‘a vented from touching by plates of glass 
_ cemented to them, and a little larger for 
- an instance of its use, suppose the first 
' condenser has received a small positive 
with the finger, D will become negative 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 31 
in its turn the centre of a similar action, smaller ones being generated and arranged 
round the larger ones. Prof. Goodsir finds that the inner membrane of the tubes of 
glands is formed of cells, and that nucleated cells are found among them, which he 
calls centres of nutrition, as if these nucleated cells were the parents of successive broods 
of young cells passing off from them, and arranged round them as centres. These 
centres of nutrition are here called centres of force; and according to the law of this 
force, there would be a common centre, bringing all these isolated and secondary 
centres into one comprehensive whole. The blood corpuscles are also nucleated 
cells, each having its own central living force, and thus their relation to the vital force 
whilst circulating is analogous to that which a magnet holds to the electro-magnetic 
force moving it. Both are bodies containing within themselves these forces. 
The vascular disc of the yolk-bag had been taken as a central fact, the right com- 
prehension of which would explain other facts of the same kind, but more complex. 
Its application to some few facts in physiology was then shown,—such as the formation 
of new blood-vessels; the tubular form of vessels and ducts among cells; the circu- 
lation through capillaries independently of the contraction of their coats, or of the 
propulsive power of the heart; and of that universal fact, that wherever there is a 
central heart, there are powers at work which neither its propulsive power nor capil- 
lary action can explain,—of forming new vessels in connexion with the old ones. Such 
a universal fact becomes a law, when the cause is shown. This cause or law, now 
proposed as the solution of these living processes, is, that the vital force circulating 
in two directions, one circle being in a plane at right angles to the other,—thus iden- 
tical in direction and relation with the electro-magnetic force,— will explain the phe- 
nomena; or, in other words, that wherever there is a central moving force there is 
a power at work around, and to and from that centre, capable of arranging fit matter 
as tubes, and of circulating fluid to a certain extent through them, and that the tubu- 
lar formation is owing to a vital power identical in its direction with the galvanic; 
and the radiated arrangement of these vessels, and the circulation (to a certain ex- 
tent) of fluid through them, are dependent on a power accompanying the former, and 
identical in its direction with the magnetic force. The conclusion was not drawn that 
the vital and electro-magnetic forces were the same, but that the direction and rela- 
tion of both forces were identical. 
On a new Multiplying Condenser. By Prof. A. F. SVANBERG. 
The author was led by the process used by M. Pfaff of Kiel, in his researches on the 
electricity of contact between metals and fluids, to construct a new instrument, which, 
by asingle contact of zinc and copper, can be charged by manipulation, requiring only 
a minute of time, to an intensity sufficient to give a brilliant spark and strong shock. 
It consists of two ordinary condensers, whose plates are of copper, the two lower con- 
nected by a copper wire. They are pre- 
the sake ofinsulation. The lower plates 
are supported by insulating stems, and 
the upper have insulating handles. For 
charge ~ a. Raising A and touching C 
and C positive by induction, Remove 
_ the finger from C to D, the electricity of this last is retained by that of C; and at the 
same time replacing A, which had not lost its electricity during the preceding opera- 
tions, that of B can be transported to D by a repetition of the process. By three such 
_ operations the tension of D’s electricity is tripled, and this can be transferred to B by 
_ raising C and touching A. In this way it is obvious that by 3” manipulations the 
final electricity=3".a; it is easily seen that there is a certain number of transfers 
before changing, which gives the greatest result. ‘Thus with two transfers and three 
changes 2”. a=4096 a, while 3 (which is the best number of transfers) give with the 
amount of manipulation 5°.a—=6561 a; 4 transfers give 4°.a=4096a@, Such an in- 
strument made for the Cabinet de Physique at the University of Upsal, of six inches 
