ATS 
Harding rather more than half: that 
the atmosphere of Piazzi is nearly fifteen 
times denser than that of the earth: that 
the atmosphere of Olbers is about ten 
times denser than’ that of the earth: and 
that the atmosphere of Harding is nearly 
equal to ourown, But he adds, that there 
is still reason to suppose its atmosphere 
denser than that of any of the earlier- 
discovered planets, from the changes in 
the appearances of its light. 
FRANCE, 
M. Der Latanps, to whose scientific 
labours this Magazine has been so frer 
guently indebted, died at Paris on the 
7th of April, aged 75. By his will he 
ordered his body to be dissected, and the 
skeleton to be placed in the Wruseuen OF - 
Natural History. His relations, how- 
éver, regardiess of the injunction, caused 
him to be interred a few days after his - 
death. © His funeral was attended by the 
“menibers of the National Institute. 
“The class of sciences in the French 
National Institute, has just published the 
first volume of Memoirs presented to it 
by learned foreigners, and vol. 1. of its 
own Memoirs. It- has also published 
the first volume of The Meridian cf Dih- 
kirk, being the basis of the mctiic-ded - 
thal sv stem: this work will con ain all 
the observations and metheds. of ca‘cu-. 
lation, which have fixed the fuidaneutal 
principles of the metrical system, the 
thetre and the kilogramme. 
' Mr. Hausman has given an account 
of the manner in which the solution of 
indigo is prepared by means of an alka- 
line solution of red arsenic, for the use of 
calico -printers. He merely makes a 
caustic alkaline solution of red arsenic, 
to which he adds, while it is in a boiling 
State, a sufficient quantity of indigo 
bruised, in order to obtain a very deep 
shade, which may be rendered more or 
' Proceedings. of Learned Socielies. 
- 
! 
[June 1, 
less intense, by diluting the, solution of 
indigo with a weak ley of. caustic potash, 
M. Veav. DE Launay, in a letter to 
M. De Lametherie, says, he has fre- 
quently repeated the experiments made 
by. Messrs. Pacchiani and Brugnatelli, 
relative to the formation of the muriatic 
acid, and: ealways with success, that is 
with the formation of the muriatic acid 
at the'zinc pile, ina manner more or less 
perceptible. 
‘Messrs. Bror and Arraco have fi- 
nished a grand work upon the afii- 
nities between the different gases and 
light. Mos Ss 
ITALY. 
M. Prazzi at Palermo, and M. CaLtan- 
DRELLI at Rome, have recently made 
observations on Re ‘stars, from which 
it appears that some of the stars give a 
eraid paraliayof five seconds, particu- 
larly Lyra, which, next. to Sinus, is the 
most brilliait star in our hemisphere, 
from whence it would result that it 15 
one of the jeast distant. ‘Tf there be five 
seconds of simple parallax, the distance 
ought to be fourteen hundred. thousand 
millions of leagues, that is, five times 
fe ss than bas pieviously been supposed. 
. ‘EAST INDIES. 
_ Yue city of Batayia contains ‘about 
one bundied ane Seen thoxsand inha- 
bitwuts, sa annual loss of which by death 
is about four bhousang ; and the Dutch in 
proportion to theif numbers, contribute 
most largely, to this list.sf mortality. The 
Futeh, mctuging the half-cast, lose nine 
in one hundred; the Chinese, three and 
three-lfths ; the natives and Malays, twa 
and one-fifth; and the slaves, seven and 
fout-fifths.. The mortality among Eu- 
ropean females is not nearly 50 oreat as 
among the males; and this fact proves 
that intemperance is the principal cause 
of mortality. 
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED § SOCIETIES. 
ee 
NATIONAL INSTITUTE GF FRANCE. : 
REPORT of the TRANSACTIONS of thé Puy- 
ICAL iene MATHEMATICAL CLASS of 
ee NATIONAL INSTITUTE in, 18G66. 
By mM. CUVIER SACRETARY to the 
a 3 
-SOCLETY. ; 
URING the year 1806, M, Cuvier 
observes, several new ‘and iapionls 
afit: experiments have been made by dif- 
ferent distinguished chemists on crude 
elatina, fram which the most clear and 
satisfactory. results have been obtained, 
It will be recollected;:he proceeds to 
say, that in endeavouring to discover the - 
cause of the different colours of the tri- 
ple salts of platina, M. Descotils per- 
ceived that the red colour of some ef. 
them was owing to the preance of an 
unknown metal. 
Fourcroy and Vauquelin, -on.. their 
part, examined: the black powder, which © 
remains after dissolving platina; and find- 
ing that, in some of their pa Shen 
: it 
