507 



Observations on the Functions of the Brain. By Sir Everard Home, 

 Bart. F.R.S. Read May 26, 1814. [Phil. Trans. 1814, p. 469.] 



The observations comprised in this paper, are selected from those 

 cases of injury to the brain which have occurred to the author in the 

 course of his professional pursuits. The facts thus accidentally forced 

 upon his notice, may be regarded as so many experiments made on 

 different portions of the living brain ; and the remarks upon them re- 

 late to those effects which tend to elucidate their several functions. 



The collection of observations here given, are classed under dif- 

 ferent heads ; and with respect to the first set, which relate to the 

 pressure of water on the brain, the subject is again subdivided ac- 

 cording to the parts in which the water may be collected, whether 

 in any of the ventricles, or between the membranes. In the next 

 place, the consequences of concussion of the brain generally, are also 

 considered. 



The effects of extravasation of blood, in various situations, are se- 

 parately described. The consequences that ensue from formation of 

 matter, and immediate relief of the symptoms by its removal, are no- 

 ticed. 



The symptoms that occur from depression, or from thickening of 

 different parts of the skull, are next distinguished, as well as those 

 which arise from pressure of soft tumours in different situations. 



In addition to the preceding, which are all instances of pressure 

 variously modified, the author adds his observations relating to wounds, 

 inflammation, and suppuration of the cerebrum in different parts; and 

 his remarks upon injuries done to the medulla spinalis, which form 

 the concluding section of his classification. 



Further Experiments and Observations on Iodine. By Sir Humphry 

 Davy, LL.D. F.R.S. V.P.R.I. Read June 16, 1814. {Phil. Trans. 

 1814, p. 487.] 



The present set of experiments are, in part, a continuation of the 

 author's experiments on compounds of iodine and fixed alkalies, which 

 he treats of under the head of triple compounds, because they con- 

 tain iodine, oxygen, and potassium, or sodium. But he also treats of 

 various compound salts, which this substance forms in conjunction 

 with other acids, and of the effects produced upon iodine by the ac- 

 tion of some compound gases. 



When the triple compound of iodine, oxygen, and potassium, is 

 dissolved in nitric acid, the acid may be distilled without any decom- 

 position of the salt ; but when it is dissolved in sulphuric acid or 

 phosphoric acid, the heat which these acids will bear is sufficient to 

 decompose the salt, which then yields oxygen and iodine, and leaves 

 sulphate or phosphate of potash. 



When a solution of this salt, in strong muriatic acid, is heated, 

 there is a smell of chlorine, the fluid becomes yellow, and yields, by 

 distillation, chloriodic acid. 



