150 [June 19, 



2. That pressure alone is not the cause of the deformity. 



3. That besides the softening effect of continuous moisture acting 

 for ages upon the cartilaginous or animal matter of the bones, there 

 is proof of the presence of free carbonic and nitric acids very gene- 

 rally in soils, and more particularly in black mould, such as that of 

 the Orchard at Wroxeter. 



4. Nitric acid may also be discovered in small quantity. But 

 carbonic acid is almost always present in soil where air and moisture 

 come in contact with organic matters in a state of decomposition. 

 He thinks that this is the principal cause of the solution of bone in 

 the earth/ rendering it softer, and more ready to bend or break. 



5. That the distortion must occur at a comparatively early period 

 after interment, because when all, or nearly all, the animal matter of 

 the bones is destroyed, they cannot bend. 



Lastly. That some of the apparently bent bones are really broken ; 

 Professor Wyville Thomson, of Belfast, having first pointed out to 

 the author minute cracks or fissures in some of the distorted crania. 



VIII. "Preliminary Researches on Thallium." By WILLIAM 

 CROOKES, Esq., F.C.S. Communicated by Professor 

 STOKES, Sec. U.S. Received June 39, 1862. 



Having so recently been honoured by the Council of the Royal 

 Society with a grant from the Donation Fund for the purpose of 

 defraying some of the expenses of my researches on this new element, 

 I should not have ventured to offer to the Society so incomplete a 

 notice as the present one, had I not within the last week heard that 

 a continental chemist, Professor Lamy, of Lille, has recently been 

 fortunate enough to meet with a residue containing thallium in con- 

 siderable quantities, and has isolated the element and prepared 

 several of its compounds : it therefore appears advisable at once to 

 place on record a description of several compounds of this body 

 obtained since the date of my first announcement of its discovery in 

 March 1861, but which I had purposely avoided publishing in order 

 that it might form part of a more complete memoir on the subject 

 which I had hoped at some future day to have the honour of sub- 



