440 
Why fy the banquet; fly the kifs, 
Which friendfhip and which love might 
give? 
Why turn afide from every biifs, 
And die ere we begintolive? 
O let us: rather drain the bowl, 
Whilft nature, mirth, and verfe infpire! 
Not give to apathy the foul, 
And quench too foon its generous fire ! 
Why not tafte pleafures whilft we may ? 
Why fcorn the blefiings life beftows, 
Becaufe its fpace is but a day, 
And foon perhaps that day may clofe? 
As well-mightd, in deep defpair, 
My Julia’s yielding beauties fly, 
As well refufe her joys to fhare, 
Becaufe the lovely girl muft die ! 
RUSTICUS. 
Proceedings of Public Societies. 
[Dee. I, 
LINES [ent toa GENTLEMAN at voRK, who — 
bad lofi a favourite DAUGHTER.—By the. 
fame. 
HY weep o’er youth’s untimely fall ? 
My friend! ah give thy forrows o’er $ 
Of all Life's ills death conquers all, 
Nor do we part to meet no more. 
Ye {weet affetions ! céafe to mourn! 
O fly the manfions of the dead, 
Nor longer thus, o’er Martha’s urny 
Recline thy fond paternal head. 
Within the dark and dreary tomb, 
Her mortal relics only lie: 
Her foul, ce/efiia/, flies the gloom, 
To blifs and immortality ! 
Oct. 31, 1800. * RUSTICUS. 

“PROCEEDINGS OF PUBLIC SOCIETIES. 
Eee 
NATIONAL INSTITUTE Of FRANCE. 
. OLIVIER read to the Inftitute fome 
ae obfervations upon the quadruped, 
the Jerboa, the object cf which ‘was to 
corre% an error which both the ancients 
and moderns have entertained concerning 
she wakk‘of this anitnal, and to explain 
the irregular ftructure of its fexual organs. 
Ad the ancient medals in which it is de- | 
picted, reprefent the animal as ftanding 
upright on its hind legs, and even the mo- 
dern naturalifts regard the Jerboa as almoft 
a biped. C. Olivier fhews that the ftruc- 
ture of the foot and tarfal bones does not 
allow it to remain long in an upright po- 
fition, The fame author Iikewile de- 
fcribes a fmall {pecies of jerboa, which he 
found in Egypt, nearly of the ize of the 
moufe, which perfectly correfponds with 
the mus lengipes oi Linneus. 
C. DECANDOLE communicated a -me- 
Moir concerning the Jilocular legumes, or 
thofe in which the fruit is divided into two 
chambers by a longitudinal partition. Of 
this fpecies Linnzeus makes three genera, 
ene of which, the @fregalus,  vulgarly 
called gum dragon in England, is well 
known as furnifhiig the gum adragant, or 
tragacanth. The gum of this name met 
with in commerce, C. Olivier afferts, does 
not come fromm the ifle of Crete, as Tourne- 
fort fuppofes, nor from Mount Lebanon, 
but is brought from’Perfia, where the fhrub 
that yields it is fo be met with, and ‘is de- 
pofited at Aleppo. This {pecies is, there- 
tore, as yet not defcribed. Many genera 
2 
i 
of legumes have a pericarpium which is 
veficular and-filled with air. C. Decan- 
dole remarks, that if the air be analyfed 
as foon as the plant is gathered, it is very 
fimilar to atmoipherical air, but if the 
pericarpium be put under water the air 
lofes its purity and allits oxygen, 
The exiftence of ornitholiths in ftrata of 
fubmarine formation is yet difputed by 
many naturalifts. The celebrated natura- 
lift Fertis has even recently publifhed a 
memoir to prove that none were hitherto. 
known which were fufiiciently afcertaimed, 
—In various works, however, mention 
was made of thofe found at Montmatre : 
but {till they left room for doubts. 
C.Cuviex has lately prefented to the In- 
ftitutea fofiil which appears to him to po 
jefs allthe charateriltics of an ornitholith. 
itisa leg compofed ofa portion of a femur, 
atibia, atarfus, ina fingle piece, three 
claws, of which one has three articulations 
the next four, and the laft five, together 
witha veftige of a fpur. Ft is only in the 
clafs of birds that thefe numbers are found. 
This leg is incrufted in that gypfum of 
which great beds cccupy an immenfe {pace 
around Paris. It was found at Ville- 
Juif,.in the third mals, that is to day, 
above forty-nine feet lower than the fteata 
containing the bones of quadrupeds already 
Gefcribed by the iame author. 
C. ViDRON, a mufic-mafter at Paris, 
had announced his diicovery of a method 
of cauling mufic to be heard by perfons 
born deat and dumb, CC. C. Havy, 
: . LACEPEDEs 

