nerve-force in certain of the ganglia in and near the substance of the 

 heart, by which discharges the muscular walls are excited to con- 

 traction. 



2. In Invertebrata, the corresponding pulsatile movements of 

 hearts or vessels are probably independent of nerve-force. 



3. The time-regulated rhythmic action, whether of the nervous 

 centres or of the independent contractile walls, is due to their nutri- 

 tion being rhythmic, i. e. to their being, in certain periods, by nutri- 

 tive changes of composition, raised, with regulated progress, to a 

 state of instability of composition, in their decline from which they 

 discharge nerve-force, or change their shape, contracting. 



4. The muscular substance of the heart in the Vertebrata, governed 

 in its rhythmic action by appropriate nervous centres, has a 

 rhythmic nutrition of its own, corresponding and coordinate with 

 theirs ; the impairments of its structure during action being repaired 

 in repose. 



5. Rhythmic nutrition is a process in accordance with the general 

 laws of organic life, very many organic processes being composed of 

 timely-regulated alternate action and inaction, or alternate opposite 

 actions, i. e. being rhythmical, with larger or shorter units of time ; 

 and all organic processes being chronometric, i. e. ordered according 

 to laws of time as exact, and only as much influenced by external 

 conditions, as are those relating to weight, size, shape, and com- 

 position. 



June 15, 1857. 



The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair. 

 The following gentlemen were admitted into the Society : 



The Rev. T. Romney Robinson, D.D. 



Lionel Smith Beale, Esq. 



George Grote, Esq. 



Rowland Hill, Esq. 



The Rev. Thomas Kirkman. 



William Marcet, M.D. 



John Marshall, M.D. 



Andrew Smith, M.D. 



John Welsh, Esq. 



