1819.] Royal Danish Society. 57 



diminishes ; every year the same alteration is repeated, but to a 

 greater extent. As long as the daily declination is not too great 

 in comparison with the yearly one, we may easily, after the 

 lapse of a few years, be enabled to determine whether the devia- 

 tion has increased or diminished ; but when the yearly alteration, 

 as is now the case, is but small, when compared with the daily 

 one, many years consequently will elapse before the amount of 

 the yearly alterations will surmount that of the daily ones. That 

 the yearly alteration is now become small is a circumstance 

 which, no doubt, makes us believe that it has attained its maxi- 

 mum ; as every progressive series obtains its maximum when the 

 difference of the terms becomes null. 



During the year, the western deviation is greatest in the 

 month of September ; and during the day it is greatest about two 

 o'clock in the afternoon. When no considerable disturbances 

 appear, the daily alteration does not exceed 20 minutes. In the 

 year 1649, the deviation here in Copenhagen was li. east. About 

 the year 1656, it must have been ; as in 1672, it was 3° 35' 

 west. The western declination afterwards continued to increase 

 till the year 1806, when it was 18° 25'. Since that time it has 

 diminished, however, as usual, advancing and relapsing. In the 

 year 1817, Sept. 8, at two o'clock in the afternoon, it was 

 17° 56', consequently 29' smaller than in 1806 ; it may, there- 

 fore, be supposed, that the western declination has reached its 

 maximum. By drawing the curve that is produced when 

 the times are regarded as abscisses, and the declinations as ordi- 

 nates, it seems to be evident that if the point of return does not 

 fall upon the year 1806, it ought rather to be inquired for before 

 than after that year. 



The inclination of the magnetic needle has lately been found 

 by the author to be 17° 26'. 



Mr. Herhald, Professor and Knight, has delivered to the 

 Society a description of a full-born foetus, that expired during a 

 complete breathing, about half an hour after its birth. 



The internal organization of this foetus was found to be in many 

 respects rare and remarkable. 



1. The viscera of the thorax and abdomen were arranged in an, 

 inverted order ; the inferior point of the heart and the arch of the 

 arteria aorta turned to the right side ; the liver lay beneath the 

 left, the spleen beneath the right, hypochondrium ; the broad 

 part of the stomach, and the great arch of the same, bordered 

 upon the spleen on the right side ; the duodenum began on the 

 right side under the liver, and left its capsule before the spleen 

 on the right side ; the pancreas turned its broad part to the left 

 side, where its ductus ran into the duodenum ; the jejunum and 

 ilium wound from the right side down towards the ccecum, which 

 lay in the inferior part of the belly on the left side (regio iliaca 

 sinistra) ; the colon wound about the small intestines from the 

 • left side towards the right, &.c. 

 3 



