46 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Mr. Chas. Stewart communicated to the meeting a short note upon 

 the position of the toucli-corpuscles in the human skin. His attention 

 had been drami to the subject by a paper written by Dr. Thin, and 

 though he agreed generally with the writer as to their structure, he 

 could not do so altogether as to their position. Mr. Stewart then 

 proceeded to explain by means of drawings upon the black-board the 

 structure of the palmar skin of the hand and the plantar skin of the foot, 

 as distinguished from that of the other parts of the body, and showed 

 the peculiar position in the skin of the finger of the touch-corpuscles. 

 The results of many observations showed that they were invariably 

 situated in those papillte which were nearest to the furrows of the 

 skin, and never in those nearest to the sudoriferous ducts. He did 

 not yet see why they should be so placed, but their position there he 

 had found to be invariable. 



Mr. Stewart also called attention to some prepared sections of an 

 ascidian (Botryllus) which he exhibited in the room. His method of 

 killing them was to place them fii'st in a glass of water until they 

 opened out aud were in full action, and then to plunge them imme- 

 diately into strong methylated spirit. The change was so sudden 

 that they opened their mouths in the new element, and immediately 

 died the death of the drunkard. If weaker spirit were used, they 

 took some of it in, but immediately closed up, and would have no 

 more to do with it. The mounted section exhibited had been killed 

 in this way, and was stained slightly with hematoxylin. Mr. Stewart 

 then drew upon the black-board the section referred to, and explained 

 the structure and action of the various parts as he proceeded. He 

 thought that it might, be of interest to some persons to know that 

 many most beautiful forms of these creatures could be easily prepared 

 and preserved. 



On the motion of the President, votes of thanks to Mr. Stewart for 

 his interesting communications were unanimously passed. 



Dr. Matthews said he should like to hear Mr. Stewart's opinion as 

 to the Pacinian bodies of the mesentery. 



Mr. Stewart thought there was really very little resemblance, but 

 the preparation was perhaps worth mentioning. He had found a good 

 way was to cut out a piece of mesentery, put it into Muller's fluid for 

 three weeks. After that dissect off one half, and place it in a little 

 weak spirit and water ; then transfer it to absolute alcohol for the 

 purpose of hardening, and afterwards into a very weak solution of 

 hematoxylin to stain it. On taking it out of the staining fluid it 

 should be put to harden again in spirit, and afterwards moimted in 

 balsam in the usual way. 



Dr. Braithwaite said he should like to observe that in the first 

 diagram drawn by Mr. Stewart (that of the section of skin of human 

 finger), although he had every respect for Mr. Darwin, it seemed to 

 him that those little tacti were really placed in just the very best 

 position for the pui'jjose for which they were intended, and that they 

 were so placed as not to interfere with the sweat-gland appeared to 

 him very indicative of design. He thought the meeting was very 

 much indebted to Mr. Stewart for the very lucid manner in which he 

 had described these very interesting bodies. 



