li^ Royal Society, 



tion which deprives the Society of His Royal Highness's attendance 

 at the Anniversary Meeting, and confidently hope that his health 

 will be speedily and completely restored. 



The Secretary read the following List of Fellows deceased since 

 the last Anniversary. 



On the Home List. — Sir Gilbert Blane, Bart., M.D. ; John, Mar- 

 quis of Breadalbane ; John Caley, Esq. ; Rev. James Stanier Clarke, 

 LL.D. ; Captain James Franklin ; William Wyndham, Lord Gren- 

 ville; Philip, Earl of Hardwicke ; George Harvey, Esq. ; John Jebb, 

 Lord Bishop of Limerick; Rev. Daniel Lysons ; William Taylor Mo- 

 ney, Esq. ; John Sharpe, Esq. ; Thomas Snodgrass, Esq. ; William 

 Sotheby, Esq. ; George John, Earl Spencer ; Thomas Telford, Esq. ; 

 Right Hon. Charles Philip Yorke. 



On the Foreign List. — Don Felipe Bauzk and Professor Karl Lud- 

 wig Harding. 



Tlie Secretary stated that of these only two, namely. Sir Gilbert 

 Blane and Mr. George Harvey, have contributed papers to the Royal 

 Society. 



Sir Gilbert Blane was the author of a paper, entitled, " An Ac- 

 count of the Nardus Indica, or Spikenard," which was published in 

 the Philosophical Transactions for 1790. 



In this paper. Sir Gilbert, then Dr. Blane, establishes the identity 

 of a species of grass, found in great abundance in a wild unfre- 

 quented part of India at the foot of the mountains north of Lucknow, 

 and held in great estimation by the natives as a febrifuge, with the 

 plant denominated by ancient writers the Nardus Indica, and which 

 Arrian states was found in great quantity by the armies of Alex- 

 ander during their marches through the deserts of Gadrosia, border- 

 ing on the Persian Gulf, and forming part of the modern province 

 of Mekran. An account of the medicinal properties of this plant 

 occupies the remainder of this paper. 



In the year 1788, Sir Gilbert Blane was appointed to read the 

 Croonian Lecture, in which he enters into a general account of the 

 nature of the muscles and of the theory of muscular motion. This 

 paper was not published in the Philosophical Transactions. The 

 portion of it chiefly deserving notice is that which relates to the ex- 

 periments made by him with a view to determine whether the spe- 

 cific gravity of a muscle is the same in its two states of relaxation 

 and contraction. For this purpose he compared equal portions of 

 the muscular flesh taken from the opposite sides of a fish, one of 

 which had been contracted by crimping, and the other had remained 

 relaxed ; but he was unable to detect any sensible difference in their 

 specific gravities. This conclusion was corroborated by the result 

 of experiments on living eels, inclosed in vessels filled with water, 

 and terminating above in a tube of small diameter : the bulk of the 

 fluid was observed to be unaff^ected by muscular contractions pur- 

 posely excited in the fish, as appeared from the height of the column 

 in the tube remaining unchanged during the most violent actions of 

 the eels. In caoutchouc, on the other hand. Sir G. Blane found 

 that extension produced a diminution, and retraction an increase, of 

 density. 



