298 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [April, 



Article XIII. 



Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY.* 



Feb. 26. — The reading of a paper by the Rev. John Brinkley 

 was commenced, " On the Parallax of the Fixed Stars." 



March 5. — The reading of Dr. Brinkley's paper was concluded. 

 The Astronomer Royal having suggested some doubts as to the 

 correctness of the author's former observations on this subject, 

 he was induced to recur to it again, and has devoted much atten- 

 tion to it for the last 16 months. He has again met with appa- 

 rent motions in the stars, which he can only explain upon the 

 supposition of there being a visible parallax. He thinks that 

 the star which offers the best opportunity for deciding the ques- 

 tion is a Aquike, and the result of his observations upon it are 

 generally consistent with the theory. Dr. Brinkley doubts 

 whether the mural circle at the Greenwich Observatory be the 

 instrument the best adapted for so delicate an inquiry ; and it is 

 on this account, and not from any idea of Mr. Pond's want of 

 accuracy, that the author differs from him in his conclusions. 



On the same evening was also read, " Some Additions to the 

 Croonian Lecture, on the Changes the Blood undergoes in the 

 Act of Coagulation," by Sir Everard Home, Bart. V.P.R.S. 



The author began with some remarks upon the size of the 

 globules of the blood, which, he informs us, Capt Kater had 

 ascertained to be the -j-^— of an inch in diameter. In order to 

 prove the truth of his hypothesis, that the tubular structure of 

 the coagulum of blood, which afterwards is converted into ves- 

 sels, depends upon the extrication of bubbles of air, he placed 

 some newly drawn blood under the exhausted receiver of an air- 

 pump, when he found that none of the tubes were produced, 

 while the tubes were formed as usual, in a portion of the same 

 coagulum, which was exposed to the atmosphere. The author 

 succeeded in injecting these tubes, by placing fine size on a 

 piece of coagulum, while it was under the air-pump ; if the air 

 was admitted after it had been exhausted, the size was forced 

 into the tubes. He injected the tubes of a piece of coagulum 

 that was formed in the cavity of the abdomSn from the small 

 arteries of the peritoneum. Some observations were then made 

 on pus, similar to those on coagulated blood, in which the pus 

 became tubular. This fact is supposed by the author to illus- 

 trate the principle on which granulations are formed on the 

 surface of wounds. 



* In oar last number we inadvertently ascribed the mathematical paper, which 

 was announced on Feb. 19, to Sir Wm. Herschel, instead of J. F. W. Herschel, 

 Esq. ; it was entitled " On Circulating Functions, and on the Integration of » 

 Cla§-> of Equations of finite Differences, into which they enter as Coefficients." 



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