270 p7'oceedings of the Royal Society. 



seeking for a cause of the nearly constant distribution of these 

 remains in Ireland, in swampy spots, he conjectures that the 

 animal may have often sought the waters and the marshy land, as 

 a place of refuge from its enemies, and thus not unfrequently 

 found a grave where it looked for protection. 



/?me 2.— A paper, entitled Microscopical Observations on the 

 Materials of the Brain, and the Ova of Animals^ and the Analogy 

 iliat exists between //tew, was communicated by Sir E. Home, Bart., 

 V.P.R.S. 



The author first detailed the results of some experiments, made 

 with a view to ascertain whether frogs that had been completely 

 frozen, could, under any circumstances, be restored to life ; 

 which he found never to be the case, where the brain had been 

 entirely congealed, the substance of which, after such a pro- 

 cess, never regains its former appearance, but is resolved into a 

 watery fluid, mixed with some gelatinous matter. In the act of 

 freezing, the human brain was found to suffer a similar decompo- 

 sition. The molecule of the egg is also resolved, during the 

 process of freezing, into materials corresponding with those of 

 the brain. 



Magnified drawings, executed by Mr. Bauer, of the various 

 substances described in this paper, accompanied the communi- 

 cation. 



A Description of a Method of Determining the Direction of the 

 Meridian^ &c., by J. Pond, Esq. A.R., was also read at this 

 meeting. 



The process here described, which Mr. Pond stated to have 

 been tried by him only with instruments of small dimensions, 

 but to be susceptible of great precision, consists in placing two 

 well-defined objects very nearly equi-distant in azimuth from the 

 north meridian line, and distant from each other in azimuth by 

 very nearly twice the azimuth of the pole-star, at its greatest 

 elongation. These objects must be extremely distinct, and well- 

 defined, and the method of placing them is by the use of a 



