Mais La Research Articles

Sade, Vanille et Manille: Urology and the Body of the Text

Sade, Vanille et ManilleUrology and the Body of the Text William Donoghue The malady that D. A. F. Sade complained about to his wife in the famous "La Vanille et la Manille" letter from the Bastille at the end of 1784 has never been satisfactorily identified. Sade thought his suffering was due to a congenital defect of some kind, while modern opinion has tended more towards the notion that he had venereal disease.1 In either case, scholars have had little to go on and have generally preferred to focus on Sade's mental rather than physical condition when interpreting his life and work.2 The body, however, has made a comeback in criticism in recent years, so it may be timely once again to ask not only what it was Sade suffered from, but how one is to locate the articulation of that complaint in his work. This is matter for a longer study—one that would continue the line Annie Le Brun first took on the body in Sade—but I would propose at least the following thoughts and ruminations on both the nature of the illness and how it intersects with Sade's writing. Sade was adamant that there was to be no autopsy performed on his body, so the only real information we have on his illness comes from the above letter. As always in Sade, pain and sexual release go together, but the detail and figural language of the Vanille et Manille letter remind us that this conjunction has a material rather than mental origin. Writing to his wife, he uses a bow and arrow metaphor to describe his painful ejaculations: ce n'est pas que l'arc ne soit tres tendu—oh ne vous fachés pas, il y aura sur cela tout ce qui pourra vois plaire—mais la fleche ne veut pas partir—et c'est ce qui tue—parcequ'on veut quelle parte—faute d'objet la tete va— Lacking a sexual "object" in prison, Sade goes slightly crazy with the time and effort needed to reach what are finally unnatural and [End Page 13] painful orgasms. Prison is bad, he says, because solitude gives strength only to ideas. And it is these "ideas"—the countless imagined scenarios of Sade's hallucinatory sexual prowess and pain—that fill and animate his writing.3 He continues: Mais j'ai parfaitement pris mon parti sur l'opiniatreté de cette fleche a ne vouloir point partir, d'autant plus que quand elle fait tant que de fendre les airs.—c'est veritablement une attaque d'epilepsie—et sans d'ennuiy[eu]ses precautions, je suis bien sur qu'on s'en douterait au faubourg St antoine ... There then follows the likeness, or metaphorization of the problem as thick cream that cannot escape through the narrow neck of a bottle, so that the thickness inflates "les vaisseaux" and tears them. Sade writes: si j'avais ces autres moyens que j'emploiye quand je suis libre—la fleche devanant moins retive et partant plus souvent, la crise de son depart ne seroit plus ni aussi violente, ni aussi dangereuse—car son danger s'explique par sa difficulté ... si la fleche, plus fluide, partait plus souvent; et d'apres cela moins d'episodes—et reversiblement episodes terribles efforts violens, si la fleche trop nourrie par son trop long sejour, est obligé de dechirer le carquois en le traversant— And we then get the even more striking rifle metaphor where Sade asks us to imagine a rifle with a bullet that grows larger in the firing chamber the longer it is not fired, until finally "elle faira crever le canon" (Œuvres 12, 449-50). This is the best Sade can do to tell us about what he suffers: he likens it to an attack of epilepsy. The notion put forth by Jean-Jacques Pauvert and du Plessix Gray, therefore, that what Sade called "un defaut de conformation" and likened to an epileptic seizure was really some kind of undiagnosed venereal disease runs up first against the fact that Sade himself, who had some experience in these matters, thought otherwise. Second, when Sade is freed from prison and...

Le projet Météosat, le CNES et l'Europe.

Dédiée aux sciences de l'atmosphère, au climat et à d'autres domaines connexes, tels que l'océanographie ou la glaciologie, La Météorologie, révisée par des pairs et publiée en français, s'adresse aux professionnels de la météo et du climat, aux enseignants, aux étudiants, aux amateurs et aux utilisateurs. La Météorologie a succédé en 1925 à l'Annuaire de la Société météorologique de France (1852-1924) qui avait lui-même succédé à l'Annuaire météorologique de la France (1849-1851).

THERMAL PROPERTIES OF RADISH AND ALFALFA SEEDS

ABSTRACTThermal conductivity, specific heat, and density were measured in a temperature range of 30C to 80C, and moisture content of 4.6% to 6.5% for radish seeds, 5.0% to 7.3% for alfalfa seeds typically encountered in the radio frequency dielectric heating for seeds. Thermal conductivity and specific heat were determined using a linear heat source probe and a modified calorimeter method, respectively. Thermal conductivity of radish and alfalfa seeds ranged from 0.050 to 0.091 W/mC (SD: 0.011) and 0.075 to 0.120 W/mC (SD: 0.012), respectively. Specific heat was in the range of 0.290 to 0.479 kJ/kgC (SD: 0.051) for radish seeds and 0.333 to 0.593 kJ/kgC (SD: 0.076) for alfalfa seeds. Density of radish and alfalfa seeds ranged from 684 to 675 kg/m3 (SD: 5.592) and 819 to 804 kg/m3 (SD: 8.921), respectively. Thermal diffusivity of the seeds was also determined, and the values varied from 25.13 × 10−8 to 34.47 × 10−8 m2/s for radish seeds and 27.14 × 10−8 to 29.73 × 10−8 m2/s for alfalfa seeds. Regression models were fitted to the experimental data for each thermal property, and showed second order polynomial relationships with temperature and moisture content.

SENSORY THRESHOLDS OF CONSISTENCY OF SEMILIQUID FOODS: EVALUATION BY SQUEEZING FLOW VISCOMETRY*

Identification of subtle textural differences or changes in foods in isolation has been a difficult task because they are usually accompanied by differences or changes in other sensory properties. Textural modification of semi liquid foods can easily be produced by mechanical means without affecting their taste and appearance. The changes can be then quantified using squeezing flow viscometry without introducing new uncontrolled modifications. Comparison of the measurements with sensory evaluations of the same samples can establish the threshold of sensory detection, at least in principle. To test this hypothesis, the consistency of practically intact mayonnaise, tomato paste, yogurt and strawberry jam of two commercial brands each were evaluated by squeezing flow viscometry using an Instron UTM. Other samples of the same brands were stirred mildly to modify their consistency and then compared with the undisturbed samples. The textural differences were expressed in terms of the apparent stress at three compressed specimen heights, and the residual stress after 60 and 120 s at the final height. Relatively large differences, as judged by these mechanical measures were also detected by an untrained sensory panel, but the ‘correct identifications’ never reached a 100%. In the case of the two different brands of yogurt, the panel failed to establish the existence of differences, which were clearly detected by the instrument. This suggests that not every difference, detectable instrumentally, has a corresponding sensory response. Although the number of results in this preliminary work was too small to establish the exact threshold for sensory detection, the methodology seems to be appropriate for such a purpose. This is because of the high reproducibility of the squeezing flow parameters and their sensitivity to even subtle difference in the tested specimens consistency.

A Standard Material For Stereological Correction

The determination of mineral liberation by microscopic examination of ore particle sections is stereologically biased. Procedures have been developed to correct this bias, but most have not been thoroughly tested. A standard material, a material of known particle composition and locking characteristics, would allow the proper testing of these procedures. In this work, a method was developed for the creation of a standard material consisting of two phases: glass and lead borate. Simple-locked particles and particles with granular and layered textures can be created. The standard material is versatile and easy to use.La détermination de la libération de minéraux par examen microscopique de sections de particule de minerai est biaisée stéréologiquement. Des procédures on été développées afin de corriger ce biais, mais la plupart n'ont pas été entièrement évaluées. Un matériel étalon, un matériel de composition de particules et de caractéristiques d'emprisonnement connues, permettrait une évaluation appropriée de ces procédures. Dans ce travail, on a développé une méthode pour la création d'un matériel étalon consistant de deux phases: verre et borate de plomb. Des particules à emprisonnement simple et des particules avec des textures granulaires et avec couches peuvent être créées. Le matériel étalon est versatile et facile à utiliser.

The Breton Notation in Ivrea LX

One of the problems in tracing the development of chant notations is the matter of their geographical distribution. As Janka Szendrei has made clear, maps that represent the geographical arrangement of chant notations are often problematic.' For example, the territory usually marked out as belonging to North neumes may appear pockmarked by areas where Lorraine, Milanese, Sankt Gall, Nonantolan, and notation were in use. The limitations of such a geographical representation become especially clear in any discussion of the development of one of the oldest types of chant notation, the one labelled by Michel Huglo as Breton notation. The observations presented here are excerpts from those made in my Master's Thesis (directed by Ruth Steiner), a study of notation in the 1 1 th-century, northern Italian manuscript given the call number LX in Ivrea's Biblioteca capitolare.2 As Michel Huglo has shown, this source is a gradual intended for use in Pavia.3 The notation of Ivrea LX, while recognizably Breton, has been influenced by elements of other, probably Italian, notations. Huglo summarizes his opinions about the gradual's notation thus: Sans aucun doute, le modele 6tait breton, mais la main qui copiait devait etre italienne.4 The purpose of

Emergence d'un nouveau systeme productif en agriculture

Les changements qui affectent le modèle de production agricole, dans le nouveau contexte économique, peuvent être caractéhsés par un renversement de quatre principes fondamentaux d'organisation. La séparation de la conception et de la production qui était le principe moteur du productivisme est relayé par l'adaptation de la production au marché avec une différenciation des produits (ce que nous désignons comme une logique de qualité). Mais la standardisation exige néanmoins une adaptation des techniques de la production de masse aux contextes locaux, notamment assurée par l'organisation professionnelle des producteurs. La transformation du métier exige de nouvelles formes d'organisation professionnelle. De nouvelles activitès ayant pour base les exploitations agricoles peuvent, dans certains cas, s'inscrirent dans une nouvelle vitalité des zones rurales.Issues of innovation in the agricultural sector arise from the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, the accompanying reform of socio‐structural policies, the establishment of an agri‐environmental policy and the adoption of quality indicators based on the geographic origin of production. This paper deals with the shift in management principles and the transformation of systems of innovation. This transformation is described as a shift from a productivist logic (Fordism in agriculture) to a logic of quality that takes into account the diversity of demand and the opportunities linked to the rural location of production. The evolution towards precision agriculture is contributing to this shift. This new logic of production harms, to some extent, the professional organisation of farmers. The paper uses a schematic analysis of the old and emergent production models to show the relationships between the old and new logic of organisation.Fordist principles, especially the separation of design and production, are generally standard in agri‐food production systems. But agriculture is characterised by land‐based production and a family workforce that leads to a specific role for the professional organisation of farmers. After an analysis of this professional and productivist model, we show how the analysis leads to a structural crisis. We focus mainly on the endogenous mechanisms of a quality crisis and its contribution to a professional crisis. However, the professional crisis is a different type compared to the tensions that appear in Fordist labour management. At this level, the analogy with Fordism is not much help.We use four principles that are generally used in the literature, to describe an alternative productive system. The main features of organisational change in agriculture can be integrated into this model. Nevertheless, in agriculture, the new principles seem to correspond to a rather wide variety of organisations. It is not easy to predict the consequences for rural employment from this agricultural model of production change.

Mainstream Neglect of Sexual Harassment as a Social Problem

Abstract. Coverage of sexual harassment was analyzed through articles published in twenty journals between 1986 and 1994. analysis covered 914 issues and over 4,500 articles from Canada and the US. Results showed a clear neglect of the topic in the mainstream, while sexual harassment articles appeared almost exclusively in gender-based journals. Androcentric biases and traditional fears about claims-making activities are offered as reasons for this neglect. Some authors of published articles recalled gatekeeping by the reviewers/editors of the mainstream journals. Others admitted to avoiding the mainstream themselves. dangers involved in covering sexual harassment solely through gender-based journals are highlighted. Resume. Les reportages sur le harassement sexuel ont ete analyses dans les articles publies dans vingt revues entre 1986 et 1994. L'analyse porte sur 914 numeros de revue et plus de 4500 articles publies au Canada et aux Etats-Unis. Les resultats montrent une negligence evidente de ce sujet dans les publications d'interet general, mais la question du harassement sexuel est debattue presqu'exclusivement dans les revues feministes. On suggere ici que la raison de cette negligence se trouve dans les partis-pris androcentriques et la peur traditionelle pour les sujets contentieux. Certains auteurs d'articles publies mentionnent le role de triage exerce par les critiques et les editeurs des revues d'interet general. D'autres reconnaissent avoir evite eux-memes ce genre de publications. Finalement on met en evidence le danger de la negligence et le probleme de limiter les articles sur le harassement sexuelaux publications feministes. Introduction This paper explores the response of mainstream social sciences to sexual harassment as a social problem. First, social problematization and the role of gender in this process are discussed. Then, the sexual harassment literature is reviewed. Third, discrepancies between mainstream versus gender-based coverage of this problem is compared and reasons and implications are explored. Although there are variations, early definitions of social problems entail 1. objective situations of social disorganization, 2. social values of a sizable population endangered by this disorganization, and 3. recognition of the need for social action (Laskin, 1964; Freeman and Jones, 1973). Social problems hinder personal goals and frustrate people in their prevailing relations (Raab and Selznick, 1959; Merton and Nisbet, 1961). above criteria explicitly assume the factual nature of social problems. Implicitly, it is expected that such problems will summon social scientific attention. In Laskin's (1964: 9) words, The problem could not be too severe if not much is written on it; it is likely to be severe if a great deal is written on it. Other views on social problems emphasize the social construction aspect that earlier definitions had missed (Spector and Kitsuse, 1977). Constructionism underscores the socially fabricated nature of social reality as opposed to assessment of facts devoid of their social meanings. More recent approaches to social problems also take into account the power of some groups in the claims-making activities. Even the so called neutrality of academics as observers within the claims-making process is questioned (Gordon, 1993; Holstein and Miller, 1993; Smith, 1990). The days when we could naively assume that knowledge and truth presented themselves in unadulterated form to scholars who simply and neutrally recorded the phenomena around them are long since past (Spender, 1981: 193). Gillespie and Leffler (1987: 491) poignantly show the road blocks set against social problem claimants when they receive more critical scrutiny than those in favour of the [status quo]. Using sexual harassment as a case in point, the authors demonstrate how methodology (generalizability, operational definitions, etc.) can be used as an intellectual weapon to scrutinize and even alter the nature of the problem, which eventually gets reflected in the literature (Gillespie and Leffler, 1987: 498). …

Gender and Faculty Pay in Canada

Abstract. Analysis of a 1986 survey of Canadian university faculty shows that the overall in pay is $8,500 per year. Accounting for male faculty's being older, on average, and level of highest degree, the -- our estimate of discrimination -- is $4,910 per year. Discriminatory processes of promotion account for much of the gap. In addition, the is much greater for full professors than for women at lower ranks. Universities and disciplines differ considerably in pay, but the uneven distribution of women among institutions and disciplines does not disadvantage women. Also, research productivity has little impact on pay or the gap. The findings are consistent with a bureaucratic model of pay determination, rather than human capital and segmentation approaches. Resume. Un sondage des professeurs universitaires au Canada en 1986 montre un ecart de 8 500$ par annee antre les salaires moyens des femmes et des hommes. Tenant compte de l'age et du niveau du diplome le plus avence, notre calcul de l'effet de descrimination est de 4 910$ par annee. L'ecart est beaucoup plus grand pour les professeurs titulaires que pour les niveaux inferieurs. Les universites et les disciplines ont differents niveaux de salaire, mais la distribution des femmes et des hommes parmi les universites et les disciplines ne desavantage pas les femmes. En plus, la productivite des chercheurs n'a qu'un effet faible sur les salaires et sur l'ecart entre les femmes et les hommes. Ces resultats soutiennent un modele bureaucratique de la determination des salaires, plutot que les modeles fondes sur les concepts du captial humain ou sur la segmentation. Introduction The gender gap in pay results from a combination of institutional factors, such as differences in the representation of women in occupations and industries and in the prevalence of part-time employment, and in individual differences in education and training, seniority, and so on. Even after accounting for the skills and other characteristics of workers, occupations employing larger proportions of women tend to pay lower wages (England, et al., 1988; Fox and Fox, 1986; Stanek-Kilbourne, et al., 1994; Tolbert, 1986). Because of the complexity of the occupational structure and the strong relationships between the characteristics of employers and individuals, case studies of relatively homogeneous work environments can provide important insights into the mechanisms of pay determination that are obscured in broader studies of the labour force. This article presents such a case study of the pay of full-time university faculty in Canada. The relatively similar bureaucratic structures of universities and the national market for academic labour produce uniformity in both general patterns and differences in pay. Relative to employment in private industries dominated by large firms, full-time academic work in universities has a highly standardized, very flat rank structure (essentially three ranks) and a fairly uniform structure of faculties and departments. Academic employment is segmented along both organizational and occupational lines. Even within provinces, universities have their own pay structure, and the unions and associations representing faculty are also independent. As a result, there are, potentially, pay differences between individual universities, related to their size, prestige, and historical experience; and between universities in different provinces. Simultaneously, university faculty are segmented into many academic specialties whose work is not interchangeable. While our main concern in this paper is with the effect of on pay, measuring and interpreting the impact of requires a model of faculty wage structure that explains pay differences in general. In the next section, we discuss the models, then we present a statistical analysis of faculty pay, based on a 1986 survey of Canadian faculty, conducted for Professor Jos Lennards by the Institute for Social Research at York University. …

The Integration of Visible Minorities in Contemporary Canadian Society

Abstract. Using the 1991 Census Public Use Sample, this study examines the ethnic variations in education, occupation, and income and the connections between these dimensions of socioeconomic status. Some European groups have attained income parity even if their educational levels are much lower than the average of the total population. Though visible minorities tend to have a higher level of education, most of them are still under-represented in high status occupations and have incomes lower than what their educational and occupational achievements would merit. Blacks and South Asians suffer the most in income inequality. This study also reveals that various minority groups face different problems in their integration into Canadian society. Resume. A base des donnees d'echantillon du recensement 1991, nous examinons les variations entre groupes ethniques par rapport a l'education, le statut professionnel et le revenu. Certains groupes europeens ont atteint le revenu moyen de l'ensemble de la population en depit des desavantages considerables en education. Les groupes ayant un status de minorite visible ont des avantages en education, mais la plupart sont sous-representes aux plus hauts statuts professionnels et ils ont des revenus moyens inferieurs a ce que leur education et statut professionnel prediraient. Ceux de race noire et les asiatiques du sud ont les statuts les plus inferieurs. Cette etude indique que les divers groupes minoritaires font face a des differents problemes par rapport a l'integration dans la societe canadienne. Two hypotheses have been advanced to explain ethnic stratification in Canada. The first is the ethnically blocked thesis, introduced first in Porter's The Vertical Mosaic (1965), which considers ethnicity as an important factor in Canadian class structure. In this view, the socioeconomic achievement of members in an ethnic group is related to their entrance status when they immigrated to Canada. An entrance status inferior to that of the charter groups may be intensified by the ethnic affiliation of the members. Ethnic affiliation may restrain the status aspirations and achievement motivations of the members of the ethnic group. As a consequence, they may have limited educational qualifications and may find themselves in a segmented labour market (Blishen 1970; Porter 1975). This view has come under attack in the past two decades following some empirical studies. On the basis of the finding that ethnic occupational dissimilarity decreased over 1931-1971, Darroch (1979) questioned the assumption that the entrance status of an immigrant group may lead to permanent stratification linked to ethnicity. Some studies also indicate that any privileged position the charter groups may have historically had in the occupational structure was being effectively challenged by other European ethnic groups (Pineo and Porter 1985; Tepperman 1975: 149-152). Furthermore, some authors have suggested that simplistic claims of ethnic identity as a hindrance to social mobility must be rejected because the causal relationship between ethnic identity and social mobility is minimal or non-existent (Isajiw, Sever, and Driedger 1993). The second hypothesis, the discrimination thesis, attributes the inferior position of some ethnic minority groups to the socioeconomic structure of the society. In this view, unequal relations arise that systematically discourage and exclude some minorities from fully participating in mainstream society. For example, visible minorities may be put into an inescapable socioeconomic trap because of racial prejudice and discrimination such that access to the full range of job opportunities and other socioeconomic resources of the country may be limited for them. Often they are forced to stay at the periphery of the civic, political, and economic centres of society (Driedger 1989; Wiley 1967). Although passage of human rights legislation and official promotion of multiculturalism are aimed at eliminating structural discrimination in Canadian society, it is believed that discrimination persists in institutional settings and inter-personal relations. …

Gino Severini and Futurist Ideography: Danzatrice = Mare

Discussing the role of plastic analogy in Futurist painting in 1913, Gino Severini cautioned his audience to beware of mimesis in particular. I1 ne s'agit pas de representer en vitesse, he maintained, mais la vitesse de l'automobile (It is not a question of representing a speeding automobile but rather the speed of the automobile).1 Whereas individuals such as Francesco Meriano were committed to total in their works, Severini and most of his colleagues refused to divorce themselves from the world around them.2 Writing in the Mercure de France three years later, the artist repeated his earlier words and explained that the automobile's speed should be translated into dynamic ideas, emotions, and/or moods on the canvas. Par consequent, notre realisme, tout en etant le resultat de l'element idee et de l'element experience sensorielle, et bien qu'il soit exprime souvent par des formes geometriques, n'est pas une abstraction (Although our realism is the product of two elements: ideas and sensorial experience, often being expressed by geometric forms, it is therefore not an abstraction).3 While Severini clearly did not consider his art to be abstract, neither was he particularly willing to call it concrete. On the one hand, since it involved

Poems Without Endings

THE BIENNIAL CHAUCER LECTURE The New Chaucer Society Seventh International Congress August 6-11, 1990 The University ofKent CANTERBURY The Biennial Chaucer Lecture Poems Without Endings John Burrow University ofBristol T.COU.ECTED WORKS of Chaucer contain several "poems with: out endings" - poems, that is to say, which Chaucer began but appears never to have got to the end of. Chief among these are The House a/Fame, The LegendofGood Women, and two Canterbury tales, those of the Cook and the Squire. In this lecture I want to consider how scribes, editors, and readers have received these apparently incomplete texts. I say "apparently incomplete" because in recent times many Chaucer scholars have come to regard them as being in fact complete. But I reserve that controversial question for the latter part of this survey. For the moment let me take them for what they certainly appear to be- poems without endings. There is, to begin with, the question of how such fragmentary texts might come to be published at all-under what circumstances, that is, they may have been first copied and put into circulation. About thisscholarscan only speculate, but, in the case of the two Canterbury tales at least, a possible answer is ready to hand. It is easy to imagine that Chaucer's literary executors, piecing together whatever they could find of what was evidently work in progress, would have included even those tales which Chaucer, for whatever reason, had left unfinished when he died. Such was indeed common practise in the Middle Ages: to publish texts left fragmentary at the time of an author's death, with or without continuations by other hands. This is the case, according to early witnesses, with the Perceval of Chretien de Troyes, the Tristan of Gottfried von Strassburg, the Roman de 17 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER la Rose of Guillaume de Lorris, the Miroir de Mariage ofDeschamps, and John Lydgate's version of the Secreta Secretorum. Thus Gottfried's Tristan breaks off in the middle of a speech, and his continuator, Ulrich von Tiirheim, laments the fact as follows: "We have suffered a great loss, and to the great detriment ofthis story, which has been left uncared for, now that master Gottfried who began this book is dead."1 It appears that works by named vernacular masters such as Gottfried, or Chaucer, were more likely to be publishedposthumouslyin their unfinishedstate than were the works ofanonymousorrun-of-the-millpoets.2 Was it perhaps a peculiar privilege ofthe acknowledged auctor to have such unfinished work copied and read? In hisArsversificatoria, Matthew ofVend6me includes in his list ofthe ways poems end what he calls the "preoccupata conclusio." This occurs fre­ quently among the auctores, he says, when death anticipates their conclu­ sion; but the result, he adds, is better called a terminatio than a true conc/usio. As an example ofsuch an abrupt and accidental "termination," he cites the last line of Lucan's unfinished Pharsa/ia. 3 The Achzl/eis of Statius was another text familiar in the schools which terminated in this fashion, partway through its second book. But not all such fragmentary texts were cut short by death. Dante's unfinished Convivio may well have circulated during the author's lifetime: Villani says that it remained unfinished because death supervened, but Boccaccio put its fragmentary state down to "mutamento di proposito o... mancamento di tempo," a change ofmind or lack oftime.4 In the case of 1 Cited by Michael S. Batts, Gottfried von Strassburg (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1971), p. 31. Compare Gerbert's continuation of Chretien's Perceval: "Ce nous dist Crestiens de Troie, I Qui de Percheval comencha, / Mais la mors qui l'adevancha / Ne Ii laissa pas traire affin"; Gerbert de Montreuil, La Continuation de Perceval, ed. Mary Williams, CFMA 28, 50 (Paris: Librairie Honore Champion, 1922, 1925), lines 6984-87. AlsoJean de Meun's contin­ uation of the Lorris Roman de la Rose, ed. Felix Lecoy, CFMA 92, 95, 98 (Paris: Librairie Honore Champion, 1965, 1966, 1970), lines 10517-60. The Mirozrde manage of Deschamps breaks off abruptly, with an explanatory rubric: "De la matiere de ce livre ne traicta l'acteur plus avant...

Quels ouvrages souterrains pour le 21e`me sie`cle?: Which underground works for the twenty-first century?

Apre`s un bref rappel de l'histoire des ouvrages souterrains de l'antiquitéa`nos jours, les auteurs s'attachenta`l'équilibre entre l'offre et la demande d'ouvrages souterrains. La demande vient de la maitrise de l'e´nergie, de la sauvegarde de l'environnement, de la de´fense civile et du manque d'espace au centre des villes. Les inge´nieurs portent la responsabilite´de rendre l'offre attrayante graˆce aux innovations, mais la base de l'offre est toujours la Nature. La pre´vision des travaux souterrains pour les prochaines de´cennies est divise´e en deux parties. D'abord une extrapolation des ouvrages classiques: tunnels de circulation plus longs et plus profonds sous les montagnes et sous les de´troits, cavernes de porte´e plus grande, recours beaucoup plus large au sous-sol dans les villes. En s'e´cartant davantage des ouvrages classiques, des cavernes vont accueillir des re´servoirs infe´rieurs de centrales de pompage, des re´servoirs pour un stockage saisonnier d'eau chaude, des de´chets radioactifs, etc. Beaucoup d'installations dangereuses devraienteˆtre mises en souterrain, et au voisinage des villes le volume entier de collines ou de plateaux pourraiteˆtre syste´matiquement lotia`trois dimensions pour des usages varie´s. Ainsi le rythme de la construction ne devrait pas aller en diminuant.

Anticipations of Natural Philosophy Maupertuis

HAVING lately had occasion to examine the works of Maupertuis I, like Prof. Jevons, was struck by meeting with anticipatory glimpses of the modern theory of Natural Selection. The passage, given almost word for word by Lord Bolingbroke in the quotation made by Prof. Jevons, occurs somewhat incidentally in two parts of Maupertuis' writings; in the memoir alluded to (“Les Loix du Mouvement et du Repos, déduites d'un principe métaphysique”); and in the “Essay de Cosmologie,” into which the memoir was expanded five years later (1751). In both these works Maupertuis is chiefly concerned with establishing his well-known metaphysico-mechanical principle of “The Least Action” (“La moindre Quantité d'Action”); and with deducing therefrom proof of the existence of God. But the doctrine of “The Survival of the Fittest” is more clearly discernible, and more than incidentally referred to, in his small physiological treatise, “Venus physique” (Œuvres, tome ii. ed. 1756). The whole of this work is not wanting in interest, but as bearing specially on the subject in question, I would mention the third, fifth, and last chapters of the second part Chapter III. is entitled “Production de nouvelles especes.” In it the most pronounced passage is perhaps the following: “Mais la sage Nature, par le dégoût qu'elle a inspiré pour ces défauts, n'a pas voulu qu'ils se perpetuassent; chaque père, chaque mère fait de son mieux pour les éteindre; les beautés sout plus sûrement héréditaires; la taille, et la jambe, que nous admirons, sont l'ouvrage de plusieurs générations, où l'on s'est appliquè à les former.” Chapter V., called an “Essay d'explication desphénomènes précénts,” is an attempt to explain the physiological processes at work in the preservation of the best types, and in the production of new forms. On the efficacy of these processes the author says: “L'expérience pourroit, peut-être, éclaircir ce point; si l'on essayoit pendant longtemps de mutiler quelques animaux de génération en génération, peut-être verroiton les parties rétranchées, diminuer peu à peu; peut-être verroit-on les à la fin s'anéantir.” The last chapter contains a summary of the whole work, and a number of “Doules et Questions,” propounded by the author. In one of these he asks, “Cet instinct des animaux, qui leur fait rechercher ce qui leur convient, et fuir ce qui leur nuit, n'appartient-il point aux plus petites parties dont l'animal est formé?” In another question Maupertuis puts forward a bold hypothesis as to the influence which the decomposed material of the dead animal organism might exercise upon plants, and through them upon the structure and character of the living organism.

On a Split Boulder in Little Cumbra, Western Isles

Split erratic blocks are of frequent occurrence in Switzerland. The only explanation of this phenomenon which I have met with is that of M. Charpentier, in his “Essai sur les Glaciers.” Speaking of the blocks, he says, “Quelques uns sont fendus, mais la direction des fentes prouve jusques à évidence que les ruptures sont le résultat d'une chute et nullement d'un choc horizontal” (p. 180). M. Charpentier offers no conjecture as to the height from whence the blocks could have fallen; but where there is no superincumbent precipice of rock near, it must have been from one of ice. Indeed, I may say that I obtained proof that such was the case; for upon examining the fragments which lay at the foot of the escarpment of ice which terminates the Glacier of Grindelwald, I observed one which, from the freshness of the fracture, I concluded must have fallen very shortly before my visit, and obviously from the surface of the glacier. Such blocks occur occasionally in the basin of the Clyde, in situations where there is no adjoining height from which they could have fallen,—a circumstance which I can only account for by supposing the former existence, in the same localities, of ice in the shape of glaciers, icebergs, or coast-ice. I may add that some of the split boulders are also scratched, exhibiting additional proofs of glacial action. To one of these blocks I wish to call the attention of the Society, on account of the peculiarity of the