thundering applaufe which the unparalleled character of Falstaff must have afforded at his first reprefentation! A character, fo fuperior to the conception of the brighteft fancy, must have ftruck them with astonishment! To have feen Ben Johnson, with an affumed countenance of gaiety, and with envy in his heart, join the groupe of laughers and applauders, must have added to the pleasure of our authors real friends and admirers. ART. XI. Hiftoire de l'Academie Royale des Sciences. Anneé 1780. Paris. 1784. Hiftory of the Royal Academy of Sciences. EFORE we proceed to the memoirs contained in this large volume, we beg leave to fay fomething of the eloges of two diftinguished phyficians and philofophers, M. Lieutand and M. Bucquet. The former lived to an advanced age, and rofe to the highest honours of his profeffion. Anatomy has confiderable obligations to him; he was a faithful obferver; and his effays will certainly be very ufeful to young diffectors. "He chofe, fays the Hiftorian of the Academy, to ftudy nature rather than books. But I must not fupprefs an accufation brought against him; he is faid to have carried to excefs this method, which is fo excellent in itself. It is pretended, that thinking his library to be overloaded with books of anatomy and medicine, which he had purchased out of complaifance to the authors, or refpect to the opinions of others, he exchanged them for productions of polite literature; thefe he perhaps found to be more amufing, though he probably confidered them as equally ufélefs. Mr. Senac who, in oppofition to Mr. Lieutand, had frequently maintained the utility of reading, or rather, the neceflity of uniting books with obfervation, gave him a ftriking and perfonal proof of the truth of this opinion. Mr. Senac one day prefented him with a Latin defcription of the foramen ovale; upon reading it, he found it, though not written in the ftyle of the Auguftan age, yet drawn up with a method and precifion which called forth his admiration He had even the candour to prefer this defcription to one of his own memoirs, written on the fame fubject. He was informed to his furprize, that this exact account was copied from Galen; and he owned that he was perhaps to blame for too much neglecting literary enquiries.' "Notwithstanding M. Lieutand had always been a stranger to a court life and manners, obferves his biographer, he foon acquired the art of distinguishing the character of its inhabi tants tants. The knowledge of men to thofe from whom they have no intereft to conceal themselves, is not fo difficult an acquifition as is generally fuppofed. If we examine the different claffes of fociety, we fhall, perhaps, find this fpecies of knowledge more rare, as we advance higher. M. Lieutand had even the malice, though it was of a kind which will eafily be excufed, to difclofe to the king the arts which he had detected. One day the late king mentioning feveral phyficians who had been highly extolled in his prefence by fome of the courtiers, afked, whether their merits had not been exaggerated, "Thefe gentlemen, fire, anfwered M. Lieutand, are very different from the reprefenta tion which has been made to you, but fuch is the coin with which courtiers frequently pay their phyficians." Mr. Lieutand's work on the practice of medicine is highly valued in France. In this country it is not equally efteemed. He fets out with profeffing to lay afide all theory, an intention which no medical writer will ever be able to execute; and accordingly we find Mr. Lieutand always recurring to the humoral pathology. His prefcriptions were fimple, and he is faid to have entertained, in common with a late celebrated teacher of anatomy in this country, great doubts concerning the efficacy of remedies. "It is confidently af ferted, fays the hiftorian, that faithful alike to his medical principles and the franknefs of his character, when he heard his brethren affembled round his death-bed, propofing various medicines, (not fo much, perhaps, in the expectation of bringing about his recovery, as with a view to foothe him, by a glimpse of hope) he could not refrain from exclaiming, Je mourrai bien fans tout cela!-I fhall die well enough without all those things. The fhort carcer of M. Bucquet will excite more melancholy reflections, than the profperous courfe of M. Lieutand. The ardour and activity of his mind feems to have worn out prematurely his weak and delicate frame of body. As a public teacher, he began very early to difplay uncommon abilities. "He had acquired a name among celebrated demonftrators before his ftudies were finished. He was the first who gave a courfe of lectures, in which mineralogy and chymistry were united;" branches of knowledge which ought never to be feparated. He treated, at great length, of vegetable and animal chemistry; fubjects little understood, and indeed of much difficulty, fince we fhall seldom be able to confirm analysis by fynthefis. He published an Introduction to the Analysis of the Vegetable Kingdom. After his admiffion into the Academy of Sciences, he conceived the vatt, and we may justly term it, extravagant defign of repeating Ff3 all all the experiments and analyfes hitherto kne wn. His pro ject was certainly too extenfive, but his view in forming it was rational: he propofed particularly to obferve, the influence of elaftic fluids, which have doubtlefs a great fharein almost every operation of nature, and every process of the laboratory. Amidit his labours and his projects, his health began to decay, but without ever damping his ardour, and without depreffing his hopes of recovery, till a few months before his death. Then he did not quit his occupations, but chose rather to run the rifque of haftening the period of his existence, by fuch means as would enable him to continue ufeful and active, while they alleviated his fufferings, and raised his fpirits, than to languish on a little longer in dejection and pain. He was known to fwallow in one day two pintes of ether and 100 grains of opium. He died at the age of thirtyfix, leaving behind a wife and two children, "without any other inheritance than his name, the example of his talents, with the useful and afflicting leffon of his painful and premature death, if they should ever, like their parent, have to defend themselves against the love of glory and the ardour of study." Befides his writings already published, other memoirs of his will be given in the future volumes of the Academy, We proceed to the papers relating to aftronomy. In a confined journal it is difficult to give a fatisfactory analysis of fuch productions, on account of the chain of calculations which run through them, and the diagrams, tables, &c. with which they are accompanied. All the information, therefore, that we shall be able at any time to convey, with refpect to aftronomical memoirs, will be to give the title, and mention the result, if it be interesting. New analytical methods to folve aftronomical queftions, 15th Memoir, by M. de Sejour. The author is about to publifli all his memoirs on this subject in a feparate volume. On the Diminution of the Obliquity of the Ecliptic, and its Confequences. By M. de la Lande. Mr. de la Lande eftimates the diminution at about 35 feconds in 100 years. But Mr. Caffini de Thury, in another memoir, questions the exactnefs of this determination; and, as it would appear, with good reafon. He founds his doubts on the want of a fufficient number of accurate and concurring obfervations. Obfervation of the Eclipfe of June the 14th, 1779. By M. le Monnier. Enquiry concerning the general Caufes, and the Principles of Philofophy, that led the Obfervers of the laft Century to pub if Tables of Refractions, differing from each other, for the fame Height. By the Same. The effect of the temperature of the atmosphere, is the chief cause of uncertainty in fixing the refraction which the rays of the fun and other heavenly bodies undergo as they pass through it. We have here calculations from feveral obfervations, according to which a greater refraction is produced by a cold than a warm state of the atmosphere. On the Determination of the Orbits of Comets, by M. de la Place. It is faid by the Hiftorian of the Academy, that the very ingenious method of M. de la Place, which deferves the attention of every aftronomer, has afforded refults coinciding with obfervations. This is at once a decifive proof in its favour, and an encomium upon it. A Memoir, containing Obfervations on the Comet feen at Paris, near the Great Bear, from the 27th of October to the 29th of November, 1780. By M. Meffier. Besides the comet mentioned in the title of this memoir, M. Meffier mentions one obferved by M. Montaigne, and by. him only. M. Meffier, nine days after the obfervations of Mr. Montaigne, difcovered another comet. We have, in this memoir, tables of his obfervations, which have enabled Mr. Lexell to calculate the orbit. In a geographical memoir Mr. le Monnier fixes the longitude of Aleppo at at 34d 50', and that of Diarbekir at 37d o', eastward of the meridian of Paris. The latitude he adopts from other authors that of the former place is 36d 12' N, of the latter is 37° 54' N. : : We meet in this volume with fome inftructivé anatomical papers more particularly one by M. Sabatier, and another. by M. Portal. M. Sabatier gives an accurate description of the human thoracic duct. It generally arifes from three roots; of these, the left has not been fo well obferved and described as the others, though it is the most confiderable on account of its pofition with refpect to the aorta: it paffes under this great artery, which makes it neceffary to cut it through and turn it back. The valve, at the opening of this duct into the left fubclavian vein, is compared by M. S. to the valvula coli. He agrees with Mr. Hewfon, that the lymphatics of the right fuperior extremity, &c. muft go to the right fubelavian vein. But, perhaps, the neweft obfervation in this memoir is, that the thoracic duct fometimes contains blood, on fome occafions coagulated, on others fluid. He fuppofes, that it must have either made its way through the valves, at the opening Ff4 of of the duct into the fubelavian vein, or have been conveyed by the absorbents. It feems equally probable, that it might get in after the death of the fubject, more especially, as according to M. S. himfelf, the valves, at the end of the duct in queftion, perform their office beft when the fubelavian is full, and vice ver få A morbid alteration of the bronchial glands, which have often been confounded with the lymphatic glands, M. Portal, in his memoir, confiders as a cause of confumption. They often become enlarged, and the veffels on their furface grow varicous, and pour blood into the bronchiæ, In this fpecies of phthifis M. Portal fays, he has prescribed with the greatest fuccefs, the aperient juices of plants (sues aperitifs) terra foliata tartari, Kermes mineral. But exercife on horfeback, and failing, cannot be too warmly recommended. He has feen many perfons fubject to hemoptoe only, when they led too fedentary a life. He mentions Dr. Gilchrift as having made a number of obfervations of this kind, which he defigned to publish, but his death deprived phyficians of a work which M. Portal thinks would have been very useful. At the end of his memoir, M. Portal confiders the pains to which confumptive people are fubject, and which are felt at a distance from the feat of the difeafe. He refers them to nervous sympathy. The changes of the voice he refers to the fame caufe. The affection of the nerves occafions inordinate contractions in the mufcles belonging to the organ of the voice. Hence the ligaments of the larynx, or the vocal cords, are more or lefs ftretched, which neceffarily occafions fuch alterations of voice as the patients experience. M. Vicq. D'Azyr finds in the mufcles and bones of three apes of different fpecies, which he diffected, many marks of refemblance with thofe of quadrupeds, and of difference from those of man. In another memoir he confiders the position, ftructure and defcent of the tefticles of the foetus. To Mr. Hunter's account he has not added many particulars of great confequence. His chief view feems to have been, more accurately to afcertain the time at which the feveral pofitions of thefe organs take place. Among the chemical memoirs, we find feveral, that relate to the action of different fubftances on oils. The first is by Mr. Bertholet. He made his experiments by mixing a folution of foap with a folution of that fubitance, of which he was defirous of trying the effect on oil, in an acid. M. Coftel had before fhewn, that calcareous earth has a more powerful attraction for oil than fixed alkali has, by pouring limewater into a folution of foap. M. Bertholet effected the |