474 



and scientific adjustment, as also of securing a self-registered series 

 of photographic delineations of the solar spots during its continuance 

 it is proposed that during the continuance of the observatories, an 

 annual sum, not exceeding ^6350, should be taken on the estimate, 

 and placed at the disposal of the General Superintendent for these 

 purposes. 



There is a point referred to in a former letter which will require 

 the attention of the Committee. It is the question, whether the 

 observations of the proposed observatories should be prmted in ex- 

 tenso, or in abstract accompanied by a discussion of the principal 

 results. 



I remain, my dear Sir, faithfully yours, 



EDWARD SABINE. 



Sir John Herschel, Bart. 



PAPERS READ. 



I. "On the Changes produced in the proportion of the Red 

 Corpuscles of the Blood by the administration of Cod- 

 Liver Oil." By THEOPHILUS THOMPSON, M.D., F.R.S. 

 Received April 30, 1858. 



Influenced by a conviction that the peculiarities essential to any 

 disease are often associated with characteristic changes in the blood, 

 and that the efficacy of many remedies depends on their power of 

 modifying such conditions of the blood, I have made it an object to 

 take opportunities of ascertaining some particulars regarding the 

 composition of that fluid in certain diseased conditions prior to the 

 use of remedies, and also in patients affected with similar maladies, 

 but whose symptoms under the employment of medicines have been 

 materially ameliorated. In reference to the inquiry, the proportion 

 of red corpuscles would appear to be a circumstance of special signi- 

 ficance, and to this question I have directed my chief care. In pur- 

 suing the investigation, my attention has been particularly directed 

 to cases of phthisis, as there was in this way afforded to me the 

 greatest opportunity of comparing the largest amount of analogous 

 instances. 



On the 27th of April, 1854, I had the honour of presenting to the 



