PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON

From November 19, 1857 to April 14, 1859 inclusive.

(BEING A CONTINUATION OF THE SERIES ENTITLED

"ABSTRACTS OF THE PAPERS COMMUNICATED TO
THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON/')

VOL.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,

RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
MDCCCLIX.

CONTENTS
VOL. IX.

On the Anatomy of Tridacna. By J. D. Macdonald, Esq page 1

Summary of a paper on the Spinal Cord as a leader for Sensibility
and Voluntary Movements. By E. Brown-Se'quard, M.D 1

Summary of a paper on the resemblance between the effects of the
section of the Sympathetic Nerve in the Neck and of a transverse
section of a lateral half of the Spinal Cord. By E. Brown-Sequard,
M.D 1

Experimental Researches on the Influence of Efforts of Inspiration
on the Movements of the Heart. By E. Brown-Se'quard, M.D. . . 1

Summary of a paper on the Influence of Oxygen on the vital proper-
ties of the Spinal Chord, Nerves, and Muscles. By E. Brown-
Sequard, M.D 2

Summary of a paper on the power possessed by Motor and Sensitive
Nerves of retaining their vital properties longer than Muscles,
when deprived of Blood. By E. Brown-Sequard, M.D 2

Ocular Spectres, Structures, and Functions, Mutual Exponents. By
James Jago, A.B., M.B., &c 2

On Hourly Observations of the Magnetic Declination made by Capt.
Maguire, R.N., and the Officers of H.M. Ship < Plover,' in 1852,
1853, and 1854, at Point Barrow, on the Shores of the Polar Sea.
By Major-General Edward Sabine, Treas. and V.P.R.S. &c 2

On the Expansion of Wood by Heat. By J. P. Joule, LL.D.,
F.R.S. &c 3

On the Partitions of the r-Pyramid, being the first class or r-gonous
#-edra. By the Rev. T. P. Kirkman, M.A., F.R.S \. . . . 4

Researches on the Cinchona Alkaloids. By W. Bird Herapath, M.D.

Lond., F.R.S.E 6

V
Address of the President 24

02

81

IV

Obituary Notices of Deceased Fellows : —

Henry James Brooke page 41

M. Augustin Cauchy 44

The Rev. William Daniel Conybeare 50

Dr. Marshall Hall 52

John Ayrton Paris, M.D 56

The Rev. William Scoresby, D.D 57

M. Thenard 60

On the Chemical Action of Water on Soluble Salts. By Dr. J. H.
Gladstone, F.R.S 66

On the Molecular Properties of Antimony. By George Gore, Esq. 70

Researches on the Structure and Homology of the Reproductive
Organs of the Annelids. By Thomas Williams, M.D., F.L.S.,
Physician to the Swansea Infirmary 72

Observations on the Poison of the Upas Antiar. By Professor Albert
Kolliker, of Wiirzburg 72

On some Physical Properties of Ice. By John Tyndall, Ph.D., F.R.S. 76

Remarks upon the Magnetic Observations transmitted from York
Fort in Hudson's Bay, in August 1857, by Lieut. Blakiston, of the
Royal Artillery. By Major-General Sabine, R.A., Treas. and
V.P.R.S

On the Isolation of the Radical, Mercuric Methyl. By George
Bowdler Buckton, Esq., F.R.S 91

On Certain Formulse for Differentiation. By Arthur Cayley, Esq.
F.R.S 93

On the Electric-Conducting Power of the Metals. By Augustus
Matthiessen, Ph.D 95

On the Thermo-electric Series. By Augustus Matthiessen, Ph.D. 97

A Memoir on the Theory of Matrices. By Arthur Cayley. Esq.,
F.R.S . 100

A Memoir on the Automorphic Linear Transformation of a Bipartite
Quadric Function. By Arthur Cayley, Esq., F.R.S 101

On some of the Products of the Destructive Distillation of Boghead
Coal.— Part H. By C. Greville Williams, Esq., Lecturer on Che-
mistry in the Normal College, Swansea 102

On the Electrical Nature of the Power possessed by the Actiniae of
our Shores. By Robert McDonnell, M.D., M.R.I.A., Lecturer on
Anatomy and Physiology in the Carmichael School of Medicine,
Dublin 103

On the Physical Structure of the Old Red Sandstone of the County
of Waterford, considered with relation to Cleavage, Joint Surfaces,
and Faults. By the Rev. Samuel Haughton, Fellow of Trinity
College, Dublin, and Professor of Geology 108

Memoire sur les Limites de la Pression dans les Machines travaillant
a la detente du Maximum d'effet; et sur Pinfluence des Espaces

libres dans lea Machines a un seul Cylindre. Par M. Mahistre,
Professeur a la Faculty des Sciences de Lille page 110

On the Action of Nitrous Acid on Aniline. By A. Matthiessen, Ph.D. 118

On the Existence of Amorphous Starch in a new Tuberaceous Fungus.
By Frederick Currey, Esq., M.A 119

On the Singular Solutions of Differential Equations. By the Rev.
Robert Carmichael, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin 123

On the daily Fall of the Barometer at Toronto. By Thomas Hopkins,
Esq 124

Researches on the Poison-apparatus in the Actiniadae, By Philip
Henry Gosse, Esq., F.R.S : 125

An Account of some recent Researches near Cairo, undertaken with
the view of throwing light upon the Geological History of the
Alluvial Land of Egypt. — Part II. By Leonard Horner, Esq.,
V.P.R.S 128

On the Functions of the Tympanum. By James Jag^o, A.B. Cantab.,
M.B. Oxon., Physician to the Royal Cornwall Infirmary 134

Remarks on the interior Melting of Ice. By Professor William
Thomson, F.R.S. In a Letter to Professor Stokes, Sec.R.S 141

On the Practical Use of the Aneroid Barometer as an Orometer. By
Captain W. S. Moorsom, Member of the Institution of Civil En-
gineers 143

The Bakerian Lecture. — On the Stratifications and Dark Bands in
Electrical Discharges as observed in Torricellian Vacuums. By
John P. Gassiot, Esq., V.P.R.S 146

Notes of Researches on the Poly- Ammonias. By Aug. W. Hofmann,
Ph.D., F.R.S. &c 150

Description of the Skull and Teeth of the Placodus laticeps, Ow., with
indications of other new Species of Placodus, and evidence of the
Saurian Nature of that Extinct Genus. By Prof. Richard Owen,
F.R.S. &c : 157

On the probable Origin of some Magnesian Rocks. By T. Sterry
Hunt, Esq., of the Geological Survey of Canada 159

A Fourth Memoir upon Quantics. By Arthur Cayley, Esq., F.R.S. 165

A Fifth Memoir upon Quantics. By Arthur Cayley, Esq., F.R.S 166

On the Tangential of a Cubic. By Arthur Cayley, Esq., F.R.S 167

On the Constitution of the Essential Oil of Rue. By C. Greville
Williams, Esq., Lecturer on Chemistry in the Normal College,
Swansea 167

On the Relative Power of Metals and their Alloys to conduct Heat.
By F. Grace Calvert, Esq., F.C.S., M.R.Acad. of Turin ; and
Richard Johnson, Esq., M. Phil. Soc. of Manchester 169

On the Surface which is the Envelope of Planes through the Points of
an Ellipsoid at right angles to the Radius Vectors from the Centre.
By Arthur Cayley, Esq., F.R.S 171

VI

Some remarks on the Physiological Action of the Tanyhinia veneni-
fera. By Profs. A. Kolliker of Wiirzbuig, and E. Pelikan of St.
Petersburgh page 173

On Tangential Coordinates. By the Rev. James Booth, LL.D., F.R.S. 175

Extract of a Letter to Admiral FitzRoy, F.R.S., from Captain Pullen
of H.M.S. < Cyclops/ dated Aden, March 16, 1858 189

On the Stereomonoscope, a new Instrument by which an apparently
Single Picture produces the Stereoscopic Illusion. By A. Claudet,
Esq., F.R.S 194

On the Differential, Stethpphone, and some new Phenomena observed
by it. By S. Scott Alison, M.D., Assistant Physician to the Hos-
pital for Consumption 196

On the Stratification of Vesicular Ice by Pressure. By Prof. William
Thomson, F.R.S. In a Letter to Prof. Stokes, Sec. R.S 209

An Account of the Weather in various localities during the 15th of
March, 1858 (the day of the Great Solar Eclipse) ; together with
Observations of the Effect produced by the Diminution of Light
upon the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms. By Edward Joseph
Lowe, Esq., F.R.A.S., F.G.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S. &c 213

On the Structure and Functions of the Hairs of the Crustacea. By
Campbell De Morgan, Esq 215

Note on the Measurement of Gases in Analysis. By A. W. William-
son, Ph.D., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in university College,
and W. J. Russell, Ph.D 218

On the Theory of Internal Resistance and Internal Friction in Fluids ;
and on the Theories of Sound and of Auscultation. By Robert
Moon, Esq., M.A., late Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge 223

On the Influence of Heated Terrestrial Surfaces in disturbing the
Atmosphere. By Thomas Hopkins, Esq 227

Notes of Researches on the Poly- Ammonias. By A. W. Hofinann,
LL.D., F.R.S.— -No. H. Action of Chloroform upon Aniline 229

Note sur un Organe, place" dans le Cordon Spermatique, et dont Pex-
istence n'a pas ete signaled par les Anatomistes. Par F. Giraldes,
Professeur Agrege de la Faculte* de Medecine, &c 231

On Chondrosteus, an Extinct Genus of Fish allied to the Sturionid8B.
By Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart., F.R.S 233

On the Resistance of Tubes to collapse. By William Fairbairn, Esq.,
C.E., F.R.S., &c . 234

On some Remarkable Relations which obtain among the Roots of
the Four Squares into which a Number may be divided, as com-
pared with the corresponding Roots of certain other Numbers.
By the Rt. Hon. Sir Frederick Pollock, F.R.S., Lord Chief Baron 238

Observations on the Mer de Glace.— Part I. Bv John Tyndall,
Ph.D., F.R.S. &c. . 245

Vll

Annual General Meeting for the Election of Fellows page 247

On the formation of Continuous Tabular Masses of Stony Lava on
steep slopes ; with Remarks on the Mode of Origin of Mount Etna,
and the Theory of " Craters of Elevation." By Sir Charles Lyell,
F.R.S. &c 248

On some Thermo-dynamic Properties of Solids. By J. P. Joule,
LL.D., F.R.S. &c 254

On the Thermal Effect of drawing out a Film of Liquid. By Prof.
William Thomson, F.R.S., &c., being extract of two Letters to
J. P. Joule, LL.D., F.R.S., dated February 2 and 3, 1858 255

On the Logocyclic Curve, and the Geometrical origin of Logarithms.
By the Rev. J. Booth, LL.D., F.R.S 256

On the Problem of Three Bodies. By Charles James Hargreave,
LL.D., F.R.S 265

Description of some Remains of a Gigantic Land-Lizard (Megalania
prisca, Ow.) from Australia. By Prof. Richard Owen, F.R.S. . . 273

Notes of Researches on the Poly- Ammonias. — No. III. Contributions
towards the History of the Diamides ; Cyanate and Sulpho-cyanide
of Phenyl. By A. W. Hofmann, Ph.D., F.R.S , 274

Notes of Researches on the Poly- Ammonias. — No. IV. Action of
Bibromide of Ethylene upon Aniline. By A. W. Hofmann. Ph.D.,
F.R.S I . .' 277

Notes of Researches on the Poly- Ammonias. — No. V. Action of
Bichloride of Carbon on Aniline. By A. W. Hofmann. Ph.D.,
F.R.S : .284

Researches on the Phosphorus-Bases. By A. W. Hofmann. Ph.D.,
F.R.S ; ' .' 287

Researches on the Phosphorus-Bases. — No. II. Action of Bisulphide
of Carbon on Triethylphosphine. By A. W. Hofmann, Ph.D.,
F.R.S 290

Contributions towards the History of the Monamines Bv A W
Hofmann, Ph.D., F.R.S ...'....' 293

Researches on the Action of Ammonia on Glyoxal. By Dr. H. Debus 297

An Experimental Inquiry into the alleged Sugar-formino- Function
of the Liver. By F. W. Pavy, M.D 300

On the Properties of Electro-deposited Antimony (continued). Bv
George Gore, Esq f 304

On the Action of Bile upon Fats ; with Additional Observations on
Excretme. By W. Marcet, M.D., F.R.S., Assistant Physician and
Lecturer on Chemistry to the Westminster Hospital 306

Further Remarks on the Organo-metallic Radicals, and Observations
more particularly directed to the isolation of Mercuric, Plumbic
and Stannic Ethyl. By George Bowdler Buckton, Esq., F.R.S. 309

Vlll

Preliminary Notice of Additional Researches on the Cinchona Alka-
loids.— Part III. By W. Bird Herapath, M.D. &c page 316

Sur la Relation entre les Oourants induits et le Pouvoir Moteur de
1'Electricite'. By Professor Carlo Matteucci of Pisa 321

On the Influence of the Gulf-stream on the Winters of the British
Islands. In a Letter from Professor Hennessy to Major-General
Sabine, V.P. and Treas. R.S « 324

On the Influence of Temperature on the Refraction of Light. By
Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S., and the Rev. T. P. Dale, M.A.,
F.R.A.S , 328

On the Adaptation of the Human Fye to varying Distances. By
Charles Archer, Esq., Surgeon, Bengal Army 331

On Curves of the Third Order. By the Rev. George Salmon, of
Trinity College, Dublin 333

Researches on the Foraminifera. — Part III. On the Genera Pene-
roplis, Operculina, and Amphistegina. By W. B. Carpenter, M.D.,
F.R.S. &c 334

Further Researches on the Grey Substance of the Spinal Cord. By
J. Lockhart Clarke, Esq., F.R.S 337

On some new Ethyl-compounds containing the Alkali-metals. By
J. A. Wanklyn, Esq 341

Note on Sodium-ethyl and Potassium-ethyl. By Edward Frankland,
Ph.D., F.R.S. 345

Experimental Inquiry into the Composition of some of the Animals
fed and slaughtered as Human Food. By J. B. Lawes. Esq.,
F.R.S., F.C.S., and J. H. Gilbert, Ph.D., F.C.S 348

Note on the Formation of the Peroxides of the Radicals of the
Organic Acids. By B. C. Brodie, F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry
in the University of Oxford 361

Notice of Researches on the Sulphocyanide and Cyanate of Naphtyl,
conducted by Vincent Hall, Esq. By A. W. Hoftnann, Ph.D.,
F.R.S. &c, .365

Preliminary Account of an Inquiry into the Functions of the Visceral
Nerves, with special reference to the so-called "Inhibitory Sys-
tem." By Joseph Lister, Esq., F.R.C.S. Eng. & Edin., Assistant
Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh ; in a Letter to Dr.
Sharpey, Sec. R.S 367

The Croonian Lecture.— On the Theory of the Vertebrate Skull. By
Thomas H. Huxley, Esq., F.R.S 381

Lppendix, containing
of General Sabine to the Committee. Communicated by order of
the President and Council . . . 457

IX

On the Changes produced in the proportion of the Red Corpuscles of
the Blood by the administration of Cod-Liver Oil. By Theophilus
Thompson, M.D., F.R.S page 474

Further Observations on the Power exercised by the Actiniae of our
Shores in killing their prey. In a Letter to W. Bowman, Esq.,
F.R.S., dated Oct. 25, 1858. By R. McDonnell, M.D 478

On the Digestive and Nervous Systems of Coccus hesperidum. By
John Lubbock, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S 480

Researches on the Phosphorus-Bases. — No. III. Phosphoretted
Ureas. By A. W. Hofmann, Ph.D., F.R.S 487

On the Deflection of the Plumb-line in India, caused by the Attraction
of the Himalaya Mountains and the elevated regions beyond, and its
modification by the compensating effect of a Deficiency of Matter
below the Mountain Mass. By the Venerable Archdeacon Pratt . . 493

On the Thermal Effects of Compressing Fluids. By J. P. Joule,
LL.D., F.R.S 496

Note on Archdeacon Pratt's paper on the Effect of Local Attraction
on the English Arc. By Captain Clarke, R.E 496

Address of the President 499

Obituary Notices of Deceased Fellows : —

Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, K.C.B 524

Robert Brown, D.C.L 527

Sir James MacGrigor, Bart., K.C.B 532

Hugh Lee Pattinson, Esq 534

The Very Rev. George Peacock, D.D 536

Major-General Sir William Reid, K.C.B 543

John Forbes Royle, M.D 547

Richard Horsman Solly, Esq 549

Thomas Tooke, Esq. 550

Benjamin Travers, Esq 551

Henry Warburton, Esq 555

Johannes Miiller 556

Address by the President, Dec. 9, 1858 564

Researches into the Nature of the Involuntary Muscular Tissue of
the Urinary Bladder. By George Viner Ellis, Esq., Professor of
Anatomy in University College, London 573

On the Ova and Pseudova of Insects. By John Lubbock, Esq.,
F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S 574

Extract of a Letter from Professor Lamont to Major-General Sabine,
Treas. and V.P.R.S., dated Munich, Dec. 9, 1858 584

Extract of a Letter from Professor Kreil of Vienna, to Major-Gene-
ral Sabine, Treas. and V.P.R.S., dated Nov. 26, 1858 585

Fossil Mammals of Australia (Part I.). Description of a mutilated
skull of a large Marsupial Carnivore (Thylacoleo Carnifex, Ow.),
from a conglomerate stratum, eighty miles S.W. of Melbourne,
Australia. By Professor R. Owen, F.R.S., &c 585

On the Nature of the Action of Fired Gunpowder. By Lynall Tho-
mas, Esq . 586

b

Letter to Dr. Sharpey, Sec. R.S., from Dr. Thomas Williams, F.R.S.,
dated Swansea, Dec. 12, 1858 page 589

A Sixth Memoir on Quantics. By Arthur Cayley, Esq., F.R.S 589

On the Mathematical Theory of Sound. By the Rev. S. Earnshaw. 590

Contributions towards the History of the Monamines. By A. W.
Hofinann, LL.D., F.R.S 591

On New Nitrogen Derivatives of the Phenyl- and Benzoyl-Series.
By P. Griess, Esq 594

On the Influence of the Ocean on the Plumb-line in India. By the
Rev. J. H. Pratt, Archdeacon of Calcutta 597

On the Embryogeny of Comatula Rosacea (Linck). By Wyville
Thomson, Esq., Professor of Geology in Queen's College, Belfast. 600

On the Stratifications in Electrical Discharges, as observed in Toricel-
lian and other Vacua. — Second Communication. By J. P. Gassiot,
Esq., V.P.R.S 601

Second Note on Ozone. By Thomas Andrews, M.D., F.R.S., and
P. G. Tait, M.A., F.C.P.S 606

Ice Observations. By David Walker, M.D., Surgeon and Naturalist
to the Arctic Discovery Expedition 609

Inquiries into the Phenomena of Respiration. By Edward Smith,
M.D., Assistant-Physician to the Hospital for Consumption,
Brompton 611

On the Effect of Pressure on Electric Conductibility in Metallic
Wires. In a Letter from M. Elie Wartmann of Geneva to Major-
General Sabine, Treas. and V.P.R.S 615

Notice of Researches on a New Class of Organic Bases, conducted by
Charles S. Wood, Esq. By A. W. Hofmann, LL.D., F.R.S 616

Rectification of Logarithmic Errors in the Measurements of Two
Sections of the Meridional Arc of India. In a Letter to Professor
Stokes, Sec. R.S. By Colonel Everest, F.R.S 620

On the Thermodynamic Theory of Steam Engines with dry saturated
Steam, and its application to practice. By W. J. Macquorn
Rankine, C.E., LL.D., F.R.S.S.L. & E., Pres. Inst. Eng. Scot.,
Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics in the Uni-
versity and College of Glasgow 626

On Platinized Graphite Batteries. By C. V. Walker, Esq., F.R.S.,
F.R.A.S., &c 628

On the Aquiferous and Oviductal Systems in the Lamellibranchiate
Mollusks. By George Rolleston, M.D., Lee's Reader in Anatomy,
and Charles Robertson, Esq., Curator of the Museum, Christ
Church, Oxford 633

On the Action of Nitric Acid and of Binoxide of Manganese and
Sulphuric Acid on the Organic Bases. By A. Matthiessen, Ph.D. 635

Experiments on the Action of Food upon the Respiration. By Ed-
ward Smith, M.D., LL.B., L.R.C.P., Assistant-Physician to the
Hospital for Consumption, Brompton 638

XI

Statement of Facts relating to the Discovery of the Composition of
Water by the Hon. H. Cavendish. In a Letter from J. J . Bennett,
Esq., F.R.S., to Sir B. C. Brodie, Bart., P.R.S., dated February
12, 1859 page 642

On the Influence of White Light, of the different Coloured Rays,
and of Darkness on the Development, Growth, and Nutrition of
Animals. By Horace Dobell, M.D., Licentiate of the Royal Col-
lege of Physicians, &c. &c 644

On the Intensification of Sound through Solid Bodies by the Inter-
position of Water between them and the distal extremities of
Hearing-Tubes. By S. Scott Alison, M.D., Assistant-Physician
to the Hospital for Consumption 649

Researches on the Phosphorus-Bases. — No. IV. Diphosphonium-
Compounda. By A. W. Hofmann, LL.D., F.R.S 651

On the Different Types in the Microscopic Structure of the Skeleton
of Osseous Fishes. By A. Kolliker, Professor of Anatomy and
Physiology in the University of Wurzburg 656

On the Physical Phenomena of Glaciers.— Part II. By Dr. Tyndall,
F.R.S 668

On an Experiment in which the Stratifications in Electrical Discharges
are destroyed by an interruption of the Secondary Circuit. By
J. P. Gassiot, Esq., F.R.S 671

Researches on Organo-Metallic Bodies ; 4th Memoir. By Edward
Frankland, Ph.D., F.R.S., Lecturer on Chemistry at St. Bartholo-
mew's Hospital 672

Letter from James P. Muirhead, Esq., to Sir Benjamin C. Brodie,
Bart., Pres. R.S., dated March 8, 1859, relating to the Discovery
of the Composition of Water 679

New Volatile Organic Acids, from the Berry of the Mountain Ash.
By A. W. Hofmann, LL.D., F.R.S 681

Further Remarks on the Organo-metallic Radicals, Mercuric, Stannic,
and Plumbic Ethyl. — No. III. By George Bowdler Buckton, Esq.,
F.R.S., F.L.S., F.C.S 7. 685

On Muscular Action from an electrical point of view. By Charles
Bland Radcliffe, M.D., F.R.C.P., Physician to the Westminster
Hospital, &c 690

On the Action of Carbonic Oxide on Sodium-alcohol. By J. A.
Wanklyn, Esq 697

Postscript to a Paper " On the Deflection of the Plumb-line in India,
caused by the Attraction of the Himalayan Mountains." By the
Venerable Archdeacon Pratt 701

On the Conic of Five-pointic Contact at any point of a Plane Curve.
By A. Cayley, Esq., F.R.S 702

On the Vertebral Characters of the Order Pterosauria (Ow.) as
exemplified in the Genera Pterodactylus (Cuv.) and Dimorphodon
(Ow.). By Professor Owen, F.R.S. &c .703

Xll

The Higher Theory of Elliptic Integrals, treated from Jacobi's Func-
tions as its basis. By F. W. Newman, Esq., M.A., Professor of
Latin in University College, London .................... page 704

On the Comparison of Hyperbolic Arcs. By C. W. Merrifield, Esq. 708

On the Oxidation of Glycol, and on some Salts of Glyoxylic Acid.
By H. Debus, Ph.D., ....................................... 711

On Colour-Blindness. By William Pole, Esq ................... 716

On the Construction of Life-Tables ; illustrated by a New Life-Table
of the Healthy Districts of England. By William Fan*, M.D.,
F.R.S., Superintendent of the Statistical Department, General
Register-Office .......... ' .................................. 717

On the means by which the Actiniae kill their Prey. By Augustus
Waller, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Physiology in Queen's College,
Birmingham. In a Letter to Dr. Sharpey, Sec. R.S ........... 722

On the Double Tangent of a Plane Curve. By Arthur Cayley,
Esq., F.R.S ............................................... 724

On the Action of Acids on Glycol. By Dr. Maxwell Simpson ...... 725

ERRATA.

Page 538. Mr. Babbage waa of the year next below Sir J. Herschel and Dr.
Peacock — not of the same year, as stated in the text.

Page 584, line 10, for Dec. 19 read Dec. 9.

Page 632, line 2, for 137 yards read 274 yards.

Page 651, line 8, for No. V. read No. IV.

Page 718, line 10 from bottom, for ba read lx.

Page 719, line 4 from top, for dy—ymrxdz read —dy=ymvKdz.

Page 721, line 7 from top, for y read Y.

PROCEEDINGS

OF

THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

November 19, 1857.

Dr. W. A. MILLER, V.P., in the Chair.

In accordance with the Statutes, notice was given of the ensuing
Anniversary Meeting for the election of Council and Officers,

Mr. Thomas Davidson, Mr. George Bowdler Buckton, and Mr.
Joseph Whitworth, were admitted into the Society.

Mr. Gassiot, Mr. Hardwick, Mr. Horner, Dr. Percy, and Mr.
Archibald Smith, were elected by ballot as Auditors of the Trea-
surer's Accounts, on the part of the Society.

The following communications were read : —

I. "On the Anatomy of Tridacna" By J. D. MACDONALD, Esq.

(For Abstract, see vol. viii. p. 589.)

II. " Summary of a paper on the Spinal Cord as a leader for

Sensibility and Voluntary Movements." By E. BROWN-

SfeQUARD, M.D.

(See vol. viii. p. 591.)

III. " Summary of a paper on the resemblance between the
effects of the section of the Sympathetic Nerve in the Neck
and of a transverse section of a lateral half of the Spinal
Cord." By E. BROWN-S£QUARD, M.D.

(See vol. viii. p. 594.)

IV. " Experimental Researches on the Influence of Efforts of
Inspiration on the Movements of the Heart." By E.

BROWN-SfeQTJARD, M.D.

(See vol. viii. p. 596.)

VOL. IX. B

V. " Summary of a paper on the Influence of Oxygen on the

vital properties of the Spinal Cord, Nerves, and Muscles."
(See vol. viii. p. 598.)

VI. " Summary of a paper on the Power possessed by Motor
and Sensitive Nerves of retaining their vital properties
longer than Muscles, when deprived of Blood." By E.
BROWN -SEQUARD, M.D.

(See vol. viii. p. 600.)

VII. "Ocular Spectres, Structures, and Functions, Mutual
Exponents." By JAMES JAGO, A.B., M.B. &c.

(For Abstract, see vol. viii. p. 603.)

VIII. " On Hourly Observations of the Magnetic Declination
made by Capt. Maguire, R.N., and the Officers of H.M.
Ship ' Plover/ in 1852, 1853 and 1854, at Point Barrow, on
the Shores of the Polar Sea." By Major-General EDWARD
SABINE, Treas. and V.P.R.S. &c.

(For Abstract, see vol. viii. p. 610.)

November 26, 1857.

Major-Gen. SABINE, R.A., Treasurer and V.P., in the Chair.

In accordance with the Statutes, notice was given of the ensuing
Anniversary Meeting, and the list of Officers and Council proposed
for election was read as follows : —

President — The Lord Wrottesley, M.A.
Treasurer — Major- General Sabine, R.A.

fWilliam Sharpey, M.D.
Secretaries — •{ ,

^George Gabriel Stokes, Esq., M.A.

Foreign Secretary — William Hallows Miller, Esq., M.A.

Other Members of the Council. — James Moncrieff Arnott, Esq. ;
George Busk, Esq. ; Arthur Farre, M.D. ; Edward Frankland,
Ph.D. ; John Peter Gassiot, Esq. ; William Robert Grove, Esq., M.A. ;
Philip Hardwick, R.A. ; Joseph Dalton Hooker, M.D. ; Leonard
Horner, Esq. ; James P. Joule, Esq., LL.D. j Richard Owen, Esq.,

3

LL.D. ; John Percy, M.D. ; Lyon Play fair, Ph.D. ; The Rev. Bar-
tholomew Price, M.A. ; Archibald Smith, Esq., M.A. ; Charles
Wheatstone, Esq.

Mr. Henry Clifton Sorby was admitted into the Society.
The following communications were read : —

I. " On the Expansion of Wood by Heat." By J. P. JOULE,
LL.D., F.R.S. &c. Received November 5, 1857.

In pursuing the researches of which abstracts have been given in
the * Proceedings' for January 29 and June 18, the author found that
the heat evolved by compressing wood, cut either in or across the
direction of the grain, was nearly that due to the application to the
particular case of Professor Thomson's formula. Exact agreement
could not be expected, on account of the discordant results arrived at
by different experimenters on the expansion of wood. On investi-
gating the subject, the author finds that the expansion of wood cut
in the direction of the grain, is greatly influenced by the tension to
which it is exposed, as well as by its humidity. A rod of well-
seasoned and dried bay-wood, |ths of an inch in diameter, and exposed
to the tension of 261bs., gave an expansion of -00000461 per degree
Centigrade, but when a weight of 426 Ibs. was hung to it, its co-
efficient of expansion was increased to '00000566. In conformity
with this result, it was found that the elasticity of the rod was con-
siderably diminished by an increase of its temperature. On inves-
tigating the effect of humidity, the author found that it occasioned
a diminution in the expansibility by heat. After the rod of bay-wood
with which the above experiments were made had been immersed in
water until it had taken up 150 grains, making its total weight
882 grs., its expansion with a tension of 26 Ibs. was found to be
only -000000436. Experiments with a rod of deal 33 inches long,
and weighing when dried 425 grs., gave similar results. Its expan-
sion when dry, with 26 Ibs. tension, was -00000428, and with 226 Ibs.
•00000438 ; but when made to absorb water, its coefficient of
expansion gradually decreased, until, when it weighed 874 grs.,
indicating an absorption of 449 grs. of water, expansion by heat
ceased altogether, and, on the contrary, a contraction by heat equal
to -000000636 was experienced.

B2

II. " On the Partitions of the r-Pyramid, being the first class
or r-gonous #-edra." By the Rev. T. P. KIRKMAN, M.A.,
E.R.S. Received October 14, 1857.

(Abstract.)

Partitions proper of the r-pyramid are made by drawing diagonals
none crossing another in the r-gonal base, and diapeds (intersections
of non-contiguous faces) none enclosing a space, in the r-edral vertex.
The object of the memoir is to enumerate the number of such par-
titions that can be made with K diapeds in the vertex and k diagonals
in the bases of the pyramid. By the drawing of k diagonals, the
pyramid becomes a (r-J- l)-acral (r + k+ l)-edron, which by the in-
troduction of K diapeds becomes a (r-j-K + l)-acral (r-f- k+ l)-edron.
Such a figure is termed an r-gonous (r-f- K-f- l)-acral (r+k+ l)-edron
of the first class. The definition of an r-gonous #-edron of the first
class is that it contains a discrete r-gony, i. e. K diapeds and k
diagonals of which no diaped meets a diagonal, and such that the
convanescence of the K diapeds will form an r-ace, and the eva-
nescence of the diagonals forms an r-gon.

If the summits upon the k diagonals be, one or more of them,
partitioned by Kf diapeds, or the faces about the K diapeds be par-
titioned by k' diagonals, there arises a mixed r-gony, in which are one
or more angles made by a diaped and a diagonal. If such a figure
has not a discrete r-gony as well as that mixed one, and has no
(r_f-/.')-gony, by the vanescence of which the (r-fr') -pyramid can
be obtained, it is an r-gonous ^r-edron of the second class. And
r-gonous #-edra of the third class can be obtained by partitioning
the faces about the K' diapeds and the summits upon the k' diagonals,
in such a manner that no (r-fr')-gony shall be introduced ; and so
on for higher classes of r-gonous ,r-edra.

It is proved that every partition proper of the r-pyramid, that is,
any (l+'K) -partitioned r-ace laid on a (1 + k) -partitioned r-gon, is
an r-gonous (r+ k+ l)-acral (r-f k -f- 1 )-edron. The number of the
(1 +k) -partitions of the r-gon, and of the (1 +K) -partitions of the
r-ace is known by the formulae given in the author's memoir " On
the partitions of the r-gon and r-ace," in the Philosophical Trans-
actions, 1857. The present memoir gives the formulae whereby the

partitions of the pyramid are determined in terms of those of the
r-gon and r-ace.

Thus the entire first class of r-gonous ^c-edra is enumerated, with-
out descending to any classification of polyedra according to the
rank of their faces and summits. The enumeration of the second
and higher classes will require such classification, which will in-
troduce so vast a complexity as to render the further prosecution of
the theory of the polyedra, in the opinion of the author, practically
impossible by any method deserving the name of scientific generality.

III. " Researches on the Cinchona Alkaloids." By W. BIRD
HERAPATH, M.D. Lond., F.R.S.E. Communicated by
Prof. STOKES, Sec. R.S. Received June 19, 1857.

(Abstract.)

PART I. — Critical examination of the ordinary methods em-
ployed for the discrimination of the Cinchona Alkaloids,
viz. Quinine, Quinidin, and Quinicine and Cinchonine,
Cinchonidin and Cinchonicine ; together with the optical
and chemical characters of their lodo- Sulphates, upon
which new methods are founded.

In consequence of the gradually increasing scarcity of the cortex
cinchona calysayce and its chief product quinine, many other barks
have been introduced into commerce, which furnish alkaloids having
a strong general resemblance in the physical characters of those
preparations of them more commonly employed in medicine, but
differing widely in medicinal properties and commercial values.

In order to prevent fraudulent adulterations, it has long been
highly desirable to have some ready methods of detecting admixtures
of these alkaloids and their salts. The author having discovered
several optical salts of these vegetable alkaloids, proposes to make
their well-marked optical characters the means of such detection,
and in the second part of this paper has fully developed his views
upon this ready method of analysis, whilst in the present part
he has passed under review the various existing tests for the differ-
ent cinchona alkaloids, and the results of his investigations may be
enumerated under the following conclusions : —

6

The following different methods of detecting the various cinchona
alkaloids have been proposed : —

To Bouchardat and Pasteur we are indebted for the use of polarized
light as a means of discriminating these alkaloids by the rotatory
power which they exercise upon its plane.

Liebig employs the difference of their solubility in ether for the
same purpose.

Almost all the other tests proposed have for their object only the
discovery of quinine.

Professor Stokes employs fluorescence, combined with the peculiar
reaction, in respect to this phenomenon, of hydrochloric acid, alkaline
chlorides, &c. Brandes, the green reaction produced by the suc-
cessive addition of chlorine and ammonia, whilst Vogel has modified
this latter test in several ways.

Pelletier has employed the agency of a stream of chlorine gas, and
Marchand uses nascent oxygen, obtained from puce-coloured oxide
of lead and sulphuric acid for the discovery of quinine.

Leers first proposed a combination of Liebig' s ether test, with that
of Brandes' s chlorine and ammonia reaction, as a means of establish-
ing the purity of cinchonidin (miscalled by him quinidin, in common
with all German chemists).

De Vry has advised the employment of hydriodic acid or iodide
of potassium in order to discover the quinidin of Pasteur.

Van Heijningen depends on oxalate of ammonia to discriminate
quinine from quinidin.

All these different tests the author has examined most critically,
and, as far as it is possible to do so, determined the absolute
numerical value of each method experimentally with the following
results : —

He first explains MM. Bouchardat and Pasteur's researches on
these remarkable alkaloids, from which it appeared that quinine
and cinchonidin are powerfully Isevogyrate, quinidin and cinchonine
pre-eminently dextrogyrate, and that quinicine and cinchonicine are
only slightly dextrogyrate upon plane- polarized light. These eminent
experimenters determined also with accuracy the amount of these
molecular rotations for each alkaloid. Yet the expensive nature of
the apparatus, the complex formula requisite to reduce the observed
amount of angular rotation to the normal molecular standard, and

the many interfering actions necessary to be guarded against, effec-
tually prevented this from ever becoming a process for general
adoption, either among chemists or manufacturers.

Another method of recognizing the presence of quinine is founded
on the optical phenomena of fluorescence, which have been investi-
gated by Professor Stokes. Whilst endeavouring to turn this pro-
cess to account in the quantitative estimation of quinine by means
of excessive dilution, and marking the points at which the various
phenomena of "epipolism," "fluorescence," and "internal disper-
sion" vanish, the author arrived at the following extraordinary re-
sults ; premising that he employs the term "internal dispersion"
to mean the positive, "fluorescence" the comparative, and "epi-
polism " the superlative degrees of the same optical power : —

I. Solutions containing 1 grain in 35,000 of either quinine or
quinidin of Pasteur, exhibit epipolism and fluorescence ; solutions
with 1 grain in somewhat less than 140,000 grains of water are still
fluorescent, with slight internal dispersion.

When diluted with from 3 to 10 gallons of water, these alkaloids
continue to exhibit internal dispersion.

Solutions of quinicine are only slightly epipolic, and if the
change has been perfect, scarcely at all fluorescent, but neverthe-
less strongly absorptive of rays of high refrangibility.

Cinchonidin also exhibits optical phenomena, but in a much slighter
degree ; about y-jnj-th part of that of either quinine or quinidin.

Cinchonine is also fluorescent about y^^th part of the same alka-
loids.

II. That on mixing fluorescent solutions of quinine, quinidin, or
other cinchona alkaloid with the soluble chlorides, although all
traces of optical phenomena are lost to the eye, yet the media still
possess powerfully absorbent powers on the rays of high refrangi-
bility, and, if sufficiently concentrated, are wholly opaque to them,
without exhibiting any of the phenomena of dispersion, and greatly
impede chemical action.

This was proved by three methods of observation : —
1st. By introducing vessels containing fluorescent solutions of
quinine into other vessels filled with non-fluorescent solutions of the
alkaloids, produced by previous admixture with chloride of ammo-
nium, when all optical phenomena disappeared from the inner vessel.

8

2ndly. By surrounding fluorescent specimens of fluor-spar with
these prepared solutions of the alkaloids, when the blue colour in
the spar immediately disappeared.

3rdly. By photography ; employing concentrated solutions of qui-
nine mixed with chloride of ammonium in troughs to intercept the
incident light from any object anterior to the camera, when it was
found almost impossible to obtain any image upon the sensitive
collodion plate, although the intensity of the visible image received
on the ground- glass screen did not suffer any apparent diminution.

4thly. By photographic printing ; troughs containing these solu-
tions obstructed the chemical rays very considerably, thus interfering
with the production of a positive picture from the negative, much
longer exposure being necessary to produce any chemical effect.

III. That certain reagents do not destroy fluorescence ; others
only mask its appearance by their own colour ; whilst some destroy
it by neutralizing the excess of acid ; others do so by producing
salts which are themselves non-fluorescent media. Whilst a third
class destroy it by really modifying the alkaloid itself.

IV. That as so many reagents of common occurrence interfere with
the manifestation of fluorescence, and as it is also a property com-
mon to all the cinchona alkaloids herein described, its appearance
becomes no longer of any value as a test for quinine.

V. Brandes's chlorine and ammonia test will discover 1 grain of
either quinine or quinidin in 1 gallon of water, but shows no dif-
ference between these alkaloids, except in very concentrated solu-
tions, when there is a precipitate with quinidin, but not with
quinine.

Quinicine is also influenced by this test, but less extensively.

VI. Dr. Vogel's first modification of this test is of no apparent
value ; but by also employing ammonia, the author has found that it
will indicate both quinine and quinidin, detecting readily 1 grain
of either in a pint, and showing slight evidence with 1 grain in 10,000
grains of water.

There is scarcely any reaction with quinicine.

VII. Dr. Vogel's other modifications of Brandes's test are unim-
portant, with the exception of the fourth, viz. excess of chlorine, and
very little ammonia. This detects 1 grain in about 2000 grs. of
fluid very readily, if excess of acid be avoided at first. The test,

9

however, is equally indicative of quinidin ; it gives scarcely any per-
ceptible reaction with quinicine.

VIII. Pelletier's chlorine gas-test succeeds very well with the free
alkaloids, but does not show any indication with their salts. It is
equally capable of detecting quinidin, and gives the same phenomena.

IX. Marchand's test is not a delicate reaction.

X. All the foregoing tests, although specially proposed for the
discovery of quinine, possess equal powers and show the same ap-
pearances with quinidin. But they have no reaction on cinchonine,
cinchonidin, or cinchonicine.

XI. Van Heijningen's test by oxalate of ammonia, produces, after
some hours, a crystalline oxalate of quinine, when using a fluid con-
taining only 1 grain of alkaloid in 800 grs. of water, and very
readily detects immediately 1 part in 350. It does not precipitate
quinidin or cinchonidin, but it produces a white precipitate in con-
centrated solutions of cinchonine.

XII. De Vry's test for quinidin by hydriodic acid, or iodide of
potassium in neutral solutions, produces a well-marked crystalline
precipitate as a colourless salt, when one part of the alkaloid is
present in 1000 of the fluid; the crystals, being short hemihedral
prisms, are readily recognized ; the neutral hydriodates of cincho-
nidin are colourless, silky, prismatic needles, and much more soluble.
If to a solution of the sulphate of quinidin in dilute spirit (^) we
add hydriodic acid, and expose to the action of light during some
days, there is formed the red iodo-sulphate of the author.

The neutral hydriodate of quinine appears as lemon-yellow prisms.
The neutral hydriodate of cinchonine appears as long, thick, colour-
less prisms, and is very soluble.

XIII. Liebig's ether test dissolves quinine, quinicine, and cin-
chonicine, and therefore does not discriminate between them, as they
are all uncrystallizable. It dissolves also a portion of the quinidin
and ciuchonidin. Should the proportions of these alkaloids not ex-
ceed the solvent powers of the ether employed, they will not be indi-
cated by this test. When crystallization occurs, the rhombic prisms
indicate cinchonidin ; the long slender aciculse, quinidin ; whilst an
amorphous powder is demonstrative of cinchonine. Ether also ex-
tracts cinchonidin from cinchonine ; but its sparing solubility in ethe^
necessitates the employment of warmth, and a large quantity of ether.

10

XIV. Leers' combination of the ether test with that of Brandes
can readily detect small portions of quinine, quinidin, or quinicine
in cinchonine or cinchonidin, especially when used in the manner as
modified by the author.

PART II. — On the Optical and Chemical Characters of the
lodo- Sulphates of the Cinchona Alkaloids, Quinine,
Quinidin and Quinicin, and Cinchonine, Cinchonidin
and Cinchonicine ; together with the Chemical Ana-
lysis of many of the Salts, and new methods of discri-
minating those Alkaloids, founded upon the production
of these remarkable compounds, and the recognition of
their optical characters.

In the former part of his paper, the author examined the existing
tests for discriminating between the various cinchona alkaloids, and
pointed out their insufficiency. In the present part, he shows that
the optical characteristics of the iodo-sulphates of the alkaloids
quinine and quinidin are sufficiently well marked to render the ex-
istence of either one of these alkaloids certain, and that although
the iodo-sulphate of cinchonidin is very closely related optically and
chemically to the homologous salt of quinine, yet there are sufficient
points of dissimilarity to enable us to diagnose between the two ;
and, moreover, that the production of this salt is a beautiful means
of deciding readily whether cinchonidin is present in specimens of
cinchonine or cinchonicine; all evidence of quinine or its allies
having been decided in the negative by the results of the previous
tests, as proposed by Brandes, Vogel, Pelletier, Leers, or the author.

The cinchonidin of Wittstein has also, by the same method, been
proved by the author to be totally different from the cinchonidin of
Pasteur.

Acetic acid and chloroform may also be employed for discriminating
between cinchonine and cinchonidin.

The chemical characters of all these iodo-salts furnish no means of
discrimination, for as a class they all agree in being more or less
soluble in spirit, giving a deep sherry-brown solution, from which
water precipitates them in an amorphous form, as dark brown, cin-
namon-brown or purplish-brown coloured precipitates ; they are

11

only very slightly soluble in dilute spirit, and scarcely at all in
water, ether, turpentine, or chloroform : acetic, dilute sulphuric, or
hydrochloric acid have but little action upon them, whilst concen-
trated hydrochloric or sulphuric acid decomposes them. Nitric
acid rapidly acts upon them, even in the cold, with- violent evolution
of nitrous acid and production of heat, iodine being oftentimes libe-
rated in the crystalline form.
Alkalies also decompose them.

Sulphuretted hydrogen, soluble sulphides, sulphurous acid and
sulphites, together with chlorine-water, instantly decolour their
alcoholic solution, with the production of hydriodic acid.

In dilute alcoholic solutions, starch gives immediate evidence of
iodine, and nitrate of silver gives a yellowish- white precipitate of iodide
of silver, and some organic basic compound which can only be re-
moved by the action of concentrated boiling nitric acid ; this reac-
tion, although commencing at the ordinary temperature, with violent
disengagement of nitrous acid vapours, must be perfected by boiling.
Baryta salts exhibit the existence of sulphuric acid, which in all
instances is an essential constituent in their formation.

The quinidin and cinchonine salts dissolve with more difficulty, in
consequence of their greater thickness and less extent of surface.

Since the author had the honour of communicating his discovery
of the optical salt of cinchonidin to the Royal Society (a preliminary
notice of which was published in the ' Proceedings/ vol. viii. No. 24),
he has ascertained that its primary form is, like that of the quinine
salt, that of a right rhombic prism, and usually very thin, but having
for its acute angles 43°, and 137° for its obtuse, with the rectangular
axes M|vj^- ; Ty.-oiro- ; PVoDoT — ^e quantity for Pa being variable
and very minute. In a former communication to the Royal Society,
published in the ' Proceedings' (Feb. 16, vol. vi. No. 24, 1854), the
quinine salt was shown to have a primary rhombus, having 65° for
the acute, and 1 15° for the obtuse angles, with the three rectangular
axes, thus related :— M^ ; Tf,Tnn7 ; PVoTuTT-

In both salts the optical characters are usually examined through
the shortest axis, Pa : in some recent observations on the quinine
salt, the author has discovered that it transmits a blood-red beam of
plane-polarized light through the axes M° and Ta, and this is also a
beam polarized in a plane parallel to that of the axes Ma and Ta.

12

£ .

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o o
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M O

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o> o <u

& -?1

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f-i <N CO — •

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13

In the foregoing comparative Chart of the physical properties of
the two salts, the axis has been assumed to coincide with a line
drawn through the short diagonal of the primary rhombic crystal,
which will coincide with the long diameter of the a-prism, and the
plane of the breadth of the ft -prism, and is therefore the Tfl of the
three rectangular crystallographic ares.

It has been compiled from the observations of Professors Stokes
and Haidinger and the author. It appears to form a complete
optical description of the two salts, as far as they are at present known.

Whilst in both salts the indicative body-colours, or those due to
the more absorbed pencils (3), are only to be seen in the thinnest
crystals, it is evident that the reflected rays may be seen indifferently
in crystals of all thicknesses ; and the author is inclined to believe
that the cinchonidin salt possesses even greater tourmaline absorbent
powers upon ordinary light, inasmuch as much thinner plates are
required in order to obtain the indicative body-colours, — perfect
absorption, and therefore total obstruction, being more early arrived
at than in the case of the quinine salt.

The author's more recent analyses of the cinchonidin salts have
produced the following results : —

Sulphate of lodo- Cinchonidin.

I. II. III. IV.

Iodine 39'727 39'462 39'246 38-488

Sulph. acid. . 8'390 8*673 8*882 8*593

Carbon 34'936 3573 35'792

Hydrogen .. 4-321 4'30l

Nitrogen 2'976

Oxygen 9'650

100-000
which lead to the following composition : —

Theory. Mean of Experiments.

57

Carbon

X

6 =

342

= 35

•367

35-

486

40

Hydrogen

X

1 =

40

= 4

•147

4-

311

2

Nitrogen

X

14 =

28

= 2

•884

2-

976

12

Oxygen

X

8 =

96

= 10

•052

9-

048

3

Iodine

X

127 =

381

= 39

•297

39-

478

2

Sulph. acid

X

40 =

80

= 8

•294

8-

701

967

100

•000

100-

000

14

which probably give the following formula :-
C57H33N2

One other remarkable difference exists between the quinine and
cinchonidin salt, which is, that the optical crystals of the last salt,
if allowed to remain in the mother-solution with an excess of less
than 1 per cent, of sulphuric acid, undergo a transformation, and
become long, golden, silky aciculse, radiating in beautiful globose
tufts : this salt has some doubly absorbent powers also, but very
feeble. When this salt is attempted to be redissolved in boiling
spirit, in order to be recrystallized, it does not re-form, but the
optical crystals are then produced ; when the silky crystals are
carefully air-dried, they retain their yellow colour, but if exposed
over sulphuric acid at 62° Fahr., or if attempted to be dried at 212°
Fahr., they lose 5'32 per cent, water = 6 atoms, arid become a dark
greenish-black residue, which is a tri-hydrate and contains the
following by analysis : —

I. II. III. IV.

Iodine 40'504 40*407

Sulph. acid 9064 8'324

Carbon . . 36-082 35*689

Hydrogen 36-404 36-28 36-583

numbers which very closely correspond with the following : —

Theory.

Experiment.

57 Carbon x 6

= 342

= 36-037

35-835

38 Hydrogen x 1

= 38

= 4-004

4-047

2 Nitrogen x 14

= 28

= 2-950

2851

10 Oxygen x 8

= 80

= 8-433

8-063

3 Iodine x 127

= 381

= 40-147

40-455

2 Sulph. acid x 40

= 80

= 8-429

8-699

949 100-000 100-000

and the formula may be provisionally given as —

C57 H33 N2 O5 1

J2SO3,HO + 3HO=:949,

which closely corresponds with the optical salt, but contains 2 atoms
less water.

15

If this olive-coloured residue be boiled in dilute spirit, the optical
crystals deposit on cooling.

From the addition of 5'32 per cent, water to this dry residue, we
find that the silky crystals contain dry residue, —

94-678 = 949=1 atom
Water 5'322 = 54 = 6 atoms

100-000 1003

and we have thus the following formula for the silky salt, which
corresponds most closely with the result of analysis, —

C57 H33 N2 O5 1

3 V2S03HO + 9HO=1003,

as may be seen by the following comparison : —

Theory.

Experiment.

57

Carbon

x*

6

= 342

=

34-

097

33

•947

44

Hydrogen

X

1

= 44

=

4-

386

4

•423

2

Nitrogen

X

14

= 28

=

2-

791

2

•700

1(1

Oxygen

X

8

= 128

=

12-

764

12

•800

3

Iodine

X

127

= 381

=

37-

986

37

•914

2

Sulph. acid

X

40

= 80

=

7'

976

8

•216

1003

WO-

000

100

•000

giving—

Carbonic acid

125

•22

124-472

per cent.

Water

. 39-474

39-807

»*

Consequently the silky salt will be the optical salt + 4 atoms of
water, which, under the influence of excess of sulphuric acid and
prolonged delay at 62° Fahr., are assimilated by that salt ; and
which additional water, on boiling in spirit, is lost, and the optical
salt recrystallized on cooling.

If the temperature be not too high at first, the silky crystals
may be produced without the appearance of the optical. And the
silky crystals at 212°, or at 62° Fahr. over sulphuric acid, become the
dry residue or tri-hydrate, which, when boiled in spirit, becomes the
optical, by assimilating 2 atoms of water, as may be seen by com-
paring the three proposed formulae : —

a. Optical.
C57 H33 N2 O5

16
. Silky Salt.

HO + 9HO=1003.

y. Dry Residue.
C57H33N2O5

pJ2S03HO-|-3HO=949.

The results of the analysis of the cinchonidin salt having been so
remarkably different from those of the formulae generally adopted for
the pure alkaloid, the author was induced to prepare some perfectly
pure quinine, taking especial pains to exclude all cinchonidin ; and
having from that prepared some iodo-sulphate of quinine, to submit
it to equally rigid analysis. ^

The results are the following : —

These optical crystals lose 2*49 per cent, water by prolonged
drying at 212° in Liebig's drying apparatus.

The residue contains the following : —

I. II. III. IV. V.

A

Iodine

.30-195

30-033

30-50

Sulph. acid.
Carbon . . .

. 10-246
.41-554

9-352

41-34

Hydrogen .
Nitrogen. . .

. 4-766
. 3-711

4-762

••

31-729 31-69
9-631 9-854

41-456 41-048
4-54 4-7375

3-380

Carbonic acid mean of 4=151-614
Water = 42-326

leading to the following composition : —

Theory. Experimental means.

57 Carbon =342 = 41-606

41-3496

38 Hydrogen = 38 = 4'623

4-7025

2 Nitrogen — 28 = 3-409

3-5455

10 Oxygen = 80 = 9730

9-8024

2 Iodine =254 = 30-900

30-8925

2 Sulph. acid= 80 = 9- 732

9-7705

822 100-000 100-000

17

which, with 2 atoms water, constitute the optical salt dried over
sulphuric acid at 62® Fahr., thus : —

1 atom dry residue .................... 822

2 atoms water ..................... . . . 18

840

and these results may be expressed by the following formula : —
C57 H33 N2 O5

which appears to be the constitution of the optical salt dried at
62° Fahr. over sulphuric acid.

From this it appears that the optical salt of quinine differs in
chemical atomic numbers merely in the possession of 1 atom less
iodine, the cinchonidin salt having 3, the quinine salt 2 atoms iodine ;
but in each case 2 atoms of sulphuric acid, and 5 water, with an
organic base of C57 H33 N2 O5 common to both. How this is derived
from C40H24N2O4 in the one case, or C40H24N2O2 in the otheis it
is difficult to point out in the present state of the question.

Were these views correct, it might naturally be imagined that the
two salts may be mutually convertible. The author has undertaken
numerous experiments with this object in view ; and whilst he has
proved that it is possible (by boiling the quinine salt in spirit sur-
charged with iodine) to communicate the golden tint of the reflected
ray and the blue tint of the body-colour to the crystals on their
re-formation, yet this modified salt retains the crystallographic forms
of the true quinine salt ; whilst, by treating the cinchonidin salt by
spirit and aqueous sulphurous acid, that salt is modified also,
becomes fibrous in character, and assumes the red body-colour of
quinine salt, yet is at once to be distinguished from the true quinine
salt even by the naked eye alone ; and on redissolving these in
spirit, the blue body-coloured salt again recrystallizes with its ordi-
nary golden reflected tint. The effect of diluted sulphuric acid in
converting the cinchonidin salt into the golden silky fibrous variety,
is a striking distinguishing characteristic between the two alkaloids.

These facts lead to the conclusion, that the grouping of the con-
stituent molecules in the two salts differs materially ; that closely as
the quinine and cinchonidin salts agree amongst themselves, they
differ widely from the quinidin and cinchonine compounds.

The quinidin salt, after recrystallization, presents itself as long

VOL. IX. C

18

quadrilateral acicular prisms, having a deep ruby or garnet-red
colour, with a bluish-violet or light purplish reflexion-tint ; it is
sometimes deposited in thin flat plates, or long, flat, acicular prisms ;
these, when thin, transmit a pure yellow colour, but in thicker
plates it becomes reddish, with a tinge of brown.

There is scarcely any appearance of double absorption in this
salt ; the thicker crystals alone exhibit it, when their usual tint be-
comes darkened on analysis with a Nichol.

This salt requires 31 parts of boiling spirit, and 121 parts at 62°
to dissolve 1 ; water precipitates it as a cinnamon-brown powder.

Its deep marone-coloured large aciculse had a specific gravity of
17647 at 62°.

These large crystals, exposed whole to a temperature of 212°, de-
crepitate afterwards on exposure to the air, but dried at 212°, they do
not appear to lose further water after prolonged exposure to the
drying bath.

The author having supplied Dr. Sheridan Muspratt with a
quantity of this salt, has been most obligingly furnished with the
results of his examination ; from which it will be seen that those
previously obtained by the author have been confirmed in the most
satisfactory manner by that experienced analyst.

Herapath.

A

Muspratt.

A

Iodine

I.
39-665
6-273
32-890
3-960
4-400
12-812

II.
39-570
6-390
32-615
3-958
4-440
13-027

III.
39740
6-326
32-787
4-028
4-440
12-697

IV.

39-88
6-302

3-985

I
39
6
31
4

•73
•263
•998
•001

II.
39-131

32-311
3-937

Sulph. acid. .
Carbon ....
Hydrogen . .
Nitrogen. . . .
Oxygen ....

100-000 100-000 100-000
The formulae derivable from these analyses are the following : —

Theory.

Herapath.

Muspratt.

35

Carbon

X

6 =

210

= 32-

967

32-764

32

•154

25

Hydrogen

X

1 =

25

= 3-

924

3

•984

3

•969

2

Nitrogen

X

14 =

28

= 4-

395

4

•44

10

Oxygen

X

8 =

80

= 12-

559

12

•743

2

Iodine

X

127 =

254

= 39-

874

39

•73

39

•78

1

Sulph. acid

X

40

= 6-

274

6

•339

6

•263

637

100-

000

100

•000

19

and give —

p35 TT19 VT2 f)4

which differs from Gerhardt's formula for quinidin by the loss of
C5 H5 ; but at this stage of the question it is scarcely possible to
arrive at a solution of the manner in which it is produced.

The cinchonine salt differs much from all those previously de-
scribed ; it exists in long, acicular, quadrilateral prisms, of a deep
purplish-black colour, like that of elder-berries.

Thin crystals transmit a yellow tint — pure gamboge-yellow when
very thin ; soon passing through a deep sherry-brown to a blood-
red colour, then a deep port-wine colour, and then becoming
opaque.

These crystals reflect a deep steel-blue colour when analysed with
a Nichol's prism, and generally across the short diameter of the
prism, which is the analogue of the a-prism of the quinine salt. The
cinchonine salt possesses doubly absorbent powers, much more power-
fully so than the quinidin salt, but inferior to all the others ; the
body-colour is deep sienna or bistre-brown.

This salt furnished the following analytical results : —
I. II. III.

Iodine ........ 50*34 50-587 50-302

Sulphuric acid . . 5-247 5-217

Carbon ........ 28-156 27'57 27'37

Hydrogen ...... 3-523 3-485 3-454

Nitrogen ...... 3-306

which lead to the following composition : —

Theory. Experiment.

35 Carbon x 6 = 210 = 277410 27'698

26 Hydrogen x 1 = 26 = 3-4346 3'487

2 Nitrogen x 14 = 28 = 3'7000 3-306
9 Oxygen x 8 = 72 = 9'5103 9'8674

3 Iodine x!27 = 381 = 50-3301 50-4096
1 Sulph. acid = 40 = 5-2840 5-232

757 100-000 100-000

giving—

Q3.5JJ19 ^

c2

20

which, on comparison with the quinidin salt, will be found to
possess 1 atom additional iodine, and 1 atom more water, but a
deficiency of 2 atoms oxygen, the latter, apparently, in consequence
of the original difference in the type of the alkaloids employed ; and,
like that salt, it differs in its organic base by the loss of C5 H5 from
the constitution of the alkaloid originally employed, if we take the
formula C40 H24 N2 O2, as given by Gerhardt, for that of cinchonine.

The cinchonine and quinidin salts further agree in containing
only 1 atom sulphuric acid, whereas the quinine and cinchouidin
salts contain 2 atoms.

These investigations appear to show that the alkaloids in each
instance undergo some modification, but not analogous to substitu-
tion ; it appears more like a splitting-up into different molecular
groups, and a rearrangement of these amongst themselves, as the
formulae of the organic bases differ much from those of the original
alkaloids.

All these iodo-salts possess double refractive properties.

When the acid sulphates of the mixed alkaloids, quinine, quinidin,
cinchonine and cinchonidin, are dissolved in dilute spirit, and the
temperature increased to 80° or 120°, treatment with tincture of
iodine readily separates the quinine salt first.

Subsequent further treatment in the same manner produces the
cinchonidin salt, more or less mixed with the quinine salt.

On still further treatment, the quinidin salt is formed with its
well-marked characters.

The cinchonine salt is by far the most soluble in spirit ; and
when a large quantity of cinchonine exists, this compound will also
appear along with the quinidin salt.

This test is a beautiful and ready method of proving the presence
of cinchonidin in cinchonine, which would otherwise be considered
pure, Brandes' test having shown the absence of quinine and quini-
din. In the same way, this test is an easy method of detecting
mixtures of quinine and quinidin, the optical characters of the two
salts being so well marked, that no difficulties can exist in their
discrimination.

It does not offer such facilities for the separation of quinine from
cinchonidin ; the two salts go down together, especially if large
quantities of cinchonidin exist with mere traces of quinine.

21

For the success of this test, a small portion only is necessary :
with quinine and quinidin -^th part of a grain has furnished evi-
dence of the two alkaloids ; one grain would be abundant to detect
all the alkaloids.

The foregoing method of examination has enabled the author to
prove that the substance which Rosengarten, of Philadelphia, called
quinidin, was really the cinchonidin of Pasteur, and the details of
his cures of fever, therefore, by quinidin are rather to be ascribed to
cinchonidin.

The cinchonidin of Wittstein, of Munich, is a totally different
alkaloid, giving, with sulphuric acid and iodine, a salt at once to
be distinguished by the eye from either of the two iodo-sulphates
described, but yet possessing optically doubly absorbent powers.
This salt has a deep orange-yellow colour by transmitted light,
merging into sienna-brown in thicker plates, which are generally
flat and much imbricated in the method of crystallization, and also
derived from a rhombic prism. The reflected tints are brownish-
olive, not unlike dead leaves, or brown beech-leaves. These crystals
are more doubly absorbent than either the quinidin or cinchonine
salt, but less powerfully optical as tourmalines than the quinine or
cinchonidin compounds. When polarized, they transmit a sienna-
brown body-colour if moderately thick, and thicker plates are bistre-
brown, but when sufficiently thick, they are wholly impervious to
plane-polarized light. The substance was not in sufficient quantity
to admit of any analysis.

All the alkaloids were furnished in a most obliging manner by
Mr. John Elliott Howard, to whom the author is deeply indebted
for them, and thus publicly desires to express his acknowledgments ;
many of these various alkaloids having taken more than ordinary
trouble in the preparation and purification.

It is well known that quinine and quinidin, under the continued
effect of heat and dilute sulphuric acid, undergo a molecular change
into quinicine, which M. Pasteur has asserted to be isomeric with
the original alkaloids, but hitherto no complete analysis has been
made of the metamorphosed alkaloids.

The author has produced an iodo-sulphate of quinicine, but it is
no longer a crystalline compound ; it presents itself as a deep blood-
coloured resin, very soluble in spirit and readily precipitated by water

22

from its spirituous solution. This substance has not yet been sub-
mitted to analysis. During the production of the iodo-sulphate of
quinidin a certain portion of the alkaloid becomes converted into
quinicine, as may be demonstrated by the production of this resin-
ous compound from the mother-liquid on the addition of further
proportions of iodine.

Cinchonine and cinchonidin become converted into cinchonicine
by similar treatment, and this amorphous uncrystalline alkaloid
also forms a resinous iodo-sulphate ; its colour is deep purple-black,
and it deposits itself on spontaneous evaporation of the spirit, or on
the cooling of a highly concentrated spirituous solution, in small
drops, highly tenacious at 100° Fahr., but becoming solid at 60° Fahr.
This compound has, in a fine state of division, a beautiful purplish-
blue colour, and such a film generally forms around the edge of the
vessel in which it is produced.

Cinchonicine appears to be one of the products during the
manufacture of the iodo-sulphate of cinchonidin, but there is a
much larger production of it during the formation of the cinchonine
salt.

From the foregoing reactions, the author appears to be justified
in asserting that eventually it will be found, when we know more
of the rational grouping of the constituent atoms of the vegeto-
alkaloids, that the construction of the formula for the cinchonidin
of Pasteur will have a much greater similarity to the arrangement
of the molecular groups of quinine than of cinchonine. And there
is also great probability that the grouping of the atoms of cinchonine
and the quinidin of Pasteur will be found to present more points of
similarity ; but in each case he sees no reason to doubt the existence
of more oxygen in the cases of both quinine and quinidin than there
is in cinchonine and cinchonidin. He also ventures to suspect that
cinchonicine and quinicine will eventually be found to contain more
carbon than the original alkaloid, the elements of water probably being
separated by the sulphuric acid during the process of formation.

23

November 30, 1857.

ANNIYEESAEY MEETING.

The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.

Mr. Gassiot reported, on the part of the Auditors of the Treasurer's
Accounts, that the total receipts during the past year, including
proceeds of the sale of £ 1500 Consols and a balance of £4 7 9s. due
to the Society's Banker, amount to .£4841 18*. 4d. ; and that the
total expenditure duriftgthe same period amounts to £4814 12s. 3d.,
leaving a balance in the hands of the Treasurer of 5627 5*. Sd.

The thanks of the Society were voted to the Treasurer and
Auditors.

The President announced that Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton,
Bart., had been re-elected by the Council a Trustee of the Soane
Museum.

List of Fellows deceased since the last Anniversary.
On the Home List.

Henry James Brooke, Esq.

Sir Charles Mansfield Clarke,

Bart., M.D.
Very Rev. "William Daniel Cony-

beare, Dean of Llandaff.
Right Hon. John Wilson Croker>

LL.D.

John Disney, Esq., LL.D.
The Earl Fitzwilliam.
Marshall Hall, M.D.

James Holman, Lieut. R.N.
James Home, Esq.
Thomas Best Jervis, Col. R.E.
James Adey Ogle, M.D.
John Ayr ton Paris, M.D.
Rev. William Scoresby, D.D.
Joseph Smith, Esq.
Richard Twining, Esq.
Andrew Ure, M.D.
William Wood, Esq.

On the Foreign List.
Augustin Louis Cauchy. | Le Baron Louis Thenard.

Withdrawn from the Society.
Sir William Burnett, M.D.

24

List of Fellows elected since the last Anniversary.

Lionel Smith Beale, Esq.

George Boole, Esq.

George Bowdler Buckton, Esq.

Thomas Davidson, Esq.

George Grote, Esq.

Rowland Hill, Esq.

The Rev. Thomas P. Kirkman.

John Marshall, Esq.
Andrew Smith, M.D.
Robert Angus Smith, Esq.
Charles Piazzi Smyth, Esq.
Henry Clifton Sorby, Esq.
John Welsh, Esq .
Joseph Whitworth, Esq.

William Marcet, M.D.

The President then addressed the Society as follows : —

GENTLEMEN,

IN considering what ought to form the subject of the Annual Address,
it would naturally occur to any one, having the honour to hold the
office of your President, that it might be desirable to mention in
detail all the important discoveries and researches which had enriched
the annals of science since the preceding anniversary ; and in addition,
to describe any events which had occurred, or any specific measures
which had been adopted, tending to improve the position of science
or its cultivators. With respect however to the former, the range of
subjects within the cognizance of this Society is so extensive, that the
time ordinarily appropriated to the duty, in which I am now engaged,
would be utterly inadequate to the purpose ; and it is the less
necessary, since it has become the annual custom of the Presidents
or Councils of Scientific Associations, cultivating particular branches
of science, to take a very extended view of the advance made in
their own particular departments ; and in the case of the British
Association especially, whose range of subjects is almost as extensive
as our own, the Presidents of that Society have been in the habit of
giving a very detailed statement of the progress of science during the
past year. I may be permitted perhaps to refer for an example to
the Address delivered at the last meeting of the British Association,
as containing a most able and lucid statement of the kind to which
I allude.

Under the other head to which reference has been made, one of the
most important events has been the final adoption by your President
and Council of the twelve resolutions, to which I took the liberty of
referring on a former occasion. I then stated that we had taken

25

into consideration the important question, whether any measures
could be adopted by the Government or Parliament that would im-
prove the position of science in this country ? and that, having
elicited and duly weighed the opinions of all those most competent
to give advice on the subject, we had finally adopted those resolutions
and forwarded them to Lord Palmerston. This step was taken in the
beginning of this year. The measures recommended by them relate,
first, to education, and they are contained in Nos. 1 to 4 inclusive ;
secondly, there are others which have for their object the encourage-
ment of scientific discovery and research, and these are Nos. 5 to 9
inclusive ; and thirdly, Nos. 10 to 12 suggest measures, which, while
they are calculated to confer great benefit on cultivators of science,
are yet of still greater importance, when viewed in their bearings
upon the interests of the nation at large. Although I shall have
occasion to allude to some of the other recommendations, it is with
respect only to the last-mentioned that I shall trouble you with any
detailed observations.

Many here present will doubtless be able to recall to their recol-
lection instances in which great mistakes have been committed for
want either of access to competent scientific advice, or from reluct-
ance to refer to it, when access was easy ; but those who are fa-
miliar with the mode of conducting public affairs in this country,
and at the same time duly appreciate the value of scientific research,
are best able to estimate the extent of this evil ; and to such persons
it is distressing sometimes to witness the injudicious expenditure of
large sums of money, while the same sums bestowed upon other and
more generally beneficial objects, and under proper advice, might
have been productive of very valuable results. But this is not all ;
for, side by side with this wasteful expenditure, we are compelled to
witness the most rigid parsimony, where a little money timely be-
stowed upon the furtherance of some measure recommended by com-
petent authority might have borne fruit a hundredfold.

Your President and Council have ventured to think, that, if the
Government could be induced to consult some responsible body of
scientific men, either one already existing, or to be specially con-
stituted for that purpose, some of these evils, so far as they affect
science at least, might be averted ; and happy indeed would it be for
those researches and investigations in which we all take so deep an

26

interest, if a small part only of the money thus saved to the nation
should be expended on their promotion ; and happy would it be for
the nation, if such a check were provided against the improvident
waste of the hardly-earned produce of its own industry.

The natural tendency of men is to undervalue what they cannot
understand, and thus the abstruse speculations of the geometrician,
and the recondite researches of the physicist, the object of which even
is unintelligible to the many, are deemed of no value when weighed in
the balance of public opinion against the splendid inventions which,
after a long series of years, emanate from their labours. Often, when
those who have scattered the precious seed are dead and forgotten,
and their families are perhaps pining in penury, and calling in vain
on an ungrateful country for a petty dole from the public purse,
does the glorious harvest ripen, which they have sown. For this
cause among many others, the opportunity of taking the opinions
of such a Body, or such a Board, would be of the last importance to
the best interests of society, for their approval would be a guarantee
to the public of the expediency of any measure which they might
recommend. It is impossible of course to suggest any innovation
from which those who make the proposal could by possibility derive
advantage, direct or indirect, without subjecting them to the charge
of doing so from interested motives ; — and yet a distinguished Mem-
ber of the Government Grant Committee, from which these reso-
lutions emanated, said early in the course of their discussion, " Let
us ask for nothing for ourselves," and in this spirit were the resolu-
tions framed. The chief object aimed at, was the encouragement of
young men, competent to the task, who, with insufficient means at
their command, were just entering upon a hopeful career of scientific
research. You will therefore look in vain for any recommendations
to bestow titles, medals, or other honours upon men whose scientific
labours have long been before the world. But no amendment in our
institutions could ever be carried out, if men were to be deterred by
such considerations as I have adverted to, from fearlessly advocating
that which in their conscience they believe to be fraught with advan-
tage. Since the resolutions were transmitted to the Government,
they have been moved for, laid on the table of both Houses of Par-
liament, and printed ; whatever further steps may be taken to urge
their adoption, I do not think that it would be right that this Society,

27

or its officers, as such, should take any part in them. It is enough
that your Council have expressed their opinion ; they must leave the
result to time.

Since the last Anniversary we have been installed in the occupation
of the building in which we are now assembled, and all the arrange-
ments for our reception have been completed, except the painting of
the Great Hall, which has been delayed by the dampness of the walls ;
nor have the requisite seats been yet supplied. I trust that the fur-
niture of the rooms and the arrangement of the library in the main
building have given satisfaction. I think credit is due to Mr. Weld
our Assistant Secretary, and also to Mr. White, for the care and
attention they have displayed in carrying into effect all our in-
structions.

It would appear from the Address of the noble Earl the President
of the Society of Antiquaries, that some of that distinguished body
are disposed to think we did not much regret the severance of the
connexion which had so long and happily subsisted between the two
Societies. Speaking for myself, and I have no doubt for many other
members of the Royal Society, I may say that I should greatly rejoice,
if by the liberality of Her Majesty's Government that ancient
Society again found an abode in our own immediate neighbourhood —
not however to the exclusion of any Scientific Society that had just
claims to similar accommodation.

Several applications have been made to your President and Council
requesting permission to use the Great Hall for various purposes.
On the part of the Government it has been applied for, for the pur-
pose of holding Competitive Examinations for admission into the
Royal Academy of Woolwich, and likewise for the Examinations of
Candidates for Commissions in the Army. These applications on
the part of the War Department have always been framed with a
courteous regard to our convenience, and they have been acceded to.
Your Council were of opinion that the object sought to be obtained
was one of great public importance, and that under the circumstances
they should not be justified in withholding their consent. At the
same time it must be admitted that frequent demands of this de-
scription might be productive of inconvenience, especially in reference
to the access to the lower library. An application was also made by
the Royal Geographical Society for the use of the Hall during

28

the ensuing session, and this request has also been willingly com-
plied with. That Society meets but once a fortnight, and on a
day which does not interfere with our own meetings. Nor can there
be any difference of opinion as to the value of their labours in the
promotion of science, if prosecuted, as there is every reason to hope
they will be, with a special view to that object. Indeed there are
few associations that might render more important aid in this behalf,
than a Society instituted for the purpose of originating, organizing,
and supporting extensive explorations of such portions of the earth's
surface as have not hitherto been surveyed at all, or have been imper-
fectly examined. But in order that the operations of such a Society
should be productive of all the benefit of which they are capable, care
should be taken that no expedition be allowed to leave our shores
without being supplied with proper instruments, and accompanied
by those who are competent to make such scientific observations as
the nature of the case will admit of ; and lastly, provision should be
made for the proper reduction and publication of such observations,
so that the results may be rendered as extensively useful as possible.

On the occasion of sending out Lady Franklin's last expedition,
every exertion was made by us to supply its able commander, Capt.
M'Clintock, with a complete set of instruments, properly constructed
and carefully compared, and with observers trained in their use. As
to the former we were quite successful ; but as to the latter, difficul-
ties arose in reference to the employment of a particular officer, whose
services the Admiralty were unwilling to dispense with. I am happy
to be able to announce to you that I have had the pleasure of
perusing a letter from Capt. M'Clintock, dated from the west coast of
Greenland, expressing entire confidence in his brave companions and
in his ship, and hopeful anticipations as to the future. Need I say
more than that it was a letter written in the true spirit of a British
Naval Officer, embarked in a momentous enterprise, conscious that
many eyes and many hearts were anxiously tracking his steps over
the icebound watery waste, and determined to put forth all his
energies to achieve success in a noble cause.

That any one should entertain any doubt of the propriety of ex-
tending to the utmost our acquaintance with the globe we inhabit,
seems extraordinary. That men should be found to undervalue the
results of scientific research is not surprising, but that they should

29

overlook the other manifold blessings which accrue to mankind from
successful undertakings of this description, could not be for a moment
believed, if we had not evidence that persons do really exist, who look
with indifference at such triumphs of human enterprise ; men who
might have joined in the outcry against Columbus, and have depre-
cated the expeditions of Dampier, Flinders, Cook, Parry and others.
Had a majority of the so-called educated portion of mankind consisted
of such men, we should perhaps now be without America and Au-
stralia, the human mind would have been miserably stunted in its
growth, and civilization impeded in its progress. Such views are not
likely to obtain much support at the present time ; we may rest
assured, for example, that Government will entertain with favour the
proposal for exploring the river Zambesi, which has been suggested
by the travels of that most persevering benefactor of mankind, the
enterprising and distinguished Livingstone.

Though, as I have already said, it would be impossible to specify
all the facts of interest which have been lately observed in the arena
of physical research, there are some recent discoveries in magnetism
which I should be unwilling to pass over in silence.

All who have attended to magnetical phenomena, are aware, that
among the results of magnetic observations, and especially that exten-
sive system of research, which was organized a few years ago at the
earnest request of the illustrious traveller Humboldt, is to be reckoned
the correct knowledge which we now possess of the regular periodical
changes of the magnetic elements, depending on the hour of the day,
the season of the year, and also on a period, somewhat exceeding ten
of our years, which, when first discovered, appeared to have no ana-
logue in any other known periodical phenomenon.

Besides these regular periodical effects, there are changes which
occur suddenly at irregular intervals, and simultaneously in the most
distant parts of the earth —

" though the main

Roll its broad surge betwixt, and different stars
Behold their wakeful motions,"

to use the words of a poet and a Fellow of the Royal Society, who,
writing at a very early age, and above a hundred years ago, seems by
an extraordinary accident to have described by anticipation one of

30

the most remarkable magnetic phenomena revealed to us by modern
discoveries.

Now these sudden changes are characterized by very large devia-
tions from the normal state. They are termed " Magnetic Storms."
It is found, however, that these storms occur more frequently at
certain hours of the day than at others, and are therefore themselves
subject to periodical laws. These laws have been worked out by
our able and persevering Treasurer, who has devoted, and with such
distinguished success, so much of his valuable time to this species of
research, and he finds that even these storms observe diurnal, annual,
and decennial periods.

Several who are now present are aware how many years of laborious
toil have been expended in procuring these striking results. In various
places of our colonies and dependencies, at St. Helena, at Toronto, at
Hobarton, for example, officers and non-commissioned officers of the
Artillery, and officers of the Royal Navy were engaged hourly
through the day and night in watching the vibrations and angles
of small magnetic needles delicately suspended; a class of obser-
vations of a very tedious and exhausting description, and requiring
great patience, perseverance and accuracy. Still, undeterred by all
these difficulties, and often doubtless at great personal sacrifice, these
true votaries of science continued their anxious vigils. As the
observations were received by General Sabine, they were carefully
reduced and coordinated at an establishment organized by him at
Woolwich for that purpose.

But while this was proceeding, there was, unknown to our magnetic
observers, another persevering enthusiast at work, whose labours were
destined to have an important relation to theirs.

We must transport ourselves, in imagination, to the upper chamber
of a modest dwelling in an obscure town in Germany, in which an
old man has day by day for thirty long weary years been in the
habit of observing the sun through two small telescopes, placed in a
window overlooking the roofs of the houses. Every day, when the
luminary was visible, did this persevering observer, Schwabe by name,
survey its face, and note down the appearances of its disk. In this
way he obtained a faithful record of the configuration of the spots
during the whole of this long period. Science presents few examples
of such unwearied concentration of attention on one object. Often,

31

HO doubt, the friends, and perhaps the relatives of the observer, have
presumed to ridicule his devotion to what seemed to them a trivial
pursuit ; but the result of all this labour was the discovery of what
had escaped the attention of all astronomers for two hundred years,
at least had been before only very faintly suspected, viz. that the spots
on the sun's disk pass through the phases of maximum and minimum
frequency in a period of about ten years. But, strange to say, it was
then discovered, and first announced in our Transactions by General
Sabine the discoverer, that the decennial magnetic period coincides,
both in its duration and in its epochs of maximum and minimum, with
the decennial period observed by Schwabe in the solar spots ; that is,
the period of maximum variation with that of the maximum fre-
quency of spots, and so vice versa the minimum. Hence it is clear that
the sun exercises some influence on the earth's magnetism dependent
on the existing state of its own luminous atmosphere. Surely this is
another remarkable instance that fact is often more strange than fiction.
How little could the secluded observer, watching the quiverings of the
needle in the remote regions of Australia, or on the shores of the
Polar Sea, dream either that his labours would derive additional
interest from the unconscious cooperation of a German astronomer,
or that he was himself engaged in watching vibrations which were
oscillating in harmony with the motions of a gaseous substance ninety-
five millions of miles away ! This is again another example added to
the many other illustrations of the same truth, that scientific re-
searches, if skilfully and perseveringly continued, often lead to most
valuable results, which could not have been anticipated a priori ;
and this should surely be as great an incentive to toil as it is a glorious
reward of discovery.

But this is not all : it has been found also that our less obtrusive
satellite, that the mild influence of the moon affects the magnetic
needle ; the declination, the inclination, and the magnetic force, all
undergo a small variation, dependent on the lunar hour angle. A
delicately suspended magnet is truly the most submissive of all
slaves, affected by the sun, and the moon, and the earth, and the
sport of every electric or magnetic current that approaches it.

" Whate'er the line

Which one possessed, nor pause nor quiet knew

The sure associate, ere, with trembling speed,

He found its path, and fixed unerring there."

32

Before leaving the subject of magnetism, I would mention another
result lately obtained in that department of science, which we owe
to one of those voyages to the Arctic Seas, which some are wont to
describe as useless to mankind, and a foolish exposure of human life.
Capt. Maguire commanded the Plover, one of the ships employed
in the Franklin search in the years 1852-3-4, and he was stationed
from the summer of 1852 to that of 1854 at Point Barrow, the most
northern cape of the American Continent, between Behring's Strait
and the Mackenzie River. During every hour of seventeen months
unremittingly did Capt. Maguire and his officers observe and record
the variations of the magnetic declination and the concomitant
auroral phenomena, in an observatory built of ice and lined with
seal-skins ; in a most dreary and unenviable locality indeed, but still
one of the most favourable for such investigations. The observa-
tions, as usual, were reduced under the direction of our Treasurer,
and they reveal this important fact : — On comparing them with those
made at Toronto, it was found, that although the deflections of the
same name at the two stations did not correspond, there existed, on the
other hand, a very striking and remarkable correspondence between
the easterly disturbances at Point Barrow and the westerly at Toronto,
and vice versa. In the case of the regular solar-diurnal variation,
the easterly and westerly extremes are reached at both stations at
nearly the same hpurs ; but in the case of the abnormal diurnal
variation, the progression is reversed, the easterly extreme at the one
coinciding very nearly with the westerly at the other. The absolute
disturbing force appears to be much greater at Point Barrow than at
Toronto, and in correspondence therewith is the frequency of the
auroral manifestations. During the six months of darkness in the
two successive winters, out of 3625 hourly observations, there were
1077, or 30 per cent., at which the aurora was visible. It appeared,
also, that 1 A.M. was the hour at which aurora most frequently ap-
peared, and that between 11 A.M. and 3 P.M. is the period of mini-
mum frequency.

The above interesting results have suggested to the British Asso-
ciation the importance of instituting magnetic observations for an-
other winter or two at some point, so situated between the above-
mentioned two stations, as to render it a proper locality for ascer-
taining the laws on which the remarkable and characteristic analogies

33

and differences in the results derived from each depend. There is
no place better fitted for this purpose than the mouth of Mackenzie's
River. I cannot but express my earnest desire that Her Majesty's
Government will also consent to send out one vessel for this purpose,
as it will be attended with little or no risk, and a most important
scientific object will be attained. Moreover, it will be a great satis-
faction to the friends of Capt. M'Clintock and his gallant crew to
know that there is a vessel stationed at such a spot, should any
unlooked-for misfortune befall an expedition, which, thanks to the
devotion of a bereaved widow to her heroic husband, has cost the
country nothing but the expenditure of a few hitherto unemployed
stores.

The Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade, under
the able superintendence of Admiral FitzRoy, bids fair to realize
all the hopeful anticipations which were formed of the beneficial
effects which such an institution was calculated to produce in im-
proving Navigation and the science of Meteorology. Agents have
now been established at the principal ports for the supply of instru-
ments properly verified, books and instructions. More than two
hundred ships have been so supplied, and more than one hundred
logs have been forwarded, which are in process of coordination and
reduction. Valuable materials are thus continually accumulating,
and to such a degree, that the only difficulties of the Office arise
from the overwhelming extent of the communications which are daily-
pouring in, — overwhelming, that is to say, when viewed in reference
to the Staff available for reducing them.

Meanwhile other Governments have not been slow to avail them-
selves of the advantages to-be derived from Lieut. Maury's Sailing
Directions and Charts, and the measures which he recommends.
The Officer at the head of the Meteorological Department of the
Dutch Marine states, that by their means the voyages to Batavia
have been shortened one-eighth. An Officer of the French Navy is
also engaged in condensing and translating Maury's works for the
use of the French Marine ; and a French Department of Oceanic
Meteorology is about to be formed. Other nations have followed
in the same track, and, on the whole, voyages have been already
reduced to from a tenth to a quarter of their former periods ; a
result to be attributed in part doubtless to the improvement in ship-

VOL. IX. D

34

building, to which art Science has lately rendered important aid, but
principally to the cause in question.

A portion of the success of this Meteorological Department of the
Board of Trade is certainly due to the facilities afforded by that
admirable institution, the Observatory at Kew, for the verification
of the instruments supplied. I have already had occasion to ac-
knowledge the obligations which Science is under to the same
establishment for supplying magnetic and meteorological instru-
ments, duly verified, to various scientific expeditions sent out both
by this and other countries. Our debt of gratitude to this Obser-
vatory and its able Superintendent, Mr. Welsh, is likely to be shortly
still further augmented by valuable improvements in the photo-
graphic record of various phenomena, and among others, of the
spots on the sun's disk ; for the observation of which a telescope,
by Ross, has been lately erected. Surely it is a cause of great con-
gratulation that, by means of the fund, the income of which was
placed at their disposal by the liberality of Dr. Wollaston and others,
your Council were able to render essential aid, and at the time of
its greatest need, to an Institution whose efficient maintenance has
become a European necessity,

In taking a general view of the proceedings of the Institutions,
both in this and other countries, whose common object may be said
to be the increase of the happiness of our species, though by various
and widely different methods, one cannot but be struck, first by the
great number of such establishments and the inadequacy of the
results obtained, if considered in reference to the means provided ;
and, secondly, by the fact, that in the same country and at the same
time many different bodies are at work in striving to produce the
same end ; but, instead of combining their forces, they often inter-
fere with each other's operations ; instead of helping one another,
they are perhaps even disposed sometimes to view with jealousy the
success of their rivals. Thus, to take an instance, let us consider
how many different bodies of men, official or otherwise, are now
employed in attempting, but hitherto with little success, to diffuse
more widely among the inhabitants of this favoured island the
blessings of education, including a knowledge of the elements of
the physical sciences. Let us reflect for a moment what might
be the result of so many different currents of intellectual force,

35

if, instead of crossing and jostling one another in various direc-
tions, they were to be forced to flow in one harmonious channel.
Surely, when so much is at stake, and the prize to be ob-
tained is human happiness, some attempt at combination might
be made, some effort to bring together a portion of the divergent
elements. The Scientific Board, above suggested, might do some
good ; Government or Parliament might do more ; but it is to
social progress and the general improvement of our species, that we
must look for the complete realization of the hopes which every
good man is sometimes led to form of a happy future in store for his
race ; and obliged, as we are, in our course through life, to witness
so much that we have great cause to regret, and scarcely any power
to mend, this reflection is perhaps one of our brightest and purest
consolations.

The Copley Medal has been awarded to M. Chevreul for his im-
portant investigations in Organic Chemistry, particularly for his
researches upon the nature and composition of the fats and fixed
oils, and for his physical investigations on the processes of dyeing,
including those on the simultaneous contrast of colours.

Previous to the researches of M. Chevreul upon the fats, it was
supposed that saponaceous compounds were combinations of the
alkalies, and of oxide of lead with oils and fats ; and, with the
exception of Scheele's discovery, that glycerine was set free during
the process of saponification, no precise chemical knowledge upon
this subject existed.

The attention of M. Chevreul appears to have been directed to
this matter by his observation that, on diluting a solution of a par-
ticular soap largely with water, a crystalline substance was separated
in pearly scales ; upon examining the nature of this crystalline
compound he found it to consist of a combination of alkali with a
peculiar fatty body of distinctly acid character. Starting from this
point, he was induced to examine the subject of saponificatioii in
extenso ; the result of his inquiries was the discovery of a large
number of new compounds, and a masterly elucidation of the che-
mical history of the fixed oils, fats, soaps, and plasters.

M. Chevreul showed that ordinary fats and fixed oils consisted

D2

36

mainly of three distinct compounds united in very various proportions.
One of these compounds, oleine, is liquid at ordinary temperatures,
the other two, margarine and stearine, are solid ; and, according as
the liquid or solid constituents preponderate, the body assumes the
consistence of oil, or of a fat less or more hard. He also showed
that each of these three principles contains a distinct fatty acid
united with the basis of glycerine, the sweet principle of oils ; that,
when the fat or oil is acted on by alkalies or other metallic oxides,
the basis of the glycerine is displaced, combining with water at the
moment of its separation, thus forming true glycerine. The fatty or
oily acid in the meantime unites with the alkali or metallic oxide :
when the alkalies are used to effect the saponification, soluble soaps
are found ; when metallic ox4des, such as oxide of zinc, or oxide of
lead, are employed as the saponifying agents, a plaster, or insoluble
metallic soap, is formed.

But the discoveries of M. Chevreul were of far higher value in
a scientific point of view than the mere establishment of facts, or
the discovery of new bodies of importance in the arts. The methods
of research which he introduced, laid the foundation of future
inquiries, and may be said to have enabled Organic Chemistry to
become what it now is.

At the time when the researches of M. Chevreul were commenced,
no trustworthy process of ultimate organic analysis existed. A
method capable of furnishing results, which, for accuracy, though
not for rapidity and facility of execution, challenges comparison with
those at present in use, was by him devised and applied. But a
still more important aid to these inquiries was supplied. M. Che-
vreul was the first to perceive that the numerical results obtained by
ultimate analysis of an organic compound were not the only data
necessary to fix its true composition, and he first pointed out the
importance of an extended study of the changes produced in each
compound by the action of reagents.

The merit of recognizing and systematically introducing this
leading principle into the methods of research practised in Organic
Chemistry is due to M. Chevreul ; and the important services which
he has thus rendered to the progress of Organic Chemistry are felt
more and more in each succeeding year. Like other great men,
M. Chevreul was in advance of his age, and a few years elapsed

37

before his contemporaries justly estimated and began to apply the
principles which he had introduced.

But there is another side from which these researches must be
viewed. Few investigations in Organic Chemistry have been fraught
with more important consequences to the industrial arts than these
which we are now considering. New methods of obtaining hard and
valuable fats from oils of low price have been introduced, and the
method of manufacture adopted for the better descriptions of candles
has been entirely altered. A new branch of industry has indeed
been created by these researches, since it is to them that we owe the
introduction of what are known as stearine or composite candles.

The second important subject with which the name of M. Che-
vreul is permanently connected, is that of the contrast of Colours.
His investigation upon this subject has, like his earlier one upon the
fats, been regarded by all subsequent inquirers as the classical work
upon the series of phenomena to which it relates. In duly appre-
ciating the importance of these inquiries, it is necessary to consider
both their purely scientific value and their direct practical bearing
upon the art of the silk-dyer and the calico-printer, to whom they
have afforded invaluable assistance, by the establishment of fixed
rules to guide them in the selection of suitable and harmoniously^
contrasted tints, upon which so much of the beauty of their different
fabrics depends.

PROFESSOR MILLER,

Transmit this Medal to M. Chevreul, as the best proof which we
can give of the value which we attach to his discoveries ; and express
to him the gratification with which we have learnt that he is still
engaged in the prosecution of scientific labours ; and our hope that
his life will be prolonged to enable him to continue them, and
enjoy the honour he has so deservedly obtained.

One of the Royal Medals has been awarded to Dr. Frarikland.

In the year 1846, the question of the constitution of the alcohols
and certain allied organic bodies excited the deepest attention among
chemists. Dr. Kolbe had succeeded, by a most ingenious electro-
lytic process, in isolating the hitherto hypothetical radicals, valyl and
methyl ; but the indirect nature of the reactions, by which these radi-

38

cals were separated from valerianic and acetic acid, failed to convince
a large number of contemporary chemists, who had contended for
some years against the existence of such radicals. Early in 1848,
Dr. Frankland commenced his attempts to isolate these bodies by
direct and unexceptionable reactions. Taking the isolation of the
elementary radical, hydrogen, by the action of zinc upon hydriodic
acid, as his type, he succeeded, in the laboratory of Professor Bunsen
at Marburg, in isolating from their iodides the compound radicals
methyl, ethyl, and amyl ; thus establishing the complete homology
of these substances with hydrogen.

The subsequent prosecution of these researches also led Dr.
Frankland to the discovery of a new series of remarkable organic
compounds, containing the metals zinc, tin, and mercury, united
with the radicals before mentioned. These metals had not been
previously known to enter into combinations of that class. The
compounds of zinc with methyl and ethyl have, moreover, proved
most valuable bodies in the hands of Frankland, Hofmann, and
others, for effecting substitutions which had previously been im-
practicable.

The laborious and masterly researches of Bunsen on cacodyl
had rendered this most remarkable substance an object of the
highest interest to chemists ; nevertheless, its isolated position, and
the complicated reactions attending its formation, stood in the way
of any satisfactory conclusion as to its rational constitution. The
study of the organo-metallic bodies containing zinc, tin, and mercury,
and of those discovered by Lowig and others, led Dr. Frankland to
a generalization, which grouped cacodyl and the rest of those organo-
metallic compounds into a harmonious family, and according to
which these substances are formed upon the types of the inorganic
compounds of the respective metals with oxygen, sulphur, and other
similar bodies.

In the hands of Dr. Frankland, this theory has already borne
fruit. Guided by it, he has succeeded in replacing the oxygen
of binoxide of nitrogen, by ethyl and methyl, thus obtaining two
members of a new series of acids ; while the formation, by one of his
pupils, of two new organic derivations from sulphurous acid, is
another result of the same important generalization.

39

DR. FRANKLAND,

Accept this Medal as the appropriate reward of researches, which
have excited the greatest interest among all those who cultivate or
appreciate the science which you have so materially advanced and
adorned.

The other Royal Medal has been awarded to Dr. Lindley, in
recognition of the value of his labours in various branches of Scien-
tific Botany ; and more especially for his learned and comprehensive
works on the Natural Orders of Plants, on Orchidese, and on theo-
retical and practical Horticulture.

The eminent position which Dr. Lindley has attained amongst
naturalists, is founded upon a knowledge of the Vegetable King-
dom, in the most extended sense of that term, such as few have
acquired ; the result of many years of diligent research and con-
tinued study of the structure, morphology, and development of
plants from every part of the globe. To the knowledge thus ob-
tained, he has applied the resources of an original and vigorous
intellect, and a quick appreciation of affinities ; and he has embodied
the results of his labours in a series of works upon the affinities of
plants, which are alike remarkable for the clearness of their arrange-
ment, the lucidity of their style, and the influence they have had
upon the progress of philosophical Botany. In these labours we
recognize with satisfaction the evidence of his regarding systematic
Botany in its true light, as the sister science of the Comparative
Anatomy of animals ; and, like it, depending for the value of its
results upon the number and variety, as well as the complete-
ness and accuracy of the naturalist's observations, and upon his
powers of combination.

In the systematic investigation of the Orchideous plants, Dr.
Lindley has devoted himself during a long series of years to one of
the most difficult branches of Descriptive Botany. The species of
this remarkable and extensive natural order are of a singularly com-
plicated structure — the clue to their affinities lies in minute organs ;
and as by far the greater number of species are only to be obtained
for study in a dried and mutilated state, their investigation demands
an amount of patience and skill in microscopic analysis, such as very
few botanists have devoted to similar inquiries.

40

In the science of Horticulture Dr. Lindley has also taken the
highest position ; nor is it too much to say, that it is mainly due to
his efforts that this branch of knowledge has risen from the con-
dition of an empirical art to that of a developed science. In no
department have his labours been more widely appreciated than in
this ; not only because, up to a very recent period, the ignorance of
sound principles and the prevalence of injudicious practice retarded
the progress of scientific horticulture, but because these evils could
only be remedied by one combining that knowledge of scientific
Botany and of gardening operations which he possesses. To these
requirements he has added the power of studying the results of
experimental research by means of those laws of climate in its rela-
tions to horticulture, which had previously been so ably expounded
by our late illustrious Fellow, Professor Daniell. In pursuing these
inquiries, Dr. Lindley has displayed the same ready facility in ap-
plying his varied knowledge to the investigation of difficult problems,
which characterizes his works on the affinities of plants.

I may also briefly allude to Dr. Lindley 's numerous elementary
and other treatises on Botany, and on its applications to Medicine
and the Arts ; to the long series of illustrated works he has pub-
lished ; to his researches in the Fossil Flora of Great Britain ; and
to the cordial reception of so many of his writings on the Continent,
as is evidenced by the translation of several of them into other
European languages. In this award, the Council of the Royal
Society further wish to mark their recognition of the great and
beneficial influence of Dr. Lindley' s labours, both as an author and
Professor, in introducing and diffusing a knowledge of the natural
system of Botany, and of Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology, into
the Schools and Universities of this country.

DR. LINDLEY,

Accept this Medal in token of our appreciation of the labours of a
whole life devoted to the successful cultivation and the extension of
our knowledge of the sciences of Botany, Vegetable Physiology, and
Horticulture.

41

Obituary Notices of deceased Fellows.

HENRY JAMES BROOKE was born at Exeter on the 25th of
1771. His relations were engaged in the manufacture of broad-cloth.
After having received an ordinary scholastic education, he studied for
the bar, and had very nearly completed the usual period, when the
prospect of advantageous connexions with the manufacturing firms in
the west of England induced him to engage in the Spanish wool trade
in London, for which object he spent nearly two years in Spain.

The precise habit of thought and expression which the active study
of the law must necessarily induce, was perhaps mainly instrumental
in imparting the tone of extreme precision by which all his subsequent
acts and observations were characterized.

Soon after he took up his residence in London, in the year 1802,
his attention was turned to the subjects of Mineralogy, Geology, and
Botany ; and to the two former of these sciences, then in their in-
fancy, the greater portion of his leisure hours was devoted. He was
elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1815, of the Linnean
in 1818, and of the Royal Society in 1819. He served on the
Council of the Royal Society in 1842-44.

Mr. Brooke was associated with the late Mr. Henry Hase, cashier
of the Bank of England, and others in the establishment of the
London Life Assurance Association, the commercial success of which
bears ample testimony to the soundness of the principles on which
it was established.

On the decline of the Spanish wool trade, which was superseded in
a great measure by that with Germany, Mr. Brooke sought a com-
mercial pursuit more congenial to his tastes, and devoted his energies
to the establishment of companies to work the mines of South Ame-
rica ; but in these undertakings the fairest prospects were blighted
by an entire absence of good faith abroad, and failure was the inevit-
able result. After this period he accepted the office of secretary to
the London Life Association, the duties of which he discharged for
many years ; and on his retirement, the appreciation of his services
by the Society was evinced by the grant of a liberal annuity.

During a period of several years, his devotion to his favourite
pursuits was much interfered with by the result of an accident : — he

42

was knocked down by a horse suddenly turning the corner of a road
near his residence at Stockwell, and the fall produced a slight con-
cussion of the brain ; after which, for a considerable period, his
accustomed mental efforts were followed by sleeplessness and other
symptoms of undue cerebral excitement. During this period, finding
absolute inaction extremely irksome, he sought pursuits which would
occupy his hands, with less demand on the brain than those to which
he had been devoted. He formed a large collection of shells, but
feeling the pursuit to be objectless, if irrespective of the structure
and functions of their living tenants, he abandoned it, and presented
the collection to the University of Cambridge. Mr. Brooke then
became a collector of engravings, — having in early life imbibed a
taste for art, and exercised that of water-colour drawing. These he
was so successful in cleaning and restoring, that when, having so far
recovered as to resume his original pursuits, he disposed of his collec-
tion, the aggregate value was greatly augmented, notwithstanding the
presentation of some specimens of rare excellence to the national
collection in the British Museum.

Having been blessed to the last with an unusually perfect enjoy-
ment of his faculties, his favourite studies were actively pursued until
a very short period before his decease, which occurred from natural
decay, accelerated by the depression of the system produced by a
severe cold, on. the 26th of June, 1857.

The ' Familiar Introduction to Crystallography,' the first system-
atic treatise on this branch of science, was published in 1823. In
this, following the steps of Haiiy, he referred the existing forms of
crystals to an unnecessarily large number of primary forms ; but the
trigonometrical relations of the various existing plane surfaces of
crystals were then first clearly traced out.

In the subsequent treatise on Crystallography published in the
Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, the former system was much simpli-
fied and the number of primary forms reduced to six, which, differing
essentially from each other, correspond with the six systems generally
adopted by continental crystallographers.

The discovery and description of thirteen new mineral species are
due to Mr. Brooke's researches : to these may be added two others,
the published descriptions of which were just anticipated, in point of
time, by those of continental mineralogists. These notices will be

found in the pages of the Philosophical Magazine and Annals, and of
the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal.

He was the first to make extensive use of the reflective goniometer
in determining the forms of the crystals of artificial salts. The An-
nals of Philosophy for 1823 contain the determination of the forms
of no less than fifty-five different laboratory crystals, — a work of
much persevering labour. If only the chemical composition of these
salts had been accurately known in England at the time, their mea-
sures would have served as a basis whereon to found the theory of
Isomorphism.

The treatise on Mineralogy in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana
was the first systematic work on the subject with which the name of
Mr. Brooke is associated. This was originally intended to have
been a very complete treatise, but repeated editorial remonstrances
on account of want of space compelled our author to cut it down to
little more than a mere catalogue of minerals, with a few of their
more important chemical characters. The only complete treatise on
Mineralogy with which his name is connected is the recent re-edition
or rather reproduction of W. Phillips' s treatise, in conjunction with
Professor W. H. Miller, who took upon himself by far the greater
portion of the labour incidental to publication.

It may be here remarked that Mr. Brooke entertained a strong
impression of the desirableness of rendering the study of crystal-
lography more attainable to many, whose minds are not so habituated
to the abstractions of analysis as to contemplate a plane merely as
the geometrical impersonation of ax-}- by + cz= 0 : this object he pro-
posed to attain by means of a more direct reference of the existing
planes of crystals to simple geometrical, or primary, forms than the
last-mentioned treatise presents.

Mr. Brooke's latest efforts were directed to the general relations
and geometrical similarity of all crystals belonging to the same sy-
stem. A paper on this subject, read before the Royal Society, which
was in the press at the time of his decease, contains a comparison of
the forms of all known minerals belonging to the Rhombohedral and
Pyramidal systems, and will probably be found to throw some new
light on the theory of Isomorphism.

His unrivalled collection of minerals, comprising the choicest speci-
mens that he could, with ample opportunities, collect during half a

44

century, has been presented to the University of Cambridge, as the
best means of rendering it subservient to the advancement of mine-
talogical science.

M. AUGUSTIN CAUCHY* had the good fortune to belong to that
middle class of society which is neither exposed to the miseries of
poverty nor to the temptations of wealth. His father was Archi-
viste-Secretaire of the Senat Conservateur from about 1800 or
1801, and of the Chamber of Peers from 1814 to 1830. Of two
brothers, both younger than himself, one became an ornament
to the highest court of justice, to which he was promoted, and the
other succeeded his father as Secretaire-Archiviste to the Chamber
of Peers. Augustin Cauchy was born on the 21st of August,
1789. His classical education commenced early under his father,
and was ' continued afterwards by able teachers at the IZcole
centrale du Pantheon. He left this school in 1804, at the age of
fifteen, carrying off the second prize for Latin composition, and the
first for Greek and Latin verse. This success procured for him the
wreath given to the best classic among the pupils of the Ecole
centrale. After having attended for one year only the public mathe-
matical lectures of an excellent Professor, Dinet, Cauchy felt himself
qualified to enter the examination of candidates for admission to the
Ecole Poly technique. He was admitted, being second on the list,
in 1805, at the age of sixteen years; and at the end of the two
years' course, he came out third in 1807. On quitting the school
he adopted the career of the Ponts et Chaussees, in which he passed
rapidly through the inferior grades, was employed in many works,
and became ingenieur en chef in 1825.

On the 6th of May, 1811, at the age of twenty-two years, he
presented to the mathematical class of the Institute, a very re-
markable memoir on the polyhedron of geometry, and completed
the theory of a new kind of regular polyhedrons discovered by
M. Poinsot. Legendre, a most austere judge, regarded this me-
moir as the production of well-exercised powers which promised in
due time the highest success. He urged the young author to follow
out these researches, and to endeavour to establish a certain theo-

* This notice is extracted principally from the Letter of M. Biot to M. de
Falloux.

45

rem not previously demonstrated. Cauchy obtained it in LSI 2.
Legendre reported on it to the Academy with an enthusiasm very
foreign to his character. " We only intended," he said, " to give
an idea of this demonstration, and have extracted almost the whole
of it. We have thus furnished a new proof of the sagacity with
which this young geometer has succeeded in conquering a difficulty
which had arrested the progress of the masters of the art, and
which it was of importance to solve in order to complete the theory
of the solid bodies." These first two memoirs of Cauchy seemed
to foretell a peculiar and exclusive aptitude for pure geometry ; but
it was soon discovered that his genius had a much wider range.
In the years 1813 and 1814 he produced two remarkable analy-
tical memoirs, and in 1815 he presented a memoir on the theory of
numbers, in which he proved and extended a theorem enunciated by
Fermat, a theorem some particular cases of which only had been
established by the most able writers in that department of mathe-
matical science, Legendre and Gauss. He published an elegant
theorem on the number of values which a function can assume, when
the letters which it contains are interchanged. Twenty years later,
this theorem enabled the celebrated Abel to prove the impossibility
of solving algebraic equations of the fifth or higher degrees. In
the same year, the Academy proposed, as the subject of the great
mathematical prize, the investigation of the theory of the propaga-
tion of waves on the surface of a heavy fluid of indefinite depth.
Cauchy gave a complete solution of the problem. His memoir,
which obtained the prize in 1816, has for its motto the line of
Virgil-

" Nosse quot lonii veniant ad littora fluctus." — Georg. ii.

A peculiarly happy quotation, as the line may be said to contain a
striking enunciation of the problem proposed.

This fertility in a young man of seven-and-twenty would have
secured for him the first place which became vacant in the Mathe-
matical Section of the Institute. He was admitted into it under
circumstances much to be regretted. After the short crisis of a
hundred days, a royal ordinance, dated March 21, 1816, re-esta-
blished the old Academies under their original names, — the Academy
of France, of Sciences, of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, of the

46

Fine Arts, — and also appointed the members of the restored Acade-
mies. In the Academy of Sciences, two celebrated names, those of
Carnot and Monge, were replaced by two new names, Breguet and
Cauchy. The opinion of men of science was indulgent towards
Breguet, but severe towards Cauchy.

Towards the end of 1815 he was appointed Assistant-Professor of
Analysis at the Ecole Polytechnique ; he became titular Professor
in 1816. It was impossible for any man to be more zealous than
Cauchy in discharging the duties imposed upon him. Appointed to
teach, he turned all his thoughts to the art of teaching. Between
1816 and 1826 he published his Course of Algebraic Analysis, of
Differential Calculus, of the application of Infinitesimal Analysis to
the Theory of Curves ; three excellent works, well arranged, pro-
ceeding by vigorous demonstrations and rich in new details, leaving
nothing to be desired except perhaps a little condescension in ex-
plaining the abstractions of analysis by geometrical considerations.
In the same interval he published a memoir on integrals taken
between imaginary limits, which has been the foundation of import-
ant investigations for many of our young geometers. But even
this was not sufficient for his indefatigable ardour; he undertook
and commenced publishing, in 1826, a kind of periodical review of
his own, entitled ' Exercices Mathematiques,' in which every depart-
ment of mathematics, the most elementary as well as the highest,
was handled with so much generality, fertility and inventive power,
that on reading this publication, Abel, one of the most profound
analysts of our times, wrote to one of his friends, " Cauchy is, of all
others, the geometer who best understands how mathematics ought
to be studied." In fact, the discoveries of methods and the
sketches of new views, scattered through these 'Exercises,' have
been not only to the author, but also to many other geometers,
the fertile initiative of brilliant researches. Cauchy continued the
nurture and publication of this mathematical treasury up to the time
of his death.

The calm flow of his existence was unexpectedly disturbed by the
Revolution of 1830. At this epoch he was married and the father
of two daughters. He had allied himself with an honourable family,
whose social position, tastes and sentiments were in harmony with
his own. Besides his Professorship at the Ecole Polytechnique, he

47

filled a chair in the Faculte des Sciences de Paris, and was Assistant-
Professor of Mathematics applied to Physics, at the College de France.
The new government thought proper to establish its title to power de
facto by an oath of allegiance imposed upon all public functionaries,
even on those who had no duty beyond that of teaching the mathe-
matical and physical sciences. Cauchy took refuge in Switzer-
land in order to preserve his loyalty to Charles X. unimpeached.
The presence of so distinguished a geometer in the country of the
Bernoullis and of Euler could not remain long concealed. The king
of Sardinia, informed of his voluntary exile, created for him a chair
of mathematics at Turin, the duties of which Cauchy discharged
with eclat, pursuing at the same time his other researches. Thus
France lost one of her most illustrious geometers, and one of the
most able of her Professors. In 1832 Cauchy was elected a Foreign
Member of the Royal Society. In the same year he was invited to
Prague by Charles X., to take a part in the education of the Count de
Chambord. He sent for his wife and two daughters, and with them
followed the princes to Goritz ; and during the six years devoted to
this honourable employment found leisure to write a multitude of
valuable memoirs on various parts of mathematics, which, scattered
throughout Germany, are not easy to obtain. He took leave of his
pupil in 1837, returned to France, and resumed his place in the
Institute, which, contrary to rule, had been left vacant, — protected
by the admiration which the genius of its possessor inspired.
From this period, his studies being no longer disturbed by the duty
of teaching, his mathematical labours being never interrupted except
when engaged in works of charity, Cauchy poured forth at the
meetings of the Institute the inexhaustible abundance of his mathe-
matical genius. During the last nineteen years of his life, he com-
posed and published in the volumes of the Academy or in the
* Comptes Rendus,' more than 500 memoirs, besides a multitude of
reports on memoirs presented by others. Of this immense mass of
labour, many parts have a great value of their own ; others present
the initiative of ideas and of methods, which have been or will at a
later time be fertile. All bear upon the highest departments of
mathematics, the perfection and extension of pure analysis, the in-
vestigation and direct determination of the planetary movements and
of their most complicated inequalities, the theory of the undulatory

48

movement of light, considered in its utmost generality. Unfortu-
nately, this haste in production did not leave him patience to bring
his works to maturity. Each new way that presented itself to his
mind occupied him exclusively ; and in order to follow it he quitted
that which he had begun to explore, even without taking time to see
to what it would lead. For the sake of proceeding more rapidly,
he almost always condensed his new researches in an unusual nota-
tion, which rendered them unintelligible to everybody but himself;
and often he did not discover that these innovations only disguised
under some strange form results already known.

In 1840 a place in the Bureau des Longitudes became vacant by
the death of Poisson. The members of this body are renewed by
election, subject to the approbation of the Chief of the State.
Cauchy was unanimously elected, but declined to take the oath of
allegiance to the government of Louis Philippe, consequently his
election was not ratified. In 1843 Cauchy was commissioned
by the Academy to verify the determination of an inequality of
long period in the planetary motions. M. Leverrier announced
the discovery, in the motion of the planet Pallas having a period
of 795 years. Its maximum effect upon the longitude of Pallas
exceeds 15', according to the calculations of M. Leverrier. For
want of a direct analytical method, he had determined its amount
by an extremely bold numerical interpolation which required an
immense amount of calculation. In order to avoid the trouble
of verifying it, Cauchy invented a direct analytical method, by which
all inequalities of this kind can be determined in every case. He
obtained the same coefficient as that found by M. Leverrier, and
from that time, in problems of this kind, the power of abstract
science replaced individual exertion. In 1848 Cauchy resumed the
Mathematical Professorship in the Faculte des Sciences de Paris,
the only one of his former posts which remained unoccupied. In
1851 Cauchy resigned this Professorship for the second time, but
soon afterwards, the Minister of Public Instruction, M, Fortoul, easily
obtained permission from the Emperor for Cauchy to resume his
Chair unfettered by any condition or political test. He expressed
his gratitude for this indulgence by devoting the whole of the income
he received from the Faculte des Sciences to charitable purposes in
the little Commune of Sceaux, where he resided. Once, when the

49

Maire, who was the dispenser of his charities, expressed some aston-
ishment on seeing him so prodigal, he exclaimed, " Be not alarmed,
it is the Emperor who pays."

Cauchy's determination of the number of real and imaginary roots
of any algebraic equation ; his rigorous method of calculating ap-
proximately the same roots ; his new theory of the symmetric func-
tions of the coefficients of equations of any degree whatsoever ; his
(l-priori valuation of a quantity less than the least difference between
the roots of an equation ; his mathematical theory of light, and
especially of dispersion ; his h-priori determination, without any pre-
vious photometric observations, without any data besides two angles,
of the quantity of light reflected at the surfaces of metals, — have
placed him among the number of the truly creative minds, and have
made him the illustrious chief of a new mathematical school, much
superior in its aims to the school of Laplace his master, or that of
his rival, Poisson.

A classical education had developed his natural aptitude for the
study of languages. At Turin he lectured in Italian ; at the age of
fifty-three he learned Hebrew, that he might assist his father in
some scriptural researches in which he was engaged.

In the sitting of the Institute on the 4th of May, 1857, M. Cauchy
read a second memoir on the employment in astronomy of coefficient
regulators, an employment which constitutes an artifice in analysis
on which he founded the greatest hopes and which he classed among
the happiest of his discoveries. He was present at the sitting of the
llth of May, but was suffering from a bad cold; his family and
friends perceived with grief that he appeared much weakened, and
that his features were changed. On Tuesday, the 12th of May, he
repaired to his pleasant residence at Sceaux. He was unable to
leave his room, yet nothing indicated his approaching end. He was
continually occupied with the new developments in series, for which
he was indebted to his regulator, and he completed the programme
of his lectures at the Faculte des Sciences. On Thursday, the 21st
of May, he conversed for some time with the Archbishop of Paris.
His weakness increased on Friday, but he slept well that night ; he
awoke at three o'clock on Saturday morning, the 25th of May, in a
state of great feebleness, and in about half an hour expired, appa-
rently without pain.

VOL. IX. E

50

The Rev. WILLIAM DANIEL CONYBEARE, Dean of Llandaff,
was born in London, 7th June, 1787, and died 12th August, 1857>
aged 71. The family name has been for some time honourably
connected with the Church of England. His father was Rector of
St. Botolph, Bishopsgate.

Following at a short interval, in Oxford, the academical progress
of his brother John Josias Conybeare, and his friend William Buck-
land, he speedily associated himself in their mineralogical and
geological studies, contributed actively to the growth of the Oxford
Museum, and assisted in the early labours of the Geological Society.
He explored personally much of the country round Oxford, and
examined the north of Ireland, the vicinity of Bath and Bristol, and
the coasts of Dorset, Devon, and South Wales.

Organic remains attracted his attention in the early part of his
career. In 1814 he presented to the Geological Society remarks on
some singular impressions occurring in flint* ; in 1821, he was
associated with De la Beche in the discovery of a new fossil animal,
forming a link between the Ichthyosaurus and the Crocodile f ; and
in 1824, completed this investigation on the almost perfect skeleton
of the Plesiosaurus^.

In these papers Conybeare opened a new and very fertile field of
research, and cultivated it with success ; manifesting so much know-
ledge of anatomy and the skeleton of reptiles, as to win from the
great author of the ' Ossemens Fossiles' the free adoption of his con-
clusions, novel and startling as they appeared. Whoever will now
read the admirable descriptions by Owen of this extinct reptile, or
strive for himself to recompose from the ordinary fragments in
museums its strange figure, will revere the early and successful
labours of Conybeare, and comprehend in how high a degree they
have helped forward the Palaeontology of Britain.

From time to time the interest of the restorer of Plesiosaurus
dolichodeirus was revived by the discovery of other species of the
genus, so far as to give them a name, but he never again tasked his
powerful mind on a systematic review of the subject : — satisfied,
perhaps, with one long and steady gaze on these wonders of the
earlier world, he resigned to other travellers the road which he had

* Geol. Trans. 1st Ser. ii. 328. f Geol. Trans. 1st Ser. v. 559.

I Geol. Trans. 2nd Ser. i. 381.

51

opened to his own field of research. Always zealous in descriptive
geology, he gave to the Geological Society in 1816 *, "Notices of the
Sections presented by the Cliffs of Antrim and Deny," the fruit of a
tour with Buckland, whom he also accompanied to Germany. In
1822 appeared the first volume of the 'Geology of England and Wales/
in which the names of W. Phillips and W. D. Conybeare occur
together, — a most valuable work, of which the weightiest parts were
contributed by Conybeare. Strange that thirty-five years elapsed in
the life of the author, without drawing from his hand the second part of
that capital work — not less remarkable the fact, that the deep respect
of English geologists prevented any other hand from taking up the
pen to complete the work he had begun so well. Among other
contributions to his favourite science may be mentioned, Memoirs on
the Hydrographical Basin of the Thames f, — on the Structure of
the South Wales Coal Basin J, — on the Extent of Coal in the Mid-
land Counties §, — and on the Great Landslip of Axminster || .

English geology, under all its aspects, was the familiar theme of
his daily conversation ; no one hailed with more delight the dis-
coveries of Murchison and Sedgwick in Siluria and Wales ; the work
of Wood, and Buddie and Hutton in the Coal-fields of the North ;
the successful researches of Mantell in the Wealden, and of Webster
and Lyell in less ancient deposits. Nor was he negligent of the
great contemporary geologists of France and Germany, — Cuvier,
De Beaumont, Bronn, Von Buch, — or of the cultivators of this
science in other parts of Europe. Perhaps nowhere can be found,
previous to 1832, so large and so liberal a review of the progress of
Geology in the Old World and in the New, as in the still very
valuable Report ^f on the state and prospects of this science, which
he read to the British Association assembled in Oxford. In that
and in separate Essays ** he enters fully into the phenomena which
bear most directly on theoretical speculations, and presents, among
other data for reasoning, a large section of the crust of the earth
from the northern extremity of Great Britain to Venice.

In examining some of the districts which he has described, he acted

* Geol. Trans. 1st Ser. ii. 196. f Proc. Geol. Soc. i. 145.

t Phil. Mag. Ser. iii. xi. 110. § Phil. Mag. Ser. iii. iv. 161 ; v. 44.

|| Edin. New Phil. Journ. xxix. 160. fl Brit. Assoc. Report, 1832.

** Phil. Mag. 2nd Ser. viii. 215 ; ix. 19, &c.

52

in conjunction with Buckland ; in other cases his pen was supported
by the pencil of De la Beche ; but in every record of his scientific life,
just self-reliance, close study, logical expression, and completeness of
view, strongly mark the mind of W. Conybeare, — a mind well
trained in letters and philosophy before it was turned to the difficult
problem of the physical history of the earth.

Dean Conybeare was a Corresponding Member of the Institute of
France; he was admitted Fellow of the Royal Society in 1819, but
he was not a contributor to the Philosophical Transactions.

Dr. MARSHALL HALL was born at Basford in Nottinghamshire,
in the year 1790. His father is stated to have been a man of supe-
rior ability, and to have made considerable attainments in chemistry
and mechanics, whereby he was enabled to introduce improvements
into the cotton-spinning trade in which he was engaged.

Dr. Hall received his early education at Nottingham and Newark,
and at the age of twenty entered on the study of medicine at the
University of Edinburgh, where three years later, in 1812, he took
his degree. For the next two years he held the office of Clinical
Clerk (or as it is now termed, ' Resident Physician ') in the Royal
Infirmary of that city, after which, with a view to further professional
improvement, he visited Paris, Berlin, Gottingen, Giessen, and other
medical schools of the Continent of Europe. Having commenced
practice in Nottingham in 1815, he was appointed Physician to the
General Hospital there, and rapidly rose to eminence.
. During the ten years that Dr. Hall followed his profession in his
native county, his mind was actively engaged in scientific pursuits ;
and it was at this time that he communicated to the Medical and
Chirurgical Society of London his well-known memoir "On the
r Effects of the Loss of Blood,'* subsequently published as a separate
work, which was directed against the practice, at that time prevalent,
of what the author considered excessive depletion in inflammatory and
supposed inflammatory disorders.

Having already earned a name in the medical profession, Dr. Hall,

in 1 826, transferred himself to London. His career as a physician

in the metropolis was eminently successful, so that he was enabled at

the age of sixty to release himself from strictly professional labour.

Amid the cares and duties of a London physician's life, Dr. Hall

53

continued to apply himself assiduously to original scientific research,
and physiology, especially in its relations to medicine, was his favourite
pursuit. In 1831 he published his " Essay on the Circulation of the
Blood," which contains observations on the flow of blood in the
capillary vessels of Batrachia and Fishes, and on the characters by
which these vessels are distinguished from arteries and veins. On
this occasion he made known his discovery of a remarkable pulsa-
ting sac or "caudal heart " connected with the vessels in the tail of
the eel. The results of further physiological inquiries were published
in the Philosophical Transactions for 1832, in two papers, one "On
the Inverse Ratio which subsists between the Respiration and Irrita-
bility in the Animal Kingdom," the other "On Hybernation ; " and
a few years later he contributed the articles "Hybernation" and
"Irritability" to Dr. Todd's Cyclopeedia of Anatomy and Physiology.

But his name will hereafter be best known in connexion with the
doctrine of the Reflex Function of the Nervous System, which was
his most engrossing subject of pursuit for the last twenty-five years
of his life. In the Philosophical Transactions for 1833 appeared his
" Memoir on the Reflex Function of the Medulla oblongata and Me-
dulla spinalis," the object of which is to show that certain involun-
tary acts previously designated as " sympathetic motions " are excited
by impressions made on the extremities of certain nerves, arid con-
ducted by them to the spinal marrow and medulla oblongata, whence
as from a centre they are reflected on the motor nerves of the parts
moved ; that these motions are concerned especially in various func-
tions which are necessary for the preservation of the individual or of
the species, and that they are independent alike of sensation and
volition ; moreover, that the " tone " of the muscular system belongs
to the same order of phenomena and depends on the spinal marrow ;
lastly, that the reflex function may be exalted or depressed by medi-
cinal agents, and in its abnormal or morbid conditions give rise to
various well-known spasmodic, convulsive, and other nervous diseases.

Dr. Hall admitted that the phenomena of which he treated had
long been known to physiologists, but he believed himself to have
been the first to show their independence of sensation, to bring them
together under one generalization, to establish with precision the laws
of their production, to assign them their just rank in physiology, and
to apply the doctrine to the elucidation of disease. But while we do

54

not question the sincerity of Dr. Hall's conviction of his own origi-
nality, there can be no doubt that he was much more largely anticipated
by preceding physiologists than he could ever be brought to recognize ;
and this not only in the observation, but in the generalization and
physiological application of the phenomena, and, in short, in all essential
parts of the doctrine, such at least as are likely to maintain their ground.
This, however, being admitted, it is equally true that from the time
this subject was taken up by Dr. Hall, the physiology and pathology
of the nervous system may almost be said to have entered into a new
phase. With all the ardour of a discoverer persuaded of being the
founder of a great and influential doctrine, he thenceforth made the
reflex, or, as he subsequently called it, the excito-motory system, his
chief study, and laboured incessantly in extending and consolidating its
province for the rest of his life; and to him belongs especially the merit
of successfully applying the principle to the interpretation of disease.
By his numerous writings and unwearied personal exertions, atten-
tion was awakened on all sides to the importance of the phenomena ;
and they soon became a prominent subject of intelligent observation
and earnest discussion among physiologists and medical men both in
this country and on the Continent, where Professor Miiller had inde-
pendently and almost simultaneously arrived at results in great part
similar to those of Dr. Hall, though he was somewhat later in publi-
cation. In this way the principle of the reflex function has come to
take its due place in physiology and medicine, and important truths,
previously seen or at least comprehended in their systematic connexion
only by a few, are now established and familar doctrines in science.

Four years after the date of his first memoir, Dr. Hall communi-
cated a second paper to the Royal Society, which formed the subject
of the Bakerian Lecture for 1837. In this paper, which was entitled
" On the True Spinal Marrow, and the Excito-motory System of
Nerves," he gave a new exposition of the constitution of the nervous
system, on the assumption that there are special "excitor" and
"motor" nerve-fibres subservient to the reflex function, and dif-
ferent from the sensory and volunto-motory fibres, though mixed with
them in the same sheaths ; and that these special nerve-fibres are in
relation to a special part of the spinal marrow and of its encephalic
prolongations, which serves as a centre, anatomically blended with,
but physiologically distinct from, the part of the cord ministering to

55

sensation and volition. Opinion was much divided as to the validity
of this hypothesis, and the subsequent progress of inquiry cannot be
said to have been on the whole favourable to it. In the same me-
moir Dr. Hall adduces observations and experiments to show that
the ordinary (but not voluntary) movements of respiration are excited
in a reflex manner through the medulla oblongata, and do not ema-
nate from that part as their primum mobile, as he had previously
conceived in common with most preceding and contemporary phy-
siologists. This second memoir was not inserted in the Philosophical
Transactions, which was ever after a subject of grievance with the
author ; but in point of fact the original matter contained in it had
already been made public by Dr. Hall himself in his ' Lectures on
the Nervous System and its Diseases/ published in 1836 ; and his
new experiments and amended views respecting the respiratory move-
ments had also been communicated by him to the Zoological Society
and published in their ' Proceedings ' in 1 834 : it subsequently ap-
peared along with a reprint of the first memoir as an independent
publication by the author, under the title of ' Memoirs on the Ner-
vous System,' 4to, 1837.

Dr. Hall's further researches and later views in Neuro-physiology
are to be found chiefly in his * New Memoir on the Nervous System/
1843, and his { Synopsis of the Diastaltic Nervous System/ which
is an outline of the Croonian Lectures delivered by him at the Col-
lege of Physicians in 1850. His more strictly professional writings
are many and valuable ; they appeared partly as independent publi-
cations, and partly in Journals and in Transactions of Societies ; but
it would exceed our limits to give even the titles of the numerous and
varied productions of his fertile genius, active temperament and ready
pen. The more important of them are indicated in the obituary
memoirs of Dr. Hall which have appeared in the medical journals ;
but we cannot thus pass over his last service rendered to the cause
of humanity, in the introduction of a simple and easily applied method
of restoring suspended respiration, which, if we may trust the posi-
tive testimony flowing in on all hands, has already been the means
of rescuing many from untimely death.

In 1853 Dr. Hall paid a visit to America, but in the mean time a
severe and exhausting complaint under which he had long suffered
was gaining upon him, and to escape its aggravation by our less

I 56

genial climate he passed the winter of 1854 in Italy ; but his powers
of life at length succumbed, and he died at Brighton on the 1 1th of
August, 1857.

Dr. Hall was a member of the Institute of France, and of most of
the learned societies of Europe and America. The date of his elec-
tion into the Royal Society is April 5, 1832; he served on the
Council in 1850-52.

JOHN AYRTON PARIS, M.D. — The unvaried tenor of a physician's
life ordinarily affords few opportunities for remark, even while he is
rising in the good opinion of the scientific and learned. This obser-
vation must be qualified in relation to the late Dr. Paris. Deeply
and thoroughly versed in the practical studies of his profession, he
became eminent in general science, and in his own profession his
researches tend to throw new lights upon it.

Born in the city of Cambridge in August 1785, and educated
there, partly at home, partly under the care of Mr. Barker of Trinity
Hall, in his early years, he was matriculated at Caius College on
the 17th of December, 1803, and was elected to a Tailored Stu-
dentship in Physic on the 3rd of January, 1804. From the com-
mencement of his career at Cambridge he evinced the strong pre-
dilection for natural science which afterwards distinguished him, and
was a diligent student of chemistry under Professor Farish and of
mineralogy under Dr. Clarke. Leaving Cambridge, he proceeded to
Edinburgh, and having taken full advantage of the professional
teaching of that city, and obtained from Cambridge the degree of
Bachelor in Medicine, he proceeded to London. There his talents
and acquirements obtained for him at once the high opinion and
regard of one similarly accomplished, the late Dr. Maton, which
largely promoted his success, and continued for life. Dr. Paris
became Physician to the Westminster Hospital in 1809 by a large
majority of votes, in his 23rd year.

From London he went in 1813 to Penzance in Cornwall, and there,
besides obtaining a high degree of medical reputation, he became
eminent in mineralogical and geological researches ; he proposed,
indeed established with the cooperation of his friends, and largely
contributed to, the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. His con-
tributions comprise papers " On a Recent Formation of Sandstone

57

occurring in various parts of the North Coast of Cornwall ; " " On
Accidents which occur in the Mines of Cornwall in consequence of
premature Explosion of Gunpowder in Blasting Rocks, and on the
Methods to be adopted for Preventing it;" "Observations on the
Geological Structure of Cornwall," &c. A valuable paper on the
Soils of Cornwall was contributed by him to the Penwith Agricul-
tural Society.

Dr. Paris returned to London in 1817. In the course of an
honourable and successful career of practice, he was elected President
of the Royal College of Physicians, on the death of Sir Henry Hal-
ford, after serving repeatedly in the office of Censor. Finally, in
the full possession of his mental powers, and to the last moment
devoted to the interests of the College, which he loved, Dr. Paris
departed this life, June 24, 1857, under very painful disease, borne by
him with great constancy.

Dr. Paris was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821, and
repeatedly served on the Council.

His works were numerous, and obtained a large circulation. The
' Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence,' published in conjunction with
Mr. Fonblanque, 1825; the 'Treatise on Diet/ 1827; the 'Life of
Sir Humphry Davy,' 1831, a most felicitous instance of perfect bio-
graphy ; his delightful little book, ( Philosophy in Sport made
Science in Earnest.' But, greatest of all in its originality and prac-
tical usefulness, though earliest in its appearance, was Dr. Paris' s
' Pharmacologia ' ; it came out first as a small volume in 1812. On
this last work, if he had published nothing else, his claims, as en-
larging the science of medicine, might safely be rested.

The Rev. WILLIAM SCORESBY, son of the well-known whaling
captain, was born at Crofton near Whitbyin 1789. At the age of ten,
having been taken on a farewell visit to his father, who was about to
set out on a voyage, he was so delighted with all he saw in the ship,
that he contrived a boyish scheme for remaining on board, and thus
unpremeditatedly began his acquaintance with the sea. Some of the
incidents of this voyage, and among them the clever escape from a
hostile cruiser, are related in ' Memorials of the Sea,' a book which
he published fifty years after wards. The voyage made him a con-
firmed sailor, and from 1803 he accompanied his father in the

58

Resolution for eight years, and manifested his diligence and turn for
observation by keeping a regular journal in addition to his other
duties. The fact that he won the responsible post of first mate of
the ship while yet in his sixteenth year, and that he was appointed
commander in 1811, as soon as he became of legal age, supplies good
testimony as to his courage and skill in his adventurous profession.

It was during this period, in 1806, that the Scoresbys sailed to
a higher north latitude than, in the absence of trustworthy evidence
to the contrary, had ever before been reached. Steering northwards
from the western coast of Spitzbergen, they found an open sea, in
which they not only captured as many whales as furnished a full
cargo, but found on one occasion their position to be 81°30'N.,
about 510 miles from the Pole. The sea was then so clear, that but
for the risk of detention from sudden frost, they might have still
sailed uninterruptedly to the northward.

In his subsequent voyages, the younger Scoresby observed the
disappearance of the vast accumulations of ice that had for years
closed the sea on the west of Greenland ; and in 1817, pursuing a
correspondence of some years' standing with Sir Joseph Banks, he
informed that eminent person of the remarkable phenomenon. In
the following year the Government, acting on this information, and
the recommendation of the Council of the Royal Society, despatched
the first of the- expeditions which, within the present century, have
resolved the important geographical question of a north-west

The winter season between his voyages had always been employed
by Scoresby in the acquisition of scientific knowledge : he had
studied during two sessions at Edinburgh, where by his assiduity he
had gained the friendship of some of the Professors. In 1820, after
his seventeenth voyage to the Polar seas, he published, at the sug-
gestion of Prof. Jameson, his well-known book in two volumes, ' An
Account of the Arctic Regions, with a History and Description of
the Northern Whale Fishery.' Being the first popular work on
that subject, it was eagerly read, and while it brought fame to the
author, prepared the way for further developments of whaling enter-
prise, and for arctic research generally.

Meanwhile Capt. Scoresby was making observations on magnetism,
a part of science to which, at a later period of his life, he especially

59

applied, and carrying out measures for preserving the health of his
crews, in which, though he maintained strict discipline, he gained
their esteem. He owed much of his success to a rigid observance of
Sunday, making it a complete day of rest. And it is said that in
" his later voyages he adopted the temperance principle on board his
vessel, finding that hot coffee was a very much stronger preservative
than spirits against the intense cold of arctic regions."

On the death of his second wife in 1822, Capt. Scoresby relin-
quished the whale fishery, and thenceforth devoted himself to scientific
pursuits and religious duties on shore. He had been for some time
a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, when in 1824 he was
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and subsequently
he was chosen a member of the section Geography and Navigation,
of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of France. Yielding
however to the religious convictions which had always characterized
him, he entered himself as a student of Queen's College, Cambridge,
where he took his degree of B.D. in 1834, followed afterwards by
that of D.D. and entrance into Holy Orders. He officiated for
awhile at the Mariners' Church, Liverpool, then at Exeter, and at
Bradford in Yorkshire, but eventually resigned the living and retired
to Torquay.

Here he applied himself anew to the study of magnetic phenomena,
and published in a collected form, with new facts and observations,
the various papers which had appeared from his hand in the Edin-
burgh Philosophical Journal, the Transactions of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh, and the Philosophical Transactions. The import-
ant questions of the effect of the iron of ships upon the compass —
the effect of concussion and of change of latitude on the permanent
magnetism of iron ships — the capacity and retentiveness of steel in
different states for the magnetic condition — the nature and phenomena
of magnetic induction, and other allied questions, are discussed in the
publication referred to, which appeared at intervals from 1839 to
1852, in three volumes, under the title of 'Magnetical Investi-
gations.'

The Reports of the British Association also contain papers by Dr.
Scoresby on these subjects. At the meeting of that body at Glasgow
in 1 855, he communicated additional evidence in favour of his views
and suggestions, particularly on the question of elevating the com-

60

pass to a considerable height above the deck in iron ships. And a
few months later, with a view to further observation and experience,
he undertook a voyage to Australia in the Royal Charter, making
careful and laborious investigations on the question which he had so
much at heart, both going and returning. His arrival at Melbourne
was made the occasion of conferring on him the degree of M.A. of
the University of that city.

Dr. Scoresby came back from Australia in a weakened state of
health, caused by the fatigues of the voyage ; nor did his return home
promote recovery. He grew gradually weaker, and died at Torquay
on the 21st of March, 1857, at the age of sixty-seven, leaving his
third wife a widow.

Dr. Scoresby was the author of several works not mentioned above.
Besides a volume of Sermons and books of a religious character, he
published in 1822, 'Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale
Fishery ; including Researches and Discoveries on the Eastern Coast
of West Greenland.' A translation of this book into German appeared
three years later at Hamburg. In 1851 he brought out a volume,
entitled 'Memorials of the Sea,' being records of his father's ad-
venturous life, and intended to follow it by a similar volume concern-
ing his own. This will probably now appear as a posthumous work.
He published also the ' Zoistic Magazine,' with a view to elicit the
scientific principles of mesmeric phenomena; and during the first
excitement respecting the lost arctic explorers, he wrote 'The
Franklin Expedition,' a small book embodying his views as to the
course and fate of the party, and the means to be taken for their
rescue.

M. THENARD was born on the 4th of May, 1 777, at Nogent sur
Seine, in Champagne. His father, a farmer in humble circumstances,
was a man of strong sense. He soon discovered the abilities of his
son, and, at a great sacrifice to himself, procured for him a good ele-
mentary education at Sens. There, young Thenard acquired a taste
for classical literature, which never forsook him. At the age of sixteen
he went to Paris, in order to study pharmacy, with the intention of
returning to practise it in Loutiere. By good fortune he commenced
his chemical studies in the laboratory of Vauquelin, who soon dis-
covered the talents of his pupil. Thenard felt a new life spring up

61

within him in the midst of the intellectual activity of Paris, and the
intention of returning to Champagne was abandoned. Thenard' s
ability as a teacher, and his power of elucidating science with a kind
of dramatic effect, suggested, it is said, by witnessing the performances
of Talma, induced Vauquelin to obtain for him the appointment of
Repetiteur at the E'cole Poly technique, where he first became ac-
quainted with Gay-Lussac. This happened about the year 1798.
Soon afterwards, Vauquelin deputed him to deliver some chemical
lectures for him at the E'cole Poly technique, celebrated then, as now,
for the ability of its lecturers. In this task he was eminently suc-
cessful, notwithstanding the disadvantage of a strong Champagne
dialect, which he overcame with difficulty. About this time, being
twenty years old, his labours, for which the E'cole Polytechnique
opened a field, attracted the attention, and earned the applause of
Laplace and Berthollet. The'nard's first publication, a memoir on the
combinations of antimony with oxygen and sulphur, appeared in
1800. Guyton de Morveau, one of the Commissioners appointed
to report upon it to the Institute, declared they recognized in
M. Thenard, at that time only twenty-three years of age, a chemist
practised in the most delicate manipulation, and possessed of all the
means of promoting the science, and that he ought to be encouraged
in a career upon which he had entered with such success. In 1801
M. Thenard obtained sebacic acid by submitting to distillation various
fatty substances. He discovered a new method of making cerusse,
which was carried into practice by Hoard; also a blue pigment, known
by his name, obtained by igniting hydrate of alumina with arseniate
or phosphate of the oxide of cobalt, and a very simple and practical
method of purifying oils and rendering them more fit for the pur-
poses of illumination. This process has been used on an enormous
scale for more than the third of a century. He was the first chemist
who devised a process for estimating with accuracy the quantity of
carbonic acid present in atmospheric air, by agitating the air with a
solution of baryta. In 1802 Thenard was appointed to fill the Chair
of Chemistry at the College de France, vacant by the retirement of
Vauquelin, who recommended Thenard as his successor. About the
same period he became one of the ordinary Professors of the E'cole
Polytechnique, and may be considered to have fairly established
himself on a level with the most eminent men of his time. From the

62

year 1807 he was associated with Gay-Lussac in the production of
the * Recherches Physico-chimiques,' which have founded their re-
putation in Europe, and have contributed so largely to the progress
of chemical science. The account of their labours appeared in two
volumes in 1811. The following are some of the more important
subjects discussed in this work. The discovery of a purely chemical
process of preparing in considerable quantities the metals of the
alkalies by decomposing potash and soda by contact with iron at a
high temperature, immediately after Davy had obtained them in
minute quantities by the action of a voltaic current ; the discovery of
boron, of fluoboracic acid, and of hydrofluoric acid ; researches on
muriatic acid and oxygenated muriatic acid, since known as hydro-
chloric acid and chlorine ; and lastly, a discovery which ranks
among those that have had the greatest influence on the progress
of chemistry, two methods of analysing organic compounds, with
an application of one of these methods to the analysis of fifteen
different organic substances. So highly was this work esteemed,
that in 1810 M. Thenard was unanimously elected Member of the
Institute in the place of Fourcroy.

About this time a third Professorship was bestowed upon him, that
of Chemistry at the Faculte des Sciences de Paris. The discharge of
his new duties was followed by the same brilliant success that had
attended his lectures at the E'cole Polytechnique and the College de
France. The three Professorships which he held at the same time,
and the duties of which he discharged without apparent effort,
seemed hardly sufficient to satisfy the extraordinary activity of his
mind. The attractive richness of his teaching, combined with his
beautiful discoveries, spread his reputation over the whole scientific
world. It became requisite to build larger lecture-rooms for him,
and during twenty years he lectured to a class of more than a
thousand hearers. In 1812 appeared his ' Traite E'le'mentaire de
Chimie Theorique et Pratique.' It went through six editions, and
made the fortune of the publisher. This treatise, equally remark-
able for lucidity of exposition and completeness of matter, was
translated into many different languages, promoted a knowledge of
chemistry, and rendered the name of Thenard popular in every country
into which science has penetrated.

The most remarkable of his discoveries was that of the peroxide of

63

hydrogen in 1818. This was followed by the discovery of the per-
oxides of calcium and strontium. M. Pelouze, in his address to the
Academy on the occasion of the death of Thenard, from which, and
that of M. Ch. Giraud, the greater part of this notice is taken,
observes that no person has so largely contributed to spread a taste
for chemistry by his books and lectures, and especially through the
medium of his numerous pupils, as Thenard. In 1827 he was
elected a Member of the Chamber of Deputies, in which he joined
the liberal and moderate party.

After the Revolution of 1830, he became a Member of the Council
of Public Instruction, and soon afterwards, in company with Gay-
Lussac, was called to the Chamber of Peers. In the capacity of
Administrator of the College de France, and of the Faculte des
Sciences, as Member, and afterwards Vice-President, for a great
number of years, of the Conseil superieur de 1' Instruction publique,
he contributed, more than any person since Cuvier, to the develop-
ment and progress of the principal scientific institutions of France.

He was three times President of the Jury of the Exposition ; he
took an active part in the administration of railroads, and was Pre-
sident of the Societe d' Encouragement after the death of Chaptal in
1832.

To the end of his life he took an active share in the labours of the
Academy. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society
in 1824.

He married the daughter of M. Humblot Conte. She was the
granddaughter of Conte, Member of the Institute of Egypt. Her
death, after a union of forty years, was soon followed by that of one
of his sons.

During the last years of his laborious life, he published some in-
teresting researches on the waters of Mont Dore, and, conjointly with
his son, M. Paul Thenard, commenced researches on decompositions
by contact, the first part of which has been read before the Academy.
A few months before his death, he undertook the formation of a
charitable institution, called " La Societe de Secours des Amis des
Sciences." M. Thenard came from his estate of La Ferte-sur-Crosne,
near Chalon-sur-Saone, to his house in the Place Saint-Sulpice in
Paris, in order to undergo a slight surgical operation, the removal of
an encysted tumour. The operation was successfully performed by

64

M. Velpeau. The wound healed rapidly, and there seemed no doubt
of a complete cure, when he was attacked by a catarrhal affection,
which, during the last fifteen years of his life, had often obliged him
to keep his bed. On Thursday, the 18th of June, 1857, the mildness
of the air tempted him to drive in the Bois de Boulogne. On re-
turning to his house about six in the evening, fever had increased, and
the organs of respiration were more and more oppressed, without,
however, causing any serious alarm. On the night of. Friday he
grew worse. His son, M. Paul Thenard, who had been sent for,
arrived on Sunday morning, while M. Thenard was still conscious, and
able to converse. About 2 P.M. his speech failed. He died between
5 and 6 P.M., on Sunday, the 2 1st of June.

The following Table shows the progress and present state of the
Society with respect to the number of Fellows : —

Patron
and
Honorary.

Foreign.

Having
com-
pounded.

Paving
£2l2s.
Annually.

Paying
£4
Annually.

Total.

December 1, 1856. .
Since elected

9

50

376

+ 9

10

275
4-6

720
-f 15

Since compounded

+ 1

-1

— 1

- 1

Since deceased

— 2

— 12

— 2

-3

-19

November 30, 1857

9

48

374

8

276

715

65

VOL. IX.

6G

December 10, 1857.

The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.

Mr. Robert Angus Smith was admitted into the Society.

The President announced that he had appointed the following
gentlemen Vice -Presidents, viz. Mr. Gassiot, Mr. Grove, Dr. Hooker,
Mr. Horner, and Mr. Owen.

The following communications were read : —

I. " On the Chemical Action of Water on Soluble Salts." By
Dr. J. H. GLADSTONE, F.R.S. Received November 19, 185 7.

Before extending my researches on chemical affinity among sub-
stances in solution, it seemed desirable to ascertain, if possible, what
specific chemical action water exerts on a salt. This inquiry is beset
with unusual difficulties, and unfortunately my experiments have not
led to any conclusive result. Yet some of the observations made
during the course of the inquiry have a value independent of theory,
and a brief notice of them may not perhaps be deemed unworthy of
a place in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

It is well known that many anhydrous salts will absorb water, and
still remain solid bodies, either amorphous or crystallized. In such
a case the water combined is always in simple atomic relation with
the salt itself ; great heat is often evolved, and a change of colour
frequently ensues. These " hydrated" salts (as they are usually
considered) are generally soluble in water ; and it is the condition
of such a body when dissolved that opens a wide field for speculation.
The water may act merely as a solvent ; or it may unite without de-
composition with the dissolved salt, becoming an integral part of the
compound in solution ; or reciprocal decomposition may ensue, each
electro-positive element combining with each electro-negative one in
certain proportions ; or the ultimate result may be due to two or more
of these modes of action in conjunction.

When a "hydrated" salt is dissolved in a minimum of water,

67

nothing is usually observed beyond the new physical properties
resulting from the change in its state of aggregation and the absorp-
tion of heat. No change of colour, as far as I can find, ever ensues,
though a change in the amount of fluorescence may occur. When
an anhydrous salt, which will not combine with water to form a
solid compound, dissolves, a change of colour does sometimes ensue.
Sometimes, however, an evident decomposition takes place, the hy-
drogen and oxygen of the water combining each with one of the
elements of the other binary compound, and the products of this
action remaining uncombined. Chloride of bismuth and citrate of
ammonia are instances. But in the vast majority of instances, the
salt MR and the water HO do not suffer reciprocal decomposition,
unless indeed, as has been contended, the resulting MO, HR remain
combined together in solution.

If a reciprocal decomposition of this character actually occurs, it
may be anticipated by analogy, that by increasing the amount of HO,
more MR will be decomposed. Now, if additional water be added
to saturated aqueous solutions of pentachloride of antimony, ferric
sulphate, ammoniacal nitrate of copper, or nitrate of bismuth, decom-
position results, and a precipitate forms proportional within certain
limits to the amount of water added ; but not one of these is a salt
of the simplest constitution. Sometimes, however, a change is ren-
dered apparent in simple salts by a change of colour without the
formation of a precipitate.

This was closely examined. It might be expected, a priori, that
a certain amount of salt would have the same absorbent effect on a
given quantity of light, whether it were dissolved in much or little
water, and that as the absorbent power of water is practically nil, it
would appear to the eye of precisely the same depth and character
of colour in the two cases. And this actually holds good in the
majority of instances ; but to prove it a special contrivance was
necessary, in order to make the same quantity of light impinge upon
the solution before and after dilution. This was effected by means
of colourless cylindrical glasses of uniform diameter and the same
size, closed at one end with a flat plate of glass, so that when placed
upright they could hold liquids : they stood in a case so contrived
that all the light which passed through the strong or diluted solu-
tion, as looked through from above, had to enter by the flat plate

at the bottom. Every experiment was performed by a comparative
method, two glasses being placed side by side, one containing the
solution to be diluted, the other a similar quantity of the same solu-
tion which served as a standard.

In this manner it was determined that the following salts absorbed
the same light whether dissolved in much or in little water : —

Ferrous Sulphate.
Ferric Nitrate.
Ferric Meconate.
Ferric Comenate.
Ferric Comenamate.
Ferric Gallate.
Nitrate of Nickel.
Nitrate of Cobalt.
Sulphate of Cobalt.
Chloride of Chromium.
Acetate of Chromium.
Chromate of Chromium.
Nitrate of Uranium.
Chloride of Uranium.
Sulphate of Ceric Oxide.

Terchloride of Gold.
Terbromide of Gold.
Protochloride of Platinum

(in hydrochloric acid).
Bichloride of Platinum.
Bichloride of Palladium.
Chromate of Potash.
Ferrocyanide of Potassium.
Ferridcyanide of Potassium.
Nitroprusside of Sodium.
Sulphindigotic acid.
Sulphindigotate of Ammonia.
Carbazotate of Copper.
Pentasulphide of Potassium.

The following salts were affected in regard to their absorption of
light, by adding water to their saturated solutions : —

Salt.

Saturated solution.

Dilute solution.

Ferric Acetate.

Red.

Darker.

Ferric Tartrate.

Red.

Slightly paler.

Ferric Chloride.

Orange-red.

Orange-yellow.

Ferric Citrate.

Red.

Orange and paler.

Ferric Sulphocyanide.

Intense red.

Orange.

Chloride of Nickel.

Yellowish green.

Bluish green.

Iodide of Nickel.

Deep green.

Paler blue-green.

Chloride of Cobalt.

Red.

Paler and less pure.

Iodide of Cobalt.

Deep green.

Pale red.

Acetate of Cobalt.

Red.

Paler and more orange.

Sulphocyanide of Cobalt.

Intense purple.

Pale red.

Chloride of Copper.

Green.

Blue.

Bromide of Copper.

Green.

Blue.

Acetate of Copper.

Greenish blue.

Paler and purer blue.

Permanganate of Potash.

Purple.

Paler and redder.

Chromic acid.

Red.

Orange.

That these changes of colour are due to the action of the water,
and not to any merely physical cause, is proved by the fact that
alcohol does not occasion them. Quantitative experiments were
instituted with acetate of copper and Sulphocyanide of iron, to deter-
mine whether the effect of successive additions of water is in a
decreasing ratio. It was found to be so on the whole, but the

results showed certain irregularities that do not usually occur in
cases of reciprocal decomposition, where the mass of one of the
compounds is successively increased.

A prismatic examination of the rays absorbed by these salts in
different states of solution revealed two very suggestive facts. The
one is, that hi every case (except ferric acetate) the salt in dilute
solution not only transmits every ray that was transmitted by it in
saturated solution, but also some rays which it then absorbed. The
other is, that strong solutions of the chlorides, bromides, and iodides
of copper, cobalt, nickel, and iron — analogous metals — exhibit not
only the absorption due to the respective bases, but another absorp-
tion which can be identified with that produced by the halogens
themselves when simply dissolved in water ; while, when these solu-
tions are diluted, they cease to produce this second absorption, and
give precisely the same prismatic image as any compound of the
same base with a colourless acid. The amount of water required to
effect this change depends on the temperature. That the phenomena
indicate some difference of arrangement among the elements of the
dissolved salt and the water, cannot, I think, be doubted, but they
fail to show in any distinct manner what that difference is.

The action of water on double salts is a still more complicated
problem ; but the question as to whether water separates the two
components did not prove so difficult of decision. While on the one
hand the physical properties of many double salts, as for instance
the potassio-chloride or iodide of platinum, prove that they are not
decomposed by water, the experiments of Graham, on the other hand,
show that some salts, as for instance alum, suffer at least a partial
decomposition in diffusion.

The iodide of mercury and potassium, and the sulphocyanide of
silver and potassium, dissolve in a small quantity of water, but the
addition of more causes the separation of the insoluble component.
The double sulphates of copper, nickel, or chromium with potash,
the sulphate of copper and ammonia, the chloride of platinum and
potassium, the iodides of platinum or gold with potassium, and the
hydrochlorate of chloride of gold, do not change in colour on the
dilution of their aqueous solutions ; but this does not prove that no
separation has taken place, for the colour of these double salts in
solution is precisely that of an equivalent amount of that component

70

to which the colour is due. But bichlorate of potash and bicome-
namate of iron likewise exhibit no change of colour on dilution,
though such must ensue, if they be converted into neutral salt and
free acid. On the other hand, the red potassio-oxalate of chromium
varies in intensity of colour on the addition of water, and the different
double chlorides of copper undergo the same change as the simple
salt. If hydrochlorate of terchloride of gold be added to the terbro-
mide of that metal, a reduction in colour ensues, and an analogous
result is obtained when the double sulphate of copper and potash
acts on the acetate of copper — facts which point to a decomposition
of the double salt in solution. Indeed it is evident that some double
salts are resolved more or less into their components by water, while
others are not so affected.

The general tendency of my observations has led me to the opinion,
that water does not act upon a salt dissolved in it in a manner analo-
gous to that of the hydracids, but I hesitate to draw any conclusion
as to the rational constitution of a dissolved salt.

II. " On the Molecular Properties of Antimony." By GEORGE
GORE, Esq. Communicated by Dr. TYNDALL, F.R.S.
Received December 10, 1857.

(Abstract.)

Antimony may be readily deposited by the electro-process from
either of the following liquids : — 5 parts of tartar-emetic and 5 parts
of tartaric acid dissolved in a mixture of 2 parts of hydrochloric acid
and 30 parts of water ; or 3 or 4 parts of tartar-emetic dissolved
in 1 part of the ordinary chloride of antimony.

The metallic deposits obtained from these two liquids differ greatly
in appearance, in structure, and in physical properties : that obtained
from the first liquid has a silver-grey colour and frosted surface, is
hard in texture, and has a beautiful radiating crystalline structure ;
whilst that obtained from the second liquid has the colour and ap-
pearance of highly polished steel, and has a bright metallic amor-
phous fracture. The specific gravity of the former is 6 '5 5, whilst
that of the latter is 5*78, both being somewhat variable in this
respect. The electro-chemical equivalent of the crystalline variety,

71

after deducting a small portion of gas contained in it, is about 40 '2 ;
and of the amorphous kind, after deducting a much larger per-cent-
age of gas and of chloride of antimony, which it always contains,
the same; but the equivalents actually obtained, including those
substances, were 40*7 for the crystalline and 43*3 for the amorphous
variety. Amorphous antimony was found to be electro-positive to
the crystalline kind, both in acids and alkalies ; it was also thermo-
electro-positive to that substance ; and both reduced silver by im-
mersion in a solution of nitrate of silver.

Both these substances when deposited are in unequal states of
cohesive tension at their two surfaces, frequently in so great a degree
as to rent the metal in all directions. But the most remarkable cir-
cumstance, and of which a brief account was published in the Philo-
sophical Magazine, January 1855, is, that amorphous antimony is
liable, by percussion or heat, to undergo a rapid and intense mole-
cular change throughout its mass, consisting apparently of a violent
commotion amongst its particles, similar, but in a much higher de-
gree, to the changes already observed by other experimentalists in
sulphur, selenium, iodide of mercury, &c., and attended by evolution
of an extraordinary amount of heat, sufficient, when the substance is
massive, to raise its temperature from 60° to upwards of 450° Fahr.,
melting in several instances bars of tin and other metals.

During the action the chloride of antimony and a portion of the
gas are expelled by the heat, and the substance loses its remarkable
property. After the action the antimony is found to have undergone
no oxidation, but to have considerably altered in its physical charac-
ters ; it has lost its steel-bright colour and become comparatively
grey, and has acquired a dull grey granular fracture ; its specific
gravity has also increased, and it has evidently passed a considerable
stage towards the condition of the other variety. The grey metal
undergoes no such change.

By careful trituration of thin pieces of the amorphous metal under
cold water, it has been obtained in the state of a fine powder pos-
sessing the same molecular property. The chloride of antimony
adheres to the metal with considerable force, and is only partly
removed by digesting the powder in dilute hydrochloric acid for a
week ; and the gas contained in both varieties is only expelled by
pressing them.

72

III. "Researches on the Structure and Homology of the
Reproductive Organs of the Annelids." By THOMAS WIL-
LIAMS, M.D.,F.L.S., Physician to the Swansea Infirmary.
Communicated by THOMAS BELL, Esq., F.R.S., Pres. L.S.
Received October 21, 1857.

The present communication is a revision of a paper by the author,
which was read on the 12th of February, 1857, under which date
an Abstract is given.

December 17, 1857.
Major-General SABINE, Treasurer and V.P., in the Chair.

The following communications were read : —

I. " Observations on the Poison of the Upas Antiar" By Pro-
fessor ALBERT KOLLIKER, of Wiirzburg. Communicated
by Sir B. C. BRODIE, Bart. Received December 1, 1857.

During my stay in England, in the autumn of 1857, I was so
fortunate as to acquire the rare poison of the famous Antiaris toxi-
caria (Lesch.), with which no experiments have been tried since the
time of Magendie, Brodie, Horsfield, and Schnell and Emmert (1809-
1815). I owe my specimens of the Antiar poison to my friend Prof.
Christison, of Edinburgh, who had it from Borneo, and to Dr. Hors-
field, of London, who collected it himself during his stay at Java in
the beginning of this century ; and as both specimens were fully
active — as some preliminary experiments made in company with my
friends Dr. Sharpey and Dr. Allen Thomson showed — I thought
it well worth while to devote some time to the study of the poison,
and to try to elucidate its manner of action on the animal organism.
The following are the principal results which I obtained in my expe-
riments with frogs, and I hope, that they will not be deemed unworthy
of notice by those who take an interest in the physiological action
of poisons in general.

73

The Antiar, like most other poisons, acts from the intestinal canal,
and from wounds ; but it must be remarked, that it is much more ener-
getic and rapid when introduced into a wound. The symptoms which
are observed in frogs, in the latter case, are the following : — First of
all, the voluntary movements become less energetic, and at length
cease totally, 30 to 40 minutes after the introduction of the poison
(after 21m min. and lh 21m max.). Then follows a time in which
reflex movements may be caused by stimulating the skin ; but this
faculty also is lost very soon, viz. at from 50 to 60 minutes (at 33m
min. and 85m max.) ; and the animals die without the slightest
trace of convulsions or tetanic spasm. If now the frogs are opened,
we find that, without any exception, the heart has ceased to beat.
The auricles are dilated, the ventricle corrugated, rather small, and
generally red, as if blood had been extravasated into its muscular
parietes ; but very soon the exposure of the heart to the air causes
the ventricle to shrink a little more, and to become pale and stiff, as
if in the state of rigor mortis. All interior organs, especially the
lungs, liver, stomach, intestine, and kidneys, are gorged with blood,
and in a state of great, especially venous, hypersemia. The blood
is fluid and rather dark, but soon coagulates when exposed to the
air, and assumes a brighter colour. The lymphatic hearts cease to
beat as soon as the reflex movements are lost. At the same time
the nerves are yet found excitable, but their power is very low, and
generally vanishes in the second hour after the application of the
poison. The same must be said of the muscles, which contract
very feebly when directly stimulated by galvanism, and in most
cases lose their power totally in the second or third hour, and gene-
rally a little after their nerves. The rigor mortis begins early,
sometimes in the sixth hour, and is generally well established at
the eighteenth hour.

Amongst all these symptoms, to which we may add some signs of
vomiting occurring now and then, there was none which attracted
my attention more than the cessation of the movements of the heart,
considering the great energy which this organ possesses in frogs ;
and I tried, therefore, before all, to elucidate the action of the
Antiar upon the heart. For this purpose I instituted a new
series of experiments, in which I exposed the heart by the section
of the sternum, before the poison was introduced into a wound of

74

the back ; and in this way I easily got the result, that the heart
ceases to beat as soon as from the fifth to the tenth minute after
the introduction of the Antiar ; and so, that first the ventricle stops,
and half a minute or one minute later, also the auricles. Now, as
the frogs at this time are not at all deprived of their faculty to
move, we may have the rather astonishing view of an animal, with
artificially-paralysed heart, which moves and leaps as freely as if
nothing had happened.

The experiments just mentioned prove, that the first action of the
Upas Antiar is to paralyse the heart ; and I am therefore quite in
accordance with Sir Benjamin Brodie, who, by his experiments on
mammalia, came to the same result in 1812 ; whilst I cannot otherwise
than disagree with Schnell (Diss. de Upas Antiar, Tubingae, 1815),
who assumes that this poison acts in the first place on the spinal
marrow. Now this point fixed, the further question arises, whether
the other symptoms mentioned, viz. the paralysis of the voluntary
and reflex movements, and the loss of the irritability of the mus-
cles and nerves, are only the results of the paralysis of the heart,
or must be attributed to a specific action of the Antiar. For the
elucidation of this question, I found it necessary to study the con-
sequences of the suppression of the heart's action on the organism
of frogs, which I did in the same way as it had been done by others,
especially by Kuude (Miiller's Archiv, 1847) ; viz. by cutting out the
heart, or by putting a ligature around the base of it, so as to stop the
circulation totally. The results of these experiments were in both
cases the same, that is to say, the voluntary movements ceased in
from 30 to 60 minutes, and the reflex movements after one or two
hours. Hence it follows that these two symptoms of the poisoning
with Antiar are simply dependent on the paralysis of the heart caused
by it. With reference to the irritability of the muscles and nerves,
on the contrary, it is easy to show that the ligature or excision of the
heart has not the same influence as the Antiar ; inasmuch as in the
first case the muscles and nerves are found irritable six or seven
hours, and more, after the experiment has been made. Therefore it
may be said that the Antiar has a direct action on these organs.

These points once demonstrated, there remained one more question
to elucidate, namely, whether the Antiar acts only upon the mus-
cles, or also upon the nerves. If we consider that the Antiar un-

75

doubtedly paralyses the muscles, we may easily see that the loss of the
excitability of the nerves possibly depends merely upon the impair-
ment of the muscular contractility, and is therefore not real, but only
apparent. With a view to determine the real state of things, I
tried a third series of experiments — poisoning frogs in such a
manner that the muscles of one limb were kept free from the influ-
ence of the poison. This was done in two ways : first, by putting
a ligature round the crural artery and vein of one leg ; and secondly,
by cutting through a leg entirely, after the ligature of its vessels, with
the exception only of the ischiadic nerve. In poisoning frogs treated
in one of these ways, through a wound of the back, I found that, with
the exception of the heart, the Antiar acts in the first instance upon
the muscles. This is shown by the fact, that in the second hour, at
the time when the muscles of the poisoned parts have lost their
irritability, the nerves of the sacral plexus in the abdomen still
possess their full influence upon the muscles of the leg whlfch has
been kept free from the action of the poison. One might be in-
clined from this to conclude, that the nerves are not at all acted
upon by the Antiar ; but this inference would be erroneous. In fact,
the experiments just mentioned, if followed a little longer, show
that in the third or fourth hour the sacral plexus also becomes
inactive, at a time when the muscles of the non-poisoned leg are
fully contractile. The Antiar, therefore, paralyses also the nervous
trunks, but later than the muscles.

From all these experiments, it seems to follow that the Antiar is
a poison which acts principally upon the muscular system (the
heart and the voluntary muscles), a conclusion, in favour of which
I may further add, that the muscles and the heart of frogs poisoned by
Urari (Woorara, Curare) lose their irritability totally, and in a short
time, if Antiar is introduced into a wound some time after the Urari.
If we consider that, as I have shown (see Proceedings of the Royal
Society, 1856, p. 201), the Urari only acts upon the terminations of
the nerves in the muscles, and does not affect the irritability of the
heart and muscles at all, we may conclude, that a poison, which,
as the Antiar, is capable of paralysing the muscles after the Urari,
has really a direct action upon the muscular fibre.

The results of my investigation into the effects of the Antiar upon
frogs, are therefore the following : —

76

1. The Antiar is a paralysing poison.

2. It acts in the first instance and with great rapidity (in 5 to
10 minutes) upon the heart, and stops its action.

3. The consequences of this paralysis of the heart are the cessa-
tion of the voluntary and reflex movements in the first and second
hour after the introduction of the poison.

4. The Antiar paralyses in the second place the voluntary
muscles.

5. In the third place it causes the loss of excitability of the great
nervous trunks.

6. The heart and muscles of frogs poisoned with Urari may be
paralysed by Antiar.

7. From all this it may be deduced, that the Antiar principally
acts upon the muscular fibre and causes paralysis of it.

So much for this time. My experiments with the Antiar upon
warm-blooded animals have only begun, and I am not yet able to
draw any conclusion from them. As soon as this will be possible, I
shall take the liberty to submit them to the Royal Society, together
with the results of my experiments with the Upas tieute, which
poison I had also the good fortune to obtain through the kindness of
Sir Benjamin Brodie and Dr. Horsfield. With regard to the Antiar
I may further add, that experiments made independently, and at
the same time, by my friend Dr. Sharpey with this poison, have con-
ducted to the same results as my own.

II. " On some Physical Properties of Ice." By JOHN TYNDALL,
Ph.D., F.R.S. Received December 17, 1857.

(Abstract.)

In this paper the following points are considered : —

1 . The effects of radiant heat upon ice.

2. The effects of conducted heat upon ice.

3. The air- and water- cavities of ice.

4. The effects of pressure upon ice.

For the experiments on radiant heat, slabs of Wenharn Lake and
Norway ice were made use of. Through these a solar beam, con-

77

densed by a double convex lens, was transmitted. At the moment
the beam crossed the transparent solid, the track of the beam became
instantly starred by little lustrous spots, like shining air-bubbles.
Round each of these a figure, shaped like a flower of six petals, was
formed. The petals were manifestly liquid water. When the beam
was permitted to traverse different portions of the ice in succession,
the sudden appearance of the stars, and the formation and growth of
the flowers around them, could be distinctly observed through an
ordinary pocket lens.

To test whether the brilliant spots at the centres of the flowers
contained air or not, portions of ice containing them were gradually
melted in warm water. The moment a liquid connexion was esta-
blished between the cavities and the atmosphere, the bubbles col-
lapsed, and no trace of air rose to the surface of the water. The
formation of each liquid flower is therefore accompanied by the
formation of a vacuum at its centre.

The perfect symmetry of these flowers at once enables us to infer
that ice is a uniaxal crystal, the line perpendicular to the planes in
which the flowers are produced being the optic axis.

For a long time during the investigation it was found that the
flowers were formed in planes parallel to those of freezing ; but some
apparent exceptions to this rule were afterwards noticed, which are
described in the paper.

In some masses of ice, apparently homogeneous, the flowers were
formed on the track of the beam, in planes which were in some cases
a quarter of an inch apart. This proves that the interior portions
of a mass of ice may be melted by radiant heat which has traversed
other portions of the mass without melting them.

In a second section of the paper the author describes the gradual
liquefaction of masses of ice by the formation of drops of water within
them ; and he infers from his observations that the melting-point of
ice oscillates within small limits on each side of the ordinary standard.
Through weakness of crystalline texture, or some other cause, some
portions of a mass of ice melt at a temperature slightly under 32°
Fahr., while others of stronger texture require a temperature slightly
over 32° to liquefy them. The consequence is, that such a mass,
raised to the temperature 32°, will have some of its parts liquid and
some solid.

78

In a third section the air- and water-cavities observed in ice are
examined. These the author observed in lake ice, and they are
manifestly the same as those described by M. Agassiz, the Messrs.
Schlagintweit, and Mr. Huxley, as occurring in the ice of glaciers.
The hypothesis of M. Agassiz and the Messrs. Schlagintweit is, that
the air-bubble absorbs the heat which the ice, as a diathermanous
body, has permitted to pass, the solid surrounding the bubble being
liquefied by the heat thus absorbed. Mr. Huxley makes the suppo-
sition most in accordance with the facts known at the time of his
observations, namely, that the water in the cavity has never been
frozen. It is shown by the author that the water-cavities examined
by him have been produced by the melting of the ice.

But the hypothesis of M. Agassiz and the Messrs. Schlagintweit,
which appears to have received general acceptance, leads to the fol-
lowing consequences : — Taking the specific heat of water and of air
into account, the author shows that a bubble of air, in order to raise
its own volume of water 1° in temperature, must lose 3080°.

Taking the latent heat of water into account, the author shows
that, to melt its own volume of ice, an air-bubble must part with
3080X142-6, or 439,208° of temperature. Now M. Agassiz states,
that when a piece of ice containing bubbles is exposed to the sun,
the water formed soon exceeds the air in volume. Hence, if his
hypothesis be correct, the quantity of heat absorbed by the air in
the brief time of an observation, would, if it had not been communi-
cated to the ice, be sufficient to raise the bubble to a temperature
1 60 times that of fused cast iron. The author further infers, from
the experiments of Delaroche and Melloni, that the quantity of heat
absorbed by a bubble of air at the earth's surface, after the heat has
traversed our atmosphere and been sifted by it, is absolutely inap-
preciable. This conclusion becomes stronger when the absorption
by the ice in the case before us is added to the absorption by the
atmosphere.

Regarding heat as a mode of motion, the author shows that the
liberty of liquidity is attained by the molecules at the surface of a
mass of ice before the molecules at the centre of the mass can attain
this liberty. Within the mass each molecule is controlled in its
motion by the surrounding molecules. But if a cavity exist at the
interior, the molecules surrounding that cavity are in a condition

79

*

similar to those at the surface ; and they are liberated by an amount
of motion which has been transmitted through the ice without pre-
judice to its solidity. The conception is helped when we call to
mind the transmission of motion through a series of elastic balls, by
which the last ball of the series is detached, while the others do not
suffer visible separation.

The author proves, by actual experiment, that the interior portions
of a mass of ice may be liquefied by an amount of heat which has
been conducted through the exterior portions without melting
them.

The converse of this takes place when two pieces of ice at 32°
Fahr., with moist surfaces, are brought into contact. Superficial
portions are by this act virtually transferred to the centre ; and
as equilibrium soon sets in between the motion of the tenuous film
of moisture between the pieces of ice and the solid on each side of
it, the consequence is shown to be that the film freezes, and cements
the two pieces of ice together. The fourth section of the paper is
devoted to these considerations.

In the fifth section a series of observations bearing upon the con-
ductivity of ice for heat is recorded.

In the sixth section the influence of pressure upon ice is examined.
A cylinder of the substance was placed between two slabs of box-
wood, and subjected to a gradually-increasing pressure. Looked at
perpendicular to the axis, cloudy lines were observed drawing them-
selves across the cylinder. Looked at obliquely, these lines were
found to be the sections of dim surfaces which traversed the cylin-
der, and gave it the appearance of a crystal of gypsum whose planes
of cleavage had been forced out of optical contact by some external
force.

The surfaces are not of plates of air, for they are formed when the
compressed ice is kept under water. They also commence sometimes
in the centre of the mass, and spread gradually on all sides till they
finally embrace the entire transverse section of the cylinder. A
concave mirror was so disposed that the diffuse light of day was
thrown upon the cylinder while under pressure. The hazy surfaces
produced by the compression of the mass were observed to be in a
state of intense commotion, which followed closely upon the edge of

80

the surface as it advanced through the solid. It is finally shown
that these surfaces are due to the liquefaction of the ice in planes
perpendicular to the pressure.

The surfaces were always formed with great facility parallel to
those planes in which the liquid flowers already described are pro-
duced by radiant heat, while it is exceedingly difficult to obtain them
perpendicular to these planes. Thus, whether we apply heat or
pressure, the experiments show that ice melts with peculiar facility
in certain directions.

The Society then adjourned over the Christmas holidays, to
January 7, 1858.

81

January 7, 1858.

J. P. GASSIOT, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair.
The following communications were read : —

I. " Remarks upon the Magnetic Observations transmitted from
York Fort in Hudson's Bay, in August 1857," by Lieut.
BLAKISTON, of the Royal Artillery. By Major-General
SABINE, R.A., Treas. and V.P.R.S. Received December
16, 1857.

In the spring of 1857, Her Majesty's Government, designing to
send an expedition to examine and survey the yet unsettled country
north of the boundary-line between the British territory and that of
the United States, and comprised between Canada on the east and
the Rocky Mountains on the west, notified their intention to the
Royal Society, and invited suggestions regarding any objects of
physical research, for which the Royal Society might deem this to be
a fitting occasion.

Amongst the subjects to which attention was called in the reply,
the expediency of confirming and extending the Magnetic Survey of
British North America, which, at the instigation of the Royal Society,
was made in the years 1843 and 1844, and of which the results are
contained in the * Philosophical Transactions ' for 1846, Art. XVII.,
was not forgotten ; and Lieut. Blakiston, of the Royal Artillery, per-
sonally known to Mr. Palliser, the conductor of the proposed Expedi-
tion, having been appointed to the special charge of the Magnetic
Observations, and to assfst generally in Geographical Determinations,
the Royal Society undertook to provide the instruments suitable for
the purpose, and with the sanction of the Committee of the Kew
Observatory of the British Association, placed their preparation
under the superintendence of Mr. Welsh, Director of that Observa-
tory, where also Lieut. Blakiston received instructions for their use,
and acquired practical experience in their manipulation. About the
middle of June, Lieut. Blakiston sailed in the Hudson's Bay Com-

VOL. IX. G

82

pany's ship the * Prince of Wales ' for York Fort, where he arrived
on the 16th of August, and after completing the Magnetic Observa-
tions which he had been charged to make at that station, proceeded
on the 30th of the same month, by the canoe route, to join Mr.
Palliser, who had quitted England some days before him, and had
taken the route by the United States to Canada and the Red River
Settlement, and thence to Carlton House, where the whole party
would be assembled in the fall.

The care which Lieut. Blakiston bestowed upon his determinations
at York Fort appears to have been commensurate with the theoreti-
cal importance which, before he quitted England, he was aware would
attach to the results. In submitting these to the Society, I must
solicit a continuance of the patience and indulgence so kindly given
to me on a recent occasion ; for the subject of Terrestrial Magnetism
is far less generally understood than I believe it deserves to be ;
and there is often an apparent complexity in the details, especially
to those who are not familiar with the subject, which requires time
to be occupied in their elucidation. I shall commence with showing
the confirmation which Lieut. Blakiston' s results give to the ap-
proximate accuracy of the value assigned in the 'Philosophical Trans-
actions' for 1846, for the absolute magnetic force at its principal
point of maximum in the northern hemisphere.

Those who are conversant, either from personal recollection or as
a matter of history, with the opinions regarding the phenomena of
terrestrial magnetism entertained in the first quarter of the present
century, will scarcely need to be reminded how generally the belief
then prevailed, that the magnetic dip and the intensity of the mag-
netic force at different points of the earth's surface might be repre-
sented with at least a sufficient approximation by mathematical for-
mulae, obtained by supposing the magnetism of the earth to be con-
centrated into two magnetic poles, very near to each other and to
the earth's centre ; the supposition being also equivalent to that of
an infinite number of small magnets parallel to each other, distri-
buted equally throughout the earth's surface. According to this
supposition, the greatest intensity of the magnetic force in each of
the two hemispheres should be found at the points where the dip
should be 90°, and the intensity should vary in the proportion of 2 : 1
between places where the dip should be respectively 90° and 0°.

83

In the Arctic Expeditions of 1818, 1819, and 1820, I had an op-
portunity of measuring the intensity of the magnetic force at several
stations in the immediate vicinity of the dip of 90° ; and in the years
1821 and 1822, of comparing these measures with others made at
several points of the coasts of Europe, Africa, and America, and at
islands in the Atlantic Ocean (which I visited for the purpose of
making observations with the pendulum), in dips which, including the
Arctic stations, varied from 0° to 88° 47'. The result of this compa-
rison was to place beyond a question the irreconcilability of the phe-
nomena with the supposition of a coincidence between the points of
90° of dip and of the maximum of force. For example, the mag-
netic force was found to be considerably greater at New York, where
the dip was not more than 73°, than at the stations in the Polar Sea
where it was nearly 90° ; and by graphical delineations, according to
well-known methods, in which all the observations were taken into
the account, it was shown that whilst the dip of 90° could not be in
a more southerly latitude than 70°, the greatest intensity of the
force would be found somewhere about the 53rd parallel in the
vicinity of Hudson's Bay, not less than 1000 geographical miles
distant from the point of 90° of dip with which it had been supposed
to coincide,

The hypothesis, so generally put forward in the elementary trea-
tises on Magnetism of that period, was therefore shown to be no
longer tenable. It was in fact specially one of that class of specula-
tions designated by Bacon as "anticipations of nature," of which
it is so commonly the fate to be swept away, as knowledge advances
by that more slow and gradual, but more philosophical and certain
"interpretation of nature," which results from a strictly inductive
process.

Steadily pursuing this last-named process, the Royal Society — after
provision had been made by the establishment of Colonial Magnetic
Observatories for a systematic examination of the phenomena of the
variations of comparatively small amount, which are produced at the
surface of our planet by the influence of other bodies of our system;
and by the Antarctic Expedition of Sir James Ross, for the magnetic
survey of such portions of the higher latitudes of the southern hemi-
sphere as are accessible to navigation, — recommended to Her Majesty's
Government, that in the northern hemisphere a magnetic survey

G2

84

should be made of those parts of the British possessions which were
adjacent to the position which observation had indicated as that of the
principal maximum of the magnetic force in that hemisphere. This
recommendation was carried out in 1843 and 1844, and the particulars
of the survey, together with the conclusions derived from it, form
No. VII. of the magnetic contributions in the ' Philosophical Trans-
actions' for 1846, Art. XVII. The geographical position of the maxi-
mum of magnetic force derived from the combination of the 78 sta-
tions of that survey was 52° 19' N. and 91° 59' W. of Greenwich, and
the absolute value of the force at its point of maximum was found to
be 14-21 in British units (i. e. of mass, a grain ; of time, a second; and
of space, a foot). As both the geographical position of the point of
maximum, and the absolute value of the force prevailing there, are sub-
ject to a secular variation, of which the nature, the period, and the
epochs are desiderata of the highest theoretical importance, — and as
the determinations which are now made may therefore probably be
referred to as data by remote posterity, — their confirmation, by the
observations of a second observer visiting the same localities within a
few years of the same date, furnished with different instruments, and
pursuing in some respects different methods, was viewed as a circum-
stance nfuch to be desired by the Committee of the Royal Society
appointed, at the request of Her Majesty's Government, to suggest
scientific desiderata, to be accomplished by Mr. Palliser's North
American Expedition.

York Fort had been one of the stations visited by Lieut, (now
Lieut.-Col.) Lefroy, in the Survey of 1843-44. It is situated
nearly due north of the point of maximum deduced from that survey,
and less than 300 miles distant from it. The intensity of the force
at York Fort in July 1843, derived from the combined observations
of the inclination and of the horizontal force observed by Gauss's well-
known absolute method, was 14' 07 ; and by Mr. Fox's statical appa-
ratus, taking Toronto as a base, 14 '03. We have now to compare
with these Lieut. Blakistoii's results in August 1857, viz. 14-024 by
the combination of the inclination and the absolute horizontal force,
and 14*017 by a recent improvement of Dr. Lloyd's statical method,
which renders the result independent of changes which may take place
in the magnetic moment of the needle employed in the determination.
The first of these two last-named results has been computed by Mr.

85

Welsh, of the Kew Observatory, from the observations received from
Lieut. Blakiston, who was too much pressed for time by his ap-
proaching departure from York Fort to compute them himself.
The second is the mean of five determinations on three different
days, which were computed by himself on the spot ; they are severally
as follows : —

August 20th, noon 14-03

„ 20th, 3 P.M 14-01

„ 22nd, 5 P.M 14-024

„ 24th, noon 14*00

„ 24th, 3 P.M 14-02

Mean 14-017

We have therefore by the mean of the two methods in 1843,
14-05, and by the mean of the two methods in 1857, 14-02, dif-
fering only about ^y^th from each other. As far, therefore, as
agreement at a single station may be regarded as confirming the
conclusions of the survey of 1843-44, Lieut. Blakiston's results
furnish that confirmation ; and judging from the result at the first
station at which the comparison has been made, we may anticipate,
from the opportunities which he is likely to have of repeating obser-
vations at other stations of the former survey, as well as of adding sta-
tions previously unvisited, that the ultimate conclusion in respect to
the absolute value of the magnetic force at its point of maximum at
this particular magnetic epoch, will be as perfect as could be desired.
With respect to its present geographical position, we may also hope
that Lieut. Blakiston may have an opportunity, before his employ-
ment is terminated, of removing any doubts that may exist as to the
precision of the longitude assigned to it by the survey of 1843-44.
It cannot have escaped notice that the 78 stations of that survey,
which by their combination assigned the latitude and longitude of
the point of maximum, did not perfectly fulfil one important condi-
tion regarding their distribution, viz. that of symmetrical arrange-
ment on all sides of the point in question. There was a considerable
preponderance of stations situated on the west of the meridian of the
point itself, and a deficiency on the eastern side, which might have
been remedied, had circumstances permitted, by a line of stations as
originally contemplated on the canoe route from Canada to Moose

86

Fort at the south-western end of Hudson's Bay, and possibly by
some additional stations between Moose Fort and York Fort. The
experience which Lieut. Blakiston has had in canoe- travelling will
have prepared him to profit by the opportunities it may afford for
observation, and the route referred to is one of the ordinary canoe
routes of the Hudson's Bay Company: with this addition, the deter-
minations of geographical position and of the value of the magnetic
force at its point of maximum, may be expected to be amongst the
most perfect, as they -will undoubtedly be amongst the most import-
ant data, in this great branch of Physical Geography.

I proceed to notice Lieut. Blakiston' s observations upon the mag-
netic declination at York Fort, which, taken in conjunction with those
of the survey in 1843-44, tend to substantiate conclusions of no
less theoretical importance than those with which we have been
occupied regarding the magnetic force. It is well known to those
who are conversant with the phenomena of the secular change of the
declination, that during the whole of the last century, and for some time
after the commencement of the present century, the secular change
which took place in the position of the isogonic lines in the northern
parts of the North American continent, consisted in the progressive
translation of the lines from west to east. The line of no declination,
for example, to which, when Halley collected and coordinated the most
trustworthy observations previous to the publication of his Magnetical
Map in 1 702, he assigned a position " about the meridian of the
middle of California" (Phil. Trans., No. 148), appears in Hansteen's
'Mappa hydrographica sistens Declinationes magneticas Anni 1/87*
(Erdmagnetismus, Atlas), at the latter epoch, as crossing Lake Supe-
rior, and proceeding from thence in a direction west of north, so as
to pass altogether to the west of any part of Hudson's Bay ; whilst
from well-assured observations of a still later date we know that soon
after the beginning of the present century, places situated on the
western shores of Hudson's Bay had east declination, showing that
the line of no declination had passed over and was now to the east
of them. Consistently with this general movement of the isogonic
lines from west to east, the decimation at York Fort, which, accord-
ing to the observations of Capt. Middleton (Phil. Trans. 1726,
No. 393, and 1731, No. 418) was at least 19° West in 1725, had
diminished to about 5° West in 1787 (Hansteen, I. c.). In Septern-

87

her 1819 it was found by Sir John Franklin to be 6° East (Journey
to the Shores of the Polar Sea, 1819-22, p. 26), and by Lieut.-
Colonel Lefroy in 1843, 9° 25' East. Thus we perceive that in little
more than a century (from 1725 to 1843) the decimation at York
Fort had changed progressively, by the operation of secular change,
not less than 28°, always in the direction of westerly decreasing or
easterly increasing ; (which is in effect the same as a movement of
translation of the isogonic lines from west to east) .

In 1841 the Toronto Observatory commenced its observations,
and although (from defective instrumental organization) the conclu-
sions in regard to the secular change of the declination were not at
first as precise as could be desired, they were sufficiently so to justify
a strong persuasion that some very notable change had recently
taken place in the order of the phenomena, and to lead to the com-
mencement, in January 1845, of a special series of monthly determi-
nations in a detached building, appropriated chiefly to a close inves-
tigation into the direction and amount of the secular change. The
result is stated in the 3rd volume of the Toronto Observations, p. cxxvi,
and is as follows : — "The secular change of the declination from
1845 to 1851 inclusive was an annual increase of l'*95 of west decli-
nation. From July 1851 to April 1854 (two years and nine months)
an annual increase of 2*54 : and assuming the circumstances of a new
series commenced in 1855 with the same instrument placed in a new
building to be strictly comparable with those of the old series, the
increase from April 1854 to October 1855 is at the mean annual rate
of 3f<54." The progressively increasing amount of the rate of secu- '
lar change is a circumstance which, for obvious reasons, may be ex-
pected to follow for a time after the reversal of the direction of the
change.

Attention being thus alive, particular care was taken that the
azimuth compass with which Lieut. Blakiston was supplied should
be free from instrumental error, and the practice was recommended
to him of repeating observations at different hours and on different
days. The following is a transcript of the report received from him
from York Fort, showing how thoroughly these directions were kept
in view : —

88

" Declination at York Fort, 1857.
h m o t

17th August, 5 30 P.M 7 01 E.

5 43 P.M 7 21 E.

6 14 P.M 7 43 E.

20th August, 5 16 P.M 7 41 E.

5 53 P.M 7 24 E.

26th August, 5 54 A.M 8 01 E.

640 A.M 7 57 E.

7 20 A.M 750E.

Mean 7 37 E.

" Ten to twelve observations in each set, the compass being lifted
and shaken between each observation." 0 t

The observations of Franklin in September 1819 gave 6 00 E.

Those of Lefroy in July 1843 gave 9 25 E.

Those of Blakiston in August 1857 gave 7 37 E.

It appears therefore that the secular variation which between 1819
and 1843 caused an increase of east decimation, caused on the con-
trary between 1843 and 1857 a decrease of east declination. This
is a reversal in the same sense as that which has been seen to have
taken place at Toronto. It seems probable from an inspection of the
intervals, and of the differences of declination-value, in the three
determinations above noticed, that the epoch of reversal must have
coincided very nearly with that of the survey of 1843-44 ; and con-
sequently that Lieut.-Col. Lefroy's result may show approximately
the maximum which the easterly declination attained at York Fort
before the change took place. If we might assume 1843 to be the
precise epoch, it is deserving of remark that it is the same year in
which the observations of the inclination at Toronto show that the
annual secular variation of that element changed from a decreasing
to an increasing rate. The dip observed by Lieut. Blakiston at
York Fort was 83° 53' in 1857, and by Lieut.-Col. Lefroy 83° 47N2
in 1843, showing, as at Toronto, a slight increase to have taken place
in that element in the interval.

I am indebted to Dr. Norton Shaw, Secretary of the Royal Geo-
graphical Society, for a copy of declinations observed by Mr. Palliser
in his passage between Fort William and the Red River Settlement.

89

It happens that four of the stations in this route, at which Mr.
Palliser observed the declination in the summer of 1857, had been
stations of Lieut. -Col. Lefroy in 1843-44. They are as follows : —

Declination.
Lat. Long. 1843-44. 1857.

Savannah Portage 48 53 N. 90 05 W. 7 46 E. 6 53 E.

Fort Francis 4836 9330 936 931

Lake of the Woods 49 27 94 44 1216 1017

LakeWinipeg 5028 9635 1530 1425

Means 11 17 E. 10 14 E.

At all the stations the easterly declination is less in 1857 than in
1843-44; and on the average of the four stations it would appear
to have decreased about 1° in the fourteen years.

It would be unjust to the memory of the profound and sagacious
philosopher, by whom, more than 150 years ago, the facts both of
the magnetic declination in different parts of the globe and of its
changes were first collected and framed into an hypothesis (Halley
in Phil. Trans. 1692, No. 193), if we were to fail to recognize that
this reversal in the direction of the motion of the isogonic lines, in
the vicinity of the principal magnetic pole in the northern hemisphere
(using the term 'pole' in the physical sense in which Halley employed
it), is conformable to the hypothesis which he propounded at that
early date, — " to explain," according to his own words, "the change
in the variation (declination) of the magnetic needle." By the sup-
position of a double system of the terrestrial magnetic forces, occa-
sioning two poles or principal points of attraction in each hemi-
sphere producing resultant phenomena in all parts of the surface of
the globe according to their relative strength and proximity, Halley
showed that all the apparently complex phenomena of the magnetic
direction might be systematically represented ; and by the further
supposition that one of the two systems (the stronger one) was fixed,
and the other (the weaker one) possessed a gradual and slow motion,
that a reasonable explanation could be given of the phenomena of
the secular change in different parts of the globe, as far as they were
known in his time. At the period when this hypothesis was ori-
ginated, viz. in 1692, the two poles in the northern hemisphere were
considered to be situated as follows : that of the stronger and fixed

90

system in North America, about the meridian of the middle of Cali-
fornia, and that of the weaker and moving system, about the meri-
dian of the British Islands, having a progressive motion towards the
east. Now as the resultant phenomena in the north of America,
though influenced principally by the nearer and stronger system,
would still exhibit in a slighter degree the influence of the weaker
and moving system, the isogonic lines in that part of the globe
should have, according to the hypothesis, a movement of translation
from west to east conformably to the motion of the weaker system,
until the difference in longitude between the poles of the respective
systems should amount to 180°, an event which would constitute an
epoch in the secular magnetic variations, characterized (amongst
other circumstances) by the reversal of the motion of the isogonic
lines in America, which would thenceforward take place from east to
west, as the distance between the poles should diminish on the Sibe-
rian side of what Halley termed the American Pole. Now it is well
known that the expedition of MM. Hansteen, Erman, and Due, across
the continents of Europe and Asia in 1828 and 1829, had, for its
principal object, the determination of the magnetic phenomena around
the point of maximum attractive force of the weaker or moving sy-
stem ; and that the position those gentlemen assigned to it in longi-
tude at the time of this expedition was about 115° East of Greenwich,
to which meridian it had progressively moved in the interval which
had elapsed since Halley assigned its position near the meridian of
our Islands. Fully recognizing that in the present, as in the earlier
state of magnetical science we can only regard such assignments as
approximate, we have still full reason to believe that about the time
of the memorable expedition of MM. Hansteen, Erman, and Due,
i. e. a few years earlier or a few years later than 1828-29, the epoch
must have occurred when the points of greatest attraction of the two
systems in the northern hemisphere must have passed through their
greatest longitudinal distance from each other, and when, according
to Halley' s hypothesis, the direction of .the movement of translation
of the isogonic lines in the northern parts of America should be
reversed, which we find to have now taken place.

I have ventured to think that these few remarks, recalling to
recollection an hypothesis which was not framed without a most
laborious coordination and sagacious grouping of the phenomena

91

which it professed to represent, and which has its place in the earlier
volumes of our Transactions, would not be unacceptable to the Mem-
bers of the Royal Society, of which Society Halley has ever been
regarded as one of the brightest ornaments.

II. " On the Isolation of the Radical, Mercuric Methyl." By
GEORGE BOWDLEE BUCKTON, Esq., F.R.S. Received De-

cember 4s, 1857.

(Abstract.)

Dr. Frankland, in his valuable memoir communicated to the Royal
Society, has pointed out that hydrargyro-methylium, zinc-ethylium,
and analogous bodies may be regarded as formed upon the type of
the metallic oxides, the oxygen of which he considered was repre-
sented by methyl, ethyl, &c. The hypothetical radical hydrargyro-

methylium, C2 H3 < g|, according to this view would correspond to

numerous oxides, O < TJ

Diinhaupt and Strecker have studied and described the salts of
hydrargyro-methylium and hydrargyrsethylium, but chemists do not
appear, hitherto, to have succeeded in reducing these bodies to the
mercuric type, or in preparing the metalloids themselves.

The author has undertaken experiments with a view to the com-
pletion of this portion of their history, a brief summary of which he
now offers.

Iodide of hydrargyro-methylium was prepared through the agency
of sunlight, in the usual manner ; and after the removal of every
trace of iodide of methyl, it was intimately mixed in a mortar with
finely powdered cyanide of potassium. Small charges were then in-
troduced into flasks and distilled over the gas flame. Gaseous and
solid products are formed, together with a heavy liquid, which passes
into the receiver. After washing with water, and rectification over
chloride of calcium, this liquid has the following properties : —

It is colourless, highly refractive to light, and almost wholly in-
soluble in water. When pure, it has a faint and somewhat sweetish
odour. It is very combustible, and burns with a luminous flame
and abundant evolution of mercurial vapour. It is very soluble in

92

alcohol and in ether, from the former of which it precipitates on
addition of water. Its boiling-point lies between 93° and 96° C, and
its specific gravity is 3*069. It thus appears to have a weight
greater than any known non-metallic liquid at ordinary temperature.
By analysis it gave numbers according with the formula

0,H3Hg.

The formation of this body is readily intelligible from the following
equation, if we neglect secondary decompositions, —

C2HsHg2, I + KCy=C2H3Hg + KI + Cy + Hg.

The cyanogen does not, however, appear as liberated gas, but
remains behind in the form of paracyanogen.

From the constitution of this substance, the name mercuric methyl
is proposed. Should this appellation be accepted, Dr. Frankland's
radical would be styled mercurous methyl.

To control the analysis, and further corroborate the formula, the
specific gravity of the vapour was taken after Dumas' s method.
It was found to be 14-86. The weight represented by the formula
C2H3Hg, divided by the experimental density, gives the quotient
7*73. Supposing the constituents of mercuric methyl condensed
into one volume of vapour, the number 7*23 should have been ob-
tained.

The theoretical density of mercuric methyl is =15*9. It is,

/*2o

however, more probable that the elements of this compound are con-
densed into two volumes, whence the formula should be doubled to
(C2H3)2Hg2.

Mercuric methyl may also be obtained, but less readily, by em-
ploying hydrate of potassa or lime, instead of an alkaline cyanide.

In this reaction much gas is liberated.

2(C2H3Hg2,I) + 2KOHO= C2H3Hg + C2H4 + 3HgO + HO + 2KI.

Mercuric methyl exhibits no tendency to unite with the electro-
negative elements, such as chlorine, oxygen, &c. All attempts to
produce such combinations lead to the destruction of the substance.
With iodine or bromine the liquid hisses as if hot metal were plunged
into water. Methyl gas is liberated, and the iodide or bromide of
mercurous methyl is produced: —

93

Iodide of mer-
curous methyl.

On the other hand, the action of concentrated sulphuric or hydro-
chloric acid furnishes hydride of methyl or marsh gas, with deposition
of crystals of the corresponding chloride or sulphate.

+ HC1= C2H3Hg2Cl -f C2H3,H.

The salts of mercurous methyl, and the radical mercuric methyl,
are both decomposed by the action of a dilute acid and clean zinc,
into metallic mercury and gases.

Mercuric methyl furnishes with bichloride of tin a crystalline
compound, which decomposes, on addition of water, into chloride of
mercurous methyl and a soluble tin salt. The same chloride also is
produced by the action of terchloride of phosphorus.

Mercuric methyl is a ready solvent of caoutchouc, resins, and
phosphorus. It, however, has but little solvent action on sulphur.

Some interest attaches to the circumstance that iodide of mer-
curous methyl is easily produced by heating mercuric iodide with

mercuric methyl.

Mercuric ethyl.

The author has also prepared the radical of mercuric ethyl. From
its proneness, however, to decomposition at the high temperature at
which the reaction is effected, he has not been able to obtain more
than sufficient to make a qualitative examination of the new body.
It boils at a temperature above that of waterj and burns with a more
lurid flame than is exhibited by mercuric methyl.

III. " On Certain Formulae for Differentiation." By ARTHUR
CAYLEY, Esq., F.R.S. Received November 26, 1857.

(Abstract.)

In seeking for a formula in the theory of multiple definite inte-
grals, I was several years ago led to investigate the successive differ-
ential coefficients of (>/#+x_ Vx + p)*, and the results which I
then obtained are given in my paper, " On certain formulae for dif-
ferentiations, with applications to the evaluation of definite inte-

94

grals*." I subsequently sought for the successive differential
coefficients of the more general expression { (x + X) (x +/*)}**( */ x + \
— */ x + /u)2£, but the investigation was not finished. My attention
was recalled to the subject by two remarkable identities obtained in
Prof. Donkin's memoir, "On the equation of Laplace's Functions,
&c.f," by a comparison of his results with those of Prof. Boole, which
identities I perceived to belong to the class of formulae above re-
ferred to : the first of the two identities is in fact readily deduced from
a formula in my paper ; the demonstration of the second is much
more difficult, and I have only succeeded in making it depend on the
establishment of the equality of the coefficients of two expressions of
the same form. I have since resumed the unfinished investigation
above referred to. The several results which I have obtained are
given in the present memoir. I remark that, putting for shortness

, R=( ^# + A- ^Tj")2> the

subject to which the results all belong is the differentiation of the
expression Pa Q^ Rv ; the before-mentioned expression {(#-f\)
(#-f /u)*A( 4/a?-|-\— V#+ju)2t is of this form, and the question in
relation to it is to obtain the development of p* Pa Q^ Ry, where
a=0. The question arising from the second of Prof. Donkin's
identities is to obtain the development of (P"1 Q4d.,.)YPaQ^Rv,
where a=y— /3. As the demonstration of these identities is one of
the objects of the present memoir, I have given in the first section
their reduction to the form in which they are considered. The
second section treats of the development of the expression d£Pa Q^ Rv
where a=0 ; the third section of that of the expression {P"1 Q4 bx}r
P*Q^RV where a=y— /3; the fourth section contains the applica-
tion of the formulae to the demonstration of the two identities and
some other applications of the formulae.

* Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal, t. ii. pp. 122, 128 (1847).
f Philosophical Transactions, 1856, pp. 43-57.

95

January 14, 1858.

The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.
The following communications were read : —

I. " On the Electric-Conducting Power of the Metals/' By
AUGUSTUS MATTHIESSEN, Ph,D. Communicated by C.
WHEATSTONE, Esq. Received November 20, 1857.

(Abstract.)

The following values for the conducting power of the metals were
determined in the Physical Laboratory at Heidelberg, under the di-
rection of Professor Kirchhoff, by the same method as is described in
the < Philosophical Magazine,' Feb. 1857.

Conducting Power at Temp, in Celsius's degrees.

Silver 100 °0

Copper, No. 3 77'43 18'8

Copper, No. 2 72-06 22-6

Gold 55-19 21-8

Sodium 37-43 21-7

Aluminium 33'76 19'6

Copper, No. 1 30-63 24-2

Zinc 27-39 17'6

Magnesium 25-47 17'0

Calcium. 22*14 16«8

Cadmium 22-10 18'8

Potassium 20'85 20-4

Lithium 19'00 20'0

Iron 14-44 20'4

Palladium 12-64 17'2

Tin 11-45 21-0

Platinum 10-53 20'7

Lead 7-77 17'3

Argentine 7'67 18'7

Strontium 6-.71 20'0

Antimony 4-29 18'7

96

Conducting Power at Temp, in Celsius's degrees.

Mercury 1-63 22'8

Bismuth 1-19 13«8

Alloy of Bismuth 32-j

parts ^ 0-884 24'0

Antimony 1 part J

Alloy of Bismuth 12 ^

parts I 0-519 22'0

Tin 1 part J

Alloy of Antimony 21

parts, Zinc 1 part . . J

Graphite, No. 1 0-0693 22-0

Graphite, No. 2 0*0436 22-0

Gas-coke 0'0386 25-0

Graphite, No. 3. 0-00395 22'0

Bunsen's Battery-Coke . . 0-00246 26'2

Tellurium 0'000777 19'6

Bed Phosphorus 0-00000123 24-0

All the metals were the same as those used for my thermo-electric
experiments, with the exception of cadmium, which was purified by
my friend Mr. B. Jegel.

The alloys of bismuth-antimony, bismuth-tin, antimony and zinc
were determined in order to ascertain whether, as they give, with other
metals, such strong thermo-electric currents, they might be more ad-
vantageously employed for thermo-electric batteries than those con-
structed of bismuth and antimony.

Coppers No. 1, 2, 3 were wires of commerce. No. 1 contained
small quantities of lead, tin, zinc, and nickel. The low conducting
power of No. 1 is owing, as Professor Bunsen thinks, to a small
quantity of suboxide being dissolved up in it.

Graphite No. 1 is the so-called pure Ceylon ; No. 3 purified Ger-
man, and No. 2 a mixture of both. The specimens were purified by
Brodie's patent and pressed by Mr. Cartmell, to whom I am indebted
for the above.

The conducting power for gas-coke, graphite, arid Bunsen's bat-
tery-coke increases by heat from 0° to 140° C. ; it increases for
each degree 0-00245, i. e. at 0° C, the conducting power =100, and

97

between the common temperature and a light red heat about 12 per
cent. The following metals were chemically pure : — Silver, gold,
zinc, cadmium, tin, lead, antimony, quicksilver, bismuth, tellurium.
Those pressed were sodium, zinc, magnesium, calcium, cadmium,
potassium, tin, lead, strontium, antimony, bismuth, tellurium, and
the alloys of bismuth-antimony and bismuth-tin. The way in which
these wires were made is described in the 'Philosophical Magazine'
for February 1857.

II. "On the Thermo-electric Series." By AUGUSTUS MAT-
THIESSEN, Ph.D. Communicated by CHARLES WHEAT-
STONE, Esq. Received November 20, 1857.

[Abstract.]

Being enabled by the method described in the ' Philosophical Ma-
gazine' (Feb. 1857) to obtain wires of the metals of the alkalies and
alkaline earths, I have determined their places, together with those
of most of the other metals, in the thermo-electric series.

If A, B, C are different metals, and (AB), (BC), (CA) the
electromotive powers of thermo-elements formed out of each two of
these metals, whose alternate soldering points are at two different
temperatures, so is (AB) + (BC) + (CA) = 0, and therefore

(CA) = c-a,

where the values a, b> c not only depend on the two temperatures, but
also on the nature of each of the metals A, B, C. As the differences
of the same constitute the electromotive powers, the value for either
of these metals may be put = 0.

If the temperatures of the soldering points of a thermo-element
only vary slightly, the electromotive powers may be said to be in
ratio with the difference of the two temperatures, and under the
same conditions the values a, b, and c are also in ratio with the
difference of the temperatures, and their relations to each other
therefore independent of the same.

VOL. IX. H

If now the value of the second metal relative to the above value
of the first be taken equal to 1, the values of the others, in relation
to these, become constants, and only depend on the nature of each
metal ; these values I will call the Thermo-electric Constants. The
results obtained are given in the following Table, where the thermo-
electric constant of chemically pure silver is taken = 0, and that of
a certain commercial sort of copper = 1 .

Bismuth (commercial, pressed wire) -f 35*81

Bismuth (pure, pressed wire) + 32*91

Alloy of 32 parts of bismuth and 1 part of antimony (cast) + 29 "06

Bismuth (pure, cast) + 24*96

Bismuth (crystal, axial) + 24-59

Bismuth (crystal, equatorial) +17*17

Cobalt No. 1 (a pressed specimen prepared by Professor

Duflos, and out of the Collection of the Heidelberg

Chemical Laboratory) +8*977

Potassium (the same as used for the determination of its

electric conducting powers for different temperatures) + 5 '4 9 2

Argentine (wire of commerce, hard) +5'240

Nickel (commercial, free from cobalt, but containing

iron, &c.) +5'020

Cobalt No. 2 (from the Collection of the Heidelberg

Chemical Laboratory) +3748

Palladium (wire, hard, from Desmoutis, Chapuis and Co.

of Paris) +3-560

Sodium (the same as used for the determination of its

electric conducting powers for different temperatures) +3*094

Quicksilver (pure, fused in a glass tube) + 2*524

Aluminium (from Rousseau freres of Paris, wire-drawn,

analysed by Dr. G. C. Caldwell, and found to contain

Si 2-34, Fe 5*89, and Al 91*77) +1-283

Magnesium (wire, pressed) , + 1 • 1 75

Lead (pure, pressed wire) + 1 *029

Tin (pure, pressed wire) +1*000

Copper No. 1 (wire of commerce annealed, containing

appreciable quantities of zinc, tin, lead and nickel) . . +1*000

Copper No. 2 (wire of commerce annealed) +0*922

Platinum (wire from Desmoutis, Chapuis and Co. of Paris) + 0*723

Gold (wire, hard drawn, purified by Dr. C. Meyboom) .. -f 0-613
Iridium (from the Collection of the Heidelberg Chemical

Laboratory) + 0' 163

Antimony (wire, pressed specimens, purified by Dr. W. P.

Dexter and Dr. G. C. Caldwell) + 0*036

Silver (pure, drawn, hard) + 0*000

Gas-coke (from the Heidelberg Gas -Manufactory, the hard

mass remaining in the retorts) — 0*057

Zinc (pure, pressed) — 0*208

Copper (galvanoplastically precipitated) — 0*244

Cadmium (a strip of foil from Prof. Bottger) — 0*332

Antimony (commercial, pressed wire) — 1*897

Strontium (pressed wire) — 2*028

Lithium (pressed wire) — 3*768

Arsenic (a piece, pure) — 3*828

Calcium (pressed wire) — 4*260

Iron (pianoforte wire No. 4) — 5*218

Antimony (axial) — 6*965

Antimony (equatorial) , — 9*435

Red phosphorus (from Prof. Schrotter, from the Collec-
tion of the Heidelberg Chemical Laboratory) — 9*600

Antimony (purified as above) — 9*871

An alloy of 12 parts of bismuth and 1 part of tin — 13*670

An alloy of 2 parts of antimony and 1 part of zinc .... —22700
Tellurium (from M. Alexander Loewe, purified by

M. Holtzmann) - 179*80

Selenium (from the Collection of the Heidelberg Chemical

Laboratory) ... —290*00

The method by which these determinations were made is the
following : — Two thermo-elements, whose warm and cold soldering
points had the same temperatures, were compared with each other ;
these formed a circuit with the coil of a multiplicator, which sur-
rounded a magnet rod (of about a pound weight) to which was fast-
ened a piece of looking-glass, thereby allowing the deflections of the
magnet to be observed at a distance by means of a telescope and
scale, in the same manner as observations are made with the mag-
netometer. Two commutators were also brought into the circuit ; the
one changed the direction of the current, in the wire of the multipli-

H2

100

cator, the other allowed the currents of the thermo-elements to pass
either so as to strengthen, or so as to oppose each other.

The foregoing experiments were carried out in the Physical Ca-
binet at Heidelberg, under the direction of Professor Kirchhoff, to
whose advice and assistance I am much indebted.

III. " A Memoir on the Theory of Matrices." By ARTHUR
CAYLEY, Esq., F.R.S. Received December 10, 1857.

[Abstract.]

The term matrix might be used in a more general sense, but in
the present memoir I consider only square and rectangular matrices,
and the term matrix used without qualification is to be understood
as meaning a square matrix ; in this restricted sense, a set of quan-
tities arranged in the form of a square, e. g.
( a, b, c )
a', br, c'
a", 6", c"

is said to be a matrix. The notation of such a matrix arises naturally
from an abbreviated notation for a set of linear equations, viz. the
equations

may be more simply represented by

(X, Y, Z)=( a, b, c Jar, y, z)

a', b', c'

a",b",c"

and the consideration of such a system of equations leads to most
of the fundamental notions in the theory of matrices. It will be
seen that matrices (attending only to those of the same degree) com-
port themselves as single quantities ; they may be added, multiplied,
or compounded together, &c. : the law of the addition of matrices is
precisely similar to that for the addition of ordinary algebraical quan-
tities ; as regards their multiplication (or composition), there is the
peculiarity that matrices are not in general convertible ; it is never-
theless possible to form the powers (positive or negative, integral or

101

fractional) of a matrix, and thence to arrive at the notion of a
rational and integral function, or generally of any algebraical func-
tion of a matrix. I obtain the remarkable theorem that any matrix
whatever satisfies an algebraical equation of its own order, the coeffi-
cient of the highest power being unity, and those of the other powers
functions of the terms of the matrix, the last coefficient being in fact
the determinant. The rule for the formation of this equation may be
stated in the following condensed form, which will be intelligible
after a perusal of the memoir, viz. the determinant, formed out of
the matrix diminished by the matrix considered as a single quantity
involving the matrix unity, will be equal to zero. The theorem
shows that every rational and integral function (or indeed every
rational function) of a matrix may be considered as a rational and
integral function, the degree of which is at most equal to that of the
matrix, less unity ; it even shows that in a sense, the same is true
with respect to any algebraical function whatever of a matrix. One
of the applications of the theorem is the finding of the general ex-
pression of the matrices which are convertible with a given matrix.
The theory of rectangular matrices appears much less important
than that of square matrices, and I have not entered into it further
than by showing how some of the notions applicable to these may
be extended to rectangular matrices.

IV. "A Memoir on the Automorphic Linear Transformation of
a Bipartite Quadric Function." By ARTHUR CAYLEY,
Esq., F.R.S. Received December 10, 1857.

[Abstract.]

The question of the automorphic linear transformation of the
function a^+^ + r2, that is the transformation by linear substi-
tutions, of this function into a function xf+yf+sf of the same
form, is in effect solved by some formulae of Euler's for the transform-
ation of coordinates, and it was by these formulae that I was led
to the solution in the case of the sum of n squares, given in my
paper " Sur quelques proprie'tes des de'terminants gauches," Crelle,
t. xxxii. pp. 1 1 9-123 (1 846). A solution grounded upon an h-priori

102

investigation and for the case of any quadric function of n variables,
was first obtained by M. Hermite in the memoir " Remarques sur
une Memoire de M. Cayley relatif aux determinants gauches," Cam-
bridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal, t. ix. pp. 63-67 (1854).
This solution is in my Memoir " Sur la transformation d'une func-
tion quadratique en elle-meme par des substitutions lineaires," Crelle,
1. 1. pp. 288-299 (1855), presented under a somewhat different form
involving the notation of matrices. I have since found that there is
a like transformation of a bipartite quadric function, that is a lineo-
linear function of two distinct sets, each of the same number of
variables, and the development of the transformation is the subject
of the present memoir.

V. "On some of the Products of the Destructive Distillation
of Boghead Coal."— Part II. By C. GREVILLE WILLIAMS,
Esq., Lecturer on Chemistry in the Normal College,
Swansea. Communicated by Professor STOKES, Sec. R.S.
Received December 17, 1857.

[Abstract.]

In this paper the author describes the method adopted by him for
the separation of the three classes of hydrocarbons forming the more
volatile portion of the distillate. On treatment with bromine in
presence of water, the naphtha is entirely converted into a heavy oil,
containing the Cn Hn series chemically, and propyle and benzole me-
chanically combined. The two latter may be removed by mere
distillation on the water-bath. They are easily separable by fuming
nitric acid, the benzole being dissolved while the propyle is un-
touched. The nitro -benzole obtained in this manner, on treatment
by Bechamp's process, yields aniline mixed with a little tolui dine, but
no bases belonging to any other class.

The bromine compound (in consequence of its preparation in pre-
sence of water) could not be obtained free from oxygen. When kept
for some time it separates into three layers, the upper being water
faintly acidulated with hydrobromic acid, the middle bromine " com-
pound, and the lower, hydrobromic acid of 37 per cent., and the

103

density 1*320. The bromine compounds, treated successively with
alcoholic potash and sodium, undergo a curious decomposition, the
original hydrocarbons, from which they were derived, being regene-
rated. The brominated oil from the naphtha, boiling between 71°
and 77°, affords hexylene boiling at 71°, and the oil from the next
homologue distill ing bet ween 82° and 88°, yields heptylene boiling at
99°. The annexed Table illustrates some of their physical properties.
Physical Properties of Hexylene and Heptylene from Boghead

Naphtha.

Formula.

Boiling-
point.

Density at

18°.

Density of Volume.

Expt.

Theory.

Hexylene
Heptylene

Q12 H12

C14 H14

71°
99°

6-718

3-020
3-320

2-904
3-386

VI. " On the Electrical Nature of the Power possessed by the
Actinise of our Shores." By ROBERT M'DONNELL, M.D.,
M.R.I.A., Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology in the
Carmichael School of Medicine, Dublin. Communicated
by WILLIAM BOWMAN, F.R.S., Surgeon to King's College
Hospital and the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital.
Received November 30, 1857.

After referring to the well-known phenomena manifested by elec-
trical fishes, and to alleged instances of numbing effects, but of doubt-
ful electrical nature, produced on the naked hand by the contact of
certain marine Invertebrata, the author describes his own observa-
tions and experiments with the Actinia as follows : —

Suppose that into a vessel containing some actiniae well expanded,
and apparently on the look-out for food, some of the tadpoles of the
common frog be introduced, these little creatures do riot, like many
freshwater fishes of about the same dimensions, immediately die;
on the contrary, the salt water seems to stimulate their activity, they
become very lively and swim about with vivacity. One of them may
not unfrequently be observed to make its way among the tentacles of

104

an actinia and get off again quite uninjured ; it may even for a time
nestle among the tentacles with as much impunity as if it were only
in contact with a piece of sea- weed ; but should the tadpole have the
misfortune to fall in with a more voracious actinia, the reception it
meets with is very different. Sometimes, when by an incautious lash of
its tail it touches even a single tentacle, it may at once be laid hold
of, and in the violent efforts which it forthwith makes to break loose,
often merely brings itself within the reach of other tentacles, by
which it is seized and overpowered. Occasionally, however, after
having been thus seized, the tadpole by its superior activity succeeds
in effecting its escape, and when it does so, it seems for a time sin-
gularly excited ; it twists and writhes and wriggles through the
water, so as to leave no doubt that some very remarkable influence has
been exerted upon it.

These observations are no doubt familiar to all who have studied
the habits of these animals ; for although the tadpole seems more
susceptible of the peculiar stimulus which the actinia can com-
municate than most of those creatures which are ordinarily cast in
its way, yet the same occurrences take place with the small crus-
taceans, &c. which are abundant in sea-water. Indeed no very close
attention is necessary to perceive, that while on some occasions these
little animals may creep to and fro over the surface and among the
tentacles of the actinia, at other times they are seized and killed with
the greatest promptitude.

It remained to be determined what is the exact nature of the
power which the actinia has been thus found to have under its con-
trol. If it seized its victim by a simple mechanical effort, why
should the tadpole be so agitated for some time after having
escaped from its grasp? No peculiarly viscid secretion could be
detected on the tentacles, nor could any decided reaction be discerned
on their surface differing from the feebly alkaline condition of the
sea-water }n which they were placed ; moreover, the power of the
actinia seemed often to be exerted with too much promptness to be
compatible with the notion of the formation of a poisonous or sting-
ing fluid over its surface.

On the hypothesis that it is an electrical power with which the
actiniae are endowed, it is obvious that the existence of animal elec-
tricity in them ought to be experimentally demonstrable by its

105

physiological effects, inasmuch as these phenomena are the most
striking which animal electricity is capable of producing in common
with other electricities derived from different sources.

The following experiments, in which the frog's limb was used as
a galvanometer (the limb of this animal being, as is well known, an
instrument of extreme delicacy for this purpose), seem satisfactorily
to establish the fact that the common actinise of our shores are
gifted with electrical power.

1st. Having prepared the lower limb of a lively frog after the
mode described by Matteucci, by stripping off the skin, dissecting
out the sciatic nerve from among the muscles of the thigh, and then
cutting off the thigh a little above the knee, so as to leave the nerve
uninjured and as long as possible, the limb was laid on a small
piece of glass, so that the nerve hung down over its edge. The
pendent nerve was lowered into the water and gently brought in
contact with the tentacles of an expanded actinia. From the first or
the second, or even several, possibly no effect may result, but
arriving at last at one more vigorous than his neighbours, smart
muscular contractions follow as he grasps the nerve in his tentacles,
and the toes are thrown into active movement.

2nd. The next experiment, although of precisely the same nature
as that first detailed, renders the effect produced on the muscles of
the frog's limb more striking. A large and lively frog is killed, the
skin is stripped off, and the viscera being removed, the body is cut
off about the middle ; a knife being slipped behind the lumbar
plexus of nerves, the pelvic bones and contiguous soft parts are cut
away, so that the lumbar vertebrae remain connected with the lower
extremities merely by the nervous cords passing to each limb. Thus
prepared, the limbs are laid on a thin piece of board, so that the
vertebrae hang over its edge dangling by the undivided nerves. The
piece of board is placed floating on the surface of the water in which
are the actiniae, and is slowly pushed over within reach of an active
one. Immediately that the actinia seizes the morsel thus offered to
it, contractions are observed to commence in the thigh, extend to the
calf, and soon the toes are in movement.

3rd. In order to set aside the supposition that these muscular con-
tractions might be the result of chemical or mechanical irritation
applied to the extremities of the nerves, it became necessary to devise

106

a modification of the foregoing experiments ; for although irritants,
such as turpentine, croton oil, ammonia, friction with a nettle leaf,
&c., were applied to the nerves without producing any effect like
that obtained from the actinise, it seemed still possible that the con-
tractions might be due to some other agent than electricity.

The following experiment seems to remove all doubt. A piece of
copper wire, a few inches long, was coated with sealing-wax, except
about half an inch at each end; the ends were rubbed clean with
sand-paper, one of them was thrust into the lower part of the spinal
canal of a frog prepared as in the last experiment, while the other,
which was to be offered to an actinia, was passed into a portion of
the frog's intestine put on like a glove ; for the actinia does not
seize vigorously metallic substances. The limbs of the frog with the
nerves and vertebree attached, are laid on a piece of board, while the
copper wire, which is curved, arches over the edge of it ; so that the
end covered with frog's intestine can be readily brought within the
reach of the actinia. Having waited for a few minutes until the
muscular contractions excited by thrusting the wire into the spinal
canal have ceased (and they are in general very transient), the board
is placed floating on the water, and the frog's intestine offered to an
actinia; muscular contractions ensue, perhaps not so promptly,
certainly not so vigorously as in the former experiments, but never-
theless easily to be recognized and unmistakeable. They commence
in the thighs, and, as in the former case, extend to the calves, and
then the toes move actively. This last experiment has been modified
in a variety of ways, but the same result has been constantly obtained.
Perhaps the best modification of it is to use a piece of copper wire
having one end coiled so as to form a disk which is covered with
chamois-leather, while the other is sharp-pointed to enter the spinal
canal of the frog. The whole, except the surface of the disk, which
is to be given to the actinia, and the point for the spinal canal, is
covered with sealing-wax, and the frog's limbs extended upon a thin
piece of board. With this arrangement precisely the same effects
were produced as already described.

It is a remarkable fact, and deserves special notice, that in all
these experiments the muscular contractions, when once strongly
excited, whether by direct contact or through the medium of wire,
do not at once subside. When the limbs are withdrawn from the

107

influence of the actinia in the first experiments, or removed from
the wire in the last, strong muscular contractions continue to take
place for from three to five minutes.

All the varieties of actinia which have hitherto been made the
subject of experiment, have given similar evidence of electrical power,
but by no means in an equal degree. The large varieties are found,
in proportion to their size, much feebler than those of less dimen-
sions, and any attempt to succeed in the experiment with the copper
wire has failed with them.

A somewhat similar observation has been made by Dr. John Davy
regarding the torpedo, for he tells us (Philosophical Transactions,
1834, p. 548) that he has seen strong vivacious fish which made
great muscular exertions in the water, almost or entirely destitute of
electrical action.

It is obvious that in creatures of such moderate dimensions as
actiniae, of so peculiar a form and of such feeble power, much dif-
ficulty is to be expected in demonstrating the other experimental
effects which animal electricity is capable of producing in common
with other electricities, viz. magnetic deflection, — magnetising of
needles, — spark, — heating power, and chemical action ; and it must
be admitted that all experiments hitherto undertaken on this subject
have been attended with negative results. I hope, and indeed expect,
when further opportunities are afforded of examining these creatures
in health and vigour in their native pools, to obtain more satisfactory
results on these points, when I shall look forward to the pleasure of
making a further communication on the subject.

108

January 21, 1858.

Dr. J. D. HOOKER, V.P., in the Chair.
The following communication was read : —

" On the Physical Structure of the Old Red Sandstone of the
County of Waterford, considered with relation to Cleavage,
Joint Surfaces, and Faults." By the Rev. SAMUEL HAUGH-
TON, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and Professor of
Geology. Communicated by Dr. TYNDALL, F.R.S. Received
January 19, 1858.

After describing the general features of the district and giving his
reasons for selecting it, the author proceeds to give a detailed account
of the faults, joint surfaces, and cleavage planes, 345 in number,
observed by him during the course of his survey.

The faults are nineteen in number and reducible to two pairs of
rectangular systems. The bearings of these systems are E. 7° 30' N.
and E. 34° 22' N. The other faults, which form nearly right angles
with the preceding and may be called Conjugate Faults, have the
following bearings, N. 3° 45' W. and N. 33° 24' W.

The author considers that the existence of two systems of conju-
gate faults indicates two distinct systems of upheaving force in the
district ; a supposition which is strongly confirmed by the fact that
the average strike of the beds is E. 10° 46' N., a direction inter-
mediate between those of the systems of faults. He then demon-
strates from 345 observed planes, that the systems of joint and
cleavage planes are also conjugate systems, reducible to four, of which
two are identical with the two conjugate systems of faults already
established. The average observed angles between the conjugate
axes of these four systems of planes are 89° 1 1', 91° 52', 91° 20', and
90° 30' respectively; and the bearings of their cleavage planes are —

109

Cleavage. Faults.

7° 46' North of East.
33° 31' North of East. 34° 22' North of East.
30° 30' South of East.
10° South of East.

The cleavage planes are distinguished from the joint planes by a
peculiar flaggy or platy structure developed in the rock-mass, parallel
to their direction. This structure the author thinks to be the result
of pressure ; and that it indicates that the cleavage planes are per-
pendicular to the lines of maximum force ; he considers the cleavage
planes to have been developed while the rock was yet soft. The
joint planes, on the contrary, which are conjugate to the cleavage
planes, are considered as perpendicular to the lines of minimum
force of compression ; they were formed by the shrinking of the rock
mass, were subsequent to the cleavage planes, and formed when the
rock was hard.

Having established the geometrical relations of the structural planes
of the conglomerate, the author then deduces from them the mecha-
nical forces which have been at work in bringing the district to its
present condition and form. He believes that the method he has
adopted in reference to the conglomerate of the county of Waterford
is applicable to the physical structure of other districts ; and that
his results, if confirmed by corresponding results in other districts,
of which he is confident, will prove to be a substantial addition to
the arguments in favour of the mechanical theory of slaty cleavage.

The paper was accompanied by four diagrams illustrative of the
cleavage and joint planes of Portally Head, Swiny Head, Shanooan
Head, and of the reversed fault at Portnashrughann.

110

January 29, 1858.
RICHARD OWEN, Esq., V.P., in the Chair.

The following communcations were read : —

I. " Memoire sur les Limites de la Pression dans les Machines
travaillant a la detente du Maximum d'effet ; et sur Pin-
fluence des Espaces libres dans les Machines & un seul
Cylindre." Par M. MAHISTRE, Professeur k la Faculte des
Sciences de Lille. Communicated by Professor STOKES,
Sec. R.S. Received October 12, 1857.

§ I. Limites de la Pression.

1. Le travail transmis en une minute au piston d'une machine a
un seul cylindre, est donne par la formule

-HH

De meme, la course d' admission qui fait sortir la vapeur sous la
pression zzr du condenseur, ou de 1' atmosphere, a pour valeur

al

(Voir notre memoire sur le Travail de la Vapeur, dans les Comptes
Rendus de T Academic des Sciences de Paris. Seance du 15 juin.)

Nous avons demontre recemment (Comptes Rendus du 2 1 septem-
bre) que pour une telle admission la vaporisation mecanique cFune
machine 6tait la meme que si, depourvue d'espace libre, la machine
travaillait a pleine vapeur, sous la pression qui s'exerce derriere le
piston. II resulte de cet enonce que la vaporisation, independante
de la pression d' admission, reste constants, tant que la vitesse et la
pression TV restent elles-memes constantes. Cela pose, je me propose
d'abord de rechercher ce que devient Tm quand on fait varier P, la

vitesse de rotation — , et la pression or restant les memes.

Ill

Si Ton resout 1' equation (2) par rapport a— -fP, on trouve d'abord

^.+

q \q

a Faide de cette valeur, celle de Tm devient

or il est evident que cette valeur de Tm sera un maximum, lorsque

la quantite

off _ , ,0ff a(l+c)+0 + 0
* a(f + c) + /3 + 0 8 a(P + c) + 0 + 0'

sera elle-meme un maximum, ce qui arrive pour l'=0. La limite
de — 4- P devient ainsi

Si dans cette Equation on neglige (3 + 6, en supposant que cette
somme soit une petite quantite par rapport a ac, on aura, a tres
peu pres,

Ordinairement les constructeurs donnent a - des valeurs com-

c

prises entre 15 et 20. D'un autre cote, la pression dans le conden-
seur est, le plus souvent, de — d' atmosphere ; on peut done sup-

poser -23-= 2 176 kil. Prenant en meme temps -=20, et observant

que —=799, on trouve
2

P=61676 kilog. ou 6 atmospheres, environ.

Par consequent, les machines ti un seul cylindre, el condensation,
timbr^es d 6 atmospheres au plus, et marchant a la detente du
maximum d'effet*, pourront yencralement developper tout le travail
que leur vaporisation constante est capable de produire. En aucun

* II ne s'agit pas ici de la course d'admission du maximum d'effet analytique,
mais uniquement de celle qui fait sortir la vapeur sous la pression qui s'exerce
derriere le piston, et qui differe tres peu de la premiere.

112

cas, les machines sans condensation ne pourront utiliser tout le tra-
vail relatif a leur vaporisation ; puisqu'il faudrait pour cela pouvoir
porter la pression de beaucoup au de la du timbre de la chaudiere.

C'est ainsi que pour des valeurs tres petites de ^ , la pression-
limite peut depasser 22 atmospheres.

A 1'egard des machines du systeme de Wolf, on tire d'abord de la
formule (12) du me'moire cite,

n p^fn \a

al + ac + 6

Substituant cette valeur dans la formule (10) du dit memoire, puis
exprimant la condition que Tm soit un maximum, on trouve

Comme cette valeur de /' est tres petite, si on fait dans T equation (6)
/'=0, on aura, a tres peu pres,

M , p /ft
q \q

,

al+ac + Q
et plus simplement, mais avec une approximation moindre,

(rf+l)-» ..... (8)
\c J q

Ordinairement -JJ est compris entre 4 et 5 ; prenant ^L/=4, et,
comme precedemment,

£ = 20, -=799, cr-2176 kil.;
c q

on trouve

P= 24 9, 101 kilog., ou 24 atm. environ.

Si la machine ne condensait pas, la limite de P serait evidemment
plus grande. De la il resulte que une machine de Wolf, marchant a
la detente du maximum d?effet> ne pourra jamais utiliser tout le
travail que sa vaporisation constante est capable de produire.

Mais dans deux machines de meme systeme, Vune a condensation,
Pautre sans condensation, et travaillant a la detente du maximum
d'effet, une mdme quantitt d'eau vaporis^e produira le meme travail

113

aux limites de la pression, si les volumes engendres par les pistons

sont respectivement egaux, ainsi que les espaces libres homologues*.

Considerons pour fixer les idees deux machines a un seul cylindre.

Si Ton pose, pour abreger, T = N, 1'equation (3) sera de la forme

u+ /

Relativement a la machine sans condensation, on aura pareillement

Divisant ces deux egalites membre a membre, et observant qu'aux
limites de la pression M=M', il vient

Soit S la vaporisation commune ; d'apres le theoreme cite au com-
mencement de ce memoire

S = a/N (n+qvi),

de la on tire

N

, f .

1' '

puisque par hypothese les volumes al, AL engendres par les pistons,
sont egaux. Par suite

Tm=T'TO;

ce qu'il fallait demontrer. La demonstration serait la meme pour
deux machines du systeme de Wolf.

On voit par ce qui precede, que la machine sans condensation n'est
desavantageuse, que parceque la pression ne peut y etre portee
jusqu'a ses dernier es limites.

Si Ton veut que dans les deux machines, et pour des pressions
moindres que les pressions limites, la meme quantite d'eau vaporisee
produise le meme travail, il suffira d'exprimer que les volumes a" ad-
missions al', AL' sont egaux, ce qui exige qu'on ait

* Relativeraent a cette derniere partie de Tenonce, il suffit que la somme des
espaces libres soit la meme dans les deux machines, quand celles-ci sont a un seul
cylindre.

VOL. IX. I

114

les lettres accentue'es se rapportant, comme pre'cedemment, a la
machine sans condensation. De la on tire

q

En meme temps 1' equation (9) donne, pour le rapport des vitesses
des rotations

N

N'
Si Ton prend

zzr=2176 kilog., ^'=10335 kilog., -=799,

ces relations deviennent, en ne'gligeant le 2me terme de la valeur de P,
P=(0-2672)P', ...... (13)

Ce qui fait voir que les deux machines ne pourront produire le meme
travail qu'entre des limites tres etroites.

C'est ainsi, par exemple, que depuis 3*7 atm. jusqu'a 10 atm., la
machine sans condensation pourra marcher a la meme force, pour la
meme vaporisation, que la machine a condensation travaillant depuis
1 atm. jusqu'a 2- 6 atmospheres.

2. Nous terminerons la lre partie de ce memoire par le theoreme
suivant :

Dans deux machines de meme systeme, toutes deux & condensation,
ou toutes deux sans condensation, et travaillant h la detente du maxi-
mum tfeffet, une meme quantite d*eau vaporish produira le meme
travail, si dans les deux machines la pression a" admission est la
meme, et si les capacites homologues du systeme distributeur sont, re-
spectivement, dans le mdme rapport avec les volumes engendres par
deux pistons de meme nom.

Conside'rons, pour fixer les idees, deux machines a un seul
cylindre ; je suppose que le rapport

ac+fi + d

al

soit le meme dans les deux machines ; je suppose aussi que la vapo-
risation constante soit egale de part et d'autre, et je dis qu'il en sera
de meme du travail. En eifet, de 1' equation
S = aZN (n + qw) = aV (n

115

on tire

aV= constante.
La formule (2) donne pareillement

— = constante,
al

pourvu que P soit le meme de part et d'autre. Done aussi

Tm= constante,
car la valeur de Tm peut s'ecrire sans la forme

al I

La demonstration serait la meme pour deux machines de Wolf.

On peut remarquer que le theoreme precedent aura lieu qu'elle
que soit la detente, pourvu que les volumes d' admissions restent
egaux. Seulement, la vaporisation commune variera avec la pression,
et dans le meme sens.

II resulte de ce qui precede que dans deux machines de m$me
systeme, tune a condensation, I 'autre sans condensation, travaillant
a la detente du maximum tf effet, et dont les capacites homologues
du systeme distributeur sont dans les rapports indiques ci-dessus, une
meme quantite d'eau vaporisee produira le meme travail aux limit es
de la pression. Ce travail pourra aussi etre rendu eaal pour de
certaines pressions moindres que les pressions limites.

§ II. De V influence des espaces libres dans les machines
(t un seul cylindre.

3. Considerons une machine destinee a marcher avec une course

y

d' admission /', une vitesse de rotation -, et une pression d' admission

I

P. Je me propose de rechercher qu'elle est V influence des espaces
libres sur le travail de la machine. Si Ton pose pour abreger

la valeur (1) de Tm devient

+,) iog ^±_:]-

i2

116

Nous ferons remarquer tout d'abord que Tm est inde'pendant des
espaces libres pour l'=l, car dans ce cas Ton a simplement

Tw:=Iaf(P-«0 ....... (10)

Maintenant si Ton veut rendre Tm maximum par rapport a x, il
suffira evidemment de rendre maximum le terme

et pour cela, il faudra determiner x par la relation

-^iogf. (ii)

al+x *al' + x

Si dans cette equation on neglige les termes de 1'ordre de x2, on trouve

x=a i-i- . i • ••••-. 02)
— ~]OS7

4. Supposons maintenant qu'on fasse travailler la machine a la
detente du maximum d'effet. Dans ce cas /' sera une fonction de x
determinee par la relation

al' + x_n + qni n „,

^T^~~M^P;

et 1' equation du travail deviendra

Or on s'assurera sans peine que cette fonction prend sa valeur maxima
pour 07=0. Dans ce cas, les limites de /' et de Tm deviennent

II doit etre entendu que les logarithmes qui entrent dans les diverses
formules sont des logarithmes Nepe'riens.

On voit par ce qui precede, que les espaces libres doivent fare
determines pour la detente h laquelle la machine doit marcher habi-
tuellement. Dans le cas de la detente du maximum d'ejfet, Us doivent
etre rendus aussi petits que les necessites de la construction le per-
ntettent. Une fois la somme des espaces libres determinee, on
reglera le developpement des conduits de maniere a donner a ceux-ci

117

la plus grande section possible, a fin de ne pas creer d* obstacle
inutile au mouvement de la vapeur.

Les espaces lib res n' entrant pas d'une maniere symmetrique dans la
formule du travail d'une machine de Wolf, la theorie qui precede
n'est pas applicable a cette machine. Toutes fois on pourra deter-
miner

de maniere a rendre maxima la somme des deux premiers termes de
la valeur de Tm.

5. Pour donner une application numerique de ces formules, nous
prendrons pour exemple la machine horizontale, et sans conden-
sation, de la Gare de Fives.

Dimensions des principaux organes de la machine.

Course du piston l=0'45 m.

Rayon du cylindre r=0'l 15 m. d'ou

0=0-04555 m. q.

Liberte du cylindre c=0'015 m.

Volume de conduit qui fait communiquer la

boite a vapeur au cylindre 0=0'0012 m. c.

Nombre de tours de la manivelle par minute. . —=300.

p

Comme dans cette machine le tiroir fait lui meme detente, le
volume /3 de la boite a vapeur ne doit pas entrer dans les formules ;
alors on a simplement

a?=ac+0=0-0018225 m. c.
Cela pose, si Ton prend

la relation (12) donne

#=0-0060634 m. c.
Maintenant si Ton calcule la force de la machine en prenant

P=6 atm.=62010 kilog.

et faisant usage, successivement, des valeurs ci-dessus de #, on trouve
avec les espaces libres effec-

tifs Tm=29-85 ch.

avec les espaces libres cal-

cules Tm=38'10ch.

. = 8'25ch. =
per cent.

118

Dans le cas de la detente du maximum d'effet, et pour la meme
pression de 6 atm., les resultats sont les suivants, —
avec les espaces libres effec-

avec les espaces libres nuls Tm= 26*35 ch.

II. " On the Action of Nitrous Acid on Aniline." By A.
MATTHIESSEN, Ph.D. Communicated by Professor STOKES,
Sec. R.S. Received January 12, 1858.

On repeating the experiments of Hunt* and Hofmannf, on the
action of nitrous acid on aniline, I found that the reaction does not
take place exactly as these chemists state ; Hunt gives the reaction
as

H

Hofmann says that phenylic alcohol is not formed, but nitrophe-
nassic acid, when binoxide of nitrogen is led into a diluted solution
of the nitrate :
C,

1 HI

12 H5 l

This reaction, although correct in the end result, omits the inter-
mediate stage, which is —

H
H

and then NH3 + NO3=N2-

On account of the free nitric acid, the phenylic alcohol is always
converted into nitrophenassic acid. The ammonia was determined
as platinum salt, and two experiments gave 43*9 and 44' 1 per cent,
of platinum ; the theoretical quantity required is 44*2 per cent.

It appears, therefore, when nitrous acid acts on aniline, that in
the first part of the reaction it causes only a substitution, and after-
wards, the ammonia being attacked by it, gives off nitrogen and
water.

* Sill. Am. Journ. (2) viii. 372. f Chem. Soc. Quart. Journ. iii. 231.

119

Ammonia was obtained either by treating aniline with nitrous acid,
or by the action of nitrate of potash on the chloride, or by leading
the binoxide of nitrogen into a solution of the nitrate ; the latter
was the way generally employed. After about twelve hours' action
of NO2 on a solution of the nitrate in a water-bath, the solution
was filtered from the nitrophenassic acid, and distilled with potash,
the distillate treated with ether to dissolve out the aniline, redistilled
in hydrochloric acid, evaporated, and the ammonia determined as
platinum salt. These results have led me to try the action of
nitrous acid on other organic bases, and I have already obtained from
ethylaniline a base which to all appearance is ethylamin. The
chloride gives off, when heated with potash, an alkaline inflammable
gas, and the platinum salt resembles that of ethylamin ; but the
platinum determination made with it does not agree very well with
that salt. I am now repeating the reaction on a larger scale, so that
I shall shortly be able to see whether it is really ethylamin or not.

The foregoing experiments were carried out in the Royal College
of Chemistry under the direction of Professor Hofmann.

III. " On the Existence of Amorphous Starch in a new Tuber-
aceous Fungus." By FREDERICK CURREY, Esq., M.A.
Communicated by JOSEPH D ALTON HOOKER, M.D., F.R.S.
Received December 17, 1857.

Amorphous starch (including under that term all starch not in
the form of the ordinary starch-granule) is rare in the vegetable
world. Until the present year Schleiden was the only botanist by
whom it had been noticed, and his observations have been doubted
by Sanio, Caspary, and Schenk. He (Schleiden) states (Grundziige, i.
181) that he has seen amorphous starch in the form of a thin pasty
layer in the cells of the albumen of Cardamomum minus, in Sarsaparilla,
and in the rhizome of Carex arenaria. Sanio* has just published
the result of some experiments made by him upon the cells of the
epidermis of Gagea lutea. Upon applying a solution of iodine to
these cells, he observed a fine flocculent blue precipitate in their in-
terior. The blue colour was confined to the fluid contents of the
* Bot. Zeitung, 19th June, 1857.

120

cells, the primordial utricle and the nucleus becoming yellow under
the iodine.

Another observer, Dr. Schenk*, has lately noticed the occurrence
of starch in a state of solution in the epidermal cells of the stem,
leaves, and other parts of Ornithogalum nutans and Ornithogalum
lanceolatum. These cells were found to contain (besides nuclei) a
thick homogeneous fluid. Tincture of iodine coloured the fluid first
wine-red, then violet, and finally indigo-blue ; and the fluid at the
same time lost its homogeneous nature, and became finely granular
and flocculent.

The above mentioned are all cases of phsenogamic plants. The
Fungi have hitherto been considered wholly devoid of starch, un-
less, perhaps, the case mentioned by Schachtf may be an excep-
tion. He states that he observed the mycelium of a small mould-
fungus become clear blue under the action of iodine. He could not,
however, ascertain whether the colour was in the membrane or in
the contents, and if the former, it is as likely that the colour (being
clear blue) arose from the presence of cellulose in a young condition,
as from starch J.

Mohl, in his treatise on the vegetable cell, speaks of starch as
probably existing in all plants except the Fungi. A special interest,
therefore, attaches to any plant of the latter tribe, in which starch
can be shown to exist, and such a plant has lately come under my
observation. The fungus in question, which is interesting not only

* Bot. Zeitung, July 17th, 1857. f Die Pflanzenzelle, p. 39.

J In the ' Aunales des Sciences Naturelles,' 4th Series, vol. iii. p. 148, Nylan-
der mentions a blue colour being produced by iodine in the summits of the asci
of certain Sphceriee, which he attributes to the presence of lichenin. Gerhardt,
however, in his ' Lehrbuch der Organischen Chemie,' states that a pure solution
of lichenin is coloured yellowish by iodine.

It is not easy to understand why the writers who speak of amorphous starch,
take no notice of the lichens. Irrespective of the fact that the membrane of the
asci of lichens is coloured blue by iodine, it is well known that the asci and para-
physes are often surrounded by a viscid substance which is coloured by iodine in
the same manner as starch, and which cannot well be anything else than starch
in an amorphous state. Schacht, indeed, calls the viscid substance " aufgequol-
lene Starke;" but this expression would be more applicable to the condition of
starch when subjected to the action of hot water or sulphuric acid, and seems
hardly consistent with his previous definition of the substance as a shapeless,
paste-like mass. (See Die Pflanzenzelle, pp. 148, 149.)

121

for its chemical composition, but as constituting a new genus in the
family of the Tuberacei, occurred in the spring of the present year,
growing gregariously upon fragments of wood on the sands by the
sea-shore at Sketty, near Swansea. To the naked eye each indi-
vidual specimen presents the appearance of a small, round, somewhat
flattened body, of a dull yellow colour, and with an unevenness of
surface caused by numberless convolutions of the coat of the fungus,
which require the aid of a lens in order to be clearly seen. The
diameter of the largest specimen does not much exceed the l-8th of
an inch. Externally there is a strong resemblance to small speci-
mens of Dacrymyces deliquescens, or perhaps a nearer still to the
truffle described by Tulasne, in the " Fungi hypogsei," under the
name of Hydnobolites cerebriformis. This resemblance, however,
is only superficial, as will be seen by the following description of the
plant when examined microscopically. The coat of the fungus con-
sists of a convoluted membrane of considerable thickness, formed of
several layers of cells, the outer of which are large and rounded,
the inner long and flat. In most of the specimens the contents of
the coat consist mainly of an innumerable multitude of naked spores ;
but in almost all, a careful examination will detect, here and there,
isolated sacs or asci containing sporidia ; and a few of the plants
which were in a younger state than the rest exhibited asci in abun-
dance, showing satisfactorily that the fungus must be classed with the
Ascomycetes, — not with the Gasteromycetes.

There is no doubt that the asci are absorbed at an early period,
and the sporidia then form a dense mass.

It is exceedingly difficult, from the crowded state of the contents,
to trace out the manner in which the asci originate ; but I have
satisfied myself that they spring at intervals from threads proceed-
ing from the inner surface of the thick external membrane. Fig. 4
represents one of these threads with the asci springing from it,
magnified 315 diameters. The asci themselves are broadly clavate,
with a very short stem, and are frequently, if not usually, drawn out
at the apex into a sort of point, as shown in figs. 2, 3 and 4.

The sporidia are extremely curious. They are globular and co-
lourless, and furnished with long delicate sharp rays projecting from
the surface in every direction. Each sporidium is furnished with an
internal nucleus, or probably oil- drop (sometimes broken up into

122

several), which varies somewhat in size, and is sometimes in the
centre of the globe, sometimes placed eccentrically. Their form
will be seen by reference to fig. 5.

The average diameter of the sporidia is about -s-^th of an inch.
Upon placing a thin section of one of the plants in water under the
microscope, and adding a drop of solution of iodine, the sporidia in
the course of a few seconds assume a more or less dark purple
colour, precisely similar to that produced in starch by the same re-
agent ; and not only are the sporidia themselves thus affected, but
the fluid surrounding them is tinged of an intense purple colour for
some distance round the mass of sporidia. This latter colouring is
doubtless produced by the effect of the iodine upon a viscid matter
which surrounds the sporidia, and which may either originate in the
disintegration of the asci, or may be an independent secretion.
There can be little doubt, I think, that this viscid matter is starch
in a state of solution. It might be taken for dextrine, but that it
differs from that substance in assuming a purple colour under iodine.

The sporidia, although coloured by iodine in the same manner as
starch-granules*, do not exhibit any cross when viewed by polarized
light. The small size of the Fungi precludes the possibility of pro-
curing a sufficient quantity of the viscid matter to test its effect upon
the plane of polarization.

I find the sporidia unaffected by boiling water or even by long
soaking in sulphuric acid, in which respect they differ from starch-
granules. The purple colour, however (as is the case with starch),
disappears under the action of heat or of alcohol.

I have named the plant Amylocarpus encephaloides, for reasons
sufficiently obvious from the above description. Its systematic
position is certainly with the Tuberacei, but it has no near allies.
The only plant resembling it in structure is Endogone, but it is
doubtful whether the vesicles of Endogone be spores or asci. If the
latter, the affinity with Endogone would be close.

In conclusion I may mention, that in a very late number of the
'Annales des Sciences Naturelles' (4 serie, vol. vi. p. 318), which
has reached me since my first observations on the above fungus,
M. Tulasne remarks, that in several species of Erysiphe the tips of

* The blue colour does not extend to the nucleus of the sporidia, which is yellow
under the iodine.

123

the radicular appendages are tinged blue by solution of iodine, and
that he has observed the same effect produced upon the matter con-
tained in the summits of the asci, and upon the mucous envelope of
the sporidia of several species of Sphceria. It would seem, there-
fore, that the absence of starch can no longer be considered as cha-
racteristic of the Fungi, and that the existence of that substance in
an amorphous state may be considered as satisfactorily proved.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES.
Fig. 1. Vertical section of the coat of the Fungus, showing the successive layers

of cells, the innermost of which give off threads into the interior of the

plant, X 315 diameters.
Figs. 2 and 3. Asci with sporidia, X 415. In fig. 3 the sporidia are only partially

matured.

Fig. 4. The extremity of a thread showing the mode of origin of the asci, X 315.
Fig. 5. Free sporidia, X 415.

IV. "On the Singular Solutions of Differential Equations."
By the Rev. ROBERT CARMICHAEL, Fellow of Trinity Col-
lege, Dublin. Communicated by ARTHUR CAYLEY, Esq.
Received December 28, 1857.

(Abstract.)

The objects contemplated in this paper are the following : —
1. The reduction to a symmetrical form of the well-known theo-
rem by Clairaut for the integration of differential equations in a

124

single independent variable, and the simultaneous determination of
the singular solutions, if such exist ; the generalisation of the trans-
formed types, and the application of the result to the integration of
a large variety of partial differential equations in any number of in-
dependent variables, and the simultaneous determination of their
singular solutions, where such exist.

2. The examination of the general theory commonly attributed to
Laplace.

3. The indication of certain desiderata.

February 4, 1858.
The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.

The following communications were read : —

I. " On the daily Fall of the Barometer at Toronto." By
THOMAS HOPKINS, Esq. Communicated by WILLIAM
FAIRBAIRN, Esq. Received December 19, 1857.

(Abstract.)

In this paper the writer exhibited tables of the movements of
meteorological instruments registered at Toronto in 1846, in the
months of January and July, as specimens of the changes which
take place in the atmosphere in winter and summer. The principal
object was to find the cause of the fall of the barometer in the middle
of the day. The author endeavours to show that the vapour, which
in the early part of the day was produced by solar heat at the surface,
by its expansive power, bore that heat to the upper regions of the
air, where it was condensed by the cold of the gases in that situation,
when the heat of elasticity was set at liberty to warm and expand
the gases, and that it was this expansion which reduced atmospheric
pressure in the locality and caused a fall of the barometer.

125

II. " Researches on the Poison-apparatus in the Actiniadce."
By PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, Esq., F.R.S. Received January
18, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The organs which have been termed " thread-cells,'* *' thread-
capsules," "urticating organs," "lasso-cells," &c., I propose to call
cnidce. They are found in various tissues of the body, but are
specially localized in two sets of organs, which I call craspeda and
acontia. The craspeda are gelatinous cords connected throughout
their length with the free edges of the muscular septa. The acontia
are somewhat similar cords, but free throughout, except at their
base, where they are inserted into the septa. The cord-like appear-
ance of these latter organs is, however, illusory, as each is a narrow
ribbon with involute margins. Both the craspeda and the acontia
are composed of a clear plasma, in which many cnidce are crowded.

The craspeda appear to be universally possessed by this tribe of
animals, but the acontia are limited to a few genera, principally
Sagartia and Adamsia. They are ejected from the body of the
animal, and are again withdrawn.

For the emission of these organs special orifices exist, which I
term cinclides. These are minute perforations of the muscular
coats and the integument, bearing a resemblance in appearance to
the spiracles of insects. Being placed in the interseptal spaces, they
have a perpendicular arrangement, but are not regularly disposed in
any other respect. They can be opened widely, or perfectly closed
at the will of the animal ; and are well seen, under a low power of
the microscope, when a Sagartia bellis or dianthus is much dis-
tended in a parallel-sided glass vessel, with a strong light behind it.
The width of these orifices varies from -^^ th to -g^th of an inch.
No ciliary current passes through them.

Under irritation the Sagartia forcibly and repeatedly contracts its
body, forcing out the water which had distended its aquiferous canals
and the general cavity of the body. Much of the fluid finds vent at
these foramina, carrying with it the free floating part of some or
other of the numerous acontia, each through that cinclis which
happens to lie nearest to it. The frequency with which the acontia

126

escape in a loop or bight, shows that the issue is the result of a
merely mechanical action, viz. that of the escaping water.

The cnidce occur under four distinct forms. 1 . Chambered cnidse
(Cnidce earner atce). This is the most widely distributed, and the
most elaborately armed. In Cyathina Smithii they occur of com-
paratively large size, and are therefore well suited for observation.
They are transparent, colourless vesicles, of a long, oval figure, -ai^tn
of an inch in length, and 20l00th in diameter. A fusiform chamber
passes through the centre of the anterior moiety, merging at one
extremity into the walls of the cnida, and at the other diminishing to
a slender chord, which is irregularly coiled within the general cavity.

Under stimulus the cnidce suddenly expel their contents with
great force. In general the eye can scarcely follow the excessive
rapidity with which the chamber and its twining thread are shot
forth. When fully expelled, the thread, which I distinguish by the
term ecthorceum, is often thirty times as long as the cnida ; but in
Sagartia generally, it frequently is not more than once and a half
the length of the cnida.

In the ecthorceum from chambered cnidce the basal portion is
distinctly swollen ; thence, becoming attenuated, it runs on as an
excessively slender wire of equal diameter. Around this basal part
wind one or more spiral thickened bands, varying, in different spe-
cies, as to their number, the number of volutions made by each, and
the angle which the spiral forms with the axis. The direction is
from east to north. The spiral armature I call the screw, or strebla.
There is no other form of armature than this.

These thickened spiral bands afford insertion to a series of fine
setce, which I call pterygia. These are from eight to twelve in a
single volution, and they project in a diagonal direction from the
ecthorceum, but often become reverted. In some cases, perhaps in
all, the strebla and the pterygia are continued beyond the swollen
portion of the ecthorceum, even to the end of the attenuated part.

2. Tangled cnidse (Cnidce glomiferce). This sort differs from the
preceding chiefly in the uniform slenderness of the ecthorceum, which
lies coiled up more or less regularly in the cnida, without any cham-
ber. Corynactis viridis affords excellent examples for observation.

3. Spiral cnidse (C. cochleatce). The walls of the tentacles, in a
few species, contain very elongated fusiform cnidce, which seem

composed of a slender thread coiled up in a very close and regular
spiral, bearing a resemblance to the shell of a Cerithium. The
ecthorceum is discharged reluctantly, and the wall of the cnida is
very subtile.

4. Globate cnidse (Cnidce globatce)1 These are globose vesicles
found in the acontium of S. parasitica, which have some characters
in common with the cnidce y but of whose real nature I am doubtful.
In the indubitable cnidce the emission of the ecthorceum is a pro-
cess of eversion. This is proved by many circumstances, such as
the order in which the portions are evolved, the basal portion first ;
as well as by direct observation, the terminal part of the ecthorceum
being occasionally detected in running out through the centre of the
portion already evolved.

The cnidce are filled with a fluid, which holds organic corpuscles
in suspension, and these are seen driven rapidly through the ectho-
rceum in the process of eversion. I conclude that in this fluid resides
the expansile force, which, on the excitement of a suitable stimulus,
distends and projects the tubular portion of the wall that has hitherto
been inverted.

All of the four kinds of cnidce enumerated have been at various
times seen surrounded by a membranous investiture, which I distin-
guish as the peribola. This coat must be ruptured before the cnida
can emit the ecthorceum.

Several experiments show that the ecthorceum has the power of
penetrating the tissues of other creatures, and even of the Verte-
brata. In some of these experiments shavings of human cuticle,
presented for an instant to the tentacles of B. crassicornis, and to
the acontium of S. parasitica, were found on examination to be
pierced through with numerous cnidce.

Experiments with blue vegetable juices were instituted, with a
view to test the acid or alkaline properties of the poisonous fluid
supposed to be ejected on the discharge of the ecthorceum ; but with
no definite result. The existence of such a poisonous fluid is in-
ferred, however, with a degree of probability amounting to moral
certainty, and that of such concentrated power as, under certain cir-
cumstances, to destroy life with great rapidity, even in vertebrate
animals.

Admitting the existence of a venomous fluid, it is difficult to

128

determine where it is lodged, and how it is injected. I incline to
the hypothesis, that the cavity of the ecthoraum in its primal in-
verted condition, while it yet remains coiled up in the cnida, is
occupied with the poisonous fluid, and that it is poured out gradu-
ally, within the tissues of the victim, as the evolving tip of the wire
penetrates farther and farther into the wound.

The paper is illustrated by figures of the organs described.

February 11, 1858.
Major-General SABINE, Treasurer and V.P., in the Chair.

The following communication was read : —

" An Account of some recent Researches near Cairo, undertaken
with the view of throwing light upon the Geological
History of the Alluvial Land of Egypt/'— Part II. By
LEONARD HORNER, Esq., V.P.R.S. Received January 25,

1858.

(Abstract.)

In the first part of this Memoir, read on the 8th of February,
1855, and published in Part I. of the Transactions of that year, the
author states the main object of the inquiry to have been, to endea-
vour, by probing the alluvial land in appropriate places, to discover
the probable time that has elapsed since the lowest layer of Nile
sediment was deposited, and thus to connect geological and historical
time. This object, in the opinion of the author, can only be at-
tained by means of shafts and borings of the soil in the immediate
neighbourhood of monuments of a known age. The places he selected
for these excavations were the vicinity of the Obelisk of Heliopolis,
and the site of ancient Memphis. The general introductory matter,
and the analyses of the various soils penetrated, together with a
description of the researches at Heliopolis, are given in the first part
of the memoir ; but the author deferred his general conclusions, and
all inferences as to the secular increase of the alluvial deposits, until
he should have an opportunity of laying before the Society an account
of the more extensive researches in the district of Memphis. That

129

account, together with the author's general conclusions, form the
subject of this second part.

The practical part of the whole inquiry has been conducted under
the immediate direction of Hekekyan Bey, an Armenian engineer
officer in the service of the Viceroy of Egypt ; and a brief biogra-
phical account of him is given, showing his eminent scientific quali-
fications for such researches. The author had the advantage of ob-
taining the zealous cooperation of our Consul-General in Egypt, the
Honourable Charles Augustus Murray, and his successor, the Honour-
able Frederick Bruce, on whose representations the late Viceroy
Abbas Pacha, and the present, not only gave a ready assent to the
undertaking, but, with a rare and most exemplary liberality, ordered
that the whole expense should be defrayed by the Egyptian Govern-
ment.

As at Heliopolis the Obelisk is all that remains above ground of
that city, so, at Memphis, there is one solitary monument of its
former greatness, a fallen colossal statue of the great king Ra-
messes II., the Sesostris of the Greeks. All testimony appears to
concur in assigning the foundation of Memphis to Menes, the first
king of the first dynasty, who, according to Lepsius, began his reign
3892 years B.C. The same authority assigns the dates of 1394 to
1328 B.C. for the reign of Harnesses II. The site of Memphis pre-
sented therefore a peculiarly fit situation for prosecuting the inquiry,
by sinking pits to the greatest practicable depth near this colossal
statue, and around it.

The surface of the ground, for some distance around the statue,
being uneven, it became necessary, in order to ascertain the variable
depth of water during an inundation, at the mouths of the pits,
intended to be sunk in various parts of the area, that the level of th'e
highest rise of the water over the ground at a given time should be
determined. This was done for the inundation of 1851, and it proved
to be somewhat above the 24th cubit mark of the Rhoda Nilometer,
a height of water which covers the entire surface of the valley, leaving
above it artificial elevations. The inequalities of the ground are
such, that in any section, under the 24th cubit level, the surface
varies from where it coincides with that level to nearly 20 feet in the
deepest part ; so that, while in one part of the district there might
be a depth of nearly 20 feet of turbid water, in another it might be

VOL. IX. K

130

less than an inch ; and consequently, the same period of time would
be represented by very different degrees of thickness of the sediment.

.Two pits were sunk close to the fallen colossal statue, sections of
both of which are given. In the deepest, the shaft was continued to
the depth of 24 feet 5 inches, when further progress was stopped by
filtration water. This interruption to excavations occurred in every
other pit that was sunk. From the bottom of the shaft, a boring
tool was applied, and cores of soil were brought up from successive
depths, the lowest being 41 feet 4| inches from the surface of the
ground. The sections given of the two pits in this locality show, that
the soil consists of varieties of loam and sand in irregularly alternating
layers ; and the Nile sediment from the lowest part of the boring was
found, by a careful analysis, to be nearly identical in composition
with that deposited by the inundation of the present day. At a
depth of 5 feet 8 inches from the surface of the ground they came
upon the upper surface of the platform on which the colossus had
stood, consisting of two courses of cyclopean masonry, together
5 feet 6 inches thick, resting on an artificial bed of sand, the sand
resting on Nile sediment. Throughout the excavation various ob-
jects of art and some bones of domestic animals were met with, and
the boring instrument brought up from the lowest depth a fragment
of pottery.

The author next proceeds to describe, with references to detailed
sections, seventeen pits and borings sunk in the area of Memphis,
and also a series of seven pits opened in ground below the inundation
level of 1851, in a line across the valley from the foot of the Libyan
Hills on the west of the Nile, to the skirt of the Arabian Hills on
the east of the river, embraced within an area of about five miles
from west to east, and a mile from north to south.

In 1854 another series of pits and borings were sunk in the parallel
of Heliopolis, above eight miles above the apex of the Delta, in
ground below the inundation level of 1853, which was very nearly
the same as that of 1851, the line including fifty-one pits in a
distance of about sixteen miles, eight miles on the right, and eight
miles on the left bank of the river ; two of them near the river were
carried to a depth of 50 feet, and one to a depth of 60 feet from the
surface of the ground. This last reached to within 1\ inches of the
mean level of the Mediterranean.

131

The author then reviews the chief facts made known by the
ninety-five probings of the alluvial land above described, and gives
the following results : —

1. That the alluvium consists of two principal kinds, viz. an argil-
laceous earth or loam more or less mixed with fine sand, and of
quartzose sand, which is probably brought from the adjacent deserts
by violent winds ;

2. That the Nile sediment found at the lowest depth reached is
very similar in composition to that of the present day ;

3. That in no instance did the boring instrument strike upon the
solid rock, which may be presumed to form the basin between the
Libyan and Arabian Hills, containing the alluvium accumulated
through unknown ages ;

4. That, except minute organisms discoverable only by a powerful
microscope, few organic remains were found, and those met with
were recent land shells and bones of domestic animals ;

5. That there has not been found a trace of an extinct organic
body;

6. That at the same level great varieties in the alluvium have
been found in adjoining pits, even when the distances between them
were very moderate ;

7. That there is an absence of all lamination in the sediment.
The author points out the causes that account for this, — chiefly the
rapid drying of the soil, so soon as the inundation water has sub-
sided, the operations of agriculture, and the violent winds that sweep
over the valley forming vast clouds of dust ;

8. That in many places the disintegrations of sun-burnt bricks
have contributed largely to the soil ;

9. That in nearly every part of the ground penetrated, artificial
substances have been found, such as fragments and particles of burnt
brick and pottery, and at the lowest depth reached.

The author then enters, at some length, into the circumstances
which modify the deposition of the sediment in different parts of the
valley, showing how the coarser and heavier matter held in suspen-
sion in the inundation water must be deposited in greatest amount
in the higher parts of the river's course, in its bed, and near its
banks ; that this must be further caused by the slight fall, which
between Assouan and Cairo is less than 6£ inches in a mile, the Nile

K2

132

in its whole course from the first cataract to the sea not being used
as water power ; that the vast heat must cause an evaporation that
lets fall the solid matter more abundantly in the southern latitudes ;
that the river from 42 miles below the first cataract is nowhere
allowed to overflow the land, but is confined by embankments, so
that the waters of irrigation are spread by canals, by which and by
the irregularities of the ground eddies are formed. From all these
causes affecting the distribution of the sediment over the land, the
depth of the annual deposit by the inundation is very different in
different parts of the valley, and consequently the same lapse of
time may be represented by very different depths of the soil.

The author next treats of the rate of secular increase of the allu-
vial land. Before entering upon the results at which he arrives by
these recent researches, he refers to the operations of the French
engineers at the end of the last century, who state the mean of the
rise of the land between Assouan and Cairo to be 5 inches in a cen-
tury. From that conclusion, and especially from the application of
it, the author dissents, and states his reasons at considerable length
in the Appendix to his Memoir. He considers that in every situa-
tion where a calculation is to be made of the rate of secular increase,
we must have a fixed point in time to start from ; that is, the known
age of a monument, the foundation of which rests upon Nile sedi-
ment, and upon the sides of which the latter has accumulated by sub-
sequent inundations. If there have been no local causes to disturb
the probability that the sediment above and below the foundation
has accumulated at the same rate, we divide the amount above
the foundation by the number of centuries known to have elapsed
from the erection of the monument to the present time, and then
apply the same chronometric scale to the greatest ascertained depth
of sediment below the foundation. Estimated by this rule, the re-
searches at Heliopolis gave the result of a rate of increase of 3*18
inches in a century. But a degree of uncertainty arises at this place,
because of the city appearing to have been built upon a portion of
land somewhat raised above the level of the rest of the skirt of the
desert, and advancing into the low ground then inundated by the
Nile ; whereby it became doubtful whether a bed of sand penetrated
was sedimentary or a part of the desert land.

In the excavations near the colossus of Ramesses II. at Memphis,

133

there were 9 feet 4 inches of Nile sediment between 8 inches be
low the present surface of the ground and the lowest part of the
platform on which the statue had stood, after making a due allow-
ance for the foundation of the platform having been below the then
surface. It is assumed that the platform was laid in the middle of
the reign of that king, that is, in the year 1361 B.C., which, added
to A.D. 1854, when the observation was made, give 3215 years during
which the above depth of sediment was accumulated ; and supposing
that no disturbing cause had interfered with the normal rate of
deposition in this locality, and of which there is no evidence, we
have thus a mean rate of increase within a small fraction of 3^ inches
in a century. Below the platform, there were 32 feet of the total
depth penetrated, but the lowest two feet consisted of sand, below
which it is possible there may be no true Nile sediment in this loca-
lity, thus leaving 30 feet of the latter. If that amount has been de-
posited at the same rate of 3^ inches in a century, it gives for the
lowest part deposited an age of 10,285 years before the middle of
the reign of Harnesses II., 1 1,646 years B.C., and 13,500 years before
A.D. 1854.

The author then observes, that these recent researches, taken in
conjunction with those of a similar kind by the French engineers
at the close of the last century, high in Upper Egypt, afford strong
presumptive evidence that the whole of the land of Egypt between
the bounding hills, from the first cataract to the sea, extending
nearly 700 miles — that land which is associated in our minds with all
that is most ancient in history or tradition — belongs entirely to the
recent geological period. No trace of an extinct organism has been
turned up to take the formation of the alluvial land of Egypt beyond
that modern epoch from which we are used to carry back our geo-
logical reckonings.

The author concludes with some remarks on the evidence which
these researches seem to afford of a very early existence of man in
Egypt. In a large majority of the excavations and borings the
sediment was found to contain at various depths, and frequently at
the lowest, small fragments of burnt brick and of pottery. In the
lowest part of the boring of the sediment at the colossal statue in
Memphis, at a depth of 39 feet from the surface of the ground, con-
sisting throughout of true Nile sediment, the instrument brought

134

up a fragment of pottery. [This fragment was exhibited when the
paper was read.] Having been found at a depth of 39 feet, it
would seem to be a true record of the existence of man 13,371 years
before A.D. 1854, reckoning by the before-mentioned rate of increase
of 3£ inches in a century; 11,517 years before the Christian era;
and 7625 years before the beginning assigned by Lepsius to the
reign of Menes, the founder of Memphis ; of man, moreover, in a
state of civilization, so far, at least, as to be able to fashion clay into
vessels, and to know how to harden them by the action of a strong
heat.

February 18, 1858.
LEONARD HORNER, Esq., Vice- President, in the Chair.

In accordance with notice given at last Meeting, the Lord Talbot de
Malahide was balloted for and duly elected a Fellow of the Society.

The following communication was read : — -

" On the Functions of the Tympanum." By JAMES JAGO^ A.B.
Cantab., M.B. Oxon., Physician to the Royal Cornwall
Infirmary. Communicated by Prof. STOKES, Sec. R. S.
Received January 23, 1858.

(Abstract.)

As in my present effort to obtain further light upon some of the
still obscure points in the physiology of the ear I have been prima-
rily guided by observations made upon my own ears, I should pre-
mise that both are very efficient for hearing ; but that they differ
from each other in the important particular that the faucial orifice
of the right Eustachian tube closes much less tightly than that of the
left, insomuch that there are times when the former becomes quite
patent, with no disposition to collapse. Again, having lately been
troubled for above five weeks with a tympanic deafness, I carefully
registered a series of auditory phenomena resulting therefrom, and

135

found them exceedingly noteworthy. Lastly, I have made certain
experiments upon the external auditory canals of the sound ears.

I compare, then, with one another, the phenomena yielded by a
normal ear, an ear with an open Eustachian tube, an ear with the drum
impaired in a particular manner, and an ear whose external meatus is
in a known altered condition ; calling in facts from other sources in
aid; and, finally, endeavour to determine the uses to be assigned
to the several structures of the drum in order to embrace all the
phenomena*.

I assure myself that my Eustachian tubes are ordinarily shut, by
the difficulty (greater for my left one) of forcing the breath into the
drums when I stop my mouth and nose, and the hinderment to its
escape till I swallow or eructate, showing that those acts open the
tubes. If we mark the sinking-in of the lachrymal sac when we swallow
with the mouth and nose stopped, we may see that the naso-guttural
cavity enlarges as the glottis is closed in that act, producing a partial
vacuum in the drums, and therefore from the greater barometric
pressure a feeling of tightness upon the membrana tympani, whilst
from loss of usual pressure the Eustachian tubes thereupon close more
firmly, and the faucial parts swell and stick together.

I can readily distinguish the act of opening the Eustachian tube
from all other guttural ones, both by hearing and feeling. A tearing
sound, or an irregular run of clicks, marks a slower, a sharp click a
quicker opening of the tube, a souffle the rush of air through the
patent tube, and a small crack the displacement of the membrana
tympani. I frequently perceive these phenomena in deglutition,
though, owing to the strong pressure of the current of ejected air in
the fauces, more especially in eructation. Sometimes also in yawning,
showing that a sundering contraction of the muscles of the pharynx
and palate attends the opening of the tube.

With the tube patent I feel the membrana tympani, as expiration
and inspiration alternate the greater amount of pressure in its two
surfaces, oscillating from outwards to inwards, as the inner canthus
of the eye, as reached by the nasal duct, may be seen to do. In
violent explosive expirations, the strength of the membrane is

* A note shows, that though I speak particularly from these sources, the results
rest on much hroader grounds ; and mentions how far anything like any portion
of this paper has been previously published by myself or others.

136

severely tested ; the mildest speaking, coughing, or sneezing even, is
always disagreeably felt thereon.

But to pass to the attendant sonorous phenomena : — the rippling
of the air in the tube at each elevation and depression of the ribs
expresses itself by a souffle., and every word I utter is taken to the
labyrinth directly through the tube with a force that proves annoy-
ing ; — observations which plainly evince why the Eustachians are
usually impervious, and why they almost never open except at that
instant of deglutition, or of the reverse act, eructation, which occludes
the glottis.

From numberless observations, I am able to affirm that the faculty
of audition is not at all deteriorated by patency of the tubes, how-
ever the ordinary use of the ear may be perplexed by sounds enter-
ing the tube. Nor does stretching the membrana tympani, by aug-
menting or diminishing the aerial pressure on its inner surface,
enfeeble hearing.

I will now turn to observations made upon my left ear when it
was deafened. I show that the external meatus was unaffected ; and
if I rubbed my finger over the skin covering the bone behind the ear,
or carried the ticking of a watch to the bottom of the meatus by
means of a metallic probe, and then did the like to the other ear, I
heard well, and as well upon one as the other. Hence the labyrinth
and acoustic nerve remained healthy, and the drum alone was
affected. Singing noises in the head had been developed just to the
same extent as hearing had been blunted, — phenomena that for three
weeks before an instantaneous cure remained quite unchanged.

The noises were caused by the circulation of the blood about the
drum, for they rose and fell as the circulation was quick or otherwise.
And I was led to the belief that these noises were not created by any
morbid change of local circulation, but that, by a morbid change in
the acoustic properties of the tympanum, ordinary movements of the
blood thereabouts were heard in a multiplied manner ; for the
click and souffle from air entering the Eustachian tube, as heard
in the healthy ear, were wonderfully magnified in the deaf one.
The louder souffle, that of eructation, normally but very weak,
even when the intruding air strongly forces outwards the membrana
tympani, in the deaf ear was always a very pronounced bruit. And
a couple of other sounds from distinct sources generated within the

137

site of the membrane are described, which, hardly audible in a normal
ear, are loud in an ear thus diseased.

Thus a group of phenomena beckon to the inference, that this
deafness had so modified the acoustic properties of the drum, as both
to render all sonorous vibrations affecting the air within it by far
more audible than before, and all those entering the meatus audi-
torius externus as much less audible than before. What physical
cause can bring about these inverse effects ?

1 . If the fenestra rotunda be the chief portal for sound, no change
at it could render one set of sounds more audible without doing so
for the other also.

2. If sound be mainly conveyed to the labyrinth by undulatory
displacements of the membrana tympani, causing bodily oscillation
of the ossicles, the membrane could not be rendered more responsive
to aerial waves falling upon one side of it without becoming equally
so for those falling upon its other.

3. If the fenestra rotunda chiefly afford passage to sound, and the
membrana tympani has acquired an abnormally high reflecting
power, repelling vibrations that would heretofore have escaped
through it from the drum back upon this fenestra, and those that
fall upon its outer surface back through the meatus, effects of an in-
verse kind do result. This hypothesis, therefore, cannot be rejected
without a careful consideration.

Let us inquire, then, what influence the existence of a membrana
tympani would, under this supposition, exert on hearing. Sonorous
vibrations impressed upon the walls of the head, that is, of the ex-
ternal meatus, are heard more loudly when we anyhow cover this
canal so as to close it, as any cavity when closed resounds like an
open one of greater size (J. Miiller). In again testing this principle,
I have used various materials for closing the meatus, have plugged
the entrance, and laid the thing over it, and observe always that the
smallest orifice in the occluding body detracts from the resonance ;
which I know to occur in the confined air, and not in the parietes
of the canal, for my deafened ear was deaf to it. Such experiments,
however, do not evince that the membrane aids hearing by reso-
nance, but the contrary. Dealing with vibrations already existing
in the walls of the cavity insulating the air, they do not at all imi-
tate the case of vibrations passing into the tympanum through a

138

medium, — the membrane. As no substance can be applied over tbe
meatus, however it be done, which does not hinder our hearing of
external sounds just as much as it occasions resonance of parietal
ones, the membrane on this supposition must in some degree or
other be a positive detriment to the auditory function. Besides, were
hearing aided by resonance within the drum, a patent Eustachian
tube by allowing vibrations to disperse must impair hearing, which
I know not to be the case. Again, if we assume the membrane to
but slightly arrest the transition of sound from the outer to the
tympanic air, to be, in short, an unavoidable impediment to hearing,
fulfilling some non-acoustic purpose, the loss of it would not prove
at once, as it does, a serious detriment to hearing rather than some
benefit. I may append too, that were it but a trifling obstacle, the
group of sounds occurring within it, so described, should be aug-
mented by resonance in the external meatus, on its outlet being
stopped ; yet I can detect nothing of the sort. Further, I squeezed
a plug of chewed brown paper, and one of dry paper, firmly into the
bottom of the meatus of the healthy ear, against the membrane, co-
vered the membrane with a stratum of wax, and filled the meatus
with water ; but in not one of these experiments were the said group
of sounds rendered louder. So that it appears that the application to
the membrane of even a highly reflecting surface fails to intercept
and cause to return intra- tympanic sounds, which can only be be-
cause the membrane is difficult for such sound to pass through. But
if the membrane highly resists the transition of aerial vibrations, it
(the fenestra rotunda being the chief portal) is a serious detriment
to hearing. Hence this fenestra cannot be of this acoustic conse-
quence. And we must have recourse to the only other theory which
suggests itself, which is —

4. That the membrane and ossicles form the essential path for
sonorous vibrations, which traverse it by the mode of condensation
and rarefaction ; that aerial ones impinging upon the outer surface
of the membrane easily impress themselves upon its substance, and pass
into the ossicles, whilst the inner surface presents a great obstacle
to their escape into the air in the drum, and equally repels vibra-
tions that fall upon it from this air. Thus, when disease nullifies
the great reflecting qualities of the inner surface, much of the sound
from without passes into the drum and is wasted, or deafness re-

139

suits ; whilst much of that in the drum enters the membrane, and
some of it finds its way along the ossicles, and noises in the head
are engendered.

Now I find that the cutaneous surface of the drum-head admits
vibrations from air with very much greater facility than water does,
that is, readily ; for on filling the external meatus of the sound ear
with water, and then letting it leak out again, I remarked that for more
than half an hour afterwards septa of water were constantly forming
themselves across the canal and producing much deafness, and then
breaking again with a loud noise, and the deafness vanishing. After
some evaporation the following instructive effects alone took place : —
the membrane would attract a film of water over its surface, and
deafness ensue ; but on a gust of air plunging into the drum through
the Eustachian tube, the membrane springing outwards with a smart
smack, would throw off the fluid, and the hearing as instantaneously
be restored. This would gradually wane away again by the re-
attraction of the water, to be instantaneously regained again, and so
on. But since the transition is easy between the membrane's outer
surface and air, what has been said above shows that it must be diffi-
cult between the inner surface and air, and the statement in (4.) is
demonstrated.

Accordingly the external layer of the membrane is formed of skin,
a dry tissue of loose texture, penetrable by air, and coming into in-
timate relation with it ; whilst the mucous membrane of the drum
is, as it were, unparalleled not only for tenuity, but compactness and
high vascularity, though it is barely possible to verify the presence of
mucous exudation upon it, affording a glassy surface which is a for-
midable barrier to the passage of vibrations from it to air, and vice
versa-, and this is so reflected, that the membrane and ossicles lead-
ing to the labyrinth lie without it, confining useful vibrations to
their destined path, and excluding hurtful ones from it ; and the
mastoid cells help to further stifle such vibrations as by any accident
intrude upon the air in the drum. The membrane of the fenestra
rotunda, by its elasticity, protects the acoustic nerve from undue
compression, &c. The membrana tympani avails acoustically by its
area, whilst its flexibility, the joints in the ossicular chain, &c., are
mere machinery for conveying, under all contingencies, vibrations to
the fenestra ovalis, and provision against mechanical accidents. The

140

structure of the labyrinth admits of explanation, in a great degree,
upon like principles.

The personal case of deafness studied in this paper was from a
cold draught on the ear, a mere inflammation of the mucous lining
of the drum, ultimately forming a layer of dried mucus upon the
membrana tympani, which originally involving much air-bubbles,
remained very permeable by air, and assimilated acoustically the
inner face of the membrane to the cuticular outer one. The instan-
taneous dispersion of the noises and deafness was caused by the
sudden peeling off of this false cuticle ; whilst a film of water upon
the cuticular face assimilates that to the inner one, when the ear
excludes both tympanic and outej sounds from the labyrinth. Deaf-
ness produced by disease in the external meatus only yields noises
when it propagates irritation so as to excite secretion of mucus on
the inner face of the drum-head. Simple perforation of the drum-
head only deafens in proportion to the extent of surface removed.
If there co-exist a more or less fluid discharge from the drum, this
spoils hearing by covering the cuticular surface of the membrane,
though it may not deviate so much acoustically from that lined by
mucous membrane as to very materially damage it. To remedy such
deafness mechanically, we should first essay to rescue the cuticular
face from the fluid by placing some material to draw off the discharge
from it, so as to keep the membrane fit for its duties, and still ex-
posed to aerial vibrations. If the mischief is so extensive that we
are obliged to employ some disc to rest against the remaining ossicles
as a substitute for the true membrane, we should try to form one
with surfaces acoustically imitating those of the membrane itself.

The paper concludes by pointing out how the various injuries which
have been known to occur by disease or otherwise to the different
parts of the tympanum, are readily accounted for by the functional
hypothesis here submitted.

141

February 25, 1858.

WILLIAM R. GROVE, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair.

Charles Piazzi Smyth, Esq., was admitted into the Society.
The following communications were read : —

I. " Remarks on the interior Melting of Ice." By Professor
WILLIAM THOMSON, F.R.S. In a Letter to Professor
STOKES, Sec. R,S. Received January 23, 1858.

In the Number of the ' Proceedings ' just published, which I received
yesterday, I see some very interesting experiments described in a
communication by Dr. Tyndall, " On some Physical Properties of
Ice." I write to you to point out that they afford direct ocular
evidence of my brother's theory of the plasticity of ice, published in
the ' Proceedings ' of the 7th of May last ; and to add, on my own
part, a physical explanation of the blue veins in glaciers, and of
the lamellar structure which Dr. Tyndall has shown to be induced
in ice by pressure, as described in the sixth section of his paper.

Thus, my brother, in his paper of last May, says, " If we com-
mence with the consideration of a mass of ice perfectly free from
porosity, and free from liquid particles diffused through its substance,
and if we suppose it to be kept in an atmosphere at or above 0° Cent.,
then, as soon as pressure is applied to it, pores occupied by liquid
water must instantly be formed in the compressed parts, in accord-
ance with the fundamental principle of the explanation I have pro-
pounded— the lowering, namely, of the freezing-point or melting-
point, by pressure, and the fact that ice cannot exist at 0° Cent, under
a pressure exceeding that of the atmosphere." Dr. Tyndall finds
that when a cylinder of ice is placed between two slabs of box-wood,
and subjected to gradually increasing pressure, a dim cloudy appear-
ance is observed, which he finds is due to the melting of small por-
tions of the ice in the interior of the mass. The permeation into
portions of the ice for a time clear " by the water squeezed against it
from such parts as may be directly subjected to the pressure," theo-
retically demonstrated by my brother, is beautifully illustrated by

VOL. IX. L

142

Dr. Tyndall's statement, that " the hazy surfaces produced by the
compression of the mass were observed to be in a state of iatense
commotion, which followed closely upon the edge of the surface as it
advanced through the solid. It is finally shown that these surfaces
are due to the liquefaction of the ice in planes perpendicular to the
pressure."

There can be no doubt but that the " oscillations " in the melting-
point of ice, and the distinction between strong and weak pieces in
this respect, described by Dr. Tyndall in the second section of his
paper, are consequences of the varying pressures which different por-
tions of a mass of ice must experience when portions within it
become liquefied.

The elevation of the melting temperature which my brother's
theory shows must be produced by diminishing the pressure of ice
below the atmospheric pressure, arid to which I alluded as a subject
for experimental illustration, in the article describing my experi-
mental demonstration of the lowering effect of pressure (Proceedings,
Roy. Soc. Edinb. Feb. 1850), demonstrates that a vesicle of water
cannot form in the interior of a solid of ice except at a temperature
higher than 0° Cent. This is a conclusion which Dr. Tyndall ex-
presses as a result of mechanical considerations : thus, " Regarding
heat as a mode of motion," " liberty of liquidity is attained by the
molecules at the surface of a mass of ice before the molecules at the
centre of the mass can attain this liberty."

The physical theory shows that a removal of the atmospheric
pressure would raise the melting-point of ice by 7f ^ths of a degree
Centigrade. Hence it is certain that the interior of a solid of ice,
heated by the condensation of solar rays by a lens, will rise to at
least that excess of temperature above the superficial parts. It appears
very nearly certain that cohesion will prevent the evolution of a
bubble of vapour of water in a vesicle of water forming by this process
in the interior of a mass of ice, until a high " negative pressure" has
been reached, that is to say, until cohesion has been called largely
into operation, especially if the water and ice contain little or no air
by absorption (just as water freed from air may be raised consider-
ably above its boiling-point under any non- evanescent hydrostatic
pressure). Hence it appears nearly certain that the interior of a
block of ice originally clear, and made to possess vesicles of water by

143

the concentration of radiant heat, as in the beautiful experiments
described by Dr. Tyndall in the commencement of his paper, will
rise very considerably in temperature, while the vesicles enlarge under
the continued influence of the heat received by radiation through the
cooler enveloping ice and through the fluid medium (air and a watery
film, or water) touching if all round, which is necessarily at 0° Cent,
where it touches the solid.

I find I have not time to execute my intention of sending you to-
day a physical explanation of the blue veins of glaciers which occurred
to me last May, but I hope to be able to send it in a short time.

WILLIAM THOMSON.

Jan. 21, 1858.

II. "On the Practical Use of the Aneroid Barometer as an
Orometer." By Captain W. S. MOORSOM, Member of the
Institution of Civil Engineers. Communicated by P. W.
BARLOW, Esq. Received January 28, 1858.

A Government Commission to Ceylon in the beginning of 1857,
led the author, as Chief Engineer in charge of the Expedition, to
provide (among other instruments) some aneroids, as a means of
saving time in ascertaining the levels of the mountain passes of that
Island. The aneroids offered by makers did not appear sufficiently
graduated to admit of minute observation, and at the author's sug-
gestion Messrs. Elliott furnished a more complete vernier, which,
however, was shown to be susceptible of material improvement.

With these comparatively imperfect instruments, it was shown
that an elevation of 950 feet may be taken to correspond with the
fall through the first inch of the aneroid ; that about 970 feet more
corresponds with the fall through the second inch, and about 1000
feet corresponds with the fall through the third inch. These altitudes
having been checked by levels taken with the ordinary surveyor's
spirit-level, it was shown that this experience corresponds with the
Tables published by M. Bellville, within 1 per cent.

The thermometer, which is usually attached to the aneroid, is not
a necessary adjunct, but is frequently useful, and always interesting.
The compensations introduced to provide against variations of tempe-

L 2

144

rature, as affecting the results given by the instrument, were shown
to be effectual without the aid of the thermometer.

The difficulties to be contended with in taking accurate observa-
tions were shown to be local variation, diurnal variation, and some
irregularity in the action of the mechanical parts of the instrument
itself. These difficulties were examined seriatim, and modes of ap-
proaching to their corrections were explained. The modes of com-
pensation for variations of temperature affecting the instrument were
shown as at present practised by the makers : the diaphragm-box
being compensated by means of the introduction of a small portion
of aeriform fluid, instead of being allowed to act with a perfect va-
cuum, and the metallic connexions between the diaphragm-box and
the index being compensated by compound arms or connexions of
steel and brass so adjusted as to neutralize mutually the respective
contraction or expansion of each at variations extending to 100 de-
grees of temperature.

The mode now practised by makers of graduating the aneroid
(when thus compensated) by comparison with a standard mercurial
barometer, was stated, and it was suggested that improvement on this
practice might be made by reference to standard elevations running
up to 2000 feet at least in Great Britain. Practical examples were
given of the use of the instrument in Ceylon, showing the variations
of the aneroid (when properly checked) to lie between 1 foot and 6
feet, as compared with the surveyor's spirit-level : other examples
were given of practice on the Great Western, South-Eastern, and
North Kent Railways, varying from the true levels from 6 inches
to 6 feet, over distances of between 300 and 400 miles.

The paper concluded with Tables in the Appendix, and with dia-
grams explanatory of the construction of the instrument ; the Tables
being intended to illustrate the effects of diurnal and also of local
variation within the tropics (in Ceylon), and also in England.

145

March 4, 1858.

The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.

The President announced that the Chemical Society had met and
adjourned, in order to attend the Bakerian Lecture, and would, with
permission of the Meeting, be present.

The Lord Talbot de Malahide was admitted into the Society.

In accordance with the Statutes, the Secretary read the following
list of Candidates for Election into the Society : —

Thomas Graham Balfour, M.D.
John Bateman, Esq.
Henry Foster Baxter, Esq.
Samuel Husbands Beckles, Esq.
Edward Mounier Boxer, Capt.

R.A.

William Brinton, M.D.
Frederick Grace Calvert, Esq.
Thomas Russell Crampton, Esq.
Frederick Carrey, Esq., M.A.
Hugh Welch Diamond, M.D.
Thomas Rowe Edmonds, Esq.,

B.A.

David Forbes, Esq.
S. W. Fullom, Esq.
Francis Galton, Esq.
Alfred Baring Garrod, M.D.
William Henry Harvey, M.D.
Rev. Samuel Haughton.
Henry Hennessy, Esq.

Henry Letheby, M.B.
David Livingstone, LL.D.
Edward Joseph Lowe, Esq.
John Lubbock, Esq.
David Macloughlin, M.D.
Capt. Rochfort Maguire, R.N.
Capt. William Searth Moorsom.
Robert William Mylne, Esq.
William Newmarch, Esq.
William Peters, Esq.
Henry Darwin Rogers, LL.D.
William Scovell Savory, M.B.
Sir Robert Schomburgk.
Edward Smith, M.D.
Warington Wilkinson Smyth,

Esq., M.A.

Col. Andrew Scott Waugh, B.E.
Thomas Williams, M.D.
Bennet Woodcroft, Esq.

146

The BAKERIAN LECTURE was delivered by JOHN P. GASSIOT,
Esq., V.P.R.S., "On the Stratifications and Dark Bands
in Electrical Discharges as observed in Torricellian Va-

The Lecturer gave an exposition of the substance of a Paper,
communicated by him under the above title, and illustrated his Lec-
ture by a repetition, before the Society, of the Experiments described.
The following is an abstract : —

The author refers to the stratified appearance of the electrical dis-
charge when taken from the terminals of a RuhmkoriFs induction-
coil in the vapour of phosphorus, and in highly attenuated gases,
first noticed by Mr. Grove (Phil. Trans. Part I. 1852, and Phil.
Mag., Dec. 1852). Having witnessed the experiments of Mr.
Grove, Mr. Gassiot in the same year examined the discharge in a
barometrical vacuum in which the mercury had been carefully boiled,
but he could not obtain any signs of stratification. These experi-
ments were subsequently repeated by several continental electricians,
whom he names, and who all describe the induction-discharge in a
barometrical vacuum as intensely white, and filling the whole tube
without stratification.

After alluding to the experiments of the Rev. Dr. Robinson (Proc.
R. I. Acad., Dec. 1856), and to some recent improvements in the
construction of the induction-coil, the author proceeds to describe
apparatus which he had constructed for the more careful examination
of the character of the induction-discharge. His first experiments
were made on glass tubes about 1 0 inches long, in which the mer-
cury could be lowered or raised to any required level by means of the
air-pump. He also experimented with barometrical vacuums ob-
tained by inverting a tube of about 44 inches in length, filled with
boiled mercury, over a vessel containing that metal, and then sealing
the tube 2 or 3 inches above the barometrical height.

The results obtained by these methods having been found un-
satisfactory, the author had recourse to that first suggested by Mr.
Welsh (Phil. Trans. 1856, p. 507), by which that gentleman con-
structed the large barometer at the Kew Observatory. Following

147

out the principles indicated by Mr. Welsh, by carefully removing all
trace of moisture, and thoroughly cleaning the tubes before intro-
ducing the mercury, the author succeeded in obtaining Torricellian
vacuums which exhibit the stratifications in a uniform and very
marked manner.

The sealed tubes generally used by Mr. Gassiot are then described.
They are made of the usual glass tubing, about an inch internal
diameter, and of the form fig. 1 .

They vary from 10 to 38 inches in length. In the latter case the
platinum wires a b are about 32 inches apart. One tube is de-
scribed 5 feet 3 inches in length, with wires 4 feet 9 inches apart.

With a tube prepared on Mr. Welsh's principle, and the usual-
sized Ruhmkorff 's induction-coil excited by a single cell of Grove's
nitric acid battery, with or without a condenser, the phenomena of
the stratified discharge can be seen and examined with ease, and
without the trouble and uncertain manipulation of an air-pump, or
the employment of phosphorous or other vapours.

If the discharges are made in one direction, a black deposit takes
place on the sides of the tube nearest the negative terminal. This
deposit is platinum in a state of minute division emanating from the
wire, which becomes black and rough as if corroded. The minute
particles of platinum are deposited in a lateral direction from the
negative wire, and consequently in a different, manner from what is
described as occurring in the voltaic arc (De la Rive's ' Electricity,'
vol. ii. p. 288), so that the luminous appearance of discharge from
the induction-machine can in no way arise from the emanation of
particles of the metal.

The author describes a series of experiments made in the apparatus
first prepared, by which the mercury is lowered or raised in the
vacuum tube ; he describes the peculiar appearance when the mer-
cury is made either positive or negative. In some instances, and
particularly when, instead of wires, platinum balls |th of an inch in
diameter were used for terminals, the stratifications instantly ceased
when the mercury rose above the negative ball; but when the pole

148

of a magnet was presented to the positive ball, the stratifications
were drawn to the length of two or three inches down the tube.

In the sealed tubes the stratified discharge was obtained by fric-
tional electricity ; and if a charged Leyden jar is discharged through
the vacuum by a wet string, the stratifications are as distinct as from
the induction-coil.

The author next proceeds to show, that by a single disruptive dis-
charge of the primary current excited by a single cell, the entire
tube, whatever may be its length, is filled with stratifications as far
as the dark band near the negative wire ; and from this experiment
he is of opinion that the phenomenon cannot be in any way due to
the vibrations of the contact-breaker. With one, two or three cells
no appearance of a luminous discharge could be perceived on making
contact, it only appeared on breaking. If, however, the intensity of
the primary current is increased by using ten or more cells, stratifi-
cations appear on making as well as on breaking the contact of the
primary circuit. These stratifications are always concave towards
the positive terminal, and as the discharges, on making and on break-
ing, emanate from different terminals, their concavities are in oppo-
site directions, — a fact which explains the different ways in which
several electricians have described and figured the form of the dis-
charge with tbe coil. These stratifications appear in quick succession,
but they can always be separated in any part of the tube by a
magnet.

Under certain conditions the positive discharge assumes a peculiar
form, of which the author gives a drawing. He considers that this
exhibits a direction of a force from the positive to the negative, cen-
tering to the axis of stratification, which cannot be connected with
the passage of particles, and that the latter phenomenon, as it occurs
in the voltaic arc, may be but the result of a secondary action.

The author notices the peculiar difference between the positive
and negative discharge ; he describes an apparatus by which both
terminals could be made of surfaces of mercury, or the positive of a
surface of mercury, and the negative of a wire, or the reverse. In
this apparatus, moreover, the mercury at one end could be elongated
8 or 10 inches. When the mercury was negative, its entire surface
was covered with a brilliant glow ; when positive, the extreme point

149

of the mercury exhibited intense light, hut the remainder of the sur-
face appeared unaffected by the discharge. In order to test whether
any signs of interference could be detected, he had a tube prepared
with four wires, by which discharges could be observed when taken
from separate coils, as shown in fig. 2, where a b and a1 V are

platinum wires hermetically sealed, as in the previously described
apparatus. Care was taken to manipulate with induction-coils giving
discharges of equal intensity ; but in no case did any sign of inter-
ference appear. The discharges, whether in the same or in opposite
directions, mingled ; the stratifications, having a tendency to rotate
round the poles of a magnet and obeying the well-known law of
magnetic rotations, could be separated by either pole.

If, instead of sealed wires, tin-foil coatings, a b (fig. 3), are placed

on the vacuum tube, and the coatings are attached to the terminals
of the induction-apparatus, brilliant stratifications immediately ap-
pear in the portion of the vacuum between the coatings, but without
any dark discharge. On approaching a powerful magnet, the stra-
tifications divide into two equal series, in which the bands or strata
are concave in opposite directions.

If a vacuum tube, with or without wires or coatings, is placed on
the induction-coil, or on the prime conductor of an electrical machine,
stratifications appear which are divided by the magnet. Having
thus ascertained that there are two distinct forms of the stratified
electrical discharge, the author, for the sake of clearness of expres-
sion, terms them the direct and the induced discharge. The direct
discharge is that which is visible in a vacuum when taken from two
wires hermetically .sealed therein; this discharge has a tendency to
rotate, as a whole, round the poles of a magnet. The induced dis-
charge is that which is visible in the same vacuum when taken from
two metallic coatings attached to the outside of the tube, or from
one coating and one wire ; this discharge is divided by the magnet,

150

and the two divisions have a tendency to rotate in opposite direc-
tions. The character of these two forms of electrical discharge can
always be determined by the magnet.

The author concludes his paper in the following words : — " I refrain
for the present from any observations as to the action of the magnet
on the discharge. The intimate relation of magnetic and electric
action has long since been shown; but the curious effect of the
power of a magnet to draw out the stratifications from the positive
terminal, and in some instances its powerful action on that portion of
the discharge which exhibits the phosphorescent light in its great-
est intensity, are worthy of further examination. In the preceding
experiments my object was directed to the examination of the stra-
tified and of the dark band discharge ; at present I am inclined to
the opinion that the stratifications in the positive, and the dark band
between it and the negative glow, although apparently similar, are
effects arising from distinct causes — the former from pulsations or
impulses of a force acting in a highly attenuated but resisting
medium, the latter from interference. I am at this time engaged in
making further experiments for the elucidation of this novel and
remarkable phenomenon."

March 11, 1858.
Dr. HOOKER, Vice-President, in the Chair.

The following communications were read : —

I. Notes of Researches on the Poly- Ammonias. By AUG. W.
HOFMANN, Ph.D., F.R.S. &c. Received February 4, 1858.

Former investigations had led me to some general conclusions re-
garding the molecular constitution of the organic bases, which I have
communicated to the Royal Society, and which have been published
in the 'Philosophical Transactions' (1850, p. 93; 1851, p. 357).
My experiments had proved that each equivalent of hydrogen in

151

ammonium may be replaced by an equivalent of a mono-atomic
electro-positive radical, such as methyl, ethyl, &c. ; — a series of com-
pound ammoniums being produced, the salts of which may be thus
formulated : —

H

N<^ g' yd

R'
R'
H
H „

Cl,

LR'
R' representing a mono-atomic electro-positive radical.

These successive substitutions were accomplished by the action of
ammonia upon the bromides and iodides of the alcohol-radicals,
which since that time have become most valuable agents of substi-
tution in the hands of chemists.

All the bases produced by this process being derived from
1 equiv. of ammonium, contain 1 equiv. of nitrogen ; they differ
in this respect essentially from the majority of the alkaloids extracted
from plants, and more particularly so from those which, like quinine,
morphine, strychnine, &c., specially claim our interest. By far the
greater number of the vegetable alkaloids contain 2 equivs. of nitro-
gen. In some vegetable and animal bases we find even 3 and 4 equivs.
of nitrogen. The molecular construction of these bodies is still ob-
scure, but it is extremely probable that they are derived from 2, 3 or
4 ammonia equivs., in which the hydrogen is more or less replaced
by poly-atomic molecules, and that the stability of such complicated

152

structures essentially depends upon the substituting capacity of their
replacing molecules.

It was long my intention to extend my researches to the poly-
ammonium bases. But my attention has been specially called to
the subject by the beautiful results obtained of late, especially in
France, by the study of the poly-acid alcohols, by the experiments of
M. Berthelot, and more particularly by the classical researches of
M. Wurtz, which enable us to take a general view of this subject.

Taking as a point of departure the neutral compounds which are
formed by the action of ammonia upon bibasic and tribasic acids,
the diamides and triamides, derived respectively from 2 or 3 equivs.
of ammonia, it became extremely probable that the action of ammonia
upon poly-acid alcohols would give rise to poly-ammonium bases.
In the conception of this analogy there appeared but little doubt that
ammonia, under the influence of the bromides and iodides of bi-acid
alcohols, would furnish a series of bi-ammonium bases, exactly as
treatment of ammonia with the analogous compounds of mono-acid
alcohols has given rise to the formation of the mon-ammonium
bases above referred to. In other words, it was to be expected that
a compound ether R" Br2 or R" I2 (R" representing a bi-atomic
electro-positive radical) would act upon two equivalents of ammonia,
producing a series of salts expressed by the following formulae : —

•Br2.

In endeavouring experimentally to verify this idea, it became necessary

153

to examine what had hitherto heen done in this direction. Science
possesses already some very interesting observations on the ammonia
derivatives of hi- acid alcohols. About five years ago, soon after the
publication of my experiments upon the action of ammonia upon
bromide and iodide of ethyl, M. Cloe'z* obtained a series of bases,
on submitting ammonia to the action of the brominetted Dutch liquid
(C4 H4 Br2) . Two of these bodies he described under the name of
formylia and acetylia, whilst a third body subsequently obtained is
designated by the term propyliaf.

To these three bodies M. Cloe'z attributes the following formulae : —

Formylia C2 H3 N

Acetylia C4H5N

Propylia .. .. C6H7N.

At a later period M. Natanson has studied the action of ammonia
on the chlorinetted Dutch liquid (C4 H4 C12) . This reaction produces
analogous results, but the number of bases is smaller, the chief
product being a chloride, which contains a base either identical or
isomeric with the acetylia of M. Cloe'z.

When carefully considering the results obtained by M. Cloe'z, it
appeared to me probable that the bases which he describes, are
in fact the di-ammonium -compounds for which I was searching.
The constitution assigned by M. Cloe'z to his substances is not very
probable. It is difficult to understand how the action of ammonia
upon a compound like the Dutch liquid can produce simultaneously
three bodies belonging to three different homologous families, the
formyl-, acetyl-, and propyl-series. Our doubts are, however, in-
creased if we examine into the physical characters of these bodies,
especially if we consider their high boiling temperatures, and the
differences between the boiling-points of the three bases : —

Formylia.... C2HSN 123° i

Acetylia.... C4H6N ^difference 47.

Propylia .... C6 H7 N 210°} difference 40.

Methylamin, C2 H5 N, which contains only 2 equivalents of hy-
drogen more than formylia, is at the common temperature a gas, and

* Instit. 1853, 213. f Cahours, Le?ons de Chimie Generate, t. ii. p. 654.

154

liquefies only considerably below the freezing-point of water. Again,
the differences of the boiling-points of substances, related in the way
that the formulae of M. Cloez suppose, do not often exceed 20°, and
very rarely rise to 40° and 47°.

All these difficulties disappear by submitting the formulae of
M. Cloez to a slight alteration, and by regarding formylia, acetylia
and propylia as the di-ammonium bases of the same series, of the
ethylene series. If we adopt this view, the three bodies are de-
rived from 2 of ammonia, in which 2, 4 or 6 equivalents of hydrogen
are replaced respectively by 1, 2 or 3 equivalents of the bi-atomic
molecule ethylene ; and the formylia, acetylia and propylia of M.
Cloez present themselves as monethylene-diamine, diethylene-diamine
and triethylene-diamine.

I have endeavoured experimentally to solve this question. The
analysis of acetylia, which is remarkable for the definite character of
its salts, appeared to promise an answer to it.

When repeating the beautiful experiments of M. Cloez, I had
occasion to confirm all the indications given by this able chemist,
regarding the formation of the bases derived from bibromide of
ethylene. The analysis, however, furnished a discrepant result.

M. Cloez represents formylia by the formula

C2 H3 N,
when the hydrochlorate becomes

C2H3N, HC1=C2H4NC1.

When considered as a di-ammonium compound, this salt has the
composition

C4-H8 N2, 2 HC1=C4 H10 N2 C12=2C2 H6 N Cl.

The two formulae only differ by one equivalent of hydrogen.

The analysis of a magnificently crystallized hydrochlorate has
furnished me the following results : —

Formula of M. Cloez — New formula — Mean of

C2 H4 N Cl. C4 H10 N2 C12. analysis.

Carbon.... 18'32 18'04 1/-87

Hydrogen.. 6'10 7'51 7*55.

Chlorine .. 54*19 53'38 53'17

On preparing the free base by the action of hydrate of potassa

155

upon the hydrochlorate, I was surprised to find that this body
retains hydrogen and oxygen in the proportion in which they
exist in water, which cannot be separated by prolonged contact with,
or by repeated distillation over, anhydrous baryta.

The analysis of the free base has given the following result : —

Carbon . ,
Hydrogen
Nitrogen

Formula of M. Cloez —

C2H4NO.

31-58

10-52

36-84

New formula —
C4H10N202.
30-76
12-82
35-90

Analysis.
Mean.
30-67
12-97
36-32

These numbers appear to me in favour of the formula which I pro-
pose for formylia ; there remains but little doubt that acetylia and
propylia are analogously constituted.

There remains yet to find the last term of the series, the tetre-
thylene-diammonium compound. Up to the present moment I have
only established by experiment that the three lower bases are
powerfully attacked by bibromide of ethylene, a non- volatile com-
pound being produced possessing properties in every respect analo-
gous to the character of tetramethyl- and tetrethylammonium.

If further experiments confirm the hypothesis which I have
advanced, the action of ammonia on bi-bromide of ethylene would
give rise to four compounds analogous to the bases which I have
obtained by the action of bromide of ethyl.

Bromide
of ethyl-

ammo-

nium.

Bromide
ofdiethyl--,^
ammo-
nium.

Bromide of

triethyl-

ammo-

nium.

Bromide of
tetrethyl-

ammo-

nium.

Bibromide of ethy- ^.
lene-diammonium. 2

H

H2 I
H2 J

Br2.

Bibromide of di-
ethylene-di- N2-
ammonium.

Bibromide of
triethylene-di- N2
ammonium.

x *ft *\s

(CW X,.
H^ j

(c4H24)n

(C4H4)» I

/p TT \if ?r'l2>

^H4 J

"(C4H4)»1

<C4H4)" Ur
(C4H4)" r"2'
.(C4H4)"J

The conception of diammonium-compounds has suggested to me

Bibromide of
tetrethylene-di- N8
ammonium.

156

the idea to extend my observations also to the triacid-alcohols, and
to submit ammonia to the action of the bodies

C2H Br3.

C4 H3 Br3.

C.H.Br,.

Analogy suggested the formation in this reaction of a series of
triammonium- bases, the salt of which might be thus formulated: —

"r

N.

rs

SJ

("K»

N J R'"
•'1 H.

B'"J

I have not yet succeeded in realizing these compounds by treating
under several conditions ammonia by the above chlorides and bro-
mides of triacid-alcohols. The processes which I have as yet tried
have led to other transformations. A different result is, however,
obtained by replacing the ammonia in these processes by amidogen-
bases. In this reaction, and especially with aniline and chloroform,
a series of beautifully crystallized alkaloids is formed, the study of
which engages at present my attention.

In conclusion, I may remark that several of the known basic com-
pounds appear to belong to the triammonium-type.

The cyanethine of Kolbe and Frankland may be viewed as such a
compound —

-

CHN= ce N

I8US

This substance appears to me to be derived from 3 equivs. of am-
monia, in which 3 equivs. of hydrogen are replaced by 3 equivs. of
the tri-atomic radical which chemists assume in glycerin-alcohol.

157

II. " Description of the Skull and Teeth of the Placodus laticeps,
Ow., with indications of other new Species of Placodus,
and evidence of the Saurian Nature of that Extinct Genus."
By Prof. RICHARD OWEN, F.R.S. &c. Received February
6, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The author premises a brief sketch of the history of the discovery
of the fossils referred by Count Miinster, Professors Agassiz, Bronn,
and Meyer to the Pycnodont family of Ganoid Fishes, under the
generic name of Placodus; and then enters upon the anatomical
grounds on which he concludes that the Placodus is a Saurian reptile.
These are stated to be, principally, — 1, distinct external bony nostrils,
divided by an ascending process of the premaxillary, and bounded by
that bone, the maxillaries and nasals ; 2, orbits circumscribed below
by the superior maxillary and malar bones ; 3, temporal fossae of
great size and width, bounded externally by two zygomatic arches,
the upper formed by the postfrontal and mastoid, the lower formed
by the malar and squamosal ; 4, the tympanic bone formed by one
bony piece, with a trochlear lower articular surface ; the limitation of
the teeth to the premaxillary, maxillary, palatine, and pterygoid
bones, in the upper jaw, with a demonstrated absence of a median
vomerine series, such as exists in the true Pycnodonts. With these
proofs of the reptilian nature of the Placodus, Prof. Owen combines
others exemplifying its affinities to the Lacertian order, and more
especially with that modification of Lacertia exemplified by the
extinct genus Simosaurus, from the Muschelkalk.

The author then describes the dentition of the upper jaw of the
specimen of Placodus, demonstrating the foregoing characters. It
includes two premaxillary and three maxillary teeth, forming an
outer or marginal series, and two teeth of larger size, forming an inner
or palatal series, the last of which is described as the largest grinding
tooth in proportion to the size of the head, hitherto known in the
animal kingdom.

From the cranial and dental characters the author deduces the
specific distinction of his specimen from previously described Placodi,

VOL. IX. M

158

and proposes for it the name of Placodus laticeps, in reference to tnc
great breadth of the skull, which equals the entire length, each
measuring about 8 inches. All the teeth are implanted in distinct
sockets, according to the thecodont type of the Lacertian order. The
relation of the large temporal fossse and of the wide span of the
zygomatic arches, to the enormous muscular force required to work
the crushing machinery of the jaws, is pointed out.

The structure of the bony nostrils, the orbits, the palate, with other
particulars of the cranial anatomy of the Placodus, is next described
in detail, and compared with the same characters in Nothosaurus,
Simosaurus, Pistosaurus, and other Muschelkalk reptiles. The
dentition of these Saurians, although, like Placodus, thecodont in
respect of implantation, is of the ordinary crocodilian type in
respect of form, adapted to the prehension of fishes ; and there are
no palatal teeth. But the author remarks that such teeth exist in
the triassic Labyrinthodonts, with a disproportionate magnitude of
certain teeth which offers a certain analogy with the dentition of
Placodus. An account of the microscopic structure of the dentine,
enamel, and osseous tissue of the Placodus is then given.

The extreme and peculiar modification of the teeth, in respect to
form and size, adapting them to the crushing and pounding of hard
substances, and the association of the Placodus with conchiferous
mollusks in such abundance as to have suggested the terms * Muschel-
kalk,' ( Terebratuliten-kalk,' and the like, for the strata containing
them, concur in evincing the class whence the Placodi derived their
chief subsistence ; and the author points out the relation of a con-
stant disposition of the teeth, in all the known species, to the readier
cracking of shelly substance. A single row of teeth in the lower
jaw is always opposed to a double row in the upper one, playing,
with its strongest line of force, upon their interspace. Thus the
crushing force below presses upon a part between the two points of
resistance above, on the same principle on which a stick is broken
across the knee ; only here the fulcrum is at the intermediate point,
the moving powers at the two parts grasped by the hands. It is
obvious that a shell pressed between two opposite flat surfaces might
resist the strongest bite ; but, subjected to alternate points of press-
ure, its fracture is facilitated.

159

Certain Australian lizards present teeth with large rounded obtuse
crowns, like those of certain Placodi, and have on that account
received the name of Cyclodus, for their genus.

The author next proceeds to describe certain specimens of the
mandible or under jaw of the genus Placodus. The first of these he
refers to a species for which he proposes the name of Placodus
pachygnathus. The second may probably be the lower jaw of the
Placodus Andriani, Ag. ; but should it prove to belong to a different
species, the term bombidens would best express the specific pecu-
liarity in the shape of the grinding surface of the teeth. A third
species is named Placodus bathygnathus, in reference to the great
vertical extent of the mandibular ramus.

All the above-described fossils are from the Muschelkalk member
of the triassic series, near Bayreuth, Germany, and have been
recently acquired for the Palaeontological Series in the British
Museum.

The Memoir is accompanied by numerous drawings.

March 18, 1858.
The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.

The following communications were read : —

I. " On the probable Origin of some Magnesian Rocks." By
T. STERRY HUNT, Esq., of the Geological Survey of Canada.
Communicated by THOMAS GRAHAM, Esq., Master of the
Mint. Received July 10, 1857.

The deposits of mineral matters from natural waters oifer many
points of interest to the geologist. Besides the rock-salt and gypsum,
which in many cases have doubtless been formed by the spontaneous
evaporation of saline waters, it is well known that many mineral
springs charged with carbonic acid under pressure, deposit great
quantities of earthy salts when they come to the surface, and that
the travertines thus formed often constitute extensive masses. The

M2

160

deposit from the hot alkaline saline springs of Carlsbad, which forms
great beds, was found byBerzelius to consist chiefly of carbonate of lime,
with portions of oxide or carbonate of iron, and small quantities of
silica, strontia, phosphoric acid and fluorine ; the analyses of other
chemists have added to the list of elements met with in these and
similar precipitates, manganese, zinc, cobalt, nickel, chromium, arsenic,
antimony, tin, copper and lead. Carbonate of magnesia is however
wanting, or present only in very small proportion in these deposits,
and the same is true of the calcareous sinter from cold springs. The
Carlsbad water, however, contains for 1 7 parts of carbonate of lime,
10 parts of carbonate of magnesia ; but this latter salt, according to
Berzelius, is only deposited after evaporation.

The analyses by Berzelius and Struve of the various carbonated
waters of Germany, show that carbonate of lime is generally present
in much larger quantities than carbonate of magnesia ; and it is only
in the waters of Piillna and the Elisenbrunnen of Kreuznach, which
contain very little carbonic acid, that we find a large amount of
carbonate of magnesia, with a small portion of carbonate of lime.
The water of Piillna, according to Struve, contains in 1000 parts,
32' 72 of solid matters, consisting of sulphates and chlorides of sodium,
magnesium and a little calciumj besides '10 of carbonate of lime and
•83 of carbonate of magnesia ; it contains only y^ths of its volume
of carbonic acid gas.

In my analyses of the waters of the western basin of Canada, I have
found many brine-springs, which, although rising from Lower Silurian
limestones, hold no appreciable amount of earthy carbonates, but
contain besides common salt, large quantities of chlorides of calcium
and magnesium ; they are in fact veritable bitterns. The mineral
springs of these palaeozoic strata appear to be in all cases connected
with undulations producing disruptions of the strata, through which
the subterranean waters find egress. In the almost undisturbed
region of the west, the springs are consequently rare, but in the
disturbed country further east, along the north-western limit of the
Green Mountains, which are composed of these same palaeozoic
strata in an altered condition, the mineral waters become very
abundant. Five or six springs, often differing in kind, may sometimes
be found within a short distance along the same line of fault, but

161

where the strata become crystalline, the mineral waters are no longer
met with.

In this eastern region the saline waters issuing from the same
limestones as the springs just described, are generally more dilute
than those of the west, and although, like them, containing but very
little carbonic acid, deposit by boiling or evaporation large quantities
of earthy salts, chiefly carbonate of magnesia. Many of these waters
contain earthy chlorides, and are analogous to the Piillna spring,
while others, still strongly saline, are alkaline from the presence of
carbonate of soda. The solubility of the carbonate of magnesia in
these waters is explained by the observations of H. Rose, who has
shown that the partial precipitate produced in the cold, by carbonate
of soda in a solution of a neutral salt of magnesia, is redissolved by an
excess either of the magnesian salt or the alkaline carbonate, and is
only thrown down from these solutions by heat. Longchamp has
further remarked, that the precipitation by heat is rendered less com-
plete in proportion as the carbonate, sulphate or hydrochlorate of the
alkali is in excess, and that the precipitate at first formed under these
circumstances is redissolved on cooling. I have verified this last
observation in the case of these natural waters, from which the mag-
nesian carbonate is only separated, when they are evaporated to a
small volume. When thus evaporated, even at a very gentle heat,
these mineral waters yield large quantities of granular carbonate of
magnesia, often nearly pure.

With these facts in view, it is very easy to trace a relation between
the saline waters, containing carbonate of magnesia, and another class
of springs in which the predominant element is carbonate of soda,
with small quantities of common salt, borax and earthy carbonates.
These waters, although wanting in the west, are very abundant in
eastern Canada, and rise from the same formations as the saline
springs, but are most abundant in the argillaceous strata immediately
overlying the lower limestones, which appear to be the source of the
salines. These alkaline waters probably owe their origin to the slow
decomposition of felspathic debris in presence of earthy carbonates.
By the mingling of these solutions of carbonate of soda with the
bitterns of the limestones, the carbonate of lime would be precipitated,
except so far as an excess of carbonic acid were present, while car-

162

bonate of magnesia would remain in solution, as in the Carlsbad waters.
The mixture of these alkaline springs with sea-water would yield
similar results.

From my analyses of more than sixty of the different mineral
springs of Canada, to be found in the published reports of the
Geological Survey, I select a few characteristic waters of each class,
giving here only approximatively the determinations of the principal
ingredients for 1000 parts.

A. Saline waters, containing little or no earthy carbonate.

B. Alkaline waters, feebly saline.

C. Saline waters, holding abundance of earthy carbonates.

a. Neutral, containing earthy chlorides.

b. Alkaline, containing carbonate of soda.

Springs.

Solid
matters.

Carb.
soda.

Chlor.
calcium .

Chlor.
magnes.

Carb.
lime.

Carb.
magnes.

A. Whitby

46-30
68-00
36-00

...

17-53
15-90
9-20

9-54
12-90
9-40

•(

16

„ Hallowell

„ Hallowell

B. Chambly

2-13
156
•53
•34
•75

1-06
1-13
•13
•19
•23

••

•04
not det(
•17
•07
•06

•07
irmined
•13
•03
•02

„ Nicolet

,, Saint-Ours ...

JacQues-Cartier .

„ Joly

C. a. Caledonia (V.)

14-64
13-83
13-65
13-16
20-99
9-06

•28
•07
•05
•13
•60
04

1-03
•66
•37
•24
2-05
•08

•12
•35
•21
•03
•01
•05

•86
•94
1-06
•89
•75
•83

„ Saint-Leon

, Caxton .. .

, Plantagenft .

, Sainte-Genevieve .......
, Berthier

C. b. Varennes

9-58
8-34
7-75

•32
•59
•05

•35
•15
•15

•35
•78
•52

, Fitzroy

, Caledonia (1)

Few of the above waters contain sulphates, but baryta and strontia
are present in very many of them ; the amount of these two bases
in the Varennes spring is equal to '016, while in that of Lanoroie, a
water of the class B, containing 12'88 of solid matters, there were
found '030 of baryta and '021 of strontia. Small quantities of
silica, alumina, phosphoric acid, manganese and iron are present in
all of these springs, and in the alkaline and many of the saline waters
a portion of boracic acid ; the borate is included with the carbonate

163

of soda in the above analyses. Bromine and iodine are found in all
the saline waters. I have shown, in my analyses of five alkaline
saline waters from Caledonia and Varennes, that the amount of
carbonic acid is much less than is required to form bicarbonates
with the soda, lime and magnesia which these waters contain, so that
the magnesia must be held dissolved as a mono-carbonate. In the
water of Chambly, on the contrary, there is no deficiency of carbonic
acid, and the bases exist as bicarbonates. The temperatures of these
springs range from 46° to 53° F. ; some of them are therefore to be
regarded as slightly thermal.

Interstratified with the shales and sandstones of the Quebec divi-
sion of the Lower Silurian rocks, which immediately overlie the
strata yielding these alkaline waters, are found thick beds of pure
limestone, sometimes presenting the agatized structure and semi-
translucency which characterize certain travertines, but at other
times opaque, homogeneous, and including remains of orthoceratites,
trilobites and other fossils; Associated with these beds of pure car-
bonate of lime are others which are magnesian, and contain con-
siderable quantites of carbonate of iron, which causes them to
weather reddish brown. These beds are always granular in texture,
and contain a variable portion of siliceous sand ; they often become
conglomerate, enclosing pebbles of quartz and schist, or more fre-
quently fragments of a pure compact limestone, seemingly identical
with that of the beds just described. Thin layers of the ferruginous
magnesian rock sometimes separate beds of the pure carbonate of lime,
or form lenticular masses in its midst, and seem to replace its fossils.
The pure limestones also sometimes form the base of a conglomerate,
or are mixed with sand and argillaceous matters.

These magnesian rocks, like the pure limestones of this formation,
occur in irregular and interrupted beds ; they often attain a thick-
ness of many yards, are destitute of fossils, and contain from ten to
forty per cent., and even more, of sand or clay. The portion soluble
in acids is sometimes a dolomite with carbonate of iron ; at other
times the lime is wanting, or present only in traces, and we have a
ferruginous magnesite. In two previous notes presented to the
Society, I have already explained the manner in which I suppose
these siliceous carbonates to have been, in some parts of the forma-

164

tion, transformed into silicates, such as serpentine, talc, chlorite and
pyroxene, by the subsequent intervention of heated solutions of alka-
line carbonates.

It appears to me that we may explain the origin of these magne-
sian deposits, by the spontaneous evaporation of magnesian waters.
If the waters of Carlsbad were to become stagnant above their de-
posited travertine, they would yield by evaporation beds of ferru-
ginous dolomite, and waters like those of Caxton, Plantagenet, arid
Sainte-Genevieve would furnish carbonate of magnesia nearly free
from lime. Nothing forbids us to suppose the existence of waters
more highly charged than these with magnesian carbonate, formed
perhaps by the action of carbonate of soda upon lagoons of sea-
water, whose lime may be removed as carbonate, or by previous eva-
poration as sulphate. The lagoons in Bessarabia, supplied with the
waters of the Black Sea, deposit annually large beds of rock-salt ;
and it would require only the intervention of waters like those of the
natron lakes of Hungary and Egypt, to produce deposits of magne-
sian carbonate.

The conditions of these deposits at Pointe-Levis and elsewhere in
the Quebec group, seem to point to the existence of basins along an
ancient sea-shore, which probably marked the first upheaval of the
older Silurian strata. Beds of travertine were there formed, and
then the sea flowed over these deposits and gave rise to the fossili-
ferous limestones ; but there were intervals of disturbance, indicated
by the conglomerates, and these movements, or the deposition of bars
along the shore, gave rise to lagoons or basins cut off from the sea,
where, by evaporation under the conditions which we have supposed,
magnesian precipitates would be deposited. The absence of fossils
in these beds is probably connected with the peculiar composition of
the waters.

165

II. "A Fourth Memoir upon Quantics." By ARTHUR CA.YLEY,
Esq., F.R.S. Received February 11, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The object of the present memoir is the farther development of the
theory of binary quantics ; it should therefore have preceded so much
of my third memoir, vol. cxlvii. (1857), p. 627, as relates to ter-
nary quadrics and cubics. The paragraphs are numbered continu-
ously with those of the former memoirs. The first three paragraphs,
Nos. 62 to 64, relate to quantics of the general form ( * jf^>y, • •)**»
and they are intended to complete the series of definitions and expla-
nations given in Nos. 54 to 61 of my third memoir ; Nos. 68 to 71,
although introduced in reference to binary quantics, relate or may be
considered as relating to quantics of the like general form. But
with these exceptions the memoir relates to binary quantics of any
order whatever : viz. Nos. 65 to 80 relate to the covariants and inva-
riants of the degrees 2, 3, and 4 ; Nos. 81 and 82 (which are intro-
duced somewhat parenthetically) contain the explanation of a pro-
cess for the calculation of the invariant called the discriminant ; Nos.
83 to 85 contain the definitions of the catalecticant, the lambdaic and
the canonisant, which are functions occurring in Prof. Sylvester's
theory of the reduction of a binary quantic to its canonical form ; and
Nos. 86 to 91 contain the definitions of certain covariants or other
derivatives connected with Bezout's abbreviated method of elimina-
tion, due for the most part to Professor Sylvester, and which are
called Bezoutiants, Cobezoutiants, &c. I have not in the present
memoir in any wise considered the theories to which the catalecticant
&c. and the other covariants and derivatives just referred to relate ;
the design is to point out and precisely define the different covariants
or other derivatives which have hitherto presented themselves in
theories relating to binary quantics, and so to complete, as far as may
be, the explanation of the terminology of this part of the subject.

166

III. "A Fifth Memoir upon Quantics." By ARTHUR CAYLEY,
Esq., F.R.S. Received February 11, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The present memoir was originally intended to contain a develop-
ment of the theories of the covariants of certain binary quantics, viz.
the quadric, the cubic, and the quartic ; but as regards the theories
of the cubic and the quartic, it was found necessary to consider the
case of two or more quadrics, and I have therefore comprised such
systems of two or more quadrics, and the resulting theories of the
harmonic relation and of involution, in the subject of the memoir ;
and although the theory of homography or of the anharmonic rela-
tion belongs rather to the subject of bipartite binary quadrics, yet
from its connexion with the theories just referred to, it is also con-
sidered in the memoir. The paragraphs are numbered continuously
with those of my former memoirs on the subject : Nos. 92 to 95
relate to a single quadric ; Nos. 96' to 114 to two or more quadrics,
and the theories above referred to; Nos. 1 15 to 127 to the cubic, and
Nos. 128 to 145 to the quartic. The several quantics are considered
as expressed not only in terms of the coefficients, but also in terms
of the roots, — and I consider the question of the determination of
their linear factors, — a question, in effect, identical with that of the
solution of a quadric, cubic, or biquadratic equation. The expression
for the linear factor of a quadric is deduced from a well-known for-
mula ; those for the linear factors of a cubic and a quartic were first
given in my "Note sur les Covariants d'une fonction quadratique,
cubique ou biquadratique a deux indeterminees," Crelle, vol. 1. pp.
285 to 287, 1855. It is remarkable that they are in one point of
view more simple than the expression for the linear factor of a

167

IV. "On the Tangential of a Cubic." By ARTHUR CAYLEY,
Esq., F.R.S. Received February 11, 1858.

(Abstract.)

In my "Memoir on Curves of tbe Tbird Order," Pbil. Trans,
vol. cxlvii. (1857), I had occasion to consider a derivative which may
be termed the " tangential" of a cubic, viz. the tangent at the point
(#, y, z) of the cubic curve (*J£#, y, zf=Q meets the curve in a
point (£, r), £), which is the tangential of the first-mentioned point ;
and I showed that when the cubic is represented in the canonical
form x3-\-y3+z3 + 6lxyz=0, the coordinates of the tangential may be
taken to be x(y3—z3) : y(z3—x3) : z(x3—y3). The method given
for obtaining the tangential may be applied to the general form
(«, by c,f, g, h, i,j, k, l$jx> y, zf : it seems desirable, in reference to
the theory of cubic forms, to give the expression of the tangential
for the general form ; and this is what I propose to do, merely indi-
cating the steps of the calculation, which was performed for me by
Mr. Greedy.

V. " On the Constitution of the Essential Oil of Rue." By C.
GREVILLE WILLIAMS, Esq., Lecturer on Chemistry in the
Normal College, Swansea. Communicated by Professor
STOKES, Sec. R.S. Received February 15, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The essential oil of rue and its products of decomposition have
been examined by several chemists. Will analysed it many years ago,
and deduced the formula C28 H28 O3 as the result of his analyses. The
principal investigation of it was made by Gerhardt, who regarded it
as the aldehyde of capric acid. The production of capric acid from
it by the action of nitric acid, as observed by Gerhardt and also by
Cab ours, has been considered as corroborative of the 20 carbon for-
mula. It is evident, however, that the formation of capric acid
merely indicates the aldehyde to contain not less than 20 equivalent^
..^ carbon.

168

Some experiments made with a view to the production of certain
new derivatives of capric aldehyde, led the author to believe the ideas
generally entertained regarding the formula of the oil to be erroneous.
Before continuing his experiments, he has therefore reinvestigated the
nature of the oil itself.

In order to obtain the aldehyde in a state of purity, advantage was
taken of the tendency of the aldehydes to combine with the alkaline
bisulphites. The oil obtained from the ammoniacal bisulphite of the
aldehyde was carefully analysed. The mean of eight very coincident

analyses gave, —

Mean. Calculation.

Carbon.

, . 7771

C22 132 77-65

Hydrogen .

. 13-07

H22 22 12-94

Oxygen . .

. . 9'22

O2 16 9-41

100-00 170 100-00

The mean of two determinations of the density of the vapour*
gave, —

Experiment (mean). Theory C22 H22 O2 =4 vols.

5-870 5-874

The aldehyde, purified as above, was again converted into the am-
moniacal bisulphite, from which the oil was a second time obtained.
It gave on analysis, —

Carbon 77"67

Hydrogen 12'93

Oxygen 9*40

100-00

It is plain, therefore, that oil of rue contains an aldehyde of the
formula C22 H22 O2. Recent researches having demonstrated that no
acid of the series Cn Hn O4 with 22 equivalents of carbon has yet been
isolated, and no other derivative with a 22 carbon formula being
known, the author has given the name enodyle to the radical homo-
logous with acetyle contained in this substance.

Enodic aldehyde is a colourless fluid of a fruity odour, quite differ-
ent to that of the rue plant. Its density is 0'8497 at 15°. Agitation

* In order to prevent oxidation of the oil, the balloons were filled with hy-
drogen previous to immersion in the bath.

169

will cause it to solidify at 7° into a snow-white mass resembling cam-
phor. Its boiling-point is 213°.

Rue oil yields a small portion of fluid boiling at 232°, containing
the aldehyde of lauric acid. It was not obtained absolutely free from
the first fluid. It contained: —

Experiment. Calculation.

Carbon 78' 1 C24 144 78*26

Hydrogen.... 12-9 H24 24 13-04

Oxygen 9*0 O2 J6 870

100-0 184 100-00

The oils accompanying the aldehydes, but which refuse to combine
with the alkaline bisulphites, are of the terebinthinate class. The more
volatile are composed chiefly of an isomer of oil of turpentine ; the less
volatile are hydrates apparently homologous with an isomer of borneol.

March 25, 1858.

The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.

The following communications were read : —

I. " On the Relative Power of Metals and their Alloys to con-
duct Heat." By F. GRACE CALVERT, Esq., F.C.S., M.R.
Acad. of Turin; and RICHARD JOHNSON, Esq., M. Phil.
Soc. of Manchester. Communicated by Prof. STOKES, Sec.
R.S. Received February 19, 1858.

(Abstract.)

After describing the apparatus employed, and the process followed
to determine the conductibility of metals and alloys, the authors
give the chemical means by which they purified the metals used in
the experiments. Taking silver, which is the best conductor, as

170

* JOO, they have obtained the relative conducting powers of the fol-
lowing metals : —

Silver ................ 1000

981
840

Copper, rolled ........ 845

Copper, cast ....... ... 811

Mercury .............. 677

Aluminium ............ 665

Zinc, forged .......... 641

Zinc, cast vertically .... 628

Forged iron 436

Tin . 422

Steel 397

Platinum 379

Sodium 365

Cast iron 359

Lead 287

Antimony, cast horizontally 215

Antimony, cast vertically 192

Bismuth. . 61

Zinc, cast horizontally . . 608
Cadmium 5 78

The precision obtained by this process is such, that the authors
were able to determine the different conducting powers of the same
metal, when rolled or cast, as shown above. They were also able to
appreciate the influence of crystallization on conductibility, for they
found that the conducting power of a metal was different when it was
cast horizontally or vertically, from the different directions which the
axes of crystallization took under these circumstances.

The importance of having the metals as pure as the resources of
chemistry allow, is shown by the action which one per cent, of im-
purity exerts on the conductibility of a metal, in some cases reducing
it one-fifth or one-fourth. Copper alloyed with one per cent, of various
metals gave different conducting powers, in the same manner as Mr.
Thomson has shown that the conduction of electricity by the same
metal is affected by a similar amount of impurities.

Alloying a metal with a non-metallic substance also exerts an in-
fluence, as is shown in the case of the combination of iron with
carbon, thus —

Forged iron 436

Steel 397

Cast iron 359

Similar results were obtained by combining small proportions of
arsenic with copper.

The authors, with a view of ascertaining whether alloys are simple
mixtures of metals, or definite compounds, made a large number of

171

alloys of various metals, using equivalent proportions, and determined
their conducting powers. The general result obtained is, that alloys
may be classed under the three following heads : —

1st. Alloys which conduct heat in ratio with the relative equiva-
lents of the metals composing them.

2nd. Alloys in which there is an excess of equivalents of the worse
conducting metal over the number of equivalents of the better con-
ductor, such as alloys composed of iCu and 2Sn ; iCu and 3Sn;
iCu and 4Sn, &c., and which present the curious and unexpected
result that they conduct heat as if they did not contain a particle of
the better conductor ; the conducting power of such alloys being the
same as if the square bar which was used in the experiments were
entirely composed of the worse conducting metal.

3rd. Alloys composed of the same metals as the last class, but in
which the number of equivalents of the better conducting metal is
greater than the number of equivalents of the worse conductor ; for
example, alloys composed of iSn 2Cu; ISn 3Cu ; iSn 4Cu, &c. ;
in this case each alloy has its own arbitrary conducting power, and
the conductibility of such an alloy gradually increases and tends
towards the conducting power of the better conductor of the two
metals composing the alloy.

Experiments were also made with bars composed of various metals
soldered together, in order to compare the results obtained with alloys
with those afforded by the same metals when mixed.

The first part of the paper concludes with the conducting power
of several commercial brass alloys.

The second part, which will shortly be published, will contain the
conduction of heat by amalgams.

II. " On the Surface which is the Envelope of Planes through
the Points of an Ellipsoid at right angles to the Radius
Vectors from the Centre." By ARTHUR CAYLEY, Esq.,
F.R.S. Received February 22, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The consideration of the surface in question was suggested to me
some years ago by Professor Stokes ; but it is proper to remark, that
the curve which is the envelope of lines through the points of an

172

ellipse at right angles to the radius vectors through the centre occurs
incidentally in Tortolini' s memoir " Sulle relazione," &c., Tortolini,
vol. vi. pp. 433 to 466 (1855), see p. 461, where the equation is
found to be

an equation which is obtained by equating to zero the discriminant of
a quartic function. Tortolini remarks that this equation was first
obtained by him in 1846 in the 'Raccolta Scientifica di Roma,' and
he notices that the curve is known under the name of Talbot's curve.

According to my method, the equation of the curve is obtained by
equating to zero the discriminant of a cubic function, and the equa-
tion of the surface is obtained by equating to zero the discriminant of
a quartic function.

The paper contains a preparatory discussion of the curve, and the
surface is then discussed in a similar manner, viz. by means of the
equations

t,=Y{2-.l(X2+Y2+Z2)j,

which determine the coordinates x, y, z of a point on the surface in
terms of X, Y, Z, the coordinates of a point on the ellipsoid. The
surface, which is one of the tenth order, is found to have nodal conies
in each of the principal planes, and also a cuspidal curve. The case
more particularly considered is that for which «2 > 2b2, tf > 2c2, and
02-j_c2:^ 362, and the memoir contains a figure showing the form of
the surface for the case in question. The equation of the surface is
obtained by the elimination of X, Y, Z between the above-mentioned

X2 Y2 Z2
equations and the equation — 4. —^ + -^ = 1, as already remarked.

This is reduced to the determination of the discriminant of a quartic
function, and the equation of the surface is thus obtained under
the form I3 — 27J2=0, where I and J are given functions of the co-
ordinates.

173

III. " Some Remarks on the Physiological Action of the Tang-
hinia venenifem." By Professors A. KOLLIKER of Wiirz-
burg, and E. PELIKAN of St. Petersburgh. Communicated
by Sir B. C. BRODIE, Bart. Received March 1, 1858.

The famous poison-tree of Madagascar was described for the first
time by Aubert du Petit Thouars in his * Genera Madagascarensia,'
under the name of Tanghinia venenifera. At a later period, Sir W.
Hooker published a good description, with a figure of this tree, named
by him Cerbera Tanghin (see Botanical Magazine, pi. 2968), so that
nothing is wanted with regard to the botanical knowledge of this
plant. On the other hand, the physiological effects of its poisonous
parts have not been hitherto investigated. All we know is, that the
fruit of the Tanghinia is a strong poison, and is used in Madagascar
as an ordeal poison in the most strange and revolting way. The
only experiment on animals made by Ollivier, showed that 12 grains
kill a dog in some hours, but this experiment gave no further in-
sight into the real action of the Tanghinia. We hope, therefore, that
the Royal Society will take some interest in 'the experiments which
we undertook with this poison, of which the following is a short
abstract.

The poison used by us was the alcoholic extract of the leaves and
small stems of the Tanghinia, prepared from dried specimens, which
Prof. Pelikan had received from Count Seyderitz of Mecklenburg.
About one centigram of this extract was sufficient to show the full
effect of the poison on frogs, when introduced into a wound of the
back. It acted also when given by the mouth, but in this case a
somewhat larger dose was required to produce a full effect.

The observed symptoms were the following : —

1. First of all, viz. in about 5 to 15 minutes, the heart was affected
and stopped in its action, in such a way that the ventricle became
contracted and very small, whilst the auricles remained dilated, but
were also paralysed.

2. The voluntary and reflex movements were at first not at all
affected ; but some time — from half an hour to one hour — after the
paralysis of the heart, they became weaker and weaker, and gradually
ceased totally without any sign of spasms or tetanus.

VOL. IX. N

174

3. In the third place the Tanghinia has a great influence upon the
voluntary muscles, which become paralysed. This action begins very
soon, and we have been able to show, with the aid of the myogra-
phion of Volkman, that as soon as the heart is paralysed, the muscles
also begin to lose their force. Nevertheless, the total paralysis of
these organs is not observed till after six hours and more, that is to
say, when the muscles have been preserved in a temperature of 14°
to 16° R. In a temperature of 4° to 6° R., the irritability of the
poisoned muscles may last for double this time, as is usual with all
poisoned muscles and nerves ; but even in this case it disappears
long before that of the non-affected muscles.

4. If muscles which have lost their irritability through the Tang-
hinia are put into a solution of common salt of from ^ to 1 per cent.,
their power of contraction reappears after a certain time, but only
when they have been preserved at the lower temperature of 5° to
6°R.

5. Lastly, the nerves also are paralysed by the Tanghinia, and, as
far as we were able to pursue this question, under the same circum-
stances as the muscles, Only perhaps a little earlier.

From all this it follows that the Tanghinia is a paralysing, and
above all, a muscular poison. As far as we have been able to follow
its action, it resembles very much the Upas Antiar, only its power
would seem to be a little less strong.

Professor Stokes drew the attention of the Meeting to some pho-
tographic specimens illustrative of the recent researches of M. Niepce
de Saint Victor on "a New Action of Light" (Comptes Rendus,
March I and 8) . They were presented to the Society by the author
through Mr. Grove, F.R.S.

The Society adjourned over the Easter vacation to Thursday,
April 15.

175

April 15, 1858.

The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.
Major-General Boileau was admitted a Fellow of the Society.
The following communications were read : —

I. " On Tangential Coordinates." By the Rev. JAMES BOOTH,
LL.D., F.R.S. Received March 20, 1858.

Many years ago, after I had taken my degree, I was much inter-
ested in the study of the original memoirs on reciprocal curves and
curved surfaces, published in the ' Annales Mathematiques ' of Ger-
gonne, and in the works of such accomplished geometers as Monge,
Dupin, Poncelet, and Chasles. In the course of my own researches,
it occurred to me that there ought to be some some way of express-
ing by common algebra the properties of such reciprocal curves and
surfaces, some method which would, on inspection, show the relations
existing between the original and derived surfaces. I was then led to
the discovery of a simple method and compact notation from the fol-
lowing considerations. But before I state them, it is proper to men-
tion that I published the discovery in a little tract which I printed
at the time, of which the title was, ' On the Application of a New
Analytic Method to the Theory of Curves and Curved Surfaces.'
This little tract, which is now out of print, as only a few copies were
printed, excited but little attention. Nor is this to be wondered at.
Mathematical researches, and, indeed, I might add, scientific pur-
suits in general, command but small attention in this country, unless
they promise to pay. The obscurity of the author, and the remote-
ness of a provincial press, still further account for the little notice it
obtained. Besides, it must in fairness be added, that the materials
were hastily and crudely thrown 'together ; that to save space, the
demonstrations were for the most part omitted, and that the prin-
ciples on which the method rests were not so clearly explained as to
enable an ordinary reader, — who had to incorporate with his own
thinking the notions of another, — to pursue the train of argument, or

VOL. IX. O

176

the successive steps of a proof with facility and conviction. This
may to some extent also explain why the method has hitherto received
so little countenance as not to be admitted into any elementary work
on the application of the principles and notation of algebra to the
investigation and discussion of the properties of space. But the ad-
dition of a new method of investigation to those already in use, the
development of its principles, with illustrations of the mode of its
application, are surely not of less value to a philosophical apprecia-
tion of what that is in which mathematical knowledge truly consists,
than the giving of pr jblems, which, while they embody no general
principle, are yet often difficult to solve ; and when solved, frequently
afford no clue by which the solution may be rendered available in
other cases.

The radical vice in mathematical instruction in this country and
in our time would seem to be, that knowledge of principles and
familiarity with methods of investigation are subordinated to nimble
dexterity in the manipulation of symbols, and to cramming the me-
mory with long formulae and tabular expressions.

Again, it often happens that an investigation, which, if pursued by
one method, would prove barren of results or altogether impracticable,
when followed out from a different point of view and by the help of
another method, not unfrequently leads by a few easy steps to the dis-
covery of important truths, or to the consideration of others under a
novel aspect. Hence the multiplication of methods of investigation
tends widely to enlarge the boundaries of science.

My object in the following paper will be to show that problems of
great difficulty, some of which have not hitherto been solved, while
others by the ordinary methods admit only of complicated and tedious
modes of proof, may by this method be treated with singular brevity
and remarkable simplicity. I will first premise a few simple principles.

When two figures in the same plane, or more generally in space,
are so related that one is the reciprocal polar of the other, then to
every point in the one corresponds a plane in the other ; to every
right line in the one a right line also in the other ; to any number of
points in the same right line in the one, as many planes all intersect-
ing in the same right line in the other ; to any number of points in
the same plane in the one, as many planes all meeting in the same
point in the other. I might easily proceed to any length with this

177

enumeration of the reciprocal properties of curves and curved surfaces.
Hence given a series of points, lines, and planes, we may construct a
series of as many planes, lines, and points, according to a fixed and
simple law.

Now we know that in the application of algebra to geometry by
the method of coordinates, a point is determined in position by its
projections on three coordinate planes, or by three equations, that is
by three conditions. A right line may in like manner be determined
when we are given the positions of two points in it ; and a plane is
determined by one condition, which is called its equation. But
in the inverse method, a point should be determined by one con-
dition, a right line by two, and a plane by three. Again, a right
line may be determined by considering it as joining two fixed points,
or as the common intersection of two fixed planes. Now all these
conditions may be expressed by taking as a new system of coordi-
nates the segments of the common axes of coordinates between the
origin and the points in which they are met by a moveable plane.
Thus if these segments be designated by the symbols X, Y, Z, the
three equations which determine a plane are

X= constant, Y= constant, Z = constant. "

Again, the equation in (#, y, z) of a plane passing through a point
of which the coordinates are xyz, and which cuts off from the axes

of coordinates the segments X, Y, Z, is — -j- $- 4. — = 1 . Now this

X Y Z

is the protective, or common equation of the plane, if we make x, y,
and z vary, and consider X, Y, Z as constant. But we may invert
these conditions, and consider x, y, z constant, while X, Y, and Z
vary. And the equation now, instead of being the common equation
of a fixed plane, becomes the inverse or tangential equation of a fixed
point. In this latter case let a, /3, and y be put for x, y, and z, and

— , — , — for X, Y, Z ; then the equation may be written

which may be called the tangential equation of a point.

Moreover, as the continuous motion of a point, in a plane suppose,
subjected to move in accordance with certain fixed conditions ex-
pressed by a certain relation between x and y may be conceived to
describe a curve, so the successive positions of a straight line cutting

o 2

178

off segments from the axes of coordinates, having a certain relation
to each other, may be imagined to wrap round or envelope a certain
curve, just as we inav see a curve described on paper by the success-
ive mtersections of a series of straight lines. Hence there are two
distinct modes according to which we may conceive all curves to be
generated, namely by the motion of a tracing-point, or the successive
intersections of straight lines ; by a pencil or straight edge, as a joiner
would say. These conceptions are the logical basis of the methods
by which the principles and notation of common algebra are general-
ized from the discussion of the properties of abstract number to those
of pure space. The former view gave rise to the method of protective
coordinates, the latter suggests the method of tangential coordinates,
a term which I was the first, I believe, to invent and apply.

It is sometimes very easy to express both the projection and tan-
gential equations of the same curve or curved surface ; it is frequently
a matter of extreme difficulty.

Thus, if the projective equation of an ellipsoid be

its tangential equation will be

a, b, c being, as in the preceding equation, the semiaxes.

Again, if we take the evolute of the ellipse whose equation is
=m%, the tangential equation of the same curve is

I shall not attempt to introduce into this abstract the formulae for
the transformation of coordinates, or £he several elementary expres-
sions which belong to this system, and which must be investigated
and known before the method can be used as an instrument of inves-
tigation or analogy. My object is rather to give a specimen of the
method in the solution of some very difficult problems, and to show
how it may be made a powerful instrument of analytical investigation.

On the Surface of the Centres of Curvature of an Ellipsoid.
It is well known to geometers that the lines of greatest and least
curvature at any point on the surface of an ellipsoid are at right
angles to each other, and that they may be constructed by the inter-

179

sections of two confocal hyperbolas, a single- sheet one and a double-
sheet one. It is also known that these three surfaces are reciprocally
orthogonal, or that any two of them cut the third along its lines of
curvature where the three intersect in a point. If we fix on the
ellipsoid as the surface whose lines of curvature are in question, and
normals be drawn to the surface of the ellipsoid along any given line
of curvature, the radii of curvature will not only lie on these normals
at the successive points, but they will all, taken indefinitely near to
each other, constitute a developable surface, and the line of centres
of curvature will constitute its edge of regression. Hence if we draw
tangent planes to the two hyperboloids at this point, they will inter-
sect in the normal to the ellipsoid, and will also be tangent planes to
the above developable surface. Let the equation of the ellipsoid be

or as the surfaces are confocal, we may put «2-— 62=A2, a2—- c2=A-2.
Hence this equation may be written

Let a be the transverse axe of the hyperboloid pas.sing through
the point x'y'z', and we shall have

Now the tangential equation of this hyperboloid is

a^+(a2_AV+(a2-F)£2=l. ... (3)
But the equation of the tangent plane to the hyperboloid at the
point (x'y'z1) is

and as the planes which touch the ellipsoid and hyperboloid at the
common point (#', y'} z') are at right angles to each other, we have,
moreover,

Hence eliminating x\ y', z', and a, we shall have, finally,

-l). . (6)

180

This is the tangential equation of the " surface of centres of curva-
ture" or as it may for brevity be called, the surface of centres.

This surface in general consists of two sheets, one generated by
one centre of curvature, the second sheet by the other centre. Let
a perpendicular P on a tangent plane to the surface of centres make
the angles X, /*, v with the axes of coordinates, then P£=cosX,
Pv=coSju, P£=cos v, and the last equation may be written

[~COS2X COS2U COS2V~1/ o 9v , 79 9.9 9 TV>\ /^\

1 = —^- + — ^ 4. — — 02cos2\ + 62cos> + c2cos2i> — P2). (7)

Now the first member of this equation represents — -, the inverse

K

semidiameter squared of the original ellipsoid, making the 'angles
X, p, v with the axes, and a2 cos2 X + 62 cos2 /* + c2 cos2 v=V? is the
square of the perpendicular on a tangent plane to the ellipsoid parallel
to the tangent plane to the surface of centres. Hence

P2=P12-R2 ........ (8)

Whence we have this remarkable property of the surface of centres : —

Any two parallel tangent planes being' drawn to the surface of
centres and to the ellipsoid, the difference of the squares of the co-
incident perpendiculars let fall upon them from the centre is always
equal to the square of the coinciding semidiameter of the ellipsoid.

We may reduce the original equation (6) to the form

(9)

By giving to £ a set of constant values, we might determine the tan-
gential equations of the sections made in the plane of xy by the cone
whose vertex is in the axis of z, and which envelopes the surface of
centres. t

But it will be better to determine the sections of the surface made
by the principal planes, and this may be effected by putting £, v, £
successively equal to oo and 0. Hence we shall have in the planes
of yz, xz, and xy, the sections whose tangential equations are

I in the plane of zy,

I in the plane of xz,

a"— c2)262£2 + (62— c2)2«V=«262 .

' in the plane of xy.

181

Hence the sections of the surface of centres in the principal planes
are two in each ; one an ellipse, the other the evolute of an ellipse.

On the umbilical lines of Curvature.

Among the French mathematicians there has been much difference
of opinion as to the nature of the lines of curvature which pass
through the umbilicus of the ellipsoid. Some hold with Monge and
Dupin, that the two lines of curvature which everywhere else on the
surface are at right angles to each other, here merge into one. This
is such a violation of the law of continuity, that others adhere to the
opinion of Poisson and Leroy, to the effect that at the umbilicus the
radii of curvature are all equal, and that there is an infinite number
of rectangular systems of lines of equal curvature all passing through
the umbilicus.

An examination of the surface of centres will demonstratively show
that the latter opinion is the correct one.

For this purpose let a tangent plane to the surface of centres be
drawn through the umbilical normal. Now the protective coordinates
of the umbilicus are

• (10)

a — c a — c

and the segments of the axes of x and z cut off by the normal are

ca- (

c a

Hence the tangential equations of the normal in the plane of xz are

<> -

Now substituting these values of £ and £ in the equation (9) of the
surface of centres, we shall have for the value of v2 the following ex-
pression : —

[(a2-

or v= .

0

Hence an infinite number of tangent planes may be drawn through
the umbilical normal to the surface of centres.

The principal sections of the surface of centres in the mean plane,
or in the plane of xz, the plane of the greatest and least axe, possess
some very curious properties.

182

The tangential equations of these sections are

. . (13)

Now the former of these is the tangential equation of the evolute of
an ellipse, while the other is that of an ellipse whose semiaxes are
the radii of curvature at the extremities of a and c in the planes of
xy and zy diminished by a and c.

It is easy to show, that if through the four umbilici of the ellipsoid
normals to the surface be drawn, they will lie in the plane of xzy they
will touch the evolute internally and the ellipse externally in the same
points, so that the lozenge formed by the four normals will be in-
scribed in the evolute and circumscribed to the ellipse, and the distance

of the point of contact to the umbilicus will be equal to — .

The respective areas of the lozenge, of the inscribed ellipse, and of
the circumscribed evolute, are connected by relations independent of
the axes of the ellipsoid.

It is in these four points, and in these four points only, that the
two sheets of the surface of centres touch each other. We should find
on investigation, that the points of intersection of the sections of the

183

surface of curvatures in the other principal planes are the one set
real, while the other are imaginary, as in the subjoined figure.

It may easily be shown, as in the preceding figure, that in the
principal planes of the surface of the centres of curvature, the vertices
of the diameters of the evolute and ellipse are the vertices of the
ellipse and evolute in the adjoining plane. Thus the semiaxes OX,
Oa of the evolute and ellipse in the plane of XZ are the semiaxes of
the ellipse and evolute in the plane of XY.

There are many other curious properties of this surface which will
be developed in the memoir.

Before passing from this surface, I would mention that the funda-
mental property of the surface of centres suggests a simple property
of the evolute of an ellipse.

184

Parallel tangents being drawn to an ellipse and its evolute, and
perpendiculars from the centre let fall upon them, the difference of
the squares of these perpendiculars is equal to the square of the semi-
diameter of the ellipse which coincides with the perpendiculars.

I will proceed with a few other applications of the method. For
example, —

A surface of the second order touches seven given planes, to find
the locus of its centre.

Let the tangential equation of the given surface be

and let the twenty-one coordinates of the seven given planes be
I', v', f ; ?', v", t" ; £r", v'", £'", &c. Substituting these values
successively in the preceding equation, we shall have seven linear
equations by which we may eliminate the six quantities a, a', a" ;
ft /3'» |3". The resulting equation will also be linear, and of the form

which is the equation of a plane. Now y, yt, and y,,, as may be
shown, are the protective coordinates of the centre of the surface.
Hence the centre of the surface moves along a plane. When there
are eight planes, we may then eliminate y or y,, and the two result-
ing equations will become

Ly + Mr/-l=0, L'y + Ny,,-l=0,

or the centre will move along a right line.

Again, perpendiculars are let fall from n points on a plane, the
sum of the squares of which is constant, the plane will envelope an
ellipsoid.

Should the sums of the squares be varied, the successive surfaces
will all be confocal ellipsoids.

To show that if two surfaces of the second order are enveloped by
a cone, they may also be enveloped by a second cone.

Let the vertex of the cone be taken as the origin of coordinates,
and let their tangential equations be

and as the common tangent planes must pass through the origin,

185

£v£ are the same in the equations of the two surfaces ; but at the

origin - = 0, - = 0, i =0. At this point let £=0£, v=v//£. Sub-
£ v 4

stituting these values in the preceding equations and dividing by £= oo,

and as these equations represent the same tangent plane, they must
be identical. Hence we shall have, introducing an equalizing factor A,

a=Xa, a,=Xa/} an=\alt, 6=X/3, £,=X/3,, btt—\ftn.
Making these substitutions in the preceding equations, they become

Multiplying the former equation by X, and subtracting from it the
latter, we get

tbe tangential equation of a point which is the vertex of the second
enveloping cone.

Now the protective coordinates or the xyz of this point are

Again : as at the beginning of this abstract we assumed the well-
known property that three confocal surfaces of the second order
which meet in a point intersect each other at right angles, so if a
tangent plane be drawn to three concyclic surfaces, the three points
of contact, two by two, will subtend right angles at the centre. The
proof of this is very simple. Let the tangential equations of two
concyclic surfaces be

Subtract these equations one from the other, and we shall have

And as these surfaces are concyclic,

186
Making these substitutions,

and if X, /u, v are the angles which a semidiameter r through one of
the points of contact makes with the axes,

r r r r

Similarly, for another point of contact and semidiameter r', we have

cos X'= ^, cos p'= &, cos v'= ^ ;
r r' r1

whence

cos X cos X' + cos fj. cos // + cos v cos v1 = 0,

or r and rt are at right angles.

But facility of proof is not the sole advantage of this method. It
enables us to bring prominently into view that great principle of
duality which is involved in all our geometrical investigations. This
principle may be familiarly stated in the form, that every geometrical
theorem or mathematical truth has its double. As an illustration of
this, let us take the tangential equation of the surface of curvature,

- 1),

and instead of £, v, £, write down xt y, zt introducing the constant r
to render the equation homogeneous, and it becomes

-,-<). . (14)

Now this surface has properties which are one by one reciprocal to
those of the " surface of centres." As, for example, in each of the
principal planes, the sections of the surface are ellipses and curves
whose equations are of the form A2o?2-fBy=a?2y2.

In the mean section the ellipse will touch this curve in four points,
through which four lines being drawn parallel to the axis of y, they
will lie wholly on the surface.

The formulae which exhibit the relations between the protective
and tangential coordinates of the same curve or curved surface are
simple and symmetrical. They are given here without demonstration.

Let <I>=0(£, v, £) = 0 he the tangential equation of a curved sur-

187

face, and let #, y, z be the projective coordinates of the point of con-
tact of the tangent plane ; then

_
dv

__-

dc, dv

Z—

~

dv

(15)

By the help of these three equations and the original equation
4>=0(|, v, £) = 0, we may eliminate £, v, £, and obtain the final equa-
tion in x, y, z.

Again, let F=f(x, y,z) = Q be the projective equation of a curved
surface. The tangential coordinates I, v, £ of the tangent plane
drawn through the point (xyz) may be found from the following
expressions : —

~dx

dJ?

dy

dF . d¥ ,dF

— X+ —y+g
dx dy dz

dz

(16)

dF , dF . dF

As an application of this method, let it be required to find the ex-
pressions for the projective coordinates of the surface of the centres
of curvature.

If we apply the general expressions (15) to the particular equa-
tion (9), we shall have

188

„ . a

. . . (17)

r

The foregoing propositions will give some idea of the fertility of
this method, and of the ease and simplicity of its application. I
propose to develope it systematically in the memoir, of which this is
merely a specimen. Many other systems of coordinates may be
imagined, such as the parallel system of Ohasles, or the curvilinear
ordinates of Lame ; but it may be questioned whether there is any
system so directly reciprocal to the Cartesian method as this of Tan-
gential Coordinates.

Note. Since the above abstract was written, my attention has been
drawn to the results of an elaborate investigation of the protective
equation of the surface of the centres of curvature, by the Rev. G.
Salmon, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and published in the
Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics of Feb. 1858.

Although this surface has been familiarly known to the continental
mathematicians since the time of Monge, none of them have ventured
to grapple with the enormous difficulties which stand in the way of
exhibiting its protective equation, or its equation in xyz. These
difficulties have been surmounted by Mr. Salmon ; and the resulting
equation, which is of the twelfth degree, contains no fewer than
eighty-three terms.

189

II. Extract of a Letter to Admiral FiTzRov, F.R.S., from
Captain PULLEN of H.M.S. 'Cyclops/ dated Aden, March
16, 1858. Communicated by Admiral FiTzRov. Received
April 15, 1858.

My first sounding for temperature at any depth, was in 32° 13' N.,
long. 19° 5' W., where at 400 fathoms the minimum temperature
was 51°-5, the surface at the time being 70°. The water brought
up in the bottle was of greater density than we have since found it,
namely, 1031 at temp, of 70°, whilst at the surface it was 1026.
Supposing that you will see all the registered depths, &c. sent to
Captain Washington, I do not enter into full detail here. The
next time, I sent two thermometers down at 500 and 800 fathoms ;
at the greater depth, 44°*5 ; at the lesser, 50° was the minimum
temperature. But now I began to observe some alterations in
the indexes of the instruments, that of the maximum column
not returning to the surface in the same position in which it
stood on starting, viz. close to the mercury (brought to the sur-
face temperature by being kept sufficiently long in the water along-
side, and then compared with the deck-thermometer in constant
use for that observation) . Now I know from former experience that
these indexes will shift by shaking the instrument, and with much
less force than is frequently communicated to it by a shake of the
line, on its passing up and down. From this we may infer that the
minimum index also moves, how much it is impossible to say. And
on looking over the results obtained during the voyage, I find that
but few of the maximum indexes have come in standing at the point
they started with. I therefore draw your attention to the fact, that
such remedy may be applied as will obviate the defect. I have
found another fault in thermometers before now (but then it was at a
low temperature, and not Six's self- registering instrument that was
employed). During my second winter at Fort Simpson, I, every three
hours throughout twelve of the twenty- four, registered twenty-one
thermometers, eighteen of Adie's and three of Negretti's, on glass
scales. I never found Adie's at any temperature to differ more than
a degree and a half from each other. Negretti's, when they ranged
low, say twenty below zero, I have found twenty, eighteen, and

190

twelve degrees lower than Adie's. Here, in a high temperature
(eighty degrees), I find three differing from the deck -thermometer,
as well as from the other three (having only six remaining), being
six, seven, and ten degrees higher. The correction (but a few tenths
of a degree) can be allowed for certainly, but this difference may not
be the same at a lower temperature, therefore it occasions a serious
drawback to the efficiency of these instruments ; and I always feel
doubtful about the results. As yet I have only used those that agree
nearest with each other.

My next sounding was in 10° 7' N., long. 27° 32' W., the
position of the Hannah Shoal, no bottom with 2000 fathoms of line.
There is 15 marked in some charts on this shoal. In 4° 16' N.
and 28° 42' W., two thermometers were sent down to 1500 and
1000 fathoms, the greater depth showing a minimum 39°*4, the
lesser 42°'5. No specimen of bottom had yet been brought up, as
all the soundings hitherto, except those for the Devil's Rock in the
Bay of Biscay, as well as the determinations of temperature, had
been taken from a boat with small lines ; so in the next cast I
sounded from the ship with a large line, — the regular deep-sea line —
and combined the experiments. Two thermometers were sent down
on the line; and the sinker was down, by intervals, at about 1080
fathoms. The valve brought in a plentiful supply of bottom, and
the thermometers showed a minimum temperature of 38°' 5 at the
lowest depth, and 46°'2 at 680 fathoms. This was in latitude
2° 20' N., longitude 28° 44' W., 90 miles from Saint Paul's Island.
The specimen of bottom was a fine light greyish sand.

Drawing now to the Equator, I determined, if possible, to get a cast
directly on it, and also the temperatures ; accordingly the boat took
the cast for bottom, while from the ship an endeavour was again
made to combine the experiments. It failed, however, I am sorry to
say, resulting in the loss of a large portion of the line, and two in-
struments sent down with it. From this I felt fully convinced that
the uncertainty of concluding when the weight is down, from the
intervals, is such, that the sounding becomes of little value, as far as
the true depth is concerned. m

[An extract of Capt. Pullen's Journal is here given, — showing
the uncertainty of judging by the ' intervals' as to the time of reach-
ing the bottom, and the consequent liability to pay out too much

191

line ; also the increased strain then occasioned by the friction of the
under current on the over-long line, and the great risk of the latter
giving way on being pulled in ; and stating the conclusion of the
writer, that, in order to arrive at true results, soundings for bottom
and temperature must not be combined.]

I have before this noticed how irregular the intervals always were
when getting temperatures, particularly when more than one ther-
mometer was on the line, but had never thoroughly considered the
cause, nor the results likely to follow from the increased weight on
the line ; for although the addition of the thermometer (weighing
about six pounds in the water-bottle) gives rapidity to the descent of
the weight, its bulk offers great resistance on coming in, consequently
the line has more tendency to break. And when it is intended to
send down more than one thermometer, the line must be stopped to
attach the addition, which at once checks the rapidity of descent,
and the line has then to be let off the reel with more force, impos-
sible to apply equably ; and the intervals become so irregular, that
all certainty of when the sinker is at the bottom is lost, and you feel
at a loss when to stop.

From this experience I think I may say we have profited, for not
a single fathom of line has been lost since, although going double
the depth ; once, too, with a fresh breeze with 2380 fathoms of line
out ; and it was with the greatest difficulty we could get the deck
engine to reel it in again, and then only by putting all the Watch on
to assist with their weight. I now began to observe more regularly for
the temperatures, and with a stouter line than that usual for sound-
ing, kept exclusively for the purpose. After crossing the Equator, I
sent the thermometers down at nearly every tenth parallel, three at a
time, at twelve, eight, and four hundred fathoms, reserving portions
of the water brought up to send home for analysis.

In latitude 26° 46' S. and longitude 23° 52' W., nearly mid-
way between where Sir James Ross has sounded without getting
bottom, I got 2700 fathoms. A single thermometer was sent down
to this 2700 fathoms depth, secured just above the sinker, and came
in showing a minimum temperature of 35° F. ; and the bottom brought
up in the valve was a very fine brown-coloured sand.

In this case the common deep-sea line was used, and weighted
with 1201bs. sinker (Brook's detaching), just one-fifth of its break-
VOL ix. p

192

ing strain ; and the rapidity of descent has hardly if ever been
equalled in speed by smaller lines when weighted nearly up to their
breaking strain, as shown in the American soundings. One hour
from the time we let go, the intervals showed that the weight was
down.

I ran the easting down between the parallels of 35° and 38° S.,
from the Cape of Good Hope eastward outside Mauritius in the
Indian Ocean, in the route of many doubtful dangers, and on near-
ing them the lead was brought into play. The first was the ' Bruns-
wick,' on which is marked 85 fathoms, deep enough certainly for any
ship that swims ; but to clear up all doubt, two casts were obtained not
far from its position, of 1410 and 1102 fathoms, without reaching
bottom. Then comes the ' Atalanta,' having three positions, one on
our Admiralty Charts, and two from Horsburgh, giving it as an ex-
tensive shoal under water, with pointed rocks on its western part. I
passed from the westward between the northern position, and the
first in order to the southward, and got four deep casts, besides
several of 50 and 80 fathoms. The first was 1110 fathoms down by
intervals, but no valve coming in, it appearing to have been broken
off from the rod by striking some hard substance, either at the
bottom or on its passage up or down, I immediately determined on
getting another cast, although darkness was coming on. The
weather fortunately was calm with very little sea on ; so stationing
a number of lanterns, the lead was at once dropped over the bows,
and as satisfactory a cast was got as could possibly be wished, the
sinker striking bottom by intervals at 1 1 20 fathoms, thus proving
the correctness of the first sounding, and finally, the valve coming in
with a sufficient portion of bottom to prove it again. This specimen
consisted of what appeared to the eye very fine sand covering a hard
substance (coral I suspect), but under the microscope it was found
to be some of the most beautiful specimens of Diatomacese that can
be imagined. I send home these specimens, small as the quantity
is, being quite sufficient for examination. The next morning further
to N.E. with 800 fathoms, no bottom: another cast still further
N.E., bottom with 900 fathoms, bringing up another specimen of
the same sort of sand as last night, with a small pebble amongst it.
[Capt. Pullen here explains how his attention was drawn to parts
of the sea where the surface was covered, for a considerable space, with

193

a white milky substance, apparently of animal nature, in large patches,
with strips of deep blue water between ; producing an effect which,
viewed from a distance with a glass, had very much the appearance
of breakers ; and he suggests that some of the reports of shoals and
breakers between the parallels of 35° and 40° may have no better
foundation than the phenomenon in question.]

Steering now to pass to the east of Mauritius, a little south of the
parallel of 20°, about 90 miles from the land I got no bottom with
1375 fathoms of line, which gave me the first idea, that what I had
before thought of the Indian Ocean not being so deep as the Atlantic
was wrong. Proceeding northward, I passed west of Cargados
Garazos, Saya de Malha, east of Seychelles, and crossed the Equa-
tor in 58° 20' E. ; getting a cast 9 miles south of it with 2380 fathoms,
no bottom. This is the sounding alluded to in a former part of this
letter.

Forty or fifty miles west of the northern part of Cargados, 1400
fathoms of line reached the bottom. In 14° 41' S., 58° 43' E.,
no bottom with 1570 fathoms; 10° 30' S., and 58° 52' E., no
bottom with 1320 fathoms. At this cast I sent down three
thermometers at the 1320, 880, and 440; the minimum at the
greatest depth 51°*5, at the centre depth 41°*5, and at the least
depth 51°'5. The maximum tell-tales at the two least depths came
in all right, but that of the greatest depth had fallen 6°; and
its minimum showing an increasing temperature after passing through
the colder stratum, is quite proof enough of its tell-tale falling down
too, at least down the column instead of remaining up at what it once
must have been in passing through that stratum, which the tell-tale
of the thermometer at 880 fathoms shows the temperature of.

Winds now light and northerly. I got close to the doubtful
George Island, and three quarters of a mile west of its southern point,
bottom was not reached with 2000 fathoms of line. I then passed
over it nearly a mile within its southern point, and having no signs of
being on shore, I conclude that no such island ever existed in the
position given it on our charts ; and I find no account of it in
Horsburgh.

Steaming now for Rose Galley Rocks, five miles south of the most
western of them, I got bottom with 2254 fathoms of line, and
brought up a plentiful supply of bottom, as well as the minimum

p 2

194

temperature 35°. A thermometer was sent down with the weight
yesterday at 2000 fathoms, and returned with a minimum tempera-
ture of 38°-5. Now 35° was the minimum temperature at 2700
fathoms in the Atlantic, further south than this cast, which was near
Rose Galley Rocks. I am therefore inclined to think that this is
about the minimum temperature of the great depths of the Ocean,
and that it commences soon after passing 2000 fathoms.

III. " On The Stereomonoscope, a new Instrument by which
an apparently Single Picture produces the Stereoscopic
Illusion." By A. CLAUDET, Esq., F.R.S. Received
March 10, 1858.

In a former paper " On the Phenomenon of Relief of the Image
formed on the ground glass of the Camera Obscura," which I com-
municated to the Royal Society on the 8th of May 1856, after having
investigated the cause of that extraordinary fact and tried to explain
it, I found that the images produced separately by the various
points of the whole aperture of an object-glass are visible only when
the refracted rays are falling on the ground glass in a line nearly
coinciding with the optic axes ; so that when both eyes are equally
distant from the centre of the ground glass, each eye perceives only
the image refracted in an oblique direction on that surface from the
opposite side of the object-glass. Consequently each side of an
object-glass, in proportion to its aperture, giving a different perspec-
tive of a solid placed before it, the result is an illusion of relief as
conspicuous as when looking naturally at the objects themselves.

From the consideration of these singular facts, unnoticed before,
I was led to think that it would be possible to construct a new
Stereoscope, in which looking with both eyes at once on a ground
glass at the point of coalescence of the two images of a stereoscopic
slide, each refracted by a separate lens, we could see it on that
surface in the same relief which is produced by the common
stereoscope.

This instrument, as may be perceived at once, is nothing more
than an ordinary camera obscura supplied with two lenses, each
mounted on a sliding frame in order to be able to give them, accord-
ing to the focal distance, the horizontal separation necessary for pro-

195

ducing on the ground glass the coalescence of the images of the two
sides of a slide placed before the camera.

The slide itself being cut in two parts, the two images can also,
moving in a groove, be separated in a horizontal direction, until
they are sufficiently apart to be refracted on the ground glass by
the two lenses in the most oblique direction consistent with the pro-
duction of a well-defined image ; for it is to the increased degree of
obliquity of the refracted rays in falling on the ground glass that is
due the more effective extinction or evanescence of the image for the
eye whose axis consequently deviates in a greater degree from the
line of refraction.

By the same principles which produce the phenomenon of relief
of the image formed on the ground glass of the camera obscura, the
right picture of the slide, being obliquely refracted on $e ground
glass by the right lens in a line coinciding with the axis of the left
eye, is visible only to that eye ; and the left picture, being refracted
obliquely by the left lens in an opposite direction coinciding with the
right eye, is only visible to that eye. Consequently each eye seeing
only one image, and that image having its own perspective, the optic
axes have to converge more or less according to the angular separa-
tion of the similar points of the two coincident images ; and by the
different degrees of convergence producing single vision of these
various similar points, we have the sensation of the comparative
distances of the objects represented on the ground glass.

Before having constructed this new stereoscope and tried its effect,,
it would have been hasty on my part to pretend that its success was
certain,, and for this reason I took care in my former paper to propose
it as a mere speculative idea suggested by the phenomenon I had
discovered, without vouching for the result. Indeed it was not long
before I had to congratulate myself on my caution, when I found that,
the truth of my experiments being questioned and the deductions
from these experiments denied, my proposed stereoscope was declared
impossible, as being founded on principles completely at variance with
the laws of optics.

However, these remarks did not shake my conviction, and after
the usual difficulties, I have now the satisfaction of being able to
prove that I was perfectly right, and that I had not been led astray
by any erroneous notion in my analytic and synthetic deductions.

196

I have constructed the instrument which I propose to call the
Stereomonoscope, as it exhibits in perfect relief a picture which
appears single on the ground glass of the new instrument, and as
single as the image of the camera obscura has always been supposed
to be.

The instrument, in its present rough state, is undoubtedly very im-
perfect and susceptible of many improvements which time and ex-
perience will suggest. I present it as the result of a first attempt,
hoping that it will be found curious as illustrating a new and inter-
esting scientific fact and producing an effect quite unexpected in
optics.

April 22, 1858.
Major-General SAB1NE, Treasurer and V.P., in the Chair.

Professor Julius Pliicker, Foreign Member, was admitted into the
Society.

The following communications were read : —

I. " On the Differential Stethophone, and some new Phenomena
observed by it." By S. SCOTT ALISON, M.D., Assistant
Physician to the Hospital for Consumption. Com-
municated by Prof. TYNDALL, F.R.S. Received March
22, 1858.

Engaged for some years in investigations into the phenomena of
audition, I have become cognizant of some facts which I believe have
hitherto remained unnoticed, and which are certainly not generally
known to physicists and physiologists.

The first of which I shall treat is the restriction of hearing
external sounds of the same character to one ear, when the intensity
is moderately, yet decidedly greater in one ear than in the other, the
hearing being limited to that ear into which the sound is poured in
greater intensity. The sound is heard alternately in one ear and in
the other, as it is conveyed in increasing degrees of intensity, and
hearing is suspended alternately in one ear and in the other, as the
sound is conveyed in lessening degrees of intensity.

Sound, as is well known, if applied to both ears in equal intensity,

197

is heard in both ears ; but it will be found, if the intensity in respect
to one ear be moderately yet decidedly increased, by bringing the
sounding body nearer that ear than the other, or otherwise, as by the
employment, in respect to one ear, of a damper or obstructor of
sound, or in respect of the other ear, by the employment of some
intensifier, or good collector or conductor of sound, the sound is heard
in that ear only which is favoured and has the advantage of greater
intensity.

There is little doubt that this law holds with regard to sounds
passing through the air, and carried to the ear in the ordinary
manner, without the aid of any mechanical contrivance, as for in-
stance those of a watch placed in front of the face ; but as the re-
striction of hearing to one ear, and its suppression in the other,
admit of being rendered more obvious by an apparatus that shall
collect sound, prevent its diffusion through the air, and carry it
direct to the ear, I propose to give the results of experiments made
with an instrument which I have invented for hearing with both
ears respectively, and which, as it is specially adapted for the auscul-
tation of differences in the sounds of different parts of the chest, I
have named the Differential Stethoscope, or Stethophone.

The results thus procured will be more satisfactory than those ob-
tained by ordinary audition ; a sound will be increased as a visual
object is magnified by the microscope, and as both ears are similarly
dealt with, a perfect parity of conditions will hold in respect of
both ears.

The differential stethophone (see figure) is simply an instrument con-
sisting of two hearing-tubes, or trumpets, or stethoscopes, provided
with collecting-cups and ear-knobs, one for each ear respectively. The
two tubes are, for convenience, mechanically combined, but may
be said to be acoustically separate, as care is taken that the sound,
once admitted into one tube, is not communicated to the other. The
tubes are composed of two parts nearly equal in length, one near the
ear-knob, made of metal (C) ; while the other part, near the collecting-
cup, is made of metal wire (B), to impart flexibility. The ear-end is
curved, so as to approach the ear, and is supplied with an ivory knob (D)
for insertion into the meat us externus. The other end of the tube,
being intended to collect sound, is supplied with a hollow cup, or

198

receiver (A) made of wood, or some such material. The mechanical
construction of this instrument is borrowed from the stethoscope
contrived by Dr. Caman of New York, and intended by its inventor
for the purpose of hearing with both ears
sounds emanating from one point, and
collected into one cup. The two tubes
are brought near together, a few inches
in front of the face, by means of a con-
necting-bar (E), but calculated to prevent
the transmission of sound from one tube to
the other. This bar is supplied with a
joint, which permits the tubes to be freely
moved, as is necessary in applying the
knobs to the ears. The two knobs are
kept steadily in the ears by means of an
elastic band (F) connecting the two tubes
near the bar, already described.

The instrument being fitted into the
ears, with the knobs directed upwards,
and the cups being applied equally near
to, or upon a sounding body, say the in-
flating lung, or a watch, and the condi-
tions for collecting sound being the same,
the sound is heard with both ears, as in
ordinary hearing. But if one cup be re-
moved a little, say a half or a quarter of
an inch from the watch (for we shall now

adopt it), and the other cup be left upon the watch, the sound is heard
with that ear only which is connected with the cup placed upon the
watch, and the sensation in the hearing ear is so marked, as to leave
the mind in no doubt whatever that it is through that ear we become
conscious of the sound. If the cup placed upon or nearer the watch,
be removed a little further than the other cup, so as to be less favour-
ably situated for collecting sound, say one inch from the watch, the
ear connected with it becomes totally unconscious of sound, and the
sensation of hearing is most unequivocally felt in the ear, and in that
ear only, which but a moment before was utterly deaf to it. If one

199

cup be placed upon the middle of the watch, and the other on the
edge, the watch sound is heard in that ear only which is connected
with the cup placed upon the middle.

These experiments may be thus varied, and the result will in
reality be the same, though apparently more remarkable. The watch,
being held in the air, at the distance of about an inch from one ear,
is heard distinctly beating into that ear only ; but if the watch be
now connected with the collecting-cup of the tube of the stethophone,
inserted into the other ear, the sound, being greatly magnified, is
heard in this ear, and in it only, the ear in whicli the sound had
been primarily heard being now altogether insensible to it, or un-
affected by it as far as our consciousness is concerned. The sensa-
tion of sound is transferred from one ear to the other, although the
watch is allowed to remain in close proximity to the ear that is now
deaf to its sound.

A watch placed upon or inside the cheek, is heard to beat in that
ear which is nearer ; but if the opposite ear be connected with it by
means of one of the arms of the stethophone, or by a common flexible
stethoscope, the watch sound is no longer heard in the ear nearer the
watch, but in the ear further from it, which is now in reality brought
into nearer connexion with it, by means of the hollow tube.

Sounds, produced in whatever material, are alike subject to this
law, so far as my experiments have yet been made.

The medium in which sounds are produced does not alter this law.
A watch ticking, or a bell ringing, either in the air or under water,
affords the same results.

Sounding bodies give the same results when covered with soft or
hard materials. A watch placed in one corner of a box, a few inches
square, and an inch deep, is heard to beat in that arm of the ste-
thophone only which is near it. By this means, and by successive
movements of the instrument, and by attending to degrees of inten-
sity, the exact position of the watch may be with certainty indicated.
Or this may be effected by successively excluding those parts which
fail to cause hearing in one of the ears.

The interposition of a body calculated to obstruct the sound at its
entrance into one of the cups of the stethophone, causes the sound to
be heard in that ear only which is connected with the cup which
remains free from obstruction. This admits of ready proof, by

200

applying the two cups as much as possible equally on the middle of
a watch about an inch above it, and by placing two fingers held
together between one cup and the watch. When this is done, the
watch is heard to tick into the ear that remains free from obstruction.

The removal of an obstructing body from one cup, while it is
allowed to remain in operation with the other, causes sound which
had been equally heard with both ears, to be heard in that one only
which is connected with the cup freed from the obstructing body.
Thus, if the fingers be interposed between the watch and the cups
held equally over it, and the fingers be separated under one of the
cups, so as to permit of atmospheric communication, the sound is
heard in that ear only which is connected with this cup, and not at
all in the other.

The effect of intensification of a sound in one ear depriving the
other ear of all sensation of that sound, is interestingly shown by
placing the tubes of the instrument across a block of wood with the
cups hanging in the air. While both cups are left open, and a
tuning-fork in vibration is placed between the two tubes, the sound is
heard with both ears ; but if one cup be closed with the hand, or
with leather, and the other be left open, the sensation of sound is re-
stricted to that ear connected with the closed cup. The sound in the
tube connected with the closed cup is rendered more intense by the
closure, the escape of sound is obstructed, and reverberation takes
place. By virtue of the intensification, sensation is monopolized by
one ear, and is lost in the other. The result and the mechanical con-
ditions are much the same as in the experiments of Mr. Wheatstone
with a tuning-fork held upon the head, presently to be referred to.

It is worthy of observation, that in order that a sound previously
heard with, or in both ears, as in the above experiments, may be
appreciated or felt in one ear only, it is not necessary that the
stethophone, or other conducting instrument, be placed in the cavity
of the meatus externus. It is sufficient for this result that the instru-
ment be placed near the meatus, so as to give it an advantage of
intensity over the opposite cavity. When the instrument is to
be held only near the meatus, care should be taken not to touch the
external ear, so that there may be no conduction by that part from
contact, which would vitiate the experiment. The result is perfectly
satisfactory and conclusive, although the remarkable sensation of

201

pouring in of sound into the ear is less marked, — a fact sufficiently in-
telligible from the diffusion of sound which must take place outside
the ear, when the extremity of the tube is held there, and is not
inserted into the meatus. It is therefore obvious that the restriction
of hearing to one ear, under the conditions specified, is not due to
closure of the meatus externus, the cause of the augmentation of sound
in some experiments of Mr. Wheatstone, to be shortly referred to.

The remarkable phenomenon of the restriction of hearing to one
ear, above described, seems not to be without important signification.
It holds apparently in virtue of a taw seemingly established for the
purpose of enabling man and the lower animals to determine the
direction of the same sound, with more accuracy than could be done
had a judgment to be formed between the intensity of two similar
sensations in the two ears respectively. All source of error is
removed by there being only one sensation, although there may be
two impressions. This law of a stronger impression in one ear,
rendering us unconscious of a weaker, but similar impression in the
other, has an analogue, though perhaps an imperfect one, in the
sense of touch. Very strong impressions upon one part of the
body cause such acute sensations, that minor impressions of the
same kind upon another part are frequently not felt, in fact, produce
no sensation.

The only observations bearing upon this law which I have been
able to discover, are some by Mr. Wheatstone, in a paper entitled
" Experiments on Audition," published in the ' Quarterly Journal of
Science, Art, and Literature/ vol. ii. New Series, 1827. These expe-
riments are intended to show the augmentation which the sensation
of autophonic sound, and the sounds of a tuning-fork applied to the
head, acquires when the ear is closed, although the perception of
external sounds is diminished. Mr. Wheatstone shows that a vocal
sound is heard louder in that ear that is closed, say with the finger,
than in the other. He also shows, that the sound of a tuning- folk
placed upon the head is heard louder in that ear which is closed than
in the other which remains open, even though the tuning-fork may
be brought nearer the open ear than the closed one. These experi-
ments, Mr. Wheatstone says, prove that " sounds immediately com-
municated to the closed meatus externus are very greatly magni-
fied ;" and he adds, " it is an obvious inference, that if external

202

sounds can be communicated to act on the cavity in a similar man-
ner, they must receive a corresponding augmentation."

This distinguished philosopher constructed the instrument named
a Microphone, for the purpose of augmenting weak sounds upon this
principle, i. e. the augmentation of sound by closure of the ears ;
and he informs us that it " is calculated for hearing sounds when it
is in immediate contact with sonorous bodies," and that "when they
are diffused by their transmission through the air, this instrument
will not afford the slightest assistance" This instrument is spoken
of in connexion with the augmentation of sound, and not in reference
to the limitation of sound to one ear, or to the comparison of sensa-
tions in the two ears. The remarkable, and, to the uninitiated mind,
the wonderful fact, made known more than thirty years ago by
Mr. Wheatstone, that a tuning-fork held upon the head close to an
open ear is not heard in this ear, but in the opposite ear, provided it
be closed with the finger, or by some other means, proved that
sounds communicated to the skull were exclusively heard in the
closed ear. In the case of the tuning-fork, the fact made known by
Mr. Wheatstone is undoubted. The rationale of the phenomenon
appears to be this : — The vibrations of the tuning-fork are commu-
nicated to the bones of the head, and through them to the ears,
including their bones, cartilages, and contained air ; but in the case
of the closed ear, the vibrations are permitted no egress or escape,
as in the open ear ; reverberations take place, and the consequence
is, that the sound is not duly moderated ; and in virtue of the law
I have just enunciated, the sensation of sound is restricted to the
closed ear. When the tuning-fork, duly sounding, is held in the air,
and not connected directly with the head, the closed ear remains
insensible to it, and the sound is heard exclusively in the open ear.

Mr. Wheatstone' s interesting observation relates to a head-sound
not duly moderated, as in the opposite and open ear, and virtually
more intense, and comes within the general law advanced in this
paper, which embraces all sounds, whether internal or external, viz.
that a sound of the same character in the presence of both ears, if
conveyed by any means to one ear, or to the nerve of that ear, more
intensely than to the other, is heard in the more favoured ear only.

It seems necessary, in Mr. Wheatstone' s experiments, that the bones
of the head shall vibrate freely ; weak sounds, such as gentle blow-

203

ing, will not succeed ; and if the tuning-fork be placed immediately
under the open ear, and passed upon the soft parts, little fitted for
vibration, between the mastoid process of the temporal bone and the
lower jaw, the sound is heard in this ear, and not in the closed ear.

It may perhaps be well, before proceeding further, to acknow-
ledge that I am well aware it has been long known that a very loud
sound conveyed into one ear will render the other ear insensible to
sound of a weak or low character. But the phenomenon which I
have ventured to bring under the consideration of the Royal Society
differs from this well-known and readily admitted fact in this im-
portant particular, that no very great loudness is required, and that
no very great augmentation of sound in one ear over that in the
other is necessary in order to restrict the sense of hearing to one ear,
and to deprive the less favoured ear of the sense of hearing which it
had previously enjoyed. A moderate, yet a decided increase of in-
tensity is all that is required to remove the sense of hearing from the
less favoured ear, and to cause the more favoured organ to be alone
sensible to the sound.

When sound is proceeding into the two ears, but in consequence
of its reaching one ear in greater intensity than the other is heard
only in one ear, the sensation of hearing in the favoured ear, though
strictly limited to it, is augmented by the sound entering the less
favoured ear, although it entirely fails to cause a sensation there, or
to produce a consciousness of sound in that organ. The more sound
collected by the less favoured ear, as long as the amount is less than
that conveyed to the other ear, the more the sensation of sound is
augmented in the more favoured ear. The intensity of sensation in
the more favoured ear increases in a ratio with the increase of sound
in the less favoured ear, until the intensity of sound is the same, or
nearly the same, in both ears, when the sensation experienced is the
ordinary one of hearing with two ears.

This fact admits of satisfactory proof in this way : — A watch is
placed on a table equidistant from both ears. The stethophone is
applied to the ears ; one cup is placed within an inch of the watch,
while the other is turned away from it, at the distance of some
inches. As the further cup is brought nearer and nearer the watch,
the sound, always confined to the more favoured ear, is gradually and
steadily intensified, until the two cups are, or are about to be, similarly

204

placed, at which moment the sensation ceases to be restricted to one
ear, and has acquired its greatest intensity. This fact proves, that
though the sensation of hearing be confined to the ear to which sound
is communicated with greater intensity, we profit by the sound which
is conveyed into the other ear, though failing to produce a sensation
or a consciousness of sound there, by its serving to augment very
materially the sensation of sound in the more favoured ear. The
less favoured ear thus augments the sensation which we experience,
at the same time that it fails to interfere with the aid which the
sensation confined to one ear affords us as to the direction of external
sounds.

The sounds of which we have been treating as differently affecting
the two ears, according to the intensity with which they are respect-
ively communicated, are of the same character, though differing in
intensity. It is sounds of the same character only which exhibit the
phenomenon of restriction in virtue of moderately different intensity.
The sounds must emanate from the same sounding body, or from
bodies sounding similarly. A little difference in character will cause
the experiment of restriction to fail.

Thus, if two bells, differing considerably in character, be rung re-
spectively in the two ears, one louder and graver than the other, the
louder and graver sound does not render the other ear insensible to
the weaker sound of the weaker bell. Both ears hear perfectly, but
the loud, grave sound is heard in one ear, and the weak sound is
heard in the other.

If, instead of one watch, we place two together, having sounds of
different character, as for instance one low and grave, and another
loud and sharp, and the two arms of the stethophone be placed over
them respectively, the sounds of both watches are heard, but the
sound of one is heard in one ear, and the sound of the other is heard
in the other ear. The loudness of the sound in one ear does not
increase the weakness of the sound in the other ; or, in other words,
the intensity of the sensation produced by the weak watch in the one
ear is not reduced by the sensation produced by the loud watch in
the other ear.

The sound of a watch ticking continues to be heard in one ear,
although a large-sized bell is made to ring at the other ; and I have
not perceived that the sensation produced by the watch is at all

205

impaired by the bell. A whistling lung-sqund heard in one ear, is
not rendered less obvious by a loud blowing lung-sound in the other.
A hissing murmur at the apex of the heart conveyed into one ear,
and a rasping sound at the base conveyed into the other, are both
heard without alteration in the ears to which they are respectively
conveyed .

By virtue of these two laws, — 1st, that sounds of the same cha-
racter are restricted to that ear into which they are conveyed in
greater intensity, and 2nd, that sounds differing in character may
be heard at the same time in the two ears respectively, even if they
be made to reach the ears in different degrees of intensity, — it is pos-
sible to analyse a compound sound, or one composed of two sound?,
and to divide it into its component parts. In order to effect a divi-
sion of a compound sound, it is only necessary that the two sounds
of which it is composed may respectively be heard at certain points,
in greater and lesser intensity, and that the respective cups of the
stethophone be placed at these points. The ear connected with the
cup placed where one half of the sound is in greater intensity, hears
that half sound only, and the ear connected with the cup placed
where the other half of the sound is in greater intensity, hears that
half sound only. The sound is divided into two parts, and one is
heard in one ear, and the other part in the other ear. For example,
a compound sound composed of the two sounds of two watches
placed together upon a table, with the unassisted ear is distinctly
heard in its compound state, and cannot be divided into its
two constituent parts. With the stethophone this is readily done.
One cup is placed where the sound of one watch is in greater in-
tensity, and the other is placed where the sound of the other watch
is in greater intensity, and the result is obtained of one watch only
ticking in one ear, and of the other watch only ticking in the other
ear. The greater intensity of each watch-sound in one ear has ren-
dered all hearing of it in the other ear impossible, and as each watch-
sound in its greater intensity is conveyed to different ears, one is
heard in one ear only, while the other is heard in the other ear
only. Without the stethophone, or some such instrument, this
analysis could not be made ; the ordinary stethoscope will not suc-
ceed, for wherever it is placed it conveys the mixed or compound
sound to the ear. If the naked ear be applied over or upon the

206

watches, the same result follows ; and it is the same if instead of two
arms of the stethophone we employ only one. This remarkable
separation of the components of a sound may be effected also when
the sounding bodies are enclosed in a box capable of transmitting
sound, or when separated from us by the interposition of materials
capable of conducting sound ; and by successive trials and comparisons
of intensity at different places, and by a process of exclusion of those
parts which fail to cause sensation, the respective positions of two
adjacent sounding bodies may be predicated. If, for example, we have
two watches, A and B, enclosed in a box, and through one cup, A,
we hear watch A, and with the other cup, B, we hear watch B, we
may conclude that cup A is nearer watch A than cup B is, and so on.
In the same manner we may auscultate the morbid sounds of the heart.
By cup A, placed at the apex, and cup B placed at the base, we hear
separately the morbid sounds of the two parts ; for example, a blow-
ing murmur at the apex in one ear, and a rasping murmur at the
base in the other ear. This we are enabled to do, although at any
intermediate point with the single ear, either with or without a
stethoscope, we hear the conjoined two sounds. It is obvious that
with the stethophone we not only succeed in separating sound, but
that this instrument, or some similar contrivance, affords the only
possible means of hearing, with two ears at once, sounds emanating
from the same region or surface, for the sides of the head can be
applied, of course, to the same sounding surface only in turn or
succession. With this instrument we, as it were, place our ears in
our hands, apply them where we choose, and listen with them both
at adjacent or distant points of the same surface, at one and the
same instant of time.

It is not unlikely that the property which the stethophone pos-
sesses of pointing out with precision where sound is most intense,
may be very usefully employed. It seems possible that it might be
turned to account in discovering the points where operations in mili-
tary mining may be going on.

It is, however, in the practice of medicine only that the differential
stethophone has been hitherto applied, and it may be here permitted
to me to point to some of the chief purposes for which it is adapted,
and for which it has been employed.

In respect to respiration, we may compare at once, and without

207

the inconvenience of moving the head, or the ordinary stetho-
scope, from place to place, the extent of the respiratory sounds
in different parts, so that a very minute difference, an excess in one
part or a deficiency in another, may with certainty be discovered.
Differences in quality, such as softness or roughness, are readily
recognized. The increased length and loudness in one part is accu-
rately contrasted with the healthy conditions of another part. In
cases where the Aspiration has been very full in one place, in order
to compensate for deficiency in another place, and where the expira-
tion was long and coarse in the deficient part, I have heard the in-
spiratory sound only in one ear, and the expiratory sound in the
other ear. The sounds were respectively restricted to the two parts,
and they alternated in a very marked manner. One part has re-
mained silent while the other has been heard to sound, and this has
been silenced when the other has awoke the ear.

The diagram represents the sounds occurring alternately in two
sides of the chest in a consumptive patient. The dark spots repre-
sent the sounds.

Healthy. Unhealthy.

Right side of chest. Left side of chest.

Inspir. 1.

1

Inspir. 1.

Expir. 1.

1

Expir. 1.

Inspir. 2.

I

Inspir. 2.

Expir. 2.

i

Expir. 2.

The influence which the acts of respiration exert in heightening
and lowering the murmurs in veins, say of the neck, in persons
affected with a thin and watery condition of blood, is well exhibited
by placing one arm of the stethophone on the chest and the other
upon the veins.

When the respiration in two parts is alike in character, but de-
cidedly louder in one part than in another, the sound in the weak side
is lost. While this loss proves, in a very emphatic manner, the im-
portant fact of deficiency, it of course for the time deprives us of the
opportunity of judging of the quality of the deficient inspiration ; but
this is readily obviated by removing the cup of the instrument from
the full respiring part, and then the deficient respiration is immediately

VOL. IX. Q

208

heard through the other cup. Thus while the two sounds, being
of like character, and one being more intense than the other, can
be heard only in one ear at the same time, an admirable opportu-
nity is obtained for contrasting the extent, and some of the qualities,
of the sounds of the two parts, by placing the cups alternately and
rapidly upon the two spots respectively. Vocal extussive resonance
in two parts of the thorax, is well contrasted with the two tubes
employed at once, or in immediate succession.

The sounds of the two sides of the heart, and of the valves of the
two great arteries proceeding from that organ, are, by means of the
stethophone, very advantageously dealt with. By placing it over
the two sides of the heart, or the origin of the two arteries^we ascer-
tain the character and loudness of the sounds of these parts. One
cup being placed over the aorta, and the other over the pulmonary
artery, if the sounds they collect differ in character, one sound is
heard in one ear, and another in the other ear. We may have at the
same moment an aortic murmur and a healthy pulmonary artery
sound, one sound in one ear, and another sound in the other ear. But
when it is desired to listen to each sound singly and in succession,
the instrument will still be available, for the cups may be applied
singly and in succession, thus affording ample means for contrast.

In cases of disordered heart, in which it is desired to discover
whether the sounds of the two sides of the heart are synchronous, the
stethophone affords the most satisfactory mode of investigating the
fact. With it, we virtually place our two ears over the two sides of the
heart ; and if one side sounds at all after the other, the fact is made
known, and the end of one sound and the beginning of another are
clearly and distinctly defined. With the ordinary stethoscope this is
impossible ; for where one sound is heard, the other may be inaudible,
and long before the head or stethoscope can possibly be adjusted at
another part, the second sound has taken place, and is long since over.

In conclusion, I may perhaps be permitted to say, that the dif-
ferential stethophone proves a great auxiliary in examining the heart
with the cardioscope or sphygmoscope, which I had the honour to
exhibit to this Society two years ago. While the latter instrument
exhibits the movements of the heart, the stethophone informs us of
their sounds, in a more complete manner than can be otherwise
effected ; and from the stethophone permitting of auscultating two

209

parts at once, and with the eyes directed to the chest, the relation of
the movements and of the sounds, normal or abnormal, of this most
important organ is very fully and satisfactorily made out.

POSTSCRIPT. Received April 22, 1858.

In connexion with that part of my paper which treats of the re-
striction of hearing to the closed ear, I desire to add the fact which
I have ascertained within the last few days, that if one ear be closed
wholly or partially at its external part, i. e. at the meatus externus, by
disease or by congenital malformation, while the other ear is healthy,
the sound of the tuning-fork, applied to any part of the head, is
heard only in the closed ear. This fact holds, although the closed
ear is totally unaffected by sounds conveyed through the external air.

I have further to mention the fact, that all persons, deaf in one ear,
whom I have lately examined, with one exception, hear the sound of
the tuning-fork applied to the head in that ear only that is deaf to
external sounds. A man who has been totally deaf in one ear for
thirty years, in consequence of a violent blow upon the head, had the
tuning-fork applied over the forehead. He started, and said that he
heard only in the ear which had been deaf during that long course of
time. In such cases I have been disposed to believe that, amidst other
lesions of the organ of hearing, there may be present an obstruction
or closure, that a reverberation takes place, and that thus a restriction
of hearing is secured for the diseased organ.

II. "On the Stratification of Vesicular Ice by Pressure." By
Professor WILLIAM THOMSON, F.R.S. In a Letter to
Professor STOKES, Sec. R.S. Received April 3, 1858.

In my last letter to you I pointed out that my brother's theory pf
the effect of pressure in lowering the freezing-point of water, affords
a perfect explanation of various remarkable phenomena involving
the internal melting of ice, described by Professor Tyndall in the
Number of the ' Proceedings ' which has just been published. I
wish now to show that the stratification of vesicular ice by pressure
observed on a large scale in glaciers, and the lamination of clear ice
described by Dr. Tyndall as produced in hand specimens by a

Q2

210

Brahmah's press, are also demonstrable as conclusions from the
same theory.

Conceive a continuous mass of ice, with vesicles containing either
air or water distributed through it ; and let this mass be pressed
together by opposing forces on two opposite sides of it. The vesi-
cles will gradually become arranged in strata perpendicular to the
lines of pressure, because of the melting of ice in the localities of
greatest pressure and the regelation of the water in the localities of
least pressure, in the neighbourhood of groups of these cavities. For,
any two vesicles nearly in the direction of the condensation will
afford to the ice between them a relief from pressure, and will occa-
sion an aggravated pressure in the ice round each of them in the
places farthest out from the line joining their centres ; while the
pressure in the ice on the far sides of the two vesicles will be some-
what diminished from what it would be were their cavities filled up
with the solid, although not nearly as much diminished as it is in
the ice between the two. Hence, as demonstrated by my brother's
theory and my own experiment, the melting temperature of the ice
round each vesicle will be highest on its side nearest to the other
vesicle, and lowest in the localities on the whole farthest from
the line joining the centres. Therefore, ice will melt from these
last-mentioned localities, and, if each vesicle have water in it, the
partition between the two will thicken by freezing on each side of it.
Any two vesicles, on the other hand, which are nearly in a line per-
pendicular to the direction of pressure will agree in leaving an aggra-
vated pressure to be borne by the solid between them, and will each
direct away some of the pressure from the portions of the solid next
itself on the two sides farthest from the plane through the centres,
perpendicular to the line of pressure. This will give rise to an in-
crease of pressure on the whole in the solid all round the two cavi-
ties, and nearly in the plane perpendicular to the pressure, although
nowhere else so much as in the part between them. Hence these
two vesicles will gradually extend towards one another by the melt-
ing of the intervening ice, and each will become flattened in towards
the plane through the centres perpendicular to the direction of press-
ure, by the freezing of water on the parts of the bounding surface
farthest from this plane. It may be similarly shown that two vesi-
cles in a line oblique to that of condensation will give rise to such

211

variations of pressure in the solid in their neighbourhood, as to make
them, by melting and freezing, to extend, each obliquely towards the
other and from the parts of its boundary most remote from a plane
midway between them, perpendicular to the direction of pressure.

The general tendency clearly is for the vesicles to become flattened
arid arranged in layers, in planes perpendicular to the direction of
the pressure from without.

It is clear that the same general tendency must be experienced
even when there are bubbles of air in the vesicles, although no doubt
the resultant effect would be to some extent influenced by the run-
ning down of water to the lowest part of each cavity.

I believe it will be found that these principles afford a satisfactory
physical explanation of the origin of that beautiful veined structure
which Professor Forbes has shown to be an essential organic pro-
perty of glaciers. Thus the first effect of pressure not equal in all
directions, on a mass of snow, ought to be, according to the theory,
to convert it into a stratified mass of layers of alternately clear and
vesicular ice, perpendicular to the direction of maximum pressure.
In his remarks "On the Conversion of the Neve' into Ice*," Pro-
fessor Forbes says, " that the conversion into ice is simultaneous"
(and in a particular case referred to "identical") " with the forma-
tion of the blue bands ; . . . . and that these bands are formed where
the pressure is most intense, and where the differential motion of the
parts is a maximum, that is, near the walls of a glacier." He farther
states, that, after long doubt, he feels satisfied that the conversion of
snow into ice is due to the effects of pressure on the loose and porous
structure of the former ; and he formally abandons the notion that
the blue veins are due to the freezing of infiltrated water, or to any
other cause than the kneading action of pressure. All the observa-
tions he describes seem to be in most complete accordance with the
theory indicated above. Thus, in the thirteenth letter, he says,
" the blue veins are formed where the pressure is most intense and
the differential motion of the parts a maximum."

Now the theory not only requires pressure, but requires difference

of pressure in different directions to explain the stratification of the

vesicles. Difference of pressure in different directions produces the

"differential motion" referred to by Professor Forbes. Further,

* Thirteenth Letter on Glaciers, section (2), dated Dec. 1846.

212

the difference of pressure in different directions must be continued
until a very considerable amount of this differential motion, or dis-
tortion, has taken place, to produce any sensible degree of stratifica-
tion in the vesicles. The absolute amount of distortion experienced
by any portion of the viscous mass is therefore an index of the per-
sistence of the differential pressure, by the continued action of which
the blue veins are induced. Hence also we see why blue veins are not
formed in any mass, ever so deep, of snow resting in a hollow or corner.

As to the direction in which the blue veins appear to lie, they
must, according to the theory, be something intermediate between
the surfaces perpendicular to the greatest pressure, and the surfaces
of sliding ; since they will commence being formed exactly perpen-
dicular to the direction of greatest pressure, and will, by the differ-
ential motion accompanying their formation, become gradually laid
out more and more nearly parallel to the sides of the channel through
which the glacier is forced. This circumstance, along with the com-
paratively weak mechanical condition of the white strata (vesicular
layers between the blue strata), must, I think, make these white strata
become ultimately, in reality, the surfaces of " sliding" or of " tear-
ing," or of chief differential motion, as according to Professor
Forbes' s observations they seem to be. His first statement on the
subject, made as early as 1842, that " the blue veins seem to be per-
pendicular to the lines of maximum pressure," is, however, more in
accordance with their mechanical origin, according to the theory I
now suggest, than the supposition that they are caused by the tear-
ing action which is found to take place along them when formed.
It appears to me, therefore, that Dr. Tyndall's conclusion, that the
vesicular stratification is produced by pressure in surfaces perpendi-
cular to the directions of maximum pressure, is correct as regards the
mechanical origin of the veined structure ; while there seems every
reason, both from observation and from mechanical theory, to accept
the view given by Professor Forbes of their function in glacial motion.

The mechanical theory I have indicated as the explanation of the
veined structure of glacial ice is especially applicable to account for
the stratification of the vesicles observed in ice originally clear, and
subjected to differential pressure, by Dr.Tyndall ; the formation of the
vesicles themselves being, as remarked in my last letter *, anticipated
* See Proceedings for February 25, 1858.

213

by my brother's theory, published in the ' Proceedings ' for
May 1857.

I believe the theory I have given above contains the true explanation
of one remarkable fact observed by Dr. Tyndall in connexion with the
beautiful set of phenomena which he discovered to be produced by
radiant heat, concentrated on an internal portion of a mass of clear
ice by a lens ; the fact, namely, that the planes in which the vesi-
cles extend are generally parallel to the sides when the mass of ice
operated on is a flat slab ; for the solid will yield to the " nega-
tive" internal pressure due to the contractility of the melting ice,
most easily in the direction perpendicular to the sides. The so-called
negative pressure is therefore least, or which is the same thing, the
positive pressure is greatest in this direction. Hence the vesicles of
melted ice, or of vapour caused by the contraction of melted ice,
must, as I have shown, tend to place themselves parallel to the sides
of the slab.

The divisions of the vesicular layers into leaves like six-petaled
flowers is a phenomenon which does not seem to me as yet so easily
explained ; but I cannot see that any of the phenomena described by
Dr. Tyndall can be considered as having been proved to be due to
ice having mechanical properties of a uniaxal crystal.

April 29, 1858.
J. P. GASSIOT, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair.

The following communications were read : —
I. " An Account of the Weather in various localities during
the 15th of March, 1858 (the day of the Great Solar
Eclipse) ; together with Observations of the Effect pro-
duced by the Diminution of Light upon the Animal and
Vegetable Kingdoms." By EDWARD JOSEPH LOWE, Esq.,
F.R.A.S., F.G.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S. &c. Communicated by
THOMAS BELL, Esq., P.L.S. Received April 1, 1858.

[Abstract.]

By the author's request, observations were made at 9 A.M., 1 1
A.M., and from noon every fifteen minutes up to 2h 16m, at 3 P.M.,

214

4 P.M., 5 P.M., and 9 P.M., and these observations, consisting of
the "Temperature in shade," " Wet-Bulb Thermometer in shade,"
" Temperature on grass in sunshine," "Temperature in sunshine,"
"Amount of cloud and direction of wind," have been arranged in
Tables according to their distance from the annular path. The
observations were made at the following stations ; —

Somerton, Towcester, Isham, Peakirk, on the central line ; Teign-
mouth, Little Bridy, and Bicester, within 10 miles of the central
line ; Exeter, Gloucester, Grantham, and Belvoir Castle, within 25
miles ; Truro, Guernsey, Helston, Aldershott, Berkhampstead,
Hereford, Royston, Norwich, and Highfield House, within 50 miles ;
London, Tottenham, Ventnor, and Southampton, within 75 miles ;
Uckfield, Leeds, Scarborough, Wakefield, Hawarden, Old Trafford,
and Chorlton, within 100 miles ; and Hastings, Fairlight, Lampeter,
North Shields, Silloth, Liverpool, Stonyhurst, Durham, Edinburgh,
Culloden, Isle of Man, Aberdeen, Orkney, Armagh, Belfast, Utrecht,
and Vienna, above 100 miles from the central line. Readings of the
barometer and extra remarks are appended at the close of the Tables.

The differences between the sun-thermometers in the air and on the
grass are not so marked as might be expected, for it happens that in
March and October their readings nearly approach each other. In
winter the temperature in sunshine on the grass is considerably below
that in the air, whilst in summer this condition is reversed. The dry-
bulb thermometer fell at the middle of the eclipse from 2 to 4 degrees,
the average being about 2i degrees ; to this, however, must be added
an extra amount, on account of the time of day at which the eclipse
took place ; had there been no eclipse, the temperature would neces-
sarily have risen. The wet-bulb thermometer did not fall quite so
much, as the air became more charged with water at the centre of
the eclipse, the result of the phenomenon. Thermometers in sun-
shine (even where overcast) fell twice as much as those in shade.

At the majority of stations the early morning was exceedingly
fine, and the sky almost free of clouds, yet before the eclipse com-
menced the sky became overcast and continued so. It seemed quite
evident that the clouds were formed in situ. Durham, Edinburgh,
Scarborough, Uckfield, London, Norwich, Southampton, Royston,
Leicester, Belvoir Castle, Little Bridy, Isham, and Guernsey, were
all places in which the weather previous to the eclipse had been more

215

or less free of clouds, and yet all were enveloped by cloud before
noon.

The following features were very apparent : — The wind, although
brisk before arid during the progress of the eclipse, considerably
moderated at the time of greatest obscuration, becoming brisk again
afterwards. The darkness, although felt, was by no means so great
as had been expected ; yet this was in a great measure owing to the
overcast sky. The pupil of the eye was not contracted by strong light,
consequently it was able to take in the diminished light over a larger
surface, diminishing the effect of darkness to our senses. Practically
it was dark ; the impossibility of reading the instruments at Isham,
Towcester, and Grantham, was a certain measure. I have seen greater
apparent darkness produced by a storm, and yet the darkness was
not such as to prevent instruments being read. The contracted land-
scape was well shown at Isham and Highfield House. The change
in the colour of the landscape was almost universally remarked, as
well as the great stillness at the time of greatest obscuration. A
solar halo occurred in the Orkney Islands during the time of greatest
obscuration. Rooks everywhere returned to their rookeries ; fowls
prepared to go to roost ; peafowl actually went to roost ; turkies
hastened home ; cocks crowed ; sparrows appeared frightened ; song-
birds sang as in early morning, and kept up their song all afternoon.
Bees returned to their hives. Cows seemed to have imagined that milk-
ing-time had arrived. The crocus and hepatica closed their flowers.
An effect on sea animals was not observable ; the Actinia crassicornis,
which always expands in the evening, did not open during the eclipse.

II. "On the Structure and Functions of the Hairs of the Crus-
tacea." By CAMPBELL DE MORGAN, Esq. Communicated
by GEORGE BUSK, Esq. Received March 13, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The object of this communication is to determine, by the observa-
tion of their anatomical relations, the uses of the hairs and similar
appendages to the shell of the Crustacea. The author mentions the
observations of those who have of late specially investigated this sub-
ject. M. Lavalle noticed the connexion at times of the canals of the

216

hairs with canals penetrating the whole thickness of the shell, and
the occasional continuity of the matter which filled the hairs with
that which exists in the corresponding canal of the shell. M. Hollard
says that the canals of the shell which correspond to the hairs, are
occupied by membranous investments, which embrace the base of the
hairs, and seem to receive an extension of the nutrient system. He
suggests that amongst other functions, the hairs may possibly be con-
nected with that of general sensibility. Dr. Hackel in a recent pub-
lication has shown that the canals of the shell and hair are lined by a
continuation of the outer layer of the soft internal integument, which
he calls the chitinogenous layer. He describes minutely the structure
of the inner integument, and his account on the whole agrees with
that given by Milne-Edwards ; but he does not recognize the presence
in the canals, of any of the elements of the inner integument except
the external cuticular or chitinogenous layer ; nor the connexion of
these canals with the corium which lies beneath it, and which
receives abundantly nerves and vessels.

According to the investigations of the author, it is with this deeper,
vascular and nervous layer that the contents of the hair-canals and
of the corresponding canals in the shell are especially connected.
This can be readily seen in parts where the shell is thin, as in the foot-
jaws for example. In a section made in such a situation, the canals
leading to the hairs will be found to be often nearly as large as the
bases of the hairs to which they correspond. They are lined by a
thick membrane, which invests the cup-shaped cavity in which the
hairs are implanted, and becomes so closely connected with the bulb
of the hair itself, that it is often dragged out with it when the hair
is pulled out. The cells and other elements of the deeper layer
of the internal integument fill up the canal and pass on into the
hairs.

Where the shell is thick, as in the claw of a lobster, the sheaths
which are connected with the hair-bulbs and line the shell-canals can
be demonstrated in the mariner adopted by Mr. Tomes to show the
existence of the dentinal fibres. If a section of a part of the shell of
the claw where the hairs are implanted, and which has been previously
softened in dilute acid, be torn through, the'sheaths will usually be
dragged out, and will be seen projecting from the torn edges, their
contents often remaining in them. The connexion of the inner in-

217

tegument with these sheaths may be seen in sections of the claw with
the integument still adhering to it, when on carefully tearing away the
latter, its prolongations into the sheaths will be dragged out. That
the hairs have some especial and important connexion with the inner
vascular and nervous layer of the integument of the lobster's claw and
elsewhere, seems probable from the observations made by the author
on the contents of the claw. The terminal moveable piece, the pollex,
and the prolongation of the metatarsus which it opposes, the index,
do not contain muscular fibre, but are filled entirely by a soft pulpy
mass of corium. The nerves of the limb are large, but only some
small branches will be found to go to the muscles ; the principal nerves
pass on and terminate in the pulp which fills the opposing pieces of
the claw. The author believes that it is the office of the hairs to
establish a communication between the outer surface and this inner,
and no doubt highly sensitive pulp,- and that this is rendered still
further probable by the comparison of the claws on the two sides.
In the smaller claw the edges are sharp, and have fine tubercles
along their margin ; and the hairs are placed in a regular series of
short tufts on each side of the tubercles, beyond which they do not
project. But on the larger crushing claw, the tubercles are massive,
and no hairs are seen projecting above the surface. If, however, a
section be made, it will be seen that a communication is esta-
blished between the inner pulp and the surface by means of an abun-
dant series of canals which terminate in bulbous extremities, sometimes
projecting beyond the surface, sometimes lodged in depressions in the
shell. This arrangement may be found in other parts ; and in the
crab's claw, where the tubercles are deficient, these hairless pulp-
cavities almost entirely replace the hairs.

Here, then, lodged within the densest part of the shell, is a struc-
ture richly supplied with nerves, shut off from other parts of the
body, and having communication with the surface only through the
medium of canals, which are sometimes continued into short bristles,
and sometimes terminate in mere bulbs. As a prehensile organ, the
claw needs sensibility, but no force which the animal could exercise
could make any impression on the parts within, through its dense
tuberculated edges. On the other hand, it is difficult to assign any
office to the bristles, and still more to the bulbs, mechanical or
otherwise, unless it be that which has been suggested, — that, establish-

218

ing, as they do, a communication between the external surface and the
nervous structure within, they communicate impressions, and are in
fact tactile organs.

The author had satisfied himself, before the appearance of Dr.
Hackel's paper, that the hairs were connected with the inner layers
of the corium, and not with the chitinogenous membrane only ; and he
had seen indications in the lobster and larger Crustacea of an arrange-
ment of the pulp corresponding to the arrangement of the hairs.
In the smaller Crustacea, especially in the shrimps, he found a re-
markable confirmation of his views. In the flabelliform processes,
and even in the claws in these animals, he found that the structures
within the shell were arranged in the form of tubes corresponding to
the hairs, through which passed from the deeper parts, fibres which
were prolonged into the hair-canals. In the claw the nerve was
traced to the inner termination of these tubes. The tubes in some
instances merged internally into the general mass of the corium ; in
others they were truncated. Externally, or towards the margins, they
presented open orifices, through which the fibres passed. The fibres,
when drawn out from the hair-canals, often presented the plumose or
serrated character, according to the form of hair to which they
belonged. They could be traced for some distance down the tubes,
and at times completely through them, but their deep connexions
could not be clearly made out. Several modifications of this arrange-
ment are described and figured. The author believes that the facts
brought forward are sufficient to establish that the hairs of the Crus-
tacea are probably organs by which external impressions are com-
municated to the internal sensitive parts.

III. " Note on the Measurement of Gases in Analysis." By
A. W. WILLIAMSON, Ph.D., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry
in University College, and W. J. RUSSELL, Ph.D. Com-
municated by Dr. WILLIAMSON. Received April 6, 1858.

In Bunsen's admirable method of gas analysis, considerable time
and trouble are expended in observing the exact temperature and
pressure to which the gas is subjected at the time of measurement ;
and also in calculating from these data the volume which the gas
would occupy at the normal temperature and pressure. Frankland's

219

excellent apparatus, on the other hand, protects the gas from the
influence of variations of atmospheric pressure, and, under favour-
able conditions, even from the influence of change of temperature ;
but the complication of this apparatus, and its liability to derange-
ment, seem likely somewhat to limit its use.

If, when a fall of temperature takes place, we could diminish the
pressure on the gas exactly in proportion to the diminution of elas-
ticity which it undergoes, such fall of temperature would evidently
not alter the volume of gas in the eudiometer. In like manner a
rise of temperature might, if known, be counteracted by lowering the
eudiometer-tube. The same remarks apply to variations of barome-
tric pressure ; as an increase of this influence might be counter-
balanced by raising the eudiometer, and a diminution by depress-
ing it.

It is therefore a question of some interest to find, for any atmo-
spheric temperature and pressure, at what height of the eudiometer
the enclosed gas will occupy the same volume as at the normal tem-
perature and pressure. This is easily found by introducing a stand-
ard quantity of air into a tube over mercury, marking off the height
of the mercury in the tube at the normal temperature and pressure ;
then, at any other temperature or pressure, raising or lowering the
tube in the mercurial trough so as exactly to bring the enclosed air
to its normal volume. The mercurial pressure needed for this pur-
pose is evidently the same as that needed under the same circum-
stances for the reduction of any quantity of gas to the volume which
it would occupy at the normal temperature and pressure.

The apparatus we use in applying this principle to gas analysis
(fig. 1) consists essentially of the ordinary Bunsen's eudiometer,
and a " pressure-tube," which is simply a tube of some 6 or 7 inches
in length, and about the diameter of an ordinary eudiometer. It is
closed at one end, and to the other is fixed a smaller tube of about
the same length. Such a quantity of air is introduced into this
pressure-tube, that when it is inverted in the trough the mercury
stands at a convenient height in the narrow tube. At this point a
mark is made, which indicates the height of mercury needed at any
temperature or pressure to reduce the enclosed air to its original
volume. The mercurial trough which we have used differs only
from the ordinary one in being provided with a well at one end, thus

221

enabling the operator to raise or depress the eudiometer at pleasure,
so as always to bring the gas which it contains to the same pressure
as the air in the pressure-tube. Both the eudiometer and the
pressure-tube are held in a perpendicular position by means of
clamps which slide on upright rods. Each clamp is provided with
a simple kind of slow movement, by which the tube can be raised or
lowered by the operator whilst he is looking through a horizontal
telescope, at a suitable distance. We place the pressure-tube in front
of the eudiometer, and by means of the fine adjustment bring the
column of mercury in the small tube exactly to the normal mark.
The eudiometer is then adjusted, also by means of the slow move-
ment, so that the top of its meniscus (as seen through the horizontal
telescope) exactly coincides with the top of the meniscus in the
pressure-tube. This is easily done ; for the diameter of the pressure-
tube is considerably smaller than that of the eudiometer, and the
meniscus in the latter can be clearly seen on both sides of the me-
niscus in the pressure-tube.

By this method we are able to obtain very accurate results with
considerably less trouble than by Bunsen's method, and also without
having any calculations to perform. The following analyses made
during very stormy weather, of air deprived of its carbonic acid by
potash, gave results amongst which the greatest difference was only
four hundredths of a per cent. (*04).

I.

Volume of air taken . . . . 144*81
After addition of hydrogen . . 234-50

After explosion 144-00

Nitrogen . . . 79-168
Oxygen. . . . 20'832

100-000
II.

Volume of air taken .... 139'55
After addition of hydrogen . . 229'07

After explosion 141*89

Nitrogen . . . 79-176

Oxygen. . . . 20-824

100-000

222

ill.

Volume of air taken .... 148*1
After addition of hydrogen . . 236'04
After explosion 143-30

Nitrogen . . . 79 '139

Oxygen. . . . 20-861

100-000

*
IV.

Volume of air taken . . . . 149*14
After addition of hydrogen . . 248*57
After explosion 155*28

Nitrogen . . . 79*150

Oxygen. . . . 20*850

100-000

We are still engaged in experiments on this and some other points
of gas analysis, and hope to have the honour of communicating our
results before long.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES.
Fig. 1 represents the whole apparatus.
Fig. 2 represents the clamp with the fine adjustment attached to it.

A is the part which slides up and down the vertical rod ; it is furnished on

the inside with a small steel peg which moves in a groove, thus causing this

arm always to remain in the same plane.

C D is a tube through which the rod F carrying the clamp passes.
E is a screw which retains the rod F in its place, and by means of which

the friction of the rod passing through the tube can be increased.
G is the fine adjustment. As this small cylinder is turned round to the right

or to the left, so the string either above or below it is wound on to it, and

consequently the rod F raised or lowered.

H is merely an arrangement by which the string can always be tightened.
K is a peg so placed with regard to the stop L, that when, by turning the

clamp round, it is pressed against the stop, the tube is then in the right

position for applying the final adjustment and reading off.

223

IV. " On the Theory of Internal Resistance and Internal Fric-
tion in Fluids ; and on the Theories of Sound and of Aus-
cultation." By ROBERT MOON, Esq., M.A., late Fellow of
Queen's College, Cambridge. Communicated by ARTHUR
CAYLEY, Esq. Received April 3, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The author shows in the first instance, that when sound is propa-
gated along a cylindrical tube filled with air, the compression which
takes place in any element calls forth a resistance which diminishes
the velocity of the particles in the element, at the same time that
the dilatation which takes place in any element calls into play a force
which will tend to increase the velocity of the particles in the ele-
ment. He considers that the amount of the force thus called into
play (whether it be accelerative of, or retarding the motion) in an
element of given magnitude in a given indefinitely short interval,
will depend solely on the amount of compression or dilatation deve-
loped in the element in the interval, and the state of density in the
element at the time ; and he is thus led to the conclusion, that to
the ordinary equation for the transmission of sound through a column
of air must be added a term of the form

" \dx) dx~dt'

where x denotes the distance from the origin of the element when
the air is at rest, y the same distance at the time t when the air is
in motion, 62 a constant depending on the compressibility of air under
given circumstances ; so that the accurate equation of sound (varia-
tion of temperature being neglected) will stand

in which equation the upper or lower sign of W is to be taken accord-
ing as the motion of the particles is in the direction in which x is
measured positively, or the contrary.

On the same principles the author shows that, in the case of
elastic fluids, the general equations of motion, when internal resist-
ance is taken into account, must be written as follows : —

VOL. IX. R

224

dv

pdy ~dT~"'t''dy

dw

pdz dt • ^ dz

where p denotes the density ; X, Y, Z the impressed forces acting on
the element ; u, v, w the resolved parts of the velocity parallel to the

coordinate axes ; -iS the total differential coefficient of u with
dt

respect to t, &c. ; and tf replaces the b2 of the preceding case. The
author considers that, for moderate ranges of density, the above equa-
tions accurately represent the whole internal resistance.

It is next shown, that when the fluid is inelastic, the same equa-
tions will represent the motion, provided that we obliterate p in the
terms involving kz.

The force of internal friction in an elastic fluid in which the
whole motion takes place parallel to the axis of xy and in which the
whole lateral variation of motion transverse to the axis of x occurs in
a direction parallel to the axis of z, is then shown to be properly

represented by + ri*p -^, where «2 is a constant depending on the

nature of the fluid ; the sign of the term to be introduced into the
equation of motion being determined by the consideration that fric-
tion must always be a retarding force. The author thence derives
the conclusion, that in order to represent the effect of internal fric-
tion in the motion of an elastic fluid, we must add to the first of
equations (2) a term of the form

d\ <JVy / <TV rfVy
- — v—- w—-u—-} -f (v—-w—\ ;
dx dz J \ dz dy J

where

and

/ d\

+(w—
dy dx J \ dx dz J \ dz dy

and similarly with regard to the other two equations. When the
fluid is inelastic, the terms in the equations of motion depending
upon friction will be identical with those in the preceding case if we
obliterate from the latter p.

225

Reverting to the equation of sound, which (neglecting terms of the
second order) may be put under the form

the author next shows that if the initial disturbance consist of a con-
densation alone, it will be transmitted with the velocity «(1— e) in
the direction in which its particles are moving ; and that if it consists
of a rarefaction alone, it will be transmitted with the velocity a(l + e)
in the direction contrary to that in which its particles are moving.
It is here shown also incidentally, that whether the resistance be
taken into account or not, the particles of a wave of condensation
must all move in the same direction, which will be the direction of
transmission ; and the particles of a wave of rarefaction will all move
in the same direction, which will be contrary to that of transmission.

In confirmation of the conclusion that waves of rarefaction are
transmitted more rapidly than waves of condensation, the author
adduces the fact, that when explosions of gunpowder have taken
place, the glass in windows has been observed to break outwards
rather than inwards.

It is then suggested, that, as when sound is produced, a conden-
sation and rarefaction of air usually occur in immediate succession,
if both kinds of disturbance were capable of affecting the human ear,
we should hear sounds double ; and as we know practically that this
is not the case, it is contended that only one kind of disturbance,
i. e. either rarefaction alone, or else condensation alone, can stimulate
the ear.

It is shown to be a priori probable, that if one of the two classes
of aerial disturbance is suppressed by the ear, that one would be dis-
turbance by condensation, inasmuch as waves of rarefaction being
swifter, would better perform the duty entrusted to them : and it is
pointed out that if the sensation of sound is produced by aerial rare-
factions alone, a difficulty attending the received theory will be ob-
viated, by reason of the velocity deduced upon that theory being too
small.

The author considers, however, that the question, whether either
and which of the kinds of aerial disturbance is suppressed, can only
be satisfactorily determined by examination of the ear itself. He

R 2

226

accordingly endeavours to establish, by arguments derived from the
structure of tbe ear, tbat aerial rarefactions are alone capable of
stimulating that organ in man. These arguments are briefly as
follows : —

1 . The tympanal membrane being convex inwards, a condensation
could only affect the air in the tympanal cavity by stretching the
membrane, which would cause an expenditure of force ; whereas a
rarefaction would produce the effect by a simple flexure of the
membrane.

2. The sense of hearing being certainly produced by the motion
of the fluid in the labyrinth, which is a closed vessel filled with an
incompressible fluid, the requisite motion could not be produced by
a compression of the atmosphere.

3. The disposition of the muscles of the ear is such as is calculated
to assist and regulate the impressions produced by rarefactions rather
than those produced by condensations.

4. The existence of the Eustachian tube is indispensable to the
action of the organ (when all its other parts are in a normal state),
on the supposition that sound is occasioned by rarefaction ; whereas
its uses are not satisfactorily predicable on the contrary hypothesis.

The author observes, that if rarefactions alone produce sound, it
follows that a simple contraction of the muscles of the ear will ren-
der sounds inaudible. It follows also, on the same hypothesis, that
a more delicate exercise of the same muscles will render the organ
minutely susceptible to the influence of certain sounds, to the exclu-
sion of others. It is urged also, that, admitting the action of these
muscles to be to a large extent involuntary, there can be no doubt
that by practice a great degree of command may be acquired over
them. The author conceives that we may in this way account for
the facility acquired by many persons of reading and writing, and of
carrying on intricate trains of thought, without being disturbed by,
or being conscious of, the noises around them. He conceives also
that the same mode of explanation may be applied to account for the
power of appreciating and analysing the most complex harmonies
possessed by persons having a fine musical ear ; which the author
considers to be as certainly the result of specific mental and muscular
training, as the faculty of vocalization, or the art of playing on a
keyed instrument.

227

The author concludes by observing, that the equations for the
transmission of an undulation along a musical string require a similar
correction to that introduced in the case of aerial vibrations. The
discussion of this branch of the subject he reserves for a future op-
portunity.

May 6, 1858.
The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.

In accordance with the Statutes, the Secretary read the following
list of Candidates recommended by the Council for Election into the
Society : —

Thomas Graham Balfour, M.D.
Edward Mounier Boxer, Captain

R.A.

Frederick Currey, Esq.
David Forbes, Esq.
Alfred Baring Garrod, M.D.
William Henry Harvey, M.D.
The Rev. Samuel Haughton.

David Livingstone, LL.D.
John Lubbock, Esq.
Henry Darwin Rogers, LL.D.
William Scovell Savory, Esq., M.B.
Warington Wilkinson Smyth, Esq.
Lieut.-Col. Andrew Scott Waugh,

B.E.
Thomas Williams, M.D.

Henry Hennessy, Esq.

The following communications were read : —

I. "On the Influence of Heated Terrestrial Surfaces in dis-
turbing the Atmosphere." By THOMAS HOPKINS, Esq.
Communicated by WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN, Esq. Received
April 13, 1858.

(Abstract.)

In this paper the author stated that the Hadleian theory of winds,
which is now the one generally recognized, is not supported by the
evidence of facts, but rests on assumptions founded on imaginary
effects of the partial expansion of the atmospheric gases by heat. It
is assumed in that theory, that when the tropical heat expands these
gases, they rise and flow away laterally in the higher regions towards
the poles, from which they return to the tropics in the lower regions.
But it was contended by the writer of the paper, that such heating

228

of the gases merely expands them, without making them rise and
overflow to other parts. The theory of Halley, once generally adopted,
represented that the air was greatly heated in the particular part
where the sun was nearly vertical, which made the air rise in that
part alone, admitting cooler air to flow into the place of that which
had ascended, and produced an influx of cool air below, from all parts
around, to the heated part, and an overflow above from it. But in
time experience showed that this hypothesis was not in accordance
with facts, and it was abandoned. The theory of Haclley, which
has been since adopted, substitutes the whole tropical belt, for the
heated locality of Halley, which travelled with the sun in his daily
course ; but the supposed rise of air in the tropical belt, with an
overflow above and an influx below, was asserted to be equally un-
supported by experience, and, being unproved, may be fallacious.
The rise of heated air in a chimney, sometimes pointed at as an illus-
tration, was shown to be not analogous to that which takes place
when the sun heats the air unequally in different latitudes ; if it
were, the theory of Halley would be true, and cool air would flow
from all parts around to the greatly heated locality, just as cool air
passes to a fire, and, when heated, up a chimney. It was then shown
that it is gravitation which establishes an equilibrium of pressure in
the atmosphere, and that direct solar heating of the surface of the
earth and the air near to it, does not destroy that equilibrium. The
sun by heating the gases merely expands them, in proportion to the
increase of temperature in the part near the surface, and the gases
over every portion of the hemisphere that is exposed to the action of
the sun is proportionally heated, expanded and raised without any
overflow of air taking place ; leaving the equilibrium of pressure un-
disturbed by such heating. The solar heat merely raises the air that
is near the surface, over the most heated latitudes, a little higher than
the adjoining less heated, the difference in the rise in the various
latitudes, from the polar to the tropical regions, being successively
small ; and as there is no alteration produced in the weight of any
vertical column of the atmosphere, in any latitude, there is neither
overflow of air above, nor disturbance of the equilibrium of pressure.
The great disturbances that take place in the atmosphere were then
maintained to be caused by the heat which is conveyed, from the
surface of the globe, in vapour to different parts of the atmosphere

229

at various heights, and liberated in those parts when the vapour is
condensed into liquid. This liberation of heat creates ascending cur-
rents in the parts locally affected, when horizontal winds, produced
by gravitation, blow over the surface towards the ascending currents
to re-establish the disturbed equilibrium. This process, by heating
the air in the middle regions, was asserted to have been proved to be
the cause, not only of the great trade-winds and the monsoons, but
of the storms and local winds over the different regions of the globe.

II. "Notes of Researches on the Poly-Ammonias." By A. W.
HOFMANN, LL.D.j F.R.S. — No. II. Action of Chloroform
upon Aniline. Received April 15, 1858.

In a former Note addressed to the Royal Society (Proceedings,
vol. ix. p. 150), I have alluded to some new alkaloids which are pro-
duced by the action of the bromides of triatomic alcohols upon the
primary amidogen bases.

I have since examined more minutely one of these bodies. At the
common temperature, chloroform and aniline may be left in contact
for a considerable time without any change becoming perceptible.
Even at the temperature of boiling water scarcely any reaction takes
place. But on exposing for ten or twelve hours a mixture of about
equal volumes of chloroform and aniline in sealed tubes to a tem-
perature of 180° or 190° C., a hard brown crystalline mass is ob-
tained, which consists chiefly of the hydrochlorates of aniline and of
a new crystalline base.

To obtain this compound in a state of purity, the brown crystalline
mixture formed in the digester-tubes is triturated with a small quan-
tity of water, thrown upon a filter and washed with water. The first
washings chiefly consist of hydrochlorate of aniline, which base
separates in oily globules on addition of potassa to the filtrate. By
testing the filtrate in this manner from time to time, it is found that
the basic body separated by addition of potassa gradually exhibits a
tendency to solidify, and ultimately falls as a yellowish- white crystal-
line precipitate. The residue upon the filter is now dissolved in
warm (not boiling) water, separated by a filter from a brown resinous
insoluble substance, and precipitated by ammonia or potassa. The
crystalline precipitate obtained in this manner is washed till free from

230

alkali, and repeatedly crystallized from weak spirit. It is difficult
to obtain it perfectly white, a yellowish substance, which appears to
be partly formed during the process of solution, adhering with great
pertinacity.

Thus obtained, the new base is a white crystalline powder ; fre-
quently it is obtained in minute scales, generally of a yellowish tint.
It is insoluble in water, but readily dissolves in alcohol and ether.
From the hot solution in these solvents it is precipitated by water as
a yellow oil, solidifying on cooling with crystalline structure. It is
easily dissolved by acids, with many of which it forms crystalline
compounds. From the saline solutions thus produced the base is
reprecipitated by potassa and also by ammonia. The salts of the
new base are not very stable ; their solutions, especially when heated
for some time, inevitably contain more or less aniline, the crystalline
base itself undergoing changes which I have not yet sufficiently
examined.

The analysis of the new compound presents some difficulty.
Even after protracted exposure over sulphuric acid in the exsiccator,
it retains a small quantity of water, while a temperature of 100° is
apt to decompose it.

The nature of the body was, however, readily established by the
examination of a perfectly stable hydrochlorate, and also of a very
definite platinum -salt.

The results obtained in the analysis of these salts establish for the
new base the formula

It is obviously formed by the substitution of the triatomic molecule
(C2H)'" for 3 equivalents of hydrogen in 2 molecules of aniline,
which thus coalesce into a diamine molecule. Accordingly the base
might be called diphenyl-formyl-diamine, that is, diammonia, in
which 2 equivalents of hydrogen are replaced by 2 molecules of
phenyl, and 3 equivalents of hydrogen by 1 molecule of formyl,
1 equivalent of hydrogen remaining unreplaced. Its formation is
expressed by the equation

4(C12 H7 N) + C2 HC13=C26 H12 N2 HC1 + 2(C12 H7 Nt HC1)

Phenylamine Terchloride Hydrochlorate of Hydrochlorate of

aniline. of formyl diphenyl-forinyl- phenylamine.

(chloroform). diamine.

231

As seen from this equation, the new base, although unmistakeably
corresponding to 2 molecules of ammonia, like many other poly-
ammonias, is monoacid.

The analysis of the hydrochlorate leads in fact to the formula
*

The platinum-salt contains

C26H12N2,HCl,PtGl2.

The new derivative of aniline undergoes several remarkable changes
which require further elucidation.

III. " Note sur un Organe, place dans le Cordon Spermatique,
et dont ^existence n'a pas ete signalee par les Anatomistes."
Par F. GriRALDES, Professeur Agrege de la Faculte de
Medecine, &c. Communicated by Sir BENJAMIN BRODIE,
Bart. Received April 19, 1858.

(Abstract.)

In this paper the author gives an account of certain tubular and
vesicular bodies which he has discovered in the spermatic cord, and
which he considers to be the remains of the Wolffian body of the
embryo.

The structures in question, which he proposes to designate col-
lectively by the term " Corps Innomine," form a small group situated
behind the tunica vaginalis, between that membrane and the spermatic
vessels, and extending usually from the head of the epididymis as
high as the point where the membrane is reflected forwards from the
cord ; sometimes, however, reaching much higher up, or, on the
other hand, being more concentrated in the neighbourhood of the
epididymis.

The " Corps Innomine" is found in the new-born infant, and in a
more or less modified condition at all later periods of life; it has
also been met with in the lower animals. To facilitate its detection
and examination, the author has found it advantageous previously to
render the surrounding tissues transparent, by macerating the sper-
matic cord in an acid solution, for which purpose he recommends the
use of tartaric or citric acid in the infant, and of dilute nitric acid in
the adult.

232

After this preparation minute whitish specks make their appear-
ance in the situation above mentioned, which, when examined with
the microscope, are found to be produced by small vesicles and
convoluted tubes of varied and curious shape, surrounded by a plexus
of small blood-vessels, which are distributed on their parietes. The
tubes are short, tortuous, and for the most part beset with very un-
equal-sized and irregular varicose dilatations, and sometimes with
short branches ending in rounded swollen extremities. The vesicles
are round or oval, like short closed segments of a varicose tube, and
generally with irregularly protruding outline. The walls of both
vesicles and tubes are formed of a fibrous connective tissue, and lined
with epithelium, and they enclose a consistent but clear fluid, hold-
ing in suspension epithelium-particles and transparent granules. This
description applies to the condition of the structures in question as
found in the infant, and up to the age of from six to ten years ; after
this they begin to be atrophied, so that although still present in the
adult, they are usually less marked ; but, on the other hand, they then
sometimes contain a more consistent liquid, and are occasionally di-
lated, so as to constitute certain forms of cysts known to occur in
the spermatic cord.

As already stated, the author regards the " Corps Innomine" as
formed by the atrophied remains of the Wolfnan body, and there-
fore comparable to the so-called "organ of Rosenmuller," which is
found in the broad ligament of the uterus, and represents the ves-
tiges of the Wolffian body in the female ; and as certain vesicular
productions in the broad ligament may take their rise from these
remnants, so the author, as before remarked, has satisfied himself
that the origin of some of the cysts of the spermatic cord may be
traced to dilatation of the tubular elements of the " Corps Innomine"
in the male.

The paper is illustrated by drawings representing the objects in
their natural size and situation, and also as seen under the microscope.

233

IV. " On Chondrosteus, an Extinct Genus of Fish allied to the
Sturionicbe." By Sir PHILIP DE MALPAS GREY EGERTON,
Bart., F.R.S. Received April 20, 1858.

(Abstract.)

Before the conclusion of his great work on Fossil Fishes, Pro-
fessor Agassiz recognized in some fragmentary remains found in the
lias strata at Lyme Regis, unmistakeable evidence of the existence, at
that period of the earth's deposition, of a representative of the still
extant family of the Sturgeons. To this extinct fish he assigned
the name Chondrosteus. The author of the present memoir has
been enabled, by the examination of numerous specimens more re-
cently acquired, to describe in some detail the external features of
the fish, and the structural peculiarities of those portions of the
exo- and endo-skeleton which have been preserved. In the former
respect the fossil differs from the recent sturgeon in having a shorter
and deeper trunk, in the greater vertical expanse and wider diver-
gence of the lobes of the caudal fin, in the median position of the
dorsal fin, and in the absence of dermal plates on the back, belly,
and flanks. Before describing the cranial anatomy, the author
points out certain homologies between the head-plates of the recent
sturgeon and the epicranial bones of the teleostean fishes, more
especially with reference to the parietals, mastoids and frontals ; and
explains that these conclusions have resulted from the examination
of the inner table of skull, where the relative position and propor-
tions of the component plates are constant, however much the outer
or dermal layer may vary.

The remainder of the memoir is devoted to detailed descriptions
of such parts as are preserved in the several specimens ; and the
author concludes by stating as the result of his investigations, that
Professor Agassiz was right in referring the liasic fish to the
Sturionidse ; that in some respects it evidenced a transitional form
between the latter family and the more typical ganoids ; that its
food was similar to that of the existing members of the family, but
that it was procured in a tranquil sea, rather than in the tumultuous
waters frequented by sturgeons of the present time.

The Society then adjourned to Thursday, May 20.

234

May 20, 1858.

The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.
The following communications were read : —

I. " On the Resistance of Tubes to collapse." By WILLIAM
FAIRBAIRN, Esq., C.E., F.R.S. &c. Received April 21,

1858.

(Abstract.)

The object kept in view by the author of these researches was to
determine the law which governed the resistance of cylindrical tubes
to external uniform pressure. The anomalous condition in which
these constructions have been placed in reference to the internal flues
of boilers, and the frequent fatal accidents from explosions produced
by collapse, have imperatively called for inquiry into the causes which
have led to these unfortunate results. Ever since the first introduc-
tion of the steam engine as improved by Watt, and especially since
the increased demand for its construction, and its application to
almost every branch of industry and every system of transit, the
consideration of all circumstances which may affect its economy and
security, has become of vast public importance.

During the more early period which followed its first introduction,
the form of boiler and its powers of resistance to strain, were con-
siderations of much less importance than at present. Then the force
of steam, or the pressure under which it was generated, was only
about one-eighth, and in some cases less than a sixteenth of what it
now is. Besides, the fertile genius of Watt had provided against
accident, by a self-acting apparatus, which regulated not only the
pressure, but the supply of water to the boiler. Since that time a
total change has taken place in the construction and working of the
steam engine ; and boilers which were perfectly safe at 7 Ibs. upon the
square inch, are absolutely inadequate for generating steam at 40 Ibs.
to 50 Ibs. on the square inch. This being the case, it follows that every
precaution becomes urgently necessary which may serve to increase
the strength, and equalize the resisting power of vessels containing

235

an element of such potent influence, and yet so essential to the com-
forts and enjoyments of civilized life.

Entertaining these views, the author goes on to say, that hitherto
it has been considered an axiom in boiler engineering, that a cylin-
drical tube, placed in the position of an internal flue, is equally
strong in every part when subjected to uniform external pressure ;
the length not affecting the strength of a flue so placed. This rule
is, however, only true when applied to tubes of infinitely great length,
and it is very far from true when the length of the tube does not ex-
ceed certain limits, and when the ends are retained in form by being
riveted to the boiler, and thus prevented from yielding to external
pressure. These facts were fully demonstrated by the experiments
related in the Paper, which, for obvious reasons were conducted under
circumstances as nearly as possible analogous to those now in actual
operation upon a larger scale. With this view, a large and powerful
cylinder, 8 feet long, and 2 feet in diameter, was prepared for the
reception of the tubes ; and being acted upon by hydraulic pressure,
collapse was produced, and the results recorded, as fully explained
in the Paper. It will suffice here to state the more important conclu-
sions derived from the investigation, which fell under the following
heads : viz. — 1st, the strength of tubes as affected by length ; 2nd,
the strength of tubes as affected by diameter ; lastly, the strength of
tubes as affected by thickness of metal.

1 . On the first head, the strength as affected by length, the results
are conclusive and interesting. "Within the limits of from 1 foot 6
inches to about 10 feet in length, it is found that the strength of
tubes similar in every other respect, and supported at the ends by
rigid rings, varies inversely as the length, as may be seen from the
following results obtained with 4-inch tubes.

Resistance of 4-inch tubes to collapse.

Diameter,
Inches.
4

Thickness of Plates.
Inches.

•043

Length.
Inches.

19

Collapsing Pressure.
Ibs. per square inch.
137

4

•043 . .

60 ..

43

4

•043

40

65

The remarkable differences in the resisting pressure of the above
similar tubes will be at once apparent, and it will be found by calcu-

236

lation that they follow the law of inverse proportion, the same as
those of larger dimensions, the strengths diminishing as the lengths
are increased.

The same law of resistance is maintained in 6-inch tubes, giving,
for a tube 30 inches long, 55 Ibs., and for one 59 inches long only
32lbs. on the square inch, as the pressure of collapse. Again, in 8-
inch tubes we have, in a long series of experiments, 32 Ibs. per square
inch in a tube 39 inches long, and 39 Ibs. in one 30 inches long. In
the same manner all the experiments on tubes of 10 and 12, and up
to 18 inches in diameter may be compared, and the law of resistance is
in like manner shown to hold true in every case. Discrepancies to
a certain extent do certainly occur ; but they are comparatively small,
and, as they appear to follow no law, are evidently to be accounted
for from defects in the construction of the tubes inseparable from
such a mode of research.

2. The strength as affected by the diameter.

A precisely similar law is found to hold in relation to the diameter.
Tubes similar in other respects vary in their resistance to collapse
inversely as their diameters ; and with a view of testing this law, we
may place the calculated pressure beside that derived from experi-
ment, as under : —

Resistance of tubes to collapse 5 feet long.

Diameter.
Inches.

4

By Experiment.
Ibs. per square inch.

43'0

By Calculation.
Ibs. per square inch.

Variation.
Ibs.

6
8
10

32-0

20-8
16-0

28-6
21-3
17'2

.. -3-4

.. +07
.. +1-2

12

12-5

14-3

4-1-8

The above variations are slight when compared with the resisting
powers of the tubes ; they are doubtless caused by the varying rigid-
ity of the iron, or by defects in the cylindrical form. Similar results
follow in the experiments on tubes 2 feet 6 inches long ; and although
some slight variations occur, they are nevertheless not more than
might have been anticipated within the ordinary limits of error.

3. The strength of tubes as affected by thickness.

In these experiments it is found that the tubes vary in strength
according to a certain power in the thickness ; the index of which,

237

taken from the mean of the experiments, is 2419, or rather higher
than the square.

Combining the above laws into a general expression, we have, as
the formula for the strength of tubes subjected to a uniform external
force,

where P is the collapsing pressure, k the thickness of the plates,
L the length of the tube, which should not be less than 1-5, or
greater than 1 0 feet ; D the diameter, and C a constant to be deter-
mined by the experiments. For tubes of greater length than those
above specified, a variable quantity, dependent upon the length, must
be introduced ; and the value of this has yet to be determined. For
ordinary practical calculations the following formula will probably,
however, afford the needful accuracy : —

P=806,300x— — .
LxD

Thus, for example, take a tube or boiler-flue 10 feet long, 2 feet
diameter, and composed of plates £ inch thick ; and the collapsing
pressure will be

P=806,300x -I?^- = 2101bs.
10x24

per square inch or nearly so.

Some experiments have also been made upon elliptical tubes ; and
the results have been most conclusive as to the weakness of such
forms in resisting external pressure. No tubes in use for boilers
should ever be made of that form.

With regard to cylindrical internal flues, the experiments indicate
the necessity of an important modification of the ordinary mode of
construction, in order to render them secure at the high pressures to
which they are now almost constantly subjected. If we take a boiler
of the ordinary construction, 30 feet long, 7 feet in diameter, and
with one or more flues 3 feet diameter, it will be found that the outer
shell or envelope is from three to three and a half times as strong in
resisting an internal force as the cylindrical flues which have to resist
the same external force. This being the case, it is evident that the
excess of strength in those parts of the vessel subjected to tension, is

238

actually of no use so long as the elements of weakness are present
in the other parts subjected to compression.

To remedy these defects, it is proposed to rivet strong rings of
angle iron at intervals along the flue — thus practically reducing its
length, or in other words increasing its strength to a uniformity
with that of the exterior shell. This alteration in the existing mode
of construction is so simple, and yet so effective, that its adoption
may be confidently recommended to the attention of all those in-
terested in the construction of vessels so important to the success of
our manufacturing system, and yet fraught with such potent elements
of disaster when unscientifically constructed or improperly managed.

II. " On some Remarkable Relations which obtain among the
Roots of the Four Squares into which a Number may be
divided, as compared with the corresponding Roots of cer-
tain other Numbers." By the Rt. Hon. Sir FREDERICK
POLLOCK, F.R.S., Lord Chief Baron. Received April 26,
1858.

(Abstract.)

The first property of numbers mentioned in this paper is best il-
lustrated by an example —

132=169 152 = 225.

These odd numbers may be divided into 4 squares, and the roots may
be so arranged that they will have this relation to each other : the
middle roots will be the same, and the exterior roots will be, the one
2 more, the other 2 less than the corresponding roots of the other.
Putting the roots below the number and comparing them, the result

is obvious.

169 225

0,3,4,12 -2,3,4,14

-2,4,7,10 -4,4,7,12

-4,5,8,8 -6,5,8,10

-6,4,9,6 -8,4,9,8

Each of the numbers may be divided into 4 squares in 4 different
ways with this result, that the two middle roots of each are the same ;
and as to the exterior roots they differ by 2, the one being 2 more

239

the other 2 less than the corresponding roots of the other. So
comparing 152 with 172,

225 289

4,3,10,10 6,3,10,12

6,5,10,8 8,5,10,10

the result is the same ; and it is true of all adjoining odd squares.
The paper contains a Table of odd squares (up to 272), compared in
this manner with the odd square immediately before it and after it.
It is then shown that the same property continues when the 2 odd
squares are increased by any the same even number —

49 81

0,2,3,6 -2,2,3,8

51 83

-1,3,4,5 -3,3,4,7

and also when they are (within certain limits) diminished by the
same even number. It is then shown that a similar property be-
longs to the even squares + 1 , as seen below,

16 + 1 = 17 36 + 1 = 37

+ 1,0,0,4 -1,0,0.6

0,2,2,3 -2,2,2,5

37 65

-1,2,4,4 -3,2,4,6

and also to these numbers increased or decreased by the same even
number.

If, instead of comparing the adjoining squares, the alternate squares

be compared, a similar result is obtained ; the middle roots are the
same, the exterior roots differ by 4 instead of 2.

The proof of this property depends upon a general property of
all odd numbers and upon a general theorem.

The property of odd numbers is this, that every odd number can
be divided into 4 squares in such manner that 2 of the roots will be
equal, 2 will differ by 1, 2 will differ by 2, &c. as far as the number
is capable (from its magnitude) of having roots large enough to form
the difference required : thus in the No. 39 there cannot be roots
having a difference of 9 ; for the least number that can have that
difference is 41=42+52 and —4 and 5 differ by 9; but 39=l2-f-
22+32+ 52, and the difference between — 3 and 5 is 8 ; and the num-
bers 1, 2, 3, 5, either as positive or negative, give all the differences
up to 8, but they do not give 2 equal roots : 39 is however divisible

VOL. ix. s

240

into 12+ la+ !2 + 62, and then the equal roots are discovered. It is
proved from the known properties of numbers that this property of
having 2 roots whose difference will be 0, 1, 2, 3, &c., as far as is
possible, belongs to all odd numbers. A new symbol is then sug-
gested to represent the division of a number into 4 squares, such
that 2 of the roots will have a given difference, and these are made
the exterior roots ; the number or figure denoting the difference is
placed above on the left hand: thus 425 denotes 0, 0, 3, 4 or
-2, 1, 4, 2 ; '25 denotes 1, 2, 4, 2.

The general theorem is this : — If any odd number of odd numbers
be in arithmetical progression (4 being the common difference), as
9, 13, 17, 21, 25, then if the common difference be assumed as the
index of the difference of roots to the middle term, and the higher
terms in the series have as indices (4+1), (4 + 2), &c. in succession,
and the lower terms have as indices (4 — 1), (4 — 2), &c., the series
with its indices will be

23456
9 13 17 21 25

and if the terms less than the middle term be divided into 4 squares
with exterior roots having the differences indicated by their respect-
ive indices thus,

234

9 13 17

0,1,2,2 -1,2,2,2 -2,0,3,2

then the terms greater than the middle term will have this relation
to the terms less than the middle term ; the terms equidistant from
the middle term will have their middle roots the same, and the dif-
ferences of the exterior roots will increase ; those nearest the middle
term will have a difference of 1, the next 2, and so on, thus:

23456
9 13 17 21 25

0,1,2,2 -1,2,2,2 -2,0,3,2 -2,2,2,3 -2,1,2,4

An algebraic proof is then given as to a series whose middle
term is n and common difference p ; and as n may be odd or even,
and ^7 also, and the index of differences may be minus as well as plus,
the theorem applies frequently to even numbers, but not universally.
The following example is given of the theorem applied to 1 7 terms
of a series whose first term is 25, and common difference 1 : —

241

-7

-6

-5

— 4

-3

2

-1

0

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

4,0,0,-3

5,0,0, -1

5,1,1,0

2,2,4-2

5,0,0,2

3,2,4,1

3,3,3,2

0,4,4,0

1

33

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

0,4,4

,1

41

40

39

38

37

36

35

34

-4,0,0,5

-2,0,0,6

-1,1,1,6

-3,2,4,3

1,0,0,6

0,2,4,4

1,3,3,4

-1,4,4,1

Comparing the terms above with the terms below, it is manifest
the terms of the series are divisible into 4 squares whose roots con-
form to the law of the theorem. It is then shown that the odd squares,
and also all the numbers mentioned in the beginning of the paper,
can be made terms in an arithmetic series, and will therefore have
the property stated. It is then suggested that the properties of
numbers stated in the paper may have been in some form a portion
of the mysterious properties of numbers by which Fermat announced
he could prove his celebrated theorem of the polygonal numbers.

A Postscript was added, dated 20th May, which is here given
entire.

Since this paper was sent to the Society, some other theorems of
a similar kind have occurred to me, in which the terms of a series
(not arithmetical of the 1st order) have a similar relation with regard
to the roots of the 4 squares of which they may be composed, that
is, those which are equidistant from the middle, or the middle term
(according as the number of terms is even or odd), have the middle
roots the same, and the exterior roots have an arithmetical relation
to each other (varying with the distance from the centre), viz. the
one being less and the other greater by the same quantity.

Thus, if any number of terms (exceeding 3) of either of the 2
series above-mentioned (viz. 1, 3, 9, 19, &c., or 1, 5, 13, 25, &c.),
and, beginning with the first term, the differences be added " inverso
or dine" a new series will be obtained possessing the property in

0246 8

question ; thus the first 7 terms of the 1st series are, 1, 3, 9, 19, 33,
10 12

51, 73; the differences are, 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22 ; if the differences
be added "inverso ordine" the series becomes 1, 23, 41, 55, 65,

242

71, 73, each term of which may be divided into 4 squares, whose
roots will be as follows : —

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1

23

41

55

65

71

73

0,0,1,0

+1,2,3,3

0,3,4,4

-3,1,6,3

-2,3,4,6

-3,2,3,7

-6,0,1

,6

+2,0,1,6

-1,2,5,5

0,0,1,8

+1,1,2,7

Here there is a middle term, all the terms equidistant from it have
the same middle roots, the terms next to the middle term have the
exterior roots, the one 2 less, the other 2 more, those next but one
4 less and 4 more, and the extreme terms 1 and 73 have their exte-
rior roots one 6 less and the other 6 more than the corresponding
roots of the other.

If 8 terms of the series be taken as 1, 3, 9, 19, 33, 51, 73, 99,
and the differences be added " inverso ordine" the series becomes
0246

1, 27, 49, 67, &c., the terms of which divided into 4 squares, so that
the differences of the exterior roots may correspond with the index,
will be

02 4 6 8 10 12 14

1 27 49 67 81 91 97 99

0,0,1,0 -1,3,4,1 -2,4,5,2 -3,0,7,3 -4,0,7,4 -5,4,5,5 -6,3,4,6 -7,0,1,7

+2,0,3,6 -1,4,5,5 -2,4,5,6 -1,0,3,9

+ 1,1,4,7 0,1,4,8

Here there is no middle term ; the terms equidistant from the centre
have the same middle roots, while the differences between the exte-
rior roots increase as the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7.

The other series, 1, 5, 13, 25, &c., gives a similar result. If the
differences of the first 7 terms be added " inverso ordine," the new
series, with its indices and the roots of the 4 squares which compose
each term, will be as follows : —

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

1

25

45

61

73

81

85

0,0,0,1

0,0,4,3

-2,4,4,3

-3,0,6,4

-4,4,4,5

-4,0,4,7

-6,0,0,7

-1,2,4,2

0,2,4,5

-2,4,4,5

-2,2,4,7

-5,2,4,6

+1,2,2,6

-1,2,2,8

Here there is a middle term ; the equidistant terms have the same
middle roots, the exterior roots are (next to the middle term) the

243

one 2 more, the other 2 less, and the differences increase by 2 as the
terms are more distant from the middle term.

If the number of terms be 8, the resulting series with its indices
and roots will be —

135 7 9 11 13 15

1 29 53 73 89 101 109 113

0,0,0,1 0,2,4,3 -2,2,6,3 —1,0,6,6 -2,0,6,7 -5,2,6,6 -5,2,4,8 -7,0,0,8

+2,0,0,5 -1,0,6,4 +1,2,2,8 0,2,2,9 -4,0,6,7 -3,0,0,10

+ 1,0,4,6 -2,0,4,9

+2,0,0,7 -1,0,0,10

and the differences of the exterior roots will be 1, 3, 5, 7. The reason
of these results is, that the equidistant terms are always equal to the
original corresponding term in the series increased by the same
number.

Thus, in the first example, if to the terms

1, 3, 9, 19, 33, 51, 73 there be added

0, 20, 32, 36, 32, 20, 0, the result is

1, 23, 41, 55, 65, 71, 73, which is the

series with the differences added " inverso ordine" And in the last
example, if to

1, 5, 13, 25, 41, 61, 85, 1 1 3 there be added

0, 24, 40, 48, 48, 40, 24, 0, the result is

1, 29, 53, 73, 89, 101, 109, 113, that is,

the series arising from the differences being added " inverso ordine"
It is worthy of observation that these numbers, 0, 24, 40, 48,
48, 40, 24, 0, which, added to the first 8 terms, produce a series
identical with the result of the differences being added "inverso
ordine" have the same effect upon any other consecutive 8 terms of
the series. Take the 2nd term as the 1st of 8 terms —

5, 13, 25, 41, 61, 85, 113, 145, to these add
8 12 16 20 24 28 32

0 24 40 48 48 40 24 0, the result is

5, 37, 65, 89, 109, 125, 137, 145,
32 28 24 20 16 12 8

244

in which last series the differences are reversed or added " inverse
ordine." The appropriate roots of these numbers are —

35 7 9 11 13 15 17

5 37 65 89 109 125 137 145

-1,0,0,2 -1,2,4,4 -3,2,6,4 -2,0,6,7 -3,0,6,8 -6,2,6,7 -6,2,4,9 -8,0,0,9

+ 1,0,0,6 -2,0,6,5 0,2,2,9 -1,2,2,10 -5,0,6,8 -4,0,0,11

0,0,4,7 -3,0,4,10

+ 1,0,0,8 -2,0,0,11

which may be immediately obtained from the former series, the
middle roots being the same ; and the exterior roots, one of them
one less, the other one more. In this way any consecutive 8 terms,
with the differences reversed, may be each divided into 4 squares
throughout the whole series.

And the same is true of 4 terms, 5 terms, or any number of terms.
If 3 terms have the differences reversed, the numbers added are —

040

If 4 terms 0 8 8 0

If 5 terms 0 12 16 12 0

If 6 terms 0 16 24 24 16 0

If 7 terms 0 20 32 36 32 20 0

&c. &c. &c.

The law under which these numbers are formed is obvious enough.
The same numbers exactly are to be added to the other series (1,3,

9, 19, &c.) to produce the same result.

012345 6 7

If the 2 series be blended together, thus 1 1 3 5 9 13 19 25,
&c., the differences will be 2, 2, 4, 4, 6, 6, 8, 8, &c. ; and if an odd
number of terms be taken (so as to begin and end with a number
from the same series), and the differences be added inverse ordine, a
similar result occurs. Take 1 1 terms.

1 3 5 9 13 19 25 33 41 51 61, and add the differences " in-
verso ordine" the series becomes, with its indices and roots, —

12345

I 11 21 29 37

0,0,0,1 +1,0,1,3 -1,0,4,2 0,2,3,4 +1,0,0,6 6

-1,2,4,4 43 (middle term.)

II 10 9 8 7 -3,3,4,3
61 59 57 53 49

-5,0,0,6 -3,0,1,7 -4,0,4,5 -2,2,3,6 0,0,0,7

-2,2,4,5

245

In this case the additions are 0, 8, 16, 20, 24, 24, 20, 16, 8, 0;
and if these be added to any other consecutive 11 terms (the 1st
term having an odd index), they produce the same effect as if the
differences were reversed ; and the resulting numbers have the pro-
perty of the terms equidistant from the centre, being connected by
their roots, having the relation so frequently mentioned. It may be
further remarked, that the numbers produced by reversing the dif-
ferences are the initial numbers from which, by adding 2, 2, 4, 4, &c.,
61 may be formed of the squares, which make the differences of its
exterior roots 10, 9, 8, &c.

12345 67 89 10
11 13 15 19 23 29 35 43 51 61

2244668 8 10
0,0,3,1 0,0,3,2 -1,0,3,3 -2,0,3,4 -3,0,3,5 -4,0,36

123456789
21 23 25 29 33 39 45 53 61

22446688
0,2,4,1 -4,2,4,5

and so of all the others.

The matter referred to in this Postscript tends to strengthen the
suggestion already made, that the properties of numbers referred to
are connected with the mysterious and abstruse properties to which
Fermat referred as enabling him to prove the theorem he announced
of the Polygonal Numbers.

III. " Observations on the Mer de Glace." — Part I. By JOHN
TYNDALL, Ph.D., F.R.S. &c. Received June 10, 1858,

(Abstract.)

In this paper the author communicates the first part of a series
of observations upon the Mer de Glace, made during a residence of
six weeks at the Montanvert last summer *. He corroborates the
laws regarding the swifter flow of the central portions of the ice-
stream, first established by Prof. Forbes, and shows how the velo-
city changes as the width of the glacier varies. The Mer de Glace
moves through a valley which twice turns a convex curvature to
the east, and once to the west. The points of swiftest motion at
these curves are found to be not central, but thrown to that side

* During the whole of which period he was most ably assisted by his friend
Mr. T. A. Hirst.

246

of the valley towards which the glacier turns its convex curvature.
It has hitherto been believed that the portion of the Mer de Glace
derived from the Glacier du Geant moved swiftest. The author
shows that the tributaries which form the Mer de Glace lose their
individuality in the trunk stream, the latter flowing as if it proceeded
from a single source. The point of maximum motion is sometimes
on the eastern, sometimes on the western side of a line drawn along
the centre of the glacier, the change from side to side depending
upon the curvature of the valley. The locus of the point of swiftest
motion in a glacier which moves through a sinuous valley, is
exactly similar to that of a river moving through a sinuous channel ;
it forms a curve more deeply sinuous than the valley itself, and
crosses the centre of the valley at each point of contrary flexure.

A rare opportunity of determining the comparative velocities of
a glacier at its surface and close to its bed, was furnished by a preci-
pice of ice 140 feet in height, which was exposed near the Tacul.
Three stakes were fixed in this precipice, one at the top, the other
near the bottom, and a third in the face of the precipice at a height
of nearly 40 feet above the bottom ; the velocities of the three stakes
were found to be 6 inches, 4*59 inches, and 2'56 inches per day ;
thus furnishing additional proof of the correctness of the law first
predicted by Prof. Forbes, and confirmed subsequently by his own
observations and those of M. Martins.

Attention is drawn to the immense exertion of force necessary to
drive the glacier through the neck of the valley at Trelaporte. The
sum of the width of the three tributaries of the Mer de Glace before
they mutually act upon each other is 2597 yards. All these are
squeezed through a gorge at Trelaporte, measuring 893 yards across.
The Glacier de Lechaud, which, before its junction with the Talefre,
possesses a width of upwards of 37 chains, is squeezed at Trelaporte
to a driblet less than 4 chains wide.

As a natural consequence of this obstacle in front, the Glacier du
Geant is generally in a state of longitudinal compression. But the
mechanical meaning of this term must be that the points behind are
incessantly advancing upon those in front, — the distance between two
points upon the axis of the glacier being thus gradually diminished.
The daily motion of these points upon the axis of this glacier was
determined, which led to the remarkable result, that a section of the
glacier 1000 yards in length is shortened by the thrust to which it

247

is subjected, at the rate of 8 inches a day ; which, if the action were
uniform at all seasons, would amount to 240 feet a year.

The author also describes a system of remarkable bands of white
ice which he observed to sweep across the Glacier du Geant in the
same general direction as the "dirt-bands." He traced these bands
to the following origin. The streams which flow upon the glacier
in its upper portions, cut deep channels in the ice ; these channels,
during the winter, become gorged with snow, which is afterwards
compressed to a highly resistant white ice during the descent of the
glacier. Similar bands were also observed in a most remarkable po-
sition at the base of the Talefre cascade ; and here also he found the
glacier crumpled into a series of protuberances, one consequence
of the crumpling being the production of a " backward " as well as
a forward " dip " of the veined structure. A similar system of pro-
tuberances occurs on the Glacier du Geant ; and here also the author
found the same structure dipping backward as well as forward. The
cause of the crumpling is assigned in the paper.

The physical quality in virtue of which ice is able to change its
form in the manner indicated by the observations is next inquired
into ; and it is shown by measurements carried out upon the glacier
itself, that no quality which could with propriety be called viscosity
is possessed by glacier ice. All the phenomena appear to be recon-
ciled by reference to the fragility of ice at a temperature of 32° F.,
coupled with its power of regelation. The intestine motion of the
parts is no doubt aided to some extent by the partial liquefaction of
the ice by pressure ; a fact first publicly pointed out by Mr. James
Thomson, and proved experimentally by Prof. William Thomson
and the author.

June 3, 1858.
The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.

The Annual General Meeting for the Election of Fellows was held
this day,

The Statutes respecting the election of Fellows having been read,
Sir George Back and Mr. Gwynn Jeffreys were, with the consent
of the Society, appointed Scrutators to assist the Secretaries in exa-
mining the lists.

248

The votes of the Fellows present having been collected, the fol-
lowing gentlemen were declared duly elected : —

Thomas Graham Balfour, M.D.
Edward Mounier Boxer, Captain

R.A.

Frederick Currey, Esq.
David Forbes, Esq.
Alfred Baring Garrod, M.D.
William Henry Harvey, M.D.
The Rev. Samuel Haughton.
Henry Hennessy, Esq.

David Livingstone, LL.D.
John Lubbock, Esq.
Henry Darwin Rogers, LL.D.
William Scovell Savory, Esq., M.B.
Warington Wilkinson Smyth, Esq.
Lieut. -Col. Andrew Scott Waugh,

B.E,
Thomas Williams, M.D.

June 10, 1858.

The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.
The following Gentlemen were admitted into the Society :— -

Thomas Graham Balfour, M.D. ; Frederick Currey, Esq.; Alfred
Baring Garrod, M.D. ; John Lubbock, Esq. ; William Scovell Savory,
Esq., M.B.; Warington Wilkinson Smyth, Esq.; Thomas Williams,
M.D.

The following communications were read : —

I. "On the formation of Continuous Tabular Masses of Stony
Lava on steep slopes ; with Remarks on the Mode of Ori-
gin of Mount Etna, and the Theory of ' Craters of Eleva-
tion/ '- By Sir CHARLES LYELL, F.R.S., &c. Received
June 10, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The question whether lava can consolidate on a steep slope, so as
to form strata of stony and compact rock, inclined at angles of from
10° to more than 30°, has of late years acquired considerable im-
portance, because geologists of high authority have affirmed that
lavas which congeal on a declivity exceeding 5° or 6° are never con-
tinuous and solid, but are entirely composed of scoriaceous and frag-
mentary materials. From the law thus supposed to govern the con-
solidation of melted matter of volcanic origin, it has been logically
inferred that all great volcanic mountains owe their conical form prin-
cipally to upheaval or to a force acting from below and exerting an

249

upward and outward pressure on beds originally horizontal or nearly
horizontal. For in all such mountains there are found to exist some
stony layers dipping at 10°, 15°, 25°, or even higher angles; and
according to the assumed law, such an inclined position of the beds
must have been acquired subsequently to their origin.

After giving a brief sketch of the controversy respecting " Craters
of Elevation," the author describes the results of his recent visit
(October, 1857) to Mount Etna, in company with Signer Gaetano
G. Gemmellaro, and his discovery there of modern lavas, some of
known date, which have formed continuous beds of compact stone
on slopes of 15°, 36°, 38°, and, in the case of the lava of 1852, more
than 40°. The thickness of these tabular layers varies from 1^ foot
to 26 feet ; and their planes of stratification are parallel to those of
the overlying and underlying scoriae which form part of the same
currents. The most striking examples of this phenomenon were
met with — 1st, at Aci Reale ; 2ndly, in the ravine called the Cava
Grande near Milo, where a section of the lava of 1 689 is obtained ;
3rdly, in the precipice at the head of the Val di Calanna, in the lava
of 1852-53; and 4thly, at a great height above the sea near the
base of the Montagnuola.

Sir C. Lyell then alludes to the extraordinary changes which had
taken place in the scenery of the Valley of Calanna and the Val del
Bove since his former visit to Mount Etna in 1828 — changes effected
by the eruption of 1852-53, one of the greatest recorded in history.
A brief account is given, extracted from contemporary narratives and
illustrated by a map, compiled with the assistance of Dr. Giuseppe
Gemmellaro, of the course taken in 1852-53 by various streams of
lava, some of them six miles in length, flowing during nine succes-
sive months from the head of the Val del Bove to the suburbs of
Zafarana and Milo. The present aspect of this lava-field, parts of
it still hot and emitting vapour, and the numerous longitudinal ridges
and furrows on its surface are described. As to the origin of these
superficial inequalities, the author inquires whether they may be due
to the flowing of lava in subterranean tunnels, or whether they be
anticlinal and synclinal folds caused by fresh streams pouring over
preceding and half-consolidated ones, so that these last may be bent
and crumpled by the newly superimposed weight, like soft yielding
ground on which a railway embankment has been made. The cas-

250

cade of the lava of 1852, descending a precipitous declivity 500 feet
high, called the Salto della Giumenta, and the stony character of the
layers which encrust the steep slope at angles of more than 35° and
even 45°, are commented upon. This lava has overflowed that
of 1819, which congealed on the same precipice; and it is shown that
in such cases the junction-lines separating two successive currents
must be obliterated, the bottom scoriae of the newer dovetailing
into the upper scoriae of the older current.

The structure of the nucleus of Etna, as exhibited in sections in
the Val del Bove, is next treated of, and the doctrine of a double
axis is deduced from the varying dip of the beds. The strata of
trachyte and trachytic agglomerate in the Serra Giannicola seen at
the base of the lofty precipice at the head of the Val del Bove are in-
clined at angles of 20° to 30° N.W., i. e. towards the present central
axis of eruption. Other strata to the eastwards (as in the hill of Zoc-
colaro) dip in an opposite direction, or S.E., while, in a great part of
the north arid south escarpments of the Val del Bove, the beds dip
N.E. or N., and S.E. or S. respectively. There is, therefore, aqua-
quaversal dip away from some point situated in the centre of the area
called the Piano di Trifoglietto. Here a permanent axis of eruption
may have existed for ages in the earlier history of Etna, for which
the name of the axis of Trifoglietto is proposed, while the modern
centre of eruption, that now in activity, may be called the axis of
Mongibello. The two axes, which are three miles distant the one
from the other, are illustrated by an ideal section through the whole
of Etna, passing from west to east through the Val del Bove, or from
Bronte to Zafarana. Touching the relative age of the two cones, it
is suggested that a portion only of that of Mongibello may be newer
than the cone of Trifoglietto. The latter, when it became dormant,
was entirely overwhelmed and buried under the upper and more
modern lavas of the greater cone. This doctrine of two centres,
originally hinted at by the late Mario Gemmellaro, had been worked
out (unknown to Sir C. Lyell at the time of his visit) by Baron Sar-
torius v. Waltershausen, and has been since supported in the fifth
and sixth parts of his great work called " The Atlas of Etna " both
by arguments founded on the quaquaversal dip of the beds as above
explained, and by the convergence of a certain class of greenstone
dikes towards the axis of Trifoglietto. Von Waltershausen has also

251

shown that the superior lavas and volcanic formations crowning the
precipices at the head of the Val del Bove, from the Serra Giannicola
to the Rocca del Corvo, inclusive, are unconformable to the highly in-
clined beds in the lower half of the same precipice, the superior beds
being horizontal, or, when inclined, dipping in such directions as would
imply that they slope away from the higher parts of Mongibello.

According to Sir C. Lyell, the alleged discontinuity between the
older and modern products of Etna is, in truth, only partial, and
almost confined to that flank of the mountain, where its physical geo-
graphy has been altered by three causes : 1 st, the interference of the
two foci of eruption (Trifoglietto and Mongibello) ; 2ndly, the trun-
cation of the cone of Mongibello ; and 3rdly, the formation of the
Val del Bove. The truncation of the mountain here alluded to is
proved by the remains of the upper portion of a cone, traceable at
intervals around the borders of an elevated platform between 9000
and 10,000 feet high. These remains bear the same relation to the
highest and active cone, nearly in the centre of the platform, which
Somma bears to Vesuvius. The manner in which the north and
south escarpments of the Val del Bove diminish in altitude as they
trend eastward from the high platform, is appealed to as showing
that the great lateral valley had no existence till after the time when
Mongibello had attained its fullest development and height.

The double axis of Etna is then compared to the twofold axis of
the island of Madeira, as inferred from observations made in 1354
by M. Hartung and the author. In that island the principal chain
of volcanic vents, running east and west, and 30 miles long, attains at
one point a height of 6000 feet. Parallel to it, at the distance of
two miles, a shorter and lower, secondary chain once existed, but
was afterwards overflowed and buried to a great depth by lavas
issuing from the higher and dominant chain. The space between
the two axes, like the space which separated the two cones of Etna,
has been filled up with lavas in part horizontal. On the north side
of Madeira, as probably on the west side of Etna, where no second-
ary centre of eruption interfered with the slope of the volcanic for-
mations, and where the order of their succession and superposition
is uninterrupted, there occur, both in Madeira and Etna, deep cra-
teriform valleys (the Curral and the Val del Bove) intersecting the
products of the two axes of eruption.

252

In concluding this part of his memoir, Sir C. Lyell observes, that
the admission of a double axis, as explained by him, is irreconcile-
able with the hypothesis of "craters of elevation;" for it implies that,
in the cone-making process, the force of upheaval merely plays a
subordinate part. One cone of eruption, he says, may envelope and
bury an adjoining cone of eruption ; but it is obviously impossible
that one cone of upheaval should mantle round and overwhelm
another cone of upheaval.

An attempt is then made to estimate the proportional amount of
inclination which may be due to upheaval in those parts of the
central nucleus of Etna where the dip is too great to be ascribed
exclusively to the original steepness of the flanks of the cone. The
highest dip seen by the author was in the rock of Musarra, where
some of the strata, consisting of scoriee with a few intercalated
lavas, are inclined at 47°. Some masses of agglomerate and beds of
lava in the Serra del Solfizio were also seen inclined at angles
exceeding 40°. Some of these instances are believed to be excep-
tional and due to local disturbance ; others may have an intimate
connexion with the abundance of fissures, often of great width,
filled with lava, for such dikes are much more frequent near the
original centres of eruption than at points remote from them.
The injection of so much liquid matter into countless rents may
imply the gradual tumefaction and distension of the volcanic mass,
and may have been attended by the tilting of the beds, causing them
to slope away at steeper angles than before, from the axis of erup-
tion. But instead of ascribing to this mechanical force, as many
have done, nearly all, or about four-fifths of the whole dip, Sir C.
Lyell considers that about one-fifth may, with more probability, be
assigned as the effect of such movements.

The alleged parallelism and uniformity of thickness in the volcanic
beds of the Val del Bove, when traced over wide areas, is next con-
sidered, and the author remarks that neither in the northern nor
southern escarpments of the great valley, could he and his compa-
nion verify the existence of such parallelism. Examples of a marked
deviation from it are given, both in cliffs seen from a distance, and
in others which were closely inspected, even in cases where these last,
when viewed from* far off, appeared to contain regular and parallel
strata.

253

The direction and position of the dikes in the Val del Bove is then
spoken of, both in reference to the two ancient centres of eruption,
and to the question of the altered inclination of the intersected beds.
In regard to the arrangement also of the lateral cones of eruption,
the question is entertained, whether they are disposed in linear zones,
or are in some degree independent of the great centre of Mongibello.

The origin of the Val del Bove has been variously ascribed to
engulfment, explosion, and aqueous erosion. Admitting the probable
influence of the two first causes, the author calls attention to the
positive evidence in favour of aqueous denudation afforded by the
accumulation of alluvium in the low country at the eastern base of
Etna between the Val del Bove and the sea. This rudely stratified
deposit, 1 50 feet thick and several miles in length and breadth, con-
tains at Giarre, Mangano, Riposto and other places, fragments, both
rounded and angular, of all the rocks, ancient and modern, occurring
in the escarpments of the Val del Bove, and it implies the con-
tinuance there for ages of powerful aqueous erosion. The alluvium
of Giarre is therefore supposed to bear the same relation to the Val
del Bove that the conglomerate of the Barranco de las Angustias
bears to the Caldera of Palma in the Canaries ; and those two crater-
like valleys, as well as the Curral of Madeira, are believed to have
been shaped out in great part by running water. But to render this
possible, the suspension, for a long period, of the outpouring of lava
on the eastern flank of Etna must be assumed.

The author fully coincides in the generally received opinion that
the accessible parts of Etna are of subaerial origin, and refers to some
fossil leaves presented to him by MM. Gravina and Tornabene, of
Catania, as well as to others collected by himself in situ, from the
volcanic tuffs of Fasano and Licatia, which have been determined by
Prof. Heer to belong to terrestrial plants, of the genera Myrtle,
Laurel, and Pistachio, now living in Sicily. These tuffs, together with
the general mass of Etna, repose on marine strata of the newer Pli-
ocene period, in which 150 species of shells, nearly nine-tenths of
them identical with species now existing in the Mediterranean, have
been found. A very modern marine breccia, with shells of living
species extending to the height of thirty feet on the coast along the
eastern base of Etna, was pointed out to the author by Signer G.
G. Gemmellaro near Trezza, and in the Island of the Cyclops. The

254

same formation has been traced together with lithodomous perfora-
tions by Dr. Carlo Gemmellaro and Baron v. Waltershausen along
the sea-shore as far north as Taormina, beyond the volcanic region
of Etna. From these and other data enlarged upon in the memoir,
Sir C. Lyell concludes, first, that a very high antiquity must be
assigned to the successive eruptions of Etna, each phase of its vol-
canic energy, as well as the excavation of the Val del Bove, having
occupied a lapse of ages compared to which the historical period is
brief and insignificant ; and secondly, that the growth of the whole
mountain must nevertheless be referred, geologically, to the more
modern part of the latest Tertiary epoch.

II. "On some Thermo-dynamic Properties of Solids." By J.
P. JOULE, LL.D., F.R.S. &c. Received April 22, 1858.

(Abstract.)

A resumt of the greater part of this paper has already appeared
in the ' Proceedings ' for January 29, June 18, and November 26,
1857. The author has since examined the expansion by heat of
wood cut across the grain, which, as well as that cut in the direction
of the fibre, he finds to be increased by tension and decreased by
moisture. "When a sufficient quantity of water has been absorbed
the expansibility by heat ceases, and wood is contracted in each di-
rection by rise of temperature. Nevertheless, when wood, saturated
with water, is weighed in water of different temperatures, the result
shows cubical expansion of the substance of the wood by heat. The
inference drawn by the author from these facts is, that the contraction
of the dimensions of wet wood is owing to the action of heat in di-
minishing the force of capillary attraction, and that thus the walls of
the minute cells and tubes of the woody structure are partially re-
lieved from a force which thrusts them asunder, a small quantity of
water exuding at the same time. In the case of wet wood which
contracts by heat, he finds, in accordance with Professor Thomson's
formula, that a rise of temperature is produced by the application of
tension. In conformity with the deductions of the same philosopher,
the author has also been able to detect experimentally the minute
quantity of heat absorbed, in bending or twisting an elastic spring,
arising from the diminution of the elastic force of metals with a rise
of temperature.

255

III. " On the Thermal Effect of drawing out a Film of Liquid."
By Professor WILLIAM THOMSON, F.R.S., &c., being ex-
tract of two Letters to J. P. JOULE, LL.D., F.R.S., dated
February 2 and 3, 1858. Received April 30, 1858.

A very novel application of Carnot's cycle has just occurred to
me in consequence of looking this morning into Waterston's paper
on Capillary Attraction, in the January Number of the Philosophical
Magazine. Let T be the contractile force of the surface (by which
in Dr. Thomas Young's theory the resultant effect of cohesion on
a liquid mass of varying form is represented), so that, if EL be the
atmospheric pressure, the pressure of air within a bubble of the

4T

liquid of radius r, shall be — + H. Then if a bubble be blown

from the end of a tube (as in blowing soap-bubbles), the work spent,
per unit of augmentation of the area of one side of the film, will be
equal to 2T.

Now since liquids stand to different heights in capillary tubes at
different temperatures, and generally to less heights at the higher
temperatures, T must vary, and in general decrease, as the tempe-
rature rises, for one and the same liquid. If T and T' denote the
values of the capillary tension at temperatures t and t' of our abso-
lute scale, we shall have 2(T— T') of mechanical work gained, in
allowing a bubble on the end of a tube to collapse so as to lose a
unit of area at the temperature t and blowing it up again to its
original dimensions after having raised its temperature to t'. If $— t
be infinitely small, and be denoted by C, the gain of work may be
expressed by

and by using Carnot's principle as modified for the Dynamical
Theory, in the usual manner, we find that there must be an absorp-
tion of heat at the high temperature, and an evolution of heat at the
low temperature ; amounting to quantities differing from one an-

other by

1 -2dT

and each infinitely nearly equal to the mechanical equivalent of this

VOL. IX. T

256

difference, divided by Carnot's function, which is y» if the tempera-

ture is measured on our absolute scale. Hence if a film such as a
soap-bubble be enlarged, its area being augmented in the ratio of
1 to m, it experiences a cooling effect, to an amount calculable by
finding the lowering of temperature produced by removing a quan-
tity of heat equal to

—dT

from an equal mass of liquid unchanged in form.

For water T=2'96 gr. per lineal inch.

Work per square inch spent in drawing out a film =5 '92, say

dT 1
gramS' ""==T) or thereab°uts.

/f 300
Suppose J-B-J. -_^| then the quantity of heat to be removed,

to produce the cooling effect, per square inch of surface of augmen-
tation of film will be $ ^ 0 . Suppose, then, 1 grain of water to be
drawn out to a film of 1 6 square inches, the cooling effect will be
J}$Q of a degree Centigrade, or about -^j. The work spent
in drawing it out is 16 X 6 = 96 grains and is equivalent to a

96 1

heating effect of — __^=__. Hence the total energy (reck-

oned in heat) of the matter is increased -^ + -^ of a degree Cen-
tigrade, when it is drawn out to 1 6 square inches.

IV. " On the Logocyclic curve, and the geometrical origin
of Logarithms." By the Rev. J. BOOTH, LL.D., F.R.S.
Received April 15, 1858.

In a paper read before the Mathematical Section of the British
Association during its meeting at Cheltenham in 1856, and which
was printed among the reports for that year, I developed at some
length the geometrical origin of logarithms, and showed that a tri-
gonometry exists as well for the parabola as for the circle, and that
every formula in the latter may be translated into another which
shall indicate some property of parabolic arcs analogous to that
from which it has been derived. 1 showed, moreover, that the

257

whole theory of logarithms was founded on a basis as purely geo-
metrical as the trigonometry of the circle, and I pointed out how the
imaginary expressions in the latter — such as DeMoivre's theorem —
have real counterparts in the trigonometry of the parabola. As the
principle of duality is of the widest application in geometrical investi-
gation, and as every property of circumscribed space has its dual, it
would be strange if the dual of circular trigonometry had no existence.

In the paper to which I have referred, I showed how, by the help
of certain arbitrary lines drawn about the parabola, numbers and their
logarithms might be exhibited. But as there was something con-
ventional in this representation, I was riot quite satisfied with the
construction. I suspected that the geometrical theory of logarithms
was just as little conventional as the trigonometry of the circle.
With this view I have again lately considered the whole subject, and
by the help of a new curve, which I have called the Logocyclic Curve,
from the similarity of many of its properties to those of the circle,
and from its use in representing numbers and their logarithms, I
have succeeded in exhibiting the whole theory of logarithms in a
geometrical form as complete as it is comprehensive, and simple as
it is beautiful.

The properties of the Logocyclic curve, a curve which hitherto
has escaped discussion, if not discovery, are many of them as re-
markable as they are simple, and I will now proceed to mention
some of the most obvious.

The equations of the Logocyclic curve.
Let r and 0 be the polar coordinates of the curve, then its equation

is

r=a(sec0Hrtan0) (1)

Since sec 0 = -, tan 0 = -, r =

we get for the equation of the curve in rectangular coordinates,

Let the focus F of the parabola, whose vertical focal distance FO is
0, be taken as the origin, the axis and parameter of the parabola
being the axes of x and y ; let the vertical tangent OT and the
directrix of the parabola DS be drawn, then the following proper-
ties of this curve may easily be shown : —

T2

258

I. The directrix DS of the parabola is an asymptote of the curve,
which has two infinite branches along this line above and below the
axis. These branches intersect at right angles on the axis of the
parabola in its vertex, and form an oval or loop between this point
and the focus of the parabola F.

II. The radius vector r=a (sec 0 + tan 0), drawn from the focus F
of the parabola, cuts the loop and one of the infinite branches in the
points R! and R, so that

FR=«(sec 0+tan 0), and FR,=a(sec 0— tan 0).
The product of the segments of this secant, as in the circle, is con-
stant and equal to a2.

These points may be named Reciprocal Points.

259'

III. O being the vertex of the parabola, in which the two branches
of the curve cut at right angles, the angle ROR' is always a right
angle.

IV. Through the points R and R! let normals be drawn to the
Logocyclic curve, they will meet the parabola in the same point Q,
and the parabolic arc OQ diminished by the protangent QT is the
logarithm of the number FR or of its reciprocal FR,.

Q, the intersection on the parabola of the normals, drawn to the
Logocyclic curve at the reciprocal points R, Ra may be called the
Logarithmic point of the line FR.

V. The normals RQ and R,Q are equal. This is also a property
of the circle.

VI. At the points R and Ru the reciprocal points, let tangents
be drawn to the curve and meet in V. The tangents RV and RjV
are equal, and they are equally inclined to the chord RRr This is
another property of the circle.

VII. The locus of V, the intersection of tangents drawn to the
curve through the reciprocal points, is the Cissoid of Diocles, a curve
discovered in the Schools of Alexandria.

VIII. Since the line VQ is at right angles to the line VO, we
have this new property of that old curve, that a line drawn through
any point of a Cissoid at right angles to the radius vector drawn to
the cusp of the curve envelopes a parabola.

IX. The directrix of the parabola is the asymptote of the Cissoid,
and its cusp is at O the vertex of the parabola.

X. The sum of the ordinates of the reciprocal points R and Rx is
equal to the ordinate of the logarithmic point Q on the parabola,
and the sum of the distances of the points R and RI from the
asymptote DS is constant and equal to 2a.

XI. The sum of the products of the abscissae and ordinates of
the reciprocal points on the curve is constant, or

XII. The distances of any point Q on a parabola from its focus
and directrix are equal. We may generalize this well-known theo-
rem, and say the distances are equal of any point on a parabola
from its Logocyclic curve, measured along the two normals to this
curve drawn through the point Q.

4 260

XIII. As the tangent to a parabola makes equal angles with the
focal radius vector and a perpendicular on the directrix, so also
this tangent makes equal angles with the normals to the Logocyclic
curve drawn through this point of contact.

XIV. The two reciprocal points R and Rx on the Logocyclic, the
logarithmic point Q on the parabola, and the intersection V of the
tangents to the Logocyclic which meet on the Cissoid lie on the
circumference of a circle, or in other words, any two reciprocal
points on the curve, the intersection of the normals at these points
and the intersection of the tangents at the same points lie in the
circumference of a circle.

XV. Through the two reciprocal points R and Rx a circle may
be drawn touching the axis at O, and having its centre at T the
intersection of the vertical tangent OT, with the radius vector FR.
This property leads to a simple construction of the curve by points.

XVI. The tangent to the curve at either of the reciprocal points
makes with the radius vector through this point an angle whose tan-
gent is equal to the cosine of the inclination of the radius vector to
the axis.

XVII. The sum of the polar sub tangents FC and FC, belonging
to the reciprocal points R and R, is constant, and equal to 2a.

XVIII. The sum of the reciprocals of the polar subnormals be-

2
longing to two reciprocal points is constant, and equal to -•

XIX. The lengths of the tangents to the curve between any
two reciprocal points and the asymptote are equal, or R*=R/,, and
S*=S^=a secfl.

XX. The products of these two tangents t, and the perpen-
diculars p,pt from the focus F upon them, is constant, or t*ppt=a4.

XXI. Let p and pt be the reciprocals of the radii of curvature of
the Logocyclic curve at the points R and R, ; and let pfi be the
reciprocal of the radius of curvature of the parabola at a point
through which the normal makes the angle \fr with the axis, then

xi/ and 0 are connected by the condition tan ^=cos 6. See (XV.)

XXII. The Logocyclic curve is the envelope of all the circles
whose centres range along the parabola, and whose radii are succes-
sively equal to ^f2— «•', /being the distance of the centre, Q, of the

261

circle from the focus of the parabola. This follows from an inspec-
tion of the figure ; but it may easily be proved as an independent
theorem.

XXIII. The vertical tangent OT bisects all the cords of the Lo-
gocyclic passing through F. The angles VRT or VR,T=i// and
6 or OFR are so connected that tan 4/=cos 0. Hence the maximum
ordinate of the loop is found by making t//=0, or tan 0= cos 0, or

XXIV. If any point Q on the parabola be taken as centre, and
through the two corresponding reciprocal points on the Logocyclic
curve a circle be drawn, it will always cut at right angles the fixed
circle whose centre is the focus F and radius ==a.

XXV. The Logocyclic curve, like the circle, is its t)wn inverse
curve.

On the Area and rectification of the Logocyclic Curve.

XXVI. The area of the loop will be found equal to

and the area between the asymptote and infinite branch will be

Hence the entire area of the curve is 4 a2, or equal to the square of
the semiparameter of the parabola. It is obvious that the area of
the half-loop is equal to the difference between the square of a and
the quadrant of a circle inscribed in it, while that of the infinite
branch is equal to the square of a with the quadrant added to it.
Hence also the difference of the two areas is equal to aV, that is to
the area of a circle whose radius is a.

The length of the half-loop, together with that of the infinite
branch of the curve, is equal to the infinite branch of an equilateral
hyperbola whose transverse semiaxis is V 2#, and to the half-loop of
the lemniscate which belongs to that equilateral hyperbola. Hence
the entire length of the Logocyclic is equal to the entire continuous
arc of an equilateral hyperbola whose transverse axis is \/2a, and
to the loop of the lemniscate which belongs to that branch ; while
the difference between the lengths of the loop and the infinite
branch is equal to an arc of the parabola together with a right line.

262

To represent Numbers and their Logarithms by the Logocyclic
Curve and its Conjugate Parabola.

XXVII. A parabola whose focal vertical distance is a or 1 being
drawn, and also its Logocyclic curve, let a radius vector be drawn
to the latter equal to the given number n. Then w=sec0+tan0.

Let this line meet the vertical tangent in T, the parabolic arc
OQ— QT is the logarithm of n.

It is clear that the infinite branch of the curve from + GO to O will
give radii vectores of every magnitude from oo to 1, and parabolic
arcs from oc to 0 ; hence, while the numbers range from oo to 1, the
parabolic arcs range from oo to 0. When the number lies between
1 and 0, the radius vector representing it is drawn below the axis ; its
extremity will be found on the loop, and the corresponding arc of the
parabola will be negative, hence the logarithm of a positive number is
equal to the logarithm of its reciprocal, with the sign changed ; for
the magnitude of the parabolic arc depends on 0, and 0 is the same
in sec 0 + tan 0, as in its reciprocal sec 0— tan 0.

Hence while the infinite branch of the Logocyclic curve from + x>
through R, O, p, to F, may by its radii vectores represent all positive
numbers from +00 to + 0, the two infinite branches of the parabola
will be used in representing the logarithms of positive numbers from
-f oo to + 0 ; that is, the upper or positive branch of the parabola will
be "used up" in representing the logarithms of positive numbers from
+ oo to + 1, and the lower or negative branch of the parabola in re-
presenting the logarithms of positive fractional numbers from -j- 1
to +0. Hence there is no construction by which we can represent
negative numbers or their logarithms, therefore such numbers can
have no logarithms.

Let radii vectores be drawn from F to the Logocyclic curve equal
to e, e2, e3, e4 . . . . en, then these lines will meet the tangent to

the vertex of the parabola in the points T, Tp T^ Tn ; and

tangents being drawn from these points, touching the parabola
in Q, Q,, Q/<} Q//p Qn, the logarithms of these numbers will be
OQ-QT=1, OQ,-Q,T,= 2, OQM-QWTW=3, . . .

OQw-QnTre=0 + 1);
hence the logarithms of et e2 e3, en are 1, 2, 3, ... n. l

In like manner we should find the logs of e, e&> e* ei . . . . e11 to be

111 i

'2'3'4 «

263

Let a series of radii vectores be drawn from the point F to the
Logocyclic curve in geometrical progression, and let them be
(sec0 + tan0), (sec0 + tan0)2, (sec0-f-tan0)3 ____ (sec0 + tan0)w,

meeting the vertical tangent to the parabola in the points T/} T;/,
T/y/ ---- TM, and let the tangents drawn from the points T/} T/p &c.
touch the parabola in the points Q/} Qy,, Q^, ..... Q» ; let the dif-
ference between the first parabolic arc and its protangent be £, then
we shall have OQ

Or while numbers increase in geometrical progression, their loga-
rithms increase in arithmetical progression.

As every number whose logarithm is to be exhibited must be put
under the form sec 0 + tan 0, which is of the form 1 + x, since the
limiting value of sec 0 is 1, we discover the reason why in developing
the logarithm of a number the number itself must be put under the
form l+#, or some derivative from it, and not simply under that
of*.

If we equate sec 0 -f tan 0 with 1 + #, we shall find

x=

0
2 tan o 0

Let u — tan

^»

then n= sec 0 + tan 0= 1 +x=—±^, which is another familiar form

1— u

under which a number is put, whose logarithm is to be developed in
a series.

Let 0 be the angle which the line (sec 0 + tan 0) makes with the
axis, and let 0, 6lt 6ni be the angles which the lines (sec 0 + tan 0)2,
(sec 0 + tan 0)3 . . . . (sec 0 + tan 0)n make with the same axes, then

0 =0
0, =0-^-0

to n terms.

The definitions of the symbols -1- , -r , which I call logarithmic or
parabolic plus and minus, are given in the paper referred to.

264

Hence

(sec0 + tan 6)n= sec(0-L0 -±-8 ---- n) + tan (0-^6-^ 0-^-0 ---- to ri).
Change sec0 into cos0, tan0 into VH~i Sin0, and -1- into + , then
we shall have

(cos0+\/ — 1 sin0)n=cosw^ + V — 1 sinrc^.

Hence De Moivre's theorem, which represents an imaginary pro-
perty of the circle, has its counterpart in a real property of the para-
bola.

The hase of the Neperian system e is that particular radius vector
drawn to the Logocyclic which gives the difference between the cor-
responding parabolic arc and iisprotangent equal to the focal vertical
distance of the parabola. Let e be the angle which this radius vector
makes with the axis. Then

e=sece + tan e.

e=2718281828.

Hence also as the angles 0, 0 + 0, 0 + 0 + 0, ..... nd give circular
arcs which increase in arithmetical progression, the angles 0, 0-^0,
0-J-0-J-0, &c. give parabolic arcs, whose excesses over their protan-
gents increase in arithmetical progression.

If the lines (sec0 + tan0), (sec 0 + tan 0)2, (sec 0 + tan0)3, &c.
were drawn, making equal angles with each other, and therefore
multiples of 0 with the axis, instead of the angles 0, 0-^-0, 0-^-0 -«-0,
the locus of the extremities would be the logarithmic spiral instead
of the Logocyclic curve.

The spiral of Archimedes may also be used as a means of exhi-
biting logarithms or parabolic arcs. For the equation of the
spiral being r=«0, the arc of the spiral is given by the equation

=a I — jj

Let ad = a tan 0, then making the necessary substitutions,
-— ; but this is the expression for an arc of a parabola

measured from the vertex to a point whose ordinate is 2« tan (p=2r,
that is to twice the radius vector of the spiral.

Hence, if a line be drawn along the vertical tangent of a parabola
equal to twice the radius vector of the spiral, and a line be drawn
parallel to the base, it will determine the parabolic arc correspond-
ing to the radius vector of the spiral.

It is not difficult to construct a trammel which shall describe the

265

Logocyclic Curve by a continuous motion ; and a very ingenious
instrument has been contrived by Mr. Henry Johnson of Crutched
Friars, to describe the spiral of Archimedes, which is as simple as
it is effective.

June 17, 1858.
The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.

The Earl Granville, Professor Hennessy, and the Rev. Samuel
Haughton were admitted into the Society.

In accordance with notice given at the last Meeting, the Earl of
Rosse proposed the Right Hon. Sir John Pakington, Bart, for
election and immediate ballot.

The Ballot having been taken, Sir John Pakington was declared
duly elected.

The following communications were read : —

I. " On the Problem of Three Bodies." By CHARLES JAMES

HARGREAVE, LL.D., F.R.S. Received May 3, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The author states that the principal object of this memoir is to
set forth two new methods of treating the dynamical equations by
processes of variation of elements, differing from the ordinary pro-
cesses of this nature principally in this particular, that the variations
are represented in explicit terms of the elements themselves and of
the time, and not through the medium of partial differential coeffi-
cients. It has been his object to render the processes as elementary
as possible ; and to preserve them in a vigorous form, by post-
poning all attempts at approximation until the formulae are actually
applied to practical problems. The applications given in the paper
comprise the circular and spherical pendulums, and the planetary
and lunar theories, and a special theorem as to the movement of
the plane of a planet's motion under the influence of several other
planets.

The original normal problem which is taken as the basis, is that

266

of motion about a fixed centre of force, where the force is directly as
the distance ; or, in other words, the system of equations not ex-
ceeding three in number, of the form

whose solutions are represented under the form

a?=Xa a cos (nt+p) +fjia b sin (nt+p),
y=\b a cos (nt + p) + pbb sin (nt + p),
z=\c a cos (nt+p) +pc b sin (nt + p) ;

where

Aa= cos 0 cos ^ — sin 0 sin ^ cos /,
Aj= cos 0 sin ^ -f sin <f> cos \fr cos I,
Xc= sin 0 sin / ;

/ia= — sin 0 cos ^ — cos </> sin »// cos £,

/L*6= — sin 0 sin ^/ + cos <f> cos \L cos /,

/uc= cos 0 sin / ;

to which are afterwards added,

vu= sin ^/ sin /,

vj= — cos \]s sin /,

vc— cos Z.

These are the equations of an ellipse whose centre is at the force,
and situated in a plane inclined at the angle I to the plane of x y, and
the longitude of whose node is \$> ; and (f> is the angular distance of
the major axis of the ellipse from the node ; a and b are the semi-
axes of the ellipse ; and p is the angular distance, from the major
axis, of the zero-point of the motion, measured on the circle described
on the major axis. A uniform motion around the circle represents
the place of the body by the corresponding point on the ellipse,
where it is cut by a perpendicular dropped on the major axis.

If the force be not situated at the origin, but at the point (X, Y, Z),
we have merely to substitute x — X for x, &c. in the above equations
of motion and solutions.

Applying the method of tangential variation to the system

we perceive that this system admits of complete solution in finite
terms, leading in fact to the usual theory of elliptical motion. Taking
this system, therefore, as a normal system, the author proceeds to

267

deduce the formulae for the variation of the elements of this system,
in order to arrive at the solution of the system

The elements which have been selected, for reasons fully explained
in the paper, are I and \//, whose meanings are already known ; A
and Nr denoting respectively the mean distance, and the longitude
of the epoch measured in the plane of the tangential ellipse as it
exists at the time t, and measured from the node at that time ; and
e and •& denoting respectively the eccentricity of the tangential
ellipse, and the longitude of its perihelion measured as above ; and
it is observed that these are strictly normal elements, according to
Professor Donkin's definition of normal elements.

The variations of these elements are then rigorously found, and
are expressed as follows : — Denote

cos $ P.Z, + sin ;// Py by the symbol P£,
and

cos I (cos J//P.*.— • sin v/>Py) + ¥% sin I by the symbol P^ ;
and let

— Pf sin 0 -j- P,, cos 0= P^e ; — P$ sin or -f P,, cos cr = P£)W ;
P| cos 6 + PI, sin 6= P^? e ; P^ cos or + P,, sin w = P^)W;
then

r cos0

r sin 61

-^r)) P,,.

which are capable of being expanded in terms of the elements, and t
by means of the ordinary expressions for ry Q, and 9— iff in terms of
the same quantities. The values of the elements at the time t being
supposed to be found, by the integration of these formulae, in terms

268

of t, and their initial values, are to be substituted in the ordinary
expressions for the coordinates, so as to obtain their values at the
time t.

The author exhibits the application of the preceding formulae to
certain simple examples, and then proceeds to apply them to the
planetary theory. For two planets (distinguished by the suffixes 2
and 3) supposed to move in the same plane, the following are the
rigorous expressions for the variations. Let a2 and a3 be the ratio
of the mass of each planet to that of the central body. Let P denote
the cube of rs-«-r23, and let (P— 1) sin (03— 02) be called Q, and

(P- 1) cos (03-02)-!l P be called R ; then

Q + sin (02-rar2) (l + <?2cos (02-<))R

» cos .-«

Q-cos (fla- sr2) (1 + <?2cos (0a-wa)) R ,
0 +'2cos(02-*r2)) Q+.2sin (02-*r2)R

From these formulae, the secular variations of the elements are
obtained without difficulty ; and a new method of integrating the
equations for the variations of the eccentricity and longitude of
perihelion is given.

The author then enters upon a minute examination of the mathe-
matical character of secular variations, and their bearing upon the
methods of approximation to which the problem of three bodies
has given rise. It is pointed out that the disturbance finally effected
through the medium of a secular variation is not of the order of the
disturbing force, or rather of the ratio of the disturbing force to the
central force ; but that it may remain precisely the same, though this
ratio should be diminished or increased without limit. The differ-
ence affects not the aggregate amount of deviation or disturbance
caused, but the time in which this aggregate amount is produced.
If we consider the undisturbed problem of two planets about a sun

269

as representing motion in two planes inclined to each other at the
angle I, and in ellipses having eccentricities e.2 and e^ it is shown
that, no matter how small or how large may be the disturbing force
produced on each orbit by the other planet, the aggregate amount of
disturbance of the planet m.2 is of the order of the quantities I and e.z,
and that of the planet m.A, of the order of I and e3. From considera-
tions of this nature, which are dwelt upon at length in the memoir,
the author concludes that the ordinary direct methods of solution
by approximation, being based upon the erroneous assumption that
the variations of the coordinates are of the order of the disturbing
force, are not, in a mathematical sense, legitimate processes ; and
that, in the planetary theory, they produce results practically true
only on account of the minuteness of the disturbing forces, and the
consequent great length of the secular periods ; and that, in the
lunar theory, their failure is made evident, in consequence of the
comparatively large magnitude of the disturbing force, and the con-
sequent rapidity with which the elements of the moon's orbit pass
through their secular periods.

The formulae for the variations of the elements are then applied
to the lunar theory ; and some of the integrations are effected
by means of a lemma containing the solution of the differential
equation

(where F, p and q are numerical coefficients), in the form

22
, M

By this method, the total motion of the moon's perigee, as well as
the coefficients of the evection, are fully obtained in the first in-
stance, without the necessity of any second approximation ; and the
usual difficulty as to the movement of the perigee does not present
itself. The motion of the node, and the evection in latitude, are
correctly obtained in a similar manner.

This part of the memoir is concluded by an extension of the
general formulae for the tangential variation of elements to the case
in which we suppose the constant jj. to become variable, the result
being to add to each variation a term involving fyi.

The third part of the Paper contains the development of the

270

method of osculating variation, before briefly described ; from which
are deduced the formulae for the osculating variations of elliptic ele-
ments. This method is capable of being applied to the planetary
and lunar theories, as well as that of tangential variation ; but the
advantages of this method did not appear to be such as to justify
the actual expansion of the formulae for these theories. The author,
however, shows that with reference to any system of three bodies,
the equations of motion for each body naturally assume the form

x" + na(a-X)=0, &c.

(being the system solved by this method) ; and that the X, Y, and
Z are absolutely the same for each of the three bodies. This is
shown by demonstrating, that at any given moment the three lines
which represent the direction of the force acting on each of the
three bodies all pass through the same point, which is denominated
the centre of force. The coordinates of this common centre of force

are,

(23)*.+ (31)*, + (12)*,.
(23) +(31) +12

with similar expressions for Y and Z; (12) being r12 + m m.2 x^12,
X denoting the law of force, &c. Each body has its own value of
w2 ; their ratios being denoted by the proportion

2 ro

: *! : :

The invariable plane of this system of three bodies is then found ;
and it is shown that the nodes of the three orbits upon this plane
are always in a certain relative position, constituting a kind of tri-
angle of equilibrium about the centre of force ; resulting," in the
limiting case where one of the three bodies is infinitely larger than
the other two (or in what is denominated the undisturbed Problem
of Three Bodies), in an exact opposition of the two nodes of the
orbits of the latter two bodies upon the invariable plane of the
system.

The formulae for the osculating variation of elements are then
applied to a system of three bodies, of which one possesses a pre-
dominating magnitude, so far as is necessary to determine the move-
ment of the planes of the orbits ; and it is readily shown that, if we
consider only the first order of the disturbing force, the inclination

271

of the plane of each orbit to the invariable plane is absolutely con-
stant ; and that the two nodes are always in opposition to each
other, and move with a uniform angular velocity round the inva-
riable plane.

This theorem is then extended to a system of n bodies moving
about a central predominant body ; and it is shown that the ag-
gregate effect of the disturbing forces of such a system upon the
plane of any one of the bodies can always be represented by stating
that its node upon a certain fixed plane revolves with a uniform
angular velocity, the plane of the orbit always remaining at the
same inclination to the fixed plane. The rate of this angular move-
ment, and the coordinates of the fixed plane upon which the move-
ment takes place, are found by means of formulae of remarkable
simplicity. These three quantities may be ascertained once for all
for each planet (viz. the inclination of the fixed plane on which the
node moves to any coordinate plane, the longitude of the node of the
fixed plane in relation to any coordinate line, and the angular rate of
movement of the node of the orbit upon this fixed plane), and, when
once ascertained, may be regarded as fixed elements of the planet,
from which the position of the plane of its orbit can always be deter-
mined without the use of tables.

It is then shown that a system of the form

x" + n*x=Pn &c.,

where n2 and P#, P^, and P« are any variables, may be solved by the
same set of final integrals, and the same values of x', y', and z't
by supposing the elements a, £, </>, \^t z, I, and p to become variable.
These elements are those of an ellipse tangential to the actual
curve of motion ; and the following formulae are obtained for their
variation : —
Let

and let (putting T for nt+p)

a cos 0 cos T — b sin tf> sin T = £,
a sin 0 cos T -f b cos 0 sin T=ij ;
VOL. IX. U

272
then

nab sin / d\l=r)(Pz),

l(nab)=a cos T(Py)-b sin
cf + b*)= -n(a sin

I

cos i ^)—-(b cos T(Pa,)— « sin T(P«)) + 2a b sin T cos T— >
w **

1 n1

(a cos T(P.r) — 6 sin T(PV))— (V + 62) sin T cos T- •

n

It may be observed that £ and rj are coordinates of the body referred
to the plane of the tangential ellipse, and to an axis of £ coinciding
with the node.

This method is denominated the method of Tangential Variation ;
and it is applied directly to the problem of the circular pendulum,
that of the spherical pendulum, and that of the motion of a particle
where the force is a function of the distance, and in particular that
of elliptical motion, where the law of force is that of the inverse
square.

In a subsequent part of the paper it is shown that a system of

the form

x" + n2(x — X)=0, &c.,

where nz, X, Y, and Z are any variables, may be solved by the same
set of final integrals, and the same values of x', yf, and z' as those
which have been already given as the solutions of the same system
when n, X, Y, and Z are constant, by supposing the elements to
become variable. In such a case, the elements are those of an
ellipse osculating with the actual curve of motion, always of course
having its centre at the moveable point (XYZ). The following
formulae are obtained for the variation of these elements : —
Let

then

273

l(nab) = -n((X') b cosT-f(Y') a sinT),

b si

cos I ty)= - ((X') b sin T + ( Y') a cos T) + 2a b sin T cos T -,

in which ^- and -j- are the differential coefficients of the expressions

for £ and r), taken explicitly with regard to t.

This method is denominated the method of Osculating Variation.

II. " Description of some Remains of a Gigantic Land-Lizard
(Megalania prisca, Ow.) from Australia." By Prof.
RICHARD OWEN, F.R.S. Received May 13, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The subject of this communication forms part of a collection of
fossil remains from Australia, recently acquired by the British Mu-
seum, and demonstrates the former existence in that continent of a
land-lizard considerably surpassing in bulk the largest species now
known. The characters are chiefly derived from vertebrae, partially
fossilized, equalling in size those of the largest existing Crocodiles ;
they are of the * proccelian ' type, but present lacertian modifica-
tions, and closely agree with those in the great existing * Lace-li-
zard ' of Australia (Hydrosaurus giganteus, Gray), of which indi-
viduals upwards of six feet long have been taken. A generic or sub-
generic distinction is indicated by the comparatively contracted area
of the neural canal, and by the inferior development of the neural
spine, of the fossil vertebrae, which have belonged to an indivi-
dual not less than twenty feet in length, calculated from the vertebrae
and proportions of the body of the existing Hydrosauri. For this,
probably extinct lizard, the name of Megalania prisca is proposed.

The results of an extended series of comparisons of its vertebrae
with those of recent and extinct Sauria are given ; and the paper is
illustrated by drawings of the vertebrae of Megalania and those of
Hydrosaurus.

274

III. "Notes of Researches on the Poly- Ammonias." — No. III.
Contributions towards the History of the Diamides ; Cya-
nate and Sulphocyanide of Phenyl. By A. W. HOFMANN,
Ph.D., F.R.S. &c. Received May 7, 1858.

About ten years* ago, when engaged in the study of aniline, I
discovered two beautiful crystalline compounds, carbanilide and
sulphocarbanilide, which can be produced by a variety of processes.
The former is best prepared by the action of phosgene-gas on ani-
line, while the latter is most readily and most abundantly procured
by the action of bisulphide of carbon on aniline. The composition
and the constitution of these bodies is indicated by the formulae —

Carbanilide ........ C26 H12 N2 O2=(C12 H5)2 V N2,

H2 j

(C2 S2)'
Sulphocarbanilide . . C26H12N2 S2=(C12H5)2

H2

They may be viewed as derived from two molecules of ammonia
(diammonia) in which two equivalents of hydrogen are replaced by
two molecules of phenyl, a"nd two other equivalents by the biatomic
molecules C2 O2 and C2 Sa.

The two substances in question, as far as their formulae are in-
volved, obviously correspond to urea and sulphocyanide of am-
monium : —

(C202)"
Urea ...................... C2 H4N2O2= H2 }- N2,

H2

(C2S2)"
Sulphocyanide of ammonium . . C2 H4 N2 S2 = I12 [> N2.

In their formation likewise a certain analogy with urea and sul-
phocyanide of ammonium may be recognized ; for recent experiments
have proved that urea is actually produced by the action of phosgene-
gas on ammonia, while the formation of sulphocyanide of ammonium
by means of ammonia and bisulphide of carbon is a long established
fact. The analogy, however, seems to disappear altogether, if the

* Journal of the Chemical Society, vol. ii. 36.

275

chemical nature of the four bodies be compared, for while urea
exhibits the deportment of a base, and the saline character of
sulphocyanide of ammonium is so well denned, carbanilide and sul-
phocarbanilide are apparently perfectly indifferent substances.

Nevertheless, on considering the difference of the chemical pro-
perties of urea and sulphocyanide of ammonium, and on recollecting
that the saline constitution of urea is much more hidden than that
of sulphocyanide of ammonium, it appeared worth while to try
whether the action of powerful agents would not reveal a similar,
if I may use the term, saline construction in carbanilide and sulpho-
carbanilide. Experiment has realized this anticipation.

In the conception of the above view, I have endeavoured to split
the two bodies in question according to the equations —

C26H12N202 = C12H7N + CUH5N02,

Carbanilide, Phenylamine. Cyanate of

Diphenyl-carbamide. phenyl.

and

C26H12N2S2 = C12H7N + C14H5NS2

Sulphocarbanilide, Phenylamine Sulphocyanide
Diphenyl-sulphocarbamide. of phenyl.

suggested by analogous changes of urea and sulphocyanide of
ammonium : —

C2H4N202=H3N + C2HN02,

Urea. Cyanic acid.

C2H4N2S2=H3N + C2HNS2

Sulphocyanide Hydrosulphocyanic

of ammonium. acid.

These reactions succeed without much difficulty. On submitting
carbanilide and Sulphocarbanilide to the action of agents capable of
fixing aniline (anhydrous phosphoric acid, chloride of zinc, and even
'hydrochloric acid gas), the former yields cyanate of phenyl > a sub-
stance which I discovered many years ago among the products of
decomposition of oxamelanile*, while the latter furnishes a remark-
able body, sulphocyanide of phenyl, which had not been previously
obtained.

The general features of cyanate of phenyl having been delineated

* Journal of the Chemical Society, vol. ii. 313.

276

in a former memoir, I have for the present been chiefly engaged with
the examination of sulphocyanide of phenyl. This body, which is
readily obtained in a state of absolute purity by rectification over
anhydrous phosphoric acid, is a colourless transparent liquid of
1'135 density at 15°'5, and of a perfectly constant boiling-point at
222° C. under a pressure of Om*762. The odour is aromatic and
pungent ; it distantly resembles that of mustard ; the body in
question is in fact the mustard oil of the phenyl- series.

Mustard oil, sulphocyanide of allyl. . C8 H5 N Sa=C6 H5, C2 N S2.
Sulphocyanide of phenyl .......... C14 H5 N S2=C12 H5, C2 N S2.

Sulphocyanide of phenyl may be distilled with water, and even
with hydrochloric acid, without undergoing any change. The al-
kalies, on the other hand, decompose it. Boiled with an alcoholic
solution of potassa, it is first converted into sulphocarbanilide, and
ultimately into carbanilide.

2C14 H. N S2 + 4KO + 2HO=2KS + K2 C2 06 + C2

H12 N2 S2.

Sulphocyanide
of phenyl.

Sulphocarbanilide.

Sulphocyanide
of phenyl.

Carbanilide.

When gently warmed with phenylamine, sulphocyanide of phenyl
is instantaneously converted into sulphocarbanilide, —

CUU5NS2 + C12H7N = C26H12N2S2

Sulphocyanide
of phenyl.

Phenyl-
amine.

Sulphocarb-
anilide.

A similar reaction takes place with ammonia. An alcoholic
solution of ammonia, when gently warmed with sulphocyanide of
phenyl, readily solidifies into a crystalline compound, which may be
obtained in beautiful needles by crystallization from boiling water.

The new body is formed according to the equation

Cu H5 N S2 + H3 N = Cu H8 N2 S2

Sulphocyauide
of phenyl.

Sulphophenyl-
carbamide.

This substance is the thiosinamine of the phenyl-series ; like the
latter, it possesses the characters of a weak base. I have not been

277

able to obtain saline compounds with hydrochloric and sulphuric
acid. It forms, however, compounds with nitrate of silver and
bichloride of platinum. The latter has the usual composition,

viz. —

C14H8N2S2,HCl,PtCL,

Boiled with nitrate of silver, the new compound loses its sulphur,
which is replaced by oxygen, phenylcarbamide, Cu H8 N2 O2, being
produced, a substance which I described many years ago. Sulpho-
cyanide of phenyl is acted upon by a great number of ammonias
with formation of bodies the composition of which is sufficiently
pointed out by theory.

The mode of producing cyanate and sulphocyanide of phenyl,
which I have described in the preceding paragraphs, deserves some
notice, since the usual processes suggested by the experience in the
methyl-, ethyl- and amyl-series, such as distillation of sulpho-
phenylates with cyanates and sulphocyanides, have altogether failed
in producing the desired result. The same reaction may be of
course applied to tolylamine, cumylamine, naphthylamine, and all
primary monamines.

TV. " Notes of Researches on the Poly-Ammonias." —
No. IV. Action of Bibromide of Ethylene upon Aniline.
By A. W. HOFMANN, Ph.D., F.R.S. &c. Received May
13, 1858.

While engaged in some experiments on the action of bibromide
of ethylene on ammonia, a short account of which I have lately
communicated to the Royal Society *, I induced Mr. Henry Bassett,
then working in my laboratory, to study the deportment of the same
bromide with aniline, a characteristic representative of the class of
primary monamines. In the following pages I propose to submit
to the Society Mr. Bassett' s observations, together with the results
of a series of experiments which I carried out myself after Mr. Bassett
by circumstances had been prevented from a further continuation of
the inquiry.

A mixture of 1 volume of the bibromide of ethylene and 2 volumes

* Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. ix. page 150.

278

of aniline, when exposed to the temperature of boiling water for an
hour or two, solidifies into a crystalline mass of more or less solidity.
This mass is chiefly hydrobromate of aniline ; it contains, however,
in addition, three new organic bases, partly free, partly in the form
of hydrobromates. These substances are formed in very different
quantities, — a beautiful crystalline body, difficultly soluble in alcohol,
being invariably the chief product of the reaction, while the two
other bases, the one solid but extremely soluble in alcohol, the other
likewise solid but quite insoluble in this liquid, are found to be pre-
sent in much smaller proportions.

The preparation, in a state of purity, of the principal product of
the reaction presents no difficulty. The solid mass obtained by
digesting bibromide of ethylene and aniline in the stated propor-
tions is mixed with water, and submitted to distillation, when any
bibromide left unchanged, together with some unaltered aniline, passes
over. The residuary liquid is then mixed with a strong solution of
potassa, which separates all the bases existing as hydrobromates in
the form of a semi-solid resin. This is washed with water and then
again submitted to distillation with water, when, together with more
or less water, an additional quantity of aniline distils. The residuary
mass, when treated with boiling (methylated^ spirit, leaves the in-
soluble base as a white, flour-like powder, while the other two bases
dissolve. On cooling, the solution deposits a beautiful crystallization
of white needles, while the more soluble base remains dissolved in
the spirit. The crystals are rather difficultly soluble in alcohol;
two or three crystallizations from this solvent render them absolutely
pure.

Thus obtained, the new base, for which, in accordance with the re-
sults of analysis, I propose the name ethyl ene-phenylamine, is a snow-
white, inodorous and tasteless crystalline compound, of nacreous lustre,
insoluble in water, soluble in boiling, less so in cold alcohol, soluble
in ether. The solutions are without action on vegetable colours.
The substance dissolves readily in hydrochloric, sulphuric and nitric
acids, especially on gently heating the liquids, which on cooling de-
posit well crystallized saline compounds. The hydrochlorate yields
yellow precipitates with bichloride of platinum and terchloride of
gold. When exposed to the action of heat, ethylene-phenylamine
fuses at 148° C. ; at a temperature approaching 300° it begins to boil

279

and to distil, the larger portion undergoing decomposition. Among
the products of decomposition which are not yet sufficiently exa-
mined, considerable quantities of aniline make their appearance. The
results obtained in the analysis of ethylene- phenylamine lead to the

formula

CUH9N

as the simplest molecular expression for this compound.

This formula is confirmed by the analysis of the hydrochlorate
and of the platinum-salt, the preparation of which, on account of
their instability, requires some management.

These salts contain respectively

Hydrochlorate ......... C16 H9 N, HC1.

Platinum-salt ......... C16 H9 N, HC1, PtCl2.

The reaction which gives rise to ethylene-phenylamine is expressed by
the following equation : —

2C12 H7 N + C4 H4 Br2 = C12 H7 N, HBr + C16 H9 N, HBr.

Phenylamine. Bibromide Hydrobromate Hydrobromate of
of ethylene. of phenylanrine. ethylene-phenylamine.

What is the constitution of this new base ? This question could not
be answered without further experiments, on account of the twofold
nature of bibromide of ethylene. In many cases this remarkable
compound exhibits the character of the hydrobromic ether of a
biacid ethylene-alcohol, of (C4 H4)"Br2, whilst in the majority of re-
actions it splits into hydrobromic acid and the bromide C4 H3 Br,
which might be considered as the hydrobromic ether of a monacid
alcohol, C4 H4 O2, homologous to allylic alcohol. It remained there-
fore uncertain whether the new basic compound retained the original
molecule (C4 H4)" replacing 2 equivs. of hydrogen, or the modified
molecule C4 H3 replacing 1 equiv. of hydrogen. In other words, it
had to be established by further experiments, whether the base was

-cHN- or

C4 H3

C12H5 N = C16H9N.

The deportment of the substance with iodide of methyl and ethyl,
which immediately will be mentioned somewhat more in detail, has

280

decided in favour of the former view, and in accordance with it the
name of the substance has been selected.

It deserves to be noticed, that there are already two other bases
known which have exactly the same composition, the one obtained
by M.Natanson in the reaction of bichloride of ethylene upon aniline,
and described by him as acetylaniline, the other discovered by M.
Dusart among the derivatives of nitronaphtaline and designated as
phtalidine. It is only necessary superficially to glance at the descrip-
tion of these bodies in order to see that they are essentially different
from ethylene-phenylamine. The constitution of acetylaniline and
phtalidine has not been experimentally fixed. It is probable that
Natanson's base contains the molecule C4 H3 formerly called acetyl,
but for which the more appropriate term vinyl has lately been
proposed, while phtalidiue probably derives from the hydrocarbon
styrol or an isomeric body, so that the difference in the constitution
of the three bodies would be expressed in the following formulae : —

Phtalidine f C- H*

Styrylamine (?)

Acetylaniline |C4 H, )

Vinyl-phenylamine | 12 jj° f

Ethylene-phenyl- j (C4 HJ" j N
amine \ C12H5 J

I have already mentioned that the degree of substitution of ethy-
lene-phenylamine was fixed by the deportment of this base with iodide
of methyl and ethyl, bibroinide of ethylene exerting no longer any
influence upon it, even by protracted contact, at temperatures varying
from 100° to 150°C.

A mixture of ethylene-phenylamine and iodide of methyl, on the
other hand, when exposed for some hours to the temperature of boil-
ing water, solidifies to a resinous mass, floating, together with a portion
of unchanged base, in the excess of the iodide. Distillation with
water separates the excess of iodide of methyl ; and washing with cold
water until the filtrate is no longer precipitated by an alkali removes
anyhydriodate of ethylene-phenylamine formed during the distillation.
Lastly, by repeated crystallization of the resinous residue from boil-
ing water, to which a small quantity of spirit may be added in the
later stages (separation from ethylene-phenylamine), a perfectly cry-

281

stalline, slightly yellowish iodine-compound is obtained, which may
be dried without decomposition at 100°.

On analysis, this iodine-compound was found to have the remark-
able composition

Treated with oxide of silver, the solution of the iodide yields a power-
fully alkaline liquid, possessing all the characters of the class of
bodies of which hydrated oxide of tetrethylammonium is the type.
On adding hydrochloric acid and bichloride of platinum, this liquid
furnishes a pale yellow amorphous platinum-salt containing

C34 H21 N2 Cl, PtCl2= 16 9 C2 H3 Cl, PtCl2.

^16 "fi ^ J

A repetition of this experiment in the ethyl-series has given perfectly
similar results. On account of the less powerful action of iodide of
ethyl, the reaction requires longer digestion. The iodide formed is
less soluble in boiling water than the corresponding methyl-com-
pound, and therefore more difficult to separate from any ethylene-
phenylamine which may have remained unchanged. When pure, the
new iodide is a yellowish white substance crystallizing in needles.
It fuses in the water-bath without decomposition to a yellow oil,
which solidifies on cooling into a brittle crystalline mass.

Oh analysis, numbers were obtained corroborating in every respect
the results furnished by the methyl- series. The iodide contains

Like the methyl-compound, it is readily decomposed by oxide of
silver ; and the powerfully alkaline solution yields, with hydrochloric
acid and bichloride of platinum, a salt of exactly the same appear-
ance as the salt of the methyl-series. This platinum-salt was found
to contain

C36 H23 N2 Cl, a H N

The action of iodide of methyl and ethyl upon ethylene-phenyl-
amine, although different from what might have been anticipated,
nevertheless appears to fix in an unequivocal manner the state of
substitution of this base. It is obvious that ethylene-phenylamine no
longer contains any replaceable hydrogen, and consequently that the

282

molecule (C4H4)", equivalent to H2 as such, has been assimilated by
the aniline.

But how is the composition of the bodies formed by the action of
iodide of methyl and ethyl to be interpreted? Are they simply
compounds of the alcohol-iodides with 2 equivalents of ethylene-phe-
nylamine, analogous to the salts produced by the union of 1 equiv.
iodide of mercury with 2 equivs. of ammonia ?

Does not the existence of these bodies involve a further considera-
tion of the formula which has been assigned to ethylene-phenylamine ?
Does the formula C16 H9 N actually represent the molecule of this
body, or is it not more correct to double that expression and to con-
sider the formula C32H18.N2 as a more appropriate representation of
this molecule ? Ethylene-phenylamine would then be derived from 2
equivalents of ammonia, it would be a diamine, and the hydrochlorate
and the platinum-compounds would appear in the light of diammo-

nium-compounds.

(C H V 1

Diethylene-diphenyl-diamine /p XT ^ f Na.

l^M**»/a J

(C H V
Bichloride ........................ 4

Platinum-salt ..................... N2 C12, 2PtCl,

At the first glance it certainly appears strange that a molecule
capable of assimilating 2 equivalents of hydrochloric acid should
unite only with 1 equiv. of iodide of methyl or ethyl, well established
members of the hydrochloric type. But this deportment after all is
not without parallelism.

The expression

C20H12NOa,

originally established for quinine by Liebig, supported as it was by
the analysis of numerous salts of the formula

C20H12N02,HX,

and especially by that of a platinum- compound,
C20H12N02,HCl,PtCl2,aq,
was universally adopted by chemists.

283

A few quinine-salts of the formula

2(C20H12N02), HX

were considered as anomalous, as basic compounds ; and it was not
until the methylic and ethylic derivatives of quinine,

2C20H12N02,C2H3I and

2C20H12N02,C4H5I,

had been discovered that chemists began to consider the formula

C40H24N204

as a more appropriate expression for the molecule of quinine.

Probably further examination of the salts of ethylene-phenylamine
— I retain this name for the present — will furnish saline compounds
corresponding to the methyl- and ethyl-derivatives, showing that this
base, like quinine, is capable of forming two groups of salts.

It deserves to be noticed that the diammonic nature of ethylene-
phenylamine is also strongly marked by its deportment under the
influence of heat ; for while all the monammonic basic derivatives of
aniline are volatile without decomposition, ethylene-phenylamine,
when submitted to distillation, is destroyed with reproduction of
aniline, like the well-established diamines belonging to this group,
melaniline, formyl-diphenylamine, &c.

In describing the preparation of ethylene-phenylamine, it has been
mentioned that the action of bibromide of ethylene on aniline gives
rise at the same time to two other basic compounds. These sub-
stances, which are formed in smaller quantity, differ in a very marked
manner from the principal product of the reactions. Their study is
not yet completed, but it may even now be stated, that they have
the same composition as ethylene-phenylamine itself. One of these
substances, remarkable for its solubility in spirit, is capable of being
converted into ethylene-phenylamine by a simple molecular change.
The relation in which these three isomeric bodies stand to each
other is not yet finally fixed by experiment. The idea suggests itself
that it may possibly be represented by the formulae —

Solublebase C16 H9 N.

Ethylene-phenylamine C32 H18 N2.
Insoluble base C48 H27 N3.

284

V. " Notes of Researches on the Poly-Ammonias." — No. V.
Action of Bichloride of Carbon on Aniline. By A. W.
HOFMANN, Ph.D., F.R.S. &c. Received June 17, 1858.

In two former notes I have described the deportment of aniline as
the prototype of primary monamines with the bromine- and chlorine-
compounds of biatomic and triatomic radicals. It was found that
under the influence of these agents, two equivalents of aniline coalesce
to a more complex molecule, retaining the chemical character of the
constituents ; the action of bibromide of ethylene and chloroform
producing respectively —

Diethylene-diphenyl-diamine CMH18N2= ( & S4V'j Na.

(C2 H)'"
Formyl-diphenyl-diamine . . C26 H12 N2= 1 (C12H5)2 I N2.

The result of these experiments led me to examine the behaviour
of aniline under the influence of organic chlorides containing even a
larger number of chlorine equivalents. The agent selected was the
body well known by the name of bichloride of carbon, t. e. tetra-
chlorinetted marsh-gas, or chloroform, in which the residuary
equivalent of hydrogen is replaced by chlorine.

Aniline and bichloride of carbon do not act upon each other at the
common temperature ; at the temperature of boiling water a change
is perceptible, but even after several days' exposure the reaction is
far from being complete. On submitting, however, a mixture of
3^ parts by weight of aniline and 1 part of bichloride of carbon,
both in the anhydrous state, for about thirty hours to a temperature
of 1 70° C., the liquid will be found to be converted into a black
mass, either soft and viscid, or hard and brittle, according to time
and temperature.

This black mass, which adheres firmly to the tubes in which the
reaction has been accomplished, is a mixture of several bodies. On
exhausting with water, a portion dissolves, while a more or less solid
resin remains behind.

The aqueous solution yields, on addition of potassa, an oily preci-
pitate containing a considerable portion of unchanged aniline ; on
boiling this precipitate with dilute potassa in a retort, the aniline
distils over, whilst a viscid oil remains behind, which gradually

285

solidifies with a crystalline structure. Washing with cold alcohol
and two or three crystallizations from boiling alcohol render this body
perfectly white and pure, a very soluble substance of a magnificent
crimson colour remaining in solution.

The portion of the black mass which is insoluble in water dissolves
almost entirely in dilute hydrochloric acid, from which solution
it is reprecipitated by the alkalies in the form of an amorphous
pink or dingy precipitate soluble in alcohol with a rich crimson colour.
The greater portion of this body consists of the same colouring
principle which accompanies the white crystalline substance. On
the other hand, considerable quantities of this crystalline body are
occasionally present in the product insoluble in water.

The crystalline body is insoluble in water, difficultly soluble in
boiling alcohol, soluble in ether. From the hot alcoholic solution it
crystallizes slowly on cooling in elongated four-sided plates, often
grouped round a common centre ; this substance is a well denned
base ; it freely dissolves in acids, from which, on the addition of the
alkalies, it is thrown down as a dazzling white precipitate.

The analysis of this new base has led to the expression

C38 H17 N3,
a formula corroborated by the analysis of a fine, somewhat difficultly

soluble hydrochlorate,

C38H17N3,HC1,

which is obtained by dissolving an excess of the new base in hot
diluted hydrochloric acid, when it crystallizes on cooling.

A further confirmation was furnished by the examination of a
bright yellow platinum-salt,

C38H17N3,HCl,PtCl2.

Both the hydrochlorate and the platinum-salt are extremely soluble
in an excess of hydrochloric acid, which has therefore to be carefully
avoided in their preparation.

The phase of the action of bichloride of carbon on aniline, which
gives rise to the formation of the new base, is expressed by the
equation

6C12 H7N + C2 C14 = C38 H17 N3, HC1 + 3(C12 H7 N, HC1).

What is the constitution of the new body ? It is obviousl}T derived
from 3 molecules of aniline from which 4 equivalents of hydrogen
have been eliminated by the 4 equivalents of chlorine in the bi-

286

chloride, the carbon entering as a biatomic molecule into the complex
atom. The new body would thus become a triamine,

C."

It is however more probable that the carbon replaces in the form of
cyanogen, when the new compound appears in the light of a diamine,

as

C2N ]
Cyan-triphenyl- diamine (C12 H5)3 V N2.

H2 J

The new compound thus becomes closely allied to melaniline, which
may be viewed as diphenyl-cyan-diamine,

C2N ]
Melaniline C^ H13 N3=(C12 H5)2 [ Na.

H3 J

It deserves to be noticed, that in its appearance, and in its general
characters, cyan-triphenyl-diamine resembles melaniline in a re-
markable manner.

If we are entitled to view the new body which forms the subject
of this note as a cyanogen-substitute, we have not less than four well-
defined diamines of the phenyl- series.

Diethylene-diphenyl-diamine & H4}"2 \ N2.

Wl2 ^5/2 J

(C, H)'"

Formyl-diphenyl-diamine .... (C12 H5)2 V N2.

H

C2 N
Cyan-diphenyl-diamine ...... (C12 H5)

H5)2 VN2.

H3 J

Cyan-triphenyl-diamine ...... (C

C2 N "I

12H5)3 >N2.

H2 J

I intend to continue the inquiry still further in this direction, and
propose next to examine the deportment of aniline with the so-called
protochloride (C4 C14) and sesquichloride of carbon (C4 C16) .

287

VI. " Researches on the Phosphorus-Bases." By A. W. HOF-
MANN, Ph.D., F.R.S. &c. Received May 28, 1858.

In a paper published in the Transactions of the Royal Society, we
(M. Cahours and myself) have given a detailed account of the pre-
paration of the phosphorus-bases, and also an accurate description of
triethylphosphine, the most characteristic and accessible represent-
ative of this class of compounds.

The object of our joint inquiry was chiefly to examine the phos-
phorus-bases as a class, and to establish their analogy with the corre-
sponding terms of the nitrogen-series. The deportment of the phos-
phorus-bodies in their relation to other compounds has as yet been
scarcely investigated. For several months I have been engaged in
this study, which promises a rich harvest of results. Most of the
experiments were made with triethylphosphine, a substance which,
in consequence of its convenient position in the system of organic
compounds, in consequence of the variety of its attachments, the
energy and precision of its action, and, lastly, the well-defined cha-
racter of its compounds, will probably become an agent of predilec-
tion in the hands of the chemist.

It is my intention to trace the history of this remarkable body in its
several directions ; and for this purpose, in fact, a considerable amount
of material has been already accumulated. But since necessarily some
time must elapse before such an inquiry, which from the peculiar
character of the compound is often obstructed by unusual difficulties,
can be completed, I beg leave to present my results in the same
measure as the inquiry advances, hoping that at a later period I
may be allowed to collect the scattered observations, and to lay them
in a more elaborated and digested form before the Society.

Among the numerous reactions of triethylphosphine, my attention
has been chiefly directed to the compounds which this body furnishes
when submitted to the action of organic chlorides, bromides, and
iodides.

I. Action of Bibromide of Ethylene upon Triethylphosphine.

In the anhydrous condition the two bodies act even at the common
temperature with considerable power upon each other, a white cry-

VOL. IX. X

288

stalline substance being immediately precipitated. If the reaction be
allowed to go on in the presence of a large volume of anhydrous
ether, the deposition of the crystalline body is considerably retarded,
unless the mixture, in an appropriate apparatus, be exposed to the
temperature of boiling water. After a short digestion, on distilling
off the ether and the excess of bibromide, a crystalline cake is left in
the retort, consisting of several bromides, the nature and the relative
proportions of which appear in a great measure to depend upon the
rapidity of the reaction. I have found it most convenient to work
with ethereal solutions at the common temperature.

The determination of the bromine in the crystalline body revealed
at once the compound character of this substance, for it steadily
diminished by dissolving the bromide in absolute alcohol, and repre-
cipitating it partially by ether. By repeating this process four or
five times, a body of constant composition was obtained.

The compound thus prepared is a crystalline mass, without odour,
extremely soluble in water, and even in absolute alcohol, but inso-
luble in anhydrous ether. It exhibited a rather unexpected compo-
sition, for on analysis it was found to contain

C16H19PBr2,

and consequently to have been formed by the simple union of 1 equi-
valent of triethylphosphine and 1 equivalent of bibromide of ethy-

lene,

C12 H15 P + C4 H4 Br2 = C16 H19 PBiV

The bromine in this compound exists in two perfectly different
forms ; addition of nitrate of silver precipitated only one-half of this
element as bromide of silver, while even by protracted ebullition the
second half remained untouched. The result changed, however, on
digestion with freshly precipitated oxide of silver, when the whole of
the bromine separated at once in the form of bromide of silver.

On adding to the solution of the bromide an excess of nitrate of
silver, filtering off the bromide, and removing the excess of silver by
hydrochloric acid, a corresponding chloride was obtained, from which
bichloride of platinum precipitated a beautiful orange-yellow pla-
tinum-salt. In a moderately diluted solution which had been pre-
viously gently heated, no immediate precipitate was produced ; but
on cooling, the same salt was deposited in magnificent needles, which

289

could be recrystallized from boiling water, or better from hydro-
chloric acid.

This compound contained

C16H19BrPCl,PtCl2.

A difficultly soluble gold- salt, crystallizing from boiling water in
small scales, was found to have the corresponding composition,

C16 H19 BrPCl, AuCl3.

Very different results were observed when the whole of the bromine
was removed by means of oxide of silver. A powerfully alkaline
solution was thus obtained, which, converted into hydrochlorate, gave,
with bichloride of platinum, a precipitate only after very considerable
evaporation. The precipitate was likewise of a deep orange-red
colour ; it readily dissolved in boiling water, from which it separated
on cooling in the form of well-defined octahedra having the compo-
sition

C16H18PCl,PtCl2.

Terchloride of gold furnished likewise a crystalline precipitate
very similar in appearance to the gold-salt previously mentioned, but

containing

C16 H18 PCI, AuCl3.

The action of bibromide of ethylene on triethylphosphine, and
the subsequent transformation of the compound produced, is readily
explained. The two substances unite in equal equivalents, the pro-
duct of the reaction being the bromide of a phosphonium, in which
the fourth equivalent of hydrogen is replaced by a compound mole-
cule, C4H4Br (brominetted ethyl ?), of monatomic substitution-power,

C4H5 ]

Bromide of triethyl-bromethylene-C4 Hg (PR
phosphonium C4 H5 r*

(C4H4Br)'J

The compound phosphonium of this bromide possesses very con-
siderable stability, as is sufficiently evinced by its deportment with
nitrate of silver, and by the formation of the platinum- and of the
gold- salt. All my attempts, however, to separate the base itself
have entirely failed. Under the influence of oxide of silver, the
bromide yields an alkaline solution possessing all the characters of
the -onium-bases. The body in solution, however, no longer belongs

x2

290

to the same series, the elements of hydrobromic acid having separated
from the original compound metal.

C4En
Br + 2AgO=2AgBr+^**5 I PO, HO.

CXJ

The compound thus obtained may be designated as the hydrated
oxide of triethyl-vinyl-phosphonium.

I have ascertained by experiment that the brominetted bromide is
by no means the only result of the action of bibromide of ethylene
on triethylphosphine, although under favourable circumstances it
appears to be the chief product. Invariably a portion of the bibro-
mide, faithful to its traditions, splits into hydrobromic acid and
bromide of vinyl ; and we find therefore in the white crystalline mass
always, together with hydrobromate of triethylphosphine, a certain
quantity of the very bromide of triethyl-vinyl-phosphonium, which,
as has been stated, results from the action of oxide of silver on the
brominetted bromide.

t£ jj i
C4 H| I P

+C4H4Br2=

The action of bibromide of ethylene on triethylphosphine, complex
as it is, receives an additional element of complication by the influ-
ence of heat. Ebullition appears to facilitate the formation of a
fourth bromide, which, although less prominently, is also produced
in the cold. The study of this compound is not yet completed.

VII. " Researches on the Phosphorus-Bases." — No, II. Action
of Bisulphide of Carbon on Triethylphosphine. By A. W.
HOFMANN, Ph.D., F.R.S. &c. Received June 5, 1858.

Among the many characteristic reactions of the phosphorus-bases,
their deportment with sulphur is so conspicuous that it has served
frequently as a test for the presence of these substances. In con-
tinuing the study of the phosphorus-bases, I have found that this
remarkable attraction for sulphur is by no means limited to this
element in the free state. Many sulphur-compounds, when coming

291

into contact with triethylphosphine, are instantaneously decomposed,
their sulphur being appropriated in the formation of the beautiful

bisulphide

E,PS2,

which, as has been pointed out on a former occasion, is generated by
the action of free sulphur. As an illustration, the deportment of
bisulphide of nitrogen may be quoted. This substance, obtained by
the action of ammonia on chloride of sulphur, and as yet scarcely
touched upon as an agent of research, is instantaneously decomposed
into its constituents when acted upon by triethylphosphine,
E3P + NS2 = E3PS2+N.

Triethyl- Bisul- Bisulphide

phosphine. phide of of triethyl-

nitrogen. phosphine.

The reaction is so violent that care must be taken to prevent the
phosphorus-base from being inflamed.

Triethylphosphine is not less powerfully attacked by bisulphide of
carbon ; but the result is different. On mixing the two bodies in
the anhydrous condition, they are found to combine with explosive
violence, a deep crimson-coloured crystalline compound being pro-
duced. This substance is obtained in better crystals if ethereal
solutions, instead of the anhydrous compounds, be employed. The
new body separates in beautiful crimson leaflets the moment the two
solutions are mixed. This phenomenon is so characteristic, that
ever since it was first noticed, it has served me as a valuable test for
the detection of even minute traces of triethylphosphine. A watch-
glass, moistened with the liquid in which the phosphorus-base is sus-
pected, is held over a vessel containing bisulphide of carbon : the
vapour of this compound immediately causes the formation of a crimson
network of crystals, if the smallest quantity of triethylphosphine be
present. It is necessary that the base should be free ; its saline
solutions are not affected by bisulphide of carbon ; the reaction,
however, immediately appears when the base is liberated by the
addition of an alkali.

The new body produced by the action of bisulphide of carbon
upon triethylphosphine is insoluble in water, nearly insoluble in
ether, but soluble in alcohol. From boiling alcohol it is deposited
on cooling in crimson needles, somewhat similar to the crystals of

292

chromic acid as obtained by the action of sulphuric acid upon bi-
chromate of potassium. The presence of bisulphide of carbon in
the alcohol considerably increases its solvent power for the crimson
body. The new substance fuses at about 95° C ; it is volatile even
at the common temperature, and is easily volatilized at the tempera-
ture of boiling water. When rapidly heated it sublimes with partial
decomposition.

The crimson crystals appear to have the character of a weak base ;
they easily dissolve in concentrated hydrochloric acid, a colourless
liquid being formed ; from this solution potassa or ammonia repre-
cipitate the body, apparently unchanged, although, in consequence
of the finely divided state, of a somewhat lighter colour. The
hydrochloric solution gives with bichloride of platinum a bright
yellow amorphous salt insoluble in alcohol and ether, which on
drying becomes dingy, with indications of decomposition. A gold-
salt similarly obtained exhibits a like deportment. Both salts
appeared but very little adapted for analysis. The alcoholic solution
of the body is decomposed by nitrate of silver with formation of
sulphide of silver.

The analysis of the crimson crystals has shown that they contain

C14 H15 PS4=C 2 H15 P-f C2 S4=E3 P+C2 S4.

They are therefore formed by the direct union of 1 equivalent of
triethylphosphine with 2 equivalents of bisulphide of carbon.

In the dry state the bisulphide of carbon compound may be pre-
served without being altered. In the presence of moisture, however,
it is decomposed, especially during hot weather. On examining
some specimens which had been kept during several months, the
crimson colour was found to have disappeared, the substance had
assumed a light yellow colour, and on opening the bottles the odour
of sulphuretted hydrogen became at once apparent. The yellowish
substance on recrystallization proved to be pure bisulphide of tri-
ethylphosphine. I leave it undecided whether this transposition had
taken place according to the equation

or

What is the constitution of the crimson body? In mineral

293

chemistry we are acquainted with a compound closely allied in com-
position and formation to the new compound. Bisulphide of carbon,
when treated with an alcoholic solution of ammonia, furnishes, together
with other products, a salt crystallized in long lemon-yellow needles,
which is known by the name of sulphocarbamate of ammonium.

This compound,

(H4N)H2N,C2S4,

when treated with diluted acids, is converted into an oily acid of but
little stability, sulphocarbamic acid :

HH2N,C2S4.

If we replace in this compound the hydrogen by ethyl, the nitrogen
by phosphorus, in other words, if we replace the ammonia by tri-
ethylphosphine, we arrive at the composition of the body which forms
the subject of this note.

I have convinced myself experimentally that trimethylphosphine
exhibits with bisulphide of carbon a perfectly similar deportment.
The compound formed is likewise of a crimson colour, but of a some-
what lighter tint; it is more volatile and more readily soluble in
alcohol than the corresponding ethyl-compound : it is also somewhat
soluble in water.

Triethylarsin is riot altered by the addition of bisulphide of carbon ;
after some time, however, long needles are formed in the mixture of
the two bodies. These needles are probably an analogous arsenic-
compound : I have not however examined them. A mixture of
triethylstibin and bisulphide of carbon was preserved for several
months, without undergoing any change*

VIII. " Contributions towards the History of the Mon-
amines." By A. W. HOFMANN, Ph.D., F.R.S. &c. Received
May 28, 1858.

The progress of my experiments on the poly-ammonias and on the
phosphorus-bases, now and then involves the study of reactions
which are scarcely comprised between the boundary lines of the
principal inquiries. For the sake of perspicuity, I beg leave to sub-
mit the results of these studies separately to the Society.

1 . Action of Bibromide of Ethylene on Trimethylamine.
The unexpected result obtained in the action of bibromide of ethyl-

294

ene on triethylphosphine, induced me to examine the deportment of
the tertiary amine-bases under the influence of the same agent. As
a characteristic representative of this class I have selected trimethyl-
amine, which may be readily procured in tolerable quantity and in a
state of purity.

On submitting trimethylamine to the action of bibromide of ethyl-
ene, phenomena are observed which are perfectly similar to those
which occur in the analogous experiment with triethylphosphine.
On account of the volatility of the trimethylamine, I have never
worked with the anhydrous base, but invariably either with aqueous
or alcoholic solutions. At the common temperature bibromide of
ethylene is only gradually acted on by an aqueous solution of trime-
thylamine. Frequent agitation and contact for several days are
necessary to complete the reaction ; addition of alcohol accelerates
the process ; which may be still very considerably shortened by ex-
posure of the mixture in sealed vessels to a temperature of from 40°
to 50°. To exclude complication, it is desirable to avoid a higher
temperature and to keep always the bromide in considerable excess.

By adopting these precautions, the mixture of the two bodies is soon
found to deposit a white crystalline salt, the formation of which con-
tinues until the liquid has assumed an acid reaction. A considerable
quantity of this salt is dissolved in the water ; it is therefore most
convenient to distil off the excess of bibromide of ethylene and to
evaporate the residuary liquid to dryness. The dry sah'ne mass,
separated from a slightly yellowish deliquescent substance by washing
with absolute alcohol and once or twice recrystallized from the same
solvent, furnishes magnificent white needles, extremely soluble in
water, readily soluble in boiling alcohol, much less so in cold alcohol,
and insoluble in ether. This salt can be boiled with the fixed alka-
lies without disengaging a trace of an alkaline vapour. This deport-
ment renders it easy to recognize the absence of impurities.

The composition of this substance, established by many deter-
minations, is represented by the formula

C2H3
**3

CHNBr=

(C24H4Br)'

10132

This substance, which presents itself as bromide of trimethyl-bro-
methylene-ammonium, is formed by the simple union of 1 equivalent

295

of bibromide of ethylene with 1 equivalent of the tertiary mon-
amine. A glance at the formula exhibits the perfect analogy of the
composition of this compound with that of the bromide formed by
the action of bibromide of ethylene on triethylphosphine. The de-
portment of the two salts with nitrate and with oxide of silver is also
similar in every respect.

By treatment with nitrate of silver, the bromine not belonging to
the ammonium may be removed without affecting the bromine of
the radical. The nitrate thus obtained, after separation of the excess
of silver, furnishes with bichloride of platinum a difficultly soluble
octahedral salt, crystallizable from a large quantity of boiling water,

and containing

C2H3 \

C10 H13 Br N Cl, PtCl2= & **° I NCI, PtCl2 ;

v^2 n3

(C.H.Br)'J

and with terchloride of gold an analogous compound crystallizing
from boiling water in splendid golden-yellow needles,

C2H3 ^j
C10 H13 Br N Cl, AuCl3= $ g3 I NCI, AuCl3.

(e4H4BryJ

Treatment with oxide of silver converts the bromide of trimethyl-
bromethylene-ammonium into the oxide of trimethy I- vinyl-ammonium :

NO, HO.

The solution of this substance is a powerfully alkaline liquid,
which, on saturation with hydrobromic acid, furnishes a deliquescent
bromide of extreme solubility, entirely differing from the original
bromide. The corresponding chloride forms with bichloride of pla-
tinum an octahedral salt, likewise extremely soluble in water, but
insoluble in alcohol ; with terchloride of gold, beautiful yellow needles
recrystallizable from boiling water.

Platinum, salt C10H12NC1, PtCl2= 23 NCI, PtCl2.

^2 ±±3

C4H3
C2H3
Gold-salt. . . . C10 H12 NCI, AuCla= 2 NCI, AuCl3.

296

As might have been expected from the experience gathered in the
phosphorus-series, the formation of the brominetted bromide is in-
variably accompanied by the simultaneous production of the vinyl-
compound, and of a corresponding quantity of hydrobromate of
trimethylamine.

NBr.

Indeed it would appear that at a high temperature and with an
excess of trimethylamine, the equation just given represents the prin-
cipal phase of the reaction. In an experiment made under the
stated conditions, the liquid in the digester had assumed a deep
yellowish colour ; and on evaporation and appropriate treatment a
crystalline salt was obtained, which on analysis was found to con-
sist exclusively of

23
C10HMNBr=g»]MNBr,

23

the mother-liquor containing a large quantity of hydrobromate of
trimethylamine. It is possible that even in this reaction the vinyl-
compound was only a secondary product, formed by the decomposi-
tion of the brominetted bromide under the influence of an excess of
trimethylamine.

CTT "\ fl TT -\ f\ TJ -\

2 ±13 C. H ] 2 3 2 3 I

m NBr+£n: N=WNBr+WNBr•
(C1H4Br)'J C*H'J H'J C4H:J

Exactly as in the phosphorus-series, together with the compounds
described, some other substances are formed, particularly when the
process is supported by the action of heat. As yet I do not suffi-
ciently understand these additional reactions.

I have established experimentally that triethylamine and triamyl-
amine, when treated with bibromide of ethylene, give rise to similar
reactions. I have not, however, minutely examined the substances
which are formed. They are sufficiently characterized by theory.

The unexpected deportment of bibromide of ethylene with the
tertiary monamines and monophosphines, furnishes a new proof of
the fact, that all our rational formulae are, after all, the expressions of

297

special reactions. With the alkalies, the brominetted Dutch liquid
behaves as a double salt of two monatoxnic compounds,

(C4H3)'Br + HBr.

With silver-salts, with aniline, &c., it exhibits the deportment of

a true biatomic compound,

(C4HJ»Br2.

With the tertiary amines and phosphines, lastly, we find that the
elements of the same body, in accordance with the requirement of
the case, arrange themselves into one monatomic compound, the
constitution of which, if we simply consider the function which it
performs under these special circumstances, might be represented by
the formula

(C4H4Br)'Br.

It is obvious that the three formulae,

(C4H3)'Br,HBr,
(C4H4)"Br2 and
(C4H4Br)'Br,

represent the constitution of this body with reference to certain
special conditions; the absolute arrangement of the molecules we
ignore altogether, and it is doubtful whether it will ever be accessible
to experiment.

IX. "Researches on the Action of Ammonia on Glyoxal."
By Dr. H. DEBUS. Communicated by Dr. TYNDALL.
Received May 21, 1858.

(Abstract.)

If alcohol be slowly oxidized by nitric acid at ordinary tempera-
tures, besides other substances, glyoxal, C2 H2 O2, and glyoxylic acid,
C2H4O4*, are formed.

I have continued the investigation of these substances, and beg
to lay before the Royal Society some of the more interesting results.

Glyoxal, of the consistency of ordinary syrup, is mixed with about
three times its bulk of strong ammonia, and the mixture kept for
twenty minutes at a temperature from 60° to 80° C. The liquid
* C = 12, H = l, 0 = 16.— Phil. Mag. Nov. 1856, and Jan. 1857.

298

now contains two organic bases — one in the shape of a crystalline
precipitate, which I propose to call glycosine, and the other in
solution, to which in this paper the name of glyoxaline will be
applied. Besides these two substances, only a little formic acid and
the excess of ammonia can be recognized in the liquid.

Gly cosine =C6H6N4. The crystals contained in the ammoniacal
liquid are collected on a filter and washed with cold water. By
dissolving them in diluted hydrochloric acid, treating with charcoal
and adding ammonia to the decolorized solution, the glycosine is
obtained as a colourless, crystalline precipitate. The crystals are
little prisms, tasteless, inodorous, and only soluble in a great quan-
tity of boiling water. They become very electric when rubbed in a
mortar. A little glycosine placed between two watch-glasses and
heated on a sand-bath, sublimes without leaving a residue, and pro-
duces magnificent prismatic needles, sometimes of half an inch in
length. It forms salts with acids, which generally crystallize well.
The chloride has a great tendency to form double salts with the
chlorides of copper, mercury, and platinum.

Chloroplatinate, C6H6N4 + 2(HClPtCla), forms a fine yellow
crystalline powder, soluble with difficulty in water. An excess of
water seems to abstract bichloride of platinum and hydrochloric
acid. Glycosine is formed from ammonia and glyoxal according to
the equation —

JJ(Ca H2 OJ+4N H,=C, H6 N4+ 6H2 O

Glyoxal. Glycosine. Water.

I showed on another occasion, that glyoxal has the properties of
an aldehyde. Its behaviour towards ammonia confirms my former
conclusions. The formation of amarine, from oil of bitter almonds,
of acetonine from acetone and ammonia, takes place in a similar

manner : —

3(C7 H6 O) + 2NH3= C21 H18 N2+ 3H2 O

Amarine.
3(C3 H6 O) + 2NH3=C9 H18 N2 + 3H2 O

Acetonine.

In all other known cases, when from an aldehyde or the chloride
of an alcohol radical and ammonia, a basic substance is formed,
one or two equivalents of ammonia participate in the reaction.

299

If ammonia and glyoxal decompose each other, four equivalents of
the first transfer their nitrogen to one equivalent of the base pro-
duced. The direct derivation from ammonia of a base which con-
tains four equivalents of nitrogen, seems to me to be very interesting.

The rational formula of glycosine is probably

C3H2

C2 H2 being equivalent to H4.

It is worthy of notice, that in chemical decompositions very often
three equivalents of an aldehyde unite and act like one molecule. I
will only mention, as examples, mesitylene, acetonia, thialdine, hy-
drosalicylamide, and amarine.

Glyoxaline =C3H4N2 is obtained as binoxalate from the mother-
liquor of glycosine, if, after expelling the ammonia by gentle heating,
an excess of oxalic acid is added. The binoxalate crystallizes very
well and may be purified easily. The composition of it is expressed
by the formula C3 H4 N2 + C2 H2 O4. The base is obtained from this
salt by treating it with carbonate of lime, and evaporating the filtrate
from the oxalate of lime to the consistency of a strong syrup.

Glyoxaline crystallizes with difficulty in prismatic crystals, radia-
ting from one centre. It is easily soluble in water, has .a strong
alkaline reaction, neutralizes acids perfectly, but does not appear to
form a compound with carbonic acid. It melts easily, smells like
fish, and evaporates at a higher temperature in dense white fumes.
Chloride of copper forms a precipitate with glyoxaline, which is
soluble in an excess of the base.

The chloroplatinate, C3 H4 Na + HC1 PtCl2, crystallizes in large red
prisms, and is easily soluble in hot water.

The formation of glyoxaline takes place according to the following
equation : —

2(C2H202) + 2NH3=C3H4N2 + CH2O2 +2H2O

Glyoxal. Glyoxaline. Formic acid. Water.

Glyoxaline is homologous with sinnamine.

300

X. " An Experimental Inquiry into the alleged Sugar-forming
Function of the Liver." By F. W. PAVY, M.D. Com-
municated by Dr. OWEN REES. Received May 26, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The author commenced by stating that the question to be discussed
in his communication was, not whether sugar was to be found in the
animal system independently of a saccharine alimentation, for that
he considered to stand upon irrefutable ground ; but whether the
sugar encountered in the liver after death was a natural representa-
tion of the condition during life, or was only the result of a post
mortem occurrence. He had noticed as early as February 1854,
that the blood removed by catheterism of the right ventricle during
life, was almost completely destitute of saccharine impregnation.
The observation did not then, however, receive the attention it
deserved ; but on repeating the experiment at a later period, and
meeting with a similar result, an investigation was made which has
led to the conclusions advanced in his communication.

From upwards of sixty observations, it is asserted that the con-
dition of the blood after death can no longer be taken as indicating
its state during life. For, if blood be withdrawn from the right
ventricle of the living animal in a natural or tranquil state, there is
scarcely an appreciable amount of sugar to be discovered, whilst, if
the animal be afterwards sacrificed and blood collected from a fine in-
cision of the ventricle, it will be found to present a strong indication
of the presence of sugar. In one of the experiments quoted, there
was a barely appreciable reaction in the blood removed during life,
and nearly 1 per cent of sugar in the blood collected after death,
the animal having been sacrificed immediately after catheterism has
been performed.

Observing this striking contrast in the blood abstracted from the
right ventricle before and after death, the possibility occurred that
there might be a corresponding contrast in the organ that was con-
sidered to be specially endowed with a sugar-forming function. The
recent researches of Bernard had taught us that a material naturally
existed in the liver which was extremely susceptible of conversion
into sugar. It was this material, in fact, which was looked upon as

301

giving rise to the sugar thought to be largely present in the liver
during life. At the outset of the inquiry, an agent was sought for
which would check the transformation of the sugar-forming material
after death, and thus present the liver in a condition as near as pos-
sible to that which existed during life. Potash was found to possess
this effect without destroying the principles concerned. A strong
solution of it was then injected, as instantly after death as practicable,
through the portal vein into the liver ; and, as the result, the organ
presented scarcely any appreciable trace of the presence of sugar. A
liver similarly treated when it had been allowed to remain a short
period after death, gave the usual strong reaction of sugar that has
been hitherto noticed. By injecting only a part of the organ with
the alkali, it is most strikingly susceptible of demonstration, that
the presence of sugar is in reality due to a post mortem occurrence,
and can therefore be no longer looked upon as a representation of
the natural ante mortem condition.

The sudden abstraction of heat from the liver instantly after
death, leads to a similar arrest of the production of sugar, and thus
enables us likewise to represent the real condition of the organ
belonging to life. In one of the experiments mentioned, where a
dog was sacrificed, and a piece of the liver instantly sliced off and
thrown into a freezing mixture of ice and salt, the absence of sugar
was almost complete ; the amount at least was so small, that it was
found impossible to arrive at a quantitative determination with a
concentrated spirituous extract, notwithstanding the process is sus-
ceptible of so great a delicacy. The portion of the liver which was
not submitted to the action of cold, and which was allowed to remain
a short time in the animal, yielded on analysis an indication of 2- 96
per cent, of sugar.

Division of the spinal cord in the lower part of the cervical region,
the effects of which have been noticed by Bernard, but differently
interpreted, leads to a corroboration of the deductions drawn from
the preceding experiments. When the weather is cold or moderate,
the operation is followed by a gradual reduction of temperature; and
if the animal be sacrificed when its body has cooled down to about
70°, the liver is found free from sugar, upon an ordinary immediate
examination, because at such a degree the post mortem transforma-
tion is not effected with sufficient rapidity to lead to our deception.

302

Placed aside, however, it soon becomes strongly saccharine. Should
the operation of division of the cord be performed, and the
temperature of the animal be afterwards maintained at about the
ordinary height by exposure to external warmth, then the liver is
as strongly saccharine upon ordinary examination after death, as if
the animal had been taken and simply sacrificed.

By oiling the coats of rabbits and exposing them to cold, the
temperature of the body falls, and precisely the same phenomena
are noticed as after division of the cord.

"With frogs in a vigorous condition, the presence or absence of
sugar in the liver submitted to the ordinary process of examination
after death, is dependent upon the temperature of the animal at the
time of the destruction of life. This fact was independently noticed
by myself about the time that it was mentioned by Bernard in a
communication to the Parisian Academy of Sciences. Bernard's
interpretation of it is connected with the relative activity of the ab-
dominal circulation ; but, for myself, I bring it forward as strongly
supporting the views that have been advanced, and consider it to be
explained by the influence of temperature on the post mortem pro-
duction of sugar.

The material which occasions the presence of sugar in the dead
liver, has been called by Bernard "Glucogenic matter," — a term
which, being only specially applicable after death, it is suggested
should be abandoned, and replaced by Hepatine.

The amount of hepatine in the liver of the dog is much greater
under a vegetable than an animal diet. The amount is also increased
by mixing sugar with animal food. From the examples given, it is
shown likewise that the relative weight of the liver presents a pro-
portionate variation, according to the quantity of hepatine present.
In eleven dogs taken indiscriminately, that had been restricted to
an animal diet, the weight of the liver was one-thirtieth that of the
animal. The average per-centage of hepatine yielded by eight livers,
also taken indiscriminately after an animal diet, was 6' 97. Five
instances have been collected of dogs restricted to a vegetable diet
for some days prior to death. The average weight of the liver was
one-fifteenth that of the animal. In only three of the examples
was the actual amount of hepatine determined, but in the other two
it was noticed to be exceedingly large. The average given by the

303

three was 17*23 per cent. Four dogs were placed upon an animal
diet, and about a quarter of a pound of ordinary cane-sugar ad-
ministered daily for a short period. The average weight given by
the four livers was one-sixteenth and a half that of the animal, and
the average amount of hepatine yielded was 14*5 per cent.

The natural destination of hepatine in the living body remains to
be determined. It has also to be shown how it resists transforma-
tion into sugar during life, when it is so rapidly changed at an
elevated temperature immediately after death. A possible analogy
may be presented by the following occurrence : — When a solution of
hepatine, in a neutral state, is placed in contact with saliva, an
almost instantaneous transformation into sugar takes place ; but if
a little acid alkali or carbonated alkali be added, scarcely a trace of
change is for some time discoverable.

Under normal circumstances, rarely an appreciable amount of
sugar is encountered in the circulatory system — only, according to my
analyses, from about *047 to '073 of a grain in 100 grains of defi-
brinated right-ventricular blood ; and this would appear to result
rather from a simple escape of a small amount of hepatine from the
tissue of the liver into the blood whilst circulating through the
capillaries, than from a special functional operation of the organ ; for
when a disturbance of the circulation, whether by congestion or the
opposite, is occasioned, sugar makes its appearance to a considerable
extent in the system, because the admixture of hepatine with the
blood is favoured. It can be easily shown by experiment, that on
introducing hepatine into the circulatory system, a saccharine state
of the blood is induced, and if enough have been employed, a
strongly marked diabetic condition of urine is established.

Sacrificing an animal and maintaining the circulation by perform-
ing artificial respiration, occasions a well-marked diabetes. With
the destruction of life, the transformation of hepatine into sugar
takes place, and this, being carried away by the blood, is eliminated
by the kidneys, and thus renders the urine strongly saccharine.

Many phenomena which were before obscurely explained, receive
a lucid interpretation from the new facts which have now been
brought to light.

VOL. IX.

304

XL " On the Properties of Electro-deposited Antimony" (con-
tinued). By GEORGE GORE, Esq. Communicated by
Dr. TYNDALL. Received June 1, 1858.

(Abstract.)

In this paper the following additional information is given respect-
ing this singular substance.

The change observed in it is shown not to be an exercise of the
force of cohesion, because the amount of heat evolved by the powdered
metal is not sensibly different from that set free by the substance in
its coherent massive state.

The thermic discharge is not limited to a particular temperature,
but commences between 170° and 190° Fahr., and increases in rapi-
dity to some point above 212° Fahr., when it becomes sudden.

The heat may be discharged either suddenly or gradually, accord-
ing to the amount to be discharged in relation to the amount of
cooling influences present.

The specific heat of the unchanged metal was found to be=
0*06312; and of the same specimens, after being gradually dis-
charged, the specific heat was not sensibly different. But the spe-
cific heat of the substance, after sudden discharge, was found to
be=0'0543.

The total amount of heat evolved by the substance during its
change was sufficient to raise the temperature of its own weight of
ordinary antimony (sp. heat= 0*0508) about 650° Fahr.

The evolution of vapour which generally occurs during the change
is a result of the molecular heat acting upon the terchloride of anti-
mony contained in the substance. It occurs when a sufficient tem-
perature is produced either by internal or external causes, and does
not occur when the molecular discharge is gradual and the tempe-
rature is not sufficiently raised ; in such cases the weight of the sub-
stance remains unaltered.

The substance, as usually produced from ordinary muriate of anti-
mony, or from a mixture of that substance and tartar-emetic, contains
small quantities of nearly all the ingredients and impurities of the
depositing liquid.

The pure substance deposited upon sheets of platinum, in a solu-
tion of pure hydrochloric acid three-fourths saturated with pure

305

oxide of antimony, with an anode of pure antimony, exhibited no
material difference in properties from the less pure variety.

Two analyses of the pure unchanged substance gave the following
per-centages : —

No. 1.
Sb . . 93-36

No. 2.
Sb . 93-51

SbCl3 5-981 SbCl

HC1

99-80

HOI.

99-75

A trace of water contained in them was not estimated.

Solvents removed the chloride of antimony from the powdered sub-
stance much more readily after the thermic discharge than before it.

Differences of physical appearance were detected in the changed
and unchanged substance in the state of powder under a microscope ;
the surfaces of the latter were smooth and brilliant, whilst those of
the former were granular and less bright. No mechanical mixture
could be detected in the changed powder.

From the various experiments detailed in the paper, it appears that
the substance in question is a feeble chemical compound of antimony
and acid hydrochlorate of terchloride of antimony, apparently in
variable proportions, decomposable by heat, and that the change
observed in it, in cases of gradual discharge, consists of a molecular
alteration, attended by weakened chemical affinity, and by evolution
of heat ; but in cases of sudden discharge the evolved heat produces
a partial chemical decomposition, which is of greater or less extent,
according to the temperature acquired.

A portion of the powdered unchanged substance, digested sixty-
three days with an aqueous solution of caustic potash, lost 2 -95 per
cent, in weight, but still retained about fths of its heating power.
A second portion, digested fifty-six days with strong hydrochloric
acid, lost 6*66 per cent, and all its heating power.

Exposure to light did not destroy the heating power of the
powdered substance.

By depositing the grey variety of antimony into mercury, a pasty
compound of the two metals was formed. The amorphous variety
did not combine with mercury under similar circumstances.

An acid solution of fluoride of antimony yielded by electro-depo-
sition grey crystalline antimony not possessing the heating power.

Y2

306

XII. " On the Action of Bile upon Fats ; with Additional Ob-
servations on Excretine." By W. MARCET, M.D., F.R.S.,
Assistant Physician and Lecturer on Chemistry to the
Westminster Hospital. Received June 10, 1858.
(Abstract.)

Having formerly observed and communicated to the Soeiete de
Biologic of Paris, that by heating a solution of neutral tribasic
phosphate of soda (2NaO . HO . PO5) mixed with animal fatty acids,
an emulsion was obtained attended with the formation of a small
quantity of soap, while no such action occurred if neutral fats were
used instead of fatty acids, I was induced to inquire into the nature
of the action of bile on neutral fats and fatty acids (sheep's bile being
used), with the final object of throwing, if possible, some additional
light on the digestion of fats. These investigations led to the fol-
lowing results : —

1 . A mixture of bile and neutral fats (stearine, oleine and marga-
rine), heated to a temperature above the fusing-point of the fat, un-
dergoes no change, and no chemical action takes place.

2. A mixture of bile and fatty acids (stearic, oleic, and margaric
acids), heated to a temperature above the fusing-point of the fatty
acids, is transformed into a solution, a very few and minute globules
only of fat remaining unacted upon from the presence of oleic acid.
This solution becomes a perfect emulsion on cooling, and is attended
with a chemical decomposition of the bile ; and further, if the emul-
sion of bile and fatty acids be filtered when quite cold, and the residue
on the filter thoroughly washed with distilled water, the filtrate and
washings mixed together again possess the property of forming an
emulsion with another quantity of fatty acids, being also at the same
time partly decomposed, although in the previous operation the bile
appeared to have exhausted its power on the fatty acids. The fil-
trate and washings from this second operation again act upon a
fresh quantity of fatty acids, and so on ; only in every subsequent
operation the proportion of emulsion obtained appears to diminish,
and the induced chemical decomposition to be lessened.

3. Pure oleic acid, when agitated with bile, cold or hot, produces
no emulsion or chemical action whatever.

4. The stomach during digestion has the power of decomposing

307

the tats contained in the food into fatty acids, fats acquiring thereby
the property of being acted upon chemically by the bile, and of being
transformed into an emulsion.

The chemical action, or saponification, induced by the fatty acids
under the above circumstances, was proved by the mixture acquiring
a strong acid reaction ; and it was further observed that the acid fil-
trate from the cold emulsion was not precipitated by hydrochloric
acid, showing apparently that fatty acids exert on bile a chemical
decomposition at least as extensive as hydrochloric acid. With the
view of determining precisely the amount of soap formed, a method
of analysis was adopted calculated to indicate the proportion of fatty
acid remaining unacted upon by the bile : the difference between the
fatty acids used and the result of the above operation was equal to
the weight of the fatty acids saponified. It was found, in three ana-
lyses, that the mixture of bile and fatty acids being exposed for three
hours (in Analysis II. for 3^ hours) to the heat of an open water-bath,
contained an amount of soap in which the proportion of fatty acids
was 30'21 per cent., 20'5 per cent., 11 '5 per cent, of that employed
in the analysis. The filtrate from the emulsion in analysis No. II.,
mixed with the solution obtained by washing the emulsion with di-
stilled water, was treated for three hours on the water- bath with a
fresh quantity of fatty acids, which operation yielded a proportion of
fatty acid saponified equal to 12*7 per cent, of that used in the ana-
lysis. Finally, the filtrate and washings obtained in this last group
were mixed with another quantity of fatty acids, and exposed for three
hours to the heat of the water-bath, in which case the proportion of
fatty acid saponified was equal to 3*8 per cent, of that used in the
analysis. The various operations had been attended with the forma-
tion of an emulsion.

In order to be certain that, after exposing a mixture of bile and
fatty acids to the heat of a water-bath for three hours, the chemical
action thus induced was completely exhausted, two analyses were
undertaken according to the process just mentioned, and with bile
from the same gall-bladder ; but in one operation the mixture was
heated for three hours, and in the other for six hours : the propor-
tion of fatty acid saponified was the same in both cases, showing that
after three hours the bile had ceased to act on the fatty acids.

Having obtained the above results, an inquiry was next undertaken

308

respecting the state of the fats of food in the stomach during diges-
tion. For this purpose the contents of the stomach of several dogs,
fed with cooked meat and neutral sheep's fat, were examined at dif-
ferent stages of digestion ; the acids of the stomach soluble in water
were removed by protracted washings with distilled water, and the
residue being treated with alcohol and ether, yielded solutions found
to contain fatty acids. In some cases the contents of the stomach
were first treated with alcohol, and the fatty matters thus obtained
subsequently washed with distilled water, and finally again dissolved
in alcohol and ether. These analyses constantly yielded fatty acids,
which, when heated with fresh sheep's bile, were found to dissolve
and produce an emulsion.

In order to determine whether the cooking of the meat with which
the dogs had been fed had transformed any of the neutral fats into
fatty acids, a sample of roast meat was mixed and washed with di-
stilled water until the washings had completely lost their acid reac-
tion ; the meat was then mixed with alcohol and allowed to stand for
more than a week. After that time the fluid was found to be per-
fectly neutral, showing that no fatty acids had been formed.

From these researches it appears that the presence of bile in the
intestines is closely connected with the digestion of fats.

The results of recent investigations on excretine show that this
substance exists on an average in the proportion of 0*460 grm. for
one evacuation when the excretine is impure, and of 0*184 grm.
when it is pure. From the careful examination of the faeces of a
child one year old, I have ascertained that they invariably contained
no excretine, but cholesterine ; the proportion of the latter, purified
by repeated crystallizations, being equal to 0*036 grm. in one eva-
cuation, which number is, however, a very low estimate. Nothing
in the food could account for this singular result. It is therefore
most probable that excretine is only present in the evacuations of
the full-grown or adult individual.

I have been most ably aided in these investigations by my assist-
ant, Mr. Frederick Dupre, Ph.D.

309

XIII. " Further Remarks on the Organo-metallic Radicals, and
Observations more particularly directed to the isolation of
Mercuric, Plumbic, and Stannic Ethyl." By GEORGE
BOWDLER BUCKTON, Esq., F.R.S. Received June 17, 1858.

Before again entering on the subject of the organo-metals, the
author wishes to call attention to the remarks he has previously
made* on the difficulties which presented themselves at that time in
the preparation of mercuric ethyl. Secondary decompositions,
induced by the nature of the materials employed and the high
temperature necessary to the reaction, showed themselves even in
the more easily prepared mercuric methyl, and reduced the quantity
obtained considerably below that pointed out by theory.

The loss sustained in the similar operation of distilling together
cyanide of potassium and iodide of mercurous ethyl, C4 H5 Hg2 1, is
yet more marked; and it may be remembered that the portion
obtained did no more than suffice for a cursory examination of its
most marked characters. A new mode of operating was therefore
desirable, and it was not long before the following considerations
presented themselves.

The powerful and well-defined affinities of zinc-ethyl have already
furnished a valuable key to the explanation of several chemical
problems, and seem to be well suited for experiment in the present
case. Bearing in mind its well-known reactions on water and hydro-
chloric acid, there appeared to be well-grounded reasons for supposing
that interesting decompositions might be effected with various oxides,
chlorides, and iodides.

Through the instrumentality of zinc-ethyl the author has succeeded
in isolating, in a neat and efficient manner, several of the organo-
metals, and he indulges a hope that they may, when taken as starting-
points of investigation, prove of service in fixing exact formulae to
some of those bodies, the composition of which, at present, appear
doubtful from their complexity.

Action of Zinc- ethyl on Mercuric Chloride.
Corrosive sublimate acts with great energy on zinc-ethyl ; so much

* Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. ; Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. ix. p. 91.

310

so, as to render it necessary to cool the apparatus in water, and add
the well-dried salt by degrees. An excess of the latter must be
avoided, since chloride of mercurous ethyl would be formed, as was
formerly shown to be the case in the methyl series.

After the two bodies have been brought together in their proper
proportions, heat is applied, and the radical passes over by distillation
as a heavy, colourless, and nearly inodorous liquid ; the slight excess
of zinc-ethyl is then decomposed by the addition of water, and just
sufficient dilute hydrochloric acid added as will dissolve the preci-
pitated oxide of zinc.

The two transformations may be seen in the equations,

C4 H5 Zn + Hg C1=C4 H5 Hg+Zii Cl,
and again,

C4HsHg + HgCl=C4H5Hg2Cl.

The pure radical boils at a temperature between 158° and 160° G.
It burns readily, with a luminous and somewhat smoky flame, with
disengagement of mercurial vapour. It is almost wholly insoluble
in water. Alcohol dissolves it rather sparingly, but it mixes freely
with ether.

The behaviour of acids towards mercuric ethyl is strictly analogous
to that shown by mercuric methyl. With dilute acid there is but
little change, but warm concentrated hydrochloric or sulphuric acid
liberates hydride of ethyl in sufficient quantity to permit of its
inflammation through a gas jet. The salts of mercurous ethyl
remain in solution.

The specific gravity of a specimen boiling between 158° and 160° C.
was found to be 2'444, and the same sample when submitted to
analysis, gave numbers agreeing accurately with the formula

C4H5Hg.

The correctness of this formula was further confirmed by an appeal
to the vapour-density.

The first experiment failed, from the circumstance that the vapour
decomposes with a slight explosion, when heated a few degrees
above 205° C. In this experiment metallic mercury was deposited
on the walls of the glass balloon as a grey film, and the other
contents consisted of an inflammable gas. Mercuric methyl appears
therefore to be resolved at this temperature into ethyl gas and*
mercury.

311

Another experiment was more successful, and gave the number
9 '97 for the vapour-density.

The equivalent weight of mercuric ethyl is 129, which, being

129
divided by the former figures, gives ^ — 1 2 • 9 4 . If the constituents

of this radical be condensed into two volumes of vapour, the more
accurate number 14 '86 should have been obtained.

The theoretical density of mercuric ethyl, thus calculated, is equal

129
101^=8-68*.

This portion of the subject would be incomplete unless a few
words were added on the behaviour of zinc-ethyl towards mercurous
chloride.

It has been mentioned, that all attempts to reduce iodide of mer-
curous methyl to the form of a radical containing one equivalent of
methyl and two equivalents of mercury have hitherto failed.

Reasoning a priori, we should not expect to find a departure in
the present case, neither does such appear. Mercurous chloride
reacts with vigour on zinc-ethyl, but metallic mercury is formed
simultaneously with chloride of zinc and mercuric ethyl.

The decompositions of mercurous and mercuric chlorides or
iodides, are thus shown : —

C4H5Zn + Hg2Cl=C4H5Hg+Zn

and

C4H5Zn+HgCl=C4H5Hg + ZnCL

Having succeeded, by these simple means, in effecting a replacement
in zinc- ethyl through the ordinary metallic chlorides, there remained
yet one point untouched, viz. the behaviour of various organo-
metallic salts, under similar treatment.
First in order was tried

* Here it is fitting to mention an error that has crept into the calculation of the
vapour-density of mercuric methyl as it appears printed in the ' Proceedings of the
Royal Society.' A false figure in the denominator of one of the fractions, causes
the experimental density to appear as 14 '8 6, whereas the true experimental density
observed was 8'29. The theoretical density of mercuric methyl calculated for two

volumes, equals j^:4-6 = 7'95.

312

The Action of Zinc-ethyl on Iodide of Mercurous Ethyl,
Carbonic acid, or ordinary coal-gas, was slowly passed through the
neck of a retort ; and when the atmospheric air was displaced, about two
ounces of zinc-ethyl, nearly free from ether, and wholly so from iodide
of ethyl, was introduced. Iodide of mercurous ethyl was then added,
by degrees, through the tubulure, and the whole mixed by agitation.
The zinc-ethyl at first dissolves the iodide, but subsequently a cake
of iodide of zinc is formed. Distillation was then commenced, the
heat being raised by degrees until gaseous products appeared. The
distillate, after being well washed, was rectified by the thermometer,
and in this manner the radical was obtained in a state of purity.
Iodide of mercurous ethyl may be formed so easily by diffused day-
light, and its action is so gentle on zinc- ethyl, that its use offers
greater conveniences to the operator than are afforded by any of the
substances previously mentioned.

For obvious reasons, a similar choice of materials is recommended
for preparing mercuric methyl.

Action of Zinc-ethyl on Chloride of Lead.

The close relations which exist between the three metals, lead,
mercury, and silver, in their equivalent weights, salts, and other
characters, lead the author to anticipate success in forming their
ethyl bases.

The existence of the lead radical might indeed be considered as
certain, since various salts of complicated structure have been made
•known to chemists through the experiments of M. Lb'wig, on the
alloy of lead and sodium, under treatment with iodide of ethyl.

The principal product obtained by him, and the only one appa-
rently analysed, had a grouping similar to a sesquichloride. The
formula ascribed by him to the radical plumbethylium is Pb2 (O4H5)3.
I have attempted to form the iodide of this radical by exposing
sealed tubes, containing granulated lead and iodide of ethyl, to the
sun's rays, but without success. No better result was obtained by
substituting bromide of ethyl for the iodide, and no change could
be induced even when these tubes were heated strongly with high-
pressure steam.

M. L6 wig's method was not resorted to, from the supposition that
the action of zinc-ethyl on a mixture would only give rise to radicals of

313

various constitution, which it might be impossible afterwards to
separate, except by working on a large scale, which, considering the
costliness of the materials, had its disadvantages. Perhaps success
might attend the use of one of Dr. Frankland's mirrors for concen-
trating the sun's rays.

For obtaining the lead-radical, recourse was had to well-dried
chloride of lead, which was introduced into a flask containing zinc-
ethyl. The chloride immediately turned black, from the deposit of
metallic lead, whilst moderate heat was disengaged. An excess of
chloride was used, and the mass incorporated by stirring with a
glass rod. After applying a gentle heat for a few minutes, the
floating clear liquid was pipetted off. This substance is apparently
a compound of zinc-ethyl and the lead radicals. It fumes slightly
in the air, and no digestion with chloride of lead appeared to resolve
it entirely into the lead base.

A great part of the zinc-ethyl, however, is removed by subsequent
distillation ; but the temperature should not be permitted to rise
above 140° or 150° C. The substance in the retort is then treated
with water and dilute hydrochloric acid, when the radical separates,
and sinks in the form of colourless drops. When distilled cautiously,
the thermometer soon rises to 200° ; but beyond this point the vapour
is very prone to decomposition, with deposit of metallic lead.

From this tendency to change, there is some difficulty in obtaining
the substance wholly pure from bodies with lower boiling-points.
The larger portion came over between 198° to 202°. Its specific
gravity was found to be 1*55.

Analysis led to the formula

PbC8H10,orPb(C4H5)2.

It should, however, be noticed that a trifling excess in the per-
centage of carbon obtained, showed an increase rather than a decrease
in the number of equivalents of ethyl.

This radical, for which the provisional name of plumbic bis-ethyl
is suggested, is a colourless fluid, possessing little or no odour. It
is insoluble in water, but perfectly miscible with ether. It burns
readily with a beautiful orange-coloured flame, edged with blue, and
gives off fumes of oxide of lead.

The radical appears to be incapable of forming salts without a

314

partial decomposition. With weak acids there is no perceptible
action ; but when they are concentrated and gently heated, a gas is
given off, and crystalline salts are produced.

The chloride is insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol and in
ether, from which last liquid it crystallizes in satiny needles, which are
very volatile and provoke sneezing and lachrymation. It burns with
the characteristic lead flame, and by long digestion with concentrated
hydrochloric acid, is converted into chloride of lead and volatile
products.

The sulphate also appears as a crystalline mass when plumbic-bis-
ethyl is gently warmed with a few drops of concentrated sulphuric
acid. It is conveniently prepared by agitating the materials in a
stoppered bottle, an exit being made from time to time for the gas
which is liberated.

Both these salts require analyses to fix their composition, the
details of which the author hopes shortly to be able to communicate.

The Action of Zinc-ethyl on Chloride of Silver.

These substances react with some violence, and a black substance
sinks in the liquid, which proved to be a mixture of chloride and
metallic silver. The zinc-ethyl seems partly to escape decomposition,
even when the chloride is in excess and considerable heat is applied.
On the addition of water, effervescence sets in, and chloride of zinc
is alone found in solution.

In another experiment dry ether was employed instead of water,
under a supposition that a solid compound might be formed, soluble
in that menstruum. The only reaction, however, appeared to be
that expressed by the equation,

C4 H5 Zn+ AgCl=Zn 01+ Ag+C4 H5.

A similar negative result was obtained when zinc-ethyl was made to
react on protochloride of platinum, Pt Cl. The action is violent,
and the platinum is thrown down in the form of platinum-black.

The same remark also applies to protochloride of copper, Cu2 Cl,
when similarly treated ; no combination of copper and ethyl could
be thereby eliminated.

315

Action of Zinc-ethyl on Iodide of Stan-ethyl.

This iodide, C4 H5 Sn, I, was readily obtained by heating sealed
tubes containing excess of tinfoil and iodide of ethyl from 150° to
160° C. The pure transparent crystals which were obtained by a
little management, were introduced, in a melted state, into a retort
containing zinc-ethyl. It is necessary to cool the apparatus with
water. After breaking up the resulting mass, the retort was heated
until the thermometer marked 210° C., and the distillate, which con-
tained a slight excess of zinc-ethyl, was agitated with water, and
treated with dilute acid, as before described.

The resulting heavy liquid was again distilled, and fractionized
with the thermometer. By far the larger portion came over between
170° and 180° as a clear and colourless body, insoluble in water, but
soluble, like the other radicals, in ether. That section which pos-
sessed a boiling-point between 176° and 180° C., was taken for
examination, and was found, when burned with oxide of copper, to

give the formula

bn C8 H10, or cm (C4 U.)2.

This compound, for which the name stannic bis-ethyl is proposed, has
a specific gravity of 1*192. In its external and more prominent
characters it resembles plumbic bis-ethyl ; but an exception may be
made, that it is more stable. It is very combustible, burning with
a coloured flame and scintillation like that exhibited by the metal tin
under the flame of the hydro-oxygen blowpipe.

This radical appears to differ in several particulars from the
organo-metal stan-ethyl, C4 H. Sn, obtained by Dr. Frankland by
acting on sheet-zinc with a salt of stan-ethyl. This last body is
described as a thick, oily substanne, possessed of a powerful odour,
and having a specific gravity of T55. It differs also in its lower
boiling-point, which is about 150° C.

Pure stannic bis-ethyl is perfectly limpid, inodorous, and is acted
upon by hydrochloric acid with difficulty. A gas is slowly evolved
on the application of heat, and a chloride is formed which seems to
be richer in tin than the radical itself.

The chloride appears to crystallize with difficulty, and at usual
temperatures has the consistence of an oil. It possesses a powerfully
pungent odour, and when heated, a vapour which painfully attacks
the skin of the face, and produces fits of sneezing.

316

A corresponding bromide is formed when bromine is added to
stannic bis-ethyl. It is an oily body, with an irritating odour.
When acted upon by ammonia, an oxide is precipitated, which with
acids forms beautiful crystallizable salts, readily soluble in water.

A complete history of these salts, and their decompositions with
zinc-ethyl, will possess much interest, and may prove of value in
referring to a few simple radicals the numerous complex bodies
described by Lowig, &c.

The author is at present engaged on this branch of the inquiry,
a detailed account of which he hopes to embody in a communication
to the Royal Society, the present paper being intended only as an
outline to be hereafter filled in.

In conclusion, the author would remark that a rich harvest can
scarcely fail to be reaped, from submitting to the action of zinc-ethyl
the metallic compounds of other groups, such as arsenic, bismuth,
and antimony.

XIV. " Preliminary Notice of Additional Researches on the
Cinchona Alkaloids." — Part III. By W. BIRD HERAPATH,
M.D. &c. Communicated by Professor STOKES, Sec. R.S.
Received June 17, 1858.

Since the author had the honour of presenting to the Royal
Society his paper entitled " Researches on the Cinchona Alkaloids,"
Parts I. and II., he has been much occupied with a continuation of
the subject, and he has arrived at important results, which, although
in an unfinished state, he hastens to lay before the scientific world,
in order to assure himself of the priority of discovery.

Having had occasion to make some experiments upon the rotatory
power of the /3-quinidin mentioned in the first part of his paper, he
arrived at the conclusion that some other feebly dextro- gyrate alka-
loid accompanied it, and of a more soluble and less crystallizable
character. Consequently, on its further purification by frequent re-
crystallization from alcohol, the quinidin was obtained perfectly pure ;
it then had the molecular rotation assigned to it by Pasteur, namely
250°' 75|( . Two examinations have given the following elements : —

I. Its solution having been made in rectified spirit of • 83 6 by boiling,

317

and crystallized at 02° F., the concentrated solution decanted gave
the following elements for Blot's formula :—

Arc
e. d. I. blue violet.

•02728 -85172 315-8 l8°-5/ = 251°'?/

II. Its sulphate, perfectly neutral, and concentrated at 61° F.: —

e. d. I. Arc.

•0088441 1-00406 315*8 7°/= 249°'55/

These observations were all made with the naked eye, and the
tint of passage was that of the blue-violet petal. When the pink
violet, or lilac tint was employed, the arc observed was 20°' 25 for
No. I. experiment, which with the same elements of calculation gave
274°'093^; and with No. II., the arc 25°'75, which, as before, gave
279C'7*/ • The slightly dextro-gyrate alkaloid existing as a contami-
nation was quinicine ; and upon its removal, the /3-quinidin had the
same solubility in ether as the quinidin of Pasteur. One very pecu-
liar circumstance elicited during this examination, was the fact that
the perfectly pure recrystallized quinidin, if made into the neutral
sulphate and crystallized by cooling, produces, if made with distilled
water at 212° F., a slightly greenish solution, however great the care
which might have been taken to remove all the mother-water by
washing the crystal on the filter. This green tint deepens consider-
ably during concentration, or by boiling, and at length gives rise
to the erroneous impression that some salt of copper is present :
in this condition, a tube having a length of 315*8 millims., when
filled with the solution, is absolutely impervious to light. It is pro-
bable that some molecular change is produced by the action of boil-
ing, even if only for a short time ; therefore it was necessary to make
a concentrated solution at 1 20° F., and set in repose for some days
at 62° F., by which precaution the solution experienced only a very
slight discoloration. When formerly experimenting on /3-quinidin,
the author obtained an iodo-sulphate very different from that which
he has described as indicative of the quinidin of Pasteur : having
pursued this inquiry, he is now enabled to state that his former dis-
crepancies arose from the fact that quinidin forms two iodo-sulphates,
according to the manner in which it is treated.

1st. When- a dilute solution of the acid sulphate of quinidin is

318

mixed with one-third or one-half its bulk of rectified spirit and raised
to 160° or 180°, then treated with tincture of iodine in small quan-
tities, the red iodo-sulphate is produced, having the characters pre-
viously described as indicative of quinidin, — quinine, when similarly
treated, invariably producing the optical salt.

The only precaution necessary to be taken in the case of the
alkaloid quinidin is to avoid adding an excess of iodine ; other-
wise an amorphous resinoid substance is deposited which will not
crystallize.

2ndly. But when we treat the acid sulphate of quinidin in a concen-
trated form, diluted with from thirty to forty times its bulk of rec-
tified spirit at a temperature from rather below 1 20° F., with the tinc-
ture of iodine, even in greater proportions, an optical salt of quinidin
is produced, being the perfect analogue of the quinine salt.

It crystallizes from this strong spirituous solution as acicular long
lanceolate prisms, the form of which appears to be a rhomboid having
30° for the acute and 1 50° as the obtuse angles ; but they are more
frequently found with a termination like the blade of an ordi-
nary bleeding-lancet. These prisms have a frequent disposition to
hemitropism, but in superposition, so that two plates may be often
found overlying each other in a parallel position, wholly obstructing
light in those portions where they cover each other, but transmitting
an olive- or yellowish-green tint where separate.

Sometimes the terminal planes are rectangular. This imbricated
mode of crystallization is very peculiar ; and although the author has
made thousands of experiments with quinine, yet he never saw any-
thing similar to it ; for this alkaloid invariably crystallizes from dilute
alcoholic solutions as the a-prism, obstructing light when the length
is perpendicular to the plane of reflected light polarized in a vertical
plane, — or from strong alcoholic solutions, where the spirit is about
two-thirds the bulk, as /3-prisms, which obstruct light in the opposite
plane, or, as the author has described it, when the planes of their
length " lie in a plane parallel to that of the polarized beam with
which they are examined." In the case of quinine, these two sets of
prisms never occur together; but if made by separate operations
and then artificially mixed on the same slide, they present the optical
characters of this new quinidin salt, viz. obstructing light when two
long prisms overlie each other in a parallel position. They are there-

319

fore a- and /3-prisms crystallizing together from the same strong alco-
holic solution.

The more frequent form in which this salt shows itself, however, is
as the a-prism, from solutions in which the alcohol is vastly predomi-
nant over the water ; whereas with quinine, /3-prisms always develope
themselves under similar circumstances (vide ' Proceedings/ vol. vi.).
This new quinidin salt has a very great similarity in its optical pro-
perty to the quinine salt. Its reflected tint is a metallic blue-green,
when in liquid or in contact with glass ; but after filtering, and when
exposed on paper, it has a brownish-olive colour, and loses all appear-
ance of metallic reflexion to the naked eye. Its transmitted tint is,
when polarized parallel to its axis, a brownish-yellow green, even in
thin plates, but verging to brown in thicker. Its "indicative body"
colour is brownish red.

One great peculiarity attends upon this salt ; if it be permitted to
remain in the acid mother- liquid, it disintegrates by gradual solution,
and disappears, whilst, upon the side of the bottle, solid and
large crystals slowly form, of a rhombohedric form, or having
some of its modifications, the more frequent of which is that with
replacement upon the short axis of the rhombohedron by triangular
planes. These crystals have a deep sienna-brown colour by trans-
mission, and a dark steel-blue by reflexion, verging on purple ;
they strongly polarize light, and differ materially from the garnet-red
iodo-sulphate previously described, by the greater intensity of their
optical properties.

When we attempt to purify the optical thin prisms by recrystalli-
zation from alcohol, the same modification appears to be produced ;
but the crystals are acicular rhombic prisms ; the optical charac-
ters are the same, however, as those of the rhombohedral form.

The characters, therefore, by which this salt is known from qui-
nine are many.

1st. Its crystallizing as a-prisms, or as a- and /3-prisms from strong
spirituous solutions.

2nd. Its brownish- olive reflected tint as seen by the naked eye.

3rd. Its deeper yellow and brownish- green transmitted tint.

4th. The probable difference in the primary form of the laminated
variety, being a very acute prism of a rhombic form, having 30° as
the acute, and 1 50° as the obtuse angles.

VOL. ix. z

320

5th. The modification which it undergoes by resolution or recry-
stallization, and the formation of a salt more resembling the garnet-
red iodo-sulphate, but having strongly marked differential characters
from this beautiful salt, viz. its strong tourmaline powers of absorp-
tion and its deeper colour, being nearly a brown- purple, and by its
disposition to assume the rhombohedric form.

The author has not yet analysed this salt, but hopes ere long to
accomplish this matter and communicate his results to the Royal
Society ; but he ventures to hope that it will be found to contain 2
atoms sulphuric acid and 3 atoms iodine, like the analogous quinine
and cinchonidin salts.

The author has also assured himself that there is an analogous
class of salts produced by ethyle-quinine and ethyle-quinidin, but
optically distinct from those of quinine and quinidin. He has already
produced three salts from ethyle-quinine, having optical characters
different from any previously described.

1st. A deep purple-red salt by transmitted light, in thicker plates
or aciculse quite impervious to light. This salt occurs as very slender
acicular prisms ; it has a brilliant metallic-green reflected tint, but
very little double absorption.

2nd. There is a foliaceous salt, having a plate-like form, a deep
red or orange-red colour, transmitting an orange-yellow, having only
slight optical powers.

3rd. A salt having many of the characters of the new quinidin
salt when first produced, viz. the optical characters and the a- form ;
but on attempting to recrystallize it, the orange-red plates just de-
scribed are alone produced.

The only salt yet produced from ethyle-quinidin is one very similar
to the red salt described above, but it has only been very partially
examined. The iodide ethyle-quinidin is a very beautiful silky salt,
less soluble than the iodide ethyle-quinine. The author is not aware
that it has yet been described. It is readily made by mixing an
alcoholic solution of quinidin with an etherial solution of iodide-
ethyle ; on repose, the new iodide ethyle-quinidin separates in long,
slender, silky aciculse; and further crops can be repeatedly pro-
duced by diluting the original solution with water until precipitation
begins to follow ; on long repose, the iodide crystallizes and may be
removed by filtration, and washed with dilute spirit.

321

Note. — In reference to the rotatory power of the cinchona alkaloids,
the calculation of the molecular rotation gives an excellent plan of
deciding on the purity of the alkaloid employed ; for if the absolute
molecular rotation be obtained precisely identical with those given
by other optical chemists, the purity may be inferred as proved.
But it is possible for a large quantity of two alkaloids to be present
in solution, one dextro-, the other levo- gyrate, and in such propor-
tions that the polariscope shall give no indication of the presence of
either.

Thus a highly concentrated solution of the acid sulphate of quinine,
marking a left-handed rotation of 57°*^, was mixed with rather more
than double its bulk of a similar solution of quinidin marking 24° t •
The resultant solution gave no rotation at all, the one effect perfectly
neutralizing the other.

In experimenting upon non-fluorescent solutions of quinine or qui-
nidin in the polariscope, it was found that these solutions were still
possessed of their original molecular rotation upon plane-polarized
light, even undiminished, if care were taken not to dilute the fluid
when destroying the fluorescence by the soluble chloride, &c., which
was always done by adding it in the solid state.

XV. " Sur la Relation entre les Courauts induits et le Pouvoir
Moteur de 1'Electricite." By Professor CARLO MATTEUCCI
of Pisa. Communicated by W. R. GROVE, Esq. Received
May 20, 1858.

Dans la l^re partie de ces recherches j'ai etudie 1'influence des
extra-courants induits sur le fil menie de la spirale d'un electro-
aimant, sur les proprietes electro-magnetiques et electrolytiques du
courant qui met la spirale en action. Cette influence intervient ne-
cessairement dans le jeu des moteurs electro-magnetiques, et la re-
cherche de la correlation des forces presentee par un de ces moteurs
ne pourrait etre complete sans pouvoir determiner rigoureusement
la quantite d' action chimique qui a lieu dans la pile. Voici les re*-
sultats que j'ai etabli par des experiences exactes.

1°. Dans les experiences faites sans avoir les bobines de Pelectro-
aimant dans le circuit, la force electro-magnetique du courant est

z2

322

approximativement la meme qnelque soit le nombre des interruptions,
tandis que les quantites des produits electrolytiques sont propor-
tionnelles a la duree de 1' experience ; mes resultats, d' accord avec les
lois des courants electriques en general, font voir une petite difference
entre 1'hydrogene du voltametre et celui calcule sur le poids du
cuivre, qui par sa Constance ne parait pas etre due a une erreur d' ex-
perience.

2°. Lorsque les bobines de Pe'lectro-aimant entrent dans le circuit,
la force electro-magnetique du meme courant et les produits electro-
lytiques deviennent beaucoup moindres, et cela proportionnellement
a la vitesse de rotation du commutateur, ou au nombre des interrup-
tions dans un temps donne. En comparant les resultats obtenus
avec les memes vitesses du commutateur, avec et sans bobines, on
trouve que la force e'lectro-magnetique souffre une diminution plus
grande que son action electrolytique, et que ces differences sont
d'autant plus marquees que la vitesse de rotation du commutateur
est plus graiide.

3°. Avec les bobines dans le circuit, la quantite d'hydrogene du
voltametre n'est plus equivalente a la quantite de cuivre de'pose sur
les lames de platine de la pile ; 1'hydrogene obtenu est d'autant
moindre que le nombre des interruptions du circuit est plus grand.
Les quantites de zinc qui sont dissoutes dans les memes experiences
conduisent a la meme consequence.

4°. En tenant ferme le circuit des bobines induites, la force electro-
magnetique et les produits electrolytiques augmentent, et a mesure
qu'on diminue la vitesse de rotation du commutateur, le courant tend
a se rapprocher au courant obtenu dans le circuit sans les bobines*.

Dans la 2i&me partie de ces recberches j'ai etudie un cas presente
par un moteur electro-magnetique dont les electro-aimants sont forme's
de deux bobines superposees. Voici 1'experience principale. Je
suppose de faire passer un courant dans une des bobines ; lorsque
1'axe des armatures a pris une vitesse uniforme de rotation, on reunit
les deux bouts de la seconde bobine, et au meme moment on voit 1'axe
de la machine s'arreter, ou ne tourner plus que tres-lentement. En
meme temps les etincelles qui avaient eu lieu a chaque interruption
du commutateur sont devenues a peine visibles. En ouvrant le cir-

* Deja en 1854 (Cours sur rinduction, pages 11 et 31), j'avais signale ce resultat
et rapporte les nombres obtenus dans une experience.

323

cuit de la spirale induite les etincelles reparaissent et 1'axe de la ma-
chine reprend sa vitesse primitive. On peut varier 1' experience en
ayant adapte un tambour de bois a 1'axe de la machine de maniere a
obtenir 1' elevation d'un poids. Je suppose qu'on ait determine le
poids que la machine peut e'lever avec une certaine vitesse lorsque la
spirale induite est ouverte : au moment oil cette spirale est fermee, il
faut pour faire tourner la machine avec la meme vitesse, substituer un
poids beaucoup plus petit au premier. En partant de ce resultat on
comprend facilement comment on doit faire 1' experience pour deter-
miner 1' equivalent mecanique de la chaleur. II s'agit de mesurer le
travail mecanique de la machine dans les deux cas, c'est a dire, a
spirale induite ouverte et a spirale induite fermee, et de comparer la
difference des deux nombres a la quantite totale de chaleur developpee
par les courants induits. Voici les nombres trouves dans une expe-
rience dans laquelle j'ai obtenu le maximum des differences entre le
travail mecanique de la machine a spirale induite ouverte et le travail
de la machine a spirale induite fermee. Dans le premier cas la ma-
chine a souleve un poids de 473 grammes avec la vitesse du 58 se-
condes pour 10 metres. La spirale induite etant fermee, le poids sou-
leve avec la meme vitesse etait reduit a 71 grammes. La difference
de 0*402 kilogr. multiplied par 189 metres d'elevation represente la
difference cherchee, qui est egale a 75*98 kilogr. metres, et qui doit
etre equivalente a 173*086 unites de chaleur developpees paries cou-
rants induits. On tire de la pour P equivalent mecanique de la chaleur
le nombre 438*96, qui s'accorde suffisamment avec les nombres
trouves par d'autres observateurs dans des conditions bien differentes.
Cette determination fondee sur une experience tres-simple conduirait
a des resultats rigoureux et constants si le derangement du commu-
tateur n'alterait pas la marche de la machine. Pour concevoir ces
variations dans la inarche de la machine qui dependent de P alteration
du commutateur il faut se rappeler que la force d'une machine
electro-magnetique depend de la duree du contact et du moment de
Pinterruption du commutateur. Ainsi pour obtenir la plus grande
vitesse il faut que le circuit s'ouvre au moment que I'armature qui
est attiree arrive tout pres du bord de Pelectro-aimant, ce qui fait
que la machine peut se mouvoir iudifferemment dans les deux sens
suivant 1'impulsion primitive. J'ai trouve que dans cette position la
diminution de la vitesse due a 1' influence des courants induits est la

324

moindre possible. La difference augmente a mesure que par la posi-
tion donnee au commutateur on laisse persister 1'aimantation pour
plus longteraps en presence de 1' armature attiree, ce qui produit une
diminution dans la force de la machine. J'ai pu de cette maniere
parvenir au maximum du travail mecanique a spirale induite ouverte
et a spirale induite fermee. Cela nous aide a expliquer la maniere
d'agir des courants induits pour produire la diminution du travail
mecanique de la machine. En effet dans la position du commutateur
qui donne la plus grande difference on con9oit que pour peu que le
contact et l'aimantation se prolongent, les armatures se fixent et la
machine cesse de marcher. Or I1 action de la spirale induite fermee
produit necessairement deux effets qui tendent a rallentir la des-
aimantation : le premier c'est 1'augmentation du courant de la pile,
et par consequent la force magnetique plus grande et plus persistante
des electro-aimants ; le second effet de 1'induction c'est de neutraliser
1' extra- courant negatif qui certainement rend plus prompte la des-
aimantation.

Enfin, ce qui rendrait ces experiences rigoureuses serait la deter-
mination avec des calorimetres distincts de la quantite totale de la
chaleur developpee en meme temps par la pile et dans les spirales de
1'electro-aimant, le circuit induit etant tantot ouvert tantot fermee.

XVI. " On the Influence of the Gulf-stream on the Winters of
the British Islands/' In a Letter from Professor HENNESSY
to Major-General SABINE, V.P. and Treas. R.S. Com-
municated by Major-General SABINE. Received May 24,

1858.

35 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin,
May 19, 1858.

MY DEAR SIR, — In your work on ' Pendulum Experiments,' and
subsequently in a paper printed in the * Philosophical Magazine '
for April 1846, you have directed attention to the influence of the
Gulf-stream on the winters of the British Islands. You have been
led to attribute the remarkably mild winters which we sometimes
experience, to an abnormal extension of the warm waters of that
stream towards our latitudes. In this view I entirely concur, and
beg to submit the following additional proof of its correctness.

An abnormal extension of the Gulf-stream in the direction of the

325

British Isles necessarily implies that the waters bathing our coasts
acquire a temperature which exceeds their mean temperature for the
season of the year at which the extension takes place. The tempe-
rature of the air over the sea, and finally of the air over the islands,
becomes sensibly increased. The entire temperature at any point
will thus depend chiefly on what it gains from sunshine, and from
the warm sea-air, and on what it loses by radiation. If the excess of
what it gains from sunshine over its losses by radiation be considerable
compared to its gain from the influence of the sea, the temperature
will depend principally on the latitude. If, on the contrary, the
thermal influence of the sea be very considerable, places at different
latitudes may possess nearly equal temperatures. It follows that
during cold winters we should expect a greater difference between
the temperatures of the southern coasts of Great Britain and Ireland,
and the remainder of their coasts, than during mild winters. It also
follows, that during warm winters the difference of temperature
between stations situated on coast and inland stations having nearly
the same latitude, should be greater than during cold winters.

Although I have not yet finished all the calculations necessary for
the complete illustration of these conclusions, I have been enabled to
show that during some recent winters the observed results as to tem-
perature entirely conform to these laws.

The mildness of the winter which has just passed away, has been
universally remarked, and Mr. Glaisher's returns for the meteorology
of England and Scotland during December 1857 fully illustrate the
matter. I have not yet received the returns for January and February,
but I feel assured that they will exhibit corresponding results.

During December 1857 the temperatures of the coast stations
were as follows : —

North and West Coasts.

(Orkney) Stornoway 46*1

Elgin • 45-3

Liverpool 48*3

Isle of Man . . 48-9

51-2

South Coast.
Helston

Truro 49-3

Teignmouth 48'8
Ventnor . . 49 '2
Worthing . . 48 '0
Hastings . . 47'3
Ryde 46'9

o

44-3

East Coast.
Aberdeen. .
Arbroath . . 43'8
Pittenween . 4 5 '8
N. Shields . 45-6
Scarborough 45*0
Holkham . . 44-5

Mean. . .487

47-1

44-8

326

Mean of all the coast stations 47'0

Excess of south coast above north and west coasts 1*6

Excess of south coast above east coast 3*9

Mean excess of stations on the south coast above all the rest . . 3'0

South Coast.
Helston . . 46 7
Falmouth.. 45 '8

Truro 45-6

Teignmouth 43' 6
Torquay . . 44*5
Veritnor

Ryde

Worthing
Hastings

December 1856.
North and West Coasts.

Stornoway 39 '5

Elgin 39'5

Liverpool 42'8

Isle of Man . . 42'4

39-6

43-9
43-0
41-0
41-8

East Coast.
Aberdeen . .
Arbroath . . 36 '4
Anstruther . 38'4
N. Shields . 397
Scarborough 40' 9
Holkham.. 39'6

Mean . 44-0 *

41-0

39-1

Mean of all the coast stations 41*8

Excess of south coast above north and west coasts "... 3*0

Excess of south coast above east coast 4*9

Mean excess of stations on the south coast above all the rest . 4'1

Helston .. 44-6

Falmouth . . 43' 6

Truro 43'3

Torquay . . 40 '6

Teignmouth 41 '3

Ventnor . . 40'4

Ryde 38'8

Worthing . . 37*7

Mean

41-3

December 1855.

Elgin 36-9

Liverpool 38' 9

Isle of Man 39'4

Sandwick (Orkney) 39'4

38-6

o
Aberdeen . . 3 6' 7

Arbroath .. 35 -1
Anstruther .35*7
N. Shields . 35'9
Scarborough 36 '7
Holkham . . 35'8
Boston .... 35-9

36-0

Mean of all the coast stations 38*8

Excess of south coast above north arfd west coasts 2*7

Excess of south coast above east coast 5*3

Mean excess of south coast stations above all the rest. . . 4 '35

327

The December of last year, which was much warmer than the
Decembers of the two preceding years, appears thus to comply with
such conditions as to temperature as would lead to the conclusion
that a greater extension of the Gulf-stream had existed about the
end of 1857, than towards the close of 1856 or 1855.

Isothermals of the British Isles*.

It will be interesting to compare the mean temperature of a southern
inland station, where the observations may be depended upon as being
of the best class. The mean temperature of Oxford during the
December of 1857 was 45°-0 ; in December 1856, 40°'5 ; in December

* The figures denote the mean annual temperature, in degrees Fahr., corre-
sponding to each isothermal line.

328

1855, 37°'2. All the stations on the west coast are situated in higher
latitudes, yet their mean temperature was in excess of that of Oxford
in December 1857 by 2°'l ; in the colder Decembers of 1856 and
1855, by 0°'5 and 1°*4 respectively. During the warmest month, the
mean of all the coast stations exceeded the temperature of Oxford by
2°-0; and during the other two Decembers by 1°'3 and 1°'6
respectively.

I propose to make more complete calculations, which will embrace
the other months belonging to the winter; and by comparing the
results during different years, it is probable that corresponding infer-
ences will be suggested regarding the variations of mean temperature
which are incapable of explanation by changes of solar radiation alone.

I was induced to select December at first, because the amount of
sunshine received in our hemisphere being least during that month,
it was natural to expect that the comparative effects of the other
thermal influences would be most distinctly manifested.

Having been for some time occupied in studying the distribution
of heat over islands, I have been led to the general proposition, that
the isothermals may be represented by curves having some relation
to the coast-line, and that the positions of the centres of these curves
depend upon the relation between solar influence and oceanic tempe-
rature. At seasons when the latter becomes important, compared to
the former, the isothermals tend to assume re-entrant shapes similar
to the mean annual isothermals of Ireland. When the isothermals
of a mild winter month, like December of 1857, shall be laid down,
I anticipate that they will distinctly exhibit the increased thermal
influence of the ocean by presenting such an appearance.

HENRY HENNESSY.
Major-General Sabine, F.P.R.S.

XVII. " On the Influence of Temperature on the Refraction of
Light." By Dr. J. H. GLADSTONE, F.R.S., and the Rev.
T. P. DALE, M.A., F.R.A.S. Communicated by Dr. GLAD-
STONE. Received June 17, 1858.

(Abstract.)

Those who have occupied themselves with the determination of
refractive indices, must have noticed that changes of temperature

329

influence the amount of refraction ; yet few of the observations on
record have affixed to them the temperature at which they were
made, and few, if any, numerical researches have been published on
the subject. To determine, if possible, the amount and character of
this effect of heat was the object of the present inquiry.

The instrument employed was that described by the Rev. Baden
Powell in the British Association Report for 1839, and was kindly
lent by him for the purpose. The substances more or less fully
examined, were bisulphide of carbon, water, ether, methylic, vinic,
amylic, and caprylic alcohols, the two principal constituents of
creasote — hydrate of phenyle and hydrate of cresyle, phosphorus, oil
cassia, and camphor dissolved in alcohol.

Of the tabulated results the following two will suffice to illustrate
the main conclusions : —

Bisulphide of Carbon.

Tempe-
rature.

Refractive
Index of A.

Refractive
Index of D.

Refractive
Index of H.

Difference
per 5° C.
forD.

Length of
spectrum.

Dispersive
power.

oc.

1-6217

•6442

1-7175

•ftO | K

•0958

•01487

5

1-6180

•6397

1-7119

UU4O

.(i|( -, 1

•0939

•01468

10

1-6144

•6346

1-7081

\}\j*t 1

.()(><•{

•0937

•01477

15

1-6114

•6303

1-7035

UUiO
.(WHO

•0921

•01462

20

1-6076

•6261

1-6993

UU*i^

•OO41

•0917

•01463

25

1-6036

•6220

1-6942

UU41
•00 JO

•0906

•01460

30

1-5995

•6180

1-6896

UU"I V

•OO f O

•0901

•01457

35

1-5956

•6140

1-6850

UU4U
./Vjq7

•0894

•01456

40

1-5919

•6103

1-6810

UUO/

•(10 "id

•0891

•01460

42

1-5900

•6083

1-6778

"/".'OU

•0878

•01443

Water

OC.

1-3293

1-3330

1-3438

•OOOl

•0143

•00429

5

1-3291

•3329

13436

vuu 1

•000>

•0145

10

1-3288

•3327

1-3434

UUU &
.nnnq

•0146

•00439

15

1-3284

•3324

1-3431

UUUO

•0(10 1

•0147

20

1-3279

•3320

1-3427

UUU4

•OOO'i

•0148

•00446

25

1-3275

1-3317

1-3420

uuuo

•oood

•0145

30

1-3270

1-3309

1-3415

uuuo
•nftOft

•0145

•00438

35

1 -3264

1-3303

1-3410

uuuo

•000')

•0146

40

1-3257

1-3297

13405

UUUi/

.Anna

•0148

•00449

45

1-3250

1 3288

1-3396

UUUo

•OHfi

50

1 3241

1-3280

1-3388

•0009
.nn 10

•0147

•00448

55

1-3235

1-3271

1 3380

UUl^

-OO1 O

•0145

60

1-3223?

1-3259

1-3367

UU1U

•0144

•00442

65

1-3218

1-3249

•0012

•0138

70

80

1-3203
1-3178

13237

13344
1-3321

•0012 (A)

•or4i

•0143

•00435

330

The following are the conclusions arrived at : —

1 . In every suhstance the refractive index diminishes as the tem-
perature increases. This is seen in the first four columns of the
tabulated results, which represent the refractive indices of the fixed
lines of the spectrum A, D, and H respectively at the temperatures
indicated, while the succeeding column shows the amount of differ-
ence for each five degrees Centigrade. This change of refractive
index by heat, for which the term sensitiveness is proposed, varies
greatly in amount in different substances, melted phosphorus and
bisulphide of carbon being the most, and water the least sensitive of
the liquids examined.

2. The length of the spectrum varies as the temperature increases.
The difference between the refractive indices of the lines A and H,
or fj, — n , is taken as the measurable length of the spectrum, and is
given in the sixth column. In the case of highly dispersive sub-
stances, as bisulphide of carbon and hydrate of phenyle, it decreases
considerably ; in the case of less dispersive bodies, as the alcohols, it
decreases to a less extent ; while with water the change is not
appreciable.

3. In some substances the dispersive power is diminished, in
others it is augmented by a rise of temperature ; that is, in such
substances as bisulphide of carbon, it is the numerator of the fraction

— — — that decreases fastest, while in such substances as water it is
/*D-I

the denominator. The result of this is shown in the last column.

4. The sensitiveness of a substance is independent of its specific
refractive or dispersive power. Thus water and ether are very
similar as to the actual amount of the refraction and dispersion
exhibited by them, but ether is many times more sensitive to heat
than water is.

5. The amount of sensitiveness is not directly proportional to the
change of density produced by alterations of temperature ; yet there
is some relationship between the two phenomena. Thus in water
the index of refraction and the density both change much more
rapidly at high than at low temperatures; again, the remarkable
reversion of the increase of density that takes place at 4° C. is not
without its indication in the amount of sensitiveness ; and the large
decrease of density at the freezing of water is accompanied by a
similar decrease of refraction.

331

Substance.

Mean refraction

(Mn-l).

Specific
gravity.

Ratio.

Ice

0-3089

0-9184

2973

Water at 0° C

0-3330

0-9993

3001

Moreover, as a general rule, those substances that are most affected
in density by heat are the most sensitive.

6. No sudden change of sensitiveness occurs near the boiling-
point ; at least this is true in respect to bisulphide of carbon, ether,
and methylic alcohol.

XVIII. "On the Adaptation of the Human Eye to varying
Distances." By CHARLES ARCHER, Esq., Surgeon, Bengal
Army. Communicated by Prof. STOKES, Sec. R.S.
Received June 17, 1858.

•(Abstract.)

The following is a summary of the author's views on the question : —

1 . The eye is adapted to varying distances principally by an alter-
ation in the fibrous arrangement of the lens itself. Moreover, that
when the lens is removed after an operation for cataract, the power
of adaptation is nearly lost, and can only be exerted within very
confined distances.

2. That the purpose of focalizing light at short distances is doubt-
less assisted, as suggested by Bowman, by the contractions of the
ciliary muscle, in its antero-posterior direction, bringing forward the
ciliary processes.

3. That as the posterior hemisphere of the capsule is firmly united
to the hyaloid membrane, this portion must always remain quiescent,
and therefore the antero-posterior contractions of the ciliary muscle
must be very limited as regards the lens.

4. That the ciliary muscle, being placed around the eye, and its
fibres being of a somewhat plexiform character, the contractions of
the muscle will relax those yielding portions of the eye placed within
its circumference.

5. That the relaxations of the ciliary processes will deprive the
capsule of its firm support. It will be pressed forward by the lens,

332

which will meet with no further resistance to the expansion of its
short axis.

6. That the lens itself, as microscopically described by Bowman
and Kolliker, is admirably adapted to the varying changes which
take place in the capsule.

7. That the posterior capsule being firmly united to the hyaloid
membrane, the alteration in the diameters of the cavity of the cap-
sule must take place from the periphery of the lens to its centre,
and from behind forwards, but not from before backwards, on account
of the close union of the posterior capsule to the hyaloid membrane.

8. That to allow such alteration to take place without endanger-
ing the achromatism of the lens, the alterations in the plane of its
long diameter must be synchronous with the alterations in the plane
of its short diameter. To allow of this, the margin of the lens is free
in the canal of Petit ; were it not the case, chromatic aberration
would result.

9. That the elasticity of the capsule of the lens and the ciliary
muscle are antagonistic ; that on the ciliary muscle becoming relaxed,
the capsule of the lens is free to exert that elasticity.

10. That, by the pressure exerted by the anterior hemisphere of
the capsule by means of the polygonal cells of Virchow on the ante-
rior face of the lens, the organ is able to fulfil all the requirements
for adapting it to receive focalized light from long distances.

1 1 . That the polygonal cells of Virchow are placed on the pos-
terior surface of the anterior hemisphere of the capsule with the
view before mentioned, and that they are arranged with their long
diameters in an antero-posterior direction, that pressure may not
injure their transparency, which would be the case if placed laterally.

12. That these cells are not found in other parts of the capsule.

13. That the fibres of the lens are serrated for the purpose of
uniting either to other, so as to allow them greater freedom of
motion without altering their ultimate relations to each other.

14. That the ciliary muscle is very highly endowed with nervous
matter to supply all these varying requirements.

15. By the above postulates, all the modern discoveries in the
microscopical anatomy of the eye receive a distinct expression of
their individual functions, and, by so doing, adapt the organ of
vision to the acknowledged laws of light.

333

XIX. " On Curves of the Third Order." By the Rev. GEORGE
SALMON, of Trinity College, Dublin. Communicated by
ARTHUR CAYLEY, Esq. Received May 20, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The author remarks that his paper was intended as supplementary
to Mr. Cayley's Memoir " On Curves of the Third Order" (Philoso-
phical Transactions, 1857, p. 415). He establishes in the place of
Mr. Cayley's equation, p. 442, a fundamental identical equation,
which is as follows, viz. if substituting in the cubic U, x+\x',
y+\y't z + \z for x, y, e, the result is

U + 3AS + 3\2P+\3U';

so that S and P are the polar conic and polar line of (x, y', *'), with
respect to the cubic, viz.

38-^+^+^; 3p-e;+,e;+^,

dx dy dz dx dy dz

and if making the same substitution in the Hessian H, the result is

so that I> and n are the polar conic and polar line of the Hessian —
then the identical equation in question is

3(Sn-SP) = H'U-HU'.

And it follows that when (x'y y'y z') is a point on the cubic, the
equation U=0 of the cubic may be written in the form

Sn-sp=o,

an equation which is the basis of the subsequent investigations of the
paper. The author refers to a communication to him by Mr. Cayley,
of an investigation of the equation of the conic passing through five
consecutive points of the cubic, in the case where the equation of
the cubic is presented in the canonical form ff3+y3 + *3 + 6foy*=0,
and he shows that by the help of the above mentioned identity, the
investigation can be effected with equal facility when the equation
of the cubic is presented in the general form ; and he establishes
various geometrical theorems in relation to the conic in question.
Finally, the author considers an entirely new question in the theory
of cubics, viz. the determination of the points of a cubic, through
which it is possible to draw an infinity of cubics having a nine-point

334

contact, or complete osculation, with the given cubic. It is shown
that the points in question are those which are their own third
tangentials, and this suggests the consideration of the new canonical
form, x^y+y^z + z^x + Vmxyz^Q, of the equation of the cubic; this
inquiry, however, is not pursued in the paper.

XX. " Researches on the Foraminifera."— Part III. On the
Genera Peneroplis, Operculina, and Amphistegina. By W.
B. CARPENTER, M.D., F.R.S. &c. Received June 17, 1858,
(Abstract.)

In his preceding memoirs, the author has shown that two very
dissimilar types of structure present themselves among Foraminifera,
one characterized by its simplicity, the other by its complexity. In
the former, of which Orbitolites, Orbiculina, and Alveolina are typi-
cal examples, the calcareous skeleton does not present any definite
indications of organization, but seems to have been formed by the
simple calcification of a portion of the homogeneous sarcode-body
of the animal ; that sarcode-body is but very imperfectly divided
into segments, the communications between the cavities occupied
by these segments being very free and irregular ; the form of the
segments themselves, and the mode of their connexion, are alike in-
constant ; and even the plan of growth, on which the character of
the organism as a whole depends, though preserving a general uni-
formity, is by no means invariably maintained. In the latter, to
which Cyclodypeus and Heterostegina belong, the calcareous skele-
ton is found to present a very definite and elaborate organization.
The several segments of the body are so completely separated from
each other, that they remain connected only by delicate threads of
sarcode. Each segment thus isolated has its own proper calcareous
envelope, which seems to be moulded (as it were) upon it ; and this
envelope or shell is perforated with minute parallel tubuli closely
resembling those of dentine, except in the absence of bifurcation ;
the partition-walls between adjacent segments are consequently
double, and are strengthened by an intermediate calcareous deposit,
which is traversed by a system of inosculating passages that seems
properly to belong to it. The form of the segments, their mode of

335

communication, and consequently the general plan of growth, have
a very considerable degree of constancy ; and altogether the ten-
dency is strongly manifested in this type to the greater individuali-
zation of the parts of the composite body, which in the preceding
must be looked upon rather as constituting one aggregate whole.

In the present memoir this contrast is fully carried out by a de-
tailed comparison of two characteristic examples from these types
respectively, each of them having its own features of peculiar in-
terest.

In Peneroplis we find, both as to the simplicity of the structure
of the shell, and the general disposition of the segments of the
animal, a close resemblance to the spiral forms of Orbiculina ; the
only difference being the absence of the transverse or secondary
divisions of the chambers. In what is considered its typical form,
the shell is a flattened spire, opening out widely in its last whorl ;
and the chambers communicate with each other (as does the last
chamber with the exterior) by single rows of isolated pores disposed
at regular intervals along the septa. But the spire is occasionally
found to be more turgid, and the rows of apertures to become
doubled ; and instead of opening out in the last whorl, it is fre-
quently prolonged in a rectilineal direction. In tropical seas there
are found minute shells resembling those of Peneroplis in their
very characteristic external markings, but having a very turgid
spire, and having the row of pores in each septum replaced by a
single large orifice with irregularly radiating prolongations. This
type of structure has been characterized by M. d'Orbigny as a
separate genus, under the name of Dendritina ; and when its spire,
as in many forms of Peneroplis, is continued rectilineally, it has
been distinguished as a third genus under the name Spirolina. The
author shows, by an extensive comparison of individuals, that the
single dendritic orifice is to be regarded as formed by the coalescence
of separate pores ; and that the extension of these into a single
line, or their aggregation into a cluster, is related to the form of
the septal plane, as determined by the degree of flattening or of
turgescence of the spire. Consequently in his view Dendritina and
Spirolina are but varieties of Peneroplis ; the former, which are by
far the largest and the most highly developed, being of tropical
growth, whilst the most flattened forms of the latter are the com-

VOL. IX. 2 A

336

paratively stunted inhabitants of the Mediterranean and other seas
of less elevated temperature.

In Operculina, on the other hand, we find the shell presenting
the minutely tubular structure which was first shown by the author
to exist in Nummulites ; to which genus Operculina is so closely
allied in structure, that the only positive difference between them
seems to lie in the tendency of Operculina to open out widely in the
last whorl, whilst Nummulites (according to MM. d'Archiac and
Haime) tends to close in. The author minutely describes the struc-
ture of Operculina, which presents a very remarkable development
of the canaliferous system ; he also enters into a detailed inquiry
into the relation of the numerous strongly-marked varieties of form
which it presents, — a question of much importance in regard to the
value of the characters of the reputed species among Nummulites ;
and shows that the range of individual variation in form and surface-
markings is so wide (as is proved by the gradational transitions
which present themselves between what at first sight appear to be
widely-separated types), that only where some very decided and con-
stant difference of internal conformation presents itself, will it be safe
to assume a specific diversity. In one case, in which he had thought
that a certain series of specimens was sufficiently distinguished
by its peculiar physiognomy from the rest, residual forms presented
themselves which could not be with certainty assigned to either
type, so completely do they link together the two by the softening
down of the peculiarities of each. And a yet more remarkable link
of connexion is established by examples collected on the coast of
Japan by the American expedition to that country, in which the
most distinctive characters of each type are curiously combined.

Closely related to Operculina is another genus, Amphistegina,
which bears an equally near resemblance to Nummulites, though it
has been completely separated from both in the classification of
M. d'Orbigny, whojias placed it in a distinct order, Entomostegues,
on account of the unsymmetrical form of its shell and the alternating
disposition of its chambers. But the author has found, from an
extensive comparison of individuals, that this want of symmetry is so
little constant, as to be altogether valueless in a systematic point of
view, many specimens being perfectly symmetrical, whilst others
are very far from being so, and every gradation presenting itself

337

between these two extremes. The most common among existing
species is the Amphistegina gibbosa, which is very extensively dif-
fused through the tropical ocean, and which, though generally of
small size, acquires in the Philippine region dimensions nearly equal
to those of the fossil Amphistegina of the Vienna arid other tertiary
deposits. But Mr. Cuming's Philippine collection contains another
and far larger species, which is distinguished by the extraordinary
thinning-out of the last whorl ; and it is remarkable that in this
species the canal-system is highly developed, although completely
absent in A.gibbosa, — a difference of structure, which, going along
with very close resemblance in external aspect and general confor-
mation, seems only to be accounted for on the supposition that the
difference in size requires a difference in the arrangement of the
nutrient apparatus.

XXL "Further Researches on the Grey Substance of the
Spinal Cord." By J. LOCKHART CLARKE, Esq., F.R.S.
Received June 17, 1858.

(Abstract.)

In this communication it is proposed, for reasons assigned, to
divide each lateral half of the posterior grey substance into two
portions: — 1. The caput cornus posterioris ; 2, the cervix cornus
posterioris. The caput consists of the broad or expanded extremity
of the cornu, and is separated from the cervix by an imaginary line
drawn across from the opposite anterior extremities of the gelatinous
substance ; the cervix comprises the remaining anterior portion of
the cornu.

The caput cornus consists of two different portions : — 1. an outer
and comparatively transparent portion, the gelatinous substance ;
2. an inner and more opaque portion, or base.

1 . The outer portion or gelatinous substance consists of, —

A. Nerve-fibres, transverse, longitudinal, and oblique.

B. Nerve-cells, large, small, and intermediate.

C. Blood-vessels, and connective tissue, with numerous nuclei.

2. The inner or more opaque portion of the caput cornus is con-
tinuous with the grey substance of the cervix, and surrounded

2 A 2

338

behind and on each side by the gelatinous substance, with which it
varies in shape at different regions of the cord. In addition to
blood-vessels and connective tissue, it consists of, —

A. Nerve-fibres, transverse, longitudinal, and oblique.

B. Nerve-cells, both large and small.

A. The longitudinal fibres form bundles of various sizes, and are
broader and coarser than those of the gelatinous substance, which,
however, they immediately adjoin.

The transverse and oblique fibres are continuous with the posterior
roots of the nerves, and partly with the longitudinal fibres, which
they also cross in a great variety of ways.

About the middle of the dorsal region, in the spinal cord of the
higher vertebrata, the posterior cornua are united in a single mass.
The inner or median half of each cervix cornus is occupied by a
remarkable longitudinal column, which is cylindrical or oval, — the
posterior vesicular column. This consists of a cylinder of fibres inter-
spersed with arid surrounded by cells and thin processes. The fibres
are derived from the posterior roots of the nerves, and interlace with
each other in an intricate manner. The cells are oval, fusiform, and
variously stellate, and differ considerably in size, but the largest
are equal to those of the anterior cornu. They are elongated with
thin processes transversely, longitudinally, and obliquely, and are
continuous with fibres in the same direction, including the posterior
roots.

At the lateral border of the grey substance, between the anterior
and posterior cornua, is a small and somewhat triangular tract, which
is more transparent than the rest, and projects more or less into the
lateral column. This tract, which was pointed out by the author
in 1851, and is named the tractus intermedio-lateralis, consists of
oval, fusiform, and triangular cells, which are smaller and of more
uniform size than those of the surrounding substance. Some of
them are elongated transversely and longitudinally, — transversely
both in a lateral and antero-posterior direction, — and send their pro-
cesses on the one hand to the transverse commissure, and on the
other to the anterior and posterior cornua.

In receding from the dorsal to the cervical region, the central
portion or cylinder of each posterior vesicular column is reduced in
size and less completely circumscribed. In the middle of the cervical

339

enlargement it entirely disappears, but the whole inner half of the
cervix cornus is still interspersed with numerous cells of various
shapes, and traversed by the posterior roots and the fibres of the trans-
verse commissure. At the origin of the third pair of cervical nerves,
a darker mass reappears in the same situation, but gradually dimi-
nishes as it ascends to the medulla oblongata.

The tractus intermedio-lateralis is larger in the upper part than
in the middle of the dorsal region, and projects further into the
lateral column. As it ascends, however, through the cervical en-
largement, it gradually diminishes, and at length disappears ; but
the lateral portion of the grey substance contains numerous branched
and elongated cells, amongst which are a few that resemble those of
the tractus intermedio-lateralis ; it is traversed by the anterior and
posterior roots, and by the lowest roots of the spinal-accessory nerve
on their way to the anterior cornu. In the region of the first pair
of cervical nerves, a distinct vesicular tract reappears at the lateral
part of the grey substance. It is traversed by the roots of the spinal-
accessory nerves, and partly by those of the spinal nerves. Its cells
are elongated transversely and longitudinally. Ascending the
medulla oblongata, this vesicular tract makes its way inwards to the
space behind the central canal, where it forms the nucleus of the
upper roots of the spinal-accessory nerve.

In descending the cord from the dorsal region, the grey substance
undergoes a series of changes nearly similar to those which are
observed in ascending to the cervical enlargement. But in the
upper part of the lumbar enlargement, the posterior vesicular columns
are much larger than in any other region of the cord, and contain
more large cells. Through the rest of the lumbar enlargement the
number of large cells diminishes ; but they are still traversed and
surrounded by the posterior roots of the nerves, and by the transverse
commissure.

In the spinal cord of Man, the form of the grey substance differs
in some respects from that in Mammalia. Throughout the whole of
the dorsal region the posterior cornua stand completely apart. The
posterior vesicular columns are oval, but in structure resemble those
in the Ox. In the middle of the cervical and lumbar enlargements,
their cells, in connexion with the posterior roots, are very small, but
numerous.

340

The tractus intermedio-lateralis in Man presents nearly the same
appearance as in Mammalia, and contains the same kind of cells. In
the lumbar region it is still prominent at the side of the grey sub-
stance, but its cells are less numerous than in the dorsal region. In
the upper part of the cervical region a similar tract reappears, which
is traversed by the roots of the spinal accessory, and those of the
spinal nerves.

In Birds, as in Mammalia, the posterior cornua are united in a,
single mass, both in the dorsal region and lower part of the conus me-
dullaris ; and the gelatinous substance extends uninterruptedly across
from side to side. There are no dark masses corresponding to those
of the posterior vesicular columns of mammalia, although numerous
cells are scattered through the same space. There are no traces of
any distinct tractus intermedio-lateralis. In Reptiles it is only in the
conus medullaris that the posterior cornua form a single mass. A
distinct stratum of small fusiform cells, in connexion with the fibres
of the posterior roots, extends diagonally from the point of each
cornu to the transverse commissure.

In the Ox and Sheep the epithelium of the canal consists, not of
cylindrical, but of fusiform cells arranged in close apposition. The
fibres proceeding from them are precisely similar in appearance to
those of the connective tissue which surrounds the cord, and, like
those fibres, they are in connexion at intervals with minute nuclei ;
in the filum terminate the author has satisfactorily traced them
through the grey substance to the surface of the cord. In ihejllum
terminate, where the nerve-cells and nerve-roots entirely disappear,
the canal, and consequently the number of epithelium-cells, are much
greater than in the cervical or lumbar enlargement, where the nerve-
cells and nerve-roots are abundant. These facts are opposed to the
statements of those observers who profess to have traced their con-
nexion with nerve-cells and nerve-fibres.

The white columns of the cord are traversed by a network of
connective tissue, which abounds with nuclei and small cells pre-
cisely similar to those found in the grey substance.

In the conus medullaris, the author has distinctly seen some of
the anterior roots of the nerves form loops around the group of
stellate oells, instead of terminating in them.

341

XXII. "On some new Ethyl-compounds containing the Alkali-
metals." By J. A. WANKLYN, Esq. Communicated by
EDWARD FRANKLAND, Ph.D. Received June 10, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The very remarkable composition and properties of that class of
substances comprehending kakodyl and zinc-ethyl, have justly at-
tached no ordinary degree of interest to the so-called organo-metallic
compounds.

Influenced by that interest, I was led to inquire whether the series
might not include members into whose composition the alkali-metals
entered. It was a question whether combination between so power-
fully electro-positive a body as potassium or sodium on the one
hand, and a hydrocarbon radical on the other, did not involve
impossible conditions. It seemed that the answer to this query
would not be valueless as a contribution to the store of facts out of
which we may hope some day to evoke the conditions of chemical
combination.

My researches in this direction have already enabled me to pro-
duce combinations of ethyl with potassium and sodium ; and I have
little doubt that I shall be able to produce similar compounds con-
taining lithium, barium, strontium, calcium, and magnesium. Com-
binations containing methyl in place of ethyl will also be sought.
The present paper will be devoted chiefly to the ethyl-compound of

sodium.

Sodiu m-e thy I.

Experiments made with a view to the formation of this body by
reactions similar to that by which zinc-ethyl is produced, yielded
negative results ; but some months ago I made the observation that
potassium and sodium decomposed zinc-ethyl, and I found the action
to consist in the replacement of a portion of the zinc by the metal
employed.

Sodium- ethyl was prepared as follows : — A tube of soft glass was
closed at one end and filled with coal-gas. In it was then placed a
single clean piece of sodium ; its open extremity was then closed
with the finger, and whilst still filled with coal-gas, the tube was
contracted about the middle, drawn out and bent twice at right
angles ; pure zinc-ethyl, in quantity about ten times the weight

342

of the sodium, was next introduced, and the tube hermetically sealed.
So prepared, the apparatus was afterwards placed in cold water, and
left therein for several days, being cautiously shaken up at intervals.

During this time the following changes were noted in the contents
of the tube. The sodium became coated with zinc, and gradually
disappeared, whilst the total volume of the solid and liquid contents
diminished considerably. The liquid became also viscid, and some-
times separated into two portions non-miscible with each other, be-
coming, however, homogeneous as the operation advanced. There
was no evolution of gas.

After the lapse of some days the apparatus was found to contain
metallic zinc and a clear colourless liquid. The former was weighed
and found to correspond to the sodium dissolved, one equivalent of
zinc being precipitated for each equivalent of sodium dissolved.

The clear liquid was made the subject of special examination. It
consisted of zinc-ethyl holding in solution a crystalline compound
containing sodium, zinc, and ethyl. It was inflammable to the last de-
gree, burning explosively, on exposure to the air, with a yellow flame,
and leaving a very alkaline residue. Owing to its extreme tendency
to become oxidized, its manipulation presented great difficulties. It
was requisite to decant it into bulbs filled with dry hydrogen or
ccal-gas ; and since heat produced partial decomposition, the bulbs
had to be double, so that the heated bulb might not receive the
liquid.

The clear liquid deposited large quantities of beautiful crystals
when cooled to zero ; and when gently warmed in a stream of dry
hydrogen gas, so long as zinc-ethyl came' off it yielded also a mass
of crystals. Some crystals were prepared in the latter manner ; they
fused at about 27° C., but once fused they remained fluid at several
degrees below that point. Numerous analytical determinations
prove that these crystals contain two equivalents of zinc for every
equivalent of sodium, and that their formula is
Na 1 o Zn

The reaction by which they are produced may be thus expressed :

- Zn \ Nal Znl 9 /Na \ Q / Zn
6 C4H5 j +Na j =Zn j + 2UH5 j > 2 { C4

For the body Na C4 H5 I propose the name sodium-ethyl, and for
the crystals that of double compound of sodium- ethyl with zinc-ethyl.

343

Many attempts were made to obtain sodium- ethyl free from zinc-
ethyl, but without success.

By distillation it was found to be equally impossible either to

distil off £ g t from the crystals, or to distil off all ^ ^ I so as

to leave pure Q jj [ behind. When the crystals are moderately

heated in a bulb, a singular phenomenon occurs. Gas is evolved, and
there remains behind metallic sodium, also metallic zinc, but no car-
bonaceous residue. This reduction of a sodium-compound by heat
alone is an anomaly in chemistry.

When the crystals are heated in the water-bath with potassium,
a sudden evolution of gas occurs, and there results metallic zinc, with
a liquid alloy of potassium and sodium — a result likewise peculiar.

When the crystals are heated in the water-bath with excess of
sodium, evolution of gas likewise takes place.

From these experiments it would seem that the conjoined zinc-
ethyl is necessary to the existence of sodium-ethyl ; or more pre-
cisely, that some adjunct of a less positive nature than sodium-ethyl
is requisite to make the existence of the latter possible.

Passing on to the other reactions of the crystals 2(ZnC4H.) \

NaC4H5 } -

With water there is given pure hydride of ethyl, and hydrated oxides
of zinc and sodium. The reaction takes place with great evolution
of heat.

With carbonic acid there is given propionate of soda, which unites
with zinc- ethyl forming a double compound, decomposed on the ad-
dition of water. To the account of this reaction, published else-
where, I have to add that it takes place without evolution of ethyl
or any other gas — a result which further confirms the formula of
sodium-ethyl adopted in this paper.

With carbonic oxide there is also a reaction, which is in course of
examination.

Cyanogen gas is instantly absorbed, with the formation of a brown
solution.

With ether there seems to be no reaction. For the rest, with
oxygen, iodine, &c., I should predict reactions quite analogous to
those of zinc-ethyl, but have not specially examined the point.

344

Po tassium- ethy I.

Zinc-ethyl and potassium react still more readily than the former
body and sodium. So far as at present ascertained, the cases greatly
resemble one another. Just as with sodium, I obtain crystals readily
soluble in zinc-ethyl, which contain in this case abundance of
potassium.

Seeing that the kind of reaction brought under notice in this
paper is apparently unique, it is necessary to offer a few observations
upon it.

9 Zn \ Na) _9 Na \ Zn

•C4Hj+Na/= "C4H5j+Zn

The reaction here formulated may be regarded as an electrolytic
decomposition — as an ordinary case of precipitation of one metal by
a more electro-positive metal. Here ethyl is the electro-negative,
and zinc the electro-positive member : sodium is more electro-posi-
tive than zinc, and accordingly sodium displaces zinc.

Following out the hypothesis — where the organo-metallic body
contains a metal less electro-positive than the hydrocarbon radical,
I should expect that the hydrocarbon radical would be eliminated
by the action of sodium. Kakodyl, for instance, should give methyl
and arsenide of sodium.

C2H31 A Nal _Na|A C2H3
t$CT +Na}-Na|j' +C2H3

A case in point is afforded by the reaction of the alkali-metals
with ammonia.

HI -rr > K] TT>

2. HlN+£ =2.HlN+ii[
Hj KJ HJ

Of the same kind is the reaction of zinc-ethyl upon ammonia*.
HI 7 Zn 1

H[N+rn I=H [N + r

HJ CA;J HJ C*

To develope the hypothesis still further : just as the positive side
admits of displacement by a more electro-positive radical, so should
the negative side admit of displacement by a more electro-negative
body.

* See Frankland's paper, Trans. Royal Soc. 1857.

345

The ordinary reactions of zinc-ethyl may be looked upon as illus-
trating this proposition, and can be written so as to exhibit a double
displacement.

Zn, <£H5 + lf=ZnI + C4H5I

+ _ +_ + 1 +~^
also ZnC4H. + OO= ZnO + C4H5O

Inspection will show in all these cases, that an electro-positive
radical displaces a less electro-positive radical ; and an electro-nega-
tive radical displaces a less electro-negative one.

In accordance with the theory would be the displacement in
sodium-ethyl of the ethyl by mercury, or by copper, &c., platinum,

&c.

Na, C4H5 , Cn_NaCn , C4H5
Na CH + Cn

Also a like displacement by arsenic or by nitrogen would be ac-
cording to theory.

Pushing the hypothesis to its furthest limits, I should say that
sodium-ethyl is only in equilibrium with bodies whose respective
electrical sides lie either both of them within, or both of them with-
out the space lying between the electro-positive sodium and the
electro-negative ethyl.

XXIII. "Note on Sodium-ethyl and Potassium-ethyl. " By
EDWARD FRANKLAND, Ph.D., F.R.S. Received June 17,
1858.

The recent interesting discovery of sodium-ethyl and potassium-
ethyl by Mr. Wanklyn, led me to investigate the cause of the non-
formation of these bodies by reactions analogous to those success-
fully used for the production of zinc-ethyl and similar organo-metallic
compounds. In my earlier experiments upon the isolation of the
organic radicals, I studied the action of potassium and sodium upon
iodide of ethyl, and found that the latter compound was readily de-
composed by either of the metals at a temperature of from 100° to
130° C. The separated ethyl was, however, transformed almost com-
pletely into hydride of ethyl and defiant gas, whilst not a trace of
potassium-ethyl or sodium-ethyl was produced. Mr. Wanklyn has

346

since repeated this experiment with the addition of ether, and has
obtained the same result as regards the non-formation of an organo-
metallic compound.

The temperature at which sodium decomposes iodide of ethyl is
much lower than that at which sodium-ethyl is broken up, conse-
quently no explanation of the phenomenon can be obtained from
this source. In his observations on the formation of ethyl*, Brodie
mentions that iodide of ethyl is decomposed at 1 70° C. by zinc-ethyl;
and it therefore occurred to me that sodium-ethyl, owing to its more
powerful affinities, might effect the decomposition of iodide of ethyl
at a lower temperature than that at which iodide of ethyl is decom-
posed by sodium ; in which case the production of sodium-ethyl, by
the action of sodium upon iodide of ethyl, would be an impossibility.
Experiment completely confirmed this anticipation. A quantity of
a strong solution of sodium-ethyl in zinc-ethyl was thrown up into a
dry receiver filled with mercury, and an equal volume of pure iodide
of ethyl added to it. Immediately on the mixture of the two liquids,
a lively effervescence set in, a considerable quantity of gas collected
in the receiver, and a white deposit of iodide of sodium rendered the
liquid thick and turbid. The reaction was complete in two or three
minutes without the application of heat. An analysis of the gas,
previously freed from the vapours of iodide of ethyl and zinc-ethyl,
showed it to consist of equal volumes of hydride of ethyl and olefiant
gas, mixed only with a mere trace of ethyl. This reaction may there-
fore be thus expressed : —

+C4H4.

It is therefore evident that sodium-ethyl, and the remark no doubt
applies also to potassium-ethyl, could not be obtained by the action
of sodium upon iodide of ethyl, even if the decomposition of the
latter could be effected at ordinary temperatures, since each particle
of the organo-metallic compound being in contact with iodide of ethyl
at the moment of its formation, would be instantly decomposed in
the manner just described. That olefiant gas and hydride of ethyl,
with mere traces only of ethyl, constitute the gaseous product of the
decomposition of iodide of ethyl by sodium, is strong evidence that
this formation and immediate decomposition of sodium-ethyl actually
* Journal of the Chemical Society, vol. iii. p. 405.

347

takes place. Sodium-ethyl thus stands in the same relation to iodide
of ethyl as hydride of zinc does to hydriodic acid ; and consequently
all attempts to produce hydride of zinc by the action of the metal
upon the hydrogen acids have failed. These considerations, taken
in connexion with Mr. Wanklyn's mode of forming sodium-ethyl and
potassium-ethyl, aiford a clue to the nature of the reactions by which
we shall probably eventually succeed in forming the hydrogen com-
pounds of the highly positive metals. Although the hydrogen com-
pounds of arsenic, antimony, phosphorus, and tellurium are by no
means exact analogues of zinc-ethyl, it would nevertheless be interest-
ing to ascertain the action of sodium upon these bodies, with a view
to the formation of hydride of sodium.

The nature of the gas evolved by the action of sodium-ethyl upon
iodide of ethyl, has some interest in connexion with the formation of
ethyl by the action of zinc upon iodide of ethyl. Brodie expressed,
in the memoir above alluded to, an ingenious and highly probable
hypothesis, that the true source of the ethyl is the decomposition of
its iodide by zinc-ethyl, thus : —

and that the secondary products of the reaction (olefiant gas and hy-
dride of ethyl) which always accompany the ethyl, result from the
primary action of zinc upon iodide of ethyl, thus : —

+2ZnI.

The composition of the gases produced in the above reaction of so-
dium-ethyl upon iodide of ethyl seems, however, to indicate that the
reverse of this hypothesis is true, and that the source of the ethyl is
to be found in the primary action of zinc upon iodide of ethyl, —

2(C4 H5 1) + 2Zn= g* g« j + 2Zn I,

whilst the secondary products are derived from the decomposition of
iodide of ethyl by zinc-ethyl, —

+C4H4 + ZnI.

348

XXIV. " Experimental Inquiry into the Composition of some
of the Animals fed and slaughtered as Human Food."
By J. B. LAWES, Esq., F.R.S., F.C.S., and J. H. GILBERT,
Ph.D., F.C.S. Received June 17, 1858.
(Abstract.)

After alluding to the importance of the chemical statistics of
nutrition in relation to physiology, dietetics and rural economy, and
explaining that the branch of the subject comprehended in the pre-
sent paper is that of Animal Composition, the authors proceed in
the first place to state the general nature of their investigations, and
the manner in which they were conducted.

To ascertain the quantitative relations, and the tendency of deve-
lopment, of the different parts of the system, the weights of the
entire bodies, and of the several internal organs, also of some other
separated parts, were determined in several hundred animals — oxen,
sheep and pigs.

To determine the ultimate composition, and in a sense the proxi-
mate composition also, of oxen, sheep and pigs, and to obtain the
results in such manner that they might serve to estimate the pro-
bable composition of the Increase whilst fattening, was a labour
obviously too great to be undertaken with a large number of ani-
mals. Those selected were — a fat calf, a half-fat ox, a moderately
fat ox, a fat lamb, a store or lean sheep, a half-fat old sheep, a fat
sheep, a very fat sheep, a store pig, and a fat pig.

It is to the methods and the results of the analysis of these ten
animals, to the information acquired as to the quantitative relation of
the organs or parts in the different descriptions of animal, and their
relative development during the fattening process, and to the appli-
cation of the data thus provided, that the authors chiefly confine
themselves in the present paper.

The analyses of the ten animals were planned to determine the
actual and per-centage amounts — of water, of mineral matter, of
total nitrogenous compounds, of fat, and of total dry substance — in
the entire bodies, and in certain individual and classified parts of
the animals. The water and mineral matter were for the most part
determined in each internal organ, or other separated part. But, to

349

confine the labour within reasonable limits, and to facilitate as far as
possible the perception of the practical and economic application of
the results, the other constituents enumerated are given in —

1st. The collective "carcass" parts; that is, the frame with its
covering of flesh and fat, which comprise the most important por-
tions sold as human food.

2nd. The collective "offal" parts; including the whole of the
internal organs, the head, the feet, and, in the case of oxen and
sheep, the pelt and hair or wool.

3rd. The entire animal (fasted li ve- weight) .

Referring first to the composition of the "collective carcass
parts," it appeared, comparing one animal with another, that there
is a general disposition to a rise or fall in the per-centage of mineral
matter, with the rise or fall in that of the nitrogenous compounds.
In fact, all the results tended to show a prominent connexion be-
tween the amount of the mineral matters and that of the nitrogenous
constituents of the body.

Comparing the relative proportions of fat and nitrogenous com-
pounds in the respective "carcasses," it appeared that, in every
instance excepting that of the calf, there was considerably more of
dry fat than of dry nitrogenous compounds. In the carcass of even
the store or lean sheep, there was more than 1£ times as much
fat as nitrogenous substance ; in that of the store or lean pig,
twice as much. In the carcass of the half-fat ox, there was one-
fourth more fat than nitrogenous matter ; and in that of the half-
fat sheep, more than twice as much.

Of the fatter animals, the carcass of the fat ox contained 2^
times, that of the fat sheep 4 times, and that of the very fat
sheep, 6 times as much fat as nitrogenous substance. Lastly, in
the carcass of the moderately fat pig, there was nearly 5 times as
much fatty matter as nitrogenous compounds.

From these facts it may be concluded, that in carcasses of oxen in
reputed good condition, there will seldom be less than twice as
much, and frequently nearly 3 times as much dry fat as dry nitrogenous
substance. It may be presumed, that in the carcasses of sheep
the fat will generally amount to more than 3, and frequently to 4
(or even more) times as much as the nitrogenous matters ; and finally,
that in the carcasses of pigs killed for fresh pork, there will seldom

350

be as little as 4, and in those fed for curing there will be more than
4 times as much fat as nitrogenous compounds.

The fat of the bones constituted but a small proportion of that of
the entire carcasses ; whilst the nitrogen of the bones amounted to
a considerable proportion of the whole.

It appeared, that whilst the per-centage (in the carcasses) of both
mineral and nitrogenous matters decreased as the animals matured,
that of the fat very considerably increased. The increase in the
per-centage of fat was much more than equivalent to the collective
decrease in that of the other solid matters, — that is to say, as the
animal matures, the per-centage in its carcass, of total dry substance
— and especially of fat — much increases.

The carcass of the calf contained 62-^ per cent., that of the lean
sheep 57^rd per cent., that of the lean pig 55^rd, and that of the
half-fat ox 54 per cent, of water. In the carcass of the fat ox
there were 45^ per cent., iii that of the fat lamb 48f rds per cent.,
in that of the half-fat old sheep 49frds per cent., in that of the
fat sheep 39f rds per cent., in that of the very fat sheep only 33
per cent., and in that of the moderately fattened pig only 38^ per
cent, of water. The bones of the carcasses contained a less propor-
tion of water than the collective soft or edible portions.

It is inferred, that the average of carcasses of well-fattened oxen
will contain 50 per cent., or rather more, of dry substance ; that
those of properly fattened sheep will contain more still — say 55 to
60 per cent. ; those of pigs killed for fresh pork rather more than
those of sheep ; whilst the sides of pigs fed and slaughtered for
curing will be drier still. Lamb-carcasses would seem to contain a
smaller proportion of dry substance than those of either moderately
fattened oxen, sheep, or pigs. Their proportion of bone was also
comparatively high. Veal appeared to be the moistest of all. The
carcass of the calf experimented upon, though the animal was con-
sidered to be well fattened, contained only 37f per cent, of dry
substance. Its proportion of bone was also higher than in any of
the other animals.

Next as to the composition of the collective offal parts (excluding
the contents of stomachs and intestines), the results showed that
in every case the per-centage of nitrogenous substance was greater,
and that of the fat very much less, than in the collective carcass parts.

351

In oxen and sheep, the pelt, hair or wool, hoofs, stomachs and
intestines, taken together, contained a large proportion of the total
nitrogen of the offal parts. The portions of the nitrogenous offal
parts of these animals, generally used for food, are, the head-flesh
with tongue and brains, the heart, the liver, the pancreas, the
spleen, the diaphragm, and sometimes the lungs. In the pig, the
proportion of the nitrogenous offal generally eaten, is greater than
in the other animals; but its proportion of fat is generally also
greater.

With the higher per-centage of nitrogenous substance, and the
less per-centage of fat, in the collective offal parts, they had in-
variably a less per-centage of total dry substance, and therefore more
of water, than the collective carcass parts.

From the composition of the entire bodies of the animals analysed,
it is estimated, that of mineral matter, the average amount, in store
or lean animals, will probably be, in oxen 4-J- to 5 per cent., in sheep
3 to 3^ per cent., and in pigs 2^ to 3 per cent. As an average esti-
mate for the mineral matter in fattened animals, the results indi-
cated 3^ to 4 per cent, in the live-weight of calves and oxen, 2-i- to
2f per cent, in that of sheep and lambs, and 1^ to If per cent, in
that of pigs.

Of total nitrogenous compounds, there were in the fasted live-
weight of the fat ox 14^ per cent., in that of the fat sheep 12^ per
cent., in that of the very fat one not quite 1 1 per cent , and in that
of the moderately fattened pig about the same, namely, 10*87 per
cent. The leaner animals analysed contained from 2 to 3 per cent,
more nitrogenous substance than the moderately fattened ones.

The Fat formed the most prominent constituent of the dry or
solid substance of the entire animal bodies. The fat calf alone
contained less total fat than total nitrogenous compounds. Of the
other professedly fattened animals, the entire bodies of the fat ox
and fat lamb contained about 30 per cent., that of the fat sheep
35^ per cent., that of the very fat sheep 45f per cent., and that of
the moderately fat pig 42^ per cent, of dry fat.

The average composition of the six animals assumed to be well
fattened, showed, in round numbers, 3 per cent, of mineral matter,
12^ per cent, of nitrogenous compounds, and 33 per cent, of fat, in
their standing or fasted live-weight.

VOL. ix. 2 B

352

All the experimental evidence conspired to show, that the so-
called "fattening" of the animals was properly so designated.
During the feeding or fattening process, the per-centage of the col-
lective dry substance of the body considerably increased ; and the
fatty matter accumulated in much larger proportion than the nitro-
genous compounds. The increase itself must therefore show a
less per-centage of nitrogenous substance (and of mineral matter
also), and a higher one of both fat and total dry substance, than the
whole body of the fattened animal.

The knowledge thus acquired of the composition of animals in
different conditions of maturity, was next employed as a means of
estimating the composition of the increase gained in passing from
one given point of progress to another.

To this end, the composition of the animals analysed in the lean
condition, was applied to the known weights of numbers of animals
of the same description, assumed to be in a similar lean condition ;
and the composition of the fat animals analysed was in like manner
applied to the weights of the same series of animals after being
fattened. Deducting the amount of the respective constituents in
the lean animals, from that of the corresponding constituents in the
fat ones, the actual amount of each constituent gained was deter-
mined. The weight of the gross increase being also known, its
estimated per-centage composition was thus a matter of easy calcu-
lation. The composition of the increase of 98 fattening oxen, 349
fattening sheep, and 80 fattening pigs (each divided into numerous
lots), was estimated in the manner indicated ; and as a control,
a statement is given of the composition of the increase of the single
analysed fat pig, which, at the time it was put to fatten, corre-
sponded in weight and other particulars most closely with the one
analysed in the lean condition.

It is concluded, that the increase in weight of oxen, taken over
six months or more of the final fattening period, may be estimated
to contain from 70 to 75 per cent, of total dry substance ; of which
60 to 65 parts will be fat, 7 to 8 parts nitrogenous substance, and
1 to 1^ mineral matter.

On the same plan of calculation, the final increase of sheep,
feeding liberally during several months, will probably consist of 75
per cent., or more, of total dry substance; of this, 65 to 70 parts

353

will be fat, 7 to 8 parts nitrogenous compounds, and perhaps l^ part
mineral matter.

The increase ofpiffs, during the final two or three months of feeding
for fresh pork, may be taken at 70 to 75 per cent, total dry sub-
stance, 65 to 70 per cent, fat, 6 to 8 per cent, nitrogenous substance,
and less than 1 per cent, of mineral matter. The increase over the
last few months of high feeding, of pigs fed for curing, will doubtless
contain a higher per-centage of both fat and total dry substance, and
a lower one of both nitrogenous compounds and mineral matter, than
that of the younger and more moderately fattened animal.

As a general result, it appears that about -| ths of the gross increase
in live-weight, of animals feeding liberally for the butcher, will be
dry or solid matter of some kind. About f rds of the gross increase
will be dry fat ; only about 7 or 8 per cent, of the gross increase
(and scarcely more than y^th of the total dry substance) will be
nitrogenous compounds ; and seldom more than 1-J-, and frequently
less than 1 per cent, mineral matter,

In the case of most of the sheep, and of all the pigs, the com-
position of whose increase was estimated, the amounts of mineral
matter, of nitrogenous compounds, of non-nitrogenous organic sub-
stance, of total dry substance, and sometimes of fat, which were
consumed during the fattening period, were determined ; so that the
means are at command for studying the quantitative relation of the
constituents estimated to be stored up in the increase, to those con-
sumed in the food which produced it.

Taking first the proportion of each class of constituents stored up
for 100 of the same consumed, it is concluded, that in the case of
sheep, liberally fed on a mixed diet of dry and succulent food, the
increase of the animal will perhaps generally carry off less than 3 per
cent, of the consumed mineral matter — somewhere about 5 per cent,
(varying according to the proportion in the food) of the consumed
nitrogenous compounds, and about 10 parts of fat for 100 non-nitro-
genous substance in the food ; and lastly, that for 100 of collective
dry substance of food consumed, there will be, in Sheep, about 8 or
9 parts of dry matter in increase stored up.

The food of the fattening pig contained a much smaller proportion
of indigestible woody fibre than that of the sheep ; and it appeared
that the pig appropriated to its increase a much larger proportion of

354

the organic constituents of its food than the sheep. The average of
the estimates for pigs, showed about 17 parts of dry substance of
increase stored up, for 100 of collective dry matter of food con-
sumed. For 100 of non-nitrogenous organic constituents in food,
about 20 parts of fat were stored up. Of nitrogenous compounds,
when the food consisted of about the usual proportions of the legu-
minous seeds and cereal grains, from 5 to 7 or 8 parts were stored
up for 100 consumed. When the leguminous seeds predominated,
the proportion of the consumed nitrogen stored up was less ; and
when the cereal grains predominated, it was greater. The estimates
showed, that on the average of the cases, there were 4 or 5 times as
much fat stored up in increase, as there was of fatty matter supplied
in the food. There was obviously therefore a formation of fat in
the animal body.

Reckoning the amount of the respective constituents of increase
stored up, for 100 of the collective dry substance of the food con-
sumed, the general result was as follows : — It appeared, that of the
about 9 parts of dry increase, in sheep liberally fed on corn or oil-
cake and succulent roots, for 100 of dry food consumed, about 8
parts were non-nitrogenous substance, that is, fat. There was there-
fore only about 1 part stored as nitrogenous and mineral matters
taken together. The average of the estimates showed the produce
of 100 of the collective dry substance of the consumed food of sheep
to be — about, 0'2 part of mineral matter, 0*8 part nitrogenous
compounds, and 8 parts fat, stored up; leaving therefore about 91
parts to be expired, perspired, or voided.

Taking the average of all the estimates of this kind relating to
pigs — of the \7\ parts of dry increase for 100 of dry matter of food
consumed, about 15f parts were estimated as fat, rather more than
l^rd part nitrogenous substance, and an insignificant amount as
mineral matter. On this plan of calculation, therefore, there would
appear to be, in the case of fattening pigs, only from 82 to 83 parts
of food-constituents expired, perspired, or voided, for 100 of the
collective dry substance of food consumed.

It is obvious that the ultimate composition of the dry substance
of increase must be very different from that of the 100 of dry sub-
stance consumed. This is strikingly illustrated in the case of the
fat. In most of the experiments with pigs, the fatty matter in the

355

food was determined. On the average of the cases it amounted to
less than ^th as much as was estimated to be stored up in the in-
crease of the animals. There was obviously therefore a formation
of fat in the body, from some other constituent or constituents of the
food. Supposing the fths or more of the stored-up fat which must
have been formed in the body to have been produced from starch,
it was estimated that it would require 2^ parts of starch to contri-
bute 1 part of produced fat. Accordingly, it would appear that a
much larger proportion of the consumed dry matter is, as it were,
directly engaged in the production of the dry fatty increase, than is
represented by the amount of the dry increase itself.

Thus, taking the average of the cases in which the fatty matter
in the food of the pigs was determined, it was estimated that 17*4
parts of dry increase were produced for 100 of dry matter of food
consumed. Of the 17'4 parts of dry increase, 16-04 are reckoned
as fat. But there were only 3*96 parts of ready-formed fatty matter
supplied in the food. At least 12-08 parts of fat must therefore
have been produced from other substances. If from starch, it would
require (at the rate of 2^ parts of starch to 1 of fat) 30' 2 parts of
that substance for the formation of 12*08 parts of the produced
fat. The ready-formed fat and the starch, together, thus supposed
to contribute to the 16'04 parts of fat in the increase, would amount
to 34' 16 parts out of the 100 of dry matter of food consumed. But
there were, further, 1'36 part of nitrogenous and mineral matters
stored up in the increase. In all, therefore, 35*52 parts out of the
100 of gross dry matter consumed, contributed, in this compara-
tively direct manner, to the production of the 17*4 parts of gross
dry increase.

According to the illustration just given, it appears that there was
pretty exactly twice as much of the dry substance of the food, in-
volved in the direct production of the increase, as there was of dry
increase itself; hence instead of their being, as before estimated, 82
to 83 parts of the consumed dry matter expired, perspired, or
voided, without as it were being directly involved in the production
of the increase, it is to be inferred that, in the sense implied, only
about 65 parts were so expired, perspired, or voided.

It having been thus found that by far the larger proportion of
the solid increase of the so-called fattening animals is really fat

356

itself, — as moreover, it is probable that, at least in great part, the
fat formed in the body is normally derived from starch, and other
non-nitrogenous constituents of the food — and since the current
fattening foods contain such a very large amount of nitrogen «om~
pared with that eventually retained in the increase — it can hardly
be surprising that, contrary to the usually accepted opinions, the
comparative values of our staple food -stuffs are much more nearly
measurable by their amount of digestible and assimilable non-nitro-
genous constituents, than by that of the digestible and assimilable
nitrogenous compounds.

In order to determine the relative development of the several
organs and parts in different descriptions of animals, and in animals
of the same description in different conditions of growth and matu-
rity, the weights alive, and of the separate internal organs and some
other parts, of 16 calves, heifers and bullocks, of 249 sheep, and of
59 pigs, were taken.

It appeared that in oxen the stomachs and contents constituted
about 11^, in sheep about 7^, and in the pig only about 1^ per
cent, of the entire weight of the body. The amounts of the intes-
tines and their contents stood in the opposite relation. They
amounted in the pig to about 6-J-, in the sheep to about 3^, and in
the oxen to only about 2-f per cent, of the whole body. These facts
are of considerable interest, when it is borne in mind that in the
food of the ruminant there is so large a proportion of indigestible
woody fibre, and in that of the well-fed pig a comparatively large
proportion of starch — the primary transformations of which are
supposed to take place chiefly after leaving the stomach, and more
or less throughout the intestinal canal.

Taken together, the stomachs, small intestines, large intestines, and
their respective contents, constituted, in oxen more than 14 percent.,
in sheep a little more than 1 1 per cent., and in pigs about 1\ per
cent. With these great variations in the proportion in the different
descriptions of animals, of these receptacles and first laboratories of
the food (with their contents), the further elaborating organs, if we
may so call them (with their fluids), appear to be much more equal in
their proportion in the three cases. This is approximately illustrated
in the fact, that taking together the recorded per-centages of
"heart and aorta," " lungs and windpipe," "liver," "gall-bladder

357

and contents," "pancreas," "milt or spleen," and the " blood,"
the sum indicated is for the oxen about 7 per cent., for the sheep
about 1\ per cent., and for the pigs about 6|rds per cent. Exclu-
ding from this list the blood, which was more than ^rd of a per cent,
lower in amount in the pigs than in the other animals, the sums of
the per-centages of the other parts enumerated would -agree even
much more closely for the three descriptions of animal.

With regard to the influence of progression in maturity and fatness
of the animal, upon the relative development of its several parts, the
results showed that the internal organs and other offal-parts pretty
generally increased in actual weight as the animals passed from the
lean to the fat or to the very fat condition. The per-centage pro-
portion to the whole live- weight of these offal-parts as invariably
diminished as the animals matured and fattened. The carcasses, on
the other hand, invariably increased, not only in actual weight, but
in proportion to the whole body.

The conclusion is, that in the feeding or fattening of animals, the
apparatus which subserves for the reception and elaboration of the
food does not increase commensurately with those parts which it is
the object of the feeder to store up from that food. These parts are
comprised in the " carcass " or frame-work, with its covering of flesh
and fat. Of the carcasses which thus constitute the greater part of
the increase, the nitrogenous portions increase but little, whilst the
fat does so in very much larger proportion. Of the internal parts,
again, it is also the fat which increases most rapidly.

The maturing process consists, then, in diminishing the propor-
tional amount in the whole body, of the collective muscles, tendons,
vessels, fleshy organs, and gelatigenous matters — the motive and func-
tional, or so to speak, working parts of the body — the constituents of
which alone can increase the amount of or replace the transformed
portions of similar matters in the human body. It consists, further,
in increasing very considerably the deposition of fat — one of the
wow- flesh-forming, but most concentrated of the respiratory and fat-
storing constituents of human food.

It is then in our meat-diet, of recognized good quality, to which
is generally attributed such relatively high flesh-forming capacity,
that we carefully store up such a large proportion of wow-flesh-form-
ing, but concentrated respiratory material.

358

One of the most important applications which can be made of a
knowledge of the composition of the animals which constitute the
chief sources of our animal food, is to determine the main points of
distinction between such food and the staple vegetable substances
which it substitutes or supplements in an ordinary mixed diet.

By the analysis of some of the most important animals fed and
slaughtered as human food, it was found that the entire bodies, even
when in a reputed lean condition, may contain more dry fat than
dry nitrogenous substances. Of the animals " ripe " for the butcher,
a bullock and a lamb contained rather more than twice, a moderately
fat sheep nearly three times, and a very fat sheep and a moderately
fat pig about four times as much dry fat as dry nitrogenous matter.
Of the professedly fattened animals analysed, a fat calf alone con-
tained rather less fat than nitrogenous compounds.

It was estimated, that of the whole nitrogenous substances of the
body, 60 per cent, in the case of calves and oxen, 50 per cent, in
lambs and sheep, and 78 per cent, in pigs, would be consumed as
human food. Of the total fat of the bodies, on the other hand, it
was supposed, that in calves and lambs 95 per cent., in oxen 80 per
cent., in sheep 75 per cent., and in pigs 90 per cent, would be so
applied.

Assuming the proportional consumption of the fat and nitrogenous
compounds to be as here estimated, there would be in the fat calf
analysed 1-| time, in the fat ox 2f times, in the fat lamb, fat sheep,
and fat pig nearly 4^ times, and in the very fat sheep 6£ times as
much dry fat as dry nitrogenous or flesh-forming constituents con-
sumed as human food.

It would perhaps be hardly anticipated, that in the staple of our
meat-diet, to which such a high relative flesh-forming capacity is
generally attributed, there should be found such a high proportion
of non-flesh-forming to flesh-forming matter as above indicated.
The result of such a comparison as present knowledge permits in
regard to the same point between the staple of our animal food and
the more important kinds of vegetable food, will certainly not be
less surprising

Of the staple vegetable foods, wheat-flour bread is, at least in this
country, the most important. It will be interesting, therefore, to
contrast with this substance the estimated consumed portions of the

359

analysed animals. To this end some assumption must be made as
to the relative values (on the large scale), for the purposes of re-
spiration and fat-storing, of the starch and its analogues in bread,
and the fat in meat. It is assumed that, in round numbers, 1 part
of fat may be considered equal to 2-1- parts of starch in these respects.
If, therefore, the quantity of fat in the estimated consumed portions
of the analysed animals be multiplied by 2*5, it is brought to what
may be conveniently called its "starch-equivalent;" and in this
way the Meat and the Bread can be easily compared with one another
in regard to the relation of their flesh-forming, to their respiratory
and fat-forming capacities.

Reckoning the amount — say I per cent. — of fat in Bread itself
(and it probably averages not more than ^ per cent.), to be equal to
2^ parts of starch, and adding this to the amount of the actual starch
and allied matters which it on the average contains, the calculation
gives — assuming this starch-equivalent to represent specially the
respiratory and fat-forming, and the nitrogenous substances, the
flesh -forming matter — 6f8 parts of respiratory and fat-forming to 1
of flesh-forming material in Bread.

Taking the relation of the one class of constituents to the other,
in the estimated total consumed portions of the animals assumed to
be in fit condition for the butcher, there was only one case — that of
the fat calf — in which the proportion of the so measured respiratory
and fat-forming to the flesh-forming capacity was in this our meat-
diet lower than in Bread. In the estimated total consumed portions
of the fat ox, the proportion of the starch-equivalent of nori-flesh-
forming matter to 1 of nitrogenous compounds, was 6*9, or rather
higher than in Bread. In the estimated consumed portions of the
fat lamb, the fat sheep, and the fat pig, the proportion was more
than 1^ time as great as in Bread ; and in those of the extra fat
sheep it was more than twice as great. Taking the average of
the 6 cases, there were nearly 10 parts of starch-equivalent to 1 of
nitrogenous compounds, against 6*8 to 1 in Bread. In the half-fat
ox, and the half-fat old sheep, neither of which were in the condition
of fatness of such animals as usually killed, the relation of the starch-
equivalent to the nitrogenous compounds (assuming only the same
proportion of the total fat as before to be eaten), was in the former
considerably, and in the latter slightly lower than in Bread, namely,

360

as 3-83 to 1 in the half-fat ox, and as 6 '28 to 1 in the half-fat old
sheep.

It will perhaps be objected, that when animals are so far fattened
as to attain the relations above stated, the feeder is simply inducing
disease in the animals themselves, and frustrating that which, it is
considered, should be the special advantage of a meat-diet, namely,
the increase in the relative supply of the flesh-forming constituents
in our food. It cannot be doubted, however, that in animals that
would be admitted, by both producer and consumer, to be in only a
proper condition of fatness, there would be a higher relation of
non-nitrogenous substance, in its respiratory and fat-forming capa-
city to flesh -forming material, in their total consumed portions, than
in the average of onr staple vegetable foods. It may be true, that
with the modern system of bringing animals very early forward, the
development of fat will be greater, and that of the muscles and other
nitrogenous parts less than would otherwise be the case ; but it is
certain, that if meat is to be economically produced, so as to be
within the reach of the masses of the population, it can only be so
on the plan of early maturity. Nor will it be questioned, that the
admixture with their otherwise vegetable diet, of the meat so pro-
duced is, in practice, of great advantage to the health and vigour of
those who consume it.

It is true that individual joints or other parts, as sold, will fre-
quently have a less proportion of fat to flesh-forming matter than,
according to the above supposition, will be consumed. Some fat
will also be removed in the process of cooking. But this portion
will generally still be consumed in some form. And where fresh
meat is bought, so also are suet, lard, and butter, which, either add
to the fatness of the cooked meats, or are used further to reduce the
relative flesh-forming capacity of the collaterally consumed vegetable
foods.

It would, indeed, appear to be unquestionable, that the influence,
on the large scale, of the introduction of animal food to supplement
our otherwise mainly farinaceous diet, is to reduce and not to increase
the relation of the nitrogenous or peculiarly flesh-forming to the
non-nitrogenous constituents (reckoned in their respiratory and fat-
forming capacity) of the food consumed.

That, nevertheless, a diet containing a due proportion of animal

361

food is, for some reason or other, generally better adapted to meet
the collective requirements of the human organism than an exclu-
sively bread or other vegetable one, the testimony of common ex-
perience may be accepted as sufficient evidence. Whatever may
prove to be the exact explanations of the benefits arising from a
mixed animal and vegetable diet, it is at any rate pretty clear, that,
independently of any difference in the physical, and perhaps even
chemical relations of the nitrogenous compounds, they are essentially
connected with the amount, the condition, and the distribution of
the fat in the animal portions of the food.

Fat is the most concentrated respiratory, and of course fat-storing
material also, which our food-stuffs supply. It cannot be doubted
that, independently of the mere supply of constituents, the condi-
tions of concentration, of digestibility, and of assimilability of our
different foods must have their share in determining the relative
values, for the varying exigences of the system, of substances which,
in a more general or more purely chemical sense, may still justly
be looked upon as mutually replaceable.

By the aid of chemistry it may be established that, in the admix-
ture of animal food with bread, the relation (in respiratory and fat-
forming capacity) of the non-flesh-forming to the flesh-forming
substances will be increased, and, further, that in such a mixed diet
the proportion of the non-flesh-forming constitutents, which will be
in the concentrated form, so to speak, of fat itself, will be consider-
ably greater than in bread alone. Common experience also testifies
to the fact of advantages so derived. It remains to Physiology to
lend her aid to the full explanation of that which Chemistry and
common usage have thus determined.

COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED SINCE THE END OF THE SESSION.

I. Note " On the Formation of the Peroxides of the Radicals
of the Organic Acids." By B. C. BRODIE, F.R.S., Pro-
fessor of Chemistry in the University of Oxford. Received
July 22, 1858.
The researches of Gerhardt showed a close resemblance which

exists between the monobasic organic acids and the metallic protoxides.

We have the chloride of acetyl corresponding to the chloride of the

362

metal, and the hydrated and anhydrous acetic acid corresponding to
the hydrated and anhydrous oxide. These investigations have been
succeeded by others, which have had their origin in the consistent
development of these ideas. The following discovery extends and
completes these analogies. I have to add a new term to this series,
of which hitherto no analogue has existed. This term is the per-
oxide of the organic radical, — the body which in the series of acetyl
corresponds to the peroxide of hydrogen or barium in the series of
the metal. Of these remarkable substances I have prepared two, — the
peroxides of benzoyl and of acetyl ; but the method by which these
are procured is doubtless of extensive application, and we may con-
sider ourselves as in possession of a class of bodies of a new order,
the study of which cannot fail greatly to extend our knowledge.

These peroxides are prepared by the action of the anhydrous acid,
or the corresponding chloride, upon the peroxide of barium. It is
first necessary to prepare this peroxide in a pure condition. This is
effected by precipitation of the solution of the peroxide of barium in
hydrochloric acid by baryta water, and by drying in vacuo the pre-
cipitate thus obtained. The peroxide of barium thus procured is
perfectly pure, with the exception of a trace of carbonate. In ap-
pearance it resembles magnesia.

To prepare the peroxide of benzoyl, the chloride of benzoyl and
the peroxide of barium are taken in equivalent proportions and mixed
in water. A mutual decomposition takes place ; and a substance is
formed which, after crystallization from anhydrous ether, gave the
following results to analysis : —

Carbon 69'23

Hydrogen 4*10

Oxygen 26'67

100-00
The calculated numbers for the peroxide of benzoyl are

C14 168 69-42

H10 10 4-13

O4 64 26-45

242 100-00

This substance contains an atom of oxygen more than the anhy-

363

drous acid, and (reducing the formula to its simplest expression) one
atom of hydrogen less than the hydrated acid. Thus we have
C14 H10 O3 anhydrous benzoic acid, C14 H10 O4 peroxide of benzoyl,
and C7 H6 O2 hydrated benzoic acid, C7 Hg O2 peroxide of benzoyl,
as we have H2O water, and H2 O2 or HO for the peroxide of hydro-
gen. This body crystallizes from ether in large and brilliant crystals.
Heated a little above the boiling-point of water, it decomposes, with
a slight explosion and the evolution of carbonic acid. Boiled with
a solution of potash, it is resolved into oxygen gas and benzoic acid.

The peroxide of acetyl is prepared by mixing anhydrous acetic
acid and peroxide of barium, in equivalent proportions, in anhydrous
ether. The mixture is to be effected very gradually, being attended
with evolution of heat. The ether, after filtration from the acetate
of baryta produced, is to be carefully distilled off at a low tempera-
ture, and the fluid which remains washed with water. After three
or four washings, the water ceases to be acid, and a viscid liquid re-
mains, which is the peroxide of acetyl. This substance possesses
the following properties : — It is extremely pungent to the taste ; the
smallest portion of it placed upon the tongue burns like cayenne
pepper. The substance suspended in water immediately decolorizes
a solution of sulphate of indigo. It instantly peroxides the prot-
oxide of manganese, and converts the yellow prussiate of potash to
the condition of red prussiate. Baryta-water poured upon the sub-
stance is converted to the condition of peroxide of barium, with for-
mation of acetate of baryta. Lastly, a single drop of the substance
itself, placed on a watch-glass and heated, explodes with a loud re-
port, shivering the glass to atoms.

To analyse the peroxide of acetyl, I availed myself of its decom-
position by baryta- water. An undetermined quantity of the sub-
stance was thus decomposed, and the oxygen estimated which was
evolved by the decomposition of the peroxide of barium formed, by
platina-black, and the acetate of baryta determined as sulphate. The
result is the same as though the peroxide of acetyl were decomposed
into anhydrous acetic acid and oxygen, thus,

C4HC04=C4H603 + 0.

Thus for every 1 6 parts of oxygen evolved, 2 equivalents of acetate

364

of baryta and 1 of sulphate of baryta, SO4 Ba2, would be produced.

Now we have

S04 Ba2 O

233-2 : 16 :: 100 : 6'86.

In the actual experiment 1*776 gr. of sulphate of baryta was
obtained, and 0'1225 of oxygen evolved.

1776 : 0-1225 :: 100 : 6-39.

It has not yet been in my power to pursue further the study of
these substances. I may, however, observe, that the peroxide of
acetyl contains the elements of carbonic acid and of the acetate of
methyl, and the peroxide of benzoyl the elements of carbonic acid
and of the benzoate of phenyl. I have ascertained that the peroxide
of benzoyl, when carefully heated, loses exactly one equivalent of car-
bonic acid ; but the substance formed, although isomeric with the
benzoate of phenyl, has not the properties of that body. It is a
yellow resin, soluble in ether and alkalies, from which latter solution
it is precipitated by acids.

The existence of a hydrated peroxide may be anticipated, inter-
mediate between the organic peroxide and the peroxide of hydrogen,
in the same sense as the organic acid is intermediate between water
and the anhydrous acid. This substance in the series of benzoyl
would be isomeric with salicylic acid. My efforts, however, to pro-
cure these bodies have, as yet, been unsuccessful ; and it is to be re-
membered that we have no evidence of the existence of a hydrated
peroxide of barium, or of any other metal, corresponding to the
hydrated protoxide. In the series of ethyl the diatomic alcohol of
of Wurtz (C2 H6 O2) is isomeric with the hydrated peroxide. But
the true peroxide of ethyl remains yet to be discovered.

The question naturally arises as to what would be the result of
making similar experiments with the chlorides and the anhydrides
of the bibasic acids. Now carbonic acid may be regarded as the
peroxide of oxalic acid : it is the constant product of the action of
oxidizing agents upon that body ; and were we able to procure the
unknown anhydride of oxalic acid, it would not be an unreasonable
anticipation that with the peroxide of barium it would decompose
into oxalate and carbonic acid, thus

2 C2 03 + Ba2 O2=C2 O4 Ba2 + 2CO2.

365

A similar experiment with anhydrous succinic acid would produce
succinate of baryta and a homologue of carbonic acid, the existence
of which is also indicated by other considerations. It is premature
to dwell upon this point ; but in this direction also I have made
some experiments.

II. " Notice of Researches on the Sulphocyanide and Cyanate
of Naphtyl, conducted by VINCENT HALL, Esq." By A. W.
HOFMANN, Ph.D., F.R.S. &c. Received August 10, 1858.

The transformation of phenylcarbamide and phenylsulphocarba-
mide under the influence of anhydrous phosphoric acid, respectively
into cyanate and sulphocyanide of phenyl, an account of which I
submitted to the Society several months ago, suggested the proba-
bility that the hitherto unknown cyanates and sulphocyanides of
radicals similar to phenyl might be obtained by analogous processes.

To establish this point experimentally, Mr. Vincent Hall has
examined, in my laboratory, the deportment of some of the deriva-
tives of naphtylamine under the influence of agents capable of
fixing ammonia and its analogues.

Mr. Hall has found that the crude naphtaline, such as it is ob-
tained from the gas-works, submitted at once, without sublimation,
to the action, first of fuming nitric acid, and subsequently of acetic
acid and metallic iron, furnishes the naphtylamine sufficiently pure
for these experiments. The crude product thus obtained was
digested with bisulphide of carbon in order to convert it into naph-
tylsulphocarbamide.

By distilling naphtylsulphocarbamide with anhydrous phosphoric
acid, Mr. Hall has obtained a beautiful crystalline compound of a
faint but peculiar odour, readily fusible, easily soluble in alcohol
and ether, insoluble in water.

The analysis of this compound has led to the formula

C22H7NS2=C20H7,C2NS2,

showing that it is in fact sulphocyanide of naphtyl, formed accord-
ing to the equation : —

(C20 H7)2 I N*= C« a7 } N + C20 H7, Ca NS2.
H2 J M*J

366

Boiled with an alcoholic solution of naphtylamine, this compound
readily reproduces naphtylsulphocarbamide, which by its insolubility
is easily distinguished and separated from the sulphocyanide.

Gently heated with phenylamine, the new sulphocyanide gives
rise to the formation of a crystalline compound, of properties very
similar to those of the naphtylsulphocarbamide. This new body is
phenyl-naphtyl-sulphocarbamide*, containing —

(C2S2)"]
C34H14N2S2=C12H5,C20H7 IN,.

H2 J

Naphtylcarbamide, as obtained by the action of potassa on the
corresponding sulpho-compound, or by the distillation of oxalate of
naphtylamine, is likewise powerfully attacked by anhydrous phos-
phoric acid. Among the products of distillation a compound is
found, which, by its chemical properties, is readily identified as
cyanate ofnaphtyl.

C22H7N020=C2H7,C2N02,

although the small quantity in which this body is produced — by far
the greater amount of the naphtylcarbamide being charred by the
action of anhydrous phosphoric acid — has hitherto prevented Mr.
Hall from fixing the nature of the compound by an analysis.

* By the action of sulphocyanide of phenyl upon naphtylamine, I have ob-
tained a crystalline compound very similar in its general characters to the body
which Mr. Hall procures by the action of sulphocyanide of naphtyl on phenyla-
mine. This substance likewise contains

(C2S2)"j

C34 H14 N2 S2 = C12 H5, C20 H7 > N2,
H2 J

for

Cw H5 H2N+C20 H7 C2 NS2 = C20 H7, H2 N+C12 H5, C2 NS2 = C34 H14 N2 S2.
Are these two bodies identical, or only isomeric ? [A.W.H.]

367

III. " Preliminary Account of an Inquiry into the Functions of
the Visceral Nerves, with special reference to the so-called
( Inhibitory System/ " By JOSEPH LISTER, Esq., F.R.C.S.
Eng. & Edin., Assistant Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary of
Edinburgh ; in a Letter to Dr. Sharpey, Sec.R.S. Received
August 13, 1858. Communicated by Dr. SHARPEY.

MY DEAR SIR, — The fact that the irritation of visceral nerves
sometimes causes arrest of the movements of organs supplied by
them, as shown by Edward Weber's experiment of stopping the action
of the heart by stimulating the vagus, and by Pfliiger's more recent
observation that the application of galvanism to the splanchnic nerves
produces quiescence of the small intestines, appears to me to have
an intimate bearing upon the question how inflammation is deve-
loped through the medium of the nervous system at a distance from
an irritated part ; and as the nature of the inflammatory process
has lately engaged my especial attention, I have been led to make
an experimental inquiry into this "inhibiting" agency, the true in-
terpretation of which is, as you are aware, still sub judice, I now
propose to state the principal results at which I have arrived, re-
serving further details for a more extended communication which I
hope soon to offer to the Royal Society.

The view which has been advocated by Pfliiger*, and I believe
very generally accepted, viz. that there is a certain set of nerve-fibres,
the so-called "inhibitory system of nerves" (Hemmungs Nerven-
system), whose sole function is to arrest or diminish action, seemed
to me from the first a very startling innovation in physiology ; and
you may possibly recollect my mentioning to you in conversation,
when in London last Christmas, my suspicion that the phenomena
in question were merely the effect of excessive action in nerves pos-
sessed of the functions usually attributed to them. On further
reflection upon the subject, the consideration of the contraction pro-
duced in the arteries of the frog's foot by a very mild stimulus, as
compared with the relaxation of the vessels caused by stronger irri-
tants acting through the same nerves, confirmed my previous notions.

* Eduard Pfliiger ueber das Hemmungs Nervensystem, 1857.
VOL, IX. 2 C

368

For I could hardly doubt that the cause of the quiescence of the
heart or intestines on irritation of the vagus or splanchnic nerves
was analogous to that of arterial dilatation in the web, and that,
provided a sufficiently mild stimulus were applied to the so-called
" inhibitory nerves," increased action of the viscera would occur,
corresponding to the vascular constriction.

To test the truth of this hypothesis, I made several experiments
between the 17th of June and the 14th of July of this year, with re-
gard to the movements of the heart and intestines. The means
used for stimulating the nerves and spinal cord were sometimes me-
chanical irritation, but more commonly galvanism, applied with a
magnetic coil battery of a single pair of plates, the strength of which
could be regulated in a rough way, with great facility, by the height
at which the acid solution stood in the jar and the extent to which
the rods of soft iron were inserted in the helix. The mildest action
employed was such as was but just perceptible to the tip of the
tongue, placed between the fine silver-wire extremities of the poles,
when the rods were fully in the helix, but inappreciable after their
complete withdrawal ; the spring carrying the magnetic bar being
made to vibrate by a touch with the finger : the greatest action of
the battery, on the other hand, was so powerful as to elicit sparks
when the poles were applied to the tissues.

My attention was first directed to the intestines, and it may be
well to mention first all the results obtained with reference to them.
The animals operated on were generally rabbits, they being very
easily managed, and also favourable for the purpose on account of
the large amount of movement which occurs in their intestines.
Chloroform was generally not administered, on account of its de-
pressing effect upon the action of the nervous centres.

In the first experiment, the ends of the poles having been fixed
to the spinous processes of the ninth and twelfth dorsal vertebrae,
according to Pfliiger's original method, and the intestines allowed to
protrude through a wound in the abdominal parietes, a series of in-
terrupted currents were transmitted, a very small amount of acid
being in the jar, and the rods fully in the helix. The effect was
complete relaxation and quiescence of the small intestines, which had
been previously in considerable movement, while the muscles of the
limbs were thrown into spasmodic action ; but on the discontinuance

369

of the galvanism the previous intestinal motion returned. The rods
were then removed from the helix, and the battery, thus diminished,
was applied on several occasions, with markedly increased action of
the intestines in every instance during the first twenty-five minutes.
In the next half hour the increase of action from the galvanism, though
still distinct, was less strongly marked ; and at the end of that
period, the rods having been reintroduced, the inhibiting influence
was also found to be much less complete than before, indicating
that the parts of the nervous apparatus concerned were in a less
active condition, no doubt in consequence of exhaustion. The arches
of the tenth and eleventh dorsal vertebrae having been removed be-
fore the experiments with galvanism, I subsequently introduced a
fine needle into the exposed part of the cord, with the effect of
causing in repeated instances increased movements of the intestines,
which were especially striking on account of the occurrence of pecu-
liar local contractions not seen at other times. Further observations
upon this animal tended to confirm those which have been men-
tioned, as did an experiment of the same kind performed the next
day upon another rabbit.

I afterwards found that the best mode of proceeding was to re-
move the skin and one or two layers of muscles from a portion of
the abdomen till the parietes were sufficiently thinned to permit the
intestines to be distinctly seen through them; by this means the
complication produced by exposure of the intestines to the atmo-
sphere was avoided, and the most satisfactory results were obtained ;
the increase of the peristaltic movements during the transmission of
extremely feeble shocks being strikingly apparent and constant on
every occasion. During the experiment performed in this way I
noticed several times that a violent struggle on the part of the rabbit,
when the intestines were in pretty free movement, was followed by
absolute and universal quiescence of those organs for several se-
conds ; this appeared to me of great interest, as proving that the
inhibitory influence is certainly sometimes exerted in the natural
actions of the animal, and is not merely the result of artificial sti-
mulation.

In the course of the above experiments several other observations
were made. In the first place I verified the statement of Pfliiger,
that if, when the intestine is lying relaxed under the inhibiting

2 c 2

370

influence of galvanism applied to the spine, a particular part be
irritated, local contraction occurs, but is not propagated to neigh-
bouring parts. This fact is of fundamental importance, since it
proves that the inhibitory influence does not operate directly upon
the muscular tissue, but upon the nervous apparatus by which its
contractions are, under ordinary circumstances, elicited.

Another point which seemed to require investigation was the well-
known increase of peristaltic action which takes place after death,
and which continues in spite of cutting off the mesentery close to
the gut. Those who believe in a constantly restraining function
of certain nerves during life might argue that the intestine has
always a tendency to such active movements, but is kept in check
by the "inhibitory nerves," and released from their control when
they have lost their power after death. A different explanation, first
suggested, I believe, by Bernard, is that the increased action of the
intestines is the result of failure of the circulation in the part ; and
to this view I felt disposed to agree, in consequence of having noticed
curious irregular contractions in the arteries of the frog's foot from a
similar cause. In order to decide the question, I tied three adjoining
arterial branches in the mesentery of a rabbit, thus depriving about
3 inches of the intestine of its circulation ; the parts so affected being
accurately defined by the extent of absence of pulsation in the mi-
nute vessels close to the gut. In about a minute and a half, vermi-
cular movements commenced in this part ; the rest of the intestines
being at the time very quiet. Powerful interrupted galvanic cur-
rents were then transmitted through the posterior dorsal region of
the spine, with the effect of causing perfect quiescence of the whole
of the intestine, including the part whose arteries had been tied.
After cessation of the galvanism the movements recurred in the por-
tion devoid of circulation, while elsewhere they were almost entirely
absent. This experiment was repeated on another occasion with
similar results. In one of the cases I divided the mesentery close to
the gut, after ligature of the vessels, but no change took place in the
character of the movements which had been previously induced, indi-
cating that the increased action in these cases had been of the same
nature as that which results from death. The arrest of .the move-
ment on the application of galvanism proved that the delicate opera-
tion of ligature of the mesenteric vessels had been performed without

371

injury to the adjacent nervous branches ; and it therefore followed
that the movement in the parts supplied by those vessels was not
due to any injury of the nerves, but simply to the arrest of circula-
tion. It further appears from these experiments, that, in whatever
way the cessation of the flow of blood through the vessels operates
in increasing the peristaltic action, it does so through the medium of
the nervous apparatus, and not by directly influencing the muscular
tissue. For, in the latter case, the movement would have continued
in spite of the inhibiting influence, which, as we have seen, has no
effect upon muscular irritability.

The fact that the movements continue in a portion of gut deprived
of its mesentery, proves that the nervous apparatus by which the
muscular contractions are induced and coordinated in post mortem
peristaltic action, is contained within the intestine.

The distinction between the coordinating power and muscular
contractility was very strikingly shown in the further progress of one
of these experiments. The peristaltic movements of the portion of
gut supplied by the ligatured arteries ceased entirely about twenty
minutes after the vessels were tied, and the surface of the gut be-
came there perfectly smooth and relaxed, contrasting strongly with
the wrinkled aspect of other parts. But muscular irritability had
outlived the coordinating power, as was shown by energetic, purely
local contraction taking place in a part pinched. Similar observa-
tions confirmatory of this point were afterwards made upon a rabbit
which had died of haemorrhage an hour before.

The mechanism by which the muscular contractions are regulated
is, doubtless, the rich ganglionic structure lately demonstrated in
the submucous tissue by Dr. Meissner of Bale * . Professor Goodsir
gave me the first information of this anatomical fact on my men-
tioning to him the foregoing physiological proofs of the existence
within the intestines of a coordinating apparatus distinct from the
muscular tissue. I have since verified Meissner' s observations, and
found abundant well-marked nerve-cells in the submucous tissue of
the Ox, exactly corresponding with his descriptions.

But while muscular irritability outlives the coordinating power
in the intestines, the latter lasts much longer than the inhibiting

* Henle and Pfeufer's Zeitschr. 2nd series, vol. viii.

372

property in the spinal system, for I find that Pfliiger's experiment
does not succeed in a dead animal, unless performed soon after
death, although the intestines may continue to move for a long
time.

In another experiment I divided with fine scissors, at a little di-
stance from the intestine, all the visible branches of nerves in a por-
tion of mesentery corresponding to an inch and three-quarters of the
gut, leaving the vessels uninjured. No effect was produced on the
peristaltic movements, which happened to be pretty active at the
time, and continued the same at the seat of the operation as elsewhere.
To ascertain whether the division of the nerves had been thoroughly
effected, I now transmitted powerful galvanic currents through the
spine, as in former experiments ; when all movements ceased in the
intestine, except in the small piece whose nerves had been cut, which
continued in vigorous action as before. The persistence of the
vermicular motion after complete division of the mesenteric nerves
shows that the movement which occurs during life, like that which
takes place post mortem, is effected by a mechanism within the
intestine ; and its continuance in the portion of gut so treated,
while other parts were relaxed, on the application of galvanism to
the spine, proves that the inhibiting influence acts through the me-
senteric nerves, whose integrity is necessary to the effect.

This being established, it follows that if a quiet state of the in-
testine, such as very frequently occurs in its natural condition, were
due to a controlling agency on the part of the so-called " inhibitory
system," the complete division of the mesenteric nerves supplying a
portion of gut which is at rest, would liberate it from this restraint,
and movement would be the result. I performed the operation in
one case under such circumstances, but the portion of intestine con-
cerned remained as tranquil as the rest.

To sum up the above, it appears that the intestines possess an
intrinsic ganglionic apparatus which is in all cases essential to the
peristaltic movements, and, while capable of independent action, is
liable to be stimulated or checked by other parts of the nervous
system ; the inhibiting influence being apparently due to the ener-
getic operation of the same nerve-fibres which, when working more
mildly, produce increase of function.

After the above conclusions had been arrived at, my attention was

373

directed by Professor Goodsir to a paper by Dr. O. Spiegelberg,
published last year, in which he shows that the movement of the
intestines is increased by mechanical irritation of the cord. His
results are particularly satisfactory, as having been obtained inci-
dentally during an inquiry into the movements of the uterus, and so
without any preconceived theory*. Spiegelberg also attributes the
increased peristaltic action after death to arrest of the circulation ;
having found that the same thing occurs during life, when the aorta
or vena cava is compressed above the origin of the mesenteric

To proceed to the experiments upon the cardiac movements :
some of these consisted in irritation of the vagus in rabbits, and this
was followed by different results in different instances : thus, on one
occasion the pinching of the cardiac end of the left nerve, divided in
the neck, was followed by considerable increase in the number of
beats as felt through the walls of the chest, but similar treatment
of the right nerve afterwards caused great depression of the heart's
action. Again, in one animal the evidence obtained from mechanical
irritation of the vagus was almost entirely negative. In another
case, the left vagus having been exposed, feeble galvanic currents
transmitted through the nerve, isolated by a plate of glass placed
beneath it, were succeeded by slight increase in the number of con-
tractions. The strength of the battery having been then increased
by introducing the rods into the helix, it produced first irregularity,
and then complete arrest of the action of the heart, which had been
previously exposed. No sign of recurrence of contraction appearing,
I filled the jar to the top with acid solution, and sent powerful
currents through the vagus, with the instantaneous effect of reviving
the action of the heart, which, on their immediate discontinuance,
continued to beat, though feebly, for several minutes. During this
time I again applied the galvanism very mildly, and the result was
great increase in the number of beats on several successive trials.
The apparent discordance of these facts is, I believe, partly owing
to differences in the state of the nerves in different cases as respects
irritability and exhaustion, as will be better understood from the
sequel ; and, on the whole, the experiments appear to show that, in a

* Henle and Pfeufer's Zeitschrift, 3rd series, vol. ii. pt. 1.

374

healthy state of the nervous system, very gentle irritation of the
vagus increases the heart's action, while a slightly stronger applica-
tion diminishes the frequency and force of its contractions. This
conclusion is in harmony with an observation which I made inci-
dentally upwards of a year ago, that irritation of the posterior part
of the brain of a frog with a fine needle was repeatedly followed by
improvement in the circulation, whereas it was by the application of
a stronger stimulus, that of galvanism, to the same part of the
cerebro-spinal axis that Weber first induced an inhibitory action
on the heart.

It is said, on apparently good authority*, that division of the
vagus in mammalia is invariably followed by increase of the action
of the heart ; this, if true, would be a strong ground for believing
in an inhibiting influence constantly operating upon it through
this nerve. But it is also stated that the same thing does not
occur in frogs ; and this circumstance appeared to me to throw
much doubt upon the evidence regarding mammalia. I therefore
made careful experiments on the effects of cutting both vagi, once
upon a calf and four times upon rabbits ; taking the number of the
heart's beats immediately before and immediately after section of
each nerve by the momentary stroke of a sharp pair of scissors.
In no case was the rate increased at all by the operation, and the verv
gradual diminution in frequency that commonly took place appeared
to depend on general exhaustion from other circumstances attending
the experiment. In one rabbit, in which I had removed the skin and
pectoralis major from the prsecordial region, so as to see the move-
ments of the heart distinctly through the transparent pericardium and
intercostal muscles, I noticed particularly that the strength of the
contractions, as well as their frequency, remained quite unaffected by
the division of the vagi. From these facts I feel warranted in con-
cluding that, whatever may occur under exceptional circumstances,
there is certainly no constant control exercised over the heart's
action through those nerves.

The influence of the spinal system upon the heart is, however,
very apparent after a struggle, which almost invariably increases the
frequency and force of the beats ; and I found that this continued

* Pfluger, op. cit.

375

to be the case after division of both vagi, implying that those nerves
are not the only channels through which this influence is transmitted.
A new field of investigation was thus opened. For, supposing the
inhibitory agency to be simply the greater action of an ordinary nerve,
it would probably not be exercised exclusively by the vagus, but also
by the other nerves connecting the cerebro- spinal axis with the car-
diac ganglia, viz. the sympathetic branches in the neck ; in which
case the action of the heart should be increased or diminished, accord-
ing to the strength of the stimulus, by the application of galvanism
to the cervical region of the spine after the pneumogastric nerves had
been cut.

In an experiment performed with this view, the poles having been
fixed to about the fourth cervical and fifth dorsal spinous processes,
and both vagi divided in the neck, galvanic currents only just per-
ceptible to the tip of the tongue were first transmitted. This ex-
cessively feeble action of the battery, though apparently not very
favourably situated for influencing the cord, produced marked effects
upon the heart's action, increasing the number of beats, which were
about forty in ten seconds, by from three to ten in that period. This
effect having been observed for a considerable time, the rods of soft
iron, which had been till then only inserted half-way in the helix,
were pushed fully in. The battery, thus strengthened, instead of in-
creasing, as before, the rate of the pulsations, diminished it by two
in ten seconds on several successive trials. On again half with-
drawing the rods, the galvanism, when applied, again increased
the number of beats. A little more of the acid solution was after-
wards poured into the jar of the battery, when the stronger cur-
rents which it produced reduced the number by about five in ten
seconds.

Yet distinct as was this inhibiting influence, the shocks were still
quite tolerable to the tongue even when the rods were fully in the
helix.

These results were of great interest, as proving how slight an in-
crease of the feeble stimulus which promoted the action of the heart
sufficed to produce the opposite (inhibiting) effect. But it was by
no means clear that the influence had not been exerted through car-
diac branches arising from the vagi above the parts where they were
divided, or even through the trunks of those nerves, which might

376

possibly have been affected by the galvanism acting through the
superjacent spinal column. In order to eliminate the vagi com-
pletely, I divided in another rabbit all the soft parts in front of the
spine, except the trachea and oesophagus, at the level of the cricoid
cartilage, having previously cut each carotid artery between two liga-
tures. The incisions were carried fairly down to the bodies of the
vertebrae, and outwards beyond the tips of the transverse processes,
so as to ensure the section not only of the vagi and their branches,
but also of the sympathetic cords, with any filaments of those nerves
which they might contain. Also the poles of the battery were
fixed to the spinous processes of the seventh dorsal and first lumbar
vertebrae, so as to avoid all possibility of direct action of the gal-
vanism upon either the vagi or other cardiac nerves. Feeble cur-
rents being then transmitted, diminution of the number of beats to
the extent of two to four in ten seconds occurred in several succes-
sive trials, the results being so constant as to leave no doubt that
they were produced by the galvanism.

It may appear almost incredible that such extremely mild galvanic
currents, applied through the spinous processes of the posterior dorsal
region, should be capable of thus affecting the heart ; but that their
effects were really very considerable, was clear from the further pro-
gress of this experiment and from others somewhat similar, which
showed that this apparently trivial stimulation gradually exhausted
the part of the nervous system through which the heart is acted on
by the cord. Thus, in one case, currents only just perceptible to the
tongue, transmitted for about thirty seconds at a time through the
lower cervical and upper dorsal regions of the spine, at intervals of
nine minutes on the average during two hours and twenty minutes,
produced at first decided increase of the heart's action, but during
the last hour failed to affect it at all. The strongest possible action
of the battery which, as proved by other experiments, would, at the
outset, have entirely arrested the cardiac movements, was then set on,
but with no effect whatever on the organ.

When partial exhaustion has occurred, a much stronger galvanic
stimulus is required, to produce the same effect upon the heart, than
at the commencement of an experiment ; and thus an action of the
battery which, when first applied, causes marked diminution in the
number of beats, may after a while come to have the opposite effect,

377

and increase the heart's action as decidedly as it had previously
lowered it ; while at an intermediate period it may seem to have no
influence at all. This principle gives the clue to understanding
what had before appeared incomprehensible in these experiments,
showing that facts which at first seemed utterly inconsistent, were
really perfectly harmonious. The case before related, in which re-
vival of the heart's action resulted from powerful stimulation of the
vagus, which, had the organ been contracting as usual, would have
arrested its movements and probably finally destroyed them, will
now be understood. I have seen other analogous cases of revival of
action by very powerful galvanism, which under ordinary circum-
stances would have arrested it, viz. twice in the heart and twice in
the intestines. The observation published so long ago as 1839 by
Valentin*, that mechanical or chemical irritation of the vagus in
the neck of an animal recently dead, and with the nerves conse-
quently enfeebled, causes contraction of the ventricles, admits of a
similar interpretation, as also does a corresponding fact regarding the
splanchnic nerves, given without explanation by Kupfer and Ludwig,
in a paper just published f, viz. that they lose their inhibitory in-
fluence a certain time after death, and acquire a motor power over
the intestines.

Two more experiments require mention, as they exclude the
possibility of the agency in them, of either the vagi or the part of
the brain from which the vagi spring, having been performed upon
decapitated rabbits. In one of these cases, the carotids having been
tied near the head, the neck was completely severed behind the first
vertebra, care being taken to avoid haemorrhage from the vertebral
arteries, and artificial respiration, for which provision had been
made, was carried on for an hour and a half after decapitation.
The results of moderate galvanism, applied to the posterior dorsal
region of the spine, to which the poles had previously been attached,
were at first not distinct, but afterwards decided increase of action
was produced by it when applied at intervals during half an hour ;
the effect being perfectly apparent in the heart which lay exposed
before me. Exhaustion of the nervejs concerned having then taken

* Valentin, De Functionibus Nervorum, p. 62.

f Henle and Pfeufer's Zeitschrift, 3rd series, vol. ii. pt. 3.

378

place, the most powerful action of the battery failed to influence the
character of the contractions.

In the other case, the poles having been fixed as before, and the
head similarly removed, powerful galvanic currents were immediately
transmitted. The pulsations of the heart in the opened chest at
once fell from thirty-five to sixteen in ten seconds, but rose again to
twenty on the removal of the stimulus.

Hence it is clear that the sympathetic branches connecting the
cord with the cardiac ganglia have equal claims with the vagi to be
called "inhibitory nerves." In fact this expression seems to me
altogether objectionable, since there is good reason to think that the
same fibres which check the movements, much more commonly
enhance them. The only evidence afforded by my experiments that
the inhibiting influence is ever exerted in the natural actions of the
animal, consisted in the quiescence of the intestines sometimes seen
after a struggle, and two doubtful observations of retardation of the
heart's beats from the same cause. Indeed it appears very question-
able whether the motions of either of these viscera are, under ordi-
nary circumstances, ever checked by the spinal system, except for
very brief periods ; whereas the increased action of both heart and
intestines, familiarly known to result from mental emotion, may last
for a very considerable time. The fact that the nerves of these
organs are capable of setting them at rest under conditions of
extraordinary irritation is nevertheless a matter of great impor-
tance, especially in a pathological point of view, and appears to
afford an explanation of facts in medicine hitherto little understood,
— such as failure of the heart's action from violent emotion or
pain, and the constipation which attends strangulated omental
hernia.

From the observations of Spiegelberg*, it would appear that the
uterine contractions are promoted by mechanical irritation of the
cord, and arrested by transmitting a powerful stream of galvanism
through the spine. Also the forcible expulsion of urine very fre-
quently seen in the lower animals in consequence of fear, and the
temporary palsy of the detrusqr often witnessed in the human sub-
ject in surgical practice as the result of severe injury, seem to me

* Henle and Pfeufer's Zeitschrift, 3rd series, vol. ii. part. 1.

379

to imply that the bladder, too, while sometimes stimulated through
the cerebro-spinal axis, is paralysed by its very powerful operation.
Hence it seems probable that the movements of all the hollow viscera
are liable to similar influence from the spinal system. At the same
time it appears to be a mistake to regard this influence in the light
of a strict control ; for the experiments related in this letter show
pretty distinctly that the contractions of the heart and the peristaltic
action of the intestines are regulated, under ordinary circumstances,
by the independent operation of the intrinsic ganglia.

Professor Schiff has, I understand, observed increase of the heart's
action to result from very gentle stimulation of the vagus *, and has
come to the conclusion, as stated by Spiegelberg in his paper before
referred to, that the inhibiting influence depends upon nervous
exhaustion. There are some circumstances which make me enter-
tain great doubt as to the correctness of this view. In the first place,
the very rapid recovery of the cardiac or intestinal actions when the
inhibiting galvanic currents are discontinued, contrasts strongly
with the length of time that the impairment of function resulting
from a protracted experiment, and certainly due to exhaustion, lasts
both in the intrinsic cardiac nerves and in those that connect them
with the spinal system. Secondly, although very powerful galvanism
not only arrests for the time, but permanently impairs the action of
the heart, no such effect is observed to follow the inhibiting influence
when it is caused by milder stimulation ; indeed, according to my
experience, less injurious effects are produced upon the heart by
a protracted series of experiments of the latter kind than by a cor-
responding set with the currents still more feeble, that increase,
while acting, the frequency of the contractions. But if the dimi-
nished rate of the pulsations were caused by a partial exhaustion
of the cardiac ganglia, an opposite result might have been antici-
pated.

Again, there can be little doubt that dilatation of the blood vessels,
in consequence of a stimulus, is due to an effect produced upon the
nervous centres for the arteries, similar to that experienced by the
visceral ganglia when subject to the inhibiting influence. Now an
inflammatory blush of long continuance may subside rapidly when

* Henle and Meissner's Bericht, 1857.

380

the source of irritation is withdrawn. Thus I have seen redness
which had existed for about three days in the human skin in con-
sequence of tight stitches connecting the lips of a wound, give place
at once to pallor on their removal. Had the arterial dilatation in
this case been the result of nervous exhaustion continued during so
long a period, such speedy recovery could hardly, one would think,
have taken place.

These and other considerations, to which the already excessive
length of this letter forbids me to allude, induce me to think it
safest in the present state of science to regard as a fundamental
truth not yet explained, that one and the same afferent nerve may,
according as it is operating mildly or energetically, either exalt or
depress the functions of the nervous centre on which it acts. It is, I
believe, upon this that all inhibitory influence depends, and I suspect
that the principle will be found to admit of a very general applica-
tion in physiology.

I am, &c.,

JOSEPH LISTER.

381

November 18, 1858.
RICHARD OWEN, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair.

In accordance with the Statutes, notice was given of the ensuing
Anniversary Meeting for the election of Council and Officers.

William Henry Harvey, M.D., was admitted into the Society.

Robert William Bunsen, Louis Poinsot, and Carl Theodor von
Siebold, were recommended by the Council for election as Foreign
Members, and to be balloted for at the next meeting of the Society.

Dr. Arnott, Sir George Back, Mr. Bell, Mr. Hodgson, and Mr.
Gwyn Jeffreys, having been nominated by the President, were elected
Auditors of the Treasurer's Accounts on the part of the Society.

The Secretary explained that the Croonian Lecture, delivered at
the last Meeting, but not yet published in the * Proceedings/ would
be printed in the report of the proceedings of the present Meeting.

The Report of the Joint Committee of the Royal Society and the
British Association, on Magnetical and Meteorological Observations,
was communicated by order of the President and Council, with the
view of its being published in the ' Proceedings.'

Papers were read, from Theophilus Thomson, MD., F.R.S., John
Lubbock, Esq., F.R.S., and R. M'Donnell, MD.

I. THE CROONIAN LECTURE. — " On the Theory of the Vertebrate
Skull." By THOMAS H. HUXLEY, Esq., F.R.S. Delivered
June 17, 1858.

The necessity of discussing so great a subject as the Theory of
the Vertebrate Skull in the small space of time allotted by custom
to a lecture, has its advantages as well as its drawbacks. As, on the
present occasion, I shall suffer greatly from the disadvantages of the
limitation, I will, with your permission, avail myself to the utter-
most of its benefits. It will be necessary for me to assume much
that I would rather demonstrate, to suppose known much that I
would rather set forth and explain at length ; but on the other
hand, I may consider myself excused from entering largely either
into the history of the subject, or into lengthy and controversial cri-
ticisms upon the views which are, or have been, held by others.

VOL. IX. 2 D

382

The biological science of the last half-century is honourably
distinguished from that of preceding epochs, by the constantly
increasing prominence of the idea, that a community of plan is dis-
cernible amidst the manifold diversities of organic structure. That
there is nothing really aberrant in nature ; that the most widely dif-
ferent organisms are connected by a hidden bond ; that an appa-
rently new and isolated structure will prove, when its characters
are thoroughly sifted, to be only a modification of something which
existed before, — are propositions which are gradually assuming the
position of articles of faith in the mind of the investigators of ani-
mated nature, and are directly, or by implication, admitted among
the axioms of natural history.

And this is not wonderful ; for no living being can be attentively
studied without bearing witness to the truth of these propositions.
The tyro in comparative anatomy cannot fail to be struck with the
resemblances between the leg and the jaw of a crustacean ; between
the parts of the mouth of a beetle and those of a bee ; between the
wing of the bird and the fore-limb of the mammal. Everywhere he
finds unity of plan, diversity of execution.

Or again, how can the intelligent student of the human frame con-
sider the backbone, with its numerous joints or vertebra, and trace
the gradual modification which these undergo downwards into the
sacrum and coccyx, and upwards into the atlas and axis, without
the notion of a vertebra in the abstract, as it were, gradually dawn-
ing upon his mind ; the conception of an ideal something which shall
be a sort of mean between these various actual, forms, each of which
may then easily be conceived as a modification of the abstract or
typical vertebra?

^ / Such an idea, once clearly apprehended, will hardly permit the
mind which it informs to rest at this point. A glance at a section
of that complex bony box formed by the human skull and face,
shows that it consists of a strong central mass, whence spring an
upper arch and a lower arch. The upper arch is formed by the
walls of the cavity containing the brain, and stands in the same re-
lation to it, as does the neural arch of a vertebra to the spinal cord,
with which that brain is continuous. The lower arch encloses the
other viscera of the head, in the same way as the ribs embrace those
of the thorax. And not only is the general analogy between the

383

two manifest, but a young skull may be readily separated into a
number of segments, in each of wbicli it requires but little imagina-
tion to trace a sort of family likeness to such an expanded vertebra
as the atlas.

What can be more natural then than to take another step — to con-
ceive the skull as a portion of the vertebral column still more altered
than the sacrum or the coccyx, whose vertebrae are modified in corre-
spondence with the expansion of the anterior end of the nervous
centre and the needs of the cephalic end of the body, just as those
of the sacrum are fashioned in accordance with the contraction of
the nervous centre and the mechanical necessities of the opposite
extremity of the frame ?

Two generations have passed away since, perhaps, by some such
train of reasoning as this, such a conception of the nature of the
vertebrate skull arose in the mind of the philosophic poet, Goethe ;
and a somewhat shorter period has elapsed since a poetical, or per-
haps I might more justly say a fanciful, philosopher, Oken, published
a " Theory of the Skull " embodying such a conception ; and since
the excellent Dumeril allowed a like hypothesis to be strangled in
the birth by the small wit of a French academician.

The progress of modern science is so rapid, that one is unac-
customed to see half a century elapse after the promulgation of
a doctrine, which is capable of being tested by readily accessible
facts, without either its firm establishment or its decisive overthrow.
But nevertheless, at the present day, the very questions regarding
the composition of the skull, which were mooted and discussed so
long ago by the ablest anatomists of the time, are still unsettled ; the
theory of the vertebrate skull is one of the most difficult and, appa-
rently inextricably confused subjects, which the philosophic anato-
mist can attack, and in consequence, not a few workers in science
look, somewhat contemptuously, upon what they are pleased to term
mere hypothetical views and speculations.

Indeed, though the germ of a great truth did really lie in these
same hypotheses, its late or early development into a sound, and
consequently fruitful, body of doctrine depended upon the manner in
which biologists set about solving the problem presented to them ;
upon the clearness with which they apprehended the nature of the
questions they wished to put, and the consequent greater or less

2 D 2

384

fitness of the method by which their interrogation of nature was
conducted.

I apprehend that it has been and is, too often forgotten that
the phrase "Theory of the Skull " is ordinarily employed to denote
the answers to two very different questions ; the first, Are all verte-
brate skulls constructed upon one and the same plan ? — the second,
•Is such plan, supposing it to exist, identical with that of the verte-
bral column?

It is also forgotten that, to a certain extent, these are inde-
pendent questions ; for though an affirmative answer to the latter
implies the like reply to the former, the converse proposition by no
means holds good ; an affirmative response to the first question being
perfectly consistent with a negative to the second*.

As there are two problems, so there are two methods of obtaining
their solution. Employing the one, the observer compares together
a long series of the skulls and vertebral columns of adult Fertebrata,
determining, in this way, the corresponding parts of those which are
most widely dissimilar, by the interpolation of transitional gradations
of structure. Using the other method, the investigator traces back
skull and vertebral column to their earliest embryonic states, and
determines the identity of parts by their developmental relations.

It were unwise to exalt either of these methods at the expense of
its fellow, or to be other than thankful that more roads than one
lead us to the attainment of truth. Each, it must be borne in mind,
has its especial value and its particular applicability, though at the
same time it should not be forgotten, that to one, and to one only,
can the ultimate appeal be made, in the discussion of morphological
\ questions. For seeing that living organisms not only are, but become,
and that all their parts pass through a series of states before they
reach their adult condition, it necessarily follows that it is impossible
to say, that two parts are homologous or have the same morphological

* There is a wide difference, too, in the relative importance of either question
to the student of comparative anatomy. Unless it can be shown that a general
identity of construction pervades the multiform varieties of vertebrate skulls, a
concise, uniform, and consistent nomenclature becomes an impossibility, and the
anatomist loses at one blow the most important of aids to memory, and the most
influential of stimulants to research. The second question, on the other hand,
though highly interesting, might be settled either one way or the other, without
exerting any very important influence on the practice of comparative anatomy.

385

relations to the rest of the organism, unless we know, not only that
there is no essential difference in these relations in the adult con-
dition, but that there is no essential difference in the course by
which they arrive at that condition. The study of the gradations of
structure presented by a series of living beings may have the utmost
value in suggesting homologies, but the study of development alone
can finally demonstrate them.

Before the year 1837, the philosophers who were occupied with
the Theory of the Skull, confined themselves, almost wholly, to the
first-mentioned mode of investigation, which may be termed the
"method of gradations." If they made use of the second method
at all, they went no further than the tracing of the process of ossifi-
cation, which is but a small, and by no means the most important
part of the whole series of developmental phenomena, presented by
either the skull or the vertebral column.

But between the years 1836 and 1839, the appearance of three
or four remarkable Essays, by Reichert, Hallmann, and Rathke*,
inaugurated a new epoch in the history of the Theory of the Skull.
Hallmann' s work on the Temporal Bone is especially remarkable for
the mass of facts which it contains, and for that clearness of insight
into the architecture of the skull, which enabled him to determine the
homologies of some of the most important bones of its upper arch
throughout the vertebral series. Rathke showed the singular nature
of the primordial cranial axis, and Reichert pointed out in what way
alone the character of its lower arches could be determined. For the
first time, the student of the morphology of the skull was provided
with a criterion of the truth or falsity of his speculations, and that
criterion was shown to be Development.

My present object is to lay before you a brief statement of some
of the most important results to which the following out of the lines
of inquiry opened up by these eminent men seems to lead. Much

* The titles of these works are, — Reichert, ' De Erabryonum arcubus sic dictis
Branchialibus,' 1836, which I have not seen; the same writer's essay, 'Ueber die
Visceralbogen derWirbelthiere im Allgemeinen,' M tiller's Archiv, 1837. Hallmann,
4 Die vergleichende Osteologie des Schlafenbeins,' 1837. Rathke, ' Entwicke-
lungsgeschichte der Natter,' 1839. I regret that, in spite of all efforts, I have
hitherto been unable to procure a copy of another very important work of
Rathke's, the ' Programm,' contained in the " Vierter Bericht von dem natur-
wissenschaftlichen Seminar zu Konigsberg."

386

of what I have to say is directed towards no other end than the revival
and justification of their views — a purpose the more worthy and the
more useful, since with one or two honourable exceptions — I allude
more particularly to the recent admirable essays of Prof. Goodsir
— later writers on the Theory of the Skull have given a retrograde im-
pulse to inquiry, and have thrown obscurity and confusion upon that
which twenty years ago had been made plain and clear.

I have said that the first question which offers itself is, whether
all vertebrate skulls are or are not, constructed upon a common plan,
and in entering upon this inquiry I shall assume (what will be
readily granted), that if it can be proved that the same chief parts,
arranged in the same way, are to be detected in the skulls of a
Sheep, a Bird, a Turtle, and a Carp, the problem will be solved
affirmatively, so far, at any rate, as the osseous cranium is con-
cerned.

Composition of the Skull of a Sheep (fig. 1 ).

S.O-

Fig. 1. — Longitudinal section of the skull of a sheep. In this and the following
sections of Crania the letters have the same meaning.

B.O. Basioccipital.
B.S. Basisphenoid.
P.S. Presphenoid.
Eth. Ethmoid (laminaper-

pendicularis).
E.G. Exoccipital.
M. Mastoid.
P. or P.S. Petrosal.
P.M. Petromastoid.

A.S. Alisphenoid.
O.S. Orbitosphenoid.
Pf. Prefrontal.
Sq. Squamosal.
Ep. Epiotic.
S.O. Supraoccipital.
Pa. Parietal.
F. Frontal.

Foramina for nerves.
1. Olfactory ; 2. optic ; 3
& 4. oculomotor and pa-
thetic nerves; 5. third
division of trigeminal ;
7. portio dura and mol-
lis ; 8. pneumogastric ;
Epiph. Pineal gland, or
epiphysis cerebri.

387

On examining a section of the cranium of a sheep, made either
along a vertical and longitudinal, or a transverse and horizontal
plane, a more or less completely ossified mass is observed in the
middle line below, which forms part of the floor of the cranial cavity,
but extends beyond it. This may be termed the ' craniofacial axis.'
Posteriorly it is a broad plate flattened from above downwards, and
is nearly parallel with the long axis of the cranial cavity ; but from a
point immediately behind the sella turcica, it becomes thicker and is
compressed from side to side, so that, at the anterior boundary
of the sella turcica, the craniofacial axis is much deeper than wide,
and assumes the form of a vertical plate. From the anterior boundary
of the cranial cavity onwards, or in its facial portion, the axial plate
is very deep and very thin, and a line drawn through its longitudinal
axis would cut that of the cranial cavity at a very considerable angle.
The craniofacial axis then is naturally divisible into three regions ;
a middle thick part, lodging the sella turcica, and composed of the
basisphenoid behind and presphenoid in front, the two being sepa-
rated by a suture ; a posterior, lamellar, horizontally-flattened part,
forming in the young animal a distinct bone, the basioccipital, bound-
ing the occipital foramen behind and uniting with the basisphenoid
in front ; and an anterior laterally compressed portion, composed of
the bony " lamina perpendicularis " of the ethmoid above and behind,
united by the cartilaginous septum narium to the bony vomer below.
This anterior division of the axis may be termed its ethmovomerine
portion. Its posterior edge helps to close the anterior outlet of the
cranial cavity, from which it is otherwise completely excluded.

The sella turcica lodges the pituitary body, and the synchondrosial
union between the basisphenoid and presphenoid is situated so far
forwards that the anterior wall of the fossa is almost wholly formed
by the rostrum-like anterior prolongation of the basisphenoid. The
spinal cord passes out behind the posterior margin of the basioc-
cipital. The olfactory nerves leave the skull on each side of the
ethmovomerine division of the craniofacial axis.

The walls of the cranial cavity are formed by a number of bones,
which are divisible into two series, a superior and a lateral. Of the
latter, four pairs of bones, separated by natural lines of demarcation,
or sutures, are distinguishable, three of which abut directly upon the
cranio-facial axis, while the fourth pair are only indirectly connected

388

with it. Behind are the exoccipitals *, united with the basioccipital,
and forming the lateral boundaries of the occipital foramen. In
front of these are the petromastoids, complex bones which contain
the auditory labyrinth, and are connected with the anterior part of
the basioccipital and the posterior and superior part of the basi-
sphenoid, only by cartilage.

Next come the alisphenoids, which are attached to the infero-
posterior and the anterior portions of the basisphenoid. And,
lastly, the orbitosphenoids articulate with the upper margins of the
vertically elongated presphenoid.

In the superior series only four bones can be counted, of which
two are single and two are pairs. The hindermost is the supra-
occipital bone. It articulates with both the exoccipitals and the
petromastoids. The next, in front, is the parietal, single in the
adult sheep, but composed of two symmetrical halves in the lamb.
It articulates with the petromastoids and with the alisphenoids.
The frontals, or anterior paired bones, lastly, unite with the orbito-
sphenoids, and, in front of them, with the ethmoid.

Most important relations exist between the contents of the cra-
nium and these constituent elements of its walls. The par vagum
makes it exit between the exoccipital and the petromastoid ; the
portio dura and portio mollis enter the petromastoid ; the third
division of the trigeminal passes through the large "foramen ovale,"
which, in the sheep, has the exceptional peculiarity of being situated
nearly in the middle of the alisphenoid ; the optic nerve passes
through a foramen included between the orbito- and pre-sphenoids,
while, as has been mentioned above, the olfactory nerve passes out
beside the ethmoid and in front of the orbitosphenoid. The rela-
tion of the pituitary body, or hypophysis cerebri, to the upper surface
of the basisphenoid, has already been alluded to ; it, of course, gives
more or less nearly the position of the third ventricle and crura
cerebri. A style passed horizontally through the corpora quadri-

* In speaking of these bones I shall avail myself, for the most part, of the
useful translation of the Cnvierian nomenclature adopted by Prof. Owen. It is,
doubtless, more convenient to say " alisphenoid " than " grande aile " or " aile
sphenoidale," and " orbitosphenoid " instead of " aile orbitaire," the slightness
of the real change thereby effected being one of its principal recommendations.
The adoption of the terms will, of course, not be held to imply any recognition
of the justice of the views of either their inventor or their adopter.

389

gemma, or mesencephalon, would strike against, or close to, the ante-
rior margin of the petromastoid bone.

On turning to the exterior of the skull, certain bones come into
view which were before invisible, as they take no share in forming
the lateral walls of the cranial cavity, but are, as it were, stuck on
to the outer surface of these walls. The principal of these is the
great squamosal bone, applied to the outer surfaces of the petro-
mastoid, parietal and alisphenoid bones, sending off its zygomatic
process to unite with the jugal, and furnishing the articular surface
for the condyle of the lower jaw.

Partly articulated with the squamosal and partly with the petro-
mastoid, is the irregular capsule of the tympanic bone, to which the
tympanic membrane is attached, on whose removal the ossicula
auditus come into view, consisting of the malleus, incus, and stapes.
The processus gracilis of the first of these bones lies between the
tympanic and the squamosal. The short process of the incus abuts
against the inner wall of the tympanum, just below the squamosal
and close to the line of junction of the petrous and mastoid. These
are the leading points in the structure of the sheep's cranium to
which I wish to direct attention at present. Bearing them in mind,
let us now proceed to the consideration of the skull of a bird.

Composition of the Skull of a Bird (fig. 2).

s.o-

Fig. 2. — Longitudinal section of the Skull of a young Ostrich.

In most adult birds, as is well known, the bones of the cranium
have coalesced so completely as to be undistinguishable. But in
the chick, and to a greater or less extent, in the adult struthious

390

bird, the boundaries of the various bones are obvious enough ; and
I will therefore select for comparison with the mammalian skull
that of an ostrich, and that of a young chicken.

The craniofacial axis of the bird has the same general figure as
that of the sheep, consisting of a thick, solid, median portion,
lodging the sella turcica ; of a posterior, horizontally, and of an ante-
rior, vertically, expanded division ; but it is comparatively shorter and
thicker in correspondence with the greater shortness, in proportion
to its depth, of the cranial cavity. The sella turcica is very deep, and
its front wall is very thick. The lower and anterior half of this wall
is produced into a long tapering process, which extends forwards
far beyond the anterior limit of the bony lamina perpendicularis of
the ethmoid, to end in a point.

Overlying this process, and articulated with more than the pos-
terior half of its upper surface, there is, in the ostrich, a strong,
thick, vertical, bony plate, narrower in front and behind than in the
middle, and below than above. A curved vertical ridge on each
lateral surface marks the line of its greatest transverse diameter,
and seems to indicate a primitive division of the mass into two
parts, an anterior and a posterior. The latter is connected above
with the bony plates representing the orbitosphenoids. The former
exhibits on each side, posteriorly and superiorly, a groove, in which
the olfactory nerve rests and, above this, expands into an arched
process, which supports the anterior extremity of the frontal bone.
Anteriorly, the superior end of the bone widens into a rhomboidal
plate, which appears externally between the nasal bones. These
anterior and posterior processes of the superior edge of the bone
are connected by a delicate ridge, which passes from one to the
other above, but leaves an irregular oval gap below.

The anterior edge of the bony plate in question is continued into
the unossified septum narium, which below supports the delicate
bony representative of the vomer.

In the chick, the whole of the parts just described are unossified,
but the composition and structure of the rest of the axis is essen-
tially the same as in the ostrich.

It is not difficult to identify in the craniofacial axis of the bird,
parts corresponding with those which have been shown to exist in
the mammal. In the chick, the basioccipital can be readily sepa-

391

rated from the basisphenoid. The latter has the same relation to
the sella turcica in the bird as in the mammal ; and only differs from
it in that singular beak-like process, into which its inferior portion is
prolonged anteriorly, and which is produced, according to Kolliker *,
by the coalescence with the basisphenoid of a distinct ossification,
which is developed in the presphenoidal cartilage and partially repre-
sents the presphenoid of the mammal. The rest of the presphe-
noidal cartilage is more or less completely ossified, and appears to be
represented in the ostrich by that part of the " vertical bony plate "
which lies behind the curved ridge referred to above ; while that
part of the plate which is situated in front of the ridge, answers to
the lamina perpendicularis of the ethmoid.

Nothing can be more variable, in fact, than the mode in which
the ossification of the presphenoidal and ethmoidal portions of the
craniofacial axis takes place in birds ; while nothing is more con-
stant than the general form preserved by these regions, and their
relation to other parts, irrespectively of the manner in which ossifi-
cation takes place in them. And in these respects birds do but
typify the rest of the oviparous Vertebrata.

If we compare the inferolateral walls of the ostrich's cranium
with those of the sheep, we find the most singular correspondences.
Posteriorly are the exoccipitals, which contribute to form the single
condyloid head for articulation with the atlas, but otherwise present
no important differences. In front of the exoccipital lies a consi-
derable bony mass, which unites, internally and inferiorly, with the
basioccipital and basisphenoid bones, and posteriorly is confluent
with the exoccipitals. Its anterior margin is distinguishable into
two portions, a superior and an inferior, which meet at an obtuse
angle. The anterior inferior portion articulates with the alisphenoid ;
the anterior superior portion with the parietal. The anterior, pos-
terior and inferior, relations of this bone are therefore the same as
those of the petromastoid of the sheep.

Superiorly and posteriorly, a well-marked groove (which, however,
is not a suture) appears to indicate the line of demarcation between
the supraoccipital and this bone, whose pointed upper extremity
appears consequently to be wedged in between the supraoccipital and
the parietal.

* Berichte von der Koniglichen Zool. Anstalt zu Wiirzburg, 1849, p. 40.

392

The par vagum passes out between the bony mass under descrip-
tion and the exoccipital ; the third division of the trigermnal leaves
the skull between it and the alisphenoid. The portio dura and the
portio mollis enter it by foramina very similarly disposed to those in
the sheep. Superiorly there is a fossa on the inner face of the bone,
which corresponds with a more shallow depression in the sheep, and,
like it, supports a lobe of the cerebellum. Finally, the anterior
inferior edge of the bone traverses the middle of the fossa which
receives the mesericephalon. In every relation of importance, there-
fore, this bony mass corresponds exactly with the petromastoid of
the sheep, while it differs from it only in its union with the exocci-
pitals and the supraoccipital posteriorly, and its contact with the
craniofacial axis below.

If from the ostrich we turn to the young chick (fig. 3), the con-
dition of this part of the walls of the skull will be found to be still
more instructive. The general connexions of the corresponding bony
mass, Pt. M. Ep., are as in the ostrich; but while it is even more
evident that the groove appearing to separate its upper end from the
supraoccipital is no longer a real suture (whatever it may have been),
a most distinct and clear suture, of which no trace is visible in the
ostrich's skull, traverses the bone at a much lower point, dividing it
into an inferior larger piece, united with the exoccipital, and a supe-
rior portion, anchylosed with the supraoccipital. The latter contains
the upper portions of the superior and external semicircular canals.

Moreover, on endeavouring to separate the inferior bone from the
exoccipital, it readily parts along a plane which traverses the fenestra
ovalis externally, and the anterior boundary of the foramen of exit
of the par vagum internally. The posterior smaller portion remains
firmly adherent to the exoccipital, while the other larger portion
conies away as a distinct bone.

The latter answers exactly to the mammalian petrosal, while the
small posterior segment corresponds with the mammalian mastoid.
Like that of the mammal, it is eventually anchylosed with the
petrosal ; but unlike that of the mammal, it is also, and indeed at
an earlier period, confluent with the exoccipital*.

Thus, to return to the ostrich's skull, the bony mass interposed
between the exoccipital, supraoccipital and parietal bones, and the

* See Note I.

393

craniofacial axis, is in reality composed of three bones, an anterior,
petrosal, a posterior, mastoid, and a third, which is distinct from the
petrosal and mastoid in the chick, but is anchylosed with them in
the ostrich, and which has as yet received no name. I shall term
it, from its position with respect to the organ of hearing, the epiotic
bone, " os epioticum*."

The homology of the bone here called petrosal, with that of the
mammal, is admitted by all anatomists. The bone which lies imme-
diately in front of the petrosal is, with a no less fortunate unanimity,
admitted to be the homologue of the mammalian alisphenoid. But it
is worthy of particular remark, in reference to the shifting of the
relative positions of the lateral elements of the cranial wall, which
has been imagined to take place in the ovipara, in consequence of the
supposed invariable disappearance of the squamosal from the interior
of their skulls ; that although precisely the same bones are visible
on the inner surface of the cranial cavity in the ostrich as in the
sheep, the squamosal being absent in both, yet in the ostrich the
third division of the trigeminal does not pass through the middle of
the alisphenoid, but between it and the petrosal f.

The orbitosphenoids appear like mere processes of the presphenoid,
and their relation to the optic nerves is altered in the same way
(when compared with the corresponding bones in the sheep) as that
of the alisphenoids to the trigeminal, that is to say the nerves pass
behind, and not through them.

The superior series of bones in the cranial v/all is exactly the
same as in the sheep, and the parietals are distinct in the young
ostrich, as in the lamb.

Attached to the exterior of the skull of the ostrich are, as in
the sheep, several bones ; but the appearance of some of these is
widely different from that of the parts which correspond with them
in the mammal. This is least the case with the largest and upper-
most of these bones, which lies upon the parietal above, the ali-
sphenoid in front, and the exoccipital behind ; while internally it is
in relation with the petromastoid.

This bone lies immediately above an articular surface, which is
furnished to the os quadratum by the petrosal, and more remotely

* My reasons for considering this osseous element to be distinct from the
supraoccipital will be given below,
t See Note II.

394

it helps to roof in the tympanic cavity, but takes no share in the
formation of the fenestra ovalis. It sends a free pointed process
downwards and forwards, which does not articulate with the jugal.
Except in this particular, however, the bone in question resembles
in every essential relation the squamosal of the sheep, while to the
same extent it differs from the mastoid of that animal.

I have stated that in the ostrich this bone does not appear upon
the inner surface of the wall of the skull, and in this respect, while
it resembles the squamosal of the sheep and Ruminants generally,
t differs from that of most other Mammalia, in which the squa-
mosal makes its appearance in the interior of the skull, between
the parietal, frontal, alisphenoid and petrosal bones, and so con-
tributes more or less largely to the completion of the cranial wall.

But it has been most strangely forgotten, that the relations of
the bone in question in birds, are by no means always those which
obtain in the ostrich. In the young of the commonest and most
accessible of domestic birds, in the chicken, the squamosal may be
readily seen to enter largely into the cranial wall ; a rhomboidal
portion of its anterior and internal surface being interposed in front
of the petrosal, between this bone, the parietal, the frontal, and the
alisphenoid (Sq. fig. 3).

S.O-

ao'
Fig. 3. — Longitudinal section of the Skull of a young Chicken.

There is therefore not a single relation (save the connexion of
the jugal) in which this bone does not resemble the squamosal of the
Mammalia — there is not one in which it does not differ from their
mastoid.

The second bone applied externally to the cranium in the bird,
is that large and important structure, the os quadratum, which in-

395

tervenes between the petrosal and squamosal bones above, and the
articular portion of the lower jaw below ; which articulates with the
pterygoid internally, and with the quadratojugal externally, which
gives attachment to a part of the tympanic membrane posteriorly,
and which is very generally termed the tympanic bone, from its
supposed homology with the bone so named in the Mammalia. The
resemblance to the tympanic bone, however, hardly extends beyond
its relation to the tympanic membrane ; for in no other of the par-
ticulars mentioned above do the connexions of the two bones cor-
respond. The tympanic of the mammal does not articulate with the
lower jaw, nor with the pterygoid*, nor with the jugal or quadrato-
jugal. On the other hand, if the connexions of the tympanic mem-
brane were sufficient to determine the point, not only the quadratum,
but the articular element of the lower jaw, and even some cranial
bones, must be regarded as tympanic f .

Again, if we trace the modifications which the tympanic bone
undergoes in the mammalian series, we find that in those mammals,
such as Echidna and Ornithorhynchus, which approach nearest to
the Ovipara, and which should therefore furnish us with some hint
of the modifications to which the tympanic bone is destined in that
group, the bone, so far from increasing in size and importance,
and taking on some of the connexions which it exhibits in the
oviparous Vertebrata, absolutely diminishes and becomes rudi-
mentary, so that the vast bony capsule of the placental mammal
is reduced, in the monotreme, to a mere bony ring.

But it is no less worthy of remark, that in these very same animals
the malleus and incus have attained dimensions out of all proportion
to those which they exhibit in other mammals, and that they even
contribute to the support of the tympanic membrane.

So far, therefore, from being prepared by the study of those
Mammalia which most nearly approach the Ovipara, to find, in the
most highly organized of the latter, an immense os tympanicum,
with a vanishing malleus and incus, we are, on the contrary, led to
anticipate the disappearance of the tympanicum, and the further
enlargement of the ossicula auditus. Thus far the cautious appli-
cation of the method of gradations leads us, and leads us rightly—

* Though the pterygoid comes close to it in Monotremata.
t See Note III.

396

though the demonstration of the justice of its adumbrations can
only be obtained by the application of the criterion of development.
It is twenty-one years since this criterion was applied by Reichert.
Since his results were published, they have been, in their main fea-
tures, verified and adopted by Rathke, the first embryologist of his
age ; and yet they are ignored, and the quadratum of the bird is
assumed to be the tympanic of the mammal, in some of the most
recent, if not the newest discussions of the subject. Reichert and
Rathke have proved, that in the course of the development of either
a mammal or a bird, a slender cartilaginous rod makes its appearance
in the first visceral arch, and eventually unites with its fellow, at a point
corresponding with the future symphysis of the lower jaw. Supe-
riorly, this rod is connected with the outer surface of the cartilage,
in which the petrosal bone subsequently makes its appearance.
Near its proximal end, the rod-like " mandibular cartilage " sends
off another slender cartilaginous process, which extends forwards
parallel with the base of the skull. "With the progress of develop-
ment, ossification takes place in the last-named cartilage, and con-
verts it, anteriorly, into the palatine, and posteriorly, into the ptery-
goid bone. The mandibular cartilage itself becomes divided into
two portions, a short, proximal, and a long, distal, by an articulation
which makes its appearance just below the junction of the ptery go-
palatine cartilage. The long distal division is termed, from the name
of its original discoverer, Meckel's cartilage. It lengthens, and an
ossific deposit takes place around, but, at first, not in it. The
proximal division in the mammal ossifies, but usually loses its con-
nexion with the pterygoid, remains very small and becomes the incus.
In the bird the corresponding part enlarges, ossifies, and becomes
the os quadratum, retaining its primitive connexion with the ptery-
goid. In the mammal, the proximal end of Meckel's cartilage ossi-
fies and becomes the malleus, while the rest ultimately disappears.
The ossific mass which is formed around Meckel's cartilage remains
quite distinct from the proximal end of that cartilage, or the malleus,
gradually acquires the form of the ramus of the lower jaw, and
eventually developes a condyle which comes into contact and arti-
culates with, the squamosal. In the bird, on the contrary, the
ramus of the jaw unites with the ossified proximal end of Meckel's
cartilage ; which becomes anchylosed with the ramus, but retaining

397

its moveable connexion with the quadratum (or representative of the
incus), receives the name of the articular piece of the jaw. The
rest of Meckel's cartilage disappears.

Fig. 4. — Dissection of the cranium and face of a foetal lamb 2 in. long.
The letters have the same signification as elsewhere, except N. Nasal capsules,
a. b. c. Septum narium. L. Lacrymal. PI. Palatine. Eu. Arrow indicating
the course of the Eustachian tube. i. Incus, m. Malleus. M. Meckel's cartilage.
II. Hyoid. Ps. Petrosal. Ty. Tympanic.

Thus the primitive composition of the mandibular cartilaginous
arch is the same in the bird as in the mammal ; in each, the arch
becomes subdivided into an incudal and a Meckelian portion ;
in each, the incudal and the adjacent extremity of the Meckelian
cartilage, ossify, while the rest of the cartilaginous arch disappears
and is replaced by a bony ramus deposited round it. But from this
point the mammal and the bird diverge. In the former, the in-
cudal and Meckelian elements are so completely applied to the pur-
poses of the organ of hearing, that they are no longer capable of
supporting the ramus, which eventually comes into contact with the
squamosal bone. In the latter, they only subserve audition so far
as they help to support the tympanic membrane, their predominant
function being the support of the jaw.

The tympanic bone of every mammal is, at first, a flat, thin,
VOL. ix. 2 E

398

curved plate of osseous matter, which appears on the outer side of
the proximal end of Meckel's cartilage, but is as completely indepen-
dent of it as is the ramus of the jaw of the rest of that cartilage.
In most birds it has no bony representative* .

It is clear, then, as Professor Goodsirf has particularly stated, that
the os quadratum of the bird is the homologue of the incus of the
mammal, and has nothing to do with the tympanic bone ; while the
apparently missing malleus of the mammal is to be found in the
os articulare of the lower jaw of the bird.

It would lead me too far were I to pursue the comparison of the
bird's skull with that of the mammal further. But sufficient has
been said, I trust, to prove that, so far as the cranium proper is con-
cerned, there is the most wonderful harmony in the structure of the
two, not a part existing in the one which is not readily discoverable
in the same position, and performing the same essential functions, in
the other. I have the more willingly occupied a considerable time
in the demonstration of this great fact, because it must be universally
admitted that the bones which I have termed petrous, squamosal,
mastoid, quadratum, articulare in the bird, are the homologues of
particular bones in other oviparous Vertebrata, and consequently, if
these determinations are correct in the bird, their extension to the
other Ovipard is a logical necessity. But the determination of these
bones throughout the vertebrate series is the keystone of every theory
of the skull — it is the point upon which all further reasoning must
turn ; and therefore it is to them, in considering the skulls of the
other Ovipara, that I shall more particularly confine myself.

Composition of the Skull of the Turtle.

It has been seen that in birds the presphenoid, ethmoid, and or-
bitosphenoid regions are subject to singular irregularities in the mode
and extent of their ossification. In the turtle, not only are the
parts of the cranium which correspond with these bones unossified,
but its walls remain cartilaginous for a still greater extent. In
fact, if a vertical section be made through the longitudinal axis of a
turtle's skull, it will be observed that a comparatively small extent of

* See Note III.

f Reichert, however, had already clearly declared this important homology in
his ' Entwickelungsgeschichte des Kopfes,' p. 195.

399

the cranial wall, visible from within, is formed by bone, and that the
large anterior moiety is entirely cartilaginous and unossified. The
anterior part of the posterior, bony, moiety of the cranial wall is
formed by a bone (Pt.), whose long, vertical, anterior-inferior margin
forms the posterior boundary of the foramen by which the third divi-
sion of the trigeminal nerve makes its exit from the skull. The ante-
rior and superior margin of the bone is very short, and articulates with
the parietal bone. The superior margin is inclined backwards, and
articulates with the supraoccipital. The posterior margin is straight,
and abuts against a cartilaginous plate interposed between this bone
and that which succeeds it. The inner face of the bone is, as it
were, cut short and replaced by this cartilage, whence the inferior
edge is also short and is connected only with the basisphenoid, and
not with the basioccipital. The anterior margin of the bone cor-
responds with the middle of the mesencephalon, while its inner face
presents apertures for the portio dura and portio mollis. The pos-
terior margin of its outer face forms half the circumference of the
fenestra ovalis, and it contains the anterior and inferior portions

s.o

Fig. 5. — Longitudinal section of the Skull of a Turtle (Chelone mydas), exhibiting
the relations of the brain to the cranial walls. The dotted parts marked AS.
OS. PS. and Eth. are cartilaginous.

of the labyrinth. Thus, with the exception of the absence of an
inferior connexion with the basioccipital, — a circumstance fully ex-
plained by the persistence in a cartilaginous state of part of the bone,
— it corresponds in the closest manner with the petrosal of the bird.
I confess I cannot comprehend how those who admit the homology
of the bone called petrosal in the bird with that called petrosal in
the mammal (as all anatomists do), can deny that the bone in ques-

2 E 2

400

tion is also the petrosal, and affirm it to be an alisphenoid. The
general adoption of such a view would, I do not hesitate to say,
throw the Theory of the Skull into a state of hopeless confusion,
and render a consistent terminology impossible. Where then is the
alisphenoid ? I reply, that it is unossified. The posterior portion
of the cartilaginous side-wall of the skull, in fact, unites with the
parietal, the petrosal, and the basisphenoid, just in the same way as
the bony alisphenoid of the bird unites with those bones. Further-
more, as in the bird, it bounds the foramen for the third division of
the trigeminal nerve anteriorly, and is specially perforated by the
second division of the fifth, while the optic and the other divisions
of the fifth pass out in front of or through its anterior margin.

Not only is the alisphenoid cartilaginous, but the orbitosphenoid
is in the same condition, and a great vertical plate of cartilage re-
presents the whole anterior part of the craniofacial axis, or the pre-
sphenoid and ethmovomerine bones*. It has been imagined, indeed,
that the rostrum-like termination of the basisphenoid represents
the presphenoid, but I think this comes of studying dry skulls.
Those who compare a section of the fresh skull of a turtle with the
like section of the skull of a lamb, will hardly fail to admit that the
rostrum of the basisphenoid in the turtle is exactly represented by
that part of the sheep's basisphenoid, which forms the anterior and
inferior boundary of the sella turcica, and that the suture between
the basisphenoid and the presphenoid in the sheep corresponds pre-
cisely with the line of junction between the rostrum of the basi-
sphenoid and the presphenoidal cartilage in the turtle.

Connected with the posterior edge of the petrosal by the carti-
laginous plate, which has been referred to above, and between this
and the exoccipital, there appears, on the inner aspect of the longi-
tudinal section of the turtle's skull, a narrow plate of bone connected
above, with the supraoccipital, behind, with the exoccipital, below,
with the basioccipital, and leaving between its posterior margin and
the exoccipital an aperture whereby the par vagum leaves the skull.
In fact, except in being separated from the petrosal by cartilage, this
bone presents all the characters of the mastoid of the bird, which it
further resembles in forming one-half of the circumference of the

* Compare Kolliker's account of the primordial skull of a young turtle in the
4 Bericht von der Konigl. Zool. Anstalt zu Wurzburg/ 1849.

401

fenestra ovalis. In other respects it is more like the mastoid of the
sheep, for it is not anchylosed with the exoccipital ; it is produced
externally into a great bony apophysis, which gives attachment to
the representative of the digastric muscle ; and it is largely visible
external to the exoccipital, when the skull is viewed from behind.
Indeed, the resemblance to the mastoid of the mammal is more
striking than that to the corresponding bone in the bird. And I
think it is hardly possible for any unprejudiced person to rise from
the comparison of the chelonian skull with that of the mammal, with
any doubt on his mind as to the homology of the two bones.

When the sheep's skull is viewed from behind, the posterior half
of the squamosal is seen entering into its outer boundary above the
mastoid. On regarding the turtle's skull in the same way, there is
seen, occupying the same position, the bone which Cuvier, as I
venture to think, most unfortunately, named "mastoid." But if
the arguments brought forward above be, as I believe with Hall-
mann, they are, irrefragable, this bone cannot be the mastoid ; and
I can discover no valid reason why it should not be regarded as
what its position and relations naturally suggest it to be — the squa-
mosal. Its connexions with the mastoid, petrosal, and quadratum
are essentially the same as those of the squamosal in the bird and the
mammal. The quadratum and articulare of the turtle are on all
hands admitted to be the homologues of the similarly-named bones
in the bird, and therefore all the reasonings which applied to the
one apply to the other. When the petrosal, mastoid, and squamosal
are determined in the turtle, they are determined in all the Reptilia.
But the Crocodilia, Lacertilia, and Ophidia differ from the turtle and
Chelonia generally, in that their mastoid is, as in the bird, anchylosed
with the exoccipital. The squamosal, again, which in the Crocodilia
essentially resembles that of the turtle, becomes a slender arid elon-
gated bone in the Lacertilia, and still more in the Ophidia, in
which the quadratum is carried at its extremity *.

In the Amphibia the petrous and mastoid have the same relations
as in the Reptilia ; but it is interesting to remark, that in some Am-
phibia the anterior margins of the petrosal encroach upon the lateral

* See for the manner in which this is brought about, Rathke's ' Entwick. d.
Natter.' Rathke, it should be said, regards this bone as the tympanicum, but its
primitive place and mode of origin are those of the squamosal of the mammal.

402

walls of the skull so as completely to enclose the exit of the tri-
geminal, just as the posterior margin of the alisphenoid encroached
so as to enclose it, in the sheep. It can be hardly necessary to
remark, however, that this result has nothing to do with the disap-
pearance of any element in the postero-lateral cranial walls, which have
the same composition in the frog as in the crocodile or lizard.

The determination of the homologues of the squamosal, incudal,
Meckelian, and tympanic elements in the amphibian skull is by no
means an easy matter, but one requiring a much more careful in-
vestigation than it has yet received.

In Mammalia, a second arch, the hyoid, is connected with the outer
surface of the skull, immediately behind the mandibular, and more
particularly with that of the mastoid bone or its rudiment. The
proximal end of this arch (which is, at first, like the mandibular
arcade, a simple cartilaginous rod), in fact, usually becomes continu-
ously ossified with the mastoid, forming part of the walls of the
styloid canal ; while below this, and external to the tympanum, it is
converted into that slender bone, which is known as the styloid
process.

In adult birds and most reptiles, the upper end of the hyoid arch
is free, but in some Reptilia * it is attached by a styloid process to
the representative of the mastoid. Whether attached to the cranium
or not, in all abranchiate Vertebrata the proximal end of the hyoi-
dean arch is quite distinct from that of the mandibular arch.

In the Amphibia, however, I find a condition of the proximal ends
of these two arches, which seems to foreshadow that intimate con-
nexion between them which obtains in fishes. On the outer side of
the petrosal, and of that part of the exoccipital which represents
the mastoid, there lies a cartilaginous mass, which is continued down-
wards into a pedicle, with whose lower end the mandible is articu-
lated. From the anterior edge of the proximal half of this pedicle,
the narrow cartilaginous basis of the pterygoid passes forwards and
upwards, to become directly continuous with the palatine bone in the
frog, but to stop short of that point in the newt. Posteriorly,
close to its proximal end, the pedicle becomes connected by a
slender, fibrous or fibro-cartilaginous ligament with the upper ex-

* See Cuvier, ' Osseraens Fossiles,' x. p. 65 ; and Stannius, ' Zootoraie der
Amphibien,' p. 68.

403

tremity of the cornu of the hyoid. The hyoid and the mandibular
arches are thus suspended to the skull by a common peduncle, which,
to avoid all theoretical suggestion, I will simply term the " suspen-
sorium."

The extent of the ossification which takes place, in and about this
primitively cartilaginous suspensorium, varies greatly in different
genera of Amphibia. Sometimes its distal end remains wholly unos-
sified ; sometimes, as in the common frog, a small outer portion
of its lower extremity is ossified and sends a process forwards, be-
coming what is termed the quadratojugal bone ; sometimes, as in
the Triton, the distal half of the cartilage becomes more or less com-
pletely enclosed in a bony mass.

Another ossific deposit usually takes place in the outer half of the
proximal end of the suspensorium, extending for a greater or less
distance down towards the distal end, which it may even completely
reach. It may be a simple triangular plate, as in Triton, or a
T-shaped bone, as in Rana. In either case its lower end is the nar-
rower, and fits into a kind of groove in the posterior and outer
margin of the distal ossification.

This bone was considered by Cuvier to be the equivalent of the
tympanic and the temporal (=squamosal) ; by Duges it was called
" temporomastoid."

The last constituent of this region of the skull in the Amphibia is
one which is frequently overlooked altogether. In the frog, the
membrana tympani is supported by a well-defined cartilaginous and
partially ossified hoop, which is originally quite distinct from any of
the elements of the suspensorium which have just been described,
and which clearly deprives any of them of the right of being con-
sidered the homologue of the " tympanicum " of Mammalia.

I must defer the attempt to decide what the parts of the suspenso-
rium really are, until the Piscine skull has been under consideration.

Composition of the Skull of the Carp.

The skulls of fishes present difficulties which necessitate, even for
my present limited purpose, the entering into greater detail regarding
them, than respecting those of the Reptilia or Amphibia. I select
the cranium of the carp for description, as it departs far less widely
from the common plan, and therefore forms a better type for com-

404

parison with the skulls of other Vertebrata than that of any acan-
thopterygian or gadoid fish.

The craniofacial axis presents only four distinguishable bones.
Behind, is the short basioccipital, with its cup for articulation with
the first vertebra of the spinal column. In front of this is a greatly
elongated bone, which, as in the bird, sends a process as far as the
vomer, and forms the greater part of the axis of the skull ; and which,
I believe, represents, as in the bird, the basisphenoid and more or
less of the presphenoid. The short vomer terminates the craniofacial
axis anteriorly, and bears upon its upper surface a vertical septum,
which, as in the bird, expands into a broad plate above, and is the
ethmoid.

s,o

BO
Fig. 6. — Longitudinal section of the Skull of a Carp (Cyprinw carpio).

The orbitosphenoids, united below, spring from the upper and
anterior part of the presphenoid. Behind them the lateral walls of
the skull are formed by the alisphenoid. These bones have the
same essential relations as in the bird, for the olfactory nerves pass
out of the skull over, and in front of, the orbito-sphenoids ; the optic
nerves make their exit behind and beneath these and the alisphenoid,
while the trigeminal makes its exit behind the posterior edge of the
alisphenoid. When viewed from within, the foramen ovale is seen to
be as in the bird, a mere conjugational foramen between the alisphe-
noid and the bone which follows it ; and on an external view, the
third division of the trigeminal is seen to pass entirely in front of the
last-named bone.

The minutest scrutiny of the relations of this bone only strengthens
the conviction suggested by the first view of it, that it is the homo-
logue of the petrosal of birds, and therefore of mammals and rep-
tiles. As in the bird, the anterior margin of the fish's petrosal is

405

divided into a superior and an inferior portion, which meet at an
angle, the superior portion articulating with the parietal (and
squamosal), the inferior with the alisphenoid. Inferiorly, the
petrous articulates with the basisphenoid, and, to a small extent,
with the basioccipital. Posteriorly it articulates with a bone
through which the pneumogastric passes, and which, guided by
the analogy of most Reptilia, of Amphibia, and of birds, I believe
to represent the coalesced or connate mastoid and exoccipital. The
bone lodges the anterior part of the auditory labyrinth ; its middle
region corresponds with the middle of the mesencephalon. But as
it does not separate the auditory organ from the cavity of the skull,
it naturally presents no foramina corresponding with those through
which the portio dura and portio mollis pass in Abranchiate Ferte-
brata and Amphibia. There is one relation of the petrosal in the
fish, however, in which it seems to differ from that of any of the ovi-
parous Fertebrata hitherto described. Superiorly and posteriorly,
in fact, it does not unite with the supraoccipital, which is small,
comparatively insignificant, and occupies the middle of the posterior
and superior region of the skull ; but with a large and distinct bone
which forms the internal of the two posterolateral angles of the
skull, unites internally with the supraoccipital, anteriorly with the
parietal and petrosal, inferiorly with the conjoined mastoid and ex-
occipital. It is the bone which was called "occipital externe" by
Cuvier ; and he and others have supposed it to be the homologue of
that bone in the turtle which, following Hallmann, I have endea-
voured to prove to be the mastoid. As I have already shown, the
true mastoid of the fish must be sought elsewhere, and consequently
the Cuvierian determination is inadmissible. And I must confess,
that if our comparisons be confined to adult Vertebrata, the only
conclusion which can be arrived at seems to be, that this bone is
peculiar to fishes.

But a remarkable and interesting observation of Rathke, com-
bined with the peculiar structure of the skull of the chick described
above, leads me to believe that when their development is fully worked
out, we shall find a distinct representative of this bone in many,
if not all, vertebrate crania.

In his account of the development of Coluber natrix (see Note
IV.), Rathke states that three centres of ossification make their

406

appearance in that part of the cartilaginous wall of the cranium
which immediately surrounds the auditory labyrinth. One of these
is anterior, and becomes the petrosal ; one is posterior, and even-
tually unites with the exoccipital ; the third is superior, and in the
end coalesces with the supraoccipital. The posterior ossification
clearly represents the mastoid, and it is most interesting to find it,
in this early condition, as distinct as in the Chelonian.

The superior ossification has only to increase in size and remain
distinct in the same way as the mastoid of the turtle remains di-
stinct, to occupy the precise position of the "occipital externe" of
the fish. But, further, it is most important to remark, that when
this primarily distinct bone has coalesced with the supraoccipital,
it stands in just the same relation to that bone, to the petrosal, to
the mastoid and to the semicircular canals, in the snake, as that
lateral element, early confluent or connate with the supraoccipital
in the chick, which I have termed the " os epioticum." I believe,
then, that this "os epioticum," distinct in the young snake, but
afterwards confluent with the supraoccipital, and becoming what may
be termed the epiotic ala of that bone in the adult, is the homologue
of the corresponding bone, or confluent ala of the supraoccipital, in
birds and reptiles, while in the fish it remains distinct, and constitutes
the " occipital externe."

For the rest, the superior part of the cranial arch in the carp re-
sembles that of the bird. There are a supraoccipital, two parietals,
and two frontals ; the squamosal occupies the same position as in
the chick, and as in the latter, is, in the dry skull, visible from
within, in front of the petrosal.

As in the Amphibia, both the mandibular and the hyoidean arches
are suspended by a pedicle or suspensorium, which is, to a certain ex-
tent, common to both, and presents a complexity of structure which
can only be elucidated by the most careful study of development.

In ordinary fishes, such as the carp, stickleback, &c., the proximal
end of the suspensorium is constituted by a single bone, Cuvier's
" temporal" whose cranial end abuts against the squamosal, petro-
sal, and post-frontal bones.

This temporal* gives off posteriorly a process to which the

* In adopting the universally known Cuvierian appellations, I merely desire to
avoid for the present all theoretical suggestions.

407

cornu of the hyoid arch is attached; anteriorly and distally it
ends in an expanded plate, with which two bones are connected, in
front the tympanal, behind the symplectique. The distal end of
the suspensor is constituted by the triangular jugal, whose distal and
narrower extremity furnishes the condyle with which the mandible
is articulated.

Fig. 7. — Palatosuspensorial arch -of Gasterosteus from the inner side. HM.
Hyomandibular bone. Op. Its articular facet for the operculum. Po. Pre-oper-
culum. H. Articular surface for the styloid bone. Sy. Symplectic. P.Q. Palato-
quadrate arch. Pa. Palatine bone. Qu. Quadratum. Pt. Pterygoid. Mp. Me-
tapterygoid.

The elongated styliform symplectique is received into a groove on
the posterior part of the inner surface of the jugal, and extends
nearly to the condyle. In front, the jugal articulates with the trans-
verse, and more or less with the pteryyoidien, which again are
anteriorly connected with the palatine. The flat tympanal is fitted
in between the pterygoidien, jugal, and temporal.

Besides these numerous bones, there are four others which enter
less directly into the composition of the suspensorium. These are
the pre-opercule, a sort of splint-like bone which lies on the outer
and posterior faces of the temporal and jugal, and binds the two
together ; the opercule, which articulates with a special condyle
developed for it from the posterior edge of the temporal, above
the attachment of the hyoid ; the sousopercule, which lies in the
opercular membrane beneath this ; and lastly, the interopercule, the
lowest of all, and commonly more or less closely connected with the
angle of the lower jaw.

408

On examining the region in which these bones are eventually
found, in an embryonic fish, I discovered, in their place, a delicate
inverted cartilaginous arch, attached anteriorly, by a very slender
pedicle, to the angles of the ethmoidal cartilage, and posteriorly con-
nected by a much thicker cms with the anterior portion of that
part of the cranial wall which encloses the auditory organ (6g. 8).

The crown of the inverted arch exhibits an articular condyle for
the cartilaginous rudiment of the mandible. The posterior crus is
not, as it appears at first, a single continuous mass, but is composed
of two perfectly distinct pieces of cartilage applied together by their
edges. The anterior of these juxtaposed pieces is continuous below
with the condyle-bearing crown of the arch, and with its anterior
crus or pedicle (P.Q.). It is inclined backwards and upwards, and
terminates close to the base of the skull in a free pointed extremity.

The posterior piece (S.Y. H.M.), on the other hand, has its broad
and narrow ends turned in the opposite direction. Distally, or below,
it is a slender cylindrical rod terminating in a rounded free extremity
behind, but close to, the condyle for the mandible ; above, it gradually
widens and becomes connected with the cranial walls. On its posterior
edge there is a convexity which articulates with the rudimentary
operculum, and below this it gives off a short styloid process, to
which the cartilaginous cornu of the hyoid is articulated. Thus
the cartilaginous arch, which stretches from the auditory capsule to
the ethmo-presphenoidal cartilage, consists, in reality, of two perfectly
distinct and separate portions — the anterior division V-shaped, having
its anterior crus fixed and its posterior crus free above ; the posterior,
styliform, parallel with the posterior leg of the V and free below.
The anterior division supports the mandibular cartilage, the pos-
terior the hyoidean cornu.

As ossification takes place, that part of the anterior crus of the
V-shaped cartilage which is attached to the ethmo-presphenoidal car-
tilage becomes the palatine ; its angle becomes the jugal ; between
these two the transverse and pterygoidien (represented by only one
bone in Gasterosteus) are developed in and around the anterior
crus : the tympanal arises in the same way around the free end of
the posterior crus. Thus these bones constitute an assemblage
which is at first quite distinct from the other elements of the sus-
pensorium, and immediately supports the mandibular cartilage.

409

The proximal end (H.M.) of the posterior styliform division gradu-
ally becomes articulated with the cranial walls, and, ossifying, is con-
verted into the temporal. The distal cylindrical end (S.Y.) becomes
surrounded by an osseous sheath, which at first leaves its distal end
unenclosed. The bone thus formed is the symplectique, which is at
first free, but eventually becomes enclosed within a sheath furnished
to it by thejugal, and so strengthens the union of the two divisions
of the arch already established by the junction of the tympanal with
the temporal. The symplectique and temporal do not meet, but leave
between them a cartilaginous space, whence the supporting pedicle
of the hyoid, which ossifies and becomes the osselet styloide, arises.

The operculum, suboperculum, interoperculum, and preoper-

Fig. 8. — Cranium and face of young Gasterostei at different ages. The left-hand
figure is a view of the base of the skull of a very young fish. The middle figure
represents the under aspect, and the right-hand figure, a side view of a longitu-
dinal section, of a more advanced stickleback's skull.

C. Notochord. P. Pituitary space. AC. Auditory capsules. T. Trabecula3
cranii. E.V. Ethmovomerine cartilage. P.Q. Palatoquadrate arch. Qu. Qua-
dratum. S.Y. or Sy. Symplectic. H. Hyoidean arc. H.M. Hyomandibular carti-
lage. The other letters have the same signification as in the preceding figures,
except pmx. Premaxilla. mx. Maxilla, d. Dentale. an. Angulare. at. Arti-
culare. M£. Meckel's cartilage.

culum are not developed from the primitive cartilaginous arch, but
make their appearance as osseous deposits in the branchiostegal mem-
brane, behind, and on the outer side of, the posterior crus.

410

If we turn to the higher Vertebrata, we find, as I have stated
above, that, at an early period of their embryonic existence, they also
present a cartilaginous arch, stretching from the ethmo-presphenoidal
cartilage to the auditory capsule, and supporting the mandibular or
Meckelian cartilage on the condyle furnished by its inverted crown.
The anterior part of the anterior crus of this arch becomes the pala-
tine bone, which is therefore truly the homologue of the fishes' pala-
tine. The posterior part of it becomes the pterygoid, which therefore
is the homologue of the pterygoidien (and transverse ?) of the fish.

The produced crown of the arch in the higher Vertebrata becomes
either the incus, or its equivalent, the quadratum. I therefore
entertain no doubt that the jugal is really the homologue of the
quadratum of other oviparous Vertebrata. That the tympanal
has no relation whatsoever with the bone of the same name in the
higher Vertebrata is indubitable ; and I am unable to discover among
them any representative of it. It seems to me to be an essentially
piscine bone, to be regarded either as a dismemberment of the
quadratum or of the pterygoid. It may be termed the "meta-
pterygoid."

Still less do I find among the higher Vertebrata in their adult
state, any representative of the posterior division of the suspensor,
constituted by the temporal and symplectique. It is quite clear,
that the temporal is not, as Cuvier's name would indicate, the
homologue of the squamosal. The whole course of its development
would negative such an idea, even if we had not a squamosal already ;
and I shall therefore henceforward term it, from its function of
affording support to both the hyoid and mandibular arches, the hyo-
mandibular bone, " os hyomandibulare," while the other bone of
this division may well retain the name of symplectic.

It is commonly supposed that the hyomandibular, symplectic,
metapterygoid, and quadrate are all to be regarded as mere sub-
divisions of the quadratum of higher Vertebrata. Such a view, how-
ever, completely ignores and fails to explain, the connexion of the
hyoidean arch with the hyomandibular bone. In no one of the
higher Vertebrata does such a connexion ever obtain between any
part of the quadratum and the hyoid, which are quite distinct,
and attached separately to the walls of the cranium, in even young
embryos of the abranchiate Vertebrata.

411

Nevertheless, in their very earliest conditions, these embryos are
said to present a structure, which, if I mistake not, shadows forth the
organization of the fish. The visceral arches, in which the man-
dibular and hyoid cartilages are developed, are at first separated to
the very base of the cranium by a deep cleft, the anterior visceral
cleft, so that the semi-cartilaginous rudiments of the mandibular
and hyoid are completely separate. Subsequently they are said to
coalesce above, as the visceral cleft diminishes, so as to have a com-
mon root of attachment to the cranium ; and this, I apprehend,
answers to the hyomandibular bone, and its prolongation to the
symplectic. With advancing development, however, this part does
not advance, but remains stationary, and becomes confounded with
the wall of the cranium ; so that the two arches subsequently appear
to be attached to the latter quite independently, and there is nothing
left to represent this division of the suspensorium in fishes.

I am strengthened in this view by the structure and develop-
ment of the palatosuspensorial apparatus in the Amphibia, whose
consideration I deferred when speaking of the skull in that class.
On examining a young tadpole (fig. 9), a cartilaginous process is seen
to arise from the walls of the cranium, opposite the anterior part of
the auditory capsule, and, passing obliquely downwards and forwards,
to end in a rounded condyloid head, which articulates with the repre-
sentative of Meckel's cartilage. At the anterior boundary of the
orbit the process gives off a broad, nearly vertical apophysis (O), which
ends superiorly in a free, rounded, and incurved edge. The crota-
phite muscle passes to its insertion on the inner side of this, the
so-called "orbitar process." From the condyle the cartilaginous
process sweeps upwards and inwards, and ends by passing into the
ethmo-presphenoidal cartilage. It consequently forms an inverted
arch, whose keystone is the condyle for Meckel's cartilage, and is, in its
connexions and form, strictly comparable with the cartilaginous arch
which I have described in the embryo fish. The posterior crus of
the arch, it is true, is not divided into two parts, but nevertheless
it represents the whole suspensorium of the fish, and not merely
the quadratum of the abranchiate vertebrate, because immediately
behind the orbitar process it presents an excavated surface, which
articulates with the proximal end of the cornu of the hyoid. That
part of the cartilaginous arch, therefore, which lies above and behind

412

this point, corresponds with the proximal division of the suspensorium
in the fish, or with the hyomandibular bone ; while that portion which
lies below and in front of it, corresponds with the distal division of
the suspensorium and the anterior crus of the arch in the fish, or
in other words, with the symplectic, quadratum, metapterygoid,
pterygoid, transverse, and palatine bones.

In the course of development, in fact, the palatine bone appears,
as in the fish, in that part of the arch which is immediately con-
nected with the ethmo-presphenoidal cartilage, and a single pterygoid
in that part of its anterior crus which lies between the palatine and
the articular portion, which obviously represents the quadratum.
But this pterygoid is, in the adult frog, a large bone, which, on the
one hand, stretches down on the inner side of the quadrate cartilage,
and, on the other, sends a process inwards and upwards, which
nearly reaches the base of the skull. If the pterygoid, transverse,
and metapterygoid of the fish were anchylosed into one bone, or if
the corresponding region of the primitive cartilage were continuously
ossified, the result would be a bone perfectly similar to the pterygoid
of the frog ; and I entertain no doubt that the amphibian pterygoid
does really represent these bones.

The inferior ossification in the batrachian suspensorium certainly
answers to the quadratum, in Triton — whether it should be regarded
partly or wholly as a quadrato-jugale in the frog seems to be a ques-
tion of no great moment — inasmuch as we may be quite sure that
the lower end of the frog's suspensorium represents the quadrate or
incudal element in other Vertebrata.

It is well known that, in the course of the development of the frog,
the end of the suspensorium, as it were, travels backwards, so that
its axis, instead of forming an acute angle, open forwards, with that of
the cranium, as in the tadpole (fig. 9), forms a very obtuse angle, open
downwards, in the adult frog. This change is accompanied by a
relative and absolute lengthening of that part of the suspensorium
which lies between the articulation of the hyoid and that of Meckel's
cartilage (containing its proper quadrate portion), and by a relative
shortening of that part which lies between the articulation of the
hyoid and the skull (or the hyomandibular portion). The conse-
quence of this is, that the articular surface for the hyoid appears
constantly to approach the cranial wall, until at length, in the adult,

413

it seems to be almost in contact with it. If a knife were passed
obliquely between the pterygoid and the suspensorium, and then
carried through the suspensorium to its posterior margin a little

Fig. 9. — The upper right-hand figure represents a longitudinal section of the
head of a tadpole just about to be hatched. The upper left-hand figure exhibits
a dissection of the head of a tadpole with external gills. The two lower figures
represent dissections of the crania of tadpoles with well-developed hinder limbs.
In the one, the integuments, organs of sense, &c. of the right side are taken away
so as to lay bare the facial cartilages and the brain. In the other the cranium
is opened from above, and the brain and myelon are extracted.

The letters have the same signification as before, except My. Myelon. M. Mouth.
olf. Olfactory sac. op. Eye. 1. Anterior cerebral vesicle. 2. Middle cerebral
vesicle. 3. Posterior cerebral vesicle, la. Rhinencephalon. 1£. Prosencephalon.
Ic. Deutencephalon, or vesicle of the third ventricle. I. II. III. IV. V. Branchial
arches, x. Organs of adhesion. 1. Lips. 5. Trigeminal ganglion. 7. Ganglion
of the portio dura. 8. Aperture for the exit of the pneumogastric.

above the condyle for the mandible, it would divide the suspensor
into a proximal and a distal portion, precisely resembling those which
naturally exist in the embryonic fish. If the proximal division
ossified, it would clearly represent the hyomandibular and symplectic
bones. Now in the Amphibia, although the suspensor is not thus
divided, it ossifies very nearly as if it were, and the superior or
proximal ossification is the so-called " temporo-tympanic," " tem-
poro-mastoid," or " squamosal " bone*.

* See this result, well worked out, by the method of gradation only, by Kostlin
(I c. pp. 328-332), who draws particular attention to the resemblance between
the suspensorium of the Amphibia and that of fishes of the Eel-tribe.
VOL. IX. 2 F

414

That this bone is really the homologue of the hyomandibular and
symplectic in the fish, becomes, I think, still more clear when we
compare it with such an aberrant form of piscine suspensorium as
is presented by some of the eel-tribe (Murcena, e.g.). In these fishes
the suspensorium is formed by only two bones, a small distal quadra-
turn, which, as usual, articulates with the lower jaw, and a large wide
proximal bone, which articulates above with the post-frontal and
squamosal, gives attachment to the operculum and to the cornu of the
hyoid, and sends down a process towards the articular head of the
quadratum. The single bone, which represents the three pterygoids
of other fishes, is articulated for the most part with the quadratum,
but partly with this proximal bone. The latter, therefore, clearly
represents both the hyomandibular and the symplectic bones of
ordinary fishes.

But if the suspensorium of Triton be compared with that of
Murcena, e. g., it will, I think, be hardly doubted, that while the
distal ossification in the former corresponds with the quadratum,
the proximal answers (at any rate, chiefly) to the hyomandibular
bone of the Murcena. Indeed it differs from the latter principally in
being an ossific deposit in the outer portion only of the primitive
cartilage*.

Thus it would seem, that in the manner in which the lower jaw is
connected with the cranium, Pisces and Amphibia, as in so many other
particulars, agree with one another, and differ from Reptilia and
Aces on the one hand, as much as they do from Mammalia on the
other. And the difference consists mainly, as might be anticipated,
in the large development in the branchiate Vertebrata of a structure
which aborts in the abranchiate classes. A most interesting series of
modifications, all tending to approximate the ramus of the mandible
more closely to the skull t, is observable as we pass from the fish to
the mammal. In the first, the two are separated by the hyoman-
dibular, the quadrate, and the articular elements, the first of which

* In Murtena Helena the suspensorium forms an obtuse angle with the axis
of the skull, though not so obtuse as in the frog. A strong ligament connects
the outer side of the distal end of the quadratum with the maxillary bone,
passing outside the lower jaw. If the posterior end of the ligament were ossi-
fied, it would correspond very nearly with the " quadratojugal" of the frog.

f Of course in a morphological sense. Whether they are more or less distant in
actual space, is not the question.

415

becomes shortened in the Amphibia. In the oviparous abranchiate
Vertebrata, the cranium and the ramus are separated only by the
quadratum and the articulare, the hyomandibulare having disap-
peared. Finally, in the mammal, the quadratum and the articulare
are applied to new functions, and the ramus comes into direct contact
with the cranium.

The operculum, suboperculum, and interoperculum appear to me
to be specially piscine structures, having no unquestionable repre-
sentatives in the higher Fertebrata. Much might be said in favour
of the identification of the preoperculum with the tympanic bone ;
but there are many arguments on the other side, and at present I
do not see my way to the formation of a definite conclusion on this
subject.

In the preceding discussion of the structure of the osseous ver-
tebrate skull, I have desired to direct your attention, more parti-
cularly, to the consideration of those fundamental bones, the deter-
mination of whose homologues throughout the vertebrate series is
of the greatest importance for my present object. The presphenoid,
ethmoid, mastoid, and petrosal are the Malakhoff and the Redan of
the theory of the skull ; and if anatomists were once agreed about
their homologues, there would be comparatively little left to dispute
about.

But besides the axial, inferolateral, and superior series of bones,
there are other, less constant, elements of the cranial wall, forming a
discontinuous superolateral series. These are the epiotic, the squa-
mosal, the postfrontal, the prefrontal, and lacrymal bones. Of the
two first-named of these bones I have already spoken sufficiently.
The postfrontal exists only in Reptiles and Fishes, and is always
situated between the frontal, alisphenoid, petrosal, and squamosal —
the extent to which it is absolutely in contact with any one of these
bones varying.

The prefrontal and lacrymal bones are always developed in or
upon that lateral process of the ethmosphenoidal plate, which gives
attachment externally to the palatopterygoid arch ; consequently they
lie at the anterolateral ends of the frontal, and have more or less
close relations with it, the ethmoid and the palatine bones.

Finally, the nasal bones (or bone) never enter into the composition

2 F2

416

of the walls of the skull, but have the same relation to the anterior
and upper expanded edge of the prolonged lamina perpendicularis
or body of the ethmoid, as the vomer or vomers have to its lower
edge.

If the conclusions which I have laid before you are correct, the
following propositions are true of all the bony skulls of Vertebrata.

1. Their axis contains at most five distinct bones, which are,
from before backwards, the basioccipital, the basisphenoid, the pre-
sphenoid, the ethmoid, and the vomer ; but any of these bones,
except the basisphenoid, may be represented by cartilage, and they
may anchylose to an indefinite extent ; so that the number distin-
guishable as separate bones in any skull cannot be predicated. The
craniofacial axis invariably presents the same regions, but the
histological character of these regions may vary.

2. Their roof contains at most, leaving Wormian bones out of con-
sideration, five bones (supraoccipital, parietals and frontals), or seven,
if we include the epiotic bones in the roof. The number falls below
this in particular cases, for the same reason as that given for the
apparent variations in composition of the axis.

3. Their inferolateral wall contains at most six pair of bones
(exoccipitals, mastoids, petrosals, alisphenoids, orbitosphenoids, pre-
frontals), whose apparent number, however, is affected by the same
causes.

4. The axial bones have definite relations to the brain and nerves.
The basioccipital lies behind the pituitary body, the basisphenoid
beneath it, the presphenoid in front of it. In fact the pituitary
body may be regarded as marking the organic centre, as it were, of
the skull — its relations to the axial cranial bones being the same, as
far as I am aware, in all Vertebrata.

The olfactory nerves pass on either side of the ethmoid, which
bounds the cranial cavity in front, the greater part of its substance
and that of the vomer being outside the cranial cavity.

5. The lateral bones have definite relations to the brain, nerves,
and organs of sense. The exoccipital lies behind the exit of the par
vagum ; the mastoid lies in front of it ; the petrosal lies behind the
exit of the third division of the trigeminal ; the alisphenoid lies in
front of it ; though either bone may, to a certain slight extent, en-

417

croach on the province of the other. The optic nerve passes out
more or less in front of the alisphenoid, and behind, or through, the
orbitosphenoid.

The organ of hearing is always bounded in front by the petrosal
bone, which limits the anterior moiety of the fenestra ovalis.

The organs of smell always lie on each side of the ethmovomerine
part of the axis.

The greater part, or the whole, of the petrosal lies behind the
centre of the mesencephalon.

6. The attachment of the mandibular arch to the skull is never
situated further forward than the posterior boundary of the exit of
the trigeminal ; consequently it cannot belong to any segment of the
skull in front of the petrosal.

But if propositions of this generality can be enunciated with regard
to all bony vertebrate skulls, it is needless to seek for further evidence
of their unity of plan. These propositions are the expression of that
plan, and might, if one so pleased, be thrown into a diagrammatic
form. There is no harm in calling such a convenient diagram the
' Archetype ' of the skull, but I prefer to avoid a word whose con-
notation is so fundamentally opposed to the spirit of modern science.

Admitting, however, that a general unity of plan pervades the
organization of the ossified skull, the important fact remains, that
many vertebrated animals — all those fishes, in fact, which are known
as Elasmobranchii, Marsipobranchii, Pharyngobranchii, and Dipnoi
— have no bony skull at all, at least in the sense in which the words
have hitherto been used. In these Vertebrata the skull is either
membranous or cartilaginous ; or if ossified, the ossific matter pre-
sents no regular grouping around a few distinct centres.

Thus the cranium of the Amphioxus is nothing but a membranous
capsule, whose walls are continuous with those of the canal for the
spinal cord, and in whose floor lies a continuation of the notochord
which underlies the spinal canal.

In the Marsipobranchii there is a marked increase in the capacity
of the cranium as compared with that of the spinal canal, in cor-
respondence with the decided differentiation of the cerebral masses ;
and, at the same time, the cranial walls have undergone a more or less
extensive chondrification. The notochord terminates in the midst of
the firm and solid cartilaginous plate which forms the posterior part

418

of the basis cranii, and which sends forward two processes, including
a membranous interspace. The auditory capsules are enclosed within
prolongations of the sides of the basilar plate ; and just in front of
and below them, the root of each process of the basal plate gives off
a solid prolongation, which passes at first outwards and downwards,
and then bends upwards and forwards, to rejoin the anterior part of
the process of the basilar plate of its side. An inverted arch is thus
formed, and the space included between its crura and the sides of
the cranium, constitutes the floor of the orbit.

The posterior eras of the arch is divided into two, more or less
distinct, pillars, the posterior of which supports the hyoidean arc ;
the mandibular arc appears to be absent.

The apertures whereby the cranial nerves make their exit are
situated in the side- walls of the capsule, that for the vagus lying
immediately behind the auditory capsule, while that for the trigeminal
is immediately in front of the same organ. The olfactory nerves per-
forate the anterior walls of the cranial capsule ; the optic, its lateral
walls between them and the trigeminal.

The skulls of the Elasmobranchii, again, appear at first to be some-
thing quite different from either of these. The cranium is here a
cartilaginous box, more or less incomplete and membranous above,
and presenting on each side posteriorly a transverse enlargement, in
which the auditory organ is contained ; while anteriorly it expands
into a broad plate, which on each side overhangs the olfactory sacs.
The notochord and the membranous space have disappeared, or
their traces only are visible in the base of the cranium, whose
walls are, as it were, crusted with a multitude of minute plates of
bone.

In the Chimcerce the inferolateral walls of the cranium pass into
a cartilaginous arch-like plate which form the floor of the orbit, and
whose posterior part, as in the Marsipobranchii, gives attachment to
the hyoidean arch ; besides which, a mandibular cartilage is connected
with the condyloid surface developed from the crown of the arched
plate.

In the Plagiostomes there is also an inverted suborbitar arch with
a mandibular cartilage and a hyoidean apparatus, but the structure
of the arch is different from what obtains in Chimcera.

The outer wall of that portion of the cranium which lodges the

419

auditory organ, in fact, furnishes an articular surface for a strong
moveable peduncle, to which the hyoid arc is usually attached. At its
lower end, however, this peduncle does not articulate with the man-
dibular cartilage, but is directly connected with a strong cartilaginous
plate which forms the upper boundary of the gape, and is articulated
anteriorly with the sides of the skull in front of the orbit. This plate
bears the upper series of teeth, and bites more or less directly against
the mandible, which is moveably articulated with a condyle furnished
by its posterior extremity.

The upper plate is commonly, though, as I think, erroneously,
regarded as the homologue of the maxilla and premaxilla in other
fishes ; the peduncle as the homologue of their whole suspensorium*.

The par vagum leaves the skull behind the auditory organ ; the
trigeminal passes out in front of it ; and then its third division tra-
verses the space enclosed between the peduncle, the upper plate,
and the skull. The optic nerve passes through the lateral walls of
the skull in front of the trigeminal, and the olfactory perforates its
anterior boundary.

So brief and simple a statement of the characters of the skulls of
these three orders of fishes, while it brings their diversities into pro-
minence, also exhibits an amount of uniformity among them which
is not a little remarkable. The exits of the great nerves have fixed
relations to the auditory capsules, to the anterior boundary of the
skull, and to the pituitary body. The inferior arc of the hyoid is
constant (except in the Pharyngobranchii), and has always, speaking
broadly, the same relative position with respect to the auditory cap-
sule and the posterior crus of the suborbitar arch. The suborbitar
arch itself is always present (except in Pharyngobranchii) ; its pos-
terior crus is always attached to the cranium behind the third division
of the trigeminal nerve, while the anterior is invariably fixed to that
part of the skull which lies behind, or beside, the base of the olfactory
capsule.

Thus the employment of the method of gradation alone exhibits
a surprising uniformity in the organization of these lower forms of
skull ; and on comparing them with the higher forms, it seems obvious
that, so far as it goes, their plan is identical with that of the latter ;
for the relations of the auditory organ to the par vagum and trige-
* See Note IV., on the suspensorium in fishes.

420

minal are the same in each ; the posterior crus of the suborhitar
arch answers to the suspensorium of Teleostei, its anterior crus to
their palatopterygoid apparatus. But with all this, there are dis-
crepancies in the structure of the skull itself, which would forbid too
close "an approximation between the bony and the unossified crania, if
their adult forms alone were examined. The study of the development
of the ossified vertebrate skull, however, eliminates this difficulty,
and satisfactorily proves that the adult crania of the lower Vertebrata
are but special developments of conditions through which the em-
bryonic crania of the highest members of the subkingdom pass.

It is to Rathke's luminous researches that we are indebted for the
first, and indeed, even now, almost the only, demonstrative evidence
of this great fact. Twenty years ago that great and laborious em-
bryologist worked out the early stages of the development of the
skull in each class of the Vertebrata. Confirmed and adopted by
Vogt and Bischoff, his conclusions have been feebly controverted, but
never confuted ; and my own observations lead me to believe that
they are destined to take a permanent place among the data of
biological science. Nothing is easier than to verify Rathke's views
in an embryonic fish or amphibian ; and as it matters not which of
the higher Vertebrata is selected for the study of cranial develop-
ment, I will state at some length what I have observed in the em-
bryonic frog.*

Before the dorsal laminae have united so as to enclose the primitive
craniospinal cavity, the anterior portion of the floor of that cavity
is bent downwafds. The angle which the deflexed portion forms
with the rest becomes less and less obtuse, until, when the dorsal
laminae have united and the visceral clefts have begun to appear, it
constitutes a right angle.

On examining the floor of the craniospinal cavity at this period,
it is seen that the notochord, at present formed by the aggregation
of a number of yelk segments or embryo-cells, small in themselves,
but larger than those of which the rest of the body is composed, ends
in a point immediately behind the angular flexure.

The notochord has no sheath as yet, and is not in any sense pro-
longed into the deflexed portion of the floor of the craniospinal cavity.

When the visceral clefts first appear, they are best seen from the

* See Note V. for the development of the skull in other Fertebrata.

421

inner or pharyngeal aspect of the visceral wall. Five, of which the
two anterior are the longest and about equal, while the others
gradually diminish in length from before backwards, can be distinctly
observed. They mark out the boundaries of a corresponding number
of " visceral arches," and there is sometimes an appearance as of a
sixth visceral arch behind the last cleft. A horizontal section shows
that these arches differ in nothing but their relative size — in no other
respect can one of them be distinguished from the other.

The anterior visceral cleft lies in a transverse plane, immediately
behind the angular bend of the floor of the craniospinal cavity, or,
as I shall henceforward term it, mesocephalic flexure. Consequently
the posterior part of the first visceral arch passes into the future
basis cranii close to the flexure.

The parts of the cerebrum are now distinguishable. It is bent in
correspondence with the mesocephalic flexure, and its most pro-
jecting portion, or the angle of the bend, is the rudiment of the
mesencephalon. The large rudiment of the pituitary body lies im-
mediately in front of the flexure, and is therefore altogether anterior
to the end of the notochord and to the posterior part of the first
visceral arch. The rudiment of the eye lies at first altogether in
front of the flexure, and therefore anterior to the root of the first
visceral arch.

The auditory vesicles make their appearance on each side of a
line which would cut the chorda a little behind its anterior termi-
nation. They are at first quite free and perfectly distinct from the
walls of the cranium, which is in accordance with Remak's state-
ment, that they are originally formed by the involution of the epi-
dermic layer of the embryo. They long remain separate and easily
detachable from the cranial walls.

Ten days after impregnation, larvae with rudimentary external gills
and colourless blood, still exhibited some traces of the mesocephalic
flexure, but the angle formed by the anterior and posterior portions
of the cranium was very obtuse ; the base of the cranium had, in
fact, undergone a gradual straightening. The rudiments of the
cranial skeleton had made their appearance, and consisted, behind
the mesocephalic angle, of a broad semi-cartilaginous plate enclosing
the anterior end of the notochord, but not covering it above or below.
It is not as yet adherent to the auditory sacs.

422

That part of the middle of the hasis cranii which underlies the
pituitary body is not converted into cartilage, but remains mem-
branous, and may be called the " subpituitary membrane." The
delicacy of this membrane is so great that it is easily torn, when
the pituitary body seems, as Rathke originally supposed, to unite
with the palatine mucous membrane. But that this is not really
the case, is readily demonstrable in an embryo whose tissues have
been sufficiently hardened with alcohol or nitric acid.

The cartilaginous basal plate gives off a prolongation on either
side of the subpituitary membrane. This, the " cranial trabecula"
(Schadelbalke of Rathke), passes forwards with a slight convexity
outwards, arid then turning inwards comes into contact with its
fellow (from which, however, it is at first distinct), and spreads out
into a broad, flat, elongated process, which I shall term the ethmo-
vomerine cartilage.

Behind the eye and just in front of the auditory capsule (in the
posterior part of the first visceral arch, therefore), a cartilaginous
process lies, which is connected proximally with the root of the tra-
becula close to the basal plate, while at its distal end it sends a
prolongation upwards to unite with the posterior end of the ethmo-
vomerine cartilage. It then forms an arch, between which and the
basis cranii is an interspace corresponding with, and lodging, the under
surface of the large eyeball. The rudiments of the hyoid, mandi-
bular and maxillary apparatus in larvae at this stage are somewhat
indistinct ; and indeed not only in this, but in other respects, more in-
struction is to be derived from tadpoles which have advanced further.

In larvae, with completely internal branchiae and very short tu-
bercles in the place of hind limbs, the notochord suddenly narrows
between the auditory capsules to hardly more than half its preceding
dimensions, and then gradually tapers off, to what appears to be a
rounded end, a short distance from the anterior boundary of the
basal plate. On very careful examination, however, a delicate pro-
cess (which may by possibility be nothing but a cavity in the car-
tilage) can be traced from it very nearly to the margin of the basal
plate. But there is no continuation whatsoever, either of the noto-
chord itself or of its sheath, into the subpituitary membrane, which
is now composed of delicate connective tissue, and from its extreme
thinness and transparency would exhibit the least trace of such a

423

prolongation. And I speak the more confidently on this point, be-
cause the delicate process of the notochord or cavity in the cartilage,
to which I have referred, contains opaque unchanged vitelline gra-
nules, and is therefore particularly conspicuous. The basal cartilage
is still divided by the notochord into two lateral moieties, which are
only united by a short band of cartilage in front of the end of the
notochord. It sends off from its outer side a cartilaginous process,
which envelopes the auditory capsule externally, but leaves on its
inner side a wide aperture for the entrance of the auditory nerve.
The oval auditory capsules thus formed have their long axes directed
outwards and forwards.

The trabeculse are still better developed than before, but instead
of remaining distinct anteriorly, they have become fused together into
a single trapezoidal cartilage, which may be termed the ethmo-pre-
sphenoidal plate. This plate, as it were, divides anteriorly into two
flat, elongated and somewhat divergent processes, which are concave
downwards and end in truncate extremities. Fibrous tissue connects
the ends of these ethmovomerine processes with a crescentic carti-
laginous plate which supports the horny upper jaw of the tadpole.

The posterior cms of the palatosuspensorial, or suborbitar, arch is
not yet united with that portion of the cranial wall which encloses
the auditory capsule ; but fort he rest the same description applies
to it which has already been given of the palatosuspensorial arch and
its appendages in more advanced tadpoles. In this state, the roof,
and all the lateral walls of the cranium, but that part into which the
auditory capsule enters, are membranous.

If the skull of the larval frog just described, be laid open and the
exit of the nerves observed (fig. 9), it will be seen that the par
vagum makes its way out by a foramen situated immediately behind
the auditory capsule ; that the third division of the trigeminal leaves
the cranium in front of the auditory capsule, passing over the pos-
terior crus of the palatosuspensorial arch ; and that the optic tra-
verses the membranous walls of the skull between this and the
olfactory nerve, which perforates the anterolateral region to enter
the olfactory capsules. The latter are situated wide apart, on each
side and in front of, the broad ethmo-presphenoidal cartilage and
the anterior crus of the palatosuspensorial arch, and are even a little
overlapped by the edges of the ethmovomerine processes.

424

In the further course of development, the trabeculse approximate
and elongate, so as to obliterate the subpituitary membrane, and
form with the enlarged basal cartilage, the ethmoid cartilage and the
ethmovomerine cartilages, the continuous cartilaginous craniofacial
axis. A histological metamorphosis into cartilage is undergone by
the roof of the occipital region of the skull, but in front of this it
remains membranous ; so that in the adult frog (in which this car-
tilaginous framework persists), the skull, when deprived of its bony
matter, presents an anterior fontanelle. The ethmovomerine cartilages
diverge still more, and form the broad mass whose lateral cavities
shelter the olfactory sacs in the adult frog. If, bearing in mind the
changes which are undergone by the palatosuspensorial apparatus,
and which have already been described, we now compare the stages
of development of the frog's skull with the persistent conditions of
the skull in the Amphioxus, the Lamprey, and the Shark, we shall
discover the model and type of the latter in the former. The skull
of the Amphioxus presents a modification of that plan which is
exhibited by the frog's skull, when its walls are still" membranous
and the notochord is not as yet imbedded in cartilage. The skull
of the lamprey is readily reducible to the same plan of structure as
that which is exhibited by the tadpole, while its gills are still
external arid its blood colourless. And finally, the skull of the
shark is at once intelligible when we have studied the cranium in
further advanced larvae, or its cartilaginous basis in the adult frog.

Thus, I conceive, the study of the mode in which the skulls of
vertebrate animals are developed, demonstrates the great truth which
is foreshadowed by a careful and comprehensive examination of the
gradations of form which they present in their adult state ; namely,
that they are all constructed upon one plan ; that they differ, indeed,
in the extent to which this plan is modified, but that all these
modifications are foreshadowed in the series of conditions through
which the skull of any one of the higher Vertebrata passes.

But if these conclusions be correct, the first problem which I pro-
posed to you, — Are all vertebrate skulls constructed upon a common
plan? — is solved affirmatively.

We have thus attained to a theory or general expression of the
laws of structure of the skull. All vertebrate skulls are originally
alike ; in all (save Amphioxus ?) the base of the primitive cranium

425

undergoes the mesocephalic flexure, behind which the notochord
terminates, while immediately in front of it, the pituitary body is
developed ; in all, the cartilaginous cranium has primarily the same
structure, — a basal plate enveloping the end of the notochord and
sending forth three processes, of which one is short and median,
while the other two, the lateral trabeculae, pass on each side of the
space, on which the pituitary body rests, and unite in front of it ;
in all, the mandibular arch is primarily attached behind the level of
the pituitary space, and the auditory capsules are enveloped by a
cartilaginous mass, continuous with the basal plate between them.
The amount of further development to which the primary skull may
attain varies, and no distinct ossifications at all may take place in it ;
but when such ossification does occur, the same bones are developed
in similar relations to the primitive cartilaginous skull. But the
theory of the skull thus enunciated is not a * vertebral theory' ; one
may have a perfectly clear notion of the unity of organization of all
skulls without thinking of vertebrae.

So much for the first problem before us. I now proceed to the '-1 -"'
second question, which was, you will recollect, Given the existence of
a common plan of organization of all vertebrate skulls ; is this plan
the same as that of a spinal column ?

To deal properly with this question, we must know what is the
plan of organization of a spinal column, and that can be learnt only
by a careful study of its development, as well as of its adult modifi-
cations. Indeed, the latter are unintelligible without a knowledge
of the former.

It is impossible to form a clear conception of the essential nature
of the process of development of a spinal column, or to compare
it with that of the skull, unless we analyse very carefully, and di-
stinguish from one another, the successive steps of that process*.

1 . The primary changes of form exhibited by the blastoderm in
the region of the spinal column, are, in all the Vertebrata whose
development has yet been studied, precisely the same. Two ridges,
the " laminae dorsales," bounding a narrow elongated groove, rise
up and eventually unite with one another so as to enclose a cavity —
the neural canal. External to the junction of the laminae dorsales

* See Note VI. for the details of the development of the spinal column in
Vertebrata generally.

426

with the blastoderm, the latter is converted more or less completely
into the "laminae ventrales," which become incurved, unite, and
eventually enclose the visceral cavity.

A transverse section of the embryo in this state shows a very thin
and narrow median plate, separating the neural canal above, from the
haemal or visceral canal below, and passing on each side into thick-
ened masses of blastoderm, which give rise to the laminae dorsales
on the one hand, and to the laminae ventrales on the other.

For convenience of description, I shall term the median plate the
"diaphysial plate," and the lateral ridges the "paraphysial thick-
enings."

2. The primary histological differentiations, which take place in
the rudimentary spinal column just described, are the same in all
Fertebrata.

A long filament, composed of indifferent tissue, makes its appear-
ance in the middle of the diaphysial plate, and constitutes the
notochord, or chorda dorsalis.

Next, the substance of the paraphysial thickenings undergoes a
certain change of tissue at regular intervals, so that they acquire a
segmented appearance. ; solid, broad, darker masses of blastema lying
opposite one another in each paraphysial thickening, and being sepa-
rated by clear, narrow interspaces.

These segments are what the Germans term " Urwirbel," or
"primitive vertebrae ;" a somewhat misleading name, as they are in
every way distinct from what are commonly understood under the
name of "vertebrae," even if we use that word in its broadest sig-
nification. Professor Goodsir's terms of Somatomes for the segments
and Metasomatomes for their interspaces, appear to me to be well
worthy of adoption as the equivalents of these " Urwirbel."

3. The next step in the development of a vertebral column, is the
histological differentiation of the somatomes. Leaving out of con-
sideration the epithelial and other minor tissues, it may be said
that each somatome gives rise to (a) epiaxial muscles, (b) a nerve
and its ganglion, (c) the blastema for a vertebral centrum and its
neural and haemal arches, and (d) possibly hypaxial muscles ; while
the metasomatome becomes for the greater part of its extent an
" intermuscular septum."

It is unnecessary for my present purpose to trace out particularly

427

the development of any of these parts, except the centrum and its
arches.

The blastema, which is specially intended for these parts, appears,
in a distinct form, first, in the paraphysial thickenings, and then
extends inwards above and below, so as gradually to enclose the
notochord in a sheath, while, externally, it passes in the posterior half
of each somatome, upwards into the neural arches, and downwards
into the haemal arches.

4. In some Vertebrata the spinal column never gets beyond this
stage, nor even so far ; but for the present it will be well to confine
our attention to those which become completely ossified. In these
chondrification is the next step. The blastema of the centra and its
prolongations becomes converted into cartilage, but not continuously.
On the contrary, at points corresponding with the intervals between
every pair of metasomatomes, or with the middle of each somatome,
the cartilage is replaced by more or less fibrous tissue. As a conse-
quence, the cartilaginous sheath of the notochord is now divided into
regular segments, which alternate with the somatomes, so that each
metasomatome abuts upon the middle of one of these cartilaginous
vertebral centra.

In every centrum it is necessary to distinguish three tracts or
regions: — 1. A diaphysial region immediately surrounding the noto-
chord. 2. Two paraphysial regions lying in the paraphysial thick-
enings. The paraphysial regions give rise to the cartilaginous neural
and ha3mal semi-arcs, which are primitively continuous with them ;
so that all parts of the vertebra form one connected whole.

The neural semi-arcs eventually unite in the middle line, and
ordinarily send a prolongation upwards from their junction. The
haemal semi-arcs also tend to unite below, but in a somewhat differ-
ent manner.

5. The last step in the development of the vertebra is the dif-
ferentiation of its various parts from one another, and their final
metamorphosis into their adult form. The notochord, which primi-
tively traversed the centra and the intercentra (inter vertebral liga-
ments, synovial membranes, or the like, between the centra), becomes
more or less completely obliterated.

The distal, larger part of the haemal semi-arc is commonly di-
stinguished from its proximal smaller part, by the conversion of its

428

cartilage into osseous or other tissue, and thus the semi-arc becomes
separated into a rib and an articular surface or process, for the head
of that rib, to which last the term Parapophysis may be conveniently
restricted.

In the dorsal vertebrae of many Vertebrata, the neural semi-arc
sends out a process, the Diapophysis, which is eventually met by a
corresponding outgrowth of the rib, its so-called tubercle, and the
two become firmly connected together.

"When ossification occurs, it is a very general, if not invariable rule,
that an annular deposit around the notochord takes place in the
centrum. I term this the Diaphysis of the vertebra. In some
fishes a distinct centre of ossification appears in each paraphysial
region, and this may be termed the Paraphysis of the vertebra.

In mammals each end of the vertebra ossifies from a distinct
point, and constitutes a central Epiphysis of the vertebra ; and in
many Vertebrata a part of the under surface of a centrum ossifies
separately as a distinct Hypophysis. It is another very general, if not
invariable rule, that a distinct centre of ossification appears in, or
on, eachjneural semi-arc or Neurapophysis, and passes upwards, into
the spine or Metaneurapophysis; downwards, to unite sooner or later
with the diaphysis, or diaphysis and paraphysis ; and outwards into
the diapophysis.

It is doubtful whether the paraphysis appears as a distinct osseous
element in any Vertebrata above the class of fishes, in very few of
which even, is it distinguishable in the adult state. Consequently
in the higher Fertebrata the paraphysial region is ossified, either from
the diaphysis or from the neurapophysis, or from both ; and a suture
exists for a longer or shorter time at the point of junction of the
neural and central ossifications. I will term this the Neurocentral
suture. Its position is no certain or constant indication of the
nature of the parts above or below it, for it may vary in the same ver-
tebral column from the base of the neurapophysis, to the junction
of the paraphysial with the diaphysial region of the centrum.

The number of the centres of ossification in each distal portion of

the hsemal semi-arc may vary greatly ; the uppermost is called a

Pleurapophysis, the lower, Hcemapophyses and Met-htzmapophyses,

Besides these primary centres of ossification of a vertebra, there

are others of less constancy. Thus the ends of the metaneurapo-

429

physes, diapophyses, and zygapophyses in many Mammalia are ossi-
fied from distinct centres ; and in the caudal region of many of the
higher Vertebrata, outgrowths of the centra unite below to enclose
the caudal vessels, and ossify as distinct apophyses.

If the development of the skull be now compared with that of the
spinal column, it is found that (1) the very earliest changes under-
gone by the blastoderm in each are almost identical. The primitive
groove extends to the extremity of the future cranial cavity ; its
lateral walls are continuous with the laminae dorsales, and these pass
into laminae ventrales, also continuous with those of the spinal region.
The laminae dorsales of the head become the cranial walls and en-
close the cerebrum — the continuation of the myelon ; the laminae
ventrales give rise to the boundaries of the future buccal and pha-
ryngeal cavities.

2. But at this point the identity of the skull with the spinal
column ceases, and the very earliest steps in histological differen-
tiation exhibit the fundamental differences between the two. For,
in the first place, in no instance save the Amphioxus, has the
notochord as yet been traced through the whole of the floor of the
cranial cavity. In no other embryo has it been yet seen to extend
beyond the middle vesicle of the cerebrum, or in other words,
beyond the level of the rudiment of the infundibulum and pituitary
body.

In the second place, the division into somatomes, in all known
vertebrate embryos, stops short at the posterior boundary of the
skull, and no trace of such segmentation has yet been observed in
the head itself.

3. Apparently as a consequence of these fundamental differences,
the further course of the development of the skull is in many
respects very different from that of a vertebral column. Chondri-
fication takes place continuously on each side of the notochord, and
beyond it, the two trabeculae cranii, unlike anything in the spinal
column, extend along the base of the cranium. No distinct carti-
laginous centra, and consequently no intercentra, are ever developed.
The occipital arch is developed in a manner remotely similar to that
in which the neurapophysial processes are formed ; but the walls of
the auditory capsules, which lie in front of them, and which give
rise to some of the parts, most confidently regarded as neurapo-

VOL. ix. 2 G

430

physes by the advocates of the current vertebral theories of the skull,
are utterly unlike neurapophyses in their origin.

So, if we seek for haemal semi-arcs, we find something very like
them, arising from the substance of the basis cranii beneath the
auditory cartilage ; but there is none connected with the occipital car-
tilage, and none with the rudiment of the alisphenoid. The palato-
pterygoid cartilage might be regarded as the haemal semi-arc of the
presphenoidal region, though the grounds for so doing are not very
strong ; but the premaxillary cartilage is something quite without
parallel in the spinal column.

4. The mode of ossification of the skull, and the ultimate arrange-
ment of its distinct bony elements, are at once curiously like, and
singularly unlike those presented by the spinal column. The basi-
occipital is ossified precisely after the manner of a vertebral centrum.
Bony matter is deposited around the notochord, and gradually extends
through the substance of the cartilaginous rudiment of the part.

The combined basi- and pre-sphenoid in Pisces and Amphibia is an
ossific deposit, which takes place on the under surface of the basal
cartilage in front of the basioccipital, and extends thence completely
beneath the pituitary interspace as far as the ethmoid. It might be
paralleled by the subchordal ossification in the coccyx of the frog,
or by the cortical ossification of the atlas in many higher Vertebrate
if it really underlay a portion of the notochord ; but at the very
utmost the notochord only extends into its posterior extremity.

In some of the higher Vertebrata, as the snake, the osseous basi-
sphenoid arises in the substance of its cartilaginous rudiment, while
the osseous presphenoid underlies its cartilage. In others, both bones
appear to arise directly in their cartilaginous forerunners. But no-
thing can be more irregular than the mode of ossification of the
presphenoid, ethmoid and vomer in the vertebrate series, or less
like the very constant and regular course of ossification of true
vertebral centra.

With respect to the ossification of the lateral and superior con-
stituents of the skull, the development of the exoccipital and
supraoccipital does, without doubt, present a very close analogy to
that of the separate pieces of the neural arch of some vertebras in,
e. g., a crocodile. The alisphenoids and orbitosphenoids follow in
the train of the exoccipitals ; but 1 know not where in the spinal

431

column we are to find a parallel for the double parietals and frontals.
But waiving this difficulty, and supposing, for the sake of argument,
as was supposed by Oken, that the basisphenoid, alisphenoid and
parietals, the presphenoid, orbitosphenoids, and frontals represent
the elements of two vertebral centra and neural arches, what is to
be made of the petrous and mastoid bones?

The difficulty has been eluded by terming the petrosal a " sense-
capsule," the mastoid a "parapophysis." But I apprehend that
neither of these explanations can be received for a moment by those
who are acquainted with the development of the skull, or with the
true homologues of the bones in question in the vertebrate series,
or who think that scientific terms should always possess a well-de-
fined and single meaning.

What, in fact, is the origin of the petrous and mastoid bones ?
There is much reason for believing (according to Remak's late obser-
vations) that the membranous labyrinth is primarily an involution
of the sensory or epidermic layer of the blastoderm ; but however
this may be, it is quite certain that the auditory organ is, primarily,
altogether independent of the walls of the skull, and that it may be
detached without causing any lesion of them, in young embryos.

It is also quite certain that this membranous labyrinth becomes
invested by a coat of cartilage, continuous with the cranial wall ; but
I do not know that there is evidence, at present, to enable one to say
positively, whether this cartilaginous auditory capsule is formed in-
dependently around the labyrinth, and then unites with the cranium ;
or whether it is an outgrowth from the cranial walls, which invests
and encloses the labyrinth. If the latter be the case, a consistent
vertebral theory of the skull must account for all the bones deve-
loped out of the auditory capsule ; if the former, it must exclude
them all, as parts of an extra- vertebral sensory skeleton.

Now the bones developed in the capsule are, in front, the petrosal ;
behind, the mastoid ; above, the epiotic. The first-named bone is
admitted, by the most zealous advocates of the vertebral theory, to
be a neurapophysis, in all oviparous Vertebrata. Hence they are
also bound to admit that, for three centra below and three neural
spines bounding the cranial cavity above, there are four pairs of
neural arches. More than this, I do not see how it is to be denied
that the true mastoid is the morphological equivalent of the petrosal ;

432

and in that case there would be five neurapophyses to three central
and three neural spines. Furthermore, it is precisely to these two
superfluous elements that the only two clear and obvious hsemal
arches, the mandibular and hyoid, are attached.

I confess I do not perceive how it is possible, fairly and consistently,
to reconcile these facts with any existing theory of the vertebrate
composition of the skull, except by drawing ad libitum upon the Deus
ex machind of the speculator, — imaginary "confluences," " conna-
tions," "irrelative repetitions," and shiftings of position — by whose
skilful application it would not be difficult to devise half a dozen
very pretty vertebral theories, all equally true, in the course of a
summer's day.

Those who, like myself, are unable to see the propriety and ad-
vantage of introducing into science any ideal conception, which is
other than the simplest possible generalized expression of observed
facts, and who view with extreme aversion, any attempt to introduce
the phraseology and mode of thought of an obsolete and scholastic
realism into biology, will, I think, agree with me, not only in the
negative conclusion, that the doctrine of the vertebral composition
of the skull is not proven, but in the positive belief, that the relation
of the skull to the spinal column is quite different from that of one
part of the vertebral column to another.

The fallacy involved in the vertebral theory of the skull is like that
which, before Von Bar, infested our notions of the relations between
fishes and mammals. The mammal was imagined to be a modified
fish, whereas, in truth, fish and mammal start from a common point,
and each follows its own road thence. So I conceive what the facts
teach us is this : — the spinal column and the skull start from the
same primitive condition — a common central plate with its laminae
dorsales and ventrales — whence they immediately begin to diverge.

The spinal column in all cases becomes segmented into its soma-
tomes ; and, in the great majority of cases, distinct centra and in-
tercentra are developed, enclosing the notochord more or less
completely.

The cranium never becomes segmented into somatomes ; distinct
centra and intercentra, like those of the spinal column, are never de-
veloped in it. Much of the basis cranii lies beyond the notochord.

In the process of ossification there is a certain analogy between

433

the spinal column and the cranium, but that analogy becomes weaker
and weaker as we proceed towards the anterior end of the skull.

Thus it may be right to say, that there is a primitive identity of
structure between the spinal or vertebral column and the skull ; but
it is no more true that the adult skull is a modified vertebral column,
than it would be, to affirm that the vertebral column is a modified
skull*.

While firmly entertaining this belief, however, I by no means wish
to deny the interest and importance of inquiries into the analogies
which obtain between the segments, which enter into the com-
position of the ossified cranium, and the vertebrae of an ossified
spinal column. But all such inquiries must start with the recogni-
tion of the fundamental truths furnished by the study of develop-
ment, which, as our knowledge at present stands, appear to me to be
summed up in the following propositions : —

1 . The notochord of the vertebrate embryo ends in that region of
the basis cranii which ultimately lies behind the centre of the basi-
sphenoid bone.

2. The basis cranii is never segmented.

3. The lamina perpendicularis of the ethmoid has the same mor-
phological value as the presphenoid.

4. The petrosal has the same morphological value as the mastoid ;
if one is not an integral part of the skull, neither is the other.

5. The nasal bones are not neurapophyses.

6. The branchial arches have the same morphological value as
the hyoid, and the latter as the mandibular arc.

7. The mandibular arc is primitively attached behind the point of
€xit from the skull, of the third division of the fifth nerve.

8. The premaxilla is originally totally distinct from the palato-
maxillary arcade.

9. The pectoral arch is originally totally distinct from the skull.
Starting on this basis, it might not be difficult to show that the

perfectly ossified skull is divisible into a series of segments, whose
analogy with vertebrae is closer the nearer they lie to the occipital
region ; but the relation is an analogy and not an affinity, and these
cephalic sclerotomes are not vertebrae.

* I feel sure that I met with this phrase somewhere, but I cannot recollect it&
author.

434

NOTES.

I. — On the Mastoid in Birds.

The true mastoid of the bird seems hitherto to have escaped notice.

Hallmann says (I. c. p. 33), "In the disarticulated skulls of chickens, I
examined the share taken by the different bones in the formation of the
labyrinth, by introducing bristles into the semicircular canals, and I
found in the proper petrosum (into which the facial and acoustic nerves
enter, and which contains the cochlea) the anterior cms of the anterior
canal (I term the upper one thus for ready comparison with reptiles)
and of the external canal; in the supraoccipital, the upper (= posterior)
crus of the anterior canal, and the upper end of the posterior canal j and
in the exoccipital, the lower crus of the posterior, and the posterior of the
external canal. In other words, the distribution of the canals is as in
the scaly Amphibia. For the rest, in birds as in mammals, and probably
in all Vertebrata, the membranous semicircolar canals are formed con-
nectedly in the cartilage, and the bony parts only gradually invest them.
Hence, when the chick's skull is too young, but very little of the posterior
canal is to be found in the supraoccipital, which in fact contains some-
what less of the posterior canal than of the anterior, and thereby departs
from reptiles and approximates mammals.

"At a certain period also, an interval filled with cartilage, through which
the semicircular canals shine, is found in the bird's skull between the
supraoccipital, the parietal, the squama temporis, and the exoccipital. I
see this clearly in the skull of a young Dicholophus cristatus (No. 5605,
B. M.). In the skeleton of a young Colymbus cristatus (No. 7172, B. M.),
I find that this interval is, on the right side, almost filled up by a small
bony plate, which has not as yet combined with the surrounding bones.
This appears to me to be a separate pars mastoidea, which however com-
bines very early with the exoccipital. In the skull of a young goose
(fig. 3) (No. 3507, B. M.), this distinct piece (e between s, r, t and I) is still
better shown. Subsequently it is altogether indistinguishable from the
exoccipital."

I have endeavoured to show, however, that the true mastoid of the bird
is to be sought elsewhere ; and at any rate the bone described by Hall-
mann has not those relations which he himself considers essential for a
mastoid. It appears to me, that the distinct ossification he mentions is
the epiotic bone, which has not yet combined with the surrounding parts.

II. — On the influence of the share taken by the squamosal in the Vertebrate

Skull

In discussing the homologies of the bones of the skull of the crocodile,
Cuvier (Ossemens Fossiles, t. ix. p. 163) states that " the squamosal and
zygomatic bone becomes more and more excluded from the cranium as
we descend in the scale of quadrupeds, so that in Ruminants it is rather
stuck upon the skull than enters into the composition of its walls ;" and
it is by this argument mainly that the great anatomist justifies his
identification of the quadratojugal of the crocodile with the squamosal,

435

or rather with the zygomatic portion of that bone in mammals (/. c.
p. 171).

Professor Owen (Principes d'Oste'ologie Comparee, p. 55) adopts Cu-
vier's argument, and pushes it further, endeavouring to show that the dis-
appearance of the squamosal, and as he supposes of the petrosal, from the
interior of the skull in Reptilia, is sufficient to account for that retrogression
of the alisphenoid behind the exit of the fifth nerve, which is the neces-
sary consequence of his identification of the true petrosal with the ali-
sphenoid.

It seems strange that Cuvier should have advanced so weak an argu-
ment as that which I have cited j for assuredly Euminants are not very
low in the mammalian scale, nor are they those mammals which most
nearly approach reptiles or birds. We must seek these among rodents
and monotremes, in both of which the squamosal enters largely into the
composition of the cranial walls.

This is particularly the case in that especially reptilian mammal the
Echidna. As to birds, it can still less be said that their squamosal dis-
appears from the interior of the skull. Kb'stlin says on this point (' Bau
des knochernen Kopfes,' p. 206), "The squamosal contributes a small
surface to the ridge, which separates the anterior cranial fossa from the
middle one. It is here applied above against the parietal, anteriorly
against the anterior, and posteriorly against the posterior sphenoidal
ala*, and seems in all birds to appear at this point in the cavity of
the skull. In the goose its extent is far smaller than in the fowl.
The actual size of the ala temporis, however, surpasses that of its inner
surface by a great deal. In this respect birds are analogous to the Cheiro-
ptera, Insectivora, and a few Marsupialia, where only a small portion
of the squama temporis projects into the cranial- cavity. Still more
do they resemble the seals, in which this part is entirely enclosed by
the parietal and ala temporis, and so is completely separated from the
petrosal." Kostlin is in error, however, in assuming that the squamosal
is visible in the interior of the skull of all birds, for as we have seen
above, such is not the case in the ostrich.

The struthious skull then affords an important test of the value of Pro-
fessor Owen's argument. If, as he supposes, the disappearance of the
squamosal from the interior of the skull causes the alisphenoid to pass
behind the exit of the trigeminal, this retrogression ought to have taken
place in the ostrich. Nothing of the kind has occurred, however, the
trigeminal foramen being a 'trou de conjugaison'1 between the alisphenoid
and the petrosal. It does not even traverse the middle of the ali-
sphenoid, as in the sheep.

It is unnecessary to discuss the effect of the disappearance of the pe-
trosal, as I have endeavoured to prove that it does not disappear in the
lower Vertebrata.

III. — Connexions of the tympanic membrane in jBirds.
According to Kostlin (/. c. p. 216), the tympanic membrane of birds is

* Alisphenoid and petrosal, rnihi.

436

stretched upon a fibrocartilaginous frame, which is ordinarily attached to
the squamosal, exoccipital, basisphenoid, and quadratum. In many gal-
linaceous birds this frame does not come into contact with the quadratum
at all. From these circumstances, and from the fact that the quadratum
of birds articulates with the lower jaw and the jugal arch, which is never
the case with the tympanic of mammals, Kostlin concludes, with great
justice, that the quadratum is not the homologue of the mammalian
tympanic.

IV. — On the modifications of the palatosuspensorial arch in Fishes.
I have very briefly stated my views on this subject in the Quarterly
Journal of Microscopical Science for October 1858, hoping at that time
to enter more largely upon the subject in this place. But the present
Lecture and its notes already occupy so much space, that I must reserve
a full statement of what I have to say respecting the palatosuspensorial
apparatus of fishes for a future occasion.

V. — On the development of the Cranium.

In confirmation of the views which I have adopted, as to the pri-
mary uniformity of plan of all vertebrate crania, I subjoin an abstract
of Rathke's most valuable account of the development of the skull in
Coluber natrix*, which contains much incidental information relating
to the development of the skull in Vertebrata in general. Vogt's ob-
servations on Coregonus and Alytes, and my own on Gasterosteus, Rana
and Triton, are in entire accordance with those of Rathke, so far as the
primitive structure of the basis cranii is concerned.

The differences between the basis of the skull and the vertebral
column in the earliest embryonic condition are, —

1. That round that part of the chorda which belongs to the head, more
of the blastema, that is to be applied, in the spinal column, to the forma-
tion of the vertebrae and their different ligaments, is aggregated than
around the rest of its extent, and —

2. That this mass grows out beyond the chorda to form the cranial
trabeculae.

The lateral trabeculae at their first appearance formed two narrow
and not very thick bands, which consisted of the same gelatinous sub-
stance as that which constituted the whole investment of the chorda,
and were not sharply defined from the substance which lay between
them and at their sides, but seemed only to be two thickened and some-
what more solid, or denser, parts of that half of the basis of the cranium,
which lies under the anterior cerebral vesicle.

Posteriorly, at their origin, they were separated by only a small
interval, equivalent to the breadth of the median trabecula, and thence
swept in an arch to about the middle of their length, separating as they
passed forwards ; afterwards they converged, so that, at their extremities,
they were separated by a very small space, or even came into contact.
Altogether they formed, as it were, two horns, into which the investing

* Entwickelungsgeschichte der Natter, 1839.

437

mass of the chorda was continued forwards, The elongated space between
them, moderately wide in the middle, was occupied by a layer of softer
formative substance, which was very thin posteriorly, but somewhat
thicker anteriorly. Upon this layer rested the infundibulum ; and in
front of it, partly on this layer, partly on the trabeculae, that division
of the brain whence the optic nerves proceed, and further forwards the
hemispheres of the cerebrum. Anteriorly, both trabeculee reached as far
as the anterior end of the head, and here bent slightly upwards, so that
they projected a little into the frontal wall of the head, their ends lying
in front of the cerebrum. Almost at the end of each horn, however, I
saw a small process, its immediate prolongation, pass outwards and form,
as it were, the nucleus for a small lateral projection of the nasal process
of the frontal wall.

The middle trabecula grows, with the brain, further and further into
the cranial cavity, and as the dura mater begins to be now distinguishable,
it becomes more readily obvious than before, that the middle trabecula
raises up a transverse fold of it, which traverses the cranial cavity trans-
versely*. The fold itself passes laterally into the cranial wall; it is
highest in the middle, where it encloses the median trabecula, and becomes
lower externally, where it forms, as it were, a short ala proceeding from
the trabecula. With increasing elongation, the trabecula becomes broader
and broader towards its free end, and, for a short time, its thickness in-
creases. After this, howrever, it gradually becomes thinner, without any
change in its tissue, till, at the end of the second period, it is only a thin
lamella, and after a short time (in the third period) entirely disappears.

In mammals, birds, and lizards, that is, in those animals in general,
in which the middle cerebral vesicle is very strongly bent up and forms a
protuberance, while the base of the brain exhibits a deep fold between
the infundibulum and the posterior cerebral vesicle, a similar part to this
median trabecula of the skull is found.

In these animals, also, at a certain very early period of embryonic
life, it elevates a fold of the dura mater which passes from one future
petrous bone to the other, and after a certain time projects strongly into
the cranial cavity. Somewhat later, however, it diminishes in height and
thickness, as I have especially observed in embryos of the pig and fowl,
until at last it disappears entirely in these higher animals also, the two
layers of the fold which it had raised up coming into contact. When
this has happened, the fold diminishes in height and eventually vanishes,
almost completely.

The two lateral trabeculse, which in the snake help to form the
anterior half of the basis of the skull, attain a greater solidity in the
second period, acquire a greater distinctness from the surrounding parts,
and assume a more determinate form, becoming, in fact, filiform, so that
the further forward, the thinner they appear. They increase only very
little in thickness, but far more in length, during the growth of the head.
Altogether anteriorly, they coalesce with one another, forming a part

* What Rathke terms the ' middle trabecula,' appears to be only very indi-
stinctly developed in Fishes and Amphibia.

438

which lies between the two olfactory organs and constitutes a septum.
As soon as these organs increase markedly in size, this part is moderately
elongated and thickened, without however becoming so dense as the
hinder, longer part of the trabeculse. The prolongations into the lateral
projections of the nasal processes, which now proceed from the coalesced
part in question, also become but little denser in texture for the present,
though they elongate considerably.

The lateral parts and the upper wall of the cranium, with the excep-
tion of the auditory capsules or of the subsequent bony labyrinth, remain
merely membranous up to the end of the second period, consisting in fact
only of the cutaneous covering, the dura mater, and a little interposed
blastema, which is hardly perceptible in the upper part, but increases in
the lateral walls, towards the base of the skull.

The chorda vertebralis reaches, in very young embryos of the snake,
to between the auditory capsules, and further than this point it can be
traced neither in the snake nor in other Vertebrata, at any period of life,
as manifold investigations, conducted with especial reference to this
point, have convinced me.

At the beginning of the third period, the basal plate chondrifies, at
first leaving the space beneath the middle of the cerebellum membranous j
but this also eventually chondrifies, and is distinguished from the rest of
the skull only by its thinness.

Lateral processes grow out from the basal cartilage just in front of the
occipital foramen, and eventually almost meet above. They are the ex-
occipitals.

The two lateral trabeculae, parts which I have also seen in frogs,
lizards, birds, and mammals, chondrify at the beginning of the third
period. At first, they pass, separate from one another throughout their
whole length, as far as the frontal wall, on entering which they come into
contact; are more separate posteriorly than anteriorly, and present, in
their mutual position and form, some similarity with the sides of a lyre.
But as the eyes increase, become rounder, and project, opposite the
middle of the trabeculse, downwards towards the oral cavity, the latter
are more and more pressed together, so that even in the third period they
come to be almost parallel for the greater part of their length. Anteriorly,
however, where they were already, at an earlier period, nearest to one
another, they are also pressed together by the olfactory organs (which
have developed at their sides to a considerable size), to such a degree,
that they come into contact for a great distance and then completely
coalesce ; they are now most remote posteriorly, where the pituitary body
has passed between them*, so that they seem still to embrace it. Ante-
riorly, between the most anterior regions of the two nasal cavities, they
diverge from their coalesced part as two very short, thin, processes or
cornua, directed upwards, and simply bent outwards.

" It has been seen above that the median trabecula does not chondrify,

* The pituitary body, however, as Rathke now admits, does not pass between
the trabeculae, and is developed in quite a different manner from that supposed in
the memoir on Coluber.

439

but eventually disappears ; in its place, a truly cartilaginous short thick
band grows into the fold of dura mater from the cartilaginous basal plate.

"Where the pituitary gland lies, there remains between the lateral
trabeculss of the skull a considerable gap, which is only closed by the
mucous membrane of the mouth and the dura mater. But there arises in
front of this gap, between the two trabeculae, as far as the point where
they have already coalesced, a very narrow, moderately thick, and ante-
riorly pointed streak of blastema, which, shortly before the end of the
third period, acquires a cartilaginous character, and subsequently becomes
the body of the presphenoid*.

" Altogether anteriorly, however, where the two trabeculse have coa-
lesced, there grows out of this part, from the two cornua in which it ends,
a pair of very delicate cartilaginous plates. At the end of the third period
both plates acquire a not inconsiderable size, take the form of two irre-
gularly formed triangles, and are moderately convex above, concave below,
so as to be on the whole, shell-shaped. The nasal bones are developed
upon these, while below them are the nasal cavities, and the nasal glands
with their bony capsules.

" The alss or lateral parts of the two sphenoids do not grow like the
lateral parts of the occipital bone out of the basis cranii, whose founda-
tion is formed by the cephalic part of the chorda, but are formed sepa-
rately from it, although close to it, in the, until then, membranous part
of the walls of the cranium.

" The alse of the presphenoid (orbitosphenoids), which are observable not
very long before the termination of the third period, appear as two truly
cartilaginous (though they never redden), irregular, oblong, plates of mo-
derate thickness, lie in front of the optic foramina, at the sides of the
lateral trabeculae of the skull, ascend from them upwards and outwards,
and are somewhat convex on the side turned to the brain, somewhat con-
cave on the other. The a]ae magnge (alisphenoids) are perceptible a little
earlier than these. They are formed between the eye and the ear, and also
originally consist of a colourless cartilaginous substance j they appear at
the end of the third period as irregular four-sided plates, lie at both
sides of the anterior half of the investing plate of the chorda, ascend
less abruptly than the alse orbitales, and are convex externally, internally
concave.

" The upper posterior angle of each elongates, very early, into a process,
which grows for a certain distance backwards, along the upper edge of the
auditory capsule, and applies itself closely thereto.

"The auditory capsules, or the future petrous bones f, chondrify, as it
would appear, the earliest of all parts of the skull : the fenestra ovalis
arises in them by resorption.

" The ossification of the snake's skull commences in the basioccipital, or
at any rate, this is one of the first parts to ossify. At a little distance from

* Compare with these statements, the figures and descriptions given above of
the embryonic cranium in Gasterosteus and Rana.

f It will be found from Rathke's statements, further on, that the future petrous
bone only represents a portion of each auditory capsule.

440

the occipital foramen, there arises a very small semilunar bony plate, whose
concave edge or excavation is directed forwards j thereupon the bony
substance shoots from this edge further and further forwards, until at
length the bony plate has the form of the ace of hearts. Its base
borders the fontanelle in the base of the skull, which lies under the
anterior half of the third cerebral vesicle, while its point is contiguous to
the occipital foramen ; for the most part it is very thin, and only its axis
(and next to this its whole posterior margin) is distinguished by a greater
thickness. The cephalic part of the chorda can be recognized in the axis
of this bony plate up to the following period. It passes from the posterior
to the anterior end of the bony plate, where it is lost, and is so invested
by the bony substance of the plate, that a smaller portion of the latter
lies on the upper side of the chorda, a larger portion beneath it. On this
account it forms, on the upper side of the plate, a longitudinal ridge,
which subsequently becomes imperceptible by the aggregation of matter
at the sides. On one occasion, however, I saw, in an embryo which was
almost at term, a similarly formed and sized bony cone, which, through
almost its entire length, appeared merely to lie on the body of the basi-
occipital, since it had only coalesced with it below."

The nucleus and sheath of the cephalic part of the chorda become
gradually broken up and the last trace of them eradicated, as the ossifica-
tion of the basioccipital proceeds, like the nucleus and sheath of the
rest of the chorda wherever a vertebral body is developed*.

The articular condyle is not yet formed. The exoccipitals ossify through
their whole length and breadth.

The body of the basisphenoid is formed between the above-mentioned
posterior fontanelle of the basis cranii and the pituitary space, ' therefore
far from the cephalic part of the chorda.' It ossifies by two lateral centres,
each of which forms a ring round the carotid canal. The alisphenoids
ossify in their whole length and breadth j the orbitosphenoid only slightly,
and the presphenoid not at all. The premaxillary bone arises as an
azygos triangular cartilage between the cornua of the anterior ethmo-
vomerine plate. It ossifies from a single centre.

"The auditory capsule, or the future petrosal bone, may, even at the
end of this period, be readily separated from the other part of the cranial
wall, and still consists for the most part of cartilage. On the other hand,
the triangular form, which it had before, is not inconsiderably altered, since
it greatly elongates forwards, and thus, as it were, thrusts its anterior
angle further and further forwards, and becomes more unequal-sided. At
the lower edge, or the longer side of it, about opposite to the upper
angle, at the beginning of this (third) period, or indeed somewhat earlier,
a diverticulum of the auditory capsule begins to be formed (the rudi-
mentary cochlea), and developes into a moderately long, blunt, and hollow
appendage, whose end is directed downwards, inwards and backwards,

* In the stickleback it has appeared to me that the wall of the anterior conical
termination of the notochord in the basis cranii becomes ossified, or at any rate,
invested by an inseparable sheath of bony matter, just in the same way as the
' urostyle ' is developed in the tail.

441

and also consists of cartilage. Close above, and somewhat behind this ap-
pendage, however, there appears, at about the same time, a small rounded
depression, in which theTupper end of the auditory ossicle eventually rests ;
and somewhat later, an opening appears in this depression which corre-
sponds with the fenestra rotunda of man. Very much later, namely,
towards the end of this period, the auditory capsule begins to ossify.
Ossification commences in a thin and moderately long, hook-like process,
which is sent forwards and inwards from the lower hollow diverticulum
of the cartilage, and unites with the basisphenoid. From this point it
passes upwards and backwards, and, for the present, extends so far that,
at the end of this period, besides that process, the diverticulum in ques-
tion and about the anterior third of the auditory capsule itself, are ossified.
Later than at the point indicated, an ossific centre appears at the pos-
terior edge of the auditory capsule, where it abuts against the supra- and
ex-occipitals, but extends from hence by no means so far forward as to
meet that from the other point. The middle, larger part of the auditory
capsule, therefore, for the present, remains cartilaginous.

" In the beginning of the fourth period, a third ossific centre arises in
the upper angle of the capsule, whereupon all three grow towards one
another. But the mode of enlargement and coalescence of these bony
nuclei is very remarkable. They do not unite with one another in such
a manner as to form a continuous bony capsule for the membranous part
of the labyrinth, but are permanently separated by cartilagino-mem-
branous and very narrow symphyses. On the other hand, one coalesces,
in the most intimate manner, with that edge of the supraoccipital which
is nearest to it, so that even in the more advanced embryos, this bone and
it form a moderately long oblong plate, each end of which constitutes a
small, tolerably deep, and irregularly-formed shell, containing a part of the
anterior or upper semicircular canal. The second bony centre becomes
anchylosed with the anterior edge of the lateral part of the occipital bone,
and also forms a small, irregularly-shaped, but longish scale, which con-
tains the deeper or lower part of the posterior crus of that semicircular
canal, and besides this, the lower sac, or representative of the cochlea of
the auditory labyrinth. The remaining bony mass of the auditory carti-
lage, however, includes the greater part of the membranous portion of the
labyrinth, and is the largest. The same phenomenon, viz. that the petrosal
bone breaks up, as it were, into three pieces, of which two coalesce with
the occipital bone, occurs also, according to my observations, in Lacerta
agilis, and probably takes place in like manner, if we may conclude from
the later condition of the petrous bone to the earlier, in Crocodilia and
Chelonia. A squama temporis and a mastoid are, as I judge, never
formed in Ophidia"

Yet what is the osseous mass which eventually coalesces with the ex-
occipital but the mastoid ? I have indicated above what I believe to be
the true ophidian squamosal.

VI. — On the development of the Ossified Vertebral Column.
The concise statement of the general nature of this process which I

442

have given above, is based, partly on the observations of Vogt, Eathke, and
Itemak, and partly on my own. As great misunderstanding seems to me
to have prevailed on this head, I have put together in the present note,
all the most important evidence I have been able to collect on this highly
interesting subject, accompanying it with a running commentary. I have
done this the more willingly, as the accounts of the mode of development
of vertebrae in general, in our own language, which I have met with, are
strangely meagre.

Development of the Spinal Column in Fishes.

1. Blennius viripams (Rathke, 'Bildungs- und Entwickelungsgeschichte
des Blennius viviparus.' 1833).

The surface of the notochord hardens, and acquires a fibro-membranous
consistence, while its inner substance becomes glassy and transparent, so
that the notochord is separated into sheath and contents, as in the lamprey.
A segmentation next takes place in the sheath. " At successive inter-
vals it increases, more and more, in density and solidity, acquires in places
almost the constitution of cartilage, and there thus arise a great number
of successive, very fine, narrow rings, which are connected by much nar-
rower, far less solid, but also far less transparent and more whitish-coloured
parts, like sutures."

When this segmentation has commenced, " a number of cartilaginous,
very short, thin and rod-like processes, which run in pairs from each
member of the vertebral column, where its upper side passes into the two
outer ones, appear, pass upwards in the walls surrounding the spinal mar-
row, and enclose its lower cords. At first, therefore, each pair of processes
are separated by a considerable interval throughout their entire length.
Subsequently their upper ends approximate (increasing in length, and at
the same time accommodating themselves to the curve of the spinal
marrow, and bending round it) more and more closely, till they, at last,
meet above the spinal marrow, and soon after this has happened, coalesce
into an arch.

" Contemporaneously with these processes, and in the same way, there
arise from the vertebral column (though only from its hinder half, or that
which constitutes the foundation of the tail) a number of other processes
similar in form and structure, which spring from the junction of the under
with the lateral faces of the column. These take the opposite direction
to the preceding, tend to enclose the great caudal vessels, and unite in
pairs into arches, which lie in a series and correspond with the vertebral
segments."

From the segments of that part of the vertebral column which lies
between the tail and the head, there grow out, in corresponding places to
those in which the crura of the inferior arches take their origin from the
vertebral segments of the tail, and in the same manner and at the same
time, many cartilaginous processes, which attain, however, only a very
slight length, and also take a transverse direction. They might be regarded
as lateral pieces of the transverse processes of the higher animals ; but it
is more probable that they correspond with the ribs of other Vertebrata.

443

"All these processes are connected with the sheath, but not with the
core of the notochord."

As development advances, the ring-like segments increase in breadth,
length and thickness ; at the same time they become somewhat cartilagi-
nous, and then ossify. Each widens somewhat more at its ends than in
the middle, and so appears a little contracted in the centre. It is only
after birth that such an internal thickening takes place as to interrupt
the cavity of the vertebral centrum.

The sheath of the notochord is originally of one texture throughout, but
the smaller portions, which lie between the vertebral centra, assume a
fibrous texture, contemporaneously with the appearance of the latter. The
included substance of the notochord loses its peculiar dense and elastic
character, becomes first gelatinous, then grumous, and finally resembles a
thick serum.

The crura of the upper and lower vertebral arches (in the tail) unite
in pairs, and their points of union grow out into spinous processes.

The ossification of the processes which arise from the vertebrae com-
mences at the point of junction of the process with the centrum. " A
small bony point arises, which appears to belong to both centrum and pro-
cess, and from whence ossification extends into both. In each vertebral
centrum, therefore, as well of the tail as of the trunk, ossification pro-
ceeds from different and distant points."

2. Cyprinus bticca(Von Bar, 'Untersuchungen iiber die Entw. d. Fische.'
1835).

" At the end of the first day the notochord is covered by something
which surrounds it like thin plates ; these are the developing bodies of
vertebrae. It is clearly observable that these bodies of vertebrae are not
undivided rings surrounding the notochord, but that they consist of many
pieces united by sutures. This condition also is persistent in the stur-
geons. The body of the vertebra, therefore, is formed of the coalescence
of many pieces, and a lateral suture seems to indicate that these pro-
cesses are elongations of the previously observed upper and under verte-
bral arches."

Von Bar imagines that the unconstricted part of the notochord gives
rise to the intervertebral ligaments.

From these observations of Rathke and Von Bar, it would appear as if
the annular ossifications which surround the notochord arose by the co-
alescence of ossific centres, primarily developed at the junction of the apo-
physes with the centra. My own observations on Gasterosteus, however,
show, like those of Vogt on Coregonus, that the centra ossify from distinct
rings deposited immediately round the notochord ; and I am very strongly
inclined to believe that the corresponding primary annular diaphyses of
the vertebras in Cyprinus and Blennius have been overlooked.

3. Coregonus palea (Vogt, 'Embryologie des Saumones/ 1842, p. 104 et
seq.). — "But it is necessary to distinguish carefully between what we call
vertebrae in the adult fish, that is to say, those osseous or cartilaginous
pieces intended for the support of the whole body, and more particularly
of the spinal cord, and such vertebral divisions as we find in embryos. These

444

last are the general fact, the expression of a constant law according to
which all the Vertebrata are developed. The vertebrae of adult fishes, on
the other hand, are solid rings, whose presence depends on the type pecu-
liar to each species ; consequently their form, and the substance of which
they are composed, vary in almost every species.

" The vertebral divisions * appear very early in the Coregonus — almost
at the same time as the notochord ; and when the dorsal groove begins to
close, they are fine lines, caused, as it would appear, by a greater accu-
mulation of embryonic cells, which, like transverse septa, traverse the
entire mass as far as the notochord. These divisions extend forwards, as
far as the neighbourhood of the auditory vesicles, but there never exists
the smallest trace of them in the head itself. At first they are visible
only in the middle of the body j by degrees they move forwards, as far as
close to the ear, and backwards, towards the tail, as far as it is formed ; but
they invade its extremity only when it has attained its full length relatively
to the body. At first these lines are all straight and perpendicular to the
axis of the chorda j but by degrees, and in proportion as development
advances, they become oblique and bend, forming an angle whose apex is
directed forwards, and corresponds exactly to the median line of the noto-
chord."

They eventually become the mtermuscular septa. Vogt goes on to
say, — "The typical structure of the Vertebrata^ then, consists solely in
these rings of separation, which are formed around a notochord, and no-
wise in the development of a distinct head, or of other solid pieces of
the skeleton, such as osseous or cartilaginous vertebrae," illustrating his
case by the Amphioxus.

Each osseous vertebra corresponds to two vertebral segments, namely,
to the half of that which precedes, and to the half of that which follows a
metasomatome ; for it is where the latter reaches the notochord, that the
centra and arches take their origin. The centra arise as a double ring of
cartilage, internal and external to the sheath of the notochord. The
inter-vertebral spaces always correspond with the middle of the interval
between two intermuscular septa, each of which is consequently inserted
into the middle of a centrum, while the superior and inferior arches are
developed in their plane. They are ossified only long after the centra,
which arise as bony rings around the notochord. The intervertebral liga-
ments are formed from the sheath of the notochord.

4. Prof. Owen (Principes d'Oste"ologie Comparee, 1855, p. 184) affirms
that " In osseous fishes the centrum is ordinarily ossified from six points,
of which four begin in the bases of the two neurapophyses and of the two
parapophyses, but the terminal concave plates of the centrum are ossified

It is not stated on what fish the observations on which this latter asser-
tion is based were made. Prof. Williamson has already shown ('' On the
Development of the Scales and Bones of Fishes," Phil. Trans. 1851) that
it is inconsistent with the structure of the adult vertebra ; it is not sup-
ported by any of those writers who have directly observed the develop-
* Metasomatomes, their interspaces being the somatomes.

445

ment of the vertebrae of Teleostean fishes, and it is negatived by the
observations of Vogt just cited and by my own.

Development of the Spinal Column of Batrachia.

1. Anura (Duges, l Recherches sur les Batraciens,' 1835). — In the first
period the notochord appears to be divided transversely into " rondelles "
or vertebrae, but these are not real divisions ; they are appearances pro-
duced by the intersections of the muscles which surround the notochord,
and of the transverse vascular branches which accompany each pair of
nerves when it leaves the medulla. [Duges thus describes the somatomes.]

In the second period, cartilaginous processes, adherent to the notochord,
appear in pairs and enclose the medulla. There are as many of these
processes as vertebras will in future exist, and two crests even make their
appearance, to form the walls of the coccygeal canal. The apophyses are
at first little tubercles j they then bifurcate j one branch becomes the
transverse process, the other the neurapophysis with its zygapophyses.
In B. fuscus, A. obstetricans, punctatus, and Hyla, where these vertebrae
ossify, "two clouds" of ossific matter make their appearance in each
vertebra, " as distant from one another as they are from the lateral masses
or apophyses," and eventually unite above the notochord so as to form a
quadrate ossific centre. This quadrate mass enlarges, but remains con-
cave, not only above, but also in front and behind, and especially below,
where it forms a semi-canal or groove, in which the notochord is lodged.
The groove is gradually filled up, the notochord undergoing a contem-
poraneous atrophy, and becoming eventually reduced to a mere ligament.
The intervertebral masses are formed altogether independently of the
notochord.

In Rana, on the other hand, the primitive centre of ossification of the
body of the vertebra is a ring completely enclosing the chorda j in other
respects the development of the spinal column resembles that just
described.

2. Miiller (Vergleichende Anat. d. Myxinoiden, 1835) remarks, " that
the formation of the primitive elements of the skull (which are different
from the secondary osseous ones) takes place in the higher animals, con-
stantly in the same way, is much to be doubted, since variations of the
fundamental plan obtain in the vertebral column. In many Batrachia, as
Cultripes provincial^, and Rana paradoxa, the bodies of the vertebrae arise
only out of the upper primitive vertebral elements. I found, indeed, in
the larva of Rana paradoxa, on the under part of the circumference of the
chorda dorsalis, a cartilaginous band which was especially well developed
posteriorly, in front of the ossification of the coccygeal spine, and was con-
tinued, thinner, along the under surface of the chorda, for half the length
of the future vertebral column. This cartilaginous band had no fellow, but
on the contrary, was thickest in the middle. In the caudal part of the
chorda it diminished until it gradually disappeared, so that the inferior
arches surrounding the caudal vessels were merely fibrous productions of
the external sheath of the chorda. But this inferior cartilaginous band
on the chorda of the larva of Rana paradoxa disappears in the greater

VOL. IX. 2 H

446

part of the spinal column, and merely a part of it ossifies to become the
basilar part of the coccyx, which Duges was acquainted with, as well as
with the two vertebrae of the coccyx above the chorda : the basilar bone
is not a body of a vertebra, but coalesces subsequently with the inferior
circumference of the coccygeal vertebrae. In these frogs, the coccyx is
the only part which arises from both upper and lower vertebral elements ;
all the other vertebrae arise in Cultripes and Rana, merely from the upper
primitive vertebral elements, which in the course of ossification become
divided into arches and central portions. It is only the ossifications of
the coccyx which, in these frogs, completely enclose the chorda, since that
part is eventually composed of two pairs of vertebrae, and a long basilar
piece, whose sutures are retained even in the adult R. paradoxa" (p. 130).

3. Alytes. — With respect to the development of the vertebrae in Alytes
obstetricans, Vogt (Entwickelungsgeschichte der Geburtshelferkrote, 1842)
states that cartilaginous rings appear in the sheath of the chorda, as
rudiments of the centra. Contemporaneously with these the cartilaginous
neural arches are developed in the wall of the canal of the medulla;
nothing is said as to the mode of ossification.

4. In both Rana temporaries and Triton, I find that the diaphysis of the
vertebra arises as a saddle-like patch, upon, and in immediate contact with,
the dorsal surface of the notochord ; the layer of osseous matter is at first
exceedingly thin, and gradually extends round the notochord until in most
of the frog's vertebrae, and in all of those of the Triton, it forms a complete
ring. The osseous deposit in the arches is quite distinct, and has, in the
frog, the form of a thin bony sheath investing their cartilaginous basis.
The diaphysis of the sacral vertebra remains open below long after the
others, and after its neural arch is completely ossified.

5. The development of the coccyx of the anourous Batrachia has been
well described by Duges (7. c. p. 108). The two neural arches originally
formed in this region ossify and unite above the spinal cord, and at the same
time two osseous centra, which very soon coalesce with them, are formed.
These centra are incomplete arcs, open below, where they embrace the
notochord. A long cartilaginous plate, however, arises on the ventral
surface of the notochord, extending backwards far beyond the level of
these posterior coccygeal vertebrae. It ossifies, and eventually becomes
anchylosed with the bodies of the coccygeal vertebrae to form the coccyx.
Such is the substance of Duges' views, which, as has been seen, have been
confirmed in all essential points by Miiller.

Prof. Owen, however, gives a very different account of the matter.

" The vertebrae of the tail of the larvae of the Anura are seen distinctly
only in the aponeurotic stage. When chondrification occurs, the opera-
tion of absorption and coalescence takes place, and two long neurapophyses
only are established on each side ; the ossification of these plates extends
into the fibrillar sheath of the rest of the coccygeal notochord, and
when the perishable parts of the tail of the larva have been absorbed,
and the fore- and hind-legs are developed, they constitute by their
connation the elongated, osseous coccygeal style, often hollow, of the
anourous Batrachia" (Principes d'Osteologie, 1855, p. 186.)

447

Prof. Owen does not state on what anourous batrachian his observations
were made, nor does he notice the wide discrepancy between his views
and those of Duges. I have carefully studied the development of the
coccyx in the common frog, and my observations are in entire agreement
with those of Duges. Nothing can be more clear than the primitive entire
independence of the inferior cartilaginous plate, which by its ossification
constitutes the major part of the coccygeal style, from the two neurapo-
physes and the rudimentary diaphyses which correspond with them.

Development of the Spinal Column of Reptilia.

1. Ophidia (Rathke, <Entw. der Natter,' 1839).— « Quadrate plates of
a more solid substance than the rest of the blastema appear on each side
of the notochord, in the middle of the body, where they are at ^ first
largest, diminishing in size backwards and forwards. At first they extend
neither into the dorsal nor into the ventral plates of the embryo.

" These plates increase in length, and those of each pair grow towards
one another above and below. Each plate grows out into two branches
above and below. The inner branches lie in close contact with the noto-
chord, and coalesce with those of the opposite side, so as to form rings
which eventually become the bodies of the vertebrae. The upper outer
branch extends into the wall of the neural canal, and, eventually uniting
with its fellow, forms the neural arch. The lower outer branch extends
into the ventral wall and becomes the rib."

The ring grows both externally and internally, so as to constrict the
notochord (which softens and acquires a gnunous consistence), and then
becomes converted into bone, so that the notochord is surrounded by a
series of bony rings. The notochord takes no part in the formation of the
articular intervertebral surface, which is an apophysis and not an epiphy-
sis ; the neural arches ossify much later than the centrum, from a single
point in the middle of each. The inferior processes are outgrowths of the
substance of the vertebra, and in the caudal region are, from the first,
double.

" On each side of the body of the vertebra, where the ribs and the
vertebral arches radiate from it, the condensed blastema of which it
originally consists, grows out slowly, but considerably, and becomes deve-
loped (gradually undergoing chondrification) into a plate, whose largest
surfaces are vertical, which increases more in length than in breadth and
thickness, and which gradually drives the rib and vertebral arch further
away from the axis of the vertebral column. At the end of this period
it is almost as thick as the length of the vertebra ; it then appears, when
viewed from in front or behind, as a short irregular oblong, one of whose
angles passes into the body of the vertebra, and one of whose shorter sides
is turned outwards and upwards. From this side passes one crus of the
vertebral arch, while from the side which is turned outwards and down-
wards, at least in most of the vertebrae, a rib is developed, so that these
processes are connected with the originally existing part of the body of
the vertebra, only mediately, by the plate in question.

" The crura of the vertebral arch ossify from their middle towards both

448

ends, the process commencing very soon after the ossification of the
centra ; but after ossification has begun in them, these originally filiform
parts widen into broad oblong plates, which, in the greater part of the
body, come into contact only towards the end of the period, and in the
tail and hindermost part of the body, only in the following period.

" The ribs ossify far later, and also from the middle towards the end.
Before, however, an ossific centre is developed in them, the cartilage, of
which the rib now for the most part consists, becomes articulated with
the rest of the vertebra. The plate, lastly*, which forms the union
between a rib, a vertebral arch and a* vertebral body, and subsequently
forms a part of the body of the vertebra, ossifies only in the following
period.

" The relation of the ribs to the bodies of the vertebrae, therefore, is
originally just the same as that of the crura of the vertebral arches to
them : just as one of these crura, does each rib arise as an outward growth
of that vertebral body which is the first formed of all these parts ; whilst,
however, the crura of the vertebral arches are directed upwards in order
to enclose the spinal cord, the ribs grow downwards to enclose the viscera
of organic life, and in this way their greater length in the snake, and a
multitude of other Vertebrata, is explicable.

" The transverse processes of the caudal vertebrae exhibit the same rela-
tions to the bodies of the vertebrae, as the ribs in the dorsal region. They
arise in the same places as these; become, in like manner, removed, together
with the crura of the arches, by lateral outgrowths of the body from its
axis j and, before the ribs are articulated, they pass quite imperceptibly into
the processes in question. The transition is the more remarkable, as in the
snake the hindermost rib is split, in just the same manner as the transverse
processes of the three or four succeeding caudal vertebrae.

" If we consider, in the first place, the relation of the parts in the adult
snake, we find that the penultimate rib, near its upper or inner end,
gives off from its upper side, a small process directed upwards and out-
wards ; however, in the last rib this process is about a quarter as long as
the remaining part of the rib, which lies external to and below it, so that
the whole bone has the form of a two-pronged hay-fork, not yet fastened
to a handle, and one of whose prongs is for the most part broken off. The
same fundamental form is possessed by the transverse process of the first
caudal vertebra ; and the difference between it, and the rib which lies
immediately before it, lies principally in this, that it is not, like the rib,
articulated with its vertebra, that its upper half or prong is almost equal
in length to the lower, and that, regarded as a whole, it is not half so long
as the hindermost rib. The transverse processes of the succeeding caudal
vertebrae have quite the same form as their predecessors, but gradually
diminish in length backwards. As to the development of the ribs and
transverse processes in question, they, like almost all the other ribs, are
originally sent out as quite simple rays from the bodies of their vertebrae ;
very soon, however, there arises on the upper side and neck of the ray
where it passes out from the vertebral body, an outgrowth which elongates

* Paraphysial cartilage.

449

more or less, also assumes a ray -like form, and has its free end directed
outwards. Thus a fork is produced, whose one prong is more or less
thicker than the other."

Rathke suggests that the accessory ribs of many fish are probably de-
veloped in this way, the upper prong becoming articulated with the lower.

" The two or three anterior subvertebral processes in the tail are, and
remain, quite simple, like the similar processes of the cervical and many
dorsal vertebrae. The two halves of the others, which arose as separate
lateral processes, remain permanently distinct.

"All the newly commencing inferior processes arise as paired out-
growths of the bodies of the vertebrae."

" The ribs are not less outgrowths (ausstralilungen) of the bodies of the
vertebrae than the crura of the arches, as I can say from my investigations
on fishes, snakes, lizards, birds, and mammals j even when the bodies of the
vertebrae are completely chondrified, the ribs form a connected whole with
them, but subsequently they become articulated, and are thereby essentially
distinguished from the crura of the vertebral arches. In some animals the
articulation takes place and remains close to the bodies ; in others it takes
place also close to the bodies, yet, afterwards, a process grows out between
the rib and the body, by which the rib is more or less thrust out ; this is
the transverse process ; where it occurs, the rib is, in all cases, at first
united only with it ; sometimes, however, a process grows out from the
rib (the so-called head with its neck), by which it becomes immediately
attached to the body of the vertebra itself, so that it is doubly united
with the body. In many cases the rib may also become articulated at some
distance from the body, and thus break up into rib and transverse pro-
cess."

" As respects the ribs of the higher Vertebrata, together with their trans-
verse processes, the development of the snake teaches us, that although
•they are subsequently seen to be in close connexion with the crura of the
vertebral arches, they grow out, not from the base of these arches, but far
from them, out of the bodies of the vertebrae themselves ; where they have
arisen, however, each lateral half of the body of the vertebra increases in
thickness, in such a manner that it acquires an ala, which drives the crus
of the vertebral arch and the rib further and further from the axis, until
at length it appears as a common trunk for both, and therefore may easily
deceive one into supposing, that the rib is given off from the base of the
cms of the arch, and is a process from it."

2. Lacertilia (Rathke, 'Ueber dieEntwick. d. Schildkroten,' 1848, pp.
65-67). — In the lizards (as in the snakes), the osseous centra of the ver-
tebrae appear as rings, which do not so closely embrace the notochord (as
they do in fishes and Batrachia), being separated from it by a layer of
cartilage.

3. Chelonia (Rathke, ' Schildkroten/ p. 65-67). — In the Chelonia two
bony rings arise, the one on the outer surface of the cartilaginous basis
of the centrum, the other close to the notochord ; the rings thicken and
eventually coalesce ; the ossification of the arches takes place quite inde-
pendently of that of the centrum. The notochord takes no essential part

450

in the formation of the articulations between the vertebrae, but runs like a
thread through them.

Development of the Spinal Column of Birds.

In the Chick (Remak, 'Untersuchungeniiber dieEntw. die Wirbelthiere/
1855). — The upper and middle (sensory and motor) layers of the germ
coalesce to form the axial plate (primitive streak) ; the lateral halves of this
plate thicken and leave between them a groove, the primitive groove ; im-
mediately below the groove, and parallel with it, the notochord appears
in the axis of the motor layer. The sensory layer of the axial plate is
now the medullary plate ; from it the nervous centre is developed ; the
motor layer is termed by Remak the * Urwirbel-platte/ — the primitive
vertebral plate.

The primitive vertebras (Urwirbel, somatomes) first appear in the dorsal
part of the embryo, as opaque portions of the substance of the primitive
vertebral plates, which extend from the sides of the chorda into the lateral
plate, or that thickened part of the motor layer with which the primitive
vertebral plates are immediately continuous. These primitive vertebra
are the result of a sort of segmentation of the motor layer ; they acquire a
cubical form, and are separated by clear, narrow, interspaces (metasoma-

At the beginning of the third day the ventral surface of each primitive
vertebra has an almost square shape with rounded angles ; the transverse
section is no longer square but three-sided, the upper and outer faces
having merged into one convex face ; the surface turned towards the
medullary canal is four-sided and a little concave.

The inferior internal edge of the primitive vertebra grows out towards
the notochord, and having reached its outer side, it divides into two
lamellar processes, which, coalescing with those of the other side, sur-
round the notochord and constitute the blastema of the vertebral column.

The dorsal layer of the primitive vertebra becomes converted into
muscle, and forms a segment of the dorsal muscles ; the anterior portion
of its substance, beneath this, becomes the spinal ganglion ; the posterior,
the rudiment of the neural arch and rib. The latter extends backwards
beyond the boundary of its primitive vertebra into the region of the next,
so that it appears to be divided by the clear line of separation into a
larger anterior and smaller posterior portion.

The axial portion of the vertebral column does not become segmented
in correspondence with the divisions between the primitive vertebrae,
but midway between them, so that the lines of separation between the
primitive vertebrae correspond with the centres of the permanent vertebrae,
each of which may thus be said to be formed by the coalescence of the
posterior half of the axis of one primitive vertebra with the anterior half
of the next following.

Rathke, ' Schildkroten,' p. 66. — In birds, the centra commence as bony
rings which closely encircle the chorda, and lie internal to the general
cartilaginous mass of the vertebra. The bony substance extends inwards
and constricts the notochord, outwards it permeates the vertebrae.

451

" In the caudal vertebrae, and perhaps in all the cervical vertebrae, the
bony substance of the rings extends gradually to the surface of their centra.
In the dorsal vertebrae, on the other hand, there is formed at the fifteenth
day, independently of these rings, a broad though thin bony plate on the
upper, and a second on the lower face of the centrum, with which the sub-
stance of the ring, as it extends, coalesces. The notochord at the eighteenth
day may be seen traversing the intervertebral articular cavities like a
thread."

Development of the Spinal Column of Mammalia.

Rathke, ' Schildkroten,' pp. 66, 67.— "In the pig and sheep the
bony substance is deposited immediately around the notochord, in such
a manner that, at first, as in birds, it forms a narrow and thin ring, from
which it passes partly towards the surface, partly towards the ends of the
separate centra, and after a time reaches the surface, but not the ends. To
complete the centra, there arise in the latter two special disks of bone for
each vertebra, which afterwards apply themselves to the previously
ossified middle part, and wholly coalesce with it.

" In pig-embryos of 1 in. to 1 in. 3 lines in length, the notochord ran
straight through the already existing rudiments of the intervertebral liga-
ment like a delicate filament " (p. 77).

Bischoff, in his various works, shows that the earliest changes in the
vertebral column of mammals are the same as in birds.

" In like manner as in the Mammalia and birds, the ribs in the Chelonia
grow out as simple rays from the neural arches (Bogenschenkelii) of the
vertebrae, quite close to their bodies. Very close to the places where they
have arisen, however, the ribs of birds and mammals send, as a rule, a
process downwards and inwards, which increases more or less in length
and thickness, enlarges somewhat at its free end, and becomes closely
applied thereby to one, or two, bodies of vertebrae, by the intermediation
of the articular capsule which now becomes formed. This process is the
neck and head of the rib." — Rathke, Schildkroten, p. 97.

" The cervical transverse processes of birds and Mammalia attain their
forked form in quite a different manner from the ribs, namely, by the
coalescence at one end, of what are properly two transverse processes
which have grown out of the vertebra, while, on the other hand, a rib has
become forked, because, though originally a perfectly simple ray, it has
sent out a secondary process from one of its ends."

It results from the observations which have just been detailed, that
with certain real or apparent exceptions which have been duly noted,
there is a very great uniformity in the mode of development of the ver-
tebral column in all Vertebrata.

The primary processes up to, and inclusive of, segmentation or division
into somatomes, appear to be the same in all ; and there is every reason to
believe that the somatomes become differentiated in the same general
way *. There seems to be no difference, save in degree, in the chondrifi-

* The relations of the ganglion to the rudiment of the rib and neural arch and
segment of the dorsal muscles in the mouse's embryo are the same as in that of
the bird.

452

cation which takes place in the immediate neighbourhood of the notochord
and in the neural and haemal arches, The intercentra correspond in fishes,
as in Amphibia and birds, to the middle of each somatome ; and it does
not appear that they are, to any appreciable extent, produced by the
metamorphosis of the notochord.

When ossification takes place, the diaphysis appears as a ring, or part of
a ring, in immediate contact with, or very close proximity to, the noto-
chord, which it usually embraces completely, though in the rare case of
some Amphibia, only partially. The diaphysis then increases inwards so
as to constrict the notochord, and outwards, so as to invade the centrum
more and more. A distinct ossification is commonly formed in each
neural arch, and one or more others in each haemal arch.

In the higher or abranchiate oviparous Vertebrata there would seem to
be no other centres of ossification in the vertebra than the five just men-
tioned, except those of the terminal epiphyses. In fishes, on the other
hand, a distinct centre — which might be termed the paraphysis — is occa-
sionally found in the paraphysial portion of the centrum.

The dorsal vertebrae of a young carp exemplify this structure remarkably
well. The diaphysis is represented by an annular osseous ring, which
surrounds the notochord and gives off a vertical median process or plate,
and two inferolateral plates, which unite the hollow bony cones into
which the osseous ring dilates in front and behind. The ossified neur-
apophyses expand into wedge-like lower ends, which embrace the vertical
plate of the diaphysis, and whose apices come into contact with its
annular part.

A thick cuneiform mass is interposed between the base of the neurapo-
physis and the inferolateral plate of the diaphysis on each side. The
outer surface forms part of the general contour of the vertebra, and is not
produced into a distinct process, though it represents a parapophysis, and
gives attachment to the broad head of the distinctly ossified rib. The
outer half of the mass is ossified as a distinct paraphysis ; the inner in
the young carp is still cartilaginous. In the adult the whole wedge-like
paraphysial portion of the centrum is ossified ; but, instead of becoming
united with the diaphysis and neurapophysis, it is anchylosed with the
rib, and seems to form its head. In the pike, the paraphysis, more or less
produced into a parapophysis, remains distinct from both rib and dia-
physis, and the latter occupies a very much larger share of the whole
vertebra.

As I have said above, no distinct ossific centre appears to be developed
in the paraphysial region of the centrum in any of the abranchiate Verte-
brata ; but it becomes ossified partly by the encroachment of the neur-
apophysial, and partly by that of the diaphysial, ossifications.

These two ossifications may coalesce so as to leave no trace of their
primitive distinctness, as in Ophidia, Lacertilia, and birds ; or as in mam-
mals, Crocodilia, Chelonia, and many extinct reptiles, they may remain
for a long time, or permanently, separated by a suture, which may be
termed the "neurocentral suture"

It is very commonly assumed that this neurocentral suture is a sort of

453

morphological landmark, and that it always indicates the boundary between
the neurapophysis on the one hand, and the diaphysis or osseous centrum
on the other j so that any process which is given off from the vertebra
above the suture, is supposed to arise from the neurapophysis, while those
given off below it only, are said to arise from the centrum.

It is only necessary to cite a few facts, which may be readily verified,
however, to show that the neurocentral suture is of no value as a test of
the nature of the parts above and below it.

In man and in the pig, the heads of the ribs, whether dorsal or cervical,
are (as Retzius has well pointed out) articulated above the neurocentral
suture ; and therefore, if we accept the ordinary definition, not to the
centrum at all, but to the neurapophysis. Furthermore, if we accept the
ordinary view, the " inferior transverse processes " in the neck of these
animals are not parapophyses, but second diapophyses, inasmuch as they
arise from the neurapophyses, and not from the centrum.

The " transverse processes " of the lumbar vertebrae are usually given
off above the neurocentral suture, and are therefore called " diapophyses."
In a young Dugong, in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, I
find that, in the two hinder lumbar vertebrae, these transverse processes
are given off below the neurocentral suture.

In iheEchidna the head of every rib is attached to the centrum, or below
the neurocentral suture ; and in the neck, this suture lies between the
upper and lower transverse processes.

Thus, if we follow out logically the view that the neurocentral suture
indicates the boundary between the neurapophyses and the centrum, and
if we accept the current definition of diapophyses and parapophyses, we
arrive at the conclusion, that, in the cervical region, man and the pig have
vertebrae with two diapophyses and no parapophysis, while the monotreme
has a parapophysis and a diapophysis on each side ; that, in the dorsal re-
gion, the ribs in man and the pig are connected only with the neurapo-
physes, while in the monotreme they articulate only with the centra ; that
the transverse processes of the anterior lumbar vertebrae of the dugong
are diapophyses, while those of the posterior ones are parapophyses !

The crocodile and some extinct reptiles, such as the Ichthyosaurus,
whose ribs are throughout attached to the centra, afford still more striking
instances of the confusion which would be produced by taking the neuro-
central suture as a morphological boundary.

Muller has argued that it is a distinctive character of fishes to have the
ribs attached to the centra of the vertebrae or to parapophyses, and his
views have been adopted by other anatomists ; but the ribs of the
Ichthyosaurus and of the Echidna are as completely and solely attached to
their centra as those of any fish ; so that if we merely take the facts
furnished by anatomy, the doctrine that there is anything peculiarly
piscine* in the attachment of the ribs to the centra only, falls to the
ground.

But it may be urged that the connexion of the head of the rib with the
centrum, in mammals and the higher Vertebrata, is secondary, that with
the diapophysis being the primary and essential one. This is a very

454

widely current doctrine, and it is sanctioned by Rathke, as we have seen
in the passages quoted above, though they are not quite consistent with
one another. It is with great hesitation that I venture to contravene the
distinct statements of so eminent and accurate an embryologist as Rathke,
but my own observations lead me to precisely the opposite conclusions.

In the spinal column of embryos of the mouse 7-8ths of an inch long,
for instance, I find that the posterior dorsal vertebrae (A. fig. 10) have no
diapophyses, and that the ribs have no tubercles, but that their heads pass
directly into the cartilaginous substance of the centrum. Further forwards
(B, C) both diapophysis and tubercle become more and more developed,
until at length they come into contact and articulate in the ordinary
way. Finally, in the cervical region (D) the rib and the diapophysis are,
even in this early stage, confluent.

Fig. 10. — Vertebrae of an embryonic mouse fths of an inch long. A. The
penultimate dorsal vertebra. B. A middle dorsal ; and C'. an anterior dorsal
vertebra. D. A posterior cervical vertebra- N. Metaneurapophysis or neural
spine. N.A. Neurapophyses. Z. Zygapophysis. di. Diapophysis. P. Rib or
pleurapophysis. t. Its tubercle. D. Diaphysis. The ossified parts are shaded,
the cartilaginous, dotted.

These facts are, I conceive, wholly at variance with the supposition
that the primary connexion of the ribs is with the diapophyses. On the
other hand, they teach that the ribs in the mammal are, as in the fish,
primarily continuous with the centra of the vertebrae — a result which is
in perfect accordance with the ordinary embryological relations of the
higher and lower animals.

The hsemapophysial cartilage passes off from the paraphysial cartilage

455

on the one hand, just as the neurapophysial cartilage is given off from it
on the other.

If the haemapophysial cartilage becomes divided into rib and process, at
some little distance from the centrum, the rib is said to be attached to a
parapophysis ; and I believe that the only consistent definition that can
be given of a parapophysis is, that it is developed from the proximal end
of a hsemapophysial arch.

If the paraphysis is merged in the general body of the vertebra, and
the rib becomes distinctly articulated close to it, the attachment of the
rib is said to be to the centrum.

If the paraphysis is bent upwards, so as to pass insensibly in direction
into the neurapophysis, and becomes ossified in continuity with the latter,
the head of the rib is said to be attached to the neurapophysis ; although,
in truth, the head of the rib, or at any rate the proximal end of the
hsemapophysial arch of which that rib is a part, always retains, so far as
we have any evidence, its primitive connexion with its vertebral centrum,
into whatever new ones it may enter.

If the neurocentral suture does not define the lower limits of a neur-
apophysis, and if the true definition of a parapophysis is that given above,
it is obvious that our nomenclature of the parts of the dorsal and lumbar
vertebrae throughout the vertebrate series, requires a thorough revision.

To this subject I hope to return on a future occasion.

VII. — I subjoin the views of Vogt, and the criticisms of the late great
anatomist Johannes Miiller upon them, as the best means of exhibiting
their relation to those I have advocated.

"If we ask ourselves what we mean by vertebrae, the primary segments
of the still indifferent tissue round the chorda, which arise in all vertebrate
embryos, are the first things to suggest themselves* These persist only in
the lowest grades of vertebrate animals, while in the higher they disap-
pear, in consequence of the more and more complete development of
secondary organs, especially of the extremities ; so far as we are able to
trace these segments, so far is there a formation of vertebrae.

" But there is at once a difficulty, when we endeavour to find these seg-
ments in the rudiment of the skull of any vertebrate embryo. It is true
that many inflexions may be observed which appear to correspond with
such vertebrae, but unfortunately these do not appear in the same places in
different embryos ; and besides, these inflexions and curvatures of the base
of the skull are not in the least similar to the sharply and clearly defined
intervals between the primary vertebrae. The first of these intervals is
always formed behind the auditory vesicles, and lies therefore between
the occiput and the first cervical vertebra ; further forwards, as has been
said, no such interval is discoverable. But in the Cyclostome fishes,
which represent this embryonic condition, no vertebral divisions of the
skull are discernible ; in fact we have in the Myxinoids, only the chorda
with its sheath and muscular and cutaneous vertebral rings, which are
repeated up to the skull, but there cease. The skull of the Myxinoids,
like that of the higher cartilaginous fishes, cannot by any amount of
violence be forced under the vertebrate type. In the skull, then, the

456

primary vertebral segments are wanting. However, they might be oblite-
rated by the early development of the organs of sense, or by the aberrant
development of the brain.

"But there remains a second means of discovering the cranial vertebrae,
by examining the solid cartilaginous and bony basis of the skull ; though
here also we meet with insuperable difficulties. As the primitive type of
the more solid bodies of the vertebras, we have everywhere cartilaginous
rings arising out of the sheath of the chorda, and deposited around its
nucleus. Whether they arise as lateral halves or as entire rings, whether
they embrace the chorda completely or only above or below, is a matter
of no essential moment. But are such cartilaginous rings deposited
around the chorda, discoverable in the skull ? They will be sought for
in vain unless it be in the last, occipital, cranial vertebra; in this we
still find all the characters of a vertebra — the investment of the chorda,
the chondrification in the sheath of the chorda. But the chorda does not
pass into the so-called first and second cranial vertebrae ; it invariably ends,
as Rathke justly states, between the auditory capsules, and never passes
into the body of the second cranial vertebra, let alone that of the first.
The lateral cranial trabeculae, which bear the two anterior cranial ver-
tebrae, can by no possibility be regarded as centra of vertebras, since in
this case, the characteristic feature, the being traversed by the chorda,
is entirely absent. Again, these lateral trabeculae are continued uninter-
ruptedly forwards, below the first division of the brain, showing no trace
of a median division. But in what part of the vertebral column has it
ever been seen that two vertebrae arise united and afterwards divide ?

"It has therefore become my distinct persuasion that the occipital
vertebra is indeed a true vertebra, but that everything which lies before
it is not fashioned upon the vertebrate type at ally and that all efforts to
interpret it in such a way are vain j that therefore, if we except that ver-
tebra (occipital), which ends the spinal column anteriorly, there are no
cranial vertebrae at all."— Vogt, Entw. d. Geburtshelferkrote, pp. 98-100.

"Vogt, and in the present work Agassiz also, contest the justice of
the theory of the composition of the skull of several vertebrae, and will
only admit an occipital vertebra, because the embryonic chorda, accord-
ing to Vogt's investigations, extends no further in the skulls of fishes and
Amphibia. In this, in my opinion, too much stress is laid upon a single
result of embryological investigation. That, however, the chorda in the
frog's larva extends beyond the base of the occiput, further than where
the slight trace of the basioccipital is ultimately formed, I have myself seen.
Even the anterior part of the vertebral column of the Rays shows that the
chordal system, out of which, according to my own and Vogt's observa-
tions, only the central part of the fishes' vertebra proceeds, may be abortive,
whilst the cortical part of the vertebra, which arises in quite a different
way, is at its maximum of development. In a longitudinal section of the
anterior part of the vertebral column of a Ray, it is seen that the central
parts of the vertebrae, in the axis of the vertebral column, or those parts
which are developed from the chordal sheath alone, become finer and finer
anteriorly (although the column still exhibits vertebral divisions), and

457

at last cease entirely, without reaching the anterior end of the vertebral
column. On the other hand, Branchiostoma lubricum shows us the op-
posite extreme ; the chorda passes beyond the anterior end of the skull,
beyond the mouth and the eyes, far into the extremest end of the snout.

" This remarkable fact, first observed by Sundevall, was very surprising
to me, since in consequence of my studies up till that time, I regarded
the existence of three vertebrae in the proper cerebral cranium as certain,
at least I considered the assumption of a fourth ethmoidal vertebra to be
uncertain and undemonstrated.

" For now I saw at once, that it was undoubtedly possible that the
cephalic vertebral column might extend further forwards. There need not
always be three cranial vertebrae developed in the head ; in birds, reptiles,
and fishes, the most anterior vertebra is abortive, and is even entirely
wanting in some families ; but, in the Mammalia and man, three cranial
vertebras are without exception discoverable in the basis cranii, either in
the foetus, or in many cases even in young or middle-aged animals — the
occipitale basilare, sphenoideum basilare, posterius and anterius ; these also
occur in fish. How far the chorda primitively extends in Mammalia is
not yet made out ; but even although it should not reach through the
whole basis cranii, this, from the reasons which have been stated, would
be no good argument." — Joh. Muller, Bericht. cclxviii-ix., Miiller's
Archiv, 1843.

" Report of the Joint Committee of the Royal Society and the
British Association, for procuring a continuance of the Mag-
netic and Meteorological Observatories." With Appendix,
containing Letter of General Sabine to the Committee.
Communicated by order of the President and Council.

At the Meeting of the British Association which was held at
Dublin, in August 1857, a resolution was adopted, proposing the
continuance of the system of magnetical observations which was
commenced under the auspices of the Royal Society, and of the
British Association, in 1840 ; and a Committee, consisting of the
President of the Association, the Rev. Dr. Robinson, and Major-
General Sabine, was appointed, to request the cooperation of the
President and Council of the Royal Society in the endeavour to
attain this object, and to take, in conjunction with them, such steps
as may appear desirable for that end.

The Committee thus appointed accordingly held a meeting in Lon-
don, on the 5th of November last, at which it was agreed to recom-

458

mend that hourly observations, for not more than five years, should
be undertaken at certain stations in the British Colonies; and a
letter was addressed to the President of the Royal Society, asking
for his cooperation, and that of the Council of the Society, in en-
deavouring to attain that object.

This application was favourably received by the Council of the
Koyal Society; and on the 10th of December, 1857, the following
resolution was adopted in reference to it : —

" That Sir John Herschel, the Astronomer Royal, the Dean of
Ely, and Dr. Whewell, be appointed a Committee, to cooperate with
the Committee appointed with this view by the British Association,
and to take, in conjunction with them, such steps as may be neces-
sary, including, if it be thought desirable, an application to Govern-
ment."

In consequence of this resolution, a correspondence took place
among the members of the two Committees, which having resulted,
it is believed, in a general agreement as to the course to be adopted,
the joint Committee so acting in cooperation met at Leeds on the
24th of September, and in the first instance proceeded to inquire
into the nature and scientific value of the results which have already
been secured by the system of observation hitherto carried out, at the
observatories maintained by the Government, at the joint recom-
mendation of these two bodies, with a view to forming a distinct
opinion whether they are such as to merit being regarded as a reason-
able, and, what may be called, a remunerative return for the labour
and thought bestowed upon them, and the very considerable ex-
penditure of the public money incurred by them. In so doing, they
have limited their views to the results, as compared with the ex-
penditure, in the British Colonial Magnetic Observatories only, with-
out taking into consideration those deducible from observations made
under foreign auspices ; and they find that, at the cost of an ex-
penditure which may be reckoned at about £400 per annum (ex-
clusive of the cost of instruments, outfit, and publication) for each
of the several observatories at St. Helena, Toronto, Hobarton, and
the Cape of Good Hope during the respective continuance of each,
the accumulated observations, so far as they have yet been discussed,
have produced the following results, which they consider as satis-
factorily established by the discussion : —

459

In the first place, the mean state of the several magnetic elements
for each of the stations, as reduced to a fixed epoch, has been obtained
with a precision of which nothing previously done has afforded any
example — emulating, in this respect, the exactness of astronomical
determinations, and competent to serve as a fixed point of departure
to the latest ages ; and this for each of the elements in question —
the dip, the declination, and the intensity of the magnetic force.

Secondly, that at each station, the rate of regularly progressive
secular change in all the three elements above mentioned has been
ascertained with a degree of precision which contrasts strongly with
the loose and inaccurate determinations of former times.

Thirdly, that the laws of the diurnal, annual, and other periodic
fluctuations in the values of these elements, as exhibited at each sta-
tion, have been established in a manner and with a decision to which
nothing hitherto executed in any branch of science, astronomy ex-
cepted, is comparable ; and that the results embodied in the exa-
mination of these laws have laid open a view of magnetic action so
singular, and so utterly unexpected, as to amount to the creation of
a new department of science, and the detection of a completely novel
system of physical relations : for that, in the first place, the systems
of diurnal and annual magnetic changes have each been separated
into two perfectly distinct and physically independent systems, — the
one, at any particular station, holding its course according to laws
depending solely on the sun's hour-angle at the moment of observa-
tion, and his meridian altitude at different seasons, — the other, com-
prehending all those movements which, under the name of magnetic
storms, or " irregular disturbances," have hitherto presented the
perplexing aspect of phenomena purely casual, capricious in amount
and in the particular occasions of their occurrence when regarded
singly, has been shown, by these discussions, to be subject in its
totality to laws equally definite with the others, though more depend-
ent for their application on peculiarities of local situation. As regards
the first of these systems of fluctuation, they find it demonstrated : —

That the sun's regular action on the magnetism of the globe is
determined by a law of no small complexity and intricacy, but which,
nevertheless, has been traced with precision and certainty, and shown
to be referable, in the first place, and for one of its arbitrary coeffi-
cients, to the geographical situation of the place of observation with

460

respect to a certain line or equator on the earth's surface, which can-
not yet be precisely traced for want of sufficiently numerous stations
(but which seems to approach to the line of least intensity, and is
very far from coinciding with the geographical equator), — and in the
next, and for its other influential cause, to the fact of the sun's
having north or south declination ; so that the whole diurnal change
in any one of the elements, and at any station, is made up of two
portions, one of which retains the same sign, and a constant co-
efficient all the year round ; the other changes sign, and varies in
the value of its coefficient with the annual movement of the sun
from one side of the equator to the other.

That, consequently, for a station on the magnetic equator (so de-
fined), the mean amount of diurnal change is nil, when taken over
the whole year, but that on any particular day in the year it has a
determinate magnitude, which passes through an annual periodicity,
with opposite characters in opposite seasons. And that for a station
in middle latitudes the mean diurnal fluctuation is not nil, but such
as during every part of the year to exhibit an easterly deviation in
the morning hours, and a westerly in the evening hours, for stations
north of the magnetic equator, and vice versa for those south of it ;
but that the amount of this deviation, or the amplitude of the diurnal
fluctuation, varies with the seasons, being exaggerated or partially
counteracted by the alternate conspiring and opposing influence of
the sun's declination during the summer and winter seasons.

As regards the irregular disturbances, though arbitrary and capri-
cious in extent and in the moments when they may be expected, in-
dividually, they nevertheless obey, with great fidelity, the law of
averages when grouped in masses, and treated separately from those
of the former class. So handled they are found to conform in their
average effect, at each of the twenty-four hours of the day, and on
each day of the year, to the very same rules as regards the sun's
daily and annual movement, with one remarkable point of difference,
viz. that their hours of maxima and minima are not identical with
those of the regular class, but that each particular station has, in
this respect, its own peculiar hours, analogous to what is called the
" establishment" of a port in the theory of the tides. And that in
consequence, the superposition of these two systems of diurnal fluc-
tuation gives rise to a series of compound variations analogous to the

461

superposition of two undulations having the same period but different
amplitudes, and different epochal times ; and that by attending to
this principle, many of the most complex phenomena, such as that of
a double maximum and minimum, with the occurrence of a nightly
as well as a daily movement, are explained in a satisfactory manner.

The discussion of the observations already accumulated has further
brought into view, and in the opinion of your Committee fully esta-
blished, the existence of a very extraordinary periodicity in the extent
of fluctuation of all the magnetic elements, and in the amplitude and
frequency of their irregular movements especially, which connects
them directly with the physical constitution of the sun, and with the
periodical greater or less prevalence of spots on its surface — the
maxima of the amount of fluctuation corresponding to the maxima
of the spots, and these again with those of the exhibitions of the
Aurora Borealis, which appears also to be subject to the same law of
periodicity ; a law, which as it does not agree with any of the other-
wise known solar, lunar, or planetary periods, may be considered as,
so to speak, personal to the sun itself. And thus we find ourselves
landed in a system of cosmical relations, in which both the sun and
the earth, and probably the whole planetary system, are implicated.

That the sun acts in influencing the earth's magnetism in some
other manner than by its heat, seems to be rendered very probable
by several features of this inquiry, and the idea of a direct magnetic
influence exterior to the earth, is corroborated by the discovery of a
minute fluctuation in the magnetic elements, having for its period
not the solar but the lunar day, and therefore directly traceable to
the action of the moon. The detection of this fluctuation by M.
Kreil, from a discussion of the Prague observations, has been con-
firmed by the evidence afforded by those of our Colonial observatories,
and appears to be placed beyond all question by the recent deductions
for the horizontal force and the declination extending over three years
of observation at the Cape of Good Hope, which General Sabine has
submitted for your Committee's inspection, and in both which the
fluctuations in question emerge in a very satisfactory manner, and
one calculated to give a high idea of the precision of which such
determinations are susceptible, when it is considered that the total
amplitude of oscillation due to this cause in the direction of the Cape-
needle is only about 16" of angle.

VOL. ix. 2 i

462

Your Committee, looking at this long catalogue of distinct and
positive conclusions already obtained, feel themselves fully borne out
in considering that the operation in a scientific point of view has
proved so far eminently remunerative and successful, and that its
results have fully equalled in importance and value, as real accessions
to our knowledge, any anticipations which could reasonably have
been formed at the commencement of the inquiry.

Having satisfied themselves of the great and important value of the
results already obtained, independent of the dormant interest as
respects future discussion which the mass of observations accumulated
continues to possess, and which it remains for future theoretical com-
binations to elicit, — your Committee next turned their attention to
the question, whether and to what extent the maintenance of some
or all of the old Colonial observatories, or the establishment of new
ones for a limited term might be expected, — first to give additional
certainty and precision to the determinations already obtained, — and
secondly, to elucidate points imperfectly made out, and more espe-
cially geographical relations which determine the greater or less
amount of discordance between the epochal hours of the regular and
irregular diurnal changes — relations which no doubt involve the
causes of the irregular fluctuations themselves (causes at present
involved in the greatest obscurity),- — and to obtain indications of the
points in the earth's surface at which the forces producing them
originate.

As regards the general question as to the desirableness of some
continuation of the observations, it seems hardly to be referred to
our consideration as a Committee — the resolutions came to both by
the British Association and by the Council of the Royal Society, in
the appointment of their respective Committees of cooperation, in-
dicating an opinion already conclusively formed on the part of both
bodies to that effect. They have felt it due to themselves, however,
to come to an independent conclusion on that point, and having done
so with perfect unanimity, on the grounds already adduced, and the
expectations for the future xvhich those grounds justify, they next
address themselves to the consideration of the two points above in-
dicated, and to the important questions — first, whether to recommend
the continuance or resumption of the establishments at the former

463

stations, or the selection of new ones ; and secondly, with how few
new or revived establishments, with how limited a scale as to extent
and expense, and with how short a period as to the minimum term
of their duration, the expectation of these advantages being secured
could be compatible, and finally to fix upon the stations most
desirable.

As regards the first point referred to, viz. the more complete
establishment of the laws themselves, and the giving of greater
numerical precision to their expression, the Committee are of opinion
that the laws themselves are not likely to be subverted or contra-
dicted by a larger series of observations at any station for which they
have once been shown to prevail ; but that every new station differing
much in geographical situation from the former, in which they might
be found verified, with or without supplementary modifications, would
undoubtedly add strength to the induction by which they have been
concluded. Additional numerical precision on the other hand would
only be attained by a continuance of observations at former stations,
and is not a point of sufficient importance, in their opinion, to be en-
titled to any weight in opposition to considerations in favour of
change, — while in the one important case in which such additional
precision is especially desirable, — that of the solar period, — such addi-
tional precision will be acquired ultimately as a matter of course by
continued observation at any one of the existing permanent observa-
tories, of whose business magnetic observation forms a part as well
as by any amount of Colonial establishments.

It is therefore mainly in the elucidation of obscure and difficult
physical points, and in the probable extension of our knowledge of
the geographical and other conditions on which the irregular dis-
turbances depend, that our hope of advantage from further observa-
tion consists ; our conviction being that, without special observations
at well-selected stations (selected, that is, with a view to these objects),
there is little or no prospect of further progress. The general cha-
racter of the magnetic phenomena may be considered as secured from
loss ; but the great problem remains unresolved, — the local influences
are yet to trace, and the only means of tracing them must consist in
varying the position of our stations, so as to embrace great differences
in geographical situation, and in conformity with such indications as
can be gathered from our present experience. The magnetic esta-

2 i 2

464

blishments permanently existing in Europe and America are con-
fessedly inadequate to afford the requisite information. The stations
which have occurred to your Committee as most eligible, would be,
Vancouver Island, Newfoundland, the Falkland Isles, Bermuda,
Ceylon, Shanghai or some locality in China, and Mauritius ; but they
are fully aware that to demand from the national purse the institution
of observations at all these points, would be more than is warranted
by any pressing necessity, and ought therefore not to be insisted on.
Among them, the principal in point of interest (for reasons which
will be presently mentioned), are Vancouver Island, Newfoundland,
the Falkland Isles, and Pekin or some near adjacent Chinese station ;
and the Committee consider that much valuable information would
accrue from observations sufficiently prolonged at these, to which,
therefore, they would be understood to limit their recommendation.
In regard to the length of time over which they would desire to see
the observations extended, they consider five years (being about half
the solar period, and as being also sufficient to give a fair grasp of the
secular change of the magnetic elements) as a period both in con-
sonance with that which has been accorded on former occasions, and
in some sort designated by the nature of the case.

The reasons which induce them to give a preference to these over
the rest of the stations enumerated are as follows : — Between Toronto
and Point Barrow the difference of the epochal hours of the irregular
diurnal fluctuations is such as to amount to a complete opposition of
phases, a circumstance which goes far to point out the latter station
as being in the immediate neighbourhood of the origin of those ir-
regular disturbances. Should observations be established at the two
stations now proposed, there is every reason to hope, as will appear
from a document drawn up at the request of the Committee by
General Sabine, and with his permission appended to this Report,
that the observations at Toronto, which have been partially re-esta-
blished since 1855, would, with a view to cooperation for this especial
purpose, be wholly resumed on a fitting application to the Colonial
legislature. And, in addition to this, should an application, made to
the Norwegian Government for the establishment, during the same
period, of an observatory at the North Cape prove, successful (which
there is every reason to hope, such an application made on a former
occasion having been well received, and having ultimately failed owing

465

only to a want of attention to some point of diplomatic form in its
mode of communication), we should then have a chain of stations in
high northern latitudes, the results obtained at which being severally
brought into comparison with those already procured at Point Bar-
row, and with each other, could hardly fail of bringing out some very
positive conclusion.

As regards the proposal for a station at the Falkland Isles, it is
presumed, from the general course of the magnetic line of minimum
intensity, that this station will prove, in analogy to the Cape of Good
Hope, and in contrast with the northern stations recommended, to
have the character of an equatorial, or approximate equatorial, station;
and in respect to that proposed in China, that it will complete and
carry round the globe the chain of northern middle latitude stations,
— the intermediate links being supplied by the Russian observatories,
and by those which it is hoped may be established at the North
Cape and at Toronto. As regards the Falkland Isles and Newfound-
land, it should be noticed that there exist considerable facilities and
conveniences for the comfortable establishment of an observatory
there ; and in respect of the other two, it may be remarked, that they
are both points of great present interest, and that a determination of
the meteorological as well as magnetic peculiarities of both would be
important. The affections of a telegraphic wire by electric discharges
in the nature of Aurora Borealis have already attracted attention, and
produced confusion in the ordinary use of such wires, and constitute
one of the motives for inquiry into the nature and laws of the so-
called magnetic storms. It may also be observed that, in reference
to the anomalistic equation of the sun's magnetic intensity, or the
effect of its annual approach and recess due to the ellipticity of the
earth's orbit, the influence of local temperature upon the observations
requires to be eliminated, in order to bring this effect into evidence,
by a combination of the results obtained at stations whose seasons
are opposite.

In reference to the important consideration of keeping down as
much as possible the outlay consequent on the establishment of these
observatories, your Committee have given attention to the question
whether it be desirable to continue, as heretofore, the printing of the
observations in extenso — a measure resulting in the production of vast
and costly volumes, and entailing a great amount of laborious super-

466

intendence. They consider that the form of the observations re-
maining unaltered, and the principles of their reduction being now
rendered familiar, this would not be necessary, provided the original
observations were registered in triplicate, and the copies separately
deposited in different and secure custody for preservation and occa-
sional reference when required, and provided that sufficient and well-
digested abstracts of their reduced results were published. One series
of observations, however, they consider must be excepted from this
alteration of system, — those of a continuous nature, made on term
days, FOUR of which per annum they desire to see still kept up, —
and those taken on occasions of magnetic storms, when continuous
observation is substituted for that on the regular hourly intervals ;
for the treatment of such observations is still a matter of scientific
inquiry ; and to render them available, in comparison with others,
the complete register is indispensable.

Your Committee cannot but contemplate a revival of active interest
and cooperative participation in the system of observation on the
part of our Colonial and of Foreign Governments, when once it shall
become known that the subject is resumed by our own Home Govern-
ment in the manner recommended. On this subject they beg to refer
to General Sabine's reply to their inquiries, already alluded to, which
places in a distinct point of view the expectations which may justly
be indulged on that score. In reference, moreover, to the personal
and material establishment at each of the Government observatories,
this document contains a summary of what is needed, and of what
ought to be applied for.

And this leads your Committee to a point which they consider of
such importance to the success of the whole proceeding, that they
cannot help embodying their opinion on it in this Report. It is of
little avail to accumulate observations unless their effective and com-
plete reduction be provided for, and the assurance obtained that when
reduced they will undergo such discussion and scientific treatment as
shall elicit from them the laws of the phenomena of which they are
the records. The zeal and ability with which the present Superin-
tendent of the Government Magnetic and Meteorological Observa-
tories has hitherto executed this task, if extended to the new series
now called for, would afford that assurance in its fullest extent ;
and they earnestly trust that this will not be lost sight of in the

467

arrangements to be made in carrying out their proposals, if
adopted.

There is another point to which your Committee consider their
attention ought to be paid simultaneously with the establishment of
the proposed observatories : it is that of the extension of Magnetic
Surveys of the districts in their immediate neighbourhood, with a
view to fixing the situation and direction of the iso-magnetic curves
within some considerable adjoining area (in the case of the Falkland
Isles — that of the whole group).

On this point the following remarks by General Sabine, in a com-
munication addressed by him to us in reply to certain inquiries which
we considered it right to make of him, are in the opinion of your
Committee, conclusive in deciding them to recommend that provision
be also made for the execution of such surveys, collaterally with the
observations at the fixed stations.

" Recent observations in North America, discussed in the ' Proceed-
ings of the Royal Society' for January 7th, 1858, have made known
that the general movement of translation of the isoclinal and isogonic
lines, which from the earliest observations have been progressing from
west to east, has within a few years reached its extreme eastern
oscillation, and that the movement in the reverse direction has already
commenced ; we live therefore at an epoch in the history of terres-
trial magnetism, which we have reason to believe will be regarded
hereafter — when theory shall have more advanced — as a highly im-
portant and critical epoch. The geographical position of the maxi-
mum force in the Northern Hemisphere appears to have reached its
extreme easterly elongation, and from this time forth may be expected
to move for many years to come towards the meridian which it occu-
pied in Halley's time, accompanied by a corresponding change in the
positions and forms of the isodynamic, isoclinal, and isogonic lines
in North America : a careful determination of the absolute values
and present secular change of the three elements at this critical theo-
retical epoch, at stations situated on either side of the American con-
tinent, and nearly in the geographical latitude of the maximum of
the force, would furnish therefore data for posterity, of the value of
which we may have a very inadequate appreciation at present. I
may refer to the discussion prefixed to the third volume of the To-
ronto Observations, to show that the means and methods with which

468

we are conversant are adequate for the purpose ; and I may indicate
Vancouver Island and Newfoundland as colonies well- suited for esta-
blishments of the same nature as those of which the efficiency has
been proved."

As regards the instrumental means to be employed, the Com-
mittee believe that the consideration of the subject would be more
fitly undertaken by the Royal Society, who will probably think it
right to appoint a special Committee, as was done on the former
occasion, to consider it maturely, and to report upon it. Well as in
general the instruments employed in the British Colonial Obser-
vatories have performed, it may be desirable to consider whether
they could not be improved, by diminishing considerably the size of
the magnetic bars employed. Small bars indicate more certainly
the rapid magnetic changes ; they may be hardened more perfectly,
and therefore vary less in their magnetic condition with changes of
temperature ; they admit of more perfect protection from the effects
of disturbing aerial currents ; and, finally, the instruments may be
constructed at less expense, and may be grouped together in a
smaller and less costly building.

The joint Committee therefore have finally agreed to the follow-
ing resolutions, which they submit for approval to their respective
appointing bodies : —

1 . That it is highly desirable that a series of Magnetical and Me-
teorological observations, on the same plan as those which have been
already carried on in the Colonial Observatories for that purpose,
under the direction of Her Majesty's Board of Ordnance, be obtained,
to extend over a period of not more than five years, at the following
stations : —

1. Vancouver Island.

2. Newfoundland.

3. The Falkland Isles.

4. Pekin, or some near adjacent station.

2. That an application be made to Her Majesty's Government, to
obtain the establishment of observatories at these stations for the
above-mentioned term, on a personal and material footing, and
under the same superintendence as in the observatories (now discon-
tinued) at Toronto, St. Helena, and Van Diemen Island.

3. That the observations at the observatories now recommended,

469

should be comparable with, and in continuation of, those made at the
last-named observatories, including four days of term observations
annually.

4. That provision be also requested at the hands of Her Majesty's
Government, for the execution, within the period embraced by the
observations, of magnetic surveys in the districts immediately ad-
jacent to those stations, viz. of the whole of Vancouver Island and
the shores of the strait separating it from the main land, — of the
Falkland Isles, — and of the immediate neighbourhood of the Chinese
observatory (if practicable), wherever situated, — on the plan of the
surveys already executed in the British possessions in North Ame-
rica, and in the Indian Archipelago.

5. That a sum of £350 per annum, during the continuance of the
observations, be recommended to be placed by Government at the
disposal of the General Superintendent, for the purpose of procuring
a special and scientific verification and exact correspondence of the
magnetical and meteorological instruments, both of those which
shall be furnished to the several observatories, and of those which,
during the continuance of the observations for the period in question,
shall be brought into comparison with them, either at Foreign or
Colonial stations.

6. That the printing of the observations in extenso be discon-
tinued, but that provision be made for their printing in abstract,
with discussion; but that the term observations, and those to be
made on the occurrence of magnetic storms, be still printed in ex-
tenso ; and that the registry of the observations be made in tri-
plicate, one copy to be preserved in the office of the General Super-
intendent, one to be presented to the Royal Society, and one to
the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, for conservation and future
reference.

7. That measures be adopted for taking advantage of whatever
disposition may exist on the part of our Colonial Governments, to
establish observatories of the same kind, or otherwise to cooperate
with the proposed system of observation.

8. That in placing these resolutions and the Report of the Com-
mittee before the President and Council of the Royal Society, the
continued cooperation of that Society be requested in whatever
ulterior measures may be requisite.

470

9. That the President of the British Association he requested to
act in conjunction with the President of the Royal Society, and with
the Members of the two Committees, in any steps which may appear
necessary for the accomplishment of the objects above stated.

10. That an early communication be made of this procedure to
His Royal Highness The Prince Consort, the President elect of the
British Association for the ensuing year.

Appendix.

Letter from General Saline to the Committee.

St. Leonard's, June 26, 1858.

MY DEAR SIR, — You wish me to state for the consideration of
the Committee, what specific measures for the continuance and ex-
tension of magnetical researches appear to me suitable to the present
state of that branch of science, and at the same time sufficiently
moderate and reasonable to justify the expectation that the portion
of them which requires it may receive the sanction of Her Majesty's
Government.

For this purpose it may be convenient to divide the subject gene-
rally under three heads, and to consider separately what may be
expected, — -

1st. From our own Government.
2nd. From our own Colonies.
3rd. From foreign Countries.
1st. From our own Government.

The establishment, for a limited period, of observatories in the
three colonies, —

Vancouver Island,
Newfoundland,
The Falkland Islands,

on a similar plan to those which were established at Toronto, St.
Helena, and Hobarton, and which have now ceased, having accom-
plished their objects. The "personnel" at each of these three ob-
servatories to consist of an officer, four non-commissioned officers,
and one private, either of the Artillery or of the Engineers, with the
same extra pay and allowance for incidentals as was the case in the
observatories which have terminated. The instruments, both abso-
lute and differential, to be of the same description as before, with of

471

course such modifications and improvements as experience has sug-
gested. The instruments to be prepared at Kew, and the directors
of the three observatories to be instructed there. The system of
observation to be hourly ; Sundays, Christmas days, and Good Fri-
days excepted. The time to be employed to be mean astronomical
time at the station, both for magnetism and meteorology. The ob-
servatories to be maintained until five complete years of observation
are obtained. The number of term-days in each year to be reduced
from twelve to four.

The public departments whose sanction will be required, are, the
Treasury for the expense, and the General Commanding in Chief for
the selection and appointment of the officers and non-commissioned
officers. In addition to the officer for each observatory, a fourth
officer will be required as an assistant to the General Superintendent,
in carrying on, under his direction, the details of correspondence
with the observatories. Total, four officers, twelve non-commis-
sioned officers, and three privates.

2nd. With reference to our own Colonies.

As soon as the sanction of Government has been obtained for the
observatories already named, the Governors of British Guiana, Mau-
ritius, and Melbourne may be written to, suggesting that a com-
munication should be addressed from each of those colonies to the
Secretary of State for the Colonies, expressing the desire which is
felt in the colony to participate in the proposed systematic researches,
stating what facilities can be afforded, and what portion of the ex-
pense can be borne by the colony itself, and requesting to be placed
in official communication with some suitable authority for the
preparation of instruments, and for furnishing such instructions and
advice as may be required.

The accompanying letter from Lieutenant Governor Walker, of
British Guiana, to M. Sandeman (which has been just forwarded to
me), will show how ready that colony is to take its part, and that it
waits only for that measure of countenance and encouragement which
it reasonably expects, and ought to receive, from the mother country.
At Mauritius, a Meteorological Society, formed by the colonists
themselves, is most actively and usefully employed in tracing out, by
means of the logs of merchant vessels, the phenomena of the storms
by which navigation in that vicinity is troubled ; and is making most

472

pressing appeals for an authorization which should enable them to
add researches in magnetism to those in meteorology ; having on
the spot, in Captain Fyers, of the Royal Engineers, a person who
would make an admirable director of such an establishment. At
Melbourne, a proposition for a magnetic observatory and survey is
now before the local government ; means are abundant, but instru-
ments and direction are wanting. Mr. Jeifery, so well trained in
the Hobarton Observatory, is in that country, and is desirous of such
employment, as M. Neumayer is of the survey. Melbourne would
be a most important station for a magnetic observatory, as we might
expect from it the verification or otherwise of the increase in the
magnetism of the earth, at the period of the year when she makes
her nearest approach to the sun.

Other colonies might follow the example ; but in regard to these
three, we are justified in expecting that, with suitable measures of
encouragement, we should have thoroughly efficient establishments,
carrying out the system of observation in its completeness.

3rd. With reference to Foreign Countries.

A proposition has recently been made to the Netherlands Govern-
ment, by Dr. Buys Ballot (who fills the same official position in
Holland that Admiral FitzRoy does in this country), for the esta-
blishment of a magnetic observatory in the Dutch Colony of Bata-
via; and Dr. Buys Ballot has written to inquire whether, in the
event of the proposition being acceded to, two sets of instruments,
one for Batavia and the other for Utrecht, could be prepared at
Kew. An intimation that the British Government was about to
resume and extend its magnetical researches, might be expected to
have a favourable influence on the success of Dr. Buys Ballot's pro-
position, and might also lead to the adoption of our colonial system
of observation in its full extent at the Batavian observatory.

The importance of the North Cape of Europe as a magnetical
station, especially with reference to the connexion between the
Aurora and the magnetic disturbances, has already been noticed in
a preceding letter from me (that of May 13). The instruments
which were prepared some years ago at the expense of the Royal
Society, and were intended to be presented to the observatory at the
North Cape (should one be established there by the Norwegian
Government), are still in existence, and with a few modifications

473

might be applied to their original purpose. The re-establishment
of magnetic observatories in the British Colonies might furnish a
favourable occasion for reviving, in concert with M. Hansteen, a
proposition for an observatory at the North Cape, which seems to
have failed on the former occasion rather from an accident than
from any real difficulty in the matter itself.

M. Secchi, of the Observatory of the Collegio Romano at Rome,
has recently been supplied from Kew, at the expense of the Papal
Government, with a complete equipment of magnetical instruments,
similar to those which have done such good work in the British
Colonial establishments. With the encouragement derived from the
revival of active measures here, M. Secchi might hope to obtain the
aid which he desires, in the way of temporary assistance, to enable
him to carry out the complete system of observation, for which he is
already provided with the instrumental means.

The concert which has prevailed between Russia and England in
magnetic operations, gives reason to hope that renewed activity here
might so far strengthen M. KupfFer's hands, as to enable him to
carry out efficiently the hourly system of the three elements, at one
at least of the stations in Eastern Siberia, the probable importance
of which can scarcely be overrated.

A meteorological observatory has recently been instituted at Ha-
vanna, and the director, M. Poey, has proposed to the Cuban autho-
rities the purchase of magnetical instruments, to be prepared at Kew,
and a sufficient increase of assistants to provide for observations to
be made with them. M. Poey is active and intelligent, and has
recently visited the principal magnetic institutions in Europe. He
would not fail to avail himself of the support which his proposition
would derive from the measures which might be taken here.

The Regents of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, have
agreed to allot a portion of their funds to a magnetic observatory ;
but neither the instruments nor the system of observation have yet
been determined : their decision might probably be hastened by the
knowledge that active measures are in progress here.

Viewing the necessity of resorting to means of securing and ascer-
taining a precise correspondence between the magnetical and meteoro-
logical instruments which may come to be used in these operations,
or in cooperation with them in other quarters, as well as their exact

474

and scientific adjustment, as also of securing a self-registered series
of photographic delineations of the solar spots during its continuance
— it is proposed that during the continuance of the observatories, an
annual sum, not exceeding ^6350, should be taken on the estimate,
and placed at the disposal of the General Superintendent for these
purposes.

There is a point referred to in a former letter which will require
the attention of the Committee. It is the question, whether the
observations of the proposed observatories should be prmted in ex-
tenso, or in abstract accompanied by a discussion of the principal
results.

I remain, my dear Sir, faithfully yours,

EDWARD SABINE.

Sir John Herschel, Bart.

PAPERS READ.

I. "On the Changes produced in the proportion of the Red
Corpuscles of the Blood by the administration of Cod-
Liver Oil." By THEOPHILUS THOMPSON, M.D., F.R.S.
Received April 30, 1858.

Influenced by a conviction that the peculiarities essential to any
disease are often associated with characteristic changes in the blood,
and that the efficacy of many remedies depends on their power of
modifying such conditions of the blood, I have made it an object to
take opportunities of ascertaining some particulars regarding the
composition of that fluid in certain diseased conditions prior to the
use of remedies, and also in patients affected with similar maladies,
but whose symptoms under the employment of medicines have been
materially ameliorated. In reference to the inquiry, the proportion
of red corpuscles would appear to be a circumstance of special signi-
ficance, and to this question I have directed my chief care. In pur-
suing the investigation, my attention has been particularly directed
to cases of phthisis, as there was in this way afforded to me the
greatest opportunity of comparing the largest amount of analogous
instances.

On the 27th of April, 1854, I had the honour of presenting to the

475

Royal Society a short communication descriptive of the changes pro-
duced in the blood by the administration of cod-liver oil and cocoa-
nut oil, and advanced the conclusion deduced from chemical analysis,
that any favourable result derived from the administration of these
oils is associated with an increase in the proportion of red cor-
puscles. Having availed myself of opportunities for continuing the
investigation, I beg to present the results to the Society.

The chief particulars observed are exhibited in a tabular form,
but it may be desirable briefly to detail the most important cir-
cumstances in some of the instances adduced.

In two of the patients no oil had been given ; both were men, the
subjects of advanced consumption. In one of them, Edward D.,
the proportion of red corpuscles was only 98'20 in 1000 of blood.
In the other, D. D., similarly affected, it was 119'64.

When cod-liver oil, was administered, but failed to produce any
favourable effect on the general condition of the patient, a similar
spareness in the proportion of blood-corpuscles was observable.
Thus, for example, James H., a man affected with phthisis in the
third stage, had taken the oil for four months, but notwithstanding
gradually lost strength and weight. His proportion of blood-cor-
puscles was 1 14-39, still less than in D. D., a patient to whom no oil
had been administered.

With these cases it is instructive to contrast others in the same
period of disease, to whom cod-liver oil had been administered with
manifest advantage.

Sarah Warren, aged 26, with a consumptive cavity in each lung,
under a few months' course of the oil gained 10^ pounds in weight,
and in other respects materially improved. The proportion of cor-
puscles was found on analysis to be 145*68.

In Edwin P., aged 28, affected with a similar condition of both
lungs, who improved considerably and gained 4 pounds in weight,
under two months' continuance of the oil treatment, the red cor-
puscles existed in nearly the same proportion as in the female last
mentioned, being 145 '5 6.

Thomas N., a patient with a consumptive cavity (indicated
amongst other signs by cracked pipkin sound on the left side),
having taken the oil for some months, gained 13 pounds in weight.
The proportion of red discs was 157*78. It may be interesting to

476

mention, that in this individual, the fibrine, although considerable in
amount, was not associated with fat, and that the corpuscles of his
blood examined under the microscope exhibited numerous chains or
rouleaux.

The results of analysis in less advanced stages of the disease are
still more striking.

Sarah M., a girl aged 16, having the peculiar clicking sound, and
other evidences of the second stage — that of softening tubercle (on
the left side) — had taken cod-liver oil for six months with most satis-
factory results. The corpuscles were in remarkably high propor-
tion, namely 172-56. It is an interesting fact, that in this instance
the remarkable hum in the jugular veins, often found as a symptom
in anaemia (but as I think wrongly regarded as peculiar to that con-
dition), was present.

In Henry B., the subject of phthisis in the second stage on both
sides, after a short course of oil, the proportion was 144 '76.

The highest proportion of corpuscles which I have found in any
of my consumptive patients was 174 '34. It occurred in S. P., a
man aged 36, who had the disease in a very early stage accompanied
with the variety of wavy inspiration, which I believe to indicate the
existence of a considerable amount of freely expanding lung around
the parts consolidated by tubercular deposit. He had taken oil for
only two months, but had during that period gained about a stone
in weight.

Another man, Thos. C., also in the first stage, and with the same
symptom, wavy inspiration, but with a greater extent of dull per-
cussion (and other signs of more disease than S. P.), had also taken
oil for two months with advantage, and the proportion of cor-
puscles was 144'45, whilst Thos. B., in whom the physical signs of
disease were still slighter, but in whose expectoration, examined with
the microscope, the presence of lung-tissue sufficiently demonstrated
the nature of the disease, the blood contained a proportion of cor-
puscles as high as 165'90. This man had taken cod-liver oil (with
only one short interruption) for twelve months.

The fourteen cases recorded in this communication with a view
to the question under consideration are arranged in the following
Table :—

477

No.

Name.

Stage of disease.

Time during
which oil
was given.

Gain or loss
in weight.

Proportion
of red
corpuscles.

1.

Edward D. ..

3rd.

None given.

Ibs.

98-20

2.

David D...

3rd.

None.

p

119-64

3.

James H. ..

3rd.

4 months.

ITf

114-39

4.

Sarah Warren

3rd, on both sides

5 months.

+WI

145-68

5.

Edwin P.

3rd, do. do.

6 weeks.

+ 4

145-56

6.

Thomas N.

3rd.

Some months.

+ 13

157-78

7.

Sarah M.

2nd.

6 months.

+ 3

172-56

8.

Henry B.

2nd, on both sides

14 days.

No change.

144-76

9.

George P.

1st.

7 weeks.

+13

174-34

10.

Thomas C.

1st.

2 months.

+ 6

144-45

11.

Thomas B.

1st.

12 months.

165-90

12.

Martha W.

1st.

3 weeks.

142-62

13.

Mary D. .

3rd.

4 months.

+10

84-83

14.

Sarah W

3rd.

Some months,

T v

+ 6

162-07

ozonized oil.

The analyses were made by Mr. Dugald Campbell, Analytical
Chemist to the Consumption Hospital, and were conducted as
follows : —

The blood was placed in a small beaker half-full, fitted with a
cork, and was conveyed carefully so as to keep the serum free from
the blood-corpuscles. The beaker containing the blood, after stand-
ing twenty-four hours, was weighed.

The serum, perfectly free from red corpuscles, was drained from the
coagulum with very great care, and the latter being transferred on
to bibulous paper, after standing for the space of four or five hours,
was weighed. Two separate portions of coagulum, of from 35 to 40
grains, were again weighed, one for the moisture, and the other for
the fibrine. The moisture was then entirely removed by means of
a water-oven ; from 24 to 36 hours being found necessary for accom-
plishing this object, the completion of which was ascertained by the
capsule, with its contents, ceasing to lose weight. The portion for
the fibrine was removed into a bason, treated with cold water by
maceration, until the fibrine appeared to be perfectly colourless, when
it was removed on to a previously weighed filter, again washed, and
carefully but not too highly dried. The filter and fibrine were next
put into a test-tube, and, in order to separate the fat, digested, first
with ether and again with alcohol, twice or thrice, then dried by means
of a water-bath, and weighed. This weight, less that of the filter,

VOL. IX. 2 K

478

represents the fibrine ; and these data being obtained, the amount of
blood-corpuscles, and that of fibrine in 1000 parts of the blood, are
determined by a simple calculation.

The general correspondence between the instances adduced in the
present communication and those of my former contribution is suffi-
ciently obvious ; the proportion of red corpuscles in patients to
whom oil had been successfully administered exceeding that ascer-
tained to exist in the first stage of the disease, in those to whom this
medicine had not been given. It is commonly stated, and the remark
is in harmony with my own observations, that the proportion of
red corpuscles is usually less in women than in men. To this rule
the seventh case in the Table furnishes an exception, and it was
further remarkable from the fact that a murmur could be heard in
the jugular vein ; a phenomenon commonly attributed to spareness
of blood-corpuscles, but in this instance associated with more than
the average amount.

The case numbered thirteen in the tabular analyses would seem
directly opposed to the conclusion to which the other observations
tend, but the patient had suffered from repeated attacks of spitting
of blood so extreme as to place her life in jeopardy. This profuse
hsemorrhage would naturally increase the poverty of the circulating
fluid, and thus counteract to a great extent the apparent influence
of the remedy.

In the fourteenth case ozonized oil had been administered.

The rapid reproduction of red corpuscles implied in these obser-
vations, suggests inquiries of special interest ; but I purposely abstain
from any attempt to explain the mode by which it is effected.

II. " Further Observations on the Power exercised by the
Actiniae of our Shores in killing their prey." In a Letter
to W. BOWMAN, Esq./ F.R.S., dated Oct. 25, 1858. By
R. M'DONNELL, M.D. Communicated by Mr. BOWMAN.
Received Oct. 27, 1858.

DEAR SIR, — In the course of last winter I had the honour, through
your kindness, of making a communication to the Royal Society " On
the Power exercised by the Actiniae of our Shores in killing their
prey;" allow me now, through the same medium, to correct the

479

view which I was at that time led to adopt, that this power is due
to electrical influence.

In the communication alluded to, the idea of these creatures
being electrical, was based on the fact, that when the nerve of a frog's
limb, prepared after the manner of Matteucci's galvanoscopic frog,
is seized by the tentacles of an actinia, contractions of the muscles
promptly ensue. It was admitted, however, that all attempts to
produce deflection of the galvanometer-needle had failed, and this
being the very doubtful state of the question, I ventured to look
forward to the pleasure of making another communication on the
subject when I had had further opportunities of examining the
Actiniae in health and vigour.

I have now had these opportunities, and have found that the
most delicate electrometers are unaffected by these animals, and I
conceive that by the following simple, and indeed obvious experi-
ments, all idea of the Anemones of our coasts being electrical may be
set aside.

A galvanoscopic frog's limb having been prepared, with the nerve
as long as possible, it is laid on a piece of perfectly clear glass, so that
the nerve hangs over the edge. The pendent nerve is lowered into
the water containing an Anthea, and the nerve is brought in contact
with a single one of the long tentacles of this creature ; immediately
vigorous contractions follow in the muscles of the limb, and if
everything be left undisturbed, these twitchings will continue for
some minutes after the nerve is withdrawn.

If, however, a thread be tied round the nerve, below the point
where the tentacle of the Anthea had touched it, all twitchings at
once cease. If the portion touched by the tentacle be snipped off,
all twitchings also cease. Having thus repeatedly observed that
contact between the nerve and a single tentacle was followed by
muscular contractions, which at once ceased as soon as the portion
of the nerve which had been in contact with the tentacle was
removed, it occurred to me to try the effect of applying to the
nerve a single tentacle removed from the body of an Anthea. I
therefore had recourse to the following experiment : — The hind leg
of a frog is separated from the body, the sciatic nerve dissected out
carefully, so that the nerve be not crushed or injured, and the thigh
cut away. The limb with the nerve thus dissected out as long as

2 K2

480

possible, is to be laid on a plate of clean glass ; a silk thread is tied
round the base of one of the tentacles of an Anthea, and the tentacle
snipped off. The mere tentacle separated from the animal to which
it belonged is drawn gently across the nerve, or laid upon it, at the
upper part: immediately muscular contractions follow in the leg.
These contractions cease at once if the portion of the nerve touched
by the tentacle be cut off. There can, it seems, no longer be any
doubt that the muscular contractions are excited, not by elec-
tricity, but by irritant action of the urticating organs of the Anthea,
which being more powerful in this respect than other Anemones,
has been chosen for experiment, although other varieties give similar
results.

I now see I was in error in supposing that the effect produced on
the frog's limb by the Actiniae could be transmitted along a wire.
I presume that in preparing the experiment alluded to, which I
performed in the open air, at the sea-side, some of the irritant
materials of the Anemones, which I had possibly handled, had
been brought by my fingers in contact with the nerves, and I was
thus deceived.

I am very happy, however, that I am myself the first to perceive

and correct this error.

I remain, &c.,

ROBERT M'DONNELL.
W. Bowman, Esq., F.R.S., $c. fyc.

III. " On the Digestive and Nervous Systems of Coccus hespe-
ridum." By JOHN LUBBOCK, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S.
Received Oct. 4, 1858.

In the early part of last spring I began to investigate the anatomy
of this interesting little insect, with the intention of studying only
the organs connected with the development of the ova and pseudova.
It soon, however, became evident that the structure of the intestinal
canal, on the one hand, had been entirely misunderstood by those
who had previously examined it ; and on the other, that the nervous
system, far from being similar in all specimens, varied in the most
extraordinary manner. It is therefore proposed in the present com-
munication to give a very brief description of the digestive organs
and of the nervous system.

481

Intestinal Canal.
(Magnified 30 diameters.)

FIG I

Ramdohr and Leydig are the only two naturalists, so far as I
know, who have published any original remarks on this subject.

Ramdohr says, " Die Speiserohre kurz und enge. Der Magen
vorn ein wenig erweitert, lang und vollig durchsichtig, so dass man

die dunkeln Contenta darin sieht Der Dunndarm ist leer, etwas

weiter als der Magen, durchsichtig, bisweilen faltig. . . . Die Gallge-
f asse fehlen, wenigstens konnte ich nicht die geringste Spur davon
entdecken." This description, however, has reference to Chermes
Alni.

According to Leydig (Zeitschr. f. Wiss. Zool. V. TAB. I. fig. 1),
the canal in Coccus hesperidum consists of a short oesophagus, a large
stomach, and a long intestine. Into this intestine open four glands.
Rather behind the middle of it are situated the two large, yellow
hepatic glands, and in front of these open, on one side, a free, slightly
curved caecum, and on the other, a shorter caecum coiled up and en-
closed in a pyriform sac, which is continued into a tube, whose end is
attached to the skin. This description is a singular mixture of truth
and error, and Professor Leydig is so careful an observer that it

482

was long before I could convince myself that he had made such a
series of mistakes. His descriptions of the separate parts are indeed
correct (though in my specimens the hepatic glands (G, G) were pro-
portionally larger than in his figure), but he has entirely misunder-
stood the relations of the different organs.

The true oesophagus (fig. 1 A) is rather long and extremely
narrow. It corresponds, I believe, to the tube f in Ley dig's figure,
which he considers as an appendage to the intestine. Following the
oesophagus comes the pear-shaped bag (fig. 1 F), with its remarkable
cellular, contorted, internal gland. Then there is a very short
intestine (D, ilium) opening into the rectum (C), which Leydig has
described as the stomach. The rectum is often found filled with
fluid, as Leydig figures it, and varies in shape in different specimens ;
it contracts at its posterior end into a narrow tube, B (the esopha-
gus of Leydig), which opens into the vent on the upper side of the
body.

At the anterior end of the pear-shaped crop or stomach are
attached, besides the oesophagus, the two ends of the recurrent
intestine (H), and the caecum (E), which is generally swollen at its
base, and is perhaps the equivalent of the sucking stomach.

The recurrent intestine is considered by Burmeister and Lacor-
daire to be part of the ventriculus, but in all insects the Malpighian
vessels open into the duodenum, or, when this is wanting, into the
ilium, close behind the pylorus ; and as in the Homoptera they are
attached to the recurrent intestine, it seems improper to consider
this as part of the ventriculus. If the recurrent intestine be cut, a
number of large cells, some with daughter-cells, exude from it.

According to Burmeister, the Malpighian vessels are never less
than four in number ; and according to Lacordaire, when there are
only two, they are always attached by both ends ; but in C. hespe-
ridum there are but two, and they are attached only at one end.

It seems to me evident that M. Leydig must have detached the
whole canal from the skin, and, in doing so, ruptured the recurrent
intestine. In this case it would be very natural for him to regard
the free end of the longer part as the anus. The large rectum he
has evidently mistaken for the stomach, and the vent for the mouth.
There would then remain the oesophagus, which he has correctly
described as going to the skin.

483

I have repeatedly dissected out the intestinal canal without rup-
turing the recurrent intestine ; and it may be observed that the
structure of the whole digestive organs, as now described, is in
accordance with that of the other Homoptera, which would not be
the case if M. Ley dig is correct.

M. Ramdohr examined C. Aini, but his description can hardly be
correct, since it is scarcely possible that nearly allied species can
differ so entirely in the arrangement of such important organs.
Unless Coccus Aini does diifer very much from C. hesperidum, he has
made the same mistakes as M. Ley dig, with the addition of having
misunderstood or overlooked the hepatic glands, which perhaps he
may have mistaken for ovaries.

The intestinal canal of C. persicce is formed on the same type as
that of C. hesperidum.

Nervous System.

I do not propose to give a detailed account of the nervous
system, and only allude to it in order to mention the great variations
observed in different specimens. Figs. 2-9 represent different forms
of the nervous system in C. hesperidum, and fig. 10 that of
C. persicce : in all the objects are magnified 60 diameters.

Leydig rightly describes the subcesophageal portion of the gan-
glionic column as being reduced to a large mass (fig. 2, &c. A),
situated close behind the mouth. This ganglion generally emits,
besides the commissure, three large nerves on each side, and its
hinder extremity is continued into a still larger nervous column (C),
which passes backward for rather more than "014 of an inch without
throwing off any branches. It then divides, and after a while each
of the divisions again subdivides, so as to give off a rich plexus of
nerves to the posterior part of the body.

The posterior pair of nerves (fig. 2, &c.) always throws off on its
inner side, and not very far from its origin, a nerve (F) which I
once traced and found to unite with one of the nerves derived from
the main central chord. This nerve (F) is always present, but the
point at which it leaves the main nerve (B) is very variable, being
sometimes as much as '014 of an inch from the subcesophageal
ganglion, sometimes quite close to it. Indeed, in more than one
instance it arose from the ganglion itself, and not from the nerve B
(fig. 3).

484

485

In the divisions also of the central stem there are very great
variations, which it would be endless to describe in detail. Perhaps
the arrangement most generally met with, and that which I am
inclined to regard as the type, on account of its presenting the
nearest approach to symmetry, is that the main central chord sepa-
rates, at about '014 from its origin, into two equal branches, and
these again, after a course of about *01, divide dichotomously
(fig. 2). In such a case the division of F from B generally takes
place at a considerable distance from the ganglion.

I have, however, not met with many specimens presenting even
this very limited amount of symmetry and regularity.

In fig. 4 we see the two divisions (G, G) of the central chord C
divide almost immediately and yet not symmetrically. In fig. 5 the
chord C divides into two unequal divisions, the smaller of which
passes along for more than -014 before it redivides, while the larger
branch divides into three at a point only "006 from its origin.
In fig. 6 the central chord, just before its division into two
branches, throws off on each side a small branchlet ; in fig. 7 this
happens only on one side. Finally, figs. 4 and 7 present us with
some instances in which more than four branches are given off close
to the first division of the great chord C.

But even in the case which I have above described as most
typical, the symmetry is not in fact so great as it would at first
sight appear to be, because the nerves on the two sides are fre-
quently not of the same size. Thus, in fig. 2 each of the two
branches of the main central stem divides, it is true, into two
secondary branches, one of which is smaller than the other, but the
two lesser branches are both upon the right side. If then, as is
probable, we are justified in concluding that in each animal the
ultimate nervous fibrils are of somewhat equal size, that they com-
pose the greater part of the nerve, and that the corresponding
organs of the two sides of the body receive an equal amount of
nerves, it is evident that some of the parts which on the left side
are supplied by the large outer branch must on the right side be
connected with the median branch.

We see, therefore, that not only is the branching of the nerves
absolutely irregular, and that of the two sides entirely unsym-
metrical, but even the number of main stems proceeding from the

486

ganglion is not always the same. This result has surprised me very
much, since if any organs might have been expected to be almost
invariable, I should have thought it would have been the nervous
system. I believe that no parallel case has been described, nor do
I even remember to have seen a description of any variation occur-
ring in the larger nerves of any animal whatsoever. Considering,
however, how great are the variations which occur here in the same
species, it is evident that differences in the distribution of the nerves
in nearly allied forms are in themselves no proof that such species
were separately created.

Around the ganglionic masses are several large spherical bodies.
These appear to be homologous with the " Zellenkorper," described
by Leuckart as surrounding the supracesophageal ganglion in the
larva of Melophagus. He considers them also as homologous with
similar organs which have been observed in the embryos of other
insects by Heroldt and Kolliker*.

Dujardin (Ann. des Sci. Nat. 1850, 3rd ser. vol. xiv. p. 202) de-
scribes the suprao3sophageal ganglion of the worker-ants as consisting
of several isolated parts, and I was at first inclined to consider these
spherical bodies as also merely isolated parts of the ganglionic mass,
in favour of which view it may be urged that fewer nerves than
usual appear to proceed from this mass. The contents of the
spherical bodies, however, under the influence of reagents, present
an appearance different from that of the supracesophageal mass.

The suboesophageal ganglion is very richly supplied with tracheae,
derived from two large stems which are attached to the front angles,
and ramify from thence all over the mass.

The supracesophageal ganglion is a triangular mass with its apex
behind. The two front corners terminate in large nerves.

The nervous system of C. persicce differs but little from that of
C. kesperidum, and offers the same extraordinary amount of
variation. The two species, however, could be at once distinguished
by the superior size of the suboesophageal ganglion in C. persicce, in
which species also the last pair of nerves (fig. 10) is given off more
posteriorly, while both they and the central stem are considerably
swollen at their origin, so as to give the hind margin of the ganglion
a three-pronged outline.

* Die Fortpflanzung und Entwickelung der Pupiparen. Halle, 1858.

487

November 25, 1858.
W. R. GROVE, Esq., V.P., in the Chair.

In accordance with the Statutes, notice was given of the ensuing
Anniversary Meeting, and the list of Officers and Council proposed
for election was read, as follows : —

President. — Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, Bart.

Treasurer. — Major- General Sabine, R.A.

Secretaries.-

I George Gabriel Stokes, Esq., M.A.

Foreign Secretary. — William Hallows Miller, Esq., M.A.

Other Members of the Council. — Henry Wentworth Dyke Acland,
M.D. ; Rear-Admiral Sir George Back, D.C.L. ; The Rev. John
Barlow, M.A. ; Thomas Bell, Esq., Pres. L.S. ; His Grace the
Duke of Devonshire, M.A. ; Edward Frankland, Ph.D. ; John Peter
Gassiot, Esq. ; Philip Hardwick, Esq., R.A. ; Arthur Henfrey, Esq. ;
Lieut. -Colonel Henry James, R.E. ; Sir Roderick Impey Murchison,
M.A., D.C.L. ; John Percy, M.D. ; Archibald Smith, Esq., M.A. ;
The Rev. William Whewell, D.D.; Charles Wheatstone, Esq.; The
Lord Wrottesley, M.A.

Captain Boxer, R.A., was admitted into the Society.

Robert W. Bunsen, Louis Poinsot, and Carl Theodor von Siebold,
having been severally balloted for, were elected Foreign Members
of the Society.

The following communications were read : —

I. "Researches on the Phosphorus-Bases." — No. III. Pho-
phoretted Ureas. By A. W. HOFMANN, Ph.D., F.R.S.
Received November 18, 1858.

The existence in the nitrogen- series of a well-defined group of
diamines of the formula

rendered it probable that the continued study of the phosphorus-,

488

arsenic-, and antimony-bases would lead to the discovery of the cor-
responding terms,

, £2 XAs2 and

c cj c

which might be designated as diphosphines, diarsines, and distibines ;
and the further prosecution of this line of thought very naturally
suggested the idea of searching for a group of intermediate compounds
containing simultaneously nitrogen and phosphorus, nitrogen and
arsenic, phosphorus and arsenic, &c., compounds expressed by the
formulae

**} 4>*\

>NP ; S2 >N As ; £2 >

cj cj

P As, &c.,

which might be termed phosphamines, arsamines, phospharsines, &c.

Among the several processes likely to furnish this result, none ap-
peared more promising than the reaction between a monamine and a
monophosphine of opposite chemical characters.

In the conception of this idea, I have studied the deportment of
cyanic acid and some of its derivatives with phosphoretted hydrogen
and its homologues, in the hope of producing combinations similar
in constitution to the ureas, but differing from these substances by
containing phosphorus in the place of one equivalent of nitrogen.

The action of cyanate and sulphocyanide of phenyl, an account of
which I have lately* submitted to the Royal Society, upon triethyl-
phosphine, seemed to include the conditions for the realization of
such compounds.

On bringing cyanate of phenyl in contact with triethylphosphine,
a most lively reaction ensues ; the mixture begins to boil, and the
phosphorus-base is apt to be inflamed. On cooling, the liquid soli-
difies into a crystalline mass, which is insoluble in water, soluble in
alcohol and ether, and crystallizes from the latter solvent in beautiful
little square tables, tasteless, inodorous, and infusible at 100° C. On
submitting this compound to analysis, I was surprised to find that
it contained no phosphorus, and that it exhibited the composition
of the original cyanate of phenyl, from which it differs so essentially
in its properties. This substance is the cyanurate of phenyl, gene-
rated from the cyanate by simple transposition of the elements. The
* Proceedings, vol. ix. p. 274.

489

triethylphosphine participates only indirectly in the reaction ; in
giving rise to the transformation of the cyanate, the phosphorous
body plays the part of a ferment, a comparison which is moreover
suggested by the large proportion of cyanate over which the influence
of a minute quantity of phosphorus-base extends. A glass rod
moistened with triethylphosphine solidifies, almost instantaneously,
a considerable quantity of the cyanate. The transformation of the
cyanate under the influence of triethylphosphine, into cyanurate,
although the principal phase of the reaction, is attended by other
changes which I intend to examine more minutely by and by.

Very different results were obtained by substituting for the cyanate
the sulphocyanide of phenyl. The reaction between this body and
triethylphosphine is very violent, and frequently gives rise to the in-
flammation of the phosphorus-base. The mixture assumes a deep
yellow colour, and often deposits splendid yellow needles on cooling ;
frequently, however, it remains liquid for hours and even for days,
but suddenly solidifies, when touched with a glass rod, into a hard,
yellow, crystalline mass. This substance is insoluble in water; it
dissolves with the greatest facility in alcohol, hot or cold, likewise in
warm, less so in cold ether. Recrystallization from boiling ether
affords, in fact, the best means of procuring the new body in a state
of purity. This end is likewise considerably facilitated, by allowing
the sulphocyanide of phenyl to act upon the triethylphosphine in the
presence of a considerable quantity of ether.

In the pure state the new compound presents itself in the form of
well-defined prisms of uranium-yellow colour, which fuse at 61° C.
They cannot be heated much beyond their fusing-point without being
altered; at 100° C. they are entirely decomposed, evolving a most
peculiar odour, which is also observed on evaporating the ethereal
mother-liquor.

The new compound possesses the characters of a well-defined base.
Quite insoluble in water, it dissolves in the most dilute acids, form-
ing with some of them, such as hydrochloric and hydrobromic acid,
beautifully crystallized saline compounds. From these salts the base
may be separated again by cautiously adding either potassa or am-
monia. The hydrochloric solution of the base yields with dichloride
of platinum a yellow crystalline precipitate, sparingly soluble in
water, insoluble in alcohol and ether.

490

Analysis of the yellow crystals, dried over sulphuric acid, led to
the formula

C26H20NPS2,

which shows that they are formed by the simple union of the two
substances placed in contact :

Sulphocyanide Triethyl- New compound.
of phenyl. phosphine.

If we consider urea as a diamine derived from diammonia by the
substitution of the diatomic molecule carbonyl (C2O2)" for 2 equivs.
of hydrogen,

(0,0

Urea C2 H4 N O2= H2 I N2,

— the simplest perhaps of the many views brought forward regarding
the constitution of urea, — the new substance, which formation as well
as chemical deportment essentially characterize as an analogue of
urea, may be represented by the following formula : —

(C2s2y ]

C26H20NPS2= (C4H5)2 NP;
(C12H5)(C4H5)J

that is, urea, the oxygen of which is replaced by sulphur, the hydro-
gen by ethyl and phenyl, and lastly, half the nitrogen by phosphorus.

The formation of this compound presents considerable interest, not
only as an illustration of the remarkable persistence of the type urea,
but also as furnishing the first unequivocal instance of the formation
of ureas containing no longer any unreplaced hydrogen, the existence
of which had as yet remained doubtful.

The new urea forms, as I have stated, a series of well-defined beau-
tifully crystallized salts. Its solution in warm hydrochloric acid
solidifies, on cooling, into a crystalline mass, which, when recrystal-
lized from warm water, is obtained in splendid needles of a bright
cadmium-yellow colour, often several inches in length. They are
decomposed at 100° C., and must therefore be dried over sulphuric
acid in vacuo. Analysis proved them to contain
C26H20NPS2,HC1.

The solution of this salt yields with dichloride of platinum a bright
yellow precipitate, which under the microscope is found to consist of

491

small lily-shaped crystals. Dried over sulphuric acid in vacua it
contains

C26H20NPS2, HCl,PtCl2.

The hydrochlorate yields also a precipitate with trichloride of gold ;
the salt is, however, rapidly blackened.

The hydrobromate, both in preparation and properties, resembles
the hydrochlorate. Its composition is

C26H20NPS2,HBr.

The urea readily combines with iodide of methyl and ethyl. The
methyl-compound immediately separates in the crystalline form on
mixing an ethereal solution of the urea with iodide of methyl ; it is
soluble in water, and crystallizes from a boiling solution in beautiful
golden-yellow needles, containing

C26H20NPS2, C2H3I.

The iodide, by the action of chloride of silver, may be converted
into the chloride ; this yields with dichloride of platinum a fine
needle-formed salt, which may be recrystallized without decomposi-
tion. The formula of this platinum- salt is

C26H20NPS2,C2H3Cl,Pt,Cl2.

When treated with oxide of silver, the iodide furnishes a powerfully
alkaline liquid, probably the corresponding base

[<C, H.) ((C, 8,y (C4 Hs)3 (Cu H5) NP)] J Q>>

Scarcely separated, however, this substance decomposes with libera-
tion of sulphocyanide of phenyl, the oxide of methyl-triethylphos-
phonium remaining in solution. This salt is sufficiently characterized
by the readily crystallizable octahedral platinum-salt.

I have not been able to obtain either the sulphate or the nitrate of
the urea, probably on account of the great instability of the new
substance.

On dissolving the base, even in dilute nitric acid, it is immediately
decomposed with separation of sulphocyanide of phenyl, the triethyl-
phosphine being oxidized. The same change is observed when one
of the more stable salts, such as the hydrochlorate, is dissolved in
a large quantity of water ; the liquid soon becomes turbid from the
elimination of oily globules of sulphocyanide of phenyl, and now con-
tains the hydrochlorate of the phosphorus-base.

On adding ammonia to a salt of the urea, similar phenomena are

492

observed. From a concentrated solution, the base is separated with-
out change ; but when dilute and hot solutions are employed, the
turbidity at first produced disappears, and after a few minutes beau-
tiful crystals of phenyl-sulphocarbamide (Cu H8 N2 S2) * make their
appearance ; at the same time the odour of triethylphosphine be-
comes perceptible.

With potassa the deportment is perfectly analogous, but the cry-
stals formed after some time are diphenyl-sulphocarbamide (sulpho-
carbanilide, C26 H12 N2 S2) instead of phenyl-sulphocarbamide.

On adding to an ethereal solution of the urea a few drops of bisul-
phide of carbon, the liquid, when gently heated, assumes a deep
crimson colour, and deposits, on cooling, the beautiful compound
(C4H5)3P, C2S4, which I have described some time agof. The
mother-liquor yields on evaporation oily drops of sulphocyanide of
phenyl.

The deportment of triethylphosphine with sulphocyanide of
phenyl induced me to investigate the action of this body upon several
other sulphocyanides. The substance which at once suggested itself
for examination was sulphocyanide of allyl, mustard-oil. This com-
pound reacts most powerfully with the phosphorus-base. On mixing
the two bodies, a powerful evolution of heat takes place, and the
mixture assumes a deep brown colour, but does not solidify either on
cooling or on agitation. After several days' standing, however, very
large well-defined crystals are deposited which unfortunately are con-
taminated with the brown colouring matter of the solution. I have
not yet succeeded in getting them perfectly white, and have there-
fore not analysed them. Their formation, however, and their general
characters leave no doubt that they are the corresponding allyl-
compound,

C

(C2S2)" ]
H20NPS2= (C4H5)2 iNP.
(C4H5)(C6H5)J

Triethylphosphine has remained in contact with sulphocyanide of
ethyl for more than a month without depositing any crystals.
A priori, however, the formation of an urea under these circumstances
was doubtful, since sulphocyanide of ethyl differs from the corre-
sponding phenyl- and allyl-compounds, even in its deportment with
ammonia and the monamines.

* Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. ix. p. 276. t Ibid. p. 290.

493

In conclusion, it deserves to be mentioned that there appears to
exist a similar series of arsenetted ureas. Triethylarsine, when left
for some weeks in contact with sulphocyanide of phenyl, deposits
small crystals of a body which I believe to be the arsenic-compound
carresponding to the phosphorus-urea described in this paper. This
body requires a more minute examination.

II. "On the Deflection of the Plumb-line in India caused by
the Attraction of the Himalaya Mountains and the elevated
regions beyond, and its modification by the compensating
effect of a Deficiency of Matter below the Mountain Mass."
By the Venerable Archdeacon PRATT. Communicated by
Mr. STOKES, Sec. R.S. Received October 25, 1858.
(Abstract.)

The author begins by referring to his former paper, published in
the 'Transactions' for 1855, in which he calculated the deflections
caused by the mountain mass on the north of Hindostan, at three
principal stations of the Great Arc, in the plane of the meridian, viz.
Kaliana (lat. 29° 30' 48"), Kalianpur (24° 7' 11"), and Damargida
(18° 3' 15"). He made them 27"'853, 11"'968, and 6"'909 (or
more correctly, as revised in the present Paper, 27 "'978, 12"'047,
and 6"'790) ; and showed that the comparison of these two portions
of the arc — which, if it be elliptical, and if the amplitudes are accu-
rately known, ought to give the exact ellipticity of the arc in ques-
tion— gives an ellipticity of ^-^g-, instead of the mean -g-J^.

2. He next states that the Astronomer Royal, in a subsequent
communication (in 1855), suggests that there is most probably a de-
ficiency of matter immediately below the mountains which will cause
a negative deflection, and so compensate for the mountain attraction.
Three objections are urged against this hypothesis, as stated by
Mr. Airy. It requires (1) that the solid crust should be only about
ten miles thick ; (2) that the crust should be lighter than the lava
on which it rests ; (3) that wherever there is a protuberance up-
wards in mountain masses and table-lands, there must be a corre-
sponding projection of the crust downwards into the fluid, which it
is difficult to conceive, as the same reason which is used to show it
would prove also that, where there are hollows above as in deep

VOL. ix. 2 L

494

seas, there must be corresponding hollows in the solid crust below
filled up by the lava, and this would point out a law of varying
thickness in the crust which no process of cooling could well pro-
duce.

3. The author considers, however, that if there be a compen-
sating cause it must lie in this direction ; and he puts forth the hy-
pothesis of deficiency of matter in a new form. He supposes that
the mountain mass has risen up in consequence of a slight expansion
of the solid crust below through many miles of thickness, producing
a slight attenuation from a considerable depth. He calculates for-
mulae and reduces them to tables to find the effect of this atte-
nuation, and shows that the mountain attraction, modified by this
attenuation, if it extend down through 100 or 300, or 500 or 1000
miles (the attenuation being uniform along each vertical line), will
produce the following deflections : —

At Kaliana. . . . l"-538, or 6"'872, or 10"'912, or 16"'779.
„ Kalianpur. . 0"' 064 „ 0"'369 „ 2"'425 „ 4"'661.
„ Damargida 0"'065 „ 0"'076 „ 0"«120 „ 1"'570.

4. These four sets of deflections are then applied to correct the
amplitudes of the two portions of the arc, and by their comparison
to find the ellipticity, which is shown to be, in the four cases,

J_ _L J_ 1

216' 280' 286' 8 385'

So that although the hypothesis, if the depth of attenuation be
about 100 miles, greatly reduces the deflection, it does not reduce
the ellipticity to the mean value, which is attained only if the depth
be somewhere between 500 and 1000 miles. There is little or no
ground, therefore, for working with a mean ellipticity as is done in
the Great Survey.

5. It is next pointed out that this theory will not explain the
peculiarities of the Indian Arc under consideration ; in which (ac-
cording to Colonel Everest: see his volume for 1847, p. clxxvii),
the upper portion has an excess in its amplitude, geodetically deter-
mined, of 5"-236, and the lower a defect of 3"' 789. The presence
of other disturbing causes near Kalianpur or Damargida, or both,
is indicated by this ; either in visible masses above, which ought to
be accurately surveyed (as even small masses, if near enough, will
produce the effect) ; or in invisible defects or excesses of matter

495

below, which it is impossible to discover, and therefore to estimate.
The possibility, and even not small probability of such existing
without our being able to detect and estimate them, throws an air of
doubt and uncertainty over all geodetic operations, whenever it is
necessary to know with precision the position of the vertical, freed
from the influence of local disturbing causes. This is necessary for
determining the curvature of the arc, that it may be used in both
the problems of mapping the country with extreme accuracy, and of
ascertaining the form of this part of the earth. A note is appended,
illustrating the degree of influence which errors in the verticals and
the ellipticities may have on the mapping.

6. The author next applies the results of his paper to ascertain
the effect upon the plumb-line of an excess or defect of density, of
only 1-1 00th part above or below the density required by the fluid-
theory of equilibrium, and prevailing over wide-spread spaces in the
interior of the earth. From the fact that specimens of rocks, even
of the same description, found at the surface of the earth, vary con-
siderably in density, he infers that it is not improbable that there
may be as wide variations of density among the masses below, in
addition to the variations arising from difference of distance from the
centre of the earth and required by the fluid-theory of equilibrium.
If this be the case, his calculation shows that his fears expressed in
the last paragraph are not unfounded. The result of this part of
the calculation is expressed in the following Table : —

TABLE OF DEFLECTIONS caused by a defect or excess of matter
throughout a semicubic space of four millions of miles [i. e. 200
each way parallel to the surface, and 100 miles in the vertical], the
mean density of the excess or defect being 1-1 00th part of the den-
sity of the earth at the depth of the centre of the cubic space.

Depth of the
centre of the

Distance of the middle point of the space from the
station, measured along the chord to the surface,

379 miles.

581 miles.

781 miles.

980 miles.

11 73 miles.

50 miles.

1-940

6-835

6-457

6-248

0-118

150 „

1-621

0-803

0-456

0-252

0-120

250 „

1-383

0-782

0-483

0-272

0-131

350 „

1-067

0-749

0-490

0-286

0-142

450 „

0-663

0-713

0-425

0-277

0-145

2 L 2

496

If the space be nearer to the station, or if the difference in den-
sity be more than 1-1 00th part, these deflections must be multiplied
by a corresponding quantity.

7. The paper is concluded by a revision of some of the calculations
in the former communication. The mass of the mountain region
above the level of the plains is shown to be somewhat more than
four-millionths of the mass of the earth.

JIL " On the Thermal Effects of Compressing Fluids." By J. P.
JOULE, LL.D., F.R.S. &c. Received October 9, 1858.

(Abstract.)
The author in this paper gives an experimental demonstration of

the correctness of Professor Thomson's formula, 0

^,
JK.

where 0 is

the thermal effect, T the temperature from absolute zero, e the ex-
pansibility by heat, p the pressure, J the mechanical equivalent of
the thermal unit, and K the capacity for heat. The fluids experi-
mented on were water and oil, with the results tabulated below : —

Temperature
of the liquid.

Pressure
applied in
atmospheres.

Experimental
result.

Theoretical
result.

Water.. .«

• f -2 Cent.
5
11-69
18-38
30
31-37
40-4

25-34
2534
25-34
25-34
25-34
15-64
15-64

-0-0083
0-0044
0-0205
0-0314
0-0544
0-0394
0-0450

-00071
00027
0-0197
0-0340
0-0563
0-0353
0-0476

Oil \

16
17-29
16-27

7-92
15-64
25-34

0-0792
0-1686
0-2663

0-0886
0-1758

0-2837

IV. " Note on Archdeacon PRATT'S paper on the Effect of Local
Attraction on the English Arc." By Captain CLARKE, R.E.
Communicated by Lieut. -Colonel JAMES, ft.E. Received
June 30, 1858.

The following letter of Colonel James will explain the nature of
this communication ; the numerical statements, being not susceptible

497

of abridgement, are reserved for the Philosophical Transactions, in

which the paper will appear.

" Ordnance Survey Office,
Southampton, June 29, 1858.

" In the valuable communication by Archdeacon Pratt * On the
Effect of Local Attraction upon the Plumb-line at Stations on the
English Arc of the Meridian between Dunnose and Burleigh Moor,'
which is published in part 1. vol. cxlvi. of the Philosophical Transac-
tions, the data for the calculation are taken from vols. ii. and iii.
of the Trigonometrical Survey, which were published in 1811. Since
the publication of those volumes the triangulation has been extended
over the whole of the United Kingdom, new bases have been mea-
sured, and all the calculations have been revised ; and as consider-
able errors have been detected in the distances used as data by
Archdeacon Pratt, I directed Captain Clarke to substitute the cor-
rect distances in the formulae used by the Archdeacon, and recom-
pute the ellipticity and the amount of the local attraction at the
several stations. The accompanying paper contains the results ; and
you will see that we have simply made the numerical computa-
tions without presuming to alter the formulae employed ; in fact I
have considered it almost a duty on our part to supply the labour of
recomputation, the necessity for which was caused by the errors in
our first published volumes."

"HENRY JAMES."

" G. G. Stokes, Esq., Sec. R.S."

November 30, 1858.

ANNIVERSARY MEETING.

The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.

Mr. J. G. Jeffreys reported, on the part of the Auditors of the
Treasurer's Accounts, that the total receipts during the past year,
including a balance of 3627 5s. Sd. in the hands of the Treasurer,
amounted to J63864 15*. 3d. ; and the total expenditure during the
same period, including a balance of .=£47 9s. due to the Society's
Bankers, amounted to .£4048 Is. lie?., leaving a balance due to the
Treasurer of ^183 6*. Sd.

The thanks of the Society were voted to the Treasurer and
Auditors.

The Secretary read the following lists.

Fellows deceased since the last Anniversary.
On the Home List.

William Ayrton, Esq.
Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beau-
fort, K.C.B.

Robert Brown, Esq., D.C.L.
Edward Bury, Esq.
Alexander Caldcleugh, Esq.
Joseph Came, Esq.
Sir Philip Crampton, Bart.
Edmund Davy, Esq.
Rev. Richard Dixon, M.A.
Sir James Fellowes, M.D.
Edward Griffith, Esq.
Thomas Charles Harrison, Esq.
Thomas Legh, Esq.
Sir James MacGrigor, Bart.

Sir George Magrath, K.H., M.D.
Ebenezer Fuller Maitland, Esq.
Thomas Lister Parker, Esq.
Hugh Lee Pattinson, Esq.
Very Rev. George Peacock, Dean

of Ely.
Major-General Sir William Reid,

K.C.B.

John Forbes Royle, M.D.
Richard Horsman Solly, Esq.
Thomas Tooke, Esq.
Benjamin Travers, Esq.
Charles Hampden Turner, Esq.
Dawson Turner, Esq.
Henry Warburton, Esq.

On the Foreign List.

Johannes Muller.
Withdrawn from the Society.
George Hunsley Fielding, Esq.

Fellows elected since the last Anniversary.

Thomas Graham Balfour, M.D.
Edward Mounier Boxer, Captain

R.A.

Frederick Currey, Esq.
David Forbes, Esq.
Alfred Baring Garrod, M.D.
William Henry Harvey, M.D.
The Rev. Samuel Haughton.
Henry Hennessy, Esq.
David Livingstone, LL.D.
John Lubbock, Esq.

Right Hon. Sir John Pakington,

Bart.

Henry Darwin Rogers, LL.D.
William Scovell Savory, Esq.,

M.B.

Warington Wilkinson Smyth, Esq.
The Right Hon. James, Lord

Talbot de Malahide.
Lieut. -Col. Andrew Scott Waugh,

B.E.
Thomas Williams, M.D.

Foreign Members elected.

Robert W. Bunsen. Louis Poinsot.

Carl Theodor von Siebold.

499

The President then addressed the Society as follows : —

GENTLEMEN,

IN addressing you for the last time from this Chair, which by
your favour I have now occupied for a period of four years, it affords
me great gratification to be able to announce that all those measures
which were rendered necessary by our removal to this site, are now
completed, and we meet in an apartment which may be truly said to
be worthy of a Society which for near 200 years has taken the lead
in fostering a spirit of investigation into the laws of nature, and thus
promoting the best interests of its country and of mankind.

I rejoice that our walls are once more adorned by pictures of
some of the most eminent of the many distinguished men, who by
their lives and discoveries have left an imperishable name to poste-
rity, and shed a halo of glory over the whole human race. Even as
amidst the ruins of lona our great moralist felt his religious en-
thusiasm powerfully aroused, so may the sight of these portraits
kindle in us and our successors an earnest desire to emulate the
virtues of those whom they represent — that spirit of persevering
research which achieved such brilliant success — that regard for truth
which deems no sacrifice too great when her interests are at stake —
that modesty, the never-failing companion of genius, which, slightly
regarding results attained, is almost overpowered by the sense of
what remains to be accomplished. When we look at these memo-
rials of our predecessors, may we feel as the Romans of old, when
they beheld the statues of their ancestors ; they declared, " Cum ma-
jorum imagines intuerentur, vehementissime sibi animum ad virtutem
accendi ;" and yet, to use the words of the Grecian orator, Uaial <F av
?i cf£eA0oIs 6pw fteyav TOV dywva. Great is the competition indeed, and
few are the champions worthy to contend.

In a former Address I expressed a hope that the late Government
would send an Expedition to the mouth of the Mackenzie River to
continue those magnetical observations, which had been so perse-
veringly and successfully carried out by Capt. Maguire, and from
which expedition important accessions to our knowledge of the mag-
netical laws were not unreasonably expected ; but unhappily these
hopes have not been realized. Our disappointment may possibly be
traced, partly to the dislike which seems to prevail to anything

500

which can be designated as a renewal of Arctic voyages, and partly
to the want of a due appreciation of the value of the researches
proposed to be undertaken. On the objections arising out of this
antipathy to Polar expeditions, I have said so much on a former
occasion, that I will not again advert to them, further than to
observe that there was no ground for believing that the dangers to
which Arctic voyagers are sometimes, though rarely, exposed, would
have been encountered in this expedition ; and doubtless there
were many gallant hearts eager to face any amount of peril in
so worthy a cause. As to the second point, viz. the want of a due
appreciation of the researches themselves, I think it impossible
to believe that any one of average capacity and discernment would
undervalue the importance of prosecuting inquiries of this cha-
racter, were he familiarly acquainted with the history of scientific
discovery. If our leading statesmen and legislators had perused
with the same attention the records of the progress of science as many
of them have devoted to the historical memorials of the two great
nations of antiquity, can it be doubted that they would view these
questions in a far different spirit ?

When two powerful nations connected together by the tie of a
common origin and a common language were informed that messages
of mutual congratulation between their respective rulers had been
transmitted by the electrical current, beneath more than 2000 miles
of the deep waters of the vast Western Ocean, and that the two great
continents of the globe had been brought, as it were, within speaking
distance, a general sensation of delight pervaded their inhabitants,
and there was no want of appreciation of such results of scientific
research ; but it were well for Science and for the cause of future
discovery, if any great proportion of those who shared in this joy
had been able to trace the slow and gradual processes by which such
triumphs of human genius had been finally won. I have no hesi-
tation in speaking of this wondrous achievement as a success, for
it has been clearly shown that the work can be performed whenever
public spirit and zeal shall supply the necessary funds.

There is a lesson then which many men have yet to learn, and it
is most desirable that those especially, to whom the destinies of
nations are given in charge, should learn it — a lesson which I may
express in the words of a Report of the Parliamentary Committee

501

of the British Association, viz. " The most abstract scientific inves-
tigations have often led to most useful industrial applications ; and
observations and experiments, seemingly trivial and likely to lead
to no useful result, have sometimes, after the lapse of years, been
elaborated into discoveries which do honour to human nature."

Let us by way of illustration sketch some of the countless re-
searches which preceded the invention of the Electric Telegraph.
In 1729 Grey discovered that electricity could be transmitted through
conductors to a distance. In 1747 it was transmitted through seve-
ral miles of wire. In 1 753 an anonymous writer in the ' Scots'
Magazine ' first suggested the idea of an electric telegraph. In 1800
the voltaic battery was invented. In 1802 it was discovered that
the earth might be substituted for the return wire of a voltaic cir •
cuit. In 1820 Oersted discovered the mutual action of voltaic con-
ductors and magnets, the foundation of the science of Electro -mag-
netism. In 1820, also, Schwiegger invented the electro-magnetic
multiplier. In 1822 Ampere developed the laws of Electro-mag-
netism, and discovered many new facts, and Arago detected the action
of a voltaic current on soft iron. In 1827 Ohm eliminated the laws
of the voltaic circuit. In 1832 began the brilliant researches of
Faraday, in which he discovered and enunciated the laws of voltaic
and magneto-electric induction. In 1834 Wheatstone invented and
practically applied a method of measuring the velocity of electricity
in metallic wires. In 1835 Gauss and Weber employed their electric
battery in establishing a communication between the Observatory of
Gottingeri and the University ; and in July 1837 Wheatstone first
tried his electric telegraph on the line of the London and Birmingham
Railway. During all this period the voltaic battery was gradually
improved and its powers vastly augmented by Daniell and Grove.

Again, the progress of Chemistry during the last sixty years affords
abundant evidence of the advantages derived from the pursuits of
abstract science, when viewed simply in their bearing upon the com-
fort and convenience of mankind.

At the close of the last century, the Swedish chemist, Scheele,
made a series of experiments on the black oxide of manganese. To
some this might have seemed a very unprofitable waste of time ; but
what was the result ? Chlorine was discovered, a substance of the
greatest importance in the arts. Berthollet, finding that this gas

502

changed the colour of the corks of the bottles in which it was con-
fined, suggested its employment as a bleaching agent. This sug-
gestion, successfully carried out by Tennant, produced a complete
revolution in the staple trade of Manchester and Glasgow. The
operations of the bleacher were shortened from several months to as
many hours. The discovery of iodine was the result of a not very
promising examination of the refuse of kelp liquors ; and a laborious
train of investigation into the laws of decomposition gave us chloro-
form. But what inestimable benefits have accrued to mankind from
these discoveries ! I need hardly speak of the vast alleviation of
human suffering which is due to the guarded use of the latter sub-
stance ; and the former, in addition to its medicinal value, is the
basis of photography, one of the most beautiful and curious of
modern arts, which not only adds to our rational enjoyments, but is
extensively used in scientific researches, and ministers efficiently to
the useful purposes of life.

Then, again, Professor Owen astonished his audience at Leeds, by
relating how much agricultural wealth had been derived from the
proper application of a single once-neglected fossil.

The hopes which I at one time entertained that the Government
of Victoria would erect at Melbourne a four-foot reflector for the
observation of the Southern Nebulae, have not hitherto been fulfilled.
The General Committee of the British Association have voted a sum
of £ 200 towards carrying out the project, on condition that the
remainder of the funds shall be supplied by the local government ;
and this course they have taken in testimony of the interest which
they feel in the proposed measure, and of their desire to see it
carried fully into effect. Our posterity will have just ground of
complaint if the task be much longer postponed of surveying and
delineating the forms and peculiarities of these southern nebulae
with instrumental means, equal to the work, and capable of supple-
menting what has been done and is now doing for the nebulae visible
in our own latitudes by the magnificent instrument, for which Science
is indebted to your late President. The possession by this country
of vast colonies in various parts of the globe, offering facilities for
the erection of observatories and instruments for pursuing our re-
searches into nature's laws under every variety of climate and po-
sition on the earth's surface, does seem to impose on a great and

503

thriving nation some obligation to utilize these advantages for the
welfare of mankind at large. Truly something besides material gold
is to be had there for the seeking ; the precious ores of intellectual
progress may there also be culled and stored away.

The history of the progress of astronomical science has already
disclosed both the evil effects of neglecting these duties, and the
benefits which are likely to accrue when they are properly fulfilled.
When, in 1819, Encke computed the orbit of the comet of short
period, which justly bears his honoured name, and announced its
return in 1 822, that return would not have been observed had not
the zeal of a private individual, Sir Thomas Brisbane, established an
observatory at Paramatta in Australia, where, and where alone, its
reappearance was noted. Subsequently, the observatory at the Cape
of Good Hope was established ; but for many years, both there and
in Australia, the instrumental means provided for the observation of
comets were inadequate to the due discharge of the task. Now it is
well known that the motions of the comet of Encke first suggested
to astronomers the probability of the existence of some highly at-
tenuated medium or ether pervading the planetary spaces, in which
both planets and comets perform their revolutions. Every succeed-
ing return of this most interesting though diminutive body has
tended to confirm and strengthen that probability, which has now
well nigh, if not entirely, assumed the proportions of a physical fact.
But on each succeeding return of this wandering visitor, until 1855,
the distinguished veteran, who watches its motions with all the in-
terest and anxiety displayed by a fond parent towards a favourite
child, has had cause to deplore the deficiency of the instruments in
the Southern Hemisphere, to which the duty is necessarily assigned
of continuing the observations after the comet has ceased to be
visible in these latitudes. Before 1855, however, a more powerful
equatoreal had been supplied to Mr. Maclear, the able astronomer
at the Cape ; and now, to use the words of Encke himself in his
letter to the Astronomer Royal, — "In the year 1855, thanks to the
skill of Mr. Maclear, and the beautiful 8^-foot equatoreal with wire
micrometer, the observations are perfectly on a level with the Eu-
ropean, which I take the opportunity of begging [you] to make
known to Mr. Maclear with my best thanks. It is a real pleasure now
constantly to see that the comet is observed at every return with an

504

accuracy, which, in the year 1819, there was no possibility of ex-
pecting.'* Now, it appears that these observations of 1855 fully
confirmed the fact of the acceleration of the comet's irfean motion,
so often observed before ; but they have done more than this,
for they have been so well made, that Encke was enabled by
their means to correct the elements of the orbit, and calculate an
ephemeris for the return of the comet this year, taking into account
the perturbations of Jupiter, with such consummate accuracy, that
on the first evening on which, through the absence of moonlight,
there was a hope of finding it, which was on the 7th of August, it
was actually detected during the first half-hour's search in the place
given by calculation, though presenting to the eye only a faint dif-
fused nebulous mass of about one minute in diameter. Now, if the
existence of this ether, or attenuated atmosphere, pervading the
planetary spaces, should be conclusively established, of which there is
now scarcely any doubt, it is a fact of the utmost physical importance.
We may not indeed in the present state of science be able to foresee
all the consequences which may flow from its establishment ; but we
know enough to perceive that the question has an important bearing
upon several interesting modern speculations. The suggestion of
this resisting medium is only one of many important services which
this diminutive but most interesting comet has rendered to astro-
nomical science, and will doubtless still continue to render. Mr.
Maclear's equatoreal will now be turned to profitable account in fol-
lowing up the fine comet of Donati, which has just escaped from
our view to present itself, but shorn of most of its former splendour,
to the expectant gaze of southern astronomers. Those who had the
good fortune to observe this comet on the night on which it ap-
proached Arcturus so nearly, will not easily forget the spectacle it
then presented.

You are well aware that it was in our Colonies also that many of the
magnetical observatories were established, in which for several years
hourly observations were made of the three magnetical elements ;
and it may be confidently affirmed that from these observations most
valuable results have been deduced, to which, however, as they were
to some extent described by me on a former occasion, I will not
further allude, than to inform you that in the opinion of your
Council the time has now arrived, in which it is most expedient that

505

these observatories should be again established for a limited period,
furnished with instruments from Kew, embracing all modern im-
provements. The propriety of pursuing this course has been care-
fully investigated by a Joint Committee of this Society and the
British Association, of which Sir John Herschel acted as Chairman.
They have reported strongly in its favour, and an application has
accordingly been made to the Government by Prof. Owen, as Presi-
dent of the British Association, and myself, urging the re-esta-
blishment of these observatories at four stations, viz. Newfound-
land, Vancouver's Island, the Falkland Isles, and at Pekin or some
adjacent station. I cannot but add the earnest expression of my
hope that the Government will be induced to regard with favour this
proposal, for I well know that all the distinguished men who have
made magnetical science their peculiar study, including the honoured
name of Humboldt, are most earnest in desiring it. It would re-
quire more time than I can afford to bestow on the subject, were I to
attempt even to hint at all the benefits which might flow from the
complete elimination and elucidation of the magnetical laws ; but
the construction of correct and complete charts, showing the
variation and the isodynamical and isoclinal lines at given epochs,
is alone an object of transcendent importance to commerce and
navigation. To this must be added the accurate establishment of
the data on which are founded the methods adopted for ascertaining
and correcting the deviations of the compass in iron ships ; and
besides, we must always bear in mind that the result of modern
speculations seems to show that all the so-called imponderable
agents, heat, light, electricity, and magnetism, are intimately con-
nected by mysterious links ; every accession to our knowledge of
one has therefore an important bearing on the elucidation of all
the others.

It would appear from a communication which has been received by
your Council, that it has been in contemplation by the Government
to erect, on the unoccupied site to the north of Burlington House,
an office for the Commissioners of Patents. This is a mode of em-
ploying the large surplus income which is now derived from patent
fees, to which no objection can be reasonably made ; but the whole
subject of the working of the patent laws must at no very distant date
again undergo a searching investigation. It can never be tolerated

506

that inventors, to whom we owe such inestimable accessions to the
conveniences and luxuries of life, should be subject to a tax peculiar
to their class alone ; and this must be the effect of the present law
so long as fees are received from the patentees exceeding the amount
which may be reasonably demanded for purposes in which they have
themselves a direct interest, and the surplus carried to the account
of the public Exchequer. At the same time I cannot but think that
a small sum in addition might justly be required from every grantee
of a privilege of this kind, to be carried to a fund for the promotion
of the researches of abstract science ; for assuredly there are none
who derive more direct benefit from such investigations than those
from whom the payment would be demanded ; and that class have,
and more especially in a country like this, opportunities of turning
their talents to pecuniary account, which are altogether denied to
the cultivator of abstract science, who forms his nest only to be seized
by some more fortunate occupier, coming in like the bird in the
fable, and appropriating to his own benefit the severe and long-pro-
tracted labours of the skilful and painstaking builder.

On reviewing once more the position of Science in this country, I
find that the voluntary or independent system has been carried very
far indeed. That is, a great many Societies have at various periods,
from 1663, the date of this the most ancient, to the present time,
been successively founded for the promotion and encouragement of
science. Those who compose these various associations pay for the
honour of enrolling their names as members, sums which must be
considered large in reference to the means of some of the con-
tributors ; and many of those members in addition devote a con-
siderable portion of their valuable time to scientific researches.
These Societies, though contributing so much to the public weal,
are yet for the most part entirely unrecognized by the Govern-
ment, and, with certain trifling exceptions, receive no kind of public
aid in prosecuting their valuable labours ; but, on the other hand,
by a kind of hap-hazard arrangement, strongly characteristic of
our national character, the Government has from time to time
organized various bodies, which, though with few exceptions not
recognized by any act of the legislature, are yet invested to a certain
extent with an official character, and obtain greater consideration
from the Government in consequence. Such, for example, are the

507

Board of the Trustees of the British Museum ; the Board of Visitors
of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, which has an official con-
nexion with the Board of Admiralty ; the various officers to whom
the management of matters connected with science or art is com-
mitted by the Council of Education, Board of Trade, or Military
or Naval authorities. Now if we contrast this system of ours with
that of our neighbours in France and some other continental states,
we shall find that there are marked and striking differences between
them. In France there is the Institute, the members of which not
only do not pay out of their own resources for the honour they enjoy,
but are invested with high privileges and great official consideration,
and receive stipends from the State, at the price no doubt of an
amount of Government interference with their proceedings which our
countrymen might probably hesitate to submit to. I believe that in
France the members of the Institute, as such, are regularly con-
sulted on the important scientific questions which must present
themselves for solution from time to time in the course of civil and
military administration. In England, on the other hand, the various
voluntary or private Societies established for the promotion of science
have never been recognized as advisers of the Government, or con-
sulted as a rule ; though undoubtedly the Councils of this and other
Societies have been often applied to for advice, and more frequently
perhaps of late years than formerly ; but the various Boards and
officers above referred to are not only invariably consulted on those
matters which are consigned to their management, but there are few
instances on record in which their advice has been neglected, or the
measures recommended by them have failed to be carried into effect.
In instituting any comparison of the relative merits of these two
modes of proceeding, it is clear that, irrespective of the results
obtained, the decision of the question as to which is to be preferred,
must depend greatly on the mode by which the referees of the
Executive in the two countries are appointed ; for it may be fairly
assumed that both contain men well qualified, both by their extensive
attainments and natural and acquired abilities, to give good advice to
their respective Governments. Now the French Institute undoubtedly
comprehends most able and highly distinguished men, enjoying an
established and world-wide reputation, and well qualified to give
sound advice to their Government on questions of science. This is

508

undoubtedly true, though it may be equally true that there are cir-
cumstances in the working of the French system, dependent partly
on the immense value of the privileges conferred by the election,
which have a tendency to arrest the wholesome progress of science in
that country. In England, so far as an experience of nearly forty
years can enable me to form an opinion, 1 should say that there is
great impartiality and discrimination exhibited in the selection of
men to fill high posts in the various Scientific Societies there esta-
blished, and I apprehend there are few instances in which meritorious
and successful cultivators of the various departments of science, if
resident in the metropolis, have failed in obtaining their share in the
government and administration of those learned bodies. The con-
stitution of the Board of Visitors of the Greenwich Observatory also
is worthy of all praise. It has contributed in some degree doubtless
to raise that establishment to the high point of eminence which it
now deservedly occupies ; and that constitution has called forth the
warm eulogiums of the veteran French astronomer Biot, than whom
there can be few more competent judges. On the other hand, the
mode of appointing the Trustees of the British Museum is defective
in the extreme. They are nominally elected by the Trustees them-
selves, but the Trustees, who have been themselves elected, are by an
absurd regulation excluded from the body of electors. The officers of
the Council of Education and the Board of Trade, and the Military
and Naval Boards are appointed by the Government or Military
authorities, and the nominations are thus subject to all the incidents
of appointments of this class.

The blots in our system seem to be, first, that there is a great
want of combined action between the various communities representing
Science ; — an evil, which might possibly be remedied by some joint
representation of the whole ; and secondly, that the Societies insti-
tuted for the promotion of the various branches of science, though
containing among their members and governing bodies those men
who have been impartially selected as pre-eminent in their various
walks, are not officially recognized in any way as authorities, or
appealed to except occasionally and by accident, whenever some
member of the Administration may happen to perceive that their
counsel might advance the object in view, and be profitable to the
State. Moreover, it seems never to have occurred either to the

509

Government or Parliament, that the materials exist out of which a
Board may be formed which might be expected to give wholesome
advice on scientific questions, take on themselves a share of the
Government responsibility, and save the country from the bad con-
sequences which now flow either from neglecting to take counsel, or
from the careless and indeterminate way in which it is sometimes
sought and obtained.

There are other points connected with the important questions to
which I have shortly adverted, for which I must refer you to the
twelve resolutions of your Council of January 1857 ; and also to the
Report of the Parliamentary Committee to the British Association
of 1855, already referred to, in which the subject is discussed and
examined.

I anticipate much advantage to science from the circumstance
that His Royal Highness The Prince Consort has consented to accept
the Presidency of the British Association. Science has no need of a
Patron in the ordinary sense of that term; but her interests are
much advanced when those who occupy exalted stations, and are
endowed with great qualities of mind and heart, are induced to take
part in her councils, and become cognizant of the character, views,
and requirements of the most distinguished of her cultivators.

It would appear from the Report of that truly zealous and inde-
fatigable officer of the Society, your Treasurer, dated October 1857,
that we had then a considerable excess of income over our average
ordinary expenditure, that probably we should shortly be in the
receipt of annual sums in respect of the Stevenson Bequest, and
that on the demise of the tenant for life, we should come into pos-
session of the Handley legacy. This therefore renders it probable
that we shall have a clear balance at the end of each year ; and in
the course of time, as annuitants die and the legacies come into
possession, that balance will be augmented.

Now since the date of this Report, we agreed to appropriate a sum
of 2^250 towards the formation of a MS. Catalogue of Scientific
Memoirs, a grant which will probably be yearly renewed until that
work is completed ; and there can be no doubt that the cost of the
printing and publishing the Transactions is increasing and will still
increase ; but still we must look forward to a period which may not
be tardy in arriving, when we shall have a larger annual surplus to

VOL. ix. 2 M

510

dispose of. I quite agree with our Treasurer, that it deserves con-
sideration whether a more advantageous employment might not be
found for our surplus income, " more beneficial to science and to the
Society itself, than that of continuing to increase the accumulated
funds." Dr. Wollaston would probably have supported these views;
for in his celebrated letter on establishing the Donation Fund, read
to the Council on the llth of December, 1828, he says, " I hereby
enjoin the President, Council, and Fellows not to hoard the dividends
parsimoniously, but expend them liberally, and as nearly as may be
annually."

Now there are some who think that we should look forward to a
time when the payment of annual subscriptions should be discon-
tinued. I cannot subscribe to this opinion. It is true, that there
are men who by natural talent, by incredible perseverance, self-devo-
tion and industry, have risen, as it were, from the ranks of science,
to whom the large payments exacted from members are a serious
inconvenience and an obstruction to their obtaining those honours
which they have justly earned by the labours of a well-spent youth.
Let such men be excused; but I cannot comprehend on what
principle we should refuse to receive pecuniary contributions for
a most worthy object, from those who are not unwilling and are
perfectly able to pay them in exchange for the honours and many
other advantages which their Fellowship confers upon them. There
may be some, again, who imagine that there will be some difficulty
in discovering a mode of expending this anticipated surplus which
is likely to meet with general approval. I cannot believe it.
There are many works which cannot be written ; many researches,
experiments, and observations which cannot be made, reduced or
published; many voyages and travels that cannot be undertaken
because the necessary funds are not to be had. Moreover, there
is a mode of applying a part of these accumulations, which
has suggested itself to some of the members of your Council, to
which I will allude very briefly. Your Secretaries are always chosen
from among the most distinguished of your Fellows. They are
generally men who are occupied in professional and professorial
duties which embrace a very large portion of their time ; and it is
their precious leisure hours only which they can devote to your ser-
vice ; hours, which when not given to necessary relaxation, they would

511

probably employ in scientific research or private study. It might be
truly said that no payment that we can afford to make could be a
sufficient return for such services as they render under such circum-
stances. It is not intended however, doubtless, that the full value
should be given. It is perhaps right that the honour conferred by
the appointment should constitute a part of the reward, but the
remaining or pecuniary part may be so trifling as necessarily to ex-
clude from your service some who cannot afford to accept office on
terms so inadequate.

And now, in conclusion, I bid you farewell, and I do so with a most
cordial and heartfelt expression of gratitude for the unvaried kind-
ness and confidence which I have ever received from you. The
transaction of your business has necessarily brought me into frequent
and most confidential intercourse with your officers, and I can truly
say that I have ever received from them the most effective support
and assistance ; they have given me sound advice without obtruding
it, and have brought to the conduct and administration of your
affairs an amount of talent, zeal for your interests, and varied
acquirements, which may be equalled, but which it will be very dif-
ficult indeed to surpass. The intimate relations and unreserved con-
fidence which have ever existed between us have created a friendship
which I hope may endure as long as my life is prolonged. The
members of your Council are most assiduous in their attendance ;
and the affairs of the Society are by them discussed and transacted
in a manner which has always excited in me great admiration.

In resigning the Chair I can feel no distrust as to the future, when
I reflect that I shall probably be succeeded by one whose private
worth, scientific attainments, and intimate knowledge of the business
of this Society are universally admitted, and in whose hands your
interests and reputation are safe. I shall account him happy if he
be elected to fill a post, so honourable in my estimation, that the
recollection that I have once occupied it will be one of the chief con-
solations of my latter years.

The Copley Medal has been awarded to Sir Charles Lyell for those
original researches and comprehensive generalizations which have
mainly contributed to raise the study of geology to that high scien-
tific position which it now holds, and to maintain for the English

2M2

512

school of geologists that eminent rank which has hitherto been
accorded to it.

A quarter of a century has now just elapsed since the Royal
Medal was awarded to Sir Charles Lyell for his ' Principles of
Geology.'

It was his good fortune to be associated in his earliest years with
those from whom he imbibed a love of Natural History, and who
fostered those habits of accurate observation, the successful appli-
cation of which to geological problems is one of the prominent
features of his scientific writings. This it was that gave so much
value and promise to his first labours on the geology of the marls
and freshwater formations of Angus, his native district ; that enabled
him to appreciate to the full, the bearings, not only of palaeontology
(the importance of which had been already recognized), but also of
a large class of facts, of almost equal value in relation to the philo-
sophy of geology, conducting him through a series of researches,
the merit of originating which is wholly his own : — I allude to
the permanence or mutability of animal and vegetable forms, to
their reciprocal action, and to the laws which govern their repro-
duction and dispersion ; and we hence owe to him both the enun-
ciation and the demonstration of the doctrine, that the history of
many ancient geographical changes and geological phenomena is only
to be arrived at after a careful study of the present distribution of
organic beings.

The same line of research led Sir C. Lyell, in conjunction with
M. Deshayes, to that method of classifying strata, and hence of
comparing formations, by the relative proportions of living organisms
they contain, — a method which has proved of such eminent service to
geologists. By its aid, and after untiring diligence in collecting, and
equal perseverance and sagacity in comparing the results of his own
and other collections, with those in the various museums of Europe
and America, he has not only largely contributed to classify the
tertiary rocks of both continents, but has further given us the first
clear idea of the relations of modern strata separated by the great
valley of the Atlantic Ocean.

In immediate connexion with these inquiries, and no doubt
directly originating in his mind from that principle to which he
has steadfastly adhered, of endeavouring to account for past changes

513

by a reference to existing causes, are his philosophical views of the
relations of climate to the former extension of land and water, which
have resulted in doctrines of the highest importance. This prin-
ciple, long disputed, is now so far recognized, that no cautious
naturalist declares himself satisfied with the explanation of a geo-
logical phenomenon except he can test or illustrate it by agencies
now in operation. It is true that Hutton and Playfair originated
the hypothesis that causes such as are now in action would account
for all we see on the surface of the globe ; but we owe to Sir
Charles Lyell that careful collection of facts and that sagacious
reasoning, by which this hypothesis has been raised to the rank of a
well-grounded theory.

We cannot overrate the services which he has rendered by his in-
vestigations into the dynamics of geology ; nor the importance of his
memoirs on the risings and subsidences of land, and their incessant
fluctuations, on the means, extent, and effects of the distribution
of sediments, and the changes wrought on these by metamorphic
action, and on the amount of denudation which all formations have
undergone. These, and a vast number of subsidiary phenomena,
have led him by an elaborate train of reasoning, to gauge boldly the
depth of detrition to which our planet has been subjected, by the
miles of sedimentary rocks accumulated on its surface; and to those
startling speculations on the antiquity of the earth's crust, which,
having survived the ridicule and contempt of many critics, and
the rejection by more as visionary, are now becoming accepted as
fundamental truths.

The geology of volcanos in its widest sense presents another great
field for observation and reflection, to which Sir C. Lyell has assidu-
ously applied himself ; and here I can do no more than allude to
his discoveries and discussions on "craters of elevation," the amount
of denudation which volcanic cones have sustained, their valleys
and dykes, and the inclination of their lava beds, as all of the
greatest importance ; especially, however, referring to the results
of his recent studies of Etna, because they afford the clearest
demonstration of the genesis and internal structure of volcanic
mountains.

There is indeed no department of geology, — from the Silurian
strata to the mud now depositing on our coasts and in our lakes —

514

from the Plutonic rocks to the lavas not yet cooled on the flanks of
Vesuvius — that Sir Charles has not diligently explored, from Scan-
dinavia to Sicily and the Canaries, and from Canada to the Gulf of
Florida ; he has sought to develop the history of coal by observa-
tions on the ancient carboniferous strata of both hemispheres, on the
superficial peats of England, and on the vegetable swamps of the
United States ; tracing at the same time the coasts of the former
glacial ocean, by the boulders that are the landmarks of its ancient
shores, and by the broken shells thrown up on its beach.

In thus recognizing those attainments and powers of generalization
which have for the first time brought so many branches of science
into close connexion, and have placed Sir Charles Lyell foremost
in the rank of the founders of the Philosophy of Geology, the
Council of the Royal Society do not overlook the scientific value of
the narratives of his American travels, the merits of his style, and the
evidences of careful attention to those details of scientific writing
which have rendered his works so clear and attractive. To these
qualities he is greatly indebted for the influence he has exercised, not
only in attracting students to follow his steps, and in inducing
proficients in geology to reflect, but in advancing the whole domain
of natural science ; and hence he may justly claim from botanists
and zoologists as cordial a tribute of admiration and gratitude for
services rendered to their branches of science, as has ever been
tendered to him by his brother geologists.

SIR CHARLES LYELL,

Accept this Medal, the highest reward we can bestow, in token of
our due appreciation of a series of scientific researches, prolonged
through several years, and prosecuted with very great ability and
perseverance ; and in wishing you long life and health to enjoy your
well-earned honours, allow me to add that my happiness in bestow-
ing them is enhanced by the reflection that I am conferring pleasure
on one whose friendship I have now enjoyed for a period of more
than forty years.

The Rumford Medal has been awarded to M. Jamin, Professor at
the Ecole Polytechnique of Paris, for his various experimental re-
searches on Light.

515

M. Jamin has for many years been engaged in a series of import-
ant experimental researches in optics. One of his earliest labours
relates to metallic reflexion. Malus found that metals form an
exception to the general rule of polarizing light at a proper angle
of incidence, though they do produce a partial polarization. We
owe to Sir David Brewster the discovery of the curious modifications
which reflexion at the surface of a metal is capable of producing on
polarized light. The theory of undulations enables us to form a
clear idea of the nature of the light so reflected, and shows, more-
over, that in order to know everything about the reflected light,
whatever be the nature of the incident light, it is sufficient to know
for each angle of incidence three things ; the proportion in which
light polarized in each of the two principal planes is reflected, and
the difference of phase produced by reflexion. The subject of
metallic reflexion had afterwards been considered in its bearings on
certain phenomena ; but there were still wanting, on the one hand,
an extensive series of careful measures of the three quantities above
mentioned, taken for various incidences and for different metals ; and
on the other, a theory which should embrace them all, expressing
them as functions of the angle of incidence by formulae containing a
certain number of constants depending on the nature of the metal.

M. Jamin applied himself to supply the first of these desiderata;
and in an important paper published in the 'Annales de Chimie' for
1847, he has given tables containing the results of careful measures
taken on several metals. The methods employed cannot here be
described, but they exhibited in a remarkable manner a combination
of experimental care and skill with a thorough acquaintance with
the principles of the theory of undulations. It belongs to the
physical mathematician to supply the requisite formulae, which,
while differing from mere empirical formulae in being deduced from
a physical theory, shall accurately represent the results of observa-
tion.

The subject of metallic reflexion had engaged the attention of
mathematicians, and M. Cauchy had arrived at certain formulae to
express everything relating to the metallic reflexion of homogeneous
light. These formulae contain only two arbitrary constants, depend-
ing upon the nature of the metal, and capable of being determined
by the observation of two angles. M. Jamin himself has compared

516

the results of his observations with the formulae of M. Cauchy ;
and the accordance of the calculated and observed numbers is
striking in the highest degree.

Another highly important memoir of M. Jamin, read before the
Academy of Sciences, and published in the « Annales de Chimie ' for
1850, relates to the reflexion of light at the surface of transparent
media. According to the formulae of Fresnel, when light polarized
perpendicularly to the plane of incidence is incident on such a medium,
and the angle of incidence is increased from 0° to 90°, at a certain
angle (the polarizing angle) the reflected light vanishes, and in
passing through this angle the reflected vibration changes sign, or in
other words, the phase is changed by half an undulation. It had
already been recognized, that in the case of very highly refracting
substances these results differ very sensibly from the phenomena
actually observed ; and by observations on Newton's rings when
formed between a glass lens and a plate of diamond, Mr. Airy long
ago showed that in the case of diamond the light does not wholly
vanish at the polarizing angle, and that in passing through this
angle, on increasing the angle of incidence, a continuous but rapid
retardation of phase takes place, amounting to a quantity sensibly
equal to half an undulation, while the angle of incidence is increased
a few degrees. But except in the case of substances of very high
refractive power, it had been supposed that Fresnel' s formulae sen-
sibly represented the phenomena observed. Such was the state of the
subject when M. Jamin commenced a series of most elaborate expe-
rimental researches, which resulted in showing that the phenomena
above mentioned, instead of being confined to a few of the most
highly refractive bodies, were of almost universal occurrence, though
for most bodies the only sensible changes of phase were crowded
within a small range of incidence, and the quantity of light reflected
at the minimum was very small. A very striking result of these
researches was, that the change of phase had not always the same
sign. It appeared that for bodies having a higher refractive index
than about 1*46, the change was of the same sign as in the case of
metals, while for bodies having a refractive index much lower it
was the opposite. Thus the case of no reflexion at a particular
angle, accompanied by an abrupt change of phase amounting to half
an undulation, or, as in this special instance it may be more simply

517

considered, a change of sign in the reflected vibration in passing
through zero, proves to be merely the separating case between two
opposite classes of phenomena. M. Jamin has further compared the
results of his observations with the formulae of M. Cauchy, with
which they manifest a striking agreement. These formulae contain,
besides the index of refraction, a second constant, which M. Jamin
calls the coefficient of ellipticity ^ which must be determined for each
substance in particular.

In a later memoir published in the 'Annales de ChirmV for 1851,
M. Jamin has extended the same results to liquids, which offer
several examples of what had been already perceived in the case of
solids ; that though if bodies be arranged in order according to their
decreasing refractive indices, the coefficient of ellipticity on the whole
decreases, and after vanishing increases again negatively, yet there
exist exceptions enough to this rule to show that the coefficient of
ellipticity cannot be a function merely of the refractive index, but
must depend also upon the nature of the body.

The preceding volume of the same work contains two other
memoirs by M. Jamin ; one on the double refraction of quartz, the
other on total internal reflexion ; both affording new proofs of his
skill and sagacity.

In a paper published in the 'Annales de Chimie' for 1852, M.
Jamin has shown the influence on the phenomenon of Newton's
rings of the reflexion of light polarized in the plane of incidence in
the neighbourhood of the angle of maximum polarization, and of the
changes of phase which it then undergoes. The paper contains also
other results relating to the rings which are worthy of notice, not
belonging specially to what takes place near the angle of maximum
polarization.

There are other papers of M. Jamin' s to which time will not
permit me to refer; but in the year 1856 he brought before the
French Academy an instrument, in which he utilized, in a most happy
manner, the fringes which had long before been observed as arising
from the interference of some of the many portions into which light
is divided by reflexion at the surfaces of two plates of glass of equal
thickness. This instrument constitutes an interference-refractometer
which unites delicacy with singular convenience.

In the same communication the author has given some highly

518

curious applications of his instrument to the obtaining of qualitative
results, having applied it to show the concentration of the solution
of an iron salt produced by the attraction of a magnet, the state of
a solution about a growing crystal, &c. The use of the instrument
is, however, by no means confined to qualitative observations ; and
in two memoirs published last year in the 'Annales de Chimie,' the
author has successfully determined by its means the refracting
power of the vapour of water, and the influence of even a mode-
rate pressure in altering the refractive power of water in the liquid
state.

MONS. JAMIN,

Accept this token of the great value which we attach to your ex-
tensive series of experimental researches on Light.

A Royal Medal has been awarded to Mr. Albany Hancock for
his numerous and varied contributions to Comparative Anatomy and
Physiology, but more especially for his " Researches on the Organ-
ization of the Brachiopoda" which will appear in full in the forth-
coming volume of the ' Philosophical Transactions.'

Many of Mr. Hancock's labours having been carried on conjointly
with his friends Dr. Embleton and Mr. Alder, it is proper on this
occasion that their merits should be duly acknowledged.

Of these conjoint papers may be more particularly noticed those
upon the organization of Eolis and Doris, which are remarkable not
only for the clear exposition they give of the previously much mis-
understood structure of the genera in question, but are also import-
ant for the new and enlarged views they contain respecting many
points in the economy of the Mollusca.

Together with these must also be mentioned the well-known
' Monograph on the British Nudibranchiate Mollusca,' in which Mr.
Hancock was associated with Mr. Alder, — a work eminent alike for
the beauty and fidelity of its illustrations, and the value and com-
pleteness of its zoological and anatomical details.

Among the more important of Mr. Hancock's numerous inde-
pendent contributions to science, should be noticed a valuable paper
on the "Excavating Powers of certain Sponges;" his discovery and
accurate account of a new and curious genus of burrowing Cirripeds;

519

and several others, in all of which is manifested a remarkable capa-
city for minute and accurate observation conjoined with great powers
of generalization.

;* But in none of Mr. Hancock's labours are these faculties so
eminently displayed as in his more recent investigation of the organ-
ization of the Brachiopoda. In his elaborate monograph on this
most difficult subject, and of which it may truly be said a more com-
plete specimen of minute anatomy has not appeared since the time
of Lyonet, a detailed account is given of the whole organization of
the Brachiopoda founded upon the laborious dissection of numerous
species ; several interesting points in their economy first indicated by
Prof. Huxley are confirmed ; many additional facts communicated ;
and a new and clear light thrown upon the previously obscure sub-
ject of the physiological and systematic relations of the class in
general.

MR. HUXLEY,

In conveying this Medal to Mr. Hancock, assure him of the great
interest we take in his valuable labours, and express our hope that
he may be long enabled to prosecute inquiries, from which so much
benefit to natural science may reasonably be anticipated.

Your Council have awarded the other Royal Medal to Mr. William
Lassell, for his various astronomical discoveries and researches, and
for his skilful construction of several large Reflecting Telescopes,
with which such discoveries were made.

The first of these telescopes, having a speculum of nine inches in
diameter, was erected at Starfield near Liverpool in the summer of
1840, from which time Mr. Lassell has been a most diligent and
successful labourer in the field of astronomical science. Although
none of the principal discoveries which entitle him to take rank with
the leading astronomers of the day have been made with this instru-
ment, still as this was the first large Reflector to which an equatorial
mounting was applied, we are justified in looking upon its con-
struction as an important step towards that eminence to which its
maker has since attained.

This instrument, however, did not long satisfy Mr. Lassell, for in
the year 1846 we find him observing with a 20-foot reflector with

520

an aperture of 2 feet, also equatorially mounted, which he had in the
mean time constructed ; and he soon announced the very important
discovery, on the 10th of October, 1846, of a satellite of Neptune, —
most important, as affording the means of ascertaining the mass of
Neptune.

Great triumphs, however, were yet to come ; in September 1848 he
detected an eighth satellite of Saturn, and by a singular coincidence
the same discovery was made simultaneously by Professor Bond in
America.

To these manifold labours we have to add numerous observations
of Satellites, and of Comets, Eclipses and other occasional phe-
nomena.

Of this devotion to his favourite science Mr. Lassell has already
received a recognition, which astronomers value most highly, viz. the
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, which was presented
to him in February 1849 ; but this seems only to have stimulated his
zeal for the further advancement of astronomical science.

In October 1851 our indefatigable observer established the exist-
ence of two satellites of Uranus, nearer to the planet than the first
satellite of Sir William Herschel.

In the autumn of 1852 he conveyed his 20-foot reflector to Malta,
principally in order to survey in a clearer atmosphere the systems
of the three most distant planets, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune,
with which he has particularly identified himself. To use his own
words, — "his discoveries abroad were rather negative than otherwise,'*
for he was satisfied that without a great increase of optical power, no
other satellite of Neptune would be discovered ; and with regard to
Uranus, he says, — "I am fully persuaded that either he has no other
satellites than the four, or if he has, they remain yet to be dis-
covered."

In the summer of 1854, owing to the encroachment of buildings
round Starfield, he was compelled to move two miles further into the
country to Bradstones, and incur the expense of building a second
observatory, and here his instruments are now erected.

His praiseworthy ambition still impelled him to become a leader,
where other men are content to follow. In the prolonged discus-
sions which arose relative to the mounting of the great reflector of 4
feet aperture for the observation of the Southern Nebulae, Mr. Lassell

521

took an important and distinguished part ; and with his characteristic
and laudable energy and zeal in the cause of science, finding that
such an instrument was just now a desideratum, he undertook to
construct one at his own cost. This he has now completed. This
splendid result of the well-applied industry and skill of one to whom
Astronomical Science had been already indebted for two fine tele-
scopes, has an aperture of 4 feet and 37 feet focal length, and this
is also mounted equatorially. From this magnificent telescope, in
the hands of such a man, what may not be expected ? And it adds
not a little to his merit, that all the specula for these several instru-
ments have been cast by himself, and polished by a machine of his
own contrivance, of which he has given a lucid description in the
Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society ; and the instruments
themselves are mounted according to his own plans.

In conclusion, it will I think be generally allowed, and posterity
will doubtless confirm the statement, that in the history of reflecting
telescopes, the name of Lassell must rank with that of Herschel and
that of our late President, Lord Rosse, whether we consider the
talent and perseverance displayed in their construction, or the im-
portant discoveries which have resulted from their use.

MR. LASSELL,

In presenting this Medal, allow me to express a fervent hope that
you may be endowed with health and a long life. Your previous
labours are the best security that in that case the magnificent
astronomical means now at your disposal will in due time contribute
still further to enlarge the bounds of that science which you love so
much and have so materially advanced.

On the motion of Sir Henry Holland, seconded by Sir Roderick
Murchison, the best thanks of the Society were voted to the Presi-
dent for his excellent address, and his Lordship was requested to
permit the same to be printed.

The Statutes relating to the election of Council and Officers having
been read, and Admiral FitzRoy and Mr. Huxley having been, with
the consent of the Society, nominated Scrutators, the votes of the
Fellows present were collected.

522

Secretaries. —

The following Noblemen and Gentlemen were reported duly
elected Officers and Council for the ensuing year : —

President. — Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, Bart., D.C.L.
Treasurer. — Major- General Edward Sabine, R.A., D.C.L.
f William Sharpey, M.D.
1 George Gabriel Stokes, Esq., M.A., D.C.L.
Foreign Secretary. — William Hallows Miller, Esq., M.A.
Other Members of the Council. — Henry Wentworth Dyke Acland,
M.D. ; Admiral Sir George Back, D.C.L. ; Rev. John Barlow,
M.A. ; Thomas Bell, Esq.; The Duke of Devonshire, M.A. ;
Edward Frankland, Ph.D. ; John Peter Gassiot, Esq. ; Philip Hard-
wick, Esq., R.A. ; Arthur Henfrey, Esq. ; Lieut.-Col. Henry James,
R.E. ; Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, M.A., D.C.L. ; John Percy,
M.D. ; Archibald Smith, Esq., M.A. ; Charles Wheatstone, Esq. ;
Rev. William Whewell, D.D. ; The Lord Wrottesley, M.A.

The following Table shows the progress and present state of the
Society with respect to the number of Fellows : —

Patron
and
Honorary.

Foreign.

Having
com-
pounded.

Paying
£2 12*.
Anunally.

Pay ing
£4
Annually.

Total.

December 1, 1857
Since elected . . .

9

48
+ 3

374
+ 9

8

276
4-8

715

+ 20

Re-admitted ....

Since compounded

-f 1

— 1

Withdrawn

— 1

— l

Since deceased . .

— 1

— 19

— 1

— 7

—28

November 30, 1858

9

50

365

7

275

706

523

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524

Obituary Notices of deceased Fellows.

REAR-ADMIRAL SIR FRANCIS BEAUFORT, K.C.B. — Among the
losses which have been occasioned by death in the lapsed year, we
have to deplore that of Rear- Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, K.C.B.,
the late Hydrographer to the Admiralty, so well and so justly known
as a scientific, indefatigable, and amiable Fellow of this and other
Societies. This event occurred on the 1 7th of last December, at
Brighton, whither he had repaired for the benefit of change in fail-
ing health, but with his mental faculties clear and vigorous. This,
indeed, was exemplified in his discussing historical points on the very
evening of his death ; and in his consulting the * Sacra Privata ' of
Bishop Wilson, a favourite work, almost until he calmly expired at
lh 50m after midnight : he was then in his 84th year.

This valuable officer was a son of the Rev. Daniel Augustus Beau-
fort, Rector of Navan, and Vicar of Collon in Ireland, who attained
a well-merited esteem by his elaborate map of that country, excelled
only by the subsequent Ordnance Survey. As young Francis evinced
a predilection for maritime life, he had the good fortune to open his
nautical career with a very able seaman, Captain Lestock Wilson, of
the East India Company's Service, under whom he acquired a pro-
ficiency in navigation. At length, in 1789, when proceeding to
China, that officer received orders to examine the Macclesfield Strait
for a shoal on which an Indiaman had recently been lost. Opera-
tions were commenced by a survey of Pulo Leat, an isle in the Strait
of Gaspar, the chart of which was entirely drawn by Beaufort.
After an unsuccessful search for the hidden danger, from eleven dif-
ferent stations, and just as the attempt was about to be given up,
the ' Vansittart ' struck upon what proved to be the very reef for
which they had been seeking. The destruction of the ship advanced
so quickly that all hands had to take to the boats ; and they under-
went great hardships before reaching the Bay of Sango Boolo, where
relief was obtained.

On returning to England, great excitement pervaded the public
mind, and armaments were under equipment in all our ports. For-
getting the hardships of his recent disaster, Mr. Beaufort embarked

525

on board the * Aquilon ' frigate, and shortly afterwards sailed to the
Mediterranean, escorting H.R.H. Prince Augustus, since Duke of
Sussex and President of this Society. In 1794, the 'Aquilon' was
one of Lord Howe's 'repeaters' in the great battle fought on the 1st
of June ; an event which deeply impressed itself on the young
officer's mind, insomuch that he ever retained a vivid recollection of
its details. His next ship was the ' Phaeton,' of 38 guns, in which
he saw much varied and arduous service, by which he earned his
Lieutenant's commission. Continuing in the same frigate till October
1800, he won his further promotion to the rank of Commander by
gallantly cutting out a 14-gun Spanish polacca from under the guns
of Frangerola, a fortress near Malaga.

This promotion was somewhat dearly purchased, for Mr. Beaufort
was severely wounded on the head, and had several slugs through
his left arm and body, which compelled him to lie by for a time. But
he had scarcely recovered, when we find him aiding his brother-in-
law, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, in establishing a line of telegraph
stations across Ireland ; an object in which he laboured successfully
and gratuitously during two years. A mind disciplined to accurate
observation acquires additional power of perception and discrimina-
tion ; and to this power may be assigned the admirable communica-
tion which he made to Dr. Wollaston, of certain physiological and
successive effects which he experienced under suspended animation,
from being all but drowned.

In the summer of 1805 Commander Beaufort was again called
into active service, being appointed to the 'Woolwich,' 44; in
which ship he carried out naval stores to Bombay, and returned
with a convoy of sixteen Indiamen and some country-ships. In
1807 he had an opportunity, though but a hasty one, of exercising
his valuable talent for marine surveying by an examination of the
vicinity of Monte Video, in the Rio de la Plata. His next appoint-
ment was to the ' Blossom ' sloop-of-war, in which he was prin-
cipally employed in taking charge of convoys of merchantmen until
he obtained post-rank in May 1810, with the command of the
' Frederickstein ' frigate. In 1 8 1 1 he was directed to make an exami-
nation of the southern shores of Asia Minor, a service truly con-
genial to his mind, since it developed his full capacity as a marine
surveyor, a classical scholar, and an inquiring geologist. He had

VOL. ix. 2 N

526

successfully examined the coast of Karamania, and was about to
continue his operations down the shores of Syria, when they were
suddenly cut short by an attack of fanatical natives, by one of whom
Captain Beaufort was severely, almost fatally, wounded. Thus pre-
vented from continuing the interesting survey, he repaired to Malta,
and there, with exemplary fortitude, endured intense suffering from
his wound, which for several months endangered his very existence.
He was then ordered to England, in company with the ' Rodney,'
74, and his ship was paid off in October 1812, after which year he
went no more afloat.

But the leisure of his half-pay time was not expended in idleness,
as evinced by the subsequent publication of his admirable survey
with its illustrative memoir ; and by his exertions in the Councils of
the Royal, the Astronomical, and the Geographical Societies. He
was, moreover, a member of the Board of Greenwich Visitors, and
one of the Committee of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge, wherein he originated and conducted the widely-circu-
lated series of cheap maps. Yet twenty years were permitted to pass
before he was selected to that post for which he was so obviously
and so eminently qualified; for it was not till 1832 that he was
installed Hydrographer to the Admiralty. This office had been
turned to but small account until Captain Beaufort took it in hand,
and manifested its value to the public, not only in the construction
of superior charts, but also in affording aid to the Commissions on
Tidal Harbours, Ports of Refuge, and Pilotage; and indeed to all
branches of naval scientific knowledge.

In carrying out these duties, he was ever ready to advise and assist;
and he was a warm supporter of friendless merit, even in cases where
he was opposed by certain official obstructions. Through all he
conscientiously did his duty, although at times he felt it painful to
enjoin services without a prospect of reward, where it was deserved
and expected.

Sir Francis Beaufort was appointed one of the Civil Knights
Commanders of the Bath ; and in 1845 he accepted the rank of
retired Rear-Admiral, with permission to retain his office of Hydro-
grapher, the daily duties of which he assiduously attended until he
was turned of fourscore. He married the daughter of his first
commander, Captain Lestock Wilson, shortly after his last return

527

from the Mediterranean ; and by that amiable lady had a family, of
whom three sons and three daughters are living. Some years after
her lamented death, he married, secondly, the daughter; by a third
marriage, of his brother-in-law, R. L. Edgeworth, Esq., who survived
him, but has since died.

ROBERT BROWN, D.C.L. — In offering to the Society a brief
sketch of the career of the greatest Botanist of the age, our
attention is chiefly arrested by his intense devotion to his fa-
vourite study, and by the calm, reflecting, and philosophical
spirit which he brought to bear upon its pursuit, the combina-
tion of which qualities were alone sufficient to raise him, by
his own unassisted efforts, to the highest position in the world
of Science. Robert Brown was the second and only surviving son
of the Rev. James Brown, A.M., Episcopalian Minister of Mont-
rose, by Helen, daughter of the Rev. Robert Taylor, and was born
in that town on the 21st of December, 1773. Several generations
of his maternal ancestors were, like his father, ministers of the
Scottish Episcopalian Church, and from them he appears to have
inherited a strong attachment to logical and metaphysical studies,
the effects of which are so strikingly manifested in the philosophical
character of his botanical investigations. At an early age he was
sent to the Grammar-school of his native town, where among his
contemporaries was a boy of kindred talents, the late Mr. James
Mill, with whom he maintained through life an uninterrupted inti-
macy. In 1787 he was entered at Marischal College, Aberdeen,
where he immediately obtained a Ramsay bursary in Philosophy ;
and about two years afterwards, on his father quitting Montrose to
reside in Edinburgh, he was removed to the University of that city,
in which he continued his studies for several years, but without
taking a degree, although destined for the medical profession. At
this early period the strong inclination of his mind to the study of
Botany gained for him the favourable notice of the amiable Professor
of Natural History, Dr. Walker, and he was induced, in the year 1 79 1
(being then in the eighteenth year of his age), to lay before the Na-
tural History Society, of which he was a member, his earliest Paper,
containing an enumeration of such plants as had been discovered in
North Britain subsequent to the publication of Lightfoot's * Flora

2 N 2

528

Scotica,' with critical notes and observations. Although this Paper,
like most of those read before the Society, was not intended for pub-
lication, it led to the communication of his specimens and observa-
tions to Dr. Withering, who was then engaged in the preparation of
the second edition of his ' Arrangement of British Plants,' and laid
the foundation of a warm and intimate friendship between them. In
1 795, soon after the embodiment of the Fifeshire Regiment of Fen-
cible Infantry, he obtained in it the double commission of Ensign
and Assistant-surgeon, and proceeded with it to the North of Ireland,
in various parts of which he was stationed until the summer of 1 798,
when he was detached to England on recruiting service. Fortu-
nately for himself and for science, this service enabled him to pass
several months, during this and the succeeding year, in London,
where he availed himself to the utmost of the library and collections
of Sir Joseph Banks, from whom his already established botanical
reputation obtained for him a cordial reception. In 1799 he re-
turned to his regimental duties in Ireland, from which he was finally
recalled, in December of the following year, by a letter from Sir
Joseph Banks, proposing for his acceptance the post of Naturalist
in the Expedition for surveying the coasts of New Holland, then
fitting out under the command of Captain Flinders. Within two
days of the receipt of this letter, which placed within his reach the
so-much coveted opportunity of devoting himself entirely to his
favourite pursuit, he quitted the regiment and the military service ;
and in the summer of 1801 he embarked at Portsmouth, full of
ardour and confident of success. His absence from England lasted
more than four years, during which the southern, eastern, and
northern coasts of New Holland, and the southern part of Van Die-
men's Land, were thoroughly explored. In the month of October
1805 he arrived in Liverpool with a collection of dried plants
amounting to nearly 4000 species, a large proportion of which were
not only new to science, but exhibited new and extraordinary com-
binations of character and habit, Immediately on his arrival in
England, he was appointed Librarian of the Linnean Society, of
which he had been elected an Associate in 1 798. During his vovage
he had been indefatigable in describing with the minutest accuracy
the whole of the materials which he had collected, and in the accu-
mulation of a vast store of facts and observations in relation to their

529

structure and affinities, as well as to all the most important points in
the anatomy and physiology of plants in general. The new views
which were thus opened to him on a multitude of botanical subjects,
he was enabled, by his position at the Linnean Society, and by the
free and unrestricted access which was liberally accorded to him to
the treasures of the Banksian Library and Herbarium, to enlarge and
to perfect, and to lay them before the world in a series of masterly
publications, which at once stamped upon him the character of the
greatest and most philosophical botanist that England had ever pro-
duced. In 1810 appeared the first volume of his ' Prodromus
Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen,' which was re-
ceived by all the more profound botanists of this country and of the
continent as the work of a mind thoroughly imbued with the prin-
ciples of the Natural System, and giving to that system, which had
hitherto found little favour out of France, a wider and a firmer basis.
This important work, together with his Memoirs on Proteacece
and Asclepiadece, which immediately followed, and his ' General
Remarks, Geographical and Systematical, on the Botany of Terra
Australis/ appended to the * Narrative of Captain Flinders' s
Voyage,' published in 1814, by displaying in the most instructive
form the superior advantages of the Natural System, whether in the
monographic description of separate families, or in the comparison
of the families with each other and with the entire mass of vegeta-
tion, gave new life to that system, and speedily led to its universal
adoption. A series of Memoirs followed, chiefly in the Transac-
tions of the Linnean Society, or in the appendices to various books
of travel and survey, which gave fuller and more complete develop-
ment to his views on almost every department of botanical science,
and induced the illustrious Humboldt not only to confer upon him
the title of " Botanicorum facile Princeps," but also to salute him
with the more comprehensive and expressive designation conveyed
in the dedication of the ' Synopsis Plantarum Orbis Novi/ " Ro-
berto Brownio, Britanni, rum Gloriae atque Ornamento, totam Bo-
tanices Scientiam ingenio mirifico complectenti." At the close of
the year 1810, on the death of his old and intimate friend, the
laborious, accurate and learned Dryander, he succeeded to the
office of Librarian to Sir Joseph Banks, who (on his death in 1820)
bequeathed to him for life the use and enjoyment of his library and

530

collections. These were subsequently, in 1827, with Mr. Brown's
assent, and in conformity with the provisions of Sir Joseph's will,
transferred to the British Museum ; and from this latter date to his
death, a period of upwards of thirty years, he continued to fill the
office of Keeper of the Botanical Collections in the National Esta-
blishment. Soon after the death of Sir Joseph Banks he had re-
signed the Librarianship of the Linnean Society, of which he then
became a Fellow, and having been for many years one of its Vice-
Presidents, was at last prevailed upon, in 1849, to allow himself
to be elected President. This office he retained till 1853. He be-
came a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1811, and was several times
elected into the Council. In 1839 he received its highest honour
in the Copley Medal, presented to him "for his discoveries during a
series of years on the subject of vegetable impregnation." In the
meantime honours and titles had flowed in upon him from all
quarters ; and nearly every scientific Society both at home and abroad
felt itself honoured by enrolling his name in the list of its Members.
In 1832, the University of Oxford conferred upon him, in conjunc-
tion with Dalton, Faraday, and Brewster, the honorary degree of
D.C.L. In the succeeding year he was elected one of the eight
Foreign Associates of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of
France, his name being selected from a list including those of nine
other savans of world-wide reputation, nearly every one of whom
has since been elected to the same distinguished honour. During
the administration of Sir Robert Peel, he received, in recognition of
his great eminence in botanical science, a pension on the Civil List of
36200 per annum. The King of Prussia subsequently decorated him
with the cross of the highest Prussian Civil Order, " Pour le Merite."
Among the more important of his Memoirs above referred to,
may be mentioned his Papers on Composites, on Rafflesia, and on
the Fecundation of Orchidece and Asclepiadece, in the Linnean Trans-
actions ; the botanical appendices to the Voyages or Travels of
Tuckey, Parry, Franklin, Abel, King, and Denham ; his Papers on
Active Molecules, and on the plurality of Embryos in Coniferce ; and
his contributions to Wallich's * Plantae Asiatics,', and to Hors-
field's c Plantse Javanicae.' Of his later publications, the most re-
markable are his " Botanical Appendix to Captain Sturt's Expe-
dition into Central Australia," published in 1849 ; and his Memoir

531

"On Triplosporite, an undescribed Fossil Fruit," published in the
Linnean Transactions in 1851. The pervading and distinguishing
character of all these writings is to be found in the combination of the
minutest accuracy of detail with the most comprehensive generali-
zation. No theory is propounded which does not rest for its founda-
tion on the most circumspect investigation of all attainable facts.
In perusing them, we are first struck with the evident completeness
of the investigation, and next with the wonderful sagacity with which
the ascertained facts are brought to bear upon the question at issue.
And these distinguishing qualities are equally obvious throughout
the wide range of objects treated of, whether in the anatomy, the
physiology, the classification, the description, the distribution or the
affinities of plants, and in the examination both of rece'nt and fossil
structures. Among the most important anatomical and physiological
subjects of which they treat, particular mention is due to the dis-
covery of the nucleus of the vegetable cell, and of the circumscribed
circulation on the walls of particular cells ; the development of the
stamina, together with the mode of fecundation in Asclepiadece and
Orchidece ; the development of the pollen and of the ovulum in
Phaenogamous plants, with the peculiarities of the latter in Conifera
and Cycadece, and the bearing of these facts upon the general sub-
ject of impregnation ; the origin and development of the spores of
Mosses ; and the discovery of the peculiar motions which take place
in the " active molecules " of matter when seen suspended in a fluid
under the microscope. Of structural investigations, the most im-
portant are those which establish the relation of a flower to the axis
from which it is derived, and of the parts of a flower to each other,
as regards both position and number ; the analogy between stamina and
pistilla ; the neuration of the corolla of Composites, their aestivation
and inflorescence ; and the structure of the stems of Cycadece, both
recent and fossil. To the study of fossil botany Mr. Brown was always
strongly attached, and with a view to its prosecution he formed an exten-
sive and valuable collection of fossil woods, which he has bequeathed
under certain conditions to the British Museum. His collections in
other departments were also considerable, and his library very extensive.
In private life Mr. Brown's character was thoroughly estimable.
Shrinking, with instinctive modesty, from all public employments,
whether professional or otherwise, which appeared to involve any-

532

thing like display, he was sometimes thought, by those who knew
him little, to be cold, distant, and reserved ; while those who were
admitted to the privilege of his intimacy bear unanimous testimony
to his unvarying kindness of heart, the genial warmth of his feelings,
and the pure benevolence of his disposition. To a mind stored with
anecdote he united a strong sense of humour, and a happy facility
in its expression, which rendered him a most delightful companion.
And when to these qualities we add his perfect simple-mindedness,
his unswerving devotion to truth, and that singular uprightness of
judgment, which rendered him on all difficult occasions a most in-
valuable counsellor, we shall easily perceive how it was that he be-
came so warmly endeared to the hearts of his friends. From the
death of Sir* Joseph Banks, who bequeathed to him his house in
Soho Square, he continued to occupy that portion of it which opened
upon Dean Street ; and it was in the library of that illustrious man,
the scene of his labours for sixty years, surrounded by his books
and by his collections, that he breathed his last, on the 10th of June
in the present year, and in the eighty- fifth year of his age.

SIR JAMES MACGRIGOR was born at Cromdale, in Strathspey,
Inverness- shire, on the 9th of April, 1771. He received his literary
education at Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he took his degree
as M.A. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and
afterwards, with a view to improve his knowledge of anatomy, attended
the lectures and demonstrations of Mr. Wilson in London. He then
obtained the Degree of M.D. from the Marischal College. In 1 793
he entered the Army by the purchase of the Surgeoncy of the 88th
Regiment, with which Corps he served in Holland and Flanders
throughout the Duke of York's campaign. In 1796 he proceeded
to the West Indies, where, with two companies of the regiment, he
was engaged in the expedition against Grenada, and in August of the
same year returned to England to rejoin head-quarters. In 1799 he
accompanied the 88th to Ceylon, and subsequently to Bombay. The
regiment formed part of the Anglo-Indian Army sent to Egypt under
the command of Sir D. Baird, and arrived at Cosseir in June 1801.
Dr. MacGrigor was Superintending Surgeon of the Force, and earned
well-merited commendation by his zeal and intelligence, and his
judicious arrangements for the sick and wounded. In 1803 he re-

533

turned home with the regiment, and was shortly afterwards appointed
to the Oxford Blues, with which he did duty at Windsor for some
time. In 1805 he was promoted to the rank of Deputy Inspector
of Hospitals, and was employed in the south-western district. At
Portsmouth he superintended the landing and treatment of the
wounded sent home from Sir John Moore's Army. In August
1809 he was promoted to be Inspector-General of Hospitals, and
in September was sent to Walcheren as Principal Medical Officer of
the expedition, to replace Sir J. Webb, and was highly commended
by Sir Eyre Coote for the manner in which he discharged his duty
amidst great difficulties. In the end of the year, when that un-
fortunate expedition had terminated, he returned to Portsmouth,
where he remained nearly two years. In 1811 he was sent out to
Spain as Principal Medical Officer of the Army under Lord
Wellington, and arrived in time to be present at the siege of Ciudad
Rodrigo. He remained with the Army till the termination of the
Peninsular War, and was present in every siege and engagement from
Ciudad Rodrigo to Toulouse. The Duke of Wellington, who was at
no time very lavish of his compliments to medical officers, thus notices
Dr. MacGrigor's services in an Order dated 26th July, 1814 : — "I
have every reason to be satisfied with the manner in which Mr. Mac-
Grigor conducted the department under his direction, and I consider
him one of the most able, industrious, and successful public servants
I have ever met with.5*

On the termination of the war he was knighted, and received the
Royal permission to wear the decoration of Knight Companion of
the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword. In 1815 he was
appointed Director-General of the Medical Department of the Army,
which post he filled till 1851, when he retired from active employ-
ment. In 1831 he was created a Baronet, and in 1851 was appointed
to be a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. He died on
the 2nd of April, 1858, within a few days of entering his 88th year.

Sir James MacGrigor was the auther of a " Memoir of the state
of health of the 88th and other Regiments at Ceylon and Bombay,
from 1st June 1800 to 31st May 1801 ;" of a "Medical sketch of
the Expedition to Egypt from India;" and of a "Sketch of the
Medical History of the British Army in the Peninsula of Spain and
Portugal during the late Campaign."

534

Shortly after his appointment to be Director- General, he organized
a system of Returns from the different stations occupied by British
troops, from which, after a lapse of twenty years, the Statistical Re-
ports on the health of the Army were compiled. He also commenced,
at the Invalid hospital at Chatham, a Museum of Natural History
and Pathological Anatomy, which, by the contributions of the medical
officers from all quarters of the world, has become one of great extent
and value. But while Sir James was thus endeavouring to promote
the interests of science through the instrumentality of the Department
of which he was the head, he was not unmindful of the interests of
the officers composing it. In 1816 he established a Society for pro-
viding pensions for the widows of medical officers in addition to those
granted by Government, and one for affording assistance to the or-
phans of medical officers ; both of which institutions have succeeded
to an extent which could not fail to be gratifying to their founder.

Sir J. MacGrigor was for two successive years elected Lord Rector
of Marischal College, Aberdeen. The University of Edinburgh con-
ferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. On the establishment
of the University of London, he was nominated a member of the
Senate. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and
member of various Medical Bodies. He was elected into this Society
on the 14th of March, 1816.

Sir James MacGrigor was courteous and affable in his demeanour,
and at all times accessible to the officers of his department, by whom
he was much esteemed and respected. He retired into private life
after having faithfully and efficiently served his country for the long
period of fifty-eight years, during thirty-six of which he had been
at the head of the Army Medical Service.

HUGH LEE PATTINSON, Esq., was born at Alston in Cumberland,
where his family, belonging to the class of smaller landholders of the
neighbourhood, had long resided. He received his early education at
the school of his native town ; what further acquirements he made
he pwed to self-instruction. Having when a youth been present at a
lecture on chemistry, his ready mind, deeply impressed with what he
heard and saw, was inflamed with a love of the science, and he
thenceforward gave himself earnestly to its pursuit, with the help of
such books and rude apparatus as his scanty means afforded.

535

While still very young, Mr. Pattinson left Alston for Newcastle-on-
Tyne, to occupy a situation in a soap-work, and his position there,
though a subordinate one, afforded him facilities for pursuing his
favourite study. A few years after this he was appointed Assay-
Master to the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital, the chief duty
of his office being to inspect, as to quality and quantity, the ores
which are levied as royalties from the extensive lead mines in his
native district belonging to that establishment. It was while thus
employed, and when his mind was directed to the improvement of
metallurgic operations, that he was led to discover his admirable and
now well-known process for extracting the silver from argentiferous
lead. Returning to Newcastle after a few years, to undertake the
management of Mr. Beaumont's lead-smelting and refining- works in
that neighbourhood, he was enabled to put in practice his method of
de-silvering lead, for which he took out a patent. The profits thence
accruing afforded him the means to establish, in partnership with
two of his friends, a chemical manufactory at Felling, which, through
subsequent additions, has become one of the most extensive in the
district ; and at a later period he discovered and brought into prac-
tical use a method of separating magnesia from the limestone rock
containing that earth, and a process for producing oxychloride of
lead, a valuable pigment, directly from the ore.

But while thus engaged in improving industrial chemistry, Mr.
Pattinson was not unconcerned in matters of more purely scientific
interest ; and it is more especially deserving of mention, that, contem-
poraneously with Mr. Armstrong, he was one of the first to give an
account of the remarkable fact of the evolution of electricity by
effluent steam. He was also attached to the study of astronomy ;
and although he took little part in its pursuit as a practical observer,
he possessed an elegant observatory, furnished with a transit-instru-
ment, and also an admirable equatoreal, which, as is known to many
of the Society, he liberally lent to Professor Piazzi Smyth, to be
used by that gentleman in his recent expedition to Teneriffe.

Mr. Pattinson was elected a Fellow of this Society on the 3rd of
June, 1852; he belonged also to the Royal Astronomical, Geological,
and Chemical Societies : his death took place at Scots' House, his
residence near Newcastle, on the llth of November, 1858.

536

The Very Rev. GEORGE PEACOCK, D.D., Dean of Ely, was born
on the 9th of April, 1791, at Thornton Hall, Denton, in the parish
of Gainford near Darlington, in the county of Durham, and about
fourteen miles from Richmond in Yorkshire, being the residence of his
father, the Rev. Thomas Peacock, incumbent and during fifty years
perpetual curate of that parish, where he also kept a school. His
family consisted of five sons and three daughters, three of the sons
by a first marriage, and the other two, with the daughters, by a
second ; George being the youngest son of the five. In early youth
he showed no precocity of genius, but was a bold and active lad fond
of out-door sports, and, if remarkable for anything, rather for his
daring feats in climbing, which sometimes led him into very dan-
gerous situations, than for any special attachment to study. From
the nature of his father's occupation, it is not probable that he lacked
the usual elementary instructions ; but his early reading was desul-
tory, books of voyages and travels being most in favour with him ;
nor was it until, with a view to his future college career, he was sent
at nearly seventeen years of age (in January 1 808) to the school of the
Rev. Mr. Tate (formerly a Fellow of Sydney Sussex College, Cam-
bridge) at Richmond, that his great natural powers began to develope
themselves. Here, however, he applied himself with diligence to the
studies of the school, and with such success, that at the July exami-
nation he was placed alone, by a decided superiority, at the head of
his class, in which it may be noticed were two boys who afterwards
became Fellows, and four others who became Scholars of Trinity
College. He did not live in Mr. Tate's house, but in lodgings near
it, and had his evenings uninterrupted for study, which he used to
such purpose as to have read far in advance of the classical course
of the school, and to have obtained an accurate knowledge of the
niceties of Greek criticism, as well as a habit of sound rendering
both of the Greek and Latin classics. During one or more of the
vacations, particularly the summer one of 1809, he also read mathe-
matics with Mr., afterwards Dr. Brass, at that time a distinguished
Undergraduate of Trinity, from the town and school of Richmond,
and who subsequently took a Wrangler's degree. It would seem,
however, that up to the period of his entry at Trinity College in
October 1809, his mathematical reading had not extended much
beyond the first year's subjects then studied at Cambridge. We

537

have the testimony of one of his schoolfellows, afterwards himself
a distinguished ornament of the same University and College, that
during his whole time at Richmond, " though a severe student, he
was a joyous, sociable, and genial spirit, always ready for good com-
panionship, for any pleasurable excursion, for manly exercise, and
for all innocent mirth and playfulness." How well calculated, as a
teacher, Dr. Tate must have been to bring forward the powers and
to win the affectionate regard of his pupil, may be gathered from
the terms in which their connexion is spoken of in the dedication
of his first considerable mathematical work, — terms which indicate
more than an ordinary community of feeling and facility of inter-
course between the pedagogue and the pupil.

During the first year of his residence as an undergraduate at col-
lege, he does not appear to have applied himself with any extraordi-
nary diligence to the studies of the place ; but this temporary relaxa-
tion of energy was amply compensated during the remainder of his
pupillage by a very extensive and conscientiously accurate course
of mathematical reading, which issued in his taking the degree of
Second Wrangler in January 1813. Shortly after the examination
for the degrees, he also gained one of the Smith's prizes.

In 1812, being the earliest period at which, as a sizar of his col-
lege, he was allowed to compete, he obtained a Scholarship, and on
his first offering himself as a candidate for a fellowship (in 1814),
was elected to one of the only two then vacant, his extensive classical
knowledge no doubt standing him in stead on that occasion. In the
subsequent year he was appointed Assistant Tutor and College Lec-
turer; in 1823, Full Tutor, conjointly with Mr. Evans; and finally,
in 1835, Sole Tutor of the " side " which bore his name in that great
and venerable establishment, an office which he held till called away
from the performance of its duties by his appointment to the Deanery
of Ely in 1839, when he also took the degree of Doctor of Divinity,
having been admitted into Holy Orders in or about the year 1817.
In one of the summer vacations in this interval (1816) he visited
Italy.

Of his conduct in the important and responsible office of tutor,
there has never been but one opinion in the University. While his
extensive knowledge and perspicuity as a lecturer maintained the
high reputation of his college, and commanded the attention and

538

admiration of his pupils, he succeeded to an extraordinary degree in
winning their personal attachment by the uniform kindliness of his
temper and disposition, the practical good sense of his advice and
admonitions, and the absence of all moroseriess, austerity, or need-
less interference with their conduct. " His inspection of his pupils,"
says one of them, " was not minute, far less vexatious ; but it was
always effectual, and at all critical points of their career, keen and
searching. His insight into character was remarkable."

It was impossible for any one, at the epoch of his undergraduacy,
and for several years preceding that epoch, drawn on to read exten-
sively in mathematics for the sake of the science itself, and thus
becoming aware of the progress made on the continent in that depart-
ment of knowledge, while at the same time subjected to the course
of reading then pursued for the Senate-house examinations, not to
become at the same time unpleasingly sensible to what we must now
consider the discreditable state of Cambridge mathematics then pre-
valent. Peacock, in common with many other students of his own
standing, was profoundly impressed with this, and resolved, so far as
in him lay, to contribute towards remedying the evil. Accordingly
we find him, so soon as relieved from the pressure of examinations,
exerting himself vigorously in the cause of mathematical improve-
ment. As a preliminary step towards introducing the continental
methods and the spirit of the higher analysis, he joined with two
fellow-students of his own year (Messrs. Babbage and Herschel) in
the task, more useful than brilliant, of translating the smaller work
of Lacroix on the differential and integral calculus. This transla-
tion, published at Cambridge in 1816, was followed by a copious
collection of examples in 1820; and, the sale of both being rapid,
contributed no doubt materially to further the object in view. His
position as Moderator for 1817 supplied him with a powerful lever
for urging forward this movement, and he was not backward in avail-
ing himself of it. In his questions for the Senate-house examina-
tion for that year, the differential notation of the continental analysts
was for the first time officially employed in Cambridge ; an innova-
tion which passed not altogether without censure. How little this
affected him will appear from the following extract of a letter to a
friend, which we have before us, dated March 17, 1817.

" I assure you, my dear , that I shall never cease to exert

539

myself to the utmost in the cause of reform, and that I will never
decline any office which may increase my power to effect it. I am
nearly certain of being nominated to the office of Moderator in the
year 1818-19*, and as I am an examiner in virtue of my office, for
the next year I shall pursue a course even more decided than hitherto,
since I shall feel that men have been prepared for the change, and
will then be enabled to have acquired a better system by the publi-
cation of improved elementary books. I have considerable influence
as a lecturer, and I will not neglect it. It is by silent perseverance
only that we can hope to reduce the many-headed monster of preju-
dice, and make the University answer her character as the loving
mother of good learning and science."

Nor was it only towards placing 011 a better footing the purely
mathematical studies of the University that his aspirations were di-
rected. In the best spirit of a faithful and devoted son of Alma
Mater, he repudiated the idea of her approaching decrepitude, and
contended for her progress in all the great lines of scientific distinc-
tion. He was one of the most zealous promoters of the establish-
ment of an Astronomical Observatory at Cambridge, and succeeded,
in spite of considerable opposition, in procuring the appointment of
two successive Syndicates for the consideration of the subject, and
finally in carrying it triumphantly through the Senate. The result,
it need hardly be remarked, has brilliantly justified the effort. He
was also one of the first members of the Cambridge University Phi-
losophical Society founded in 1819, — a body, which has established a
well-earned scientific reputation, and of which he held the office of
Vice-President in 1831 and 1840, and of President in 1841-42. He
was also one of the earliest members of the Astronomical Society,
which he joined immediately on its foundation in 1820. In 1818 he
became a Fellow of the Royal, and subsequently of the Geological
Society.

In 1825-26 he contributed to the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana an
article on Arithmetic, which has been designated by one eminently
qualified to form an opinion on every point of mathematical history,
as "the most learned work on the history of that subject which
exists," and which, entering as it does into the details of the arith-
metical nomenclature, notation, and methods of every age and lan-
* This was the case. He was also Senior Moderator in 1821.

540

guage, must have been the result of a world of reading and toilsome
antiquarian research. In 1830 he supplied by his treatise on Algebra
one of the greatest deficiencies in our whole circle of mathematical
reading, — that, namely, of a sound elementary work on that subject
based on truly philosophical principles, and explaining the true gist
and nature of symbolical reasoning, in its relation to ordinary arith-
metic and the science of concrete numerical magnitude, and pointing
out (on the principle of the * Permanence of equivalent forms') the
origin and the solution of many of those difficulties which were
usually slurred over by the student, in a way little conducive to the
formation of clear logical habits of thought. In this remarkable
work, the ideas propounded by Buee, Argand, Mourey and Warren,
respecting the geometrical interpretation of imaginary symbols, were
for the first time presented to the student in an elementary treatise
as part and parcel of the general subject, and as intimately interwoven
in the very texture of the algebraic methods ; thus preparing them
to understand and appretiate those more abstruse and powerful
systems of imaginary representation subsequently developed in the
double and triple algebra of Professor De Morgan and the quater-
nions of Sir William Hamilton. A report which he presented to the
British Association in 1834, "On the recent progress of certain
branches of Analysis," afforded him the occasion of still further
maturing his views of the subject; and finally, in 1842 and 1845,
he published in two successive volumes a more elaborate and com-
plete treatise, in which the purely arithmetical or technical view
of algebra is presented quite separately from the purely symbolic
or formal one, and which leaves little to desire in respect of meta-
physical completeness, and nothing in that of lucid exposition.
The position which he then held in the University, as Lowndean
Professor of Mathematics (to which office he was elected in 1837),
identifies this work with the University in which it was produced
as a contribution to scientific literature of which it may well be
proud.

In this, his capacity of Lowndes Professor, he at first gave a series
of lectures on practical and theoretical astronomy ; and when, by mu-
tual arrangement with the Plumian Professor, these lectures, belong-
ing more properly to the department of the latter, were given by
that officer, he delivered a course on geometry, and for three sue-

541

cessive years attempted to form a class for a course on the principles
of analysis and their application. Those who are conversant with
the mode in which the mathematical studies of the junior members
of the University are prosecuted, will not be astonished that the
attendance was small. Not discouraged, he attempted to form a
class for astronomy, but though at first successful, the attendance
was not maintained in subsequent years.

In 1838 Professor Peacock was appointed a member of the Par-
liamentary Commission for considering the steps to be taken for the
restoration of the Standards of Weight and Measure destroyed by
the burning of the Houses of Parliament. To the duties of this
Commission he gave his diligent attention, and it was indebted to
him for many valuable and useful suggestions. Of the Second Com-
mission, appointed in 1843 to carry out the report of the first by
the construction of new standards, he was also a member.

In 1839 he was appointed to the Deanery of Ely, vacated by the
death of Dr. Wood, and with this appointment ceased, of course, his
connexion, as Tutor, with Trinity College, and his residence at Cam-
bridge other than such as the duties of his Professorship required.
In this position it is too little to say that he conscientiously devoted
himself to the performance of its duties. He went into them with
all the zeal of an earnest and pious spirit, and with all the energy
and prudence of an able and practical administrator. The vene-
rable and beautiful fabric of the Cathedral had fallen into grievous
decay, and had even become endangered by neglect. Its restoration
became one of his principal objects, for the accomplishment of which
he exerted himself with such success, that it remains distinguished
as one of the most beautiful specimens of our ecclesiastical archi-
tecture. He laboured hard to introduce, and he succeeded in effec-
tually introducing into the city of Ely, in spite of much opposition,
the sanitary measures required by the Public Health Act ; the result
being a material improvement of the recorded salubrity of the place.
Its educational establishments, especially the schools more imme-
diately connected with the Chapter, received from him the most
assiduous attention and active support, and its public charities his
vigilant supervision. These duties, however, neither withdrew him
from the pursuit of science, nor from his favourite and cherished ob-
ject of University Reform. In his Life of the late Dr. Young, and

VOL. ix. 2 o

542

in his collection and republication of his numerous and important
papers and memoirs, originally printed either as separate works, or
in the Transactions of this Society and various journals and periodi-
cal works, he has conferred a lasting benefit on Science while doing
justice to one of its most distinguished ornaments. There can be no
doubt that this work must have cost him a vast amount of labour.
Few scientific writers, thinking so profoundly and arriving at such
important conclusions, have adopted a form of exposition so obscure
and difficult to follow as Dr. Young. The discussion of these me-
moirs in the Biographical volume of Dr. Peacock's work, however,
shows that he had completely overcome this difficulty, and obtained
a perfect appretiation both of their merit and method. In the
Archaeological department of this work he had for a coadjutor Mr.
Leitch, who edited the volume devoted to Dr. Young's Hierogly-
phical discoveries. This work occupied him at intervals spread
over a period of twenty years, and was only published in 1855, three
years before his own decease.

Dr. Peacock was an active member of both the Cambridge Uni-
versity Commissions (of 1850 and 1855). Earnestly devoted to the
improvement of the University system, he had early made its sta-
tutes and history an object of especial study, and had stated, in the
form of observations published in 1840 on its constitution and stu-
dies, and in 1841 on its statutes, the result of his impressions on
a variety of points in which he conceived amelioration practicable.
He came therefore to this arduous and by no means popular duty
fully prepared, by intimate practical acquaintance with the working
of the then existing system, and by long meditation, resulting in an
entire conviction of the desirableness of a very considerable amount
of change in the directions indicated in the Report of the first Com-
mission. These views he throughout supported, however, with per-
fect candour and moderation, and with an earnest desire, as far as
possible, to conciliate opposition, and to wound no private or indivi-
dual feeling.

In 1841 he accepted the office of Prolocutor of the Lower House
of the Convocation of Canterbury, which he filled till 1847, and
again from 1852 to 1857; an office for which the well -known tem-
perateness of his views on all those subjects where, in imperfectly-
balanced minds, strong feeling is apt to degenerate into passionate

543

advocacy, the weight of his character, and the uniform dignity
(combined as it always was with exceeding courtesy and gentleness)
of his personal bearing, peculiarly fitted him.

His health, which in the earlier days of his residence at Cam-
bridge, after taking his Bachelor's degree, had not been strong, lat-
terly gave way under the influence of repeated attacks of influenza
and bronchitis, which necessitated his passing the winters in warmer
residences. That of 1848 he passed in Madeira with every promise
of permanent benefit. The disorder, however, recurred in succeeding
winters, and was aggravated in 1857 by an attack of dysentery. On
the 28th of October in the present year he attended a meeting of the
University Commission, from which returning, he took to his bed,
exhausted by the effort, to rise no more — a striking comment on the
expressions used by him in his letter above cited. His decease took
place on the 8th of November, 1858.

Dr. Peacock married, in 1847, Frances Elizabeth, second daughter
of W. Selwin, Esq., Q.C. He has left no family. He was for
several years a Vice-President of this Society; in 1830-31, and
various subsequent sessions down to 1856-57, he acted as a Mem-
ber of the Council. Few men have left behind them a memory
more cherished, or been attended through life by more universal
manifestations of affectionate regard and reverential esteem.

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR WILLIAM REID, K.C.B., was born on the
25th of April, 1 79 1 : his father was a Minister of the Established
Church of Scotland, at Kinglassie, in Fife, and with slight pre-
vious advantages of education, he was sent, soon after he entered his
fifteenth year, to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Young
Reid made rapid progress, completed his course of study before he
had attained his eighteenth year, and was sent, as was at that time
the custom, to the Ordnance Survey, then directed by Colonel Mudge,
Royal Artillery : in February 1809, he was commissioned in the
Royal Engineers. In those stirring times the interval was short
between the hall of study and the field. Lieutenant Reid joined the
army of Wellington in 1810, was present at the first unsuccessful
siege of Badajoz in April 1811, and at the final capture of that
fortress twelve months later. Early and continuously conspicuous for
his zeal, intelligence and energy, even among the very many young
officers of Engineers who greatly distinguished themselves in that

2o 2

544

war, he took part, while yet a subaltern, in the sieges of Ciudad
Rodrigo, Burgos, and St. Sebastian, in each of which he was wounded,
and in the battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, Nivelle, Nive, and Tou-
louse. He did not obtain his Captaincy until 1814. He was pre-
sent at the bombardment of Algiers under Lord Exmouth in 1816 ;
and he took an active part, twenty years later, in the operations of
Sir de Lacy Evans in Spain, where he commanded the Engineers of
the British auxiliary force.

Ever ready, however, as he was, to follow the leadings of his own
profession, his active mind was not less alive to its scientific interests.
He was the contributor of nine papers to the * Professional Papers '
of the Royal Engineers, usually on technical subjects ; but some-
times on subjects, such as the movement of the shingle along our
coasts, which are more nearly related to his favourite studies. It
was in 1832 that his mind first received the bias which he afterwards
followed with so much distinction and success. It fell to his lot,
as the officer of Engineers at Barbadoes, to have to re-establish the
Government buildings blown down in the hurricane of the 1 Oth of
August, 1831 : no less than 1477 persons out of a population of
about 130,000 lost their lives on that occasion, and property to the
value of more than £ 1,6 00, 000 was destroyed. The devastation and
misery he witnessed, led him, in his own words, " to search every-
where for accounts of previous storms, in the hope of learning
something of their causes and mode of action." In this he was
materially assisted by the previous labours of Mr. Redfield of New
York, who, as early as 1831, had published in the ' American Journal
of Science' the first of a numerous series of papers in which he
demonstrated, not only that the storms of the American coast were
whirlwinds, in opposition to high authorities, who maintained that the
direction of the wind is rectilinear, but also traced some of them from
the West Indies to the sea-board of the United States, and proved
that they were progressive whirlwinds, moving forward on curved
tracks with a considerable velocity. Fully acknowledging his obliga-
tions to this great meteorologist, Lieut. -Colonel Reid set himself to
confirm and extend his deductions, by a laborious collation of the
log-books of British men-of-war and merchantmen. Impressed also
with the idea that to the south of the equator, " in accordance with
the regularity nature follows in all her laws, storms would be found
to move in a directly contrary direction," he endeavoured to collect

545

such facts as would aid further inquiry on that subject. None but
those who have attempted a like task can fully appreciate its diffi-
culties,— observations which the investigator dare not reject, although
convinced that they are wrong, provoking silence where a word would
clear up a doubt, — still more provoking record of useless details, to
the omission of those that are important ; nevertheless he persevered,
and, gaining confidence in the key he had obtained to the real nature
of these intricate phenomena, he ventured in 1 838 to lay down, for
the guidance of the seaman, those broad general rules of navigation
which are known as the law of storms. He showed that it is possible
to deduce from the facts, rules applicable to every emergency ; to tell
unerringly when ships must run before the hurricane, when they must
lie to, and on which tack, so as to avoid being taken aback by the
veering of the wind ; lastly, how to anticipate its coming changes, and
shape the course which best turns them to account.

The announcement of this law, so important to the mariner, arid
to every naval and commercial nation, was received with the greatest
interest by the scientific world; and Lieut. -Colonel Keid's work,
entitled * An Attempt to develope the Laws of Storms,' has gone
through several editions, and has been translated even into Chinese.

Lieut. -Colonel Reid was appointed Governor of Bermuda in 1839,
an opportunity which he did not fail to improve for pursuing his
inquiries : he was transferred to the Government of the West Indies
in 1847. Happening at the latter station to entertain the late
Dr. Fownes of University College, he induced that eminent chemist
to draw up a treatise on rudimentary chemistry for the use of his
newly-founded School of Practical Chemistry at Barbadoes : this
treatise, which the author presented to him, he first printed for local
use, then presented to Mr. Weale, in reference to a design for a series
of cheap popular treatises on scientific subjects which he had long
previously discussed with that gentleman. It was the parent of the
extensive and very valuable series of rudimentary works since brought
out by Mr. Weale ; but, with characteristic modesty, he requested
the suppression of a notice to that effect, which may be seen in the
first edition of Dr. Fownes' s treatise. Resigning the government of
the West Indies, on grounds highly honourable to his sense of inde-
pendence, Lieut. -Colonel Reid resumed his military duties, and was
serving as Commanding Engineer at Woolwich when he was selected

546

for the difficult post of Chairman of the Executive Committee of the
Great Exhibition of 1851. It has been said that his singular simpli-
city of manner and total absence of pretension caused the distin-
guished men, with whom he was associated on that occasion, to
wonder at first what had led to his selection for the office. They
soon discovered, under that simplicity, the patient but genuine en-
thusiasm, the varied experience, the calm and even temper, and the
devotion to the duties of the moment, whatever they might be, which
eminently fitted him for it. It is not too much to say that his
judicious arrangements contributed materially to the success of that
great undertaking, and they were fitly rewarded by the ribbon of
K.C.B., and his appointment to the important military command of
Malta. To that island Sir William Reid carried all the unostentatious
activity which had distinguished his former governments. In a time
of extraordinary difficulty, when Malta becoming an entrepdt of the
first importance to the British Army in the East, all its resources
were strained to the utmost, he managed to meet every demand, and
while he restrained the political excitements of the day, to carry for-
ward homely designs for the permanent benefit of the people. Thus
he founded a botanical school for the working classes ; he imported
improved agricultural implements ; he introduced a new species of
the cotton plant, and other seeds adapted to the climate ; he esta-
blished barometers in public places to warn the Maltese fishermen of
impending gales ; he took in hand the Library of the old Knights
of Malta, and by the introduction of modern books, fitted it to be a
true public library for a large community. Whatever attainable
practical object commended itself to his judgement, that he under-
took, with the same quiet determination which in 1851 enabled him
to falsify adverse predictions and attain the object to which he was
pledged, in the punctual opening of the Great Exhibition.

The Government of Malta was the last public service of Sir William
Reid. He returned home in 1858, having two years previously
attained the rank of Major- General, and died after a very short illness
on the 3 1st of October. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
in 1839, and was appointed Vice-President in 1849.

Sir William Reid was married to a daughter of the late Mr. Bolland
of Clapham. His wife died a few months before him, and he has
left five daughters.

265

Logocyclic Curve by a continuous motion ; arid a very ingenious
instrument has been contrived by Mr. Henry Johnson of Crutched
Friars, to describe the spiral of Archimedes, which is as simple as
it is effective.

June 17, 1858.
The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair.

The Earl Granville, Professor Hennessy, and the Rev. Samuel
Haughton were admitted into the Society.

In accordance with notice given at the last Meeting, the Earl of
Rosse proposed the Right Hon. Sir John Pakington, Bart, for
election and immediate ballot.

The Ballot having been taken, Sir John Pakington was declared
duly elected.

The following communications were read : —

I. " On the Problem of Three Bodies." By CHARLES JAMES

HARGREAVE, LL.D., F.R.S. Received May 3, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The author states that the principal object of this memoir is to
set forth two new methods of treating the dynamical equations by
processes of variation of elements, differing from the ordinary pro-
cesses of this nature principally in this particular, that the variations
are represented in explicit terms of the elements themselves and of
the time, and not through the medium of partial differential coeffi-
cients. It has been his object to render the processes as elementary
as possible ; and to preserve them in a rigorous form, by post-
poning all attempts at approximation until the formulae are actually
applied to practical problems. The applications given in the paper
comprise the circular and spherical pendulums, and the planetary
and lunar theories, and a special theorem as to the movement of
the plane of a planet's motion under the influence of several other
planets.

The original normal problem which is taken as the basis, is that

266

of motion about a fixed centre of force, where the force is directly as
the distance ; or, in other words, the system of equations not ex-
ceeding three in number, of the form

whose solutions are represented under the form

x=\aaco8(nt+p) + pabsm(nt+p),
y=XA a cos (nt + p) +/zfi b sin (nt+p),

z=\cacos(nt+p) + pc b sin (nt + p) ;
where

A0= cos 0 cos $ — sin fy sin \// cos t,

\b=. cos 0 sin ^ + sin ^ cos $ cos i,
\c= sin 0 sin t ;

/*«= — sin <f> cos \f/ — cos 0 sin v// cos t,
/U4= — sin ^ sin i// + cos 0 cos \f> cos «,
/uc= cos ^ sin t i

to which are afterwards added,

va= sin ^ sin t,

yj= — cos -fy sin t,

vc= cos i.

These are the equations of an ellipse whose centre is at the force,
and situated in a plane inclined at the angle t to the plane of x y, and
the longitude of whose node is ^ ; and <f> is the angular distance of
the major axis of the ellipse from the node ; a and b are the semi-
axes of the ellipse ; and p is the angular distance, from the major
axis, of the zero-point of the motion, measured on the circle described
on the major axis. A uniform motion around the circle represents
the place of the body by the corresponding point on the ellipse,
where it is cut by a perpendicular dropped on the major axis.

If the force be not situated at the origin, but at the point (X, Y, Z),
we have merely to substitute x — X fora?, &c. in the above equations
of motion and solutions.

It is then shown that a system of the form

#" + A=P*, &c.,
where w2 and P,, Pv> and P* are any variables, may be solved by the

267

same set of final integrals, and the same values of #', y1, and z',
by supposing the elements a, b, </>, ^/, t, and p to become variable.
These elements are those of an ellipse tangential to the actual
curve of motion ; and the following formulae are obtained for their
variation : —
Let

and let (putting T for nt+p),

a cos 0 cos T — b sin 0 sin T =£,

a sin (p cos T + b cos 0 sin T= »/ ;
then

S(nab)=a cos T(Py)— 6 sin
a* + !>*))= -n(a sin T(P,)-£ cos T(Py)) + rW

cos L ty)=^(b cosT(Px)-a sin T(Py)) + 2a b sin

It may be observed that £ and TJ are coordinates of the body referred
to the plane of the tangential ellipse, and to an axis of £ coinciding
with the node.

This method is denominated the method of Tangential Variation ;
and it is applied directly to the problem of the circular pendulum,
that of the spherical pendulum, and that of the motion of a particle
where the force is a function of the distance, and in particular that
of elliptical motion, where the law of force is that of the inverse
square.

In a subsequent part of the paper it is shown that a system of
the form

#" + w2O-X)=0, &c.,

where w2, X, Y, and Z are any variables, may be solved by the same
set of final integrals, and the same values of #', y', and z\ as those
which have been already given as the solutions of the same system
when n, X, Y, and Z are constant, by supposing the elements to

268

become variable. In such a case, the elements are those of an
ellipse osculating with the actual curve of motion, always of course
having its centre at the moveable point (XYZ). The following
formulae are obtained for the variation of these elements : —
Let

then

l(nab) = - n((X') b cos T + ( Y') a sin T),

b Bi

(«2-&2) (fy + cos i ty)= -((X') b sin T + (Yf) a cos T) + 2a b sin T cos T-,

in which -^ and -77 are the differential coefficients of the expressions

for £ and r), taken explicitly with regard to t.

This method is denominated the method of Osculating Variation.
Applying the method of tangential variation to the system

*" + £*=<), &c.,

we perceive that this system admits of complete solution in finite
terms, leading in fact to the usual theory of elliptical motion. Taking
this system, therefore, as a normal system, the author proceeds to
deduce the formulae for the variation of the elements of this system,
in order to arrive at the solution of the system

*" + £*=?„ &c.

The elements which have been selected, for reasons fully explained
in the paper, are t and \fs, whose meanings are already known ; A
and Nr denoting respectively the mean distance, and the longitude
of the epoch measured in the plane of the tangential ellipse as it
exists at the time t, and measured from the node at that time ; and
e and w denoting respectively the eccentricity of the tangential

269

ellipse, and the longitude of its perihelion measured as above ; and
it is observed that these are strictly normal elements, according to
Professor Donkin's definition of normal elements.

The variations of these elements are then rigorously found, and
are expressed as follows : — Denote

cos >// P* + sin 4/ Py by the symbol P£,
and

cos i (cos ^Px— sin i//Py) + P^, sin t by the symbol P,, ;
and let

— P£ sin 0 + P,, cos 0= P^e • — P% sin m + P,, cos zzr= P|>w ;
£ cos 0 + P,, sin 0=Pr))e ; P^ cossr + P,, sin tBf=P,|W ;

rcosd

then

*''

r sin 6

=2_2* sin(8-Br) Pff «-(! + <? cos (0-

which are capable of being expanded in terms of the elements, and t
by means of the ordinary expressions for r, 6, and 0— w in terms of
the same quantities. The values of the elements at the time t being
supposed to be found, by the integration of these formulae, in terms
of t, and their initial values, are to be substituted in the ordinary
expressions for the coordinates, so as to obtain their values at the
time t.

The author exhibits the application of the preceding formulae to
certain simple examples, and then proceeds to apply them to the
planetary theory. For two planets (distinguished by the suffixes 2
and 3) supposed to move in the same plane, the following are the
rigorous expressions for the variations. Let a2 and a3 be the ratio
of the mass of each planet to that of the central body. Let P denote
the cube of ra-s-r23, and let (P— 1) sin (03 — 02) be called Q, and

270

(P-l) cos(03-02)-^. P be called R; then

(cos (0a-tira

+ sin (02-O (1-f e2cos (02-O)R
, cos (02-*O)Q

-COS (0a— BTa) (1 + *2COS (0,-flfJ) R

=2Vf: {(l+*2cos(02-<))Q+.2sm(02-<)R

From these formulae, the secular variations of the elements are
obtained without difficulty ; and a new method of integrating the
equations for the variations of the eccentricity and longitude of
perihelion is given.

The author then enters upon a minute examination of the mathe-
matical character of secular variations, and their bearing upon the
methods of approximation to which the problem of three bodies
has given rise. It is pointed out that the disturbance finally effected
through the medium of a secular variation is not of the order of the
disturbing force, or rather of the ratio of the disturbing force to the
central force ; but that it may remain precisely the same, though this
ratio should be diminished or increased without limit. The differ-
ence affects not the aggregate amount of deviation or disturbance
caused, but the time in which this aggregate amount is produced.
If we consider the undisturbed problem of two planets about a sun
as representing motion in two planes inclined to each other at the
angle I, and in ellipses having eccentricities e2 and ea, it is shown
that, no matter how small or how large may be the disturbing force
produced on each orbit by the other planet, the aggregate amount of
disturbance of the planet mz is of the order of the quantities I and e.2,
and that of the planet m3, of the order of I and e3. From considera-
tions of this nature, which are dwelt upon at length in the memoir,
the author concludes that the ordinary direct methods of solution
by approximation, being based upon the erroneous assumption that
the variations of the coordinates are of the order of the disturbing

271

force, are not, in a mathematical sense, legitimate processes ; and
that, in the planetary theory, they produce results practically true
only on account of the minuteness of the disturbing forces, and the
consequent great length of the secular periods ; and that, in the
lunar theory, their failure is made evident, in consequence of the
comparatively large magnitude of the disturbing force, and the con-
sequent rapidity with which the elements of the moon's orbit pass
through their secular periods.

The formulae for the variations of the elements are then applied
to the lunar theory ; and some of the integrations are effected
by means of a lemma containing the solution of the differential
equation

(where F, p and q are numerical coefficients), in the form

sM; g2F2*

M being (1- -r)

By this method, the total motion of the moon's perigee, as well as
the coefficients of the evectiori, are fully obtained in the first in-
stance, without the necessity of any second approximation ; and the
usual difficulty as to the movement of the perigee does not present
itself. The motion of the node, and the evection in latitude, are
correctly obtained in a similar manner.

This part of the memoir is concluded by an extension of the
general formulae for the tangential variation of elements to the case
in which we suppose the constant p to become variable, the result
being to add to each variation a term involving fye.

The third part of the Paper contains the development of the
method of osculating variation, before briefly described ; from which
are deduced the formulae for the osculating variations of elliptic ele-
ments. This method is capable of being applied to the planetary
and lunar theories, as well as that of tangential variation ; but the
advantages of this method did not appear to be such as to justify
the actual expansion of the formulae for these theories. The author,
however, shows that with reference to any system of three bodies,
the equations of motion for each body naturally assume the form

#" + ra20-X) = 0, &c.
(being the system solved by this method) ; and that the X, Y, and

VOL. IX. \j

272

Z are absolutely the same for each of the three bodies. This is
shown by demonstrating, that at any given moment the three lines
which represent the direction of the force acting on each of the
three bodies all pass through the same point, which is denominated
the centre of force. The coordinates of this common centre of force
are,

(23)*, +(31)*a + (12)*,.
(23) +(31) +12

with similar expressions for Y and Z; (12) being r12 -f- m m2 %rl2,
X denoting the law of force, &c. Each body has its own value of
n2 ; their ratios being denoted by the proportion

The invariable plane of this system of three bodies is then found ;
and it is shown that the nodes of the three orbits upon this plane
are always in a certain relative position, constituting a kind of tri-
angle of equilibrium about the centre of force ; resulting, in the
limiting case where one of the three bodies is infinitely larger than
the other two (or in what is denominated the undisturbed Problem
of Three Bodies), in an exact opposition of the two nodes of the
orbits of the latter two bodies upon the invariable plane of the
system.

The formulae for the osculating variation of elements are then
applied to a system of three bodies, of which one possesses a pre-
dominating magnitude, so far as is necessary to determine the move-
ment of the planes of the orbits ; and it is readily shown that, if we
consider only the first order of the disturbing force, the inclination
of the plane of each orbit to the invariable plane is absolutely con-
stant; and that the two nodes are always in opposition to each
other, and move with a uniform angular velocity round the inva-
riable plane.

This theorem is then extended to a system of n bodies moving
about a central predominant body ; and it is shown that the ag-
gregate effect of the disturbing forces of such a system upon the
plane of any one of the bodies can always be represented by stating
that its node upon a certain fixed plane revolves with a uniform
angular velocity, the plane of the orbit always remaining at the
same inclination to the fixed plane. The rate of this angular move-

273

ment, and the coordinates of the fixed plane upon which the move-
ment takes place, are found by means of formulae of remarkable
simplicity. These three quantities may be ascertained once for all
for each planet (viz. the inclination of the fixed plane on which the
node moves to any coordinate plane, the longitude of the node of the
fixed plane in relation to any coordinate line, and the angular rate of
movement of the node of the orbit upon this fixed plane), and, when
once ascertained, may be regarded as fixed elements of the planet,
from which the position of the plane of its orbit can always be deter-
mined without the use of tables.

II. "Description of some Remains of a Gigantic Land-Lizard
(Megalania prisca, Ow.) from Australia." By Prof.
RICHARD OWEN, F.R.S. Received May 13, 1858.
(Abstract.)

The subject of this communication forms part of a collection of
fossil remains from Australia, recently acquired by the British Mu-
seum, and demonstrates the former existence in that continent of a
land-lizard considerably surpassing in bulk the largest species now
known. The characters are chiefly derived from vertebrae, partially
fossilized, equalling in size those of the largest existing Crocodiles ;
they are of the 'proccelian' type, but present lacertian modifica-
tions, and closely agree with those in the great existing * Lace-
lizard ' of Australia (Hydrosaurus giganteus, Gray), of which indi-
viduals upwards of six feet long have been taken. A generic or sub-
generic distinction is indicated by the comparatively contracted area
of the neural canal, and by the inferior development of the neural
spine, of the fossil vertebrae, which have belonged to an indivi-
dual not less than twenty feet in length, calculated from the vertebrae
and proportions of the body of the existing Hydrosauri. For this,
probably extinct lizard, the name of Megalania prisca is proposed.

The results of an extended series of comparisons of its vertebrae
with those of recent and extinct Sauria are given ; and the paper is
illustrated by drawings of the vertebrae of Megalania and those of
Hydrosaurus.

u 2

274

III. " Notes of Researches on the Poly-Ammonias/' — No. III.
Contributions towards the History of the Diamides ; Cya-
nate and Sulphocyanide of Phenyl. By A. W. HOFMANN,
Ph.D., F.R.S. &c. Received May 7, 1858.

About ten years* ago, when engaged in the study of aniline, I
discovered two beautiful crystalline compounds, carbanilide and
sulphocarbanilide, which can be produced by a variety of processes.
The former is best prepared by the action of phosgene-gas on ani-
line, while the latter is most readily and most abundantly procured
by the action of bisulphide of carbon on aniline. The composition
and the constitution of these bodies is indicated by the formulae —

(C2 02)"
Carbanilide ........ C26 H12 N2 O2= (C12 H5)2

H2

(C2 S,)"
Sulphocarbanilide . . C26 H12 N2 S2= (C12 H5)2 \ N2.

They may be viewed as derived from two molecules of ammonia
(diammonia) in which two equivalents of hydrogen are replaced by
two molecules of phenyl, and two other equivalents by the biatomic
molecules C2 O2 and C2 S2.

The two substances in question, as far as their formulae are in-
volved, obviously correspond to urea and sulphocyanide of am-

monium : —

(C202)"
Urea .................... C2 H4 N2 O2= H2 \ N2,

(C2s2y

Sulphocyanide of ammonium. . C2 H4 N2 S2= H2 J- N2.

H2

In their formation likewise a certain analogy with urea and sul-
phocyanide of ammonium may be recognized ; for recent experiments
have proved that urea is actually produced by the action of phosgene-
gas on ammonia, while the formation of sulphocyanide of ammonium
by means of ammonia and bisulphide of carbon is a long-established
fact. The analogy, however, seems to disappear altogether, if the

* Journal of the Chemical Society, vol. ii. 36.

547

JOHN FORBES ROYLE, the only son of Capt. W. Royle, H.E.I.C.,
was born at Cawnpore in 1 800 ; educated at the High School, Edin-
burgh, he was originally intended for the army, but whilst waiting
for an appointment to Addiscombe he studied medicine under Dr. A.
T. Thomson, and from him derived, in great part, that love for natural
history which led him eventually to relinquish the profession of arms
and to adopt that of physic. In 1822 he went out to India as an
Assistant-Surgeon on the Bengal establishment, in charge of troops,
and the following year was appointed to the medical duties of the
station at Saharunpore, together with the superintendence of the
Company's Botanical Gardens at that place ; a post which he held
for nearly ten years. Here he enjoyed ample opportunities for study-
ing the natural history of the Northern provinces, and employed all
the time which he could spare from the active duties of his profes-
sion in collecting specimens of plants, vegetable productions, and
minerals ; in amassing information of every kind bearing on the arts,
commercial produce, and medicines of India ; and in minutely ob-
serving the phenomena of tropical vegetation, as influenced by soil,
climate, cultivation, and surrounding circumstances.

Dr. Royle returned to England in 1831 on furlough, bringing with
him collections of great extent and value ; and for several years was
engaged in the study, examination, and arrangement of the materials
he had collected, and in generalizing and digesting the facts he had
observed. The result of these labours was published in 1839, in his
" Illustrations of the Botany and Natural History of the Himalaya
Mountains and Cashmere," a work remarkable for the large amount of
useful and practical information which it contains ; including, at the
same time, an elaborate systematic account of the botany of these
parts of India, enlarged and comprehensive views of the climate of
the country and the influences of meteorological phenomena on its
vegetation, and abundant and minute details of the various vegetable
productions forming articles of export, or used in the arts and manu-
factures of the natives. Especially valuable too, in a practical point of
view, are the technical generalizations with which the work abounds ;
in which the careful study of years is brought to bear on the econo-
mical production of cotton, tea, corn, and other similar substances ;
the exact laws of scientific research being employed to indicate new
and improved methods of cultivation or production.

VOL. ix. 2 P

548

In 1837, on the retirement of Dr. Paris as Professor of Materia
Medica in King's College, London, Dr. Royle was elected to the
vacant chair ; on this occasion he published " An Essay on the An-
tiquity of Hindoo Medicine," a work of much research, and one alike
valuable to the medical man, the antiquary, and the philologist. In
1845 he brought out a " Manual of Materia Medica," as a text-book
for the students attending his lectures at the College, which rapidly
passed through several editions both at home and abroad.

A special department of correspondence, relating to vegetable pro-
ductions, was founded at the East India House in 1838, and confided
to Dr. Royle, and to the duties of this office his best energies were
devoted for nearly twenty years ; it was an occupation peculiarly
congenial to his taste and to the bent of his mind, as he was, to some
extent, able practically to carry out those views, which in the earlier
part of his life he had gradually deduced from scientific observations
and theoretical considerations. In connexion with this office he pub-
lished three valuable technical works on India; namely, in 1840,
" An Essay on the Productive Resources of India;" in 1851, " An
Essay on the Cultivation of Cotton;" and in 1855, "An Essay on
the Cordage-Plants and Vegetable Fibres of India;" besides nu-
merous smaller works and pamphlets on similar subjects.

Dr. Royle was a warm and active supporter of industrial exhi-
bitions. Fully alive to their vast value and importance in a commercial
point of view, he was mainly instrumental in obtaining from India
those extensive and valuable illustrations of Eastern arts and produce,
which excited so much interest at the great International Exhibitions
of 1851 and 1855 ; and at the time of his death he had just completed
the formation and arrangement of a technical museum at the East
India House, designed especially to exhibit the arts and productions
of India, and to illustrate its boundless capabilities and resources.

Though chiefly known as a botanist, Dr. Royle was well-skilled in
other branches of natural history, and was an active member of most
of the societies devoted to them ; at different periods he filled the
duties of Secretary to the Geological and Horticultural Societies, and
repeatedly served on the Councils of the Royal and Linnean Societies.
As a botanist, his careful and laborious habits, and accuracy of ob-
servation, give authority to his writings and weight to his opinions ; —
as a technical writer his works possess a peculiar value, from the

549

circumstance that he combined at the same time, high scientific
attainments, accurate geographical and commercial information, sound
practical knowledge of the arts and manufactures, and an intimate
acquaintance with the habits, customs, and prejudices of the people
of India, and a full appreciation of the capabilities of the country.

RICHARD HORSMAN SOLLY, born in 1778, was educated and
took his degree at Magdalen College, Oxford ; he entered for the Bar,
but being heir to an ample fortune, he relinquished the legal profes-
sion as soon as he had completed the preliminary course of study ;
treating it rather as an amusement than as an occupation, and aban-
doning it as soon as he had been called to the Bar. At an early age
he became attached to scientific pursuits, joined most of the scientific
societies of London, and took an active interest in their management
and welfare. He was one of the original promoters of the Royal
Institution in 1800, and during a period of more than forty years was
a constant attendant at its meetings and an active member of its
committees. He also took part in the formation of the Geological
and Horticultural Societies, serving repeatedly in the Council of the
latter as well as of the Linnean Society. He was a warm supporter
of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, and for a period of
many years was unwearied in attending its meetings, and ever liberal
towards its objects ; a large number of the mechanical engravings
which embellished the Transactions of that Society, were furnished at
his expense.

Mr. H. Solly was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1807,
and without pretending to high scientific standing in any one depart-
ment of knowledge, was possessed of a very considerable amount of
general information in most branches of natural science, more espe-
cially vegetable physiology and systematic botany ; and though sel-
dom occupying himself with original observations or investigations,
he did good service in the cause of science, being always ready to aid
young inquirers with advice, encouragement, and pecuniary assistance.

In connexion with the Society of Arts, he devoted much careful
consideration towards improving the mechanical and chemical pro-
cesses of the engraver, more especially with reference to the printing
of bank-notes and other similar documents of such elaborate designs
and perfect execution as should render forgery impossible. In the

550

same society, too, he contributed mainly towards the improvement of
the microscope, directing his attention from year to year to the various
schemes brought forward for perfecting that instrument, and seeking
by the offer of special prizes to call forth its improvement in those
points in which superior excellence was most to be desired.

THOMAS TOOKE, Esq. was the eldest son of the Rev. William
Tooke, F.R.S., author of various literary works, and chaplain of the
English Factory at St. Petersburg. Thomas Tooke was born in that
city on the 29th of February, 1774 ; and after undergoing a general
education, entered early in life into active mercantile pursuits as part-
ner in one of the largest houses engaged in the Russian trade.
During this period, Mr. Tooke laid the foundation of that accurate
and surprising knowledge of detail in connection with commerce
and political economy which enabled him to raise, upon so wide and
solid a basis, the economical doctrines and discoveries inseparably
associated with his name.

These assumed a palpable form in a work which he published in
1823, entitled " Thoughts and Details on High and Low Prices,"
the prelude to his great work " The History of Prices," the first two
volumes of which appeared in 1838, the third and fourth in 1840
and 1847, and the two closing volumes, in which he was assisted by
Mr. Newmarch, in 1857.

This remarkable work, evincing a rare combination of practical
wisdom, sound judgment, and great knowledge of commercial sta-
tistics, caused the author to be regarded as a most distinguished
writer on the science of political economy. The Royal Society
testified their sense of his merits by electing him a Fellow on the
publication of his first work, and the French Academy more recently
elected him a Corresponding Member.

Nor were Mr. Tooke's labours confined to authorship. He was
an active participator in the inquiries and legislation connected with
the social reforms of the last five-and- twenty years. He took a lead-
ing part in the Factory Worker's Commission, and was the Chair-
man of the Commission for investigating the difficult subject of the
employment of children. For a long period he presided over the
Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation and the St. Katharine's
Dock Company ; and was one of the founders of the Statistical

551

Society, in which he took great interest. Mr. Tooke was also one
of the early promoters of the London and Birmingham Railway ;
and the celebrated Merchants' Petition in favour of Free Trade
emanated from him. At that period (1821), he projected and
founded the Political Economy Club, which still exists.

Thus, the active sphere occupied by Mr. Tooke was of scarcely
less importance than his pursuits as a philosopher, and his name will
be always associated with the great social improvements of this cen-
tury, as for nearly fifty years he applied his high mind and great
acquirements to purposes of practical legislation, which have been
conducive of much public good. Mr. Tooke died at his residence,
31 Spring Gardens, on the 26th of February, 1858, in his 84th
year ; and it was only within the last few months prior to his de-
cease, that he manifested very sensibly the decay of powers generally
incident to his extreme age.

BENJAMIN TR AVERS, Esq. — This eminent surgeon was born in
London, on the 3rd of April, 1 783, so that he was ten years old
when John Hunter died. In his sixteenth year he betook himself to
the great Hospital School of Anatomy and Surgery in the Borough,
then superintended by the elder Cline and Astley Cooper.

In the year 1800 he was apprenticed to Sir Astley at Guy's Hos-
pital. This connection at once secured for him all the advantages
and best privileges of a student's life. His career was early marked
by great ardour and diligence, and a sojourn at Edinburgh during the
Session 1806-7 (after passing his examination at the London College),
was always spoken of by him, as a period of unbounded delight, and
keen interest, in all that pertained to the prosecution of his medical
studies. Here he formed many lasting friendships ; and the names
of Thomson, Barclay, and Gordon, amongst others, might be men-
tioned as being descriptive of the eminent men whose society he
more especially sought and appreciated at this important epoch of his
educational career.

On his return to London he quickly gathered about him a large
class of pupils to attend the anatomical demonstrations which he
delivered at Guy's Hospital, and in this practice he persevered for
several successive seasons.

Mr. Travers obtained no professional employment until the year

552

1809, when he was appointed to the lucrative post of Surgeon to the
East India Company's Volunteer Corps. This piece of good fortune
at once determined the aspect of his future life. He was a man of
great natural endowment, to which was added the charm of manners,
to say nothing of an exquisite tact and great tenderness in dealing
with the misfortunes of others. It is well known that for these
reasons Mr. Travers was always held in the highest esteem, both by
the profession and the public.

In 1810, on the death of Mr. Saunders, Mr. Travers joined Dr.
Farre at the Eye Infirmary in Charterhouse Square. This appoint-
ment speedily brought with it a great accession of private business.
To this connection the profession is indebted for one of Mr. Travers's
earliest and most popular works, " The Synopsis of Diseases of the
Eye." This book speedily ran through three editions, besides being
republished in America, and translated into Italian by Dr. Apolloni,
a physician of Pisa. It possesses the great merit of being founded
on original observation, and was long held in much regard as a
Text-Book, though since superseded by larger and more ambitious
publications.

No Hospital Surgeon ever attained a wider or more justly-deserved
reputation for a profound knowledge of eye-disease than the subject
of this notice. His papers on Cataract in the Medico-Chirugical
Transactions, and the treatise above mentioned, were received at the
time as masterpieces of accurate symptomatology ; they abound in
new facts, and form an elegant and comprehensive digest of all that
was then known touching various important points of practice.

At the time of Mr. Travers's appointment to the office of Surgeon
to St. Thomas's Hospital in 1815, the post was one of extreme inde-
pendence, and the field of observation has at all times been very ex-
tensive.

So long as his health lasted, Mr. Travers availed himself of this
splendid opportunity to its fullest extent, and we soon find him asso-
ciated in the surgical course with his great colleague and former
master Sir Astley Cooper, then in the zenith of his fame as an operator
and a lecturer on Surgery. Mr. Travers, unfortunately, soon found that
his bodily vigour was not such as would enable him to maintain his post
as a lecturer ; he was one night carried from the Theatre in a fainting
fit, from which for some time it remained doubtful whether he would

553

ever rally. He thus felt himself most reluctantly compelled to forego
one of the great and early objects of his ambition, but in compensa-
tion for this it may be remarked, that had he retained his post as
Sir Astley's colleague in the Surgical Chair, he probably never would
have penned the " Treatise on Constitutional Irritation," a production,
which has long since secured for its author a European reputation.

Early in this century, Dr. Jones had explained the operation of a
single ligature upon the coats of an artery, and dispelled the obscurity
which had gathered round this question. There were, however, some
material points of doubt and discussion still remaining to be dealt with.
These the subject of our memoir finally and completely elucidated by
experiment, so that the causes of secondary hemorrhage are now well
ascertained, and are far more effectually guarded against than was the
case before the appearance of Mr. Travers's papers in the fourth and
ninth volumes of the "Medico-Chirurgical Transactions." It was after
his appointment to St. Thomas's that he perfected this inquiry, by
proving, on the person of a patient under his own care, that a ligature
may be withdrawn fifty hours after its application, without risk, and
successfully, so far as concerns the obliteration of the trunk of the
brachial artery. A similar result was obtained after tying the carotid
in the horse and ass, although the ligature was removed so early as
twelve or even nine hours after its original application. On one
occasion Mr. T. removed a ligature from the femoral artery of a
man twenty-seven hours after tying that vessel for a popliteal aneu-
rism, but here pulsation returned and the experiment failed. This
suggestion, or rather the discovery of these effects of the temporary
use of ligatures, was entirely original, as well as the announcement of
another new fact, to which we shall now make some allusion.

In 1811 Mr. T. communicated to the Royal Society an account
of some experiments which exhibit the means adopted by nature
for the cure of wounded intestines. This paper was accepted for
publication, but it was withdrawn to form the groundwork of a larger
treatise, published in 1 8 1 2, which was most favourably received by the
profession. It is there proved that if the intestine of a dog be stran-
gulated by a single ligature, the ulcerative inflammation provides for
the escape of the thread into the cavity of the bowel ; nature at the
same time restoring the wall of the gut by a deposit of lymph, which
undergoes a rapid organization. Of the great work on Constitutional

554

Irritation, we have little more to say in the brief space assigned to us,
than that it is truly " the work of a master." It consists of two
parts : the first contains an account of the direct effects of local irri-
tation upon the great centres of life ; the heart, the brain, and nervous
system. The second is a more elaborate production: it embraces a re-
view of all those obscure relations between parts and centres respect-
ively, which the author terms " reflected," wherein the latter are not
abruptly roused to a direct response and sympathy with the local
excitement, but where the action passes on, via the system, to some
other tissue or organ of the body, or is remitted back from the
centres directly to the offending part, as shown by the specific form
or type of the local changes. This is the most profound portion of
the whole work ; the author was always diffident of the success of
this second part of the inquiry ; he felt he should not be under-
stood, and yet, to use his own majestic phrase, " he sought to rise to
the dignity of a discourse upon the philosophy of Surgery."

Mr. Travers contributed largely to the best periodical literature of
his time. These productions are for the most part to be found in the
earlier volumes of the " Medico-Chirurgical Transactions," normustwe
omit to mention that his first paper narrates the success of an opera-
tion performed for the cure of a remarkable aneurismal tumor. On
this occasion Mr. T. tried the common carotid artery. The woman
perfectly recovered. At that time this operation had only once
before been performed successfully by Sir Astley Cooper. The two
papers on Malignant Disease, and a small theoretical discourse on
Syphilis, must not pass without praiseworthy mention, to say nothing
of his last work on Inflammation, a crowning effort, worthy of this
great disciple of Hunter.

Mr. Travers in early life was a very good operator. He was still
young when he first held the Surgeoncy to the Eye-Infirmary. He used
to say that a man who can extract the cataract with tolerable success
can do anything with the knife. Add to this, that from a very early
period he was in the daily habit of cutting down upon arteries, and
performing other hazardous experiments upon living animals, which
must also have contributed to give him readiness and dexterity as an
operating Surgeon.

He lived to achieve all the honours of the race set before him.
He was twice President of the College of Surgeons, and had long

555

passed the Chair at the Medical and Chirurgical and the Hunterian
Societies, in addition to the reward finally bestowed by Her Majesty,
of creating him one of her Sergeant-Surgeons a few months before his
death. He died somewhat suddenly, after having suffered from pro-
longed illness, at his residence, No 54, Green Street, Grosvenor-square,
on the 6th of March, 1858.

In manner and personal appearance he was eminently refined and
gentlemanlike. Of such men we may say, with the younger Pliny,
" Accepisse te beneficium credes, quum propius inspexeris hominem,
omnibus honoribus, omnibus titulis parem."

HENRY WARBURTON, Esq. was the son of a London merchant,
and was himself for a time engaged in business. He had, however,
passed through a distinguished career at Cambridge, and being pos-
sessed of sufficient fortune, he exchanged the pursuit of commerce
for science, literature, and politics. He entered Parliament in
1826, and finally retired from it in 1847. The course he usually
took as a member of the legislature is well known, and among va-
rious measures of public utility in which he had a principal share, we
need here only specify, as connected with science, his Chairmanship
of the Committee on Medical Education, and his authorship of the
Anatomy Act. He was one of the founders of the London Univer-
sity, now the University College, and for many years was a Member
of its Council. He was also an original Member of the Senate of
the University of London, and continued in that body till the time
of his death. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1809.
He was also an active member of the Geological Society, and in
1843 and 1844, filled the office of President. He died at his
house in Cadogan-place, on the 16th of September, 1858, at the
age of seventy-three.

Mr. Warburton was always in the habit of keeping up the ma-
thematical knowledge which he had acquired at Cambridge. His
mathematical library was extensive ; and the retirement in which he
lived, even while he was a member of Parliament, gave him time to
use it. It was not until the termination of his public life that he
thought of printing any speculation of his own : and it is a remark-
able instance of the manner in which even men inured to publicity
feel diffidence in entering on a new career, that the veteran politician,
accustomed to face overpowering majorities of the House of Commons,

556

with unpalatable propositions, committed his thoughts to a friend to
be digested and presented to the Cambridge Philosophical Society,
from nothing but timidity at the idea of appearing in person. But
by the time the paper was drawn up and publicly read, the real author
took heart of grace, and drew up his own thoughts with additions.
This paper " On the Partition of Numbers, and on Permutations and
Combinations," was printed by the Cambridge Society in 1847. An-
other, "On Self- Repeating Series," was published in 1854. Both
papers show a great command over the German factorial notation,
and add several curious theorems to their subjects.

JOHANNES MULLER was born in the city of Coblentz, on the 14th
of July, 1801. His father, Matthias Miiller, was a shoemaker, in
a small way of business, but, notwithstanding his narrow means,
determined not to deny his son the advantages of a good education.
Accordingly, after such tuition as was suited to his earlier years, the
boy, in 1810, entered the secondary school or gymnasium of his na-
tive town, where for eight years he was instructed in classics, mathe-
matics, and other branches of liberal learning. His rather mono-
tonous life at this institution, which is said to have been carried on
in an old-fashioned scholastic way, was relieved, and his mind ex-
panded, by independent reading, especially of Goethe, and by fre-
quent rambles in the country, in which he gratified his love of
external nature, and collected plants and animals, for the study of
which he showed an early predilection.

At the recommendation of the Director of Schools of the pro-
vince, Johannes Schultze, who had doubtless noted the intellectual
promise of the youth, Matthias Miiller had destined his son for a
learned profession ; and although he did not live to see the fulfil-
ment of his intentions, they were dutifully carried out by his widow.
Accordingly in 1819 young Miiller was sent to the University of
Bonn, having in the mean time, after leaving the gymnasium, gone
through a year's military service, as was the custom with those of
his age and condition.

Before entering on his university course, the young man had an
important question to settle. Born of Roman Catholic parents and
nurtured in the same faith, he had when yet a child manifested a
desire to be brought up for the priesthood, and this inclination had
been fondly cherished by his pious and affectionate mother. The

557

time had now come for choosing his path ; and we are told that it
was after three days of anxious communing with himself that he
gave up thoughts of the Church, and decided for Medicine.

He remained three years at Bonn, and took his degree of Doctor
in December, 1822; having presented an inaugural dissertation on
the laws of animal locomotion *, a subject on which he had already
published some observations in 'Oken's Isis.* His career at the
university was characterized by intense application to study, but
with the constant exercise of independent thought, and by a keen
relish for original investigation. Prompted by this, though but in
the first year of his studies, he engaged in a series of experiments
and observations on the respiration of the fcetus, a subject which had
been proposed for a prize question by the university ; and his essay f,
distinguished alike by learned research and by original and varied
experiment, was declared the successful one. Miiller's scientific
tendencies at this period may be also inferred from the fact that he
acted as secretary of a Natural History Society established among
the students at Bonn, by Nees von Esenbeck.

But while thus intent on the proper work of a student, Miiller
was not indifferent to the general yearning after constitutional free-
dom, which, after expulsion of the French, pervaded the liberal
mind of Germany ; and we are told that he heartily joined the
Burschenschaft, and even took part as a leader in that rather enthu-
siastic association, in which, notwithstanding the ban of the Carlsbad
decrees, the academic youth still cherished their hopes of German
unity, and laid plans for social improvement.

After taking his degree, Miiller went to Berlin to pass his exami-
nations for licence to practise (Staatspriifungen), and continued for a
year and a half to prosecute his philosophical and medical studies in
that university. He had not gone through his career at Bonn without
contracting some leaven of the "Naturphilosophie" with which the
leading German schools of biology were then fermenting. Of this
however he was radically cleared at Berlin, through the influence of
Rudolphi, of whom he became a favourite pupil. Rudolphi was an
enemy to subjective speculation in biological science ; he looked on
the so-called philosophy as mistaken and futile in its application to
the phenomena of the animal economy, and based his physiology

* Diss. Inaug. de Phoronomia Animalium. Bonnae, 1822.

t De Respiratione Fcetus. Commentatio physiologica. Lipsiae, 1823.

558

chiefly, and perhaps rather exclusively, on the study of the animal
structure. Of the encouragement and aid received from that ex-
cellent man, Miiller afterwards spoke in the most grateful terms, and
he declares that it was through the influence and example of Rudol-
phi that his scientific pursuits were afterwards turned so much to
comparative anatomy.

Miiller returned to Bonn in 1824, and in October of the same year
began his career as an academical lecturer in that university. In 1826
he was made Professor Extraordinary. In the meantime, however,
the duties he imposed on himself as a teacher had been unusually
onerous, and to these was added unremitting employment in original
investigation, with all its concomitant labour and thought. Such over-
strained exertion brought on a state of bodily exhaustion and mental
depression, which in 1827 obliged him wholly to lay aside work for
a season, and to seek for health and recreation in a journey up the
Rhine, and through the south of Germany, in which he was accom-
panied by his newly-married wife. Returning with recruited health,
and resuming his duties in Bonn, he was in 1830 promoted to the
grade of Professor in Ordinary ; and in the spring of 1 833 he was called
to occupy the chair of Anatomy and Physiology in Berlin, which had
become vacant by the death of his friend and preceptor, Rudolphi.

Of the works published by Miiller during his stay at Bonn, the
first in point of time was one " On the Comparative Physiology of
Vision," which appeared in 1826*. This was immediately followed
by a smaller essay "On the Phantasmal Phenomena of Vision f," a
class of phenomena which had greatly interested and attracted Miiller
when a boy, and in the contemplation of which, as he himself in-
forms us, he used to give free play to his fancy. The appearances,
thus become early familiar to him, he subjected in maturer years to
philosophical scrutiny, and the work in which they are described
and discussed forms properly the continuation of the larger treatise
on vision which preceded it. Of this treatise, the leading charac-
teristics are, according to the opinion of one well qualified to judge J,
the masterly application of anatomy, physiological experiment, phy-

* " Zur vergleichenden Physiologic des Gesichtssinnes des Menschen und der
Thiere," &c. Leipzig. 1826.

t " Ueber die phantastischen Gesichtserscheinungen," &c. Coblenz. 1826.

I Professor Theod. L. W. Bischoff, of Munich, in his " Festrede tiber Johannes
Miiller." Miinchen. 1858.

559

sics, psychology and other branches of knowledge to the elucidation
of the physiology of vision, and the thorough, searching, and many-
sided way in which the whole matter is handled.

In an essay " On the Development of the Reproductive Organs,"
which appeared a few years later*, Miiller traced the steps of that
process in the embryo of man and animals, detected the minute pri-
mordial filament (now known by his name) which gives rise to the
oviduct or Fallopian tube, and applied with much success the know-
ledge thus acquired to the elucidation of certain perplexing malforma-
tions which sometimes occur. Pursuing his researches into the intimate
structure and development of organs, he was able about the same
time to produce his treatise on the secreting glandsf. In this well-
known work the intimate structure of the organs in question is inves-
tigated in the varied conditions which it presents, from the lowest
animals to man, and from the embryonic to the perfect state ; and
one great result of this labour was to establish, on a wider and more
satisfactory basis, the true doctrine of the relation of the blood-vessels
and gland- ducts, as first correctly conceived by Malpighi. It was
also shown that the same kind of secretion might be yielded by
glands formed, as far as discoverable, on an entirely different type of
construction. It was at this time, also, that Miiller, almost simulta-
neously with Panizza of Pavia, made the discovery of the lymphatic
hearts in reptiles ; a discovery, which especially deserves notice on the
present occasion, inasmuch as it was communicated to this Society
and published in the " Philosophical Transactions $."

When he settled in Berlin, Miiller' s first care, next to his pro-
fessorial duties, was the continuation and completion of his " Hand-
book of Physiology," commenced before he left Bonn. Appearing
in successive parts, the book was at length finished in 1840.

To this important work, so well and favourably known to English
readers through the admirable translation of Dr. Baly, it is unne-
cessary here to make long reference. With defects of construction
which detract from its usefulness as a systematic guide to the student
of physiology, — although, as a general treatise, unequal in scope to

* Bildungsgeschichte der Genitalien. Dusseldorf. 1 830.

t De glandularum secernentium structura penitiori earumque prim a forma-
tione, &c. Lipsia. 1830.

£ Read Feb. 14, 1833. Phil. Trans. 1833, p. 89.

560

the " Elementa" of Haller, and making no pretence to emulate the
prodigious learning and elaborate finish of that stupendous work,
which occupied its author for the greater part of a long life, — Miiller's
" Handbook" was accepted, we may almost say, with universal
accord, as the most valuable general work on physiology which had
appeared in the long interval since Haller's time. And, indeed,
the two great physiological writers have much in common. In
both, we perceive the same earnest purpose of placing the doctrines
of physiology on a basis of fact, the same constant endeavour to
extend and consolidate this foundation, or test its validity, by ma-
terials and methods placed at their command by their accomplish-
ment in the cognate and collateral sciences. Anatomy, human and
comparative, experiments on animals, chemistry, and physical sci-
ence, in its various departments, are all brought to bear in the inves-
tigation of physiological truth.

Miiller's work is, moreover, enriched throughout with the fruits of
the author's own observation and experimental inquiry, which are
sometimes, it is true, given with a detail better suited for a separate
memoir than for a chapter in a handbook, but which signally enhance
its value as an original source of information. Almost every part of
the book affords evidence of this, but it is enough to refer specially
to the examination of the blood, the disquisitions on the nervous
system, and the valuable experimental investigations on the voice
and hearing. Here, as in his other writings, it is characteristic of
Miiller that he takes nothing on trust ; every statement, whether
of matter of fact or doctrine, is thoroughly sifted. Difficulties,
however perplexing, are never evaded or slurred over ; defects, how-
ever they may deface the picture to be presented, are never dis-
guised. Every question is resolutely attacked ; the result, whether
success or failure, is honestly told ; and there is no yielding to the
temptation, so powerful with writers of systems, of rounding off a
rugged subject with smooth plausibilities.

While carrying on his experimental inquiries in physiology, Miiller
did not neglect the study of pathological anatomy, and he was one
of the first to apply the microscope to the study of morbid growths * ;

* Uebcr den feinen Bau und die Formen der Krankhaften Geschwiilste,
Berlin, 1838.

561

still his chief pursuit to the end of his life was comparative anatomy,
with occasional excursions into the neighbouring fields of zoology
and palaeontology. Fishes and marine invertebrata were his favourite
subjects. The chief fruits of his inquiries were — his memoirs on the
myxinoid fishes ; his systematic description (in association with Henle)
of the Plagiostomata ; the reintroduction into zoology of the pla-
centiferous shark of Aristotle ; his essay on the Ganoids and on the
natural arrangement of fishes ; his papers on Rhizopoda ; and his
remarkable succession of memoirs on the embryology and structure
of the Echinoderms. It will not have been forgotten by the Fellows
of this Society, that for the last-mentioned discoveries in particular,
in addition to his previous labours in physiology and comparative
anatomy, Professor Miiller received the Copley Medal in 1854.

Of the memoirs on the myxinoid fishes, we may observe, in the
language of the President's address on the occasion mentioned, that
their title conveys but a faint idea of their scope and importance ;
for while the anatomy of a particular family of fishes may be said to
form the text, there is an ample commentary, rich in new and original
matter, in which the structure is compared in other tribes, and the
facts sagaciously applied to the elucidation of great questions in
animal morphology. Referring to the researches on the Echino-
dermata, the President thus continued: — " Professor Miiller early
applied himself to the study of the structure and economy of the
Echinoderms. After describing, in a special memoir, the anatomy of
the Pentacrinus, so interesting as a living representative of the ex-
tinct Crinoidea, and publishing, in conjunction with M. Troschel, a
systematic arrangement and description of the Asterida, he was at
length happily led to investigate the embryo life of this remarkable
class of animals. The field of inquiry on which he entered had
scarcely been trenched upon before, and he has since made it almost
wholly his own by persevering researches carried on at the proper
seasons for the last nine years, on the shores of the North Sea, the
Mediterranean, and the Adriatic. In this way he has investigated
the larval conditions of four out of the five orders of true Echino-
derms, and has successfully sought out and determined the common
plan followed in their development, amidst remarkable and unlooked-
for deviations in the larval organization and habits of genera even of
the same order; and his inquiries respecting these animals have

made us acquainted with larval forms, with relations between the
larva and future being ; and with modes of existence ; such as nature
has not yet been found to present in any other part of the animal
kingdom. Finally, with the light thus derived from the study of
their development, Professor Miiller has subjected the organization
of the entire class of Echinoderms, both recent and fossil, to a
thorough revision, and has added much that is new, as well as cleared
up much that was obscure, in regard to their economy, structure, and
homologies. It is to these researches, which occupy seven memoirs
in the ' Transactions of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin,' that
more special reference is made in the award of the Medal. Besides
their other claims to distinction, they may be justly regarded as
revealing a new order of facts in the history of animal development."

Soon after his settlement in Berlin, Miiller established the " Archiv
fur Anatomic und Physiologic," which goes by his name ; and he con-
tinued the publication till the time of his death. Besides containing
numerous original contributions of his own, and the valuable Annual
Reports on the progress of these sciences, drawn up by himself or
his able assistants, this Journal, following after " Meckel's Archives,"
has formed the principal medium of publicity for the labours of the
leading physiologists of Germany during the period of its existence ;
and the establishment and continued superintendence of it by Miiller,
in the midst of other laborious employments, must be ever regarded
as an important service rendered to science.

What remains of Miiller' s personal history may be soon told.
Only two events, so far as we know, after this time broke in upon
the even tenour of his life. In 1848 he was Rector of the University,
in a time of civil commotion, when political agitation distracted the
academic body, and both students and professors left the lecture
room to equip themselves as soldiers. Miiller, who in youth had
been an ardent " Bursch," was now a sober conservative, and in his
mind the aspect of affairs threatened disaster to the State and the
University. His situation was one of difficulty and not without
peril ; he strove manfully to maintain authority, though with little
success ; but even those who took a different view of passing events
paid a willing tribute to his honesty of purpose and the personal
courage he displayed in most trying circumstances. The other
remarkable occurrence in Miiller' s latter years was the following.

563

He was accustomed to spend his autumn vacation somewhere on the
sea-coast, for the sake of studying marine animals. While he was
returning from one of these visits which he had made in 1855 to
the coast of Norway with two of his pupils, the steamer, between
Bergen and Christiansand, in which he was travelling, was run into
by another, and speedily sank. Nearly fifty people lost their lives,
and among them one of Muller's companions, a young man of great
promise. In a letter to a friend in England, in which Miiller gives
an account of this deplorable calamity, he says that on finding him-
self in the water, he at first kept himself up by swimming ; but
that having his clothes on, he soon became exhausted, and would
have inevitably perished, had he not caught hold of a ship's ladder
that was floating by. He held on for a long time, and had given
up all hope of succour, when he was picked up by a boat from the
other vessel. His remaining companion, Dr. Schneider, saved him-
self in a similar way. This event had a deep effect upon him, and,
although he still resorted to the sea- side, he dreaded afterwards to
trust himself on ship-board.

Still working hard as before, but with altered spirits, he in the
spring of 1858 began to fail in health; he complained of head-
aches and passed sleepless nights, owing, doubtless, to a recurrence
of cerebral disease from which he had twice before suffered in the
course of his life. Experiencing no amendment, and at length feeling
that his end was approaching, he settled his affairs both public and
private ; called his son by telegraph from Bonn on the 27th of
April, and fixed on the morrow for a medical consultation on his
case ; but the next morning found him a corpse.

A man of Miiller' s eminence had of course been enrolled a member
of the chief learned bodies of Europe and America. He was elected
a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1840.

Miiller was rather grave and reserved in manner ; he was upright
in all his dealings, ever ready to perceive merit in others, candid and
just in acknowledging the scientific labours of his predecessors and
contemporaries. The tidings of the unlooked-for extinction of his
laborious and valuable life caused profound sorrow in every part of
the world where science is cultivated.

VOL. ix. 2 Q

564

December 9, 1858.

Sir BENJAMIN COLLINS BRODIE, Bart., President,
in the Chair.

The President announced that, under the provisions of the Char-
ter, he had appointed the following Members of the Council to be
Vice- Presidents : —

The Lord Wrottesley.
Major-General Sabine.
Thomas Bell, Esq.
John Peter Gassiot, Esq.
Sir Roderick Murchison.
The Rev. Dr. Whewell.

The President, on taking the Chair, addressed the Meeting as
follows : —

GENTLEMEN,

ALTHOUGH I have already had the opportunity of offering to you my
thanks for the great honour which you have conferred on me in placing
me in this Cbair, it is but fit that I should repeat them now, when
we are assembled in a more formal manner, and when probably
some Fellows are present who were not present at the Anniversary
dinner. It is impossible that I should be otherwise than highly
gratified by such an expression of the good opinion of a Society,
which may justly be regarded as including a larger proportion of
individuals distinguished for their knowledge and intelligence than
any other in this country. At the same time I must own that my
feelings on the occasion are somewhat modified when 1 see around
me so many of our Fellows who have devoted their lives to scientific
pursuits, and who in their respective departments have contributed
so much more than I have done to the advancement of scientific
knowledge. It is now long since the requirements of an arduous
profession, and the public not less than the private duties belonging
to it, compelled me to direct my attention to other objects, and in a
great degree to relinquish those researches, to which during many

565

previous years I had been able to devote a large portion of my time,
and which were to me the chief objects of interest during the early
period of my life. Still, although I have ceased, except to a limited
extent, to be a labourer in that field of science in which I laboured
formerly, I have never failed to sympathize with those who in this
respect were more happily situated, and to regard with satisfaction,
or I ought rather to say with admiration, the grand results at which
they have arrived in extending the boundaries of human knowledge.

If it were possible for any one of that small but illustrious band of
philosophers, — who just two centuries ago were associated in Gresham
College for the purpose of mutually communicating and receiving
knowledge, and who there laid the foundation of the Society which is
now assembled — to revisit the scene of his former labours, we may well
conceive the delight which it would afford him to learn that the suc-
cess of that noble enterprise had been so much greater than his most
sanguine aspirations could have led him to anticipate. Not only
would he find an ample development of sciences which were then in
the embryo state of their existence, but he would find other sciences,
not inferior to these in interest and importance, added to the list.
He would find that, instead of a limited number of individuals who
were then occupied with scientific inquiries, whose labours were held
in little estimation by the general public, and even held to be objects
of ridicule by the presumptuous and ignorant, there is now a large
number devoted to the same pursuits, and successfully applying to
them the highest powers of the human intellect. He would perceive
that, instead of being confined as it were to a corner, the love of
knowledge is gradually becoming extended throughout the length
and breadth of the land ; and that, of those whose position does not
afford them the opportunity of penetrating to the inmost recesses of
the temple of science, there are many who, having advanced as far as
the vestibule, are enabled even there to obtain their reward, in the
improvement of their own minds, and in being rendered more useful
members of the community.

Now, to say that all that has been accomplished as to the cultiva-
tion of science in this country during the last two centuries is to be
attributed to the Royal Society, would be an absurdity. As, in now
far-distant times, the course of events led the ancient nations, first of
Greece and afterwards of Rome, to the cultivation of literature, of

2 Q2

566

moral philosophy, of geometry, and of the fine arts ; so in these latter
times, the course of events, taking another direction, has led the nations
of Europe to the investigation of the physical sciences. The Royal
Society has been one of the results of this movement ; but being once
established it became itself a cause, and has been a most powerful
and efficient instrument for the carrying on, and giving a right direc-
tion to, the movement in which it had itself originated. It has been
the means of bringing those who have the same objects in view into
communication with each other; and we all know how the interchange
of knowledge and opinions, and the spirit of emulation, tend, at the
same time that they increase the energy and activity of the imagina-
tion, to correct and mature the judgment. Nor should we overlook
the fact, that the institution of the Royal Society has always afforded
an honourable distinction for those whose labours have contributed
to build up the fabric of human knowledge, — a distinction which has
this peculiarity, that it can never be obtained through favour or
interest, while the selection of candidates for the Fellowship is as
carefully and impartially conducted as is the case at present.

Among the portraits which we see around us is one of the Sove-
reign who granted us the charter by which we are incorporated, and
who conferred the title of Royal Society on us. Whatever defects
posterity may have discovered in the character of King Charles the
Second, we are bound to express our obligations to him, not only for
the charter which we hold, but for the real interest which he seems
to have taken in our Society when it was yet in its infancy, and for
the attention which he paid to it during the early period of his reign,
at a time when the patronage of the Crown was of so much the greater
importance, as there were but few among the public who sympa-
thized with the new association in its pursuits, or were capable of
estimating the objects for which it was established. Nor did His Ma-
jesty merely grant us a charter, but it was one especially suited to the
genius and character of the English people. When nearly forty years
afterwards the Academic des Sciences was founded by King Louis the
Fourteenth, it was placed wholly under the dominion of the Crown.
The number of its members was limited : those belonging to one of its
sections received pensions from the State ; and when a vacancy oc-
curred in any of the sections, it was necessary that the election of the
new member should be confirmed by the Crown. Now we must not

567

find fault with the constitution of a Society which has earned for
itself so lofty a reputation ; including in the list of its members the
names of the most profound philosophers, and the greatest geniuses
of the age, and of whose works all who are engaged in the pursuit of
knowledge are justly proud ; but we cannot doubt that with us such
a constitution, so different from that of every other corporation in
this country, would have been very much less successful than that
which we actually possess. The charter of the Royal Society leaves
the management of its aifairs entirely in the hands of the Fellows,
without the interference of any higher power. No one, in virtue of
his belonging to it, receives any pension or derives any other advan-
tage from the Government, and our funds are supplied altogether by
ourselves. The sum of £ 1000, for some time past, has been annu-
ally voted by Parliament for the promotion of science. The Royal
Society have undertaken the task of" suggesting to the Treasury the
manner in which this may be most usefully and economically distri-
buted, the duty of accomplishing this object being devolved on a
committee specially appointed for that purpose. But from this Par-
liamentary grant the Royal Society derives no special advantage, it
being applied indifferently, for the purpose of supplying apparatus
or other means of carrying on scientific inquiries, whether these in-
quiries belong to their own Fellows or to other persons. Being thus
independent of the powers by which the State is governed, and
having no other object than that of observing the physical pheno-
mena of the universe, and tracing the laws by which they are regu-
lated, the Royal Society has always pursued its course free from
political excitement, and beyond the influence of anything in the
shape of party politics. The effect of this has been not to sever the
connexion which ought to exist between an institution of Royal foun-
dation and the State, but to cause that connexion to manifest itself
only by mutual exchange of good offices. The Royal Society has
been always ready to lend its assistance to the Government whenever
they required it, either in the way of giving their opinion on scientific
questions, or in that of carrying out any public work ; and I may
add, that thus they have been enabled, not in a few, but in numerous
instances, to render good service to the community ; while, on the
other hand, they are indebted to the Government, first, for the apart-
ments in Somerset House, formerly allotted to them by King George

568

the Third, and now for the more ample accommodation granted to
them by Her present Majesty.

When the Royal Society was first established, there was no other
Society devoting itself to the pursuit of any branch of knowledge ;
and hence it was that many communications were made on subjects
not strictly belonging to those sciences, to which it was intended
that their attention should be more especially directed. If we refer
to their earlier publications, we find in one of them a scheme for a
universal alphabet ; in another, a dissertation on the Chinese lan-
guage. Father Gaubil, a missionary belonging to the order of
Jesuits, sends them a map of Pekin, with an exact account of the
imperial palace. An English merchant gives a history of his journey
to Aleppo and Tadmor ; others describe the discovery of tessellated
pavements and other Roman antiquities. In short, there is scarcely
any one department of knowledge, whether it be philology, history,
antiquities, medicine, geography, political economy, and even meta-
physics, which is not to a greater or less extent represented in the
Philosophical Transactions. But all this time knowledge of all kinds
was rapidly increasing, vires acquirens eundo. The time arrived
when a division of labour was required, and the Royal Society disco-
vered the necessity of confining themselves to their more legitimate
pursuits. In the year 1717 the institution of the Society of Anti-
quaries attracted one large class of communications from them.
After an interval of seventy years, the Linnean Society was founded
for the cultivation of natural history ; and I need not enumerate the
various other societies which have been since called into existence,
and which are now pursuing their course, not as rivals of the Royal
Society, but as cooperators with it in the great work of exploring
the phenomena of the universe. Whatever may have been the ap-
prehensions which some may have entertained formerly, the event
has proved that these new institutions have in no degree interfered
with the reputation and usefulness of that from which they derived
their origin. Indeed, without such fellow-labourers as these it is
difficult to understand how, in the present state of knowledge, the
Royal Society could have met the expectations of the scientific por-
tion of the community. There would have been no means of record-
ing a vast number of valuable details, from which important con-
clusions may be drawn in after-times. At the same time, we need

569

only refer to the volumes of the Philosophical Transactions, published
since the beginning of this century, to be satisfied that the disposi-
tion to communicate the higher class of investigations to the Royal
Society is not less than formerly. It is, indeed, the interest of every
one who is ambitious that his name as a discoverer should be trans-
mitted to posterity, that his works should have a place in the Philo-
sophical Transactions, where, as has been observed by a writer in the
Edinburgh Review, " He has the benefit of the great name acquired
by that distinguished body, by the labours of Newton and Halley
and Cavendish, and by two centuries of constant services performed
to the commonwealth of letters*."

With the exception of the achievements of those small communities
of ancient Greece, to whose works we still refer as affording the highest
standard of excellence in literature and the fine arts, and from whom
has been transmitted to us that marvellous science of geometry which
enabled Newton to unravel the system of the universe, — with this
exception, there is nothing in the history of what belongs to the
advancement of knowledge so remarkable as the progress which the
European nations have made in the cultivation of the physical
sciences during the last two hundred years. It is not only those
who are engaged, as you are, in researches of this kind, that must
contemplate with satisfaction the results of this movement. The
moral philosopher, recognizing in the desire of knowledge one of
the noblest of our aspirations, will regard the extension of that de-
sire, and the more general diffusion of knowledge, as an important
means of elevating our species in the scale of intellectual beings.
The unprejudiced theologian will allow that there is no better foun-
dation for the religious sentiment than the study of natural pheno-
mena, opening as it does to our view everywhere examples of design,
and of the adaptation of means to ends, combined with mighty power
and benevolent intention. The philosophical statesman, who, con-
templating the progress of society, endeavours to explain the changes
which it has undergone, and thence to anticipate the future, cannot fail
to perceive that the cultivation of the physical sciences has been in these
later times one of the most important instruments of civilization ;
while the mere utilitarian, however little he may be capable of esti-
mating knowledge for its own sake, must admit that it has contri-
* Edinburgh Review, 1811.

570

buted more than anything else to the comforts and conveniences, not
of one order only, but of every order of the community, from those
who dwell in palaces to the tenants of cottages and garrets. I need
not occupy your time by adducing particular instances of the benefits
to which I allude ; and indeed they are so obvious, that I should not
have thought it worth while to allude to them at all, if it were not that
they show how complete a refutation the lapse of time has afforded
of the views of those short-sighted cynics, among whom I am sorry
to include even so distinguished a person as the author of Gulliver's
4 Travels,' who formerly opposed or ridiculed the Royal Society, as if
it were engaged in trifling pursuits of no advantage to mankind.

Science has already arrived at great results, far beyond what could
have been reasonably anticipated. But the inquisitive mind, looking
into the future, will find reason to believe that if we could lift up the
veil by which it is concealed, we should find that there are other and
still greater results reserved for those who will come after us, and
which even some of those who are now among us may live long
enough to witness. Astronomy has been said to be the most perfect
of all the sciences ; and some time since it might have been supposed
that, as regards it, we had not the power of carrying our researches
much further. But the observations of Lord Rosse, penetrating by
means of his improved telescope into the more remote regions of
space, have enabled him to determine the nature of the so-called
nebulous matter, and to enter on a new order of inquiries respect-
ing the construction of the universe. The needles which now
vibrate in the magnetic observatories which have been established in
different regions of the earth, under the direction of the Treasurer
of our Society, have already not only made us acquainted with many
important facts connected with terrestrial magnetism, but have dis-
closed to us some remarkable relations between the earth and the
sun, of which we had no conception previously. But these magnetic
observations are still in progress, and if not prematurely brought
to a conclusion, it would be unreasonable to doubt that they must
lead to still more important discoveries as to the operation of a
force, which, probably like that of gravity, pervades the universe, and
places even the most distant parts of it in connexion with each other.
A Fellow of our Society — devoting to it his time, his fortune, and
his intellectual powers — is in a fair way to attain the great object

571

of his life, in the construction of an arithmetical engine of far supe-
rior capabilities to any previously invented by himself or others ;
such as may not only be a lasting monument of profound mathe-
matical knowledge, of inventive genius, and of that perseverance
amid difficulties which is one of the highest attributes of genius ;
but may be of great use to mankind hereafter, by solving with un-
erring certainty problems which practically are in any other way
beyond the reach of the human intellect.

It is merely because it happened that they first occurred to me,
that I have adduced these instances of investigations which are now
going on, but of which the principal results remain to be worked out
hereafter. I need not tell you that analogous instances might be
furnished from almost every department of knowledge. If we add
to these the number of investigations of a more limited kind, each
complete within itself, which every year produces, also bearing in
mind how great an influence the cultivation of the physical sciences
during the last century has exercised on our social system, and how
much it has contributed to give to modern civilization its peculiar cha-
racter, we may well ask, what may not be the effect of a continuance
of the same spirit of inquiry during the century which is to come ?
In considering such a question, it must be remembered that, whenever
any addition has been made to the general stock of knowledge, the
practical application of it to the ordinary purposes of life, for the
most part, is made not immediately, nor until a long time afterwards.
In the year 1739, the Rev. Dr. Clayton, at that time Dean of Kildare,
communicated to the Royal Society his experiments on the distilla-
tion of coal, and his discovery of what he called " the spirit of coal."
This spirit he confined in bladders, and occasionally diverted his
friends by puncturing one of them near a candle, thus exhibiting a
bright flame which issued from the puncture, until the whole of the
spirit in the bladder was exhausted. Now the application of this
discovery seems, as we see it now, to have been sufficiently obvious,
yet nearly sixty years elapsed before Mr. Murdoch was led to avail
himself of it for the purpose of lighting a factory in Manchester.
In the year 1800, Volta, following up the researches of Galvani,
discovered the effect which the multiplication of metallic plates has
of increasing the electric force. About five years afterwards Davy
began that grand series of experiments, in which he succeeded in

572

decomposing the alkalies and earths by means of an apparatus similar
to that invented by Volta, but of larger extent and greater power.
But very many years yet elapsed, and many improvements and modi-
fications of the battery had been effected, before the same method
was made use of for the purpose of electro-plating. Early in the
present century, Davy published an account of the effects produced
on the nervous system by the respiration of the nitrous oxide. It
was afterwards ascertained by physiologists that the respiration of
the vapour of ether operates in a similar manner, symptoms, like
those of intoxication, being followed by a temporary loss of sensi-
bility. But it was still many years afterwards that it first occurred
to a dentist in America that the respiration of ether might be employed
for the purpose of producing insensibility to pain during surgical
operations. The time may often be long deferred, but our expe-
rience warrants the assertion, that there are very few of the discoveries
which have been made in the physical sciences which have not, sooner
or later, directly or indirectly, had the effect of promoting the well-
being, the convenience, and comforts of mankind. As it has been
hitherto, so we may expect it to be hereafter. In the meanwhile,
the Royal Society, gathering to itself those who are most eminent
as cultivators of any branch of natural philosophy, has no small
share of responsibility, and has important duties to perform. It
may encourage the deserving ; it may lend a helping hand to those
who want it ; it may, as it always has done, render assistance to
the Government where such assistance is required. Nor am I arro-
gating too much for the Royal Society when I say that it has still
another function, which it even now exercises, not less substantially
and really because the Fellows of the Society are themselves uncon-
scious of it. Of the value of knowledge I apprehend that few at
the present day will venture to express a doubt. But in all ages much
of that which has been given to the world as knowledge has been no
knowledge at all ; and from this evil even the present age, in spite
of the efforts made for the improvement of education, is not exempt.
An institution such as ours is in this respect a great safeguard to
the public. Here individuals engaged in pursuits which require
accurate observation and cautious induction, are brought more or
less into communication with each other. Mistakes as to matters
of fact, and too hasty conclusions, are alike corrected, Though not

573

in any regular and formal manner, whatever is put forth under the
pretence of it being knowledge, is submitted to a competent tribunal,
whose decisions silently and imperceptibly pervade general society,
and go far towards exposing the shams and impostures of the day.

But I feel that I am occupying too large a portion of the time
which belongs to this evening's meeting, and that I owe you my
apologies for doing so. Allow me, however, to make one more ob-
servation, which will, I feel sure, have the cordial assent of every
one who hears me ; namely, that it is desirable that the Royal Society
should persevere in the independent course which it has hitherto
pursued, relying on its own character and on the exertions of its
Fellows, seeking no adventitious aid, and satisfied with the conviction
that no one can labour in the acquirement of knowledge without,
sooner or later, rendering service to mankind.

On the motion of Dr. Charles Holland, the thanks of the Society
were voted to the President for his Address, and he was requested
to allow the same to be printed in the * Proceedings.'

The following communications were read : —

I. "Researches into the Nature of the Involuntary Muscular
Tissue of the Urinary Bladder." By GEORGE VINER ELLIS,
Esq., Professor of Anatomy in University College, London.
Communicated by Dr. SHARPEY, Sec. R.S. Received No-
vember 6, 1858.

(Abstract.)

In the present communication the author endeavours to show,
that the involuntary muscular tissue of the bladder and the voluntary
muscle in other parts of the human body have a like composition,
and that Prof. Kolliker's view, that involuntary or smooth muscle
is made up of fusiform cells, is incorrect. On the contrary, the
muscular substance of the bladder is composed of lengthened fibres
with fixed and tendinous terminal attachments. The fasciculi of
muscular fibres in the bladder are interwoven into a network, and
are marked at varying intervals by tendinous intersections, like those
of the Rectus abdominis on a small scale.

The author terms what are usually called the 'nuclei' of the mus-
cular tissue — ' corpuscles,' and distinguishes two varieties of them,

574

the oval and the fusiform. The latter are the more numerous, and
are the rod-like nuclei of Kolliker. Two or even three of these may
be observed in the length of a single fibre. If a single muscular
fibre of the bladder is isolated, it will be found to terminate as in
voluntary muscle ; connective tissue investing not only the fibre, but
each of the separate portions into which it ultimately divides.

The author considers that the 'sarcous elements' of voluntary
muscle are represented by the lines of dots visible in the muscular
fibres of the bladder.

II. " On the Ova and Pseudova of Insects." By JOHN LUB-
BOCK, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S. Received Nov. 10,

1858.

(Abstract.)

In the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1857, I endeavoured to
show that the agamic eggs of Daphnia are formed upon the same
type, and consist of the same parts, as any other egg. My object
in undertaking the investigation of which the present paper is the
result, was to determine whether the same held good of the agamic
eggs or pseudova of Coccus, Cynips, and other insects. This inquiry
was more interesting, because Prof. Huxley had found several dif-
ferences between the ovarian products of the oviparous and vivipa-
rous Aphides ; and because, according to Prof. Leydig, the develop-
ment of the pseudova in Coccus was extremely peculiar.

My examination of Coccus was concluded, and the results com-
mitted to paper, in the early part of June last, but I then found that
so little was known, especially in this country, about the develop-
ment of insect-eggs generally, that I withheld my notes from publi-
cation, in order to add to them some account of the process of true
egg-formation in the Insecta, which would enable me to point out
more satisfactorily the differences between, or the identity of, these
two processes.

In all female insects there are two ovaries, each consisting of at
least two egg-tubes opening into a common chamber, the uterus.
The egg originates and attains to nearly its full size in the egg-tube,
and it is therefore with this portion of the generative organs that
we are now mainly concerned.

575

The egg-tubes differ very much in number and length. In all the
larger orders, except perhaps the Lepidoptera and Heteroptera, some
species have very few, while others possess a great many. Thus in
Coleoptera, Lytta vesicatoria has a great many, Lixus has only two ;
in Orthoptera, Acheta domestica has a great many, while in a small
Locusta I only found six ; in Neuroptera, Libellula has a great many,
Psocus only five ; of the Diptera, the majority have many, Melo-
phagus only two ; in Homoptera, Coccus has a great many, while
Aphis padi has only three ; in Hymenoptera, Apis mellifica has about
1 70, and Chelonus has only two ; and even in so small a group as the
Dermaptera, Labidura gigantea has, according to Leon Dufour, only
five, while Forficula auricularia has a great number.

The number of egg-germs in each egg- tube differs also very much.
The Lepidoptera, in which the number of egg-tubes is very small,
have a great number of egg-germs in each, while the Homoptera, in
which the egg-tubes are so numerous, have very few egg-germs in
each tube. On the other hand, in Heteroptera, the number varies
very little ; while in Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Diptera, it differs
greatly, though not so much as that of the egg-tubes. The number
of egg-germs, is, however, by no means so easy to determine as that
of the egg-tubes. It is probable that in each species the number
is definite, except perhaps where it is very numerous, as, for instance,
in certain Lepidoptera which have more than a hundred. In most
egg-tubes, however, the egg-germs become so " small by degrees,"
that it is almost impossible to say exactly how many there are.

Each egg-tube consists generally, if not always, of two membranes.
The outer or muscular one is very evident in Hymenoptera, Geode-
phaga, Diptera, and indeed in most insects, but in some cases I could
not distinguish it. The inner membrane is delicate and structureless.
On its inner side lies a layer of epithelial cells, which in most parts
form a continuous layer ; but in those insects which have a group of
vitelligenous cells between each of the egg-germs, they are at these
parts more sparingly distributed.

These epithelial cells probably take an active part in the secretion
of the yolk in all insects, and are the principal, if not the only organs,
which form the yolk in Orthoptera, Pulex, and t^ie Libellulina.

Between each of the egg-germs in Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hyme-
noptera, Geodephaga, Hydradephaga, and Neuroptera (except the

576

Libellulina), is situated a group of large cells. These were first
noticed by Heroldt, who described them as rings ; Stein, however,
is no doubt correct in asserting that they are the secretors of the
yolk, and I therefore agree with Prof. Huxley in calling them vitelli-
genous cells. Hermann Meyer, who was followed in this respect by
Dr. Allen Thomson, considered them as aborted eggs, an opinion,
however, which is quite untenable. A cursory examination of an
egg-tube of any Lepidopterous or Hymenopterous insect, will show
that although the vitelligenous cells increase individually in size, as
does the yolk mass, yet that the latter constantly grows at the expense
of the former*, which become gradually fewer in number, and finally
disappear altogether.

Stein has observed, that in Acilius sulcatus, in which the yolk is
brightly coloured, the vitelligenous cells are of the same hue. Prof.
Huxley has observed in Aphis, and I have found in certain Hemi-
ptera, as in Nepa for instance, a canal leading down from the terminal
chamber into the egg-tube, and which can be for no other purpose
than to convey the yolk matter to the growing eggs.

Finally, if, as Stein also remarks, we press the vitelligenous cells
or nuclei out of one of the egg- chambers, we shall generally find
some of them in which the cell-wall is almost entirely absorbed, so
that on the application of slight pressure, the contents spread in all
directions.

In its earliest stage, however, the egg-cell cannot be distinguished
from the vitelligenous cells, and at the upper part of the egg-tube of
any Heteropterous or Dipterous insect, will be found cells, which are
neither vitelligenous cells nor egg-cells, but which are apparently
capable, under certain circumstances, of becoming either the one or
the other.

Dr. Carpenter has suggested to me that these vitelligenous cells
are perhaps analogous to the "yolk-segments" ofPurpura, and this
idea throws, I think, some light on the very remarkable phenomena
presented by that genus.

The separation of the egg-germs from the vitelligenous organs, is
a condition found in many worms, in some Crustacea, as for instance
in Cyclops, and probably in the Cirrhipedes.

Our knowledge of the modes of egg-formation in the Insecta, is
* See Lacordaire, Introd. a 1'Entomologie, v. ii. p. 386.

577

perhaps hardly sufficient to enable us to generalize upon it as yet
with much confidence. As far, however, as we at present are aware,
alternate groups of large vitelligenous cells are found in all Lepi-
doptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Neuroptera (except Libellulina),
Geodephaga, and Hydradephaga. The large vitelligenous cells are
contained in a terminal chamber in other Coleoptera, Homoptera, and
Heteroptera; whilst apparently they are absent in Orthoptera,
Libellulina, and Pulex.

This curious subdivision of the Insecta is not exactly that which
would be given by any other characters. It is, however, remarkable,
that the mode of formation of the thorax would divide the Insecta
into two groups very nearly equivalent to those just mentioned,
except as far as regards the Geodephaga and Hydradephaga.

In fact, the Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Dermaptera, and Hemiptera
have a very large prothorax, while this segment is small in the Lepi-
doptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and most Neuroptera. In the
Libellulina, however, it is distinct from the rest of the thorax and
considerably developed.

In the Orthoptera, Libellulina, and the genus Pulex, we find the
simplest type of egg-formation which occurs among the Insecta, the
large vitelligenous cells being entirely absent, and their functions
probably monopolized, instead of being only shared, by the layer of
epithelial cells.

The macula germinativa, which is in fact the nucleus of the ger-
minal vesicle, has in the Orthoptera, as usual, the form of a small
round vesicle.

In (Estrus the germinal vesicle contains several small vesicles, one
of which grows much larger than the remainder, and becomes the
macula germinativa.

In Pulex the germinal vesicle is dark, and the macula germinativa,
which is very distinct in the young egg-germs, soon disappears.

In the Coleoptera (except the Geodephaga and Hydradephaga),
the Homoptera, and the Hemiptera, each egg-tube ends in a large
terminal chamber, full of round cells, each of which can apparently
become either an egg-cell or a vitelligenous cell.

In Nepa and some other forms, I found, as Prof. Huxley first
discovered in Aphis, a duct or passage leading down from the ter-
minal chamber to the egg-germs. In one specimen there were four

578

distinct ducts, so that probably each egg-germ has a separate yolk
duct.

In Nepa there is a large lateral projection at the anterior end of
each egg, and it is always on the same side as the germinal vesicle ;
but this latter varies from side to side without any apparent
regularity .

In the common earwig, the egg-tubes are short and numerous ;
each consists of a large, lower chamber, which is more or less pear-
shaped, and two or three other chambers, but slightly separated from
one another, bent down on the lower chamber, and so short and
small as to resemble very closely the stalk to the pear.

Each egg-germ in this insect consists of two parts ; an egg-cell
containing the germinal vesicle and the yolk, and a vitelligenous
cell. The vitelligenous cell has no distinct nucleus, and in the
small stalk-like part of the egg-tube is double the size of the egg-cell,
which at this period contains the germinal vesicle, but not as yet
any yolk matter. In this part of the egg-tube it sometimes appeared
as if there were two vitelligenous cells to one egg-cell. In the large
lower egg-germ this is never the case. In this part of the egg-tube
the vitelligenous cell is still larger than the egg-cell, which however
grows larger, both absolutely and relatively, until it almost fills the
egg-chamber.

The yolk mass in the lower egg-germ consists of dark granules
and oil globules surrounding the germinal vesicle, which generally
contains two or three minute cell-like vesicles. The contents of
the vitelligenous cell are light brown, granular, and in part arranged
in somewhat cylindrical masses, which lie generally rather trans-
versely to the egg-tube, and do not appear to have any firm
boundaries. At least, I was never able to isolate them, except after
applying reagents, as, for instance, acetic acid, and then only some-
times, and with difficulty. They then appeared to be somewhat
elliptic in shape.

From M. Leon Dufour's description, the ovary in Labidura gi-
yantea is entirely unlike that of Forficula.

The egg-formation in Forficula is not the least remarkable
peculiarity of this extraordinary genus, and does not at all resemble
that of either the Coleoptera or the Orthoptera.

The Neuroptera (except the Libellulina) offer the next step to-

579

wards the type which prevails in the Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, and
Diptera.

In these four orders, and in the Geodephaga and Hydradephaga,
each egg -chamber contains, at its upper end, a group of large vitelli-
genous cells, which are generally few in number in the Neuroptera,
rather more numerous in the Diptera, and still more so in the Geode-
phaga, Hydradephaga, and Hymenoptera.

In all these six groups, except the Diptera, each egg-chamber is
divided into two parts by a transverse constriction, which separates
the vitelligenous cells from the germinal vesicle and the yolk sur-
rounding it. At first, the lower division of the egg-chamber is quite
small, but it grows gradually larger at the expense of the upper
part.

In the Diptera the egg-chamber is not divided into two smaller
chambers, but has a rounded or oval form, and contains a number of
vitelligenous cells, the lowest of which becomes darker from the
formation of granular yolk-matter, and thus forms the egg-cell. Its
nucleus becomes the germinal vesicle. The wall of the egg-cell
gradually disappears, and the yolk -mass being enlarged by the yolk
secreted by the vitelligenous cells, continues to increase until it
occupies the whole egg-chamber.

Between each egg-germ, in the Diptera, the egg-tube becomes
extremely narrow, which is not so much the case in other Insecta.
It is remarkable, that Pulex, which is in many respects nearly allied
to the Diptera, should differ from them so greatly in the mode of egg-
formation.

The germinal vesicle in the Carabidse generally contains, besides
the macula germinativa, several small vesicles, which indeed are
sometimes very numerous. In Carabus violaceus, the macula itself
appeared to consist of many small oval masses, and in one specimen
the macula appeared to have broken up, and the constituent bodies
were floating about loose in the germinal vesicle. From these
observations, and from what has been mentioned as occurring in
Pulex, I am disposed to think that the first embryonic cells, at least
in Insecta, appear in this manner.

According to M. Leon Dufour, Chelonus oculator, one of the small
Ichnenmonidae, possesses no ovary nor eggs, but merely four long
tubes leading into as many matrices, containing a great number of

VOL. ix. 2 R

580

living embryos, or perhaps nymphs. I examined several specimens,
and found the female generative organs quite in accordance with his
descriptions and figure. They are, however, undoubtedly true
ovaries, though the thickness of the outer membrane gives them a
deceptive appearance. If the egg-tubes are torn asunder, egg-germs
will be found in them, as in the corresponding organs of any other
Hymenopterous insect, and presenting as usual a transverse constric-
tion with the vitelligenous cells in the upper division.

In the four matrices the eggs are cylindrical and somewhat curved,
and under the action of water, one end of each swells up considerably.
In this they present an approach to that form which attains its
greatest development in Cynips.

The ovaries of Coccus hesperidum have been rightly described by
Prof. Leydig, as consisting of a long tube on each side opening by
a very short oviduct into the egg-canal. The whole surface of the
tube is covered with egg- germs in all stages of development. The
collateral glands are very small in C. hesperidum, but are well de-
veloped in C. persicfB.

In its earliest stage the egg-follicle is a simple projection of the
ovarian wall, which becomes gradually pear-shaped, and may then
be seen to consist of a structureless outer membrane, a layer of
epithelial cells, and three vitelligenous cells, with very delicate
walls.

The walls of these cells soon disappear, and even the nuclei are
often scarcely distinguishable, but acetic acid will generally make
them more visible. Leuckart has given a correct account of these
bodies, and indeed of the whole process ; but Leydig apparently mis-
took them for germinal vesicles.

The epithelial cells line the membrane constituting the egg-follicle.
As usual, they are columnar in the lower chamber and flattened and
scattered in the upper. They contain a circular nucleus. The action
of water causes them, and indeed the whole upper chamber, to swell
considerably. The columnar epithelial cells of the lower chamber
contain generally small greenish globules, apparently identical with
the small oil globules which form so large a part of the yolk, which
is, I therefore suppose, in part secreted by them.

The germinal vesicle makes its appearance after the vitelligenous
cells, and generally after the egg-follicle has lost its original pyriform-

581

shape. It is about -0008 in diameter. The macula germinativa is
single, and somewhat granular in appearance.

About the same time as the germinal vesicle, the oil globules make
their appearance, and soon become the most conspicuous part of the
egg. They are at first very small, but in a mature egg the larger
ones are as much as '0016 in diameter. The oil globules may often
be seen with their sides much flattened by mutual pressure, and
must therefore possess a somewhat compact pellicle.

Very soon after the appearance of the first oil globules, the egg-
follicle loses its pear-shaped form, the basal part swells, and is sepa-
rated from the apical part containing the nuclei of the vitelligenous
cells, by a constriction. It now perfectly resembles the egg-chamber
of any ordinary insect, in consisting of an upper chamber containing
the vitelligenous cells, and a lower chamber devoted to the germinal
vesicle and the yolk.

According to M. Leydig, the constriction gradually disappears,
and the egg finally occupies both chambers ; but this is incorrect, and
M. Leuckart is right in asserting that the vitelligenous cells dis-
appear, and the upper chamber becomes atrophied, so that the mature
egg lies in the lower chamber only. This process is exactly that
which the analogy of other insects would lead us to expect.

The general cavity of the body of the female Coccus always con-
tains an immense number of oval green cells, apparently of a parasitic
nature. They are -g-^Vfr *n length, and vary in length, but on an
average about 6 030 0-. Coccus persicce contains a number of similar
bodies, which however are cylindrical. Almost always immediately
after the disappearance of the vitelligenous cells, two or three masses
of these cells may be found at the lower part of the upper chamber,
and soon after in the egg itself. It is difficult to understand why these
cells should appear at so definite a period in the history of the egg-
formation. Prof. Huxley has pointed out to me that Dr. V. Wittich
has already described a Conferva found in hen's eggs. It does not,
however, seem clear that these eggs would have arrived at maturity,
and I believe that the parasites of Coccus are the first which have ever
been known to exist in eggs without impeding their development.

The mature egg contains numerous vitelline sphaerules which are
from -g-^j to -g-^j-Q in diameter, and offer every appearance of true
cells, but that they contain no nucleus.

2E2

582

The mature egg is a light green, ovate mass about -^^ in length
and yfnn) in breadth, and possesses apparently only one envelope.
It contains a well-formed embryo before it leaves the ovary, and is
hatched, I believe, only a few hours after being laid. According to
M. Leydig, the first trace of the embryo arises at the free or cephalic
end, but my observations have led me to the opposite conclusion.

C. persicce differs from C. hesperidum in being decidedly oviparous ;
that is to say, the eggs, when deposited, do not contain an embryo,
and remain under the protection of the mother some time before
being hatched. This difference probably makes tehm require a
stronger egg-shell, and accordingly we find the collateral glands
more developed. In most respects, however, the egg-development
is very similar in these two species, but the egg- follicles are smaller and
neater in C. persicce than in the former species, and the vitelligenous
cells are five or seven in number instead of three, spherical and very
distinct.

In Cynips lignicola, the ovary consists of a number of egg-tubes
which fall into a common oviduct, and each of which contains
thirteen eggs.

This species has in the last few years become very common in the
South-west of England, but as yet only females have been discovered.

It is fair to assume, therefore, that the eggs are agamic, or adopting
Prof. Huxley's name, pseudova. Nevertheless, there is absolutely
nothing, so far as our knowledge at present extends, to distinguish
the egg-formation from that which occurs in any other Hymenopterous
insect.

The mature egg of Cynips is indeed of a very remarkable shape,
as it consists of a long tube with a small swelling at one end, and a
larger one at the other, in which the yolk is situated.

The larger end occupies the usual place of the egg, but as the tube
elongates, the smaller end pushes its way up the egg- tube, which
elongates considerably ; and, finally, all the large ends are at the lower
end, and the small ones at the upper end, of the egg-tube, which
gives the ovary a curious appearance. Even after the egg is fully
formed, a slight pressure will bring the germinal vesicle into view.

Many of the Lepidoptera have presented us with cases of Parthe-
nogenesis, and in these instances there is no reason to suppose that
the formation of the eggs differs from the usual type. The same

583

holds good in Solenobia lichenella, in which agamic eggs are the rule,
instead of the exception.

In the Hive -bee also, the early development of the ova and of the
pseudova must apparently be identical, since it would appear that in
an impregnated female, the ovarian product has already left the
ovary before it is decided whether it is to become an ovum or a
pseudovum, and whether it is to give birth to a male or to a female.
It is, therefore, I think, proved that we must not look in the ovarian
egg for differences necessarily depending on sexual influence, but
that we shall find them, if anywhere, in the subsequent stages of egg-
development.

Prof. Huxley and Leuckart have recently shown, that whereas the
vitelligenous cells are well developed in the oviparous Aphides, they
are much less apparent in the agamic or viviparous forms ; so much
so indeed as to make these naturalists doubt whether they take any
part in the secretion of the yolk. While waiting for the publication
of Prof. Huxley's observations, I have paid but little attention to the
Aphides ; but it struck me as a curious coincidence, that, in Coccus
also, while the vitelligenous cells are very distinct in the oviparous
C. persicce, they are much less apparent in the almost viviparous
C. hesperidum. It would of course be highly unphilosophical to
draw any conclusion from four instances, but it will be curious if the
same connection between oviparity, and the presence of well-de-
veloped vitelligenous cells on the one hand, and viviparity, with less
developed vitelligenous cells on the other, is found to prevail in other
species.

It has been generally stated that all species of Aphides are, in
spring and summer, self-fertile and viviparous, and become in autumn
oviparous, while the eggs require impregnation. I cannot, however,
help thinking it probable, that in cold and in mountainous regions,
where at any period of the year frosts may occur, we shall find species
which are always oviparous (as indeed is said to be the case with
Aphis abietis) ; while in tropical regions, where frosts are unknown
and leaves are less often deciduous, other species may occur which
are naturally viviparous all through the year, and whether or not
they have undergone impregnation.

584

December 16, 1858.
SIR BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.

In accordance with notice given at the last Meeting, the Right
Rev. the Lord Bishop of Ripon was proposed for election and im-
mediate ballot.

The ballot having been taken, his Lordship was declared duly
elected.

The following communications were read : —

I. Extract of a Letter from Professor LAMONT to Major-Gene-
ral SABINE, Treas. and V.P.R.S., dated Munich, Dec. 19,
1858. Communicated by Professor W. H. MILLER, For.
Sec. R.S.

"My magnetic observations in France, Spain, and Portugal are
now published, and a copy for you is on the way. The observations
of last summer are under the press. They comprehend about thirty
stations in the North of Germany, Belgium, Holland, and Denmark.
Next year I am going to Italy, and in 1860 I intend to revisit
Spain, in order to observe the total eclipse of the sun, and also
to make magnetic observations.

" I have found that on the Continent the lines of horizontal intensity
move from south-west to north-east, making an angle of about 20° with
the meridian, that is, in a direction coinciding with the lines of de-
clination. The lines of inclination seem to move in the same direc-
tion, and the motion of the lines of declination will probably coincide
with the lines of horizontal intensity. Calling + AH and — At the
annual changes of horizontal intensity and inclination of a central
station (suppose London), the annual changes for a place situated x
degrees in latitude to the north, and y degrees in longitude to the
west, will be —

AH — O'OOO ISx +0-00008y (absolute measure, French units),
-A^ +0'-21a? -0N09y.

" The new survey of the British Islands will offer an opportunity of
testing the correctness of these formulae."

585

II. Extract of a Letter from Professor KREIL of Vienna, to
Major-General SABINE, Treas. and V.P.R.S., dated Nov. 26,
1858. Communicated by Professor W. H. MILLER, For.
Sec. U.S.

" I am returned after an absence of nearly six months, during
which I have been travelling in the Danubian Principalities, in
Turkey in Europe, and along the south-west and north coasts of the
Black Sea, in order to make magnetic observations, and to determine
more accurately the geographical position, as well as the magnetic
declination, of many points of the coast."

III. " Fossil Mammals of Australia (Part I.). Description of a
mutilated skull of a large Marsupial Carnivore (Thylacoleo
Carnifex, Ow.), from a conglomerate stratum, eighty miles
S.W. of Melbourne, Australia." By Professor R. OWEN,
F.R.S., &c. Received September 18, 1858.

In this paper the author gives a description of a fossil skull and
certain of the teeth of a quadruped of the size of a lion, in which he
points out the characters indicative of its carnivorous habits and of
its affinities to the marsupial order.

The large size of the temporal fossae, meeting to form a low crest
on the parietal bone, and bounded behind by a strong occipital crest ;
together with large carnassial teeth in both upper and lower jaws,
evince the carnivorous habits of the extinct species. Its marsupial
nature is, in the author's opinion, demonstrated by the following
cranial structures : — A large vacuity in the bony palate ; a propor-
tionally large lacrymal bone extending upon the face and perforated
by the lacrymal canal, anterior and external to the orbit ; three ex-
ternal precondyloid foramina ; the perforation of the basisphenoid by
the entocarotid canal ; the great interval between the foramen ovale
and foramen rotundum ; the separation of the tympanic from the
petrous bone ; and the development of the * bulla auditoria ' in the
alisphenoid ; the position of the outlet for a vein from the lateral
sinus behind and above the root of the zygoma ; finally, the low and
broad occiput, and the very small relative capacity of the brain-case.

586

In the marsupial order, the present large extinct Carnivore, for
which the author proposes the name of ' Thylacoleo * carnifex,'
is most nearly allied to the Dasyurus (Sarcophilus) ur sinus ; but is
very different in its dentition from that and all existing Carnivora.

The fossils described were discovered by William Adeney, Esq., in
a calcareous conglomerate stratum in a bank of a lake situated 80
miles south-west of Melbourne, Australia.

IV. " On the Nature of the Action of Fired Gunpowder." By
LYNALL THOMAS,, Esq. Communicated by Dr. GRAY.
Received November 17, 1858.

(Abstract.)

Since the year 1797, when Count Rumford made his experiments
for ascertaining the initial force of fired gunpowder, an account of
which appears in the Philosophical Transactions of that year, very
little light has been thrown on the subject. Count Rumford's ex-
periments, valuable in many respects, afforded indeed nothing con-
clusive respecting it.

The object of the present paper is to show the unsatisfactory nature
of the present theory of the action of gunpowder, and to point out
some of the principal errors upon which this theory is based. For
this purpose, the results of various experiments made by the author,
and which were repeated in the presence of a Select Committee at
Woolwich, are described and explained.

These experiments are held by the author not only to afford com-
plete evidence of the unsoundness of the present theory, but as
sufficiently conclusive to serve as a basis for the formation of a new
set of formulae, both correct and simple, in place of those at present
in use.

The initial action of the fired charge of powder upon the shot, —
the first movement of the shot itself in the gun, — and the force exerted
upon the gun by different charges of powder, — and, therefore, the
actual strength of metal required for the gun, — are circumstances,
which, as the author believes, have not only been misunderstood, but
for which laws have been assigned directly opposed to the truth.
* From OvXaicos, a pouch ; Xewv, a lion.

587

As an instance of this, the hitherto received theory supposes
that when a shot is fired from a gun, it acquires its velocity gradually,
from the pressure of the elastic fluid generated by the fired powder
acting upon it through a certain space. It is also supposed that the
initial pressure of this elastic fluid is the same in all cases (the quantities
of powder being proportional), whether the gun from which the shot is
fired be large or small ; so that the larger the calibre of the gun, the
slower the first movement of the shot is supposed to be. The result
of the following experiment is given to prove that the first of these
propositions is incorrect. The author placed a cast-iron shot 3 inches
in diameter and 3 Ibs. 14 ozs. in weight upon a chamber half an inch
in diameter and half an inch deep. This chamber was formed in a
block of gun-metal, and contained, when filled, one dram of powder.
Upon lighting the powder, the ball was driven to a height of 5 feet 6
inches ; when the ball was placed at £ of an inch over the chamber,
the charge failed to move it.

From this it is inferred that the first force of the powder is an impul-
sive force, that is to say, it imparts to the shot at once a finite velocity.
In order to place the matter beyond a doubt, and to ascertain the
relative force of different quantities of powder, the author caused a
chamber to be made similar in form to, but of twice the linear dimen-
sions of, the former ; he then placed a cast-iron ball of 6 inches
in diameter upon the orifice of this chamber, which was filled with
powder ; upon firing the latter, the ball was driven up to a height of
1 1 feet, that is to say, to double the height of the smaller ; the state of
the metal in which the chamber was formed also showed the increase
in the initial force of the powder : this is considered to be sufficient
proof that the last two of the above-mentioned propositions are as
incorrect as the first.

Assuming the initial force of the powder to be of an impulsive
nature, it is not difficult to understand the increase of force shown
in the last-named experiment, inasmuch as a certain time being re-
quired for the complete conversion of the powder into an elastic fluid,
a quantity contained in a chamber of a similar form, but of greater
linear dimensions than another, must ignite in a less comparative
time, the linear dimensions increasing in the ratio of the first power,
arid the quantity of powder increasing in the ratio of the third power,
so that the flame will traverse a larger quantity in comparative less time.

588

Thus it appears that the powder which inflames more rapidly has
a much greater initial force, being more concentrated in its action ; a
quick burning powder therefore is better for ordnance of small length,
such as mortars and iron howitzers. The different results produced by
powder of different quality bave, according to the author, been en-
tirely overlooked in the hitherto received theory. This theory, which
considers the secondary force, namely, the elasticity of the fluid only,
and takes no account whatever of the enormous impulsive, or initial
force, produced by the sudden conversion of the powder into an elastic
fluid, is that which regulates the system upon which ordnance are at
present constructed ; hence the reason why large guns are so liable
to burst, so much so, that it has been said that no gun larger than a
32-pounder is safe to fire. From the variety of experiments made
by the author, he arrives at the conclusion, that when powder is of the
same quality, and confined in chambers of similar form, but of differ-
ent sizes, the initial force varies, within certain limits, in the ratio of

-j where w is the weight of the powder and w' of the ball.

Thus were this new theory recognized, the question of the in-
crease of strength with increased thickness of metal, would wear an
entirely new aspect. So far from the metal in large guns diminishing
in strength in the proportion assumed, it will be a matter for inquiry
how it resists the great strain to which it is subjected, rather than
why it yields ; for we find from the experiments described above,
that a 68-pounder gun, which has a calibre of twice the diameter of
a 9-pounder gun, must, when fired with the same proportionate
charge of powder as the latter, continually be subject to as great a
strain as the latter would suffer if always fired with the proof charge,
which is three times the quantity of the ordinary service charge.

The Society adjourned to January 6, 1859.

589

January 6, 1859.

Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.
The following communications were read : —

I. Letter to Dr. SHARPEY, Sec. R.S., from Dr. THOMAS WIL-
LIAMS, F.R.S., dated Swansea, Dec. 12, 1858.

In my paper entitled " Researches on the Structure and Homology
of the Reproductive Organs of the Annelids," lately published in
the Philosophical Transactions, the following passage occurs in a
note at page 113: — "Some of these demonstrations have been
recently witnessed by Mr. Busk and Dr. Carpenter."

Some time after the publication of my paper, I received a letter
from Mr. Busk, observing that when taken in connexion with the
context, the above allusion to his name and that of Dr. Carpenter
might lead to the supposition that they acquiesced in the views
which I ventured to advocate in my paper.

If permitted, I should be glad to state, that although I had shown
to Mr. Busk and Dr. Carpenter certain of my dissections, and
although I was favoured at the time with what I believed to be
their concurrence and approbation, I am most anxious at present to
explain that in referring to their names, I had no intention whatever
to implicate them in the opinions which I entertained.
I remain, &c.,

THOMAS WILLIAMS, M.D., F.R.S.

II. "A Sixth Memoir on Quanties." By ARTHUR CAYLEY,
Esq., F.R.S. Received November 18, 1858.

(Abstract.)

I propose in the present memoir to consider the geometrical
theory : I have alluded to this part of the subject in the articles
Nos. 3 and 4 of the introductory memoir. The present memoir
relates to the geometry of one dimension and the geometry of two
dimensions corresponding respectively to the analytical theories of

590

binary and ternary quantics. But the theory of binary quantics is
considered for its own sake ; the geometry of one dimension is so
immediate an interpretation of the theory of binary quantics, that
for its own sake there is no necessity to consider it at all ; it is con-
sidered with a view to the geometry of two dimensions. A chief
object of the present memoir is the establishment upon purely
descriptive principles of the notion of distance.

III. " On the Mathematical Theory of Sound." By the Rev.
S. EARNSHAW. Communicated by Professor W. H. MILLER,
For. Sec. U.S. Received November 20, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The principal feature of this communication is the discovery of an
integral of a certain class of differential equations. This class in-
cludes, as a particular case, the differential equation of motion when
a disturbance is transmitted through a uniform elastic medium con-

fined in a horizontal tube. If the equation =F/ be differen-

dt \dx)

tiated with regard to t, it produces the equation

dx

which, by means of the general function F', can be made to coincide
with any proposed differential equation in which the ratio between

—^ and — |- is dependent on -^- only. The integral obtained in this
dt dx dx

manner is that which arises from the elimination of (a) between the
two following equations, —

y = a# + F (a) . t + <(> (a),
0= s + F(a).* + 0'(a).

This integral, though not found by the direct integration of the
differential equation, and though evidently not the general sym-
bolical integral of it, is proved to be the general integral for wave-
motion, from its affording the means of satisfying all the necessary
equations of initial disturbance and wave-motion.

The author first discusses wave-motion when temperature is sup-
posed to be unaffected by the passage of a wave ; and then when the

591

change of temperature is allowed for. The most important result
in the former case is the relation between pressure and velocity,
which is shown to be that which is expressed by the equation

from which several new results are obtained.

With respect to the velocity of sound, which has hitherto been
found experimentally to exceed the velocity obtained by theory, it is
shown that the value obtained by approximative methods is the
minimum limit of sound- velocity, so that the actual velocity will
always be greater ; the excess depending upon the intensity and
genesis of the sound. It is shown that all the parts of a wave do
not travel at the same rate, — a circumstance which leads to the for-
mation of a bore in the front of the wave. Several previously unex-
plained phenomena, which have been recorded by different experi-
mentalists, such as double reports of fire-arms heard at a great
distance, the outrunning of one sound by another observed by
Capt. Parry, the comparative powers of different gases of trans-
mitting sounds, and the laws of transmission of sound from one
medium to another, are accounted for in this paper, and directly
deduced from the integral of the equation of wave-motion.

IV. "Contributions towards the History of the Monamines."
By A. W. HOFMANN, LL.D., F.R.S. Received November
25, 1858.

2. Action of Bisulphide of Carbon upon Amylamine.

In a note on the alleged transformation of thialdine into leucine,
addressed to the Royal Society about eighteen months ago*, I
alluded to a crystalline substance observed by Wagner when sub-
mitting amylamine to the action of bisulphide of carbon. This sub-
stance was not analysed, but considering its mode of formation,
Wagner suggested that it might possibly be thialdine.

Amylamine. Thialdine.

* Proceedings, vol. viii,, Op. 4.

592

A superficial comparison of the properties of thialdine with those
of the substance produced by the action of bisulphide of carbon upon
amylamine, enabled me at once to recognize the difference of the two
bodies ; and satisfied with the result, I did not at the time examine
more minutely into the nature of the latter substance.

The new interest conferred upon leucine by recent researches
which characterize this substance as capronamic acid, has called my
attention back to the sulphuretted derivative of amylamine.

This body may be readily procured by mixing anhydrous amyl-
amine with a solution of dry bisulphide of carbon in anhydrous
ether. The mixture becomes hot, and deposits, on cooling, white
shiny scales which are scarcely soluble in ether, and may therefore
be purified by washing with this liquid.

The new body is likewise insoluble in water, but readily dissolves
in alcohol ; when dry, it may be exposed for a time to a temperature
of 100° C. without undergoing fusion ; after some time, however, the
substance begins to be liquefied and to undergo complete decom-
position. The same change occurs, although more slowly, at the
common temperature, when sulphuretted hydrogen is evolved ; a
mixture of free sulphur with a new crystalline substance, extremely
fusible, insoluble in water, but soluble both in alcohol and ether,
remaining behind.

Analysis has proved that the compound produced by the action
of bisulphide of carbon upon amylamine contains

Cu H13 NS2, or rather C22 H26 N2 S4 ;

and that it is formed by the union of 2 equivalents of amylamine
with bisulphide of carbon.

2C10H13N + C2S4=C22H26N2S4

Amylamine. New compound.

A glance at this formula suffices to characterize this compound as
amylsulphocarbamate of amylamine.

^22 H26 N2 S4=C10 H13 N, C12 H13 NS4=

This view is easily confirmed by experiment. Addition of hydro-
chloric acid to the crystalline compound immediately separates an
oily liquid, which gradually solidifies, and the acid solution now con-

593

tains amylamine which may be liberated by potassa. The oily sub-
stance is obviously amylsulphocarbamic acid : it dissolves in ammonia
and in potassa ; mixed with amylamine, it reproduces the original
crystalline compound.

Experiments with ethylamine have furnished perfectly analogous
results. I have been satisfied to establish qualitatively the analogy
of the reactions.

It is of some interest to compare the deportment of amylamine
under the influence of bisulphide of carbon with that of phenylamine
in the same conditions. If both bodies gave rise to similar changes,
we should expect in the case of phenylamine the formation of phenyl-
sulphocarbamate of phenylamine. But experiment has proved
that phenylamine immediately produces diphenyl-sulphocarbamide
(sulphocarbanilide), sulphuretted hydrogen being evolved —

2(CM H7 N) + C2 S4=C26 H12 N2 S2 + H2 S2.

Phenylamine. Diphenylsulpho-

carbamide.

Nevertheless it is extremely probable that further experiments
will establish a perfect analogy in the deportment of bisulphide of
carbon with amylamine and phenylamine. Diphenyl-sulphocarba-
mide is probably the product of decomposition of a very unstable
phenylsulphocarbamate of phenylamine —

C26HUN2S4=H2S2

Phenylsulpho- Diphenylsulpho-

carbamate of carbamide,

phenylamine ?

while a more minute examination of the crystalline substance
obtained by the action of heat upon amylsuphocarbamate of amyl-
amine cannot fail to characterize it as diamylsulphocarbamide —

C22H26N2S4=H2S2+C22H21N,S2?

Amylsulphocarbi- Diamylsulpho-

mate of amylamine. carbamide.

The apparent dissimilarity of the two reactions would thus be
reduced to the unequal stability of the sulphocarbamic acids of the
amyl- and phenyl-series.

594

V. " On New Nitrogenous Derivatives of the Phenyl- and Ben-
zoyl-Series." By P. GRIESS, Esq. Communicated by Dr.
HOFMANN. Received December 9, 1858.

Piria's important discovery that the action of nitrous acid upon
asparagin gives rise to the formation of malic acid, has led to a very
general application of this agent in the study of nitrogenous sub-
stances. The results obtained have been almost always analogous
to those produced by Piria ; the reaction may be illustrated by the
following examples : —

°6)" } O4.

Malic acid.
O.

Phenylamine. Phenol.

The plan hitherto adopted consisted in submitting the aqueous
solution of the nitrogenous body directly to the action of nitrous
acid, or in dissolving the body in nitric acid, and passing into the
solution a current of binoxide of nitrogen. By employing alcoholic
and ethereal solutions, I have arrived at different results, establishing
a new mode of reaction ; of the facts which T have observed the fol-
lowing may be quoted as illustrations.

Action of Nitrous Acid on Picramic Acid. Diazodinit rophenol.

On passing a current of nitrous acid into an alcoholic solution of
picramic acid —

C12H5N3010=C12^(N64)^02.

the red liquid assumes at once a yellow colour, and furnishes rapidly
a copious deposit of yellow crystals. No gas is evolved during the
reaction. The yellow crystals, purified by recrystallization from
alcohol, are found to contain

C12H2N4010,

and are obviously formed according to the equation —

595

The new body, for which I propose the provisional name diazodi-
nitrophenol, is soluble in alcohol and ether, and crystallizes from the
former solvent in magnificent golden-yellow plates, which detonate
on heating. Acids have no action upon this substance ; on ebulli-
tion with water it appears to undergo decomposition ; alkalies induce
at once a copious evolution of gas, and give rise to the formation of
dinitrophenol. This metamorphosis appears to indicate that the
new body still belongs directly to the phenol-group ; the constitu-
tion of diazodinitrophenol may perhaps be best understood by re-
presenting it by the formula

c,2 (Wj, V.

\ N2 /
The transformation of this compound into

involves the decomposition of 2 equivs. of water, the oxygen of
which appears to be consumed in the formation of secondary pro-
ducts of decomposition. No trace of oxygen, either free or com-
bined, could be found among the gaseous products ; the gas evolved
consisting, according to a minute examination, of perfectly pure
nitrogen.

Diazonitrochlorphenol.
Treatment in a similar manner of amidonitrochlorphenol

/H2 \
C12H4C1N06=C12 £0 02,

\H2N/

a new mixed derivative of phenol, as might have been expected, has
furnished perfectly similar results. The new compound thus ob-
tained crystallizes in beautiful brown-red needles, of physical and
chemical properties similar to those of the preceding compound.
It contains

/H, \

/PI \

C12H3C1N306=C12 ^Q JO,.
\N, 7

VOL. IX. 2 8

596

Diazonitrophenol.

This substance is formed by submitting the ethereal solution of
diphenamic acid

H

discovered by Gerhardt and Laurent, to the action of nitrous acid.
It is a yellow crystalline, very unstable compound, containing

CaH,Ns012=C2Y(N046)V,
\ N, /

it explodes with extreme violence at the temperature of boiling
water. The alkalies decompose it instantaneously with evolution of
nitrogen and formation of products which are not yet analysed.

Action of Nitrous Acid upon Benzamic Acid.

The product obtained in a similar manner from benzamic acid is
an orange-yellow crystalline precipitate, which constitutes a dibasic
acid of the formula

C^H^O,,.

Its formation is illustrated by the following equation

2 equiv§. of ben- New acid.

zamic acid.

This acid is insoluble in water, alcohol, and ether. It is dissolved
without decomposition by the alkalies in the cold, giving rise to the
formation of soluble crystalline salts, which produce precipitates
with nitrate of silver and acetate of lead.

All these salts are decomposed on heating, with evolution of nitro-
gen gas. The action of fuming nitric acid upon the dibasic deriva-
tive of benzamic acid produces a new acid, furnishing with barium a
splendid yellow crystalline salt. The dibasic acid is likewise decom-
posed by hydrochloric acid ; in combination with this acid remains
a body which can be sublimed in white crystals.

An alcoholic solution of benzamic ether when treated with nitrous
acid yields the ether of the acid previously described.

The action of nitrous acid on alcoholic solutions of cuminamic and

597

anisamic acids has likewise furnished new bodies, with the study of
which I am at present engaged.

Action of Nitrous Acid on Phenylamine and Nitrophenylamine.

Phenylamine, when submitted to the modified nitrous acid-process,
is transformed into a fusible body containing

C24HUN3)

which is insoluble in water and easily soluble in alcohol. This com-
pound, which possesses feebly basic characters, is formed according
to the equation

C24 Hu N2 + N03 = 3HO 4- C24 Hu N3.

2 equivs. of New com-

Phenylamine. pound.

Nitrophenylamine (the alpha-variety which is formed by the action
of reducing agents upon dinitrobenzol), similarly treated, furnishes a
compound crystallizing in beautifully red needles

CMH9NS09

the formation of which is represented by the equation
C24 H12 N4 08 + N03= 3HO + C24 H9 N6 O8,

2 equivs. of Nitro- New com-

phenylamine. pound.

Treated with concentrated hydrochloric acid, the new compound re-
produces nitrophenylamine. The action of chlorine and bromine
upon it gives rise to the formation of new crystallized derivatives.

VI. "On the Influence of the Ocean on the Plumb-line in
India." By the Rev. J. H. PRATT, Archdeacon of Cal-
cutta. Communicated by Professor STOKES, Sec. R.S.
Received December 7, 1858.

(Abstract.)

This paper is a sequel to two former communications made to
the Royal Society by the author. In the first of these (communi-
cated in 1855), the deflection of the plumb-line caused by the mountain-
mass north of Hindostan is calculated ; and in the second (communi-
cated in 1858), the effect of a small excess or defect of density pre-

2 s 2

598

Tailing through extensive parts of the earth's mass, is found, with a
view to determine whether any compensating cause can possibly exist
below to counteract the large amount of deflection caused by the
superficial mass lying above the sea-level. A survey of the causes
of disturbance of the plumb-line cannot be complete without taking
into consideration the influence of the ocean. To approximate to
this is the object of the present paper.

The author first adverts to the peculiar geographical position of
Hindostan. The highest mountain-ground in the world lies to the
north of it ; and an unbroken expanse of ocean extends from its
shores down to the neighbourhood of the South Pole. The excess
of matter presented by the first causes a deflection of the plumb-
line towards the north, decreasing in amount as we travel southwards.
The deficiency of matter arising from the second causes a deflection
of the plumb-line also towards the north, but decreasing in amount
as we travel northwards. The consequence is, that while these two
causes conspire to increase the deflection at the different stations, the
action of the second tends to reduce in amount the errors which the
mountain- attraction causes in the amplitudes.

But the attraction of the mountains northwards, and the deficiency
of attraction of the ocean southwards — which last is, in fact, equiva-
lent to a repulsive force northwards — combine to produce another
effect upon the measures of the survey besides the deflection of the
plumb-line. They have a sensible influence in changing the sea-
level, so as to make the level at Karachi, near the mouth of the
Indus — to which a great longitudinal chain of triangles is brought
down from Kalianpur, in the centre of India — many feet higher than
the level at Punnae near Cape Comorin, the south extremity of
the great arc. In other words, the level at Karachi is many feet
higher than it would be at that place, if, while the level at Punnse
remained unchanged, the disturbing attractions were removed.

The author then proceeds with the details of the calculation, which
is conducted by the method of his former papers. In our ignorance
of the form of the bed of the ocean, especially in a part of the world
where bat few soundings have been taken, it is of course necessary
to make some assumption respecting the depth of the ocean and
the form of its bed. The author assumes a law as to the variation
of depth, which, while it is probably a pretty fair representation of

599

the actual state of things on the average, permits of calculation
without too much labour. The expression of this law involves three
arbitrary constants, representing depths at particular places, of which
the various deflections are linear functions. He next calculates nume-
rically the coefficients of the arbitrary constants in the expressions
for the various deflections, and then proceeds, guided by the pro-
babilities of the case, to make further assumptions as to the ratios
of two of these constants to the third ; and lastly, as to the numerical
value of the remaining constant. The general character of the assump-
tions is, that at a point 36° south of Cape Comorin, and in the meri-
dian of the measured arc, the depth is assumed to be three miles,
and the bottom is supposed to slope down towards this point according
to a certain law.

The following are the deflections obtained at the various stations.
The fifth station (called Near-Goa) is a point half-way between
Punnae and Karachi : —

At Kaliana. . . . deflection North 6"-18 deflection East 0"'09

„ Kalianpur. . „ 9 '00 „ 0 -48

„ Damargida-.. „ 10 '44 „ 1 '80

„ Punnse „ 19 '71 „ 2 -19

„ Near-Goa.. „ 13 '83 „ 2 '79

, Karachi 9 '99 West 1 '26

The author then proceeds to correct the ellipticity, as deduced
from the Indian arc, for the defect of ocean as well as the excess of
mountain attraction, and obtains —

Corrected ellipticity =0-00361 4 =—i-,

which is nearer the mean ellipticity than was the value obtained by
correcting for mountain-attraction alone.

He then proceeds to calculate the rise of the sea-level at Karachi
above that at Cape Comorin, and obtains —

From the defect of ocean attraction 448-25 feet.

From the excess of mountain attraction .. 66*32 „

Total. , 514-57.

600

January 13, 1859.
SIR BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.

I. " On the Embryogeny of Comatula Rgsacea (Linck)." By
WYVILLE THOMSON, Esq., Professor of Geology in Queen's
College, Belfast. Communicated by Dr. CARPENTER.
Received December 7, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The author briefly described the male and female reproductive
organs of Comatula. When the ova are mature, and before impreg-
nation, they are protruded and remain hanging from the ovarian
orifice, entangled in the areolar tissue of the everted ovary. In
this position impregnation appears usually to take place.

After segmentation of the yelk, a solid nucleus is formed in the
centre of the mulberry yelk-mass. This nucleus becomes invested
in a special membrane, and into this embryonic mass the remainder
of the yelk is gradually absorbed. Ciliary motion is observed at
various points on the surface of the inclosed embryo, which finally
assumes its characteristic form. The young larva, on escaping from
the egg, consists of a homogeneous mass of pale-yellow granular
matter, with scattered nuclei, cells, and oil-globules. It is barrel-
shaped, and girded at intervals with about five broad ciliated bands.

As development proceeds, one of these belts becomes depressed at
a certain point ; and within the loop thus formed, an inversion of the
integument indicates the position of the rudimentary mouth.

A distinct oesophagus and stomach are rapidly differentiated, and
a short intestine, ending in a large anal orifice, near the posterior
extremity of the animal. The larva at the same time becomes
lengthened and vermiform ; the girding ciliated bands resolve them-
selves into a single transverse band, encircling the body near the
anterior extremitv, and a band passing below the mouth and longi-
tudinally down either side to the tail.

Large lobulated masses of fine granular tissue occupy the cavity
of the body on either side of the alimentary canal.

The echinoderm-zooid originates, apparently, beneath the integu-
ment of the larva, but perhaps in an inversion of that integument,

601

in the form of a rosette of cells encysted near the upper extremity
of the intestine. The rosette is at first single, but shortly takes the
appearance of a double ring, the rings being united by a curved tube.
These rings seem to represent the rudiments of the ambulacral
vascular system of the echinoderm, and the curved tube the origin of
the alimentary canal. A dense coating of granular areolar tissue is
formed round the young crinoid, obscuring the further development
of the internal organs. The mode of its disengagement from the
larva was not observed.

Free from the locomotive larva, the echinoderm in its earliest stage
is a motionless, white, egg-like body, covered externally with a thick
transparent layer, which is traversed vertically by scattered fusiform
oil-cells.

Beneath this layer are seen rapidly-forming patches of the calcified
areolar tissue so characteristic of the class. The body becomes
club-shaped ; the narrow end attaches itself by cement-matter to some
foreign substance, and a head and stem are distinguished.

Two corresponding rows of five plates each (the basalia, and the
first row of the interradialia) form a calcareous chalice round the
base of the head. Rudimentary arms now first make their appear-
ance, and the development of the attached pentacrinal form proceeds
steadily.

From his observations of several broods during the spring of 1858,
the author was led to believe that, under circumstances favourable
to the production of the pentacrinal stage, the development of the
larva may be arrested in any of its earlier stages, and before the
complete differentiation of its internal organs. It is hoped that the
observations of another season may solve this and other questions
which still remain somewhat obscure.

II. " On the Stratifications in Electrical Discharges, as observed
in Torricellian and other Vacua/' — Second Communication.
By J. P. GASSIOT, Esq., V.P.R.S.

(Abstract.)

The author of this Paper states that he procured several vacuum-
tubes from M. Geissler of Bonn, and alludes to the experiments

602

made in similarly constructed tubes by M. Pliicker (Phil. Mag.
August 1858), but finding it impracticable to ascertain with accu-
racy the nature of the residual gas, he reluctantly laid them aside.
All the vacuum-tubes in which his experiments were made, were
prepared by himself or in his presence ; as each was exhausted and
hermetically sealed, it was marked with a consecutive number ; up-
wards of 100 were thus prepared; many were broken or otherwise
destroyed, but the remainder he retains with the original numbers
for future reference. The author uses several terms, which he ex-
plains : air, hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen (mercurial) denote that
the vacuum-tube contains vapour of mercury plus the air or gas
remaining in the tube with which it was filled previous to the in-
troduction of the mercury : he applies the terms outer positive or
negative, and inner positive or negative, to denote the character of
the discharge from the terminals ; conductive and reciprocating de-
note the peculiar conditions of discharges from an induction appa-
ratus when taken in vacuum-tubes ; with a conductive discharge the
needle of a galvanometer placed in the circuit will be deflected, as
are also the stratifications on the approach of a magnet — they having,
as the author has shown in his former communication, a tendency to
rotate as a whole round either pole, but in contrary directions ; in a
reciprocating discharge the stratifications are confused, they are
divided or separated by the magnet, and the needle of a galvanometer
placed in the circuit is not deflected.

The author explains the condition which the stratified discharge
assumes if any air or gas remains or is subsequently introduced into
a Torricellian vacuum, and describes what he denominates a white
and a blue tongue discharge, which under certain conditions always
appears at the negative terminal. In Torricellian vacua, if air or
nitrogen is introduced, the stratifications, exclusive of their altered
form, exhibit a red colour, while when hydrogen or oxygen is added,
they retain the bluish-grey appearance : when the ends of the tubes
were punctured by means of an electrical spark from a machine, the
air or gas could be admitted so gradually as to occupy two or three
hours in the experiment, and in this manner the preceding results
were obtained.

In the best Torricellian vacua the author has been able to obtain,
the stratifications always assumed a long cloud-like appearance ; by

603

using ten cells, he on one occasion observed distinct sets of stratifi-
cations, one from each terminal, in opposite directions.

From a variety of experiments made in the laboratory of the
Royal Institution in temperatures varying from — 102° to upwards of
+ 600° Fahr., he obtained the following results : —

When the flame of a spirit-lamp is applied to the discharge in a
vacuum-tube, the stratifications, if they are narrow, will become clearer
and divided, attaching themselves to the warmer portion of the tube ;
if a section of the tube is heated, the stratifications in that section
will be more separated, becoming closer in the cooler portion.

If heat is applied to a tube which shows the cloud-like stratifica-
tions, they will lose their clear distinctness ; the deposit from the
negative wire appears to be more free, and distinct sparks or dis-
charges are apparent, but none from the positive.

In a Torricellian vacuum from which the mercury was withdrawn,
which gave clear cloud-like stratifications, no change could be ob-
served when the temperature was lowered to +32° Fahr. ; at a tempe-
rature of —102°, all trace of the stratified discharge was destroyed,
and in this state the red or heated appearance of the negative wire
disappeared, the discharge filling the entire vacuum with a white
luminous glow ; on the temperature being raised the stratifications
reappear. When the mercury in a Torricellian vacuum is boiled,
indicating a heat of upwards of + 600°, the stratifications are also
destroyed ; but in this case the mercury as it condenses carries the
discharge, becoming a conductor.

When the mercury is frozen the stratifications disappear, and the
discharge did not then illuminate the entire length of the tube ; on
presenting a magnet near the tube, the cloud-like stratifications im-
mediately reappear from the positive terminal, very distinct, but not
so clearly separated as when the tube is in its normal state of tem-
perature.

The author being desirous to obtain vacua free from all trace of the
vapour of mercury, endeavoured to do so by means of fusible metal,
but traces of air were perceptible ; he also prepared apparatus for a
tin vacuum : in a vacuum obtained by means of oxygen and sodium,
very good stratifications were observable. At the suggestion and
with the assistance of Dr. Frankland, vacua were obtained by ab-
sorbing rarefied carbonic acid by means of caustic potassa. This
process is described, and a drawing of the apparatus is given.

604

In carbonic acid vacua the discharge at first appears in the form
of a wavy line ; it is strongly affected on the approach of a magnet
or by the hand, but does not generally present the stratified ap-
pearance ; if this be present, it is only near the positive terminal :
sometimes in the course of a few minutes, but often not until after
several days, stratifications are visible, which, as the carbonic acid
becomes absorbed, increase ; they subsequently assume a conical
form, and lastly, the clear cloud-like character of the best Torricel-
lian vacua. Under certain conditions the stratifications disappear, the
whole length of the tube being filled with luminosity ; when in this
state, if the outside of the tube is touched, pungent sparks can be
perceived ^-th of an inch in length, and the peculiar blue phos-
phorescent light, that in the ordinary state is perceptible at the
negative, is perceptible at both terminals, and a galvanometer shows
that the discharge is no longer conductive.

After noticing the difficulty of obtaining in carbonic acid vacuum-
tubes precisely the same results, the author describes one experiment
in which moisture was purposely introduced ; in this tube the strati-
fied discharge was very clear and distinct. He states (and describes
the illustrative experiment) that under certain conditions the stratifi-
cations entirely disappear, the vacuum insulating the discharge.
Carbonic acid vacuum-tubes were prepared, into which arsenious
acid, iodine, bromine, pentachloride of antimony, bichloride and
bisulphide of carbon were severally introduced, and the results ob-
tained are described.

In Torricellian vacua the author was necessarily limited in the
size of the glass vessels employed, but with carbonic acid this diffi-
culty no longer exists ; in one vessel of 7 inches internal diameter,
the stratified discharge was observed to fill the entire space ; in
another, the discharges were made to pass in the middle of the vessel
through a small hole in the centre of a glass diaphragm.

After many trials, the author ascertained that if the negative ter-
minal is covered with glass tubing (open at each end) to about Jj-th
of an inch beyond the terminal of the wire, the stratifications are
destroyed. In this state the negative discharge appears to issue
with considerable force through the orifice ; this discharge can be
deflected by the magnet, and wherever it impinges, a brilliant blue
phosphorescent spot is perceivable, which spot is in a short time
sensibly heated. The author remarks that in this experiment there

605

is the appearance of a direction of a force emanating from the
negative.

In some of the vacuum-tubes beyond the clear cloud-like stratifica-
tions, but nearer the negative terminal, several faint striae can be
obtained : on repeating Mr. Grove's experiment (Phil. Mag. July
1858), of allowing the discharge to pass between two metallic points
attached to the coil, the author observed that these faint striae in-
variably disappeared.

Stratifications remarkably sensitive to induction on the approach
of the hand were obtained in a glass cylinder of about 4-|- inches dia-
meter, in which the wires were hermetically sealed 21 inches apart.

From the absorption of carbonic acid by caustic potassa, not only
were vacua obtained far more perfect than by the Torricellian method,
but the process can be made so gradual as to occupy several
weeks, or even months, thus enabling the experimenter to examine
the phenomena of the stratified discharge under a variety of con-
ditions, several of which the author describes ; in this manner the
non-transferring condition for the electrical discharge in a vacuum
has been experimentally ascertained. The author considers that
this confirms the opinion he ventured to offer in his previous
paper; for if the pulsations or vibrations of an electrical discharge are
greatest in the bright bands and least in the obscure, this system of
interference or of pulsations would also account for the entire absence
of stratifications when the air or gas is not sufficiently rarefied, as
well as when the vacuum becomes nearly perfect, while the gradual
change of narrow to cloud-like stratifications is thus satisfactorily
explained.

In an additional note to his Paper, the author describes some
farther experiments, particularly one of moving the vacuum-tube to
and fro in a rapid manner, or rotating it in a plane, while the dis-
charges are made, either singly or continuously : in the latter case the
stratified discharges are separated, giving the appearance of an illumi-
nated fan or wheel ; in the former, only a single discharge is per-
ceptible, taking place in whatever direction the tube may at the
instant be placed. The author considers this experiment as con-
firmatory of his former opinion, that the stratifications are entirely
due to a single disruption of the primary circuit.

The experiments, as described in the Paper, were exhibited by the
author to the Society.

606

January 20, 1859.

SIR BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.
The following communications were read : —

I. "Second Note on Ozone." By THOMAS ANDREWS, M.D.,
F.R.S., and P. G. TAIT, M.A., F.C.P.S. Communicated
by Dr. ANDREWS. Received December 16, 1858.

Since the publication of their " Note on the Density of Ozone"
(Proceedings of the Royal Society, June 1857), the authors have
been occupied with an extended investigation into the nature and
properties of that body. The inquiry having proved more protracted
than they anticipated, they have thought it proper to send to the
Royal Society a brief notice of some of the more important facts
which they have already observed, reserving a description of the
methods employed, and of the details of the experiments, for a
future communication.

The commonly received statement, that the whole of a given
volume of dry oxygen gas contained alone in an hermetically sealed
tube can be converted into ozone by the passage of electrical sparks,
is erroneous. In repeated trials, with tubes of every form and size,
the authors found that not more than j-J-^ part of the oxygen
could thus be changed into ozone. A greater effect was, it is true,
produced by the silent discharge between fine platina points ; but
this also had its limit. In order to carry on the process, it is neces-
sary to introduce into the apparatus some substance, such as a
solution of iodide of potassium, which has the property of taking
up, in the form of oxygen, the ozone as it is produced. After many
trials, an apparatus was contrived in the form of a double U, having
a solution of iodide of potassium in one end, and a column of frag-
ments of fused chloride of calcium interposed between this solution
and the part of the tube where the electrical discharge was passed.
The chloride of calcium allowed the ozone to pass, but arrested the
vapour of water ; so that, while the discharge always took place in
dry oxygen, the ozone was gradually absorbed. The experiment is
not yet finished, but already one-fourth of the gas in a tube of the

607

capacity of 10 cubic centimetres has disappeared. To produce this
effect, the discharge from a machine in excellent order has been
passed through the tube for twenty-four hours.

When oxygen is thus converted into ozone, a diminution of volume
takes place. The greatest contraction occurs with the silent discharge,
and amounts to about -^ of the volume of the gas. The passage
of sparks has less effect than the silent discharge, and will even
destroy a part of the contraction obtained by means of the latter.
If the apparatus be exposed for a short time to the temperature of
250° C., so as to destroy the ozone, it will be found that the gas on
cooling has recovered exactly its original volume. This observation
proves, unequivocally, that if ozone be oxygen in an allotropic con-
dition, its density is greater than that of oxygen. Experiments still
in progress indicate that the density of ozone obtained by the elec-
trical discharge must, on the above assumption, be represented by
even a higher number than that deduced by the authors from their
experiments on ozone prepared by electrolysis.

When mercury is brought into contact with dry oxygen, in which
ozone has been formed by the electrical discharge, it loses to a great
extent its mobility, and may be made to cover the interior of the
tube with a fine reflecting surface resembling that of an ordinary
mirror. It is remarkable that this great change in the state of the
mercury is not accompanied by any further diminution of the volume
of the gas. The apparatus employed by the authors would have
enabled them to estimate with certainty a change of volume amount-
ing to Y2~J~oTr Par* °^ ^e w^10^e> ^n ^e con^rary, on allowing
the apparatus to stand, the gas begins slowly to expand ; and in
thirty hours, when the ozone reactions have disappeared, the expan-
sion amounts to a little more than one half of the contraction which
had previously taken place.

Dry silver, in the state both of leaf and of filings, has the property
of entirely destroying ozone, whether prepared by electrolysis or by
the electrical machine. If a stream of electrolytic ozone be passed over
silver leaf or filings contained in a tube, the metal becomes altered
in appearance where the gas comes first into contact with it ; but no
appreciable increase of weight takes place, however long the experi-
ment may be continued. The volumetric results are similar to those
already described in the case of mercury.

608

Arsenic also destroys dry ozone, but, as it likewise combines with
dry oxygen, its separate action on ozone cannot be observed with
precision.

Most of the other metals examined, such as gold, platina, iron,
zinc, tin, &c., are without action on dry ozone.

Iodine, brought into contact with oxygen contracted by the elec-
tric discharge, instantly destroys the ozone reactions, and a yellowish
solid is formed : no change of volume accompanies this action.

Peroxide of manganese and oxide of copper have, it is well known,
the property of destroying ozone, apparently without limit. The
authors have found that these oxides undergo no sensible increase of
weight, even after the destruction of 50 or 60 milligrammes of ozone.
The same oxides, when brought into contact with oxygen contracted
by the spark, restore it to nearly its original volume.

Hydrogen gas, purified with care, and perfectly dry, was not
changed in volume by the action either of the electrical spark, or of
the silent discharge.

A similar negative result was obtained with nitrogen and the silent
discharge ; but with the spark a very slight alteration of volume
appeared to occur, the cause of which is still under investigation.

In the experiments now described, the electrical sparks and dis-
charge were always obtained from the common friction-machine.
The discharge from the induction coil, even when passed through two
Leyden jars, produces very insignificant ozone effects. The heat
which always accompanies this discharge, and its comparatively feeble
tension, sufficiently explain its want of energy.

All the results recently obtained by the authors fully confirm the
former experiments of one of them,* that in no case is water pro-
duced by the destruction of ozone, whether prepared by electrolysis
or by the electrical discharge. They reserve any further expression
of their views as to the true relations which exist between ozone and
oxygen, till they shall have an opportunity of laying the results of
this inquiry in a more complete form before the Society.

* Philosophical Transactions for 1856, Part I.

609

II. "Ice Observations." By DAVID WALKER, M.D., Surgeon
and Naturalist to the Arctic Discovery Expedition. Com-
municated by THOMAS ANDREWS, M.D. Received De-
cember 16, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The contradictory statements of Dr. Sutherland and Dr. Kane, with
regard to the saltness of the ice formed from sea-water, — the former
maintaining that sea-water ice contains about one-fourth of the salt
of the original water; the latter, that if the cold be sufficiently
intense, there will be formed from sea-water a fresh and purer ele-
ment fit for domestic use, — induced the author to take advantage of
his position, as naturalist to the expedition now in the northern seas,
to reinvestigate the subject.

The changes which he has observed sea- water to undergo in
freezing are the following. When the temperature falls below
+ 28°*5, it becomes covered with a thin pellicle of ice ; after some
time this pellicle becomes thicker and presents a vertically striated
structure, similar to that of the ordinary cakes of sal-ammoniac.
As the ice further increases in thickness, it becomes more compact,
but the lowest portion still retains the striated structure. On the
surface of the ice, saline crystals, designated by the author " efflo-
rescence," soon begin to form, at first few in number and widely
separated, but gradually forming into tufts and ultimately covering
the whole surface. At first, the increase in thickness of the ice is
rapid, but afterwards the rate of growth is much slower and more
uniform. The ice formed yields, on being melted, a solution differ-
ing in specific gravity according to the temperature at the time of
congelation, its density being less, the lower the temperature at
which the process of congelation took place. Although the author's
observations extended from + 28°*5 to —42°, he was never able to
obtain fresh-water from sea-ice, the purest specimen being of specific
gravity 1*005, and affording abundant evidence of the presence of
salts, especially of chloride of sodium, in such quantity as to render
it unfit for domestic purposes.

The efflorescence already referred to appeared sooner or later,
according to the temperature of the air, but generally commenced
when the ice was f of an inch thick, and continued to form till

610

the ice attained a thickness of about 9 inches, when, in consequence
of the compactness of the frozen mass, it ceased to appear at the
surface. The lower the temperature at which the ice was formed,
the more abundant was the efflorescence. Direct experiments made
by freezing sea- water in a large tub, showed that the unfrozen re-
siduum contained a considerable portion of salts expressed from the
ice. The author therefore infers, that after the efflorescence had
ceased to form on the surface, the saline particles were precipitated
into the unfrozen liquid below. On exposing the residual liquid
from which the ice had been separated to a freezing temperature, a
second residuum was obtained, containing more salts than the first ;
and by repeating the process several times, there remained finally a
strong solution of brine.

The author endeavoured, by reversing this process, to procure
fresh-water. He remelted the ice from sea-water and froze it again,
repeating the operation several times. Ice was thus obtained,
which, when melted, gave water, having a density of from 1*0025
to 1-0020.

A "heavy nip" having occurred in the floe near the ship afforded
an opportunity of examining the quality of the ice at different
depths. The thickness of the entire mass was 54 inches ; the den-
sity of the solution obtained by melting successive portions varied
from 1'0078 to T0050; those near the surface giving a liquid of
higher density than the rest. A specimen taken from the centre of
the mass was reserved for analysis.

With regard to the "efflorescence," the author states that its
appearance was very different according as the temperature was
above or below —25°. In the former case, it exhibited a plumose
form, with secondary plumes branching off; in the latter, it con-
sisted of fibrous crystals varying from £ to 2 inches in length. This
efflorescence acts an important part in the breaking up of the floe.
From the middle of January cracks and lanes occur in the floe,
which subsequently become filled with new ice covered as usual with
the saline efflorescence and a little snow. When the sun's rays fall
upon this incrustation, it melts and forms a thick liquid on the top.
This penetrates gradually through the ice and aids greatly in break-
ing it up. The author supposes that a process of endosmosis and
exosmosis is, in fact, established through the body of the ice. A

611

similar, but less powerful, action is produced by the same cause on
the mass of the floe itself.

In the artificial freezing of sea- water, the ice was found to be ver
tically striated, and often divisible into two or more layers, while
the under surface was always marked by fine lines intersecting each
other at definite angles. From the bottom of the vessel thin plates
of ice formed in the unfrozen liquid. They varied in length from
J in. to 2^ in., and contained less salt than the ice formed on the top.

To explain the observation of Dr. Kane as to the freshness of ice
formed from sea- water under —30°, the author supposes that it may
have depended on the freezing of a portion of sea-water which was
covered at the time of its congelation with a stratum of fresh-water
produced by the melting of bergs. On the 12th of April, 1857,
whilst lying off Brown's Island, within about 4 miles of a glacier
surrounded by bergs, the author observed a layer of fresh-water,
2 or 3 inches in depth, floating, like oil, on the surface of the salt-
water. To this cause he attributes the occasional occurrence of
hummocks from the upper portions of which ice perfectly free from
salt can be obtained, while on digging deeper into these hummocks,
the ice is always found to lose its freshness.

III. " Inquiries into the Phenomena of Respiration." By ED-
WARD SMITH, M.D., Assistant-Physician to the Hospital
for Consumption, Brompton. Communicated by Sir B. C.
BRODIE, Bart, P.R.S. Received December 16, 1858.

(Abstract.)

The author gives in this communication the result of numerous in-
quiries into the quantity of carbonic acid expired, and of air inspired,
with the rate of pulsation and respiration, — 1st, in the whole of the
twenty-four hours, with and without exertion and food ; 2nd, the
variations from day to day, and from season to season ; and 3rd, the
influence of some kinds of exertion.

After a description of the apparatus employed by previous ob-
servers, he describes his own apparatus and method. This consists
of a spirometer to measure the air inspired, capable of registering
any number of cubic inches ; and an analytical apparatus to abstract

VOL. ix. 2 T

612

the carbonic acid and vapour from the expired air. The former is a
small dry gas-meter, of improved manufacture, and the latter con-
sists of — 1 st, a desiccator of sulphuric acid to absorb the vapour ;
2nd, a gutta-percha box, with chambers and cells, containing caustic
potash, and offering a superficies of 700 inches, over which the
expired air is passed, and by which the carbonic acid is abstracted ;
and 3rd, a second desiccator to retain the vapour which the expired
air had carried off from the potash box. A small mask is worn, so as
to prevent any air entering the lungs without first passing through the
spirometer, and the increase in the weight of this with the connect-
ing tube and the first desiccator gives the amount of vapour exhaled,
whilst the addition to the weight of the potash box and the second
desiccator gives the weight of the carbonic acid expired. The ba-
lances employed weigh to the y^- of a grain, with 7 Ibs. in the pan.
By this apparatus the whole of the carbonic acid was abstracted
during the act of expiration, and the experiment could be repeated
every few minutes, or continued for any number of hours, and be
made whilst sleeping and with certain kinds of exertion.

The amount of carbonic acid expired in the twenty-four hours was
determined by several sets of experiments. Four of these, consisting
of eight experiments, were made upon four gentlemen, on the author,
Professor Frankland, F.R.S., Dr. Murie, and Mr. Moul, during the
eighteen hours of the working day. In two of them, the whole of
the carbonic acid was collected, and in two others the experiment
was made during ten minutes at the commencement of each hour,
and of each hour after the meals. The quantity of carbonic acid
varied from an average of 24'274 oz. in the author to 16*43 oz. in
Professor Frankland. The quantity evolved in light sleep was 4 '88
and 4'99 grains per minute, and when scarcely awake 5 '7, 5*94, and
6'1 grains at different times of the night. The author estimates the
amount in profound sleep at 4*5 grains per minute ; and the whole
evolved in the six hours of the night at 1950 grains. Hence the total
quantity of carbon evolved in the twenty-four hours, at rest, was, in
the author, 7' 144 oz. The effect of walking at various speeds is then
given, with an estimate of the amount of exertion made by different
classes of the community, and of the carbon which would be evolved
with that exertion.

The author then states the quantity of air inspired in the working

613

day, which varied from 583 cub. in. per minute in himself to 365
cub. in. per minute in Professor Frankland ; the rate of respiration,
which varied in different seasons as well as in different persons ; the
depth of inspiration, from 30 cub. in. to 39 '5 cub. in. ; and the rate of
pulsation. The respirations were to the pulsations as 1 to 4*63 in
the youngest, and as 1 to 5*72 in the oldest. One-half the product
of the respirations into the pulsations gave nearly the number of
cubic inches of air inspired in some of the persons, and the propor-
tion of the carbonic acid to the air inspired varied from as 1 gr. to
54'7 cub. in. to as 1 gr. to 58 cub. in. The variations in the carbonic
acid evolved in the working day gave an average maximum of 10*43,
and minimum of 6 '74 grains per minute. The quantity increased
after a meal and decreased from each meal, so that the minima were
nearly the same, and the maxima were the greatest after breakfast
and tea.

The effect of a fast of forty hours, with only a breakfast meal, was
to reduce the amount of carbonic acid to 75 per cent, of that which
was found with food ; to render the quantity nearly uniform through-
out the day, with a little increase at the hours when food had usually
been taken, and to cause the secretions to become alkaline*.

The variations from day to day were shown to be connected with
the relation of waste and supply on the previous day and night, so
that with good health, good night's rest, and sufficient food, the
amount of respiration was considerable on the following morning,
whilst the reverse occurred with the contrary conditions. Hence
the quantities were usually large on the Monday. Temperature was
an ever-acting cause of variation, and caused a diminution in the
carbonic acid as the temperature rose.

The effect of season was to cause a diminution of all the respira-
tory phenomena as the hot season advanced. The maximum state
was in spring, and the minimum at the end of summer, with periods
of decrease in June and of increase in October. The diminution in
the author was 30 per cent, in the quantity of air, 32 per cent, in the
rate of respiration, and 1 7 per cent, in the carbonic acid. The in-
fluence of temperature was considered in relation to season, and it

* The quantity of air was reduced 30 per cent., that of vapour in the expired air
50 per cent., the rate of respiration was reduced 7 per cent., and of pulsation 6
per cent.

614

was shown that whilst sudden changes of temperature cause imme-
diate variation in the quantity of carbonic acid, a medium degree of
temperature, as of 60°, is accompanied by all the variations in the
quantity of carbonic acid, and that there is no relation between any
given temperature and quantity of carbonic acid at different seasons.
Whatever was the degree of temperature, the quantity of carbonic
acid, and all other phenomena of respiration, fell from the beginning
of June to the beginning of September. The author then described
the influence of atmospheric pressure, and stated that neither
temperature nor atmospheric pressure accounts for the seasonal
changes.

The kinds of exertion which had been investigated were walking
and the treadwheel. Walking at two miles per hour induced an ex-
halation of 18*1 gr. of carbonic acid per minute, and at three miles
per hour of 25*83 grs. ; whilst the eifect of the treadwheel at Cold-
bath Fields Prison was to increase the quantity to 48 grs. per mi-
nute. All these quantities vary with the season, and hence the
author recommends the adoption of relative quantities, the compari-
son being with the state of the system at rest, and apart from the
influence of food.

The apparatus and various drawings were exhibited.

January 27, 1859.
Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.

Dr. John Hutton Balfour was admitted into the Society.

In accordance with notice given at the last Meeting, the Right
Rev. the Lord Bishop of London was proposed for election and
immediate ballot.

The ballot having been taken, his Lordship was declared duly
elected.

The following communications were read : —

615

I. " On the Effect of Pressure on Electric Conductibility in
Metallic Wires." In a Letter from M. ELIE WARTMANN
of Geneva, to Major-General SABINE, Treas. and V.P.R.S.
Communicated by Prof. W. H. MILLER, For. Sec. R.S.
Received January 12, 1859.

Geneva, January 3rd, 1859.

My dear Sir, — The newspapers having reported that a society of
English shareholders intends to lay a second cable for transatlantic
telegraphy, you will allow me to give here a brief account of some
experiments by which I have succeeded in proving the effect of
pressure on electric conductibility in metallic wires.

The method which I have resorted to i& the one devised by
MM. Christie and Wheatstone, which is called the electrical bridge.
The current of a Bunsen's battery of six large cells was divided
between the wire to be tested (a very soft copper wire 0'05 of an
inch in diameter, and covered with gutta percha) and another con-
ductor ; both being connected with a delicate Ruhmkorff's galvano-
meter, so that the needle remained on the zero point. All contacts
were made invariable by solderings.

No sensible effect being determined by the pressure of nine atmo-
spheres in a piezometer, I made use of a press which enabled me to
produce compressions superior to four hundred atmospheres, conse-
quently superior to that which is suffered by an electric conductor
immersed in the ocean, at a depth of 12,420 English feet. The
wire, besides its coating, was preserved against permanent defor-
mation by two sheets of thick gutta percha, placed between the
steel plates which took hold of it.

The experiments have shown —

1°. That a pressure of thirty atmospheres (a number relative to
the sensibility of the galvanometer) diminishes the conducting power
of a copper wire for electricity.

2°. That the effect increases with the pressure.

3°. That the diminution remains the same for each compression,
as long as the latter does not vary.

4°. That the primitive conducting power is exactly restored when
the pressure vanishes altogether.

Many interesting results flow from these conclusions, which I pro-

61'6

pose to examine in a future letter. For the present, permit me to
add, that the fact which I have discovered establishes a new con-
nexion between electricity, heat, and light: for it has been demon-
strated by M. de Senarmont —

a. That any artificial increase of density in a non-crystallized solid
body diminishes, in the direction in which it is exerted, the con-
ducting power of that body for heat,

b. That in homogeneous media which are in a state of artificial
molecular equilibrium, the conformation of the thermic ellipsoid,
either oblate or prolate, is always corresponding to that of the
optic one.

I shall feel much gratified if you deem this communication worthy
to be laid before the Royal Society. * *

I remain, &c.,

ELIE WARTMANN.

II. " Notice of Researches on a New Class of Organic Bases,
conducted by CHARLES S. WOOD, Esq." By A. W. HOF-
MANN, LL.D., F.R.S. Received December 21, 1858.

In his remarkable memoir* on the action of reducing agents on
nitro-compounds, in which Zinin first pointed out the formation of
organic bases by the substitution of hydrogen for oxygen, some expe-
riments are recorded on the deportment of dinitro-naphtalin (nitro-
naphtalese) with sulphuretted hydrogen. Zinin states that this pro-
cess gives rise to the formation of a basic compound crystallizing in
delicate copper-red needles, and yielding with acids white scaly salts.

In a subsequent paper f Zinin returns to the action of sulphuretted
hydrogen or dinitronaphtalin, and gives a fuller account of the pro-
ducts obtained in this process. The basic substance arising from
dinitronaphtalin crystallizes in colourless needles of great brilliancy,
which contain

C10H5N,orC20H10N2.

It is a well-defined basic body, which Zinin describes under the
name of seminaphlalidam. From this later communication it would

* Bulletin Scientifique de St. Petersburg, x. 18.
t Journ. fiir Prakt, Chem. Bd. xxxiii. 29.

617

appear that the copper-red coloration originally observer! was due
to the presence of a foreign colouring matter, which can be separated
by crystallizing the base alternately from alcohol and water.

Subsequently the copper-red body appears to have been observed
by Laurent*, who states that the action of sulphuretted hydrogen
upon dinitronaphtalin gives rise to the formation of a carmine-red
alkali. He did not, however, analyse this substance, and the dis-
covery of nitranilinef having established the existence of basic nitro-
substitutes, the compound in question was hitherto believed to be
nitro-naphtylamine.

The red crystals have of late been minutely investigated in my
laboratory by Mr. Charles Wood, whose experiments have led to an
unexpected result, which I beg to lay before the Society.

A current of sulphuretted hydrogen transmitted through a boiling
solution of dinitronaphtalin in weak alcoholic ammonia slowly reduces
the nitro-compound. The process is continued for two or three hours,
during which time the greater part of the spirit distils off ; the residue
is acidified with dilute sulphuric acid, and the liquid heated to ebul-
lition. The filtered liquid deposits on cooling a yellowish brown
sulphate, which may be purified by several crystallizations from boiling
water. The addition of ammonia to the solid sulphate immediately
changes the colour to a fine dark carmine-red ; the base thus libe-
rated is washed with cold water, and finally purified by crystallization
from water or very dilute alcohol.

Thus prepared, the substance, for which Mr. Wood proposes the
name ninaphtylamine, is a light flocculent mass, composed of little
acicular crystals, which are partially decomposed by exposure to a
temperature of 100°C. It is difficultly soluble in boiling water, but
extremely soluble in alcohol and ether.

In the analysis of the base dried in vacua over sulphuric acid,
Mr. Wood has obtained results which lead to the formula
C20H8N202.

This expression was confirmed by the examination of several of
the salts of the new base.

Sulphate of ninaphtylamine is obtained either by recrystallizing
the crude salt formed in the preparation of the body, or by dis-

* Compt. Rend. xxxi. 538.

f Muspratt and Hofmann, Memoirs of the Chemical Society, vol. iii. 111.

618

solving the pure base in dilute sulphuric acid. It forms white
scales, which are apt to be decomposed by recrystallization from pure
water. The salt dried in vacua over sulphuric acid contains
2(C20H8N202), H2S208.

Hydrochlorate of ninaphtylamine forms acicular crystals ; they
are obtained like the sulphate, which they resemble in their general
deportment. Composition :

C20H8N202,HC1,

The platinum-salt of ninaphtylamine forms rather soluble yel-
lowish-brown crystals, which are obtained by adding a concentrated
solution of dichloride of platinum to an alcoholic or ethereal solution
of the base. It has the usual constitution, containing
C20H8N202,HCl,PtCl2.

If it be permitted, in the absence of further experimental evidence,
to speculate upon the molecular constitution of the body which forms
the subject of this note, the simplest interpretation of its composition
andYormation would be to view it as a substitution-product of uaph-
tylamine, but differing from the ordinary nitro-substitutes, by con-
taining the elements of binoxide, instead of tetroxide of nitrogen.

P TT

Naphthylamine . . C20 EL N = 2° H* N,

C20(H6N02)
Ninaphthylamine. . C20 H8 Na O2= • H \ N.

Its formation would then be represented by the equation

C20[H6(N04)2]+4 H2S2=3 H202 + 8S + C20[H8N02]N

Dinitronaphtalin. Ninaphthylamine.

Bodies in which binoxide of nitrogen figures as a material of sub-
stitution are as yet extremely rare, whilst nitro-substitutes containing
the elements of hyponitric acid are of the most general occurrence.

Some chemists have considered nitrous ether as a binoxide of
nitrogen derivative of alcohol.

Alcohol C4H6O2,

Nitrous ether .' C4 ffy )O2.

The most interesting illustrations of this kind of substitution, how-

619

ever, have been furnished by Messrs. Church and Perkin* in the
colouring matters produced by the action of nascent hydrogen on
dinitro-substitutes, or of nitrous acid upon certain monamines.

Phenylamine C12 H7 N,

(TT \
NO )^"

Naphthylamine C20 H9 N,

Nitrosonaphtylin C20 ( >JQ )N.

Expressed by these formulae, the substances in question appear to
be closely allied to Mr. Wood's base ; in fact, nitrosonaphtylin has
the same composition as ninaphthylamine. But a superficial com-
parison of the properties of the two bodies excludes any idea of their
being identical. The formulae of nitrosophenyline and nitrosonaph-
tylin have not as yet been finally established by the analysis of their
compounds, these substances, like colouring matters in general,
being of an indifferent character. It is probable that they are formed
by the association of several molecules, a supposition which receives
considerable support from the discovery of ninaphthylamine.

The formation of ninaphthylamine promises to add considerably
to the number of nitro-derivatives of the aromatic monamines. To
each of these substances probably corresponds a nitrous and a nitric
substitution-base, but as yet we are unacquainted with a single one
in which both derivatives are known, as shown by a glance at the
groups best examined.

Phenyl. Group. Naphtyl. Group.

C12H5 ] C20H7

Phenylamine. ... H y N, Naphthylamine H > N.
H J H J

C12 (H4 N02) 1 N Ninaphthyl.OM (H6 N02) ]

Unknown.. H L W> r H [ N.

H J amme.... R J

C, (H6 NO4) J
H J

* Journal of Chemical Society, vol. ix. 1.

620

III. " Rectification of Logarithmic Errors in the Measurements
of Two Sections of the Meridional Arc of India." In a
Letter to Professor STOKES, Sec. R.S. By Colonel EVE-
REST, F.R.S. Received December 22, 1858.

It will be in your recollection, that some years ago, at the
request of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, I com-
piled from the General Report of the Great Trigonometrical Survey
of India, a work entitled " An Account of the Measurement of two
Sections of the Meridional Arc of India," executed by myself and
my assistants, an impression of which (printed in 1847) was presented
to the Royal Society.

In reference to the work in question, I now have to mention that in
the computation of the meridional triangles (vide pp. 240 to 248)
there have been some errors committed in taking out the logarithms
of the twelfth triangle (p. 241) and the twentieth triangle (p. 243);
and as from the nature of that series, the purpose of which is to project
the sides of the principal triangles on the meridian, any such error
must run through all the computations subsequent to it, I have had
the whole series recomputed, and now forward for submission to the
Royal Society, a sheet containing a revised synopsis (vide p. 248),
such as it would have been, but for the errors adverted to, to which
it is my wish that the utmost publicity should be given.

I must here say, that I owe the detection and correction of the
said errors entirely to the industry of Colonel Waugh, F.R.S., and
the able computing establishment at his disposal ; for myself it re-
mains only to urge, that though mistakes of this nature are not ere -
ditable, but, on the contrary, much to be regretted, yet it is all but
impossible for the chief of two departments, that of Survey or- General
of India, and that of Superintendent of the Great Trigonometrical
Survey of India, each involving a vast array of business peculiar to
itself, to enter into all the minutiae of computation ; I took the pre-
caution to have every portion of the work gone over by two com-
puters acting independently, and it is singular that both should have
fallen into the same errors.

As the existence of these errors, in the instance of the northern of
the two sections or series A, would naturally lead to the supposition
that like errors might lurk in series B (pp. 46 to 53), an equally

621

rigorous recomputation has been kindly instituted by Colonel Waugh
in the latter case ; and as no mistake is found therein, the synopsis B
(p. 53) will need no alteration on that account.

I have now to advert to another subject, also relating to the work
in question. In trigonometrical operations, I need hardly mention
that the absolute lengths of all linear quantities depend on those of
the measured bases reduced to their equivalents at the level of the

T> 7

sea, the reduction on which account may be expressed by — -, where

H

B is the measured base, h its mean height above the sea, and R the
radius of curvature : now as we do not know a priori the value of h,
unless the measurements be actually made on the sea- shore, the only
mode of commencing the work of computation is to assume the
nearest value we are in possession of, and when the operations are
connected with the sea- coasts, to apply a correction for any excess
or defect of our assumption.

Damargida, the southernmost point included in my book of 1847,
is an inland station, the height of which is given in the general
report of my predecessor, Colonel Lambton, at 2026 feet ; and as all
the triangulation to the south of that station had been concluded in
1815, nearly four years before I joined the department, I had no
choice but to refer to that as one of my established data : my com-
putations start from the Sironj base, and on reaching Damargida it
appeared that the assumed value of A, which I had used in correct-
ing that base line, was 24*5 feet in excess of what it ought to have
been, for which the correction is applied of 2*578 feet to the linear
value of the terrestrial arc in synopsis B, and 2'295 in synopsis A.

Colonel Lambton' s operations, from which the height of Da-
margida station is determined, abut on the sea-coast at three dif-
ferent points, viz. Madras on the east coast, Mangalore on the west
coast, and Cape Comorin on the southernmost extremity of the
Peninsula, and the results thence derived were at that time the
most trustworthy data I had access to.

Subsequent to the completion of my computations, the western
longitudinal series which connects Damargida with the sea-coast
near Bombay, was finished by Captain Jacob, then one of my as-
sistants, and there is a note on that subject at page clxxi. of my
book of 1847, which is, I presume, quite sufficient to prepare any

622

geodist for the probability of a future correction being needed : as
to Captain Jacob's performance, I may distinctly state that I place
the greatest confidence in its accuracy, for he was furnished with an
excellent altitude and azimuth instrument by Dollond, which had a
good vertical circle, and he was not only a highly-talented mathema-
tician, but a most careful and skilful observer.

Since I left India, in December 1843, the trigonometrical opera-
tions have abutted on the sea-coast at two other places, viz. at Cal-
cutta, by the completion of my north-east longitudinal series, and at
Karachi, by Colonel Waugh's western longitudinal series ; so that
now there are several additional data relative to the numerical value
of h, which it becomes necessary to take into consideration in the
determination of the proper corrections to be applied to the mea-
sured bases, and the lengths of my two terrestrial arcs, as given in
synopses B and A.

I have for some time been in correspondence with Colonel Waugh
on this subject, and in due time hope to be able to communicate
what final conclusion we arrived at ; but, in the meanwhile, as it
may be interesting to the Fellows of the Royal Society to know the
provisional state of the question, I here subjoin some extracts of his
last received communication.

"By the completion of the Calcutta meridional series, as well as
the north-east longitudinal series, we obtain a continued chain of
triangulation, extending from the sea-level near Calcutta along the
Calcutta meridian to the Sonakoda base, thence along the north-
east longitudinal series to Dehra Dun, thence down the great arc,
and along the Bombay longitudinal series to the sea-level at Bombay.
The result of trigonometrical levelling along this course of 2127
miles, comprising 1171 miles of hills, and 956 miles of plains, be-
comes verified ; the discrepancy in height being 6' 76 feet or 0*003
foot per mile.

" By the completion of the great longitudinal series, we get another
continuous chain of triangulation from the sea-level near Calcutta
to the same level at Karachi. This chain embraces the Calcutta
meridional series, the north-east longitudinal series, the northern
section of the great arc from Dehra Dun to Sironj, and the great
longitudinal series from Sironj to Karachi. This series is 2082
miles in length, comprising 1041 miles of plains, and 1041 miles of

623

hills, and the error by trigonometrical levelling is 16-50 feet, or
0-008 foot per mile.

" When the great Indus series is finished, the sea-level will be
brought up to the Chueh base line, and from thence along the north-
west Himalayan series to Dehra Dun. The result of this series will
give another verification, which will be especially valuable, as it is
intended to level along the flat valley of the Indus by special level-
ling operations. It is also proposed to carry special levelling ope-
rations from Dehra Dun to Calcutta. Pending the completion of
these undertakings, it has been found necessary to correct provi-
sionally the results given by trigonometrical levelling, in order to
disperse the discrepancies above shown, and reduce the results of the
three data for sea-level near Calcutta, Bombay, and Karachi. The
results, so reduced, become comparative, inter se, and are required
for record on the general maps."

The upshot of all this is, that Colonel Waugh has provisionally
applied the following corrections to the two sections of the great arc,
as given in synopsis A, p. 248, and synopsis B, p. 53, of my book
of 1847, in lieu of those formerly applied; and I must say that I
think they will be nearer the truth than those given in that book,
because the discrepancy specified in the note at the foot of p. clxxi.,
taken into combination with all the results of the general trigono-
metrical survey since obtained, certainly point to some error in
Colonel Lambton's operations to the south of Damargida. The
two sections, applying Colonel Waugh' s corrections, will stand as
follows : —

SECTION A.

Feet.
Length of the arc deduced from the Sironj base .... 1961 155'422

Add correction for 1 11-14 feet in height at ditto 10-412

Add correction q, as explained in p. clxxi 12-387

Total arc, Kalianpur to Kaliana, by provisional data 1961178*221

SECTION B.

Feet.
Length of the arc deduced from the Sironj base 2202914-322

Add correction for 111-14 feet in height at ditto .... 1 1-695

Add correction rj, as explained in p. clxxi 8*679

Total arc, Kalianpur to Damargida, by provisional data 2202934-696

624

Series A, Synopsis, showing the length of the Terrestrial Arc
comprised between Kalianpur and Kaliana.

No.

Points of Intersection.

Distances in Feet.

Results.

Positive.

Negative.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39

Kalianpur to fj
a1 to fjLli
?« „ /.««
MiU „ Miv

y"iv » n*

Mv „ ^Yi
/** „ /u™
^ „ H™

yuviii „ f

^ „ Mx
A*' „ /*-

Mxi „ p1

pl „ /uxii
^xii ^ ^xiii

yuxiii „ ^xiv
Mxiv „ /uxv
Mxv „ Mxvi
yuxvi „ /ixvii

^XVii ^ ^XViii

^xviii „ jp«
p« „ Mxi-

^ ?> pm

JPm „ MXX
Mxx „ p**

xxi ^ xxii
^xxii 9f ^xxiii
^xxiii ^ ^xxiv
^xxiv tf ^xxv
,.x«v ..xxvi

P » r

^xxv, ^ ^xxvii

^xxvii „ uxxviii
^xxviii ^ ^xxix

^xxix >f ^xxx

/i™ „ ^xi

^xxxi ^ xxxii
^xxxii ff ^xxxiii
yXxxiii yxxxiv
^xxxiv " ^iv

piv „ piv

78993-100

t 969-223
104-734

<

^427109-613

1
^328204-457

V320212-458
^283554-937

53204-174

164528-038

4238-479

118890-738

17782-494

90318-962
22495-673
128257-147

21907-376

102857-688

7134-866

11359-821
66041-591
41613-757
47331-477
62497-787
49466-835
135674-688
13123-657

11798-757

113184-729

67673-046

166111-919

47224-277

175603-889

4171-424

136368-819

43939-700

169944-819

45108-400
'2623-485

107118-344

94298-944
42013-658
79728-356

66898-846
3238-631

0-013

Length of the Arc, deduced from the Seroz Base 1961155-422

Add correction for 24-5 feet difference of height 2-295

Add correction rj, as explained elsewhere 13-108

Total Terrestrial Arc from the two Bases in feet 1961170-825

625

I must call attention to the fact, that all the remarks of Colonel
Waugh have reference to the operations carried on since 1832 by
me, himself, and our assistants, and are quite disconnected from
Colonel Lambton's results to the south of Damargida, which were
deduced in the early part of 1815. Now, as the two sets of opera-
tions unite at Damargida, it would be illogical to correct the southern
portion of the Indian arc by one value of hy and the northern por-
tion by another value of h ; for, manifestly, no spot on the earth's
surface can have two distinct heights above the sea differing from
each other by 100 feet or so at the same instant.

It is rather a delicate matter for me to speak in terms of comment
of the labours of my predecessor, and I had much rather that any-
body else should undertake the invidious task ; but thus much is
very certain, that the instruments employed prior to 1832, were not
such as we should use with confidence now-a-days, whilst those
in use since that period are certainly not surpassed by any in ex-
istence.

In 1842 I was sensibly alive to the probable inaccuracy of the
operations between Damargida and Cape Comorin, and, as the only
effectual remedy, proposed to the Government of India to revise that
work with the new instruments ; but the proposal was rejected ; so
that instead of forming, as it would and ought to have done, one un-
broken series from Cape Comorin to the Himalayan Mountains, the
great arc of India now consists of two distinct patches ; one to the
south of Damargida for ever uncertain as to its unit of measure, and
executed with instruments which we should now pronounce to be
crazy and unserviceable ; whilst the other to the north depends on
a unit tolerably well defined, and was performed with instruments
as perfect as can be desired. Of course, it is not for me to offer any
remarks about the propriety of the decision of the Right Honour-
able the Governor-General of India in Council, and the Court of
Directors of the East India Company, of those days, in a commu-
nication of this nature, except that, as far as science is concerned,
perhaps it will now and hereafter be lamented that all my argu-
ments for a revision were urged in vain.

It will appear, from what I have above stated, that the question
of the amount of correction to be applied to my two sections A and
B, is not yet finally settled, and is still uncertain to the extent of

626

about 10 feet ; for which reason I have employed in the synopsis A,
now forwarded, the same values as before, correcting only the ob-
vious errors to which I have drawn attention in the second para-
graph of this letter ; at the same time I have endeavoured to put
within the reach of those who interest themselves in the problem of
the figure of our planet, all the data at my command, and if any
fresh light should hereafter be thrown on the subject, shall be very

happy to communicate it.

GEORGE EVEREST.

IV. " On the Thermodynamic Theory of Steam-engines with
dry saturated Steam, and its application to practice." By
W. J.MACQUORN RANKINE, C.E., LL.D., F.R.S.S.L. &E.,
Pres. Inst. Eng. Scot., Regius Professor of Civil Engineering
and Mechanics in the University and College of Glasgow.
Received December 27, 1858.

(Abstract.)

In 1849 it was demonstrated, contemporaneously and independ-
ently, by Professor Clausius and the author of this paper, from the
laws of thermodynamics, that when steam or other saturated vapour
in expanding performs work, and receives no heat from without, a
portion of it must be liquefied.

That theoretical conclusion has since been confirmed by practical
experience.

The principal effect of the " steam-jacket" invented by Watt is to
prevent that liquefaction.

The presence of liquid water in any considerable quantity in the
cylinder of a steam-engine acts injuriously, by taking heat from the
steam while it is being admitted, and giving out that heat to the
steam which is about to be discharged. Most of the heat so trans-
ferred is wasted.

The only exact thermodynamic formulae for the work of steam
hitherto published (by the author in the Phil. Trans. 1854, and by
Professor Clausius in Poggendorff's «Annalen,' 1856), are adapted
to steam which receives no heat in expanding.

The present paper, after recapitulating the general equation of
thermodynamics, and the special formulae for the pressure, volume,

627

and latent heat of steam, proceeds to the investigation of the exact
formulae for the work of steam which is supplied during its expan-
sion with just enough of heat to prevent any appreciable portion of
it from condensing, for the expenditure of heat in producing and
using that steam, and for its efficiency in producing motive power.

There is explained a convenient approximation to the exact for-
mulae, founded on the facts, that for initial pressures of steam of
from 30 to 1201bs. on the square inch (including atmospheric
pressure), and for ratios of expansion up to sixteen, the pressure of
saturated steam varies nearly as the seventeenth power of the six-
teenth root of its density, and that the expenditure of heat in an
engine in which dry saturated steam is used, expressed in units of
energy, is nearly equal to fifteen-and-a-half times the product of the
initial pressure and volume of the steam expended.

Lastly, there are given examples of the application of the formulae
to the engines of three steam- vessels lately experimented on by the
author. The displacements of those ships are from 700 to 1100
tons ; the indicated horse-power of their engines from 226 to 1180;
the initial absolute pressures of steam in their cylinders range from
32 to 108|lb. on the square inch, and the ratios of expansion from
4 to 16. In each case the difference between the results- of calcula-
tion and experiment is within the limits of error of observation, and
ranges from -fa to -^ of the actual work of the steam.

The author has computed Tables of the results of the formulae,
exact and approximate, which are now in the course of being printed .

SUMMARY OF FORMULAE. — Notation and Constants.

tt absolute temperature in degrees of Fahrenheit, = temperature

measured from the ordinary zero + 461°'2.
p, pressure in pounds on the square foot,
v, volume of one pound of steam in cubic feet.
tlf plt vlt refer to the admission of steam into the cylinder.
*2> P» va» to ti16 en(i °f ti16 expansion.
r=»a -?-»!, ratio of expansion.
p3 — pressure of exhaustion.
£4, absolute temperature of feed-water.
J, "Joule's equivalent," or specific heat of one pound of liquid

water, =772 foot-pounds per degree of Fahrenheit.
VOL. ix. 2 u

628

W, work of one pound of steam.

% expenditure of heat per pound of steam in foot-pounds.

0= 1 109550 foot-pounds.

£ = 540'4 foot-pounds per degree Fahrenheit.

Efficiency of steam, W---&.

Exact Formula.

W

«hyp. log -b^-

l

Approximate Formulae.

_1Z
-16r *-

In applying the exact formulae, the relations between p, v, and t
may be found by means of known formulae or Tables.

February 3, 1859.

Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.
The following communications were read : —

I. " On Platinized Graphite Batteries." By C. V. WALKER,
Esq., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., &c. Received January 4, 1859.

In a short note communicated to the Royal Society on March
9th, 1857, and which was read on March 19th, reference was made
to the voltaic combination that I had adopted for certain telegraphic
purposes ; namely, zinc- graphite. Graphite in its crude state had
for some years been of great service to me, especially for batteries
whose resting time is great in proportion to their working time.
Since the date of that notice, I have considerably increased the value
of graphite for electrical purposes by platinizing it according to the
process first described by Mr. Smee, whose platinized silver battery
has been long known and much used. The material to which I
refer by the term " Graphite/' is the crust or corrosion that is col-
lected from the interior of iron gas retorts that have been long in use.

629

My first crude graphite battery of twelve pairs of plates was set
up on April 5th, 1849, for working the telegraph from my residence
at Tonbridge to the Telegraph Office about a mile distant. It was
charged with sand saturated with diluted acid ; and had not been dis-
mounted in March 1851, when I changed my abode. During the
interval, the sand was from time to time moistened with acid water or
water only. The plates in this case had been roughly chipped out and
rubbed on stone into something like shape. In the mean time I
had some sets of plates cut at the Locomotive "Works, Ashford, and
was thus enabled to obtain further results. I forwarded a graphite
battery to the Great Exhibition in 1851, for which a prize medal
was awarded. The introduction of graphite into anything like
general use was for a long period no easy matter, on account of the
difficulty of finding any one who would undertake to cut it into
plates, its hardness destroying the tools ; and the then limited de-
mand did not encourage any one to construct special machinery for
the purpose. My wants at length reached the ear of Mr. J. Robin-
son of Everton, Liverpool, who took the matter thoroughly in hand,
and has succeeded perfectly in cutting plates into any form and to
comparatively any size, at a very moderate cost, for which I am much
indebted to him. I have before me plates 12 inches X 10 inches,
of smooth texture and uniform thickness, and have seen some of
double that size.

The plates in common use for bell signals are 7\ inches x 3 inches
and |- inch thick, of which about 2000 are in daily use on the South
Eastern Railway, and the greater portion of these are now platinized.
The plates are delivered to me in their crude state, that is to say,
they are merely cut into form. Immediately on arrival they are
placed in a stone pan, and covered with a mixture of 1 sulphuric
acid + 4 water, in which they are allowed to remain for three or
four days or more. They are taken out as required, and are washed
under a tap of running water ; this operation dissolves out any foreign
matter that might be pernicious in a voltaic combination wherein
sulphuric acid was employed ; they are then partially dried. A hole
for a rivet is next drilled in the middle, near the top of each plate —
a belt of varnish one inch wide is applied to the top on both sides of
each plate — a blank one inch square, having the rivet hole for its
centre, being left unvarnished on each side — electrotype copper is

2 u 2

630

then deposited on the blank square in the usual way. The deposited
metal is then tinned, no part of the copper being left bare ; a con-
necting slip of copper, 6 inches x 1 inch is prepared and also
entirely tinned ; this is riveted to the graphite plate with a copper
rivet, also tinned. The soldering iron is now applied, and a little
solder run in between the two surfaces. By thus protecting all the
exposed copper with tin, the formation of sulphate of copper and its
attendant inconveniencies are prevented. The plate is now platinized.

A mixture of 1 sulphuric acid + 10 water is placed in a vertical
glass cell, to this are added a few crystals of chloride of platinum till
the solution presents a faint straw colour. The battery power em-
ployed for platinizing is three cells of platinized graphite and zinc.
The positive electrode is platinum or graphite itself, and is presented
to both sides of the plate that is to be platinized. The action is
allowed to go on for about twenty minutes. Each finished plate is
tested as to its power of liberating the hydrogen of electrolysis, by
placing it in acid water in contact with an amalgamated zinc plate.

I have drawn out the above description in the presence of our
assistant, who attends to this department of the telegraph establish-
ment, in order to be correct in the small details.

The battery-cells for the plates above described are quart jars of
stone-ware that resists acid. The exciting solution is 1 sulphuric
acid + 8 to 12 water. Zinc plates are riveted to the other end of
the copper connecting slip, also with tin rivets. The zinc is strongly
amalgamated. It is dipped in a vessel containing 1 sulphuric acid
4- 4 water, and after a few seconds, more or less, is withdrawn and
thrust in its then condition into a trough of mercury, and set aside
to drain. On the following day it is treated in a similar manner.
When the batteries are being put together, and before the zincs are
placed in the jars, the foot of each is placed in a trough or slipper
of gutta percha, 3 inches by £ inch, containing about a couple of
ounces of mercury. A battery thus carefully prepared will stand for
an indefinitely long period with little perceptible waste, and be ready
for use at all times. Under ordinary circumstances it is not neces-
sary to dismount the batteries employed for telegraph signaling
more than once a year. Mercury is added during the interval, and
the jars are filled up as occasion requires. The greater portion of the
mercury is recovered : when old plates come home, a considerable

631

quantity of rich amalgam is scraped from the plates ; this is placed
in jars of acid water, and a few pieces of graphite are thrown in ; the
electro-chemical action makes the amalgam poorer of zinc, and mer-
cury is easily expressed. By continuing the operation, more mer-
cury, to the amount in all of nearly three-fourths, is recovered.

As an illustration of the economic importance of this material in
applied science, I am informed that the silver plates of the batteries
constructed for the Atlantic Telegraph cost ^62520 or more. On my
having directed the attention of the Company to graphite as a sub-
stitute for silver, a set of plates were ordered, equal in number and
size, which were supplied (furnished with electrotype copper and
connecting wires) for 56216*

The following Table illustrates the effective working powers of
platinized graphite, as compared, under like circumstances, with pla-
tinized silver, given in lifting powers in pounds, A third column is
added, giving the results when table salt is dissolved in the water
employed with the graphites.

Table I.
Electro-magnet; 10 yards No. 16 wire.

12 cells in series.

12 cells in double series of 2

sixes.

1

o5

|

8

•i

•f

"55

</2

1

1

1

I

I

3

O

o

1

o

O

yds.

Ibs.

Ibs.

Ibs.

yds.

Ibs.

Ibs.

Ibs.

IO

H75

H

15

IO

22'5

20-5

20

147

284

10

7

12-5
9

9
8

147
284

«4

IO

7

9

7

42!

6

7

6

421

5

5

4

558

5

5

4

558

3

2-5

695
832

4'5
3

3
2-5

3
2-5

695
832

2
2

2-25

1-25

6 cells in series.

6 cells in double series of 2
threes.

10

12-25

10

IO

H

I4

H

147

9

6-25

7

147

4

4

5

284

5

4

4

284

2-5

2-25

421

3*5

3

2-5

421

2

'75

2

558

2-25

2

2

558

rs

1-25

I

695

2

1-5

I

695

i

i

I

832

i'5

1-25

75

832

75

75

75

Table II.

Electro-magnet ; 137 yards No. 16 wire.
12 cells in series.

Resistance.

Silver.

Graphite.

Graphite.

yds.

Ibs.

Ibs.

Ibs.

137X2

H

18 22-5

137X3

1275

'5*75 H

137X4

10

J3

ii

137X5

9

12-5

ii

137X6

9

1075

ii

137X7

9*5

9'5

9

137X8

8'75

9'5

875

6 cells in series.

137X2

975

1275

ii

137X3

8

1075

10

137X4

7-25

10

9'5

137X5

7*75

9

9

137X6

7

8

9

137X7

6-75 9

875

137X8

7

875

8

6 cells in double series of 2 threes.

137X2

875

10

ii

137X3

7*25

9

9

137X4

6

9

9

137X5

7°75

8

7

137X6

4-25

6

5

137X7

4

6

4*75

137X8

4-25

5

6

In all the above experiments the cells were charged with I sul-
phuric acid + 13 water (salt-water in the third column) ; and 13'5
square inches of surface were immersed. The silver-zinc pairs were
1 inch apart, the graphite-zinc, 2 inches. The lifting powers were
not read off more closely than to quarter-pounds. The electro-mag-
net used in Table I. was a small horse-shoe containing about 10
yards of No. 16 wire ; that used in Table II. was one of the electro-
magnets used in the construction of the signal bells before described
(vide Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. viii. p. 419), and containing 274 yards
of No. 16 copper wire. The resistance added in each successive
experiment was one bobbin of a similar electro-magnet or 1 37 yards
of wire. The resistances in the Table include the resistance of the
electro-magnet. The total resistances in Table II. are all multiples

633

of the contents of a single bobbin or 137 yards. A glance from left
to right on the same horizontal line shows the comparative value of
each combination in the several experiments. One or two small
irregularities in Table II. in the six-cell results, are doubtless due to
the poles of the magnet not having been ground true.

With respect to durability, the graphite plates in use since 1850
are in as good condition as the new ones now in course of manu-
facture. Silver plates employed by us under like circumstances,
commenced perishing after twelve months or more of use ; they
crumble away in great measure, they cut apart at the surface level,
and they get eaten into holes throughout.

II. " On the Aquiferous and Oviductal Systems in the Lamelli-
branchiate Mollusks." By GEORGE ROLLESTON, M.D.,
Lee's Reader in Anatomy, and CHARLES ROBERTSON, Esq.,
Curator of the Museum, Christ Church, Oxford. Com-
municated by Dr. ACLAND. Received January 6, 1859.

(Abstract.)

In this paper the authors bring forward two views as to the ana-
tomy of the Lamellibranchiata.

1 . The first part of the communication is devoted to an examina-
tion of the commonly -received opinion as to the outlet of the ovarian
system, and arguments are brought forward to show that the orifices
usually supposed to discharge this office are in reality the exhalant
orifices of a water-vascular system. The positive arguments drawn
from the way in which fine injections thrown in by these orifices
distribute themselves throughout the visceral mass, and from the
relative position of orifices acknowledged to belong to a water- vascu-
lar system in other mollusks, are confirmed by a consideration of
the improbability attaching to the old view, which regarded as ovi-
ducts in mollusca two canals, which lying one on either side of the
body, yet communicate freely with each other at no great distance
from their termination, and which lie far away from the lower seg-
ment of the intestinal tube. The inhalant aquiferous orifices are
considered to be indicated by a belt of parasitic animals impacted
in the foot tissue, as represented in one of the figures.

634

2. In the second part of the communication, the structures are
indicated which the authors hold to be the true oviducts. One
large band which is seen at the spawning season as a prominent
ridge projecting into the calibre of the lower segment of the intes-
tinal tube, and two smaller ones, which are traceable from the com-
mencement of the intestine down to a point where its upper coils
are in close proximity to that part of its lower segment where the
former band ends in a club-shaped dilatation, are shown to dis-
charge this function. The method of dissection to be adopted for
the demonstration of these structures is given at some length, and
the following arguments are adduced in support of the view which
regards them as oviducts. A fine injection thrown into the largest
of the bands in question is seen to pass into the ovary, and is re-
cognizable under the microscope as contained within the limitary
membrane of its ultimate follicles. Its distribution, therefore, as
detectable at once by the naked eye and by the microscope, con-
trasts strongly with that of a similar injection thrown in by either of
the aquiferous orifices. Secondly : The condition of distention,
prominence, and intumescence of this band, coincides with similar
conditions in the ovary ; and from an acquaintance with the condi-
tion of the branchial marsupium's contents we are enabled always to
predict what will be found to be that of this band. Thirdly : At
periods when ova are being rapidly secreted by the ovary, ova are
to be found at all points within the whole length of these three
bands. The double oviduct at the oral and the single at the anal
extremity of the Lamellibranchiata, is what our knowledge of their
development would lead us to anticipate ; and the close connexion of
the principal oviduct with that latter outlet, and with the lower
segment of the intestinal tube, brings the anatomy of these bivalve
mollusks into exact correspondence with that of higher tribes in the
same series.

What is said of the ovarian secretion and outlets, applies, mutatis
mutandis, to the testicular.

The paper is illustrated by drawings taken from dissections of the
common fresh-water muscle, Anodonta Cygnea.

635

III. " On the Action of Nitric Acid and of Binoxide of Manga-
nese and Sulphuric Acid on the Organic Bases." By A.
MATTHIESSEN, Ph.D. Communicated by Prof. STOKES,
Sec. R.S. Received February 3, 1859.

In the Proceedings of the Royal Society (vol. ix. p. 118), I stated
that by the action of nitrous acid on aniline I had obtained ammonia
and nitrophenasic acid ; since then I have acted on several other of
the organic bases with the same reagent, as well as with nitric acid,
and with binoxide of manganese and sulphuric acid ; and I will now
shortly enumerate the experiments.

1 . Action of Nitrous Acid on Amylaniline.

The dilute solution of the nitrate of amylaniline was acted on by
nitrous acid at 100° C. for 12 hours. Amylaniline and ammonia
were obtained, but in quantities too small to be quantitatively
determined.

2. Action of Nitric Acid on Amylaniline.
Amylaniline was boiled with dilute nitric acid (1 part acid to 2 of

water) until the reaction began, which was immediately stopped by
adding cold water to the solution. This was filtered when cold
from the nitrophenasic acid, and after potash had been added, it
was again filtered to separate any undecomposed amylaniline. The
filtrate was distilled, the distillate redistilled per ascensum into
hydrochloric acid, and the acid solution evaporated to dryness.
The residue was then extracted with absolute alcohol, and the fil-
trate evaporated to dryness. This operation was repeated four or
five times. A platinum-salt* made with the chloride, which was
soluble in absolute alcohol, gave 33-55 per cent, platinum. The
chloroplatinate of amylamine requires 33*66 per cent. The plati-
num-salt of that chloride which was insoluble in absolute alcohol
gave 43!9 per cent, platinum. The chloroplatiuate of ammonia
requires 44*2 per cent.

The above reaction may be explained as follows : —

C12H5 ) C10HU)

C10HulN + Ha03+N05HO= H I N + C12H6O2+NO,HO
H j H j

* All the platinum-salts determined were recrystallized in water.

636

and

CHI TT

11 lN + H2O2 + NO5HO=H |»N + C10H12O2+NO5HO.

The free nitric acid present converts the phenylic alcohol into
nitrophenasic acid, and the amylic alcohol into nitrite of amyl.

3. Action of Nitric Acid on Ethylaniline.

Ethylaniline was treated in the same manner as amyl aniline. The
platinum-salt of the chloride which was soluble in absolute alcohol
gave in two experiments 39'6 and 39*5 per cent, platinum. The
percentage of platinum in chloroplatinate of ethylamine is 39*3.

The platinum-salt of the chloride which was insoluble in abso-
lute alcohol gave 44 per cent, platinum, which agrees with the
number required for the chloroplatinate of ammonia.

4. Action of Nitric Acid on Diethylaniline.

Diethylaniline was treated with dilute nitric acid (I part of acid to
4 of water), and heated till the temperature reached 54° C., when,
on being left to itself, it soon became turbid, and the temperature
rose about 10° C. After a while the solution cleared itself again,
but remained very dark. When quite cold, it was filtered from the
nitrophenasic acid, and the filtrate was treated in the same manner
as described in Experiment 2. The solution of the chlorides (5-6
grms. were obtained from about 50 of diethylaniline), which were
soluble in absolute alcohol, was partially precipitated with bichloride
of platinum (precipitate No. 1); then another portion was precipi-
tated, which was not used ; after this, more bichloride was added
(precipitate No. 2) ; and lastly, an excess of bichloride was added
(precipitate No. 3). The platinum found in the three precipitates
was

No. 1. No. 2. No. 3.

39'2 per cent. 35*5 per cent. 35'4 per cent.

The chloroplatinate of ethylamine contains 39*3 per cent., and of
diethylamine 35'3 per cent, platinum. A platinum-salt made with
chloride insoluble in absolute alcohol, gave 44'2 per cent, platinum,
which is exactly the amount contained in the chloroplatinate of
ammonia.

637

The reaction was as follows : —
TT ~l C* IT

C4Hj H

C4 H3 } C, H.

C4 H5 I N + H202 + NO. H0= H° I N + C4 H6 O2 + NO5 HO ;
H J H

and

C4H5) H^ NOHO-H
H J ~H

As in the case of amylaniline, the phenylic alcohol and the alcohol
are converted into nitrophenasic acid and nitrite of ethyl ; the am-
monia being in both cases partially oxidized.

5. Action of Binoxide of Manganese and Sulphuric Acid on Aniline.
Aniline was dissolved in an excess of dilute sulphuric acid (1 part
of acid to 6 of water) and heated to boiling, when a small quantity
of binoxide of manganese was added. The reaction was allowed to
continue for 3 or 4 minutes, and it was stopped by cooling the flask
in water. Potash was then added, and the solution filtered. The
filtrate was distilled as described in experiment 2, and the distillate
evaporated to dryness with hydrochloric acid, and extracted with ab-
solute alcohol, to dissolve any chloride of aniline present. A plati-
num-salt made from the chloride, insoluble in absolute alcohol, gave
44 '0 per cent, platinum, which corresponds to the platinum in the
chloroplatinate of ammonia.

6. Action of Binoxide of Manganese and Sulphuric Acid on

Diethylaniline.

Diethylaniline was treated in the same manner as aniline, but only
for about one minute. Potash was added, &c., as in the foregoing
experiment. The platinum-salt partially precipitated, as in Ex-
periment 4, from the chloride soluble in absolute alcohol, gave : —

Precipitate No. 1. Precipitate No. 2.

37' 6 per cent. 35*4 per cent, platinum.

No. 1 appears to be only a mixture of the chloroplatinates of
ethylamine and diethylamine ; the quantity of salt first precipitated
being too small to be properly recrystallized (on account of former
experiments showing that the quantity of ethylamine present was
very small). No. 2 corresponds with diethylamine, and of this salt

638

there was a large quantity, so that it was recrystallized twice. A
platinum-salt made from the chloride insoluble in absolute alcohol
(of which there was only a very small quantity), gave 44'3 per
cent, platinum, which is almost the same as the amount in chloro-
platinate of ammonia. No phenylic alcohol was found nor any of
its compounds ; and according to an experiment of Long (not yet
published), on the oxidation of phenylic alcohol, that chemist always,
excepting when he used spongy platinum, obtained a resinous mass.

From the above experiments, it appears that by the action of
nitrous acid, nitric acid, binoxide of manganese and sulphuric acid,
permanganate of potash*, potash f, and in some cases by the pre-
sence of acids alone (as sulphuric or hydrochloric) J, on the organic
bases in the presence of water, water only is decomposed in the
first stage of the reaction ; and the fact that the radicals contained
in the bases are replaced by hydrogen by degrees, makes it plausible
that by these means we may be able to determine the constitution of
the natural organic bases.

I am now experimenting with narcotine, and to all appearance, I
shall succeed in determining its constitution.

In conclusion, I may here be allowed to thank Dr. Holzmann for
his assistance in carrying out the above experiments.

February 10, 1859.

Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.
The following communication was read : —

"Experiments on the Action of Food upon the Respiration/'
By EDWARD SMITH, M.D., LL.B., L.R.C.P., Assistant-
Physician to the Hospital for Consumption, Brompton.
Communicated by Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart. Re-
ceived January 6, 1859.

(Abstract.)

The author had proved in his former Paper that the maximum
influence of food is observed within two and a half hours after its

* By its action on aniline, ammonia is obtained. t 111 its action on the amides.
J In the case of asparagine, benzamide, &c.

639

exhibition ; also that the action of food is in two degrees ; viz. that
which sustains the respiratory changes to the minimum line (or
that which occurs with complete abstinence), and that which is
observed as the maximum point to which the respiratory function
is increased after ordinary meals. His aim in this communication
was to show the variations in the influence of food between these
two lines. His method of inquiry was to take a moderate quan-
tity of a single article of food alone, before breakfast, whilst the
body was at rest and in the sitting posture, and to determine the
influence every ten or fifteen minutes during a period of about
two hours. He noted the amount of carbonic acid exhaled and
of air inhaled, with the rate of respiration and pulsation, and also
the temperature and the barometric pressure of the atmosphere.
The apparatus employed was that described in his former Paper,
and the gentlemen who submitted themselves to the investigation
were chiefly the author and Mr. Moul, with Professor Frankland,
F.R.S., Mr. Hoffman, and Mr. Reid, who engaged in a few experi-
ments.

The following foods were subjected to inquiry : —

1. The starch series, viz. arrowroot, arrowroot and butter, arrow-
root and sugar, commercial starch, wheat starch, gluten, bread, oat-
meal, rice, rice and butter, potato.

2. The fat series, viz. butter, olive oil, cod-liver oil.

3. Sugars, viz. cane sugar, cane sugar and butter, cane sugar with
acids and alkalies, grape sugar, sugar of milk.

4. The milk series (cows' milk), viz. new milk, skimmed milk,
casein, casein and lactic acid, lactic acid, sugar of milk and lactic
acid, cream.

5. Alcohols, viz. alcohol, brandy, whisky, gin, rum, sherry wine,
port wine, stout, and ale.

6. The tea series, viz. tea, green and black, hot and cold, in
various quantities, and with acids and alkalies ; coffee, coffee-leaves,
chichory, and cocoa.

7. Some other nitrogenous substances, viz. gelatin, albumen,
fibrine, almond-emulsion.

The author found that pure starch scarcely increased the amount
of carbonic acid evolved, but the combination of starch with gluten
and sugar in the cereals caused an increase of about 2 grains per

640

minute. Wheat flour, oatmeal, and rice had similar effects, but
potato had a less enduring influence.

Fats lessened the amount of carbonic acid evolved, and when taken
with starch, the cereals, or sugar, somewhat lessened their power to
produce carbonic acid. Fats increased pulsation.

Sugars increased the carbonic acid evolved to the maximum extent
of from 1^ to 2^ grains per minute in about half an hour. Cane
sugar was more powerful than milk sugar, and still more so than
grape sugar. Acids increased the maximum influence of sugar.

Milk increased both the pulsation and the carbonic acid, and the
latter to a maximum of nearly 2 grains per minute. All the com-
ponent elements except lactic acid had a similar influence, but new
milk was much more powerful than any of its elements separately,
or than any artificial combination of its elements. The effect of
milk differed in degree, and of casein in direction, upon the author
and Mr. Moul.

Tea and coffee increased the production of carbonic acid to the
extent of from 1^ to 3 grains per minute. Tea was more powerful
than coffee, and coffee than chichory. Cocoa was as powerful as
coffee. Coffee-leaves lessened the amount of carbonic acid. Acids
added to tea rendered it more stimulating, and alkalies made it more
soothing.

Alcohols differed in their effect, according both to different kinds
and samples of the same kind. Spirits of wine always increased the
quantity of carbonic acid evolved to a maximum of less than 1 grain
per minute. Rum commonly increased it, and sometimes to 1^ grain
per minute. Ale and stout increased it to upwards of 1 grain per
minute. Sherry wine (3 oz.) commonly slightly increased it. Brandy
and gin, and particularly the latter, always decreased it. Whisky
varied in its effects. The inhalation of the volatile elements of wine
and spirits, and particularly of fine old port wine, lessened the quan-
tity of carbonic acid, and increased the amount of vapour exhaled.

Gluten, casein, gelatin, albumen, and fibrin increased the amount
of carbonic acid exhaled, the two former to about 1 grain per minute,
and the last to about ^ grain per minute. Almond-emulsion did
not increase it.

From these facts the author infers that there is a class of foods
which might be called " excito-respiratory ;" a class which embraces

641

nearly all nitrogenous foods, and is almost entirely composed of these
substances.

The non-excitants are starch, fat, some alcohols, and coffee-leaves,

The respiratory excitants are sugar, milk, the cereals, potato, tea,
coffee, chichory, cocoa, alcohol, rum, ales, some wines, gluten, casein,
gelatin, fibrin, and albumen.

Of the hydrocarbons, sugar acted very differently from starch and
fat.

All the " respiratory excitants " increased the depth, but not the
rate of respiration.

Some of them acted with great rapidity ; as, for example, sugar
and tea, which sometimes caused an increase of 1 grain of carbonic
acid per minute in from five to eight minutes. Others, as gluten
and casein, acted with less rapidity. In many, as tea and gluten,
there was not a proportionate increase in the carbonic acid with in-
crease in the quantity of the "excitant." Some of them, as tea,
produced much greater effect when a small dose was frequently
repeated, than when the whole quantity was given at once, and
caused a much greater evolution of carbon than they supplied. The
duration of the increase was very different with different foods, but
that with sugar was the least, and then that with tea, while that
with the cereals and rum and milk was the greatest. The amount
of carbonic acid progressively increased at each examination until
the maximum was attained ; after which it remained nearly sta-
tionary for some time, as with the cereals, or subsided rapidly to the
basis quantity, as with sugar.

The paper was illustrated by a series of diagrams, and accom-
panied by tables.

642

February 17, 1859.

Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.

The Lord Bishop of London and the Lord Bishop of Ripon were
admitted into the Society.

The following communications were read : —

I. " Statement of Facts relating to the Discovery of the Com-
position of Water by the Hon. H. CAVENDISH." In a
Letter from J. J. BENNETT, Esq., F.R.S., to Sir B. C.
BRODTE, Bart., P.R.S., dated February 12, 1859. Received
February 14, 1859.

Since the death of our late excellent and lamented friend Mr.
Robert Brown, several appeals have been made to his executors to
publish certain evidence presumed to have been in his possession
relating to the much-agitated question of the priority of Cavendish
or "Watt in the discovery of the composition of water. As the execu-
tor to whom Mr. Brown entrusted his papers, and having been for
many years honoured with his entire confidence, I feel called upon
to respond to these appeals, and I therefore request that you will
kindly lay before a Meeting of the Royal Society the following brief
statement on the subject.

The date and nature of Cavendish's communication to Priestley
have always been considered as essential elements in the determina-
tion of the question ; and it was the evidence which Mr. Brown
possessed in regard to these particulars, which, in his estimation,
"placed Cavendish's claims as the discoverer of the composition of
water beyond dispute." That evidence, however, was not derived
from any unpublished document, but formed part of a section of
Deluc's "Idees sur la Mete'orologie," which although especially
entitled, — "Anecdotes relatives a la decouverte de VEau sous la
forme cFAir" — appears entirely to have escaped the notice of those

643

who have advocated Cavendish's claims. It is the more conclusive
as coming from Deluc, the " ami zele" as he justly terms himself,
of Watt, and who, in relation to this question, believed himself " a
portee d'en cormoitre toutes les circonstances."

The testimony of Deluc is as follows : —

Vers la fin de 1'annee 1782 j'allai a Birmingham, ou le Dr. Priest-
ley s'etoit etabli depuis quelques annees. II me communiqua alors,
que M. Cavendish, d'apres une remarque de M. Warltire ; qui avoit
toujours trouve de Veau dans les vases ou il avoit brule un melange
d^air inflammable et d? air atmospherique ; s'etoit applique a decou-
vrir la source de cette eau, et qu'il avoit trouve, "qu'un melange
(fair inflammable et d'air dephlogistique en proportion convenable,
etant allume par 1'etincelle electrique, se convertissoit tout entier en
eau." Je fus frappe au plus haut degre de cette decouverte*.

The italics and inverted commas are Deluc' s own.

In this communication made by Cavendish to Priestley the theory
of the composition of water is clearly indicated. The two gases
(known to have been hydrogen and oxygen) were mixed together in
due proportion, and by means of the electric spark were entirely
converted into water. Referring to one of Cavendish's experiments,
as recorded in his journal, Lord Jeffrey, the most candid and
judicious of Watt's advocates, has said: "if he [Cavendish] had
even stated in the detail of it, that the airs were converted, or
changed, or turned into water, it would probably have been enough
to have secured to him the credit of this discovery, as well as to
have given the scientific world the benefit of it, in the event of
his death, before he could prevail on his modesty to claim it in
public, f" The evidence which this distinguished critic and judge
regarded as sufficient to establish Cavendish's claim is now afforded,
not by a note in his private journal, but by the testimony of the
zealous friend of Watt, who states that it was communicated to
Priestley towards the end of the year 1 782, that is to say, several
months before Watt drew his own conclusions from Priestley's
bungling repetition of Cavendish's experiments. It was, moreover,
published to the world, and suffered to remain uncontradicted, while

* I dees sur la Meteorologie, tome ii. 1787, pp. 206-7.
f Edinburgh Review, vol. Ixxxvii. p. 125.

VOL. IX. 2 X

644

all the parties were alive and in frequent intercourse with the author
and with each other.

I have only further, in Mr. Brown's name also, to do an act of
justice to the memory of Lavoisier, by relieving it from the obloquy
which has rested upon it from his supposed persistence in unjustly
claiming priority for himself. The following extract from a Report
to the Academy of Sciences on M. Seguin's experiments, dated
28th August 1790, and signed Lavoisier, Brisson, Meusnier, and
Laplace, the last named being the reporter, will prove that Lavoisier
was not unmindful of the appeal which had been addressed to him
by Blagden some years previously, and that he distinctly resigned
the priority of discovery to Cavendish : —

" M. Macquer a observe dans son Dictionnaire de Chimie que la
combustion des gaz hydrogene et oxygene produit une quantite
d'eau sensible ; mais il n'a pas connu toute 1'importance de cette
observation, qu'il se contenta de presenter, sans en tirer aucune con-
sequence. M. Cavendish paroit avoir remarque le premier que 1'eau
produite dans cette combustion est le resultat de la combinaison des
deux gaz, et qu'elle est d'un poids egal au leur. Plusieurs ex-
periences faites en grand et d'une maniere tres-precise, par MM.
Lavoisier, La Place, Monge, Meusnier, et par M. Lefevre de
Gineau, ont confirme cette de'couverte importante, sur laquelle il ne
doit maintenant rester aucun doute." — Annales de Chimie > tome 7,

pp. 258-9.

JOHN J. BENNETT.

II. " On the Influence of White Light, of the different Coloured
Rays and of Darkness, on the Development, Growth, and
Nutrition of Animals." By HORACE DOBELL, M.D., Licen-
tiate of the Royal College of Physicians, &c. &c. Com-
municated by JAMES PAGET, Esq. Received January 10,

1859.

(Abstract.)

In this communication the author laid before the Society the par-
ticulars of a series of experiments, having for their object to discover
what influence is exerted by ordinary light, by the different coloured
rays, and by darkness on the development, growth, and nutrition of
animals.

After referring to the experiments of Edwards, Higginbottom,
E. Forbes, Morren, Wohler, Hannon, Moleschott, and Beclard, the
results of which were shown to be somewhat contradictory, the
author described the precautions taken by himself to avoid sources
of fallacy.

The original experiments detailed in this Paper were conducted in
the years 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858. The subjects selected were the
Ova and Larvae of the Silkworm (Bombyx mori) and of the Frog(7to#
temporaria). A comparative experiment in the vegetable kingdom
was also made on the Sweet Pea (Lathyrus odoratus). An appa-
ratus contrived for the experiments on Tadpoles was described and
figured ; it secured the following desiderata : —

1 . That each of six compartments or cells should be supplied with
water from the same source, at the same time, subject to the same
changes, and capable of being refreshed without' interfering with the
cells.

2. That each of the cells should be placed in the same condition
with respect to the supply of air and of food.

3. That during exposure for examination of the animals, the
whole series should be opened the same length of time and to the
same extent.

4. That each cell should receive no light but that transmitted by
its proper cover.

One of these six cells was open to the air and to light ; one was
covered with ordinary white glass ; one was made completely dark
by a covering of blackened opaque glass ; one was covered with blue,
one with greenish yellow, and one with red glass. The transmit-
ting and absorbing powers of these glasses were detailed from expe-
riments made upon them by Mr. Cornelius Hanbury, jun., and by
the author.

The apparatus used for the Silkworms was, in all essential par-
ticulars, the same as that for the Tadpoles, only without water.

A tabulated analysis of the daily journal kept during the experi-
ments was given, and its separate items compared and discussed ;
after which the author concluded his Paper with the following resume,

" If we may venture to reason on so small a number of observa-
tions, so far as the results of these experiments are concerned, the
following propositions may be advanced.

2 x2

646

"All other conditions being the same, (\.)The Ova of Insects
are not directly influenced in their development by white light, by
the different coloured rays, or by darkness.

" (2.) The Larvae of Insects are not directly influenced in their
development, growth, nutrition, or metamorphoses by white light,
by the different coloured rays, or by darkness.

" (3.) The Larvce ofBatrachia Reptiles are not directly influenced
in their development, growth, nutrition, or metamorphoses by white
light, by the different coloured rays, or by darkness.

" (4.) The Materials necessary to the Colour of Insects and Rep-
tiles are prepared equally under the influence of white light, of the
different coloured rays, and of darkness."

These results are so opposed to preconceived ideas upon the sub-
ject to which they relate, that they cannot fail to excite some surprise
and incredulity ; when, however, they are carefully considered, they
assume a theoretical probability, which assists us in believing that
the practical results are without fallacy.

(a.) With regard to the development of the ovum, when we con-
sider the unity of plan which appears to preside over the germs of
the simplest and of the most complicated forms, and the infinite
variety of external conditions in which these germs are placed
throughout the animal kingdom, we are led to the conclusion that
their development must be so arranged as to be independent of the
direct influence of light.

(b.) That after emerging from the ovum the animal is not di-
rectly influenced by light, is more difficult, at first, to believe, be-
cause experience seems to have taught us that "to live without
light is to live without health ;" but this familiar fact may be at
once disposed of in the argument and explained by its coincident,
that, under ordinary circumstances, the admission of light is in-
separably connected with,

1 . The regulation of external temperature.

2. The free circulation of a respiratory medium.

3. Those processes of vegetable life and of inorganic change
upon which the proper condition of the respiratory medium
depends.

Speaking generally then, it must be admitted that light is essential
to the development, growth, and nutrition of animals, but only in-

647

directly. In the foregoing experiments, the usual coincidents of
light, a proper supply of food, a due aeration of the respiratory
medium, a properly regulated external temperature, &c. having
been provided in each cell, the direct influence of light only heing
changed, no corresponding change occurred in the animal life.

In the vegetable kingdom the case is quite different, and the ex-
periments on Lathyrus odoratus recorded in this paper demonstrate
again, what has been shown by numerous other experimenters, that
light as a direct agent is essential to the nutritive processes of
plants. An interesting exception occurs, however, in the vegetable
kingdom, which serves to strengthen the probability that the con-
clusions arrived at concerning animals are correct, viz. that fungi —
which derive their nutriment, like animals, from organic compounds
already prepared for them — perform their vital functions without
dependence on the influence of light.

Under the head of colour, it would seem that the familiar phe-
nomenon of etiolation witnessed in plants which have been deprived
of light, has led to erroneous anticipations as to the effect which
alterations of light would produce upon the development of the
colouring materials in animals.

In the experiments here recorded, it is seen that neither white
light, nor the different coloured rays, nor darkness altered the de-
velopment of those materials, necessary to the exhibition of colour,
when the animal was seen in ordinary light. The experiments of
Dr. Gladstone, on plants, also show that the development of colouring
matter in the petals of flowers is independent of the influence of
light ; that flowers raised under the different coloured rays and in
darkness have the same colour in their petals as when raised in or-
dinary light. Thus, even in vegetables, etiolation is confined to
those parts of the plant which depend for their colour upon the
condition of the chlorophyl, to the green appearance of which some
portion of the solar beam is evidently essential.

Although, therefore, at first sight, the results of my experiments
under the head of colour may appear questionable, I think we must
rather throw the question upon the correctness of our preconceived
notions on the subject; and the facts elicited by Prof. Edward
Forbes (referred to in the Paper), while retaining all their value and
interest as assistants in determining the depths of primeval seas,

648

cannot, I think, be taken as evidence against the correctness of my
observations. On the other hand, the results of my experiments
may be found to put a new construction upon the facts observed by
Prof. Forbes. He discovered that increased depth of sea corre-
sponds with diminished light, and that both of these conditions
again correspond with peculiar changes in colour, and ultimately
with loss of colour in the shells inhabiting these depths ; but there
is no evidence to show that these colourless shells have developed
any materials capable of manifesting colour after exposure to the
influence of light ; whereas my own and other experiments show
that the etiolated stalks and leaves of plants speedily manifest the
characteristic colour of the chlorophyl if placed in the sun's rays.

So far, therefore, as our present knowledge on the subject justi-
fies any conclusion, the varieties of colour and the absence of colour
in the mollusks are physiologically separated from the phenomena of
etiolation in plants, and may be placed in the same category as the
varieties of colour and the absence of colour in the corollas of
flowers, which depend upon the development of materials having
certain optical properties.

The beautiful facts observed by Prof. Forbes, instead of being
regarded as the consequence of imperfect exposure to light, must, I
think, take rank with the phenomena of coloration observed through-
out the animal kingdom, such as the peculiar markings of reptiles,
birds, and wild animals, according to their different habitats and
modes of life ; the colours of the upper and lower surfaces of fish,
and the like, which cannot be shown to depend upon the exposure
or non-exposure to light with which they frequently, but not always,
coincide. These facts appear only to form a part of the vast and
perfect plan of creation, in which everything that exists is suited in
every particular to the conditions of its existence ; thus, those mol-
lusks which are designed to inhabit depths scarcely permeable to
light, can have no need, and hence have no provision, for elements, to
the manifestation of which light is an essential condition.

649

III. " On the Intensification of Sound through Solid Bodies
by the interposition of Water between them and the distal
extremities of Hearing-Tubes." By S. SCOTT ALISON, M.D.,
Assistant-Physician to the Hospital for Consumption.
Communicated by Dr. TYNDALL. lleceived January 20,

1859.

(Abstract.)

In this Paper the author gives an account of various experiments
which he has recently made on sounds proceeding through solid
bodies. He has found that sounds which are faint, when heard by
a hearing-tube applied directly to solid sounding bodies, become
augmented when water is interposed between these bodies and the
distal extremity of the hearing-tube. He has been able, by the em-
ployment of water, to hear the sound of a solid body, such as a
table, which, without this medium, has been inaudible. Experi-
ments have been made upon water in various amounts and in different
conditions. Thus a very thin layer, a mere ring round the edge of
the hearing-tube, masses of water in larger or smaller vessels, and a
bag of water, have been employed. The results have been the same
as regards augmentation. The degree of augmentation was greatest
when the hearing-tube was immersed freely in water. In experi-
menting upon water in vessels, it was found necessary to close
the extremity of the tube to be immersed, by tying over it a piece of
bladder or thin india-rubber ; for the entrance of water into the in-
terior interfered greatly with the augmentation.

The effect of water in augmenting sound is materially reduced if
even a small amount of solid material be interposed between the
water employed and the mouth of the hearing-tube. A piece of
wood, not much thicker than a paper-cutter, materially interferes
with the augmenting power of water.

The augmentation of sound thus obtained by water seems to be
due to the complete fitting of the liquid on the solid body and also
round the mouth of the hearing- tube, whereby the column of air
is thoroughly enclosed ; also to the less impediment to the vibrations
of the instrument when held in contact with water, than when held

650

in contact with a solid body, the water yielding in a greater degree
than a solid.

The mode of judging of the augmentation was twofold : 1 st, one
sensation was compared with another perceived by the same ear, the
one sensation following immediately upon the other ; 2nd, the dif-
ferential stethophone was employed, by which two impressions are
simultaneously made upon the two ears ; in which case, if one
impression be materially greater than the other, sound is per-
ceived in that ear only on which the greater impression is made.
To obtain the advantage of the differential stethophone, — or " Pho-
noscope," as it might here perhaps be more correctly designated —
when sounds at some distance from the ear were being examined, its
length was increased by the addition of long tubes of india-rubber.

Experiments were made upon other liquids besides water, such as
mercury and ether.

Other materials besides liquids were found to afford a similar in-
tensification of sound from solid bodies, such as laminae of gutta-
percha, or of india-rubber, and sheets of writing paper, but the
amount of augmentation was less.

The hearing- tubes employed were various. Many of the experi-
ments were performed with the author's ordinary differential stetho-
phone, an instrument described in No. 31 of the ' Proceedings of the
Royal Society.' India-rubber tubes fitted with ivory ear-knobs, and
with wooden or glass cups (the size of the cup or object- extremity
of ordinary stethoscopes), and having an ear-extremity to pass into
the meatus, and brass tubes, were also in turn employed. Tubes
closed at their distal extremity with solid material, such as glass,
did not answer so well as those closed with membrane.

The water-bag increases the impression conveyed to the ear by the
wooden stethoscope, if it be placed between the flat ear-piece and
the external ear. It may be employed alone to reinforce sound.
The name of Hydrophone has been given to it.

A postscript is added, in which the author records an experiment
made on the bank of the Serpentine river. A sound produced upon
the land was heard at a point in the water when it could not be
heard at an equal distance on the ground, if the two limbs of the
differential stethophone were employed simultaneously.

The sensation upon the ear, connected, by means of a hollow tube,

651

with water in sonorous undulations, was found to be much greater
than that upon the ear connected with the same water by means of
a solid rod. When both tube and solid rod were employed simul-
taneously, sound was heard in that ear only supplied with the tube

February 24, 1859.
Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.

The following communications were read : —

I. "Researches on the Phosphorus-Bases." — No. V. Diphos-
phonium - Compounds. By A. W. HOFMANN, LL.D.,
F.R.S., &c. Received January 20, 1859.

In a note* on the deportment of dibromide of ethylene with tri-
ethylphosphine, I have stated that the reaction between these two
substances gives rise to the production of

Bromide of triethylbromethylene- 1 r /Q g WQ H Br} PI Br
phosphonium ] ^ 4 5'3^ 4 4 '

whilst two other bromides, viz.
Bromide of triethylphosphonium [(C4H5)3HP]Br and

[(C4H5)3(C4H3)P]Br,

are generated in consequence of secondary processes. But I did not
fail to remark in the same note, that in addition there is formed in
this reaction a fourth bromide, the nature of which, at that time, I
had been unable to fix by experiment.

I have continued the study of this substance, which has led to the
following results.

All attempts to eliminate the bromide in question by frequently
recrystallizing the direct product of the action of dibromide of ethyl-
ene on triethylphosphine have entirely failed. Considerable sacri-
fice of precious material and often repeated analyses of the different
crops of crystallization taught me nothing, except that the body

* Proceedings, vol. ix. p. 287.

652

which I endeavoured to grasp is most abundantly produced when
the triethylphosphine is rather in excess. Indeed, it would appear,
that under those conditions, the bromide in question constitutes the
principal product of the reaction.

Not more successful was an attempt to increase the chances of
separation by reducing the number of the bromides.

As I have previously stated, treatment with oxide of silver de-
stroys the triethylated-bromethylene-phosphonium, converting it into
a basic compound, which contains no longer any bromine, ^whilst
the same agent transforms the bromide of triethylphosphonium into
the oxide of argento-triethylphosphonium, and the dioxide of tri-
ethylphosphine. On saturating again by hydrobromic acid the liquid
thus produced, the solution now contained only the new bromide, the
bromide of the debrominetted body, and the dibromide of triethyl-
phosphine, the extreme solubility of which rendered its presence al-
most harmless. The task was thus virtually reduced to the separation
of two bromides. Unfortunately, the two substances resemble each
other to such an extent, that this hope also had to be abandoned.

A modification, however, of this process led to the solution of the
difficulty. On saturating the alkaline solution, produced by the action
of oxide of silver upon the crude bromides, with hydriodic instead of
hydrobromic acid, a mixture of the corresponding iodides was ob-
tained, the separation of which could be easily accomplished.

On moderately concentrating this solution, a beautiful iodide of
limited solubility was deposited. This substance readily dissolved in
boiling water, from which it crystallized on cooling in long white
needles. It was less soluble in alcohol, insoluble in ether.

The analysis of this compound, carefully purified by repeated
crystallizations, led to the following atomic expression : —

CUH,,PI.

This formula received ample confirmation by the examination of
a platinum- and gold-compound. Converted into chloride and pre-
cipitated by dichloride of platinum, the new body furnished a crystal-
line, difficultly-soluble platinum-salt, differing from the platinum-salts
of all the other compounds of this group. This salt dissolves in
boiling concentrated hydrochloric acid without decomposition, and
crystallizes on cooling in beautiful yellow needles containing

653

CUH17PC1, PtCl2.

The gold-salt is a bright yellow crystalline precipitate, difficultly
soluble in boiling water, and not recrystallizable without some altera-
tion. The gold-determination agreed with the formula

C14H17PC1, AuCl3.

The preceding formulae are simple translations of the analytical
results, but they convey no idea regarding the nature of the new body.
Legitimate interpretation of these expressions, and a due apprecia-
tion of the conditions in which the new compounds are formed, un-
avoidably lead us to the conclusion that the formulae must be doubled.
The molecule of the new iodide thus becomes

corresponding to an original bromide,

C28 H34 P2 Br2»

which is simply formed by the association of 2 equivalents of triethyl-
phosphine and 1 equivalent of dibromide of ethylene,

2012H15P+C4H4Br2=C28H34P2Br2.

The formulae of the platinum-salt and of the gold-salt of course
have likewise to be doubled :

Platinum-salt C28H34P2C12, 2PtCl2,
Gold-salt C28H34P2C12, 2AuCl3 ;

the number of platinum- and gold-equivalents which respectively ex-
ist in these compounds being apparently determined by the number
of triethylphosphine-equivalents associated in the new salt. I have
vainly endeavoured to produce compounds containing only one equi-
valent of platinum and gold, but have succeeded in procuring a well-
defined silver- compound :

C28H31PaBra) AgBr,

which is formed by treating the new bromide with a quantity of oxide
of silver insufficient for complete decomposition. This compound is
a double salt of equal equivalents of the proximate constituents.

The deportment of triethylphosphine with dibromide of ethylene,
and more particularly the formation of the new bromide, is not with-

654

out theoretical interest. The molecule of dibromide of ethylene,
equivalent to 2 molecules of hydrobromic acid, fixes in this reaction
2 molecules of triethylphosphine, equivalent to 2 molecules of am-
monia, the result being a compound saline molecule, equivalent to 2
molecules of sal ammoniac.

H

N.,

H

Cl.

2 molecules of
sal ammoniac.

Molecule of the diatomic
bromide.

It is not quite easy to frame a name for this complex body, in
which, under the influence of the diatomic ethylene, 2 molecules of
triethylphosphine are, if I may say so, dovetailed together. We have
in this case to deal with a compound molecularly representing 2 equi-
valents of chloride of ammonium, with phosphorus in the place of
nitrogen, bromine in the place of chlorine, 6 equivalents of ethyl and
1 equivalent of diatomic ethylene being substituted for the 3 equiva-
lents of hydrogen ; in fact, the compound is a dibromide of hexethyl-
ethylene-diphosphonium, sit venia verbo.

Those who have accorded some attention to the direction of these
researches, cannot have failed to observe that the conception of the
compound which forms the subject of this note was the point from
which I started in examining the deportment of triethylphosphine
with dibromide of ethylene. In a note on polyammonias, presented
to the Royal Society about a year ago *, I first pointed out the exist-
ence of similar compounds in the nitrogen-series, adducing in favour
of this view such experimental evidence as I was enabled to collect
from the materials at hand. I have since endeavoured to expand
this evidence by the realization of a variety of bodies of analogous
constitution. For this purpose I have examined the action of am-
monia on dibromide of ethylene ; a process, which, owing to the num-
ber of bodies simultaneously produced, presents considerable difficul-
ties. With the view of simplifying the reaction, I have passed step by
step to the primary, secondary, and tertiary monamines, in which the
advancing state of substitution promised a reduction of the number
of compounds capable of being generated under the influence of
* Proceedings, vol. ix. p. 150.

655

dibromide of ethylene. These experiments, some of which have
been laid already before the Royal Society, whilst others are still in-
complete, have furnished many additional illustrations of the group
of polyammonias ; but most of these reactions are complicated, and
the compounds produced are far from always presenting the salient
characters which I could have desired. In fact, it was not until I
pursued the inquiry into the phosphorus-series, and relying on the
promptness and precision with which these substances act, examined
the deportment of dibromide of ethylene with triethylphosphine, that
the experiments were attended by the desired success.

The new diphosphonium-compounds which form the subject of
this note are remarkable for their well-defined characters, and for
their stability. They may be heated to 250° C. without undergoing
the slightest change. Even the dioxide, which is readily liberated
by the action of oxide of silver upon either the bromide or the iodide,
is a very stable compound. The solution of this substance, which
obviously corresponds to 2 molecules of water,

2 molecules Molecule of the diphosphonium-

of water. compound.

is a powerfully alkaline liquid, attracting with great avidity the car-
bonic acid of the atmosphere, and precipitating the metallic oxides
like potassa. The solution may be evaporated without change to a
syrup-like liquid, and it is only at a very high temperature that
decomposition actually takes places. At one time I had hoped to
see this body splitting under the influence of heat into the ethylene-
alcohol (glycol) and triethylphosphine, but the transformation ensues
in another form, only traces of phosphorus-base being liberated,
while the principal product is the dioxide of triethylphosphine, which,
in the latter stages of the distillation, coats the neck of the retort
with a network of beautiful needles ; a small quantity of gas (hydride
of ethyl?) being simultaneously evolved.
The reaction is probably

[(C4 H5)6 (C4 H4)" PJ" | 0^c H6+2[(C4 H5)3 P02] ;

this equation, however, is not experimentally established.

The molecule of the diphosphonium-bromide contains the elements

656

of 1 molecule of bromide of triethylphosphonium and 1 molecule of
triethyl-vinyl-phosphonium,

[(C4H5)6(C4H4)"P2]"Br2=[(C4H5)3HP]Br+[(C4H5)3(C4H3)P]Br;
I have endeavoured to split the latter in accordance with the above
equation, but without success.

Triethylphosphine acts with energy upon the homologues of dibro-
mide of ethylene ; I have not yet examined, however, any of the pro-
ducts thus obtained. Mr. W. Valentin, to whom I am indebted for
much valuable assistance during my experiments, has found, more-
over, that triethylarsine unites with dibromide of ethylene. He has
not yet completed the investigation of the crystalline body which
is generated in this reaction.

II. " On the Different Types in the Microscopic Structure of
the Skeleton of Osseous Fishes," By A. KOLLIKER,
Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the University of
Wiirzburg. Communicated by Dr. SHARPEY, Sec.R.S.
Received January 20, 1859.

After having been occupied for several months with observations
on the minute structure of the bones of fishes, I now take the liberty
to present the results of my studies to the Royal Society.

The principal fact which I have to mention is, that a great many
genera of osseous fishes possess no bone-corpuscles, radiated or fusi-
form, in their skeleton, and therefore no real osseous tissue. That
there exist fish-bones without bone-corpuscles must have been long
known in England to those who have collections of microscopic pre-
parations of the hard tissues of animals, as Owen, Tomes, Williamson,
Quekett, and others ; but nobody seems to have mentioned the fact
before Williamson, Quekett, Dr. Mettenheimer of Frankfort, and
myself*. In the year 1850 Professor Williamson pointed out the
absence of bone-corpuscles from the bones of the Cod, Haddock,
Perch, Plaice, Pike, and various other fish, distinguishing them in

* Since this communication was read to the Society, Dr. Sharpey has directed
my attention to a statement by the late Professor J. Miiller, to the effect that
in the Pike and many other fish the bones are destitute of bone-corpuscles.
This statement occurs in Mutter's Annual Report of the progress of Anatomical
and Physiological Science in 1835, and is repeated in his addition to the work of
Miescher, " De Inflammations Ossiwn, eormnque Anatome General!," Berlin,
1830, p. 269.

657

this respect from the bones of the Eel, in which such corpuscles are
abundant* ; in 1853 I made known -f that the bones of Leptocephalus
and Helmichthys contain no trace of bone-corpuscles ; a year later,
Mettenheimer showed that the same was true of the bones of Tetra-
gonurus Cuvieri'l ; and in 1855 Quekett mentions, in the second
volume of the ' Histological Catalogue of the College of Surgeons of
England,' fishes belonging to eighteen genera, in the bones of which
he had not succeeded in finding bone -corpuscles — viz. Fogmarus
islandicus, Lophius piscatorius, Gadus morrhua, Ephippus, Sparus,
Trigla cuculus, Belone vulgaris, Pleuronectes platessa, Trachinus
vipera, Orthagoriscus mola, Exoccetus, Scarus, Esox, Sphyrcena
barracuda, Tetrapturus, Zeus faber, Percafluviatilis, Gobiofluvia-
tilis. But, notwithstanding these most valuable observations, little
or no progress seems to have been made in the more general treat-
ment of this matter, as is best shown by the 'Comparative Histology'
of Leydig (1857), in which (p. 157) the Leptocephalidce, Tetrago-
nurust and Orthagoriscus are the only cases mentioned, in which the
radiated bone-corpuscles are wanting.

On commencing a series of more extended investigations into the
minute structure of fish-bones, in October last, I found that the
genera which possess real osseous tissue are rather scarce, whilst,
on the other hand, I fell in with a great many types in which the
bones contained no trace of lacunae. A.nd as this fact not only ap-
peared to me of interest with regard to the development of the bones
of fishes, but also promised to become of great value in systematic
zoology, and in the determination of fossil remains, I devoted my
whole time to this question. Now that I have investigated more
than 200 species belonging to nearly all tribes of osseous fishes, and
mounted about 500 microscopic preparations of their hard structures,
I hope to be able to treat this question more comprehensively than
has been possible hitherto, and in such a way as to lead to some
general conclusions.

In giving the results of my observations, I begin with an enumera-
tion of the fishes which belong to the one, and those which belong
to the other type.

* Phil. Trans. 1851, p. 693. f Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. iv. p. 361.

J Anat.-histol. Untersuch. ii. d. Tetragonurus Cuvieri, in den Abh. d. Senken-
berg. Gesellschaft, i. p. 241,

658

I. Fishes ivhose bones contain no bone-corpuscles.

Ordo I. ACANTHOPTERI.

Fam. 1. Percoidei.

Perca fluviatilis.

Apogon Rex mullorum.

Pomatomus telescopium.

Lucioperca sandra.

Serranus cabrilla.

Anthias buphthalmus.

Acerina vulgaris.

Centrarchus sparoides.

Priacanthus macrophthalmus.

Therapon servus.

Trachinus vipera.

Trachinus draco.

Uranoscopus scaber.

Pomotis gibbosus.

Polynemus paradiseus.

Sphyraena spet.

Sphyraena barracuda.

Mullus barbatus.
Fam. 2. Cataphracti.

Trigla cuculus.

Trigla lyra.

Prionotus carolinus.

Platycephalus insidiator.

Dactyloptera volitans.

Cottus gobio.

Aspidophorus europaeus.

Monocentris japonicus.

Gasterosteus trachurus.
Fam. 3. Sparoidei incl. M&nides.

Sargus annularis.

Sargus ovis.

Chrysophrys aurata.

Pagrus vulgaris.

Pagellus centrodontus.

Boops salpa.

Boops vulgaris.

Dentex vulgaris.

Smaris vulgaris.

Solaris insidiator.

Gerres Plumieri.
Fam. 4. Scicenoidei.

Corvina nigra.

Corvina lobata.

Micropogon undulatus.

Otolithus regalis.

Haemulon formosura.

Pristipoma stridens.
Fam. 5. Labyrinthiformes.

Anabas scandens.

Helostoma Temminckii.

Ophicephalus striatus.

Trichopus trichopterus.

Poly acanthus Hasseltii.

Spirobranchus capensis.
Fam. 6. Mugiloidei.

Mugil cephalus.

Mugil, spec.

Atherina Humboldtii.

Atherina vulgaris.

Atherina macrophthalma.
Fam. 7- Notacanthini.

Mastacemblus pancalus.
Fam. 8. Scomberoidei.

Scomber scomber.

Xiphias gladius.

Tetrapturus belone.

Naucrates ductor.

Lampugus pelagicus.

Lampugus siculus.

Seriola, spec.

Chorinemus saltans.

Caranx trachurus.

Caranx carangus.

Centrolophus pompilus,

Lichia glauca.

Equula insidiatrix.

Argyreiosus vomer.

Vomer Brownii.

Zeus faber.

Capros aper.

Coryphaena hippurus.

Astrodermus guttatus.

Tetragonurus Cuvieri.
Fam. 9. Squamipennes.

Scatophagus argus.

659

Holacanthus, spec.
Toxotes jaculator.
Ephippus faber.

Fam. 10. Tanioidei.
Lepidopus argyreus.
Trichiurus haumela.
Trachypterus taenia.
Trachypterus repandus, Costa.
Trachypterus Spinolae.
Cepola rubescens.

Fam. 11. Gobioideiet Cyclopteri.
Gobius capito.
Gobius cruentatus.
Gobius longiradiatus, Risso.
Amblyopus Hermannianus.
Eleotris humeralis.
Tripauchen vagina.
Anarrhichas lupus.
Lepadogaster Gouani.
Echineis remora.

Fam. 12. Blennioidei.
Blennius gattorugine.
Blennius Montagui.
Blennius galerita.
Salarias quadricornis.
Cristiceps, spec.
Clinus argenteus.
Callionymus lacerta.

Fam. 13. Pedunculati.
Lophius piscatorius.
Chironectes histrio.
Malthe vespertilio.
Batrachus tau.

Fam. 14. Theutyes.
Naseus longicornis.
Acanthurus nigricans.
Amphacanthus javus.

Fam. 15. Fistulares.

Fistularia tabaccaria.

Fistularia immaculata.

Centriscus scolopax.

Aulostoiua sinense.

Amphisile scutata.
VOL. IX.

Ordo II. ANACANTHINI, J. Miill.
Fam. 1. Gadoidei.
Gadus asglefinus.
Gadus morrhua.
Lota vulgaris.
Motella tricirrhata.
Lepidoleprus trachyrhynchus.

Fam. 2. Pleuronectides.
Rhombus maximus.
Rhombus podas.
Platessa flesus.
Plaguria, spec.
Achiras mollis.

Fam. 3. Ophidini.
Ophidium barbatum.
Fierasfer imberbis.
Ammodytes tobianus.

Fam. 4. Leptocephalida, Bp.
Helmichthys punctatus.
Oxystomus hyalinus.
Leptocephalus pellucidus, Bp.
Hyoprorus messanensis, Roll.

Ordo III. PHARYNGOGNATHI, J.

Mull.

Fam. 1. Labroidei cycloidei.
Labrus variegatus.
Labrus scrofa.
Julis vulgaris.
Julis pavo.
Crenilabrus pavo.
Xirichthys novacula.
Scarus creticus.

Fam. 2. Labroidei ctenoidei.
Pomacentrus fuscus.
Dascyllus araucanus.
Heliases castaneus.
Glyphisodon rhati.

Fam. 3. Chromides.
Chromis nilotica.
Chromis surinamensis.
Chromis, spec.
Cichla Deppii.

660

Fam. 4. Scomberesoces.
Belone vulgaris.
Belone caudimacula.
Tylosurus imperialis, Bp.
Sayris Camperi.
Hemirhampbus, spec.
Exoccetus exsiliens.

Ordo IV. PHYSOSTOMI, J. Mull.
Fam. 1. Siluroidei.

Subfam. Eremopkilini, Bp.

Trichomycterus punctulatus.
Fam. 4. Cyprinodontes.

Poecilia vivipara.

Anableps tetrophthalmus.

Cyprinodon calaritanus.

Molienesia latipinnis.

Orestias tseniatus.

Fundulus uigrescens.
Fam. 6. Esoces.

Esox vulgaris.

Umbra Krameri.
Fam. 7- GalaxifB.

Galaxias truttaceus.
Fam. 9. Scopelini.

Saurus lacerta.

Myctophum elongatum, Bp,

Ichthyococcus Poweriae, Bp.

Gonostoma denudata, Raf.
Argyropelecus hemigymnus,Cocco.

Odontostoma Balbo.

Fam. 10. Chauliodontida:, Bp.
Chauliodus setinotus, Schn.
Stomias barbatus, Risso.

Fam. 12. Heteropygii.
Amblyopsis spelaeus.

Fam. 15. Symbranchii.
Symbranchus marmoratus.
Symbranchus immaculatus.
Ampliipnous cuchia.
Monopterus javanicus.

Ordo V. PLECTOGNATHI.
Fam. 1. Balistini.
Balistes capriscus.
Monacanthus geographicus.
Aluteres Isevis.
Triacanthus brevirostris.

Fam. 2. Ostraciontes.
Ostracion triqueter.

Fam. 3. Gymnodontes.
Diodon, spec.
Tetraodon fahaca.
Tetraodon lineatus.
Orthagoriscus mola.

Ordo VI. LOPHOBRANCHII.
Syngnathus typhle.
Hippocampus guttulatus.
Pegasus draco.

II. Fishes whose bones contain bone-corpuscles.
Subclassis. I. Teleostei, J. Mull.

Ordo I. ACANTHOPTERI.

Fam. 8. S comber oidei.
Thynnus vulgaris.
Thyimus alalonga.
Auxis bisus.

Ordo IV. PHYSOSTOMI.

Fam. 1. Siluroidei.

Silurus glanis.

Silurus bicirrhis.

Schilbe mystus.

Synodontis serratus.
Malapterurus electncus.
Malapterurus beninensis.
Heterobranchus aiiguillaris.
Chaca lophioides.
Plotosus unicolor.
Clarias fuscus.
Pimelodus, spec.
Arms, spec.
Bagrus, spec.
Callichthys, spec.
Loricaria cataphracta.

661

Auchenipterus furcatus.
Heteropneustes fossilis.
Aspredo Isevis.

Fam. 2. Cyprinoidei.
Phoxinus Isevis.
Cobitis barbatula.
Aspius bipunctatus.
Alburnus lucidus.
Gobio fluviatilis.
Rhodius ainarus.
Cyprinus carpio.
Abramis blicca.
Leuciscus rutilus.
Leuciscus tincella.
Tinea chrysitis.
Barbus vulgaris.
Barbus elongatus.
Barbus obtusirostris.
Barbus marginatus.
Chondrostoma risella, Ag.
Dangila lipocheila.
Labeo niloticus.
Catostomus, spec.

Fara. 3. Characini.
Citharinus Geoffrey i.
Distichodus niloticus.
Hydrocyon Forskahlii.
Alestes dentex.
Tetragonopterus mexicanus.
Anodus cyprinoides.
Leporinus, spec.
Pacu tseniurus.
Pacu nigricans.
Erythrinus unitaeniatus.
Macrodon trahira.
Piabuca bimaculata.
Gasteropelecus sternicla.
Chirodon, Girard, n. spec.
Brycon, Mull. Tr., n. spec.

Fam. 5. Mormyri.
Mormyrus bane.
Mormyrops anguilloides.
Mormyrus longipinnis.
Mormyrus oxyrhynchus.

Mormyrus cyprinoides.

Mormyrus, spec.
Fam. 8. Salmones.

Salmo salar.

Salmo trutta.

Argentina silur.
Fam. 11. Clupeini.

Clupea harengus.

Alosa vulgaris.

Alosa melanura.

Coilia Grayi.

Engrauiis encrasicholus.

Engraulis Brownii.

Notopterus Pallasii.

Macrostoma angustidens,JRisso.

Meletta thryssa.

Elops saurus.

Megalops cyprinoides.

Chatoessus cepedianus.

Chatoessus punctatus.

Gnathobolus mucronatus.

Chirocentrus dorab.

Pristigaster, spec.

Lutodeira chanos.

Butirinus macrocephalus.

Hyodon claudulus.

Heterotis niloticus.

Osteoglossum Vandellii.

Osteoglossum formosum.
Sudis gigas.

Alepocephalus rostratus.
Fam. 13. Muranoidei.
Anguilla vulgaris.
Conger myrus.
Ophisurus serpens.
Nettastoma melanura.
Sphagebranchus imberbis.
Fam. 14. Gymnotini.
Gymnotus electricus.
Carapus brachyurus.

Subclassis II. Ganoidei.
Ordo I. HOLOSTEI.
Fam. 1. Lepidosteini.

Lepidosteus platyrhynchus.
2 Y2

662

Fam. 2. Polypterini.

Polypterus bichir.
Fam. 3. Amiidce.

Amia calva.

Ordo II. CHONDROSTEI.

Fam. 1. Acipenserini.

Acipenser nacarii.

From these facts it follows that the osseous fishes, notwithstanding
their great number, are separated in a very remarkable way into two
groups, as shown in the following enumeration : —

Scaphyrhynchus Rafmesquii.
Fam. 2. Spatulariee.
Spatularia folium.

Subclassis III. Dipnoi,

Fam. 1. Sirenoidei.
Lepidosiren annectens.

Fishes with bone- corpuscles.
I. All the extensive and higher-
organized tribes of Physostomi,
J. Mull. ; viz. the

Siluroidei (except Tricho-

mycterus).
Cyprinoidei.
Characini.
Mormyri.
Salmones.
Clupeini.
Muraenoidei.
Gymnotim.

II. All the Ganoidei.

III. The Sirenoidei.

IV. Of the Acanthopteri, only the
genus Thynnus, Cuv.

Fishes without bone-corpuscles.

I. All the numerous tribes of the
Acanthopteri, with the excep-
tion of the genus Thynnus.

II. All the Anacanthini, J. Mull.

III. The Pharyngognathi, J. Mull.

IV. Some smaller and lower-organ-
ized tribes of Physostomi, as the

Cyprinodontes.
Esoces.
Galaxise.
Scopelini.

Chauliodontida, Bp.
Heteropygii.
Symbranchii.

And of the Siluroids, only the genus
Trichomycterus.

V. The PlectognatU.

VI. The Lophobranchii.

As there can be no doubt that most of the higher-organized fishes
are amongst those with bone-corpuscles, and as we know that amongst
the higher vertebrata, even the lowest, viz. the Perennibranchiata,
possess real osseous tissue, it seems to follow that the peculiar dis-
tribution of real osseous tissue and of the " osteoid " structure, as
the osseous tissue without corpuscles may be called, has a deeper
signification. This will be found by studying the development of
the bones in both groups ; and I hope to be able, before long, to pre-
sent to the Royal Society some new facts with regard to this matter
also ; but in the mean time, until my observations are more complete,
i must abstain from further explanation.

663

The facts exposed hitherto have had reference only to a great
and fundamental structural difference between two extensive groups
of osseous fishes. I may now add, that there exist also greater or
lesser structural discrepancies amongst the different tribes of each
group. But as this is not a suitable occasion for an exposition of
the details of this question, I will only say this much : — In the higher
fishes, those with real osseous tissue, there exist differences, especially
with regard to iheform and size of the bone-corpuscles ; and I hope
to be able to show that there are peculiar and tolerably well cha-
racterized types of them amongst the Ganoids, Siluroids, Salmonida,
Cyprinoids, Clupeini, &c. In the second group there are more
varieties. In some tribes the bones are quite structureless homo-
geneous masses, as in the Leptocephalidce ; in others they have a
peculiar fibrous appearance, and consist of a singular mixture of
cartilage and osteoid structures, as Quekett first showed in the genera
Orthagoriscus and Lophius, to which I may add some Balistini ; but
in the great majority of the tribes of this group, the bones contain
peculiar tubes more or less similar to those of dentine. If these
tubes are well developed, the bones acquire a structure which can
in no way be distinguished from that of dentine, — a fact, which also
did not escape the perspicacity of Quekett, who mentions its occur-
rence in the genus Fistularia, the Barracuda Pike (Sphyrcena bar-
racuda), and the Gar-fish (Belone vulgaris). I found the same
structure in many other genera of this group, especially among the
Plectognathi, Pharyngognathi, Sparidce, and Squamipennes ; but in
the greater number this tubular structure is not so well developed,
and is intermingled with more structureless parts. Another fact
deserving of mention with regard to the bones of this group is, that
there very frequently occur also structures, formed by the agglomera-
tion of calcareous globules of different sizes, which resemble in a re-
markable degree the lower layers of common fish-scales.

My observations have also extended to the hard structures of the
skin of fishes, and of the rays of the fins ; and I may say that in
general the same laws, which apply to the structure of the endo-
skeleton, hold good also for the exoskeleton. Evidence of this is
especially afforded by the fins, the rays of which, independently of
their hard or soft condition, contain bone-corpuscles in all the tribes
where the internal bones are provided with them, whilst in the other

664

case these rays are formed of a homogeneous osteoid substance or of
a tubular structure, which may also in some fishes, as Williamson
first showed in the Ostracionts, assume the structure of real dentine,
as in many Plectognaths (Triacanthus, Monacanthus, Aluteres,
Tetraodon, and others), and in certain Acanthopterygii (Equula,
Ephippus, Hcsmulon, Pristipoma, Scatophagus, Centrarchus). With
regard to the skin, we may at least go so far as to say that in no fish
whose endoskeleton is destitute of bone-corpuscles do they exist in
the hard structures of the skin ; but, on the other hand, the tribes
which have real osseous tissue do not all present it also in the skin.
Scales or plates with bone-corpuscles are found amongst living
Ganoids, e. g. in Polypterus, Lepidosteus, and even Amia (in whose
scales J. Miiller erroneously supposed them to be wanting), and also
in the Acipenserini and Spatularice ; they exist also in the fossil
Ganoids, as the excellent observations of Williamson have shown.
In many Ganoids, moreover, as Williamson and Quekett have
shown, the scales often contain dentinal tubes, or even portions of
real dentine (" Kosmine " of Williamson) amidst true bone. In
the scales of Lepidosiren, also, I find bone-corpuscles, but mostly fusi-
form, and only here and there having a simple stellate figure. Of
the other fishes which have bone-corpuscles in their skeleton, little
has hitherto been noted as to the coexistence of such corpuscles in
their scales, but I find it to prevail to a considerable extent among
them. The presence of bone-corpuscles has been long known, it is
true, in the larger scales of the "corselet" of Thynnus, also in the
dermal plates of certain Siluroids (Loricaria and Callichthys\ and
was pointed out by J. Miiller in the scales of Sudis. Ley dig, too,
states that true bone-corpuscles exist in the walls of the grooves and
semicanals upon the scales of the lateral line in certain Cyprinoids
(Carp, Tench, and Barbel). This statement I am able fully to con-
firm, and to add the following genera in which I find the same thing
to occur ; viz. — Hydrocyon, Alepocephalus, Macrostoma, Bisso, Pia-
buca, Serrasalmo, Xiphorhamphus, Tetragonurus, Salminus, Chal-
cinus, Pygocentrus, Labeo, and Catostomus. But, besides the
instance of Sudis and certain Siluroids above referred to, I find that
many other Physostomi have true bone-corpuscles in their scales ;
not only those of the lateral line, but all of them. From the results
of my examinations up to this time, which, however, on account of

665

the want of materials, are by no means complete, I am able to make
out the following list : —

1. CHARACINI.

Of this family I have had the means of examining nearly all the
genera, including forty- one species.

Characini with bone-corpuscles in all their scales.

Erythrinus unitseniatus, Spix.
Erythrinus microceplialus, Agass.
Macrodon trahira, J. Mull.
Macrodon auritus, Vol.
Pacu taeniurus (Prochilodus tseni-

urus, Val.).
Pacu nigricans, Spix.
Pacu lineatus, Val.
Distichodus niloticus, Mull. Tr.
Alestes dentex, Mull. Tr.

Anodus cyprinoides, Mull. Tr.
Anodus edentulus, Agass.
Anodus leucos, de Fil.
Schizodon fasciatus, Agass.
Chilodus punctatus, Mull. Tr.
Rhaphiodon (Cynodon) vulpinus,

Agass.

Leporinus fasciatus, Mull. Tr.
Leporinus elongatus, Val.
Citharinus latus, Ehr.

Characini without bone-corpuscles in their scales.

Myletes rhomboidalis, Cuv.
Tetragonurus mexicanus, de Fil.
*Tetragonurus argenteus, Art.
*Tetragonurus maculatus, Mull. Tr.
*Salminus Orbignyanus, Val.
*Chalcinus Mullen, de Fil.
Pygocentrus nigricans, Mull. Tr.
Epicyrtus gibbosus, Mull. Tr.
Piabucina erythrinoides, Val.
Exodon paradoxus, Mull. Tr.
Leporinus, spec.

*Hydrocion Forskahlii, Cuv.
*Piabuca bimaculata (Hyrtl. misit}.
Gasteropelecus sternicla, El.
Gasteropelecus securis, de Fil.
Cheirodon Girard, nov. sp., de Fil.
Brycon falcatus, Mull. Tr.
Brycon, nov. sp., de Fil.
Serrasahno rhombeus, Cuv.
*Serrasalmo marginatus, Val.
Xiphorhamphus falcatus, Mull. Tr.
*Xiphorhamphus hepsetus, Mull. Tr.
Myletes rubripinnis, Mull. Tr.

With regard to the members of the second division, it is to be
observed, that probably in all of them the canals attached to the
scales of the lateral line are formed of true osseous tissue ; in those
marked with an asterisk I have found this by actual examination.

The Characini are thus divisible into two groups, according to the
nature of their scales ; at the same time, these are not to be regarded
as natural divisions in other respects, and the less so as one and the
same genus, such as Leporinus, for example, may include species
which differ in the composition of their scales. The presence of
corpuscles, though connected partly with the size of the scales, does
not depend solely on this, for they may be wanting in large scales

666

(Hydrocyon, Chalcinus, Salminus), and present in small ones(Anodui
edentulus, Chilodus).

2. MORMYRJ.

Morruyrus longipennis, Rupp.
Mormyrus oxyrhynchus.
Mormyrus bane.

Mormyrus cyprinoides.
Mormyrus, spec.
Mormyrops anguillaris.

3. CLUPEINI.

Megalops cyprinoides.

Elops saurus.

Coilia Grayi.

Notopterus Pallasii (corpusc. very

Butirinus macrocephalus.
Hyodon claudulus.
Osteoglossum Vandelii.
Osteoglossum bicirrosum.

scanty). Heterotis niloticus.

The plates of the abdominal carina in many Clupeini are formed
throughout of true bone, but do not belong to the present category.

I am unable to find corpuscles in the scales of Lutodeira chanos,
Chatoessus punctatus and cepedianus, and Alosa vulgaris. In several
Cyprinoids (Labeo, Catastomus, Barlus), I have, in like manner,
failed to discover corpuscles in the scales proper ; on the other hand,
I have found very distinct dentinal tubes in the scales of Barbus, at
their hinder part.

True osseous tissue will doubtless hereafter be found in the scales
of many other Physostomi which have it in their skeleton, but it is
not to be supposed that this will apply to all.

In the Physostomi, as in the Ganoids, the bone-corpuscles lie in
the lower stratum of the scale ; still they are situated above the
fibrous layer, and immediately beneath the structureless layer, to
which in all scales I apply the name of " ganoin-layer," inasmuch
as it has in all cases the same signification.

From the foregoing observations we are able to show still more
positively than could be done by J. Miiller, that the scales of Ganoids
have no peculiarity of structure to distinguish them from those of
the Teleostei. Nay, certain Ganoids, as Amia, have scales, which
in respect even of pliancy, rounded contour, and the surface-marking of
the ganoin-layer, agree with those of other fishes.

In reference to those fishes which want bone-corpuscles in their
skeleton, I have still to remark, — 1, that the corpuscles are also inva-
riably wanting in the semicanals upon the scales of the lateral line ;
for what Leydig designates as rudimentary bone-corpuscles in the

667

Perch are in fact the tubules of the osteoid substance ; 2, that
amongst the group of fishes in question, there are some which have
beautiful dentine in their skin-bones, e. g. Amphisile scutata and the
Ostracionts.

To the foregoing remarks on the microscopic structure of the hard
tissues of fishes, I may add, that there also exists a third group of
fishes, in which the endoskeleton is composed only of common carti-
lage, or of cartilage with depositions of earthy salts, viz. the Cyclo-
stomi and Selachii. None of these fishes, not even the Plagiostomi
and Chimcera, possess real bone-cells in their hard parts ; for these
are formed only, as J. Miiller showed many years ago, by ossified
cartilage, that is to say, cartilage- cells in an ossified matrix. Even
the hard spines of the fins and of the skin of these animals are not
real bone, but dentine, as was demonstrated long since by Agassiz
and Quekett.

If now we sum up all that has been said, we arrive at the following
conclusions : —

I. There exist three types of structure in the skeleton of fishes, viz. :

1 . Type of the Selachii.

The skeleton is formed of cartilage or ossified cartilage.
Selachii, Cyclostomi.

2. Type of the Acanthopterygii.

The skeleton is formed of a homogeneous or tubular osteoid

substance, often of true dentine.
Teleostei (J. Mull.), with the exception of the greater

part of the Physostomi (J. Mull.).

3. Type of the Ganoidei.

The skeleton is formed of real osseous tissue.

Most of the Physostomi, the Ganoidei, and Sirenoidei.

II. The exoskeleton follows in some respects the same laws as the
endoskeleton, and shows the following types : —

1 . Exoskeleton formed of a homogeneous and fibrous osteoid

substance.
Scales of the majority of the Teleostei.

2 . Exoskeleton formed of dentine.

Spines of Selachii and scales of Plectognathi, and of Amphi-
sile, in part.

668

3. Exoskeleton formed of real bone ; partly in association
with homogeneous osteoid substance (ganoin) and
dentinal tubes.

Scales of Ganoidei, of Lepidosiren, some Siluroidei, of Mor-
myri, many Characini and Clupeini, also of Thynnus.

In terminating this communication, I think it proper to mention
that the great liberality with which my friend Mr. Tomes of London,
and Professor Williamson of Manchester, put their large collections of
microscopic preparations of teeth, bones, and scales at my disposal,
proved of great assistance in my investigations, and, accordingly, I
am only fulfilling an agreeable duty in now publicly expressing my
obligations to them. I am also greatly indebted to my friends Filippo
de Filippi of Turin and Henry Miiller of Wiirzburg, also to Dr.
Hyrtl of Vienna, and Dr. Peters of Berlin, who supplied me with
many of the rarer Mediterranean and foreign fishes. But, in order
that my observations may yield the results which may not unrea-
sonably be expected from them, I need more aid ; and as England
is the country in which not only the largest zoological collections of
fishes, but also the greatest number of microscopic preparations of
the hard tissues of recent and fossil animals, are to be found, I take
the liberty to ask the possessors of such collections who may be
interested in this matter to favour me with such specimens as may
seem to them calculated to give to this series of observations the
greatest possible extension.

III. " On the Physical Phenomena of Glaciers."— Part II. By
Dr. TYNDALL, F.R.S. Received February 24, 1859.

[Abstract.]

The main portion of this Paper deals with the veined structure of
glacier ice. The author refers to his observations in the Mer-de-glace
in 1 857, and his reasons for withholding them, and visiting the glaciers
once more in 1858.

He describes the general aspect of the structure, and examines the
two theories of the phenomenon which are now deserving of attention ;
one of these considers the blue veins to be a continuation of the bed-

669

ding of the NeVe, the other regards them as being produced by
pressure.

Wishing to confer upon the inquiry the character of an experi-
mental one, his desire in 1858 was to examine a great number of
glaciers, which should exhibit the ice under different mechanical
conditions, thus accepting the combinations made by nature as a
substitute for those, which, under ordinary circumstances, are made by
the experimentalist himself. He therefore first visited and examined
the glaciers of Grindelwald. Crossing the Strahleck, he descended
the glacier of the Aar to the Grimsel, and proceeded thence to the
glacier of the Rhone. He subsequently spent eight days in the
neighbourhood of the great Aletsch glacier, and afterwards eleven
days exploring the range of glaciers which stretches from Monte
Rosa to the Mont Cervin. From Zermatt he proceeded to Saas, and
spent five days in the vicinity of the Allalein glacier : he afterwards
visited the Fee glacier, and completed his expedition by a visit to
the Mer-de-glace and its tributaries, and a second expedition to the
summit of Mont Blanc.

The Paper contains an account of the observations made upon all
these glaciers, and these observations go unitedly to prove that the
production of the structure is independent of the stratification of the
Neve, and is the result of intense pressure acting upon the glaciers.
The author points out the place at which the structure is manufac-
tured, and whence it is sent forward, giving a character to other
portions of the glacier which have no share in its formation.

The observations include some which leave no doubt as to the
general independence of structure and stratification. On the Furgge
glacier, for example, fine ice sections are exposed, which show the
bedding in a perfectly distinct and beautiful manner ; while crossing
the beds at a high angle, we have the true veined structure. The
coexistence of both is exactly analogous to that of cleavage and bed-
ding in slate rocks. While however the independence of both is
thus proved, it is not asserted that the direction of structure and
stratification never coincide. As the cleavage of rocks is sometimes
parallel to the bedding, so may the strata .of glaciers coincide with
the structure ; and this is probably the case in many of the so-called
secondary glaciers of the Alps.

670

The author divides the questions of structure into three principal
cases : —

1 st. Marginal Structure, produced by pressure due to the swifter
motion of the centre of the glacier.

2nd. Longitudinal Structure, produced by pressure consequent
on the mutual thrust of two tributary glaciers ; developing veins
which run parallel to the direction of the trunk stream.

3rd. Transverse Structure, produced by pressure due to the
change of inclination, — and the thrust from behind, endured by
glaciers at the bases of the ice-falls.

The author also gives a physical analysis of the mode in which
the pressure produces the structure. He shows experimentally that
planes of liquefaction are produced in ice at right angles to the direc-
tion of a pressure acting upon the mass. In the glacier these planes
of liquefaction are the channels by which the air is ejected, and the
blue veins produced.

A section of the Paper is devoted to the consideration of the shape
of the bubbles entangled in glacier ice ; as affording evidence of
pressure. The author has endeavoured to refer the observed facts
to their true cause, and to show that the conclusions hitherto drawn
from this remarkable phenomenon are untenable. The shape of the
bubbles furnishes no ground for any conclusion regarding the
pressure to which the mass containing them has been subjected.

The Paper also includes a short section containing remarks on
glacier motion ; in which it is shown that this motion is of a com-
posite character ; being partly due to the sliding of the glacier over
its bed, and partly to the yielding of the ice under severe pressure.
A brief section is also devoted to the explanation of the Dirt-bands
of the Mer-de-glace.

671

March 3, 1859.

Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.

In accordance with the Statutes, the Secretary read the following
list of Candidates for election into the Society : —

Frederick Augustus Abel, Esq.
Somerville Scott Alison, M.D.
Charles Spence Bate, Esq.
Henry Foster Baxter, Esq.
Samuel Husbands Beckles, Esq.
Thomas William Burr, Esq.
Frederick Grace Calvert, Esq.
Henry J. Carter, Esq.
William White Cooper, Esq.
Richard Cull, Esq.
Thomas Rowe Edmonds, Esq.

Alexander John Ellis, Esq.

S. W. Fullom; Esq.

Douglas Galton, Capt. R.E.

Samuel Gurney, Esq.

William Bird Herapath, M.D.

George Murray Humphry, M.B.

Thomas Sterry Hunt, Esq.

Waller Augustus Lewis, M.D.

John Denis Macdonald, Esq.

David Macloughlin, M.D.

Henry Maudslay, Esq.

The Rev. Walter Mitchell, M.A.

Robert William Mylne, Esq.

William Odling, Esq.

Robert Patterson, Esq.

John Penn, Esq.

Sir Robert Schomburgk.

Edward Smith, M.D.

Henry Ward, Capt. R.E.

Thomas Watson, M.D.

Col. Frederick Eardley Wilmot,

R.A.

Bennet Woodcroft, Esq.
Col. William Yolland, R.E.

The following communications were read : —

I. " On an Experiment in which the Stratifications in Electrical
Discharges are destroyed by an interruption of the Second-
ary Circuit." By J. P. GASSIOT, Esq., F.R.S. Received
February 17, 1859.

The author having referred to his former Papers*, and to Mr.
Grove's view of the phenomenon in question, performed an experi-
ment to demonstrate the fact stated in the title of the present com-
munication.

* Philosophical Transactions, 1858, and Proceedings, January 13, 1859.

672

II. " Remarks on Organo-Metallic Bodies ; 4th Memoir/' By
EDWARD FRANKLAND, Ph.D., F.R.S., Lecturer on Che-
mistry at St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

(Abstract.)

In a former Memoir* the author described the production of a
new series of organic compounds containing the metal tin in com-
bination with the radicals methyl, ethyl, and amyl. His attention
was at that time especially directed to the compound formed by the
union of tin with ethyl, and to which the name stanethyl was given .
The iodide of stanethyl was prepared by exposing iodide of ethyl to
light or heat in the presence of tinfoil ; and, by acting with zinc upon
the aqueous solution of this iodide of stanethyl or of the chloride of
the same body, stanethyl itself (C4H5Sn) was obtained.

In accordance with a theory of the constitution of all organo-
metallic bodies which the author then suggested, the above com-
pounds were respectively represented as the analogues of the pro-
tiodide and biniodide of tin, thus —

Sn I Sn(C4H5)

Stannous iodide. Stannous ethide.

Sn
«•
Stannic iodide. Stannic ethiodide.

It is evident that the application of this theory to the above
bodies would receive considerable additional support if the second
equivalent of iodine in the stannic iodide could be replaced by ethyl,
or some other analogous organic group. In the Memoir already
alluded to, it was mentioned, that in studying the behaviour of
stanethyl under the influence of heat, evidence was obtained of the
existence of this very compound, — stannic ethide, or binethide of
tin, as it was then named. This body obviously bears the same re-
lation to stannic iodide as stanethyl bears to stannous iodide.

Sn

v

Stannic iodide. Stannic ethide.

* Transactions of the Royal Society for 1852, p. 418.

673

Although there could be little doubt of the formation of stannic
ethide by heating stanethyl to 150° C., yet the author could not suc-
ceed in obtaining the former body in a state of purity from this
source : it seemed probable, however, that stannic ethiodide would
be easily converted into stannic ethide by bringing it into contact
with zincethyl ; and a preliminary experiment completely realized
this expectation. The results of this reaction, together with its ex-
tension to other analogous organo-metallic compounds, form the sub-
ject of the present Memoir.

I. Action of Zincethyl upon Iodide of Stanethyl.

About two ounces of crystals of iodide of stanethyl were gradually
added to a strong solution of zincethyl in ether, care being taken to
preserve an excess of zincethyl. On submitting the resulting syrupy
liquid to distillation, it began to boil at 70° C. ; but the thermo-
meter rapidly rose to 180° C., between which temperature and
200° C. the greater part of the product passed over, solid iodide of
zinc containing a little zincethyl being left in the retort. The di-
stillate was washed with dilute acetic acid, and the dense ethereal
liquid which separated was dried over chloride of calcium, and recti-
fied. The greater portion of it distilled at 181°, and was collected
apart. Submitted to analysis, it yielded results leading to the
formula —

The following equation, therefore, expresses the action of zinc-
ethyl upon iodide of stanethyl : —

Sn(C4H,)Il _ fSn(C4H5)2
Zn(C4H5)j"lZnI

Stannic ethide or binethide of tin is a limpid colourless liquid even
at — 13° C., possessing a very faint ethereal odour, resembling that of
oxide of stanethyl, and a slightly metallic, though not unpleasant
taste. Its specific gravity is 1 • 1 87 at 23° C. A determination of the
specific gravity of its vapour gave the number 8'02l, showing that
stannic ethide consists of one volume of thin vapour and four volumes
of ethyl, the five volumes being condensed to two. Stannic ethide
boils at 181°C., and distils unchanged, thus differing from stannous
ethide, which decomposes at 150°, chiefly into metallic tin and

674

stannic ethide, a reaction calling to mind the behaviour of stannous
oxide when boiled with a caustic alkali. Stannic ethide is inflam-
mable, burning with a lurid flame fringed with deep blue and evol-
ving white fumes of stannic oxide. In oxygen it burns much more
brilliantly, with a white light fringed with blue.

It was important to ascertain the deportment of stannic ethide
with negative elements, since, if it were found to be capable of direct
combination, its analogy to inorganic stannic compounds would be,
to a great extent, disproved. Like zincethyl, however, stannic ethide
is incapable of combining with any other element without the expul-
sion of at least an equivalent amount of its ethyl. Treated with
iodine, the latter dissolves with a deep brown colour, which, how-
ever, gradually disappears ; and if the addition of iodine be con-
tinued until decolorization be no longer effected, the resulting
liquid, on being submitted to distillation, is found to consist of iodide
of ethyl, which distils over, and an iodine salt, possessing the un-
bearably pungent odour of one of the products of the action of tin
upon iodide of ethyl at 160°C., and described by MM. Cahonrs
and Riche as iodide of distannous ethyl, Sn2(C4H5)2I. The iodine
salt appears, in fact, to be either identical with this body or to consist
of stannic iodotriethide (Sn2 (C4 H5)3 1)*.

Stannic ethide does not decompose water, and is not acted upon
by strong aqueous hydrochloric acid in the cold. When, however,
heat is applied to the mixture of the two liquids, bubbles of gas are
slowly evolved ; but it requires from twelve to eighteen hours to
complete the reaction. The gas was found to be pure hydride of
ethyl, and the quantity evolved was such as to show that exactly
one equivalent of ethyl was expelled in the form of hydride from two
equivalents of stannic ethide, indicating the following reaction : —

2Sn(C4H5)2l fC4H5H

HC1 /-\Sn2(C4H5)3Cl.

II. Action of Zincmethyl upon Iodide of Stanethyl.
About three ounces of crystallized iodide of stanethyl were gra-

* Whilst I was engaged with these experiments, Mr. Buckton announced the
formation of stannic ethide (Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol.ix. p. 315), and
mentioned his intention to study the salts formed by the action of iodine, bro-
mine, &c., upon that bod> ; 4 have not, therefore, prosecuted the inquiry further
in this direction.

675

dually added to a solution of zincmethyl in ether. Considerable heat
was evolved, and the vessel in which the reaction was performed
required to be plunged into cold water. On treating the product
as before described, a liquid was obtained boiling between 143° and
148° C., and yielding, on analysis, numbers closely corresponding
with the formula

The action of zincmethyl upon iodide of stanethyl may therefore
be thus expressed : —

Sn
ZnC2Hs

The new body thus formed, and for which I propose the same
stannic ethylomethide y is a colourless limpid liquid, undistinguish-
able in appearance from stannic ethide. It possesses, like the latter,
a very faint ethereal odour and a slightly metallic taste. Its specific
gravity is 1-2319 at 19°C. It does not solidify at — 13°C.
Stannic ethylomethide boils between 144° and 146° C. The specific
gravity of its vapour is 6*838, showing that its constitution is similar
to that of stannic ethide. It is easily inflammable, and exhibits the
same deportment as stannic ethide with chlorine, iodine, and bro-
mine; its combination with these elements being always attended
with the expulsion of methyl. Stannic ethylomethide dissolves
iodine, assuming a magnificent crimson colour, which disappears
with extreme slowness unless heat be applied. When, however,
action has once been set up, it goes on with considerable rapidity,
even in the cold. The products of this reaction were proved to be
iodide of methyl and iodide of distanethyl : —

C4H;
31 H

Iodide of distanethyl, which has already been partially examined,
although with discordant results, by M. Lowig and by MM. Ca-
hours and Riche, is a dark straw-coloured, somewhat oily liquid,
which does not solidify at — 13°C. It possesses an extremely pun-
gent and intolerable odour, resembling oil of mustard. Its specific
VOL. ix. 2 z

676

gravity at 15° C. is 2-0329. At 208° C. it enters into ebullition, but
cannot be distilled without decomposition.

Treated with hot hydrochloric acid, stannic ethylomethide is de-
composed, yielding a crystallisable salt and a gaseous mixture, con-
sisting of —

Hydride of ethyl ........................... 81-21

Hydride of methyl ......................... 1879

100-00

III. Action of Zincethyl upon Iodide of Mercury methyl.

The formation of stannic ethylomethide in the manner just de-
scribed, encouraged the author to attempt a similar reaction with

{C H
2j 3. Mr. Buckton's announce-

{C1 IT
Q4jj5, by an ana-

logous reaction, tended also to strengthen the hope that a mercuric
ethylomethide might be thus obtained.

Iodide of mercurymethyl is readily acted upon by zincethyl, but
no mercuric ethide was produced, the reaction being expressed by
the following equation : —

2Zn(C4Hs)

IV. Action of Zincmethyl upon Chloride of Mercury ethyl.

Although the above reaction failed to produce mercuric ethylo-
methide, it was still possible that this body might be formed by
acting upon a mercuryethyl compound with zincmethyl. About
five ounces of chloride of mercurous ethyl (Hg (C4 H5) Cl) were
added to four ounces of a strong ethereal solution of zincmethyl.
Considerable heat was evolved ; and after forty-eight hours the pro-
duct was distilled. All the volatile portion came over below 140° C.
The distillate was washed with weak acetic acid, dried over chloride
of calcium, and then rectified. A considerable portion distilled be-
tween 127° and 137° C., and was collected apart. The last few
drops came over at 156° C. Repeated rectifications of the product

* Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. ix. p. 31 2.

677

boiling between 12 7° and 137°C. did not serve to isolate any portion
of the distillate, having a fixed boiling point ; on the contrary, it
was evident that the range of the temperature of distillation became
wider each time the operation was repeated. A section boiling be-
tween 127° and 133° gave, on analysis, 13-68 per cent, of carbon,
whilst another section, boiling between 141° and 143°, gave 16*71.

{P TT
£4 jj5 requires 1475 per cent, of carbon. Mer-
curic methide boils at 96°, and mercuric ethide at 159°C. ; con-
sequently mercuric ethylomethide might be expected to boil at about
128°. The author considers it more than probable that mercuric
ethylomethide was formed in the above reaction ; but subsequent
distillations gradually transformed it, more or less perfectly, into a
mixture of mercuric ethide and mercuric methide.

V. Action of Zinc upon a Mixture of the Iodides of Ethyl and
Methyl.

In a former memoir* the author pointed out that the vapour
volume of zincethyl indicated the constitution of that body to be

r\ TT i

represented by the formula p4 -rr5 \ Zn2 ; but it is evident that this

^4 ^5 J

formula would receive important confirmation if the double equiva-
lent of zinc could be made to combine with two radicals of different
composition. An attempt was made to produce such a body by
submitting simultaneously the iodides of methyl and ethyl, mixed
with an equal volume of ether, to the action of zinc at 100°C. In
eighteen hours the decomposition of the iodides was complete, and
the distilled product, on being rectified, began to boil at 38°, ether
and zincmethyl distilling over ; the thermometer then gradually and
uniformly rose to 120°C., at which temperature the remainder of
the product, consisting of pure zincethyl in considerable quantity,
distilled over. No evidence whatever was obtained of the existence
of an intermediate compound containing both ethyl and methyl.

* Transactions of the Royal Society for 1855, p 266.

678

VI. Zincmethyl.

The experiments detailed in the foregoing pages requiring the use
of considerable quantities of zincmethyl, the author's attention was
directed to the preparation of this body in much larger quantities
than could be obtained by the operations in sealed glass tubes pre-
viously described by him. He found that the preparation of a strong
ethereal solution of zincmethyl succeeded most satisfactorily in a
copper digester, heated to 100° C. ; in fact, the decomposition by
zinc of an ethereal solution of iodide of methyl is much more quickly
and perfectly effected than that of a similar solution of iodide of
ethyl ; but on submitting the product to rectification, a liquid was
obtained boiling at about 51° C., spontaneously inflammable to the
last degree, and possessing the intolerable odour of zincmethyl.
On analysis, however, it yielded numbers closely agreeing with the
formula —

CH

The specific gravity of its vapour was 3-1215, a number which does
not correspond with the theoretical specific gravity of a compound of
the above formula, unless the exceedingly improbable assumption be
adopted, that it contains two volumes of zincmethyl vapour, united
with one volume of ether vapour, without condensation. On the
other hand, it accords closely with the specific gravity of the vapour
of a mixture of zincmethyl and ether in the above proportions.

Without at present offering any decided opinion as to the nature
of this body, the author states that in repeated operations with large
quantities of materials he has entirely failed in obtaining pure zinc-
methyl by this method of proceeding.

Similar repeated attempts to produce pure zincethyl from zinc
and iodide of methyl, without the intervention of ether, were also
unsuccessful, although this method generally succeeds in small glass
tubes. This anomaly in the results obtained from the same mate-
rials heated in a copper digester and in glass tubes, is doubtless due
to the difference of the conditions in the two cases. In a glass tube
half immersed in a heated oil bath, a constant distillation of the
internal liquid is going on, the liquid condensed in the upper por-
tion of the tube flowing over an extensive surface of zinc in its

679

descent ; whilst, in a digester of thick copper, the different parts
of the vessel, owing to the high conductivity of the metal, are main-
tained at so uniform a temperature as to prevent any such circulation
of the liquid from taking place.

The body just described being regarded as a mere mixture of zinc-
methyl and ether, incapable of being separated on account of the
close proximity of their boiling points, a more successful result was
anticipated by mixing the iodide of methyl with methylic ether in-
stead of vinic ether. As methylic ether boils at — 21°C., it was
thought that no such difficulty of separation could arise ; the bodies
employed would then, in fact, be exactly homologous with those so
successfully used in the preparation of pure zincethyl on the large
scale. It was found, however, that although a large quantity of
zincmethyl was produced, yet it was impossible to obtain it free from
methylic ether. A large portion of the product boiled at 43°, a
small residuum only distilling between this temperature and 48° ;
both portions yielded, on analysis, results approaching the formula

This result is, therefore, homologous with that obtained by the de-
composition of iodide of methyl mixed with vinic ether.

In conclusion, the author states, that after an expenditure of many
pounds of iodide of methyl, he has been unable to obtain even the
smallest quantity of pure zincmethyl by the use of a copper digester,
although a much larger product of the ethereal solution is obtained
than in the corresponding preparation of zincethyl.

March 10, 1859.

Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.
The following communications were read : —

I. Letter from JAMES P. MUIRHEAD, Esq., to Sir BENJAMIN
C. BRODIE, Bart., Pres. U.S., dated March 8, 1859, re-
lating to the Discovery of the Composition of Water. Com-
municated by Sir B. C. BRODIE.

I have now, with your permission, to request you to lay before the

680

Royal Society the following brief remarks on the quotation from De
Luc's " Idees sur la Meteorologie," which has been referred to as
fresh evidence in the controversy as to the discovery of the Compo-
sition of Water.

It is only at first sight, and when taken in an isolated form apart
from the rest of De Luc's narrative, that the passage in question
could bear the interpretation now sought to be put upon it ; for
Dr. Priestley's communication of Cavendish's experiment is said
by De Luc to have been made "vers la fin de 1'annee 1782." But
in the same section of the same volume he distinctly and positively
says, that when in September [1783] he returned to Birmingham,
" Nous ignorions, M. Watt et moi, que M. Cavendish eut eu des
idees fort semblables aux siennes sur la Cause de ce Phe'nomene *."

Now, we may well ask, how could this possibly have been the case
with De Luc in 1783, if Priestley's communication to him in 1782
had extended to the conclusions, as well as to the experiment*, of
Cavendish ?

De Luc adds, on the next page of his work, that " Au mois de
Juin" (an evident mistake for Janvier), " 1784, M. Cavendish remit
a la Societe Roy ale un Memoire, dans lequel il joignit, au recit de
ses Experiences de 1781, sa the'orie sur la formation de I'-EVzwf."
Here, for the first time in De Luc's narrative (with the exception of
an allusion to Blagden's statement at Paris in June 1783), occurs a
clear and distinct notice of Cavendish's theory or conclusions, as
distinguished from his experiments. What M. De Luc's opinion of
the memoir was, in which those conclusions were announced, when
he perused it in March 1 784, and sent an analysis of it to Mr. Watt,
is well known from his letters already published £.

We are thus enabled to set against the interpretation attempted to
be put on the quotation from the " Meteorologie," the most con-
clusive of all testimony ; that, namely, of De Luc himself : for if
he had intended to say that in the end of 1 782 the conclusions of
Cavendish had along with his experiment been communicated by
Priestley, he could not possibly have gone on to say, as he has done
a few pages later in the same volume, that in September 1 783 he
was ignorant of Cavendish having entertained any such ideas ; nor
* " Idees sur la Meteorologie," tome ii. p. 224.
f Ibid. p. 225.
% M. De Luc to Mr. Watt, 1st and 4th of March, 1784.

681

would he have felt the astonishment, and entertained the suspicions
which he so strongly expresses, on his perusal of Cavendish's memoir
in March 1784.

De Luc's account in the " Meteorologie," it must also be observed,
is not a contemporaneous one, published at the time of Priestley's
communication in 1782, and before the conclusions of Watt were
made known ; but is given from memory, at an interval of several
years, when such a mistake as that of June for January shows how

little it can be relied on.

I am, &c.

JAS. P. MuiRHEAD.

II. " New Volatile Organic Acids, from the Berry of the
Mountain Ash." By A. W. HOFMANN, LL.D., F.R.S.
Received February 3, 1859.

Whoever has been engaged in the preparation of malic acid from
the juice of the unripe berries of the Mountain Ash (Sorbus Aucu-
paria), cannot have failed to perceive the peculiar powerful odour
evolved during the evaporation of the liquid partially saturated with
lime. The body to which this odour belongs was hitherto un-
known, and only lately, my friend and former pupil, Dr. George
Merck of Darmstadt, when preparing malic acid on a large scale,
conceived the happy idea of evaporating the liquid in a distilling
apparatus. He thus obtained an acid distillate, from which he suc-
ceeded in separating an oily body possessed of acid properties. To
the kindness of Dr. Merck I am indebted for an appreciable quan-
tity of this remarkable body, which has enabled me to examine its
properties and establish its composition.

The preparation of the oil from the aqueous acid obtained by
distilling the mother liquor of the bimalate of calcium, presents no
difficulty. The liquid is saturated with soda, evaporated and mixed
with dilute sulphuric acid, when the oil rises as a brown layer to the
surface of the liquid. It is separated by ether, and after the volati-
lization of the latter, submitted to distillation. The first portions
of the distillate contain appreciable quantities of water ; the thermo-
meter, however, rapidly rises above 200° C. What now distils is a
perfectly pure compound, which, on redistillation, exhibits a con-

682

stant boiling point at 220° C. Freshly distilled, the oil is colourless,
but it soon acquires a yellowish tint. It has a peculiar aromatic
odour, not disagreeable when dilute, but rather offensive when con-
centrated. The specific gravity is 1-0681. It is somewhat soluble
in water, very soluble in alcohol and ether ; these solutions are di-
stinctly acid. The oil dissolves in potassa and ammonia, also in the
carbonated alkalis, without, however, expelling their carbonic acid.
Mineral acids separate it again from these compounds.

The analysis of the oil shows that it contains carbon, hydrogen,
and oxygen in the ratio of

C3H20;

but the determination of the silver in a white amorphous silver com-
pound, obtained by adding nitrate of silver to the ammoniacal solu-
tion of the oil, shows that this expression must be quadrupled, arid
that the acid and silver salt are represented by the following

formulse : —

Acid . . C12H804

Silver-salt C12[H7Ag]O4.

The acid oil of the mountain-ash berry exhibits a very remarkable
deportment with the alkalis and acids. When gently heated (a
temperature of 100° is sufficient) with solid hydrate of potassa, or
when boiled with concentrated hydrochloric or moderately dilute
sulphuric acid, the oil is readily converted into a splendid crystalline
acid, greatly resembling benzoic acid in its general characters, which
has the same composition as the oil itself. I have established this
remarkable isomerism both by careful observation of the conditions
of transformation, and by the analysis of the crystalline acid as well
as of some of its salts and derivatives. I propose to designate this
new compound by the term sorbic acid, thus reviving an old name
which had at one time been used for malic acid. The isomeric oil
obtained by distilling the juice of the mountain-ash berry, the acid
properties of which are much less pronounced, may then be called
Parasorbic acid.

Sorbic acid. — This substance is readily soluble in alcohol and
ether, less so in water. Heated with a quantity of water insuffi-
cient for solution, it fuses ; the aqueous solution, saturated by ebul-
lition, solidifies on cooling into a network of interlaced needles. The
acid crystallises best from a mixture of alcohol and water, in which

683

the latter predominates ; from this solvent it is often deposited in
magnificent needles several inches in length. Sorbic acid fuses at
134 '5°. It boils at a much higher temperature, and may be volati-
lised without decomposition.

The alkaline sorbates are all soluble in water, the potassium,
sodium, and ammonium compounds are extremely soluble, and cry-
stallise with difficulty ; the barium and calcium salts are less soluble,
and may be obtained in splendid scaly crystals of the lustre of silver.
Their crystallisation is facilitated by the addition of a small quantity
of alcohol. Both salts are anhydrous, their analysis agreeing with
the formulae

Sorbate of barium C12 [H7 Ba] O4

Sorbate of calcium .... C12[H7Ca]O4.

The silver-salt is a white amorphous precipitate, extremely inso-
luble in water, readily obtained by the decomposition of the ammo-
nium compound by nitrate of silver. Both combustion and silver-
determination proved this salt to be

Sorbate of silver C12[H7Ag]O4.

The ether of sorbic acid is readily procured by treatment of the
alcoholic solution of sorbic acid with hydrochloric acid, or by the
action of chloride of sorbyl upon alcohol. It is a colourless liquid
of an agreeable aromatic odour resembling that of benzoic ether,
boiling at 191° C., and containing : —

Sorbate of ethyl C16H12O4=C12 [H7(C4H5)]O4.

The experiments which I have quoted are sufficient to fix the
composition of sorbic acid. I have nevertheless produced some
additional derivatives of the acid.

Chloride of sorbyl is obtained by the usual processes ; by the
action of pentachloride of phosphorus upon the acid, or of the
trichloride of phosphorus upon the potassium compound. The
limited amount of acid at my disposal did not permit me to procure
this substance in a state of purity, and to establish analytically the

formula

CI2H702C1

assigned to it by theory ; but this formula is indirectly proved by
the deportment of the crude product, still containing chloride of

684

phosphorus — with water, when sorbic acid is at once reproduced ; —
with alcohol, when sorbic ether is obtained ; — with ammonia and
phenylamine, when respectively, sorbamide and phenyl-sorbamide
are generated. The chloride is not volatile without considerable
decomposition.

Sorbamide. — This substance is formed by the action of dry car-
bonate of ammonium upon the crude chloride of sorbyl. White,
readily fusible needles, soluble in water and alcohol. Composition
of

Sorbamide H12H9NO2= H j> N.

H J

Phenyl-sorbamide is obtained by replacing the ammonia in the
previous process by phenylamine. After treatment with water an
oily liquid remains, which gradually solidifies into a crystalline mass.
I have not analysed it, its composition being sufficiently characterized
by theory.

When distilled with an excess of hydrate of baryta, sorbic acid
exhibits the deportment of the acids with four equivalents of oxygen ;
carbonate of barium is produced, whilst an aromatic hydrocarbon
distils over. The limited amount of material has precluded for the
present the possibility of a more minute examination of this body.

Sorbic acid is obviously the first term of a new series of well-cha-
racterized organic acids, closely allied to the ordinary fatty and
aromatic acids, occupying, in fact, a sort of intermediate position be-
tween the two. On comparing sorbic acid with the terms of the
fatty and aromatic acid-series containing equal quantities of carbon,
the hydrogen of sorbic acid stands in the middle

C12H804

Caproic Sorbic Lower homologue

acid. acid. of benzoic acid.

The same remark applies to the carbon of sorbic acid when con-
trasted with the fatty and aromatic acids containing an equal quan-
tity of hydrogen,

CH0

Butyric acid. Sorbic acid. Toluic acid.

685

III. " Further Remarks on the Organo-metallic Radicals Mer-
curic, Stannic, and Plumbic Ethyl." — No. III. By GEORGE
BOWDLER BUCKTON, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.C.S. Received

March 3, 1859.

(Abstract.)

On resuming my inquiries into the nature of these organo-metals,
I have met with some interesting reactions, which I here wish briefly
to notice.

The preparation of mercuric, stannic, and plumbic ethyls, through
the action of zinc ethyl on various organic and inorganic salts, has
been already detailed in my sketch published in the ' Proceedings of
the Royal Society* ;' but at that time, I was not able to fix, with
certainty, the constitution of the compounds which were produced
by acids on the different radicals. An appeal to analysis now en-
ables me to state the following

Mercuric ethyl.

The reactions of this liquid are well-marked. Towards sulphuric
and hydrochloric acids it follows the deportment of its homologue
mercuric methyl. When assisted by gentle heat, one equivalent of
ethyl is disengaged, which unites with the hydrogen of the acid, and
forms hydride of ethyl, whilst the acid takes its place, and gives rise
to the corresponding salt of mercurous ethyl.

The radical bursts into flame when poured into chlorine gas, and
is almost entirely destroyed ; but when it is slowly mixed under water
with iodine or bromine, the disengagement of ethyl gas is scarcely
perceived, and iodide or bromide of ethyl may be recovered by
distillation.

4 (Hg C4 H5) + 2 H S04=2 (Hg2 C4 H5) S2O8 + 2 (C4 H5 H)

Mercuric ethyl. Sulphate of Hydride of ethyl,

mercurous ethyl.

2 (Hg C4 H5) + 2 Br=Hg2 C4 H5 Br + C4 H5 Br.

Mercuric ethyl. Bromide of Bromide of ethyl,

mercurous ethyl.

From considerations connected with the vapour density of mercuric
ethyl and mercuric methyl, as given by experiment, there seem to be
reasons for believing that the formulae of all the organo-metals of this

* Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. ix. p. 309.

686

group should, in correctness, be doubled. I have not, however, yet
been able to satisfy these views by direct experiment. Zincethyl
acts readily on salts of mercurous methyl ; and in all probability
gives a body compounded of ethyl and methyl with a double equi-
valent of mercury ^ C* H.\ ' ^e su^stance» however, if pro-
duced, is obviously broken by distillation into the two radicals mer-
curic ethyl and mercuric methyl. Experiment may perhaps prove
more successful if salts of stannic methyl be similarly treated.

The electro-negative character of the group CD2 Hn2+1 in the class
of organo-metals to which zincethyl belongs, may now perhaps be
considered as established. Some interest, nevertheless, attaches to
the question whether sodium is capable of displacing ethyl from mer-
curic ethyl. An answer to this question would give us some means
of judging the position of ethyl, as regards its electro-negative func-
tion towards the true metals.

At ordinary temperatures, sodium has only a slow action on mer-
curic ethyl, but after the lapse of a few hours a voluminous grey
sponge is formed, whilst the liquid entirely disappears. This sponge-
like body has the property of spontaneous combustibility in a marked
degree, and is liable to explosion from apparently very slight causes.
By the application of a gentle heat, a strong rush of gaseous matter
is evolved which eudiometric experiments proved to be a mixture
of ethylene and hydride of ethyl, obviously proceeding from the dis-
integration of a double molecule of ethyl.

From this experiment we should conclude that ethyl, methyl, &c.
in these radicals are still negative to mercury, and therefore, that mer-
cury, copper, &c. would not, as Mr. Wanklyn supposes, displace
ethyl in sodiumethyl*. More probably, perhaps, sodiumethyl is
first formed in the reaction, and then decomposed by heat

Hg C4 H5 + Na= Na C4 H5 + Hg
and by heat

2 (Na C4 H5) + 2 Hg=2 Na Hg+ C4 H4 + C4 Hs H.

The mercury is supposed here to be inert, and in no way to deter-
mine the decomposition.

Stannic dietJiyl.

Much of the uncertainty which has attached to some of the for-

* Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. ix. p. 345.

687

mulse of the salts of stanethyl, has originated, without doubt, from
the mode adopted by Lowig in their elimination. Strecker has
lately shown that many of these compounds may, with probability,
be referred to the types of the inorganic oxyiodides and oxychlorides
of tin.

The following experiments were undertaken with the impression
that the pure salts of stanethyl might be more advantageously pro-
cured by acting directly on the radical itself.

Stannic diethyl, Sn (C4 H.)2, like mercuric ethyl, loses one of its
equivalents of ethyl when digested with concentrated acids. The
action, however, is very slow with hydrochloric acid, an oily body
being first formed, possessed of an exceedingly pungent odour ; but
finally a chloride is obtained having the formula

SnC4H5Cl.

This salt produces fine, hard crystals, which are soluble in water,
and, when pure, almost inodorous. A more ready method of ob-
taining this chloride consists in adding the radical, drop by drop, to
a layer of bromine covered with water, until the bromine is decolor-
ized ; the aqueous solution is then decomposed by potash, which pre-
cipitates oxide of stanethyl in the form of a white powder, from
which the pure salts of stanethyl may be readily procured.

The solubility of these salts in aqueous potash has been rather
variously stated by Lowig and Frankland, and also their characters
as odorous and inodorous. The truth is, that unless the salts of
stanethyl are formed from the oxide, they are almost always con-
taminated with the above-mentioned oily chloride, the oxide of which
is soluble in potash. As oxide of stanethyl is not affected by al-
kaline solutions, these two bodies may be separated without diffi-
culty.

The soluble oxide may be recovered from the alkaline solutions by
distillation. It passes over, together with aqueous vapour, in the
form of an exceedingly caustic and pungent oil, which blues litmus,
and has all the characters of a powerful base. Water dissolves it in
moderate quantities, but precipitates it again on the addition of com-
mon salt. When deprived of water, the oily base solidifies into a
crystalline mass.

This oxyde forms definite salts with acids, all more or less pun-
gent. With hydrochloric and hydriodic acids, uncrystallizable bodies,

688

insoluble in water, are produced, but witb sulphuric acid it forms
fine, colourless crystals, which by analysis gave the formula

Sn2C12H15S04orSn2(C4H5)3S04.

For this compound I propose the name of sulphate of distannic
triethyl. It has, in a remarkable degree, the unusual property of
being more soluble in cold than in hot water. A cold saturated
solution becomes semi-solid by raising the temperature somewhat
below ebullition.

A consideration of the elements of the above formula furnished
an idea of these bodies being either double salts, compounded of
one equivalent of stannic diethyl with one equivalent of any salt,
Sn C4 H5 X, or else a combination of three equivalents of stannic di-
ethyl, with one equivalent of an inorganic salt Sn X2, resulting in two
molecules of the sesqui-ethylated salt. Thus

3 Sn (C4 H5)2 + Sn C12=2 Sn2 (C4 H5)3 Cl.

Experiment proves that the former bodies mix, but do not combine
chemically, at any moderate heat. The latter bodies, on the other
hand, exhibit strong chemical action, and disengage great heat during
combination.

Bichloride of tin forms an oily body with stannic diethyl, chiefly
composed of chloride of distannic triethyl, which by treatment with
potash may be made to furnish the corresponding salts without
difficulty.

Iodide of distannic triethyl may often be found amongst the pro-
ducts of the action of tin on iodide of ethyl. It is very probably
identical with the oil noticed by Riche and Cahours, and described
by them as possessing the pungent odour of oil of mustard.

These salts also must be considered to be identical with those
described by Lowig under the somewhat inappropriate name of
" methyl o-stanethyls." The present name is suggested as more in
accordance with their true constitution. They finally pass, by the
action of zincethyl, into the radical stannic diethyl.

The presence of iodide of distannic triethyl amongst the stannic
bodies in Lowig' s experiments can be satisfactorily accounted for, by
presuming the incomplete reduction of the iodides by the alloy of
tin and sodium, employed in the reactions.

The behaviour of zincethyl towards the chlorides of tin may be

689

expressed, step by step, by the following equations, tbe tin-salt being
supposed to be added to the zincethyl : —

I. 2ZnC4H5 + SnCl2=Sn (C4H5)2 +2ZnCl
II. 3Zn C4 H5 + 2Sn C12= Sn2 (C4 H5)3 C1+ 3Zn Cl

III. ZnC4H5+ SnCl2=Sn C4H5 C1+ ZnCl; also

IV. 2Zn C4 H5 + Sn Cl = Sn C4 H5 + Zn C4 H5 + Zn Cl.

Double compound ?

I have failed in satisfactorily separating the radical stannic ethyl
from the excess of zincethyl, as represented in the last reaction. By
the addition of water great heat is generated, and tin is thrown down
in its metallic state.

By distillation also, the radical stannic ethyl is similarly broken up,
2Sn C4 H5= Sn (C4 H5)2 + Sn.

Plumbic diethyl.

In the abstract above alluded to, I have stated the difficulties
which at that time prevented my obtaining the lead radical in a state
of purity. This difficulty arises from its tendency to decompose
suddenly at a point below that of ebullition. This disadvantage is
entirely obviated by conducting the distillation in vacuo, or at least
under reduced atmospheric pressure. The organo- metal was found
to distil unchanged under a pressure of 7*5 inches of mercury at a
temperature of 152° C., the barometer at 30*5 inches. This is a
remarkable lowering of the boiling-point, which at ordinary atmo-
spheric pressures appears to be a few degrees above 200° C.

Analysis gave numbers leading to the formula —
PbC8H10orPb(C4H5)2.

Plumbic diethyl is a limpid and colourless fluid, possessing a
specific gravity of 1*62. It burns with an orange flame, tinged at
the edges with pale green, and disengages whilst burning much oxide
of lead.

The only salts hitherto prepared from this radical seemed formed
on the type of the sesquioxides. By passing excess of hydrochloric-
acid gas over the organo-metal, hydride of ethyl is liberated, and
chloride of diplumbic triethyl is obtained.

2Pb (C4 H5)2 + H Cl=Pb2 (C4 H5)3 C1+C4 H5 H.
The chloride is a fine crystalline body, occurring in long needles,

690

which fuse at a gentle heat, and then take fire, with the character-
istic lead flame.

Oxide of diplumbic triethyl may be obtained by heating any of the
corresponding salts with strong potash, or by acting on a solution of
the chloride with oxide of silver. It is a crystalline body, which
fuses into an oil-like liquid, at a gentle heat.

Sulphuric acid forms an abundant crop of asbestos-like needles
when mixed with a warm solution of the chloride of diplumbic tri-
ethyl. It may also be obtained by neutralizing a solution of the
oxide, and also by the action of sulphate of silver on the chloride.

Analysis furnished numbers which pointed to the formula

Pb2C12H15S04orPb2(C4H5)3S04.

All the salts of this sesqui-ethylated base are volatile, and their
vapours attack the eyes and mucous membrane of the throat. In
this respect they imitate their homologues in the stannic series.

In concluding this short abstract, I will only express my belief
that a wide field of research is still open for inquiry, and that some
promising experiments are at present in hand, from the right under-
standing of which we may hope to throw additional light on these
interesting substances.

IV. " On Muscular Action from an electrical point of view."
By CHARLES BLAND RADCLIFFE, M.D., F.R.C.P., Physician
to the Westminster Hospital, &c. Communicated by
JAMES PAGET, Esq. Ueceived February 6, 1859.
This Paper was read in part.

March 17, 1859.

Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.

The reading of Dr. RADCLIFFE'S Paper, " On Muscular Action

from an electrical point of view," was resumed and concluded.

(Abstract.)

The author begins by observing, that the signs of electrical action
in living muscle die out pari passu with the signs of irritability ;
and, as with these latter signs, their last trace has disappeared
before the occurrence of rigor mortis.

691

It would appear, also, (in so far as electrical action is concerned)
that there is a close agreement between ordinary muscular contrac-
tion and rigor mortis,, for in ordinary muscular contraction, as Prof.
Du Bois Reymond has so well shown, there is a partial disappearance
of electrical action. Professor Matteucci, however, is doubtful as to
this, and he maintains, on the contrary, that at this time the " mus-
cular current" is sometimes reversed, and sometimes increased in
intensity without being reversed.

In his recent experiments Prof. Matteucci uses a galvanometer of
which the ends are so arranged as to get rid of the disturbing
influences of secondary polarity. Instead of being of platinum
immersed in a saturated solution of common salt, as in Prof. Du Bois
Reymond' s arrangement, these ends are of amalgamated zinc im-
mersed in saturated solution of neutral sulphate of zinc. This
arrangement, originally proposed by Dr. Jules Regnault, the author
agrees with Prof. Matteucci in regarding as a great improvement
upon that used by Prof. Du Bois Reymond ; for, says he, " not
only is the disturbing influence of secondary polarity got rid of,
but the entrance of currents into the coil of the galvanometer is
greatly facilitated. Of this I am satisfied after many comparative
trials*."

In the experiment in which Prof. Matteucci finds what he con-
siders to be the proof of the reversal of the muscular current during
contraction, he takes a prepared frog's thigh with a long portion of
nerve attached, and watches the changes of the muscular current

* The galvanometer used by Dr. Radcliffe was made by Mr. Becker, then of New-
man Court, after the pattern of the one used by Prof. Du Bois Reymond. The
gauge of the wire forming the coil is No. 38, or as nearly as possible that of the
pattern coil ; the weight of the wire entering into the coil lib. lloz., the layers of
the coil 154, the number of coilings 20,020, and upwards of three English miles.
The needles are cylindrical, with each end sharpened out into a long point, and
the connecting piece, instead of being made of tortoiseshell, as in Du Bois
Reymond's instrument, is made of aluminium — a difference by which the astatic
system becomes a little lighter, namely, 4'5 grains instead of 4*9 grains. In the
first instance, Dr. Radcliffe used electrodes consisting of a pair of platinum plates
immersed in a saturated solution of common salt (an arrangement recommended
by Du Bois Reymond) ; afterwards he used the electrodes recommended by
Dr. Jules Regnault, and adopted by Prof. Matteucci — electrodes consisting of a
pair of amalgamated zinc plates immersed in a saturated solution of neutral
sulphate of zinc.

VOL. IX. 3 A

692

which is derived from two points of the uncut surface. On laying
the thigh upon the cushions which form the electrodes of the galva-
nometer, the needle diverges under the current of the relaxed muscle ;
on producing contraction by irritating the nerve with a feeble inter-
rupted current, the needle immediately travels back and passes to
the other side of zero. The fact is undeniable, but, according to the
author, the backward movement of the needle does not indicate, as
Prof. Matteucci supposes, a reversal of the muscular current during
contraction. There is, it is true, no secondary polarity in the galva-
nometer to drive the needle back, as in the case where platinum
electrodes are used ; but there may be a tendency to oscillate back-
wards, and the question is whether the mere movement of oscillation
may not be sufficient to account for the phenomena. What must
be done, then, is to compare the rate at which the needle moves
backward during contraction with the rate at which the needle falls
backward in simple oscillation ; and when this is done, the author finds
that the needle moves backward more slowly during contraction than it
does when it is simply left to oscillate in the same direction. It is found,
indeed, that there is no reverse current during contraction, for if
there were, the impulse of this current would be added to the impulse
of oscillation, and (as is the case where the platinum ends are used)
the needle would go backwards more quickly during contraction
than it does when left to fall backwards from the same point under
the influence of simple oscillation. There is also another way of
showing the non-existence of a reverse current during muscular con-
traction, namely, by modifying the experiment in the way which
Prof. Du Bois Reymond employs to get rid of the secondary polarity
of the platinum ends. The only difference between the experiment
as modified and the original experiment is this — that the wire of one
of the electrodes is broken, and the broken ends are connected by
being dipped into a small cup of mercury. An arrangement is thus
made by which the circuit may be easily broken and closed again.
In performing the modified experiment, the degree and direction of
the current of the relaxed muscle is first observed. Then the cir-
cuit is broken by removing the end of the divided electrode out
of the cup of mercury, and the needle is allowed to return to zero.
In the next place, the muscle is tetanized, and while in this state, it
is included in the circuit of the galvanometer by replacing the end

693

of the divided electrode in the mercury. The result is simply this,
that the needle moves in the same direction as that in which it
moved under the current of the relaxed muscle, but not to the
same distance from zero. In other words, the muscular current is
weakened but not changed in direction when the muscle passes into
the state of contraction.

In the experiment in which Prof. Matteucci sees an intensification
of the muscular current during contraction without any change in
direction, he takes a prepared frog, and after preserving a sufficiently
long portion of the sciatic nerve, he amputates the thigh above the
middle joint. Then, taking the lower portion of the amputated
thigh with the nerve attached to it, and placing the cut surface
against an electrode of the galvanometer and the uncut surface
against the other electrode, he watches the needle as it diverges
under the current of the relaxed muscle. After this, he brings about
a state of contraction in the muscle, by irritating the nerve with a
feeble interrupted current, and, looking at the needle, he sees it move
in the same direction as that in which it had already moved under
the current of the relaxed muscle. That is to say, the needle
shows, not weakening or change of direction, but actual intensifica-
tion. On repeating this experiment, the author finds that it is
most difficult to draw any safe conclusion from it ; for in a thigh
prepared in this manner it is almost impossible to keep the same
point of the cut transverse surface in steady opposition to the elec-
trode. Indeed, the necessary effect of contraction is to draw away
the cut end from the electrode, and in this way to interrupt the
entrance of the current of the contracted muscle into the circuit of
the galvanometer. The effect of contraction, moreover, is often to
bring upon the electrode portions of muscle which have not entered
into the state of contraction, and in this way the only current which
finds admission into the galvanometer may be that which is derived
from relaxed muscle. This is often the case, and hence the apparent
intensification of the muscular current during contraction, which is
now and then witnessed in this experiment (it is not always wit-
nessed), may, after all, be due to the irruption of additional quantities
of the current of the relaxed muscle into the galvanometer. At any
rate, the experiment is one from which it is most difficult to draw
any certain conclusions.

3 A2

In ordinary muscular contraction, then, there is good reason to
believe that the muscular current is enfeebled — enfeebled to a degree
approaching very closely to extinction ; and in rigor mortis all traces
of muscular current have disappeared. It appears, indeed, as if
muscular contraction were antagonized by the muscular current.

In tracing out the history of muscular action from an electrical
point of view, the author proceeds, in the next place, to consider
the mode in which the muscular current is affected by the nerve-
current. In doing this, after describing the peculiarities of the
nerve-current, and relating a beautiful experiment of Prof. Du Bois
Reymond, in which it is seen that the nerve-current agrees with the
muscular current in exhibiting a positive loss of force during mus-
cular contraction ; he interprets the reactions which must take place
between the nerve-current aad the muscular current by appealing to
the history of the electrical organ of the torpedo and its congeners.
The interpretation is that the reactions during muscular contraction
are, not between the primary nerve-current and the muscular cur-
tent, but between the muscular current and the secondary or induced
currents which may be supposed to spring into existence when the
primary or inducing nerve- current is suspended or renewed. The
fact that the nerve-current sinks during contraction, is appealed to
as an argument that the primary nerve-current is actually suspended
and renewed during muscular contraction, and that in this manner
the occasions for the appearance of the secondary or induced cur-
rents are thus properly provided for. It is pointed out that the
reactions between the uninterrupted nerve-current and the muscular
current, and between the muscular current and the induced or se-
condary currents which come into play when the primary or inducing
nerve-current is interrupted or renewed, must be altogether different.
With respect to the reactions which take place between the uninter-
rupted nerve- current and the muscular current, there is reason to
believe that these must result in mutual intensification, for the nerve-
current and the muscular current pass in the same direction. At any
rate this is the case in the hind-limbs of the frog, or the fore-limbs
of the same animal, and in the hind-limbs of the rabbit, dog, cat, and
mouse. With respect to the reactions which take place between the
muscular current and the secondary currents which come into play
when the primary or inducing nerve-current is suspended or renewed,

695

there is every reason to believe that the result is altogether different.
In this case, it appears as if the secondary or induced current must
involve, not the intensification, but the discharge of the muscular
current in all the muscle which enters into the circuit of the second-
ary current. For what is the peculiarity of the secondary current ?
It is a current of momentary duration, disappearing almost in the
very instant of its appearing, and carrying along with it in its dis-
charge any electricity it may meet with in its circuit. Hence there
is no difficulty in understanding why the galvanometer should afford
evidence of abatement of the muscular current at the moment when
the nerves are concerned in producing muscular contraction. Nor
is there any difficulty in understanding how contraction should be
brought about by this action of the nerves, if, as there has seemed
some reason to believe, muscular contraction is antagonized by the
presence of the muscular and nerve- currents.

The author proceeds, in the next place, to consider the pheno-
mena which attend upon the action of the ordinary galvanic current
upon the muscular current. In this part it is pointed out that there
is the same broad line to be drawn between the effects of the
primary galvanic current and of the secondary currents which spring
into existence when the inducing or primary current is suspended
or renewed, and by keeping this distinction in mind it is shown that
an intelligible physical reason may be obtained for the differences of
the "direct" and "inverse" currents for "voltaic alternatives,"
and so on. The argument is complicated and not easily reducible
to a few words; it requires, moreover, certain diagrams which
cannot be iised in this abstract, and therefore we will only say that
the conclusion to which it leads, is that there must be a distinct an-
nihilation of the muscular current during muscular contraction when
the muscle contracts under the galvanic current, and that the con-
traction is seen to be most marked when this annihilation is most
complete.

" Reflecting upon these facts and considerations," the author
continues, "there appears to be nothing in the history of ordinary mus-
cular contraction which does not harmonize with the electrical history
of rigor mortis. If the muscular current be present, rigor mortis is
absent, and in this case it seems as if the state of muscular contrac-
tion is antagonized by the muscular current. In ordinary muscular

contraction, to all appearance, it is the same, and when the muscle
is relaxed the muscular or the artificial current is present, and when
the muscle is contracted the muscular current is weakened or anni-
hilated. It seems, indeed, as if the direct effect of the uninterrupted
current, whether natural or artificial, is to antagonize contraction ;
and that this is really the case may be argued finally from the fact
(recently discovered by Dr. Eckhard) that the state of tetanus
is put an end to by the passage of a constant galvanic current
through the tetanized parts.

" Nor is there any reason to suppose that the contraction is pro-
duced by a kind of correlative transmutation of electricity into con-
tractile force. In rigor mortis such an idea is scarcely tenable, for
here the muscular current has died out slowly, and the contraction
has not supervened until the last traces have disappeared. In ordi-
nary contraction, it might be supposed that there had been some
transmutation of the muscular current into contractile force, or that
an electric discharge had served as a stimulus to some vital property
of contractility. But this idea is contradicted (this among other
ways) by the recent investigations of Dr. Harley upon the modus
operandi of strychnia. These investigations prove conclusively that
this poison acts by making the blood less able to appropriate oxygen,
and by impairing the irritability of the muscles. They prove, that
is to say, that strychnia produces contraction, by reducing the
amount of stimulus supplied in the blood, and by rendering the
muscles less capable of responding to any stimulus. I find also
that strychnia exercises a directly depressing influence upon the
nervous and muscular currents. I place the two hind limbs of the
same frog, properly prepared, one in a weak solution of strychnia,
the other in plain water, arid, leaving them to themselves, I find that
the nerve and muscular currents have died out much sooner in the
limb which has been acted upon by the strychnia. Now, in this
case, the limbs have been left to themselves, and it cannot be said
therefore that the nerve and muscular currents have been changed
into contractile force by any kind of correlative transmutation.
Indeed, the facts would only seem to be intelligible .on the suppo-
sition that, electrically considered, the strychnia has brought about
contraction according to the mode which has been set forth in the
preceding pages. Nor on this view is the fact less intelligible, that

697

the respiration of muscle is carried on more energetically in muscles
which are made to contract than in muscles which are allowed to
rest. Prof. Matteucci, who has recently ratified this fact by some
very elaborate investigations, holds that the chemical actions of
muscular respiration are transformed into electricity, and the elec-
trical into contractile force ; but there is just as good reason for
supposing that the increased chemical action may be required to
keep up the muscular current, which current is being continually
annihilated by the actions which bring about contraction. And
thus, after all, the increased respiration of muscles which are made
to contract, may refer, not to the contraction, but to the renewal of
the state of relaxation. At any rate, it is scarcely possible to refer
to this fact as an objection to the view which is set forth in this
paper.

t ' Regarded in an electrical point of view then, there appears to be
good reason for concluding that the history of muscular action is in
harmony with the theory which I have endeavoured to set forth at
various times, and more recently in the second edition of a work
having for its title, ' Epilepsy and other Convulsive Affections, their
Pathology and Treatment : ' — a theory, according to which, in every
case, pathological as well as physiological, muscular contraction is
produced, not by the stimulation of any vital property of con-
tractility belonging to muscle, but by the simple cessation of the
action of certain agents — electricity, nervous influence, and others,
which had previously kept the muscle in a state of relaxation or
expansion."

The following communications were also read : —

I. " On the Action of Carbonic Oxide on Sodium-alcohol." By
J. A. WANKLYN, Esq. Communicated by Professor E.
FRANKLAND. Received February 15, 1859.

Dr. Geuther* found that sodium-alcohol ( 4NaJ / 2 w^en
gently warmed in a stream of carbonic oxide, yielded not pre-
* Annalen der Chem. und Pharm. Jan. 1859.

698

pionate of soda, but formiate of soda, with evolution of olefiant gas.
The reaction, accordingly, might be represented thus : —

'4Na

arid would consist in the replacement of C4 H4 by C2 O2.

On inspection of Dr. Geuther's paper it appeared that the above
reaction was not established with sufficient certainty. The presence
of C4 H4 as a gaseous product was not satisfactorily proved by direct
experiment, but inferred from the production of formiate of soda.

Berthelot has shown that carbonic oxide is capable of uniting
with the hydrated alkalies, so as to form alkaline formiates. Also,
it is extremely difficult, and perhaps impossible, to obtain sodium-
alcohol free from hydrate of soda. It seemed, therefore, not un-
reasonable to suspect that Dr. Geuther's formiate came from hydrate
of soda accompanying the sodium-alcohol employed in his experi-
ments. The investigation about to be described shows that such was
really the case.

Sodium-alcohol, freshly prepared from sodium and anhydrous
alcohol, was introduced into small glass bulbs, and hermetically
sealed therein. One of the bulbs, containing *406 gramme of
crystallized sodium-alcohol, was placed in a flask of 155 cubic
centimetres' capacity. The neck of the flask was contracted
before the blowpipe. Carbonic oxide, after slow passage through
potash solution, and then through sulphuric acid, was next made to
fill the flask by displacement. Finally, the contracted neck of the
flask was closed by fusion, and thus the bulb containing sodium-
alcohol was inclosed in an atmosphere of pure oxide of carbon. By
agitation the inclosed bulb was broken, and its contents came freely
in contact with the carbonic oxide contained in the flask. Particular
attention was paid during this stage of the process, and the fused
sodium-alcohol was seen flowing over the inner surface of the flask.

After a digestion in the water-bath lasting for more than four
hours, the flask was opened under mercury, when a slight contrac-
tion was observed in the volume of its gaseous contents. This con-
traction, amounting to about one-fifth of the entire contents, was due
no doubt partly to absorption of carbonic oxide by traces of hydrate
of soda, and partly to the difference between the temperature at the

699

time of sealing before the blowpipe, and that at the time of opening
under mercury.

The following are the particulars of an examination of the gas
contained in the flask after the four hours' digestion at 100° C.

In order to remove any alcohol vapour, the gas was agitated with
about one-fifth of its volume of boiled distilled water, when it under-
went very little diminution in volume — a circumstance, which shows
that no volatile liquid capable of absorption by water had been gene-
rated during the reaction.

Some of the washed gas was then treated with a potash bullet and
with pyrogallic acid, in order to remove any traces of carbonic acid
and oxygen. The amount of these gases present was very trifling, as
the readings show : —

Volume of gas taken (corrected (dry) at 0° C. and

1000 millims'. pressure) 65-091

Volume of gas after potash and pyrogallic acid
(corrected (dry) at 0° C. and 1000 millims'.
pressure) 64*734

After this treatment a portion of the gas was transferred to the
eudiometer, in which it furnished the following readings : —

Volumes.

Tem-
perature.
Cent.

Pressure.

Corrected
volumes
dry at 0°C
and 1000
millims'.
pressure.

Gas taken (nioist)

148-0

4-9

millims.
202-9

29-500

After the addition of air (moist)
After explosion (moist)

306-5
282-1

5-3

5-7

352-8
330*6

106-077
91-357

After potash (dry)

222-1

5-4

290-0

63-161

After the addition of hydrogen (dry).

294-0
286-4

57
5-9

357-1
350-1

102-884
98-150

From which is deduced : —

Gas taken 29*500

Nitrogen 1*072

In per-centage.

Gas free from nitrogen 28'428 100*00

Carbonic acid 28-196 99*18

Contraction 14*720 51*78

Oxygen consumed 14*488 50*96

700

The theoretical numbers for carbonic oxide and for olefiant gas
are as follows : —

Carbonic oxide. Olefiant gas.

Volume taken 100 100

Carbonic acid 100 200

Contraction 50 200

Oxygen consumed 50 300

Comparison of the analysis with these numbers will show that the
gas was pure oxide of carbon. Furthermore, if we assume that the
trifling departure from the theoretical quantities for pure oxide of
carbon was due to the presence of olefiant gas, and if we calculate
how much olefiant gas would be required, we obtain a negative value
for the quantity of olefiant gas from one equation, and a positive one
from the other equation, viz. : —

By employing for data the original volume and the carbonic acid
generated, the value of C4 H4 is negative.

Vol. of C4H4=vol. of CO2- original vol. = —0-82 per cent.

By employing for data the original volume and the contraction, the
value of C4 H4 becomes positive.

Vol. of C4 H4=f contraction— ^ original vol. = 1 '19 per cent.

This want of conformity shows that C4 H4 will not satisfy the condi-
tions of the case, and may be regarded as excluding the supposition
that a trace even of C4 H4 was present in the gas examined.

When it is considered that on Dr. Geuther's hypothesis every
volume of carbonic acid absorbed should be replaced by an equal
volume of olefiant gas, and when it is borne in mind that sodium-
alcohol and carbonic oxide must have been less perfectly exposed to
mutual action in Dr. Geuther's experiment than in the one just
described, I think the conclusion cannot be avoided, that that expe-
rimenter's formic acid came not from sodium-alcohol, but from
hydrate of soda.

In a previous experiment I failed to obtain propionic acid on
exposing at 100° C. carbonic oxide along with sodium-alcohol, and
in so far my result agrees with that of Dr. Geuther.

To resume : at 100° C. sodium-alcohol is without action on car-
bonic oxide.

This research was made in the laboratory of Prof. Bunsen.

701

II. Postscript to a Paper " On the Deflection of the Plumb-line
in India, caused by the Attraction of the Himalayan
Mountains." By the Venerable Archdeacon PRATT. Com-
municated by Professor STOKES, Sec. R.S. Received
February 21, 1859.

(Abstract.)

Since transmitting his Paper " On the deflection of the Plumb-line
in India caused by the attraction of the Himalaya Mountains*," the
author has had the advantage of seeing the pages of Major R.
Strachey's work on the physical geography of the Himalayas, now
passing through the press ; and being permitted to make use of them,
he availed himself of the important information therein contained to
add a postscript to his former communication.

Major Strachey thinks that none of the numerous ranges commonly
marked on maps of Thibet, have any special definite existence as
mountain chains, apart from the general mass of the table-land ; and
that this country should not be considered to be as if in the interval
between the two so-called chains of the Himalaya and Kouenlun,
but that it is in reality the summit of a great protuberance, above
the general level of the earth's surface, of which the supposed
Kouenlun and Himalaya are nothing more than the north and south
faces, while the other ranges are but corrugations of the table-land
more or less marked. The plains of India which skirt the foot of
the table-land, to an extent of 1500 miles, nowhere have an elevation
exceeding 1 200 feet above the sea, the average being much less ; and
there is reason to think that the northern plateau of Yarkend and
Khotan, like the country about Bukhara, lies at a very small eleva-
tion, probably not more than 1000 or 2000 feet above the sea,
while on the borders of the Caspian the surface descends below the
sea-level.

On comparing the information contained in Major Strachey* s work
with the assumptions as to height above the sea-level, adopted by
the author in his former paper from the best data then in his pos-
session, it appears that the mean height of the table-land was con-
siderably under-estimated ; while on the other hand attracting masses
were supposed to lie still further north which really have no existence.

* Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. ix. p. 493.

702

The author has not recomputed the total attraction of all the dis-
turbing masses, but has merely given in this postscript a computation
of the meridional component of the attraction of the table-land alone.
In accordance with the new information, the height of the table-land
is assumed to be uniform, and to be equal to 2|- miles above the level
of Kaliana, that is, about 15,000 feet above the sea-level. The
resulting northern deflections are as follows : —

At Kaliana 19"'85

AtKalianpur .... 10"- 28
At Damargida .... 4"'29

Hence the errors produced in the astronomical amplitudes will be
9"'57 and 5"'99, which much exceed the errors (5"*236 and — 3"'791)
brought to light by the survey, on the assumption that the ellipticity
of the Indian arc is the mean ellipticity of the whole earth ; and the
discrepancy will be still further increased when the attraction of the
nearer masses is also taken into account.

The new information regarding the nature of the country north of
the Himalayas does not, it thus appears, relieve the subject of its
difficulties ; and no geodetic calculations can be of service in the
problem of the figure of the earth, nor indeed in mapping the country
with extreme precision, till these perplexities are removed by the
deflection being found and allowed for.

March 24/A, 1859.

Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.
The following communications were read : —

I. " On the Conic of Five-pointic Contact at any point of a Plane
Curve." By A. CAYLEY, Esq., F.R.S. Received March 1,

1859.

(Abstract.)

The tangent is a line passing through two consecutive points of a
plane curve, and we may in like manner consider the conic which
passes through five consecutive points of a plane curve ; and as there
are certain singular points, viz. the points of inflexion, where three
consecutive points of the curve lie in a line, so there are singular

703

points where six consecutive points of the curve lie in a conic. In
the particular case where the given curve is a cubic, the last-men-
tioned species of singular points have heen considered by PKicker
and Steiner, and in the same particular case, the theory of the conic
of five-pointic contact has recently been established by Mr. Salmon.
But the general case, where the curve is of any order whatever, has
not, so far as I am aware, been hitherto considered ; — the establish-
ment of this theory is the object of the present memoir.

II. "On the Vertebral Characters of the Order Pterosauria (Ow.)
as exemplified in the Genera Pterodactylus (Cuv.) and Di-
morphodon (Ow.)." By Professor OWEN, F.R.S. &c. Re-
ceived February 23, 1859.

(Abstract.)

After mentioning various considerations which have tended to
invest the question of the vertebral characters of the Pterodactyles
with peculiar interest ; above all, in reference to carrying out the
comparison of their skeleton with that of birds ; the author alludes
to the scanty information on the subject already on record, which —
with the exception of a remark of Professor Quensted as to the
apparently procoelian characters observed by him in a dorsal ver-
tebra of Pterodactylus Suevicus, and the apparent want of the
trochlear form in the cervical articulations of that animal— affords no
available data for comparing the vertebral mechanism of these rep-
tiles with that of other vertebrata adapted for flight; he then
gives a summary of his own observations, made, as opportunities
presented themselves, for some years past.

From investigations of species of Pterosauria extending from the
period of the Lias, as exemplified by the Dimorphodon macronyx, to
the upper green-sand, as exemplified by the Pterodactylus Sedgwickii
and Pter. Fittoni, the author has ascertained the fact, that, with
respect to the cervical and dorso-lumbar vertebrae, the terminal ar-
ticular surfaces of the vertebral bodies are simply concave anteriorly
and convex posteriorly, and that they consequently manifest the
earliest known instance of the " procoelian " type which now pre-
vails in the reptilian class. But in no other reptile are those arti-

704

cular surfaces so narrow vertically, in proportion to their breadth,
as they are in the cervical vertebrae of the Pterosauria : in the
dorsal series the cup and ball present more ordinary Saurian pro-
portions.

Besides these principal and more general characters, those also which
distinguish the vertebrae of the several regions of the spine, together
with the specialities of the atlas and axis, and of other individual
vertebrae, are pointed out and described.

The Paper is illustrated by numerous figures, which (excepting
two from the Aptenodytes) belong to the Pterodactyle.

March 31, 1859.
Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.

The following communications were read : —

I. "The Higher Theory of Elliptic Integrals, treated from
Jacobi's Functions as its basis." By F. W. NEWMAN, Esq.,
M.A., Professor of Latin in University College, London.
Communicated by the Rev. Dr. BOOTH. Received March

3, 1859.

(Abstract.)

The peculiarly beautiful properties of these integrals, as treated by
Jacobi and (in his two supplements) by Legendre, are obtained
through so very elaborate and difficult a process, that few students
can afford the time to study them. Professor De Morgan, in his
* Integral Calculus/ declines to enter even the Lower Theory, on the
ground that the subject requires a detailed treatise. That in some
sense it is analogous to trigonometry, which no one would desire to
be treated fully in the differential and integral calculus, has been re-
cognized by several writers. Legendre, in his second supplement,
sixth section, took the first steps toward treating Jacobi' s functions
(A and 0) on a wholly independent basis, by investigating their pro-
perties from the series which they represent: but after only two
pages of this sort, he aids his research by assuming their relations

705

to elliptic integrals as already established, which shows that he was
not seeking for a new basis of argument, but only for new proper-
ties. The author of the present paper proposes (for didactic pur-
poses) to commence the higher theory from these functions. The
first division of his essay is purely algebraic and trigonometrical, not
introducing the idea of elliptic integrals at all. Adopting as the defi-
nition of the functions A and 0 the two equations

A(q, ,z>) = 2<^(sin,r— q*''2sin3x + q2-3 sin 5x— &c.)

6(q, x)=l—2q1'1 cos 2x + 2q2-2 cos 4r— 2^3>3cos 6# + &c.

it demonstrates by direct algebraic methods many properties of great
generality, of which we shall here specify —

1. If Vb stands for 6/g> T°), and Vc for Afo^, which is

" &i*0

shown to yield 62+ c2= 1 ; and if, further, A° 0° stand for A(q, x + JTT),
Q(q, X + %TT); we get the four equations (equivalent to two only)

A2+ £A02=c02 ; A02+ £A2=c002 ;

from which it directly follows, that if w is an arc defined by the

equation Vb tan w= — ^, we shall have simultaneously Vc sin w=— ;
A 0

Vc cos w= Vb — ; A/(! -c2sin2o>)= Vb — . The symbol A(c, a,),
0 0

A(w) or A represents V(l — c2 sin2 w) in this theory.
2. It is further shown that

dx
whence is easily obtained

dx dx dx

3. By direct multiplication of two trigonometrical series, it is
found that

)A°(?, y)= A(?2, x-y).Q(q\ x+y)

\ x+y)
,^ + y).
From the property marked (2) we obtain the connexion of the func-

706
tions A, 0 with elliptic integrals. For, if F(c, w), as usual, stands for

f _ *»

JXO-c2sm2u,)'
it yields

*• "XX. ;«$$=£

This introduces the second and principal part of the essay. An easy
inference from (3) is, that

and consequently that if rj is related to (f and to x -f y by the same
law as w is to q and to x, while c/ is to q2 what c is to q, we obtain

4. -

when F(e,,,)_F(c.M

-

This formula has the peculiarity of comprising Euler's integrals,
with the integrations of Lagrange and of Gauss; namely, if w=0,
we get the scale of Lagrange. If 0=0, the scale of Gauss is ob-
tained. But if we introduce a new variable £, such that

we eliminate rj by aid of the last result

and obtain

which is equivalent to Euler's integration.

The author believes this generalization to be new.

5. He proceeds (assuming now the theory of Lagrange' s scale) to
prove the higher theorems by much simpler processes. E being the

second elliptic integral, he writes G for E — ~ F, and V for J0Gc?F,

and out of the integration Jlog A=|V/— V (where V, is to (f and
2x, what V is to q and x), he deduces

707

by a process fundamentally that of Legendre, Second Supplement,
§ 196. This is the equation by which E, and indirectly the third
integral II, is linked to the functions A9.

6. We may further point out, as perhaps new, the developments of
A9 in the case when q is very near to 1 . Let r be related to b as

q to c; then log-.log-=?r2. If log -=TT«, and #=7rw,

q r g.

in which the double sign denotes two terms, which must both be in-
cluded. But besides, if the symbol p(r) stand for

From these formulae not only all of Gudermann's developments
for calculating elliptic integrals in every case are deducible, but
others also, it seems, of a remarkable aspect, in the difficult case of
q and c being extremely near to 1 .

We produce the two which seem to be simplest. Let B be to b

what C is to c, and Tan x represent ^-^, where 2 Sin x stands for

Cos a?

c*— e~x and 2 Cos x for ex +6"-*. Then when c is very near to 1,
we compute G and thereby E from the series,

The third elliptic integral is in the same case deduced from a series
of the form

?~2* ..;•- (;-tan-Vtan; -Tan^H + 0-tan-iAaiy .Tan^^H

VOL. IX. 3 B

708

Finally, the essay developes above thirty series which rise out of
this theory, nearly all of which are believed to be new. The most
elegant of them may find a place here. Writing, for conciseness, C
so related to c that F(c, |7r)=|7rC, and .-. F(c w)=C#, we have

. \ , sin 2x . i sin 4x , , sin 6x . 0

{a). w=# + — — +J.— - _+l. — \-&c.

A Cos27r0 * Cos3?ra

2 cos 2# 2 cos 4*

/,A

(e). .

sm ?r« sin 27ra sin 3?ra

This is virtually eq. 49 of Legendre's Second Supplement, § 7.
In eq. 53 of the same, he has a development of sin2 w, which is given
by Mr. Newman in a notation similar to eq. (c) above.

sin a? . sin 3x , sin 5x

— — - — + ^— ^ — + KT— -E —
Sin i?ra Sin |TT« Sm f ?r«

cos a? . cosSa? . cosoa?

sin5a? . 0
+

Moreover, Jacobi's two celebrated theorems follow as a corollary from
the general propositions here established.

II. " On the Comparison of Hyperbolic Arcs." By C. W. MER-
RIFIELD, Esq. Communicated by the Rev. Dr. BOOTH.
Received March 3, 1859.

(Abstract.)

If in common trigonometry we take one arc equal to the sum of
two others, the cosine of the first arc is equal to the product of the
cosines, diminished by the product of the sines of the other two.

709

If we pass from the circle to the ellipse, the addition of the arcs
becomes more complicated, the product of the sines being multiplied
by a radical. This relation was first obtained by Euler as the inte-
gral of a differential equation. I have called it elsewhere, for con-
venience, the elliptic equation between three amplitudes. Moreover,
we are no longer able to take the simple sum of the arcs, but we have
to add in an algebraic quantity, which is a multiple of the products
of the sines of the three amplitudes.

The comparison of hyperbolic arcs hitherto has been matter of
still greater complexity, as it has been usually handled simply by
reducing each hyperbolic arc to two elliptic arcs. The complexity,
of course, is thus doubled.

It seemed to me, however, that the ellipse is so completely the
analogue of the hyperbola, and that it is so easy to pass from one to
the other by an imaginary transformation, that a similar analogy
ought to pervade the comparison of their arcs. Hence that there
must exist some formula for the comparison of hyperbolic arcs, as
simple as that for elliptic arcs.

A slight modification of Jacobi's second theorem has enabled me to
find the analogue which I required.

If we take Euler' s elliptic equation, and substitute the following
changes, —

cosine of amplitude into secant of amplitude,
sine of amplitude into tangent amplitude x V'— 1,
sine of modulus into cosine of modulus,

we leave the equation entirely unaltered, except in form. Even this
form may be obtained directly by a simple transformation, of purely
algebraic character. Hence it follows that all the consequences of
this imaginary transformation are allowable.

If we apply these transformations to the elliptic integral of the
first kind, we have Jacobi's second theorem.

If we apply them to the integral of the second kind, which repre-
sents the elliptic arc, we pass, after an obvious reduction, to the arc
of the hyperbola. The algebraic addition to the sum of the arcs is
simply changed from a product of sines to a product of tangents.

Other considerations enable us to verify the theorem, when once
it is obtained. These verifications are merely algebraic, and would
scarcely be intelligible if read aloud.

710

I have made use of my formulae in the reduction of one class of
the elliptic integral of the third kind for the purposes of tabulation.

In its ordinary form, this function has three variables, and, as
Legendre justly remarks, a table of treble entry would be intolerable.
If, therefore, it is to be tabulated at all, the first step in the question
is to reduce it to a form involving two variables. By the help of
some theorems of Jacobi, Legendre succeeded in effecting this where
the elliptic function of the third kind has its parameter negative and
less than the square of the modulus.

By the help of my formula, I have succeeded in reducing the case
where the parameter is negative and greater than unity. The steps
are the mere counterpart of Legendre' s work in the second supple-
ment of the treatise on Elliptic Functions.

Both Legendre' s case and mine are of the logarithmic form, and
can therefore be reduced to one another by algebraic transformation.
The cases where the parameter is positive, or negative and interme-
diate between unity and the square of the modulus, are still unre-
duced. The difficulty is exactly analogous to that between the two
cases of cubic equations, and this analogy is even carried into the
very form of the solution.

Dr. Booth's application of the trigonometry of the parabola to the
reducible case of the cubic equation, affords some hope that a corre-
lative calculus may exist, particular cases of which may solve the
cases now irreducible, just as the calculus of elliptic functions in-
cludes the trigonometry both of the parabola and the circle. My
own investigations on this subject are still without any useful result.

Let

cos 0! = cos 02 cos 03 — sin 02 sin 03 V 1 — sin2 0 sin2 0X ;

_r

J (l-si

sin20sin20)*'
E0=j" (1 -sin2 0 sm20)*rf0,

r, f cos2 Od<j>

J (I -sin2 0 sin2 0)* cos20<fy'

(1) Ffc-F,, + F,,=0

(2) E0X— E02 + E03=sin2 0 sin 0X sin 02 sin 03

(3) Y01-Y02 + Y03= -cos2 0 tan 01 tan 02 tan 03

711

III. "On the Oxidation of Glycol, and on some Salts of Gly-
oxylic Acid." By H. DEBUS, Ph.D. Communicated by
Dr. TYNDALL. Received March 16, 1859.

(Abstract.)

If glycol be oxidized with nitric acid, according to Wurtz*, it
is converted into gly colic and oxalic acids.

C2H002 + 02 = C2H403 + H20

Glycol. Glycolic acid. Water.

C2H,02 + 04 = C2H204 + 2JMH

Glycol. Oxalic acid. Water.

As the formation of these acids from glycol is analogous to the pro-
duction of acetic acid from ethylic alcohol, it may be assumed that
the bibasic oxalic acid stands to the biatomic glycol in the same rela-
tion as the fatty acids do to their corresponding alcohols. Alcohol
is not converted at once into acetic acid, an intermediate substance —
aldehyde — being formed. The formation of a similar body from gly-
col is highly probable. If two or four atoms of hydrogen be removed
from glycol, an aldehyde of the composition of acetic acid or of the
formula C2 H2 O2 may be produced. Glyoxal, obtained by the oxida-
tion of ethylic alcohol, has indeed the composition corresponding to
the above formula and the characteristic properties of an aldehyde.
Nitric acid converts it rapidly into oxalic acid. Consequently glycol,
glyoxal, and oxalic acid bear a similar relation to each other as ethylic
alcohol, aldehyde, and acetic do.

C2H60

Alcohol. Aldehyde. Acetic acid.

Glycol. Glyoxal. Oxalic acid.

Another connexion between glycol and glyoxal is that they both pro-
duce glycolic acid, the former by oxidation, and the latter by combi-

* Comp. Rend. xliv. 1306. f C = 12, H = l, 0 = 16.

712

nation with one atom of water. I treated glycol, which was diluted
with water, with fuming nitric acid at about 30° C., and evaporated
the acid liquid, as soon as the action was completed, on the water-
bath until it assumed the consistency of syrup * . This residue was
found to contain, as previously shown by Wurtz, oxalic and glycolic
acids ; but I also found therein glyoxylic acid and a body which com-
ported itself with some reagents like glyoxal. Want of material,
however, prevented its being identified with the latter.

Before I proceed to make some observations on these facts, I shall
first mention a few salts of glyoxylic acid not yet described.

Glyoxylate of silver, C2 H AgO3 + H2 O,

is obtained as a white crystalline powder when nitrate of silver is
precipitated with glyoxylate of ammonia. This salt is but slightly
soluble in cold water, and is decomposed by light with great rapidity.

Glyoxylate of baryta, C2 HBaO3 + 2H2 O.

Diluted glyoxylic acid is digested at common temperatures with car-
bonate of baryta untirthe acid is completely neutralized, and the fil-
tered solution evaporated in vacuo. As soon as the liquid has arrived
at a certain degree of concentration, small white crystals of glyoxylate
of baryta begin to separate. This compound is partially decomposed
into oxalate of baryta and glycolic acid if it be heated to 120° C., or
if the temperature of its watery solution be raised to the boiling-
point. With nitrate of silver, acetate of lead, and lime-water, it com-
ports itself like glyoxylate of lime.

Glyoxylate of zinc, C2 Zn2 O3 + 2H2 O,

is produced as a white crystalline precipitate when a strong solution
of glyoxylate of lime is precipitated with acetate of zinc. This
compound is slightly soluble in water, but is easily dissolved by
acetic and hydrochloric acids and by caustic potash. The two atoms
of water cannot be removed without decomposing the salt.

Glyoxylate of ammonia, C2 H (NH4) O3.

This compound was prepared by precipitating glyoxylate of lime
with its equivalent quantity of oxalate of ammonia, and evaporating

* " On the Action of Nitric Acid on Alcohol," Phil. Mag. Jan. 1857; Ann. der
Chem. und Pharm. cii. 26.

713

the filtrate from the oxalate of lime over sulphuric acid in vacua,
The glyoxylate of ammonia is obtained in small, prismatic and colour-
less crystals, which dissolve easily in water. The concentrated solu-
tion turns yellow when it is boiled, or evaporated at 100° C. It pro-
duces with nitrate of silver and acetate of lead crystalline precipitates
at once, but with sulphate of copper only after the lapse of some
time. . Solution of caustic potash, mixed with it, causes the evolution
of ammonia even at common temperatures.

According to the composition of glyoxylate of ammonia, the for-
mula of glyoxylic acid is C2 H2 O3*. It is worthy of notice, that the
other salts of this acid which have been examined, contain one or two
atoms of water which cannot be expelled without decomposing the
compound.

Glyoxal is oxidized, by treatment with dilute nitric acid, into oxalic
acid, and as an intermediate substance glyoxylic acid is formed.

C2 H2 02 = Glyoxal.

C2 H2 O3 = Glyoxylic acid.

C2 H2 O4 = Oxalic acid.

Glyoxal has not been proved with certainty to be one of the pro-
ducts of the oxidation of glycol ; nevertheless its formation from this
alcohol may be foreseen with great probability, as it stands to gly-
oxylic and oxalic acids, both of which are formed by the oxidation of
glycol, as ethylic aldehyde does to acetic acid. The relation of gly-
oxylic to oxalic acid is like that of sulphurous to sulphuric acid.

Glyoxylic acid. Sulphurous acid.

SH204

Oxalic acid. Sulphuric acid.

Glyoxylic acid resembles in many respects formic acid/ Concen-
trated sulphuric acid separates from the salts of formic acid carbonic
oxide, whilst it combines with the rest of the constituents. Glyoxy-
late of lime dissolves in an excess of sulphuric acid, and the solution
evolves at a temperature of from 40° to 50° C., without blackening,
pure carbonic oxide. At the end of the experiment, and when the

* " On Glyoxal," Phil. Mag. Jan. 1857 ; Ann. der Chem. und Pharm. cii. 29.

714

temperature of the liquid is raised, a little sulphurous acid makes its
appearance.

Relying on Berthelot's experiments, formic acid we can conceive
to be formed by the addition of the molecule carbonyle to the type
water. In the same manner glyoxylic acid might be produced by
adding oxalyle to one atom of water.
CO + H20

Formic acid.

C2O2 + H2O

Glyoxylic acid.

Since both acids are easily oxidized, the one to carbonic, and the
other to oxalic acid, we may say that, with regard to composition,
formic acid stands to carbonic acid in a similar relation as glyoxylic
acid does to oxalic acid.

CO + H2 O =CH2 02 C2 02+H2 O = C2 H2 O3

Formic acid. Glyoxylic acid.

02=CH203 C202 + H202=C2H204

Carbonic acid Oxalic acid,

plus water.

But with regard to other properties, these acids do not correspond
to each other : thus formic acid is monobasic and carbonic acid biba-
sic, whilst both glyoxylic and oxalic acids are biatomic. Further,
the latter two are derived from the same alcohol, which is not the
case with carbonic and formic acids. Amongst the products of the
oxidation of glycol occurs also glycolic acid, which is produced from
glyoxal by the assimilation of water.

C2H202+H20=C2H403

Glyoxal. Glycolic acid.

Some regard glycolic acid (C2 H4 O3) as a bibasic acid. According
to this view, it would stand to glycol as acetic acid does to common

alcohol.

C2H60

Alcohol.

C2H4Oa

Glycolic acid. Acetic acid.

715

But with this view the capacity of saturation of gly colic acid does
not agree. For according to our present experience, if we adopt the
formula C2 H4 O3, it evidently combines only with one atom of base.
Before we have discovered compounds represented by the general
expression C2 H2 M2 O3, I think we are not justified to place gly colic
acid in the same relation to glycol as we do acetic acid to common
alcohol. According to our present knowledge, this position must be
assigned to oxalic acid.

We can represent to our minds the derivation of gly colic acid
from acetic acid in the following manner. If in acetic acid one atom
of hydrogen be replaced by peroxide of hydrogen, we obtain a body
which has the composition of glycolic acid.

C2 H4 O2 = acetic acid.

C2 H3 (HO) O2=glycolic acid.

But, according to the following observations, this view appears not
to be correct ; for glycolic acid can be formed from glycolide and
water, and probably also again can be resolved into these two sub-
stances in the same way as lactid and water by their union produce
lactic acid, and the decomposition of the latter by heat yields lactid
again. If, therefore, peroxide of hydrogen be contained in glycolic
acid, it must be present in glycolide.

If monochlorinated acetate of potash be decomposed, according to
Kekule, glycolic acid and glycolide are formed. The formation of the
latter precedes that of the glycolic acid ; but if the monochlorinated
acetate of potash could be obtained anhydrous, no doubt only glyco-
lide would result from its decomposition. The monochlorinated
acetate of potash can be represented as consisting of three parts, — of
potassium, of oxygen, and of chlorinated acetyle.

C2H2C10J0

At a higher temperature chlorine and potassium form chloride of
potassium. After the removal of the chlorine, the chlorinated ace-
tyle is converted into the biatomic radical C2 H2 O, which unites
with one atom of oxygen, and forms glycolide.

K J

716

According to its formation, the glycolide cannot contain any peroxide
of hydrogen, and consequently it appears that also gly colic acid can-
not be considered as acetic acid wherein one atom of hydrogen has
been replaced by peroxide of hydrogen.

I beg to conclude with an empirical derivation of several of the
compounds mentioned from hydruret of ethyl.

C2 H2 H2 H2 = Hydruret of ethyl.

C2 H2 H2 O = Aldehyde.

C2H2O O = Glyoxal and glycolide.

C2 O O O = Anhydrous oxalic acid.

C2H2H2H2+O = Alcohol.

C2 H2 H2 O + O = Acetic acid.

C2 H2 O O + O = Glyoxylic acid.

C2O O O +O = Carbonic acid.

C2H2H2H2 + H20=C2H80.

C2H2H2O + H2O=Glycol.

C2 H2 O O +H2 O=Glycolic acid.

C20 O O + H20=0xalicacid.

April 7, 1859.
Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.

The following communications were read : —

I. " On Colour-Blindness/' By WILLIAM POLE, Esq. Com-
municated by Professor STOKES, Sec.R.S. Received March
24, 1859.

This paper consists principally of a revised and condensed version
of a former one by the same author, which was read to the Society
on the 19th of June, 1856, and of which an abstract is given in
the 'Proceedings' under that date (vol. viii. p. 172). In the pre-
sent communication there is added an account of numerous experi-
ments subsequently made by the author with Professor Maxwell's
Colour- top.

717

II. " On the Construction of Life-Tables ; illustrated by a New
Life-Table of the Healthy Districts of England." By
WILLIAM FARR, M.D., F.R.S., Superintendent of the Sta-
tistical Department, General Register-Office. Received
March 17, 1859.

(Abstract.)

The Transactions of the Royal Society contain the first Life-Table :
it was constructed by Halley, who discovered its remarkable proper-
ties, and illustrated some of its applications.

With better data improved methods have been found out, and the
form has been extended so as to facilitate the solution of various
questions.

In deducing the English Life-Tables from the National Returns, I
have had occasion to try various methods of construction ; and I now
propose to describe briefly the nature of the Life-Table, to lay down
a simple method of construction, to describe an extension of its form,
and to illustrate this by a new Table representing the vitality of the
healthiest part of the population of England.

The Life-Table is an instrument of investigation ; it may be called
a biometer, for it gives the exact measure of the duration of life under
given circumstances. Such a Table has to be constructed for each
district and for each profession, to determine their degrees of salu-
brity. To multiply these constructions, then, it is necessary to lay
down rules, which, while they involve a minimum amount of arith-
metical labour, will yield results as correct as can be obtained in the
present state of our observations.

A Life-Table represents a generation of men passing through time ;
and tii ^ under this aspect, dating from birth, is called age. In the
first column of a Life-Table age is expressed in years, commencing
at 0 (birth), and proceeding to 100 or to 110 years, the extreme
limit of observed lifetime. Annexed is an outline of the two primary
series of the Life-Table, representing the surviving at each year of
age (Ig), and the first differences representing the dying (dx)> in annual
intervals of age.

718

Age.

Dying.

Living.

Age.

Dying.

Living.

X.

rf*.

I*.

X.

d*.

I*.

0

10,295

100,000

40

618

63,756

1

3,005

89,705

50

722

57,203

2

1,885

86,700

60

1123

48,855

3

1,305

84,815

70

1825

34,278

4

1,051

83,510

80

1803

14,971

5

847

82,459

90

555

2,265

10

347

79,525

100

19

46

20

552

75,600

106

1

1

30

598

69,792

The Table may be read thus: of 100,000 children born, 10,295
die in the first year, 89,705 survive.

It will be observed that, upon the hypothesis that the annual
births equal the annual deaths in number, and that the law of mortal-
ity remains invariable, the series of the living (4) can be constructed
from the series of numbers (<4) representing the dying, or from the
numbers dying at different ages, as returned in the parish registers.
That course was adopted by Halley, and afterwards by Dr. Price, in
constructing the Northampton Table. But the hypothesis of an
invariable annual number of births equalling the deaths has never
been verified by observation, and consequently tables on the plan of
Halley' s are often exceedingly erroneous. In the healthiest districts
of England the births were 29,715, the deaths 17,469 annually : a
Table constructed upon that plan, like Dr. Price's, makes the mean
lifetime — or as it is sometimes called, the expectation of life — for
Northampton, 25 years, while the mean lifetime by a correct
Northampton Table is 38 years.

It is shown by a diagram that if age (x) is represented by the
abscissas, the numbers living (£#) will be represented by the ordinates
of a curve. De Moivre constructed this curve by assuming that
the series lx is from the age 12 to 86, in arithmetical progression;
decreasing thus, 74, 73, 72 ... 3, 2, 1, 0. By another hypothesis,
the rate of mortality is assumed to decrease or to increase in geome-
trical progression at different rates in different periods of life ; and
it is found that this hypothesis represents the results deduced from
the observed facts approximative^.

As vy the velocity, expresses a ratio, so m, the rate of mortality,
is the ratio of the number dying to the number living in a unit of

719

time. Now if y represent the living at a definite age, and r the rate
at which the mortality increases at that point of age, then mrz will
be the rate of mortality after the lapse of z units of time. The
decrement of y in an infinitely short time will be dy=ymrxdz.
This was pointed out by Mr. Gompertz, and Mr. Edmonds subse-
quently extended the theory. This expression can be integrated,

£W>
and the final equation of the corrected integral is y=10 ;

where \ is put for the common logarithm, and k for its modulus.

Either of the hypotheses gives a close approximation to the exact
result, within short intervals of time ; and the results by the two
hypotheses agree at the principal ages after 20, when they can be
fairly tested. Thus, if the rate of mortality in any year of age (x to
x-}- 1) is m, then

It is here assumed that m is known ; and putting px for — J~ ,

we have pxlx= lx+\ ; and have thus the means of passing from the
numbers living at the age x to the numbers living at the age x + 1 .
But upon the other hypothesis, y0 being =1, then

Wm

*,=yi=10^

Upon the two hypotheses,

Xpao=T'9966528 by the one, and T'9966527 by the other;

^40= ^'9956263 by the one hypothesis, and T'9956264 by the other.

At 80 there is some divergence. I have adopted the latter hypo-
thesis generally ; but the other hypothesis is at some of the earlier
ages preferred. I have only adopted these hypotheses within the
safe limits of a single year in determining eleven values of \px, which
I have afterwards interpolated by the method of finite differences ;
thus assuming that the third difference was constant. This gives, I
conceive, as near an approximation as we can obtain in the present
state of the observations.

\px is the first difference of the series \4; and consequently it
can be constructed by four orders of differences, on the assumption
that no error of consequence is caused by assuming that within given
limits the fourth difference is constant.

720

o
51-311

V

i— i F-I CO it5 <M

0 TJ< GO ^ O
t>» CO

I

w

111 If

CO C^l t^ *•"* O^

e<foo jgT;gf(9f

Cw CC OO QO CO

oo co co oo

»O «O

oco»

§;

§U5O
I— i I-H

L^00."?.

O"cO~'-''"-J"'-^

j

fj

OS CO O «0 CO

1

1

**:*

W

ft

OS CO OS xo U5

"^ -Tt< <N I-H

1

SQ

1

SSS3-

Sweden.

;^i

63 Healthy
Districts.

01 co o m «o
•^ •** co ^^

1

1!

i— i O b-."# if*

W 2

Carlisle.

%^%2<*

1

°i^§g

721

The new Life-Tables consist of three sections, — the first represent-
ing persons, the second males, and the third females, each section
consisting of six columns. On the opposite page is an extract from
the first of the sectional Tables.

The properties of these columns are described, and a collection of
useful formulas is added. The curious and useful properties of the
new column y are illustrated.

The mean annual mortality in England was at the rate of 22 in
1000; but in eighteen districts the mortality ranged from 28 to 36
in 1000, and in sixty-four districts the mortality ranged from 15
to 16 and 17 in 1000 ; in the other districts it was at intermediate
rates. The Table has been constructed from sixty-three of the
districts in which the mortality did not exceed 17 in 1000.

Halley first pointed out some of the financial applications of the
Life-Table, and the new Table shows that the mean duration of life
among large classes of the population exceeds considerably the ex-
pectations of life deduced from the ordinary Tables. The science of
public health has been developed since Halley' s day ; and here a
new application of the Life-Table is found. If we ascertain at what
rate a generation of men die away under the least unfavourable
existing circumstances, we obtain a standard by which the loss of
life under other circumstances is measured ; and this I have endea-
voured to accomplish in the New Life-Table. And recollecting that
the science of public health was almost inaugurated in England by a
former President of this Society, who crowned the sanitary dis-
coveries of Captain Cook, I feel assured that the Society will receive
with favour this imperfect attempt to supply sanitary inquirers with
a scientific instrument.

722

April 14, 1859.

Sir BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, Bart., President, in the Chair.
The following communications were read : —

I. "On the means by which the Actiniae kill their Prey." By
AUGUSTUS WALLER, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Physiology
in Queen's College, Birmingham. In a Letter to Dr.
SHARPEY, Sec. R.S. Received March 11, 1859.

In the ' Proceedings of the Royal Society' for the 18th November,
p. 478, I perceive that Dr. McDonnell's fresh observations on the
Actiniae have led him to abandon the opinion which he had been
disposed to entertain as to their possessing electrical powers similar
to those of the torpedo. During a stay at the sea-side in the winter
of 1857-58, I put in hand some experiments for the purpose of
testing the supposed electrical powers of these animals, which, as
I some months since mentioned to you, led me to negative con-
clusions relative to their siderant power. Dr. McDonnell's recent
observations having removed any occasion of controversy, I will
briefly mention the results that I obtained.

The most interesting fact observed by Dr. McDonnell is the
contraction of the galvanoscopic frog when the Actinia seized upon
the sciatic nerve. On repeating this experiment, I was particularly
struck by the uncertainty and irregularity with which these con-
tractions were obtained, being sometimes very strong, while at others
they were imperceptible, notwithstanding all the precautions that I
could take as to the frogs being fresh caught and irritable, besides
attending to the rules laid down by Matteucci.

On the other hand, when, in lieu of a galvanoscopic frog, I pre-
sented a Nereis to the Actinia, the result was invariably the death of
the animal. The effect of the Actinia's grasp upon the Annulata is
mortal, although the retention may not have been allowed to exceed
a few moments. The first symptom which I observed was that of
writhing, as if the creature were in great pain, and which in the
most marked cases was succeeded by paralysis with flaccidity of the
muscles, like a frog acted upon by woorara. The action of the

723

dorsal vessel, which still persisted long after the loss of voluntary
power, was very irregular and segmental, the vessel being bloodless
and inert at intervals.

It appeared indifferent whether the cephalic or the caudal ex-
tremity of the Nereis was attacked by the Actinia, similar symptoms
being produced in both cases.

In order to ascertain how far these symptoms were produced by
electricity, I subjected the. Nereis enclosed in a glass tube to some
violent shocks by means of an electro-magnetic machine, which were
merely productive of a slight temporary inconvenience to the animal,
unattended by any after evil effects. It is most remarkable what
powerful electric action these creatures are susceptible of enduring
without injury ; the strongest action of an electro-magnetic machine
on Du Bois Reymond's principle, which affected myself violently up
to the elbows, appeared to be easily endured by them.

The above experiment is quite sufficient to show how impossible it
is to attribute the fatal influence of the Actiniae to simple electrical
action.

In order to elucidate the real power of the Actiniae — after having
in vain exposed the finger on which the cuticle had been softened by
soaking in water — considering that the tongue was better adapted
for the purpose in view, by reason of the thinness of its cuticle, I
presented its apex to the tentacles of an Actinia mesembryanthemum,
of about the size of a half-crown piece. The result was such as to
satisfy the most sceptical respecting the offensive weapons with
which it is furnished. The animal seized the organ most vigorously,
and was detached from it with some difficulty after the lapse of about
a minute. Immediately a pungent acrid pain commenced, which
continued to increase for some minutes until it became extremely
distressing. The point attacked felt inflamed and much swollen,
although to the eye no change in the part could be detected. These
symptoms continued unabated for about an hour, and a slight tem-
porary relief was only obtained by immersing the tongue in cold or
warm water. After this period the symptoms gradually abated, and
about four hours later, they had entirely disappeared. A day or two
after, a very minute ulceration was perceived over the apex of the
tongue, which disappeared after being touched with nitrate of silver.

I have subsequently frequently repeated this experiment on myself
VOL. ix. 3 c

724

and others, using greater precaution, and have invariably obtained
similar symptoms of urtication. In only one instance has a minute
ulceration been the consequence.

It is very evident therefore that the Actiniae act by means of an
acrid irritant poison, similar in some respects to that of the wasp, or
of snakes, which quickly spreads through the system of the Annelida,
producing the above-mentioned results.

It remained to determine whether the poisoned weapons existing
in such numbers over the surface of the Actiniae were left in the part
attacked. For this purpose I stretched a thin India-rubber mem-
brane over a glass tube. After its seizure by the Actinia, I found
that under the microscope it was studded in many points with the
poison darts inserted slightly in the membrane, without their having
penetrated through. In this respect my observations differ from
those of Mr. Gosse, who considers that a fragment of cuticle from
the hand was perforated by these darts.

I remain, &c.,

AUGUSTUS WALLER.

II. " On the Double Tangent of a Plane Curve." By ARTHUR
CAYLEY, Esq., F.R.S. Received March 17, 1859.

(Abstract.)

The author notices that the problem of finding the number of
double tangents was first solved by Pliicker in 1834 from geometrical
considerations, and he gives a sketch of the subsequent history of
the problem. The complete analytical determination of the double
tangents was only obtained very recently by Mr. Salmon, and is given
in a note by him in the Philosophical Magazine, October 1858 : it is
there shown that the (n — 2) points in which the tangent at any point
of a curve of the order n again meets the curve, are given as the
points of intersection of the tangent with a certain curve of the order
(n— 2) ; if this curve be touched by the tangent, then the point of
contact will be also a point of contact of the tangent and the curve
of the order n, or the tangent will be a double tangent. The pre-
sent memoir relates chiefly to the establishment of an identical
equation, which puts in evidence the property of the curve of the

725

order (n — 2), and which the author considers to be also import-
ant in reference to the general theory of binary quantities : viz. if
YU=H(*](;ar,y,«r)w,DU=(Xdx+Ydy + Zdjr)U,andY,SY are what
U, DU become when (x, y, z) and (X, Y, Z) are interchanged ; then
the equation is of the form I . Y+ II . ilY + III . DU + IV . U=0.
Taking (x,y, z) as current coordinates and U=0 as the equation of
the curve, then if (X, Y, Z) are the coordinates of a point on the
curve, Y=0, and we have for the equation of the tangent at the
point in question iiY=0. The equation shows that the intersections
of the curve U=0 and the tangent IBY=0, lie on one or other of
the curves 111=0, DU=0, and that they do not lie on the curve
DU=0; consequently they lie on the curve 111=0, which is in
fact the before-mentioned curve of the order (n — 2) .

III. " On the Action of Acids on Glycol." By Dr. MAXWELL
SIMPSON. Communicated by Dr. FRANKLAND. Received
March 24, 1859.

The glycol employed in the following research was prepared
according to Dr. Atkinson's excellent method *, to whom is due the
credit of having first substituted acetate of potash for acetate of
silver in its preparation. He was not the first, however, to prepare
it from bromide of ethylene, as M. Wurtz has been in the habit of
preparing it from that body for the last two years.

The following slight modification of Dr. Atkinson's method will
be found very convenient, particularly when large quantities of gly-
col are to be prepared. Instead of heating the materials for form-
ing the monoacetate of glycol in a close vessel, they are heated in a
large balloon, connected with a Liebig's condenser in such a manner
as to cause the condensed vapours to flow back into the balloon.

Action of Sulphuric Acid on Glycol — Sulphoglycolate of Baryta.
— Sulphuric acid forms an acid ether with glycol, which gives a
soluble salt with baryta. This compound is readily prepared by
exposing a mixture of equivalent quantities of glycol and sulphuric
acid (S2H2O8) to the temperature of 150° Cent., diluting with water
and neutralizing with carbonate of baryta. This liquid, on being
* Philosophical Magazine, Dec. 1858.

3 c 2

726

filtered, and evaporated on a water-bath to the consistence of a syrup,
gives on cooling a white solid mass, which is the body in question.
This was pressed between folds of blotting-paper, dried in vacua over
sulphuric acid, and analysed. The numbers obtained on analysis

lead to the formula

C4H502]

S204 04,
Ba J

as will be seen from the following per-centage Table : —
Theory. Experiment.

I. II. III. IV.

1071*

H5 5-00 2-40 279

38-09

36-50 36-10

209-5 109-00
The formation of this compound may be thus explained : —

4 + S2H208= ' '" §X

On neutralizing this compound with carbonate of baryta, the basic
hydrogen is replaced by one atom of barium. I propose to call this
salt sulphoglycolate of baryta. It is analogous in composition to
the sulphoglycerate of baryta obtained by M. Pelouze. This salt
does not readily crystallize. It is almost insoluble in ether and in
absolute alcohol, but freely soluble in water. It is somewhat deli-
quescent. Exposure to the temperature of 100° Cent, causes slight
decomposition. From its solution in water, sulphuric acid precipi-
tates sulphate of barytes. Baryta-water occasions no precipitate, at
least in the cold ; on heating, however, for some time, it becomes
turbid, from the separation of the same salt.

Action of Hydrochloric and Acetic Acids on Glycol — Chloracetine
of Glycol. — A mixture of equivalent quantities of glycol and glacial
acetic acid was introduced into a long tube and saturated with dry
hydrochloric acid. The tube was then hermetically sealed, and ex-
posed to the temperature of a water-bath for about four hours. On

* Chromate of lead was employed in this analysis.

727

opening the tube and adding water to its contents, a heavy oil sepa-
rated, which was well washed with the water, in order to remove any
acetic acid or undecomposed glycol it might contain, dried over chlo-
ride of calcium, and distilled. Almost the entire quantity passed
over between 144° and 146°. Specimens obtained at different times
gave the following numbers on analysis, which lead to the formula

Cl

C8 48-00

39-18

38-96

38-98

H7 7-00

571

6-05

5-99

O4 32-00

26-14

Cl 35-50

28-97

27-48*
122-50 100-00

I propose to call this body chloracetine of glycol. It is the inter-
mediate compound between Dutch liquid and diacetate of glycol. Its
formation may be thus explained : —

l

Chloracetine of glycol is a colourless liquid, heavier than water,
its specific gravity being M783 at 0° Cent. It boils at 145°, distil-
ling without decomposition. It is not decomposed by cold water, at
least not to any great extent ; even boiling water effects its decom-
position with difficulty. Heated with potash, it gives chloride of
potassium and acetate of potash. It is probable that the ether of
glycol is also formed in this reaction, or perhaps glycol itself. This
point I have not yet been able to determine. Chloracetine is iso-
meric with a compound I obtained a short time ago, by exposing
ordinary aldehyde to the action of chloride of acetyle (C4H3O2Cl)f.
This body differs from the chloracetine in its boiling-point, which is
about 23 degrees lower, and in being more readily decomposed both
by water and potash. The products formed by the action of potash
also establish a difference between these bodies. Both give chloride
of potassium and acetate of potash, but the body from aldehyde gives,
iu addition, resin of aldehyde ; whereas from chloracetine no resin

* A slight loss occurred in this analysis.
t Comptes Rendus, 29 Nov. 1858.

728

could be obtained. Chloracetine has since been prepared by
M. Lorenzo in a manner analogous to that by which I prepared its
isomer, namely, by treating glycol with chloride of acetyle. These
compounds find their places in two very remarkable series of iso-
meric bodies, proceeding from ethylene (olefiant gas) and ethylidine
(C4H4?), supposed to be contained in the chloride of ethylidine
derived from aldehyde. The following is a list of these compounds : —

Aldehyde

Ethylidine. Ethylene (olefiant gas).
C.H.(0 C4H4

Oxide of ethylene.

C4H402

Chloride of

ethylidine . C4H4Cla
(Wurtz)

Geuther . .

Chloracetine
of ethylidine
(Simpson)

(Wurtz and
Frapolli)

44

C4H3OA04
C4H3OJ

CH0

C4H5

C4H402

Ether of glycol
(Wurtz).

C4H4C12

Dutch liquid.

C4H4 -)
C4H3OA04
C4H3Oj

Diacetate of gly-
col (Wurtz).

2ci

C!H! °a

Chlor-acetine of
glycol
(Simpson).

Not yet disco-
vered.

C4H4

(C4H5)2

C4H,

}^ Diethyl- glycol
U* (Wurtz).

Acetal
(Dobereiner)

I am still studying the action of acids on glycol, and hope soon to
be able to communicate further results. The foregoing experiments
were performed in M. Wurtz' s laboratory.

The Society then adjourned over the Easter recess to Thursday,
May 5.

INDEX TO VOL. IX.

-fxCTINIADJS, poison apparatus in
125.

Actinia, electrical nature of the power
of, 103, 478.

— , power exercised by, in killing
their prey, 478.

, means by which they kill their

prey, 722.

Alison (S. S.) on the differential stetho-
phone, and some new phenomena ob-
served by it, 196.

— — on the intensification of sound
through solid bodies by the inter-
position of water between them and
the distal extremities of hearing tubes,
649.

Amphistegina, 334.

Amylamine, action of bisulphide of
carbon on, 591.

Amylaniline, action of nitrous and nitric
acid on, 635.

Andrews (T.), second note on ozone,
606.

Aneroid barometer, use of, as orometer,
143.

Aniline, action of nitrous acid on, 118.

, action of chloroform on, 229.

, action of binoxide of manganese

and sulphuric acid on, 637.

Animals, experimental inquiry into the
composition of, 348.

Annelids, on the structure and homo-
logy of the reproductive organs of,
72.

Anniversary Meeting, Nov. 30, 1857,
23 ; Nov. 30, 1858, 497.

Annual Meeting for election of Fellows,
247.

Antimony, on the molecular properties
of, 70.

, electro-deposited, 304.

Arc, English, effect of local attraction
on, 496.

Archer (C.) on the adaptation of the
human eye to varying distances, 331.

Atmosphere, disturbance of, by heated
terrestrial surfaces, 227.

Auscultation, on the theories of, 223.
VOL. IX.

Bakerian Lecture. — On the stratifica-
tions and dark bands in electrical
discharges as observed in Torricellian
vacuums, 146.

Beaufort (Sir F.), obituary notice of,
524.

Bennett (J. J.), letter containing a
statement of facts relative to the dis-
covery of the composition of water
by the Hon. H. Cavendish, 642.

Blakiston (Lieut.), magnetic observa-
tions made at York Fort, 81.

Boghead coal, products of, 102.

Booth (Rev. J.) on tangential co-ordi-
nates, 175.

on the logocyclic curve, and the

geometrical origin of logarithms, 256,

Brodie (B. C.) on the formation of the
peroxides of the radicals of the organic
acids, 361.

(Sir B.), inaugural address, 564.

Brooke (H. J.), obituary notice of, 41.

Brown (R.), obituary notice of, 527.

Brown-Sequard (E.), summary of a
paper on the spinal cord as a leader
for sensibility and voluntary move-
ments, 1,

on the resemblance between the

effects of the section of the sympa-
thetic nerve, &c., 1.

, experimental researches on the

influence of efforts of inspiration on
the movements of the heart, 1.

on the influence of oxygen on the

vital properties of the spinal cord,
&c., 2.

on the power possessed by motor

and sensitive nerves of retaining their
vital properties, &c., 2.

B nekton (G-. B.) on the isolation of the
radical mercuric methyl, 91*

, further remarks on the organo-

metallic radicals, &c., 309.

, further remarks on the organo-

metallic radicals mercuric, stannic,
and plumbic ethyl, No. III., 685.

Bunsen (R. W.) elected foreign member,
487.

3D

730

INDEX,

Calvert (F. C.) on the relative power of
metals and their alloys to conduct
heat, 169.

Carbon, action of bisulphide of, on
triethylphosphine, 290.

Carpenter (W. B.), researches on the
Foraminifera, Part III. — on the ge-
nera Peneroplis, Operculina, and Am-
phistegina, 334.

Cauchy (A.), obituary notice of, 44.

Cayley (A.) on certain formulae for
differentiation, 93.

on the theory of matrices, 100.

on the autornorphic linear trans-
formation of a bipartite quadric func-
tion, 101.

, a fourth memoir on qualities, 165.

, a fifth memoir on quantics, 166.

, a sixth memoir on qualities, 589.

on the surface which is the en-
velope of planes through the points
of an ellipsoid at right angles to the
radius vectors from the centre, 171.

on the tangential of a cubic, 167.

on the conic of five-pointic contact

at any point of a plane curve, 702.

•"•• • on the double tangent of a plane
curve, 724.

Chevreul (M. E.), Copley Medal awarded
to, 35.

Chloroform, action of, upon aniline, 229.

Chondrostew, an extinct genus of fish,
233.

Cinchona alkaloids, researches on, 5.

. , on the optical and chemical

characters of the iodo-sulphates of, 10.

— — , additional researches on, 316.

Cinchonine, cinchonidin, and cinchoni-
cine, 5.

Clarke (Capt.), note on Archdeacon
Pratt's paper on the effect of local
attraction on the English Arc, 496.

(J. L.), further researches on the

grey substance of the spinal cord,
337.

Claudet (A.) on the stereomonoscope,
a new instrument by which an ap-
parently single picture produces the
stereoscopic illusion, 194.

Cleavage, &c. of old red sandstone of
Waterford, 108.

Coccus kesperidwm, on the digestive
and nervous systems of, 480.

Cod-liver oil, effects of, on the red cor-
puscles of the blood, 474.

Colour-blindness, 716.

Comatula rosacea, on the embryogeny
of, 600.

Conybeare (Eev. W. D.), obituary no-
tice of, 50.

Copley Medal awarded to M. E. Che-
vreul, 35 ; Sir C. Lyell, 511.

Corps innomine, uii organe place dans
le cordon spermatique, 231.

Courants induits, les, et le pouvoir nio-
teur de 1'electricite, 321.

Croonian Lecture. — On the theory of
the vertebrate skull, 381.

Crustacea, structure and functions of
the hairs of, 215.

Cubic, on the tangential of a, 167.

Currey (F.) on the existence of amor-
phous starch in a new tuberaceoms
fungus, 119.

Curves of the third order, on, 333,

Darkness, influence of on nutrition, 644.
Debus (H.), researches on the action of

ammonia on glyoxal, 297.
on the oxidation of glycol, and on

some salts of glyoxylic acid, 711.
Deep-sea soundings, on, 189.
De Morgan (C.) on the structure and

functions of the hairs of the Crustacea,

215,

Diamides, history of, 274.
Diazodinitrophenol, &c., 595.
Diethylaniline, action of nitric acid,

manganese, and sulphuric acid on,

636, 637.

Differentiation, on certain formula for, 93 .
Dimorphodon, 703.
Diphosphonium compounds, 651.
Dobell (H.) on the influence of white

light, of the different coloured rays,

and of darkness, on the development,

growth, and nutrition of animals, 644.

Earnshaw (S.) on the mathematical

theory of sound, 590.
Eclipse, effects of, on animal and vege-
table kingdom, 215.
Egerton (Sir P.) on Chondrosteus, an

extinct genus of fish allied to the

Sturionidse, 233.
Egypt, geological history of alluvial land

of, 128.
Electric conductibility in metallic wires,

effect of pressure on, 615.
Elliptic integrals, higher theory of, 704.
Ellis (G. V.), researches into the nature

of the involuntary muscular tissue of

the urinary bladder, 573.
Ethyl compounds, new, containing the

alkali metals, 341.
Ethylaniline, action of nitric acid on,

637.
Ethylene, action of bibromide of, upon

triethylphosphine, 287 ; on trimethyl-

amine, 293.

INDEX.

731

Everest (G.), rectification of logarithmic
errors in the measurements of two
sections of the meridional arc of India,
620.

Excretine, additional observations on,
306.

Eye, adaptation of, to varying distances,
331.

Fairbairn (W.) on the resistance of
tubes to collapse, 234.

Farr (W.) on the construction of life-
tables, illustrated by a new life-table
of the healthy districts of England,
717.

Fats, action of bile on, 306.

Film of liquid, on the thermal effect of,
255.

Fishes, osseous, different types in the
microscopic structure of, 656 ; classi-
fication of, with and without bone-
corpuscles, 662..

Five-pointic contact, conic of, 702.

Fluids, thermal effects of compressing,
496.

Foraminifera, researches on, Part III.,
334.

Frankland (E.), Koyal Medal awarded
to, 37.

, note on sodium ethyl and potas-
sium ethyl, 345.

, remarks on organo-metallic bodies,

4th memoir, 672.

Friction in fluids, theory of, 223.

Gases, on the measurement of, in ana-
lysis, 218.

Gassiot (J. P.) on the stratifications and
dark bands in electrical discharges as
observed in Torricellian vacuums, 146.

on the stratifications in electrical

discharges, as observed in Torricellian
and other vacua, second communica-
tion, 601.

on an experiment in which the

stratifications in electrical discharges
are destroyed by an interruption of
the secondary circuit, 671.

Gilbert (J. H.), experimental inquiry
into the composition of some of the
animals fed and slaughtered as hu-
man food, 348.

Giraldes (F.), note surun organe, place
dans le cordon spermatique, &c., 231.

Glacier, comparative velocities of a, 246.

Glaciers, physical phenomena of, 668.

Gladstone (J. H.) on the chemical ac-
tion of water on soluble salts, 66.

• on the influence of temperature on
the refraction of light, 328.

Glycol, oxidation of, 711.

, action of acids on, 725.

Glyoxal, action of ammonia on, 297.

Glyoxylic acid, 011 some salts of, 711.

Gore (G.) on the molecular properties
of antimony, 70.

on the properties of electro-de-
posited antimony, 304.

Gosse (P. H.), researches on the poison-
apparatus in the Actiniadce, 125.

Griess (P.) on new nitrogenous deriva-
tives of the phenyl and benzoyl series,
594.

Gulf- stream, influence of, 324.

Gunpowder, fired, nature of the action
of, 586.

Hall (Dr. Marshall), obituary notice of,

52.
Hall (V.), notice of researches on the

sulphocyanide and cyanate of naphtyl,

365.
Hancock (A.), Royal Medal awarded to,

518.
Hargreave (C. J.) on the problem of

three bodies, 265.
Haughton (Rev. S.) on the physical

structure of the old red sandstone of

the county of Waterford, &c., 108.
Heart, influence of efforts of inspira-
tion on the, 1.
Heat, power of metals and alloys to

conduct, 169.
Hennessy (H.) on the influence of the

Gulf-stream on the winters of the

British Islands, 324.
Heptylene, 103.
Herapath (W. B.), researches on the

cinchona alkaloids, 5.
-, preliminary notice of additional

researches on the cinchona alkaloids,

316.

Hexylene, 103.

Himalayas, attraction of, 701.
Hoimann (A. W.), notes of researches

on the poly-ammonias, No. I., 150 ;

No. II., 229 ; No. III., 274.
, researches on the phosphorus bases,

287 -, No. II., 290 ; No. III. phos-

phoretted ureas, 487; No. IV. diphos-

phonium compounds, 651.
, contributions towards the history

of the monamines, 293, 591.
, notice of researches on the sulpho-
cyanide and cyanate of naphtyl,

365.
, notice of researches on a new class

of organic bases, 616.
, new volatile organic acids from the

berry of the mountain ash, 681.

3 D 2

732

INDEX.

Hopkins (T.) on the daily fall of the
barometer at Toronto, 124.

on the influence of heated terres-
trial surfaces in disturbing the at-
mosphere, 227.

Homer (L.), researches near Cairo, upon
the geological history of the alluvial
land of Egypt (Part II.), 128.

Hunt (T. S.) on the probable origin of
some magnesian rocks, 159.

Huxley (T. H.) on the theory of the
vertebrate skull, 781.

Hyperbolic arcs, comparison of, 708.

Ice, on some physical properties of, 76 ;
influence of pressure on, 79.

, on the interior melting of, 141.

, stratification of, by pressure, 209.

observations, 609.

, veined structure of, 669.

Insects, ova and pseudova of, 574.

Jamin (J. C.), Eumford Medal awarded
to, 514.

Jago (J.), ocular spectres, structures,
and functions, mutual exponents, 2.

on the functions of the tympanum,

134.

Joule (J. P.) on the expansion of wood
by heat, 3.

on some thermodynamic properties

of solids, 254.

on the thermal effects of com-
pressing fluids, 496.

Kirkman (Eev. T. P.) on the partitions
of the r-pyramid, being the first class
of r-gonous or-edra, 4.

Kolliker (A.), observations on the poison
of the Upas Antiar, 72.

, some remarks on the physiological

action of the TangMnia venenifera,
173.

on the different types in the mi-
croscopic structure of the skeleton of
osseous fishes, 656.

Kreil (K.) on his magnetic observations,
585.

Lament (J.) on his magnetic observa-
tions, 584.

Lassell (W.), Eoyal Medal awarded to,
519.

Lava, formation of continuous tabular
masses of, 248.

Lawes (J. B.), experimental inquiry into
the composition of some of the ani-
mals fed and slaughtered as human
food, 348.

Life-table, new, 717.

Life-tables, on the construction of, 717.

Light, effects of diminution of, during
eclipse, 213.

Light, influence of, on the nutrition of
animals, 644.

Lindley (J.), Eoyal Medal awarded to,
39.

Lister (J.), preliminary account of an
inquiry into the functions of the vis-
ceral nerves, &c., 367.

Liver, alleged sugar-forming function
of, 300.

Lizard, gigantic, 273.

Logarithms, geometrical origin of, 256.

Logocyclic curve, on the, 256.

Lowe (E. J.), an account of the weather
in various localities during the 15th of
March 1858, &c., 213.

Lubbock (J.) on the digestive and ner-
vous systems of Coccus hesperidum,
480. '

on the ova and pseudova of insects,

574.

Lyell (Sir C.), on the formation of con-
tinuous tabular massas of stony lava
on steep slopes, &c., 248.

, Copley Medal awarded to, 511.

Macdonald (J. D.) on the anatomy of
Tridacna, 1.

M'Donnell (E.) on the electrical nature
of the power possessed by the Actiniae
of our shores, 103.

, further observations on the power

exercised by the Actiniae of our shores
in killing their prey, 478.

MacQ-rigor (Sir J.), obituary notice of,
532.

Magnesian rocks, probable origin of, 159.

Magnetic phenomena, 30.

Magnetic observations made at York
Fort, 81.

Magnetic and meteorological observa-
tories, report on, 457.

Mahistre (M.) sur les limites de la
pression dans les machines travaillant
a la detente du maximum d'effet, &c.,
110.

Marcet (W.) on the action of bile upon
fats, with additional observations on
excretine, 306.

Matrices, on the theory of, 100.

Matthiessen (A.) on the electric-con-
ducting power of the metals, 95.

on the thermo-electric series, 97.

on the action of nitrous acid on

aniline, 118.

on the action of nitric acid and of

binoxide of manganese and sulphuric
acid on the organic bases, 635.

INDEX.

733

Matteucci (C.) sur la relation entre les
courants induits et le pouvoir moteur
de 1'electricite, 321.
Meat, non-flesli-forming material stored

in, 357.
Megalania prisca, description of some

remains of, 273.

Mercuric ethyl, 685 ; isolation of, 309.
Mer de Grlace, observations on the, 245.
Meridional arc of India, rectification of

errors in, 620.
Merrifield (C. W.) on the comparison

of hyperbolic arcs, 708.
Metals, electric- conducting power of, 95.
Methyl, mercuric, isolation of, 91.
Mollusks, aquiferous and oviductal sy-
stems in, 633.
Monamines, contributions towards the

history of, 293, 591.
Moon (R.) on the theory of internal

resistance and internal friction in

fluids, and on the theories of sound

and of auscultation, 223.
Moorsom (W. S.) on the practical use

of the aneroid barometer as an oro-

meter, 143.

Mount Etna, mode of origin of, 248.
Muirhead (J. P.), letter relating to the

discovery of the composition of water,

679.

Muller (J.), obituary notice of, 556.
Muscular action from an electrical point

of view, 690.
Muscular tissue of the urinary bladder,

nature of, 573.

Naphtyl, sulphocyanide and cyanate of,

Nerves, motor and sensitive, their power
of retaining vital properties, 2.

Nerves, inhibitory system of, 367.

Newman (F. W.), the higher theory of
elliptic integrals treated from Jacobi's
functions as its basis, 704.

Nile, annual alluvial deposit of, 133.

Niriaphtylamine, 617.

Operculina, 334.

Organic acids, peroxides of the radicals
of, 361 ; new, from the berry of the
mountain ash, 681.

Organic bases, new class of, 616 j action
of nitric acid, binoxide of manganese,
and sulphuric acid on, 635.

Organo-metallic bodies, remarks on, 672.

Organo-metallic radicals, further re-
marks on, 685.

Orometer, aneroid barometer as an, 143.

Owen (E.), description of the skull and
teeth of the Placodus laticeps, 157.

Owen (R.), description of some remains
of a gigantic Land-lizard, Megalania
prisca, 273.

, fossil mammals of Australia, I.

description of a mutilated skull of a
large marsupial Carnivore, Thylacoleo
carnifexj &c., 585.

on the vertebral character of the

order Pterosauria, as exemplified in
the genera Pterodactylus and Dimor*
phodon, 703.

Ozone, second note on, 606.

Paris (J. A.), obituary notice of, 56.
Partitions of the r-pyramid, 4.
Pattinson (H. L.), obituary notice of,

534.

Pavy (F. W.), an experimental inquiry
into the alleged sugar-forming func-
tion of the liver, 300.
Peacock (Very Rev. Gr.), obituary notice

of, 536.

Pelikan (E.), some remarks on the phy-
siological action of the TangMnia ve-
nenifera, 173.
Peneroplisy 334=
Phenyl, cyanate and sulphocyanide of,

274.

Phenyl and benroyl series, new deriva-
tives of, 594.

Phenylamine and nitrophenylamine, ac-
tion of nitrous acid on, 597.
Phosphoretted ureas, 487.
Phosphorus bases, researches on, 287,

290, 487, 651.
Picramic acid, action of nitrous acid on,

594.

Placodus laticeps, description of skull
and teeth of, 157; evidence of the
Saurian nature of, 158.
Plane-curve, double tangent of, 724.
Platinized graphite batteries, 628.
Plumbic diethyl, 689.
Plumbic ethyl, isolation of, 309.
Plumb-line, on the deflection of, in India,
493, 701 ; influence of the ocean on,
597.
Poinsot (L.) elected foreign member,

487.

Pole (W.) on colour-blindness, 716.
Pollock (Sir F.) on some* remarkable
relations which obtain among the
roots of the four squares into which
a number may be divided, &c., 238.
Poly-ammonias, notes of researches on,
(No. I.) 150, (No. II.) 229, (No. III.)
274.

Potassium-ethyl, 344, 345.
Pratt (J. H.) on the deflection of the
plumb-line in India, caused by the

734

INDEX.

attraction of the Himalaya moun-
tains, &c., 493.

Pratt, (J. H.) on the influence of the ocean
on the plumb-line in India, 597.

-, postscript to a paper on the deflec-
tion of the plumb-line in India, &c.,
701.

Pression, limites de la, dans les machines
travaillant a la detente, &c., 110.

Pterodactylus, 703.

Pterosauria, vertebral character of, 703.

Pullen (Capt.), letter on deep-sea sound-
ings, 189.

Quadric function, automorphic linear
transformation of a bipartite, 101.

Quantics, fourth memoir on, 165 ; fifth
memoir, 166 ; sixth memoir, 589.

Quinidin and quinicine, 5.

Radcliffe (C. B.) on muscular action
from an electrical point of view, 690.

Eankine (W. J. M.) on the thermo-
dynamic theory of steam-engines with
dry saturated steam, and its applica-
tion to practice, 626.

Rays, influence of coloured, on the nu-
trition of animals, 644.

Refraction of light, influence of tem-
perature on, 328.

Reid (Sir W,), obituary notice of, 543.

Report of the Joint Committee of the
Royal Society and the British Asso-
ciation, for procuring a continuance
of the magnetic and meteorological
observatories, 457.

Respiration, inquiries into the pheno-
mena of, 611 ; action of food on, 638.

Rolleston (G.) on the aquiferous and
oviductal systems in the Larnelli-
branchiate Mollusks, 633.

Roots of the four squares, remarkable
relations among, 238.

Royal Medal awarded to E. Frankland,
37; J. Lindley, 39; A. Hancock,
518 ; W. LasseU, 519.

Royle (J. F.), obituary notice of, 547.

Rue, constitution of the essential oil of,
167.

Rumford Medal awarded to J. C. Jamin,
514.

Russell (W. J.) on the measurement of
gases in analysis, 218.

Sabine (Major-Gen. E.) on hourly ob-
servations of the magnetic declination
made by Capt. Maguire, R.N., and
the officers of H.M.S. 'Plover,' in
1852-54 at Point Barrow, 2.

remarks on the magnetic observa-

tions transmitted from York Fort,
&c., 81.

Sabine (Major-Gen. E.), letter on mag-
netic observatories, 470.

Salmon (G.) on curves of the third
order, 333.

Scoresby (Rev. W.) obituary notice of,
57.

Siebold (C. T. von) elected foreign
member, 487.

Simpson (M.) on the action of acids on
glycol, 725.

Smith (E.), inquiries into the pheno-
mena of respiration, 611.

, experiments on the action of food

upon the respiration, 638.

Sodium-alcohol, action of carbonic oxide
on, 697.

Sodium-ethyl, 341, 345.

Solids, some thermodynamic properties
of, 254.

Solly (R. H.), obituary notice of, 549.

Soluble salts, chemical action of water
on, 66.

Sorbamide, 684.

Sorbic acid, 682.

Sound, on the theories of, 223.

Sound, mathematical theory of, 590 ;
intensification of, by interposition of
water, 649.

Sounds, stethoscopic analysis of, 205.

Spinal cord, the, a leader for sensibility
and voluntary movements, 1 ; influ-
ence of oxygen on vital properties of,
2; further researches on the grey
substance of, 337.

Stanethyl, iodide of, action of zincethyl
on, 673 ; of zincmethyl, 673.

Stannic diethyl, 686.

Stannic ethyl, isolation of, 309.

Starch, amorphous, in a new tuberaceous
fungus, 119.

Steam-engines with dry saturated steam,
thermo-dynamic theory of, 626.

Stereornonoscope, a new instrument,
194.

Stethophone, on the differential, 196.

Stratifications in electrical discharges,
destruction of, 671.

Surface envelope of planes, &c., 171.

Sympathetic nerve, effects of section of, 1.

Tait (P. G.), second note on ozone, 606.

Tangential coordinates, on, 175.

Tanghinia venenifera, physiological ac-
tion of, 173.

Thenard (M.), obituary notice of, 60.

Thermo-electric series, 97.

Thomas (L.) on the nature of the action
of fired gunpowder, 586.

INDEX.

735

Thomson (W.), remarks on the interior
melting of ice, 141.

on the stratification of vesicular ice

by pressure, 209.

on the thermal effect of drawing

out a film of liquid, 255.

on the embryogeny of Comatula

rosacea, 600.

Thompson (T.) on the changes pro-
duced in the proportion of the red
corpuscles of the blood by the admi-
nistration of cod-liver oil, 474.

Three bodies, on the problem of, 265.

Thylacoleo carnifex, a large marsupial
Carnivore, description of a mutilated
skull of, 585.

Tooke (T.), obituary notice of, 550.

Toronto, daily fall of barometer at, 124.

Torricellian vacuums, stratifications and
dark bands in, 146.

Travers (B.), obituary notice of, 551.

Tridacna, anatomy of, 1.

Tubes, resistance of, to collapse, 234.

Tympanum, functions of, 134.

Tyndall (J.) on some physical proper-
ties of ice, 76.

, observations on the Mer de Glace

(Part 1.), 245.

on the physical phenomena of gla-
ciers, 668.

Upas Antiar, on the poison of, 72 ; pa-
ralysis of the heart produced by, 74 ;
effects of, on frogs, 76.

Vagus, effects of division of the, 374.
Vertebrate skull, on the theory of, 381.
Visceral nerves, inquiry into the func-
tions of, 367.

Walker (C. V.) on platinized graphite
batteries, 628.

Walker (D.), ice observations, 609.

Waller (A.) on the means by which the
Actinia kill their prey, 722.

Wanklyn (J. A.) on some new ethyl
compounds containing the alkali me-
tals, 341.

on the action of carbonic oxide on

sodium-alcohol, 697.

Warburton, H., obituary notice of, 555.

Wartmann (E.) on the effect of press-
ure on electric conductibility in me-
tallic wires, 615.

Water, discovery of the composition of,
642, 679.

Weather during eclipse, account of, 213.

Williams (C. G.) on some of the pro-
ducts of the destructive distillation of
boghead coal (Part II.), 102.

on the constitution of the essential

oil of rue, 167.

Williams (T.), researches on the struc-
ture and homology of the reproduc-
tive organs of the Annelids, 72.

, explanation with respect to a

statement made in his paper in the
Phil. Trans., 589.

Williamson (A. W.), note on the
measurement of gases in analysis
218.

Winters of British Islands, influence of
G-ulf-stream on, 324.

Wood, expansion of, by heat, 3.

Wood (C. S.), notice of researches on a
new class of organic bases, 616.

Zinc-ethyl, action of, on mercuric chlo-
ride, 309 ; on chloride of lead, 312 ;
on iodide of mercurous ethyl, 312 ;
on chloride of silver, 314 ; on iodide
of stanethyl, 315.

Zincmethyl, preparation of, 768.

END OF THE NINTH VOLUME.

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