108 TRAXSACTIOXS OF THE SOCIETY OF 



Verhal reports. — There have been some interesting communications to tlie 

 society, on pliy.'?iological researches conducted by foreign savants, namely : By 

 Professor de la Eive, on the experiments of M. Hcouttetten relative to the elas- 

 ticity of the blood, and to the current which, through the galvanometer, passes 

 from the arterial to the venous blood ; and this as Avell in the living animal as 

 in the blood freshly drawn from the vessels. By Professor Claparcde, on the 

 process of M. Waudt for measuring the rapidity with which thought may be 

 transferred from an impression of the sense of hearing to an impression of the 

 sense of sight, (about ^ of a second.) The personal equation of the observer 

 ought, evidently, to be here taken into consideration. On the animal grafts of 

 Dr. Best; besides the subcutaneous grafts of different members effected with 

 success, this physiologist, in the case of two animals of the same spec'es, but 

 of different sex, has succeeded in engrafting the genital organs of one into the 

 abdominal cavity of the other. He has also united two rats by the skin of the 

 lateral part of the body, and has thus succeeded in establishing between them 

 a complete vascular communication. Although these graftings have succeeded 

 between animals of the same species, they have failed between those of dif- 

 ercnt species. Again — and with this I shall end — Professor Claparede de- 

 tailed to us the last results at which, each for himself, ]\DI. Knoch, in Russia, 

 Leuckart, in Germany, and the late Bertholus, in Prance, have arrived in their 

 valuable researches on the evolution of the bothryoccphalus. In this worm, com- 

 mon enough in Russia, Poland, the south of France and Geneva, the (i^s,?>> are 

 developed in water, and at the end of seven months give birth to embryos fur- 

 nished with remarkably long cilia. These embryos continue to live freely in the 

 water, and there produce a larva? armed with hooks very similar to that of the 

 ta3nias. Now, what still remains to be discovered is, whether it is sufficient to 

 swallow water containing the larvaj of the bothryoccphalus in order to introduce 

 this worm into the human body ; or whether, as with other ta^nias, the passage 

 through an intermediate animal is necessary for effecting its ultimate evolution. 

 The question being reduced to this degree of simplicity, its solution may be 

 easily attempted, and we ma}' hope will be attained before thfe lapse of any long 

 interval. 



Such is the analysis, complete enough, I think, but still summary and dry, 

 of the different labors which have occupied us during the year v/ith which my 

 official term closes. It remains to say a few words on — 



The persoxael Ai\d proorkss of the society. — I had hoped, till quite a 

 recent period, to have been enabled, notwithstanding the somewhat precarious 

 state of the public health during the year 1SG3, to felicitate you that no vacancy 

 had occurred in the ranks of our society; but those anticipated felicitations 

 have been changed into sincere regrets by the death of M. Wartmann, senior, 

 at the age of 71 years. Louis Francois Wartmann was born at Geneva, Jan- 

 uary 6, 1793 ; and was, from the first, destined by his father, who knew how to 

 give in his own person an example of perseverance and the love of labor, to that 

 hardy education which the difficult circumstances of the epoch demanded. Of 

 a ready intelligence and happy aptitude for the serious occupations of the mind, 

 it was the physical sciences towards which he felt most strongly attracted, and 

 the study of which, tinder such men as Schanb, Gasp, de la Rive, M. A. Pictet, 

 Maurice, and Gautier, definitely decided the course of his life. Endowed with 

 an easy and agreeable elocution, and knowing how to place himself on a level 

 with intellects of every degree, he devoted himself more particularly to instruc- 

 tion, and, for half a century, attained in that line well-merited success. Thus 

 occupying a position in which he could clearly recognize the wants of our pop- 

 ulation, he soon perceived that our classical college ansv/ered but imperfectly 

 the educational requirements of a part of our youth, and, associating himself 

 with a few capable and devoted colleagues, he opened, July, 1831, an industrial 

 school, which continued in successful operation till 1S38, when its functions were 



