490 London Electrical Society. 
in a certain part of the cell-wall, and as representing the situation 
ofa highly pellucid substance, originally having little if any colour.” 
This substance, which he considers as being primogenital and form- 
ative, he denominates hyaline, and ascribes to it the following pro- 
perties. It appropriates to itself new matter, thus becoming enlarged ; 
then divides and subdivides into globules, each of which passes 
through changes of the same kind. Under certain circumstances, 
it exhibits a contractile power, and performs the motions called 
molecular. It is the seat of fecundation, and it is by its successive 
divisions that properties descend from cell to cell, new properties 
being continually acquired as new influences are applied; but the 
original constitution of the hyaline not being lost. The main pur- 
pose for which cells are formed is to reproduce the hyaline; and 
this they do by effecting the assimilation which prepares it to 
divide; such division being thus the essential part of fissiparous 
generation. 
The remaining part of the paper is occupied with a detailed ac- 
count of these processes as they occur in the development of the 
ovum, and also in the changes exhibited by the corpuscles of the 
blood, in which fissiparous reproduction also takes place, and the 
red blood-dises are converted into fibrin, and thus give origin to 
the various tissues of the organs. The same theory of fissiparous 
reproduction he also applies to the formation of the muscular fibre, 
in connexion with his belief that it is composed of a double spiral 
filament. Contractile cilia, he supposes, are also formed by the 
elongation of nuclei, the filaments proceeding from them in opposite 
directions. The author considers, lastly, the subject of the fissipa- 
rous reproduction of the Infusoria, and particularly of the Volvox 
globator, the Chlamido-monas, Baccillaria, Goniwm, and the Mona- 
dina in general ; and applies the same theory to gemmiparous repro- 
duction, and to the so-called spontaneous generation of infusoria and 
parasitic entozoa. 
LONDON ELECTRICAL SOCIETY. 
[Continued from p, 232, and from vol. xxi. p. 485.] 
Dec. 20, 1842.—‘* Memoir on the Difference between Leyden Dis- 
charges and Lightning-Flashes, and on their relative action upon 
Metallic Bodies vicinal to the conductor of the respective discharges.” 
By Charles V. Walker, Esq. Hon. Sec. 
The author commences by quoting largely from the writings of 
various electricians, to show that the Aabit of using Leyden dis- 
charges in many lightning experiments has led to their adoption in 
all; and then points out three circumstances in which great degrees 
of difference exist ; the comparative distance of the clouds operating 
in producing a great eacess of electricity in them, over and above 
what is expelled into the earth by induction; the greater area of the 
earthy disc operating to produce in it a very low degree of tension ; 
and the inferior conductibility of the earth causing a maximum of re- 
sistance to the diffusion of the flash towards restoration of equilibrium. 
