PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 



535 



VOL. LXXXV.] 



ner than has been generally imagined. To explain even the most obvious pheno- 

 mena of muscLilar motion, must appear from the above observations to be at- 

 tended with difficulty ; how arduous then the task of investigating the principle 

 on which that motion depends ; a principle as extensive as life itself, with which 

 it is coeval, and indeed the only criterion we have of its existence. An endeavour 

 to throw light on that principle has not been the object of the present lecture ; I 

 have only attempted to state some circumstances respecting the mechanism em- 

 ployed in producing muscular motion, leaving to others the prosecution of this 

 most intricate and difficult inquiry. 



Meteorological Journal, for the Year 1794, kept at the apartments of the 

 R. S., by order of the President and Council, p. 221. 



JX. Some Observations on the Mode of Generation of the Kanguroo, with a 

 Particular Description of the Organs themselves. By Everard Home, Esq. 

 F.R.S. p. 221. 



The exertions of the most acute and skilful anatomists have hitherto failed in 

 exploring the process of generation in the quadruped, fully to its origin : I think 

 I may assert, they have ascertained that the embryo comes from the ovarium, and 

 is deposited in the uterus, where it acquires a visible form ; but the state in which 

 it leaves the ovarium, the changes it undergoes in the fallopian tube, and its ap- 

 pearance when received by the uterus, are hitherto altogether unknown. Though 

 we are obliged to confess ourselves ignorant of many things respecting the com- 

 mencement of generation, the progress of the young from its first visible appear- 



