302 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [Apiul, 



the year, being then 1164 feet per second: the minimum is 

 1099 feet. 



At this meeting, a paper was also read, on the Question as to 

 the Evolution of Heat during the Coagulation of the Blood, by- 

 Charles Scudamore, MD. &c. (Communicated by the President.) 



A part only of this paper was read, and the remainder post- 

 poned to a future meeting. 



Feb. 27. — The reading of Dr. Scudamore's paper was resumed 

 and concluded. 



In this paper, Dr. Scudamore examined the results as to this 

 subject, which had been obtained by Mr. John Hunter, Dr. J. 

 Davy, and the late Dr. Gordon, of Edinburgh, and expressed 

 his belief that the experiments which he had made upon it 

 would explain the reason of their discrepancies. He then 

 described those experiments ; in some of them the successive 

 temperatures of the coagulating blood were compared with those 

 of a solution of starch in water while cooling, and also with 

 those of pure water under the same circumstances ; and he 

 inferred from the whole, that a slight evolution of heat does take 

 place during the coagulation of the blood. It commences when 

 the fibrin begins to concrete, but continues throughout the 

 coagulation ; in some instances the temperature rose 1°. Some 

 of the discordancies in the statements of former experimenters 

 appear to have arisen from the difference in temperature of dif- 

 ferent parts of the same portion of coagulating blood. 



The following paper was also read at this meeting : On the 

 Double Organs of Generation in the Lamprey, Conger Eel, 

 Common Eel, and Barnacle, which impregnate themselves, and 

 in the Earth Worms, the Individuals of which Class mutually 

 impregnate each other. By Sir Everard Home, Bart. VPRS. 



The author of this paper had formerly shown that the tere- 

 dines were hermaphrodites, subsequently that such also was the 

 nature of the lamprey ; and had recently ascertained that 

 the conger and the common eel were similarly characterized. 

 He was inclined to adopt the opinion of the President of the Society, 

 that the last mentioned animals are in reality the same species, 

 their difference in size and colour arising from the circumstance, 

 that the one lives in salt water, and the other in fresh. To determine 

 the fact, an experiment had been instituted by Sir Humphry, 

 and was now going on in Cornwall : young eels, it had been 

 found, soon died in salt-water, but an old one did not appear to 

 suffer any inconvenience in it, and had begun to turn green. 



These remarks were succeeded by a particular account of the 

 double organs of generation of the animals mentioned in the 

 title of the paper, and of their mode of copulation, with correc- 

 tions of the mistakes that former observers had made when exa- 

 mining their anatomy : the species of barnacle examined was 

 the Lepas anatij'era. 



