116 
cussing the theories, or inventions, and 
-ascertaming what really belongs to the 
- author, and what has been borrowed from 
the learned: of other countries who have 
been previously engaged in siinilar inves- 
tigations. 
The limits prescribed to this sketch 
permit us merely to mention the reports 
on the particular solutions of differential 
equations, presented by M. Poisson ; on 
the new demonstration of the principle 
of virtual motion, by M. Ampere; upon a 
new method of raising water to a great 
height, by M. Buaadet, engineer to his 
Majesty the King of ‘Bavaria; on the 
experiments -which M. Peron, a corre- 
sponding member, has made respecting 
‘the comparative ‘physical strength of 
‘Savages and Europeans, and from which 
he araws the surprising result that there 
ts no comparison in this respect between 
civilized and savage man, and that the 
advantage is altogether in fevour of the 
former. , 
Among the inventions approved ‘by the 
class, are a spmning-wheel by M. Bel- 
lemére, by which the labour performed 
im a given time, on an ordinary wheel, 
may be doubled; a loom for brocades 
and ornamental stuffs, which from the 
simplicity of its mechanism has ‘been 
_ deemed proper for a-model, and the in- 
ventor has received a suitable reward 
from the government; a stocking-frame, 
of which the advantages are pointed out 
with so much perspicuity ‘and distinct- 
ness, that the class has ordered the’ re- 
pert of the commission to be printed, in 
order to serve «as a history of the art; src 
in fine, another stocking-frame by M. 
Favreau Bouillon, who has reduced all 
the labour to the simple balancing of two 
levers; this loom may be wrought by a 
very feeble man, or even by one who has 
only the use of a single arm, - Among 
the numerous inventions, M. Delambre 
informs us, he has only enumerated those 
which have a direct application to the 
common arts and purposes of life. 
‘Since its last public sitting, the class 
has printed the first volume of the Me-~ 
mMoirs presented to it by learned foreign- 
ers; and the sixth volume of. their own 
Memoirs. ‘Thesucceeding volumes will, 
we areinformed, appear every six months, 
reckoning from the first of July last. 
They have also published the first. volume 
of La Meridienne de Dunkerque, base du 
Systeme metrique decimal, This work 
_will contain all the proofs and the me- 
thods vf calculation which ie fixed the 
L 
2 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
_all nature, as well as in physical science, 
heights than those which result from the 
[Septi1,  @ 
two fundamental units of the metrical : 
“system, the metre and kilogramme. 
Several members have produced new 
works, or new editions of works, already 
known, in which will be found many ‘ 
important additions. Tius M. Legendre i 
has published a sixth edition of ie Geo- t 
metry, and M. Lacroix a second edition 
of his Elementary ‘Freatise on the Dif- 
ferential and Integral Calculus, 
Astronomers are now in possession ‘of 
Tables of the Sun, in which, for the firse- 
time, the attraction of all the planets are | 
taken into account. 
Tn short, M. Lagrange has prepared a 
complete edition of his Calewd de Fone- | 
tions, a truly classical work, respecting. 
atch it would be here superfluous to ; 
speak to the mathematician to whom it | 
must be perfectly familiar, and of which 
it would .be impossible to convey, ina ' 
few words, an adequate idea to those 
who are tnacquainted with the subject. 
Similar reasons, we are informed,- by 
M. Delambre, induced him merely 
to notice the Supplement, published by. 
M. Laplace, to his Mécanique celeste, and 
in which he gives a complete theory of 
capillary attraction. For the first time 
we see these phenomena, apparently so’ 
contrary, reduced to the same law; the* 
ascension and depression between two 
planes explained by the same analysis, 
which accounts for the analogeas pheno- 
mena observed in tubes; the numerous 
results of this theory are ‘perfectly iden- 
tical with those of the earliest and most 
accurate observations, as well-as with 
those of Messrs. Hatiy and Tremery, 
recently made for the express purpose 
of submitting this new theory to the most 
rigorous proof. 
it would be an error to suppose, con- 
cludes M. Delambre, that these intricate 
researches had no other object, but that 
cf overcoming a difficulty. ‘Throughout 
an universal dependence prevails; there 
is no phenomencn, which on being pro= 
perly understood, does not threw hght on 
some other, Thus for example, the the 
ory.in question has already determined a 
very Important. point in meteorology. 
A-variety of opinions formerly prevailed, 
respecting the mode of estunating the 
height of the mercur y in the barometer. _ 
While seme reckoned from the base, 
others calculated from-the surmmit of the ~ 
convexity. This last method is much ~ 
more accurate, though it still gives less: 
Pres 
