i8 



HIS TORT of the SOCIElT. 



for the year 1794. This abftrad, with thofe for 1795 and 

 1796, make tlie laft of the Phyfical papers in this volume. 



1795" 



Feb. 2 



Dr Aivlcribn On 



At this meetino- Dr Anderson alfo read a paper on the Ma- 

 Indigo.''"' "' king of Indigo at Tranquebar, by Dr Anderson of Madras. 



r.x.™aofa ^^j extradl of a letter from W. Hall, Efq; of Whitehall, 



wlHaiuEfq; Berwickfhirc, was read, giving an Account of a Great Degree 



of Cold which he had obferved on the Evening of the 2 2d of 



January, when the Therm.cmeter flood between 5 and 6 degrees 



below o of Fahrenheit's fcale. 



March *. Ph'j. CI. Dr Alexander Wilson read the firft part of a pa- 



S; Srr per, concerning the EfFeds of Opium on the Living Animal. This 

 Sing a'ml paper has been publilhed feparately : An abftrad of it follows. 

 Th e difference in the refults of the experiments that have 

 been made to afcertain the effeifls of opium, and the inconfiftency 

 of the conclufions deduced from them, led Dr Wilson to enter 

 on the experimental inveftigation contained in this paper. The 

 firft point which he endeavours to afcertain is, vrhether opi- 

 um, applied to the internal furface of the heart, is capable of 

 fo affeding its nerves, as to ad; on thofe of every part of the 

 body, producing the general convulfions obferved on injeding 

 a folution of this drug into the heart or blood- vefFels. It "ap- 

 pears from his experiments, that the only effeds of the applica- 

 tion of opium to the internal furface of the heart, are thoie of 

 interrupting its motion, and deftroying its irritability ; and that 

 when convulfions fucceed, they are owing to the opium being 

 conveyed along the aorta, and immediately applied to the brain. 

 It has alfo been afTerted, that opium, applied to diftant parts of 

 the body, is capable of affedling the motion of the heart, through 

 the medium of the nervous fyftem. Injeded into the cavity of 



the 



