C 70 ) 



X. Proceedings of Learned Societies, 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



J une 28, The President in the chair. The conclusion of 

 M De l'Isle's paper on the poison of the Lohan upas and 

 a.ntea was read. The emetic power of this poison sug* 

 gested to the author the propriety of making some experi- 

 ments with other emetics, hy {meeting them into wounds 

 and blood-vessels in the same manner as he did the upas. 

 Ipecacuanha and tartar emetic were injected, and both pro- 

 duced very violent eftects, particularly the latter; but they 

 were not so destructive to animal life as the upas. On 

 dissecting the bodies of the animals killed by injecting this 

 poison, and comparing them with the effects of common 

 emetics, he was led to conclude that the upas does not kill 

 by any specific action on the nerves, but that, by acting on 

 the blood only, it is so instantaneously destructive to ani- 

 mal life. 



A paper from Mr. Good was read, describing the nature 

 of the horny concretions which appeared all over the skin 

 S>f a heifer exhibited in London last year, The head, neck, 

 and shoulders of this animal were thickly covered with 

 little horns of various length and thickness, some of them 

 nearly three inches long. It appears that these horns were 

 chiefly composed of calcareous matter, and that one-fourth 

 of them was of an animal nature. 



July 5, Dr. Wollaston read a paper on a peculiar species 

 of urinary calculus, which he called cystic oxide, only two 

 specimens of which he has been able to procure. The 

 cystic oxide dissolves in solutions of all the alkalies, but 

 not in saturated carbonate of ammonia. Dr. W. also took 

 occasion to correct some essential errors in his paper on 

 calculi, which appeared in the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1 797 ; subsequent experience having convinced him that 

 phosphate of lime, and phosphate of magnesia rarely or 

 never exist together in the same calculi 1 .?. 



A paper on muriatic acid, by Mr. Davy, was read. The 

 object of Mr. Davy's paper was to detail some new facts 

 respecting the muriatic acid. Finding that charcoal, though 

 janited to whiteness, will not burn or decompose oxy- 

 jnuriatic acid gas, he was hd to institute experiments to 

 determine whether oxygen could be procured from it by 

 anv means': and the results of his inquiries are, that there. 

 is no proof whatever of its containing that substance. 

 Muriatic acid gas may be decomposed into oxymuriatic 



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