went out, came home and dined; and here begins the extraordinary part of the ftory: After dinner, M. DE FOUCHY felt an increase of pain above the left eye, and at that very moment loft the power of pronouncing the words that he wished to utter. He heard what was faid, and prepared his answers, but answered in words totally different from thofe by which he intended to exprefs his thoughts; or, when he began with the words he defigned to ufe, he could not finish them, but fubftituted others in their place. Nevertheless he obferves (and this renders the cafe still more extraordinary), that all his bodily movements were as free as at any other time; he held his fork and the piece of bread, which he had in his hand when feized with this paroxifm, with the fame ease as ufual. He faw diftinctly all the objects in the apartment, heard what was faid, and the organs, which correfpond with the thoughts of the mind, feemed to him to be in their natural ftate. This cafe no doubt is fingular; but not without example. We remember a phenomenon of the fame kind, where no fall happened, no mufcle was bruifed, no external violence took place. Mem. XXX. General Inftructions, defigned as an Answer to a Question propofed to the Academy, relative to the high Price and Scarcity of Wood for firing, and more especially of Charcoal, which is used in the great Iron Forges and Furnaces. By M. MORAND, The queftion is, whether in the iron forges and furnaces, earth-coal might not be fubftituted in the place of charcoal, and thus a confiderable faving be made of the wood confumed in these forges. The anfwer to this queftion, with which the Academy charged M. MORAND, is not difficult; it has been answered already in many publications, and particularly in the art of working coalmines, inferted in the Dictionary of the Arts, which was publifhed with the approbation and fanction of the Academy. Befide, the method practifed with fuccefs in England, as our Author obferves, is a very fatisfactory answer to the question. We are forry to hear that, among other calamities, there is a great fcarcity of fuel in France. Mem. XXXI. Concerning the Integration of Equations, with partial Differences. By M. COUSIN. Mem. XXXII. Concerning the Island of Friefland. By M. BUACHE. In this memoir the learned Academician undertakes to demonftrate the existence, and to ascertain the true situation, of an ifland which modern geographers have excluded from the maps, though it held a place in them for near three hundred years, and was even represented with confiderable details. This ifle was known toward the conclufion of the 14th century by the let ters and memoir of two Venetians of the noble family of Zeni. Its Tt4 Its existence was denied by Laet, in his hiftory of the origin of the Americans. It is to be feen in the maps of Mercator, Bleau, Dudley, Bertius, Coronelli, and other eminent geographers of the two laft centuries, who place it fouth-west of Iceland, near to Greenland, and reprefent it as a land well known, and of confiderable extent. Delifle, in 1714 and 1720, marked it on his hemifpheres, but as a land little known. D'Anville, who paid little attention to what was vague and uncertain, excluded it from his geography, and Meffrs. de Verdun, de Borda, and Pingré, have little faith in its paft, and none in its prefent exiftence. M. BUACHE is not intimidated by these refpectable authorities; he combats them boldly, learnedly, and tenaciously; he displays on the occafion a vaft fund of historical and geographical erudition, and maintains the truth and authenticity of the relation of the Zenis with a very confiderable portion of plaufible criticifin and logic. We do not know with certainty which of the contending parties is in the right, and we were near faying, that we did not care much about the matter, when we were induced to treat it with more refpect by the following paffage which concludes this memoir. If now, it appears demonftrably,' fays M. BUACHE, that the ifle of Friefland really exifted in the 14th century, and has not fince been fubmerged, it follows, that the relation of Zeni is not a romance, but a valuable record, whence ufeful knowlege may be derived.' We may hence conclude,' continues he, "that New Greenland was known before it was discovered by the Danes that America was known, and even inhabited by Europeans, before the arrival of Columbus there—that the hiftory of the colonies which are faid to have gone thither from Wales, in the year 1170, under the guidance of Madoc, one of the fons of Owen Guineth, the king of that country, may have a pretty good foundation; and that the difcovery of the Ifle of Icarus, which is as yet unknown, might prove highly interefting: It would also appear from the map of Zeni, annexed to this memoir, that the Thulé of the ancients was rather Friefland or Ferroe than any of the other countries to which the learned have given that name.' All this would be curious enough, if it were true. Mem. XXXIII. A Continuation of the Memoir on the Calculation of Frobabilities, by the Marquis DE CONDORCET, Part VI. The learned Marquis applies here the principles laid down in a former memoir to certain queftions of hiftorical criticism, and, among others, to examine whether the proper probability of the very long duration of the reign of the feven kings of Rome be fo fmall as to diminifh confiderably the weight of the testimony of history on that head, Mem. . Mem. XXXIV. Concerning the apparent Magnitude of opaque Bodies feen on a luminous Ground or otherwife. By M. LE GENTIL. The question here treated is, whether an opaque body, seen in its whole furface, directly before a luminous body (fuch as the fun, for example), would appear lefs than if it were feen on the oppofite fide, but at the same distance from the eye of the spectator? The enquiry is of no fmall confequence in aftronomy; because, if it be anfwered in the affirmative, the diminution in queftion must affect the diameter of the moon in the prediction of eclipfes of the fun-the time that Mercury and Venus, in their ecliptical conjunctions with the fun, employ in entering and coming out from the fun's difk-the real magnitude of thefe planets and feveral other points of aftronomy and phyfics, which may conduce to the improvement of these two sciences. After giving an hiftorical view of what preceding aftronomers have done towards the illuftration of this fubject, the Academician relates his own experiments, the refult of which is, that opaque bodies, feen on a luminous ground, undergo, to our fight, a real diminution, when we measure their apparent diameters in that position, and that this diminution is between five and fix feconds. In a Mem. XXXV. Remarks on the cold Weather that took place toward the Conclufion of the Year 1783. By the Same. following memoir this Academician maintains, that all the winds that prevail at Paris and its environs, are wefterly; that their only variations are N. W. and S. W.; that they blow as conftantly from the weft as the trade winds between the tropics do from the east; and that the other winds, in different directions, which are fometimes perceived, only creep (as he thinks) along the furface of the earth, while the N. W. or S. W. remain 1200 or 1500 toifes above them. Mem. XXXVI. Remarks and Obfervations on the Aftronomy of the Indians, and on the Antiquity of that Aftronomy. By the Same. Religion and aftronomy, fays this Academician, are fo clofely connected together by the Indians, (and who but a fool *, fay we, would feparate them?) that religion in India may be confidered as the daughter of aftronomy. But according to his account of the matter, the daughter has been a naughty girl, and proved an obftacle to the progress and improvement of her mother. How fo? becaufe fhe was debauched by the ambition and prieftcraft of the Bramins, who having occafion for eclipfes to terrify the people into fubmiffion, confined their ftudies to this fingle branch, and neglected all the others. By predicting eclipfes, they maintained their afcendancy over the ignorant multitude, whofe ignorance they encouraged, and this was all they *An undevout aftronomer is mad. YOUNG. wanted. wanted. They reprefented the eclipfe as a dragon, who was paffionately defirous of fwallowing down the fun or the moon, in order to introduce univerfal darkness, a catastrophe which nought but the prayers and rites which they performed or enjoined were able to avert. For this purpose, the Bramins calcuJated eclipfes, formed aftronomical tables, and ftudied to a certain degree the motions of the celeftial bodies, in which they were affifted by the remains and difperfed fragments of an important treasure, a vast collection of aftronomical obfervations, that, no doubt, existed in some great and polished nation, of which we have no records. Thefe difperfed fragments were (fays M. LE GENTIL) the bafis on which the Indians eftablished their elements and their theory of eclipfes. His remarks on the Indian tables, and their ancient and modern methods of calculating, are learned and curious. The tables alone occupy ten pages; and this memoir is an interefting fupplement to two former ones, in which the learned Academician communicated all that he had Jearned, during his refidence at Pondicherry, of the aftronomy of the Indians, and its conformity with that of the ancient Chaldeans. Mem. XXXVII. Concerning differential Equations, &c. By M. MONGE. Mem. XXXVIII. A Continuation of the Effay, deAgned to afcertain the Population of France, and the Number of its Inhabitants, &c. By Meffrs. DU SEJOUR, DE CONDORCET, and DE LA PLACE. This is a feries of tables and calculations which relate to the year 1783, and of which the refults are, that, comparing this year with the four preceding, the number of births is diminished, the number of deaths exceeds that of the births, and the number of marriages is not in a proportion that is adapted to repair in the following years the great lofs that population has fuftained in the year under confideration, The general refult for the year 1783 stands thus: Births, 947,941. Marriages, Deaths, 952,205. Mem. XXXIX. Concerning the Combination of the oxyginous Principle with Spirit of Wine, Oil, and different combustible Bodies. By M. LAVOISIER. Mem. XL. An Effay on the Motions of Animals and Plants, comparatively confidered, together with a Defcription of a Kind of Saintfoin, whofe Leaves are continually in motion. By M. BROUSSONET. I his is a very interefting memoir; but our review of this volume is already fwelled to a fize which prevents our entering into a particular account of it. Thefe comparative views of the claffes that form the great fcale of beings exhibit difplays of univerfal order, and ruling wisdom, that adminifter high pleasure to a well tuned mind. The fingular plant here defcribed and delimeated, was discovered at Bengal, by the late Lady Manson, and the the accounts given of its form, characters, and motions, were taken from the manuscripts of that ingenious lady, which Sir Jofeph Banks, the Cuftos Rotulorum of the vegetable kingdom, communicated to M. BROUSSONET. Mem. XLI. Objervations on the Cryftalization of Oil of Vitriol. By M. CHAPTAL. This is a memoir fent by the Royal Society of Montpelier to her elder fifter at Paris, to kep up their union and friendly correfpondence. The volume is terminated by an extract from the Phyfical and Aftronomical Obfervations made at the Royal Obfervatory in 1785. By the Count DE CASSINI, Director. ART. XIII. Hiftoire de l'Academie Royale des Sciences, &c.-The History and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, for the Year 1785. 4to. Paris. 1788. first article in the hiftorical part of this volume is THE the report of a Committee appointed by the Academy to examine a plan prefented by M. Poyet, for the removal of the Hotel-Dieu into a more convenient and healthy fituation. In order to judge of the propriety of this plan, the Commiffioners juftly obferve that it was neceffary to examine the present state and œconomy of the Hotel-Dieu, and they applied for this purpose to the Bureau d'Administration: but, though the Committee confifted of fome of the most refpectable members of the Academy, and was nominated by order of the King, they were not permitted to inspect the hospital, and were even refused such information as might enable them to give a fatisfactory account of it. This part of the report is therefore drawn up from the evidence of thofe members of the Committee, who, in confequence of their medical profeffion, were well acquainted with the interior œconomy of the house, and from public registers of the number of patients admitted, with that of the deaths in it. In doing this, the Commiffioners declare, that they have taken the utmost care to be well affured of the truth of every thing they have inferted in their account; and call on those concerned to rectify any misreprefentation which they may unintentionally have made; obferving at the fame time, that every article which is not thus fatisfactorily proved to be erroneous, must be confidered as an established truth. On this fubject it cannot be expected that we should enter into a particular detail: it is fufficient to obferve, that, according to this report, the Hatel-Dieu appears to be chargeable with almost every inconvenience, both of fituation and œconomy, that can defeat the benevolent intention with which it was inftituted,-every circumtance, in short, that can exasperate pain, baffle the efforts of medicine, |