proposed," said he, "to write some more, but a certain sexton is waiting for me, attended by a gallant company.” * Galais was among the number of Marmontel's acquaintance. After his bankruptcy, he fled to the Temple, to which neighbourhood the same privileges were attached as to Holyrood-house, the Isle of Man, &c. This asylum, however, did not secure him from the bills of his creditors, whose tender recollections appear to have followed him into his retreat with a frequency bordering on importunity. "Me voici," said he to one of his visitors, logé au temple des mémoires." The good man Pannard had so tender an affection for wine, that he spoke of it always as of the friend of his heart; and, glass in hand, with his eyes fixed on the object of his worship, he indulged this soft emotion even to tears. Speaking of his friend Galais, he said, "You know that he died at the Temple; I have been there to weep over his tomb; and what a tomb! Ah, Sir, they have buried him under a spout; him who never, since the age of reason, had tasted a glass of water." The lines whence the following translation has been made have by mistake been attributed to M. Desforges Maillard: we restore them to Pannard, to whom they properly belong : A lover once of the Septembrian juice When, after many steps now round, now slanting, With an unlucky stair his foot engages. He fell, and with a hiccough swore, Proud as a patriarch of yore, They built most scurvily in former ages. Among other visitors at Paris was the celebrated Franklin : 'Dr. Franklin,' says the author, speaks little; and at the begin ning of his sojourn at Paris, when France yet refused to declare herself openly in favour of the colonists, he spoke still less. At a dinner among wits, one of the guests, to encourage conversation, bethought himself of saying; "It must be confessed, Sir, that America presents to us at this day a grand and magnificent spectacle." "Yes," answered the Doctor of Philadelphia, with great modesty, "but the spectators pay nothing for seeing it." They have since paid most liberally.' *The French expression is highly ludicrous; "Accompagné de plusieurs autres," the humour of which can be felt only by those who are familiar with the Vaudeville whence these words are taken. : It would be easy to fill more of our pages with anecdotes and witticisms extracted from this amusing and instructive work but we have been desirous of presenting to our readers the picture of Paris, and of Parisians, rather than of selecting materials for a jest-book; and, in our quotations, we have been guided by a preference for the prominent features which cha racterize the publication. Those who search even for grave discussion will find it in these volumes; those who look for examples of virtue will not be disappointed; and those who seek the reverse will find them every where. The stores contained in these memoirs are inexhaustible; and, were we still to prolong our article, so much would remain unsaid, that, in the despair of laying before our readers all that is prominently good, we must now content ourselves with general commendation. We do not attempt to disguise that the eternal sittings of the Academy, with the eternal eulogies pronounced occasionally on men of genius, but often on those of more moderate pretensions, offended and fatigued us; and, as we have had the opportunity of comparing the original work with the seven volumes extracted from it, we cannot but think that these drowsy doses of academical mannerism might have been omitted to the great advantage of the selection; nay, more, that they might have been replaced by essays of infinite liveliness and ingenuity. The abridgment, however, as published in this country, is in general made with care and discrimination, and will doubtless strike the deepest root in England. ART. XII. Mémoires de la Classe des Sciences, &c.; i. e. Memoirs of the National Institute of France, Vols. VII.-X. [Article continued from the Appendix to Vol. lxxiii. p. 501-510.] IN PHYSICAL Part. Vol. IX. the historical part of this volume, the discoveries and improvements that have been made in the different branches of natural philosophy, during the course of the year 1808, are detailed in the usual manner, by M. CUVIER. Under the head of chemistry, Sir H. Davy's experiments on the decomposition of the fixed alkalies hold the first rank; of the others, those of M. M. Gay-Lussac and Thenard on boracic acid, those of Sir J. Hall on the effects of heat modified by pressure, those of M. de Morveau on pyrometry, of M. Gay-Lussac on the mutual decomposition of metals, and of MM. Fourcroy and Vauquelin on animal mucus, are mentioned as the most interesting and important. In the class of anatomy, the new method of dissecting the brain practised by Dr. Gall is mentioned; and, on Vegetable Physiology, the observations of Mirbel respecting the organization of plants. A number of individual essays on different parts of natural history, mineralogy, and geology, are specified; with some medical treatises by Seguin, Portal, Pelletan, and Scarpa. Several of these subjects have already come under our review, and others of them will be farther noticed in the present article. Two biographical sketches are furnished by M. CUVIER, relative to Lassus and Ventenat. The former is described rather as an useful than as a splendid character. His father was a respectable surgeon, and the son was, from his youth, destined to the same profession. Soon after his entrance into public life, he obtained an appointment at court; where an accident happened to him, apparently of a very unfortunate kind, but which, from the generous conduct of one of the princesses, led to his future advancement. When the Princess emigrated from France, at the commencement of the Revolution, Lassus felt himself prompted by gratitude to accompany her in her flight: but he was permitted, after some time, to return to his native country, and was appointed a professor in the new college. He died suddenly in the year 1807, at the age of 76. He contributed to advance the knowlege of his profession by translating into French some of the most valuable English treatises; among others, those of Pott, Sharpe, and Alanson. He was for some years a public lecturer, and was much respected by his pupils. Ventenat was born at Limoges in 1757, and was destined by his relatives for the ecclesiastical profession: but he soon manifested a decided preference for philosophical pursuits, and particularly for botany; which finally led him to renounce the priesthood, and to devote himself entirely to the study of that science. Having travelled to England in pursuit of his favorite object, on his return the vessel was wrecked; he was in the most imminent danger of perishing; and he never entirely recovered from the hardships which he experienced on that occasion. He is described as a man of much zeal and activity, but of a temper so irritable as to have had his health materially impaired by his peculiar state of mind. His principal merit as a botanist seems to have been derived from his accuracy in the description and delineation of plants; and he had full scope for the display of his talent in the splendid publications on the Gardens of Cels and of Malmaison, of which he was the editor. Report on a Memoir of MM. Gall and Spurzheim, relative to the Anatomy of the Brain, made in the Name of a Commission com Mm 3 posed posed of MM. Tenon, Portal, Sabatier, Pinel, and Cuvier. By M. CUVIER, the Reporter. As this communication has been for some time in the possession of the English reader, through the medium of the Edinburgh Medical Journal, we shall not here give any account of its contents: merely stating that our opinion of the value of Dr. Gall's anatomical labours coincides with that of the reporter. Report on a new Stocking-frame invented by M. Coutan, hozier, made in the Name of a Commission composed of MM. Monge, Perrier, and Desmarest. By M. DESMAREST, Reporter.-The invention here described is said to possess much ingenuity. It is a subject which appears to have been of late particularly cultivated by the French artists, but we apprehend that their machinery in this manufacture is still very much inferior to that of the English. In the account of the distribution of the prizes, we are informed that the question respecting the phænomena of hybernation, which had been proposed two years before, has been answered by M. Saissy, a physician at Colle, to whom the prize was adjudged: but we have no account of the memoir. The question respecting the causes of phosphorescence produced three papers, all of which appear to have possessed some merit; the prize was finally decreed to M. Dessaignes of Vendome. The Galvanic prize of 1807 was given to M. Erman of Berlin; that of 1808 to Sir H. Davy. MEMOIRS. Observations on the Distillation of Wines. By M. CHAPTAL. -The process of the distillation of wine, as practised in the south of France for the preparation of brandy, appears to be performed in a variety of methods, according to the ingenuity or the caprice of different individuals; and the object of this paper is to supply an account of some of these methods, and to compare their merits. The most important circumstance in this manufacture is the form of the apparatus; and particularly the manner in which the heat is applied, and the vapour condensed. The author gives a short sketch of the various improvements that have taken place in the process of distillation, from the time of the alchemists to the present period; and he enters very fully into the description of some of the latest inventions that have been adopted in France. No doubt, M. CHAPTAL is thoroughly master of the subject on which he treats; and his papers will be interesting to those who are engaged in a manufacture of this description. Account Account of the different Species of the Ash which are cultivated in the Gardens and Nurseries in the neighbourhood of Paris. By M. Bosc.-This paper is similar in its design and execution to one by the same author on the Oak, which was inserted in the last volume of the Memoirs. He has in this, as in the former case, brought into view a much greater number of species than were before supposed to exist; enumerating above 30 different kind of Ashes, besides some others, respecting which he is doubtful whether they are more than mere varieties. Of these, only two appear to be natives of France, the Fraxinus excelsior, and the Fraxinus ornus; almost all the remainder being derived from America. The author's remarks respecting the management of these trees are very clear and judicious, but are not in all cases applicable to the climate of England. Notice respecting some Colors found at Pompeii. By M. CHAPTAL. The ingenious writer here informs us that he obtained possession of 7 different kinds of colors, which were found in a shop among the ruins of Pompeii. One of them was a greenish clay, two were oxyds of iron, and another was the powder of pumice; all of them nearly in their natural state. The three others had been prepared artificially. One was a rich deep blue, which, from his analysis, the author supposes to be composed of oxyd of copper, lime, and alumine, reduced to a half vitrified state. Another was likewise of a blue color, but of a lighter shade, and containing some white particles interspersed through it; it appeared to be of the same nature with the former, but to include more lime and alumine. The last of these colors was a beautiful red, and seemed to be a proper lake, similar to that which is manufactured by the moderns. M. CHAPTAL conjectures that these pigments were destined for coloring earthen ware; and he observes that the earthen ware of the antients was exposed to a considerably less degree of heat than the pottery made in our times. Essay on the Properties and Uses of Animal Mucus. By MM. FOUR CROY and VAUQUELIN. In the opinion of the present authors, this substance, which is one of the most frequent constituents of the animal fluids, has not yet been accurately characterized; and the object of this memoir is to supply the deficiency. For this purpose, they enumerate the parts of the body from which it is secreted; describe its physical properties, and the action of chemical re-agents on it; and discriminate it from the two substances with which they suppose it is the most likely to be confounded, albumen and gelatin. It neither coagulates by heat like the first of these substances, nor does it congeal by cold like the second. They imagine that it forms the solid part of the matter of perspiration; and that, when the M m 4 water |