210 Analyses of Books. [Marcn, 
exposure to the air, and becomes hard, and like chalk in 
appearance. The quantity of solid urine secreted by serpents is 
very great. It was found by Dr. Davy in all cases nearly pure 
uric acid. The same observation had been previously made in 
London by Dr. Prout on the excrement of the boa constrictor, 
and had been communicated by him to Dr. Davy. The urine of 
lizards was likewise found to be nearly pure uric acid. That of 
the alligator, besides uric acid, contains a large portion of car- 
bonate and phosphate of lime. | The urine of turtles was a liquid 
containing flakes of uric acid, and holding in solution a little 
mucus and common salt ; but no sensible portion of urea. 
III. On a Mal-conformation of the Uterine System in Women ; 
and on some Physiologieal Conclusions to be derived from it. By 
A.B. Granville, M.D. F.R.S. F.L.S. Physician in Ordinary to 
H. R. H. the Duke of Clarence.—The subject of this paper was a 
woman, about 40 years of age, who died at La Materniteé in 
Paris, six or seven days after delivery. She had laboured under 
an aneurism of the aorta, and an enlargement of the heart. The 
uterus, four times its usual size, was found to have undergone its 
full development on the right side only, where it presented the 
usual pear-like convexity and undulation ; while the left exhi- 
bited a direct straight line, scarcely half an inch distant from the 
centre ; although more than two inches could be measured from 
that same point to the outline of the’right side. The Fallopian 
tube and the ovarium, with its surrounding peritoneal folds, were 
placed as usual onthe right side, but could not be found on the 
left ; yet this woman had been the mother of 11 children of both 
sexes, and had been delivered a few days before her death of 
twins—a male anda female. This case then destroys the hypo-. 
thesis of those who laid it down that the male children are derived 
from one ovarium, and the female children from the other. Per- 
haps the well-known experiment of Mr. John Hunter, who 
extirpated one of the ovaria of a sow, which afterwards bore 
many pigs, no doubt of both sexes (for such an observer would 
not have failed to notice the singular phenomenon of all the pigs 
being of one sex, had it existed), may be considered to have 
already destroyed the supposed evidence in favour of such an 
hypothesis. But physiologists are obliged to Dr. Granville for 
recording the present example, as it is an instance more closely 
applicable to the hypothesis in question than the experiment of 
John Hunter. Dr. Granville is of opinion that the above case 
destroys likewise the notion of the possibility of superfeetation. 
It is not easy to see how it bears upon that question, sufficiently 
unhkely imdeed if we consider it @ priori, and yet supported by 
evidence which, if correct, seems to be decisive in its favour ; 
as, for example, a woman bearing at a birth two children; the 
one white, and the other black. 
IV. New Experiments on some of the Combinations of Phos~ 
phorus, By Sic H. Davy, LL.D. F.R.S. Vice-Pres. R. 1.— 
