2s 
Welearn, froma very extenfive memoir 
on the organ of the voice, by Citizen 
CuvirR, that moft birds have, indepen- 
dently of an inferior glottis, which is the 
principal organ of the voice, a fuperior 
Jarynx; amechanifm, which enables them 
to vary their tones with the more facility, 
as they can, by means of it, eafily change 
the ftate of their glottis, the length of 
their trachea, and the aperture of their 
upper larynx. it refults from this or- 
ganization, that the deepeit tones, and 
the harmonics of the fame tones, are 
produced by the allongation of the tra- 
chea, and the greateft relaxation of the 
glottis; whillt, by the contraction of the 
trachea and the condeniation of the glot- 
is, the bird produces tones higher in 
proportion co the fhortnefs of the trachea, 
together with all the harmonics ‘of the 
tone, which correfponds to that degree of 
contraction. 
Some obfervations, which confirm the 
utility of mild mercurial murtate, or 
calomel, in the treatment of the fmall- 
pox, by Citizen DEsSessarTs, together 
with tome. profound refearches by Citizen 
HvuzaRD, on a malady which affects 
the organs of generation in horfes, have 
alfo been the object of the attention 
of the clafs. Many of tts members have 
been principally occupied with the care 
of alceriaining by a multiplicity of expe- 
riments, the phenomena of Galvaniim. 
This name is given to a difcovery which 
Dr. GALVANI, a member of the Inftitute 
of Bologna, made many years ago, and 
from which it refults, that when a con- 
tiguous feries of metals, commonly differ- 
ent from one another, are put into con- 
tact on the one fide with a nerve, and on 
the other with a mutfele, or even with 
different and diftant parts of the fame 
nerve, at the inftant of the double contaét, 
2 rapid and convulfive motion takes place 
in the mufcle into which the nerve is dif- 
tributed. This phenomenon feems to pre- 
fent to the mind the idea of a circle, a 
portion of which is formed by the exci- 
tatory metals, and the other by the ner- 
vous and mulcular organs. Different {b- 
ftances may concur to form this circle, and 
to excite its effects. Other different ones 
may break the cirele, and fufpend or in- 
tercept thofe effeéts. Et has been remarked, 
that there are fubftances which feem to 
extinguilh this fingular faculty in the 
animal, whilft others excite and re efta- 
blifh it when it appears dead or dormant. 
The rapidity of the effect, and the promp- 
titude of the communication, the nature 
and the participation of the exciting and 
Proceedings of the National Luftitute, 4th Fuly, 1798. | [ Jan. 
intercepting fubftances, prefent very fenfi- 
ble analogies between the phenomena of 
Galvanifm and thofe of eleétricity. Some 
eflential differences, however, appear to 
militate againft this analogy, and will not 
fuffer us to admit, at leaft for the prefent, 
the identity of a common principle. How- 
ever it may be, thefe phenomena, excited 
by art, are fo intimately conneéted with 
thofe of the animal economy, that it may 
be advifeable, in order to catch thefe con- 
nections, to look in the one for the appli- 
cationof the others. The refult of thefe 
experiments, made to verity the pheno- 
mena of Galvanifm, have been lately com- 
mitted to the prefs. 
(The other claffes in our next.) 

ProGramMa of-the Prizes of the Na- 
TIONAL INSTITUTE of SCIENCES and 
ARTS, propofed in the public Sitting of 
Fuly ath. 
Crass of Moral and Political Sciences. 
PRIZE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
HE clafs of Moral and Political Sciences 
had propofed the following queftion as 
the fubject of the prize for the year VI: 
What are the objects and conditions for, and 
according to which, a republican fate may judge 
it expedient to open pubile loans ? 
PRIZE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. 
How far ought the power of a father of a fa- 
mily to extend, and what limts fhould be prefcribed 
te it, in a well-conflituted republic ? 
PRIZE OF GEOGRAPHY. 
To determine what ave the great changes which 
have taken place on the furface of the globe, 
and which are either indicated or proved by biftory? 
PRIZE OF MORALS. 
The clafs of Moral and Political Sciences 
had propofed the following queftion as a fub- 
ject of the prize for the year VII.: 
What are the propereft inftituiions on which to 
found the morals of a people ? 
Crass of Literature and Fine Arts. 
PRIZE OF POETRY. 
The clafs of Literature and Fine Arts pro- 
pofes for the fubje& of the prize of poetry : 
Liberty; as anode, a pocm, a diftourfe inverfe, 
or an epifile. 
Crassof Mathematical and Phyfical Sciences. 
SUBJECT OF TWO PRIZES IN PHYSICS. 
The clafs of Mathematical and Phyficad 
Sciences of the Inititute had propofed in the 
year IV. as the fubject of a prize which it 
was to adjudge in the public aflembly of Ven~ 
demiaire, of the year VII. the uie to whic] 
the liver is applied in the different claffes of 
animals.——-The memoirs were to have been 
receivéd before the 1ft Germinal of that year, 
as the clafs had judged it neceffary to reterve 
t® 
