442, 
which the mathematic {ciences are indebted 
to the philomathic fociety, fince its efia- 
blifhment in 17883 of the advertifement 
of the premiums propofed by the agricul- 
tural fociety of the department of the 
Seine; of the “* Aéts of the miniftry of C. 
Francois” (of Neufchateau); of the firft 
two volumes of the ‘* Bibliotheque Fran- 
coife’’ by C. Pougens ; of the ¢* Hiftory of 
the fage Danifchmend,”’ a philofophic ro- 
mance, tranflated from the German of 
Wieland; of the laft volumes of the “ new 
collection of Romances ;’” and of C. Maf- 
fon, author of the poem entitled ‘* The 
Helvetians,”” a correfponding member of 
the philotechnic fociety. 
C. Cuvier madea report concerning the 
fecond volume of Lacépéde’s ‘* Natural 
Hiftory of Fifhes.”’ 
C. Mancourir, in his Memoir 
concerning the hofpitable monaltery of 
Mount Saint Bernard, has colleéted the 
the moft interefting and beft authenticated 
faéts. He goes back to the ancient appel- 
Jation of that mountain, known by the 
name of Mont-Joux or Mons Joyis (Jove’s 
Mount) until the middle of the tenth cen- 
tury, the period fixed as the zra oi the 
foundation of the hofpitable monaftery by 
St. Bernard. The author of the memoir 
holds up to admiration the fupernatural ef- 
forts to which the inmates of that monaf- 
tery are prompted by the impulfe of huma- 
nity, which, in them, has triumphed over 
the natural propenfity of all religious or- 
ders to a relaxation and negleét of their 
original rule, © He enters into the moft 
minute details refpeéting the adminiftra- 
tion of the monaftery, and the painful 
toils of the monks who fearlefsly expofe 
their lives in the performance of thofe du- 
ties to which they have voluntarily fub- 
mitted, and which they fulfil with equal 
ardour and perfeverance. He ftrews his 
memoir with philofophic reflexions, among 
which may be reckoned the parallel he has 
drawn between the ufe which thofe monks 
make of the dogs trained by them to go 
out in fearch of travellers bewildered in the 
{now or carried away by its driftings, and 
the ufe made of the fame {pecies of animal 
by the favage Spaniards againit the peace- 
ful Mexicans, whofe wealth they coveted. 
C. JosepH LaVALLEE£, appointed to 
pronounce the eulogy of Deiaix, ipoke laft. 
With the praifes of that hero he blended 
that of other diftinguifhed warriors: Bo- 
naparte, Moreau, Kleber, particularly 
received a fhare of his homage. Several 
parts of his difcourfe were loudly applaud- 
ed ; among others, his compartfon of an- 
eient taétics with the preicat mode of 
Proceedings of Public Societies. 
[Dec. 1, 
fichting, and his defcription of the paflage 
ot the Rhine.-—The fitting was clofed by 
a {cene. from the poems of Offian, fet to 
mufic by Kalkbrenner. 

SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
C. Hauy read to the fociety a note on 
the Cryftallifation of Iron Ores. 
The approaching publication of his. 
treatife on Mineralogy having induced hire 
to revife with careful attention his work on 
Cryftallifation, he difcovered that he had 
only in part reétified the inaceuracies into 
which people had fallen relative to the eryf- 
talline forms of iron ores, 
In the extraét of his treatife he had al- 
ready pointed out that the cryftals of vol- 
canic iron were not fegments of regular 
oftahedrons as had. been imagined, and 
that the difference between the angles of 
thefe and thofe of the fegments was above 
twelve degrees. He has fince found that 
their primitive form was a fomewhat acute 
rhombeid, in which the faperior angle was 
an angle of about eighty-feven degrees. 
But he ftil} thought, with all other na- 
turalifts, that the cryftals of iron of the 
ifle of Elva were derived from the cubic 
form ; and he had reduced to this form 
that of the cryftals of Framont, in dodeca- 
hedroens, compofed of two ftraight pyra- 
mids incomplete. 
He had, however, been conftantly ftruck 
by a kind of fingularity here prefented by 
the cubic form, which performed the 
fundtion of a rhomboid, that is to fay, 
that it was neceflary to fuppofe an axis 
which fhould pafs through two folid oppo- 
fite angles that were to be confideted as 
the fummits: and the laws of decreafe 
which aéted round thefe fummits were dif 
ferent from thofe which applied to the la- 
teral angles. He was ftill more furprifed 
when, having recently tried to apply his 
theory toa variety of the Framont iron 
which he had not before examined, he dif- 
covered that it was neceflary to fuppofe it 
the confequence of a decreale by twenty 
ranges on the inferior angles of the primi- 
tive cube, to furnifh a refult conformable 
to obfervation. This Jaw, though not 
abfolutely inadmiffible, was neverthelefs 
{fo great a deviation. from the fimplicity of 
the ordinary laws, that it infpired him 
with a fufpicion efpeting the cubic form 
iifelf; and, with the aflittance ofa gonio- 
meter, he for the firft time meafured, on 
the cryitals of the ifle of Elva, the mutual 
incidence of the primitive faces ;. whereas 
he had,,. till then, contented him(elf with 
meaiuring that of the faces preduced by 
| the 
