Royal Society. 127 



tion of all bodies. This has already been demonstrated by Faraday 

 in the case of transparent bodies, in its effects on polarized light ; 

 and is now extended by M. De la Rive to opaque conducting bodies, 

 by employing, instead of polarized light, a discontinuous electric 

 current. 



" On the Ganglia and Nerves of the Virgin Uterus." By Robert 

 Lee, M.D., F.R.S., &c. 



The author states that his recent dissections have enabled him to 

 verify the descriptions he gave of the ganglia and nerves of the 

 uterus in his papers already published in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, and also to detect the existence of ganglia situated in the 

 muscular coat of the uterus, and of plexuses of nerves accompanying 

 all the blood-vessels and absorbents ramifying in its walls, between 

 the peritoneum and lining membrane. By examining the hearts of 

 a fcetus, of a child of six years of age, of an adult in the sound state, 

 a human heart greatly hypertrophied, and the heart of an ox, he 

 found that there exists a striking analogy between the ganglia and 

 nerves of the uterus and those of the heart. He ascertained by 

 microscopic observation that the muscular and vascular structures 

 of the auricles and ventricles are endowed with numerous ganglia 

 and plexuses of nerves, which, as far as he knows, have not yet been 

 described, and which enlarge simultaneously with the natural growth 

 of the heart, and also continue to enlarge during its morbid condi- 

 tions of hypertrophy. The author also finds that the size of the 

 ganglia and nerves of the left auricle and ventricle, in the normal 

 state, is more than double that of the corresponding parts on the 

 right side. A description is then given of two elaborate drawings 

 which accompany the paper. 



" On a new and practical form of Voltaic Battery of the highest 

 powers, in wiiich Potassium forms the positive element." By John 

 Goodman, Esq. Communicated by S. Hunter Christie, Esq., A.M., 

 Sec. R.S. 



The author succeeded in constructing a voltaic arrangement of 

 some power by fixing a piece of potassium to the end of a copper 

 wire, placed in a tube containing naphtha, and bringing it in con- 

 tact with a small quantity of mercury, held by a layer of bladder 

 closing the lower end of the tube, which was itself immersed in 

 acidulated water immediately over a piece of platinum, and then 

 completing the circuit by establishing a metallic contact between 

 the copper wire and the platinum. This battery acted with energy 

 on the galvanometer, and effected the decomposition of water. A 

 series of twelve pairs of similar plates exhibited a sensible attraction 

 of a slip of gold leaf. Thus it appears that the substance which 

 possesses the higiicst chemical affinity manifests also the greatest 

 power of electrical tension. 



Jan. ^1. " On I'liotographic Self- registering Meteorological and 

 Magnetical Instruments." By Francis Ronalds, Esq., F.R.S., &c. 



Tlie apparatus employed l»y tlie autiiorat llie Kew Observatory, 

 and wliicii he terms tiie Photo- IJcctrograph, is described by him 

 ill the following words : — " A rectangular box, about sixteen inches 



