Geological Society. 305 
by Berzelius. Hence he concluded that the Swedish Professor 
has established his canons rather too hastily, and from data 
which, however they may correspond with the chemical phee- 
nomena of six or eight salts, are incompatible with the facts 
relative to nearly a hundred others. Dr. T. operated chiefly on 
bones, aud the phosphat of lime which they contain: in opera- 
ting he followed the process proposed by Eckberg in 1795, arid 
preferred the deflagrating of phosphorus in oxygen, to every 
other mode of ascertaining their relative combinations. But his 
apparatus bemg small, his experiments were often made on the 
combustion of a single grain of phosphorus in oxygen gas. 
April 25. A very short paper by Sir Everard Home was read, 
as an appendix to his remarks on the effects of certain medicines 
on the circulation of the blood, and in proof of his opinion that 
their efficacy is entirely owing to their action on the circulation 
diminishing the pulse, &c. To confirm this position, it was 
suggested to him to try the effects of his gout medicine thrown 
directly into the blood without the intermedium of the stomach, 
With this view 160 grains were injected into the veins of a dog, 
when the animal in a few minutes became convulsed, his pulse 
lowered, respiration difficult, had evacuations, and in five hours 
died. On opening the stomach it was found inflamed, and the 
whole appearances were exactly the same as if the poison had 
been taken into the stomach. Sir E. considers this a demon- 
stration, as far as it is possible in such a case, of the truth 
of his ‘theory. 
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
A Report by Dr. Granville, on a Memoir of M. Methuon, on 
the Mode in which earthy and metallic Crystals, not of a saline 
Nature, are formed, was read on the 16th Feb, 
“ Crystals, according to Mons. Methuon, are not the imme- 
diate consequence of undisturbed solution or fusion; but the 
produce of a peculiar decomposition of amorphous crystallizable 
masses, the particles of which arrange themselves, during de- 
composition, according to certain laws of attraction 3; the process 
being carried on in the dry way, and in the air.” 
About twelve years ago, while engaged in some mineral pur- 
suits in Elba, his attention was directed to a block of argil- 
laceous schistus with pyrites, which appeared to have been re- 
cently detached from a stratum of that substance, forming the 
basis of a large mass of sandstone projecting from one of the 
sides of the mountain. On examining it he found that several 
eapillary crystals of alum from ¢ to 3 of an inch in length co- 
vered its superior surface. This as well as the lateral sides of 
the stone were in an evident state of decomposition more or less 
Vol. 47, No, 216, April 1816, U advanced, 
