Royal Society, 215 



and success, investigated the variations occurring in this function in 

 the different periods of insect development. He has minutely traced 

 the several changes which the tracheae and spiracles undergo during 

 the transformations of the insect, and has particularly described the 

 successive development of the air-vesicles in connexion with the 

 power of flight. He has given a minute and accurate description of 

 the system of muscles, both of inspiration and of expiration, of the 

 Sphinx ligustri ; has investigated their various modes of action, with 

 reference more especially to the different classes of nerves appro- 

 priated to these functions ; and has established a distinction in the 

 offices of these nerves, corresponding to the sources from which they 

 derive their origin, and presenting remarkable analogies with similar 

 distinctions in the nerves of vertebrated animals. He has given the 

 result of a series of original experiments on the products of respira- 

 tion in this class of animals, and of their variations under diff'erent 

 circumstances of temperature, of submersion, aijid of confinement in 

 unrespirable and deleterious gases j and he has deduced important 

 conclusions relative to the circumstances which govern the proper- 

 ties of oxygen consumed and of carbonic acid generated. He has 

 also communicated various results to which he has arrived concerning 

 the capabilities which insects possess of supporting life during 

 longer or shorter periods, when immersed in different media. 



For the original views presented in these two papers, as well as 

 for the mass of valuable information they contain, the results of 

 much laborious and well-directed research in the more difficult de- 

 partments of the Anatomy and Physiology of Insects, prosecuted 

 under circumstances which would have repressed the exertions of a 

 less ardent inquirer into truth, the Council have considered Mr. 

 Newport as highly deserving the distinction they have conferred 

 upon him by the award of the Royal Medal for Animal Physiology in 

 the present year. 



The Council proj)ose to give one of the Royal Medals in the year 

 1839 to the most important unpublished paper in Astronomy com- 

 municated to the Royal Society for insertion in their Transactions 

 after the present date, and prior to the termination of the Sessions 

 in June 1839. 



The Council propose to give one of the Royal Medals in the year 

 1839, to the most important unpublished paper in Physiology, com- 

 municated for insertion in their Transactions after the present date, 

 and prior to the termination of the Sessions in June 1839. 



The ballot for Officers and Council being taken, the following was 

 the result : 



President: His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, K.G. — 

 Treasurer: Francis Baily, Esq. — Secretaries: Peter Mark Roget, 

 M.D. ; John George Children, Esq. — Foreign Secretary: Charles 

 Konig, Esq, 



Other Members of the Council : George Biddell Airy, Esq., A.R. j 

 William Allen, Esq. ; John Bostock, M.D. ; The Earl of Burlington; 

 Samuel Hunter Christie, Esq. ; Viscount Cole, M.P. j Joseph Henry 

 Green, Esq. ; George Bellas Greenough, Esq. j William Lawrence, 



