540 
of very great“utility; but, to determine 
the degree, it will be neceflary to make 
the experiment on a more extenfive plan 
than has been done at the polymathic 
Ychool: and that in confequence the Mi- 
nifter of the Interior fhould be requefted, 
in the name of the Inftitute, to enable C. 
Butet to make this interefting experiment 
by the inftruction of a clafs of 25 to 30 
fcholars of one of. the national fchools of 
Paris. 
The Minifter has returned for anfwer 
to C. Butet, a commiffion to concert with 
C. Champagne the execution of this pian 
an the Prytaneum. : 
St. PreRRE, in a paper read before the 
Ynftitute, fhews the ufe which might be 
made of bottles or other fubftances render- 
ed water-tight, fo as to float upon the fea, 
and thrown overboard in certain latitudes, 
in order to determine the courfe of the 
different currents in the ocean. He men- 
tions the fate of three experiments thus 
tried. The firft was a bottle thrown over- 
board in the Bay of Bifcay, Auguft 17, 
31786, from an Englifh fhip going to the 
Eaft Indies. It was taken up by fome 
fifhermen on the coaft of Normandy, 
May 9, 1787, two leagues off fhore from 
Aromanches.- C. Philip Delville, then 
Judge of the Admiralty at this place, 
fent to London the letter which the bottle 
contained. A fecond bottle was thrown 
into the fea June 15, 1797, north lat. 44’. 
22'', long. Teneriffe 4’. 52!'. by C.Brard, 
painter of the Mufeum of Natural Hiftory, 
going from Hamburgh to Surinam, whom 
St. Pierre fays he requefted to fend him 
fome letters by this marine poft. It was 
taken up on July 6 the fame year, among 
the rocks of Cape Prieur, by a foldier of 
the garrifon of Ferrol, and the letter came 
-fafe to hand. The third was thrown into 
the fea north of the Ifle of France, and 
was picked upat the Cape of Good Hope, 
having been carried by the currents more 
than a thouiand leagues. 
‘The ROYAL INSTITUTION of GREAT 
. BRITAIN. 
During the fummer recefs very. great 
alterations have been made in the houfe 
of the Inftitution. A new leG@ure-room 
has been erected, the dimenfions of which 
are fixty feet by forty-five, the feats of 
‘which rife in arches of circles one above 
snother, in the manner of the ancient am- 
phitheatres. The entrance to thefe feats 
as by four vomitories, fo that they may 
be filled and emptied without the {malleft 
confuiion. Over the area, which is ca- 
pable of containing with eafe 500 audi- 
tors, is erected a gallery, capable of hold- 
ing 300, fo that at leaft 800 perfons can 
be accommodated in this room, It is 

Proceedings of Public Societies. 
{Jan. ft, 
lighted by a window in the dome, which 
by a particular contrivance can be dark- 
ened in an inftant, when that is required 
for particular experiments. It is intended 
to warm the room by fteam, by means of 
pipes which will go under the feats; this 
will give a comfortable degree of heat 
without any danger to the building. When 
completed, it will undoubtedly be one of 
the handfomeft lecture-rooms in Britain. 
Under the lecture-room is a very capa- 
cious repofitory for the reception of mos 
dels and philofophical apparatus, and on 
the ground-floor an excellent chemical la- 
boratory. A room has likewife been 
fitted up as a printing-office, where it is 
intended to print the journals, &c. of the 
Inftitution. ‘The different lectures of the 
Inftitution will be opened early in the 
month of January. 

PHILOMATHIC SOCIETY. 
Cit. Cuvrer, in continuing his examina- 
tion of the animal remains incrufted in the 
gypfum hills around Paris, has obtained 
{pecimens which have proved to him the 
exiftence of two fpecies of animals entire- 
ly diftin@ from thofe hitherto defcribed, 
though fill belonging to the fame genus. 
One of thefe has only two toes in the 
hinder foot, like the very large fpecies 
of this family, but is three times as {mall. 
The other of thefe new fpecies is ex- 
tremely fmall, {carcely equalling the 
hedge-hog in fize. 
A block of very hard calcareo-filiceous 
ftone fent to the author from near Orleans 
having been opened, exhibited a great 
number of teeth, and fome other bony 
parts, which refembled entirely the cor- 
refponding parts of the hippopotamus, but 
were much {maller, and muft have be- 
longed to an animal nor larger than the 
hog, though adult. Among thefe pieces 
are the tufks, grinders of each kind, hu- 
merus, aftragalus, jaw-bone, &e. This 
ipecies of leffer hippopotamus is therefore 
to be added to the lift of fubmerged ani- 
mals, the breed of which has not yet 
been found above ground. 
The foffile bones in the Mountain of” 
St. Pierre, near Maeftricht, were confi- 
dered by the late Profeflor CaMPER as 
belonging to fome unknown animal of the 
cetaceous clafs, Other learned men, 
however, among whom are Faujas and 
C. Adrian Camper, fon of the late Pro- 
feffor, incline to the opinion, that they 
belonged to an unknown variety of the 
crocodile. ‘The reafons which C. Adrian 
Camper gives for this opinion are; that 
the dorfal vertebre in queftion have on 
their under fide thofe pointed tubercles 
which characterife the crocodile; that the 
articulating furtaces are re{pectively con- 
cave 
