6S2 Royal Astronomical Society. 



and may be excited for a long time by the application of a slight 

 degree of pressure. By these means he has been enabled to watch 

 the passage of the red and white globules contained in the blood, 

 and to detect in the human papillae all the various phenomena in the 

 transparent membranes of the lower animals. By allowing the blood 

 to coagulate in the vessels, beautiful examples of injected papillae 

 may be obtained. The congestion of the vessels is much increased 

 by compressing the point of the tongue before the removal of the 

 papillae. The capillaries are connected together at the bases of the 

 secondary papillae, and arise from a common trunk immersed in the 

 body of the papilla. The nerves are found to subdivide in the se- 

 parate cones, in which they ascend to the apex and terminate in 

 abrupt extremities, as in the frog, toad, &c. In the foetus the fun- 

 giform papillae are stated to consist of a simple cone without any 

 secondary papillae. 



3. The conical or filiform papillae of man are described to be of 

 a compound nature, consisting of numerous secondary cones spring- 

 ing from a common stem. Each of these secondary cones is clothed 

 with an elongated process which is fitted on the cone like a sheath. 



• This process consists of elongated epithelial scales ascending towards 

 the summit, and resembling in general appearance the feather of an 

 arrow. At their summit these processes are clothed with an exter- 

 nal zone of granular matter, which considerably adds to their thick- 

 ness. This granular matter is often detached after the papilla has 

 been removed a short time from the tongue. The blood-vessels form 

 a simple loop at the summit of the papilla, and the nerves are ar- 

 ranged in a similar manner. 



4. The inferior surface is described as very smooth, presenting 

 numerous follicles abundantly supplied with blood-vessels and nerves. 

 These follicles are generally of a conical shape and surrounded with 

 an arch composed of epithelial cells. The nerves may frequently be 

 detected and followed over the surface of the follicle, but their ex- 

 tremities are hidden amidst the blood-vessels. 



The author has illustrated the paper by several drawings. 



ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 

 [Continued from p. 463.] 



March 9, 1849. — Substance of the Lecture delivered by the 

 Astronomer Royal on the large Reflecting Telescopes of the Earl 

 of Rosse and Mr. Lassell, at the last November Meeting. 



The Astronomer Royal gave that evening an account of the large 

 reflecting telescopes of the Earl of Rosse and Mr. Lassell, which he 

 had personally examined in the course of the last summer. 



Premising that the subject might be considered interesting to the 

 Society on these two grounds, first, that the reflecting telescope is 

 exclusively a British instrument in its invention and improvement, 

 and almost exclusively so in its use ; and secondly, that it had been 

 almost exclusively the instrument of amateurs — a circumstance which 

 seemed to prove both the difficulty of constructing it and its great 



