416 



Within the cavity of the tympanum is a part peculiar to the whale. 

 This is a membranous fold, or broad ligament, stretched across the 

 cavity, having the form of a triangle, or rather the sector of a circle, 

 the apex of which is attached to the short handle of the malleus, 

 having one side detached, and passing across the centre of the mem- 

 brana tympani, and its base attached to the concave surface of the 

 hollow bone, at a small distance from the bony rim to which that 

 membrane is connected. 



The long handle of the malleus has no connexion with any other 

 part ; but the forms of this bone, of the incus, and stapes are much 

 the same as in the human ear ; there being no considerable differ- 

 ence excepting in the want of the os orbiculare. 



The vestibulum, semicircular canals, cochlea, &c., differ in nothing 

 material from the usual construction of these parts. 



From this structure it appears to the author that the membrana 

 tympani, which is subject in the whale to vast differences of pressure 

 from without, is not well fitted, under all circumstances, to convey 

 the nicer vibrations of sound to the ossicula auditus, but that the 

 membrane which projects across the cavity, being exposed to the 

 same medium on both sides, will freely continue, and communicate 

 the impressions it receives, unaffected by any differences of pressure. 



Chemical Researches on the mood, and some other Animal Fluids. By 

 William Thomas Brande, Esq. F.R S. Communicated to the So- 

 ciety for the Improvement of Animal Chemistry, and by them to the 

 Royal Society. Read November 21, 1811. [Phil. Trans. 1812, 

 p. 90.] 



The author, after referring to those authorities by which he had 

 been misled into the supposition that the colour of the blood depended 

 on the presence of iron, until he had tried how slight effect it pro- 

 duced by infusion of galls, proceeds to a series of experiments which 

 he has made upon chyle and on lymph, for the purpose of comparing 

 their composition with that of blood, the examination of which is 

 divided into three sections, in which he treats separately of the serum, 

 the coagulum, and the colouring matter. 



The chyle employed in these analyses was collected by Mr. Brande 

 while assisting Mr. Home and Mr. Brodie in their experiments on 

 different animals ; attention being always paid to the interval that 

 had elapsed since the last meal ; upon which circumstance its quali- 

 ties were found to depend more than upon the animal from which it 

 was taken. About four hours after a meal, the chyle is supposed to 

 be in its most perfect state, and is then uniformly white, like milk. 

 At longer periods it becomes more dilute, like milk and water, till at 

 length, when an animal has fasted twenty-four hours, the fluid con- 

 tained in the thoracic duct is reduced to the state of mere lymph. 



The taste of chyle is rather salt, with a degree of sweetness, and, 

 by the test of violets, appears very slightly alkaline. In about ten 

 minutes after removal from the thoracic duct, it coagulates, and ulti- 



