252 



September 15, 1852. 

 Dr. Durkee in the Chair. 



Dr. W. I. Burnett said, that the fibres of the crystalhne 

 lens in man, which had been the subject of discussion at 

 the previous meeting, so far as he had examined them, are 

 always straight ; he had never been able to detect any of 

 the serratures described by anatomists. The same he had 

 found to be the case in the Tortoise, the Cat, and the 

 Squid. He thought that the serrated appearance described 

 might have been produced by a laceration of the fibres. 

 Since the last meeting he had had an opportunity of exa- 

 mining the diaphanous vesicles then spoken of, and found 

 that they would expand by the imbibition of water and 

 then take any shape by pressure. 



Dr. Durkee said, that the results of his observations on 

 the fibres of the human crystalline lens differed from those 

 of Dr. Burnett. He had examined subjects of all ages, and 

 had found the digitations described by anatomists. He 

 was satisfied in his own mind, that they were intended to 

 fit into each other. 



Dr. Durkee exhibited, under the microscope, a human 

 lens showing numerous cells, such as he had described at 

 the previous meeting. 



Dr. Burnett said, he regarded them as accidental form- 

 ations, produced by a thin coating of albumen on a drop 

 of oil, forming a cell, which was afterwards enlarged by 

 Endosmosis. 



Dr. Burnett read a paper on the Coloration of Cephalo- 

 poda. His observations had been made on the common 

 Squid, Loligo illecebrosa. The results obtained were as 

 follows : — 



1. The coloring matter is composed of a single layer of gra- 

 nules, deposited in the dermis, between the muscular fibrillce 



