Royal Society. 377 



current of low intensity from a single pair of plates : the metallic so- 

 lution, in which a copper-plate was immersed, being contained in a 

 glass tube, closed at the bottom by a diaphragm of plaster of Paris, 

 and itself plunged in a weak solution of brine contained in a larger 

 vessel, in which a plate of zinc was immersed j and a communication 

 being established between the two metallic plates by connecting wires. 

 By the feeble, but continuous current thus elicited, sulphate of copper 

 is found to be slowly decomposed, affording beautiful crystals of me- 

 tallic copper. Iron, tin, zinc, bismuth, antimony, lead, and silver 

 may, in like manner, be reduced, by a similar and slightly modified 

 process ; in general appearing with metallic lustre, and in a crystal- 

 line form, and presenting a remarkable contrast in their appearance 

 to the irregular, soft, and sj)ongy masses obtained from the same so- 

 lutions by means of large batteries. The crystals of copper rival in 

 hardness and malleability the finest specimens ofj native copper, which 

 they much resemble in appearance. The crystallization of bismuth, 

 lead, and silver, by this process, is very beautiful ; that of bismuth 

 being lamellar, of a lustre approaching to that of iron, but with the 

 reddish tint peculiar to the former metal. Silver may thus be pro- 

 cured of the whiteness of snow, and usually in the form of needles. 

 Some metals, such as nickel, which, when acted on by currents from 

 large batteries, are deposited from their solutions as oxides only, are 

 obtained, by means of the apparatus used by the author, in a brilliant 

 metallic form. He further found that he could in this way reduce even 

 the more refractory metallic oxides, such as silica, which resist the 

 action of powerful batteries, and which M. Becquerel could only ob- 

 tain in alloy with iron. By a slight modification of the apparatus he 

 was enabled to form amalgams both of potassium and of sodium with 

 mercury, by the decomposition of solutions of chlorides of those bases ; 

 and in like manner ammonium was easily reduced, when in contact 

 with mercury, by the influence of a feeble volt[\ic current. In this last 

 experiment it was found that an interruption to the continuance of the 

 current, even for a few seconds, is sufficient to destroy the whole of 

 the product which had been the result of the previous long-continued 

 action j the spongy ammoniacal amalgam being instantly decomposed, 

 and the ammonia formed being divssolved in the surrounding fluid. 



February 9. — A paper was read, in part, entitled, *' On the Ele- 

 mentary Structure of Muscular Fibre of Animal and Organic Life." 

 By Frederick Skey, Esq., Assistant Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's 

 Hospital. Communicated by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. 



February 16. — The reading of Mr. Skey's paper was resumed and 

 concluded. 



The author concludes, from his microscopic examinations of the 

 structure of muscular fibres, that those subservient to the functions of 

 animal life have, in man, an average diameter of one 400dth of an inch, 

 and are surrounded by transverse circular striae varying in thickness, 

 and in the number contained in a given space. He describes these 

 striae as constituted by actual elevations on the surface of the fibre, 

 with intermediate depressions, considerably narrower than the dia- 



Third Series, Vol. 10. No. 62. May 183'7. 3 C 



