66 REPORT — 1853. 



tive body renders it exceedingly unlikely that it was a fragment accidentally torh 

 from the surface of the Bursaria. It is probably either a gemma or an embryo set free 

 by the manipulation employed in the examination, but to what exact part of the 

 parent animal it is indebted for its origin, the author could not satisfactorily discover. 



On the Structure of the Freshwater Polyp, Hydra viridis. 

 By Professor Allman. 

 It had been stated by Ecker and Kblliker that these creatures possessed no cells, 

 but were composed of a mass of granules between which occasional vacuolae occurred. 

 He had succeeded in observing thiit tlie whole of the structure of the Hydra was cel- 

 lular, and no exception to the general law that regulated the existence of organic beings. 



On the Morphology of the Pycnogonidce, and Remarks on the Development 

 of the Ova in some Species of Isopodous and Amphipodous Crustacea. 

 By Spence Bate. 



On the Physiological Action of Inorganic Substances introduced directly into 

 the Blood. By Dr. J. Blake. 

 The paper detailed a continuation of the author's experiments on this subject. The 

 salts employed in this series of experiments were those of alumina and iron, where 

 the same result followed ; the action of the medicine was regulated by the isomorphism 

 of the substances administered. 



Notices of some Living Aquatic Birds at Santry House, near Dublin. 

 By W. C. Domville. 



On the Nature of Ciliary Motion. By P. Duncan. 



The author detailed what had been done by English observers on this subject, and 

 came to the conclusion that the cause of the bending and returning of the cilium resided 

 in the cell-wall of the cell which sustains the cilia, and that to a greater or less extent 

 the whole of the cell- wall is contractile. 



Of the Influence of the Circulation of the Blood on the Mental Functions. 

 ByB.. Fowler, M.D. 



This is a practical question, for as the whole body of an animal is a secretion from 

 the blood of its parents, is kept in repair and rendered sensitive and contractile by the 

 blood, and in ratio of its purity, and as all we can know of the external world is by 

 inference from the subjective sensations impressed on our organs of sense, it is obvious 

 that our knowledge must be dependent on tlie fitness of the bodily organs for being 

 adjusted by the mind, and receiving impressions from existing objects, analogous to a 

 telescope which must be adjusted by the mind of the astronomer, and reflective or 

 refractive of the im])ressions it receives. 



Cretins, unfitted for the functions of life by impure air and insufficient food and filth, 

 are restored by removal to pure air, wholesome food, cleanliness, and exercise. Bvit 

 the result is obviously i-eferable to the agency of the blood; man, therefore, is a coil, 

 secreted by his parents and actuated by vitality and animated by mind. 



I have in former papers, read in this Section, adduced facts to prove that vitality 

 and mind are forces, and in correlation with the physical forces. Alike to these, 

 their jmanifestation is in ratio of the fitness of their coils. The circulation of the blood 

 is in a real coil of tubes, it is the oxygen of the decarbonized blood which excites the 

 propulsive motion of the heart and arteries. The stimulating eifect of the oxygen 

 may be fully estimated by the pain it excites on an abrased surface or cut, and the 

 sufierin" of a person i-ecovering from suspended circulation. The nitrous oxide gas 

 is described by Sir H. Davy to have excited feelings of extended touch. It is still 

 the opinion of some persons, that the impulse given to the blood by the heart is the 

 only impulsive force actuating the circulation, but there are facts adduced by the late 

 Sir Charles Bell, to prove that the muscular coat of the minute arteries assist in 



