4801. ] 
cave and convex, which give much more 
mobility to the fpine, whereas in the ceti 
they are flat; that the vertebrz of the tail 
have their apophyfes fo difpofed, that the 
tail.can move from light to left, and not 
up and down, like the cetaceous fithes; 
that the under-jaw is compofed of feveral 
pieces, like all the amphibious reptiles, 
whilft in the ceti, asin the other mammia- 
lia, they confift only of one piece for each 
fide ; that the Maeftricht animal has in- 
deed teeth in the palate, which are want- 
ing in the crocodile, but then the iguana 
has them ; and from thefe as well as other 
marks, C. Camper concludes, that this 
unknown animal is an amphibious rep- 
tile not now found on the furface of the 
earth, the length of which may be about 
24 feet. 
C. Danpara has given the name of 
apbrizit to a mineral procured from Lan- 
gofe, in Norway, which has the fpecific 
gravity of 3.1481, gives fire with fteel, 
refifts the file, is of a black colour, and 
melts with frothing before the blow-pipe, 
whence the name apbrizi, which is 
Greck for froth. C. Hauy, however, has 
found it to be only a variety of the tour- 
maline. 
M. Karsten has fent a fine fpecimen 
of arfeniated lime to C. Hauy, which has 
a mammellated form, and is milk-white, 
the furface covered with a lilac red-ar- 
feniated cobalt. ‘The internal ftru@ure is 
flightly pearled and ftriated from the cen- 
tre to the circumierence. It fometimes 
alfo forms capillary cryftals, It is not fo- 
luble in water, but diffolves in nitre, and 
without effervefcence. Klaproth has found 
it to contain much oxydated arfenic com- 
bined with lime. It has been difcovered 
in Wittichen, in Germany. Its gangue 
is a large-grained granite, enclofing ba- 
rytic calcareous fulphat. 
Klaproth, in his analyfis of the honig- 
frein (honey ftone, Pierre de micl, ) has found 
it to confift of alumine united to an acid 
with an hydro-carbonated bafe, like that 
of the vegetable acids. 
C. de Saussure jun. read to the foci- 
ety a memoir concerning “ the influence 
of the foil on certain conftituent parts of 
vegetables.” An opinion had been enter- 
tained that the foil had no influence on 
vegetables, except in confequence of its 
faculty of retaining a greater or leffer 
quantity of moifture ; and to this caufe 
alone was attributed the difference in 
abundance and fize obfervable between 
vegetables growing on calcareous foils, 
and thofe growing on a granitic foil. 
But C. de Sauffure having obferved that 
animals living on the fame vegetables in 
calcareous foils as others in granitic, were 
larger, fatter, and yielded a milk more 
Proceedings of Public Societiese 
541 
rich in butyraceous and cafeous particles, 
imagined that there muft exift between 
thofe vegetables certain differences of 
greater importance, and more clofely 
connected with the nature of the foil. 
In confequence he made a feries of expe~ 
riments, with the view of afcertaimng 
the differences which the different nature 
-of the foil produced in the vegetables 
growing upon it. ‘l'o render thafe expe~ 
riments conclufive, it was neceflary to 
make them ftriétly comparative —that is 
to fay, to take the fame quantities of the 
fame vegetable at the fame age, growing 
in circumftances the moft nearly fimilar, 
in the fame expofure, within the courfe. 
of f{prings, or expofed within the reach 
of cattle. It was requifite to repeat the 
fame experiments a confiderable number 
of times, for the purpofe of taking a me~ 
dium of the refults, and approaching te 
the truth by multiplying the probabili- 
ties. He began by analyfing the ftone 
that compofed the mountains of which 
he examined the plants. He next pre- 
ceeded by chemical means to the analyfis 
of the vegetables, with the view of dit- 
covering the reipective quantities of pure 
water, carbor, earth, and falt. To ob- 
tain more veneral refults, he operated on 
different {pecies of plants, namely, pins 
abies, pinus tarix, rhododendron ferrugizeumty 
vaccinium myrtillus, Juniperus  commurié. 
All fuch famples of thefe vegetables as 
had been taken from granitic foils, con~ 
tained a greater portion of water than 
thote from calcareous grounds. ‘The ex- 
tremes of the differences were 57 to 58 
for the fmalleft, and 52 to 59 for the 
greateit. Thefe differences cannot be at- 
tributed to the quantities of water xe- 
tained by the mould of the granitic and 
of the calcareous foils; for they are ins 
verfe of the quantities furnifhed by the 
vegetables of thofe foils. C. de Sauffure 
concludes, with Duhamel, that the tim- 
ber of calcareous countries is preferable, 
in point of folidity, to that of granitic 
countries. Pafling afterwards to a con 
parifon of the quantities of carbon con- 
tained in vegetables, C.de Sauffure fhews 
how difficult it is to eftimate with preci- 
fion the abfolute quantities of carbon; at 
moit we can only difcover the relative 
proportions of that principle; and ine has 
found it more abundant in the calcareous 
vegetables, fo that it feems to fupply the 
place of the water which they contain in 
lefs quantity than the granitic vegetables. 
The granitic vegetables, being more wa- 
tery, ought, according to Duhamel’s ob- 
fervations, to poflefs a more lax texture, 
and confequently to contain fomewhat 
more afhes. ‘The incineration of the gra- 
nitic and the calcareous vegetables aiford- 
ed 
