TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 149 
that it had been introduced into this country with the seed of the flax 
from the North of Europe, and that there was no doubt of its being 
distinct from the C. europea of Linneus. 
Sir T. Phillipps, Bart., communicated to the Section a notice of 
minutely-filamentous roots of the beech, which had grown through the 
sides of a brick-tank and absorbed the water therein. 
He also drew attention to some curious remarks on natural history 
contained in a MS. History of Wexford, written in 1684, now in the 
possession of Sir T. Phillipps. 
MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
An Account of some new Observations on the Structure of the Gastro- 
intestinal Mucous Membrane, and more particularly of the Gastric 
and Intestinal Glands. By ALLEN Tuomson, I.D., Professor of 
Anatomy in Aberdeen. 
This paper was illustrated by a large series of preparations of the 
gastric and intestinal glands of Man, and some of the lower animals, 
amounting to upwards of sixty specimens, which were exhibited to the 
Section. 
The author began by giving a short sketch of the recent progress of 
the investigations of anatomists respecting the subject of his paper. He 
referred more particularly to the observations of Boyd, Boehm, Bischoff, 
Purkinje, Henle and Wasmann, from which the tubular structure of the 
whole gastro-intestinal mucous membrane, and the covering of every 
part of that membrane with a layer of nucleated particles or epithelium, 
has been ascertained, and stated some additional observations of his own 
in confirmation and extension of these facts. The author then alluded to 
the very recent observations of Wasmann and of Baly, tending to prove 
the occasional closed condition of the minute tubes composing the mu- 
cous membrane of the stomach in some parts of that organ ; and to the 
observations of Henle, on the closed vesicular condition or cellular 
acini of the extremities of the ducts of the salivary, buccal, and some 
other mucous glands; and made some remarks on the theory of secre- 
tion founded by Henle on these observations, viz. that the matters se- 
creted from the mucous membranes are formed in close cavities or cells, 
and are discharged by the rupture or solution of the coats of the cells. 
The theory now mentioned was applied by Henle to the explanation of 
the closed condition in which the vesicles of the glands of Peyer are 
usually found; and Dr. Thomson (without adopting the theory of se- 
cretion offered by Henle in its full extent) conceives that the observa- 
