JVernerian Natural History Suciely. 75 



occupied the Society. The general reoult ot the numerous 

 and accurate experimerits performed by these philosophers 

 prove, that the quantity of carbonic acid produced in respira- 

 tion is alvvavs equal to the quantity of oxygen consumed, 

 and vice versa; that a healthy man, whose pulse is 70 in a 

 minute, will consume 3400 cubic inches of oxygen gas iii 

 eleven minutes; that the same man will emit in the course 

 of 24 hours, calculating the quantity of gas which always 

 remains ni the lungs after evtrv respiration, ISOOO cubic 

 inches of carbonic acid, which ueld 10 oz. 2 grs. of solid 

 carbon, ft also appeared that no combination takes place 

 between oxygen and hydrogen in the lungs, and that they 

 do not form v\aterin the process of respiration. The au- 

 thors were assisted in the accuracy of these results by the 

 great perfection to which they fiave brought their eudiometer, 



June 23. The president in the chair. — A pa]>er by Dr. 

 Henry of Manchester was read, On the instruments of ans- 

 lysis of carbonic acid, and the gases emitted by coal in de- 

 structive distillation. This paper chiefly consisted of tables 

 pf the relative quantities of gas contained in coals, and of the 

 tests and means of measuring their quylitics and quantities. 



Mr. Home furnished the society with a sketch of the na- 

 tural history of thetrombac and caudivolva of New South 

 Wales and Bass's Straits.. Thetrombac w^as domesticated by 

 him two years, is about two feet long and one thick, with 

 round ears and a head resembling a pig, and without a tail. 

 It burrows in the earth and climbs trees j It suffered itself to 

 be nursed, and when it bit any thing it was without ill-na- 

 ture. On dissection it was discovered to have two uter'u 

 Mr. Bell, a surgeon in New Holland, dissected one in a 

 pregnant state, and found the uteri containing a gelatinous 

 substance conveyed in two tubes, instead of a jilaci-nta. It 

 is of the same genus (Didelphis) as the American opossunx 

 and the kangaroo. 



WKRNERIAN NATURAL HISTORV SOCIETY. 



At the last meeting of the Wernerian Natural History 

 Society, (June 11,) Dr.ThomasThomson, oneofthe vice- 

 presidents, read a very interesting and valuajble paper on the 



chemical 



