meteorology; and the learned professor Van Swinden, enriched our ancient collections by a memoir containing his observations made in 1778. It is to these collections that we must refer, to become acquainted with our earliest documents upon the temperature, the variations of atmospheric pressure, and everything relating to our climate. It is also there that we find the only three observations on the declination of the magnetic needle, which have ever been made in our country, even to the present time. Chemistry was not neglected, but it encountered many difficulties before it was enabled to assume, among the sciences, the important rank which it at present occupies. M. de. Bennie undertook to analyze the different soils around Antwerp, with a view of finding some method of improving our heaths. Many other members also wrote on questions of chemistry of general utility, and especially those relating to our agricultural industry and to our mineral waters.

66

A spirit of observation is among the qualities which distinguish the Belgian people, thus natural science has always possessed for them a powerful attraction: it is sufficient to cite the names of some of our predecessors to show that it was not neglected in the ancient Academy. It is necessary to observe here that the greater part of the memoirs which were published on natural science, concerned Belgium; for the good of the country has always been, with the Academy, the central point towards which all their researches tended. It is also to be remarked, that the members have rarely attempted general theories and the more abstruse questions of science; they have limited themselves to more modest labours, they endeavoured to collect useful materials, leaving to more enterprising architects the care of construction.

"It is to this epoch that we must refer the earliest researches on the geological constitution of our provinces, and on their fossils: these inquiries have latterly taken the happiest turn, and the present Academy, in the judgment of the most able geologists, may present them among its most honourable titles. One of our learned members, who has taken an active part in these labours, is about to make their importance more justly appreciated than I should be able to do.

"Physical geography and rural economy were also properly attended to. Among the questions which were treated, the most advantageous means were equally sought for clearing the heaths of our Ardennes: the former state of maritime Flanders was examined, the successive changes which had been produced there, and whatever related to the tides along our coasts.

Again; the Abbé de Nelis and the Marquis du Chasteler, who united varied knowledge with an elevated mind, treated many subjects which have since found an important place in political economy, a science, whose name bearing the stamp of novelty, has not even yet obtained an easy access into all minds. The question to know whether, in a fertile and wellpeopled country, large farms are useful or hurtful to the state in general, was treated by the Marquis du Chasteler and the Abbé Mann, in connexion with a discussion which had arisen between this latter savant and the English economists. The reasons of our academicians were set forth in a very striking manner, which even now possess great interest, particularly to Belgians, because the subject is treated in a point of view especially applicable to them. The Abbé Mann, who, nearly alone among our academicians, had an inclination to touch upon questions of a general tendency, did not draw back from one of the most difficult, which forms as it were the basis of social science, and which has demanded the concurrence of the cleverest modern political writers, before it could be regarded in its true point of view; I speak of the question of population. It is true that he did not really attack the difficulty; for, with the pastor Meuret, regarding the increase of the population as an

incontestable good, he only occupied himself with indicating the means of attaining it.

"If I have spoken of this labour, it is to show that the importance of the political and moral sciences had been understood by the ancient Academy of Brussels, and to explain at the same time what opinion still prevailed here on a leading question, in so populous a country as ours."

Report on the Progress and actual State of Geology, and the Sciences connected with it, in Belgium.

"IN requesting for the public session of this day, a report on the progress and actual state in Belgium of geology, and the sciences connected with it, the Academy desires to acknowledge and to show to the country, that part of the debt which has already been paid to these sciences, and also that which is yet due to them.

“In giving myself up to the inquiries which this work demanded, I have obtained such satisfactory results as have rendered the task which had been imposed upon me as pleasant as it is honourable. Many others might have fulfilled it with more talent, but none, I venture to say, with more sincerity and gratification.

"The study of the mineral kingdom has been long neglected in Belgium, at which there is much reason to be surprised, when it is remarked, that it is, in proportion to its extent, one of the richest countries on the globe in mineral substances; that the most precious of all, pit-coal and iron-ore are not only spread there with astonishing profusion, but known and worked from so distant a period, that the most diligent investigators of our archives cannot yet determine the limit beyond which the discovery must be dated.

"Notwithstanding, the working and treatment of mineral riches, though less difficult formerly than at present, already demanded considerable knowledge, which really did exist in those of our provinces where these kinds of labour were pursued; and both in Belgium and Germany the miners practically cultivated mineralogy and geology, much before Werner had studied, with them, the composition of the terrestrial crust, which they dug with so much courage and talent. But we worked and treated our minerals as we cultivate useful vegetables, in our fields and in our green-houses, that is to say, with an art and a success which have never been contested, studying nature unceasingly, in those of her productions from which we could extract use; seeking and discovering the means by which we might procure them in the greatest abundance; in a word, always observing, but reading little, writing still less, and leaving to others the empty pleasure of imagining systems.

"This manner of studying natural science has been sufficient for the industrious wants of the epoch over which we are now casting a rapid glance; but from the end of the last century it could no longer satisfy the man of taste, curious to know all the beauties of nature, or the philosopher, eager to seize some one of the laws which preside over this admirable assemblage of things. The moment was come for the Belgians, as well as for all educated people, to collect, describe, and class all the productions of their soil. They began then to arrange some collections; and some among them wishing that their successors should enjoy the fruit of their labours, have made known the results in writings, which all form a part of the Memoirs of the Ancient Academy of Brussels, and which are now read with interest,-an honour for the former Belgians, who, in rushing on the career of geology, have drawn their fellow-countrymen along with them.

"M. Robert de Limberg was the first who leaped the barrier. He pre

sented, in 1770, to the Academy, the numerous observations which he had collected around Theux, his native town; he afterwards extended his researches upon more distant points, and gave an account of them in a memoir that he read four years after.

"In 1778, M. de Launay read his memoir upon the origin of the animal and vegetable fossils of the Belgian provinces, preceded by a discourse upon the theory of the earth.

In three memoirs presented successively in 1777, 1779, and 1785, the Abbé de Vitry opened his mineralogical and paleonthological researches in Tournay and the Austrian Hainault.

"M. de Burtin produced, in 1784, his Oryctography of the Environs of Brussels. In this work, very remarkable for the epoch at which it was written, the author makes known the minerals which he has found in a circle of five miles round Brussels, describes and represents upon the thirtytwo plates, which accompany the text, a part of those remains of marine animals accumulated in such abundance in the sands, and in the hardest rocks of the land which he has so well studied, establishes that the greater part of these animals cannot be related to those species which are at present alive; that only some of them are analogous to those found in the torrid zone; that they have been lodged at the bottom of a sea which covered these fields, where now rich harvests abound; and that they have been buried tranquilly in the spot where they lived. He deduced from these facts, at present admitted by all naturalists, very judicious consequences upon the theory of the earth.

"The mineralogical observations from Brussels, by Wavre, to Court Saint Etienne, that the same author has presented, the same year, to the Academy, bear equally the stamp of true talent.

If, during the twenty-five years which have followed the publication of M. Burtin's work, there has not appeared any geological work, which can be compared to his, the cause must undoubtedly be sought for in the political situation in which the country has been.-Who does not indeed know that calm and stability are as necessary for scientific studies, as for the speculations of commerce and industry? We do not therefore find, in the archives of geology relative to Belgium during this period of a quarter of a century, anything except a few small pieces of that veteran of Belgian geologists, M. Dethier, who has pointed out to the attention of naturalists the presence of extinct volcanoes in the Eifel, a country, now so celebrated in the records of science, and of which a part then belonged to our provinces ; some interesting remarks, by M. Baillet, upon the alum-mines of the province of Liege; on the total slip of a mountain of freestone, in the same province; upon the lead mines of Vedrin, of Dourbes, of Vierve, of Treigne (a province of Namur) and upon that of Sirault, (a province of Hainault) upon the mine of calamine of the Vieille-Montagne and upon the arsenical pyrites of Enghien; two memoirs on the mines of pit-coal of the province of Hainault have yet been published during the period of which we are now speaking, the one by the prefect of the department, the other by M. Gendebien; but considerations upon industry and commerce occupy more space than geological researches. It is also just to notice the publication, at Brussels, during this same period, of the systematic distribution of the productions of the mineral kingdom, presented by M. Launay, to the Academic Session of the 4th of June, 1788, of the Mineralogy of the Ancients, published afterwards by the same author, and of the Essay upon the Study of Mineralogy, by Rozin.

"Towards the end of 1808, M. D'Omalins, who had already published some remarks upon the minerals and the rocks of Belgium, brought out

under the modest title of An Essay, the geological description of the north of France. He there divides our land into seven formations, which he respectively designates, in going from the lower to the upper, by the names of trappeenère, ardoisière, bituménifère, du grès rouge, du calcaire horizontale, du grès blanc, du terrain meuble; he sketches rapidly the principal geographical and geognostical characters of these groups, and only leaves to those who shall seize the pencil after him, the care of shading this vast drawing. After having described the country of his birth, he undertook a geological map of that immense empire to which his country had been united, and presented, in 1813, to the Institute of France, the first results of this enormous labour, with a cut representing the structure of the lands, which extend from our Ardenne, to the mountains in the centre of France. The first who hastened to follow the steps of M. D'Omalins was M. Bouesnel. From 1811 to 1815 he published, successively, seven memoirs; upon the position of the beds (gisement) of the minerals in the department of Sambre and Meuse; upon the mines of iron of the middle Sambre and Meuse; upon the zinc-mine of the Vieille-Montagne; upon the pipe-clay of Ardenne; on the minerals produced from the copper-mine of Stolzembourg; upon the iron-ore in the forest of Soigné; and upon the mines of pit-coal of Flence. These useful labours, known to all the Belgian geologists, cause it to be deeply regretted that since 1815, their learned author has only published one single geological piece, that in which he described, in 1826, the calamine of Santour, near Philipville. We are now arrived at the epoch when natural science has taken, in Belgium, a flight which has been sustained and developed even to the present day. Previous to indicating the results which it has produced, we must go back to the causes which have excited it.

"From the first period of its restoration, the academy had resolved to bring forward for competition for all the provinces of Belgium, the description of their geological constitution, that of the species of minerals and fossils that they contain, with the mark of their localities, and the synonymy of the authors who have already written of them. Plainly put as it is, this question obliged all the competitors to follow the only route which could conduct them to satisfactory and durable theories in natural science; it only demanded from them the observation and classification of facts; for, said Cuvier, it is that which gives to natural science its peculiar character, and which, taking from the field which it traverses, every obstacle and every limit, promises certain success to every reasonable observer, who, not yielding himself to rash suppositions, follows the only route open to the human mind, in its actual state.' The creation of special professorships of mineralogy and geology in the three universities of Belgium, at the Athenæum of Namur, and at the School for Medicine, and the Museum of Brussels, has powerfully contributed to propagate the taste for these sciences among our young fellow-countrymen: the establishment of collections of minerals and rocks in these towns, has seconded this intellectual movement, in giving to the scholars, without trouble or expense to them, an idea of the wonders of nature, and in leading them to go to study and admire them in their true places. The government had also taken another step eminently fitted to attain the same end; it had directed the construction of a correct geological chart of Belgium; it had confided the compilation to MM. Van Breda and Van Gorum, who were to act in concert with MM. D'Omalins and Bouesnel, and who had charged with the determination of the limits of the lands two men well worthy of their confidence; MM. Schulz and Van Panhuys. The first died at an early age, leaving at least, as a proof of his talents in the graphic arts, a collection of views of the Grotto of Remouchamp. Nothing VOL. II. F 7

remains to us of the second but the remembrance of his learning, his zeal, and his accuracy, and the regret of having lost with him the nearly-complete geological charts of the provinces of Hainault and Namur. If the events of 1830, had not stopped the great work of which we have just spoken, Belgium would now possess, like England, and many parts of Germany, its Geological Chart, so impatiently expected by science and industry. The government has acknowledged the necessity of recommencing immediately, and of pursuing actively the execution of it; and if it has not yet adopted the measures most proper to attain this end, this delay can only be attributed to the difficulty of finding a sufficient number of able naturalists at this moment in which so many new institutions claim the co-operation of all the talent which Belgium possesses. Let us however hope that these difficulties are about to disappear with the circumstances which have given rise to them, and that we shall soon have the pleasure of hearing that the construction of our Geological map is recommenced with desirable activity.

"The impulse given by the academy, and by the government, to the study of the sciences of observation, and particularly of those whose object it is to make us acquainted with the composition of this little, but most interesting part of the crust of the globe occupied by Belgium, has been seconded by so great a number of naturalists, that I cannot venture to present here a complete enumeration of the works with which they have enriched science, I sball only name the principal, beginning with those which have been composed without the influence and the patronage of the academy, although their authors are almost all of the number of its fellow-labourers.

"In spite of the service which he had rendered by the publication of his Essay on the Geology of the North of France, M.D'Omalins thought that he had not yet done enough in favour of those of his fellow-citizens, who had taken him for their guide in their geological studies; and wishing to facilitate more and more the execution of the labours destined to complete his work, he published, in 1822, a Geological Map, composed in 1813, of France, the Low Countries, and some neighbouring states; in 1828, a collection of his memoirs corrected, and all new discoveries in the science, since the first edition, inserted; in 1831, his Elements of Geology, of which the edition has been so rapidly sold that he was obliged to bring out another in 1835; in the interval between the two publications of this work he has also published, in 1833, his Introduction to Geology, comprising remarks on astronomy, meteorology, and mineralogy.

"M. Van Breda, who has powerfully contributed to exploring the geology of Belgium, published in 1829, with Mr. Van Hees, an account of the bones of mammiferous animals found in the rock which forms the platform of St. Pierre, near Maestricht; he composed, in 1830, a memoir, not yet published, upon Flanders, and he would no doubt have communicated to us the result of his researches upon the fossils of some of our lands, and upon the bones buried in some of them, if the events of 1830 had not interrupted the course of his laborious and devoted studies.

M. Levy, who during his stay, alas! too short among us, has done much to propagate the taste for mineralogy, by the brilliant as well as profound manner in which he has professed it in the University of Liège, has only left as a remembrance to the country which had adopted him, a memoir upon various mineral substances, of which one is new,-the bed of lapis calaminaris, of Vieille Montagne.

'M. Schmerling has principally investigated that period so interesting in the natural history of the globe, characterized by the appearance of man upon its surface: the great work that he is publishing at this moment, upon