422 6cientijic InteUic/ence. — Physiology and Zoology, 



By Dr JoJin Davy. — A portion of the blood of the Ornithorhynchiis 

 hystriv, mixed when fresh with a strong solution of common salt, 

 being examined by the author, exhibited a few globules of irregular 

 •shape. Another portion, preserved in syrup, contained numerous 

 globules, most of which had an irregular form, but mnny were cir- 

 cular ; none, however, were elliptical, like those of birds. Hence 

 the author concludes, that in form they accord more with those of 

 Mammalia. — Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 



22. On the Minute Structure and Movements of Voluntary Mus- 

 cles. By W. Bowman, Esq., Demonstrator of Anatomy in King^s 

 College, London, S^c. — The objects of the author, in this paper, are 

 the following, — \st, To confirm, under some modifications, the view 

 taken of the primitive fasciculi of voluntary muscles being composed 

 of a solid bundle of fibrillse. 2dly, To describe new parts entering 

 into their composition : and, Zdly, To detail new observations on the 

 mechanism of voluntary motion. He first shews that the primitive 

 fasciculi are not cylindrical, but polygonal threads ; their sides being- 

 more or less flattened where they are in contact with one another ; 

 he next records, in a tabular form, the results of his examination of 

 their size in the different divisions of the animal kingdom. It ap- 

 pears that the largest are met with in fish ; they are smaller in rep- 

 tiles, and their size continues to diminish in insects, in mammalia, 

 and lastly, in birds, where they are the smallest of all. In all these 

 instances, however, an extensive range of size is observable, not only 

 in different species, but in the same animal, and even in the same 

 muscle. He then shews that all the fibrillse into which a primitive 

 fasciculus may be split, are marked by alternate dark and light points, 

 and that fibrillse of this description exist throughout the wholethickness 

 of the fasciculus ; that the apposition of the seo-ments of contiguous 

 fibrillse, so marked, must form transverse stria?, and that such trans- 

 verse strise do in fact exist throughout the whole interior of the fasci- 

 culus. He next inquires into the form of the segments composing the 

 fibrillse, and shews that their longitudinal adhesion constitutes ^6n7?a% 

 and their lateral adhesion discs, or plates, transverse to the length of 

 the fasciculus ; each disc being, therefore, composed of a single seg- 

 ment from every one of the fibrillse. He shews that these dies always 

 exist quite as unequivocally as the fibrillse, and gives several exam- 

 ples and figures of a natural cleavage of the fasciculus into such discs. 

 It follows that the transverse strisc are the edges, or focal sections 

 of these discs. Several varieties in the strise are then detailed, and 

 the fact noticed that in all animals there is frequently more or less 

 diversity in the number of strise in a given space, not only on con- 

 tiguous fasciculi, but also on the same fasciculus at different parts. 

 The author then proceeds to describe a tubular membranaceous 

 sheath, of the most exquisite delicacy and transparency, investing 

 each fasciculus from end to end, and isolating it from all other parts ; 

 this sheath he terms Sarcolcmma. Its existence and properties are 

 •^hewn by sevei-al modes of demonstration ; and among others, by a 



