their metrical system, as this length may vary from 

 causes which are quite independent of mere topographical 

 position, and which may not remain constant at the same 

 place during a course of ages. On this account, the basis of 

 the French measure is not liable to the same inconvenience 

 to the same extent. — Idem. 



1 7. The Society of Encouragement at Paris, offer the 

 following premivms. — 3000 francs, for a black dye for hats 

 which will resist the prolonged action of the sun's rays, with- 

 out losing its lustre, or altering the suppleness of the fabric, 



2000 francs for a cheap and effectual mode of preserving 

 ice for domestic purposes. 



1500 francs for a Rasp, which will reduce six hundred 

 Kilogrammes (one thousand six hundred pounds trov.) of 

 beet roots to a pulp, with the force of four men. " And 

 2000 francs for the best press, which will extract seventy- 

 two to seventy-five per cent of juice from the pulp. 



2000 francs for the perfection of the method of producing 

 Ichthyocolla. 



6000 francs for an economical process of making solid 

 pieces of ultramarine, equal to that which is obtained from 

 lapis lazuh. 



5000 francs for a process for drying meat, which will se- 

 cure it from putrefaction or taint in long southern voyages. 

 A portion of meat has been exposed during ten years, in the 

 mint at Paris, in a situation in which it is not protected 

 either from dust or atmospheric changes, and which after 

 being washed and cooked, is still savoury and good. It was 

 dried or preserved by WI. Vilaris, an apothecary of Bordeaux, 

 whose secret died with him. — Programmes des pris. ^c. 



