of the municipal conftitution and privileges granted to the cities of the Netherlands. All thefe fubjects are treated with a brevity which they fcarcely admit of: The Abbé gives us only points of view, and the contents of his performance perfectly answer to the modefty of its title.

A Differtation concerning the Counts of Louvain. By M. des Roches.

Critical Reflections on the Diplomas of Miraus. Firft Memoir, containing an Examination of the Teftament of St. Remi, whofe authenticity is here proved by a dead weight of arguments.

An Extract of the meteorological Obfervations made at Brussels in the Years 1775 and 1776. By the ABBE CHEVALIER.

ART. V.

MEMOIRES de l'Academie Imperiale et Royale des Sciences et BellesLettres, c. i. e. MEMOIRS of the Imperial and Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Bruffels, Vol. III. 4to. 1780.

IN

JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY.

N giving an account of the Memoirs, Letters, or Effays, mentioned under this Article, we shall only take notice of those which are not to have any farther place in this or a fubfequent volume: the others we fhall meet with in the clafs of Memoirs.

This volume opens with an account which the learned Abbé MANN (whom we are always highly pleafed to meet with) laidbefore the Academy, of his Tour to England, whither he went, principally, with a view to obtain full information of the methods difcovered and employed by Mr. Hartley and Lord Mahon, to preferve edifices of every kind from the fatal effects of fire. His paffage through Dover engaged him to observe the cliffs with the attention of a naturalift, and finding them compofed of regular, alternate, and almost horizontal ftrata of chalk and flint, he concluded that the Alint-ftones are no more than an attractive filtration of the fluor of chalk, hardened and petrified in process of time, and formed into feparate maffes by the mutual attraction of the parts of the fluor before its petrefaction. He attributes this formation to the pyrites that are often found in the ftrata of chalk; and his illuftration of this fubject is ample and curious. This is followed by a hiftory and defcription of the Gymnotus Electricus, or Electric Eel, in Mr. Walch's collection.

The fame Academician read a Latin difcourfe concerning the Origin and Progress of Moral Philofophy, or the Science of the Law of Nature and Nations, and the neceffity of reforming this Science, and cultivating it with more zeal in the Romish Universities ;-to which is added, a critical Account of the principal Writers of this

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Class

Class. We heartily with the publication of this piece, which is put off fine die.

Prince GALLITZIN, Ruffian minifter at the Hague, whose political leisure is confecrated to the culture of fome branches of experimental philofophy, communicated to the Academy fome curious Memoirs of M. Achard, on the fufion and chemical analysis of rubies and other precious ftones, on the fluor of fpar, on the use of oil in calming the waves of the fea, and on a new manner of hatching eggs by the means of electricity. The Prince added his own experiments on inflammable air, and his Memoir on Electrical Kites, which are curious.

Reflexions on the Aurora Boreales obferved during the Fear 1778. By the Abbé CHEVALIER.

Experiments on fixed Air employed as a Remedy in putrid fevers, by M. JANSSENS, M. D. in the village of Ooflerbout near Breda, with remarkable fuccefs. It is true, the Peruvian bark was employed at the fame time, and to it Dr. JANSSENS attributes a great part of his fuccefs; but Prince Gallitzin, who communicated thefe experiments to the Academy, and who is a zealous champion for the reputation of fixed air, pretends that it enters as a principal ingredient in the bark: this, at least, we suppose to be the meaning of his expreffion when he fays-that the Peruvian bark is a compound of fixed air, though the expreffion is. inaccurate. However that may be, the beneficial effects of fixed air in fevers have been afcertained by feveral experiments and cafes, and the learned and ingenious Profeffor VAN SWINDEN of Franekar, whofe teftimony has all the weight that veracity and penetration can give to any man's word, is brought by Prince Gallitzin as a witnefs in this matter. A niece of that Profeffor, who had been afflicted during the space of five months with a violent fever, which obftinately refifted the influence of every remedy, and even the ftrongest dofes of the bark, was cured completely by fixed air, as appears from the Profeffor's letter to the Prince. The Profeffor and the Prince have been admitted members of the Academy of Brufels.

The Count DE FRAULA read to the Academy Obfervations on the Invention of wooden Types, occafioned by a Paffage in Sozomenus. This Hiftorian tells us, that Didymus, profeffor in the celebrated fchool of Alexandria, who had made an extraordinary progress in almoft all the fciences, though he had been blind from the age of three years, learned to diftinguish the letters of the alphabet by handling characters engraven on wood. Thefe characters were moft probably moveable, and our Academician fhews from this, how near they were to the difcovery of printing in the fourth century.

The reft of this Journal contains the choice of new members;

the

the fubjects propofed for Prize-Differtations; and the notice of: Memoirs that will be published in fubfequent volumes.

MEMOIRS.

A LETTER from Prince GALLITZIN to the Academy, concern ing the Form of Electrical Conductors. The Prince propofes (as he himself fays) in this Letter, to bring about a reconciliation between three different opinions, by experiments defigned to fhew which of the three merits the preference. This is a way of reconciling, that is not likely to be agreeable to all the parties; however that may be, the cafe is this: The King of Pruffia confulted the Academy of Berlin concerning the form that ought to be preferred in the termination of electrical conductors. M. Achard recommended the fharp-pointed conductor as better adapted to receive and throw off the electrical fire, than thofe that are terminated by blunt ends or flat furfaces. He even multiplied the points at the end of the conductor; but farther experiments engaged him to recede from this method, and to recommend, as moft eligible, conductors terminated by a plane furface, by a plate of metal. C'est donc pour concilier ces diffe-. rens avis (fays the Prince) que jai crú devoir faire, de mon coté, des experiences, qui puffent conftater un jour, lequel des trois merite: la preference. The refult then of his experiments is, that the pointed conductors ought to be preferred before all other forms, though he thinks the debates concerning the forms in question are of little importance.

Memoir. Concerning the Fofils in the Tournefis or District of Tournay, and Petrifications in general, confidered with respect to their utility in civil Life. By the Abbé WITRY. The researches of our Academician in the quarries of Tournay will contribute, no doubt, to complete the collections of naturalifts, by pointing out to them native and accidental foffils, which are only to be found there, or, at least, are very rare elsewhere. This is also one of the principal things which he has in view in these inquiries, the utility of which he thinks may be deduced from the properties of petrifications, and the purposes they may ferve in agricul ture and medicine.

Memoir. Concerning the usefulness of artificial Manure, toge ther with an Analysis of Dutch Ashes, Corn land, Marls and Lime, confidered in their property of improving and manuring a Soil. By the Abbé MARCI. The experiments of this Academician on different kinds of manure, feem to have been carried on with uncommon capacity, affiduity and attention, and their refults must be interefting to the cultivator.

Memoir. Concerning Wool. By M. DU RONDEAU. This Memoir deferves particular attention, as its fubject is of great importance to one of the effential comforts of human life, and as that fubject is treated by M. Du RONDEAU in a very ample

and masterly manner. We fhall therefore attempt a fhort ana lyfis of this useful Memoir, which confifts of fifteen articles.

In the First Article, our Academician treats of the growth of wool, which is always of the fame colour with the corpus reticulare; confiders the different layers or fleeces of which the fheepfkin is compofed; fhews that the fineness of the wool is in exact proportion to the thickness of the skin, which depends upon the health of the animal, and the denfity of the air; and proves that the different kinds of wool derive their diverfity from the different degrees of condenfation which the air contracts from different degrees of cold or moisture.

As the health of the animal contributes fo confiderably to the quality of the wool, a proper attention is due to the temperature of the air, climate, and foil, whofe influence on its health muft be very great, as alfo to its food and manner of living. As the animal in queftion lives in warm and in cold climates, in dry and humid regions, in hilly and flat countries, fo the effects of thefe different fituations, and the different precautions they require must be carefully attended to; and these effects and precautions are pointed out by our Academician in the fecond Article.

In the third he confiders the ftate of the fleecy flocks in the time of the ancient Gauls, when Belgic wool, as we learn from Horace, Strabo, and Pliny, was preferred to that of Apulia and Calabria. This our Author feems to attribute to the constant enjoyment of a free air, which the flocks had under the rough and untutored Belgi, who wandered from place to place, and neither made ufe of folds for their fheep, nor fcarcely of any tolerable habitations for themselves. He does not, however, affirm, that the Belgic wool degenerated when this people were obliged to lead a fedentary and more civilized life under the domination of the Romans, and when they were forced to fhut up their flocks during the night, to defend them against the fudden incurfions of the Germans: he derives the decline of this branch of Flemish opulence from the continual wars that ravaged the Flemish territories under the kings of France of the first and fecond race; and though he allows that it was revived, for a time, under the first princes of the Houfe of Burgundy, yet he obferves, that it was afterwards ruined by the civil wars, by the revolt of the Hollanders, and by other causes.

To this decline, the rival cultivation of this important branch of rural economy among the Spaniards and English did not a little contribute, as we fee in the two fucceeding Articles. The attempts that the Spaniards made, fo far back as the times of the Romans, to improve their wool, by coupling African rams with Iberian ewes, produced remarkable effects; but their fucfels, for want of proper care, was momentary. The attempt

wasą

was, however, renewed by Dom. Pedro, fourth King of Caftile, with fuccefs, and this is the origin of that fine breed of fheep that principally conftitutes the opulence of old Caftile, which, having alfo declined through the incapacity and ftupidity of the keepers, was restored to its vigour by the care of Cardinal Ximenes, and has been fince spread through all the parts of Spain, whose pastures are of the fame nature with thofe of Segovia. The free use of air, and the difufe of folds, have contributed much to the confervation of this excellent race, and the Spanish fhepherds have conftantly perceived a diminution of the quantity of their fheep, and a difadvantageous change in the quality of their wool, when they have been obliged, by any particular circumftances, to fhut up their flocks in folds.The Spanish nobility leave no means unemployed to perpetuate the advantages they annually receive from the fheering of their sheep, and they celebrate this kind of harveft with feafts and rural fports.

The English wool began to be in repute about the middle of the fifteenth century. Three thousand sheep were transported to England from Caftile; and that race was propagated with fuccefs. What our Author relates with regard to the English and Irifh fheep-walks, conveys no facts or ideas with which those who know any thing of this matter are not already fufficiently acquainted,

The attempts of the French, and of their great minifter Colbert, to form a breed in France, which failed by their depriving their flocks of the free use of the air, are related in the fixth Article. It is fingular, that the French, whofe climate is fo mild, fhould fall into this erroneous method, when it is well known, that the Tartars of Great Thibet or Boutan, whofe wool is beautiful and in high requeft, never fold or confine their sheep, though the air of that region is extremely cold, and the earth is covered with fnow above five months in the year.

The prefent ftate of the Flemish flocks, the abuses that are to be reformed, the obftacles that are to be removed, the information that is to be acquired, and the rules that are to be observed in cultivating the breed, in order to improve the wool, and to reftore this branch of rural economy to its former ftate of perfection,-thefe are the objects which our Academician difcuffes in the remaining articles of this ufeful Memoir. The wether of Flanders is of the largest kind known in Europe; this breed was brought by the Dutch from the Eaft-Indies in the 17th century; and its wool is almoft equal to that of the English in length, whiteness, fineness, and ftrength. The attempts to raise this breed in England did not answer expectation; but it fucceeds in feveral parts of Holland, and muft profper, as our Author thinks, in Brabant, Hainault, and feveral diftricts of Flanders, if the proper methods of treating it be carefully employed. M m 4

Our