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Inflamma- with an equal, and likewife with a double, proportion of oil. In general, however, much more depends on the mode of mixture, and the manipulation, and, as Mr Georgi often obferved, on the weather; for in moift weather the bundles, after becoming warm, would frequently grow cold, again.

The inftances of fpontaneous inflammation hitherto mentioned have been only of vegetable fubftances; but we have examples of the fame thing in the animal kingdom. Pieces of woollen cloth, which had not been fcoured, took fire in a warehouse. The fame thing happened to fome heaps of woollen yarn; and fome pieces of cloth took fire in the road, as they were going to the fuller. These inflammations always take place where the matters heaped up preferve a certain degree of humidity, which is neceffary to excite a fermentation; the heat refulting from which, by drying the oil, leads them infenfibly to a state of ignition; and the quality of the oil, being more or less defiécative, very much contri

butes thereto.

The woollen ftuff prepared at Sevennes, which bears the name of Emperor's ftuff, has kindled of itself, and burnt to a coal. It is not unusual for this to happen to woollen stuffs, when in hot fummers they are laid in a heap in a room but little aired.

In June 1781, the fame thing happened at a woolcomber's in a manufacturing town in Germany, where a heap of wool combings, piled up in a clofe warehouse feldom aired, took fire of itself. This wool had been by little and little brought into the warehoufe; and, for want of room, piled up very high, and trodden down, that more might be added to it. That this combed wool, to which, as is well known, rape oil mixed with butter is ufed in the combing, burnt of itfelf, was fworn by feveral witneffes. One of them af firmed that, ten years before, a fimilar fire happened among the flocks of wool at a clothier's, who had put them into a cask, where they were rammed hard, for their eafier conveyance. This wool burnt from within outwards, and became quite a coal; it was very certain that neither fire nor light had been used at the packing, confequently the above fires arofe from fimilar caufes. In like manner, very credible cloth-workers have certi fied, that, after they have bought wool that was become wet, and packed it clofe in their warehoufe, this wool has burnt of itself; and very ferious confequences might have followed, if it had not been discovered in time.

Nay, there are inftances, though they be but rare, of human bodies being confumed by fpontaneous inflammation. In the Philofophical Tranfactions, and in the Memoirs of the Academies of Paris and Copenhagen, it is related that an Italian lady (the Countefs Cornelia Bandi) was entirely reduced to afhes, except her legs; that an English woman, called Grace Pitt, was almost entirely confumed by a fpontaneous inflammation of her vifcera; and, laftly, that a prieft of Bergamo was confumed in the fame manner. Thefe fpontaneous inflammations have been attributed to the abufe of fpirituous liquors; but though the victims of intemperance are indeed very numerous, these certainly do not belong to that number.

The mineral kingdom also often affords inftances of fpontaneous inflammation Pyrites heaped up, if wetted and exposed to the air, take fire. Pitcoal alfo, laid in heaps, under certain circumftances, inflames fponta

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neously. M. Duhamel has defcribed two inflammations Inflamma of this nature, which happened in the magazines of Breft, in the years 1741 and 1757. Cuttings of iron, which had been left in water, and were afterwards expofed to the open air, gave sparks, and fet fire to the neighbouring bodies. For this obfèrvation we are obliged to M. de Charpentier.

The caufes of thefe phenomena the chemift will affign; but they are here recorded as a warning to tradefmen and others. It is evident, from the facts which have been related, that fpontaneous inflammations being very frequent, and their caufes very various, too much attention and vigilance cannot be used to prevent their dreadful effects. And confequently it is impoffible to be too careful in watching over public magazines and ftorehouses, particularly thofe belonging to the ordnance, or thofe in which are kept hemp, cordage, lampblack, pitch, tar, oiled cloths, &c. which fubftances ought never to be left heaped up, particularly if they have any moisture in them. In order to prevent any aćcident from them, it would be proper to examine thera often, to take notice if any heat is to be observed in them, and, in that cafe, to apply a rémédy immediately. Thefe examinations fhould be made by day, it not be ing advifable to carry a light into the magazines; for when the fermentation is fufficiently advanced, the vapours which are difengaged by it are in an inflammable ftate, and the approach of a light might, by their means, fet fire to the fubftances whence they proceed. Ignorance of the fore mentioned circumftances, and a culpable negligence of thofe precautions which ought to be taken, have often caufed more misfortunes and loss than the most contriving malice: it is therefore of great importance that these facts fhould be univerfally known, that public utility may reap from them every poffible advantage.

INFORMED STARS, OF INFORMES STELLE, are fuch ftars as have not been reduced into any conftellation; otherwife called Sporades.-There was a great number of this kind left by the ancient aftronomers; but Hevelius, and fome others of the moderns, have provided for the greater part of them, by making new conftellations.

SYMPATHETIC INK is an old invention. Among the methods by which Ovid teaches young women to deceive their guardians, when they write to their lovers, he mentions that of writing with new milk, and of making the writing legible by coal duft or foot.

Tuta quoque eft, fallitque oculos, e lace recenti
Litera: carbon pulvere tange, leges.

It is obvious, that any other colourlefs and glutinous juice, which will hold faft the black powder ftrewed over it, will answer the purpofe as well as milk; and therefore Pliny recommends the milky juice of certain plants to be used.

There are feveral metallic folutions perfectly colourlefs, or, at leaft, without any ftrong tint, which being wrote with, the letters will not appear until the paper be washed over with another colourless folution, or expofed to the vapour of it; but among all thefe there is none which excites more aftonishment, or from which naturalifts can draw more conclufions, than that which confifts of a folution of lead in vegetable acid, and which by the vapour of arfenical liver of fulphur becomes black, even at a confiderable distance. This ink, which

Ink.

may be used by conjurors, proves the fubtlety of vapour, and the porofity of bodies; as the change or colouring takes place even when the writing is placed on the other fide of a thin wall.

We knew before, that a folution of lead, treated in this manner, would answer the purpose of a sympathetic ink (fee that article Encycl.); but we did not know, nor do we yet believe, that the fulphuric vapours will act upon the writing through a wall. Such, however, is the affirmation of Profeffor Beckmann, who gives an account of a still more wonderful ink from Peter Borel. This author, in a book called Hiftoriarum et obfervationum medico phyfic. centuria quatuor, printed at Paris, first in 1653, and afterwards in 1657, gives a receipt for making this ink, which he calls magnetic waters which at at a diftance. The receipt is as follows:

"Let quick lime be quenched in common water, and while quenching, let fome orpiment be added to it (this, however, ought to be done by placing warm afhes under it for a whole day), and let the liquor be filtered, and preserved in a glafs bottle well corked. Then boil litharge of gold, well pounded, for half an hour with vinegar, in a brafs veffel, and filter the whole through paper, and preferve it alfo in a bottle clofely corked. If you write any thing with this laft water, with a clean pen, the writing will be invifible when dry; but if it be washed over with the first water it will become inftantly black. In this, however, there is nothing aftonifhing; but this is wonderful, that though fheets of paper without number, and even a board, be placed between the invifible writing and the fecond liquid, it will have the fame effect, and turn the writing black, penetrating the wood and paper without leaving any traces of its action, which is certainly furprifing; but a fetid fmell, occafioned by the mutual action of the liquids, deters many from making the experiment. I am, how. ever of opinion, that I could improve this fecret by a more refined chemical preparation, fo as that it fhould perform its effect through a wall. This fecret (fays Borel) I received, in exchange for others, from J. Brof. fon, a learned and ingenious apothecary of Montpelier."

For making a fympathetic ink of the fifth clafs mentioned in the Encyclopedia, the following procefs by M. Meyer may be worthy of the reader's notice. It was entered upon in confequence of a receipt for rofecoloured fympathetic ink fhewn to him by a traveller. In that receipt cobalt was the principal ingredient, and therefore the first object was to procure cobalt; but M. Meyer, being unwilling to facrifice pure pieces of cobalt of any confiderable fize, made choice of one, which was vifibly mixed with bifmuth, iron, and quartz. He endea voured to feparate the bifmuth as much as poffible, and alfo the arferic, if it fhould contain any, by bringing it flowly to a red heat; and he fucceeded pretty well, as the bifmuth flowed from it in abundance; and the arfenic, the quantity of which was fmall, was volatilifed: many globules of bifinuth fill adhered to it. By bring ing it repeatedly to a red heat, and then quenching it in water, it was reduced to fuch a fiate as to be eafily pulverifed. Having poured nitrous acid upon the powder, he obtained by digeftion a beautiful rofe red folu. tion; the filiceous earth was feparated in the form of a white flime, and by diluting it with water there was depofited a white powder, which was oxyd of bifmuth. The folution being filtered, he added to it a folution of

infects.

potafh, and obtained a precipitate inclining more to a Inordinate," yellow than to a red colour. He again poured over it a little of the nitrous acid, by which a part of the oxyd was re-diffolved of a red colour: the remaining part, which had a dark brown colour, was oxyd of iron. From the folution, by the addition of potash, a precipitate was formed, which was now reddifh. Having by this, procefs obtained it pure, that he might now prepare from it the wifhed for red ink, he diffolved the wafhen pure oxyd of cobalt in different acids. That diffolved in the nitrous acid with a mixture of nitre, gave a green ink like the common: that diffolved in the fulphurous acid, without the addition of falts, gave a reddifh ink, which remained after it was expofed to. heat, and would not again disappear, even when a folu tion of nitre was applied; and that diffolved in the mu, riatic acid, gave a green ink, darker and more beautiful than the common. By diffolving it, however, in the acetous acid, and adding a little nitre, he obtained what he had in view; for it gave, on the application of heat, an ink of a red colour, like that of the rofa centifolia, which again difappeared when the paper became cold..

2, 3, 9, 8, 24, 35,

INORDINATE PROPORTION, is where the order of the terms compared is difturbed or irregular. As, for example, in two ranks of numbers, three in each, rank, viz. in one rank, and in the other rank, which are proportional, the former to the latter, but in a different order, viz. 2 3: 24: 36,1 and 39:: 8: 24. then, cafting out the mean terms in each rank, it is concluded that 29: 8: 36,. that is, the firft is to the 3d in the first rank,

as the first is to the 3d in the 2d rank. INSECTS (See Encycl.). A number of non-defcript little animals was difcovered by La Martiniere the naturalift when accompanying Peroufe on his celebrated voyage of difcovery. These animals he called infects, and to many of them he gave particular names. Of these we hall give his defcription n this place, leaving our readers, as he has left his, to arrange them properly according to the Linnæan claffification.

"The infect, which is figured N° 1. inhabits a small Plate prifmatic triangular cell, pointed at the two extremities, XXX. of the confiftence and colour of clear brittle ice; the body of the infect is of a green colour, fpotted with fmall bluish points, among which are fome of a golden tinge; it is fixed by a ligament to the lower part of its fmall habitation: its neck is terminated by a small blackish head compofed of three converging fcales, in the form of a hat, and enclofed between three fins, two of them large and channelled in the upper part (A) and one fmall, femicircular (B). When it is disturbed, it immediately withdraws its fins and its head into its cell, and gradually finks into the water by its own specific gravity. Fig. 2. reprefents th under fide of the prifm, fhewing in what manner it is channelled, in order to allow free paffage to the animal when it wishes to fhut itfelf up in it. Fig. 3. reprefents the profile of the fame. The movement carried on by the two larger fins, which are of a foftish cartilaginous fubitance, may be compared to that which would be produced by the two hands joined together in the ftate of pronation, and forming, alternately, two inclined planes and one horizontal plane: it is by means of this motion that it fupports itself on the top of the water, where it proba

bly

Infects, Inititute.

bly feeds on fat and oily fubftances on the furface of the fea." Our author found it near Nootka, on the north-west coast of America, during a calm.

Fig. 4. represents a collection of infects, as our author calls them, confifting only of oval bodies, fimilar to a soap bubble, arranged in partics of three, five, fix, and nine: among them are alfo fome folitary ones. These collections of globules, being put into a glafs filled with fea water, defcribed a rapid circle round the glass by a common movement, to which each individual contributed by fimple compreffion of the fides of its body, probably the effect of the re-action of the air with which they were filled. It is not, however, easy to conceive how thefe diftinct animals (for they may be readily feparated without deranging their economy) are capable of concurring in a common motion. "Thefe confiderations (fays our author), together with the form of the animal, recalled to my mind, with much fatisfaction, the ingenious fyftem of M. de Buffon; and I endea voured to perfuade myself, that I was about to be witnefs to one of the most wonderful phenomena of Nature, fuppofing that these molecules, which were now employed in increasing or diminishing their number, or performing their revolutions in the glafs, would foon affume the form of a new animal of which they were the living materials. My impatience led me to detach two from the most numerous group, imagining that this number might perhaps be more favourable to the expected metamorphofis. I was, however, miftaken. Thefe I examined with more attention than the rest; and the following account is of their proceedings alone. Like two ftrong and active wrestlers, they immediately rushed together, and attacked each other on every fide: fometimes one would dive, leaving its adversary at the fur. face of the wafer; one would defcribe a circular movement, while the other remained at reft in the centre; their motions at length became fo rapid as no longer to allow me to diftinguifh one from the other. Having quitted them for a fhort time, on my return I found them reunited as before, and amicably moving round the edge of the glass by their common exertions."

Fig. 5. represents a fingular animal, which has a confiderable resemblance to a little lizard; its body is of a firm, gelatinous confiftence; its head is furnished on each fide with two fmall gelatinous horns, of which the two hindermoft are fituate the furtheft inward: its body is provided with four open fan-like paws, and fome appendages near the infertion of the tail, and terminates like that of a lizard: the ridge of the back is divided the whole way down by a band of a deep blue; the reft of the body, as well as the infide of its paws, is of a bright filvery white. It appears to be very sluggish in its motions; and when difturbed by the finger, merely turned itself belly upwards, foon afterwards refuming its former pofition. Fig. 6. reprefents it reverfed. Martiniere caught it during a calm at the landing place on the Bafhee Iflands.

INSTITUTE is a name which has lately been fubftituted for fchool or academy. Formerly inflitution, in the propriety of the English language, was fometimes ufed as a word of the fame import with inflruction; and now infiitute is employed, especially by the admirers of French innovations, to denote what had hitherto been called an academy. When royalty was abolished in SUPPL. VOL. II. Part I.

France, it would have been abfurd to continue the titles Inftitute. Royal Academy of Sciences, Royal Academy of Infcriptions, &c; but inftead of merely abolishing the word royal, and fubftituting national in its ftead, it occurred to the fertile brain of Condorcet, to abolish the feven academies themselves, or rather to melt them all down into one great academy; to which was given the appellation of the

National INSTITUTE, or New Academy of Arts and Sciences. This academy, founded on a decree of the new conftitution, was opened on the 7th of December 1795, when BENEZECH, the then minifter for the home department, attended, and the decree of foundation was read; which was to the following purport:

"The Academy of Arts and Sciences belongs to the whole republic, and Paris is its place of refidence. Its employment is to aim at bringing all arts and fciences to the utmost perfection of which they are capable. It is to notice every new attempt, and all new discoveries, and to keep up a correfpondence with all foreign literary focieties. And by the particular orders of the Executive Directory, its firft ftudies are to be directed to thofe fubjects which more immediately tend to the reputation and advantage of the French republic."

The academy is to confift of 288 members, half of whom are to refide in Paris, the other half in the departments; and to them is to be added a certain number of foreigners, as honorary members, confined at prefent to twenty-four.

The academy is divided into three claffes, cach clafs into fections, each fection to contain twelve members.

ft class. Mathematics and natural philofophy. This clafs is divided into ten fections. 1. Mathematics. 2. Mechanical arts. 3. Aftronomy. 4. Experimental philofophy. 5. Chemistry. 6. Natural history. 7. Botany. 8. Anatomy and animal hiftory. 9. Medicine and furgery. 10. Animal economy, and the veterinary fcience.

2.

2d class. Morality and politics. This clafs confifts of fix fections. 1. Analyfis of fenfations and ideas. Morals. 3. Legislature. 4. Political economy. 5. Hiftory. 6. Geography.

2.

3d class. Literature and the fine arts. This clafs confifts of eight fections. 1. Univerfal grammar. Ancient languages. 3. Poetry. 4. Antiquities. 5. Painting. 6. Sculpture. 7. Architecture. 8. Mulic. For each claís a particular room in the Louvre is appropriated. No one can be a member of two claffes at the fame time, but a member of one clafs may be prefent at the meetings of any other. Each clafs is to print, yearly, an account of its tranfactions.

Four times a-year there are to be public meetings. On thefe occafions, the three claffes meet together. At the end of each year, they are to give a circumftantial account to the legislative body of the progrefs made in that year in the arts and fciences. The prizes given yearly by each clafs are to be publicly notified at certain times. The fums requifite for the fupport of the infti. tution are to be decreed yearly by the legislative body, upon a requifition made by the Executive Directory.

The first forty-eight members were chofen by the Executive Directory, to whom the choice of the remaining members was confided. To the members, refiden. tiary in Paris, is reserved the choice both of the depart

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ment

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Inftitute. ment and the foreign members. On a vacancy in any clafs, three candidates are named by the clafs for the choice of the body at large.

Each class is to have, at its place of meeting, a collection of the products, both of nature and art, and a library, according to its particular wants.

The regulations of the inftitution, with respect to the times of meeting, and its employments, are to be drawn up by the body at large, and laid before the legislative affembly.

The hall in which the body at large holds its meet ings, forms part of the weft wing of the Old Louvre, at prefent called the Mufeum. It formerly went by the appellation of the Hall of Antiques (Salle des Antiques); and as long as the kings inhabited this part of the palace, was occupied by their guards, from which circumftance it obtained the name of the Hall des Cent Suiffes. It was likewise appropriated to banquets and entertainments, given by the court on gala days; and it was to this place that Henry IV. was conveyed, on his affaffination by Ravaillac, in the Rue de la Ferronnerie.

It was built at the fame time with the reft of this part of the Louvre, about the year 1528, after the defigns of Pierre Lefcot, abbot of Clagny. It is 144 feet in length, and 40 in breadth, and holds from 1000 to 1200 perfons. In order to adapt it to its new deftination, the floor has been funk, which gives a greater air of lightnefs to the roof. In the centre ftands a double table, in the form of a horse-shoe, fupported by fphinxes, at which the members of the inftitute take their feats. This table is furrounded by two tiers of benches, which are raifed for the accommodation of fpectators, who have likewife feats provided for them in the vaft embrasures of the windows, and at each extremity of the hall.

Whether fcience will be advanced by the feven royal academies having been melted into one, time muft determine; but candour compels us to acknowledge, that the proceedings of the national inftitute have hitherto been abundantly interefting. Intimately connected with the national institute is the French fyftem of

National INSTRUCTION, which is likewife novel, and therefore fufficiently curious to deferve notice in a Work of this kind. When the Chriftian religion was abolished in France, it was impoffible to continue the univerfities and other feminaries which were founded by Chriftians, and obliged by their conftitution to teach, whether pure or not, the doctrines of Chriftianity. They were accordingly all fwept away, and a new fyftem of education planned, which was to be carried on in what they call

The Primary Schools.
The Central Schools.

The School of Health.

The School of Oriental Languages.

The Polytechnic School.

The National Institute.

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The Legislative Committee of Inftruction. And va. Inftitutes rious other national eftablishments for the improvement of particular sciences.

The first degree of public inftruction is to be met with in the Ecoles Primarées, eftablished by a decree of the convention of the fecond Pluviofe, in the fecond year of the republic (A). Every district is furnished with one of these schools; the profeffors or mafters in which are paid from the national treasury; and to which every head of a family, without exception, is compelled by law to fend its children for inftruction. The fubjects taught in thefe primary or elementary schools are divided into nine claffes:

ift, Inftructions connected with the phyfical and moral fituation of children, prior to their entering into thefe fchools. 2d. Similar inftructions as a guide to teachers in the national schools. 3d, The arts of reading and writing. 4th, The elements of French grammar. 5th, Elements of arithmetic and geometry, with the theory of the new menfuration. 6th, The elements of geography. 7th, Explanations of the principal phenomena and productions of nature. 8th, Elements of agriculture. 9th, Elements of republican morals.

Next to the primary schools in rank and confequence are the Ecoles Centrales, which were established by a decree of the Convention of the feventh Ventofe in the third year. They are fituated in the capital of every department, bearing the proportion of one central school to 300,000 inhabitants. In these schools the republican youths are taught the fciences, and their application in real life. In each of them are profeffors for the following branches :

commerce.

1. For mathematics. 2. Experimental philosophy and chemistry. 3. Natural hiftory. 4. Agriculture and 5. Logic and metaphyfics. 6. Political elegiflation. 7. The philofophical history 8. The art of healing. 9. Arts and ma 10. Univerfal grammar. 11. The belles 12. The ancient languages. 13. The modern languages. 14. The fine arts.

conomy and of nations. nufactures. lettres.

Each central fchool is furnished with an extenfive public library-a botanic garden-a cabinet of natural hiftory-an apparatus for experimental philofophy — and a collection of machines and models connected with the arts and manufactures.

The profeffors of each school hold, every month, a public fitting, in which conferences are held relative to fubjects connected with the improvement of letters, the fciences, and the arts, which are the most bencficial to fociety.

The object in the establishment of the primary and central schools was, the general inftruction of all claffes of the citizens; and it being incompatible with the perfect completion of that important purpole, to expect from them the propagation of particular branches of science, it became neceffary to establish other literary and fcientific academies.

Accordingly, the French government have founded, 1st, Schools of health (les ecoles de fante), in Paris, Strafburgh,

and

(A) We would tranflate this chronological jargon into the language of Chriftian Europe, were we not perfuaded that the French calendar, the French conftitution, and the French inftitutes, will have the same duration : we trust in God not a long duration, For Pluviofe, and the other fantaftical names of months introduced into this article, fee REVOLUTION, Encycl. n° 184.

Fatitute, and Montpelier, where medicine and furgery are ftudied; which fchools are affirmed, by thofe who find nothing wrong in France, to be the most perfect of their kind, as well as new and unparalleled models for fuch inftitutions. 2d, Two schools for Oriental languages, in the national library, and in the college of France.

3d, The Polytechnic school in Paris, or central school for the direction of public works. This establishment is very generally admired and confidered as a model for imitation. It contains more than 400 young perfons, previously educated in the mathematics, and the majority of them intended for engineers in various lines; and they labour under the immediate direction of their tutors nine hours every day. It occupies the principal part of the Palais de Bourbon in Paris, and is furnifhed with a large collection of inftruments and models. The jour. nal of the Polytechnic school, which is published by the bookfellers Regent and Bertrand at Paris, is a perfectly. original work, and admirably calculated to convey ufe ful information.

Of the national inftitute a fufficient account has been given in the preceding article. We proceed therefore to the jury of public inftruction (Le fury Central d'Infirudion), of which the principal bulinefs is to fuperin. tend the primary and central schools. It appoints the profeffors in thefe fchools, and examines into their conduct. Like the legislative body it is renewed by a third every half year. When they have chofen a profeffor for a central school, they fubmit their choice to the department; and, in cafe of difapprobation, they make another appointment. To this jury of public inftruction the profeffors in the central schools are amenable for all misconduct connected with their offices; it may expel them, but all its decifions must be fubmitted for confirmation to the tribunal of the department.

There is alfo eftablifhed at Paris a fupreme council, called The Commiffion of Public Inftruction, to which is entrusted the whole executive department. The prefervation of the national monuments, of public libraries, museums, cabinets, and valuable collections; the fuperintendance of all the schools and the modes of inftruction; all new inventions and fcientific difcoveries; the regulation of weights and measures; national ftatistics and political economy, are all placed under the authority of this fupreme commiffion. For the commodious and regular execution of so many complicated branches of bufinefs, there is a large office, called Le Secretariat, which is divided into three departments.

1. For the regulation of the different kinds of inftruction; of the modes of education in the schools; and for the choice of elementary books. 2. For weights and measures; inventions and discoveries; libraries and bibliography; museums, works of art, and literary rewards and encouragements. 3. For theatres, national feafts, republican inftitutions, and the erection of monuments. As all public establishments require the fuperintend. ance and occafional correction of the legiflature, in addition to that of their own immediate executive authority, it has been deemed neceffary to appoint a permanent committee of inftruction in the legislative body, to provide such sums as may be neceffary for the prefervation and improvement of this fyftem of inftruction. This legislative committee are invefted with due authority for these purposes. Their objects are precisely the fame as thofe of the commiffion of public inftruction

above described, only with this difference, that the lat- mititute. ter fuperintends the execution of exifting lawe, whilst the former receives and improves them, or proposes new ones. This committee is divided into three departments, as is the commiffion, with exactly the fame arrangement of their respective labours. The committee being charged with the enaction of all new laws, its mem. bers, with a view to obtain accurately all the requifite information relative to the numerous branches of the arts, have procured from the legislative body the appointment of a commiffion temporaire des arts to be annexed to them, and to meet in the fame house with them; which temporary commiffion is divided into fixteen claffes: viz. 1. For Zoology; 2. Botany; 3. Mineralogy; 4. Phyfics; 5. Chemistry; 6. Anatomy; 7. Machinery; 8. Geography; 9. Artillery and Fortification; 10. Medals and Antiquities; 11. Bibliography; 12. Painting; 13. Architecture; 14. Sculpture; 15. Bridges and Causeways; and, 16. Musical Instruments. The improvements of the national literary and fcientific establishments are numerous and important.

ft, By a decree of the convention of the 11th Prairial, in the fecond year, it was enacted, that means fhould be adopted by which every poffible advantage might be derived from the botanic gardens of the republic, in Turkey and other foreign countries. This politic decree clearly tended to render France, in the language of the reporter, L'abregé de tous les climats, et l'entrepôt de l'Europe. "The epitome of every climate, and the magazine of Europe." Thofe plants which thrive between the tropics may be cultivated in the fouth of France; and those which are the produce of northern climates, may be cultivated in the northern departments; by which means, France will be in poffeffion of all foreign plants and drugs, without the exportation of fpecie.

2d, The National Bibliography was decreed in the fitting of 22d Germinal, in the fecond year. It confifts of a complete catalogue of books of all defcriptions, the property of the nation; it was then afcertained, that the republic poffeffed more than ten millions of books. The titles of them were to be adjusted by actual comparifons; the manufcripts to be registered separately; anonymous productions were to be arranged according to their fubjects; and those of known authors in the alphabetical order of the names. The feveral editions to be claffed according to their dates: and what may be deemed more important, this French National Bibliography will contain a dictionary of anonymous books, as well as thofe published under fictitious names, a defideratum in the republic of letters.

3d, The annihilation of all patois, or dialects, decreed in the fitting of the 16th Prairial, in the second year. Notwithstanding the universality of the French language, and that it was exclufively spoken in the majority of the inland departments, yet there exifted thirty various dialects in France. It is more aftonishing that Rozier had remarked, that between one neighbouring village and another, there was fo confiderable a difference in the dialect, that the inhabitants could not understand each other; and the vineftock had thirty different names. The naturalift, Villars, has ftated, that in the nomenclature of vegetables, in the departments, he had only met with an hundred which had a common appellation. 4th,

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