386 Royal Society : — 



when mixed with a warm sohition of the chloride of diphimbic tri- 

 ethyle. It may also be obtained by neutralizing a solution of the 

 oxide, and also by the action of sulphate of silver on the chloride. 



Analysis furnished numbers which pointed to the formula 

 Pb, C,, H,, SO, or Pb, (C, HJ3 SO,. 

 All the salts of this sesqui-ethylated base are volatile, and their 

 vapours attack the eyes and mucous membrane of the throat. In 

 this respect they imitate their homologues in the stannic series. 



In concluding this short abstract, I will only express my belief 

 that a wide field of research is still open for inquiry, and that some 

 promising experiments are at present in hand, from the right under- 

 standing of which we may hope to throw additional light on these 

 interesting substances. 



March 17, 1859. — Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, Bart., Pres., in the Chair. 



^ The following communications were read : — 



"On Muscular Action from an electrical point of view." By 

 Charles Bland Radcliife, M.D., F.R.C.P., Physician to the West- 

 minster Hospital, &c. 



The author begins by observing that the signs of electrical action 

 in living muscle die out pari passu with the signs of irritability ; 

 and, as with these latter signs, their last trace has disappeared 

 before the occurrence of rigor mortis. 



It would appear, also, (in so far as electrical action is concerned) 

 that there is a close agreement between ordinary muscular contrac- 

 tion and rigor mortis ; for in ordinary muscular contraction, as Prof. 

 Du Bois Reymond has so well shotvn, there is a partial disappearance 

 of electrical action. Professor Matteucci, however, is doubtful as to 

 this, and he maintains, on the contrary, that at this time the " mus- 

 cular current" is sometimes reversed, and sometimes increased in 

 intensity without being reversed. 



In his recent experiments. Prof. Matteucci uses a galvanometer of 

 which the ends are so arranged as to get rid of the disturbing 

 influences of secondary polarity. Instead of being of platinum 

 immersed in a saturated solution of common salt, as in Prof. Du Bois 

 Reymond's arrangement, these ends are of amalgamated zinc im- 

 mersed in saturated solution of neutral sulphate of zinc. This 

 arrangement, originally proposed by Dr. Jules lleguault, the author 

 agrees with Prof. Matteucci in regarding as a great improvement 

 upon that used by Prof. Du Bois Reymond ; for, says he, " not 

 only is the disturbing influence of secondary polarity got rid. of, 

 but the entrance of currents into the coil of the galvanometer is 

 greatly facilitated. Of this I am satisfied after many comparative 

 trials *." 



* The galvanometer used by Dr. Radcliffe was made by Mr. Becker, then of New- 

 man Court, after the pattern of tlie one used by Prof. Du Bois Reymond. The 

 gauge of the wire forming the coil is No. 38, or as nearly as possible that of the 

 pattern coil ; the weight of the wire entering into tlie coil lib. lloz., the layers of 

 the coil 151, the number of coilings 20,020, and upwards of three English miles. 

 The needles are cylindrical, with each end sharpened out into a long point, and 

 the connecting piece, instead of being made of tortoiseshell, as in Du Bois 



