376 



tary particles are in a state of molecular transition. During life, 

 the higher organic constituents of the blood are capable of under- 

 going the changes of assimilation on exposure to contact with 

 oxygen, and there is a considerable destruction of sugar effected ; 

 for a short period after death these azotized constituents remain 

 stationary and uninfluenced by oxygen, and with this, there is a 

 corresponding suspension of the transformation of sugar ; but finally, 

 the animal matter of the blood on contact with oxygen, especially 

 during a warm temperature, assumes a state of decomposition, the 

 molecular changes of which again excite the destruction or meta- 

 morphosis of saccharine matter. 



The sugar disappears far less rapidly from diabetic blood under 

 the influence of exposure to the atmosphere, than from healthy 

 right-ventricular blood. From these, and a few other observations 

 which he has as yet been able to make on the blood in Diabetes 

 Mellitus, the author, were he to hazard an opinion on the nature of 

 that obscure disease, would be disposed to say that there appears to 

 be a modification of sugar produced by the liver, which is not suscep- 

 tible of undergoing the normal process of destruction in the animal 

 system, and which, therefore, accumulating in the blood, is elimi- 

 nated by the kidneys. The experiments of Bernard have shown 

 that vegetable glucose (grape-sugar) is not susceptible of destruc- 

 tion in the processes of animal life, unless converted into animal 

 glucose by the agency of the liver. Diabetic sugar would there- 

 fore seem to bear a resemblance in its physiological relations to 

 vegetable, rather than to animal glucose. 



The following communications were in part read : 



I. " Researches on the Partition of Numbers." By ARTHUR 

 CAYLEY, Esq., F.R.S. Received April 14, 1855. 



The author discusses the following problem : " To find in how 

 many ways a number g can be made up of the elements a, b, c . ., 

 each element being repeatable an indefinite number of times." The 

 solution depends upon a peculiar decomposition of an algebraical 



