

oat 700-]. 
nearly,as poffible, to the precifion of the 
exact {ciences. 
Tt refults from his firftymemoir, that 
the diftri€t of Gueret, in the department 
of La Creufe, contains 43,530 inhabitants, 
in a {pace of 43 fquare leagues; and thar, 
fuppoling av equal divifion made among 
all the confumers, the wheat. produced in 
the diftriét, th: ugh one of thofe the moft. 
expofed to inclement feafons and fterility, 
would be more than fufficient for the 
nourifhment of the inhabitants ; but! that 
as often any: meafures are taken which 
obftruét the free commerce of corn, a 
{carcity is fure to enfue. 
_. His fecond memoir principally confifts 
of calculations, furnifhed | by Paris, Lyons, 
and London, by which it appears, that 
all variations in the price of corn havea 
fenfible effeét upon the health and ex- 
iftence of mankind; that an excefs in its 
price being known, a proportionate excels 
_ may be  fafely aligned to the number of 
deaths in thofe towns ; that the more go- 
vernment interferes, the greater 1s ue 
Variation that takes place in its price; and 
that, confequently, all the branches of 
agriculture ought to be encouraged in 
fuch a way that the fcarcity of one article 
may be compenfated by the abundance of 
others. 
In the clafs of literature and the fine 
arts, Citizen Dufaulx read fome fragments 
of his travels among the Pyrenéan moun- 
tains ; and Citizen Bitaubé, an eflay, in- 
tituled, Ox the Study of the Auctents. 
‘Citizen David te Roy read the firft part 
of his New Refearches concerning the Sips 
employed by the Ancients, from the. beginning 
of the Punic Wars to the Baitle of Adium, 
and of the Ufe ibat might be made of them 
in the French Marine. 
-Remarking the fudden way in which 
the Romans, who had never effayed their 
power at fea, eclipfed the naval glory of 
the Carthaginians and ruined their ma~ 
rine, he afcribes almoft all their fuccefs to 
the conful Duilius, the inventor of the cor- 
uus, a kind of fiying bridge, which, by a 
new and fimpie contrivance, hooked the 
enemy's fhips, and enabled the Roman 
foldiers to board them two abreaft. 
The author reétifies the very faulty de- 
{cription which Folard has given of this 
machine in his Commentaries on Poly- 
bius; and thinks it might be advanta- 
geoully ufed on board the French. pri- 
vateers. 
The reft of the tranfactions recorded 
in this fitting, were not remarkable for 
noyelty or imporlauice,. . 
Inportant Proceedings of the National Inftitution. 
633 
¥ — 
he 
At the fecond public fitting of the Na- 
tional Inftitution, on the 15th Meffidor, 
(July 3) Citizen Pelletier bara miunicaced 
to the my clafx his 6 fervations on Stron- 
thian éavth, found in the north of Scot- 
a’. ope, profeflor of chemiftry at 
Glafgow, ScHincifter, of Homigreh) and 
Blamenbdch and K! aproth, of A con- 
fider it as a newly difcovered earth, diftin& 
from the feveral kinds a already admitted by 
chemifis, while feveral other fcientific men 

‘have long been of opinion, that the com- 
binationof Stronthian earth with the car- 
Bonic acid gas, 1s nothing more than a 
Variety of the combinariln of bagptes, or 
terra pene with thar acid.” Citizen 
Pelletier refolved to put their opinions to 
the proof, and made a nlmber of experi« 
ments, which he detailed to the clafs, and 
from ich he thought himfelf authe- 
rized to infer, that the Stronthian earth is 
different i ‘Barytes, ‘and, 
greater reafon, that it is entirely diftinét 
from the other fimple ‘earths with which 
We are as bg eee nted. 
On the fame day, Citize 

ourcroy read 
-a memoir concerning Barytes and its re- 
femblance to Stronthian ear , from which 
both he and Citizen V, cull thought 
they had a right to aie: confequences 
very diiterent from thofe of, Citizen Pel. 
letier, Chemifts Lad long defired to have 
Barytes in a vertibcre ftate, when, ba few 
months fince, Citizen Vauquelin difcovered 
a Mode of feparating it entirely from the 
carbonic acid. That poiut once attained, 
Citizens Fourcroy and Vauquelin were 
able to afcertain the principal properties of 
the earth in ‘queftion, and to make ex- 
tenfive refearches concerning its combina- 
tions. The firft part of thefe labours were 
the fuvjeét of Citizen Fourcroy’s memoir, 
which i terminates by adverts: that 
having carefully compared he new pro- 
ies 

perties of Be with thofe afcribed to “ 
Stronthiam earth by Klaproth, both he 
and Citizen Vauquelin think they have 
reafon to. ape der them as one and the 
fame earth ; 
In cube col memoir, however, Citizen 
Pelletier gives @m account of new experi- 
ments whieh he has made upon Stroathian 
earth and Barytes, rendered very pure by 
a different procefs frem that of. Citizen 
Vauquelinw, Thefe experiments induce 
him to perfitt i in looking u pon them as twa 
AiGince. earths. He informed the clafs, 
that Stronthian earth was not confined ta 
the place from which it derives its name ; 
but 
with fall - 



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