1«23.3 



Proceedings of Public Societieti 



grates, and the means of introducing coal 

 thereon. — June 26. 



Louis Bernard Rabant, of Skinner- 

 street, Soow-hill, gentleman; for an im- 

 proved apparatus for the preparation of 

 coffee or tea. — June 26. 



Tliomas Postans, of Charles-street, St. 

 James ; and William Jeakes, of Great Rus- 

 sell-street, Blnomsbury; for an impiove- 

 inent on cooking apparatus. — June 26, 



245 



George Smart, of Pedlar's Acre, Lam' 

 beth, civil engineer ; for an improvement 

 in (he manufacture of chains, vrhich he de- 

 nominates mathematical chains. — July 4. 



Joseph Smith, of Sheffield, book-keeper; 

 for an improvement of or in the steaoi-en- 

 gine-boiler. — July 4. 



John Bold, of West-street, Long-lane, 

 Bermondsey, printer; for certain improve- 

 ments in printing. — July 4. 



PROCEEDINGS OF PUBLIC SOCIETIES. 



INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. 



A N able Wfjvk on nervous irritahi- 

 JrfL. lily and sensibility, by M. Flourciis, 

 was, in the last year, presented to t!ie 

 Institute at Paris, who referred tlie 

 same to tlie examination of M. Cuvier, 

 and others; from whose luminous 

 Report, it appears, that M. Flourens 

 has, by a long and careful course of 

 well-conducted experiments on vari- 

 ous animals, birds iu particular, ascer- 

 tained that precise part of tlie brain 

 which we may, perhaps, consider as 

 the chief seat of the mind, being that 

 part wherein the impressions made by 

 external oi)jeets on the senses, which 

 arc conveyed by certain nerves, all 

 centre, and there produce sensations ; 

 anil from which important point, otlier 

 nerves, as they ought now to be con- 

 sidered, altlujugh apparently only con- 

 tinuations ol' the lormer ones, under 

 the control of the will, conduct irrila- 

 tion to the parlieular muscles whose 

 contractions, o\>ing to sneh irritation,. 

 are fitted for instantly performing the 

 movements of the body which have 

 been willed. 



This sentient point has been placed, 

 by M. Flourens's experiments, in the 

 superior pari of tlie medulla ohlonf/aia, 

 at the part wliere tlie tnbercula cjuadii- 

 gemina adhere to it; where the faculty 

 of propagating irritation on the one 

 iiand, and of receiving pain or plea- 

 sure on the other, is exclusively situ- 

 ated : tiiis, in other words, is the 

 place, whither all sensations, con- 

 ducted by one system of nerves, miist 

 arrive, in order to become percep- 

 tions ; and this, also, in the place, 

 whence the orders of the will must ne- 

 cessarily depart along another system 

 of nerves. A novel and important 

 part of M. riourens's discoveries, con- 

 sists in his having ascertained, tiiatlho 

 eei'cbeUuin is the essential organ of lo- 

 comotion, or that which balances and 

 Tcgnlates the motions of progressi(»n ; 

 and that, on this part of the brain being 



compressed or mutilated, the animal is 

 no longer able to preserve its erect or 

 other proper position, for moving itself 

 according to the dictates of the will: 

 and hence it appears, that this is the 

 part more immediately aflected, under 

 a state of intoxication or of vertigo. 



The cerebral lobes of the brain, ap- 

 pear to M. Cuvier to be the only recep- 

 tacle in which tlie sensations of sight 

 and hearing can be perfected, and 

 become perceptible to the animal; here, 

 also, the sensations assume a distinct 

 form, and leave durable impressions 

 on the memory : these lobes are, ia 

 fact, the seat of the memory, and fur- 

 nisli the animal with the materials for 

 judgment. 



The following passages we extract 

 from this higtily curious and very in- 

 teresting Report : 



It is now known, (say the Reporters,) 

 especially from the late researches of MM. 

 Gall and Spinzheim, that the spinal mar- 

 row is a mass or medullary matter, wliite 

 on the exterior, grey in the interior, di- 

 vided longitudinally above and below by 

 furrows, the two fasciculi of which commu- 

 nicate together by means of transverse 

 medullary fibres ; that it is enlarged at 

 regular intervals; that it sends out from 

 each enlargement a pairof nerves; that the 

 medulla oblongata is the superior part of the 

 spinal marrow inclosed within the cra- 

 nium, which also sends out several pair of 

 nerves; that tlie fibres of communication 

 of its two fasciculi cross there, so that 

 those of the right ascend into the left, and 

 vice vcrsft ; that these fasciculi, after this 

 first enlargement in the Mammifera; by 

 an admixture of greyish matter, and after 

 having formed the protuberance known by 

 the name of pons Varolii, separate and 

 take the name of crura cerebri, continuing 

 to send out nerves ; that tliey again en- 

 large by a fresh admixture of greyish mat- 

 ter, in order to form the masses commonly 

 called tlialami nervorum opticorum ; an(\ a, 

 third time, to form those called corpora 

 striatit ; that from the whole external edge 

 of these last enlar!,'enients, is given olf an 

 expansion of greater or less thickness, and 



more 



