124 



cells, like those which are unicellular, generally are incapable of 

 development without impregnation. But no one can deny the name 

 of true eggs to the ova of Butterflies, &c. ; and we cannot therefore 

 class as " false eggs " those which arise from more than one cell. 

 Perhaps it would be better to distinguish the two classes as " com- 

 pound," and " simple " or unicellular. The names we may adopt are, 

 however, of less importance than the establishment of the fact that 

 throughout the Annulosa there are two sorts of eggs, which are of an 

 essentially different structure, and cannot therefore, strictly speaking, 

 be regarded as homologous with one another. 



February 28, 1861. 



Major-General Sabine, R.A., Treasurer and Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



The following communications were read. 



I. " Tables of the Weights of the Human Body and the Internal 

 Organs in the Sane and Insane of both Sexes at various 

 Ages." By ROBERT BOYD, M.D., F.R.C.P., Physician to 

 the County Somerset Lunatic Asylum. Communicated by 

 Dr. SHARPEY, Sec. R.S. Received February 7, 1861. 



(Abstract.) 



These Tables have been compiled from notes of 2086 examinations 

 made at St. Marylebone Infirmary between 1839 and 1847, and of 

 528 examinations in cases of insanity made at the Somerset Lunatic 

 Asylum, between 1848 and the end of December 1860, compre- 

 hending, in all, a period of twenty-one years. The Tables are sub- 

 mitted with the hope that they may aid in forming a standard of 

 the weight of the human organs at different stages of life from 

 early infancy to old age. The cases are distributed under eighteen 

 periods of life, and the Tables show the height and weight of the 

 body, and the weight of the encephalon and its several parts, the 

 right and left lung, the heart and all the abdominal organs ; giving 

 the maximum, minimum and average in each period. In the second 

 series of cases, namely those from the lunatic asylum, the measure- 

 ment of the head, and the weight of the spinal cord are also stated. 



