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|Spaltenumbruch|
paris academy of arts and sciences.
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Letter from Bonpland: his Botanical Discoveriesand Collections — Geological Fact — Encke’sComet — New method of Embalming — Habits ofthe Flamingo in Patagonia.
A letter, addressed to the president of theAcademy by Baron de
Humboldt, at Berlin, wasread at this sitting; it relates to the
Baron’sfriend and travelling companion, Bonpland, wholately contrived to obtain his release from yearsof captivity in Paraguay. “Above a twelve-month
had elapsed,” says the Baron, “since wereceived the first
intelligence of the arrival ofM. Bonpland in the province of the
Missions;but no letter from him had ever reached Europe,and his relatives at La Rochelle felt the sameanxiety on his account
which I did. At lengthI have had the happiness of receiving directnews from him through the care of Baron De-lessert. A letter
from Bonpland, dated BuenosAyres, the 7th May 1832, advises, that he hadreceived a few lines, which I had forwarded tohim at the
close of July last year, whilst resi-dent at Corrientes, near the confluence
of theParana and Paraguay, in January 1832. ‘Ihave
been crossed,’ says he, ‘in every labourI have projected
since I quitted the soil ofFrance. My ill stars have persecuted me forthe last fifteen years; but I am fain to believethat my fate
will prove more auspicious, nowthat I am out of Paraguay. Being once
morerestored to my friends, and having renewed myconnexion with civilized Europe, I have re-sumed my former labours in
natural historywith the greatest activity, in order that I may
|Spaltenumbruch| be enabled to return to my native country asquickly as possible. The
collections I formedin Paraguay and the Portuguese Missions oughtto have reached Buenos Ayres ever since themonth of March. I
look for them with thegreatest uneasiness, and shall forward them im-mediately upon their arrival, (which cannot belong delayed,)
to the care of the Minister ofForeign Affairs at Paris, praying him to
deliverover the cases to the Museum of Natural His-tory.
The Jardin des Plantes will receive, notonly what I
have recently collected, but suchherbaria as I have put together at
Corrientesand Buenos Ayres, and particularly my generalherbarium, and the geological series of the routewe pursued. To this
collection I shall add thespecimens of rocks which I have just
collected,as well as such as I may succeed in procuringduring my excursions to Monte Video, Maldo-nado, and Cabo-Santa-Maria. ***
Such arethe fertility of the soil and the richness of thevegetation in the Portuguese Missions, that Ithink it my duty to return
to that quarter, andI am willing to believe, that those who kindlytake an interest in my early return to Europe,will not
disapprove this trip. It would be cruelto leave this clime without adding
such a hostof remarkable productions to our botanicalstores. My collections will comprise two newspecies of Convolvuli, the roots of which possessall the healing qualities of
the jalap. I am inhopes that the School of Medicine will likewiseset some essays on foot as to the uses to whichthree
extremely bitter barks, derived from threenew species of a class belonging
to the familyof the Simaroubœœ, may
be put. These barksare of the flavour of the sulphate of quinine, andare used with the most salutary effect in cases ofdysentery
and other gastric derangements. If,whilst here, I could but receive proper
infor-mation on the efficacy of these barks, as it mightappear from trials in Paris, I would endeavourto secure a supply of them
for our hospitals be-fore my departure.’ *** I avail myself of
thisopportunity,” adds De Humboldt, “to commu-nicate a geological fact to the Academy, whichhas been known
here only within the last fewdays, and is connected with other facts,
whichhave been observed elsewhere in Europe, andeven in
the heart of Asia. M. Von Seckendorfhas discovered fragments of Grauwakke, accom-panied with petrifactions incrusted
in granite, inthe valley of Badan (of the Hartz), in a quarrynear the high road which leads to Hartzburg.M. Hartmann, the
translator of Lyell’s Geology,has just confirmed this observation.
— P.S. Atthe very moment of closing this letter, I receivethe very important information that Encke’sComet, of
three years and three tenths, wasobserved at Buenos Ayres in the beginning
ofJune 1832. M. Encke has heard from M. Ol-bers (of
Bremen), that M. Massotti (probablythe same gentleman who was formerly at
theMilan Observatory, and has published someworks on
planetary orbits), observed the cometat B. A. on the 2nd of June last, at
5h 30′ meantime, with 56° 37′
5″ of right ascension, and11° 20′ 1″ of southern
declension.—This obser-vation appears to differ not more than some
2′from the short-period comet, which M. Enckehas
calculated by anticipation.”
