72 



III. "Researches on the Structure and Homology of the 

 Reproductive Organs of the Annelids." By THOMAS WIL- 

 LIAMS, M.D.,F.L.S., Physician to the Swansea Infirmary. 

 Communicated by THOMAS BELL, Esq., F.R.S., Pres. L.S. 

 Received October 21, 1857. 



The present communication is a revision of a paper by the author, 

 which was read on the 12th of February, 1857, under which date 

 an Abstract is given. 



December 17, 1857. 

 Major-General SABINE, Treasurer and V.P., in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : 



I. " Observations on the Poison of the Upas Antiar" By Pro- 

 fessor ALBERT KOLLIKER, of Wiirzburg. Communicated 

 by Sir B. C. BRODIE, Bart. Received December 1, 1857. 



During my stay in England, in the autumn of 1857, I was so 

 fortunate as to acquire the rare poison of the famous Antiaris toxi- 

 caria (Lesch.), with which no experiments have been tried since the 

 time of Magendie, Brodie, Horsfield, and Schnell and Emmert (1809- 

 1815). I owe my specimens of the Antiar poison to my friend Prof. 

 Christison, of Edinburgh, who had it from Borneo, and to Dr. Hors- 

 field, of London, who collected it himself during his stay at Java in 

 the beginning of this century ; and as both specimens were fully 

 active as some preliminary experiments made in company with my 

 friends Dr. Sharpey and Dr. Allen Thomson showed I thought 

 it well worth while to devote some time to the study of the poison, 

 and to try to elucidate its manner of action on the animal organism. 

 The following are the principal results which I obtained in my expe- 

 riments with frogs, and I hope, that they will not be deemed unworthy 

 of notice by those who take an interest in the physiological action 

 of poisons in general. 



