372 Foreign Literature and Science. 



Carbon, 

 Hydrogen, 

 Nitrogen, 

 Oxygen, 



English elastic bitumen. 



52.250 



j 7.496 



0.154 



40.100 



French elastic do. 

 58.260 



4.890 



0.104 

 36.746 





100.000 



100.000 

 Bulletin des Sciences, 



6. Proportion of Male and Female Children. — M. Bailly, 

 of the French Institute, has lately made a series of observa- 

 tions connected with the subject of the relative births of 

 male and female children. From exact registers kept in 

 one locality, it appears, he says, that there were more fe- 

 male conceptions than male conceptions in the months of 

 March and July ; and these two months, he observes, are, the 

 first on account of the occurrence of heat and the second 

 on account of the heat of the weather, the part of the year 

 least favorable to the activity of the generative powers, at 

 least with a view to fecundations. 



7. On the species or varieties in the Human Race. — Lin- 

 naeus, in his " Sy sterna Naturae" divided men into four va- 

 rieties, according to the color of the skin ; giving each varie- 

 ty the name of the part of the world where it was most 

 common. Dumeville considers that there were six distinct 

 varieties, which he names: 1. Caucasian, or European 

 Arabs ; 2. Hyperborean ; 3. Mongolian ; 4. American ; 

 5. Malay ; 6. Ethiopian. Cuvier reduced the number of 

 varieties to three. Vizey, in his history of man, divided the 

 genus into two species, according to the facial angle, noting 

 three varieties and sub-varieties to each species. Desmou- 

 lins has lately, further divided the genus man into eleven spe- 

 cies ; and Bory Saint Vincent, in a very elaborate paper on 

 the varieties and species of this genus, has added four other 

 species to this extended list ; and has given the peculiarities, 

 habits, manners, and appearances of each of the species, 

 and an account of their probable origin. He divided the 

 genus into two sections ; the first he called Leiotrichi, or 

 smooth haired men, which he again sub-divided into those 

 which are peculiar to the old world, as 1. Homo Japeticus y 

 the sons of Noah, which he divided into several races ; 2. 

 Homo Arabicus — the Arabs ; 3. Homo Indicus — the Hin- 



