105 



Abhandlungen der Kbnigliche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu 



Berlin. 1849. 4to. 

 Monatsbericht der Kbnigliche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. 



1850, Jan. — Dec; 1851, Jan. — Juni. 8vo. — From the 



Academy, 

 Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow. 1850. Vol. 



III., No. 3. 8vo. — From the Society. 

 Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou. 1850, 



Nos. 3 & 4 ; 1851, No. 1. 8vo. — From the Society. 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 1851. No. 5. 8vo. — 



From the Society. 



Monday y 19M January 1852, 



Right Reverend BISHOP TERROT, Vice-President, in 



the Chair. 



The following Communications were read : — 



1. Defence of the Doctrine of Vital Affinity, against the 

 objections stated to it by Humboldt and Dr Daubeny. 

 By Dr Alison. 



The object of this paper was to fix attention on the great physio- 

 logical discovery which has been gradually effected during the pre- 

 sent century, of the mode in which certain of the elements contained 

 in the earth's atmosphere, under the influence of light and of a cer- 

 tain temperature, are continually employed in maintaining that great 

 vital circulation, of which vegetable structures, animal structures, 

 the air, and the soil, are the successive links ; and to point out that 

 the most essential and fundamental of the changes here effected, — 

 particularly the formation of the different organic compounds in the 

 cells of vegetables, — are strictly chemical changes, at least as clearly 

 distinct from any chemical actions yet known to take place in inor- 

 ganic matters, as the vital contractions of muscles are distinct from any 

 merely mechanical causes of motion ; and justifying the statement of 

 Dr Daubeny, that there appears to be " a power, residing in living 

 matters" and producing chemical effects, — in fact manifesting itself 

 most unequivocally by the chemical changes which result from it, — 

 *' distinct, at least in its effects, from ordinary chemical and physical 

 forces.'* 



VOL. III. I 



