51 



ratio tended to lower the vital temperature, it might lose 59 

 degrees before life was extinguished. 



The deductions drawn from the foregoing remarks were 

 these : — That the power of producing heat being different at 

 different periods of life, the vitality and power of resistance 

 must likewise be different. Man, accordingly, sheltered 

 himself by clothing ; and instinct in animals prompted the 

 parent to guard her offspring, by imparting her own genial 

 warmth, this precaution being not only necessary to secure 

 the rapid development and growth of the body, but also 

 absolutely indispensible for the preservation of life. If 

 such precautions were more generally taken, it would 

 certainly contribute to lessen the high rate of mortality in 

 infancy. These remarks were applicable to all classes, not 

 only to the poor, who were too often unable to provide 

 themselves with adequate clothing and shelter against the 

 " pelting of the pitiless storm," but also to the more 

 favoured sons of Adam — the higher classes of this and 

 other countries, who, imagining that they were taking 

 every precaution necessary for the preservation of their 

 children, from judging of the effects only relatively, little 

 suspected that a temperature agreeable to their own feelings 

 should be destructive to others. 



THIRTEENTH MEETING. 



ROYAL INSTITUTION, 25th May, 1846. 

 The PRESIDENT in the Chair. 



Mr. Hugh Gaskell Sutton was admitted a member. 



The President read a letter from M. du Pont to M. 

 St. Hilaire, on the origin of the name of the Bed Sea, which 

 he attributed to the presence of a marine alga. Dr. Booth 

 considered that it was simply a derivation from the previous 

 name — the Sea of Edom, i. e., the Sea of the Red Man. 



Dr. Cakson stated that large quantities of Manna had 

 fallen in Palestine, and that on examination with the 

 microscope by Professor Faraday, the substance appeared to 



