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For the Monthly Magazine.
ACCOUNT OF AN INSECT, SAID TO

BE ENDOWED WITH A REMARK-
ABLE PROPERTY.

By. Dr. BEDDOES.

THE power imputed to this infect, will
render it an object of curiofity to
those who shall not regard its hiftory as fa
bulous. This was not long fince published
at Florence; by Prof. Gerbi, who names
it, curculio anti-odontalgicus. He relates,
that if 14 or 15 of the larvae be rubbed
between the thumb and forefinger, till
the fluid is abforbed; and if a carious ach-
ing tooth be touched with the thumb or fin-
ger fo prepared, the pain will be remov-
ed. If there be a hole in the fide, the
tooth must be held between the thumb

and finger: when the hole is on the top,
it is only neceffary to prefs on the tooth.
In thofe cafes, where the pain is remove-
able by this method, it abates almoft in
stantaneously, and in a few minutes total-
ly ceafes. The pain is fometimes more
obftinate, not diminishing in less than
eight or ten minutes; and requires re-
peated touching. To prevent a return,
the tooth fhould be touched two or three
times after it is become quite eafy. The
pain is fometimes permanently removed;
at others it returns, but may be removed
in the fame way. The author has feldom
found that it would not yield after a fifth
or fixth return. A piece of chamoy lea-
ther will ferve equally with the finger;
and I must not conceal from the reader,
that a prepared finger is faid to retain its
virtue for a year, unless it be used for
tooth-touching! Prof. Gerbi, forefees
how ridiculous this part of his narrative
will found. He affures us, however,
that a multitude of facts, collected by
him in the fpace of five years, lay him
under the neceflity of admitting its authen-
ticity. Nay, he mentions above fix hun-
dred cafes, noted down by himself and
others, in which the tooth-ache was cured
by this method. In thefe cafes, 1,
the pain returned no more, or after a long
interval; 2, it ceafed for five or fix
days; 3, it ceafed but for a little while,
or was only mitigated; or, 4, no effect
followed. Succefs was moft certain
when the caufe of the pain was local. Of
twenty-eight perfons much troubled with
the tooth-ache twenty-five never after-
wards fuffered confiderably. The author
thinks, the other three did not prepare
their finger properly, or that the finger
could not be laid over the hole from its
fituation.

The infect is found on a non-defcript,

but very common, carduus, which this author teris, c. fpinofiffimus. He gives a figure of the plant, and minutely gives the natural hiftory of the infect. In fpeculating on the mode of operation, he does not efcape the ufual fate of us physicians. Nor will his nonfenfe entertain by its ingenuity. He thinks the fluids of the infect neutralize the fanies or discharge from the carious tooth. He adds, that the perfect infect, as long as it contains much fluid, will answer as well as the larva. The Tufcan peafants have long been acquainted with the infects which furnish a charm for the tooth-ache: as the curculio jaecac, curc. Bacchus, cara

bus chryfocephalus ; which are found either in the artichoke or carduus hæmorboidralis.

Now, Mr. Editor, I know not how far you and your readers will look upon this

account as more credible than an animal

magnetism ftory. Faith will, probably,
not be wholly independent of the state
of the teeth; for bodily fuffering ren-
ders us extremely credulous, as is alike
evident, from the hiftory of quacks and
regular phyficians. If we thould not
foon be able to procure impregnated
chamoy leather, by way of Leghorn, our
British botanifts and entomologifts will,
perhaps, be able to detect the carduus
Jpinofiffimus, and its fingular inhabitant.
In order to enable them, I will, if you
pleafe, tranfcribe their characters for in-
fertion in your next Number.
Clifton. Nov. 10, 1796.

To Correfpondents.
THE Controverly concerning the Talents of

Women has proved to prolific, that we muft beg leave to decline inferting any farther letters on the fubject. We think it cannot be better clofed,than by giving the lady the laf word.

To our numerous poetical correfpondents, we take the liberty to hint, that in the prefent ftate of correctnefs which the art of verfification is arrived at, grofs faults in measure and rhyme receive fo little indulgence from the public, that no credit is to be obtained either by the writer or editor of pieces thus defective. We are forry to obferve, that feveral communications, not void of merit in other refpe&s, are rendered inadmiffible by negligence in thefe points.

We are fory Mr. Timothy, 18314 &c. fhould have fo much trouble relative to favours which do not fuit us.

X Q. W. Z. is requested to favour us with the loan of a copy of the mufical work he alludesto,

Once more we are compelled to intreat the indulgence of feveral correfpondents, whofe favours are deferred, from the prefs of temporary matter. Perhaps, we cannot too often repert the neceffity we are under of preferring concile communications to thofe of greater length.

1796.]

(793)

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

THIRD PUBLIC SITTING OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTION Held at PARIS, on the 15th VENDEMIAIRE, correfponding to the 6th of

OCTOBER, 1796.

[The readers of the Monthly Magazine are fuppofed to have perused the defcription of the Inftitution, whofe proceedings we here detail, in page 119 of our Mifcellany, for the month of March. In that place are enumerated the objects of its claffes and fections, and the place and time of meeting; together with a complete lift of the refidentiary members. In page 632, of No. VIII, we alfo laid before them a comprehenfive and interefting analyfis of the proceed ings of the first and fecond public fittings of the Institute We now proceed to exhibit the tranfactions at their last or third fitting. Refpecting this Inftitution, the refult of whofe labours have been exclufively noticed in this Publication, it is fcarcely neceffary for us to add any thing to imprefs on our readers juft ideas of its importance.]

The Hall in which this learned body holds its public meetings, is fituated in the palace of the LOUVRE, and was formerly occupied as a depofit of antiquities. Thefe public fittings are held in it four times in every year, on the 15th of the first month of each of the feafons. It is of an oblong form, and built in the very beft ftyle of architecture. Between the pillars which adorn it, have been placed exquisite marble statues of illuftrious Frenchmen One of the extremities forms a faloon, around which are arranged other ftatues of their great writers, Corneille, Racine, Moliere, La Fontaine, Montesquieu, and others; and in the middle is an antique figure of Minerva. At the other extremity are four caryatides, chef d'œuvres, by Goujeon, which fupport the ROSTRUM. For the accommodation of the public, the circumference is furnished with a double row of commodious feats, which are feparated from the interior of the hall by a wooden partition. Within this partition are two other rows of feats, for the 144 members of the Institute, and thofe of the affociates who may be at Paris. The tables, which are also in two rows, are of oak, fupported by bronzed griffins. At one extremity are the feats for the prefident of the Inftitute and the secretaries, and oppofite to these are feats for the directory. The tout enfemble is exceedingly fimple and dignified, and the effect is greatly improved when the hall is illuminated. THE fitting was opened by the notice that LEBRETON, the fecretary of the clafs of the Moral and Political Sciences, had completed the labours which have occupied that clafs fince the last fitting, on the 15th of Melfidor.

CABONIS, who in the first and previpus quarterly fitting, had commenced his lecture of General Confiderations on the Study of Man and on the Relations of his phyfical Organization with his moral and intellectual Faculties, announced his progrefs in the fame. The points efla.

blifhed by him, tended to fhow, that the two great branches which make up the fcience of man, are parts of the fame trunk, and that this trunk refolves itself into the knowledge of the phyfical faculties of man that the ancient philofo phers, who cultivated rational philofophy according to its original principles, were the modern philofophers who have either phyfiologifts or phyficians: that regenerated and ftamped upon it a character of practical utilty, which, till their time, it never had, have introduced into the ftudy of medicine and phyfiology, their leading principles and ideas. had previously communicated to the Inftitute, his remarks on phyfiological fubjects; which may be referred to the analyfis of fenfations, and to morals,under the following heads: 1ft, Hiftory of Senfations. 2d, Influence of Conttitutional Habits. 3d, Influence of Ages. 4th. Influence of Sexes. 5th, Analyfis of Sympathy. 6th, Philofophical Hygiene.7th, The Influence of Medicine on Mo

rals.

He

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that the prohibitory regimen militates egainst every found principle of political

economy.

BOURGOING, an affociated member, tranfinitted a practical memoir on Spanifh fheep, and on the beft means of naturalizing them in France.

ANQUETIL read three memoirs on hiftorical fubjects: the first related to the Treaties which had been made refpect the Rhine, in 1651, 1558, and 1663, which refulted from the Treaty of Westphalia: the fecond is an Introduction to the History of the Treary of the Pyrenées the third is a fyllabus of much greater work, entitled, " An Hiftorical Picture of the World."

In connection with the laft memoir, DUPONT DE NEMOURS prefented to the clafs, fome obfervations on the part acted by the Serpent in most of the oriental mythologies, and upon the fignification

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Archipelago de Boroman, is not Bougainville's Archipelago das Navigatears; that the ifland fuppofed by Roggewien to be the Cocos and Traitor's Iflands of Le Maire and Schouten are not thofe iflands and that thofe of Thienoven and Groningen cannot be the Santa Cruz of Mendana.

VILLETERQUE, an affociated member, prefented an hypothefis on the phyfics of the terreftrial globe.

THOURET and MONTLINOT read two important memoirs; the one on foundlings, and the other on the most proper bafis of furnishing public fuccours.

MONGEZ, fecretary of the class of literature, and the polite arts, prefented the detail of the works fubmitted to this clafs by its inembers.

SICARD read his memoir on the mode of inftructing perfons born deaf and dumb.

as

PEYRE propofed fuch an arrangement of the plan of the LOUVRE*, that all future embellishments and improvements might be included within it. He proposed to place in the pavilion of the middle of the colonnade, a magnifi cent ftaircase, to lead to a gallery over the garden of the Infanta, between the ifolated wall, conftructed after the defign of Perrault, and that of the façade of the Louvre; decorated by Lemercier. He proposes to open a public competition, in order to procure the beft plan of the gallery to be constructed on the fide of the ftreet St. Honore, parallel to that which terminates the Mufeum.

en

In another memoir, the fame member proved, that the first schools of architecture fhould not be kept feparate from thofe of painting and fculpture. He recalled to recollection, that Michael Angelo painted the Sixtine chapel, graved the fuperb figures of the tomb of Julius the Second; traced the fortifications of Florence, the cupola of St. Peter, the capitol, &c.; and that Raphael furnished, with the fame hand which painted the transfiguration, a new plan for the basi

FLEURIEU read a critical examination of the relations of voyages made round the world in 1721 and 1722, by the Dutch Admiral Roggewien. The voyages of this navigator, which have hitherto been little understood, are proved to be of great confequence to geography, in this memoir. By comparing the pofition of Eafter ifland, as defcribed by the Dutch Admiral, with its exact lati-lique of St. Peter. tude and longitude, as fince aftronomically determined by Cooke and La Peyroufe, Citizen Fleurieu makes it appear, that all the difcoveries claimed by Roggewien, are really founded in truth; that thefe difcoveries have efcaped the obfervations of the modern navigators; that Eafter Ifland, notwithstanding the affertions of the English geographers, is not Davis's ifland; that the Labyrinth of Rogge wiens is not Commodore Byron's Prince of Wales's lnd: that the Dutch Admiral's

CHENIER, read an imitation of a poem of Offian.

BITAUBE, deprived of his penfions and revenues in Germany, on account of his attachinent to the principles of the

*This fuperb edifice, once the palace of the Kings of France, now claims the notice of Europe, as the refidence of all the National Academies, and as containing the rich Mufcum, to furnish and embellish which, France and the neighbouring nations have fo largely contributed for the last three years.

French

1796.]

Proceedings of the Inftitute of Arts and Sciences.

French revolution, read a memoir on the politics of Ariftotle; principally drawn up in the prifon wherein he had been thrown by the tyrant Robefpierre.

LANGLES read feveral obfervations on the paper money which has been used in Afia. More than a century before the vulgar æra, bonds were circulated in India on the fecurity of the domains of the prince, which were nothing more than refcriptions, or anticipations. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, the Chinese emperor iffued a paper money fimilar to the French affignats, which was afterwards imitated by a defcendant of Ghengis Khan, who reigned at Taufitz. But the paper menies of Pekin and Tauritz, had but a fhort and feeble fuccefs; they became at length of much lefs value than the Chinefe paper hangings.

The fame member tranflated the Guliftan of the poet Saady, and read feveral fragments of his works to the clafs, as well as the extract of a life of this great poet, written by a learned Perfian biographer.

LEVESQUE read a memoir on the progreffive improvement of the art of painting among the Greeks.

MONGEZ decided from a particular paffage of Valerius, that Cacholoug, a fpecies of opal of Chalcedon, made ufe of by the Calmucks in the formation of their vases and idols, was the matter of which they anciently manufactured the vaja myrrhina to coftly and fo celebrated at Rome. The cacholong appears to be a girafol, with a larger mixture of argilla ceous earth. The fubftance of it, according to him, is neither porcelain, myrrh, nor benzoin, but must be traced into the mineral kingdom.

LEGOUVE, an affociated member, read to the clafs a piece of poetry on burials.

MONVEL, celebrated for his abilities as a theatrical writer and performer, has alfo difplayed equal talents as a writer of apologues. He read to the clafs foveral fables.

FONTANES prefented to the clafs a philofophical difquifition on the ancient Gauls, who had no kings, were govern. ed by chiefs of their own election, and judged only by their peers and who made themfelves mafters of all the Roman territory, and even of Rome itfelf, except the Capitol.

:

DUCIS prefented an epile, tending 10 throw a ftigma upon celibacy. MONTHLY MAG. No. X.

795

DOMERGUE, in a differtation, entitled Théorie de la Propofition, deduced the inconteftible truth, that grammar ought to be a speaking logic.

DUTHEIL examined, in a critical Memoir on the Divorce of Philip-Auguftus with Ilgelberga, a Danish princefs, the political relation fubfifting between the French and the Northern nations in the 12th and 13th centuries.On this occafion he entered into a defcription of the flourishing condition of the fchools at Paris at that period. Pupils attended them from all parts of Europe. MONGEZ Concluded his report for this clafs, by predicting the much more extenfive fuccefs which the Parifian fchools will attain under the auspices of liberty. And the moment, fays he, is at no great distance, when Europe will pay the fame tribute to the fame fchools : every thing concurs to render Paris the centre of the arts and fciences.

In the clafs of Phyfical and Mathematical Sciences, FORFAIT, a non-refident affociate, prefented the interesting detail of experiments made by order of the government on the navigation of the Seine from Paris to the Sea. The Salmon, a lugger of 14 guns, being 75 feet in length, 18 in width, 8 in depth, and in perfect condition to keep the fea, has completed her paffage from Havre to Paris: with a draught of 6 feet water fhe might have carried 180 tons; the was, however, only laden with 70 tons, and drew in the courfe of the experiment but 4 feet; the actual depth of the Seine being never lefs than 5 feet, the might have carried, without inconvenience, 104 tons.-FORFAIT concludes that veffels may be conftructed with mafts on hinges, of 200 tons burthen, and drawing 6 feet water, capable of navigating at all times, which, with 6 men and 6 horfes, might proceed from Havre to Paris in 10 days, on a plan much more economical than is now practifed.

PRONY recited a memoir on the means of converting continued circular movements into rectilinear alternate

cones.

DELAMBRE tranfmitted a farther de tail of the difpofitions he had made for meafuring, during the remainder of the feafon, an arch of the meridian, fituated between the parallels of Bourges and D'Hermant, a town in the department of Puy de Dome. This work completed, there will only remain, next fpring, from fix to eight triangles to be measured, to complets

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complete an uninterrupted chain from Dunkirk to Barcelona, which includes an accurate knowledge of the arch of the meridian fituated between the two cities.

FLAUGERGUE tranfmitted a differtation on the rotatory motion of the planet Venus. He conceives, that the rotation of this planet is made in 24 days; a movement fimilar to that formerly established by Bianchini, but very different from the conclufions of Caffini and Sabroeter, who maintained, that Venus finished her revolution in lefs than 24 hours. A little obfcure fpot in this planet, regularly obferved two hours together, without fenfible change, has ferved as the bafis of this curious difcovery. FLAUGERGUE has alfo attempted to afcertain the pofition of Venus's equa

tor.

In the Phyfical class, Meffrs. FOURCROY and VAUQUELIN have continued their labours relative to the Barytes and the Stronthian earth. M. GREN, profeffor of chemistry at Halle, has fent them fpecimens of the laft earth. It appears from thefe experiments, that if thefe earths poffefs fimilar properties, a greater number of different ones are to be found in them: fuch are, particularly, the infufibility of the Stronthian earth when expofed to the blowpipe; its lefs folubility, its weaker affinity with the acids, from which Barytes and the fixed eauftic alkalis feparate it; the greater quantity of thofe acids which it abforbs, and the figure, the folubility, and the laws of decompofition of the falts which it forms with the fame acids. By comparing the obfervations of the cheinift KLAPROTH With their experiments, they conclude, that thefe two earths are of the fame nature, and that the Stronthian must be confidered as a new earth, and fhould be arranged next to the Barytes in the chemical fyftem of minerals.

GUYTON Communicated fome new inveftigations, from which he inferred the identity obferved between the action of the falt called oxy-nuriate of pot-afh, and that of the falt called nitrate of potash. He fubmitted platina to the action of oxygenated muriate, and he found that this metal, when made red-hot, is oxydated at its furface by the oxygenated-muriate of potath, although the falt, to which oxygene gives a very remarkable property, is foon fublimated, and forms only for the moment a fluid bath upon the platina.

on

LAMARCK read a differtation the primogenial particles of compound bodies; in which he endeavours to point out the immutability of their form, and the unity of their nature. He concluded, by obferving, that the primogenial particles of every compofition are neceffarily fimple and identical, and that the heterogenitty of any matter is folely occafioned by the aggregation of various kinds of thofe particles, and never depends on their combination.

BERTHOLLET, MONGEZ, and THOUIN, now in Italy; HUZARD, on the banks of the Rhine; BROUSSONET, in Portugal; and GIROUST, in St. Domingo, have tranfmitted important obfervations on chemistry, natural hiftory, and rural economy.

DAUBENTON, in a differtation on the generic characters made use of in natural hiftory, exhibited a number of principles on the advantages of the methods. practifed in the ftudy of this fcience; and on the abuses to which it is liable; the falfe notions adopted by certain nomenclators, and on the manner in which the methods ought to be arranged to harmonize with nature.

CUVIER has alfo been employed upon a new claffification of beings. He fhows that the divifions into which they may be arranged, ought, in proportion as they become more elevated, to be founded on more general characters. He propofes, by an application of this theory, to afcertain in fucceffion, by the nature of the blood, the mode of respiration, the fate of the embryo, the organs of motion and thofe of fenfation, the characteristics which are to diftinguifh living and fenfible beings, and the gradual divifions by which we proceed from the confideration of the clafs to that of the fpecies,

LAUMONIER prefented fome curious anatomical preparations in coloured wax, calculated to reprefent, as it were vifibly, the most curious, delicate, and even fugitive obfervations, on those interior parts of man which are the most difficult to be understood.

DESESSARTS read the continuation of his remarks on the fmall pox, and its complications with other diseases, the refult of 40 years' experience.

CELS Communicated fome practical ob fervations on the effects produced by inundation, with refpect to meadows, crops of hay, the provender of cattle, &c.—

In

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