TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 89 
_ part, there is also retransmission to its arteries to ensure a supply of blood (the 
- source), from which both sensibility and contractibility are sustained. 
Captain Ibbetson read a paper which he had translated from the French, on the 
Chemical and Physiological effects of feeding Fowls, and on the changes and chemical 
composition of Eggs during incubation, by Dr. Sacc. 
The first part of this paper gave an account of the results of feeding a bantam 
cock and hen on barley alone. At the end of a week it was found that the cock 
had gained 18 grammes (a gramme is 153 grains English) and the hen had lost 21 
grammes, but had laid in the mean time an egg weighing 22 grammes; in addition 
to the barley a certain quantity of carbonate of lime had been consumed. The egg on 
being examined was found: to contain— 
+ Si Pe e_ 
Albumen .....scccseseeeees 19°49 
Oilkasetiatdissieen idiaccitent 27°84 
IWYAGCR es cs chine'edaisecle osenete 52°67—100°00 
In hens ordinarily fed the egg contained— 
Albumen ....ccscseeeeeesens 17 
0.71 Berens a Seem ere aeasroaG 
IW Xbeliresannadacenscred-sat re 54 —100 
Thus showing that the barley-fed hen laid eggs with a larger quantity of solid 
‘i organic matter than ordinarily fed hens. 
_ ___ It was found that hens during incubation lose weight. A hen before incubation 
_ weighed 672°155 grammes, after it 483-202 grammes. During incubation eggs lose 
_ weight in the following proportion :— 
Ist week 5 per cent. 2nd week 9 per cent. 3rd week 3 per cent. 
losing altogether 17 per cent. of their weight. The shell of the egg was found to 
' weigh 18 per cent. of the egg, and to be composed principally of carbonate of lime. 
_ The shell of the egg is not formed unless the animal has access to carbonate of lime 
_ in some form or other. The carbonate of lime is deposited on the egg from with- 
_ out, and is carried to the egg in a state of solution in carbonic acid. Phosphate of 
_ lime and traces of iron were found in the albumen and the yolk of the egg, and also 
soda. The function of the albumen or white of the egg appears to be, first, to 
_ furnish the young bird with phosphate of lime for its bones and other earthy and 
alkaline salts ; and, secondly, to supply water, the material for the muscles, and to 
hold in solution the carbonic acid breathed by the young bird before it is hatched. 
_ Acommunication is constantly kept up between the atmosphere and the chick by 
_ the shell, which is the organ of the gaseous pulmonary and cutaneous excretions. 
_ The yolk of the egg is principally composed of oily matter, which appears to be 
_ taken into the system of the young chick, and is used in respiration for the purpose 
_ of maintaining animal heat. Thus it is found that in the contents of the new-laid 
_ egg there are the same principles surrounding the young chick as there is in the 
vegetable kingdom for the supply of the whole animal kingdom. We have, first, 
: proteine for nutrition ; second, oil for combustion ; and, third, various salts for com- 
__ bining with the agents of nutrition. 
On the erroneous division of the Cervical and Dorsal Vertebre, and the 
_ connection of the First Rib with the Seventh Vertebra, and the normal 
position of the Head of the Rib in Mammals. By Dr. Macpona np, 
| F.RSE., LS. GS. &e. 
Cuvier was most successful in the application of organic characters in systematic 
_ zoology and paleontology, and from his data almost all our modern zoologists have 
_ copied their elementary and systematic treatises. 
_ From a very extended examination of the skeletons of the vertebral classes, Cuvier 
= early adopted and maintained, as an essential character of the whole class of mam- 
_ mals, that they were distinguished by having seven cervical vertebre as in man. 
_ Unfortunately this was based on a hasty adoption of the anthropotomist, who had 
rf 
