1801.] 
proach of the parts which are at a diftant 
temperature, fo that their reciprocal action 
becomes, by that means, more lively and 
more inftantaneous ; but that we have not, 
therefore, a right to conclude, that elaftic 
liquids and fluids are incapable of tranf- 
mitting heat. 
Citizen Guyton has been employed in 
alcertaining the means of ptrifying in- 
fe&ted air, and ftopping the progrefs of 
contagion. He fcrupuloufly examines ail 
the methods purfued to our-days, not ex- 
cluding his own, and determines thofe 
which ought to infpire the moft confi- 
dence. The fame Citizen has read a Me- 
moir on the preparation of mortars, of 
lime, of befoz, and of the different {pecies 
of puzzolani; he compares thefe different 
methods of conftruction, and gives the re- 
fult of fome experiments made on a large 
fcale, even under the water of the ifea, 
with materials which he propofes to fub- 
ftitute for the puzzolani of Italy. 
_ InExperimental Phyfics, Citizen HALLE 
has given an account of the experiments 
relative to Galvanifm, which have been 
repeated or made, for the firfi time, in the 
School of Medicine, by means of the ap. 
paratus of Volta. Their general refult is, 
a demonftration of the identity of the gal- 
vanic principle with eleétricity. 
In Meteorology, Citizen Tessier has 
prefented a feries of queftions to be pro- 
pofed to the Conftituted Authority, and 
to the Correfpondents of the Inftitute in 
the departments, to procuré from them 
all the documents neceffary to afcertain 
the extent and the effects of the tempeft of 
the 18th Brumaire. 
Citizen Lamarck has been endeavour- 
ing to fix the nomenclature of certain 
meteors ; according to him, ftorms, hur- 
ricanes, and gufts of wind, only operate 
under certain clouds, which conceal the 
caufe, traverfe a band in aright line, in 
the direétion of the wind which impells 
them, they have only tranfient effects, and 
lower the barometer very little or nothing 
at all. On the other hand, tempefts are 
felt at a great diftance, and. in all direc- 
tians at once; they do not laft lefs than 
ten or twelve hours, and may go beyond 
. 36—do nor furprize all at once, and caufe 
the barometer to fall confiderably. Ac- 
cording to thefe definitions, the winds of 
the 18th Brumaire laft were the refult of a 
real tempeft, and not of a hurricane. 
In Botany, Citizen VeNnTENAT, in a 
Memoir on the plants named arum, or 
calves-foot, (pied de vean) has fhewn, that 
many ef thofe which the botanifts have 
given an account of hitherto, differ from 
Monturiy Mac, No, 76. 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 57 
it fo much by their fructification, as to 
form a particular genus, the charaéters of 
which Citizen Ventenat has. determined, 
and which he has named caladium. 
Citizen BEauvotis has prefented many 
defigns of plants of the countries of Oware 
and of Benin, of which he intends-fhortly 
to publith the Flora. He has defcribed 
more particularly a new genus of. the fa 
mily of cucurbitacez, which he names 
mycianthus, the only one of that family 
which is a tree properly fo called. It 
might be called, with propriety, the trees 
melon (melon en arbre.) 
Citizen Kamonp has difcovered, in the 
Pyrenees, anew kind of plant, which ap. 
proaches to the colchici, to the bulbo- 
codis, and the crocuf.s, or f{2ffrons; he 
has named it minderera, after the Spa- 
niards, and he has communicated the 
figure and the defcription of it. He has 
alfo made a curious obfervation, and even 
unique, hitherto; he has found the aquatic 
ranunculus flourifhing, not as is-ufual, on 
the furface of the water, but under the 
water, at a certain depth. 
Citizen Picor La PEryrouss has ane 
nounced propofals to publifh a particular 
deicription of the plants named Saxiirages, 
and he has communicated the motives 
which have determined him to it, and the 
bafis on which he propofes to eftablith it. 
The leaves,-according to which he had dif. 
tinguifhied thefe plants, till now afford no 
conftant characters; there are, befides, in 
this genus, more hybrid fpecies, that is 
to fay, fprung from a mixture of the two 
others, than was commonly thought. Ci- 
tizen La Peyroufe has fought diftin&tive 
marks in the figure; the proportion and 
the relations of the parts of fruétification 5 
he has divided the entire genus into many 
natural groupes, and he has collected, in 
the works of the antient botanifts, and in 
their herbals, a more exact fynonymy 
than had hitherto appeared. 
In Zoology, Citizen LacEPEDE has 
defcribed a ferpent, to this day unknown 
to naturalifts, of which he makes a genus, 
and which he names erpeton tentaculé. Its 
characters are, having a row of large 
Jaminz underneath the body, and the 
under part of the tail covered with fmall 
{cales, like thofe of the back. 
Citizen Cuvier has made known the 
aétual ftate of his refearches relative to 
quadrupeds ; he has found, at this mo- 
ment, twenty-three fpeeies of thafe ani- 
mals, not one of which has yet been feen 
alive on the furface of the earth. 
In Medicine, Citizen HaLLe has given 
‘an account ef the contagious malady 
I | whic, 
