397 



The author forms the conclusion, that we must seek some other 

 cause of the coloration of the blood than the direct action of oxygen. 

 That cause he conceives to be of the nature of electricity. He refers 

 to various experiments which show that electricity produces the effect 

 of reddening the blood, and ho explains the development of electri- 

 city in respiration, by supposing that the heat evolved by the com- 

 bination of carbon with oxygen in the lungs, becoming latent, is con- 

 verted into electricity, and there produces its effect on the colouring 

 matter of the blood. That effect the author holds to consist in the 

 decomposition of the saline ingredients of the serum, the consequent 

 separation of a quantity of free alkali, which, acting on the hemato- 

 sine, changes its colour from dark to bright red. 



The following Donations of Books to the Society's Library 

 were announced. 



Astronomical Observations made with Ramsden's Zenith Sector, to- 

 gether with a Catalogue of the Stars which have been observed, 

 and the amplitudes of the Celestial Arcs, deduced from the ob- 

 servations at the different stations. Published by order of the 

 Board of Ordnance. — By the Master General, ^c. 



Proceedings of the London Electrical Society. Part 6. Session 

 1842-43. — By the Society. 



Bulletin de I'Academie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres de 

 Bruxelles. 1842. Nos. 3-9. 



Nouveaux Memoires de I'Academie Royale des Sciences et Belles 

 Lettres de Bruxelles. Tome xv. 



Annales de 1' Observatoiro Royal de Bruxelles. Publiees par le 

 Directeur, A. Quetelet. Tome ii. — By the Royal Academy. 



Annuaire Magnetique et Meteorologique du Corps des Ingenieurs des 

 Mines de Russie ou Becueil d'Obsex-vations Magnetiques et 

 M^teorologiques faites dans I'etendue de TEmpire de Russie. 

 Par A. T. Kupffer. Annee 1840. — Par V Administration 

 Imperiale des Mines. 



Astronomischo Nachrichten. Nos. 447-461. — By Professor Schu- 

 macher. 



Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Cambridge. Vol. VIT. 

 Part 3. — By the Society. 



Scheikundige Onderzoekingen, gedaan in liet Laboratorium dcr Ut- 

 tretchtsche Hoogeschool. Stuk. 4. — By the Editors. 



