3 30 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



were made in silver, others in china, and others in glass apparatus, 

 after the vinous fermentation had gone on during five days, the 

 quantity of ashes obtained was, in the silver apparatus eighteen, in 

 the china nineteen, and in the glass fifteen times greater than the 

 previous quantity. A further examination of these ashes showed 

 that they consisted of potass, soda, lime, and a residue not acted 

 upon by muriatic acid. The author states that, however irrecon- 

 cilable to our present chemical knowledge this important conclusion 

 may at first sight appear, yet when it is taken in connexion with 

 the decomposition of other vegetable matter, and with the pheno- 

 mena which accompany the growth of plants, it may not excite sur- 

 prise ; and may be regarded as in harmony with the phenomena of 

 natural science. He concludes by offering suggestions towards ex- 

 tending the inquiry into the subject of the formation of bones of 

 animals by the action of the powers inherent in their organization. 



10. " On the Difference of Colour in different parts of the Bodies 

 of Animals." By James Alderson, M. A., M.D., late Fellow of Pem- 

 broke College, Cambridge. Communicated by P. M. Roget, M.D., 

 Sec. R.S., &c. 



The hypothesis advanced by the author in explanation of the well- 

 known partial absence of the coloured pigment or rete mucosum, in dif- 

 ferent parts of the human body, and that of other animals, is that it 

 is due to the union or adhesion of the epidermis and the true skin, 

 so as to exclude the rete mucosum. He supports this hypothesis by 

 the analogy of a cicatrix, which is the result of an organization of a 

 certain portion of lymph, poured out from the cut surfaces of a wound, 

 as part of the process of nutrition, or as the consequence of a small 

 amount of inflammation, induced either from mechanical irritation, 

 or other accidental circumstance. This hypothesis was suggested 

 by the colourless appearance of the cicatrix from the section of the 

 umbilical cord in the negro, and also of that seen by the author at 

 the umbilicus of the bottle-nosed whale, the Hyperoodon bidentatus. 



XLIX. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION TOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE : 

 NINTH MEETING (aT BIRMINGHAM.) 



THE Ninth Meeting of the British Association was held at Bir- 

 mingham, from the 24<th to the 31st of August, and was at- 

 tended by more than fourteen hundred members ; the Rev. W. V. 

 Vernon Harcoui't presiding. The Presidents of the Sections were 

 as follows: Section A. Mathematical and Physical Science, Rev. 

 Prof. Whewell ; Sect. B. Chemistry and Mineralogy, Prof. Graham ; 

 Sect. C. Geology and Physical Geography, Rev. Dr. Buckland ; 

 Sect. D. Zoology and Botany, Prof. Owen ; Sect. E. 3Iedical Science, 

 Dr. Yelloly ; Sect. F. Statistics, Mr. H. Hallam ; Sect. G. MecJiu- 

 nical Science, Prof. Willis. Mr. F. Baily was elected a Trustee"of 

 the Association, in the room of Mr. Babbage, resigned. Major Sabine 



